Nvidia's tight staffing policy. The New Deal and US agriculture. Money in SciFi and the Troubled Land archive.
Great links, images, and reading from Chartbook Newsletter by Adam Tooze
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Alfredo Zalce (Mexican), A group of people looking at animal bones in a natural history museum (ca. 1940).
Nvidia runs a very tight ship!
Considering Nvidia more than doubled its revenue in 2024, from ~$61 billion to an eye-watering ~$130 billion, the fact that the responsibilities of its HR department have grown only 20% is nothing short of remarkable.
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The housing weight in the US CPI is significantly higher than in other advanced economies.
For contributing subscribers only.
How the New Deal created the regulatory system of US agriculture. See the way that a gap opens up between “all legislation” in agriculture (light grey) and non-New Deal legislation (dark bar).
Source: The Great Depression and the Regulating State: Federal Government Regulation of Agriculture, 1884-1970 Chapter Author: Gary D. Libecap Chapter, NBER
Meanwhile, corporate China has, since 2014/5 built a large lead in corporate R&D spending.
Source: Economics
Alfredo Zalce, 'Acta de Chilpancingo', group of men discussing the 1813 Act of Chipalcingo declaring Mexico independent of Spain (1940).
It is a myth that large numbers of voters who formerly supported social democratic parties have defected to the far-right.
And very few Germans who voted for the far-right in 2017 ever had any affiliation to the social democratic party.
Source: Very interesting paper by Tarik Abou-Chadi, Daniel Bischof, Thomas Kurer, Markus Wagner on “The myth of vote losses to the radical right”, Progressive Politics
Land and Politics
Human societies and their politics are deeply rooted in the land. Land shapes politics through its material nature and distribution across society, by serving as a mechanism of control and state-building, and by acting as a symbolic site that imbues identity and belonging. That land is inextricably intertwined with politics makes it a crucial driver of a wide range of social, political, and economic outcomes. We explain and survey these rich and complex relationships, focusing on the formation of political preferences and identities, the forms and dynamics of political violence, and the long-term structure of society, ranging from patterns of settlement and dispossession to inequality, state capacity, and economic development and urbanization. Land access, land rights, and land tenure institutions are all implicated in these outcomes. We conclude with reflections on promising research frontiers in the study of land and politics, including climate change, migration, and urbanization.
AT: This is a useful grid. But I find it fascinating that it does not even feature “outputs” i.e. food, resources etc.
Source: Michael Albertus, and Kathleen Klaus in Annual Reviews
The collection of videos about the “Troubles”, on the YouTube Channel “A Troubled Land”, is really quite extraordinary.
Source: YouTube
Alfredo Zalce, 'Los Camiones', a giant pair of hands about to crush a bus full of people, 1946.
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