What we’re reading (7/13)
“A Beautiful Inflation Report” (New York Times). “One of my go-to economic data experts emailed on Thursday morning about the latest inflation report, which showed prices actually falling in June and up only 3 percent over the past year. It was, he declared, ‘beautiful.’ Your aesthetic sense may vary, but we’ve now had two months of really good price data, enough to puncture the bubble of pessimism that, um, inflated early this year. And the implications of the good news are pretty big.”
“Big Banks And Customers Continue To Feel Pressure From Higher Rates” (Wall Street Journal). “The fight to rein in inflation continues to weigh on some of the nation’s largest banks. Higher interest rates crimped their profits and left more consumers struggling to keep up with elevated borrowing costs.”
“Jane Fraser Is Trying To Pull Chronically Struggling Citigroup Out Of The Gutter. She May Actually Pull It Off” (CNN Business). “Fraser, the first woman ever to run a Wall Street bank, inherited a behemoth that had become a laughingstock among its peers, hobbled by its unwieldy bureaucracy, a bloated staff and slim profit margins…But lately, to the surprise of Citi’s critics, things are looking up. Since September, when Fraser laid out her vision for a more streamlined Citigroup, the bank’s stock has shot up more than 50%.”
“Wall Street Is Bullish On Stocks For The 2nd Half Of The Year. Here Are Each Firm’s Exact Forecasts.” (Business Insider). “The S&P 500 has soared this year, with the index jumping about 15% to record highs in the first half. With the second half of 2024 underway, Wall Street strategists are updating their year-end price targets for the S&P 500, and nearly all of them are leaning bullish as they increase their forecasts.”
“The Class Gap In Career Progression: Evidence From US Academia” (Anna Stansbury & Kyra Rodriguez). “Unlike gender or race, class is rarely a focus of research or DEI efforts in elite US occupations. Should it be? In this paper, we document a large class gap in career progression in one labor market: US tenure-track academia. Using parental education to proxy for socioeconomic background, we compare career outcomes of people who got their PhDs in the same institution and field (excluding those with PhD parents). First-generation college graduates are 13% less likely to end up tenured at an R1, and are on average tenured at institutions ranked 9% lower, than their PhD classmates with a parent with a (non-PhD) graduate degree. We explore three sets of mechanisms: (1) research productivity, (2) networks, and (3) preferences. Research productivity can explain less than a third of the class gap, and preferences explain almost none. Our analyses of coauthor characteristics suggest networks likely play a role. Finally, examining PhDs who work in industry we find a class gap in pay and in managerial responsibilities which widens over the career. This means a class gap in career progression exists in other US occupations beyond academia.”
