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The World
A global corporate tax deal edged closer after the US backs a minimum rate: The world’s leading economies are close to agreeing on a set of principles that would revolutionize the taxation of multinationals after France and Germany threw their support behind a new US approach to the issue. Talks on how to make it difficult for international companies to shift profits globally to minimize tax have been stuck at the OECD for years, but are now progressing rapidly. European countries backed the U.S. proposal but made it clear it would need to be accompanied with a deal to enable them to tax an element of technology giants’ global profits. (Financial Times)
The IMF expects the world economy to grow 6% this year, the most since 1980 and an upgrade from January’s 5.5% growth projection. But the I.M.F. warned that an uneven rollout of vaccines poses a threat to the recovery, as the fortunes of rich and poor countries diverge. The global dynamic echoes the “K-shaped” recoveries that are playing out worldwide. While many wealthy nations are poised for a major economic expansion this year, other nations’ struggles could reverse decades of progress in fighting poverty and threaten stability and long-term growth. (Wall Street Journal, New York Times)
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said he supports a rise in the corporate tax rate and supports President Biden’s focus on major U.S. infrastructure spending. (Wall Street Journal)
The Biden administration said it was considering a joint boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, amid calls from lawmakers and advocacy groups to back away from the Games because of alleged human rights violations in China. A boycott in coordination with Washington’s allies “is something that we certainly wish to discuss,” the State Department spokesman said, adding discussions “are under way.” (South China Morning Post)
Do sports boycotts even work? Sports boycotts are not usually designed to reverse the policies they are opposing. But they can be quite effective in achieving other outcomes: First, their unique combination of cultural and economic power make sports an outsize arena for political disputes to play out. Second, boycotts raise the cost of pursuing certain policies. Third, boycotts are a great way to draw wider attention to problems that boycotts alone won't solve. Sports boycotts beyond the MLB include: (GZERO Media)
Human right groups outraged by China's genocide in Xinjiang are putting pressure on Western governments and corporate sponsors to withdraw from the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.
Chinese sports fans have turned on Nike — which makes the kits for China's national football and basketball teams — for expressing "concern" over allegations of forced labor in Xinjiang's cotton industry.
Some European soccer players are defying FIFA rules banning political messages in the game by protesting against deaths of more than 6,500 migrant workers in Qatar since 2010 amid fresh calls to boycott next year’s World Cup there.
Russia is sending a ‘doomsday’ nuclear-powered torpedo for a test in the Arctic: The U.S. is watching Russia’s Arctic military build-up “very closely” as the Kremlin presses ahead with testing that could trigger radioactive tsunamis off America’s eastern coast. Separately, Russia said Myanmar sanctions were futile, extremely dangerous and could push the country towards civil war. (The Times, Reuters)
Alexei Navalny is “seriously ill” in prison and was moved to an infirmary after contracting symptoms of a respiratory illness. Amnesty International said Russia may be slowly killing him. Meanwhile, Russian police arrested physicians and others who trekked to the penal colony 60 miles east of Moscow to demand access to him. (Financial Times, Reuters, NPR)
Dutch authorities linked a suspect to two major art thefts that took place during the early days of lockdown last spring. The police arrested a 58-year-old man on suspicion of stealing both Vincent Van Gogh’s The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring (1884) and Frans Hals’s Two Laughing Boys with a Mug of Beer from two museums in the Netherlands. (Artnet News)
New York State announced agreement on a $212 billion state budget that includes tax increases on the wealthy as well as substantial relief for renters, undocumented immigrants and business owners hit hardest by the coronavirus. Two new brackets would be introduced for incomes over $5 million and $25 million, effectively subjecting them to the highest combined local and state personal income tax rates in the nation, surpassing California. The 'millionaires tax' threat has some NY bankers and managers eyeing exits. (New York Times, Reuters)
As President Biden advanced the deadline to make all adults eligible for vaccines to April 19, “vaccine passports” are emerging as the next coronavirus divide. Businesses and universities want fast, easy ways to see if students and customers are vaccinated, but conservative politicians have turned them into a cultural flash point. Meanwhile in the UK, coronavirus certificates could be needed in high street shops this summer, Downing Street has hinted, as Labour said it was prepared to vote against the plans. (New York Times, The Times)
California plans a full reopening on June 15. Minnesota's case rates have grown 25 days in a row. The EU sees near virus immunity by the end of June. TX Gov. Greg Abbott banned state agencies and state-funded organizations from requiring proof of a vaccination. (Los Angeles Times, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Bloomberg, Texas Tribune)
Brain disorders affect 1 in 3 Covid survivors, a large UK study shows. Oxford research finds coronavirus is 44% more likely to cause psychiatric and neurological problems in patients than the flu. (Financial Times)
35% of U.S. adults now say they are very or somewhat worried about contracting Covid-19, the lowest point in Gallup's trend since April 2020. (Gallup)
Economy
Big companies are making plans to stick with city-center office buildings, but they are cutting back on space and driving down rent prices for years to come. Rent proposals made during 1Q21 suggest that many companies in the biggest markets—including NY, SF, Chicago and L.A.—are embracing an emerging hybrid model: maintaining a shrunken office presence while allowing employees to work remotely at least part-time. Landlords are offering long-term leases of four and more years at discounts up to 13% below rent rates reached in 1Q20. Companies are also seeking on average about 10% less space than they were looking for in 1Q20. (Wall Street Journal)
With an IPO scheduled next week, Coinbase’s 1Q21 results showed numbers any company would dream to use in their going-public pitch deck. Coinbase produced net profit of between $730 million and $800 million, up from $32 million a year earlier. Revenue hit $1.8 billion, nearly 10 times the year-earlier period. The number of people buying or selling in a month more than doubled from last year. (The Information)
Chinese private equity funds are targeting record fundraising this year as global investors boost their exposure to the country despite US tensions and heightened regulatory scrutiny of its technology groups. A group of fast growing Chinese investment funds, which include Boyu Capital and Primavera Capital Group, have launched what are expected to be their largest ever US dollar funds in recent weeks. (Financial Times)
U.S. digital health companies raised a record $6.7 billion in 1Q21, putting the industry on track to easily top the $14 billion in investment last year. (Healthcare Dive)
Buyout multiples for European and U.S. companies saw significant bifurcation in 2020: "The four-turn gap between median European and US prices has never been wider and can be partly explained through Europe's poor public equity performance, considerably lower fiscal-monetary stimuli, mediocre handling of the pandemic, a weakening US dollar, and a steeper flight to pandemic-proof assets in the U.S." (Axios, Pitchbook)
Nearly 6,000 Amazon warehouse workers in Alabama are awaiting the preliminary results of a unionization vote, which could be released at any moment by the National Labor Relations Board. Meanwhile, the fight to open a union at Amazon is “the ultimate David and Goliath story.” Perry Connelly has been working at Amazon for 11 months, a tenure long enough to earn him the status of “old timer” among his colleagues at the facility in Bessemer, Alabama. Not long after he started, and after a run-in with management that he and others felt unfair, he discreetly pulled two co-workers aside. “I was like, man . . . what we need here’s a union.” It wouldn’t be easy. (Axios, Financial Times)
Technology
Amazon’s share of the U.S. digital ad market grew to 10.3% last year from 7.8% in 2019. An eMarketer report predicts that Amazon will continue to inch up on market leaders Google and Facebook, a sign brands are increasingly turning to the e-commerce giant to help them reach an expanding base of online shoppers. Amazon’s U.S. ad revenue last year grew to $15.73 billion, up 52.5% from 2019. (Wall Street Journal)
Clubhouse, the buzzy audio-based social network, is in talks to raise funding from investors in a round valuing the business at about $4 billion. A deal at that price would quadruple its value from January and would reflect the astronomical expectations investors have for the app. (Bloomberg)
Epic Games is in advanced talks to raise as much as $1.7 billion, which would double the fundraising haul over the last year for the maker of the popular shooting game Fortnite. The terms value the business at about $28 billion, and the company has already secured commitments of more than $1 billion, though the final amount isn’t set. (Bloomberg)
Apple plans to soon implement a broad new privacy policy that thoroughly upends the mobile advertising industry. App Tracking Transparency, or ATT, is a radical course change that endangers the business models of ad platforms, app publishers and online retailers alike. It’s hard to overstate just how much consternation and anxiety ATT has wrought upon the mobile ecosystem. Is Apple overplaying its very strong hand. Apple is making changes that deeply favor its own interests and undermine rivals like Facebook in the name of abstract privacy benefits. And, with the battle enjoined, governments and competitors could well challenge it on this front or adopt workarounds that ultimately reduce Apple’s control even more deeply over time. (The Information)
Smart Links
The number of billionaires on Forbes’ 35th annual list of the world’s wealthiest exploded to an unprecedented 2,755 — 660 more than a year ago. (Forbes)
Meet the highest paid CEO in S&P 500, Paycom’s $211 million Mman. (Wall Street Journal)
CBS saw 14% viewership drop for NCAA men’s title, women’s game on ESPN grew. (CNBC)
Southwest calls back pilots to prepare for busier summer schedule. (CNBC)
Toshiba receives offer from CVC to go private in $20bn deal. (Nikkei Asian Review)
Nonprofit hospitals spent less on charity care than for-profit, government facilities. (Healthcare Dive)
Live Events
Today, 10 am ET: A Call to Action: Securing the International Supply Chain in the Digital Era. Leaders from the U.S., U.K., Australian and Canadian intelligence and cyber security communities will examine the challenges to national and international security posed by supply chain vulnerabilities and 5G competition, and provide insights on ways to mitigate these threats. (Belfer Center — Register)
Today, 6 pm ET: Recovering the Histories of Seven Enslaved Americans. For seven seasons, award-winning Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. has uncovered the ancestral stories of celebrity guests on his hit-television series, Finding Your Roots. In this program, Gates will be joined by Dr. Gregg Hecimovich to discuss the process of unearthing the histories of formerly enslaved people. The focus will be on Alfred, Delia, Drana, Fassena, Jack, Jim, and Renty, seven Black men and women who were photographed against their will in Columbia, South Carolina in 1850. (Harvard Museums of Science & Culture)