Brigadoon Daily Rundown = May 20, 2020

Newspaper.jpeg

Rutger Bregmn: The neoliberal era is ending. What comes next? In a crisis, what was once unthinkable can suddenly become inevitable. We’re in the middle of the biggest societal shakeup since the second world war. And neoliberalism is gasping its last breath. So from higher taxes for the wealthy to a more robust government, the time has come for ideas that seemed impossible just months ago. https://bit.ly/2WJpEh4

Garrett Graff: The storm we can’t see: We haven’t even begun to grasp how much damage the pandemic will do. https://wapo.st/3bGaM7n

ECFR: The meaning of systemic rivalry: Europe and China beyond the pandemic https://bit.ly/2zUcQvd

Beijing’s handling of the pandemic has changed long-standing European assumptions about its reliability as a crisis actor and its approach to the European project.

Europe’s immediate medical-supply needs and dire economic situation will limit the scope of shifts in its China policy – for now.

Governments’ pursuit of a “business as usual” approach to Beijing is growing harder to sustain.  

Inside Italy's COVID war: Frontline goes inside a hospital battling the coronavirus crisis in northern Italy, as doctors are forced to make life and death decisions. An intimate, exclusive story that follows one besieged ER doctor, her staff, and the patients suffering from COVID-19, from the darkest days to the signs of hope.

Watch the trailer here: https://to.pbs.org/2XaI0GS

Brook Sutherland: Future of factories is more robots and more Mexico: Whatever supply-chain upheaval comes from the coronavirus pandemic, it’s unlikely to lead to more US manufacturing jobs. https://bloom.bg/2zcQxkD

64%: How much higher March sales of electric vehicles were, compared to last year, in Europe. Overall, car sales fell 54 percent, according to data from S&P Global Platts Analytics Scenario Planning Service.

Bloomberg: Battle over world’s biggest wind turbine is heating up https://bloom.bg/3e1cIc8

Siemens Gamesa launches 14-megawatt machine for offshore wind

New model will beat General Electric’s version by two meters

Liam Denning: Smart energy stimulus means thinking small: Renewables can create more jobs and fewer of the headaches of massive projects of the past. https://bloom.bg/2XfxJJD


"All of the party was over": How the last oil bust changed Texas: Texas Tribune reports, a plunge in oil prices in the 1980s had ramifications across the state — even without landing at the same time as a pandemic and economic crisis. https://bit.ly/3e1yU6a

How soon will life go back to normal after the crisis? The massive social disruption imposed by COVID-19 has naturally led people to wonder if and when things will return to pre-pandemic normalcy. Chicago Booth’s Ayelet Fishbach says that some things may be permanently changed, but our human craving for interpersonal contact won’t be. And when it comes to congregating in places with other people, she predicts we’ll fall back into familiar practices sooner than we may think. https://bit.ly/3e1p1FE

Jeremy Clarkson: I now see the appeal of the caravan holiday. All it took was a global crisis and zero other options. https://bit.ly/2z0eknW

Why Zoom meetings are so dissatisfying: Internet chats disrupt the automatic, split-second cues on which conversation relies. https://econ.st/3dVCAWW

To avoid burnout, work less and ignore ‘productivity propaganda’: Recovery time is key to innovation and output, says digital anthropologist Rahaf Harfoush. https://bloom.bg/3cVAKW9