This post is an experimental riff on an idea shared by Christopher Mims (@mims). It’s probably not at all what he had in mind, but he gets the complaints anyways.
If a roundup of Twitter’s cacophony is of interest, please sign up.
The state of the pandemic
While a few wealthy nations might be turning the corner, things are generally bad.
The US provided a bit of hope today as its leaders announced support for IP waivers. I’ve been calling for this for a while, but I was honestly shocked to see it happen. Let’s hope the rest of the dominoes fall in place and production ramps up quickly.
Dr. Tedros, the Director General of the WHO, called it out as a “monumental moment in the fight against COVID-19. Looking beyond the pandemic, I’d say it’s even bigger. I can’t recall a moment when the US government took the side of people against capital.
Markets responded as expected.
And people who value lives over money reacted as expected.
As did those who don’t.
And others provided context.
The Capitol Insurrection
ProPublica did a deep dive on Parler to dig up videos from the insurrection. There were many videos released around the event that gave some sense of the moment, but most of those felt a bit removed from the action, whereas the ProPublica site gives you more of a 1st person experience.
The site lays out the videos on a timeline of the day and breaks out videos into three categories: Around D.C., Near Capitol, and Inside Capitol. I recommend clicking through some of the videos from the latter category. There’s some ‘interesting’ stuff there.
The Capital Insurrection
This feels like watching Wiley Coyote before he realizes he’s stepped off the cliff.
I repeat myself.
Evictions during a pandemic?
We just weathered an insurrection, and now we’re opening the door to turning millions out into the streets during a pandemic.
Have we reached Peak Americans?
That the birthrate is currently down is probably no surprise, but it’s the sixth straight year of decline and the lowest rate since 1979.
This chart from a 2018 NYT article ranks people’s reasons for having fewer children than what they saw as ideal. Inequality and environmental factors run amock in this list.
If you have any thoughts on this post or its format, please share them.
That’s it for today. As you were…