Friday morning articles
Was Jack Welch the Greatest C.E.O. of His Day—or the Worst? As the head of General Electric, he fired people in vast numbers and turned the manufacturing behemoth into a financial house of cards. Why was he so revered? (New Yorker)
Taiwan Prepares to Be Invaded: If China wants to do something drastic, President Tsai Ing-wen told me, “Xi has to weigh the costs. He has to think twice.” (The Atlantic)
The Best Inventions of 2022: 200 innovations changing how we live. (Time)
The Supreme Court lost Republicans the midterms: A leading Democratic data analyst explains what happened in 2022 — and why abortion proved to be the decisive issue. (Vox)
Is This Crypto’s Lehman Moment? Here’s how to make sense of the industry-shaking collapse of FTX. (New York Times)
Crypto collapse: J. Pierpont Moneygone — FTX rekt: The 2021–2022 crypto bubble made a lot of traders look like geniuses. Then the bubble popped, the tide went out, and the traders turned out to be hugely overleveraged formerly-lucky idiots. Sociologists know that when a cult prophecy fails, most cultists exit the cult, and the remaining factions turn on each other. Crypto watchers know that this can also be exceedingly funny. (Amy Castor)
Crypto Reinvented Centralized Finance—but Forgot the Central Bank: After Binance agreed to takeover rival FTX, the danger is obvious: There’s no one big enough to rescue Binance. (Wall Street Journal)
12 Lessons on Money and More From Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger: Wisdom from two of the world’s most successful investors. (Morningstar)
The Fingerprints of History: There are a handful of times in my life where the first encounter with somebody stayed with me forever. One of those moments was in 2014 when I met Scott Krisiloff. At the time, he was running an asset management company, but the thing that hit me had nothing to do with his day job. He was in the process of reading every issue that Time Magazine had ever published, starting in 1923. I couldn’t believe it. (Irrelevant Investor)
Why we still don’t have a vaccine for the common cold: For decades, scientists have been on the hunt for a universal common cold vaccine—and they’re still searching. (Popular Science)
The Enduring Appeal of ‘I Voted’ Stickers: Election day is a time to showcase your civic spirit and local flair with free stickers — usually with patriotic designs, sometimes with demon spider-crabs. (CityLab)
With a Recession Enroute, Should Pension Funds Be Worried? Maybe not, data from WTW and others show. Despite some losses lately, they remain in resilient shape. Here’s how. (Chief Investment Officer)
A Rich Man Walks Into a Bar: An overly obvious metaphor for an overly obvious situation. (At the Mountains of Sadness)
How the Hawaiian Steel Guitar Changed American Music: The season finale of Sidedoor tells the story of an indigenous Hawaiian instrument with a familiar sound and unexpected influences. (Smithsonian Magazine)
The Making of Silent Bruce: Willis was a fast-talking lead who became a man-of-few-words star. It made his mental decline that much harder to notice. (Vulture)