Barclay’s CEO Jes Staley is stepping down immediately after a two-year investigation by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Conduct Authority into Staley’s “relationship with the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.” Neither of the regulators elaborated on that relationship or their investigation’s findings, but the inquiry was said to focus on “how Mr. Staley had characterized his relationship with Mr. Epstein to the board, and the subsequent description of the relationship in Barclay’s response to the Financial Conduct Authority” - NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg and MarketWatch

All G-20 nations endorsed a U.S.-led plan seeking to “block large corporations from shifting profits and jobs across borders to avoid taxes, a showcase win” for President Biden after a year of intense negotiations and arm twisting from Treasury Secretary Yellen and her staffers - NYTimes and WSJ and MarketWatch

While in Rome talking taxes and climate, the U.S. delegation also announced a deal with European nations to “roll back tariffs” on steel and aluminum from the bloc in order to “lower costs on goods like cars and washing machines” while leaving “some protections in place for the American steel and aluminum industry” - NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg and MarketWatch

John Deere and the United Auto Workers have reached a tentative deal that would end a two-week strike involving some 10,000 workers at Deer plans primarily in Iowa and Illinois. The agreement still needs union member approval - NYTimes and WSJ

Some timely thoughts from the Journal on how bosses can “lure” reluctant remote workers back into the confines of the office after 18 months of remote work that prompted people to restructure “their homes, their family schedules and their personal priorities in ways that may not make it appealing to spend more than the occasional day back at the office” - WSJ

In a rare win for old-school fun, popular gaming site Roblox was “knocked offline” for 3 days starting Thursday, forcing some of its 43 million daily users to engage with the real world just in time for trick or treating - NYTimes and WSJ

Facebook’s big Meta reveal last week prompted the Times to head into the archives to see how major rebrands worked for other companies - NYTimes

Bad weather and staffing shortages prompted American Airlines to cancel more than 1900 flights this past weekend - WSJ and Bloomberg

GameStop COO (and Amazon alum) Jenna Owens is out less than a year after joining the company. The company gave no reason for Owens’ departure, though it announced it would be splitting her duties among other members of the company’s management team for the time being - WSJ and Bloomberg

Microsoft has quietly eclipsed Apple as the “most valuable company in the U.S., with the software heavyweight’s market cap hitting $2.49 trillion.” Microsoft’s growth of late has been aided by the pandemic-prompted shift to WFH and remote schooling trends as well as the company’s “embrace of cloud computing, one of the fastest growth areas in tech” - WSJ

Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett’s #2, is many things. An architect is not one of them. That stopped him not the least when it came to his thoughts on Munger Hall at UCSB - NYTimes

Stay safe, and get vaxxed,
MDR