The Black Death May Not Have Been Spread by Rats After All
A supposedly settled fact, that rats played a huge role in the European bubonic plague outbreak called the Black Death, may be all wrong.
Read more...Category Archives: Dubious statistics
Why China’s Shrinking Population Is a Big Deal – Counting the Social, Economic and Political Costs of an Aging, Smaller Society
Is the press unduly excited about the start of China’s expected demographic decline?
Read more...Oil Prices Rally As Confidence In A Global Economic Rebound Grows
Oil prices have perked up and oil price moves can lead market rallies. Is this a false positive or an early sign?
Read more...Paging Dr. Freud: Schizophrenic Reports on Mood of Davos Man
Unfortunately, it’s prudent to be mindful of what our Davos overlords are plotting. But they seem mighty unsettled.
Read more...Textbooks Are Falling Behind on Climate Change
A new study found that most biology textbooks devote fewer sentences to climate change than they did before 2010.
Read more...‘It’s Not Either/Or’ — Population and Consumption in the Climate Solutions Debate
Looking at the oft superficially discussed population and consumption levers in the climate change debate.
Read more...The Currency Swaps Time Bomb in Global Finance – Rob Johnson
Currency swap exposures have gotten to be uncomfortably large……
Read more...Reviewing Healthcare Costs as Driven by Pharma, Hospitals, and Doctors
Decomposing the rise in US healthcare costs. Of course, it’s not much due to more or better care, but higher charges.
Read more...Meet the Grinch Stealing Social Security, the Future of Gen Y And Z
ow Social Security is a victim of wage stagflation.
Read more...Michael Hudson Discusses the Future of Europe and Global Restructuring
Michael Hudson describes how the war with Russia is changing the economic and political order, and not to the advantage of Europe and the US.
Read more...Stocks Open Eyes, See Fed Pivot Hawkish; ECB Hike into Recession, Start QT; BoE Hike into Recession; SNB Hike, Sell Foreign Currency Assets
ECB’s assets drop by €800 billion. Mexico hiked too today, way ahead of the Fed, keeps peso from falling against USD.
Read more...Estimating the True Cost of War: The Conflict in Eastern Ukraine (2014-2019)
A new approach for analyzing the economic cost of war finds the impact on Donetsk, even before the SMO, is very high.
Read more...Russia’s General Patience and the Pause That Refreshes
Taking stock of the damage done by Russia’s continuing missile attacks and what that means for the war in Ukraine.
Read more...RNA-Based Therapeutics and the Future of Clinical Medicine: A Promising Part of the Emerging Story
An overview of RNA-based therapeutics, which are not to be confused with mRNA vaccines.
Read more...Rich Nations Doubly Responsible for Greenhouse Gas Emissions
How the greenhouse gas emissions blame game pits advanced economies against developing ones.
Read more...