Author Archives: Yves Smith

Cheerleading for Austerity

Readying austerity talk just in time to condition voters for 2020.

It’s Raining Plastic, From the Pyrenees to the Rockies to the Arctic

On the extent of plastic exposure in the form of microplastics.

Hong Kong’s Economy Is Still Important to the Mainland, at Least Financially

Correcting misinformation about Hong Kong’s status sometimes bandied about by critics of its protestors.

Links 8/22/19

A Brush With A Notorious Cat, My Rabies Education And The Big Bill That Followed

A rabies ripoff.

Trump Never Had a Grand Strategy for China: They Were Just Tariff Tantrums

Trump’s tariff strategy is obviously incoherent, but other approaches like anti-trust to improve the US trade’s position are sorely wanting.

Amid Recession Warnings, Trump Reportedly Considering More Tax Cuts for Rich and Corporations

Trump proposes yet more tax breaks, which would do more for the stock market than for the real economy.

It’s Official: Parts of California Are Too Wildfire-Prone To Insure

California is leading a trend of climate-change-induced insurance redlining.

Links 8/21/19

Crooked Conflict of Interest: CalPERS Board Member Lisa Middleton Pushed Radical Changes to Board Schedule to Solve Her Personal Schedule Conflict

New CalPERS board member Lisa Middleton behaved dishonestly by failing to recuse herself and worse, advocating for massive changes to CalPERS board meetings to solve a personal scheduling issue.

CalPERS’ Secret Investigation of Hiring Practices Shows Glaring Deficiencies; Has the Board Been Kept in the Dark?

CalPERS set out to hide the results of an audit of its hiring practices. That not surprising, since we have the key pages that show it got bad grades.

Shale Bleeds Cash Despite Best Quarter In Years

Quelle surprise! The shale industry is still a big loser.

CalPERS Engineering Board Resignation: Underhanded, Dishonest Plans to Cut Investment Meetings of Poorly Performing Fund by More Than 50%, Shrink Investment Committee

The first of a two-part series describing the process and substance with which CalPERS staff is trying to engineer a de facto resignation of its board.

CalPERS Engineering Board Resignation: “Attempted Coup” via Unconstitutional, Fiduciary-Duty-Violating “Code of Conduct”

Just when you think CalPERS can’t sink any lower, it manages to outdo itself, this time, with an illegal governance monstrosity masquerading a code of conduct.