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The World
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell warned in a 60 Minutes interview that reopening the economy too quickly could lead to another worrisome jump in coronavirus cases, arguing that the country has not completely turned the corner and that the pandemic continues to pose major risks to any recovery. Powell also said the pandemic had exacerbated economic disparities in the U.S. and that this could take time to address during an uneven recovery. Powell added it’s ‘highly unlikely’ the Fed will raise rates this year and described an economy that was at “an inflection point,” showing signs of acceleration but still facing numerous risks. (Washington Post, 60 Minutes, CNBC)
Confidence among big businesses in Britain about their profits in the year ahead has hit a record high, helped by the country’s coronavirus vaccinations and hopes for less Brexit disruption, a survey of chief finance officers showed. Accountancy firm Deloitte said its poll found CFOs were planning to increase hiring and investment. (Reuters)
More than 100 chief executives and corporate leaders gathered online this weekend to discuss taking new action to combat the controversial state voting bills being considered across the country. Executives from major airlines, retailers and manufacturers — plus at least one NFL owner — talked about potential ways to show they opposed the legislation, including by halting donations to politicians who support the bills and even delaying investments in states that pass the restrictive measures. A statement could come early this week and would build on one that 72 Black executives signed last month in the wake of changes to Georgia’s voting laws. (Washington Post, Wall Street Journal)
Israel’s Mossad security service was behind a major power cut that halted uranium enrichment at Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility, unidentified intelligence sources told Hebrew media outlets, in what Iran described as an act of “nuclear terrorism.” The underground Natanz facility suffered an electrical disruption in what was widely speculated to be an Israeli cyberattack. Iran said the attack did not cause any casualties and did not cause radioactive pollution. Iranian officials called it an act of sabotage that they suggested had been carried out by Israel. (Times of Israel, New York Times)
President Biden is on track to accept the fewest refugees this year of any modern president, including Trump, according to an International Rescue Committee report. The Biden administration has admitted only 2,050 refugees at the halfway point of this fiscal year, despite Biden’s promises to reverse Trump-era immigration policies, dramatically raise the cap on refugee settlements and respond to what his officials have called “unforeseen and urgent situations.” (Washington Post)
The Myanmar military’s bloody crackdown showed no sign of easing, with a human rights group reporting that the death toll across the country had passed 700. Soldiers used machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades to attack an organized group of protesters who had set up barricades to defend part of that city, Bago. (New York Times)
Kyrgyzstan’s national elections commission says voters have overwhelmingly approved a new constitution that substantially increases the president’s powers. The commission said results from 90% of the polling places showed 79% approval of the constitution in Sunday’s referendum. (Associated Press)
China’s failure to provide access to global health experts made the pandemic worse than it had to be, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said, and it was important to “get to the bottom” of the origin of the novel coronavirus. The top US diplomat’s sharp words underscored criticism from other members of the Biden administration over Beijing’s lack of transparency in the crucial early days of the pandemic. (South China Morning Post)
After a slow start marred by delays and supply shortages, Europe’s vaccination drive is stepping up a gear in nations including France, Germany and Italy even as they struggle to control a third wave of the pandemic. (Financial Times)
Economy
The higher a woman rises through a company’s ranks, the more backlash she faces if she negotiates her salary assertively—a phenomenon that contributes to the wide gender gap in the C-suite, new research suggests. By analyzing data from more than 2,500 negotiators, Harvard Business School Assistant Professor Julian Zlatev and colleagues found evidence that women who felt empowered at the negotiation table were more likely to reach worse deals or no deal at all. The results held regardless of their negotiation partners’ gender. (Harvard Business School)
Former British prime minister David Cameron admitted he made mistakes over his government lobbying for Greensill Capital, as he tried to distance himself from the controversy over the financial group’s collapse. In his first public comments on the affair, Cameron said on Sunday he was right to lobby for Greensill to gain access to a Bank of England Covid-19 loan scheme, but admits it was wrong to do so by sending text messages to Rishi Sunak, the chancellor. (Financial Times)
The number of transactions involving hospitals and healthcare systems was down in 1Q21 compared to the same period in 2020, but the size of consummated transactions was significantly larger. 13 transactions that took place during the quarter, fewer than half of the 28 that took place in the first quarter of 2020. The average seller size by revenue was $676 million, including several "mega" transactions involving a seller with $1 billion or more in annual revenue. That's the third-highest figure for a quarter in the past decade. The record occurred in 2Q20, when the average seller size topped $800 million. The size of the deals was influenced by the coronavirus pandemic, and that its effects will continue throughout the year. (Healthcare Dive)
China's young and old rail against raising retirement age: As China's government discusses raising the retirement age to offset the economic impact of its aging population, the move has sparked deep concern among working and middle class citizens, many of whom may now have to work for years more than planned. On Chinese microblogging site Weibo, a popular post on the new policy has been read more than 210 million times and garnered more than 19,000 comments in the past two weeks. (Nikkei Asian Review, South China Morning Post)
Local officials have overvalued the lowest-priced homes relative to the highest across the U.S., nationwide data show. From 2006 through 2016, inaccurate valuations gave the least expensive homes in St. Louis an effective tax rate almost four times higher than the most expensive. In Baltimore it was more than two times higher. In New York City it was three times higher. These inequities are tucked deep inside America’s system for funding its local governments, tilting property taxes in favor of wealthy homeowners even before any exemptions or abatements. And they carry a jarring implication: The residential property tax, which raises more than $500 billion annually to pay for public schools, fire departments, and other local services, is, in effect, racist. That conclusion carries far-reaching implications of its own—not only for municipalities’ day-to-day operations but also for roughly $331 billion in general-obligation bonds that cities, counties, and school districts have guaranteed with property tax revenue, according to data compiled by Bloomberg Businessweek. The evidence of systematic unfairness is mounting. Since at least the 1970s, piecemeal studies from Chicago, Detroit, New Orleans, and New York have concluded that property tax systems favor those who are better off. A 2020 study from the University of Chicago brings unprecedented scope to the question, covering 2,600 U.S. counties. It found that more than 9 out of every 10 reflected the same pattern of unfairness. “It’s a textbook example of institutional racism,” says Christopher Berry, a professor at the university’s Harris School of Public Policy who led the research effort. (Bloomberg Businessweek)
Technology
Vox Media is acquiring Cafe Studios Inc., publisher of a popular podcast hosted by former Manhattan U.S. attorney Preet Bharara, part of a bid to expand its growing audio business. The companies didn’t disclose financial terms of the deal. Mr. Bharara will join Vox Media as a host, co-founder and creative director of Cafe, which will continue to exist as a brand. Bharara will report to Vox Media Studios President Marty Moe. (Wall Street Journal)
Google for years operated a secret program that used data from past bids in the company’s digital advertising exchange to allegedly give its own ad-buying system an advantage over competitors, according to court documents filed in a Texas antitrust lawsuit. The program, known as “Project Bernanke,” wasn’t disclosed to publishers who sold ads through Google’s ad-buying systems. It generated hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for the company annually. (Wall Street Journal)
Buzzy times for alcohol e-commerce: The alcohol e-commerce market has seen some big funding and M&A activity this year. But analysts see more growth ahead, forecasting alcohol e-commerce in the U.S. and nine other core global markets to exceed $40 billion by 2024. (Crunchbase)
Snap is planning a bigger push into online shopping with a new feature in the Snapchat app that will recommend clothes users can buy based on photos they upload to the messaging app. The new shopping recommendation feature will mainly be accessible inside Memories, a section where users collect photos and videos to view later. The effort underscores how Snap has made commerce a bigger priority since the onset of the pandemic. (The Information)
Facebook’s internal R&D group launched its latest experiment, Hotline, into public beta testing. The web-based application could be described as a mashup of Instagram Live and Clubhouse, as it allows creators to speak to an audience who can then ask questions through either text or audio. However, unlike Clubhouse, creators can opt to turn their cameras on for the event, instead of being audio-only. (TechCrunch)
Huawei is closing its core cloud and AI business after only 14 months, splitting the group into two. The change mirrors the company’s struggle to transition from hardware maker to service provider. (Nikkei Asian Review)
Smart Links
Silicon Valley is flooding into a reluctant Austin. (Bloomberg Businessweek)
US executives enjoy extra corporate jet perks under Covid. (Financial Times)
Canada’s Whistler ski resort linked to largest outbreak of P1 Covid variant outside Brazil. (The Guardian)
Birthrates tumble worldwide, clouding post-pandemic prospects. (Nikkei Asian Review)
Clubhouse data leak: 1.3 million scraped user records leaked online for free. (Cyber News)
Borrowers tap hot ESG demand to sell green bonds at a premium. (Financial Times)
Intel’s latest Hail Mary is a $20 billion bet on American manufacturing. (Bloomberg Businessweek)
Beijing displaces NY to become the billionaire capital. (Statista)
Live Event
Today, 12 pm ET: Advice for President Biden: Dealing with Putin’s Russia. Andrey Kortunov is the director general of the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC). Angela Stent is director of the Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies and a professor of government and foreign service at Georgetown University. (Register MIT)