The weekend is here! Pour yourself a mug of coffee, grab a seat by the fire, and get ready for our longer-form weekend reads:
• Two centuries of vibecessions: When recessions were just part of the weather, people shrugged them off more easily, but nowadays every one is cause for existential national angst. Perhaps we’ve all just become economic snowflakes? (Financial Times)
• China Wants To Ditch The Dollar: Should Beijing successfully wean the world off the U.S. dollar, it would reshape the global economy and geopolitical landscape. (NOEMA)
• 12 Lessons the Market Taught Investors in 2023: Market-timing, short-term thinking again cost investors. (Morningstar)
• Do we really live in an “age of inequality”? Why economists are reconsidering the scale of the rise in US inequality. (Vox)
• Elon Musk Has Used Illegal Drugs, Worrying Leaders at Tesla and SpaceX: Some executives and board members fear the billionaire’s use of drugs—including LSD, cocaine, ecstasy, mushrooms and ketamine—could harm his companies. (Wall Street Journal)
• Saving Bidenomics: Biden’s industrial policy program promises a massive shift from decades of neoliberal orthodoxy. Can it deliver inclusive gains in time? (Boston Review)
• The People Who Brought You Travis Kelce: A plan was hatched to make the football player “as famous as the Rock.” It began long before you might guess. (New York Times)
• Crispr Pioneer Jennifer Doudna Has the Guts to Take On the Microbiome: The world-famous biochemist is ready to tackle everything from immune disorders and mental illness to climate change—all by altering microbes in the digestive tract. (Wired)
• These Rogue Worlds Upend the Theory of How Planets Form: Scientists have recently discovered scores of free-floating planets that defy classification—forcing them to rethink their theories of star and planet formation. (Wired)
• The River Finally Came for Bill Belichick: For 24 years, Bill Belichick was the Patriot Way. His legacy of the cold pursuit of winning at all costs made him the most decorated coach of all time, but in the end, it helped unravel the greatest dynasty the NFL had ever seen. (The Ringer)
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business next week with Cathy Marcus, co-CEO, global COO of PGIM Real Estate. She develops and leads the company’s global strategy, and is responsible for overseeing business and investment operations globally. Marcus is also co-chair of the board of directors of RealAssetX, PGIM Real Estate’s innovation lab aimed at accelerating advancement in the real assets industry. Previously, she was Senior Portfolio Manager for PGIM Real Estate’s flagship core equity real estate fund. She was named one of Barron’s 100 Most Influential Women in U.S. Finance in 2023
The Periodic Table of Commodity Returns (2014-2023)
Source: Visual Capitalist
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I am still on book leave! Coming back in a few weeks…
