What We’re Reading is a roundup of current news and commentary on the challenges and opportunities of aligning business decisions with the long-term health of society. The end of summer 2024 saw some wild gyrations in the stock market that settled quickly—but not before a picture of economic fissures (if not cracks) began to come into view. If there’s a theme this month, it’s the difficulty of making change for the better in business and society stick in times of turbulence.

The Economy

The Labor Market’s Soft Landing ‘Is in Danger,’ Economist Says. Here’s Where Jobs Are Still Growing (Ana Teresa Solá, CNBC) While your editors at What We’re Reading celebrate that recession fears seemed to have stilled (at least for now), we appreciate that this article illustrates that not all people are benefitting equally from good labor market headlines.

U.S. Added 818,000 Fewer Jobs Than Reported Earlier (Ben Casselman, The New York Times) And in fact, more recent data has revealed that a cooling of the labor market may be both more widespread, and already longer in motion, than anticipated.

ESG

REI Has Hemorrhaged Money for Two Years in a Row. Now Employees Fear Its Famed Outdoor-Nerd Culture Is at Risk (Phil Wahba, Fortune) “Speaking with Fortune in July, [CEO] Artz dismisses the idea that REI is going corporate. But he argues that REI can live up to its co-op ideals only if it is on solid financial footing and competitive.” What we like about this in-depth reporting is how it challenges facile notions of what “solid financial footing” means, detailing the many individual factors (such as readiness to respond to spikes and slow-downs in demand) that put the company in the difficult position it is in today.

Investors Rally Behind SEC Climate Rule (Tim Mohin, LinkedIn) “The legal deliberations in the US have not stopped the international community from enacting their sustainability reporting regulations, many of which will impact US companies and require much more extensive reporting than the SEC Rule…This puts the US at risk of becoming a rule-taker rather than a maker.”

Worker Voice

Workers Across the US Rally After String of Heat-Related Deaths (Ayurella Horn-Muller, The Grist) If ever you needed proof that climate change is also a worker voice issue, it’s here: “Airport workers…are being joined by laborers in fast food, retail, and the farm sector this week to demand on-the-job heat protections from employers and the federal government. From Atlanta to Los Angeles, a string of rallies, town halls, and delegations are taking place in 13 cities as laborers and coalitions escalate their demands to elected officials.”

Canadian Freight Railroads Shut Down, Dealing a Potential Blow to North America’s Economy (Chris Isidore, CNN) Your WWR editor confesses it’s easy to adopt a U.S.-centric focus in our news curation. This article is a reminder of how limiting such a perspective can be: “The shutdown would drive home how closely linked the two nations’ economies are, with many industries depending on the free movement of goods across the border for their efficient operations.”

Tech

Massive Data Breach That Includes Social Security Numbers May Be Even Worse Than Suspected (Jon Healey, Los Angeles Times) Questions we’re left wondering: how did a private company come to collect such a vast trove of data?

The Movement to Diversify Silicon Valley Is Crumbling Amid Attacks on DEI (Naomi Nix, Cat Zakrzewski and Nitasha Tiku, The Washington Post) Where do we go from here?

For more on our work to align business with the long-term good of society, sign up for our publications and visit our website. (Please note, the purpose of this newsletter is to highlight what Aspen BSP staff are reading, and is not intended as advertisement or endorsement of content or viewpoints.)

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