fortune--2020-06-26--The enduring whiteness of the Fed

The enduring whiteness of the Fed

Fortune takes on the racial wealth gap, the Fed has a white man problem, Disney finally retires Uncle Remus, and Ursula Burns knows you know the answer to your own damn question.
But first, here is your racist-erasing week in review, in Haiku.
Pity the sweet cup,
once a health care hero. Will
it go the way of
The Chicks? Good-bye to
racism there in plain sight,
hello, Lady A!
Go on now, Sambo,
Plantations, General Lee,
and dead Indians!
Don’t come around here
asking for Eskimo Pies
(But keep this guy, please.)
Take care: What’s in a
name is also in your heart.
Keep Breonna close.
Ellen McGirt
@ellmcgirt
Ellen.McGirt@fortune.com
By the way: Fortune is looking for submissions for our 40 Under 40 list — this is a special year of transformation and breakthrough leadership. We’re looking for stars in all sectors, so share your heroes here.
On point
Bridging the Black wealth and opportunity gap In 2016, white families had an average net worth of $171,000; Black families averaged a net worth of $17,150—almost exactly 10 times less than their white counterparts, reports raceAhead's own Aric Jenkins. As things worsen in light of COVID-19, and as we face a reckoning on systemic racism, business clearly needs to step up. But how? This was the subject of a rich conversation between John Rogers, chairman, co-CEO and chief investment officer of Ariel Investments, and Lareina Yee, senior partner and head of diversity and inclusion at McKinsey & Company, as well as a group of committed senior leaders. Click through for the big takeaways. Also of note, McKinsey published ten actions they are planning to take to combat racism in their own organization; all commitments were made after deep listening sessions with a variety of Black employees and groups. Read those here.
Fortune
The enduring whiteness of the Fed: Who does it really represent? A survey of directors serving on regional Federal Reserve bank boards finds that some 72% are white and nearly 60% are men. It’s a problem in leadership, too: 10 of the 12 regional bank presidents are white, and only three are women. The overseers tend to be drawn from the banking industry, creating an insidery enclave. “While some Federal Reserve regional banks have made modest progress in gender and racial diversity, board members from the business and banking sectors continue to dominate leadership positions,” said the Center for Popular Democracy’s Fed Up campaign, which created the report.
Wall Street Journal
Ursula Burns is tired of being your go-to race explainer Since she stepped down from her role at Xerox in 2016, there have been no other Black women in the top spot at a Fortune 500 company. She appeared visibly vexed at being pressed into service, yet again, to explain where the Black people in corporate America are. "How many more years do you say to the people who have been excluded: 'Just hold on. Give them 10 more years. They'll get there,'" she said. "It's almost like [they're] speaking to the slaves who were slaves back then and [asking], 'Can you tell me how to undo slavery?' You are the architects and beneficiaries of a system today that you can undo.”
CNN
Disney may not be open, but they’re working hard behind the scenes The company's iconic “Splash Mountain” ride, based on the feature film Song of the South, is set to be “completely reimagined.” The new ride will use characters from The Princess and the Frog, Disney's only full-length feature starring a Black princess. “Tiana is a modern, courageous, and empowered woman, who pursues her dreams and never loses sight of what’s really important,” says the company in a blog post. Unlike Song of the South star Uncle Remus, the long-beloved Magical Negro who reminded white Americans of how happy slaves had been. The Song of the South has been banned from the company’s library since 1986 for its racist content; The “Splash Mountain” ride, which will be reimagined at both the Florida and California parks, opened in 1989. It was a good run, I guess.
SF Gate
Nicol Turner Lee is the new head of the Center for Technology Innovation at the Brookings Institution It’s big news. Lee is a longtime advocate for equitable access to digital technology and is known for her research on everything from broadband access to telemedicine, digital education, and racial bias in AI. She is currently a fellow in the institute’s Governance Program’s Center for Technology Innovation. She's a treasure! Here’s her recent photo essay exploring the digital divide facing a rural community in Baltimore. In this fascinating short video, she explores the bias that happens when the Internet knows you’re Black. Algorithms know a lot about her — she’s a parent, the kinds of shoes she likes — because of her online habits, she says. “They’ve also figured out that I come from a group of people that have been challenged by inequality in this country and experience a wealth gap. So, in many respects, I have become that person that the Internet has made me to be,” with dire consequences to her credit and employment options.
Brookings
On background
And so it begins: This man was wrongly identified by facial recognition software Looking back, this will be the moment when we should have intervened. Robert Julian-Borchak Williams was arrested at his home and held overnight, accused of a crime he did not commit after facial recognition software identified him as a thief. The photo from the crime scene, though blurry, was clearly not him. “No, this is not me,” Mr. Williams told the Detroit police detective. “You think all black men look alike?” As the debate about racism in policing rages on, so too must the questions that continue to swirl around facial recognition technology and the well-documented false positives involving Black faces. One expert told the New York Times, “I strongly suspect this is not the first case to misidentify someone to arrest them for a crime they didn’t commit. This is just the first time we know about it.”
New York Times
Racial bias in a commonly used healthcare algorithm dramatically disadvantages black patients I'm resurfacing this pre-coronavirus study because it is still deeply shocking. The algorithm was embedded in a tool sold by a health services company called Optum which is “designed” to flag patients who would benefit from additional care; researchers recently discovered that the racial bias in its method reduces the number of Black patients identified for extra care by more than half. “It’s truly inconceivable to me that anyone else’s algorithm doesn’t suffer from this,” lead researcher Sendhil Mullainathan, a professor of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, told the Washington Post. Correcting the bias would more than double the number of black patients identified as needing additional medical care. The bias occurred because the algorithm makers attempted to be “race-blind.” (I know, I know.) You can read the original research brief here.
Washington Post
Police officers speak less respectfully to black drivers than white ones The paper, efficiently titled, Language From Police Body Camera Footage Shows Racial Disparities in Officer Respect, draws a clear conclusion. “Such disparities in common, everyday interactions between police and the communities they serve have important implications for procedural justice and the building of police-community trust.” The data joins a growing body of research that identifies the police behaviors that have long eroded the faith of marginalized communities. "At the very least this provides evidence for something that communities of color have reported, that this is a real phenomenon," Rob Voigt, a doctoral student in linguistics at Stanford University, told CNN.
CNN
Where are the Black designers? Find out tomorrow, June 27, at this webinar hosted by Mitzi Okou, Founder, Where are the Black Designers, and promising a wide variety of experts, including Antionette Carroll, Founder, President, and CEO of Creative Reaction Lab. Click through even if you can’t make it — there’s a survey to take, a Slack channel to join, and some commentary to get you going. (This one from Maurice Cherry, delivered at SXSW Interactive in 2015 will be a powerful reminder that we knew what to do back in the day, and just didn’t do it.)
Where are the Black designers?
raceAhead is edited by Aric Jenkins.
Today's mood board
Yesterday would have been Tamir Rice's 18th birthday. Happy birthday, Tamir.


fortune--2020-06-26--Could COVID-19 become a preexisting condition if the Supreme Court scuttles Obamacare?

Warning : Russian hackers may be trying to target you with ransomware .
Here ’ s how

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Late Thursday, the Trump administration doubled down on its stance that the Affordable Care Act (ACA), or Obamacare, should be struck down in its entirety by the Supreme Court. And should SCOTUS heed the logic, it could have significant consequences for Americans in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, including the possibility that health insurers would be able to consider COVID-19 a preexisting condition and hike how much patients have to pay.
The administration filed a briefing with the court asserting that the effective repeal of the ACA’s individual mandate, which requires most Americans to carry a minimal amount of health coverage or face a fine, means that Obamacare in its whole should be struck down.
“No further analysis is necessary; once the individual mandate and the guaranteed-issue and community-rating provisions are invalidated, the remainder of the ACA cannot survive,” wrote solicitor general Noel Francisco, who argues cases on behalf of the government in front of the Supreme Court.
Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden slammed the administration’s decision as irresponsible as COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations mount across the country.
“Some survivors will experience lasting health impacts—like lung scarring and heart damage,” said Biden on Thursday. “And if Donald Trump prevails in court, insurers would be allowed to strip away coverage or jack up premiums simply because of their battle with the coronavirus.”
The Affordable Care Act is a wide-ranging law that encompasses far more than individual insurance marketplaces where customers can buy subsidized coverage. It mandates that people up to the age of 26 can remain on their parents’ insurance; through Medicaid expansion, the law has extended coverage for tens of millions of low-income people (one study by the Economic Policy Institute suggests close to 30 million people would be stripped of health coverage were the ACA nixed); and, critically, it bars insurers from hiking prices for someone with a preexisting condition.
That could have outsize effects for COVID-positive patients and beyond.
“If preexisting conditions were excluded from coverage, nearly all people with these conditions would see increased out-of-pocket costs,” according to the nonpartisan Commonwealth Fund think tank. “Average out-of-pocket costs for those with cancer or diabetes would triple, while costs for arthritis, asthma, and hypertension care would rise by 27% to 39%. Some individuals would see much larger increases.”
It’s less clear exactly how much insurers would hike up rates for a patient with the coronavirus, given the novelty of this disease. But since hospitalized patients can rack up big medical bills even under Obamacare, the price tag could very well skyrocket. Uninsured patients have already seen tens of thousands of dollars in COVID-related medical bills in recent months. If the Supreme Court strikes down the Affordable Care Act in its entirety later this year, even insured patients may face exorbitant costs without the health law’s antidiscrimination measures for those with preexisting conditions.


fortune--2020-06-26--Morehouse College cancels fall sports, including football season, over coronavirus concerns

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Morehouse College, a prominent historically Black college in Atlanta, canceled fall sports including its football season because of health concerns over the coronavirus.
“I know this news will be most disappointing to our scholar-athletes, especially our seniors,” the school’s president, David Thomas, said in a statement Friday. “I can only ask for your understanding and respect for the fact that the college is prioritizing your health and safety ahead of all else.”
Colleges across the U.S. are grappling with how to handle fall sports, especially football, amid the pandemic because they drive revenue at many schools and in the surrounding towns. Morehouse said its decision doesn’t apply to the upcoming winter and spring athletic seasons.
–With assistance from Brandon Kochkodin.


fortune--2020-06-26--Is sleepaway camp safe? Desperate parents are weighing the odds

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When Howard Zucker, the state health commissioner of New York, announced on June 12 that sleep-away summer camps in the state were too dangerous to open amid the global coronavirus pandemic, it merely confirmed what parents already knew: The time-honored summer routine has become yet another flash point in a country still struggling to contain the COVID-19 coronavirus.
“A lot of people are on the fence, but I can’t sit here and watch my son have no social life except for video games,” sighs Lizzie Grubman, a publicist and manager who is packing her 11-year-old son off to one of the few New England camps that are open. “That’s his interaction with friends these days. I finally said: ‘You haven’t left the room in five days; you are going to camp!’”
The crisis that camps are facing this year is even bigger than the financial downturn’s turmoil in 2008, when some families were unable to afford the annual $6,000 to $14,000 for their children to attend.
Summer camps, which began in the 1870s, were created to get children out of the city and allow them to connect with nature and engage in outdoor activities. Camps can take up to 400 children, while ages can range from 7 to 16. It generally lasts about seven weeks, from the beginning of July to mid-August.
New York’s decision followed similar decisions made in New Jersey and Connecticut and slammed the brakes on this part of an $18 billion industry, shuttering more than 85 accredited overnight camps in the state. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had issued new guidelines early this month, suggesting coronavirus screening protocols and daily evaluation of children and staff for symptoms and exposure to COVID-19. But it left the final call as to whether camps could proceed up to each state.
“Overnight camps have congregate settings and sleeping arrangements in close quarters that present too many risks,” explained Zucker in his ruling. He cited bunks, communal bathrooms, and eating arrangements as potential breeding grounds of infection. “In such a setting, even a single positive case in a camper or staff member could create an untenable quarantine situation.”
Yet parents are as eager as their children to get some breathing room. After such a long period of relative confinement at home, they are desperate to have their children reconnect with friends and engage in athletic pursuits.
In interviews, parents say they feel that the extreme safety measures camps are taking, combined with the low-risk ages of their offspring, present a minimal downside.
Still, many summer retreats have been ordered to close. Others have chosen not to open this season in the face of severe limitations on interactions and the potential for liability if children are exposed to the virus. In states that are allowing camps to remain open, such as Maine, it’s not always a clear-cut decision.
Jeff Konigsberg says he tried to find a way to stay open this summer. His extremely popular camps, Camp Takajo, which houses 400 boys, and Tripp Lake, which houses 300 girls, are about an hour north of Portland, Maine, and each costs more than $13,000 to attend. “Since the pandemic hit, I spent every waking moment trying to find a pathway,” he says.
He spoke with epidemiologists and infectious disease doctors. “I was in touch with the state of Maine and the CDC, trying to do everything humanly possible to create a safe and healthy environment,” he continues. “But in the end, we simply don’t know, and that was the determining factor: the fear of looking one parent in the eye and saying his child was not well under my watch. We also have 200 staff at each facility, and they are at a more susceptible age.”
Another reason it’s been hard to proceed is that parents have been so ambivalent about committing. “Our community was splintered, and many families were not going to be there,” Konigsberg explains. “A lot of people were giving us a soft yes. They didn’t want to sign up until the end of June, and they wanted to see if best friends were signing up and if their money would be refundable at any time.”
Other families headed out of the area entirely, escaping the city to such states as Florida.
“We are the biggest fans of Camp Laurel in Maine but just found out it’s not happening,” says Alison Brod, who owns a public relations company in Manhattan. After reviewing a variety of potential summer programs, she enrolled her kids at IMG Academy, a sports camp in Bradenton, Fla. “It has hundreds of acres, and each child has his own room and bathroom. There is a pizza cafe and sushi, and my kids are so excited because there is mental as well as physical training, which really gets them ready for school sports.”
Camp Winnebago in Maine is one of about 20 private resident camps in the state that have decided to forge ahead. Others include such well-known options in the Northeast as Manitou, Somerset, and Pinecliffe in Maine; Robin Hood in New Hampshire; and Romaca, Greylock, and Belvoir Terrace in Massachusetts.
“We hear the adult voices but know how much children are suffering,” says Andy Lilienthal, owner and director of Winnebago, which is in its 20th year and houses 140 boys and 60 employees. He and his wife, a pediatrician and public health official, feel that kids need camp more than ever this summer. “It’s like peeling back an onion, where we looked at every piece of our program and focused on how to make it safe. We were very transparent with the parents, and only about 10% decided against sending their children.”
Camp Winnebago tests children for COVID-19 five days prior to their arrival and then again five days after they get there. Temperatures are taken daily, and boys are divided into small cohorts and socially distanced from other campers. After two weeks, those groups are expanded. Counselors wear face covering, and there are no visitors or day trips, which puts the annual reunion with parents once or twice a summer, as well as inter-camp games, off the table.“We will have the essential energy of camp but in a different form,” says Lilienthal.
Lois Freedman, President and CEO of Jean Georges Management, is sending her 13-year-old daughter to Windsor Mountain, a co-ed sleepaway in New Hampshire. “I felt she deserved to salvage something of the summer and to be able to have a camp experience that she would have otherwise missed terribly,” says Freedman. “I had to weigh the risks and it does make me a bit nervous, but I wanted her to have a technology-free period of time and the camp is taking such strict safety precautions that I feel it’s the right decision.”
The American Camp Association insists that structured situations run by professionals can be less risky than having children stay home. “While no environment is 100% safe amid the COVID-19 pandemic, accredited overnight camps are supervised environments for children, where the risk will be mitigated,” says Susie Lupert, executive director of the association’s New York and New Jersey affiliates. “The benefits of camp for children’s mental well-being far outweigh the risks. As families are beginning to go to the beach and the parks, we feel overnight camp can be a safer environment because they are monitored with set protocols in place.”
Camp directors and owners who are operating this year may receive gratitude from gleeful parents, but severalwere concerned enough about scrutiny and opposition that they declined to be interviewed, or asked to speak without attribution. One such director defended his camp’s decision to proceed this summer by saying the job is more purposeful today than ever. “Camps were created over 100 years ago to get children out of urban areas, away from disease and up to the mountains, where there is an abundance of fresh air and sunshine. This is the purpose we were founded on, and it is still our purpose today.”
Grubman was encouraged by the fact that the camp is asking families to send their children’s bags ahead for screening. Counselors arrive two weeks early for quarantine, medical and cleaning staff have been expanded, and nobody will leave the property. “It’s their own little bubble,” she says.


fortune--2020-06-26--These big businesses are all boycotting Facebook ads

A growing number of big brands are boycotting Facebook ads in response to how the social media giant polices hate speech and violence on its service.
Consumer products titan Unilever, Microsoft, and Reebok have all joined the list (see list below) of companies pausing advertising on not only Facebook, but also its sister service, Instagram. In some cases, advertisers have also said they plan to temporarily stop advertising on Twitter.
“Continuing to advertise on these platforms at this time would not add value to people and society,” Unilever said in a statement.
Dozens of advertisers have now joined the boycott including Verizon, Patagonia, and Eddie Bauer. A number of small businesses are also taking part, though their retreat isn’t expected to have much of an impact on Facebook’s business.
The campaign, called #StopHateForProfit, began last week after a group of organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and Color of Change, asked businesses to stop buying ads on Facebook in July. For years, the groups have complained about how Facebook moderates its site.
The organizations accuse Facebook of being indifferent to posts inciting violence during the recent protests for racial justice, for designating conservative news site Breitbart News a “trusted news source,” and for failing to fight attempts to suppress voting.
Under pressure, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Friday announced new policies to mollify advertisers. For example, Facebook will no longer allow ads claiming that people from a specific race, ethnicity, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, or immigration status are a threat to others. It also will add warnings to posts from politicians, for instance, that may otherwise violate its policies. The company also said it would remove false claims about polling conditions in the 72 hours leading into Election Day.
Here are some of the well-known companies that are participating in the boycott so far.
Unilever Verizon Hershey’s Honda The North Face Ben & Jerry’s REI Patagonia Eddie Bauer Upwork Mozilla Magnolia Pictures Birchbox Dashlane TalkSpace LendingClub Levi Strauss Diageo Lululemon Adidas Reebok Conagra Brands Microsoft Puma Vans Denny’s Edgewell Personal Care Pfizer Chobani HP Best Buy KIND Snacks Madewell UGG
Coca-Cola, Starbucks, Clorox, and Ford also said they would pause ads on all social media, but that they wouldn’t join the boycott.


fortune--2020-06-26--You may want to avoid reopened restaurants after reading this new JP Morgan report on coronavirus ou

You may want to avoid reopened restaurants after reading this new JP Morgan report on coronavirus outbreaks

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A surge in restaurant spending appears to predict a surge in coronavirus cases weeks later, a new JPMorgan study found.
The firm analyzed spending by 30 million Chase credit and debit cardholders and coronavirus case data from Johns Hopkins University, and found that spending patterns from a few weeks ago “have some power in predicting where the virus has spread since then,” analyst Jesse Edgerton wrote Thursday. The study found that the “level of spending in restaurants three weeks ago was the strongest predictor of the rise in new virus cases over the subsequent three weeks,” in line with the firm’s recent studies using OpenTable data.
Notably, JPMorgan found that ‘card-present’ transactions in restaurants (meaning the person was dining in, not ordering online) were “particularly predictive” to a later spread of the virus.
And interestingly, the JPMorgan study also found that increased spending in supermarkets correlated to a slower spread of the virus. Analyst Edgerton wrote that the correlation hints that “high levels of supermarket spending are indicative of more careful social distancing in a state.” The firm pointed out that as of three weeks ago, supermarket spending in states like New York and New Jersey, which are now seeing a decrease in cases, was up 20% or more from a year ago, whereas states now seeing a surge like Texas and Arizona saw supermarket spending up less than 10%.
Still, JPMorgan notes that the correlation doesn’t take all factors into account, and states seeing a surge in cases share other characteristics apart from restaurant spending. The National Restaurant Association said in a statement sent to Fortune that “It is irresponsible to pin the rise [of COVID-19 cases] on a single industry. Restaurants have historically operated with highly regulated safety protocols based on the FDA’s Food Code and now have taken new steps to meet social distancing guidelines required by state and federal officials. We all have responsibility for wearing masks, washing hands, and social distancing.”
Indeed, states that reopened restaurants and bars earlier on are seeing surges in cases. On Friday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said that, “At this time, it is clear that the rise in cases is largely driven by certain types of activities, including Texans congregating in bars,” as the state announced it would be closing bars and reducing capacity at restaurants. New cases in Texas have risen over 5,400 as of Thursday. Florida, which has been criticized for reopening quickly, saw new cases spike to nearly 9,000 on Friday, also announcing it will reinstate some restrictions, Halsey Beshears, the secretary of the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation, said in a tweet.
On Wednesday, the U.S. hit a record single-day new cases, reporting over 38,000 new cases across the country.
Yet despite the massive hit shutdowns and the recession have taken on the economy in the past several months, consumer spending actually appears to be on the rise. Consumer spending in May surged 8.2%—a record jump, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, off of two months of steep drops.


fortune--2020-06-26--Vegas odds turn sharply to predict a Biden victory in the fall

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The smart money is on Joe Biden, apparently.
With the presidential election a little more than four months away, Biden has grown his lead over President Trump into the double-digits in some national polls. The White House’s questionable handling of the coronavirus pandemic—and the subsequent economic collapse that’s followed—has apparently eroded many voters’ confidence in the president, leading to his deteriorating poll numbers.
Vegas has taken notice. Bookmakers have shortened the odds of a Biden victory significantly in recent weeks—a trend that’s continued since the pandemic forced virtually the entire nation to go into lockdown in early March. According to online sportsbook Bovada, Biden’s odds are now sitting at -140, while underdog Trump’s odds have diminished to +120.
In plain English, that means that a $100 bet on Trump would net the bettor $120 in profits should the President win reelection; on the other hand, Biden’s odds mean that a $100 bet on the challenger would return a little more than $71 in profits should he win the White House. Yet another way to look at it is that Biden now has 7/10 odds of winning the election, while Trump has 6/5 odds.
Those odds are a dramatic reversal of where things stood earlier in this year, before the coronavirus pandemic sent the U.S. economy into freefall and damaged perhaps the President’s strongest argument for reelection. For context, on March 4—the day after Biden’s impressive Super Tuesday showing made him the presumptive Democratic nominee—Trump’s odds sat at -150, while Biden’s were at +160, according to data compiled by Oddshark.
But since then, the tables have turned—though given the year we’ve had already, it’s safe to say that nothing is certain till the votes are counted.


fortune--2020-06-26--Texas gets a taste of what re-closing the state looks like

Looks like hitting the bars won’t be on the menu this weekend in Texas.
On Friday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order mandating the closure of certain businesses including “bars and similar establishments that receive more than 51% of their gross receipts from the sale of alcoholic beverages.” The closures take effect as of noon Friday. Rafting and tubing businesses were also ordered to close, while restaurants can remain open if they only fill to 50% of total listed indoor capacity starting Monday, June 29. Outdoor gatherings of 100 or more people must now be approved by local governments, with certain exceptions, according to a release from the governor’s office.
“As I said from the start, if the positivity rate rose above 10%, the State of Texas would take further action to mitigate the spread of COVID-19,” said Abbott. “At this time, it is clear that the rise in cases is largely driven by certain types of activities, including Texans congregating in bars.”
The closings come as Texas is one of several states where cases have surged. As Fortune reported, Texas averaged 1,746 new coronavirus cases per day in the week ending June 10; in the seven-day period ending Thursday, June 24, that figure was 4,549. The average number of new cases per day jumped up by 2,527 in Florida; 1,828 in California; and by 1,616 in Arizona over the two-week period.
As Howard Koh, a professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and a former assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services told Fortune, “The fact that our most populous states are seeing trends going the wrong way is quite disturbing.”
Interestingly Florida, which has also seen a surge of COVID-19 cases, on Friday banned the serving of alcohol in bars, but did not close them. The announcement was made via a tweet from the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation. There was no further information on how long the ban would be in effect.
On Thursday, Texas also suspended elective surgeries in major metropolitan areas amid a surge in hospitalizations that have left the state’s largest counties, including Harris, Dallas, Travis, and Bexar counties, reeling. “These four counties have experienced significant increases in people being hospitalized due to COVID-19, and today’s action is a precautionary step to help ensure that the hospitals in these counties continue to have ample supply of available beds to treat COVID-19 patients,” wrote Abbott.
These rollbacks will certainly slow the economic progress Texas had previously been making. When Fortune examined state-by-state unemployment as of late May, Texas was faring far better than most other states, second only to Oregon with the smallest jump in residents joining the unemployment rolls. In fact, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, Texas added 237,800 new jobs in May, the largest gain of any state. Pennsylvania (+198,300) and Florida (+182,900) were close behind.


fortune--2020-06-26--‘Employment lawyers are going to have a field day’: Business leaders grapple with how to reopen

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Business leaders across the country are wrestling with how to reopen their offices and change operations as the virus continues to spread, according to executives who spoke at Fortune’s Future of Work webinar on Thursday.
“A lot of employment lawyers are going to have a field day with this puppy,’ said Ray Wang, principal analyst, founder, and chairman of Silicon Valley–based Constellation Research. To reduce risks to companies and workers’ health, Wang recommended giving employees choices and flexibility on when and how often they’ll be in the office.
Wang was joined in the discussion by director of the Wharton School’s Center for Human Resources Peter Cappelli; Domo founder and CEO Josh James; and Accenture chief leadership and human resources officer Ellyn Shook. The event was moderated by Fortune senior editor Kristen Bellstrom.
The speakers agreed that companies need to be cautious and listen to the evolving coronavirus findings coming from the health community. But it takes more than just smart return policies: It also requires transparency, Shook said. Accenture, she noted, has created a portal that spells out in great detail all the company’s plans and policies. She applauds the transparency of Delta Air Lines for announcing last week that 500 employees have tested positive for COVID-19 and 10 have died.
“One problem we are seeing with some of these companies is they are not telling [employees] much about what their plans are…When you don’t tell people what is going on, they make up an answer,” Cappelli said.
The speakers agreed that issues of race and mental health can’t be ignored either during this crisis. James noted his firm Domo’s recent announcement that it will interview one person of color and one woman for every opening at the company.
“A lot of veterans and people who had or are susceptible to post-traumatic stress disorder are in really bad shape because of this experience. And it is hard to know,” Cappelli said. “Having resources is a really good idea, but also, I think, making our supervisors reach out…Ask [employees] how they are doing.”


fortune--2020-06-26--As businesses started to reopen in May, so did the wallets of U.S. consumers

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Consumers are the backbone of the American economy, making up two-thirds of the economy. Recovering from the coronavirus pandemic will rest on how quickly people open up their wallets.
On Friday the economy got good news: After consumer spending fell -6.6% in March and a record -12.6% drop in April, consumer spending soared 8.2% in May—a record jump, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. The surge in consumer spending comes as states across the country eased their shutdowns in May.
While that figure is still down 11.7% from February, the increase last month is another sign the economy has swung from recession to growth. In May, the unemployment rate fell to 13.3% from its peak in 14.7% in April. And the total number of Americans currently receiving unemployment benefits—continued claims—is at 19.5 million, down 5.4 million from its May peak.
And the rebound in the economy may be greater than it appears. Why? The economy was likely still contracting in early May, with unemployment rolls peaking at 24.9 million the week of May 9. That’s what makes the May economic data so impressive: The upward swing in the second half of the month was great enough to erase any drop earlier in the month and still show a substantial gain.
But there are plenty of reasons to be skeptical of the potential for a V-shaped recovery. For starters, another 1.5 million initial unemployment claims were filed in the week ending June 20—marking 14 straight weeks with jobless claims topping a million. Before this pandemic, the U.S. had never topped 700,000 weekly claims. Secondly, many Southern and Western states are seeing surging COVID-19 cases, which could threaten the recovery. Texas even rolled back its reopening plans.
On Friday the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis also announced that personal income dropped -4.2% in May. But that isn’t as bad as it appears: Personal income soared a record 10.8% in April as many Americans received their stimulus checks. So the May drop may simply reflect a more normalized pattern.


fortune--2020-06-26--What is tanzanite? It just made this man a millionaire. And proved African mining reforms can work.

Earlier this week, a small-scale miner in Tanzania made headlines around the world when he became a multimillionaire overnight after selling to the government two of the largest tanzanite rocks ever unearthed.
The government agreed to buy the brilliant violet-blue-tinged precious stones, which weighed in at 20.4 and 11.2 pounds respectively, for $3.3 million—which is well below their actual market value—and put them in the country’s museum. Tanzanite has become something of a must-have jewel for celebrities looking to spice up their outfit with a striking blue gem.
Saniniu Kuryan Laizer, the 52-year-old miner and father of 30—yes, 30!—who discovered the tanzanite samples, said he planned to invest the money in a shopping mall in the northeastern city of Arusha and to build a local school in the neighboring district of Manyara.
But Laizer’s millionaire moment represents more than just an amazing stroke of luck for one man. It represents a rare victory for an African government in being able to regulate artisanal mining—a practice that employs more than 40 million people around the globe and is implicated in exploitative labor practices, human rights abuses, and environmental degradation. With tanzanite, Tanzania has managed to use market mechanisms to channel the insatiable forces of demand and supply to create a more sustainable and possibly less damaging industry.
Tanzanite is one of the world’s rarest minerals. It is found in only one tiny patch of the globe, just five square miles in size, in the Mererani Hills of northern Tanzania, the legacy of a violent clash of tectonic plates 585 million years ago that would also spawn the volcano that is today Mount Kilimanjaro. Only first discovered by a gold prospector in 1967, diamond company De Beers brought the gem to market for use in jewelry the following year. But in the past decade its popularity has soared, setting off a mining boom in the Merarani Hills.
One large-scale commercial mine, operated by a Bermuda-registered company called TanzaniteOne Ltd., has an official concession to operate in the area in partnership with the State Mining Company of Tanzania. It was once publicly listed in London but is now in private hands.
But hundreds of small-scale, unlicensed pit mines have sprung up all over the area—bringing with them many of the same problems that have plagued artisanal mining of other minerals elsewhere: unsafe working conditions and exploitative labor practices.
Because none of the miners were licensed, miners had to sell the uncut gemstones they excavated illicitly, giving rise to an underground economy of smuggling networks, loan sharks, and organized crime. It also spurred government corruption as officials were paid to look the other way. Meanwhile, Tanzania itself lost out on revenues it could have derived from royalty fees and mineral rights. The government estimated in 2017 that 40% of tanzanite was being smuggled out of the country.
These sorts of problems are common to artisanal mining, according to a 2017 report of the Intergovernmental Forum on Mining, Minerals, Metals and Sustainable Development (IGF). “Environmental and health and safety practices tend to be very poor. For example, dust and fine particles resulting from blasting and drilling cause respiratory illnesses,” the IGF wrote.
Small-scale gold mining, which uses mercury to separate gold from other metals, is especially problematic. In fact, artisanal mining is the largest global source of mercury pollution—estimated at 1,400 tonnes of mercury released into the environment each year, the IGF says. “Exposure to mercury can have serious health impacts, including irreversible brain damage,” the report continues. “Mercury is also difficult to contain and can be toxic at even very small doses. It can be transported long distances by air or water, poisoning the soil and waterways, and eventually making its way into the food chain. In sub-Saharan Africa, most of these risks are borne by women.”
And yet small-scale mining is key to the production of many valuable minerals: 20% of the world’s gold supply, 80% of sapphires, and 20% of diamonds are mined this way, according to the IGF. Key metals for electronic components are also extracted by small-scale mines: 25% of the world’s tin and 26% of the supply of tantalum, which is used in computer chips and smartphones.
In the case of tanzanite, the Tanzanian government first tried to wall off the problem—literally. Because the area where tanzanite is found is concentrated so densely, in 2017, Tanzania’s President John Magufuli decided to build a fence around the entire mining region. But fences are never very good at separating supply from demand. The fence did reduce the amount of tanzanite being mined illicitly, but it also drove prices higher and made smuggling more lucrative.
So, in 2019, the government also instituted a new policy. It decided to expand the legitimate market for tanzanite—as well as gold and other minerals. It began licensing small-scale miners and set up official government mineral trading centers where they could sell their production at a fair prices. The 28 official trading hubs established so far are all close to mining sites, so that small miners could sell their production directly, without having to rely on sometimes unscrupulous middlemen to take the minerals to markets in bigger cities, which had been a source of corruption in the trade.
The markets also allow the governments to efficiently tax mining production. Plus, the government changed the tax rate miners have to pay, reducing it to a 7% royalty rate on sales. Previously miners paid a litany of taxes and fees: 5% withholding tax, plus 18% value-added tax on mineral sales, plus 7.3% inspection fees, and a 0.3% government service levy on top. The new, flatter tax structure is “well designed to curb smuggling,” Matthew Salomon, the senior economist for the Institute of Taxation and Economic Policy, told trade publication Mining Technology. “The lower tax rate should provide incentives for small-scale miners to transact through the hub.”
That newly minted tanzanite millionaire, Laizer, shows that Tanzania’s efforts to formalize the informal mining economy is starting to work. He’s one of the small-scale miners recently licensed by the government. The government was able to purchase his huge tanzanite specimens because Laizer brought it to a government trading hub. In the past, it might never have even known the giant gemstones existed—they would likely have been spirited out of the country. “We are now moving from a situation where the small miners were smuggling tanzanite, and now they are following the procedures and paying government taxes and royalties,” Tanzanian mining minister Dotto Biteko said at an event this week celebrating Laizier’s find.
Having shown initial success with tanzanite and gold, Tanzania is hoping to expand the system to other minerals too, and it could prove to be a model for other mining-dependent economies throughout Africa.


fortune--2020-06-26--What to watch this weekend on Netflix, HBO, and more

Between traditional television, video-on-demand releases, and a growing number of streaming services, it can be hard to keep up with what one should watch week to week. Fortune is here to help you keep track of new releases as well as the occasional older title worth checking out. Take a look at this weekend’s notable arrivals, a couple you may have missed earlier in the week, and what else is coming soon:
Netflix
Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams star in “Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga,” which arrives on Netflix June 26. John Wilson—Netflix
Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga: If you’re seeking a new Will Ferrell comedy, you’re in luck—this new flick arriving at Netflix on June 26 features the comedian opposite Rachel McAdams as an Icelandic pop duo who get the chance to compete in the Eurovision contest. Reviews have been a bit mixed, but if you need a laugh, this may still be worth your time.
Dark: The third and final season of the hit German sci-fi show comes to Netflix June 27. Describing it as a “mind-bending conclusion,” the streamer says the series moves “beyond the concept of space and time.”
Earlier this week, the streaming service also added Eric Andre’s stand-up special Legalize Everything and USA Gymnastics sexual abuse scandal documentary Athlete A. And in case you missed them last week, The Politician (season two) and the seemingly simple, yet addictive Floor Is Lava are now also available to watch.
HBO
Michelle McNamara’s posthumously released book, “I’ll Be Gone in the Dark,” takes center stage in HBO’s six-part docuseries. Robyn Von Swank/HBO
I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: The six-part docuseries about true-crime writer Michelle McNamara’s quest to find the Golden State Killer premieres on June 28 at 10 p.m. ET on HBO. Read Fortune’s interview with director Liz Garbus and McNamara’s researcher Paul Haynes here.
HBO Max
Both the third season of Search Party (previously on TBS) and the second season of DC Universe’s Doom Patrol arrived on HBO Max earlier this week.
CBS All Access
In case you haven’t had a chance to start watching yet, the second season of Jordan Peele’s Twilight Zone reboot dropped on CBS’s streaming service on June 25.
On VOD
Irresistible: The political comedy written and directed by Jon Stewart, and starring Steve Carell, is available to watch on demand starting June 26. But be warned: Reviews of the satire are not particularly kind.
Meanwhile, Spike Lee’s 1989 film Do the Right Thing is free to stream through Sunday.


fortune--2020-06-26--Albertsons finally returning to the stock market after disappointing IPO

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After a long road back to the public markets, Albertsons has found a cool reception from Wall Street.
Albertsons, the second largest U.S. grocery store company after Kroger, priced shares on Thursday evening in its initial public offering at $16 each, well below the $18 to $20 range it estimated they would fetch last week. What’s more, the company sold only 50 million shares in the IPO, rather than the 65.8 million it and its private equity owners had hoped to sell. And so the IPO raised $800 million rather than $1.3 billion.
The grocer’s shares debuted on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday morning under the ticker ACI. In early trading, they were up 1.25%, a very modest increase for a new stock’s first day of trading.
The path back to the public markets has been circuitous for Albertsons, which operates 2,250 stores under its own banner and names such as Safeway, Vons, Jewel-Osco, and Shaw’s. Albertsons filed to go public most recently in early 2020, but it had attempted to do so in 2015 before aborting the effort because of market concerns about its debt levels. More recently, in 2018, it tried something novel: simply merging with Rite Aid and instantly becoming part of a publicly listed company.
The IPO allows its longtime private equity owner Cerberus to start a long-awaited exit from an investment made in 2006.
While Albertsons’ financial performance has greatly improved since its previous attempts to list on the stock exchange, including a big surge it and other grocers saw during the coronavirus pandemic, it remains heavily indebted, as is common with private equity owned companies, with a debt load of $8.7 billion.
Moreover, none of the IPO proceeds are going to the company itself to help it invest or lower its debt. According to Bloomberg, Albertsons’ debt levels are higher than those of U.S. market chains like Sprouts Farmers Market and Grocery Outlet.
To be sure, Albertsons was profitable in its past three fiscal years, while sales have increased modestly, hitting $62.5 billion. Under new CEO Vivek Sankaran, who came from PepsiCo last year, Albertsons’ performance has continued to improve, and the company has invested in remodeling stores, improving technology, and updating some store brands.
At the same time, competition has been formidable, especially on the e-commerce front: Walmart, the largest U.S. grocer with annual sales of $190 billion last year, offers curbside pickup at more than 3,000 of its stores, compared with 650 of the 2,252 grocery stores run by Albertsons and its various divisions. On top of that, Amazon continues to expand grocery delivery, and Target has been successful in rebuilding its food business, making the grocery sector even busier.


fortune--2020-06-26--Climate conditions on airline government bailouts are rare—and the coronavirus likely won’t be an ex

Climate conditions on airline government bailouts are rare—and the coronavirus likely won’t be an exception

The Dutch government on Friday said a multibillion-euro bailout for KLM, the country’s national carrier and one-half of the Air France–KLM group, will have green strings attached, in a bid to cut the emissions of a sector that has proved notoriously difficult to decarbonize.
The 3.4 billion–euro ($3.8 billion) bailout will require cuts to dividends and jobs, alongside a one-fifth reduction in evening flights, in part to encourage rail journeys, as well as a requirement to reduce emissions per passenger by half by 2030. Those conditions come on the heels of similar restrictions for Air France, which received a 7 billion–euro ($7.9 billion) bailout from the French government, including a requirement that domestic flights be cut by 40%. The airline had already committed to reducing emissions per passenger by 2030. Pre-pandemic, both governments held individual stakes of about 14% in the company.
The idea of attaching “green strings” to government bailouts for sectors that struggle to decarbonize has been cited repeatedly by climate advocates, including former Bank of England governor Mark Carney, now a United Nations adviser. But despite the EU’s overarching commitment to build a “green” recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as its pre-pandemic commitment to reduce emissions to net zero by 2050, the Dutch and French bailouts are outliers—not the norm.
Lufthansa, the continent’s largest carrier, will receive a 9 billion–euro ($10.1 billion) bailout from the German government, without climate strings attached. Besides Air France–KLM, only Austrian Airlines, a national subsidiary of Lufthansa, will face climate conditions for its government bailout, mainly focused on reducing flights for destinations that could be reached by train within three hours, according to a tracking project from Transport & Environment, Greenpeace, and Carbon Tracker. Aid to airlines in the U.S. does not include climate conditions.
Though Amsterdam and Paris are key international travel hubs and tourist hotspots, the continent also has a vast network of budget tourism, fueled by cheap, convenient flights. But as continent-wide lockdowns kept people at home over the spring and into this summer, the impact on the region’s carriers was immediate, nearly eliminating air travel, with most carriers requesting government assistance. There are strong signs that the industry won’t recover to pre-pandemic levels for years, if ever. This week, scheduled flights out of France were down 83% compared with last year, according to flight data provider OAG.
Though global emissions are expected to be sharply down this year as a result of the lockdowns and ensuing economic crisis, aviation is still one of the most intractable sticking points in plans to dramatically lower emissions. Though the sector, pre-pandemic, made up less than 3% of total energy-related emissions, and though design efforts have made planes dramatically more fuel-efficient over the decades, individual flights are incredibly carbon intensive.
An EU study found that flying was eight and a half times as carbon-intensive as rail travel, the least carbon-intense means of travel, and a study from the University of Michigan found that a single roundtrip flight from San Diego to Frankfurt was equivalent to driving a light-duty vehicle for an entire year.
Meanwhile, there are few viable options to decarbonize planes: Biofuels remain expensive and niche, and there are no large-scale, commercially available electrified planes. Beyond developing alternative fuels and researching electric planes, the simplest way to reduce aviation emissions is simply to make flying more expensive and less convenient, largely through a combination of taxes, including on jet fuel, which is currently untaxed, and limits on short-haul or domestic flights.
Not only are their routes already covered by extensive European rail links, shorter-haul flights are typically more carbon-intensive per kilometer because a large proportion of the plane’s fuel is burned during takeoff and landing.
Even industry associations have said that the sector must find a way to dramatically lower emissions. A joint letter by 13 European-based aviation associations, including the International Air Transport Association (IATA), to EU ministers and EU commissioners said that “air transport must be at the very core of the strategy the EU is charting for its recovery.”
The letter called for the development of sustainable fuels, incentive programs to scrap older and less efficient aircraft, and public investment in research, though it stopped short of advocating taxes or bans on domestic flights.
But both climate change and COVID-19 threaten the long-term future of aviation, albeit on different time scales, argued Dan Rutherford, the program director for marine and aviation at the International Council on Clean Transportation, in a recent post.
With a carbon price of even $40 per ton, a number backed by the conservative-leaning Climate Leadership Council and businesses like IBM, airlines would become loss-making, he argued.
“Today, airlines face a short-term liquidity crisis triggered by the coronavirus and a long-term solvency challenge from climate change,” he said. “To succeed, public bailouts need to address both.”


fortune--2020-06-26--With ‘Tenet’ delayed a second time, the summer box office window narrows even further

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With reported cases of the coronavirus surging, Warner Bros. on Thursday postponed the release of Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet,” further delaying Hollywood’s summer kickoff.
The sci-fi thriller starring John David Washington and Robert Pattinson will move from July 31 to Aug. 12, a Wednesday. In a statement, the studio stressed the need for flexibility.
“We are choosing to open the movie mid-week to allow audiences to discover the film in their own time, and we plan to play longer, over an extended play period far beyond the norm, to develop a very different yet successful release strategy,” a Warner Bros. spokesperson said in a statement.
Movie theaters had been pinning their hopes on the film as a major July release that could bring audiences back to theaters.
Warner Bros. had planned to re-release Nolan’s 2010 blockbuster “Inception” in early July as a way to lead in to “Tenet.” “Inception” will now open on July 31, the studio said.
Movie theater chains had planned the widespread reopening of cinemas partially around the return of new releases like “Tenet” and Disney’s “Mulan.” The latter is currently scheduled for July 24 but it, too, is widely expected to be postponed again. On Wednesday, Disneyland in California also pushed back its reopening.
With reported COVID-19 cases surging in Texas, Arizona, Florida and elsewhere, the earlier plans for a nationwide mid-July cinema restart became uncertain. On Wednesday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said New York would delay reopening cinemas while it continued to research the safety of indoor, air-conditioned venues.


fortune--2020-06-26--American Airlines will ditch restrictions on booking flights to full capacity from July 1

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American Airlines Group Inc. said it would sell flights to capacity starting July 1, abandoning caps on passenger loads that were designed to promote social distancing amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Customers will still be notified when they’re booked on crowded flights and can move their reservations at no cost, the airline said in a statement Friday. In addition, as of June 30, American will ask customers to certify that they have been free of Covid-19 symptoms for the previous 14 days.
American is ditching its restrictions on filling aircraft cabins just as the pandemic worsens in parts of the U.S. that had largely been spared earlier this year. Those areas include states where the carrier has major operations, such as Texas, Arizona and North Carolina.
United Airlines Holdings Inc. hasn’t guaranteed to block seats. By contrast, Delta Air Lines Inc. has said it will keep middle seats open through Sept. 30. Southwest Airlines Co. has committed to block middle seats unless customers are traveling together.
American fell 2.2% to $12.88 at 9:49 a.m. in New York amid broad market declines.


fortune--2020-06-26--Chamath Palihapitiya wants to be the Warren Buffett of tech investing

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Social Capital CEO Chamath Palihapitiya has high ambitions.
He wants to be the tech generation’s Warren Buffett.
The former Facebook executive is no stranger to turmoil. In recent years, his venture capital fund, Social Capital, closed to new funding amid an internal shakeup that led to the exit of several major investing partners—but despite the turnover, Palihapitiya has lofty goals.
“I think Social Capital is stronger than ever,” he told Term Sheet, when asked if he plans to build up his fund again. “I don’t think [Social Capital] will be a venture capital firm. I think eventually what I’ll do is I’ll take Social Capital public: My ambition is to be our generation’s Berkshire Hathaway.”
As part of that, Palihapitiya, who has invested in the likes of Slack, has turned his attention to later-stage companies through his Special Purpose Acquisition Companies, or so-called blank check companies that allow the investor to acquire a private company to take it public. Palihaptiya last took space tourism company Virgin Galactic public by partnering with Richard Branson in 2019.
In recent months, he also raised a second and third blank check company—Social Capital Hedosophia II and III—respectively aimed at a business inside and outside the U.S. The former raised some $360 million while the latter raised some $720 million.
Palihapitiya was light on the details, but said there’s been “robust interest” in the duo.
He joined Term Sheet for a free-ranging Q&A session, discussing his plans for creating the next Berkshire Hathaway, “arrogant” VCs, the link between capitalism and racism, the question of accepting funding from police pensions, and more. The answers are edited lightly for clarity.
Around the time you came out with your first blank check company, other venture capital-backed companies were choosing the direct listing route as an alternative to the traditional IPO. Why do you still prefer the SPAC?
The issue with direct listings is that it takes just as long as an IPO and it doesn’t raise any money, so it’s problematic for companies that need actual capital. And with a direct listing, it turns out you can get sued still: We’re currently handling shareholder lawsuits at Slack even though we didn’t raise any primary capital. So direct listings don’t seem to be the most efficient way. The SPAC is so elegant: It’s a 90-day process because it is effectively a merger—it’s a different branch of securities law that takes less time. The minute you shake hands and agree to a price, for example when [Virgin Galactic cofounder] Richard Branson and I shook hands in May of 2019, the company was public by October of 2019. I think SPACS are the way tech companies will go public in 50 years.
We’ve said that we want to do SPACs A to Z— we want this to be a repeat thing that we do over and over again and we think there will be a lot of companies going through the process.
Why do you think major capital firms didn’t jump on board the SPAC train?
I think VCs are kind of short-term focused, mostly stupid, pretty arrogant, and I don’t think I’m their best friend because I kind of speak the truth in a way that makes them uncomfortable. So I think they’ll hold off as long as they can with anointing us as a winner—until they realize they need to raise more capital to create returns in their fund, and then they’ll capitulate like every bozo that’s late to a party.
In the meantime, the founders who have control over their companies can do anything they want, regardless of what the VCs say. So we work with them. But will all VCs eventually capitulate and do it? I think so.
Slack chose to go public via direct listing. Did you ever bring up the idea of a SPAC to Slack?
No. Can I tell you why? Because the main actor, Stewart [Butterfield], already decided what he wanted to do. And as a person who was about to make [money], I shut the fuck up.
Do you plan to raise more funding for Social Capital?
I’ll raise more SPACs. Maybe I’ll do something in climate change at some point, but for right now, I’m very happy where I’m at. There’s also a lot of businesses that have been beaten up as a result of the coronavirus, so I’ve been spending a lot of time looking at that. I’ve spent a lot of time, frankly, in the credit markets and investing in credit opportunities with some highly structured, high-volume bets. There’s been a lot of asymmetry building because of what the Fed has been doing.
Do you ever plan to hire more people to build Social Capital back up again?
I think Social Capital is stronger than ever. I think eventually what I’ll do is I’ll take Social Capital public: My ambition is to be our generation’s Berkshire Hathaway. I don’t think [Social Capital] will be a venture capital firm—it’ll be a Berkshire, a holding company that, instead of holding Gillette and Coca-Cola and McDonalds, will hold technology businesses. If I hire more people, I’ll just get distracted. Investing is not a team sport–company building is a team sport, but investing is an individual sport.
Let me ask a provoking question. In light of the conversation on race that has been sparked by the death of George Floyd: Do you think capitalism and racism are inherently linked?
I’ve never thought about it and tried to explain the two together. Maybe the best way to talk about racism is to say that it exists, and it is not about the people that are overtly racist—because to be honest those people are fringe and easily identifiable. But then there is this large silent majority who, through some combination of fear or ignorance or a lack of desire to have a conversation, end up in a different place where a lot of these unconscious biases and microaggressions come from.
But if you solve racism, [I think] then capitalism has an even better chance of flourishing. And my personal opinion has always been that this combination of capitalism and democracy are the two most complete frameworks we have ever figured out. It is the best product-market fit of anything that we’ve ever tried. Fascism didn’t work out so hot, the features of communism weren’t super great, and socialism was meh. But the combination of capitalism and democracy is a feature set that allowed a little startup called America to basically kick everyone’s ass. But it will die unless you iterate. And I think in this next iteration, what young people in particular are saying is that we view everyone as fundamentally equal. I think it is time for the gerontocracy to realize that they are really out of touch with how people want to live their lives.
You think it is a generational issue?
In my opinion, we’ve seen a schism that is really defined by age. If you look at the protests, these are overwhelmingly young people, and overwhelmingly the people that have lost the most trust and faith in the system because they’ve been locked out from the annals of power. Let me give you a market example: The average age of a CEO in the year 2000 was 40. [Note: The average starting age of a CEO in 2001 was 49.] The average age of the average CEO now is, wait for it, 60. [Note: The average age of Fortune 500 CEOs at time of hiring is 58.] You have people who were given enormous responsibility when they were young who have decided that they are not going to pay it forward to the next generation.
These are also the people that grew up in a time of segregation. [Note: Segregation ended in 1964.] And out of ignorance, and the lack of desire to change to status quo, they are going to hold onto power and reinforce stereotypes and reinforces biases. And I think that prevents us from deconstructing what racism is: I think it is a public-health problem, I think it is a mental-health problem, and I think this is a prosperity problem. And I think when you look from those lenses, you have to eradicate it, because that is not how a functional society optimizes itself to be the best.
And that is also probably where you can find common ground that want change on some level, but maybe are scared of saying something stupid—and I get that.
So who are you donating to? When we look at the leading candidates now, they are older.
I’ve donated half a million to the Senate Democratic PAC. I think it’s really important that there is a Democratic Senate.
What about Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden? At 77, he’s not exactly young either.
I want to see who he picks as Vice President. But I’ll probably give him $250,000 to $500,000 there.
Given this conversation around police brutality, I wonder, would you accept funding from police pensions?
Some, yeah. I would want to know what is the collective bargaining agreement they might have with the city in which they operate. And now, what I would know to ask for are the behavioral records of the policemen and an audit of their records to make sure they are policing through the lens of social justice. If the answer was no, I would not take their money. And if the answer was yes, I would take as much money as I could and I would give them economic incentives to do more of that.
Lucinda Shen
Twitter: @shenlucinda
Email: lucinda.shen@fortune.com
VENTURE DEALS
- Tanium, a provider of endpoint management and security, raised an undisclosed amount from Salesforce Venture. The funding raises Tanium’s valuation from $6.5 billion to $9 billion.
- Byju’s, the Bangalore-based education startup, raised an undisclosed amount from Mary Meeker’s Bond. Read more.
- Sana Biotechnology, a Seattle-based biotech engineering cells as medicines, raised $700 million in funding. Investors include ARCH Venture Partners, Flagship Pioneering, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Baillie Gifford, F-Prime Capital, Alaska Permanent Fund, the Public Sector Pension Investment Board, Bezos Expeditions, GV, Omega Funds, and Altitude Life Science Ventures.
- Oscar, a New York-based direct-to-consumer health insurance company, raised $225 million in funding round. Investors include Alphabet, General Catalyst, Khosla Ventures, Lakestar, Thrive Capital, and new investors Baillie Gifford and Coatue.
- ENTEROME SA, a France-based clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the microbiome-immunoinflammation axis, raised €46.3 million ($52.6million) in funding. Investors include SymBiosis and Takeda Pharmaceutical.
- Enko's, a company using machine learning techniques to sort through chemical compounds to find promising candidates for new active ingredients, raised $45 million led by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation alongside Anterra Capital, the Rabo Food & Agri Innovation Fund, Finistere Ventures, Novalis LifeSciences, Germin8 Ventures, and TO Ventures Food. Read more.
- Element Analytics, a San Francisco-based data hub provider, raised $18 million in Series B funding. Activate Capital and Forte Ventures co-led the round and were joined by investors including Evonik Venture Capital, Kerogen Digital Solutions, High Tide Foundation, and existing investors Kleiner Perkins Green Growth Fund, Ajax Strategies, Blue Bear Capital, Schneider Electric Ventures, Honeywell Ventures and ABB Technology Ventures.
- Avalanche, a New York-based open-source platform for launching decentralized finance applications, raised $12 million via token sale. Investors include Galaxy Digital, Bitmain, Initialized Capital, NGC Ventures, and Dragonfly Capital.
- Doorkee, a New York-based digital rental platform, raised $5.7 million in early-stage funding. Simon Baron Development, Corigin Ventures and Alpha Edison led the round.
- api.video, a Bordeaux-based live video scaling company, raised $5.5 million in seed funding from Blossom Capital and Kima Ventures.
- Candidate Labs, a San Francisco-based hiring platform for sales and marketing professionals, raised $5 million in seed funding. Investors include Signalfire, Fuel Capital, and BoxGroup.
- APDS, a New York-based public-benefit corporation focused on education for the incarcerated, raised $5 million funding. New Markets Venture Partners and ReThink Education co-led the round and was joined by investors including Partnership Fund for New York City and Converge Venture Partners, as well as first-time investments from ECMC Group, New U Venture Partners, and Strada Education Network.
- Teooh, a London-based avatar-based virtual gathering platform, raised $4.5 million in seed funding. Investors include Spark Capital and General Catalyst.
PRIVATE EQUITY
- Heartland Home Services, a portfolio company of North Branch Capital, acquired First Call Plumbing, a Jenison, Mich.-based provider of residential plumbing services. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- Thoma Bravo and Madison Dearborn Partners will invest in Syntellis Performance Solutions, a software division spun out from Kaufman, Hall & Associates, a Chicago-based consulting service. Kaufman is backed by Madison Dearborn Partners. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- ZSi-Foster, backed by Snow Phipps Portfolio, acquired Hydra-Zorb Company, an Auburn Hills, Mich.-based provider of pipe, hose, and tube clamping for the hydraulic, HVAC, plumbing, and refrigeration markets. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
OTHERS
- Sazerac acquired the Paul Masson Grande Amber Brandy brand from Constellation Brands for approximately $255 million.
- Houlihan Lokey (NYSE:HLI) agreed to acquire MVP Capital, an independent advisory firm in the technology, media, and telecom sector. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- Springhill Entertainment, a media company created by LeBron James and Maverick Carter, raised $100 million to create content giving voice to the underserved. Read more.
- EW Scripps is weighing a sale of Stitcher, its podcast service, per The Information. Read more.
IPOS
- Albertsons Companies, a Boise, Id.-based grocery chain, raised $800 million in a downsized IPO Thursday. It posted $60.5 million in revenue and income of $131 million in 2018. Cerebus (44.3% pre-offering) and Bessemer (14.9%) backs the firm. It plans to list on the NYSE as “ACI.” Read more.
EXITS
- Keysight Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: KEYS) acquired Eggplant a digital automation intelligence specialist, from The Carlyle Group. This transaction is valued at US $330 million.
- Apple acquired Fleetsmith, a San Francisco-based cloud-based device management platform. Fleetsmith’s investors included Menlo Ventures, Index Ventures, and Tiger Global Management. Financial terms weren't disclosed. Read more.
F+FS
- Connect Ventures, a London-based seed-stage VC, raised $80 million for a new fund. Read more.


fortune--2020-06-26--Gap shares soar on news of a  Kanye West ‘Yeezy’ clothing line partnership

Can Kanye save the day?
Shares of struggling retailer Gap Inc. soared nearly 40% in early trading after the retailer announced Friday it’s partnering up with Kanye West to design a Yeezy clothing line expected to debut in 2021. The new line of apparel for men, women, and kids will be called Yeezy Gap, with products sold online and in stores next year at “accessible price points,” the company said.
The deal would be a 10-year partnership, the New York Times reported, but notably won’t include shoes. Yeezy designs sneakers for its partnership with Adidas AG. The rapper and designer tweeted about the partnership on Friday with the hashtag #WESTDAYEVER.
“We are excited to welcome Kanye back to the Gap family as a creative visionary, building on the aesthetic and success of his Yeezy brand and together defining a next-level retail partnership,” Mark Breitbard, global head of Gap Brand, said in a statement. West worked at a Gap store as a teenager in Chicago, which, Gap said, “brings the relationship between West and Gap full circle.”
Per the terms of the deal, West’s wholly-owned Yeezy will receive royalties and “potential equity” related to sales targets, the company said. Other financial details were not disclosed.
The high-profile partnership could provide a much-needed boost to the beleaguered retailer, which has long been in decline in the retail space amid concerns about the company’s style and operational challenges.
Gap has struggled this year, as the retailer called off its announced spinoff of the Old Navy brand in January, and reported a poor first quarter in June—with sales down 43% for the quarter and a net loss of $932 million. The company also furloughed 80,000 store workers in March as the coronavirus took a massive hit to the industry amid store closures. The company is also being sued by mall owner Simon Property Group for skipping payments amid the pandemic. Gap’s stock, meanwhile, has traded down roughly 40% for the year.
But based on investors’ reaction Friday, the Kanye-Gap crossover could inject some much-needed energy into the brand. West’s brand Yeezy has been a big performer for Adidas. The Yeezy line for Adidas reportedly added $1.3 billion in revenue for shoes last year, according to Bank of America, Bloomberg reported. The sneaker side of the brand was recently valued at $2.9 billion, according to Bloomberg.
Update: This article has been updated with additional details about the deal.


fortune--2020-06-26--Amazon is buying self-driving vehicle startup Zoox

Amazon.com Inc. is buying autonomous vehicle startup Zoox Inc., a move that could potentially help the e-commerce giant slash delivery costs and create a formidable opponent to ride-hailing and food-delivery companies.
Terms of the deal were not announced in a statement Friday. Aicha Evans, Zoox’s chief executive officer, and Jesse Levinson, co-founder and chief technology officer, will continue to lead the company as a standalone business.
“Zoox is working to imagine, invent, and design a world-class autonomous ride-hailing experience,” said Jeff Wilke, the head of Amazon’s worldwide retail business.
Shipping costs are one of Amazon’s largest expenses, and Zoox could help the company shave off more than $20 billion annually, Morgan Stanley analysts have estimated.
Still, autonomous vehicles have been a target of Silicon Valley giants and venture capital investors for years, but technical and regulatory hurdles have made getting safe AVs on the road a longer slog than the boosters had hoped.
Bulking up in driverless technology extends Amazon’s efforts to build its own third-party logistics network. Last year, Amazon invested along with Silicon Valley venture firm Sequoia Capital in Aurora Innovation Inc., a self-driving startup led by the former heads of Google’s driverless car project and Tesla Inc.’s Autopilot team. Amazon has also backed Rivian Automotive Inc., the electric pickup and SUV maker.
Zoox, a 1,000-person startup based in Foster City, California, has been developing a prototype for driverless cars to ferry passengers around in urban areas via an app, but Amazon could potentially also use the vehicles to deliver packages. Seattle-based Amazon has also tested sidewalk crawling robots and drones as alternative delivery methods.
In the statement, Amazon highlighted Zoox’s “ground-up vehicle” that “focuses on the ride-hailing customer.”
Founded in 2014, Zoox had outsize ambition and financial backing. The startup wanted to build a fully driverless car by this year. However, after a 2018 funding round that valued Zoox at $3.2 billion, the startup’s board voted to oust Chief Executive Officer Tim Kentley-Klay. The executive criticized the move, saying the directors were “optimizing for a little money in hand at the expense of profound progress.”


fortune--2020-06-26--Microsoft is permanently closing all but four of its retail stores

Microsoft is giving up on being a retailer.
The tech company said on Friday it was permanently closing all of its retail stores except for four flagship stores, saying it can provide customers its sales, training, and support services remotely and that the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated to the company that it could easily do so.
“Our sales have grown online as our product portfolio has evolved to largely digital offerings, and our talented team has proven success serving customers beyond any physical location,” said David Porter, the head of Microsoft’s stores unit, in a statement.
The closing of most of Microsoft’s roughly 70 U.S. locations, typically located in shopping malls, deals another big blow to mall operators facing department store bankruptcies and clothing chain closures. As is the case with rival Apple’s larger fleet, Microsoft Stores attract a more affluent shopper. Microsoft operates another 45 or so locations in other countries.
But Microsoft has found it can serve customers more nimbly by not having them tied to one location, reducing the need for brick-and-mortar spaces, especially given the traffic problems many malls are having. The company will keep four flagship locations: in New York on Fifth Avenue, London, Sydney, and on its home campus in Redmond, Wash.
The first Microsoft Store opened in 2009 as the company sought to compete with Apple’s successful retail experience and have customers try out Microsoft software products in person. (Microsoft went so far as to open that splashy store on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue, close to Apple’s glass cube by the entrance to Central Park.) But Microsoft products are less consumer-focused than Apple’s, and its stores paled in comparison to Apple’s in terms of their popularity.
Microsoft said in its press release that its online store at Microsoft.com and the Xbox and Windows storefronts reach “up to 1.2 billion monthly customers in 190 markets.” At the same time, as both Apple’s and Nike’s results consistently show, good stores can enhance the business of even the most digitally savvy companies.


fortune--2020-06-26--How a Bill Gates-backed startup plans to save farming with A.I.

This is the web version of Data Sheet, Fortune’s daily newsletter on the top tech news. To get it delivered daily to your in-box, sign up here.
When you read about A.I. in this newsletter, you usually don’t bat an eye. A.I. is “artificial intelligence,” that decades-old discipline in the field of computer science that’s (finally) showing some real promise lately.
But there’s another A.I. out there, one that’s been in development for centuries, or even millennia. It’s the shorthand for the “active ingredient” in agricultural herbicides, fungicides, and insecticides.
Which, of course, begs the question: Can improving A.I. help improve A.I.? Or is that A.I. improving A.I.? You know what I mean.
That is, the global agriculture industry has been relying on a lot of the same active ingredients to fight pests and diseases for many decades now. And, just like with human diseases getting more resistant to antibiotics, the crop-destroying villains are getting more immune and harder to kill. Throw in the growing (and hungry) global population and the complications of climate change, and you’ve got a world-class challenge, one that’s caught the attention of Bill and Melinda Gates lately.
That’s where Jacqueline Heard comes in. I’m not sure how many people have a PhD in biology plus an MBA from M.I.T. plus a post-doc fellowship at Harvard Medical School studying agricultural genetics, but that’s a lot of years of school. After putting her talents to work as a scientist for Monsanto for almost a dozen years, Heard has a new role. Today’s the day her three-year-old startup, Enko Chem, emerges from stealth mode to announce what it’s all about. And what it’s about is A.I. and A.I.
Enko and her team are trying to use some of the most cutting-edge machine learning techniques to sort through millions, or even billions, of chemical compounds to find promising candidates for new active ingredients. If that sounds familiar, it’s because that is the model that the pharmaceutical industry has been pursuing to find new drugs for humans more quickly and at much lower cost.
What worked for pharma should work for agriculture, too, the CEO says. “Pharma has de-risked this technology,” Heard explained to me over the phone this week. “You see it in evidence of licenses, with large pharma companies bringing the technology in house. It’s been a very exciting development in drug discovery.”
Enko’s caught the attention of the Gates’ foundation and other major venture capitalists. On Friday, the startup announced its series B funding of $45 million, led by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation alongside Anterra Capital, the Rabo Food & Agri Innovation Fund, Finistere Ventures, Novalis LifeSciences, Germin8 Ventures, and TO Ventures Food.
In its first three years, Enko proved that the model should work and struck partnerships to fill in some gaps, like licensing a massive database of compounds to feed its algorithms. Still, actual products remain five or six years away, Heard estimates. “There are a ton of things that can go wrong between now and the launch of a product but if things keep continuing on this path, I’m hoping it’s a nine-year process,” she says.
We’ll check back in 2026. Have a great weekend.
Aaron Pressman
@ampressman
aaron.pressman@fortune.com
NEWSWORTHY
If at first you don't succeed. After years of trial and effort, Microsoft is throwing in the towel on another of former CEO Steve Ballmer's mistaken strategies. The software giant said Friday it will permanently close all of its physical retail locations and take a charge of $450 million against its next quarterly earnings. The stores have been closed since March due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Store employees will be redeployed to sales, training, and support efforts.
Jibe and tack. Telecom giant Verizon has long been at the head of the line complaining to regulators about the misdeeds of Internet giants like Google and Facebook. On Thursday, the company found a new way to land a blow, saying it would join the growing advertising boycott of Facebook over the social network's failure to curb the spread of racist and other hateful posts. As we mentioned yesterday, the boycott already includes REI, Patagonia, and Unilever's Ben & Jerry’s.
Year of the Perdue Wonderchicken. I don't know how far we are from the future that David Foster Wallace imagined in his classic novel Infinite Jest when even the name of the year has been sold for sponsorship ("Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment"), but it feels like we're getting pretty close. Amazon on Thursday announced it had bought sponsorship rights to the venue where Seattle's women's basketball and new hockey team play and will rename the building the Climate Pledge Arena in honor of the company's recent...climate pledge.
Hands on the wheel. In more substantial Amazon news, the e-commerce giant is buying autonomous vehicle startup Zoox, run by former Intel exec Aicha Evans, for $1.2 billion. Amazon could use Zoox tech in its warehouses and home delivery network in addition to following the six-year-old startup's plans to take on Waymo in the automated taxi business. Meanwhile, Waymo signed up Volvo as its fourth major automaker to partner on using its technology.
Am I covered for that? Insurance tech startup Lemonade is getting close to going public. The company, which uses A.I. to help sell its coverage, said Thursday it plans to sell shares at $23 to $26. At that range, according to Business Insider, Lemonade would be valued around $1.3 billion, less than the $2 billion valuation reached in prior private funding rounds. Maybe that's because Lemonade lost $109 million last year on revenue of $64 million.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
The pandemic and resulting economic chaos has dramatically accelerated some trends that were already altering markets, albeit more slowly. Accenture CEO Julie Sweet, in an essay for Fortune, has five recommendations for companies trying to cope with the quickened pace of change around digital transformations. Here are a few:
Build your digital “A-Team.” All companies must now be as good as digital natives to deliver the first-class experiences customers and employees have come to expect. But creating your digital foundation quickly cannot be done alone, and it requires new kinds of relationships with digital, technology, and cloud companies. Recruit the handful who can help you build and become part of your digital core, who are invested in your success and who will give your business the attention and resources it demands.
Be a learner. Organizations must think beyond traditional ways of doing business to solve complex problems. Learn from your customers, your employees, and the leaders in your own and other industries. In response to COVID-19, first responders in health and public sector organizations quickly adapted successful interactive virtual agent models from telecommunications and financial services organizations with great success.
FOR YOUR WEEKEND READING PLEASURE
A few long reads I came across this week:
My dad launched the quest to find alien intelligence. It changed astronomy. (National Geographic)
Sixty years ago, on a chilly West Virginia morning, Frank Drake began to scan the stars for signals from faraway civilizations.
How K-pop fans are weaponizing the internet for Black Lives Matter (Vox)
And four other ways people are using social media to support nationwide protests.
Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Most Revolutionary Role Yet (WSJ Magazine)
As Disney+ prepares to stream the highly anticipated film version of ‘Hamilton’ on July 3, the Broadway sensation feels as apt as ever: “It all hits in different ways, based on where America is,” Miranda says.
Boss of the Beach (New York Magazine)
For 40 years, the city’s lifeguard corps has been mired in controversy, and for 40 years it’s been run by one man: Peter Stein.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
2 reasons China may be ramping up its digital currency project By Veta Chan
New bill would bar federal agencies from using facial-recognition technology By Jonathan Vanian
Can’t wait for iOS 14? Download the ‘beta’ version for early access By Robert Hackett
Facebook tackles a persistent problem: users sharing old news By Danielle Abril
How a ‘creator economy’ could help writers and artists triumph over Facebook and Google By Samir Patil
Wirecard shows auditing is broken. Here’s why—and how to fix it By Jeremy Kahn
Small-business owners shouldn’t stop innovating during the pandemic By Lucinda Shen
(Some of these stories require a subscription to access. Thank you for supporting our journalism.)
BEFORE YOU GO
You've heard about the murder hornets, right? Well, technically, that's just their nickname. More formally, the Asian giant hornet, or Vespa mandarinia, has been spotted in the northwest part of the U.S. killing honeybee colonies and doling out insanely painful (and even life-threatening) stings to humans.
How did the 2-inch long flying beasts get here? Probably as stowaways aboard a cargo ship from Asia, theorizes Canadian beekeeper Moufida Holubeshen, who is tracing the onslaught. “All it needs is a tiny little space, essentially the size of its body,” Holubeshen tells The Guardian.
Tiny, indeed. I'm going to spend the weekend not thinking about how long it may take Vespa mandarinia to hitchhike to the East Coast.


fortune--2020-06-26--How businesses can help fix the racial wealth gap

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The racial wealth gap in the United States is staggering.
In 2016, white families had an average net worth of $171,000; Black families averaged a net worth of $17,150—almost exactly one-tenth of their white counterparts’. That divide can make all the difference in education, health care, professional opportunities, and more, studies show.
As the nation reckons with its treatment of Black people following the police killing of George Floyd, business leaders are examining ways to reduce the wealth gap amid the coronavirus pandemic that has contributed to a 41% decline in the number of Black business owners from February to April. White business owners, meanwhile, saw just a 17% decline during the same period.
This disparity was the topic of discussion at Thursday’s Fortune Bold virtual conference, in partnership with McKinsey & Co., and moderated by senior editor Ellen McGirt. Joining her was John Rogers, chairman, co-CEO, and chief investment officer of Ariel Investments, and Lareina Yee, senior partner and head of diversity and inclusion at McKinsey. The question at hand: How can businesses help reduce the Black wealth gap?
“It’s a very, very complicated question, but the one key thing I always start with is that the wealth gap is getting worse and worse,” Rogers said. The coronavirus pandemic has further contributed to this, recent studies have shown.
It’s true, Rogers acknowledged, that some corporations have created supplier diversity programs pledging to work with African-American companies. “But in reality, they typically do that only in the supply chain part of the spend,” Rogers said. “Construction, catering, janitorial services, corporate gifts—the lowest-margin part of the spend. And as we know, our economy has moved to a professional services, financial services, and technology-based economy. That’s where all the high margins are. That’s where the cash flow is. That’s where the jobs are.”
The solution, Rogers said, was to get rid of “supplier diversity” and focus more on “business diversity.” That will be challenging in itself, he added, because of implicit biases against Black people. “So it’s not just language. People continue to think that we’re not qualified to do the complicated tasks, the legal services, the accounting services, money management,” Rogers said. “When people close their eyes and think about an African-American leader, they think about someone in sports or entertainment, not an investment banker.”
At the end of the day, Rogers said, education about implicit biases cannot be done in just one seminar. Rather, it needs to be taught continually at companies on a regular basis to hold employees—including CEOs—accountable. Another aspect of education that Black people need more access to: financial literacy.
At the current rate of progress, said McKinsey’s Yee, it would take 35 years for Black employees in the U.S. and U.K. to “to see any sense of racial equity,” she said, citing McKinsey data.
“By then, John and I will have been retired for a long time. And when you look a little more closely at the disparities in the corporate workforce, it’s pretty shocking,” Yee said. In particular she cited the difficulty for Black employees who get hired to achieve what she calls the “first rung” promotion. Implicit bias, she says, “has to play a role because they haven’t actually been in your company long enough for there to be such a big performance gap, unless you don’t believe in your recruiting standards, which I think we all do.”
Yee said that white and non-Black allies need to educate themselves—and not rely on Black people to do the teaching for them.
And part of that is making that implicit bias not implicit anymore; make it explicit, Yee added. “Because once you see it, you’re not going to ignore it. And it’s not about whether people are good people or whether they have good intentions. The fact of the matter is, we don’t have the right outcomes. So we’ve got to fix the inputs.”
Subscribe to raceAhead, our twice-weekly newsletter on race, business, and inclusive leadership.


fortune--2020-06-26--Trump expected to overhaul federal hiring to focus on skills, not degrees

President Donald Trump is preparing to direct the federal government to overhaul its hiring to prioritize a job applicant’s skills over a college degree, administration and industry officials say.
Trump is set to sign an executive order Friday outlining a new direction for the nation’s largest employer during a meeting of the board that advises the administration on worker policy.
Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter and adviser, is co-chair of the American Workforce Policy Advisory Board and has worked on improving job training to meet employers’ changing needs.
The federal government is the nation’s largest employer with 2.1 million civilian workers, excluding postal service employees.
Ivanka Trump predicted the change in federal government hiring would create a more inclusive and talented workforce. She encouraged the private sector to follow the administration’s lead.
“We are modernizing federal hiring to find candidates with the relevant competencies and knowledge, rather than simply recruiting based on degree requirements,” she told The Associated Press in a statement. “We encourage employers everywhere to take a look at their hiring practices and think critically about how initiatives like these can help diversify and strengthen their workforce.”
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, the board’s other co-chair, said the need for skills training and apprenticeships is as great as it was before the coronavirus pandemic forced millions of people out of work, pushing the national unemployment rate above 13% in May.
“Americans are eager to get to work but they need our help,” Ross told AP.
The White House isn’t eliminating degree requirements altogether but instead will stress skills in jobs where having a degree is less important.
Aides say the change will create more opportunities for Americans to work for the federal government by recognizing that some learning happens outside of classrooms.
Ivanka Trump and other administration officials have pushed to increase opportunities for apprenticeships and have promoted such training and vocational education as alternatives to traditional two-year or four-year college degree programs.
The Office of Personnel Management will be responsible for implementing the president’s order.
IBM is among the companies that have moved in this direction. Last year, 15% of its new U.S. hires had nontraditional backgrounds because they were evaluated based on skills instead of looking only at their degrees, Ginni Rometty, the company’s executive chairman, said via the White House.
“We hired from new areas of the country, including under-served communities, and this promoted more diversity in the applications we received,” said Rometty, who is expected to participate in Friday’s meeting.
At the meeting, the workforce advisory board is also expected to announce details of a private-sector ad campaign led by Apple, IBM and the nonprofit Ad Council to promote alternate pathways to education.


fortune--2020-06-26--Amazon dominates e-commerce during the pandemic—but Walmart is catching up

The pandemic, and Americans’ turn to e-commerce during it, have hastened the death of brick-and-mortar. J. Crew, Neiman Marcus, JCPenney, and Pier 1 Imports have all announced their file for bankruptcy since the onset of the virus.
E-commerce isn’t just growing during the pandemic—it’s exploding. Around 1 in 2 U.S. adults increased their online buying levels during the pandemic, finds a Fortune-Civis Analytics poll conducted between May 22-27 among 2,045 U.S. adults. This surge in online shopping appears to be speeding up the trajectory for e-commerce by years.
Before the pandemic hit, Target and Walmart were already plowing billions of dollars into e-commerce investments in an attempt to catch up with Amazon. While the Seattle-based e-commerce juggernaut leads online sales during the pandemic, Walmart and Target have further solidified their No. 2 and No. 3 spots.
Walmart and Target have each expanded their customer base beyond those who purchased from them during the 2019 holiday season. A total of 28% of U.S. adults bought from Walmart during the past holiday season, and 18% from Target, according to a Fortune-SurveyMonkey poll conducted in January. Since the onset of the pandemic, 41% and 23% of U.S. adults have purchased online goods or services from Walmart and Target, respectively.
And while Amazon’s buyer growth was flat, with 2 in 3 U.S. adults buying from its platform during the same periods, its overall sales are surging. And Amazon share price is up 48% year-to-date.
As a result of its booming e-commerce business, UBS gave Walmart (WMT) an upgrade this week to a Buy rating from Neutral and a price target of $135.
Among U.S. adults, 48% increased their online purchases since lockdowns were issued in March. That’s a 37% increase among Americans age 65 or older and 58% among those aged 35 to 44. Now, 93% of Americans shop online, up from 84% in January.
As the locks ease, the question is, how many Americans will return to their old shopping habits? Those who hold onto these new online shopping habits could spell trouble for traditional businesses.
*Methodology: The Fortune-Civis Analytics survey was conducted among a national sample of 2,045 adults in the U.S. between May 22-27. The findings have been weighted for age, race, sex, education, and geography.