*Privacy fears as Moscow metro rolls out facial recognition pay system.*

Supposedly this is safe for passengers because only the state's repression ministry will have access to the records.

These cameras join almost 200,000 surveillance cameras on the street, which have already been used for face recognition for purposes of repression.

*The case for minting a $1tn coin to deal with America’s debt ceiling.*

This would be equivalent to abolishing the debt ceiling: it would deprive Republicans of a recurring opportunity to hold America hostage and demand real concessions that do real harm. Why give them any more opportunities?

Merck wants to charge Americans $700 for a drug that costs $18 to produce.

That is a ratio of around 39.

The fact that the US government paid for the development of this drug adds a second kind of unfairness to the issue, but we should not hammer too much on that, lest people suppose it is OK to gouge on a life-saving drug in countries that didn't fund its development.

The US should do what more advanced countries have done: set up a national medical system, fund it well, and empower it to negotiate the price per dose.

*Welcome to the Great Inflation — Or, Why We Have to Pay for the Hidden Costs of the Industrial Age.*

The article argues that inflation is going to run fast for quite a while. Alongside increasing poverty.

This argument seems plausible to me. If you know of a reputable counterargument, I'd like to see it. No conspiratorial explanations, please — I am very skeptical of them.

I don't think this explains all of what is happening — for instance, although some jobs have disappeared, that doesn't explain why millions of job offers are unfilled while millions of people need work.

The perverse and dangerous concentration of industry over the past few decades has exacerbated the problems we face now. For instance, if we produced chips in 50 places rather than a handful, most of them would not have problems at once.

(satire) *Trump Testing 2024 Waters By Inciting Iowans To Burn State Capitol To Ground.*