A startup is offering to
make home ownership
more affordable—by
building a studio apart-
ment in your backyard,
said Anthony Ha in
TechCrunch.com. San
Francisco–based Rent
the Backyard handles
the construction of a
lawn-locked apartment
unit, “lists the prop-
erty, selects the tenant,
collects the rent, and
serves as the land-
lord,” while giving you
part of the ownership
stake and splitting the
rental income 50/50.
All you have to do is
gi ve up a piece of your
backyard—at least 30
by 30 feet. Theoretically,
you could just do
this for yourself, but
the company offers
to handle the heavy
lifting with “no head-
aches”—including the
permitting, which in
California is infamously
onerous. Sky-high
prices have pushed
many Californians to
spend more than they
can afford on homes.
The company says the
tiny rentals can ease the
burden, bringing home-
owners $10,000 a year
or more for their units.Building the lawn-
mate economyBUSINESS
The federal government has
unleashed “its full investigative
powers” on the world’s big-
gest tech firms, said Daisuke
Wakabayashi in The New York
Times. The Justice Department
this week announced an anti-
trust review of the dominant
players in tech—Facebook,
Amazon, Google, and Apple. It
joins the Federal Trade Commission and Congress
in examining how the firms “accumulated market
power and whether they acted to reduce compe-
tition.” The agency has already begun meeting
industry experts to “learn the kinds of harm the
companies” have caused—“the clearest sign yet
that the longtime arguments that helped shield the
tech giants from antitrust scrutiny are eroding.”The big question about the tech
giants is “whether these technol-
ogy companies have used their
success to cheat their way into
more success,” said Shira Ovide
in Bloomberg.com. The giants
will protest, as they always do,
that they offer free services to
consumers, and competition
could make them “die at any
moment.” They’ll wave the flag and say their
success “is a credit to the best of America.” But
the antitrust cops don’t care about these kinds
of displays. Yes, Amazon, Google, Apple, and
Facebook have built worthy businesses, but they
still have “a responsibility to play fair with their
power and keep the competition fair for the good
of consumers.”Antitrust: DOJ review targets Big Tech
Labor: Eugene Scalia nominated to replace Acosta
President Trump announced plans last week to nominate the son of late
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia as his next Labor secretary, said
Jeff Stein and Rachel Siegel in The Washington Post. Eugene Scalia,
a corporate attorney, would replace Alexander Acosta, who resigned
earlier this month. Scalia has frequently represented employers against
workers and the government; in one case, he defended SeaWorld against
regulators after a trainer was killed by an orca. Scalia was nominated
as the Labor Department’s top lawyer in 2001, but he was criticized for
“extreme views on key worker protections” and was not confirmed.
Billionaires: Early windfall for WeWork founder
WeWork’s co-founder has cashed out more than $700 million ahead
of the company’s initial public offering, said Eliot Brown in The Wall
Street Journal. Adam Neumann, the chief executive of the shared–
office space giant, and its largest shareholder, has unloaded the money
“through a mix of stock sales and debt,” borrowing millions against
his holdings. It’s an “unusually large sum given that startup founders
typically wait for the IPO to monetize their holdings,” and it “raises
questions” about his confidence in the company.
Equifax: Up to $20,000 for identity theft
Equifax agreed this week to a $650 million data-breach settlement
after hackers “exposed the personal information of around 147 million
Americans,” said David Yaffe-Bellany in The New York Times. The
thefts in 2017 included customers’ Social Security numbers and driver’s
licenses. To get compensation, “consumers must submit claims, with
documentation, that prove they lost money as a result of fraud or spent
money on credit-monitoring services.” Some victims may be able to
claim as much as $20,000, but an administrator has to determine if the
loss involved Equifax’s compromised information.
Media: Netflix disappoints on subscriber growth
Netflix missed second-quarter subscriber expectations by a wide mark,
said Lauren Feiner in CNBC.com. The streaming service announced
last week that it added 2.83 million new subscribers overseas in the
past three months, well short of the 4.81 million expected. The com-
pany said the drop-off was “most pronounced in regions that saw price
increases,” such as the U.S., where Netflix actually lost 126,000 sub-
scribers. There are more challenges ahead: Netflix will lose two of its
most-watched shows, The Office and Friends, when NBCUniversal and
AT&T’s WarnerMedia launch their own streaming channels.32
The news at a glance
Getty
,^ NewscomDoes Big Tech abuse its power?QChina now has 12 9 of the
biggest companies in the
world by revenue, compared
with 121 for the United
States. It’s the first time
that another country has
surpassed the U.S. on the
Fortune Global 500 since the
list debuted in 1990.
Fortune
QForty-nine percent of
Americans now hold a cash-
back credit card, a 6 percent
increase from last year.
Among Millennials ages
23 to 38, roughly a quarter
receive cash back weekly. The
average cash-back return is
1.25 percent.
Bloomberg.com
QOf the 50 most valuable
franchises in professional
sports, 26 are NFL teams.
Every NBA, MLB, and NFL
team is now worth over
$1 billion, with the Dallas
Cowboys ($5 billion) ranking
first, ahead of the New York
Yankees ($4.6 billion) and
Real Madrid ($4.2 billion).
Forbes
QSnail farms are
booming. The
global “slime”
industry from
milking snails has grown to
$314 million—mainly for cos-
metics based on “snail secre-
tions,” which are believed to
offset aging and give the skin
a dewy glow. Snail mucin
face masks retail for $300.
TheGuardian.com
QA rare-sneaker auction by
Sotheby’s was almost can-
celled after one collector paid
$850,000 to buy 99 of the
100 pairs of shoes. He paid
$437,500 for the last shoes,
a pair of 1972 Nike “Moon
Shoes,” which co-founder
Bill Bowerman famously de-
signed using a waffle iron.
Qz.com
QExisting-home sales fell
2.2 per cent in June compared
with a year earlier, marking
the 16th consecutive month
of annual declines. New
home sales fell 3.7 percent.
Home prices in Los Angeles,
Seattle, and San Francisco
also fell, for the first time
since 2012.
The Wall Street JournalThe bottom line