My end-of-week morning train WFH reads:
• What if everything is going to be OK? The severity of the global financial crisis left deep emotional and intellectual scars on everyone who went through it. Since then a lot of people have been desperate to identify the next big economic faultline, the next CDO, the next financial cataclysm to befall us. Some permabears have managed to turn their apocalyptic visions into lucrative careers. (Financial Times)
• Why they clapped for Sam Bankman-Fried: “They had just witnessed more than an hour of lies, obfuscations, ass-coverings + subject-changings as delivered by one of the most talented con artists in American history. And there they were, clapping like the studio audience at a daytime talkshow.” (Reformed Broker) see also FTX’s Collapse Was a Crime, Not an Accident Sam Bankman-Fried is a con man and fraudster of historic proportions. But you might not learn that from the New York Times, CoinDesk’s Chief Insights Columnist David Z. Morris writes. (CoinDesk)
• The Myth of the Secret Genius: From Elon Musk to Elizabeth Holmes and Donald Trump, many very rich people are effective at convincing us of a myth: they’re secretly a genius, and you’re just too dumb to understand. Are they right? (The Garden of Forking Paths)
• Why America Doesn’t Have Enough EV Charging Stations: Gas stations spar with utility companies, rural areas predict years of losses on chargers, spotty equipment threatens reliability: The U.S. EV charging network is a mess. (Wall Street Journal)
• A Cloud Startup Wants to Be a Crystal Ball for Farmers Everywhere: India’s Cropin aims to boost agricultural efficiency by helping growers know what to plant and when to sow, water and fertilize. (Businessweek)
• Megalopolis: how coastal west Africa will shape the coming century: By the end of the century, Africa will be home to 40% of the world’s population – and nowhere is this breakneck-pace development happening faster than this 600-mile stretch between Abidjan and Lagos. (The Guardian)
• A Peek Inside the FBI’s Unprecedented January 6 Geofence Dragnet: Google provided investigators with location data for more than 5,000 devices as part of the federal investigation into the attack on the US Capitol. (Wired)
• How Did 🍆 Become Our Default Sex Symbol? A variety of fruits have long been used to convey eroticism, but in their emoji form, one seems to have won out. (New York Times)
• ‘He was fast … he ran you right over’: what it’s like to get hit by an SUV: One Thursday afternoon, I stepped out to cross a city street – and woke up in hospital with broken bones and a brain injury. After I recovered, I started looking into why so many drivers just don’t stop (The Guardian)
• What Kind of Man Was Anthony Bourdain? He was so damaged, and yet he showed us so much of the world. (The Atlantic)
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business next week with Luis Berruga, CEO of Global X. The firm manages $40 billion dollars across nearly 100 thematic ETFs.
JOLTS, color coded
Source: Philippa Dunne & Doug Henwood
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