Yves Smith

1 day ago | nakedcapitalism.com | Yves Smith

Yves here. This post usefully goes a bit deeper into the regulatory system for food additives. It should come as no surprise that in the US, it remarkably permissive. The article alludes to but does not address the idea that some foods, particularly snack foods, are engineered to seem very rewarding, such as the mouth feel of a Cheeto.

2 days ago | nakedcapitalism.com | Yves Smith |Conor Gallagher

NASA’s Curiosity rover finds major clue that Mars was once habitable Space.com Study explores the impact of growing up without siblings on the brain and behavior of adults Medical Xpress Could the Pope’s Death Mean the Demise of Liberal Catholicism?

2 days ago | nakedcapitalism.com | Yves Smith |Nick Corbishley

Silicon Valley’s darkest and most secretive unicorn takes flight. For almost two years, the British government has been holding an inquiry-cum-whitewash into the nation’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the recent witnesses to that inquiry was Louis Mosley, the executive vice-president of Palantir Technologies UK (and, incidentally, the grandson of the 1930s British fascist Oswald Mosley), who during his testimony saw a rare opportunity to plug his company’s products.

2 days ago | nakedcapitalism.com | Yves Smith

Yves here. Regulars may recall that Satyajit Das has written other articles about movies that we have been honored to publish, such as Desperately Seeking Entertainment and New Asian Cinematic Obsessions. Here, he looks at some prominent examples from the genre of leaving childhood behind and what that really amounts to.

4 days ago | nakedcapitalism.com | Yves Smith

Yves here. Many of you have read David Graeber’s Debt: The First 5000 Years. This article does not attempt to give such a broad look, but instead focuses on the period just before modern banking started getting its headway, as demands for credit increased due to the rise of the bourgeoisie and the increase in trade. Yet these informal arrangements served often to finance borrowing for emergencies and regular seasonal needs.