President Donald Trump has zeroed in on Paramount, the weakest of American media titans, to administer a lesson in sontaku, the Japanese art of “obeying in advance” or “following unspoken orders.”
Recent Items
Sunday, July 27, 2025
Coffee Break: Trump Makes an Example Out of Paramount
Topics: Coffee Break
Posted by Nat Wilson Turner at 2:00 pm | 36 Comments »
AI and Workers’ Wellbeing: Lessons from Germany’s Early Experience
An only mildly negative report on AI implementation from Germany, and why that is not likely to be generalizable to the US.
Topics: Guest Post, Income disparity, Technology and innovation, The destruction of the middle class
Posted by Yves Smith at 9:55 am | 12 Comments »
Links 7/21/2025
Topics: Links
Posted by Conor Gallagher at 6:55 am | 152 Comments »
U.S. Inches Closer to Causing Major Caucasus Crisis With Offer to Administer Transport Corridor Between Turkey and Azerbaijan
Moscow takes measures against Baku and Yerevan to warn against corridor move that would upset regional balance and be blow to Iran and Russia.
Topics: Doomsday scenarios, Energy markets, Europe, Guest Post, Middle East, Russia, Turkey
Posted by Conor Gallagher at 6:00 am | 28 Comments »
Can This Industry Be Saved? The Case of Natural Diamonds
The once prized diamond is now merely a natural diamond and losing ground to its cheaper manufactured cousins.
Topics: Curiousities, Social values, Technology and innovation, The destruction of the middle class
Posted by Yves Smith at 5:00 am | 24 Comments »
‘Farming in the Dark’: Brooke Rollins’ Leadership, DOGE’s Grip and the Cost to American Agriculture
In her first six months, Donald Trump’s second agriculture secretary has altered the course of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. She says prosperity is ‘just around the corner.’ But staffing cuts and restricted research could have long-lasting impacts.
Topics: Banana republic, Commodities, Environment, Guest Post, Privatization, Regulations and regulators, Risk and risk management, Science and the scientific method
Posted by Conor Gallagher at 4:00 am | 5 Comments »
Links 7/20/2025
Topics: Guest Post, Links
Posted by Haig Hovaness at 6:55 am | 169 Comments »
The Sunday Morning Movie Presents: Farewell My Lovely (1975) Run Time: 1H 35M
Farewell My Lovely is a film about a jaded detective Phillip Marlowe and his search for a gangster’s moll named Velma.
Topics: Guest Post, Sunday morning Antidote movie
Posted by semper loquitur at 6:30 am | 23 Comments »
Western Life Is Only One Way to Live
The “march of civilization” is the West’s founding myth. And yes, it’s a myth.
Topics: Income disparity, Social policy, Social values
Posted by Conor Gallagher at 5:00 am | 35 Comments »
Links 7/19/2025
Topics: Links
Posted by Yves Smith at 6:55 am | 263 Comments »
Michael Hudson: Today’s Civilizational Conflict
A new article by Michael Hudson, an extract from an upcoming book, gives a long view of colonial exploitation and China as a counter-model
Topics: Banking industry, China, Currencies, Economic fundamentals, Free markets and their discontents, Globalization, Guest Post
Posted by Yves Smith at 5:35 am | 27 Comments »
When ‘Coexistence’ Is Co-Opted in Conservation Practice
Coexistence between humans and wildlife is a meaningful goal, but it’s being misused or superficially invoked.
Topics: Environment, Guest Post, Species loss
Posted by Yves Smith at 4:49 am | 2 Comments »
Coffee Break: Garden of Healing, Good News on PEPFAR, Life in Biotech, and Our American Israel
Part the First: Pharmacopeia. Who doesn’t love a garden? It sometimes seems that all drugs come from plants, initially. My first biology teachers claimed they were taught that bacteria were plants back when life was either animal or plant. Garden of Healing is a bit long but very interesting. It is also a break from […]
Topics: Coffee Break, Health care, Middle East, Politics, Science and the scientific method
Posted by KLG at 2:00 pm | 27 Comments »
Good Riddance: CalPERS’ Atrocious General Counsel Matt Jacobs to Retire
A partial catalogue of the horrowshow of Matt Jacob’s tenure as CalPERS general counsel.
Topics: CalPERS, Corporate governance, Investment management, Legal, Politics, Private equity, Ridiculously obvious scams
Posted by Yves Smith at 9:55 am | 20 Comments »
Links 7/18/2025
Topics: Links
Posted by Conor Gallagher at 6:55 am | 194 Comments »