Saturday, August 2, 2025

A 1,000-Year Flood in Maryland Shows the Big Problem With So Much Asphalt

Why Ellicott City’s flood didn’t have to be the disaster it was.

McKinsey’s and CalPERS’ Ignorance and Sleight of Hand on Private Equity

McKinesy and CalPERS appear to be kidding themselves at least as much as the general public on the subject of private equity.

A Hard Look at the Mini-BOT, the Parallel Currency Idea of Italy’s New Ruling Coalition

The mini-BOT has only been sketched out at a high level. How might it work and more important, would it succeed as a parallel currency?

2:00PM Water Cooler 6/6/2018

Today’s Water Cooler: Steel, China and Oil, Schultz boomlet, Sanders on the trail, 2018 midterms, Cuomo v Nixon, trade, productivity, leading indicators, single payer, labor and the supply chain

The Political Significance of LSD

LSD is back in vogue. Is that a good thing?

Links 6/6/18

More Brexit Insanity: Corbyn Proposes Dead-on-Arrival, Misbranded “Soft” Brexit; Auto Part Makers to Take Huge Hit; Irish Border Groundhog Daze

Brexit madness is only getting worse….

Italy’s New Prime Minister Conte Says Euro Exit Off the Table, But Mr. Market Pouts About Spending Talk

Italy’s new government makes some opening moves.

Tuscon Meetup 2.0 Report

NC regular Arizona Slim recaps the discussion from last week’s Tucson meetup.

More US and China Jousting Over South China Sea

The US-China conflict over the South China Sea keeps getting hotter.

2:00PM Water Cooler 6/5/2018

Today’s Water Cooler: NAFTA negotiations kaput, China trade, today’s primaries, 2020 trial balloons, Democrats and economics, services, JOLTS, the hellscape that is Tesla’s Fremont plant, evictions, the Mac

Jim Chanos on Fraud: “Cryptocurrency Is a Security Speculation Game Masquerading as a Technological Breakthrough”

The legendary short seller Jim Chanos in a wide-ranging discussion of financial frauds, starting with cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin is the last thing he’d want to own in the event of a catastrophe.

Links 6/5/18

Wall Street Journal: Why Bashing Chinese Steel Dumping Results in Bashing Allies

Why combatting Chinese steel dumping is harder than it seems.

Richard Murphy: Why the Swiss Referendum Proposal of Giving the Central Bank Complete Credit Control is Dangerous Folly

Correcting some misunderstanding about proposed monetary reforms that are the subject of a referendum this weekend.