What we’re reading (10/19)
“Home Sales Slide To Lowest Pace Since 2010 As High Rates Squeeze Market” (Wall Street Journal). “Home sales fell in September to the lowest rate in 13 years, showing the corner of the economy most weakened by high interest rates remains in decline.”
“Silicon Valley Ditches News, Shaking An Unstable Industry” (New York Times). “Campbell Brown, Facebook’s top news executive, said this month that she was leaving the company. Twitter, now known as X, removed headlines from the platform days later. The head of Instagram’s Threads app, an X competitor, reiterated that his social network would not amplify news. Even Google — the strongest partner to news organizations over the past 10 years — has become less dependable, making publishers more wary of their reliance on the search giant. The company has laid off news employees in two recent team reorganizations, and some publishers say traffic from Google has tapered off.”
“CEOs Are Leaving Their Jobs In Record Numbers In What Is The Executive Suite Version Of The Great Resignation” (Fortune). “For most workers, the so-called Great Resignation is over. For CEOs, it’s just ramping up. More than 1,400 chief executives have left their positions so far this year through September, according to a report by executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. That’s up almost 50% from the same period last year and the highest on record over that period since the firm began tracking in 2002.”
“Why Carlyle Is Making Big Private Credit Investments In Hollywood Companies Like ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ Producer New Regency” (Insider). “[B]acking companies with rich troves of library content is one way to access the entertainment economy while hedging risk as streamers continue to lean on library content to bulk up their offerings and keep subscribers from churning out.”
“Stanford Scientist, After Decades Of Study, Concludes: We Don’t Have Free Will” (Los Angeles Times). “Before epilepsy was understood to be a neurological condition, people believed it was caused by the moon, or by phlegm in the brain. They condemned seizures as evidence of witchcraft or demonic possession, and killed or castrated sufferers to prevent them from passing tainted blood to a new generation. Today we know epilepsy is a disease. By and large, it’s accepted that a person who causes a fatal traffic accident while in the grip of a seizure should not be charged with murder. That’s good, says Stanford University neurobiologist Robert Sapolsky. That’s progress. But there's still a long way to go.”
