What we’re reading (4/18)
“Private Credit Is Worrying Wall Street. Here’s How It Might Affect Everyone Else” (CNN Business). “[T]he question about private credit is often presented as one of extremes: either it’s an overhyped bout of anxiety, or a looming financial apocalypse. That can be a fun academic debate for finance nerds. For normal consumers, though, the outcome needn’t be apocalyptic to cause pain.”
“CEO Predicts ‘Next Golden Era’ For Content Amid Legacy Media Destruction” (Semafor). “Billionaire tech executive Matthew Prince predicted Friday that the “massive consolidating force” of AI that has disrupted legacy news outlets’ relationships with their readers will in the long run bring attention to the value of more granular and local journalism.”
“How Are Consumers Still Spending So Much?” (Ben Carlson). “The assets dwarf the liabilities and it’s not even close. Plus, the growth of those assets has far outpaced the growth in debt by roughly two-to-one in the past six-plus years. Although it always feels like the rich just keep getting richer, the bottom 90% has actually experienced larger relative gains in wealth in the 2020s[.]”
“America Is In The Middle Of A Stealth Manufacturing Boom” (Wall Street Journal). “Unlike jobs, though, actual factory output has risen briskly, and may even be picking up speed. This stealth recovery, though, isn’t because of tariffs. Instead, credit goes to the most basic economic force of all: demand. The U.S. is good at making things that happen to be in big demand right now. Therein lies a critical lesson in reindustrialization, which has become a bipartisan priority. Governments can help the process along. But that involves painstaking efforts across multiple fronts that, wherever possible, need to move with, not against, market forces. It doesn’t mean the indiscriminate application of brute tariff force.”
“A Stunning New Verdict Rewrites The Rules Of Corporate Morality” (New York Times). “For the first time in France, and possibly for the first time ever, anywhere, an entire corporation had been put on trial and found criminally liable for enabling terrorism.”
