Friday, July 11, 2025

Mark Cuban Has Been Taking On the Drug Industry. But Which One?

Billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavericks gets into the pharmaceutical industry.

Europe’s Second Largest Industrial Base Sinks Under the Weight of Energy Costs as Divisions Open Up in the Ruling Coalition

Italy searches for energy after cutoff from Russia.

Public Pension Funding Average Now Below 50%, Yet Beneficiaries and Press Stay Mum

That light at the end of the public pension fund tunnel is the headlight of the underfunding train bearing down on them.

Turkish President Erdoğan’s Grip on Power Threatened by Devastating Earthquake

The massive February 6 earthquake weakened Erdogan’s already not-so-hot re-election prospects. What now?

Links 2/19/2023

Reversing 30 Years of Damage from the Clintons, the DOJ Closes A Price-Fixing Loophole Wide Enough to Drive a Truck Through 

Why are you paying so much for everything? DOJ admits that decades-old carveout allowed even non concentrated industries to effectively build cartels to coordinate prices and wages

Amid Ohio Nightmare, Rail Worker Alliance Urges All of Labor to Back Railroad Nationalization

Rather than settle for narrow reforms, rail workers are pushing for public ownership of the US railroad system, which is commonplace throughout much of the world.

Links 2/18/2023

Tech Companies Are Getting Into Neurotechnology. Should We Worry?

Consumer-facing neurotechnology could make computers more accessible — and pose a new kind of threat to data privacy.

Tipping Is Not a Reward—It’s an Insult

Tipping legalizes subminimum wages and keeps workers subservient to the whims of employers and customers.

2:00PM Water Cooler 2/17/2023

~ Today’s Water Cooler ~

Asking the Oppressed to Be Nonviolent Is an Impossible Standard That Ignores History

The demand that protest only be nonviolent helps preserve an often corrupt and abusive status quo.

Links 2/17/2023

Is Switzerland About to Become First Country to Outlaw a Cashless Society?

As in neighboring Germany and Austria, cash is still king in Switzerland albeit a much diminished one. But the Swiss will soon have the chance to vote on whether to preserve notes and coins indefinitely.  

‘Absolute Hypocrisy’: GOP Unveils Bill to Make Trump Tax Cuts Permanent While Howling About Debt

The point of the debt ceiling melodrama is to give fiscal hawks another whack at budget-cutting. Tax increase are therefore off the table.