• The Walmart Effect: New research suggests that the company makes the communities it operates in poorer—even taking into account its famous low prices. (The Atlantic)
• Oops! Consumers finally realize that Trump could worsen inflation. Fearing high prices, some are stocking up for what could be an expensive four years. (Washington Post)
• Americans have $27 billions in unused gift cards: At least two in five Americans have an unused gift card lying around (Quartz)
• Climate Change Is Making Homeownership Even More Unaffordable: Extreme weather is creating a crisis for home insurance that has no easy solution: The only way to keep the private homeowners insurance market from falling apart is to make it so rates can be affordable to homeowners and simultaneously profitable to insurers. And the only way to make that happen is to change the physical reality. In the long run, by stopping the warming of the planet. (New York Times)
• A Looming Threat to Bitcoin: The Risk of a Quantum Hack: Researchers warn a quantum-computing attack on cryptocurrency would cause trillions in losses. (Wall Street Journal) see also The NFT Is Dead. Long Live the NFT? The giddy craze for nonfungible tokens brought the crypto crowd to art auctions. Now, long after the bubble burst, some still believe. (New York Times) see also Crypto is for Criming: It’s not digital gold — it’s digital Benjamins. (Krugman Wonks Out)
• The Egg: A story of extraction, exploitation and opportunity: A single cell. A global business worth billions. A trade that can bring rewards—or human costs that cannot be measured. (Businessweek)
• The Burmese python problem: how 20ft predators are wreaking havoc on the Everglades: There are between 100,000 and 300,000 of these snakes in the region – and they can swallow a small deer whole. What can Florida do about this threat to biodiversity? (The Guardian)
• This company rates news sites’ credibility. The right wants it stopped. NewsGuard, which prizes its nonpartisan criteria, has become a prime target of the GOP’s battle against disinformation watchdogs. (Washington Post)
• The Constitution of Kakistocracy: By nominating unqualified loyalists, Trump undermines the Constitution’s vision of merit-based governance. (Lawfare) see also 10 ways to be prepared and grounded now that Trump has won: The key to taking effective action in a Trump world is to avoid perpetuating the autocrat’s goals of fear, isolation, exhaustion and disorientation. (Waging Nonviolence)
• Study: Most Rural Hospitals Have Closed Their Maternity Wards: Labor and delivery units are losing money and struggling to find staff, in rural areas and large cities alike. (New York Times)
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business interview this weekend with Toto Wolff, Principal and CEO of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula-1 Team, and 33% owner of the team.
YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat remain widely used among U.S. teens; some say they’re on these sites almost constantly
Source: Pew Research
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