Articles to read for Tuesday
Rise of the Barstool Conservatives. Dave Portnoy is one of America’s most visible critics of the lockdown policies instituted by virtually every state governor, it became clear that more so than anyone else, he embodied the world view of millions of Americans, who share his disdain for the language of liberal improvement, the hectoring, schoolmarmish attitude of Democratic politicians and their allies in the media, and, above all, the elevation of risk-aversion to the level of a first-order principle by our professional classes (The Week)
G.M.’s Bold Move on the Climate The end of the gasoline-powered car will transform the economy. (New York Times)
Still Looking for a New Gaming Console? Here’s Why A month after the holiday season, gamers are still contending with scalpers, bots and immense demand as they hunt for elusive devices. (New York Times)
The Silicon Valley Start-Up That Caused Wall Street Chaos Robinhood pitched itself to investors as the antithesis of Wall Street. It didn’t say that it also entirely relies on Wall Street. This past week, the two realities collided. (New York Times)
What do short-sellers really do? Without short-sellers, it’s theoretically very hard to push stock prices down past a certain point. Many economic theorists have argued that this tends to lead to persistent overvaluation in the market. Without shorts, they predict, prices will be higher than fundamentals. (Noahpinion)
Who Owns Stocks? Explaining the Rise in Inequality During the Pandemic Bad economies usually hurt both workers and investors. Only the first part has been true this time. (Upshot)
The Cost of Doing Business on Vancouver Island The obstacles to doing business on Vancouver Island include higher taxes and insurance rates, rising food and housing costs, shipping times and frequent ferry crossings. For loyal Island business owners, the benefits outweigh the challenges. (Douglas)
Logging change: old-growth harvesting has deep roots on Vancouver Island, but how long can it last? Logging-dependent communities are facing an existential threat from what conservationists and First Nations say is an overdue change to forestry practices. (Capital)
The Remote-Work Revolution Will Be Bigger Than We Think The past year has offered a glimpse of the nowhere-everywhere future of work, and it isn’t optimistic for big cities. (The Atlantic)