Recent Items
Saturday, August 22, 2026
Links 8/22/2026
Topics: Links
Posted by Yves Smith at 6:59 am | 99 Comments »
Michael Hudson and Steve Keen: The Federal Reserve, the Constitution, and the End of US Hegemony
Steve Keen and Michael Hudson discuss empire, finance, and the coming crises.
Topics: Currencies, Doomsday scenarios, Economic fundamentals, Federal Reserve, Free markets and their discontents, Globalization, Guest Post, Macroeconomic policy, The destruction of the middle class, The dismal science
Posted by Yves Smith at 6:20 am | 32 Comments »
How Living in a ‘Digital First’ World Has Made Our Lives Smaller
We are stuck in digital bureaucracies— more effective than real life ones at runarounds, time-wasting, and conditioning for resignation
Topics: Guest Post, Ridiculously obvious scams, Social policy, Social values, Surveillance state, Technology and innovation
Posted by Yves Smith at 6:17 am | 21 Comments »
Coffee Break: Notes on the Surveillance State, AI, and Scientific Communication
Part the First: Is There No Place to Hide, or Just Be Yourself? Caitlin Johnstone points out once again that while we have been snoozing happily in a virtual haze, we are being followed by the latest incarnation of Big Brother to come along. From Today in Dystopia: We Have Cameras Everywhere in that Town: […]
Topics: Coffee Break, Doomsday scenarios, Health care, Politics, Science and the scientific method, Social policy, Social values, Surveillance state
Posted by KLG at 2:00 pm | 16 Comments »
‘Utterly Unsustainable’: Employer-Sponsored Health Care Costs Set to Keep Surging
Health care costs are out of control. Medicare for All would help but is not a sufficient remedy.
Topics: Free markets and their discontents, Guest Post, Health care, Politics, Regulations and regulators, Ridiculously obvious scams
Posted by Yves Smith at 9:56 am | 34 Comments »
Links 8/21/2026
Topics: Links
Posted by Conor Gallagher at 6:55 am | 78 Comments »
The EU Commission’s Secret Plan to Share EU Citizens’ Most Sensitive Data With Israel
For three years the Von der Leyen Commission has been secretly negotiating to hand over its citizens’ data to a state committing a genocide.
Topics: Guest Post
Posted by Nick Corbishley at 6:45 am | 8 Comments »
Iran War: Bessent Effectively Admits New Ferocious Iran Sanctions Likely to Fizzle as Treasury Intervention Fails; More Evidence of US Military Impotence; Ansar Allah Makes Drone Strikes Into Saudi Arabia
Today’s Iran war news: As Bessent and Trump flail about, a discussion of what the coming crisis might look like.
Topics: Banking industry, Credit markets, Currencies, Derivatives, Doomsday scenarios, Economic fundamentals, Energy markets, Hedge funds, Media watch, Middle East, Politics, Private equity, Technology and innovation
Posted by Yves Smith at 6:00 am | 80 Comments »
Why Working‑Class People Account for Around 1% of Lawmakers in the US – and Only 2% in the Average Democracy Around the World
Working-class members are less well represented in politics than most imagine.
Topics: Guest Post, Income disparity, Politics
Posted by Yves Smith at 2:07 am | 33 Comments »
An ‘Islamic NATO’ Without Iran Is Symbolic: That’s Its Purpose and Its Problem
The U.S. and Israel achieved what Iranian propaganda never could: they legitimized Iran in the eyes of many Sunni Muslims
Topics: Middle East
Posted by Curro Jimenez at 2:00 pm | 4 Comments »
Pro-Israel Pressure Group Honest Reporting Received Grant from Knight Foundation
DropSite News exposes how the too-cutely-named Israel front Honest Reporting managed to secure funds from the Knight Foundation
Topics: Guest Post, Media watch, Middle East, Politics
Posted by Yves Smith at 9:55 am | 9 Comments »
Links 8/20/2026
Topics: Links
Posted by Conor Gallagher at 6:55 am | 104 Comments »
Iran War: Further Admission of Weakness With New Super Duper Trump Sanctions Threat; Israel Moves Against Turkiye Risk Broader Conflagration; Bessent at Odds with Fed in Move to Contain Longer-Dated Treasury Yields
Today’s Iran war news: More proof of Trump impotence via sanctions huffing and puffing, plus Bessent weirdly going to war with the Fed.
Topics: Doomsday scenarios, Economic fundamentals, Energy markets, Federal Reserve, Investment outlook, Japan, Macroeconomic policy, Media watch, Middle East, Politics
Posted by Yves Smith at 6:54 am | 72 Comments »
Michael Hudson: U.S. War Against Russia Has Blocked Black Sea Grain Transport as Well as the Persian Gulf Oil Trade
Russia’s blockade of Odessa, which will have a global impact on grain supplies, is not getting the attention it warrants.
Topics: Agriculture, Currencies, Doomsday scenarios, Economic fundamentals, Europe, Guest Post, Media watch, Politics, Russia
Posted by Yves Smith at 3:00 am | 16 Comments »
Personal Bankruptcy Filings Are Soaring in 2026, Signaling Growing Economic Distress
As bankruptcy rates rise, a primer on the process and some strategies that might hold the creditor wolves at bay.
Topics: Banking industry, Credit cards, Credit markets, Economic fundamentals, Guest Post, Legal, Student loans, The destruction of the middle class
Posted by Yves Smith at 2:00 am | 2 Comments »



