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The World
Economists are cutting growth forecasts for the eurozone economy as a third wave of Covid-19 infections and vaccination delays spur tighter restrictions in several countries including France, Italy and Germany. The reintroduction of lockdown measures across Europe is fueling concerns that the region could suffer another disappointing summer tourism season if vaccinations do not speed up enough to allow travel restrictions to be eased. (Financial Times)
The U.S. economy may be “on the brink of completing the recovery” from the recession triggered by the pandemic, Richmond Federal Reserve President Thomas Barkin said, although risks remain for some workers. (Reuters)
The top sliver of high-income Americans dodge significantly more in income taxes than the Internal Revenue Service’s methods had previously assumed, according to forthcoming estimates from IRS researchers and academic economists. Overall, the paper estimates that the top 1% of households fail to report about 21% of their income, with 6 percentage points of that due to sophisticated strategies that random audits don’t detect. For the top 0.1%, unreported income may be nearly twice as large as conventional IRS methodologies would suggest, the researchers wrote. (Wall Street Journal)
Turkey’s currency tumbled as much as 14% after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sacked the country’s central bank chief, who was regarded as a key force in pulling the lira from historic lows. The removal of Naci Agbal, announced in the early hours of Saturday, shocked many local and foreign investors who had applauded the official’s decisions to move Turkey towards a more orthodox monetary policy. (Financial Times)
Jordan made public a defense agreement with the U.S. that allows free entry of U.S. forces, aircraft and vehicles onto the kingdom's territory. The agreement was signed in January and the government approved it last month, but in an exceptional move it bypassed parliament. (Barron’s)
Australian authorities are planning to evacuate thousands more people today from flood-affected suburbs in Sydney’s west, which is set for its worst flooding in 60 years with another day of drenching rain expected. (Reuters, Sydney Morning Herald)
The unprecedented effort to manufacture Covid-19 vaccines is disrupting supplies of other critical medicines in the US, including treatments for infectious diseases and injectable drugs that prevent blindness. Pfizer told U.S. hospitals to expect interruptions to supplies of four of its products — an antibiotic, a steroid and two types of testosterone — according to a letter seen by the Financial Times. (Financial Times)
Elon Musk said Tesla would never provide the U.S. government with data collected by its vehicles in China or other countries. Musk’s assurance that Chinese customer data is fully protected followed the Chinese government’s decision to restrict the use of Tesla cars by military personnel or employees of key state-owned companies. (Wall Street Journal)
The Idaho House and Senate quickly moved to recess until April 6 as the coronavirus spread in the Statehouse, and House legislative leaders abruptly canceled all committee meetings. (Idaho Statesman)
Miami city commissioners voted to extend emergency orders imposing an 8 p.m. curfew in the entertainment district and limiting access to causeways leading to the island city. The measures are now set to continue Thursday to Sunday until April 11, the end of the spring break period. (Washington Post, Miami Herald)
An internal Department of Homeland Security document leaked to Axios shows that 823 unaccompanied migrant children have been held in border patrol custody for over 10 days — more than a fourfold increase over the past week. (Axios)
Economy
Fewer than one in five portfolio managers at the world’s biggest asset managers are women, despite long-running campaigns to improve gender diversity in the investment industry and research that indicates female investors outperform. The Financial Times contacted more than 20 of the world’s biggest asset managers and found that while women make up more than 40% of employees on average, they account for just 18% of portfolio managers. Across wider investment teams, including analysts, portfolio managers and traders, women accounted for just under 26% on average at the big investment companies polled. (Financial Times)
To attract Black employees, companies move to them: More firms are considering cities like Atlanta to find diverse workers—and retain them, too. More companies are adding new office footprints as a way to recruit ethnically diverse talent, too. Microsoft is investing $75 million in an Atlanta facility it says will create 1,500 jobs. Google is investing more than $25 million there this year, expanding its existing three-floor office to a new location where the company will eventually occupy 19 floors. (Wall Street Journal)
The market for cold storage is heating up as the largest players in temperature-controlled warehousing move deeper into global food supply chains. Lineage Logistics LLC, the largest refrigerated-storage company in the world by space, has raised $1.9 billion in a funding round that will help back additional acquisitions, build new facilities and develop warehouse automation technology. The round brings Lineage’s valuation to around $18 billion. (Wall Street Journal)
2020 was a record year for investment and M&A activity for impact technology companies: (Private Equity Wire)
Impact companies have raised record levels of investment in Europe and North America in 2020, breaking USD10 billion for the first time
Growing funding rounds: Funding for impact companies has increased by 51% in 2020, with the average size of funding rounds increased by 80% in 2020
Software companies have dominated funding rounds in this sub-sector – making up 45% of all impact investment activity
M&A activity for impact companies also saw a record year in 2020 – reaching USD69.8 billion, with four mega deals representing USD36 billion
Impact M&A transactions analyzed have revealed an impact premium around 5-10% for SaaS and 30 per cent for e-commerce and marketplaces
There were a number of notable mega-rounds (USD100 million+) in key impact sectors in 2020.
Technology
How Covid-19 supercharged the advertising ‘triopoly’ of Google, Facebook and Amazon: The three tech giants now collect more than half of all ad dollars spent in the U.S. The increase in shopping and spending on Google, Facebook and Amazon’s platforms is adding to their already voluminous data on users, giving them even more appeal for advertisers that look to target their messages. (Wall Street Journal)
Apple and Epic Games have listed their CEOs as potential witnesses in a case between the iPhone maker and the video game developer over the App Store payment system. Apple CEO Tim Cook, Apple Fellow Phil Schiller, and Apple Senior Vice President of Software Engineering Craig Federighi will all testify. (Reuters, MacRumors)
Tim Berners-Lee explains how to fix the internet, with particular focus on handing more control over data back to users. (The Guardian)
3 Q&A’s:
Q&A with Chris Sacca on his brief retirement, Trump and Biden, investing in climate startups, how investing has changed, NFTs, and more. (Forbes)
Q&A with Kayvon Beykpour, Twitter's head of consumer product, on focusing on growth, deciding what to prioritize, paying for tweets, Clubhouse, and more: He’s responsible for deciding what tools Twitter actually builds for people to express themselves. Beykpour explains what it took to reset the team toward growth, how he decides what to prioritize, and what the timelines for success look like on different projects. He also talked about paying for tweets and competing with Clubhouse. (The Verge)
Q&A with Patrick Collison, co-founder and CEO of Stripe: Collison discusses the future of technology, what kinds of innovation humanity needs, whether innovation has slowed down and what to do about it, the proper roles of government and the private sector, how research funding can be reformed, how international competition (including U.S.-China competition) figures into the equation. (Noahpinion)
Landline Phones Are a Dying Breed: In 2004, more than 90% of U.S. adults lived in households that had an operational landline phone - now it’s less than 40%. Landline phones could soon become an endangered species, much like the VCR and other technological relics before it. (Statista)
Smart Links
One CEO dangles $500 bonus for workers to get Covid-19 vaccinations. (Wall Street Journal)
Why Taco Bell, Charmin, and Pizza Hut are Trying to Sell You NFTs. (Marker)
Astronomers have detected a moving supermassive black hole. (Harvard Gazette)
Visa, Mastercard delay credit-card swipe fee increases. (Wall Street Journal)
Four causes for ‘Zoom fatigue’ and their simple fixes. (Stanford University)
People literally don’t know when to shut up — or keep talking — science confirms. (Scientific American)