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If you were fast enough and could pay enough, geography was frictionless; if you couldn’t, you were stuck, and likely stuck with higher risk for catching COVID.
Kyle Chayka • Filterworld

Wilke started his negotiations with UPS that summer in Louisville, ahead of a September 1 contract deadline. When UPS was predictably obstinate about deviating from its standard rate card, Wilke threatened to walk. UPS officials thought he was bluffing. Wilke called Jones in Seattle and said, “Bruce, turn them off.” “In twelve hours, they went from
... See moreBrad Stone • The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon
In 2005 an international treaty eliminated quotas on textile imports to the United States. Two years later, Congress finally extended federal minimum wage legislation to the Northern Marianas. The garment industry in Saipan collapsed, and manufacturers moved to China, Vietnam, and Cambodia. By that time, Jack Abramoff had been convicted of
... See moreDaniel Immerwahr • How to Hide an Empire
The United States used to be, like China, an engineering state. But in the 1960s, the priorities of elite lawyers took a sharp turn. As Americans grew alarmed by the unpleasant by-products of growth—environmental destruction, excessive highway construction, corporate interests above public interests—the focus of lawyers turned to litigation and
... See moreDan Wang • Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future

A crunch on the rare earth elements cobalt, niobium, and tungsten could topple entire industries.
Mustafa Suleyman • The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the Twenty-first Century's Greatest Dilemma
generic global…
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Kyle Chayka • Filterworld
he helped start a research group called MIDAS, which stood for Mining Data at Stanford.