What we’re reading (11/5)
“Fed Chair Powell Seen Visiting White House On Thursday” (Wall Street Journal). “Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell was seen visiting the White House on Thursday, according to people familiar with the matter. Mr. Powell’s term leading the central bank is set to expire next February. President Biden told reporters on Tuesday that he would announce decisions ‘fairly quickly’ on whether he was offering Mr. Powell another term or tapping someone else to succeed him.”
“‘The Great Resignation’ Misses the Point” (Wired). “[P]erhaps what’s most notable about the name the Great Resignation is that its main substance—resignations—may be the least consequential thing about the moment that it’s come to represent. The real takeaway is why people are leaving their jobs in the first place—rampant stress, the shift to remote work, a forced reckoning with what matters in light of the pandemic—and what resigning is leading them to do next. Taken on its surface, the Great Resignation foregrounds the language of job status, but misses a parallel, arguably bigger story: the radical realignment of values that is fueling people to confront and remake their relationship to life at home, with their families, with their friends, and in their lives outside of labor.”
“Zillow Torched $381 Million Overpaying For Houses. Spectacular.” (Slate). “On the one hand, Zillow’s failure is a typical infuriating business story. Some execs dreamed up something they could not execute, it blew up spectacularly, and the most obvious people to suffer from their decision are the many employees they’ll fire. (Zillow’s shareholders are also losing, which happens when companies release news of this kind on earnings calls with their investors.) On the other hand, I hope they try again? Or that another company does it better? The idea of selling houses like they’re something less complicated than houses is worth someone getting right, even if Zillow came nowhere close.”
“Redfin Execs Attempted To Distance The Company's Home-Flipping Business From Zillow's Recent Implosion — Without Ever Mentioning Zillow” (Insider). “Executives at real-estate brokerage Redfin never mentioned Zillow by name during an hourlong earnings call with investors and analysts on Thursday. But make no mistake: Zillow's home-flipping debacle was top of mind for everyone involved. Redfin executives spent much of their time attempting to distance their own "instant buying" business, RedfinNow, from the soon-to-be-defunct Zillow Offers, while reassuring investors that the company would avoid the kinds of mistakes that led to Zillow suffering hundreds of millions of dollars in losses on homes.”
“US Productivity Dropped To Its Lowest Level In 40 years” (CNN Business). “[Productivity] decreased at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5% between July and September. That's the sharpest decline since the second quarter of 1981, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Thursday, when the United States was in the midst of a 16-month recession. In the third quarter of this year, output increased by 1.7%, while hours worked jumped by 7%.”
