Mark Hamrick

A second memo from Bari Weiss and Tom Cibrowski says CBS News Radio is shutting down. Here's the memo: Today, we informed our CBS News Radio team and approximately 700 affiliated stations that we will end the service on May 22, 2026. Unfortunately, this decision means that all positions within the CBS News Radio team are being eliminated.  We understand how difficult this news is for our staff and their colleagues, who have worked side by side with us to cover some of the most significant stories of our time. While this was a necessary decision, it was not an easy one.  A shift in radio station programming strategies, coupled with challenging economic realities, has made it impossible to continue the service.  We are sharing this announcement now to fulfill our commitments to our radio partners and affiliates, which require advance notice of the service’s conclusion. For nearly 100 years, CBS News Radio has delivered original reporting to the nation—from Edward R. Murrow’s World War II reports in London to today’s daily White House updates.  Our signature broadcast, “World News Roundup,” remains the longest-running newscast in the country.  CBS News Radio served as the foundation for everything we have built since 1927. The coming weeks will be difficult for the team members who have worked tirelessly at CBS News Radio.  We are committed to supporting these valued colleagues with care and respect as we wind down operations.  They have been critical to our success and remain treasured friends and professionals.  We thank them deeply for their contributions. Thank you all for your dedication and for the compassion you show one another as we move forward. Bari and Tom

Our assessment of who is most vulnerable to the Iran energy shock:

What a HORRIBLE forecast by meteorologists – especially myself. Not only were we spectacularly wrong – we communicated poorly. It became apparent last night that some of our initial expectations would prove fallacious. I'd like to address what went wrong with our forecast:

I have been an economists for a very long time. I have always been a little surprised by how some people will talk about recession as a necessary reset or a “cleans.” There is this “let them eat cake” kind of mentality that emerges that somehow a recession is like a fast for a day and healthy. Recessions are painful, especially when accompanied by inflation. I became an economist as a fluke - it was the only class open when I registered & it sounded interesting. I loved the math and the intuitive study of collective human behavior. It gave me an understanding for the train wreck of an economy I experienced growing up in the modest suburbs of Detroit as a kid. My best friend’s dad died of cancer when I we were in high school. She stopped bringing lunch to school - there was no money for food. Her family dug up their backyard to plant a garden & put food on the table. Her yard was bigger than the postage stamp of my own, but the ground was toxic. Many of her siblings died of cancer very young. I still remember the smell of baked bread - it was the only bread they could afford. My mom, who was on her own tight budget, gave me money to buy her lunch each day. Stagflation and recession were brutal. The scarring effects of all those years ago linger. Families broke down & vicious cycles of poverty emerged in towns that became known as the Rust Belt for their rusting factories. Recessions are ugly, unpredictable and leave a scar. Those accompanied by inflation are worse. The economy is not a single body that can be fit from a “cleans,” as I have so often heard in my career. It is a complex system that has increasingly seen inequality worsen in the wake of recessions. Income inequality hit a low as measured by the Gini coefficient in 1979 in the US. We have been seeing a rise in inequality ever since, with more sidelined for long periods after recessions, with perhaps the brief surge in hiring we saw in the wake of the pandemic. That is over. We are already flirting with a payroll recession, which is showing up as losses in payroll employment. I would like to believe that rate cuts could cure what ails us, but I fear what we are enduring is systemic. Lower interest rates cannot spur hiring with firms dealing with so much uncertainty. That means the Fed should focus more on inflation. I hate to think of what a recession to derail the inflation we are enduring would look like, although I think about it a lot. It is not pretty. The economy is about people’s lives and livelihoods. It is what you deal with when you walk in your front door if you have one to walk through. It is worrying about feeding and sheltering your kids. It is about all the choices we make every day. It is a living organism that does not do better when pain is broader. I will never say a recession is good. Recessions are hard. We may have to suffer one to derail inflation - I hope not but worry that may end up being the case. That is a horrible place to be. Food for thought. I have seen talking heads talk about a recession with a cavalier attitude. I find that hard to witness. The tails risks of recessions are large. They hurt people. Break bread not ties. Empathy is a gift to few share. Time to fill our cups with it.