Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

A “Summer Rerun – The Victory of Privilege”

Yves Smith is back at Naked Capitalism, having been out for medical reasons. Angry Bear and I wish her well in recouping and rehabbing. An Introduction; At Naked Capitalism, Yves posted a commentary from September 2018 on the topic of “Privilege.” Intertwined with her experience as a child growing up in factory-dominated towns to what […]

Mike Kimel vs. Yves Smith

I and many others, including Yves Smith, waded into the thicket of Mike Kimel’s provocative generic and specific-reasons-for-the-generic claims in his post here earlier this week titled “Negative Effects of Immigration on the Economy.”  I and others, including academic economist Barkley Rosser, commented in replies in the Comments thread to Mike’s post.  Yves did so on […]

The Bizarre and Manipulative Crusade by Centrist NYT Columnists to Persuade Clinton to Adopt the Republican Fiscal and Regulatory Agenda – [with update]

All the experts tell us not to pay too much attention to polls for another week or two. Still, it does look as if Hillary Clinton got a big bounce from her convention, swamping her opponent’s bounce a week earlier. Better still, from the Democrats’ point of view, the swing in the polls appears to […]

What Bernie Sanders is doing to help Hillary Clinton [UPDATED]

One charge against Sanders by the likes of Paul Krugman that I just could not abide—there were others, but this post is about this one—was that while Clinton was actively soliciting campaign funds for the Democratic Party to use for down-ballot candidates, Sanders was not.  In a post here about that a couple of weeks […]

Blackie, in Wantagh, NY [Sweet dog still needs a home. 8/23]

I see so many listings about older dogs whose owner can no longer care for him or her, usually because of finances. I just received this sweet, touching email notice,* from Hempstead Animal Shelter in Wantaugh, NY (Nassau County), via RescueMe.org, and thought I’d pass it along. *Corrected link, thanks to Noni Mausa.  A note has […]

I keep wondering: Is anyone under the age of 40 ‘Ready for Hillary’?

Yves Smith linked this morning on her Naked Capital blog to my post from yesterday called “The Secretive Democracy Alliance’s Secret Is Out: Some of its members are elitist, racist and self-serving,” and added a comment about it: Helpful, but does not follow the logic to the obvious conclusion. Why is the Dem apparatus harping […]

Yves Smith will be on Harry Shearer’s Le Show today (Sunday)

Yves Smith will be on Harry Shearer’s Le Show today (Sunday), originating at 1 pm ET live on many public radio stations, and aired on many others throughout the day. Good streams are available all day, each hour, at publicradiofan.com. The topic is the Independent Foreclosure Review fiasco. (check local listings here…)

Innovation and production

 Yves Smith points to a MIT study on how much bigger the conversation should be than the political arguments of offshoring and outsourcing suggest.  And the complexities of applying ‘just in time’ sorts of global production systems through a complicated supply chain. From that post is this excerpt: And a new report by MIT on innovation […]

New Ruling on Mortgage Putbacks a Potential Huge Win for Banks

Yves Smith discusses New Ruling on Mortgage Putbacks a Potential Huge Win for Banks Even though, for most people, the housing crisis is a thing of the past, the fight over who should bear the cost of sloppy and openly fraudulent mortgage origination and securities sales continues to grind through the courts. We’ve written now […]