April 18, 2020
Upending American Politics, Trust and COVID, shelf life of food
A note for the reader: Before this newsletter moved to Substack it was an email thread between friends. I’m posting the previous emails here for completeness, and so that if I invoke a previous comment readers can refer to them.
Happy Saturday!
Since I received such a positive reception last week, I figured I would keep this going. Of course please let me know if you want me to take you off — no hard feelings! I get too many emails myself.
Here are my best finds this week:
1) Books/Politics: some really good answers to some really bad questions, asked by someone who somehow has interviewed all the big-shots out there: Krugman, Sunstein, Danielle Allen, Banerjee & Duflo, Yascha Mounk, Saez, Hickenlooper, Ezra Klein, Larry Lessig, Fukuyama, Pinker, Arthur Brooks, Tim Wu, EJ Dionne, Stiglitz, Jeffrey Sachs, and of course, Tervo
2) Politics/Health: Who do Americans Trust on COVID?
3) Science: Why are blue whales the most massive animals ever to have lived?
4) Food: Has this gone bad yet? By the only food-writer I trust as much as Ken Forkish
5) Economy: A snapshot of the big firms’ side of the labor market in this crazy time: who’s hiring and firing
6) Life: The most pleasant places to live
7) Business: Downturns are bad for lots of people, but especially bad for financial fraudsters.
8) COVID: Yet another coronavirus tracker…this time with now-cast. Check out the “US Ascertainment Rate” tab. From UGA.
9) Politics: Though I think most people have moved past the idea that Trump was benefiting from COVID, these charts puts his lackluster improvement into even better perspective.
10) A fun fact: Cashews and mangoes are from the same family of tree. Other relatives include sumac, poison ivy, and the smoketree
Recommendation: Season one of Fargo, a tv show set in the same darkly humorous world as the movie of the same name. Each season stands on its own, so you can continue after season one, but I wouldn’t say it is definitely worth your while. Available on Hulu.
Now presenting….graphs! IHS Markit, a top information/prediction broker, on the shape of the recovery (looks like a “U” to me…). Trough around election-time 2020. Courtesy WSJ.
