The weekend is here! Pour yourself a mug of Dan9ish blend coffee, get comfy om bed, and get ready for our still-Covid-positive, longer-form weekend reads:
• Was Jack Welch the Greatest C.E.O. of His Day—or the Worst? As the head of General Electric, he fired people in vast numbers and turned the manufacturing behemoth into a financial house of cards. Why was he so revered? (New Yorker)
• The Scent of Flavor: We now understand the anatomy of the nose and mouth. There is a conduit from the back of the mouth up into the nose called the retronasal space. When we swallow, volatiles released from foods in the mouth are forced through the retronasal space, up into the nose. The perception of those volatiles gives us flavor. If you plug your nose, air currents cannot move through the retronasal space and flavor is blocked. (Inference)
• Twitter is cigarettes: British Historian Arnold Toynbee, upon concluding his twelve-volume “A Study of History“, concluded that “Civilizations die from suicide, not by murder.” (Reformed Broker)
• How Online Mobs Act Like Flocks Of Birds: A growing body of research suggests human behavior on social media is strikingly similar to collective behavior in nature. (Noema)
• The Case for Abolishing Elections: They may seem the cornerstone of democracy, but in reality they do little to promote it. There’s a far better way to empower ordinary citizens: democracy by lottery. (Boston Review)
• Taiwan Prepares to Be Invaded: If China wants to do something drastic, President Tsai Ing-wen told me, “Xi has to weigh the costs. He has to think twice.” (The Atlantic)
• The Best Inventions of 2022: 200 innovations changing how we live. (Time)
• The Supreme Court lost Republicans the midterms: A leading Democratic data analyst explains what happened in 2022 — and why abortion proved to be the decisive issue. (Vox)
• Michigan’s Biff Poggi, Jim Harbaugh’s consigliere, is the most interesting man in coaching: It started with Harbaugh hiring a more energetic staff in 2021, including six new assistants. But ask folks inside the program, and they’ll point to the arrival of one staffer in particular. He’s a guy even the most die-hard fans probably wouldn’t recognize. His name is Biff. He’s 62, and he may be the most interesting man in coaching right now. “I think Biff’s presence there is huge,” says Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald, who ran the Wolverines defense in 2021. “He’s kind of like the consigliere. He’s really the only guy that is willing to hash it out with (Harbaugh).” (The Athletic)
• Lizzo Is Here to Talk About All of It—That Flute, That Lyric, Her Man, and More: The Emmy- and Grammy-winning superstar flautist gives Vanity Fair insight into her art, and the nuances of positivity. (Vanity Fair)
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business interview this weekend with Dave Nadig, Financial Futurist at VettaFi. The ETF industry pioneer has over 25 years of ETF experience. As Managing Director of ETF.com, he was a key participant in the rise of the passive and ETF industry. Previously, he was Was Managing Director at Barclays Global Investors. He co-authored the definitive book on ETFs, “A Comprehensive Guide To Exchange-Traded Funds,” for the CFA Institute.
2022 Fixed-Rate, 30-Year Mortgages rates look a lot like 1981
Source: Len Kiefer
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