My end-of-week morning plane reads:
• The AI Jobs Scare Meets 250 Years of Data: What does history show? The economic stories of transformative technologies often display two important elements. 1) A rough patch at some point; 2) Business productivity (eventually) surged, living standards climbed, and the prophets of permanent technological unemployment turned out to be wrong. Two and a half centuries of technological disruption tell the same story: expect a rough patch, then expect more jobs than before. The AI doomers might want to crack a history book. (AEI)
• A New Geopolitical Reality Is Here: The Iran conflict has crystallized a new world order. The old assumptions about American hegemony, alliance structures, and deterrence are being rewritten in real time. (The Atlantic) see also How Trump went from threatening Iran’s annihilation to agreeing to a two-week ceasefire in a day: From genocidal rhetoric to ceasefire in 24 hours—the whiplash foreign policy of a president who governs by impulse. The world is supposed to take this seriously. (PBS NewsHour)
• The Investment Excitement Ratio: A new framework combining valuation, concentration and capex; and why today looks like past manias. (Behind the Balance Sheet)
• Ozempic just got cheap enough to change the world: India’s generic semaglutide is about to blow open the global obesity market. When the world’s most transformative drug gets cheap, the public health implications are staggering. (Vox)
• Welcome to the Longevity Tourism Boom: $25,000 gene-therapy injections are in. Regular doctors are out. And it could take us all to a dark place. (Slate)
• Some Contemporary Heresies: I define a heresy as: something you believe that the people you most admire and respect don’t believe and reject out of hand. (Kevin Kelly)
• Risks for Europe of US dominance of global asset management: US firms’ rise in EU asset management may weaken sustainable finance, making tougher stewardship, ESMA supervision and autonomy urgent. (Bruegel)
• The Secret to Stronger Friendships: Ask Better Questions.If you want to feel closer to your friends, you don’t need to overhaul your social life. Instead, experts suggest a small, manageable shift: Ask one deeper-than-usual question the next time you talk. Over time, that habit can change the tone of your conversations—and your relationships. (Time)
• The twilight of America’s sky knights: The mightiest military force in Christendom rode to war in 1420. The parallels to American air power’s current trajectory are uncomfortable and illuminating. Fighter jets are an anachronism. (UnHerd)
• How “Project Hail Mary” turns hardcore science into page-turning drama Andy Weir’s novel blends humor, scientific rigor, and human ingenuity to make science fiction feel genuinely believable. (Big Think)
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business interview this weekend with Mike Pyle, Deputy Head of BlackRock’s Portfolio Management Group (PMG) and member of the Global Executive Committee. He helps oversee $5 trillion in client assets across systematic & discretionary strategies as well as directly overseeing PMG’s hedge funds platform. He also heads the BlackRock Investment Institute.
Left vs. Right (US)
Source: Information is Beautiful
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