Why decision making always involves trade-offs. Why prompt inclusion of climate risk on banks’ balance sheets is so important – for the climate. Why crypto might have reached the beginning of the end – but with some positive fallout. Gene therapies are lifesaving but can we bear the cost? An overview of how philosophy can help will almost everything.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
ARTICLE OF THE WEEK
Andrew Ross Sorkin, At the DealBook Summit, Untangling the Now — and the Future
(The New York Times, 7 December 2022)
An obvious fact that is not well understood: in every consequential decision made by a business or political leader, a trade-off is involved – always! Sometimes it is moral, sometimes economic, and sometimes both. In this short piece, Benjamin Netanyahu, Janet Yellen, and Larry Fink explain how they’ve recently dealt with some specific trade-offs. Most of the time, when they take a stance or make a decision, there’s not a lot of voice given to the other side of the trade-off. We assess decisions as though they’re made in a vacuum, while the process for leaders looks much more like shifting the pieces of a puzzle (gifted article – reads in 4-5 min).
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Rens van Tilburg, Seraina Grünewald, Dirk Schoenmaker and Arnoud Boot, Climate risks are real and need to become part of bank capital regulation
(VOXeu, 7 December 2022)
By and large, environmental risks are not accounted for, even though it has, by now, been well established that climate and environmental risks are material financial risks. This is well understood and accepted in Europe, maybe less so in other regions of the world. As the four economists explain, climate risks are building up on banks’ balance sheets, but supervisory reviews show that banks are not well prepared; so, if supervisors could promptly include climate risks in minimum capital requirements, this would speed up the transition to a low-carbon economy (free access – reads in 4-6 min).
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Jon Danielsson, Do cryptocurrencies have a future? An expert explains
(World Economic Forum, 5 December 2022)
In the deluge of opinions about the future of cryptocurrencies, a cogent (but bearish) one about why they might have now reached the beginning of the end. The finance expert is convinced that the factors behind the crypto success have come to a standstill. He argues that, as crypto is entering its final, declining phase, it will nonetheless leave a positive legacy by forcing much-needed reform on the financial system (free access – reads in 5-7 min).
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Emily Mullen, The Era of One-Shot, Multimillion-Dollar Genetic Cures Is Here
(Wired, 5 December 2022)
Gene therapies promise long-term relief from intractable diseases, but the costs are huge and insurers have to agree to pay up. The example of hemophilia is telling. A new therapy, called Hemgenix, has just gained US approval but a one-time dose cost $3.5 million (it’s now the most expensive drug in the world). The trial participants didn’t have to pay for the therapy, but future patients and their insurers will. What is the future for such gene therapies that are literally lifesavers but cost a fortune (because they’re complex and costly to manufacture)? Read on (metered paywall – 5-7 min).
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Brian Gallagher, Life Is Hard. And That’s Good
(Nautilus, 30 November 2022)
A fascinating interview with the philosopher Kieran Setiya about his book “Life Is Hard: How Philosophy Can Help Us Find Our Way”. In it he covers grief, the difference between disease and illness, why living well isn’t simply being happy, what’s bad about loneliness, how philosophizing about pain helped him manage his own chronic pelvis pain, why intellectualizing social justice isn’t a replacement for truly advocating for reform, and even the meaning of life! Full of great insights, such as the distinction between happiness and living well, and the concomitant thought that “when you live well, happiness will be a side effect” (metered paywall – reads in around 10 min).
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