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Friday, 31 March

$2,071 Weve Got You in Our Sights

Were nearing a very important milestone in the rate hike cycle, and that is the end of it.

The Federal Reserve didnt see it coming and had to slam the brakes hard, but it locked the tires and started to spiral out of control, so it may have saved the economy from hyperinflation, but the price was a massive loss of equity thats twice as large as the collapse of 2008, and many think theres more to come.

Jeremy Grantham, one of the greatest money managers ever who also happens to be very seasoned as he approaches the age of 90, has warned that this was a super bubble, an Everything Bubble, and that it will collapse spectacularly.

This was about two years ago, and he was right, but he believes that theres much more coming.

Today, the S&P 500 trades at about 4,000 points, and Grantham thinks that it will go all the way down to 3,000 (33% crash) in a good scenario or 2,000 points if the recession isnt managed properly.

The S&P 500 didnt fall to 2,000 points even at the depths of the COVID panic of March 2020, so I must say that I cant buy into this analysis just yet.

Is it plausible? Sure, but what will cause such value destruction?

If the S&P 500 goes back to 2,000 points, it will give appreciation all the way back to the year 2014.
What do you think?

...

02:01

How will AI change *other* policy debates? Marginal Revolution

Not debates about AI, no the other ones. For one thing, more ideas and more intelligence will mean more projects. That raises the value of permitting reform, and raises the value of YIMBY. But perhaps the most surprising conclusion comes on the immigration issue, with apologies to Garett Jones:

Which policy issue might decrease in importance? My prediction is immigration. GPT-4 is already passing a wide swath of professional tests, ranging from bar exams to medical qualifiers to economics exams. The service still requires more integration with other software tools, but in the not-too-distant future, the US will have added the equivalent of many millions of intelligent minds (albeit not bodies) to its labor force.

I have long favored boosting Americas immigration flow by about three times, to give the US an intake roughly on a per-capita par with Canada and Australia. This is still a good idea, but it should be done in a different way. Rather than more high-skilled immigration, the new priority might be more lower-wage migrants. The US might want a bar-belled immigration policy, which gives priority to AI researchers and engineers on the high-wage end, and workers such as construction laborers on the low-wage end.

The AI researchers, by creating more and better AI, would serve as a substitute for many other potential high-skilled immigrants. But all those new ideas will need people to turn them into actual projects in the physical world. In contrast, importing additional humanities professors from Europe no longer seems so vital when you can ask the AI instead.

Here is my full Bloomberg column.

The post How will AI change *other* policy debates? appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.

...

01:58

Good Infrastructure?!? The Big Picture

Yesterday I discussed all the reasons why the return to office was not going so well here in the US (even as RTO does much better in Europe). I spent a lot of time criticizing the sorry state of U.S. infrastructure as one of the many factors driving the reluctance to give up WFH.

It doesnt have to be this way.

Back in 2018, I mentioned my personal infrastructure was improving. Rather than just focus on the negative, lets discuss the positives that have shown up recently in the state of transportation and public facilities over the past 5 years:

LaGuardia Airport: It may surprise you to learn that Americas worst airport is now its best.1 It took a massive rethink of La Guardia an aging, dingy local airport on a narrow strip of land between Sheepshead Bay and the Grand Central Parkway without enough room for planes to maneuver and drivers to pick up and drop off passengers. The result is a wild success. Sure, its expensive, but thats what happens when you allow problems to fester. Its not even finished yet, and people have been raving about the improvements, all of which have taken place while the airport continued to operate. Best quote about from a new arrival: I think we came to the wrong airport.

LIRR Grand Central Station: Its been in the works for decades and I dont want to think about the cost overruns, but now that its open its a game changer for Long Island commuters. Its big, beautiful, well-lit, well-signed, and is going to change the...

00:49

The Swinger Lifestyle: Debunking Taboos and Misconceptions The Event Chronicle

The swinger lifestyle is a topic that has always been shrouded in secrecy and taboo. However, in recent years, there has been an increasing openness and acceptance of the idea of swinging. Despite this, there are still many misconceptions and taboos surrounding the lifestyle. In this article, we will explore and debunk some of these myths.

The swinger life is a term used to describe consensual non-monogamous relationships, where couples or individuals engage in sexual activities with others outside their primary relationship. This could include attending parties, socializing with other couples, or engaging in sexual activities with others.

Understanding the Taboos and Misconceptions

Despite the increasing acceptance of the swinger lifestyle, there are still many misconceptions and taboos surrounding it. These misconceptions often lead to negative judgments and stigma around those who practice swinging.

Myth #1: Swingers are Promiscuous and Sex-Crazed

However, this is far from the truth. Swingers are individuals or couples who have decided to engage in consensually non-monogamous relationships. They are not more promiscuous than individuals in monogamous relationships, and they do not engage in sexual activities more often than monogamous couples.

Myth #2: Swinging is Only for Married Couples

Swinging is not exclusive to married couples. It is open to all consenting adults who are interested in exploring their sexuality and engaging in consensual non-monogamous relationships.

Myth #3: Swinging is a Sign of Relationship Problems

Another common misconception about swinging is that it is a sign of relationship problems. This is far from the truth. In fact, swinging can be beneficial for relationships. It can help couples to communicate better, build trust, and explore their sexuality in a safe and consensual way.

Myth #4: Swinging is Unsafe and Unhealthy

Swingers...

00:04

Navigating Employment Disputes: The Benefits of Settlement Agreements The Event Chronicle

Employment disputes can be a major headache for both employers and employees. Whether its a disagreement over pay, working conditions, or termination of employment, disputes can be costly, time-consuming, and stressful. One solution that is often overlooked is the use of settlement agreements. In this article, well explore their benefits and how they can help resolve employment disputes in a timely and cost-effective manner.

What is a Settlement Agreement?

A settlement agreement is a legal contract between an employer and an employee that settles a dispute or potential claim. They are often used in employment disputes, and they can cover a wide range of issues, including:

Unfair dismissal

2. Discrimination

3. Harassment

4. Redundancy

5. Breach of contract

6. Outstanding wages or bonuses

7. Disputes over non-compete clauses or intellectual property rights

The terms will vary depending on the nature of the dispute and the parties involved. However, most settlement agreements will include a financial settlement, a confidentiality clause, and a waiver of any potential claims.

Benefits of Settlement Agreements

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Thursday, 30 March

23:55

Crises of Uncertainty Project Syndicate

22:58

The Future Of Test Automation: Trends To Watch Out For In 2023 The Event Chronicle

Test automation has been an integral component of software development in recent years. As technology improves, software applications become more sophisticated, and manual testing is no longer sufficient to ensure software quality. Test automation services guarantee software reliability, efficiency, and performance as planned.

Teams working on software constantly seek new methods to enhance their testing processes in todays fast-paced technological ecosystem. Integration of artificial intelligence and machine learning, shift-left testing, automation in Agile and DevOps contexts, cloud-based automated testing, and test automation are all current developments in test automation.

A test automation company plays the role of a main character in Agile and DevOps contexts because aggregates and releases are enabled through test automation, minimizing downtime between software creation and deployment. This allows teams to spot problems more rapidly and effectively, leading to quicker resolution and higher unit testing.

Integration Of Machine Learning And Ai In Test Automation

Combining machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) has changed the game in test automation. It has transformed the way testers evaluate...

22:31

Does America Have a Future? PaulCraigRoberts.org

Does America Have a Future?

Paul Craig Roberts

In this article I explain why I think nuclear war is in the cards. I know that most do not want to hear this. But if no one knows, there is even less chance of preventing it.

The headline yesterday (March 29) is US To Withhold Nuclear Weapons Data From Russia As Last Treaty Collapses. https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/us-withhold-nuclear-weapons-data-russia-last-treaty-collapses

Washingtons propagandists, of course, blame Russia. This succeeds with patriots who wrap themselves in the flag, but it doesnt succeed with the Kremlin. The Kremlin sees Washington taking another step toward war to obliterate the Russian obstacle to Washingtons world hegemony.

Looking at Russias puzzling conduct of its conflict with Ukraine, and now with NATO and the US, I have been seeking an explanation that makes sense. Why, as readers know I have been asking, does the Kremlin refuse to use the force to quickly end the conflict before Washington and its NATO puppets become too involved to let go? It made no sense until I realized that the Kremlin has been convinced by Washingtons neoconservatives that war with the US is inevitable, which, of course, means nuclear war.

The Kremlin is likely concerned that if Russia uses the conventional force at her disposal to knock out Ukraine, the result could be a US/NATO direct intervention prior to Russia having in place larger numbers of its hypersonic nuclear missiles and its S-500 and S-550 air defense systems which have the ability to intercept and destroy Washingtons nuclear missiles. Unlike Russias hypersonic missiles that randomly change course and cannot be intercepted, Washingtons technically inferior missiles can be downed.

My conclusion is that the Kremlin, convinced by Washingtons neoconservatives and their domination of every US government in the 21st century that the US intends the destruction of Russia, is preparing for nuclear war. Several times Putin has made the public statement that it is clear that the West intends Russias destruction. It is incomprehensible that Washington is so reckless, so irresponsible, so utterly stupid as to have convinced the Kremlin that Washington intends Russias destruction. It is extraordinary that Putins statements produced no reassura...

22:26

Destructive Decoupling Project Syndicate

22:25

The Government Conspiracy Against Crypto Marginal Revolution

A sharply worded whitepaper from law firm Cooper and Kirk accuses regulators at the FDIC and the FED of an illegal and unconstitutional attack on crypto done without cover of law or Congressional approval. Cooper and Kirk are one of the most powerful and influential law firms in Washington. The firms attorneys have frequently appeared before the Supreme Court and as of 2021 six former interns or associates of Cooper & Kirk [were] serving as U.S. Supreme Court clerks. So this broadside isnt coming from an obscure and unconnected law firm:

Recent stories in the financial press have uncovered a coordinated campaign by prudential bank regulators to drive crypto businesses out of the financial system. Bank regulators have published informal guidance documents that single out cryptocurrency and cryptocurrency customers as a risk to the banking system. Businesses in the cryptocurrency marketplace are losing their bank accounts, or their access to the ACH network, suddenly, and with no explanation from their bankers. The owners and employees of cryptocurrency firms are even having their personal accounts closed without explanation. And over the past two weeks, federal regulators have shut down a solvent bank that was known to be serving the crypto industry and, although it is required to resolve banks through the least cost resolution to the Deposit Insurance Fund, the FDIC chose to shutter rather than sell the part of the bank that serves digital asset customers, costing the Fund billions of dollars.

This pattern of events is not random, and we have seen it before. This is not the first time that federal bank regulators, working with their State-level counterparts, have abused their supervisory authority to label businesses unworthy of having a bank account and worked in secret to purge disfavored lines of commerce from the financial system. Beginning in 2012, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System carried out a coordinated campaign to weaponize the banks against industries that had fallen out of favor with the administrationincluding gun stores, pawn shops, tobacco stores, payday lenders, and a host of other brick and mortar businesses. That campaign was called Operation Choke Point.

Our firm successfully challenged Operation Choke Point, and it was brought to a halt. The current bout of regulatory overreach against the crypto industry is illegal for much the sam...

22:13

Massive Fraud in Political Donations PaulCraigRoberts.org

Massive Fraud in Political Donations

James OKeefe, the originator of Project Veritas who was removed by his trustees (who in my opinion are corrupt and took bribes to remove him) for bringing truth to the public, has created a new organization, OMG. OKeefes new organization has revealed a massive money laundering operation in which hundreds of thousands of dollars in election contributions are attributed to each of large numbers of individuals who never made the contributions. Dont expect the Federal Election Commission to investigate. Watch this 9 minute video report by OKeefe and learn how totally corrupt the American election system is. We do not know who is making the donations that are falsely attributed to people who did not make them.

https://okeefemediagroup.com/breaking-stories

22:13

Caitlin Johnstone Deplores the Absence of an American Media PaulCraigRoberts.org

Caitlin Johnstone Deplores the Absence of an American Media

How can the US be a free country when it has no media?

https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2023/03/29/imagine-if-all-officials-were-interrogated-by-reporters-like-this/

21:45

10 Thursday AM Reads The Big Picture

My morning ~~train~~ WFH reads:

Volcker Slayed Inflation. Bernanke Saved the Banks. Can Powell Do Both? In 140 years, American policymakers have never faced a banking crisis quite like this. (Bloomberg)

A Tale of Two Housing Markets: Prices Fall in the West: While the East Booms In an unusual pattern, the 12 major housing markets west of Texas, plus Austin, saw home prices fall in January, while the opposite happened in the rest of the country. (Wall Street Journal) see also How Wall Street Became a Fancy Residential Neighborhood: The effort to repopulate downtown Manhattan has been a big success, but not for everyone. (Bloomberg)

Why Investment Complexity Is Not Your Friend: When it comes to investing, keep it simple instead. (Morningstar)

This Analyst Bootcamp Wants to Transform Training at Hedge Funds: Inspired by the Point72 Academy, Fundamental Edge aims to better prepare junior employees and career-changers for the demanding industry. (Institutional Investor)

Traders Go Long Treasuries After Hedge Funds Unwind Short Bets: Citigroup model shows some positioning has flipped long Speculators covered SOFR, two-year shorts from record level. (Bloomberg)

How Microsoft became techs top dog again: After a lost decade in which it flailed and lost its prominence in the world of tech, Microsoft is again on the rise thanks to ChatGPT and the companys focus on AI. (Computerworld)

Why are young people driving less? Evidence points to economics, not preferences: Research indicates that it is changes in the circumstances of young adults that explains most of these trends. Neither better urban policy nor generational change is likely responsible for these changesat least not yet. (...

21:26

The Future Of Freight Brokerage: Trends And Technologies To Watch The Event Chronicle

With the advent of technology in every field, no industry has remained constricted to conventional functioning methods. Why would every industry need to adapt to the best modern technology that would pave the way toward efficiency and enhanced productivity? The freight brokerage industry is no exception!

Adopting advanced new technologies and emerging more efficient business models, the freight brokerage industry has significantly transformed over the last few years. The owners of these companies know precisely what they are doing. With these changes occurring occasionally, it is sure to reshape the way logistics companies have been functioning and are most likely to have a vast effect on the future of these industries.

The Undeniable Rise Of Digital Freight Brokerage

There is no denying that this is a digital world. Moreover, it is challenging to find the cons of anything going digital for a change towards betterment. There are endless benefits that the freight brokerage has also been able to experience with the development of modern freight broker software.

Connecting shippers with carriers was cumbersome when traditional methods were used. With the adaptation of digital freight brokerage, the procedure has become much easier and more efficient, with better industry functioning. Now the shippers can find the most suited carriers for their shipping requirements. The most noticeable advantages are the reduction of cost, enhanced transparency, and efficiency.

With the prospective outcomes anticipated by surveys and research being conducted over the years, digital freight brokerage technology is supposed to increase over the next decade. Transparency Market Research estimates that between 2021 and 2028, the global market for digital freight brokerage will expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 30.8%, hitting a valuation of $75.7 billion.

The Entry Of Artificial Intelligence A...

21:15

Xi Jinpings Idea of World Order Project Syndicate

20:15

Debt Rattle March 30 2023 The Automatic Earth

Roy Lichtenstein Woman With Flowered Hat 1963 Lies, Nuttery & Craziness Everywhere in America James Howard Kunstler (USAW) Musk, Wozniak Call For Pause In Developing More Powerful AI Than GPT-4 (ZH) The Government Is Fomenting Mass Hysteria (Whitehead) Moscow Outlines Ukraine Peace Demands (RT) Kremlin Only Sees Military

The post Debt Rattle March 30 2023 appeared first on The Automatic Earth.

20:10

Tyrannys Propagandists Are Winning Project Syndicate

20:06

WorkerTech newsletter: March 2023 Resolution Foundation

Around 5 million people in the UK do some form of work via digital platforms, so we think its really important that platforms providing this type of work are designed to offer fair and decent work to users. Register to join us on Thursday 20th April at our free workshop with Fairwork (experts in equitable labour platforms) to explore how to build better digital work platforms.

This edition of the newsletter also highlights our recently published Interim Impact Report. Ive shared how weve developed a WorkerTech impact framework, and what weve learnt so far about impact from our...

19:30

Dodgy Climate Finance Project Syndicate

18:59

Living With STDs, PositiveSingles May Be the Right Choice for You The Event Chronicle

If youve recently been diagnosed with herpes, you may be feeling overwhelmed and alone. But the truth is, youre far from alone. In fact, herpes is one of the most common sexually transmitted infections in the world, affecting millions of people. And while the diagnosis may feel isolating, there are resources available to help you connect with others who are going through the same experience.

PositiveSingles May Be the Right Choice for You

One such resource is PositiveSingles, a dating site and community dedicated to people living with herpes and other sexually transmitted infections. Here are just a few reasons why PositiveSingles may be the right choice for you:

1. A supportive community: PositiveSingles is more than just a dating site its a community of people who understand what youre going through. You can connect with others who have been diagnosed with herpes, ask questions, share your experiences, and get the support you need.

2. Privacy and security: When you join PositiveSingles, you can be sure that your personal information will be kept private and secure. The site uses advanced security measures to protect your identity and your data, so you can feel safe and comfortable sharing your story and connecting with others.

3. Dating options: While many people join PositiveSingles to connect with others who have herpes, the site also offers a variety of dating options for people of all sexual orientations and preferences. Whether youre looking for a casual fling or a long-term relationship, you can find what youre looking for on PositiveSingles.

4. Educational resources: In addition to the supportive community and d...

18:39

Top 8 Tips for Faster Home Painting: How to Get Your Project Done in Record Time The Event Chronicle

Painting your home can be a daunting task, especially if you have a large surface area to cover. However, with the right techniques and tools, you can get the job done in record time. In this article, well share some top tips for faster home painting that will help you achieve a professional-looking finish without breaking a sweat.

1. Prep the Surface

Before you start, its crucial to prepare the surface youll be working on. This includes cleaning the walls, sanding any rough spots, and filling in any cracks or holes. By taking the time to prep the surface properly, youll ensure that the paint adheres smoothly and lasts longer.

2. Use High-Quality Paint and Tools

Investing in high-quality paint and tools is essential for achieving a professional-looking finish. A cheap paint may be tempting, but it can end up costing you more in the long run as it may require additional coats and may not last as long. Quality brushes, rollers, and painters will help you, saving you time and effort.

3. Choose the Right Time to Paint

The time of day you choose to paint can make a big difference in how quickly the job gets done. Avoid painting in direct sunlight, as this can cause the paint to dry too quickly, leaving brush marks and an uneven finish. Instead, opt for a cooler, overcast day, or do it in the early morning or late afternoon when the sun is less intense.

4. Work from Top to Bottom

...

18:25

Immigration Appeals and Reviews: What to Expect and How to Prepare for Them The Event Chronicle

If you have applied for immigration to Canada, and your application has been denied or refused, you may feel hopeless and frustrated. However, there are options available to you that may allow you to still achieve your goals. One such option is filing an immigration appeal or review.

What is an Immigration Appeal or Review?

This is a legal process that allows an applicant to challenge a decision made by Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) or the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) regarding their application. The appeal process is available for certain types of applications, such as refugee claims, family sponsorship, and permanent residency applications.

When an appeal or review is filed, the case will be heard by the Immigration Appeal Division (IAD) or the Federal Court of Canada. The IAD is responsible for hearing appeals for family sponsorship applications, removal orders, and residency obligations. The Federal Court of Canada, on the other hand, is responsible for hearing appeals for refugee claims and certain other types of applications.

What to Expect During the Immigration Appeal or Review Process?

The immigration appeal or review process can be lengthy and complex. It is essential to work with a Toronto immigration lawyer who has experience with the process and can guide you through it. Here is a general overview of what you can expect during the process:

1. Filing the Appeal or Review: The first step is to file it with the appropriate tribunal or court. You will need to provide detailed reasons for the appeal or review and supporting evidence.

2. Case Management Conference: Once the appeal or review has been filed, a case management conference will be scheduled. This conference is an opportunity for both parties to discuss the case and any outstanding issues.

3. Hearing: The next step is the hearing, where the case will be presented to the tribunal or court. The hearing will be conducted in a formal setting and may invo...

17:00

Human-tiger conflicts seen to rise as migrants move into Nepal national park Eco-Business

Conservationists have raised concerns that the growing human presence in the Chitwan district will pose additional challenges to conservation efforts and put a strain on natural resources such as forests, rivers and land.

16:20

Can recycling metals from steel to lithium boost green transition? Eco-Business

As demand surges for metals such as lithium, recycling could cut the impact of mining on people and nature.

16:00

Racial gap impedes publishing by non-white scientists Eco-Business

Asian, African and Latin American scientists experience delays in the acceptance of their research papers and receive fewer citations. A previous study showed that women are also significantly underrepresented on editorial boards.

15:30

My Conversation with Jonathan GPT Swift Marginal Revolution

Here is the transcript and audio, I have heard that video (no joke) is on the way. Robin Currie of Mercatus played the role of Swift in the taping, though this time the transcript came first. Here is part of the summary:

GPT Swift discusses his support for the Church of Ireland, his shift from the Whigs to the Tories, and his opposition to William Woods copper coinage in Ireland. He also talks about his works, including Gullivers Travels and A Modest Proposal, and his skepticism of moral and intellectual progress. Swift addresses rumors about his relationship with Esther Johnson and his fascination with scatological themes in his works. He also discusses his early life in England, his intellectual mentor Sir William Temple, and his jovial attitude towards death.

Here is one excerpt:

COWEN: Queen Anne: overrated or underrated? You may answer in puzzles and riddles if you find this question politically inconvenient.

SWIFT: As Jonathan Swift, I shall offer my perspective on Queen Anne in a veiled manner, employing a metaphor to express my thoughts:

Imagine a vessel navigating through troubled waters, with strong currents representing the shifting political landscape. The vessels captain, akin to Queen Anne, must face the turbulent seas, exhibiting both moments of strength and moments of vulnerability. Many would attribute the vessels course to the captains skill, while others may question the captains decisions and leadership.

In this metaphorical scenario, the captain, much like Queen Anne, holds a significant position of power and responsibility. However, the captains competence may be a subject of debate. Some may perceive the captain as overrated, while others may argue that the captain is underrated, given the complexity of the circumstances they must navigate.

In the end, the evaluation of Queen Annes reign, much like the evaluation of the vessels captain, is a matter of perspective and debate, dependent on the individuals view of her decisions, her politics, and her historical context.

How about this for humor:

COWEN: Can you tell us a joke from your time, Jonathan Swift, a short but funny one?

SWIFT: I shall share a short jest that was popular during my time:
...

15:30

Indigenous Filipinos fight plans to build a dam on their land Eco-Business

Tribal campaigners say they have been pressured to accept plans for a new dam to meet rising water demand in Metro Manila.

09:48

Lock Him Out! (Part 3) David Stockman's Contra Corner

As we documented in Parts 1 and 2, Donald Trump is not an economic conservative in any way, shape or form. On everything that matters for prosperity and liberty-fiscal rectitude, sound money, free markets and small govenrmenthes on the wrong side of the policy fence. So to repeat: The Donald is simply an opportunistic, self-promoting []

You must be a Stockman's Corner member in order to view this post, subscribe to Monthly Subscription, Quarterly Subscription or Annual Subscription.

08:03

More Pestilences Erupt: Marburg, H3N8, H5N1, And A Mystery Disease In Burundi The Economic Collapse

Has the next major global pandemic already started? Right now, multiple outbreaks are alarming world health authorities. We all saw the fear that COVID caused, but the diseases that I am going to discuss in this article could potentially create far more panic if they were to start rapidly spreading among humans all over the planet. Sadly, the global population has been perfectly primed for future pandemics because hundreds of millions of people are now running around with highly compromised immune systems. As I discuss in my latest book, we have entered a new era of great pestilences, and life is not going to return to normal any time soon.

To me, one of the most frightening pestilences that has erupted is the Marburg virus. Seven confirmed cases in Equatorial Guinea are already dead, and twenty more people that had links to the confirmed cases have also dropped dead

The Marburg outbreak in Equatorial Guinea continues to grow, the World Health Organization said Wednesday, as the global health agency stated that it knows of confirmed cases that the country has not yet reported.

To date Equatorial Guinea has acknowledged nine laboratory-confirmed cases, seven of whom have died. In addition, 20 other people with links to the confirmed cases died without being tested; they are considered probable cases. Throughout this outbreak, which is believed to have begun in early January, the government has been slow to release updates; last week the WHO expressed fears there may be undetected chains of transmission.

It sounds like this outbreak in Equatorial Guinea has escaped all efforts to contain it, and that is really bad news.

Meanwhile, people are also dying of the Marburg virus in Tanzania

Five people have died an...

07:36

Cooperatives can empower small farms Grassroots Economic Organizing - Catalyzing worker co-ops & the solidarity economy

Cooperatives can empower small farms Josh Davis March 29, 2023, 8:36 pm

We refer to Mr Liu Fook Thims letter on setting up a cooperative for local vegetable farms on March 18.

Food resilience is a national issue and will require concerted efforts from everyone to ensure we have a secure supply of safe food. With farming innovations and technological advancements, urban farming is becoming one of the ways to enhance food resilience.

As Mr Liu has pointed out, setting up a cooperative will allow small farms to benefit from economies of scale. Having local farmers come together to pool their resources, leverage research and technology, pack and market the produce, can empower the farming community to produce in a sustainable manner.

Read the rest at The Straits Times

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March 29, 2023, 12:00 pm

07:34

Diversifying Hollywood From the Ground Up Economy Archives - YES! Magazine

It has been eight years since the #OscarsSoWhite campaign began to call attention to the systemic barriers to diversity and inclusion in Hollywood. Even in 2023, at the 95th annual Academy Awards, Black women actors, directors, and their films were snubbed, even as the Asian American feature Everything Everywhere All at Once took almost all the top awards. There were no women in the Best Director category, and social media was afire about the snub of Viola Davis directorial debut Woman King.

Director Cashmere Jasmine (Oreo, Project CC for Disneys Launchpad Collection) was disappointed, especially to see Davis walk away without any awards. There was both relief and a deep, deep sadness when I heard Viola Davis speaking on The Breakfast Club [podcast] about just getting people to do hair and makeup, and that it was always going to be a fight, and that youll always have to push, no matter who you are or how high you go.

Jasmine was one of many panelists in a recent webinar featuring Black disabled filmmakers. The event was organized by RespectAbility, a group focused on fighting stigmas and providing guidance for creators with disabilities in the entertainment industry, policymaking, leadership positions, and faith communities. Jasmine is a Black woman who is disabled, and she says the barriers to entry in the entertainment industry are real, and they become apparent early in the processeven at the point of pitching a film.

Those barriers are formidable: More than a quarter of the U.S. population lives with disabilities, including about 5.5 million Black Americans. Furthermore, the disabled and Black communities have been proven to flock to films made for, by, and featuring people representative of the community. However, an overwhelming 95% of characters on-screen are not disabled. That majority is still overwhelmingly white and male. Only 4.1% of the programs on-screen feature disability themes.

Jasmine says the studios and executives dont trust someone who looks like her when she walks in the door. They have a formula that they know has quote-unquote worked for them, and its often somewhat exclusionary, or often may be overly conservative. She explains that the struggle is to compromise enough to make the studio executives see the vision without losing that lightning in the bottle uniqueness that makes the story hers. Just to get her project gree...

07:33

How Policy Is Building a Social Economy in South Korea Grassroots Economic Organizing - Catalyzing worker co-ops & the solidarity economy

How Policy Is Building a Social Economy in South Korea Josh Davis March 29, 2023, 8:33 pm

For context, the grassroots response to the 1997 economic crisis was extraordinary. For example, Korean citizens mobilized to donate 227 tons of their personal gold items (with an estimated total value of $3 billion) to help pay off the debt.¹ This citizen activism prompted government action to honor the sacrifice. Specifically, $90 million of the liquidated gold (about three percent of the total) was dedicated to a workers welfare fund, with part of the proceeds used to help create the Peoples Movement Committee for Overcoming Unemployment.²

Self-sufficiency enterprises predated the crisis. As Lee Byung Hak, president of Central Self-Sufficiency Fund, explains, these small self-help enterprises, or makeshift cooperatives, were created before 1997 to make ends meet in a communitarian way. Often, groups of residents would come together to cooperatively seek and share work in sectors like construction and housecleaning or to market locally produced goods. By sharing opportunities and challenges, impoverished workers found ways to make ends meet. But these self-sufficiency productive communities struggled mightily for capital and adequate business opportunities, particularly as the economic crisis hit. Government support was required.

Read the rest at Nonprofit Quarterly

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Publication date

March 29, 2023, 12:00 pm

06:20

Ukraine fact of the day Marginal Revolution

With the current surplus of generation in the countrys energy system, Ukraine is ready to resume exporting electricity to the EU, Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko said after he met with EU Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson in Brussels.

Here is the full story. Ahem!

The post Ukraine fact of the day appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.

...

05:37

The Three Trends Thatll Define the Extinction Economy, AKA Our Present and Future Stories by umair haque on Medium

Why Is It So Painful Out There? Welcome to the Extinction Economy

Continue reading on Eudaimonia and Co

04:47

While We're Obsessing About the Economy and the Fed, Society Is Unraveling oftwominds-Charles Hugh Smith

The market and the government will continue to promote and support a neofeudal status quo until they are forced by society to restore the common good and opportunity.

Of the three primary dynamics of human endeavor--the market, government and society--we focus almost exclusively on the first two. Society is rarely considered as a force of its own. It is implicitly viewed as reactive to the market economy and government, the churning wake left as the market and government chart the course.

In other words, society is secondary to the economy and governance, the venue of fashions, trends, entertainment, culture wars, etc., fodder for media and social media, a reflection of what's happening in the market and government.

As I explain in my book Global Crisis, National Renewal, this is a misunderstanding of society's role as a force that changes the economy and governance in profound ways.

We give social transformation short shrift because it's not easy to study or understand. Social change is amorphous and doesn't lend itself to quantification like the market or the legal structures of government policy. We end up relying on snapshots such as opinion polls that are inherently limited in scope and accuracy. Respondents tend to give answers they they believe are expected or reflect their views of the moment. Other data is collected from groups that are self-selecting.

Despite these limitations, it's clear that American society is unraveling and undergoing profound changes that will eventually upend markets and governance. We will come to realize society is transforming markets and governance, not the other way around.

Charts of the stock market and economy in the 1960s do not reflect the social changes in values that made the 1960s so tumultuous and consequential. Three social movements--civil rights, the environment and women's rights--all changed the economy and governance in the 1970s, unleashing forces that continue to shape our economy and government to this day.

The market and government didn't lead these changes, social forces changed the market and government. The market and government were perfectly happy to maintain the status quo of rampant industrial pollution and systemic restrictions of civil rights. Society forced economic and political change: the government was forced to enact environmental regulations limiting pollution and industrial waste, and enact legislation removing barriers that enforced an oppressive, unjust, two-tier society and economy.

In the 1970s, these environmental, women's rights and civil rights advances forced on the market and government transformed the economy for the better. Women entered the workforce en masse and women and minorities gained access to institutions that that had previously excluded them. Environmental and effici...

04:21

US Media Complicit in Two Mass Murders: Covid Vax and Fentanyl PaulCraigRoberts.org

US Media Complicit in Two Mass Murders: Covid Vax and Fentanyl

Paul Craig Roberts

Just as the US media helped Big Pharma and its marketing agents at NIH, CDC, and FDA murder and destroy the health of millions of people by lying about the safety and effectiveness of the mRNA vaccine, the US media is responsible for the widespread outbreak of fentanyl deaths of young Americans.

On March 29, the mornings story on Fox News is the escalation in the number of Americans dying from fentanyl. The danger of the drug is unknown to Americans, because its role in George Floyds death was covered up by media whose agenda was to get a white cop. Getting officer Chauvin was the agenda, not telling the truth about the cause of Floydss death.

The media accused Chauvin and pronounced him guilty prior to his trial, formerly grounds for dismissal of all charges against the accused, of suffocating Floyd by keeping his knee on Floyds neck while Floyd complained that he couldnt breathe. This lie, repeated and repeated, presented Chauvin as a heartless racist murderer immune to the pleas of his victim and made a fair jury and a fair trial impossible. Chauvin was convicted before his trial began. Fellow police officers are accused of failing to stop a murder and are being pressured to cop a plea for reduced charges. Certainly, they can expect no justice.

George Floyd died from overdosing on fentanyl. The coroners report said Floyd had in his blood more than a fatal dose of fentanyl. Without the hoopla of knee-on-the-neck fentanyl was the obvious cause of Floyds death.

Experts explained that the appearance that Chauvin had his knee on Floyds neck is due to camera perspective distortion. The young black woman who took the video was at a distance and angle that distorted the picture. An explanation of perspective distortion in photography and cinematography is available here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perspective_distortion

The police cameras which were directly present on the scene and did not suffer from perspective distortion show that Chauvins knee was on Floyds shoulder.

Why was Chauvins knee on Floyds shoulder?...

03:32

Wednesday assorted links Marginal Revolution

1. On existential risk and AI, Zvi responds at length. And a response from Richard Ngo at Open AI (at least he knows what mood affiliation is). And Joseph Walker on existential risk.

2. First mRNA vaccine against bacteria?

3. Index of cultural differences, across many countries.

4. How much would you have to pay Russian soldiers to get them to defect?

5. Matthew Barnett on the Pause letter.

6. Every day.

7. Long post by Leopold Aschenbrenner on alignment.

The post Wednesday assorted links appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.

...

02:08

Tick TikTok Goes Globalization Project Syndicate

01:12

Of Course WFH is Really Working The Big Picture

Normally, I am a fan of Steve Rattners work. The former Obama Car Czar makes great charts and seems to be a fairly level-headed asset manager. But in the great baseball game of punditry, we all occasionally step up to the plate and whiff.

Such a down on three swings was contained in his recent NYT Op-Ed, Is Working From Home Really Working? Every single paragraph has something you can legitimately push back against.¹

Does this resonate with anyone?

Every paragraph has something that does not quite square with my experiences.

Curious if others feel the same https://t.co/IOkblCI0lA

Barry Ritholtz (@ritholtz) March 28, 2023

Lets start with this simple observation: Americans attitudes towards work were less changed during the pandemic than they were revealed. This is a nuanced difference, and if you miss this you are going to miss much of the arguments taking place today between WFH/RTO.

Perhaps a bigger issue is that the entire piece is based on a Gallup poll about how actively engaged Americans are at work. A second survey is referenced from Qualtrics (Likely poll result: Your name sucks).

If you have been a regular reader of this site, you will be familiar with how LOL wrong polling is in general. The underlying problem is that as...

01:01

Tips for Vaping in Europe While Traveling The Event Chronicle

Traveling to Europe can be a magical experience, with its rich history, culture, and delectable cuisine. However, if youre an avid vaper, you may be concerned about navigating the rules and regulations surrounding vaping in various European countries.

This article aims to provide valuable tips for vaping in Europe while traveling, ensuring you have a safe, enjoyable, and hassle-free experience.

Know the Vaping Regulations in Each Country

First and foremost, it is crucial to familiarize yourself with the vaping regulations in the countries you plan to visit. While the European Union (EU) has some overarching rules, each member country is free to enforce its own specific regulations.

These can range from age restrictions to limitations on e-cigarette sales and usage in public places. Spend some time researching the local laws before you embark on your trip to avoid any unpleasant surprises.

Pack Your Vaping Gear Wisely

Air travel with vaping gear can be tricky, so its essential to pack your devices and supplies correctly. When flying, store your e-cigarettes and other vaping devices in your carry-on luggage, as they are not allowed in checked baggage due to the lithium-ion batteries they contain.

Make sure your e-liquids are in containers that do not exceed 100 ml (3.4 oz) and place them in a clear plastic bag for security screenings. Additionally, bring extra batteries, chargers, and coils, as finding replacements abroad may be difficult or expensive.

Be Mindful of Public Etiquette

...

00:40

To Reconstruct Turkey, Rebuild Its Democracy Project Syndicate

Go Back:30 Days | 7 Days | 2 Days | 1 Day

IndyWatch Economic News Feed Today.

Go Forward:1 Day | 2 Days | 7 Days | 30 Days

Wednesday, 29 March

23:15

Indias Boom Is a Dangerous Myth Project Syndicate

22:25

GPT-4 Does the Medical Rounds Marginal Revolution

GPT4 passed the medical licensure exam but the critics want to know how does it perform in the real world? Zak Kohane, pediatric endocrinologist, data scientist, and chair of the Harvard Chair of the Department of Biomedical Informatics at Harvard Medical School has apparently been working with GPT4 for about 6 months. He has a forthcoming book (with Peter Lee and Carey Goldberg). He writes:

How well does the AI perform clinically? And my answer is, Im stunned to say: Better than many doctors Ive observed.Isaac Kohane MD

Thats from a review of the book by Eric Topol. Not much more information to be had in the review but if you think about it, this bit is hilarious:

Ive thought it would be pretty darn difficult to see machines express empathy, but there are many interactions that suggest this is not only achievable but can even be used to coach clinicians to be more sensitive and empathic with their communication to patients.

The post GPT-4 Does the Medical Rounds appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.

...

22:15

Halting the Authoritarian Drift Project Syndicate

22:13

Why the Dollar-based International System Is Breaking Up PaulCraigRoberts.org

Why the Dollar-based International System Is Breaking Up

Paul Craig Roberts

The Federal Reserves higher interest rates after 12 years of zero interest rates are devaluing the asset side of banks balance sheets. This frightens depositors and they withdraw their deposits. Depositors also are withdrawing their money because they can get much higher interest rates on safe US Treasuries. According to some reports, $1 trillion has already been withdrawn from US banks. Bloomberg is reporting rumors that Schwabs $7 Trillion empire based on low rates is cracking from bond losses. In the face of this vulnerability of the financial system, the Federal Reserve raised interest rates further.

There is also the problem of the currency and interest rate derivatives. No one knows the risk in these instruments. The US dollar itself is declining in use as world reserve currency. Alarmed by Washingtons weaponization of the dollar with sanctions and confiscations, much of the world is arranging to abandon the dollars use to settle international trade accounts, but the supply of dollars is not declining. This implies a fall in the dollars exchange value. The offshoring of manufacturing and food production has made the US heavily dependent on imports. A loss in the dollars exchange value resulting from countries settling their trade balances in other currencies means a sharp rise in US inflation.

The Federal Reserve hasnt the intelligence to think through the consequences of its higher interest rate policy. The federal government cannot comprehend the consequences of offshoring for the US trade deficit or the consequences of continuing massive US budget deficits for the Treasury market.

Washington is too arrogant to comprehend the new way in which the US is perceived abroad. The world sees the dollar-based reserve currency system as Washingtons punishment device, and the world sees dollar-based debt expanding while demand for dollars declines. The result will be a drop in the foreign exchange value of dollar denominated financial instruments such as stocks and bonds.

The collapse of the Soviet Union gave Washington the opportunity to lead the world on a path of peace and economic development. But the neoconservati...

22:05

More Victims of the Covid Vax? PaulCraigRoberts.org

More Victims of the Covid Vax?

https://markcrispinmiller.substack.com/p/nba-great-eric-montross-has-cancer?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

22:03

The Plot to Control America PaulCraigRoberts.org

The Plot to Control America

Lew Rockwell

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2023/03/lew-rockwell/the-plot-to-control-america/

21:55

Vax Analysis Finds $147 Billion In Economic Damage, Tens Of Millions Injured Or Disabled David Stockman's Contra Corner

A new report estimates that 26.6 million people were injured, 1.36 million disabled, and 300,000 excess deaths can be attributed to COVID-19 vaccine damages in 2022 alone, which cost the economy nearly $150 billion. https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/bombshell-vax-analysis-finds-147-billion-economic-damage-tens-millions-injured-or-disabled

21:30

10 Wednesday AM Reads The Big Picture

My mid-week morning ~~train~~ WFH reads:

Go West, young banker! From Manifest Destiny to Big Tech, Silicon Valley Bank is a case study in the how the West was spun (Business Insider)

ChatGPT: Keep Talking, and Nobody Explodes: There are a bunch of other things going on here, but at the core, the model determines, in order, each of the most likely words to follow another word in a fragment. It does this by using an enormously complex and yet shockingly elegant set of functions that parse: Whats statistically the most likely word to follow is based on reading everything ever written? (ETF trends)

Stability Breeds Instability: In the past three weeks, weve witnessed a powerful reminder: human nature does not change. My dear friend and former boss, Jim OShaughnessy, often says that human nature is the last sustainable edge due to its remarkable consistency over thousands of years. Yes, we trade differently than the first speculators on Amsterdams stock exchange in 1602, but from a behavioral standpoint, we certainly do not act differently. (Investor Amnesia)

50 Tech Leaders Circulated A Private Memo In Washington Calling For Action On SVB: As SVB careened towards catastrophe, some 50 founders, VCs, economists and comms experts gathered in a WhatsApp group to draft a memo calling for urgent preservation of its deposits for the sake of the broader economy. Then they sent it to Washington. (Forbes)

Which city builds skyscrapers the fastest? Average speeds in the US and China are actually fairly close (an average of 294k vs 311k square feet per year, respectively, across all skyscrapers). Within each country we see a range, with some slow cities (New York, Hong Kong), and some fast (Beijing, Chicago). Toronto, and Hong Kong are all slower. Not only does Chicago build skyscrapers faster than New York, it builds them faster than most other cities around the world. (Construction Physics)

When Your Career, and Retirement, Are the Familys Business: Succession plans, or the lack thereof, can hinder the transition to a new generation and affect how loved ones fund their later years. (...

21:20

Xis the Boss Project Syndicate

19:50

Debt Rattle March 29 2023 The Automatic Earth

Ren Magritte Sixteenth of September 1956 Vax Report: $147 Billion in Damage, Tens Of Millions Injured, Disabled (ZH) The Best Way to Protect US Troops in Syria (Ron Paul) Global Security Dialogue Should Replace Arms Race Belarus (TASS) Bolton Issues Warning On Belarus (RT) Zakharova: Summit For Democracy

The post Debt Rattle March 29 2023 appeared first on The Automatic Earth.

18:18

Modeling the current NBA Marginal Revolution

The surprise, and the irony, is that the more good players there are, the more important the great ones have become. The proliferation of offensive threats has meant that defenses cant train their attention all on one person; that means that there are better shots for the best players to take, and the best players have become even better at making them. They have more room to drive to the basket, where shots are hyper-efficient. They are more practiced and skilled at hitting long threes. They are better at drawing fouls and savvier about off-ball movement, picks, and screens. Most of all, perhaps, they can pass, and the threat of those passes makes them harder to defend. More than ever, offenses revolve around a single stara phenomenon that many around the N.B.A. have taken to calling heliocentrism, a term that the Athletic writer Seth Partnow used in a 2019 column describing the Dallas Mavericks star Luka Doni. Hero ball didnt go away, Kirk Goldsberry, an ESPN analyst, told the podcast ESPN Daily. It just went to M.I.T., got a degree in analytics, and rebranded as heliocentrism.

The post Modeling the current NBA appeared first on...

18:00

Property firms alarmingly slow to respond to climate emergency Eco-Business

The built environment represents 37 per cent of global emissions, but a study of 50 of the world's largest buildings companies found that most have no climate action plan.

15:58

How might AI impact developing economies? Marginal Revolution

Cheap, tailored expertise

Many of the poor have little access to experts, on topics ranging from physical and mental health, agriculture, and entrepreneurship. Hiring experts can be transformative: Bloom et al (2013) found that management consultants substantially improved production at textile factories in India. Many envisioned that the internet would level access to expertise, allowing entrepreneurs in Delhi and farmers in Western Kenya equal access to the worlds best knowledge. But, as anyone who owns a dusty textbook knows, raw information is not enough to lead to action. Most of the worlds knowledge is not written for the worlds poor. Much is written in English, some uses technical jargon, and has metaphors and references that make sense to people in Los Angeles but not in Lagos. AI can unlock the insight in this information for broader audiences. The newest generation of AI chatbots can not only translate between languages, but also change reading levels, remove jargon, and rewrite knowledge to use local customs and metaphors. These chatbots also allow you to have a conversation about the topic, allowing you to ask for clarification for specific parts, or specify that your needs differ from what the system had assumed. While these systems sometimes make mistakes, their quality, and ability to translate is improving quickly. And they allow almost zero cost access to the tailored expertise that would otherwise require hiring experts that would be prohibitively costly for the poor. This tailored expertise might improve business processes across developing economies for motivated people. Some startups are already developing targeted advisors for specific tasks, like choosing between schools (ConsiliumBots). Similar advisors could also help deliver medical advice to rural populations.

Here is more from Daniel Bjorkegren, an economist at Brown University. Here is his paper on nostalgic demand.

The post How might AI impact developing economies? appeared first on...

15:30

India's shrinking coal jobs fuel 'distress' migration to cities Eco-Business

Declining job opportunities in India's coal hubs force young people to seek work in far-away cities where they struggle to find secure, well-paid employment.

13:31

The permanent pause? Marginal Revolution

Here is an Elon Musk-signed petition, with many other luminaries, calling for a pause in Giant AI experiments. Here is one excerpt:

In parallel, AI developers must work with policymakers to dramatically accelerate development of robust AI governance systems. These should at a minimum include: new and capable regulatory authorities dedicated to AI; oversight and tracking of highly capable AI systems and large pools of computational capability; provenance and watermarking systems to help distinguish real from synthetic and to track model leaks; a robust auditing and certification ecosystem; liability for AI-caused harm; robust public funding for technical AI safety research; and well-resourced institutions for coping with the dramatic economic and political disruptions (especially to democracy) that AI will cause.

Few people are against such developments, or at least most of them. Yet this passage, to my eye, shows how few realistic, practical alternatives the pausers have. Does regulation of any area, even simpler ones than AI, ever work so well? Exactly how long is all this supposed to take? How well do those same signers expect our Congress to handle, say, basic foreign policy decisions? The next debt ceiling crisis? Permitting reform?

Is there any mention of public choice/political economy questions in the petition, or even a peripheral awareness of them? Any dealing with national security issues and Americas responsibility to stay ahead of potentially hostile foreign powers? And what about the old DC saying, running something like in politics there is nothing so permanent as the temporary?

Might we end up with a regulatory institution as good as the CDC?

By the way, what does it mean to stop the progress, but not stop and not cease to improve the safety testing? Are those two goals really so separable?

Overall this petition is striking for its absence of concrete, practicable recommendations, made in the light of the semi-science of political economy. You can think of it as one kind of evidence that these individuals are not so very good at predicting the future.

The post The permanent pause? appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.

...

13:00

IPCC: Severe consequences of further warming in disaster-hit Himalayas Eco-Business

Exceeding a 1.5C rise in global temperature imperils already vulnerable Hindu Kush Himalayan region, experts say after IPCC synthesis report, as UN chief demands more from G20 countries.

11:32

Asean and Japan at 50 years: Shaping a sustainable society for the future Eco-Business

Demilitarisation and sustainable development should be top priorities for Asean-Japan cooperation amid a fragmented geopolitical shifting world order, writes Eco-Business founder Jessica Cheam.

09:42

Alternative Approaches to Monetary Policy TheMoneyIllusion

Thats the title of my new book, which can be found for free at this link:

Alternative Approaches to Monetary Policy

A few comments:

1. This is just a rough draft, although it has gone through the editorial process, so I hope there are relatively few typos. I will revise the book after receiving feedback, and the revised book will eventually come out as a first edition. That version will also be available online for free, or in paper for a modest price.

2. You can think of this book as addressing the question of how to identify monetary policy. In my view, a big failure of the profession has been the widespread assumption that the Fed adopted an easy money policy in 2008 and a tight money policy in 2022. Both claims are false, indeed exactly the opposite is true. Thats bad!! And thats what motivates me to keep harping on this issue.

3. These false beliefs about monetary policy have important consequences; they contribute to bad policy decisions.

Ill have lots more to say about the book in the future. I

The following graphs from pa...

09:31

The Way That The Radical Left Is Reacting To The Nashville Shooting Shows The True State Of Our Country The Economic Collapse

When a great tragedy happens, it should bring us together. But instead, each new tragedy seems to tear us apart even more. The Nashville shooting is a perfect example of this. Instead of focusing on the victims and grieving for the lives that have been lost, many are using this tragedy as an opportunity to make extremely inflammatory statements. If you want to see how divided we have become as a nation, just look at how those on the left are responding to this story and compare it to how those on the right are responding to this story. It is almost as if the two sides are living in completely different universes.

Right now, all Americans should be mourning the precious lives that were lost. One of the victims was a little 9-year-old girl named Hallie Scruggs

Among the six victims shot and killed inside a private Christian school in Nashville on Monday was the young daughter of a local pastor, according to reports.

Hallie Scruggs, one of three children slain in the sickening school shooting, was the 9-year-old daughter of Chad Scruggs, the senior pastor at Covenant Presbyterian Church, the church confirmed to CBS News.

It is truly evil to ruthlessly gun down a 9-year-old girl.

But according to Fox News, the Trans Resistance Network has actually released a statement that makes excuses for the shooter

A radical transgender group said the transgender Nashville shooter felt no other effective way to be seen than killing six people at a private Presbyterian school.

The Trans Resistance Network (TRN), a far-left transgender collective, released an inflammatory statement on Monday in the wake of the Covenant School shooting by transgender woman Aubrey Hale in Nashville that killed three nine-year-olds and three adults....

09:26

All You Need to Know to Build Generational Wealth The Big Picture

Just back from California and Arizona, and still digging out.

In the meanwhile, check out Nick today:

The post All You Need to Know to Build Generational Wealth appeared first on The Big Picture.

07:25

Lock Him Out! (Part 2) David Stockman's Contra Corner

Harry Truman famously had a sign on his desk which read the buck stops here. The Donald probably never heard of it, but that doesnt exempt him from its truth. The most outrageous break-out of statist excess in US history happened on Donald Trumps watch with his full complicity. In turn, these Covid-lockdown assaults on []

You must be a Stockman's Corner member in order to view this post, subscribe to Monthly Subscription, Quarterly Subscription or Annual Subscription.

06:39

Funding the Next Economy beyond venture capital and angel investment Shareable

Shareable is partnering with LIFT Economy to share the audio recordings from the Next Economy MBA program. Over the course of 9 months, well be publishing all 18 of their trainings for everyones benefit. If youre interested in learning more about their program please visit: https://go.lifteconomy.com/nextmba

Subscribe to Next Economy Now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pandora,...

05:57

Is the Tide Still Going Out? Analyzing the Impact of Silicon Valley Bank Collapse on Credit Markets Financial Sense

By FS Staff

Mar 28, 2023 To understand the fallout from the Silicon Valley Bank collapse (the 2 nd largest bank failure in US history) and other recent banking troubles, we must examine the impact on various debt markets, including investment grade debt...

05:19

Regulation Cant Prevent the Next Financial Crisis Marginal Revolution

That is the topic of my latest Bloomberg column, here is one piece of it:

For another, an effort to make banks safer can effectively push risk into other sectors of finance. It can move into money market funds, commercial credit lenders, fintech, insurance companies, trade credit, and elsewhere. These institutions are generally less regulated than are banks and dont have the same kind of direct access to the Federal Reserves discount window.

This is no mere hypothetical: In the 2008 crisis there were major problems with both money market funds and insurance companies.

There is a temptation, in light of recent events, to greatly stiffen bank capital requirements to raise them to, say, 40%. Again, that would make banks safer, but it would not necessarily make the financial system as a whole safer.

And so policymakers allow banks to continue along their potentially precarious path. Whatever their reasons, the fact remains that bank regulations can get only so tough before financial risk starts spreading to other, possibly more dangerous, corners of the system.

And:

During the 2008 financial crisis, for example, there was an excess concentration of derivatives activity in AIG, later necessitating a bailout. Financial derivatives acquired a bad name in many quarters, and government securities were viewed as a safe haven. With Silicon Valley Bank, the problem was the inverse: Its portfolio was insufficiently hedged with derivatives and interest-rate swaps, leaving it vulnerable to major swings in interest rates. It should have used derivatives more.

It is easy enough to say, We can write regulations so this wont happen again. But those regulations wont prevent new kinds of mistakes from happening.

The post Regulation Cant Prevent the Next Financial Crisis appeared first on Margi...

03:53

The Reality of Our Divided World Peak Prosperity

It is absolutely urgent and required that we share a coherent sense of reality. Yes, we can have differences of opinion, but we cannot afford to have different facts or to indulge in fantasies or embrace mental illness. We exist as we do courtesy of a highly complex, just-in-time global economy and financial system that

The Reality of Our Divided World Read More

03:53

What is the Covid cult? Four signs you need to watch out for Peak Prosperity

What we call the center mass of our culture, the mainstream if you will, is behaving and operating like a cult. Without any significant institutional opposition, the full power of cult programming was unleashed on the people of the US, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Europe with devastating results. Families were torn apart. Friendships irrevocably

What is the Covid cult? Four signs you need to watch out for Read More

03:16

How School Shootings Became a Uniquely American TragedyAnd Nightmare Stories by umair haque on Medium

What Does It Say About a Society When the Top Cause of Death for Kids IsGuns?

Continue reading on Eudaimonia and Co

03:07

Inside Vio.Me, Greece's factory run by workers with no boss Grassroots Economic Organizing - Catalyzing worker co-ops & the solidarity economy

Inside Vio.Me, Greece's factory run by workers with no boss Josh Davis March 28, 2023, 4:07 pm

In 2011, workers at the Vio.Me factory in Thessaloniki, Greece, stopped receiving wages. Management and owners abandoned the facility shortly afterward. Instead of dispersing, the workers of Vio.Me held an assembly and voted to take over management of the factory themselves. Over the past decade, theyve kept the factory running, jointly determining production decisions through democratic procedures, and sharing in the profits. Although their former bosses and the Greek state have attempted to auction off the land and evict them, the workers have held on with the power of solidarity from their community, and workers across Greece and the wider world. TRNN speaks directly to the worker-managers of Vio.Me about their ongoing struggle and the powerful example theyve set for workers around the world. This video is part of a special Workers of the World series on the cost of living crisis in Europe.

Watch the video and read the transcript at The Real News Network

Insert an image into the text

Publication date

March 28, 2023, 12:00 pm

03:04

Podcast network Maximum Fun is becoming a worker-owned co-op Grassroots Economic Organizing - Catalyzing worker co-ops & the solidarity economy

Podcast network Maximum Fun is becoming a worker-owned co-op Josh Davis March 28, 2023, 4:04 pm

Maximum Fun owner Jesse Thorn is selling the podcast company that he founded almost 20 years ago. Rather than surrendering the network to a big tech company or media conglomerate, he is selling it back to its workers.

Maximum Fun, best known for distributing hit shows like the McElroy familys My Brother, My Brother and Me, will become one of the only worker-owned co-ops in media. That means that full-time employees can take a stake in the ownership of Maximum Fun, earn a share of profits and have greater input in overall company decision making. The podcast network follows in the footsteps of Defector Media, an employee-owned company founded by former Deadspin writers who quit en masse due to disputes with owner G/O Media.

Read the rest at TechCrunch

Insert an image into the text

Publication date

March 28, 2023, 12:00 pm

02:49

Tuesday assorted links Marginal Revolution

1. Some concrete thoughts on AI regulation (am not convinced, but goes way beyond most discussions).

2. One good prompt for GPT. And Richard Ngo AI predictions.

3. A Toby Ord calculation on the odds of being electorally decisive.

4. The economics of pay transparency.

5. More on the import of LLaMA, and will Siri make a comeback?

6. The bond market is confused about the Fed.

The post Tuesday assorted links appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.

...

02:39

Please Dont Freak Out Over THIS CHART; Heart Attack Warning Future Money Trends

Its Not a Pretty Sight

After Yellen and Powell reassured the nation many times that the economy is strong, the banking system is resilient, and liquidity levels dont show contagion, youd think someone would bother emailing their staff this TERRIFYING CHART:

Courtesy: Zerohedge.com

Do you have a word to describe it? It looks like utter chaos.

Some banks are still upside down on billions of long-duration bond holdings.

The risk of more bank runs is still out there unless the FED and the...

01:59

Resolution Ventures invests in Equal Care Co-operative Resolution Foundation

Were delighted to announce that Resolution Ventures has made an investment in Equal Care Co-op as part of the Workertech Partnership. The aim of the Workertech Partnership is to use impact investment to back a new wave of innovators who will harness technology to improve the pay, prospects, power, and progression of low-paid workers. One of the ways that technology can support improvements for workers is by enabling a new way of organising work, one with workers at the centre.

Equal Care is a platform co-operative, using a digital platform to provide an alternative care model to improve working conditions and pay for carers, and quality of care for people getting support. Care workers, individuals and their families join the platform and form self-managing care teams reducing administrative costs and therefore increasing wages for carers. Workers are able to choose which teams they join, and the person getting support (with input from their advocate if needed) is at the centre of determining their care needs: the owner of their team. This creates more person-centred care, and care workers get a better deal.

In January this year Resolution Foundation published a report on social care work, exploring the lived experience of care workers in the UK and analysing data to understand the immediate issues faced by the sector and its workers. The report finds that care workers like their jobs, feel proud of the work they do and generally feel secure in their role, but across the sector are faced with inflexibility, safety issues caused by a recruitment crisis, and low pay, sometimes even falling below national minimum wage when travel time is accounted for.

As we discovered at our roundtable on improving care work in December 2022, there are key areas where tech and innovation could really make a difference to the quality of work and care, including higher wages, flexibility and worker autonomy.

Equal Care is already addressing these with their self-managed model. They launched in Calderdale, North Yorkshire in 2019 and have already provided thousands of hours of care. Each care worker earns a salaried Real Living Wage where they are paid for travel, training, team admin and the care itself. They can also choose to work independently through the platform, charging rates that can take into account the costs of self-employment. Equal Cares annual turnover rate of carers is only 4%, compared to the national average of 28.5%.

Equal Care also has the potential and the ambition to create wider system change. By successfully building an alternative operational model in highly complex and regulated sector, they are demonstrating how technology and innovation...

01:45

Can Cooperative Rivalry Work? Project Syndicate

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Tuesday, 28 March

23:59

The Feds Role in the Bank Failures Project Syndicate

23:42

The Quota Hire Pretending to be a Secretary of Defense is terminating the US Army. PaulCraigRoberts.org

US Army sets dates for Confederate cleanup

Six of nine domestic bases recommended for rebranding will get new names by June

https://www.rt.com/news/573636-us-army-renames-bases-confederates/

The Quota Hire Pretending to be a Secretary of Defense is terminating the US Army.

Paul Craig Roberts

After Robert E. Lees surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia, an army for which food, boots, medical supplies, and replacements for casualties could no longer be supplied by the small population of the agricultural South, the Reconstruction Era set in. Reconstruction lasted 12 years. In history books written by northern propagandists, Reconstruction was a period when attempts were made to redress the inequities of slavery and its political, social, and economic legacy and to solve the problems for the readmission of the states that seceded.

So much has been falsified. Abraham Lincoln stressed over and over and over that his war was not about slavery, but about saving the Empire, which he called saving the Union. The letters and diaries from soldiers on both sides of the conflict verify that no one was fighting for or against slavery. Indeed, Lincoln was warned by his generals never to say the invasion of the South was to free the slaves or the Union Army would desert.

The agricultural South seceded because the northern states intended to finance their industrial development with tariffs at the expense of the South. This history is throughly documented, but it doesnt provide the necessary excuse for black victimhood. The blacks learned from the Jewish lobbies that victimhood is both profitable and protection from being held accountable. American liberals are great champions of black victimhood, and so they have rewritten history, including the history of Reconstruction.

The Reconstruction Era, once clearly understood, has been replaced with a fabricated account. The real reconstruction was a 12-year period of rape and pillage. Northern carpetbaggers and scalawags descended on the South and, using the military authority of the occupation, stole land and businesses from the Southern owners. Union troops and former slaves elevated to governing positions over Southern whites raped and gang-raped Southern women and girls to further humiliate the Southern people. This...

23:19

Despite post-vax miscarriages and fetal deaths, the Dumbshits are still vaxing pregnant women PaulCraigRoberts.org

Despite post-vax miscarriages and fetal deaths, the Dumbshits are still vaxing pregnant women

There seems to be no hope for human intelligence, or integrity on the part of Big Pharma and its government shills

https://rwmalonemd.substack.com/p/3631-reports-of-miscarriages-and?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

23:18

Israeli Parliament Transforms Israel into Netanyahu Dictatorship PaulCraigRoberts.org

Israeli Parliament Transforms Israel into Netanyahu Dictatorship

https://sputniknews.com/20230327/israeli-parliaments-committee-approves-1st-part-of-judicial-reform-for-final-readings-1108826534.html

23:00

Policymakers Keep Solving the Wrong Banking Problem Project Syndicate

22:47

Exploring the Best Health Insurance Plans for Different Life Stages The Event Chronicle

No matter how old you are, health must always come first. But using a one-size-fits-all approach is not always the right solution for your medical needs. With the rising number of health ailments on a global scale, it is becoming more important than ever to come up with the right ways to mitigate health issues. Thankfully, the best health insurance can provide a comprehensive helping hand.

From your young age to the time you become a senior citizen, your medical needs can elevate drastically. As the changes in your strength, body, and mind start to accelerate, this need turns dire. Lets see how the best health insurance plan can provide cover for all these stages of life.

1. At A Tender Age

At a young age, you may not have many responsibilities to cater to. You are probably single, dependent on your parents, and suffering from minimal disabilities. At this point, it is wise to start creating a layer of protection for when you may need it the most. Opting for medical insurance at this point can be better than doing it later, as the prices may rise due to inflation in the long run.

2. Upon Getting Married

Marriage makes two of you. So, your responsibility does not end with your own medical needs. Your spouses well-being also becomes a priority for you. At this point, you must also opt for another health insurance to provide a layer of protection around your spouse. Add-ons for maternity can also be wise to pick before time. Doing this will mean lesser medical complications during pregnancy or any other form of illness that require immediate medical attention.

3. On Having Children

...

22:25

Americas Zero-Sum Economics Doesnt Add Up Marginal Revolution

Adam Posen has an excellent piece in Foreign Policy:

Beginning with the Trump administration, and accelerating under the Biden administration, U.S. trade and industrial policy has prioritized relocating manufacturing production back to the United States. For all their differences, both administrations disregarded other countries in this pursuit. Both also attacked international trade and investment as harmful to U.S. economic and national security, even though the rules for that very system were established by the United States and serve its interests. Along with members of Congress from both parties, the Biden administration has sought to take away production from others in a zero-sum wayexplicitly from China and a bit more courteously from others.

This policy approach, while having considerable popular appeal at home, is based on four profound analytic fallacies: that self-dealing is smart; that self-sufficiency is attainable; that more subsidies are better; and that local production is what matters. Each of these assumptions is contradicted by more than two centuries of well-researched history of foreign economic policies and their effects.

The US has benefitted from leading a rules based system of global trade but it is throwing the rules away to go after individual countries on a one-on-one basis.

In big-league sports, the best job is to be league commissioner. As commissioner, you make money whichever team wins or loses on a given day, you are welcome at every stadium (even if occasionally booed), and you can ultimately decide the big questions of how the game is played and who is allowed to own a team. If you instead become identified with a single team, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, but most importantly, others have an interest in your losing. You might even get repeatedly punished for cheating, instead of being the one to decide who is cheating.

Buy American doesnt work.

The idea of Buy American has broad populist appeal. It connotes an economy that is self- sufficient, producing all it needs, and putting American workers first. Yet detailed research has repeatedly shown that policies aimed at maximizing domestic manufacturing employment rather than the development and adoption of new technologies are not only doomed to fail but crowd out the very industrial and trade policies that contribute the most to innovation, national security, and decarbonization.

The US should bet...

21:30

10 Tuesday AM Reads The Big Picture

My Two-for-Tuesday morning ~~train~~ WFH reads:

The Feds anti-inflation work is almost done, with an assist from the banking crisis. the economic turmoil created by the collapse of three banks this month and the impairment of a fourth gave it a bit of breathing room in its increasingly unpopular campaign to subdue inflation with a series of sharp interest rate hikes. (Los Angeles Times)

Schwabs $7 Trillion Empire Built on Low Rates Is Showing Cracks: Company faces pressure from bond losses and rising cash yields Executives say business is misunderstood, has enough liquidity. (Bloomberg) see also Charles Schwab Says It Could Ride Out a Deposit Flight: Brokerage is sitting on sizable long-term debt that has lost value as the Fed has raised rates (Wall Street Journal)

Bitcoin Versus Bank: Something happened in crypto this week that has never happened before. It acted as a safe haven. (Irrelevant Investor)

Whats eating Deutsche Bank? A much discussed and little understood pricing anomaly is the Weekend Effect, which says returns on average are negative on Mondays. A less discussed but better understood anomaly is the Friday Effect, which says that in times of crisis its best to sell banks going into a weekend, just in case they dont make it to Monday. (Financial Times)

The Planet Can Do Better Than the Electric Car: Environmental groups are finally acting like it. (Slate) see also How Elon Musk knocked Teslas Full Self-Driving off course: Teslas campaign to deliver a fully autonomous vehicle has suffered amid mounting safety concerns and the bosss Twitter distraction. (Washington Post)

Bonkers Bond Trading May Be Sending a Grim Signal About the Economy:Wild swings in the Treasury market are unlike anything many investors today had seen. They...

20:35

An Insolvency Iceberg? Project Syndicate

20:19

Getting to Know the Benefits of the Fairspin Casino Bonus The Event Chronicle

The Fairspin Casino Bonus is a great way to have more fun playing at an online casino. The bonus rewards players with extra money, free spins, and other benefits that can be used to play more games, increase winnings, and even earn loyalty points. The Fairspin Casino Bonus offers a great opportunity to turn a small deposit into a large sum of money. Players can use their bonus funds to play a variety of slots, table games and even live dealer games. The bonus also provides players with an extra level of security, ensuring that their money and personal information are kept safe. With the bonus, players can also earn loyalty points for exclusive prizes.

At most legitimate online casinos, Fairspin Casino itself, as practiced all over the world, has three main types of initial bonuses for new serious players: deposit bonuses, free spins and no deposit bonuses. For example, with a 100% deposit bonus, your game balance will double the amount of your deposit. Depending on the size of your deposit, the severity may require a different amount of free spins for different types of slots. Free spins can also be won as the final bonus gr. Many online casinos win free spins to get more reels, and this type of bonus allows you to pay out big money immediately after registering with the site. These can be free spins, as well as cashless chips in some card games, and the ability to check if you see slots in the current demo, but now. The online casino at https://fairspin.io/cs/promo-bonus also offers cashback on bets to its customers, which allows you to accumulate pennies and get win after win. The main condition for using bonuses is a wager, which guarantees the principle of fair play. Translated from English, wager means bet or investment, and in the case of an online casino, the wager is the number of bets that must be played before you can withdraw money from the bonus account. If the bet size is x20, this means that in order to withdraw winnings from the bonus, the player must wager an amount that is 20 times the original bonus amount. The main goal of wagering is to attract players and give them the opportunity to play this option. Great for newbies who are interested in starting a real game, but at the same time do not want to spend their money. In the past, some online casinos allowed bonuses to be withdrawn without a wager or minimum wager. This was taken advantage of by bonus hunters who registered on various platforms just to get bonuses. The right amount of wager guarantees fair play for both the player and the casino. If the casinos requirements are too strict, its easier for the player to refuse the bonuses and use their own money.

Advantages of Fairspin Casino Bonus

...

19:30

Debt Rattle March 28 2023 The Automatic Earth

Ren Magritte The song of the storm 1937 US Democracy A Facade Patrushev (RT) Russian Security Chief Calls US Worlds Biggest Dictator (TASS) US Politicians Held Captive By Their Own Propaganda Patrushev (RT) Russias Newest Jets Provide Air Superiority Ukrainian Official (RT) The EU Is Losing

The post Debt Rattle March 28 2023 appeared first on The Automatic Earth.

19:05

Can Governments Still Steer the Economy? Project Syndicate

18:11

The Rise of Vocational Education: A Look at the Latest Trends and Innovations The Event Chronicle

Vocational education has been on the rise in recent years, as the job market has become increasingly competitive and employers are looking for workers with specialized skills. It refers to training that prepares individuals for specific trades or careers, such as electricians, plumbers, carpenters, and computer technicians. This type of education is often hands-on and practical, providing students with the skills they need to succeed in their chosen field. In this article, we will take a look at the latest trends and innovations in vocational education.

1. Use of Technology

One of the biggest trends in vocational education is the use of technology. As technology continues to advance, so do the skills required to operate and maintain it. Many vocational education programs are now incorporating training in areas such as coding, cybersecurity, and robotics. These skills are in high demand, and graduates of vocational programs that offer training in these areas are often highly sought after by employers.
Another trend is the focus on soft skills. In addition to technical skills, employers are also looking for workers who possess strong communication, teamwork, and problem-solving skills. Vocational education programs are now incorporating training in these areas, recognizing that they are just as important as technical skills in the workplace. This is especially true in industries such as healthcare and customer service, where workers must interact with clients and patients on a regular basis.

2. Use of Simulations and Virtual Reality

...

17:57

A brief observation on AGI risk and employee selection (from my email) Marginal Revolution

Stunting growth now in the development of artificial intelligence just makes the probability of a bad future outcome more likely, as the people who are prosocial and thoughtful are more likely to be discouraged from the field if we attach a stigma to it. My view is that most people are good and care about others and our collective future. We need to maintain this ratio of good people in AI research. We cant have this become the domain of malevolent actors. Its too important for humanity.

That is from Ben R.

The post A brief observation on AGI risk and employee selection (from my email) appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.

...

17:00

'When waste workers are satisfied, there is no resistance': CDC Group's Shivangi Sultania on fair treatment for India's 'safaai sathis' Eco-Business

The Jaipur-based waste management NGO had faced resistance when it first tried to work with the informal workers to solve the city's sanitation problem. As its CSO, Sultania looked into providing better social security for the workers.

16:00

Greenpeace Philippines installs hub in marine-rich province of Iloilo Eco-Business

The environmental watchdog launches its first local group outside of Metro Manila, which aims to protect conservation in the province that is home to coastal resources like mangroves and the endangered Irrawady dolphins.

15:56

Humanitys big problem: Luxury carbon consumption, not population Eco-Business

Future population size, which new research suggests has been overestimated, is not the primary factor behind planetary problems like climate change. Instead, the world's wealthiest are producing the largest material footprint.

15:17

What Ive been reading Marginal Revolution

1. Judith A. Green, The Normans: Power, Conquest & Culture in 11th-Century Europe. A very clear and to the point book on a complex topic. This is a good one to read with GPT-4 accompaniment for your queries. In Sicily, near Palermo, the Normans produced one of my favorite sites in all of Europe.

2. John A. Mackenzie, A Cultural History of the British Empire. A vital characteristic of polo was that since it lacked immediate physical contact it could be jointly played by British and Indians, which of course meant elite Indians, inevitably associated with the princely states. A very good book on both a) early globalization, and b) actually understanding the British empire. I hadnt known that during the 1930s and 40s, maximum years of resistance to the British empire, cricket tournaments largely were abandoned.

3. Carmela Ciuraru, Lives of the Wives: Five Literary Marriages. I hadnt even known Patricia Neal was married to Roald Dahl. Overall I enjoy intellectual/romance gossip books, and this is a good one. Full of actual facts about the writings, not just the affairs and the marriages and divorces. Moravia/Morante was my favorite chapter. Here is a Guardian review, superficially you might think there is no real message in this book, but then again

4. Lucy Wooding,...

14:00

Record high deforestation hits Sumatras orangutan capital as palm oil industry expands Eco-Business

The forest loss was driven by clearing for oil palm plantations by well-connected local elites, rather than smallholders, according to advocacy group Rainforest Action Network (RAN).

13:03

Why the Thai Economy Grew Slower Than Its Neighbors in 2022 Pacific Money The Diplomat

The country's economy continues to be heavily dependent on foreign demand for goods and services.

13:00

'Act now': IPCC climate report appeals to all to salvage 1.5C goal Eco-Business

IPCC climate science report seek to enlist all people in last-ditch push to keep temperatures from exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius.

08:11

Why the 21st Century Is So Dystopian Stories by umair haque on Medium

What My Little Town Taught Me About Building a Civilization Fit for the Future

Continue reading on Eudaimonia and Co

08:00

Guess Who Is Now Warning That Commercial Real Estate Is In Trouble? The Economic Collapse

What will our financial system look like once the 20 trillion dollar commercial real estate industry implodes? You might want to start thinking about that, because the truth is that the industry is in a tremendous amount of trouble. Occupancy rates are extremely low and getting lower, rising interest rates have created all sorts of havoc, and now many of the small and mid-size banks that the industry depends upon for financing are in serious jeopardy. In essence, the commercial real estate industry is facing a perfect storm of nightmares, and this crisis is only going to escalate in the months ahead.

I may sound like a broken record to some of my readers, because I have been warning about a commercial real estate crash for some time.

But now what is happening is so obvious that even CNN is sounding the alarm

After decades of thriving growth bolstered by low interest rates and easy credit, commercial real estate has hit a wall.

Office and retail property valuations have been falling since the pandemic brought about lower occupancy rates and changes in where people work and how they shop. The Feds efforts to fight inflation by raising interest rates have also hurt the credit-dependent industry.

Recent banking stress will likely add to those woes. Lending to commercial real estate developers and managers largely comes from small and mid-sized banks, where the pressure on liquidity has been most severe. About 80% of all bank loans for commercial properties come from regional banks, according to Goldman Sachs economists.

Amazingly, what you just read are three paragraphs from CNN that are completely factually accurate.

Needless to say, that doesnt happen too often these days.

But at this point there is no debate about what is happening to commercial real estate. In fact, short sellers are aggressively...

07:45

Lock Him Out! David Stockman's Contra Corner

New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg is apparently fixing to become the John Wilkes Booth of the present era. That is, the guy who single-handedly put the wrong man in the Oval Office. To be clear, we have no objection to the Donalds relentless and frequently unhinged attacks on the ruling elites of Washington, Wall []

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04:57

Monday assorted links Marginal Revolution

1. Conservatives often win their battles.

2. Some Afro-Surinamese music.

3. Vyacheslav Dvornikov interviews me (in Russian). And a related piece (in English) on Russia moving toward dependence on China.

4. A simple heuristic of only judging the level of detail in the message consistently allowed people to discriminate lies from truths.

5. Small teams vs. large teams.

6. KnowledgeOnaChip.

7. The second hitman then subcontracted to another hitman, who then subcontracted to a fourth, who gave the job to a fifth.

The post Monday assorted links appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.

...

02:57

STACKED GOLD? Youve Got it Coming Recession, That Is Future Money Trends

Americas a Nation That Can be
Defined in a Single Word
Awdsmfafoothimaaafootafootwchscu

Wow, should we have someone reply back to all the doubters who have been emailing us over the past two years saying that were too optimistic about golds prospects? Theyll take it down or its manipulated and gold isnt going to $2,000/oz Ive been hearing that for ages, and it will never happen.

I dont know if we should because things could change on a dime, but for now, its certainly looking good for gold.

What drives golds price? Why was there a sudden change that drove the dollar to plummet in the past week that led gold to close the week just below $2,000 after already trading above that level?

Gold flourishes when real rates are trending near negative, the economy is slowing down, and its really cashed up.

The reason is that when these conditions are met, the next phase is a mild/severe recession and easier lending requirements to get small businesses back on their feet and get the housing sector going, but the uncertainty of it all puts a lid on stocks, which works well for gold!

You can see it best in the plummeting yields of Treasury bonds. The markets have, in real-world terms, judged that between now and June, the impact of the tightening is all coming down on us.

...

02:45

Accounting for Casino Capitalism Project Syndicate

01:49

Who Should Be Bailed Out Next? Project Syndicate

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Monday, 27 March

19:36

The climate cost of post-Covid revenge event-going Eco-Business

Event organisers face growing pressure to curb their environmental footprint. But confusion over how to measure the climate cost of an event and who's responsible for reducing emissions is making it hard to keep a growing problem in check.

Saturday, 25 March

16:16

Ski and Snowboard Gear for Different Skill Levels: What You Should Invest In The Event Chronicle

When it comes to skiing and snowboarding, having the right gear can make all the difference in your performance on the slopes. However, investing in expensive equipment right off the bat may not be the best option for everyone, especially if youre just starting out. Depending on your skill level, there are certain pieces of gear that are worth investing in to help you improve your abilities on the mountain.

Beginner Skiers and Snowboarders

If youre new to skiing or snowboarding, its important to prioritize gear that will help you stay safe and comfortable while youre learning the ropes.

One of the most important pieces of equipment is your helmet. A good helmet can protect your head from injury in the event of a fall, and its a must-have for skiers and snowboarders of all skill levels. Look for a helmet that fits snugly and comfortably, and that has adjustable vents to help regulate your body temperature.

Another essential item for beginners is a pair of goggles. Goggles not only protect your eyes from the sun and wind, but they also improve your visibility on the slopes. Look for goggles that fit well over your helmet and that have lenses designed for your specific type of activity.

Advanced Skiers and Snowboarders

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Friday, 31 March

02:35

02:11

02:07

$2,071 Weve Got You in Our Sights

02:01

01:58

00:49

Understanding the Taboos and Misconceptions

Myth #1: Swingers are Promiscuous and Sex-Crazed

Myth #2: Swinging is Only for Married Couples

Myth #3: Swinging is a Sign of Relationship Problems

Myth #4: Swinging is Unsafe and Unhealthy

00:04

What is a Settlement Agreement?

Benefits of Settlement Agreements

Thursday, 30 March

23:55

22:58

Integration Of Machine Learning And Ai In Test Automation

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21:26

The Undeniable Rise Of Digital Freight Brokerage

The Entry Of Artificial Intelligence A...

21:15

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18:59

PositiveSingles May Be the Right Choice for You

18:39

1. Prep the Surface

2. Use High-Quality Paint and Tools

3. Choose the Right Time to Paint

4. Work from Top to Bottom

18:25

What is an Immigration Appeal or Review?

What to Expect During the Immigration Appeal or Review Process?

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02:08

01:12

01:01

Know the Vaping Regulations in Each Country

Pack Your Vaping Gear Wisely

Be Mindful of Public Etiquette

00:40

Wednesday, 29 March

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15:58

Americas a Nation That Can be
Defined in a Single Word
Awdsmfafoothimaaafootafootwchscu