Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
From a purely aesthetic standpoint, I love tiny houses. My own apartment is a little over 300 square feet, most of which is taken up by a Murphy bed. The idea of building an entire free-standing structure where every appliance and piece of furniture can fold into something else is very appealing. And for decades…
PARIS — In this iniquitous world, it’s a very blessed woman who starts her day with a coffee break. Thanks to my industrious and, fortunately, early-rising husband, I do. But after a few short minutes, the caffeine works its dark magic. I clock in. All the baguette crumbs on the attractive 19th century parquet come…
According to the high-profile consulting firm, McKinsey & Co., millennials will have to work seven years longer or save twice as much in order to live as well in retirement as their parents. But take heart millennials! The following video should make you feel better (if you have a little adventure in your soul as…
BRUSSELS—A confidential document debated by eurozone finance ministers detailed for the first time what Greece’s creditors could do to ease the country’s debt load and how that burden would develop over the coming decades without new relief measures. The document, which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, served as the basis of Monday’s emergency…
From the Dutch tulip craze of 1637 to America’s dot-com bubble at the turn of the century, history is littered with speculative frenzies that ended badly for investors. But rarely has a mania escalated so rapidly, and spurred such fevered trading, as the great China commodities boom of 2016. Over the span of just two…
LendingClub. I confess that I don’t understand the LendingClub scandal. LendingClub sold $22 million worth of “near-prime loans” to one investor (Jefferies) “in contravention of the investor’s express instructions as to a non-credit and non-pricing element”; it noticed the problem “with the discovery of a change in the application dates for $3.0 million of the loans.”…
—Kevin Drum on Fri. April 8, 2016 2:40 PM PDT Paul Krugman doesn’t think much of Bernie Sanders. Krugman being Krugman, that means he’s been flooding the zone with anti-Bernie columns and blog posts. This hasn’t gone over well with many of his erstwhile fans: judging by my own behavior, sometimes i wonder whether @paulkrugman…
ASHLEIGH BANFIELD (HOST): I want to get some insight now from CNNMoney correspondent Cristina Alesci. This can be somewhat confusing if you don’t have a degree in economics. But safe to say, if you’re talking about this kind of thing like printing money, default’s not a problem. Maybe in the business world, that’s right. But…
As Monday morning arrives in Austin, Texas, the thousands of people who’ve come to rely on Uber and Lyft (as both passengers and drivers) in this car-oriented city are waking up to a new reality. The two ride-hail leaders lost a major vote on Saturday, one they collectively spent more than $8 million trying to…
There can be no doubt that the job market has been more resilient since the financial crisis than many imagined. Unemployment did not rise as far as was feared and the recovery in employment to pre-recession levels has been quicker than forecast by even the most optimistic labour economists. So, time for some self-congratulatory back-slapping…