Lawmakers in both parties are unnerved about the potential ramifications a government shutdown could have on the U.S. economy.
Driving the news: Credit rating firm Moody's said Monday that a shutdown would be "credit negative" for the U.S., potentially endangering the country's last remaining "triple A" rating from the big three credit rating firms.
Target announced Tuesday that it is shuttering nine stores on Oct. 21 because "theft and organized retail crime are threatening the safety of our team and guests."
Why it matters: Retail crime accounted for $112.1 billion in losses in 2022, a National Retail Federation report released Tuesday found.
JPMorgan Chase agreedto pay $75 million to the U.S. Virgin Islands over allegations the bank assisted and benefited from Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking.
Driving the news: The bank, whose reputation was harmed by the suit, did not admit to wrongdoing in the agreement Tuesday.
Black Americans say news coverage about Black people is often more negative than news about other residents, and few are optimistic that will change soon, a new survey finds.
Why it matters: Media outlets vowed to hire more diverse staff after the murder of George Floyd, but three years later, those commitments have done little to transform Black Americans' perceptions of news media.
Most triple-A countries — think Germany or Canada — carefully plan out their fiscal trajectory over the next five to 10 years. The U.S. can't even credibly promise to pay its employees next week. As a result, it's now at risk of losing the last of its much-coveted triple-A credit ratings.
Why it matters: America's economic and military might have combined to allow a level of fiscal complacency within its government that's incompatible with a risk-free rating.
Former CBS executive Eric Kuhn and former Microsoft executive Tre' Scott are launching Folk Media Group, a creative studio and private investment firm focused on production companies for live entertainment.
Why it matters: Live entertainment is booming in wake of the pandemic and gained even more momentum with Hollywood on strike.
The world's biggest streaming companies are coming together to launch the industry's first unified coalition, the Streaming Innovation Alliance (SIA).
Why it matters: The streaming industry has faced few regulatory threats over the past decade, but that's changing as more television consumption moves to digital.
Members of SAG-AFTRA, the union representing Hollywood actors, television and radio artists, voted overwhelmingly on Monday to authorize a strike against 10 of the nation's biggest video game companies.
Why it matters: Video game voice actors have been pushing to renegotiate a contract with big gaming studios for over a year. Their previous contract expired last November.
Liberty Media proposed splitting off the business that contains audio entertainment group SiriusXM and combining it with the rest of Sirius XM Holdings Inc., the company said Tuesday.
Why it matters: The deal is yet another move by Liberty's John Malone to reshuffle and squeeze value from his vast array of media and entertainment assets.
Details: Liberty owns 83% of Sirius XM, the satellite radio group that also includes music streaming service Pandora.
Liberty's Sirius XM shares are held in a tracking stock, which trades on the Nasdaq as LXSM.
According to terms of the deal, Liberty said it would separate Liberty SiriusXM through a so-called stock split-off and form a new, publicly traded entity it referred to as "New Sirius XM" in the press release.
SiriusXM's minority shareholders would own 16% of the new company while former shareholders of LSXM common stock would own about 84%, Liberty said.
Liberty said the deal would not affect its other tracking stock groups, Liberty Formula One and Liberty Live. These three groups were recently formed as part of Liberty splitting off the Atlanta Braves.
Sirius XM Holdings said a special board committee and its advisers Solomon Partners Securities, LLC and Debevoise & Plimpton LLP are evaluating the proposal.
What they're saying: "I think a simple structure makes more sense. I would think they agree," Sirius XM Holdings CEO Jennifer Witz said earlier this month at the Bank of America Media, Communications & Entertainment conference when asked about Liberty and her company's arrangement.
"We've seen these dynamics in terms of the technical impacts on our stock that are driven by sort of complicated corporate structure that we have," Witz added.
In Tuesday's press release, Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei said, "We are excited about the prospects for New SiriusXM and look forward to remaining meaningfully invested in the business."
"This simplified structure will also allow management to better focus on its strategic priorities, drive the company's continued growth and simplify the investor relations story."
The big picture: SiriusXM's subscriber growth has stalled in recent months, putting pressure on the company to diversify its revenue streams.
The company has been building a new streaming app to attract more listeners outside the car. It's planning to release that product later this year.
Malone, meanwhile, is a consummate dealmaker who has orchestrated many transactions in his decades as a media mogul.
Private debt funds are on pace to raise more than $200 billion in new capital for the fourth year in a row, according to a new report out Tuesday morning from data provider PitchBook.
The U.S. economy should be able to shrug off the recent rise in oil prices, Goldman Sachs analysts say.
Why it matters: While the American economy has been much stronger than expected in 2023, the recent rise in oil prices has emerged as a potential vulnerability.
Adam Nagourney,a 27-year New York Times journalist who's now covering 2024, is out Tuesday with a seven-year passion project — "The Times," an unauthorized history vivisecting the paper's disruptive span from 1977-2016.
Why it matters: Although the NYT had no control, all the key figures — including all living publishers and executive editors — spoke to Nagourney on the record. "This was the moment — while everyone was alive and sharp," he told Axios.
President Biden is scheduled to visit striking workers on a UAW picket line in Michigan later on Tuesday.
Why it matters: It's the first time a sitting president has ever visited a picket line, and a sign of just how critical a resolution of the autoworkers strike, now in its 12th day, has become for the president.
