-Where Joe Manchin gets his talking points — this is probably the most important of the reads today. Manchin wants to stop deeply partisan and un-democratic legislation enacted by Republicans, only with the support of the very same Republicans.
-THE SEDITION HUNTERS — it is too bad this is needed.
-Sentenced by Algorithm — even beyond the challenges around algorithm bias, I feel that a human should be responsible for these decisions.
-Bitcoin lacks a solid foundation as an international currency— I couldn’t agree more with this whole piece.
The popularity of cryptocurrencies is partly due to the anonymity of holders of bitcoin wallets. Although transactions can be identified, it is difficult for third parties to identify who is behind them. This makes them popular with criminals and money launderers. Others see them as a possible investment. But there is nothing value-stable in a medium that does not meet any function as a mode of exchange, unit of account or store of value, and which lacks an issuer. The increase in value is reminiscent of a pyramid scheme where investors constantly hope that others will value the asset ever higher. … an international currency must meet at least four basic conditions: it must have a long-term stable value; there must be sufficient volume to meet the needs of international trade in goods, services and financial assets; transaction costs must be low, with small differences between bid and ask prices, and high liquidity; and there must be a stable issuer who guarantees the currency.
-Markets See No Plot Twist in Yellen’s Subtle Shift — the first part, about unemployment data is interesting and I think that all the talk about the recovery hides a lot of pain:
Measured this way[U6], the story of what happened last year looks like some kind of biblical catastrophe. Even after the swift rebound, U.S. employment has still only clawed its way back to a level it last touched (other than during the Covid shutdown) in 1983. If this is the best gauge of the true social pain caused by joblessness, and there’s a good argument that it is, then the story now is that the recovery is nowhere near fast enough. If policymakers want to heal some of the wounds and anger of the last two decades (and they do), then there is a need for years more of policy deliberately aimed at raising employment
-Lastly, a video … Why Working from Home Will Stick — making a decision on home vs office is at the top of the agenda for a lot of executives right now. I think those that push for everyone to come back to the office are making a mistake, this video provides some good points on why.
