#WorkforceWednesday: NLRB Wants Shuttered Starbucks Stores Reopened, Big Tech Retreats from DEI Programs, and Employers Scrap College Requirements - Employment Law This Week®
Nota Bene Podcast Episode 134: U.S. Q3 Check In: Infrastructure Bill Updates and Big Tech Antitrust with Elizabeth Frazee and Chani Wiggins
Nota Bene Episode 116: Challenging the U.S. Big Tech Antitrust Debate Assumptions: A Deep Dive with Thomas Dillickrath and Bill Margeson
What to Expect from the Biden Administration
Nota Bene Episode 104: European Q4 Check In: Brexit, Digital Platform Regulation, and National Security Regulation with Oliver Heinisch
Nota Bene Episode 68: The Current Antitrust Enforcement Climate in the United States with Capitol Forum Senior Editor Nate Soderstrom
Nota Bene Episode 46: America’s Existential Antitrust Crisis with Thomas Dillickrath
In response to what it sees as the growing influence of ‘Big Tech’ and other large technology companies in consumer financial markets, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has introduced a proposed rule to...more
Chinese central bankers unexpectedly cut a benchmark interest rate today, an “unexpected policy shift” in an era of rate hikes that “economists said would likely help the country’s moribund housing market but bring only...more
The Fed finally made good on its promise to seriously consider a central bank digital currency with a report released on Thursday that “examines the idea’s potential costs and benefits and open[s] the door for public...more
Instacart President Carolyn Everson is heading out the door at the end of the year after just 4 months at the food-delivery company—the “second high-profile departure in recent months ahead of a possible public offering”...more
Competition regulators in Italy have fined Amazon $1.3 billion, accusing the company “of breaking antitrust laws by giving special perks to third-party merchants who use Amazon’s warehouse and delivery system.” The penalty,...more
In a blow to Google and the rest of Big Tech, an EU appeals court has refused to “overturn a landmark antitrust ruling by European regulators” from 2017 over Google’s alleged “preferential treatment to its own...more
Markets used news of the FDA’s full approval of the Pfizer BioNTech coronavirus vaccine as the excuse they needed to jump back up after a few days of losses. All three major indices were up near the 1% range, with the Nasdaq...more
Big Tech earnings are in, and BIG remains the operative modifier. Apple saw its profits almost double in Q2, Microsoft had its most profitable quarter ever, and Alphabet’s revenue rose an incredible 62% compared to a year...more
U.S. insurance giants Aon and Willis Towers Watson have shelved their plans for a massive tie-up over an inability to resolve concerns raised by the DOJ’s antitrust division and a desire to avoid the lengthy timeline...more
As previewed earlier this week, four companies associated intimately with the opioid epidemic—three distributors and one drugmaker—have finalized a deal with state Attorneys General in which they will pay $26 billion to...more
Back on the Hill on Tuesday before the House Financial Services Committee, Fed Chair Powell assured lawmakers that he was well-aware of yesterday’s CPI figures showing a 5.4% jump in prices and that inflation was “poised to...more
President Biden and a bipartisan group of Senators announced a deal that would provide just shy of $600 billion in “new investments in roads, broadband internet, electric utilities and other projects” that form an important...more
After a series of denials, it has emerged that Colonial Pipeline reportedly paid 75 Bitcoin (roughly $5 million) to recover its stolen data from last weekend’s ransomware attack. The move likely put a quicker end to the...more
More on how the clogged Suez Canal is combining with “a burst of demand for consumer goods” thanks to a resurgent U.S. economy is “heaping pressure on already strained supply chains” and potentially push prices higher in...more
Because too much of a good thing is always trouble (especially on Wall Street), market watchers are warning of a new tech bubble after Airbnb’s monster IPO on Thursday. The home-sharing app’s shares rose more than 112% to...more
The European Union has unveiled a new antitrust probe and accompanying charges against Amazon over alleged the “use of non-public business data from independent sellers on its marketplace that could benefit the company’s own...more
Last Friday’s US Jobs Report saw unemployment fall to 8.4%, but the end of federal aid programs and a solid-but-not-gangbusters 1.4 million jobs gained in August leads many to fear a much worse employment picture ahead....more
Amazon a juggernaut? Quarterly sales and profit prove how indispensable tech giants have become to our society. In the midst of a pandemic, Big Tech mostly shows gains....more
A promise of “unlimited” QE from the Fed Monday morning briefly turned the tides on Dow futures but wasn’t enough to overcome another day of COVID-19-related fears and DC gridlock over the $1.8 trillion stimulus package III...more
U.S. stocks continue to tumble, sinking by “8.1% at the open, triggering a 15-minute trading halt;” “Brent crude sank below $30 a barrel;” treasuries surged despite major moves from the Federal Reserve; and market sentiment...more
Big Tech companies using facial recognition software have begun to support “’precision regulations’ that don’t allow mass surveillance.” Lawmakers in New York, Massachusetts, Hawaii, Michigan, and California are considering...more
A survey of the country’s most powerful CEOs by the Business Roundtable shows an interesting shift in how they view their top priority—no longer does advancing the interests of shareholders take the top spot. Instead, the...more
A volatile August on Wall Street has insiders asking whether we should be taking our cues from 1998 or 2007. With that in mind, our financial term of the week is “countercyclical capital buffer,” a wonkish special for you...more