Author Archives: Yves Smith

Monstrous Zionist Extermination in Gaza Continues as US Attempts Voter-Appeasing Headfakery

Some Gaza updates: carnage and starvation on the ground, cynical US machinations, and more signs of IDF weakness.

Here’s Why You Can’t Afford an Electric Car

The US is using complicated and limited-in-practical-effect programs to increase electric car sales rather than allow in cheap Chinese models

Matt Taibbi: “Meet the AI-Censored? Naked Capitalism”

Matt Taibbii took a good look at Google’s AI censorship of this site and deemed it “an early, scary test case for mechanized suppression.”

Links 3/23/2024

The Truth About China’s Economy: Debunking Western Media Myths

The second of a two-part discussion on whither China’s economy, emphasizing where the Western press and pundits are off base.

Generative AI Could Leave Users Holding the Bag for Copyright Violations

Liability for the use of AI that in turn is meaningfully based on copyrighted material could throw a spanner in the AI bandwagon.

Financial Times Tells CalPERS Not to Go Further Into the Private Equity Haunted House

The Financial Times debunks private equity flim-flammery even as CalPERS and others sign up for more.

Links 3/22/2024

Texas Law Forces Pension Funds and Municipalities to Drop Use of Financial Firms that Support Net Zero

Texas is counter-sanctioning Big Finance firms over Net Zero initiatives designed to choke money flows to fossil fuel businesses.

“The Censorship Trap”

Rajiv Sethi joins the pushback against censorship, using Google’s bogus attack on one of his posts on this site as a point of departure.

Google Censorship: AI Run Amok Threatens Demonetization Over a Navigation Page with No Ads, An Article on a Foreign Policy Best-Seller Deemed Anti-Vaxx, and More Flagrant Errors

Google tries to censor this site based on a systematically flawed AI review. How many others will be victims of bad algos?

What Is Necessary for the Ukrainian “Sanitary Zone” to Be Sanitary?

Putin mentioned a sanitary zone as a possible solution to Russian security needs once the Ukraine war ends. What would that mean in practice?

Why Artificial Intelligence Must Be Stopped Now

The promise of artificial intelligence is eclipsed by its perils, which include our own annihilation.

What’s the Solution to Humanity’s Growing Ills?

Are space aliens the only creatures that might have a solution for the mess we are in? Any other deux ex machina candidates?