The weekend is here! Pour yourself a mug of Danish Blend coffee, grab a seat where you can see the turning leaves, and get ready for our longer form weekend reads:
• Biden Leads in the Most Extraordinary Election of Our Time. What Comes Next. A divided government can mean measured change—and that is typically good for investors. But the end of political acrimony is nowhere in sight. (Barron’s)
• They Went to Jared: As the COVID crisis spiraled, President Trump’s son-in-law took charge—and unleashed chaos. Jared Kushner commissioned an ambitious testing plan, then tabled it. He met with business leaders eager to source supplies, then rebuffed them. And he enlisted a former roommate to lead a Consultant State to take on the so-called Deep State, with results ranging from the Eastman Kodak fiasco to a mysterious deal to send ventilators to Russia. (Vanity Fair)
• Climate Disruption Is Now Locked In. The Next Moves Will Be Crucial. America is now under siege by climate change in ways that scientists have warned about for years. But there is a second part to their admonition: Decades of growing crisis are already locked into the global ecosystem and cannot be reversed. (NYT)
• Inside Operation Warp Speed’s $18 Billion Sprint for a Vaccine It’s expensive, secretive, and—if the president stays out of the way—our best hope of getting out of this pandemic. (Businessweek)
• America’s Press and the Asymmetric War for Truth The Republican Party—now committed to minoritarian rule, not democracy—needs fictions to sustain its power. And that means a collision with honest journalism. (New York Review of Books)
• The Autopsy Is on Life Support: Autopsies may be crucial to understanding COVID-19. But the pandemic comes amid a sharp drop in the number conducted. (Slate)
• The Man Who Helped Turn 4chan Into the Internet’s Racist Engine 4chan moderators and leaked chat logs show that the infamous imageboard didn’t become the hateful site it’s known as by accident. A powerful moderator intentionally helped make it that way. (Vice)
• Doctors Begin to Crack Covid’s Mysterious Long-Term Effects Severe fatigue, memory lapses, heart problems affect patients who weren’t that badly hit initially; ‘It’s been so long’ (Wall Street Journal)
• A Nameless Hiker and the Case the Internet Can’t Crack The man on the trail went by “Mostly Harmless.” He was friendly and said he worked in tech. After he died in his tent, no one could figure out who he was. (Wired)
• Billie Holiday’s Blues The feds hounded her because they feared her voice. A first look at Lee Daniels’s new movie, The United States vs. Billie Holiday. (Vanity Fair)
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business next week with Adam Posen, president of the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Posen’s research into monetary and fiscal policies have propelled the institute to international recognition. He was a voting member of the Bank of England.
America’s $2 Trillion Economic Drop, by State and Sector
Source: Visual Capitalist
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