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What’s
News
Business & Finance
 Elon Musk met senior
Chinese officials in Beijing
as he pushes for approval to
introduce Tesla’s advanced
driver-assistance technology
to its biggest overseas mar-
ket, where it has been losing
ground to homegrown elec-
tric-vehicle makers. A1
 China continues to en-
courage unprofitable carmak-
ers to oversupply the market,
aiming to boost economic
growth, preserve jobs and
expand Beijing’s role in the
electric-vehicle business. B4
 Restaurants in California
are raising menu prices after
the state increased the mini-
mum wage for workers in
the fast-food industry. A1
 Energy-guzzling artificial
intelligence has become the
new driver of growing de-
mand for renewable electricity,
but supply can’t keep up. B1
 Traders will get a new look
at the prospects for interest-
rate cuts at the conclusion of
the Fed’s Wednesday meet-
ing, potentially modifying in-
vestors’ anxiety about what is
next for the stock market. B1
 Employees are back on the
road again, driving business
travel closer to prepandemic
levels despite the availabil-
ity of remote-work tools. B1
 Restocking the U.S. ar-
mory to replace weapons
sent to Ukraine is setting up
growth in the U.S. defense in-
dustry for years to come. B3
World-Wide
 Germany has emerged as
a fierce opponent of a U.S.-
led push to commandeer
some of the nearly $300 bil-
lion of Russian central-bank
assets frozen at the start of
Russia’s war on Ukraine. A1
 Tornadoes killed four people
in Oklahoma, including an in-
fant, and left thousands with-
out power, with extensive dam-
age in the town of Sulphur,
where many downtown build-
ings were reduced to rubble. A2
 Russian drones struck the
Black Sea city of Mykolaiv, set-
ting a hotel ablaze and dam-
aging energy infrastructure,
Ukrainian officials said. A8
 Egypt offered a new pro-
posal for a truce between Is-
rael and Hamas in which
some Israeli hostages would
be released in exchange for
Palestinian prisoners and a
three-week cease-fire. A6
 Biden spoke with Netan-
yahu to reiterate U.S. con-
cerns about a widespread in-
vasion of Rafah and discuss
prospects for a deal. A6
 Individual U.S. states, invok-
ing grassroots American dis-
trust of the Chinese Commu-
nist Party, are taking action to
block Chinese land purchases,
factory plans and research
in their jurisdictions. A3
 TikTok failed to avert a sale
or ban of its operations in the
U.S. in part due to tectonic shifts
in U.S.-China relations and coor-
dinated, stealthy efforts by the
app’s critics on Capitol Hill. A4
CONTENTS
Arts in Review......A13
Business & Finance...B2
Business News........B3
Closed-End Funds......B8
Crossword..................A14
Heard on Street......B11
s 2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
MONDAY, APRIL 29, 2024 ~ VOL. CCLXXXIII NO. 100
NASDAQ 15927.90 À 4.2%
Torch Bound for Paris Sets Sail From Greece
VASSILIS PSOMAS/EPA/SHUTTERSTOCK
CRUISING: The Olympic torch crossed the Corinth Canal in Greece on Sunday aboard the Belem on its way to the opening
ceremony of the Paris Games. The ship is headed to Marseille, the start of the torch relay on French soil.
Germany’s Nazi Past Haunts
Push to Seize Russian Assets
BY BOJAN PANCEVSKI
AND LAURENCE NORMAN
BERLIN—The specter of
World War II hangs over
Western attempts to funnel
Russian assets to Ukraine’s
defense against Moscow.
Berlin has emerged as a
fierce opponent of the U.S.-led
push to commandeer some of
the nearly $300 billion of Rus-
sian central-bank assets fro-
zen at the start of Russia’s
war on Ukraine. Germany
fears it could create a prece-
dent and inspire new claims
High Rates
Appear
On Track
To Persist
Long-Term
BY NICK TIMIRAOS
Amid the debate over
whether and when the Federal
Reserve cuts interest rates, an-
other important argument is
unfolding: Where do rates set-
tle in the long run?
At issue is the neutral rate of
interest: the rate that keeps the
demand and supply
ANALYSIS of savings in equi-
librium, leading to
stable economic growth and in-
flation.
For the past 40 years, and
especially following the 2008 fi-
nancial crisis, economists and
Fed policymakers steadily re-
vised down their estimates of
neutral. This view became em-
bedded in bond yields, mort-
gage rates, equity prices and
countless other assets.
But now, some see reasons
Markets..................B10,11 for neutral rising, with the po-
Opinion................ A15-17
Personal Journal A11-12
tential to change a wide range
Sports.......................... A14 of asset prices.
Technology................ B4 The neutral rate, some-
U.S. News.............. A2-5 times called “r*” or “r-star,”
World News........ A6-8
can’t be directly observed,
only inferred. Five years ago,
> after the Fed raised its bench-
mark federal-funds rate to
Please turn to page A2
 Treasury rout adds to
stock fears............................. B1
WSJ.com HHHH $5.
STOXX 600 507.98 À 1.7% 10-YR. TREASURY g 13/32 , yield 4.668% OIL $83.85 À $1.63 EURO $1.0693 YEN 158.34
Musk
Seeks Key
Approval
For Tesla
In China
CEO’s visit to Beijing
comes amid effort to
expand tech feature
and revive demand
BY RAFFAELE HUANG
AND SELINA CHENG
Elon Musk met with senior
Chinese officials in Beijing on
Sunday as he pushes for ap-
proval to introduce Tesla’s ad-
vanced driver-assistance tech-
nology in its biggest overseas
market, where it has been los-
ing ground to homegrown
electric-vehicle makers.
Musk is stepping up efforts
globally for wider adoption of
Tesla’s “Full Self-Driving,” or
FSD, software feature after a
dismal start to the year for
the world’s most valuable au-
tomaker, which saw its first-
quarter profit drop to its low-
est level since 2021.
Tesla’s chief executive is
seeking to persuade Chinese
regulators to greenlight the in-
troduction of its FSD feature to
Chinese drivers, according to
over World War II-era crimes. windfall profits to fund Ukrai- many for decades, at times people familiar with the dis-
The U.S. and U.K. have said nian arms. Paris, Rome and the souring relations with its cussions. Among those he met
the initiative is crucial for a European Central Bank also neighbors. After the war, Ber- was Chinese Premier Li Qiang.
Ukrainian victory, but there is are hesitant, in case taking lin paid the Allied powers and Tesla has opened FSD for
little chance of progress with- hold of the reserves hits inter- the-then Soviet Union com- subscription in China, but it
out wider European support. national confidence in the euro pensation for Germany’s war only provides lower-level au-
The funds, several times the and single-currency assets. of aggression. Since 1952, Ger- tonomous features for use,
size of the recently approved The Group of Seven is di- many has also given more leaving it lagging behind EVs
$61 billion U.S. aid package for vided, with Japan, which faces than $90 billion to Holocaust made by some Chinese brands
Ukraine, would bolster reparation claims of its own survivors and their families, that can drive near-automati-
Ukraine’s ailing armed forces from South Korea and other according to Jewish organiza- cally in most scenarios.
and help rebuild the country. neighbors, in opposition. The tions. But recently, calls for In China, Tesla faces gov-
Two-thirds of the Russian Japanese foreign ministry said further reparations have re- ernment restrictions over the
money at play sits in Europe’s it would continue to discuss emerged. Poland has sought Please turn to page A8
clearinghouses and, two years the issue with G-7 partners. $1.3 trillion in compensation
into the war, Germany has Demands for further WWII from Berlin since 2022, while  Decoding Tesla’s plans for
only just backed using the reparations have dogged Ger- Please turn to page A7 cheaper EVs......................... B4
INSIDE Longevity Scientist
Draws Ire of Peers
Harvard geneticist’s claim of ‘reverse
DAVID HALL/THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
aging’ brings rebuke from researchers
Harvard geneticist David his brand on the idea that
ADAM GRAY/GETTY IMAGES
Sinclair, who has said his aging is a treatable disease.
“biological age” is roughly a The notion has proven so se-
decade younger than his ac- ductive that legions of aco-
tual one, has put forward his lytes follow his online post-
ings about his research and
By Alex Janin, the cocktails of supplements
Dominique Mosbergen he consumes to stave off the
U.S. NEWS JOANNA STERN and inevitable.
Amid pro-Palestinian How well can Amy Dockser Marcus His social-media accounts
are a platform for assertions
protests, some Jewish smartphones handle a largely unlined face as a that his work is pushing
New Yorkers feel fall from the sky? We
spokesman for the longevity nearer to a fountain of youth.
‘a dark cloud.’ A3 find out. A12 movement. He claimed last year that a
The 54-year-old has built Please turn to page A10
The Billionaire Dogfight Fast-Food Prices Get
Rocking Park City, Utah
i i i Upsized in California
A feud over a mansion turns into a brawl
BY HEATHER HADDON Since September, when
over dogs—becoming the talk of ritzy town California moved to require
Restaurants for months large fast-food chains to
BY JIM CARLTON allege, or lovable fur balls, as have said menu prices in Cali- bump up their minimum
their owners insist? And, fornia would rise as the state hourly pay to $20 in April,
PARK CITY, Utah—This fa- some wonder, is the hubbub raised the minimum wage for fast-food and fast-casual res-
mous ski town has experi- really about the two pups, or fast-food workers. Now they taurants in California have in-
enced its share of fierce com- is it a proxy battle over a are following through. creased prices by 10% overall,
petitions, but it has never mansion that has roiled Consumers picking up outpacing all other states, the
seen anything quite the resort community? burgers, burritos and chicken firm found in an analysis of
like the fight over Prince, co-founder sandwiches at chains in the thousands of restaurants
Sasha and Mocha. and chief executive of Golden State are grappling across 70 large chains.
Are they “vi- tech firm Cloudflare, with prices that for months Prices at Chick-fil-A, Dom-
cious and ag- sued neighbors Eric have been rising at a faster ino’s, McDonald’s, Burger King,
gressive,” as bil- Sasha Hermann and his wife, clip than in other states, ac- Pizza Hut, Jack in the Box and
lionaire Matthew and Susan Fredston-Her- cording to market-research other fast-food chains have in-
Prince’s lawyers Mocha Please turn to page A10 firm Datassential. Please turn to page A2
 A2 | Monday, April 29, 2024
BRYAN TERRY/THE OKLAHOMAN/USA TODAY NETWORK/REUTERS
A stretch of damaged buildings after a tornado hit Sulphur, Okla. The storm left four dead, including an infant.
High Rates
Seem Likely
To Persist
Continued from Page One
2.4%, officials saw signs of fee-
ble growth and inflation and
began lowering rates—implying
neutral must have been around
that level, or lower.
But when the Fed raised the
fed-funds rates to 5.3% last
year, the highest since 2001,
the economy appeared to
shrug it off, giving reason to
think neutral might be higher.
“The economy has weathered
this exceptionally well. No one
could have told me 10 years
ago we would have raised
rates to this level with this
outcome,” said Joe Davis, chief
global economist at Vanguard.
“Our conviction in a higher
neutral rate is going up as ev-
ery quarter of data comes in.”
The persistence of strong
demand doesn’t necessarily
mean neutral has risen; it
might simply mean higher
rates have yet to work their
way through the financial sys-
tem. Households and busi-
nesses, having locked in their
borrowing at low rates, might
be relatively insulated from
the recent rise in rates.
Based on the resilience of
economic activity to higher in-
terest rates, “one conclusion
California
Fast Food
Gets Pricier
Continued from Page One
creased since September, the
firm found. Chipotle said in an
investor call Wednesday that
prices at its nearly 500 Cali-
fornia restaurants climbed 6%
to 7% during the first week of
April compared with last year,
playing out across its menu.
“The state isn’t making it
easy,” Chipotle Chief Execu-
tive Brian Niccol said in an
interview.
In Los Angeles on a recent
April afternoon, Seth Amitin,
a 39-year-old therapist, said
his usual $16 meal that he
picks up weekly at the Chick-
fil-A in Hollywood now costs
$20. The price for a spicy
chicken sandwich at that loca-
tion had gone up to $7.09
from $6.29, or 13%, since mid-
February, according to re-
search by Gordon Haskett Re-
search Advisors. Chick-fil-A’s
prices increased 10.6% on av-
erage in California during
that time period, Gordon Has-
kett found.
“There’s a really good taco
spot just down the street. They
kept their burrito prices at
$10. I’m definitely eating there
more often,” Amitin said.
U.S. WATCH
you could draw is that r-star
must be higher. Another con-
clusion you could draw, which I
think is totally valid based on
seeing the same set of informa-
tion, is that the economy is just
not that sensitive to interest
rates,” said Kris Dawsey, head
of economic research at hedge-
fund manager D.E. Shaw.
Modeling the effects of inter-
est rates therefore requires not
only an estimate of neutral, but
also of how sensitive spending
is to rate changes and the lag
between spending and prices.
“That’s a lot to get right,
especially when errors in one
area can easily be mistaken
for mis-estimates elsewhere,”
said Jason Thomas, chief
economist at private-equity
manager Carlyle Group.
Every quarter, Fed officials
project the longer-run interest
Market implied estimate of the five-year
Treasury yield, 10 years forward
8%
6 and why suddenly it turned
4
2 and are prone to revision.
0 0
2000 ’05 ’10 ’15
Sources: Federal Reserve (longer-run fed-funds rate); Bank for International Settlements (neutral real rate of interest); Goldman Sachs, Federal Reserve (five-year Treasury yield estimate)
California raised the mini-
mum wage for fast-food work-
ers to $20 an hour in April, a
25% increase from the state’s
broader $16 minimum wage.
Supporters, including Califor-
nia Gov. Gavin Newsom, a
Democrat, said the law would
improve wages and working
conditions for hundreds of
thousands of fast-food employ-
ees in the state.
A spokesman for the gover-
nor said fast-food companies
can afford to give their work-
ers a deserved bump in pay.
“These are wages that will go
towards basic necessities like
rent and groceries,” he said.
The restaurant industry
spent millions of dollars fight-
ing the wage law and was
ready to mount a referendum
campaign but then negotiated
a deal with backers last Sep-
tember. McDonald’s, Jack in
the Box, Shake Shack and oth-
ers said they would raise menu
prices in California in response,
with some McDonald’s franchi-
sees estimating hundreds of
thousands of dollars per res-
taurant in added labor costs.
California restaurants al-
ready had some of the highest
fast-food prices in the country,
according to market-research
firm Revenue Management So-
lutions. Every month since Oc-
tober, California fast-food and
fast-casual restaurants have
raised prices across a greater
percentage of their menus
compared with restaurants in
the rest of the country,
U.S. NEWS
rate, which is, in effect, their
estimate of neutral. Their me-
dian estimate declined from
4.25% in 2012 to 2.5% in 2019.
After subtracting inflation of
2%, that yielded a real neutral
rate of 0.5%.
The median then crept up to
0.6% in March, though that un-
derstates the amount of move-
ment in those estimates. In
March, nine of 18 officials put
neutral above 0.5%. Two years
earlier, just two did. Cleveland
Fed President Loretta Mester
said after years of penciling in
a long-run rate estimate of
2.5%, she revised her projec-
tion last month to 3%.
The debate over r-star
might have little near-term ef-
fect on the Fed because cur-
rent interest rates are above
virtually all estimates of neu-
tral. That means they are re-
Fed officialsʼ median projection
of the longer-run fed-funds rate
5%
4
3 3
2 2
1 1
’20 2012
Datassential found.
Greg LaVay, a 79-year-old
retired entrepreneur from San
Diego who worked in the retail
office furniture business, said
he noticed McDonald’s ham-
burgers in his area creeping up
to $2.50 each. A Big Mac now
goes for $5.39, he said. He said
he used to visit McDonald’s a
few times a month but a few
months ago started to limit his
restaurant spending to sit-
down restaurants for dinner.
“I feel ripped off a little,”
he said.
Restaurant owners working
for franchised chains such as
McDonald’s and Burger King
set their own prices, while
Chipotle and other companies
that own their domestic stores
determine their menu costs.
McDonald’s said it is com-
Average menu price changes in California, Feb. 15-April 15
Chick-fil-A
Starbucks
Shake Shack
Chipotle
Taco Bell
McDonald’s
Jack in the Box
Wendy’s
Olive Garden
Wingstop
0%
Note: Chart shows average price changes for Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Diego and
San Francisco. Based on price data from restaurant websites and mobile apps.
Source: Gordon Haskett Research Advisors
straining growth and prices,
and more likely to fall than
rise. If growth remains solid
and inflation stubborn, it
might lead to speculation neu-
tral has risen, and thus cur-
rent interest rates aren’t that
tight. And thus, the Fed has
less reason to cut rates.
Alternatively, if inflation
resumes its decline, questions
about neutral would drive
how much the Fed ultimately
cuts rates.
The Fed wants to “normal-
ize policy, but ‘normalize’ to
where?” said David Mericle,
chief U.S. economist at Gold-
man Sachs. “They are not go-
ing to stay in the 5s, but nor-
malization is not going to take
them all the way to 2.5%.
Where in the 3s or 4s they feel
comfortable stopping is still
up in the air.”
Model- and survey-based estimates of the
neutral real rate of interest for the U.S.
5%
4 Holston-Laubach-Williams
0
’15 ’20 ’24 1990
mitted to providing good value
for customers, and the com-
pany and its franchisees set up
a team to aid its California
business. “McDonald’s is com-
petitive when it comes to af-
fordability across the state,”
the company said.
A Jack in the Box spokes-
woman said the company has
increased prices around 7% in
its company-owned stores
compared with last year. She
said the company and its
franchisees have sought to
run stores more efficiently in
response to the increased
costs associated with the
wage increases.
Customers across the coun-
try are starting to pull back
on restaurant visits after eat-
eries pushed up their prices
in response to inflation, in-
2 4 6 8
* *** *
OKLAHOMA
Tornadoes Leave
Four People Dead
Tornadoes killed four people
in Oklahoma, including an in-
fant, and left thousands with-
out power Sunday after a de-
structive outbreak of severe
weather flattened buildings in
the heart of one rural town and
injured at least 100 people
across the state.
More than 20,000 people
were still without electricity
hours after tornadoes began
late Saturday night. The de-
struction was extensive in Sul-
phur, a town of about 5,000
people, where a tornado crum-
pled many downtown buildings,
tossed cars and buses and
sheared the roofs off houses
across a 15-block radius.
“You just can’t believe the
destruction,” Oklahoma Gov.
Kevin Stitt said. “It seems like
every business downtown has
been destroyed.”
Stitt said about 30 people
were injured in Sulphur, includ-
ing some who were in a bar as
the tornado struck. Hospitals
across the state reported about
100 injuries, including people
apparently cut or struck by de-
bris, according to the Oklahoma
Department of Emergency
Management. An infant was
among those killed, Hughes
County Emergency Manage-
ment Director Mike Dockrey
told Oklahoma television sta-
tion KOCO.
White House officials said
President Biden spoke to Stitt
Sunday and offered the full
support of the government.
—Associated Press
There are several factors
cited for why neutral might be
rising: soaring government def-
icits and strong investment
driven by the green-energy
transition and an artificial-in-
telligence-fueled frenzy for
electricity-intensive data cen-
ters. Higher productivity from
AI could also lift long-run
growth and the neutral rate.
Dallas Fed President Lorie
Logan warned in a recent
speech that interest rates might
not be as restrictive as believed
because of a higher neutral
rate. “Failing to recognize a
sustained move up in the neu-
tral rate could lead to over-ac-
commodative monetary policy,”
she said.
Investors have already con-
cluded interest rates aren’t
likely to return to the low lev-
els that prevailed before the
Lubik-Matthes
Hördahl-Tristani
New York Fed survey
of primary dealers
’95 2000 ’05 ’10 ’15
dustry data show.
California consumers like
Chandu Siram, a 50-year-old
architect in Eastvale, said he
previously didn’t bat an eye at
how much his family of four
spent on fast food but now has
started to make fewer runs to
Chipotle and Starbucks. He
might go further.
“For now, we are keeping
track of our spending at these
places and if our spending
goes up, we’ll look to cut
back,” Siram said. He is head-
ing more often to Popeyes
Louisiana Kitchen for deals at
the chicken chain.
A number of California con-
sumers said they were shift-
ing their restaurant spending
to independent eateries, con-
sidering them a better value
and experience than some
chains. The California wage
law doesn’t apply to restau-
rants with fewer than 60 na-
tional locations.
John Matthews, a 62-year-
old project manager from Im-
perial Beach, Calif., said he be-
lieves the fast-food wage law
is a drag on the state economy,
and he doesn’t support it. He
said he has shifted his roughly
$600 in monthly restaurant
spending to independent, sit-
down restaurants and away
from McDonald’s, Chipotle and
other chains.
“I’m still eating out, though
10 much more selectively,” Mat-
thews said.
—Talal Ansari
contributed to this article.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
FLORIDA
Ten Wounded by
Gunfire at Party
Gunfire wounded 10 people
early Sunday when an argu-
ment turned violent at a Florida
party venue.
None of the victims suffered
life-threatening injuries, the
Seminole County Sheriff’s Of-
fice said. Deputies arrested a
16-year-old suspect at the scene
of the shootings, which hap-
pened shortly after midnight.
A large crowd was gathered
for a late-night event at Cabana
Live in Sanford, about 20 miles
north of Orlando, when multiple
gunshots were fired.
The sheriff’s office said the
wounded were primarily hit in
their lower extremities.
“The incident began as a ver-
bal altercation that escalated,”
sheriff’s spokesperson Kim Can-
naday said.
A security guard at the
venue subdued the shooting
suspect, who was taken to a ju-
venile detention center, the
sheriff’s office said. It didn’t im-
mediately say what charges the
teenager was facing.
Cabana Live is a restaurant
and venue that rents cabanas
and hosts pool parties and
other events, according to its
website.
A post on its Facebook page
Sunday said it was holding a
private event when the shoot-
ings occurred.
“We are cooperating with
the Seminole County Sheriff’s
Office and praying for all those
involved,” the social-media post
said.
—Associated Press
pandemic. Interest-rate fu-
tures suggest the fed-funds
rate will stabilize around 4%
in coming years.
Others are skeptical that
neutral is rising. New York
Fed President John Williams,
who co-wrote a widely fol-
lowed model of r-star, has said
he expects an aging global
workforce that boosts savings
to keep neutral low.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell
and some colleagues have sug-
gested that economic strength
could as easily be explained by
idiosyncrasies of the pan-
demic, such as a boost in the
supply of workers last year
from immigration. “It’s not
that the policy isn’t restrictive
and it’s not responsive to
rates. It’s that we’ve had this
outside force that is temporar-
ily affecting that,” Powell said
at a talk this month.
Fed governor Christopher
Waller has said he thinks r-
star is around 0.5%. “You have
to explain to me why real
rates on safe, liquid govern-
ment debt fell for 40 years
around,” he said last month.
“No one has really given very
good answers to that.”
Several economic models at-
tempt to estimate neutral, but
they have wide error bands
Given the imprecision, Pow-
ell has implied the Fed must
act on the assumption it
doesn’t really know where r-
’20 star sits. “We only know it by
its works,” he said last year.
CORRECTIONS 
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THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
States Lead
In Barring
Beijing
From U.S.
Economy
BY JAMES T. AREDDY
States have a new adver-
sary: China.
From Florida to Indiana
and Montana, proposals, bills,
laws and regulations aim to
block Chinese individuals and
companies from acquiring
land, winning contracts, work-
ing on research, setting up
factories and otherwise par-
ticipating in the U.S. economy.
State officials, overriding
traditional local interests such
as drawing investment and cre-
ating jobs, say they are ad-
dressing grassroots distrust of
the Chinese Communist Party.
“China has a very clearly
stated objective, and that is to
dominate the world, and do
that at the U.S.’s expense,”
said Virginia Gov. Glenn
Youngkin, who last year
blocked Ford Motor from set-
ting up a battery venture with
China’s Contemporary Am-
perex Technology. Ford is now
building a scaled-down ver-
sion in Michigan, where it has
also faced local resistance.
When Iowa’s state Senate
passed a bill this month to
shield some big chemical mak-
ers from certain pesticide law-
suits, it specified that a state-
owned Chinese company
would be ineligible.
Grand Forks, N.D., last year
stopped China’s Fufeng Group
from building a corn-process-
ing plant that promised to cre-
ate 1,000 jobs. State and local
authorities had initially wel-
comed the expected $700 mil-
lion investment, but support
collapsed and public anger
rose after claims—with little
substantiation—that the facil-
ity could be a conduit to spy
on Grand Forks Air Force Base.
Grand Forks had a duty to
act because the federal govern-
ment was “slow and contradic-
tory” in addressing possible
national-security implications,
Mayor Brandon Bochenski said.
Last year South Dakota Gov.
Kristi Noem cited North Da-
kota’s experience in signing an
executive order that forbade
many activities in her state by
companies linked to govern-
ments the U.S. has designated
as “foreign adversaries”—
which include China’s.
Fufeng later identified a site
in Indiana, only to be tripped
up by a new law that forbids
designated adversaries from
entering deals for farmland.
“Safety or revenue, you
sometimes have to make a de-
cision,” said Indiana State Sen.
Jean Leising, one of the law’s
proponents. Fufeng said it is
“well into the process of ex-
ploring alternative sites.”
“States are continuing to
blur the lines between state
power and federal power,” said
Christopher Daley, executive
director of the American Civil
Liberties Union of Indiana. Vir-
ginia’s Youngkin said issues
such as land use are state-level
decisions.
In the Iowa chemicals bill,
which died Saturday when the
House recessed before voting
on it, the exception to protec-
tion seemed aimed at Syn-
genta, a Swiss maker of seeds
and pesticides owned by gov-
ernment-controlled China Na-
tional Chemical. In Arkansas,
Syngenta was fined $280,000
and ordered to sell 160 acres it
has owned for 36 years for vio-
lating a new law barring land
holdings by a “prohibited for-
eign-party-controlled busi-
ness.”
Florida has legislated some
of the furthest-reaching China
decoupling. Last year, Gov. Ron
DeSantis signed a law to stop
land purchases, block state
contracting and university
partnerships involving Chinese
nationals.
Several states’ efforts have
faced legal challenges.
Montana’s ban on TikTok
was blocked by a judge citing
the First Amendment. Asian-
Americans in Texas took credit
for killing an effort to ban Chi-
nese land ownership. And in
Florida, three Chinese nationals
from large public universities
argued in a suit that new hur-
dles to their participation in
academic research are uncon-
stitutionally race-based.
 Germany rethinks scrutiny
of China investments...... A7
Priced Out of the American Dream
Higher home values
and interest squeeze
younger buyers while
older people grow rich
BY ERIC WALLERSTEIN
Just married and with a
newborn son, Anthony and
Caitlin Fumo expected their
well-paying jobs and chunk of
savings to support a move
closer to their parents in the
suburbs of New Jersey.
But leaving their 1,000-
square-foot Philadelphia
rowhome means borrowing
with rates around 7%—to buy
in a market where the typical
home value has jumped 40%
since the start of 2020. Their
3.85% mortgage costs $1,500 a
month. They are looking at
payments of around $4,000 if
they move.
Friends who scooped up
their forever homes during
the pandemic refinancing
boom, meanwhile, are able to
raise multiple children and
support a long-term mortgage
comfortably, said Anthony, a
31-year-old accounting consul-
tant. A longtime rule of thumb
in American homeownership—
buy a starter home, then move
up to a bigger place—doesn’t
feel like it works anymore.
“It feels like we make too
much money to still feel like
we’re behind,” Anthony said.
America has come to expect
ever-higher prices on houses,
stocks and a swath of other fi-
nancial assets. Civic leaders
and corporate executives rou-
tinely praise rising home
prices and rallying stocks as
signs of widespread economic
well-being.
But those rising asset
prices are wedging an increas-
ingly large gap between the
wealth of older generations
and their children and grand-
children. The gains are heavily
concentrated in older Ameri-
cans who are already home-
owners and who invested
many years ago when prices
were lower.
For those looking to em-
bark on the American dream
today, it is more out of reach
than ever. Home-buying af-
fordability fell last year to the
lowest level since 1985, ac-
cording to a National Associa-
tion of Realtors index. The
median household now needs
more than 40% of its income
to cover payments on a me-
dian-priced home, according
to the Federal Reserve Bank of
Atlanta.
Hopes that the Fed would
cut interest rates helped lower
mortgage rates and unlock the
housing market for a few
months, but stubborn inflation
has sent rates back above 7%
and home sales sliding.
In 2022, when the oldest
millennials were about 40
years old, 61% of people ages
35 to 44 owned a home, ac-
cording to the Fed. In 1989,
Some Jewish New Yorkers Feel a ‘Dark Cloud’
BY JIMMY VIELKIND
The sense of opportunity
Efraim Alkoby found in New
York was rocked last month
when someone splattered red
paint on the kosher cafe he
owns on Manhattan’s Upper
West Side.
Alkoby, who grew up in an
Orthodox Jewish family in Je-
rusalem, said he learned to be
tolerant during his 30 years in
New York. Now, someone op-
posed to Israel’s war in Gaza
wrote “form line here to sup-
port genocide” on the side-
walk outside Effy’s Cafe.
“There’s a very dark cloud
over Jews,” said Alkoby, 48.
New York City is home to
an estimated 944,000 Jewish
residents—more than any
place outside of Israel—and
has elected three Jewish may-
ors. But since Hamas’s Oct. 7
attack on Israel, the city has
also been home to raucous
protests and multiple confron-
tations between pro-Palestin-
ian and pro-Israeli demonstra-
tors.
In interviews, many Jewish
people who once felt comfort-
able in the city said they now
wrestle with feelings of insecu-
rity, and in some cases play
down their religious identity.
The start of the Passover holi-
day coincided with continuing
protests at Columbia University,
about 20 blocks north of Effy’s.
“New York is a place where
U.S. NEWS
Caitlin and Anthony Fumo with their son in Philadelphia. Buying a larger home would raise their monthly payments substantially.
Share of household assets, by age group
100%
Under 40
80
40 to 54
60
40
55 to 69
20
70+
0 25
1990 ’95 2000 ’05 ’10
Average 30–year fixed–rate mortgage in the U.S.
20% RECESSION
15
10
5 cated within the U.S., he
0
1975 ’80 ’85
Sources: Federal Reserve (household assets); Atlanta Fed (income); Freddie Mac via St. Louis Fed (mortgage)
when the oldest baby boomers
were 43 years old, 66% of that
age cohort owned a home.
“Our parents can’t process
that this is the new norm for
home prices,” said Anthony
Fumo.
Real estate—the largest
source of wealth among U.S.
households—drives much of
the divergence between older
generations, who own the bulk
of home equity, and younger
adults, who are looking to buy
their first homes.
The Fed supported the
housing market for years after
the 2008 financial crisis,
scooping up trillions of dollars
People participated in a rally outside Columbia University in Manhattan last week.
Jews should feel safe and pro-
tected. And it’s not always like
that now,” said Linda Rosen-
thal, a lifelong resident of the
Upper West Side who has rep-
resented it in the state Assem-
bly since 2007.
At the same time, political
sentiment among Jews in the
famously liberal neighborhood
has splintered since the Oct. 7
attacks. Some Jews have be-
come more supportive of Is-
rael and its efforts to retaliate
against Hamas. For some po-
litically progressive Jews,
however, Israel’s sustained in-
cursion into Gaza has elevated
concerns about the current Is-
raeli government and its
Share of income needed
to cover housing costs
45%
40
35
30
’15 ’20 2006 '10
’90 ’95 2000 ’05
worth of bonds backed by
home mortgages. Easy financ-
ing conditions helped many
Americans get their start into
adulthood, while older home-
owners benefited from rising
prices.
Now, the central bank is
running down its portfolio of
mortgage-backed securities,
helping keep mortgage rates
high. But the typical accompa-
nying drop in prices hasn’t
happened.
A yearslong decline in
housing construction has con-
strained the supply of houses,
propping up prices. Home-
owners who refinanced when
treatment of the residents of
Gaza and the West Bank.
Rosenthal said her neigh-
borhood has a vibrant Jewish
community that has blos-
somed in the past 50 years.
There are kosher stores and
restaurants, as well as syna-
gogues catering to different
Jewish denominations.
Atara Sheinson moved to
the Upper West Side in 2021
and works as an occupational
therapist. An Orthodox Jew,
she said she was attracted to
the neighborhood by its vi-
brant Jewish life.
Sheinson, 37, said she has
had sometimes-tense conver-
sations with people at work in
Monday, April 29, 2024 | A3
MICHELLE GUSTAFSON FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
a record $114 trillion by the
end of last year, up from $84
trillion just four years ago, ac-
cording to Federal Reserve
data. That accounts for nearly
70% of all households’ $166
trillion. Their share sat at 51%
three decades earlier.
Working-age adults, mean-
UNAFFORDABLE while, have steadily lost their
share of America’s wealth.
Households under 40 have
less than $15 trillion, or a 9%
slice of overall assets, well be-
low the 14% they notched 30
'15 '20 years ago. Americans ages 40
to 54 own less than a quarter
of all households’ assets—they
had nearly 40% in 2001.
Chris and Jennifer Mulder,
in their mid-40s and raising
three children in Alexandria,
Va., consider their timing very
lucky.
Chris Mulder bought his
first house in 2003 while sta-
tioned in Georgia as an in-
structor pilot in the U.S. Air
Force. Whenever he was relo-
bought a new home and
rented out his old haunts.
The two began refinancing
their mortgages during the
’10 ’15 ’20 pandemic, when rates dropped
sharply. They have also bene-
fited from rising rents, a cor-
the Fed slashed rates to near ollary of the crunch in housing
zero during the Covid-19 pan- supply.
demic don’t want to give up “Originally, renters only
their 3% mortgages. A surge in covered my mortgage pay-
immigration has increased the ments and taxes,” Chris said.
number of families looking for “Now, the cash is flowing.”
homes. Whenever he and Jennifer,
Until demand slows or sup- an officer in the Air Force Re-
ply increases, home prices will serve, transition out of the
continue to climb. The Fed is military, they plan to continue
still on its front foot trying to contributing to national secu-
tame inflation, meaning mort- rity. But they don’t feel pres-
gage rates are primed to re- sure to get rich off whatever
main expensive. that may be, as passive in-
Put it all together, and come sources like their rental
many expect the wealth gap to properties give them financial
continue widening. flexibility. “Any extra income
Americans 55 and up in- we earn, that’ll be gravy,”
creased their overall assets to Chris said.
York Police Department data.
That is an increase from 68
and two, respectively, over the
same period in 2023. In the
precincts covering the Upper
West Side, there were 25 re-
ported bias incidents against
Jews between Oct. 7, 2023,
and the start of April, accord-
ing to the NYPD.
When the Metropolitan
New York Coordinating Coun-
cil on Jewish Poverty held
food-distribution events in the
days before Passover, it made
arrangements with the NYPD
LEV RADIN/ZUMA PRESS
for security. “We never had
the need to do this before, and
we never frankly felt unsafe,”
said Met Council chief execu-
tive David Greenfield.
Several Jewish people said
the attacks steeled their iden-
the wake of the attacks. She tity and spurred them into
said she has friends who have public shows of solidarity.
been harassed and physically Yoav Davis pivoted the “Jews
attacked on the street. Other of NY” Instagram feed that he
friends have changed their started in 2017 from a focus
names on Uber. on restaurants and celebrities
“I even think, ‘Can I wear a to remembrances of hostages.
blue shirt, walking down the Omer Lubaton Granot, 33,
street?’ ” said Sheinson, who came to New York from Israel
recently traveled to Israel for a in 2022. He has organized ral-
two-week stint volunteering at lies to keep attention on hos-
a rehab center. “Why should I tages, including a Sunday
have to open my bag and have gathering in Central Park.
an armed security guard for me “New York is like a second
to go into synagogue?” Israel for a lot of people,” said
There have been 103 com- Granot. Now he has stopped
plaints of hate crimes target- speaking Hebrew on the street.
ing Jews so far in 2024 and 10
against Muslims, according to  Egypt pitches new Gaza
the most recent citywide New cease-fire plan.................... A6
 A4 | Monday, April 29, 2024
How TikTok
Lost the War
In Congress
Chinese app’s CEO
miscalculated shift
in political winds
that led to new law
BY GEORGIA WELLS
AND KRISTINA PETERSON
TikTok spent the past four
years trying to fend off a U.S.
ban, but it never figured out
Washington.
The law signed by President
Biden last week requiring a
sale or ban of the popular app
was in part the product of tec-
tonic shifts in U.S.-China rela-
tions and coordinated, stealthy
efforts by TikTok’s critics on
Capitol Hill.
Those factors were com-
pounded by a series of miscal-
culations that, in the end, left
the Chinese-backed company
scrambling for support among
its users in ways that were in-
effective or even backfired.
This account is based on in-
terviews with current and for-
mer employees as well as law-
makers, and others involved in
the battle over the app.
They say TikTok Chief Exec-
utive Shou Zi Chew missed op-
portunities early in his tenure
to try to build support on Capi-
tol Hill—and instead depended
on negotiations with U.S. secu-
rity officials over a complex re-
structuring that never panned
out.
“I don’t think they ever un-
derstood how concerned we
were with the national security
implications of so much Ameri-
can data being put at risk,”
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
‘We’re not going to give up until we get them home,’ President Biden said on Saturday.
Biden, at Gala, Presses for Russia
To Release Gershkovich, Whelan
BY JOHN MCCORMICK
For the second year in a
row, President Biden called on
Vladimir Putin to release Wall
Street Journal reporter Evan
Gershkovich from a Russian
jail during a black-tie gala Sat-
urday evening in Washington
that celebrates press freedom.
“Putin should release
Evan,” he said at the White
House Correspondents’ Asso-
ciation dinner. “We are doing
everything we can.”
The Wall Street Journal re-
porter, 32 years old, was de-
tained March 29, 2023, by se-
curity services and is being
held in Russia on an allegation
of espionage that he, the Jour-
nal and the U.S. government
vehemently deny.
Gershkovich’s family at-
tended the annual dinner as
Journal guests, and Kelly
O’Donnell of NBC News, the
association’s president, recog-
nized them in her remarks.
“We are with you, always,”
she said as they received a
standing ovation.
Biden also called for the re-
lease of Paul Whelan, a former
Marine and corporate-security
House Majority Leader Steve
Scalise (R., La.) said of TikTok.
It is unknowable whether
different strategies could have
changed TikTok’s fate.
“The government was not
negotiating in good faith, and
they intentionally misled Con-
gress about the facts,” said Mi-
chael Beckerman, TikTok’s vice
president of government rela-
tions. “There is not a CEO in
the world that could have done
a better job than Shou.”
During its 2020 battle
against a ban effort by Presi-
dent Donald Trump, TikTok
had been led by a U.S. execu-
tive and an Australian. In
mid-2021, parent ByteDance
tapped Chew, in part because
of his extensive bicultural ex-
perience. Born and raised in
Singapore, the 41-year-old is
fluent in Mandarin, attended
Harvard Business School and
worked for Goldman Sachs.
He lacked, however, exten-
sive U.S. political experience.
Chew left government rela-
tions to his general counsel, Er-
ich Andersen, a longtime Micro-
soft executive who spent much
of 2022 negotiating with the
Committee on Foreign Invest-
ment in the U.S. over TikTok’s
proposal to wall off U.S. user
data. Some TikTok executives ar-
gued Chew shouldn’t meet with
lawmakers because the Cfius
talks were confidential.
In early 2022, Chew told
employees that a deal with the
U.S. government was nearly
done. But within months, it
was clear that something was
off. By August, Cfius wasn’t re-
turning TikTok’s calls.
executive who is serving a 16-
year sentence on an espionage
charge that he and the U.S.
government deny.
“We’re not going to give up
until we get them home,” Bi-
den said.
The 81-year-old Democratic
president made fun of his own
age while also taking some
shots at former President
Donald Trump, the presump-
tive Republican nominee.
“Yes, age is an issue,” Biden
said. “I’m a grown man run-
ning against a 6-year-old.”
Comedian Colin Jost, a co-
anchor of the Weekend Update
segment of “Saturday Night
Live,” roasted the president,
Trump and the media. “It’s af-
ter 10 p.m., Sleepy Joe is still
awake,” Jost said, using a
nickname Trump has used for
Biden.
“The White House Corre-
spondents’ Dinner was really
bad,” Trump wrote on his so-
cial-media platform early Sun-
day. “Colin Jost BOMBED, and
Crooked Joe was an absolute
disaster!”
Gershkovich moved to Rus-
sia as a journalist in 2017 and
joined the Journal in January
P W L C 10 11 12 H T
U.S. NEWS
Shou Zi Chew, CEO of TikTok, center, after a meeting with Sen. John Fetterman (D., Pa.) in Washington last month.
That December, TikTok
learned House lawmakers
wanted Chew to testify.
Chew faced harsh question-
ing over more than five hours
in March 2023. Chew’s team
felt much of the grilling was
unfair, with lawmakers sug-
gesting incorrectly that he is a
Chinese citizen and his boss is
China’s Communist Party
leader. But executives felt they
had gained ground with users.
TikTok was getting help from
Club for Growth, a conservative
group backed by financier Jeff
Yass, whose Susquehanna Inter-
national Group is a major share-
holder of TikTok’s parent. And
Biden joined TikTok on Super
Bowl Sunday to reach younger
voters. The situation lulled some
inside TikTok into thinking it
was safe.
After Chew’s testimony, Sca-
lise began discussions with
lawmakers, tasking a new se-
lect committee on China with
2022. He is the first American
journalist to be held in Russia
on an allegation of espionage
since the end of the Cold War.
The State Department has
said he isn’t a spy and has
never worked for the govern-
ment.
Last week, a Moscow court
rejected an appeal by Gershk-
ovich against his detention,
meaning the U.S. citizen will
remain behind bars until at
least June 30.
“It continues to be outra-
geous that Evan has been
wrongfully detained by the
Russian government for more
than a year,” the Journal said
after the ruling. “Evan’s free-
dom is long overdue, and we
urge the administration to do
everything in their power to
secure his release.”
—Sabrina Siddiqui
and Annie Linskey
contributed to this article.
Watch a Video
Scan this code
for a video of
President Biden’s
comments at
the dinner.
G K R F A M 1 2 3 4 5 6
drafting bipartisan legislation.
The bones of the agreement
were in place by late 2023.
Sentiment against China in
Congress was continuing to
sour, and criticism of TikTok
gained new momentum amid
anger over TikTok videos about
the Israel-Hamas conflict.
When plans for a vote on the
proposed House bill emerged in
early March, the app served us-
ers a notification urging them
to call lawmakers to protest a
possible ban. The stunt back-
fired, showing TikTok’s power-
ful ability to mobilize users for a
political goal, lawmakers and
congressional aides said.
Meanwhile, Kellyanne Con-
way, a former senior Trump
White House official, made
calls on behalf of the Club for
Growth, urging lawmakers to
reject the legislation, according
to people familiar with the dis-
cussions.
GOP lawmakers also got
For Trump, Days in Court
Are Far From Luxurious
BY CORINNE RAMEY
The real-estate tycoon and
political star who once held
the nation’s nuclear codes
now spends four days a week
confined to a drab Manhattan
courtroom with harsh lighting
and poor climate control.
Donald Trump, a billionaire
accustomed to jet-setting be-
tween adoring campaign ral-
lies and his Florida estate, has
spent two weeks—with as
many as six to go—sitting un-
happily at the defense table in
the city where he built his
real-estate empire and his
2016 White House campaign.
Though he fumes daily about
the 34 New York felony
charges he’s facing, the small
indignities of being on trial
are what appear to bother
him most.
He’s freezing, he says, due
to the building’s finicky heat-
ing system. In court he can’t
eat or drink anything but wa-
ter, robbing him of some of
the multiple Diet Cokes he
consumes in a typical day. He
can use the bathroom only
when the judge declares a
break in proceedings. A panel
of 18 New Yorkers—12 jurors
and six alternates—have
front-row seats to his every
yawn, catnap and mutter.
Perhaps worst of all,
Trump must remain silent in
court as witnesses who swear
to tell the truth recount his
alleged crimes and sexual im-
propriety several feet away.
“He’s miserable,” said John
Catsimatidis, the New York
grocery-store magnate and a
longtime Trump friend.
“There is no more horrible
thing than just having to sit
there and be quiet.”
Trump’s New York criminal
case—the first and possibly
the only one of four he faces
to go to trial before Election
Day—revolves around allega-
tions that Trump falsified
documents to cover up a 2016
hush-money payment to porn
star Stormy Daniels, who al-
leged a sexual encounter a de-
cade earlier. The former presi-
dent has pleaded not guilty
and denied the affair.
Just before 9:30 a.m. each
day, when court is in session,
Trump walks down a dim
15th-floor hallway. Reporters
pelt him with questions he’d
7 8 9 O I X X THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
calls from Doug Stafford, one
of the people said. Stafford is
an adviser to Sen. Rand Paul
(R., Ky.), who according to fed-
eral records has received more
than $24 million in political
donations from Yass and Yass’s
wife since 2015.
The people familiar with the
calls said they understood the
message from Conway and
Stafford to be that politicians
wouldn’t get funding from
Yass-backed groups in the fu-
ture if they voted for the bill.
A spokesman for Yass said
opposing a TikTok ban was “lib-
ertarianism 101.” In a statement,
Club for Growth President David
McIntosh said Yass has never
directed the organization to take
a position on any issue, and how
lawmakers voted on the TikTok
bill wouldn’t affect whether
Club for Growth supports them.
One lawmaker, in response,
helped assemble a 278-page
packet to other Congress mem-
rather not answer: Did you
sleep with Playboy playmate
Karen McDougal? Do you
think the courtroom is cold to
make you uncomfortable?
What are you doing for Mela-
nia’s birthday?
Trump then enters Room
1530, where the drawn shades
of four large windows allow
little sunlight. His family is
conspicuously absent. The gal-
lery’s wooden benches are
packed with reporters whose
typing creates an audible stir
when testimony turns toward
allegations of Trump’s first-
hand knowledge of hush
money.
The room’s temperature,
too, has been a sore spot.
During jury selection, Trump
lawyer Todd Blanche asked
the judge to turn up the tem-
perature.
“Honest answer to that
question is if I
did that, it
would probably
go up about 30 At times, the ex-
degrees,” Jus- president seems
tice Juan Mer-
chan said.
“We are
engaged. Often
shaking,”
he looks just
Blanche re- plain bored.
plied.
At times,
Trump appears
engaged in the proceedings,
rustling through papers or
whispering to his lawyers, but
often he looks just plain
bored. His eyes close for ex-
tended periods, and his head
starts to nod. He tilts his head
back and crosses his arms.
Even the slightest assertion of
autonomy can provoke a re-
buke from the judge.
As one day drew to a close,
Trump stood up prematurely.
“Sir, can you please have a
seat, thank you,” Merchan
said sternly.
Trump is no stranger to
New York courts. In an ornate
federal courtroom down the
street, he watched his lawyers
argue this winter that he
didn’t owe damages to writer
E. Jean Carroll for defaming
her. During last year’s civil-
fraud trial, Trump was a regu-
lar in the New York State Su-
preme Court Building’s
expansive ceremonial court-
room, where detailed murals
line the walls. But in both of
those cases, his appearances
TIERNEY L. CROSS/BLOOMBERG NEWS
bers that made the case for the
bill.
The House Energy and Com-
merce Committee approved the
bill unanimously; it sailed
through the House.
The company decided to post
a video to its main account that
featured Chew encouraging us-
ers to lobby their senators. The
video went viral almost in-
stantly, indicating the company
had used “heating” to promote
the video widely, according to
people familiar with the pro-
cess. The spokeswoman said
TikTok didn’t heat the video.
The TikTok bill looked like it
had stalled after arriving in the
Senate. Executives again took
solace.
Behind the scenes, the bill’s
supporters in the House were
searching for a must-pass bill
to attach it to. They found it in
a Senate-backed $95 billion
package of foreign aid to
Ukraine and Israel.
were voluntary, and he could
pop in and out of the court-
room as he pleased.
The former president lost
both cases, racking up more
than a half-billion dollars in
civil judgments.
His current venue, the
Manhattan Criminal Court-
house, where the borough’s
workaday drug dealers,
thieves and violent offenders
fight their cases, is a dingier
locale. Outside, there are few
Trump supporters. In front of
the few who do show up, blue-
and-white Department of Cor-
rection buses drive up to drop
off the jailed.
Being on trial is hard for
anybody, said public defender
Tina Luongo, who heads the
criminal-defense practice at
the Legal Aid Society. Her
jailed clients are shaken
awake at Rikers Island at 4
a.m., thrown on
a bus
handed
cheese sand-
and
a
wich and milk
carton
lunch.
for
“These folks
have to sit
awake, pay at-
tention and not
fall asleep,
too,” she said.
Trump has lost control of
his calendar, as Merchan has
shown little appetite for ac-
commodating the defendant’s
personal or legal conflicts.
The judge declined to rule on
whether Trump could attend
his son Barron’s high-school
graduation, saying he’d see
how the case was progressing.
He shot down Trump’s re-
quest to attend the U.S. Su-
preme Court’s hearing on
whether he is immune from
criminal prosecution, al-
though the judge acknowl-
edged the case was “a big
deal.”
“But having a trial in New
York County Supreme Court
with a jury of 12 and perhaps
six alternates, that is also a
big deal,” Merchan said.
Alternate No. 6’s toothache,
however, was a different mat-
ter. Merchan wrapped up pro-
ceedings early so she could go
to the dentist.
—Alex Leary
and Erin Mulvaney
contributed to this article.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Monday, April 29, 2024 | A5

U.S. NEWS

Trump Claims Credit for Calm,

But Reality Is More Complex
Ukraine, Gaza wars
came later, but Iran
or proxies struck U.S.
personnel in Mideast
Trump-era Abraham accords
normalizing relations between
Israel and a number of Arab
countries—a policy Biden has
sought to build on, with lim-
ited success.
and has come under criticism
by some of his advisers who
felt he wasn’t cautious enough
when dealing with the Russian
leader.
In 2018, following an epi-
an act of war against the
Ukrainians,” said John Bolton,
who served as one of Trump’s
White House national-security
advisers.
While it is impossible to

ANDREW HARRER/BLOOMBERG NEWS

sode when Russian forces know if Putin would have in-
BY VIVIAN SALAMA seized Ukrainian boats under vaded Ukraine had the out-
Russia and Ukraine the Kerch Bridge, advisers come of the 2020 presidential
WASHINGTON—Donald Some of Trump’s most pro- close to Trump said he re- election been different, some
Trump claims that neither the nounced criticisms of Biden fused to address the matter in experts believe that he had
Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel have been over his handling of his meeting with Putin. been planning for the invasion
nor Russia’s full-scale invasion Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “He just acted like that was for several years and would
of Ukraine would have hap- Trump prided himself on hav- par for the course—he didn’t have gone ahead with the
pened on his watch, and that ing good relations with Rus- want to talk about what the plans regardless of whether
the world was an oasis of sian President Vladimir Putin Russians had done, which was Trump was in office. President Donald Trump in the Oval Office in 2017.
calm and stability when he
was president. The reality was
more complicated.
The presumptive Republi-
can nominee told supporters
at a rally in Pennsylvania ear-
lier this month that attacks
similar to the one recently
launched by Iran against Is-
rael were the product of fail-
ures by President Biden—an
accusation the Trump has fre-
quently lobbed against him.

WE
W E SAVE
SAVE
SA
“It would not have happened
if I were in office,” Trump said
in Schnecksville, Pa.
During Trump’s four years
in the White House, there was



 

 




    

no conflict on par with the Is-
rael-Hamas war or Russia’s
war in Ukraine. But Iran, or
Iran-backed proxies, did launch
attacks on U.S. personnel in the

 

Middle East and against coun-
tries across the region while
Trump was president, and he
was usually hesitant to re-
spond, wary of further attacks.

  


 
Russia also took aggressive
actions against the U.S. and its
allies around the world, and the
U.S. and North Korea came close
to the brink of conflict while
Trump was in office. Some con-
tend that Trump-era policies re-
garding Afghanistan, Russia
and the Middle East paved the
way for some of Biden’s over-
seas challenges.

Mideast
Throughout his presidency,
Trump often appeared more
risk-averse than his public blus-
ter might have suggested. He
carried out a series of limited
strikes in the Middle East, in-
cluding strikes against Iranian
proxies and targets in Iraq,
Syria and Afghanistan. But for-
mer senior officials who helped
lead Trump’s national-security
strategy say his approach was
often more nuanced. “His view
was generally that war is terri-
ble for the economy, it’s terrible
for business, and any time
there is widespread violence, it
has a negative effect on what
he cares about, which is pros-
perity and growth,” a former
senior Trump national-security
adviser said.
Cliff Sims, a former intelli-
gence official under Trump
who spoke on behalf of the
campaign, said the former
president “established credi-
ble deterrence so Putin stayed
within his borders, Iran was
broke, peace was spreading
across the Middle East, and
[China’s Xi Jinping] wasn’t
breathing down Taiwan’s
neck.”
After Trump’s decision in
2018 to withdraw from the
Iran nuclear agreement, ten-
sions in the region escalated.
Iran began stepping up its ura-
nium enrichment and threat-
ened to shut down the Strait of
Hormuz, a crucial global ship-
ping lane, following U.S. with-
drawal from the Obama-era
nuclear agreement.
Trump, according to former
officials involved in the in-
tense deliberations, had ini-
tially approved attacks on a
handful of Iranian targets, like
radar and missile batteries.
The operation was in its initial
stages, with planes in the air,
when it was abruptly called
off. Officials familiar with the
planning said the strikes
would have done more harm
than good.
In January 2020, the U.S.
targeted and killed Qassem
Soleimani, the top commander
of the Islamic Revolutionary
Guard’s elite Quds Force who

WE
W E MAKE
MA
M AK
KEE
was linked to the deaths of
hundreds of Americans over-
seas. Days later, Iran fired re-




  




  



taliatory strikes on a base in
Iraq, injuring more than 100
U.S. troops stationed there.
Trump has also criticized
Biden’s handling of the Gaza
crisis, saying Hamas wouldn’t
have attacked Israel if he were
still president. But one of the
grievances Hamas militants
cited as impetus for their as-
sault on Oct. 7 was the
A6 | Monday, April 29, 2024
Egypt Pitches Cease-Fire Plan
Offer seeks release
of 20 hostages by
Hamas over initial
three-week truce
BY SUMMER SAID
AND CHAO DENG
DUBAI—Egypt offered a
new proposal for a truce be-
tween Israel and Hamas in
which some Israeli hostages
would be released in exchange
for Palestinian prisoners and a
three-week cease-fire, in a bid
to stave off an Israeli military
offensive in the southern Ga-
zan city of Rafah.
Israel, which helped create
the proposal, Egyptian offi-
cials said, would commit to
entering longer-term discus-
sions once Hamas releases a
first group of 20 hostages
over the truce period—a for-
mulation designed to over-
come the militant group’s re-
AMIR COHEN/REUTERS
luctance to release any
hostages without any prospect
of ending the war.
The move represents the
latest effort by mediators to
revive negotiations that have
dragged on for about five
months without an agreement.
During that period, the
fighting has thrown the
roughly two million Gazans
into survival mode and more
than doubled the number of
those killed since Israel’s inva-
sion to over 34,000, Palestin-
ian health officials said. Death
figures from the Palestinian
side don’t distinguish between
combatants and civilians.
In Israel, meanwhile, rela-
tives of hostages seized during
the Oct. 7 Hamas-led assault
that precipitated the crisis are
pressing the Israeli govern-
ment to do more to find out
whether their family members
are still alive. In recent weeks,
they have stepped up street
demonstrations aimed at get-
ting Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu to give priority to
the captives’ release over a
continued military operation
backed by far-right members
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An Israeli soldier on Sunday walked past tanks parked near the southern Israel-Gaza border amid ongoing conflict.
of the government.
Domestic pressure for Israel
to reach a deal is mounting.
Benny Gantz, one of three mem-
bers in Israel’s war cabinet, on
Sunday said the Israeli govern-
ment shouldn’t reject a “re-
sponsible outline for the return
of the hostages” or it shouldn’t
have the right to exist and lead
the military campaign in Gaza.
However, he said that outline
shouldn’t entail ending the war.
Israeli Foreign Minister Is-
rael Katz said in a televised
interview on Saturday with Is-
raeli media that Israel would
delay an operation in Rafah in
exchange for a hostage deal.
A spokesman for the Israeli
Prime Minister’s office de-
clined to comment.
The U.S., Israel’s most im-
portant ally, has been pressur-
ing Israel not to invade Rafah.
Palestinian Authority President
Mahmoud Abbas, speaking on
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WORLD NEWS
Sunday at the World Economic
Forum in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia,
urged the U.S. government to
stop Israel from carrying out
such an offensive. “America is
the only country capable of
preventing Israel from commit-
ting this crime,” he said.
Secretary of State Antony
Blinken will also visit Saudi
Arabia, where he will meet
with Arab officials on Monday
and Tuesday in a bid to help
secure a cease-fire in Gaza.
Israeli hostages to be freed
under the Egyptian proposal
would include children,
women—including female sol-
diers—and elderly people in
need of urgent medical atten-
tion, Egyptian officials said.
They would be swapped for
around 500 Palestinian prison-
ers held in Israel. The hand-
over would be followed by a
10-week cease-fire, during
which the two sides would con-
tinue talking and at least
300,000 to 400,000 Palestin-
ians now sheltering in Rafah
would be able to return to their
homes elsewhere in the strip.
As part of the proposal, Is-
raeli forces would withdraw
from a corridor dividing the
north and south of the enclave
but still screen Palestinians on
the move, the officials said.
Hamas’s political leadership
said it would consult with its
military wing and other fac-
tions in Gaza and revert to me-
diators in a few days over the
proposal, the Egyptian officials
said. Hamas’s Doha-based po-
litburo is nominally in charge
of the group’s affairs around
the world, including in Gaza,
but final decisions are made by
Yahya Sinwar, the group’s mil-
itary leader in Gaza.
Egyptian and Qatari media-
tors have made several at-
tempts to get Israel and Hamas
Iran’s Attack on Israel Widens
Concerns on Nuclear Program
BY LAURENCE NORMAN
Iran’s decision to launch
more than 300 missiles and
drones in its first direct attack
on Israeli soil this month
showed an appetite for risk that
is putting renewed focus on
Tehran’s nuclear program and
whether it will continue to re-
frain from developing a bomb.
Close observers of Iran’s
nuclear development have
long believed the country’s
top leaders have calculated
that the costs of building a
bomb outweigh the benefits.
As a threshold nuclear power
with weapon capabilities
within reach, Iran already en-
joys considerable deterrence
power without risking the war
that could come if an attempt
to build a bomb is detected.
But that thesis has been
shaken this year. As tensions
with Israel grew, top Iranian
officials have made a string of
statements hinting that Tehran
is close to mastering the tech-
nicalities of building a bomb.
Hours before Israel hit back
at Iran, a senior officer in
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary
Guard Corps said Tehran
could reverse its restraint on
building a bomb if Israel
struck its nuclear facilities.
Israel’s limited response
went after targets around Is-
fahan, where Iran has nuclear
facilities, but didn’t attack
those sites directly.
“The escalation between
Iran and Israel may
strengthen Iranian calls for
weaponization,” said Raz
Zimmt, senior researcher at
the Institute for National Se-
curity Studies. “So, while the
risks of such a move continue
to outweigh the advantages,
the Iranian leadership is more
likely to reconsider its nuclear
approach than previously.”
Israel is widely believed to
have nuclear weapons but has
a policy of never confirming
or denying their existence.
Before this month’s direct
strike, Iran had primarily con-
fronted Israel via a network of
regional proxies and has used
the threat of engaging those
militias, particularly Hezbollah
* ****
to agree on another cease-fire
and hostage deal since Hamas
released more than 100 hos-
tages during a weeklong truce
in November. Both sides were
reluctant to cooperate.
In recent days, Hamas has
released two videos of hostages
in an effort to pressure the Is-
raeli government. One of two
American citizens held captive
broke down in tears as he
spoke.
The recordings appear to be
made recently with another
hostage saying he had been
held for 202 days. It has been
204 days since Oct. 7, when
more than 240 hostages were
taken from Israel and around
1,200 people there were killed.
Some 129 hostages taken on
Oct. 7 remain in Gaza, although
at least 30 are dead, Israel said.
—Anat Peled
and Saleh al-Batati
contributed to this article.
Caspian
Sea
Fordow
Uranium
enrichment
facility
Isfahan
IRAQ Uranium
conversion
facility
KUWAIT
rs
Pe
ia n
Gu
SAUDI
ARABIA
Source: Nuclear Threat Initiative
Rapper’s Sentence Sparks Uproar
Tehran has drawn inter-
national criticism after a
popular dissident rapper was
sentenced to death follow-
ing his outspoken support of
the 2022 women’s rights
movement, as it renews a
crackdown on dissent.
The sentence handed
down by a judge in Isfahan
against rapper Toomaj
Salehi, 33, on vague na-
tional-security charges is
“unprecedented,” said one
in Lebanon, to deter more-ag-
gressive action by Israel. The
exchange of attacks on each
other’s territory has left the
foes in a more dangerous com-
petition as the new rules of en-
gagement firm up, analysts say.
Iran’s failure to damage Is-
raeli military sites during this
month’s attacks could per-
suade Tehran to seek a more
powerful deterrent. Zimmt
says challenges in controlling
and operating the proxy net-
work, whose interests don’t
always line up with Tehran’s,
also could add pressure on
Iran to pursue a bomb.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
Biden
Presses
Netanyahu
Over Rafah
BY ANNIE LINSKEY
AND MICHAEL R. GORDON
WASHINGTON—President
Biden spoke Sunday with Is-
raeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu to reiterate U.S.
concerns about a widespread
invasion of Rafah and discuss
prospects for a deal that
would secure a temporary
cease-fire in Gaza and the re-
turn of some hostages that
Hamas has held since October.
Secretary of State Antony
Blinken was headed to the
Middle East with stops in
Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Israel
to continue to push for a deal.
The White House didn’t
provide details of the two
leaders’ discussion on Israel’s
planned Rafah operation but
noted that Biden had “re-
peated his clear position” cau-
tioning Israeli’s leaders about
the looming offensive.
The Biden administration
has repeatedly warned the Is-
raelis against conducting a full-
scale ground assault against
the city, which has become a
refuge for more than one mil-
lion Palestinians. It has also in-
sisted any military action not
be undertaken until Israel pre-
pares a feasible plan to move
much of the population out of
harm’s way and ensure that aid
deliveries aren’t interrupted.
Israeli officials have said
that the operation, which isn’t
imminent, is needed to defeat
four Hamas battalions that are
still in the city and neutralize
Hamas leaders who are believed
to have taken sanctuary there.
During the call, Biden reit-
erated that Israel should allow
additional humanitarian assis-
tance to flow into Gaza and
the two discussed “prepara-
tions to open new northern
crossings starting this week,”
according to a White House
account of the conversation.
Key Iranian nuclear sites
TURKMENISTAN
Natanz
Uranium enrichment
facility, centrifuge
parts factory
IRAN
Saghand
Uranium
mine
Ardakan
Yellowcake
concentration
plant
lf
Emma Brown/THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
of his lawyers, Mostafa Nili.
Salehi denies the charges.
Salehi, who has over
two millions followers on
social media, was first ar-
rested in October 2022.
New charges of collusion
against national security
and cooperation in armed
action against the system
led to his death sentence
last week, Nili said, adding
he was planning to appeal.
—Benoit Faucon
Iranian officials have fueled
such thinking with a pattern
of references to the country’s
near-nuclear capabilities.
U.S. intelligence services
and international officials have
said as recently as March they
don’t believe Iran has resumed
the nuclear-weapons program
it is thought to have pursued
in the 1990s and 2000s. Yet
the country has moved for-
ward on several fronts needed
to develop a bomb, including
via studies and activities that
it says are civilian work.
—Carrie Keller-Lynn
contributed to this article.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. NY Monday, April 29, 2024 | A6A

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 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Monday, April 29, 2024 | A7

WORLD NEWS

Top NATO Officer

Acts Like a CEO
BY DANIEL MICHAELS
AMSTERDAM—War is forc-
ing NATO’s top military officer
to act like a business executive.
For Dutch Adm. Rob Bauer,
management concerns such as
factory production, corporate
finance and investment regula-
tions have assumed an urgency
comparable to troops and
weapons. All are vital to achiev-
ing the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization’s goal of defend-
ing its 32 members.
MICHAEL KAPPELER/ZUMA PRESS
The holder of the position
is the top adviser on military
issues to NATO’s secretary-
general. A recent predecessor,
retired Czech Army Gen. Petr
Pavel, is now president of his
country and helped secure al-
most one million artillery
rounds for Ukraine this year.
Bauer mostly focuses on
troops, equipment and NATO’s
ability to deploy them in a cri-
sis. War in Ukraine has
strained all of those necessi-
ties. Bauer says one reason is

Bauer’s new focus is part of
a broader profile shift for the
61-year-old career military
man, prompted by Russia’s de-
cade of hostility to Ukraine,
which is now widely seen as
threatening the rest of Europe.
When Bauer was a young
Chinese leader Xi Jinping hosted German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Beijing this month as alarm about Chinese espionage mounts. naval officer walking across
that since the Cold War, the
West has taken military pro-
tection for granted and consid-
ered it divorced from everyday
life or commercial activity.
The result he sees is a lit-
eral undervaluing of security
because military cuts aren’t
considered to have a poten-

Germany Weighs Easing of Plan

the Dutch capital, locals would
sneer at his uniform and even
call him a murderer, he re-
calls. Today he faces less vit-
riol—though still encounters
tially negative long-term im-
pact on national wealth.
“In models of value-added
in an economy, defense is
never factored in,” he told a

For Vetting Chinese Investments

BY BERTRAND BENOIT
BERLIN—Germany is con-
sidering scaling back plans to
step up government scrutiny of
Chinese investments, the latest
example of how a country
deeply intertwined with—and
increasingly conflicted about—
China is pulling its punches as
others get tougher on Beijing.
People familiar with the
plan said a decision to defang
a planned foreign-investment-
screening law had become
likelier because of fears it
could hurt Berlin’s parallel ef-
forts to re-energize Germany’s
stagnating economy.
The backtracking could raise
concerns among Western allies
that Beijing is whittling down
Western support for increas-
ingly aggressive U.S. and Euro-
pean Union efforts to rein in
China’s global influence. After
hosting German Chancellor Olaf
Scholz in Beijing this month,
Chinese leader Xi Jinping is
preparing to visit France, Hun-
gary and Serbia in May.
The diplomatic rapproche-
ment comes despite mounting
alarm in Germany about the
extent of Chinese espionage.
Last week, German prosecu-
tors detained four alleged
spies for China.
“We are seeing a rise in clan-
destine interference in politics,
companies and scientific insti-
telligence agency, said at a con-
ference on China’s growing se-
curity threat in Berlin last week.
“Companies are no longer just
facing industrial espionage from
unfair competitors, but the full
power of the [Chinese] state.”
On Friday, Chinese Foreign
Ministry spokesman Wang
Wenbin pushed back at the
spying allegations, calling
them baseless. “China firmly
rejects the vilification of
China and urges Germany to
watch out for attempts to
damage bilat-
eral relations
and restrain
such at- The
tempts…and backtracking
take concrete
actions to keep could raise
bilateral rela-
tions on a
concerns among
steady and Western allies.
sound course.”
After Scholz’s
election in 2021,
Berlin started pushing back
against Chinese influence,
marking a departure from years
of friendly policies under for-
mer Chancellor Angela Merkel,
who saw China become Ger-
many’s largest trading partner.
As part of this pivot, the
government tightened export
controls for sensitive technolo-
gies, capped state guarantees
on German foreign investments
and exports, and banned a
some—and greater public in- group of Canadian defense-in-
terest in his mission. dustry executives who re-
Bauer is being welcomed cently visited NATO headquar-
outside the military world as ters in Brussels.
never before. His schedule He said the approach is
regularly includes meetings wrongheaded because security
Last summer, the govern- The ministry also suggested with financiers, executives is the foundation on which
ment unveiled Germany’s first adding a catchall provision al- and industrial policymakers. private business operates.
China strategy document, lowing the screening of cooper- He is using the exposure to War in Ukraine has shown
which called the country a ation projects between German warn of threats he sees, start- that factories, power grids
“partner, competitor and sys- research institutions and for- ing at home with Europe’s in- and bridges can be wiped
temic rival” and urged Ger- eign partners in critical areas. sufficient and inefficient mili- from the map, Bauer said.
many to “derisk” by reducing Now, people familiar with tary spending. Since World War II, the West-
its dependence on the Chinese the discussions say that while His exhortation: To avoid ern private sector didn’t need
market and imported compo- no final decision was made, death and destruction, the to worry about issues like, “Is
nents and raw materials. both ideas will likely be West needs not only to boost my factory physically there to-
Around the same time, Ber- dropped. Some officials said military production; but it must morrow morning?”
lin started work on a new in- the government might not also fundamentally rethink The Canadian executives
vestment-screening bill. draft a new bill but rather what defense means, starting agreed and voiced frustration
The plan, described last amend the broader rules that with the private sector. with their government’s mili-
summer in an economics min- currently define the govern- NATO’s European members tary-spending level, among
istry paper ment’s investment-screening produce 172 weapons systems, the lowest in NATO.
seen by The powers. Bauer notes, while the U.S.— “I do not see enough busi-
Wall Street The officials said this ap- which accounts for two-thirds ness executives going public
Journal, pro- proach would likely still give of NATO’s roughly $1.1 trillion on this,” Bauer said of secu-
posed giving the government new powers, in annual military spending— rity’s critical role in prosperity.
the government for example, to scrutinize cer- uses only about 35 main Bauer still faces widespread
new powers to tain internal corporate re- weapons platforms. He says resistance and hostility. But
screen foreign structurings or the transfer of European efforts to rationalize Dutch opinions show signs of
investments for patents to foreign investors. defense industries fall short. shifting.
security risks A German government “Politicians always talk “My generation has never
and to extend spokesman declined to com- about cooperation, but in lived in a world with an actual
its purview to ment on the deliberations but practical terms they don’t threat. We’re very spoiled
new types of said “investment screening is have a clue,” said Bauer, who with safety,” said Annelien van
investments. While China was designed to avoid risks to se- has served since 2021 as chair Drooge, a 37-year-old Dutch
only obliquely mentioned, offi- curity and public order in Ger- of NATO’s military committee. data consultant in Amsterdam.
cials and analysts said it was many. At the same time, it is
the implicit target. important to remain open to
New investment types that foreign investments.”
could come under scrutiny in- A spokesman for the eco-
cluded greenfield invest- nomics ministry, which is
ments—which go into creating shepherding work on the leg-
new businesses rather than islation, said that while cur-
acquiring existing ones—in rent screening rules were ef-
“quantum technology, sophis- fective, “recent experience has
ticated semiconductors, artifi- shown that [they] should be
cial intelligence and critical reformed to reflect the chang-
ALEXANDER WELSCHER/ZUMA PRESS

tutions,” Sinan Selen, deputy number of Chinese invest- infrastructure,” the paper ing security situation.…This
head of Germany’s domestic-in- ments on security grounds. said. work is currently under way.”

Allies Differ Europeans have their own

plan to use interest generated
by frozen Russian assets to pay

On Russia’s for weapons and reconstruc-

tion for Ukraine. That is likely
to go ahead soon, although EU
Dutch Adm. Rob Bauer engages with the private sector.

Idled Funds officials said Europe could join

MANU BRABO FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

the U.S. plan in 2025. Talks are

Continued from Page One
Greece since 2019 has asked
for more than $300 billion.
Germany has said its post-
war payments, and a 1990
treaty that anchored the coun-
try’s borders following its re-
unification, settled the issue.
The-then Soviet Union and the
U.S. were signatories to the
treaty; Poland, Greece and It-
aly weren’t involved.
In 2004, when Poland
joined the European Union,
Berlin agreed not to support
claims against Warsaw from
millions of Germans expelled
and expropriated. Poland in
turn dropped its compensa-
tion claims. But the issue has
remained an irritant.
“When we talk about exe-
cutioners, victims, punish-
ment, suffering…we demand
not only memory, not only the
truth. We demand compensa-
tion,” then-Prime Minister
Mateusz Morawiecki of Poland
said in September.
Courts in Italy—which the
Nazis invaded after Benito
Mussolini’s regime collapsed in
1943—have in recent years
awarded restitution to families
of victims of the occupation.
Some courts then attempted to
seize German state assets.
Germany took Italy to the In-
ternational Court of Justice, or
ICJ, where a ruling is pending.
Berlin argues international
law prohibits individuals from
making claims against states in
foreign courts and that state
assets are immune from sei-
zure. Violating this principle in
Russia’s money could help repair damage done by its arms.
Russia’s case would undermine
Germany’s longstanding legal
position, Berlin officials said.
Russia’s foreign ministry
has said that confiscating Rus-
sian assets would be “21st-
century piracy.” Some Russian
officials have warned they
would retaliate.
The Polish state received
little compensation after
WWII. During the Cold War,
its then Soviet rulers trans-
ferred looted German machin-
ery and ships in lieu of com-
pensation. Germany later paid
$270 million to individual
claimants in Poland, where it
caused widespread destruction
and left between five million
and six million people dead.
The Communist Polish gov-
ernment dropped its compen-
sation claims against its East
German Warsaw Pact ally in
1953. But the issue returned to
prominence after the fall of
the Berlin Wall in 1989.
Andreas Rödder, professor
of contemporary history at the
Johannes Gutenberg Univer-
sity Mainz in Germany, said
the Italian and Polish claims
against Germany are valid—as
is Berlin’s refusal to honor
them in full. Yet successive
at an early stage.
President Biden signed a
law this month authorizing
seizure of Russian sovereign
assets under U.S. jurisdic-
tion—$5 billion to $6 billion,
congressional officials said. It’s time for
“We’re looking at a series
of possibilities ranging from
actually seizing the assets to
“qualified”
using them as collateral,”
Treasury Secretary Janet Yel-
to mean
German governments made a
mistake by taking a legalistic
len said this month.
The U.S. argues that under qualities,
approach, he said. “Germany international law, countries
was comfortable in its errone- can take otherwise unlawful not just a
ous assumption that the prob- countermeasures against a
lem had been resolved and de-
liberately avoided the issue for
country violating its interna-
tional obligations. But there
bachelor’s
decades, so it shouldn’t be sur-
prised that Poland and Greece
are disagreements
whether any country other
over degree.
now say they have unfinished than Ukraine is entitled to ap-
business,” Rödder said. ply countermeasures.
Germany also argues that Initially, U.S. officials also
Russian assets should be left worried that confiscating Rus-
intact to use as leverage in any sian assets could backfire
talks to end the war and in- against Washington and allies Keith, Data Analyst,
duce Russia to cede some such as Israel. The U.S. has Google Career Certificate Graduate,
Ukrainian territory it occupies. since argued that only directly STAR
Slawomir Debski, head of affected countries, such as
Pism, a think tank, said an- Ukraine’s main backers, whose
other motivation for Berlin security is threatened and
could be shielding German who are paying for some of
companies still operating in Kyiv’s defense, would be enti-
Russia from retaliation. tled to confiscate assets.
Within the G-7, a compli- Bart Szewczyk, who previ-
Tear the paper ceiling that is keeping you
cated compromise might be ously advised the European from discovering over 70 million STARs: workers
starting to emerge. The U.S. has Commission and worked at the Skilled Through Alternative Routes that are being
proposed that the group front- ICJ, said that Berlin’s concerns held back by degree screens, stereotypes and more.
load 10 years of profits—essen- are unwarranted. “The logic Find out how STARs can meet your talent needs.
tially interest payments on ma- behind countermeasures
tured assets—from the frozen clearly applies only to current TEAR THE PAPER CEILING.ORG
funds. That money would act as and ongoing violations of in-
collateral for a bond issued by a ternational law, rather than #HireSTARs
special-purpose vehicle set up those that occurred 80 years
by the G-7 to raise money for ago,” he said.
Ukraine. G-7 countries would —Andrew Duehren
guarantee the debt. contributed to this article.
A8 | Monday, April 29, 2024
Musk Courts
China in
Tesla Push
Continued from Page One
data its cars can collect near
sensitive sites, and it isn’t al-
lowed to transfer its Chinese
data out of the country. Musk
would like to transfer data to
the U.S. to create a bigger pool
that could better train the
driver-assistance feature, the
people said. That is a poten-
tially thorny issue given Beijing
regards protecting such data as
a matter of national security.
Failure to win approval for
FSD could erode the attractive-
ness of Tesla cars in the
WANG YE/XINHUA
world’s most crowded EV mar-
ket. Tesla last week halved the
subscription price of FSD in
the U.S. to entice adoption. On
Friday, the National Highway
Traffic Safety Administration
opened an investigation into
Tesla’s more basic driver-as-
sistance system, which the au-
thority said is tied to avoidable
crashes and fatalities. Tesla
didn’t respond to a request for
comment on the probe.
Tesla faces mounting chal-
lenges amid a cooling in con-
sumer demand for EVs. It is
cutting more than 10% of the
global workforce after it re-
ported falling revenue in the
first quarter of the year and a
sharp drop in profit.
Tesla’s sales in China of its
vehicles made in the country
slid last quarter by almost 4%
from a year ago, while the rest
of the EV market recorded 15%
growth over the same period.
Workers at Tesla’s Shanghai
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Tesla’s Elon Musk and Chinese Vice Premier Li Qiang met Sunday as the carmaker works to improve its position in the country.
factory said Sunday that they
were asked to work on the
weekend in anticipation of
Musk’s visit to the country. The
plant is usually shut on week-
ends after the company dialed
back work shifts in March
amid weakening demand.
Last week, Musk postponed
a trip to India, where he was
expected to meet Prime Min-
ister Narendra Modi and un-
veil plans for Tesla’s entry
into the country.
Tesla’s development in China
is a successful example of eco-
nomic and trade cooperation
between China and the U.S., the
Chinese premier told Musk dur-
ing their meeting Sunday, ac-
cording to state broadcaster
China Central Television.
Order
by 5/8 for
Mother’s
Day!
WORLD NEWS
Tesla is willing to further
deepen the cooperation with
China, Musk told Li, according
to CCTV. Reuters earlier re-
ported the visit.
Tom Zhu, a senior execu-
tive considered key to Tesla’s
growth in China, and Grace
Tao, who oversees Tesla’s ex-
ternal relations in the country,
joined Musk’s meeting with
officials, who included China’s
top economic planner and
commerce minister.
Tesla’s lofty market valua-
tion rests in part on the prom-
ise of its driving technology.
The FSD system is an ad-
vanced version of the com-
pany’s autopilot technology
and is designed to help with
driving tasks such as steering
and lane changes.
“We plan on, with the ap-
proval of the regulators, re-
leasing it as a supervised au-
tonomy system in any market
that—where we can get regu-
latory approval for that, which
we think includes China,”
Musk said during Tesla’s earn-
ings call last week.
The latest version of Tesla’s
self-driving capability is based
only on artificial intelligence,
and the company is working on
expanding its core AI infra-
structure and training capacity,
Musk said during the call. Chief
Financial Officer Vaibhav Taneja
urged investors to regard Tesla
as more than a car company.
Tesla has emphasized in us-
ers’ manuals that the software
doesn’t allow for fully autono-
mous driving and requires ac-
tive driver supervision.
Tesla mainly relies on real-
time visual data its car cameras
collect to power its driving-as-
sistance features, instead of us-
ing optical-radar signals to
identify traffic, a technology
route that most Chinese car-
makers have applied. Earlier
this month, Huawei Technolo-
gies launched its camera-based
autopilot technology, which the
Chinese company said was
more powerful than Tesla’s
most advanced autopilot feature
currently available in China.
China has banned Tesla’s
cars from entering military
sites and venues of govern-
ment agencies and state-
owned companies over con-
cerns that data collected by
the vehicles could pose na-
tional-security risks. The ban
has been enforced more
strictly in some cases, cover-
ing places including airports,
train stations and public park-
ing lots at police stations.
In recent years, concern over
* * THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
cybersecurity risks posed by
data amassed by vehicles has
prompted Beijing to require
such data to be stored in China.
Tesla has said that all data gen-
erated by its cars sold in China
would be stored locally in a
data center it built in 2021.
To improve its FSD capabil-
ity and have the technology
better work in Chinese traffic,
Tesla will need data collected
from China to help train the
technology.
Tesla’s Tao said autono-
mous-driving technology is a
key growth engine of the EV
industry, according to a com-
mentary published by People’s
Daily, the Communist Party’s
flagship newspaper, on Friday.
Tesla has led the industry
in autopilot technology from
computing power, fleet size
and data to models, she wrote
in the article. She also high-
lighted that Musk has said he
was willing to license Tesla’s
driving-assistance capabilities
to other car companies.
Watch a Video
Scan this code
to watch a
video on Elon
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China.
©2024 Dow Jones & Co, Inc. All rights reserved. 6DJ9002
WORLDWATCH
UKRAINE
Russian Drones
Set Hotel Ablaze
Russian drones early Sun-
day struck the Black Sea city
of Mykolaiv, setting a hotel
ablaze and damaging energy
infrastructure, Ukrainian offi-
cials said, while the army
chief warned of a worsening
situation as his forces wait
for much-needed arms from
a huge U.S. aid package to
reach the front lines.
Vitaliy Kim, the governor of
Ukraine’s southern Mykolaiv
province, said Russian drones
“seriously damaged” a hotel in
its namesake capital. Kim also
reported that the strike dam-
aged heat-generating infra-
structure in the city. He said
there were no casualties.
Russian state agency RIA
reported that the strike on
Mykolaiv targeted a shipyard
where naval drones are as-
sembled, as well as a hotel
housing “English-speaking
mercenaries” who have
fought for Kyiv.
—Associated Press
FRANCE
Macron Ponders
Nuclear Role
President Emmanuel Ma-
cron is rekindling debate over
whether France’s nuclear ar-
senal should play a role in de-
terring attacks against Euro-
pean allies, igniting criticism
across the political spectrum
from lawmakers who say any
move to extend the country’s
nuclear umbrella risks com-
promising a linchpin of na-
tional sovereignty.
In an interview with re-
gional newspapers published
over the weekend, he said
European allies needed to
build capabilities beyond the
North Atlantic Treaty Organi-
zation to deter adversaries
from using nuclear weapons.
In February 2020, he in-
vited European allies to par-
ticipate in French nuclear-
force exercises. Berlin and
other European capitals
didn’t take him up on the of-
fer.
—Stacy Meichtry
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
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So, RIP to the old way of doing things.
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A10 | Monday, April 29, 2024 * **** THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

FROM PAGE ONE

Mansion ter they appealed the city’s

preliminary approval in Febru-
ary of his plans to build a
to control” the dogs. The Her-
manns bristle at that.
“Help me up, I’m frail,” a
according to a Jan. 24 plan-
ning commission report,
would measure 11,300 square
is something that fits in with
the architecture of the place,”
Prince said. Several neighbors
Despite their continuing
dispute, both sides converged
recently at the Park City Fol-

Fight Goes mansion overlooking this

quaint town. “It feels like ha-
rassment,” Hermann said.
fit-looking 68-year-old Susan
Fredston-Hermann, joked on a
recent day, holding up her
feet and have a large parking
area accessed by a tunnel
reminiscent of the mines that
are supporters.
But following the planning
commission’s split-vote ap-
lies, an annual musical fund-
raiser where performers sati-
rized the rich and powerful,

To the Dogs Prince, 49, said he sued the

Continued from Page One
mann, alleging their Bernese
Mountain dogs “have aggres-
sively approached, chased and
harassed” his family and
guests while walking on an
easement trail behind his
property. The Hermanns, mere
millionaires themselves, de-
nied the allegations in a brief,
describing Sasha and Mocha
as “well-behaved, polite and
nonaggressive.”
The Hermanns claim Prince
filed the suit as retaliation af-
Hermanns both out of frustra-
tion over their appeal and
hand in jest, after snuggling
with the dogs on her deck. Her
71-year-old husband is an
what he described as their re- emerging markets financier
fusal to leash their dogs de- and biotech CEO.
spite his requests. “I get that “Free Sasha & Mocha”
we’re rich assholes,” he said, stickers are cropping up all
“but at some level I’m also a over Park City. The dogs are
father and I have to protect “big, fluffy and beautiful,”
my daughter.” said Blaire Dernbach, a bar-
The Hermanns said he tender on Main Street.
never asked them to leash But Teri Toelcke, 79, said of
their dogs before filing the the dogs: “They don’t want
suit, and “to the best of our you near their people.”
knowledge, the dogs have had Prince and his wife, Tati-
no interaction with the ana, moved from San Fran-
Princes.” Prince’s suit also cisco in 2019 to start a family.
characterizes the Hermanns as The Princes designed an L-
“elderly and frail and unable shaped dream home which,
once operated in the area. It
would be similar to another
large home built by a neigh-
bor, Prince said.
Some residents complained
the house was too grandiose
and violated codes.
“It will loom over Old
Town, glow at night, and re-
flect the morning sun onto the
rest of Old Town,” the Her-
manns said in a written sum-
mary of concerns.
The Princes argued the city
miscalculated, claiming the
home would have a total “liv-
ing space” of 7,351 feet. “It
was really important for me,
having grown up here, that it
proval on Feb. 21, using
Prince’s definition of a smaller
footprint, the Hermanns filed
an appeal with the city—and
eight other residents did, too.
The matter was sent to
Park City’s Appeal Panel for a
hearing.
Meanwhile, on March 18,
Prince filed the dog suit.
Then, soon after, he bought
another lot next to the Her-
manns and filed a second suit
against them, alleging an old
retaining wall on their prop-
erty infringed on land he may
build on if his current plans
fall through. Hermann called
the suit further retaliation.
including Prince, who sat with
his wife in the packed audi-
ence. In one giant photo of the
two dogs onstage, a caption
has Sasha saying to Mocha,
“The house doesn’t comply
with the historic district
guidelines,” to which Mocha
replies, “Let’s go shit on the
lawn.”
Prince joined the audience’s
laughter, yelling “Woo!” after
another biting joke.
Afterward, they ran into
the Hermanns, who were min-
gling on the street outside
with Sasha and Mocha. Tati-
ana Prince blew a kiss toward
the dogs.

Scientist “nothing more than mischar-

acterizations.”
Dr. Nir Barzilai, the new
to determine whether the com-
pany still “stands behind” the
compound. The company still
to members attempting to
quell the controversy. “No sin-
gle member speaks for the

Draws president of the Academy for

Health and Lifespan Research
and the director of the Insti-
sells the supplement that in-
cludes resveratrol and said it
is always reviewing the effi-
Academy,” they wrote.
They promised to expand
the academy’s bylaws to out-

Criticism tute for Aging Research at Al-

bert Einstein College of Medi-
cine, said Sinclair’s comment
cacy of all its ingredients.

Continued from Page One
gene therapy invented in his
Harvard lab and being devel-
oped by a company he co-
founded, Life Biosciences, had
reversed aging and restored vi-
sion in monkeys. “Next up: age
reversal in humans,” he wrote
on X and Instagram.
On Feb. 29, in the eyes of
many other scientists working
‘Reverse aging’
line language people should
use in public statements about
work in which they have a fi-
about the dog research and his nancial stake.
commercial interest in Animal In February, Sinclair and his Three more academy mem-
Biosciences crossed a line. brother, Nick Sinclair, who is bers submitted their resigna-
“The data is not good, you’re Animal Biosciences’ CEO, tions soon after. One said in
calling it the wrong thing, and emailed the Journal about re- his resignation letter that the
then you’re selling it,” he said. search the company was plan- response was inadequate from
“The selling is a step too far.” ning to share about a dog sup- a group of widely published
Sinclair said he adheres to plement it had developed. scientists who should know
Harvard’s conflict of interest “Results from clinical trial in better.
policies. His dog-supplement dogs to reverse aging,” said “It slowly became the Da-
company, Animal Biosciences, the subject line of one email. vid Sinclair show,” said An-
issued a reworded press re- The study, which was con- drew Dillin, a geneticist at the
JEMAL COUNTESS/GETTY IMAGES

to unlock the mysteries of ag-
ing, he went too far.
Another company he co-
founded, Animal Biosciences,
quoted him in a press release
saying that a supplement it
had developed had reversed
aging in dogs. Scientists who
study aging can’t even agree
on what it means to “reverse”
aging, much less how to mea-
sure it.
The response was swift and
harsh. The Academy for Health
and Lifespan Research, a group
of about 60 scientists that Sin-
clair co-founded and led, was
hit with a cascade of resigna-
tions by members outraged by
his claims. One scientist who
quit referred to Sinclair on X
as a “snake oil salesman.”
Days later, in a tense video
meeting, the academy’s five
other board members pressed
Sinclair to resign as president.
He contended that the press
release contained an inaccu-
rate quote, according to people
who were in the meeting, but
he later stepped down.
Sinclair’s work is published
regularly in top-tier scientific
journals and has brought at-
tention to an emerging field
vying for credibility and fund-
ing. He has parlayed his re-
search into hundreds of mil-
lions of dollars of investment
in various companies, more
than 50 patents and promi-
nence as a longevity influ-
encer.
Along the way, his claims—
especially in his social-media
posts, interviews and his
book—have drawn criticism
from scientists who have ac-
cused him of hyping his re-
search and extolling unproven
products, including some from
companies in which he had a
financial interest.
“My lab’s ideas and findings
are typically ahead of the
curve, which is why some
peers might feel the research
is overstated at the time,” Sin-
clair said to The Wall Street
Journal in an email. “I stand
behind my track record as a
trusted scientist in one of the
most competitive professions
of all.” He said he doesn’t en-
gage with social-media critics,
including those calling him a
snake oil salesman, and that
many such comments are
lease backing away from the ducted by the North Carolina University of California, Berke-
claim of reversing aging. State College of Veterinary ley, who resigned. “He’s repre-
Medicine, enrolled 70 dogs. It senting me through the acad-
concluded that even dogs that emy, and I don’t want to be
Longevity industry received a placebo showed associated with that.”
The search for eternal youth cognitive improvement, but Tony Wyss-Coray, a profes-
has fueled a longevity industry those that got a full dose of sor of neurology at Stanford
that attracted roughly $43 bil- the supplement showed the University who also resigned
lion in global investment in the largest improvement. The from the academy, said it
past decade, according to re- ‘My lab’s ideas and findings study is undergoing peer re- should form a committee to in-
search and media company view and could change, said vestigate conflicts of interest.
Longevity.Technology. Compa- are typically ahead of the curve, Brandon Bieltz, a spokesman “The academy should be an
nies are exploring techniques for the school. absolutely clean, scientifically
such as rejuvenating cells, with which is why some peers might The release that went out driven guidepost for the pub-
an aim to reverse diseases and on Feb. 29 quoted Sinclair lic,” he said.
restore cell functions that can feel the research is overstated at praising his colleagues for hav- Barzilai, the new president,
diminish with age. ing “developed the first sup- said he is forming such a com-
The pushback against how the time.’ plement proven to reverse ag- mittee.
Sinclair portrays his work re- ing in dogs.” Arlan Richardson, an acad-
flects a conviction that a field Matt Kaeberlein, a longevity emy member and biochemist
once considered fringe is gain- Harvard geneticist David Sinclair researcher who co-directs a at the University of Oklahoma
ing legitimacy. large study on aging in dogs, Health Sciences Center read
Some longevity researchers read the release and felt Sin- Sinclair’s dog-supplement
caution that rejuvenating some have read Sinclair’s 2019 best- Harvard, where he became a clair’s claims about the dog study and thought about his
cells isn’t the same thing as re- seller, “Lifespan: Why We tenured professor. His lab supplement went too far. Kae- Tibetan terrier, Zorro. Pet lov-
versing aging in people. “Re- Age—And Why We Don’t Have there found that resveratrol berlein, who worked in the ers would pay handsomely for
versal of aging is a term I stay To.” She said she encourages appeared to prolong the same MIT lab as Sinclair in the dog chews they thought would
away from. The evidence in patients to stop using supple- lifespan of mice. 1990s, emailed more than a extend an animal’s life, he re-
humans isn’t there,” said Dr. ments, including resveratrol, The National Institute on dozen peers, including some calls thinking, and that Sinclair
Bruce Yankner, a professor of that Sinclair and other longev- Aging’s Interventions Testing members of the Academy for was “preying on very vulnera-
genetics and neurology at Har- ity influencers have said they Program reported in 2011 and Health and Lifespan Research, ble people.”
vard and co-director of the take. “At best, it’s wasted 2013 that resveratrol didn’t ex- on March 1 that he planned to He submitted his resigna-
Paul F. Glenn Center for Biol- money,” she said. tend the lifespan of healthy resign. tion from the academy.
ogy of Aging Research. “I am careful to say that mice. Resveratrol is still being “Conning people into believ- Barzilai and his fellow
Sinclair and other scientists what I do may not be the best studied in humans, and re- ing that this stuff will reverse board members held a video
have studied whether sub- thing for others,” Sinclair said. searchers have reported vary- aging in their pets is disgust- call that weekend without Sin-
stances including resveratrol, a He said evidence shows resver- ing results. ing behavior,” he wrote in an clair. They decided the acad-
compound in red wine, and the atrol has health benefits in an- Sinclair started companies email. Two days later, Kaeber- emy needed to move forward
diabetes drug metformin could imals and peo- and built his lein publicized his resignation without Sinclair as its head.
extend life. Researchers have ple. public persona on X, calling Sinclair a “snake Soon after, they held a video
also explored the potential of Sinclair was as a longevity oil salesman.” meeting with Sinclair. The
supplements including fisetin, born in Sydney, His critics claim influencer. His Sinclair said a public-rela- words in the original press re-
found in fruits and vegetables, Australia, and he hypes his knack for syn- tions company inadvertently lease had been incorrect, he
to eliminate cells that are “se- earned a Ph.D. thesizing com- distributed an early version of told them. One board member
nescent” or that have stopped in molecular ge- research and plicated re- the Animal Biosciences release. said it wasn’t the only time
dividing but don’t die. Sinclair netics at the search into “The actual quote that I had Sinclair had claimed to have
has touted all three com- University of
extols unproven bite-size take- approved was ‘proven to re- reversed aging. The conversa-
pounds as part of his own regi- New South products. aways has at- verse the effects of aging in tion was tense. Sinclair agreed
men. Wales. At 26, he tracted health dogs,’” he said. “I felt this was to step down as president.
Rafael de Cabo, a senior in- joined the lab of enthusiasts to a reasonable statement.” “He’s very hurt,” Barzilai
vestigator and chief of the Massachusetts his appearances The agency, GCW, said it said later.
translational gerontology Institute of Technology profes- on Joe Rogan’s and Peter At- distributed a release the com- Sinclair said to the Journal
branch at the National Insti- sor Leonard Guarente, who tia’s podcasts and his TED pany provided. On March 5, it that he regrets using language
tute on Aging, co-wrote stud- was trying to understand the talks, including “Can a pill a reissued the release with an suggesting age reversal in
ies on resveratrol in mice with biological causes of aging. day keep aging away?” and “A amended quote from Sinclair, dogs, and pledged to be “more
Sinclair. He said there isn’t “He has done a lot of good Cure for Ageing?” who said the supplement was accurate with my words” in
enough evidence to support work over the years,” said Tally Health, a company “shown to reverse the effects the future. He said he wasn’t
humans taking the supple- Guarente, who describes him- Sinclair co-founded, sells a test of age related decline in dogs.” asked to step down as presi-
ment. self as a mentor and adviser. to measure biological age and On March 8, Sinclair sent a dent.
“In the absence of some Sinclair’s public statements, longevity supplements, includ- text to the academy’s internal On March 13, the academy’s
clinical trials with the clinical he said, are what often cause ing one containing resvera- WhatsApp group apologizing five remaining board members
application, it’s a gamble,” he controversy. “He cannot put a trol. The company’s Chief Ex- for sharing his view of what sent an email announcing Sin-
said. “We do not know what boundary on his enthusiasm, ecutive Officer Melanie Goldey constitutes age reversal in a clair had resigned as presi-
the compound is going to do.” so it bubbles over and he says acknowledged the controversy way that brought negative at- dent. “We hope we can move
Dr. Danielle Belardo, a car- stuff,” he said. “I have talked around resveratrol and told tention to the group. past these events. The Acad-
diologist in Los Angeles, said with him many times about it, the Journal in April that com- The same day, the acad- emy is about science and sci-
she gets requests for off-label and he can’t contain himself.” pany scientists are indepen- emy’s six board members, in- entists; all else is secondary,”
metformin from patients who Sinclair moved in 1999 to dently evaluating its efficacy cluding Sinclair, sent an email they wrote.
FROM LEFT: SUZY MCCRACKEN; JOHN WERNER/TEDXBOSTON

Arlan Richardson, a member of the Academy for Health and Lifespan Research, left, with his dog Zorro. Sinclair in 2021 giving a TEDxBoston talk called ‘Is Aging Reversible?’

© 2024 Dow Jones & Company. All Rights Reserved.
Slow and
Steady Wins
The Race
We’re thinking about productivity at work all
wrong, author Cal Newport says
WORK
& LIFE
RACHEL
FEINTZEIG
Y
ou’re oh so busy. You’re
on Slack and email and
back-to-back Zoom
calls, sometimes all at
once. Are you actually
getting real work done?
Cal Newport doesn’t think so.
“It’s like, wait a second, none
of this mattered,” says the George- into a form of productivity that’s
town University computer science
professor and crusader for focus
in a distracted age.
Newport, 41, says
we can accomplish
more by shedding the
overload. He calls his
solution “slow pro-
ductivity”—and has a
book by the same
name—a way for high
achievers to say yes to
fewer things, do them
better and even slack
off in strategic doses.
Top-notch quality is
the goal, and frenetic
activity the enemy.
This, he told me,
is the thing that can
save our jobs from AI  ‘Slow Productivity’
and layoffs, and even is author Cal Newport’s
make shareholders latest book.
happy.
I had questions.
Can we really be less is more at
work, or have we grown addicted to waiting list in order of impor-
constantly crossing endless tasks
FROM TOP: TIMO LENZEN FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL; PENNY GRAY
off our to-do lists? What will our
bosses think?
After all, so many of us yearn
for a burnout cure-all that will
preserve our high-achiever status,
and this isn’t the first you-can-
have-it-all proposition we’ve
heard. Champions of the four-day
workweek promise we can ditch
an entire workday just by working
smarter. Remote work die-hards
swear it’s a win for employers and
employees. Few dreams are more
seductive than bidding goodbye to
hustle culture, while still reaping
the benefits of said hustle.
Newport acknowledges that
 The way we work now is a
‘serious economic drag,’ says
Newport, an author and professor.
Noncompete Ban Set to Reshape Job Market
BY LINDSAY ELLIS AND CHIP CUTTER
M
illions of workers will have
more freedom over where
they work should a recent
Federal Trade Commission ban on
nearly all noncompete agreements
take effect.
In interviews with The Wall
Street Journal, workers largely
cheered the new rule. They say they
are already thinking about ways a
ban on noncompetes could help
them and others change jobs and
earn more.
Many major employers, on the
other hand, are fighting the decision
with a challenge in federal court
filed by the U.S. Chamber of Com-
merce and backed by the Business
Roundtable, which represents chief
executive officers of some of the
country’s biggest employers. Some
employers are also preparing to
change the way they train and pay
their workers.
The ban is set to go into effect
at the end of August, but could be
delayed or struck down by lawsuits.
The new rules shift the balance
of power between U.S. workers and
their bosses yet again. Employees
say noncompetes have kept them
tied to bad bosses or unreasonably
limited their career mobility. Busi-
nesses say they need noncompetes
to protect trade secrets and other
DAVID PAUL MORRIS/BLOOMBERG NEWS
confidential information, including
customer lists and financial data.
Noncompete clauses in employ-
ment contracts have proliferated in
recent years. They prohibit people
across industries and pay grades—
from fast-food workers to medical
doctors—from easily moving to
other employers or starting new
PERSONAL JOURNAL.
saying no to preserve our produc-
tivity can be a delicate act. He
knows that entrepreneurs have
more flexibility, but says those of
us who answer to managers can
carve this out too. We might even
find we have more power and
value to our employers. “You
should take that value out for a
little bit of a spin,” he suggests.
Less is more
The way we work now is a “seri-
ous economic drag,” Newport says.
Knowledge workers have devolved
more about the vibes—stressed!—
than actually making money for
the company. Data
from Microsoft finds
that lots of us spend
the equivalent of two
workdays a week on
meetings and email
alone.
One mistake we
make, Newport says,
is taking on too many
projects, then getting
bogged down in the
administrative over-
load that each re-
quires. Work becomes
a string of planning
meetings, waiting on
someone from an-
other department to
give a go-ahead.
Newport recom-
mends giving prior-
ity to a couple proj-
ects, then bumping the others to a
tance. Make that list public, say, in
a Google doc you share with
bosses and colleagues.
ventures of their own.
Under the new FTC ruling, non-
compete agreements will become
unenforceable, with exceptions for
many senior executives in a policy-
making position.
“Everybody from the janitor on
up is signing a noncompete, and it’s
just gotten out of control,” said
Robert Williams, 57, who works in
sales in the flooring industry.
A noncompete agreement almost
stopped Williams from getting a
sales management job in Connecti-
cut. His new employer, he said, ulti-
mately did extend an offer after
talking to his former employer and
coming to an agreement.
“It created a lot of stress for me
and my family,” Williams said.
California case study
The FTC’s ban on noncompete
agreements would throw a uniform
layer over the patchwork of state
laws. Five states—California, Minne-
sota, Colorado, North Dakota and
Oklahoma—have already banned all
or nearly all noncompetes, accord-
ing to Mercer, a benefits consulting
firm.
Several other states have put re-
strictions on noncompetes, such as
allowing them only for employees
who earn over a certain pay thresh-
old. Maryland, for instance, prohibits
noncompetes for workers who earn
less than or equal to $15 an hour.
One push behind partial bans on
noncompetes has been to allow
lower-wage workers, such hair styl-
ists, to switch jobs if they can make
more money elsewhere.
Noncompete clauses have been
effectively unenforceable in Califor-
nia for decades, freeing workers to
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
“When workloads are obfus-
cated behind black boxes, it’s just
people throwing stuff at each
other, it’s very dangerous to say
no,” Newport says.
If someone comes to you with
more work, have them consider
where it should go on your list,
Newport says.
Be the one to trust
It’s a foreign and bracing ap-
proach for those of us who reflex-
ively say yes to work requests.
Newport’s philosophy requires
transparency and confidence. In-
stead of “let me see how fast I can
turn that around!”, try, “This re-
quest will take six hours. I’ll have
that time in three
weeks.’
This could be her-
esy at some compa-
nies. The trick is in
the delivery, he says.
Never make it seem
like work tasks are a
burden you shouldn’t
have to face. Instead,
stress that you’re try-
ing to be as effective
as you can for the
team and the com-
pany. Be positive, and
deliver on the time-
lines you promise.
You’ll be seen as
someone who’s orga-
nized and on top of
Workers across sectors and salary ranges have cheered the new federal
ban on noncompete clauses in employment contracts. Now, companies
are pushing back, hoping to overturn the new rule.
jump to rivals and allowing compa-
nies to poach talent at will. Many
leaders in the tech sector have at-
tributed much of the success of Sili-
con Valley to talent that’s unfet-
tered by noncompetes.
‘You’re kind of stuck’
Noncompetes have diverted the ca-
reer paths of lower-level workers
and executives, too.
After her employer was acquired
by manufacturing firm 3M in 2019,
Christine Grogan lost her job as a
marketing leader. Her two-year non-
compete agreement that she’d
signed years prior blocked her from
your game.
We think bosses want someone
who’s always accessible—fast to
respond, fast to jump into action,
Newport says. But what bosses re-
ally want is to know that a project
they hand you will get done.
Bite-sized shirking
Quiet quitting permanently is a
bad idea, Newport says, but a lit-
tle bit is good.
Don’t feel guilty, he adds.
You’re working under a new, bet-
ter system. We weren’t meant to
work all out, every day, without
seasonal shifts and pauses. Pick a
time—say, the month of July—to
slow down. Don’t volunteer for ex-
tra work. Don’t offer Mondays as a
possibility for meetings. Take on
an easier project for cover.
He also recommends taking
yourself out to a monthly movie
during the workday. Say it’s a per-
sonal appointment, and enjoy the
sense of control and creativity it
brings. You don’t have to nail a
manifesto to the wall, he adds. In-
stead, quietly carve out change for
yourself.
Come into your power
The catch: You have to be really
good at the part of your job that
matters. And you have to get big
stuff done. Remember, this is
about being a happier high per-
former, not slacking. “There’s no
accepting other offers, she said.
The time without work took a fi-
nancial toll. Grogan patched to-
gether consulting assignments, refi-
nanced her San Antonio home and
borrowed money from her mother-
in-law, while her husband took on
work as a handyman.
“I’ve done all this education, I’ve
worked hard, and I couldn’t find a
job because of a noncompete,” she
said, adding that turning 50, and
the uncertain job market in the
early days of the pandemic, made
her search for work even harder.
Eventually, Grogan took a job
with another noncompete agree-
Monday, April 29, 2024 | A11
hiding,” Newport says.
I suspect this terrifies a lot of
people. They’ve gotten good at
being always on and typing up
yet another meeting agenda.
Tackling a major project or goal
is often harder, and comes with-
out a guarantee that you’re going
to nail it.
Scary or not, real work is be-
coming imperative. AI is coming
for the rote parts of our jobs.
Leaders are sussing out the
“nonsense” projects and roles in
their ranks as they cut jobs, New-
port says. No boss wants to be left
with a team of people who are
aces at responding to emails.
Mastering a valuable skill puts
you in control. Newport writes of
people who leave corporate Amer-
ica behind and move where they
want, working remotely as con-
tractors, charging wild fees for
fewer hours of work.
The more you shed the work
that doesn’t matter, and spend that
time getting better at the stuff that
does, the more leeway you’ll get.
“The marketplace doesn’t care
about your personal interest in
slowing down,” Newport writes. “If
you want more control over your
schedule, you need something to of-
fer in return.”
Figure that puzzle out, and
you might just be able to have it
all—high achievement, and your
sanity.
ment in St. Louis.
When Matthew Truocchio com-
pleted his medical residency, he
sought work as an anesthesiologist
on Long Island, N.Y. But a major
employer there would require him
to sign a two-year noncompete
within a 25-mile radius, he said.
That meant if he needed to change
jobs, he would have to move out of
the New York metro area.
“If you signed with a place that
you don’t like, you’re kind of stuck,”
said Truocchio, now 35.
Ultimately, Truocchio followed his
wife to Tucson, Ariz., where he took
a job with a small medical practice
that didn’t have a noncompete, a
key draw. The trade-off: his pay rate
was lower.
Legal fights
At Winton Machine, a roughly 40-
person manufacturer based outside
of Atlanta, Chief Executive Lisa
Winton said she asks her salespeo-
ple and senior engineers to sign
one-year noncompetes. Those em-
ployees have access to confidential
information on industrial processes
and receive a lot of on-the-job train-
ing, so Winton doesn’t want them
to be able to quit and immediately
take that knowledge to a rival.
“These are big, huge investments
we’re making as a small company,”
she said. “It’d be very hard for some-
body to give you two weeks’ notice
and to go directly to a competitor.”
Winton doesn’t have a direct
competitor located nearby, but in
the remote-work era, it is also eas-
ier for an engineer or salesperson
to join one several states away.
If the ban on noncompetes re-
mains, Winton expects to be more
guarded with how she shares infor-
mation and data internally: “I would
hope it gets struck down.”
—Callum Borchers and Ruth Simon
contributed to this article.
A12 | Monday, April 29, 2024
PERSONAL
TECHNOLOGY
JOANNA
STERN
E
ver since a door plug
flew off an Alaska Air-
lines flight midair in
January, the world has
awaited an answer to
the Big Question:
How did that iPhone survive?!
Yes, when the Boeing 737 MAX
9’s fuselage ripped open, a smart-
phone flew out and tumbled down
16,000 feet. The iPhone 14 Pro
Max was found completely un-
harmed. Yet your phone’s screen
turned into a spiderweb when you
accidentally nudged it off your
bathroom counter.
Was it because a protective
case cocooned the airborne
phone? Was it because it was a
newer, more durable unit? Was it
rescued and repaired by a family
of bears?
Every year, Apple, Samsung
and other smartphone makers tell
us about their improved durabil-
ity—Ceramic Shield! Gorilla Armor!
And still the first thing we do with
a shiny new phone is shove it in a
case. Do we still need to? Perhaps
we should all go…naked?
There was only one way to find
out: Make it rain phones.
My producer and I created the
Phone-Droppin’ Drone (trademark
pending) and set out to drop
iPhone 14 and Samsung Galaxy
S23 devices from 3, 30 and 300
feet onto grass and asphalt.
Let’s break it down.
The tests
I’d watched enough “MythBusters”
to know I needed some key com-
ponents to run these tests:
 Phones: I bought iPhone 14 and
Galaxy S23 models from refur-
bished-device company Back in the
Box, which confirmed the original
hardware was intact. No screens
or batteries had been replaced.
While not the latest models, these
phones use top-of-the-line Corning
glass and represent the latest du-
rability claims made by Apple and
Samsung.
 Space: A 300-foot drop required
landing zones of grass and as-
phalt—and no passersby! Thank-
fully, New Jersey’s beautiful Sussex
County Fairgrounds fit the bill.
PERSONAL JOURNAL.
Drop Zones of Phones
How did an iPhone survive a 16,000-foot fall from a plane? We find out.
 Drone: My smartphone-testing
desire has no limits, so, yes, I con-
sidered dropping the phones while
skydiving. But a drone gave us
more control for hitting specific
heights and targets. My producer-
turned-MacGyver, David Hall,
rigged a contraption to release
phones with the press of a button
on the drone controller.
 Carnage: The naked iPhone and
Galaxy handled the grass well,
surviving both the 3-foot and 30-
foot drops. I wasn’t surprised.
It was the 300-foot drop that
took my breath away. From so
high up, the phones looked like
tiny birds swooping down from
the sky.
Yet despite loud thumps when
hitting the ground, they sus-
tained no real damage—only
grass stains and dirt lodged in
the charging ports.
The physics
Now, I can hear you saying, in the
words of Creed, “Can you take me
higher?!” Except there was no
need to do that.
“It doesn’t matter if you drop the
phone from 300 feet up or from
space,” said Mark Rober, a former
NASA mechanical engineer turned
YouTuber. “It’s going to be the
same result because of something
called terminal velocity.”
So, terminal velocity? It’s the
speed an object hits when the
gravitational force equals the air
resistance force.
Rhett Allain, an associate pro-
fessor of physics at Southeastern
Louisiana University, explained
that, because of the mass, size and
shape of a smartphone, it will in-
crease in speed until it hits about
60 miles an hour. At that point, air
resistance keeps it from getting
any faster. He assured me that 300
feet in the air was enough height
for all of these devices, with and
without cases, to reach their ter-
minal velocities.
There’s another physics concept
to take into account: deceleration,
* *
commonly called “smashing into
something.” Rober and Allain ex-
plained that grass cushions the
falling object, allowing for slower
deceleration. Harder surfaces like
asphalt—or your bathroom tiles—
cause a much more abrupt decel-
eration.
So I repeated all those tests on
asphalt—and set all the phones to
record video of their falls, of
course:
 The 3-foot drop: The naked
iPhone and Galaxy S23 survived
two drops each on the asphalt,
sustaining only small nicks and
dents.
 The 30-foot drop: The naked
iPhone slammed the asphalt hard,
shattering the glass on the back.
Everything else was fine. In fact, it
was still recording video.
On the Samsung, the top left
and bottom right of the OLED
screen shattered and the screen
now flickers.
When I reattempted the 30-foot
drop with durable OtterBox De-
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
fender cases on fresh iPhone 14
and Galaxy S23 models, both sur-
vived. The cases caught some
damage but were still usable.
 The 300-foot drop: Given the
30-foot results, I only attempted
the high-up asphalt test with Ot-
terBox Defender cases. The
iPhone’s entire back glass cracked,
including all the glass around the
camera. But the iPhone itself still
works! And should be repairable.
The Galaxy S23 landed so hard
on the bottom right corner that
the rubber case tore. The screen
didn’t crack, but the entire phone
bent and no longer powered on.
Sean Bates, who discovered the
fallen Alaska Airlines case-covered
iPhone while on a walk in Port-
land, Ore., told me he found it un-
der a bush on the grass-covered
shoulder of the road. A few feet
over and it could have been road-
kill. The owner of that fallen
phone, Cuong Tran, said he’s still
using it.
The takeaway
My physics experts told me not
only does a good case provide
cushion during the rapid decelera-
tion of a phone drop, it also pro-
tects the more vulnerable contact
areas.
“If you hit your phone on the
corner of the phone, it’s going to
have a very small contact area and
more likely to break,” Allain said.
“If you hit it on the flat surface,
the contact area would be larger.”
Doug Kempel, vice president of
engineering at OtterBox, told me
the team designed Defender cases
with various plastic and rubber
pieces to absorb shock before it
reaches the phone.
So yes, cases can be useful
when you’re worried about that
glass screen and back. Corning,
the company that makes the dura-
ble glass in the iPhone and Galaxy,
declined to talk to me.
Just remember—case or no
case—if you happen to drop your
LUCA DEPARDON FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
phone out of an airplane, make
sure it lands on grass. It’s proba-
bly not a bad idea to install a
grass floor in your bathroom, too.
Watch a Video
Scan this code to
watch Joanna Stern
drop Apple and
Samsung phones
from a drone.
 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
ART REVIEW
Delcy Morelos’s
Richly Earthy Delights
The Colombian-born artist’s works are currently the focus of two shows
BY KAREN WILKIN
M
New York and St. Louis
ysterious. Brutal.
Poetic. Enigmatic.
Fragrant. Seduc-
tive. Threatening.
These all describe
Delcy Morelos’s
most compelling works, which we
have lately had multiple opportuni-
ties to encounter. Since last fall,
the Colombian-born artist, who
lives in Bogotá but works interna-
tionally, exhibited at Marian Good-
FROM LEFT: BILL JACOBSON/DIA CHELSEA; ALISE O’BRIEN/PULITZER ARTS FOUNDATION
man’s Paris and New York galler-
ies. Currently, she has two
installations at Dia Chelsea and an
ambitious survey show at the Pu-
litzer Arts Foundation, in St. Louis.
Ms. Morelos’s works encompass
wall-hung paintings and brooding
environments, weavings and
sculptures, with her diverse ap-
proaches unified by her materials.
She alludes to her Andean indige-
nous heritage by employing tex-
tiles, plant matter and earth in un-
predictable ways, frequently
disciplined by grids, both implicit
(in weavings) and explicit (in
drawings, paintings and construc-
tions). She exploits, too, the varied
hues of soil from different
sources—usually local to the proj-
CULTURAL COMMENTARY
Blue Öyster Cult’s
Breakthrough
BY MARC MYERS
A
s early proto-metal bands go,
Blue Öyster Cult was among
the most cerebral. Formed by
college students as Soft White Un-
derbelly in 1967, the band was hand-
picked and managed by a rock critic,
Sandy Pearlman. A visionary of
sorts, he wrote the lyrics to many of
the band’s early songs and renamed
the group Blue Öyster Cult in 1971,
just before it signed with Columbia.
The label wanted a
gothic hard-rock band
that could gnaw into
Black Sabbath’s mar- The band’s
ket share. ‘Secret Treaties’
Pearlman co-pro-
duced Blue Öyster was released
Cult’s first two LPs,
but those earnest
50 years ago
psychedelic-rock ef- this month.
forts didn’t fare well
on the Billboard 200
chart, peaking in tri-
ple-digit territory. Their third LP, “Se-
cret Treaties,” released 50 years ago
this month, did considerably better,
reaching No. 53. Many of the songs’
lyrics playfully explored grim themes,
forging a template for mid-1970s
metal bands such as Judas Priest
and Motörhead. The album was a fa-
JORGEN ANGEL/REDFERNS/GETTY IMAGES
vorite of Alice Cooper, American punk
bands and members of the Clash.
The LP’s popularity was assisted
by a 1972 tour opening for Alice
Cooper and by favorable reviews in
the U.S. and the U.K. that applauded
the band’s music and campy pulp-
horror lyrics: “In literary terms, their
orientation is shifting from Franz
Kafka to Marvel Comics,” wrote
ARTS IN REVIEW
ect—along with the color red,
sometimes as brick dust, as an
equivalent for blood, the body and
female power. To add another di-
mension to her quietly resonant
objects and installations, Ms. Mo-
relos scents earth with cloves and
cinnamon. Cumulatively, her
choice of materials signals a refu-
tation of the exploitation of na-
ture, an effort to address what she
calls our loss of “empathy toward
our environment.”
“Esa esquina soy yo” (“That
Corner Is Me”) at New York’s
Marian Goodman Gallery focused
on works made between 2008 and
2013, including irregular, geomet-
rically shaped expanses of coarse
woven jute, stiffened with layers
of brick- or ocher-hued paint, like
the skeletons of defunct paintings,
sparsely arranged in a pristine en-
vironment. A linen sheet coated
with brick dust and clay hung
loosely against a wall, suggesting
studio detritus, skin and animal
hide, while the eponymous corner
was filled with ragged, brick-col-
ored fragments, placed on end,
like broken glass intended to repel
intruders. Visceral and threaten-
ing, the tight grouping, arranged
by size, suggested both destruc-
tion and an attempt to make or-
Greg Shaw in Phonograph Record
magazine in April 1974. “This is, in a
bizarre sort of way, a very humor-
ous album.” In the U.K., “Secret
Treaties” in 1975 was voted “Top
Rock Album of All Time” by Melody
Maker readers.
Many of the dark, tongue-in-
cheek songs were whimsically bleak
and would become a hallmark of
heavy metal rolling forward. More
compelling than the wordsmithing
was the album’s powerful riff-fueled
music by rhythm gui-
tarist and lead vocal-
ist Eric Bloom, lead
guitarist Donald Roe-
ser, rhythm guitarist
and keyboardist Allen
Lanier, bassist Joe
Bouchard and drum-
mer Albert Bouchard.
Pearlman’s original
goal with Soft White
Underbelly had been
to have the band set
music to his trippy sci-fi and surre-
alistic poetry. In one of his early
cryptic works—“The Soft Doctrines
of Imaginos”—he referred to a
group of aliens who influence world
history as the Blue Oyster Cult. The
umlaut was applied later to add a
menacing quality to the band’s im-
age. Pearlman would produce BÖC’s
albums into the late ’80s and died
in 2016 at age 72.
On “Secret Treaties,” lyrics were
contributed by Pearlman, Patti
Smith (who at the time was in a re-
lationship with Lanier) and Richard
Meltzer, whose book “The Aesthet-
ics of Rock,” written between 1965
and 1968, was one of the first ana-
der out of chaos. The gallery’s
pairing of the elegant, pale mono-
chromes of the Italian artist Et-
tore Spalletti with Ms. Morelos’s
works emphasized their robust,
earthy connotations.
In Ms. Morelos’s show at Dia
Chelsea, on view through July 20,
we first traverse the ample, dim
space of “Cielo terrenal” (“Earthly
Heaven,” 2023), walls coated with
“mud paint” applied to the height
of the galleries’ 2012 flooding dur-
ing Hurricane Sandy and made
with soil from the Hudson Valley.
We peer at piles of unidentifiable
objects—salvage from previous in-
stallations, coated with mud paint,
and ceramics from Colombia—
some in crisp, orderly rows, some
expediently gathered, on a bed of
earth. At once landscape, plowed
field and wasteland, the multiplic-
ity of “Cielo terrenal” makes the
singularity of “El abrazo” (“The
Embrace”, 2023), looming in the
next gallery, even more unex-
pected. A blunt mountain, a crude
monument or a prototype for a
blocky temple, the immense “El
abrazo” is built of earth laced with
hay. We can circumnavigate the
behemoth, savoring the scents of
cinnamon and cloves, of the earth
itself and of what we learn is a
lytic looks at the evolving form.
Once the words were set, band
members composed the music.
“Career of Evil” opens with a sin-
ister guitar riff and the music feels
influenced by Shocking Blue’s “Ve-
nus” (1969). Ms. Smith’s lyrics set
the album’s grisly tone: “Pay me, I’ll
be your surgeon, I’d like to pick your
brain / Capture you, inject you, leave
you kneeling in the rain.”
Pop permeates “Subhuman,” a
midtempo mellow rocker that
seems to tear a page from Sugar-
loaf’s ambling “Green-Eyed Lady”
(1970). The BÖC song, with music
by Mr. Bloom, features one of his
rare guitar solos, and Pearlman’s
lyrics entwine the mystical with the
macabre: “Oyster boys are swim-
ming for me now / Save me from
the death-like creature.”
The record’s first bona fide head-
‘El abrazo’ (‘The Embrace,’ 2023), by Ms. Morelos, left; her aromatic,
maze-like ‘Earthly Weaving’ (2023–24), above.
medicinal tree extract, used in
Amazonia. Since we’re encouraged
to touch, we discover the spiky,
dry quality of the wall of earth
and the prickly hay. Halfway
around, a wedge-shaped slice al-
lows us to penetrate the pile. The
scent intensifies.
When we leave, passing “Cielo
terrenal” again, the brute physi-
cality of “El abrazo” makes the
scattered elements of “Cielo terre-
nal” seem delicate. Together, the
two installations remind us of the
rarity of bare earth in the city,
glimpsed only in parks, around ur-
ban trees or bits of gardens. Back
in the street, we think about agri-
culture, the evolution of architec-
ture, nature’s ability to reclaim
whatever is abandoned.
“Delcy Morelos: Interwoven,”
organized at the Pulitzer Arts
Foundation by the museum’s cu-
rator Tamara H. Schenkenberg
and on view through Aug. 4, en-
compasses the artist’s entire
three-decade career: early draw-
ings and meticulously made can-
vases; woven and thread works,
coated with acrylic (like those
seen at Marian Goodman); and an
enormous installation, made for
the exhibition. We track the ori-
gins and evolution of Ms. More-
los’s vocabulary of grids, textiles,
transparency, soil, layering and
the color red, and revel in their
most recent iteration.
The maze-like “Earthly Weav-
 The proto-metal group, which
was steered by rock visionary
Sandy Pearlman, circa 1975.
banger is “Dominance and Submis-
sion,” with wailing guitar solos by
Mr. Roeser. Pearlman’s lyrics delve
into a dark morality narrative, re-
flecting on the hypnotic hold of
Beatles-era rock on teens in the
early 1960s: “Yeah, the radio was
on, can’t you dig the locomotion /
Kingdoms of the radio, 45 R-P-M /
Too much revolution, then.”
Musically, “ME 262” is the al-
bum’s best proto-metal thrasher,
loaded with dense guitar power
chords and distortion. Unfortu-
nately, Pearlman’s words seem de-
signed to offend. The title is short
for “Messerschmitt Me 262,” Nazi
Germany’s jet-powered fighter-
bomber, with his lyrics glamorizing
Monday, April 29, 2024 | A13
ing” (2023-24), which fills the Pu-
litzer’s main light-drenched
space, is built with 8-foot-high
panels of metal-grid fencing, en-
crusted with spice-scented earth.
Lured by the aroma, we move be-
tween them, hitting occasional
dead ends and sometimes becom-
ing slightly disoriented. The
transparency of the generous
grids varies, because of the im-
perfect rhythms of applied earth
and because the panels are some-
times doubled and tripled. Mov-
ing through the maze is intensely
pleasurable, yet being confronted
at eye level with an element usu-
ally found underfoot is disquiet-
ing, a response intensified by the
fencing’s connotations with barri-
ers, cages, the violence in Colom-
bia during Ms. Morelos’s forma-
tive years, and the present-day
mess at our southern border.
“Earthly Weaving” may be Ms.
Morelos’s most engaging work—vi-
sually, intellectually and olfacto-
rily—to date. I wanted to linger in
the maze and I’m eager to see
what she does next.
Delcy Morelos: El abrazo
Dia Chelsea, through July 20
Delcy Morelos: Interwoven
Pulitzer Arts Foundation, through
Aug. 4
Ms. Wilkin is an independent
curator and critic.
the Luftwaffe’s perspec-
tive: “They hung there
dependent from the sky /
Like some heavy metal
fruit / These bombers are
ripe and ready to tilt.”
The lyrics to “Cagey
Cretins” by Mr. Meltzer
are little more than a
word salad on top of ex-
cellent drumming by Al-
bert Bouchard and explo-
sive guitar solos by Mr.
Roeser.
“Harvester of Eyes”
adapts the boogie flavor
of David Bowie’s “The
Jean Genie” (1972), and
Mr. Meltzer’s lyrics are
superbly creepy. Messrs.
Roeser and Bloom provide
a torrent of metallic gui-
tar. Mr. Meltzer told Mar-
tin Popoff, for his 2011
book on the band, that
the song’s lick was “lifted
from The Grateful Dead’s
‘That’s It for the Other
One.’” The music ends
abruptly on a minor chord
followed by the eerie
sound of a music box.
The final two songs, with Pearl-
man’s lyrics, are compelling ballads.
“Flaming Telepaths” includes an
early-generation Moog synthesizer,
vocal harmony and a fiery guitar
solo. The closer, “Astronomy,” is a
prog-rock epic about inner turmoil
and a walk on a moonlit beach, com-
plete with howling wind at the end.
Despite the album’s fetish for the
lurid and shock symbolism, the mu-
sic remains a captivating break-
through. As “Secret Treaties”
proved, heavy metal required a
gruesome touch, but bands also had
to deliver what listeners wanted
most: as much guitar as possible.
Mr. Myers is the author of “Rock
Concert: An Oral History” and
“Anatomy of 55 More Songs”
(Grove Press).
A14 | Monday, April 29, 2024 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

SPORTS
Gabby Douglas Returns to Gymnastics
BY LOUISE RADNOFSKY

Katy, Texas
Gabby Douglas pulled on a
sleeveless competition leotard and The 28-year-old heroine of the 2012 Games fell short of qualifying for a shot at Olympic trials
walked into a Texas gym on Satur-
day to launch one of the most im-
probable comebacks in modern
Olympic history.
Some 12 years since she won
the Olympic all-around title in
London—and eight years since she
appeared in a gymnastics event of
any kind—Douglas opened her bid
to make the five-woman U.S. team
for this summer’s Paris Games at
a low-key event near Houston.
It was a far cry from her last
performance, a high-wattage turn
in a crowded Rio arena at the 2016
Olympic Games. The audience at
Stars Gymnastics Sports Center
could be counted in the dozens for
the untelevised competition. For
Douglas, though, the stakes were
about as high as she took her first
steps toward trying to qualify for
the U.S. championships, and with
it, a shot at an invitation to Olym-
pic trials.
Now 28, Douglas is downright
elderly in a sport long associated
with teenage prodigies. But it’s
not just her age that makes her
such an Olympic long shot. Her

DAVID J. PHILLIP/ASSOCIATED PRESS

debut outing came barely three
months before the Opening Cere-
mony, testing the limits of her
own exceptional knack for peaking
at precisely the right moment.
With a solid vault but mistakes
on her tumbling passes on the
floor, two falls from the uneven
bars, and a balance check and a
dicey dismount on the beam,
Douglas was short of the score she
needed to lock in an all-around
spot at the U.S. championships.
She will have another chance to
get it at another competition, the
Core Hydration Classic, in Hart-
ford, Conn., in May.
After initially agreeing to speak
with reporters after the event,
Douglas instead slipped out of a
backdoor of the gym, along with
her coaches.
If Douglas makes it to the na-
tional stage, she will find herself
facing a crowded field of deco-
rated competitors that includes
two other Olympic all-around
champions—one of whom happens
to be the greatest gymnast of all-
time. She’ll also face a gaggle of
up-and-comers who know all
about Douglas’s talents: They re-
member watching her on TV as
Gabby Douglas opened her bid to make the five-woman U.S. team for this summer’s Paris Olympics at a low-key event near Houston.
children.
Douglas’s legend was cemented
when she won another team gold
medal in Rio, and finished third in
the all-around standings after the
qualification round. That was the
first time an all-around champion
had returned to the Olympics
since Nadia Comaneci in 1980.
Recently, Douglas found that
the competitive itch was still
there.
“I missed it,” she told the mag-
azine Inside Gymnastics earlier
this year. “I had been out for six
years, didn’t touch any sort of
equipment. And so it became a
very good challenge for me to see
how quickly I could get my skills
back.”
In 2024, there could still be an
unprecedented scene: three Olym-
pic all-around champions compet-
ing against each other at the same
time: Douglas, 2016 titleholder Si-
mone Biles, now 27 years old, and
a 21-year-old Sunisa Lee, who took
the crown in Tokyo in 2021.
“It used to be that Olympic all-
around champions were out of the
sport entirely as athletes within
two years of their victory,” said
Michael Davis, who maintains a
gymnastics statistics blog called
The Medal Count.
If Douglas makes the U.S.
Olympic team for a third time and
goes to Paris, her appearances at
major international events will
have the longest span of any
American gymnast, Davis said. She
would be competing 13 years after
her first world championships, in
2011, surpassing the record of
Consetta Caruccio-Lenz, who com-
peted 12 years apart at the 1936
and 1948 Olympics (while missing
everything in between due to
World War II.)
Douglas would also be able to
claim a longer international career
than the three-time Olympic all-
around champion Larisa Latynina,
a Soviet gymnast whose first ap-
pearance was in 1954 and whose
last was in 1966.
Multiple forces have encour-
aged other gymnasts—including
many Americans—to extend their
careers in recent years as well.
One of them is Chellsie Mem-
mel, who in 2021 captured the
imagination by resuming her com-
petitive career as a 32-year-old
mother of two.
Another factor is NCAA rule
changes. Previously, restrictions
on endorsement deals forced gym-
nasts to a crunch point. They
could cash in on their Olympic
moment or turn down everything
to preserve their eligibility to
compete in college. Now, U.S. na-
tional team members have a built
in assumption that they will be
able to have four-year college
gymnastics careers, and possibly
continue beyond as well.
Because of that, there are no
fewer than five athletes fighting
for 2024 spots who went to the
Olympic Games in Tokyo, and then
to college, and back to elite gym-
nastics: Sunisa Lee, as well as 23-
year-old Jade Carey, 23-year-old
Jordan Chiles, and alternates
Kayla DiCello and Leanne Wong,
both 20.

The WSJ Daily Crossword | Edited by Mike Shenk

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
28 Craze
29 Fitzgerald
Trout Still Believes in Angels
14 15 16 of jazz
30 Molders BY LINDSEY ADLER and less than a year later There was, once again, no
17 18 19 31 Place for moved to a team that gave apparent urgency to put a
On Wednesday afternoon him a better shot at playing great team around Trout.
pampering
20 21 22 in Anaheim, Mike Trout re- even more meaningful If Trout feels disappoint-
32 Sesame connected with an all-too-fa- games in the future, the ment about the governance
23 24 25 26 Street miliar outcome. He crushed star-studded Los Angeles of the Angels, he is once
youngster his MLB-leading 10th home Dodgers. Trout, meanwhile, again keeping it off the field.
27 28 29 30 31 33 Toe feature run of the short season, then trotted back to Anaheim, As the Angels sink back to-
34 “Donkey’s stood helplessly in the dug- and recommitted to the An- ward irrelevance, Trout is
32 33 34 35 36 little nephew out as the Los Angeles An- gels’ futility. He is in the playing like a one-man team
wannabe” in gels lost to the Baltimore sixth year of a 12-year, $426 under the old-school Wash-
37 38 39 Nintendo Orioles. million contract and has ington. The move to the
games Once again, Trout finds shown no signs of trying to leadoff spot will give him a
40 41 42 himself playing hard for a escape. chance to have the most
37 Droop
team that probably won’t Trout still believes that he plate appearances and, in
43 44 45 38 H.S. math take him back to the play- can be the savior of baseball another wasted Angels sea-
course offs. He’s the first player to in Anaheim and he makes it son, that alone can be a
46 47 48 49 50 51 39 Half of double-digit home runs this clear far beyond the field. draw.
cuatro season and his five stolen Under a previous general But as he jogs out to cen-
52 53 54 55 56 57 41 It takes bases already matches his manager, Trout was known ter field, he is once again
change to total for the previous three to spend his postgame recov- surrounded by a team
58 59 60 change its seasons combined. ery time researching the mostly composed of players
tune But even a return to MVP nightly performances of the who have natural talent but
61 62 63 form for Trout probably Angels’ top prospects and can’t always turn their skills
42 Panache
44 Informal won’t be enough to drag the texting the GM about their into results. His sole co-star,
64 65 66 Angels, now 10-17 for the development. third baseman Anthony Ren-
denial
year entering Sunday’s play, Then this past offseason, don, landed on the injured
45 Sends over back to relevance. Trout responded to Ohtani’s list this week. The pitching
A CHICKEN IN EVERY SPOT | By Adam Vincent the moon Yet Trout, easily one of exit by publicly pleading for staff is being called into
Across 36 Unappetizing 58 “If you ask 8 Trips around 48 Boundary the greatest players of his ownership to invest in talent meetings to explain to their
1 Hummus cafeteria fare me,” online the track shrub generation, remains commit- for 2024 in a further at- coaches why they are not
brand 37 Like many a 59 Chicken dish 9 Uninspired 49 Grammy ted to the team that has only tempt to use his power to le- throwing strikes.
defeated best served at 10 Didn’t get winner Cara taken him to the postseason verage a better team. The Trout will once again be
6 Nation of
once, in 2014. The Angels response wasn’t satisfying. the centerpiece of a medio-
West Africa dragon a law firm? straight to the 50 Weary
51 Not afraid to haven’t come remotely close The upgrades were marginal, cre Angels team that, with-
10 Squat 38 “What’s 61 “I coulda ___a point?
to contention in the 10 years at best, on the fringes of the out him, might just be plain
14 Disney’s more...” contender!” 11 What a charm talk back
since. roster. bad.
mermaid 39 Letter that’s 62 Adjective may ward off 52 Informal “Mike’s an Angel,” said
15 Former Fed an airline and in some 12 Gushing property Angels GM Perry Minasian
chairman a river feature “shoppe” review claim in spring training, brushing
Greenspan 40 Enclosed by names 13 Small bills 53 “Preach!” off trade talk about Trout.
16 “Terrible” czar 41 “Waiting for 63 Dance’s 18 Dutch bloom 54 Perlman of “He’s a loyal guy.”
17 Chicken dish Tonight” de Mille 22 Buddhist “Cheers” But squandering potential
best served in singer, 64 Get your discipline 55 Salve has turned into something of
familiarly hands on 25 Seasonal 57 Chew like a an Angels specialty. For six
an exam hall?
65 December years, they somehow had
19 Proffer 42 Bubbly drinks beaver
Trout and two-time Ameri-
20 Question to a beverages holiday, briefly 27 Sprint 60 Nutritional fig. can League MVP Shohei
pet at the 43 Chicken dish 66 Like neglected Ohtani in the same lineup.
gardens Previous Puzzle’s Solution
door best served Trout, who was typically
L O L L R I G S O F I D
21 Crackles with at the top of Down A R E A E N N E A N I N A compared with Mickey Man-
heat the awards 1 Lustrous WO O D Y G R A N T R O A R tle prior to a few injury-
23 Prefix with stand? fabric L I N E S E V E N L Y marred years, was consid-
E U R E K A H E I MD A L L ered a once-in-a-lifetime
second or 46 Animal 2 Sports venue M P H E L S A N I
technology whose hair 3 Yellowstone player—until Ohtani became
I P O D S P E R T S A G S
24 Do a corpse was used in grazer L E N A T O N T O F R A T not just his primary chal-
Chewbacca’s E D E N O U C H B OM B E lenger, but his teammate.
GARY A. VASQUEZ/USA TODAY SPORTS/REUTERS

pose, say 4 Like 1990s L P S Y E A E L M The closest that Trout

26 Vegetable costume fashion, to T H E J O K E R A S I D E S and Ohtani ever got to play-
sphere 47 Crafty Gen Z B O D E G A O A S I S ing in a truly meaningful
27 Chicken dish 48 Top 10 songs 5 “What’s O T I S P A T S Y C L I N E
N E T S I G O T A E C O N game together was during
best served 52 Shadowy- more...” E L S E E R A S T E N D last year’s World Baseball
during a prize sounding 6 Director The contest answer is ROUGH. The five theme Classic, when they were on
fight? part of the Scorsese answers are roles played by actors (Bruce opposite sides. The tourna-
32 Become, internet 7 Noted DERN, Idris ELBA, Johnny DEPP, Jared LETO, ment ended with Ohtani on
Jessica LANGE) whose last names can be the mound for Japan facing
finally 56 Nation north heavyweight found “rising” in Down answers to one
35 Flit (about) of 6-Across champ additional letter (ON RED, GABLE, UPPED, Trout at the plate for Team
HOTEL, REGNAL). Those extra letters, in grid USA.
▶ Solve this puzzle online and discuss it at WSJ.com/Puzzles. order, spell the contest answer. Ohtani won that battle Mike Trout remains committed to the Los Angeles Angels.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
OPINION
The Other Kind of Marxism
Today’s politi-
cians
steeped
are
in
Marxism. Not
Karl, but
Groucho, who
is supposed
INSIDE
VIEW to have said:
“Those are
By Andy
my principles,
Kessler
and if you
don’t like
them . . . well, I have others.”
On Jan. 22, 2021, Senate
Majority Leader Chuck
Schumer said of Donald
Trump’s second impeachment:
“Make no mistake, a trial will
be held in the United States
Senate and there will be a
vote whether to convict the
president.” Fast forward to a
week ago, when articles of im-
peachment were delivered to
the Senate against Homeland
Security Secretary Alejandro
Mayorkas. Mr. Schumer said:
“Impeachment Article 1 does
not allege conduct that rises
to the level of high crime or
misdemeanor . . . and is
therefore unconstitutional.”
No trial. No vote.
This tossing of principles
can be found everywhere. In
2020 President Trump tried
to ban social-media app Tik-
Tok over national-security
concerns. Now Mr. Trump is
against a ban, writing last
month on Truth Social: “If
you get rid of TikTok, Face-
book and Zuckerschmuck will
double their business. I don’t
want Facebook, who cheated
in the last Election, doing
better.”
Javier Milei’s Achilles’ Heel
A r ge n t i n a ’s
central bank
will soon is-
sue a 20,000-
peso note, re-
placing the
AMERICAS 2 ,0 0 0 - p e s o
note as the
By Mary
largest-de-
Anastasia
nomination
O’Grady
bill in circula-
tion. At the
official exchange rate, the new
bill will be worth around $23.
A 50,000-peso note is ex-
pected to follow.
This is no doubt painful for
Argentines who voted for
President Javier Milei in Oc-
tober because he pledged to
dollarize the economy and
close the central bank. Add-
ing insult to injury, the cen-
tral bank said it plans to dec-
orate the new 20,000-peso
note with an image of Juan
Bautista Alberdi, father of Ar-
gentine classical liberalism
and a staunch advocate of
sound money. Alberdi died in
1884, but if he were still
around I’m betting he’d sue
for defamation.
It’s been four months since
Mr. Milei took the oath of of-
fice, promising to free the na-
tion from the strictures of
Peronism. With a passion for
liberty and irreverence for the
establishment, he’s generated
excitement among long-suffer-
ing Argentines tired of a cen-
tury of government modeled
on Mussolini’s Italy. He rails
against socialism and en-
dorses Western civilization.
He backs Israel, a welcome
foreign policy in a region that
increasingly bows to Tehran.
Yet Mr. Milei’s talk of free-
An Au Pair Could Take Care of Grandma
By Kristin Shapiro
And Kelsey Bolar
W
e’re both part of the
so-called sandwich
generation: We’re
mothers raising young chil-
dren, and we also have aging
parents and in-laws. President
Biden claims he wants to help
people like us. His administra-
tion, however, has threatened
to take away our main source
of child care by proposing a
regulation that could double
the cost of hosting an au pair,
a young foreign national
brought to the U.S. to work as
a nanny.
If Mr. Biden wants to help
families like ours balance our
home and professional lives,
he should expand the program
to include senior care—not
threaten to destroy it.
American families since the
1980s have taken advantage of
the au pair program, run by
the State Department. In ex-
change for providing a young
foreigner with lodging, food
and a stipend, families receive
up to 45 hours a week of child
In August 2020, Joe Biden
told ABC’s David Muir, refer-
ring to Covid: “I would shut
it down. I would listen to the
scientists.” By October 2020,
Mr. Biden insisted, “I’m not
going to shut down the
country, I’m going to shut
down the virus.” Lockdowns
continued.
Science! Sadly, some scien-
tists have prancing principles.
Anthony Fauci, then director
of the National Institute of
Allergy and Infectious Dis-
eases, said in March 2020,
“There’s no reason to be
walking around with a mask.”
In October 2020, when
CNBC’s Shepard Smith asked
if we need a national mask
mandate, Dr. Fauci quickly an-
swered, “Yes, we do.” The
Washington Post and Buzz-
Feed, via a Freedom of Infor-
mation Act request, found
this February 2020 Dr. Fauci
email: “The typical mask you
buy in the drug store is not
really effective in keeping out
virus, which is small enough
to pass through material.” In
January 2023, the respected
Cochrane Review agreed:
“Wearing masks in the com-
munity probably makes little
or no difference.”
These are all reminiscent of
the master flip-flopper John
Kerry, who said of a supple-
mental Iraq and Afghanistan
troop-funding bill: “I actually
did vote for the $87 billion
before I voted against it.”
Barack Obama was so good,
he would change his princi-
ples in the same speech, even
dom is at odds with exchange,
capital, and lingering price
controls. Monthly inflation for
March was below market ex-
pectations but still high at
11%. “On an annual basis,
headline inflation accelerated
to 287.9% [year over year],”
Goldman Sachs reported April
12. “Core inflation printed at a
lower but still high 9.4%
[month over month] in March,
reaching 300.0% [year over
year].”
In a speech to the nation
last week the president
boasted that in the first quar-
ter of this year his govern-
ment achieved a budget sur-
plus—not seen since 2008—of
around $309 million, or
roughly 0.2% of gross domes-
tic product. This austerity is a
main driver of the drop in in-
flation, down from a monthly
print of 25% in December. But
it isn’t enough. Inflation ex-
pectations remain high. The
International Monetary Fund’s
inflation forecast for 2024 is
150%, and 45% for 2025.
Nor are the cuts sustain-
able. They’ve been achieved
by denying pensioners infla-
tion adjustments, shutting
down public works and put-
ting the kibosh on payments
to utilities. As Goldman Sachs
explained, this “adjustment”
along with “a drag on real
economic activity impacted by
the erosion of household dis-
posable income should contain
price pressures.” In other
words, progress on inflation is
expected to come from reces-
sion and cutting into the bone
of government services.
There’s method to this
madness since elevated infla-
care. More than 20,000 au
pairs enter the U.S. annually
to work for host families. The
program is a win-win: Fami-
lies receive flexible, in-home
child care for about $1,800 a
month, which is generally less
than the cost of daycare for
multiple children or an Ameri-
can nanny. Au pairs, mean-
while, can experience Ameri-
can culture and improve their
English.
The administration
should expand, not
restrict, the program.
Yet in a misguided attempt
to strengthen labor protec-
tions, the Biden administra-
tion is finalizing a regulation
that would make the program
prohibitively expensive for
many families by requiring
them to pay au pairs a higher
minimum wage and other ex-
penses. According to a Cato
Institute study, after Massa-
chusetts required sponsor
sentence to sentence, using
the conjunction “but.” In an
April 2010 speech at New
York’s Cooper Union, Mr.
Obama said, “I believe in the
power of the free market. . . .
That’s part of what has made
America what it is. But a free
market was never meant to be
a free license to take what-
ever you can get, however you
can get it.” He then goes on
about reforming and regulat-
ing and killing free markets.
If you don’t like a
politician’s principles,
there’s a good chance
he has others.
“We must take back the
streets,” a tough-on-crime
Sen. Biden said in 1993. “It
doesn’t matter whether or not
they’re the victims of society.
The end result is they’re
about to knock my mother on
the head with a lead pipe,
shoot my sister, beat up my
wife, take on my sons.” In No-
vember 2006, Sen. Biden told
a South Carolina rotary club:
“Folks, I voted for a fence, I
voted, unlike most Demo-
crats—and some of you won’t
like it—I voted for 700 miles
of fence.” In September 2007
during a debate at Dartmouth
College, Mr. Biden was asked
about sanctuary cities: “Yes or
no, would you allow those cit-
ies to ignore the federal law?”
He replied, “No.” Do I even
tion reduces the value of gov-
ernment debt—now at 80% of
GDP—in dollars. But the per-
nicious effects of such a strat-
egy on investment, economic
growth and development are
undeniable. One question is
how long consumers and wage
earners will support Mr. Milei
if currency uncertainty dis-
courages badly needed capital
inflows and there is a persis-
tent decline of real income
and purchasing power.
Without a credible
dollarization strategy,
Argentina’s president
is at risk of failure.
By adopting a credible dol-
larization strategy immedi-
ately, Mr. Milei could stop in-
flation in its tracks. Instead
he’s first trying to address fis-
cal and regulatory distortions.
A December executive “de-
cree of necessity and ur-
gency” aimed at liberalizing
key parts of the economy has
scored some points. In a tweet
last week, Argentine econo-
mist Federico Sturzenegger
noted a new open-skies agree-
ment with Chile and authori-
zation for online purchases
and home delivery of medica-
tions. Yet an appeals court de-
clared the crucial labor re-
forms in the decree
unconstitutional.
The matter now goes to the
Supreme Court. But in any
case, Mr. Milei won’t be able
to restore Alberdi’s Argentina
by decree. This is why in Feb-
families to start paying au
pairs higher wages, the num-
ber of new au pairs entering
the state fell. In 2022, nearly
70% fewer au pairs entered
the state than the number who
entered in 2019, while the
number rose 4.4% in other
states.
During a public-comment
period, one military family
wrote that the Biden proposal
“would make the program un-
attainable for our middle-class
family.” A widowed mother of
three children calculated that
the proposal would cost her
an additional $8,000 a year—
“not sustainable for me as a
single mom.”
Meantime, the share of the
U.S. population 65 and older
is growing rapidly. A majority
of seniors will likely require
long-term care-giving support
at some point, which costs on
average about $60,000 annu-
ally on a full-time basis.
Au pairs could provide sup-
port at a fraction of the cost,
living with seniors and assist-
ing with such tasks as bathing,
meal preparation and trans-
have to mention his weak on
crime, fence-killing, sanctu-
ary-city-enabling presidency?
Vice President Kamala Har-
ris recently said “nobody
should have to go to jail for
smoking weed” at a roundta-
ble with rapper Fat Joe.
Funny, because as San Fran-
cisco District Attorney from
2004 to 2011, she notched
more than 1,900 marijuana
convictions.
Media progressives provide
rationalizations. In March,
former Wikimedia Foundation
head Katherine Maher began
as CEO of National Public Ra-
dio. Bad choice. Her principles
seem to include redefining the
truth to fit any principles.
In a 2022 TED talk, she
said: “For our most tricky dis-
agreements, seeking the truth
and seeking to convince oth-
ers of the truth might not be
the right place to start. In
fact, our reverence for the
truth might be a distraction
that’s getting in the way of
finding common ground and
getting things done.”
From the same speech:
“Part of the reason we have
such glorious chronicles to
the human experience in all
forms of culture is that we ac-
knowledge there are many dif-
ferent truths.” My truth: I
don’t listen to NPR.
Changing principles and
truth-bending will never die.
Which reminds me of Grou-
cho’s supposed last words,
“Die my dear? Why that’s the
last thing I’ll do.”
Write to kessler@wsj.com.
ruary he submitted to Con-
gress a mega-reform bill
named the Law of Bases and
Starting Points for the Free-
dom of Argentines. It would
have cleared the way to sell
40 state-owned companies;
enact political, judicial, educa-
tion and tax reforms; and
open public infrastructure to
private investment. It was just
what Argentina needs.
But his Liberty Advances
party is a minority in Con-
gress, and that made the bill
politically impossible in its
entirety. When Congress coun-
tered with a diluted version of
the law, a miffed Mr. Milei
pulled it.
Now he’s left with only un-
tenable fiscal cuts and his use
of inflation to reduce the dol-
lar value of Argentine debt,
both of which threaten to in-
duce many months of pain
and scare away investors. Af-
ter a benchmark interest rate
cut last week, Goldman Sachs
noted that “the central bank
has opted to deepen financial
repression as a tool to clean
its balance sheet.” To the ex-
tent it’s working, it’s also eat-
ing away at household dispos-
able income, the investment
bank said.
None of this is good for the
visionary president, who
needs to break the strangle-
hold of special interests in a
dysfunctional legislature and
needs popular support to do
it. If he doesn’t change course,
he could easily turn out to be
one more mediocre Argentine
president—or worse. Mr.
Milei’s government needs sta-
ble money, and fast.
Write to O’Grady@wsj.com.
portation. While they couldn’t
replace medically trained
home-health aides, au pairs
could provide companionship
and physical help.
Expanding the program to
include senior care wouldn’t
solve the entire care-giving
shortage, but it could provide
meaningful relief to tens of
thousands of seniors annually.
This would come at no addi-
tional cost to taxpayers while
offering qualified foreigners
the opportunity to experience
life in America.
In its proposal, the State
Department acknowledges
that there’s “broad satisfac-
tion with the au pair program
among current au pairs and
alumni.” Instead of trying to
fix what isn’t broken, the ad-
ministration should give more
families the chance to host an
au pair. Generations of grand-
parents, parents and children
could benefit.
Ms. Shapiro is a senior fel-
low and Ms. Bolar director of
storytelling at the Indepen-
dent Women’s Forum.
Monday, April 29, 2024 | A15
BOOKSHELF | By Malcolm Forbes
Finding Poetry
In the Trenches
Muse of Fire
By Michael Korda
Liveright, 400 pages, $29.99
W
orld War I has passed out of living memory, but its
carnage remains seared in our minds. For the
writer Michael Korda, “we still live amid its ruins,
its errors of judgment, and its fatal consequences.” If we
don’t easily forget the vivid details and images of the
Western Front—the no-man’s-land danger zones, the
squalid trenches and quagmire battlefields, the individual
suffering and wholesale slaughter—this is in great part due
to the poets who experienced it and then, in their own way,
conveyed it. “The rank stench of those bodies haunts me
still, / And I remember things I’d best forget,” wrote
Siegfried Sassoon in 1916.
A year later, in one of the most famous poems from the
war, “Dulce et Decorum Est,” Wilfred Owen described a
recurring vision of a soldier dying in a gas attack: “In all
my dreams before my help-
less sight, / He plunges at
me, guttering, choking,
drowning.” That vision
would only have tormented
Owen until 1918: He was
killed in action on Nov. 4, a
week before the armistice.
In his book “Muse of Fire,”
Mr. Korda explores the lives—
most of them short—of six
men, five of them British, who
went to war and presented it
in their poems as either a
glorious, heroic enterprise or,
as hostilities ground on, a
relentless, merciless hell. The
latter perspective was available
to readers, the author explains, because unlike photo-
graphs, letters and newspaper reports from the front line,
poems about the war were not censored. Mr. Korda, who
has written numerous books about men at war, expertly
traces his poets’ shifts in outlook and subject matter, and
along the way showcases candid, visceral verse that has
lost none of its power to shock and move.
The first poet in the spotlight is Rupert Brooke, who
made a name for himself before war broke out. Handsome,
athletic, intelligent and well-connected, Brooke wrote popu-
lar patriotic poems about a serene, pastoral England—a
green and pleasant land about to be transformed by the
cataclysm to come. Brooke greeted the conflict with enthu-
siasm, and his war sonnets that secured his reputation
encouraged young men to embrace the cause and take the
plunge, “as swimmers into cleanness leaping.” Not that
Brooke was able to immerse himself. He died before he saw
combat, from blood poisoning in 1915 on a ship bound for
Gallipoli, and was buried on the Greek island of Skyros.
Winston Churchill wrote his obituary, singling out his valor
and his sacrifice. Some weeks before, the dean of St. Paul’s
Cathedral had read Brooke’s poem “The Soldier” in his
sermon from the pulpit. The first soldier poet to die in the
war quickly became an effective recruitment tool for it.
Another poet who viewed the war as a grand adventure
was New York-born Alan Seeger. Rudderless after graduat-
ing from Harvard, Seeger found direction and purpose
when he moved to Paris and enlisted in the Foreign Legion
to fight for France. “Amid the clash of arms I was at
peace,” he wrote. He witnessed the fighting at its worst,
both in battle and in the trenches, yet remained upbeat.
“And it was our pride and boast to be / The instruments of
Destiny,” he declared in his poem “The Hosts.” Killed in
action in 1916, Seeger was the last of his kind to chase
glory and paint the war in a favorable light. “After him,”
notes Mr. Korda, “the poet’s task would be to describe
what no one wanted to imagine and to speak what no one
wanted to hear.”
The poet Rupert Brooke sang the praises of
young men about to be plunged into World
War I. He died on his way to the front.
Isaac Rosenberg carried out this task with aplomb. He
joined the army in 1915 to escape poverty. He was picked
on for being Jewish and was plagued by ill-health (accord-
ing to Mr. Korda, the young man was only accepted for
service because the government was “desperate for cannon
fodder”). But Rosenberg accepted his lot and got on with
the job of enduring the horrors of trench life. With lines
like “The wheels lurched over sprawled dead / But pained
them not, though their bones crunched” and “A man’s
brains splattered on / A stretcher-bearer’s face” from one
of his finest poems, “Dead Man’s Dump,” Rosenberg’s
startlingly direct style matter-of-factly reflected the raw
brutality of the soldier’s experience.
Mr. Korda’s chapters on Sassoon and Owen show how
those poets developed an even tougher stance and wrote
with anger, sadness and bitter sarcasm about the senseless
loss of lives and the ignorance and incompetence of
generals and politicians. In the pages that cover the men’s
convalescence in Edinburgh, Mr. Korda gives a fascinating
account of a budding friendship and charts Owen’s trajec-
tory from a good poet to arguably the greatest of the World
War I poets, and, what Mr. Korda calls, “the spokesman for
a martyred generation.”
It is unfortunate, then, that a poet of such esteem is not
afforded pride of place in “Muse of Fire.” Instead, Mr.
Korda devotes one third of the book to Brooke, giving us
the young man in the run-up to war: his complex love life,
his far-flung travels, his movements in exalted company
and bohemian circles. While the calm-before-the-storm
detail is informative, this chunk of narrative renders the
book’s subtitle, “World War I as Seen Through the Lives of
the Soldier Poets,” a misnomer. By contrast, Robert Graves
barely materializes as a poet in this account, which draws
more on Graves’s memoir, “Goodbye to All That,” than it
does his verse.
Otherwise, this is a compelling and well-wrought study.
Mr. Korda serves up a winning blend of history and biogra-
phy with discussion of a remarkable range of poems that
take us from an idyllic England in a “foreign field” to the
blood-soaked, churned-up battlefield; from Brooke’s—in
Rosenberg’s words—“begloried sonnets” to Owen’s anthems
for doomed youth. “Muse of Fire” enlarges our understand-
ing of these men and gives us a renewed appreciation of
their work. At the same time, it prompts us to contemplate
the potential that was robbed and the talent that was
wasted by the so-called war to end all wars.
Mr. Forbes’s work has appeared in the Times Literary
Supplement, the Economist and other publications.
A16 | Monday, April 29, 2024 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

OPINION
REVIEW & OUTLOOK LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Lina Khan Wears Prada Sen. Rubio Replies on Military Aid to Ukraine

I
t’s hard not to chuckle at the Federal Trade The agency’s definition also leaves out brands “The Politics of Ukraine Are Even migrants unconnected to gangs
Commission’s lawsuit last week seeking to that don’t offer periodic discounts. “Louis Vuit- Changing” (April 25), but not as the are draining public resources by com-
editorial board suggests. While some peting for scarce housing, jobs and
block luxury fashion firms Tapestry and ton, Prada, and Gucci all have a very public no-
votes have shifted in Washington, hospital beds.
Capri from merging in the discounting policy,” the FTC public sentiment has moved the other Last fall I made it clear I would
name of protecting America’s The FTC hits comedic says. The FTC adds that “true way. Some of this has to do with the send taxpayer dollars to Ukraine if—
working class. Perhaps in heights in fighting a luxury” brands have “affluent, situation in Ukraine. Most of it has to and only if—the president began to
Chair Lina Khan’s elite circles high-wealth consumers” in do with the situation in America. protect Americans from this invasion.
folks who shop at Jimmy Choo luxury goods merger. “contrast to the millions of Nearly nine million people have But the president didn’t act. In fact,
think of themselves as the working- and middle-class cli- entered this country illegally since we’re headed for another record year
proletariat. entele” who buy Coach, Kate Joe Biden became president. For of illegal immigration. Meanwhile,
Like many businesses these days, luxury Spade, and Michael Kors handbags. some Americans, namely those seek- Democrats smuggled $3.5 billion for
fashion brands face headwinds from higher in- Most of the FTC’s evidence about market ing cheap labor or future voters, this organizations that facilitate illegal
terest rates, rent and labor costs. Capri Hold- share and customer demographics is redacted is cause for celebration. But for many immigration into the Israel section of
others, especially those seeing their the “Ukraine bill.”
ings and Tapestry hope that combining will in- from its public complaint. But anyone who has
wages undercut or their communities My constituents elected me to rep-
crease their leverage with advertisers and bought a handbag knows there is no shortage of overwhelmed by lawless migrants, resent their interests in Washington.
commercial landlords. Capri owns Versace, brands with a variety of price points. Many this is cause for concern. They want to know why 79 members
Jimmy Choo and Michael Kors. Tapestry owns brands like Kate Spade and Coach have loyal cus- Count me among the concerned. of Congress would send money to de-
Kate Spade, Coach and Stuart Weitzman. tomer bases for reasons unrelated to price. Thanks to President Biden’s refusal to fend Ukraine’s border when their own
They also hope to compete more effectively This may be why the FTC makes the fall- enforce Trump-era immigration poli- president won’t defend their border.
against European luxury fashion powerhouse back argument that the deal would harm labor cies, the Venezuelan prison gang Tren I’m glad I can tell them I wasn’t one
LVMH, which boasts Louis Vuitton, Dior, Marc competition. “Post acquisition, the combined de Aragua is taking root in major U.S. of those 79.
Jacobs and other brands. LVMH had $92.2 bil- Tapestry and Capri would employ roughly cities. This means more sex traffick- SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R., FLA.)
lion in revenue last year—nearly eight times 33,000 employees worldwide,” the FTC says. ing, murder, drugs and extortion. Miami
more than Capri and Tapestry combined. “Hourly workers stand to lose the benefits of
No bureaucratic worries. The FTC pulls the higher wages and more favorable workplace
old antitrust trick of redefining the luxury conditions.”
market to discover competitive harm. The The agency is redefining antitrust law to in- How Much Immunity Does a President Get?
agency claims the merger will harm competi- clude employment when its legal justification In “What’s at Stake in the Trump Since prosecutors and judges are
tion in the “accessible luxury” and “afford- as interpreted by courts is consumer benefit. Immunity Case” (op-ed, April 25), Da- granted absolute official immunity,
able” handbag market. The agency describes In any case, as the FTC notes, most Tapestry vid Rivkin Jr. and Elizabeth Price Fo- they can pretty much do what they
handbags that retail for several hundred dol- and Capri handbags are made in Asia. Is the ley posit that presidential immunity wish to a U.S. president in a court-
lars as “affordable,” which they may be for an- agency trying to raise the wages of Asian textile is absolute to protect presidents from room without fear of personal reper-
titrust attorneys in Washington. Most middle- workers? This would raise the price of purses. being legally accountable for their of- cussion. That alone is a reason for
class Americans would consider them a In the U.S., Tapestry and Capri compete for re- ficial acts. They cite President Lin- presidential immunity. Without im-
coln’s suspension of the writ of ha- munity from that, who would want to
genuine luxury. tail workers against many companies, including
beas corpus, President Truman’s be president? We’ve already seen
The FTC excludes from its market definition Amazon and Target. There’s no evidence the unconstitutional seizing of steel how Mr. Trump has been harassed in
brands that don’t sell handbags through multi- deal will suppress U.S. wages. plants and other presidents’ unilater- criminal courts.
ple channels such as online websites and out- Europe and Japan have approved the merger, ally ordering military actions as prec- It isn’t sufficient for the Supreme
lets. “Chanel and Hermes even go so far as to which is more evidence that the FTC lawsuit edent for presidential immunity. Court to rule that presidents aren’t
never sell certain handbags online—a customer comes out of left field. There’s no legal or eco- Conveniently overlooked is that immune from prosecution when
must go into a store to purchase a Chanel or nomic logic to the Khan FTC’s antitrust policy President Trump’s actions differ driven by personal motives. Many of-
certain Hermes bag,” the FTC explains. But other than that the only good merger is a dead greatly because they were intended ficial acts are politically motivated,
they’re still competitive luxury brands. merger. for his personal benefit—to remain in which can also be interpreted as per-
office. Lincoln, Truman and the oth- sonal. We see now how prosecutors
ers cited wouldn’t benefit from the are using that tack against Mr.
Watch Out for a Global Wealth Tax actions Mr. Rivkin and Ms. Foley
present to claim immunity for Mr.
Trump, but it could apply to any
president.

I
n our new socialist age, the demand to tax
and redistribute income is insatiable. The
latest brainstorm arrives in a proposal by
four countries in the G-20 group of nations to
impose a 2% wealth tax on the world’s billion-
aires. Don’t think this couldn’t happen.
“The tax could be designed as a minimum
levy equivalent to 2% of the wealth of the su-
per-rich,” write economic ministers of Ger-
many, Spain, Brazil and South Africa in the
Guardian. They say the levy would raise about
$250 billion a year from some 3,000 billion-
aires and “would boost social justice and in-
crease trust in the effectiveness of fiscal redis-
tribution.” The countries plan to float this at
the next G-20 meeting in June.
As you might expect, this would principally
be a tax raid on Americans, who are the most
numerous billionaires. It would also be taxation
without representation, since it would be a
body of global elites attempting to impose a
tax without having passed Congress.
Presumably, the plan is to have the G-20 en-
dorse the idea, including President Biden and
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. Then negotiate
a global tax deal that would wait until Demo-
crats control all of the U.S. government to ap-
prove it, even if that takes many years.
That’s more or less what Ms. Yellen has
done with her global minimum tax on corpo-
rations, and the four ministers are candid
in saying this is their model. The wealth tax
Richard Cordray Has No Regrets
“is a necessary third pillar that comple-
ments the negotiations on the taxation of
the digital economy and on a minimum cor-
porate tax of 15% for multinationals,” the
ministers write.
Ms. Yellen went along with the first two pil-
lars, though as we’ve written they subject Amer-
ican companies to foreign tax raids of the kind
the U.S. government has long opposed. An archi-
tect of the wealth tax idea is French socialist Ga-
briel Zucman, who was also behind Ms. Yellen’s
global minimum tax. Once a global wealth tax
is in place, you can be sure that billionaires
won’t be the last target.
The wealth-tax proposal underscores the
growing danger from the G-20, which is in-
creasingly at odds with U.S. interests. Founded
in 1999 after the Asian debt crisis, the G-20
is becoming a vehicle for the world’s left-wing
governments to gang up on the U.S. Germany
and Spain are run by parties of the left, and
the governments in Brazil and South Africa
are overtly anti-American.
The Biden Administration is run by liberal
internationalists who are happy to cede more
power to multilateral institutions. President
Biden is also campaigning on a wealth tax of
his own that would impose the highest tax
rates on Americans since before the Reagan
tax reform. For this crowd, taxing American
billionaires to redistribute income around the
world is all too imaginable.
Trump. Therein lies all the difference.
It makes no sense to give presidents,
or any officeholder, immunity for ac-
tions taken specifically for their per-
sonal benefit.
JOHN SWANEY
Malvern, Pa.
Work With Us on Responsible Gaming Policy
Isaac Rose-Berman’s essay “‘Re-
sponsible Gambling’ Campaigns Al-
ways Fail. That’s the Point” (Review,
April 13) makes the case for a variety
of actions to promote responsible
gaming, including research, education
and best practices. These are pre-
cisely the types of things the newly
created Responsible Online Gaming
Association was formed to do.
ROGA is an effort by seven of the
largest online-gaming companies to
promote responsible gaming. The
more than $20 million that ROGA
members are investing in indepen-
dent research initiatives and educa-
tion programs will help develop evi-
Will Government Regulate
U.S. Hydropower to Death?
Your editorial “Texas Gets a Spring
Energy Scare” (April 16) underscores
the need for a diversified energy grid.
The January cold snap in the Pacific
Northwest revealed the pivotal role
of hydroelectric power in maintaining
Presidents and vice presidents
need broad immunity, and the Su-
preme Court should prohibit constru-
ing a political motive as a personal
motive.
RICH BATEY
Aliso Viejo, Calif.
dence-based best practices that can
be used across the industry.
Responsible gaming policies
should be based on peer-reviewed re-
search, and ROGA will support these
efforts. It also will create a data
clearinghouse that will allow the in-
dustry to share information and de-
velop an independent certification
program that will arm consumers
with the information they need to
make informed decisions.
These are meaningful steps toward
educating and empowering consum-
ers. We know there is much work
ahead, but instead of criticizing
ROGA’s responsible-gaming efforts
before they have begun in earnest,
perhaps Mr. Rose-Berman should con-
sider working with us to advance
them.
JENNIFER SHATLEY
Responsible Online Gaming Association
Las Vegas
Give Europe Incentive to Lead
John Deni and Lisa Aronsson out-

A
grid reliability. As wind turbines
line the ways in which our European
merican parents and taxpayers received aid offers from colleges and don’t know when froze and solar panels went dark, the
allies can overcome the obstacles to
some rare good news on Friday when they will. region’s hydropower prevented a po-
doing more to help Ukraine militarily
the Biden Administration announced The Fafsa fiasco reprised the chaotic restart tential grid collapse.
in its struggle with Russia (“Now It’s
that Richard Cordray will step of student-loan payments last As electricity demand is spiking
Up to Europe to Take the Lead in
down as Federal Student Aid The federal student aid autumn after the three-and-a- due to AI needs and population
Ukraine,” op-ed, April 25). But these
growth, regulations are unfortunately
chief. The Elizabeth Warren chief leaves after an half-year pandemic pause. Mr. prompting a record number of hydro
obstacles, entirely self-made, won’t
protege has a record of incom- Cordray slashed funding for be overcome if we build up our per-
plants to surrender their licenses.
petence rarely matched in historic run of failure. student-loan servicers, which Compliance costs are simply unsus-
manent presence in Europe as they
government, which deserves had to lay off employees and also advocate.
tainable. As we learn from Texas and
recognition on his way out. limit call-center hours. After For the Europeans to do more, we
the Northwest, this country requires
need to do less—or at least make our
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona had the Supreme Court struck down President Bi- a resilient renewable energy frame-
own help contingent on the Europe-
nothing but praise for Mr. Cordray, his deputy, den’s first loan forgiveness plan last year, Mr. work where hydro is integral.
ans taking the lead. Our security free-
which is the habit of an Administration that cel- Cordray gave servicers a mere three months to The same incentives from which
rider friends need incentives to share
ebrates the Afghan withdrawal as a triumph. He prepare borrowers for making payments again. wind and solar benefit must be ex-
the burden, not more reasons to let
saluted Mr. Cordray for his “three years of ser- Many accounts had been moved to new ser- tended to hydroelectric power. Addi-
the U.S. pay their bills. Our European
tionally, we need regulatory reform
vice, in which he accomplished more transfor- vicers during the pandemic, and the agency allies are much richer and more nu-
to reduce the burden on hydropower
mational changes to the student aid system didn’t ensure that borrower data was fully producers, ensuring that this carbon-
merous than are the Russians menac-
than any of his predecessors” and “undertook transferred. ing them and attacking Ukraine.
neutral, clean-energy source is viable
the work of fixing the broken student loan sys- At the same time he ordered servicers to EM. PROF. HARVEY M. SAPOLSKY
and contributes to a stable energy
tem programs.” stand up the department’s new SAVE income- Massachusetts Institute of
future.
Technology
What he means is that Mr. Cordray cancelled based repayment plans without providing them PAUL MEEKS
Belmont, Mass.
a record amount of student debt. Mr. Cordray the data to do so. This caused more confusion. President, Worthington Products
was Sen. Warren’s inside man to prioritize stu- Mr. Cordray then dunned servicers for failing Canton, Ohio
dent-debt cancellation and punish private com- to send timely billing statements.
panies. He may have cost taxpayers more Far from apologizing, Mr. Cordray boasted Pepper ...
money than any single bureaucrat in history Friday that he “made it easier for people to ap- Barbarians Within the Gates And Salt
with his debt write-offs. ply for and manage federal student aid.” Fail- Regarding William McGurn’s “The
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
That work apparently left little time for Mr. ure is now defined as success. Fafsa comple- Obnoxious ‘Genocide Joe’ Protesters”
Cordray to manage the rollout of the new Free tions among high school seniors are down 29% (Main Street, April 16): Unlike the an-
Application for Federal Student Aid (Fafsa), compared to last year and 34% for schools that tiwar party crashers of 1968, the inti-
which has turned into a debacle. Congress gave enroll more low-income students. fada wing of today’s Democratic Party
include credentialed national dele-
Mr. Cordray’s office three years to launch a new Mr. Cordray also touted his $153 billion in
gates. My bet is the disruptions in-
supposedly simplified Fafsa, but the rollout was debt forgiveness. His changes to the Public side the convention hall steal the
delayed for months. When the new form finally Service Loan Forgiveness plan cancelled debt spotlight from those outside it.
launched in December, most parents and stu- after 10 years for government and nonprofit SEAN WALSH
dents couldn’t access it for weeks because the workers, even if they weren’t making pay- Denver
system kept freezing. ments for much of that time. They have re-
Then the agency disclosed it hadn’t adjusted ceived on average roughly $72,000 in taxpayer
Letters intended for publication should
data for inflation, though it was alerted to this forgiveness gifts. be emailed to wsj.ltrs@wsj.com. Please
error months earlier. The agency next revealed While failing parents and students, Mr. include your city, state and telephone
it had sent incorrect student information to col- Cordray helped the government-worker class. number. All letters are subject to
leges and would have to reprocess the data. His career is the Biden Administration’s educa- editing, and unpublished letters cannot
be acknowledged.
Many students still haven’t received financial tion record in profile. “Good game.”
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
At Columbia,
Israel Backers
Are Outside
Looking In
By Emma Osman
N
New York
aomi, a sophomore at Colum-
bia’s Barnard College, can
hear the chants and drum-
beats from her room. “I hear ‘Inti-
fada,’ ‘From the River, To the Sea,’
all of that,” she says, gesturing down
the block toward her dorm. “Noth-
ing’s being done. . . . The school has
lost all control.”
An ignorant mob occupies
the campus. On the street
nearby, a diverse crowd
stands for humanity.
Naomi doesn’t have to be here. A
week ago, on the first day of Pass-
over, the university moved to “hy-
brid” classes—in-person attendance
is optional—for the rest of the term.
Naomi had already gone home after
the rabbi of Columbia’s Orthodox
Union Jewish Learning Initiative
urged Jewish students to leave for
fear of their safety. “I was falling
apart, honestly,” she says.
Yet on Friday morning she was
back, standing proudly among Israeli
flags at a rally outside the campus
gates, which are closed to outsiders.
“There’s this mindset of, ‘Why do we
have to leave? We’re not causing any
problems. We just want to do our
work.’ ” She’s brave, but given the
campus climate, not brave enough to
be identified by her last name,
which she declines to give after
thinking it over.
We stand amid the crowd, listen-
ing as relatives of hostages and local
Jewish leaders speak a few hundred
feet away from the campus anti-Is-
rael encampment. Unlike the masked
occupiers on campus, the pro-Israel
crowd stands barefaced, peacefully
chanting “Bring Them Home” be-
tween speakers.
Many are neighbors of the univer-
sity who’ve come to show their sup-
port for beleaguered Jewish students.
Kobi Cohen, 47, an Israeli New
Yorker, stands with his 16-year-old
son. He’s quick to say he doesn’t sup-
port Benjamin Netanyahu’s govern-
ment. But then he gestures toward
the tents on campus and sighs.
Standing among posters of terrorists,
the anti-Israeli protesters don’t seem
to have a deep understanding of the
conflict, Mr. Cohen says. Naomi
agrees: “They’re just voicing hostility
and antisemitism. . . . I mean, these
protests are literally endorsed by
Hamas and the ayatollah.”
An older resident, Barbara Lass,
holds a sign with a photo of a hostage
and wears a Star of David necklace.
She invokes John Lennon’s “Revolu-
tion”: “They’re standing on a corner
passing out literature about Mao to
unsuspecting young people,” she
says. “I graduated in 1968. I’ve seen
all of this before, but it’s new and im-
proved. . . . These young Americans
are now actually defining themselves
by their victimhood.”
It’s a diverse crowd. Rallygoers of
all ages and ethnicities hold flags of
Israel, the U.S. and other nations
whose citizens are hostages in Gaza.
“We are not a counterprotest,” a
speaker says. “We are for humanity,”
Leat Unger, a Columbia alumna
whose cousin, 21-year-old Omer Shem
Tov, was abducted at the Nova music
festival and hasn’t been returned,
speaks directly to the anti-Israeli pro-
testers through a megaphone: “If you
believe in human rights and stand for
humanity, you will demand to bring
them home.”
After weeks of watching from afar
as the hateful, menacing protests
rage on campuses across the coun-
try, Friday morning’s rally made me
hopeful. New York’s Jewish people
won’t be cowed by an ignorant, hate-
ful mob, no matter how much noise
it makes.
Ms. Osman is an assistant social
media editor for the Journal edito-
rial page.
PUBLISHED SINCE 1889 BY DOW JONES & COMPANY
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Executive Chairman, News Corp
Rupert Murdoch
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Congress Leads on Iran Sanctions
By Andrew Ghalili
A
id to Ukraine and Israel got
more attention, but the same
package of national-security
bills contained an important provi-
sion expanding sanctions against
Iran. Iran’s missile and drone as-
sault on Israel this month solidified
support for the measures, which
will exact a devastating economic
toll on the regime and help thwart
the Biden administration’s sanc-
tions-relief effort.
Four of the aid package’s most
significant Iran-related provisions
are the Mahsa Amini Human Rights
and Security Accountability Act,
known by the acronym Mahsa; the
Stop Harboring Iranian Petroleum,
Act, or SHIP; the Holding Iranian
Leaders Accountable Act, and the
Iran-China Energy Sanctions Act.
Two of these bills target high-level
officials in the Islamic Republic.
The other two support the U.S. po-
sition on Iran’s largest source of
foreign income: its petroleum in-
dustry. Rep. Mike Lawler (R., N.Y.),
sponsor of the SHIP Act, said: “We
will finally begin to cut off Iran’s
funding for terror at its source—its
illicit oil trade.”
The Islamic Republic has been
war-mongering for decades, and its
threats and actions have ramped up
amid America’s accommodating pol-
icy. Iran’s military spending, oil ex-
ports, nuclear progress and domes-
tic repression all correlate with U.S.
policy. Since 2020 the U.S. and its
European allies have let the sunset
clauses in the Iran nuclear deal and
United Nations Security Council
Resolution 2231 take effect. The
West has failed to deter Tehran
On Columbia University and Coach Handbags
Accessible luxury.
That’s how the Fed-
eral Trade Commis-
sion described the
market for Coach,
Kate Spade and Mi-
chael Kors hand-
LIFE
bags in an antitrust
SCIENCE
lawsuit last week.
By Allysia
It’s also an apt epi-
Finley
thet for elite uni-
versities.
Consumers pay hefty prices for ac-
cessible luxury handbags not because
they’re of superior quality but be-
cause their brands indicate status.
The same is true of the Ivy League,
which, like purveyors of expensive
purses, uses selective discounting—
financial aid—to make its product ac-
cessible to those who aspire to a
higher status.
A Columbia degree is a lot like a
Coach handbag in this regard. Would
consumers and high-school students
endure pocketbook pain if their once-
desired products lost their prestige?
Probably not.
It may be premature to call the
anti-Israel protests and assaults on
Jewish students on campuses across
the country a tipping point. But
scenes that recall “Lord of the
Flies”—where the universities’ “best
and brightest” are behaving like bar-
barians—are prompting employers,
parents and high-school students to
rethink the value of their degrees.
Elite universities benefit from a
reinforcing feedback loop. The cream
of the high-school crop aspire to at-
tend because they expect a degree
will earn them entry into the highest
professional and social echelons. An
education from Columbia is no better
than one from many flagship state
colleges such as the University of
South Carolina in Columbia. But the
Ivy League’s brand is held in high es-
teem by employers.
Parents pay big bucks to send
their kids to these colleges because
they think they will be surrounded by
other smart and sophisticated stu-
dents. Prestigious employers are
more likely to hire grads from such
universities, who they assume are in-
telligent and conscientious.
A study last fall by Harvard and
Brown professors found that attend-
ing an elite college—an Ivy League
school, the University of Chicago,
Duke, Stanford or MIT—instead of a
selective public university increased
a student’s likelihood of reaching the
top 1% of the earnings distribution by
60%. It also nearly tripled his odds of
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Chief Executive Officer, News Corp
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OPINION
President Ebrahim Raisi looks at the gas field in Bushehr, Iran.
from advancing its nuclear program
and allowed sanctions to expire—in-
cluding the embargo against ballis-
tic-missile trade.
Iran’s bad behavior has become
more flagrant. President Biden has
eased the enforcement of some
The foreign-aid package
includes a series of new
sanctions, countering
Biden’s accommodation.
sanctions, such as those on Iran’s
oil trade, and waived others, such
as those on the revenue from Iran’s
electricity shipments to Iraq. This
has enriched the Islamic Republic.
The Biden administration’s ransom
payments for American detainees
working at a prestigious firm.
Graduates of these elite colleges
make up nearly half of Rhodes Schol-
ars, 26.1% of journalists at the New
York Times and Wall Street Journal,
and 71.4% of Supreme Court justices
appointed since 1967. Buying a col-
lege degree for its brand has histori-
cally paid off for students. The payoff
will shrink if employers think less of
the brand.
Elite colleges are supposed to sep-
arate the wheat from the chaff in
their application process. They are,
however, increasingly selecting stu-
dents for traits that many employers
don’t want, such as a passion for pro-
gressive activism.
Stanford University in 2017 admit-
ted Ziad Ahmed, who in response to
the application prompt “What mat-
ters to you, and why?” wrote
“#BlackLivesMatter” 100 times. “Ev-
eryone who reviewed your applica-
tion was inspired by your passion,
determination, accomplishments and
heart,” the university’s acceptance
letter read. “You are, quite simply, a
fantastic match with Stanford.” Mr.
Ahmed decided Yale was a better
match for him.
Elite colleges also may have deval-
ued their degrees in the eyes of em-
ployers during the pandemic when
Take the Under on Sports Betting
By Joseph Epstein
F
anatics Sportsbook, FanDuel,
ESPN BET, Circa Sports, Cae-
sars Sportsbook—why do I
find myself mildly perturbed by the
preponderance of gambling com-
mercials accompanying sports on
television?
“In action” is the term serious
gamblers use when they have a bet
going. To be out of action for such
gamblers is to be not quite alive.
Gambling can of course become a
crippling addiction, destroying
lives, crushing families. A woman I
know who was married first to an
alcoholic, then to a gambler, once
told me that the nice thing about
alcoholics is that at least they pass
out. Not so addicted gamblers, who
relentlessly stay in action.
I can’t claim ever to have had an
addiction to gambling, but during
my last two years of high school and
a bit beyond gambling was for me a
preoccupation. Along with a group
of 20 or so other boys, I played
poker, gin rummy (Hollywood, Okla-
homa, spades double), blackjack, and
a game of our own devising called
potluck. We didn’t shoot dice—or
craps as they were called—but we
did spend the occasional night at the
harness races in Maywood Park,
west of Chicago.
Then there were parlay cards, on
which one picked three college
football games with the appropriate
point spread. Getting all three right
paid 6 to 1. These were available
through fellow students and at cer-
tain newsstand kiosks in the city.
The center-field bleachers at Wrig-
ley Field allowed an afternoon of
gambling in the sun, the most pop-
ular bet of those days being “$2 no
reach,” for or against any runner
reaching second base during the
upcoming half inning. Home-run
Monday, April 29, 2024 | A17
sion within the community. Grass-
roots advocacy helped build
bipartisan support for the act and
sends a message to Tehran. The Ira-
nian diaspora has shown the U.S.
government that there is a strong
link between the regime’s political
abuses at home and its aggression
abroad—and that one can’t be
solved without the other.
The legislative package is a de-
feat for the Islamic Republic’s sup-
IRANIAN PRESIDENCY/ZUMA PRESS
porters in Washington and around
the world. Many in the diaspora
have falsely promoted themselves
as representatives of Iranian-Ameri-
cans or the voice of Iranians in Iran.
The pro-Tehran lobby was ascen-
dant during the Obama administra-
tion, but its influence is waning.
This is a promising trend for those
who understand that a peaceful
likewise encouraged Iran’s penchant Middle East is possible only if there
for hostage-taking. is a free Iran.
Fortunately Congress has decided Most Iranian-Americans don’t
to reclaim its role in keeping the see the interests of the two coun-
U.S. safe. By passing these mea- tries they love at odds. President
sures, lawmakers acknowledged Reagan said America’s greatest ally
Tehran’s alignment with Beijing and in the Cold War were the Soviet
Moscow. Congressional resolve subjects. This view is also true of
against this axis is a stark contrast the conflict between the U.S. and
with presidential inaction. the Islamic Republic. We want a
The recent legislative volley free Iran because we share Ameri-
moves Iran policy beyond nuclear can interests and honor American
and security matters into human- values.
rights and democracy promotion. This victory will encourage Ira-
The Mahsa Act will pressure, and in nian-Americans to keep making the
some cases mandate, the executive case for their oppressed brothers
branch to impose sanctions on key and sisters. As the U.S. moves to-
Islamic Republic entities and offi- ward reapplying pressure on the Is-
cials, including the supreme leader lamic Republic, it must also support
and president, for their human- the Iranian people.
rights abuses. Its passage shows
that Iranian-American advocacy Mr. Ghalili is a senior policy ana-
against the regime is solidifying de- lyst at the National Union for De-
spite Tehran’s efforts to sow divi- mocracy in Iran.
they made submitting SAT and ACT Dartmouth and some other Ivy
scores optional. This had the effect of League schools recently abandoned
lowering admissions standards, re- their test-optional policies after
sulting in the enrollment of less aca- finding that they harmed less-afflu-
demically qualified students. A recent ent students whom admissions offi-
study by Brown and Dartmouth pro- cers rated lower on fuzzier “per-
fessors found that the academic per- sonal” attributes. But might test-
formance of college students at elite optional policies also have resulted
universities who didn’t submit stan- in admitting more of the ignorant
activists now marching for the de-
struction of Israel?
A degree’s value, in both When Americans picture Ivy
League students, they don’t see sa-
money and status, depends vants. In many cases, they imagine
on the reputation of the sloths, bigots and bullies. Don’t be
surprised if many parents no longer
institution’s brand. are willing to spend a small fortune
for their children to attend school
with know-nothings—or if employers
dardized test scores was equivalent think twice about hiring Ivy League
to those who scored 1307 on the alumni.
SAT—more than 200 points lower I graduated from Stanford in 2009,
than the average score at most Ivy before young leftists turned belliger-
Leagues. ent and censorious en masse. While I
Professors at Dartmouth also don’t regret attending, I wonder
found that “under a test-optional whether I’d make the same choice to-
policy, about 31% of enrolled students day. Being in the ideological minority
have not submitted a score, and most can toughen your skin, but today’s
of the missing mass of the distribu- campus bullies can also beat students
tion is at a score of 1450 and below.” down. Is the abuse worth it?
This suggests that the test-score Remember: A Coach handbag is a
ranges colleges report are inflated, status symbol only if people think it
and that their students’ performance is. The same is true for a Columbia
has fallen in recent years. degree.
odds on every batter were avail- before dinner. The standard allow-
able. Around the fifth inning a gent ance for high-school boys at the
known as the junkman showed up time was $5 a week—but a fund
and allowed you to lay off your ear- had built up of perhaps $400,
lier bet on the outcome of the game which was gambled back and forth
with him. among the 20 regulars in our vari-
By my 20s I dropped away from ous games. The biggest single bet I
my preoccupation with gambling, ever made was $200 on the 1955
trading it in for an addiction to World Series. I had the Yankees
writing. One of my earliest articles, against the Brooklyn Dodgers—and
written for the Chicago Tribune lost. Ah, me, no business like show
magazine, was on Gamblers Anony- business.
mous, the gambling equivalent of All this comes back to me as I
Alcoholics Anonymous. At the five note the commercials for what are
or six Gamblers Anonymous meet- essentially bookies during sports
ings I attended, I remember a man broadcasts. In their inducements,
standing up to say: “You are looking each offers bettors special deals,
at the guy who broke the Los Ange- bonuses, complex bets on player
les Lakers’ 33-game winning performance, ultimately the attrac-
tion of staying in action nearly full
time. I’m pleased these advertise-
My gambling days are ments didn’t arrive during my
youthful gambling days, lest they
done. It’s a sure thing that had turned my preoccupation into a
the proliferation of legal full-fledged addiction. At the close
of some of their commercials, the
bookies won’t end well. tag line “Gamble responsibly” ap-
pears. Yeah, right.
I suppose the justification for
streak.” Another man told how, to these sports books in states that al-
put his wife off his gambling, he low them is that they add revenue
dabbed lipstick on his shirt collars, to the tax rolls. In Chicago, ex-
so that she might think he was Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s only known
spending money not at casinos but contribution is a vast casino, not
on a love affair. Another fellow yet built, in the heart of the city.
claimed that, looking about his The only argument for it was the
apartment, he thought the furniture taxes it would bring in. But along
seemed a bit shabby, so he called in with the taxes is the VLG, or vast
a furniture dealer, sold it all for local grief, it is likely to add to the
$600, which he took off to the Ar- city’s population. Can anyone doubt
lington Race Track that afternoon, that these various sports books will
hoping to win enough money to sur- result in heavily increased addic-
prise his wife with new furniture tion? Surely better ways of financ-
when she returned home from her ing governments are available than
job. Naturally he lost the $600. by impoverishing an ample segment
As for the stakes, for that day, of the citizenry.
for kids among my circle of gam-
blers, they weren’t insubstantial. Mr. Epstein is author, most re-
One could win or lose $50 or $60 cently, of “Never Say You’ve Had a
in a potluck game after school and Lucky Life.”
A18 | Monday, April 29, 2024 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

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 BUSINESS & FINANCE
© 2024 Dow Jones & Company. All Rights Reserved.
Last Week: S&P 5099.96 À 2.67%
Treasury Yields Add to Stock Fears Global
Power
Investors worry
recent rebound will
hamper further
increases in shares
BY JACK PITCHER
This month’s rise in long-
term interest rates is raising
investors’ anxiety about what
is next for the stock market.
Treasury yields touched
new 2024 highs this past week
after fresh data showed lin-
gering inflation. Wall Street
traders entered the year ex-
pecting the Federal Reserve to
cut rates a half-dozen times.
Now they are pricing in just
one. The yield on the bench-
mark 10-year note, which rises
as bond prices fall, has
climbed nearly a percentage
point from its February lows,
Permian Oil Extraction Lifts and Sinks Land
BY BENOÎT MORENNE
AND ANDREW MOLLICA
In a stretch of desert span-
ning West Texas and New Mex-
ico, drillers are pumping more
crude than Kuwait. The oil pro-
duction is so frenzied that huge
swaths of land are literally
sinking and heaving.
The land has subsided by as
much as 11 inches since 2015 in
a prime portion of the Permian
Basin, as drillers extract huge
amounts of oil and water, ac-
cording to a Wall Street Jour-
nal analysis of satellite data. In
other areas where drillers dis-
pose of wastewater in under-
ground wells, the land has
lifted by as much as 5 inches
over the same period.
The constant extraction and
injection of liquids has wrought
complex geologic changes,
which are raising concerns
among local communities long
supportive of oil and gas.
Earthquakes linked to water
disposal have rattled residents
and prompted state regulators
to step in. Some researchers
worry that wastewater might
end up contaminating scarce
drinking-water supplies.
“They’re affecting the geol-
ogy of the ground, the surface,”
Ty Edwards, a Pecos County,
Texas, resident who helps man-
age groundwater in the region,
said of oil producers. “That is
pretty wild.”
The tumultuous landscape is
a direct result of industrial-
scale drilling in the Delaware
portion of the Permian Basin.
Oil production has reached
nearly three million barrels of
Please turn to page B2
 Heard on the Street: Exxon
cements its lead............... B11
STREETWISE | By James Mackintosh
Investors Say Don’t
Shoot for the Moon,
Shoot for Profits
E
lon Musk got the
market’s memo.
Mark Zuckerberg
missed it. Cathie
Wood ignored it.
The message: Stop shooting
for the moon, and focus on
making money.
Last week brought home
what any competent chief
executive
should al-
ready
know
about
what in-
vestors
want, as Tesla shares soared
12% after disappointing first-
quarter results and Meta
Platforms shares plunged
11% after decent first-quar-
ter results.
Tesla gave investors what
they have been demanding,
pulling back from plans for
an all-new car platform to
speed up the launch of a line
of cheaper vehicles.
True, CEO Musk insisted
that only true believers in
* ** *
S&P FIN À 1.05% S&P IT À 5.11%
settling Friday at 4.668%.
Many investors worry re-
bounding yields will hamper
further gains, especially when
stocks are relatively expensive
compared with corporate
earnings.
Rising yields sparked steep
stock declines in 2022, cutting
into the added return inves-
tors receive in exchange for
the extra risk of holding
stocks instead of bonds, while
eroding the present value Wall
Street places on companies’
future profits.
Casting the tensions in
stark relief, stocks dropped
and yields surged Thursday
after weaker-than-expected
data on U.S. growth also
showed stronger-than-ex-
pected inflation. But shares
rebounded Friday, boosted by
strong earnings from compa-
nies including Google parent
Oil Field’s Ground Is Unsteady
Satellite data reveals the
impact of oil-and-gas drilling
on the Permian Basin’s
landscape; earthquakes,
pressure increases have
local communities worried.
Surface displacement,
from May 2015 to January 2024
SUBSIDED
−6 or less −4
NEW MEXICO
TEXAS
TEXAS
Red Bluff
Reservoir
A l
Angeles
Orla
*Excludes earthquakes with magnitudes less than 2.5.
Sources: SkyGeo (surface displacement); Enverus (oil production);
B3 Insight (water disposal); U.S. Energy Information Administration (basins boundaries);
U.S. Geological Survey (earthquakes)
Andrew Mollica - print design: Camille Bressange/THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
self-driving cars—something
he has been promising for
years, without delivering—
should be shareholders. But
investors were willing to
look past the idealism to the
pragmatic low-cost launch
plans, which should reduce
its capital spending needs.
Meta did the opposite. Its
sales were a little higher
than expected in the first
quarter, normally a good
sign. But investors who pan-
icked in 2022 about Zucker-
berg’s big-spending tenden-
cies—leading Meta to
reverse course and slash
jobs—were put on edge
again by its plan to sink bil-
lions of dollars more into ar-
tificial intelligence, even
while it guided to lower-
than-expected sales for this
quarter.
True, the gains and losses
after Tesla’s and Meta’s re-
sults were amplified because
they represented a reverse
of the huge moves this year
Please turn to page B11
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
DJ TRANS À 0.58% WSJ $ IDX À 0.12% 2–YR. TREAS. yield 4.998%
PCE price index, change
from a year earlier*
4.5%
10-year U.S. Treasury yield
4.8%
4.0 4.6
3.5 4.4
3.0 4.2
2.5 4.0
Monthly
2.0 3.8
March 2023 Jan. ’24 Jan. 2024
*Seasonally adjusted
Sources: Commerce Department via St. Louis Fed (index); Tradeweb ICE Closes (yield)
Alphabet and an as-antici- cutting in March and cutting
pated reading of the Fed’s pre- six times this year,” said Rick
ferred inflation gauge. Rieder, chief investment offi-
“Markets were overzealous cer of global fixed income at
to say the least about the Fed $10.5 trillion asset manager
Oil production in
the Permian Basin
N.M.
4 75 50 10
Permian Basin
TEXAS
Area of
2 Carlsbad
detail Delaware Basin
Delaware Basin
0 But renewable electricity
EXPANDED
−2 0 +2 +4 +6 inches 2013 ’15 ’17
In the Delaware Basin, the extraction
of huge volumes of oil and produced
water has caused the ground to
subside. Meanwhile, disposal
of wastewater underground has
caused it to expand, forcing the
ground upward as pressure increases.
From May 2015 to January 2017,
the ground deformed by more
than 2 inches in some places.
-11 inches By the time oil production hit
a record high in 2023, the land had
subsided by more than 11 inches
in some places compared with 2015.
It had expanded by over 5 inches.
Naturally, the ground usually shifts
+5 inches less than a tenth of an inch per year.
Oil extraction
and wastewater disposal
Storage pond
5 wide could use about as much
~1 m
~1 milee
Mentone
~33 m
miles
iles
~2 mi
miles
leeess
Oil-rich
Oil-rich
formation
formatio
forma
INSIDE Airlines and Hotels Are Seeing
A Comeback in Business Travel
BY ALISON SIDER
AND CHIP CUTTER
Thought you were done
traveling for work? Think
again.
Videoconferencing hasn’t
made in-person meetings obso-
BUSINESS NEWS lete. Scattered workforces have
Defense sector gets in some cases resulted in more
trips, not fewer. Companies are
a lift from Ukraine sending employees back on the
aid, but buybacks road again, driving business
draw criticism. B3 travel closer to prepandemic
levels.
Michael Wieder, co-founder
and president of Lalo, a baby-
products company, recently re-
turned from a weeklong trip to
Hong Kong and neighboring
cities in southern China, meet-
ing with manufacturers and
others. He noticed many hotels
were full of American business-
people. “You saw big teams of
people traveling back,” he said.
Wieder has more travel
planned soon to cities such as
Toronto and Las Vegas, with
HEARD ON THE another trip to Asia likely in
STREET the next two months. Some of
the travel is spurred by cus-
Anglo American can tomers who want to meet in
afford to be coy person again or attend trade
on BHP bid. B11 events or speak at conferences,
where in-person attendance is
NIKKEI 37934.76 À 2.34%
Monday, April 29, 2024 | B1
See more at WSJ.com/Markets
BlackRock. “Now there’s been
a complete reworking of that
thought process, and when
Demand
you go through that you get
markets that are very jumpy
looking for the next piece of
Surges on
information.”
Traders will get a new look
at the prospects for rates from
AI and AC
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell
at the conclusion of the cen- BY ED BALLARD
tral bank’s meeting Wednes-
day. Then attention will turn Renewable electricity is
to Friday’s jobs report for growing fast. The trouble is, it
clues about the health of the can’t keep up with growing
economy. The Treasury De- power demand.
partment also is set to release In the U.S., the new driver
April its latest quarterly borrowing is energy-guzzling artificial
plan this week, offering inves- intelligence.
tors a breakdown of how the Demand was already on the
government will borrow to rise to power electric vehicles,
plug its budget deficit. heat pumps and other devices
Many this year had largely designed to reduce fossil fuel
shrugged off rising yields, use.
thanks to a strong economy In the developing world,
Please turn to page B2 the boom is driven by indus-
trialization and basics like
lights and air conditioning.
That means more fossil fuels,
including coal, the worst
emissions offender.
“The reality is we can keep
adding renewables until we’re
6million barrels Water-disposal injection wells blue in the face and it won’t
a day in the Delaware Basin in 2023 be enough,” said Sumant
Cumulative volume start of 2010, Sinha, chief executive officer
millions of barrels of ReNew, one of India’s big-
gest renewable energy compa-
nies.
Rest of basin Hobbs
Here’s the state of play:
America’s power-sector
CCa
arrllsb d
emissions have declined as
natural gas and renewables
supplanted coal.
NEW
WM MEXICO
EXIC
XICCO
XI O
TTEXAS
ASS that is soaked up by new driv-
TEXAS
TEX
TTE
EEXAS
EXA
XA
X AS
AS
’19 ’21 ’23 ers of demand can’t be used to
clean up polluting sectors
PPecos
ecos
coos
os
such as transportation and in-
4.0 and
an
ndd greater
g eater
e
er dustry.
earthquakes
earthqu uakes
es Factories producing micro-
Delaware Basin chips, electric vehicles and
Fo batteries are fueling demand
Stoc
growth. That shows little sign
of slowing.
Earthquakes in the Delaware
Samsung will more than
Basin by magnitude*
double its semiconductor in-
200 vestment in Texas to $44 bil-
lion, The Wall Street Journal
2.5 to 2.99 reported this month.
150 The wild card is AI, which
3.0 to 3.49
uses more energy than con-
3.5 to 3.99 ventional computing.
4.0 and greater Precise data on AI’s power
100
usage is scant, and it isn’t
clear how the technology will
evolve.
50 But a 2023 paper by data
4 scientist Alex de Vries esti-
3
mated that AI servers world-
QUARTERLY
0 power as a midsize economy
2010 ’15 ’20 ’24 such as the Philippines or
Sweden by 2027.
1 Water is used to fracture
Groundwater In the U.S., with the most
the oil reservoir.
1 data centers, their share of
2 Oil and water flow back. electricity consumption could
2 rise from 4% in 2022 to 6% in
3 Crude is piped to refineries.
2026, the International Energy
4 Wastewater is separated. Agency says.
Some water is reused for AI could add 8% to the
fracking. Please turn to page B10
i h sshale
hhale
al with
ith
5 Wastewater is disposed of
orm
mation water
ma waater underground. The depth of  Investors cheer AI
injection wells varies. spending boom................. B10
CARLOS BERNATE FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Hilton Worldwide Holdings says that demand from small and
medium-size companies is already above 2019 levels.
once again the norm. who are among the travel in-
Many companies got by dustry’s most lucrative custom-
without business travel during ers are hitting the road again.
the Covid-19 pandemic, and Airlines reported big in-
some industry observers pre- creases in revenues from cor-
dicted they would permanently porate accounts in the first
adapt. While vacationers quarter, with Delta Air Lines
flocked back to airports in re- and United Airlines both re-
cent years, big corporations porting a 14% bump from a
were more reticent, facing the year ago. Alaska Air said cor-
logistical challenges of remote porate travel sales rose 22% in
work and economic uncertainty the first quarter, back to pre-
that cut into travel budgets. pandemic levels, led by tech
Airlines and hotels say that companies and professional
is changing. The banks, tech services firms. United said it
companies and consultants Please turn to page B4
 B2 | Monday, April 29, 2024 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

BUSINESS & FINANCE

Yield Rise that extent, there’s nothing

wrong with some steam com-
ing out.”
benefit from low rates in the
long run. I think they are all
vulnerable.”

Adds to On Friday, exuberant inves-

tors were once again piling
into big tech, the bedrock of
Many on Wall Street still
expect yields to retreat by De-
cember, as inflation moder-

Stock Fears recent market gains. The S&P

500’s communications-ser-
vices sector soared 4.7%, and
ates again. Goldman Sachs
economists have pushed back
their rate-cut expectations
Alphabet and Micro- but still expect two this year.
Continued from page B1 soft posted BlackRock’s
boosting companies’ earnings, outsize climbs Rieder believes
said Steve Sosnick, chief strat- after reporting yields are likely
egist at Interactive Brokers. growing prof- Increasing to fall by year-
That is one reason the S&P its. Treasury yields end, either be-
500 closed Friday about 2.9% If rates re- cause the Fed
below its March 28 record main high, then sparked steep has cut bench-
high. It remains up 6.9% for the more spec- mark rates or
stock declines
JUSTIN HAMEL FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

the year. ulative parts of signaled that it

But the climb has stretched
valuations. Companies in the
S&P 500 traded Friday at
about 24 times their past 12
months of earnings, well
above the 10-year average of
roughly 20 times. And the
combination of slowing
growth and higher-than-ex-
pected inflation in Thursday’s
Concentrated volumes of wastewater increase pressure underground, making drilling harder. report suggested the outlook
might be gloomier than many
the market and
shares of some
tech companies
with very high
valuations give Kelly pause.
“Over time, high rates will
undermine some of the most
spurious bets made in finan-
cial markets,” he said. “Cryp-
tocurrencies, gold, or some of
the growth stocks that would
in 2022. will. But in the
short term, he
expects contin-
ued volatility
and potential spikes in yields.
“My sense is by the end of
the year these rates will come
down, but in the near term,
people are cautious. There’s a
tremendous amount of uncer-
tainty,” Rieder said.

Land Sinks day, companies there churn out

roughly one-quarter of all U.S.
crude production.
sequent drilling. But there is a
catch: The water can cause
deep-rooted faults to slip, cre-
had hoped.
“Equities have been able to
withstand stronger yields be-
‘Challengers’ Beats Competitors

And Rises As a result, the volume of

briny, polluted water that com-
panies have to handle has sky-
ating earthquakes.
The number of earthquakes
in the Permian with magnitudes
cause it was predicated on a
stronger economy,” said Sos-
nick. “This looks more worri-

In Permian rocketed. In 2013, companies

discarded about 382 million
barrels of water, according to
greater than 2.5 jumped from 42
in 2017 to 671 in 2022, according
to B3 Insight. In late 2022, a 5.4-
some. If inflation spooks the
bond market further, that will
be problematic.”

METRO GOLDWYN MAYER PICTURES/ASSOCIATED PRESS

water analytics firm B3 Insight. magnitude earthquake in Reeves Other challenges for bonds
Continued from page B1 Last year, they injected about County, Texas, sent tremors felt lie ahead, too. The U.S. gov-
oil a day there, cementing the 3.4 billion barrels of water as far as Dallas, El Paso and San ernment is selling new debt
U.S.’s status as an energy down disposal wells. That is Antonio, where it damaged a at a record clip, raising wor-
power and fueling the region’s about as much water as New historical building. ries that markets will struggle
economic engine. York City consumes in roughly Texas regulators have im- to absorb the incoming rush.
Alongside crude, oil-and-gas five months. posed restrictions on injection A selloff sparked by a hot
companies are extracting gar- Frackers inject most of this volumes in the region, and the reading of the consumer-price
gantuan amounts of subterra- water down wells that reach number of magnitude-3.5 index intensified this month
nean water—in the Delaware, about a mile under the surface, earthquakes and higher has after lackluster demand for a
between five and six barrels of which is convenient and rela- come down. Local communities $39 billion sale of 10-year
water are produced, on aver- tively cheap. Drilling clusters of are gearing up for more shakes. Treasurys. Higher yields on
age, for every barrel of oil. To injection wells means compa- In Pecos City, a city of about short-dated debt have also
dispose of it, they inject bil- nies don’t have to build expen- 13,000 in West Texas, around made longer-dated bonds less ‘Challengers’ topped the box office in its opening weekend.
lions of barrels of putrid waste- sive pipelines to link disposal 145 municipal employees will attractive, making them more
water into underground dis- sites together. But concen- receive earthquake-prepared- volatile. Estimated Box-Office Figures, Through Sunday
posal wells. trated volumes of water in- ness training, said City Man- The combination of factors Sales, In Millions
Some scientists say the crease pressure underground, ager Charles Lino. makes the outlook less rosy Film Distributor Weekend* Cumulative % Change
ground displacement, shown in which then makes it more diffi- “That is the necessity we than bullish investors had Amazon
data provided by Earth obser- cult for companies to drill have to live with,” he said. hoped for at the start of the 1. Challengers MGM $15.0 $15.0 —
vation company SkyGeo, could down through those levels to Drillers said they are allo- year, but it remains far from Studios
impact infrastructure such as shale rocks. cating more cash and brain a disaster, said David Kelly,
roads. But what frackers and Companies are having to power to navigate pressure and chief global strategist at J.P. 2. Unsung Hero Lionsgate $7.8 $7.8 —
researchers are most con- make significant adjustments seismicity issues. Chevron has Morgan Asset Management. Godzilla x Kong: Warner
3. $7.2 $181.7 -25
cerned about are the forces because of the pressure changes. formalized a team with a bud- “I still believe the economy The New Empire Bros.
pushing the ground up. Occidental Petroleum, for in- get that conducts reservoir is gradually slowing and in- 4. Civil War A24 $7.0 $56.2 -38
Environmental groups say stance, is building more-robust studies and looks at ways to re- flation pressures are gradu-
Texas regulators’ oversight of wells to account for increased use more wastewater, among ally slowing,” Kelly said. 5. Abigail Universal $5.3 $18.8 -49
the industry is falling short and pressure, said Jeff Simmons, the other things, said Chevron’s “There was a lot of exuber- *Friday, Saturday and Sunday in North American theaters Source: Comscore
that it is time for the federal company’s chief petrotechnical Comiskey. ance in the market and to
government to intervene. officer. One way Occidental is A growing concern for resi-
Oil executives, meanwhile, making wells dents and scien-
say the issue of water disposal sturdier is by tists is that
is having an impact on their adding strings of wastewater
bottom line, driving up the casing to rein- Earthquakes could migrate
costs for new wells. They also force the wells’ have rattled into the aging,
fear that if left unmanaged, it structure. unplugged wells
could dent local support for Company ex- residents and that litter the
their activities. ecutives didn’t Permian by the
“Produced water manage- specify what the
led regulators thousands and
ment is probably one of the, if cost of re-engi- to step in. contaminate
not the biggest, challenge in neering was. drinking-water
the Permian,” said Cody Comis- When Pioneer supplies or
key, an earth-science adviser at Natural Re- shoot to the
Chevron. sources, another producer, in surface, where the fluids could
Oil-and-gas activities have 2017 reported encountering damage ranchland.
long reshaped the landscape of pressure changes in the Midland Advocacy groups have asked
energy-rich locales. In the past portion of the Permian, it said it the federal government to re-
century, crude production was spending about an addi- view how the state is regulat-
caused the ground in and tional $300,000 to $400,000 per ing water injection in the re-
around California’s Port of Long well. gion. The Environmental
Beach to sink as much as 29 Mounting pressure also lim- Protection Agency has said it
feet, causing billions in today’s its how much water companies would review the groups’ peti-
dollars in damages and repairs can dispose of and forces them tion.
to public and private property. to use more energy to push flu- With shrinking options to
More recently, the Netherlands ids through, executives said. discard wastewater, crude pro-
began shutting Europe’s biggest Companies also have been ducers have to get creative.
natural-gas field after earth- injecting a smaller portion of Some are looking for lower-risk
quakes tied to gas extraction led the unwanted water well below formations to inject water into

The Paper
to a public outcry. crude reservoirs, at deeper and ways to treat water so it
When the shale boom depths of around 3 miles. Deep can be reused for agriculture.
breathed new air into the Dela- injection wells are much more Whether these efforts will pass
ware about 10 years ago, the expensive than shallow ones, regulatory muster or how
basin produced under 500,000 but they allow frackers to much they will cost remains

You Know.
barrels of oil a day, according dump more water and do so in unclear. “There’s just no silver
to analytics firm Enverus. To- a way that doesn’t affect sub- bullet,” Comiskey said.

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
Alaska Air Group..............................B1
Alphabet........................B1,B4,B10,B11
Amazon.com........................................B11
Anglo American...............................B11
Apple...............................................A12,B11
B M
BHP Group...........................................B11
BP................................................................B10
BYD..............................................................B4
C 3M................................................................A11
Chevron...........................................B2,B11
Cloudflare.................................................A1
D J
Delta.............................................................B1
E
Exxon Mobil........................................B11
Jones Lang LaSalle........................B4
L
R
Rio Tinto................................................B11
Now Digital.
F L3Harris....................................................B3 RTX...............................................................B3
Access your daily paper anytime, anywhere with our
Fastenal....................................................B4
Lalo................................................................B1 S Print Edition App. Enjoy convenient access to full-page
LGIM..........................................................B11
Ford Motor............................................A3 Samsung........................................A12,B1
Lockheed Martin...............................B3
Shake Shack.........................................A2
articles for easy reading and more.
Fufeng Group......................................A3
G Southwest Airlines.........................B4 WSJ members have exclusive access. If you haven’t yet,
McDonald.................................................A1 Starbucks................................................A2
Geely...........................................................B4 Meta Platforms.......................B1,B10 activate your digital account today at WSJ.com/connect
General Dynamics...........................B3 T
Microsoft.............................B2,B10,B11 to start exploring.
H N
Tesla..............................................A1,B1,B4
Haima Auto..........................................B4 Northrop Grumman.......................B3
Hilton Worldwide Holdings....B4 Nvidia........................................................B11 U
Huawei......................................................A8 O-P United..........................................................B1 D O W N L OA D T H E A P P
Occidental Petroleum...................B2 W WSJ.com/printapp
Jack in the Box..................................A1 Pioneer Natural Resources.....B2 Wuling.......................................................B4

INDEX TO PEOPLE
A H Mitchill, Neil..........................................B3 Sinclair, David.......................................A1
Harvey, David...............................B1,B4 Moravy, Lars.........................................B4 Sinha, Sumant.....................................B1
Auchincloss, Murray............B1,B10
Hood, Amy...........................................B10 Musk, Elon......................................A1,B4 T
C
K N Tao, Grace...............................................A8
Chew, Shou...........................................A4
Kelly, David.....................................B1,B2 Nassetta, Chris............................B1,B4 W
Comiskey, Cody...........................B1,B2
Cunningham, Conor.................B1,B4 Kubasik, Chris......................................B3 P Wanblad, Duncan...........................B11
L Wieder, Michael..................................B1
D Prince, Matthew................................A1 Wood, Cathie........................................B1
Daley, Christopher...........................A3 Lewis, Holden...............................B1,B4 S Z ©2023 Dow Jones & Co. Inc. All rights reserved. 3DJ7980 3DJ8921
Davis, Kevin...................................B1,B4 M St. John, Frank...................................B3 Zhu, Tom.................................................A8
de Vries, Alex.......................................B1 Malave, Jay...........................................B3 Simmons, Jeff..............................B1,B2 Zuckerberg, Mark...................B1,B10
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
Defense Sector Gets Lift From Ukraine Aid
Lawmakers, military
officials criticize
buybacks, however,
as cash flows swell
BY DOUG CAMERON
Refilling the U.S. armory to
replace weapons sent to
Ukraine—and tens of billions
of dollars in new aid con-
firmed last week—means big
business for the U.S. defense
industry for years to come.
Lawmakers’ approval of a
long-delayed $95 billion aid
package frees up funding that
was frozen in Congress for four
months. Two-thirds of it will
go toward new military equip-
ment for Ukraine, Israel and
Taiwan, estimated analysts, as
well as expanding U.S. produc-
tion. U.S. military jets started
flying fresh supplies from Pen-
tagon stocks to Ukraine last
Wednesday, within hours of
President Biden signing the
funding into law.
Lockheed Martin and RTX,
formerly known as Raytheon
Technologies, were the biggest
beneficiaries of the $30 billion
in federal contracts already
awarded to supply Ukraine and
refill U.S. weapon stockpiles.
Other contractors including
General Dynamics and
L3Harris last week reported
strong quarterly sales as they
delivered on deals awarded
over the past two years.
More buybacks
Strengthening results led
defense contractors including
Lockheed and RTX to increase
share buybacks, drawing criti-
cism from some lawmakers
and military officials.
The U.S. provided around
$44 billion in military assis-
tance to Ukraine over the past
two years, spending that goes
beyond the Pentagon’s normal
budget. Companies typically
don’t book the majority of
sales until weapons are deliv-
ered, and are just now begin-
ning to generate sales from
prior military aid.
Lockheed Martin bought back $1 billion of its stock in the first quarter. Its rivals have been repurchasing shares, too.
More than $60 billion of the
newly approved aid package is
expected to turn into new
business over the next two or
three years, said defense exec-
utives, a significant bump to
the Pentagon’s latest $320 bil-
lion procurement budget.
Almost half of the new
money will replenish U.S.
stocks, which often involves
purchasing newer, more-ex-
pensive weapons than those
being sent to the front in
Ukraine. The $1 million Cold
War-era ATACMS long-range
rockets provided from the U.S.
arsenal will be replaced with
Lockheed’s more sophisticated
PrSM missile, priced at $2.4
million apiece.
The Pentagon on Friday de-
tailed a $6 billion package of
new weapons, training and
spare parts that will be sent to
Ukraine over the next several
years. Industry and Pentagon
BUSINESS NEWS
officials said the newly ap-
proved aid funds will unlock
more orders for air-defense
systems, artillery shells and
technology to knock out
drones. Frank St. John, Lock-
heed’s chief operating officer,
said the extra spending ap-
proved last week will sustain
factories for years to come.
Lockheed said annual out-
put of GMLRS missiles fired
from its Himars rocket launch-
ers is expected to rise to
14,000 next year from 10,000
at present. With a range of
around 50 miles, the rockets
have been a key part of
Ukraine’s front-line fighting.
“Tactical and strike missiles
is where we really saw a lot of
sales activity,” said Lockheed
finance chief Jay Malave.
Lockheed’s missiles unit re-
ported a 16% rise in revenue
during the latest quarter.
RTX makes the Patriot air-
defense system and the Stinger
antiaircraft missile. Neil
Mitchill, the company’s chief fi-
nancial officer, said RTX didn’t
pause production or efforts to
expand capacity when the Pen-
tagon said in January that ad-
ditional funds for Ukraine ran
out. He said RTX had opportu-
nities to win contracts in about
$40 billion of the extra aid ear-
marked for Ukraine.
L3Harris reported an 11%
rise in sales at its unit that
makes radios and night-vision
goggles widely used by
Ukraine. CEO Chris Kubasik
said on an investor call Friday
that the supplemental funding
would boost L3Harris as well
as hundreds of small and me-
dium-size suppliers.
Ukraine is facing acute
shortages of 155mm artillery
shells. The U.S. Army plans to
boost monthly output to
100,000 next year from around
Monday, April 29, 2024 | B3
billions into share buybacks.
Lockheed and RTX bought
back $19 billion in stock be-
tween them last year. Lock-
heed repurchased another $1
billion in the first quarter,
with Northrop Grumman buy-
ing back almost $350 million
and General Dynamics more
than $100 million.
The S&P aerospace and de-
fense subindex gained around
2% in the week ended Friday,
overtaking the S&P 500 year
to date after lagging behind
the index in 2023.
A group of lawmakers in-
cluding Sen. Elizabeth Warren
(D., Mass.) last month called
for an end to what they called
“war profiteering.”
Officials weigh in
Some senior Pentagon offi-
cials weighed in. Navy Secre-
tary Carlos Del Toro directly
tied delays in all of the Navy’s
major ship and submarine
KEVIN LAMARQUE/REUTERS
programs to defense compa-
nies’ investment priorities.
“You can’t be asking for the
American taxpayer to make
greater public investments
while you continue to goose
your stock prices through
stock buybacks, deferring
40,000 currently, an effort promised capital investments,
that had stalled awaiting the and other accounting maneu-
new aid but now is back on vers,” he said at an industry
track. That includes a new conference in January.
shell plant in Texas run by Industry executives said
General Dynamics. they increased investment
spending, even while contracts
were delayed, and that it isn’t
Aid benefits being curtailed to pay for
Pentagon and White House stock buybacks.
officials have spent months “I don’t see one being made
stressing that the aid package at the expense of the other,”
will support domestic jobs and said Lockheed’s Malave. RTX
bolster U.S. defenses through said it is boosting capital
expanded capacity to produce spending to $10 billion this
weapons. “We are going to help year from $9 billion in 2023.
Ukraine, but we have to help Pentagon leaders have long
ourselves, too,” said Army ac- recognized the tension created
quisition chief Doug Bush at an by rising military spending
industry conference last month. and elevated corporate buy-
It translated into buoyant backs. They have said incen-
cash flow for defense compa- tives are needed to encourage
nies. The debate over the lat- more investing.
est funding round reignited “It has to be attractive for
criticism over how profits people to do business with
from elevated weapons sales us,” Pentagon acquisition chief
are used as companies direct Bill LaPlante said.
B4 | Monday, April 29, 2024
Decoding Tesla’s Plans for Cheaper EVs
M
aking sense of
Tesla’s manu-
facturing plans
increasingly re-
quires a close
study and a grain of salt
when listening to Elon Musk
describe what’s ahead.
The chief executive loves
to talk about the future of ro-
bot cars and what might
come.
What was less clear this
past week, as profit plunged
55% and the company burned
through more than $2 billion
in cash in the first quarter,
was the company’s near-term
product plans.
Investors grew more con-
cerned that Musk was losing
interest in a cheaper, next-
generation electric vehicle for
the masses. In recent weeks,
he appeared to signal that he
was overly focused on a ro-
botaxi to be unveiled in Au-
gust—even though the com-
pany has yet to demonstrate
it can actually deploy driver-
less cars like Alphabet’s
Waymo.
Instead, last Tuesday,
Musk tried to assure inves-
tors that less expensive cars
are in fact coming. His prod-
uct road map has even been
pulled forward, he said, mov-
ing the launch of new models
ahead of the second half of
2025, to perhaps as soon as
late this year.
But those plans weren’t
the next-generation vehicle
he had conditioned investors
to expect—sounding instead
like a Frankenstein’s monster
of approaches old and new to
get something out quickly as
U.S. EV sales grow sluggish.
“These new vehicles, in-
cluding more affordable mod-
Business
Travel Has
Comeback
Continued from page B1
has had nine of its top 10 cor-
porate booking days in its his-
tory this year.
Southwest Airlines, which
has pushed to capture more
business travel, said revenue
from the segment jumped 25%
from a year ago in the first
quarter, roughly back to 2019
levels.
Road warriors aren’t neces-
sarily back to their grueling
travel schedules, said David
Harvey, Southwest’s chief sales
officer. But more people are
getting together for new types
of trips.
“You may have moved to a
secondary or tertiary city, and
you may have been in more of
an administrative or back of-
fice role, so you didn’t really
travel at all. But now you have
the provision to go see your
boss or see your team or do
kind of a small to midsize
meeting,” he
said.
The airline
said it saw a re- Southwest saw
cord number of a record number
individuals trav-
eling for busi- of individuals
ness during the
quarter.
traveling for
H i l t o n business.
Worldwide
Holdings Chief
Executive Chris
Nassetta said the resilient
economy and strong employ-
ment helped shore up business
travel. Demand from small and
medium-size companies is
above 2019 levels, he said dur-
ing an April 24 earnings call,
and large corporate customers
aren’t fully back yet, but get-
ting there. “That’s what we’re
hearing from our big corporate
customers is they’re traveling
more,” Nassetta said.
Some companies say travel
is a worthwhile investment.
Fastenal, a Winona, Minn.-
based industrial distributor,
said earlier this month that its
sales travel rose nearly 20% in
the first quarter as it has made
an effort to engage with cus-
tomers, laying the groundwork
for growth during a period of
soft demand.
“I don’t know that I regret
that, to be honest, because I
think that that is related to the
improvements we’re having in
our contract business, the im-
provements we’re having in our
signings,” Chief Financial Offi-
cer Holden Lewis said during a
quarterly conference call.
els, will use aspects of the
next-generation platform as
well as aspects of our current
platforms, and we’ll be able
to produce on the same man-
ufacturing lines as our cur-
rent vehicle lineup,” Musk
told analysts.
By platform, he is most
likely referring to the under-
pinnings of its most recent
vehicles, the Model 3 sedan
and Model Y sport-utility ve-
hicle. Bernstein’s Toni Sacco-
naghi, like many, wanted to
know what the word jumble
actually means in practice.
When the Wall Street ana-
lyst asked the CEO if the new
vehicles would simply be
tweaks of current products,
such as the Model Y, or actu-
ally new models, Musk didn’t
have much to say.
A
uto-industry veterans
suspect that any new
model that can begin
production later this year on
the same production line as
existing vehicles is merely an
updated version of what we
already know from Tesla—a
refresh in industry parlance.
Tesla just updated the long-
in-the-tooth Model 3. And its
younger sibling, the Model Y,
would presumably be next.
“Tesla does not have a
track record of doing model
extensions on existing plat-
forms, let alone in short time
frames,” Sacconaghi later told
investors in a note. “We see
it as more likely that Tesla
will attempt to launch
stripped-down versions of the
Model 3 and Y as lower-cost
models, however we are un-
clear on how much cost Tesla
can realistically take out.”
Such a tactic runs the risk
While the volume of bookings
through U.S.-based corporate
travel agencies remains nearly
20% below 2019 levels, accord-
ing to Airlines Reporting Corp.,
which processes agency air
ticket sales, there are signs that
the rebound is gaining steam.
Spending on business travel
worldwide is expected to sur-
pass 2019 levels by the end of
this year, according to the
Global Business Travel Associa-
tion’s most recent projection in
August—earlier than the
mid-2026 recovery the trade
group previously predicted.
Some 40% of 135 global cor-
porate travel managers sur-
veyed by Morgan Stanley last
fall said they had already re-
turned to pre-Covid travel lev-
els, up from 25% a year earlier.
Commercial centers such as
New York and San Francisco
that had been travel laggards
are once again standouts, said
Melius Research analyst Conor
Cunningham. “This demise of
corporate travel is overstated,”
he said. “It’s very clear things
are starting to turn.”
Some business travelers
have simply had enough of vir-
tual meetings. “This year, I feel
like our stomachs are kind of
growling a little bit and they’re
hungry to meet
in person,” said
Elissa Sangster,
CEO of the non-
profit Forté
Foundation,
which focuses
on women’s ad-
vancement
through access
to education.
She has been
advising staffers
who work with the organiza-
tion’s partners to be mindful of
travel expenses but to get on
the road again.
“People are ready to show
up and be present and engage,”
she said.
Kevin Davis, CEO of the
Americas for the hotels and
hospitality arm of real-estate
giant Jones Lang LaSalle, said
he mostly encourages his team
to take in-person meetings
whenever feasible. When pitch-
ing clients, he finds the meet-
ings to be more effective face-
to-face and the conversation
livelier, with greater opportuni-
ties to build relationships.
“I always say the last 15 or
20 minutes of in-person meet-
ing or lunch are frequently the
most valuable because that’s
where the conversation has the
opportunity to flow organi-
cally,” said Davis, whose busi-
ness travel has taken him to
London, Los Angeles and North
Carolina in recent weeks. “And
you really pick up interesting
information that you likely
would not have gotten had you
been on a Zoom call.”
TECHNOLOGY
Tesla’s plans seem to fall short of the next-generation vehicle investors have come to expect.
of failing to ignite interest
among new buyers attracted
to what is perceived as new
and shiny. It could also be
seen as cheapening the brand
of its current offerings.
The promise of a next-gen-
eration platform—including a
vehicle priced around
$25,000—had become the
cornerstone of Tesla’s future
for many investors.
A cheaper car was teased
in 2020 and how it would be
made affordable was detailed
in March 2023 during a long
presentation to investors. A
big part of that pitch was a
radically new manufacturing
process proposed by Tesla
that reimagined how cars
would be made, dubbed the
“unboxed” process.
Essentially, instead of a ve-
hicle moving along an assem-
China Carmakers Keep Producing
Even as Output Swamps Demand
BY YOKO KUBOTA
AND CLARENCE LEONG
BEIJING—In 2019, a little-
known Chinese carmaker
named Zhido went bust after
Beijing cut subsidies for the
tiny electric cars it made,
crushing its sales.
Now it is back. Earlier this
month, the company released a
boxy new mini-electric vehicle
called “Caihong,” or “Rainbow”
in Chinese, which comes in
seven pastel colors and has a
starting price equivalent to
around $4,400.
Zhido’s rebirth came after
state-backed funds and dozens
of other investors pumped
fresh capital into the company
late last year—despite wide-
spread signs that China has too
many carmakers to serve its
needs.
China has a long history of
auto overcapacity, with more
than 100 domestic brands
churning out more vehicles
than the country’s drivers buy
each year.
Yet the government contin-
ues to support companies such
as Zhido and others, encourag-
ing unprofitable carmakers to
keep producing as officials try
to boost economic growth, pre-
serve jobs and expand China’s
role in the global electric-vehi-
cle business.
Such encouragement, which
also comes in the form of sub-
sidies to automakers, is adding
cars to a global market that
risks becoming more oversup-
plied.
Overcapacity
China currently has the ca-
pacity to produce some 40 mil-
lion vehicles a year, though it
sells only around 22 million
cars domestically, according to
capacity data from Shanghai-
based strategy firm Automobil-
ity and sales figures from the
China Passenger Car Associa-
tion.
That situation has led to a
brutal price war with Tesla
and others cutting prices in
China, while triggering fears in
the U.S. and Europe that Chi-
nese automakers would flood
other countries with unsold
cars.
Overcapacity is especially
apparent for cars with internal
combustion engines, which are
falling out of favor as Chinese
consumers switch to EVs.
But overcapacity is also an
issue for Chinese EVs, with too
TIM HIGGINS
bly line like a box with pieces
being added as it goes, Tesla
envisioned it being more effi-
ciently built in chunks that
would then come together at
the end.
“If we’re going to scale the
way we want to do, we have
to rethink manufacturing
again,” Lars Moravy, vice
president of vehicle engineer-
ing, told investors at the
time.
I
n January, Musk contin-
ued to tease investors
with the plan, saying pro-
duction would begin by the
end of next year. He also cau-
tioned it would be hard work,
likely requiring sleeping at
the factory, a classic signal
from him for how momentous
things would be.
Then Tuesday’s detour.
China passenger car
production capacity and sales
Capacity Sales
50 million vehicles
40
30
20
10
0 local leaders to promote “new
2020 ’21 ’22
Note: Some of the production capacity is idle;
2023 capacity is not available.
Sources: Automobility (capacity), China
Passenger Car Association (sales)
many companies fighting for
market share. Last year, 123
brands sold at least one elec-
tric vehicle in China, said Ste-
phen Dyer, a Shanghai-based
auto consultant at AlixPart-
ners.
Dumping worries
Washington is worried that
Chinese companies will try to
dump subsidized vehicles in
the U.S., despite high U.S. tar-
iffs on imported Chinese cars.
Europe last year opened a
probe into Chinese electric-ve-
hicle subsidies that is likely to
result in import tariffs in the
coming months.
China’s car exports have
nearly quintupled over just
three years to about five mil-
lion vehicles in 2023, partly
triggering the American and
European concerns. Three-
quarters of the exports last
year were internal-combustion-
engine cars, with many going
to Russia, though the number
of EVs shipped overseas also is
growing.
Chinese officials say that
criticism of its auto-industry
policies is unfair and that Chi-
nese cars are innovative and
offer good value—a point many
auto-industry experts and for-
eign carmaker executives make
as well. The U.S. also uses gov-
ernment support to promote its
electric-vehicle industry,
through the Inflation Reduction
Act, which China has chal-
lenged at the World Trade Or-
ganization.
What is clear is that China’s
auto industry is in expansion
mode, even as its domestic
sales growth has slowed.
At the Auto China exhibition
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
WSJ.com/Tech
sured investors its unboxed
process is still in the works,
even if a timeline wasn’t
given and the breadth of ap-
plications was unclear.
It is easy to see parallels
with years ago when Musk
predicted breakthroughs in
Tesla’s manufacturing pro-
cesses to speed up and re-
duce costs around building
the then-new Model 3, an-
other bet-the-company mo-
ment in Tesla’s short history.
H
is insistence on ex-
DAVID PAUL MORRIS/BLOOMBERG NEWS
treme automation
proved problematic.
Musk later acknowledged
that the ramp up of the
Model 3 production nearly
broke the company.
The eventual success of
the Model 3 and Model Y
helped make Tesla the
world’s most valuable auto-
maker and leader in EVs.
Instead of an entirely new Those successes add to the
production system, Moravy case that while Musk’s ambi-
suggested some of the work tions don’t always land as
on the next-generation plat- promised or as scheduled, he
form could be salvaged—even pushes his team to achieve
if the bold ideas touted last new things that can pay off
year aren’t happening soon. eventually and set the com-
“The unboxed manufactur- pany apart from rivals.
ing method is certainly great After Musk’s call with ana-
and revolutionary, but with it lysts last Tuesday, it seemed
comes some risks,” Moravy some investors were willing
said. “But all the subsystems to wait—even if their pa-
we developed, whether it was tience with Elon Standard
powertrains, drive units, bat- Time is being tested anew.
tery improvements in manu- Shares rose 14% for the week
facturing and automation, ended Friday but remain
thermal systems, seating, in- down 32% this year.
tegration of interior compo- A robot future is the fu-
nents and reduction of LV ture Musk prefers they focus
controllers, all that’s transfer- on, anyway.
able, and that’s what we’re “If somebody doesn’t be-
doing, trying to get it in the lieve Tesla is going to solve
products as fast as possible.” autonomy,” he said, “I think
Despite the apparent set- they should not be an inves-
back, Tesla this past week as- tor in the company.”
in Beijing, the biggest car show But Li also emphasized Bei-
in the country, which started jing’s intention to keep invest-
Thursday, nearly 300 electric ing in high-end manufacturing,
and plug-in vehicle models are repeatedly using the phrase
being exhibited. “new productive forces.” Local
Beijing long ago identified governments, which take cues
EVs as an industry it wants to from Beijing on economic pri-
dominate, and many local gov- orities, have responded by
ernments have competed to de- backing automakers in their ar-
velop new automakers that can eas.
bring jobs.
The urgency to do so has in-
creased over the past year, as Supporting laggards
other parts of China’s economy In February, the city of
have stagnated and Chinese Zhengzhou in central China
leader Xi Jinping has called on vowed it would foster “new
productive forces” industries
productive forces”—a buzz- and become the “city of new-
word in Chinese policy circles energy vehicles” with an an-
for the need to promote high- nual capacity of 700,000 for
value manufacturing indus- such cars.
tries. A month later, a state-
Government support for the backed entity in Zhengzhou
industry includes below-mar- temporarily took over the as-
ket-rate loans and discounted sets belonging to the local unit
steel and batteries for auto- of Haima Auto, which has
makers, according to the Ger- close to 3,000 employees and a
many-based Kiel Institute for plant there. In the first three
the World Economy in a report months of the year, the strug-
in April. gling carmaker sold fewer than
BYD, China’s biggest maker 2,000 cars, a company filing
of electric cars, received about showed.
$3.5 billion in direct govern- The five-year deal provided
ment subsidies between 2018 Haima with the equivalent of
and 2022, the institute said, about $27.5 million in needed
citing BYD’s annual reports. cash. Haima said it would focus
BYD didn’t respond to a re- on boosting exports in markets
quest for comment. such as Russia and Vietnam to
Overall, China spent roughly drive growth.
$173 billion in subsidies to sup- At Zhido, the mood upon its
port the new energy-vehicle recent restructuring was eu-
sector, which encompasses phoric. At a packed mid-April
electric and plug-in hybrid ve- event, the company’s founder,
hicles, between 2009 and 2022, Bao Wenguang, raised his
according to the latest estimate hands in the air and exclaimed,
available by Scott Kennedy, a “Zhido is finally back!” a video
researcher of China’s economic of the event showed.
policies at the Center for Stra- At one point, between 2014
tegic and International Stud- and 2017, Zhido was among
ies. China’s bestselling EV makers,
Only four EV brands in specializing in mini electric
China’s market sold more than cars. Back then, purchases of
400,000 vehicles each last such small electric cars were
year—a volume viewed as a subsidized by the government.
break-even point for EVs based When Beijing ended that
on historical financials from policy as it tried to encourage
Tesla, AlixPartners’ Dyer said. longer-range EVs, sales tanked,
The four were BYD, Tesla, Aion leaving Zhido with debts of
and Wuling. around $250 million, according
to documents from an online
platform run by Alibaba Group
Consolidation call for judicial auctions.
Some Chinese EV makers After its restructuring in Oc-
have gone out of business in tober, which involved a unit of
recent years, and top officials state-owned company China
have at times spoken openly Three Gorges and Chinese au-
about the need for more con- tomaker Geely, Zhido is now
solidation. aiming to double sales annually
In March, Premier Li Qiang through 2026 and release 16
said in an annual government new models by 2028. It plans
work report that China would to expand production capacity
consolidate and enhance its at its plant in Gansu to 300,000
leading position in industries vehicles a year and “actively
including new energy vehicles. cultivate overseas business.”
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Monday, April 29, 2024 | B5

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B6 | Monday, April 29, 2024 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

MARKETS DIGEST
Dow Jones Industrial Average S&P 500 Index New to the Market
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38239.66 s 253.26, or 0.67% last week Trailing P/E ratio 25.89 22.75 5099.96 s 132.73, or 2.67% last week Trailing P/E ratio * 22.60 18.61 Public Offerings of Stock
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the past 52 weeks Dividend yield 2.20 2.06 the past 52 weeks Dividend yield * 1.42 1.68 IPOs in the U.S. Market
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Initial public offerings of stock expected this week; might include some
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Monday's open Friday's close 38000 4900 4/30 4/5 Viking Holdings VIK 44.0 21.00/ BofA Securities, JPM,
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April 28 Nov. 1, ’23 Pineapple Financial PAPL 4.00 4.4 –66.75 180 days
32000 4100
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Bars measure the point change from Monday's open April 30 Nov. 3, ’23 LEXEO Therapeutics LXEO 11.00 126.0 13.64 180 days
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Cleancore Solutions 3.50 –12.5 ... Junee 4.00 ... –1.5
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Rubrik 38.00 18.8 2.7 PACS Group 24.73 17.8 7.5
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last week Neo-Concept International 1.88 –53.0 –80.2 Mobile-health Network Solutions 23.99 499.8 258.1
NCI April 23/$4.00 MNDR April 10/$4.00
Industrial Average 38561.50 37754.38 38239.66 253.26 0.67 32417.59 • 39807.37 12.1 1.5 4.0 mF International 2.33 –48.2 –81.0 Contineum Therapeutics 15.72 –1.8 2.1
Transportation Avg 15478.36 14928.49 15170.88 87.16 0.58 13556.07 • 16695.32 8.2 -4.6 0.2
15750
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Total Stock Market 50854.19 49399.97 50711.19 1334.73 2.70 40425.87 • 52402.86 22.2 6.1 4.9 YYGH April 22/$4.00 MAMO April 2/$4.50
Barron's 400 1122.03 1105.59 1119.48 24.21 2.21 881.58 • 1166.53 22.0 4.4 3.4 15500 Tungray Technologies
TRSG April 19/$4.00
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ZBAO April 2/$4.00
3.52 –11.9 –4.8

Nasdaq Stock Market Centuri Holdings 25.06 19.3 8.3 Alta Global Group 3.08 –38.4 –26.3
15250
Nasdaq Composite 15981.00 15265.66 15927.90 645.89 4.23 11966.40 • 16442.2 30.3 6.1 4.1 CTRI April 18/$21.00 MMA March 28/$5.00
22.9 11.64 –27.3 –18.3
Nasdaq-100 17772.78 17010.26 17718.30 680.65 3.99 12982.48 • 18339.44 33.8 5.3 8.1
Ibotta
IBTA April 18/$88.00
108.17 4.8 Boundless Bio
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15000
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19 22 23 24 25 26 Sources: Dow Jones Market Data; FactSet
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SmallCap 600 1292.25 1252.67 1284.03 30.23 2.41 1068.80 • 1344.66 11.8 -2.6 -1.8
s 1334.73, or 2.70% Treasurys
Other Indexes last week Monday, April 29 Wednesday, May 1
Russell 2000 2010.48 1947.86 2002.00 54.34 2.79 1636.94 • 2124.55 13.2 -1.2 -4.5
Auction of 13 and 26 week bills; Auction of 17 week bill;
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announced on April 25; settles on May 2 announced on April 30; settles on May 7
Value Line 587.65 573.83 585.41 11.49 2.00 498.09 • 615.81 6.4 -1.4 -4.3 50500
NYSE Arca Biotech 5038.60 4859.15 4939.03 73.36 1.51 4544.40 • 5511.46 -6.1 -8.9 -4.9
Thursday, May 2
NYSE Arca Pharma 991.84 967.17 983.06 15.89 1.64 837.32 • 1029.37 12.2 8.0 11.3
50000
Auction of 4 and 8 week bill;
KBW Bank 103.70 100.15 102.68 2.60 2.60 71.71 • 104.85 26.3 6.9 -6.2 announced on April 30; settles on May 7
PHLX§ Gold/Silver 139.51 129.67 138.68 2.67 1.96 102.94 • 141.11 3.5 10.3 -2.3
PHLX§ Oil Service 89.26 86.02 88.67 0.932 1.06 69.29 • 98.76 13.1 5.7 20.0 49500
PHLX§ Semiconductor 4756.91 4299.72 4735.29 428.42 9.95 2941.63 • 5165.83 58.1 13.4 13.4 A Week in the Life of the DJIA
Cboe Volatility 18.72 14.92 15.03 -3.68 -19.67 12.07 • 21.71 -4.8 20.7 -5.2 49000 A look at how the Dow Jones Industrial Average component stocks

Nasdaq PHLX 19 22 23 24 25 26 did in the past week and how much each moved the index. The DJIA
Sources: FactSet; Dow Jones Market Data
April gained 253.26 points, or 0.67%, on the week. A $1 change in the price
of any DJIA stock = 6.57-point change in the average. To date, a
$1,000 investment on Dec. 31 in each current DJIA stock component
International Stock Indexes Commodities and would have returned $30,942, or a gain of 3.14%, on the $30,000
Latest Week 52-Week Range YTD
Currencies investment, including reinvested dividends.
Region/Country Index Close % chg Low Close High % chg
Last Week YTD The Week’s Action
World MSCI ACWI 762.39 2.57 629.46 • 783.58 4.9 Close Net chg %Chg % chg
Pct Stock price Point chg $1,000 Invested(year-end '23)
MSCI ACWI ex-USA 322.04 2.24 276.65 • 330.44 1.7 DJ Commodity 1030.53 0.80 0.08 7.59 chg (%) change in average* Company Symbol Close $1,000
MSCI World 3335.08 2.44 2731.99 • 3437.76 5.2 Refinitiv/CC CRB Index 296.84 -1.31 -0.44 12.51 5.83 23.57 154.85 Goldman Sachs GS $427.57 $1,116
MSCI Emerging Markets 1041.52 3.72 910.91 • 1057.89 1.7 Crude oil, $ per barrel 83.85 1.63 1.98 17.03 4.31 5.42 35.61 Merck MRK 131.20 1,211
Americas MSCI AC Americas 1928.06 2.69 1539.07 • 1986.20 6.3 Natural gas, $/MMBtu 1.614 -0.138 -7.88 -35.80 4.14 7.69 50.52 JPMorgan Chase JPM 193.49 1,151
Canada S&P/TSX Comp 21969.24 0.74 18737.39 • 22361.78 4.8 Gold, $ per troy oz. 2334.80 -63.60 -2.65 13.21
3.68 5.89 38.69 Chevron CVX 165.89 1,124
Latin Amer. MSCI EM Latin America 2463.02 2.65 2152.77 • 2675.33 –7.5
U.S. Dollar Index 106.08 -0.08 -0.07 4.63 2.86 1,182
Brazil Bovespa 126526.27 1.12 101797.09 • 134193.72 –5.7
WSJ Dollar Index 100.62 0.12 0.12 4.99
4.99 32.78 Amazon.com AMZN 179.62
Chile S&P IPSA 3512.38 0.21 3048.00 • 3714.61 1.3
Euro, per dollar 0.9352 -0.0031 -0.33 3.23
2.61 4.30 28.25 Apple AAPL 169.30 880
Mexico S&P/BMV IPC 57833.85 3.53 48197.88 • 58711.87 0.8
Yen, per dollar 158.34 3.70 2.39 12.28 2.61 1.57 10.31 Coca-Cola KO 61.74 1,056
EMEA STOXX Europe 600 507.98 1.74 429.58 • 512.67 6.1
U.K. pound, in dollars 1.25 0.0124 1.00 -1.87 1.99 4.60 30.22 American Express AXP 235.64 1,266
STOXX Europe 50 4422.20 1.92 3783.73 • 4428.10 8.0
52-Week 1.99 3.15 20.69 Procter & Gamble PG 161.29 1,115
Eurozone Euro STOXX 513.46 1.75 420.65 • 520.21 8.3 Low Close(l) High % Chg
1.80 7.20 47.30 Microsoft MSFT 406.32 1,083
Euro STOXX 50 5006.85 1.80 4014.36 • 5083.42 10.7
DJ Commodity 930.59 l1031.22 4.17
Austria ATX 3548.29 0.32 3020.72 • 3592.33 3.3 1.76 4.74 31.14 Visa V 274.52 1,056
Belgium Bel-20 3874.87 1.23 3290.68 • 3890.71 4.5 Refinitiv/CC CRB Index 253.85 l 298.18 10.70
1.45 3.92 25.75 Salesforce CRM 274.29 1,044
France CAC 40 8088.24 0.82 6795.38 • 8205.81 7.2 Crude oil, $ per barrel 67.12 l 93.68 9.21
1.11 0.63 4.14 Dow DOW 57.29 1,058
Germany DAX 18161.01 2.39 14687.41 • 18492.49 8.4 Natural gas, $/MMBtu 1.575 l 3.575 -33.03
1.06 0.63 4.14 Walmart WMT 60.16 1,149
Greece Athex Composite 1454.98 4.48 1085.11 • 1454.98 12.5 Gold, $ per troy oz. 1816.60 l 2398.40 17.32
Israel Tel Aviv 1924.76 0.64 1605.20 • 2010.41 3.2 0.40 1.10 7.23 McDonald’s MCD 273.09 926
Italy FTSE MIB 34249.77 0.97 26051 • 34760 12.8 U.S. Dollar Index 99.77 l 107.00 4.35
0.39 1.05 6.90 Amgen AMGN 269.98 945
Netherlands AEX 882.63 2.63 714.05 • 886.67 12.2 WSJ Dollar Index 94.60 l 100.92 4.68
0.11 0.12 0.79 Walt Disney DIS 112.73 1,249
Norway Oslo Bors All-Share 1591.22 1.76 1347.84 • 1606.79 4.7 Euro, per dollar 0.8897 l 0.9555 3.05
–0.08 –0.27 –1.77 HD 335.09 973
Portugal PSI 20 6612.51 5.04 5729.40 • 6612.51 3.4 Yen, per dollar 134.29 l 158.34 16.16
Home Depot
South Africa FTSE/JSE All-Share 75370.99 2.74 69451.97 • 78977.89 –2.0 U.K. pound, in dollars 1.21 l 1.31 -0.56
–0.29 –0.62 –4.07 Travelers TRV 213.45 1,126
Spain IBEX 35 11154.60 3.96 8918.3 • 11154.6 10.4 –0.42 –0.81 –5.32 Honeywell HON 193.45 927
Sweden OMX Stockholm 951.83 1.61 753.35 • 971.52 5.4 Go to WSJMarkets.com for free –0.43 –0.41 –2.69 Nike NKE 94.12 870
Switzerland Swiss Market 11344.32 0.42 10323.71 • 11790.46 1.9 access to real-time market data.
–0.48 –0.44 –2.89 MMM 91.83 1,021
U.K. FTSE 100 8139.83 3.09 7256.94 • 8139.83 5.3 3M
–0.95 –0.46 –3.02 Cisco CSCO 47.86 963
Asia-Pacific MSCI AC Asia Pacific 172.30 2.92 150.1 • 178.1 1.7
Australia S&P/ASX 200 7575.90 0.11 6772.9 • 7896.9 –0.2 –1.15 –5.78 –37.97 UnitedHealth Group UNH 495.35 945
China Shanghai Composite 3088.64 0.76 2702.19 • 3395.00 3.8 –1.20 –1.77 –11.63 Johnson & Johnson JNJ 146.14 939
Hong Kong Hang Seng 17651.15 8.80 14961.18 • 20297.03 3.5
–1.53 –2.60 –17.08 Boeing BA 167.22 642
India S&P BSE Sensex 73730.16 0.88 61054.29 • 75038.15 2.1
–2.00 –0.81 –5.32 Verizon VZ 39.68 1,088
Japan NIKKEI 225 37934.76 2.34 28856.44 • 40888.43 13.4
Malaysia FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI 1575.16 1.78 1374.64 • 1575.16 8.3 –3.18 –11.28 –74.11 Caterpillar CAT 343.38 1,171
Singapore Straits Times 3280.10 3.26 3053.36 • 3373.98 1.2 –6.78 –2.32 –15.24 Intel INTC 31.88 636
South Korea KOSPI 2656.33 2.49 2277.99 • 2757.09 0.0 –7.96 –14.45 –94.93 IBM IBM 167.13 1,031
Taiwan TAIEX 20120.51 3.04 15475.05 • 20796.20 12.2
*Based on Composite price. DJIA is calculated on primary-market price.
Source: FactSet; Dow Jones Market Data 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†: 2.84% 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 Tradeweb ICE 16% Americas Thailand baht .02702 37.010 7.6
7.00% Riverdale, UT 801-627-0900
target rate Friday Close 5.00 Vietnam dong .00003946 25345 4.4
t Argentina peso .0011874.7378 8.2
Popular Direct 4.30% t 8 WSJ Dollar Index Europe
5.00 t s Brazil real .1955 5.1161 5.4
Miami Lakes, FL 800-274-5696 4.00 Canada dollar .7316 1.3670 3.2 Czech Rep. koruna .04253 23.513 5.1
One year ago .1434 6.9720 2.9
3.00 Quontic Bank 4.30% 0 Chile peso .001054 948.36 8.4 Denmark krone
3.00
t
New York, NY 800-908-6600 s Colombiapeso .000257 3896.71 0.6 Euro area euro 1.0693 .9352 3.2
Five-year CD yields 1.00 –8 s Euro Ecuador US dollar 1 1 unch Hungary forint .002722 367.44 5.9
First Internet Bank of Indiana 4.55% 2.00
Yen Mexico peso .0583 17.1623 1.1 Iceland krona .007115 140.55 3.3
Indianapolis, IN 888-873-3424 Norway krone .0906 11.0342 8.5
–1.00 1.00 –16 Uruguay peso .02589 38.6248 –1.1
First National Bank of America 4.55% Poland zloty .2477 4.0380 2.6
M J J A S O ND J FMA 1 3 6 1 2 3 5 7 10 20 30 Asia-Pacific
2023 2024 Sweden krona .0915 10.9272 8.2
2023 2024 East Lansing, MI 800-968-3626 month(s) years Australiadollar .6532 1.5309 4.3 Switzerland franc 1.0936 .9144 8.6
maturity China yuan .1380 7.2461 1.9 Turkey lira .0308 32.4684 10.1
Yield/Rate (%) 52-Week Range (%) 3-yr chg
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 .1277 7.8280 0.2 Ukraine hryvnia .0252 39.6500 3.9
India rupee .01199 83.404 0.3 UK pound 1.2495 .8003 1.9
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 .0000617 16210 5.3 Middle East/Africa
Spread +/- Treasurys,
Prime rate* 8.50 8.50 8.00 l 8.50 5.25 Japan yen .006315 158.34 12.3
Yield (%) in basis pts, 52-wk Range Total Return Bahrain dinar 2.6532 .3769 –0.01
SOFR 5.31 5.30 4.81 l 5.40 5.30 Bond total return index Last Wk ago Last Low High 52-wk 3-yr Kazakhstan tenge .002257 442.99 –2.7
Egypt pound .0209 47.8980 54.9
Money market, annual yield 0.48 0.48 0.46 l 0.64 0.40 Macau pataca .1240 8.0670 0.2
Israel shekel .2617 3.8207 6.0
U.S. Treasury, Bloomberg* 4.880 4.810 -2.75 -3.79 Malaysia ringgit .2098 4.7675 3.8
Five-year CD, annual yield 2.84 2.84 2.76 l 2.87 2.37 Kuwait dinar 3.2451 .3082 0.3
U.S. Treasury Long, Bloomberg* 4.900 4.800 -11.92 -10.89 New Zealand dollar .5941 1.6832 6.4 Oman sul rial 2.5976 .3850 –0.01
30-year mortgage, fixed† 7.68 7.55 6.85 l 8.28 4.59 Pakistan rupee .00359 278.475 –0.9
Aggregate, Bloomberg* 5.310 5.250 n.a. 38 60 -1.26 -3.55 Qatar rial .2742 3.647 0.1
15-year mortgage, fixed† 7.08 6.94 6.16 l 7.42 4.72 Philippines peso .0173 57.710 4.2
Fixed-Rate MBS, Bloomberg* 5.560 5.500 n.a. 44 82 -1.69 -3.88 Saudi Arabia riyal .2666 3.7507 0.02
Jumbo mortgages, $766,550-plus† 7.76 7.62 6.94 l 8.33 4.67 Singapore dollar .7338 1.3627 3.3 South Africa rand .0532 18.8057 2.8
High Yield 100, ICE BofA 7.617 7.844 262 243 443 8.682 1.732 South Korea won .0007257 1378.01
Five-year adj mortgage (ARM)† 6.74 6.66 5.70 l 7.16 3.55 6.4
Muni Master, ICE BofA 3.624 3.554 4 -9 9 1.534 -1.160 Sri Lanka rupee .0033802 295.84 –8.7 Close Net Chg % Chg YTD%Chg
New-car loan, 48-month 7.85 7.83 6.97 l 7.88 3.81
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 7.622 7.590 284 270 410 6.736 -2.433 Taiwan dollar .03068 32.597 6.2 WSJ Dollar Index 100.62 0.48 0.48 4.99
banks.† Excludes closing costs. *Bloomberg yield data as of 04/25
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
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Monday, April 29, 2024 | B7

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B8 | Monday, April 29, 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 Eagle Point Income EIC NA 15.38 NA 12.6 BR MuniYield Fd MYD 11.86 10.55 -11.0 4.5
buy their shares back from investors who wish to cash NuvCorEqAlpha JCE 14.07 13.67 -2.8 22.7 EtnVncFltRteInc EFT 13.28 13.42 +1.1 10.6 BR MuniYield Qlty MQY 12.89 11.83 -8.2 4.7 NexPointRlEstStrat;Z 17.03 NA NA -5.2 Apollo Diversified Cd:I NA NA NA 9.4
in their holdings. Instead, fund shares trade on a stock
exchange. NA signifies that the information is not NuveenNasdaq100DynOv QQQX 25.81 23.00 -10.9 3.9 EV SenFlRtTr EFR 12.99 13.14 +1.2 10.3 BR MuniYld Qlty2 MQT 11.38 9.80 -13.9 4.5 PIMCO Flexible REI;Inst 10.47 NA NA 8.9 Apollo Diversified Cd:L NA NA NA 8.9
available or not applicable. NS signifies funds not in Nuv Real Est JRS 8.12 7.30 -10.1 5.9 FT/Sr Fltg Rte Inc 2 FCT 11.05 10.33 -6.5 11.1 BR MuniYld Qly 3 MYI 12.26 10.92 -10.9 4.7 PREDEX;I 23.95 NA NA -13.0 Apollo Diversified Cd:M NA NA NA 8.6
existence for the entire period. 12 month yield is NuvS&P500DynOvFd SPXX 16.90 15.26 -9.7 5.8
computed by dividing income dividends paid (during Highland Oppty & Income HFRO NA 6.45 NA 11.5 BNY Mellon Muni Bd Infra DMB 11.74 9.99 -14.9 4.1 PREDEX;T 24.04 NA NA -13.2 Opprtnstc Crdt Intrvl;I 11.72 NA NA 12.0
the previous 12 months for periods ending at month- NuvSP500BuyIncFd BXMX 14.41 12.70 -11.9 3.2 InvDYCrOpp:AX VTA 11.01 NA NA NA BNY Mellon Str Muni Bond DSM 6.53 5.57 -14.7 3.9 PREDEX;W 24.04 NA NA -13.2 PIMCO Flexible Cr I;A-1 6.90 NA NA 10.4
end or during the previous 52 weeks for periods ReavesUtilityIncome UTG 26.12 26.21 +0.3 -0.9 InvSnrIncTr VVR 4.06 4.26 +4.9 11.5 BNY Mellon Strat Muni LEO 6.84 5.85 -14.5 4.0 Principal Real Asst A 25.15 NA NA 1.4 PIMCO Flexible Cr I;A-2 6.90 NA NA 10.4
ending at any time other than month-end) by the
latest month-end market price adjusted for capital Tortoise Enrgy Infra Crp TYG 38.83 31.67 -18.4 17.6 Nuveen Credit Strat Inc JQC 5.88 5.48 -6.8 11.0 DWS Muni Inc KTF NA 9.28 NA 3.5 Principal Real Asst Ins 25.26 NA NA 1.8 PIMCO Flexible Cr I;A-3 6.90 NA NA 10.1
gains distributions. Depending on the fund category, Tortoise Midstream Enrgy NTG 47.61 38.92 -18.3 24.9 NuvFloatRateIncFd JFR 9.28 8.59 -7.4 11.2 EVMuniBd EIM 11.13 9.94 -10.7 4.3 Principal Real Asst Y 25.52 NA NA 2.0 PIMCO Flexible Cr I;A-4 6.90 NA NA 10.1
either 12-month yield or total return is listed. VDivInt&PremStr NFJ 14.18 12.06 -15.0 10.2
Source: Lipper High Yield Bond Funds EVMuniIncm EVN 11.11 9.84 -11.4 4.7 Redwood Rl Est;I 25.21 NA NA NS PIMCO Flexible Cr I;Inst 6.90 NA NA 10.9
V Art Int&Tech Opps AIO 21.12 19.43 -8.0 28.1 abrdn Inc Credit Str ACP 6.71 6.52 -2.8 17.7 EVNatMuniOpp EOT 18.10 16.28 -10.1 4.5 The Private Shares;A 39.53 NA NA -2.8 Other Domestic Taxable Bond Funds
Friday, April 26, 2024
Income & Preferred Stock Funds AllianceBernGlHiIncm AWF 11.01 10.34 -6.1 7.6 InvAdvMuIncTrII VKI 9.57 8.23 -14.0 4.5 The Private Shares;I 40.20 NA NA -2.5 AFA Private Credit;Fndr 9.46 NA NA 7.8
52 wk
Prem Ttl Dividend and Income BXSY 20.21 NA NA NA Allspring Income Oppty EAD 7.19 6.44 -10.4 8.9 Invesco MuniOp OIA 6.23 6.12 -1.8 4.9 The Private Shares;L 38.89 NA NA -3.0 AFA Private Credit;Inst 9.49 NA NA 7.8
Fund (SYM) NAV Close /Disc Ret CalamosStratTot CSQ 16.14 15.79 -2.2 24.7 Barings Glb SD HY Bd BGH 15.56 14.04 -9.8 10.0 InvescoMuOppTr VMO 10.70 9.27 -13.4 4.3 Thirdline Real EstateI 10.05 NA NA 6.5 Alternative Credit Inc:A NA NA NA 7.2
CohenStrsLtdDurPref&Inc LDP 20.88 19.31 -7.5 19.6 BR Corporate HY HYT 9.52 9.68 +1.7 9.5 InvescoMuTr VKQ 10.75 9.26 -13.9 4.4 USQ Core Real Estate:I 22.99 NA NA -15.7 Alternative Credit Inc:C NA NA NA 6.4
General Equity Funds
CohenStrsSelPref&Income PSF 20.63 18.84 -8.7 14.1 BlackRock Ltd Dur Inc BLW 13.87 13.52 -2.5 8.8 InvescoQual Inc IQI 10.80 9.32 -13.7 4.6 USQ Core Real Estate:IS 23.06 NA NA -15.6 Alternative Credit Inc:I NA NA NA 7.4
Adams Diversified Eq Inc ADX 22.15 18.98 -14.3 30.0
CohenStrsTaxAvPreSecs&I PTA 20.21 18.48 -8.6 18.1 BNY Mellon Hi Yield Str DHF 2.66 2.32 -12.8 7.5 InvTrInvGrMu VGM 11.07 9.51 -14.1 4.3 Versus Cap MMgr RE Inc:I 24.56 NA NA -8.1 Alternative Credit Inc:L NA NA NA 6.9
Central Secs CET 50.22 41.13 -18.1 23.5
FirstTrIntDurPref&Inc FPF 18.66 17.09 -8.4 19.2 Brookfield Real Asst Inc RA 14.50 12.51 -13.7 6.7 InvescoValMunInc IIM 13.20 11.33 -14.2 4.5 Versus Capital Real Asst 27.61 NA NA 2.4 Alternative Credit Inc:W NA NA NA 7.2
CohenStrsCEOppFd FOF 11.18 11.37 +1.7 14.0
EVTxAdvDivIncm EVT 25.67 22.88 -10.9 8.9
JHanPrefInc HPI NA 16.25 NA 13.7 CrSuisHighYld DHY 2.16 2.02 -6.5 9.2 MAINSTAY:MKDEFTRMUNOP MMD 16.73 16.09 -3.8 4.8 Wildermuth:I 7.33 NA NA -34.4 Angel Oak Str Crdt:FI 20.83 NA NA 8.0
GabelliDiv&IncTr GDV 26.51 22.00 -17.0 11.2
JHPrefIncII HPF 15.59 16.36 +4.9 13.6 DoubleLine Inc Sol DSL 12.22 12.23 +0.1 9.97 NeubrgrBrm NBH 11.83 10.12 -14.5 4.3 Income & Preferred Stock Funds Angel Oak Str Crdt:Inst 20.82 NA NA 8.0
Gabelli Equity Tr GAB 5.32 5.31 -0.2 5.2 HnckJPfdInco III HPS NA 15.00 NA 14.5 DoubleLine Yld Opps DLY 15.83 15.26 -3.6 9.1 Nuveen AMT-Fr Mu Val NUW 15.11 13.50 -10.7 3.6 Alpha Alternative Assets 6.23 NA NA 0.9 BR Credit Strat;A 8.57 NA NA 8.2
GeneralAmer GAM 56.63 46.03 -18.7 24.2 J Han Prm PDT NA 11.21 NA -3.0 First Tr Hi Inc Lng/Shrt FSD 12.48 11.59 -7.1 10.5 Nuveen AMT-Fr Qlty Mun I NEA 12.40 10.63 -14.3 4.2 Calamos L/S Eqty and DI CPZ 17.98 15.53 -13.6 11.3 BR Credit Strat;Inst 8.54 NA NA 8.9
JHancockTaxAdvDiv HTD 21.57 19.47 -9.7 -1.3 LMP CapInco SCD 15.89 15.21 -4.3 37.1 First Trust HY Opp:2027 FTHY 15.32 14.13 -7.8 10.7 Nuveen AMT-Fr Mu CI NVG 13.40 11.58 -13.6 4.5 Carlyle AlpInv Pvt Mkt:A NA NA NA NS BR Credit Strat;U 8.56 NA NA 8.2
Nuveen Pref & Inc Opp JPC 7.81 7.01 -10.2 18.7 Franklin Univ FT 7.57 6.57 -13.2 7.6 Nuveen Dyn Muni Opp NDMO 10.87 10.61 -2.4 6.8
Liberty All-Star Equity USA 6.79 6.77 -0.3 24.0 Denali Strctr Rtrn Strat 10.04 NA NA NS BR Credit Strat;W 8.57 NA NA 8.2
Liberty All-Star Growth ASG 5.67 5.15 -9.2 10.1 Nuveen Pref & Inc Term JPI 19.35 18.83 -2.7 18.1 KKR Income Opportunities KIO 13.60 13.32 -2.1 10.7 Nuveen Mu Crdt Opps NMCO 11.49 10.16 -11.6 5.4 CION Ares Dvsfd Crdt;A NA NA NA
Flat Rock Opportunity 19.41 NA NA 21.4 8.5
Royce Micro-Cap Tr RMT 10.32 8.89 -13.9 16.9 Nuveen Var Rate P&I NPFD 19.68 16.96 -13.8 15.0 NeubHgYldStrt NHS 7.83 7.93 +1.3 13.4 Nuv Muni Credit Income NZF 13.52 11.70 -13.5 4.6 Lord Abbett Spec Sit I:A 9.30 NA NA 13.1 CION Ares Dvsfd Crdt;C NA NA NA 7.8
Royce Value Trust RVT 16.41 14.29 -12.9 19.0 TCW Strat Income TSI 5.00 4.60 -8.0 3.2 New Amer Hi Inc HYB 8.06 7.07 -12.3 6.7 NuvMuniHiIncOpp NMZ 10.98 10.25 -6.6 5.0 Lord Abbett Spec Sit I:I 9.30 NA NA 13.8 CION Ares Dvsfd Crdt;I NA NA NA 8.8
Source Capital SOR 44.89 41.43 -7.7 19.4 Convertible Sec's. Funds Nuveen Global High Inc JGH 13.23 12.35 -6.7 9.7 Nuveen Muni Val NUV 9.23 8.45 -8.5 3.9 Variant Altrntv Inc:Inst 28.51 NA NA 9.8 CION Ares Dvsfd Crdt;L NA NA NA 8.3
Sprott Focus Trust FUND 8.75 7.66 -12.5 1.4 AdvntCnvrtbl&IncFd AVK 12.09 11.57 -4.3 11.4 PGIM Global High Yield GHY 12.80 11.48 -10.3 10.5 Nuveen Quality Muni Inc NAD 12.83 10.89 -15.1 4.3 Variant Impact;Instl 28.22 NA NA 12.6 CION Ares Dvsfd Crdt;U NA NA NA 8.0
SRH Total Return STEW 18.49 14.28 -22.8 15.8 CalamosConvHi CHY 10.34 11.34 +9.7 18.7 PGIM High Yield Bond ISD 13.59 12.48 -8.2 9.7 Nuveen Sel TF NXP 14.41 13.98 -3.0 4.0 Versus Capital Infra Inc 10.08 NA NA NS CION Ares Dvsfd Crdt:U2 NA NA NA 8.0
Tri-Continental TY 33.98 29.73 -12.5 15.7 CalmosConvOp CHI 9.77 11.03 +12.9 17.6 PGIM Sh Dur Hi Yld Opp SDHY 17.23 15.09 -12.4 8.4 PIMCO MuniInc PMF 9.27 8.90 -4.0 5.4 Convertible Sec's. Funds CION Ares Dvsfd Crdt;W NA NA NA 8.3
Specialized Equity Funds V Conv & Inc NCV 3.61 3.18 -11.9 4.6 PioneerHilncm PHT 8.05 7.35 -8.8 8.6 PIMCOMuniIncII PML 8.62 8.15 -5.5 5.5 Calmos Dyn Conv and Inc CCD 18.77 22.05 +17.5 10.0 CNR Select Strategies 14.51 NA NA 0.0
abrdn Glb Prem Prop AWP 3.78 3.71 -1.9 5.1 V Conv & Inc II NCZ 3.21 2.82 -12.1 4.2 WstAstHIF II HIX 4.49 4.35 -3.1 13.1 Pimco Muni III PMX 7.93 7.52 -5.2 5.3 World Equity Funds First Eagle Crdt Opps A 23.53 NA NA 10.5
abrdn Global Infra Inc ASGI 19.98 17.21 -13.9 5.1 V Div Inc & Conv ACV 21.05 22.37 +6.3 28.7 Western Asset Hi Inc Opp HIO 4.11 3.76 -8.6 10.2 PioneerHilncAdv MAV 8.98 7.84 -12.7 4.2 ACAP Strategic:A 21.12 NA NA 30.6 First Eagle Crdt Opps A2 23.45 NA NA 10.2
Adams Natural Resources PEO 28.13 23.42 -16.7 19.0 V Eqty & Conv Inc NIE 24.48 21.91 -10.5 21.2 Western Asset Hi Yld D O HYI 12.01 11.55 -3.8 9.5 PionrMuniHiIncOppty MIO 12.52 11.06 -11.7 4.5
World Equity Funds ACAP Strategic:W 15.87 NA NA 31.5 First Eagle Crdt Opps I 23.39 NA NA 11.0
ASA Gold & Prec Met Ltd ASA 20.81 17.26 -17.1 3.6 Other Domestic Taxable Bond Funds PioneerMunHiIcm MHI 9.73 8.52 -12.4 4.0
abrdn Emg Mkts Eq Inc AEF 5.94 5.04 -15.2 6.7 CalamosGlbTotRet CGO 11.12 10.06 -9.5 20.6 First Trust Private Cr;A NA NA NA NS
BR Enh C&I CII 20.47 18.64 -8.9 10.8 Allspring Multi-Sector ERC 9.85 8.90 -9.7 8.4 Putnam Mgd Inc PMM 6.58 5.84 -11.2 3.3
abrdn Glbl Dyn Div AGD 10.96 9.42 -14.1 7.5 Cantor Fitzgerald SI:A 11.14 NA NA 9.9 First Trust Private Cr;I NA NA NA 8.7
BlackRock Energy & Res BGR 15.45 13.37 -13.5 13.6 Apollo Tactical Income AIF 14.74 14.22 -3.5 10.6 Putnam Muni Opp PMO 11.15 9.75 -12.6 3.9
abrdn Tot Dyn Div AOD 9.47 8.04 -15.1 6.1 Cantor Fitzgerald SI:C 11.03 NA NA 9.0 Franklin BSP Pvt Cr:A 10.42 NA NA 6.9
BlackRock Eq Enh Div BDJ 9.10 8.02 -11.9 3.0 Ares Dynamic Crdt Alloc ARDC 14.57 13.86 -4.9 9.7 RiverNorth Flx Mu Inc II RFMZ 15.32 13.59 -11.3 7.4
Allspring Gl Div Oppty EOD 5.38 4.56 -15.2 15.4 Cantor Fitzgerald SI:I 11.15 NA NA 10.1 Franklin BSP Pvt Cr:Adv 10.43 NA NA 7.3
BlackRock Enh Glbl Div BOE 11.86 10.10 -14.8 6.4 BlackRock Mlt-Sctr Inc BIT 14.37 15.41 +7.2 9.3 RiverNorth Mgd Dur Mun I RMM 16.17 14.64 -9.5 7.3
BlackRock Cap Alloc Term BCAT 17.47 15.45 -11.6 13.1 Primark Priv Eq Inv:I 12.82 NA NA 13.3 FS Credit Income;A 12.30 NA NA 7.3
BlackRock Enh Intl Div BGY 6.17 5.29 -14.3 1.2 BlackRock Tax Muni Bd BBN 17.02 15.50 -8.9 6.9 Western Asset Mgd Muni MMU 11.42 9.91 -13.2 4.5
Calamos GloDynInc CHW 7.25 6.34 -12.6 18.5 DoubleLine:Oppor Crdt Fd DBL 14.99 14.94 -0.3 4.9 Sweater Cashmere 21.95 NA NA 6.5 FS Credit Income;I 12.33 NA NA 7.6
BlackRock ESG Cap All T ECAT 18.31 16.19 -11.6 15.4 Single State Muni Bond
EV TxAdvGlbDivInc ETG 20.02 17.58 -12.2 16.4 EVLmtDurIncm EVV 10.40 9.44 -9.2 9.6 Thornburg Inc Bldr Opps TBLD 17.97 15.44 -14.1 10.2 FS Credit Income;T 12.32 NA NA 7.1
BlackRock Hlth Sci Term BMEZ 17.37 14.73 -15.2 -0.9 BlackRock CA Mun BFZ 12.69 11.58 -8.8 4.3
EtnVncTxAdvOpp ETO 26.99 24.40 -9.6 17.6 Franklin Ltd Dur Income FTF 7.05 6.20 -12.1 11.3 VirtusTotalRetFd ZTR 6.02 5.39 -10.5 -6.1 FS Credit Income;U 12.28 NA NA 6.9
BlackRock Hlth Sciences BME 42.70 39.06 -8.5 -3.0 BR MH CA Qly Fd Inc MUC 12.32 10.64 -13.6 4.2
Highland Global Alloc HGLB NA 6.94 NA -10.6 FS Credit Opportunities FSCO NA NA NA 11.2 Prem12 Mo FS Credit Income;U-2 12.38 NA NA 7.1
BlackRock Innov&Gro Term BIGZ 8.78 7.23 -17.7 6.1 BR MH NJ Qly MUJ 12.82 11.09 -13.5 4.3
India Fund IFN 18.93 18.28 -3.4 29.4 J Han Investors JHI 14.45 13.16 -8.9 6.7 Fund (SYM) NAV Close /Disc Yld GL Beyond Income 0.39 NA NA 0.0
BlackRock Res & Comm BCX 10.79 9.25 -14.3 2.9 BR MH NY Qly MHN 11.77 10.22 -13.2 4.1
Japan Smaller Cap JOF 9.16 7.61 -16.9 13.3 MFS Charter MCR 6.72 6.15 -8.5 0.0 U.S. Mortgage Bond Funds KKR CREDIT OPPTY;D 22.57 NA NA 8.8
BlackRock Sci&Tech Term BSTZ 21.43 17.62 -17.8 16.2 BR MuniYld MI Qly MIY 12.73 11.02 -13.4 4.0
LazardGlbTotRetInc LGI 18.05 15.56 -13.8 11.7 NuvCorePlusImpact NPCT 11.57 10.04 -13.3 9.7 Arca US Treasury NA NA NA 2.8 KKR CREDIT OPPTY;I 24.30 NA NA 9.0
BlackRock Sci&Tech Trust BST 35.46 34.91 -1.6 21.6 BR MuniYld NY Qly MYN 11.41 10.07 -11.8 4.1
Mexico MXF 23.02 18.22 -20.9 14.6 Nuveen Taxable Muni Inc NBB 16.09 14.62 -9.1 5.3 Ellington Inc Opp:A 8.88 NA NA 12.3 KKR CREDIT OPPTY;T 24.07 NA NA 8.3
BlackRock Utl Inf & Pwr BUI 22.05 21.30 -3.4 -2.0 BlackRock NY Mun BNY 11.71 10.31 -11.9 3.9
Miller/Howard High Inc E HIE NA 10.91 NA 10.5 PIMCO Corp & Inc Oppty PTY 11.19 14.13 +26.3 9.5 Ellington Inc Opp:M 8.75 NA NA 13.1 KKR CREDIT OPPTY;U 23.16 NA NA 8.3
CLEARBRIDGEENGYMDSOPP EMO 44.38 41.37 -6.8 58.0 EVCAMuniBd EVM 10.12 9.31 -8.0 4.0
CLEARBRIDGEMLP&MDSTMTR CTR 45.26 41.68 -7.9 50.7 MS ChinaShrFd CAF 14.84 12.20 -17.8 -11.2 PIMCO Corp & Inc Strat PCN 11.47 12.65 +10.3 9.6 Loan Participation Funds NIAGARAINCOMEOPPORTNTS NA NA NA NS
Eaton Vance NY Muni Bd ENX 10.45 9.44 -9.7 3.9
ClearBridge MLP & Midstm CEM 49.54 45.83 -7.5 50.3 MS India IIF 29.00 23.42 -19.2 35.6 PIMCOHilnco PHK 4.59 4.79 +4.4 11.6 1WS Credit Income;A2 18.85 NA NA 7.4 Palmer Square Opp Inc 17.98 NA NA 9.6
InvCaValMuIncTr VCV 11.06 9.58 -13.4 4.0
22.40 23.12 +3.2 8.5 MS CBRE Gl In Mg Term MEGI 13.87 12.06 -13.1 -6.5 PIMCO IncmStrFd PFL 7.95 8.27 +4.0 11.5 1WS Credit Income;Inst 19.25 NA NA 7.3 World Income Funds
ChnStrInfr UTF InvPAValMuIncTr VPV 11.42 9.90 -13.3 3.6
Cohen&SteersQualInc RQI 11.62 10.99 -5.4 2.0 Nuveen Multi-Asset Inc NMAI 13.46 11.84 -12.0 12.8 PIMCO IncmStrFd II PFN 7.02 7.22 +2.8 11.5 Axonic Alternative Inc NA NA NA 8.8 BlueBay Destra Itl E:A 24.23 NA NA 7.4
InvTrInvGrNYMu VTN 11.73 10.35 -11.8 3.7
CohenStrs Real Est and I RLTY 14.76 13.29 -10.0 7.8 Nuveen Rl Asst Inc & Gro JRI 13.00 11.33 -12.8 6.3 Putnam Prem Inc PPT 3.74 3.45 -7.8 8.0 Nuveen CA AMT-F Qual MI NKX 12.89 11.63 -9.8 4.3 Axonic Alternative Inc;A NA NA NA NS BlueBay Destra Itl E:I 24.26 NA NA 7.7
Cohen&Steers TotRet RFI 10.90 11.14 +2.2 1.9 Templeton Dragon TDF 9.71 8.22 -15.3 -16.1 Western Asset Dvsfd Inc WDI 15.31 14.12 -7.8 10.4 Blackstone FR EI D 22.03 NA NA 9.5 BlueBay Destra Itl E:L 24.21 NA NA 7.2
Nuveen CA Val NCA 9.23 8.65 -6.3 3.8
CohenStrsREITPrefInc RNP 19.49 19.77 +1.4 11.1 Templeton Em Mkt EMF 13.83 11.74 -15.1 9.2 World Income Funds NuveenCAQtyMuInc NAC 12.44 10.73 -13.7 4.3 Blackstone FR EI I 22.00 NA NA 9.8 BlueBay Destra Itl E:T 24.09 NA NA 7.0
Columbia Sel Prm Tech Gr STK 30.55 31.17 +2.0 25.6 Prem12 Mo abrdn AP IncFd FAX 2.90 2.57 -11.4 11.7 NuvNJ Qual Muni Inc NXJ 13.38 11.63 -13.1 3.2 Blackstone FR EI T 21.96 NA NA 9.3 Calamos-Aksia ACI:A 10.50 NA NA NS
DNP Select Income DNP 7.78 8.84 +13.7 -11.0 Fund (SYM) NAV Close /Disc Yld MS EmMktDomDebt EDD 5.26 4.53 -13.9 3.7 Nuveen NY AMT/Fr Qual MI NRK 11.75 10.60 -9.8 4.1 Blackstone FR EI T-I 22.50 NA NA 9.3 Calamos-Aksia ACI:C 10.49 NA NA NS
Duff&Ph Uti&Infra Inc Fd DPG 10.80 9.36 -13.4 -19.0 U.S. Mortgage Bond Funds PIMCO Access Income PAXS 14.99 15.33 +2.3 11.4 Nuveen NY Qual Muni Inc NAN 12.24 10.58 -13.6 4.3 Blackstone FR EI U 22.93 NA NA 9.3 Calamos-Aksia ACI:I 10.50 NA NA NS
EtnVncEqtyInc EOI 18.22 17.68 -3.0 23.3 BlckRk Income BKT 11.80 11.23 -4.8 8.8 PIMCO Dynamic Inc Strat PDX 23.92 21.45 -10.3 4.3 Nuveen PA Qual Muni Inc NQP 13.15 11.43 -13.1 3.2 Bluerock HI Inst Crd:A 23.91 NA NA 13.0 Calamos-Aksia ACI:M 10.50 NA NA NS
EtnVncEqtyIncoII EOS 20.84 19.59 -6.0 29.6 Investment Grade Bond Funds PIMCO Dynamic Income PDI 16.97 18.96 +11.7 13.7 Nuveen VA Qlty Mun Inc NPV 12.20 10.54 -13.6 3.8 Bluerock HI Inst Crd:C 23.90 NA NA 13.0 Carlyle Tact Pvt Cred:A 8.54 NA NA 9.8
EVRskMnDvsEqInc ETJ 8.91 8.19 -8.1 13.1 Angel Oak FS Inc Trm FINS NA 12.45 NA 9.9 PIMCO Dynamic Inc Opp PDO 12.60 12.98 +3.0 11.6 PIMCO CA PCQ NA 9.04 NA 4.6 Bluerock HI Inst Crd:F 23.91 NA NA 13.0 Carlyle Tact Pvt Cred:I 8.58 NA NA 10.1
ETnVncTxMgdBuyWrtInc ETB 14.58 13.23 -9.3 11.7 BlRck Core Bond BHK 10.29 10.32 +0.3 8.2 PIMCO Stratg Inc RCS 4.35 5.69 +30.8 10.0 PIMCOCAMuniII PCK NA 5.70 NA 4.4 Bluerock HI Inst Crd:I 23.92 NA NA 13.0 Carlyle Tact Pvt Cred:L 8.53 NA NA 9.7
EtnVncTxMgdBuyWrtOpp ETV 13.68 12.60 -7.9 11.7 BR Credit Alloc Inc BTZ 11.11 10.09 -9.2 9.4 Templtn Glbl Inc SABA NA 3.74 NA 11.1 BNYM Alcntr Glb MS Cr Fd 91.85 NA NA NA Carlyle Tact Pvt Cred:M 8.58 NA NA 9.6
52 wk
EvTxMnDvsEqInc ETY 13.56 13.04 -3.8 21.2 Insight Select Income INSI NA 16.14 NA 4.7 Templeton Em Inc TEI 5.97 5.22 -12.6 10.3 Prem Ttl CliffwaterClFd;I 10.69 NA NA 13.7 Carlyle Tact Pvt Cred:N 8.53 NA NA 10.3
EtnVncTxMgdGlbB ETW 9.11 7.90 -13.3 6.1 InvescoBond VBF 15.85 15.20 -4.1 5.1 WstAstEmergDebt EMD 10.32 8.98 -13.0 9.8 Fund (SYM) NAV Close /Disc Ret CliffwaterElFd;I 10.89 NA NA 13.5 Carlyle Tact Pvt Cred:U 8.58 NA NA 9.6
EVTxMnGblDvEqInc EXG 9.17 8.04 -12.3 12.3 J Han Income JHS NA 11.02 NA 3.7 Western Asset Gl Cr D Op GDO 12.43 11.94 -3.9 9.7 General Equity Funds CNR Strategic Credit 7.45 NA NA 23.0 Carlyle Tact Pvt Cred:Y 8.54 NA NA 10.0
Ecofin S&S Impact Term TEAF 14.39 11.43 -20.6 -4.5 MFS Intmdt MIN 2.81 2.60 -7.5 0.0 National Muni Bond Funds Alternative Strategies:I 16.38 NA NA -5.0 Floating-Rate Opps;A 10.21 NA NA NS Fid MS Cr;A NA NA NA NS
First Trust Energy Inc G FEN 16.09 15.94 -0.9 36.4 Western Asset Inf-Lk Inc WIA 9.16 7.90 -13.8 9.8 AllBerNatlMunInc AFB 12.17 10.46 -14.1 3.5 First Trust Hdg Strat;A 10.57 NA NA Floating-Rate Opps;I 10.20 NA NA NS Fid MS Cr;C NA NA NA NS
N
First Tr Enhanced Eq FFA 19.42 18.39 -5.3 16.7 Western Asset Inf-Lk O&I WIW 9.82 8.41 -14.4 9.7 BlckRk Inv Q Mun BKN 12.75 12.06 -5.4 4.3 First Trust Hdg Str;I 10.60 NA NA Floating-Rate Opps;U 10.21 NA NA NS Fid MS Cr;I NA NA NA NS
N
FirstTrEnergyInfra FIF 18.36 18.22 -0.8 35.5 Westn Asst IG Def Opp Tr IGI 17.05 16.61 -2.6 4.7 BlackRock Muni 2030 Tgt BTT 23.59 20.54 -12.9 2.9 Specialized Equity Funds Equalize Community Dev 9.15 NA NA 3.6 Fid MS Cr;L NA NA NA NS
FirstTrMLPEner&Inc FEI 9.92 9.79 -1.3 36.1 Loan Participation Funds BlackRock Muni BFK 11.24 9.95 -11.5 4.3 Accordant ODCE Index;A 9.49 NA NA NS FedProj&TrFinanceTendr 9.98 NA NA 7.5 Jackson Credit Opps:I 10.15 NA NA NS
Gabelli Healthcare GRX 11.49 9.43 -18.0 -2.8 Apollo Senior Floating AFT 14.96 14.20 -5.1 10.8 BlackRock Muni II BLE 11.84 10.41 -12.1 4.4 Accordant ODCE Index;I 9.50 NA NA NS Flat Rock Core Income NA NA NA 9.2 Lord Abbett Cred Opps Fd 8.87 NA NA 9.1
Gab Utility GUT 2.81 5.55 +97.5 -4.3 BR Debt Strategy DSU 10.79 10.70 -0.8 10.0 BlckRk Muni Inc Qly BYM 12.36 10.99 -11.1 4.4 Flat Rock Enhanced Inc 21.63 NA NA 9.3 Lord Abbett Cred Opps Fd 8.88 NA NA 9.8
Accordant ODCE Index;Y 9.50 NA NA NS
GAMCOGlGold&NatRes GGN 4.10 4.08 -0.5 19.0 BR F/R Inc Str FRA 13.17 13.06 -0.8 11.0 BR MuniAssets Fd MUA 11.31 10.87 -3.9 4.9 InvDYCrOpp:A 11.01 NA NA 10.5 Lord Abbett Crd Op:U 8.88 NA NA 9.1
Apollo Diversified RE:A 24.37 NA NA -5.8
J Han Finl Opptys BTO NA 27.56 NA 10.0 BlackRock Floatng Rt Inc BGT 12.81 12.90 +0.7 10.6 BR MH Qly 2 MUE 11.35 9.78 -13.9 4.0 Apollo Diversified RE:C 22.84 NA NA -6.5 InvDYCrOpp:R6 11.02 NA NA 10.8 Oaktree Dvsfd Income;D 9.00 NA NA 8.6
Neuberger Brmn Enrgy I&I NML 8.62 7.47 -13.3 25.1 BS SFR 2027 T BSL 14.81 14.11 -4.7 9.4 BR MuniHoldngs MHD 13.27 11.46 -13.6 4.0 InvDYCrOpp:Y 11.02 NA NA 10.7 PIMCO Flexible EM I;Inst 8.31 NA NA 7.1
Apollo Diversified RE:I 24.91 NA NA -5.6
Neuberger Nxt Gen Conn NBXG 13.72 11.70 -14.7 34.5 BS St Cr 2027 Tm BGB 12.75 11.77 -7.7 9.5 BR MuniVest Fd MVF 7.82 6.82 -12.8 4.0 Invesco Sr Loan A 5.85 NA NA 9.6 National Muni Bond Funds
ARK Venture 25.89 NA NA 39.4
NuvDow30DynOverwrite DIAX 16.01 13.90 -13.2 0.9 Eagle Point Credit ECC NA 10.02 NA 16.6 BR MuniVest 2 MVT 12.08 10.38 -14.1 4.1 Invesco Sr Loan C 5.87 NA NA 8.8 Ecofin Tax-Exempt Prv Cr 8.40 NA NA 3.8
ArrowMark Financial Corp BANX NA 18.42 NA NA
CBRE GlbRlEst IGR 5.29 4.90 -7.4 -2.4 Invesco Sr Loan IB 5.85 NA NA 9.8 Lind Cap Pt Mun Cred Inc 8.72 NA NA 6.1
CIM RA&C A 23.69 NA NA 0.3 Invesco Sr Loan IC 5.85 NA NA 9.7 MainStay MacKay Mu IO;A1 9.91 NA NA NS
5.85 NA NA 9.8 MainStay MacKay Mu IO;A2 9.91 NA NA NS
Insider-Trading Spotlight CIM RA&C C
CIM RA&C I
22.99 NA NA -0.4
23.92 NA NA 0.5
Invesco Sr Loan Y
Lord Abbett FR Hi Inc:A 10.25 NA NA 10.0 MainStay MacKay Mu IO;A3 9.91 NA NA NS
Trading by ‘insiders’ of a corporation, such as a company’s CEO, vice president or director, potentially conveys CIM RA&C L 23.43 NA NA 0.0 Lord Abbett FR Hi Inc:I 10.25 NA NA 10.5 MainStay MacKay Mu IO;I 9.91 NA NA NS
new information about the prospects of a company. Insiders are required to report large trades to the SEC Clarion Partners REI D 11.86 NA NA 2.3 Monachil Credit Income:I 10.06 NA NA 7.9 Nuveen En HY Muni Bd:A1 7.36 NA NA 5.2
Clarion Partners REI I 11.87 NA NA 2.6 Nomura Alt Inc;I 10.01 NA NA 5.1 Nuveen En HY Muni Bd:A2 7.37 NA NA 5.4
within two business days. Here’s a look at the biggest individual trades by insiders, based on data received by
Clarion Partners REI S 11.86 NA NA 1.7 OFS Credit Company OCCI NA 7.04 NA 21.2 Nuveen En HY Muni Bd:I 7.35 NA NA 5.9
Refinitiv on April 26, and year-to-date stock performance of the company Clarion Partners REI T 11.85 NA NA 1.7 SEI Alternative Income:F 10.28 NA NA NS PIMCO Flex Mun Inc;A-3 10.14 NA NA 3.5
KEY: B: beneficial owner of more than 10% of a security class CB: chairman CEO: chief executive officer CFO: chief financial officer Forum RE Income;I 9.65 NA NA 14.8 SEI Alternative Income:Y 10.28 NA NA NS PIMCO Flex Mun Inc:A1 10.14 NA NA 3.7
CO: chief operating officer D: director DO: director and beneficial owner GC: general counsel H: officer, director and beneficial owner Private Opps A NA NA NA NS Yieldstreet Alt Inc NA NA NA 8.8 PIMCO Flex Mun Inc;A2 10.14 NA NA 3.7
I: indirect transaction filed through a trust, insider spouse, minor child or other O: officer OD: officer and director P: president UT: Private Opps I NA NA NA NS High Yield Bond Funds PIMCO Flex Mun Inc;Inst 10.14 NA NA 4.2
unknown VP: vice president Excludes pure options transactions Private Opps SDR NA NA NA NS Apollo Diversified Cd:A NA NA NA 9.1 Single State Muni Bond
NexPointRlEstStrat;A 16.80 NA NA -5.5 Apollo Diversified Cd:C NA NA NA 8.4 PIMCO CA FMI;A-1 10.10 NA NA 2.8
Biggest weekly individual trades NexPointRlEstStrat;C 17.01 NA NA -6.2 Apollo Diversified Cd:F NA NA NA 11.9 PIMCO CA FMI;Inst 10.10 NA NA 3.3
Based on reports filed with regulators this past week
No. of shrs in Price range ($) $ Value Borrowing Benchmarks | wsj.com/market-data/bonds/benchmarks
Date(s) Company Symbol Insider Title trans (000s) in transaction (000s) Close ($) Ytd (%)

Buyers
Money Rates April 26, 2024
Key annual interest rates paid to borrow or lend money in U.S. and international markets. Rates below are a
Apr. 22 Biohaven BHVN J. Childs DI 195 41.00 8,000 38.97 -8.9
guide to general levels but don’t always represent actual transactions.
Apr. 22 V. Coric CEO 122 41.00 5,000
Week —52-WEEK— Week —52-WEEK—
Apr. 22 G. Bailey D 49 41.00 2,000 Inflation Latest ago High Low Latest ago High Low
Apr. 24 G. Bailey D 26 39.18 999 March index Chg From (%)
level Feb. '24 March '23 Federal funds Other short-term rates
Apr. 22 Zura Bio ZURA S. Sidhu DI 1,187 3.13 3,715 4.41 -5.6
Effective rate 5.3300 5.3300 5.3500 4.8400
Apr. 22 A. Munshi D 160 3.13 500 U.S. consumer price index High 5.6500 5.6500 5.6500 5.1500
Week 52-Week
Latest ago high low
All items 312.332 0.65 3.5
Apr. 22 Korro Bio KRRO F. Baskett BI 18 56.00 1,000 62.93 31.3 Low 5.3100 5.3100 5.3300 4.8000
Core 317.088 0.53 3.8
Apr. 22 C. Chang BI 18 56.00 1,000 Bid 5.3300 5.3100 5.3300 4.8300 Call money
Offer 5.3500 5.3300 5.3700 4.8500 7.25 7.25 7.25 6.75
Apr. 22 T. Florence BI 18 56.00 1,000 International rates
Apr. 22 M. Makhzoumi BI 18 56.00 1,000 Treasury bill auction Commercial paper (AA financial)
Week 52-Week
Apr. 22 E. Mathers BI 18 56.00 1,000 Latest ago High Low 4 weeks 5.275 5.280 5.840 3.830 90 days n.a. n.a. 5.54 5.03
Apr. 22 S. Sandell BI 18 56.00 1,000 13 weeks 5.255 5.250 5.345 5.060
Prime rates Secured Overnight Financing Rate
Apr. 22 P. Walker BI 18 56.00 1,000 26 weeks 5.160 5.155 5.350 4.840
U.S. 8.50 8.50 8.50 8.00 5.31 5.30 5.40 4.81
Apr. 22 R. Yang BI 18 56.00 1,000 7.20 7.20 7.20 6.70
Canada Secondary market Value 52-Week
Apr. 22 Intrusion INTZ A. Scott CEO 586 1.70 996 1.98 -60.9 Japan 1.475 1.475 1.475 1.475 Latest Traded High Low
Fannie Mae
Apr. 23 Regions Financial RF W. Rhodes DI 50 19.37 969 19.62 1.2 Policy Rates 30-year mortgage yields DTCC GCF Repo Index
Euro zone 4.50 4.50 4.50 3.50
Apr. 15-16 Expensify EXFY S. Mclaughlin BI 325 1.43-1.46 467 1.63 -34.0 Switzerland 2.00 2.00 2.25 2.00 30 days 6.831 6.765 7.495 5.739 Treasury 5.358 30.100 5.504 4.836
Britain 5.25 5.25 5.25 4.25 60 days 6.848 6.777 7.554 5.739 MBS 5.405 58.250 5.689 4.880
Apr. 18-19 BRT Apartments BRT J. Gould CEOI 18 16.63-16.89 307 17.53 -6 Australia 4.35 4.35 4.35 3.60
Notes on data:
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,
Sellers U.S. 5.38 5.33 5.48 4.85 and is effective July 27, 2023. Other prime rates aren’t directly comparable; lending practices vary
widely by location; Discount rate is effective July 27, 2023. Secured Overnight Financing Rate is as
Apr. 24 Jefferies Financial Group JEF R. Handler CEO 1,500 43.50 65,251 43.56 7.8 of April 25, 2024. DTCC GCF Repo Index is Depository Trust & Clearing Corp.'s weighted average for
U.S. government rates overnight trades in applicable CUSIPs. Value traded is in billions of U.S. dollars. Federal-funds rates
Apr. 18 Abercrombie & Fitch ANF F. Horowitz CEO 400 110.61 44,244 122.08 38.4 are Tullett Prebon rates as of 5:30 p.m. ET.
Discount Sources: Federal Reserve; Bureau of Labor Statistics; DTCC; FactSet;
Apr. 17 Ares Management ARES A. Ressler HI 144 131.08-132.48 18,881 133.62 12.4 5.50 5.50 5.50 5.00 Tullett Prebon Information, Ltd.
Apr. 18 Scholastic SCHL I. Lucchese ODI 400 33.51 13,404 36.42 -3.4
Apr. 18 e.l.f. Beauty ELF T. Amin CEO 74 166.40 12,389 179.63 24.4
Cash Prices | wsj.com/market-data/commodities Friday, April 26, 2024
Apr. 24 Danaher DHR R. Blair CEO 47 249.03-250.00 11,757 246.58 6.6
These prices reflect buying and selling of a variety of actual or “physical” commodities in the marketplace—separate
Apr. 22-24 CCC Intelligent Solutions Holdings CCCS G. Ramamurthy CEO 1,000 11.52 11,516 11.50 1.0 from the futures price on an exchange, which reflects what the commodity might be worth in future months.
Apr. 23-24 Elevance Health ELV F. Norwood O 20 532.14-534.74 10,832 537.26 13.9 Friday Friday Friday

39 238.58-239.14 9,276 235.64 25.8 Copper,Comex spot 4.5690 Wheat,No.2 soft red,St.Louis-u 5.8825
Apr. 23 American Express AXP S. Squeri CEO Energy Iron Ore, 62% Fe CFR China-s *118.9 Wheat - Hard - KC (USDA) $ per bu-u 6.8525
Apr. 18 Morgan Stanley MS J. Gorman OD 100 90.21 9,021 92.83 -0.5 Coal,C.Aplc.,12500Btu,1.2SO2-r,w 72.500 Steel, HRC USA, FOB Midwest Mill-s *830.0 Wheat,No.1soft white,Portld,OR-u 6.0750
Coal,PwdrRvrBsn,8800Btu,0.8SO2-r,w 13.750 Battery/EV metals Food
Apr. 22 DraftKings DKNG J. Robins CEO 200 40.91-41.47 8,182 43.13 22.4
BMI Lithium Carbonate, EXW China, =99.2%-v,w 15100
Apr. 22 Zurn Elkay Water Solutions ZWS A. Jalazo BI 250 32.04 7,997 31.70 7.8
Metals BMI Lithium Hydroxide, EXW China, =56.5% -v,w 13725 Beef,carcass equiv. index
BMI Cobalt sulphate, EXW China, >20.5% -v,m 4485 choice 1-3,600-900 lbs.-u 281.66
Apr. 22 A. Katz BI 250 32.04 7,997 Gold, per troy oz BMI Nickel Sulphate, EXW China, >22%-v,m 4192 select 1-3,600-900 lbs.-u 273.22
Apr. 23 A. Jalazo BI 237 32.44 7,679 Engelhard industrial 2352.00 BMIFlakeGraphite,FOBChina,-100Mesh,94-95%-v,m 485 Broilers, National comp wtd. avg.-u,w 1.3201
Apr. 23 A. Katz BI 237 32.44 7,679 Handy & Harman base 2343.10 Butter,AA Chicago-d 2.9700
Handy & Harman fabricated 2600.84 Fibers and Textiles
Cheddar cheese,bbl,Chicago-d 177.25
Apr. 23 MicroStrategy MSTR M. Saylor H 5 1300.00-1389.86 6,731 1282.38 103.0 LBMA Gold Price AM *2325.65 Burlap,10-oz,40-inch NY yd-n,w 0.8100 Cheddar cheese,blk,Chicago-d 175.00
Apr. 24 M. Saylor H 5 1265.11-1333.62 6,479 LBMA Gold Price PM *2318.70 Cotton,1 1/16 std lw-mdMphs-u 0.7665 Milk,Nonfat dry,Chicago lb.-d 111.00
Krugerrand,wholesale-e 2424.24 Cotlook 'A' Index-t *87.80 Coffee,Brazilian,Comp-y 2.2617
Apr. 18 M. Saylor H 5 1178.96-1274.76 6,145 Maple Leaf-e 2447.55 Hides,hvy native steers piece fob-u n.a. Coffee,Colombian, NY-y 2.5134
* Half the transactions were indirect **Two day transaction American Eagle-e 2447.55 Wool,64s,staple,Terr del-u,w n.a. Eggs,large white,Chicago-u 2.4150
p - Pink Sheets Mexican peso-e 2818.49 Flour,hard winter KC-p 18.55
Austria crown-e 2287.85 Grains and Feeds
Hams,17-20 lbs,Mid-US fob-u 0.88
Austria phil-e 2447.55 Bran,wheat middlings, KC-u,w 75 Hogs,Iowa-So. Minnesota-u 89.34
Insider buying and selling by sector Silver, troy oz. Corn,No. 2 yellow,Cent IL-bp,u 4.1600 Pork bellies,12-14 lb MidUS-u n.a.
Based on actual transaction dates in reports received this past week Engelhard industrial 27.8000 Corn gluten feed,Midwest-u,w 91.4 Pork loins,13-19 lb MidUS-u 1.2926
Handy & Harman base 27.2600 Corn gluten meal,Midwest-u,w 403.3 Steers,Tex.-Okla. Choice-u 182.00
Handy & Harman fabricated 34.0750 Cottonseed meal-u,w 330 Steers,feeder,Okla. City-u,w 302.25
Sector Buying Selling Sector Buying Selling
LBMA spot price *£21.8800 Hominy feed,Cent IL-u,w 115
(U.S.$ equivalent) *27.3650 Meat-bonemeal,50% pro Mnpls-u,w 320
Fats and Oils
Capital Goods 41,681 24,815,746 Health care 28,492,665 39,201,815 Coins,wholesale $1,000 face-a 21350 Oats,No.2 milling,Mnpls-u 4.4375 Degummed corn oil, crude wtd. avg.-u,w n.a.
Consumer durables 99,864 2,231,939 Public Utilities 57,250 13,156 Other metals Rice, Long Grain Milled, No. 2 AR-u,w 36.25 Grease,choice white,Chicago-h 0.3900
LBMA Platinum Price PM *906.0 Sorghum,(Milo) No.2 Gulf-u n.a. Lard,Chicago-u n.a.
Consumer non-durables 0 15,705,251 Technology 1,936,794 71,150,747 SoybeanMeal,Cent IL,rail,ton48%-u,w 354.00 0.4474
Platinum,Engelhard industrial 920.0 Soybean oil,crude;Centl IL-u,w
Consumer services 366,300 132,750,462 Transportation 0 8,363,086 Palladium,Engelhard industrial 982.0 Soybeans,No.1 yllw IL-bp,u 11.3900 Tallow,bleach;Chicago-h 0.4275
Aluminum, LME, $ per metric ton *2586.5 Wheat,Spring14%-pro Mnpls-u 8.9350 Tallow,edible,Chicago-u n.a.
Energy 78,144 11,855,675
Finance 1,532,296 55,680,670 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;
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 4/25
Sources: Refinitiv; Dow Jones Market Data Source: Dow Jones Market Data
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. NY Monday, April 29, 2024 | B9

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B10 | Monday, April 29, 2024
AI and AC
Fuel Power
Demand
Continued from page B1
U.S.’s natural-gas demand by
2030, according to research
firm Thunder Said Energy,
with backup generators burn-
ing more diesel too.
“I think we’re going to need
every little bit of renewables
and natural gas we possibly
can,” Murray Auchincloss,
chief executive officer of oil
major BP, said of the growth
of AI on a recent company
earnings call.
Asia renewables
China installed more solar
panels last year than the U.S.
ever has, and India plans to
more than triple renewables
in the next six years. That
growth hasn’t kept pace with
demand, leaving coal to close
the gap.
With its big build-out last
year, China did cross an im-
portant threshold—growth of
renewables exceeded the
long-term growth of power
demand, according to Lauri
Myllyvirta, a senior fellow at
the Asia Society Policy Insti-
tute.
But 2023 was an unusual
year.
Beijing was trying to stimu-
late the economy via exports,
so the manufacturing sector
used more electricity, and a
heat wave meant more air
conditioning. Power demand
stayed one step ahead of re-
newables.
Everyone is watching China
because it is trying to address
renewables’ reliability prob-
lem with grid upgrades, bat-
teries and hydropower.
The goal is to go green
while keeping power prices
low.
“If China succeeds in doing
that, that could be replicated
in other markets like India
and Southeast Asia,” said Alex
Whitworth, head of Asia Pa-
cific power research at Wood
Mackenzie.
India encapsulates the chal-
© 2024 Dow Jones & Co., Inc. All rights reserved. 6DJ0199
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
MARKETS
The use of air conditioning is expected to
soar as incomes and temperatures rise.
How per-capita emissions from
electricity generation have
changed in the past decade
Since Covid-19, India’s electricity
demand has been growing faster
than its economy.
Investors
3.5 billion household AC units
Japan
European
Union
8 metric tons of CO2 10%
Cheer AI
3.0
Central and
South America
Africa
6 U.S. 5
Spending
2.5
U.S.
4
China
European
0
Boom
Union Power-demand
Southeast
2 –5 growth BY TOM DOTAN
Asia Southeast Asia GDP growth
India The world’s biggest tech-
2.0
0 Africa –10 nology companies had a simi-
India 2014 2023 2015 ’20 ’23 lar message to investors this
past week: We need to spend
1.5 billions of dollars every quar-
European power demand looks set to emerge from a slump. ter to develop our artificial-in-
3,200 terawatt hours telligence products.
Those huge spending plans
1.0
Forecast got mixed reactions.
3,000 Shares of Microsoft and
China Google parent Alphabet
2,800 jumped after the companies
0.5 suggested the spending was to
meet growing demand for
2,600 their AI products.
“That is partially why you
0 2,400 see the capital investment in
the shape it is,” Microsoft fi-
2021 ’30 ’40 ’50 2017 ’20 ’25 ’30
nancial chief Amy Hood said
on the company’s earnings call
Indian monthly power generation, by source on Thursday, “because right
this minute, we do have de-
150 terawatt hours mand that exceeds our supply
by a bit.”
125 Meta Platforms saw its
stock have its worst day in 18
100 months after the company
raised its capital-expenditure
projections for 2024 by as
75
much as $10 billion to cover
Coal Nuclear Renewables Hydro Other the costs of building out its
50 AI. Chief Executive Mark
Zuckerberg warned of years of
25 aggressive spending before
seeing a substantial return.
“I also expect to see a mul-
0
tiyear investment cycle before
2015 ’16 ’17 ’18 ’19 ’20 ’21 ’22 ’23 ’24 we fully scale Meta AI, busi-
Sources: International Energy Agency (air-conditioning use); International Energy Agency (emissions); U.S. Census Bureau (population); Wood Mackenzie (power-demand growth); ness AIs, and more, into the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (GDP); LSEG (European power demand); Central Electricity Authority via McCloskey (power generation) profitable services,” Zucker-
berg said Wednesday.
lenge. By 2050, Indians’ air condi- plants is straining India’s in- facturing sector to compete Microsoft said it is on a
Power-demand growth has tioners could use more power frastructure. with the wealth created by path to spend $14 billion a
been running above 8% a year, than Africa currently con- The Indian government coal, said Karthik Ganesan, a quarter on equipment and
outpacing gross domestic sumes, the International En- said last year that it envi- power-market expert at In- property in the midst of its AI
product growth, as industrial ergy Agency says. sions adding 100,000 railcars dia’s nonprofit Council on build-out, a number that it
activity explodes. The government’s renew- to the country’s congested Energy, Environment and projected would increase in
ables push is part of a broader railroads by 2030—a fourth of Water. subsequent quarters.
effort to keep up with de- the existing stock—just for “If anybody was expecting Hood said Microsoft will
ACs in India mand. India has 30 gigawatts coal. India’s coal to peak anywhere spend in sync with emerging
Hundreds of millions of In- of coal plants under construc- To slow the coal rush, the before the mid-2030s, they demand movements. “These
dians whose homes have been tion, with more in the pipe- government would have to were probably unrealistic,” expenditures over the course
connected to the grid this cen- line, according to Global En- coax private investors to fund Ganesan said. of the next year are dependent
tury are also buying appli- ergy Monitor. power-grid improvements —Andrew Barnett on demand signals and adop-
ances. Moving coal to power and nurture a green manu- contributed to this article. tion of our services,” she said.
The World.
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Connected.
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THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Monday, April 29, 2024 | B11

HEARD STREET FINANCIAL ANALYSIS & COMMENTARY

ON
THE

Anglo Can Afford to Be Coy on BHP Deal

One way or another, though, some of the company’s assets seem destined for new owners

Anglo American, one of the doesn’t necessarily look that cheap. for its controlling stake in De Beers
world’s top miners of copper, dia- Its market value including debt diamonds, as The Wall Street Jour-
monds and platinum, has spurned now stands at about 8.6 times for- nal reported Thursday.
the advances of BHP, its larger peer ward operating profit, according to Nickel faces similar structural
from Down Under. FactSet. While any acquirer will headwinds, despite being another
But that is unlikely to be the end have to pay a control premium, An- of BHP’s future-facing commodities:
of the story. Anglo’s challenges glo’s multiple following the bid is Massive Chinese investment in low-
aren’t purely cyclical or opera- the highest since 2016 and well cost nickel mining and processing
tional. It faces real strategic prob- above BHP and rival iron-ore pro- in Indonesia is swamping global
lems that could continue to weigh ducer Rio Tinto, which both weigh markets. And platinum demand is
on profitability. BHP may raise its in at around seven times. underpinned by its use in catalytic
bid, or other big miners could One reason Anglo’s stock has converters, making the metal a
throw their hats into the ring. One been weak lately is the firm’s strug- loser in the shift to electric vehi-
ANGLO AMERICAN/REUTERS

way or another, some of Anglo’s as- gling diamond, platinum and nickel cles. Macquarie estimates automo-
sets seem destined for new owners. businesses. Anglo wrote down its tive platinum demand could peak
BHP, the world’s largest listed De Beers diamond and Brazilian as soon as 2025.
miner, shocked the mining world nickel operations to the tune of $2.1 To be sure, not everyone sees
last week with an unsolicited all- billion in February, helping push dim prospects for diamonds and
stock offer for Anglo that valued net debt to 43% of equity, according platinum. And Anglo’s core iron ore
the firm at about $39 billion. Anglo Anglo’s copper business is churning out cash despite some operational woes. to FactSet—also its highest since and copper businesses are churning
shares closed up 16% at £25.60 on 2016. Chief Executive Duncan Wan- out cash, despite some operational
Thursday, above the implied offer farms, electric vehicles and other Diamonds and platinum, mean- blad unveiled a strategic asset re- problems recently. The bull case for
price of £25.08, equivalent to uses. A merger of the two compa- while, are at the root of Anglo’s view alongside annual results, say- Anglo is that copper prices will
$31.38. LGIM, one of Anglo’s major nies would create the world’s top strategic problem. The firm, ing that “nothing is off the table.” head much higher, these opera-
shareholders, called the bid “highly copper miner. through its subsidiaries, is the top And while diamond, platinum tional issues will prove transient
opportunistic” and “unattractive.” But lurking in the background global producer of both. And both and nickel prices are suffering and it will get a good price for De
On Friday, Anglo formally rejected are other important commodities: businesses are in trouble. partly for cyclical reasons, there are Beers.
it. coking coal, diamonds, platinum On the face of it, it is easy to see structural concerns, too. China’s All of that may yet come to pass.
BHP plainly wants Anglo’s cop- and nickel. The deal would have put why some investors were unim- meltdown in real estate and con- But if operational issues persist,
per—one of the “future-facing com- BHP in the top spot for metallurgi- pressed with BHP’s bid. As recently sumer confidence and the increas- copper prices stumble or the com-
modities” at the heart of its growth cal coal, used to make steel. Unlike as January 2023, Anglo’s shares ing acceptance of synthetic dia- pany is forced to write down once-
strategy. Tackling climate change the thermal coal used for power were trading at around £36, monds could weigh on diamond choice assets further, then the likes
will require vast amounts of the generation, the metallurgical kind roughly 40% above where they sit prices for years. No surprise then of LGIM might warm to takeover
metal for transmission lines, wind still has no obvious replacements. now. But by other metrics, Anglo that Anglo is on the hunt for buyers approaches. —Nathaniel Taplin

Exxon Spent Money to Make Money Capital expenditures, 2019 to 2023

Shell
$104.2 billion

Exxon Mobil is nowhere close to Exxon’s shares retreated Friday quarter. In the Permian Basin, it Mikells, said in an interview with Exxon Mobil
holding the kind of market power after its earnings call, but they are has more than doubled production The Wall Street Journal on Friday 94.1
its Standard Oil ancestor enjoyed up 18% year to date, outpacing the volume since 2019. that both companies have selected
back in the day, but it is cementing rise in Brent crude prices by about Exxon is well ahead of Chevron arbitrators, with a third yet to be TotalEnergies
its lead over supermajor peers. 3.6 percentage points and surpass- in its land grab. Exxon’s acquisition appointed.
68.3
On Friday, Exxon reported first- ing the gains seen by its competi- of Permian producer Pioneer Natu- And with $33.3 billion of cash on
quarter earnings were down 28% tors by a substantial margin. ral Resources is expected to close in its balance sheet, Exxon has the op- BP
compared with a year earlier, To Exxon’s credit, its consistent the second quarter. It could widen tion to increase cash returns or
driven by lower natural-gas prices capital spending since 2019—even its lead even more if its challenge pursue more acquisitions. Its net 65.0
and refining margins. Earnings during the pandemic—appears to against an element of Chevron’s ac- debt-to-capital ratio is at 3%, the
Chevron
were 6.4% lower than what analysts be paying off. Exxon had $94 billion quisition of Hess prevails. Exxon lowest in more than a decade.
polled by Visible Alpha penciled in, in capital expenditures from 2019 pushed back on the transfer of Despite the stock’s rally this 56.3
but largely because of one-time im- to 2023, about 67% more than what Hess’s Guyana oil-project stake, as- year, Exxon’s valuation premium
pacts such as tax and inventory ad- Chevron spent over that time. In serting Exxon—as a joint-venture over Chevron actually narrowed. Its Source: FactSet
justments. The underlying business Guyana, where a lot of that spend- partner in the project—had the enterprise value as a multiple of
remains a cash gusher: Exxon gen- ing was directed, all of its three right to pre-empt Chevron’s bid on forward-12-month earnings before years, that averaged 8%.
erated about $10 billion of free cash projects are producing above their the project stake. Exxon filed for interest, taxes, depreciation and Good news on arbitration could
flow during the quarter—21% initial design plans and achieved arbitration in March and the com- amortization is about 6% higher supercharge Exxon’s lead over its
higher than analyst expectations. record gross production in the first pany’s chief financial officer, Kathy than Chevron’s. Over the past five rival. —Jinjoo Lee

MARKETS

Shoot for Share-price change this year

60%
Percentage change this year The biggest stocks are
mostly insulated from rising
interest rates by their huge
is a high cash yield on Trea-
surys, a stock with no divi-
dend requires more confi-

Profits, Not
Nvidia
Meta Platforms cash piles and long-dated dence in its investments’
40 Meta Platforms fixed-rate bonds. That differs working out than when rates
from the companies ARKK were on the floor.

The Moon generally invests in.

Continued from page B1
up to the announcements—
when Tesla plunged 40% and
Meta soared 40%.
And the market hasn’t
turned against corporate in-
vestment per se, with shares
of Microsoft and Alphabet—
owner of Google—both doing
well after last week’s results
even as they continued to
pour cash into AI.
Investors want a clear
C
20 Alphabet
The new investor mindset orporate strategy still
0 Amazon also shows up in the close link matters, of course. Be-
between big tech companies’ cause of the prospect of
12-month EPS forecast
–20 Microsoft share prices and earnings ex- future AI demand for its chips,
Share price pectations. Nvidia saw its shares do far
–40 Apple The best explanation for better even than the one-third
moves this year in shares of rise in earnings expectations.
Tesla the Magnificent Seven—Mi- Even though earnings fore-
–60 Tesla
crosoft, Apple, Nvidia, Alpha- casts for Apple were slightly
Jan. 2024 April –30 –20 –10 0% 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 bet, Amazon, Meta and up, its shares fell sharply be-
Sources: FactSet (left chart); LSEG (right chart) Tesla—was the change in ex- cause investors finally woke
pected earnings 12 months up to the strategic problem it
enthusiastically supported un- demanded that their holdings native is a Treasury yielding ahead. The biggest gains went has in China.
til 2022 is now a sure way to should at least have a clear almost 5%. The importance of to those with the biggest rise Tesla’s shares fell more
tank the share price. route to making money. the link shows up in ARKK’s in forecast profits, led by than earnings forecasts, even
The switch in investor correlation to Treasury yields: Nvidia, and the biggest loss to after last week’s bounce, as

route to a return on corporate
cash sunk into new projects,
something both Microsoft and
Alphabet are providing with
higher profit margins. The old
land-grab approach to tech
spending that the market so
T
his shows up most obvi- mindset is down to bond Recently, the ETF has had a Tesla, where profit expecta- EV demand has dropped and
ously at Wood’s ARK In- yields. Money that flooded strong tendency to fall when tions plunged. shifted to cheaper hybrids.
vest and its Ark Innova- into risky ventures that won’t Treasury yields rise, as they Alphabet’s decision to start CEOs might try to resist the
tion (ARKK) ETF. The ETF’s pay dividends for years, if have done this year, and rise paying a dividend might also new investor mantra of Show
portfolio of what Wood calls ever, was much more accept- when they fall, as they did last be part of investors’ desire for Me the Money. But if they do,
disruptive innovators has per- able when interest rates were autumn. The ETF is down 16% more money in the here and the share price is likely to suf-
formed dismally as investors near zero than when the alter- this year. now. Again, if the alternative fer.

THE TICKER | MARKET EVENTS COMING THIS WEEK

Monday Employment cost Mar., expected up 0.3% Mastercard 3.25/2.80 15-year fixed 6.44% Linde 3.67/3.42
Earnings expected index Pfizer 0.53/1.23 Int’l trade deficit
Estimate/Year Ago 4th qtr., previous EIA status report Qualcomm 2.32/2.15 in billions
Arch Capital 2.09/1.73 up 0.9% Previous change in stocks in Feb., previous $68.9
Friday
millions of barrels
MicroStrategy 1st qtr., expected Mar., expected $69.2 Nonfarm payrolls
(0.55)/31.79 up 1.0% Crude-oil stocks Thursday Mar., previous 303,000
NXP Semiconductors down 6.4
Factory orders Apr., expected 250,000
3.19/3.19 Earnings expected Gasoline stocks Initial jobless claims
Feb., previous up 1.4%
ON Semiconductor Estimate/Year Ago down 0.6 Previous 207,000
Mar., expected up 1.6% Unemployment rate
1.04/1.19 Advanced Micro Distillates up 1.6 Expected 210,000
Mar., previous 3.8%
SBA Communications Devices 0.62/0.60 EIA report: natural-gas
ISM mfg. index Productivity Apr., expected 3.8%
1.17/0.92 Amazon.com 0.84/0.31 Previous change in stocks in
Welltower 0.25/0.05 Coca-Cola 0.70/0.68 Mar., previous 50.3 4th qtr., prev up 3.2% billions of cubic feet
Apr., expected 50.2 1st qtr. prel, exp. up 1.0% Earnings expected
Eli Lilly 2.47/1.62 up 92 Estimate/Year Ago
McDonald’s 2.72/2.63
Tuesday Stryker 2.36/2.14 Mort. bankers indexes Unit labor costs Earnings expected Cboe Global Markets
Purch., previous 4th qtr., prev up 0.4% Estimate/Year Ago 2.05/1.90
Fed 2-day meeting Amgen 3.88/3.98 CBRE Group 0.69/0.92
down 1.0% 1st qtr. prel, exp.
begins Wednesday
AKOS STILLER/BLOOMBERG NEWS

Refinan., prev. up 3.0% Apple 1.50/1.52 Cheniere Energy

Fed rate-policy down 6.0% Booking Holdings 2.30/22.10
Chicago PMI meeting Freddie Mac mortgage 14.09/11.60 Corebridge Financial
Mar., previous 41.4 Target rate Earnings expected survey Cigna 6.22/5.41 1.05/0.97
Apr., expected 47.0 5.25%-5.50% Estimate/Year Ago Previous weekly averages ConocoPhillips Hershey 2.76/2.96
Automatic Data 30-year fixed 7.17% 2.08/2.38 Trimble 0.62/0.72
Consumer Confidence Construction spending Processing 2.79/2.52
CVS Health 1.71/2.20 * FactSet Estimates earnings-per-share estimates don’t include extraordinary items (Losses in paren-
Mar., previous 104.7 Feb., previous theses) u Adjusted for stock split
Apr., expected 103.5 down 0.3% KKR 0.96/0.81 Note: Forecasts are from Dow Jones weekly survey of economists Coca-Cola is expected to post per-share earnings of 70 cents.
B12 | Monday, April 29, 2024 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.