What we’re reading (1/19)
“Netflix’s Reed Hastings Will Cede Co-Chief Executive Role” (New York Times). “Reed Hastings, one of the founders of Netflix, has helmed the company since before it was a streaming service, when its business model revolved around sending DVDs through the mail. Now, after spending a quarter-century building Netflix into the world’s first major streaming company — and dragging the rest of the media industry with him — Mr. Hastings said Thursday that he was ceding his co-chief executive title and becoming the company’s executive chairman.”
“U.S. Nears Debt Ceiling, Begins Extraordinary Measures To Avoid Default” (Wall Street Journal). “The Treasury Department began taking special measures to keep paying the government’s bills on Thursday as the U.S. bumped up against its borrowing limit, kicking off a potentially lengthy and difficult debate in Congress over raising the debt ceiling.”
“The Clock Is Ticking On A TikTok Ban” (Vox). “TikTok is grappling with an increasingly real prospect of being banned in the United States. This wouldn’t just be a mostly performative prohibition of installing the app on federal or state government-owned devices. It could also be more impactful than the legally questionable ban that former President Donald Trump tried and failed to enact in 2020. The ban TikTok is now facing would forbid its China-based parent company, ByteDance, from doing business in the United States, which would block Apple and Google from hosting the TikTok app in their app stores. It wouldn’t make it illegal for you, the consumer, to use TikTok. It would just make it much harder to do so.”
“U.S. Cities Where Homebuyers Are Most Impacted By Rising Interest Rates” (Construction Coverage). “To determine the locations where homebuyers are most impacted by rising interest rates, researchers at Construction Coverage analyzed the latest data from Zillow and Freddie Mac. The researchers ranked metros according to the percentage change in the monthly mortgage payment for a median-priced home from 2021 to 2022. Researchers also calculated the total change in mortgage payment from 2021 to 2022, the mortgage payment for a median-priced home, and median home price.”
“December Consumer Price Index: Curious Acceleration In Rent Clouds The Message” (Regions). “The total CPI fell by 0.1 percent in December with the core CPI rising by 0.3 percent, in each case matching the consensus forecast but a tenth of a point higher than our forecast. As anticipated, lower energy prices were a significant drag on the headline CPI. Our forecast misses mainly reflect rent growth coming in meaningfully higher than we had anticipated, with the CPI measures of rents still more than a little bit out of alignment with market rents and house prices.”
