Zachary Karabell, The Population Bust – Demographic Decline and the End of Capitalism as We Know It
(Foreign Affairs, September/October 2019)
The mismatch between expectations of a rapidly growing global population and the reality of slowing growth rates is so great that it will pose a considerable threat in the decades ahead. The downside: a world of zero to negative population growth is likely to be a world of zero to negative economic growth because fewer and older people consume less. Future returns will be lower and societies will focus on reducing costs rather than maximizing output. The upside: the environment – if we get through the next years without irreversibly damaging the ecosystem, “the second half of the 21st century might be considerably brighter” (reads in about 10 min).
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Brent Goldfarb and David Kirsch, The Economics of Bubbles
(AEON, August 8, 2019)
The two academics who just published “Bubbles and Crashes: The Boom and Bust of Technological Innovation” argue that market booms and busts might be irrational, but we can understand why they happen – and what to do to mitigate the damage. It’s all about storytelling: the space between fiction and reality is where economic bubbles take shape. Bubbles need narratives! (reads in 7-8 min).
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Alan Weisman, Burning Down the House
(The New York Review of Books, August 15, 2019)
The environment is so fiendishly intricate that it requires books rather than articles to attempt to explain it. This article reviews two of them: “The Uninhabitable Earth” which describes a very dire situation, and “Falter” which clearly details what we’re now up against. Both are sad but lucid assessments of the huge environmental problem we face (reads in 12-15 min).
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Julie Turkewitz, A Boom Time for the Bunker Business and Doomsday Capitalists
(The New York Times, August 13, 2019)
As one anthropologist puts it in the article: “Fear sells even better than sex. If you can make people afraid, you can sell them all kinds of stuff, and that includes bunkers.”
Indeed! Personalized disaster preparation is now a multimillion-dollar business, fueled by a seemingly endless stream of new and revamped threats, from climate change to terrorism, cyber-attacks, and civil unrest (reads in 6-7 min).
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Mithu Storoni, Why Stress Is Dangerous, and How to Avoid Its Effects
(BBC Future, August 14, 2019)
In today’s world, stress is increasing because where the nature of work “demands less from the body and more from the mind. Consequently, the mind is becoming a greater victim of occupational hazards”.  The author of “Stress-Proof: The Ultimate Guide to Living a Stress-Free Life” explains in plain terms why stress has positive effects but puts us under prolonged strain when it becomes chronic. She also elaborates on why an “effort-reward imbalance” is a source of chronic stress in the workplace.  How to reduce and better control stress? Among the ‘soft’ factors, exposure to nature, and low-intensity exercise work well (reads in 7-9 min).
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