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MARKETS
- Economy: Tuesday it was consumer prices falling the most since the Great Recession, yesterday producer prices posted their biggest annual decline since 2015. That deflating feeling...
- Stocks: Also deflated following subdued remarks from Fed Chair Jerome Powell about long-term economic pain.
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TRAVEL
Europe's Operation Fanny Pack Is a Go
While it's still annoying to hear your neighbors talk about that time they “summered in Capri,” Europe really wants them to come back. To make sure that happens sooner rather than 2030, the EU laid out a series of guidelines yesterday that chart a path toward reviving the shuttered tourism industry.
Like Ricky Bobby and “going fast,” tourism and Europe need each other.
- Tourism accounts for nearly 10% of the continent's GDP.
- Europe accounts for 50% of the global tourism industry, in terms of international arrivals.
But unlike AirPods...
The tourism plan isn’t one-size-fits-all. According to the EU, countries with "sufficiently similar epidemiological situations," should coordinate with each other first. Germany and Austria seem ready to relax border controls this weekend.
Big picture: This piecemeal reopening effort will show the rest of the tourism industry what checking “for pleasure” on customs forms might look like in a world reshaped by the coronavirus. You'll see...
More
- Bubbles: Specific “travel bubbles” would allow the countries with the lowest infection rates to reopen their most popular destinations, even if broader travel restrictions remain.
- Scheduling: Like late-semester office hours, visitors will have to sign up for specific time slots in order to eat dinner or jump in the pool to help resorts manage crowds.
- Flexibility: The EU is recommending operators offer customers more flexible choices between reimbursements and vouchers to entice travelers to...travel.
Fewer
- Americans: The EU is still recommending its members ban visitors from non-EU countries for at least another month. But with infection rates continuing to drop, those rules could soon change.
- Extra pairs of underwear: The EU suggests airlines limit the amount of baggage travelers can bring on board as well as overall contact with the flight crew.
Bottom line: With international arrivals to Europe expected to fall by 40% this year, governments are navigating the delicate give-and-take between restarting Eiffel Tower tours and keeping a lid on new infections.
ECONOMY
Jerome Powell to Congress:
Fed Chair Jerome Powell warned the U.S. economy could be left with some nasty scars unless the government steps in with more emergency aid.
Speaking at a virtual event hosted by the Peterson Institute for International Economics yesterday, Powell acknowledged that “additional fiscal support could be costly, but worth it if it helps avoid long-term economic damage and leaves us with a stronger recovery.”
- How costly? The government has already poured in about $3 trillion to keep the economy afloat, and this week House Democrats unveiled a relief package worth $3 trillion more.
- But Powell said concerns about spending shouldn’t be a priority right now. After all, of people making less than $40k a year employed in February, 40% lost their jobs in March.
Looking ahead...Powell said if you squint real hard (and provide enough relief), you can see the yellow brick road back to 3.5% unemployment. “I have every reason to think we should get back there.”
HEALTHCARE
CEO Job Didn’t Haven the Right Feel
Yesterday, Haven announced Atul Gawande will step down after two years as CEO but will stay on as the company’s chairman.
What’s Haven? A healthcare company launched in 2018 as a joint venture between JPMorgan, Amazon, and Berkshire Hathaway.
- Haven's official goal is to improve U.S. healthcare, and...it's got a long way to go. So far, it's offered some JPMorgan employees deductible-free health plans with wellness incentives, but it’s kept a low profile to keep its edge in a competitive sector.
Who’s Atul Gawande? Both a doctor and a prolific writer. News of him stepping down came out just as he published a new article in the New Yorker about how to safely lift coronavirus lockdown restrictions.
- Gawande said his role at Haven would shift from day-to-day concerns to broader strategy and leadership. COO and former CVS exec Mitch Betses will run the show for the time being.
Zoom out: This isn’t Haven’s first exexit. Former COO Jack Stoddard left last May after just eight months.
FOOD
Fake Meat Has Real Momentum
The coronavirus pandemic has exposed the traditional meat industry’s weak spots—namely, preventing outbreaks among workers. The difficulty of keeping slaughterhouses functioning safely has led to plant shutdowns, which themselves have led to spikes in wholesale prices. Meanwhile, alternative meat is gaining ground on two fronts.
No. 1: It's picking up the grocery pace. The sector’s U.S. retail sales grew 265% in the eight weeks leading up to mid-April, according to Nielsen, compared to 39% for fresh meat.
No. 2: Alt-meat is riding a huge funding wave. At $930 million, Q1 investments in alt-meat companies topped 2019’s total fundraising haul (yes, including Beyond Meat’s $250 million IPO), per alt-protein lobbying firm the Good Food Institute.
- Plant-based meat company Impossible Foods raised $500 million, while media/alt-food brand LiveKindly pulled in $200 million.
Bottom line: While some of this momentum is driven by the pandemic, a Berenberg analyst told the Financial Times that broad consumer trends toward environmentalism, healthy eating, and animal welfare will likely keep buoying the alt-meat sector.
GAMING
Contained in This Picture: 16 Billion Triangles
Epic Games, maker of Fortnite, released fresh details about its latest game engine, Unreal Engine 5, yesterday. The screenshot above was taken from a demo game showcasing the engine on a PlayStation 5. Yep, it's pretty ridiculous.
Unreal Engine 5 is Epic's most powerful engine yet, allowing video game developers and filmmakers to create hyperrealistic representations of real-life surfaces, at a fraction of the time and money.
- “The hardest problem in game development right now is building high quality games...so we want to make developers’ lives easier and more productive," Epic CEO Tim Sweeney told The Verge.
Sweeney, unsurprisingly, is a huge proponent of the migration toward virtual worlds and the "metaverse."
Bottom line: With graphics like those, we're with Tim.
+ While we're here...Sony said the PS5 should be ready to ship for the 2020 holiday season.
WHAT ELSE IS BREWING
- Uber is requiring all drivers and riders to wear face masks starting next week.
- Alameda County, CA, and Tesla appear to have resolved their spat over whether the company’s Fremont plant can open. It will most likely start making vehicles Monday.
- England eased restrictions on businesses yesterday and golf courses were allowed to open. Better get practicing if you want to defend the Ryder Cup.
- Sanofi’s CEO told Bloomberg that the U.S. would probably be the first to receive the company’s COVID-19 vaccine because it was the first country to step up with investments.
CANADA TRIVIA
Listen, we went to Mont-Tremblant last winter—it was extremely pleasant and we'd like to go back sometime. So as part of our #redemption tour for Canadian readers, we're devoting today's trivia to our northern neighbors. Can you solve the following clues?
- Canada’s largest city by population.
- The smallest Canadian province by land area.
- Canada's national dish.
- Canada has more of these geographic features than anywhere else in the world.
- Complete this phrase from the Canadian National Anthem: “With glowing hearts we see thee rise, the _______ strong and free!
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CANADA TRIVIA ANSWER
1. Toronto
2. Prince Edward Island
3. Poutine
4. Lakes
5. True North
Fuga tempore sed vel sint minus. Magni doloribus autem tempora animi iusto. Ut accusamus unde libero qui quis sunt.
Et quam dolorem est dolor. Similique officiis doloribus qui eaque officia. Est adipisci sint ut sit aspernatur est. Aut voluptatem et quasi tempora ratione sit.
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