2021 CW 39 - Weekly Recap

I’m curating a weekly article about what happened in my world. Sign up for the newsletter on fabianbartsch.com to stay updated.

What happened this week?

biden-meme.png

Politics & Economics

  • Vaccine mandates are getting crazier and crazier especially in the US where teachers, school staff and health care workers are required to be vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus with the beginning of this week, threatening an estimated 70.000 health care workers over the country and 10.000 teachers in NYC alone to lose their jobs.
    There are even plans to send in the national guard to support hospitals - are we still thinking all this is “just to protect our health”? Dismissing health care workers in the middle of a pandemic? Really?

  • The censorship of the public continuously increases with YouTube banning all anti-vaccine content of any kind from their platform this week. Big tech is increasingly using their power to manipulate the public conversation in the favor of leftist politicians. Who are they to tell us what to listen to, what to talk about and what is true and what isn’t??

  • US Congress is about to vote on an infrastructure and social policy bill at the height of 3.5 trillion dollars. A lot of taxpayers’ money is at stake here and the Biden administration explains to finance this craziness with higher taxes for “the rich”. We’ll see how that’ll play out, but everyone who understands at least a little bit about economics can see that this is an incredibly shortsighted and populistic measurement that will do the public no good long term.

  • North Korea launches ballistic missiles again, becoming more and more of a serious threat. Everybody’s watching, nobody is doing anything, mainly because they’re backed by China.

  • The hugely indebted Chinese property giant Evergrande has missed interest payments and is feared to default, which causes stock & crypto markets globally to take a hit this week.

  • US Congress averts the shutdown of the US government by approving a 9-week funding package. For an entity that takes away about 40% of their taxpayers’ paychecks, it’s hilarious that they are not even able to pay their own bills. Government done wrong. Thanks for nothing.

Books

I’ve started a new book this week which I’m very excited about - Capitalism and Freedom by Milton Friedman.

In this classic from the year 1962 Nobel Prize winner Friedman states his theory about a free society in a free market economy. Friedman argues for economic freedom as a precondition for political freedom.
I would recommend everyone to learn about these concepts, they’re especially valuable in the increasingly authoritarian political climate of today.

“The defining feature of a society is collective responsibility, while the defining feature of a market is the ability to walk away.”
— Milton Friedman

I’ve also started to watch the 1980s TV Series “Free to Choose” staring Milton Friedman where he attempts to explain his ideas to a broader audience. I’ll talk more about that below under “Videos & Podcasts”.

The following books found their way on my to-read-list this week:

Videos & Podcasts

As mentioned above I can highly recommend the 1980s TV Series “Free to Choose” on YouTube. PBS produced the show in the 1980s together with Milton Friedman to explain his increasingly popular ideas on economics to the masses.
If you look at today’s media landscape it’s astonishing to see what high-quality content was available on TV in the past.
Go and check it out, you won’t regret it!

What else..

I found Johnny Harris’ YouTube Channel where he publishes high-quality videos on a lot of different mainly historical and economical topics in a very entertaining and understandable way.
I wanna point out one video in particular, titled “The Man Putin Fears The Most” which provides an incredibly good picture of the story around Alexei Navalny, a Russian anti-corruption activist and opposition leader. Eye-opening stuff, I tell you.

I also highly recommend the following two Joe Rogan Experience podcast episodes:

The format Joe uses for his long-form podcast is just incredible to watch and those two guests, in particular, provide very eloquently their thought-provoking ideas.

Music

New Music I’ve found this week:

Social Media

Found a great funny Insta account of a family husband who shows his hilarious storytelling skills by documenting his kids and family life:

Also found an incredibly funny video account on “Russians doing dumb things” where I could sink hours in just watching videos and laughing my ass off and which makes me question sometimes if I’m not secretly a Russian 😂

Writing & Content

I wrote a new article on fabianbartsch.com: The key to a happy and successful life

Latest Instagram posts:

summer in Jo'burg
this time of the year again.. ❄ #2degrees #iceswimming #healthcare
let it flow.. 🌸

I re-actived my Twitter account which I’m not using very extensively yet but maybe will in the future.
Social Media accounts can use up a great amount of time and it’s always wise to ask oneself - am I getting out what I put in. It’s important to create and express your opinion but always ask the question, what is the goal of me spending time there and am I consuming or creating more on that platform?

Finally, I’ve added a “Business” page to my website. There I describe what skills and experience I have for the purpose of giving you the possibility to understand how I could help you.

Don’t hesitate to ask though, let me know if you think we should work together! 🙃

Personal Organization

I started working on a document for the time after my death, something like a last will and testament if you want. This contains all my online and offline accounts, lists my assets and liabilities and gives guidance on how to handle my legacy and my funeral.
I believe it’s important to have such a document in place and for me personally, it contributes hugely to my peace of mind.
At a later point, I will write a detailed article here about how I structured this document.

Technology

I bought my first few NFTs to better understand the space and what the hype is about and to learn more about this exciting technology which is about to revolutionize the art market.

You can check out my (very limited) portfolio on my OpenSea profile.

Conversations

On Thursday I had a nice, long call with a good friend of mine where we talked about cryptocurrencies and DeFi (Decentralized Finance), the challenges of work in the digital world, Ayahuasca, Psilocybin and spiritual retreats, and remote working & living plans for Turkey, Bali, Mexico and Costa Rica.

It’s always inspiring for me to talk with like-minded, highly active people who are interested in a variety of topics and who share my values of life-long learning and exploring.

Wrap

That’s the wrap of this week. I plan to do these recaps now every Friday, mainly because it’s a good way for me to reflect on the past week and document what happens in my life. Time flies by fast and it’s often hard to remember what happened even a week ago.

Regular reflection, analysis and adjustment is necessary to stay in control and intentionally define the objectives of one’s life.