‘Editor’s Picks’ Podcast (May 29, 2023) – Three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week, why Donald Trump is very likely to be the Republican nominee for president, how to fix Britain’s National Health Service (09:55) and companies’ “away days” are getting unnecessarily creative (17:15).
Tag Archives: Opinion
Opinion: Kissinger’s World Order, Digital Payments, Taliban’s Animal Welfare
‘Editor’s Picks’ Podcast (May 22 , 2023) – A selection of three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week, Henry Kissinger on the new world order, how the fight for digital payments is going global (10:50) and why the Taliban is going big on animal welfare (17:10).
Culture/Politics: Harper’s Magazine — June 2023 Issue
Why Are We in Ukraine?
On the dangers of American hubris by Benjamin Schwarz, Christopher Layne
From Murmansk in the Arctic to Varna on the Black Sea, the armed camps of NATO and the Russian Federation menace each other across a new Iron Curtain. Unlike the long twilight struggle that characterized the Cold War, the current confrontation is running decidedly hot. As former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice and former secretary of defense Robert Gates acknowledge approvingly, the United States is fighting a proxy war with Russia.
Seeing Through Maps
I was splitting wood at sunset when the cat jumped up on the chopping block in front of me, arched her back, and took a long piss. My axe hung in the sky. The cat stared at me, tail up. I put my axe down and squatted before her. I hitched my gown to my waist.
Special Report: ‘Digital Finance’ – The Economist
As payments systems go digital, they are changing global finance
The fight over payments systems is hotting up around the world. There may be surprising winners, says Arjun Ramani
Payment is one of the most fundamental economic activities. To buy anything, you need something the seller wants. One option is barter, but that is beset by friction (what are the chances of having something your counterparty wants at any exact moment?). Early forms of money, from cowrie shells to beads to metal coins, offered a solution: they were always in demand to settle transactions.
- Emerging markets: A digital payments revolution in India
- Techfin v fintech: The old bank/card model is still entrenched in the rich world
- Cryptocurrencies: The promise of crypto has not lived up to its initial excitement
- Digital money: Central-bank digital currencies are talked about more than coming to fruition
- International finance: Could digital-payments systems help unseat the dollar?
- The future: There are risks but also big potential benefits from digital payments
Opinion: China’s Power Is Peaking, Jobs Safe From A.I., Mexico Criminal Gangs
The Economist ‘Editor’s Picks’ Podcast (May 15 , 2023) – Is Chinese power about to peak? Why your job is (probably) safe from artificial intelligence (11:00) and how Mexico’s gangs are becoming criminal conglomerates (35:00).
Opinion: A World In Fiscal Fantasy, Can Turkey Sack Erdogan, King Charles III
The Economist ‘Editor’s Picks’ Podcast (May8 , 2023) – Three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week, governments are living in a fiscal fantasyland, why Turkey is holding the most important election this year (11:02) and the coronation of King Charles III (17:30).
Opinion: Israel At 75, Is Keir Starmer Ready To Lead UK?, ChatGPT ‘Language’ Issues
The Economist ‘Editor’s Picks’ Podcast (May 1, 2023) – A selection of three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week, Israel: the survivor nation at 75, is Sir Keir Starmer ready to govern Britain? (10:25) And why ChatGPT raises questions about how humans acquire language (19:05).
Opinion: Wise Worries On AI, Global Peace Crumbles, The English Identity Myth
The Economist ‘Editor’s Picks’ Podcast (April 24, 2023) – This week, how to worry wisely about artificial intelligence, why in Sudan and beyond, the trend towards global peace has been reversed (13:00) and if English nationalism is on the rise, no one has told the English (19:30).
Special Report: ‘The Car Industry – A Difficult New World’ (The Economist)
Everything about carmaking is changing at once
The car industry
The industry must reinvent itself to keep pace, says Simon Wright
Electrification
The future lies with electric vehicles
The car industry is electrifying rapidly and irrevocably
- It is getting easier for new entrants to make cars
- China is leading the challenge to incumbent carmakers
- Software is now as important as hardware in cars
- Autonomous vehicles are coming, but relatively slowly
- How geopolitical tensions could disrupt the global car industry
- The future should bring more choice and better cars
Culture/Politics: Harper’s Magazine — May 2023 Issue
The Age of the Crisis of Work
What is the sound of quiet quitting?
Something has gone wrong with work. On this, everyone seems to agree. Less clear is the precise nature of the problem, let alone who or what is to blame. For some time we’ve been told that we’re in the midst of a Great Resignation. Workers are quitting their jobs en masse, repudiating not just their bosses but ambition itself—even the very idea of work.
The Anatomy of Panic
A personal history of anxiety
I had my first panic attack when I was fifteen, in the middle of January, while I was sitting in geometry class. Winter in Illinois, flesh comes off the bones—what did we need geometry for? We could look at the naked angles of the trees, the circles in the sky at night.
Boomers Daily 