What we’re reading (9/11)
“JP Morgan Top Brass Tell Trading-Floor Staff To Come Back To The Office” (Wall Street Journal). “[F]or many bank executives, the past six months have proved what they previously thought was impossible: Trading could take place seamlessly outside the walls of densely populated office towers. Remote-login systems worked and home internet connections didn’t fail. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. kept Zoom channels open all day to bring the trading floor, with its noisy squawk boxes and hoots, to employees’ home offices. JPMorgan, which is building a new skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan, has been more aggressive than some of its peers about bringing workers back to the office.”
“Rio Tinto CEO Resigns After Destruction Of 46,000-Year-Old Sacred Indigenous Site” (CNN Business). “Rio Tinto (RIO) CEO Jean-Sébastien Jacques has resigned as the mining giant continues to face pressure from investors for blowing up a 46,000-year-old sacred Indigenous site in Australia to expand an iron ore mine.”
“Targeted Stimulus Crucial To Keeping US Recovery Going” (The Hill). “At the current recovery stage, broad stimulus is duplicative and ineffective. The major unemployment problem is opening up sectors stymied by consumer fears and lockdowns. Around $1 trillion of unused U.S. government funds remain for pandemic response, which should be retargeted from stabilizing capital markets and other macro purposes to direct relief for closed sectors and their structurally unemployed.”
“Peloton Crushes Estimates As Sales Surge 172%, Expects Strong Demand To Continue Into 2021” (CNBC). Peloton’s tech-enabled stationary bike and treadmill because “two of the hottest commodities for people looking to work out at home during the coronavirus pandemic.”
“Century 21 Files For Bankruptcy, To Close All Stores” (Fox Business). Apparently, Century 21 experienced big losses due to the coronavirus pandemic. It claims it was due a $175 million lifeline from its insurers, but its insurers have refused to pay. Reporting elsewhere that very few of these corporate insurance contracts specifically contemplate “pandemic risk” seems to suggest we should expect more litigation in this area as counterparties tussle over what exactly “force majeure” means in practice.
