Its finally here: Inauguration day! Kick off the new presidency with our morning reads:
• Biden Should… What’s one surprising thing Biden should do as president? 14 wonks and journalists from left, right and center to offer creative ideas for the next president — not necessarily the obvious policy measures at the forefront of political discussion. Plus: 7 artists illustrate their own proposals. End the War on Drugs, Convene a Racial Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission Cancel All Student Debt, Use Bitcoin to Help the Poor Let the Space Race Continue, Distribute Vaccines, Spend Money on Rural Areas, Address Climate Change, Tackle Gun Reform, Learn from the Rest of the World, Develop a Plan to Repair Civil Society (Washington Post)
• 10 Investing Lessons from 2020 Prices can always go lower, The bigger decline, the bigger the potential recovery, Volatility is alive and well , and more (Of Dollars And Data)
• Terrible financial advice is going viral on TikTok The site is full of dubious personal finance myths. Here are 10 of them, and why you should be wary. (Vox)
• Why $15 minimum wage is pretty safe When David Card and Alan Krueger came out with a landmark study in 1994 showing that a big minimum wage hike didn’t cause unemployment (as most economists predicted), Card was actively shunned by many of his colleagues, who were deeply invested in the theory that minimum wage kills jobs (Noahpinion)
• The Five Biggest Issues for Technology Companies in 2021 Antitrust lawsuits and maintaining growth are among the challenges, while electric vehicles and government help for U.S. chip makers are seen as bright spots. (Wall Street Journal)
• No Rest for the Wiki Wikipedia is one of the ten most popular sites in existence. In study after study, it is found to be more reliable and more exhaustive than older, traditional encyclopedias. In 2018, The Atlantic called it “the last bastion of shared reality” online. The site features more than six million articles in English alone, and more than fifty million articles in its three hundred independently produced language editions combined. (BookForum)
• How Twitter, on the front lines of history, finally decided to ban Trump Tearful all-hands meetings, bitter dialogues and understanding that this will be the single biggest decision in the company’s history. (Washington Post)
• Fox News is on a Historic Run at Last Place in Cable News. Here Are the Reasons Why. Fox News has been in last place in the cable news ratings for eight straight days. It’s still too early to say if this represents a seismic shift in the cable news landscape, or if it is just a temporary realignment in the wake of a uniquely historic few months. But Fox News ratings are trending down at a clip not seen in literally decades. Since the early aughts, Fox News has consistently been the most-watched, and arguably the most influential, cable news outlet — by a mile. (Mediaite)
• It’s only fake-believe: how to deal with a conspiracy theorist Exponents of conspiracy theories often use the same rhetorical devices, and a familiarity with these arguments will help you to politely articulate the faulty reasoning behind many different forms of misinformation (The Guardian)
• The devil and the crossroads: The legend of Robert Johnson He had the blues and then some. His story is one of heartache and despair, it’s a story of slavery, a country disillusioned by its own past and the presentiment of future predicaments, it’s the grave founding of the unfortunate 27-club and the turbulent tribulations of talent and its attainment, but it is also a story that lays the cornerstone to Rock & Roll and music as we now know it, perhaps most notably of all, it’s a story shrouded in murk and mystery. (Far Out)
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business interview this weekend with Adam Karr, portfolio manager at Orbis Investments and head of the US division. The firm, which manages $37B in assets, has a unique fee approach, where they only pay if they outperform, and refund fees when they underperform.
Trump Departs With Lowest-Ever Job Mark
Source: Pew Research
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To learn how these reads are assembled each day, please see this.
