The economy is returning to the 1920s. Plus: How treating mice may help us beat Lyme, and more insights from Axios’ Steve LeVine

Hi! Steve LeVine here as guest editor today. I’m Future Editor at Axios, where I write a daily newsletter on the outlook for how we live, how we are governed and how we will work. This Sunday edition of the Daily Rundown features some very smart thinking on the real status — and age — of the world order, researching dead presidents and getting rid of Lyme disease. Read on and join the conversation.

Stop mourning the coming end of the world order. We’re already in a new one. Much time and angst have been spent the last two years kneading hands over the damage to the post-World War II order, the economic and geopolitical system that’s probably prevented a new great power war. But history suggests world orders die long before anyone notices, argues Richard Haas, president of the Council on Foreign Relations. The one we grew up with is gone, though it’s too early to know what the new order is — or what it will look like once it’s fully formed. The certain thing — we need to be on guard in case things go wrong. “The good news is that it is far from inevitable that the world will eventually arrive at a catastrophe,” Haas writes. “The bad news is that it is far from certain that it will not.”

We saw this kind of unraveling way back when: Among the most interesting conversations I’ve had in recent months has been with Charles Mann, author of “1493,” a history of the years after Columbus discovered the New World. Mann tracks the populist unrest we are witnessing today to the very same period five centuries ago. Then as now, he told me, "the complete mixing of all these peoples make people think they are losing their identities and leads to all sorts of upheaval." It’s a reminder that transitions in historical cycles — including the one we are in — can last a long time, and cause “all kinds of havoc, all over the world.” The political mayhem we are watching across countries and continents is nowhere close to ending — our children and grandchildren, too, will be dealing with it.

The Roaring Twenties are making a comeback, too: Gabriel Zucman, an economist at UC Berkeley, says in a new paper that inequality has tripled since the 1980s — with just 400 Americans possessing more wealth than the 150 million people who account for the bottom 60% of earners. Things now look a lot like the pre-Depression 1920s, writes The Washington Post’s Christopher Ingraham. This is no mere statistic, but a primary subtext to the anger of the last few years, as people fall out of the middle class. “That shift is eroding security from families in the lower and middle classes, who rely on their small stores of wealth to finance their retirement and to smooth over economic shocks like the loss of a job,” Ingraham writes. ? Here’s what people are saying.

To beat Lyme disease, turn to mice: Some 40,000 people in the U.S. contract Lyme every year, making it the most common disease spread by ticks, fleas or mosquitoes, writes Angus Chen. This affliction can cause muscle, nerve and brain damage. In 1998, a vaccine called LYMErix came onto the market, with high effectiveness, but was then withdrawn over reports that it harmed those taking it. Now, Chen writes, Maria Gomes-Solecki, the inventor of LYMErix, has resurrected it for use not with humans, but with mice. The vehicle — a delicious kibble made up like a peanut M&M. The original withdrawal of the vaccine, Chen writes, was “stoked by anti-vaccine sentiment.” Now, if enough mice eat the kibble, Lyme may be seriously reduced. ? Here’s what people are saying.

Robert Caro’s advice? Leave no stone unturned: In his early 20s, biographer Robert Caro got off to a slow start at his first job, at Newsday. Until his first investigation. Among our chief national treasures are Caro’s stunning biographies of Robert Moses and Lyndon Johnson. Now 83 and still working on the final volume of his Johnson biography, Caro decided he wanted to interject with a different kind of book — on the journalistic lessons he has learned. I am a hopeless Caro fan, making this a must-read. Chief among his own life lessons, he writes, are the words from his first editor about good investigative reporting: “Turn every page. Never assume anything. Turn every goddam page.”

One last idea: Almost every country on the planet is shrinking and aging, meaning people are going to have to — and in many cases, want to — work a lot longer. But ageism persists. How to navigate the workplace if you happened to be one of the elders? Ask Tom Brady, who has managed to maintain his relevance and respect on the Patriots despite being 19 years older than the rookies, writes Adam Kilgore. Because of how he relates with the younger players, his age is treated like any other difference among the players. Kilgore quotes Brian Hoyer, Brady’s backup quarterback:

“I’ve always said, it’s unfortunate that the rest of America couldn’t be in an NFL locker room for a year, because I think a lot of problems would be solved. You’re not always going to get along with people. You’re not always going to have the same views. You’re not always going to be the same religion, the same race, all those things. The one thing we have going is, we have this common goal. We know that we’re all putting it on the line for each other. When you have that relationship, you’re able to understand people a lot better.”

What's your take? Join the conversations on today's stories in the comments.

— Steve LeVine