Category Archives: Regulations and regulators

A Neoliberalism Meets Covid Vignette: Barriers to Getting a Vaccine, Publix Edition

We had to jump through way too many hoops to get a Covid vaccine at Publix. Is this normal for pharmacies?

Crypto Crackdown: Only the Beginning?

If you think the officialdom is getting tough with crypto, there’s even more they can do to tighten the screws.

Big Tech Goes All In to Thwart Right to Repair Initiatives

The FTC and more than two dozen states mull right to repair initiatives; Big Tech companies mount a ;pbbying offensive.

Known Stock Market Leverage Hits WTF High. Out the Other Side of Its Mouth, the Fed Warns About Hidden Leverage that Blew up Archegos

Stock margin debt is the visible tip of the iceberg of leverage, and it has been growing at a zoo-has-gone-nuts rate.

9th Circuit Upholds $25 Million Judgement Against Monsanto for Glyphosate Liability

The decision is unlikely to affect a pending glyphosate settlement, but may hold wider signficance for the pesticides industry.

Bill Black: The Best Way to Rob a Bank Is to Own One (Part 1/9)

Bill Black traces the history of modern American financial fraud starting in this episode with the S&L Banking scandal.

Sputtering About Crypto and the US Pipeline Ransomware Attack

You can hear the silence about the role of crypto in the Colonial Pipeline and a growing spate of ransom demands.

How Upskilling America Will Rebuild the Middle Class

A sanity check on how far “let them eat training” will go in restoring the fallen American middle class.

New Lawsuit Challenges ‘Fast-Track’ Permits Used for Oil and Gas Pipelines Nationwide

For nearly a decade, pipeline companies have relied on the contested Nationwide Permit 12 when their projects cross waterbodies in the U.S.

Fed Shamelessly Gives Warnings of Vague and Ominous Risks While Saying Don’t Expect Us to Do Anything About It

The Fed tells the world: Don’t expect us to be ready for the next financial crisis. It’s just too hard.

Reducing Methane Is Crucial for Protecting Climate and Health, and It Can Pay for Itself – Yet Emissions Are Still Rising Fast, A New UN Report Warns

After a long period of fracking boosterism in the US, reducing methane emissions is finally getting the attention it warrants.

‘Cry No Tears for These Death Profiteers’: Pharma Stocks Plunge as Biden Backs Vaccine Patent Waiver

Biden is suddenly backing a patent waiver for foreign manufacture of Covid vaccines. But do the mechanics make this a headfake?

California Bill Seeks to Prevent Hospital Administrators from Practicing Medicine Without a License

An important vehicle for doctors to take back control by keeping administrators from playing at medicine has oddly stayed under the radar.

Abolish the OCC

The idea of getting rid of a hopelessly captured and largely redundant bank regulator, the OCC, is gaining support.

The Ugly Truth About Renewable Power

Questions about how to make intermittent renewable energy production work for users conditioned to always-here power.