Fox has officially acquired Roku and there are consequences. For one, the "Marine Aquarium" screensaver will no longer be available. One person posted on the "Mildly Infuriating" subreddit: "I can't believe it I love my fish what am I gunna do."
The artist behind that screensaver, Jim Sachs, is not renewing his license due to Fox's acquisition. "It seems that Fox simply wants another venue for spreading their philosophy, which I consider repugnant. I can't stand the idea of my artwork being used to lure even one person down that rabbit hole," Sachs told Ars Technica. The licensing deal will have big personal consequences for Sachs, who relies on the $80,000 per year licensing deal. Another comment on the subreddit posted, "This is the last straw, Apple TV for me."
Coming up
The U.S. can't keep up with defense demand
How housing affects fertility rates in Spain
What Walmart stock has to do with the economy
News We're Watching
Did Europe make a bad bet on American defense tech? - Bruegel
What to Know: Over the past decade, European countries have become increasingly reliant on U.S. technology to support their air defense systems. We're talking fighter jets & missile defense systems like the Patriot, which can intercept ballistic missiles. It seemed like an obvious choice: these are high-quality pieces of technology, they're readily available, and buying American keeps the U.S. committed to European defense. Here's the problem: the whole "readily available" thing doesn't seem to be true. There is a major backlog of missiles while demand just keeps going up. That's due to both production delays and the U.S.' own military needs in Iran. Plus!! European countries that bought technology like the Patriot are now locked in to American equipment. They can't just switch to another supplier to get missiles.
Why this matters: You kind of want to know if you're not gonna get a few hundred missiles on time. While the U.S. is focused on the Iran war, threats from Russia still loom large in Europe. And now, many European nations are at the whim of these defense contracts panning out… having to put up with delays and higher costs. The article's authors look back and see a missed opportunity in 2022 for investment into homegrown systems: "Calls to Europeanise the funding and ordering of air defense systems were ignored and the strategic gap is now all too visible."
Business journalist and friend of the show Paddy Hirsch adds: "No one could have predicted the extent to which Trump would damage the relationship between the U.S. and Europe. But the fact is that Trump isn't the first president to beat the drum about European over-dependence on the US. He's just the first to really force the issue. And guess what? He was doing Europe a favor! Europe desperately needs to wean itself off the U.S. teat, and not just because of the unpredictability of a Presidential whim. But because there's no telling how U.S. and European interests will diverge over the next few decades."
Could more housing lead to a higher fertility rate? - Elcano Royal Institute
What to Know: Spain has one of the lowest fertility rates in the world. It's currently at 1.1, meaning 100 women birth 110 children on average. To maintain the current population, rates would need to sit at 2.1. Immigration has kept the population from dropping dramatically since 2000, but the author offers a different solution to Spain's childbearing woes: more housing. Spain, like many countries, has struggled with expensive housing: prices have risen 81% between 2015 to 2025. The average age of leaving the parental home in Spain is 30.2 compared to 23.8 in France and 24.1 in Germany. The author asks: could an influx of public housing incentivize partners to start families earlier?
How realistic is this?: There's no hard evidence in the Elcano article showing more housing actually leads to a higher fertility rate. That said, Planet Money co-host Jeff Guo says the evidence for this argument does look stronger outside the U.S. There was literally a paper about this topic in Spain that came out a few weeks ago. The paper found a 10% rise in local housing prices lowers birth rates by about 3% for women 20-34. In fact, the authors deduced that higher housing prices account for roughly half of the 2014-2022 implied fertility rate decline. In short: more expensive housing = fewer kids.
Today's Indicator
The stock market might be the economy… just ask Walmart
If you haven't listened: We all know the old adage "the stock market doesn't equal the economy." Well, lately, maybe it does!! At least more than usual. The "new era" economy (AI, tech etc.) has an outsized impact on the growth of both the stock market and economic growth. That's all well and good, except hyper-concentration means hyper-risk. If AI stocks start to tumble, it could have a negative chain reaction on the economy in a uniquely problematic way. Two non-profits in the episode warn that the AI bubble is a thing. In short, the economy depends on the market! A downturn there is more likely to mean an economic downturn too. Diversification is important, people.
Listen to the full episode
If you have listened: You know that the economic risk isn't just about a market downturn. It's about the impacts that follow. Consumer spending is driving much of economic growth, and that's led by wealthy spenders. Another downstream risk: pension funds hold debt related to the AI buildout, according to the report from the Open Markets Institute and Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund. They argue this has exposed pension funds and even ordinary workers to dangerous risk! Reporter Wailin Wong says, "That's something I wasn't able to get into in the episode, since we were focused on stocks and not debt. But certainly the credit markets are a huge part of this story too."
Rest of the week
The winners and losers of the Midterm Elections
Mike Schur and the Case of the Missing Sitcom
Why public schools are adding personal finance classes
In Our Spare Time
Reporter Ricky Mulvey read A Violent Masterpiece
It's a profane, no-holds-barred thriller. Jordan Harper wrote on TV shows in Hollywood before getting disillusioned with the industry and writing about some of its seedier parts in novels.
A Violent Masterpiece follows three storylines that converge around a suspicious death in a jail cell. It's Eyes Wide Shut meets LA Confidential.
Two things I really admire about Harper's work.
It's confidently modern. I think a lot of writers find more comfort writing about the distant past and allowing readers to find parallels to today. A Violent Masterpiece is confident and planted in the right now.
Harper's razor-sharp writing style. He cut his teeth writing for television, so his work is well-structured and every word counts.
