What we’re reading (11/13)
“The Choking Of The Global Minotaur” (James K. Gailbraith, Project Syndicate). “In his remarkable 2011 book, The Global Minotaur, the economist (and future Greek finance minister) Yanis Varoufakis compared the United States to the mythical monster…[f]or 40 years, the US economy has taken in the consumption goods produced by Japan, South Korea, China, and others. To sustain the insatiable Minotaur, the world built a global labyrinth of ports, ships, more ports, warehouses, storage yards, roads, and rails. Then, one day, the Minotaur got sick and missed a meal. The next day, he sought to catch up by eating four meals, only to find that his gullet was not quite wide enough to get them all down. So, now the Minotaur sits, choking and helpless, hoping the blockage will clear. If it doesn’t, the consequences could be grave.”
“‘A Dangerous Man’: The Messy Politics Of Fed Chair Nominations” (Financial Times). “‘One lesson from history is that these appointment decisions . . . are not made in the abstract,’ said Sarah Binder, a professor of political science at George Washington University. ‘The choice isn’t solely about whether the president favours the economic beliefs of one candidate over the other.’”
“Facebook Is Under Fire, But It's Also Undervalued” (Morningstar). “We forecast that over the next five years, Meta's revenue will increase by a 21.8% compound annual growth rate, or CAGR. This growth can be broken into two parts: increase in the number of users and growth in the average revenue per user.”
“Record Quitting Fuels Tight Job Market” (Wall Street Journal). “As of Nov. 5, there were a projected 11.2 million U.S. job openings, according to estimates from the jobs site Indeed, exceeding 7.4 million unemployed workers in the U.S. labor force last month. The so-called quits rate—a measurement of workers leaving jobs as a share of overall employment—was 3% in September, a record high, Friday’s Labor Department data showed, a sign of worker confidence in the job market. Total quits, which reflects the number of jobs that workers left voluntarily, hit another record at 4.4 million.”
“Why Are People Really Quitting Their Jobs? Burnout Tops The List, New Research Shows” (Inc.). “Limeade, an organization dedicated to researching and improving employee well-being, has released its new study, ‘The Great Resignation Update,’ to examine why the ‘Great Resigners’ left. The study surveyed 1,000 U.S.-based employees who started a new job in 2021 and have been there for at least three months…[t]he No. 1 reason job-changers left their previous employers was burnout, which was cited by 40 percent of survey respondents. Events outside the workplace, like the 2020 COVID-19 recession, have contributed to worsening burnout over the past 20 months.”
