Axios

A Baltimore family has filed a class-action lawsuit that cites "pervasive and appalling race discrimination" at a Sesame Street-themed amusement park, related to costumed employees' alleged pattern of snubbing Black children.

Why it matters: The lawsuit comes in the aftermath of a viral video showing a costumed employee apparently gesturing "no" and ignoring two other Black girls at a Sesame Place parade despite high-fiving a white child and woman.

Amazon's growth is plateauing as the company adjusts to a new economic environment.

Catch up quick: Net sales rose to $121.2 billion in the second quarter, or by 7% — the same pace as the first three months of the year, the company reported on Thursday.

Global companies are feeling the impact of a slowdown in the Chinese economy.

Why it matters: China is not only the largest consumer market in the world, but it also remains a key component of global supply chains.

Apple on Thursday reported quarterly results that were slightly ahead of Wall Street expectations despite having to grapple with both supply chain and production challenges.

Why it matters: Apple's report comes as many of its tech peers reported weaker results, including semiconductor bellwether Intel, whose results and outlook disappointed analysts and investors.

Twitter warned Thursday that local, state and national governments around the world are asking the company to remove content and provide private information of user accounts at an alarming rate.

Driving the news: The company said in a new report that it received a record number of legal demands from governments, nearly 50,000 during a six-month period last year.

The state of West Virginia will no longer work with major banks that have pledged to combat climate change — cutting ties with BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo.

Why it matters: Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) initiatives have been attacked by both sides of the aisle, but America’s top corporations are showing “no signs of retreat,” according to Fortune.

Trader Joe's workers in Hadley, Massachusetts, on Thursday voted to unionize, becoming the first of the supermarket's stores to do so.

The big picture: The vote comes as employees at a number of major retailers, including Starbucks and Amazon, have voted to form unions in recent months.

Snapchat's parent company Snap Inc. has added two ad tech execs to its staff and reshuffled its executive team to prioritize monetization and growth, according to a source familiar with the changes and an internal memo obtained by Axios.

Why it matters: Snap shares spiraled last week after the company said revenue growth would meaningfully slow in the months ahead.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Thursday that a semantics debate over whether or not the U.S. economy is in a recession should be avoided as households grapple with inflation and high gas prices.

Why it matters: In recent days, Biden administration officials have gone to great lengths to stress that the nation has not entered a recession — an argument complicated by back-to-back quarters of negative growth, a common (but unofficial) rule of thumb for a recession.

Coinbase Global, the largest crypto exchange in the U.S., has made the case that its review processes for potential listings ensure none on its platform are securities, while at the same time describing the underlying rules as fuzzy and in need of clarification.

Why it matters: Now reportedly facing a probe by the SEC about whether it does in fact offer securities for trade, it's worth a look at the company's entire listing process — one it has changed alongside the market's and its own growth as it pursued CEO Brian Armstrong 's mission to list as many "legally viable" tokens as possible.

No role is totally safe in a strained economy, but it seems like the communications field is healthy, all things considered.

Why it matters: Employment in media and communications is projected to grow faster than the average for all other occupations — an estimated 14% — over the next 10 years, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Roughly four out of five Americans are worried about job security, per an Insights Global study, and there could be more layoffs as companies grapple with economic uncertainty.

Why it matters: There’s no easy way to communicate layoffs or rescind offers, but there is a wrong way — like mass Zoom firings, harsh tweets or leaked memos to the press.

Financial institutions want to shed their cutthroat image for a more cuddly one. To do that, many are enlisting agencies or hiring in-house talent to manage external branding.

Driving the news: Edelman launched a boutique agency, Edelman Smithfield, to focus on reputation management for investment firms, private equity and venture capital funds, banks and crypto.

Most people who switched employers between April 2021 and March 2022 saw an increase in their real earnings — despite surging inflation, according to a new Pew Research Center report.

Why it matters: Amid proof that the "great resignation" is paying off, people continue to hunt for new jobs in record numbers, though they're growing more concerned that the tight labor market may be changing, a Pew survey shows.

Meta on Tuesday began telling its news partners in the U.S. that the company no longer plans to pay publishers for their content to run on Facebook's News Tab, sources tell Axios.

Why it matters: As the company moves forward with sweeping changes to the Facebook experience, news has become less of a priority.

Walmart is embarking on a "mini-retail" journey with health and wellness hospitality company Getaway to add small general stores at select travel outposts across the country.

Why it matters: People are transitioning from spending on stuff to spending on experiences after two years of being cooped up amid the pandemic, Nathan Bomey reports for Axios Closer.

The U.S. economy contracted for the second straight quarter, with growth falling at a 0.9% annual rate in the April-June period.

Why it matters: The highly anticipated report is likely to fan new debate about the faltering economy and adds to the Biden administration's mounting political headaches. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve is moving to slow economic growth in a bid to contain sky-high inflation.

Spirit Airlines and JetBlue Airways announced that they have agreed to a merger Thursday, less than a day after Spirit terminated its proposed merger with budget airline Frontier.

Driving the news: JetBlue said in a news release that it will pay $33.50 a share in cash for Spirit in a $3.8 billion deal, which was higher than Frontier's $2.6 billion offer in cash and stock.

The shift to remote work destroyed about $58 billion, or 33%, in the value of office real estate in New York City through 2021, according to a working paper.

The big picture: The provocatively titled "Work From Home and the Office Real Estate Apocalypse," published earlier this summer, underscores how the work-from-home boom was largely a bust for pricey corporate office space.

The housing slowdown we've been anticipating for months is here.

The big picture: Home sales are slowing down, and some of the pandemic era's hottest "Zoomtowns" — sleepy areas where remote workers pushed up real-estate prices — are already seeing price drops.

After a decade of unprecedented growth, Meta has finally hit a wall.

Driving the news: The tech giant told investors Wednesday that it's planning to cut costs, slow investments and reduce head count as it braces for what CEO Mark Zuckerberg called a "downturn" that has already begun to wreak havoc on its business.

The United States is probably not in recession right now. We hope not to fall into one, but it could happen. Either way, don't look to your friendly neighborhood central bank to make the call.

• That, in a nutshell, was Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's message about the hot economic topic of the moment, as he faced the media following a decision to raise interest rates another 0.75 percentage points.