A street sign for Wall Street is seen outside the New York Stock Exchange in Manhattan, New York City
Reuters
Happy hump day.
It's been the underlying question for the past few months: Will people ever fully return to the office?
On Tuesday, one of the biggest players on Wall Street showed its hand. JPMorgan announced employees in its corporate and investment bank will have the ability to work remotely on a part-time basis in a move that is believed to be "more or less permanent," as first reported by CNBC.
It's a big win for anyone hoping to maintain a flexible commuting schedule going forward, as other financial firms might look to JPM as a model to follow. And while there will certainly be those who push for a complete return to the office, it's seeming more likely those companies will be the exception, not the rule.
We've talked at length about how the real-estate market is in a state of flux right now. And with big firms like JPMorgan announcing plans for flexible work schedules for the foreseeable future, it doesn't seem like things will stabilize anytime soon.
As a result, it's worth keeping tabs on the key people to know in the space. Alex Nicoll did just that, profiling seven of the top real-estate bankers at Goldman Sachs who are advising clients on monster deals.
Mike Pompeo addresses the RNC in a pre-recorded speech from Jerusalem.
C-SPAN
The RNC has featured a series of moments which critics have suggested violate ethics laws, prompting outraged reactions.
They included appearances by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and acting Homeland Security chief Chad Wolf, as well as the use of the White House as a backdrop.
Sources close to Trump, speaking anonymously to the media, have suggested that they revel in breaching norms meant to stop the politicization of the federal government.
Trump officials have denied breaking any rules. But a Trump campaign official tweeted Tuesday mocking critics "upset about the use of government buildings."
A series of moments from the Republican National Convention have been met with outrage after critics suggested that appearances from Cabinet officials, and use of the White House as a backdrop, violate ethics rules.
According to numerous media reports citing Trump campaign insiders, the outrage is exactly the point.
Trump aides "take pride" in pushing the boundaries of ethics laws that are supposed to separate public office and political activities, The New York Times reported.
The Daily Beast, citing two former officials, said one motivation is that such acts frustrate the media with few consequences for themselves.
Trump campaign comms direction Tim Murtaugh also linked the use of federal buildings with outrage from "liberals," claiming it exposed a double standard.
—Tim Murtaugh - Download the Trump 2020 app today! (@TimMurtaugh) August 26, 2020
Most criticism of the RNC has focused on the Hatch Act, a 1930s federal law designed to stop top-level government employees partaking in political activity. It excludes the president and vice-president.
Some experts also think the law bans the use of public spaces for political activities, The New York Times reported.
The accusations of violating the act stem from in some cases from speeches — from officials like Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and acting Department of Homeland Security chief Chad Wolf — who hold positions that have historically been removed from frontline politics.
It also involves events being held in federal spaces, including the White House itself.
According to the Beast, Trump's "aides and advisers revel in their increasingly frequent violations of the Hatch Act."
Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf conducts a naturalization ceremony at the White House during the RNC.
CBS News
Two former officials told the Daily Beast that senior administration officials broadly see the Hatch Act as a joke, and gloat over how their violations have largely been met with no consequences.
According to the Beast, "Some Trump lieutenants have privately bragged about their alleged violations as a proud rite of passage."
Trump allies are happy if the media becomes fixated on the topic, the Beast reported, claiming that the average US voter will not care about it.
The New York Times also reported that some of Trump's aides "privately scoff" at the act, and "take pride" in violating it.
Allegations from the RNC
Pompeo's speech was prerecorded from Jerusalem, part of a taxpayer-funded State Department trip. Ethics experts say that he likely violated the act.
Rep. Joaquin Castro, a Democrat, said he is launching an investigation of the speech, which he said may breach "the Hatch Act, government-wide regulations implementing that Act, and State Department policies."
And Rep. Eliot Engel, a Democrat and chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said before Pompeo's speech that it "will violate legal restrictions on political activities, according to a longstanding interpretation by State Department lawyers."
And, as Business Insider Eliza Relman reported, the acting secretary of homeland security, Chad Wolf, was criticized for holding a naturalization ceremony for five new US citizens at the White House in a video broadcast during the convention.
Walter Shaub, who was director of the US Office of Government Ethics under former President Barack Obama, tweeted on Tuesday night that he'd "seen a lot of ethical abuses before" but that he'd "never seen anything like that."
"Chad Wolf not only used his official authority for politics, he specifically hijacked a governmental function for the Trump campaign. And he used humans," he said.
He later said: "Chad Wolf using official authority to conduct a legally binding act as a bit of performance art for Trump's re-election is so far over the line as to make him unfit for public service."
Ethics groups have also condemned Trump and first lady for using the White House as the backdrop for their speeches and appearances at the convention.
First Lady Melania Trump delivers her live address to the largely virtual 2020 Republican National Convention from the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, DC, August 25, 2020.
Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
Shaub tweeted: "This is your reminder that the White House belongs to us, not the party."
And he also tweeted: "The Rose Garden is used for official government business, including press conferences. They had no business using that official area of the White House for a campaign event."
The Washington Post reported that a team of lawyers reviewed Pompeo's speech before it was recorded to ensure it did not violate ethics rules. A person close to Pompeo and the State Department told the outlet that no taxpayer money would be used in the video's production.
The State Department defended his speech by saying that he appeared at the convention in a personal capacity.
The Wall Street Journal also reported that the White House defended the naturalization ceremony against accusations of ethics violations because it "publicized the content of the event on a public website this afternoon and the campaign decided to use the publicly available content for campaign purposes."
Trump aides have previously been called out under the Hatch Act. The US Office of Special Counsel said in 2019 that White House counselor Kellyanne Conway violated the act on "numerous occasions" and should be removed from the White House.
In the end, Conway stayed in office and announced her departure this month for unrelated reasons.
Amazon's dynamic pricing strategy can make shopping tricky for the average consumer, but if you know where to look — and when to act fast — Prime members can save a ton of money.
Prices on products sold on Amazon fluctuate depending on several factors, including stock and interest, in as little as a few minutes. The site does this to ensure that their prices are competitive and, of course, to help boost profits.
We've gathered all the best discounts currently available on the retail giant. Below you'll find one-day sales via Amazon's Gold Box promotion, exclusive coupon codes, and, of course, dynamically-priced goods ranging from tech, fashion, gaming, and home goods.
Due to the unpredictable nature of online shopping, prices may change without warning.
Best deals on Amazon today
Apple AirPods Pro, $220 (Typically selling between $230-$235) [You save $15]
Politicians in the UK and Australia have reacted with confusion and dismay to reports that Prime Minister Boris Johnson has appointed Tony Abbott to advise Britain on its post-Brexit trade arrangements.
The Sun newspaper on Tuesday evening reported that Abbott, who served as Australia's prime minister from 2013 to 2015, would serve as copresident of the UK Board of Trade as Johnson's government seeks free-trade agreements with countries like Australia, the US, and Japan.
The Australian journalist Bevan Shields reported that Abbott would be an adviser, not copresident. A senior source in Canberra seconded this, telling Business Insider that Abbott would serve in an advisory capacity. There has been speculation about Johnson bringing Abbott into the fold for some time, The Guardian reported.
Abbott is a vocal supporter of Britain's decision to leave the European Union, having originally advised Brits to vote Remain. He is a popular figure within UK Conservative circles and has spoken with packed rooms of party members at Conservative party conferences.
The UK government revamped the Board of Trade to coincide with the UK's exit from the EU. Its job is to promote Britain's status as an independent trading nation to the world as it tries to sign several trade deals in the coming years.
Economists, however, have lambasted Abbott for downplaying the economic risk on of a no-deal Brexit to the UK.
In a column for The Spectator last year, he said a no-deal Brexit would be "no problem" as Australia had a "perfectly satisfactory 'no deal' relationship" with the EU. "A no-deal relationship with the EU has not stopped Australia doing about US$70 billion worth of trade with the EU in goods and services," he said.
Economists pointed out that unlike the UK, Australia does not rely on complex, just-in-time supply chains to import food, medicine, manufacturing goods, and other products from Europe and that UK trade with the EU dwarfs Australia's trade with the bloc.
A former senior colleague of Abbott in the Australian Parliament said the appointment "is being viewed with bemusement" in Australia given what is widely seen as a lack of credentials to advise on trade.
"Abbott is not a commercial guy, at all," the person told Business Insider. "He's a very much a political person. I suspect Boris wants us him to go out there and talk about how great Brexit is."
Abbott's record of misogyny and climate-change denial
Abbott, who was born in South London, was ousted as Australian prime minister in 2015 after losing a leadership challenge to his fellow Liberal Party parliamentarian Malcolm Turnbull.
He is a controversial figure in Australian politics, not least because of accusations of sexism.
In a speech to Australian parliamentarians including Abbott in 2012, then-Prime Minister Julia Gillard said: "If he wants to know what misogyny looks like in modern Australia, he doesn't need a motion in the House of Representatives — he needs a mirror."
When asked in 2013 to compare Australian MP Fiona Scott to her predecessor Jackie Kelly, Abbott said both were "young, feisty, I think I can probably say have a bit of sex appeal." In 2010 he was accused of being "stuck in the past" after suggesting that Australian housewives were most responsible for ironing clothes.
Labour Shadow Trade Secretary Emily Thornberry said the appointment was "absolutely staggering."
"I am disgusted that Boris Johnson thinks this offensive, leering, cantankerous, climate change-denying, Trump-worshipping misogynist is the right person to represent our country overseas," Thornberry told Politico.
In a statement, she added: "This is someone with no hands-on experience of negotiating trade agreements, who denies the climate change that we believe should be at the heart of our trade policy, and who clearly has no concept of the importance of Britain's trade with the EU.
"He was ousted by his own colleagues after just two years in power, and rejected by his own constituents just last year. They are the people who know him best, and wanted rid of him, yet here we are now, hiring him to negotiate our trade deals around the world."
Abbott has also disputed climate science. In 2009 he said climate change was "absolute crap," and in 2017 he said rising global temperatures "might even be beneficial" because more people died from cold snaps than heat waves.
New York Stock Exchange Floor Governor Brendan Connolly, left, works with traders Peter Tuchman, John Panin and Sal Suarino, second left to right, on the floor of the NYSE, March 9, 2020.
7. China to import $300 billion of chips for third straight year: industry group. China is likely to import at least $300 billion worth of semiconductors for the third year running, an industry association official said, in a sign of continuing reliance on foreign know-how despite efforts to gain local capability.
8. Stocks are mixed. European stocks are mostly up, Asian stocks are mostly down. US futures are pointing to a mixed open with the Dow 30 pointing to a 0.2% fall and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq pointing to a slightly higher open.
9. Earnings coming in. National Bank of Canada Q3 2020 and STADA Q2 2020 earnings are coming in.
10. On the economic front. US EIA Crude Oil Stocks change and US Durable Goods orders are due.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai and YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco in 2018.
Kim White/MSNBC/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images
YouTube on Tuesday said it took down a record 11 million videos from the start of April to the end of June, almost twice as many as in the previous quarter.
It said this was because it decided to rely more heavily on its algorithms to remove content during the pandemic, rather than human moderators.
The shift meant more videos were removed erroneously, with YouTube saying it got twice as many appeals about removed videos as usual.
YouTube says its reliance on automated moderation algorithms during the coronavirus pandemic caused the platform to take down a record 11 million videos from the start of April to the end of June — almost twice as many as in the previous quarter.
In its quarterly Community Guidelines Enforcement Report published Tuesday, as first reported by Protocol, YouTube said it reduced office hours as the pandemic began to bite in March, forcing it to rely more heavily on algorithmic decision-making to moderate its site.
"When reckoning with greatly reduced human review capacity due to COVID-19, we were forced to make a choice between potential under-enforcement or potential over-enforcement," YouTube wrote in a blog post.
YouTube said that if it continued to operate using the same balance of algorithmic and human review, this would have caused bottlenecks for its moderator workforce. Alternatively, it could let its algorithm take on more of the work — accepting that it would probably cause more errors.
"Because responsibility is our top priority, we chose the latter — using technology to help with some of the work normally done by reviewers," YouTube said.
"The result was an increase in the number of videos removed from YouTube; more than double the number of videos we removed in the previous quarter."
From April to June, YouTube said, it took down 11.4 million videos, the most it's removed in a quarter, compared with 6.1 million from January to March. YouTube said appeals from creators claiming their videos were removed in error had doubled along with the success rate of those appeals.
A man crosses a nearly deserted Nassau Street in front of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in the financial district of lower Manhattan during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in New York City, New York, U.S., April 3, 2020.
Mike Segar/Reuters
Bank of America recommends value stocks over growth names as major indexes breach record highs, but warns that value traps could damage investors' portfolios.
Value traps are stocks that seem inexpensive but are more likely to continue falling than stage a comeback.
Bank of America searched for stocks with relative prices falling faster than their earnings, and found that real estate investment trust, telecom, and multi-utilities stocks screen as value traps.
Investors should pick high-quality names with strong price momentum and fundamentals within the value space, the bank's analysts said.
Bank of America's analysts prefer holding value stocks over more expensive growth names, but see a handful of traps dotting the investing landscape.
Several gauges used by the bank identify the stock market as extraordinarily expensive. For one, the S&P 500 sits at record highs roughly five months after bottoming out on virus fears, despite the pandemic's economic damage still looming.
Stretched valuations across the market's darlings leave the best opportunities in value picks, the team led by Savita Subramanian said in a Tuesday note. However, certain inexpensive stocks pose a major threat to investors and should be avoided at current levels, they added.
The bank screened for companies and sectors that are inexpensive because relative prices are declining faster than their earnings. Though such stocks may seem like appealing buys at first, the analysts warn that their earnings deterioration can continue and leave investors with a rapidly depreciating asset.
Some sectors are fraught with traps specifically due to possible de-rating on pandemic-related risks, the team said, including real estate investment trusts. Others, such as telecom and multi-utilities stocks, have simply underperformed the broader market for too long, and generally need an external booster to drive shares out of their downward spiral.
The firm named KeyCorp, Prudential, Unum, and Welltower as just some of the value traps to be wary of due to below-median forward earnings, revision trends, and price momentum.
An easy way to separate the traps from the healthy picks is by screening for market quality, the analysts said. Traditionally cyclical sectors including autos, metals and mining, and semiconductors present strong value opportunities, the bank said, as their fundamentals and price momentum set them up for gains down the road.
We took a look at how health insurance startups Oscar Health, Devoted Health, Bright Health, Clover Health, and Alignment Healthcare fared through the first half of 2020.
The period reflects a time when the coronavirus pandemic hit, pushing the US into a recession, and leading many people to postpone routine medical visits and elective care.
The streaming search engine Reelgood provided Business Insider with data on the 20 most popular series on HBO Max among Reelgood's 2 million users in the US.
Of the top 20 shows, 12 can be found on Max but not traditional HBO.
Three months after launch, HBO Max still isn't on the Roku and Amazon Fire TV platforms, the two biggest streaming distributors. That means subscribers can only watch HBO content on these devices, not Max originals or exclusives.
The popularity of Max content with Reelgood users suggests this could be hampering the service.
That means that HBO Max subscribers can't watch Max originals or exclusives on these platforms, and new viewing data suggests this could be hampering the service.
The streaming search engine Reelgood provided Business Insider with the top 20 HBO Max shows that its 2 million users in the US had streamed from May 28 to August 16, based on data from the number of streams initiated via Reelgood on desktop and mobile devices. Reelgood did not disclose the demographics of its user base, which could not be a representative sampling of HBO Max users. But still, the data gives a snapshot into what HBO Max users are watching.
While HBO originals like "Game of Thrones" and "Watchmen" are popular, Max exclusives and originals have also broken through. Of the top 20 shows on HBO Max, 12 can be found on Max but not traditional HBO. In July, WarnerMedia also released its own (unranked) list of top 25 shows HBO Max shows, which included eight Max originals.
This all means that viewers using Roku and Amazon devices to stream are likely missing out on a big chunk of HBO Max's popular programming. That includes hit shows that WarnerMedia dropped millions of dollars for exclusive streaming rights to, like "Friends" and "South Park," along with originals like DC's "Doom Patrol" and "Legendary."
WarnerMedia's parent company AT&T announced last month that 4.1 million users had activated the Max app, 3 million of which signed up directly to Max. That means that just over 1 million users who were already paying for HBO through a cable or live TV provider accessed Max, a small number compared to HBO's more than 30 million subscribers. The lack of Roku and Amazon support could be one reason more have not switched.
Below are the top 20 shows on HBO Max, according to Reelgood data:
20. "The Wire" (HBO original) —1.8% of HBO Max streams initiated through Reelgood
HBO
Description: "In the city of Baltimore, there are good guys and there are bad guys. Sometimes you need more than a badge to tell them apart. This highly realistic and totally unvarnished drama series chronicles the vagaries of crime, law enforcement, politics, education and media in Baltimore as it follows a team of cops and the criminals they are after."
Description: "Relive the dawn of the South Park era, with legendary episodes of the groundbreaking, Emmy Award-winning animated classic. Follow everyone's favorite troublemakers — Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny — from the very beginning of their unforgettable adventures."
18. "Westworld" (HBO original) — 2.5%
"Westworld" season 3
HBO
Description: "In this series set in a futuristic Wild West fantasy park, a group of android 'hosts' deviate from their programmers' carefully planned scripts in a disturbing pattern of aberrant behavior. With an exceptional cast headed by Anthony Hopkins, Ed Harris, Evan Rachel Wood, James Marsden, Thandie Newton and Jeffrey Wright, 'Westworld' was inspired by Michael Crichton's 1973 film."
17. "I'll Be Gone in the Dark" (HBO original) — 2.7%
Robyn Von Swank/HBO
Description: "Directed by Academy Award nominee and Emmy-winning director Liz Garbus (HBO's Who Killed Garrett Phillips), this riveting six-part documentary series, based on the book of the same name, explores writer Michelle McNamara's investigation into the dark world of a violent predator she dubbed the Golden State Killer who terrorized California in the 1970s and 1980s."
16. "Love Life" (Max original) — 2.8%
Anna Kendrick stars in the HBO Max original series, "Love Life."
HBO Max
Description: "This romantic comedy series tracks Darby Carter across her twenties as she navigates work and romance in New York City, often with the insecurities of youth bubbling to the surface. We first meet Darby in 2012 as an NYU grad living with three roommates: impulsive best friend Sara, Sara's easy-going boyfriend Jim, and brutally honest friend Mallory. Following Darby over the next several years, Love Life shows how each of Darby's encounters brings her closer to finding her "person", even if she doesn't know it yet."
15. "Watchmen" (HBO original) — 2.8%
"Watchmen"
HBO
Description: "Set in an alternate history where masked vigilantes are treated as outlaws, this epic series from Damon Lindelof ('Lost'; HBO's 'The Leftovers') embraces the nostalgia of the original groundbreaking graphic novel of the same name, while attempting to break new ground of its own. Regina King stars as a lead detective in the Tulsa Police Force and a wife and mother of three."
14. "Doctor Who" (Max exclusive) — 3.1%
David Tennant, Matt Smith, and Peter Capaldi have all played Doctor Who.
BBC Studios
Description: "An eccentric yet compassionate extraterrestrial Time Lord zips through time and space to solve problems and battle injustice across the universe."
13. "Sesame Street" (also on HBO) —3.2%
Singer Sheryl Crow parodies her song "Soak up the Sun" with Muppets from left: Elmo, Zoe and Rosita on the set of Sesame Street in the Queens borough of New York Thursday, Dec. 5, 2002.
AP Photo/Frank Franklin II
Description: "For more than four decades, 'Sesame Street' has helped children grow smarter, stronger and kinder by providing preschoolers with the gold-standard in quality educational programming. Now, the iconic series comes to HBO with 30-minute episodes, new preschool-relevant themes, new opening and closing songs, an updated set, and new segments, characters, and more."
12. "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" (Max exclusive) — 3.7%
The original cast of 'The Fresh Prince of Bel Air"
NBC
Description: "Will's mom sends him away from his rough Philadelphia neighborhood to live with wealthy Uncle Phil and Aunt Vivian in Bel-Air. Will often has fun at the expense of stuck-up cousins Carlton and Hilary."
11. "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver" (HBO original) —3.7%
John Oliver poked fun at HBO Max on Sunday's "Last Week Tonight."
HBO
Description: "Breaking news, on a weekly basis. Comedian John Oliver satirically covers the week in news, politics and current events in this Emmy-winning variety series."
10. "Pretty Little Liars" (Max exclusive) — 4.2%
ABC Family/Freeform
Description: "When their best friend Alison mysteriously vanishes, four girls believe their secrets are safe forever. But when they begin to receive threatening messages from someone named 'A', the truth may be only one text away."
9. "Legendary" (Max original) — 5.3%
HBO Max
Description: "The fabulous HBO Max original reality competition series Legendary follows legit voguing Houses, some established, some new to the scene, as they compete for the largest ballroom grand prize ever: $100,000. This season kicks off with the iconic Houses of Escada, Ebony, Ninja, Gucci, West, St. Laurent, Lanvin, and Balmain in a heated, jaw-dropping competition to secure the bag and claim legendary status. Hosted by MC Dashaun Wesley, with beats by DJ MikeQ, each new episode finds these chosen family units facing off in fashion and dance challenges that culminate in nightly 'Superior House' designations, while judges Law Roach, Jameela Jamil, Leiomy Maldonado, and Megan Thee Stallion determine who has what it takes to move forward, and who gets chopped."
8. "The Big Bang Theory" (Max exclusive) — 5.5%
CBS
Description: "Mensa-fied best friends and roommates Leonard and Sheldon, physicists who work at the California Institute of Technology, may be able to tell everybody more than they want to know about quantum physics but getting through most basic social situations, especially ones involving women, totally baffles them. How lucky, then waitress but aspiring actress Penny moves in next door. Frequently seen hanging out with Leonard and Sheldon are friends and fellow Caltech scientists Wolowitz and Koothrappali. Will worlds collide? Does Einstein theorize in the woods?"
7. "The Alienist" (Max exclusive) — 5.5%
TNT
Description: "Set in 1896 amidst a backdrop of vast wealth, extreme poverty and technological innovation, this psychological thriller stars Daniel Bruhl, Luke Evans, Dakota Fanning and Brian Geraghty. Viewers will be transported into the darkest corners of New York City during the Gilded Age."
6. "Friends" (Max exclusive) — 6.6%
"Friends"
NBC
Description: "Six young people, on their own and struggling to survive in the real world, find the companionship, comfort and support they get from each other to be the perfect antidote to the pressures of life."
5. "Close Enough" (Max original) — 6.7%
HBO Max
Description: "Close Enough is an animated comedy series about a motley crew of housemates living on the east side of Los Angeles: married couple Emily and Josh, their five-year-old daughter Candice, and their divorced best friends Bridgette and Alex. Looking to make the leap from carefree twenty-somethings to adulting pros, Josh, Emily, and their BFFs are navigating that transitional time in your 30s when life is about growing up, but not growing old. It's about juggling work, kids, and latent dreams - while dodging time-traveling snails, stripper clowns, and murderous mannequins. Their life may not be ideal, but for now, it's close enough."
4. "Perry Mason" (HBO original) — 7.9%
HBO
Description: "The world's most renowned fictional lawyer is back on the case in this exciting HBO series that tells the origin story of master criminal defense attorney Perry Mason. Set in 1932 Los Angeles, this edgy, noirish update puts a new spin on the iconic character with Mason (Matthew Rhys) as a low-rent private investigator who digs into a controversial and politically loaded case."
3. "Doom Patrol" (Max original) — 9.1%
DC Universe/HBO Max
Description: "Doom Patrol is a team of traumatized and downtrodden superheroes, each of whom has suffered a horrible accident that gave them superhuman abilities but also left them scarred and disfigured. The members of the team have found their purpose through The Chief and have come together to investigate some of the world's weirdest phenomena. After The Chief mysteriously disappears, though, the reluctant heroes find themselves called to action by Cyborg, who comes to them with a mission that they cannot refuse. Doom Patrol, part support group, part superhero team, is a band of super-powered freaks fighting for a world that wants nothing to do with them."
2. "Rick and Morty" (available on Max and not HBO) — 9.9%
"Rick and Morty" was created by Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon.
Warner Bros. Television Distribution
Description: "After having been missing for nearly 20 years, Rick Sanchez suddenly arrives at daughter Beth's doorstep to move in with her and her family. Although Beth welcomes Rick into her home, her husband, Jerry, isn't as happy about the family reunion. Jerry is concerned about Rick, a sociopathic scientist, using the garage as his personal laboratory. In the lab, Rick works on a number of sci-fi gadgets, some of which could be considered dangerous. But that's not all Rick does that concerns Jerry. He also goes on adventures across the universe that often involve his grandchildren, Morty and Summer."
"Rick and Morty" is also available on Hulu.
1. "Game of Thrones" (HBO original) — 10.2%
HBO
Description: "Trouble is brewing in Westeros. For the inhabitants of this world, control of the Iron Throne holds the lure of great power. But in a land where seasons can last a lifetime, winter is coming ... and beyond the Great Wall that protects them, a forgotten evil has returned. HBO presents this epic series based on the book series 'A Song of Ice and Fire' by George R.R. Martin."
Here's a further breakdown of how Max exclusives have fared on HBO Max.
Reelgood
During quarantine, the percentage of shows being watched on Max that were exclusive to the service hit a high throughout July, according to Reelgood. Of the top 50 shows that Reelgood users were watching, 68% of them were Max exclusives.
Harvest Hosts members enjoy the view at the Cottage Vineyard and Winery in Cleveland, Georgia.
Courtesy Harvest Hosts
With international and interstate travel restrictions still in place, Americans are looking for creative staycation ideas close to home.
Enter Harvest Hosts, a membership-based network offering RV owners free overnight access to more than 1,500 wineries, farms, museums, and other attractions across the US, Canada, and Baja California.
Harvest Hosts Member Services Manager Lisa Manning told Business Insider that the company has seen an influx of new RVers this summer.
Membership starts start at $79 per year, the equivalent cost of two to three nights at a typical campground.
From a working alpaca farm to a moonshine distillery, here are nine scenic and off-the-beaten path locations Harvest Hosts members can visit.
The coronavirus pandemic has decimated many parts of the industry, but RV travel is not one of them.
Harvest Hosts, a membership-based network offering RV owners free overnight access to more than 1,500 wineries, breweries, farms, museums, and attractions across the US, Canada, and Baja California, has seen an unprecedented surge in membership and bookings this summer as Americans eye socially distant vacations close to home.
"Many state parks and campgrounds are either closed or have limited their parking spots. Also, RV sales are at record highs so there are more people competing for the parking spots that are available," Harvest Hosts Member Services Manager Lisa Manning told Business Insider, adding that her team is recruiting an average of 100 hosts and locations per month to make sure their members have plenty of options.
Harvest Hosts doesn't just offer an alternative to run-of-the-mill campgrounds; the annual membership is also extremely affordable. It costs $79, which is equivalent to the price of two to three nights at a budget-friendly RV park, according to RV rental firm Cruise America. For an additional $40 per year, members can access over 350 golf courses and country clubs.
While Harvest Hosts members are free to book any location through the Harvest Hosts mobile app, they must abide by a few rules: They need to own self-contained RVs — no tents or sleeping in the car allowed — and they're encouraged to spend money at each location in order to give back to hosts.
From a working alpaca farm to a moonshine distillery, here are nine scenic and off-the-beaten path locations in Harvest Hosts' network.
Heritage Farm Suri Alpacas
A restored 1965 Airstream sits outside the red barn at Heritage Farm Suri Alpacas.
Courtesy Harvest Hosts
Location: Flora, Indiana
Highlights: This working alpaca farm set on 120 acres is home to 70 alpacas you can interact with, plus three resident dogs and other barn animals. Guests can help feed the animals and purchase farm fresh eggs, honey, and alpaca products like sweaters and scarves. There's even a 400-foot zip line for kids.
Highlights: This sculpture field set on 18 acres in the South Dakota prairie consists of 50 larger-than-life sculptures, including fish swimming through seaweed, a giant potted rose, and 60-foot-tall Bull's Head.
Highlights: At Chateau Le Coeur, guests can wake up to views of snow-capped mountains framed by lavender fields, then head to the gift shop to purchase wine, chocolate truffles, and lavender gifts.
Highlights: Located both indoors and outdoors, the Mid-America Windmill Museum is home to 52 windmills that span American history, including a replica of one used in Jamestown back in the 1620s.
Highlights: This small-batch bourbon and moonshine distillery dates back to Prohibition and is located in Kentucky's Golden Pond, an area Al Capone used to frequent in search of the potent drink.
Highlights: Guests can watch skydivers fall from the sky on the 20,000-square-foot campus that includes a full service restaurant with a beer garden, a competition sand volleyball court, and tent pavilion. Regular RV spots cost $10 per night outside of a Harvest Hosts membership.
Highlights: This fourth-generation family farm with an 18th-century barn grows over 50 varieties of apples as well as berries, pumpkins, and other produce. It offers seasonal "pick-your-own" experiences and sells baked goods like apple dumplings in its gift shop.
Singapore's city skyline is seen as visitors take photographs from the rooftop bar of the National Gallery.
Roslan Rahman/Getty Images
Singapore won global admiration for its handling of the pandemic, when a surge in cases and its first few deaths drove the government to impose partial lockdowns and travel bans.
Despite efforts to curb the spread, businesses were hit hard, particularly those in the food and beverage, tourism, and construction sectors.
The Singapore government aims to limit the economic impact of COVID-19 through job creation, tax breaks, and financial support.
Companies are leveraging new norms in social distancing, while others are making steady progress into transforming their businesses to suit the new normal.
COVID-19's spread through all corners of the globe left economies in shambles and uncertainty. Singapore's low caseload and low number of deaths from the pandemic have allowed it to reopen the economy in phases since June 1, while staving off a potential second or third wave.
The recovery will be supported by financial and manufacturing sectors, which have weathered the crisis better than other sectors, the report added.
ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Office (AMRO)
Preventing unnecessary casualties with the 'circuit breaker' method
Singapore did not impose any harsh measures to combat the virus earlier this year, as community cases remained stable in January and February. But that changed in the months after and authorities confirmed a community spread and pulled out all stops to tame it.
The government did this in the form of a "circuit breaker," a lockdown imposed on April 7 that saw all non-essential workers working from home, the closure of all retail, service and entertainment outlets, widespread travel bans, and 14-day Stay-At-Home Notice (SHN) for travelers or in dedicated quarantine facilities.
Masks are required by law to be worn, and anyone caught without one would be fined $300 in Singaporean dollars, while eateries operated a take-out only model.
Singapore also set up a multiple-ministry taskforce to handle the economic and social impacts of the virus and put in place widespread travel bans.
A challenging time for Singapore's economy
Sectors such as tourism, food and beverage, and construction were greatly affected by the closures, social distancing regulations, and travel bans. Scores of staffs were laid off, while others endured pay cuts.
Singapore's gross domestic product shrunk by 12.6% in the second quarter, which ended in June, plunging the country into a technical recession. Singapore Airlines, the country's national airline, reported S$1.1 billion in losses in the quarter ended June.
Singapore Exchange-listed Koh Brothers announced that along with its subsidiary Koh Brothers Eco Engineering, it is expecting to book losses for its half-year financial results ended June. Despite the lifting of measures, it does not expect activity to return pre-COVID-19 levels.
Genting Singapore noted that its 2020 second-quarter fiscal year result was its worst quarterly performance, reporting a S$163.3 million net loss as global travel remains restrictive. Resorts World Sentosa, owned by Genting Singapore, announced it was laying off staff in July; the company did not confirm the number of employees affected, but it is estimated that about 2,000 workers were laid off.
As the plight of ordinary Singaporeans hung in the balance, Singapore's government made an unprecedented move in its efforts to assist Singaporeans through the hard times ahead.
In March, Singapore announced that it would tap its reserves for US$30 billion in COVID-19-related assistance, the largest drawdown of reserves in its history. Its status as a wealthy financial hub gave it the reserves it needed to handle the economic fallout of the pandemic.
In June, the government announced that 100,000 jobs would be created by 2021. It's already encouraging mid-career shifts by providing heavy subsidies for re-training and upskilling. It emphasized jobs created by the pandemic and social distancing measures, such as temperature screeners, logistics handlers, digital marketers, and e-commerce specialists.
Gaming firm Razer has pledged US$50 million to support business partners in the form of financial contributions, cashflow support, and investments. The gaming industry has seen a spike in customers in the last few months, as more people stay indoors and find new ways to be entertained.
With residents ordered to stay home, businesses that depended mainly on physical shops had to get creative. They raced to upgrade or establish their e-commerce channels, but the process has not been easy due to the sudden surge in online orders.
Jumbo Group, a Singapore Exchange-listed restaurant chain specializing in chili crab, the country's national dish, noted in its end-of-March half-year results announcement that "it intensified its digital and online presence."
ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Office (AMRO)
Areas of opportunity remain
Despite the bearish mood, certain sectors are thriving on new trends sparked from the impact of Covid-19.
Cloud-based platforms like Webex and Zoom allow companies to switch to remote working while supporting collaboration. With businesses going digital, tech-skilled jobs in data analytics, systems design, and cybersecurity have become 'pandemic-proof' even in sectors that are not traditionally tech-rich.
One such sector is medicine. Doctor Anywhere, a Singapore telemedicine startup that was established by an investment manager-turned-entrepreneur, has seen a three-to-four fold increase in business since the beginning of the pandemic.
Founder and CEO Wai Mun Lim noted that telehealth is useful in addressing workforce issues. This is especially so when healthcare workers were redirected to the frontlines to care for COVID-19 patients. It also ensures that vulnerable populations such as the elderly and the chronically ill are also taken care of, despite more focus given to COVID-19 infections.
With its proactive leadership, adaptive workforce, and cooperative population amid the stringent lockdown measures, Singapore is well-poised to recover from the pandemic fast. Industries are transforming and it remains to be seen how businesses in Singapore can adapt quickly and remain resilient as the country prepares for the new normal.
Listen to your customers and communicate ways you can help them through a crisis.
HRAUN/Getty Images
Clear communication with your customers can positively impact your business, especially in a crisis.
Customers want to feel heard and valued during a difficult time, so ask straightforward questions about how they're doing and how you can best serve their needs.
In any form of communication, stick to your core values and be unapologetically authentic — it'll set you apart from other companies.
At the end of the day, it doesn't matter what you are selling when your community is dealing with a crisis. How you communicate during this time directly affects how your customers feel about your company and brand.
This goes far beyond making minor adjustments to marketing messages. Crisis strategy means creating a plan to accurately and effectively communicate through your customer service team, your media channels, and your overall brand.
While you can't necessarily control the crisis at hand, you can control the way you choose to respond to it. I choose to do so in a way that makes customers feel heard and seen. Here is how you can too:
1. Know your values inside of the crisis
Your core values define the way you communicate. If you don't know what your core values are, your communication will be inconsistent and convoluted. Instead of saying what you stand for, say what you need to say in order to appear knowledgeable.
Take a look at the Black Lives Matter movement. Companies are communicating in different ways. If a business was already actively pursuing and embodying diversity and inclusion, their message will be starkly different from a company that is just now beginning to step into this mindset.
It is best to know where you stand and communicate from there, as opposed to pretending you are something you aren't. Authenticity can be uncovered. If you don't know where you stand, that is a major cause for concern.
Review, and if needed, reevaluate your values. Ask yourself: What do you want to embody moving forward, and what matters most to you? Lead communication with authenticity and you will lead your community into a brighter future.
2. Take a moment to pause and listen
Making assumptions stops you from listening and will leave your community feeling misunderstood or trapped. Some of the best ways to communicate clearly are to listen to what others say and open the floor for a dialog as opposed to giving a speech. The simple task of emailing your key customers and asking them, "how are you doing?" and "what do you need?" will go a long way.
When the COVID-19 pandemic began to impact businesses, my coffee company reached out to our customers to take a pulse on what they needed most. We quickly realized they were feeling nervous about running out of coffee beans. Understanding their need to feel safe, we offered a promotion to buy one bag and freeze one bag of beans. While we had full inventory, we ensured as many customers as possible by offering the promotion. On the flip side, we were also able to create a spike in sales.
Use customer feedback to paint a good picture of where they are living and adjust accordingly from there. Clarity in communication is key. Ask straightforward and simple questions, then listen and execute on what you hear are the needs expressed.
3. Take a stand and be bold
Forget what your audience believes in for a moment and focus on what you stand for. That truth will ultimately present itself, and it's better to be truthful from the start than lose customers down the road. There is nothing bolder than being unapologetically honest in your communication. Instead of standing by and going along with the masses, communicate your truth. Chances are you will stand out from the rest.
Be the business or the brand that gives people truth. Once you can stand firm in what you believe, communicate to your audience from this perspective and presence.
Keep in perspective that any given crisis will be a blip on the grand scheme of your career. It is how you respond to these small moments over time that creates your brand, your message, and your truth.
According to data from 2016, a quarter of schools in the US did not employ a nurse at all that year.
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Meg Sorg is a clinical assistant professor of nursing at Purdue University and a former pediatric nurse practitioner.
As schools around the US begin to reopen for in-person classes amid the pandemic, Sorg says many school nurses will be tasked with having to screen students for COVID-19 symptoms on top of their usual duties.
But according to data from 2016, a quarter of schools across the US have no school nurse at all, and many districts share one full-time nurse.
In schools trying to hold in-person classes this fall, students and staff will be looking to one person for guidance with the coronavirus pandemic: the school nurse.
Many schools won't have one. In those that do, the nurse's responsibilities are quickly expanding.
Daily screenings for COVID-19 symptoms, assessing illnesses, and isolating sick kids are adding to their already heavy work loads as they attend to hundreds of students and staff.
I am a professor of pediatric nursing, and I formerly worked as a pediatric nurse practitioner in a school-based clinic. I recognize the tremendous stress school nurses are facing right now as they navigate getting students back to school safely in the midst of a pandemic.
A quarter of US schools don't have a nurse
Prior to the pandemic, many school nurses were already overwhelmed.
The CDC recommends schools have one nurse for every 750 students; however, only around 40% of school districts in the United States actually meet this recommendation, according to data from 2016 from the National Association of School Nurses.
Many districts have only one nurse shared between multiple schools. In 2016, a full quarter of schools had no nurse at all.
Nurses' new roles amid COVID-19
School nurses play a critical role in child health maintenance that is key to keeping children in the classroom. As greater numbers of children with complex medical needs enter mainstream schools, school nurses increasingly have been tasked with providing more complicated care.
Now, in addition to their regular duties of ensuring students' immunizations are current, administering medications, and tending to injuries during school hours, many nurses are also responsible for screening students for COVID-19 symptoms, following the latest updates and advice about the virus, and helping decide whether or not a child should remain at school.
Often, they're working out of small offices with little room for social distancing. Those conditions may have been manageable before, but today, the tight spaces can increase their risk of infection as children suspected of having the virus are sent to the nurse for help.
Some nurses are expressing frustration with the lack of resources and with school plans that they say put students and staff at risk.
One Georgia nurse wrote that she quit because she feared her district's plan likely meant she would get infected and unknowingly spread the virus to students, their families, and her own. Others have raised concerns with their districts' move to return students to classrooms, rather than continuing online learning, while the community infection rate is still high.
When schools do shift to online learning, that doesn't necessarily mean the nurse's job ends. While some districts are furloughing nurses during virtual learning, nurses in others have continued connecting with students and working on immunization plans at a time when doctors' office closures may have put children behind on their shots.
Sarah Bence with her partner Dan on a trip to Prague in 2016, when they both lived in England.
Sarah Bence
Sarah Bence is American and has been dating her British partner for seven years, after they met while Bence was studying abroad in England. They've been long-distance for the last three years.
The couple tries to take turns visiting each other every three months, but it's not always easy to coordinate time off, and frequent international travel can add up quickly and create a financial burden.
Bence says they've found ways to save and afford their relationship expenses, including different budgeting techniques, using savings apps, and splitting the cost of flights and accommodation.
My boyfriend and I have been together for seven years. But for the last three years, we've lived on different continents.
Dan and I met at a Halloween party back in 2013. I was studying abroad in England at the same university he attended. I went to the party as a chimney sweep, he just wore a white shirt covered in fake blood. He's British, I'm American — it was a little cliché, but still incredibly romantic. That is, until my expiring visa got in the way.
After my year abroad, I returned stateside to finish college, and we stayed together, albeit long-distance. After graduation, we reunited when I returned to the UK for grad school. During those years, we lived an hour apart on England's south coast. After being separated by 4,000 miles, that hour hardly felt like long-distance at all.
In 2017, I finished grad school, and made the tough decision to move home to the USA for health, career, and visa reasons. Dan stayed on in the UK for his own career reasons. The cost? We'd have to (once again) enter an international long-distance relationship.
At the author's graduate school graduation in 2017. Shortly after, she moved 4,000 miles away.
Sarah Bence
So, we said hello to a five-hour time difference, FaceTime calls, and carefully counting our pennies because, unfortunately, international long-distance relationships are ridiculously expensive.
International long-distance relationships can have a big financial burden
Everyone likes to think of long-distance relationships as romantic — and they are. There's nothing as sweet as finally seeing each other after months apart. But there's also an immense amount of privilege that goes into relationships like ours, which isn't discussed nearly enough.
Beyond the passport privilege and the ability to get time off work to see each other, travel costs a lot. In typical years, we visit each other every three months. This means paying for (at least) four international round trip flights per year, between the two of us.
The couple hiking Scafell Pike in England, on one of their reunions over the past three years.
Sarah Bence
Managing these expenses can cause stress that I'm sure has ended many would-be long-distance relationships. For us, it's created resentment at times, and led to difficult conversations.
But after some practice over the last three years, we've found some go-to ways to keep the costs down, and improve our communication when we're not physically together.
How we save on expensive international flights
We've opened travel credit cards to help cut down on the cost of flights. We get reward points for daily spending (and extra rewards for travel expenses — which we have a lot of), which eventually add up to free or discounted flights.
I also opened a frequent flyer account with Delta to stack up my airline miles, because they're the major airline serving Detroit, my home airport. Thanks to this, I often get great discounts on round trip flights to London.
Another tool we use is Skyscanner, which finds incredibly cheap deals on flights, often by lumping together multiple airlines. This is how I once bought a $300 flight from Detroit to London. It was, however, a red-eye flight with a middle-of-the-night layover, no leg room, and on a budget airline that actually went bankrupt while we were in the air. Budget travel has its cons as well as its pros.
It took a while before we found a fair way to divide travel expenses
For a long time, Dan and I each paid for our own flights since we switch off who travels each time.
This worked for a while, because we have different airline preferences. I'm content to hop on a grueling 36-hour mid-week flight for a low price. Dan, who has stricter work hours and is much taller than me, prefers direct Friday night flights with plenty of legroom — and he'll pay premium for it.
A common but expensive view when you're in an international long distance relationship.
Sarah Bence
But after a couple years, we started turning his visits to me into an opportunity to travel elsewhere in the United States. So, even though it wasn't "my turn" to fly, I'd still be paying for a domestic flight.
Then, of course, the pandemic hit. Like many other binational unmarried couples, we were separated indefinitely. Even though it was Dan's "turn" to visit me this summer, as a British citizen he's not currently allowed to enter the United States.
So when international travel restrictions were lifted in early August, after nearly six months apart, I found myself scrounging up $1,754 for a flight to England — as well as the associated 14-day Airbnb to quarantine in.
The Airbnb where Bence quarantined in England, after spending six months apart from her partner.
Sarah Bence
I felt resentment building up at the unfairness of the situation, and turned to the No. 1 rule of any long-distance relationship: communication.
After hashing it out via FaceTime, we decided that going forward we'd split the cost of flights and any accommodation, beginning with this trip. We're both happier with this new agreement, and it creates less room for brewing bitterness.
This might not be the right answer for all long-distance relationships, but it did teach us to be flexible with our "rules" as our finances and situations change through the years.
We do our best to save money by eating in and staying with each other
Generally, we try to save money by staying in each other's homes, and cooking for ourselves. We also do a lot of hiking when we're together, because we enjoy it, and it's free.
Hiking the Pen y Fan mountain peak in South Wales.
Sarah Bence
But after a couple years, since we use all of our vacation time to see each other, we also started traveling during our visits — sometimes for a simple weekend away, and sometimes for a bigger trip. In February, we used our time to see each other to both fly to India, where we attended one of my best friends' lavish week-long wedding. These trips are always a decision balanced between budgeting and making the most of our time together.
The couple at the wedding of one of Bence's close friends in India in early 2020.
Sarah Bence
How we split costs in different currencies
Typically, whoever's home country we're in pays for most things. This reduces credit card and exchange rate fees for the person visiting.
We add these expenses to the Tricount app to keep a tally of who owes who, and we pay each other back via TransferWise, which cuts out typical bank fees associated with international transactions.
We've changed our lifestyles to limit everyday spending
In order to essentially afford our relationship, Dan and I both live frugal lifestyles to save up money to see each other. I use the free Mint budgeting app to set savings goals for our reunions.
The author's 2019 budget breakdown in the Mint app, where travel was her largest expense.
Sarah Bence
I'm actually more financially stable now
Before our relationship, I never budgeted and was always a bit terrified to check my bank account. Even though it's expensive, our relationship has made me more financially savvy. Thanks to budgeting, I actually have more savings today than I did before we began this long-distance journey.
Thanks to budgeting, the couple was able to visit Sri Lanka after the wedding they attended in India.
Sarah Bence
Although there's no denying our long-distance relationship has its challenges, it always feels worth it to be together. Ultimately, the money we're lucky enough to be able to spend on seeing each other is transitory; what we get back in memories and time together is priceless.
Adjusting your daily work expectations can help improve your productivity. (Author not pictured)
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When Nate Quigley and his wife Vanessa founded the photo book app Chatbooks, they realized that separating work hours and non-work hours would be difficult while running their company from home.
Six years later, the cofounders share the tactics they've developed to help manage their time more effectively, and tips they follow to create an uplifting working environment.
Quigley says to let go of '9-to-5' expectations, create time and space for mental breaks, and rely on work-flow management systems to keep projects on track.
When my wife Vanessa and I started Chatbooks — an app that makes it easy to create family photo books — we quickly realized that the lines between work and family time were going to get really blurry for us. Talk at the dinner table often bounced back and forth between product decisions, problems at our kids' school, upcoming auditions, hiring questions, and who could get a bunch of friends to come over to pack boxes for a last-minute marketing promotion.
When we started the company six years ago, the buzziest topics for startup founders were "healthy boundaries" and "work-life balance." But with a fast-growing business and seven busy kids running around, that was never going to happen for us. Instead, we decided to treat Chatbooks like a family farm: We'd come and go, do our work, live our lives, and stop worrying about where work stopped and life started.
The almost complete integration of work and life that has become the reality for millions this year (including our team at Chatbooks!) has been my world since 2014. As Vanessa and I have shared advice and rolled out new policies for our entire company based on our own personal experiences, we've landed on a few key efforts that can make working from home an amazing source of productivity and happiness for both companies and team members alike.
Recognize it is *not* going to be "like office life before, just on Zoom"
The first step in making this transition is to recognize that remote working life is just flat out going to be different. The things we value, the people we recruit and retain, and the ways we normally do the things we do — in other words, our company culture — will need to change. I know of one company that is requiring every employee to keep their video chat open (with a company-branded virtual background) from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day. That's insane. Working "the way we always have, but now on Zoom" is bound to lead to burnout and failure.
Release the expectation of "9 to 5"
"Going to work" used to mean getting to the office around 9 a.m. and leaving around 5 p.m. But we already had some flexibility around this: As my wife and I juggled the after-school activities of seven kids, there were plenty of times I left the office at 2 p.m., and returned to my laptop after the kids were in bed. With the move to an entirely remote team, we have encouraged our team leaders to release the notion of universal availability from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and instead trust that team members will get work done when it needs to get done. I've worked with individual leaders to enable this by scaling back the frequency of their all-team meetings, changing standup calls to written check-ins, and implementing "no meeting days." As a company we still believe in contributing "amazing hours" to our company mission, but when those hours happen can be determined (mostly) by individual small teams and employees.
Encourage real breaks
In an office environment, there are natural breaks: grabbing a snack from the kitchen, or running into a colleague in the hall. But in a fully distributed team setting where Slack messages keep coming in hot, it's so easy to feel trapped at our desks. Our bodies are not built for that many hours of sitting! We've encouraged all team members to use the "speedy meetings" setting in Google Calendar that automatically shortens meetings by a few minutes (instead of an hour, meetings default to 50 minutes, for example) to allow for a stretch or bio break between back-to-back meetings. We've also started to vocally encourage our team members to get up and get away from their desks regularly during the work day. Scheduling "remote walk-and-talks" where the famous "walking meeting" now happens over Airpods in two different subdivisions, for example, has been a great way to break free of the glare of the Zoom on-camera light.
Commit to deep work, in advance
But the real key that unlocks us from our solitary (or noisy) desks is embracing the power of "asynchronous work." When work doesn't have to happen at the same time for everyone, it makes it easier to prioritize the oft-elusive "deep work" sessions that can get crowded out by the noise and urgency of office life. As a leadership team, we have been encouraging more thinking, writing, and discussion in "async mode" in advance of (now shorter) larger group discussions. We're relying more on workflow-management software like Flow to manage day-to-day project execution, and knowledge-sharing systems like Notion to process results and codify learnings.
As our whole team embraces these distributed and asynchronous working habits and they become second nature, we're seeing more productivity and happiness across the board. And we've been tracking it: In a recent team survey, 97% of team members said they were at least as happy at their jobs now as pre-pandemic, and two-thirds of our team members were more likely to recommend working here to a friend.
Maybe all of these unexpected changes to our "working lives" are going to be good for us after all. By undoing some of the relatively new "go to work" norms that developed alongside the rise of the corporation, and instead sending us back in time to our little "knowledge worker family farms," perhaps we can make peace with just working and living and simply embracing the un-compartmentalized noise and boundary-blurring satisfaction of doing our "life's work!"
Mr. Market has turned into everyone's favorite punching bag, a heartless fellow utterly divorced from economic reality. This bashing of the stock market as divorced from reality has been par for the course over the past few weeks.
The Wall Street Journal recently noted, "Although the stock market has erased its losses suffered during the pandemic, the economy appears to be telling a different story."
Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman dedicated a whole column in the New York Times to the idea. And notable commentator Mohamed El-Erian recently proclaimed that "the economic/market disconnect grows ever more" on a day of better than expected US economic data no less!
The idea that stocks are divorced from the "reality" of the economy isn't exactly groundbreaking analysis. It has been a reliable trope for as long as I can remember. An article six years ago from CNNBusiness asked, "Why hasn't Main Street recovered like Wall Street?"
"The stock market is not the economy."
This platitude has long been used to say the market is either irrational, divorced from fundamentals or ignoring the economy altogether. It's a way for analysts to dismiss the market's ascent even if the level of economic activity is still depressed. There is only one problem: the stock market is not nearly this stupid.
It's about momentum, not level
Yes, it is fair to say that the stock market and economy are looking at different things.
This is because most of the firms traded in the equity market are in the business of selling goods to other businesses and households. By contrast, the US economy has a lot of service sector activity that is not captured in the equity market. A trip to the barber or dry cleaner is not something that registers in equities, but these people to people services make up a large chunk of US gross domestic product.
However, this is quite different than saying the market is ignoring the economy completely, which is what many are doing today.
For starters, stocks tend to care less about whether the economy is "good" or "bad" in level terms, but do tend to care about where conditions are "better" or "worse." This is one reason why stocks, a growth momentum variable, tend to slump in recessions and rise early on in recoveries even when unemployment is still elevated.
Neil Dutta
More recently, since the pandemic ended, economic data has largely been coming in ahead of consensus estimates, why wouldn't stocks rally in that case?
Importantly, it is pretty clear that the stock market is rewarding those firms doing well and punishing those firms doing poorly in today's economy. This undercuts the idea that there is a large disconnect. Our nearby figure tells this tale. The figure plots the percent change since February of S&P 1500 sub-sectors against the comparable retail sales category. The results send a clear message: the market is not, not the economy either.
Neil Dutta
As an example, non-store retail spending has surged since February and so have share prices for internet and catalog retailer firms like Amazon. Home improvement store spending has advanced and so have prices for home improvement retailers. Department stores and clothing retailers have seen sales crater and the stock market reflects that.
Worried about people not making their rent? Well, residential REITS have seen share prices sink since March. Travel and tourism? It's not as if airlines, hotels and cruise lines are leading this stock market recovery.
In short, the stock market may not be the US economy, but it is not ignoring the US economy either. Those analysts that continue to lament the market's rise would be better served trying to understand why they've been wrong instead of regurgitating mindless platitudes about the market's alleged irrationality.
Neil Dutta is Head of Economics at Renaissance Macro Research. In this role, he analyzes global economic and cross-asset market themes, providing leading-edge forecasts for institutional clients. Before his current role, Neil was a Senior Economist at Bank of America-Merrill Lynch covering both the US and Canada.
In a crisis like the coronavirus pandemic, many companies are struggling to stay afloat, which can make some employees feel scared or nervous to take their vacation days.
Renato Profico, CEO of Doodle, says during these stressful times, it's more important than ever for employees to take some time off, and it's up to their boss to ensure they do so.
Profico recommends leaders set a deadline for when employees have to submit their vacation requests, encourage impromptu days off for personal needs, and lead by example by taking vacation themselves.
Vacations have many positive effects, from helping people sleep better and improving their mood to increasing productivity and reducing exhaustion. So, you'd think everyone would be jumping at the chance to take time off, right? Wrong.
According to a study from the US Travel Association's Project Time Off, 52% of Americans didn't even use all of their vacation days in 2017. As the CEO of Doodle, I wish I could say I'm surprised by this. But I'm not. The United States has a reputation for an overworking culture.
But amid the pandemic and the massive spike in virtual meetings in the last few months, I'd argue that taking time off from work must be a top priority. Company leaders need to take full responsibility for how they encourage their workforces to actively use their paid time off (PTO). So, I've outlined seven ways leaders can encourage their employees to take PTO during the pandemic.
1. Set a deadline
Don't just ask all employees to enter their PTO requests through the end of 2020 into the company's absence management tool (i.e. BambooHR, Absence.io, etc.). Make it mandatory and set a deadline for when it must be done.
While this might seem rigid or harsh, it's actually for the benefit of your workforce. It ensures that they take time off, regardless of whether or not they can travel anywhere. The purpose of time off is to unwind, decompress, refresh, and reflect.
2. Limit rollover
Oftentimes, employees will hoard their PTO days because they know it can roll over to the next year. While saving is generally a good thing, it's not always the case when it comes to PTO. Oftentimes, those extra days and even weeks of vacation time sit there and collect dust, while employees work nonstop and burn out.
To avoid burnout, which can be especially damaging right now, I recommend that organizations institute a 'Use it or lose it' policy so that employees proactively schedule time off for themselves. This makes it harder for them to burn out.
3. Discourage vacation shaming
Don't let anyone in the organization make anyone else feel guilty about taking time off. This starts at the top with leadership. The executive team needs to actively communicate this to department managers and let them know it won't be tolerated from them.
4. Encourage impromptu days off
If an employee has had a heavy workload for a considerable period of time, pay attention and encourage that employee to take an impromptu day off (perhaps on a Friday or Monday for an extended weekend). If an employee needs to move to a new apartment or house, but can't seem to find time in the week to visit potential places, encourage them to take a few days off to do what they need to do.
The key here is listening. Ask questions about their personal life. Get to know them. Then show them that you value, trust, and support them by giving them more autonomy and flexibility to manage their workloads. Allow them to manage their time in the way that best suits them so they can take care of themselves.
5. Lead by example
If you as a leader (department manager, middle manager, or a member of the executive team) want to encourage your employees to take time off regularly, then you need to take vacation yourself. .
I regularly take time off from work. And I don't feel guilty about it for one second. The exact opposite, actually. I feel more energized, motivated, and productive when I return from my holidays. That's what I want for my entire staff.
I also make a concerted effort to not answer emails during my time off. I hire smart people who are fully capable of keeping the business running smoothly while I'm out, and I trust them completely.
6. Make well-being part of your company's cultural values
Don't just mention PTO days in employment contracts. Actively discuss the importance of mental health and well-being during the onboarding stage and in your all-hands meetings.
We have an Employee Culture Committee, whose sole purpose is to develop content, activities, and events that help our employees embody our values at work and in their personal lives. Before the pandemic hit, we were planning our regular annual retreat to an international destination, where our entire staff from five countries would fly out to meet, explore the locale, and bond with another.
Because working from home and being in quarantine has been somewhat taxing on everyone, we decided to host a virtual retreat. Over the course of three work days, we had employees block off half-days to take part in group activities, like a virtual escape room and a pub quiz. We paired up people with colleagues they may not usually work with or haven't met because they're located in a different country. And everyone was sent calendar invites to block off these times in their calendars so they wouldn't work or book meetings.
7. Get creative and don't be afraid to brag
It's OK to be happy about taking time off. There's no reason or need to feel guilty about telling people how amazing, fun, and relaxing your time off was. Share photos and videos, and tell funny stories and memorable moments. This not only shows your staff that you value PTO, but also that you want to forge more meaningful connections and relationships with them.
Make sure you encourage your staff to do the same. If you know a team member went on a camping trip, for example, ask them to see photos and ask specific questions about their experience. This will break down some of the glass walls and barriers that often exist between senior management and the rest of the workforce.
Also, share stats about the connection between time off and mental health. This will help employees see how taking time off can make a direct impact on their mental health and well-being. At the end of the day, it comes down to trusting your employees. Trust your teams to get their work done in the times that work for them (i.e. tuning into their productivity 'flow'), while also allowing them the psychological safety and freedom to enjoy their non-work lives.
Renato Profico is the CEO of the leading enterprise scheduling tool, Doodle. A qualified executive with 20 years of professional experience in digital companies, he most recently held the position of CEO for four years at a leading job platform network in Switzerland, JobCloud. In addition to his extensive leadership experience, Profico is an expert in B2B sales, marketing, business development, customer relationship management, and organizational structure and development.
Larry Kudlow spoke during the Republican National Convention.
Courtesy of C-Span
One of President Donald Trump's top advisers referred to the coronavirus pandemic in the past tense on Tuesday, suggesting the worst was already behind the US.
"Then came a once-in-100-year pandemic," Larry Kudlow said during the Republican National Convention. "It was awful. Health and economic impacts were tragic."
The US recorded 1,147 deaths from COVID-19 on Tuesday.
One of President Donald Trump's top advisers referred to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic in the past tense Tuesday during the second night of the Republican National Convention, appearing to suggest that the worst was behind the US on a day it recorded more than 1,100 deaths from COVID-19.
Larry Kudlow, the director of the White House National Economic Council, touted the strong economy during the first three years of the Trump presidency before describing the recession caused by the coronavirus outbreak.
"Then came a once-in-100-year pandemic," he said. "It was awful. Health and economic impacts were tragic. Hardship and heartbreak were everywhere. But presidential leadership came swiftly and effectively with an extraordinary rescue for health and safety to successfully fight the COVID virus."
His remarks recast the administration's management of the public-health crisis as effective while downplaying the lingering economic devastation stemming from it. Many experts have faulted the federal government for its response to the outbreak earlier this year.
Kudlow also painted a rosy portrait of the nation's economic recovery, calling it "V-shaped," despite evidence it may not be a swift one. The unemployment rate is at 10.2%, and the number of new jobless claims has risen after falling for two straight weeks.
He said booms were underway in housing, manufacturing, stock market, and consumer spending. The latter, however, rebounded strongly in large part because of the $600 federal unemployment benefits that expired last month, which the Trump administration opposed renewing during negotiations on a new stimulus package.
Kudlow said there would be additional tax cuts and another regulatory rollback if Trump were elected to a second term.
According to the COVID-19 Tracking Project, the US recorded 1,147 deaths from the coronavirus as well as 37,000 new cases on Tuesday. The number of new infections has steadily fallen over the past month, but most states have either paused or reversed their reopening plans in a bid to slow the pathogen's spread.
More work is being done beyond the physical office, which means organizations have to defend an ever-larger digital perimeter.
A wide range of security software and services are available, but those won't do any good without a robust strategy for the human factors of cybersecurity.
Business Insider spoke with security experts whose products and services perform best when their clients follow these seven tips.
Cyberattacks present a growing threat to businesses of all sizes, and the expense associated with security tools and services can start to add up fast.
Even so, there's no such thing as a perfectly invincible solution, especially when it comes to the individual behavior of the people working for (and with) an organization.
As more work gets done beyond the physical office — on a mix of personal and company-owned devices — the security perimeter that needs defending continues to expand.
To understand the best practices for managing the human dimension of cybersecurity strategy, Business Insider spoke with several experts whose products and services perform best when their clients follow these seven tips.
Start with education
The massive social, economic, and political disruptions happening in 2020 are creating a perfect storm of conditions for cyberattacks, says Darren Guccione, CEO and co-founder of Keeper Security.
"When there's lots of chaos, that's when they like to strike," he said.
When it comes to informing your organization, Guccione says even a small amount of knowledge about cyber threats is a significant advantage over none at all.
The first place to start is to make sure that employees understand how common hacks work, like email phishing and ransomware attacks.
Follow up with consistent training
Tech security tools have come a long way, but there's still a lot of human-factor risks that simply cannot be solved at any price.
"At the end of the day, every organization has to have an internal control structure and a set of policies to govern their business," Guccione said. "The software that layers on top of that is to enhance and promote and support those internal controls."
"Companies that don't train their employees are going be the most vulnerable," Guccione said.
Schedule frequent tests
Guccione also said that in addition to a regular cadence of knowledge tests and simulations, his company runs internal pop-quizzes, where Keeper employees are targeted for a cyberattack.
"We just run the simulation. Those people that fail it are contacted by our head of security," he said.
This is especially important in a remote work environment where the number of home-networks and devices creates new vulnerabilities.
"All of the distributed endpoints — every single one of those endpoints is a risk factor," Guccione said.
Think like an adversary
Many companies maintain separate security centers for IT and infrastructure, but Galina Antova, cofounder of Claroty, an industrial infrastructure security startup, says attackers don't care about your company's org chart.
"To an adversary, a network is a network," she said.
Antova recommends taking a holistic view of your company's digital exposure — from offices to manufacturing facilities to employees' homes — and thinking creatively about where your vulnerabilities are.
Antova also emphasizes the importance of diversity on your security team for finding different ideas and perspectives about the risks facing your organization.
Select user-friendly tools
Earlier generations of cybersecurity tools were designed to perform like highly customizable race cars, said Mike Armistead, CEO and cofounder of Respond Software.
Unfortunately, what they accomplished in terms of performance came at the cost of end-user experience that discouraged people from actually using the system and causing gaps in the company's digital armor.
"If the tool is making the person feel less smart, they're going to passively resist it," Armistead said.
Today, there are more intuitive options for businesses large and small, with a wide range of threat-response levels.
Establish checks and balances
Humans are inevitably biased, and that can lead to inconsistent decisions about how to respond to issues flagged by your security systems.
Armistead says that well-crafted processes can help correct for this by having different members of your team checking one another's work for possible mistakes.
Even highly experienced specialists can slip up when they're hungry, tired, or agitated.
Plan for the long-term
The digital transformation sweeping across businesses of all kinds is fundamentally dependent on maintaining safe networks and devices.
"Security is not an obstacle, it's a business enabler," Antova said.
As companies adjust to new digital challenges, they should remember that many of these shifts are here to stay and that a lack of preparation now could spell disaster down the road.
"It's like the brakes of a car," she continued. "They don't slow you down — they enable you to go faster because you know you can stop."
For a new event, "Fortnite" is getting a character skin titled Tart Tycoon — a reference to Epic Games' battle with Apple.
Epic Games
On August 13, the wildly popular game "Fortnite" got an update on Apple and Android smartphones that allowed players to bypass the companies' digital payment systems. Instead of going through Apple and Google, payments went directly to the "Fortnite" studio, Epic Games.
In response, Apple and Google pulled "Fortnite" from their digital storefronts and cited the update as a terms-of-service violation — which caused Epic to sue both companies.
The game is now unable to be updated through the Apple App Store. With the next "Fortnite" season update coming Thursday, iPhone and iPad players are about to get left behind.
"These are the final days of the entire 'Fortnite' community's ability to play together," Epic Games said last week. "Players on iOS devices will be left behind on Chapter 2 - Season 3 while everyone else jumps into the Chapter 2 - Season 4 launch on August 27."
When Apple yanked "Fortnite" from the App Store on August 13, the move had a ripple effect on the millions of people already playing the game on iPhones and iPads: When the next season launches Thursday, those players will be left in the past.
"These are the final days of the entire 'Fortnite' community's ability to play together," Epic Games said in a blog post last week. "Players on iOS devices will be left behind on Chapter 2 - Season 3 while everyone else jumps into the Chapter 2 - Season 4 launch on August 27."
In short: When the next season goes live, iPhone and iPad players won't be able to move forward or play the next season with their friends on other platforms.
They will, however, still be able to play with other iPhone and iPad players.
"Once Chapter 2 - Season 4 begins, players accessing 'Fortnite' will still be able to play the 13.40 version of 'Fortnite,'" according to Epic, "but will not be able to access any new content or the new Battle Pass. Cosmetic purchases will still work across all platforms."
There's another option for people who want to play the next season: Since "Fortnite" enables players to carry over progress between platforms, you could log in through another platform — Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC, Mac, Nintendo Switch, and even Android — and play the next season there. If and when Apple and Epic resolve their squabble, your progress will presumably carry back to the iPhone and iPad versions of the game.
Epic added a direct-payment option into "Fortnite' that enabled players to pay Epic directly.
Epic Games
"Fortnite" was pulled from Apple's App Store and the Google Play store on August 13 following an update issued by Epic that gave users the option to bypass the companies' digital payment systems (seen above).
Instead of buying in-game virtual money (known as V-bucks) through Apple or Google, players could buy it directly from Epic — at a 20% discount, no less. Apple and Google said the update was a terms-of-service violation for any developer with an app on the App Store or Google Play.
"Epic enabled a feature in its app which was not reviewed or approved by Apple, and they did so with the express intent of violating the App Store guidelines regarding in-app payments that apply to every developer who sells digital goods or services," Apple said in a statement.
In response, the two main smartphone conglomerates pulled "Fortnite" from their respective digital storefronts. Epic Games, anticipating as much, filed suits against each company.
Despite being pulled from Google's official Android storefront, "Fortnite" players on Android are able to bypass the Play store and download the game directly from Epic.
Got a tip? Contact Business Insider senior correspondent Ben Gilbert via email (bgilbert@businessinsider.com), or Twitter DM (@realbengilbert). We can keep sources anonymous. Use a non-work device to reach out. PR pitches by email only, please.
