Is there one link, story, picture or thought that you saw online this week that you think somebody you know must see?

My friends: Alistair Croll (Solve for Interesting, Tilt the Windmill, HBS, chair of Strata, Startupfest, FWD50, and Scaletechconf; author of Lean Analytics and some other books), Hugh McGuire (Rebus Foundation, PressBooks, LibriVox) and I decided that every week the three of us are going to share one link for one another (for a total of six links) that each individual feels the other person “must see.”

Check out these six links that we’re recommending to one another: 

• How Monopolies Broke the Federal Reserve – Matt Stoller. “Did you know there’s a newsletter about monopolies? It’s called Big, of course. Well, here’s an issue on how monetary policy—the changes the federal reserve bank makes to keep the economy humming along without too much inflation or too little funding for growth—kinda doesn’t work. It’s based on economic fundamentals that aren’t actually how a capitalist oligopoly works. As the authors point out, ‘In a world with a looming climate crisis and endless poverty, it is extraordinarily weird to act like there is no way to profitably use capital.’ This is a big problem. Why can’t we invest in stuff that matters? ‘Maybe what’s happening is that we can’t invest profitably, because there are monopolies everywhere you try to put money to work in the real economy.’ If you want capitalism to save society, maybe start here.” (Alistair for Hugh).
• The Harvard Professor Scam Gets Even Weirder – The Cut. “Sometimes you read an article, and just want to get inside the heads of everyone involved. Twenty years ago, if you’d walked into a courtroom and said, ‘your honor, my identity was stolen by a stranger,’ you’d have been laughed out of the courthouse. Today, that’s commonplace. We take for granted the gradual evolution of constant connectivity and digital relationships. But then everything piles up and the perfect mix of culture, tech, hubris, and good old fashioned con happens, and you really don’t know what to make of it all.” (Alistair for Mitch).
• Against Economics – The New York Review of Books. “Public policy the world over is driven by a set of economic orthodoxies about how governments can or should borrow, spend and manage money. Inflation is the enemy, there is a ‘natural rate of employment’ (that shouldn’t be too high), deficit spending is bad. Yet the coupling between economic theory cause and effect has been broken, certainly since 2008. But alternative theories are ignored as fringe, and we still listen to economists as if they are good at predicting things (which they are not). Why? (Follow the money).” (Hugh for Alistair). 
• The Final Days of Japan’s Most Incredible Arcade – Kotaku. “A Japanese arcade, built to look like Hong Kong’s Walled City in the New Territories (think: original Blade Runner), is shutting down. In the mean time, revel in the craziness that is Japan’s most extraordinary arcade.” (Hugh for Mitch).
• Big Wolf & Little Wolf: A Tender Tale of Loneliness, Belonging, and How Friendship Transforms Us – Brain Pickings. “I tend to editorialize on the links that I share. I’m selling them. Selling the ideas. Hard. I want people to read the great stuff that I’ve read (and now sharing). This one doesn’t require much more than reading the headline, diving in and then spending some time reflecting on the life that you/we want to lead.” (Mitch for Alistair).
• On Serendipity – Aeon. “A dialogue between two (smart) friends. It was supposed to be private, but then something happened. And, here is a taste of the exchanges about life, books, photography and the meaning of life…” (Mitch for Hugh).

Feel free to share these links and add your picks on Twitter, Facebook, in the comments below or wherever you play.