~ Today’s Water Cooler ~
Thursday, January 1, 2026
April Fool’s Inflation Medicine Threatens Progress
The world verges on recession. Central bank interest rate increases further slow growth without quelling supply-side cost-push inflation
Costa Rica’s New Government Overturns Covid-19 Vaccine Mandate, Launches Investigation Into Pfizer Contract
“We could end up in jail” if we disclose details of the former government’s contract with Pfizer, says the country’s Health Minister.
Wrong Way CalPERS Increased Private Equity Allocation by Over 50% as Investors Are Dumping Holdings
The Financial Times reports that private equity investors are running for the exits as CalPERS plans to pile on.
America, Land of the Dying? Alarming Study Shows U.S. Killing Its Own Population
American became an outlier among rich countries in mortality rates pre pandemic, and Americans are dying younger than their peers abroad.
2:00PM Water Cooler 8/8/2022
~ Today’s Water Cooler ~
The Future of Copper and the Future of Bougainville
By John McGregor, a translator and political violence researcher The mass transition to renewable energy will require a fundamental redesign of much of our technology and the infrastructure that supports it. Copper will be required in far greater quantities than it is currently. A July 2022 analysis by S&P Global has identified that there will […]
Memo to China: You Look Silly When You Threaten to Dump Treasuries
If China intends to cov the West, it needs to pick things it could do that would incur real damage. Selling Treasuries it not that.
Dodgy Demand Data? The Oil Price Collapse Conspiracy
John here. Environmental concerns and tighter regulations reduced investment in refineries. Tight refining capacity then drove the high crack spreads, but they have recently. This long-term strategy to reduce the use of fossil fuels by raising prices is achieving its goal, but at the predictable cost of people using less fuel. Gas stations, largely independent […]
The Supreme Court’s Own Goal on Climate Change
Why the Supreme Court ruling in West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency looks more like hacker than jurisprudence.
Australia’s Grand Plans to Export Solar – A Lesson from the ‘Gas Crisis’
By John McGregor, a translator and political violence researcher As perverse as it seems, achieving the dream of linking Australian renewable energy to Asian energy buyers may generate a household electricity crisis as artificial as the current gas crisis. As with LNG, large scale solar projects are set to largely, perhaps even entirely, bypass domestic […]
The Opioid Crisis Isn’t Just the Sacklers’ Fault – and Making Purdue Pharma Pay Isn’t Enough on Its Own to Fix the Pharmaceutical Industry’s Deeper Problems
Focusing on the Sacklers as villains obscures the problems that permeate the entire pharmaceutical industry.
