fortune--2020-07-09--We shouldn’t chase economic recovery; we should chase economic redesign

Everything we just learned about how Joe Biden would run the economy

The end of June brought with it seemingly good news: 4.8 million jobs were added to the economy—the largest one-month increase in U.S. history. People returning to work is a good thing, but any victory lap based on these jobs numbers is not only premature, it is misguided as well.
Our goal should not be a strong recovery. It should be a redesign, so we can have an economy that works for the millions of workers who had been left behind even before the pandemic. To start, we need to correct two fallacies in our labor market that are hidden by jobs and unemployment numbers: that wage equals value and that more jobs equal more opportunity.
The first fallacy is founded on the philosophy that wages are set by supply and demand. The assumption is that low-wage jobs are the ones that the widest pool of people can do, thus they must be low-skilled. But the formula is backward: Workers are often labeled “low-skill” because they are compensated with a low wage.
We can see this when we compare two jobs: a customer service representative and a human resources specialist. Both require critical thinking, persuasion, and active listening, often under stressful situations. Despite their skill similarities, the customer service representative in Washington, D.C., earns approximately $16 an hour while an HR specialist makes $28 an hour in the same metro area. This overlap between low- and higher-paid jobs is common. In fact, our recent research on the 71 million workers without college degrees (a population we call STARs, for skilled through alternative routes) found that all of them have skills that could translate to higher-wage work.
The misconception that wage equals value is further exposed when you consider the importance of low-wage jobs. Low-paid farm and factory workers ensure that the rest of us get essential supplies every day, even during a pandemic. Childcare workers—who are critically needed to support working parents—earn $10 per hour on average. And if you think taking care of kids is low-skill work, talk to a parent trying to homeschool their child.
Meanwhile, some of our most valuable work is done as an act of love or charity for no pay. A recent study estimated that if women in America were paid minimum wage for the unpaid work they do, they would have made $1.5 trillion more last year.
From grocery store workers and home health aides to parents and community volunteers, salaries rarely reflect necessity or social good, and conflating them with value denigrates essential work and the workers who do it.
Wages must reflect the value that workers add to our economy and the values we hold as a society.
Caught up in this idea that low-wage workers earn the salary they deserve is the view that people would find jobs that pay more if they were capable. This brings up the second fallacy: that more jobs equal more opportunity.
Pre-COVID, we had the longest economic expansion in U.S. history. Yet, in that period, we saw real wages decline for millions of workers. The Black unemployment rate was the lowest ever, but median wealth for Black families has remained largely the same for two decades. Police violence is only one face of systemic racism, and there is no video to expose the injustice of lost opportunity.
In 2019, 53 million Americans earned a median wage of just $18,000 annually. Many were also in “go-nowhere” jobs. And the majority of workers in the bottom 20% lacked the most basic safety nets: health insurance, retirement, paid sick leave, or other benefits. Almost everyone had jobs, but few had prosperity. Today, millions of workers face an economic downturn without any savings or wealth from when the going was supposedly good.
Moreover, opportunity pre-COVID was exclusive. Between 2008 and 2017, three out of four jobs created required college degrees to apply, but 60% of workers don’t have them. Put another way, nearly two-thirds of the workforce had access to fewer than one-third of the new jobs created. We have antidiscrimination employment laws, but hiring based on degree requirements and privileged networks are legal, accepted, and often preferred practices. Ability doesn’t count for much if you’re screened out before you can demonstrate it.
If we follow the path of the last recovery, opportunity will also be concentrated. While all parts of the country lost jobs in the 2007–09 Great Recession, the gains disproportionately went to 25 megacities. Many zip codes lost jobs that never came back.
A look at the past and the insecurity we see now suggests we should aim for a redesign that goes deeper than headline numbers—one that rewards workers for their contribution to society. We need to focus on economic mobility, not just growth. We need to create good jobs, not just more. We need these jobs everywhere, not in a few hotspots. And we need to create broad access to opportunity so that going to college or having connections are not the only pathways to a meaningful career.
We cannot let good jobs numbers blind us to the reality that we have a labor market that does not work for a majority of workers and especially for people of color. Now is the time to leave behind a broken and biased past, and to build something new: an economy that values workers and a nation that lives up to our values.
Karan Chopra is cofounder of Opportunity@Work and a former New Voices Fellow at the Aspen Institute.


fortune--2020-07-09--TikTok teens target the Trump campaign, again

The TikTok-tivists are at it again.
Thousands of users of the popular video app flocked to the Apple App Store in the last few days to flood President Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign app with negative reviews. On Wednesday alone 700 negative reviews were left on the Official Trump 2020 app and 26 positive ones, according to tracking firm Sensor Tower.
TikTok fans are retaliating for Trump’s threats of banning the app, which is owned by China’s Bytedance Ltd. and is hugely popular in the U.S., especially among teens. The thought of taking away a key social and entertainment hub in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic has led to outrage.
“For Gen Z and Millennials, TikTok is our clubhouse and Trump threatened it,” said Yori Blacc, a 19-year-old TikTok user in California who joined in the app protest. “If you’re going to mess with us, we will mess with you.”
Blacc said the movement gained steam Wednesday when a popular TikTok user, DeJuan Booker, called on his 750,000 followers to seek revenge. He posted a step-by-step primer on how to degrade the app’s rating, notching 5.6 million views. “Gen Z don’t go down without a fight,” said Booker, who goes by @unusualbeing on TikTok. “Let’s go to war.”
The efforts to push the app low enough so that Apple will remove it from the app store may be misguided. Apple doesn’t delete apps based on their popularity. The App Store may review those that violate its guidelines or are outdated, but not if their ratings sink. A similar tactic was tried in April to protest Google Classroom by kids frustrated with quarantine home-schooling.
But young people are looking for ways to make their voices heard, even if some of them can’t yet vote. Last month, many young people organized through TikTok to sign up to attend Trump’s first post-shutdown campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, but then didn’t show up. The Trump campaign denied the online organizing effort contributed to lower-than-expected attendance.
The Trump campaign and Apple didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. TikTok was experiencing connectivity issues on Thursday, according to Downdector, which measures web traffic.
Trump’s re-election smartphone app is a big part of the president’s unrivaled digital operation and was meant to circumvent tech companies like Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. and give the campaign a direct line to supporters. The app has helped the campaign engage Trump’s die-hard supporters, especially in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, by feeding them his latest tweets and promoting virtual events. Supporters can donate to the president’s campaign or earn rewards for recruiting friends like VIP seats to rallies or photos with the president.
The Official Trump 2020 app has been downloaded more than 500,000 times on Google’s Android store as of June 15. Apple doesn’t publish information on downloads.
Reviews with titles such as “Terrible App” or “Do Not Download!” have been flooding the App Store since late June. Official Trump 2020 now has more than 103,000 one-star reviews for an overall rating of 1.2.
But the uptick of activity has also caused the app to rise in rankings. Users have to download the app to review it, vaulting it to second place on the Apple store from No. 486 on Tuesday, according to Sensor Tower.
“Do I think that this is going to fundamentally change the election? No,” said Tim Lim, a veteran Democratic digital strategist. “But it goes to show that they are just as susceptible to these mass actions as anyone else. Trump is starting to see what it feels like to have a massive online army committed to defeating him.”
Trump earlier this week said his administration is considering banning TikTok as one way to retaliate against China over its handling of the coronavirus. Trump’s comments came after Secretary of State Michael Pompeo told Americans not to download the app unless they want to see their private information fall into “the hands of the Chinese Communist Party.” Bytedance is also facing a U.S. national security review for its acquisition of startup Musical.ly. It has denied allegations that it poses a threat to U.S. national security.
Trump didn’t offer specifics about a potential decision and Pompeo seemed to walk back the idea of a ban in a later statement, saying that the U.S. efforts to protect American consumers’ data don’t relate to any one particular company.
Many TikTok users say they care less about potential Chinese snooping and more about Trump taking away their digital hangout. In the U.S., TikTok has been downloaded more than 165 million times, according to Sensor Tower.
“I don’t believe Trump is trying to take TikTok away because of national security, but more to retaliate against activism on the app and all the videos about him that drag him through the mud,” said Darius Jackson, an 18-year-old TikTok user in Champagne, Illinois, who asked his followers Wednesday to give Trump’s app a one-star rating.
“This is the first year I’ll be able to vote and I think activism on TikTok is going to make a big difference,” Jackson said.


fortune--2020-07-09--Everything we just learned about how Joe Biden would run the economy

What the GOP has in mind for a second round of stimulus checks

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Former Vice President Joe Biden unveiled a sweeping $700 billion economic plan to bolster American manufacturing, jobs, and research on Thursday. The presumptive Democratic nominee’s spending agenda, which is a direct challenge to President Donald Trump’s “America First” policy, is expected to be a keystone campaign issue.
The plan, called Build Back Better, emphasizes investing in the American worker while arguing that Trump has done just the opposite. “Growing up rich and looking down on people is a bit different than how I grew up here,” said Biden at a metalworks facility in Dunmore, Pa., immediately going for the President’s jugular.
The reveal comes as Biden dominates in national polls, up by about 9 points, but still lags on economic issues. A recent poll by Siena College and the New York Times found that in six battleground states (Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Florida, Arizona, and North Carolina), 56% of voters approve of Trump’s handling of the economy. The high numbers come even as the country falls into recession and faces an 11% unemployment rate as well as uncertainty in trade negotiations with China, Europe, and South America.
But there’s little else voters approve of, and Democratic strategists believe that knocking Trump on the economy could be his campaign’s death knell.
“This is our moment to imagine and build a new American economy for our families and our communities where every American has an equal chance to get ahead,” said Biden, adding that the President had not brought back manufacturing as he’d promised. Biden said his plan would rebuild the middle class by investing in workers instead of instituting tax cuts for the “ultrawealthy.”
The speech is the first in a series of addresses planned around the economy. “Trump has waved the white flag and walked away,” Biden said, repeatedly calling his administration “incompetent” while pointing out that federal support for COVID-19-impacted businesses had mostly gone to large companies and not small businesses.
Biden pointed out that the President tends to equate the stock market with the economy, but said that he would instead focus on working families. “We must reward work as much as we reward wealth,” he said. “But now we just reward excessive wealth.”
Biden’s plan calls for a $400 billion increase in government purchases of U.S.-based goods and services over four years with an additional $300 billion going toward investment in technology and research. The former Vice President claims that his plans would bring back all the jobs lost this year during the COVID-19 pandemic and eventually create another 5 million. The plan, he says, would also reduce American dependence on foreign goods and work to implement trade and tax policies that benefit the country.
He’ll also tighten loopholes in “Buy American” laws which U.S. firms easily circumvent.
The economic plan will strengthen collective bargaining rights and raise the corporate tax cuts instituted by Congress under President Trump from 21% to 28% to fund investments.
Biden told the press on Thursday that “unions built the middle class.” A loud and appropriately poignant rainstorm rolled in as Biden proclaimed that “the only way you deal with power is with power, and labor and unions are the only ones who have the capacity to do it.”
Still, Biden’s plan echoes Trump’s “America First” policy in many respects, and shifts the economic focus away from international cooperation and partnerships to internal matters, a sea change from the Obama-era focus on globalization.
Biden—who advocated for the North American Free Trade Agreement and Trans-Pacific Partnership—has been working with Sen. Bernie Sanders, who opposed the trade deal and instead advocated for American industry, in an attempt to win the votes of progressive Democrats. During his speech on Thursday he said he would be tough on China, something that the President has critiqued the candidate on. The Chinese, said Biden, are spending billions on new technologies as “we sit with our thumb in our ear.”
On Wednesday, a Biden-Sanders “unity task force” issued an 110-page document with a number of policy recommendations including a federal jobs program which would put Americans to work on large infrastructure projects.
Many of Biden’s talking points on Thursday were reminiscent of the Sanders platform. “The blinders have been taken off for the American people,” said Biden. “Those who can afford to stay in place have become aware of essential workers,” while advocating for a federal $15 minimum wage.
This is the first of four major policy rollouts. The next will focus on “modern infrastructure and an equitable, clean energy future,” then, an agenda “to build a 21st-century caregiving and education workforce” and a plan to advance racial equity in the country.


fortune--2020-07-09--What the GOP has in mind for a second round of stimulus checks

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Hoping for another stimulus check in the mail from Uncle Sam? Depending on how much you make, you may be out of luck.
The Trump administration and Senate Republicans are reportedly considering a much slimmer follow-up stimulus package that would mean considerably fewer Americans receive direct payments, according to the Washington Post.
Nearly 160 million Americans received stimulus payments of up to $1,200 each under the CARES Act, the $2.2 trillion coronavirus aid package signed into law in March. While individuals earning up to $99,000 annually were eligible for some form of payment the last time around—with those earning $75,000 or less eligible for the full $1,200 check—any new stimulus bill would likely greatly reduce the number of Americans receiving assistance.
According to the Post, Republican lawmakers are considering several proposals that would lower the income threshold well below $75,000, in the interest of reducing the scope of the payments while ensuring lower-income Americans get the help they need. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has already suggested limiting further stimulus checks to those earning $40,000 per year or less, such as hospitality industry workers who “have been hit the hardest during this whole episode,” he said.
The talk of more limited direct payments comes as Republicans seek to balance the need for more stimulus measures for a struggling U.S. economy with concerns that the government is spending too much on such efforts. In addition to the CARES Act, House Democrats have already passed a follow-up bill, the HEROES Act, that would cost $3 trillion—though that proposal has faced resistance from Republicans. One top aide to Vice President Mike Pence said earlier this week that the Trump administration is targeting a $1 trillion cap on any new stimulus package.
Any new bill would likely also address the matter of extended unemployment benefits, which some observers have described as critical in helping many U.S. households make ends meet amid a pandemic that has cost tens of millions of Americans their jobs. Most notably, the extra $600 weekly unemployment benefit provided by the federal government, as a supplement to existing state unemployment insurance, is due to expire at the end of this month.


What is Dogecoin?

A bad investment!
But also, more seriously, Dogecoin is a cryptocurrency that was developed as a joke at the end of 2013. The digital coin attracted an online community, largely drawn to its sheer ridiculousness.
Dogecoin is based on an old Internet meme that became popular in 2013: Doge, an image of a quizzical Shiba Inu, overlaid with fragments of English in multicolored Comic Sans typeface. The bits of speech—”wow,” “so doge,” “such meme”—narrate a silly, imagined interior monologue of the dog, which gushes with wonder.
Jackson Palmer, an Australian software developer and Adobe product manager, co-opted the meme in creating his cryptocurrency spoof. Palmer left the project in 2015 and has since warned about how speculators have abused Dogecoin to scam people out of money.
Dogecoin lives on today, periodically resurfacing as the target of pump-and-dump schemes. The coin can also serve as something of a barometer of enthusiasm for alternate cryptocurrencies, or “alt coins,” meaning digital currencies excluding Bitcoin.
The Dogecoin parody keeps landing its punch lines. Recently, day-trading enthusiasts flocked to the viral video app TikTok to encourage people to buy the cryptocurrency. By hyping the coin, they hoped to increase its market value and thereby reap a profit by selling it off at a higher price before an inevitable crash—at the expense of latecomers.
Dogecoin’s price doubled to (a measly) $0.0047 in the few days leading up to July 9, according to data from price-tracker OnChainFx. Previously, the most recent notable Dogecoin price run-up took place in early 2018, reaching $0.013, alongside a feverish cryptocurrency bubble, after which the price quickly collapsed.
In addition to the patent absurdity of Dogecoin’s origins and its playful marketing, people are lured by the cryptocurrency’s comparatively low price. (For comparison, the price of Bitcoin was, at press time, 2 million times greater than that of Dogecoin.)
Dogecoin is, unlike Bitcoin, designed to be inflationary. Whereas fewer Bitcoins enter the market over time—via an ever-diminishing, time-bound lottery system—Dogecoin spits out 10,000 new coins every minute, forever cheapening the existing supply.
Amid the recent run-up, Dogecoin had a market capitalization of $575 million at press time and was a top 30 cryptocurrency at press time, according to cryptocurrency tracker CoinMarketCap.
After winning a joke April Fool’s Day poll, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk temporarily identified himself as Dogecoin’s CEO on Twitter last year.


fortune--2020-07-09--Can Trump actually ban TikTok in the U.S.? It’s complicated

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President Trump this week mused about barring the popular short video app TikTok, which has reportedly been downloaded over 165 million times in the U.S.
His comments came a day after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo floated such a ban as part of an escalating trade war with China. TikTok is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, and critics warn that the Chinese government can spy on its users.
But while the Trump administration has talked about “banning” TikTok, it’s unclear how exactly such a ban would be carried out. Any sort of decree ordering people not to use the app would likely be unconstitutional—and would be met with resistance from millions of Americans, especially young ones, for whom TikTok has become a form of cultural expression.
According to lawyers at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a digital rights group, Trump’s pledge to ban TikTok may reflect bluster more than any sort of coherent policy.
Kurt Opsahl, general counsel of EFF, says the White House could attempt tactics such as barring federal workers from using TikTok or preventing federal money from being spent on the app. A more aggressive approach, he suggests, could involve using export regulations to require U.S. companies to obtain a license to do business with TikTok.
For practical purposes, such a licensing requirement would likely target Apple and Google, whose app stores are where the vast majority of people get the TikTok app in the first place.
But it’s unclear if export regulations—which the U.S. has successfully employed to limit Chinese hardware manufacturers like Huawei and ZTE—could apply to something like an app. The use of such regulations typically entails barring a U.S. company from exporting chips or other technology, and Apple and Google don’t appear to do anything of the sort in providing their app stores. Moreover, TikTok has significant U.S.-based operations and could argue export regulations don’t apply to them.
Related: How TikTok became a geopolitical flashpoint
Any proposal to “ban” TikTok is further complicated by the fact that the app is a type of software code, and courts have found that publishing and using code can be protected by the First Amendment.
Mitch Stoltz, a senior attorney at EFF, points to a recent case in which the Ninth Circuit of Appeals ruled the federal government could not use regulations related to weapons exports to force a cryptography researcher to submit his code for license and review. This suggests any attempt to ban TikTok could face legal challenges invoking free speech.
All of this doesn’t mean attempts to limit TikTok will fail. Senators of both parties have called for investigations of the app’s ties to China, and other countries—notably India—are taking measures to ban the app. But in the short term, Americans can feel confident TikTok is not going away anytime soon.
“We could spend a lot of time spinning our wheels trying to anticipate ways that the administration could try to ban, but it still remains their job to figure out what they meant, and explain how it is a lawful and constitutional exercise of executive power,” says Opsahl.
Related reading:


fortune--2020-07-09--Johnson & Johnson’s CEO on building trust for a coronavirus vaccine

Happy Thursday, readers.
I wanted to highlight a few more stories from our extraordinary (and first-ever virtual) Brainstorm Health conference which wrapped up Wednesday afternoon.
You can scroll through all of the coverage here. Earlier this morning, Fortune CEO Alan Murray highlighted one of the most fascinating sessions, a conversation with Johnson & Johnson CEO Alex Gorsky on the race for a coronavirus vaccine. J&J is among the front-runners for developing a successful candidate.
“We are taking what normally takes five to seven years, and doing it in five to seven months,” said Gorsky in a session moderated by Dr. David Agus, adding that, “A vaccine, while a very critical element to bringing an end to this pandemic, is part of the puzzle.”
Questions from Brainstorm Health attendees—which Gorsky answered in a followup with me—highlighted those nuances. And an issue that stuck out to me is the rampant vaccine skepticism across America.
“In addition to the work we have to do on science, we’ll have to put an equal effort forward on eduction to the public on vaccinations and this vaccine,” Gorsky told me in a post-session chat. “We have had conversations with governments, even working with the distribution systems to make this a seamless process to that end consumer so that they have confidence, so that the have safety information and data that makes them trust it.”
On top of that, Gorsky says that any pricing for a successful (or semi-successful) coronavirus vaccine will require nuance given “a very unique situation.”
“We want to go for not-for-profit prices to maximize access but that requires work with the U.S. and European governments and other entities like the Gates Foundation.”
Make sure to read all of our coverage from a very unique Brainstorm Health. And read on for the day’s news.
Sy Mukherjee
sayak.mukherjee@fortune.com
@the_sy_guy
DIGITAL HEALTH
Apple, Stanford are speeding up medical discoveries with tech. Some more prominent discussions from our Wednesday conference sessions—Apple's vice president of health Dr. Sumbul Desai and Stanford University School of Medicine dean Dr. Lloyd Minor discussed the role of virtual clinical trials, including tech such as the Apple Watch, in public health. "Enrolling over 400,000 people in an entirely virtual clinical trial over the course of eight months—I mean, who would have thought that was possible?" said Minor, referring to the Apple Heart study about measuring irregular heartbeats. "It yielded some very valuable results." Desai added that the most important questions about digital health tech like Appel's are, "is it grounded in evidence? And then how do we take that and make it usable?" (Fortune)
INDICATIONS
Merck, Pfizer announce $1 billion fund to boost antibiotic development. Drug giants such as Merck and Pfizer on Thursday announced a $1 billion fund to prop up struggling antibiotic drug developers—perhaps an implicit recognition that preventive medicine for infectious diseases should be priority in the midst of a pandemic. The fund, led by the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations, and supported by other big pharma companies like Johnson & Johnson, GlaxoSmithKline, and Novartis, is meant to temporarily counteract a difficult business environment for antibiotic-focused biotechs, which lack both an effective incentive structure and are brought down by fears of antibiotic resistance (the latter being a Catch-22 since developing novel antibiotics could address that very issue). (Reuters)
THE BIG PICTURE
Death is a lagging indicator. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports that there are now more than 3 million reported cases of coronavirus in the U.S. These vary greatly by region, and states which took early reopening measures have fared much more poorly than those that didn't, according to the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation. But one argument that's taken hold among certain groups is that cases don't matter, especially as the median age of those being infected has dropped, and those people may be fine or asymptomatic. The thing is—case counts are a leading indicator. Hospitalizations and deaths are lagging ones. Just because it appears the death rate is slowing down despite rising cases doesn't mean that same reality will be true in the following two or three weeks. And that appears to be exactly what states like Texas are experiencing right now. The mantra of maintaining social distance, wearing and mask, and washing your hands still holds true. (KFF)
REQUIRED READING
Professors, universities find creative solutions to keep international students from getting deported, by Michal Lev-Ram
The latest and largest coronavirus Chapter 11 filings, by Lucinda Shen
Hong Kong's big chill, by Clay Chandler
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fortune--2020-07-09--The vast majority of Americans don’t want to defund the police

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As activists around the country enter their second month of protesting police brutality, a new survey finds that their messaging around defunding local precincts has fallen flat with the vast majority of Americans.
Forty-two percent say that spending on their local police should stay about the same as it is now, and 31% say that spending should be increased, according to a Pew poll out Thursday.
Just a quarter of Americans say spending on policing in their area should be decreased, and only about half of those say it should be decreased a lot. The numbers come as budget battles are being fought in major cities like New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles around the robust funding of police forces.
Both major parties’ presidential candidates have come out against the defund the police movement. President Donald Trump has deemed himself the defender of “law and order,” and former Vice President Joe Biden told CBS News last week that he doesn’t support defunding the police. Biden’s plans for police reform fall largely in line with the Democratic congressional plan to condition funding on certain standards and to provide more support for training.
Still, the Trump campaign has regularly pushed the narrative that Biden supports ending funding for police precincts. The President’s team is currently airing ads in both Minnesota and Wisconsin that link Biden to the progressive movement to decrease billion-dollar police budgets.
The advertisements, filled with dark imagery and dramatic music, depict a 911 call gone awry and then blame Biden for it.
“You have reached the 9-1-1 police emergency line. Due to defunding of the police department, we’re sorry, but no one is here to take your call. If you’re calling to report a rape, please press 1. To report a murder, press 2. To report a home invasion, press 3,” the advertisement begins.
“Joe Biden’s supporters are fighting to defund police departments. Violent crime has exploded. For all other crimes, leave your name and number, and someone will get back to you,” it continues, overlaying Biden’s image in flames. “You won’t be safe in Joe Biden’s America,” it concludes.
Poll results back the tactic. In general, Americans still view police positively. Nearly 60% of Americans say police around the country do an excellent or good job of protecting people from crime, down just slightly from 62% in 2016.
But things are moving in a less positive trajectory when it comes to specific actions that police forces take. Just 35% of respondents said that police do an excellent or good job of using the right amount of force for each situation, down from 45% in 2016. Similarly, 34% believe the police do a good job treating racial and ethnic groups equally, down from 47% in 2016. The belief that officers are held accountable when misconduct occurs dropped from 44% to 31% over the same period.
The poll also found that Americans are more likely now than they were in 2016 to support ending “qualified immunity” and allow for the suing of police officers who use excessive force. Two-thirds of voters said that civilians need to have the power to sue police officers to hold them accountable for misconduct and excessive use of force, even if that makes the officers’ jobs more difficult.
There was also broad support for police training in nonviolent tactics, the creation of a federal government database to track officers accused of misconduct, a ban on chokeholds, and a requirement for police to live in the areas they patrol.
Pew surveyed 4,708 U.S. adults online in June 2020 and then weighted the results to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education, and other categories.


fortune--2020-07-09--More stimulus checks? 156 economists urge Congress to pass a bill with ‘automatic triggers’ for more

More stimulus checks? 156 economists urge Congress to pass a bill with ‘automatic triggers’ for more checks

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As cases of the coronavirus spike in Southern and Western states, economists worry the recovery—which already has a long way to go—could get derailed in its infancy.
That’s why a group of more than 150 economists signed a letter released by the Economic Security Project and the Justice Collaborative this week calling on Congress to issue “automatic triggers for cash stimulus payments.” These economists would like to see the federal government send additional stimulus checks to U.S. families until the economy reaches a certain threshold of recovery.
“Congress absolutely has to send out more money,” said Claudia Sahm, director of macroeconomic policy at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, told Fortune on Thursday. She was among the 156 signees, and she says her research finds direct cash payments—like the first round of stimulus checks—are one of the best tools for stimulating an economy.
The first round of stimulus checks, signed into law by the March CARES Act, were worth as much as $1,200 for individuals or $2,400 for married couples, plus $500 for each qualifying child. That amount decreased for adjusted gross income above $75,000 per individual or $150,000 per qualified couple. Individuals earning above $99,000 (or $198,000 per couple) weren’t eligible for the first round of checks.
Instead of doing just another one-time cash payment, Sahm says, Congress should pass a bill that includes automatic economic triggers for stimulus payments. She used an 8% unemployment rate as an example for a trigger. In that scenario, Congress would mail a second stimulus check now, and then if the jobless rate is above 8% in November it would mail a third round without having to pass another bill.
Sining into law an economic trigger for stimulus payments would help to prevent a changing political environment from stymieing another round of cash payments. Historically, she says, Congress is less likely to act after elections—especially if it’s a lame-duck party.
“Regular, lasting direct stimulus payments will boost consumer spending, driving the economic recovery and shortening the recession. Right now, most Americans are just trying to keep their heads above water,” the signees wrote.
On Monday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell opened the door for more stimulus. He suggested, however, that lawmakers might lower the income threshold this time, for instance sending checks only to those with incomes under $40,000.
Sahm says sending out fewer stimulus checks is a terrible idea, as it both leaves millions of jobless Americans without checks and lowers the overall amount of money pumped into the economy. She is hopeful that Congress will act before the end of July.


fortune--2020-07-09--Quibi says report that it lost 92% of early subscribers is ‘incorrect by an order of magnitude’

Quibi, the video startup founded by Hollywood mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg, said a report that it lost 92% of paying subscribers after their free trials expired is “incorrect by an order of magnitude.”
The company said 5.6 million people downloaded the Quibi app and that it is “seeing excellent conversion to paid subscribers,” without saying how many. A report from analytics firm Sensor Tower Inc. estimates that only 72,000 of people who signed up for a 90-day free trial of Quibi in the first three days after it launched stuck with the app.
It’s not uncommon for only a small percentage of free-trial users to turn into paying subscribers. Even Disney+, whose subscriber rolls have soared in recent months, lost 89% of its free-trial users, according to Sensor Tower.
But Walt Disney Co. has been able to fuel growth with a well-known brand, a rapid international expansion, and compelling new content, such as this month’s release of “Hamilton.” Quibi, meanwhile, has faded in app-store rankings and struggled to generate buzz.
The company set high expectations when it launched earlier this year. In presentations to investors, Katzenberg said in a base case, it would attract 20 million subscribers in five years. Quibi would have to be outpacing its streaming competitors — a crowded field — to reach that figure.
The company has blamed a cool reception to the app on the coronavirus lockdown, because Quibi was made to be used during commutes. However, other apps, like TikTok, have become more popular during quarantines. To adapt to at-home viewing, Quibi said shortly after it launched that it would give users the ability to watch its mobile-only shows on their televisions.
The Sensor Tower data is only an estimate, and isn’t as accurate as internal company figures. The report said Quibi has been downloaded an estimated 4.5 million times since its April launch. The free trial for users who signed up for Quibi on the first day expired July 6.


fortune--2020-07-09--The latest and largest coronavirus Chapter 11 filings

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Sur La Table became the latest retailer to fall victim during the pandemic, announcing Thursday it had filed for bankruptcy and had a buyout offer from Fortress Investment Group LLC. The chain plans to sell 70 stores to Fortress, close another 51, and keep operating cooking classes and its web business. A day earlier, preppy retailer Brooks Brothers, founded in 1818, also filed for bankruptcy.
“We are seeing an acceleration in bankruptcies that is unprecedented,” said James Hammond, CEO of New Generation Research, which runs BankruptcyData. For 2020, he says, “I’m pretty confident we will see more bankruptcies than in any businessperson’s lifetime.”
Ranked by assets alone, says Hammond, the magnitude of bankruptcies this year has already surpassed that of 2008. And that’s not including what could happen when the government’s Paycheck Protection Program, which aims to keep small businesses up and running with loans that can be converted to grants if certain terms are met, runs out.
The largest Chapter 11 bankruptcy so far has been that of car-rental company Hertz. Unable to hold on after the travel industry effectively hit the brakes, the company is now selling off much of its fleet in a bid to meet demands from creditors. Others in sectors ranging from oil and gas to retail and aviation have similarly suffered in navigating the pandemic.
Notably, a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing means a company is struggling but doesn’t mean that it will cease operating.
“You have an enormous pile of corporate debt that has been accumulating, which the debt and restructuring world had been concerned about for a couple of years. And all of a sudden, in the space of almost no time at all, investors are asking questions about the ability to service debt,” says Hammond. “[From] 2008 to 2009 was a financial crisis. This is now everywhere.”
By sheer number of bankruptcies, restaurants have been the hardest hit, per rankings from BankruptcyData. Recently, CEC, the company behind restaurant and entertainment venue Chuck E. Cheese, closed down locations and filed for bankruptcy protection as the coronavirus shuttered restaurants and challenged live-events companies.
Even as the U.S. reopens, Hammond is not optimistic. Bankruptcy filings, he notes, are a lagging indicator. Now, he says, “we are at the waterfall.”


fortune--2020-07-09--Professors and universities find creative solutions to keep international students from getting depo

Professors and universities find creative solutions to keep international students from getting deported

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Universities are fighting back after the Immigration Customs Enforcement agency announced a policy change that bars foreign students from attending colleges that plan to go virtual in the fall. But so are individual professors, some of whom are offering up in-person independent study courses for students who could be impacted by this new rule.
“This could have been me,” says Sirry Alang, associate professor of sociology and health, medicine, and society at Lehigh University. Alang, originally from Cameroon, was a foreign student on a so-called F-1 visa for two years. She is now offering her personal time to meet with international students one-on-one and is also pushing for a broader solution in the event the new ICE policy isn’t rescinded. (Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have already filed pleadings in the U.S. District Court in Boston, seeking a temporary restraining order that prohibits enforcement of the new policy.)
“All institutions should think about ways of offering independent studies that are in-person,” says Alang. “And we can prioritize international students for in-person [classes]. We prioritize different categories of students all the time, and it is time for us to do this.”
Sara Wallace Goodman, a professor of political science at the University of California at Irvine, was one of the first professors to offer up their “office” time to students who could face deportation. “It is in everybody’s interest that we protect these students,” says Goodman.
Foreign students on F-1 visas make up 5.5% of U.S. higher education enrollment. What’s more, at publicly funded state schools, they often pay more to attend than their in-state counterparts. Losing international students, therefore, would present a financial hardship for many institutions—and comes at a time when they are already facing massive losses from fall sports being put on hold because of the pandemic and the recent uptick in cases across many states.
“They subsidize American institutions,” Goodman says of foreign students. “They make our research better. Businesses rely on this talent to be competitive. It’s a net gain for everyone.”
Alang, the Lehigh University professor, points to all of the nonmeasurable ways that foreign students contribute: “They enrich our campuses. They make us better.”
Many see ICE’s order as the Trump administration’s latest attempt to pressure schools to reopen. Harvard president Lawrence Bacow issued a public letter on July 8, after the university filed suit, stating that the cruelty of the new order was only surpassed by its recklessness. “It appears that it was designed purposefully to place pressure on colleges and universities to open their on-campus classrooms for in-person instruction this fall, without regard to concerns for the health and safety of students, instructors, and others,” Bacow wrote in his recent letter. “This comes at a time when the United States has been setting daily records for the number of new infections, with more than 300,000 new cases reported since July 1.”
Mizzou is offering in-person and blended classes during the upcoming semester, so international Mizzou students are not required to leave the country. The @MizzouIntl staff continues to work closely with all of our international #Mizzou Tigers. — Mizzou (@Mizzou) July 8, 2020
Dear international BYU students,
I'm teaching 3 hybrid courses this fall, which means each will require at least some in-person, f2f instruction. If you're in need of a class to protect your visa, please do enroll. I'm more than happy to accommodate and assist you, as needed. — Christopher Jones (@ccjones13) July 8, 2020
International ISE graduate students remember that you can enroll for ISE 5994 and ISE 7994 research credits to meet your in-person enrollment requirement. These are on campus sections. — Virginia Tech ISE Graduate Programs (@VT_ISE_Grad) July 8, 2020
Marshall U international students❕Trowbridge is offering HST courses for face-to-face credit! pic.twitter.com/4bY1f5vTYw — lex (@lexibrookee513) July 8, 2020
UT Austin International Students: here's a spreadsheet with over 500 (and counting) in-person and hybrid courses that you can take this fall to avoid the recent ICE decision! https://t.co/B66b84PD0S — Oscar Lopez III (@OscarALopezIII) July 9, 2020
Pressuring universities to open in some capacity could well be the true intent of the new policy. But ICE’s order comes on the heels of several recent administration orders that seek to curb immigration of many types, including the suspension of new work visas until the end of 2020, which was met with fierce opposition from tech sector leaders in particular.
The rollout of tightened immigration policies isn’t new, but it seems to have accelerated under the pandemic. And it could change the global image of our country—and our own supply of talent—for years to come.
“It’s not because we are cut off from the world [that we are successful],” says UC Irvine’s Goodman. “It’s because we are interdependent.”
Correction, July 9, 2020: A previous version of this article misstated the number of years Sirry Alang was on an F-1 visa.


fortune--2020-07-09--Meals out, babysitters, and hotel stays: Europe is trying to save its economy with elaborate giveawa

Meals out, babysitters, and hotel stays: Europe is trying to save its economy with elaborate giveaway schemes

In an effort to simultaneously prop up the economy and avoid spiraling unemployment and company defaults, Europe’s governments are getting creative. In the U.K., that includes an unusual offer: what Britons are calling “a meal deal.”
It’s not quite a free lunch, but it should at least put food in the nation’s stomachs.
As part of the U.K.’s latest £30 billion stimulus package, unveiled on Wednesday, Chancellor Rishi Sunak said that customers can get £10 ($12.62) off per person per meal, a discount that works out to half-price on the average restaurant meal. The offers, budgeted to cost the government £500 million, are squarely designed to help Britain’s hurting hospitality sector.
This is Britain, so the perk comes with conditions. The discount is only valid on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays through August. Also, the offer applies to dine-in meals only, which might make health officials a bit leery. And, while it can be redeemed at a gastropub, the voucher does not cover the price of alcohol—making the discount nearly as complicated as the U.K.’s government’s rules for going to the pub in the first place.
The discount, dubbed “Eat Out To Help Out” is only a small part of the government’s sprawling summer stimulus package, large sections of which were focused on a “green” and sustainable recovery. But it quickly drew much of the attention.
Each Monday to Wednesday in August, customers can enjoy up to £10 off meals and non-alcoholic drinks per person in eligible cafes, pubs and restaurants. #PlanForJobs pic.twitter.com/Q13Sn02TwE — HM Treasury (@hmtreasury) July 8, 2020
After announcing the deal, Sunak posted a Twitter photo of himself picking up what appeared to be a katsu curry (a favourite of Londoners) at the Wagamama fusion Asian chain, drawing front pages with headlines like “GRAB A £10 RISHI DISHI” and another calling him the “half price meal deal chancellor.”
Great to pop down to @wagamama_uk after the statement today.
They’ve already bought more than 2,000 staff back from furlough and will be one of the many restaurants to benefit from the VAT cut and ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ vouchers. pic.twitter.com/6DF08iuDYv — Rishi Sunak (@RishiSunak) July 8, 2020
There’s been a big debate among economists about how to design stimulus measures to boost domestic consumption. Do you go the helicopter-money route and hand out no-strings-attached checks, alá the Trump Administration? Or, do you target the measures to prop up strategic industries?
The Europeans seem to prefer the latter. The Italian government, for example, has offered a holiday tax credit for families vacationing in-country, while Greece committed to paying the traditional Easter bonuses to employees who were furloughed. Meanwhile, the Netherlands and Germany, among others, offered grants to compensate parents for child care, and Spain committed to paying the household bills for vulnerable families.
The assorted goodies are unlikely to make that much of a difference. The eurozone economy is expected to contract by 8.7% this year, the European Commission now says.
Europe’s relatively generous employment schemes, however, have been key in keeping unemployment rates so far more stable from Athens to London. The U.K. alone has 9 million jobs on its scheme. It involves paying 80%, or up to £2,500 ($3,122), of the salaries of furloughed workers, as long as they’re kept on payroll.
The popular payroll program will last until October, though Downing Street watchers were disappointed when Sunak did not address the program’s future in his latest address.
Instead, the government will pick up part of their lunch tab.


fortune--2020-07-09--TikTok considers corporate structure changes in an effort to distance itself from China

Bytedance Ltd. said it’s evaluating changes to the corporate structure of its TikTok business as U.S. concerns grow over the parent company’s Chinese origins.
Executives are discussing options such as creating a new management board for TikTok and establishing a separate headquarters for the app outside of China to distance its operations from Beijing, according to a person familiar with the discussions.
Short-video and music app TikTok currently doesn’t have its own headquarters separate from Bytedance, which was founded in China and is incorporated in the Cayman Islands. TikTok is considering a number of locations for a global base, the person familiar with the plans said, asking not to be named discussing information that’s not public. Its five largest offices are in Los Angeles, New York, London, Dublin and Singapore.
“We will move forward in the best interest of our users, employees, artists, creators, partners, and policy makers,” TikTok said in a statement.
The Wall Street Journal earlier reported on the discussions.
The moves come after an especially tumultuous couple of weeks for the app, which is one of the most-downloaded in the U.S. and is wildly popular with teens.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday said his administration is considering banning the app in the U.S. as one possible way to retaliate against China over its handling of the coronavirus. The U.S. is also concerned the Chinese company may be censoring politically sensitive content, and has raised questions about how it stores personal data. Trump’s comments came after Secretary of State Michael Pompeo told Americans not to download the app unless they want to see their private information fall into “the hands of the Chinese Communist Party.” Bytedance is already facing a U.S. national security review for its acquisition of Musical.ly, a startup that it later merged with TikTok. TikTok has repeatedly denied allegations that it poses a threat to U.S. national security.
Earlier this week, TikTok also drew renewed scrutiny from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department over its data practices, according to children’s privacy advocates who say they were interviewed by the agencies. Several privacy groups alleged in May that the app was collecting information about children under 13 without parental permission, in violation of both U.S. privacy law and an earlier FTC settlement.
TikTok, which has been downloaded 2 billion times globally, was also banned in India amid a border standoff between the two countries. And it shut down operations in Hong Kong after Beijing enacted sweeping powers to crack down on national security threats.
TikTok has already made a number of changes to its business to play up its U.S. ties and distance itself from its Chinese roots. The Former chief Alex Zhu, who is stationed in China, handed over the reins of the app in June to new Chief Executive Officer Kevin Mayer, a former Walt Disney Co. executive who is based in Los Angeles.
The company has made a hiring push in Washington to lobby officials and is setting up a so-called transparency centers, which are expected to open later this year and offer a look into the app for policymakers and safety advocates.
–With assistance from Zheping Huang.


fortune--2020-07-09--Stocks fall as weekly unemployment claims show a worrisome ‘slowing’ pace of improvement

Weekly jobless claims for the week ending July 4 came in at a better-than-expected 1.31 million, the Labor Department said Thursday. But stocks slid over 1% Thursday morning, and analysts note the “pace of improvement is slowing,” Jim Baird, partner and chief investment officer for Plante Moran Financial Advisors, wrote Thursday.
The S&P 500 was trading down 1.5% by midday; the Dow was down nearly 2%; and even the Nasdaq Composite joined in the selloff, trading down over 0.7%.
True, initial jobless claims are about 100,000 lower than last week, and unemployment for June just came in at 11.1%—down from 14.7% in April and 13.3% in May. According to some market strategists, that improving data (despite being miles off pre-COVID levels) has been enough to buoy markets as of late: “The market is not focused on levels, they’re focused on rates [of change], and right now those rates point to a positive and quicker-than-normal recovery,” Edward Jones’s Nela Richardson recently told Fortune.
But the big concern for markets now is that the pace of the recovery may not be as strong as investors thought.
The now-slowing improvement in jobless claims is what Peter Essele, head of portfolio management for Commonwealth Financial Network, calls “a concerning outlook for the 18 million who are claiming insured unemployment, particularly as a second wave in cases appears to be forming in some of the states that were previously sheltered from the pandemic,” he wrote in a note Thursday.
Stocks have largely ignored much of the alarming data that has surfaced in recent months—a pattern that has confounded casual market observers. According to some experts, it’s because “the Fed, economists, and market analysts have done a pretty good job of trying to prepare everyone for these numbers being catastrophically large, being Depression-level peaks or troughs. People have heard that again and again enough that, no matter how huge they are, they don’t react negatively as a result,” Randy Frederick, the vice president of trading and derivatives at Charles Schwab, told Fortune.
But as the S&P 500 trades lower on Thursday, down over 1% in midday trading, the tone of analysts is growing more grim. The U.S. hit a disturbing new record on Wednesday, with over 59,400 new cases of the coronavirus reported. Meanwhile, states that began reopening sooner have seen surges in virus cases, including Texas and Florida, which are now reimposing restrictions.
For those like Plante Moran’s Baird, the “greatest risk” to the slowly improving labor market is “without question the resurgence of COVID-19, as outbreaks rise across a large part of the country,” he wrote Thursday. Pressure on lawmakers to reimpose restrictions “will have a predictably negative economic impact, which would almost certainly push jobless claims higher once again,” Baird notes.
Although jobless claims have been coming down for 14 consecutive weeks, the devastation they’ve wreaked on U.S. households is continuing to be felt: A new survey from Bankrate.com out Thursday found that almost half of U.S. households reported a hit to their income during the COVID-19 crisis, “most commonly through layoff, furlough, or a reduction in hours,” the survey found. And of that group suffering a negative impact to income, almost 60% said they expected it to take three months or more to recover.
The fact that job losses have stayed stubbornly above 1 million a week, coupled with cases of the virus spiking in many states across the country, is enough for those like Bankrate.com’s Mark Hamrick to declare: “As the COVID-19 outbreak has recently intensified in some states, hopes for an accelerated, sustained, and successful reopening of the economy have hit roadblocks,” he wrote Thursday. “This raises concern about the economy’s rebound.”
Meanwhile, Commonwealth Financial’s Essele has an ominous observation: For the first time in a while, “unemployment insurance” searches on Google have increased—”a potential foreshadowing what’s to come on the claims front in the weeks ahead,” he wrote.


fortune--2020-07-09--The President is not a king: Why the Supreme Court said Trump can’t keep his financial records secre

The President is not a king: Why the Supreme Court said Trump can’t keep his financial records secret

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On the last day of its term, the Supreme Court released opinions in a pair of blockbuster cases about whether President Trump can refuse to supply financial records related to alleged “hush money” payments he made to an adult film star.
The court ruled against the President by a 7–2 margin, rejecting arguments that Trump is immune from criminal subpoenas or that a special legal standard applies to such requests.
The decision of the majority was written by Chief Justice John Roberts and reads in part like a subplot of Hamilton. It opens with a long account of how former Vice President Aaron Burr sought to subpoena President Thomas Jefferson while defending himself against charges of treason related to an alleged plot to wage war with Spain against the U.S.
In the Burr case, Chief Justice John Marshall held that the President was like any other citizen and could not refuse to participate in a legal process that bound everyone else in the country.
In the first of Thursday’s decisions, Roberts takes up Marshall’s refrain and explained why a king may have been able to hold himself above the rule of law, but that a President could not.
“At common law the ‘single reservation’ to the duty to testify in response to a subpoena was ‘the case of the king,’ whose ‘dignity’ was seen as ‘incompatible’ with appearing ‘under the process of the court,’” wrote Roberts. “But, as Marshall explained, a king is born to power and can ‘do no wrong.’…The President, by contrast, is ‘of the people’ and subject to the law.”
The Roberts decision then goes to cite a series of occasions when other Presidents submitted to subpoena requests: President Grant sitting for a deposition involving whiskey runners; President Ford testifying in response to a subpoena from his would-be assassin; President Carter providing evidence related to a gambling controversy that arose when he was governor of Georgia.
Thursday’s Supreme Court decision then invokes two high-profile precedents from its own docket, involving presidents Nixon and Clinton, in which it upheld Marshall’s ruling from 200 years ago.
For practical purposes, Thursday’s rulings mean President Trump can’t invoke a general immunity to withhold the financial records, which are in the custody of banks and his accounting firm. But at the same time, the rulings don’t mean that the public will see those records anytime soon.
That’s because Roberts ruled in such a way that the two parties seeking the records—New York’s attorney general and a congressional subcommittee—must engage in further legal proceedings to get them. The upshot is that the records are unlikely to see the light of day until after November’s election.
Legal commentators on Twitter observed that Thursday’s decisions amounted to a victory for the rule of law but also allowed Roberts to keep the Supreme Court from having an immediate impact on the current election season.
John Roberts has punted masterfully. A New York grand jury will see Trump's tax returns, but the information will likely remain secret to the outside world. The House *might* get Trump's financial records eventually, but will remain mired in the lower courts for months. — Mark Joseph Stern (@mjs_DC) July 9, 2020
In both rulings, two Trump-appointed justices—Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh—sided with the majority. Two other conservative justices, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, wrote a dissenting opinion that warned the majority opinion would let states “run roughshod” over the functioning of the executive branch.


fortune--2020-07-09--Biden expected to unveil economic plan pushing to buy American and create manufacturing jobs

Joe Biden will begin rolling out his plan on Thursday to repair the U.S. economy as he seeks to improve his standing with voters on one of the few issues where he lags President Donald Trump.
Biden will frame the economic argument for the remainder of his campaign with a speech near his hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania, a place that’s been synonymous with the blue-collar workers who helped Trump win the state in 2016. He will unveil policies intended to foster manufacturing and encourage innovation, adopting some ideas from his progressive primary rivals but avoiding the big-ticket proposals like the Green New Deal.
The former vice president’s plan is divided into four areas, the first of which he’ll address in more detail on Thursday: a push to buy American and create manufacturing jobs, costing at least $700 billion; building infrastructure and clean energy, advancing racial equity; and modernizing the “caring” economy such as child-care and elder-care workers and domestic aides. His campaign said he will follow Thursday’s speech with detailed policy proposals before the Democratic National Convention, which begins Aug. 17.
On Thursday, he’ll unveil plans for $400 billion in additional federal government purchases of products made by American workers over his first term — based on a proposal that Senator Elizabeth Warren, a former opponent, offered during the primaries — as well as $300 billion for federally funded research and development. In all, the Biden campaign estimates that its proposals on manufacturing and buying American will create 5 million jobs. It did not offer a plan for how to pay for those measures.
With Americans enduring a recession because of the coronavirus pandemic, Biden is homing in on the economy, the only policy area where a slim majority of voters favor Trump’s approach. In a recent New York Times-Siena College poll of registered voters in six critical electoral states, 55% preferred Trump on the economy while 39% preferred Biden.
Now the Democratic nominee, Biden has shifted to a general-election footing where he also needs to attract Republicans weary of the Trump administration and independents to win in November.
There was small progress toward recovery in the jobs numbers released Thursday. Applications for unemployment benefits in the U.S. declined last week by more than projected, easing concerns of a renewed downturn in the labor market after several large states reported an increase in coronavirus cases.
‘Matched to the moment’
“I think there is going to be a broad-based view not just among Democrats but among independents and even some Republicans that this plan and its substance is matched to the moment,” said Jake Sullivan, a top policy aide to Biden. “It is focused on trying to drive job creation fast so that we don’t have scarring, so that we don’t have people unemployed long term, so that we don’t have businesses dying.”
Aware that any positions Biden takes are parsed for outreach to the left, advisers argued he gets to truly progressive results, just at his own pace.
“Biden wants to get to the same place that many to his left want to get to but he firmly believes that it will take an incremental path to get there and that you can’t leapfrog the political reality that he has come to know in many decades in politics,” said Jared Bernstein, who is advising the campaign after serving as Biden’s chief economic adviser in the vice president’s office.
“So his destination on many key issues, particularly on the economy and health care, is very similar to the further left but his path to get there is going to be more incremental,” Bernstein added.
The plan for the U.S. government to buy American-made products would cost $100 billion a year over four years, and would purchase things like clean vehicles and clean energy; materials to prepare for future public health crises such as ventilators and masks; materials for infrastructure projects such as steel, concrete and equipment; and telecommunications. Warren had proposed a $150 billion a year for a decade to be spent on procurement of clean energy.
Biden would also work with other countries to renegotiate the Government Procurement Agreement at the World Trade Organization to ensure the U.S. and its allies can spend taxpayer dollars on growing investment in their own countries.
On trade, a senior Biden adviser, briefing reporters on condition of anonymity said the candidate would also study current tariffs as well as potential trade agreements he wants to negotiate. His advisers declined to comment directly on what would happen to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which Trump abandoned in 2017, or existing tariffs under a Biden administration.
Trump has made buy-American policies and protecting the U.S. steel and aluminum industry a centerpiece of his administration but some domestic manufacturers have complained his actions didn’t go far enough.
The $300 billion R&D plan would encompass all 50 states and would increase direct federal programs such as the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Energy and Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), a health innovation entity that Biden had previously proposed. He would also direct money to support innovative small businesses and workforce development programs.
Each idea may seem small but “the beauty of these plans is in the totality” of everything that Biden will be proposing on the economy in the coming weeks, Bernstein said.
Biden’s advisers said the plan, once fully revealed, would be ambitious.
“This will be the largest mobilization of public investments in procurement, infrastructure and R&D since World War II — and that’s just a part of the plan,” Sullivan said.
The senior Biden official said the campaign wasn’t ready to detail where the money for these programs would come from. Recurring programs would be financed with additional tax proposals but some measures might need to be treated as stimulus to help the economy recover and would be dependent upon economic conditions when Biden takes office, the official said.
No New Deal-style plans
Most of the more progressive ideas, like the Green New Deal and other large jobs programs that also hearken back to Franklin Roosevelt’s policies in the Great Depression, would likely be left behind at the beginning in favor of a more step-by-step approach, the Biden campaign says.
Steph Sterling, vice president for advocacy and policy at the Roosevelt Institute, and others on the left say they would like to see Biden contemplate a jobs guarantee or other measures that would be more in the vein of Roosevelt’s New Deal.
A Biden adviser said such policies are not being seriously considered, though the candidate has proposed creating a U.S. Public Health Jobs Corps that would employ 100,000 people.
Biden offered some parameters in April.
“Look at the institutional changes we can make without us becoming a socialist country or any of that malarkey that we can make to provide the opportunities to change the institutional drawbacks.”
If Biden wins the presidency, he will be walking into a far different economy than he would have faced before the pandemic.
“If Biden is president he will be up against this just incredibly, incredibly weak economy,” said Heidi Shierholz, senior economist and director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute, and a chief economist at the U.S. Labor Department in the Obama administration. “Regardless of what’s going on with COVID, whether there’s a vaccine or widespread mask-wearing or not, it will be a hugely depressed economy.”
Even with improvement in jobs and consumer spending that’s been better than analysts expected, the U.S. economy remains in a deep hole, and most forecasters expect only a gradual recovery. Unemployment, at 11.1% in June, is higher than any time in the 80 years before the pandemic. Black and Latino unemployment rates are even higher.
Since mid-June, economic gains have slowed as virus cases accelerated in a variety of states, leading local officials to pause or reverse re-openings. And if lawmakers allow the expiration of extra unemployment benefits and small-business aid in coming weeks, jobs and consumption could take a further hit.


fortune--2020-07-09--‘The Old Guard’ director Gina Prince-Bythewood on adapting a comic book story and keeping it ‘real’

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Gina Prince-Bythewood isn’t known for making action movies, but that’s not for a lack of interest in the genre.
“I love action films, and I love the direction that they’ve been moving the last couple of years, where they’ve really been action-dramas, like Logan, like Black Panther,” the director of films including Love & Basketball and Beyond the Lights tells Fortune. “I did not know that I was going to get the opportunity [to direct one], the way Hollywood likes to work.”
Prince-Bythewood’s latest film, The Old Guard, which arrives on Netflix Friday, is the type of action-drama she’s been drawn to in recent years. Based on the graphic novel by Greg Rucka, the movie focuses on a team of immortal mercenaries, led by Andy (Charlize Theron), that has been fighting to protect the world for centuries. The group is joined by U.S. Marine Nile (KiKi Layne) after she discovers her own immortality, while they battle a new foe who has stumbled across their secret.
“I got the script and fell in love immediately. I loved the story foremost. I loved that it kept surprising me,” says Prince-Bythewood, who also found the characters relatable in spite of their immortality. “I loved that it was two women at the heart of it, and one being a young Black female hero. I loved the organic diversity of it—the fact that it was this group of warriors from different backgrounds and cultures and sexual orientations and genders, and have come together to protect humanity.”
Charlize Theron (left) as Andy and KiKi Layne (right) as Nile in “The Old Guard.” They were able to bring a “unique veteran-rookie relationship” to the screen, director Gina Prince-Bythewood says. Aimee Spinks—Netflix
Prince-Bythewood worked closely with Rucka, who adapted his own work for the screenplay.
“Greg was on my hip. I love that dude so much,” says Prince-Bythewood, adding that the writer’s presence on set was helpful whenever she had questions about plot or character details. “He and I had an incredible collaboration. I respect him so much, and he had a mutual respect for me.”
While working on the script together, Rucka was open to some changes Prince-Bythewood wanted to make to Nile’s character, such as “giving her more agency in the plot” and “giving her more backstory and a fuller arc.”
“He was all into that,” says the director, who also looked to films like Man on Fire, The Raid, and Zero Dark Thirty as additional sources of inspiration. Even with its comic book origins and focus on immortal characters, Prince-Bythewood wanted The Old Guard to be grounded in reality—“unapologetic about the violence, but never being a celebration of violence.”
She did a lot of reading to prepare for the film, relying on one book—On Killing—which she calls “the definitive book for soldiers.”
“What it talks about is that the act of taking a life is as damaging to the psyche as your fear of losing your life for soldiers,” she says. “It absolutely matched who Andy was, a woman who was compelled to kill because to kill one saves many. Yet that’s got to take a toll after thousands of years, and I wanted to play into that realness.”
“I feel like in a lot of action films, death and killing just happen, and you move on,” Prince-Bythewood says. “But I wanted to play the realness of it, and Greg was really keen on bringing that element in as well.”
That philosophy also applied to the action sequences themselves—something that was particularly important to Prince-Bythewood, whose nephew is a Marine, and Layne.
“We wanted Marines to watch this and not be able to ever once say that looked wack, or that’s not real,” explains Prince-Bythewood, adding that two Marine advisers, as well as an additional military adviser, were involved in the production.
Prince-Bythewood (right) on the set of “The Old Guard.” Military advisers helped keep some of the action in the film grounded in reality. Mohammed Kamal—Netflix
The actors also collaborated with the stunt and fight coordinators to figure out their individual moves. Layne’s Nile fights like a Marine for the most part, while Theron’s Andy—having been alive 6,000 years—is aware of “every fighting style that’s ever been created,” as Prince-Bythewood points out.
Working with the two actresses ended up being something of a study in contrasts. Layne (If Beale Street Could Talk) came into The Old Guard without previous action experience, Prince-Bythewood says. Meanwhile, Theron—who has starred in films like Atomic Blonde, Mad Max: Fury Road, and Aeon Flux—is now a veteran of the genre.
“The fact then that KiKi could train with Charlize, who has done this before, who does know how hard it is, and how much work you have to put in, that was really good as an example for her to see,” says Prince-Bythewood, adding that the women were ultimately able to build a chemistry that resulted in a “unique veteran-rookie relationship” on-screen.
The director herself picked up a few new tricks while directing the feature. “When you’re shooting action, start with the closeups, because you can hide more,” she says. “As the actors do it more and more, they get better and better. So by the time you go wide, they’ve got the choreography down.”
The film, which has all the usual elements of a summer blockbuster, is coming out at an unusual time for the film industry. The coronavirus pandemic, which has wreaked havoc on film production, has also resulted in the prolonged shuttering of most movie theaters and the delay of many major film releases. Because The Old Guard was attached to Netflix all along—a departure for Prince-Bythewood, who was previously accustomed to traditional studios and theatrical releases—this is one film that hasn’t had its release date or strategy change. It was all quite “unexpected,” the director says.
“I was really excited about this summer because for the first time in the history of Hollywood, there were five big blockbusters directed by women, and a number of them women of color, that were all coming out this year,” she says, emphasizing the “incredible empathy” she feels for directors like Patty Jenkins (Wonder Woman 1984), Niki Caro (Mulan), and Cate Shortland (Black Widow). “And it felt like it was a sea change, and an important summer, and I was rooting for all of us to have success so that this could sustain itself.”
She feels that sea change has potential to stick around—though it’ll depend on whether the “movies are good” and if they attract an audience.
“There’s incredible pressure on all of us to do that, to make a good film, and for the audience to come. Given so few of these are made, there’s a much bigger spotlight. Obviously, others don’t have that same pressure,” Prince-Bythewood says. “We do, which I think hopefully makes us work harder in making sure that our films are good, but it’s as simple as that.”
Similar feelings apply to whether The Old Guard will get a movie sequel.
“I know Greg has always envisioned this as a trilogy,” Prince-Bythewood says. “I know where the story is going, which is pretty incredible. So if the audience wants more, there’s absolutely more story to tell.”
Clockwise from top: Matthias Schoenaerts (Booker), Theron (Andy), and Luca Marinelli (Nicky). Aimee Spinks—Netflix
But even with the strange circumstances surrounding the film’s release, Prince-Bythewood is excited. “The fact that this is going to drop in 190 countries on the same day is mind-boggling to me,” she says.
And she’s hopeful that her film can have a positive effect.
“I know women want to see themselves heroic, and the more that we can put these characters out there and normalize it—normalize women being warriors, and tough and courageous and badass, but also vulnerable, because that’s a strength too—the more we can see that and normalize it, the better the world is going to be,” she says.
The Old Guard is available to stream on Netflix starting July 10.


fortune--2020-07-09--Why you shouldn’t completely shrug off those millennial trends

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In 2018, New York City faced a shortage of oat milk, a plant-based alternative to the usual stuff from cows that’s become popular in major cities. People were reportedly devastated as they were forced to consider regular milk for their coffee instead of the oat-based product, and sellers on Amazon took the chance to drive up the price tag. The entire situation was lambasted by Twitter pundits and media alike, with folks blaming hipsters and the Guardian quipping, “Can Brooklyn survive its oat-milk shortage?”
It was crazy. It was absurd. And it…was kind of onto something.
The traditional dairy industry is facing a reckoning as the rise of plant-based alternatives have cut into sales. The nation’s largest milk producer, Dean Foods, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November, and one of the oldest producers, Borden Dairy Co., followed in May. Now the space is reshuffling, with Dairy Farmers of America acquiring Dean Foods for $433 million and private equity firms KKR and Capitol Peak Partners buying Borden.
And on Wednesday, Perfect Day, a food tech startup producing animal-free dairy proteins through fermentation, announced that it had expanded its Series C round to $300 million (!), with Canada Pension Plan Investment Board’s investment group Thematic Investing leading a $50 million tranche.
What makes Perfect Day especially interesting: The company isn’t seeking to find a plant-based alternative to dairy. It says its proteins are molecularly identical to those produced by cows, per my colleague, Beth Kowitt, leaving the same taste.
Read more.
Lucinda Shen
Twitter: @shenlucinda
Email: lucinda.shen@fortune.com
VENTURES DEALS
- VelosBio Inc., a San Diego-based clinical-stage biopharmaceutical developing cancer therapies targeting receptor tyrosine kinase-like orphan receptor 1, raised $137 million in Series B funding. Matrix Capital Management and Surveyor Capital led the round.
- Kernel, a Los Angeles-based startup focused on neurosciences, raised $53 million in Series C funding. General Catalyst led the round and was joined by investors including Khosla Ventures, Eldridge, Manta Ray Ventures, and Tiny Blue Dot.
- Fisker, a Los Angeles-based maker of electric vehicles, raised $50 million in Series C funding. Moore Strategic Ventures led the round.
- Growers Edge Financial, Inc., a Johnston, Iowa-based agriculture data startup, raised $40 million in Series B funding. S2G Ventures, Cox Enterprises, and Skyline Global Partners led the round and were joined by investors including Bunge Ventures and Finistere Ventures,
- Kindbody, a New York-based fertility startup, raised $32 million in Series B funding. Perceptive Advisors led the round and was joined by investors including RRE, GV, Freemark Capital, Rock Springs Capital, Goodgrower, Claritas Capital, and NFP.
- LogDNA, a Mountainview, Calif.-based log management solution for DevOps teams, raised $25 million in Series C funding. Emergence Capital led the round and was joined by investors including Initialized Capital, Providence Equity and new investors TI Platform Management, Radianx Capital, Top Tier Capital, and Trend Forward Capital.
- Material Security, an email security startup,raised $22 million in funding. Investors include Andreessen Horowitz.
- Permutive, a New York and London-based publisher-focussed data management platform, raised $18.5 million in Series B funding. Octopus Ventures led the round and was joined by investors including EQT Ventures.
- Upward Farms, a Brooklyn, N.Y.-based aquaponics operation firm, raised $15 million in funding. Investors included Prime Movers Lab.
- Yamo, a Zug, Switzerland-based foodtech startup, raised €10.1 million ($11.5 million) in Series A funding. Investors included Five Seasons Ventures, Swiss Entrepreneurs Fund, Ringier Digital Ventures, Müller Ventures, btov Partners, Polytech Ventures, BackBone Ventures and Fundament.
- Traplight, a Finnish mobile game studio, raised €8 million ($9.1 million) in funding. EQT Ventures led the round and was joined by investors including Play Ventures, Initial Capital and Heartcore Capital.
- K4Connect, a Raleigh, N.C.-based company seeking to integrate technology for older adults, raised $7.7 million led by Forte Ventures.
- Nucleai, an Israeli start-up using artificial intelligence in oncology, raised $6.5 million. Debiopharm led the round and was joined by investors including Vertex Ventures and Grove Ventures.
- PQShield, a London-based cryptography startup, raised £5.5 million ($7 million) in seed funding. Kindred Capital led the round and was joined by investors including Crane Venture Partners, and Oxford Sciences Innovation.
- Radix DLT, a London-based decentralized finance startup, raised $4.1 million from LocalGlobe and TransferWise’s Taavet Hinrikus.
- Gradient Denervation Technologies, a Paris-based maker of a catheter-based technology to treat pulmonary hypertension, raised €3.5 million. Sofinnova Partners was the investor.
- MastOR, a French medical device company developing a surgical robot for laparoscopy assistance, raised €3 million in seed funding. Sofinnova Partners was the investor.
- Popshop Live, a Los Angeles-based live streaming shopping platform, raised $3 million in funding led by Floodgate and Abstract Ventures, who were joined by investors including Long Journey Ventures, Cyan and Scott Banister, Shrug Capital, Backend Capital and Halogen Ventures.
- Shadowbox, a Encinitas, Calif.-based developer of a no-code integration and automation platform, raised $1 million in seed funding. Blackbird Ventures led the round and was joined by Crowdsmart.IO.
PRIVATE EQUITY
- Silver Lake agreed to acquire Silae, a France-based payroll tech provider. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- Arlington Capital Partners acquired J&J Worldwide Services, an Austin-based provider of maintenance and cleaning services to the federal government. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- GB Auto Service, a portfolio company of Greenbriar Equity Group, acquired Sun Devil Auto and Sun Auto Service, Phoenix-based automotive service facilities. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- Sovos, backed by Hg, acquired Accordance, a U.K.-based international value-added tax consultancy and compliance firm. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- Sonoma Brands acquired Chef’s Cut Real Jerky Co., a New York-based jerky maker. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- Sagewind Capital invested in QuantiTech, a Huntsville, Ala.-based provider of engineering services to defense agencies. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- Mercer Global Advisors, majority owned by Oak Hill Capital and Genstar Capital, acquired M.J. Smith and Associates, Inc., a Denver-based wealth management firm. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- ATTOM Data Solutions, backed by Lovell Minnick, acquired Home Junction Inc., a San Diego, Calif.-based real estate data technology company. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- Appfire, backed by Silversmith Capital Partners, acquired Beecom Products AG, a Zurich, Switzerland-based maker of an app in the Atlassian ecosystem. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
OTHERS
- Slack acquired Rimeto, a corporate directory startup. Rimeto’s investors included Bow Capital, Floodgate Fund and USVP.
- Walgreens Boots Alliance (Nasdaq: WBA) agreed to invest $1 billion in equity and convertible debt in VillageMD, a provider of primary care services. The funding will primarily be used to open full-service doctor offices co-located at Walgreens stores.
IPOs
- Ant Group, the fintech company backed by Alibaba, is planning an IPO in Hong Kong that could value it at over $200 billion, according to Reuters. Read more.
EXITS
- Bazaarvoice acquired Curalate, a Philadelphia-based visual marketing platform. Firms including NEA and First Round Capital backed Curalate, per Pitchbook.
- CVC Capital Partners is weighing a potential IPO or sale of Elsan, its French medical chain per Bloomberg. A sale could reportedly fetch some €3 billion (about $3.4 billion). Read more.
F+FS
- DCM, across-border VC firm with investments in US, China and Japan, raised $880 million through two funds. It raised $780 million for DCM IX and $100 million for its third A-fund dedicated to seed-stage investments.
- Navegar, a Manila-based private equity firm, raised $197million for Navegar II.
- Engineering Capital, raised $60 million for its third fund. Read more.
PEOPLE
- Levine Leichtman Capital Partners, a middle-market private equity, promoted Matthew Frankel and Michael Weinberg to managing partners. It also promoted Stephen Hogan and David Wolmer to executive officers of LLCP’s management company, and Micah Levin and Matthew Rich to senior managing directors.
- HKW, a middle-market private equity firm, named Daniel Kim as a partner. Kim was previously a partner at Bregal Sagemount.
- Flare Capital Partners, a healthcare technology venture capital firm, named Margaret (Gaby) Malone as a senior associate.


fortune--2020-07-09--4 ways the coronavirus pandemic will change hospitals

Will the pandemic finally force the reinvention of the American hospital?
Many have questioned the logic of the old-fashioned institution in recent years, with its reliance on often expensive, fee-for-service care and in-person appointments.
And COVID-19 has more or less blown the old logic up: At a time of national health crisis, hospitals are in financial straits, forced to furlough workers after losing revenue on elective surgeries and other procedures that require patients to be physically present. “The winners have been relatively few,” said Marc Harrison, president and CEO of Utah-based Intermountain Healthcare.
Experts, speaking at Fortune’s virtual Brainstorm Health conference Wednesday afternoon, say the moment is accelerating overdue change. Here’s what they expect from hospitals in the future:
Consumers will be more in control
“They’re asking for transparency, they’re asking for digital empowerment, they’re asking for affordability,” Harrison said, noting one in four Americans in the past year delayed care or forwent it entirely because they couldn’t afford it. “We also realized they want the power to keep themselves well,” meaning preventive care.
Harrison added: “This health care crisis has sharpened our focus on making all of those much more available to the people we’re meant to serve.”
Incentives will be realigned
With the pandemic, “we’re seeing mental illness; we’re seeing chronic diseases and this balance happening where hospitals are not getting the revenue that is so essential for their operating margins. And people aren’t getting treated, they’re having heart attacks and strokes and diabetic emergencies at home,” said Kyu Rhee, a vice president and chief health officer at IBM. “We need to have a broad conversation. Shouldn’t hospitals be reimbursed for prevention as much as treatment?”
Paul King, president and CEO of Stanford Children’s Health, said he expects the current situation will help speed the transition to more managed care.
Health care will be anywhere and everywhere
Virtual appointments and telemedicine will play a much bigger role in hospital care. IBM’s Rhee said a recent study linked higher levels of telehealth with lower mortality rates at institutions.
“The acceleration of the medical home being the patient’s home—this crisis has pushed us further down that path than ever before,” King said, adding consumers will consequently think about health care choice more expansively.
“We’re here in Silicon Valley, we have some competitors regionally,” he continued. “But we’ve never thought of Boston or Philadelphia or Chicago or Miami being our competitors. Now, those providers are all just a click away. And alternatively, we’re just a click away from their market too.” King said talent will think more expansively about those options, as well.
But the competition will be kinder
The cutthroat, ever-consolidating nature of the hospital market hasn’t served consumers particularly well, but there is reason to think hospital systems are getting more comfortable with collaboration. “The opportunity is to get comfortable with the whole ‘frenemy’ relationship,” Harrison said. “We have a competitive system here in town. We have co-branded our drive-up testing sites, made sure there is no redundancy. We share PPE numbers, we’re load leveling between systems at this point, and we have harmonized all our clinical trials so people have consistent criteria for being admitted to them.”
Harrison added: “I think we’ll compete in the future in certain areas, but I’d love to continue to see this.”
King also considers this one of the pandemic’s silver linings. “We’ve seen a level of collaboration heretofore unseen, the amount of sharing of best practices in real time. We’ve been able to really stand up some capabilities that we would have said were impossible 12 weeks ago,” he noted. “That level of collaboration is part of the genie we don’t want to go back into the bottle.”


fortune--2020-07-09--As Disney World reopens, there won’t be any Mickey ‘meet-and-greets’ or parades

Forget about up-close “meet-and-greet” sessions with Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck when Walt Disney World parks reopen. There will be no firework shows or parades — those would draw too many people together — and both visitors and employees will be getting temperature checks when they enter.
Despite a huge surge of Floridians testing positive for the new coronavirus in recent weeks, two of Disney World’s four parks are reopening Saturday. When they do, visitors to “The Most Magical Place on Earth” will find new rules in place.
Everyone has to wear a mask and maintain social distance. No hopping between parks is allowed, for the time being, and visitors will need reservations to enter. Disney employees won’t be allowed to take photos of visitors in front of Cinderella’s Castle since it involves touching the tourists’ cameras.
“That is a very different Disney World than the one you worked at back in March, and that is because of the need for safety,” Eric Clinton, president of Unite Here! Local 362, told his members in a recent Facebook discussion.
Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom will reopen on July 11. Disney World’s other two parks, Epcot and Disney’s Hollywood Studios, will welcome back guests four days later. All of the parks closed in mid-March in an effort to stop the virus’s spread. Disney World’s crosstown rivals, Universal Orlando and SeaWorld Orlando, also closed in March but have been back open for several weeks after instituting similar rules to protect employees and customers from the virus.
Also this month, the NBA and MLS are restarting their seasons at Disney World, which has a massive sports complex featuring multiple playing arenas.
Disney has been opening back up its parks around the globe for the past two months. In May, the company opened Disney Springs, a complex of shops, restaurants and entertainment venues in Lake Buena Vista. Only Disneyland in California delayed its plans to reopen in mid-July, saying it was awaiting guidelines from the state.
The union that represents Disney World actors wishes the Florida resort would do the same until workers can be tested on a regular basis. Florida and other Sunbelt states have seen recent surges in coronavirus cases, and unlike other Disney workers, the singers and actors can’t wear face masks when they perform.
For the parks to reopen, “the epidemic must be under control with contact tracing … and that is not the case in Florida,” said Brandon Lorenz, a spokesman for Actors’ Equity Association. “We don’t believe the workplace plan is safe. It has risks not just for the workers but for the guests.”
Other union leaders are confident in the new safety measures. Clinton, whose members are custodians, housekeepers and park greeters, said a visit to Disney World is now safer than going to the grocery store.
“Will I be safe at work? The short answer to that is, ‘Yes,'” Clinton told his members.
Firefighters and paramedics for Disney World’s private government are expecting to see more heat-related calls from visitors due to the mandatory mask-wearing.
“With the masks and summer in Florida, that’s going to be interesting,” said Tim Stromsnes, an official with the Reedy Creek Professional Firefighters, Local 2117. “A lot of people aren’t used to our heat and humidity.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said earlier this week that he believe Disney is well-prepared for the reopening.
“I have no doubt it is going to be a safe environment,” DeSantis said. “I am really impressed with what Universal has done and I have looked at Disney’s plan and it is very, very thorough.”
Disney spokeswoman Andrea M. Finger said in a statement Wednesday that the company is “moving forward carefully and methodically.” She said seven unions representing thousands of staff have signed agreements to return to work.
Because of the limits on attendance, new ticket sales and hotel reservations are temporarily on hold so that people already with tickets and reservations get first dibs. Even some who already had reservations ran into problems. Shortly after the shutdown, Disney fan Lloyd Stevens and his partner, Andy Rogow, booked a room at the budget Pop Century Resort for next week. But when they called recently to confirm, they were told the only availability was in a much more expensive resort.
“We had to cancel everything,” Stevens said. “I was hoping to get there in midweek and have it not crowded. But with cases rising anyway, I guess we’re kind of glad it didn’t work out.”
Disney World workers have been at the parks already for several weeks, going over hygiene protocols to stop the spread of the virus, sanitizing handrails and consoles and reviewing other changes such as new break rooms that now only accommodate four people at at time.
In addition to a thermometer, workers were given three face masks and a plastic face shield, equipment that made it difficult for some of them to recognize their colleagues without checking their name tags, said Hollywood Studios worker Scott Dudas.
In a Facebook discussion with colleagues, Dudas said he was reassured by the face shields, which can be used when a worker needs to get in close contact with guests, such as making sure children are the proper height for rides.
“I think from a safety aspect, everyone should be on board to feel comfortable with everything in place,” Dudas said. “I feel super safe.”