What we’re reading (2/21)
“Office Landlord Defaults Are Escalating As Lenders Brace For More Distress” (Wall Street Journal). “The number of big office landlords defaulting on their loans is on the rise, fresh evidence that more developers believe that remote and hybrid work habits have permanently impaired the office market.”
“How ChatGPT Breathed New Life Into The Internet Search Wars” (The Week). “Amid the growing frenzy around ChatGPT, other tech companies have begun announcing their rival chatbots. Executives at Google declared a ‘code red’ in response to OpenAI's software, fast-tracking the development of many AI products to close the widening gap between itself and its emerging competitors. Shortly after, the company unveiled and began offering select users a look at its own chatbot, Bard, which — similar to ChatGPT — uses information from the internet to generate textual responses to users' queries.”
“What’s Really So Wrong About Secretly Working Two Full-Time Jobs At Once?” (Slate). “Managers have an instinctive horror at the thought of someone secretly working a second job during their work hours for the first, but if they can’t point to any problems resulting from it … why? Maybe it’s time to rethink that.”
“Hedge Fund Billionaire Extracts Billions More To Retire” (New York Times). “[N]either Mr. Dalio, known for his creed of “radical transparency,” nor Bridgewater said at the time, or since, that he had hardly gone without a fight. His exit — partly spurred by controversial remarks he had made on television about China’s human rights record — followed more than six months of frantic behind-the-scenes wrangling over how much money his successors at the firm were willing to pay the billionaire to go away. In the end, Mr. Dalio, with an estimated net worth of $19 billion, agreed to surrender his control over all key decisions at Bridgewater only if the firm agreed to give him what could amount to billions of dollars in regular payouts over the coming years through a special class of stock.”
“Walmart Warns It’s In For A Tough Year” (CNN Business). “Walmart forecast slower sales and profit growth, disappointing investors and sending its stock down during morning trading Tuesday. However, Walmart notched an 8.3% sales increase during its latest quarter at US stores open for at least one year, the company said Tuesday, with more customers buying its private label brands and more higher-income households shopping at its stores.”
