Ailing e-truck startup Lordstown Motors found itself facing more challenges on Monday, as founder & CEO Steve Burns and CFO Julio Rodriguez resigned “after an investigation by the company’s board,” just weeks after the company revealed that it “does not have enough money to make its truck, a prototype of which burned down during testing in February and is undergoing more testing” - NYTimes and WSJ and MarketWatch
The U.S. and European Union are closing in on a deal “that would suspend their trade dispute over government subsidies to Boeing Co. and Airbus SE”—a “tangible achievement” from President Biden’s week spent rubbing elbows with European leaders during the G-7 meetings in Cornwall - WSJ
The Upshot on a small 8-person committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research and the keys it holds to unlocking the official recession/no recession label for the U.S. economy. So, meet the Business Cycle Dating Committee, and enjoy this wonky look at their decision-making process - NYTimes
New antitrust bills unveiled in the House of Representatives last Friday would “place significant new constraints on how tech platforms run their businesses and give antitrust enforcers more legal authority to take on some of the country’s largest and most lucrative businesses” - Bloomberg
D.C.’s new approach to fighting Chinese 5G technology features more carrots and fewer sticks - WSJ
More from the inflation prediction game, this time thanks to a NY Fed survey that shows consumer expectations for higher inflation “in the near term and over the course of several years” creeping up. The move coincides with “increased confidence in the job market,” which may help temper the stress about the potential of increased prices - NYTimes
The Journal suggests that U.S. companies are emerging from the pandemic year with some $11 trillion in corporate debt, as outfits that were already “borrowing heavily at low interest rates” before Covid only doubled down on the cheap money during the past 12 months. While the borrowing has helped companies of all sizes weather the uncertainty of the pandemic, the “question now is whether companies have merely delayed a reckoning” - WSJ
Fascinating stuff from the Times on the inner workings of Amazon’s empire at the fulfillment-center level, where Bezos and Co. have “pioneered new ways of mass-managing people through technology, relying on a maze of systems that minimized human contact to grow unconstrained”—systems that were pushed past their breaking point by Covid - NYTimes
More tweets from Elon and a $500 million junk bond offering from MicroStrategy was more than enough to boost bitcoin’s fortunes to start the week. The crypto traded over $40k on Monday, an 11% improvement from late last week - WSJ and Bloomberg
The SEC has snapped up BC Law Dean Renee Jones to head its public companies regulation division and the accompanying responsibility for draft rulemaking for “companies raising capital and disclosing material news and events to shareholders” - WSJ and Law360
NASA’s hoping that its Juno probe—which entered orbit around Jupiter 5 years ago—can reveal more about the gas giant and its moons as part of an unanticipated 4-year extension of its mission. And if it gives us more pictures like those seen here, well, that was an awfully easy call - NYTimes
Stay safe and get vaxxed.
