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The World
The House voted to temporarily reauthorize transportation funding, abruptly reversing course after Democratic leaders earlier vowed to pass a bipartisan Senate-approved infrastructure bill. The move came after progressives refused to relent in their opposition to the $550 billion infrastructure bill amid a standoff over Democrats’ separate, party-line $1.75 trillion social spending measure. But Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her leadership team were ultimately unable to win over dozens of dug-in liberals. House liberals said they want to review the legislative text and get a commitment of support from centrist Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) — something the two have not outright given. (Politico)
President Biden entered a caucus meeting of Democrats, told them he wanted to speak from the heart, and then made one of the biggest gambles of a career that spans nearly a half century. He put the future of his presidency, and the state of his party, on the line with a major bet that he could persuade a fractious group of Democrats to rally behind him and support a compromise plan at the heart of his agenda: “I don’t think it’s hyperbole to say that the House and Senate majorities and my presidency will be determined by what happens in the next week.” (Washington Post, Wall Street Journal)
With paid parental leave apparently out of the Democrats’ social spending bill, how does the U.S. stack up on paid parental leave (or lack thereof) compared to the world's largest economies? (GZERO Media)
China and India cast a pall over the opening of the COP26 summit in Glasgow when they rejected calls to set tough new climate targets, calling into question whether the world’s biggest polluters will start cutting emissions this decade. Big economies including the US and UK have pressed China to tighten its climate goals but in a formal submission Beijing left its targets unchanged. It said it would reach peak emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060 — and stuck to its position of increasing domestic coal production until 2025. India, the world’s third-largest emitter, said it might not submit any new target at all. (Financial Times)
Britain denounced France's seizure of a British boat in French waters and warned Paris against further retaliation, in a rapidly deteriorating row over post-Brexit fishing rights. (Reuters)
The Air Force is first military branch to face rejection of vaccine mandate as thousands avoid shots. The challenge facing Air Force leaders — addressing dissent against a health priority that has been politicized — is a bellwether for the dilemma in store across the military’s other services. (Washington Post)
Citi requires vaccines for all U.S. workers, becoming the first major Wall Street bank to make the vaccine a condition of employment. (Bloomberg)
New York City officials are bracing for the possibility that thousands of essential workers — including police officers, firefighters and sanitation employees — could be placed on unpaid leave starting Monday, when the city’s sweeping mandate requiring that almost all municipal workers receive at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine takes effect. (New York Times)
Shops, restaurants and schools have shut in Moscow in a partial lockdown, as Russia battles record Covid deaths and infections. Only essential shops like supermarkets and pharmacies are allowed to open in the capital, while food outlets are only providing takeaways. (BBC News)
Slovenia eyes possible lockdown as infections surge. (Associated Press)
Economy
Christine Lagarde rebuffed investor expectations that the European Central Bank could raise rates next year to quell fast-rising prices, even as she acknowledged that its latest governing council meeting was dominated by a discussion of “inflation, inflation, inflation”. The ECB president said the council had done “a lot of soul-searching” to test its assumption that inflation would fade next year, and its analysis did “not support” market expectations for a rate rise before the end of 2022. (Financial Times)
U.S. steelmakers see their hot market extending into 2022, as they are building new mills and raising prices for big customers. (Wall Street Journal)
A hike in the cost of wheat is alarming French households who fear a possible rise in the price of the prized baguette, seen by many as a barometer of the country’s economic health. Many boulangeries are putting up signs, warning customers that the long, crunchy staple could be going up in price by 3 to 5 centimes (4 to 6 cents), from its average of about 89 centimes (just over $1). “Although that might not seem like a lot, it’s a huge increase. The baguette is precious. It has only gone up 23 centimes in the last 20 years,” said Dominique Anract, president of the French Confederation of Bakeries and Pastry Shops. (Associated Press)
The SEC won’t approve a leveraged bitcoin fund. The regulator has signaled it will allow only unleveraged funds tied to the cryptocurrency, at least for now. Meanwhile, the CFTC’s chief said recent crypto cases are “the tip of the iceberg.” Acting Chairman Rostin Behnam urged Congress to consider expanding the agency’s ability to oversee cryptocurrency markets. (Wall Street Journal)
The China Bull: Beijing's recent regulatory actions have erased over $1 trillion of market value from Chinese equities — a disruption that hedge fund billionaire Ray Dalio refers to as mere "wiggles" in an otherwise strong economy. Indeed, for Dalio, who has spent 40 years nurturing his Beijing connections, now is the time double down on China. (The Wire China)
Israel, already the second-largest cyber startup market in the world, will likely see total venture dollars raised by its cybersecurity sector almost double this year. Israeli cyber companies have raised about $1.6 billion in VC backing to date this year—smashing last year’s record of $1 billion—thanks to some huge funding rounds. (Crunchbase)
Consumer sentiment sinks despite progress against the Delta variant. Supply chain disruptions and inflation concerns are making consumers increasingly pessimistic about the state of the U.S. economy. (Morning Consult)
Technology
The obvious analogy to Facebook’s announcement that it is renaming itself Meta and re-organizing its financials to separate “Family of Apps” — Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp — from “Facebook Reality Labs” is Google’s 2015 reorganization to Alphabet, which separated “Google”, including the search engine, YouTube, and Google Cloud, from “Other Bets.” While the mechanics may be similar, it is the differences that suggest the implications of this transformation are much more meaningful. Start with the name: “Alphabet” didn’t really mean anything in particular, and that was the point. “Meta”, on the other hand, is explicit: CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that Facebook is now a metaverse company, and the name reflects that. It is also focused: Alphabet included a host of ventures, many of which had no real connection to Google; Facebook Reality Labs is a collection of efforts, from virtual reality to augmented reality to electromyography systems, all in service to a singular vision where instead of looking at the Internet, we live in it. (Stratechery)
Ben Thompson interviewed Zuckerberg about Facebook’s plan for the metaverse (and not about the rebrand). (Stratechery)
Facebook’s corporate name change wasn’t the only news. The tech giant revealed that it’s looking at integrating non-fungible tokens into its metaverse business, a big stamp of approval for these digital blockchain-based assets, which have been criticized as a soon-to-pop bubble. Were NFTs to be integrated into Facebook’s metaverse, it could be a boon for these assets in expanding their sales and usage. After all, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that the metaverse could reach a billion users within the next decade and handle hundreds of billions of dollars in digital commerce. (The Information)
Apple and Amazon stock dives set to erase $200 billion in value. (Bloomberg)
Severe staffing shortages and the mounting costs of keeping its logistics empire running at full speed will throttle Amazon’s earnings for the remainder of the year, the company warned. The ecommerce giant said that “inconsistent staffing levels” within its fulfilment network had led to inventory being inefficiently routed to regions with a more reliable workforce, increasing costs as it heads into the crunch holiday period. (Financial Times)
Apple sales miss expectations, as CEO Tim Cook says supply issues cost the company $6 billion. (CNBC)
Inside the iPhone 13: Apple's rising costs are revealed. In roughly 10 years, the total cost of the components in an iPhone has risen from around 23% of its selling price to 36% or more. The price of cameras alone has shot up tenfold over that time. To find out exactly where these parts — and the rising costs — come from, Nikkei and the Financial Times collaborated with teardown specialist Fomalhaut Techno Solutions to take apart Apple's latest top-end smartphone, the iPhone 13 Pro Max. The results of the teardown reveal a company under pressure to stay ahead of its rivals, even if it means sacrificing some of its margins to do so. (Nikkei Asian Review)
Shopify’s revenue growth slowed to 46% in 3Q21, a sign that the e-commerce software platform is coming off the highs of the pandemic, which sparked a big shift toward online shopping. Shopify’s revenue growth rate hovered around 100% for much of 2020 and 1Q21, but slowed sharply since then. (The Information)
Smart Links
Nearly 2 in 3 women who left the workforce during Covid plan to return. (CNBC)
Wharton to accept crypto as tuition payment for blockchain class. (Bloomberg)
U.S. traffic fatalities rise 18% in 1H21. (Axios)
China limits construction of 'super high-rise buildings.’ (BBC News)
Q&A: What does China's centrally backed digital currency mean for the world? 5 experts respond. (Protocol)
Black households increasingly ditch linear TV: Study. (AdAge)
How seed funding exploded in the past 10 years. (Crunchbase)