What we’re reading (6/16)
“Investors Fear Long Stretch Of Calm in Markets Can’t Last” (Wall Street Journal). “Investors look sanguine, and analysts say they have good reason. The economy has remained stronger than almost anyone predicted after the Federal Reserve began raising interest rates. Corporate profits are rising again. Inflation cooled more than expected in last week’s consumer prices report, and Fed officials signaled that they expect to cut benchmark rates later this year.”
“What Is A ‘Zombie Mortgage’?” (New York Times). “For most buyers, mortgages are the cornerstone of purchasing a home. Sometimes a second mortgage is necessary, too, to cover the down payment, for instance. But what happens if that second mortgage seems to have been forgiven but actually still exists? Introducing: the ‘zombie mortgage.’ These aren’t creatures from the underworld, but mortgages that homeowners forgot about or lenders said they would write off, but didn’t, only to reappear years later, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.”
“The Media’s Role In Fracturing Sports” (Washington Post). “The pursuit of truth now competes with the desire for attention. It’s no contest, sadly. Instead of reporting, instead of wondering and scrutinizing, instead of building trust and gaining insight and providing context, we exhaust too many diminishing resources to facilitate screaming. There is seldom enough fresh information to react to, so we regurgitate arguments, only louder, all in the name of provocation.”
“Meta VPs Are Getting Squeezed Out Amid Mark Zuckerberg's ‘Permanent’ Efficiency Mode” (Business Insider). “As CEO Mark Zuckerberg makes what was a year of efficiency — in which more than 20,000 Meta employees were laid off — into a "permanent part" of how Meta operates, executives are not being shielded from tougher performance standards and ongoing reorganizations that are leading to incremental cuts to teams.”
“What Frank Lloyd Wright Tells Us About Late Bloomers” (Financial Times). “Many of Wright’s most significant buildings, including Fallingwater in Pennsylvania, the first Jacobs House in Wisconsin and the Guggenheim Museum, which still stands out futuristically in Manhattan, are the product of a late, unexpected period in his career. At 60, he was in decline; at 80, he was in the ascendant. He did more than half his work in the last quarter of his life. His final decade was his most productive. In other words, Wright was a late bloomer. Prior to his second act, he had been written off by an architecture establishment that could no longer see his potential. So many late bloomers hide in the open like this: among them Harry Truman, Margaret Thatcher and Katharine Graham. Jonathan Yeo, who produced the portrait of King Charles, only began to paint in his twenties. Penelope Fitzgerald wrote her first novel at 60. Young stars may be more visible, more celebrated, but late bloomers lurk among us.”
