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☆ Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Nicole Holofcener on the Absurdity of Everyday Life
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Nicole Sperling | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

HOLOFCENER I feel that way. Do you usually feel this way right after you’ve finished making a film? HOLOFCENER I’m usually out of ideas every day. LOUIS-DREYFUS I wasn’t thinking about this character as an age thing. LOUIS-DREYFUS To tell you the truth, I feel like this age, there’s just so much more to do.

☆ Striking Writers Find Their Villain: Netflix
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-11 | by ( John Koblin | Nicole Sperling | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Just over a week after thousands of television and movie writers took to picket lines, Netflix is feeling the heat. Late Wednesday night, Netflix abruptly said it was canceling a major Manhattan showcase that it was staging for advertisers next week. Instead of an in-person event held at the fabled Paris Theater, which the streaming company leases, Netflix said the presentation would now be virtual. He was scheduled to be honored alongside the “Saturday Night Live” eminence Lorne Michaels. In a statement, Mr. Sarandos explained that he withdrew because the potential demonstrations could overshadow the event.

☆ Outside Hollywood Studios, Writers Make Their Case
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Brooks Barnes | Nicole Sperling | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

This corporate greed has got to go!”Similar scenes of solidarity unfolded across the entertainment capital. The streaming giant, for instance, has become known for “mini-rooms,” which is slang for hiring small groups of writers to map out a season before any official greenlight has been given. Because it isn’t a formal writers room, the pay is less. Writers in mini-rooms will sometimes work for as little as 10 weeks, and then have to scramble to find another job. (If the show is greenlit and goes into production, fewer writers are kept on board.)

If Congress fails to act, some legal experts say Democratic President Joe Biden has another option to avert a crisis: Invoke the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to ensure the United States can continue to pay its bills. Section Four of 14th Amendment, adopted after the 1861-1865 Civil War, states that the "validity of the public debt of the United States ... shall not be questioned." HOW WOULD MARKETS REACT IF BIDEN USES THE 14TH AMENDMENT? Administration officials and economists have warned that a default triggered by a debt-ceiling breach would roil the world financial system and plunge the United States into recession. That immediate catastrophe might be avoided if Biden invoked the 14th Amendment.

☆ ‘Super Mario Bros. Movie’ Crosses the $1 Billion Mark
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Nicole Sperling | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The animated film “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” crossed the $1 billion box-office threshold on Sunday, making it the fifth movie to do so since the start of the pandemic and the surest sign yet that the theatrical movie business is on the rebound after a prolonged downturn. Of the five films to cross the $1 billion mark since the pandemic began, “Super Mario” is the first animated one. In fact, “Super Mario” helped push the April domestic box office up 11.5 percent compared with prepandemic levels, according to the box office analyst David A. Gross called the stat “a breakthrough” since it marks the first month that has surpassed its prepandemic average. The 2023 year-to-date box office deficit is now down 21.8 percent compared with that average.

Writers scrambling to finish scripts. Rival late-night-show hosts and producers convening group calls to discuss contingency plans. Union officials and screenwriters gathering in conference rooms to design picket signs with slogans like “The Future of Writing Is at Stake!”With a Hollywood strike looming, there has been a frantic sprint throughout the entertainment world before 11,500 TV and movie writers potentially walk out as soon as next week. The possibility of a television and movie writers’ strike — will they, won’t they, how could they? And in recent days, there has been a notable shift: People have stopped asking one another whether a strike would take place and started to talk about duration.

☆ Netflix Will End Its DVD Service After 25 Years
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Nicole Sperling | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

After 25 years, Netflix is ending its DVD-by-mail business. Before it was upending the entertainment industry and ushering in the streaming era, Netflix was a company whose business model revolved around sending DVDs through the mail in easily recognizable red-and-white envelopes. At its peak, in 2010, roughly 20 million subscribed to the DVD service. But the practice has long felt anachronistic, and the company said on Tuesday that it will ship its final DVDs to customers on Sept. 29. “To everyone who ever added a DVD to their queue or waited by the mailbox for a red envelope to arrive: thank you.”

☆ Macro uncertainty is high as I've seen in 42 years of business: THL Partners co-CEO
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailMacro uncertainty is high as I've seen in 42 years of business: THL Partners co-CEOScott Sperling, THL Partners co-CEO, joins 'Squawk Box' to discuss Sperling's views on the world, why investors missed the ball on duration risk and more.

☆ Silicon Valley Bank closed today
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

In this videoShare Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailSilicon Valley Bank closed todayGene Sperling, Former NEC Director joins 'Squawk on the Street' to discuss his thoughts on Silicon Valley Bank closing today.

☆ Eli Lilly Alzheimer's treatment solanezumab failed to slow disease progression
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Spencer Kimball | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Eli Lilly on Wednesday said it will halt development of its Alzheimer's treatment candidate solanezumab after the antibody failed to slow disease progression. The study enrolled more than 1,000 seniors who had normal memory and thinking function, but showed signs of brain plaque that is associated with Alzheimer's. Lilly said it did not have that data because donanemab cleared brain plaque quickly in many patients. "We remain confident in the of potential donanemab as a new treatment for people with early symptomatic Alzheimer's disease," Skovronsky said. The FDA approved Eisai's and Biogen's early Alzheimer's treatment Leqembi on an expedited basis in January.

☆ Biden seeks $1.6 bln to tackle COVID relief fraud ahead of Republican probes
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Jarrett Renshaw | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] President Joe Biden speaks before signing two bills aimed at combating fraud in the COVID-19 small business relief programs at the White House in Washington, U.S., August 5, 2022. Evan Vucci/Pool via REUTERSMarch 2 (Reuters) - President Joe Biden plans to ask Congress to provide $1.6 billion in new funding to tackle fraud tied to U.S. pandemic relief programs and help victims of identity theft, the White House said. In addition, Biden wants Congress to increase the statute of limitations on serious pandemic unemployment insurance fraud to 10 years, the White House said. In one case, an investigation by the task force recovered $286 million in stolen pandemic relief funds, and investigators have identified several equally important cases, according to the White House. Sperling, who oversees the COVID aid response for the White House, told reporters the renewed focus on pandemic fraud has nothing to do with coming Republican investigations.

The White House will likely appoint Federal Reserve Vice Chair Lael Brainard to run the National Economic Council and Jared Bernstein to lead the Council of Economic Advisers, sources familiar with the matter tell CNBC. The appointments are expected to be announced after incoming White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients assumes his role, as soon as next week. Bernstein is a member of the board he is expected to head, the White House Council of Economic Advisers. The White House is holding a ceremony on Wednesday to thank outgoing White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain and welcome Zients to the position. Current White House NEC Director Brian Deese is expected to depart imminently, sources said.

☆ Candidates to become top Biden economist include Fed Vice Chair Lael Brainard, Treasury official Wally Adeyemo
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Matt Egan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

The process to replace Deese as head of the powerful National Economic Council remains ongoing and the situation is fluid, the person said. The Washington Post first reported the leading candidates to replace Deese. Brainard was viewed as a leading contender to become Fed chair before Biden ultimately decided to renominate Jerome Powell. Brainard, a former Treasury official in the Obama administration and a Fed governor since 2014, was instead elevated to vice chair, the central bank’s No. U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo on October 13, 2022 in Washington, DC.

☆ Fed's Lael Brainard among leading contenders for top White House economic post
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Jeff Cox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Lael Brainard, vice chair of the US Federal Reserve, listens to a question during an interview in Washington, DC, US, on Monday, Nov. 14, 2022. Federal Reserve Vice Chair Lael Brainard is a top candidate to take the most important economic position in the White House. Biden named Brainard vice chair at the Fed in 2022; she also was considered as a possible successor to Fed Chair Jerome Powell, whom Biden reappointed last year. Brainard is one of multiple candidates being considered and interviews for the position are continuing, according to a White House spokesman familiar with the matter. For her part, Brainard could garner support from progressives who are in favor of strong bank regulation and easier monetary policy.

President Joe Biden is searching for a replacement for National Economic Council (NEC) Director Brian Deese, who is expected to leave soon. Interviews are still ongoing to replace him, according to the sources who declined to discuss an ongoing personnel process. Biden's team is also starting to craft an economic message for his expected 2024 re-election campaign. But reducing high inflation became the administration's top economic priority last year as rising costs began to anger voters. She previously served as the Treasury's point person on international affairs during the Obama administration.

☆ California invested an enormous amount of money into getting EVs on the road, but practically nothing when it comes to dealing with the waste: 'It's totally like the Wild West.'
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-11 | by ( Hanna Kang | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

"It's totally like the Wild West," said Zora Chung, co-founder of ReJoule, Inc., a startup project based in Signal Hill that is exploring repurposing used batteries from EVs. However, there are no EV battery recycling plants that exist in California, nor tried-and-true recycling programs in place to deal with the fallout. Currently, the company has used batteries deployed at the American Museum of Ceramic Art in Pomona, where solar panels feed electricity into the used battery storage units. Charging station for electric and hybrid cars using solar panels to generate electricity to charge car batteries. "Imagine if it just took you one full work week to qualify one used battery," Chung said.

☆ Rare success for Alzheimer's research unlocks hope for future therapies
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( Julie Steenhuysen | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

Eisai and Biogen are scheduled to present full data from their lecanemab study on Tuesday at the Clinical Trials on Alzheimer's Disease conference in San Francisco. Lecanemab’s success rests on years of research into the causes of Alzheimer’s as well as advances in measuring amyloid deposits through brain scans and spinal fluids. At least 16 treatments are being tested in clinical trials, with results expected over the next three years, according to a Reuters review of the clinicaltrials.gov registry. The drugmaker has been largely absent from the Alzheimer's space after the high-profile failure of its drug verubecestat five years ago. But several antibody therapies from Lilly, Biogen and AbbVie(ABBV.N) that were designed to slow the rate of tau accumulations failed outright last year.

☆ Evictions are piling up across the U.S. as Covid-era protections end and rents climb
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-05 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Shannon-Pettypiece-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | Shannon Pettypiece | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +10 min

Still, rents nationwide were up 9% in September, compared to a year earlier, and more than a dozen cities had double-digit rent increases, it said. In Phoenix, for example, rent increases have slowed in recent months, but in June were up 24% year over year, with a median asking rent of $2,261. In Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix, evictions are at their highest levels since at least 2016, with more than 45,000 filings this year. Zenovia Johnson is one of those Phoenix renters who’s been struggling to stay in her home because of rising rents. In Minneapolis, where rent increases have trended below the national average, evictions in September were 37% above their historical averages after shooting up in June, when the state lifted its eviction moratorium.

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