Our summer reading list

Our summer reading list

This year’s reading list is actually a reading and listening list. The six articles and two podcasts aim to provide an engaging distraction however you spend your summer break. The articles and podcasts are available free online, although some websites restrict the number of articles that can be accessed without charge each month.

• While many who find extraordinary success do so early in life, some, like Cézanne or Darwin, make their greatest contributions later in life. This long read from The Atlantic argues that ‘late bloomers’ make critical contributions in a wide range of fields. The peak age for innovation, for instance, comes in the late 40s while the success rate of entrepreneurs’ business ventures rises with age well into the 50s. Lifelong curiosity, the ability to self-teach and wide interests emerge as the qualities of those who hit their stride later in life.

• https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/06/successs-late-bloomers-motivation/678798/  (The Atlantic allows free access to one article a month.)

• Arguments about the aesthetic impact of wind power on the landscape date back not to the dawn of the wind turbine, but to the emergence of the first European windmills in the 11th or 12th century. One contemporary saw early windmills as being like the flailing limbs of Satan. American windmills, pumping water for remote farms and ranches, were derided as ugly when they emerged but, now, along with their European equivalents, are cherished. This thoughtful essay from Aeon proposes that education and engagement could see today’s windmills treasured as symbols of prosperity and independence.
• https://aeon.co/essays/could-we-learn-to-love-the-wind-turbine-as-we-did-the-windmill

• In the 1960s, William Baumol, an American economist, observed that although musicians weren’t getting more productive — it took the same number of people the same amount of time to play a Beethoven string quartet in 1965 as it did in 1865 — musicians in 1965 made a lot more money. Baumol’s work showed how advances in productivity in the production of goods led to higher wages in – and prices for – services. The phenomenon of paying more for services whose quality was essentially unchanged came to be known as Baumol’s cost disease. This Vox piece from 2017, published shortly after Baumol’s death, gives a fascinating overview of his work and what it tells us about today’s economies.
• https://www.vox.com/new-money/2017/5/4/15547364/baumol-cost-disease-explained

• To win the second world war, president Roosevelt challenged America to become the “arsenal of democracy”. This blog, written by Brian Potter, a senior infrastructure fellow at the Washington-based Institute for Progress, sets out how the US increased airplane production by a factor of 70 during the war, turning a near cottage industry into a mass-production behemoth. Lessons from this era shed light on the challenges facing the West today as it seeks to build up its defence industries.
• https://www.construction-physics.com/p/how-to-build-300000-airplanes-in

• As William Baumol’s groundbreaking works attest, it has long been a truism in economics that productivity growth in manufacturing industries is stronger than in service industries. Advances in machinery and technology mean that those industries that depend on machines are able to boost output faster than more labour-intensive services. But this blog post by Noah Smith argues that the reverse has been true in the US over the last decade, where manufacturing productivity has stagnated. Smith concludes by offering some intriguing ideas as to what has gone wrong.
• https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/why-has-us-manufacturing-productivity

• Labour’s landslide victory in the UK general election has prompted comparisons with previous elections. This piece from History Today argues that regardless of which party has won previous elections, they more often result in continuity than radical change. One exception is the post-war victory of Clement Attlee’s Labour Party in 1945. This article sets out the bleak post-war context for that election and the factors that contributed to a period of rapid change, including the creation of the modern welfare state.
• https://www.historytoday.com/miscellanies/lessons-attlee

• Quaker shopkeepers, believing that if everyone was equal before God, then everyone should be equal before price, began affixing price tags to their goods in the late 19th century, ending a custom that every sale could be haggled. This provocative episode of Bloomberg’s Odd Lots podcast charts the shift away from uniform pricing to a world where dynamic and differentiated pricing means that consumers can pay wildly different prices for the same purchase. Setting out the backlash, the hosts wonder whether ‘clean’ pricing could be a winning market strategy once again and ponder whether central banks, in light of these developments, are nimble enough to assess and deliver price stability.
• Please choose from your favoured podcast provider below:

Apple podcasts
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/companies-are-telling-us-the-real-reason-theyre-still/id1056200096?i=1000603417602

Spotify podcasts
https://open.spotify.com/episode/0KRmWPX2TkoASPSLrjrAVY

YouTube podcasts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46T--lB2P3Q&list=PLe4PRejZgr0MuA6M0zkZyy-99-qc87wKV&index=19

• The 2008 bestselling book “Nudge” by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein sparked huge interest in using behavioural economics to prod individuals into making better choices. These often low-cost interventions claimed some major successes. However, doubts over whether some famous results can be reproduced, and allegations of fraud and publication bias, have since emerged. This BBC radio documentary presented by academic Magda Osman examines the state of the field 15 years on.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001slsl (requires free registration with the BBC or directly download the .mp3 file below)

https://open.live.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/6/redir/version/2.0/mediaset/audio-nondrm-download/proto/https/vpid/p0gtt4ld.mp3

OUR REVIEW OF LAST WEEK’S NEWS
The UK FTSE 100 equity index ended the week up 0.6% at 8,253.

Economics

• US inflation fell to 3.0% in the year to June, a greater-than-expected fall from 3.3% in May. Bond yields and the dollar fell as expectations that the Fed would soon begin cutting rates increased
• Prior to the inflation print, Fed chair Jay Powell said that the labour market had cooled and that “more good data would strengthen our confidence that inflation is moving sustainably toward 2 percent”
• Spreads on US high-yield bonds have been rising amid an increase in corporate bankruptcies
• The US announced new tariffs on imports of steel from Mexico that was not melted or poured in the country amid concerns that Chinese steel was finding its way to the US through Mexico
• The UK economy posted growth of 0.4% in May, ahead of expectations, as the economy recovered from poor weather in April
• ECB official Elizabeth McCaul warned that the rapid growth and opaque nature of shadow banking sector was an increasing risk to financial stability
• Consumer prices in China fell by 0.2% from May to June, adding to concerns over deflation and excess capacity
• Chinese premier Li Qiang said that they could not use “strong medicine” on the Chinese economy but would instead slowly nurture the economy, dampening hopes for a large stimulus
• The OECD said that over a quarter of jobs worldwide would be strongly impacted by the green transition and called on governments to provide targeted help to affected workers
• Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock market index closed at a record high of 43,832 last Wednesday, in part due to the strong performance of chip manufacturers
• A survey of central bank managers by UBS found a substantial increase in concerns over the sustainability of government borrowing

Business

• Consumer goods giant Unilever announced that it would cut one-third of all office roles in Europe by the end of next year as it looks to boost growth
• The results of a ballot of workers at an Amazon warehouse in Coventry, UK, are expected today as the GMB union bids to be the first to win the right to represent Amazon workers in Europe
• JPMorgan Chase posted record profits in the second quarter as a rebound in dealmaking boosted its investment banking operation
• UK water regulator Ofwat rejected water companies’ plans to substantially raise bills over the next five years and said it preferred a rise of 21%. A final decision is due in December
• US president Joe Biden signed into law a bill designed to boost the construction of new nuclear power plants
• UK housebuilder Crest Nicholson said that it was “minded to recommend” a £720m takeover bid from competitor Bellway after rejecting two earlier bids
• Consumer electronics manufacturer Dyson announced that it would lay off approximately 1,000 of its 3,500 UK staff as it restructures its business
• Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer BYD announced that it would open a $1bn factory in Turkey which is inside the EU customs area
• A record $28bn was raised in Indian equity markets in the first half of 2024
• UK retailer Carpetright filed a notice of intent to appoint administrators as it seeks to secure new funding
• British AI chip firm Graphcore was acquired by Japanese conglomerate Softbank

Global and political developments

• Politicians in Germany reacted with fury to reports that Russia had planned to assassinate Armin Papperger, head of Germany’s largest arms company Rheinmetall
• The new Labour government in the UK announced that it would release some prisoners after they had served 40% of their sentence, down from 50%, amid acute overcrowding in prisons
• The new Labour government in the UK is expected to set out 35 bills in the King’s Speech on Wednesday including AI regulation, House of Lords reform and new protections for workers
• US president Joe Biden promised to “complete the job” as pressure continued to mount to stand down his re-election bid
• Some 32 countries at NATO’s 75th anniversary summit in Washington signed the Ukraine Compact, vowing to support Ukraine
• Beijing criticised NATO for saying that China had become a “decisive enabler” of Russia’s war in Ukraine
• Former US president and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was injured but survived an assassination attempt at a campaign rally
• A Russian cruise missile hit a children’s hospital in Kyiv, killing 36 people

And finally… The Guardian reported on Saturday on the growing incidence of theft of highly valuable Lego sets which can fetch handsome prices on the secondary market. Last week, police in Oregon were recently successful in recovering over 4,000 stolen Lego sets – however, it is believed that they did not want to make a big thing out of it.