Saturday, August 30, 2025

Michael Hudson: How Lenders Sought and Got Power in the Roman Era and Helped Legitimate Later Rentierism

Michael Hudson recaps the long history of limits on lenders’ rights for the benefit of society and how the Roman era was an inflection point

Dead States, Living Borders: Three Historical Cases of ‘State Revival’: Armenia, Vietnam, and Poland

Case studies of Armenia, Vietnam and Poland as countries that re-emerged after conquest. What set them apart?

Coffee Break: CDC and Acceleration of the Doom Loop

Part the First and Only on this Friday Afternoon: One More Revolution of the Accelerating Doom Loop of Science. The following is an update to our previous discussion earlier this week.  As everyone should know by now, the Secretary of Health and Human Services has fired the Director of the Centers for Disease Control, Dr. […]

Links 8/29/2025

Is Washington Trying to Build a “Coalition of the Willing” Against Venezuela?

Second question: does the “supposed” Cartel de los Soles actually exist?

“Forcing Zelensky to Hand Putin Ukraine’s ‘Fortress Belt’ in Donetsk Will Lose It the War”

While some Western pundits are starting to acknowledge Ukraine’s dire condition, large amounts of porcine maquillage are also being applied.

Trump’s Impact on the Financial Sector and Global Dollar System

A wide-ranging review of how unccordinated Trump policies undermine the dollar and the international banking system, and even each other.

Haiti Is Not a Failed Country; It Has Been Broken. Now Erik Prince Wants to Fix It.

Haiti’s “manufactured chaos” is the result of foreign intervention in connivance with the country’s oligarchic elites. Erik Prince’s mercenaries will not fix it; they will only make it worse.

Links 8/28/2025

Satyajit Das: Weakening Bank Regulations Will Make the Next Financial Crisis Worse

Pressured by banks, US and European officials are loosening regulations to prevent another 2008 which will have predictable consequences

Trump’s Intel Move Looks Like Performance, Not Policy

Yves here. It is remarkable how Trump seems to need to have his name in the hot lights, um, the headlines, all the time and is able to do so. Admittedly, liking bold gestures for their own sake, as opposed to whether they make any sense, helps by giving way more degrees of freedom. As […]

Trumpian Tariffs Rerun the Failed Strategy of Import Substitution Industrialization

Trump’s use of broad-based tariffs to promote industrialization have repeatedly failed. There’s no reason to expect different results now.

Coffee Break: The Political Blender Is Throwing Up Some Odd Alliances

In 2025 we are witnessing a political blender: the collapse of old political alliances and the emergence of new coalitions.

Should We Try to Prevent Autism?

Advocates for those with austism debate the value of prevention versus better care and support.

Links 8/27/2024