My back to work morning train WFH reads:
• Google and Facebook lead the way with Covid-19 vaccine mandates. Will corporate America follow? Tech companies continue to be at the forefront of how employers respond to the pandemic. (Vox)
• Are Stratospheric Stock Valuations Here to Stay? The past 30 years have either been an anomaly or a new normal. Don’t bet against the latter. (Bloomberg)
• America’s Investing Boom Goes Far Beyond Reddit Bros Robinhood traders have earned the most attention, but they’re only part of a larger story about class stagnation and distrust. (The Atlantic)
• How the long-dead public-television painter Bob Ross became a streaming phenomenon (and kicked up plenty of dirt in the process) The phenomenon suggests a surprising truth. Shows like Disney Plus’s “The Mandalorian” and Apple’s “Ted Lasso” may be the most obvious battlegrounds for the streaming wars. But a new front is opening alongside it, one that’s less about buzzy new stuff you seek out because everyone’s talking about it and more about nostalgic comfort food that hooks you in when you stumble upon it. (Washington Post)
• U.S. economy contracted 19.2% during COVID-19 pandemic recession The U.S. economy contracted at a record average annualized rate of 19.2% from its peak in the fourth quarter of 2019 through the second quarter of 2020, confirming that the COVID-19 recession was the worst ever. The pace of recovery from the pandemic downturn, the deepest going back to 1947, was equally stunning. GDP rebounded at a historic average rate of 18.3% between Q2-4 of 2020. (Reuters)
• August Is Full of Surprises The month they mock as lazy gave us color TV sports, the Berlin Wall and the web. (Wall Street Journal)
• About that Amazon-to-accept-bitcoin story An FT Alphaville insider tells us it looks a little fishy. (Financial Times)
• How Europe, After a Fumbling Start, Overtook the U.S. in Vaccination Just a few months ago, European Union efforts were a mess, but its problems were temporary. The United States turned out to have the more lasting challenge. (New York Times)
• Beyond human endurance: How climate change is making parts of the world too hot and humid to survive Deadly heat waves have swept the globe and will continue to because of climate change. The trends are prompting doomsday questions: Will parts of the world soon become too hot to live in? How will we survive? (Washington Post)
• When It Turns Out Your Pandemic Partner Kind of Sucks Some couples who got serious staying home for a year are seeing an unexpected side of their partners now they’re out in the wild. (GQ)
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business interview this weekend with Dr. Charity Dean. Dean was the director of the California Department of Public Health in 2020. She is a lead character in Michael Lewis’ book The Premonition: A Pandemic Story; Lewis called her “one of the people who saw the real danger of the virus before the rest of the country did.” She is co-founder of The Public Health Company.
Domestic auto inventories in the U.S. are now at their lowest since records began in 1967.
Source: Bloomberg
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