Why it matters: Despite murmurs of an impending economic crash, the U.S. has seen strong job growth and record low unemployment as trade wars, sweeping technological change and new media consumption habits are changing the American economy.
Photo: Carmen Mandato/Getty Images
The Walt Disney Company announced Monday that ESPN Films will produce an exclusive docuseries on political activist and former NFL player Colin Kaepernick as part of a larger deal with Kaepernick's production arm RA Vision Media.
Driving the news: Former ESPN personality Jemele Hill tweeted that she'll be serving as a producer on the docuseries, after leaving the network two years ago following a dramatic falling out in 2018. At the time, Hill's outspoken tweets about President Trump put the network in the crosshairs of a polarizing debate over race and politics.
Illustration: Eniola Odetunde/Axios
Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
The Treasury Department and Small Business Administration disclosed Monday the names of over 600,000 small businesses that received Public Paycheck Protection loans, as part of the pandemic stimulus program.
Why it matters: This data should help Congress and others analyze the effectiveness of PPP, which so far has disbursed over $500 billion, as debate begins on a new federal stimulus package.
The New York Times building. Photo: Avalon/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Tensions between tech and tech media hit a boiling point over the weekend, in the latest fraying of a once-cozy relationship.
The shortest version is that New York Times reporter Taylor Lorenz tweeted out some screenshots from the public Instagram of Away CEO Steph Korey, in which she criticized media coverage of her company.
Thursday's jobs report from the Labor Department showed the U.S. added nearly 5 million jobs in June, leaving 17.8 million people unemployed, but the Labor Department also reported that more than 31 million people were receiving unemployment benefits and an additional 6 million had applied as of June 27.
What happened: The CARES Act allowed for Americans who would not typically be eligible for unemployment assistance to qualify for benefits under the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program, including part-time workers and the self-employed.
Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
Uber has agreed to acquire food delivery company Postmates for $2.65 billion in an all-stock deal, the companies announced Monday.
Why it matters: This is the latest merger for the food delivery space as the sector undergoes an ongoing market consolidation.
An oft-suggested reason for the massive wealth gap between Black and white families in the U.S. is that Black Americans simply don't save or invest enough. Data shows that is untrue.
What they're saying: A 2004 study by Maury Gittleman and Edward N. Wolff, using data from the Panel Study on Income Dynamics (PSID), tracked the financial position of Black and white families and found that if income is controlled, there is "a slight savings edge for Black households."
Minutes from June's meeting of Fed policymakers was released on Wednesday and showed the central bank is still ready to provide support "for some time" to markets.
Why it matters: With coronavirus cases rising, recent economic data largely moving backwards, and companies' earnings and revenue guidance slipping, the Fed looks to be the driving force behind the march upwards of stock prices.
Despite cutting expectations for companies' earnings by the most in history and revenue by the most since 2009, Wall Street analysts are getting increasingly bullish on the overall direction of the U.S. stock market.
What's happening: Equity analysts are expecting earnings in the second quarter to fall by 43.8% — the most since 2008's fourth quarter 69.1% decline.
It's been so long since we've had regularly scheduled sports, perhaps you've forgotten the best way to actually watch them.
The state of play: YouTube TV, fuboTV and ESPN+ all have all recently raised their prices, even though their packages rely on live sports rights, and the coronavirus pandemic has shut down most sports.
Illustration: Eniola Odetunde/Axios
Because of the coronavirus and people's buying habits moving online, retail stores are closing everywhere — often for good.
Why it matters: Malls are going belly up. Familiar names like J.C. Penney, Neiman Marcus and J. Crew have filed for bankruptcy. Increasingly, Americans' shopping choices will boil down to a handful of internet Everything Stores and survival-of-the-fittest national chains.