The controversy over Bill Gates becoming the largest private farmland owner in the US
Vox · 5 minPeople are drawing connections between Gates’s vast farmlands and climate change advocacy.
Business
Curated by our editorsStories to fuel your mind
“Fast Fashion” Furniture Has Given Us a World of Crappy Couches
The Outline · 8 minSure, that couch you bought on Wayfair is too uncomfortable to sit on, but at least it looks nice.
How 'Chaos' In the Shipping Industry Is Choking The Economy
NPR · 7 minIt's making it more difficult for stores to restock their shelves, manufacturers, carmakers and builders to get the parts they need, and farmers to export their products.
How the Bay Area tech genius behind Atari created Chuck E. Cheese
SFGate · 6 minAs his gaming empire grew through the 1970s, Nolan Bushnell’s mind kept wandering back to his true love: singing animatronic animals.
What ever happened to Sheryl Sandberg?
Quartz · 23 minHer new, lower profile speaks to the changing dynamics of Facebook’s leadership, and to her role in some of Facebook’s gravest missteps. It also speaks to some dark truths about what it can mean to be a powerful woman in business.
Popular with Pocket readersStories from across the web
Stop Sabotaging Your Workforce
Harvard Business Review · 5 minEighty-five percent of employees aren’t engaged at work, according to Gallup. Misalignments between strengths and values, lack of personal development, command-and-control management, shallow-level work, and process-heavy change-resistant cultures all play a part in the disengagement.
How the World Ran Out of Everything
The New York Times · 9 minGlobal shortages of many goods reflect the disruption of the pandemic combined with decades of companies limiting their inventories.
The legendary fabric that no one knows how to make
BBC · 15 minNearly 200 years ago, Dhaka muslin was the most valuable fabric on the planet. Then it was lost altogether. How did this happen? And can we bring it back?
The World Economy Is Suddenly Running Low on Everything
Bloomberg · 11 min‘It is anything but efficient or normal.’ Surging corporate demand is upending global supply chains.
How to Spot Business Ideas Worth Pursuing
Entrepreneur · 4 minNothing propels a company more quickly than innovation, and nothing stifles it more quickly than a “that’s how we’ve always done it” attitude. News startup Axios is an excellent example of a company breaking barriers and thinking outside the box.
What Does It Mean to Be a Manager Today?
Harvard Business Review · 7 minThree disruptive, transformative trends are challenging traditional definitions of the manager role.
The secretary who turned Liquid Paper into a multimillion-dollar business
thehustle.co · 6 minBette Nesmith Graham invented one of the most popular office supplies of the 20th century. Today, she’s largely been forgotten.
The Electric-Car Lesson That China Is Serving Up for America
The Atlantic · 10 minBeijing’s push to build an entire industry from scratch helps inform how the White House should proceed.
Private finance won’t decarbonise our economies – but the ‘big green state’ can
The Guardian · 4 minThe pandemic, we often hear, is forcing a rethink in economics. We are leaving behind one model: the austerity-obsessed small state that outsources the job of macroeconomic stability to unelected central banks.
How Much Energy Does Bitcoin Actually Consume?
Harvard Business Review · 9 minToday, Bitcoin consumes as much energy as a small country. This certainly sounds alarming — but the reality is a little more complicated.
Inside Pictet, the Secretive Swiss Bank for the World’s Richest People
Bloomberg · 11 minA 215-year-old firm rooted firmly in the past finds tension adapting to the modern world.
The Mystery of the $113 Million Deli
The New York Times · 21 minIt made headlines around the world: a New Jersey sandwich shop with a soaring stock price. Was it just speculation, or something stranger?
The global chip shortage is starting to have major real-world consequences
CNBC · 7 minAs technology has advanced, semiconductor chips have spread from computers and cars to toothbrushes and tumble dryers — they now lurk beneath the hood of a surprising number of products.
How the growing identity economy is reshaping the future of work
Fast Company · 5 minEsther Perel argues that leaders who treat employees as whole people—not just workers—can create workplaces that actually work.
What Bosses Really Think of Remote Workers
The Atlantic · 7 minPeople who work from home get fewer raises and promotions. But there might be a way to avoid the remote-work penalty.
Amsterdam Is Embracing a Radical New Economic Theory to Help Save the Environment. Could It Also Replace Capitalism?
Time · 12 minThe so-called true-price initiative, operating in the store since late 2020, is one of dozens of schemes that Amsterdammers have introduced in recent months as they reassess the impact of the existing economic system.
The autonomous vehicle world is shrinking — it’s overdue
The Verge · 6 min‘The AV industry has promised too much for too long, and has delivered too little.’
How One Company Worked to Root Out Bias from Performance Reviews
Harvard Business Review · 7 minAn audit of bias in performance reviews at a midsized law firm found sobering differences by both race and gender.
GameStop Ushered in a New Generation of Barbarians at the Gate
townandcountrymag.com · 11 min2021 was the year crypto roiled the markets, Redditors took their revenge, and tech moguls emerged as the dominant ruling class in finance, but the GameStop saga showed why Wall Street wins even when it loses.