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
Recent Items
Saturday, August 30, 2025
Michael Hudson: How Lenders Sought and Got Power in the Roman Era and Helped Legitimate Later Rentierism
Topics: Banking industry, Credit markets, Economic fundamentals, Guest Post, Income disparity, Politics, Social policy
Posted by Yves Smith at 4:38 am | No Comments »
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?
Topics: Guest Post, Politics, Social policy, Social values
Posted by Yves Smith at 2:35 am | 3 Comments »
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. […]
Topics: Coffee Break, Garrulous insolence, Health care, Pandemic, Science and the scientific method, Social policy, Social values
Posted by KLG at 2:00 pm | 19 Comments »
Links 8/29/2025
Topics: Links
Posted by Conor Gallagher at 6:55 am | 117 Comments »
Is Washington Trying to Build a “Coalition of the Willing” Against Venezuela?
Second question: does the “supposed” Cartel de los Soles actually exist?
Topics: Guest Post
Posted by Nick Corbishley at 6:45 am | 22 Comments »
“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.
Topics: Doomsday scenarios, Europe, Media watch, Politics, Russia
Posted by Yves Smith at 3:27 am | 81 Comments »
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.
Topics: Banking industry, Credit markets, Currencies, Doomsday scenarios, Economic fundamentals, Federal Reserve, Free markets and their discontents, Guest Post, Payment system, Politics, Regulations and regulators, Risk and risk management, Technology and innovation
Posted by Yves Smith at 1:13 am | 13 Comments »
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.
Topics: Coffee Break, Privatization, Social policy
Posted by Curro Jimenez at 2:00 pm | 13 Comments »
Links 8/28/2025
Topics: Links
Posted by Conor Gallagher at 6:55 am | 180 Comments »
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
Topics: Banking industry, Free markets and their discontents, Guest Post, Politics, Regulations and regulators, Risk and risk management
Posted by Yves Smith at 5:00 am | 2 Comments »
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 […]
Topics: Economic fundamentals, Free markets and their discontents, Globalization, Guest Post, Legal, Politics, Technology and innovation
Posted by Yves Smith at 4:37 am | 19 Comments »
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.
Topics: Economic fundamentals, Globalization, Guest Post, Politics, Taxes
Posted by Yves Smith at 3:25 am | 23 Comments »
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.
Topics: Coffee Break
Posted by Nat Wilson Turner at 2:00 pm | 88 Comments »
Should We Try to Prevent Autism?
Advocates for those with austism debate the value of prevention versus better care and support.
Topics: Guest Post, Health care, Politics, Science and the scientific method
Posted by Yves Smith at 9:55 am | 19 Comments »
Links 8/27/2024
Topics: Links
Posted by Yves Smith at 6:55 am | 204 Comments »