What we’re reading (8/16)
“U.S. Steel Takeover Talk Rattles Manufacturers” (Wall Street Journal). “The pursuit by Cleveland-Cliffs of one of the nation’s biggest steelmakers, made public in recent days, could ratchet up market concentration in steel used to make auto fenders, food cans and batteries for electric vehicles. Cleveland-Cliffs and industrial conglomerate Esmark have both made offers for U.S. Steel that would value the company at more than $7 billion.”
“Broadcast And Cable Make Up Less Than Half Of TV Usage For The First Time Ever” (CNBC). “Usage among pay-TV customers fell to 29.6% of TV, while broadcast dropped to a 20% share during the month. Streaming made up nearly 39% of usage in July, the largest share reported since Nielsen’s first time reporting the monthly numbers in The Gauge in June 2021.”
“Strongman Economics Aren’t Working For China And Russia” (Axios). “After the financial crisis of 2008 hobbled the U.S. and much of the West, China's strong economy prompted a flurry of commentary about the benefits of its style of state-led capitalism, which eliminated the inefficiencies that always accompany democracy. Reality check: More than a decade later, the economic downside of unelected, unaccountable strongmen is on display.”
“Retail Sales Rose Solidly Last Month In A Sign That Consumers Are Still Spending Freely” (ABC News). “Retail sales rose a better-than-expected 0.7% in July from June, according to the Commerce Department's report Tuesday. The gain was higher than a revised 0.3% increase the previous month and marked four straight months of increases. The figure also surpassed the 0.2% increase in consumer prices last month, indicating that shoppers are spending at a healthy pace.”
“The LED Light Revolution Has Only Just Begun” (Vox). “The new monarch is the light-emitting diode, or LED, and it’s poised to have an enduring reign. Over the past decade, scientists, engineers, designers, and policymakers groomed the LED to rule, coaxing it to do everything an incandescent could do, but with a fraction of the energy. An LED bulb provides the same amount of light as an incandescent while using 90 percent less electricity and lasting 25 times longer. The 2014 Nobel Prize in physics went to the scientists who invented the blue LED.”
