May 10, 2020 (Mothers’ Day Edition)

Economic alphabet soup, gender roles, reclaiming urban spaces from cars

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.

Hi all,

Here with your ~Mothers’ Day Edition~ recommended read. Scroll through after brunch has finished but nobody wants to do anything else yet.

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1) Economics/COVID: Recovery is on the mind. What shape will it take? Z? L? U? V? Here’s a quick guide to the alphabet soup of recovery shapes.

2) Household bargaining: The perception gap between work men say they do around the house and that which women say men do is especially wide during the pandemic.

3) Urban spaces: Lithuania gives a different way of making social distancing work

4) Markets: Krugman gives one of the most accessible answers I’ve seen to the question: Why is the stock market recovering when the economy is looking so glum?

5) Beer: A million kegs are going stale. Where will all of it go?

6) Advocacy: PETA is taking an approach advocates and academics have often discussed: buy out the bad guys.

7) Living with ‘Rona: Staying at home was cool before your governor said it was.

8) Double, double toil and trouble: dramatically lower test costs by mixing blood samples

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Your Weekly Recommendation: SNL had its season finale last night. I have not been able to watch it, but over the course of their time at home they’ve had lots of highs and lows. I recommend going back and watching some of their best at home skits so far.

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Charts of the week

1) (Brookings)

2) A big problem with giving huge amounts of money? Giving it well

3) Lifting restrictions does not equal returning to normal (New York Times)

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Harrison