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The World
Democrats scrambled to determine how to pay for their spending plan as lawmakers expressed growing doubts about the feasibility of a new billionaire tax and a proposal to make banks turn over more customer information to the IRS. Senate Democrats announced a 15% minimum tax on large companies’ income, refreshing an earlier revenue-raising proposal. The plan, backed by Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.), Angus King (I., Maine) and Ron Wyden (D., Ore.) would affect about 200 companies and could raise hundreds of billions of dollars. It isn’t clear yet what will be in the final plan. The plan is designed to raise money from companies without raising the 21% corporate income-tax rate. (New York Times, Wall Street Journal)
Democrats’ billionaire tax would heavily target 10 wealthiest Americans, but alternative plan is emerging. (Washington Post)
In a move likely to provoke Beijing, a delegation from the European Parliament will travel to Taiwan next week, as lawmakers push for closer ties with Taipei. Leading the delegation will be a French MEP and outspoken critic of China who was sanctioned by Beijing in March in a dramatic tit-for-tat escalation in bilateral tensions. (South China Morning Post)
Russian state gas company Gazprom has proposed that Moldova adjust its free trade deal with the EU and delay energy market reforms agreed with Brussels in exchange for cheaper gas for the country. The former Soviet republic has declared a state of emergency as it tries to secure enough shipments to make it through a winter gas crunch. Kremlin-controlled Gazprom cut supplies to Moldova by one-third last month following the end of a long-term contract and demanded more than double the previous terms to keep gas flowing. (Financial Times)
UK motorists face a winter of rising fuel prices, they were warned, after the cost of petrol hit a record high. Prices at the pumps rose to 142.94p for a liter of petrol, meaning that a typical family car costs about £15 more to fill up than a year ago. (The Times)
Immigration arrests fall to lowest level in more than a decade: U.S. ICE officers made about 72,000 administrative arrests in the fiscal year that ended in September, down from 104,000 in fiscal 2020. Officials say the decline is a result of ICE prioritizing serious criminals; arrest totals are half what they were during the Trump years. (Washington Post)
California isn’t testing half of its unvaccinated workers: Three months after Gov. Gavin Newsom required state workers to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or undergo weekly testing, his pledge that California government would lead by example has not been fulfilled: Many public agencies face low vaccination rates, and most state-run workplaces have failed to test unvaccinated employees. (Los Angeles Times)
Study links March Madness to increased coronavirus spread: The study, from the Center for Healthcare Delivery Science at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, found infection rates were 13% higher one week after the final game played by a team in and around schools that participated in the NCAA competition as compared to those that did not. Three weeks after the tournament, the difference had increased to 22%. (WBUR)
U.S. retail giants Home Depot and Best Buy have pulled the Chinese video surveillance technology makers Lorex and Ezviz from their stores over links to human rights abuses. Home Depot said it’s “committed to upholding the highest standards of ethical sourcing and we immediately stopped selling products from Lorex when this was brought to our attention.” Home Depot also stopped selling Ezviz products, a spokesperson confirmed. Best Buy said it was “discontinuing its relationship” with both Lorex and Ezviz. Lowe’s, which did not comment, also removed Lorex from its shelves following inquiries from TechCrunch and video surveillance news site IPVM. (TechCrunch)
China outlined a plan to hit peak greenhouse gas emissions by the end of the decade, releasing a long-awaited blueprint just days ahead of the UN’s COP26 climate summit in Glasgow. The world’s biggest energy consumer was the latest country to launch new climate policies ahead of COP26. Australia also set net zero emissions goals on Tuesday, following another laggard, Saudi Arabia, at the weekend. Those plans rely on the continued production of fossil fuels. (Financial Times)
A majority of Americans want to see oil and gas companies held to account for lying about the climate crisis and contributing to global heating, according to a new YouGov poll. The poll surveyed 1,000 American adults and found that 70% said global warming was happening. More than 60% said oil and gas companies were “completely or mostly responsible.” But while 89% of Democrats accept the scientific basis of the climate emergency, opinion is split among Republicans. Just 42% of Republicans agreed that global warming is a reality while 36% denied it. (The Guardian)
Out of the 137 countries pledging carbon neutrality, only 60 have put those pledges into written form via a concrete law or policy document. Leading the road to net zero among bigger nations is Finland, which aims to become carbon neutral by 2035 via its medium-term climate change policy plan and national climate and energy strategy put into place in June of 2019. In Europe, Iceland and Austria are looking to reach net zero by 2040, with Germany and Sweden pushing the date for carbon neutrality to 2045. Most of the countries with climate pledges have put down 2050 as their goal, with the notable exception of China, India and Russia targeting 2060. These few exceptions might prove detrimental to the fight against climate change though, since those three countries were among the top 5 countries by CO2 emissions in 2019, with China emitting ten billion metric tons against the United States' five billion metric tons. (Statista)
Economy
No end in sight for labor shortages as U.S. companies fight high costs: Labor shortages may be the most intractable of the cost risks that U.S. companies faced in the latest quarter, and as the earnings season moves into its peak there are signs the problem will persist. (Reuters)
A generation of new arrivals to the US junk bond market have propelled it to a record size, with debut issuers borrowing cash cheaply from investors eager for yield. A record 149 companies, including cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase and medical supplies manufacturer Medline, have joined the high-yield bond market this year, pushing outstanding debt above $1.5tn. (Financial Times)
5 million: That’s the number of bitcoins owned by the top 10,000 investors in the cryptocurrency at the end of 2020, according to data published a NBER working paper analyzing blockchain transactions. The statistic reveals that ownership of bitcoin is highly concentrated—these top investors’ holdings are equivalent to about 27% of the digital currency’s total circulation of 18.6 million coins at the end of 2020. (The Information)
Robinhood tumbles below its IPO price as revenue misses estimates. Meanwhile, Citi set a bullish price target for Coinbase. (Bloomberg, Blockworks)
Baby boomers report disproportionately high financial well-being compared with younger adults. While millennials’ financial well-being has stayed relatively level, albeit low, over the past few months, Gen X and Gen Z both dropped by statistically significant margins of 2.06 and 2.25 points, respectively. Boomers’ financial well-being dropped less than 1 point, from 56.56 in August to 55.89 in September. The result is a wider gap of 5.62 points between the financial well-being of boomers and the average U.S. adult. (Morning Consult)
Technology
3Q21 earnings reports from Alphabet and Microsoft made it clear that the two tech giants are better insulated than some of their smaller peers from the vagaries of the world economy. Microsoft’s growth rate is continuing to accelerate—revenue grew 22% in the quarter, following a steady ramp-up through the previous fiscal year from 12% growth a year ago. Its operating profit margin improved by two percentage points to 45%. The results are a testament to Satya Nadella’s management and Microsoft’s expansion in the cloud. Alphabet’s top-line growth rate of 41% means the company is expanding more than twice as fast as it was in 2019, before the pandemic. Its operating margin rose to 32%, up eight points from a year ago, despite steady hiring that raised expenses. (The Information)
Google tallied its highest sales growth in more than a decade and nearly doubled its profit in 3Q21, as smaller businesses poured money into digital ads aimed at customers whose purchases have shifted online. The strong results underscored how the pandemic has turbocharged the company’s core advertising business. (Wall Street Journal)
The latest earnings reports from Facebook and Snapchat show that Apple's mobile privacy measures are beginning to have a material impact on the ad businesses of some of its Big Tech competitors. While experts don't think Apple's moves will do long-term damage to its rivals, they will force social media companies to invest heavily in new technology and products for the next few years — all while their ads business continues to experience significant headwinds. (Axios)
Google paid Russia more than 32 million roubles ($455,079) in fines for failing to delete content Moscow deems illegal. Russia last week said it would seek to fine the U.S. tech giant a percentage of its annual Russian turnover later this month for repeatedly failing to delete banned content on its search engine and YouTube, in Moscow's strongest move yet to rein in foreign tech firms. (Reuters)
What will the metaverse be worth in 2025? Our guess is $82 billion. We decided to try to calculate the potential revenue from the metaverse, the term for virtual worlds where people are expected to socialize, work, partake in entertainment, and buy and sell digital goods. Our conclusion is that by 2025, gaming, business communication and advertising in the metaverse could be worth at least $82 billion, a little less than what Facebook made last year from advertising alone. Facebook will have to share that pot of money with companies such as Epic Games and Roblox, which already offer metaverse-like experiences to their users, as well as individual creators making content for the metaverse and companies focused on selling services to businesses. (The Information)
The NFL is on pace to place a record high number of its games among TV’s top 100 telecasts this year, thanks to a significant rebound in game ratings combined with a further deterioration of entertainment viewership on TV. (Sports Business Journal)
Adobe has announced that it's taken "a major step forward for collaboration" by bringing its Photoshop and Illustrator apps to the web. The idea is not to do let you do complex work from a web page, but allow collaborators to open and view your work from a browser to provide comments and feedback — much as you can with a Google Doc. (Engadget)
Smart Links
Ranking: The best business cities for women. (Bloomberg)
3-D printed houses are sprouting near Austin as demand for homes grows. (Wall Street Journal)
Sequoia to restructure itself away from traditional VC model. (Financial Times)
China’s quantum computers outstrip Google’s and are fastest in the world. (South China Morning Post)
How AI could solve supply chain shortages and save Christmas. (MIT Technology Review)
Events & trade show operators seeing mixed results. (A Media Operator)
Cigna expands telehealth benefits for employer-covered lives, including new virtual-first plan. (Healthcare Dive)
Worn-out nurses hit the road for better pay, stressing hospital budgets. (NPR)