Southwest Airlines canceled hundreds more flights to start the week, though its operations were closer to normal after a weekend that saw the carrier nix almost 2000 flights. The company blamed a mix of weather problems, “air traffic control and an inability to get flight crews and planes to where they were needed” for the cancellations - NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg

Amazon further softened its “more rigid approach” to workplace returns that it had taken earlier this year, informing employees on Monday that individual corporate teams can decide how often their members need to be in the office - NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg and MarketWatch

Another looming set of payment deadlines to creditors means there’s far more Evergrande drama in the offing - NYTimes and WSJ

As well as structural problems underlying Evergrande’s recent struggles, including a “costly and dangerously debt-ridden housing market” that’s swung hard from endless optimism to a pessimism that’s affecting consumer spending throughout the Chinese economy - NYTimes and Bloomberg

And while we’re talking China, President Xi’s latest targets there are the country’s state-owned financial institutions with ties to “big private-sector players” (like Evergrande, Didi, and Ant Group) - WSJ

The Econ 101 reasons (see, e.g., supply & demand) for oil’s jump above $80/barrel, even as other commodities are falling on fears of softening global growth - WSJ

Disney studios mainstay Alan Horn announced his retirement, effective at the end of 2021, the latest in a series of longtime Disney execs to take their leave of Big Mouse alongside Exec Chair Robert Iger - WSJ and Bloomberg

That big sigh of relief you may have heard yesterday was perhaps IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva upon learning that the U.S. would not seek her removal “over allegations that she pushed staff to manipulate data for a World Bank report to help China” - Bloomberg and NYTimes and WSJ and MarketWatch

A new economic working paper out this week shows that minority entrepreneurs, “especially Black business owners, struggled more than white borrowers to find a willing lender” for Paycheck Protection Program funds, with the bias “particularly pronounced at smaller banks” - NYTimes

KKR founders and PE titans Henry Kravis and George Roberts are stepping aside, effective immediately. Though the duo will “remain ‘actively involved’ as executive co-chairmen of the board,” a new pair—Joe Bae and Scott Nuttall—have taken over as co-chief execs - NYTimes and WSJ

How’s life as an honest-to-goodness living legend? Let Sir Paul show you the way  – NewYorker

Stay safe, and get vaxxed,

MDR