Thursday, July 10, 2025

Links 3/2/2023

Ukraine, Russia, China, and Dealing With Crazy People

What passes for leadership in the West is becoming more agitated, particulalry over Ukraine.

Salve Lucrum: The Existential Threat of Greed in US Health Care

A big reason US health sucks is that the government refuses to crack down on abuses like price gouging and billing games.

Identifying the Real Resistance

Can the rich be trusted to fix a breaking world? Or should the real resistance unite beneath one banner?

2:00PM Water Cooler 3/1/2023

~ Today’s Water Cooler ~

Losing Out in Critical Technologies: Cisco Systems and Financialization

Cisco turned from innovation to financialization, weakening the position of the US information-and-communication-technology industry

Links 3/1/2023

The Crisis in Scientific Publication: Peer Review, Authorship, Responsibility, and the Future of Science

Science is rotting thanks to bad metrics and bad publisher incentives.

How Private Equity Bribes Public Pension Fund Officials: Subsidized/Fund-Paid Lavish Travel and Entertainment

Yet more private equity corruption! And see how little it costs to buy the assent of public pension fund employees.

Why News of Population Decline and Economic Slowdown Isn’t Necessarily a Bad Thing

Why handwringing about population decline is the wrong reaction.

2:00PM Water Cooler 2/28/2023

~ Today’s Water Cooler ~

All Presidents Avoid Reporters, but Biden May Achieve a Record in His Press Avoidance

An effort to rationalize Presidential and by extension other politicians’ minimizing interaction with the press.

Links 2/28/2023

UK Citizens Should Take Rishi Sunak’s Pledge Not to Launch Digital ID With a Truckload of Salt

“There are no plans to introduce digital ID. Our position on physical ID cards remains unchanged.” 

Michael Hudson and Radhika Desai on Dollar Imperialism

A deep dive on the development of the dollar system.