Category Archives: Ridiculously obvious scams

Will the Fracking Revolution Peak Before Ever Making Money?

Latest installment in Justin Mikulka’s excellent DeSmogBlog series on fracking follies.

Trump’s Executive Order is a Backdoor Privatization of Medicare

Why Trump’s “expansion” of Medicare Advantage is an insurer boondoggle at the expense of taxpayers and patients.

From 2014: R. Hunter Biden Should Declare Who Really Owns His New Ukrainian Employer, Burisma Holdings

ive years later, Richard Smiths’s 2014 deep dive into Ukraine’s Burisma Holdings, then and now of Hunter Biden fame, provides detail you won’t find anywhere else.

Wolf Richter: How Employees & Employers Get Bled by Health Insurance

Health insurance costs will kill you if your medical issues don’t get you first.

Two Horrid Wall Street Journal Stories Show What a Malefactor Amazon Has Become

The Wall Street Journal reports ghastly stories about product safety from third party sellers at Amazon, and the ugly office politics of software development

CalPERS, Treasurer Fiona Ma, Board Members David Miller and Theresa Taylor, and CalPERS Employees Engage in Illegal and Dishonest Electioneering Against Candidate JJ Jelincic

More on CalPERS’ election meddling.

CalPERS’ Blatant Election and Mail Fraud: See-Through Envelopes for Completed Ballots; Illegal Electioneering by Treasurer Fiona Ma, Board Members David Miller and Theresa Taylor; Huge and Illegally Opaque Spending Against Challenger JJ Jelincic

CalPERS takes its election fixing to a new level.

While PG&E Played a ‘Cat and Mouse Game’ With California Regulators, Where Was Kamala?

The WSJ account of how PG&E played a “cat and mouse game” with regulators; alas, California’s utilities commission “is not a particularly adroit cat.”

Why 2020 Dems Should Target the Nonprofit Charter School Industry

How neoliberal grifters, pursuing charter school profits, destroyed an historic building.

Private Equity and Surprise Medical Billing

Private equity has glommed onto the healthcare sector, and drives the “surprise” medical billing. phenomenon.

Apple Blinks on Right to Repair: Or Does It?

Apple makes modest concessions on the right to repair. Seems to be less here than meets the eye.

‘Father Is Surgeon’: How Money Talked in USC Admissions Scandal

Defense attorney releases emails documenting just how seriously USC officials weighed family donations in making admissions decisions.

Marshall Auerback: We Are Clearly Living in a Bizarro Capitalism Era—And It’s Time to Change How the World Manages Economies

Central banks don’t have the tools to address our problems. It will take well-constructed fiscal policy to set right our topsy-turvy economy.

Flood the Market

Buyouts can save Houston’s flood-soaked homeowners — if they can get one. Instead, ordinary homeowners fail to qualify, and real estate speculators make out.