Violence and Institutional Decay. Country or Conscience – Would You Work for a Dictator? Plus the Secret Electrical Life of Swiss Lakes – and more!

Grüezi! I’m Adrian Monck, and welcome to this LinkedIn newsletter featuring seven things that caught my attention this week.

Also this edition – Goats and chickens.

Sharing is caring – Please share this newsletter!

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1️⃣ Thug Life – Rotting Institutions and the Politics of Violence

America’s battle to keep politics and violence apart.

Rachel Kleinfeld studies political violence and she’s worried. She’s worried about politicians in the United States flirting with it. She’s worried because her research makes clear that politicians who toy with political thuggery have a problem – they’re just middlemen, and they get pushed aside by more brutal thugs:

• “At first, politicians recruit experts in violence and intimidation to use those tools as a campaign tactic.
• “Later, those violent leaders run for office or take political roles directly, cutting out the political middleman.
• “Usually, what they want is power and impunity ... though sometimes they simply want power for its own sake.”

Kleinfeld’s warning wouldn’t have landed so hard if not for something else I read this week by historian Joel Mokyr. Mokyr believes culture is a powerful and positive force in economic growth – he’s an optimist. But, in a book review*, he gloomily concludes that our political systems have failed to keep up with technology:

• “While global poverty and famine are a fraction of what they were in 1800, they are still with us — mostly because of incompetent or tyrannical governance.

“While technology keeps advancing ... there seems to be little if any long-term progress in the institutions that underlay the economic miracles of the past two centuries.”

• “The conflict between ever-more powerful technology and the brittle polities that deploy it may be the greatest challenge to our future.”

To put the two together, Mokyr’s technology might not wait before empowering the kind of people Kleinfeld is concerned about, if we don’t take care to repair and renovate our institutions and governance first. America’s voters seem to agree.

* Another one for the summer vacation reading list – How The World Became Rich by Mark Koyama and Jared Rubin.

⏭  Why one key to safeguarding democracy is the green transition.

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2️⃣ Workplace Dilemma: Country or Conscience?

Would you help pay for Vladimir Putin’s war machine?

There’s a brilliant read at Meduza on the two women guiding Russia’s economy through sanctions and war: Elvira Nabiullina – the country’s central bank chief – and Ksenia Yudaeva, her top deputy.

Together the two women brought research-led decision-making and transformed Russia’s banking system. Now they face a dilemma:

“Should they sabotage the economy by leaving the Central Bank in the hope that it shortens or softens the war in Ukraine, if it means jeopardising the welfare of more than 145 million Russians?”

• One former colleague says “staying with Russia’s Central Bank is tantamount to supporting the invasion of Ukraine.”
• “They’re working for the war”, said the friend, comparing the bank’s staff to Hjalmar Schacht, who served as president of the Reichsbank in Hitler’s government.
• The two argued that quitting “would be a disaster for the national economy and a nightmare for millions of ordinary Russians.”
• Critics claim the bank’s wartime interventions exist only to further Russia’s military campaign, not to help ordinary people.
• Central Bank colleagues resent being called collaborators. One source with close ties to the Central Bank told Meduza, “You could say the same thing about everyone who’s still working for the public — building, healing, teaching. [Anybody] who’s trying not to lose it in a government that’s gone crazy, who’s at least trying to improve something in people’s wrecked lives.”

Would you stay or would you go?

⏭  What Russian debt default means for Russia and the world.

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3️⃣ How Do You Get Drinking Water Where it’s High and Dry?

Harvest the fog of course.

⏭ Lots of water here: a UN conference just set off a wave of ocean action.

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4️⃣ These Beautiful Swiss Lakes Have a Secret

They’re also giant batteries.

⏭ The Global Gender Gap Report 2022 has updates on Switzerland and 145 other countries.

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5️⃣ Your Food Could Soon be Packed in Sugar

Actually a kind of plastic made from plants that turns to sugars when it’s done.

⏭ A carbon-backed cryptocurrency also aims to tackle climate change.

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6️⃣ Goats are Replacing Chemicals

The voracious vegetarians are keeping parks clear of weeds.

⏭  Ambulances for plants: India’s ecological emergency service.

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7️⃣ And Finally... Tasty Chicken

Raised on the veggies that grocery stores throw away.

If you’re interested in farming...

Hope that’s clear.

⏭  Reading for egg heads on our book club podcast.

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If you enjoy this newsletter – please recommend it!

Best,

Adrian

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