601 lines
68 KiB
HTML
601 lines
68 KiB
HTML
<!DOCTYPE html>
|
||
<html lang="" xml:lang="" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head>
|
||
<meta charset="utf-8"/>
|
||
<meta content="pandoc" name="generator"/>
|
||
<meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, user-scalable=yes" name="viewport"/>
|
||
<title>16 June, 2021</title>
|
||
<style type="text/css">
|
||
code{white-space: pre-wrap;}
|
||
span.smallcaps{font-variant: small-caps;}
|
||
span.underline{text-decoration: underline;}
|
||
div.column{display: inline-block; vertical-align: top; width: 50%;}
|
||
</style>
|
||
<title>Daily-Dose</title><meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" name="viewport"/><link href="styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="../styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><style>*{overflow-x:hidden;}</style><link href="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.css" rel="stylesheet"/><script src="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.js"></script></head>
|
||
<body>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
|
||
<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
|
||
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
|
||
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
|
||
<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
|
||
<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
|
||
<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Does Tech Need a New Narrative?</strong> - In Silicon Valley, “disruption” is giving way to “building.” What will be built? - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-silicon-valley/does-tech-need-a-new-narrative">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The F.D.A.’s Extraordinary Approval of a Questionable Treatment for Alzheimer’s</strong> - It is very rare for the agency to ignore an overwhelmingly negative advisory recommendation. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-fdas-extraordinary-approval-of-a-questionable-treatment-for-alzheimers">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Big Stakes and Deep Weirdness of the Last Days of New York City’s Mayoral Race</strong> - The future of the country’s largest city is on the line. This week, campaign reporting focussed on a candidate’s refrigerator. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-local-correspondents/the-big-stakes-and-deep-weirdness-of-the-last-days-of-new-york-citys-mayoral-race">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Political, Legal, and Moral Minefield That Donald Trump Left for Merrick Garland</strong> - Some fear that a former judge with a passionate belief in fairness and neutrality cannot effectively counter Trump. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-political-legal-and-moral-minefield-that-donald-trump-left-for-merrick-garland">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Defeat of Benjamin Netanyahu</strong> - Israel’s longest-serving Prime Minister has dragged the country ever rightward, abandoning the peace process and imperilling its very democracy. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/the-defeat-of-benjamin-netanyahu">link</a></p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How the vaccine changed bartending, according to a bartender</strong> -
|
||
<figure>
|
||
<img alt="A close-up of several glasses on a bar, with patrons in the background." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/tE-3A9q0S8o_Qx2-cCzdpgNUSFU=/300x0:4837x3403/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69460010/GettyImages_84170438__1_.0.jpg"/>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
What’s it like to work at a dive bar in Texas in the middle of a pandemic? | Getty Images
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The pandemic made bartending more stressful. Is it better now?
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oANaGD">
|
||
Better Days is a modest dive bar with a pool table and a tiny backyard crease in the heart of Austin, Texas. Like many watering holes in the state, Better Days was given the green light to reopen last May, long before many patrons were even close to becoming vaccinated. That’s why 32-year-old bartender Isaac French felt like he was entering the line of fire when he went back to work.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EUfyIF">
|
||
Sure, he enforced all the Covid-19 rules and regulations as best he could, but procedural conduct tends to fade into the background once second and third rounds of drinks circulate through a crowd. The masks come off, the table mates huddle together, and for much of his time as a pandemic bartender, French expected to get sick. But after being out of work for months, that seeming inevitability was preferable to staying broke.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="W8HQgX">
|
||
In many parts of the country, as vaccinations become increasingly available, Americans are just now getting accustomed to bellying up to bar settings again. New York allowed bars and restaurants to reopen at full capacity on May 19, and finally removed its midnight curfew on the May 31.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EBMNEf">
|
||
But in other states like Texas, Tennessee, and Florida, those restrictions were never so stringent. That means someone like French had plenty of experience serving drinks during the absolute bleakest months of the pandemic. We talked about the anxiety he felt after receiving the call to go back to work, what it’s like to kick out anti-maskers, and how the nightlife mood is changing in Austin now that he, and many of his patrons, are vaccinated.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="97dvaM">
|
||
<strong>What do you remember about your last shift before the pandemic?</strong>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Q0yQnp">
|
||
My last shift was a Wednesday. I remember everyone talking about Covid at the bar. We were asking, “Is a shutdown gonna happen?” A lot of us were like, “Yeah, sure, whatever.” I thought it could happen, but at the time I was like, “Whatever, it’s busy. I’ll deal with a shutdown when it happens.” Sure enough, two days later, the shutdown came down.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JsHwdV">
|
||
<strong>What did you hear from management? How were you planning on keeping money coming in?</strong>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JEeIsf">
|
||
I was pretty stressed. It’s a small dive bar, owned by two owners and their wives. I was like, “Oh, this isn’t good.” You talk yourself into the break being like two weeks, or maybe a month. The managers are stressed, because bars <em>never </em>close down. That never happens. I was like, “We’ll figure it out, we’ll be fine.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="s1Aw7T">
|
||
But I thought there was a good 60 to 70 percent chance that it was going to close permanently during the pandemic.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="h5uEd2">
|
||
<strong>When did you guys open back up during the pandemic? When were you allowed to go back to work?</strong>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iFZvpS">
|
||
It was early summer, but I don’t remember the exact date. We’re a very small staff. It’s just me, my boss, and one other bartender. We took the opportunity to clean the place up, and we did some online Facebook donation drives. But we waited for a good while, like two weeks, after we were allowed to reopen before we did. But eventually my boss was just like, “Hey, we have to open up.” I was like, “That’s fine, let’s do it.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Vgy0PH">
|
||
<strong>You had been living through a pandemic for a while at that point. It must’ve felt pretty crazy to be serving drinks inside.</strong>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="j4wtpC">
|
||
I was very nervous. I still take Covid very seriously. So do my bosses. We were like, “What can we do?” We decided to be very strict. And that’s tough. Sometimes it’s just me at the bar. We don’t have a door guy. Obviously I didn’t want to get sick, and of course one of our bartenders got Covid the third week back in. So we had to shut down again for another two weeks. I never got it, and I’m double-vaxxed now.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7m0kgN">
|
||
<strong>How seriously are the people still going to bars during the heat of the pandemic taking Covid-19? Are they throwing caution to the wind?</strong>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aRRmzq">
|
||
I’d say it’s like half and half. My regulars who came in were super cautious. They come in, they’re happy we’re reopened and that they can support us, they’re wearing masks and following all the procedures. Then, of course, there’s the other side: People that don’t understand that regardless of what the state is saying, this is our business and we can tell them what to do.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Iv2fNt">
|
||
You have a lot of arguments like that, but one of the bad things about running a bar is once people get drunk, people stop caring and it’s a lot harder to control. After a while, I’m handling so many different things that I can’t babysit everything. You get desensitized.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div class="c-float-right">
|
||
<div id="T3wG4f">
|
||
<div>
|
||
|
||
</div>
|
||
</div>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EC3XSD">
|
||
<strong>What’s the first rule that starts to disappear when you hit round two or round three?</strong>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="p9Dwxe">
|
||
Absolutely the masks. People want to sit at the bar. At the time, we had three seats at the bar for social distancing. Then they get drunk, and they start walking around, and now nobody is wearing a mask.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FpxmtB">
|
||
<strong>Did you expect to end up catching Covid-19?</strong>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="q2X0al">
|
||
100 percent. It got to the point where I had zero dollars in my bank account. I was like, “I either have to get Covid and get this money, or be broke.” I was extremely upset with government leadership. We’re supposed to be essential workers, and they treat us like we’re not essential at all.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yGsSTl">
|
||
<strong>People are getting vaccinated. How has that impacted the mood at the bar?</strong>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9kEIr5">
|
||
It has been busier, but my bar is like <em>Cheers</em>. I have the same regulars every day. I see them every time I go to work. I have my solid family there. They’re always cool. It only feels weird when new people show up.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aNUWNV">
|
||
We still enforce the masks, and I’ve had people scream at me for that and just leave the bar. It’s funny. A lot of people who were anti-vaxxers are now being like, “Well, I have the vaccine.” And you’re just like, “No you don’t.” I’ve had to kick anti-maskers out. There would be people who’d try to fight us sometimes. I’m like, “You’re this mad? Just go to the bar over there!” That’s another thing you prepare yourself before your shift: How many anti-maskers am I going to have to deal with? I’m good with aggro people. I can kill them with kindness. I say, “Hey, it’s not my rules, I’m just trying to make a dollar,” and they’ll cool down. But some of them don’t!
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8sua6G">
|
||
<strong>What did it feel like after vaccination, when you knew you could go to work without worrying about getting sick?</strong>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qsUozs">
|
||
It felt relieving. Every time I went out, even to the grocery store, I’d get nervous. And when you’re corralling drunk people who are screaming in your face, you get more nervous. It’s way less of a burden for me now.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UHtunU">
|
||
<strong>How much are you looking forward to dropping the mask mandate, in a truly post-Covid world, where you can just do your job normally again?</strong>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qSUvEi">
|
||
It will feel good. I’m tired of doing that extra babysitting. If you’re a bartender, you babysit. That’s what you do. But with all these restrictions, it’s way more than you’re used to. I’m ready to go back to normal, and to have someone tell me their life story at the bar, without worrying about getting Covid.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="s7dx20">
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="387wda">
|
||
</p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>GameStop. Dogecoin. Now AMC. Do meme traders need to be protected from themselves?</strong> -
|
||
<figure>
|
||
<img alt="The Wall Street bull surrounded by tourists." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ZL7bmbrOfDTnXTJQIbYJdoj-EUI=/556x0:5000x3333/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69459946/GettyImages_1230511481_copy.0.jpg"/>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Amateur investors took the stock market by storm not via Wall Street but via Reddit. Many of them are playing a losing game. Should they be saved from themselves? | Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“If you’re trading like it’s a game, you’re probably going to lose.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8HaCXT">
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Px4mDW">
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DGdg0N">
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HxCjlg">
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="g0aUpr">
|
||
It’s hard to argue that everything going on in financial markets lately is particularly smart. The question is, how silly should we let things get?
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NKCBNp">
|
||
Meme stocks like <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/22289152/gamestop-hearing-robinhood-citadel">GameStop</a> are still swinging wildly as they go in and out of fashion on Reddit. AMC <a href="https://twitter.com/MylesUdland/status/1400410015379464196?s=20">recently</a> told people buying its stock that they’re probably going to lose all their money. People are <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/22452151/memes-bitcoin-dogecoin-elon-musk">piling into cryptocurrencies</a> based on memes and learning some hard lessons in volatility, much of which is <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2021/5/18/22441831/elon-musk-bitcoin-dogecoin-crypto-prices-tesla">driven by Elon Musk’s tweets</a>. The <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22313936/non-fungible-tokens-crypto-explained">NFT bubble</a> might have <a href="https://gizmodo.com/nfts-are-crashing-and-who-could-have-seen-this-coming-o-1847020345">already popped</a> because it turns out spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a GIF might not be the soundest investment.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5uzG3u">
|
||
Amid the chaos, there’s been quite a bit of hand-wringing among regulators, lawmakers, and finger-waggers on CNBC over what to do about it. Many investors are trading like it’s a game, and one that they are likely to lose — some knowingly, some not.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LlJBcg">
|
||
“Is there ever going to be a way to stop people from buying things at stupid prices? No,” said Andrew Park, senior policy analyst at Americans for Financial Reform. “There’s a key difference between people doing stupid things with their money versus being in positions where they’re either being exploited or manipulated.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="c97RuV">
|
||
There’s a fine line between keeping people from taking too big of risks and locking them out of opportunities, between letting people do what they want with their money and keeping them from being swindled. How much to protect investors is a thorny question to answer — especially when sometimes they need to be protected from themselves, or they don’t want the protections at all. When I talk to day traders, the sentiment is often that they want to be able to take more risks, not fewer.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="X5biWc">
|
||
Speculation is hardly new; the same goes for gambling. Betting on a newly minted meme stock <a href="https://www.barrons.com/articles/what-to-know-today-51623240929">like Wendy’s</a> or cryptocurrency like dogecoin isn’t all that different from playing blackjack, which is allowed. And Wall Street bigwigs take risks all the time, risks that can have major consequences for everyone. (See: the global financial crisis, or, more recently, the <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-04-08/how-bill-hwang-of-archegos-capital-lost-20-billion-in-two-days#:~:text=The%20sudden%20implosion%20of%20Hwang's,It's%20also%20a%20peculiar%20one.">implosion of the hedge fund Archegos Capital</a> that cost it and <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/credit-suisses-5-5-billion-archegos-hit-enters-big-league-of-bank-losses-11619256601">major banks</a> billions of dollars.) The question regulators are facing right now as more and more people get into trading is which levers to pull and how much. There <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/22289152/gamestop-hearing-robinhood-citadel">are plenty of ideas out there</a> regarding what to do, such as increasing disclosures, shortening trade settlement times, or even banning certain practices and vehicles altogether. But new policies can come with certain trade-offs.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div class="c-float-right c-float-hang">
|
||
<aside id="jeep0D">
|
||
<q>How much to protect investors is a thorny question to answer — especially when sometimes they need to be protected from themselves, or they don’t want the protections at all</q>
|
||
</aside>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xuDeSR">
|
||
For example, people using free trading apps like Robinhood are <a href="https://www.barrons.com/articles/payment-for-order-flow-robinhood-51623412441">probably not getting the best execution</a> on their buys and sells, but if you take away the mechanisms that facilitate that — <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-06-09/sec-chair-proposes-review-of-rules-underpinning-stock-trading">which the Securities and Exchange Commission says it’s looking at</a> — that might mean trading will no longer be commission-free. Reasonable minds can disagree about whether that’s the right move to make. It probably wouldn’t keep tons of people away from investing — day trading existed long before Robinhood — but it might keep some people out.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qqYQn6">
|
||
More broadly, there’s a difference between being encouraged to make bad decisions with your money and being allowed to. It’s hard not to think it would be a good idea for newbie investors to have some <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/08/technology/robinhood-risky-trading.html">more friction before making risky bets</a>. Most <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/20/attention-robinhood-power-users-most-day-traders-lose-money.html">day traders lose money</a>, and it’s often the case that the more they trade, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/toddmillay/2016/07/29/how-over-trading-hurts-returns-and-how-to-stop/">the worse they do</a>. Risky options trading <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/25/business/growth-in-options-trading-helps-brokers-but-not-small-investors.html">can be particularly hard to win at</a> in the long run. The problem is, the companies facilitating commission-free trading make more money the more people trade.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="m4ByW0">
|
||
That there should be strong legal protections for investors and consumers so they’re not taken advantage of shouldn’t be controversial in American politics. After all, no one wants to be part of a system where they don’t have a fair shot of winning. At the same time, it’s hard not to wonder if they already are.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Vpmsh0">
|
||
“Why are all these meme stocks and crypto really popular? To some degree, there is hope that somehow I can magically make enough money to pay off these student loans, because otherwise, at the pace I’m going, there’s no way I can do that,” Park said.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8ZgopN">
|
||
If we want to stop people from YOLOing their savings into bitcoin or <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/22303457/spacs-explained-stock-market-ipo-draftkings">putting money into a SPAC</a> (special purpose acquisition company) whose business proposal seems like a blatant lie, we should also ask ourselves why they’re tempted to do so in the first place.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="VwLsDg">
|
||
The era of meme investing is not necessarily an astute one
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yemBZa">
|
||
Some people are investing in meme stocks or cryptocurrencies or other risky assets because they genuinely believe in the underlying thing itself. There are people who really think crypto is the future, or hope GameStop can turn things around. But much of what is going on right now is decidedly not that. Matt Levine at Bloomberg Opinion got into the situation in a <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-06-09/the-meme-stocks-keep-coming">recent column</a>:
|
||
</p>
|
||
<blockquote>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3dmkhp">
|
||
The way to become a meme stock is not just to be good; companies don’t become meme stocks because Redditors endorse a widespread consensus that they are good operators in attractive markets. The way to become a meme stock is to be bad, then good; companies become meme stocks because Redditors get mad at hedge funds for shorting them, so they buy them, so they go up, and it’s fun and more Redditors join in.
|
||
</p>
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jUdRYS">
|
||
The party is usually fleeting, but while it’s happening, for those involved, it can be fun. When it’s over, not so much. Some partygoers are left with varying degrees of a rough hangover. Every time there’s a big meme trade cycle, stories emerge of amateurs <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/27/business/gamestop-wall-street-bets.html">hitting it big on the upswing</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/07/business/gamestop-stock-losses.html">suffering major losses on the downswing</a>, sometimes days apart. When I talk to individual traders, I often hear the same story over and over again: They made some good bets early on, got overconfident, and then got wiped out. The hope is that people are playing with money they can afford to lose, but <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/08/technology/robinhood-risky-trading.html">that’s not always the case</a>. And sometimes, people wind up making trades they don’t even understand, with <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/11/investing/robinhood-lawsuit-suicide-alex-kearns/index.html">tragic consequences</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GbjRLz">
|
||
Tyler Gellasch, executive director of Healthy Markets, an investor-focused nonprofit, said he has concerns some of the meme stock trading is affecting the overall quality of and confidence in the market, <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/d813fe90-29ba-4c98-ac57-c2919a7970b1">a sentiment he’s not alone in</a>. The whole idea of efficient markets is that capital flows to places where it will be put to good use, not businesses <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/b592847a-2061-4460-8aa5-3b22a2153210">on the verge of bankruptcy</a>. “You invest in companies to make money, but at the same time, we want the good companies to get the money and the bad companies to fail so that the good companies create jobs and things people will use,” he said.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div id="H3m0IW">
|
||
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
|
||
The long term impact of <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%24AMC&src=ctag&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"><span class="math inline">$AMC</a> + <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%24GME&amp;src=ctag&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">$</span>GME</a> isn’t about what happens to these companies or their stocks. It is about the public, which views the stock market (and economy) as something that is manipulated and not trusted.
|
||
</p>
|
||
— Andrew Ross Sorkin (<span class="citation" data-cites="andrewrsorkin">@andrewrsorkin</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/andrewrsorkin/status/1400197781785088004?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 2, 2021</a>
|
||
</blockquote></div></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tpT8Fm">
|
||
To be sure, deciphering what is a good company and a bad company is not easy — there’s a reason stock-pickers tend to underperform indexes like the S&P 500. Sometimes, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/god-told-me-to-put-money-into-hertz-how-small-investors-are-upending-wall-street-11622113200">the bankrupt companies turn around</a>. And if I want to toss my latest paycheck into a thing I saw float by on r/WallStreetBets, to a certain extent, who’s to stop me?
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Z2R7ZR">
|
||
Many day traders seem to believe they’re in on the joke; they know they’re speculating, and they want to keep their right to it. Plenty of people look at a stock or a cryptocurrency and think they can get in and out and leave someone else holding the bag, and whether that’s good is much more of a moral question than a legal one.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nvlHXY">
|
||
“You’ve got to be realistic,” said Tom Gorman, a securities expert and partner at the law firm Dorsey & Whitney. “If you’re trading like it’s a game, you’re probably going to lose.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="a9E7Yw">
|
||
One big issue now is whether investors actually realize the game’s rules and how it may or may not be stacked against them.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="icaP2f">
|
||
There’s a difference between people doing silly things and people being taken advantage of
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fxmj0o">
|
||
The house always wins in Las Vegas. On Wall Street, that’s often true, too: Nobody offering you a financial product or touting some new investment is really doing it for your health.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nOZZpx">
|
||
The recent boom in retail investing and day trading has opened up some important questions about whether people are being taken advantage of. In some cases, they may be falling victim to outright lies, scams, and fraud. In others, they’re being nudged in directions they shouldn’t be, or the guardrails are off.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2wpYx2">
|
||
Gary Gensler, the new SEC chair, has said he <a href="https://financialservices.house.gov/uploadedfiles/hhrg-117-ba00-wstate-genslerg-20210506.pdf?campaign_id=4&emc=edit_dk_20210603&instance_id=32159&nl=dealbook&regi_id=154362712&segment_id=59752&te=1&user_id=25a3b2c59b2e4fc42c84064d4b8f0da4">plans to take a look at</a> what’s going on in the markets with regard to free trading apps, volatility, and individual investors to make sure traders are being protected. That means scrutinizing the gamification of apps such as Robinhood that <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/06/sec-chair-gary-gensler-raises-concerns-about-robinhood-trading-gamification-and-social-media-hype.html">sometimes encourage people to trade more</a>, which often translates to losing more money. Gensler and multiple others have also raised concerns about payment for order flow, where big market-makers such as Citadel Securities and Virtu pay brokers like Robinhood to process trades, in turn presumably making money off the spread, which is the price difference between the buy and the sell. It’s how a lot of apps offer “free” trading, though the trading isn’t really free.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div class="c-float-left c-float-hang">
|
||
<aside id="klAgJU">
|
||
<q>“If you’re trading like it’s a game, you’re probably going to lose”</q>
|
||
</aside>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xTDOLw">
|
||
“Somebody is paying for yours, my order flow. Secondly, they’re getting our data; the data is very valuable,” Gensler said in a recent appearance on CNBC. “So it is zero commission but not necessarily free.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="omeiAa">
|
||
“That’s what enabled Robinhood to do what they do,” Gorman said. “It’s having the beneficial effect of encouraging these small investors to get in. Now, they’re not getting, maybe, the world’s best execution. They’re getting okay execution.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="454aBd">
|
||
In the weeks and months to come, regulators will be working out just how much gamification, if any, should be allowed, or whether payment for order flow is a solid business model, even though without it, commission-free trading might disappear. How much risk people should be able to take, and how knowingly, is a tough needle to thread. Some traders are getting into super-risky options, which is basically gambling, or using margin, meaning they’re playing with money that’s not theirs. And some technologies aren’t just allowing this behavior, they’re encouraging it, even when it’s unclear whether people fully understand the mechanisms in play.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LILl8u">
|
||
“It’s great to have a lot of new entrants to the market, but that won’t end well if we don’t have any guardrails. We require driver’s licenses and seat belts for cars, but what should we have for financial markets? Clicking the box to say you read a 200-page disclosure isn’t going to protect anyone,” Gellasch said.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qhWNT7">
|
||
Many amateurs have been caught by surprise by how some investment systems work. Some people were shocked when Robinhood shut down trading during the GameStop boom. Those new to bitcoin may have been unaware of its past booms and busts. Much of the time, these types of risks show up in disclosures (though not so much for crypto, which is pretty lightly regulated), but hardly anyone reads the fine print.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PQOA6y">
|
||
SPACs, which are public entities that are expected to eventually merge with a private company and generate money (<a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/22303457/spacs-explained-stock-market-ipo-draftkings">Recode has an explainer on what they are</a>), are allowed to promise kind of whatever to potential investors. And so many of them do. The rocket builder Astra <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/23/what-to-know-about-astra-the-rocket-builder-going-public-via-a-spac.html">just went public via SPAC</a> and says it will be launching rockets daily by 2025. <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/spac-frenzy-emboldens-silicon-valley-startups-to-forgo-venture-funding-11614344154">It doesn’t even expect to make money in 2021</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="s8Hkhb">
|
||
“If SPACs blew up a few years earlier, it’s possible that Theranos would have been bought up by a SPAC at an absurd valuation,” Park said, referring to the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2015/10/20/9576501/theranos-elizabeth-holmes">blood-testing startup run by Elizabeth Holmes</a> that turned out to be a fraud. The SEC has said it’s <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/27/sec-considers-new-investor-protections-for-spacs.html">taking a look at SPACs, too</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vsAGPk">
|
||
Much of the debate here gets at an underlying tension around access to opportunity, even if the chances of things going wrong with said opportunity are greater than the chances of things going right. Many of the most potentially lucrative investments in the private markets are limited to <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/accreditedinvestor.asp">accredited investors</a>, meaning those who are sophisticated enough to take on more risk. “How do they define accredited? If you’re sophisticated. How do they define sophisticated? You’re rich,” said Michael Piwowar, executive director of the Milken Institute Center for Financial Markets and a former Republican member of the SEC.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="FpaD1U">
|
||
If there were better opportunities in the economy, maybe people wouldn’t be gambling on AMC
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dAPt7i">
|
||
Last year, <a href="https://www.vox.com/business-and-finance/2020/7/9/21314119/stock-market-day-trading-reddit-dave-portnoy-barstool-robinhood">I talked to a bunch of individual investors</a> for a story on the retail trading boom. Some of them seemed to be making informed decisions; others, not so much. My line was always the same: I hope you’re not playing with money you can’t afford to lose (and if you have gains, they’re not just on paper). But did I hope they couldn’t play at all? Harder to say.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="E4bPo3">
|
||
The typical and probably soundest investment advice people get is to put their money into an index fund and never look at it again until it’s time to retire. It is really impossible to time the market or to know where stocks and assets are headed next. If you caught onto bitcoin in 2012 and are now a bitcoin millionaire, good for you. But you are not most people.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cIMUE0">
|
||
Still, it’s hard not to wonder if some of the frenzy around meme stocks and crypto and the like is a reflection of the current economic moment, where for so many people, mobility feels really out of reach.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4iXFLu">
|
||
It’s of course bad for investors to be taken advantage of, to lose their shirts, and to wind up in financial distress. Margin trading for a day trader maybe shouldn’t be allowed; perhaps neither should an ATM at a casino. But you can’t really blame the anonymous traders on Reddit for their financial nihilism when the whole system feels stacked against them.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cvwndw">
|
||
The stock market soared during the pandemic. It’s not the worst thing in the world that some regular people were along for the ride.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li><strong>Is a pro-democracy coalition to defeat Trumpism possible?</strong> -
|
||
<figure>
|
||
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/bl50kwk4uP1qnfE-gTFN-QgOXrY=/454x0:7739x5464/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69459839/GettyImages_1230728464.0.jpg"/>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Pro-Trump protesters gather in front of the US Capitol Building on January 6, 2021, in Washington, DC. | Brent Stirton/Getty Images
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
America’s political emergency and the need for progressives, moderates, and anti-Trump Republicans to unite against a common threat.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DNlt4W">
|
||
There are many cleavages in American politics, but at this moment only one of them truly matters: Are you for or against democracy?
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UVvPS5">
|
||
Over the last four years or so, the Republican Party has become <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/22274429/republicans-anti-democracy-13-charts">the anti-democracy party</a>. However hyperbolic that may sound, there’s a strong case to be made that, to borrow the words of <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1516588&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.penguinrandomhouse.com%2Fbooks%2F562246%2Fhow-democracies-die-by-steven-levitsky-and-daniel-ziblatt%2F9781524762940%2F&referrer=vox.com&sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2Fpolicy-and-politics%2F22524145%2Famerican-democracy-republican-party-ej-dionne" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em>How Democracies Die</em></a> co-author Daniel Ziblatt in a recent <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/22151075/trump-republican-party-american-democracy-daniel-ziblatt">interview with Vox</a>, the GOP is now “the central weakness of our political system.” Its <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/22217696/republicans-trump-capitol-hill-storming-mob-responsible">complicity</a> in the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol, and its continued <a href="https://www.vox.com/22307937/voting-rights-georgia-arizona-voting-by-mail-republican-absentee-donald-trump">assault on voting rights</a> since, has only strengthened this argument.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CDAWNJ">
|
||
Arguably the biggest national challenge moving forward is finding a way to defeat Republicans without completely breaking the political system they’re undermining. Whatever that resistance looks like, it’s very likely it will involve some kind of partnership between progressives and moderates.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cD0RMN">
|
||
E.J. Dionne is a longtime columnist for the Washington Post and the author of <a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250261069"><em>Code Red: How Progressives and Moderates Can Unite to Save Our Country</em></a> (2020). Dionne’s book is part manifesto, part plea. His argument, then and now,<strong> </strong>is that a pro-democracy alliance is essential if we’re going to right the ship before it’s too late.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sJymFk">
|
||
I reached out to Dionne to talk about what that political marriage might look like, what stands in the way of its formation, why mere “bipartisanship” isn’t the answer, and why this version of the Republican Party has to die if we want to restore American democracy.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LHSERB">
|
||
A transcript of our conversation, lightly edited for length and clarity, follows.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h4 id="mqs5tJ">
|
||
Sean Illing
|
||
</h4>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SPoiVX">
|
||
The premise of your book is that we’re facing a political emergency, so I’ll start there: How worried are you?
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h4 id="C34rd8">
|
||
E.J. Dionne
|
||
</h4>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pEf7j6">
|
||
I guess I’d start with a quote from Léon Blum, who was the prime minister of France in the 1930s: “I believe it because I hope for it.” What I think is that if you believe in democracy, equality, and justice, you have to believe that these ideals will be vindicated, and there’s enough evidence from history that they will be.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2srsoS">
|
||
I have a very Obama-esque view of American history: We take a few steps forward and a couple steps back, but we were better off in 1970 than we were in 1880, and so on. I really believe that’s true.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xSHrp7">
|
||
But these ideals — democracy, equality, and justice — are being attacked, and there are people on the other side, with whom we have disagreements on all kinds of stuff, who are nevertheless willing to stand up and defend our democracy, who are willing to break with their own side. Aligning with them doesn’t mean we let them off the hook on everything, but it does mean that we can recognize there are moments when we have to stand together for this shared project of American democracy.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9H7mtq">
|
||
This is one of those moments.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h4 id="e0eEOc">
|
||
Sean Illing
|
||
</h4>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="W3kJ8v">
|
||
There might be space for a brief alliance between progressives and moderates or center-right Republicans, but as you know, there’s a lot of skepticism about the idea, mostly because Democrats like Obama — and now Biden — have taken a very centrist approach, which has only accelerated the GOP’s anti-democratic drift. How is your call for an alliance distinct from a bland plea for bipartisanship?
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h4 id="I9IMWl">
|
||
E.J. Dionne
|
||
</h4>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dy1WVa">
|
||
One of my colleagues at the Washington Post, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/06/06/joe-manchins-mighty-delusions/">Jim Downie</a>, recently had a great line in a piece. He said that if one side says, “Two plus two is four,” and the other side says, “Two plus two is eight,” the right answer can’t be that two plus two equals six. There’s a version of centrism and a version of moderation that just says, “If we split everything down the middle, we can move forward and everything will be fine.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jPdqpX">
|
||
There are a couple of problems with that. Sometimes just splitting things down the middle is flatly wrong. You can’t be just for a little bit of segregation, and you can’t be just for a little bit of voter suppression. You’re either against voter suppression and segregation, or you’re willing to allow it. On the other hand, moderation itself is a genuine virtue. One of my heroes is the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, who said we must look for the truth in our opponent’s error and the error in our own truth. That’s a good human habit.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zuRQeQ">
|
||
There are also times when you want to take six steps forward, but the political circumstances only allow you to take two, or three, or four.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CiTRJk">
|
||
The line I use is actually from a great American socialist, Michael Harrington, who talked about “visionary gradualism.” I love that term because you can ponder it all day and wonder how the heck those two words fit together. I think it really is about taking as many steps forward at a time as you can. Harrington always said that he positioned himself on “the left wing of the possible,” and that’s a great way to think of it.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h4 id="lUnH6v">
|
||
Sean Illing
|
||
</h4>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ipN6YD">
|
||
I may be a little gloomier than you on the prospects here, so I’ll ask what you’re seeing now that gives you hope for a genuine pro-democracy alliance between progressives and moderates, and even some conservatives?
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h4 id="zozDqZ">
|
||
E.J. Dionne
|
||
</h4>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5LKkBZ">
|
||
I think we’re seeing some of it already. We could see it all through the Trump era, although on the right it was coming more from people outside of politics rather than inside. The anti-Trump movement among Republicans was mostly led by commentators and intellectuals and not Republican politicians. There were people who stood up, even before the 2016 election, and said, “This isn’t acceptable, and this is anti-democratic and dangerous.” Those people deserve our respect.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eZoFvv">
|
||
In Congress, not so much. It really is disturbing. I think one of the roll calls that historians will look at carefully was the roll call on whether or not to <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/5/29/22459614/commission-bipartisan-january-6-democrats-select-committee">establish a bipartisan commission</a> to investigate the January attack on the Capitol. You had 35 Republicans willing to stand up there; you had six Republican senators. That’s not nothing.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="p84wGH">
|
||
What I worry about going forward is that we have a big group of Republicans who won’t stand against Trumpism because they need Trumpist votes in 2022. Most of them don’t even want a Trumpist party. We need to call them out and say, “You can’t move on without defeating this movement. This is at least half your party.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div class="c-float-right">
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/oFx02CNGNofk_ozLt2ybyJcMkOA=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22652684/Code_Red_cover_image.jpg"/>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<h4 id="u7Mu0a">
|
||
Sean Illing
|
||
</h4>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TayubG">
|
||
Does the Republican Party, as it exists today, have to die?
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h4 id="J5YHmJ">
|
||
E.J. Dionne
|
||
</h4>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZmwW6j">
|
||
We’re falling apart. That’s a reality. So yes, this version of Republicanism has to be defeated before we can move forward to a different politics.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MUqPmy">
|
||
I think Republicans know how weak they are because if they felt stronger, they wouldn’t be advancing these <a href="https://www.vox.com/22307937/voting-rights-georgia-arizona-voting-by-mail-republican-absentee-donald-trump">voter suppression bills</a>. If they felt the future was theirs, they wouldn’t be working so hard to undermine democratic institutions. Republicans can see the America that’s coming, not only in terms of racial and ethnic diversity but also [in] the attitudes of young Americans versus older Americans.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="f7NGcf">
|
||
But I’ll say this: Republicans would be far better off if they looked at what happened in 2020 and said, “We made some inroads on the Latino and the Black vote. Maybe we can pursue an actual majoritarian strategy.” They’re obviously not there yet. Until they get there, we’ll have to defeat them.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h4 id="opPLJR">
|
||
Sean Illing
|
||
</h4>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="czq2G2">
|
||
You know there are some progressives who will read your book or this interview and say, “Here’s another milquetoast centrist arguing that we should moderate in order to win, which is exactly the thinking that brought us to the brink.” To them, you say what?
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h4 id="bicolM">
|
||
E.J. Dionne
|
||
</h4>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Foh8Ma">
|
||
I’d say that I want as much progressive change as we can get at any given moment, and then I want to fight for more in the next moment. That’s No. 1.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4cqMkI">
|
||
No. 2, there are issues where the differences are tactical, not principled. The example I would use most is health care. Some of my friends on the left are for a single-payer system. Other people look at other universal coverage systems, like [those of] the <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/1/17/21046874/netherlands-universal-health-insurance-private">Netherlands</a> or Germany, and say, “You don’t need single-payer to cover everyone and give every American good health insurance.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QbVWQ4">
|
||
I will not compromise, ever, on the notion that everybody should be able to see a doctor and get the health care they need and not be bankrupted by it, that everybody should have affordable and decent health insurance. I am perfectly willing to debate the means to get there. But I don’t want a debate about the means to be confused with a debate about the ends.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zcPURE">
|
||
You’ve already seen some movement here. Joe Biden endorsed the public option. Right now, [Sen.] Bernie [Sanders] and progressives are saying, “All right, we’re not going to get single-payer, but what about lowering the age for Medicare eligibility to 60 or 55?” I can live with either of those outcomes.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6ZwC5R">
|
||
I consider myself a progressive social Democrat, and one of the things I like about social Democrats is that they acknowledge the need for step-by-step change, because in a democracy you need consent. We’re not going to cram change down people’s throats in anti-democratic ways.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MKyXR0">
|
||
When progressives and moderates came together, they passed a $1.9 trillion-dollar rescue package that has done an awful lot to lift up the poorest people in the country. That’s what working together can get you. It was easier because it was temporary. It’ll be harder at the next step. But we got a heck of a lot done by working together. I didn’t see any of that as selling out.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h4 id="mAAZO5">
|
||
Sean Illing
|
||
</h4>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="d0Jom2">
|
||
I’m curious what, if any, prescriptions you’d offer? If Biden or Pelosi called you tomorrow, what would you tell them to do?
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h4 id="KB8vWk">
|
||
E.J. Dionne
|
||
</h4>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="V8dNem">
|
||
I believe that there are certain problems that Black Americans, Latino Americans, and white Americans who are part of a threatened working class and middle class have in common.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="f6Ercz">
|
||
I was really influenced by the work of William J. Wilson, the great sociologist who wrote about the inner city and showed how the deindustrialization of the inner city in the 1980s set back the opportunities that Black Americans had at a critical moment in our history.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5QXm1b">
|
||
If you look at the places that voted for Trump in 2016, what you had was what Wilson was talking about in the inner city coming to places like Reading and Erie, Pennsylvania, and other industrial towns all across America.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hVGzhH">
|
||
Biden<strong> </strong>should underscore that all these groups of Americans have legitimate complaints. We can’t pretend a white worker is going to be stopped in his car because of the color of his skin, whereas a Black man might be. A white worker does not have to worry that his teenager might be shot in the street; a Black worker does. We have to be honest that race still matters, but that doesn’t mean that we cannot talk about these common problems. That is one place where I would put a great deal of stress.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TUiW1M">
|
||
The second place I’d put a great deal of stress, because I think it gets at another hinge of the process of coalition building, is on political reform itself. A lot of the new suburban moderates who recently voted Democrat did it because they don’t like the Trumpist turn in our politics and [because] they support reformist politics.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hCiunT">
|
||
I think political reform is simultaneously about empowering groups who are threatened with being disempowered — young people, Black Americans, Latino Americans. It’s also about cleaning up the political systems in ways that middle-class reformers have always warmed to, and reducing the power of big money.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h4 id="JwttGK">
|
||
Sean Illing
|
||
</h4>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TGNDTe">
|
||
Many of us agree about what’s necessary. I’m just not sure what’s possible. I think the last four years have shown — or certainly suggested — that something like 30 or 40 percent of the population just doesn’t care all that much about liberal democracy, or their cynicism about the political system has overwhelmed their commitments to democratic institutions.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JXnVNu">
|
||
Maybe you agree with that, maybe you don’t, but if this coalition you and I both think we need fails to come together, what then?
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h4 id="NzZcM0">
|
||
E.J. Dionne
|
||
</h4>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Q02M6s">
|
||
I think the challenge to progressives and moderates who care about democracy is how to maintain the proper sense of alarm about the danger we face without falling into cynicism and hopelessness. We can’t give up or pull back. But I share your alarm.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KQbxKz">
|
||
I’m older than you, and we really haven’t seen an attack on democracy like this in a very long time. It existed in our country through all the years of segregation, through all the years of Jim Crow, and we overturned that in 1965. What you have is the second reconstruction of the civil rights years under attack now. We have to defend it. We have to face up to the fact that there are strong anti-democratic forces in this country, and they have to be defeated.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CZ58pm">
|
||
The Trump years were a real challenge to our democracy, and we did not get through it unscathed. We did get through with a lot of people organizing, however, and more people voting than ever. We can win this fight. I think all of the surveys show that we are still a majority of the country, but we need some forbearance with each other.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZzICOi">
|
||
I don’t like centrists who spend all their time bashing the left, because where would we be without the energy of the left? In fact, the left often calls out moderates when they sell out, and moderates do sell out. On the other hand, I don’t like lefties who spend all their time bashing moderates as sellouts when moderates have, in many cases and with a lot of guts, broken with positions they held for a long time in order to stand up for democracy.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xLeTaf">
|
||
So we need forbearance with each other, and we need a ton of determination, but above all we need a sense of urgency.
|
||
</p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Two India squads playing in different locations may continue if COVID challenges persist: BCCI treasurer</strong> - Arun Dhumal says it is imperative to come up with new ideas to deal with the loss of bilateral cricket that has happened over the last 18 months</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Smith replaces Williamson as top-ranked Test batsman, Kohli rises to fourth</strong> - Williamson, who missed the second Test against England due to injury, has slipped five points behind Smith’s 891 rating points and is second in the batters’ list</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Bombay HC sets aside award directing BCCI to pay DCHL</strong> - The arbitration award directed BCCI to pay ₹4,800 crores for the termination of Hyderabad Deccan Charges from IPL.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Southampton is boiling hot, expecting both Ashwin and Jadeja to play: Sunil Gavaskar</strong> - Gavaskar is currently in Southampton with first-hand knowledge about the pitch and conditions for the match starting June 18.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>People hurt by parachuting protestor at Euro 2020 game</strong> - The protestor’s parachute had the slogan “KICK OUT OIL!” and “Greenpeace” written on it.</p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Woman survives botched abortion of female foetus</strong> - The surgery was carried out by a quack</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Plea in Supreme Court seeking ‘health star rating’ for food items, beverages</strong> - “Direct the States to take apposite steps for compliance of the guidelines on ‘Health Star Rating’, ‘Health Warning System’, ‘Health Impact Assessment’ and ‘Environment Impact Assessment,” it said.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Renewal of tax exemptions sought for Mysuru airport</strong> - In these times of lockdown and suspension of flights, it would bring down overhead cost of keeping the airport operational</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Fishermen advised not to venture into sea till tomorrow</strong> - Strong winds likely along Kerala, Karnataka coasts, Lakshadweep region</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>CEO seeks police report against Surendran</strong> - Allegations of money transaction during Assembly election</p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Biden-Putin summit: US and Russian leaders meet for tense Geneva talks</strong> - The leaders have a number of contentious issues to discuss in their first face-to-face talks.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Germany withdraws platoon from Nato mission in Lithuania</strong> - The army is investigating reports of sexual coercion and anti-Semitic songs at a party in Lithuania.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Spanish man jailed for killing and eating his mother</strong> - The 28-year-old was arrested after body parts of his mother were found scattered in her Madrid flat.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Tenerife: Protests against violence as search for baby’s body continues</strong> - The body of a child is found in the sea off Tenerife, but her sister remains missing, feared murdered.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Court cancels tycoon’s acquittal over Slovakia murders</strong> - A businessman accused of ordering killings which brought down the government will be tried again.</p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A guide to living at a black hole</strong> - Living next to Ned Flanders won’t teach you as much about the fundamental nature of reality. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1773621">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Mercury is accumulating in deep-ocean trenches</strong> - Following mercury around the environment isn’t easy. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1773860">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Polestar picks the US to build its next electric vehicle</strong> - The Polestar 3 electric SUV goes into production in 2022. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1773959">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Experts “extremely worried” about Delta variant as US death toll hits 600,000</strong> - Vaccines are effective against the variant, but experts worry about low vaccination rates. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1773877">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Starlink dishes go into “thermal shutdown” once they hit 122° Fahrenheit</strong> - Man watered dish to cool it down but overheating knocked it offline for 7 hours. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1773746">link</a></p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li><strong>You have to be born in the 1940’s and been a teenager in 1957 in order to get this joke</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Its 1957 and Bob goes to pick up his date.<br/> Peggy Sue’s Father invites him in.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
He asks Bob what they plan on doing.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Bob politely responds that they will probably just go to the malt shop or to a drive-in.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Peggy Sue’s father suggests, “Why don’t you kids go out and screw? I hear all the kids are doing it.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Bob is shocked. “Excuse me Sir?”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“Oh yes, Peggy Sue really likes to screw. She’d screw all night if we let her.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Just then, Peggy Sue comes down stairs and announces she is ready to go.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
About 20 minutes later, a thoroughly disheveled Peggy Sue rushes back into the house, slams the door and screams at her father,
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“Dad! The Twist! It’s called the Twist!”
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/orgasmic2021"> /u/orgasmic2021 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/o0xwgz/you_have_to_be_born_in_the_1940s_and_been_a/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/o0xwgz/you_have_to_be_born_in_the_1940s_and_been_a/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>I cracked a joke about dementia to my friend at the bus. The old man sitting next to me politely asked. “Can you stop making jokes about terminal diseases?”</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
I replied “yes I cancer.” Then I cracked tumor
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/JobTemporary515"> /u/JobTemporary515 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/o0plhh/i_cracked_a_joke_about_dementia_to_my_friend_at/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/o0plhh/i_cracked_a_joke_about_dementia_to_my_friend_at/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>Two little kids are in a hospital, lying on stretchers next to each other, outside the operating room.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The first kid leans over and asks, “What are you in here for?”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The second kid says, “I’m in here to get my tonsils out and I’m a little nervous.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The first kid says, “You’ve got nothing to worry about. I had that done when I was four. They put you to sleep, and when you wake up they give you lots of Jell-O and ice cream. It’s a breeze!”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The second kid then asks, “What are you here for?”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The first kid says, “A circumcision.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
And the second kid says, “Whoa! I had that done when I was born. I couldn’t walk for a year!”
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/crazyfortaco"> /u/crazyfortaco </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/o0j4s4/two_little_kids_are_in_a_hospital_lying_on/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/o0j4s4/two_little_kids_are_in_a_hospital_lying_on/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>Why do librarians hate tennis?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Too much racket.
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/patchy72"> /u/patchy72 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/o0in7i/why_do_librarians_hate_tennis/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/o0in7i/why_do_librarians_hate_tennis/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>Doctor: Your body ran out of magnesium</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Me: 0mg
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/prankerjoker"> /u/prankerjoker </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/o0nju6/doctor_your_body_ran_out_of_magnesium/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/o0nju6/doctor_your_body_ran_out_of_magnesium/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<script>AOS.init();</script></body></html> |