Author Archives: Yves Smith

How “Use of Machinery” Promotes Inequality and Social Upheaval

A prescient take from the 1840s on “machinery” versus labor and communities.

Link 7/29/17

Food, the UK and Brexit: An Even Messier Reprise of Corn Laws Politics?

Surprisingly, or maybe not so, food is emerging as a flash point in Brexit politics.

Links 7/28/17

How Electronic Health Records Degrade Care and Endanger Patients

A deep dive by a practicing surgeon into how electronic health care records are bad for patients and doctors but good for administrators.

Wells Fargo at It Again, Stuck Over 800,000 Customers With Unnecessary Car Insurance

Scheming Wells Fargo just can’t stop itself.

Wolf Richter: Markets, Regulators Ignore Ticking Time Bomb of Shadow Margin Loans

Shadow margin loans are a sign of speculative excess and complacency about risk.

Cobalt Production as the Hidden Choke Point on Mass Conversion to Electric Vehicles

Going from the internal combustion engine to electric vehicles is likely to hit a cobalt road block.

Links 7/27/17

Healthcare Hypocrisy: How Politicians Hide Behind the 1986 EMTALA Law to Avoid Healthcare Reform

Is the emergency room mandate, EMTALA, responsible for lawmakers failing to devise reasonable legislation to fund health care?

More Criticism of Private Equity Leverage on Leverage Via Subscription Line Financing

In a refreshing development, a private equity con, subscription line financing, is so extreme that members of the industry are opposing it.

Trilemmas and Financial Instability

Examining national policy tradeoffs in a world of perhaps too much in the way of free and easy international money movements.

How a Banking Union Has Created Deep Divisions that Undermine the Eurozone’s Stability

How the new European banking reforms have weakened stability and hurt some countries, particularly Italy, while helping German banks.