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The World
President Biden indicated he was open to sending $1,400 payments to a smaller group of Americans in the next round of relief legislation and changing the overall price tag of his $1.9 trillion plan. (Wall Street Journal)
Here’s the plan: The latest proposal Democrats are considering would send $1,400 payments to individuals earning $50,000 or less and $2,800 to married couples earning $100,000 or less. About 85% of Americans would get the full benefits and another 3.5% would get the partial benefit. Parents of children would receive an additional $1,400 per child. That means a family of four would receive $5,600. The new payments would not go out until after Congress passes its broad relief package; White House officials have said they are determined to pass the legislation before mid-March. (Washington Post)
68% of Americans support the $1.9 trillion package; only 24% of respondents oppose the measure. The $1,400 direct payments in the plan are more popular than the overall proposal: 78% of Americans support the stimulus checks, and 18% oppose them. (CNBC, Quinnipiac Poll)
Americans are buying millions more firearms. More than 2 million guns were sold in January, an 80% jump and the second-highest monthly total on record. The surge is in line with the record pace set in 2020: Nearly 23 million firearms were purchased, representing a 64% jump year over year. Meanwhile, a group of 34 of America’s biggest cities suffered a 30% total increase in homicides in 2020, with police in four Midwestern cities reporting increases of more than 60% over 2019, including Milwaukee (95%) and Louisville (92%). Only four cities in the group — Raleigh, N.C.; Baltimore; St. Petersburg, Fla.; and Virginia Beach — saw declines in 2020. (Washington Post, Washington Post-2)
U.S. Covid hospitalizations and new cases have fallen to 3-month lows. Meanwhile, Denmark is to launch a coronavirus passport by the end of this month to help business travel, while Sweden will demand a negative test result from visiting foreigners as both Nordic countries grapple with the second wave of the pandemic. In the U.S, the wealthy are getting more vaccinations — even in poorer neighborhoods, while the CDC director said schools can safely reopen without vaccinating teachers. (Financial Times, New York Times)
A Nature editorial says coronavirus is in the air — there’s too much focus on cleaning surfaces. Meanwhile, U.S. experts increasingly tout delaying the 2nd vaccine dose as deaths mount. Also, there’s a new testing problem: Burned by low reimbursements — some insurers pay pediatricians less than the cost of the test itself — some doctors stop testing for Covid. Finally, you got the vaccine. Can you still infect people? Pfizer is trying to find out. (Nature, CIDRAP, New York Times, MIT Technology Review)
The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine may help reduce the virus transmission. The Oxford-AstraZeneca team also plans to have a second-generation vaccine ready by the autumn to protect against mutant strains of the coronavirus. They are confident the existing vaccine will be effective against the UK variant, though uncertain about the Brazil or South Africa variants. China plans to provide 10 million vaccine doses to developing nations as part of its diplomatic and business efforts. (The Times, Associated Press)
About two-thirds of vaccines given to patients so far in the U.S. have gone to women. The finding reflects the high number of women who work in health care and who live in nursing homes, two groups who have so far been prioritized in vaccine distribution. (The 19th*)
The L.A. City Council voted unanimously for attorneys to draft plan to give grocery and drugstore workers hero pay amounting to an increase of $5 per hour for the next 120 days, despite warnings that the wage hike could bring lawsuits and store closings. The action came one day after Kroger announced it would permanently close two Long Beach stores after that city passed a similar ordinance. (Los Angeles Times)
The U.S. formally extended the New START nuclear accord with Russia for five years, opting to prolong limits on the arsenals of both nations two days before the treaty’s expiration date. (Washington Post)
Mario Draghi accepted a request from Italy’s president to attempt to form a national unity government. Draghi, a former president of the European Central Bank who has built a reputation as one of the continent’s most highly regarded public officials, called for unity ahead of starting political consultations with the country’s political parties. (Financial Times)
An amendment to a British trade law that would potentially block future trade deals with China over alleged genocide in the Xinjiang region cleared a key legislative hurdle. The House of Lords voted to pass an amendment to the trade law, which could force the government to reconsider trade deals where the consignee has been found by British courts to have committed genocide. It will now go to a vote in the House of Commons next week. (South China Morning Post)
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres pledged to mobilize enough international pressure on Myanmar’s military “to make sure that this coup fails.” Meanwhile, Myanmar’s military government ordered telecom networks to temporarily block Facebook. (Reuters, TechCrunch)
Four questions about Myanmar’s coup: David Dapice is a senior economist with the Ash Center’s Myanmar Program and has worked extensively in Myanmar, engaging with members of the country’s civilian leadership, senior military officials, and representatives of many of the country’s numerous ethnic groups as part of the Myanmar Program’s work to deepen the understanding of the development and democratic governance challenges facing Myanmar. He explained the coup and its implications for the future of Myanmar, including: Did it come as a surprise? (Harvard Kennedy School)
In India, the government threatened to punish employees at Twitter with fines and jail terms of up to seven years for restoring hundreds of accounts it has ordered the company to block. Most accounts were critical of the country’s prime minister, Narendra Modi. (Buzzfeed News)
Economy
The eurozone economy shrank at the end of 2020, raising fears of a double-dip recession. Economic output in the 19 countries that belong to the eurozone fell 0.7% in 4Q20 from the previous quarter. For the full year, overall output fell 5.1%. (New York Times)
The bond market is already counting on lots of fiscal spending and an economic bounce back. In an extreme case, inflation might be a risk. The metric the bond market is watching is the Treasury yield curve, or the difference between rates on various maturities, now at its steepest level since May 2017. (CNBC)
William Ackman raised his bet on housing in Texas, Hawaii and Las Vegas. The billionaire hedge-fund manager is betting that the migration of Americans to warmer, lower-tax cities is here to stay. His Pershing Square Capital Management LP recently increased its stake in Howard Hughes Corp. to nearly 25%. The Houston-based developer is ramping up construction of multifamily housing in Texas, Maryland, Hawaii and Las Vegas. (Wall Street Journal)
McKinsey has fired or suspended several members of its investment banking research team as it investigates violations of its policies, in a blow for the consultancy giant’s fledgling attempt to become a dominant provider of industry insights to Wall Street. Meanwhile, McKinsey reportedly also has agreed to pay $573 million to settle investigations into its role in helping “turbocharge” opioid sales. The firm has reached the agreement with attorneys general in 47 states, the District of Columbia and five territories, according to five people familiar with the negotiations. (Financial Times, New York Times)
The big international oil companies are reporting one of their worst annual performances in decades and signaling that the pandemic could continue to challenge their businesses in 2021. Covid-19 has sapped demand for oil, hitting prices and prompting the world’s biggest energy companies to slash spending, cut jobs and write down the value of their assets. (Wall Street Journal)
UPS, delivering Amazon’s surge, posted record revenue. The package giant’s revenue jumps 21% boosted by higher fees and holiday volumes during pandemic. (Wall Street Journal)
Ulta Beauty, led by CEO Mary Dillon, committed $25 million to an initiative to support Black-owned brands and Black employees. The beauty retailer will aim to double the number of Black-owned brands on its shelves by the end of the year, feature more Black women in its ads, and expand employee training on unconscious bias. Dillon says that the beauty industry should be leading on this issue, since it shapes what society sees as desirable or beautiful. (CNBC)
Technology
Online alcohol delivery will be turbocharged as Uber reached a deal to buy Drizly for $1.1 billion in stock and cash, signaling the company’s ambitions to provide a wider range of items to consumers’ doorsteps. (Wall Street Journal)
An engineering director and a software developer have quit Alphabet’s Google over the dismissal of AI researcher Timnit Gebru, a sign of the ongoing conflicts at the search giant over diversity and ethics. Meanwhile, Google says it’s too easy for hackers to find new security flaws. Attackers are exploiting the same types of software vulnerabilities over and over again, because companies often miss the forest for the trees. (Reuters, MIT Technology Review)
Parler CEO John Matze says he’s been terminated by board: “I did not participate in this decision.” Wrote Matze: "The future of Parler is no longer in my hands.” (Fox Business)
Spotify’s pandemic boost may be peaking. The Swedish audio-streaming giant posted stronger-than-expected subscription growth in 4Q20 as more listeners tuned into music and podcasts from home amid the pandemic. Still, the company offered a conservative outlook for the current year as new sign-ups could ebb along with the health crisis and stay-home directives. (Wall Street Journal)
Grand Central Publishing acquired an upcoming book by author Ben Mezrich about the recent GameStop trading frenzy. “The Antisocial Network” is planned to be published this fall. Mezrich previously authored top-selling titles including “The Accidental Billionaires”—a book about Facebooks founding, which was later adapted for the big screen as “The Social Network.” (Wall Street Journal)
Kia Motors shares jump after a report that Apple will invest $3.6 Billion. (Bloomberg)
Smart Links
American Airlines sending 13,000 furlough warnings as pandemic pain persists. (Reuters)
Google asks FAA for permission to test drones for “fire-fighting and monitoring operations.” (Bloomberg)
McDonald’s enters next phase of testing a U.S. loyalty program ahead of nationwide launch. (CNBC)
Wikipedia created its first Universal Code of Conduct. (Wikimedia Foundation)
Keeping taxes low for the rich does not boost economy. (London School of Economics)
“I know what you bought at Chipotle”: New algorithm offers insights into consumer spending by identifying what someone purchased from only bill total. (MIT News)