“Most of them, even the ones who concede laws were broken, describe Drexel as nothing less than a triumph of capitalism.” Bloomberg takes a look back at Renegades of Junk: The Rise and Fall of the Drexel Empire.

+ “He’s Iraq’s most famous Shiite militiaman, a fierce warrior whose nom de guerre — Abu Azrael — is an archangel of death in Islam. But the 37-year-old has another nickname: the Iraqi Rambo.”

+ “He’s at the center of everything.” The New Yorker’s Evan Osnos with an interesting and detailed look at Xi Jinping, China’s most authoritarian leader since Mao. And if you’d prefer a chat, Osnos was on Charlie Rose earlier this week.

+ The Atlantic’s Rachel Smith on Corn Flakes, American’s Immortal Cereal.

+ The definitive oral history of Max Headroom.

+ And Audubon’s Mark Jannot takes down Jonathan Franzen.