What we’re reading (10/19)
“Oops, We Forgot To Fix The Supply Chain” (Vox). “[T]he structural problems that enabled many of the delays, price hikes, and shortages over the past few years haven’t gone away. Shipping prices have not quite returned to their pre-pandemic levels, truck drivers are still in short supply, and some in the logistics industry are already predicting that there will be problems during the upcoming holiday season.”
“US Chip Sanctions ‘Kneecap’ China’s Tech Industry” (Wired). “Last month, the Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba revealed a powerful new cloud computing system designed for artificial intelligence projects. It is used by Alibaba’s cloud customers to train algorithms for tasks like chatbot dialogue and video analysis, and was built using hundreds of chips from US companies Intel and Nvidia.”
“Recession Fears Hit Risky Mortgage Debt Amid Default Concerns” (Wall Street Journal). “Investors are unloading securities sold by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that shift the risk of mortgage defaults away from taxpayers, a sign of growing concern about defaults if rising interest rates cause a severe recession. The securities, called credit-risk transfers, could incur losses if rising defaults creep into the massive swaths of mortgage debt backed by the housing-finance giants.”
“Jeff Bezos Is The Latest To Warn On The Economy, Saying It’s Time To ‘Batten Down The Hatches’” (CNBC). “In a tweet posted Tuesday evening, the former president and CEO of the online retailing giant echoed comments that Goldman Sachs Chief Executive David Solomon made to CNBC earlier in the day. ‘Yep, the probabilities in this economy tell you batten down the hatches,’ Bezos said in a comment attached to a clip of Solomon’s ‘Squawk Box’ interview.”
“Alleged Fraudsters Who Nearly Settled For $15 Million Now Begging To Explain Why They Should Not Be Indicted” (Dealbreaker). “At first, the allegations against ‘boutique private equity firm’ StraightPath Venture Partners sounded very serious, indeed…[t]hen, it seemed all of that may have been a bit of puffery from the Securities and Exchange Commission, which all of a sudden seemed content to settle for about $15 million. Since then, however, things sound terribly serious once again, including from the mouths of the defendants themselves, and even more so from the court-appointed receiver attempting to sort through the mess. Especially now that the Justice Department has asked everyone else to stand aside and let it handle things.”
