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Could the metal be the key to a healthier planet?

Steel production accounts for about 7% to 10% of total carbon emissions — more than double of what comes from air travel. Now, many businesses are looking at ways to make the process greener. Peter R. Orszag examines these alternative approaches that could help many countries achieve net-zero emissions.

Michael Bott

The next big green thing: steel

There's no need to suppress voter turnout to win.

In recent years, progressives and some conservatives have become convinced that the Republican Party is a threat to democracy. But for Ramesh Ponnuru, these conclusions are exaggerated to the point of error. In his view, the party does not see itself as opponents of democracy, and the institutional interest in making sure voter turnout is low is smaller than even the GOP think.

Karl Miller

Republicans aren’t against democracy

Netflix sells a moment; Disney sells a lifetime.

Why does Star Wars have a chessboard selling for a tidy profit when The Queen’s Gambit doesn’t? Tara Lachapelle examines how, as a company that is resisting advertisers money, consumer products should be the next area of investment for the streaming site; but first, they need to create a long-term series worthy of a line of merchandise.

Netflix needs a Baby Yoda

Do you feel things on the internet are getting more expensive? Well, you may be onto something.

While we don't directly pay to use services like Google and Facebook, the reality is that we do so in other ways. For example, by simply clicking an ad in one of them. Alex Webb — an expert on the technology and communications sectors — believes that "If online power, and the ad revenue that comes with it, continues to concentrate within those two platforms, expect what you watch, read or listen to elsewhere on the web to start costing you money." Is there anything that can be done to change this?

The whole web pays for Google and Facebook to be free

Large-scale financial volatility and market dysfunction could be the last thing the economy needs.

"Should my worries be valid, the implications for the economy are far from reassuring. The dual possibility of large-scale financial volatility and market dysfunction would pose yet another challenge to an economic recovery that faces both short-term challenges — particularly on account of disruptions related to Covid-19 — and longer-term ones — mainly on account of scarring, in which short-term problems become embedded in the structure of the economy and harder to solve." Mohamed A. El-Erian opines in Bloomberg.

Is GameStop-style risk-taking a prelude to instability?

Tyler Cowen: allowing free and early access to academic research quickens the pace of progress.

Most of the scientific findings on COVID-19 have been shared on open-access journals, as the world joins efforts into finding as much information on the virus as possible. But — as Cowen ponders in this opinion piece for Bloomberg — when the pandemic is over, should these free resources become common practice?

COVID improved how the world does science

A teaching semester in Norway reinvents the notion of downtime.

"In Norway, I discovered a new emotion I can best describe as 'enoughness' — a neologism whose source I have yet to determine — alien to most New Yorkers. My tolerance for nonproductive activities increased. So did my appetite for solitude in nature, a transformation I have put to good use in pandemic social isolation — spring in a forested area upstate where I've been living in what we call here 'the mud season.'" Nina Burleigh reflects on her newly found emotion for Bloomberg.

Kelsey Navarro

The life-changing magic of doing just enough

A 230-year-old system that was flawed from the start, says Justin Fox.

The Electoral College was conceived as a way of compromise, one of its main objectives being to keep the then slave-owner states on board with the union. Over two centuries later, it's rather clear the system is not on par with modern times. Why then have lawmakers struggled so much to change it? The Bloomberg journalist and author explains.

Sean Crisden

The many unintended consequences of the electoral college

Joe Biden's decision to create a cabinet for climate-related issues could radically transform US foreign policy.

For Bloomberg columnist, Meghan L. O'Sullivan, a focus on decarbonization is overdue — but it also needs to be balanced with national security, counterterrorism and democracy-promotion. In this piece, she takes a closer look into the presumed intentions of the President-elect, and what the appointing of the former Secretary of State John Kerry to run the cabinet could entail.

What does success look like for a climate Czar?

Why champions of autocracy shouldn't be so quick to crow over U.S. election chaos.

"There are clearly grave problems with an unusually complex electoral system that has shown itself to be outdated, and with a system that has allowed the falsehoods, abuses of power and traducing of democratic norms emanating from the White House since 2016. After Joe Biden’s victory, American society remains deeply divided. Yet for all the dysfunction, angry rhetoric and court cases, votes were counted. That makes all the difference." Clara Ferreira Marques opines in Bloomberg.

Sarah Naughton

Hold the schadenfreude for America

Politics of resentment have acquired a long lease of life in U.S. politics and society.

For Indian author Pankaj Mishra, Joe Biden's victory over Donald Trump doesn't mark the end of 'Trumpism'. While the incumbent ultimately lost the election, the increased support he received is only one of the many signs of what lies ahead for America: a fierce clash of very different ideas and beliefs. In this piece for Bloomberg, Mishra reflects.

Michael Satow

America’s age of anger is just getting started

The famous American restaurateur and TV personality sets the path for the future of restaurants.

For David Chang, the creator of Netflix's 'Ugly Delicious' and founder of the Momofuko group, "the iceberg for restaurants wasn’t COVID-19. Something like that was going to happen, and change was coming." Interviewed by Bobby Ghosh from Bloomberg, he explores what it will take for the already struggling restaurant business to rebuild itself after the pandemic, and why when it comes to this, all options should be on the table.

David Chang's plan to save restaurants goes beyond COVID-19

Paul Milgrom and Robert B. Wilson won the Prize in Economic Sciences 2020.

The winners are specialists in “market design,” a field which, as Roth wrote in a famous paper, calls for “an engineering approach.” Mihir Sharma, from Bloomberg, explains why the celebrated 2020 Economics Nobel-winning idea has failed India — but why that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Marni Penning

This Nobel-winning idea has failed India

Small wars can tell you a lot about the biggest geopolitical and military issues of the day. 

"The conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh may seem like a remnant of the Soviet past in an unfamiliar part of the world. Yet the fierce fighting underway there could actually be a preview of the future." Hal Brands, from Bloomberg, explores how the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan can reveal tensions in more powerful Western countries.


Little war in the Caucasus has big lessons for U.S. and Russia

Part 2: Does the Left value dogma more than knowledge? 

Writing in Bloomberg, Steven B. Gerrard follows up on his previous argument in "The rise of the comfort college" hypothesising what the future of free speech may look like on college campuses.

The first part to this piece, "The rise of the comfort college", was published earlier on Curio.

Ron Butler

How comfort conquered college

Part 1:  A professor's account of being labelled an 'Enemy of the People' for wanting to discuss free speech.

In elite private colleges across America, the pursuit of knowledge is being replaced by the quest for power - warns professor Steven B. Gerrard. Writing in Bloomberg he recounts Williams College's "year of horror"  as liberalism and woke-ness battled it out in the debate over free speech.

The second part to this piece, "How comfort conquered college", is also available on Curio.

The rise of the comfort college

Hari Nada's score-settling created chaos that haunts the carmaker to this day.

The Nada-orchestrated campaign to arrest and dethrone the chairman of Nissan, Carlos Ghosn, ended up costing the company billions of dollars and its alliance with other car manufacturers. Reed Stevenson, from Bloomberg, investigates.

Gary Furlong

How a powerful Nissan insider tore apart Carlos Ghosn’s legacy

Failing to update our beliefs in response to new information could result in democracy's collapse.

New evidence suggests that people on the 'right' side of the political spectrum aren't open to evidence. However, those who considered themselves 'liberals' have also no reason to be smug, argues Andreas Kluth in Bloomberg.

Nick Camm

Right or left, we must open our minds again

How white Christianity has helped grant moral legitimacy to racist attitudes.

Francis Wilkinson, from Bloomberg, interviews Robert P. Jones, the founder and CEO of the Public Religion Research Institute and author of the book, White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity. Together they explore the historical connections between Christianity and racism in America.

Ken Foster and Michael Satow

The theological roots of white supremacy

Excessive market power isn’t confined to companies that run digital platforms.

"Oligopolies, where a few big companies dominate the market, also tend to wield some degree of market power. In theory, that can allow powerful players to jack up consumer prices, underpay workers and squeeze suppliers." Noah Smith analyses in Bloomberg.

Focusing on Facebook and Google’s monopoly misses the point

The US, India and Brazil are faring dramatically worse than other countries.

If you look into it carefully, however, it's only natural, explains Mihir Sharma in this analysis for Bloomberg: large democracies face porous internal borders, more pressure to keep the economy humming and higher demands on effective government. Could these countries learn their lessons in time, nonetheless?

Why big nations have been brought low by the pandemic

What makes a classroom so unique that an online setting can't emulate it?

For Bloomberg's Stephen L. Carter, a professor with over 40 years of experience, online classes can't hold a candle to in-person learning. On that basis, without "denying neither the dangers of the pandemic nor the utility of the virtual classroom in this moment," here he shares a short but heartfelt case against doing away with classrooms entirely in the post-pandemic world.

Chris Brinkley

The greatest teaching techniques don't compute over Zoom

The world's biggest central banks are usually the ones to break old models.

As Indonesia proudly monetises state debt to steer its deepest recession in decades, and "help prevent tens of millions of citizens from plunging further into poverty," experts are left wondering if what was once a condemned method, could now light the way for the rest of the world. Daniel Moss analyses in Bloomberg.

Ken Foster

Can an emerging market become a policy pioneer?

Reopening the EU's internal borders shows just how tricky living with COVID-19 really is.

"To start with, the approved list isn't a law per se, but a recommendation — border controls remain the preserve of national governments. While nobody expects a country to unilaterally fling open its doors to Americans, enforcement is going to be an issue." Lionel Laurent comments for Bloomberg.

Malk Williams

For the EU, banning American tourists is the easy part

What local road trip have you not yet taken?

"At one point we pulled into a gas station to switch driving duties and saw a hot dog stand manned by a guy wearing Confederate-flag pants. I wonder if he knows that West Virginia seceded from Virginia proper to ally with the Union cause." With many of us having international summer plans cancelled, Tyler Cowen, for Bloomberg, offers some tips on exploring the United States randomly.

It’s a good summer to explore America at random

The argument that there is no alternative to the U.S. currency makes little sense.

Following on from his article, 'A Crash in the Dollar Is Coming' Stephen Roach, for Bloomberg explores how other currencies may thrive in the face of the oncoming dollar crash. 

How the coming crash in the dollar will unfold

The world is having serious doubts about American exceptionalism.

"Already stressed by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. living standards are about to be squeezed as never before. At the same time, the world is having serious doubts about the once widely accepted presumption of American exceptionalism. Currencies set the equilibrium between these two forces — domestic economic fundamentals and foreign perceptions of a nation’s strength or weakness. The balance is shifting, and a crash in the dollar could well be in the offing."

A crash in the dollar is coming

There’s a difference between the law and police norms, as the Supreme Court justice explained.

The George Floyd protests have cast an unwavering spotlight on the difference between the law and police norms. Cass R. Sunstein, in Bloomberg, once worked for Thurgood Marshall, the first African American Supreme Court justice. He explores what he learnt about police accountability from the pioneering legal figure.

What Thurgood Marshall taught me about police accountability

Social unrest helped doom Lyndon Johnson's presidency — can it end up saving Trump's?

"Unlike in 1968, in other words, urban unrest with a racial dimension might actually save a beleaguered incumbent. The current wave of protests is in many ways a repeat of more recent events — Ferguson 2014, Charlottesville 2017 — and its main significance may be to shift the American political conversation away from the Trump administration's incompetent handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, back to the terrain of the culture war, where Trump is an experienced combatant." Niall Ferguson opines in Bloomberg.

2020 Is not 1968. It may be worse

His speech after Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination was beautiful. Was it also inadequate?

If Bobby Kennedy gave his 1968 speech following Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination today, would he have been saying #AllLivesMatter? Legal scholar and author Cass R. Sunstein, writing in Bloomberg, reflects.

Teri Schnaubelt

Bobby Kennedy’s big omission: white racism

The party may find it impossible to reclaim its historical identity.

"Most observers treated this inversion of the usual partisan rhetoric about the rich as an anomaly. Democrats are, after all, willing to raise taxes on high earners and the wealthy in other ways. Some of the same people who would benefit from a bigger deduction for state and local taxes would get hit by the higher capital-gains taxes that Democrats seek ... But the Democrats' solicitude for the interests of the affluent in this case may not be the aberration it appears to be." Ramesh Ponnuru explores in Bloomberg the changing faces of the Democratic Party.

Betsy Foldes Meiman

How Democrats became the party of the upper middle class

As with any technological shift, the downsides only become apparent after wide and long-term adoption.

"If working from home becomes the norm, employees will be expected to have quiet private home-office space, a high-speed internet connection, secure file cabinets, a computer that is more capable than one needed for casual home use, a scanner and printer and office supplies. For some workers, that could be more of a burden than they faced under the office-work paradigm." Conor Sen writes in Bloomberg.

Work from home is fine ... for now

COVID-19: Sometimes too much efficiency can be a bad thing.

"For years, cost-conscious hospitals have emulated the lean, just-in-time principles that have revolutionized manufacturing. The result has been a health-care system that is far more efficient, but unprepared to handle a sudden influx of seriously ill patients." Stephen Mihm, writing in Bloomberg, explores.

Why the U.S. doesn’t have enough hospital beds

The pandemic has provided lessons we can learn about the benefits of technology for students.

In more ways than one, the COVID-19 crisis has demonstrated some of technology's limitation when it comes to imitating real-life interactions, particularly in the academic field. However, as Bloomberg columnist Clara Ferreira Marques notes from her personal experience, some students can still really benefit from home-learning and 'Zoom classes'. Here, she explains.

Monita Rajpal

Don’t waste the world’s great online learning experiment

Michael Lewis, author of Moneyball and The Big Short, tells this remarkable story.

For most of human history, lost at sea meant gone for good. But this overlooked government worker, pioneered a search system while at sea, that's saved the lives of countless Americans.

Portrait of an inessential government worker

“Remember the movie American Hustle? It’s kind of like that, with way more dirt and twists."

When the FBI first approached Guy Gentile, he was given two options: lose everything and go to jail, or save himself and help them catch a bigger fish. Despite initially agreeing to the later, things eventually proved not as straightforward. Writing in Bloomberg, Zeke Faux tells the extraordinary story.

‘Bro, I’m going rogue’: The Wall Street informant who double-crossed the FBI

Oil is flooding the market when the world needs it least.

What does this mean for producers? For Bloomberg's oil strategist, Julian Lee, only those with deep pockets or storage tanks will be able to keep pumping. Here, he analyses why.

Welcome to a truly free oil market

Accelerating the search will require global coordination — and a lot of money.

"Making vaccines is difficult and expensive in the best of times. It usually takes years to bring a candidate to market. On top of the scientific difficulty, vaccines must clear an exceptionally high safety bar: Unlike just about any other treatment, they're given to otherwise healthy people in large quantities. Any significant side effects can have disastrous consequences, and long and careful testing is required to avoid harm." Max Nisen, writing in Bloomberg, reports.

How to make a faster coronavirus vaccine

Turning coronavirus into a "Chinese" disease will only aid and abet its spread.

Blaming ethnic groups for outbreaks is nothing new as Stephen Mihm, writing in Bloomberg explains; in fact, history's fraught with examples. But when it only aids the spread, why does it keep happening?

The ugly history of blaming ethnic groups for outbreaks

While TV viewership will go up, the surge in demand may expose more of the industry's problems.

"Because this moment is so unprecedented, it's hard to foresee the economic impact, other than that it will be painful, a pain that will be felt most severely by hourly workers. That can make conversations about what's on Netflix feel tone-deaf. And still, it's a very big part of how our consumption habits will change in the ensuing weeks and months." Bloomberg columnist, Tara Lachapelle, reports.

Streaming apps suddenly face the coronavirus test

Has the European Union bitten off more than it can chew in the African nation?

"The mobilization of military assets to block arms shipments was meant to demonstrate Europe’s determination to play a major role in tackling international crises, independent of the U.S. Choosing Libya as the test of this resolve made sense: The Trump administration has little interest in resolving the crisis; American forces were withdrawn from Libya in 2019, as Haftar’s forces marched toward the capital." Bobby Ghosh, writing in Bloomberg, reports.

Europe is failing its test in Libya

A test of whether coordinated global action can work.

A plan to fight climate change is ambitious but costly. Imagine footing the bill for the first transcontinental railroad — every 18 months for 100 years. Andy Mukherjee, writing in Bloomberg, explores.

Can Singapore save the world from sinking?

One-page summaries don't predict job performance, but they do perpetuate inequality.

"As many as 95% of employers admit to hiring the wrong people each year. Worse, more than a third of employers report being unaware of the true costs of bad hires, which can reach as high as five times annual salary costs." The problem for this could be at the very beginning of the recruiting process: the resumé. Cassidy Leventhal writing in Bloomberg, explains.

Resumes are a terrible way to hire people

Liberalism is not really the answer.

"On issues from school vouchers to abortion, significant numbers of black voters are closer to the Republican than the Democratic point of view. Yet they still vote Democratic. Why?" Stephen L. Carter, writing in Bloomberg, explains.

Why black voters keep picking democrats

For all her success in picking winners, she has received little notice.

Matthew A. Winkler, writing in Bloomberg, introduces us to the best investor you've never heard of: Cathie Wood. For all her success in picking winners, she has received little attention. But her (so far) prescient Tesla bet should change that.

Cathie Wood, the best investor you’ve never heard of

Where do you draw the line?

Taking from the rich and giving to the poor could be our last chance at wealth equality. Writing in Bloomberg, Noah Smith considers the morality of wealth redistribution.

The morality of taking from the rich and giving to the poor

He's hailed as an advocate of American restraint, but his actions couldn't have been further from that.

In the debate about America's role in world affairs, the sixth president of the US, John Quincy Adams, has become an icon for those wanting to shrink America’s global role. But Hal Brands, writing in Bloomberg, explains why he’s being cited incorrectly - as he was actually, a die-hard expansionist.

John Quincy Adams isn’t who you think he is

Why Twitter wants to cut its user numbers by 60%.

Writing in Bloomberg, Tim Culpan explains the company's move to focus on quality rather than quantity - and what this could mean for political advertising.

Half of Twitter’s users are worthless, and that’s good

Depression and anxiety cost the economy $1 trillion a year - so why aren't changes made about it?

A month into 2020, and already feeling miserable? Bosses can go a long way toward mitigating employee burnout. Writing in Bloomberg, Rachel Rosenthal looks at why although changes are cheap, they're also tricky to get done.

It’s only February and we’re already miserable

Why are so many of America's brightest graduates pursuing non-creative job markets?

Safe and stable might suit some in the job market, but it's leaving younger people funnelled into jobs that don't reward risk-taking. Tyler Cowen, writing in Bloomberg, looks at how this trend is only harming the U.S. economy.