Fintech firm Stripe Inc., which “allows internet companies and online marketplaces to accept credit cards for their goods and services and pay out money to the people and firms that sell on their platforms,” just wrapped a new fundraising round that puts its valuation at $35 billion—more than Airbnb and other “Silicon Valley darlings” – WSJ and Bloomberg and NYTimes
Speaking of the do-it-yourself-hotelier site, Airbnb announced on Thursday that it plans to take the company public in 2020, “one of the last of a generation of prominent technology start-ups” to do so (NYC be damned, it would seem) – NYTimes and Bloomberg and WSJ
Another massive injection into the overnight repo market from the Fed is prompting calls for the central bank to “permanently increase reserves by boosting Treasury holdings” – Bloomberg
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos made news this week by pledging to meet the goals of the Paris climate agreement “10 years ahead of schedule and be carbon neutral by 2040” as part of a new effort dubbed the Climate Pledge – NYTimes
The Journal breaks down the numbers behind Purdue Pharma’s outsized role in the opioid crisis, finding that though it made roughly 10% of the pills containing oxycodone purchased by US pharmacies from 2006-2012, “when taking into account the dosage strength of each pill, [Purdue’s drugs] represented a market-leading 27% of total oxycodone” sold during that period – WSJ
RBS has chosen Alison Rose, its former head of British commercial and private banking, as its new CEO. She’ll take the position on November 1 and will be the first woman to head up one of Britain’s big four banks – Bloomberg and FinancialNews
The US officially restarted trade negotiations with China on Thursday and also announced a planned visit from a Chinese delegation to US farm country next week – Bloomberg
With whistleblowing in the news, here’s some timely Law360 analysis of the CFTC’s recent moves to “actively court[]” whistleblowers “as it ramps up enforcement in areas typically dominated” by FinCEN and the DOJ [think “money laundering, insider trading, foreign bribery and virtual currency fraud”] – Law360
Unlimited breadsticks as key economic indicator? Sign me up – Marketplace
It’s been a pretty solid run for GM’s Buick, all things considered. But after 115 years, the name (and image) isn’t cutting it anymore, and while a variation of the brand’s tri-shield logo still remains, the Buick name is likely to give way to its Avenir sub-brand in coming years – NYTimes
The latest research on the long-mysterious reason for dreams suggests that they’re part of an active forgetting process in which the brain clears up space by ditching “useless memories” – Newsweek
Have a great weekend.
