What we’re reading (6/2)
“Companies Rely On Delaware Courts. Lawyers Reap Huge Fees There.” (DealBook). “Delaware’s decades-long pitch to corporate America is simple: It offers predictable judges, light-touch politics and fast decisions. But a new study making the rounds in boardrooms — and loudly promoted by the prominent venture capitalist Bill Gurley — finds reasons for Corporate America to reconsider its reliance on courts in the First State…[t]he study, by the well-known Stanford law professor Joseph Grundfest tallied every shareholder case since 2000 in which lawyers won fee “multipliers” of 7 times (“septuples”) or 10 times (“decuples”) their normal hourly rate from big corporations. Here’s what it found: Delaware produced 21 septuples and 14 decuples, almost matching the entire federal system on septuples and nearly triple on decuples.”
“How Moderna Went From Pandemic Hero To Vaccine Victim” (Wall Street Journal). “In the latest setback for Moderna, the Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved its next-generation Covid shot for a narrower population of patients than the company intended. The approval grants use of the vaccine only in older adults and people aged 12 to 64 with health risks.”
“L.A. Sound Stages: The New Dead Mall?” (The Ankler). “One well-known director recently told me that the last time they worked on the 15-stage Fox lot, their production was the only one active that day. And FilmLA’s recent sound stage report was bleak: Average stage occupancy plunged to 63 percent in 2024, down six points even from a strike-ridden 2023. Compare that to 2016, when stages hummed along at 96 percent occupancy level, or the we-all-agree-it-was-a-bubble Peak TV year of 2022 when levels bounced back up to 90 percent during the post-pandemic recovery.”
“This Startup Is Offering Mortgages For 401(k)s” (Semafor). “Al-Asaad’s solution is that favorite of financial tools: leverage. His startup, Basic Capital, will lend customers $4 for every $1 they contribute to their retirement accounts. Instead of investing mostly in stocks, Basic’s retirement accounts mostly hold loans, whose interest payments can ideally cover customers’ own borrowing costs. It is, essentially, a mortgage on your 401(k).”
“For Some Recent Graduates, The A.I. Job Apocalypse May Already Be Here” (New York Times). “This month, millions of young people will graduate from college and look for work in industries that have little use for their skills, view them as expensive and expendable, and are rapidly phasing out their jobs in favor of artificial intelligence. That is the troubling conclusion of my conversations over the past several months with economists, corporate executives and young job-seekers, many of whom pointed to an emerging crisis for entry-level workers that appears to be fueled, at least in part, by rapid advances in A.I. capabilities.”
