Media Navel Gaze: May 4, 2015
The Week Unpeeled
The unrest in Baltimore continued to lead the news last week and through the weekend with six police officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old man who died in custody from spinal injuries; the speed and breadth of the prosecutor's official charges were somewhat of a surprise amid quick debate on whether this was a rushed judgment. A story no doubt that will remain a media focus for some time.
Elsewhere:
- Warren Buffett held his annual meeting over the weekend and received more ink than usual because the event marked his 50 years at the helm of Berkshire Hathaway;
- Tesla announced plans to launch batteries for business and domestic use, a news items that received various degrees of media play with FTWeekend placing the story as its lead in its US editions on Saturday;
- Social-media companies like LinkedIn, Twitter and Yelp were unliked by investors last week and took a hit in the market amid disappointing financial results; Twitter was the victim of pretty negative tweets, in fact, after results were posted early forcing a halt in trading at one point;
- Copy That and Pretty Cool: Lowe's introduced 3-D scanning and printing services (or poetically also known as additive manufacturing) at one of its stores in Mountain View, Calif.;
- The Dow ended a pretty volatile week down 0.3% following a rally Friday that saw the average close at 18,024;
- The co-founder of Weight Watchers died, an obit that received front-page attention at The New York Times;
- The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge produced an heiress, the first princess in 25 years and fourth in line for the throne;
- American Pharoah won the Derby; and
- #MayPac happened and happened bigger and better for Mayweather in one of the richest sporting events ever. No doubt #TBE.
LatAm Gaze:
- The New York Times published an interesting editorial analyzing the state of Puerto Rico's finances
- Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro on Worker's Day this week raised his country's minimum wage by 30% to try offsetting the nation's high inflation growth, which some experts say could reach triple digits this year
- March unemployment in Colombia posted its lowest monthly figure in 15 years
- New data show that Uruguayan banks in 2014 invested over 10% less domestically than the year prior
- The IMF this week projected 2015 economic growth in Central and Latin America will slow for the 5th consecutive year
- Chilean volcano Calbuco erupted this week for the 3rd time in eight days, leading to another evacuation in the region.
