What we’re reading (9/4)
“Investors Head Into Fall With Jitters After Summer Rally” (Wall Street Journal). “The S&P 500 is up 18% so far this year, even after falling in August for its first monthly decline since February. The benchmark index rallied in the final week of the month, finishing near its monthly highs for the sixth consecutive month. Now investors are questioning whether stocks can continue defying expectations and hang onto this year’s gains.”
“Empty Office Buildings Are Blank Slates To Improve Cities” (The Week). “It's been three years since the Covid-19 pandemic prompted many to begin working from home, but the trend has continued to show its staying power even as other aspects of society have returned to pre-pandemic conditions. Because of this, many office buildings in cities have remained empty, leaving city planners and officials scrambling to figure out what to do about the empty spaces.”
“Column: Businesses Keep Complaining About Shoplifting, But Wage Theft Is A Bigger Crime” (Los Angeles). “Former Home Depot Chief Executive Bob Nardelli went on Fox Business the other day to warn that a surge in shoplifting by organized gangs showed that America was descending into ‘a lawless society.’ ‘We’ve got to get this back under control,’ Nardelli intoned gloomily, after videos of smash-and-grab teams in retail stores had spooled behind him. ‘I fear where this is headed.’ There isn’t much to say about Nardelli’s sepulchral comments, other than that he has a hell of a nerve. Back in June, Nardelli’s former company settled a class-action lawsuit with workers alleging widespread wage theft for $72.5 million.”
“Silicon Valley’s Elites Can’t Be Trusted With The Future Of AI. We Must Break Their Dominance–And Dangerous God Complex” (Fortune). “We can take Silicon Valley’s open-source technology and build something that benefits the masses. Altman surely believes that his company is doing good for the world and is uniquely positioned to deliver advanced AI, but even one of OpenAI’s top funders, Elon Musk, has distanced himself from this project due to concerns over its profit-seeking motives.”
“The Discredited Phillips Curve Cannot Be Discredited Enough” (Forbes). “Despite the obvious correlation between growth and falling prices, economists still stick to the belief that rising unemployment and business failure are essential ingredients to what they imagine is a ‘low-inflation’ environment. And it’s not ideological. While one guesses much of the Fed is populated with Democrats, the American Enterprise Institute is a prominent think tank largely populated by Republicans. Yet AEI’s lead economist in Michael Strain recently observed to the New York Times that the ‘more that good news becomes good news, the higher the likelihood of a recession.’ Imagine a growth-focused Republican associating job loss and bankruptcy with ‘good news’ as is, but where it gets worse is in it vivifying Strain’s embrace of the discredited Phillips Curve.”
