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The World
Everything in the House Democrats’ budget bill: After months of negotiations, House Democrats are nearing a vote on a sprawling bill that would fulfill a large part of President Biden's agenda on climate change and the social safety net. It would be paid for mostly through higher taxes on the wealthy and on corporations. The spending and tax cuts add up to about $2 trillion over 10 years, but budget experts say the true cost will be much higher if shortened programs are extended as many Democrats anticipate. If the bill passes the House, it is expected to change in the Senate to gain the support of all 50 Democrats and comply with a review by the Senate parliamentarian. (The Upshot)
The CBO sees the bill creating a $367 billion deficit. (Bloomberg)
The most complete look yet at the ongoing work of President Biden’s Supreme Court commission showed its continuing interest in imposing terms limits on justices, while also noting “profound disagreement among commissioners” over whether court expansion would be wise. The materials released reflected input from a meeting last month, which was the first time that the majority of the commissioners had seen earlier drafts produced by smaller groups. Some of the modifications were aimed at more fully explaining the arguments for and against expanding — or packing — the court and about imposing term limits on Supreme Court seats. The materials, however, suggest that while both ideas have their supporters and detractors, expanding the court is the far more contentious of the two. (New York Times)
President Biden hosted Canadian and Mexican leaders for their first North American summit in five years in a bid to revitalize regional cooperation that was shadowed by tensions over Biden's "Buy American" agenda and immigration. Differences over the auto industry, Biden's "Buy American" policies and a Mexican energy bill weighed on the summit. (Reuters)
Japan is set to announce a record $490 billion spending package to cushion the economic blow from the pandemic, bucking a global trend towards withdrawing crisis-mode stimulus measures and adding strains to its already tattered finances. The massive spending would underscore the resolve of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida - once considered a fiscal conservative - to focus on reflating the economy and redistributing wealth to households. (Reuters)
The Women's Tennis Association is prepared to pull its tournaments out of China if they are not satisfied with the response to the sexual assault allegation made by former doubles world number one Peng Shuai, chief executive Steve Simon said. (Reuters)
UK Home Secretary Priti Patel blamed the EU’s open borders for spurring a “mass migration crisis” in the Channel. Patel said the Schengen agreement, which abolished borders among member states, had left France “overwhelmed” with migrants trying to reach Britain. More than 24,500 migrants have crossed the Channel in small boats this year, almost triple the number last year. (The Times)
European countries bring back Covid restrictions as cases rise: Ireland is to reintroduce restrictions, including a return to working from home wherever possible and a midnight curfew for pubs and clubs, in an effort to curb a fourth wave of the virus that has pushed infections to their highest level in nearly a year. (Financial Times)
Fourth wave of Covid leading Germany into ‘truly terrible Christmas’: Munich canceled its Christmas and New Year's markets, while Slovakia tightened its restrictions, and the prime minister called for a 'lockdown for unvaccinated.' (The Times, Muenchen.de, Reuters)
30% of hospital healthcare workers remained unvaccinated as of September. (Healthcare Dive)
The Biden administration suspended enforcement of its vaccination and testing requirements for private businesses after a federal appeals court halted the rules pending review. (CNBC)
The Los Angeles Board of Education authorized an estimated $5 million for prizes and treats as incentives for students to get vaccinated, including gift cards to Amazon and Target, tickets to “Hamilton” and food trucks on campus.
Shoppers in Canada's flood-hit province of British Columbia have emptied grocery shelves following catastrophic flooding, although the shortages are as much down to panic buying as disrupted supply chains. (Reuters)
Economy
Surging shipping costs will drive up prices for some consumer products by 10%, new UN report finds. (CNBC)
Turkey slashed interest rates, sending the lira tumbling as much as 6% to a new record low, heightening concerns President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s fixation on low borrowing costs will worsen already acute inflation. The currency has fallen more than 30% this year — on a par with Turkey’s currency crisis in 2018 — as economists fret that low interest rates will worsen an inflation spiral, with consumer price growth having reached an annual pace of almost 20% in October. “It’s mystifying why they would do this,” said Paul McNamara, an emerging market investor at GAM in London. (Financial Times)
Annual inflation in the U.K. accelerated to its fastest rate in a decade, strengthening expectations the Bank of England will be the first major central bank to lift interest rates from pandemic lows as worries over global inflation intensify. Consumer prices increased 4.2% on the year in October following a 3.1% rise in September. (Wall Street Journal)
France must raise its pension age and cut the bloated public sector pay bill to get its finances in line and avoid a debt crisis, the OECD has warned. “Significant efforts will be required to stabilize France’s public debt at close to 120pc of GDP in 2060,” the OECD said in its economic survey of the country. If steps are not taken to offset the costs of the aging population, “the debt-to-GDP ratio will remain close to 120pc of GDP and could rise to close to 150pc of GDP in 2060 if the rise in interest rates proves greater than projected. That would threaten the viability of the public finances.” (The Telegraph)
Credit-card offers are filling mailboxes: Banks’ credit-card marketing costs surged last quarter, and there is little evidence the multibillion-dollar spending spree will stop soon. Mailed credit-card solicitations are back above pre-pandemic levels. Issuers are making cash-back offers and other rewards more generous. During the past two quarters, cash-back cards offered an average 1.11% per dollar spent, up from 1.08% in the beginning of the year and the highest level since at least 2010. Miles or points offered have reached their highest level in over a decade, at 1.2 miles or points per dollar spent. (Wall Street Journal)
CVS will close 900 stores over the next three years, nearly 10% of its U.S. locations, while adding more health services at remaining locations. The largest U.S. pharmacy chain said it would close 300 stores a year while adding primary-care offices at certain sites as well as converting more stores into so-called health hubs with offerings such as diagnostic testing, mental-health services and hearing exams. (Wall Street Journal)
Ford and General Motors are looking to get into the semiconductor business, after a year of computer-chip shortages that snarled their global factory output. Ford outlined a strategic agreement with U.S.-based semiconductor manufacturer GlobalFoundries. GM is forging ties with some of the biggest names in semiconductors—including Qualcomm and NXP Semiconductors. (Wall Street Journal)
Apple is accelerating the development of a fully autonomous electric car, after hitting a car processor milestone, with plans to debut it by 2025. (Bloomberg)
Ford plans to increase EV production to 600,000 vehicles by 2023. (CNBC)
Technology
Over 1,000 Activision Blizzard employees have signed an ongoing petition calling for CEO Bobby Kotick to resign, as of 4:05 p.m. ET yesterday — less than four hours after the petition was posted to the company’s internal Slack. (Washington Post)
Xbox, PlayStation are evaluating their relationship with Activision Blizzard and will make adjustments. (Bloomberg)
TikTok usage is spiking among young Americans at the expense of Instagram. This year, 63% of Americans between the ages of 12 and 17 used TikTok on a weekly basis, compared with 57% for Instagram. In 2020, Instagram led that demographic, with 61% of kids on the platform, while TikTok had 50%. (CNBC)
A bipartisan coalition of state attorneys general said it is investigating how Instagram attracts and affects young people, amping up the pressure on parent company Meta Platforms over potential harms to its users. Led by eight states, including Massachusetts and Nebraska, the coalition is focused on “the techniques utilized by Meta to increase the frequency and duration of engagement by young users and the resulting harms caused by such extended engagement.” (Wall Street Journal)
Apple will let employees work for up to four weeks remotely each year as the iPhone giant prepares for the company to gradually return to offices in 2022, according to a memo sent to staff on Thursday by CEO Tim Cook. Apple wants staff to return to offices on Feb. 1 to begin a “hybrid work pilot”, under which employees will work out of the office for one or two days each week. (The Information)
Internal docs and sources detail Amazon's careless handling of its retail customer data, including letting some low-level staff snoop on celebrity purchases. (Wired)
Smart Links
52% of workers feel they’re behind on retirement savings. (CNBC)
Supply-chain snarls deliver windfalls to Wall Street. (Wall Street Journal)
Alibaba warns of slowdown in Chinese consumer spending. (Financial Times)
U.K. M&A reaches new highs despite headwinds. (JDSupra)
U.S. private equity funds “will buy large UK law firms next year.” (Legal Futures)
Tesla's rivals roll out larger, cheaper electric SUVs. (Reuters)
Weekend Watching
At the recent Builders + Innovators Summit, Goldman Sachs Chairman and CEO David Solomon sat down with Greylock partner and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman to discuss what motivated Hoffman to become an entrepreneur, the future of social media and the evolution of artificial intelligence. (Goldman Sachs)