The weekend is here! Pour yourself a mug of Organic Ft French Guatemalan Quetzaltenango coffee, grab a seat by the pool, and get ready for our longer form weekend reads:
• Electric Crypto Balkan Acid Test: Cryptomining in Europe’s most disputed state (The Baffler)
• The Keynesian Revolution: A new biography reveals the full scope of John Maynard Keynes’s critique of unfettered capitalism, emphasizing the economist’s larger philosophical vision of the good life. (Boston Review)
• How Nespresso’s coffee revolution got ground down: Nestlé’s sleek, chic capsule system changed the way we drink coffee. But in an age when everyone’s a coffee snob and waste is wickedness, can it survive? (The Guardian)
• Quantifying Vitality: Irving Fisher, more than anyone else, brought the emerging science of statistics into the arena where political economy and public policy meet. (Hedgehog Review)
• Flailing States: Covid-19 has exposed Anglo-America as woefully lacking in crucial ways. In rebuilding, the world will turn to Germany, Japan, and South Korea (London Review of Books) see also The adults in the room: While Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings lost control of coronavirus in March, a handful of officials saved Britain from a far worse economic fate. (New Statesman)
• On Knowing the Winged Whale: Humpbacks are some of the most watched whales in the world, and yet so much of their lives remains a mystery. (Hakai)
• What Donald Trump Could Learn From Playing Poker: He wouldn’t be the first president to take up the game, but there’s a whole lot it could teach him about decision- making, human behavior—and winning. (Politico)
• The carbon footprint sham: A ‘successful, deceptive’ PR campaign (Mashable)
• Suspending Evictions is About Saving Landlords From Themselves: A devastating 32%of households in their survey reported missing their housing payment in the first week of July. 13% made a partial payment, while 19% made no payment at all. (Nathan Tankus)
• How Police Secretly Took Over a Global Phone Network for Organized Crime: Police monitored a hundred million encrypted messages sent through Encrochat, a network used by career criminals to discuss drug deals, murders, and extortion plots. (Vice)
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business interview this weekend with Martin Franklin of Mariposa Capital. Franklin is credited with successfully reviving the use of SPACs, or blank check companies, as public vehicles for long term M&A.
How Far Away Are We From Herd Immunity?
Source: World Economic Forum
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