Category Archives: Banana republic

Taxcast: Mainstream Media Misrepresentations of the Financial Crash

This month’s Taxcast discusses misleading reporting from the mainstream media on the financial crisis: it was overloaded with finance ‘experts’, fed us all sorts of misunderstandings about the financial crash, sold us the austerity narrative, and omitted alternative solutions.

Costly Confusion: Patients Caught by Medicare Not Covering Annual Physical Exams

Yves here. This post presents a classic example of why medical care in America sucks. It’s too much about billing and not enough about patient care. I know patients who can have a yearly visit to an MD covered under their plan as either a physical or a medium complexity visit for conditions for which […]

U.S. ‘’Oil Weapon’’ Could Change Geopolitics Forever

Oil production as a source of political advantage will no doubt keep official US climate change denialism alive and well.

Boeing Crapification: 737 MAX Play-by-Play, Regulatory Capture, and When Will CEO Muilenburg Become the Sacrificial Victim?

High-level causes of the 737 MAX debacle, and how MCAS got certified.

Report from the Ground in Paris: The Most Recent Gilets Jaunes Protests

A report from Colonel Smithers.

Electronic Health Records: Death By A Thousand Clicks

Rather than an electronic ecosystem of information, the nation’s thousands of EHRs largely remain a sprawling, disconnected patchwork. Moreover, the effort has handcuffed health providers to technology they mostly can’t stand and has enriched and empowered the $13-billion-a-year industry that sells it.

“Middle Class” Once Meant Stability and Now Means Fragility

The middle class used to be the bedrock of American institutions. Now its members are coping with an uncertain future.

TD Bank: America’s Most Inconvenient Bank

Why you should not bank at TD Bank.

Outsourcing Giant Interserve with 65,000 Employees Collapses

Another UK outsourcing implosion in just over a year….what gives?

Mars or Mercury Redux: How Geopolitics Influence Bilateral Trade Agreements

Quelle surprise! US trade agreements depend more on the US being a reliable military ally than many like to think.

Another Way the Rich Get Richer: US Indicts Fifty for College Admissions Fraud

Federal prosecutors indicted fifty people yesterday for college admissions fraud at several elite institutions, including Georgetown, Stanford, and Yale. Serious discussion of how college admissions procedures foster inequality is long overdue.

Fracking 2.0 Was a Financial Disaster, Will Fracking 3.0 Be Different?

The latest installment in Justin Mikulka’s excellent series on fracking. The industry continues to promote new and improved saviors – this time, it’s Microsoft – to rescue it from an inconvenient truth: no one’s making any money, despite the high environmental costs incurred.

Boeing Crapification: Second 737 Max Plane Within Five Months Crashes Just After Takeoff

Another Boeing 737 aircraft crashed minutes after takeoff in Addis Ababa yesterday, killing all 157 passengers on board, in circumstances similar to last October’s Lion Air crash in Indonesia. Consequences for Boeing depend on what the just-recovered voice and data recorders reveal.