Today’s Water Cooler: China trade, Ratface Andy, hidden influencers, splitting California, consumer prices, jobless claims, Tesla shop floor, nursing homes, 1% escape plans, lotteries, empathetic technology
Monday, June 16, 2025
Revolving Doors and Regulatory Capture
Looking at the costs of and some possible responses to regulatory capture.
Marcie Frost’s Poor Job as CalPERS CEO – Gutting the Audit Function
CalPERS is undermining the performance of its audit unit, a critical control function. The fact that CEO Marcie Frost either doesn’t care, or is not even on top of things enough to know, is yet another sign of her incompetence.
Marcie Frost‘s Poor Job as CalPERS CEO – Incompetence in Human Resources, One of Her Supposed Areas of Expertise
Marcie Frost’s track record as CEO of CalPeRS is not a pretty one.
The Economy Under Trump: Business Optimism Combined with Inequality
Gerald Epstein dissects the Trump Administration happy talk about the state of the economy.
2:00PM Water Cooler 9/12/2018
Today’s Water Cooler: WTO, Cory Booker, Trump and the midterms, the austerity box, inflation, detention and demurrage, scooter users in the ER, McDonald’s workers, Minsky’s financial instability hypothesis, the new iPhones
Michael Olenick: Debunking Yet Another Misleading Gun Study
A gun “study” falls apart when given a cursory examination.
State AGs to Step Up Enforcement Against Tech Companies?
The WSJ reported Monday that state AGs, who include many Republicans, are poised to step up enforcement against big tech. Interesting times may lie ahead.
Why Positive Thinking Won’t Get You Out of Poverty
The New York Times condescends to people in poverty.
Shall We Kill the Hay Exports or the Cows?
Hay has become a scarce resource in Australia, and not for the best reasons.
2:00PM Water Cooler 9/11/2018
Today’s Water Cooler: China trade, EU talks, the left and foreign policy, Raimondo, spook candidates, elections and money, electronic voting, small business optimism, blockchai bezzle, deep fake videos, gender equality, war on cash, meth makes a comeback
If You Read This Book, It’ll Make You a Radical: A Conversation with Thomas Frank
Thomas Frank on what’s the matter with America.
