Fearless commentary on finance, economics, politics and power

~ Today’s Water Cooler ~

By Conor Gallagher At the beginning of this year there were four pipelines carrying natural gas from Russia to Europe, and a fifth (Nord Stream 2) was about to come online. Now Nord Stream 1 and 2 are dead, the Yamal Pipeline is closed, and the amount of gas flowing through Ukraine is greatly diminished. […]

Lambert and I, and many readers, agree that Ukraine has prompted the worst informational environment ever. We hope readers will collaborate in mitigating the fog of war — both real fog and stage fog — in comments. None of us need more cheerleading and link-free repetition of memes; there are platforms for that. Low-value, link-free […]

There seems to be no escape from looming economic and financial problems, but the officialdom will do it best to delay the reckoning.

By David Favre, Professor of Law at Michigan State University College of Law and Co-Founder of the Animal Legal Defense Fund. Republished from The Conversation.  Should Californians be able to require higher welfare standards for farm animals that are raised in other states if products from those animals are to be sold in California? The […]

Regulators largely ignore the cloud services industry, despite high concentration, lack of transparency, and potential for predation.

~ Today’s Water Cooler ~

“After von der Leyen’s silence, Bourla had the opportunity to set the record straight in the European Parliament, but he preferred to slip away. Why all these secrets? What do they have to hide from European citizens?”

As hurricanes occur, we expect more of them to be major storms. Hurricane Ian and other recent storms, including the 2020 Atlantic season, provide a picture of what that can look like.

The stock of real estate in China is now quite large for what is still a lower-middle-income country.

A recent Al Jazeera documentary shows how British Labour Party officials worked alongside the media against the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn. With Starmer’s Labour Party now leading in the polls, the British media have little appetite to cover their own role in undoing the Corbyn leadership.

Oil traders, including the trading desks of the big oil companies, continue to trade in Russian hydrocarbons and are making extraordinary profits.

A massacre of the innocents.

~ Today’s Water Cooler ~