Articles of the week
Larry Summers Was Wrong About Inflation: His call for austerity was premised on the notion that only a sharp increase in unemployment could prevent a ruinous wage-price spiral. In reality, both wage and price growth have been slowing for months, even as unemployment has remained near historic lows. Summers’s failure to anticipate this outcome should lead us to reconsider just how prescient his analysis of the post-COVID economy ever was. (New York Magazine)
Due Diligence: Using ESG as a Risk Mitigator: Although seldom apparent in financial statements, environmental, social and governance deficiencies can come out of nowhere and slam investors. (Chief Investment Officer)
America’s Long, Tortured Journey to Build EV Batteries: The fall of startup A123 still haunts the US decades later—and reveals everything that’s wrong with this country’s approach to innovation. (Businessweek)
Inflation Is Overhyped, Says This Pro. “I hear a lot of people say that we’re never going to fix it, that 7% is the new normal. That’s overhyped. There were multiple things that drove inflation up, but almost all of them are being corrected. The massive Covid-related stimulus was, in hindsight, possibly too much. But that money has been spent. So we’re mostly past it. The supply-chain issues have been largely corrected. Freight costs have come back down. And the Fed kept rates at zero for way, way too long. That has obviously been corrected. We will be back in the 2% to 3% range for inflation.” (Barron’s)
Jerome Powell’s Big Problem Just Got Even More Complicated: The Fed aims to avert financial instability while also fighting inflation—predicaments that frequently call for opposite policies. (Wall Street Journal)
These millionaires want to tax the rich, and they’re lobbying working-class voters: The nonprofit Patriotic Millionaires has lobbied Congress to make changes for more than a decade. Its members see inequality as a danger — they worry big money is corrupting politics and driving civil unrest. But they haven’t had much success. President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax cuts largely benefited the wealthy, and even when Democrats controlled the Senate in 2021, they failed to pass a bill to raise the minimum wage. (NPR)
The tech industry was deflating. Then came ChatGPT. Last year, Silicon Valley was drowning in layoffs and dour predictions. Artificial intelligence made the gloom go away (Washington Post)
Rich nations say they’re spending billions to fight climate change. Some money is going to strange places. Wealthy countries have pledged $100 billion a year to help reduce the effects of global warming. But Reuters found large sums going to projects including a coal plant, a hotel and chocolate shops. (Reuters)
Suncor helped write ‘first draft’ of Canadian plan for tackling carbon emissions Newly obtained documents reveal a Shell executive is also part of the federal advisory group for carbon capture, utilization and storage, which has been kept under wraps for two years (Narwhal)
‘Drought is on the verge of becoming the next pandemic’ While the world becomes drier, profit and pollution are draining our resources. We have to change our approach (Guardian)
NASA’s newest X-plane wants to save the planet: The space agency has a plan to “skip a generation” of passenger aircraft design to fight climate change. (Vox)
Does Journalling Actually Improve Mental Health? Writing down your thoughts can be helpful. But getting the perfect notebook isn’t a substitute for professional care (Walrus)
Have Assisted Dying Laws Gone Too Far? As Canada expands access to MAID, many people with disabilities are sounding the alarm. Some say the law was flawed from the outset (Walrus)
'A good death' Saskatoon artist Jeanette Lodoen wanted Canadians to understand the realities of medically-assisted dying. She and her family granted CBC News unrestricted access to the weeks before, during and after her death. (CBC)
Golden Knights ‘misfits,’ Matthew Tkachuk and the Stanley Cup playoffs’ winners and losers It took eight weeks and 88 games, but the Stanley Cup has been awarded and the 2022-23 NHL season is over. (Athletic)
The Psychedelic Scientist Who Sends Brains Back to Childhood Kids soak up new skills, adults not so much. But neuroscientist Gül Dölen might have found a way—with drugs—to help grownups learn like littles. (Wired)
I placed my first wager when I was 10. I’ve gambled more than $1 million since.
A memoir of addiction, desperation and the dangers of sports betting (Macleans)
The Vegas Golden Knights Make Their Own Luck—and Have a Stanley Cup to Prove It Less than six years after joining the NHL as an expansion team, Las Vegas has its first championship. To get there, the Knights beat the odds—and created their own good fortune. (The Ringer)
The Denver Nuggets Were Built to Last: Not every franchise can be so lucky as to draft the best player in the game, but any can afford to be patient—and the Nuggets’ long, steady march carried them all the way to the NBA title. (The Ringer)
Where Does a Title Put Nikola Jokic in NBA History? The Denver Nuggets star has reached rarefied air after bringing a championship to the Mile High City. Is he already one of the game’s 20 best players ever? “He’s one of the all-time greats and still 28 years old. There’s so much more to go,” says Nuggets GM Calvin Booth. (The Ringer)
How the Lionel Messi Deal Stymied Saudi Arabia: A complex arrangement, involving Apple, to bring the soccer star to Miami shows how to trump the free-spending kingdom — and how hard that may be to duplicate. (Dealbook)