Sunday, July 27, 2025

Panicked Market Close Wednesday, Rout Continues Overseas, With Some Stabilization in Europe; What Will Thursday Bring? Updated: Investors Want Their Fed Put

Mr. Market was very edgy yesterday. Will he recover his chipper mood today or fall into a deeper funk?

The Crumbling Architecture of Nuclear Arms Control

A useful backgrounder on nuclear arms control and why the system is coming unglued.

Oil Under Threat As Global Economy Struggles

Bullish expectation for oil prices wane as the outlook for the world economy darkens.

2:00PM Water Cooler 10/24/2018

Today’s Water Cooler: WTO, postal rates, pipe bombs, political polarization, military candidates, Colorado fracking, Abrams v. Kemp, ME-02, architectural billings, purchasing managers index, Cass Freight index, the Volcker Rule, NAFTA and military enlistment, lavender, kind communication

Links 10/24/18

The Best Part of This Week

What you’ve told us this week about why this site and the community you’ve created matter to you.

Standoff Between Italy and European Commission Escalates as Commission Rejects Italian Budget

Italy and the European Commission are in a dispute over Italy’s budget, and no one looks likely to come out a winner in this fight.

Buried in “Hilariously Stupid” White House Attack on Socialism, An Accidentally Strong Argument for Medicare for All

Amid hysterical comparisons between Senator Bernie Sanders and Mao Zedong, the Council of Economic Advisers unwittingly makes a solid case for socialist policies.

Brexit: The Forward March of Remain? It Still Hasn’t Got Out of the Starting Blocks

Remain boosters need to focus efforts on Tory and Labour MPs with marginal seats, but they’re too distracted by painting apocalyptic pictures.

2:00PM Water Cooler 10/23/2018

Today’s Water Cooler: Steel, Gabbard and Sanders in Iowa, Trump advance work, Blue Wave prognostications, AR-02, ME-02, conventional wisdom on partisan geography, manufacturing, Tesla, for-profit college, the yield curve, beekeeping, endoterrestrials, “Late Victorian Holocausts”

Can Americans Learn to Scale Their Partisan Walls?

Connecting across differences may be the only thing that will save Americans from rule by the privileged few.

Links 10/23/18

How Naked Capitalism Leaves Advertising Dollars on the Table So Nothing Comes Between You and Your Content

Horrid examples of advertising that we have hitherto been able to avoid.

Markets Edgy Over China, Italy Budget Staredown, Saudis, Brexit, Too Much Private Debt, Strained Valuations….

Markets have more reason than usual to be jumpy.

Michael Mann: We’re Already On Our Way to “Blowing Past” 1.5 Degrees Global Warming

How global warming is increasing at a faster rate than most realize.