Net Worth
What You Need To Know
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The World
Most Americans, including a majority of Republicans, support sweeping law enforcement reforms: 82% of Americans want to ban chokeholds; 83% want to ban racial profiling; 92% want requirements to wear body cameras; 89% want to require police to give people they stop their name, badge number and reason for the stop; 91% support independent investigations of departments that show patterns of misconduct. (Reuters/Ipsos Poll)
U.S. households’ net worth saw a record decline in the year’s first three months, falling 5.6% — the largest single-quarter drop in records going back to the early 1950s. Meanwhile, The University of Michigan said its consumer sentiment index increased to 78.9 from 72.3 in May. (Wall Street Journal, Reuters)
The global economy is recovering more slowly than expected and will bear lingering scars, according to the IMF, which will release growth projections June 24 that “will be, very likely, worse than what we had” in April. Meanwhile, 68.4% of economists expect the economic recovery to start in Q3, while 22.8% said it already began. (Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal)
China’s national security law in Hong Kong is “just the beginning” of efforts to overturn the “One Country, Two Systems” arrangement, said Martin Lee, known as the Father of Hong Kong democracy. Meanwhile, China says it is not legally bound to 50 years of Hong Kong autonomy as it renews its push of the yuan in belt and road nations. (The Times, Nikkei Asian Review, South China Morning Post)
North Korea accused the U.S. of breaking promises it made at a historic summit two years ago, saying the Trump administration had turned dreams for peace into “a dark nightmare.” Foreign Minister Ri Son Gwon accused the U.S. of breaking its word and trying to suffocate the state while Pyongyang vows to build deterrence. (Bloomberg)
The Trump administration plans to reinterpret a Cold War-era arms agreement between 34 nations with the goal of allowing U.S. defense contractors to sell more American-made drones to a wide array of nations. (Reuters)
Houston is on the 'precipice of disaster' and may recommend residents stay home amid a large COVID-19 outbreak, and the virus continues to spread among fruit and vegetable packers. Arizona sees an alarming surge of more than 1,000 new cases daily. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia is considering cancelling the hajj pilgrimage season for the first time in modern history, and a surge in Middle East countries is forcing new lockdown measures. (Houston Chronicle, Reuters, The Guardian, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal)
Temperature, humidity, surface play roles in the drying time — and survival — of COVID-19 virus respiratory droplets. Surfaces such as smartphone screens, cotton and wood should be cleaned more often than glass and steel surfaces, because the droplets evaporate faster on these surfaces. Further, the outdoor weather matters in the growth rate of the infection. (Science Daily)
The future of police in schools is under significant debate. Denver and Seattle schools voted to phase out or remove police from schools, while Oakland moved closer. In LA and Chicago, teachers’ unions are pushing to get the police out. Meanwhile, NY and Chicago mayors have rejected the moves, and D.C.’s schools chancellor defended police in schools. (Chalkbeat, Education Week, Education Week, New York Times, Washington Post)
Economy
Private Equity and distressed debt are the most popular strategies among private investors according to a UK survey, as 3/5 of high net worth investors said they are ready to support small and medium-sized British businesses. A third said they are most likely to invest in private debt. (Private Equity News)
Saudi Arabia’s share of the oil market is set to rise this decade to its highest since the 1980s as investment in production elsewhere dries up. (Reuters)
US corporate debt is approaching 50% of GDP, a new record. (The Daily Shot)
Fed members are embracing the idea of putting caps on government bond yields, a policy tool untouched since the aftermath of World War II, and a move that could change how key financial markets behave and give an even bigger boost to the stock market’s best performers. (Wall Street Journal)
Technology
Zoom said it will no longer comply with Chinese requests to suspend hosts or block people if those people are not located in mainland China — but the plan will enable China to censor individual users. Meanwhile, Zoom disabled the accounts of an ex-Tiananmen student leader. (CNBC, Financial Times, Financial Times)
Instacart raised $225 million at a 73% higher valuation of $13.5 billion, as it now has about a billion dollars in cash, relieving any short-term need to go public to raise money. DoorDash is raising several hundred million dollars at a 25% higher valuation of $15 billion. After the fundraising, it should have about $1.5 billion in cash. (The Information)
Inside Amazon’s race to hire 175,000 workers during a pandemic: Amazon’s sales went up by 26% over the same period a year earlier in the first quarter of 2020. But to hire the required employees, it had to switch almost completely to virtual hiring and training, a process that had been expected to take a couple of years. (MIT Technology Review)
Want to show off to your kids? Let them know that you know that Sony finally revealed its new PS5 tower in all its glory — and, according to TechCrunch, “the damn thing looks pretty slick. That goes double when placed up against the Xbox Series X, which frankly looked a bit more like a router than I think most were expecting.” (TechCrunch)
Smart Links
What police chokeholds do to the brain. (Medpage Today)
The long arm of state tax law threatens telecommuters. (Wall Street Journal)
Elite gamers share mental toughness with top athletes. (Frontiers in Psychology)
Managing buses may be the hardest part of reopening schools. (Education Week)
The biology and physics of free will. (Aeon)
Audio engineers built a shield to deflect police sound cannons. (Vice)
Luxury ‘summer camp’ wants to take the kids off your hands. (Washington Post)
Good News
A teen worked alone to clean Buffalo streets after unrest. People offered him a car and college tuition. (Washington Post)
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