New York Times (March 14)
Some now fear an “urban doom loop.” Cities are encountering budget crunches brought on by “steep discounts” in office and commercial real estate “as the pandemic trends of hybrid and remote work have persisted.” Cities are “starting to bear the brunt.” Budgets once reliant “on taxes associated with valuable commercial property are now facing shortfalls and contemplating cutbacks as lower assessments of property values reduce tax bills.” Cutting services or raising taxes could make cities less attractive, inducing urban flight and further exacerbating city budgets.
Tags: Budgets, Cities, Commercial, Cutbacks, Discounts, Fear, Hybrid, Office, Pandemic, Property, Real estate, Remote, Services, Shortfalls, Tax, Urban doom loop
Bloomberg (March 16)
“Powerful AI systems like GPT-4 aren’t going to replace large swaths of professional workers, as many have instinctively feared. But they will put them under greater pressure to be more productive and faster at what they do. They will raise the bar on what is considered acceptable output and usher in an era of ultra-efficiency unlike anything we’ve seen before…. Watch out for how they might take you a tiny step closer to burnout.”
Tags: Acceptable, AI, Faster, Fear, GPT-4, Output, Powerful, Pressure, Productive, Professional workers, Replace, Ultra-efficiency
Institutional Investor (July 18)
“Private equity investors have little to fear from a recession, as the best returns come after these periods.” A recent report by Bain Consulting shows, for example, that “following the bursting of the dot-com bubble, buyout funds generated a median IRR of 25 percent in 2001, 40 percent in 2002, and 47 percent in 2003. In 2009, after the Global Financial Crisis, they posted a 24 percent IRR.” In the near future, however, “private equity firms still face a bumpy road ahead, despite the potentially short duration of the market downturn.”
Tags: Bain Consulting, Bumpy, Buyout funds, Dot-com bubble, Fear, Investors, IRR, Market downturn, Private equity, Recession, Returns
Bloomberg (October 1)
“The Evergrande fear has receded too easily for comfort… Even without a crisis, the stricken developer will do significant damage to a Chinese economy that already appeared to be slowing.”
Los Angeles Times (November 3)
“No matter what happens next, this is not normal. Every presidential election crackles with tension, or it should…. and every four years election day is a time of fear and hope, anxiety and elation… And that’s completely normal. But let’s not pretend that cities boarding themselves up in fear of election day violence is normal…. Because a country in which this election is “normal” is a country no longer our own.”
Barron’s (June 3)
“The stock market’s rally in recent weeks has felt awfully disconnected from the grim reality on the ground. And that only felt more true as protests erupted around the country…. Investors, however, are motivated by fear and greed, and right now both are helping—fear of missing out and greed as the market goes higher.”
Tags: Disconnected, Fear, Greed, Grim, Investors, Missing out, Motivated, Protests, Rally, Reality, Stock market
NBC News (January 20)
“On Tuesday, the impeachment trial of President Donald John Trump will begin in the United States Senate. It ought to be a moment of pride in our constitutional order, a testament to the framers’ vision that no one, not even a president, is above the law.” But instead of “patriotic duty,” this trial is being driven by fear. Ultimately, in years to come, “many Republican senators will wish they’d been driven not by fear of a bully, but by the courage of their convictions, and pride in carrying out their solemn duties.”
Tags: Bully, Constitutional order, Convictions, Courage, Fear, Impeachment, Patriotic duty, Pride, Senate, Trial, Trump, U.S.
New York Times (February 11)
“Before the fear of being blown up on a plane, or a train, or a sidewalk gave millions of people sleepless nights, before the threat of global climate disaster stirred dread, nuclear annihilation was the stuff of nightmares.” Then the U.S. and Russia took a step back. With the end of the INF Treaty and the Start Treaty set to expire, the nightmares may return. They shouldn’t. “Outspending Russia on a nuclear arms race, as Mr. Trump has bragged he would do, or abandoning an arms control regime that has helped forestall nuclear war for decades, is a foolish game of chicken, with no possible winners.”
Tags: Climate disaster, Fear, INF, Nightmares, Nuclear annihilation, Plane, Russia, Sleepless nights, Start, Threat, Train, Trump, U.S.
Chicago Tribune (December 26)
“China is both a customer of the United States and a competitor. Friend but possibly foe. The relationship is complex and unresolved…. It may be China’s destiny to match the United States in wealth and firepower. Those are not reasons to fear China. They are reasons to engage the country today as a partner and challenge Chinese intentions when they appear threatening.”
Tags: Challenge, China, Competitor, Complex, Customer, Engage, Fear, Firepower, Foe, Friend, Threatening, U.S., Unresolved, Wealth
LA Times (September 17)
“A U.S.-China tariff war is sure to produce very real economic consequences, and political fallout, in both nations…. Whatever else one might think of President Trump’s actions, he is confronting China about its unfair trade practices and theft of American intellectual property when too many others shy away from the truth for fear of Chinese reprisal.”
Tags: China, Confront, Consequences, Fallout, Fear, IP, Reprisal, Tariff, Trump, U.S., Unfair trade, War
