10 Sunday Reads

Avert your eyes! My Sunday morning look at incompetency, corruption and policy failures:

• ‘Water is more valuable than oil’: the corporation cashing in on America’s drought: In an unprecedented deal, a private company purchased land in a tiny Arizona town – and sold its water rights to a suburb 200 miles away. Local residents fear the agreement has ‘opened Pandora’s box.’ (The Guardian)

• Why don’t rich people eat anymore? Extreme dieting is the latest way for the mega-rich to signal their wealth and status. (Dazed)

• What the Upper-Middle-Class Left Doesn’t Get About Inflation: Liberal politicians and economists don’t seem to recognize the everyday harms of rising costs. (The Atlantic) see also Why Better Times (and Big Raises) Haven’t Cured the Inflation Hangover: Frustrated by higher prices, many Pennsylvanians with fresh pay raises and solid finances report a sense of insecurity lingering from the pandemic. (New York Times)

• A brief, weird history of brainwashing: L. Ron Hubbard, Operation Midnight Climax, and stochastic terrorism—the race for mind control changed America forever. (MIT Technology Review)

• Time is a Thief. Time is slippery. Don’t waste yours. With most things in life, eventually, there will be a ‘last time’–we just often don’t know when it will be. Sometimes, we don’t realize it until after the fact. As my children grow, the “last times” are coming at me with a hastening speed. In light of this, I feel intensity in my need to savor and be present. (Finding Joy)

• The Southern Gap: In the American South, an oligarchy of planters enriched itself through slavery. Pervasive underdevelopment is their legacy. (Aeon)

• Banned in the USA: Narrating the Crisis: This report provides data, alongside a comprehensive narrative of the censorship crisis affecting public schools. It shows the nuance of the current moment and damage that occurs when stories—compassionate, reflective, educational, and entertaining—are restricted or removed on the basis of fear, intimidation, or bigotry. (Pen America)

• Interview with a 70-Year-Old Sober Person: Jerry Stahl “I have come to realize that everybody on the planet is recovering from something. And deserves our compassion. It’s pretty much the human condition. All our secrets are the same.” (The Small Bow)

• Global heating pushes coral reefs towards worst planet-wide mass bleaching on record: The percentage of reef areas experiencing bleaching-level heat stress is increasing by about 1% a week, scientists say. (The Guardian) see also Great Barrier Reef suffering ‘most severe’ coral bleaching on record as footage shows damage 18 metres down: Marine researcher ‘devastated’ by widespread event that is affecting coral species usually resistant to bleaching. (The Guardian)

• Verified pro-Nazi X accounts flourish under Elon Musk: An NBC News review identified 150 verified “Premium” accounts that have posted or amplified pro-Nazi content. (NBC News)

Be sure to check out our Masters in Business next week with Ashish Shah, Co-Head and CIO of Public Investing at Goldman Sachs Asset Management: He joined GS as a partner in 2018, and previously served as global co-head and CIO of Fixed Income + Liquidity Solutions. His group manages $2.3 trillion in client assets.

Hawks Fly Higher For Longer Than Doves

Source: Yardeni Research

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