An apparent act of sabotage at an Iranian nuclear site, blamed on Israel, has complicated the prospect of America returning to the 2015 nuclear deal; we ask what happens next. Many of Europe’s public-service broadcasters are being squeezed by populist movements and illiberal governments. How to keep them independent? And an effort to translate Latvia’s short but dense ancient poems. For full access to print, digital and audio editions of The Economist, subscribe here www.economist.com/intelligenceoffer
Beerud Sheth grew up in Mumbai, India, and attended undergrad in Bombay. For graduate school, he came to the states to study at MIT, and then did a short stint in Wall Street before moving into the entrepreneurial world.
He lives in the Bay Area, and enjoys hiking, working out and spending time with his family. He loves the Bay Area for these things, but also because of the community of ideation. The way he puts it, someone is always doing something interesting, and he really enjoys that. Besides business books, he leans towards reading biographies and books about the history of tech and business.
Previously, he founded Elance, which is now Upwork, pioneering online freelancing. Twelve or so years ago, he noticed a key insight, in that the mobile revolution was happening all around. Within this, the lowest common denominator was text messages, in that not everyone had a smart phone. This got him asking the question - how interesting can these experiences be?
When people from prehistory created the first works of art on the walls of caves, they used the colors that they found around them. Almost all of the early cave art is drawn in black or dark red.
As time progressed, humans figured out how to create more colors and they began using them in more and different ways.
However, some colors were very difficult to create and those who could do it became fabulously rich.
In which we trace two centuries of people being briefly interested in three-dimensional images, and John gets a bad case of "Intellivision thumb." Certificate #27012.
Following the 2008 financial crisis, the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy placed much greater focus on stabilizing the market than on helping struggling Americans. As a result, the richest Americans got a lot richer while the middle class shrank and economic and wealth inequality skyrocketed. In Engine of Inequality, Karen Petrou offers pragmatic solutions for creating more inclusive monetary policy and equality-enhancing financial regulation as quickly and painlessly as possible. Instead of proposing legislation that would never pass Congress, the author provides an insider's look at politically plausible, high-impact financial policy fixes that will radically shift the equality balance. Offering an innovative, powerful, and highly practical solution for immediately turning around the enormous nationwide problem of economic inequality, this groundbreaking book:
Presents practical ways America can and should tackle economic inequality with fast-acting results;
Provides revealing examples of exactly how bad economic inequality in America has become no matter how hard we all work;
Demonstrates that increasing inequality is disastrous for long-term economic growth, political action, and even personal happiness;
Explains why your bank's interest rates are still only a fraction of what they were even though the rich are getting richer than ever, faster than ever;
Reveals the dangers of FinTech and BigTech companies taking over banking; Shows how Facebook wants to control even the dollars in your wallet; and
Discusses who shares the blame for our economic inequality, including the Fed, regulators, Congress, and even economists.
Engine of Inequality: The Fed and the Future of Wealth in America (Wiley, 2021) should be required reading for leaders, policymakers, regulators, media professionals, and all Americans wanting to ensure that the nation’s financial policy will be a force for promoting economic equality.
Stephen Pimpare is director of the Public Service & Nonprofit Leadership program and Faculty Fellow at the Carsey School of Public Policy at the University of New Hampshire.
(Encore episode.) As sea levels rise from climate change, coastal communities face a greater risk of chronic flooding. Climate scientist Astrid Caldas and her colleagues have looked at where it's happening now and where it could happen in the future as the tides keep getting higher.
A police officer shot and killed 20-year-old unarmed Black man Daunte Wright in a Minneapolis suburb this Sunday, just a few miles from where former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is on trial for the murder of George Floyd. We discuss the details of the killing, plus the reactions from leaders and residents of the city.
The CDC’s director Dr. Rochelle Walesnky said that vaccines won’t solve the COVID crisis unfolding in Michigan, and suggested a lockdown instead. Surges like these are exactly how the virus mutates, which is part of the reason why Michigan’s Governor Gretchen Whitmer needs to act to stop things from getting worse.
And in headlines: a shooting at a school in Tennessee, a volcano continues to erupt in St. Vincent, and Will Smith pulls his movie out of Georgia.
Show Notes:
The Appeal, "What Traffic Enforcement Without Police Could Look Like" – https://theappeal.org/traffic-enforcement-without-police/
