Category Archives: Free markets and their discontents

Energy Workers to Stage More Protests as Companies Raise Bills but Not Pay

Employees at Drax, Grangemouth and other energy sites will walk out every fortnight as firms rake in huge profits.

How Employers Are Trying to Thwart a Wave of Union Drives

Union organizers are making headway, as measured by the more-aggressive cororate efforts to hobble them.

America, Land of the Dying? Alarming Study Shows U.S. Killing Its Own Population

American became an outlier among rich countries in mortality rates pre pandemic, and Americans are dying younger than their peers abroad.

PredictIt: The Closing of a Prediction Market

PredictIt is likely to shutter. A look at how contract holders may win or lose, as well as the loss of a window into voter sentiment.

Hubert Horan: Can Uber Ever Deliver? Part Thirty-One: Uber’s Legitimate Cumulative Losses Top $32 Billion; P&L Improvements Driven by Much Higher Fares and Multi-Billion Dollar Transfers From Drivers to Shareholders

Even big fare hikes and cuts to driver pay have failed to produce profits at Uber. And these pricing changes are not likely to be sustainable.

Serotonin and the Unsubstantiated Chemical Imbalance Theory of Mental Disorders

A foundational theory on the role of serotonin is a mere unsupported intuition, but mass drug peddling is nevertheless based on it.

Think the Financial Crisis Is Over? Mortgage Servicers Still Abusing Borrowers For 10+ Years, Thanks to Lax Fannie/Freddie Oversight

Mortgage servicers are torturing borrowers who have been unable to pay for over a decade. All they are doing now is ripping off governments.

Why It’s Essential for Congress to Reauthorize Trade Adjustment Assistance

Workers attest that the Trade Adjustment Assistance has helped them move into new careers when employers offshore jobs. Will it be cut?

Truss and Sunak’s Reheated Thatcherism Is the Last Thing the UK Needs

Truss and Sunak treat the Iron Lady as their muse, while Labour touts another flavor of neoliberalism, that of Tony Blair.

How Public Real Estate Investment Trusts Extract Wealth from Nursing Homes and Hospitals

REITs are considered “passive” investors but play a very active role in reshaping whole industries, like hospitals

Yanis Varoufakis: Inflation as a Political Power Play Gone Wrong

Looking at inflation through a class warfare lens.

Hospices Have Become Big Business for Private Equity Firms, Raising Concerns About End-of-Life Care

Expect hospice care to go the way of privately-owned nursing homes, now that private equity is geting its claws into the industry.

Michael Hudson: American Diplomacy as a Tragic Drama

American policies have become astonishingly obvious about not simply putting the US first, but also exploiting supposed partners to do so.