Six-Chart Sunday – Seasons Readings
6 Infographics + 1 Video (Peyton Manning, mentor)
Thanksgiving weekend, time to get serious about holiday shopping. Personally, I like to give books. Here are several I enjoyed this year that’d make great stocking stuffers, with links to discussions with those authors I interviewed.
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On Geopolitics
Dan Wang’s brilliant contrast of China’s incredible economic rise with American malaise, concluding: China is run by engineers, America by lawyers. Patrick McGee shows how Apple leveraged China to enable its extraordinary success while China concurrently leveraged Apple to build its own world-beating manufacturing base. Retired Gen. Robert Spaulding argues China is executing against a specific & stated plan to achieve global domination.
On History
Philipp Blom’s epic story of life at the start of the last century & Andrew Ross Sorkin’s recounting of the Great Crash remind us that this time is never different and nothing is unprecedented as human nature doesn’t change. Edward Fishman tells how America’s weaponizing of critical financial and technological “chokepoints” undermined global confidence in free markets & catalyzed today’s deglobalization.
On Markets
Barry Ritholtz offers everything you need to know to succeed (or avoid failing) as an investor. Morgan Housel shows how the keys to happiness are aligning your expectations with your income, avoiding “social debt” & building wealth by going slow. And Derek Thompson & Ezra Klein show how smarter policy choices — and getting out of our own way — can help remedy America’s most intractable challenges.
On Life
Chef Jose Andres recounts his fascinating life story with lessons beyond the kitchen. Dina & Sen. Dave McCormick extol the value of mentorship, both for those giving of their time and those benefiting from elders’ wisdom. Dana Perino offers crisp career-building tips especially helpful for those starting their own professional journeys.
On Politics
Alex Thompson & Jake Tapper recount the shocking coverup of President Biden’s decline and its devastating impact on the 2024 presidential campaign. Ken Vogel details the even-more-shocking foreign influence peddling by Hunter Biden, Rudy Guiliani & others. Molly Ball’s biography of Nancy Pelosi tracks the life and work of one of the most powerful Speakers (and the most powerful female politician) in American history.
On Sports
Seth Wickersham offers a “biography” of the quarterback — both the history & psychology of the role & its greats — while Ken Belson explains “how Jerry Jones, Robert Kraft & Roger Goodell turned the NFL into a cultural & economic juggernaut.” Roland Lazenby’s entertaining biography of the great Magic Johnson had me regretting my decision to quit basketball in 5th grade (though I am 5’7”, with poor ups and no left hand, so shifting to Sports Editor for the school paper was likely the right call).
VIDEO
It warmed my heart to see Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning supporting kids as a Big Brother mentor (sort of what Dina & Dave McCormick had in mind).
You realize, of course, that you "stole" the line about human nature never changing from Thucydides, who wrote that about 2,500 years ago....you are both right.
Thanks...