Monday's economy stories

IBM ordered to pay $78M to Indiana for automation breakdown
A judge ruled late last week that IBM owes Indiana $78 million in damages due to its failed attempt to automate the state's welfare services, per the AP. IBM said Monday it would appeal the decision since it "is contradicted by the facts and the law."
The beef: Indiana and IBM sued each other in 2010 when then-Governor Mitch Daniels canceled the $1.3 billion contract between Indiana and IBM to automate welfare applications.
Where the automation fell flat: The idea was for residents to apply for food stamps, Medicaid, and other benefits through call centers, the internet, and fax machines, but when residents started complaining about long wait times, lost documents, and improper rejections, the deal was off. One of the state's private attorneys, Peter Rusthoven, said IBM is "a big corporation that refused all along to take responsibility for its poor performance."

These retailers will survive the Amazon 'onslaught'
We may look back on June 16th "as the day retail changed forever," according to a report Monday by investment research firm Morningstar. That's the day Amazon bought Whole Foods for a whopping $13.7 billion and sent investors scurrying from grocery stocks, as they prepared for Amazon to bring its affinity for razor-thin profit margins to the supermarket segment.
The story of Amazon is of a company steadily spreading into new product categories and crushing the competition, but Morningstar argues that Amazon's reach does have its limits. Analyst R.J. Hottovy lists the following firms as "the most likely survivors" of Amazonization:
- Lowe's: home improvement retailers benefit from the high price of shipping the bulky goods they have on offer;
- Costco: The bulk retailer benefits from its gasoline business, an item that Amazon's Whole Foods doesn't sell.
- Walmart: Even though America's largest retailer fights Amazon head on in most markets, Hottovy says Walmart's sheer scale and close relationships with suppliers means it can compete on price.

Tesla returns to the market to sell $1.5 billion in bonds
With $3 billion in cash in the bank, Tesla said today that it will add to its warchest by selling $1.5 billion in junk bonds to finance its planned surge in production of the mainstream electric Model 3. The rating agencies left their view of the company unchanged, and Tesla shares were steady on the news.
The news is not a surprise — CEO Elon Musk signaled in an earnings call with analysts on Aug. 2 that he might sell bonds to raise cash, and analysts had encouraged him to do so while Tesla's image among investors is strong. Musk unveiled the Model 3 to substantial fanfare on July 28, with 455,000 pre-orders and plans to ramp up to annual production of 500,000 vehicles by the end of next year, and to 1 million by 2020.
Why it matters: The added cash will make Musk's enormously ambitious Model 3 scaleup — not just production of the cars themselves, but a buildup of his Nevada battery "Gigafactory" — more realistic.
One level deeper: The Model 3 is seen as a bellwether of a possible new age of electric cars. Should sales continue at the same clip as the pre-orders — at 500,000 vehicles a year or more — the vehicle could trigger a frenzy among rival carmakers, which are already worried that Musk may capture the lion's share of a new car market.

Eric Bolling "overwhelmed" by support after harassment claims
Suspended Fox News host Eric Bolling has responded via Twitter to allegations that he sent female coworkers lewd and inappropriate text messages without their consent:
Where things stand: Bolling was swiftly suspended by Fox News on Saturday "pending the results of an investigation" after a Friday evening Huffington Post report detailing the allegations, which Bolling's lawyer branded as "anonymous, uncorroborated claims" that were "untrue and terribly unfair." The network has faced a string of recent high-profile sexual harassment claims, leading to the departures of chairman Roger Ailes last year and anchor Bill O'Reilly in April.

Wells Fargo remains mired in scandal
Wells Fargo isn't benefitting from the same goodwill investors are showing other big banks, Bloomberg Businessweek reports, as the firm remains dogged by accusations of fraud, discrimination, and forcing customers to buy unwanted products.
- The series of scandals began last year after the bank admitted that employees had been signing up customers for fake accounts in order to meet ambitious sales goals.
- Even before finalizing a $145 million settlement with customers, the bank now faces a new set of allegations, including: That it made unauthorized changes to customer mortgages, with some borrowers claiming the practice sent them into bankruptcy; That its loan-issuing process is discriminatory; that it forced roughly 800,000 customers in New York and California to buy unwanted auto insurance
- Why it matters: Wells Fargo's situation illustrates how even banks with reputations for probity can fall into the trap of scandal, given large, public bank incentives to please investors with ever higher profits.

Women and baby boomers power the great American jobs machine
It took eight years, but U.S. employment — at least when it comes to the numbers of jobs — is finally back from the recession. And women, African-Americans and baby-boomers have led the way.
Ryan Nunn, an economist with the Hamilton Project, tells Axios that, adjusting for population growth, all the jobs lost in the 2009 recession are now restored. But, he said, "there's been a very different recovery for different kinds of Americans." Hamilton released a report on Friday detailing these results, using monthly jobs figures released by the federal government.

New book argues U.S. companies are leaving workers behind
The western work force is in tumult, upset over stagnant wages, a loss of status, and the roiling of their accustomed world. Politicians like Donald Trump promise to do something about it. But does private industry have an obligation to step in as well?
In his sharply framed and important new book, The End of Loyalty, Rick Wartzman tells us that the answer is yes. Globalization and automation are "among the forces that have caused the social compact to unravel," he tells Axios. "But the gasoline on the fire is the shift in corporate culture away from a very explicit balancing of the interests of all stakeholders, including workers, and the movement to maximizing shareholder value."
The bottom line: Wartzman does not expect a return to the corporate paternalism of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, but sees upside in revisiting "how the pie is divided. That is a choice corporate leaders make," he said. "Companies have a responsibility to take the lead in sharing more broadly. It's in their interest to do so."

Trump's most viral tweets
Obama might have been the first @POTUS to tweet, but Trump is the Twitter master. These are his five most re-tweeted tweets of all time:
In first place, with more than 370K retweets:






