Tuesday's assorted links

Retail bankruptcies, Juul pods, hygiene products, Kellogg's, and Stephen Dubner

Hi y’all! Here are five stories from the past week that I thought were worthing sharing with you:

1. The retail industry is seeing a potential wave of bankruptcies following a months-long slowdown in restructuring activity.

2. The FDA ordered Juul Labs to remove products from the US market. A few days later, the ban was lifted while the order is being appealed.

3. Hawaii makes sanitary hygiene products free at all public schools.

4. Kellogg’s will split into three companies focused on cereals, snacks, and plant-based foods.

5. The Morning Brew had a nice interview with Stephen Dubner following Freakonomics’ 500th episode.

---

Yesterday I wrote a summary of a recent New York Times article that highlighted how the city of Houston was reducing homelessness at a faster rate than other major cities. One of the things that stood out in the article was that they were essentially focusing on comparative advantages:

Houston is Fixing a Problem Using a Key Economic Concept

---

Week 25 is over and I’m up to 23 books for the year. I’m slowly getting back on track to finish the year with 52. This past week I finished up a new fiction book called Aurora that I really enjoyed. A solar storm knocks out the power grid around much of the world and we get to see how a suburban mother responds while her crazy-rich brother hunkers down on the other side of the country. This was a nice break from the historical fiction that I usually read and felt like a really quick read.