Today’s Water Cooler: Obama’s Biden endorsement, Warren endorses Biden (Obama, Geithner), AOC interview, Sanders post mortems, Democrats and the bailout, retail, manufacturing, wheat, Amazon, Boeing, GM, #COVID19 (testing, drug evaluation, class), instant karma, citizen science
Tuesday, July 1, 2025
“Something Has Gone Wrong”: UK Government, Banks Screw Up Coronavirus Loans, Small Firms Near Collapse. Better Results in Other Countries
Quelle surprise! Big banks in the UK don’t like making small business loans, especially not at 1.5%.
The Really Really Yucky Airlines Bailout
The airlines are at the trough. It’s not quite as unseemly as the 2008 bank bailouts, but that’s an awfully low bar.
Massachusetts Recruits 1,000 ‘Contact Tracers’ To Battle COVID-19
Some spots in America are staring to get serious about contact tracing to limit coronavirus spread. But can they commit the resources?
Damning New Story on CalPERS Sacrificing $1 Billion Hedge Profits Confirms Doubts About Chief Investment Officer Ben Meng’s Competence
More evidence that CalPERS Chief Investment Officer Ben Meng is over his head.
2:00PM Water Cooler 4/14/2020
I’m just beginning to see
Now I’m on my way
It doesn’t matter to me
Chasing the clouds away
CSA: How to Support Local Farmers as Restaurants and Farmers Markets Close
As the virus has small, local farms scrambling for income streams, community-supported agriculture (CSA) is one way to support them.
What Richard Vague Says that Matt Taibbi, Our Acrophobic Champion for the Duration of the COVD-19 Crisis, Needs to Learn about Stratospheric Levels of Public Debt
Economic historian/analyst Richard Vague clears up some of the misconceptions that Matt Taibbi and others have about MMT and crisis spending.
Covid-19 Diagnosis: Will We End Applying a Mosaic of Methods Worldwide?
A look at promising Covid-19 test methods, and why diagnosis approaches may wind up differing across countries.
Fatal Combination: Bailouts and Bank Rescues in Money-Driven Political Systems
A tidy case study into how much money it takes to buy Congressional votes.
Somebody Needs to Tell Chuck Schumer that the Entire Working Class Is “Heroic,” Not Just “Essential Workers”
Schumer’s “Heroes Fund” would create a new labor aristocracy
2:00PM Water Cooler 4/13/2020
Today’s Water Cooler: Let’s make Monday Fun Day!
To Fight the COVID Pandemic, Policymakers Must Move Fast and Break Taboos
To combat COVID-19, central banks, including the ECB, must cross the Rubicon of monetary financing and immediately transfer the 20%-30% of GDP this will cost into fiscal coffers.
