The Guardian (June 14)
“Decades of declining births mean there are no longer enough students to fill classrooms…. Taiwan is struggling to achieve the ‘replacement rate’ needed to maintain a stable population. That rate is 2.1 babies per woman, but Taiwan hasn’t hit that number since the mid-80s. In 2023, the rate was 0.865.”
Tags: Classrooms, Declining births, Population, Replacement rate, Stable, Struggling, Students, Taiwan
New York Times (April 4)
The importance of “a robust defense” is one clear takeaway from Disney’s success against activist investor Nelson Peltz. “Executives, led by the Disney C.E.O. Bob Iger, mapped out a series of bold initiatives last autumn, in part to blunt Peltz’s calls for change…. That included cost-cutting efforts, an investment in the video game giant Epic Games and a shake-up in the struggling movie division.”
Tags: Activist investor, Bold initiatives, Cost cutting, Disney, Epic Games, Iger, Investment, Movie division, Peltz, Robust defense, Shake-up, Struggling, Takeaway, Video game
Financial Times (February 15)
“As OpenAI enters its year of rapid growth, questions about the long-term viability of its business model remain.” Despite such grandiose goals as accelerating “global productivity and economic growth,” corporations are struggling “to figure out how to integrate generative AI into their processes, or estimate what kinds of cost and productivity benefits it might bring.”
Tags: Benefits, Business model, Corporations, Cost, Economic growth, Generative AI, Global productivity, Grandiose, Growth, OpenAI, Processes, Struggling, Viability
Institutional Investor (November 7)
Vanguard’s departure from China, after selling its 49% stake in its joint venture to Ant in October, was such big news because it “illustrates the challenges facing foreign asset managers in China, where the opportunities are plentiful, but so are the obstacles.” Other struggling foreign asset managers may choose to utilize the cover of Vanguard’s departure to reduce their own presence in China.
Tags: Ant, Challenges, China, Departure, Foreign asset managers, Joint venture, Obstacles, Opportunities, Presence, Struggling, Vanguard
Washington Post (October 1)
“Offices in many of the world’s major cities are struggling to find workers to occupy them.” In contrast, during 2023 “Tokyo will add some 1.26 million square meters… of new office space, with little trouble occupying it…. Foreign investors, some of whom are dumping properties overseas, are snapping up buildings.” While Tokyo’s post-COVID recovery “has been more circuitous…it may be more complete than global peers.”
Tags: 2023, Buildings, Circuitous, Foreign investors, Major cities, Office space, Overseas, Post-Covid, Properties, Recovery, Struggling, Tokyo, Workers
Washington Post (June 28)
“Like one of the endangered species whose impending extinction it has chronicled, National Geographic magazine has been on a relentlessly downward path, struggling for vibrancy in an increasingly unforgiving ecosystem. On Wednesday, the Washington-based magazine that has surveyed science and the natural world for 135 years reached another difficult passage when it laid off all of its last remaining staff writers.”
Tags: 135 years, Endangered species, Extinction, Impending, National Geographic, Natural world, Relentlessly, Science, Staff writers, Struggling
Bloomberg (June 12)
“The owners of the Westfield San Francisco Centre mall are giving up the property to lenders, adding to deepening real estate pain in a city struggling to bring back workers and tourists after the pandemic.” Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield and Brookfield Corp. will default on $558 million in remaining debt. “San Francisco has been among the hardest-hit cities since the pandemic as office vacancies soar, retail vacancies rise and concerns about safety deter visitors.”
Tags: Brookfield, Cities, Debt, Default, Hardest-hit, Lenders, Mall, Office, Pain, Pandemic, Real estate, Retail, Safety, San Francisco, Struggling, Tourists, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, Vacancies, Workers
The Week (October 8)
“Alarm is rising over a global slowdown that’s testing even Apple’s invincibility… In September, Apple was so bullish about its sales projections for the new iPhone 14 that it told suppliers to bump production by roughly 7 percent.” Within just a few weeks, Apple backtracked. “If Apple is struggling to gauge consumer sentiment, that doesn’t bode well for other companies.
Tags: Alarm, Apple, Backtracked, Bullish, Consumer sentiment, Gauge, Global slowdown, Invincibility, iPhone 14, Production, Sales projections, September, Struggling, Suppliers
San Jose Mercury News (October 4)
“Throughout the Bay Area, companies both large and small are struggling to refill their ranks after last year’s business shutdowns drove laid-off workers to seek pandemic unemployment assistance to find new jobs in other industries. But as bigger companies offer increasingly generous rewards, smaller companies with leaner budgets are struggling to compete in a worker-driven market.”
Tags: Bay Area, Bigger, Budgets, Companies, Generous, Laid-off, Pandemic, Refill, Rewards, Shutdowns, Smaller, Struggling, Unemployment, Workers
Wall Street Journal (February 17)
“Continental governments have spent trillions during the pandemic keeping firms alive and people in jobs, but that safety net could be putting off the economic deep cleaning that normally comes with recessions.” Concern is growing that “mothballing the economy for so long will leave it struggling to adapt to the seismic business and social changes the crisis is driving. That could stall an economic recovery.”
Tags: Adapt, Crisis, Economic deep cleaning, Firms, Governments, Jobs, Mothballing, Pandemic, Recessions, Recovery, Safety net, Struggling
