Active volcano spotted on Venus. The planet’s not dead yet. Space.com
Alligator in the Attic: Building Inspector Shocked to Find 8-ft Beast in Three-Story Home Field & Stream
B-a-a-a-a-d Banks
Fire the Fed Matt Stoller, BIG. Good clean fun. Well worth a read.
Fed’s Yellen expects no new financial crisis in ‘our lifetimes’ Reuters
The stupidest timeline would quite naturally have the stupidest Secretary of the Treasury:
Stripped bare of the technocratic mumbo jumbo, Janet Yellen is utterly utterly reckless. This clip is just astonishing (ht @DoombergT) https://t.co/mxxwygMKN9
— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) March 17, 2023
Yes, the clip is worth watching, but put down your coffee.
Fed Blocked Mention of Regulatory Flaws in Silicon Valley Bank Rescue NYT
* * * I Was an S.V.B. Client. I Blame the Venture Capitalists NYT (Re Silc). Well worth a read. A telling detail:
I’ll keep my S.V.B. debit card as a souvenir, partly because the giant arrow logo points in the opposite direction that it’s supposed to go into a card reader — an example of a design that obviously went through no user testing. It’s also a reminder that successful people aren’t always the best decision makers.
ANHD Statement on Signature Bank’s Closure The Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development (timotheus). A well-deserved kick to the prostrate body.
Wall Street banks to deposit $30bn into First Republic FT. This is the bank where the depositors are wealthy lemmings, as opposed to New York real estate lemmings (Signature), or tech bro lemmings (SVB).
* * * Another Chaotic Week for Banks Marks the End of an Era for the Global Economy John Authers, Bloomberg
Financial Panic in the Age of Digital Banking and Social Media RAND
Crypto’s winners and losers after a bank run Politico
Pentagon Mobilized to Support Tech Startups After Bank Failure Defense One
Climate
Brazilian researchers find ‘terrifying’ plastic rocks on remote island Reuters. Look on my works, ye mighty….
Waste pickers collect food waste, help combat climate change AP
Is Climate Change Really Making Fish Bigger? A New Study Says Yes Field & Stream Original.
#COVID19
The Strongest Evidence Yet That an Animal Started the Pandemic Katherine Wu, The Atlantic. For some reason, The Atlantic breaks (Furzy Mouse) this story. A preprint, apparently, to come in Nature.
FDA offers radio silence on question of spring Covid boosters, as other countries push ahead STAT
China?
Xi Jinping to visit Vladimir Putin in Russia next week FT
China jobs: Beijing urged to reform vocational education and end discrimination to plug skilled worker gap South China Morning Post
China’s answer to ChatGPT? Baidu shares tumble as Ernie Bot disappoints Reuters
Cops probe whether fire at Chinese billionaire’s NYC pad was set remotely NY Post. Guo Wengui.
Asia-Arctic Diplomacy a Decade Later: What Has Changed? The Diplomat
Commentary: Can Cambodia’s future foreign policy diverge from China? Channel News Asia
More looted Cambodian relics returned from the United States Globe_. Smart move. For once.
India
As Covid cases spike, Centre asks six states to keep a strict vigil Business Standard
Making the Mising brew in Majuli People’s Archive of Rural India
Strike grips Sri Lanka as unions protest IMF bailout Channel News Asia
Syraqistan
Saudi-Iranian Détente Is a Wake-Up Call for America Foreign Policy
China’s Good Offices Foreign Policy
Iran Agrees to Stop Arming Houthis in Yemen as Part of Pact With Saudi Arabia WSJ
European Disunion
A dog day afternoon in French politics as Macron uses ‘nuclear option’ to raise retirement age France24 (Re Silc).
German viper attackers arrested Daily News Hungary. Hmm.
Clashes break out in Greece as thousands protest against train tragedy France24
New Not-So-Cold War
Poland to be 1st NATO member to give Ukraine fighter jets AP
U.S. Reaches Deep Into Its Global Ammunition Stockpiles to Help Ukraine WSJ
Russia Wants a Long War Foreign Affairs. The deck: “The West Needs to Send Ukraine More Arms, More Quickly.” Especially the kind of arms that 16-year-olds pulled off the street can fire with minimal training?
The war exacerbates Ukraine’s population decline new report shows EU Science Hub
* * * Top China and US envoys speak with Ukrainian foreign minister about war’s outlook South China Morning Post
‘Hunting rifles’ — really? China ships assault weapons and body armor to Russia Politico
Russia will recover US drone wreckage from Black Sea if necessary: Kremlin Andalu Agency
* * * When MI6 Betrayed Ukraine’s Resistance to Russia Declassified UK
Far-right Ukrainian World Congress demands Hollywood take “appropriate action” against Top Gun: Maverick WSWS
Biden Administration
Seasoned Russia Envoy Joins Biden’s NSC Foreign Policy. Recommended by Victoria Nuland, so seasoned with what?
Biden’s Italian mystery Axios. No ambassador.
Supply Chain
Unprecedented levels of institutional capital making its way into maritime services Splash 24/7
Tech
The Unpredictable Abilities Emerging From Large AI Models Quanta
Healthcare
Public Health Law Modernization 2.0: Rebalancing Public Health Powers And Individual Liberty In The Age Of COVID-19 Health Affairs
Imperial Collapse Watch
America’s Military Depends on Minerals That China Controls Foreign Policy
The Development and Validation of the Epistemic Vice Scale Review of Philosophy and Psychology (Phil R). From 2021, still germane. From the Abstract: “Epistemic vices have been defined as character traits that interfere with acquiring, maintaining, and transmitting knowledge. Examples of epistemic vice are gullibility and indifference to knowledge. It has been hypothesized that epistemically vicious people are especially susceptible to misinformation and conspiracy theories.” For example, mainstream macro? Droplet theory?
Class Warfare
The Fishing Revolution and the Origins of Capitalism Monthly Review. Interesting!
Bandcamp Workers Form Union: ‘It’s Not Enough to Get Small Wins Alone’ Rolling Stone
A Book and New Documentary Explore the Possibilities of Ink-Making in Urban Environments Colossal. Jackpot-ready!
Antidote du jour (By Foto: Bernd Schwabe in Hannover – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
