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The World
The U.S. threatened to slap tariffs on $2bn worth of goods from the UK and five other countries as they argue about how to tax technology companies, a move that risks reigniting transatlantic trade wars. The US trade representative’s office said it was imposing but immediately suspending for six months the tariffs on Austria, India, Italy, Spain, Turkey and the UK as it wrapped up investigations over the way the countries tax US tech giants. (Financial Times)
Finance ministers from the G7 wealthy democracies are expected to endorse Washington’s proposal for an ambitious global corporate minimum tax when they meet in London later this week. A U.S. Treasury official said the Treasury expects the G7 meetings to provide momentum for advancing global corporate tax negotiations towards a broader G20 finance meeting in July in Italy. (Reuters)
The International Labor Organization warned that jobs lost in the heat of the COVID-19 crisis will not be recovered until 2023, at the earliest. (Nikkei Asian Review)
A new analysis of Census Bureau surveys argues that the two latest rounds of aid significantly improved Americans’ ability to buy food and pay household bills and reduced anxiety and depression, with the largest benefits going to the poorest households and those with children. The analysis offers the fullest look at hardship reduction under the stimulus aid. Among households with children, reports of food shortages fell 42% from January through April. A broader gauge of financial instability fell 43%. Among all households, frequent anxiety and depression fell by more than 20%. (New York Times)
Half of U.S. states, all of them led by Republican governors, are cutting off billions of dollars in unemployment benefits for residents, rebuffing a key part of President Biden’s response to the coronavirus recession. Maryland became the 25th state to announce it would stop the $300-per-week benefits before the federal program lapses in September. (Reuters)
35 minutes before a midnight deadline, Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid informed President Reuven Rivlin he is able to form a government in which he and Yamina chief Naftali Bennett will switch off as prime minister, positioning themselves to replace Israel’s longest-serving leader Benjamin Netanyahu as premier. Under the terms of the new coalition, Bennett is to serve as prime minister until September 2023, when Lapid will take over from him until the end of the Knesset term in November 2025. The agreement came together after Ra’am leader Mansour Abbas threw his support behind the would-be government late on Wednesday night, setting up his Islamist party to be the first majority Arab party to be part of a ruling coalition in Israel’s history. (Times of Israel)
Researchers are not optimistic young Chinese will be convinced to have more children, largely due to the cost of raising them. An online survey conducted soon after the change to a 3-child policy was announced on Monday suggests it could be a hard sell: 90% of respondents said they “would not consider” having three children. (South China Morning Post)
Xi Jinping plots propaganda war to make China ‘loveable’: Although the propapaganda machine has become more forceful in recent years, Xi said that Beijing must build a more sophisticated “strategic communicative system with distinct Chinese characteristics” to lead global public opinion. With the right communication tools, China would have more friends and be seen around the world as “credible, loveable and respectable”, Xi claimed. (The Times)
Flights between Germany and Russia resumed after both countries suspended airline connections in an apparent tit-for-tat move as a part of diplomatic spat over Belarus. (Deutsche Welle)
America’s two largest airlines are taking diverging views on the travel rebound: In a bet that the rise is a sign of things to come, American Airlines increased capacity for June and July to only slightly below 2019 levels. United Airlines has scheduled 30% fewer seats this month than it did in June 2019 and is selling 20% fewer seats in July than in the same month two years ago. (Financial Times)
Japan's most senior medical adviser said that hosting the Olympics during a pandemic was "not normal" while media reported thousands of volunteers quitting in advance. Most Japanese oppose holding the Olympics - due to start on July 23 after postponement from last year. (Reuters)
You’ve failed a generation of children: UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been accused of failing hundreds of thousands of children by the man he appointed to lead the government’s coronavirus recovery task force for schools. Writing in The Times, Sir Kevan Collins says that he had “no option” but to resign after Johnson rejected his proposals for a £15 billion package to provide pupils with extra time and teaching to catch up on lost education over the next three years. (The Times)
'Get a shot, have a beer': Biden, Anheuser-Busch push July vaccination goal. (Reuters)
Economy
The 2021 Fortune 500: the 67th edition of its ranking of America’s largest companies is out. Top 5 (in order): Walmart, Amazon, Apple, CVS Health, UnitedHealth Group. Together, the 500 corporations on this year’s list generated $13.8 trillion in revenue, or some two-thirds of the U.S. economy. (Fortune 500)
The 2021 Fortune 500 includes 41 companies led by women—an all-time record. It also includes the highest-ranked company ever run by a female CEO: No. 4 CVS Health, with CEO Karen Lynch at the helm. (The record was previously held by GM, which, under CEO Mary Barra, hit a high of No. 6.) Also setting an overdue record: Roz Brewer of Walgreens Boots Alliance (No. 16) and Thasunda Brown Duckett of TIAA (No. 79). Believe it or not, this is the first time the Fortune 500 has ever included two companies run by Black women. (The Broadsheet)
CEO pay increasingly tied to diversity goals: By this spring, a third of S&P 500 companies had disclosed using a diversity measure in their compensation structures, or mentioned diversity in explaining executive pay. Last summer, proxy advisory firm Glass Lewis & Co. identified 20 companies in the S&P 500 using specific diversity metrics in compensation, compared with 10 in 2018. (Wall Street Journal)
Apple employees are being asked to return to the office three days a week starting in early September. CEO Tim Cook said that most employees will be asked to come in to the office on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, with the option of working remotely on Wednesdays and Fridays. Cook email: “For all that we’ve been able to achieve while many of us have been separated, the truth is that there has been something essential missing from this past year: each other. Video conference calling has narrowed the distance between us, to be sure, but there are things it simply cannot replicate.” (The Verge)
Deutsche Bank told its roughly 1,500 U.S. investment bank employees that they must be back in the office by September 6, becoming the latest Wall Street bank to spell out its return-to-work policy. (Financial Times)
Americans are done with 5-days a week in the office. An interview with Nicholas Bloom, a prominent Stanford University economist who has studied remote work and economic uncertainty for years: “We call it the ‘Donut Effect.’ The places losing the most people are centers of big cities. Downtowns are doing very badly, they’ve lost roughly 15% of people and businesses, and the suburbs of the same large cities are doing really well. In fact, it looks like the suburbs of large cities are the hottest property markets. We think that this is all due to the move to hybrid. If you can work from home two days a week, it makes it more appealing to live in the suburbs because you have to commute less. But it makes it impossible to go and move to Alaska, it doesn’t work.” (Bloomberg)
Even as the remote-work era clouds the future for offices, one segment of the business is drawing cash from investors. More than $10 billion has gone toward buying buildings used for life sciences and other research this year, according to Real Capital Analytics Inc. That accounted for approximately 4% of all global commercial real estate transactions through May, double the share from last year. (Bloomberg)
Americans support ESG objectives but unfamiliar with term: 84% consider how a company treats its employees when becoming a customer; 81% say a business' impact on its local community matters; despite valuing its goals, 64% are unfamiliar with the term "ESG." (Gallup)
AMC shares closed up 95% after the company’s stock price surged on the back of a promise to dish out free popcorn to investors, in the latest example of how the “meme trading” frenzy is rippling across Wall Street. The shares have increased more than 450% in the past month and 3,000% since the start of the year. Other “meme stocks” such as Bed Bath & Beyond and BlackBerry also posted large gains on Wednesday. (Financial Times)
Dogecoin price jumps on Coinbase debut prospect: The joke cryptocurrency rose over 20% after the exchange operator said it would allow trading, prompting cheers from Elon Musk. (Wall Street Journal)
A sector of the US finance industry that looks after $4tn of savings for individuals and businesses has come under severe strain as US markets flirt with negative interest rates. Money market funds investing in short-term government debt have taken in hundreds of billions of dollars of new money from savers in recent months. But there is stiff competition to tap a dwindling supply of low-risk assets that generate positive returns. The result has been a squeeze that has driven the yields on some debt below zero, rendering swaths of the industry unprofitable and setting up a challenge for the Federal Reserve, which analysts say may have to weigh in to keep US interest rates positive. (Financial Times)
Chart of the Day: (Wall Street Journal)
Technology
Amazon is relaxing its policy around employees using weed, and will no longer enforce marijuana drug tests for any employee who isn’t also regulated by the Department of Transportation, like a delivery driver. Dave Clark, Amazon’s CEO of worldwide consumer, announced the change as part of the company’s goal to be “Earth’s Best Employer.” Meanwhile, Amazon warehouse workers suffer serious injuries at higher rates than other firms. A Washington Post analysis of OSHA data shows Amazon’s serious injury rates are nearly double those at warehouses run by other companies. (The Verge, Washington Post)
Amazon’s Prime Day will take place on June 21 and 22. Members of Amazon’s Prime subscription program will get access to “more than 2 million deals” across every category. (CNBC)
An Apple-commissioned study says the App Store ecosystem facilitated ~$643B in billings and sales globally in 2020, up 24% YoY. (MacRumors)
Microsoft is planning to detail its “next generation of Windows” at an event later this month. The software giant has started sending invites to media for a Windows event on June 24. Both Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and chief product officer Panos Panay will be presenting at the Windows event. (The Verge)
Smart Links
Global house prices rising at fastest pace in 15 years. (Mansion Global)
Real-estate sales are booming. The rental market is following suit. (Wall Street Journal)
Zoom’s sales jump 191% as pandemic boom continues. (Zoom)
Duke men's basketball's Mike Krzyzewski to retire after 2021-22 season. (Duke Chronicle)
Churchill Downs suspends Kentucky Derby winner Baffert for two years after horse’s drug test confirmed. (Lexington Herald Ledger)
Southern California music festivals Coachella and Stagecoach will at long last return in spring of 2022. (Los Angeles Times)
David Diop wins International Booker Prize for 'At Night All Blood Is Black.' (Deutsche Welle)
Australia joins exclusive club as economy surpasses pre-Covid peak. (Financial Times)