By Lambert Strether of Corrente. Bird Song of the Day More Darwin’s finches, foraging and eating on the Galápagos islands. NOTE Alert reader MP writes: “As far as I can tell, the ‘Birds Aren’t Real’ campaign is basically merchandising imitating conspiracy theory.” Creative! But I won’t dignify the campaign with a link. * * * #COVID19 Because what we laughingly call our government does not […]

Yves here. We’ve been posting from time to time about how the UK has been moving to privatize the NHS by cutting service levels and response times and telling patients to go to private doctors if they want better. As this article describes, Medicare is en route to be privatized through the implementation of direct contracting, tossing the program over to investors and profiteers. Please […]

By Lambert Strether of Corrente. Bird Song of the Day The other species in the Darwin finch genus. Not a lot of chatter, though. “Tanager of the Year” [Indignity]. • The author describes how they discovered a new species, in Peru. * * * #COVID19 Because what we laughingly call our government does not deem a pandemic sufficient cause to collect or process data over […]

Yves here. I’m amazed that anyone would be snookered by the proposition that Big Finance would act to halt or limit climate change. Most models (one can argue incorrectly) show the big economic hits to occur 30+ years out. Once you discount cash flows that far out back to the present, the effect is effectively zero. But ESG (“environmental, social and governance”) investing is the […]

By Lambert Strether of Corrente. Bird Song of the Day Darwin*’s finches, “foraging or eating.” Plus plenty of background chatter. Five minutes, so you can prepare coffee if I am late. NOTE * Yay. The sound of crinkling foil: can’t talk my ride’s here pic.twitter.com/I3txQgeOot — kim (@KimmyMonte) November 23, 2021 I think it’s PhotoShopped (the “WAKE UP” at left doesn’t blend with the front […]

Yves here. Needless to say, the geology of the gas fields in the Eastern Mediterranean are above my pay grade. More specifically, it would be helpful to know how many of these gas field are claimed by more than one country; I recall from the 2015 Greece bailout negotiations that Greece and Turkey then had competing cliams. The development deal that is being moved forward […]

By Jerri-Lynn Scofield, who has worked as a securities lawyer and a derivatives trader. She is currently writing a book about textile artisans. Last week, in the first opioids jury verdict, to be handed down an Ohio jury found CVS, Walgreen’s, and Walmart liable for contributing to the opioids epidemic. The lawsuit is part of the opioids Multidistrict Litigation  (MDL) presided over by federal district […]

Oregon-born gray wolf makes it almost to LA before death strikes Oregonlive (resilc) 🙁 Stephen Sondheim, Titan of the American Musical, Is Dead at 91 New York Times Maj. Ian Fishback, Who Exposed Abuse of Detainees, Dies at 42 New York Times (resilc) How animal uses of fire help to illuminate human pyrocognition Aeon (Anthony L) Canada issues weather ‘red alert’ for British Columbia CNN […]

The Elephant Who Could Be a Person The Atlantic How dogs became humans’ best friends: from Neanderthals to now Nature The Secret Broker: What could possibly go wrong? Everything. Stockhead Corporate Profits Hit a Record High in the Third Quarter AEIR (Furzy Mouse). Pension Funds Should Never Rely on Correlation (forthcoming) (PDF) Ronald Lagnadoy, Nassim Nicholas Taleb Journal of Alternative Investments. From the Abstract: “The […]

Not only is there a lot not to like about the new variant sighted in a cluster of cases in Gaunteng, South Africa, there is also not a lot to like about the handling of information about it. We held off from posting on this sobering development on Wednesday because we didn’t want to ruin your Thanksgiving. One the one hand, the press in the […]

A calm and contented Thanksgiving to our readers! –lambert Georgia politician stands by giant topiary chicken that got him ousted as mayor CBC The Pigeon Puzzle: How Do They Figure Out Their Impossibly Long Routes Home? The Walrus The bright new age of venture capital The Economist. Includes potted history. Handy chart, albeit long: What does machine learning say about the drivers of inflation? Bank […]

By Lambert Strether of Corrente. Bird Song of the Day Three minutes long, so prepare coffee if you have not already done so. * * * #COVID19 Vaccination by region: Still chugging along. (I have also not said, because it’s too obvious, that if by Bubba we mean The South, then Bubba has done pretty well on vax.) 59% of the US is fully (doubly) […]

Yves here. This informative if disheartening article explains how specific Covid-induced changes in distribution of heroin and fentanyl, as well as reduced access to treatment programs, pushed overdose fatalities above what were already high levels. By Andrew Kolodnym, Co-Director of Opioid Policy Research, Brandeis University. Originally published at The Conversation For the past 20 years, I have been engaged in efforts to end the opioid […]

By Lambert Strether of Corrente. Bird Song of the Day Rain forest complexity! * * * #COVID19 Vaccination by region: Small dips. (I have also not said, because it’s too obvious, that if by Bubba we mean The South, then Bubba has done pretty well on vax.) 59.2% of the US is fully (doubly) vaccinated (CDC data, as of November 22. Mediocre by world standards, […]

Yves here. As this article explains, the finding that loss aversion may not be as prevalent a cognitive bias as behavioral economists had long posited is now raising questions about other findings in that discipline. The problem I have with attempts to do lab-type studies is that behavioral economics have also found that how subjects respond to various economic propositions that are identical in value […]