~ Today’s Water Cooler: Politics, syndemics; Trump on the road in North Carolina and California.Hegseth advances to floor vote; Smile Nazis in action; Snow in the South ~
Friday, January 24, 2025
How Much Will Trump’s Bark Exceed His Bite? Doubts About Whether Disruptive Federal Hiring and Spending Pauses Will Produce Lasting Changes
Trump is adept at using his willingness to be wildly inconsistent to destabilize opponents. But he is unduly fond of using blunt instruments like tariffs that he can impose unilaterally, with insufficient consideration of whether they will work all that well, let alone what bad unintended effects they might generate. What Trump has done so […]
At Davos, Spanish PM Pedro Sánchez Just Said the Quiet Part Out Loud on Online Anonymity and Digital Identity
“In our countries, no one can walk the streets with a mask on their face,” and “yet we allow people to roam freely on the Internet without linking their profiles to a real identity.”
The Curse of the Household Analogy
It can’t be said too often: national government spending is not like household spending, and acting as if it is is damaging.
Building a Movement for Social Justice in the Time of Trump
Unlike many who are upset about Trump’s win, Liz Theoharis and William Hartung focus building a broad-based opposition with policy goals
2:00PM Water Cooler 1/23/2025
~ Today’s Water Cooler: Politics, Syndemics; Trump wants nuclear reduction talks with China, Russia; Trump readies Schedule F assault; Energy in the executive; George R.R. Martin back in print ~
More Kentucky Dirty Dealings: Attorney General Schemes to Leave Hundreds of Millions in Pension Recovery on the Table, Give Sweetheart Payout to Attorneys, To Settle Claims Against Private Equity Kingpins KKR and Blackstone, Including Ones by Plaintiffs the AG Does Not Represent
A new legal low: the Kentucky Attorney General wants to gift the pension fund’s money to KKR and Blackstone to settle claims against them.
Rob Urie: On Being Censored for the Last Four Years
Rob Urie provides damning details about the extent and nature of the censorship he has suffered. Please read and circulate widely.
Introduction: ‘To Govern The Globe’
Tom Neuburger presents Alfred McCoy’s book, To Govern the Globe, and his concept of world orders.
How ‘Dupes’, Fast Fashion and China’s Economic Slowdown Spell Disaster for the Luxury Sector
The luxury goods market is in bad shape, an indicator of how the moderately well off and “aspirational” shoppers are under income stress.
2:00PM Water Cooler 1/22/2025
Today’s Water Cooler: Politics, Syndemics; Trump’s executive orders; Trump and AI; Oh, Elon; The Inaugural: Melania’s hat; the seating chart ~
How Far Will Trump Get With Shock and Awe?
Some of Trump’s first day initiatives will run into a buzz saw of legal opposition, but others on the economic warfare front seem to pack a punch.
