National business briefing

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, June 19, 2019

Google to invest $1B for housing

After two decades of extraordinary growth by tech companies like Google, real estate prices in Silicon Valley have skyrocketed, fueling a shortage of affordable housing. Now Google has plans to provide some relief. On Tuesday, it pledged to invest $1 billion in land and money to build homes. The company plans to repurpose at least $750 million worth of land it owns, to allow developers to lease the land and build homes. Google also plans to create a $250 million investment fund to provide incentives for affordable housing.

Wave of unions hits digital media

Now that digital media has matured, digital journalists want more. There has been a wave of unionization at online publications, getting its start at Gawker in 2015. Outlets that have followed Gawker’s lead include Slate and Salon; destination sites like Vice Media, HuffPost, Refinery29, The Dodo and Vox; humor site The Onion; podcasting company Gimlet Media; music site Pitchfork; and New York Magazine’s online verticals The Cut, Vulture and Intelligencer. And this week, staff members of BuzzFeed News staged a walkout to pressure the company to recognize their union.

Trade war driving global slowdown

President Donald Trump’s trade war is chilling business investment, confidence and trade flows across the world, a development that foreign leaders and business executives say is worsening a global economic slowdown. Recent softening in Europe and elsewhere coincides with Trump’s intensified trade fight with China and other partners. Weakness in China, driven in part by fallout from the trade war, has spread to Germany, Australia and other nations, raising supply chain costs and chilling exports.