Readers will notice that there hasn’t been much activity here since Thanksgiving. My absence is partly due to traveling I’ve had to do, being engrossed in my new book (The Power Broker by Robert Caro), and other academic obligations, which will continue next week. Nonetheless, I have provided some long reads here as they seem to one of the more popular types of posts. I hope to have the third part of the series on sectoral investment patterns up by the end of next week.

• ALIEN. Typeset in the Future
• The most important map you will ever see. Your Wild Life [Biogeography and Ebola]
• Also: Before & after: respiratory microbes among pilgrims to the Hajj. Body Horrors
• The three generations of black mayors in America. New Geography
• Possible headline for next Friday: “Best Year for Employment since the ’90s”. Calculated Risk [Quality matters as much as quantity: employment gains have been greatest in retail services, healthcare, resource extraction, and some professional sectors, while losses were greatest in education, the public sector, finance, and manufacturing. And, obviously, these have been concentrated spatially. This news remains, nonetheless, cause for celebration.]

Fracking tantrums

• What do banks do with all that “fracking” money? Liberty Street Economics (NY Fed blog)
• Why cratering oil may not crush shale producers. Market Watch
• A glut of oil? Econbrowser

Banking

• The secret history of the financial crisis. Project Syndicate
• Australia: haven for bank control frauds? Naked Capitalism
• Just released: household debt balances increase as deleveraging period continues. Liberty Street Economics [It is always important to look at recent, quarterly releases of data with skepticism]
• And then: The New York Fed declares the end of the Deleveraging. Pragmatic Capitalism [important context]

Research and academics

• Your friend FRED. Money and banking. [An economist’s best friend]
• How professionals think. Understanding Society
• The Skeptics Guide to Institutions – Part 4. The Growth Economics Blog. [A great series]