Part the First: The President Fixes Healthcare. Oh, joy! A very long time ago I told myself that, surely, by the time I was eligible for Medicare the United States would have fixed our healthcare system so that job lock and other assorted problems would have vanished. Silly me. I have been eligible for Medicare […]
Recent Items
Friday, January 16, 2026
Coffee Break: The President Fixes Health Care While Unfixing the Air We Breathe, Among Other Things
Topics: Banana republic, Coffee Break, Environment, Health care, Social values
Posted by KLG at 2:00 pm | 1 Comment »
The Day of the Dollar: Is It Over?
More on the prospects for the dollar. Even under Trump, it remains the cleanest shirt in the laundry bin.
Topics: Banking industry, China, Credit markets, Currencies, Free markets and their discontents, Guest Post, Politics
Posted by Yves Smith at 9:55 am | 7 Comments »
Links 1/16/2026
Topics: Links
Posted by Conor Gallagher at 6:55 am | 80 Comments »
Why Keir Starmer’s Partial “U-Turn” on Mandatory Digital IDs Is Merely a Symbolic Victory
The UK government has no intention of changing course. But can the resistance grow?
Topics: Guest Post
Posted by Nick Corbishley at 6:45 am | 4 Comments »
The Economist Wrecks Its Limited Credibility in Article on Dark Factories That Ignores That China Already Has a Lot of Them
Time to stop reading The Economist. A story that looks like dark factory denialism completely discredits the magazine.
Topics: Auto industry, Media watch, Technology and innovation, The destruction of the middle class
Posted by Yves Smith at 5:55 am | 20 Comments »
Critics Say Trump ‘Joke Healthcare Plan’ Nothing But a ‘Con’ of the American People
Trump’s latest afffordabilty headfake is a sketchy healthcare scheme.
Topics: Guest Post, Health care, Income disparity, Politics, Social policy, The destruction of the middle class
Posted by Yves Smith at 1:34 am | 6 Comments »
A Quick Guide to the Power Restructure in the Middle East
The shifting power architecture of the Middle East explored through two new axes: religious politics and regard for territorial integrity
Topics: Coffee Break, Middle East, Politics
Posted by Curro Jimenez at 2:00 pm | 14 Comments »
Trump’s “Fix Affordability” 10% Credit Card Interest Rate Cap: A Gimmick, Not a Solution (and It Won’t Happen Anyhow)
It has gotten through to Trump that the state of the economy, and particularly consumer suffering from persistently high costs, aka the affordability crisis, can’t be solved by his barker’s patter about how great things are. So he’s roused himself to try to find some quick and easy wins so he can present himself as […]
Topics: Banking industry, Credit cards, Credit markets, Economic fundamentals, Politics, Ridiculously obvious scams
Posted by Yves Smith at 9:55 am | 14 Comments »
Links 1/15/2026
Topics: Links
Posted by Conor Gallagher at 6:55 am | 109 Comments »
The Ever-Shrinking Eldercare Workforce
Another health industry train wreck in the making is the rising difficulty of staffing so-called eldercare needs, particularly dementia care.
Topics: Free markets and their discontents, Guest Post, Health care, Income disparity, Social policy, Social values
Posted by Yves Smith at 6:54 am | 46 Comments »
Climate Engineering Would Alter the Oceans, Reshaping Marine Life – Our New Study Examines Each Method’s Risks
Sadly, climate engineering, aka geo-engineering, is coming. Is it possible to properly assess risks and choose least-hazardous approaches?
Topics: Doomsday scenarios, Dubious statistics, Environment, Global warming, Guest Post, Risk and risk management
Posted by Yves Smith at 2:21 am | 20 Comments »
How Voting Systems Influence Immigration Policy
How America’s liberal immigration regime was a predictable result of how we decide elections.
Topics: Economic fundamentals, Free markets and their discontents, Globalization, Guest Post, Income disparity, Politics, Social policy
Posted by Yves Smith at 1:37 am | 2 Comments »
Coffee Break: Democrats React to Minnesota on ICE
Democrats react to the ICE-engendered crisis in Minnesota with their usual aplomb, savoir-faire, organization, coherence, and discipline. Just kidding.
Topics: Coffee Break
Posted by Nat Wilson Turner at 2:00 pm | 74 Comments »
Move Fast and Break Everything: Crypto and the Democrats
How the Democrats brought crypto back from the dead after the FTX collapse and how weak oversight harms consumers and produces systemic risk.
Topics: Banking industry, Currencies, Free markets and their discontents, Guest Post, Payment system, Politics, Regulations and regulators, Ridiculously obvious scams, Risk and risk management, Technology and innovation, The destruction of the middle class
Posted by Yves Smith at 9:55 am | 31 Comments »
Links 1/14/2026
Topics: Links
Posted by Yves Smith at 6:55 am | 149 Comments »



