Today’s Water Cooler: Castro, Gabbard, Sanders, Warren, IA, PA, fundraising, immigration numbers, AOC v. Pelosi, housing, Prime Day, social media and depression, EU GND, Christians and climate change, weaponized ticks?, Magic: The Gathering includes a Turing Machine (!), free trade, Elon Mush brain mods
Friday, August 29, 2025
As Flood Risks Rise Across the US, It’s Time to Recognize the Limits of Levees
How levees become counterproductive as flood severity increases.
CalPERS’ Long-Term Care Policy Train Wreck – Is Bankruptcy the End Game?
CalPERS’ long-term care policy mess is even worse than industry norms, which is saying quite a lot.
The Numbers Are In, and Trump’s Tax Cuts Are a Bust
Why Trump’s tax “reforms” didn’t deliver on growth, just on rentierism.
The ‘New Right’ Is Not a Reaction to Neoliberalism, but Its Offspring
Why the success of the far right shows that neoliberalism is very much alive and well.
2:00PM Water Cooler 7/16/2019
Today’s Water Cooler: Castro, Harris, O’Rourke, Steyer, Warren, Democrat debates, AOC v. Pelosi, Koch Brothers, Case-Deaton, industrial production and retail sales both strong, central bankers want fiscal assistance, Amazon, Tesla, Google, Uber, fossil fuels, carbon tracker, Eric Garner, oppression
Waste Watch: Why Do We Discard So Many Edible Fish We Pull From the Sea?
New House of Lords report laments failure to slow discarding edible fish back into the sea; Australia also tosses much of its catch.
Taxes for Revenue Are Obsolete
In a 1946 classic, New York Fed chairman Beardsley Ruml explains why taxes aren’t necessary for Federal spending and argues against corporate income taxes.
The Big Blue Gap in the Green New Deal
Filling in the missing chapter on oceans for the Green New Deal,
Why Social Mobility Is a Lousy Idea
Recognizing social mobility as yet another “divide and conquer” strategy.
2:00PM Water Cooler 7/15/2019
Today’s Water Cooler: China’s economy and tariffs, Sanders and the media, Pelosi & Trump v. AOC, AOC interview, Tammany Hall, manufacturing, banking reserves, robot car hype dying down?, political scenarios for climate disaster, sand, Manhattan blackout, the public option, wage theft, Art Young
How NGOs in Rich Countries Control their Counterparts in Poor Countries..and Why they Refuse to Resolve it
Many NGOs around the world are fighting inequality between the rich and the poor, but the bigger NGOs are unwilling to fight policies that keep rich NGOs richer.
