What we’re reading (11/29)
“Jack Dorsey Steps Down As Twitter CEO, Board Unanimously Appoints CTO Parag Agrawal As Successor” (Twitter). “Twitter, Inc. […] today announced that Jack Dorsey has decided to step down as Chief Executive Officer and that the Board of Directors has unanimously appointed Parag Agrawal as CEO and a member of the Board, effective immediately. Dorsey will remain a member of the Board until his term expires at the 2022 meeting of stockholders. Bret Taylor was named the new Chairman of the Board, succeeding Patrick Pichette who will remain on the Board and continue to serve as chair of the Audit Committee. Agrawal has been with Twitter for more than a decade and has served as Chief Technology Officer since 2017.”
“Half Of This Year’s Big IPOs Are Trading Below Listing Price” (Financial Times). “Half of the companies that raised more than $1bn at initial public offerings this year are trading below their listing price, despite robust stock markets around the world…[t]heir weak performance has raised questions about the valuations pinned to companies by large investors such as SoftBank and Warburg Pincus and leading underwriters including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.”
“Airlines Avoid Thanksgiving Pitfalls As Daily Passengers Top Two Million” (Wall Street Journal). “Sunday was set to be the busiest travel day since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, with the Transportation Security Administration predicting some 2.4 million people would pass through U.S. airports. Daily airport passenger volumes exceeded two million people for seven straight days through Wednesday, Nov. 24. After more muted volumes Thursday and Friday, TSA screened over 2.2 million people on Saturday.”
“The Job Market Is Looking Way Better. It’s Still Playing Catch-Up” (CNN Business). “More than 20 months into the pandemic, the US job market has reached a milestone. What's happening: Weekly claims for unemployment benefits fell to 199,000 last week after seasonal adjustments, their lowest level since 1969. They hit a peak of 6.15 million in April 2020. So, does that mean employment conditions are back to normal? Not quite.”
“Not That Seventies Inflation” (Project Syndicate). “Are the United States and other advanced economies experiencing stagflation, the unfortunate combination of high inflation and low growth in output and employment that characterized the mid-1970s? At least in America’s case, the answer is no. What the US is facing now is moderate inflation, without the stagnation part. That recalls the 1960s, not the decade that followed.”
