Friday, October 3, 2025

Brexit: The Kindness of Strangers

The Thursday Brexit votes put the UK officially at the mercy of the EU.

Prominent CalPERS Beneficiaries Send Forceful, Savvy Objections to the Proposed Private Equity Scheme; Contrast With Canned Letters CalPERS Pressed Allies to Submit

As important stakeholders sound alarms, more evidence that CalPERS can’t make an honest case for its “new” private equity scheme and is calling in chips in a big way to cover for that.

A Way-Too-Early Handicapping of the 2020 Presidential Race

2020 is already in the news. so you might as well start working on your scoresheet!

2:00PM Water Cooler 3/14/2019

Today’s Water Cooler: Biden, O’Rourke enters the race, Sanders, Warren, Yang, DSA, jobless claims, new home sales, import and export prices, Facebook, Gmail, Boeing 737 debacle, painted ladies, California fires, hemp co-operatives, first college bribery scam lawsuit, Pi Day

Mars or Mercury Redux: How Geopolitics Influence Bilateral Trade Agreements

Quelle surprise! US trade agreements depend more on the US being a reliable military ally than many like to think.

Links 3/14/19

Brexit: Send in the Clowns

May takes yet more body blows….while the no deal threat is not yet disarmed.

MMT Responds to Brad DeLong’s Challenge

Randy Wray wades in yet again to contend with disinformation about MMT.

Martin Wolf: Why Economists Failed as “Experts”—and How to Make Them Matter Again

Economists should stop pretending to be scientists and go back to the core of the discipline—as a field of inquiry and way of thinking

2:00PM Water Cooler 3/13/2019

Today’s Water Cooler, including Biden and the working class, Gabbard, Harris, Sanders, Yang, AOC, voting machines, reparations, durable goods, producer prices, inflation expecations, construction, ongoing 737 debacle, Wells Fargo, Amazon, SEIU, cash, Varsity Blues, chat, quantum time reversal

Another Way the Rich Get Richer: US Indicts Fifty for College Admissions Fraud

Federal prosecutors indicted fifty people yesterday for college admissions fraud at several elite institutions, including Georgetown, Stanford, and Yale. Serious discussion of how college admissions procedures foster inequality is long overdue.

Links 3/13/19

Fracking 2.0 Was a Financial Disaster, Will Fracking 3.0 Be Different?

The latest installment in Justin Mikulka’s excellent series on fracking. The industry continues to promote new and improved saviors – this time, it’s Microsoft – to rescue it from an inconvenient truth: no one’s making any money, despite the high environmental costs incurred.

Brexit: Chaos Visible

Things continue to go badly for Theresa May’s Brexit.

The EU Is Facing Gigantic Questions About Its Future That Are Hidden in Obscure Bank Policy Decisions

The ECB again rides in to try to paper over fundamental problems with the EU’s structure and to offset is austerity bias by restarting QE. But the EU needs more government spending. Will it take another crisis to get there?