Christmas trees for sale in New York on Monday. Americans seeking some holiday joy are buying trees at a faster rate than usual.Credit…Dave Sanders for The New York Times
Before this year, Wesley Yang had never celebrated with a real Christmas tree. Growing up, his family deemed it an inconvenience. But stuck at home this season, Mr. Yang and his roommate decided to do something different to mark the end of a tragic year, spending $90 on a tree and lugging it up three floors to their Los Angeles apartment.
“We’re just trying to keep the spirit going, even though we are locked down these days,” he said.
As many people stay home for the holiday season, planning smaller celebrations as they seek some joy during the coronavirus pandemic, Americans like Mr. Yang seem to be driving up demand for Christmas trees.
Families are trying to make the most of whatever experiences remain safe this holiday season, like going outside to pick out a tree together and decorating it, said Jennifer Greene, the executive director of the North Carolina Christmas Tree Association, which represents a state that harvests more than 4.1 million trees a year.
“We didn’t realize that the Christmas spirit was going to help people with what we’ve heard called the ‘Covid blues,’” said Doug Hundley, a spokesman for the National Christmas Tree Association.
National sales data is hard to find, but across the country Christmas tree grower associations say that retailers are running through their tree supplies quickly and that growers are reporting a big increase in sales. In Michigan, farmers have seen as much as a 50 percent increase, said Amy Start, the executive director of the Michigan Christmas Tree Association.
George Nash travels each year from Vermont to New York City to sell more than 15,000 trees at spots across Upper Manhattan. “The demand is crazy right now,” he said. “We are almost twice ahead of where we were last year at this point, in terms of sales. If the trend holds, it will be the best year we ever had.”
Even artificial tree companies like Balsam Hill say they are having a banner year. Mac Harman, the company’s founder and chief executive, said its Christmas in July sale had foreshadowed this year’s voracious holiday market.
“It just absolutely has not slowed down,” he said.
A survey conducted over the summer of more than 2,000 adults by TRUE Global Intelligence found that more than half of the respondents said the pandemic had strengthened their desire to spend money on experiences rather than gifts this year. Three-quarters of the respondents considered real Christmas trees to be an experience, rather than a product.
With such a high demand for Christmas trees, some worry that it may be harder for some Americans to find trees later in the month. The industry is still reeling from the 2008 economic recession, when customers bought fewer items. Growers then cut down fewer trees, which left less space for seedlings that would have made the market more abundant about a decade later.
“We’re having difficulty filling extra orders from the States,” said Shirley Brennan, the executive director of the Canadian Christmas Tree Growers Association, whose office has fielded daily calls from south of the border. “That demand, we can’t keep up with.”
That doesn’t mean that Americans who waited to get a tree will end up without one, said Marsha Gray, the executive director of the Christmas Tree Promotion Board, a tree research and promotion program funded by growers.
“Some locations might close early, some locations may not have trees to sell,” she said. “But over all, there are enough trees and there aren’t communities going without.”
On the streets of Hong Kong, 8-foot Noble Firs are selling for as much as $2,167 apiece, while in California and New York shoppers are paying more for what they say are inferior trees. And in the U.K. retailers are scrambling for more trees.
The pandemic means millions are unable to travel over the holiday season, and are celebrating at home instead. That’s produced a spike in demand for trees—and a run on decorations.
Carla St. Germain, a 55-year-old business owner in Fargo, N.D., doesn’t normally buy her tree until mid-December each year, but this year unseasonably warm weather made her go a week earlier than normal. It was a good thing she did.
“When I pulled in on the side street on the side where I normally get my tree it was completely empty,” she said. There were still some 8-foot and taller trees left and “some super tiny short ones that you’d put in the corner of the apartment.” Mrs. St. Germain said she ended up persuading the seller to cut down a larger tree for her. (An 8-foot tree would have been too tall for her house.) Knee-high bundles of branches made to look like little Christmas trees are selling for $100 in Hong Kong./PHOTO: SERENA NG/THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
“My husband said it’s the most unusual Christmas tree I’ve ever bought,” Mrs. St. Germain said. There is no central trunk to place a tree topper and the branches are all reaching for the ceiling like they’re performing the Village People’s hit song YMCA, she said.
The Christmas tree shortage has its roots in the global recession of more than a decade ago. During those years, a glut of Christmas trees caused prices to tumble, and some farmers planted fewer or switched to other kinds of crops. Other farms just closed. Wild fires on the West Coast also wiped out a number of Christmas tree farms.
Casey Grogan, owner of Silver Bells Tree Farm, a 700-acre Christmas tree farm in Silverton, Ore., said his trees typically take between eight and 12 years to grow. He estimates the smaller supply has pushed up prices by about 30% over the last four years.
“We have retailers asking us to go out and cut more trees, which we are not doing because we have to save some for next year,” he said.
The National Christmas Tree Association says that there is not so much a shortage—if people want a tree they can find one—but that supply has tightened.
Shoppers are also hankering for real trees this year, and started buying early. After a year of being stuck at home due to the pandemic, industry players say people are excited that buying a real tree can come with an outing to a farm.
Carla St. Germain persuaded her Christmas tree seller to cut down a larger tree because the mid-sized trees had all sold out./PHOTO: KRIS EHLERT
Mikaela O’Brien and her family spent half a day scouring their favorite Christmas Tree farm looking for an 11- or 12-foot Fir this year near their home in Maple Valley, Wash. They ended up buying something a few feet shorter.
“The taller trees—there just aren’t any,” said the 36-year-old mother of a 12-year-old girl and 9-year-old boy.
“We ended up finding one in the very back corner. It’s still a beautiful tree, it’s just skinnier and smaller and shorter than normal,” she said.“It’s our Charlie Brown tree. It’s a big room and it’s a small tree.”
The family propped the tree up on a four-wheeled dolly to make it stand six inches taller but Ms. O’Brien said that the star topper that was bought for a bigger tree was a bit of a give away. “The star is so big that it’s nearly half the size of the tree,” she said. “It looks silly.”
In Europe retailers, cautious about what lockdowns would mean to sales, reduced their Christmas tree orders and now harvesters are rushing to cut more trees to meet demand across the region, said Claus Jerum Christensen, managing director of the Danish Christmas Tree Association. The U.K. is having to rely on trees from Europe after many of its own farms ran low on trees when sales jumped early.
This year, fewer Christmas trees have been shipped abroad from growers in the U.S. because the pandemic has given a boost to domestic sales.
A tree sells in Manhattan./PHOTO: CARLO ALLEGRI/REUTERS
Swedish furniture giant IKEA, a popular destination for buying Christmas trees in Hong Kong and Singapore, has run out of them in those cities after meeting with overwhelming demand.
That has shoppers lining up for hours to buy trees from nurseries with incoming shipments, or turning to online sellers ordering lookalikes from China. In the local flower market in Wanchai, Hong Kong, six-foot trees are going for about $1,500, about seven or eight times what they sold for a year ago. Knee-high bundles of branches shaped like trees are going for $100 apiece.
Mihir Melwani, a 22-year-old college student in Hong Kong, said his friends’ struggles to find trees spurred him to do something about the situation. Using the contacts of his father, who works in the logistics business, Mr. Melwani said he arranged for more than 25 trees to be trucked into the city from Northern China.
After mentioning his upcoming sale of trees for $175 each on Facebook, he was contacted by dozens of interested buyers.
“The demand has been crazy—I’ve been getting a message every five minutes,” Mr. Melwani said.
Marie Bernal and her family have been in Hong Kong five years. After a year without travel and a move to a new residence, she decided it was time to trade in her plastic tree for one like she had in the Christmases of her childhood in Mexico City.
Mihir Melwani a college student in Hong Kong, used connections to import 25 Christmas trees from China./PHOTO: SAMARA MELWANI
“I promised the children we are going to get a beautiful tree this year and we’ll go and we’ll pick it out together,” she said. “It’s going to smell wonderful and amazing.”
It didn’t turn out quite like that. Ms. Bernal visited some garden centers two weeks before Thanksgiving only to find that most of the trees were already sold. In a panic, she purchased the last tree at one venue, a roughly six-foot tree imported from the U.S., with a $320 price tag.
“Do I think I’ll do it again? Probably not,” she said. Her 11-year-old daughter didn’t notice the tree in their living room until days after it arrived, and her five-year-old son was nonchalant about it, she said. “The joy was in my head.”
Sean Man, whose family owns Wah King Garden Arts, in Sai Kung, Hong Kong, imports around 700 Noble Firs each year from Oregon that normally sell out around mid-December. This year, they were all sold before the end of November.
Mr. Man said that recently around 40 customers arrived as early as 6 a.m. at the garden center in the hopes of getting hold of the last trees when it opened at 8:30 a.m.
“I was expecting a brawl,” he said, but the buyers were well-behaved and lined up in single file. Not wanting to leave anyone empty handed, Mr. Man is offering to fly in Nordmann Firs from Holland.
Janet Yellen, president-elect Joe Biden’s pick for Treasury Secretary, would come to the job with largely predictable views on tax policy for a mainstream, center-left economist.
A labor economist by training, Yellen has spoken in favor of additional short-term stimulus to help sustain the economy during the covid-19 pandemic. She has been a strong supporter of a carbon tax. And she has argued that insufficient tax revenue, not rising costs for programs such as Medicare and Social Security, are largely to blame for exploding budget deficits.
If confirmed, Yellen would arguably be the most influential public policy economist of our time. Previously, she was the first woman to chair the Federal Reserve Board. She headed the Council of Economic Advisers under President Bill Clinton. Before that, she was an economics professor at Harvard and the University of California at Berkeley.
As an expert in labor economics and, of course, monetary policy, Yellen has not written or spoken prolifically on taxes. But she has made her views known on several key tax issues. Here’s a closer look at her thinking:
Carbon tax. Yellen was a founding member of the Climate Leadership Council, a bipartisan group of influential economists and business leaders that aims to find a “cost-effect climate policy solution.” The group’s top priority: A carbon tax.
She also has worked with international groups to build consensus for such a levy. The concept has broad support among economists across the political spectrum because it harnesses market forces to solve an environmental problem. But Yellen’s coming role as Treasury Secretary could boost prospects for the idea.
While Biden made climate change a key element in his agenda, he has not endorsed a carbon tax. Yellen, however, has been an outspoken backer. In an October 8 interview with Reuters, Yellen was even upbeat about its political chances: “There’s no question that if…the Biden administration comes into place then climate change will be a very high priority… I do see Republican support, and not only Democrat support, for an approach that would involve a carbon tax with redistribution. It’s not politically impossible.”
Tax cuts and deficits. In an April 8, 2018 Washington Post column written jointly with four former CEA chairs, Yellen was sharply critical of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that Congress enacted four months earlier. She and her coauthors wrote, “The primary reason the deficit in coming years will now be higher than had been expected is the reduction in tax revenue from last year’s tax cuts, not an increase in spending.”
To reduce debt over the long term, government should run smaller deficits when the economy is strong. Yet, they said, “Last year’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act turned that economic logic on its head. The economy was already at or close to full employment and did not need a boost.” Yellen is likely to play a key role when the Biden Administration attempts to confront a burgeoning national debt.
Social Security. In that same essay, Yellen and her coauthors said the growth of Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and other federal entitlement programs was not the primary cause of rising federal debt. Insufficient revenue was. However, they also urged government to restore Social Security solvency through “adjustments in both spending and revenue.”
They added, “Additional revenue is critical because Social Security has become even more vital as fewer and fewer people have defined-benefit pensions.” Biden is likely to address other issues first, but with Social Security scheduled to become insolvent by 2035 or sooner, keep an eye on Yellen’s views.
Income inequality. Yellen has been concerned about income inequality for years and has explored several solutions. Notably, using the tax code to redistribute income, an idea favored by some Democrats on the left, is not among her priorities. Her focus has been on increasing wealth and income opportunities for low-income people rather than reducing the wealth of those at the top of the income distribution.
In one of her first speeches as Fed Chair, Yellen outlined four “building blocks” to increase incomes and build wealth: Resources for children, affordable higher education, and opportunities for business ownership and inheritances. Through his presidential campaign, Biden seemed to echo many of Yellen’s ideas, especially her views on the importance of education and business ownership. And inequality will be an important issue for his presidency.
Stimulus: In joint testimony before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis on July 17, Yellen and former Fed Chair Ben Bernanke called for further aggressive pandemic relief: “With interest rates extremely low and likely to remain so for some time, we do not believe that concerns about the deficit and debt should prevent the Congress from responding robustly to this emergency. The top priorities at this time should be protecting our citizens from the pandemic and pursuing a stronger and equitable economic recovery.”
Yellen said the top economic priorities of that measure should be assistance to state and local governments. She said, “federal support should be substantial and conditions on the aid should not be overly restrictive.”
In Janet Yellen, Biden has chosen a Treasury Secretary who is highly respected among her peers and who is largely in sync with his own economic views. She’ll likely play a key role in building his economic agenda.
Airbnb Inc. shares more than doubled in their trading debut, propelling the home-rental company to about a $100 billion valuation and one of the biggest first-day rallies on record.
The shares closed Thursday at $144.71 up 113% from the $68 initial public offering price. The listing came 10 months after the Covid-19 pandemic upended travel and 24 hours after DoorDash Inc. soared in its public debut.
Airbnb joined DoorDash in what is quickly becoming a euphoric moment for new listings in America’s equity markets, egged on by retail investors embracing companies poised to thrive as vaccines promise a loosening of pandemic restrictions. While soaring valuations for IPOs give many market veterans pause, Airbnb is at least earning money, unlike 80% of firms that have sold new shares in 2020. The company just reported its most profitable quarter ever.
“I don’t know what else to say,” Airbnb Chief Executive Officer Brian Chesky said in an earlier Bloomberg Television interview, when indications showed the stock could open at more than $139 per share. “I’m very humbled by it.”
Airbnb’s market value, based on its outstanding shares, makes it the world’s biggest online travel company. Its $86.5 billion market value narrowly tops Booking Holdings Inc.’s $86.2 billion market capitalization, and eclipses Expedia Group Inc. and TripAdvisor Inc. Airbnb’s market value, about 19 or 20 times its 2021 revenue at the opening price Thursday, also topped that of the four largest public hotel chains combined.
San Francisco-based Airbnb’s fully diluted valuation is even higher, around $100 billion including employee stock options and restricted stock units.
‘Resilient’ Model
Alfred Lin, a Sequoia Capital partner who sits on the boards of both Airbnb and DoorDash, said the past two days have been a blur. Strong investor demand shows investors recognize Airbnb’s potential, he said.
“We’ve seen how resilient this business model is and we’ve seen the company stare into the abyss of a pandemic that shut down global travel and figure their way out of it,” Lin said.
DoorDash’s debut surge — elevating its fully diluted value to about $71 billion — played a role in Airbnb’s discussion about pricing its IPO above the marketed range, according to people familiar with the matter. An Airbnb representative declined to comment.
To hang on to its lofty valuation, Airbnb will need to grapple with a litany of threats, as outlined in its IPO prospectus, ranging from a surge in party houses that carry liability risks to an increase in professionally run properties that lack the charm that made Airbnb rentals famous.
IPO Record
Airbnb and DoorDash propelled IPO volume to all-time high for December, surpassing the $8.3 billion mark set for the month in both 2001 and 2003, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
There’s more to come. Other consumer-facing web-based companies set to go public this month include video-game company Roblox Corp., installment loans provider Affirm Holdings Inc. and ContextLogic Inc., the parent of online discount retailer Wish Inc. Those listings will add to what is already a record year for IPOs, with more than $167 billion raised on U.S. exchanges, including Airbnb and DoorDash, the data show.
San Francisco-based Airbnb has seen a bounce back in domestic bookings since the early days of the pandemic crushed demand.
“No year in our history has been as wild and crazy and defining as this year,” Chesky said in an earlier interview, from the original Airbnb apartment on Rausch Street in San Francisco where the idea for the company was born in 2007.
In the past 13 years, Airbnb has totally upended the travel market, given people an opportunity for income and created a whole new market for services related to real estate and hosts.
The company’s IPO plans were put on hold in March as the pandemic ground global travel to a halt. By April, room bookings and experiences had plunged 72%. Airbnb rolled out a blanket refund policy and doled out more than $1 billion in cancellation fees.
By June, though, things were starting to look up. City dwellers who were sick of being stuck inside their homes got in their cars and drove to mountain towns and rural communities, often setting up for weeks or months at a time as work-from-home policies allowed.
Domestic Boost
International travel was down, but demand for domestic, short-distance trips and stays outside of the top 20 cities proved resilient.
In the third quarter, Airbnb’s revenue declined only 18%, compared to the near 60% decline for Expedia and Marriott International Inc. The three-month period was also Airbnb’s most profitable ever when adjusted for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.
For the first nine months of 2020, Airbnb had a net loss of $697 million on revenue of $2.5 billion, compared with a net loss of $323 million on revenue of $3.7 billion for the same period last year, according to its filings.
Reid Hoffman, of early Airbnb investor Greylock Partners, credited the company’s leadership with steering the company through the pandemic crisis. That included making difficult decisions to refund guests while providing partial payments to hosts, even though that had the painful consequence of laying off 25% of its employees, he said.
“Today, Airbnb is thriving, and when effective vaccines are broadly available, it will no doubt adapt to those changed circumstances as well,” Hoffman said.
Founders’ Control
Airbnb’s four classes of stock give holders of its Class B — with 20 votes each compared to one each for the Class A shares sold in the IPO — control of the company.
Chesky, with co-founders Nathan Blecharczyk and Joseph Gebbia, will have 42.9% of the company’s voting power, according to its filings. Sequoia Capital will have 16.4% of the voting power, the filings show.
Another early investor in both Airbnb and DoorDash, Ron Conway, distinguished current market enthusiasm and valuations from the dot.com bubble era two decades ago.
“It’s not like the last bubble where you had companies that were two years old with no revenues getting a $20 billion market cap,” said Conway. “You have companies that are 10 years old with very significant revenues.”
Women in ancient Rome rarely make the headlines of Roman history. But when they do it is a depiction presented largely through the eyes of men, which is often prone to idealization and sensationalism. Roman women are praised for their beauty and virtue, cunning and dishonesty in equal measure, with little middle ground.
The Roman male gaze focused on three main archetypes: the wife, the domestic matron, and the sexual object. The seven women presented here cover the full social range, from the Roman empress Livia, to the freedwoman Regina and the mother Agrippina the Younger. On the surface, each fits into at least one of the archetypical categories. But digging deeper into the details of their lives often reveals a more complex and multi-faceted character. Here are seven women in ancient Rome who embodied all of these traits.
Women in ancient Rome had the legal status of ‘minors in law’. This put them on a par with children and marginally above slaves. Most free born women were under the legal control of a man, normally a male relative. This power was known as patria potestas, which translates roughly as ‘fatherly power’. The only real exceptions to this were priestesses, such as the Vestal Virgins.
In the republican era, this power could transfer to the husband, often accompanied by a financial sum. Roman women had little economic or practical freedom. Instead, their fundamental role, in the eyes of Roman society, was to provide legal heirs for their husbands. They were also expected to run the everyday life of their household and manage everything from slaves to making clothes. By the imperial era, women could inherit property, which, particularly if their husbands had died, allowed them greater financial liberty.
Of all the imperial women in ancient Rome, Agrippina the Younger (AD 15–59), is perhaps the most notorious. Agrippina had an impressive royal pedigree. She was the sister of Emperor Caligula, the niece and wife of Emperor Claudius and the mother of Emperor Nero. At the tender age of 13 Agrippina the Younger married Gnaius Domitius Ahenobarbus and bore him one son, Nero, in AD 37. She was highly ambitious from a young age. At 24 she was convicted of being involved in a political conspiracy and banished into exile. Her uncle, Emperor Claudius, brought her out of exile and married her in AD 49.
Agrippina the Younger was now Roman empress, also known as ‘Augusta’, a title of which she was particularly proud. However, both Claudius and his heir Britannicus soon died, within a year of each other. The historical sources imply that Nero and Agrippina had arranged to have them poisoned.
Nero, aged 16, was now free to reign as emperor. But, initially, it was Agrippina the Younger who took control of important political and military decisions. But as Nero grew older he became irritated with his mother’s interference. After Agrippina’s disapproval of his latest mistress, he decided to have her murdered. Strong-willed to the end, she survived an attempted drowning by swimming ashore. But Nero’s freedman, Anticetus, stabbed her to death in March AD 59.
Most of what we know about this infamous Roman empress comes from the historians Tacitus and Suetonius. Tacitus describes her as a woman of ‘feminine rage’ and ‘natural greed’, while Suetonius even refers to her as ‘incestuous’. However, these men had their own literary and political agendas. It is quite likely that much of what we know of Agrippina the Younger today is a vastly exaggerated account of an ambitious mother with misplaced ideals.
In 39 BC, Livia Drusilla (58 BC–AD 29) married Gaius Octavius. In 27 BC, Octavius would become Emperor Augustus, first ruler of the Julio-Claudian dynasty and founder of the Roman Principate. Livia Drusilla became the first Roman empress. She and Augustus were devoted to each other and remained married until Augustus’ death in AD 14.
Augustus elevated Livia to a status rarely seen with later emperors. She was his wife but also his advisor and confidante. Aided by Livia, Augustus set in place a number of conservative reforms of Roman society. He launched an ambitious building program for temples in Rome and introduced legislation promoting family values. Livia appears to have been the ultimate example of the ideal wife in early imperial Rome. She was beautiful, intelligent, and loyal, with strong moral principles.
Some sources view Livia as manipulative and overbearing. These opinions were perhaps largely fuelled by the fact that she had risen to a position of relative power. Many men thought that power was dangerous for women in ancient Rome.
Some years after her death in AD 29, Livia was deified like her husband before her. She became a symbol of the univira. This term roughly equates to ‘a one-man woman’. It was an ideal to which all Roman women were expected to aspire. She never remarried after Augustus’ death and was closely involved in the administration of his posthumous cult.
Livia left an impressive legacy in her wake. She was not just the first Roman empress but she was also the first woman in western history to have been officially commemorated over an extended period of time. Her image can be found today on numerous state-sanctioned coins, statues, and paintings.
Julia the Elder (39 BC–AD 14), was the only daughter of Emperor Augustus and step-daughter of the Roman Empress Livia. Her early years were spent living in accordance with the strict, conservative values of Augustus and Livia. This period perhaps sowed the seed for the rebellious nature of her adult life.
Julia was married three times. Her third marriage to her step-brother Tiberius, the future emperor, was a very unhappy union and she is said to have had multiple affairs. Many of the historical sources focus on her promiscuity. Seneca even claims that she acted as a prostitute in the streets, taking many ‘clients’ in a night.
In 2 BC, Julia was arrested for treason and adultery in a scandal which rocked the imperial household. Julia’s social circle included those who thought Tiberius was an unfit successor to Augustus. She was convicted of being a conspirator in a plot to assassinate him.
Augustus was the man who many believed had brought a sense of virtue and justice back to Rome. He could not be seen to be lenient towards his daughter. Instead of having her executed, he exiled her to the tiny island of Pandateria. In AD 4, she was moved to Rhegium and was given a small allowance. When Tiberius became emperor he withdrew his ex-wife’s financial support and left her destitute. She died of malnutrition in AD 14 and was not even allowed to be buried in the family tomb.
While Julia is often associated with scandal, the satirist Macrobius presents a different picture of her. He describes her as witty, popular, and of a great intellect, with a particular passion for Latin literature. It is argued by some scholars that she had an involvement with the love poet Ovid. Ovid was also exiled by Augustus, perhaps due to his relationship with Julia.
Clodia Pulchra is another of the many women in ancient Rome who were readily condemned by scandal. Born around 96 BC into an ancient noble family, she married into another family of long lineage in her union with Metellus Celer. She was also the sister of the notorious Publius Clodius Pulcher, who became tribune of the plebs in 58 BC. Clodius was a violent troublemaker who made many enemies during his tenure, notably the orator and politician Cicero.
In 56 BC, Cicero acted in the defense of Marcus Caelius Rufus. Caelius Rufus had conducted an open affair with Clodia while she was married. After it ended, Clodia accused him of attempting to poison her. During the trial, Cicero launched a vicious attack on Clodia, perhaps largely due to his personal feud with her brother. He is said to have nicknamed her the Medea of the Palatine and accused her of incest with her brother.
A rumour spread through Roman high society claiming that Clodia had slept with half of Rome during her marriage to Metellus Celer. One of her most famous liaisons is believed to have been with the poet Catullus. We do not know for sure but Clodia is the most likely candidate behind the pseudonym ‘Lesbia’ in Catullus’ poetry. This created a poetic link between Clodia and the Greek poet of Lesbos, Sappho, who was a great inspiration to Catullus.
Catullus charts the course of his relationship with Clodia, from the early flames of passion to the anger and despair at their parting. His poems are one of the earliest Latin examples of personal, lyric poetry where the poet examines his innermost thoughts on love. This work went on to inspire countless poets, from Virgil to W. B. Yeats. Clodia is therefore at the heart of one of the greatest innovations in western poetry.
Boudicca was the wife of Prasutagus and queen of the Iceni. The Iceni were a tribe belonging to a client kingdom of East Anglia in Roman Britain. Client kingdoms were set up in various Roman provinces around the Empire. They were semi-autonomous but also had obligations to Rome. Prasutagus died in AD 60/61, in his will he left his kingdom jointly to his daughters and Emperor Nero. Not long after, Roman officials visited the Iceni, ignored the will and attempted to take power for themselves. They beat Boudicca and raped her daughters. Once the men left, Boudicca plotted her revenge.
She waited until the Roman governor, Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, and his legions were occupied in the west of Britain. Then, with help from the Trinovantes, a local tribe, the Iceni launched their revolt against the Romans under Boudicca’s command. Unlike women in ancient Rome, women in Roman Britain were embraced as leaders in war.
Boudicca and Her Daughters by Thomas Thornycroft, photographed by Paul Walter, 1850–60
At first, Boudicca and her forces were very successful and invaded Camulodunum (Colchester), Londinium (London), and Verulamium (St. Albans). The historian Tacitus suggests that over 70,000 people were killed during the attacks. Roman officials were treated particularly harshly and many were tortured to death. The Roman governor Paulinus soon heard of the revolt and marched eastward with a large number of skilled legionary soldiers. His men outnumbered the Iceni and quickly defeated them.
Instead of surrendering, Boudicca is said to have drunk a vial of poison. She preferred to die by her own hand, rather than become a Roman slave.
Boudicca’s courageous story has captured the imaginations of many artists and writers throughout the centuries. She was apparently even a source of inspiration for the British queen Elizabeth I. She stands as a symbol of freedom and female strength, and as one who dared to defy the might of Rome.
In 1878 in the North East of England, archaeologists excavated one of the most fascinating Roman tombstones ever discovered in Britain. The tombstone, pictured above, has a detailed but heavily worn relief carving of a seated woman with an epitaph inscription below. This inscription is in two languages: Latin and, unusually, Syrian Aramaic. What exactly was an Aramaic inscription doing in the north of England?
The text answers some questions for us. The woman depicted is Regina from the Catuvellauni tribe, a freedwoman and wife who was 30 years old when she died. The dedicator of the tombstone is her husband, Barates of Palmyra, Syria. Barates has chosen to honour his wife in both Latin, the official language of Roman Britain, and Palmyrene Aramaic, his native tongue. It is likely that Barates was a merchant or army official who relocated to Britain where he met or bought Regina.
Accurate details about the lives of women from the non-elite sections of Roman society are hard to come by. Regina’s tombstone is an excellent example of why that is.
The imagery surrounding Regina combines Roman and Syrian elements. The emphasis on her jewelry is a Syrian motif. Regina is wearing bracelets and a necklace and her hand rests on a locked jewelry box. The items around her have Roman connotations. In her lap is a spindle for spinning wool and at her feet is a basket of wool to be worked on. This image of spinning wool is an idealised representation of the Roman matrona.
But there is nothing to represent Regina’s home tribe, the Catuvellauni, from whom she was presumably sold into slavery as a young girl. Her tombstone is therefore a striking example of how women in ancient Rome had identities and ideals imposed upon them with little space remaining for self-representation.
Vestal virgins were a unique category of women in ancient Rome. Their status as priestesses granted them certain freedom but also imposed strict limitations upon them. Vestals were priestesses of Vesta, goddess of the hearth. Therefore, one of the Vestals’ main duties was to keep alive the flame of Vesta, housed within her temple in the Forum. If the flame went out it was considered to be a terrible omen for the city.
Vestals were expected to be sexually pure and therefore did not marry or have children. They were not under the protection of a man which allowed them greater freedom than other women in ancient Rome. However, there were also great sacrifices to be made. Vestals were selected as children and went to live in the House of the Vestals near the Forum. They would remain there for 30 years. Throughout this time they were expected to abide by their vow of chastity.
In around AD 90, in the reign of Emperor Domitian, Cornelia the Chief Vestal at the time, was convicted of violating this vow. Pliny the Younger tells us that Domitian, as emperor and head priest, found Cornelia guilty in her absence. She was denied the right to prove her innocence and was sentenced to death. Domitian decided to reinstate one of the most barbaric forms of execution in the Roman world – she was to be buried alive. Her ‘lover’, named Celer by Pliny, was to be publicly flogged to death.
Pliny argues that Cornelia was likely innocent of her ‘crimes’ and was the victim of Domitian’s violent desire to bring back traditional moral values. His obsessions and cruelty resulted in him later being erased from official state records in a process known as damnatio memoriae.
On the day of execution, Cornelia was taken to the Campus Sceleratus, an underground chamber outside the city walls. Just before she entered she is said to have caught her dress on a rock. As the priests moved to assist her, she declined their help and walked calmly into the chamber to meet her unjust death with dignity and grace.
The details of the lives of these seven women can tell us a lot about the experiences of women in ancient Rome. In many ways, these women led quite different lives from one another. But what unites them is that they were all women living in a man’s world. We must remember that the images and historical portrayals of these women that we have today are shaped by the men who created them. They have had identities, social ideals, and injustices imposed upon them, which has arguably obscured their true selves. Despite this, however, these seven fascinating women from the past have still continued to shine their own lights some two thousand years later.
Akerlof and Yellen’s love story began in a cafeteria at the Federal Reserve. In 1977, Yellen was working as a research economist for the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. According to the Washington Post, Yellen accepted the job after she was denied tenure at Harvard University, where she taught from 1971 to 1976.
Akerlof was temporarily working for the Federal Reserve in Washington, D.C. As Reuters reported, Akerlof had been assigned to the organization’s research division. He and Yellen first crossed paths in the Fed’s cafeteria during the fall of 1977 and it didn’t take long for sparks to fly.
Yellen and Akerlof tied the knot in June 1978, less than a year after meeting. Akerlof had accepted a position at the London School of Economics and wanted Yellen to come with him. He explained their whirlwind romance to the Nobel Foundation:
We liked each other immediately and decided to get married. Not only did our personalities mesh perfectly, but we have also always been in all but perfect agreement about macroeconomics. Our lone disagreement is that she is a bit more supportive of free trade than I. We decided to get married hastily, not only because we had so little doubt about each other, but also for practical reasons. I had already accepted a professorship at the LSE for the coming year and if we were to avoid being separated, Janet would also need to get a job in England too. Luckily, she also was given a tenure-track lectureship at the LSE.
Yellen and Akerlof moved to England in September 1978. They returned to California in August 1980, where Akerlof was still on the faculty at UC Berkeley. Yellen also became a full professor at the university.
The Couple’s Son, Robert, Became an Economics Professor
Akerlof and Yellen have one child together. Their son, Robert Akerlof, was born in June 1981. Robert followed in his parents’ footsteps and pursued a career in economics.
The younger Akerlof earned his Ph.D. from Harvard University before choosing MIT as the place to conduct his postdoctoral research. He currently is an associate professor of economics at the University of Warwick, which is located in Coventry, England. According to his faculty bio, Robert Akerlof’s research is focused on social interaction.
George Akerlof may have reflected on his own fatherly experience when he was writing his 1998 research paper “Men Without Children.” As the Institute for Family Studies summarized, Akerlof theorized that marriage and fatherhood helped men to “settle down.” He wrote that “marriage begins a period in which men devote themselves to the acquisition of human capital whose returns will later be used to support the marriage.” The Institute for Family Studies reported that in the paper, Akerlof also cited evidence that “low marriage rates contribute to single men’s elevated rates of crime, drug addiction, unemployment, mortality, and other problems.”
It has been my great privilege and honor to serve in the Federal Reserve System.
over the course of three eventful decades–as a member of the board of Governors as President of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, and, most especially, as Vice Chair and Chair of the board.
I am enormously proud to have worked alongside many dedicated and highly able women and men, particularly my predecessor as Chair, Ben S Bernanke, whose leadership during the financial crisis and its aftermath was critical to restoring the soundness of our financial system and prosperity of our economy.
As I prepare to leave the Board, I am gratified that the financial system is much
stronger than a decade ago, better able to withstand future bouts of instability and continue supporting the economic aspirations of American families and businesses. I am also gratified by the substantial improvement in the economy since the crisis. The economy has produced 17 million jobs, on net, over the past eight years and, by most metrics, is close to achieving the Federal Reserves statutory objectives of maximum employment and price
stability. Of course, sustaining this progress will require continued monitoring of, and decisive responses to, newly emerging threats to financial and economic stability.
The Federal Reserve has been and remains a strong institution, focused on carrying out its vital public mission with integrity, in a professional, non-partisan manner.I am confident that my successor as Chair, Jerome H. Powell, is deeply committed to that mission and I will do my utmost to ensure a smooth transition.
Related news:Yellen Resigns From Fed Board After Being Passed Over To Keep Top Post
Fed Chair Janet Yellen on Monday submitted her resignation from the Federal Reserve Board. Earlier this month, President Trump named Jerome Powell to be the next Fed chair.
Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen today announced that she will resign from the Federal Reserve Board once her successor, Jerome Powell, is sworn in.
Yellen is the first woman to serve as Fed chair. While her term as Fed chair ends in February, Yellen could have stayed on the board until 2024, serving out her 14-year term as a Fed governor. Instead she’ll follow the practice of previous Fed leaders and leave the board once Powell becomes chairman.
Powell’s nomination by President Trump marked the first time in decades that a president hasn’t reappointed a chief of the central bank for a second term. The Senate Banking Committee is set to hold a hearing on Powell’s nomination next week, but a vote has not been scheduled.
In a letter of resignation to Trump, Yellen said she is “gratified that the financial system is much stronger than a decade ago,” and that the economy has improved substantially. Also in the letter, she pointed out that 17 million jobs have been added since the financial crisis and that the Fed is close to achieving it goals of “maximum employment and price stability.”
A project on abandoned spaces reclaimed by nature has won the 2020 Earth Photo competition.
The winning series, by French photographer Jonathan Jimenez aka ‘Jonk’, includes images of a coffee shop and theatre in Abkhazia, a hotel in Portugal and a swimming pool in Italy. The work was chosen from more than 2,600 submissions.
Pulitzer-Prize-winning photojournalist Marissa Roth, who chairs the competition, said of Jonk’s work: “We chose Jonk’s compelling photographs as the overall winner because of the high degree of skill and vision they represent, and also because they exemplify Earth Photo by straddling the duality of human co-existence with nature.”
Forestry England and the Royal Geographical Society selected the winners in six categories from a shortlist of 50 photographs and four films.
The competition attempts to showcase the best in environmental visual media and aims to encourage discussion about the world and its inhabitants.
Yanrong Guo won the People category for her image, titled Miss, taken of a pipe-smoking man in Liangshan Yi autonomous prefecture, the largest settlement of Yi people in China.
Yi Sun won the Nature category for his work Dryland Farming, Study 7, which depicts an aerial view of interlaced tractor lines carved into a Spanish farm suffering from drought.
Charles Xelot won the Changing Forests category for Dead Tree #1, which shows a contorted grey trunk, two years after a forest fire, caused by humans, destroyed the landscape.
Joe Habben won the A Climate of Change category for an image which documents the effects of high water in Venice.
The video category was won by Sean Gallagher for Cambodia Burning, a short film revealing the effects of rampant deforestation in the country.
An exhibition of the winners and shortlisted entries will be on display in Forestry England forests, including Grizedale in the Lake District, Dalby Forest in the Yorkshire Moors, Moors Valley Country Park and Forest in Dorset, between now and spring 2021. The exhibition will also be on display at the Royal Geographical Society in London in early 2021.
玫瑰系列的表如其名，集唯美设计与精巧细节于一身，引领我们进入精致优雅的女性世界。腕表仅以不锈钢打造，从表壳到表圈，均展现浑圆柔和的曲线。银色表盘饰有精美的浮雕图案，并以蓝色漆面罗马数字或钻石作为钟点标记，充满了艺术气息。腕表内部搭载自动上链机芯，配备日历功能。
Knee-high bundles of branches made to look like little Christmas trees are selling for $100 in Hong Kong./
Carla St. Germain persuaded her Christmas tree seller to cut down a larger tree because the mid-sized trees had all sold out./
A tree sells in Manhattan./
Mihir Melwani a college student in Hong Kong, used connections to import 25 Christmas trees from China./
斯里兰卡国宝级SPA护肤品牌Spa Ceylon进军中国市场，品牌天猫国际旗舰店今日盛大开业。
