Know someone who would like this newsletter? Forward it to them.
The World
The US Senate is nearing a deal on sanctions against Russia. A bill including economic measures to punish Russia in the event of a full-blown invasion was being finalized, with a plan to move it forward this week, according to Bob Menendez, the Democratic chair of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and James Risch, his top Republican counterpart. (Financial Times)
British lawmakers will be asked to consider legislation this week that would let ministers impose a wider range of sanctions against Russia should it move against Ukraine, the British foreign secretary said. Britain is already supplying defensive weapons to Ukraine and has offered to increase its troop deployments elsewhere in Eastern Europe. (New York Times)
The Beijing Winter Olympics open on Friday amid a very different environment than the last time China's capital hosted the games in 2008. Parts of the city have been locked down due to COVID-19 outbreaks, athletes have been warned of "certain punishments" if they speak out, and an American-led diplomatic boycott highlights Beijing's human rights abuses on the world stage. Even China's oldest ally, North Korea, with which relations are sometimes described as "as close as lips and teeth," will not send a delegation to the games due to the pandemic. (Morning Consult)
The Beijing Winter Olympics will also pose a big test for multinational corporations that will try to attract business in China despite the CCP’s ongoing human rights violations. US firms will worry about American consumer boycotts if they source products from Xinjiang, where some Chinese manufacturers rely on Uyghur forced labor. (Elon Musk recently came under fire for opening a Tesla showroom in the region.) But if US corporations take a firm stand on Xinjiang and other politically-sensitive issues in China, they risk a similar backlash from Chinese consumers. (GZERO Media)
For decades, the Chinese Communist Party was worried about overpopulation. In 1978 it told Chinese families they could only have one kid to contain the ballooning population size. But after years of restricting the number of births, China's population is now shrinking — fast. This demographic trend is a massive problem for China, currently vying to overtake the US as the world's largest economy. Meanwhile, the US population has also started to decline over the past decade. (GZERO Media)
T-Mobile will fire corporate employees who aren’t fully vaccinated against Covid-19 by April 2, according to an internal email viewed by Bloomberg. T-Mobile’s head of human resources, Deeanne King, reportedly says employees who’ve only received one dose as of February 21 will be put on unpaid leave. (Bloomberg, The Verge)
Cities: London, Chicago, New York:
What comes after London’s congestion charge?: Mayor Sadiq Khan recently announced that the city is exploring possible substitutions for its 18-year-old congestion charge on motor vehicles driving in Central London, arguing that it’s become insufficient in the city’s ongoing push to reduce traffic, save its public transit system and reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2030. When London became only the second major city, after Singapore, to introduce road pricing for vehicles entering the urban core in 2003, the congestion charge achieved its desired effect. Traffic during charging hours fell by 18% within the first year, and the number of private vehicles in Central London has decreased. But by 2016, traffic rose above its pre-congestion charge levels. (City Lab)
Chicago is launching a guerrilla marketing campaign to bolster its pandemic-battered image. After two years of pandemic stasis, crime stories and a broadly battered image, Chicago is going on the offensive. (Chicago Tribune)
‘From Worst to Best’: Gleaming New La Guardia Terminal Opens: The airport that Joe Biden once said was more suited to a “third-world’’ country has a gleaming new terminal to show off. On Thursday, the views and reviews were far different as state and local officials celebrated the airport’s revival upon the completion of a wholly new main terminal that shares nothing but a name and location with the old La Guardia along the Queens waterfront. The transformation has been so remarkable that the terminal was declared the best new airport building in the world by an international panel of judges. (New York Times)
Economy
The world’s largest sovereign wealth fund warned that investors face years of low returns as the surge in inflation becomes a permanent feature of the global economy. Nicolai Tangen, chief executive of Norway’s $1.3tn oil fund, told the Financial Times he was “the team leader for team permanent” in the fierce debate over whether the jump in rates is transitory or a lasting threat. (Financial Times)
Rents are up 40% in some cities, forcing millions to find another place to live: Average rents rose 14% last year, to $1,877 a month, with cities like Austin, New York and Miami notching increases of as much as 40%, according to real estate firm Redfin. And Americans expect rents will continue to rise — by about 10% this year — according to a report released this month by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. At the same time, many local rent freezes and eviction moratoriums have already expired. (Washington Post)
Russia President Vladimir Putin plans to tax and regulate crypto mining, confining it to regions with electricity surpluses and rejecting the central bank's proposal for a ban. (Bloomberg)
Forrester recently released findings from a new burnout-related survey. Here are some of the highlights: 52% of the global workforce reported experiencing burnout in 2021, compared to 42% before the pandemic. 86% of workers experiencing burnout said they feel emotionally exhausted by their work. 92% of respondents said they felt “worn out after most workdays.” 88% of respondents said “it’s hard to get excited when thinking about work.” (Protocol)
The great pay-reset of 2021 was disproportionately a story of workers at the lower end of the income scale getting big raises. A big question for the economy in 2022 is whether higher-earning salaried workers start to see the same level of growth. Bigger raises for high earners would help them keep up with higher prices — but also make it more likely that high inflation persists as employers seek to pass those higher costs on to customers. This is an important month for pay raises, Spencer Hill of Goldman Sachs writes in a research note. He calculates that 38% of annual wage growth takes place in January, four times what it would be if pay adjustments happened consistently throughout the year. (Axios)
Technology
Spotify is publishing its content policy and creating a Covid-19 information hub in response to a growing chorus of artists and podcasters speaking out against Joe Rogan. Spotify isn’t at this time removing any of Rogan’s episodes that detractors have highlighted in recent weeks as spreading what they deem misinformation about Covid-19 vaccines. (Wall Street Journal)
Why Apple probably won’t buy Peloton: On the surface, Apple and Peloton seem like a good match. Apple is already pushing further into fitness and could help get the struggling exercise-bike company back on track. But the reality is that buying Peloton would be an unnecessary and pricey headache for Apple. When Apple buys companies, it typically does so to develop individual hardware or software features—or to gain the talent necessary to kick-start work in a new area. For instance, Apple bought AuthenTec in 2012 to build Touch ID. It acquired Beddit in 2017 for Apple Watch sleep tracking and purchased an Intel division in 2019 to build its own cellular modems. (Bloomberg)
TikTok for corporate HR: HR professional Daniel Space first downloaded the app to connect with his younger cousin. Now, almost two years later, he’s posted hundreds of videos on his TikTok account, “Dan from HR.” The content is vast and there’s a strong appetite for his HR expertise. He posts about everything from cover letters to compensation and has amassed almost 100,000 followers. Space is part of a niche group of microinfluencers on TikTok who have risen to fame by offering advice on the working world. (Protocol)
An FTC report revealed that consumers lost $770 million to social media scams in 2021 — a figure that accounted for about one-fourth of all fraud losses for the year. That number has also increased 18 times from the $42 million in social media fraud reported in 2017, as new types of scams involving cryptocurrency and online shopping became more popular. This has also led to many younger consumers getting scammed, as now adults ages 18 to 39 reported fraud losses at a rate that’s 2.4x higher than adults 40 and over. (TechCrunch)
Smart Links
Apple prepares to take on Square with its own payment-acceptance service. (Bloomberg)
Restaurants pull back on value menus as costs rise. (Wall Street Journal)
Asana’s productivity expert wants you to ditch the 30-minute meeting. (Protocol)
Apple’s slow march into the enterprise. (Protocol)
Disney is hiring TikTok creators. (CNBC)