No one—truly, not even the most casual economic observer—should be shocked by yesterday’s official declaration from the National Bureau of Economic Research that the U.S. is in a recession that officially began in February. But we’ll all dutifully report that designation anyway, along with the fact that the “longest expansion on record” [records, mind you, that date back to 1854] is over – NYTimes and WSJ and MarketWatch and Marketplace
Markets, however, were happy to look past the label in order to continue Friday’s exuberance. With a late-day rally, the S&P 500 “climbed back above where it began the year,” a remarkable (if temporary) feat after three months of social, economic, and public-health upheaval – NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg and MarketWatch
That glee may not extend to today – MarketWatch
Nobel prize-winning economist Paul Krugman helps us understand the confusion over Friday’s jobs numbers a bit better but also picks up on a thread we started yesterday—namely, will the jobs gained in May actually harm recovery efforts in the long run by tamping down the willingness for bipartisan stimulus efforts? – NYTimes
Energy giant BP is cutting 14% of its global workforce—nearly 10,000 jobs—as the coronavirus pandemic has forced the company to accelerate “existing plans to reshape” itself – WSJ
Following Chair Powell’s lead, the Fed officially announced on Monday that it is “expanding its soon-to-launch Main Street Lending Program to provide support to more small and midsize businesses, rolling out changes after concerns that some companies might miss out on its benefits and some banks may not want to participate” – Law360 and WSJ
Bon Appetit EIC Adam Rapoport is out, resigning just hours after a Halloween post from 2013 resurfaced showing Rapoport “dressed as derogatory Puerto Rican stereotypes” and drew immediate and scathing criticism from BA staff – NYTimes
After the pandemic pushed it to the brink of complete ruin, the travel industry is starting to see signs of life. Many airlines are responding with plans to add flights based on a “slow but steady rise in domestic demand” – NYTimes
Still, many airports are scaling back their once-ambitious expansion plans as they wait to see just what air travel will look like in the post-Covid years – WSJ
These are 33 hard but important minutes from Last Week Tonight. You should watch all of them – LWT
Stay safe.