Latest news with #AncientLight
Yahoo
03-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Who is Greg Abel, Warren Buffett's choice to replace him as CEO
Warren Buffett shocked an arena full of his shareholders when he announced his intention Saturday to step down as the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway at the end of the year. The 94-year-old legendary investor also said he will recommend to his board that Greg Abel should become CEO. Buffett said at his annual shareholders gathering, often called "Woodstock for capitalists," that he thinks the "time has arrived" for Abel to move into the corner office. Two other investment managers will take charge of the company's stock portfolio. Buffett has repeatedly reassured investors that he's confident in the pick, but who is Greg Abel, his designated successor? Who is Greg Abel? Warren Buffett said in 2021 that Greg Abel, his top lieutenant for many years and an energy executive, would become CEO when he retired. Buffett also often famously said he has no plans to retire. Abel, who currently oversees all of Berkshire's non-insurance companies, was born in Alberta, Canada, according to a 2016 Fortune profile of the executive. The former amateur hockey player and avid golfer joined Berkshire in 2000 when the insurance company acquired MidAmerican. Abel was CEO of the Iowa utility, a regional energy provider with just $122 million in sales. Once at Berkshire, Abel rebuilt MidAmerican into Berkshire Hathaway Energy, the largest producer of wind energy in the country. Berkshire's utility operations now generate billions in annual revenue. Abel was named vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway in 2018. Although he has been at the company for more than two decades, he is considered to be much more guarded and hands-on than Buffett. "I think we'll get a more hands-on manager and that could be a good thing," Steven Check, who runs Check Capital Management, said beforehand, the Associated Press reported. But he said Abel also knows that those managers enjoy the freedom to run their businesses and Abel isn't going to do anything to turn them off. Abel is well regarded by Berkshire's managers and Buffett has praised his business acumen for years, the AP said. But he will have a hard time matching Buffett's legendary performance, and since he doesn't control 30% of Berkshire's stock like Buffett does, he won't have as much leeway. Abel lived in Omaha for six years in the 1990s, just a few blocks from Buffett. During that time, the two had never met, according to Buffett. Daughter reflects on iconic photo that shows reunion with her father, a Vietnam prisoner of war Saturday Sessions: I'm With Her performs "Ancient Light" Saturday Sessions: I'm With Her performs "Wild and Clear and Blue" Sign in to access your portfolio
New York Times
07-03-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Jason Isbell's Bare-Bones Breakup Tune, and 7 More New Songs
Every Friday, pop critics for The New York Times weigh in on the week's most notable new tracks. Listen to the Playlist on Spotify here (or find our profile: nytimes) and at Apple Music here, and sign up for The Amplifier, a twice-weekly guide to new and old songs. Jason Isbell's new album, 'Foxes in the Snow,' is decisively unadorned: just Isbell singing over his acoustic guitar. It arrives following his divorce from Amanda Shires, who has her own songwriting career and was a member of his band. Over bare-bones fingerpicking in 'Eileen,' Isbell sings about separation, regrets, self-deception and how 'It ended like it always ends / Somebody crying on the phone.' He contends, 'Eileen, you should've seen this coming sooner,' but adds, almost fondly, 'You thought the truth was just a rumor, but that's your way.' It's not about blame — it's about getting through. The virtuoso string-band supergroup I'm With Her — Sarah Jarosz, Aiofe O'Donovan and Sara Watkins — has reconvened with the intimately ambitious 'Ancient Light.' The verses are in a gently disorienting 7/4; the instruments mix acoustic and electric, juxtaposing fiddle tune and math-rock; the lyrics lean into the metaphysical. As the song begins, Jarosz sings, 'Better get out of the way / Gonna figure out what I wanna say / I been a long time comin',' and it only gets more cosmic from there. Will Toledo's band Car Seat Headrest has announced its first album since 2020, 'The Scholars,' and it's a full-scale rock opera. The first single, 'Gethsemane,' is an 11-minute suite that ponders faith, morality, creativity, free will and love as the music unfurls with stretches of kraut-rock keyboard minimalism and roaring power chords that echo the Who's 'Tommy.' Toledo sings, 'A series of simple patterns slowly build themselves into another song / I don't know how it happened,' but the structure is ironclad. Sarah Tudzin — the songwriter and producer behind Illuminati Hotties — cranks up distorted guitars and harnesses quiet-LOUD grunge dynamics in '777,' a song that nearly explodes with joyful anticipation. 'I wanna figure you out,' she declares, but she's already sure that she's won any gamble: 'You're my spade / lucky 777.' All the noise doesn't hide the pop song within. 'I want your head on a stake / I want your head on a platter,' sing the Ophelias, an indie-rock band from Cincinnati, turning 'I' into a peal of vocal harmony. 'Salome' adapts an incident from the Bible into a seething, churning, implacable crescendo of guitars, drums and voices, calmly announcing, 'The knife sways heavy in my hand.' Yaeji, a New York City musician with Korean roots, and her co-producer E. Wata transmute a hand-clapping game into a mutating electronic beat in 'Pondeggi.' She chant-sings cryptically about the truth versus disinformation: 'Watch where you're going, head distraction / Keep, keep scrolling till you're rolling in passive.' There's a warning under the nonchalant surface. 'You make me erotic like 1990s salsa,' the Argentine songwriter Nathy Peluso exults in 'Erotika,' and she revives the style to prove her point. Piano, percussion and a swaggering horn session help her seduce a partner — and herself. The electronic composer Lyra Pramuk sets things swirling in 'Vega,' an assemblage of electronic and vocal loops that gets more menacing as it goes. A pulse gathers into a fitful beat; wordless sounds float in stereo; glitches and bleeps slice through. And eventually, Pramuk intones, 'Tell me your name' and 'Tell me your story.' Is this an acquaintanceship or an interrogation?
