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The World
New U.S. jobless claims picked up for the first time in 5 weeks as coronavirus cases rise. Meanwhile, calls for financial stimulus are growing: JPMorgan's Dimon said 'childish' U.S. politicians are preventing stimulus package, NY Fed President John Williams said that if elected leaders don’t deliver new aid for the economy, the path of the recovery will likely be slower than if help were provided. Pandemic Thanksgiving means less driving: Only 35% will travel by car this year, down from 65% a year ago, and Apple data show that people are moving around less as they hunker down. (Financial Times, Reuters, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post)
The CDC urged Americans not to travel for Thanksgiving, as the U.S. surpassed 250,000 Covid-related deaths and hospitalizations rise by nearly 50% in 2 weeks, and the W.H.O. warned that one person every 17 seconds dies from Covid-19 in Europe. In Waterloo, IA, Tyson Foods managers had a ‘winner-take-all’ bet on how many workers would get covid-19, lawsuit alleges. A 55-person wedding reception this summer in rural Maine resulted in 177 Covid-19 cases, seven hospitalizations, and seven deaths. The Canada-U.S. border closure is being extended again, this time until Dec. 21. Brexit talks were halted after Covid-19 hits the EU team. In Japan, nearly 90% of companies plan to skip year-end and New Year parties. (Wall Street Journal, The Telegraph, Iowa Capital Dispatch, CDC, CBC, The Times, Reuters)
Chinese President Xi Jinping, at a virtual meeting of the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, rejected protectionism and said globalisation was “irreversible”, a day before President Trump was expected to join. Meanwhile a survey of 20,000 European across 13 countries shows that China is losing its luster, as negative views rise over coronavirus and its aggressive diplomacy. (Reuters, South China Morning Post)
Hungary and Poland are accusing “woke” western Europe of using EU funds to impose a liberal agenda on socially conservative governments as a new schism emerges within the bloc. In Israel, Mike Pompeo paid the first-ever visit by a US secretary of state to the Golan Heights, after he toured a West Bank settlement winery. In Thailand, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha warned pro-democracy protesters to expect harsher police tactics in the days ahead. (The Times, Jerusalem Post, Nikkei Asian Review)
77% of Trump’s supporters believe President-elect Joe Biden only won because of fraud and 88% said they need more information on the count to know for sure who prevailed — and 45% of Americans feel Trump has done more than past presidents to undermine the Constitution. Overall, 60% of Americans believe Biden won the election fair and square. But Trump’s P.R. campaign to sow doubt is working. A Monmouth poll before the election found that 55% of Republicans felt confident in the electoral process. Now, just 22% of them said they feel that way. Overall, 61% of Republicans are not at all confident in the election’s fairness and accuracy – up from 13% in September. (Washington Post, Monmouth University, Monmouth University-2)
USPS data suggests a significant San Francisco population decline: 124,131 change of address requests originated in San Francisco zip codes between March and November, with at least 34,803 staying, but potentially 10%+ of the city leaving. (Public Comment, Ronald Li)
The AMA explicitly recognized racism as a public health threat and detailed a plan to mitigate its effects: “The AMA recognizes that racism negatively impacts and exacerbates health inequities among historically marginalized communities. Without systemic and structural-level change, health inequities will continue to exist, and the overall health of the nation will suffer.” (AMA)
Americans' support for the death penalty continues to be lower than at any point in nearly five decades, but remains above 50%. (Gallup)
Economy
Private-equity deals have surged in Asia and fallen in the Americas this year. The value of acquisitions in the Asia-Pacific region by private-equity firms more than doubled this year through September compared with the same period last year. (Wall Street Journal)
Private equity ESG plays vital role in LPs’ investment decisions. LPs were unanimous that Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) were a must-have, with specific criteria and reporting based on concrete measures, rather than generic policies. LPs stated they wanted to see tangible and evidenced improvements being made by the GP, with examples in action, rather than “just good business practice.” Further, LPs complained of “too superficial statements on intent or philosophy, but no substance” or “all talk and no data.” They also criticised greenwashing, whitewashing of evident issues, and the lack of a top management member responsible for ESG. (Private Equity Wire)
The pandemic had surprising effects on demand for public transit in American cities. While demand for public transit dropped about 73% across the country after the pandemic hit, the reduction didn't impact all cities equally. Large, coastal cities -- like Seattle, San Francisco and Washington, D.C -- saw demand fall further than cities in the Midwest and South. The reason had to do with the nature of jobs in different cities and who was actually using public transportation before the pandemic: "Many of the people who used public transit in large, coastal cities could work remotely from home after the pandemic.” But Midwest and deep South cities, “most public transit users have jobs where they still had to come in to work during the pandemic and didn't have any other choice… health care workers, people working service jobs, working in grocery stores, people who clean and maintain buildings." (Ohio State University, PLOS)
Layoffs from Wall Street to World Series champs: Goldman Sachs’ second round of several hundred firings in the course of three months is another sign that the pandemic pause on layoffs just kicked the cost-cutting can down the road; 2021 is expected to bring deeper cuts. Meanwhile, Amazon is laying off dozens of people on its drone project and instead seeks to work with outside manufacturers. The NY MTA warned of a 40% subway cut, shedding 9,300 jobs. And less than a month after winning their first World Series in 32 years, the Los Angeles Dodgers issued layoffs across the organization. (Bloomberg, Financial Times, Bloomberg-2, Los Angeles Times)
October existing home sales see ‘spectacular’ 26.6% annual gain even with short supply and surging prices, rising to a 14-year high. (CNBC)
Target is grabbing sales amid the pandemic, increasing 20.7% in 3Q20, as more shoppers came to stores and spent more during each visit, and online sales soared. Digital comparable sales grew more than twofold during the quarter. (Wall Street Journal)
Rethinking the On-Demand Workforce: Companies can transform their talent model–and business strategy–by using digital talent platforms to access highly skilled freelancers, as major demographic changes and the proliferation of online digital platforms like Freelancer, Upwork, Catalant, and Toptal accelerate the rise of the gig economy. In the post-COVID era, business leaders will need a strategic approach to managing a blended workforce of full-time employees as well as on-demand gig workers. (Harvard Business School Report)
South Korean investors are emerging as some of the most-aggressive buyers of U.S. commercial real estate during the Covid-19 period. The East Asian country’s pension funds, life insurers and other investors have been targeting warehouses and office buildings with long-term tenants. They are also drawn by ultralow U.S. interest rates, which make currency hedging cheaper. (Wall Street Journal)
Technology
Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat explained how Google fixed a dip in productivity during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic: coaching and surveys. Planning employees’ return to offices has been “substantially more complicated” than was moving everyone to work from home, but the company’s seeing pre-Covid-19 productivity levels from its employees again. (CNBC)
More than 200 Facebook content moderators wrote an open letter to Facebook leaders arguing they returned to the office too quickly: “We… write to express our dismay at your decision to risk our lives—and the lives of our colleagues and loved ones—to maintain Facebook’s profits during the pandemic.” (Foxglove — Open Letter)
Language learning app maker Duolingo announced a $2.4 billion valuation. Just seven months ago, investors pegged its value at $1.65 billion. Meanwhile, Udemy announced new funding from Tencent, driving its valuation from $2 billion to $3.25 billion since February. (Forbes, EdSurge, Bloomberg)
How Slack uses Slack: From hacking the search tool to giving friendly feedback, Slack's employees share their secrets, which include how to use search, automate whatever you can, channel naming, highlight off-topic messages, leverage the bots. (Protocol)
Smart Links
National Book Awards: Charles Yu and Malcolm X biography take top prizes. (New York Times)
Hong Kong ranked second-worst city in Asia for expats to live (Valencia is No. 1). (South China Morning Post)
What Eric Schmidt wants from the government. (Source Code)
Walmart and McDonald’s have the most workers on food stamps and Medicaid. (Washington Post)
Airbnb’s IPO: Everything you need to know. (Wall Street Journal)
Will Zoom Apps be the next hot startup platform? (TechCrunch)
Quantum Sensors Could Let Autonomous Cars ‘See’ around Corners. (Scientific American)
Urban exodus upends rental housing landscape. (S&P Global)
‘Polar night’ arrives in Utqiagvik, Alaska, bringing 66 days of darkness; the sun won’t rise again until Jan. 23. (Washington Post)