What we’re reading (11/28)
“Wall St Falls As U.S. Crude Oil Shakes Off Losses” (Reuters). “Wall Street equities deepened losses on Monday while U.S. oil futures reversed course to settle higher on production rumors after starting the day mired in worries that China's strict COVID-19 restrictions would stunt global economic growth. While a surge in COVID cases and clashes between police and protesters across several major Chinese cities over the weekend helped push U.S. Treasury yields lower, that move had also reversed course in afternoon trading.”
“China’s Covid Contagion” (DealBook). “Protests across China over the country’s strict zero-Covid policies shook up global markets over worries that the authorities will take longer to reopen the world’s second-largest economy. The visuals were jarring: Thousands took to the streets over the weekend in the biggest challenge to the authority of the Chinese Communist Party in years.”
“Crypto Lender BlockFi Follows FTX Into Bankruptcy” (Wall Street Journal). “Cryptocurrency lender BlockFi Inc. filed for chapter 11 on Monday, following FTX into bankruptcy and spotlighting the contagion effects that the failure of the crypto exchange has unleashed. BlockFi blamed its chapter 11 filing on the downturn in cryptocurrency prices this summer and this month’s failure of FTX, a big exchange with ties throughout the largely unregulated industry. FTX’s affiliated trading firm, Alameda Research, defaulted on $680 million owed to BlockFi earlier this month, the firm disclosed in court papers.”
“A Man Won The Legal Right To Not Be ‘Fun’ At Work After Refusing To Embrace ‘Excessive Alcoholism’ And ‘Promiscuity’” (Insider). “A French court has ruled that companies can't fire their workers for failing to be sufficiently ‘fun.’ The ruling comes after a man, referred to as Mr T, was fired from the Paris consultancy firm Cubik Partners in 2015 for refusing to participate in after-work drinks and team-building activities.”
“Have The Anticapitalists Reached Harvard Business School?” (New York Times). “[T]oday’s business school students are also learning about corporate social obligations and how to rethink capitalism, a curriculum shift at elite institutions that reflects a change in corporate culture as a whole. Political leaders on the left and right are calling for business leaders to reconsider their societal responsibilities. On the left, they argue that business needs to play some role in confronting daunting global threats — a warming planet, fragile democracy. On the right, they chastise executives for distracting from profits by talking politics.”
