Tuesday, May 20, 2025

Major Health Study Shows Benefits of Combating Climate Change

The medical journal The Lancet published a new report on the association between human health and climate change.

Links 12/15/18

What the US Could Learn from Thailand About Health Care Coverage

The fact that a low-income country like Thailand has universal health care coverage should put the US to shame….except our elites are incapable of that.

Writers Silenced by Surveillance: Self-Censorship in the Age of Big Data

“We asked Scottish writers how online surveillance has impacted on their work. The answers we got were shocking.”

2:00PM Water Cooler 12/14/2018

Today’s Water Cooler: Corn, soybeans, Sanders, Biden/Harris, Warren, Women’s March, CAP, industrial production, retail sales, business inventories, apparel, consumer credit, body brokers, Verizon debacle, Harvard invests in water, cost of illness, Proust, liberal arts, latrinalia, ant nests

Trump Models His War on Bank Regulators on Bill Clinton and W’s Disastrous Wars

Why “partner” is the last word you want to hear from the mouth of a bank regulator.

Links 12/14/18

Brexit: Unicorns Rampant

The UK continues to flail about as the Brexit clock keeps ticking.

CalPERS Admits Its New Private Equity Funds Will Dilute Returns, Seeks to Change Benchmark to Hide That; Presents Other Questionable Claims as Top Investors Underperform Due to “Alternative Investments”

Awfully late in the game, CalPERS finally tries to ‘splain its private equity plans. The giant fund only digs its hole deeper.

“You’re Worth $1 Trillion. Why Do You Need Our $3 Billion?” Angry New Yorkers Confront Amazon Execs at City Council Meeting

Amazon has said its new headquarters in New York will create 25,000 jobs for residents—a claim one protester derided as “smoke and mirrors”

Our New York Magazine Article: “‘Alpha Wolves in the Henhouse’: California’s Multibillion-Dollar Private-Equity Boondoggle”

Putting CalPERS under the hot lights for its questionable private equity plans.

2:00PM Water Cooler 12/13/2018

Today’s Water Cooler: Aluminum tariffs good for economy, TWO, Sanders on Jamie Dimon, Julian Castro, Pelosi, RCV in Maine, jobless claims, imports and exports, oil, intersectionality and class, Walmart rant, student loans, warehouse code of conduct, anti-labor Jones Day, cash, Eric the fish

Why It’s So Hard for Most Countries to be Economically Independent from the West

Western countries insist both on “free trade” with poor countries and farm subsidies for themselves.

Links 12/13/18

Brexit: Endgame

As the Brexit clock is running down, so too are the available plays.