At this writing three Nobel Prizes of 2026 have been awarded, so this is a good time to think about those who did not win a Nobel Prize but should have. Science has done this in Six biology breakthroughs that should have won a Nobel Prize – but didn’t (archived link). The list of misses […]
Friday, October 9, 2026
The UN at the Breaking Point and What Could Come Next
The UN is a dead man walking, yet BRICS members unrealistically hope for reform. What organizations could be models for moving forward?
US and Israel Are Just One Electoral Victory Away from Achieving Strategic Dominance Over South America and Its Resources
Those resources include the world’s largest deposits of lithium, huge deposits of oil and gas, rare earth minerals, gold and silver, and the world’s largest freshwater reservoir.
Iran War: Trump TACOS Again Or Does He? Saudi Airports Blasted Again
POTUS Trump seems to have TACO’d again, delaying any renewed attacks on Iran until after the US midterm elections while Ansar Allah hit Saudi airports and oil facilities and took most of the key Yemeni highland city of Taiz, and explosions rang out in the Strait of Hormuz.
Worker-Managed Firms Curb Inequality and Promote Competitiveness
Worker-managed firms not only reduce inequality but are in the main very efficient.
Latin America: Elections Are Truly Free When the Results Don’t Matter
U.S. interference and right-wing gains across Latin America have eroded democratic legitimacy, calling into question elections elsewhere.
Material Insecurity and the Foundations of Democratic Participation
Democratic participation requires more than voting rights, including material security, practical knowledge, social belonging, and agency.
Another Epically Bad News Cycle for OpenAI, The Amoral Money Abyss
OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman have put together a string of incredibly no good, terrible, horrible news cycles in recent weeks, and yet investors are pouring tens of billions more into the money pit even as safety researchers exit the company, the US Senate holds hearings, and proposes legislation, the company’s president scales back […]
Iran War: Iran Ups the Ante in the Gulf, Ansar Allah Blasts Saudi Airports, Trump Threats
Iran escalated dramatically in the Persian Gulf, Ansar Allah blasted Saudi airports and took a key city in Yemen, and Trump threatened a major escalation before the midterms in partnership with Israel.
Michael Hudson: The AI Crash Is Coming, And You Will Pay For It
Hudson and Desai discuss the probable AI crash in the context of US tech policy, historical bubbles, and the contrast with China’s approach.
Coffee Break: Meta Makes Its Agentic AI Move With Muse
Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, owners of Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram, have made an aggressive push into the AI market with Muse, an “agentic AI” product that is rapidly racking up downloads, claiming big user numbers and pushing past ChatGPT while it has safety experts warning of serious dangers to users.
Global Imbalances and the China Challenge
A useful discussion of the key China policy measures that have enabled it to achieve and maintain a dominant position in exports.
