Hello Quartz members,
Welcome to Sunday Reads! It’s been a week to remember. Inflation is down, Tesla is up, the S&P 500 keeps breaking records, and The New York Times has now told America its two leading presidential candidates are losers. While we wait for Joe Biden to do the hokey-pokey, the air has gotten so hot that helicopters can’t fly. Meanwhile, Texas got its butt kicked by a hurricane (again!), and Costco raised its membership fee for the first time in years. Well, put some of that out of your head and read some of our best stories of the week.
5 things we especially liked on Quartz
🔌 Coal-fired power plants are getting blown away by windmills. Data from the Energy Information Administration suggests that wind power is a bigger source of electricity than coal for the first time ever. Data from the agency says wind was responsible for 47.7 million megawatt hours of energy in April, vs. coal’s 37.2 million megawatt hours. But a demand surge for power to run AI data centers, and a Supreme Court decision questioning federal agency rule-making powers, could position coal for something of a recovery, Melvin Backman reports.
🍔 Shake Shack TikTok attack: Danny Meyer’s Shake Shack burger chain saved the bacon of a Chick-fil-A employee who was told she could no longer post viral videos of her employee meals and ordering tips by the famed religious-right sandwich shop’s PR firm. Just days after posting she’d been chik’nd out, influencer Mirithesiren was hired by Shake Shack, and she’s now posting viral videos of burgers, Francisco Velasquez reports.
👩⚖️ A Bitcoin battle shakes a Texas county. Hood County, Texas, is making headlines after residents say they fell ill due to the excessive noise produced by a Bitcoin mining site. Vinamrata Chaturvedi reports on a lawsuit brought by residents who are experiencing hearing issues, headaches, dizziness, and sleep disturbance.
💰 Trump goes to Cryptoland, tin cup in hand. Donald Trump is planning to attend the Bitcoin Conference in Nashville, Tennessee this month, in an effort to win the backing of the notoriously Libertarian and contrarian crypto community. But will they remember Trump was against crypto before he decided it was a good source of campaign cash?
🚁 Helicopters are disappearing from thin air. The mega heatwave is expanding the air so much that it’s become too thin for rescue helicopters to fly in, especially on rescue flights in some of the overheated regions of the western U.S.
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Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser made headlines as the first woman to run a Wall Street bank — and as the CEO who’s finally taken the plunge to completely overhaul the bank’s corporate structure amid regulatory and shareholder pressure. Yet even as her efforts to turn around Citi’s performance have received mixed reviews, Fraser has remained steadfast in her commitment to return Citi to its heyday. Rocio Fabbro looks at how Fraser became CEO of one of the largest U.S. banks with one of the toughest jobs on the Street. Visit qz.com on Monday morning for the story.
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What to watch for this week
- Monday: Goldman Sachs and BlackRock report earnings before the bell. House, Senate, and presidential candidates hit the quarterly fundraising filing deadline. And American Airlines flight attendants will be deep in negotiations with management, with a walkout possible.
- Tuesday: Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, and United Health Group report earnings before the bell. The Census Bureau releases its monthly Retail and Food Services sales report.
- Wednesday: Intel’s EVP and GM of Data Center and AI Justin Hotard will moderate a discussion with industry customers and partners about how businesses are leveraging Gen AI to solve critical business outcomes. Johnson & Johnson reports earnings before the bell. And the WeAreDevelopers World Congress kicks off in Berlin through Friday. United Airlines reports earnings after the market closes.
- Thursday: Chipmaker TSMC and Domino’s report earnings before the bell, while Netflix reports after the closing bell.
- Friday: American Express reports earnings before the bell.
Thanks for reading! Here’s to the week ahead, and don’t hesitate to reach out with comments, questions, feedback, joy, or your favorite burger video. Sunday Reads was brought to you by Peter S. Green, Morgan Haefner and Audrey McNamara.