Where did all the money go? 💸

«Your newsletter is a good excuse to be less on Twitter. My mental health and my family say: Thank you!» That's a feedback I received this week from a longtime reader. Made me genuinely happy.

Before we get to this week's recommendations, I'd like to put an older recommendation in the spotlight again, one that I've featured multiple times already because it might literally save lives. So, before you go swimming next time, read this: Drowning doesn't look like drowning.

1. Where does the wealth go when asset prices go down?

Over the past couple of months, stock markets crashed, crypto assets crashed even harder, trillions of dollars gone. But what does «gone» actually mean here? Where did the money go? And if it just vanished, does that mean is was never there in the first place? It's one of these things you might intuitively understand, but have a hard time explaining to someone else. Not Noah Smith. He makes it easy to understand (and even fun to read).

Where does the wealth go when asset prices go down?

It vanishes into nothingness.

NoahpinionNoah Smith

2. How we classify countries and people—and why it matters

The dichotomies are everywhere. Countries are developed or developing, in the West or the Rest of the World, in the Global North or the Global South, they are high-income or low and middle-income, the list goes on. The terms all have their origins, some more problematic than others, and none of them are perfect. This paper prompts us to reflect on how language shapes our perception of reality. If you don't have time for the entire paper, have a look at the table on pages 2 and 3.

3. ​​In hottest city on Earth, mothers bear brunt of climate change

Powerful images and reporting from Jacobabad in Pakistan, where temperatures exceed 50° Celsius (122° Fahrenheit). And another illustration of the fact that the effects of climate change aren't the same for everyone, not between countries, not within communities. (The photographs are also a good reminder that «people having fun swimming and splashing» is not how you should illustrate extreme heatwaves)

In hottest city on Earth, mothers bear brunt of climate change

Heavily pregnant Sonari (pictured below) toils under the burning sun in fields dotted with bright yellow melons in Jacobabad, which last month became the hottest city on Earth.

The Wider ImageAkhtar Soomro