onfocus

The surprisingly good GDP figures prompted Biden aides to launch a more aggressive push to tout the economy’s strength as the presidential campaign heats up, hoping to flip what has long been perceived as one of the president’s biggest political vulnerabilities into an asset heading into the presidential campaign season.

Thanks, Bidenomics! Too bad about the corporate layoffs due to [checks notes] record profits.

From billions of mysterious Tethers to the apparent identity theft of Thai sex workers, many questions remain about what happened at Bankman-Fried's crypto empire.

WTF was going on at FTX? Molly White's coverage of the FTX trial was fantastic and her list of topics that almost came up makes it seem like the trial was just the tip of a very weird iceberg.

That being said: She’s a billionaire, her tour is taking over the world, she’s transforming the music industry in real time, and very few living celebrities have her scale of cultural influence. With all the love in the world, shouldn’t someone be, at least, attempting to look without fear or favor to see if she’s truly keeping her side of the street clean?

The kinds of stories that could shed light on the music industry if they looked with a critical eye.

Breaking news from Spotify: starting in 2024 (less than two months from now), they will no longer pay any royalty on tracks that fall below a minimum 1,000 streams a year. These tracks will still earn royalties, in theory – but those royalties will not be paid to their rights holders. Instead, they will go into a pot to be divided among accounts that garner more plays.

Happy holidays from Spotify, artists!

Update (12/4): Happy holidays from Spotify, employees

Do No Harm has used its small slice of the Edelmans’ wealth to launch a successful campaign against health care services for trans Americans.

So frustrating that billionaires have more than they could ever need and still look around and say: now, how can I make people suffer?

Starting in October, the ad-free tier of Disney+ will rise from $11 to $14 a month, while ad-free Hulu will increase from $14 to $18 a month.

Must be to offset the money they’re suddenly paying to writers and actors now. (Sarcasm)

In recent years, the state has witnessed some of the most destructive wildfire seasons in its history. In 2018, the Camp Fire destroyed 11,000 homes and at one point, displaced nearly 50,000 people. In its aftermath, insurance companies saw huge losses, causing premiums to go up and toughening eligibility requirements to get covered.

This seems like something that should be covered more. How can people live in California without insurance or extremely expensive insurance as their options decrease? Maybe California needs to be in the insurance business?

Update: And...CA already is in the insurance business via FAIR Plan.

All of the legal documents were pretty clear that Bed Bath was raising money by selling stock to retail investors, that it was handing that money directly to its creditors, that the money probably wouldn’t be enough, that Bed Bath was probably going bankrupt, and that when it did the stock that it had just sold to those retail investors would be worthless. And things have worked out exactly as promised. No one can be surprised!

Job creators!