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The World
The global economy is entering a phase of inflationary risk, the IMF warned on Tuesday, as it called on central banks to be “very, very vigilant” and take early action to tighten monetary policy should price pressures prove persistent. The fund was highlighting the new risks in its twice-yearly World Economic Outlook, which also warned of slipping momentum in global growth after a strong recovery so far this year. Gita Gopinath, the IMF’s chief economist, said the strength of the economic recovery meant it was too early to “say anything about stagflation”, despite some supply shortages which have also boosted inflation. The overall growth rate will remain near 6% this year, a historically high level after a recession, but the expansion reflects a vast divergence in the fortunes of rich and poor countries. (Financial Times, New York Times, World Economic Outlook report)
Almost 3% of U.S. workforce quit in August: Workers are less willing to endure inconvenient hours and poor compensation. There were 10.4 million job openings in the country at the end of August, giving workers leverage as they look for a better fit. Normally, churn in the labor market reflects workers feeling more confident in the economy. But the scale of these new changes — and the larger economic transitions they signal — has added an element of unpredictability. Workers and employers are reassessing their approaches amid a continually evolving public health threat. (Washington Post)
The EU will be making a “historic misjudgment” if it fails to agree to rewrite the Brexit deal that covers trading arrangements for Northern Ireland, the UK warned. In an uncompromising speech, UK Brexit minister Lord David Frost warned that “fractious” relations between the two sides would not find a new equilibrium unless the EU agrees to British demands to fundamentally rewrite the so-called Northern Ireland protocol in the withdrawal agreement. (Financial Times)
UK ministers are being warned that Britain faces gaps on the shelves at Christmas as shipping containers carrying toys and electrical goods were diverted from the country’s biggest port because it is full. Shipping companies are directing vessels away from Felixstowe after it ran out of storage capacity. The port, on the Suffolk coast, normally handles about 36% of Britain’s container imports and exports, much of it toys and furniture. (The Times)
The widespread supply chain disruptions plaguing manufacturers and retailers across the world will probably work themselves out over the next few months, chief executives of the largest US banks have said. “This will not be an issue next year at all,” said Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase chief executive. “Six months ago when this was raised to me by clients around the country . . . you never would have thought it would have gotten so much worse since then,” said Brian Moynihan, Bank of America chief executive. (Financial Times)
French president Emmanuel Macron has outlined a five-year, €30bn investment plan to boost the country’s high-tech industries and reduce dependence on imported raw materials and electronic components such as microchips. Six months before a presidential election in which he is expected to seek a second term, Macron said the “France 2030” plan would direct government money to 10 targets, including the development of small “modular” nuclear reactors and of a “low-carbon” aircraft, green hydrogen production, the modernisation and decarbonisation of industry and the financing of start-ups. “We need to reinvest in a strategy of growth,” Macron said. (Financial Times)
Home sales in China are seizing up as curbs on lending and worries about developers’ financial health deter house buyers, casting a pall over an industry that is central to the Chinese economy. In recent days, numerous big developers have reported lower sales figures for September, with many showing year-over-year declines of more than 20% or 30%. That is a stark drop-off for a month that leads up to China’s Oct. 1 National Day holiday, whose promotions usually make this one of the strongest selling periods of the year. (Wall Street Journal)
China’s imports grow 17.6% in September, missing expectations. (CNBC)
The Biden administration will lift travel restrictions at the land borders with Canada and Mexico starting in November for fully vaccinated travelers. (New York Times)
American Airlines and Southwest Airlines say they will continue requiring employee vaccinations despite Gov. Abbott's new order, which has left federal government contractors, nursing homes and other companies caught between conflicting rules from the Biden administration and the state. (Texas Tribune)
Boeing Co will require its 125,000 U.S. employees to be vaccinated by Dec. 8 under an executive order issued by President Biden for federal contractors. (Reuters)
Return of office workers reaches pandemic high: As Covid-19 infection rates fall, workers are trickling back to the office at the highest rate since the pandemic began, with more firms indicating that they will be bringing workers back in the weeks ahead. (Wall Street Journal)
Positive coronavirus tests rise 48% in a week in Holland, as an autumn rise is underway. (Dutch News)
The Brooklyn Nets ban Kyrie Irving until he gets vaccinated. The workplace showdown between the Brooklyn star, the NBA title favorites and New York City risks costing Irving millions of dollars unless he relents. (Wall Street Journal)
The delta surge pushed Americans further behind in all walks of life: 38% of households across the nation report facing serious financial problems in the past few months. Among Latino, Black and Native American households, more than 50% had serious financial problems, while 29% of white households did. Two-thirds of parents say their kids have fallen behind in school. And one in five households say someone in the home has been unable to get medical care for a serious condition. (NPR)
The pandemic made things even worse for working women over 40. In the age of covid, older female workers have become even more vulnerable to job losses and age discrimination. Since the beginning of 2020, a large percentage of female workers 40 to 65 lost their jobs (14%), saw their work hours reduced (13%), were furloughed (9%) or had their salary or hours cut (4%). Nearly 70% of women over 40 who are still unemployed have been out of work for six months or more. (Washington Post)
Economy
The U.S. SEC has opened a broad inquiry into how Wall Street banks are keeping track of employees' digital communications, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters. SEC enforcement staff contacted multiple banks in recent weeks to check whether they have been adequately documenting employees' work-related communications, such as text messages and emails, with a focus on their personal devices. (Reuters)
As air travel continues its bumpy return after plunging in the early days of the pandemic, there have been plenty of downs. First came the rounds of cancellations on Southwest and American in June. Then Spirit Airlines had a multiday spiral in August that resulted in hundreds of canceled flights. Southwest had a repeat this weekend with more than 2,000 canceled flights, citing bad weather and air-traffic control issues that snowballed into a major disruption. With this track record, what should travelers expect for Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas and New Year’s trips? “I’m concerned that it’s going to be a very stressful holiday season when it come to air travel,” said travel industry analyst Henry Harteveldt, president of Atmosphere Research Group. (Washington Post)
In a banner year for VC, women still struggle to get funding: Percentage wise, the amount of venture capital going to female entrepreneurs is lower in 2021 than it has been for the last five years. That’s especially true for startups with all-female founding teams, which have raised just 2.3 percent of venture capital this year, according to Crunchbase. Startups with mixed-gender cofounders raised 11.7 percent of funding. In other words: 86 percent of venture funding still goes only to men. (Wired)
Payments company Stripe has begun assembling a crypto engineering team to chart its future in digital assets. Stripe’s relatively modest hiring push (it has 4,000 employees) comes amid a surge in crypto payments integrations across online retailers and even social media platforms. Strike, the crypto startup behind Twitter’s new bitcoin tipping feature, is preparing to release its payments API in an aggressive bid for mass crypto adoption. (Coindesk)
Coinbase is joining the non-fungible token (NFT) arms race. The U.S. crypto exchange is launching “Coinbase NFT,” a marketplace that will allow its users to buy and sell Ethereum-based digital collectibles, the company announced Tuesday. Coinbase’s NFT platform is expected to launch by the end of the year. (Coindesk)
A year after a jobs bust, college students find a boom: This year, seniors and recent graduates are in great demand as white-collar employers staff up, with some job-seekers receiving multiple offers. University placement office directors and corporate human resources executives report that hiring is running well above last year’s levels, and in some cases surpasses prepandemic activity in 2019. “The current market is great for employment,” said Lisa Noble, director of employer partnerships and emerging pathways at Colby. Since June 1, Noble has had discussions with 428 employers, compared with 273 in the same period last year. (New York Times)
Technology
Apple announced that it will be holding a special event on October 18 at 10 a.m. PT, and it will once again be a digital only event. When there are a lot of products coming in the fall months, Apple often holds a second October or November event, which is the case in 2021. Rumors have been teasing redesigned 14 and 16-inch MacBook Pro models for months now, and it's looking like Apple is finally ready to release them. Rumors suggest the 14 and 16-inch MacBook Pro models will have an overhauled design with thinner bezels and larger displays, and we've already seen hints of 3024 x 1964 and 3456 x 2234 resolutions, respectively, which would enable 2x Retina for sharper, crisper images and text. The new MacBook Pro will use an M1X chip, which is a faster, more powerful version of the M1, plus it could support up to 32GB RAM. (MacRumors)
If you haven’t ordered one of the new iPhone 13s yet, you may be in for a long wait: Apple is likely to cut its projected iPhone 13 production targets for this year by as many as 10 million units, as suppliers Broadcom and Texas Instruments are having problems delivering enough components. (Bloomberg, The Information)
Q&A With Sundar Pichai and Thomas Kurian on a new Google Cloud environmental feature: Google has the cleanest cloud. Now it’s helping other companies go green. Google Cloud is adding features to help its customers understand (and shrink) their carbon footprint—in the data center and beyond. (Fast Company)
NYT is testing NYT Audio, an app for its podcasts and audio versions of its articles plus those from other outlets available on NYT-owned Audm. (Bloomberg)
Alibaba Group founder Jack Ma, largely out of public view since a regulatory clampdown started on his business empire late last year, is currently in Hong Kong and has met business associates in recent days, two sources told Reuters. The Chinese billionaire has been keeping a low profile since delivering a speech in October last year in Shanghai criticising China's financial regulators. That triggered a chain of events that resulted in the shelving of his Ant Group's mega IPO. (Reuters)
Smart Links
Pandemic has disrupted retirement plans for 35% of Americans. (CNBC)
Canva announces Canva Video, a suite of video editing tools now part of its free tier. (TechCrunch)
Advice shifting on aspirin use for preventing heart attacks. (STAT News)
Neuroscientists roll out first comprehensive atlas of brain cells. (University of California - Berkeley)
Researchers develop an engineered ‘mini’ CRISPR genome editing system. (Stanford University)
Epic Games may make Fortnite movie as part of entertainment expansion. (The Information)