Today’s Water Cooler: Open thread.
Sunday, July 20, 2025
Second Circuit Narrows Reach of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
Second Circuit last week narrowed the reach of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, but will not redirect the DoJ to focus on enforcement of more significant violations that occur closer to home.
Fear and Loathing — Mostly Loathing — with Chris Hedges at the Harvard Club
A conversation with Chris Hedges about his apocalyptic new book America: The Farewell Tour (Simon & Schuster, August 2018).
Trans Mountain Pipeline a Serious Misstep for Trudeau
Inept political maneuvering by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has turned what was a longstanding controversy in Canada over Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline project into a complete and utter quagmire.
Why We Should Worry About Monopsony
Why the Fed is, rather late in the game, concerned about monopsony power.
Reminder for Portland (Maine) Meetup This Thursday with Lambert and Yves
Announcing location of Portland meetup.
UN to Launch Talks on Treaty to Regulate High Seas
Talks kick off in New York on Tuesday to negotiate a UN treaty on the high seas by 2020; this would extend the existing law of the sea framework beyond each nation’s territorial waters.
Don Quijones: No Other Banks Are This Exposed to Turkey, Argentina, Brazil…. Emerging Markets Haunt Spanish Banks
To diversify from the euro-debt-crisis, the biggest Spanish banks pushed deeply into Emerging Markets. Now, they’re in a new crisis.
India: Demonetization Debacle
RBI annual report reaffirms demonetization had little impact on ferreting out black money; BJP majority blocks release of scathing parliamentary standing committee on finance report on the policy’s failure.
If Vanuatu Can Ban Single-Use Plastics, So Can the Other Commonwealth Countries
Vanautu is in the vanguard of commonwealth states moving to ban single-use plastic items, which are choking marine life, slowly poisoning fish (and those who eat them), and negatively affecting tourism.
The Mills of Providence Were Ground Up Slowly
Life along Woonsquatucket, and what “a screw loose” really means.
