Read : 2022-05-27

by shwolff

Articles for reading:

  1. “Is the US economy shrinking?” by Joseph Politano (Apricitas Economics, 2022-05-21). A mildly technical yet lucid explanation of how to (more informedly) read GDP prints, especially the US print for 2022Q1.
  2. “The U.S. must commit to making south and southeast Asia rich” by Noah Smith (Noahpinion, 2022-05-27).

Articles for reference:

Economics and investing

  1. “Federal Reserve concludes tapering as it recalibrates monetary policy to fight inflation” (US Bank, 2022-05-06).
  2. “The math prodigy whose hack upended DeFi won’t give back his millions” by Christopher Beam (Bloomberg, 2022-05-18).
  3. “Claudia Sahm on what is driving inflation in America” by Claudia Sahm (The Economist, 2022-05-19).
  4. “Stock market bottom remains elusive despite deepening decline” by Akane Otani (The Wall Street Journal, 2022-05-22). The article compares (current values versus past market selloffs) the length of asset-price declines, the magnitude of asset-price declines, the average share of portfolio allocated to stocks, and market volatility (as measured by the VIX).
  5. “Conditions are ripe for a deep bear market” by James Mackintosh (The Wall Street Journal, 2022-05-22). On investor sentiment:
    Surveys of sentiment show fund managers…, private investors…and financial newsletters…are already at March 2020 levels of caution about stocks.
    On what kept certain market selloffs of the past (1990, 1998, 2011, 2018) to losses of about 20%:
    The common factor in the 20% drops was the Federal Reserve. Each time, the market bottomed out when the central bank eased monetary policy
    On realism and perspective:
    [A]fter stocks more than doubled in two years, a market fall of more than 20% seems entirely plausible.
  6. “What’s behind the slowdown in the world’s two biggest economies?” (The Economist : Money Talks, 2022-05-25). 40m audio podcast.
  7. “Economists have been slow to apply history, with one big exception” by Graham Allison (Barrons, 2022-05-26).

Gun violence

  1. “The spate of gun violence shows American exceptionalism at its worst” (The Economist, 2022-05-25).
  2. “The morning” by David Leonhardt (The New York Times, 2022-05-25). Titled “Gun violence has killed more children and destroyed another community.”
  3. “The morning” by German Lopez (The New York Times, 2022-05-26). Titled “More guns in the U.S. mean more deaths.”
  4. “What will it take for America to solve its gun problem?” (The Economist : Checks and Balances, 2022-05-27). 45m audio podcast.

Maths and sciences

  1. “How to write software with mathematical perfection” by Sheon Han (Quanta Magazine, 2022-05-17). An interview with Leslie Lamport, noted for his work on distributed systems, formal verification, and LaTeX.

Secular stagnation:

Larry Summers, who has been writing about secular stagnation since 2013, collects his articles on the topic under Secular stagnation on his personal website.

  1. “The age of secular stagnation” by Larry Summers (Foreign Affairs, 2016-02-15).
  2. “Accepting the reality of secular stagnation” by Larry Summers (Finance & Development, 2020-03).
  3. “Secular stagnation after covid-19” by Larry Summers, Silvana Tenreyro (London School of Economics, 2021-11-17). 59m audio podcast.

Other

  1. “The psychology of disagreement with Julia Minson” (Harvard Kennedy School, 2021-10-14).
  2. “Reckoning with our social media brain drain” by Brad Stulberg (Brad Stulberg, 2022-05-16).
  3. “The dos and don’ts of pruning a bush” by Glenda Taylor (Bob Vila, 2021-12-12).
  4. “The Dvorak keyboard” by Jeff Bigler (2003-03-07).
  5. “Don’t let latest covid surge overshadow progress, says Hanage” by Alvin Powell (The Harvard Gazette, 2022-05-21). Q&A with William Hanage.
  6. “Ardern’s forceful reminder: Democracies can die” by Alvin Powell (The Harvard Gazette, 2022-05-26). On Jacinda Ardern’s commencement address. The article includes embedded video. The official website of the New Zealand government posted a transcript of the address.
  7. “Plaintext” by Steven Levy (WIRED, 2022-05-27). On Benjamin Franklin’s Junto, “a club of mutual improvement”; and Aditya Agarwal and Ruchi Sanghvi’s South Park Commons, on Web3.
  8. “The best botanical gardens and hidden oases in Los Angeles” by Michael Juliano (Time Out, 2022-03-29).