WATCHING TODAY:
1. Making Turkey great again: Erdogan throws out the rule book: Ankara has pursued geopolitical power at all costs, but now the bill is due.
2. Bitcoin’s ‘one percent’ controls lion’s share of the cryptocurrency’s wealth: WSJ reports new research shows that just 0.01% of bitcoin holders control 27% of the currency in circulation.
3. American workers are burned out, and bosses are struggling to respond: Workplace stress is rampant and resignations have risen. Employers are struggling to stop employees from leaving and to boost morale. Some are trying four-day workweeks, mandatory vacation days, and other new ways of working.
4. What if there’s no such thing as closure? Many of us are taught that if we work hard enough we’ll be able to get over our losses. The social scientist Pauline Boss sees it differently.
5. Inter and Milan announce new 'Cathedral' San Siro project: AFP reports Inter Milan and AC Milan revealed on Tuesday what their new shared home could look like after announcing a project designed by Populous, who drew up the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Named The Cathedral, the new stadium will be located in the same San Siro district of Milan as their current ground, officially called the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza.
GLOBALIZATION:
US-China gas deals defy tensions between world powers: FT reports Cnooc locks in 20-year LNG contract with exporter Venture Global as global fuel prices surge.
+ Oh. Like US-China commercial relations matter
Will Putin invade? On the front lines of Ukraine’s long war, that’s beside the point. A reporting trip to Donbas reveals the tight hold Russia already has over the lives of Ukrainians accustomed to living with war.
Politico
+ "In Ukraine, we found less focus on the question of outright invasion and more concern that Moscow would never release the grip it already has over the occupied swaths of Donetsk and Luhansk."
+ “If we are not afraid, why should the West be afraid? We are thinking about it all the time. There are three scenarios. The first is that Russia attacks, the second is that they give us the territories back, and third is they continue to provoke.”
Making Turkey great again: Erdogan throws out the rule book: Ankara has pursued geopolitical power at all costs, but now the bill is due.
Nikkei
+ "Where Turkey has failed to build diplomatic power, it has made up for that with military power."
+ Turkey has recently also had its sights set on Africa. Erdogan has traveled to 30 countries on the continent, bearing gifts. On Dec. 18, Erdogan hosted 16 African heads of state and government as well as more than 100 ministers at the third Turkey-Africa Partnership Forum.
DISRUPTION
Why it’s too early to get excited about Web3
Tim O’Reilly
+ Tim O’Reilly on #Web3
The new get-rich-faster job in Silicon Valley: Crypto start-ups: Tech executives and engineers are quitting Google, Meta, Amazon, and other large companies for what they say is a once-in-generation opportunity with crypto.
NYT
+ Investors have poured more than $28 billion into global crypto and blockchain start-ups this year, four times the total in 2020, according to PitchBook, a firm that tracks private investments. More than $3 billion has gone into NFT companies alone
Why Pittsburgh is dimming its streetlights: Pittsburgh is becoming the first city in the eastern US to become dark sky compliant, meaning it will switch to LED lightbulbs that reduce light pollution and put the stars in view.
Josyana Joshua
+ Pittsburgh is becoming the first city in the eastern US to become dark sky compliant, meaning it will switch to LED lightbulbs that reduce light pollution and put the stars in view
POLITICS:
+ “Just the other day former President Trump announced he got his booster shot. It may be one of the few things he and I agree on.” -- President Biden
How do Democrats recover from this? Here are five ways in which they could salvage their election chances.
Atlantic
+ "I gotta heap a ton of blame on the Democrats because we’re just not telling our story." -- James Carville
+ "I’d start framing messaging around: We’re not going back to insurrections and Clorox and stock buybacks, which the previous Republican rule was known for. It’d be very simple, hard-hitting, and direct." -- James Carville
We took Bill and Hillary Clinton’s MasterClasses. Guess who seemed more prepared.
WP
+ The bigger surprise in Bill and Hillary Clinton’s new MasterClasses is that hers is nearly a third longer
+ MasterClass merges the American zeal for self-improvement with our impatience, quest for speed, convenience, and unshaking belief that the celebrated know better
+ Final grades: For Bill, B for content, B for presentation, C for effort. For Hillary: B-plus for content, B-plus for presentation, and for effort, A-plus-plus
Civil war is coming
The Article
+ By 2040, 70 percent of Americans will live in the 15 largest states, meaning that 70 percent of the country will be represented by 30 senators, while the other 30 percent is represented by 70 senators
+ The 477 counties Biden won accounted for 70 percent of America’s economic activity, while Trump’s 2497 counties accounted for only 29 percent
NOTABLES:
Bloomberg: FDA expected to authorize Pfizer and Merck COVID pills this week
+ Pfizer’s pill, Paxlovid, and Merck’s molnupiravir are intended for higher-risk people who test positive for COVID
Inside the Omicron fear factory: Public health chiefs and the media are working overtime to gin up hysteria.
The Spectator
+ "We hear constantly that 1,300 people are dying a day from Covid. By comparison, about 2,000 people die each day from cancer, and 1,600 from heart disease. Their deaths get no coverage."
Professional sports are learning to live with COVID. We’re next.
Will Leitch
+ "The leagues are now admitting what most of us are realizing but wary of saying out loud: COVID is just a part of our lives now, and if we don’t learn to live with it, we’re never going to be able to do anything."
NHL pulls out of Beijing Olympics over Omicron spread, quarantine concerns.
Dambisa Moyo joined NBA Africa as a strategic investor.
+ Bay Area vacation spot is Zillow’s most popular place of 2021
How NASA’s Webb Telescope will transform our place in the universe
Quanta Magazine (Video)
+ Wild
Enjoy the ride + plan accordingly.
-Marc
Curation and commentary by Marc A. Ross | Founder @ Caracal
More @ caracal.global
