Author Archives: Yves Smith
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
Read more...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?
Read more...“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.
Read more...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.
Read more...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
Read more...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 […]
Read more...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.
Read more...Should We Try to Prevent Autism?
Advocates for those with austism debate the value of prevention versus better care and support.
Read more...Links 8/27/2024
The President’s “Firing” of Lisa Cook Is Illegal
Georgetown law professor Adam Levitin eviscerates the purported Trump case for removal of Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook.
Read more...The New Currency War: US Stablecoin-China Digital Yuan Rivalry as a Test of Monetary Discipline
How the US stablecoin/digital yuan arms race creates instability risks and undermines monetary sovereignity around the world.
Read more...Jim Chanos on Crypto, AI, Dodgy Statistics, and Casino Capitalism
Chanos looks at a broad range of investment hot topics, from cypto to AI, and sees vastly more speculation than value creation
Read more...Links 8/26/2025
Don’t Look Away: The Revolution Will Not Be Televised But the Genocide Is Being Filmed
A look at some key entries in large and tragically growing body of documentaries on Israel’s ethnic cleansing and genocide in Palestine
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