Thursday, June 18th, 2020
Welcome to the seventh edition of Nuggies, an email newsletter that aggregates articles and commentary on business, economics, startups, and more, in bite-sized nuggets sent right to your email twice a week. Created by and for college students.
Our quote of the week comes from Samuel Lover, Irish songwriter, “Circumstances are the rulers of the weak; they are but the instruments of the wise.”
This Week’s Articles:
Why America’s Institutions Are Failing, The Atlantic
“The country’s law-enforcement and public-health systems are flunking 2020’s test”
This is an incredible article, in which Derek Thompson takes a look at the “twin catastrophes” of this 2020, the pandemic and police injustice, and reflects on the slow-to-change American institutions that enables their destructiveness. Thompson comments on the CDC, FDA, and American police system, and how they are calibrated and built to be concerned with problems of the 20th century, not those we have today. Informational, well-written and engaging, this is a highly recommended read.
Read it here
The Devastation of Black Wall Street, Jstor Daily
This article discusses the massacre of Black Wall Street, a neighborhood of Tusla, Oklahoma, known for widespread black economic success. It boasted movie theaters, modern housing, upscale stores, restaurants, and more. In 1921, however, using an alleged (!) rape as cover, a mob of angry white residents torched it and faced no accountability from the law afterwards. This article provides an insightful recap of the event and interesting analysis of the causes and consequences.
Read it here
The Passion Economy and the Future of Work, Andreessen Horowitz
This blog post tracks the evolution from the “gig economy” of Uber-type work, where a worker has more freedom but the work is rather one-dimensional and routine, to the “passion economy”, where a worker sells their personal expertise. It is an interesting analysis from one of the most prominent venture capital firms in the country about an industry that is becoming wildly relevant—especially as we are all stuck inside. This blog post gives some nice insight into this shift, and provides some indication of what VCs are looking at for the future of work. (Nuggies is a perfect example of the passion economy in action!)
Read it here
I lived on Cap'n McCain's and Obama O's and got AirBnB out of debt, Pando
This article tells the story of the founders of Airbnb, who, faced with $40,000 in credit card debt and little traction for their business, turned to making custom cereal boxes to bootstrap before finding outside funding. This article tells that story, also giving details about how they leveraged these cereal boxes to get them into the most esteemed accelerator in the US, Y Combinator. For an even more in-depth take of this story, listen to one of the founders on How I Built This a few years ago.
Read it here
This Week’s Tweets:
This Week’s Wildcard (an extra, interesting nugget):
Check out this map of the music world. It might look straightforward at first, but it reveals how totally convoluted this space is, not even mentioning the fact that Tencent is a Chinese company.
This Week’s Question:
What SHOULD the role of central banks be in a healthy economy? Should the Fed have a responsibility to stabilize markets, and if so, to what extent?
What are we listening to this week?:
This week is 4:44 by Hov. Despite only being released three years ago, it’s already a classic. 4:44 is a true-to-form victory lap, where Jay-Z takes a look at his career, big moments in his life, inter-generational wealth, family, and his legacy.
Thank you for reading! Nuggies is created by Thomas Pero and Spencer Koehl, two undergraduate students at the University of Notre Dame.
If this was forwarded to you, please subscribe here:
If you have any comments, feedback, or suggestions, please feel free to reach out to us at tpero@nd.edu and skoehl@nd.edu, or on twitter, @tpero_ and @spencerkoehl
While this is a labor of love, if you would like to support our efforts please share this with friends and on social media.