The confluence of a spiraling pandemic, unprecedented economic free fall and a national reckoning about racial injustice pushes us to examine what happens next. Is this the inflection point where we'll see change in the direction of our country? Marketplace presents three hourlong specials exploring "The Economy: What Now?"
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"What I think is hard for people to see really is that systemic racism is around us all the time.”
This may worth something:
State budgets face pandemic reckoning as tax income shrivels - Marketplace
By and large, they are in need — state tax revenue is down, spending is up and red ink is everywhere.
“In April and May alone, states and localities have either furloughed or laid off 1.5 million workers — about twice as many [as] in the entire aftermath of the Great Recession,” Johnson said.
States got a round of funding from the federal government in March, but that money has already been budgeted.
“It's unclear that the amount that was appropriated in March — when we didn't realize how long this crisis would endure — is sufficient to those kinds of challenges,” Gordon said.
Big Tech CEOs testify before Congress in antitrust probe - Marketplace
Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Apple’s Tim Cook, Google’s Sundar Pichai and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, CEOs of four of the world’s most powerful companies, are testifying before Congress Wednesday.
Specifically, they are going before the House’s Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law, and the issue here boils down to power. How did these companies get it? Did they do so legally, or did they break rules? Finally, do they have too much power?
Saratoga Marketplace unveils renovations | WRGB
Other things to check out:
Fed sees dim economic outlook as virus squeezes economy - Marketplace
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve expressed concern Wednesday that the viral outbreak will act as a drag on the economy and hiring in the coming months and said it plans to keep its benchmark short-term interest rate pegged near zero.
The Fed announced no new policies in its statement. It said it will also continue to buy about $120 billion in Treasury and mortgage bonds each month, which are intended to inject cash into financial markets and spur borrowing and spending.
Hollywood gets a boost from China, but with some risks - Marketplace
That's pennies compared to what Hollywood usually rakes in, but Sky Canaves , with China Film Insider , said “it's really, right now, one of the few avenues that Hollywood has available for its films.”
Especially with most movie theaters in America shut down indefinitely. Aynne Kokas , author of “Hollywood Made in China,” said the tables have turned dramatically.
“In March, it looked like the U.S. was actually poised to dramatically overtake the Chinese film market for 2020,” Kokas said. “Now it looks like we're seeing the reverse.”
Rakuten shutting down U.S. marketplace formally known as buy.com - Tamebay
Reports suggest that Rakuten are closing down their U.S. marketplace formally known as buy.com and although no exact date has been provided, will be winding down their services over the next two months. Customers will still be able to place orders on the site for the next two months before they close for good. Fear not though, their affiliate site will remain open just as it did in the UK.
Rakuten have a bit of a reputation for the sudden closure of their services so this announcement comes as no surprise. In 2016 they announced they would be closing Rakuten.co.uk, formally known as play.com just a month after announcing that they had streamlined sign up for sellers and then confirmed that their sites in Spain and Austria would be closing too. It seems that replacing the brand of a successful online store with their own has become something of a bad omen for Rakuten.
Rakuten Marketplace, formerly Buy.com, is pulling out of the US - TechSpot
Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten is shutting down its online retail store in the US, the company has confirmed to TechCrunch.
In late 2014, Rakuten bought online rebate site Ebates.com for $1 billion in cash, further bolstering its position in the US e-commerce space. The company was also an early adopter of Bitcoin, allowing shoppers to pay for purchases on Rakuten.com using the virtual currency from early 2015 on.
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Per TechCrunch , Rakuten.com will remain operational for the next two months, allowing US shoppers to place orders at any point during that time. Once the clock runs out, however, the site will shut down for good, we're told, and the company's nearly 100 US employees will be out of a job.
Happening on Twitter
The clock is ticking. While the economy tanks, some 30 million workers are losing their $600 a week unemployment su… https://t.co/rJzcmZJlVV BernieSanders (from Vermont) Sun Aug 02 15:52:29 +0000 2020
Congress used to balk at billions of dollars; now they're throwing around trillions like it's Monopoly money. The m… https://t.co/nxRXE1muGQ NikkiHaley Sat Aug 01 18:15:30 +0000 2020
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