The world’s land and water resources are being exploited at “unprecedented rates,” a new United Nations report warns, which combined with climate change is putting dire pressure on the ability of humanity to feed itself. New York Times
The industry’s plodding giants face mounting threats from restless reinsurers and Big Tech. Since the 1980s average annual losses from natural disasters have more than sextupled in real terms. Other risks are variations on old themes, such as pandemics or the fallout from increasing protectionism. And new ones have emerged. Ageing populations push up health-care costs. Cyber-attacks can shut power plants, paralyse firms and siphon fortunes from banks’ coffers. The Economicst
Paying for college seems out of reach for many Americans, so the idea of free college has broad appeal. Several Democratic presidential candidates and members of Congress have endorsed it. New York Times
Senator Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri, said at the recent National Conservatism Conference, what he called the “the cosmopolitan economy” has encouraged multinational corporations to move jobs and profits overseas and then “rewarded these same corporations” for “investing their profits not in American workers, not in American development, but in financial instruments that benefit the cosmopolitan elite.” New York Times
A new report by staff members of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which oversees the safety of the nation’s 59 aging nuclear power plants, recommends that the commissioners significantly weaken or reduce safety inspections of the plants. New York Times
The original moon shoot inspired billions. Calling climate action a moon shot isn’t a perfect parallel — but maybe we should try it anyway. New York Times
Twenty percent of the global oil supply flows through the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow stretch of water that separates Persian Gulf countries like Iran, Iraq and Kuwait from the rest of the world. From May 15 to June 15, more than 1,000 tanker ships traveled the strait. Many were destined for places as far away as China and South Korea. New York Times
Crowd estimates for Hong Kong’s large pro-democracy protests have been a point of contention for years. But for the first time in the march’s history, a group of researchers combined artificial intelligence and manual counting techniques to estimate the size of the crowd. New York Times
The term “modern monetary theory” has been talked about so much lately that we mainstream economists need to try to understand it. New York Times
The Persian Gulf crisis has not ignited a major price spike, thanks to growing oil production in the U.S. and a slowing in overall demand. New York Times
© Stefan P. Schleicher 2019
