FT: “History…offers some cautionary notes about the consequences of swimming in debt. Over the centuries and across the globe, nations and empires that blithely piled up debt have, sooner or later, met unhappy ends. Historian Niall Ferguson recently invoked what he calls his own personal law of history: “Any great power that spends more on debt service (interest payments on the national debt) than on defense will not stay great for very long. True of Habsburg Spain, true of ancien régime France, true of the Ottoman Empire, true of the British Empire, this law is about to be put to the test by the U.S. beginning this very year.” Indeed, the Congressional Budget Office projects that, in part because of rising interest rates, the federal government will spend $892 billion during the current fiscal year for interest payments on the accumulated national debt of $28 trillion—meaning that interest payments now surpass the amount spent on defense and nearly match spending on Medicare.”
Samuel Gregg: “Whether from the left or right, today’s economic populists are urging us to embrace demonstrably false ideas and thus flawed policies. But they are also employing rhetoric (“market fundamentalist”) designed to marginalize those who look behind the policy sleights-of-hand and reveal truths that contradict populist narratives: that, for example, we already live in highly regulated economies; or that underlying every industrial policy are special interests seeking favors as well as legislators inclined to bestow such privileges for reasons that have little to do with the general welfare. Populist waves come and go, but the economic damage that they inflict lasts. So too does the harm that they do to the liberal constitutionalism that places principled limits upon government power, including in the economy. Reminding us of these deeper truths is the wider and indispensable service performed by market liberals in our present age of populism.”
McKinsey: “Our experience and research demonstrate that leading from the “inside out” is the key ingredient to making a lasting impact with teams and the broader organization. This inside-out journey is nuanced and complex. It calls for personal growth, which means you must constantly be learning, listening, inspiring, and caring. Leadership is not only about those seemingly endless business-related tasks you need to take care of when you’re an effective CEO. It’s just as important to be aware of who you are, and what your shortcomings are, so that you can first change yourself and then lead others…We’re not suggesting that leaders abandon their hard-nosed leadership skills. The challenge is to balance those attributes with their so-called soft leadership skills (sometimes the most difficult to muster). This is a journey often traveled without much help or guidance. Some of the best leaders we have worked with said they were simply born with those qualities, while others said they were fortunate to meet some great personal coaches along the way. But no one could point to a clear road map to becoming a more human and authentic leader.”
NYTimes: “Streaming has long been hailed as a promising business, because companies like Netflix can add additional subscribers at little extra cost. The more paying subscribers a service has, the more the company’s costs can be spread out over a large base, lowering the cost per subscriber. But those subscribers want lots of options, and the costs of making enough programming can be enormous. As a result, a streaming service’s profitability depends in large part on how many paying subscribers are needed before those TV shows and movies become cost-effective. There was a time when industry executives hoped that number might be as low as 100 million. But now the consensus among many of the executives interviewed is that the number is at least 200 million, and possibly more.”
