Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
One of the pleasures of getting older and making a living the way you want to is that your social circle becomes rarified and the people who enter have been vetted. When I was in my twenties, shady-ass characters routinely found their way into my life and my apartment. With some regularity, friends revealed themselves…
In China, the invisible hand of the market sometimes needs help from the iron fist of the state. That’s certainly true after a meltdown vaporized $3.5 trillion in the value of shares traded on the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges. President Xi Jinping’s government isn’t being subtle in its campaign to reflate the bubble it had a big…
Greece requested a new three-year bailout from its skeptical eurozone creditors and pledged some economic overhauls on Wednesday, but the euphoria some Greeks felt after Sunday’s “no” vote on the last deal was fading fast. Whether European leaders accept the Greek government’s application for more emergency loans at a crisis summit Sunday still depends on Prime Minister…
“The lesson of this crisis is more Europe, not less Europe,” Angela Merkel said in 2012 as the integrity of the region’s monetary union was threatened by financial instability, touched off by Greek debt, that was spreading through the euro zone’s weaker economies. By “more Europe,” the German chancellor meant a deepening of the continent’s…
Ladies and gentlemen, behold the first sighting of the new Greek drachma: Between June 28 and July 4 at a Hilton hotel in Athens, transactions on a Bloomberg reporter’s Visa credit card issued by Citigroup Inc. were posted as being carried out in “Drachma EQ.” The inexplicable notation — bear in mind, the euro remains Greece’s…
Nope, you read that correctly. This water apparently is gluten-free, free of genetically modified organisms (GMO) and free of Bisphenol A (BPA), which is a compound found in the manufacture of some plastics. Don’t panic though – bottled water that doesn’t explicitly state that it’s free of these suspect substances is still perfectly alright for…
Guys, it’s time to clear the air. There are some rumors going around in the comments sections of Complex dot com that I am literally out to get all white people (see: here, here, here, and here). But I promise that’s not true! I have white friends, I promise! There is a white dude coworker…
Castle William on Governor’s Island, image via Wikicommons New York City is huge. 8.4 million people huge to be exact, and, especially in the summer, it can feel like they are all squished directly next you on the subway. If you’re new to the city you might be unaware that just a quick boat ride…
Hillary Clinton’s campaign is now telling reporters that she is at risk of losing Iowa to Bernie Sanders in the February caucuses. One ought to view these stories a bit cynically: It almost always benefits a candidate to lower expectations in Iowa, and these warnings are often designed to activate lethargic supporters. At the same…
If Reddit went offline tomorrow, you would see immediate ripples across the Internet. First, and perhaps least importantly, traffic to porn sites would plummet. Later, major news, entertainment and e-commerce sites, including YouTube and Amazon, would feel a notable, if not debilitating, hit. And then, concur a dozen Reddit power-users, academics and social media experts…