“When should Harvard speak out?” by Jessica McCann (The Harvard Gazette, 2024-05-28). An interview with Alison Simmons and Noah Feldman of the Harvard Institutional Voice Working Group.
“Institutional voice” by Alan M. Garber et al. (Harvard : Office of the President, 2024-05-28).
Health, medicine, and wellness
“Tom Cech: RNA takes center stage” by Eric Topol (Ground Truths, 2024-06-05). 49m audio recording with transcript; link to video recording.
“The Morning” by David Leonhardt (The New York Times, 2023-10-10). Subtitled “We’re covering the top-performing public school system in the U.S….”
Gaza, Hamas, Israel
“The Morning” by David Leonhardt, Lauren Jackson (The New York Times, 2023-10-13). Subtitled “We’re covering the prospect of a ground invasion of Gaza…”.
“The Morning” by David Leonhardt (The New York Times, 2023-10-12). Subtitled “We’re covering Kamala Harris’s biggest challenge…” In which the author both identifies and solves Vice President Harris’s biggest challenge for her.
Nothing is considered or thought through. Rather, it’s a self-fulfilling set of echoes, less conversation than monologue in overlapping snippets of text or images, sound and fury signifying nothing.
“Plaintext” by Steven Levy (WIRED, 2022-08-26). On whistleblowers: Daniel Ellsberg, Frances Haugen, Peiter “Mudge” Zatko, and the history and pageant of the whistleblower industry.
But that’s part of the whistleblower dynamic. We journalists will hungrily grab at any opportunity to humanize an important, but esoteric, issue. Everyone is fascinated by the truth teller, but what really matters is what truth they’re telling.
“Monetary policy and price stability” by Jerome H. Powell (US Federal Reserve, 2022-08-26). Address at Jackson Hole symposium of central bankers.
The first lesson is that central banks can and should take responsibility for delivering low and stable inflation. The second lesson is that the public’s expectations about future inflation can play an important role in setting the path of inflation over time. [T]he third lesson…is that we must keep at it until the job is done.
“Untangling why knots are important” by Steven Strogatz (Quanta Magazine : The Joy of Why, 2022-04-06). 45m podcast with mathematicians Colin Adams and Lisa Piccirillo. I liked Dr. Piccirillo’s discussion (starting 26m00). Tools and prior training matter!
Our motto at Harvard is Veritas. It is more than a motto. It is the reason we exist, to seek the truth. But truth needs to be tested and needs to be revealed and that can only happen on the anvil of competing ideas. If you really seek the truth, it’s important to engage with people who think differently from you. Even more importantly, you need to be willing to change your mind in the face of a better argument or new information. Only when you have this experience will you be well equipped to make a difference in the world.—Larry Bacow, President of Harvard University
Searching for the truth requires taking risks and being comfortable with being uncomfortable. It means inviting criticism. Choosing curiosity over certainty. —Rakesh Khurana, Dean of Harvard College
That’s been the problem the last several months in this market. It’s nothing but positioning, almost nothing fundamental. —Benjamin Dunn, president of Alpha Theory Advisors
“Jerome Powell’s dilemma: What if the drivers of inflation are here to stay?” by Nick Timiraos (The Wall Street Journal, 2022-08-24). The article cites three sources of change to the global economy: (1) Retreat from globalization. (2) Decrease in growth or size of labor markets. (3) Increase in energy and commodity prices and price volatility.
“Personal income and outlays, July 2022” (US Bureau of Economic Analysis, 2022-08-26). Personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index for July 2022.
“Monetary policy and price stability” by Jerome H. Powell (US Federal Reserve, 2022-08-26). Address at Jackson Hole symposium of central bankers.
“The plan of the apes” by Jason Zweig (The Wall Street Journal : The Intelligent Investor, 2022-08-30). Includes (seven) links to “the seven virtues of great investors”.
“The morning” by David Leonhardt (The New York Times : The Morning, 2022-08-30). Subtitled, “Americans under 40 have had to cope with a worse economy than earlier generations. How should it affect the debate over Biden’s debt-relief plan?” Several justifications focus on outcomes, not what individual and systemic factors generated those outcomes. The explanations that Leonhardt offers (e.g., rising asset valuations, stagnant wages since 2010) are stated but neither explored nor tested (What is the magnitude of the effect? What would have been the income or wealth distribution under different conditions?), and alternative explanations are neither offered nor explored.
[W]e’re going to need to have restrictive policy for some time. This is not something that we’re going to do for a very short period of time and then…change course. —John Williams, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York
“The morning” by German Lopez (The New York Times : The Morning, 2022-08-18). Subtitled, “The C.D.C. acknowledged it had botched its covid response. It is part of a broader set of failures.”
[A] reluctance to communicate the truth clearly and directly. The resulting lack of clarity made it harder for Americans to act on expert advice. But it also damaged public trust, when people eventually found out they had been deceived.
This problem is not unique to the CDC or to government. Experts everywhere should take to heart their role to help other people to think and to act, not to usurp the right to think and to act.
“Going back to Blair Mountain” by Kenzie New Walker (Zócalo, 2022-09-01). Written by “the daughter, granddaughter, and great-granddaughter of union mineworkers” and “first part-time executive director” of the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum.
“Untangling why knots are important” by Steven Strogatz (Quanta Magazine : The Joy of Why, 2022-04-06). 45m podcast with mathematicians Colin Adams and Lisa Piccirillo.
“Finding much to like in Senate climate deal” by Alvin Powell (The Harvard Gazette, 2022-08-05). An interview with John Holdren, professor of environmental policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and President Barack Obama’s top advisor on science and technology policy.
[T]his is a very difficult nut to crack because of people’s affection for due process and for review at various levels. That makes it very difficult to solve the transmission problem.
“The morning” by David Leonhardt (The New York Times, 2022-08-09). Subtitled “Climate has received most of the attention. But the Senate bill brings big changes to health care, too.”
The judgments involved in monetary policy in the next six or nine months are going to be as difficult as any set of monetary policy judgments in many, many years.
“The morning” by German Lopez (The New York Times, 2022-08-12). Subtitled, “The climate bill will make energy cheaper for everyone.” The article concludes, “The bill will make cleaner energy and electric vehicles much cheaper for many Americans.” The article does not distinguish or address how subsidies may make something cheaper for an individual but not for society.
“Biden’s agenda doesn’t give priority to inflation, desipte rhetoric” by Greg Ip (The Wall Street Journal, 2022-08-11). The in-article chart titled “Deficit impact of recent legislation” presents a clear breakdown of the effect on the US federal budget deficit from various laws. Remember: There is more to evaluating these bills than the economic bottom line.
Mr. Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus last year equaled more than 8% of gross domestic product and thus contributed meaningfully to inflation pressure. By contrast, $300 billion over 10 years [the amount that the US Congressional Budget Office estimates the Inflation Reduction Act will reduce the US federal budget deficit] equals just 0.1% of GDP, not enough to make or break the outlook for inflation either way. Penn Wharton Budget Model, a nonpartisan research group, said the effect on inflation is “statistically indistinguishable from zero.”
“The morning” by David Leonhardt (The New York Times : The Morning, 2022-08-25). Subtitled, “Biden’s plan for student debt relief is an attempt to find a middle ground.”
“Plaintext” by Steven Levy (WIRED, 2022-08-26). On whistleblowers.
Other
“Plaintext” by Lauren Goode (WIRED, 2022-08-19). On ownership in a digital age.
“The morning” by David Leonhardt (The New York Times : The Morning, 2022-08-22). Subtitled, “Facebook remains extremely powerful, but it also faces legitimate problems.”
“Has the T hit bottom?” by Christina Pazzanese (The Harvard Gazette, 2022-08-23). An interview with Justin de Benedictis-Kessner, assistant professor of public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School.
[M]ost people don’t realize who’s responsible for poor service, not just at the T, but who among the public officials they vote for, so people are often blaming the wrong public officials. People aren’t able to attribute responsibility to someone they could punish or reward at the ballot box. That external accountability is missing.
An idea I’ve encountered elsewhere:
If you haven’t been buying new train cars in 30-50 years on a regular basis, if you haven’t been updating your cars every 10 years or repairing them or retrofitting them, there’s not going to be an industry sitting ready to do that… This is where we really get embarrassed by countries like China. They’re not just spending once every 30-50 years on new train cars, they’re doing this continually and they’re continuously expanding their transit systems, which creates a whole private market for these things.
“The morning” by Melissa Kirsch (The New York Times : The Morning, 2022-08-27). Subtitled, “Why have ‘the five love languages’ endured as a self-help phenomenon for 30 years?”
“The morning” by David Leonhardt (The New York Times : The Morning, 2022-08-29). Subtitled, “President Biden’s approach to his own stuttering highlights the stigma that the condition still brings.”
thegraywolff 