Thursday morning news drop
Your boss secretly wants to quit. Business leaders can’t take COVID-19 work life anymore The crushing pace and volume of white collar work during the pandemic, coupled with the intricacies of working from home, are pushing business leaders to the brink – and half are ready to leave their current jobs. Their propensity to flee is rooted in something much deeper than the usual office grievances and politicking. After 16 months of high-adrenaline, high-strain work, leaders and managers are flat-out exhausted. (Globe and Mail)
More Power Lines or Rooftop Solar Panels: The Fight Over Energy’s Future The president and energy companies want new transmission lines to carry electricity from solar and wind farms. Some environmentalists and homeowners are pushing for smaller, more local systems. (New York Times)
The U.S. Is Rapidly Running Low on Water There’s a gross way to fix this. (Slate)
There is So Much Money Sloshing Around A billion-dollar valuation for a private company used to be so special that they had a special name for it. A unicorn. But what used to be extraordinary is now commonplace. More private companies are running a four-minute mile than ever before. (Irrelevant Investor)
Crane operators ‘no different than pilots’: Experts say crane safety top notch Structural engineering experts say that while the sight of yet another crumpled crane in Canada may be unsettling, the towering equipment powering the country’s construction boom has a top-notch safety record. (On-Site)
Why Remote Work Might Not Revolutionize Where We Work Even with the pandemic giving a boost to remote work, most companies aren’t seriously considering an officeless future. New full-time remote jobs has tripled, but the overall percentage remains incredibly low. Before the pandemic, it was about 2% of all new office jobs, and now it’s only about 6 to 7% of new office jobs. (NPR)
The World’s Financial Centers Struggle Back to the Office: The journey back to your desk is shaping up to be slow and indirect. Roughly 15 months after locking down to ward off Covid-19, several of the globe’s key financial centers are struggling to get employees back to their offices. (Citylab)
Why Wall Street Is Afraid of a Digital Dollar The idea of a government-backed virtual currency has support in policy circles, but Wall Street sees a threat to its consumer-finance dominion. (Businessweek)
The Stock Market is Outperforming Most Stocks Right now the market is being led higher by the big five, which are flirting with new highs as a percent of the overall index. They’re masking some of the weaknesses in other areas. (Irrelevant Investor)
Investors, Don’t Depend on Stocks and Bonds to Hedge Each Other The negative correlation between their monthly returns is no sure thing. (Businessweek)
When the Next Animal Plague Hits, Can This Lab Stop It? A new federal facility in Kansas will house the deadliest agricultural pathogens in the world—and researchers working tirelessly to contain them. (Wired)
It’s Dark Days for Affordable Housing. Here Are Some Bright Ideas The ‘Unlocking Doors’ expert panel makes some strong calls to action deserving attention. (Tyee)
Young, Dumb, and Broke: Why Outdoorsy Types Suck at Money Young, Dumb, and Broke: Why Outdoorsy Types Suck at Money (Outside Online)