What we’re reading (6/22)

• “Bank Of England Hikes Interest Rates To 5%, Stoking Fears Of A ‘Mortgage Bomb’” (CNN Business). “The Bank of England raised interest rates by half a percentage point Thursday, after data this week revealed surprisingly stubborn inflation. The move will pile pain on people with mortgages and put more downward pressure on house prices. The decision in favor of a 13th consecutive hike takes the main borrowing cost for commercial banks in the United Kingdom to 5%, the highest since April 2008.”

• “Warner Bros. Discovery Negotiating $500 Million Deal To Sell Film And TV Music Publishing Assets” (Variety). “Warner Bros. Discovery is negotiating to sell around half of the storied Warner studio’s film and TV music-publishing assets for approximately $500 million, three sources confirm to Variety.”

• “How Michael Jordan Turned $25 Million Into $3 Billion By Buying The Charlotte Hornets For Pennies On The Dollar” (Huddle Up). “Michael Jordan shocked the sports world last week when he announced that he was selling his controlling stake in the Charlotte Hornets at a $3 billion valuation. So today's newsletter breaks down how Michael Jordan acquired the team for pennies on the dollar, why they have performed so poorly on the court, and how he's set to make more money on this one deal than his 40-year partnership with Nike.”

• “‘Power And Progress’ Review: Technology And The New Leviathan” (Deirdre McCloskey in the Wall Street Journal). “Since the 1920s, economists from John Maynard Keynes to Paul Samuelson to Joseph Stiglitz have been claiming, with increasing self-assurance though with surprisingly little evidence beyond the blackboard, that (1) private arrangements work poorly, (2) the state knows better, and (3) we therefore need more state. Messrs. Acemoglu and Johnson have long believed in this anti-liberal syllogism.”

• “Elon Musk And Mark Zuckerberg Agree To Hold Cage Fight” (BBC News). “Two of the world's most high-profile technology billionaires - Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg - have agreed to fight each other in a cage match.”