By Lambert Strether of Corrente. Politics “But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?” –James Madison, Federalist 51 “They had one weapon left and both knew it: treachery.” –Frank Herbert, Dune Here is a second counter for the Iowa Caucus, which is obviously just around the corner: * * […]

By Lambert Strether of Corrente. Trade “The WTO’s trade dispute appeal system could end on Dec. 10. Here’s what you need to know.” [WaPo]. “On Dec. 10, the World Trade Organization appeals tribunal, the Appellate Body, won’t have enough members left to rule on trade disputes between countries. That’s a problem, given ongoing trade wars […]

By Lambert Strether of Corrente. Trade “Falling impeachment support raises pressure for Democrats on trade” [The Hill]. “The drop in support for impeachment in the polls is increasing pressure on Democrats to strike a deal on the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA)…. Polling on impeachment has found that a majority of respondents support the process, but support […]

Hoag’s Object Is a Galaxy Within a Galaxy Within a Galaxy (and Nobody Knows Why) Live Science. Sounds like a CDO. A “Synchronized Downturn” Calls for a “Synchronized Response” Valdai Discussion Club WeWork: Auditor EY didn’t warn about the risks Francine McKenna, The Dig Brexit Boris Johnson refuses to rule out leaving EU on WTO […]

By Lambert Strether of Corrente. Trade “New fronts are opening in the global trade war. France is threatening to strike back if President Trump follows through on a plan to impose tariffs on up to $2.4 billion of French imports… the latest in a series of disputes that show tensions between the U.S. and trading […]

By Lambert Strether of Corrente. Politics “But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?” –James Madison, Federalist 51 “They had one weapon left and both knew it: treachery.” –Frank Herbert, Dune Here is a second counter for the Iowa Caucus, which is obviously just around the corner: * * […]

By Lambert Strether of Corrente. No doubt Los Angeles County’s VSAP (“Voting Solutions for All People”) rollout will not be covered as a debacle. The real question is: If there were a debacle — like, say, a case of election fraud — would we even know? Doubtful. Just what we want in a voting system! […]

By Lambert Strether of Corrente. Patient readers, I am being lazy today because it is the Friday after Thanksgiving. –lambert Politics “But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?” –James Madison, Federalist 51 “They had one weapon left and both knew it: treachery.” –Frank Herbert, Dune Here is a […]

By Mark Kreidler, a journalis and broadcaster. Originally published at KHN. We all know that when the power goes out, refrigerators, heaters and air conditioners stop running. Homes go dark, and desktop computers shut down. But those are mere inconveniences. If you need regular dialysis or chemotherapy at a clinic, or you have an infant […]

E. coli bacteria engineered to eat carbon dioxide Nature. Proof-of-concept. Nevertheless! Could this desert beetle help humans harvest water from thin air? Science EU Parliament declares ‘climate emergency’ Deutsche Welle Is It Imperialist to “Green” the Military? The New Republic (re Silc). US distressed debt flashes warning sign for investors FT Broken Promises and Debt […]

By Lambert Strether of Corrente. Patient readers, I will be taking Thanksgiving Day off for Water Cooler. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday! –lambert Trade “U.S. Presses Case to Defang the Global Economy’s Trade Referee” [Bloomberg]. “The arc of Lighthizer’s rocky relationship with the WTO is hurtling toward a potentially dramatic inflection point. The pressure he […]

By Lambert Strether of Corrente. Politics “But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?” –James Madison, Federalist 51 “They had one weapon left and both knew it: treachery.” –Frank Herbert, Dune Here is a second counter for the Iowa Caucus, which is obviously just around the corner: * * […]

By Lambert Strether of Corrente We at NC have no particular love for Google: They’ve downranked us, because we’re small (i.e., not “authoritative”), but also presumably because our links aggregation features compete with their pathetic and poorly sourced News feature[1]. And Yasha Levine asks a good question: “If the Internet is truly such a revolutionary […]

By Lambert Strether of Corrente. Trade “Killing NAFTA Softly” [Portside]. “But a revised NAFTA had to be approved by the House, which unfortunately for Trump now has a Democratic majority. And the deal that Trump devised was a stinker. It added a couple modestly decent provisions, like wiping out the pro-corporate investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) […]

Lambert here: As in any complex network, tackle the hubs…. Leila Agha, Assistant Professor of Economics, Dartmouth College and Dan Zeltzer, Assistant Professor, Tel Aviv University School of Economics. Originally published at VoxEU. Pharmaceutical companies often market their drugs to highly connected physicians through monetary or in-kind transfers. The column examines how peer influence broadened […]

Answering the question that won me the Ig Nobel prize: Are cats liquid? The Conversation. From 2017, still germane. Coal Power Seen Falling by Record, Helping Emissions Growth Slow Bloomberg IEEFA update: Moody’s adjusts ExxonMobil credit outlook to negative IEEFA Brexit United Kingdom — 2019 general election Politico. The polls. Boris Johnson sets out vision […]

By Lambert Strether of Corrente The augmentation of the complexity and intensity of the field of intelligent life –Ursula Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness Yes, it may be snowing and bitterly cold where you are — or, alternatively, you may be getting that miserable kind of rain that happens slightly above freezing where […]

A growing chorus agrees the expansion of the natural gas industry, which feeds plastics and petrochemical plants like Shell’s, is moving the U.S. in the wrong direction to prevent catastrophic impacts from climate change.

By Lambert Strether of Corrente. Patient readers, stay tuned for Elizabeth Warren. –lambert UPDATE All done. Got a late start, and from that start, finished early. It was a tough week (for reasons unrelated to NC). So I’m clocking out for now! Trade UPDATE “House Dems, Trump administration fail to reach deal on USMCA trade […]

By Lambert Strether of Corrente. Trade “The U.S. portion of the Huawei Technologies Co. supply chain may be reopening. The Trump administration will allow some U.S. suppliers to resume shipping to the Chinese telecom giant easing export restrictions while U.S. negotiators struggle to wrap up the first stage of a trade deal” [Wall Street Journal]. […]

By Lambert Strether of Corrente The debate will begins at 9 p.m. ET, one half hour from now, and it will run for two hours. It’s being held at Tyler Perry Studios, “located in the heart of Atlanta on the historic grounds of the former Fort McPherson army base.” (James B. McPherson was killed in […]

By Lambert Strether of Corrente. Patient readers, more in a bit. I got a late start, and then got wrapped around the axle on the latest impeachment stuff. –lambert UPDATE All done! Hat tip to alert reader Wukchumni for the capsule summary of pilot episode for the new FOX TV Series OK, Boomer, and to […]

By Lambert Strether of Corrente. Trade “Global Shipment Giant Reckons Worst Is Over for Trade, Brexit” [Bloomberg]. “The worst may now be over for global trade as tensions over Brexit and the U.S.-China relationship show signs of easing, according to a key freight industry executive. ‘Brexit naturally slows everyone down in making decisions, but it […]

Traffic nightmare: Bizarre fire, crash close I-5 lanes near Lakewood for nearly 13 hours Seattle Times. The best lead I’m seen in a long time: The morning commute on Interstate 5 near Lakewood was thwarted Monday morning by an unlikely series of events involving shrimp, cheesecake, a burning semitruck, and an SUV that crashed into […]

By Lambert Strether of Corrente. Readers will remember[1] that when Warren released her “pay for” plan, I wrote: There are two big problems with Warren’s “plan” (A) the “head tax,” and (B) dependencies…. (B) Dependencies. Warren, to “pay for” #MedicareForAll, is going to have to ramp up IRS enforcement (remember how popular the mandate was?), […]

By Lambert Strether of Corrente. Patient readers, normally I’d fill in the Politics section a little bit more, but I need to go in to complete a second Water Cooler mini-post, “Warren’s #MedicareForAll Transition Plan Is Set Up to Fail” in what I hope will be an hour or so. –lambert UPDATE All done. Trade […]

By Lambert Strether of Corrente. Patient readers, I’ll have more in a bit. I overslept! –lambert UPDATE All done! Trade “China Lifts Ban on U.S. Poultry Even as Farm Buys Bog Down Talks” [AgWeb]. “China lifted its four-year-old ban on U.S. poultry shipments, a small sign of trade-deal progress at a time when agriculture purchases […]

Cows swept off island during Hurricane Dorian found after swimming for miles Guardian A Million Geysers of Plasma Spout from the Sun, and Scientists May Finally Know Why Space.com Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales launches Twitter and Facebook rival FT How Amazon’s quest for more, cheaper products has resulted in a flea market of fakes WaPo. […]

By Lambert Strether of Corrente. Trade “Trade talks between the U.S. and China are hitting a snag over farm purchases. The dispute over agricultural products hits at a sector that has been central to the trans-Pacific trade war. …[I]t’s now created another obstacle as Beijing and Washington try to lock down the limited trade deal […]

Shelter cat put in solitary confinement for ‘repeatedly’ letting other cats out The Mirror. Good kitty! His 22-pound cat was too fat to fly. So he called in an understudy. Seattle Times Federal inquiry opened into Google health data deal The Hill Next in Google’s Quest for Consumer Dominance: Banking WSJ. Clive comments: As usual, […]

By Lambert Strether of Corrente. Patient reader, impeachment has eaten the world, so I’ll be adding a bit more on the candidates in a bit. Thanks to readers who are describing what’s happening on the ground in their own states.–lambert UPDATE All done! Trade “Retailers say they are moving furniture sourcing from China to non-tariffed […]

By Lambert Strether of Corrente. Readers, thank you very much for your comments yesterday, many very funny, when, on Veterans Day, I mistakenly posted a Water Cooler template instead of an actual Water Cooler. I had thought I pushed not only the title, but the scheduled posting date, up one day. Oopsie! –lambert Trade “A […]

By Lambert Strether of Corrente There certainly are rather a lot of political engaged Democrat billionaire wannabe Presidents: Starbucks’ Howard Schultz (memorably, a “person of means“) who flirted with running, Tom Steyer (of the oddly poor personnel choices), who actually is, and now Mike “Mayor for Life” Bloomberg. From Town and Country: Back in March […]

By Lambert Strether of Corrente. Readers, since I have published this post — as you can see from the URL, I didn’t intend to — here is something I do when I post on Veteran’s Day: An etching from Goya’s Los desastres de la guerra. Modo de volar (Way to fly), 1816–1823 * * * […]

Invasive grasses increase fire occurrence and frequency across US ecoregions PNAS How Tech From Australia Could Prevent California Wildfires and PG&E Blackouts IEEE Spectrum This is not normal: what’s different about the NSW mega fires Sydney Morning Herald How Scientists Got Climate Change So Wrong NYT. “Few thought it would arrive so quickly.” Exploring East […]

Lambert: I like the approach of calculating value-add from tear-downs. Nothing on software, though. By Yuqing Xing, Professor of Economics at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, Tokyo. Originally published at VoxEU. In order to pursue ‘fair trade’, the Trump administration has imposed a punitive 25% tariff on $250 billion’s worth of Chinese goods. […]

By Lambert Strether of Corrente As readers know, I’m a strong advocate of hand-marked paper ballots (HMPB), hand-counted in public (HMPB-CP), and we’ve periodically written on this topic at NC; see HMPB-CP in Quebec (2012), paper ballots in India (2016), a review of the literaure (2018), Virginia’s return to paper ballots (2017), “ballot marking devices” […]

Drunk Birds Displaying Strange Behaviour In Reykjavik The Reykjavik Grapevine Bad dog? Think twice before yelling, experts say Science Fed can no longer ignore the economic ‘shocks’ of climate change, Brainard says MarketWatch (Re Silc). The Rise of Nationalism After the Fall of the Berlin Wall George Soros, Project Syndicate Brexit Brexit: The long hard […]

By Dan Zegart, a freelance investigative journalist who writes frequently on legal subjects for Climate Investigations Center. Originally published at DeSmogBlog. Last week, in a historic first, the former CEO of a major oil company took the witness stand in a New York City courtroom and spent four hours defending his company against charges that […]

By Lambert Strether of Corrente. Patient readers, with both Bloomberg and impeachment, I’m a little overloaded, so I’ll have a bit more quite shortly. –lambert UPDATE All done! Trade “Shutterstock Employees Fight Company’s New Chinese Search Blacklist” [The Intercept]. “The publicly traded company built a $639 million-per-year business on the strength of its vast — […]

By Lambert Strether of Corrente. Trade “China says it has agreed with U.S. to cancel tariffs in phases” [CBC]. “China and the United States have agreed to cancel in phases the tariffs imposed during their months-long trade war, the Chinese Commerce Ministry said Thursday without specifying a timetable. An interim U.S.-China trade deal is widely […]

By Lambert Strether of Corrente. Patient readers, so much happened in Politics over the weekend and then Tuesday that I have to do a bit of a pantry clearout (and since I think by writing, I have to do this. More coming. –lambert Trade “Farmers are really milking China’s growing appetite for dairy. A surprising […]

Measles Wipes Your Immune System’s ‘Memory,’ So It Can’t Fight Other Infections LiveScience The World Has Gone Mad and the System Is Broken Ray Dalio, LinkedIn Dregs of financial crisis today’s jewels: Pimco Reuters There is one way forward on climate change Martin Wolf, FT Who Will Save the Paris Agreement? Foreign Policy Wall Street […]

By Lambert Strether of Corrente. Trade “China’s design for the electric-vehicle battery supply chain is anything but complicated. Beijing has been pressuring foreign auto makers to use locally-made batteries in the country, and that business is increasingly funneled through a single manufacturer, Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd., or CATL. …[T]he aggressive effort is aimed at dominating […]

The 1-ton ‘Wizard Rock’ has magically returned to an Arizona national forest CNN The Universe Might Be a Giant Loop Live Science (Nature). Which explains our news cycle. State Pirates in the Dock The Editorial Board, Wall Street Journal. This story was broken by The Blog That Must Not Be Named™ in 2017. U.S. moves […]

By Lambert Strether of Corrente. Patient readers, forgive me for being slightly late; the mini-essay straightening out TAP on Warren’s plan took a little more time than I expected, and then I had a technical glitch. I always accumulate too many bright shiny objects of the weekend, and I’ll include more of them soon. –lambert […]

By Lambert Strether of CorrenteThis morning, Elizabeth Warren, after pressure from the press and some candidates in the last Presidential debate, released her “plan” to pay for #MedicareForAll. KHN’s Morning Briefing (“Warren’s $52T Plan To Pay For ‘Medicare For All’ Leans Heavily On Employer Taxes, Avoids Increase For Middle Class“) covers the explosion of coverage, […]

By Lambert Strether of Corrente. Warren has released her #MedicareForAll plan. I’ll have a post up shortly. –lambert Politics “But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?” –James Madison, Federalist 51 “They had one weapon left and both knew it: treachery.” –Frank Herbert, Dune * * * 2020 Alert […]