Immigration: outsourcers will receive contracts surge — and painful scrutiny
Mass migrations result from such human miseries as wars, persecutions and economic deprivation. They are set to deliver an awkward dividend to outsourcing businesses that help governments handle spiralling migrant numbers. There were two signs of the times on Thursday. Contractor Serco increased full-year profits guidance on “robust demand for immigration services”. Hours later, an […]
Links 6/29/2023 | naked capitalism
15 Years of Radio Data Reveals Evidence of Space-Time Murmur (press release) NASA. “The motion of black holes and other massive objects through space can create ripples in the fabric of the universe, called gravitational waves. On June 28 scientists announced the first evidence of a background of long-wavelength gravitational waves that fills the cosmos.” […]
Financial sanctions may not deter China from invading Taiwan
A few months ago the China Select Committee in America’s House of Representatives took part in a war game, complete with tabletop maps and blue and red counters. It simulated a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, and revealed familiar weaknesses in America’s position: its bases need strengthening and it soon ran out of precision munitions. Yet […]
How Russia dodges diesel sanctions
Read more of our recent coverage of the Ukraine war On june 26th the Captain Paris, a Greek-owned vessel transporting 730,000 barrels of diesel from Russia, reached the Suez canal. The crew are familiar with the passage, through which they usually ferry oil from the Gulf or India to Europe or Africa. This time, though, […]
New forms of debt restructuring reward bad behaviour
Negotiations over international debt are often headspinning. To reduce the debts of a country that can’t pay the bills, it takes referees from the imf, teams of lawyers and a contest between a country and its creditors. Everyone wants a deal, but no one is keen on taking losses. Just as creditors agree on who […]
Market Talk – June 28, 2023
ASIA: In the first five months of the year, China’s industrial firms experienced a significant decline in annual profits, with a 18.8% year-on-year slump. This decline follows a contraction of 20.6% in profits from January to April. The weakening demand and squeezed margins indicate that the country’s post-COVID economic recovery is faltering. Various indicators, […]
In Search of a Monetary Standard: A Review of Robert Hetzel’s The Federal Reserve: A New History
Few books about the history of the Federal Reserve contain the number of insights found in Robert Hetzel’s The Federal Reserve: A New History. Hetzel does not merely recount historical events related to America’s central bank, as so many other books have done. Instead, he draws on his considerable knowledge of economic theory and intellectual […]
