Friday morning articles
The World-Changing Race to Develop the Quantum Computer: Such a device could help address climate change and food scarcity, or break the Internet. Will the U.S. or China get there first? (New Yorker)
The Story of Japan’s Lost Decade: Japan’s Bubble-Burst: The Party That Wasn’t Supposed to End Uncovering Japan’s lost decade (1991-2001); The tragic tale of the economic bubble burst and its consequences. (Konichi Value)
All The Ways That Crypto Broke in 2022: Fast forward a year, and the primary topics of conversation among even the most devout of the crypto faithful were more likely to be about Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced crypto co-founder of the fallen FTX empire, or whether they’d ever retrieve the coins trapped on bankrupt exchanges and lending platforms after a series of big digital-asset collapses. (Bloomberg)
How Not to Play the Game: Magic beans, Bahamian penthouses, old-fashioned fraud and other important SBF-inspired insights. A postscript to Bloomberg Businessweek’s The Crypto Story. (Businessweek)
The most honest man in real estate thinks the housing market isn’t going to crash: Jonathan Miller is a real-estate appraiser who’s published monthly housing reports for 27 years. Everyone from The Wall Street Journal to The East Hampton Star quotes his data and analyses. Here’s how Miller, who doesn’t think the housing market is going to crash, became a beacon of trust. (Business Insider)
Finding the First Americans: Archaeology and genetics can’t yet agree on when humans first arrived in the Americas. That’s good science and here’s why. (Aeon)
He’s the Bad Boy of Chess. But Did He Cheat? An American teenager, Hans Niemann, defeated Magnus Carlsen, the world’s best chess player. Then Mr. Carlsen accused his opponent of cheating. It’s either overdue justice or paranoia. (New York Times)
The Hidden Details Behind David Beckham’s MLS Contract That Earned Him $500 Million: David Beckham shocked the world when he left Real Madrid to join the LA Galaxy of Major League Soccer. He was just 31 years old and agreed to take a 70 percent pay cut. But here’s the part you probably didn’t know: Beckham’s MLS contract included two unique stipulations that eventually turned his $6.5 million annual salary into more than $500 million. It’s one of the most lucrative contracts in sports history. (Huddle Up)