Tuesday, July 1, 2025

Capitalist Systems and Income Inequality

Focusing on class produces a new taxonomy of capitalist countries.

Links 12/3/2020

Brexit: The Barnier Cliff

December 31 is a Barnier deadline too.

This Is What Can Happen When a Cross-Border Bank Merger Goes Horribly Wrong

As Banco Sabadell’s disastrous acquisition of UK TSB has shown, a bank merger can founder due to botched IT integration.

As Hospitals Fill With COVID Patients, Medical Reinforcements Are Hard to Find

Yves here. It’s only early December and doctors and nurses are already exhausted. The grim figures in this article are already dated; Covid hospitalization just hit a new high of 100,000 in the US.  How are hospitals going to keep their troops from falling over? The earliest time when conditions might be better than now […]

2:00PM Water Cooler 12/2/2020

~ Today’s Water Cooler ~

Rapid COVID-19 Tests Can Be Useful – But There Are Far Too Few To Put a Dent in the Pandemic

Why Covid antigen tests, which are easy to administer and produce results in less than a half hour, are not a magic bullet.

Links 12/2/2020

Big Banks Grow Bigger and Smaller Banks Disappear, As Mergers Return to Crisis-Hit Eurozone

A fresh wave of bank failures and mergers are set to trigger a new round of consolidation of the Eurozone’s banking system

How Do You Combat Information Overreach?

A shaggy dog story, and a request for reader ideas on how to escape unreasonable requests for personal information.

Are “Net-Zero” Emissions a Smoke Screen?

A wide-ranging, and therefore sobering, discussion of climate change policy, including emissions and temperature targets.

Potential Consequences of Post-Brexit Trade Barriers for Earnings Inequality in the UK

More bad news on the inequality front.

2:00PM Water Cooler 12/1/2020

~ Today’s Water Cooler ~

MMT and the EU: A Case for Capturing the Prevailing Narrative

A political economy take on the EU.

Links 12/1/2020