• That Giant Sucking Sound? It’s Climate Change Devouring Your Home’s Value. As the compounding impacts of climate-driven disasters take effect, we are seeing home insurance prices spike around the country, pushing up the costs of owning a home. In some cases, insurance companies are pulling out of towns altogether. And in others, people are beginning to move away. (New York Times)
• What America’s Tech Billionaires Really Bought When They Backed Donald Trump: The industry’s most powerful people were front and center at Trump’s inauguration, and each of them is hoping for something more than just an invitation to the kickoff party for the new administration. (Businessweek) see also Trump’s Project 2025 agenda caps decades-long resistance to 20th century progressive reform: For much of the 20th century, efforts to remake government were driven by a progressive desire to make the government work for regular Americans, including the New Deal and the Great Society reforms. But they also met a conservative backlash seeking to rein back government as a source of security for working Americans and realign it with the interests of private business. That backlash is the central thread of the Heritage Foundation’s “Project 2025” blueprint for a second Trump Administration. (The Conversation)
• Leveraged ETF Investors Scored Gains Last Year. They Probably Also Left Billions on the Table. Investors probably should have made significantly more than 43% on their average net The reference asset’s leveraged return that year, it would have worked out to $36.3 billion in income and gains, equivalent to a nearly 95% return on average net assets. (Basis Pointing)
• The U.S. Economy Is Racing Ahead. Almost Everything Else Is Falling Behind. The gap between Americans’ prosperity and quality of life has grown since the 1990s. (New York Times)
• The Top 1% of Americans Have Taken $50 Trillion From the Bottom 90%—And That’s Made the U.S. Less Secure. Had the more equitable income distributions of the three decades following World War II (1945 through 1974) merely held steady, the aggregate annual income of Americans earning below the 90th percentile would have been $2.5 trillion higher in the year 2018 alone. That is an amount equal to nearly 12 percent of GDP—enough to more than double median income—enough to pay every single working American in the bottom nine deciles an additional $1,144 a month. Every month. Every single year. (Time)
• The Young, Inexperienced Engineers Aiding Elon Musk’s Government Takeover: Engineers between 19 and 24, most linked to Musk’s companies, are playing a key role as he seizes control of federal infrastructure. (Wired) see also The ‘Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly’ of the United States Government: Elon Musk’s bureaucratic coup is under way. (The Atlantic)
• The U.S. Military’s Recruiting Crisis: The ranks of the American armed forces are depleted. Is the problem the military or the country? (New Yorker)
• An L.L. Bean Heiress Suspected Neighbors of Poisoning Her Trees. What Happened Next Roiled Camden, Maine: When Lisa Gorman noticed that a grove of her majestic oaks had died, she cast her suspicions on seasonal neighbors who wanted a better view of the harbor. The fight that ensued became a town drama that rages on to this day. (Vanity Fair)
• How Trump Escaped Jail or Acquittal by Election: A combination of prosecutorial bumbling, dumb luck, compliant jurists, and winning the election allowed our new president to avoid a day behind bars. He told a court probation officer that he believed himself above the law. The Supreme Court agreed he was, and 77 million people voted for him anyway. (Washington Monthly)
• The Price We Pay Betting on Sports: Serious gambling addiction is devastating. Beyond financial ruin, it increases the risk of physical health problems, domestic violence and family rupture. Every year, 2.5 million American adults suffer from severe gambling problems. Many suffer invisibly, silently wagering away their lives on cellphones, perhaps in the very same room as their family. (New York Times) see also Americans expected to place record $1.39bn in bets for Super Bowl LIX: The US sports betting industry has boomed since 2018 – with it brings a ‘dark side’ as gambling addiction also rises. (The Guardian) see also How the US became hooked on sports betting – and the cost it’s having on lives: A DraftKings spokesperson told CNN after Porter was banned: “We have no comment on this story. In general, it is important to note that one of the many benefits of legal and regulated sports betting is that sports betting operators identify and report suspicious activity and the integrity of sport is therefore protected in a manner that does not exist in the illegal market. (CNN)
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business this week with Sahil Bloom, entrepreneur and content creator. His twice weekly newsletter, The Curiosity Chronicles, reaches a million people. He is Managing Partner of SRB Ventures, a venture investment firm focusing on early stage start ups. His first book, “The 5 Types of Wealth: A Transformative Guide to Design Your Dream Life“ was published this week.
Brexit is more unpopular than ever five years on
Source: Semafor
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