How the Kurds always wound up on the losing end of imperial map-drawing.
Wednesday, September 24, 2025
2:00PM Water Cooler 11/6/2019
Today’s Water Cooler: China milk imports, Biden, Buttigieg, Harris, Sanders, Trump, Warren, Kentucky, Maine, Virginia, Washington, propaganda, productivity and costs, Twitter, chip fabrication, Boeing, Iraq’s marshes, Laos tigers, elephants v. poverty/corruption, Dr. Bronner, sexual objectification, blogging
Carbon Taxes and Carbon Pricing Are Not Solutions to the Climate Crisis
A short-form debunking of a popular but unsound idea for addressing carbon emissions.
Another Health Industry Initiative to House the Homeless
Some small-scale initiatives to aid the homeless demonstrate how inadequate our respojnses are.
The Myth of Shareholder Primacy
A surprising alliance of big business, activists and left-wing politicians have condemned the shareholder value paradigm. But did it ever really exist?
German Finance Minister Pumps for EU-Wide Deposit “Reinsurance” But Expected Details Mean Lots of Gaps Likely
The lead story in the Financial Times tonight is that Germany’s finance minister Olaf Scholz is pushing for an EU-wide deposit scheme…of sorts. Even though Scholz’s plan appears to be more modest than the headlines indicate, even a halting move towards EU-level fiscal commitments would be a significant departure from Germany’s traditional stance of barring […]
2:00PM Water Cooler 11/5/2019
Today’s Water Cooler: China and EV batteries, Sanders, Steyer, Trump, Warren, AOC, impeachment, Warren’s #MedicareForAll plan, employment, services, international trade, luxury real estate, Bitcoin, California dams, Russian nuclear dumps, how many bathrooms does Jeff Bezos need?
CalPERS Follows Naked Capitalism Recommendation: Does 180 on Emerging Managers by Dumping Managers, Slashing Commitments, Defying Board-Authorized Plan Through 2020
CalPERS has belatedly followed our advice and is radically cutting back on its so-called emerging managers.
Manufacturing Fear and Loathing, Maximizing Corporate Profits! A Review of Matt Taibbi’s Hate Inc.: Why Today’s Media Makes Us Despise One Another
Matt Taibbi’s must-read new book Hate Inc. describes how the media stokes fake conflicts to prevent consideration of real issues.
America Will Keep Losing Its Middle Class as Long as “The Free Market” Dominates the Economic Debate
How free market fundamentalism has undermined industrial policy and other pro-worker measures.
Uber Loses Another $1.2 Billion, Stock Dives Again
Uber manages to bleed even more cash.
2:00PM Water Cooler 11/4/2019
Today’s Water Cooler: Biden, Buttigieg, O’Rourke, Sanders, Trump, Warren, impeachment transcripts, TAP butchers defense of Warren’s #MedicareForAll plan, Wasserman-Schultz, factory orders, AirBnB, wildflower median strips, feral hogs, UAW and CTU, Derek Smalls
What’s Inside That Black Box: What Regulating Data Privacy and Policing Drunk Driving Have in Common
Two recent NYT stories – on data privacy and drunk driving – highlight the dangers of unquestioned reliance on omnipotent back boxes.
