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United passenger removed from plane is suing

Mel Evans / AP

The attorney and family of Dr. David Dao, who was forcibly dragged off a United Airlines flight April 9, held a press conference Thursday morning to address the lawsuit the family is filing against the airline. They explained that Dao has come to understand that "he's the guy to stand up for passengers."

Why this matters: The viral incident is the latest in a series of missteps from United, which recently came under fire for denying two teenage girls entry to a flight because they were wearing leggings. The public lawsuit could be damaging to the airline as it works to rebuild its brand.

More details from the press conference:

  • Dao's lawyer, Thomas Demetrio, said the doctor was discharged from the hospital late last night, and he suffered a significant concussion, has a broken nose, lost two front teeth, and will be undergoing reconstructive surgery.
  • Demetrio said Dao told him that being dragged down the aisle was "more harrowing and more horrifying" than leaving Vietnam during the war.
  • "I've concluded the following, that for a long time airlines, United in particular, have bullied us," Demetrio said, calling on all airlines to reconsider their regulations, adding that they need to "figure out a way, short-term, to solve what i call over-overbooking" and the mistreatment of passengers.

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Trading platforms curb trading on high-flying Reddit stocks

Major trading platforms including Robinhood, TDAmeritrade and Interactive Brokers are restricting — or cutting off entirely — trading on high-flying stocks like GameStop and AMC Entertainment.

Why it matters: It limits access to the traders that have contributed to the wild Reddit-driven activity of the past few days — a phenomenon that has gripped Wall Street and the country.

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Courtenay Brown
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2020 was the economy's worst year since 1946

Source: FRED; Billions of chained 2012 dollars; Chart: Axios Visuals

One of the last major economic report cards of the Trump era lends perspective to the historic damage caused by the pandemic, which continued to weigh on growth in the final quarter of 2020.

By the numbers: The U.S. economy grew at a 4% annualized pace in the fourth quarter, a sharp slowdown in growth compared to the prior quarter. For the full year, the economy shrank by 3.5% — the first annual contraction since the financial crisis and the worst decline since 1946.

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Dion Rabouin, author of Markets
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How GameStop exposed the market

Illustration: Eniola Odetunde/Axios

Retail traders have found a cheat code for the stock market, and barring some major action from regulatory authorities or a massive turn in their favored companies, they're going to keep using it to score "tendies" and turn Wall Street on its head.

What's happening: The share prices of companies like GameStop are rocketing higher, based largely on the social media organizing of a 3-million strong group of Redditors who are eagerly piling into companies that big hedge funds are short selling, or betting will fall in price.

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