10 Friday AM Reads – The Big Picture

My end-of-week morning train WFH reads:

• Return to the office? These workers quit instead. As more companies crack down on remote work, employees are pushing back with walkouts and resignations. (Washington Post)

• Americans’ feelings about the economy are getting worse: The data show that the recent reversal in gas prices (heading up) and in the stock market (heading down) are weighing on our mood. So is the continuing reality of living in a higher-price world. (Axios) see also New York Is Rebounding for the Rich. Nearly Everyone Else Is Struggling. The huge income gap between rich and poor in Manhattan is the latest sign that the economic recovery from the pandemic has been lopsided in New York City. (New York Times)

• The dream — and reality — of moving to Florida: One of the fastest-growing states in the nation is also one of the most complicated. (Vox)

• Elon Musk and the Infinite Rebuy:  Elon Musk sucks at poker. But he has access to so much capital that he can keep rebuying until he scores a win. Isaacson, our narrator, doesn’t grasp the difference. He doesn’t understand poker well enough to recognize Musk as the grandstanding sucker at the table. So he portrays Musk’s complete lack of impulse control as a brilliant, identity-defining strategic ploy. (If you go all-in and lose six times, then go all-in a seventh time and win, then you’re still down five buy-ins.). (The Future, Now and Then)

• The post-crisis era for stocks was ‘Easy Street’ for investors. It’s not likely to be repeated. The S&P 500 has gained 389% since 2010, with the tech sector alone soaring 847% in that time. There are a number of precedents that suggest those gains are unlikely to be repeated. (Business Insider) see also What’s Driving the September Stock Swoon: The S&P 500 is trading at a three-month low as surging oil prices, rising bond yields and concerns about economic growth send investors to the exits. (New York Times)

• Breaking Up Is Hard to Do: How Rupert Murdoch Decided to Dump Tucker Carlson Rupert Murdoch didn’t want to dump his ratings leader and favorite Fox host. But was Tucker Carlson giving him a choice?  (New York Magazine)

• Emoji: Open your phone’s keyboard and go to the emojis. Scroll past the same five emojis you’ve used for years and see what others exist. You will soon see 🍡 🈸 🍙 and other weird-looking pictures. What the hell are these things, and why are they in your phone? Short answer? Japanese high school girls. (One from Nippon)

• I tried to stop my junk mail forever. Ultimately, stopping most of my junk mail took me less than an hour over a few months. Here are the three steps to do it. (Washington Post)

• The End of Trump Inc. The courts are finally catching up to a man who has long behaved as though there would never be any consequences for his deceptions. (The Atlantic) see also Fire and Fury and the First Amendment: How Trump Tried to Censor His Critics: John Sargent on the Furious Publication Journey of Michael Wolff’s Tell-All Book. (Literary Hub)

• TV is dead! Long live TV? Television’s boom may be over, but its experimental energy persists. Here’s a look at TV’s next wave. (Washington Post)

Be sure to check out our Masters in Business next week with Gary Cohn, Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and Director of the National Economic Council from 2017-2018; he was President and Chief Operating Officer of The Goldman Sachs Group from 2006-2016. Currently, he is Vice Chairman of IBM.

Real GDP is just about where we would have been had there been no pandemicSource: Jason Furman

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