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The World
President Biden’s plan to raise corporate taxes to finance $2 trillion in infrastructure spending has touched off a new battle in Washington, where Democrats and Republicans — and powerful business lobbyists — already are clashing over who should foot the bill. But to build support, Biden is offering his own take on “bipartisan.” Instead of paring back ambitions to limit Republican Senate opposition or appease moderate House Democrats, Biden and his Capitol Hill allies are betting that they can build bipartisanship from voters nationwide rather than from elected officials in Washington. (Washington Post, New York Times)
The S&P 500 closed above 4000 for the first time to kick off 2Q21. It took just 434 trading days for the index to set its latest 1,000-point milestone, far fewer than the 1,227 trading it needed to climb to 3000 from 2000. However, new claims for unemployment benefits rose to 719,000 last week but remained near pandemic-era lows. (Wall Street Journal, Financial Times)
U.S. manufacturing activity soared to its highest level in more than 37 years in March. Meanwhile, hotels are reaching the highest occupancy levels since the pandemic, Wyndham CEO says. (Reuters, CNBC)
Russian diplomats fleeing North Korea described acute shortages of medicines and other basic goods, indicating a crisis fuelled by one of the world’s strictest quarantine regimes amid the pandemic. Russian embassy employees in Pyongyang described a “collective exit” of foreign diplomatic staff that they predicted would “unfortunately not be the last” due to unbearable conditions in the North Korean capital. (The Guardian)
Myanmar’s military government ordered broadband Internet shutdowns amid ongoing violent suppression of opposition to its ouster of the country’s democratically elected government. (Washington Post)
Austria, Slovenia, and the Czech Republic have been excluded from an EU move to provide millions of extra vaccines to hard-hit member countries, ending bitter negotiations over jab supply that have divided governments. Meanwhile, the Spanish tourist industry has reacted with dismay to the government’s decree that face masks must be worn in all outdoor spaces, including beaches and swimming pools, even when social distancing is possible. (Financial Times, The Guardian)
The EU is referring Poland to Europe’s top court over long-standing concerns about respect for the rule of law and the independence of the country’s Supreme Court judges. The bloc’s executive commission said it will ask the European Court of Justice to order interim measures until a final judgment is given in the case “to prevent the aggravation of serious and irreparable harm inflicted to judicial independence and the EU legal order.” (Associated Press)
Many in U.S., Western Europe say their political system needs major reform: Roughly two-thirds of adults in France and the U.S., as well as about half in the United Kingdom, believe their political system needs major changes or needs to be completely reformed. Calls for significant reform are less common in Germany, where about four-in-ten express this view. In the U.S., concerns about political corruption are especially widespread, with two-in-three Americans agreeing that the phrase “most politicians are corrupt” describes their country well. Nearly half say the same in France and the UK. Young people, in particular, generally tend to see politicians as corrupt. (Pew Research Center)
Delta and Coca-Cola face backlash after opposing Georgia voting law: Gov. Brian Kemp took aim at Delta CEO Ed Bastian, accusing him of spreading “the same false attacks being repeated by partisan activists.” Georgia state legislature Republicans floated the idea of increasing taxes on Delta as retribution. Meanwhile, President Biden said he would “strongly support” players who believe the MLB should move this year’s All-Star Game from Atlanta. (New York Times, ESPN video)
Most major companies headquartered in Georgia are sticking to the sidelines publicly. Home Depot, the biggest corporation in the state by revenue, haven’t passed public judgment. Neither have UPS, Aflac or Georgia Power parent Southern Company, perhaps the most politically powerful business in state politics. The Georgia Chamber of Commerce repeated its earlier statement commending Kemp and legislators for the voting changes. (Atlanta Journal Constitution)
New Jersey is trying to poach movie and television studios from Georgia. Gov. Phil Murphy sent a letter to major studios including Walt Disney, Warner Bros. and Netflix., offering tax credits on up to 30% of production costs—equal to what Georgia currently offers. The governor also drew a contrast between voting rights in Georgia and New Jersey. (Wall Street Journal)
Texas State Senate Republicans cleared the way for new, sweeping restrictions to voting that take particular aim at forbidding local efforts meant to widen access. Senate Bill 7 would limit extended early voting hours, prohibit drive-thru voting and make it illegal for local election officials to proactively send applications to vote by mail to voters, even if they qualify. The bill — deemed a priority by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick — heads to the House for consideration. (Texas Tribune)
As a project of its National Threat Assessment Center, the U.S. Secret Service analyzed 67 plots to commit school shootings that were averted, and it found that in 63 of those plots — 94% — the students had shared their plans with someone, and nearly half had documented their ideas in writing or online. The Secret Service emphasized in the report “Averting Targeted School Violence” that school attacks are largely preventable. (Washington Post)
A new World Economic Forum report says that 2020 was so devastating for gender equality globally that it will likely take another 151 years — 36 more than estimated just 12 months ago — to close the global gender gap. It will take women in North America approximately 61.5 years to have economic parity with men. The U.S. has closed 76.3% of its gender gap and now ranks 30th in the world on women's issues, an improvement of 23 spots from last year. The timeline is even worse for South Asian women: 195.4 years. Western Europe will take the least amount of time to close the gap, at 52.1 years. (GZERO, Axios, Statista, WEF)
Economy
China and Asia will fill the bulk of surging U.S. demand for goods in 2021 as global trade rebounds, the W.T.O. says. North America will drive demand, with U.S. imports set to rise by 11.4% after tumbling 6.1% last year. Most of the demand will be met by producers in China and across Asia, where exports are expected to grow by 8.4% this year. (South China Morning Post)
Sharply fewer in U.S. view foreign trade as opportunity: 63% of Americans have positive views of trade, down from 79% in 2020. The current figure is the lowest since 2016. Alternatively, 32% of Americans now view foreign trade as a threat to the U.S. economy. While almost twice as high as last year, negative views of trade are still well below the trend high of 52% in 2008, during the Great Recession. (Gallup)
Goldman Sachs is close to offering its first investment vehicles for bitcoin and other digital assets to clients of its private wealth management group. The bank aims to begin offering investments in the emerging asset class in the second quarter. (CNBC)
Black employees held a lower share of top U.S. financial services jobs in 2018 than they did more than a decade earlier, according to new research by the Financial Times, underlining the shortcomings of Wall Street’s long-running efforts to improve racial diversity. The FT analysed the most recently available anonymised data on the demographics of 3.6m staff across 13,000 financial services employers in the US from 2007 to 2018. All companies with more than 100 staff were required to submit the information to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission from 2007. Black staff account for 13% of all finance staff and are the sector’s biggest ethnic minority. But in the most senior jobs, they are the only demographic whose share fell from 2007 to 2018, the research found. The drop — from 2.87% to 2.62% — comes against the backdrop of multiple initiatives by financial services firms designed to improve racial diversity by identifying, training and mentoring talent from ethnic minorities. (Financial Times)
An “elite minority” of frequent flyers cause most of the climate damage resulting from aviation’s emissions, according to an environmental charity. The report shows a worldwide pattern of a small group taking a large proportion of flights, while many people do not fly at all. In the US, 12% of people took 66% of all flights, while in France 2% of people took half of the flights, the report says. In China 5% of households took 40% of flights and in India just 1% of households took 45% of all the flights. (The Guardian)
Family offices turn to private equity firms in the hunt for talent: Family office investors in recent years have poured more money directly into private companies in the quest for higher returns and greater control over their investment portfolios. Now, more of these private investment firms are luring away private equity talent, offering them a chance to manage their expanding portfolios and promising an improved work-life balance. Executive recruiters say that searches among family office investors to recruit private equity talent are increasing as more family offices seek to deploy more capital directly into private companies rather than solely through funds managed by outside firms. (Private Equity News)
Demand for industrial, big-box facilities — warehouses or distribution centers of 200,000 square feet or more — hit a record in North America last year. Transactions for those spaces totaled 349.3 million square feet in 2020 across the top 22 markets, a nearly 25% jump from 2019. Gap, Williams-Sonoma and Home Depot are among the retailers that recently announced plans to open new warehouse spaces or distribution centers as more of their businesses shift online. (CNBC)
Technology
Microsoft was investigating an issue with its Microsoft 365 services and features, including workplace messaging app Teams and Azure, after many users were unable to access them. Outage tracking website Downdetector showed over 8,000 incidents of people reporting issues with Teams. (Reuters)
Former President Trump’s ban on guest worker visas expired, allowing foreign workers to reapply for entry into the United States. The news is a win for tech companies including Apple, Twitter, and Google, each of which vocally opposed the policy. (The Verge)
Coursera CEO Jeff Maggioncalda thinks the future of learning is online, even after the pandemic ends: "Online work and online learning are here to stay." In the latest in a string of eye-popping IPOs, Coursera stock jumped 36% by its first closing bell, to a market cap of around $5.1 billion. (Protocol)
UnitedMasters, a Brooklyn-based distribution platform for musicians, raised $50 million in Series B funding led by Apple. Apple rarely participates in a venture capital round, let alone leads one. Return backers were Alphabet and Andreessen Horowitz. This is kind of like Substack for music, in which artists can bypass record companies and release music straight onto streaming platforms like Apple Music and Spotify. (Axios)
2020 A.M. Turing Award: Without a crucial software development tool called the compiler, we'd have to descend into the incomprehensible world of machine-code mutterings before we could control computers. Which is why two researchers who helped develop the compiler, Alfred Aho and Jeffrey Ullman, won the prestigious 2020 A.M. Turing Award — and its $1 million cash prize. The collaboration between Ullman and Aho that pioneered compiler technology began in 1967 at Bell Labs. (Cnet)
Smart Links
US Navy: for first time in history four women of color command war ships. (The Guardian)
To avoid blackouts, California’s installing more big batteries than all of China. (Bloomberg Green)
Supreme Court rules Facebook's automated text system doesn't count as robocalling, handing major win to telemarketers. (Insider)
Scientists design 'smart' device to harvest daylight. (Nanyang Technological University)
One-third of small businesses say health insurance is a top concern during COVID-19. (Healthcare Dive)
US urged to invest in sun-dimming studies as climate warms. (Nature)