The child care industry is collapsing under the strain of the pandemic.
Why it matters: With parents making up a third of the U.S. workforce, the fate of schools and day care centers and the strength of the economy are inextricably linked — given that the hit to closed schools could be an estimated 3.5% of GDP.
It's not about working from home anymore. It's work from anywhere.
The big picture: In yet another example of how the pandemic is exacerbating inequality, lower-income Americans are doing front-line jobs or struggling to pay the bills, while richer workers are renting serene lakeside cabins and beautiful island villas as their employers extend telework timelines through the end of 2020 and beyond.
Millions of Americans are unemployed — and desperately seeking work that just isn't there.
What they're saying: "There aren’t enough jobs to go around," says Tara Sinclair, a senior fellow at the Indeed Hiring Lab. "It’s like playing musical chairs, and we’ve taken a whole lot of chairs out of the circle at once."
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention plans to issue an order temporarily halting residential evictions until Dec. 31 to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, the White House announced on Tuesday.
Why it matters: One estimate last month found that 23 million Americans are at risk of eviction. The CDC's order marks another example of the administration circumventing Congress, where coronavirus stimulus talks have stalled, to deal with the economic impact of the pandemic.
The space industry has always accepted some level of risk and failure, but as the commercial space industry matures, companies are using failure to their advantage to try to help their businesses succeed.
Why it matters: By taking on more risk and pushing their systems to the limits, space companies may be able to reach ambitious goals — like building a city on Mars or mining the Moon for resources.
Restaurant delivery company DoorDash is expected to be part of the post-Labor Day IPO rush, having filed confidential registration documents back in February. But it's also facing an existential threat to its business model and needs to quickly come up with some better rhetorical defenses.
Driving the news: My interview with DoorDash co-founder and CEO Tony Xu was shown Monday night on "Axios on HBO," with a heavy focus on the employee vs. independent contractor debate. At best, he held his cards close to his chest. At worst, he whistled past the graveyard.
TPG is seeking a buyer for Astound, a U.S. cable conglomerate that includes RCN, Grande Communications, and Wave Broadband, per Reuters. A deal could fetch more than $8 billion.
Why it matters: The move reflects how many cable operators are thriving in spite of cord-cutters, as work-from-home and streaming video consumers demand faster broadband.
All Raise, a nonprofit that aims to boost gender diversity in tech and venture capital, is launching a speakers' bureau designed to get more women and non-binary people on stage at technology and business conferences.
Why it matters: All too often, tech conferences are dominated by male speakers and all-male panels — or "manels." By one estimate, only 25% of tech conference speakers are women. And while conferences have shifted online, the gender and race dynamics haven't changed.
Snapchat is rolling out new products and partnerships to drive poll worker sign-ups, sources tell Axios. The rollout is occurring in conjunction with National Poll Worker Recruitment Day.
What's happening: Snapchat is adding several new features to get its users, the vast majority of which are under 30, to boost the effort.
Executives at weather news companies tell Axios that the coronavirus pandemic has forever changed the way they cover the weather.
The state of play: Reporters are forced to address new safety threats in the field. Meteorologists need to evaluate new weather factors that impact COVID-19. News executives need to consider the impact of weather on new consumer habits, like daily walks and home-schooling during quarantine.
There's been a sharp monthly growth in drive-in concerts and events across the nation thanks to country music, according to new data from Vivid Seats. Most of the concerts are happening at drive-in theater venues.
Why it matters: The drive-in industry, once a mainstay for movies, is now catering to all types of performances, from music, to comedy to the circus, as the coronavirus pandemic continues to keep venues closed
DoorDash, like most other gig economy companies, is reliant on a business model whereby workers are categorized as independent contractors instead of as employees. But, unlike traditional independent contractors, "Dashers" don't have the ability to directly negotiate with the company.
"Axios on HBO" dug into this seeming discrepancy with DoorDash CEO Tony Xu, and also asked if he'd be open to Dasher unionization.
DoorDash, the restaurant meal delivery company valued at $16 billion, has spent millions of dollars on a California ballot initiative that would prevent gig economy workers like "Dashers" from being categorized as employees.
The state of play: Joe Biden and Kamala Harris both oppose DoorDash's efforts in California, raising the specter of federal legislation should they win in November. "Axios on HBO" asked DoorDash CEO Tony Xu about their position and what comes next.
Investors bought the dip in U.S. Treasuries on Monday following a significant move higher in yields on longer-dated maturities after the Fed's Jackson Hole symposium last week.Investors especially bought the 30-year bond, which saw yields rise to the highest level since mid-June on Friday.
Why it matters: A tug of war is developing in the bond market as inflation expectations are rising thanks to unprecedented central bank and government stimulus measures globally.
Trust in the Federal Reserve fell again, despite — or, perhaps, because of — the stock market's continued surge upward, according to data from the latest Axios-Ipsos Coronavirus Index.
By the numbers: Trust in the Fed is sinking across the political spectrum — a strong majority (62%) of Americans say they have little or no trust in the central bank, up from just over half (51%) in May.
Tech stocks had a big day on Monday led by gains in three companies, even as U.S. equities broadly ended the day lower.
What happened: Tesla rose 12.5% during the session as traders were again inexplicably lured by its lower share price due to a five-to-one stock split. Apple added 3.5% and Zoom gained 8.6% during the day with its stock jumping by nearly 10% in after-hours trading after posting better-than-expected Q2 earnings.
The Open Technology Fund is requesting that the U.S. Office of the Inspector General investigate its parent, the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), for breaching a firewall provision that is supposed to protect government-funded media agencies from political interference.
The big picture: The move is the latest in a very messy fight between the USAGM and one of the organizations it oversees. Earlier on Monday, journalists at another USAGM agency, Voice of America, wrote a letter to their interim CEO alleging that the new head of USAGM was endangering the agency's reporters.
If football and men's basketball players at Power 5 colleges were paid under collective bargaining agreements like their professional peers in the NFL and NBA, they would earn annual salaries of $360,000 and $500,000, respectively.
Driving the news: That's according to a new study released by the National Bureau of Economic Research, which also estimates that high-profile athletes like quarterbacks ($2.4 million per year on average) and every starting player on a basketball team (between $800,000 and $1.2 million per year) would earn significantly more.
Donald Trump Jr., out Tuesday with "Liberal Privilege: Joe Biden and the Democrats' Defense of the Indefensible," told Axios he self-published because his massive social channels — 5.5 million Twitter followers, 3.4 million Instagram followers — give him a distribution edge that allows him to keep full control and profits.
Why it matters: "You're not beholden to someone else," Trump said from New York after signing 100 copies at Barnes & Noble on Fifth Avenue. "I'm actually probably at an advantage."
Rocket Internet, the German startup factory infamous for copying other companies, said Tuesday that it will delist its stock, citing current greater availability of private capital than when it went public in 2014.
Between the lines: Despite producing and backing a number of successful companies like Zalando and HelloFresh, Rocket Internet's own stock has largely traded below its IPO price of €42.50 ($50.95) a share.
As sports begin to trickle back, the way they are measured will start to look a little bit different.
Why it matters: The changes could help boost TV network viewership numbers substantially for sports and other types of programming typically viewed outside of the home — including bars, restaurants and workplaces.
Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks, whose company has a coronavirus treatment in Phase 3 of clinical trials, told "Axios on HBO" that it'd be smart to share with other countries rather than going America first.
The big picture: 66% of Americans don't want to share a vaccine right away with the rest of the world if the U.S. gets there first, according to a recent Harris poll, Axios' Sam Baker reported last week.
