What we’re reading (8/11)
“Jim Cramer Is . . . Kicking Ass?” (Financial Times). “Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Jim Cramer’s stock picks are doing pretty well. To clarify, the ETF that’s long Cramer’s “Mad Money” recommendations (LJIM) gained 16 per cent over the two months ended July 31. While it has retreated from its late-July peak, it’s still been left with a gain of more than 7 per cent. The much more popular Inverse Cramer ETF (SJIM), which shorts all his picks, is underperforming, and is down 7 per cent since May 31. Cramer can thank Nvidia for his outperformance.”
“Why Does The FTC Continue To Pursue Losing Cases?” (ProMarket). “The most troubling possible explanation for why the FTC pursued a litigated challenge in the Meta/Within and Microsoft/Activision Blizzard cases is that the commissioners who voted to authorize the complaints thought that challenging the transactions was the right policy regardless of the law or the strength of the evidence. It is important to remember that the FTC enforces laws as they are and not as individual commissioners wish them to be. There are significant negative consequences in pursuing cases based on weak evidence and misapplication of the law. Pursuing such enforcement actions wastes taxpayer-funded resources and undermines the credibility of the FTC as a law enforcement agency.”
“Larry Summers Is Still Concerned” (Semafor). “[Larry Summers:] I would want to see a few months of positive figures. I would want to see clear evidence that wage inflation was receding to levels that were consistent with the Fed’s 2% inflation target. Most recent wage inflation figures show inflation more for the month than the quarter, and more for the quarter than for the year. And I’d want to see, before feeling that everything was okay, that declines in inflation were not coming along with declines in confidence so rapid as to set off a recession. I certainly think a soft landing looks more likely than it did six months ago. But I’m not prepared to bet on a soft landing.”
“Amazon Wants To Deliver Your Order Without A Box, But Neighbors May See Your Snore Strips” (Wall Street Journal). “The company in the past year revamped its logistics network, enabling faster and more efficient deliveries. Eliminating or reducing packaging has become increasingly important for the company to maintain its dominance, reduce costs and reach its goals related to its climate impact.”
“The Crowdless Future? How Generative AI Is Shaping The Future Of Human Crowdsourcing” (HBS working paper). “This study investigates the capability of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in creating innovative business solutions compared to human crowdsourcing methods. We initiated a crowdsourcing challenge focused on sustainable, circular economy business opportunities…The connection between semantic diversity and novelty is stronger in human solutions, suggesting differences in how novelty is created by humans and AI or detected by human evaluators. This study illuminates the potential and limitations of both human and AI crowdsourcing to solve complex organizational problems and sets the groundwork for a possible integrative human-AI approach to problem-solving.”
