Executive Leadership Briefing

U.S. employers now say they plan to allow an average of 2.3 days per week at home, up from 1.5 in the summer of 2020, as more ease up on return to office plans. In Manhattan, just 8% of office workers are back in the office five days a week. While executives have often led the charge to return to in-person work, research shows executives are less likely than their employees to work from the office five days a week. More than a third of workers have returned to the office full-time – the highest number since surveying began in June 2020.

Microsoft is promising to boost employee compensation amid continued low unemployment across the U.S., announcing plans to nearly double its global budget for merit-based salary raises. Microsoft’s readiness to spend more on staff follows similar moves by rivals like Google and Amazon. Other big U.S. companies are doling out one-time awards to executives in an effort to retain high-performing leaders amid record employee turnover. Retention awards and compensation promises reflect companies’ concerns about the tight labor market.

More than half of Americans said the most important issue facing the country is inflation and 32% said their personal financial circumstances had worsened over the past year. Goldman Sachs predicts the Federal Reserve will tap the brakes on U.S. economic growth in an effort to bring down inflation. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos sparred with the White House on Twitter, criticizing the administration’s claim that raising corporate taxes would bring inflation rates down.

Economists predict the housing bubble will bottom out as interest rates rise and more people are priced out of the market. Home prices have risen sharply over the past two years – the National Association of Realtors reported an increase of 39%. The cooldown is not a sign of a housing crash, but an indication that the market will level out, research from Zillow shows. A major Wall Street firm underscored this idea, adding that home equity is at an all-time high and household balance sheets are strong.

Climate change is hurting the insurance industry, with only 8% of insurers adequately prepared for its impact, a new report found. Insured losses from natural catastrophes increased 250% in the last 30 years and nearly two-thirds of insurers said they felt climate change makes it hard to insure some areas. In California, about nearly half of all properties have a .03% or greater chance of being involved in a wildfire – a number that is expected to grow in the state and across the country as climate risks worsen.

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McDonald’s announced it is selling its Russian business, which includes 850 restaurants that employ 62,000 people, making it the latest major Western corporation to exit Russia since it invaded Ukraine. The French automaker Renault is also pulling its business, announcing it reached a deal to cede its stake in Russia’s biggest car marker on Monday and German electronics giant Siemens is exiting Russia after nearly 170 years in business there. Pressure from investors and consumers is driving the trend that’s led to more than 1,200 companies voluntarily curtailing operations in Russia.

Despite early predictions that Zoom meetings would replace face-to-face encounters, industry trade groups and hotel companies are pointing to significant upswings of in-person small business meetings as well as larger conventions and trade shows. Airlines have also noted an increase in bookings by business travelers – a good sign for the industry’s revival, as corporate clients spent more than $1 trillion on travel pre-pandemic in 2019.

Lobbying groups representing Facebook, Twitter, Google and other tech companies filed an emergency request with the U.S. Supreme Court seeking to block a Texas law that prohibits large social media from banning users based on political views. The law creates new legal risks for tech giants and fosters uncertainty about how social media will function in the state. A recent survey found a declining share of Americans favor more government regulation of tech companies, a trend most pronounced among Republicans.

The median pay package for chief executives of the biggest U.S. companies reached $14.7 million in 2021, setting a sixth-straight annual record as strong profits and robust markets boost performance measures. Calculating executive pay by factoring in goals related to climate and diversity is growing more common as investors demand action, with a quarter of U.S. companies including some form of environmental or social metric as part of their executive incentive plans in 2021, compared to 16% in 2019.

More companies are changing their outlook when it comes to AI, with Etsy, L.L. Bean and Ocado redefining the industry through a more human-focused approach. Tesla CEO Elon Musk said he expects the company’s robot will eventually be worth more than the car business and Uber recently began testing food delivery with robots. Investments in AI research and applications is set to hit $500 billion by 2024 and predictions indicate AI will contribute more than $15 trillion to the global economy by the end of the decade.

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The federal government warned that AI technology used to screen new job candidates or monitor worker productivity can unfairly discriminate against people with disabilities. The U.S. Justice Department and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission jointly issued guidance to employers regarding tools like resume scanners, game-like online tests to assess job skills and video interviewing software. Advocates have asked federal regulators to crack down on AI rules, with 83% of employers now using some form of automated tools to rank candidates for hire.

Lawyers for multiple southern states recently went to court to challenge the Biden administration’s plan to lift Title 42, but immigrant advocates say these states are deliberately steering cases to federal judges appointed by former President Donald Trump where they are likely to receive a favorable outcome. More than 20 states have joined the lawsuit seeking to block the administration from ending the pandemic border restrictions, which were put in place in 2020. Title 42 underscores the Trump administration’s lasting political authority but also supports a unified front among Senate Republicans that’s grown in recent weeks.

More than 107,000 Americans died of drug overdoses last year, setting another record in the nation’s escalating overdose epidemic and marking a 15% increase from the year before. A growing share of deaths continues to stem from fentanyl which is often mixed with other drugs, and methamphetamine. The White House recently promoted a national drug control strategy, involving measures like expanding access to treatment and disrupting drug trafficking. The Biden administration is the first to embrace harm reduction through needle exchanges or tools to check drugs for fentanyl – an approach criticized by some as enabling drug users.

More than 40 million people left their jobs last year, but many didn’t leave work altogether. People began advocating for higher pay, stable hours and flexibility, and instead of quitting jobs, data shows a nearly one-to-one correlation between the rate of quitting and swapping jobs. A recent study found nearly half of U.S. workers have considered looking for a new job in the past six months and two-thirds say they’re considering changing their entire career paths.

Astronomers revealed the world’s first captured image of the chaotic supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy, defining it as a “gentle giant.” The image confirms Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity – the black hole is precisely the size that Einstein’s equations dictate. Astronomers said the new result would lead to a better understanding of gravity and galaxy evolution and hope to eventually create videos of a black hole by the end of the decade.

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Federal revenue nearly doubled in April compared to the same period last year, driving a record monthly government surplus of $308 billion amid a strong economic recovery. Government revenue from taxes for the month rose by 97% to $864 billion despite the federal government spending 32% more on servicing its debt in April due to high inflation. Record inflation forced Americans to pay more for groceries and air travel but less for gasoline, with roughly 90% of Americans reporting they are now concerned about inflation.

President Joe Biden plans to appeal for a renewed international commitment to attacking COVID-19 at his second virtual summit, hoping to create a new urgency for the global response. Biden also plans to order that flags at all federal buildings be lowered to half-staff until next week to honor the one million lives lost due to the pandemic. Biden’s call to action comes as South Korea announced an additional $20 billion to small businesses to make up for losses due to COVID restrictions.

A large sell-off in cryptocurrencies wiped over $200 billion of wealth from the market in 24 hours, driven by Coinbase reporting a loss of half its value in the past week and TerraUSD stablecoins’ collapse. Coinbase came under scrutiny this week after the company suggested that the digital tokens it holds for its users might not really belong to them in a bankruptcy situation. Digital tokens have continued to face selling pressure as central banks are aggressively tightening their monetary policy to fight inflation.

The global chip shortage, rising material costs and China’s COVID restrictions continue to impact carmakers, with Nissan expecting flat operating profits this fiscal year, far below analysts’ expectations. Rivian maintained its production forecasts for 2022 despite supply chain setbacks, reporting a lower-than-expected $95 million in revenue for the first quarter. Although Toyota smashed earnings records across the board in the latest fiscal year, the carmaker is slowing the pace of recovery as part of an “international pause” to achieve a more reasonable pace of output due to the chip shortage. Many have predicted the crisis will not be over before 2024.

California-based utility companies have been investing in Artificial Intelligence for wildfire mitigation but said it will likely take years to gather enough data to deploy and train AI at scale across their infrastructure. AI is increasingly being used in the U.S. to predict weather movements and prevent natural disasters at 100,000 times the speed of traditional numerical weather models. Recent forecasts predicted a 50-50 chance that Earth will temporarily hit the warming threshold that international agreements are trying to prevent within the next five years. Many scientists see AI as a tool to fight global warming and build a more sustainable world.

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In a 51-50 party-line vote, the Senate confirmed economist Lisa Cook to serve on the Federal Reserve’s Board of governors, a confirmation that made her the first Black woman to sit on the panel in its 108-year history. Some of Cook’s well-known research has focused on the long-term impact of lynchings and racial violence on African American innovation. Analysis of publicly traded U.S. companies found that just 12.5% of board directors were from underrepresented ethnic and racial groups, and only 34% of board members felt racial diversity was “very important” on their boards.

Following a year of soaring goods and gas prices, inflation slowed slightly in April as gas prices and supply-chain bottlenecks eased. The Labor Department reported an 8.3% annual increase in April from the same month a year ago. Some Fed officials recently acknowledged they were too slow to respond to rapid inflation last year, forcing more economic constraints. President Joe Biden voiced his support for taming inflation, saying it is his "top domestic priority.” More Americans are struggling to pay usual household expenses, with 60% of people reporting having a difficult time due to inflation.

The House of Representatives approved a resolution that allows staffers in the lower chamber to unionize in addition to announcing an increase to their minimum salary. The decision comes after the Congressional Workers Union distributed a survey that found 91% of the 516 staff surveyed want more protections to give them a voice at work. The resolution enables over 9,000 staffers on Capitol Hill access to the same basic legal protections other workers have. It remains unlikely that the Senate will pass a similar measure.

Microsoft is aggressively tackling the problem of ransomware with a series of new managed cybersecurity services designed to assist organizations in spotting and responding to cybersecurity incidents. As one of the leaders in cloud software, Microsoft plans to offer consulting-oriented services for security software in a market where demand exceeds supply. The investment comes as many organizations are increasing security spending, with Microsoft increasing its budget for annual research and development in cybersecurity by $3 billion.

Travel and tourism company Holiday group TUI said it expects to become profitable again in 2022 as countries lift pandemic-related travel restrictions. Boeing reported it had delivered 28 of its cash cow single-aisle jets to customers in April, capitalizing on rebounding air travel as the plane-maker battles supply chain setbacks. Despite people eager to return to the sky, packed planes and expensive tickets drove down customer satisfaction with airlines for the first time in a decade. With air travel picking up, the TSA's chief predicts inevitable “hiccups” this summer as they expect the largest airport passenger crowds since the pandemic began.

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Stock futures rebounded Tuesday morning after the SandP 500 ended below 4,000 for the first time since March 2021 and the Nasdaq dropped upwards of 4% Monday. The combination of rising interest rates and a potential recession led to the major selloff as traders struggled to grapple with last week’s market swings. Apple shares dropped 3.3%, weighing heavily on the Nasdaq while Microsoft dropped 3.7% and Tesla fell 9.1%. Many economists remain uneasy about the future, arguing the distinction between the economy and the stock market is getting increasingly harder to draw.

Tech-industry leaders plan to visit Capitol Hill this week to warn that the remote work trend will eventually cause many companies to internationally outsource technology workers unless the U.S. ups the number of skilled-worker visas it admits. Tech leaders worry the trend paired with limited immigration may cause candidates to favor jobs in Canada and other countries. Remote tech positions have jumped upwards of 420% since January 2020 and more than 22% of all tech jobs were listed as remote in February of this year. A new study indicated that the ability to work from home is strongly tied to happiness at work.

Uber plans to scale back hiring and reduce spending on its marketing tactics to become a leaner business and address a “seismic shift” in investor sentiment, Uber’s CEO told employees. Uber shares fell 12% Monday after the announcement, and Uber shares have fallen more than 40% so far this year. The cost of ridesharing apps like Uber and Lyft increased 92% from January 2018 to July 2021 due to a shortage of drivers and recent spikes in gas prices have skyrocketed prices further. Tech companies that once powered the U.S. economy are struggling with some of the biggest challenges they have seen in years.

Pfizer announced plans to acquire Biohaven Pharmaceutical Holding Co. for more than $11 billion in cash to gain full ownership of an approved treatment for migraine headaches. Pfizer recently made billions from sales of its COVID-19 vaccine and treatments, allowing the New York drugmaker to diversify beyond pandemic products as demand dwindles. The move comes after Pfizer's acquisition of Canadian drug developer Trillium Therapeutics and a deal for drug developer Arena Pharmaceuticals. Pharmaceutical acquisitions have become increasingly common as treatment developers look to broaden their market share.

Teenagers are now entering the hot job market in greater numbers than they have since before the 2008 financial crisis, becoming particularly essential in the retail, tourism and hospitality sectors. The unemployment rate for teenagers aged 16 to 19 fell to 10.2% in April, just short of the 68-year low seen last May. Many young adults are choosing to take lighter course loads in college and work increased hours, with 31% of students who plan to quit school saying their reasoning is to take advantage of the strong labor market. The shift has left many experts wary of what may happen if society loses sight of the value of education.

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Comcast, ATandT and Verizon are among 20 internet providers that partnered with the Biden administration to offer high-speed internet to millions of unconnected households through the bipartisan infrastructure law. The Affordable Connectivity Program aims to provide at least 100 Megabytes per second of speed for no more than $30 to the 48 million eligible Americans. Administration officials said Latino Americans are 15% less likely to have high-speed internet and roughly 35% of all people living on Tribal lands lack access to broadband services. Although efforts to close the digital divide have increased in recent years, roughly 19 million Americans still lack access to fixed broadband service at threshold speeds.

Electric-grid operations across the country are warning of potential blackouts as power-generating capacity is struggling to meet demand with companies attempting to transition to green energy sources. In California, heatwaves, wildfires and drought may force the state to fall short of energy demands by 1,700 megawatts, enough to power over a million California homes. In the UK, renewable energy developers are facing delays of up to 10 years to connect new capacity to the electricity grid. Inflation and supply chain shortages continue to slow the pace developers can get components needed to build renewable energy farms, heightening the risk of outages this summer.

The Biden administration announced new sanctions targeting Russian state-controlled media and banking executives while G7 nations committed to phase out imports of Russian oil in the West’s latest attempt to condemn Moscow for its war against Ukraine. The sanctions will remove American advertising dollars from “funding Russian propaganda” and force the networks to domestically source broadcast technologies. Previously imposed sanctions against Russia already took a major toll on the country’s economy, but officials intend these sanctions to change the “strategic calculus of the target.”

As nurses’ salaries, overtime and bonuses skyrocketed during the pandemic, some hospitals have been forced to raise treatment costs by up to 15%, forcing contract negotiations with health insurers and threatening higher premiums. In recent years, hospitals have typically won an average 3% price increase, but a tight labor market pushed many healthcare workers into early retirement while others left for higher-paying temporary travel jobs. Federal public health spending increased 864% from 2019 to 2020 due to the pandemic, with state and local spending rising by 4.2%.

The nation’s baby formula shortage intensified in recent weeks as major retailers including Target, CVS and Walgreens are limiting the amount of formula shoppers can purchase. Nearly 40% of baby formula inventory was out of stock nationally during the week starting April 24, up 18% from when the year started and up 11% from a month ago. Prices of formula have also spiked dramatically and the sweeping recall of Abbott Nutrition products exacerbated the situation. Roughly three in four babies are fed formula by six months old as a complete or partial substitute for human milk.

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Mortgage rates reached their highest point since the Great Recession, with the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate sitting at 5.27%. Experts expect future interest rates to continue climbing as the Federal Reserve acts to tamp down inflation. Near the end of April, mortgage purchase applications were down 17% from a year earlier and sales of existing homes in March fell 2.7%. For the past two years, low interest rates, stimulus aid from Congress and people’s flexibility to choose where to live have boosted demand for the handful of homes available and sent home prices soaring.

Google will conduct employee performance reviews once a year instead of twice a year following a survey that found nearly half of Google employees didn’t think their time was well spent with the previous system. The move will require less paperwork and change the way employees are rated. As tech companies worry about hiring and retention, tech workers are acting on their increased power – last year Meta also cut back to one annual review, underscoring a study that found 75% of employees think traditional performance reviews are inaccurate.

The Food and Drug Administration limited the use of the Johnson and Johnson coronavirus vaccine, citing concerns over a rare but serious blood-clotting disorder. The action follows the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommending Moderna’s and Pfizer’s vaccines over Johnson and Johnson’s for booster shots. While Johnson and Johnson said the FDA’s decision reflected the already-known risk of the side effect, the company has also stopped providing sales outlooks for the shot to investors in a possible sign of its own waning interest in its vaccine.

Overall plastics recycling fell by nearly 6% at the start of the pandemic – a drop of 290 million pounds – a new report shows. While the pandemic was good for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, it also drove the decline in the recycling of food containers and bottles. The report comes as California begins an investigation into the fossil fuel industries for allegedly overstating the role of recycling in curbing global plastic pollution and accelerating the crisis.

SpaceX brought four astronauts home with a midnight splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico on Friday, capping the busiest month yet for Elon Musk’s service ferrying for NASA. Musk’s company has now launched 26 people into orbit in less than two years, eight of which were space tourists. The head of NASA recently emphasized how an increase in competition likely represents a boon for the growing swath of space companies looking to provide low-cost services.

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The Federal Reserve on Wednesday issued its biggest rate hike in 22 years, raising interest rates by half a percentage point to counter inflation. Some economists fear that the Fed’s actions could be too late for avoiding recession. More measures to cool the economy are expected throughout the year, potentially amounting to the fastest withdrawal of monetary support in decades. The agency warned that the war in Ukraine and pandemic lockdowns in China will likely continue to push prices higher in coming months.

Inflation continues to lift first-quarter profits for many companies, spurring better-than-expected earnings for Bud brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev and a record quarterly profit for Shell. Strong oil and gas trading has contributed to surging profits for U.S. shale companies as well as UK energy giant BP, which reported more than a double in profits despite a hit of more than $24 billion from ditching its business in Russia.

Many companies that spoke out on state laws to restrict abortion have so far remained silent on Roe v. Wade, underscoring the difficult logistical issues that some corporations could face if they vow to maintain their health care promises from coast to coast. Apple, Amazon, Citigroup and Yelp are among the companies that have publicly offered to cover some costs for employees who need to travel out of state for an abortion. With women making up more than half of the workforce, experts say the effects of abortion on business must be considered. According to one paper, women who were unable to get abortions were less likely to be employed full-time six months after denial of care.

The maker of TurboTax has been ordered to pay $141 million to customers across the U.S. who were deceived by misleading promises of free tax-filing services. An investigation of the company followed media reports that found the company was steering low-income tax filers toward its commercial products even if they qualified for federally supported free services. A spokesperson for Intuit, the maker of the tax software, said that allowing the government to provide a pre-filled tax preparation system when it is also the auditor and enforcer makes the process “fraught with conflicts of interest.”

The historic site of Jamestown in Virginia is in imminent danger due to climate change, according to the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The organization added Jamestown to its 2022 list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places, noting that climate change has accelerated the rate of erosion and flooding in the area. Authorities estimate that a good portion of the fort and surrounding area will be underwater in 35 years.

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J.D. Vance won the crowded GOP Senate primary on Tuesday, confirming former President Donald Trump’s influence in the upcoming midterm elections. At the same time, reactions to the leak of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade review have crystallized the stark red-blue divide on the issue of abortion, setting the stage for a deeply polarized debate in the coming months. Closer examination of the review has some speculating that the justices could also roll back the right to same-sex marriage.

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday is expected to begin raising rates more quickly and announce the start of reductions to its $9 trillion balance sheet to address rapidly rising inflation. Analysts say the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and ongoing supply and labor shortages could dampen the effects of the organization’s efforts to curb inflation. To compete for customers struggling with high food bills, some retailers have begun to cut or cap the price of their products, hoping to stay in business with major packaged food brands.

The European Union has proposed to ban all oil imports from Russia by the end of the year in an effort to tighten sanctions, prompting a jump in oil prices. Some analysts say that severing Europe’s oil ties to Russia may lead to long-term shortages and higher prices for fuels, carrying the threat of derailing economic recovery from the pandemic. The sanctions come as Russian forces intensify their attacks in both the west and east of Ukraine, taking aim at supply lines for foreign weapons.

American shipping companies are logging major grievances with federal regulators, saying that international carriers have been taking advantage of supply chain chaos to inflate their prices. According to one watchdog organization, the five largest container-shipping companies collectively increased their profits by $41 billion from 2020 to 2021. While container lines are expected to post more all-time highs for the first quarter, some evidence points to a slowdown in the market.

A growing number of startups are emerging to challenge social media companies such as Twitter and Meta. Many challengers are employees who left those major companies in the hopes of solving the problems that they perceive with social media such as the advertising structure. The challengers come as Meta confronts a worsening advertising business and antitrust violations, and as Elon Musk shakes up the legacy of Twitter, although Musk recently told potential investors he may return the social media company to public ownership after just a few years.

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