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Business & Finance
 The explosive growth of
U.S. Treasurys issuance trou-
bles some investors who re-
member past instability in rap-
idly expanding markets and
are considering the potential
effect of new trading rules. A1
 Having ridden the New York
commercial-property boom to-
gether, NYCB and Meridian Cap-
ital are now in a changed world
of higher interest rates and
falling building valuations. B1
 The surge in U.S. home
prices has drawn small inves-
tors into the market, where
they are buying houses with
the intention of selling them
quickly for a profit. B1
 Demand has been sliding
for Jack Daniel’s Old No. 7
and the company behind it,
Brown-Forman, forecasts a
sluggish U.S. whiskey business
for at least the next year. B1
 Chinese investors are go-
ing all-in on gold, priming
the pump for the commod-
ity’s recent rally and offering
support as the metal enters
uncharted territory. B1
 Tech companies anticipat-
ing the enormous quantities
of electricity that will be
needed to power the ad-
vance of artificial intelligence
are looking to utilities for re-
assurance about supplies. B6
 Finance chiefs are grap-
pling with the complex math
of balancing investments in
generative AI with potential
profits that are hard to gauge
by traditional measures. B4
World-Wide
 As Russia mourned the
more than 130 people killed in
a terrorist attack, the assault
threatened to undermine Pu-
tin’s strongman image and
raised questions about Mos-
cow’s ability to deliver on its
promise of security for the
Russian people. A1, A6
 The Supreme Court will
consider whether to roll back
the availability of the abor-
tion pill known as mifepris-
tone as women increasingly
rely on medication to end
unwanted pregnancies. A3
 NBC News’s Chuck Todd
criticized the news organization
over its hiring of former Re-
publican National Committee
Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel,
adding to the backlash within
the company over the hire. A5
 Israeli forces are fighting
in more places in the Gaza
Strip that they had previ-
ously taken and withdrawn
from, further extending the
struggle with Hamas. A6
 A bill aimed at expanding
the draft in Ukraine is stuck
in the country’s parliament
after months of debate, stall-
ing Kyiv’s push to get more
soldiers to the battlefront. A6
 Government’s failure to find
a lasting solution to immigra-
tion enforcement at the south-
ern U.S. border has led to a cha-
otic status quo that threatens
a range of domestic goals. A4
 Died: Peter Angelos, 94,
Baltimore Orioles owner. A3
CONTENTS
Arts in Review.........A13
Business News...........B3
Closed-End Funds.....B8
Crossword....................A14
Heard on Street..........B9
Markets............................B9
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NASDAQ 16428.82 À 2.9%
MAXIM SHIPENKOV/SHUTTERSTOCK
Sunday was declared a day of mourning in Russia after the mass shooting and fire at Crocus City Hall outside Moscow.
al a
Attack in Russia Deals a Blow
ci on
To Putin’s Strongman Image
er s
m er
BY YAROSLAV TROFIMOV
AND THOMAS GROVE
President Vladimir Putin of
m rp
Russia dismissed U.S. warnings
last week of an imminent ter-
rorist attack and urged leaders
of the country’s security ser-
vices to focus on catching
co Fo
Ukrainian spies instead.
Three days later, Islamic
State gunmen rampaged
through a concert hall outside
Netflix’s
Odd Couple
Top Brass
n-
Engineer
no
A Recovery
BY JESSICA TOONKEL
When Netflix announced
last year that Greg Peters and
Ted Sarandos would become
co-CEOs of the streaming gi-
ant, some executives inside the
company worried the arrange-
ment was doomed to fail.
Internal meetings over the
years meant to stress-test each
man’s leadership potential had
highlighted how different they
were. Peters, the product guru,
was told he was too rigidly fo-
cused on data. Sarandos, the
Hollywood czar who relishes
working with talent, was told
he doesn’t focus on data
enough, people familiar with
those discussions said.
The two executives’ camps
had been at odds over the
vaunted Netflix algorithm that
decides which programming
shows up on users’ home
screens—with the Sarandos
side pushing to override it
sometimes to make sure that
certain shows or movies were
featured. At one point, the
Markets Digest.....B7 company tested out a new row,
Opinion............. A15-17
Personal Journal A11-12
internally dubbed the “Ted
Sports....................... A14 Row,” to resolve those tensions.
Technology......... B4,6 The co-chief-executives’ ar-
U.S. News............ A2-5 rangement didn’t look like a
World News..... A6-8
recipe for success. But so far,
the naysayers’ fears are being
> proven wrong.
Under Peters and Sarandos,
Netflix has bounced back from
the hit its business suffered
two years ago, when a rare
Please turn to page A2
AI Meets Trusted
Communications
MONDAY, MARCH 25, 2024 ~ VOL. CCLXXXIII NO. 70 WSJ.com HHHH $5.00
STOXX 600 509.64 À 1.0% 10-YR. TREASURY À 22/32 , yield 4.217% OIL $80.63 À $0.05 EURO $1.0810 YEN 151.46
Surging
Treasury
Sales
Unnerve
Investors
Annual issuance has
nearly doubled since
Covid’s start, shows
no signs of easing
.
BY ERIC WALLERSTEIN
ly
The world’s largest, most-
important financial market is
growing by leaps and bounds.
on On Wall Street, that is making
people nervous.
Annual issuance of U.S.
Treasurys has exploded,
nearly doubling since the pan-
us ,
demic began. The government
l
sold a record $23 trillion
e
worth in 2023. And few think
the spree is going to slow
soon, given the widespread
expectation that government
spending will continue to rise
regardless of who wins No-
vember’s elections.
Rapid growth in markets
from tech stocks to mortgage
bonds has ended badly in the
past. Treasurys are consid-
Moscow, killing more than thoritarian state he has built The return of Islamist ter- ered the safest and easiest-to-
130 people in the deadliest to deliver on its promise of se- rorism is also a challenge for trade securities on Wall
episode of terrorism in Russia curity for the Russian people. the Kremlin because it is at Street, and many worry that
in decades. It is a challenge that comes odds with the vision of the any instability there could
As Russia marked a na- as Russia wages a costly war world presented in Russian rapidly spread.
tional day of mourning on of attrition against neighbor- propaganda—that Russia, in an The market’s growth isn’t
Sunday, the bloody assault on ing Ukraine and struggles to alliance with developing coun- the only thing troubling inves-
one of the nation’s best-known prevent Ukrainian forces from tries and the Muslim world, is tors: Some are also concerned
entertainment venues threat- striking targets deep inside waging an existential struggle about new rules that are
ened to undermine Putin’s Russian territory. Kyiv re- Please turn to page A7 changing the way the trading
carefully cultivated strongman cently has managed a series of works. That could help allevi-
image and raised questions hits on oil refineries across  ISIS sees enemies to Islam ate strains but also create un-
about the ability of the au- Russia, disrupting production. all across the globe......... A6 Please turn to page A2
INSIDE He Left Family and Career,
Driven by Voices in His Head
Mental illness turned a lawyer’s brilliant mind against him
BY JULIE WERNAU
As a teenager, Robert Dart fancied him-
whom everybody called Rob, married a
classmate at the University of Chicago Law
School in 2007. He had a son and lived as a
PERSONAL JOURNAL self a Renaissance man, and he was indeed successful lawyer and family man in South-
Some Americans exceptional by nearly every measure: co- ern California.
captain of his high-school football and track Rob was 35 years old when the voices
quitting their jobs are teams, co-president of the academic club, started. His marriage had unraveled, and he
choosing less work for science-fair prize winner, literary awards. looked to his family for help. He returned
less money. A12 “He was an easy child,” said his mother, home to Vienna, Va., convalescing from psy-
Sherry Dart. “He always found a way.” Dart, Please turn to page A10
‘You Can’t Do That!’ Children
Of Lawmakers Step Up for TikTok
i i i
Moms and dads of Congress get an earful
from their own teens and tweens
#1 Cloud
BY NATALIE ANDREWS contend with in-house critics.
Communications
“My kids are really tough
As members of Congress bargainers, they’re not quick Powered by AI
consider a crackdown on Tik- to accept my arguments,” says
Tok, many have faced lobby- Sen. Todd Young (R., Ind.),
ing from some of their most who has four teenagers at
vocal constituents: their kids. home. (Young wants TikTok to
“She was initially up in separate from China, but
arms about the whole doesn’t like that the
thing, ‘you can’t do House bill mentions
that,’” says Rep. TikTok by name.)
Josh Gottheimer, Across the U.S.,
(D., N.J.) of his most teenagers don’t
daughter. follow the daily ins
The 14-year-old and outs of Congress,
was worried her and that generally
friends would be even goes for children
mad about her dad’s ‘Mom, no!’ of lawmakers. Sure,
actions. He voted elected officials try to
with the majority of the keep their kids up on what
House this month to force Tik- mom or dad is doing in Wash-
Tok to divest from its Chi- ington, but let’s face it, a sub- Worldwide subscribers
nese-controlled parent Byte- committee-oversight markup + seats for 2020–2023
dance or be banned in the U.S. isn’t the most scintillating Source: Synergy Research Group
The matter has moved over event in a teen’s day. UC Market Tracker 2020–2023
to senators—who also have to Please turn to page A10
 For personal, non-commercial use only. Do not edit, alter or reproduce. For commercial reproduction or distribution, contact Dow Jones Reprints & Licensing at (800) 843-0008 or www.djreprints.com.

A2 | Monday, March 25, 2024 * * THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

U.S. NEWS
U.S.WATCH NEW JERSEY
First Lady Drops
NEW YORK
Mayor Cancels Threats Against
PENNSYLVANIA

Bid for Senate Mexico Border Trip Drag Story Hour

New Jersey’s first lady
Tammy Murphy suspended her
bid Sunday for the U.S. Senate
seat held by embattled Demo-
crat Robert Menendez, who
faces a public-corruption trial.
In a video, Murphy said
staying in the Democratic pri-
mary race would require “a
very divisive and negative cam-
paign,” which she isn’t willing
to do.
Murphy’s decision likely im-
proves the chances of U.S. Rep.
Andy Kim, who has been pick-
ing up momentum ahead of
SHANE SROGI/ZUMA PRESS
New York City’s mayor A scheduled “Drag Queen
nixed a planned Sunday trip Story Hour” at a Pennsylva-
to the U.S.-Mexico border nia library that had drawn
over security concerns. opposition was canceled Sat-
Mayor Eric Adams was urday after a suspicious
slated to depart Saturday package was found in the
night to visit Brownsville and building and two blocks were
McAllen, Texas. The Democrat evacuated after threats were
was expected to meet with reported, authorities said.
U.S. immigration leaders as Police evacuated the Lan-
his city struggles to house caster Public Library after the
new migrants seeking asylum. package was found. A state
But Adams spokesperson police bomb squad cleared
Amaris Cockfield said the U.S. the library, but police said
State Department flagged “additional reported threats”
safety concerns at one of the were still being investigated.

the party’s primary on June 4.
Menendez is charged along-
side his spouse, Nadine Me-
nendez, and three businessmen
in an alleged bribery scheme.
All five have pleaded not
UNBEARABLY CUTE: Two-year-old bears Juniper and Fern celebrated World Bear Day with extra guilty.
enrichments at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle. The bears were rescued after being orphaned. —Ginger Adams Otis
mayor’s planned stops in Lancaster Pride, a nonprofit,
Mexico, prompting his office posted a notice that the “Drag
to postpone the trip. Adams Story Hour with Miss Amie”
had been invited by Sister had been canceled, saying “the
Norma Pimentel, executive di- safety and well-being of our
rector of Catholic Charities of community are of utmost im-
the Rio Grande. portance to us.”
—Associated Press —Associated Press

Treasury Gross issuance of

U.S. Treasurys, quarterly
U.S. Treasury debt outstanding* Foreign holdings of U.S. debt as share of
total outstanding
have steadily bought Trea-
surys, a strong dollar and
growing supply of high-quality

Issuance $7 trillion

6
SINCE COVID $25 trillion

Bonds
35%

30
bonds elsewhere could slow
purchases. Foreign holdings
have declined below one-quar-

Surges 5
Bonds
Notes
20
Notes
25
ter of outstanding debt.
Disruptions in markets tied
to government debt exacer-
Bills bated both Lehman Brothers’
Continued from Page One 15 collapse and the March 2020
4 20
foreseen consequences, such market panic. Fed Chair Je-
as the cash shortages in 2019 rome Powell said last week
and 2020 that snarled trading 3
10
15 the central bank wanted to
and boosted interest rates. avoid interventions such as
“None of these regulations 2 10 the one required by the 2019

.
solves the mounting pile of Bills surge in overnight rates.
Treasury debt,” said Steven 5 “Fed policymakers want to

ly
Kelly, associate director of re- 1 5 avoid another episode like
search at the Yale Program on Other 2019—it’s seared in their
Financial Stability. 0 0 0 brains,” said Nate Wuerffel,
When the government
doesn’t take in enough from
taxes to fund its spending, the
Treasury Department issues
2000 ’05

Net purchases of U.S. Treasurys,

’10
on
’15 ’20 ’23 2005

7%
’10 ’15 ’20 1970 ’80 ’90

Average interest rate on

2000 ’10 ’20
head of market structure at
BNY Mellon.
Even a one-day surge in
funding costs can cause an in-
bonds to fill the gap. The quarterly, 2000–24 Treasurys held by the public stitution to miss payments or
us ,

6
agency raised a net $2.4 tril- be short on cash, which could
l

$6 trillion 5 Bills
lion last year to finance the lead to defaults, he said.
e
al a

MONEY-MARKET FEDERAL
deficit, taking into account FUNDS RESERVE
4 The Fed set up backstops
what it had to sell to repay 3 Total during the pandemic to absorb
holders of maturing debt. potential market stress. But
ci on

Covid-19 onset Easing 2

The Treasury market has 4 impending bank regulations
grown more than 60% to 1 could make capital scarcer
$27 trillion since the end of 0 among lenders. And the SEC is
2019. It is about sixfold larger erecting new safeguards.
2001 ’05 ’10 ’15 ’20 ’24
than before the 2008-09 fi- Higher rates Those include forcing more
er s

2
nancial crisis. trades tied to Treasurys
HOUSEHOLDS† FOREIGN BANKING
“Running a nearly $2 tril- INVESTORS INSTITUTIONS
through a central clearing-
m er

lion deficit during a peacetime house.

economic expansion—that’s a Josh Frost, the Treasury
lot of bonds for the market to 0 Department’s assistant secre-
absorb,” said Stephen Miran, tary for financial markets,
an adjunct fellow at the con- said regulators aim to improve
m rp

servative Manhattan Institute Tightening both daily conditions and re-

and a former Treasury senior silience. “We want to mini-
–2
adviser who assisted with the mize the impact on markets
Covid-19 response. when a shock comes,” he said.
The Congressional Budget 2000 ’10 ’20 2000 ’20 2000 ’20 2000 ’20 2000 ’20 Some said there is a work-
co Fo

Office anticipates government around to Treasury market

*Marketable debt only
spending that continues to †Include hedge funds and nonprofit organizations
concerns.
climb in the coming years, Sources: Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (gross issuance); Treasury Department (debt outstanding, interest rate); Federal Reserve (foreign holdings, net purchases) The International Swaps
with an aging population rais- and Derivatives Association
ing the cost of programs such standing, above the recom- Treasurys remains solid: ulations. Hedge funds, money- accumulated in its efforts to recently asked the Fed to re-
as Social Security and Medi- mended 20% limit set by the fewer alternatives. Many com- market funds and foreign in- prop up the economy. But at vive a pandemic-era policy. It
care. Rising interest costs borrowing committee that ad- panies issued long-term bonds vestors are now the U.S.’s least one popular trade involv- would allow banks to exclude
could also boost issuance. vises the government. when the pandemic sent rates primary financiers. Money- ing Treasurys and Treasury Treasurys and deposits held at
Mounting bond sales Since then, demand has near zero, then slowed bor- market funds are enjoying re- futures has regulators on the central bank from a regu-
sparked market turmoil last been more than adequate. In- rowing when the Fed started cord inflows and scooping up edge. New rules from the Se- latory buffer that forces banks
fall, prompting the Treasury vestors still aren’t requiring raising them. The market for short-term Treasurys in bulk. curities and Exchange Com- to hold capital as a percentage
to shift toward selling more extra compensation to hold mortgage-backed securities is Hedge funds—lumped in mission are likely to reduce its of loans and other assets. That
short-term debt. The amount longer-term Treasurys. The nearly frozen. with households in Fed data— profitability—the hedge-fund would allow banks to finance
n-

of bills—those with maturities so-called term premium is ac- Banks have pared their have mostly filled the gap left industry is suing, and funds more U.S. debt and open up
of one year or shorter—has tually negative. buying of Treasurys for years, by the central bank, which is are already pulling back. their balance sheets when
risen to 22.4% of debt out- One reason demand for constrained by postcrisis reg- paring its holdings of bonds While foreign investors markets become strained.
no

Netflix’s company—might have turned

out to be an advantage, making
it easier to split up responsibil-
tling rights, attendees said.
They got on the same page,
and Netflix reached a $5 bil-
Netflix’s stock performance
since 2022
$700 Greg Peters joins
Net new Netflix subscribers,
quarterly
15 million
or actors involved.
Netflix had a row on the
home screen that highlighted

Odd Couple ities harmoniously.

Netflix is unique among the
titans of entertainment in that,
lion, 10-year deal.
Sarandos has raised ques-
tions about some of Peters’s 600
Ted Sarandos as
co-CEO
12
new releases, but it was tai-
lored to each user’s viewing
patterns by Netflix’s algorithm.

Co-CEOs from its inception, it was both

a tech company and an enter-
tainment company. The engi-
initiatives, including what the
long-term plan is for Netflix’s
foray into gaming, according to 500 9
When the comedy “Friends
from College” made its debut
on Netflix, Fred Savage, who
neers who made streaming people familiar with the situa- starred in the show, and Nicho-
Continued from Page One possible were celebrated as tion, while Peters has ques- 400 6 las Stoller, one of its creators,
drop in subscribers shook Wall much as the people behind the tioned Netflix’s spending on complained to Sarandos’s team
Street’s faith in its dominance programming strategy. certain movies and shows. about not being able to find
in streaming. Together, they are starting 300 3 the show.
The co-CEO model is out of to put their stamp on Netflix’s It was one of several inci-
vogue. The conventional wis- Wrestling matches culture, with internal discus- 200 0 dents that Sarandos and his
dom is that the structure There have been some areas sions under way to re-examine team had to manage with tal-
leads to confusion over who of friction. At a meeting for core principles such as em- ent and would raise with Pe-
makes the big decisions and company executives in Los An- ployee freedom, given that the 100 -3 ters’s team, which resisted
blurs accountability. geles earlier this month, Peters company is maturing and fac- 2022 ’23 ’24 2021 ’22 ’ 23 overriding the algorithm. Even-
At Netflix, that Peters and acknowledged that the two ing new business pressures. Sources: FactSet (share price); the company (subscribers) tually, the two sides compro-
Sarandos are polar opposites— men disagreed over whether to On investor calls, Peters and mised by testing out the “Ted
from different wings of the strike a deal for WWE wres- Sarandos generally stick to and more expensive over time “bit”—a unit of information in Row,” which showed all house-
their own expertise, passing to license movies and shows computing. At a dinner with holds the same new releases—
CORRECTIONS  AMPLIFICATIONS the baton between them.
Through a spokeswoman,
from Hollywood competitors.
Sarandos spends time out
colleagues, he asked the
waiter to put the wine in a
no matter what the Netflix bot
wanted. Netflix discontinued it
Readers can alert The Wall Street Journal to any errors in news articles by Peters and Sarandos declined of the office schmoozing with blender because he thought it after finding that it didn’t im-
emailing wsjcontact@wsj.com or by calling 888-410-2667.
to be interviewed. Peters told Hollywood A-listers, some- hadn’t opened enough. prove user engagement.
tech site Stratechery in Janu- times inviting them to his Netflix co-founder Reed Even before Hastings pre-
ary that while Netflix doesn’t home. He once vacationed on Hastings, who was CEO for pared to step down as CEO and
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL need to have co-CEOs to suc- a private island in French most of Netflix’s existence, told elevate Peters into the role of
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ceed, it is well-suited for the Polynesia with Leonardo Di- colleagues that Peters and Sa- co-CEO alongside Sarandos, he
Editorial and publication headquarters: 1211 Avenue of the Americas, New York, N.Y. 10036 model. “There’s these two very Caprio and counts stand-up randos each had potential to brought in an executive ad-
Published daily except Sundays and general legal holidays. deep, very important centers of comedians, including Dave succeed him and began giving viser, Marc Feigen, for succes-
Periodicals postage paid at New York, N.Y., and other mailing offices. expertise, and we get to have a Chappelle and Jerry Seinfeld, each more responsibility. sion-planning help.
Postmaster: Send address changes to The Wall Street Journal,
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CEO who’s hopefully, I’ll say among his friends. In the setup that was an-
with a little bit of humility, Peters, 53 years old, is an nounced in early 2023, content,
All Advertising published in The Wall Street Journal is subject to the applicable rate card, copies of which are
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York, N.Y. 10036. The Journal reserves the right not to accept an advertiser’s order. Only publication of an
advertisement shall constitute final acceptance of the advertiser’s order. had ambitions to be an astro- As Sarandos and Peters Sarandos, while product, HR,
naut and has a degree in phys- moved up the ladder, there technology, advertising and
Letters to the Editor: Fax: 212-416-2891; email: wsj.ltrs@wsj.com
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Different strokes ics and astronomy from Yale. were constant tensions be- gaming went to Peters.
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By phone: 1-800-JOURNAL (1-800-568-7625)
Sarandos, a community col- He joined Netflix in 2008. tween their two groups: prod- The business results have
Reprints & licensing: By email: customreprints@dowjones.com | By phone: 1-800-843-0008
lege dropout, joined Netflix in Peters is at home discuss- uct and content. been strong: Netflix last year
WSJ back issues and framed pages: wsjshop.com 2000. As chief content officer, ing the science behind just At times, Sarandos and his increased the number of sub-
Our newspapers are 100% sourced from sustainably certified mills. he had the foresight to create about anything. He once got team would want a particular scribers about 13% to more
the streamer’s original pro- into a debate with Neil Hunt, show or movie to be high- than 260 million globally.
GOT A TIP FOR US? SUBMIT IT AT WSJ.COM/TIPS gramming strategy, recogniz- Netflix’s former head of prod- lighted on the Netflix home —Sarah Krouse
ing that it would get harder uct, about the weight of a screen to appease the creators contributed to this article.
 For personal, non-commercial use only. Do not edit, alter or reproduce. For commercial reproduction or distribution, contact Dow Jones Reprints & Licensing at (800) 843-0008 or www.djreprints.com.

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Monday, March 25, 2024 | A3

U.S. NEWS

High Court Pulled Back Into Abortion Battle

The Supreme Court on are in the mail it’s pretty hard
Tuesday will consider whether to track where they go and
to roll back the availability of where they end up,” said Ra-
the abortion pill known as chel Rebouché, the dean of
mifepristone as women in- Temple University’s law school.
creasingly rely on medication At issue in Tuesday’s case
is whether the Food and Drug
By Laura Kusisto, Administration acted reason-
Jess Bravin ably in adopting rules that
and Liz Essley Whyte have made obtaining mifepris-
tone easier since 2016.
to end unwanted pregnancies. Antiabortion groups have
The case has forced the spent years fighting the pill’s
court back into the abortion approval, which came in 2000,
thicket after its decision two and later decisions lifting dis-
years ago in Dobbs v. Jackson pensing restrictions. But the
Women’s Health Organization current litigation, which be-
eliminated federal protections gan in November 2022, caught
for the procedure. Roughly fire last year when a conser-
one-third of states have since vative federal judge in Ama-
banned many or most abor- rillo, Texas, suspended the pill
tions, but mifepristone is entirely. The judge found the
more readily available than FDA’s approval process was
ever, especially by mail, and flawed from the get-go and
overall abortions haven’t de- said the agency didn’t suffi-
clined. Nearly two-thirds are ciently study the pill’s safety.
medication abortions. This has Months later, a U.S. appeals
bedeviled Republican politi- court softened that ruling
cians and disappointed anti- considerably, but concluded
abortion groups. the FDA overstepped in 2016
“That model really poses a and 2021 when it made the pill
threat to the antiabortion easier to obtain. The ruling
movement because once pills rolled back changes that ex-
tended the pill’s use for preg- are very, very worried about
nancies up to about 10 weeks the idea that the FDA could be
and allowed it to be adminis- second-guessed in the courts
tered without an in-person based on the say-so of any E.R.
visit to a medical provider. doctor anywhere,” she said.
Under an April 2023 Su- The high court’s ruling, ex-
preme Court order, the roll- pected by July, could shake up
backs are on hold while a final November political races up
ruling is pending. Justices and down the ballot. Abortion
Samuel Alito, who wrote the has proved to be a key issue
Dobbs opinion, post-Dobbs.
and Clarence More than half
Thomas said the states have
they would Antiabortion legal access to
have let them groups have abortion. But if
stand. pill access is re-
Elizabeth spent years stricted, abor-
Sepper, a law tions will be
professor at the
fighting the more difficult
University of pill’s approval. to obtain across
Texas, said the nation.
Tuesday’s case The current
could show suit, filed by
how far the court’s conserva- Alliance Defending Freedom, a
tive majority, critical of regu- Christian conservative advo-
latory agencies, is willing to cacy group, on behalf of anti-
let litigation rather than rule- abortion doctors and medical
making shape policy. associations, alleges the FDA
When it comes to expertise, flouted its legal obligation to
“the Food and Drug Adminis- ensure patient safety. Anti-
tration is really the gold stan- abortion groups have asserted
dard,” she said. Drugmakers are that the pill can pose dangers,
backing the regulators. “They such as severe hemorrhage
and infection, and that they
are often undercounted be-
cause the FDA isn’t tracking
serious, nonfatal side effects.
“What this case is really
about is common-sense safe-
guards,” said Donna Harrison,
director of research for the
American Association of Pro-
Life Obstetricians and Gyne-
cologists.
Physicians’ groups have
said that serious side effects
occur in less than 1% of pa-
tients. A legal brief from the
FDA said that as of December
2022, 32 deaths had been re-
ported among nearly six mil-
lion women who have taken
mifepristone, and some of
those had obvious alternative
causes, such as drug overdose.
U.S. Solicitor General Eliza-
beth Prelogar, representing the
FDA, said in the brief that until
this case no court had ever “re-
stricted access to an FDA ap-
proved drug by second-guess-
ing FDA’s expert judgment
about the conditions required
to assure that drug’s safe use.”
It is possible the court
could decide the case without
having to weigh in on the FDA
at all. Prelogar argues none of
the plaintiffs have a proper
basis to sue, because it is only
speculation that an emer-
gency-room doctor opposed to
abortion may one day be
forced to treat a mifepristone
patient facing complications.
Danco Laboratories, the
drug’s brand manufacturer,
requested the 2016 changes
after states started passing
laws limiting a common prac-
tice of doctors providing the
drug off-label later in preg-
nancy. Danco, which is also in-
volved in the litigation, said it
worked for about six years to
update the drug’s label for ex-
panded use, at a price tag
north of $1 million.
In 2023, the FDA said mife-
pristone could be dispensed
via specially certified bricks-
and-mortar pharmacies,
rather than by certified doc-
tors or mail-order pharmacies,
opening up another avenue for
women to obtain the pills.
That change that also could be
undone if the Supreme Court
rules for the challengers.

Patient Shows Off

Life Changes Since

.
His Brain Implant

ly
BY ALEXA CORSE

Neuralink’s first patient is

details, offering more hope
that people with quadriplegia
or other significant movement
on
stepping into the spotlight. impairment movement could
us ,

Noland Arbaugh, a 29-year- gain more independence

l

old diving-accident victim and through such new technolo-

e
al a

quadriplegic from Arizona, gies.

gave his most extensive ac- Arbaugh said he had never
count yet of his experience as heard of Neuralink six months
ci on

the first person to receive ago. Then a friend called and

Neuralink’s brain-computer told him Neuralink was look-
implant. ing for its first trial partici-
Arbaugh spoke glowingly pant. His friend helped him fill
about his experience—and out an application online, Ar-
er s

cracked jokes—during a nearly baugh said, though misspell-

hourlong video posted to X on ing his name.
m er

Friday, which showed him When Neuralink got the ap- NEURALINK

speaking to Neuralink employ- plication and invited him to be

ees during a visit to the com- interviewed, Arbaugh said, he
pany’s headquarters a few tried to stand out by signing Noland Arbaugh discussed subjects from playing videogames via his thoughts to what advice he would give future patients.
weeks ago. He discussed sub- up for the earliest possible
m rp

jects from playing videogames time slot.
using only his thoughts to While he was excited, the
what advice he would give fu- decision still wasn’t easy.
ture patients. “I definitely took time to
“What you all are doing is step back and evaluate all of
co Fo
much longer recovery time,
and they kicked me out of the
hospital like a day later.”
Arbaugh also said he played
a joke on his mom. When she
Moving a computer cursor
isn’t a major technical leap for
brain-computer interfaces. An
older brain chip first im-
planted in a human in 2004
that it has implanted inside
the jugular vein atop a pa-
tient’s brain.
Arbaugh said he also played
chess and stayed up late for
asked what advice he would
give to a future patient.
Arbaugh replied that he
had to sign forms warning
him that things could go

just going to change the the downsides that I could be
world,” he said. “It’s going to bringing to my family,” he
change how people like me are said. “Not just the health
able to just live their lives.” downsides—things that could
In January, Elon Musk re- have happened during surgery
vealed that his company Neu- or afterwards—but everything
ralink had implanted its brain that comes with this, like any
chip in a human for the first notoriety.”
time. The patient’s identity Arbaugh said he was sur-
had been kept from the public prised how fast Neuralink
until Wednesday, when Ar- moved, saying it took about
baugh appeared in a nine-min- five months from application
ute video streamed on X. to surgery.
n-
walked in after the surgery, he
pretended not to know her for
a couple seconds. “She was
not happy,” he said.
The presentation showed
video clips of Arbaugh from
the month after his surgery.
One clip, for example, showed
him and his dad playing “Ma-
rio Kart.”
A Neuralink employee said
during the video that he had
been spending long days at
also helped a paralyzed person
move a cursor with only
thoughts.
But the older chip must be
attached to a device outside
the brain to transmit data, re-
quiring wires protruding
through the skin. Neuralink’s
device transmits data wire-
lessly.
Neuralink competes with a
handful of other brain-com-
puter interface companies, in-
hours playing the videogame
“Civilization VI.” Another
video clip showed Arbaugh us-
ing the device while sitting by
a pool.
Arbaugh spoke about his
life since his diving accident
eight years ago, including say-
ing he sometimes suffers
spasms.
He said he has tried other
assistive technologies and
they haven’t helped him as
wrong with the trial, but he
wasn’t discouraged. “I’ve
glimpsed what the possibili-
ties are, and now it’s hard to
live any other way,” he said.
“So I would say to the next
patient, the next candidate,
just to enjoy it as much as
possible.”
“Sure, we’re still working
out the kinks,” he said later,
without elaborating. “But once
we get this figured out, there’s

The slickly produced video “Brain surgery was easy,” Arbaugh’s home working with cluding Synchron, which has much as Neuralink’s device. no reason for it not to be out
released Friday revealed new he quipped. “I was expecting a him. developed a stent-like device One Neuralink employee there.”
no

Baltimore Orioles Owner Fought for Victims

BY GINGER ADAMS OTIS brother and mother conspired
to push him out of the family
Baltimore Orioles owner Pe- fortune, including a stake in
ter Angelos, a prominent law- the Orioles.
yer who won huge judgments Georgia Angelos later filed a
representing asbestos victims suit of her own, accusing Louis
and used his fortune to buy his Angelos of wrongfully taking
hometown baseball team, died control of his father’s law firm.
Saturday. He was 94. Both parties dropped their
Angelos had been ailing lawsuits in early 2023.
from dementia in recent years. The deal John Angelos
His family an- reached with Rubenstein val-
OBITUARY nounced his ued the Orioles at $1.725 bil-
PETER death in a lion—about 10 times what Pe-
ANGELOS statement re- ter Angelos and his group of
1929-2024 leased by the investors paid for it in 1993.
Orioles that Rubenstein said in a state-
thanked the ment Saturday that Angelos
caregivers who had tended to had made an indelible mark in
KENNETH K. LAM/BALTIMORE SUN/ZUMA PRESS

him as his health deteriorated. business and in baseball dur-

His death came as the family, ing his lifetime.
which has run the Orioles for “The city of Baltimore owes TEUTONIA IV BLUE MOON
more than three decades, is in him a debt of gratitude for his The name says it all: the Teutonia IV BlueMoon not
the process of selling the team. stewardship of the Orioles only has a midnight blue dial, but is also the second
Angelos’ son, John Angelos, an- across three decades and for Teutonia with a moon phase display.
nounced the sale of a control- positioning the team for great
ling stake in the team earlier success,” Rubenstein said on X.
this year to a group of investors MLB Commissioner Rob For more information please contact:
led by billionaire David Ruben- Manfred said Angelos, who
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stein, co-founder of private-eq- came from working-class
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wanted his family to sell the hometown and “deeply appre- NY | Joseph Gann Jewelers - Boston, MA | Little Treasury
team upon his death. John An- law firm was also involved in a should sell the Orioles so that ciated” owning the Orioles. Jewelers - Gambrills, MD | Orlando Watch Company -
gelos officially took over as lawsuit by the state of Mary- his wife, Georgia, “could enjoy “I will always remember his Winter Park, FL | State Street Jewelers - Greensboro, NC |
Major League Baseball’s “con- land against tobacco companies the great wealth they had personal support when I was The Watch & Jewelry Hospital - Port St. Lucie, FL |
trol person” of the Orioles that yielded large returns for amassed together.” first elected to this role in his
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from his father in 2020, giving the firm. He led a group of in- As his health declined, the home city in 2014. On behalf
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Peter Angelos was a highly in 1993 for $173 million. ramped up, resulting in a pub- send my condolences to Pe-
successful personal-injury at- Court filings from 2022 re- lic struggle for power among ter’s wife, Georgia, their sons Muhle Glashutte USA · 727-896-4278
torney who represented thou- vealed that before his health the heirs. In June 2022, Ange- John and Louis, and the entire www.muhleglashutteusa.us
sands of workers in asbestos-re- problems, Peter Angelos be- los’ younger son, Louis, filed a Angelos family,” the commis-
lated compensation claims. His lieved his surviving heirs lawsuit alleging that his sioner said.
 For personal, non-commercial use only. Do not edit, alter or reproduce. For commercial reproduction or distribution, contact Dow Jones Reprints & Licensing at (800) 843-0008 or www.djreprints.com.
A4 | Monday, March 25, 2024
Democrats Flex Leverage in GOP House
Speaker has needed
a bipartisan coalition
to pass key bills amid
Republican infighting
WASHINGTON—When Re-
publicans won control of the
House in November 2022, the
big question was whether they
would be able to govern with
By Lindsay Wise,
Anthony DeBarros,
Siobhan Hughes
and Kara Dapena
one of the smallest majorities
in history. The answer so far
is no, at least not by them-
selves—and that has put their
leaders in a perilous bind.
Today the House, where Re-
publicans have a 218-213 mar-
gin, is functioning more like
an informal coalition govern-
ment than a GOP-run cham-
ber, with Speaker Mike John-
son (R., La.) buffeted by
warring factions within his
own party and dependent on
Democrats to pass major leg-
islation, including Friday’s
vote on a $1.2 trillion govern-
ment funding measure.
The bill, which was ap-
proved by the Senate and
signed by President Biden,
passed the House under a sus-
pension of the rules, which
Johnson and ousted predeces-
sor Kevin McCarthy turned to
as a way to get around inter-
nal GOP objections. The tactic
requires a two-thirds superm-
ajority, which has empowered
House Democrats to flex their
muscles. That dynamic has
embittered some Republicans,
with Rep. Marjorie Taylor
Greene (R., Ga.) taking an ini-
tial step Friday to try to re-
move Johnson as leader.
“The reality is that on many
pieces of legislation, you need
Republicans and Democrats to
get it across the line,” Johnson
said. “That’s the reality of the
modern Congress, and we
work with what we have.”
The state of play both lim-
its what kinds of legislation
can be passed and puts Re-
publicans’ agenda at the
mercy of their political oppo-
nents. The coalition could be
called into action again soon,
when the House is expected to
take on legislation funding
Ukraine and Israel, which has
staunch opposition from many
Republicans.
De facto coalition
A Wall Street Journal anal-
ysis of six major government-
funding bills signed into law
during this Congress reveals
the key components of this de
facto coalition—based on ide-
ology, relative electoral domi-
nance in their districts and
other factors. The group has
remained largely stable over
the half-dozen votes, including
the one Friday, needed to keep
the government open.
The coalition’s largest vot-
no
ing bloc by far is made up of
House Democrats.
There are 168 Democrats
Political Cross-Currents Cause Confusion at the Border
BY MICHELLE HACKMAN
AND TARINI PARTI
WASHINGTON—There has
never been more consensus
regarding the need for stricter
enforcement policies at the
southern border. But every re-
cent effort to make that hap-
pen—from a bipartisan Senate
border bill to an effort by
Texas to take immigration into
its own hands—has collapsed
or become stuck.
The crisis has grown so
acute, and touched so many
aspects of American life, that
an unprecedented percentage
of voters rate immigration as
their top issue—and polling
shows they crave almost any
solution. The failure of gov-
ernment officials to find a
lasting solution has left in
place a chaotic status quo that
is threatening everything from
President Biden’s re-election
chances to the budgets of big
cities, including New York.
Everyone from Biden to
Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott to
Democratic mayors such as
New York City’s Eric Adams
agrees the situation is unten-
able. But partisan and ideolog-
ical divides are getting in the
way:
• Republican-led states say
they are tired of waiting for
Average share of votes provided by each party
On must-pass spending bills1
37% from
Republicans Democrats
Yea votes
The House factions5
On must-pass spending bills1
In the coalition
Voted yea
on all six bills
72 Republicans
168 Democrats
42 votes the coalition needed
on average to get over two-thirds
of House votes
1
Six major government-funding bills signed into law this Congress 2Republicans won their districts with at least 60% of the vote or were uncontested in 2022 3Republicans won their districts with less
than 60% of the vote in 2022 4Includes members who missed votes. 5Shows House members as of Friday vote, before the departure of Rep. Ken Buck (R., Colo.) 6House members may belong to more
than one group. Membership as of early March. Includes past and present House members of the 118th Congress.
Sources: U.S. House of Representatives (House votes); AP (2022 district votes); the House GOP, caucuses and committees (memberships); Cook Political Report (swing districts); LegiStorm and staff reports
(Freedom Caucus)
and 72 Republicans who have
voted yes on all of the bills.
There are 55 Republicans who
voted against all six measures.
Other Republicans have sup-
ported some bills but not oth-
ers, sometimes providing the
support needed to get over
er s
the two-thirds threshold—
roughly 290 votes if all mem-
m er
bers are present. Johnson
himself voted no on the first
of the bills but has been a yes
since becoming speaker.
Additionally, some mem-
m rp
bers always sided with or
against the coalition when
they were present but missed
one or more votes.
On average, the six bills
co Fo
passed 322-102, with Demo-
crats accounting for 204 of
the yes votes.
Republicans provided 37%
of the yes votes on average for
the six bills, with support
from members of the pro-
business Main Street Caucus,
as well as GOP lawmakers rep-
resenting districts that Biden
won and centrists such as
members of the Republican
Governance Group. GOP lead-
n-
ers and appropriations sub-
committee chairs—who craft
the spending bills—also have
largely voted for the biparti-
san spending bills. Members
of the House Freedom Caucus
form the core of the Republi-
Migrants boarded a Homeland Security transport bus in El Paso, Texas, last week.
tougher border enforcement
from a Democratic administra-
tion, which in turn doesn’t
want to yield a federal respon-
sibility to the states.
• Some Republican lawmak-
ers don’t want to defy Donald
Trump, the presumptive GOP
presidential nominee, by hand-
ing Biden a legislative win
with a border deal. Congress
attempted earlier this year to
pass a bipartisan immigration
P W L C 10 11 12
63% from 95% from
Republicans
Nay votes
Always opposed
Voted nay
on all six bills
55
Republicans
Mixed support
Rest of members4
92
Republicans
45
Democrats
82 voted with the
coalition on average
each bill
on
us ,
l
e
al a
can bloc that has largely
spurned these bills.
“On the big issues of the
ci on
day where it counts the most,
Democrats are in control,”
said Sarah Binder, a professor
of political science at George
Washington University.
For instance, in the most
recent vote, supporters in-
cluded 185 of 213 Democrats;
28 of 47 members of the GOP’s
governing wing, which in-
cludes elected leadership,
rules committee members,
committee chairs and the
powerful leaders of appropria-
tions subcommittees; 59 of 76
Republican members of the
Main Street Caucus; and 31 of
42 members of the Republican
Governance Group.
None of the known mem-
bers of the Freedom Caucus,
which doesn’t disclose an offi-
cial list of its members, voted
in favor. Among defense
hawks—defined as members
of committees on House
Armed Services, Intelligence,
Foreign Affairs and Veterans
Affairs—31 of 65 Republicans
voted in favor.
House Minority Leader
Hakeem Jeffries (D., N.Y.) said
that Democrats “have repeat-
edly made clear” that they
will find common ground with
Republicans “whenever and
wherever possible in order to
compromise measure aimed at
deterring illegal crossings—
and by implication take away
the incentive for states such
as Texas to act on their own
or sue. But that measure fell
apart when Trump urged Re-
publicans to vote against it,
and nearly all Republican sen-
ators fell in line within hours.
• Biden has considered tak-
ing broad executive action on
immigration but faces opposi-
H T G K R F A M 1 2 3 4 5 6
U.S. NEWS
Average of how Republicans voted
On must-pass spending bills1
5% from 47% yea
Democrats
In more
conservative
districts2
Average of how Republicans in different groups voted6
On must-pass spending bills1
Yea Nay or didn’t vote
Centrists
The Main Street Caucus, Problem
Solvers Caucus, Republican
Governance Group and
Republicans who represent
swing districts Biden won in 2020
70 members
voted yea
on average
(78% of group)
Hawks
Members of committees on
House Armed Services,
Intelligence, Foreign Affairs
and Veterans Affairs
35 members
(54% of group)
take care of the business of
the American people.”
Aside from spending bills,
Democrats on average sup-
plied about half of the yes
votes for a major tax measure;
legislation reauthorizing the
Federal Aviation Administra-
tion; the annual defense-pol-
icy bill; and a proposal that
would ban TikTok from oper-
ating in the U.S. or force a
sale. Jeffries also has sug-
gested that some Democrats
would be willing to save John-
son from being ousted by
members of his own party
over allowing a vote on
Ukraine aid. But he has made
no public promises.
Greene filed a motion Fri-
day to remove Johnson as
speaker, though she has yet to
force a vote on the House floor.
More Senate-like
The transformation of the
House into something more like
the Senate—where bipartisan
support is needed to advance
most bills—has its roots in the
rise of the Freedom Caucus
nearly a decade ago.
The weaponization of House
procedures reached new levels
during the current Congress,
with the party’s thin margin al-
lowing any small number of
members to block their own
tion from liberals who don’t
want him to cave to Republi-
can demands, and from law-
yers in his administration who
doubt the legality of such
moves.
Andrew Selee, president of
the Migration Policy Institute,
a nonpartisan think tank in
Washington, said that after
decades of inaction by Con-
gress and inconsistent efforts
by successive administrations,
7 8 9 O I X X THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
Nay or 68% yea Nay or
didn’t vote didn’t vote
In less
conservative
districts3
Governing wing
GOP elected leadership,
committee chairs, Rules
Committee members,
appropriations
subcommittee chairs
32 members
(68% of group)
The opposition
House Freedom Caucus and
Republicans who voted to
oust McCarthy
1 member
(3% of group)
ly
Kara Dapena/THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Republican leaders from pass-
ing legislation with a simple
majority.
Currently, Johnson can lose
no more than two Republicans
on any party-line vote if all
members show up.
Making matters harder, GOP
holdouts have blocked or
threatened to block what used
to be perfunctory party-line
procedural votes, called rules,
which allow bills to pass by
simple majority. That forces
Johnson to bring bills to the
floor by suspending those rules,
which in turn forces him to as-
semble a two-thirds majority to
pass anything.
Before last year, no rule vote
had failed in more than two de-
cades; so far in this Congress,
there have been six rule votes
blocked. The speaker has had to
cancel planned rule votes on
even more bills because of
threats from members in his
own conference to defeat them.
House Republican leader-
ship has had to suspend the
rules to pass every single
spending bill that has become
law so far in this Congress.
Democrats have provided the
majority of the votes, deliver-
ing more than 200 on all but
the most recent occasion. Re-
publicans provided no more
than 132 in any single vote.
“It’s a Potemkin speaker-
immigration enforcement has
become fragmented, with cit-
ies and states trying to come
up with their own regula-
tions.
Confusion regarding the
rules, Selee said, has played
into the hands of smugglers,
who use constantly shifting
policies to convince migrants
that it is advantageous to try
their luck at the border.
“Because there isn’t a clear
solution from the top, every-
one is trying to find their own
fixes,” he said. “But it is actu-
ally adding to the chaos.”
In February, roughly
140,000 migrants were ar-
JUSTIN HAMEL/REUTERS
rested crossing into the U.S. il-
legally, according to the latest
government figures. That is
well below December, when a
record 250,000 were arrested,
but up from January’s totals.
Meanwhile, the huge surge of
asylum seekers entering the
country over the past two
years has continued to have
ripple effects.
New York and Chicago,
which have laws requiring
them to offer shelter space to
anyone who is homeless, have
since started kicking migrants
out of their systems because
they have run out of space.
Denver, which has become a
new migrant destination this
ship,” Rep. Gerry Connolly (D.,
Va.) said of Johnson. “Can’t
pass rules, can’t pass bills, pull-
ing bills, losing votes,” Connolly
said. “You can’t control your
own caucus? I mean, what is it
you control?”
Many senior Republican law-
makers blame the Freedom
Caucus. Members of the group
started blocking rules last year
under McCarthy to protest the
spending agreement he had
struck with Democrats to raise
the debt ceiling.
“People should know better,”
complained Rep. Tom Cole (R.,
Okla.), chairman of the Rules
Committee, which is supposed
to act as the speaker’s gate-
keeper for legislation headed to
the floor. Of the dissidents, he
said, “They’re putting their in-
dividual goal or their individual
animus ahead of what’s good
for the team.”
But some conservative hard-
liners said their tactics merely
reveal that on certain issues
there is no major difference be-
tween the Republican and Dem-
ocratic leaders.
Rep. Chip Roy (R., Texas), a
leading member of the House
Freedom Caucus, said Johnson
suspends the rules as a way to
sideline the group’s members in
favor of a “left-of-center coali-
tion.”
The Journal analysis shows
the redder the districts, the
.
more likely Republicans are to
vote against these key spend-
ing bills. Among Republicans
who won their districts in
2022 with less than 60% of the
vote, more than two-thirds on
average voted in favor of the
six bills. But in districts where
Republicans ran uncontested
or won with 60% or more—a
category that includes about
three-fourths of Freedom Cau-
cus members—votes were
roughly split yea/nay.
Democrats benefit
All the fractures in the Re-
publican majority have made
Democrats more powerful.
As an appropriations sub-
committee chairman, Rep. Mike
Simpson (R., Idaho) typically
would wield leverage over
Democrats when the parties ne-
gotiated spending levels at the
Interior Department, which are
set by the panel he leads. But in
recent talks, Simpson found
himself beholden to Democrats.
“What we heard from the
other side was, ‘Hey, we’re
gonna bring 200 votes to the
table.…What are you going to
bring?’ ” Simpson said.
“It’s kind of like a blood-in-
the-water concept, when the
other side knows that we’re
struggling to get rules passed,
and that we’re fractured on
our side, it only emboldens
them,” said Rep. Steve Wom-
ack (R., Ark.), who is involved
in spending talks.
Some Republicans put an
optimistic spin on the situa-
tion. “I don’t think it’s neces-
sarily a bad thing to have
products that are, you know, a
function of compromise and
negotiation,” said Rep. Mike
Garcia (R., Calif.).
year after Texas started send-
ing buses there from the bor-
der, is dealing with sudden
holes in its public-education
and hospital budgets.
Texas, historically the state
where the most migrants have
crossed into the U.S., has re-
sponded assertively. It has
bused migrants to Democratic-
led cities across the country,
built a stretch of a state-
funded border wall and
thrown migrants in Texas
state jails for allegedly tres-
passing on private property.
Most recently, it passed a
law known as SB 4, which au-
thorizes the state to arrest mi-
grants on suspicion of cross-
ing the border illegally and
deport them back to Mexico,
setting up a direct challenge
to the federal government’s
purview over immigration.
That challenge played out in
dramatic fashion last week
when the Supreme Court gave
the green light for the law to
take effect, only for it to be
blocked again by a lower court
hours later.
Already, several other
states including Iowa, Kansas
and Oklahoma have passed or
considered similar bills that
could be allowed to take effect
if the Supreme Court rules in
Texas’ favor.
 For personal, non-commercial use only. Do not edit, alter or reproduce. For commercial reproduction or distribution, contact Dow Jones Reprints & Licensing at (800) 843-0008 or www.djreprints.com.

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Monday, March 25, 2024 | A5

U.S. NEWS

Ire Builds New England Residents

Dig Out After Snowstorm
At NBC Hardy souls across New icy road conditions.

On Hiring England were spending their

Sunday shoveling out after a
As the storm was winding
down, about 200,000 cus-

KRISTOPHER RADDER/BRATTLEBORO REFORMER/ASSOCIATED PRESS

major storm dumped more tomers were without power

Of RNC’s than 2 feet of snow in some

areas, causing multiple road
accidents, downing power
in Maine and an additional
80,000 or so were out in
New Hampshire.

Ex-Chief lines and leaving hundreds of

thousands across the North-
east without electricity.
As of daylight Sunday,
In Brattleboro, Vt., a man
braved the elements and
walked his dog, right, during
the snowstorm.
crews began assessing and Many areas saw totals of
BY JOE FLINT clearing damage to begin 8 to 12 inches of snow, but
AND ISABELLA SIMONETTI widespread power restoration there was a localized area
efforts. that had over 2 feet. Some of
NBC News’s Chuck Todd Police across the North- the highest totals exceeded
sharply criticized the news or- east reported hundreds of 30 inches in south central
ganization over its hiring of traffic accidents as cars spun Vermont.
former Republican National out and drivers grappled with —Associated Press
Committee Chairwoman
Ronna McDaniel, the latest
sign of the backlash within the
company over the high-profile
hire.
His remarks came after
MSNBC’s president, amid in-
ternal unrest, signaled to
staffers that McDaniel
wouldn’t appear on any of the
cable channel’s original pro-
THE PRATT FOUNDATION
IS HONORED TO SUPPORT
gramming, The Wall Street
Journal reported on Saturday.
“I think our bosses owe you

THE AMERICAN AUSTRALIAN ALLIANCE

an apology for putting you in
this situation,” Todd told Kris-
ten Welker on Sunday follow-
ing her interview of McDaniel
on “Meet the Press.”
“There’s a reason why
there’s a lot of journalists at
NBC News uncomfortable with

.
this, because many of our pro-
fessional dealings with the RNC

ly
over the last six years have
been met with gaslighting.”
Todd’s remarks followed
NBC News’s internal an-
nouncement on Friday that it
had hired McDaniel as a con-
tributor. In that internal
on
memo, the political chief, Car-
us ,

rie Budoff Brown, said McDan-

l

iel would contribute “across all

e
al a

NBC News platforms,” causing

turmoil among several of the
network’s on-air hosts and
ci on

staffers, people familiar with

the matter said. MSNBC is
part of the NBC News division.
Over the past few days,
Rashida Jones, MSNBC’s pres-
er s

ident, has told employees the

cable network has no plans to
m er

have McDaniel on the channel,

people familiar with the con-
versations said.
A number of MSNBC an-
chors and producers have
m rp

voiced concern internally

about McDaniel’s ties to for-
mer President Donald Trump
and the RNC’s role in his ef-
forts to challenge the 2020
co Fo

election results.
A representative for Mc-
Daniel didn’t return calls seek-
ing comment.
The tensions at NBC News
demonstrate how tricky it can
be for news networks to hire
former politicians and Wash-
ington insiders as contribu-
tors—a common practice.
While many hires provide
insights into the inner work-
ings of the government, there
n-

has been concern about the

revolving door between news
channels and politicos as well
as partisan politics that
no

creeps into analysis.

For MSNBC, besides the
risk of upsetting talent, there
is also concern that having
McDaniel on could alienate its
liberal audience.
MSNBC is currently the No.
2 cable news network, trailing
Fox News but ahead of CNN.
McDaniel has become a
lightning rod in Republican
political circles.
While she remained close
with Trump longer than many
of his allies, his advisers have
soured on her over the RNC’s
role in facilitating a neutral
GOP primary, The Wall Street
Journal previously reported.
In announcing the McDan-
iel hire to staff, Brown wrote,
“It couldn’t be a more impor- The Australian Ambassador to the United States and former prime minister Dr Kevin Rudd (left) and Pratt Industries Executive Chairman Anthony Pratt.
tant moment to have a voice
like Ronna’s on the team.…As
we gear up for the longest
general election season in re-
cent memory, she will support
our leading coverage by pro-
viding an insider’s perspective
on national politics and on the
future of the Republican
Party—which she led through
some of the most turbulent
and challenging moments in
political history.”
The prospect of McDaniel
appearing on MSNBC was
enough to send shock waves
among some media pundits.
Jeff Jarvis, a journalism pro-
fessor at the City University of
New York’s journalism school,
criticized the hiring on X and
urged viewers to push back on
social media if she were to ap-
pear on MSNBC.
NBC News and MSNBC are
part of Comcast’s NBCUniver- The Pratt Foundation is proud to sponsor work at the institutions above.
sal.
 For personal, non-commercial use only. Do not edit, alter or reproduce. For commercial reproduction or distribution, contact Dow Jones Reprints & Licensing at (800) 843-0008 or www.djreprints.com.

A6 | Monday, March 25, 2024 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

WORLD NEWS
Gaza Raids Suggest Endless War ISIS Sees
Enemies
Insurgency emerges
in parts of enclave
that Israeli forces
To Islam
previously cleared All Across
BY OMAR ABDEL-BAQUI
AND MARCUS WALKER

Israeli forces are fighting in

The Globe
a growing number of places in BY YAROSLAV TROFIMOV
the Gaza Strip they previously AND SUNE ENGEL RASMUSSEN
took and withdrew from,
showing how Israel is strug- DUBAI—The U.S. and its
gling to eliminate Hamas and liberal democratic allies may
bring the Palestinian enclave be facing off with authoritar-
under its control. ian powers Russia, Iran and
On Sunday, fighting be- China as wars in Ukraine and
tween Israeli forces and Gaza inflame global rivalries.
Hamas militants intensified But to Islamic State, they are
around Nasser Hospital in all enemies of the Muslim
Khan Younis and Al-Shifa Hos- faith that should be annihi-
pital in Gaza City, with the Is- lated.
raeli military saying it struck Friday’s assault on a con-
dozens of targets. Israeli cert hall outside Moscow that
MOHAMMED SALEM/REUTERS

troops previously fought bat- killed at least 133 people, the

tles in the same places in re- worst terrorist attack in Rus-
cent months and said Hamas’s sia in decades, drove home
formations in those areas had that point. Two months ago,
been defeated and disman- Islamic State claimed respon-
tled. sibility for the deadliest strike
Israel’s war effort in Gaza in Iran in decades, a bombing
has been hampered by the A Palestinian boy inspected the site of an Israeli strike on a house in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Sunday. in the city of Kerman that
lack of a plan for how to stabi- killed more than 80 people.
lize the enclave after sup- Policy and Survey Research. war plan, he said. “Netan- are believed dead—remain in Dermer, and his national-secu- Major Islamic State attacks
pressing Hamas’s fighters. With no end to the war in yahu’s government is reluc- the captivity of Gaza militants, rity adviser, Tzachi Hanegbi. in the West peaked in 2017,
Prime Minister Benjamin Ne- sight, the pattern of repeat- tant to shift and seek a politi- despite months of military op- Hamas and Israel remain though Islamic State militants
tanyahu has rejected calls edly raiding Gazan hospitals cal solution to end this.” erations and negotiations deadlocked on negotiating an have claimed lethal stabbings
from Israel’s international and neighborhoods is turning Israeli Defense Minister aimed at their release. Israel end to fighting. Hamas is and shootings in Belgium,

.
partners, including the U.S. into an endless ordeal for ci- Yoav Gallant said this year has yet to locate Hamas’s pushing for Israel to allow Pal- France and Austria since
and key Arab countries, for an vilians and a source of grow- that the war would enter a leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, estinians from Gaza’s north to then.

overhauled Palestinian Au- ing diplomatic tension.
thority to run Gaza. The Biden administration is
Without a civil authority to pressuring Israel to bring the
restore order, security and ba-
sic services, and with the Is-
raeli military disinclined to
fully reoccupy the strip with
war to a close soon, fearing
the worsening international
and domestic political fallout
of the highly polarizing con-
on
troops on the ground, swaths flict. Israel’s war in Gaza has
us ,
prolonged phase of raids
against remaining points of
resistance by Hamas in north-
ern Gaza. That would give way
to a plan for stabilizing the
Gaza Strip, he said.
Some Israeli analysts say
the repeated combat opera-
who helped orchestrate the
Oct. 7 attack.
Israel is also grappling with
how to oust Hamas from the
city of Rafah on Gaza’s south-
ern border with Egypt, where
it says Hamas’s battalions are
still intact. About 1.4 million
ly
be able to return there quickly.
Israel insists the process be
carried out gradually, and only
starting two weeks after a
deal is struck, said officials
from Egypt, a key mediator.
Israel is also resisting the
exchange of 30 Palestinian
“Great-power competition
is alive and well, but it mat-
ters not at all to Islamic
State,” said Colin Clarke, di-
rector of research at the Sou-
fan Group, a consultancy that
focuses on terrorist threats.
“While we see big divisions

of Gaza have descended into divided voters whose support tions in Gaza civilians are prisoners with long sentences between Beijing, Moscow and
l

anarchy. The lack of security President Biden needs for his City were part sheltering in for each female Israeli soldier Washington, they look at us
e
al a

is impeding the delivery of hu- re-election bid in November. of the plan. Rafah, most of held hostage. all as a target. This is a trans-
manitarian aid, contributing Israel’s declared war aim of “Once the Is- Without a civil them refugees Israel has greatly reduced national threat.”
to a growing hunger crisis in- eliminating Hamas as a signif- raeli forces are authority, from other the number of its troops in Islamic State’s official news
ci on

ternational aid groups say is icant military and political en- pulling out of a parts of Gaza. Gaza, from a peak of more outlet, Amaq, claimed the
pushing Gaza’s population to tity set a high bar that will be certain area, swaths of Gaza The U.S. is urg- than 60,000 to just a fraction Moscow attack, saying it is
the brink of famine. difficult to achieve, said Yossi then [for] ing Israel not of that, Israeli military officials part of a wider “war between
Meanwhile, fighting around Mekelberg, a Middle East ana- Hamas, it’s
have descended to launch a ma- and analysts said. Israel acti- the Islamic State and coun-
hospitals has raised concerns lyst at London-based think time to recon- into anarchy. jor ground as- vated hundreds of thousands tries fighting Islam.”
er s

about the impact on a medical tank Chatham House. “Any- stitute,” retired sault there, of reservists in the beginning The carnage in Moscow,
system already on its knees. thing less than that will be Israeli Brig. warning of di- of the war but has demobilized terrorism analysts say, dem-
m er

The vacuum of security and perceived as a failure.” Gen. Shlomo sastrous hu- most of those who were sent onstrates the group’s ability to
governance has helped Israeli leaders proclaimed Brom said. “And what we are manitarian consequences. But to Gaza, partly to relieve the reconstitute itself as a potent
Hamas’s efforts to return to premature victories in Gaza trying to do is prevent it, by Netanyahu said his forces will pressure on Israel’s economy. global network capable of ac-
areas vacated by Israeli forces. City and Khan Younis, the en- this raid on Shifa and other proceed with or without U.S. “It works for a short cam- tivating supporters world-
“Hamas’s armed wing de- clave’s two biggest cities, Me- similar raids that will follow.” backing, as they seek to de- paign to have so many people wide.
m rp

ploys where it can be, and kelberg said. Now, with much
withdraws where it can’t until of the Gaza Strip destroyed
conditions change and it can and Hamas fighters re-emerg-
deploy again,” said Khalil ing and using guerrilla tactics,
Shikaki, director of the Ramal- Israel’s leadership is divided
co Fo
However, criticism is grow-
ing in Israel and among the
country’s international allies
that the war effort is stagnat-
ing. More than 100 Israeli hos-
stroy Hamas battalions there.
In Washington this week,
the White House will press the
issue with delegations led by
two senior Israeli officials, Ne-
not contribute to the econ-
omy,” Mekelberg said. “Not for
a war that lasts six months.”
—Carrie Keller-Lynn
and Summer Said
Islamic State’s violence in
Russia “tracks with the recent
surge in plots foiled through-
out the West and its renewed
focus on external operations,”

lah-based Palestinian Center for on how to craft a coherent tages—among them many who tanyahu’s confidant, Ron contributed to this article. said Lucas Webber, co-founder
of Militant Wire, an indepen-
dent outlet that tracks global

Ukraine Faces Fight in Bid to Lower Draft Age

militancy.
European security agencies
prevented several planned Is-
lamic State attacks in recent
months, some planned by im-
BY NIKITA NIKOLAIENKO brothers joined the military migrants from Central Asia,
AND IAN LOVETT early in the war, but they have according to officials there.
warned him against even reg- Russia has long been in the
KYIV—Ukraine’s armed istering for the draft, telling crosshairs of Islamic State.
forces desperately need fresh him that once he is enlisted, The group took responsibility
n-

troops to hold back massed there is no way out. “I didn’t for the 2015 bombing that
Russian offensives. But politi- receive any call,” Sinelchenko killed 224 people aboard a
cal dithering is leaving front- said. “Most of the country is Russian passenger plane leav-
line units threadbare. sitting at home pretending ing Egypt, and in 2022 carried
no

A bill aimed at expanding that nothing is happening.” out an attack that killed two
the draft in Ukraine is stuck in Groups from all parts of so- Russian diplomats and four
Ukraine’s parliament, the ciety are appealing to the Rada Afghans at the Russian Em-
Verkhovna Rada, after months for exemptions under the new bassy in Kabul.
of debate. law. Businesses have proposed Islamist grievances against
SERHII KOROVAYNY FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

The proposed changes are paying a tax to keep their Moscow include the bloody
rather meager: The age of con- workers off the front occupation of Afghanistan in
scription would be lowered to line. Students say they should the 1980s and the suppression
25 from 27. In addition, sol- be allowed to finish their stud- of Chechnya’s autonomy in the
diers would be eligible to leave ies before serving. initial years of President
the military after three years Officials in the U.S.—where Vladimir Putin’s rule.
of service, and punishments a $60 billion aid package for Even more important, how-
would be imposed for men who Ukraine has been stalled for ever, is the indispensable sup-
avoid registering for the draft. months in Congress—have also port that Russia—together
Yet the Rada, faced with been making noise about the with Iran, a Shiite Islamic Re-
large parts of the populace who unusually high age of conscrip- public—continues providing to
are unwilling to fight, is strug- tion in Ukraine. The age of con- President Bashar al-Assad’s
gling to approve even these A Ukrainian tank driver posed this month in the forest near the front line in the Donetsk region. scription in the U.S. and many regime in Syria. Russia’s Wag-
modest tweaks to the law. other Western countries is 18. ner paramilitary group played
“We’re struggling to lower Ukraine’s population by age group Ukraine’s military has nearly Zelensky in December said a major role in ousting Islamic
the age to 25—it’s an unpopu- 600,000 personnel, according he had ordered the military to State from the Syrian city of
lar decision,” said Fedir Venis- 60 million Soviet Union to estimates from Zelensky. prepare a mobilization plan. Palmyra in 2017.
lavskyi, a member of the Rada collapses Most are in support roles away Adding 500,000 new soldiers, “The reason they are in
in President Volodymyr Zel- Russia invades from combat at the front. Zel- he said, would cost billions. Russia is because of the Rus-
50 Ukraine
ensky’s ruling party, who has ensky said in December that Since then, the president sian role in Syria,” said Rasul
been one of the law’s leading 40 the military has requested hasn’t directly commented on Bakhsh Rais, a professor of
backers. “We need to increase 500,000 more troops, although the current bill. A spokesman political science at Lahore
the number of people who can commanders said it didn’t need for his office didn’t respond to University of Management and
be mobilized.” 30 all of them immediately. a request for comment. Science in Pakistan.
Alongside a shortage of am- Men between the ages of 18 As the Rada debates While Islamic State didn’t
munition, the lack of soldiers is 20 and 60 have been barred from amendments, soldiers and specify which of its branches
Ukraine’s biggest challenge in a 75+ leaving the country since the their families are clamoring was behind Friday’s slaughter
year where commanders say 50–74 outset of the invasion. for reinforcements. Some in Russia, U.S. officials have
10
their aim is to hold firm and re- 25–49 Last summer, Zelensky dis- 31,000 troops have been killed blamed the organization’s Is-
build forces. Russia, with a 0 0–24 missed all the regional heads in action, Zelensky said, and lamic State-Khorasan Prov-
population more than three of recruitment following a se- military analysts estimate the ince, or ISIS-K, affiliate.
times the size of Ukraine’s, is 1950 2000 2100 ries of corruption scandals. total is far higher. Those who ISIS-K is one of Islamic
expending thousands of troops Note: Data for 2022 onward are projections. Hundreds of thousands of men remain are exhausted and short State’s most significant re-
each week in assaults and is Source: United Nations continue to avoid registering. on artillery shells, with deliver- maining affiliates, alongside a
able to replenish with around Some men say they were ies from the U.S. delayed. chapter in West Africa where
30,000 fresh troops each against Russia. But the failure was able to rely on volunteers beaten or detained for days “You can’t fight with old it holds territory, and where
month, according to Ukrainian of Ukraine’s major counterof- who flooded into recruitment until they signed enlistment men,” said Ihor Belous, a 31- Russian mercenaries play a
military intelligence. Still, Rus- fensive last year, and the loss of offices. Those waves have papers. Still, hundreds of year-old who has been in the prominent role in propping up
sian forces are struggling to ad- tens of thousands of soldiers in ebbed. Zelensky has also ac- thousands of men military for 12 years. Now, the embattled governments of
vance since seizing the eastern the process, has shaken Ukrai- knowledged the need to give have avoided registering at many of his comrades are in nations like Mali. ISIS-K’s rise
city of Avdiivka in February. nians’ confidence that they can soldiers who have been fight- the local draft office. their 40s, he said. “Everyone signals the terrorist organiza-
An overwhelming majority retake territory, in addition to ing for two years a rest. “I can’t say I feel like a needs to accept that this is tion’s move away from its cra-
of Ukrainians support the gov- depleting their manpower. But the draft has been rid- draft dodger,” said Oleh going to be a long war.…Volun- dle of Syria and Iraq, where it
ernment in continuing the fight Early in the war, Ukraine dled with dysfunction. Sinelchenko, 24. Both his teers are not endless.” has been thoroughly defeated.
 For personal, non-commercial use only. Do not edit, alter or reproduce. For commercial reproduction or distribution, contact Dow Jones Reprints & Licensing at (800) 843-0008 or www.djreprints.com.

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THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. * * * * Monday, March 25, 2024 | A7

WORLD NEWS

Blow Dealt WORLDWATCH

To Putin’s BELARUS
U.S. Hits Regime
Reputation With Fresh Curbs
The U.S. has imposed new
sanctions on Belarus, target-
Continued from Page One ing the regime of President
against the U.S.-led West. Alexander Lukashenko for its
On Sunday, Russians continued support of Russia’s
brought flowers to impromptu war in Ukraine and for its
memorials in cities and towns crackdown on Belarus’s pro-
across the country. Putin, democracy movement.
wearing black, was shown on The sanctions, unveiled on
state television lighting candles Friday, strike at key Belarusian
in memory of the victims in an manufacturers and Lukash-
Orthodox chapel. Meanwhile, enko’s own perks. His presi-
rescue teams sifted through dential aircraft, a luxury Boe-
the rubble at the Crocus City ing 737 he uses for personal
Hall, trying to find any remain- travel with his family and en-
ing bodies of those who died in tourage, was identified as a
the attack and ensuing fire. property associated with the
Before Putin assumed president, who is under exist-
power in December 1999, Rus- ing sanctions.
sia was rocked by terrorist at- The new sanctions also
MAXIM SHIPENKOV/SHUTTERSTOCK

tacks blamed on Chechen Isla- target two major sources of

mists. Putin famously pledged revenue for his regime: Belar-
to “whack them in their out- usian Automobile Plant and
houses”—signaling that he Minsk Automobile Plant.
would dispense with legal A representative for the
niceties to hunt down mili- Belarusian Embassy in Wash-
tants and restore security. ington didn’t respond to a re-
The terrorism of the late quest for comment.
1990s and early 2000s Russians left flowers on Sunday outside the concert hall where suspected Islamic State attackers killed more than 130 people. —Richard Vanderford
strengthened Putin’s rule, with
Russians clamoring for action pin blame on Ukraine.” on RBK TV on Saturday. “We Ukraine and the dangers ema- unavailable, Central Asian NIGERIA
to restore law and order. Rus- Putin didn’t explicitly ac- need to redefine the theme of nating from there that they workers can come to Russia
sian liberal opposition leaders cuse Ukraine of involvement security,” he said. “The prior- somehow failed to see this,” visa-free, and several million
Some Students
and investigative journalists at in Friday’s attack. He said sus- ity of law enforcement has said Grigorij Serscikov, an in- have settled in Russia’s main Freed From Captors
the time accused the Federal pected terrorists were fleeing been mostly the public figures dependent expert in antiter- cities in recent years—often At least 137 of nearly 300
Security Service, or FSB, of or- toward Ukraine where “a win- who are critical…Terrorism rorism and intelligence based living largely separated from children abducted more than
chestrating some of the bomb- dow” had been opened for was defined as criticism of the in the Netherlands. “They’re wider Russian society in con- two weeks ago from their
ings to help it tighten Putin’s them at the border. Russian authorities and Rus- stretched, battling on too ditions that leave them ex- school in the northwestern
grip on power. Other senior Russian offi- sian policies.” many different” fronts. posed to recruitment by crimi- state of Kaduna were re-

.
It is unclear how Friday’s cials have dismissed Islamic On social media and in pri- The war has also exacer- nal gangs and Islamists. leased on Sunday, the West
attack on the Crocus City Hall State’s claim of responsibility vate conversations in Russia, bated Russia’s reliance on mi- The huge death toll from

concert venue will ripple and openly threatened Kyiv
through Russia’s domestic pol- with retribution. Ukraine and
itics. Putin has sought to con- Western governments have re-
nect the attack—claimed by
Islamic State—to Ukraine, and
officials in Kyiv said they fear
he will use it as a justification
jected as malicious propaganda
Russian suggestions of a Ukrai-
nian role in Friday’s attack.
Even on Russian television,
on
to devote even more men and some experts publicly doubted
us ,
reaction focused on some of
the key aspects of the system
created by Putin’s nearly
quarter-century rule.
One question was whether
the Ukraine war has distracted
Russia’s law-enforcement and
intelligence services from
grant workers from the Mus-
lim-majority states of Central
Asia, particularly Tajikistan
and Uzbekistan, as Russia’s
economy has pivoted to a war
footing. Hundreds of thou-
sands have found work in the
defense industry. Others have
ly
the fire that erupted after the
initial shooting attack on Cro-
cus has renewed conversa-
tions about continuing graft.
The vast hall burned to the
ground, with many visitors
dying of smoke inhalation af-
ter the assailants fled the
African nation’s military said.
Motorcycle-riding gunmen
invaded the Kuriga school on
March 7 and marched the
children into the forests be-
fore security forces arrived.
School authorities said 287
students were kidnapped
during the attack, at least

money to the war. the claims of Ukrainian in- their antiterrorism mission. been pulled into the military premises. Many Russian ana- 100 of them 12 or younger.
l

“This is perceived as Putin’s volvement. They instead raised While Ukraine has launched and sent to the trenches. lysts wondered whether this The 137 children were res-
e
al a

failure to deliver—he had come uncomfortable questions about hundreds of drones to strike More than 300,000 Russian happened because construc- cued in Zamfara state, more
with promises of peace and why Russian security services, oil refineries, military airfields soldiers have been injured or tion and safety rules hadn’t than 125 miles from their
stability, and where is that which have acted with light- and other targets in Russia, in killed in Ukraine, according to been followed.
ci on

school, military spokesman

peace and stability now?” said ning speed to crush protests
Abbas Gallyamov, a former Pu- against the war in Ukraine,
tin speechwriter who has since took more than an hour to re-
become an opponent of the re- spond to the Crocus attack.
gime. “If it’s indeed Islamic “What could Ukraine gain
er s
response to Moscow’s relent-
less missile-and-drone cam-
paign against Ukrainian cities,
none of these Ukrainian at-
tacks has resulted in mass ci-
U.S. estimates.
The four attackers on Fri-
day hailed from Tajikistan, ac-
cording to Russian authorities.
Some barely spoke Russian.
Maj. Gen. Edward Buba said.
At least 17 other school-
Watch a Video children in northern Sokoto
Scan this code state were also rescued two
for a video on weeks after being taken hos-

State, then your entire foreign from this terror attack is not vilian casualties. All were in custody and made how the terror tage, the Sokoto state gov-
policy is worthless—which is very evident,” political analyst “Maybe the FSB was so court appearances Sunday. attack unfolded ernment said on Saturday.
m er

why they are trying so hard to Mikhail Vinogradov wondered preoccupied with the war in While exact statistics are in Moscow. —Associated Press
m rp
co Fo

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 For personal, non-commercial use only. Do not edit, alter or reproduce. For commercial reproduction or distribution, contact Dow Jones Reprints & Licensing at (800) 843-0008 or www.djreprints.com.
A8 | Monday, March 25, 2024
Real-Life Issues Grip
U.K.’s Royal Family
Cancer battles,
internal squabbles
playing out in public
threaten its legacy
BY DAVID LUHNOW
AND MAX COLCHESTER
LONDON—It is easy to for-
get that Britain’s royal family
is just that—a family.
Right now, the clan is going
through times that would test
any family. Within two
months, two of its leading
members have been diagnosed
with cancer: King Charles III
and now his daughter-in-law
Catherine, Princess of Wales,
familiarly known as Kate Mid-
dleton. A once-close family
member, Prince Harry, re-
mains estranged after a brutal
falling-out with his brother,
William, Prince of Wales. “It
has been an incredibly tough
couple of months for our en-
tire family,” Catherine said in
a video address on Friday.
The bout of illness comes
just about a year and a half
after Queen Elizabeth II,
Charles’s mother and Britain’s
GETTY IMAGES
The Old Summer Palace, a complex of three large gardens, was built during the Qing dynasty for Emperor Qianlong (1711-1799).
Xi’s Historians Rewrite Imperial History
BY CHUN HAN WONG
China’s Communist Party of-
ten speaks proudly about what
it claims to be 5,000 years of
Chinese civilization. But its
leaders are still struggling to
decide what they should say
about the past few centuries.
For decades, Chinese schol-
ars have been toiling at the
party’s behest to draft an offi-
no
cial history of the Qing,
China’s last imperial dynasty,
which the Manchu ethnic
group led for nearly 270 years
before its collapse in the early
20th century. Beijing has de-
voted thousands of researchers
and millions of dollars to the
task, producing a draft that
runs more than 100 volumes.
However, an ideological
hardening under Chinese
leader Xi Jinping has set back
the publication of the epic
tome already more than a de-
cade overdue—underscoring
how the Communist Party has
tightened its grip on history
to advance its goals.
The Qing era is central to the
Communist Party’s claims to
have saved China from its “cen-
tury of humiliation,” inflicted
on it by foreign powers, stretch-
ing from the Qing’s defeat in
the Opium Wars—the first of
which began in 1839—to the
founding of the People’s Repub-
lic in 1949. The legitimacy of
China’s current borders, largely
inherited from the Qing, is also
closely intertwined with territo-
rial claims from that period.
Party vetters, including a top
historian backed by Xi, issued
sweeping criticisms of the draft
“Qing History” last year, saying
it strayed too far from official
views and requesting changes
to better align the past with
Xi’s vision for the future, people
familiar with the project said.
The criticisms centered on
political issues, including the
assertion that the draft
“doesn’t speak for the people,”
one of those people said.
The group managing the
project, the National Qing His-
longest-reigning monarch,
died, paving the way for
Charles to ascend to the
throne after a record seven
decades waiting.
Unlike other families, the
royal family has almost no pri-
vacy, especially in an age of
social media, which has
turned members into global
celebrities whether they like it
or not.
Over the past few weeks, a
storm of speculation about
Catherine’s health swirled
around the internet, fueled
further by a family picture to
mark Mother’s Day in the U.K.
that could have quelled the
speculation but backfired
when it turned out to have
been altered. That sent the in-
ternet, and conspiracy theo-
rists, into overdrive.
It turns out that the family
was struggling with how to
tell the children before telling
the rest of the world.
“It’s no fun being royal any
more,” said Ingrid Seward, ed-
itor in chief of Majesty maga-
zine and whose book “My
Mother and I” is about
Charles’s relationship with his
mother. “I used to think it
on
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ci on
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Historical extent of China
Circa 1800 during
the Qing dynasty
RUSSIA
KAZAKHSTAN
MONGOLIA
n-
Xinjiang
Tibet
Lhasa
INDIA
Note: Representations of Ming and Qing territories are approximate, as territorial boundaries
weren't definitively or precisely demarcated at the time.
Source: ‘Great State: China and the World’ by Timothy Brook
tory Compilation Committee, is
racing against time. Many lead-
ing researchers have reached
their twilight years and, in
some cases, died—including
the committee’s director.
The saga reflects the crucial
yet politically fraught role that
history plays in China under Xi.
Leaning into his country’s pre-
occupation with its past, Xi has
enforced what he calls a “cor-
rect outlook on history,” aimed
at fortifying his “China Dream”
of national renaissance and au-
tocratic rule. In practice, this
means promoting nationalistic
narratives that cast the Com-
munist Party as the sole guar-
antor of China’s inexorable rise.
Xi, in sweeping aside the
relatively tolerant intellectual
climate that prevailed before
he took power in 2012, has left
historians wrong-footed, peo-
ple familiar with the Qing His-
tory project said.
The shift in China’s ideo-
logical landscape since the
project’s launch two decades
ago meant that some theoreti-
cal frameworks that historians
used “are no longer valid or
politically correct,” one of
WORLD NEWS
would be quite fun—you get
the best clothes, the best jew-
els, the best medical attention
and stately homes, but it re-
ally isn’t any fun nowadays.
You’re under 24/7 scrutiny
with every move seen and an-
alyzed and criticized on social
media.”
The attention is unlikely to
wane for long. In an attempt
to protect its remaining pri-
vacy, the family has been
vague about what types of
cancer Charles and Catherine
have and how severe.
Even as the family strug-
gles with illness, it has work
to do. When Charles came to
the throne, naysayers were
worried that the public
wouldn’t like what it saw, a
73-year-old man with a track
record for outspoken views.
Instead, the problem threatens
to become the opposite: The
public risks not seeing Charles
enough.
Monarchy Inc. is built
around the premise of a mil-
lennium of continuity, with
the passing of one monarch
leading simply to the appoint-
ment of a new one. But what
happens if the monarch or
Inner
Mongolia
Beijing
CHINA
Shanghai
Chengdu
Circa 1600 during
the Ming dynasty
Hong Kong
those people said.
China’s Ministry of Culture
and Tourism, which oversees
the project, didn’t respond to
requests for comment.
In a Chinese tradition dating
back to antiquity, each dynasty
would compile an official his-
tory of the preceding one. The
Communist Party first explored
the idea of compiling a Qing
history in the early years of
Mao’s rule, with the aim of su-
perseding an incomplete draft
published in 1928. The project
started taking shape with Pre-
mier Zhou Enlai’s blessing,
only to be derailed by the
1966-1976 Cultural Revolution.
Party leaders revived the
project in 2002, in response to
lobbying by influential aca-
demics including Dai Yi, an es-
teemed Qing historian at Bei-
jing’s Renmin University, who
became the inaugural director
of the National Qing History
Compilation Committee.
Dai, who died in January,
insisted the manuscript ana-
lyze Qing rule over border re-
gions in a way that upholds
national unity, one of his dep-
uties recalled in a 2021 essay.
The royal family has focused its attention on a now-ceremonial role as the U.K.’s living history.
other senior royals are sick for
an extended period?
As the ranks of the Wind-
sors are thinned, Prince Wil-
liam has a considerable bur-
den. While he is the heir to
the throne, he is also the hus-
band of a woman with cancer
and father to their three chil-
dren.
With the political power of
the monarchy gradually
eroded over the past four cen-
turies, the British royal family
has focused its attention on a
now-ceremonial role as the
living history of a nation. The
second Elizabethan era saw
the consolidation of the “wel-
fare monarchy”—an institu-
Dai’s team submitted a
manuscript for review in late
2018. Formal vetting began the
following year under the aus-
pices of the Communist Party’s
propaganda department, the
state-run Chinese Academy of
Social Sciences, and the Chi-
nese Academy of History, an
institution set up at Xi’s be-
hest and led by a Qing special-
ist, according to publicity ma-
terial about the process.
Vetters said the manuscript
should emphasize that Qing
rulers governed a united mul-
tiethnic nation—a narrative
that helps the Communist
Party justify its current rule
over a vast territory spanning
areas inhabited by ethnic
Mongols, Tibetans, Uyghurs
and other non-Han Chinese
groups, the person familiar
with the project said.
Another critique focused on
how the draft depicted how
Western powers shaped politi-
cal changes in China. Vetters
indicated they wanted to play
down Western influences on
Qing-era political reforms
while highlighting the nega-
tive impact that foreign impe-
rialists had on Chinese society,
the person said.
The Chinese Academy of His-
tory didn’t respond to queries.
Such demands reflect Bei-
jing’s resistance to Qing histo-
rians—particularly in the
U.S.—who have drawn on
sources in Manchu, Uyghur
and other languages beyond
Chinese to produce work that
contradicts party narratives.
Xi rejects portrayals of the
Qing as “an empire of con-
quest,” because they could en-
courage separatist sentiment in
borderland regions such as Ti-
bet and Xinjiang and boost
calls for the formal indepen-
dence of the self-ruled island of
Taiwan, said Pamela Kyle
Crossley, a Qing expert at Dart-
mouth College. “According to
Xi Jinping, there have been no
conquests in Chinese history.
Only happy unifications with
people aspiring to be Chinese.”
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
tion that existed to serve its
subjects. A major part of that
was being seen out and among
them.
The pressure on William, in
particular, is now enormous,
said Angela Levin, a royal au-
thor. Since Catherine was di-
agnosed, “He has done several
engagements; no one would
know something was wrong,”
she said.
William, 41, appears in no
rush to become king, in large
part because he is loath to ex-
pose his children to the kind
of media scrutiny to which he
was subjected to growing up.
The royal absence, mean-
while, is giving limelight to
Pakistan Turmoil
ly
Hurts Middle Class
BY SAEED SHAH
AND WAQAR GILLANI
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—For
two decades, Muhammad Asim
ran a small jewelry shop in
central Islamabad with his
older brother and slowly
amassed the trappings of a
dignified middle-class lifestyle.
But with consumer demand
drying up and food and utility
bills soaring, he said that life
is slipping away. The family
sold its car, and the two broth-
ers now take a bus to work. He
pulled his children out of their
private school—and now sends
his 14-year-old son to a
cheaper private school and his
10-year-old daughter to a free
government school.
“We are genteel people, but
now only God is keeping our
honor intact,” Asim said.
Pakistan’s political and eco-
nomic turmoil is chipping
away at the gains in living
standards that families have
worked hard to achieve, leav-
ing middle-class people like
Asim struggling and the poor
battling to survive.
As recently as 2017, during
a rare period of stability, Paki-
stan’s middle class was seen
as ascendant and was esti-
mated by one study to be
around 40% of the population.
Official data from 2019, the
most recently available, indi-
cated that about 30% of Paki-
stanis had an income of more
than $10 a day, a benchmark
some economists use as the
threshold for entry into the
global middle class.
But inflation has subse-
quently taken off. “The lower
middle class has been really
hit in the last few years,” said
Javaid Ghani, pro vice chancel-
lor at Karachi’s Al Ghazali Uni-
versity, who has researched
Pakistan’s middle class.
Many households in the
country of 240 million people
say they are struggling to hold
on to the markers of a middle-
class life as they are buffeted
by higher food and energy
prices. A consumer attitude
report by market-research
group Ipsos this month found
that just one in 10 Pakistanis
believed that the country was
A nationwide strike by traders against rising electricity and
fuel prices in September closed shops in Peshawar.
VICTORIA JONES/PA/ASSOCIATED PRESS
those the palace would rather
not: Prince Harry, self-exiled
in California, has let it be
known he could help out with
royal duties. Prince Andrew—
barred from royal duties after
settling allegations of sexual
abuse—was recently seen
leading the family as it ar-
rived for King Constantine of
Greece’s memorial service.
But like any family health
crisis, the immediate effect is
to bring the unit closer to-
gether. Prince Harry and his
wife, Meghan, the Duke and
Duchess of Sussex, made a
statement saying they “wish
health and healing for Kate
and the family.”
.
heading in the right direction.
Meanwhile, families who
were no longer poor but also
not middle class have lost
their footing. In Pakistan’s fi-
nancial year that ended in
June, more than 12 million
people fell into poverty, ac-
cording to the World Bank, us-
ing the poverty line of $3.65 a
day. The number of people
also reflects the impact of the
devastating floods of 2022.
Fixing a broken economy is
the priority for the new gov-
ernment headed by Prime
Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who
took office this month after an
election that political candi-
dates and civil-society moni-
tors allege was heavily rigged.
Economic growth has stalled,
inflation is averaging close to
30% in Pakistan’s current fis-
cal year and debt is spiraling.
In an acknowledgment of
the country’s dire straits,
Sharif reached outside politics
to pick Muhammad Aurangzeb
as his new finance minister.
“We need surgery, we can’t
make do with antibiotics,”
Sharif said at his first cabinet
meeting.
Aurangzeb, who previously
worked at JPMorgan and
headed one of Pakistan’s larg-
est private banks, is tasked
with working out a longer-
term rescue program with the
International Monetary Fund,
whose loans are key to Paki-
stan paying its debt obliga-
tions and staying afloat. Paki-
stan has $8 billion in foreign-
currency reserves, while it
must find $22 billion for debt
payments and its current-ac-
count deficit for the fiscal
year that begins in July, ac-
cording to the IMF.
Pakistan has been a fre-
quent user of IMF programs.
The country is now seeking its
24th bailout, and its current
stopgap IMF loan ends in April.
The IMF programs impose
bitter economic medicine that
previous Pakistani administra-
tions have struggled to stick
with in the face of public op-
position. With Sharif presid-
ing over a shaky coalition gov-
ernment, and facing a large
and angry opposition, that
medicine will be even harder
to swallow this time around.
ABDUL MAJEED/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
 For personal, non-commercial use only. Do not edit, alter or reproduce. For commercial reproduction or distribution, contact Dow Jones Reprints & Licensing at (800) 843-0008 or www.djreprints.com.

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Monday, March 25, 2024 | A9

.
ly
on
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Ambition in my work at CNBC

means turning curiosity into
credibility: Exploring all
n-

possible explanations of the

no

market’s moves in order to put

it all in proper context.
MICHAEL SANTOLI
SENIOR MARKETS COMMENTATOR
 For personal, non-commercial use only. Do not edit, alter or reproduce. For commercial reproduction or distribution, contact Dow Jones Reprints & Licensing at (800) 843-0008 or www.djreprints.com.
A10 | Monday, March 25, 2024
Lawmakers
Face Local
Opposition
Continued from Page One
Yet, TikTok has their atten-
tion. It is in the wheelhouse of
young people, with some anx-
ious about losing their favor-
ite source of entertainment.
Michigan Democrat, Rep.
Hillary Scholten was in the
middle-school pickup line
when one of her son’s friends
asked, “Are you the one who’s
banning TikTok?”
Democratic Sen. John
Fetterman was headed back to
Pennsylvania after the House
voted on the legislation when
his tween daughter lobbied
him. “I’m driving home and
He Was Hit
By Mental
Illness
Continued from Page One
chosis in his childhood room,
among his trophies, in the
care of doctors and his
mother. After two years of
medication and therapy, Rob
returned to California as a
lawyer with an apartment in
South Pasadena, Calif.
In 2022, working from
home in the pandemic, he
stopped therapy and quit his
medicines. The voices re-
turned. Within a year, he was
homeless, drifting in and out
of reason. He ranted gibberish
one moment and spoke with a
lawyer’s clarity the next. From
libraries, he posted online
messages, by turns indeci-
pherable, ominous and poetic.
“When I used to see home-
less people, I thought,
‘Where’s their family? Why
won’t their family come and
help them?’” said Rob’s sister,
Jennifer Dart.
Last July, she flew from Ra-
leigh, N.C., on Rob’s 44th
birthday, hoping to find her
kid brother and persuade him
into treatment. Jennifer and
her fiancé spotted him at a
Starbucks. He was sitting
alone with a cup of water, hair
matted, staring at nothing.
“The only thing I could recog-
nize were his eyes,” she said.
Rob saw her and got an-
gry: You shouldn’t be here. I
didn’t ask you to come, he
said. She followed him out of
the coffee shop and asked if
she could hug him. Rob
pushed her away. Jennifer col-
lapsed to the ground, sobbing.
Disruptions in mental-
health care during the pan-
demic left many Americans
vulnerable. Among people
ages 18 to 44, insurance
claims related to psychotic ep-
isodes rose 30% to 2 million in
2023 from 2019, according to
LexisNexis Risk Solutions, a
data-analytics company.
no
Around the U.S., hospitals are
overwhelmed. Emergency
rooms are adding security
guards. Jails serve as a last
resort for those unable to care
for themselves.
“You should understand by
now that I had quite a stable
and productive life before I
underwent any psychiatric
treatment or therapy,” Rob
Dart said in an email to The
Wall Street Journal. “I believe
people in your position often
use medicine to try to keep
people from learning what
they otherwise could.”
Rob’s 75-year-old mother,
Sherry Dart, finds solace on
Monday nights at her church,
meeting with others who have
loved ones with mental-health
troubles. “I don’t believe God
gave me this as a punish-
ment,” she said. “God is with
me, walking me through this.”
Sherry also put faith in Cal-
ifornia’s new CARE Court. Un-
der a 2022 law creating the
system, judges have broad
powers to order those with se-
rious psychotic disorders into
treatment. In most states,
people are largely powerless
to get mental-health care for
friends or relatives without
their consent. In California,
family members can petition
the court to step in.
Sherry started the process
but has found it difficult to
navigate alone. “I don’t know
if I have all the papers,” she
said. “I need to do it, but I feel
like I’m going to be a failure.”
After spending her savings
trying to shield her son,
Sherry, a retired first-grade
teacher, fears she is running
she sent me some texts, and it
was ‘please don’t destroy Tik-
Tok, I’m going to get bullied,’”
he recalls.
Fetterman got a visit re-
cently from TikTok CEO Shou
Zi Chew and instead of shak-
ing his hand, he pulled out
those texts from his daughter.
“I was, like, you got to my
daughter,” says Fetterman. .
Fetterman says he doesn’t
want to ban TikTok, but he
wants to separate it from Chi-
nese control. He has security
concerns about the app. He’s
also seen it hit his wallet, hav-
ing let his daughter lead him
around Sephora or Ulta to buy
products that have gone viral
on the app.
“I’m a soft touch for that
and she can work me pretty
good,” he says. “And I’m
happy to do that.”
The ban or forced sale of
one of the most popular social
media apps in the U.S. would
on
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Clockwise from top left, a photo of Rob Dart as a young man; the apartment complex in South Pasadena, Calif., where he
lived; Rob’s mother, Sherry Dart, a retired first-grade teacher, sitting in her son’s childhood room at home in Vienna, Va.
out of people willing to help a
troubled man who pushes
them away.
“It’s almost like everyone is
tired of Rob Dart. The police.
n-
His friends. It’s too hard, too
complicated,” she said. “Peo-
ple are just giving up.”
This account is based on in-
terviews with Rob’s friends
and family, court records, po-
lice reports, medical records
and people familiar with his
situation.
In knots
Rob phoned his sister on
most days during the pan-
demic. They ended their calls
saying, “I love you, I miss you,
and I’m proud of you,” Jenni-
fer said. She had gotten sober
around the time of Rob’s re-
covery from what was diag-
nosed as a bipolar condition
with schizoaffective disorder.
In early 2022, Rob’s calls
tapered off. When they spoke,
Jennifer thought he sounded
off kilter.
Alison Bloom, Rob’s neigh-
bor, also wondered what was
happening to the smiling man
next door. Through an open
window she saw trash piling
up in his apartment. Rob lost
weight and walked around the
apartment complex wearing
only underwear. Through the
walls, she could hear him ar-
guing with himself about
baseball and movies.
Within months, Rob lost his
job, his car was impounded,
and he quit paying rent. In Oc-
tober 2022, he stopped an-
swering his phone. Then his
service was cut off.
“I got on a plane,” his
mother said. “I thought I was
going to find a dead body.”
After Sherry landed, she
went to Rob’s apartment and
waited. When Rob saw her, he
got angry. Sherry spent the
next few days calling, asking
him to please let her visit.
FROM PAGE ONE
be unprecedented—but many
lawmakers say it is necessary
for national security, given
TikTok’s parent ByteDance is
based in China and could be
subject to data requests from
that government.
TikTok has said it hasn’t
shared and won’t share the
data with the Chinese govern-
ment even if Beijing demands
it. The Chinese government
has signaled it won’t allow a
forced sale of TikTok, limiting
options for the app’s owners.
Earlier this month, TikTok
pushed many of its 170 million
U.S.-based users to phone law-
makers’ offices.
“I was in class and it
popped up, and it was like,
call your U.S. representative,”
says one teen, of the alert
from TikTok. She entered her
name and zip code and saw
the name of a House law-
maker—her mom.
She texted her instead.
In December 2022, Rob’s
neighbors called Sherry to tell
her that Rob was delusional
and screaming. From Virginia,
Sherry reached South Pasa-
dena police and said her son
needed help. A social worker
persuaded Rob to go to Hun-
tington Hospital in Pasadena.
Sherry flew to California
the next day. The apartment
manager unlocked Rob’s
apartment for her, and as
soon as the door opened, the
smell hit. Sherry collapsed
into sobs so loud that Alison
came out to console her.
Inside Rob’s apartment,
Sherry found his notebooks:
He could hear the voice of Sa-
tan. He was the invisible
Obama. He was being hypno-
tized. “There is a slim chance
that this is in fact satan, I
can’t take that chance,” he
wrote, sometimes signing his
entries “John Lennon” or “St.
Nicholas Cage.”
For three days, Sherry
cleaned his apartment. She
washed 27 loads of laundry,
packed away his loafers and
Rob Dart with his sister, Jennifer Dart, in 2017.
Rep. Nancy Mace, a South
Carolina Republican, got it
from her two teenagers at the
dinner table over Mexican
food. “They were trying to
lobby me and see where I was,
they wanted to make sure I
wasn’t going to vote to ban
TikTok.”
The House passed the bill
352 to 65, with one member
voting present, sending it to
the Senate.
Mace voted no on the bill,
one of 15 Republicans to do
so, and came home to praise
from her teenagers, who
found out about their
mother’s actions from the app
itself.
“They saw my vote on Tik-
tok…that is where my teenag-
ers get their news,” Mace
says. “My kids are very happy
with mom, they are not em-
barrassed this time.”
Gottheimer, the New Jersey
representative, was able to
dress shirts. A family friend
helped her move some of
Rob’s belongings into stor-
age—his college degree, favor-
ite books, artwork and photos
of his son.
Sherry called the hospital
each day to ask about Rob, but
he wouldn’t let her visit. She
sent the hospital a letter on
Dec. 11: “I understand that
Rob has not yet given you per-
mission to speak to me about
his condition, but when he be-
gins to get better, I know he
will. While I am in knots while
not knowing his condition, I
know I have to be patient.”
Sherry flew home on Dec.
23 without learning whether
he was getting better. She
called the hospital on Christ-
mas Eve and asked to speak
with Rob. “We have no one
there by that name,” a staffer
said. He was already gone.
Court orders
On Dec. 28, Rob visited his
son on the porch of his ex-
wife’s house. He was frenetic
SHERRY DART
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
convince his daughter on his
opposition to the app. “I ex-
plained to her why and took
don’t use the app and aren’t
crazy about all the time their
friends spend on it. “They
her through it and she gener-
ally understood and then I
said someone else could buy it
both said without hesitation,
we absolutely should be ban-
ning TikTok.”
that is not our enemy. Then
she said ‘OK.’”
Young, the Indiana senator,
The app has faced scrutiny
over the way its algorithm se-
lects content for users, both
says his teens told him that if on sensitive issues such as
Congress leads to the end of teen depression as well as on
TikTok, they will find another global debates such as the Is-
place to go. rael-Hamas war. Conversely,
Some lawmakers have is- TikTok creators have amassed
sued their own TikTok ban at millions of followers for ev-
home already. Rep. Chip Roy, a erything from stunts to “get
Texas Republican, doesn’t al- ready with me” videos that
low his children to use phones tout beauty products.
without supervision. “I specifically remember
“We have a rule that when Drunk Elephant,” says Fetter-
kids come over they have to man, “because I was like,
drop off their devices in a what is a Drunk Elephant?”
basket,” he says. “We have a For others who aren’t sure,
duty as parents—we can’t get it is the brightly colored skin
whipsawed around because care that is named after an in-
kids want an app.” toxicated pachyderm, and
Rep. Becca Balint, a Ver- went viral with preteens
mont Democrat, say her kids around Christmas on TikTok.
one’s apartment, that he had
found someone to help him,
that he wasn’t alone.
She arrived in Los Angeles
exhausted. The flight had been
delayed, and she hadn’t gotten
any sleep. Jennifer brought a
Duke University T-shirt and a
bag of snacks for her brother.
A neighbor at Rob’s former
apartment complex said she
had seen him earlier at Star-
bucks.
Rob was still there when
Jennifer arrived. She called
out to him and asked if he
knew who she was. I know
.
who you are, he said in anger
and walked outside.
ly
The next day, Jennifer’s fi-
ancé followed Rob at a dis-
tance and saw him enter the
apartment complex. He per-
suaded the apartment man-
ager to call police and report a
man who needed help. The so-
cial worker from Rob’s first
trip to the hospital arrived
with police officers. They took
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: MORIAH RATNER FOR WSJ; PHILIP CHEUNG FOR WSJ; MORIAH RATNER FOR WSJ
him to Huntington Hospital,
and he was admitted.
Hospital staffers told Jenni-
fer that Rob didn’t want to see
her. Try again tomorrow, they
said. Jennifer bought Rob a
backpack, clothes and shoes at
Target and dropped them off
at the hospital.
Then she and her fiancé
flew home. “I thought he was
going to get the help he
needed,” she said.
Rob was released after 72
hours and wandered back to
his old apartment complex.
Neighbors sent Jennifer a
photo of him wearing the new
backpack.
On Sep. 10, 2023, Rob mes-
saged a friend for help. He
said he had been shot.
Gone missing
“Hollywood Walk of Fame
Shooting,” a local TV station
reported. Camera footage
and giggling to himself. He showed Rob on a gurney being
showed up unexpectedly the lifted into an ambulance. Los
next day and asked to take Angeles police said he had
their boy overnight. His ex- been meditating on a Holly-
wife said no. He had just been wood sidewalk around 3 a.m.
hospitalized, she told him, and when he was struck by an er-
he was getting evicted. He rant bullet. He refused to be
said that wasn’t true. admitted to a hospital.
Rob submitted a court brief Rob instead asked a friend
in March 2023 seeking “an or- for a ride and a place to stay.
der of enforcement, findings The bullet had passed through
of contempt, and monetary, his calf. The friend brought
punitive and otherwise appro- him home and cleaned and
priate sanctions” against his dressed the wound with drug-
ex-wife for ignoring their store disinfectant, gauze and
child custody arrangement. bandages.
Rob served as his own law- Rob’s friend tricked him
yer and told the judge he was into returning to Huntington
“hospitalized under extremely Hospital, and a psychiatrist
dubious circumstances,” and sought a court order to have
that it hadn’t disrupted his Rob committed. After a judge
ability to be a good father. A ordered him into treatment,
2020 addendum to the divorce Rob appealed with lawyerly
agreement said Rob would precision. He submitted a pe-
temporarily lose custody tition for a writ of habeas cor-
rights if he became mentally pus, a legal request for re-
incapacitated. The judge, per- lease. A second judge allowed
suaded by Rob’s argument, him to leave the hospital in
agreed to a hearing. mid-October.
Rob’s ex-wife filed for a On Dec. 23, South Pasadena
protective order for their son, police got a call from a pass-
saying that Rob’s apartment erby about a man lying in a
had become unlivable and doorway on a cold night. Offi-
didn’t want their son there. cers brought Rob a comforter,
Her motion was granted. according to the police report.
During the first week of From a library, Rob re-
June last year, Sherry came to sponded to messages from the
see her son, and Rob opened Journal on March 16, saying
the door of his empty apart- he needed food and shelter.
ment. He hugged her and said Jennifer listens to Rob’s old
he was sorry for all that had voice mails, she said, wishing
happened and for causing her she could call him. She hopes
so much worry. Sherry men- he has found a safe spot in the
tioned his eviction, and Rob’s sprawl of Los Angeles County,
mood turned. He denied he among the estimated 75,000
was being evicted and homeless people living in shel-
wouldn’t let her stay. ters, cars, vacant lots and
On June 15, sheriff’s depu- freeway underpasses.
ties took possession of the At home in Virginia, Sherry
apartment. sat on Rob’s bed in his child-
Jennifer flew to California hood room on a recent day,
with her fiancé a month later looking through old photos.
She had spent months try- She stopped at a picture of
ing to convince herself that Rob at Walt Disney World,
Rob was safe. “I was making wearing Mickey Mouse ears
stories in my head,” Jennifer and a big grin. She cried.
said. She wanted to believe “I adored this child,”
that he was staying at some- Sherry said. “I still do.”
 For personal, non-commercial use only. Do not edit, alter or reproduce. For commercial reproduction or distribution, contact Dow Jones Reprints & Licensing at (800) 843-0008 or www.djreprints.com.
© 2024 Dow Jones & Company. All Rights Reserved.
PERSONAL JOURNAL.
BY ALLISON POHLE
A
rise in lost and delayed
luggage in 2022 led
airlines to focus more
on making sure your
checked bags got to
their destination. Not
every airline is getting better at
the same rate.
Overall, most major U.S. air-
lines did a better job at handling
bags in 2023 compared with 2022.
Nine major U.S. carriers mishan-
dled at a rate of 5.78 bags for ev-
ery 1,000 bags checked last year,
according to Transportation De-
partment data. That’s compared
with 6.39 bags per 1,000 bags
checked in 2022.
United was an exception. The
airline mishandled 7.35 bags for ev-
ery 1,000 checked last year, 11.4%
worse than in 2022, the data show.
It still performed better than
American Airlines, however, which
has for years brought up the rear
in terms of baggage performance.
Allegiant performed best.
Travelers judge their airlines
on many factors, from arrival time
to their loyalty programs. But
whether a traveler’s bag makes it
on time has outsize importance as
to how that traveler views their
trip, and the airline itself, say
travelers, analysts and executives.
Travelers say they are paying
more attention as airlines raise
fees on checked bags.
Just a few summers ago, bag
handling fell off as more travelers
waded through seas of lost luggage
and pinged their Apple AirTags in
desperate attempts to reclaim lost
bags. Airline executives have
brought in new tracking technology
and changed the way they load
bags to better ensure checked bags
get to where they need to go.
“If we get them there and the
bag doesn’t make it,
[there’s a] huge drop
in their perception of
the service or the
value they got from
buying a ticket on
American,” says David
Seymour, chief operat-
ing officer of Ameri-
can Airlines.
Airlines, not air-
ports, are responsible
for your bags. The
process is complicated
and filled with pitfalls.
A mishandled bag can
be lost or damaged,
but most often, it is
delayed, industry ex-
ecutives say.
The DOT data only
FROM TOP: DAISY KORPICS/THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, PIXELSQUID; ISTOCK (2)
tracks bags checked
on domestic flights.
Many bags are mis-
handled on interna-
tional routes when
travelers switch airlines and air-
ports, say the executives.
United’s fall
United fell two spots in the mishan-
dled baggage rankings, to eighth. In
a statement, the airline blamed se-
vere weather last June and July for
its poor performance in 2023.
Bridget Fillner flew from Santa
Barbara, Calif., through Denver to
Milwaukee in September. Her
checked bag, which contained her
no
How to Turn Off a Sneaky iPhone Default Setting
PERSONAL
TECHNOLOGY
JOANNA
STERN
A
pple’s newest iPhone software
has a switch turned on by de-
fault: “Discoverable by Others.”
This creepy-sounding setting is
leading people to think their name
and location are being shared with-
out their knowledge or consent.
That’s not the case, says Apple, but
you might want to
turn it off anyway.
Last year, as a part
of iOS 17.2, Apple re- Is the iPhone
leased the Journal automatically
app. You can use it to
jot down personal reminding my
notes about your day,
your life, what in-
nearby contacts
spires you. You know, I am around?
journal-y things.
You can turn on
Journaling Sugges-
tions. This recommends topics to
write about based on things your
phone (but not Apple) knows
about you—music you’ve listened
to, people you’ve called or mes-
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, APPLE
saged, photos you’ve recently
taken, places you’ve visited, etc.
You decide if you want to turn this
on. When you first launch the Jour-
nal app, it will prompt you to do
that. Those suggestions aren’t ever
shared with Apple.
Here’s where it gets weird.
Two Airlines Still Fumble
When Handling Your Baggage
on
Most of the industry is getting much better at delivering bags to your final destination
us ,
l
e
al a
ci on
er s
m er
m rp
co Fo
 One lonely piece of luggage on
an airport carousel.
toiletries and sentimental items of
clothing, never arrived.
The 33-year-old product man-
ager says she called United daily
to follow up on her claim. She
reached out to a former college
classmate who works at United in
n-
an unrelated department to see if
she could help.
When you go into Settings > Pri-
vacy & Security > Journaling Sug-
gestions, you’ll see that Discover-
able by Others is enabled by
default—even if you never turned
on suggestions. Under the setting
it says, “Allow others to detect you
are nearby to help prioritize their
suggestions.”
Uh. Why is this on by default
when the suggestions setting is off
by default? Is the iPhone automati-
cally reminding my nearby contacts
that I am around? And encouraging
them to journal about what we are
doing together?
Recently, I’ve
heard from people
who had similar wor-
ries, so I asked Apple
what’s up.
A company
spokeswoman said
claims on social me-
dia that Apple is
sharing your name
and location with
others are inaccu-
rate. The phone can use Bluetooth
to detect the number of devices
nearby that are in your contacts. It
doesn’t store which of these spe-
cific contacts were around but in-
stead may use this as context to
improve and prioritize journaling
suggestions, the spokeswoman said.
Here’s an example provided by
Apple: Say, you hosted a dinner
party at your house, with friends
who are in your contacts. The sys-
tem might prioritize that in the sug-
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
She eventually learned Denver
airport workers scanned the bag.
It hasn’t been located since. After
locating receipts for as many of
the items in the bag as she could,
Fillner received $3,800 in
compensation.
“It felt frustrating that I
couldn’t talk to anyone who was in
Denver, an actual real person who
could look for it,” she says.
Mike Klemm represents ramp
agents from both United and
gestions, as it knows from the head
count that there was something dif-
ferent about that event. It wasn’t
just your average night at home
with your family.
If you do turn on Journaling Sug-
gestions, you’ll see another setting
called “Prefer Suggestions with
ly
American airlines as president of
District 141 of the International
Association of Machinists and
Aerospace Workers union. He says
there has been massive employee
turnover since the beginning of
the pandemic: 52% of District 141’s
members, of which there are more
than 40,000 spanning many de-
partments, have under 10 years’
experience. In 2016, more than
85% of members had over 10
years’ experience.
It is tough to keep track of
thousands and thousands of bags,
especially in summer months with
storms, he says. In some cases,
training is rushed. He expects bet-
ter performance this summer be-
cause employees now have more
time on the job.
At United, there has been spe-
cial focus on baggage handling
since last summer, a company
spokeswoman said. Baggage reli-
ability improved 35% compared
with the rest of 2023 in the final
three months of the year. So far in
2024, on-time baggage delivery is
about 15% better than at this time
last year.
United started new initiatives
focused on baggage, including
forming a new bag desk team that
proactively moves bags through
the system, the spokeswoman said
in an email. United also started an
 Apple’s Journal app can
recommend topics to write about
based on things your iPhone
knows about you.
Others.” This will prioritize those
kinds of prompts. But the app won’t
dare name which “others” it’s refer-
Monday, March 25, 2024 | A11
.
initiative at airports in Newark,
N.J., Houston and Denver as well
as Chicago’s O’Hare to organize
bags on the ramp more effectively
and improve location tracking.
The airline will soon open a new
baggage system at its Houston
hub that can process 40 bags a
minute, she said.
In the cellar again
American, which has ranked last in
baggage handling every year this
decade, improved in 2023. Ameri-
can Airlines mishandled 7.61 bags
per 1,000 bags checked, according
to Transportation Department data.
Its rate of mishandled bags de-
creased 13.33% from 2022. Seymour,
the chief operating officer, predicts
his airline will avoid a repeat last-
place finish next year.
He pointed to recent improve-
ments, like more overhead-bin
space on new and retrofitted
planes.
American has changed how it
loads bags, too. Luggage belonging
to passengers with the shortest
connection time gets loaded last,
Seymour says. American has also
focused on its hub at Dallas-Fort
Worth, where each terminal has
its own system. In February, the
mishandled baggage rate there im-
proved 50% compared with a year
prior, a spokeswoman says.
ring to. What it can’t do
is give you the ability to
track other people or
devices, or let other
people track you.
(That’s already what
Find My does anyway.)
Even if this all makes
sense to avid journalers
(I haven’t met any), why
does Apple have “dis-
coverable” on by de-
fault? Why not just ask
me when I turn on Jour-
naling Suggestions?
The spokeswoman
said this is done so us-
ers get this benefit, re-
gardless of whether
their friends and people
around them are using
the Journal app or not.
Basically, Apple knows
this new app isn’t likely
to be used by the
masses right away, so it
turned on this service
to give its earliest users
a journaling boost.
If you don’t want
your device to be in-
cluded in that tally of
nearby contacts for oth-
ers, you can toggle it off. Just re-
member that leaving it on won’t tell
your friends—or Apple—anything
about you personally. And if you
want more info on this, see this Ap-
ple support page. Or maybe just
take my journaling suggestion and
buy a nice Moleskine notebook.
 For personal, non-commercial use only. Do not edit, alter or reproduce. For commercial reproduction or distribution, contact Dow Jones Reprints & Licensing at (800) 843-0008 or www.djreprints.com.
A12 | Monday, March 25, 2024
Getting Beauty Tips From China
Xiaohongshu, a mix of Instagram and Reddit, is a destination for personal-style advice
BY SHA HUA
AND RACHEL LIANG
Y
oung
Americans,
fed up
with U.S.
social me-
dia and its
fake compliments
and flagrant insults,
are looking for some-
thing revolutionary:
honest but civil feed-
back. And they’re
turning to a Chinese
app for it.
No, not TikTok.
Xiaohongshu is a
mix of Instagram
and Reddit, a life-
style bible for over
300 million monthly
users seeking beauty,
shopping, travel and
life advice. In China,
anyone looking for a
restaurant review, a
how-to guide or a
trip itinerary is
likely to fire up the
app. But U.S. teens
and 20-somethings
are downloading it
to get in on a new beauty trend.
Users clutching a sign with the
Chinese characters “tingquan,”
meaning “listening to advice,” in-
vite others to weigh in on how to
improve their appearance. Com-
menters can write in tips, but they
also post images of hairdos or
fashions. Sometimes they even
edit advice seekers’ photos to
 On Xiaohongshu’s main feed,
users post about topics such as
tea prices and rental cars.
no
They Took
A Pay Cut—
And They
Are Happier
BY JOE PINSKER
W
hen Daisy Almaguer took a
$50,000 pay cut, she cele-
brated with martinis.
The 33-year-old left a job in tech
making $150,000 a year because she
was burned out from working 12-
hour days. Switching to a job that
was less intense at a different tech
company last year freed her up to
do more cooking, exercising and re-
laxing with her fiancé and their dog.
“When I was making that money,
I didn’t have time to spend it,” said
Almaguer. “I really am happy be-
cause I got my time back.”
Americans quit their jobs at rela-
tively high rates during the past
few years. Many chose less work
for less money. Careers became less
central to people’s lives and identi-
ties during the pandemic, and some
say taking a pay cut gave them a
raise in other areas, such as time
and autonomy over their days. They
also pursued work that brought
them more fulfillment.
With some hindsight, many who
could afford the financial sacrifice
now say it was worth it.
PERSONAL JOURNAL.
show how they will look with the
improved styles.
Unlike most alternatives, espe-
cially in the West, feedback can be
unsettlingly direct, but tends to be
more constructive than hurtful.
The hashtag #tingquan has at-
tracted more than 500 million
views, in China and beyond.on
“People are so politically cor-
rect these days that they are
afraid to speak what’s on their
mind in fear of being socially can-
us ,
celed,” said Candise Lin, who
l
makes explainer videos about the
e
al a
newest Chinese social-
media trends for her
nearly two million follow-
ci on
ers on TikTok, Instagram
and YouTube.
In China, people are
more straightforward,
sometimes even brutally
er s
honest, but they mean
well, said Lin, who emi-
m er
grated from China to Cali-
fornia two decades ago.
She thinks people on U.S.
social media can be ex-
cessively complimentary.
m rp
That’s why young users
who want real talk about
their appearance and per-
sonal style are now look-
ing elsewhere.
co Fo
That candid feedback
highlights “a gap in the
Western social-media
ecosystem,” said Hanyu
Liu, a Shanghai-based
market analyst at Daxue
Consulting.
Meta Platforms domi-
nates social media in the
U.S. and around the
world, with more than
3.19 billion daily active us-
ers across its apps. But
n-
access to them—and many
other Western apps—has
been blocked in China.
Companies there have de-
veloped their own social-
Paychecks, on average, have
been growing at a faster pace
than usual, and the pandemic
brought a rare opportunity for
big pay bumps when switching
jobs. But 15% of workers who
switched jobs between late
2020 and 2022 said that their
pay and benefits decreased,
according to survey data from
the Federal Reserve.
A smaller paycheck can be
an adjustment, and not just fi-
nancially. When Roger Sarkis
traded a demanding career in
tech for lower-paying work in
state government in 2021, the
loss of pay and prestige sent
him into a monthslong de-
pression. “I have become func-
tionally worth less to society,”
said Sarkis, a 38-year-old in
Provo, Utah. “At one point, my
skills and background were valued
at $120,000 a year. Now they’re val-
ued at $50,000 a year.”
Sarkis had left his job in tech be-
cause it stressed him out and re-
quired him to be constantly reach-
able, sometimes in the middle of the
night. He said his wife’s pay later in-
creased, which eased the transition.
He said he is much happier now,
and more fulfilled by his work. He
currently teaches courses at a local
university and runs a small business.
One recent weekday, he took a
break in a sauna. “I sat in there for
45 minutes. Nobody’s texting me.
Nobody’s emailing,” he said.
Though pay cuts are often un-
pleasant, 40% of workers who took
jobs with lower pay and benefits
 A Xiaohongshu user edited
Arna Guðlaugardóttir’s photo to
demonstrate makeup advice.
media sites, which have attracted
1.2 billion users, and rarely expand
beyond China’s virtual walls. Tik-
Tok is the notable exception.
Meta is known for copying the
formats and features of other so-
cial networks. But copying culture
is more difficult, said Liu.
Brutal honesty, please
Xiaohongshu (pronounced shau-
hong-shoo) began in Shanghai in
2013 as an app for Chinese travel-
ers seeking shopping tips. It
evolved into a user-generated en-
cyclopedia covering all aspects of
life, even how to get through preg-
nancy or recover from divorce.
Its literal name—“Little Red
Book”—is the nickname for Mao
Zedong’s selected speeches, but
users don’t associate the app with
Maoism, Liu said. “It
used to be the name of
China’s ideological bi-
ble. Now it’s China’s
lifestyle bible.”
The Xiaohongshu
community’s bluntness
doesn’t bother the new
non-Chinese users, who
say they don’t even get
that kind of feedback
from close friends.
“In the West, the po-
lite way to respond to
such questions is ‘You
look great no matter
what,’” said Miko
Hayashi, 37, a Japanese
American who lives in
Tokyo.
She downloaded Xi-
aohongshu in early Feb-
ruary. Soon after she
posted her first photos asking for
glow-up advice, comments came
flooding in, including one that
between late 2020
and 2022 said that
their new job was Americans quit
better than their last their jobs at
one, according to a
research paper by relatively high
federal-government
rates during the
economists published
last month. past few years.
Of job-switchers
whose pay fell during
that rough time
frame, many were laid off. But 42%
said they opted for better work-life
balance, work they are more inter-
ested in or employers that better
embody their values, according to a
Prudential Financial survey.
Amelia Noël, a career coach in
New York City, said that when cli-
suggested making her eyebrows
and hair the same color. Some
even photoshopped images of her
to show how bold red lips or an-
other hair color would look.
In Poland, Arna Guðlaugardót-
tir, a 25-year-old veterinary-medi-
 Miko Hayashi posted a
#tingquan sign to ask for glow-up
advice and shared the results.
ents in industries like
tech and finance con-
sider a switch to a
lower-paid and less-
intense job, she has
them first try what
they can to feel less
miserable in their cur-
rent role.
For example, she
helps them rewrite
mental narratives
that can fuel stress and overwork,
such as feeling like they aren’t pro-
ductive enough or aren’t as compe-
tent as their co-workers. About half
of clients conclude that they can be
happy in their current job after do-
ing exercises like these, she said.
The other half determines it is time
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
cine student, said she had tried
Reddit for hair and styling advice
before but found most comments
toxic.
On Reddit, people advised her
to get plastic surgery. On Xiao-
hongshu, community members said
she should ditch her black ward-
robe and wear more pink neutrals
to brighten her complexion. They
recommended bangs to downplay
her relatively large forehead.
Guðlaugardóttir now has an ap-
pointment with her hairdresser.
Global appeal?
Z.J. Rubin, a 16-year-old high-
school student from Pittsburgh,
said his interest in Chinese culture
has spurred him to try different
Chinese social-media apps. While
many have ID requirements that
make it difficult for users outside
China to register, all he needed for
Xiaohongshu was a non-Chinese
phone number.
Rubin joined the #tingquan
campaign in February after seeing
other users do it. He said he was
touched by the kindness of the
strangers who encouraged him to
be more confident and told him to
sleep more, as they thought he
looked tired.
Users outside of China can’t take
full advantage of the platform,
however. There isn’t a built-in
translation tool and the in-app wal-
let can only be linked to Chinese
payment systems. Like the other
users The Wall Street Journal
spoke to, Rubin doesn’t read or
speak Chinese, and uses translation
software to post and read feedback.
Xiaohongshu didn’t respond to
requests for comment.
.
Growing the U.S. user base
seems riskier than it might have
ly
been in the past. TikTok, owned
by the Chinese company Byte-
Dance, is facing a pos-
sible ban in the U.S.,
following a vote in the
House of Representa-
tives. Given that bill
and a move by the Bi-
den administration to
investigate foreign-
made software, other
apps that originate in
China could also face
restrictions.
Zaria MaBon, a 22-
year-old public-health
student in Atlanta,
moderates a style ad-
vice forum on Discord, a
free messaging plat-
form. She discovered Xi-
aohongshu three years
ago, when a friend told
her that it was “like In-
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, ARNA GUDHLAUGARDÓTTIR (2); MIKO HAYASHI (2)
stagram, only better.”
MaBon is Black, so when she
asked for styling tips, she braced
herself for “racist abuse and body
shaming.” She said on other plat-
forms, people have told her to
bleach her skin. On Xiaohongshu,
however, she received “blunt but
helpful” feedback.
Many users complimented Ma-
Bon on her figure, telling her she
didn’t need to lose weight but
could enhance her look simply
through makeup, styling and exer-
cise. “I feel you should consider a
heavier eyeliner and more mascara
because your eyelashes are barely
noticeable at the moment,” wrote
one user.
“It was the first place where I
didn’t get nasty comments,”
MaBon said.
—Clarence Leong
contributed to this article.
to bail, even if there are fi-
nancial consequences.
“When you remove that
drive to chase that bigger pay-
check, you learn to be more
satisfied with what you have,”
said David Nitchman, a 55-
year-old in West Newbury,
Mass.
He took a pay cut in 2018
when he left a career in mar-
keting to follow his dream of
teaching high school.
Helping his economics stu-
dents master tricky concepts
they had been struggling with,
he said, has given him a sense
of purpose that hitting corpo-
rate benchmarks never did.
Deciding to take a 30% pay
cut led Dustin Stapp, a 39-
year-old engineering manager
at an electric utility, to hold
off replacing his 12-year-old Chevy
Volt.
He and his wife, who live in
Tempe, Ariz., also started buying
less cashews and other items dur-
ing Costco runs. The couple also
saved about $2,500 annually after
ELENA SCOTTI/THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, ISTOCK (3)
shopping around for new providers
for home insurance, car insurance
and cell service.
Stapp recently took a long lunch
break to watch his daughter in a pa-
rade at her preschool, something he
couldn’t have done in his last role.
Roughly half of American work-
ers say that they would be willing
to take a 20% pay cut if it let them
better prioritize their quality of life,
according to a 2023 survey commis-
sioned by Ford Motor Company.
 For personal, non-commercial use only. Do not edit, alter or reproduce. For commercial reproduction or distribution, contact Dow Jones Reprints & Licensing at (800) 843-0008 or www.djreprints.com.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
Radiantly Modern
A show highlights the underappreciated, colorful work of Sonia Delaunay
BY LANCE ESPLUND
S
New York
onia Delaunay
(1885-1979) was as inno-
vative, influential and
prolific a designer as she
was a painter. In 1912,
she and her husband, the
abstract painter and theorist Rob-
ert (1885-1941), were the first Pari-
sians to paint purely abstractly.
She created, for their newborn son,
the earliest abstract textile—the
multicolor patchwork-fabric crib
cover “Couverture (Blanket)”
(1911). And the wooden toy box
“Coffret à Jouets” (1913)—the first
abstract painted object. Her col-
laged, mixed-media book covers
(1912-13)—including that for Blaise
Cendrars’s poem “Les Pâques à
New York” (1913)—heralded the in-
vention of abstract graphic design.
Delaunay also created ground-
breaking books, posters, typefaces
and playing cards; sets and cos-
tumes for stage and film; interiors,
home furnishings, stained glass and
even the jovial, multicolored-check-
erboard surfaces and upholstery of
automobiles. But she remains un-
derknown and underappreciated.
Bard Graduate Center’s “Sonia
Delaunay: Living Art,” a kaleido-
scopic survey of some 200 works—
including rarely seen clothing, fur-
niture, jewelry, mosaics,
documentary photographs and
films, and a painted-plastic scale-
model car—intends to redress that
oversight. Some designs, such as
the black-and-white silk “Serpent
Scarf” (1924/1978); the large wool
tapestry, “Rythmes Couleurs ou
Panneau F 1898” (1973/1975); and
her shimmering costume design
for the role of Cleopatra (1918), are
graphic, bold, carnivalesque. Other
abstract textiles—diaphanous,
twinkling—favor springtime,
autumnal or aquatic hues.
Co-curated by Laura Microu-
lis, at Bard, and Waleria Dor-
ogova, an independent art
historian, the lavish exhibi-
tion and its doorstop catalog
constitute the first serious
U.S. appraisal in over 20
years.
Born Sarah Elievna Stern
to poor Jewish parents in
Odessa, Ukraine, then part of
the Russian Empire, Delau-
nay was adopted, at age 5, by
her wealthy Russian aunt
and uncle, Anna and Genrikh
Terk, who reared her in St.
Petersburg as Sonia Terk.
She studied painting in Ger-
many and, in 1906, moved to
Paris. After an arranged mar-
riage failed, she wed Robert
BARD GRADUATE CENTER (3)
in 1910. In 1917, her generous
‘Rythmes Couleurs ou
Panneau F 1898’ (1973/1975),
a wool tapestry.
MUSIC REVIEW
no
Songs of Ritual
And Restoration
BY LARRY BLUMENFELD
F
lutes blow, like distant chimes
in a changing breeze. Synthe-
sizers issue gong-like tones
and rippling currents. A bass gently
throbs. Luring listeners in, leading
them through this sonic blend, at
first with calm and lovely phrases
and then growing intensity, is gana-
vya, whose singing voice holds as-
tonishing appeal.
On “not in an anthropological
mood,” the opening
track of her new re-
lease, “like the sky I’ve
been too quiet” (Na- A meditative
tive Rebel, out now), new album
ganavya beckons,
pleads, asks, answers, blends diverse
whispers and declares.
She sings pure long
languages and
tones that move in traditions.
straight lines or soar
into majestic arcs.
When her phrases re-
lease into tendrils of melisma, she
indicates more than ornamentation;
she’s guiding the music. If all this
feels like a ritual being enacted, it is.
Here, ganavya sings in Tamil, the
native language of her parents’
birthplace in southern India. Born in
New York, she spent her early child-
hood in Jacksonville, Fla. She moved
to India when she was 7 years old—
first to a small village, Sengottai,
RICKY WEAVER
and later to the city of Chennai.
There, she began practicing the
varkari sampradaya, a pilgrimage
ARTS IN REVIEW
ART REVIEW
allowance was cut off during the
Russian Revolution. As the family’s
sole breadwinner, she practiced—
sometimes for multiple years at a
stretch—largely commercial art.
BGC is dedicated to the study of
decorative arts, material culture
and design history. Unsurprisingly,
“Living Art,” eschewing her forma-
tive Fauvist years, highlights Delau-
nay the postwar designer—not the
painter. Among scant paintings
here is the strong geometric ab-
stract oil “Rythme Couleur (no.
1633)” (1970), a bisected plane
comprising flat, colored rectangles,
circles, half-circles, triangles and
lines.
on
Despite its dearth of painting,
the exhibition—overflowing with
arabesques of ebullient color—
touches on nearly every aspect of
Delaunay’s multifaceted universe.
us ,
Here are several seminal works, in-
l
cluding “Coffret à Jouets”; the
e
al a
nearly abstract wool embroidery on
canvas “Broderie de Feuillages”
ci on
er s
m er
m rp
co Fo
n-
tradition during which participants
walk for days at a time toward a
temple, singing their way to their
destination. The text of her opening
track here, the pasāyadan, is “a
poem you sing to bring strength
back into your bones, water to your
eyes, feeling to your body,” she
wrote in an email from Irvine, Calif.,
where she now lives. “I am wailing
myself back into being.”
These 13 tracks also reflect an-
other restorative process. In Decem-
ber 2022, ganavya
fell ill with Covid-19.
She called one friend,
the alto saxophonist
Immanuel Wilkins, on
whose next recording
she will be featured,
who brought her
soup. She called an-
other friend, the
multi-instrumentalist
Shabaka Hutchings,
who invited her to
London, to record, as soon as she
felt up to it. By the first week of
January 2023, ganavya was at Liv-
ingston Studios, where Mr. Hutch-
ings introduced her to some of his
favorite musicians, including two
masters of electronics and synthe-
sizers: John Burton, better known
as Leafcutter John, and Sam Shep-
herd, aka Floating Points.
Mr. Hutchings, who produced this
new release—and whose playing
here on various flutes (sometimes
more than one at a time, over-
Sonia Delaunay’s ‘Coffret à Jouets’
(1913), above, and ‘Broderie de
Feuillages’ (1909), right, two of the
roughly 200 works in the show at
Bard Graduate Center.
(1909); and the roughly seven-foot-
long, painted vertical lithographic
scroll (folded accordion-style) “La
Prose du Transsibérien et de la Pe-
tite Jehanne de France” (1913) and
its hand-painted cover-wrapper.
Comprising 12 multicolored type-
faces, a Michelin railway map and a
rainbow of whirling color, “La
Prose du Transsibérien” transforms
Cendrars’s epic travel-poem into
modernism’s first abstract prose-
painting—fusing color and text.
The show also features mile-
stones never before exhibited in the
U.S., including “Robe Simultanée,”
or “Simultaneous Dress” (1913).
The earliest piece of abstract cloth-
ing—and, therefore, modern art’s
initial launch into everyday life—
dubbed) is credited to an alter-ego,
Kofi Flexxx—earned acclaim playing
saxophone and clarinet in popular
bands, including the propulsive Sons
of Kemet and the Comet Is Coming,
a synth-driven, Afrofuturistic en-
semble. Yet after picking up the
shakuhachi, an end-blown bamboo
flute, a few years ago, Mr. Hutch-
ings set aside his saxophone and
has since focused on meditative,
free-flowing musical encounters.
During three days of recording,
there was little conversation and no
planned repertoire. Then Mr. Hutch-
ings edited the more than 10 hours
of resulting material into distinct
tracks—“13 slivers from an infinite
ocean of sound that never ends,”
ganavya called them. In this way,
her new release reflects the other
ritual in which she is fully im-
mersed—of modern improvising mu-
sicians, whose pilgrimages also in-
volve faith, humility and a
communal sense of purpose.
“Robe Simultanée” is a full-length,
variously colored patchwork of geo-
metric-shaped scrap material (fur,
wool, velvet, satin), with a black
parachute-silk hip-bustle. Delau-
nay—who embraced the emotional
power and primacy of pure color—
envisioned everything, including
fashion, through the eyes of a
painter. Rather than design a pat-
tern and drape the body, like cover-
ing furniture, she conceived of the
dynamic human figure (and acces-
sories such as scarves, hats and
bags) as a kinetic, abstract
relief-sculpture—a perfor-
mative ensemble in which
layered, rhythmic patterns
and colors move, overlap
and interact.
Delaunay referred to her
abstractions as “Simultane-
ity” or “Simultaneous Con-
trasts.” And I can think of
few artists, with the excep-
tion of Piet Mondrian, who
did so much with so little.
Simultaneity was an eco-
nomical but infinitely fruit-
ful approach to geometric
painting and design. Delau-
nay treated the flat canvas,
page or fabric as a mallea-
ble plane on top of and
within which her flat geo-
metric forms are brought
instantaneously—simulta-
neously—to the foreground.
Her purely abstract orches-
trations bisect, interlock
and interlace unmodulated
color shapes (circles, half-
circles, rectangles, stripes,
 The singer ganavya, whose new
release, ‘like the sky I’ve been too
quiet,’ is out now.
She has long been a sought-after
collaborator. Hers was the breathy
counterpoint to esperanza spalding’s
vocals on the Grammy-winning
“Songwrights Apothecary Lab” and
the riveting voice on percussionist
Rajna Swaminathan’s acclaimed
2019 album, “Of Agency and Ab-
straction.” She nearly stole the show
at the first live performance by the
British collective SAULT last Decem-
ber. Her close association with di-
rector Peter Sellars will result in an-
other recording, co-produced by Mr.
Sellars, and an opera, “Nine Jewelled
Deer,” with composer Sivan Eldar,
scheduled to debut at Festival d’Aix-
en-Provence in 2025.
On “like the sky I’ve been too
quiet,” ganavya draws upon a wide
range of texts—ancient and recent
poetry and, in one case, the slogan
Monday, March 25, 2024 | A13
.
triangles, spirals, zigzags) as syn-
copated color movements. In her
ly
deceptively simple, childlike paint-
ings and designs, there exists no
depth or recession; no foreground
or background; no before or after—
no time. We experience everything
all at once—right here, right now.
“Living Art,” according to press
materials and wall texts, “illumi-
nates Delaunay’s ingenious strate-
gies of promotion and branding”
and explores “the materiality, mak-
ing, and marketing” of her work.
Visually, it’s a triumph. But it’s not
the full story. Delaunay made no hi-
erarchical distinctions between her
painting and design. But she also
wrote in her 1978 autobiography:
“The world of business has always
filled me with horror and disgust.”
It would be unfortunate if Bard
viewers came away thinking that
commercial art, not painting—
color, light—was Delaunay’s chief
love and ambition. “Do you begin
by coming up with an overall de-
sign?” Delaunay was asked, in 1974.
“No, no. Color is everything,” she
replied. “I paint from morning until
evening . . . a new way of painting,
where color is a living element that
exists in and of itself, that has its
own life.”
Sonia Delaunay: Living Art
Bard Graduate Center, through July 7
Mr. Esplund, the author of “The Art
of Looking: How to Read Modern
and Contemporary Art” (Basic
Books), writes about art for the
Journal.
on a motivational poster.
She sings in four lan-
guages and through
wordless improvisations.
And she is presented in
a variety of musical con-
texts. A few tracks, in-
cluding “seal,” find her
fitting phrases within
quickly flickering synthe-
sizer patterns. “I walk
again, eyes towards the
Sky” sounds like a chant,
set to Kadialy Kouyate’s
graceful figures on kora,
a 21-string West African
instrument. “Forgive me
my,” a duet with harpist
Alina Bzhezhinska, lies
somewhere between a
ballad and a lullaby. For
two tracks, ganavya and
Mr. Hutchings walked to
a highway underpass
carrying just a shakahachi and a
Zoom recorder. Here, the whooshes
and buzzes are from traffic above,
not electronics, and the feeling is of
two close friends stealing away to
invent melodies.
The album begins with allusions
to Indian pilgrimage tradition. On
“(sister said) home is a direction,”
ganavya sings of “slow steps” head-
ing “in the right direction.” On “call
her by her name, enheduanna,” she
recites an English translation of an
ancient poem, repeating one line
three times: “Your feet are continu-
ally restless.” Complete as it sounds,
ganavya’s new music is just one
stop along a singular path through a
landscape of modern music, defined
by shared new experiences and
filled with memories of her past.
Mr. Blumenfeld writes about jazz
and Afro-Latin music for the
Journal and is editorial director for
Chamber Music America.
 For personal, non-commercial use only. Do not edit, alter or reproduce. For commercial reproduction or distribution, contact Dow Jones Reprints & Licensing at (800) 843-0008 or www.djreprints.com.

A14 | Monday, March 25, 2024 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

SPORTS
The Hottest Team in Basketball
BY LAINE HIGGINS
AND ROBERT O’CONNELL

Two weeks ago, the North Car-

olina State Wolfpack were just an- No. 10 seed North Carolina State continued its improbable run by advancing to the Sweet 16
other mediocre team with a losing
conference record. They were
headed nowhere fast.
Now they’re headed to the
NCAA tournament’s Sweet 16 and
may rightfully be considered the
hottest team in basketball.
This is what it looks like when a
team forgets how to lose. NC State
barely squeaked into its conference
tournament as a 10-seed, then stole
a March Madness bid by winning
five games in as many days. The
Wolfpack upset No. 6 Texas Tech in
the tournament’s first round and
then continued their blistering
streak Saturday by knocking off No.
14 Oakland in overtime, 79-73.
The 11-seeded Wolfpack will ad-
vance to their first Sweet 16 since
2015, having now amassed its lon-
gest win streak of the season at ex-
actly the right time. They’ll face No.
2 seed Marquette in the Sweet 16.
“Our guys just find ways to
win,” Wolfpack coach Kevin Keatts
said after the final buzzer. “I’m
starting to get impressed with
them.”
This improbable run is giving
shades of the 1983 team that
earned the nickname “Cardiac
Pack.” That team, led by coach
Jimmy Valvano, went on a miracle
run to the championship, where
they knocked off the Houston team
of Phi Slamma Jamma fame. Now,

JOE SARGENT/GETTY IMAGES

as then, this Wolfpack team is liv-
ing the credo made famous by
“Coach V”—to never, ever, ever give
up.

.
Against Oakland on Saturday,
they needed all of that tenacity and

then some. Whenever NC State
opened up a lead, one of the Golden
Grizzlies’ sharpshooters sunk a
three. More often than not, that was
Jack Gohlke, who tied the NCAA re-
cord for most 3-pointers made in
the opening two games with 16.
But the Wolfpack have a star of
North Carolina State, led by DJ Burns Jr., beat Oakland, 79-73, in overtime in the second round of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.
on
for a 3-pointer with just over a
minute remaining in overtime, put
the Wolfpack up five points. The
score would never get closer than
us ,
the year, dropping its final four
games of the regular season.
Then something clicked. The
Wolfpack beat Duke in the third
ly
two games of the NCAA tourna-
ment, he’s worn the same pair of
shoes he’d had on during the
than Keatts. According to USA To-
day, the coach automatically got a
two-year extension and a major
Wolfpack’s ACC tournament run, raise of roughly $400,000 for win-

their own: DJ Burns Jr., a hefty that. round of the ACC tournament, and which put NC State with elite ning the ACC. His contract with
l

center with a velvet smooth game. “This is what we worked for all then notched an overtime win company. the university now runs until
e
al a

Standing 6-foot-9 and weighing year,” Burns said. “Every moment against Virginia the very next day. Only one other team had won 2030. Keatts also got a $100,000
275 pounds, Burns was the fulcrum of doubt, every moment where we When they knocked off top-seeded as many games in as many days bonus for winning the league and
of the NC State offense, scoring on easily could have gave up, we kept North Carolina to win the confer- entering the NCAA tournament: will get more for every NCAA
ci on

an array of off-the-glass hook
shots and outta-my-way post
moves. When the Oakland defense
collapsed on him, Burns simply
flicked the ball out to open shoot-
playing, and that’s why we’re here.”
There were plenty of moments
when those doubts were com-
pletely reasonable. Before the ACC
tournament ignited the unlikely
er s
ence championship, they were play-
ing their fifth game in five days.
“I’ve got a lot of young men
who are fighting and hungry,” Ke-
atts said.
Connecticut in 2011. That Huskies
team, a No. 3 seed led by Kemba
Walker, ended up winning the
whole thing.
As memorable as NC State’s
tournament game his team wins.
It might be enough to buy a
new pair of shoes—if he ever
deigns to change his footwear.
“This run we’ve been on,” Ke-

ers at the 3-point arc. win streak, NC State actually suf- Keatts isn’t about to let the dream run has been for its play- atts said late Saturday night, “is
A Burns assist to Jayden Taylor, fered its longest losing streak of good luck run out. Over the first ers, no one stands to benefit more really, really good.”
m er

The WSJ Daily Crossword | Edited by Mike Shenk

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 29 Designer From the Hospital to F1 Winner
m rp

Lauren
14 15 16 30 “Benjamin” BY JOSHUA ROBINSON three-time world champion Grand Prix on March 9 and
17 18 19 31 Percolate Max Verstappen. And Aus- missed the race. Nearly ev-
slowly The biggest news that tralia seemed set to deliver ery moment since then has
co Fo

20 21 22 Carlos Sainz received over more of the same. No one been devoted to healing.
32 Neighbor of
the Formula One offseason was expecting the stiffest “The reason why athletes
23 24 25 26 Thailand
was that his Ferrari team challenge to come from a recover faster is because you
33 Thunder planned to let him go. He’d guy recovering from an ap- can dedicate 24 hours per
27 28 29 30 31 32 sound have 2024 in the famous red pendectomy. day, seven days a week to
car and, after that, he’d be But Sainz, who was the recovery,” Sainz said.
33 34 35 36 37 34 Bear or Berra on his own. only non-Red Bull driver to Which is exactly what he
35 Nile reptile Then, a matter of weeks win a single race last sea- did. Sainz’s routine included
38 39 40 after his bosses turned on son, is treating this cam- hour-long stints in hyper-
39 Cops, in slang him, Sainz’s body turned on paign like one long audition. baric chambers for oxygen
41 42 43 40 Feeding time him too. Just one race into He knows that he will be re- therapy (twice a day) and
protectors the new season, his appen- placed at Ferrari next year radio-frequency therapy that
44 45 46 dix flared up and needed to by seven-time world cham- promotes healing. He sched-
n-

42 Barbershop be removed. Less than two pion Lewis Hamilton and uled every aspect of his day,
47 48 49 50 offering weeks ago, he was recover- needs to make an impression including walks, bed rest,
43 Horse ing in hospital. on some other team. meals, and sleep according
51 52 53 54 55 56 57 But on Sunday in Mel- “I’m still without a job to advice from an interna-
features
no

bourne, Sainz pulled off two for next year,” Sainz said. tional team of doctors. At
58 59 60 45 Rings minor miracles. Not only did “So I guess this is going to times, it felt like he had as
solemnly he squeeze his bandaged help it.” many specialists fine-tuning
61 62 63 body back into the cockpit of Sainz, who started in sec- his recovery as his car.
46 Comerica
Park team an F1 car to race at 200 ond place, had been bracing When Sainz boarded his
64 65 66 miles an hour, he also won to spend the race in a dog- flight to Australia, he said
49 Make fun of the Australian Grand Prix. fight with Verstappen. But he could still barely move
“Life sometimes is crazy,” the battle lasted only a few his midriff—hardly ideal for
BOARD MEETING | By Kelly Ball 50 Letter before
said Sainz, a 29-year-old minutes. After Sainz over- coping with the G-forces of
beta
Across 36 Track 62 Furious 12 Merle from Spain. “Long days in took Verstappen on Lap 2, driving a Formula One car.
divisions feeling Haggard’s 51 Overhaul bed, not knowing if I was the Red Bull developed a But by the time he landed,
1 Calf-length going to be back in brake issue and caught fire. nearly a day later, he was
“___From 52 Roasting site
skirt 37 Fluffy scarf 63 Gray in the time…Am I going to be back Verstappen had to retire his encouraged enough by his
Muskogee”
5 Taunts face 53 “In ___veritas” fit? Am I going to be back car and failed to finish a progress to return gingerly
38 Handed-down
13 Letter after still feeling good with the Grand Prix for the first time behind the wheel and race.
10 Full range history 64 Wallet bills 54 Therefore
epsilon car?” since 2022. “I think everybody knows
14 Wedding 39 Series 65 Workshop 55 Stagger Few in F1 were more sur- After that, Sainz’s tough- Carlos’s worth in the pad-
opener array 18 Bale
words cincher prised by Sainz’s third ca- est task was managing his dock,” said Sainz’s Ferrari
57 Items teammate Charles Leclerc,
40 Doofus 66 Casserole reer victory in nearly 200 pace, his tires, and the bit of
15 Dated ditty 24 Hold power finishing 17-, starts than Sainz himself. his body that had been sewn who finished second. “And
bits 27-, 44- and
16 Shoe brand 41 In the past The sport is an era of nearly up barely two weeks earlier. he’s been extremely strong
Down 25 Frost, for 59-Across untouchable dominance by He underwent surgery just every time he was in a For-
named for a 42 Take for a example
victory 59 Marbling, in the Red Bull team led by before the Saudi Arabian mula One car.”
different use 1 In pristine
goddess condition, to 26 Connections meat
43 Blends
17 •Late for a collector 28 “The Waste 60 Beanie or
work? 44 •Treat Land” writer beret
2 Figure of
19 “Right away, 47 Able to see speech Previous Puzzle’s Solution
boss!” right through A Z U L B Y N A M E C X I
3 Accepted
48 Photo- doctrine T O N E R E I N E R L E T
20 Five-time I O U S I O N I A N O N O
Super Bowl sharing site, E MM A DW E L L I N G O N
4 “Sorta”
MVP Brady familiarly B L E S S E E G
5 Kidded N A C R E S S A S H I M I
21 Part of an eye 51 Criticized O S H E A E V I L I N O N
or an egg continually 6 Like some B T U F U N E R A L G T E
textbook E A R L MO T E A C U T E
22 Concept 53 Brink L Y C E UM S S C O P E D
publishing
H S N P I P E D
XPB.CC LIMITED/ACTION PRESS/ZUMA PRESS

23 Organizing 56 Antlered D A Y S T O C O M E I R O N
7 Clean up copy
whiz Kondo animal J Q A A N O I S E C O R E
8 Teeming E U R C U R L E D I B E X
25 Christmas 58 Nefarious D A D K P D U T Y L O O T
aroma 9 Filming
59 •Steps taken The contest answer is MNEMONIC. 12 grid
location
27 •On a leash, in an answers start with alphabetically symmetrical
letter pairs, forming a pattern that begins
say emergency? 10 Bless with oil with AZUL, BYNAME and CXI . The rest are
DWELLING ON, EVIL, FUNERAL, GTE, HSN,
33 Rinse or spin, 61 Farmer’s 11 Dangerous IRON, JQA, KPDUTY and LOOT. The final two
for a washer place, in song situation letters to complete the pattern are MN,
suggesting (in conjunction with the title) the
▶ Solve this puzzle online and discuss it at WSJ.com/Puzzles. contest answer. After recovering from an appendectomy, Carlos Sainz won the Australian Grand Prix.
 For personal, non-commercial use only. Do not edit, alter or reproduce. For commercial reproduction or distribution, contact Dow Jones Reprints & Licensing at (800) 843-0008 or www.djreprints.com.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
OPINION
Cuba Is Starving Its People
Cubans took
last week to
the streets of
Santiago, and
other smaller
cities on the
AMERICAS eastern side
By Mary
of the island,
to protest ex-
Anastasia
treme food
O’Grady
and medicine
shortages and
power outages. Some chanted
“libertad” and “patria y vida.”
The crowds mocked govern-
ment officials.
In many ways it was a re-
play of July 11, 2021, when
antigovernment protests ex-
ploded spontaneously across
the island. Except this time
Havana was prepared. It’s
well aware of the hardship it
created with its March 1 aus-
terity package, sharply in-
creasing food and fuel prices,
and it anticipated the popular
upheaval. Part of its planned
response was to frame itself
for international media as a
kinder, gentler military dicta-
torship victimized by U.S.
Cuba policy.
Step one was to cut off
cellphone and internet signals
immediately to stop the rapid
dissemination of live events.
Video of goons beating the tar
out of unarmed civilians, as
happened three summers ago
during islandwide protests,
would have embarrassed U.S.
lawmakers like Rep. James
McGovern (D., Mass.), who
use their seats on Capitol Hill
to argue the regime’s case
against Cuba sanctions. It’s
also no way to win over ethi-
cal members of Congress.
The Lost Era of Reliability
Photoshop-
ping the
then-missing
princess of
Wales. The
press twist-
ing Donald
INSIDE
Trump’s
VIEW
“bloodbath”
By Andy
comment out
Kessler
of context.
AT&T Wire-
less down for hours. And
(gasp!) Instagram offline. Is
anything reliable anymore?
Reliability is a lost art. Our
electricity used to be so
steady that plugged-in wall
clocks rarely needed adjust-
ing. That’s funny now because
power outages are so com-
monplace. Heck, we now
schedule rolling blackouts in
California—forced failure.
Back then, the electric grid
and phone system were de-
signed for “five 9s” or
99.999% reliability—five min-
utes of unscheduled downtime
a year. Last month, AT&T’s
cellular network went down
for around 11 hours. No Tik-
Tok? The horror. AT&T pro-
vided $5 credits to customers.
Thanks for nothing. Today’s
reality is that we’re precondi-
tioned to accept failure.
no
When did things change?
My guess is after the July
13-14, 1977, New York City
blackout, which happened
during a heat wave. The result
was fires, looting and fear
that the “Son of Sam” serial
killer would kill again. After
that, we became thankful for
outages lasting only an hour.
Folks used to repair toast-
ers. Now they’re disposable.
For many items, when a piece
of cheap plastic breaks, we
Bernie Sanders Tries to Legislate Leisure
By Jon Decker
S
en. Bernie Sanders in-
troduced a bill last week
that would establish a
“standard” 32-hour workweek
and lower the overtime
threshold after which employ-
ers are required to pay time
and a half. The Vermont so-
cialist is late to the party
again. The free market has al-
ready delivered what he’s
seeking.
The growing availability of
four-day workweeks, hybrid
schedules, remote work and
the gig economy reveals that
Mr. Sanders’s bill isn’t radical
as much as it is superfluous
and unnecessary. The senator
is attempting to legislate a
work culture that a growing
number of businesses in the
private economy are already
providing for employees.
In his book “The End of
Work: Why Your Passion Can
Become Your Job,” John
Tamny, my colleague at the
Santiago’s Communist
Party boss, Beatriz Johnson,
went up on a roof to “dia-
logue” with the public. Then
she went on Cuban television
claiming that the demonstra-
tors weren’t at all at odds
with her.
Dictator Miguel Díaz-Canel
used Twitter to put lipstick
on the pig, describing the
protests in Santiago as “vari-
ous people” having “expressed
their dissatisfaction with the
situation of electrical service
and food distribution.” The
dictatorship, he pledged,
stands ready “to attend to the
complaints of our people.”
The happy talk was de-
signed for American con-
sumption. On the ground in
Cuba, locals told independent
journalists that Ms. Johnson
was met with insults and jeer-
ing. Protesters played conga
rhythms as they chanted a
vulgarity against Mr. Díaz-
Canel. I received reports that
in Santiago, El Cobre and
Bayamo police went door to
door to round up suspects
thought to have engaged in
dissent. The regime blamed
the U.S. for the unrest.
Refined repression tech-
niques and PR spin change
nothing. The police state re-
mains the same. So too does
the age-old practice of using
food as a weapon to control
the population.
Cubans are hungrier and
more desperate than any
time during the revolutionary
dictatorship launched in
1959. The online newspaper
Diario de Cuba reported on
March 7 that the nongovern-
us ,
l
e
al a
chuck it and buy another one,
including televisions and
many appliances cheap
ci on
enough to replace. Sadly, our
trust in everyday things is
now disposable as well.
Early Windows PCs would
seemingly crash daily, with
er s
the infamous “blue screen of
death.” My business partner
m er
would immediately yell,
“Curse you, Bill Gates.” Cable-
TV outages are common and
internet service is spotty. Cus-
tomer service tells you, “Un-
m rp
plug your cable modem and
router and plug them back in.”
Gee thanks. Streaming ser-
vices are no better; if Netflix
shows me that spinning wheel
co Fo
stuck at 63% one more time,
I’ll never finish “Squid Game.”
One day my oven and dish-
washer both showed an F20
error code. I toggled their cir-
cuit breakers. My coffee ma-
chine often blinks orange. This
lack of reliability is built into
the price of things. But even
iPhones need an occasional
power cycle to work again.
Highways were built with
“breakdown lanes” for a rea-
n-
son. Now, digital controls and
sensors mean cars don’t
break as often, but we’re
stuck driving with the “check
engine” idiot light and “ser-
vice overdue by 3,500 miles”
warnings because they turn
into $1,500 visits to the
dealer to flip a switch. I’m
not sure that’s progress. My
entertainment system often
reboots halfway through the
song “I Can’t Drive 55.”
Tesla’s Full Self-Driving, re-
quiring drivers’ hands on the
steering wheel, really isn’t
self-driving, is it?
I can’t remember the last
Parkview Institute, explains
how labor conditions have
evolved for the better. Mr.
Tamny writes that as soci-
etal and personal prosperity
increase, so do our work op-
tions, allowing us to take ad-
vantage of our talents in jobs
that don’t feel like work—be-
cause we actually enjoy
them.
It’s a superfluous
effort. The market has
already moved toward
a 32-hour workweek.
In his 2018 book, Mr.
Tamny predicted the move
from the traditional five-day
workweek. Fast-forward to
2024, and it’s increasingly
common for businesses to of-
fer four-day workweeks, hy-
brid schedules or remote-
work options. Surveys
mental organization Food
Monitor Program claims it
has evidence of a black mar-
ket for cat meat. The news-
paper said it couldn’t verify
the story, but for sure eggs,
chicken, fish and beef are
rarities, as is basic medica-
tion. Food often spoils be-
cause of repeated and pro-
longed electricity outages.
The island’s latest
crisis is home-grown.
Don’t believe the spin
about U.S. sanctions.
The regime could reduce
the suffering if it wished. The
sea around the island is filled
with protein but for most Cu-
bans, owning a boat is prohib-
ited. Farmers could feed peo-
ple but aren’t allowed to
market their produce. When
things got out of hand last
week, suddenly trucks arrived
to distribute staples like
sugar and rice. What’s up
with that?
U.S. policy blocks Cuba
from borrowing from Ameri-
can banks and inhibits the in-
ternational laundering of its
profits from human and drug
trafficking. But it doesn’t stop
Havana from buying food
from the U.S. Cuba is an im-
portant destination for Amer-
ican agricultural products.
The problem is a shortage
of hard currency. Much of
what Cuba is able to get its
on
hands on is spent on bribing
the military, secret police and
time a flight of mine was on
time. Plus, I now keep my seat
belt fastened the entire flight,
not because of turbulence but
in case of loose bolts and fly-
ing door plugs.
Generative AI like ChatGPT
single-handedly brought the
long-dormant word “halluci-
nations” back from the 1970s.
Google recently announced it’s
paying $60 million to Reddit
to train AI models, almost
We can no longer
count on politicians,
media or even the
latest technology.
guaranteeing more incoher-
ence, conspiracy theories and
Roaring Kitty of Gamestop-
hype ramblings in their re-
sults, which already can’t tell
you if Elon Musk or Hitler is
worse for society.
Data breaches happen al-
most daily. They’re considered
normal. We pay for this com-
placency elsewhere, especially
as our indifference to reliabil-
ity has jumped from products
to politics.
We know the media is un-
reliable, recently falsely
smearing quarterback Aaron
Rodgers after it leaked that he
might be RFK Jr.’s running
mate. It’s obvious that the me-
dia is biased, but we shrug.
Same for a lot of what is
posted on Facebook or Twit-
ter. We are conditioned to ac-
cept biases and fakes.
Lockdowns. Six-foot social
distancing. Closed schools. In
retrospect, all unnecessary.
predict this trend will grow
substantially.
So why is Mr. Sanders
pushing to legislate a 32-hour
workweek? Amusingly, the
senator argues his legislation
is necessary because “the fi-
nancial gains from the major
advancements in artificial in-
telligence, automation, and
new technology must benefit
the working class, not just
corporate CEOs and wealthy
stockholders on Wall Street.”
The irony is these very gains
in artificial intelligence are
making the 32-hour workweek
possible for so many employ-
ees—without legislation.
One might be tempted to
dismiss the current labor en-
vironment as merely a by-
product of the pandemic, but
it’s largely tied to innovation.
Mr. Tamny predicted on C-
Span in 2018 that automation
would make the typical
worker significantly more
productive: “And so the need
to have them there five days
brown-shirts to do their dirty
work against civilians. The
NGO Cuba Archive says it has
documented 79 “deaths and
disappearances attributed to
the Cuban state in 2023.”
The economic pie never
grows because it’s controlled
by a small number of Commu-
nist Party elites. A foreign in-
vestor can easily find himself
in a Cuban dungeon, as did
British citizen Stephen Purvis
in 2011. His crime was run-
ning a business that regime
honchos wanted.
At 92, Raúl Castro still
holds power. There are no
property rights. A “small
business” reform is little
more than the parceling out
of the state-run companies to
Castro friends and family.
Those getting fat off Cuban
misery include Manuel Mar-
rero, a ruthless enforcer of
the totalitarian state rumored
to be waiting in the wings to
succeed Mr. Díaz-Canel.
Communist Cuba once re-
lied on the Soviet Union and
later Hugo Chávez’s Venezuela
to pay its bills. Both are now
bust, and Cuba has reneged
on billions of dollars in loans
to more than 20 countries.
There’s only one country of
any significance that hasn’t
had to eat a Cuban default in
the past 65 years: the U.S.
So get ready to hear all
about how the Americans are
starving the Cuban people.
And about how it could all be
fixed if only the U.S. would
change its Cuba policy. Noth-
ing could be further from the
truth.
Write to O’Grady@wsj.com.
“Follow the science” doesn’t
work when the “science” is
unreliable. Same for politi-
cians. Rep. Adam Schiff (D.,
Calif.) talked up Trump-Russia
election collusion again and
again, then refused to release
transcripts of Obama adminis-
tration officials testifying un-
der oath that they’d seen no
evidence of it. It turns out this
unreliability is a promotable
offense—Mr. Schiff is leading
in the race to be California’s
next senator.
Princess Kate’s “photo-
gate” broke trust, a far cry
from King George VI’s 1939
speech to “stand calm and
firm and united in this time of
trial.” Add Al Gore’s polar
bears, Barack Obama’s “you
can keep your doctor.” Why
would anyone listen to these
folks ever again? But we do.
Homeland Security Secre-
tary Alejandro Mayorkas said
“the border is closed” when it
clearly wasn’t. President Bi-
den and Nancy Pelosi focus
more on using the term “un-
documented” instead of “ille-
gal” rather than cleaning up
the border mess. Donald
Trump still complains about
stolen elections that weren’t
stolen. We used to hold politi-
cians accountable. Not any-
more.
Trust is the flip side of reli-
ability. I’m OK with not trust-
ing a toaster, because it’s re-
placeable. Politicians, on the
other hand, tend to stick
around for way too long—see
this year’s presidential race.
The loss of reliability is so
deeply ingrained in society,
yet nobody cares. How do we
fix that?
Write to kessler@wsj.com.
a week is going to be yester-
day’s news, in much the same
way that, in the 1930s, inter-
estingly enough, the six-day
workweek became yesterday’s
news.”
This is what’s driving the
shift in our work culture.
While the pandemic prompted
businesses to experiment
with shortened hours, break-
throughs in artificial intelli-
gence will accelerate this
trend. There will always be
outliers with a strong work
ethic who continue to put in
long hours. For most of us,
however, artificial-intelligence
developments will likely
translate into increased pay
and leisure time.
The four-day, 32-hour
workweek doesn’t need to be
legislated—the free market is
already off to the races. Per-
haps one day Mr. Sanders will
get up to speed.
Mr. Decker is a senior fel-
low at the Parkview Institute.
Monday, March 25, 2024 | A15
BOOKSHELF | By Meghan Cox Gurdon
Apps, Angst
And Adolescence
The Anxious Generation
By Jonathan Haidt
Penguin Press, 400 pages, $30
I
n 2012, the satirical Onion News Network ran a faux TV
story about a smartphone-obsessed teenager capable
only of rolling her eyes and texting. The reporter
intoned: “Caitlin Teagart was a beautiful, lively girl who
loved laughing and playing outside, but all that changed
when she was 12.” Now, hooked on technology, the girl is
pallid and unresponsive. Caitlin’s parents have decided to
have her euthanized. “We can give her eyes,” says the actor
playing her father, “to someone who would actually use
them to read a book.”
The timing of the video was excruciatingly apt. Smart-
phones had become ubiquitous, apps were proliferating and
childhood itself was in the final throes of what the social
psychologist Jonathan Haidt calls “the great rewiring.”
In “The Anxious Generation,” Mr. Haidt lays out in pitiless
detail what happened to the children of Generation Z when
life moved online. For this co-
hort, the first to go through
puberty with constant access
to the internet, it was not
merely that playing and social-
izing had shifted to phones,
tablets and gaming consoles
but that real-life pleasures and
risks were also disappearing:
rough-and-tumble outdoor ac-
tivities, opportunities for physi-
cal independence, unsupervised
recreation. Free play had been in
retreat and technology on the
.
march since the 1980s, Mr. Haidt
observes, but it took the inven-
ly
tion of the smartphone, which
permits users to be online 24/7, to complete the mutation of
childhood from “play-based” to “phone-based.” In words that
chill the parental heart, he writes that giving smartphones to
young people en masse constitutes “the largest uncontrolled
experiment humanity has ever performed on its own chil-
dren.” The experiment has been a disaster.
Those of us who had middle-schoolers and teenagers in
the peak transformative years 2010-15 will remember the
bewilderment, the quarrels, the spasmodic madness of that
turbulent epoch. Some sons and daughters, like the
fictional Caitlin, turned in a matter of months from
vivacious participants in their own lives into phone-
scrolling automata. Others became volatile, fretting over
their “likes” and “followers,” frantically attending to apps
that their mothers and fathers only dimly understood: their
Instas (public-facing Instagram accounts), their Finstas (the
secret Instagram accounts shared with friends) and the
streaks on Snapchat that absolutely had to be kept up
because it was “a thing.”
To succeed socially on the internet required young people
to “devote a large part of their consciousness—
perpetually—to managing what became their online brand,”
Mr. Haidt avers. “This was now necessary to gain acceptance
from peers, which is the oxygen of adolescence, and to avoid
online shaming, which is the nightmare of adolescence.”
While all this was happening, parents (who were
hypnotized by their phones, too) were hearing about, and
sometimes seeing at home, children succumbing to real
distress—depression, anxiety, self-harm, even suicide. In
the maelstrom it seemed probable that smartphones and
social media were playing a role, but parents were hard-
pressed to know, exactly, how quantifiable the problem was.
Even six or seven years ago, researchers could see that
teenagers who spent long hours on their smartphones were
more likely to be depressed than teenagers who socialized
face-to-face but couldn’t say with certainty that the inputs
produced the outcomes.
Parents could see their phone-obsessed children
changing and succumbing to distress. Now we
know the true horror of what happened.
Now, thanks to Mr. Haidt, we can glimpse the true horror
of what happened not only in the U.S. but also elsewhere in
the English-speaking world. Starting in about 2010, suicide
rates for young adolescents in the U.S. shot up (increasing
91% for boys ages 10-14 and 167% for girls). The rate of self-
injury almost tripled between 2010 and 2020. In the U.K.,
too, more children than before were using self-harm to
cope with severe anxiety and depression; in Australia, rates
of hospitalization for mental health showed a sharp
increase for both boys and girls.
Ironically, the creation of social media—with their
promise of “connectedness”—has left young people lonelier
and with fewer friends. For girls, the apps have proved
toxic, Mr. Haidt writes: “Social media use does not just cor-
relate with mental illness; it causes it.” Boys are less sus-
ceptible to the dangers of social media but more vulnerable
to the harms of online pornography. Retreating behind
their bedroom doors for screen-based virtual lives has put
boys at greater risk of malaise, apathy and “failure to
launch” into the responsibilities of adulthood.
In the lucid, memorable pages of “The Anxious Genera-
tion,” Mr. Haidt, who teaches at New York University and
co-wrote “The Coddling of the American Mind” (2018),
adopts the old advice about giving a good speech: He tells
you what he’s going to tell you, he tells you and then he
tells you what he just told you. It’s a bitter read but also a
galvanizing one. Having shown how we’ve gone wrong with
Gen Z—children born 1997-2012—Mr. Haidt describes how
we might spare rising generations the same afflictions.
He advocates schools banning smartphones not only
during class time but for the whole school day and giving
students more time outside. He recommends that parents
limit young children’s exposure to screens (keeping babies
away entirely) and delay giving older children smartphones
and access to social media until they’ve entered high school.
Parents, he argues, should maximize opportunities for their
children to exercise autonomy and self-reliance, giving them
chores and encouraging them to get real-life experience in
real-world, part-time jobs.
At one point in “The Anxious Generation,” Mr. Haidt
steps away from his professional persona to write, he says,
“as a fellow human being.” Something very deep changed in
America in the 2010s, he thinks, and it goes well beyond
the realm of child rearing and teenage woe. He has come to
believe that “the phone-based life produces spiritual
degradation, not just in adolescents, but in all of us.”
Mrs. Gurdon, a Journal contributor, is the author of
“The Enchanted Hour: The Miraculous Power of Reading
Aloud in the Age of Distraction.”
 For personal, non-commercial use only. Do not edit, alter or reproduce. For commercial reproduction or distribution, contact Dow Jones Reprints & Licensing at (800) 843-0008 or www.djreprints.com.

A16 | Monday, March 25, 2024 * * THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

OPINION
REVIEW & OUTLOOK LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

A Revived ISIS Rampages in Moscow U.S. Housing Prices and the War on Realtors

T
o all the other security risks in the world, That’s not to take away the focus of this at- Why do people keep using Real- during a crime wave while keeping
you can add the return of Islamic State tack from ISIS, which has revived with a sanctu- tors? Your editorial “The Realtors mum about the mob boss. The “car-
Stage a Tactical Retreat” (March 20) tel” in your sights shouldn’t be the
as a killing machine. Russians were the ary in Afghanistan since President Biden’s 2021
doesn’t answer that question, but it’s NAR, but the banking cartel known as
victims on Friday as gunmen withdrawal. The ISIS-Khora- important. the Federal Reserve and its scheme of
attacked civilians at a Moscow Putin will blame san branch competes with the With the rise of platforms like Zil- soft money and inflation.
concert venue, killing at least Ukraine to deflect from Taliban and al Qaeda for jihad- low and Redfin, it has never been The reason Realtors are able to
133. ISIS suicide bombers killed ist supremacy, but the Taliban easier for buyers and sellers to by- take 6% from a home sale is that our
more than 80 in Iran in Janu- his security failure. lacks the ability, and perhaps pass Realtors and complete transac- currency is continually debased
ary, and no one should doubt the desire, to eliminate ISIS in tions by themselves. Why do people through inflation. Home sellers have
that the jihadists are looking to Afghanistan. still choose to keep paying large com- been willing to pay for both sides of
target Americans sooner or later. Mr. Biden promised that the U.S. would have missions? The answer is that they the transaction because a debasing
Vladimir Putin predictably tried to pin the over-the-horizon capability to prevent Afghani- continue to find value in the services currency skyrockets the dollar value
murderous assault on Ukraine, and his coterie stan from again becoming a terrorist sanctuary, that Realtors provide on both sides of of real assets. Giving up 6% at the
the transaction. And why shouldn’t it closing table seems reasonable for a
blamed the U.S. But the evidence so far points but if that’s true you can’t tell from the ISIS-
be up to Realtors to decide at what homeowner who bought at $200,000
to ISIS, including that the jihadists took credit Khorasan comeback. Unworried about a U.S. at- price they are willing to work? and is selling at $800,000.
for the assault and posted a video of it taking tack on its hideouts, ISIS leaders can focus on Maybe there was an antitrust case The debasing dollar has encour-
place, apparently from one of the killers. The planning attacks against foreigners, as they to be made 20 years ago, but the aged individuals and companies to
U.S. says it warned Russia about a potential ISIS have in Iran and now Moscow. multiple-listing services (MLS) simply store wealth in real estate, padding
attack, but Mr. Putin publicly dismissed the U.S. That Americans haven’t been hit recently, at doesn’t provide Realtors with any- the price of homes. This hurts those
warning as disinformation. home or abroad, is a blessing but not a guaran- thing resembling monopoly power with modest incomes and young
Blaming Ukraine now helps Mr. Putin dis- tee of future safety. The ISIS revival argues for anymore. This is a classic case of free homebuyers the most. Now, thanks to
tract attention from his earlier dismissal of keeping the limited U.S. military presence in people engaging in free markets. Why the jury in the Missouri case, buying
what has now cost so many innocent lives. And Syria and Iraq as a check on the return of the encourage government intervention a home will be even harder for this
it deflects from the fact that Russian security 2014 caliphate. The posts are vital to intelli- to stop it? group. Paying a buyer’s agency fee
SHANE MILLER will add another hurdle to home-
was so inept that the killers could rampage for gence collection, and perhaps they played a part Bentonville, Ark. ownership.
an hour in the Russian capital and somehow in gathering the intel that the U.S. had about Imagine a future where real-estate
escape in a car. an attack in Moscow. It has taken several decades for agents’ earnings are based on the
Mr. Putin will now use the attack to deceive The ISIS comeback also argues for the House public officials and buyers and sellers value that they provide to home buy-
Russians and mobilize more young men to be to overcome its disagreements and reauthorize of homes to recognize that the real- ers and sellers, not by riding atop a
cannon fodder for his ambition to annex Section 702 authority to surveil foreign com- estate industry is a cartel functioning wave of inflation. Imagine home af-
Ukraine. He has a history of using these events munications even if it accidentally catches some like a labor union. This arrangement fordability, through sound money.
to his own political advantage, and the evi- Americans in the sweep. The House Intelligence abhors competition, seeks to protect CHRISTOPHER HANSEN
dence points to an apartment bombing in 1999 bill contains enough safeguards without adding and enhance its members’ compensa- Charlotte, N.C.
as an inside job that helped to elevate him to bureaucratic and political obstacles to rapid tion, and supports rising home prices.
When fixed-commission rates are What the editorial board says
the Presidency. Ukraine will have to brace itself surveillance of real threats. Americans don’t
based on selling prices, there is no about the future practice of real-es-
for missile attacks as part of this latest Putin want another attack on U.S. soil like last week’s economic incentive for buyer and tate brokers after the NAR settlement
misdirection. horror show in Moscow.

.
seller agents to reduce home prices. is absolutely true. The problem is
Let the realtors organize like the la- that most of the activity between

bor unions they are, and then apply
Student Aid March Madness right-to-work legislation to them.
JAMES LARGAY
ly
brokers and consumers regarding
commissions happens underneath the

T
radar. I taught real-estate law; to po-
on
his isn’t the right kind of March mad- leasing student information to colleges until
ness. The Education Department’s con- March, close to when students typically receive
fused rollout of the new Free Applica- admission and aid offers.
Center Valley, Pa.

Blaming the National Association

tion for Federal Student Aid,
Biden’s Fafsa rewrite
us ,
of Realtors for high Realtor fees is
lice the activities of the approxi-
mately 1.6 million Realtors nation-
wide would be a herculean task.
JOHN A. VITERITTI
Now comes another screw-
like fixating on a petty pickpocket Laurel, N.Y.

or Fafsa, grew more chaotic up. The department on Friday

l

Friday when it announced keeps getting worse, revealed that it had not in-
e
that incorrect data had been cluded “all data fields needed
al a

sent to colleges for hundreds if that’s possible. to correctly calculate the Stu-
The Democratic Party’s Regime-Change Plan
of thousands of students. dent Aid Index (SAI) for depen-
ci on

Congress in its infinite un- dent students who reported There is a wing of the Democratic Echoing President Reagan, here’s a
wisdom jammed through a Fafsa redesign in assets,” resulting in inaccurate information sent Party that is openly anti-Israel novel solution: President Sisi, tear
the December 2020 omnibus spending bill. The to colleges. The department says it will need to (“Democrats Turn Against Israel,” Re- down that wall. Years of Egyptian
new Fafsa was supposed to be simpler, but myr- reprocess student data but suggested that col- view & Outlook, March 19). It is cen- nonmanagement of the Rafah crossing
iad government snafus have caused headaches leges do their own calculations. tered on a few Democratic represen- enabled Hamas to smuggle in weap-
er s

tatives who have mooted support for ons for its underground tunnel net-
for colleges, parents and students. “This is an- The incompetence is hard to believe. “It is
the elimination of Israel, to be re- work. Now, Egypt blocks the border,
other unforced error that will likely cause more not feasible or realistic to send out incorrect
m er

placed by a “binational” state with a refusing to let refugees escape the

processing delays for students,” the National FAFSA data and ask thousands of schools to vulnerable Jewish minority, a danger- fighting. Given the billions of U.S. tax-
Association of Student Financial Aid Adminis- make real-time calculations and adjustments ous nonstarter. payer dollars invested in Egypt, a
trators (Nasfaa) CEO Justin Draeger said Fri- to the federal formula on the school side,” Nas- The Biden administration accepts time-bound accommodation for tem-
day. “At this stage in the game and after so faa said. Colleges have already pushed back that Israel must remain an indepen- porary refugee camps in the Sinai
m rp

many delays, every error adds up.” deadlines for students to accept admissions of- dent Jewish homeland but insists that Peninsula seems reasonable.
Fafsa usually becomes available in early fers to mid-June so they have more time to an antisemitic state be established MARC E. KALTON
October, but the Education Department didn’t compare financial-aid awards. Now deadlines right next to it, laying the ground for Boynton Beach, Fla.
launch the new form until late December. may have to be extended again. recurrent existential wars against Is-
Even then, most parents and students The new Fafsa was supposed to make college rael. This is also a nonstarter, and it is The Biden administration seconded
co Fo

where Biden administration irrational- Sen. Chuck Schumer’s call for regime
couldn’t access the form for weeks owing to more accessible. But only 32.5% of high school
ity confronts a rational Israel—but change in Israel, but it has been no-
technical hiccups. The nonprofit National seniors had submitted a Fafsa form by March one dependent on U.S. weapons. We ticeably silent about regime change
College Attainment Network began crowd- 15, compared to 47.5% at the same time last shall see what happens if Biden irra- in Iran, the world’s largest state
sourcing “challenges, issues, and work- year. Applications by students who attended tionality is defeated in November. sponsor of terrorism. Why is that?
arounds” by users. low-income high schools were down 38.6%. PAUL BLOUSTEIN GIL EHRENKRANZ
Error messages “can happen at various Blame the fiasco on federal student aid chief Cincinnati Rockville, Md.
places and be random,” the outfit reports. “We Richard Cordray, who has prioritized cancelling
recommend trying different browsers, clearing some $144 billion in student loans. Last month
your cache, and logging in and out of the sys- he called this year’s Fafsa a “better process.” Reagan Didn’t Know the Politicians of Today
tem several times” or deleting the form and Meantime, he has dunned federal student loan
starting over. Godspeed. servicers for the government’s chaotic restart Regarding John Lehman’s op-ed friends after 6 o’clock, as Tip O’Neill
“Reagan Would Never Vote for once said to Ronald Reagan. In those
Magnifying the mayhem, the department in of payments after a three-and-a-half-year pan-
n-

Trump” (March 18): I would love to days, compromise was not the four-
January said it hadn’t adjusted certain calcula- demic pause. He has yet to apologize for any of have a Scoop Jackson or a Tip O’Neill letter word it is today.
tions for inflation as required by Congress, this. If Mr. Cordray were a CEO, he’d have been in Congress advocating peace through One area in which Mr. Lehman did
though Nasfaa had flagged this oversight last sacked long ago, but in government no one is strength. Unfortunately, such Demo- not venture: It is questionable whether
autumn. As a result, it said wouldn’t begin re- ever held accountable.
no

crats no longer exist or are afraid to Reagan could receive the nomination
buck the ultraleft that controls their in today’s Republican Party.
party. I will vote for Donald Trump DOUG COPELAND
Honey, We Shrunk the GOP Majority simply because any other vote is ei-
ther wasteful or would be for the
Greensboro, N.C.

D
emocrats are lapping Republicans in because Republicans prefer to make futile ges- worst president in history.
this year’s election fund-raising, and tures of opposition rather than vote to fund the MIKE HARRIGAN Teachers Union Priorities
Darnestown, Md.
could that be because GOP donors are government. The Chicago Teachers Union needs
wondering what they get for The practical effect is to to get its priorities in order (“The
Mr. Lehman quotes Reagan’s 11th
their money? Donors, both Too many House reduce Republican leverage in commandment, that thou shalt not
Chicago Teachers Union’s Student
small-dollar and large, helped Republicans would prefer a divided government and Army,” Review & Outlook, March 15).
speak ill of another Republican, then
Republicans retake the House make it harder to achieve The sad fact is that while Chicago
writes 12 paragraphs doing exactly
to be in the minority. graduates 84% of its public-school
in 2022, and all they’ve re- conservative policy victories. that. Shall we examine policies to un-
students, only 26% of those graduates
ceived in return is a majority But then the same Members cover where Mr. Trump betrayed the
are proficient in math and reading.
that revels in operating like a who undercut the majority “conservative agenda”? Deregulation?
The union should be more interested
functional minority. boast on the House floor and social media that Taxes? Energy? The military? Judges?
in improving the education of Chi-
Soon it may not even be a majority at all. they are the only honest conservatives in GREGORY MUNSON
cago’s youth than in using the stu-
Bedford, N.H.
Wisconsin Rep. Mike Gallagher, one of the Washington. They’re posers masquerading as dents to advance the interests of the
GOP’s best Members, announced on Friday that principled, and they’re treating the voters at I had the privilege of working in
union.
he’s resigning from the House on April 19. Colo- home like rubes. TERRY TAKASH
Congress in the 1970s, when Republi-
rado Rep. Ken Buck’s last day was Friday. You Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s mo- Western Springs, Ill.
cans and Democrats worked across
can criticize both for leaving early, but who can tion Friday to oust Mr. Johnson as Speaker ex- the aisle for the good of America. Ad-
blame anyone sane for wanting to do something poses the deception behind the coup against versaries, never enemies, and all
more useful with his life than serving in this Mr. McCarthy. After we criticized that October Pepper ...
House of horribles? coup as destructive and self-serving, Florida And Salt
Their departures take the GOP majority Rep. Matt Gaetz wrote us a letter saying that He Who Humbles Himself
down to 217-213, which means the party is a in electing Mr. Johnson the GOP now had a real In his review of “Anxiety: A Philo- THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

heart attack and absences or flipped votes away conservative as leader. sophical Guide” by Samir Chopra
from putting Democratic leader Hakeem Jef- So what’s wrong with Mr. Johnson now? Ap- (Bookshelf, March 19), Julian Baggini
fries in charge. In some sense Mr. Jeffries al- parently because he’s not willing to indulge ka- examines Mr. Chopra’s four traditions
ready is in charge. Speaker Mike Johnson can’t mikaze acts like shutting down the government, of thought on anxiety. Christians
pass legislation the usual way through the Rules Mr. Johnson is a sellout too. would note 1 Peter 5:6-7: “Humble
Committee and then onto the floor with a sim- Conservatives have long had a strong anti- yourselves, therefore, under the
mighty hand of God so that at the
ple majority. Every sensible majority that wants Washington impulse, which is useful given the
proper time he may exalt you, casting
to govern packs the Rules Committee with federal government’s relentless drive to expand all your anxieties on him, because he
Speaker loyalists. Not this crowd. its own power. But breaking that drive, and roll- cares for you.”
The anti-governing wing of the House GOP ing back that power, requires calculation and CARSON TAYLOR
insisted on three of their own for Rules as one often incremental gains. All the more so in a di- Portland, Ore.
price of voting for Kevin McCarthy as Speaker vided government.
in January 2023. They refuse to vote for Mr. The posers of the House GOP remind us of
Letters intended for publication should
Johnson’s inevitable compromises with Senate a comment by former Sen. Jim DeMint that he’d be emailed to wsj.ltrs@wsj.com. Please
Democrats, so Mr. Johnson has to move legisla- rather have 30 Senators who agreed with him include your city, state and telephone
tion via the suspension calendar, which requires than a Republican majority. Congratulations to number. All letters are subject to
a two-thirds vote to pass anything. This means Mr. DeMint. The current House GOP is close to editing, and unpublished letters cannot “Will you be reading from the cen-
be acknowledged.
he needs Democratic votes, and a lot of them, realizing his ambition. sored or uncensored version tonight?”
 For personal, non-commercial use only. Do not edit, alter or reproduce. For commercial reproduction or distribution, contact Dow Jones Reprints & Licensing at (800) 843-0008 or www.djreprints.com.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
Moscow Attack: Don’t Believe the Kremlin
By Garry Kasparov
F
riday’s terrorist attack at
the Crocus City Hall con-
cert venue near Moscow
killed more than 100 peo-
ple in a brutal crime
against humanity. Many key facts are
still unclear, and rest assured they
will become only less clear as the
Kremlin works to exploit the crisis
domestically and abroad.
Coming shortly after his latest
sham election, the attack gave dicta-
tor Vladimir Putin a rallying cry one
day after the Kremlin declared for
the first time that Russia is in a
“state of war” in Ukraine.
In a heavily surveilled city,
how could ISIS terrorists
have killed for nearly an
hour and driven away?
Paranoia is my birthright, as it is
for anyone born in the Soviet Union.
But the official Kremlin story line is
already a shambles. In one of the
most surveilled cities on earth,
where you can be arrested in 30 sec-
onds for whispering “no war,” the
terrorists continued their attack for
more than an hour and then simply
drove away.
The FSB, Russia’s state security
service, claims to have arrested four
suspects near Ukraine, at one of the
most fortified borders in the world.
Or did the suspects actually drive to
Russian ally Belarus, as that nation’s
ambassador to Russia said? Consid-
ering the amount of materiel and
Abortion and America’s Phony ‘Pregnancy Crisis’
The U.S. has a
“pregnancy crisis,”
according to lib-
eral medical ex-
perts and the
press. They’re re-
ferring to Amer-
LIFE
ica’s supposedly
SCIENCE
soaring maternal
By Allysia
mortality, not its
Finley
declining fertility.
The U.S. stands
out “among high-income nations
for its alarming incidence of mater-
nal deaths despite substantial
health care spending,” the Ameri-
can Medical Association says. The
group, like other activists, invokes
U.S. maternal mortality to advocate
expanded government welfare pro-
grams and abortion access.
“Evidence and experience show
us conclusively that the risk of
death during or after childbirth is
approximately 14 times greater
than the risk of death from abor-
tion-related complications,” the
AMA says. Democratic states echo
this claim in a friend-of-the-court
brief in FDA v. Alliance for Hippo-
cratic Medicine, which the Su-
preme Court will hear Tuesday.
Justices who were about to over-
turn Roe v. Wade would have
Biden Demotes America to the ‘Land of Possibilities’
By Matthew Hennessey
no
A
mericans are used to hearing
their leaders describe the U.S.
as a land of opportunity. It’s
strange, therefore, that the current
president has taken to calling Amer-
ica not a land of opportunity but a
land of possibility.
“To lead America, the land of pos-
sibilities, you need a vision for the
future of what America can and
should be,” President Biden declared
during his State of the Union ad-
dress. He said essentially the same
thing while signing an executive or-
der related to women’s healthcare in
the Oval Office on March 17. Accord-
ing to a story Mr. Biden has told in
public several times, China’s Xi Jin-
ping once asked him if he could de-
fine America. “I said, ‘Yeah, in one
word: possibilities.’ ”
Some may think the semantic dis-
tinction between a land of opportu-
nity and a land of possibility is mi-
nor. I don’t. It’s a downgrade, and it
seems deliberate. If the mayor of
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Lachlan Murdoch
Executive Chairman, News Corp
Rupert Murdoch
Chairman Emeritus, News Corp
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Editor in Chief
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Elena Cherney, Senior Editor; David Crow,
Executive Editor; Chip Cummins, Newswires;
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Professional Products; Bruce Orwall, Enterprise;
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Paul A. Gigot
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preparation required to do so much
damage to a venue the size of a
small village, it’s odd that the terror-
ists would suddenly turn into bun-
gling amateurs by carrying their Ta-
jik passports and heading to a
militarized border.
Every official statement from the
Kremlin and its propagandists will
be a lie, with a few half-truths tossed
in. It’s a control reflex of the security
state of which Mr. Putin is a product.
As I often say, I believe in coinci-
dences, but I also believe in the KGB.
Mr. Putin angrily dismissed warn-
ings from the U.S. Embassy on March
7 and March 18 about a potential ter-
ror attack at a concert venue in Mos-
cow. (How did the U.S. know? Was it
sources in ISIS-K or, as I suspect,
moles in the FSB?) Then, on March
22, Mr. Putin issued orders to con-
script hundreds of thousands more
Russians for his war of conquest
against Ukraine.
Twenty-five years ago, when
then-Prime Minister Putin needed a
platform for his presidential cam-
paign, a series of terrorist apart-
ment bombings in Russia launched
the Second Chechen War. I laid out
the copious evidence that these were
false-flag attacks, staged by the FSB,
in my 2015 book, “Winter Is Com-
ing.” It’s a deed so shocking that it is
difficult to believe—until you realize
what sort of man Mr. Putin is. He
has no allergy to blood, Russian or
any other kind, if spilling it furthers
his goals.
Twenty-five years ago, Mr. Putin
grabbed power by committing mass
murder in Chechnya. Today, in hope
of staying in power, Mr. Putin is
committing mass murder in Ukraine.
The West’s weakness encourages
on
“blood on their hands,” the medi-
us ,
cal journal Lancet warned in a May
l
12, 2022, editorial.
e
al a
As with the Covid pandemic, ex-
perts are using bad data to drive a
political agenda. A new study this
ci on
month in the American Journal of
Obstetrics and Gynecology shows
that oft-cited U.S. maternal-mortal-
ity statistics are inflated owing to
discrepancies in how pregnancy
er s
deaths are recorded.
The Centers for Disease Control
m er
and Prevention’s National Vital
Statistics System reports that ma-
ternal-mortality rates in the U.S.
have roughly tripled since 2001,
to 32.9 per 100,000 live births in
m rp
2021. This is nearly three times
as high as rates in other devel-
oped countries—but, as the study
concludes, it’s largely a statistical
artifact.
co Fo
Deaths among pregnant women
or new mothers are often classified
as “maternal” even if they owe to
other causes, such as cancer or pre-
existing conditions. The culprit is a
check box that states added to
death certificates in 2003 to iden-
tify women who had died while
pregnant or between 42 days and a
year of when their pregnancy
ended.
n-
New York started calling the Big Ap-
ple the city that never naps rather
than the city that never sleeps,
wouldn’t you want to know why?
America has been the land of op-
portunity since the founding, and ar-
guably before. “That’s what our fore-
fathers called this country,” Franklin
D. Roosevelt said in an October 1944
radio address. “By God’s grace, it
must always be the land of opportu-
nity for the individual citizen—ever
broader opportunity.” Like e pluribus
unum and the Statue of Liberty, the
notion of America as a land of oppor-
tunity is part of the collective na-
tional identity. It reflects our natural
optimism as a people. It captures our
belief that success isn’t guaranteed.
Hard work matters. With diligence,
thrift and opportunity—still available
in abundance—anything is possible.
Opportunity creates possibilities.
That’s always been the American
way.
“Only in America can a kid who’s
washing cars take a giant step and
reach right up and touch the stars,”
Robert Thomson
Chief Executive Officer, News Corp
Almar Latour
Chief Executive Officer and Publisher
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EDITORIAL AND CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS:
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Telephone 1-800-DOWJONES
OPINION
The Crocus City Hall near Moscow, site of Friday’s attack.
Russian escalation. White House na-
tional security adviser Jake Sullivan
was just in Kyiv, but instead of help-
ing Ukraine fight off the daily Rus-
sian attacks on its energy infrastruc-
ture by delivering weapons, he was
apparently there to discourage
Ukraine from doing the same to Rus-
sia. On Friday the Financial Times re-
ported that the U.S. has pressured
Ukraine not to attack Russian oil in-
frastructure for fear of raising global
gas prices—which might harm Presi-
dent Biden’s re-election chances.
Russian air power devastates Ukraine
because America promised Ukraine
F-16s but says it takes too long to
train the pilots. Last week Mr. Bi-
den’s administration even vetoed a
Group of Seven statement condemn-
ing Russia’s fake elections.
All this suggests Mr. Biden fears
Russian defeat more than Russian
victory. As I documented in August,
As the study explains, this check
box “led to a rapid increase in re-
ported maternal mortality rates”
and “some egregious errors,” in-
cluding hundreds of women over 70
“being certified as pregnant at the
time of death or in the year before
death” largely because of adminis-
trative errors.
Contrary to the CDC’s
claims, maternal mortality
rates haven’t changed
much since 1999.
Researchers reanalyzed mortality
data to identify only deaths that
occurred during pregnancy or post-
partum that had at least one men-
tion of pregnancy among the
causes of death on the certificate.
The authors found that the mater-
nal mortality rate remained essen-
tially flat between 1999 and 2002
(10.2 per 100,000 live births) and
2018 and 2021 (10.4). This would
put the U.S. on par with other de-
veloped countries.
The study also found that deaths
directly related to labor and preg-
Jay and the Americans sang in
1964. “Only in America, land of op-
portunity.”
Mr. Biden’s formulation gets the
American story all wrong. In a land
of opportunity, people have agency.
They can develop their talents and
make the most of their chances. Or,
if they prefer, they can walk past an
open door. For one reason or an-
other—perhaps they don’t feel
ready to meet the moment—they
can let the big chance pass. In a
land of opportunity, another big
chance is bound to come along. You
can count on it.
A land of possibilities is a different
place. It’s passive. Stuff simply hap-
pens. Outcomes are the result of acci-
dents or dumb luck. Might you strike
it rich one day? Sure. It’s always a
possibility. Might you end up broke
and alone? Anything’s possible.
The view of America as a land of
random possibilities is broadly con-
sonant with the progressive view of
the economy as a casino game. The
odds say it’s possible to win, so once
Notable & Quotable: Sinema
Michael Schaffer writing for Polit-
ico, March 15:
For years, [Sen. Kyrsten] Sinema
was on the receiving end of a rela-
tively unusual political-money phe-
nomenon in the capital’s politics in-
dustry: the single-target PAC, an
outfit geared towards creating pre-
cisely the outcome that became real
when the senator announced her exit.
. . . It is a model that probably won’t
stay rare for long. And whatever you
think of Sinema, the effort against
her is also likely to speed up some of
the most brutal trends in politics, an-
other way for deep-pocketed donors
Monday, March 25, 2024 | A17
says the buck stops with Speaker
Mike Johnson. Donald Trump threat-
ens isolationism in speeches and so-
cial-media posts; Mr. Biden is mak-
ing isolationism a reality by refusing
to stand up to dictators or to his
own domestic opposition.
Mr. Biden retreated from Afghani-
stan, and Russia invaded Ukraine. He
retreated from Ukraine, and Hamas
launched a war against Israel. Weak-
ness invites aggression.
MAXIM SHIPENKOV/SHUTTERSTOCK
Mr. Putin believes he needs per-
petual war to hold on to power. He is
creating the conditions to radicalize
the Russian population further and
to fulfill his new mobilization or-
ders. By summer, the new conscripts
will be at Ukraine’s front lines.
Ukraine can’t survive this year un-
less America’s leaders do what is
right instead of what they think is
this is the continuation of a betrayal politically expedient.
of a democratic ally and of American Like all dictators, Mr. Putin excels
security interests. at creating distractions from his
It’s a cowardly new world order. crimes. The Moscow attack will draw
The White House is busy telling global attention away from his war
Ukraine where it can’t shoot and tell- on Ukraine, but it won’t distract him
ing Israel where it can’t hunt terror- at all. Mourn for every innocent life
ists. Instead of providing leadership lost in Moscow, but also act to save
to unite democratic allies against the next one in Ukraine.
dictators, Mr. Biden’s administration If a suspected serial killer is at
puts limits on America’s allies to large, the first thing to do when
protect America’s enemies. You don’t there’s a murder is to check his alibi.
have to wonder what Taiwan and Mr. Putin is under indictment for
China make of America’s descent war crimes, and his bloody track re-
into passivity. cord makes him suspect No. 1. There
Republican obstruction of aid to can be no common cause against ter-
Ukraine is despicable, but Mr. Biden ror with Russia when the world’s
can’t use it to excuse his own poli- most accomplished terrorist rules
ticking and inaction. America has the the Kremlin.
largest military arsenal known to
.
man, but it rusts in warehouses Mr. Kasparov is a co-founder of
while Ukrainians die. Harry Truman the World Liberty Congress and
ly
had to face down Stalin and said the chairman of the Renew Democracy
buck stopped with him. Mr. Biden Initiative.
nancy have fallen over time, sug- cause some to terminate pregnan-
gesting medical care has improved. cies they might not otherwise.
But indirect deaths resulting from Comparing abortion and preg-
pre-existing conditions that might nancy deaths is also like comparing
have been aggravated by preg- apples and bananas. For one thing,
nancy—such as hypertension and federal law doesn’t require states
diabetes—increased. This isn’t sur- to report abortion-related compli-
prising given the rise in obesity cations. Deaths that result from
and related conditions. abortion are often classified on
Pregnancy-associated deaths— death certificates as pregnancy-re-
i.e., those among pregnant women lated. This isn’t to say abortion is
or new mothers from incidental unsafe, but data don’t allow direct
causes—also soared to 32.6 from safety comparisons to pregnancy.
0.53 per 100,000 live births during Whatever your views on abor-
the 20-year period. In other words, tion, claims that restricting it will
death rates for pregnant women cause maternal mortality to in-
and new mothers have shot up crease—a 2021 study by University
mainly because of other causes, es- of Colorado researchers projected
pecially drug overdoses. that banning abortion nationwide
The data also suggest that young would lead to a 21% increase in
women are no more likely to die “pregnancy-related deaths”—are
from pregnancy than they are from unfounded because data on such
other causes. Bringing a new life deaths are grossly inflated.
into the world carries medical In any case, comparing the pro-
risks, but so does getting out of cess of bringing a new life into the
bed each day. world to terminating one may
It isn’t clear how expanding wel- strike many Americans as morally
fare would reduce deaths among offensive. When progressives can’t
pregnant women, which have in- persuade the public, they invoke
creased amid the expansion of pro- questionable science and try to get
grams like Medicaid and food courts to impose the policies they
stamps. Overplaying the dangers of favor. The result is a crisis of credi-
pregnancy may discourage some bility for the liberal public-health
women from becoming mothers and establishment.
in a while somebody hits it big. In sion of decline that can sell in Demo-
the end, however, the house always cratic suburbs where parents talk
cleans up. What some call opportu- bolshie but live bougie. So he’s de-
nity is an illusion. Hope for a lucky cided to settle for America as a land
break keeps gamblers at the table, of mere possibilities. It’s a place
but casino capitalism leaves most where good things happen but no-
people worse off, not better. body deserves them and bad things
happen but it’s nobody’s fault.
To be fair, Donald Trump’s fre-
Whereas ‘opportunity’ quent invocation of American car-
nage also doesn’t make the nation
implies agency, he suggests sound like a shining city on a hill. He
we’re at the mercy of forces often speaks of workers as victims
and the economy as a rigged game.
beyond our control. But the MAGA vision at least associ-
ates America with a tradition of
greatness, and Mr. Trump’s expan-
Some far-left Democrats actually sionary first-term policies were at
speak this way about the American odds with his gloomy rhetoric. The
economy. Mr. Biden typically doesn’t, Trump economy was an opportunity
but he isn’t about to insult his voters economy.
by retailing the idea that hard work For proof that America is still a
and a good night’s sleep can make land of opportunity, look no further
your dreams come true. That’s the se- than the southern border. Neither
quence only in a land of opportunity, side wants to hear it, since the issue
where luck can’t hurt you but won’t has become so toxic, but opportunity
get you anywhere on its own. is what draws immigrants here. They
No, Mr. Biden needs a subtler vi- aren’t leaving their homes, crossing
deserts and jungles, just for the pos-
sibility of a government handout.
And they aren’t scared away by the
negative vision of America that
shows up in progressive night-
to further wage permanent war on ri- mares—the possibility of losing your
vals who might not always make such health insurance, getting shot in the
obvious targets. supermarket, or evicted by a greedy
Other political committees might landlord.
beat up on a senator in the name of The immigrants swarming our
an issue or to help a particular rival. southern border are coming for the
The Replace Sinema super PAC, by same reason immigrants have always
contrast, existed solely to run robust come. They want to work, to invest,
oppo research on, buy ads against, to build a future for their families, to
pitch unflattering media stories realize their dreams. They want what
about and otherwise hound, harry can be found here and nowhere
and hector one solitary elected offi- else—ever broader opportunities.
cial: Sinema, who had enraged pro- They want what we have. Only in
gressives with hostile stances on the America.
filibuster, the minimum wage and Joe
Biden’s “Build Back Better” bill, Mr. Hennessey is the Journal’s
among other things. deputy editorial features editor.
 For personal, non-commercial use only. Do not edit, alter or reproduce. For commercial reproduction or distribution, contact Dow Jones Reprints & Licensing at (800) 843-0008 or www.djreprints.com.

A18 | Monday, March 25, 2024 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

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 BUSINESS & FINANCE
For personal, non-commercial use only. Do not edit, alter or reproduce. For commercial reproduction or distribution, contact Dow Jones Reprints & Licensing at (800) 843-0008 or www.djreprints.com.

© 2024 Dow Jones & Company. All Rights Reserved. THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Monday, March 25, 2024 | B1
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Price Surge Lures House Flippers NYCB,

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Small investors are
cashing in as some
by the 40%-plus rise in home
prices since the onset of
Covid.
sure—far behind on the mort-
gage but the lender hasn’t yet
seized the house.
Ride Ups,
borrowers struggle
to keep their homes
Many who own their homes
have built up lots of equity,
even if they struggle to pay
Economic data suggest that
consumers are withstanding
high rates and inflation. The
Downs of
the monthly mortgage or their number of foreclosures each
Real Estate
PHILIP CHEUNG FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

BY BEN EISEN place is in bad condition. year is far below where it was
House flippers are figuring in the financial crisis.
Janely Sandoval was on the out how to make that math But there are reasons for
hunt for homeowners short on work in their favor—snapping caution. Lenders are filing BY RACHEL LOUISE ENSIGN
options. up and reselling houses for big more so-called foreclosure AND KONRAD PUTZIER
Driving through Compton, bucks while potentially letting starts—like notices of de-
Calif., past rows of modest the seller walk away with fault—than they were a year Every weekday morning,
one-story houses, she con- some extra cash. or two ago. More people are New York Community Ban-
sulted a list of 38 addresses Consider a hypothetical taking early withdrawals from corp executive James Carpen-
where owners had missed house, bought for $250,000 a their 401(k)s to avoid losing ter got a call from commercial
mortgage payments and were few years ago with a $200,000 their homes. mortgage broker Ralph Herzka.
at risk of losing their homes. mortgage. In a typical situa- Janely Sandoval and colleague visit a Whittier, Calif., home. Auction.com, an online The broker would give the
At each stop, she hoped to tion, that buyer would put marketplace for distressed banker a rundown of the crop
make a pitch: Don’t let this down $50,000 to start. Then if offer from an investor who prices were plunging and fore- properties, estimates that be- of loans to building owners he
ruin your life. Let me buy the the home’s market value rises comes knocking. closures were rampant. tween 2021 and 2023, some had sourced for the lender.
house instead. to $350,000, he could clear Sandoval, 37 years old, got These days, Sandoval deals 654,000 U.S. homeowners The close relationship be-
“There’s always a way out,” enough in a sale to retire the her start in the 2008-09 fi- mostly with sellers who aren’t were far behind on their mort- tween NYCB and Herzka’s firm,
she tells people. “It may not mortgage and have money left nancial crisis. in terrible financial shape. gage when their house got Meridian Capital Group, was
be the way you want, but over. She was in her early 20s, But she expects that over Please turn to page B9 unusual in the industry. To-
there is a way out.” The prospect of that cash and instead of going to col- the next few years, she will be gether, the companies rode the
The entire U.S. housing might be enough for the lege, she bought and sold buying from borrowers who  Heard on the Street: New New York property boom
market has been transformed owner to at least entertain an houses. Unlike today, home are in so-called pre-foreclo- normal for mortgages.....B9 fueled by low interest rates, go-
ing from local upstarts to ma-
jor players in the real-estate

Jack Daniel’s Finds Demand Is on the Rocks

world. The two companies’ for-
tunes have now shifted in a

.
new era of higher rates and
tumbling building valuations.

ly
NYCB shares are down 65%
BY JENNIFER MALONEY this year after the bank made a
series of disclosures about
The biggest American whis-
key is losing its punch.
Demand has been sliding for
Jack Daniel’s Old No. 7 for
on problems with real-estate loans
and lapses in internal controls.
The Hicksville, N.Y., lender is on
its third chief executive officer
months and the company be- in a month. The most recent
us ,

hind it, Brown-Forman, is one, a former regulator in-

l

forecasting a sluggish U.S. stalled by a group of new in-

e
al a

whiskey business for at least vestors, has indicated he is

the next year. likely to trim commercial real-
Drinkers guzzled whiskey estate exposure.
ci on

and other spirits during the Meridian, meanwhile, was

pandemic, driving banner sales recently effectively blacklisted
growth for Brown-Forman and by Fannie Mae and Freddie
other distillers, but the party Mac amid allegations that
has ended. Whiskey makers’ some of its brokers falsified
er s

revenue in the U.S. fell 2.2% in figures to help their clients get
2023 to $12.3 billion, according bigger mortgages. That rare
m er

to the Distilled Spirits Council step from the government-

of the United States, while rev- backed lenders raised ques-
enue was flat overall for mak- tions about its future in an in-
STACY KRANITZ FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

ers of spirits. dustry in which Fannie and

“The phenomenal sales Freddie play an important
m rp

growth we saw during the pan- role.

demic was unprecedented and The turmoil at both compa-
unpredictable but also unsus- nies comes at a difficult time
tainable, and now, the spirits for the commercial-real-estate
market is recalibrating,” Chris market and the banks that lend
co Fo

Swonger, the group’s presi- to it. Investors and regulators

dent, said last month. are wary of a coming crush of
Consumers are under pres- soured loans—and what it
sure from rising prices and in- might do to the fragile regional
terest rates hovering near their The producer of Jack Daniel’s says U.S. whiskey sales are resetting after two years of unusually strong growth. banking system.
highest level in years. People Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac
returned to their prepandemic cheaper alternatives while oth- U.S. case volume sales by category, change from a year earlier* Brown-Forman’s quarterly and federal housing regulators
activities and are spending less ers are trading up. revenue, change from a year are launching wider looks into
Tequila
time at the home bars they Brian Moran, a tile-setter earlier† the opaque market, according
stocked during Covid-19 lock- who lives in the Chicago sub- Cordials 25% to people familiar with the
downs. Many people are cut- urbs, used to order a Jack Dan- probes. Federal prosecutors are
Whiskey
ting back on their alcohol con- iel’s and Coca-Cola whenever 20 investigating landlords and
sumption for health reasons— he went to a bar with friends. Vodka suspected mortgage fraud, ac-
15
n-

or choosing marijuana. About a year ago, a client of- cording to people familiar with
Gin
The whiskey market is also fered him a trade to tile a 10
those efforts.
facing shifts in the types of kitchen backsplash: five pricier Brandy New York Community Bank
products people buy when they bottles of bourbon, including 5 opened as the Queens County
Grain alcohol
no

opt for liquor. Cheaper canned Stagg, Eagle Rare and E.H. Savings Bank in 1859. NYCB
cocktails and other spirits like Taylor. From his first sips, Mo- Rum 0 found a niche lending to local
tequila are growing in popular- ran was enthralled. landlords, particularly those
ity. Some drinkers of Jack Dan- “I don’t know anyone who Cognac –5 who owned buildings where
iel’s Old No. 7—often used to even drinks it anymore,” he -4% -2 0 2 4 6 FY2023 ’24 rents were regulated by state
make the cocktail Jack and said of Jack Daniel’s Old No. 7, *For the eight weeks ended Feb. 24 †Latest fiscal quarter ended Jan. 31 laws. Carpenter, who was chief
Coke—are trading down to Please turn to page B2 Sources: Bump Williams analysis of Nielsen data (volume); S&P Capital IQ (revenue) Please turn to page B2

Musk’s X Struggles INSIDE Nervous Chinese Buyers Seek

To Recruit Creators Their Refuge in the Gold Market
ZACK WITTMAN FOR WSJ

BY ALEXA CORSE gram to share ad revenue as a BY WEILUN SOON Gold reserves at China’s Gold continuous contract
key part of its efforts to at- central bank
Two months after Elon tract creators. Chinese investors are going
Musk acquired Twitter, the bil- So far, X is still trailing well all-in on gold. $150 billion $2,200 a troy ounce
lionaire hopped on a video call behind platforms like YouTube, The country’s central bank
with a handful of creators, TikTok and Meta Platforms’ has lifted its gold reserves to a 125
seeking advice about how to Instagram as a destination for BUSINESS NEWS record, while its consumers
make his platform better for many creators, according to Thieves intercept a load up on gold jewelry—in 100 2,000
them and asking how YouTube surveys and interviews with part because they are nervous
attracts creators. creators and marketers who
container containing about the shaky economy.
yogurt and demand 75
Podcaster Samir Chaudry work with them. Some cre- Stock traders are buying the
told Musk that YouTube had a ators have cited concerns $40,000 ransom. B3 shares of gold miners and
well-established system allow- about the state of X’s advertis- rushing into exchange-traded 50 1,800
ing creators to make money ing business as a hurdle to the funds that track the price of
from advertising revenue. platform’s efforts to woo them, the metal. 25
More than a year after while others have complained That has primed the pump
meeting with Musk, Chaudry about payments being incon- for the commodity’s recent
DAN LEVINE/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

0 1,600
says X’s strategy for creators sistent. rally, and will offer support as
2021 ’22 ’23 ’24 April 2022 ’23 ’24
still isn’t clear. “They have to Many creators say X is still the price of gold heads into
start showing us the path to a long way away from becom- uncharted territory. Source: Wind (gold reserves); FactSet (contract)
building a business on the ing an important source of “I don’t think Chinese de-
platform,” he said in an inter- revenue for them. Some cre- mand will be enough to propel week, trading above $2,200 a when economic data comes in
view. ators in niches such as finan- global gold prices higher. But troy ounce after the Federal hotter than expected, and any
Musk pledged big paydays cial news have found success what it does mean is that any Reserve indicated that three doubts about the pace of cuts
to creators on X, seeking to on the platform. correction should be cush- interest rate cuts are in the could weigh on the price of
make the platform a worthy ri- “We all still use it every TECHNOLOGY ioned by the strong levels of cards for 2024. The price of gold in the coming months.
val to sites such as Google’s day,” Chaudry said about X. The ghost of Microsoft physical demand that we’re gold often goes up when inter- The Fed is facing a tricky bal-
YouTube and ByteDance’s Tik- But, he added, “if we’re going seeing there,” said Nikos est rates go down, in part be- ancing act that means rate ex-
Tok, where creators’ viral con- to post original content there,
stalks Apple in U.S. Kavalis, a managing director cause bond returns look less pectations are likely to shift
tent attracts eyeballs and ad- I think we need to understand allegations of of precious-metals consulting attractive in comparison. constantly: The economy is
vertisers. the path to success.” monopoly. B4 firm Metals Focus. But traders have a record booming, but consumers and
Last year, X launched a pro- Please turn to page B4 Gold hit a record high this of second-guessing the Fed Please turn to page B2
 For personal, non-commercial use only. Do not edit, alter or reproduce. For commercial reproduction or distribution, contact Dow Jones Reprints & Licensing at (800) 843-0008 or www.djreprints.com.
B2 | Monday, March 25, 2024
INDEX TO BUSINESSES
These indexes cite notable references to most parent companies and businesspeople in
today’s edition. Articles on regional page inserts aren’t cited in these indexes.
A Dominion Energy...................B6
Allegiant.......................................A11
Amazon.com...............................B6
American Airlines.................A11
Annaly Capital
Management..........................B9
Apple.......................................A11,B4
B B3
Bank of America....................B9
Brown-Forman...........................B1
ByteDance.....................................B1
C
Carlyle Group.............................A3
Comcast..........................................A5
D Meta Platforms........................B1
Danco Laboratories..............A3
Danone............................................B3
INDEX TO PEOPLE
B Gates, Bill......................................B4
Bergkamp, Claire.....................B3
Brown, Campbell.....................B2
C Hoffman, Rob............................B3
Carpenter, James....................B1
Cook, Tim......................................B4
D K
Donaldson, Jimmy................B4
G M
Whiskey
Garvin Brown, George.......B2
Activist Plans to Seek Demand Is
More Seats at Masimo On the Rocks
BY LAUREN THOMAS
An activist investor who
holds two seats on the board of
Masimo is planning a proxy
fight for two more.
Politan Capital Manage-
ment, founded by veteran activ-
ist Quentin Koffey, plans to nom-
inate two director candidates to
the company’s six-person board,
people familiar with the matter
said.
Irvine, Calif.-based Masimo
has a market value of about $7.1
billion. It is a major supplier of
monitoring technologies includ-
ing pulse oximeters to hospi-
tals. Politan has held a roughly
9% stake in Masimo since 2022.
It won a pair of board seats last
year at Masimo’s annual meet-
ing, including one for Koffey.
The stock took a huge hit in
2022 when Masimo agreed to
buy a consumer-technology
company specializing in high-
end audio equipment for about
$1 billion, irking analysts and in-
vestors who questioned the ra-
tionale. Masimo’s founder and
chief executive, Joe Kiani, ar-
gued the deal gave the business
access to retail channels such as
Best Buy.
Kiani, who is also chairman,
said on Friday that his company
would explore separating its
consumer business, which in ad-
Brokerage
Helped
NYCB
Continued from page B1
lending officer until he retired
in 2019 and a board member
until this month, relied heavily
on Meridian—which specializes
in that same corner of property
finance—to find borrowers.
Carpenter didn’t respond to re-
quests for comment.
Herzka co-founded Meridian
in 1991. Initially, most of the
firm’s clients were Orthodox
Jewish landlords from Brook-
lyn, but it eventually started
brokering loans for big invest-
ment firms such as Brookfield
and RXR. The company also
worked with former President
Donald Trump and his son-in-
law Jared Kushner.
Herzka, the chairman and
chief executive, expected his
brokers to put in long hours.
Industry lore is that he was
once shot while out on busi-
ness, which he has declined to
comment on in the past.
Meridian was so close to
NYCB that other brokers found
it hard to get their clients loans
from the bank, rivals said.
Other banks, meanwhile, would
often lose out on loans Merid-
ian had because NYCB would
offer better terms.
“No lender has greater expe-
rience—or has had greater suc-
cess—in an asset class than
NYCB has had with multifamily
lending in the New York metro-
politan area,” Herzka was
quoted as saying in a trade
publication in 2016.
The bank made loans to Me-
ridian clients that owned
apartment buildings across
New York City, from Chelsea to
the Bronx.
By the end of 2019, NYCB
had $31 billion in loans for
apartment buildings mostly in
Netflix................................................A1
F Neuralink.......................................A3
Fannie Mae..........................B1,B9 New York Community
Bancorp........................................B1
First Solar.....................................B9
Freddie Mac.........................B1,B9
H Renewcell......................................B3
Roper Technologies..............B3
H&M Hennes & Mauritz
Tesla..................................................B9
Inditex..............................................B3 Travelers.........................................B3
Intuit.................................................B4
M-N United.............................................A11
Masimo...........................................B2
Meridian Capital Group.....B1
Vestas..............................................B9
Microsoft...............................B4,B6
Motorola Solutions..............B4 Zijin Mining Group...............B2
McDaniel, Ronna....................A5
H Musk, Elon............................A3,B1
Herzka, Ralph.............................B1
Peters, Greg.................................A1
J
Johnson, Benny.......................B4
Vass, Bill........................................B6
Kavalis, Nikos.............................B1
Waller, Christopher...............B9
Massey, Paul..............................B2 Wujastyk, Jake.........................B4
dition to the audio equipment
includes baby monitors and
smartwatches. That would leave
Masimo focused on professional
healthcare and telehealth prod-
ucts. Kiani is expected to remain
chairman and CEO of Masimo
and to be chairman of the new
company.
Kiani said he proposed a sep-
aration of the consumer busi-
ness in January, and the board
has now agreed to move ahead
with it. The company said it will
be completed “as soon as feasi-
ble.”
While Politan supports a re-
view of Masimo’s consumer
business, it is concerned the
ci on
company won’t conduct a com-
prehensive process and follow
through on a separation given
what it views as poor corporate
governance, the people familiar
er s
with the matter said. Politan
feels Koffey and its other direc-
m er
tor have been boxed out by Kiani
since joining the board.
Masimo said it is committed
to conducting a comprehensive
review of the separation and
m rp
that Koffey has been a key part
of discussions about it.
Politan’s board candidates are
William Jellison, former chief fi-
nancial officer of medical-device
co Fo
maker Stryker, and Darleen Solo-
mon, former chief technology of-
ficer of Agilent Technologies.
the New York area, about 75%
of all its loans. Regulators pres-
sured banks with a lot of com-
mercial real-estate exposure to
diversify, and NYCB did that
through big acquisitions that
pushed the bank’s assets past
$100 billion.
n-
This January, NYCB an-
nounced an increase in charge-
offs largely because of two
commercial real-estate loans,
no
one for an office building and
another on a co-op apartment
building. Investors panicked.
The bank also indicated it
was growing concerned about
its broader commercial-real-es-
tate portfolio. Valuations of
rent-regulated buildings have
plunged since a 2019 law put a
limit on how much New York
City landlords could increase
rents on some units. “It basi-
cally cut the value of buildings
in half overnight,” said Paul
Massey, CEO of brokerage B6
Real Estate Advisors.
It isn’t clear if any of NYCB’s
troubled loans came from Me-
ridian.
Meridian’s trouble started
with Freddie Mac when one of
its New Jersey-based brokers
applied for a mortgage for an
apartment property, according
to people familiar with the
matter. A different brokerage
had recently pitched the same
property for a loan but used
different financials, the people
said.
Freddie Mac issued new
guidelines effectively suspend-
ing Meridian. The lender has
sent letters to other Meridian
brokers telling them they are
blacklisted even if they go to a
different firm, according to
people familiar with the mat-
ter. Fannie Mae told lenders it
would no longer accept Merid-
ian-brokered loans starting
March 4, 2024.
The government-backed
lenders are now starting to sift
through the financials of nu-
merous borrowers and brokers,
looking to weed out fabricated
numbers, according to people
familiar with the matter.
R
T
U
V
Z
P
V
W In the eight weeks through Feb. 24, Jack Daniel’s black-label whiskey sales in U.S. stores were down 1%.
Continued from page B1
which has a national average
price of about $22. “You spend
an extra $10 and you get some-
thing that’s so much better.”
Moran, 42 years old, now
buys a variety of whiskeys and
has returned to the Jack Dan-
iel’s brand for its higher-end
on offerings, including Jack Dan-
iel’s Single Barrel Barrel Proof
and Jack Daniel’s 12-Year-Old
Tennessee Whiskey.
Brown-Forman is leaning
us ,
l
e
al a
Workers do quality checks on bottles of whiskey by hand at
the Jack Daniel’s distillery.
Gold Price
Gets a Boost
From China
Continued from page B1
small businesses are feeling
squeezed by higher borrowing
costs.
Research firm BMI raised
its target for the price of gold
on Tuesday to between $1,950
and $2,250 a troy ounce, but
warned that strong economic
data from the U.S. was a ma-
jor risk factor, since it could
slow down rate cuts. The firm
said the main drivers of gold
this year would be U.S. rates,
the performance of the dollar
and geopolitics.
State Street Global Advi-
sors, which manages the
world’s largest spot-gold ETF,
was more bullish: The firm
said it expects gold prices to
reach between $2,200 and
$2,400 once the Fed starts to
lower rates later this year.
The People’s Bank of China
bought more gold than any
other central bank last year,
purchasing a net 225 metric
tons, according to the World
Gold Council, an industry
body. That was China’s biggest
expansion of gold reserves
since 1977.
The country’s pension
funds, insurers and other
state-linked investors are also
stocking up on gold, although
their purchases are often un-
declared, according to market
participants.
China imported 367 metric
tons of gold for nonmonetary
use during the first two
months of this year, 51% more
than a year earlier, according
to official data.
Sales of gold and jewelry
products in China during the
Lunar New Year period—typi-
cally a boom time for retail
spending—were up 24% from
a year earlier. ETFs in China
that buy gold and shares of
gold miners are booming. As-
sets under management of
BUSINESS & FINANCE
into its pricier drinks, which
are gaining fans among whis-
key aficionados. Jack Daniel’s
Single Barrel Barrel Proof is
priced around $64. Dollar sales
of the product rose about 60%
in the first two months of this
year, according to Nielsen data
analyzed by consulting firm
Bump Williams. Those gains
haven’t made up for the de-
cline in Old No. 7, however.
Brown-Forman, which is
based in Louisville, Ky., re-
ported dismal sales over the
critical winter holiday season
and the hangover has lasted
into 2024. In the eight weeks
through Feb. 24, Jack Daniel’s
black-label whiskey sales in
U.S. stores were down 1% com-
pared with the same period
last year, data show. The com-
pany’s whiskey brands include
gold ETFs in the country hit a
record high in January at $4
billion, according to the China
Gold Association. On March
15, shares of Zijin Mining, one
of the country’s largest miners
of gold and minerals, closed at
a record high.
Chinese demand is being
fueled by gold’s reputation as
a haven. A prolonged real-es-
tate crisis, a tepid stock mar-
ket and the shaky economy
have pushed Chinese investors
to find alternative places to
put their money. On Friday,
the offshore yuan hit its weak-
est level against the dollar
this year.
“China’s real-estate sector
has difficulties. The equity
market is volatile. The cur-
rency is weak. All of these
things are encouraging Chi-
nese investors to diversify
into gold,” said John Reade,
chief market strategist at the
World Gold Council.
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STACY KRANITZ FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL (2)
Woodford Reserve, Benriach,
Slane and Old Forester.
“Christmas stunk,” Chief Ex-
sales in U.S. stores.
Brown-Forman executives
said they see opportunities in
ecutive Lawson Whiting said
on a call with analysts in early
March.
tequila, the fastest-growing
spirit category other than
canned cocktails. Brown-For-
Brown-Forman is wooing
younger legal-age drinkers to
Jack Daniel’s Old No. 7 with
man sells el Jimador and Her-
radura tequilas.
Analysts remain concerned
personalized labels and digital about the slide in whiskey
ads, Matias Bentel, the com- sales. They say Brown-Forman
pany’s chief brands officer, said might have to offer discounts
at an investor conference this to entice consumers and retail-
week. A recent TV commercial ers could continue drawing
.
set to the AC/DC song “Back in down their overstock rather
Black” featured cameos by mu- than placing new orders.
ly
sicians popular with young Brown-Forman said retailers’
adults, including Christone inventory levels, after growing
“Kingfish” Ingram, St. Vincent too large, have normalized. In-
and Este Haim.
Flavored versions such as
Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Apple
and Jack Daniel’s Tennessee
dustry leaders are describing
the moment as a reset.
Brown-Forman’s leaders say
their 154-year-old company
Honey are bringing new drink- takes the long view. The cur-
ers into the fold, Bentel said. A rent sales dip is an anomaly,
canned Jack and Coke cocktail they say—as were the previous
introduced in the U.S. last year two years of double-digit-per-
allows people to try the whis- centage growth.
key for the first time without The company weathered
having to buy a bottle. The fla- Prohibition and the Great De-
vored and canned drinks ap- pression, and steadily built the
peal more to younger adults Jack Daniel’s brand since ac-
and women, Bentel said. quiring it nearly 70 years ago,
Sales of spirits-based, Chairman Campbell Brown, a
ready-to-drink cocktails such great-great-grandson of
as High Noon and Cutwater founder George Garvin Brown,
climbed 32% in U.S. stores in told investors this week.
the 12 weeks ended Feb. 24, Finance chief Leanne Cun-
compared with a year earlier, ningham said: “We don’t nec-
according to a Goldman Sachs essarily deliver that every year,
analysis of Nielsen data. like the year that we’re having
Canned Jack and Coke is right now, but in fairness, if
growing quickly but still rep- you look at [fiscal year 2023],
resents a small piece of the that wasn’t a really normal
category with 2.5% of dollar year for us either.”
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THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Monday, March 25, 2024 | B3

BUSINESS NEWS

Even Yogurt Isn’t Safe From Hijacking

A surge in fraud has A load board is an online platform for logistics where brokers
vexed freight haulers connect shippers with carriers.
as thieves intercept
cargo containers How it works
BY INTI PACHECO
Rob Hoffman got disturbing
emails and calls last year that
threatened his entire business.
Swindlers took control of
one freight load—No. 51890—
and told him that other car-
goes his firm handled would
be stolen unless he paid them
$40,000. “I will continue mak-
ing sure your reputation in
front of your customers will be
down to 0,” one email said.
One of Hoffman’s employees
subcontracted a delivery job
using a load board, an online
platform matching shipments
with carriers, and awarded the
work to Sultan Trans. Only it
wasn’t the Ohio logistics com-
pany. The swindlers obtained
Sultan’s motor carrier number,
a unique identifier for trucking
firms, and listed a fake email
address on the load board.
The haul: a refrigerated
container with about $50,000
of yogurt and plant-based
milk. The goods, picked up
from a Danone plant outside
Harrisonburg, Va., never made
it to a Florida supermarket as
intended. The thieves con-
Motor Carrier Safety Adminis-
tration, the trucking industry’s
main regulator. They criticize
operators of load boards, saying
1 A shipper needs help moving its the companies should do more
goods all over the U.S., so it enters to suspend fraudulent accounts.
into a contract with a broker.
Industry experts say brokers,
carriers and shippers need to
better vet the companies they
work with to cut down on fraud.
“It’s probably the worst that
I’ve seen it in the 27 years that
I’ve been doing this,” said Scott
Cornell, a cargo theft specialist
at Travelers.
2 The broker, who doesn’t own trucks, As load boards evolved to
posts loads on a load board, looking make brokering transactions
for carriers to move freight. online easier and faster, crimi-
nals—looking to steal large
quantities of high-value
goods—spotted opportunities,
Cornell said.
The ease of committing fraud
3 Carriers, each identified by a
unique motor-carrier number,
on load boards gained the atten-
pick up loads and deliver them to tion of international crime rings,
locations specified by the shipper. Cornell said. Groups abroad can
operate call centers that target
cargo and flood the tech plat-
forms with requests to get loads
assigned to them.
Two ways it can be exploited Brokers and shippers struggl
at times to distinguish the
Fraudsters can pose as a carrier by obtaining ...Or, the thief can simply steal the load, either swindlers from legitimate car-
information such as its federal identification by duping a carrier into delivering it to an riers, especially during points
number. Once they get control of a freight alternate site, or by stealing it themselves. in the pandemic when competi-
load, they can hire a real carrier at a lower tion for carriers was steep. In-
rate and pocket the difference... dustry practices around vetting
Shipper Broker Shipper Broker carriers have been slow to
change, experts said.
Intended Intended “It’s an ongoing daily siege
Pickup destination Pickup destination with no finish line,” said , vice
fraudulent activity since Janu-
ary 2022, DAT said. For its
load board, DAT invested in
new identity-verification pro-
cedures and multifactor au-
thentication for logins.
Hoffman initially learned
about problems with the Danone
dairy shipment after a truck
driver called him. The swindlers,
using a different company name,
hired the driver to deliver the
goods to New Jersey, but then
changed the destination to
Pennsylvania, Hoffman said.
The route change made the
driver suspicious and he found
cargo paperwork that showed
Hoffman’s company, Dedicated
Carriers, was the brokerage and
the original delivery address
was in Florida, Hoffman said.
Hoffman talked to the driver
and offered to pay him directly
if he took the freight to Florida.
The driver said he signed a rate
confirmation with the other
company and decided to stick
with that one because it would
be paying him, Hoffman said.
Hours later, Hoffman re-
ceived a call from a person
with an Armenian phone num-
ber who warned the heists
would continue. In the follow-
ing days, the hijackers started
sending emails to other em-
ployees at Dedicated Carriers,
saying Hoffman’s arrogance—
and nonpayment—would cre-
ate more problems.

.
tracted another carrier to de- president of Roper Technolo- The dairy shipment made it
liver the cargo, and they told gies-owned DAT, which operates to a Pennsylvania warehouse,

Hoffman they wouldn’t send it
to its original destination un-
less he paid the ransom.
Hoffman, chief executive of
Tampa, Fla., freight brokerage
Dedicated Carriers, was
aware of the scheme known as
double brokering—an indus-
Unwitting carrier Thief posing as carrier
rangements, swindlers pretend
to be carriers, take the money
paid to move cargo and then
onschemes can harm parties at
hire another company to com-
us ,
Carrier
every step: Shippers lose mer-
chandise, brokers get swindled
and carriers don’t get paid.
Thief’s
destination
Thief
vention and cargo-recovery net-
work owned by Verisk. Fraud-
related losses were estimated to
be at least $500 million last
ly
the largest load board. DAT gets
dozens of suspected fraud re-
ports daily and the company in-
vestigates each one to find a
resolution, he said.
Fraud reports made to DAT
peaked last August and have
since dropped by half due in
and a manager called Hoffman
asking what he wanted to do
with it, Hoffman said. He told
the warehouse manager they
were in possession of stolen
goods. Hoffman later filed an
insurance claim.
Representatives from

trywide problem—but the inci- plete the task for a lower fee, Reports of freight fraud more year, an industry group said. part to security measures it Danone and the warehouse in
l

dent was the first time his pocketing the difference. The than quadrupled in 2023 from Victims say that they aren’t took, the company said. About Pennsylvania that received the
e
al a

cargo was held hostage. swindlers also can steal the the year before, according to getting enough help from law 10,000 customer accounts cargo didn’t return calls and
In double-brokering ar- cargo outright to sell it. The data from CargoNet, a theft-pre- enforcement and the Federal were suspended because of messages seeking comment.
ci on

Startup’s Bankruptcy Shows Hurdles to Green Apparel

er s

BY TREFOR MOSS be made from next-generation was running out of cash, and
m er

materials by 2030. To foster in January it laid off one-quar-

When a Swedish startup
launched a new material made
from recycled textiles in late
2022, the fashion industry
new materials, the company
has worked with more than
300 startups, also including
Renewcell, through a Sustain-
m rp
ter of its 130 staff. It filed for
bankruptcy in February after
failing to secure fresh invest-
ment. Renewcell is now seek-

hailed it as a game changer in
its efforts to lessen its environ-
mental impact.
Last month, the company,
ability Innovation Hub that it
set up four years ago.
So far, the uptake of
greener material has been
ing a buyer to repay its debts
and restart production.
The company’s predicament
is a grim sign for a clothing in-
ALEXANDER DONKA/RENEWCELL (2)

Renewcell, filed for bank- sluggish. Recycled materials dustry that claims to want to
co Fo

ruptcy. While some big retail-
ers, including H&M and Zara,
were enthusiastic backers, not
enough brands committed to
buying its material. Having
misjudged how quickly the
fashion industry would switch
to more sustainable sourcing,
the company was left with a
costly factory running far be-
low capacity.
The plight of Renewcell il-
lustrates the fashion industry’s
made up 7.9% of global fiber transform itself, said Claire
production in 2022, down from Bergkamp, managing director
8.5% the year before, according of the Textile Exchange.
to the Textile Exchange, a non- “My hope is this will be a
profit that advocates the adop- wake-up call for the industry,”
tion of more environmentally she said.
friendly materials. Much of —Ed Ballard
that came from recycled plas- contributed to this article. Renewcell’s facility in Sweden recycles old textiles into material to be used in new garments.
tic bottles, with less than 1% of
all fiber coming from recycled
textiles.
That is despite next-genera-
tion materials attracting more
n-

hesitancy in adopting new ma- than $3 billion of investment

terials that may be better for over the past decade, accord-
the environment but typically ing to the Material Innovation
cost more, at least in the short Initiative, with dozens of new-
no

term. It is also another sign of textile companies launched

how some companies are put-
ting less emphasis on green
initiatives amid a more-chal-
lenging economic climate.
“There’s a disconnect” be-
tween some companies’ stated
sustainability ambitions and
what they actually do, said Tri-
cia Carey, Renewcell’s chief
commercial officer. “Fashion
brands have the intention,”
Carey said, “but many are lack-
ing the road map to make it
happen.”
Making clothes uses a large
and growing amount of the
planet’s re-
sources. The
fashion industry
is responsible Fashion brands
for as much as are pressured
8% of global
greenhouse-gas to reduce their
emissions, ac-
cording to the
environmental
United Nations impact.
Alliance for
Sustainable
Fashion. Fash-
ion brands have come under
growing pressure from con-
sumers and regulators to re-
duce their environmental im-
pact.
To burnish their green cre-
dentials, brands have encour-
aged consumers to repair, recy-
cle or sell old clothes rather
than throw them away. They
have also invested in so-called
next-generation materials that
promise to use fewer resources
and, in some cases, have the
potential to be recycled again
and again.
Inditex, the parent company
of Zara, says it wants one-
quarter of the fiber it uses to
during that time.
Founded in 2012, Renewcell
became the first chemical tex-
tile-to-textile recycler to start
producing material on a com-
mercial scale. With many fash-
ion companies pledging to in-
vest in new textiles to be more
sustainable, Renewcell bet on
strong demand for its material,
Circulose.
The company raised $158
million, mostly through a 2020
listing in Stockholm, and in-
vested $125 million to convert
an old paper mill in eastern
Sweden into a
Circulose fac-
tory capable of
producing
60,000 metric
tons a year.
Renewcell
also outlined
plans for two
additional fac-
tories that
would increase
its output six-
fold by 2030.
But would-be customers fix-
ated on how fiber made from
Circulose cost 20% to 45%
more than the virgin fibers
they typically bought, as well
as uncertainty about integrat-
ing a new material into their
supply chains, Carey said. Fi-
ber typically accounts for
about 5% of the retail price of a
finished garment.
Renewcell needed its factory
to reach full output quickly to
become commercially viable,
but it achieved only 30% ca-
pacity last year as anticipated
orders failed to materialize.
By October, the company
 For personal, non-commercial use only. Do not edit, alter or reproduce. For commercial reproduction or distribution, contact Dow Jones Reprints & Licensing at (800) 843-0008 or www.djreprints.com.
B4 | Monday, March 25, 2024
Finance Chiefs Tackle Thorny AI Math
Executives weigh
benefits against the
costs while keeping
those costs in check
BY KRISTIN BROUGHTON
AND MARK MAURER
Finance chiefs are making
sure their companies’ invest-
ments in generative artificial in-
telligence generate a return.
The stakes can feel enormous
and nobody wants to be left be-
hind by rivals. Companies
across industries are testing
generative AI, exploring ways to
make workforces more produc-
tive, communicate with custom-
ers or improve
ARTIFICIAL financial fore-
INTELLIGENCE casting.
“In the
spirit of the unknown, organi-
zations are taking a leap of
faith,” said Todd Lohr, U.S.
technology consulting leader
at KPMG, adding companies
are gauging returns using
metrics such as productivity
gains and employee satisfac-
tion, as well as revenue. “This
might not be the traditional
ROI,” he said.
Companies, he said, “don’t
fully appreciate all the benefits
yet, but we think from a disrup-
The Ghost of Microsoft Stalks Apple
T
he ghost of old Mi-
crosoft hung in
the air this past
week as the Jus-
tice Department
took aim at Apple, accusing
the technology giant of a
monopoly with its iPhone.
Chief Executive Tim Cook
faces the likelihood that the
next several years will be con-
sumed with fighting antitrust
lawyers intent on dismantling
the business empire he helped
build after the death of Steve
Jobs. Cook, who has overseen
extraordinary profit and reve-
nue growth since becoming
CEO in 2011, can hardly afford
the timing of the latest fight.
It comes amid a slowdown in
iPhone growth and investor
jitters that he is behind in the
wave of excitement around ar-
tificial intelligence.
It is a situation reminiscent
of almost 25 years ago, when
then-Microsoft CEO Bill Gates
faced his own antitrust battle
with the Justice Department.
On Thursday, the govern-
ment invoked Microsoft’s
name several times in a law-
suit challenging Apple’s iPhone
business model. The lawyers
accused Apple of excluding ri-
vals from its digital ecosys-
tem—and are seeking changes
X Struggles
no
To Recruit
Creators
Continued from page B1
Musk and X CEO Linda Yac-
carino have touted the com-
pany’s push to attract creators,
which is important because
creators could also attract ad-
vertisers and audiences that
could help X turn around its
business.
X has suffered declines in
daily user numbers, according
to third-party data, as well as
reluctance from many big ad-
vertisers wary of Musk’s loos-
ening of content rules, contro-
versial tweets and willingness
to publicly berate brands that
pull their ads from his plat-
form.
X said it has about 250 mil-
lion daily active users on aver-
age so far this year. X also says
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tion perspective, we need to in-
vest in” AI.
But the technology can
come with a multimillion-dol-
lar price tag for companies
spending money on infrastruc-
ture, staff and partnerships
with software providers. In the
next 12 months, 43% of U.S.
companies with at least $1 bil-
lion in annual revenue expect
to invest at least $100 million
in generative AI, according to
a survey of 220 companies
published Friday by KPMG.
Companies can pay to use
proprietary models from pro-
viders such as OpenAI, or fine-
tune those models as needed.
They can build their own gener-
ative AI tools using open-source
models, such as Meta’s Llama 2
AI model. Few companies build
large language models from
scratch; for most, the costs in-
volved in such an endeavor
would make the math on AI
completely out of the question.
Copilot for Microsoft 365—
a product that uses generative
AI to do things such as sum-
marize emails and create doc-
uments—costs $30 a month
for each user. For companies
that want to build tools on top
of OpenAI’s GPT models, the
price varies based on the vol-
ume of content fed into and
generated by the models.
on
to the way it operates.
For its part, Apple has long
us ,
defended itself against mo-
l
nopoly claims, saying it faces
e
al a
intense competition from the
likes of Samsung and Google’s
Android and enforces rules
ci on
that limit the iPhone ecosys-
tem to protect customers’ pri-
vacy and security. Apple re-
sponded that it will vigorously
defend against the govern-
er s
ment’s claims.
I
m er
f history is any guide, Ap-
ple faces years of litiga-
tion—including hearings,
document discoveries and the
sort of legal maneuvering that
m rp
mostly doesn’t involve senior
leadership. But the maelstrom
will hang over Cook.
The Justice Department’s
case against Microsoft, filed in
co Fo
1998, lasted three years before
the software giant settled in
2001. That timing doesn’t in-
clude appeals and legal battles
in Europe, which dragged on
until the end of 2009.
The U.S. settlement in-
cluded changes—such as
greater freedom to install
non-Microsoft products on
new machines—to the com-
pany’s contracts with com-
puter makers.
n-
That case happened when
users are spending more time
on the platform, with daily ac-
tive user minutes up 10% year
over year. The company didn’t
provide a year-over-year com-
parison for daily users.
This month the platform
said it has paid more than $45
million to more than 150,000
creators since its program to
share ad revenue began last
year. The company declined to
comment in response to other
questions about its efforts to
attract creators.
More than three million
channels participate in You-
Tube’s Partner Program for
creators, which began in 2007,
the company says. YouTube
said it has paid more than $70
billion over the past three
years, including ad and sub-
scription revenue, to creators,
artists and media companies.
X has been trying to recruit
bigger names to create more
content for its platform, as
well as creators seeking to
make it big for the first time.
Musk’s tendency to act on
impulse hasn’t helped. Earlier
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THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
TECHNOLOGY WSJ.com/Tech
viders. Among the most prom- boTax, QuickBooks and Credit moving slowly on using genera-
ising so far: summarizing Karma, is using and testing tive AI in the finance function.
complex industry contracts generative AI across its prod- Cisco Systems identified pos-
and helping software develop- uct lines to help answer cus- sible uses for generative AI on
ers with tasks such as writing tomer questions or generate in- its finance team, such as access-
first drafts of code. voice reminders. The company ing data and generating reports,
Winkler, along with Chief uses generative AI models from but hasn’t applied them yet,
Technology Officer Mahesh external providers, such as CFO Scott Herren said.
Saptharishi, this year developed OpenAI and Anthropic, as well “We’re not there today,” he
a framework designed to evalu- as large language models that said. “I think we need to define
ate benefits from the invest- it is building using open-source it well enough and then under-
ments by tracking the hours it models and training them on stand both the cost and the
takes to complete a task with an its own proprietary data. benefit before we head too far
GABBY JONES/BLOOMBERG NEWS
AI tool and without it. Intuit declined to say how down that path.” Last Monday,
Ellie Mertz, CFO at Airbnb, much it is spending on gener- Cisco closed on its acquisition
said she is working with her ative AI. But one way it keeps of cybersecurity and analytics
CTO to help the company prior- the costs under control is by company Splunk, a bid to use AI
itize among possible experi- querying its own models, to simplify complex tools for
ments with generative AI. rather than by sending que- nontechnical people.
Airbnb is using conversational ries to third parties, which Companies could face addi-
AI tools to improve customer costs money, said CFO Sand- tional costs if they had to
Microsoft’s Copilot AI. service, a critical area for the eep Aujla. switch from an AI platform that
company. It is using computer- Some of the AI-driven fea- didn’t pan out, particularly if
“Understanding where the vision models to help automati- tures Intuit introduced for its they have a high volume of con-
highest and best use is around cally identify things like room customers are expected to pro- tracts. “If it’s an AI tool that’s
these investments that we are type, view and amenities in mil- vide the company with pricing reviewing every single contract
making, and will continue to lions of listing photos, and us- power over time, Aujla said. and you have to go and retrain
make, is an important role for ing machine learning to help Intuit is testing whether the AI, the cost is probably very
finance and the CFO,” said Ja- guests find listings that match Mailchimp customers receive a high,” said Sarah Spoja, CFO of
son Winkler, chief financial their needs. higher return on investment Tipalti, a finance automation
officer of Motorola Solutions, “That’s an area where we’ve from email marketing cam- company. “That’s the fear.”
which makes technology for been leaning in to see where we paigns they create themselves,
emergency responders and can leverage AI to just make the or campaigns created by Intuit’s
other public agencies and kind of matching of problem AI tools. If the AI-assisted mar-
companies. and solution more straightfor- keting produces a better result
Motorola is testing poten- ward, more efficient and get to for customers, “you have now
tial applications for generative better outcomes,” Mertz said. all of a sudden built the case to For more on the business of
AI using models the company Intuit, which owns financial upcharge for it,” Aujla said. Artificial Intelligence, sign up
purchased from software pro- software brands such as Tur- Some CFOs are deliberately for free at wsj.com/pro/ai.
TIM HIGGINS
.
ly
Share-price and index iPhone, free from anticompeti- tions. Except Microsoft stum- which is collaborating with
performance over the tive restrictions, excessive bled and, for a time, lagged Microsoft. Microsoft’s work in
past year fees and retaliation.” behind. AI, along with its cloud busi-
Thursday’s filing, too, went Gates has said the legal ness, helped infuse a new
60% down memory lane. It sug- battle proved a distraction swagger into the company.
gested Apple’s success with that contributed to Micro- Its stock soared, sending its
Microsoft the iPod music player—which soft’s falling behind in the market valuation beyond $3
50
came before the advent of the field of smartphones. trillion this year and dethron-
iPhone—flourished in part be- “There is no doubt that ing Apple as the world’s most
40 Nasdaq cause the previous antitrust the antitrust lawsuit was valuable publicly traded com-
Composite case “constrained Microsoft’s bad for Microsoft,” he said pany. Apple shares ended Fri-
ability to prohibit companies in 2019. “We would have day down 7% for the year
30
like Apple from offering been more focused on creat- while the Nasdaq rose 11%.
iTunes on Windows PCs.” ing the phone operating sys- For his part, Cook has tried
20 Apple doesn’t like the com- tem, so instead of using An- to reassure investors, recently
parisons with Microsoft of old, droid today you would be saying Apple sees “incredible
when its rival had more than using Windows Mobile.” breakthrough potential for
10 90% market share versus the Just as Gates found himself generative AI.” Apple held dis-
Apple
iPhone’s more than 65% hold at a crossroads of technologi- cussions with OpenAI, Baidu
0 of the smartphone market to- cal change, Cook, too, is trying and Google about using their
day, as alleged in the lawsuit. to find Apple’s path to the AI technology to power Ap-
April 2023 '24
And the government’s sug- next big thing. ple’s mobile features.
Source: FactSet gestion that the Microsoft His moonshot bets haven’t And not everyone agrees
case fueled Apple’s rise had worked out as some inves- that the fabled legal battle
Apple was a very different some techies collectively roll- tors hoped. Apple recently was to blame for Microsoft’s
company, a much smaller one ing their eyes, claiming revi- shelved a decadelong project post-antitrust funk. Gene
that narrowly averted bank- sionist history. to develop an electric, driv- Munster, a longtime industry
ruptcy and, as the new millen- erless car. And its newly re- analyst, this past week
T
nium dawned, was evolving. he Microsoft case had leased augmented reality tweeted that the company’s
“Apple itself was a signifi- carried the specter of a headset, while winning some subsequent lackluster per-
cant beneficiary of that case,” court-ordered breakup critical praise, is far from formance had little to do
Jonathan Kanter, the Justice of the company. In the end, overtaking the iPhone as Ap- with the legal fight and “a
Department’s assistant attor- the settlement left it intact, ple’s bestseller. lot to do with a culture that
ney general for antitrust, said poised, as some thought at the Some investors worry Ap- did not innovate.”
in announcing the lawsuit. time, to march easily into ple is behind on work to com- In the end for Apple in-
“The remedy paved the way then-new tech frontiers such pete in the areas of artificial vestors, that’s the bet: The
for Apple to launch iTunes, as online services, music dis- intelligence being made popu- Apple of today isn’t the Mi-
the iPod and eventually the tribution and telecommunica- lar by the likes of OpenAI, crosoft of yesterday.
this month, Don Lemon said billion by 2027, according to a It isn’t easy for people on
Musk rescinded his deal with Goldman Sachs report from any platform to make a full-
the social-media platform be- last year. time living as creators. Only
cause Musk wasn’t happy with
an interview the former CNN
host did with him. X said an
Influencer-marketing firm
Aspire surveyed over 450 cre-
ators in October and found
about 4% of global creators
pull in more than $100,000 a
year, according to the Goldman
agreement hadn’t been signed,
and Musk retorted on X that
Lemon “lacked authentic-
that 5% planned to use X as
their primary platform in
2024.
Sachs analysis.
In January, YouTube me-
gastar Jimmy Donaldson, bet-
ity.” Lemon later posted the Less than 1% of over 200 ter known as MrBeast, said he
interview on X. brands and marketing agencies made $263,655 from a video
Lemon had been one of the surveyed by creator-marketing that got over 156 million im-
NOAM GALAI/GETTY IMAGES FOR YOUTUBE
highest-profile names X re- company CreatorIQ in August pressions on X. He said on X
cruited for a series of video and September said X delivers that his payout was probably
shows, with others including the greatest return on invest- larger than what most people
former Hawaii congresswoman ment. Instagram topped the would be able to earn because
Tulsi Gabbard. return-on-investment rank- of the attention he got.
Some creators appreciate ings. X ran a preroll ad before
X’s efforts. Benny Johnson, a “Attempting to attract cre- MrBeast’s video, effectively an
conservative political commen- ators to the platform is really additional kind of promotion.
tator, said in July that X had smart for any social-media After questions from users, X
paid him $9,546 from its pro- player,” said Enberg from said more creators would be
gram to share ad revenue. Podcaster Samir Chaudry. Emarketer. “The business given the option for that kind
“Creators need to know that model isn’t entirely clear yet, of promotion.
@elonmusk means BUSINESS mine Enberg, principal analyst and it seems like X is throwing To be eligible for X’s ad-rev-
supporting the creator econ- at Emarketer. “Given the state a lot of things at the wall and enue-sharing program, cre-
omy,” he posted. of its ad business, it’s hard to seeing what sticks,” she added. ators must first pay for a sub-
Last year, X welcomed for- imagine it can convince most X is also experimenting scription starting at $8
mer Fox News host Tucker creators that it can provide with a different model: encour- monthly and meet other crite-
Carlson to launch a show on them with a sustainable source aging users to pay for pay- ria, including getting at least
the platform after Carlson’s of income.” walled posts from creators. five million impressions on
split from the cable news net- Musk has acknowledged That approach has been their posts within the prior
work. that hurdle. “Not much we can successful for Jake Wujastyk, three months.
Carlson has continued post- do if advertisers boycott or re- who posts stock-market re- While it isn’t unusual for
ing his show on X, though he duce spend on our platform,” search on X. He has roughly creators to have various com-
also launched a separate sub- he posted last year about the 5,000 subscribers paying $10 plaints about the platforms
scription service late last year. ad-revenue payouts. Musk said monthly, according to a they depend on, X faced a new
Carlson said at the time that X in the interview with Lemon, screenshot he shared with The round of complaints in recent
didn’t yet have all the capabili- released March 18, that almost Wall Street Journal. weeks, with a chorus of cre-
ties he wanted to run a all advertisers are coming back “I make most of my living ators grousing publicly that X
streaming service. to X and that X’s advertising off of X,” said Wujastyk, who had paused their ad-revenue
One problem, some in the and subscription revenues are lives in Colorado. payouts. Around 1,400 ac-
industry say, is that X’s pro- rising rapidly, without provid- Wujastyk also said the plat- counts joined a group on X for
gram to pay creators a portion ing numbers. form lacks an easy way to people trying to get their pay-
of ad revenue, from ads placed Even before Musk’s take- track metrics like churn rates, ments resumed, with some
in replies to their tweets, de- over, the platform formerly which makes it hard to plan posting the hashtag
pends on having advertisers known as Twitter lagged be- and budget. From X’s ad-reve- #greatpause2024.
spending big. hind others such as YouTube nue-sharing program, he usu- Several creators said their
“X isn’t exactly a stable or in the creator economy. That ally makes a few hundred dol- issues were resolved after they
reliable platform,” said Jas- market could be worth $480 lars every two weeks. appealed to X.
 For personal, non-commercial use only. Do not edit, alter or reproduce. For commercial reproduction or distribution, contact Dow Jones Reprints & Licensing at (800) 843-0008 or www.djreprints.com.

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Monday, March 25, 2024 | B5

Before you use AI

AI.
to help get where
you’re going

.
you need to trust
ly
on
what it’s doing.
us ,
l
e
al a
ci on
er s

“
m er

“You need to see what AI can do.

What is often said with excitement,

m rp

we say with a sense of responsibility.

Because businesses need to see where their data came from.

co Fo

How their AI is working.

When it’s drifting.
If it has potential for bias.
And decide when to course-correct.

It’s only when AI shows its work

that you should put AI to work.
n-

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 For personal, non-commercial use only. Do not edit, alter or reproduce. For commercial reproduction or distribution, contact Dow Jones Reprints & Licensing at (800) 843-0008 or www.djreprints.com.

B6 | Monday, March 25, 2024 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

TECHNOLOGY THE TICKER

MARKET EVENTS COMING THIS WEEK
Big Tech’s Latest Obsession Is Monday
New-home sales
Distillates
Mort. bankers indexes
up 0.6 Freddie Mac mortgage
survey

Finding Enough Energy for AI

Previous weekly averages
Jan., previous 661,000 Purch., prev. down 1.0% 30-year fixed 6.87%
Feb., expected 675,000 Refinan., previous 15-year fixed 6.21%
down 3.0%
Tuesday Chicago PMI
Earnings expected Feb., previous 44.0
Estimate/Year Ago
Short-selling reports March, expected 45.0
Boom is fueling Ratio, days of trading volume Carnival
of current position, at Feb. 29 (0.17)/(0.55)
insatiable demand NYSE 3.9 Cintas 3.58/3.14
U.Mich. consumer
index
for power, creating Nasdaq 2.3 Jefferies Financial March, prelim. 76.5
risks for the grid Durable-goods orders 0.75/0.54 March, final 76.5
Jan., prev. down 6.2% Paychex 1.37/1.29
EIA report: natural gas
BY KATHERINE BLUNT Feb., expected up 1.0% Previous change in stocks in
AND JENNIFER HILLER Consumer Confidence Thursday billions of cubic feet

Feb., previous 106.7 U.S. bond market closes early up 7

HOUSTON—Every March, at 2 p.m ET
March, expected 106.5 Earnings expected
thousands of executives take GDP Deflator Estimate/Year Ago
over a downtown hotel here to Earnings expected
Estimate/Year Ago 4th qtr. sec. est. up 1.6% Walgreens Boots
reach oil-and-gas deals and
F. CARTER SMITH/BLOOMBERG NEWS

Elbit Systems 1.32/1.91 4th qtr., third est. Alliance 0.82/1.16

haggle over plans to tackle cli- up 1.6%
GameStop 0.30/0.16
mate change. This year, the
McCormick 0.57/0.59 Gross domestic Friday
dominant theme of the energy
nCino 0.12/0.04 product
industry’s flagship conference U.S. stock and bond markets
TD SYNNEX 2.84/2.93 Percentage change, annual are closed for Good Friday
was a new one: artificial intel- rate
ligence. 4th qtr. sec. est. up 3.2% Personal spending
Tech companies roamed the Wednesday 4th qtr., third est. Jan., previous up 0.2%
hotel’s halls in search of utility EIA status report up 3.2% Feb., expected up 0.5%
executives and other power The scramble for energy was a theme at this month’s CERAWeek by S&P Global in Houston. Previous change in stocks in
providers. More than 20 exec- millions of barrels Initial jobless claims Personal income
utives from Amazon.com and of new and proposed data cen- “We’re going to be net-zero models show it is still possi- Crude oil down 2.0 Previous 210,000 Jan., previous up 1.0%
Microsoft spoke on panels. ters to power AI has some util- by 2050. We still absolutely ble. Gasoline down 3.3 Expected 214,000 Feb., expected up 0.4%
The inescapable topic—and the ities stumped as to how they believe that,” said CEO Robert “We’re putting the accelera-
* FactSet Estimates earnings-per-share estimates don’t include extraordinary items (Losses in paren-
cause of equal parts anxiety are going to bring enough gen- Blue. “But the demand growth tor down on developing those theses) u Adjusted for stock split
and excitement—was AI’s insa- eration capacity online at a now makes that more compli- clean resources,” he said. Note: Forecasts are from Dow Jones weekly survey of economists
tiable appetite for electricity. time when wind and solar cated.” Still, utilities and tech com-
It isn’t clear just how much farms are becoming more chal- After a long period of stag- panies are discussing the need
electricity will be required to lenging to build. nant demand for electricity, for more fossil fuel to support
power an exponential increase He said that utilities will utilities are dialing up fore- demand. Toby Rice, CEO of gi-
in data centers worldwide. But have to lean more heavily on casts by astonishing amounts. ant U.S. natural-gas producer
most everyone agreed the data natural gas, coal and nuclear The five-year projection of U.S. EQT, said tech firms building
centers needed to advance AI plants, and perhaps support electricity demand growth has data centers are inquiring
will require so much power the construction of new gas doubled from a year ago, ac- about buying gas from EQT.

.
they could strain the power plants to help meet spikes in cording to a report from con- Rice said he got the same two
grid and stymie the transition demand. sulting firm Grid Strategies. questions at the conference:

to cleaner energy sources. The complication is that
Bill Vass, vice president of companies don’t just want to
engineering at Amazon Web add new power sources, but
Services, said the world adds a
new data center every three
days. Microsoft co-founder Bill
Gates told the conference that
clean ones, too. Many tech
companies and utilities have
made commitments to dramat-
ically reduce the carbon emis-
on
electricity is the key input for sions they produce.
us ,
ly
New data centers can be “How fast can you guys move?
built faster than new power How much gas can we get?”
generation and there is already According to Rice, tech
a supply crunch. Construction
timelines for data centers have
been extended by two to six
years because of power-supply
companies
power, which
need reliable
renewable
sources such as wind and solar
can’t always provide because
delays, according to commer- of the vagaries of weather. And

deciding whether a data center Dominion Energy, a utility cial-real-estate services firm large-scale nuclear facilities,
l

will be profitable and that the company based in Richmond, CBRE Group. only one of which is under
e
al a

amount of power AI will con- Va., has seen a sharp uptick in Meanwhile, the Biden ad- construction in the U.S., have
sume is staggering. electricity demand driven by a ministration has set a goal to historically been expensive and

EDDY VITTINI/EPA/SHUTTERSTOCK
Though there was no dis- build-out of data centers in eliminate carbon emissions time-consuming to build.
ci on

pute at the conference, called northern Virginia, which has
CERAWeek by S&P Global, that long been home to a large con-
AI requires massive amounts centration of such facilities.
of electricity, what was less The company, which has set a
clear was where it is going to goal to eliminate or offset its
er s
from the U.S. electricity sector
by 2035. John Podesta, the
president’s point person on
implementing the Inflation Re-
duction Act, told reporters
“Tech is not going to wait
seven to 10 years to get this
infrastructure built,” Rice said
in an interview. “That leaves
you with natural gas.”

come from. carbon emissions by 2050, ex- that burgeoning AI demands —Phred Dvorak
Former U.S. Energy Secre- pects to build at least one gas- create new challenges in hit- and Benoît Morenne
Analysts expect Carnival to log a loss of 17 cents a share.
m er

tary Ernest Moniz said the size fired power plant to support it. ting that target, though federal contributed to this article.
m rp
co Fo
n-
no
 For personal, non-commercial use only. Do not edit, alter or reproduce. For commercial reproduction or distribution, contact Dow Jones Reprints & Licensing at (800) 843-0008 or www.djreprints.com.

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Monday, March 25, 2024 | B7

MARKETS DIGEST
Dow Jones Industrial Average S&P 500 Index New to the Market
Last Year ago Last Year ago
39475.90 s 761.13, or 1.97% last week Trailing P/E ratio 27.47 22.40 5234.18 s 117.09, or 2.29% last week Trailing P/E ratio * 23.47 17.72 Public Offerings of Stock
High, low, open and close for each of P/E estimate * 19.16 17.08 High, low, open and close for each of P/E estimate * 21.58 17.75
the past 52 weeks Dividend yield 1.83 2.05 the past 52 weeks Dividend yield * 1.35 1.73 IPOs in the U.S. Market
All-time high 39781.37, 03/21/24 All-time high 5241.53, 03/21/24
Initial public offerings of stock expected this week; might include some
offerings, U.S. and foreign, open to institutional investors only via the
Current divisor 0.15265312230608 Rule 144a market; deal amounts are for the U.S. market only
39000 5100 Symbol/ Pricing
Week's high Expected primary Shares Range($)
DOWN UP pricing date Filed Issuer/business exchange (mil.) Low/High Bookrunner(s)
65-day moving average
t

Monday's open Friday's close 37600 4900 3/26 11/17 Alta Global Group ALGG 1.3 4.00/ FordhamFinancialManagement
2023 Global martial arts and A 6.00
Friday's close Monday's open combat sports company.
t

36200 4700 3/27 3/6 Boundless Bio BOLD 6.3 15.00/ GS,LeerinkPartners,PiperSandler,
Week's low 65-day Commercial stage Nq 17.00 Guggenheim
biopharmaceutical Partners
moving average company. .

34800 4500
Lockup Expirations
Below, companies whose officers and other insiders will become eligible
33400 4300 to sell shares in their newly public companies for the first time. Such
200-day moving average sales can move the stock’s price.
Lockup Offer Offer amt Through Lockup
200-day moving average 32000 4100 expiration Issue date Symbol price($) ($ mil.) Friday (%) provision

Bars measure the point change from Monday's open March 24 Sept. 26, ’23 Lead Real Estate Co LRE 7.00 9.1 –47.1 180 days

30600 3900 March 30March 31, ’23 Shengfeng Development SFWL 4.00 13.5 –58.0 365 days
MA M J J A S O N D J F M A M J J A S O N D J F M March 31, ’23 SYLA Technologies Co SYT 8.00 15.0 –53.1 365 days

Primary Sept. 28, ’23 Gamer Pakistan GPAK 4.00 7.7 –93.6 180 days
NYSE weekly volume, in billions of shares market Composite
t
t

Sept. 29, ’23 Adlai Nortye ANL 23.00 57.5 –60.7 180 days
Scan this code
36 Sept. 28, ’23 VS Media Holdings VSME 5.00 10.0 –92.8 180 days
24 Get real-time U.S. stock quotes and track
Sources: Dealogic; Dow Jones Market Data
12 most-active stocks, new highs/lows, mutual
0 funds and ETFs.. IPO Scorecard
MA M J J A S O N D J F M Available free at WSJMarkets.com Performance of IPOs, most-recent listed first
*Weekly P/E data based on as-reported earnings from Birinyi Associates Inc.; † Based on Nasdaq-100 Index % Chg From % Chg From
Company SYMBOL Friday's Offer 1st-day Company SYMBOL Friday3s Offer 1st-day
Major U.S. Stock-Market Indexes Nasdaq Composite IPO date/Offer price close ($) price close IPO date/Offer price close ($) price close
Auna 9.60 –20.0 ... Unusual Machines 1.67 –58.2 –44.9
Latest Week 52-Week % chg s 455.64, or 2.85% AUNA March 22/$12.00 UMAC Feb. 14/$4.00
High Low Close Net chg % chg Low Close (l) High %chg YTD 3-yr. ann.
Dow Jones
last week Black Hawk Acquisition 10.15 1.5 ... BBB Foods 23.54 34.5 23.6
BKHAU March 21/$10.00 TBBB Feb. 9/$17.50
Industrial Average 39889.05 38760.79 39475.90 761.13 1.97 32237.53 • 39781.37 22.5 4.7 6.4
Reddit 46.00 35.3 –8.8 Helix Acquisition II 10.25 2.5 0.6
Transportation Avg 16201.55 15401.56 16010.98 512.35 3.31 13444.01 • 16695.32 16.8 0.7 4.2
16400
RDDT March 21/$34.00 HLXB Feb. 9/$10.00
Utility Average 867.65 846.44 858.37 8.08 0.95 783.08 • 975.39 -5.7 -2.6 0.4 Astera Labs 70.00 94.4 12.8 Metagenomi 11.41 –23.9 10.7
Total Stock Market 52420.97 51039.11 52104.02 1157.88 2.27 39678.51 • 52233.47 31.3 9.0 7.9 ALAB March 20/$36.00 MGX Feb. 9/$15.00
Barron's 400 1159.73 1125.75 1149.64 23.27 2.07 881.58 • 1159.5 27.1 7.2 6.1 16200 Intelligent Group
INTJ March 20/$4.00
2.13 –46.8 –35.5 Telomir Pharmaceuticals 6.49
TELO Feb. 9/$7.00
–7.3 29.8

Nasdaq Stock Market Ryde Group 4.16 4.0 4.0 Kyverna Therapeutics 25.72 16.9 –14.3
16000
Nasdaq Composite 16538.86 15951.86 16428.82 455.64 2.85 11716.08 • 16428.82 38.9 9.4 7.1 RYDE March 6/$4.00 KYTX Feb. 8/$22.00

.
Nasdaq-100 18464.70 17809.15 18339.44 531.19 2.98 12610.57 • 18339.44 43.6 9.0 11.9 Lucas GC 3.37 –15.8 –6.7 American Heathcare REIT 13.93 16.1 5.4

ly
LGCL March 5/$4.00 AHR Feb. 7/$12.00
15800
S&P SolarMax Technology 8.03 100.8 0.4 Legato Merger III 10.12 1.2 0.6
15 18 19 20 21 22
500 Index 5261.10 5131.59 5234.18 117.09 2.29 3970.99 • 5241.53 31.8 9.7 9.9 March SMXT Feb. 27/$4.00 LEGT.UT Feb. 6/$10.00

MidCap 400 3018.65 2912.64 2991.26 67.50 2.31 2326.82 • 3013.24 24.4 7.5 4.8 DJ US TSM
DT Cloud Acquisition 10.16 1.6 0.4 Alto Neuroscience 15.97 –0.2 –22.9

SmallCap 600
Other Indexes
Russell 2000
1331.14 1278.09 1311.59

2106.31 2009.81 2072.00

23.85

32.68
on
1.85 1068.80

1.60 1636.94
•

•
1339.63 15.0

2098.56 19.4
-0.5 -0.6

2.2 -3.0
s 1157.88, or 2.27%
last week
DYCQU Feb. 21/$10.00
Chromocell Therapeutics 2.46
CHRO Feb. 16/$6.00
–59.0 –48.8
ANRO Feb. 2/$16.00
Fractyl Health
GUTS Feb. 2/$15.00
7.43 –50.5 –42.2

Sources: Dow Jones Market Data; FactSet

NYSE Composite 18272.72 17846.09 18112.04 263.95 1.48 14675.78 • 18214.12 22.7 7.5 5.2
Public and Private Borrowing
us ,

Value Line 610.04 590.85 603.20 10.02 1.69 498.09 • 608.41 12.9 1.6 -2.1 52100
l

NYSE Arca Biotech 5364.99 5182.57 5266.13 61.29 1.18 4544.40 • 5511.46 2.6 -2.8 -2.3 Treasurys
e
•
al a

NYSE Arca Pharma 1016.17 1004.06 1009.48 -1.72 -0.17 819.53 1029.37 23.2 10.9 13.2
51600 Monday, March 25 Wednesday, March 27
KBW Bank 103.84 97.43 101.70 3.65 3.72 71.71 • 103.26 29.7 5.9 -5.0
PHLX§ Gold/Silver 124.02 116.51 119.21 -1.29 -1.07 102.94 • 144.37 -6.2 -5.2 -5.3 Auction of 13 and 26 week bills; Auction of 7 year note;
ci on

announced on March 21; settles on March 28 announced on March 21; settles on April 1
PHLX§ Oil Service 90.84 87.02 89.64 2.150 2.46 69.29 • 98.76 23.3 6.9 17.3 51100
PHLX§ Semiconductor 4983.46 4620.52 4908.26 150.55 3.16 2906.29 • 5165.83 57.3 17.5 16.8 Auction of 2 year note; Auction of 17 week bill;
Cboe Volatility 14.86 12.40 13.06 -1.35 -9.37 12.07 • 21.74 -39.9 4.9 -11.6 50600 announced on March 21; settles on April 1 announced on March 26; settles on April 2
 Nasdaq PHLX 15 18 19 20 21 22
Sources: FactSet; Dow Jones Market Data Tuesday, March 26 Thursday, March 28
March
er s

Auction of 5 year note; Auction of 4 and 8 week bill;

announced on March 21; settles on April 1 announced on March 26; settles on April 2
International Stock Indexes Commodities and
m er

Latest Week 52-Week Range YTD

Currencies A Week in the Life of the DJIA
Region/Country Index Close % chg Low Close High % chg
Last Week YTD A look at how the Dow Jones Industrial Average component stocks
World MSCI ACWI 781.32 1.79 625.06 • 783.34 7.5 Close Net chg %Chg % chg
did in the past week and how much each moved the index. The DJIA
329.00 0.87 276.65 • 330.44 3.9
m rp

MSCI ACWI ex-USA DJ Commodity 980.04 -3.00 -0.31 2.32 gained 761.14 points, or 1.97%, on the week. A $1 change in the price
MSCI World 3428.12 1.94 2692.55 • 3434.69 8.2 Refinitiv/CC CRB Index 285.76 1.14 0.40 8.31 of any DJIA stock = 6.55-point change in the average. To date, a
MSCI Emerging Markets 1039.32 0.44 910.91 • 1049.07 1.5 Crude oil, $ per barrel 80.63 0.05 0.06 12.53 $1,000 investment on Dec. 31 in each current DJIA stock component
Americas MSCI AC Americas 1977.88 2.19 1504.51 • 1981.73 9.1 Natural gas, $/MMBtu 1.659 0.004 0.24 -34.01 would have returned $31,805, or a gain of 6.02%, on the $30,000
Canada S&P/TSX Comp 21984.08 0.62 18737.39 • 22087.26 4.9 Gold, $ per troy oz. 2158.10 0.80 0.04 4.64 investment, including reinvested dividends.
Latin Amer. MSCI EM Latin America 2510.43 0.10 2076.93 • 2675.33 –5.7 The Week’s Action
co Fo

U.S. Dollar Index 104.43 1.00 0.96 3.01

Brazil Bovespa 127027.10 0.23 98829.27 • 134193.72 –5.3
WSJ Dollar Index 99.04 0.93 0.95 3.35
Pct Stock price Point chg
chg (%) change in average* Company Symbol Close
$1,000 Invested(year-end '23)
$1,000
Chile S&P IPSA 3636.77 0.81 3048.00 • 3636.77 4.9
Euro, per dollar 0.9251 0.0068 0.74 2.11 5.06 19.61 128.46 Goldman Sachs GS $406.82 $1,062
Mexico S&P/BMV IPC 56610.54 0.68 48197.88 • 58711.87 –1.4
Yen, per dollar 151.46 2.38 1.60 7.40 4.57 13.44 88.04 Salesforce CRM 307.77 1,171
EMEA STOXX Europe 600 509.64 0.96 429.58 • 509.77 6.4
U.K. pound, in dollars 1.26 -0.0131 -1.03 -1.03 4.57 17.05 111.69 Home Depot HD 390.28 1,133
STOXX Europe 50 4395.93 0.49 3783.73 • 4402.37 7.4
52-Week
3.50 3.92 25.68 Walt Disney DIS 115.87 1,283
Eurozone Euro STOXX 515.22 1.29 420.65 • 516.02 8.7 Low Close(l) High % Chg 3.46 6.32 41.40 Boeing BA 188.85 725
Euro STOXX 50 5031.15 0.91 4014.36 • 5052.31 11.3
DJ Commodity 930.59 1035.63 0.34 3.43 7.50 49.13 American Express AXP 225.96 1,210
Austria ATX 3499.40 2.62 3020.72 • 3499.40 1.9 l
3.32 6.32 41.40 JPMorgan Chase JPM 196.62 1,163
Belgium Bel-20 3803.73 3.24 3290.68 • 3849.52 2.6 Refinitiv/CC CRB Index 253.85 l 290.29 10.55
3.21 11.14 72.98 Caterpillar CAT 358.11 1,217
France CAC 40 8151.92 –0.15 6795.38 • 8201.05 8.1 Crude oil, $ per barrel 67.12 l 93.68 16.42
2.96 12.32 80.71 Microsoft MSFT 428.74 1,142
Germany DAX 18205.94 1.50 14687.41 • 18205.94 8.7 Natural gas, $/MMBtu 1.576 l 3.575 -25.14 2.72 7.30 47.82 Amgen AMGN 276.17 966
Greece Athex Composite 1425.16 0.22 1021.16 • 1434.87 10.2 Gold, $ per troy oz. 1816.60 l 2182.50 8.88
2.55 4.45 29.15 Amazon.com AMZN 178.87 1,177
Israel Tel Aviv 1979.46 5.06 1605.20 • 1979.46 6.1
n-

2.23 0.88 5.76 Verizon VZ 40.37 1,089

Italy FTSE MIB 34343.61 1.19 25892 • 34344 13.2 U.S. Dollar Index 99.77 l 107.00 1.27
1.92 2.33 15.26 Merck MRK 123.85 1,143
Netherlands AEX 876.34 2.88 714.05 • 876.34 11.4 WSJ Dollar Index 94.60 l 100.92 2.65
1.74 0.85 5.57 Cisco CSCO 49.78 993
Norway Oslo Bors All-Share 1530.56 2.05 1293.45 • 1543.44 0.7 Euro, per dollar 0.8897 l 0.9555 -0.44
1.70 1.78 11.66 3M MMM 106.78 993
Portugal PSI 20 6227.92 1.58 5729.40 • 6609.90 –2.6 Yen, per dollar 130.71 l 151.72 15.87
no

1.59 1,184
South Africa FTSE/JSE All-Share 73254.19 0.36 69451.97 • 79294.76 –4.7 U.K. pound, in dollars 1.21 l 1.31 3.02
1.54
3.52 23.06 Travelers TRV 224.45
962
Spain IBEX 35 10943.19 3.26 8792.5 • 10943.2 8.3
1.25
3.04
3.49
19.91
22.86
Honeywell HON 200.73
MCD 282.63 959
Sweden OMX Stockholm 966.90 1.27 753.35 • 968.32 7.1 Go to WSJMarkets.com for free
1.12 0.64 4.19
McDonald’s
Dow DOW 57.68 1,065
Switzerland Swiss Market 11651.99 –0.21 10323.71 • 11790.46 4.6 access to real-time market data.
1.02 0.61 4.00 Coca-Cola KO 60.49 1,035
U.K. FTSE 100 7930.92 2.63 7256.94 • 7930.92 2.6
0.31 0.19 1.24 Walmart WMT 60.87 1,162
Asia-Pacific MSCI AC Asia Pacific 177.44 1.64 150.1 • 178.1 4.8
0.17 0.28 1.83 Procter & Gamble PG 161.66 1,110
Australia S&P/ASX 200 7770.60 1.31 6772.9 • 7847.0 2.4
0.08 0.22 1.44 Visa V 283.26 1,090
China Shanghai Composite 3048.03 –0.22 2702.19 • 3395.00 2.5
–0.12 –0.23 –1.51 IBM IBM 190.84 1,177
Hong Kong Hang Seng 16499.47 –1.32 14961.18 • 20782.45 –3.2
–0.15 –0.75 –4.91 UnitedHealth Group UNH 490.07 935
India S&P BSE Sensex 72831.94 0.26 57527.10 • 74119.39 0.8
Japan NIKKEI 225 40888.43 5.63 27385.25 • 40888.43 22.2 –0.16 –0.07 –0.46 Intel INTC 42.57 850
Malaysia FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI 1542.39 –0.67 1374.64 • 1558.80 6.0 –0.20 –0.34 –2.23 Apple AAPL 172.28 896
Singapore Straits Times 3217.97 1.42 3053.36 • 3373.98 –0.7 –0.57 –0.89 –5.83 Chevron CVX 154.66 1,048
South Korea KOSPI 2748.56 3.06 2277.99 • 2754.86 3.5 –1.86 –2.95 –19.32 Johnson & Johnson JNJ 155.23 998
Taiwan TAIEX 20228.43 2.77 15370.73 • 20228.43 12.8 –5.80 –5.78 –37.86 Nike NKE 93.86 868

Source: FactSet; Dow Jones Market Data *Based on Composite price. DJIA is calculated on primary-market price.
Source: Dow Jones Market Data; FactSet.

Consumer Rates and Returns to Investor Benchmark Yields and Rates

Selected rates Currencies
U.S. consumer rates Treasury yield curve Forex Race
A consumer rate against its 5-year CDs Yield to maturity of current bills, Yen, euro vs. dollar; dollar vs. U.S.-dollar foreign-exchange rates in late New York trading
benchmark over the past year notes and bonds major U.S. trading partners US$vs, US$vs,
Bankrate.com avg†: 2.83% Fri YTDchg Fri YTDchg
Country/currency in US$ per US$ (%) Country/currency in US$ per US$ (%)
America First FCU 4.20% 6.00%
Federal-funds 16% Americas Thailand baht .02750 36.360 5.8
6.00% Riverdale, UT 801-627-0900 Tradeweb ICE
t target rate 5.00 Vietnam dong .00004037 24770 2.1
Friday Close Argentina peso .0012854.7500 5.7
Quontic Bank 4.30% 8 WSJ Dollar Index Europe
5.00 t t s Brazil real .2000 5.0002 3.0
New York, NY 800-908-6600 4.00 Czech Rep. koruna .04264 23.454 4.8
Canada dollar .7351 1.3604 2.7
One year ago .1449 6.9010 1.8
4.00 Popular Direct 4.35% 0 Chile peso .001017 983.41 12.4 Denmark krone
3.00 Euro area euro 1.0810 .9251 2.1
Five-year CD yields Miami Lakes, FL 800-274-5696 s Colombiapeso .000257 3891.00 0.40
t 3.00 –8 s Euro Ecuador US dollar 1 1 unch
Hungary forint .002719 367.83 6.0
First Internet Bank of Indiana 4.55% 2.00
Yen Iceland krona .007252 137.89 1.4
Mexico peso .0597 16.7633 –1.2
Indianapolis, IN 888-873-3424 Norway krone .0930 10.7579 5.7
2.00 1.00 –16 Uruguay peso .02652 37.7026 –3.5
First National Bank of America 4.55% Poland zloty .2501 3.9978 1.6
AM J J A S O ND J F M 1 3 6 1 2 3 5 7 10 20 30 Asia-Pacific
2023 2024 Sweden krona .0946 10.5658 4.6
2023 2024 East Lansing, MI 800-968-3626 month(s) years Australiadollar .6521 1.5335 4.5 Switzerland franc 1.1142 .8975 6.6
Yield/Rate (%) 52-Week Range (%) 3-yr chg maturity China yuan .1383 7.2290 1.6 Turkey lira .0312 32.0182 8.6
Interest rate Last (l)Week ago Low 0 2 4 6 8 High (pct pts) Sources: Tradeweb ICE U.S. Treasury Close; Tullett Prebon; Dow Jones Market Data Hong Kong dollar .1279 7.8212 0.1 Ukraine hryvnia .0256 39.0500 2.4
India rupee .01196 83.599 0.5 UK pound 1.2602 .7935 1.0
Federal-funds rate target 5.25-5.50 5.25-5.50 4.75 l 5.50 5.25 Corporate Borrowing Rates and Yields Indonesia rupiah .0000633 15810 2.7 Middle East/Africa
Prime rate* 8.50 8.50 8.00 l 8.50 5.25 Spread +/- Treasurys, Japan yen .006602 151.46 7.4
Yield (%) in basis pts, 52-wk Range Total Return Bahrain dinar 2.6532 .3769 –0.01
SOFR 5.31 5.31 4.80 l 5.40 5.30 Bond total return index Last Wk ago Last Low High 52-wk 3-yr Kazakhstan tenge .002221 450.29 –1.1 Egypt pound .0214 46.7456 51.1
Money market, annual yield 0.48 0.49 0.46 l 0.64 0.38 Macau pataca .1241 8.0610 0.1 Israel shekel .2747 3.6398 1.0
Five-year CD, annual yield 2.83 2.83 2.76 l 2.87 2.35 U.S. Treasury, Bloomberg 4.420 4.540 -0.27 -2.86 Malaysia ringgit .2111 4.7375 3.1 Kuwait dinar 3.2510 .3076 0.1
U.S. Treasury Long, Bloomberg 4.470 4.540 -6.90 -8.41 New Zealand dollar .5968 1.6756 5.9 Oman sul rial 2.5973 .3850 0.01
30-year mortgage, fixed† 7.24 7.17 6.75 l 8.28 3.91
Aggregate, Bloomberg 4.840 4.960 38 38 60 1.33 -2.53 Pakistan rupee .00359 278.225 –1.0 Qatar rial .2747 3.641 –0.1
15-year mortgage, fixed† 6.61 6.64 6.00 l 7.42 4.08 .0177 56.348 1.7
Philippines peso Saudi Arabia riyal .2666 3.7506 0.01
Jumbo mortgages, $766,550-plus† 7.29 7.26 6.79 l 8.33 3.92 Fixed-Rate MBS, Bloomberg 5.050 5.160 48 44 82 0.46 -2.92
Singapore dollar .7413 1.3489 2.2 South Africa rand .0527 18.9882 3.8
Five-year adj mortgage (ARM)† 6.48 6.44 5.64 l 7.16 3.31 High Yield 100, ICE BofA 7.066 7.320 246 243 459 13.030 2.649 South Korea won .0007437 1344.64 3.9
New-car loan, 48-month 7.86 7.86 6.76 l 7.88 3.83 Muni Master, ICE BofA 3.281 3.250 4 -9 9 2.922 -0.262 Sri Lanka rupee .0032975 303.26 –6.4 Close Net Chg % Chg YTD%Chg

Bankrate.com rates based on survey of over 4,800 online banks. *Base rate posted by 70% of the nation's largest EMBI Global, J.P. Morgan 7.235 7.414 289 287 416 9.837 -1.266 Taiwan dollar .03128 31.974 4.2 WSJ Dollar Index 99.04 0.36 0.36 3.35
banks.† Excludes closing costs.
Sources: FactSet; Dow Jones Market Data; Bankrate.com Sources: J.P. Morgan; S&P Dow Jones Indices; Bloomberg Fixed Income Indices; ICE BofA Sources: Tullett Prebon, Dow Jones Market Data
 For personal, non-commercial use only. Do not edit, alter or reproduce. For commercial reproduction or distribution, contact Dow Jones Reprints & Licensing at (800) 843-0008 or www.djreprints.com.

B8 | Monday, March 25, 2024 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

CLOSED-END FUNDS
Listed are the 300 largest closed-end funds as 52 wk Prem12 Mo Prem12 Mo 52 wk Prem12 Mo
measured by assets. Closed-end funds sell a limited Prem Ttl Fund (SYM) NAV Close /Disc Yld Fund (SYM) NAV Close /Disc Yld Prem Ttl Fund (SYM) NAV Close /Disc Yld
number of shares and invest the proceeds in securities. Fund (SYM) NAV Close /Disc Ret Fund (SYM) NAV Close /Disc Ret
Unlike open-end funds, closed-ends generally do not Loan Participation Funds BlackRock Muni BFK 11.52 10.31 -10.5 4.1 Invesco Sr Loan Y 5.88 NA NA 9.8
buy their shares back from investors who wish to cash Neuberger Nxt Gen Conn NBXG NA 11.71 NA 32.5 Apollo Senior Floating AFT 15.06 14.07 -6.6 10.7 BlackRock Muni II BLE 12.16 10.82 -11.0 4.2 CIM RA&C I 23.93 NA NA 0.7 Lord Abbett FR Hi Inc:A 10.29 NA NA 9.7
in their holdings. Instead, fund shares trade on a stock
exchange. NA signifies that the information is not NuvDow30DynOverwrite DIAX 16.42 14.47 -11.9 9.8 BR Debt Strategy DSU 10.84 11.09 +2.3 9.99 BlckRk Muni Inc Qly BYM 12.74 11.51 -9.7 4.3 CIM RA&C L 23.47 NA NA 0.2 Lord Abbett FR Hi Inc:I 10.29 NA NA 10.2
available or not applicable. NS signifies funds not in NuvCorEqAlpha JCE 14.29 13.84 -3.1 28.6 BR F/R Inc Str FRA 13.20 12.85 -2.7 11.0 BR MuniAssets Fd MUA 11.54 11.33 -1.8 4.8 Clarion Partners REI D 11.89 NA NA 2.5 Monachil Credit Income:I 10.03 NA NA 8.6
existence for the entire period. 12 month yield is
NuveenNasdaq100DynOv QQQX 26.38 23.85 -9.6 10.1 BlackRock Floatng Rt Inc BGT 12.85 12.89 +0.3 Clarion Partners REI I 11.90 NA NA 2.8 Nomura Alt Inc;I 10.01 NA NA 4.5
computed by dividing income dividends paid (during 10.6 BR MH Qly 2 MUE 11.62 10.12 -12.9 3.9
Nuv Real Est JRS 8.56 7.73 -9.7 19.8 Clarion Partners REI S 11.89 NA NA 1.8 OFS Credit Company OCCI NA 6.89 NA 27.0
the previous 12 months for periods ending at month- BS SFR 2027 T BSL 14.84 14.29 -3.7 9.5 BR MuniHoldngs MHD 13.64 11.96 -12.3 3.9
end or during the previous 52 weeks for periods Clarion Partners REI T 11.87 NA NA 1.8 SEI Alternative Income:F 10.20 NA NA NS
NuvS&P500DynOvFd SPXX 17.19 15.62 -9.1 12.0 BS St Cr 2027 Tm BGB 12.82 11.82 -7.8 9.6 BR MuniVest Fd MVF 8.03 7.03 -12.5 4.0
ending at any time other than month-end) by the First Tr Real Assets;I 9.36 NA NA 0.4 SEI Alternative Income:Y 10.20 NA NA NS
latest month-end market price adjusted for capital NuvSP500BuyIncFd BXMX 14.62 13.15 -10.1 11.3 EtnVncFltRteInc EFT 13.32 13.11 -1.6 10.6 BR MuniVest 2 MVT 12.44 10.95 -12.0 4.0
gains distributions. Depending on the fund category, Forum RE Income;I 9.61 NA NA 13.5 Yieldstreet Alt Inc NA NA NA 6.4
ReavesUtilityIncome UTG 26.14 26.43 +1.1 7.6 EV SenFlRtTr EFR 13.04 12.94 -0.8 10.2 BR MuniYield Fd MYD 12.20 11.04 -9.5 4.3 GS Real Est Div Inc:A 8.48 NA NA -5.1
either 12-month yield or total return is listed. High Yield Bond Funds
Source: Lipper Tortoise Enrgy Infra Crp TYG 37.50 29.96 -20.1 20.0 FT/Sr Fltg Rte Inc 2 FCT 11.07 10.27 -7.2 11.0 BR MuniYield Qlty MQY 13.28 12.32 -7.2 4.6 GS Real Est Div Inc:C 8.47 NA NA -5.7 Apollo Diversified Cd:A 21.90 NA NA 9.0
Friday, March 22, 2024 Tortoise Midstream Enrgy NTG 46.07 37.41 -18.8 32.5 Highland Oppty & Income HFRO NA 6.62 NA 13.4 BR MuniYld Qlty2 MQT 11.71 10.42 -11.0 4.4 GS Real Est Div Inc:I 8.95 NA NA -4.8 Apollo Diversified Cd:C 21.89 NA NA 8.3
52 wk VDivInt&PremStr NFJ 14.52 12.51 -13.8 19.2 InvDYCrOpp:AX VTA 11.09 NA NA NA BR MuniYld Qly 3 MYI 12.64 11.39 -9.9 4.6 GS Real Est Div Inc:L 8.49 NA NA -5.3 Apollo Diversified Cd:F 21.90 NA NA 11.9
Prem Ttl V Art Int&Tech Opps AIO 21.79 19.91 -8.6 32.5 InvSnrIncTr VVR 4.09 4.25 +3.9 11.7 BNY Mellon Muni Bd Infra DMB 12.07 10.31 -14.6 4.2 GS Real Est Div Inc:P 8.95 NA NA -4.9 Apollo Diversified Cd:I 21.89 NA NA 9.3
Fund (SYM) NAV Close /Disc Ret Income & Preferred Stock Funds Nuveen Credit Strat Inc JQC 5.92 5.56 -6.1 11.0 BNY Mellon Str Muni Bond DSM 6.72 5.85 -12.9 4.0 GS Real Est Div Inc:W 8.64 NA NA -5.1 Apollo Diversified Cd:L 21.89 NA NA 8.7
General Equity Funds Dividend and Income BXSY 20.92 NA NA NA NuvFloatRateIncFd JFR 9.30 8.62 -7.3 11.1 BNY Mellon Strat Muni LEO 7.01 6.06 -13.6 4.1 Private Opps A NA NA NA NS Apollo Diversified Cd:M 21.89 NA NA 8.5
Adams Diversified Eq Inc ADX 22.79 19.51 -14.4 40.0 CalamosStratTot CSQ 16.71 16.39 -1.9 32.2 High Yield Bond Funds DWS Muni Inc KTF NA 9.01 NA 3.4 Private Opps I NA NA NA NS Opprtnstc Crdt Intrvl;I 11.63 NA NA 11.4
Central Secs CET NA 41.26 NA 27.7 CohenStrsLtdDurPref&Inc LDP 21.24 20.00 -5.8 27.8 abrdn Inc Credit Str ACP 6.90 6.72 -2.6 17.6 EVMuniBd EIM 11.45 10.33 -9.8 4.1 Private Opps SDR NA NA NA NS PIMCO Flexible Cr I;A-1 7.00 NA NA 10.5
CohenStrsCEOppFd FOF 11.29 11.55 +2.3 20.8 CohenStrsSelPref&Income PSF 21.15 19.66 -7.0 21.2 AllianceBernGlHiIncm AWF 11.19 10.59 -5.4 7.7 NexPointRlEstStrat;A 16.89 NA NA -6.7 PIMCO Flexible Cr I;A-2 7.00 NA NA 10.5
EVMuniIncm EVN 11.38 10.22 -10.2 4.7
EVTxAdvDivIncm EVT 25.90 23.01 -11.2 16.2 CohenStrsTaxAvPreSecs&I PTA 20.71 19.39 -6.4 28.3 Allspring Income Oppty EAD 7.34 6.66 -9.3 8.8 NexPointRlEstStrat;C 17.10 NA NA -7.4 PIMCO Flexible Cr I;A-3 7.00 NA NA 10.2
EVNatMuniOpp EOT 18.51 16.65 -10.0 4.4
GabelliDiv&IncTr GDV 27.18 22.81 -16.1 NexPointRlEstStrat;Z 17.12 NA NA -6.5 PIMCO Flexible Cr I;A-4 7.00 NA NA 10.2
21.1 FirstTrIntDurPref&Inc FPF 19.15 18.01 -6.0 34.1 Barings Glb SD HY Bd BGH 15.65 14.25 -8.9 10.0 InvAdvMuIncTrII VKI 9.85 8.52 -13.5 4.5 PIMCO Flexible REI;Inst 10.51 NA NA 12.0 PIMCO Flexible Cr I;Inst 7.00 NA NA 11.0
Gabelli Equity Tr GAB 5.44 5.55 +2.0 10.7 JHanPrefInc HPI 16.30 16.69 +2.4 21.3 BR Corporate HY HYT 9.69 9.78 +0.9 9.6 Invesco MuniOp OIA 6.42 6.70 +4.4 5.1 PREDEX;I 23.91 NA NA -14.3 Other Domestic Taxable Bond Funds
GeneralAmer GAM 56.27 46.04 -18.2 31.6 JHPrefIncII HPF 16.15 16.53 +2.4 21.8 BlackRock Ltd Dur Inc BLW 14.07 13.99 -0.6 8.7 InvescoMuOppTr VMO 11.01 9.75 -11.4 4.4 PREDEX;T 24.01 NA NA -14.5 AFA Private Credit;Fndr 9.52 NA NA 7.7
JHancockTaxAdvDiv HTD 21.47 19.35 -9.9 3.5 HnckJPfdInco III HPS 14.51 15.30 +5.4 21.2 BNY Mellon Hi Yield Str DHF 2.70 2.39 -11.5 7.6 InvescoMuTr VKQ 11.05 9.60 -13.1 4.5 24.00 NA NA -14.5
PREDEX;W AFA Private Credit;Inst 9.55 NA NA 7.7
Liberty All-Star Equity USA 7.16 7.03 -1.8 29.5 J Han Prm PDT 12.17 11.75 -3.5 8.9 Brookfield Real Asst Inc RA NA 12.91 NA 6.3 InvescoQual Inc IQI 11.11 9.68 -12.9 4.6 Principal Real Asst A 25.16 NA NA 3.0 Alternative Credit Inc:A 9.60 NA NA 7.2
Liberty All-Star Growth ASG 6.01 5.44 -9.5 16.3 LMP CapInco SCD 16.24 15.04 -7.4 43.8 CrSuisHighYld DHY 2.19 2.04 -6.8 9.5 InvTrInvGrMu VGM 11.37 9.89 -13.0 4.3 Principal Real Asst Ins 25.26 NA NA 3.3 Alternative Credit Inc:C 9.72 NA NA 6.4
Royce Micro-Cap Tr RMT 10.48 9.24 -11.8 18.6 Nuveen Pref & Inc Opp JPC 8.00 7.19 -10.1 28.8 DoubleLine Inc Sol DSL 12.62 12.77 +1.2 10.4 InvescoValMunInc IIM 13.56 11.86 -12.5 4.6 Principal Real Asst Y 25.52 NA NA 3.6 Alternative Credit Inc:I 9.61 NA NA 7.4
Royce Value Trust RVT 16.70 14.78 -11.5 23.6 Nuveen Pref & Inc Term JPI 19.75 19.05 -3.5 24.1 DoubleLine Yld Opps DLY 16.14 15.77 -2.3 9.2 MAINSTAY:MKDEFTRMUNOP MMD 17.06 16.32 -4.3 4.9 Redwood Rl Est;I 25.18 NA NA NS Alternative Credit Inc:L 9.60 NA NA 6.9
Source Capital SOR 45.18 41.85 -7.4 24.4 Nuveen Var Rate P&I NPFD 20.12 17.85 -11.3 27.3 First Tr Hi Inc Lng/Shrt FSD 12.76 11.97 -6.2 10.6 NeubrgrBrm NBH 12.11 10.44 -13.8 4.3 The Private Shares;A 39.43 NA NA -3.8 Alternative Credit Inc:W 9.59 NA NA 7.2
Sprott Focus Trust FUND 8.71 7.74 -11.1 5.9 TCW Strat Income TSI 5.12 4.74 -7.4 3.7 First Trust HY Opp:2027 FTHY 15.65 14.27 -8.8 10.6 Nuveen AMT-Fr Mu Val NUW 15.36 13.59 -11.5 3.6 The Private Shares;I 40.09 NA NA -3.6 Angel Oak Str Crdt:FI 20.93 NA NA 8.1
SRH Total Return STEW 19.16 14.89 -22.3 30.1 Convertible Sec's. Funds Franklin Univ FT 7.55 6.49 -14.1 7.8 Nuveen AMT-Fr Qlty Mun I NEA 12.77 11.06 -13.4 4.1 The Private Shares;L 38.80 NA NA -4.0 Angel Oak Str Crdt:Inst 20.92 NA NA 8.1
Tri-Continental TY 34.77 30.52 -12.2 23.4 AdvntCnvrtbl&IncFd AVK 12.56 11.93 -5.0 20.5 KKR Income Opportunities KIO 13.84 13.35 -3.5 10.8 Thirdline Real EstateI 10.24 NA NA 7.7 BR Credit Strat;A 8.60 NA NA 8.0
Nuveen AMT-Fr Mu CI NVG 13.87 12.00 -13.5 4.5
Specialized Equity Funds NeubHgYldStrt NHS 8.01 8.04 +0.4 13.4 USQ Core Real Estate:I 23.14 NA NA -13.5 BR Credit Strat;Inst 8.57 NA NA 8.7
CalamosConvHi CHY 10.70 12.09 +12.9 23.5 Nuveen Dyn Muni Opp NDMO 11.15 11.03 -1.1 6.8
abrdn Glb Prem Prop AWP 4.05 3.82 -5.7 15.0 New Amer Hi Inc HYB 8.25 7.23 -12.4 6.7 USQ Core Real Estate:IS 23.21 NA NA -13.4 BR Credit Strat;U 8.58 NA NA 8.0
CalmosConvOp CHI 10.12 11.54 +14.0 21.1 Nuveen Mu Crdt Opps NMCO 11.74 10.64 -9.4 5.5
abrdn Global Infra Inc ASGI 20.37 17.62 -13.5 11.7 Nuveen Global High Inc JGH 13.49 12.65 -6.2 Versus Cap MMgr RE Inc:I 25.06 NA NA NE BR Credit Strat;W 8.60 NA NA 8.0
V Conv & Inc NCV 3.75 3.30 -12.0 16.3 9.7 Nuv Muni Credit Income NZF 13.85 12.10 -12.6 4.6 Versus Capital Real Asst 27.62 NA NA 3.8 CION Ares Dvsfd Crdt;A NA NA NA 8.4
Adams Natural Resources PEO 27.39 22.70 -17.1 24.4 V Conv & Inc II NCZ 3.33 2.92 -12.3 17.9 PGIM Global High Yield GHY 13.02 11.84 -9.1 10.8 NuvMuniHiIncOpp NMZ 11.30 10.56 -6.5 5.1 Wildermuth:I 7.43 NA NA -37.4 CION Ares Dvsfd Crdt;C NA NA NA 7.6
ASA Gold & Prec Met Ltd ASA 17.90 15.07 -15.8 -3.7 V Div Inc & Conv ACV 21.81 23.64 +8.4 39.4 PGIM High Yield Bond ISD 13.90 12.95 -6.8 9.7 Nuveen Muni Val NUV 9.40 8.64 -8.1 3.9 Income & Preferred Stock Funds CION Ares Dvsfd Crdt;I NA NA NA 8.6
BR Enh C&I CII 20.90 19.36 -7.4 20.6 V Eqty & Conv Inc NIE 24.91 22.13 -11.2 27.9 PGIM Sh Dur Hi Yld Opp SDHY 17.50 15.31 -12.5 8.5 Nuveen Quality Muni Inc NAD 13.18 11.37 -13.7 4.2 Alpha Alternative Assets 6.26 NA NA -0.1 CION Ares Dvsfd Crdt;L NA NA NA 8.1
BlackRock Energy & Res BGR 15.02 13.00 -13.4 18.6 World Equity Funds PioneerHilncm PHT 8.16 NA NA NA Nuveen Sel TF NXP 14.66 14.53 -0.9 4.0 Calamos L/S Eqty and DI CPZ 17.68 15.18 -14.1 14.3 CION Ares Dvsfd Crdt;U NA NA NA 7.9
BlackRock Eq Enh Div BDJ 9.14 8.24 -9.8 9.0 abrdn Emg Mkts Eq Inc AEF 5.97 5.05 -15.4 7.9 WstAstHIF II HIX 4.63 4.41 -4.8 13.1 PIMCO MuniInc PMF 9.55 9.40 -1.6 5.2 Carlyle AlpInv Pvt Mkt:A NA NA NA NS CION Ares Dvsfd Crdt:U2 NA NA NA 7.9
BlackRock Enh Glbl Div BOE 12.11 10.37 -14.4 15.4 abrdn Glbl Dyn Div AGD 11.19 9.65 -13.8 15.8 Western Asset Hi Inc Opp HIO 4.20 3.95 -6.0 10.0 PIMCOMuniIncII PML 8.87 8.45 -4.7 5.5 Denali Strctr Rtrn Strat 10.03 NA NA NS CION Ares Dvsfd Crdt;W NA NA NA 8.1
BlackRock Enh Intl Div BGY 6.27 5.50 -12.3 13.2 abrdn Tot Dyn Div AOD 9.68 8.23 -15.0 15.3 Western Asset Hi Yld D O HYI 12.27 11.86 -3.3 9.4 Pimco Muni III PMX 8.16 7.58 -7.1 5.2 First Trust Alt Opps;A 26.40 NA NA 9.1 CNR Select Strategies 14.37 NA NA 0.0
BlackRock ESG Cap All T ECAT 18.91 17.03 -9.9 28.2 Allspring Gl Div Oppty EOD 5.43 4.67 -14.0 19.6 Other Domestic Taxable Bond Funds PioneerHilncAdv MAV 9.22 8.15 -11.6 4.3 First Trust Alt Opps;A 26.77 NA NA 9.95 First Eagle Crdt Opps A 23.70 NA NA 10.4
BlackRock Hlth Sci Term BMEZ 18.54 16.27 -12.2 15.9 BlackRock Cap Alloc Term BCAT 17.82 16.22 -9.0 23.7 Allspring Multi-Sector ERC 10.07 9.37 -7.0 8.3 PionrMuniHiIncOppty MIO 12.76 11.34 -11.1 4.6 Flat Rock Opportunity 19.28 NA NA 19.5 First Eagle Crdt Opps A2 23.62 NA NA 10.1
BlackRock Hlth Sciences BME 44.02 40.85 -7.2 7.1 Apollo Tactical Income AIF 14.84 14.09 -5.1 9.9 PioneerMunHiIcm MHI 9.95 8.83 Lord Abbett Spec Sit I:A 9.36 NA NA 16.1 First Eagle Crdt Opps I 23.56 NA NA 10.9
Calamos GloDynInc CHW 7.40 6.51 -12.0 24.0 -11.3 4.1
BlackRock Innov&Gro Term BIGZ 9.19 7.95 -13.5 20.2 Ares Dynamic Crdt Alloc ARDC 14.57 14.03 -3.7 9.97 Lord Abbett Spec Sit I:I 9.36 NA NA 16.9 First Trust Private Cr;A 10.42 NA NA NS
EV TxAdvGlbDivInc ETG 20.61 18.17 -11.8 28.0 Putnam Mgd Inc PMM 6.75 6.10 -9.6 3.1
BlackRock Res & Comm BCX 10.34 8.88 -14.1 3.9 BlackRock Mlt-Sctr Inc BIT 14.65 15.74 +7.4 9.5 Variant Altrntv Inc:Inst 28.87 NA NA 9.6 First Trust Private Cr;I 10.42 NA NA 8.4
EtnVncTxAdvOpp ETO 27.62 24.78 -10.3 26.4 Putnam Muni Opp PMO 11.49 10.26 -10.7 3.9 Variant Impact;Instl 28.38 NA NA 12.5 Franklin BSP Pvt Cr:A 10.39 NA NA 6.7
BlackRock Sci&Tech Term BSTZ 22.34 18.78 -15.9 22.0 Gabelli Multimedia GGT 3.49 5.74 +64.5 27.1 BlackRock Tax Muni Bd BBN 17.81 16.42 -7.8 7.0 RiverNorth Flx Mu Inc II RFMZ 15.58 13.97 -10.3 7.4
BlackRock Sci&Tech Trust BST 37.06 36.93 -0.4 28.8 DoubleLine:Oppor Crdt Fd DBL 15.16 15.25 +0.6 8.6 Convertible Sec's. Funds Franklin BSP Pvt Cr:Adv 10.40 NA NA 7.2
GDL Fund GDL 10.13 7.93 -21.7 8.5 RiverNorth Mgd Dur Mun I RMM 16.48 14.94 -9.3 7.2 Calmos Dyn Conv and Inc CCD 19.51 22.47 +15.2 15.0 FS Credit Income;A 12.36 NA NA 8.5
BlackRock Utl Inf & Pwr BUI 22.10 21.32 -3.5 2.7 Highland Global Alloc HGLB NA 7.65 NA -2.9 EVLmtDurIncm EVV 10.61 9.75 -8.1 9.7 Western Asset Mgd Muni MMU 11.73 10.41 -11.3 4.4 World Equity Funds FS Credit Income;I 12.40 NA NA 8.7
CLEARBRIDGEENGYMDSOPP EMO 43.34 39.70 -8.4 63.7 Franklin Ltd Dur Income FTF 7.13 6.28 -11.9 11.3
India Fund IFN 17.61 19.69 +11.8 49.4 Single State Muni Bond ACAP Strategic:A 22.17 NA NA 41.6 FS Credit Income;T 12.39 NA NA 8.2
CLEARBRIDGEMLP&MDSTMTR CTR 44.41 40.80 -8.1 65.5 FS Credit Opportunities FSCO NA 5.86 NA NS BlackRock CA Mun BFZ 13.02 11.78 -9.5 4.3
Japan Smaller Cap JOF 9.69 7.99 -17.5 21.2 ACAP Strategic:W 16.65 NA NA 42.6 FS Credit Income;U 12.34 NA NA 7.9
ClearBridge MLP & Midstm CEM 48.60 44.52 -8.4 60.4 J Han Investors JHI 14.60 13.09 -10.3 6.7 BR MH CA Qly Fd Inc MUC 12.67 11.05 -12.8 4.0 CalamosGlbTotRet CGO 11.36 10.53 -7.3 26.7 FS Credit Income;U-2 12.44 NA NA 8.2
LazardGlbTotRetInc LGI 18.41 16.33 -11.3 18.8
ChnStrInfr UTF 22.56 22.24 -1.4 8.3 MFS Charter MCR 6.88 6.31 -8.3 0.0 BR MH NJ Qly MUJ 13.19 11.52 -12.7 4.2 Cantor Fitzgerald SI:A 10.96 NA NA 11.9 GL Beyond Income 0.39 NA NA NE
Mexico MXF 23.20 18.65 -19.6 19.6
Cohen&SteersQualInc RQI 12.38 11.67 -5.7 15.3 NuvCorePlusImpact NPCT 11.97 10.29 -14.0 9.7 BR MH NY Qly MHN 12.13 10.65 -12.2 4.0 Cantor Fitzgerald SI:C 10.86 NA NA 11.0 KKR CREDIT OPPTY;D 22.78 NA NA 8.1
Miller/Howard High Inc E HIE NA 10.95 NA 23.0
CohenStrs Real Est and I RLTY 15.54 14.12 -9.1 20.5 Nuveen Taxable Muni Inc NBB 16.77 15.33 -8.6 5.2 BR MuniYld MI Qly MIY 13.14 11.62 Cantor Fitzgerald SI:I 10.97 NA NA 12.2 KKR CREDIT OPPTY;I 24.53 NA NA 8.3
MS ChinaShrFd CAF NA 11.88 NA -15.2 -11.6 3.9
Cohen&Steers TotRet RFI 11.44 11.66 +1.9 10.3 PIMCO Corp & Inc Oppty PTY 11.35 14.72 +29.7 9.99 BR MuniYld NY Qly MYN 11.75 10.53 Primark Priv Eq Inv:I 12.76 NA NA 13.3 KKR CREDIT OPPTY;T 24.30 NA NA 7.6
MS India IIF NA 22.47 NA 35.0 -10.4 3.9

.
CohenStrsREITPrefInc RNP 20.44 20.41 -0.1 21.5 PIMCO Corp & Inc Strat PCN 11.64 13.83 +18.8 10.0 BlackRock NY Mun BNY 12.07 10.64 -11.9 3.8
Sweater Cashmere 20.96 NA NA 1.8 KKR CREDIT OPPTY;U 23.38 NA NA 7.6
MS CBRE Gl In Mg Term MEGI 14.14 12.32 -12.9 0.4
Columbia Sel Prm Tech Gr STK 31.10 32.11 +3.2 30.9 PIMCOHilnco PHK 4.66 4.94 +5.9 11.6 Thornburg Inc Bldr Opps TBLD 18.30 15.93 -12.9 16.6 NIAGARAINCOMEOPPORTNTS 10.21 NA NA NS
EVCAMuniBd EVM 10.40 9.55 -8.2 4.0

ly
New Germany GF NA 8.54 NA -2.5 VirtusTotalRetFd ZTR 6.21 5.49 -11.6 2.3 Palmer Square Opp Inc 17.80 NA NA 9.1
DNP Select Income DNP 7.81 9.02 +15.5 -10.5 PIMCO IncmStrFd PFL 8.11 8.48 +4.6 11.5
Nuveen Multi-Asset Inc NMAI 13.74 12.15 -11.6 23.1 Eaton Vance NY Muni Bd ENX 10.78 9.80 -9.1 3.8 World Income Funds
Duff&Ph Uti&Infra Inc Fd DPG 10.59 9.17 -13.4 -17.1 PIMCO IncmStrFd II PFN 7.15 7.41 +3.6 11.6 Prem12 Mo
Nuveen Rl Asst Inc & Gro JRI 13.37 11.69 -12.6 15.0 InvCaValMuIncTr VCV 11.36 9.90 -12.9 4.1 Fund (SYM) NAV Close /Disc Yld BlueBay Destra Itl E:A 24.12 NA NA 7.1
EtnVncEqtyInc EOI 18.91 18.44 -2.5 33.5 Putnam Prem Inc PPT 3.83 3.53 -7.8 7.6
Templeton Dragon TDF 9.26 7.83 -15.4 -23.9 InvPAValMuIncTr VPV 11.70 10.22 -12.6 3.6 BlueBay Destra Itl E:I 24.15 NA NA 7.3
EtnVncEqtyIncoII EOS 21.59 20.33 -5.8 38.5 Western Asset Dvsfd Inc WDI 15.67 14.34 -8.5 10.3 U.S. Mortgage Bond Funds
Templeton Em Mkt EMF 13.79 11.80 -14.4 9.7 InvTrInvGrNYMu VTN 12.07 10.78 -10.7 3.8 BlueBay Destra Itl E:L 24.09 NA NA 6.8
NA NA NA NE
EVRskMnDvsEqInc ETJ 9.21 8.36 -9.2
ETnVncTxMgdBuyWrtInc ETB 14.87 13.61 -8.5
EtnVncTxMgdBuyWrtOpp ETV 14.00 13.02 -7.0
EvTxMnDvsEqInc ETY 14.04 13.34 -5.0
EtnVncTxMgdGlbB ETW 9.33 8.12 -13.0
19.0
15.8
13.3
26.5
12.9
Fund (SYM)
U.S. Mortgage Bond Funds
NAV Close /Disc Yld

BlckRk Income BKT 12.32 11.83

on
Prem12 Mo

-4.0 8.9
World Income Funds
abrdn AP IncFd FAX 3.02 2.73 -9.6
MS EmMktDomDebt EDD 5.48 4.81 -12.2
PIMCO Access Income PAXS 15.08 15.39 +2.1
PIMCO Dynamic Inc Strat PDX 23.82 20.88 -12.3
12.2
1.8
11.6
4.3
Nuveen CA AMT-F Qual MI NKX 13.31 11.89
Nuveen CA Val NCA 9.39 8.87
NuveenCAQtyMuInc NAC 12.81 10.98
NuvNJ Qual Muni Inc NXJ 13.86 12.18
Nuveen NY AMT/Fr Qual MI NRK 12.13 11.02
-10.7 4.4
-5.5 3.9
-14.3 4.2
-12.1 3.2
-9.2 4.0
Arca US Treasury
Ellington Inc Opp:A
Ellington Inc Opp:M
Loan Participation Funds
9.33 NA NA 8.4
9.20 NA NA 9.2

1WS Credit Income;A2 19.09 NA NA 6.8

EVTxMnGblDvEqInc EXG 9.20 8.06 -12.4
BlueBay Destra Itl E:T 23.96 NA NA 6.6
Calamos-Aksia ACI:A 10.52 NA NA NS
Calamos-Aksia ACI:C 10.51 NA NA NS
Calamos-Aksia ACI:I 10.53 NA NA NS
Calamos-Aksia ACI:M 10.51 NA NA NS
Investment Grade Bond Funds 1WS Credit Income;Inst 19.47 NA NA 6.7
17.4 PIMCO Dynamic Income PDI 17.25 19.14 +11.0 13.8 Carlyle Tact Pvt Cred:A 8.53 NA NA 9.8
us ,

Angel Oak FS Inc Trm FINS 13.77 12.45 -9.6 10.0 Nuveen NY Qual Muni Inc NAN 12.58 10.93 -13.1 4.2 Axonic Alternative Inc 20.00 NA NA 8.8
Ecofin S&S Impact Term TEAF 14.68 11.75 -20.0 2.7 PIMCO Dynamic Inc Opp PDO 12.57 13.04 +3.7 11.7 Axonic Alternative Inc;A 19.97 NA NA NS Carlyle Tact Pvt Cred:I 8.57 NA NA 10.1
BlRck Core Bond BHK 10.73 10.71 -0.2 8.5 Nuveen PA Qual Muni Inc NQP 13.56 11.77 -13.2 3.1
l

First Trust Energy Inc G FEN 16.47 15.98 -3.0 43.4 PIMCO Stratg Inc RCS 4.45 6.12 +37.5 10.1 Blackstone FR EI D 22.18 NA NA 9.4 Carlyle Tact Pvt Cred:L 8.52 NA NA 9.7
BR Credit Alloc Inc BTZ 11.44 10.69 -6.6 9.4 Nuveen VA Qlty Mun Inc NPV 12.60 11.04 -12.4 3.8
First Tr Enhanced Eq FFA 19.74 18.76 -5.0 24.8 Templtn Glbl Inc SABA 4.34 3.81 -12.2 11.1 Carlyle Tact Pvt Cred:M 8.57 NA NA 9.5
e
Blackstone FR EI I 22.15 NA NA 9.7
al a

Insight Select Income INSI 17.60 16.25 -7.7 4.9

PIMCO CA PCQ 10.50 9.33-11.1 4.5 Carlyle Tact Pvt Cred:N 8.52 NA NA 10.3
FirstTrEnergyInfra FIF 18.14 17.69 -2.5 40.7 Templeton Em Inc TEI 6.07 5.34 -12.0 10.7 Blackstone FR EI T 22.11 NA NA 9.2
PIMCOCAMuniII PCK 6.71 5.79 -13.7 4.3 Carlyle Tact Pvt Cred:U 8.57 NA NA 9.6
FirstTrMLPEner&Inc FEI 9.76 9.48 -2.9 43.3 InvescoBond VBF 16.29 15.69 -3.7 5.1 WstAstEmergDebt EMD 10.62 9.37 -11.8 10.1 Blackstone FR EI T-I 22.66 NA NA 9.2
Gabelli Healthcare GRX 12.23 10.01 -18.2 9.2 J Han Income JHS 11.99 11.08 -7.6 3.7 Western Asset Gl Cr D Op GDO 12.86 12.50 -2.8 9.6 52 wk Blackstone FR EI U 23.09 NA NA 9.2 Carlyle Tact Pvt Cred:Y 8.53 NA NA 9.98
ci on

Prem Ttl Fid MS Cr;A NA NA NA NS

Gab Utility GUT 2.80 5.56 +98.6 -4.9
GAMCOGlGold&NatRes GGN 3.88 3.84 -1.0 17.8
J Han Finl Opptys BTO 28.37 28.39 +0.1
6.0
Neuberger Brmn Enrgy I&I NML 8.41 7.16 -14.9 27.0
MFS Intmdt MIN 2.86 2.64 -7.7 0.0 National Muni Bond Funds Fund (SYM) NAV Close /Disc Ret Bluerock HI Inst Crd:A 23.94 NA NA 12.8
Western Asset Inf-Lk Inc WIA 9.34 8.07 -13.6 11.1 AllBerNatlMunInc AFB 12.59 10.93 -13.2 3.6 Bluerock HI Inst Crd:C 23.95 NA NA 12.8 Fid MS Cr;C NA NA NA NS
Western Asset Inf-Lk O&I WIW 10.02 8.56 -14.6 10.6
General Equity Funds Bluerock HI Inst Crd:F 23.94 NA NA 12.8 Fid MS Cr;I NA NA NA NS
BlckRk Inv Q Mun BKN 13.13 12.43 -5.3 4.3
Alternative Strategies:I 16.75 NA NA -4.8 Bluerock HI Inst Crd:I 23.95 NA NA 12.8 Fid MS Cr;L NA NA NA NS
Westn Asst IG Def Opp Tr IGI 17.54 17.15 -2.2 4.7 BlackRock Muni 2030 Tgt BTT 23.97 21.00 -12.4 2.9 First Trust Hdg Strat;A 10.60 NA NA N BNYM Alcntr Glb MS Cr Fd 91.23 NA NA NA Jackson Credit Opps:I 10.29 NA NA NS
First Trust Hdg Str;I 10.62 NA NA N CliffwaterClFd;I 10.83 NA NA 10.7 Lord Abbett Cred Opps Fd 8.98 NA NA 9.0
Specialized Equity Funds CliffwaterElFd;I 10.98 NA NA 10.4 Lord Abbett Cred Opps Fd 8.99 NA NA 9.8
er s

Accordant ODCE Index;A 9.61 NA NA NS Lord Abbett Crd Op:U 8.99 NA NA 9.0
Insider-Trading Spotlight Accordant ODCE Index;I 9.62 NA NA NS
CNR Strategic Credit 7.54 NA NA 21.1
Eagle Point Instl Income NA NA NA 8.8 Oaktree Dvsfd Income;D 9.11 NA NA 7.6
Trading by ‘insiders’ of a corporation, such as a company’s CEO, vice president or director, potentially conveys Accordant ODCE Index;Y 9.62 NA NA NS Floating-Rate Opps;A 10.20 NA NA NS PIMCO Flexible EM I;Inst 8.47 NA NA 7.1
Apollo Diversified RE:A 24.59 NA NA -3.7
m er

new information about the prospects of a company. Insiders are required to report large trades to the SEC Floating-Rate Opps;I 10.19 NA NA NS National Muni Bond Funds
Apollo Diversified RE:C 23.07 NA NA -4.3 Floating-Rate Opps;U 10.20 NA NA NS Ecofin Tax-Exempt Prv Cr 8.42 NA NA 3.9
within two business days. Here’s a look at the biggest individual trades by insiders, based on data received by Apollo Diversified RE:I 25.13 NA NA -3.4 Equalize Community Dev 9.15 NA NA 3.5 Lind Cap Pt Mun Cred Inc 8.84 NA NA 6.1
Refinitiv on March 22, and year-to-date stock performance of the company ARK Venture 26.58 NA NA 40.8 FedProj&TrFinanceTendr 10.06 NA NA 5.8 Nuveen En HY Muni Bd:A1 7.52 NA NA 5.2
KEY: B: beneficial owner of more than 10% of a security class CB: chairman CEO: chief executive officer CFO: chief financial officer ArrowMark Financial Corp BANX NA 18.64 NA NA Flat Rock Core Income 20.63 NA NA 9.0 Nuveen En HY Muni Bd:A2 7.53 NA NA 5.4
CO: chief operating officer D: director DO: director and beneficial owner GC: general counsel H: officer, director and beneficial owner Bluerock Total Inc+ RE:A 28.08 NA NA -10.7 Flat Rock Enhanced Inc 21.56 NA NA 8.4 Nuveen En HY Muni Bd:I 7.52 NA NA 5.9
m rp

I: indirect transaction filed through a trust, insider spouse, minor child or other O: officer OD: officer and director P: president UT: Bluerock Total Inc+ RE:C 26.09 NA NA -11.4 InvDYCrOpp:A 11.10 NA NA 10.3 PIMCO Flex Mun Inc;A-3 10.33 NA NA 3.5
unknown VP: vice president Excludes pure options transactions Bluerock Total Inc+ RE:I 28.85 NA NA -10.5 InvDYCrOpp:R6 11.10 NA NA 10.6 PIMCO Flex Mun Inc:A1 10.33 NA NA 3.7
Bluerock Total Inc+ RE:L 27.60 NA NA -11.0 InvDYCrOpp:Y 11.10 NA NA 10.5 PIMCO Flex Mun Inc;A2 10.33 NA NA 3.7
Bluerock Total Inc+ RE:M 26.24 NA NA -11.2 Invesco Sr Loan A 5.88 NA NA 9.6 PIMCO Flex Mun Inc;Inst 10.33 NA NA 4.2
Biggest weekly individual trades CBRE GlbRlEst IGR 5.63 5.18 -8.0 8.0 Invesco Sr Loan C 5.90 NA NA 8.8 Single State Muni Bond
CIM RA&C A 23.71 NA NA 0.4 Invesco Sr Loan IB 5.88 NA NA 9.8 PIMCO CA FMI;A-1 10.30 NA NA 2.9
Based on reports filed with regulators this past week CIM RA&C C 23.04 NA NA -0.2 Invesco Sr Loan IC 5.88 NA NA 9.7 PIMCO CA FMI;Inst 10.30 NA NA 3.4
co Fo

No. of shrs in Price range ($) $ Value

Date(s) Company Symbol Insider Title trans (000s) in transaction (000s) Close ($) Ytd (%)
Borrowing Benchmarks | wsj.com/market-data/bonds/benchmarks
Buyers
Mar. 15-18 Cardlytics CDLX C. Sosin BI 662 13.40-13.71 8,964 15.90 72.6 Money Rates March 22, 2024
Mar. 19 C. Sosin BI 350 14.16 4,956
Mar. 15 Alpha Metallurgical Resources AMR M. Gorzynski DOI 15 291.35-300.17 4,435 310.87 -8.3
Key annual interest rates paid to borrow or lend money in U.S. and international markets. Rates below are a
guide to general levels but don’t always represent actual transactions.
Mar. 18 NextNav NN J. Samberg BI 483 4.52 2,182 6.19 39.1 Week —52-WEEK— Week —52-WEEK—
Inflation Latest ago High Low Latest ago High Low
Mar. 18-20 N. Subin DI 150 4.28-4.76 688
Feb. index Chg From (%)
Mar. 14 agilon health AGL B. Shaker O 274 5.23 1,435 4.89 -61.0 level Jan. '24 Feb. '23 Federal funds Other short-term rates
272 3.75-4.21 4.02 -34.3
Effective rate 5.3300 5.3300 5.3500 4.8400
Mar. 15-19 ONE Group Hospitality STKS D. Kanen BI 1,059 U.S. consumer price index Week 52-Week
High 5.6500 5.6500 5.6500 5.1500 Latest high low
All items 310.326 0.62 3.2 ago
Mar. 13 Globalstar GSAT J. Lynch DI 660 1.46 960 1.39 -28.4 5.3100 5.3100 5.3300 4.8000
n-

Low
Core 315.419 0.57 3.8
Mar. 13-14 Traeger COOK J. Andrus CEO 397 2.32-2.38 933 2.43 -11.2 Bid 5.3100 5.3300 5.3300 4.8100 Call money
International rates Offer 5.3300 5.3400 5.3700 4.8300 7.25 7.25 7.25 6.75
Mar. 11-12 GEN Restaurant Group GENK D. Kim CEOI 116 6.00-6.20 708 10.86 38.7
Mar. 11-12 L. Wang BI 116 6.00-6.20 708 Week 52-Week Treasury bill auction Commercial paper (AA financial)
Latest High Low
no

ago 4 weeks 5.270 5.280 5.840 3.190 90 days 5.32 n.a. 5.54 4.87
Mar. 18 America's Car-Mart CRMT A. Peterson B 12 59.15-60.75 692 61.15 -19.3
13 weeks 5.245 5.250 5.345 4.675
Mar. 14-15 Cartesian Therapeutics T. Springer DOI 1,186 .54-.59 666 0.71 3.6
Prime rates Secured Overnight Financing Rate
RNAC 26 weeks 5.130 5.100 5.350 4.620
U.S. 8.50 8.50 8.50 8.00 5.31 5.31 5.40 4.80
Mar. 14-15 L3Harris Technologies LHX W. Swanson D 3 213.39-215.35 536 211.94 0.6 Canada 7.20 7.20 7.20 6.70 Secondary market Value 52-Week
Japan 1.475 1.475 1.475 1.475
Mar. 18 Kinetik Holdings KNTK J. Welch CEO 15 33.75 500 37.09 11.0 Latest Traded High Low
Fannie Mae
Mar. 14 Alignment Healthcare J. Kao CEO 103 4.82 497 4.72 -45.2 Policy Rates
ALHC 30-year mortgage yields DTCC GCF Repo Index
Euro zone 4.50 4.50 4.50 3.50
Mar. 14 Texas Pacific Land TPL R. Roosa DI 0.3 1634.00-1648.50 492 1685.87 7.2 30 days 6.215 6.367 7.495 5.496 Treasury 5.346 16.900 5.504 4.806
Switzerland 2.00 2.25 2.25 2.00
60 days 6.220 6.372 7.554 5.500 MBS 5.365 28.400 5.689 4.829
Mar. 15 Bank of Princeton BPRN M. Tuchman DO 15* 29.74-29.75 446 30.88 -14.0 Britain 5.25 5.25 5.25 4.25
Australia 4.35 4.35 4.35 3.60
Notes on data:
Sellers Overnight repurchase U.S. prime rate is the base rate on corporate loans posted by at least 70% of the 10 largest U.S. banks,
and is effective July 27, 2023. Other prime rates aren’t directly comparable; lending practices vary
U.S. 5.37 5.35 5.48 4.82 widely by location; Discount rate is effective July 27, 2023. Secured Overnight Financing Rate is as
Mar. 19-20 Dell Technologies DELL M. Dell CEO 2,977 107.53-109.29 323,120 112.24 46.7 of March 21, 2024. DTCC GCF Repo Index is Depository Trust & Clearing Corp.'s weighted average for
Mar. 14-18 M. Dell CEO 1,349 105.83-108.63 145,291 U.S. government rates overnight trades in applicable CUSIPs. Value traded is in billions of U.S. dollars. Federal-funds rates
are Tullett Prebon rates as of 5:30 p.m. ET.
Mar. 13 Hyatt Hotels H G. Pucker BI 1,283 155.96 200,096 159.15 22.0 Discount Sources: Federal Reserve; Bureau of Labor Statistics; DTCC; FactSet;
5.50 5.50 5.50 5.00 Tullett Prebon Information, Ltd.
Mar. 12 First Watch Restaurant Group FWRG T. Glynn DI 6,900 23.99 165,531 24.24 20.6
Mar. 12 D. Paresky DI 6,900 23.99 165,531
Mar. 12 Oracle ORCL J. Henley ODI 400 125.25-129.03 50,768 127.79 21.2
Mar. 19 Cadre Holdings CDRE W. Kanders CEOI 1,438 35.00 50,334 34.61 5.2
Cash Prices | wsj.com/market-data/commodities Friday, March 22, 2024
These prices reflect buying and selling of a variety of actual or “physical” commodities in the marketplace—separate
Mar. 19 Apollo Global Management APO L. Black OE 450 110.71 49,818 112.58 20.8
from the futures price on an exchange, which reflects what the commodity might be worth in future months.
Mar. 13-14 Lincoln Electric Holdings LECO C. Mapes OD 160 246.13-252.38 39,729 258.04 18.7 Friday Friday Friday
Mar. 15 Meta Platforms META M. Zuckerberg CEOI 77 482.07-490.12 37,553 509.58 44.0 Copper,Comex spot 3.9960 Wheat,No.2 soft red,St.Louis-u 5.4825
Energy Iron Ore, 62% Fe CFR China-s *110.7 Wheat - Hard - KC (USDA) $ per bu-u 6.2950
Mar. 20 M. Zuckerberg CEOI 46 495.97-507.67 22,973 Steel, HRC USA, FOB Midwest Mill-s *810.0 5.4750
Coal,C.Aplc.,12500Btu,1.2SO2-r,w 77.800 Wheat,No.1soft white,Portld,OR-u
Mar. 14 M. Zuckerberg CEOI 46 488.83-500.70 22,738 Coal,PwdrRvrBsn,8800Btu,0.8SO2-r,w 13.850 Battery/EV metals
15325
Food
Mar. 18 M. Zuckerberg CEOI 46 487.59-497.06 22,610 BMI Lithium Carbonate, EXW China, =99.2%-v,w
Metals BMI Lithium Hydroxide, EXW China, =56.5% -v,w 13900 Beef,carcass equiv. index
Mar. 15-18 Workday WDAY D. Duffield B 121* 267.24-273.20 32,800 277.50 0.5 BMI Cobalt sulphate, EXW China, >20.5% -v,m 4413 choice 1-3,600-900 lbs.-u 292.44
Gold, per troy oz
Engelhard industrial 2176.00 BMI Nickel Sulphate, EXW China, >22%-v,m 3920 select 1-3,600-900 lbs.-u 281.49
Mar. 14 Coupang CPNG N. Mehta DI 1,600 18.60-19.52 29,895 17.57 8.5
Handy & Harman base 2171.60 BMIFlakeGraphite,FOBChina,-100Mesh,94-95%-v,m 538 Broilers, National comp wtd. avg.-u,w 1.3116
Mar. 15 Arista Networks ANET J. Ullal CEO 106* 277.03-281.32 29,518 306.42 30.1 2410.48 Butter,AA Chicago-d 2.8075
Handy & Harman fabricated Fibers and Textiles Cheddar cheese,bbl,Chicago-d 142.50
LBMA Gold Price AM *2210.65
Mar. 18-19 Elastic ESTC S. Banon CTI 280 100.66-102.64 28,394 102.38 -9.2 Burlap,10-oz,40-inch NY yd-n,w 0.7700 Cheddar cheese,blk,Chicago-d 139.25
LBMA Gold Price PM *2170.50
Krugerrand,wholesale-e 2246.40 Cotton,1 1/16 std lw-mdMphs-u 0.8853 Milk,Nonfat dry,Chicago lb.-d 110.75
Mar. 12-14 Antero Resources AR W. Keenan DI 1,000 25.85-26.30 26,164 26.99 19.0 Coffee,Brazilian,Comp-y 1.8455
Maple Leaf-e 2268.00 Cotlook 'A' Index-t *97.00
Hides,hvy native steers piece fob-u n.a. Coffee,Colombian, NY-y 2.1012
* Half the transactions were indirect **Two day transaction American Eagle-e 2268.00
Wool,64s,staple,Terr del-u,w n.a. Eggs,large white,Chicago-u 2.1650
p - Pink Sheets Mexican peso-e 2612.31
Flour,hard winter KC-p 17.65
Austria crown-e 2120.23 Grains and Feeds Hams,17-20 lbs,Mid-US fob-u n.a.
Austria phil-e 2268.00
Hogs,Iowa-So. Minnesota-u 82.35
Buying and selling by sector Silver, troy oz. Bran,wheat middlings, KC-u,w
Corn,No. 2 yellow,Cent IL-bp,u
80
4.1100 Pork bellies,12-14 lb MidUS-u n.a.
Based on actual transaction dates in reports received this past week Engelhard industrial 24.8000 Pork loins,13-19 lb MidUS-u 1.2041
Corn gluten feed,Midwest-u,w 102.1
Handy & Harman base 24.7350 Corn gluten meal,Midwest-u,w 403.6 Steers,Tex.-Okla. Choice-u 188.00
Handy & Harman fabricated 30.9190 Cottonseed meal-u,w n.a. Steers,feeder,Okla. City-u,w 306.75
Sector Buying Selling Sector Buying Selling LBMA spot price *£19.9600 Hominy feed,Cent IL-u,w 115
(U.S.$ equivalent) *25.4300 Fats and Oils
Basic Industries 5,019,174 21,460,248 Finance 6,511,691 183,235,245 Meat-bonemeal,50% pro Mnpls-u,w 323
Coins,wholesale $1,000 face-a n.a. Oats,No.2 milling,Mnpls-u 4.2325 Degummed corn oil, crude wtd. avg.-u,w n.a.
Capital Goods 869,738 140,939,932 Health care 6,881,412 125,104,986 Other metals Rice, Long Grain Milled, No. 2 AR-u,w 35.75 Grease,choice white,Chicago-h 0.4100
LBMA Platinum Price PM *910.0 Sorghum,(Milo) No.2 Gulf-u n.a. Lard,Chicago-u n.a.
Consumer durables 1,680,140 17,150,024 Public Utilities 1,095 16,807,745 Platinum,Engelhard industrial 910.0 SoybeanMeal,Cent IL,rail,ton48%-u,w 364.60 Soybean oil,crude;Centl IL-u,w 0.4714
Consumer non-durables 23,099 46,642,736 Technology 4,347,899 446,675,247 Palladium,Engelhard industrial 1020.0 Soybeans,No.1 yllw IL-bp,u 11.6200 Tallow,bleach;Chicago-h 0.4350
Aluminum, LME, $ per metric ton *2264.0 Wheat,Spring14%-pro Mnpls-u 8.1350 Tallow,edible,Chicago-u n.a.
Consumer services 5,171,732 131,405,495 Transportation 0 1,263,801
KEY TO CODES: A=ask; B=bid; BP=country elevator bids to producers; C=corrected; D=CME; E=Manfra,Tordella & Brookes; H=American Commodities Brokerage Co;
Energy 1,027,408 61,891,804 K=bi-weekly; M=monthly; N=nominal; n.a.=not quoted or not available; P=Sosland Publishing; R=SNL Energy; S=Platts-TSI; T=Cotlook Limited; U=USDA; V=Benchmark
Mineral Intelligence; W=weekly; Y=International Coffee Organization; Z=not quoted. *Data as of 3/21
Sources: Refinitiv; Dow Jones Market Data Source: Dow Jones Market Data
 For personal, non-commercial use only. Do not edit, alter or reproduce. For commercial reproduction or distribution, contact Dow Jones Reprints & Licensing at (800) 843-0008 or www.djreprints.com.

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Monday, March 25, 2024 | B9

HEARD STREET FINANCIAL ANALYSIS & COMMENTARY

ON
THE

ESG Investing Loses Its Steam

The appeal of the moniker is waning, probably because it is trying to serve too many interests at once

The ESG brand probably has its and religious organizations. On an- Mentions of Environmental, ESG funds with ‛low carbon,’ Percentage of funds created in
best days behind it. other were institutions such as the Social, Governance (ESG) in ‛decarbonization’ or ‛carbon the U.S. and Europe that referenced
After a three-year craze for invest- United Nations that aimed to chan- companies’ calls with analysts* transition’ in their name sustainability in their name*
ment products focused on environ- nel money to industries that benefit
3,000 mentions $0.25 billion 7.5%
mental, social and corporate-gover- society. Finally, there were inves-
nance concerns, the percentage of tors who wanted to profit from the ‛ESG’ label
2,500 0
new funds in the U.S. and Europe green revolution.
with ESG in their name fell to 3.3% Asset managers jumped at the
from a peak of 8.3%, according to an chance to cater to all three. ESG let 2,000 -0.25 5.0
analysis of quarterly data by Morn- them differentiate products, revital-
ingstar Direct. Online searches for ize the case for active management 1,500 -0.50
“ESG investing” fell to mid-2019 lev- and, at a time of declining fees,
els, according to Google Trends. charge more for stock screens that 1,000 -0.75 2.5
One explanation is the collapse of often lead to small changes in allo-
the clean-energy stocks most readily cations. 500 -1.00 Other sustainability
associated with the ESG movement. But the confusion of motivations related labels
Flagging growth in electric-vehicle made for contradictions. Neither 0 -1.25 WEEKLY NET FLOWS 0
sales hit Tesla. The S&P Global Clean ethical objectives nor bets on de- 2017 ’18 ’19 ’20 ’21 ’22 ’23 ’24 April 2023 ’24 2017 ’18 ’19 ’20 ’21 ’22 ’23 ’24
Energy index, which lists solar-panel carbonization square logically with *Quarterly sums
maker First Solar and Danish wind- fund managers’ claims that ESG is Sources: FactSet (mentions); EPFR Global (ESG funds); Morningstar, WSJ calculations (sustainability funds)
turbine giant Vestas among its top a broad path to higher, safer re-
constituents, lost 31% since the start turns. Yes, an ESG focus can help trates the risk that shares with high to the same companies, even within cloud computing and aging popula-
of 2023 as renewable-energy projects active managers account for risks sustainability scores can get too ex- the specific “E,” “S” and “G” factors, tions.
have been shelved. such as a regulatory backlash or pensive, leading to lower returns. according to a February paper by the Buyers of these products can be
The rise of ESG investing between governance blowup, which in some Ethical investors might be fine Leibniz Institute SAFE. Researchers fickle and jump to the next theme—
2019 and 2022 coincided with a surge cases might be highlighted by new with this, but that just shifts the fo- found environmental concerns tend often too quickly for their own
in clean-tech valuations, and now the company disclosures. cus to what counts as ethical. Tell- to explain most of the overall score. good, a Morningstar analysis
reverse is happening. Investors pulled However, the assumption that in- ingly, interest in ESG dropped more This is another hint that the showed in November. It is possible
$2.2 billion from funds dedicated to tegrating ESG criteria into their in the U.S., where the politicization driver of the ESG craze might have the overly generic ESG brand will
decarbonization since the start of the screening will lead to better stock of EVs and culture wars surround- been a hunger for thematic invest- never recover its appeal, with the

.
year, according to EPFR. picking seems flawed. The popular- ing Bud Light show how easily ment. It has since found better different parts of it rebranded to
There is a risk that ESG was a ity of ESG makes it unlikely that companies can become ideological sources of sustenance, as demon- suit specific client bases.

fad. The term was the product of the market is underappreciating the
an uneasy alliance. On one side risks. The rush of money into firms
were ethically driven investors, who like Vestas, whose stock hit a price/
include pension funds, universities on
earnings ratio of 534 in 2022, illus-
battlegrounds.
ESG ratings aren’t much help in
navigating these issues. Different
providers give wildly different scores
ly
strated by the breakneck growth of Sustainable investing isn’t going
firms such as Global X, which is de- anywhere. But a broad tent cover-
livering granular offerings such as ing too many interests serves none
tracker funds for electric batteries, of them well. —Jon Sindreu

Mortgage Rates’ New Normal Will Be Higher Than Hoped

us ,
l
e
al a

Interest rates are likely to come bonds and Treasurys is still around the portfolio declines. the ones seeing the biggest inflows. ings, which cites a 35% decline from
ci on

down later this year, with the Fed- 1.5 percentage points, according to
eral Reserve on track to start cutting figures compiled by Bank of Amer-
rates. But mortgage rates might not ica. The typical spread a few years
follow as quickly. ago was around 1 percentage point.
That is because mortgages—and “There is further room for tight-
er s
One Fed governor, Christopher
Waller, said in a speech at the begin-
ning of March that he “would like to
see the Fed’s agency MBS holdings
go to zero,” alongside a desire to
Economists at Fannie Mae last
week increased their forecast for av-
erage 30-year fixed mortgage rates
to be 6.4% on average in the fourth
quarter of 2024, from their prior
the 2021 peak in employment in the
nonbank mortgage industry. The
tough conditions have led “many
originators to exit the market, with
additional consolidation expected to

mortgage-backed bonds—just aren’t ening spreads,” says David Finkel- shift the Fed’s portfolio to have a view of 5.9%. They are also expecting occur as profitability remains con-
as in demand in financial markets as stein, chief executive and chief in- larger share of shorter-term Trea- an average rate of 6.2% in 2025. The strained,” Fitch wrote recently.
m er

they were in the years before the Fed vestment officer of Annaly Capital
began to start to tighten in 2022. Management, a real-estate invest-
And they might not be for a while. ment trust that invests in mortgage
The extra yield over Treasurys— bonds and other strategies across
or spread—demanded by investors to residential mortgage finance. “But
m rp
sury bills.
Banks, too, hardly seem poised to
return to big buying. There are still
scars from last year’s crisis, which
was sparked in part by banks sitting
most recent weekly average rate was
6.87%.
Last Wednesday, consensus fore-
casts by Fed policymakers still
showed that they expect three quar-
What this means is that the profit
spread also built into mortgage
rates—on top of the yields on mort-
gage bonds—might not soon come
down much from what it is now. At

own mortgage-backed securities is- we don’t believe we’re going back to
sued by government-sponsored en- pre-2022 levels.”
terprises such as Fannie Mae or One crucial driver of a new base-
Freddie Mac, known as agency MBS, line is that the Fed seems increas-
has come down a bit from the highs ingly unlikely to return to the market
co Fo
on piles of longer-term bonds such
as agency MBS that plunged in
value. Not only will banks’ investors
probably discourage them from load-
ing up on bonds, but regulators are
ter-point rate cuts this year, un-
changed from December’s outlook.
Three Fed cuts might not be as many
as some had hoped. But the central
bank’s consistent messaging might
least not until there is another surge
in loan volume that entices origina-
tors to expand and compete more for
share. But with so many home-
owners sitting on recent mortgages

touched last year. But it still hasn’t as a buyer of agency MBS. Even if considering measures such as higher at least reduce volatility in the fixed- at sub-3% or -4% rates, making them
narrowed back to historical levels. the Fed does end quantitative tight- capital and liquidity requirements income market, which typically helps reluctant to sell and even less likely
Wider spreads appear to be a new ening sooner than anticipated, many that could have a similar effect. reduce spreads. to refinance, such a volume wave
normal for the mortgage market. observers expect it to continue to al- Investors aren’t racing to buy Then there is also the role played looks remote.
That in turn means homebuyers for low mortgage bonds to mature or mortgage bonds, either. While reallo- by mortgage-makers themselves. The In short, prospective homebuyers
now can expect to keep paying rela- pay off and leave the balance sheet cations from money-market funds to huge drop-off in buying and refi- might get a little help from the Fed
tively higher rates. at the same pace, while adjusting bond funds could also spark addi- nancing has contributed to a shrink- later this year. But not that much.
The yield gap between mortgage how quickly the Treasurys part of tional demand, cash funds are still ing business, according to Fitch Rat- —Telis Demos

MARKETS
n-

Price Surge Composition of the U.S.

housing market*
Properties brought to
foreclosure auction
for a convenient outcome.
Last year, Sandoval bought
a Los Angeles house from Scott
back to her car, the woman’s
husband ran after her and
asked for her card. He appar-

Lures House
$50 trillion 1.2 million
no

Draper, a lawyer, for about ently hadn’t told his wife

$480,000. The house had been about the missed payments.
1.0 occupied by a family member Sandoval’s investments are
40 Debt

Flippers 30
Equity
0.8
and had fallen into disrepair. A
rat infestation had become so
bad that Draper was advised
generally in low- or moderate-
income areas across the Los
Angeles region. Sometimes the
0.6 not to linger inside. sellers have an agent or law-
PHILIP CHEUNG FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Continued from page B1 20 He didn’t want to sell it in yer, sometimes they don’t.
sold. More than half sold 0.4 the open market because of its Sandoval recently turned
when they were in pre-fore- poor condition, and he wanted her attention to Compton. In-
closure. Those borrowers of- 10 0.2 to get rid of it quickly. San- comes there are lower than
ten sold to individual inves- doval offered him a higher the national average and pov-
tors—for less than their 0 0 price than any other investor. erty is higher, according to
home’s market value. She put in about $90,000 of census data. One day in late
2000 ’05 ’10 ’15 ’20 ’23 2005 ’10 ’15 ’20 ’23†
renovations, including a new January, she made the 14-mile
Distressed home sales by type foundation and new windows. drive there from her office in
‘Captive audience’ Then she sold it for $775,000. Pico Rivera with two col-
Like any market with scant 100% leagues.
oversight, stories abound of Sandoval at her realty office. REO The first address was in a
desperate homeowners getting Pounding pavement low-rise apartment complex.
taken advantage of. People vice president of market eco- 80 When a bank serves a no- Sandoval rang the doorbell.
badger homeowners, or low- nomics at Auction.com. “They Foreclosure tice of default to a home- Someone inside turned the TV
ball them, or pressure them to become a sort of captive audi- 60
owner, it starts the clock on a down, but no one answered.
sign away their rights. ence for that investor who foreclosure. The lender might Sandoval left an envelope.
Legal-aid lawyers say many happens to get a hold of Pre-Foreclosure set a date to take the home At another house, enve-
complaints are about people them.” 40 and sell it. But it can take lopes were already stuck in
known as wholesalers, who Sandoval said that if she months or years for a foreclo- the door. “We’re not the first
seek out properties on behalf meets an owner who wants to sure to go through. ones,” Sandoval said.
of other investors. try to keep their home, she 20 That opens a window for The day was winding down
Some state and local gov- will advise them on how to Sandoval. She finds home- when Sandoval approached a
ernments have cracked down ask their lender to change the owners through searchable house with cracked windows.
0
on them. terms of their monthly pay- databases designed for real- Someone came to the side-
Selling directly to an inves- ment, or how to come up with 2000 ’05 ’10 ’15 ’20 ’23† estate investors. The data- walk, displeased to be getting
tor means the owner could a payment plan by filing for *Includes 1–4 family owner-occupied mortgages. †Figures are preliminary. bases pull in default notices, another visitor who was inter-
miss out on another buyer chapter 13 bankruptcy. Sources: Urban Institute (market composition); Auction.com (home sales, foreclosure auction) which are public record. ested in the house. She said
who might have paid more. If the owner wants to list She spends about two days she was the owner’s daughter,
And with rents so high, even a the property, Sandoval might doing flips, it’s got to be company rep, who feeds her a week knocking on doors. and that they weren’t going to
borrower who gets a big do that, too—she is also a worth it because it’s taking information on homes as she Most people don’t answer. So give up.
chunk of cash could end up real-estate agent at Century time away from my kids,” she knocks on doors. instead she leaves envelopes, She and Sandoval talked
worse in the long run, since 21. said. “I am at 120 miles per hour each with a flier inside that later on the phone. Sandoval
anywhere they move will But it is hardly a charity every day,” she said. reads, “DON’T LET THE BANK thought the situation was too
likely be expensive. project. Sandoval said she Sandoval used to use her TAKE YOUR HOME! STOP complicated and decided
“Someone who is not list- made about $255,000 from her Making math work own cash to buy houses. Now, FORECLOSURE!” in English against trying to buy. She esti-
ing their home for sale in a investment projects last year, Sandoval’s phone is con- she relies on private loans and and Spanish. At the bottom is mates that for every 100 doors
transparent marketplace and plus roughly $280,000 more stantly ringing. There are buy- partners who put up money. her picture, plus her contact she knocks on, she ends up
is putting their head in the as a traditional real-estate ers and sellers to manage. She will typically pay between information. working with about 10 home-
sand, they may not know all of agent. She also made rental There are the people renovat- $425,000 and $650,000 for One time, a woman told her owners. As Sandoval drove
their options to sell the prop- income. ing her homes and managing each home, whether the seller she must have the wrong ad- home that evening, she was
erty,” said Daren Blomquist, “If I’m running around and her rentals. There is her title is in distress or just looking dress. As Sandoval walked already plotting her next trip.
 For personal, non-commercial use only. Do not edit, alter or reproduce. For commercial reproduction or distribution, contact Dow Jones Reprints & Licensing at (800) 843-0008 or www.djreprints.com.

B10 | Monday, March 25, 2024 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

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