ENTREPRENEURSHIP Why Did Signature Bank Fail? Key Takeaway: The failures of SVB and Signature Bank were caused by two major risks: interest rate risk and liquidity risk. Interest rate risk caused the market value of previously issued debt to plunge, especially for longer-dated debt. Liquidity risk is the risk that a bank won’t be able to meet its obligations without incurring […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS EDITOR'S PICK TECHNOLOGY The EV Transition Isn’t Really About Cars Key Takeaway: The race to decarbonize passenger cars and light-duty trucks in the U.S. offers big economic and environmental benefits, but they’re not spread equitably. People who bear the most burdens in our current transportation systems often receive the fewest benefits. Bans on sales of new gas-powered vehicles won’t affect those that are already on […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS EDITOR'S PICK FINANCE Do Financial “Poison Pills” Work? Key Takeaways: Corporate executives engage in top-secret talks, with one company or group of investors making a bid for another business. But other takeovers are more hostile in nature. Not every company wants to be taken over. This is the case with Elon Musk’s US$43 billion bid to buy Twitter. But if the company has […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS EDITOR'S PICK FINANCE Does The Stock Market Extract Wealth? Many of us see the stock market as an investment engine for building companies and generating wealth, but the truth is that the stock market works more like an extraction engine. It depletes corporations while contributing to the concentration of wealth. The Stock Market is an Aftermarket Our distorted view of the stock market starts when we believe that buying shares in a publicly-traded company actually invests […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS EDITOR'S PICK SOCIOLOGY STRATEGY Game Theory: Finite And Infinite Players Of finite and infinite play, only one of these modalities exists to limit play — to win, and end play for everyone. In the process, it limits our collective reach, as human beings. Finite play issues, frankly, from a broken spirit, or soul. The other, by contrast, exists to continue play — without prejudice, or end — and […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS EDITOR'S PICK SOCIOLOGY STARTUPS The Relationship Economy Terry Mollner — whose Calvert Impact Capital funds are the world’s largest, at $9 billion (or $12 billion, depending on what source you cite) — is one of the great pioneers of a new economy based on meaningful relationshipsand the common good — a conceptual framework that is increasingly called ‘Game B’ these days, as an alternative to the prevailing […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
ART & DESIGN EDITOR'S PICK SOCIOLOGY Conservation In The Time Of Pandemic As I write, we don’t yet know the full socioeconomic impact of the devastating COVID-19 pandemic on people and places around the world. But we know from conversations we’ve had with colleagues and partners globally that cultural heritage places and the many people who rely on them for their livelihoods have been, and continue to […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS EDITOR'S PICK ENTREPRENEURSHIP STARTUPS STRATEGY TECHNOLOGY Startups Lose Innovative Edge After Corporate Funding? When a large corporation puts money into a small startup, huge innovations can result — like the rapid-fire development of a COVID-19 vaccine. The first two vaccines to win U.S. regulatory approval both came from biotech startups that had received equity investments from pharmaceutical giants: · In January 2015, Merck took a $50 million stake in […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK PHILOSOPHY PSYCHOLOGY SOCIOLOGY The Problem With Maslow’s Pyramid Of Needs Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs implies a linearity, with self-actualization crowning our enlightenment, once the rest of the pyramid’s ‘baser needs’ are met. While powerful, it is a misguided notion. In reality, we need to start “at the top”. Here’s why. His was a brilliant piece of reflective — if intuitive — insight that gave […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK SCIENCE The Egg-Freezing Gold Rush Louise Brown, the world’s first IVF baby, was born in 1978, the culmination of decades of research by Cambridge Nobel scientist Sir Robert Edwards. Since then, an estimated eight million babies have been born globally following IVF and other assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs). While many different personal journeys have led to these births, there has […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
What Makes Basquiat Special? Key Takeaway: Jean-Michel Basquiat’s work highlights racial inequalities and the lack of representation of racialized people in the media, but also the violence suffered by African Americans. Jean-Michel Basquiat denounced the violence of cartoons, which he saw as a reflection of 20th-century American society. Jean-Michel Basquiat’s painting “Toxic” is an attempt to denounce a stereotypical […] Written by John Harbour March 15, 2023March 15, 2023 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Why Did Signature Bank Fail? Key Takeaway: The failures of SVB and Signature Bank were caused by two major risks: interest rate risk and liquidity risk. Interest rate risk caused the market value of previously issued debt to plunge, especially for longer-dated debt. Liquidity risk is the risk that a bank won’t be able to meet its obligations without incurring […] Written by Vidhura Tennekoon March 14, 2023March 14, 2023 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Art Of Balding Balding is really common, affecting more than 50% of men. It’s also physically inconsequential (bald men live just as long as haired men). So why, in his memoir Spare, does Prince Harry refer to his brother’s baldness as “alarming”? As a social psychologist with a special interest in balding (and author of an upcoming book entitled Branding Baldness), […] Written by Glen Jankowski March 1, 2023March 1, 2023 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Evolutionary Origins Of Imagination Key Takeaway: Mammals evolved to hide out while cold-blooded dinosaurs hunted during the day, but had to eat a lot more food than dinosaurs per unit of weight to maintain their high metabolism and constant inner body temperature. Mammals developed a new system to efficiently memorize places where they’d found food, linking sensory aspects of […] Written by Empirics Asia February 28, 2023February 28, 2023 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Art Of Receiving Feedback Good feedback, whether you are on the receiving or giving end, requires an attitude of curiosity and openness. Intentionally creating space for feedbackcan help, but even with the right space, receiving feedback can be really scary. Many organizations have formal systems of feedback in the style of mid-year and annual reviews. And it’s not uncommon for informal continuous […] Written by Andrea Mignolo February 27, 2023February 27, 2023 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The World After Oil Key Takeaway: The production and consumption of fossil fuels is on the rise, and expected to peak within the next decade. To consider alternatives to oil, we need to be aware of the scale of its integration into our lives. Caleb Wellum, an assistant professor of U.S. history at the University of Toronto Mississauga, Canada, […] Written by Nehal El-Hadi February 24, 2023February 24, 2023 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Secret Chemistry Of Chocolates Key Takeaways: Chocolate has been around for at least 4,000 years, and is now a trillion-dollar global industry. It starts out as a dull-tasting bean, packed into a pod that grows on a cacao tree, and requires two key steps: fermentation and roasting. Roasting is an art form, with different temperatures and times producing different […] Written by Sheryl Barringer February 23, 2023February 23, 2023 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Rethinking Education Key Takeaways: The Industrial model of education that fueled the modern era and its dizzying reach did its job incredibly well. In his writing, Flynn illustrates study after study, spanning nations and decades, in which modern educational gift of abstraction — a transcendent sign of intelligence, as we saw in Raven’s Matrices — has been […] Written by Anthony Fieldman March 2, 2022October 19, 2022 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
How China Is Transforming Its Economy Through Learning I highly recommend reading the McKinsey Global Institute’s new report, “Reskilling China: Transforming The World’s Largest Workforce Into Lifelong Learners”, which focuses on the country’s biggest employment challenge, re-training its workforce and the adoption of practices such as lifelong learning to address the growing digital transformation of its productive fabric. How to transform the country […] Written by Enrique Dans February 1, 2021February 1, 2021 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Why You’re Not Seeing Success With Influencer Marketing With the new year around the corner, now is a good time to re-evaluate your past marketing strategies and gear up for the year ahead. For some businesses, influencer marketing has simply not seemed to live up to its lofty promises of genuine engagement, credibility, and transparency. Some have claimed that it has been failing […] Written by Michael Tan January 14, 2021January 15, 2021 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
A New Philosophy of Business I’m about to ask you to take a mental leap. For the next 8 minutes, suspend your notions of what a business is, and I’ll propose a new lens for you to look through. There are a lot of questions asked around what “community” means for business. “Where should community fit in my organization?” and […] Written by Empirics Asia September 5, 2018September 5, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked