Новости за 05.10.2021

When Dario Fo, an internationally obscure Italian political satirist and literal clown, won the Nobel Prize in literature 25 years ago, the organizers of the prize told Fo’s publisher that giving it to a bigger name—say, Salman Rushdie or (the, incredibly, still alive) Arthur Miller—would have been “too predictable, too popular.” This essentially summed up the long-standing reputation of the Nobel Prize in literature: The Nobel Prize Committee was renowned for trawling across Europe (mostly) for worthy but often obscure writers; there was... Читать дальше...

The battle playing out among Democrats on Capitol Hill is allegedly between progressives and moderates. Senators Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin are threatening to sink the White House’s proposed $3.5 trillion reconciliation budget by either withdrawing their support or dramatically slashing its scope. New Jersey Congressman Josh Gottheimer, meanwhile, has been trying to speed ahead with a vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill, which, if passed, would have the same result of tanking the reconciliation... Читать дальше...

When Frances Haugen, the Facebook employee turned whistleblower testifies before the Senate subcommittee charged with addressing consumer safety and consumer protection, it will be a dramatic moment in the ongoing battle between Facebook and lawmakers in Washington vying to better regulate the social media giant.

Navigating the meat aisle is getting more complicated. Plant-based meat alternatives had $1.4 billion in sales in 2020, growing 45 percent year on year. Faux-meat burgers, sausage, and nuggets are slowly finding a foothold not just in the home but also on restaurant menus and grocery lists. Meat produced via cellular agriculture is probably next: Widely hyped in some circles as a potential solution to humanity’s unsustainable addiction to meat, this technology has been the subject of widespread... Читать дальше...

Read enough financial news these days and you’ll see a lot of stories about “ESG investing,” which stands for “environmental, social, and governance.” The trend is meant to encourage, broadly, socially responsible and environmentally friendly investing, rather than a pure focus on how much money an investor earns. At the most basic level, ratings firms grade companies on their impact on the environment, the quality or equity of their internal governance, and, uh, their impact on “society.” Then... Читать дальше...

The Democratic Party’s health care agenda would seem to be in dire straits. While a Medicare for All–style overhaul of a health care system whose frailties were so glaringly exposed by the Covid-19 pandemic was never quite in the cards, Democrats had at least appeared intent on including a slew of needle-moving measures in the impending budget reconciliation bill, including an expansion of Medicare benefits and making Obamacare subsidies both permanent and meatier. Even as austerity fetishists like Joe Manchin squealed about pay-fors... Читать дальше...