People Don’t Understand How Unfree We Already Are
People Don’t Understand How Unfree We Already Are Listen to a reading of this article: ❖ The biggest and most widespread blind spot among those who oppose totalitarian control by the powerful is the assumption that it has not already been achieved. We’ve been so busy watching out for the next overtly totalitarian dictatorship that […]
Global gas wars: the fun has just begun!
Global gas wars: the fun has just begun! Spot price for natural gas in Europe has just breached the psychologically important level of $1000 per thousand cubic meters, or a buck a cube. This has already had some significant results all across Europe. In the UK, fertilizer plants can’t operate at such prices and have shut […]
Biden Acting Like a Tyrant?
Biden Acting Like a Tyrant? The Roman emperor who marked the complete fall of the Roman Empire in the 3rd century, 260 AD, was Valerian (253-260 AD). In 259 AD, Valerian moved on to Edessa to challenge the Persians, but an outbreak of plague killed a significant portion of his legionaries, which weakened the Roman […]
More Than Half Of China’s Provinces Are Now ‘Rationing’ Electricity, Governors Demand More Coal Imports To Resolve Crisis
More Than Half Of China’s Provinces Are Now ‘Rationing’ Electricity, Governors Demand More Coal Imports To Resolve Crisis At least 20 Chinese provinces and regions making up more than 66% of the country’s GDP have announced some form of power cuts. Guangdong province, the southern industrial hub, is cutting ~10% of its peak power demand… […]
The Threat Board is Looking Busy
The Threat Board is Looking Busy Markets are never as bad as you fear, but never as good as you hope. The Threat Board has seldom looked so complex: we can try to predict outcomes, but its notoriously difficult. The list of potential ignition points seems to be expanding exponentially: Energy Prices, Oil, Inflation, Stagflation, […]
The Global North isn’t ready for climate breakdown
The Global North isn’t ready for climate breakdown European responses to extreme weather demonstrate post-industrial nations have much to learn from people in the Global South, writes Aranyo Aarjan Flooding in Tilff, Belgium, July 2021 (Photo: Regine Fabri; licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0) When I was growing up in Kolkata, every monsoon the streets would […]
What if there were no truck drivers?
What if there were no truck drivers?
If the Fed Can’t Hit It’s Inflation Target, Why Not Just Move the Goalposts?
If the Fed Can’t Hit It’s Inflation Target, Why Not Just Move the Goalposts? The Fed has an inflation problem. The CPI is running well above the mythical 2% target and there isn’t any sign that it will ease soon. To deal with this problem, the central bank should tighten its monetary policy. But that would create […]
The fight over food at the UN’s Food Summit
The fight over food at the UN’s Food Summit Food Summit image via the International Science Council The UN’s Food Systems Summit was held last week in New York. This sounds like it ought to be a good thing, given the sense of impending crisis around the food sector. But a lot of people aren’t happy about […]
Millions of Britons Could Face ‘National Shortage’ of Turkeys This Christmas
Brian Taplin feeds the free-range Norfolk Black organic turkeys on Laverstoke Park Farm, on their final day before being killed for the Christmas Day table, in Overton, England, on Dec. 12 2006. (Matt Cardy/Getty Images) UK Millions of Britons Could Face ‘National Shortage’ of Turkeys This Christmas Trees and toys also at risk, suppliers say […]
“Save the planet, (learn how to) plant a tree”
“Save the planet, (learn how to) plant a tree” I like catchy memes as much as the next person. They’re easily memorized and passed on. But “Save the planet, plant a tree” has always bugged me for two reasons. First, and probably most importantly, this simplistic mantra absolves people of doing MORE to improve our […]
Senior Fed Economist Slams Economics As “Arrant Nonsense”, Hints It Perpetuates “Criminally Oppressive, Unjust Social Order”
Senior Fed Economist Slams Economics As “Arrant Nonsense”, Hints It Perpetuates “Criminally Oppressive, Unjust Social Order” For some “inexplicable” reason central bankers usually wait until after they part ways with their employer before they tell the world all the dirt on their former employer (not that the world seems to care much or, for the […]
The Biggest Federal Reserve Scandal
The Biggest Federal Reserve Scandal Following revelations that Federal Reserve officials made trades in financial assets while the Fed was taking extraordinary efforts to “stimulate” the economy, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell ordered a review of the Fed’s ethics rules. While these trades appear problematic, they pale in comparison to the biggest Fed scandal — […]
