Tuesday, September 16, 2025
Wolf Richter: Coronavirus Drives Barrage of New Lobbying Activity
Follow the money – Congressional lobbying activity and who wins and who loses from coronavirus relief.
Who Benefits When the Price of Insulin Soars?
Contrary to pharmaceutical company claims, revenue from high insulin prices are going to shareholders, not R&D
Press Ferrets Out More Falsehoods by CalPERS CIO Ben Meng, Evidence of Poor Leadership, in Giving Up >$1 Billion Hedge Payday
CalPERS’ embattled CIO Ben Meng digs his $1 billion hole deeper with not-credible defenses. Tell the board not to cede more authority to him.
Oil, Gas, Petrochemical Financial Woes Predate Pandemic — And Will Continue After, Despite Bailouts, Report Finds
Problems with the oil, gas, and petrchemical industries predate the COVID-19 pandemic – and now will be even more difficult to rseolve.
How COVID-19 Showed America’s Dependence on Blue-Collar Workers
The outbreak of “hero” talk is a long-overdue admission that blue-collar workers are the backbone of the US economy. Time to pay them more.
#DemExit Now: How the Democratic Party Cheated Bernie Sanders Out of the Nomination
How the Dems played dirty with Sanders.
2:00PM Water Cooler 4/17/2020
Today’s Water Cooler: Festival of Biden (strange inactivity, SuperPAC, Michelle Obama, VP horserace), Sirota on civility, vote by mail, ballot marking devices, Howie Hawkins, employment situation, state budgets, gold, Amazon, #COVID19 (epidemiology, asymptomatic tranmission), time
CalPERS Staff Seeks to Strip Board of Remaining Authority Even as Press Exposes Multi-Billion Cost of Lack of Supervision; Elected Board Members Thumb Nose at Public by Seeking to Be Paid for Doing Almost Nothing
CalPERS staff is up to more dirty tricks. Push back by e-mail in public comments. Bad press already has them on the back foot.
Taleb Questions CalPERS Ben Meng’s Competence and Honesty in Defending Missed $1 Billion Hedge Gain; Taleb Estimates CalPERS Net Loss on Meng’s “Alternative Mitigation” Over Two Years at $19 Billion
Nassim Nicholas Taleb calls out one of CalPERS CIO Ben Meng’s Big Lies, and unearths an even bigger one.
A Payments Holiday is More Realistic Than You Think
It may be simpler to enact a payments holiday than to try to get money to the hands of individuals who desperately need it.
Is There Any Better Time Than Now For a General Strike?
May Day is around the corner. It seems a fitting time for workers to demand better via a general strike.
