Timur Kuran and Dani Rodrik, “The Economic Costs of Erdoğan”
(Project Syndicate, 24 August 2018)
For more than a decade, financial markets supplied the Turkish economy with easy credit, making economic growth dependent on a steady flow of foreign capital that financed domestic consumption and flashy investments in housing, roads, bridges, and airports. This kind of economic expansion rarely ends well, and the only real question was: what would it take to push the country’s economy into a fully-fledged currency crisis? President Trump! (reads in 5-6 min).
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Jonathan Rauch, “Why Prosperity Has Increased but Happiness Has Not”
(The New York Times – metered paywall, 21 August 2018)
Observing that the impressive postwar rise in material wellbeing in the US has had zero effect on personal wellbeing, the author of “The Happiness Curve: Why Life Gets Better After 50” elaborates on two key findings: (1) All happiness is local: people’s wellbeing depends mainly on their immediate surroundings; (2) All happiness is relative: we humans are walking, talking status meters, constantly judging our worth and social standing by comparing ourselves with others today and with our own prior selves. His conclusion: inequality is “immiserating” (reads in 7-8 min).
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Sheelah Kolhatkar, “Paul Singer, Doomsday Investor”
(The New Yorker (metered paywall), 27 August 2018)
This is a long article (20 min+) that tackles an important subject (activist investment) but reads like a novel! Singer, the head of Elliott Management, has developed a uniquely adversarial, and immensely profitable, way of doing business. His style is controversial: critics say it forces companies to lay off workers and curtail investment in new products in favor of schemes that boost short-term profits, while proponents view it as a useful source of pressure on CEOs to reduce waste and manage their companies more effectively. Read on to understand why he is “The World’s Most Feared Investor.”
Please click here to read the article
Alana Semuels, “We Are All Accumulating Mountains of Things”
(The Atlantic, 21 August 2018)
Online shopping – the possibility to shop from anywhere, at any time, and often cheaply -is turning Americans into hoarders. Last year, they spent $240 billion—twice as much as in 2002—on goods like jewelry, watches, books, luggage, and telephones and related communication equipment (over that time, the population grew just 13 %). Another reason is that shopping online also feels good: we get a dopamine hit from buying stuff, and our brain tweaks us “to want more, more, more” (reads in 7-8 min).
Please click here to read the article
Arianna Huffington, “An Open Letter to Elon Musk”
(Thrive Global, 17 August 2018)
In a surprising confession, Elon Musk just told the New York Times that he’s exhausted by his 120-hour weeks. Arianna tells him why this is a “wildly outdated, anti-scientific and horribly inefficient way of using human energy”, reminding him that people are not machines. For humans, downtime is a critical feature, and the science tells us that there’s simply no way someone can make good decisions and achieve world-changing ambitions while running on empty. Tesla short-sellers might want to take note (reads in 4-5 min).
Please click here to read the article
(Project Syndicate, 24 August 2018)
For more than a decade, financial markets supplied the Turkish economy with easy credit, making economic growth dependent on a steady flow of foreign capital that financed domestic consumption and flashy investments in housing, roads, bridges, and airports. This kind of economic expansion rarely ends well, and the only real question was: what would it take to push the country’s economy into a fully-fledged currency crisis? President Trump! (reads in 5-6 min).
Please click here to read the article
Jonathan Rauch, “Why Prosperity Has Increased but Happiness Has Not”
(The New York Times – metered paywall, 21 August 2018)
Observing that the impressive postwar rise in material wellbeing in the US has had zero effect on personal wellbeing, the author of “The Happiness Curve: Why Life Gets Better After 50” elaborates on two key findings: (1) All happiness is local: people’s wellbeing depends mainly on their immediate surroundings; (2) All happiness is relative: we humans are walking, talking status meters, constantly judging our worth and social standing by comparing ourselves with others today and with our own prior selves. His conclusion: inequality is “immiserating” (reads in 7-8 min).
Please click here to read the article
Sheelah Kolhatkar, “Paul Singer, Doomsday Investor”
(The New Yorker (metered paywall), 27 August 2018)
This is a long article (20 min+) that tackles an important subject (activist investment) but reads like a novel! Singer, the head of Elliott Management, has developed a uniquely adversarial, and immensely profitable, way of doing business. His style is controversial: critics say it forces companies to lay off workers and curtail investment in new products in favor of schemes that boost short-term profits, while proponents view it as a useful source of pressure on CEOs to reduce waste and manage their companies more effectively. Read on to understand why he is “The World’s Most Feared Investor.”
Please click here to read the article
Alana Semuels, “We Are All Accumulating Mountains of Things”
(The Atlantic, 21 August 2018)
Online shopping – the possibility to shop from anywhere, at any time, and often cheaply -is turning Americans into hoarders. Last year, they spent $240 billion—twice as much as in 2002—on goods like jewelry, watches, books, luggage, and telephones and related communication equipment (over that time, the population grew just 13 %). Another reason is that shopping online also feels good: we get a dopamine hit from buying stuff, and our brain tweaks us “to want more, more, more” (reads in 7-8 min).
Please click here to read the article
Arianna Huffington, “An Open Letter to Elon Musk”
(Thrive Global, 17 August 2018)
In a surprising confession, Elon Musk just told the New York Times that he’s exhausted by his 120-hour weeks. Arianna tells him why this is a “wildly outdated, anti-scientific and horribly inefficient way of using human energy”, reminding him that people are not machines. For humans, downtime is a critical feature, and the science tells us that there’s simply no way someone can make good decisions and achieve world-changing ambitions while running on empty. Tesla short-sellers might want to take note (reads in 4-5 min).
Please click here to read the article
