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SEE YOU IN MY DREAMS

Corporations are already investing time and money in trying to advertise in people’s dreams. The vile Israeli surveillance company NSO is now in deep trouble, and rightly so. Hey, longer passwords really do work. So do planning restrictions — at forcing up house prices. Why Canada needs massive immigration to take advantage of opportunities created by climate change; and an international take on the three-Ps issue for ageing populations. And sorry, but the supply chain crisis won’t be over by Christmas.

THE ECONOMICS OF CLIMATE ACTION

Ditching fossil fuels will usher in a new era of energy price moderation. How will rising temperatures affect inflation? The productivity and crime consequences of increasing heat. Modelling of the costs of climate mitigation efforts overstates the net negative impacts. We should be talking about “carbon dividends” instead of carbon taxes.

BOOKS OF THE WEEK

For those putting summer reading lists together, I can strongly recommend Nicholas Whitlam’s Paris 1924: A Guide, which is full of fascinating detail even for the fully paid-up Francophile. Eagerly roaming the Paris of the early 1920s, a city still recovering from the war and progressively farewelling the titans of the Belle Epoque, Whitlam captures a city in transition and grappling with modernity — technological, cultural and social — before sporting fever grips the city.

Elsewhere the outstanding historian Sheila Fitzpatrick looks at two books on the USSR’s constituent republics. A new book grapples with whether politics has actually changed that much in the wake of the pandemic — or whether we’ll just end up repeating the aftermath of the financial crisis. And new series reveals the shrieking awfulness of royal correspondents.

VACCINATING AGAINST EVIL

Republicans are paying people not to get vaccinated (no, really). Austria’s conservative leader lashes far-right anti-vaxxers — including the party he used to be in coalition with (not much chance of confusing Austria and Australia there). The January 6 organisers who went home in disgust and feel betrayed by Trump.

The costs of looking after the veterans of America’s forever wars continue to mount to quite astronomical levels — even as the number of veterans fall. Here’s a detailed look at the policy mess behind the cliché of “thank you for your service”. American conservatives suffer from France-envy. And will Boris Johnson’s relentless lying come back to bite him?

MATTERS OF FAITH

A Christian tells other Christians to quit being so stressed about Christmas not being Christian enough. What both Christians and progressives get wrong about religion and liberalism. Accusations of sorcery still blight the lives of people around the world (in developed countries, too). Ready access to guns and the indifference of Israeli police underpin a rise in homicide in Palestine.

PEOPLE — RUBBISH OR NOT? DISCUSS

I found this article from Dave Pell, an online newsletterist, fascinating. Frankly I find it hard to share his optimism in people. I, too, spend my day looking at the news, and I too feel the urge to conclude that people are awful. In fact, I’d go further and say it seems like no matter where you look, bad people, people on the make, the greedy, the facile, the domineering, are always winning.

But as Pell points out, that’s exactly what the media, and online platforms, and politicians, and people who want to monetise and otherwise take advantage of my emotional state want me to feel. And as a media practitioner supposedly cluey about the way we’re manipulated by people, I’m supposed to be wise to that. So in a way, Pell’s “optimistic” analysis is less naive than it looks, and in a way more sceptical than giving in to despair. So — optimistic scepticism or cynical pessimism — where do you sit?

FINALLY

You know I’m a huge fan of senior dogs. And this shows why — if only the rest of us could cultivate the chilled-out world view of senior hounds. Go you good thing — at your own pace.