Thursdays are all about longform links on Abnormal Returns. Wherever possible, free links for premium sites are used. You can check out last week’s linkfest including a look at the global fertility crisis.
Quote of the Day
”Adaptiveness requires intellectual humility. We must be willing to examine and question our own assumptions, and embrace the question “why.”
(Randy Borum)
Books
- An excerpt from "The Time Tax: How the Government Wastes Our Time―and How to Fix It" by Annie Lowrey. (theatlantic.com)
- Kai Bird’s "American Scoundrel: Roy Cohn’s Dark Journey From Joe McCarthy to Donald Trump" explains a lot. (slate.com)
- An excerpt from “The Invisible Hand of Maria Edgeworth: How a Nineteenth-Century Novelist Taught the World Economics” by Jeanna Smialek. (nytimes.com)
- An excerpt from "Ausländer: One Family’s Story of Escape and Exile" by Michael Moritz. (colossus.com)
- An excerpt from “The Playbook: The Hidden Forces Shaping Winners and Losers in the Modern NFL” by Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg. (wsj.com)
Business
- Joseph Lawler, "No one will ever cherish a plot of land as much as someone who has a long-term ownership and residence interest in it." (thenewatlantis.com)
- If England can tame the East India Company, the U.S. can tame tech companies. (nytimes.com)
- Dolly Parton managed her businesses with great skill. (wsj.com)
Politics
- The federal government is effectively at war with the state of Minnesota. (newyorker.com)
- Offshore clipping services provide a steady stream of videos in support of the GOP. (theatlantic.com)
Longreads
- How the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is supposed to work. (construction-physics.com)
- We can safely sacrifice mosquito species that prey on humans. (unchartedterritories.tomaspueyo.com)
- Group chats are the last refuge for online sociability. (newyorker.com)
- Can you get ahead in America today without wealthy parents? (abnormalreturns.com)
- What happens when vaccine denial crashes into a custody dispute. (newyorker.com)
- A profile of champion ultra-marathon runner Rachel Entrekin. (runnersworld.com)
