Ebola is a very nasty disease, but it is actually fairly easy to understand mathematically, which is why the disease prevention folks are confident in the best ways to manage this epidemic that otherwise seems to be growing exponentially.
Read more...Yves here. Commodity prices have been screaming deflation for some time, but oil prices remained stubbornly resistant…until now. In a period of mere weeks, oil prices have fallen considerably and the slide continues. Today, for instance, Brent fell by $1 this morning despite stronger-than-expected trade data out of China due to reports that OPEC won’t cut production till oil prices hit $80 a barrel. Note that that news hit after this post was published, and represents a much lower price level than analysts assumed. So the outlook is even gloomier than this downbeat piece indicates.
In addition, as this post discusses, the plunge in oil prices has an impact on other energy prices. Or perhaps to put it another way, the way deteriorating economic fundamentals are whacking oil prices clearly has ramifications for other fuel products.
Read more...Yves here. One might argue that stock market jitters are a sign that investors are finally taking note of crappy fundamentals, since even ZIRP and QE, which central bankers keep insisting won’t go on forever, were starting to lose their effectiveness in already-frothy asset markets.
Read more...Yves here. Be warned, this isn’t standard Naked Capitalism fare. It’s a bit of “road trip meets oil boom subculture.” But while there has been a lot of reporting on what is happening in communities where fracking is underway, there has been comparatively little on-the-ground-coverage of what is arguably the bigger story, the development of the Bakken oil field.
Read more...Yves here. It’s good to see Gaius Publius, a regular fixture at AmericaBlog, now writing at Down with Tyranny, Howie Klein’s blog. Among other things, Howie helped raise funds for a 2010 MMT conference. As Lambert says, “He’s one of the good guys.”
There’s one small sour note in this otherwise fine piece, that of calling Elizabeth Warren a progressive. The fact that Gaius feels compelled to include her speaks to the dearth of individuals who can be accurately described as progressive in roles of any prominence in the Democratic party.
Read more...One of the complaints too often taken seriously by the business press is employer claims that they can’t find workers with the right skills for open job slots. We’ve looked at some of these stories in the past, and when employers complained, it pretty much without exception reflected that because the economy is slack,they expect to be able to hire workers cheaply, which often includes not being willing to spend time to train someone. In fact, there has been a perverse trend starting more than a decade ago of employers putting out incredibly narrow job specifications. They were effectively saying they were willing only to hire someone who had been in precisely the same role at a similar company.
But even as McJobs look to be the fastest growing employment sector, just because they want to hire workers for as little as possible does not mean that prospective employees will hit their bid.
Read more...Yves here. Unfortunately, correcting Paul Krugman continues to be a staple at Naked Capitalism because he keeps asking for it.
Read more...Yves here. This post by Michael Hudson is one entry from an issue of a journal critiquing Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the 21st Century. Hudson argues that even though Piketty’s findings about wealth accumulation over the centuries are useful, he nevertheless has done a great disservice by treating “wealth” as an undifferentiated lump. By contrast, classical economists differential between rentier behavior (such earning income from economically unproductive activities such as land ownership), financialization, and leveraged speculation on asset prices. Hudson argues that Piketty’s failure to probe the types of wealth and the impact of income-generation strategies for various types of wealth, as well as his failure to incorporate legal and political arrangements means his book tacitly supports the status quo. Inequality for him is a state of nature, not a function of how our economy is organized.
Read more...Readers have made an amazing response to our final appeal, for $16,000 to fund more original reporting. Since our last update, a mere few hours ago, we went from being 34 shy of meeting our donor goal of 1200 to a mere three donors short. And we were then $560 below our $16,000 goal but have now exceeded it by $1250!
Only three hours remain in the Naked Capitalism fundraiser. Show your support of critical thinking, merciless evisceration of lame punditry, deep diving into turbid financial waters, and cute animal pictures.
Every dollar you give now goes to support more original reporting.
Read more...We’ve had an amazing response in the last few hours of our fundraiser. Since our last appeal, donations spiked, with 34 more of you giving, bringing our donor total to 1173, just within striking distance of our new goal of 1200 donors. And as a result of these generous contributions, we closed the gap of meeting our final goal, that of $16,000 to fund more original reporting, from $2200 to only $560 dollars!
I’ve gotten many heartfelt notes from readers, and quite a few come from people within the financial services industry, including senior regulators, who recognize that banking has become a business increasingly dedicated to extraction and looting. They are dismayed at the changes they’ve seen in the industry over the course of their career. Some of their remarks:
Read more...The Naked Capitalism community has spoken loudly and clearly. You’ve said you want this site to continue to improve. You’ve been willing to provide tangible backing for your desire to have us demystify finance, call out chicanery in high places, parse propaganda, and in our small way, help promote the creation of a more just society.
We set an initial target of 1000 donors. You met that yesterday. We set a new target of 1100. You blew past that today. We are now at 1139 donors. This is 30% more donors than we got all day yesterday, and each day this week we’ve had more people contribute to the fundraiser than the day before.
But even with this great support, we are still short by $2200 of our final goal of $16,000 for more original reporting. Let’s see if we can get to 1200 donors and hit our last monetary target before the close of this effort, midnight PST.
Read more...As discussion, if not outright panic, about Ebola infections increases in the US, it is still hard to figure out what heath care professionals and the health care system need to do to protect patients and the public in a very changed world.
Read more...
