My mid-week morning train reads:
• This company adopted AI. Here’s what happened to its human workers: Economists found AI caused a group of workers to become much more productive. Backed by AI, these workers were able to accomplish much more in less time, with greater customer satisfaction to boot. At the same time, however, the study also shines a spotlight on just how powerful AI is, how disruptive it might be, and suggests that this new, astonishing technology could have economic effects that change the shape of income inequality going forward. (NPR)
• Dark Clouds Over Commercial Real Estate Don’t Frighten Allocators: Prices are down and dire forecasts abound, but asset owners plan to modestly boost their CRE exposure (Chief Investment Officer) see also The Building Boom Is Prolonging Market Pain: Construction employment is higher than ever—undermining bets the Fed will soon pivot. (Wall Street Journal)
• Large, creative AI models will transform lives and labour markets: They bring enormous promise and peril. In the first of three special articles we explain how they work. (Economist)
• Billionaire Steve Cohen Has a Plan to Become the King of Queens: To win a coveted New York casino license, he’s ‘hired the best team that money can buy.’ (Bloomberg)
• Exxon Has 40 Billion Reasons to Go Shopping: A gusher of cash and a richly priced stock could steer the supermajor toward a deal (Wall Street Journal)
• Why I deactivated my Facebook page: “I always reported the fake account, reported the comment and blocked the user who placed it – and the fake page they’d created – but my submission of these reports would go absolutely nowhere. Into thin air. No response from Facebook. No attempt to stop more of them from sprouting up. No effort whatsoever and no action. So the very next post I’d put up, one hour later or one week later, an identical comment from an identical impersonator would appear. Also scamming people with some sort of fake offer for crypto currency (of course it’s crypto. Not everyone who is involved in crypto is a thief, but every thief is involved in crypto).” (Reformed Broker)
• The Fight for the American Public Library: Library boards, school boards and legislatures are becoming battlegrounds in a push to censor books. Communities are fighting back. (CityLab)
• Why Are TV Writers So Miserable? On the cusp of a potential strike, writers explain why no one is having much fun making television anymore. (New Yorker) see also TV’s Streaming Bubble Has Burst, a Writers Strike is Here, and “Everybody Is Freaking Out” Billions in losses. Sweeping layoffs. The party’s over, and Hollywood is waking up with a splitting headache. (Vanity Fair)
• The Case for the Total Liberation of Ukraine: Russia must be expelled from all of Ukraine’s territory—including Crimea. (The Atlantic)
• Physicists See ‘Strange Matter’ Form inside Atomic Nuclei: New research attempts to discern how bizarre particles of strange matter form in the nuclei of atoms (Scientific American)
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business next week with Ben Clymer, founder & chairman of Hodinkee, and Jeffery Fowler the firm’s CEO. Fowler and Clymer (dubbed the “High Priest of Horology“) discuss all things wristwatches and timepieces, including their experiences at the 2023 Watches & Wonders, why the marketplace has exploded over the past few years, and what are their favorite grail watches.
Fed Set to Raise Interest Rates to 16-Year High and Debate a Pause
Source: Wall Street Journal
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