Category Archives: Free markets and their discontents

People Got Used to Higher Prices and Are Outspending Even Raging Inflation. They Don’t Want This Thing to Land

Year-over-year growth in consumer spending, adjusted for inflation, outpaced the pre-pandemic average. Month-over-month, seasonally adjusted, growth spiked.

Jim Chanos: The Golden Age of Fraud in Finance

Famed short seller Jim Chanos discusses the ever-rising role of fraud in the US financial system and his views of China.

In Rural America, Right-to-Repair Laws Are the Leading Edge of a Pushback Against Growing Corporate Power

After years of efforts to advance right-to-repair rules, farmers are starting to get traction.

The Irish Question

Brexit fudged the question of the Irish border. The Tory “Ultras” that pushed for a hard Brexit are still loaded for bear on this matter.

EU Gas Price Cap: An Exercise in Futility

The much -maligned EU gas price cap is not looking any better with age.

Reversing 30 Years of Damage from the Clintons, the DOJ Closes A Price-Fixing Loophole Wide Enough to Drive a Truck Through

Why are you paying so much for everything? DOJ admits that decades-old carveout allowed even non concentrated industries to effectively build cartels to coordinate prices and wages

Amid Ohio Nightmare, Rail Worker Alliance Urges All of Labor to Back Railroad Nationalization

Rather than settle for narrow reforms, rail workers are pushing for public ownership of the US railroad system, which is commonplace throughout much of the world.

An Inconvenient Apocalypse

Authors Jackson and Jensen argue that we need an acopalypse, as in a full recognition of conditions, to make radical envirnmental changes.

Understanding Money and the Dollar System: Radhika Desai & Michael Hudson at Geopolitical Hour

Michael Hudson and Radhika Desai discuss the dollar regime and its prospects.

ChatGPT Is a Data Privacy Nightmare. If You’ve Ever Posted Online, You Ought To Be Concerned

More reasons to regard ChatGPT as CheatGPT.

Meatpacking. Healthcare. Housing Rentals. Industries Across the Board Using Tech to Fix Wages and Prices

DOJ says it’s going to crack down as lawsuits pile up against real estate Goliaths and US officially becomes a “rent-burdened nation.”

James Galbraith: The Quasi-Inflation of 2021-2022 – A Case of Bad Analysis and Worse Response

Galbraith explains why conventional views of inflation are a particularly poor fit for recent price increases and produced bad policy