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The World
Senate Democrats and Republicans banded together to advance a roughly $1 trillion proposal to improve the country’s aging infrastructure, overcoming months of political deadlock on one of President Biden’s signature economic policy priorities. The 67-to-32 vote, which included 17 Republicans in favor, came just hours after centrist senators in both parties and the White House reached a long-sought compromise on the bill, which would provide about $550 billion in new federal money for roads, bridges, rail, transit, water and other physical infrastructure programs. Among those in support of moving forward was Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader and a longtime foil of major legislation pushed by Democratic presidents. McConnell’s backing signaled that his party was — at least for now — open to teaming with Democrats to enact the plan. (Washington Post, New York Times)
A look at what the bipartisan infrastructure deal would do: (New York Times)
Funding for roads and bridges: The package provides $110 billion in new funding for roads, bridges and other major projects. The funds would be used to repair and rebuild with a “focus on climate change mitigation,” according to the White House.
Investments in public transit: Public buses, subways and trains would receive $39 billion in new funding, which would be used to repair aging infrastructure and modernize and expand transit service across the country.
Big investments in rail and freight lines: The deal would inject $66 billion in rail to address Amtrak’s maintenance backlog, along with upgrading the high-traffic Northeast corridor.
Beefing up electric vehicles: The deal would invest $7.5 billion in building out the nation’s network of electric vehicle charging stations.
Clean water initiatives: The package would invest $55 billion in clean drinking water.
The Federal Reserve inched toward scaling back the easy-money policies adopted at the start of the pandemic by signaling that the process could start later this year. The Federal Open Market Committee declared that it had made “progress” towards its goals of full employment and 2% average inflation, even though it was not yet sufficient to merit any policy action right now. The statement marked the first milestone in the US central bank’s steady drive towards a decision on reducing its $120bn in monthly debt purchases at future meetings, a move that could come later this year or early next year. (Wall Street Journal, Financial Times)
Apple plans to require employees and customers to wear masks in more than half its U.S. retail stores regardless of their vaccination status, according to a memo sent to some of its workers. And Apple is reportedly requiring masks at the office now, but stopping short of requiring the vaccine. Further, Google, Apple, ServiceNow, Asana and Pure Storage are all postponing their returns to the office, citing new concerns about the virus's spread. Google CEO Sundar Pichai also sent an email to all employees requiring vaccinations for anyone coming to work in the office. (Wall Street Journal, Protocol)
China branded America’s 20-year involvement in Afghanistan a “failure” and hailed the Taliban as an “important military and political force”, after hosting its first talks with the militant group since the US began its withdrawal. The foreign minister, Wang Yi, said that Beijing wanted to bring the militant group, the former host of al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, “back into the political mainstream” after meetings in the city of Tianjin with Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, a co-founder of the Taliban and head of its political office in Qatar. (The Times)
Argentine’s government speeds up money printing ahead of election. Meanwhile, more than 10,000 migrants from Haiti, Cuba and several African countries, many trying to reach the United States, are overwhelming a town on Colombia’s north coast, officials say, creating a public health emergency in the midst of the pandemic. (Bloomberg, Washington Post)
49% of Americans approve of the job the U.S. Supreme Court is doing, its first approval rating below the majority level since 2017. A year ago, 58% approved of the court, the highest Gallup had measured since 2009. (Gallup)
Economy
U.S. consumer sentiment sinks as Delta variant cases rise: Rising COVID-19 cases and the new Delta variant shook consumers’ confidence in July, with Morning Consult’s Index of Consumer Sentiment falling to its lowest level since March. (Morning Consult)
American Airlines pilots and flight attendants unions say they can’t find hotel rooms. The complaints are another sign of air travel’s growing pains, as a surge in demand this summer is overwhelming tourism hot spots, hotels, airports. (Wall Street Journal)
Rise of digital Yuan brings new challenges for China tech giants: For the past decade, private companies in China have led the way in the digitization of money, with Tencent Holdings and Ant Group setting up enormous private payment networks and cryptocurrency-mining operations providing the fuel for the global Bitcoin boom. Their emergence was a break from Chinese financial history, which has been marked by aggressive centralized control. Things may now be reverting to the norm. The rollout of the digital currency corresponds with a broader push to exert control over tech companies by, for instance, forcing payment businesses to submit to traditional banking regulations. The e-CNY can provide a backup to the inherently unpredictable private systems. If the e-CNY does catch on, the central bank could suck deposits out of Ant’s and Tencent’s networks, crippling their lucrative businesses of lending and wealth management. But the two companies may have no choice but to cooperate. (Bloomberg Businessweek)
China is still searching for a chipmaking advance that changes the game. (Bloomberg Businessweek)
Robinhood Markets priced its IPO at $38 a share, at the low end of expectations, after the popular trading platform met tepid demand for its highly anticipated debut. Next up for Robinhood is its trading debut, which the company will make today on the Nasdaq stock exchange under the symbol HOOD. It is a markedly different debut than the traditional IPO. While most companies only allocate a small amount of stock to individual investors at the time of their IPOs, Robinhood sold a big chunk of its IPO shares to individual investors over its new platform that gives users access to IPOs before they start trading. (Wall Street Journal)
Britain's financial regulator demanded the appointment of more women and non-white minorities to the leadership of Britain's largest firms on Wednesday, saying at least 40% of board members should be women. (Reuters)
In the UK, lawmakers are investitating workplaces to see if anti-discrimination laws are needed to help women going through menopause. Almost one million women in the UK have left their job as a result of menopausal symptoms. Menopause typically affects women in their late 40s and early 50s—often the peak of one’s career leading into senior management roles. (Guardian)
A growing number of late-stage startups are setting their own valuations and other deal terms, eliminating the concept of "lead investors." This is a significant reversal of VC power, as financial engineers are giving way to founder engineers. Most of these deals are for pre-IPO companies, offering early allocations to mutual funds and hedge funds. For companies, this means more vanilla terms. For investors, it means fewer structural protections, like those ratchets that had become prevalent during the inaugural unicorn boom. (Axios)
Technology
Lina Khan ratcheted up the rhetoric against big tech, accusing digital platforms owned by “some of the world’s largest companies” of promoting fraud: “Business models singularly focused on scale and engagement coupled with microtargeting have allowed these platforms to become finely tuned instruments for bad actors.” Facebook appears to be on her mind, and, possibly, Amazon, too. The comments, to a congressional committee, are remarkable: Khan is throwing down the gauntlet to tech in a way we haven’t seen from a leading antitrust regulator in recent memory. In recent weeks, both Amazon and Facebook have asked that Khan be recused from antitrust investigations involving them because, both companies said, she is biased. Khan’s response almost seems to be “yeah, so what?” More significantly, though, is what Khan and two other FTC commissioners indicated was a solution: reducing internet platforms’ legal protections under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Khan said that stopping the fraud will “require focusing on the warped incentives and legal privileges that allow major firms to profit from predation.” (The Information)
Facebook warned that the pace of its revenue growth would “decelerate significantly” in forthcoming quarters, sending its shares down in after-hours trading. The warning from the social network came as it posted bumper revenues and profits for 2Q21. (Financial Times)
Twitter is piloting a new feature that allows businesses to add a shopping section to the top of their profiles, the company has announced. The Shop Module launches in the US today and offers a carousel of products for visitors to browse. Tapping a product will link to a listing with the option of making a purchase without ever leaving Twitter. (The Verge)
Yesterday morning, hundreds of Blizzard employees rallied outside the company’s main campus in Irvine, CA to protest the company’s handling of sexual harassment and discrimination charges. They’re asking the gaming studio to agree to four demands, including ending mandatory arbitration in all employment contracts. “Until these demands are met, we won’t stop fighting,” a walkout representative tells The Verge. The move comes after the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) sued Activision Blizzard on July 20, alleging the company had a pervasive “frat boy” culture where female employees were constantly harassed, discriminated against, and underpaid. (The Verge)
Smart Links
Wharton is first elite M.B.A. program to enroll more women than men. (Wall Street Journal)
U.S. law firms offer bonuses of up to $250,000 in battle for staff. (Financial Times)
Morgan Stanley joins other Wall Street banks in lifting junior pay; first-year analysts will earn $100,000 per year, bringing lender in line with rivals. (Financial Times)
Health chatbots are here and heavily funded. (Crunchbase)
Sandy Hook families offered $33 million settlement by gun maker Remington. (Wall Street Journal)
ESG may sound like a PR spin, but you can't dismiss it. (Financial Times)
Frozen food company Steak-umm wrote a multi-tweet thread discussing societal issues and the rise of misinformation. (Twitter)