Shifting Leverage

Episode 41 of The Far Middle is dedicated to 12-time All-Star Tom Seaver. In looking back at “Tom Terrific’s” career, Nick notes his career stats, including an earned run average below 3.00. “The only thing lower than Tom Seaver’s career ERA seems these days to be office occupancy rates in big cities,” says Nick as he examines the causes and consequences of people not returning to in-person work. Next, Nick discusses the concept of “the resource curse” and how environmentalism and climate change policies have succeeded in reversing the resource curse. Nick highlights how leverage has shifted back to Iran’s favor; and, he doesn’t see a resource curse today, but rather a lack of energy independence curse for Western nations. “When you look at resources, and when look at carbon, does it matter where the carbon dioxide comes from?” asks Nick before explaining environmentalism and government’s obsession with ideology over science and facts. Nick continues with a discussion on society’s blind eye toward how products are manufactured, followed by a look at one of the latest meaningless corporate “net zero” announcements, and closes with birthday wishes to novelist John Steinbeck.