Some long form journalism for your weekend reading.
Hank Aaron's lasting impact is measured in more than home runs Henry Aaron, who rose up from the depths of Southern poverty to become one of the towering figures in baseball history as well as a bittersweet symbol of both American racial intolerance and triumph, has died. He was 86. (ESPN)
The Business Case for Boardroom Diversity When big banks see a benefit in helping companies recruit more diverse directors, it’s a sign that there are not just morals at play — there is money at stake, too. (New York Times)
The Worst President in History Three particular failures secure Trump’s status as the worst chief executive ever to hold the office. 1) He failed to put the national-security interests of the US ahead of his own political needs. 2) In the face of a devastating pandemic, he was grossly derelict, unable or unwilling to marshal the requisite resources to save lives while actively encouraging public behavior that spread the disease. 3) Held to account by voters for his failures, he refused to concede defeat and instead instigated an insurrection, stirring a mob that stormed the Capitol. (The Atlantic)
America Abandoned Its Economic Prophet. The World Embraced Him. The pandemic has put Galbraith’s global legacy into stark relief. One can now map out the rise and decline of nations simply by distinguishing between those that have continued along the lines that once defined U.S. economic success as Galbraith saw it and those that fell under the spell of illusions about free, competitive, and self-regulating markets and under the dominating power of finance, hanging on to a self-image that no longer corresponds to reality. (Foreign Policy)
The Bit Short: Inside Crypto’s Doomsday Machine This is the story of a Bitcoin trade — the most financially impactful trade I’ve ever made in my life. It’s also the story of the deep-yet-frantic investigation of the crypto ecosystem that led me to make that trade. And it’s the story of what’s really going on in crypto — and what we should do about it. (Crypto Anonymous)
Tesla/Volkswagen How Volkswagen’s $50 Billion Plan to Beat Tesla Short-Circuited – Faulty software set back a bid by the world’s largest car maker for electric-vehicle dominance (Lefsetz)
Total eclipse How falling costs will secure solar’s dominance in power Renewables are the proven zero-carbon technology where much of the capital funding the energy transition will be invested. Over the next 20 years, we expect more than 4 terawatts (TW) of wind and solar power to come on stream globally, taking renewables’ share of the world’s power capacity to 30% from 10% today. Of this new capacity, some 2.6 TW will be solar. (Wood Mackenzie)
A Year Later, the First Post-Pandemic City A year ago when Wuhan shut down, it offered the world a forewarning about the dangers of the virus. Now, it heralds a post-pandemic world where the relief at unmasked faces, joyous get-togethers and daily commutes conceals the emotional aftershocks. That was unthinkable last year, and remains unthinkable for much of the world still in the grips of the pandemic. (New York Times)
The Post-Pandemic Office Isn’t A Place Where are tech companies going to go once the pandemic subsides as vaccines reach more and more Americans? (Initialized)