Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
The world is awash in personal wealth: $153.2 trillion in total, according to Allianz’s new Global Wealth Report 2015. That’s enough to pay three times the world’s sovereign debt, the debts of each nation. The report, which measured 2014 wealth, found 2014 was the third consecutive year in which global wealth grew more than 7%….
Sept. 25, 2015 11:25 a.m. ET Go back, for a moment, nearly 30 years. In March 1987, Margaret Thatcher visited Mikhail Gorbachev, the reforming leader of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, in Moscow. Sitting in the Kremlin, the two argued for hours. At one point, Mr. Gorbachev accused Mrs. Thatcher of leading the…
A café that specializes in novelty breakfast cereals has been targeted in protests against the gentrification of London’s East End. Paint was thrown at the windows of Brick Lane’s Cereal Killer Café, and “SCUM” was written across the window. A nearby real estate agent was also attacked. Customers were locked inside to protect them from the demonstrators. Several…
(bigstockphoto) Over 100 years ago in America — before Social Security, before IRAs, corporate pensions and 401(k)s — there was a ludicrously popular (and somewhat sleazy) retirement scheme called the tontine. At their peak, around the turn of the century, tontines represented nearly two-thirds of the American insurance market, holding about 7.5 percent of national…
Amazon has made its first serious foray into the so-called “gig economy”, advertising for part-time delivery drivers in Seattle as part of a programme called “Amazon Flex”. The drivers, who will be delivering packages ordered through its same-hour delivery product Amazon Prime Now, will be paid between $18-$25 an hour to work for the company,…
On the opening day of Trump Plaza in Atlantic City in 1984, Donald Trump stood in a dark topcoat on the casino floor celebrating his new investment as the “finest building in the city and possibly the nation.” Thirty years later, the Trump Plaza folded, leaving some 1,000 employees without jobs. Trump, meanwhile, was on…
Mindfulness has become a household word. Time magazine’s cover of a youthful blond woman peacefully blissing out anchors the feature story, ‘Mindful Revolution.’ From endorsements by celebrities like Oprah Winfrey and Goldie Hawn, to monks, neuroscientists, and meditation coaches rubbing shoulders with CEOs at the World Economic Forum in Davos, it is clear that mindfulness has…
Specialists in infectious disease are protesting a gigantic overnight increase in the price of a 62-year-old drug that is the standard of care for treating a life-threatening parasitic infection. The drug, called Daraprim, was acquired in August by Turing Pharmaceuticals, a start-up run by a former hedge fund manager. Turing immediately raised the price to…
In court papers filed on Thursday, city lawyers claim the family of a college student murdered in 2013 at an East Harlem housing project don’t deserve a settlement from the city because she should have known the “risks” of being there, the New York Post reports. Olivia Brown’s mother, Crystal, filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against…
BRENDAN MCDERMID/REUTERS Support for the plan was especially high among city voters, as 77% of those polled approved of the governor’s idea. ALBANY — Gov. Cuomo’s campaign for a $15-an-hour minimum wage is a hit with state voters – except Republicans. A Quinnipiac University poll released Friday morning revealed that 62% of all…