Rupert Murdoch steps down from Fox and News Corp. with a screed against “elites”

The biggest news of last week was Rupert Murdoch stepping down from his media and entertainment empire and handing over the reigns to his oldest son Lachlan (so I guess in our real life version of Succession, Kendall won). The 92 year old Australian-turned-American started his career with one newspaper in Adelaide and ended it as the most powerful figure in media.

Murdoch is so powerful that for the past couple of decades he was arguably the most influential person in the democracies of three countries - the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. Such power also saw him amass a net worth of $17 billion. He was truly an elite. Which is why it was quite ironic that his leaving memo to the staff at News Corporation was a giant rant against “the elites”.

Quartz have published Murdoch’s memo in full, with their own annotations for good measure. Here’s a a quote to give you a sense of what you’re in for:

In his memo, Murdoch makes clear that he’s not done yet. He still wants to play an active role in shaping the news, but plans to step down from the responsibilities of overseeing the company. So as Fox News grapples with its role in Republican politics and its somewhat strained relationship with Trump, Sky News campaigns against the Voice and News UK manages a Conservative Prime Minister with just a 24% approval rating, expect Murdoch to still be heavily involved in setting the agenda at the world’s most powerful news company.

What can we do about ultraprocessed foods?

Here’s a startling number: 58% of the calories consumed by adults and 67% of the the calories consumed by children in the United States are ultraprocessed foods.

Ultraprocessed foods are the breakfast cereals, soft drinks, protein bars, flavoured yogurts and frozen pizza, many of which are filled with highly manipulated ingredients and chemical additives. They are hard to define, because these days almost all food is processed in some way. But think of the industrial element of our food supply, made more in factories than in fields.

This article takes a look at the debate around ultraprocessed foods, both on a personal level (how should we approach eating them) and on a policy level (how should we regulate this food and the companies that make them). Because ultraprocessed foods are not all bad. Firstly, it is a category that includes a huge variety of different foods, all of them produced differently and having different health credentials. But ultraprocessed foods have also helped make food more affordable, safe from food-borne pathogens, easy to prepare and, in some cases, more sustainable.

However, there is a growing list of observational studies that tie an increased consumption of ultraprocessed food with increased health risks.

The modern food system is both grotesque and a miracle. The fact that we can feed so many billions of people and that today, more people now die from obesity than malnutirition is testament to the modern food industry. Yet, how we achieve this mass production is often concerning.

Policy makers are now paying more attention to the industrial food system and are making changes. Chile, Canada, Brazil and Mexico are just some of the countries considering adding warning labels to unhealthy foods. More than 50 countries now tax sugary drinks. And, as this article explains, this is just the start of our reckoning with our modern food system.

America's biggest private-equity firms are screwing over college students

The business of student housing is booming. As more and more young people choose to go to university or college, the thesis is that student housing will enjoy structural growth and that the prime locations right near campus will be great investments. Unsurprisingly, like in so many other industries, the deep-pocketed private equity funds have sniffed an opportunity and are moving in.

Last year, the world’s largest private equity firm, Blackstone, paid $12.8 billion to acquire American Campus Communities, the largest developer and manager of student housing in the US. This added another 112,000 student housing beds to Blackstone’s portfolio. This was just the largest deal in a banner year for the student housing industry - with investors spending $22.9 billion in the United States alone.

This article from Business Insider has taken a look at student housing in America and examines what happens when Wall Street takes on the operation of student accomodation. No prizes for guessing what comes next.

• A study by the National Multifamily Housing Council found that rent for student housing jumped 25% between 2013 and 2020 when adjusting for inflation, which outpaced tuition hikes.

• Moody's Analytics recently warned of an "affordability crisis" for college students, noting that since 2019, rents for student housing in a sample of notable college towns had grown faster than those of regular apartments.

• The start of the 2022 academic year brought "never-before-seen rent growth" for student housing, RealPage Market Analytics, a real-estate-software company, said.

This story has echoes of the housing story we’re living through in Australia at the moment - massive shortage of accomodation is seeing record low availability which is driving up prices. Currently the only solution being discussed is to build more. But as we recently explored on The Dive podcast, it’s nearly impossible to build your way out of a housing crisis.

A record 73 million Americans plan to bet on the NFL this season, survey says

Since 2018, when the US Supreme Court struck down a ban on sports betting, the world has watched as American gambling has come out of the shadows and into the fore. Investors have watched companies like Draft Kings, Flutter, MGM, Caesars and Penn Entertainment move to centre themselves in this new world. Here in Australia, companies like Betmakers and PointsBet have also tried to capitalise in the US as the world’s largest sports market transforms itself into the world’s largest sports-betting market.

As a new NFL season kicks off, a recent survey has shown just how quickly sports betting is growing in the United States. A survey from the American Gaming Association (so be wary of the source here) suggests that 73 million Americans plan to wager on the NFL this season, which is an increase of almost 60% from last season.

A lot of this increase can be attributed to legalisation in more and more states. Sports betting is now legal in 34 states and Washington DC, and is also legal but not yet operational in another 4 states. Once legal, these sports books have also been able to start advertising in many of these states, further contributing to growth. But this growth can also be attributed to the growing embrace of sports-betting by the leagues themselves. In 2021, the NFL signed five-year deals worth an estimated $1 billion combined with DraftKings, FanDuel and Caesars to become the league’s official sportsbook partners. And recently, the NFL signed a deal with Australia’s poker-machine maker Aristocrat, to allow NFL-branded slot machines on casino floors across the country.

The ultimate sign of sports betting’s mainstream acceptance came in August when Disney moved into the space. Disney owns sports broadcaster ESPN, but the family-friendly brand has been reluctant to move into the sports betting space. Until now. ESPN signed a 10-year, $2 billion deal with Penn National to license the ESPN brand for Penn’s sports book. If Disney are willing to move into this space, it is a sign that American’s attitudes towards sports betting are changing.

As this flood of money moves into the space there have been challenges. Over the past two years, at least 10 players have been suspended for betting on NFL games in violation of the NFL’s gambling policy. And recent studies have suggested that rates of gambling addiction are reaching all time highs in the United States.