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The World
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said it’s highly unlikely that inflation will rise to levels seen in the 1970s but acknowledged significant uncertainty as the economy reopens. While the Fed anticipated that the end of the pandemic would temporarily push up inflation this year, Powell said on Capitol Hill that the increases in prices have been larger than central bankers had expected and may prove more persistent. But he underscored his view that shortages—including of used cars, computer chips and workers—will fade over time, bringing inflation closer to the Fed’s 2% long-run target. (Wall Street Journal)
Wall Street stocks gained, with the Nasdaq Composite hitting a fresh high, as Powell strikes dovish tone. Meanwhile, Bob Prince, who runs Bridgewater Associates with Ray Dalio and Greg Jensen, rejects return of 1970s ‘Great Inflation’ in the latest sign that many big money managers are positioning for more subdued price pressure. (Financial Times, Financial Times-2)
The highly transmissible Delta variant of the Covid-19 virus could become the dominant strain in the U.S. in the next two to three weeks, researchers said, adding urgency to the nationwide vaccination drive. The Delta strain, which first emerged in India in late 2020 and is also known as B.1.617.2, will probably make up 50% of Covid-19 infections in the U.S. by early to mid-July. (Wall Street Journal)
Morgan Stanley employees and clients who have not received their Covid-19 vaccine will be barred from entering the bank’s New York offices starting July 12. (Financial Times)
England is on track to lift all remaining lockdown restrictions including social distancing, facemasks and work-from-home guidance on July 19. Ministers have been encouraged by the “very, very” low number of deaths and the slowdown in infections. (The Times)
Philippines’ Duterte threatens to arrest anyone refusing to get vaccinated. (Washington Post)
Senate Republicans banded together to block a sweeping Democratic bill that would revamp the architecture of American democracy, dealing a grave blow to efforts to federally override dozens of GOP-passed state voting laws. The test vote, which would have cleared the way to start debate on voting legislation, failed 50-50 on straight party lines — 10 votes short of the supermajority needed to advance legislation in the Senate. It came after Democrat after Democrat delivered warnings about the dire state of American democracy. (Washington Post)
U.S. home prices in May experienced their biggest annual increase in more than two decades, as a shortage of properties and low borrowing rates fueled demand. The median existing-home sales price in May topped $350,000 for the first time, the National Association of Realtors said Tuesday. The figure was nearly 24% higher than a year ago, the biggest year-over-year price increase NAR has recorded in data going back to 1999. (Wall Street Journal)
A U.S. warship again sailed through the sensitive waterway that separates Taiwan from China, a week after the Chinese-claimed island reported the largest incursion to date of Chinese air force jets in Taiwan's air defense zone. The U.S. Navy's 7th Fleet said the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Curtis Wilbur conducted a "routine Taiwan Strait transit" on Tuesday in accordance with international law. (Reuters)
President Putin wrote an article in the German newspaper Die Zeit, lashing out at NATO expansion and promoting the Nord Stream 2 pipeline that carries Russian gas to Europe. The article, “Being Open, Despite the Past”was timed to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. (The Times)
Tokyo 2020 announced that it will ban selling alcohol at the venues. "We decided not to sell alcohol so we can have a Games that prioritize the safety. [A sponsor] Asahi also agreed to our decision," Tokyo 2020 president Seiko Hashimoto said. (Nikkei Asian Review)
Ground temperatures hit 118 degrees in the Arctic Circle. (Gizmodo)
Economy
World’s financial centers struggle back to the office: Roughly 15 months after locking down to ward off Covid-19, several of the globe’s key financial centers are struggling to get employees back to their offices. Workplace activity in London, New York and San Francisco is still 50% below its normal level, according to mobility data from Google, which tracks the locations of its users. Other evidence from Frankfurt, Singapore and Hong Kong reveals how virus-related restrictions have changed habits and caused new problems. (City Lab)
As the national economy recovers from the pandemic and begins to take off, New York City is lagging, with changing patterns of work and travel threatening the engines that have long powered its jobs and prosperity. New York has suffered deeper job losses as a share of its work force than any other big American city. And while the country has regained two-thirds of the positions it lost after the coronavirus arrived, New York has recouped fewer than half, leaving a deficit of more than 500,000 jobs. By the end of September, the Partnership for New York City, a business advocacy group, predicts that only 62% of office workers will return, mostly three days a week. (New York Times)
Meanwhile, consumers in the eurozone are flocking back to bars and restaurants, booking holidays and traveling to work again, according to unofficial data that suggest pre-pandemic patterns of economic activity are re-emerging. The use of public transport and journeys to workplaces have hit their highest levels since early last year in many countries, according to high-frequency data. (Financial Times)
Women make up fewer than 10% of managers at most Japanese companies and a big majority of firms say it will be impossible to boost this to a target of 30% this decade. Japan's biggest business lobby, Keidanren, is pushing for an increase in female managers, in a campaign dubbed "womenomics," aiming to empower more women and meet the employment challenge of an aging society. However, respondents to the Reuters Corporate Survey said that promoting more women would need changes to Japan's male-oriented corporate culture and more support in areas like childcare. (Reuters)
A flood of new trademark applications coming from China — many of them believed to be fraudulent — is swamping the U.S. system, making it harder for homegrown companies to register their products and defend themselves against intellectual property theft. The surge in filings has arisen in part due to government financial incentives offered to Chinese companies in recent years to seek trademark registrations in countries like the U.S. and U.K., as China seeks to bolster its reputation for innovation. (The Wire China)
Why China's kicking out the crypto miners: China sees cryptocurrencies, which are decentralized and unregulated, as a threat. Its central bank said they have “disrupted the normal order of the economy” and “increase the risks of illegal cross-border transfers of assets and illegal activities such as money laundering.” It is planning to become the first country to launch its own official digital currency, the e-yuan. Another alternative: Bitcoin mining won’t cease because of China’s crackdown. Instead, operators will relocate elsewhere. Texas has been touted as a place that could benefit from the new restrictions in China, thanks to its relatively lax regulatory environment and cheap electricity. (MIT Technology Review)
China's central bank said it had recently summoned some banks and payment firms, urging them to crack down harder on cryptocurrency trading. The People's Bank of China's urged institutions at the meeting to launch thorough checks on clients' accounts to identify those involved in cryptocurrency transactions, and promptly cut their payment channels. It did not mention when the meeting was held. (Reuters)
California wants to regulate crypto. Meet the woman in charge. Christina Tetreault could help shape the conversation around bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in the state where Coinbase, Square and Visa were born: "I know people say, 'Digital-first, why would we need a call center?' But if, God forbid, you've ever had to try to resolve something by email and a hacker has taken over your email, that becomes an actual impossibility. So I think there's some really low-hanging fruit for ways in which service providers can ensure consumers have a way to resolve issues." (Protocol)
Technology
The EU opened a formal antitrust investigation into allegations that Google abuses its leading role in the advertising-technology sector, the most wide-ranging case yet to look at that pillar of the tech giant’s business. The European Commission, the EU’s top antitrust enforcer, said its investigation, which has been under way informally since at least 2019, will look at a broad array of allegedly anticompetitive business practices around the Alphabet Inc. unit’s brokering of advertisements and sharing of user data with advertisers across websites and mobile apps—one of the newest areas of antitrust scrutiny for the company. (Wall Street Journal)
Additional stories challenging Google: 1) Google Executives See Cracks in Their Company’s Success: Despite record profits, a number of them are worried that the company is suffering from both its size and leadership from its C.E.O., Sundar Pichai. 2) A very brief history of every Google messaging app: What a decade and a half of confusing services can tell us about the future. 3) EU opens antitrust probe into Google’s advertising unit. (New York Times, The Verge, CNBC)
By the end of 2024, passengers on the London Underground will have mobile reception across the entire network of stations and tunnels, London’s mayor Sadiq Khan has announced. Popular stations, including Oxford Circus, Tottenham Court Road, Bank, Euston, and Camden Town will be hooked up by the end of 2022, with coverage expanding in phases over the ensuing months. (The Verge)
Twitter is opening applications for a limited test of its Super Follows and Ticketed Spaces features. US-based users can apply separately for each program through Twitter’s mobile app; Super Follows are restricted to iOS, while Ticketed Spaces are available on iOS and Android. Twitter will select a “small group” of users to test its new monetization features, both of which were announced earlier this year. The Super Follows feature lets users charge for access to exclusive content. Ticketed Spaces lets them charge for access to one of Twitter’s social audio rooms, and it offers extra features like setting a room size cap. (The Verge)
Q&A with Marc Andreessen on his “It's Time to Build” essay, techno-optimism, Clubhouse and Substack's potential, “Augmented Intelligence”, crypto, and more. (Noahpinion)
Smart Links
Brands could flock to NFL’s Nassib after historic coming out announcement. (Reuters)
DoorDash now delivers same-day groceries from Albertsons, Safeway and more. (Cnet)
Eyeglass brand Warby Parker confidentially files for IPO. (CNBC)
Dating app Bumble gives employees the week off to recover from burnout. (CNBC)
Sleep is essential to health. (Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine)
Why is Spain pardoning Catalan leaders jailed for sedition? (GZERO Media)
UnitedHealthcare skimping on COVID-19 test pay, California doctor group alleges. (Healthcare Dive)
Lost Rembrandt painting discovered after falling off a wall. (The Times)