Favorites January 31st 2022

Michael Barbaro @mikiebarb

From ⁦@DLeonhardt⁩ this morning — once you are boosted your chance of dying from COVID are significantly lower than your chances of dying in a car crash.

It is worth mentioning that the rate of people dying in car crashes is way too high.

Jen Driscoll @lynnedillman

'An advanced economy is based on specialization, and schools are the main institution we have developed to specialize in the daily supervision of children. That means pre-K isn’t just about the kids and their education; it’s about the parents and their jobs.'

Noah Smith 🌐+🧦=🐇 @Noahpinion

The evidence strongly suggests that pre-K is just day care. https://t.co/LtXfUcpoFd

Saying pre-k doesn't teach kids much seems like such a burn at first, but as always, you must remember opportunity costs.

Jason Furman @jasonfurman

Updated decompositions of the 1.5 percentage point decline in the labor force participation rate since February 2020 (nearly half due to "other," I suspect the fallout from COVID).

Really great visualization of the the components that make up the lower labor force participation.

Jason Schreier @jasonschreier

BREAKING: Sony is buying Bungie, the maker of Destiny — another seismic gaming deal that comes just two weeks after Microsoft purchased Activision Blizzard. Bungie put Xbox on the map. Now it's part of PlayStation Studios. Filed to Bloomberg Terminal, hitting web soon

I had previously seen Sony mentioned as one of the only three possible buyers for Activision/Blizzard. (The other possibility was Apple)

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

If you’re genuinely interested in what could move the needle with vaccine skeptics (which I assume people talking about this mostly aren’t), this profile of the principal of my kid’s school and his success at selling vaccines is very valuable.

nytimes.comAs Covid Shots for Kids Stall, Appeals Are Aimed at Wary ParentsGetting more young school-age children vaccinated is crucial for ending the pandemic, public health officials say, and many are focusing on that group.

The work of the principal working tirelessly to convince wary parents is really impressive. One thing this makes me wonder is whether the child vaccination rate would be higher if the vaccine had been approved for all age groups at once.

The Washington Post @washingtonpost

Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine for children under 5 could be available by the end of February, people with knowledge say

washingtonpost.comPfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine for children under 5 could be available by the end of February, people with knowledge sayThe shot would be the first for children 6 months to 5 years old.

End of February sounds very very good.

Hayden Clarkin @the_transit_guy

Apple's Park in Cupertino has so much space dedicated to car storage that you can fit all 272 Apple USA retail locations inside of its parking structures. To put that in perspective, Disneyland is the same square footage of all the parking at Apple Park.

May I suggest reading The High Cost of Free Parking.

Noah Smith 🌐+🧦=🐇 @Noahpinion

Yes, it seems pretty clear that China's government is currently very rightist. Ethnonationalism, irredentist expansionism, promotion of traditional values, corporatism...it's hard to think of any elements that don't fit the classic WW2-era definition of "fascism".

Melissa Chan @melissakchan

My piece: Is it time to consider a word other than "authoritarian" to describe China? "Fascism: a surveillance state with a strongman invoking racism, nationalism and traditional family values at home, while building up a military for expansion abroad." https://t.co/zASmmVpCzM

San Francisco November 2021