Finally, Buffett

MARKETS

• Economy: U.S. Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia said he’s pleasantly surprised by the economic recovery so far, citing consumer spending and new housing construction. He said that the extra $600 unemployment benefit provided by the first major relief package won’t be included in the next round of stimulus.
• COVID-19 update: Texas and Florida each posted a record number of new coronavirus cases on Saturday. Houston’s mayor is very concerned about hospital capacity, while Florida represents about 20% of all new cases in the U.S.

SPORTS

Name Games

The NFL’s Washington Redskins are once again facing intense public scrutiny for their name, which is considered a racial slur in dictionary entries. But this time it looks like change may be on the horizon—longtime owner Dan Snyder released a statement on Friday saying the team would be conducting a “thorough review” of the name.

What’s in a name?

Sports teams, mostly in the college ranks, have been moving away from stereotypical Native American names and imagery for decades.

• In the 1970s, Stanford, Dartmouth, and Syracuse all swapped out their nicknames while professional teams, like the Cleveland Indians and Washington Redskins, have kept theirs.

But 2020 is a different story. As protests over racial injustice dominate the national conversation, big brands are comfortable using their dollars to initiate change.

• FedEx, which paid $205 million for the naming rights to Washington's stadium in 1999, made it clear last week that it wants the team to change its name. And on Thursday, Nike appeared to pull all Redskins gear from its online store.
• Those moves came after 87 investors and shareholders representing $620 billion in assets called on FedEx, Nike, and PepsiCo to cut ties to the team unless Snyder pursued a name change.

Which bring us to an important lesson

Unless you're Babe Ruth and it's the fifth inning of Game 3 of the 1932 World Series, you might not want to guarantee anything.

• Dan Snyder in 2013: "We'll never change the name...It's that simple. NEVER—you can use caps."
• Washington Redskins in 2020: “The team will undergo a thorough review of the team’s name.”

Washington, which Forbes ranked as the seventh-most valuable NFL franchise in 2019, could set off a chain reaction if it commits to changing its name.

• The MLB’s Cleveland Indians also released a statement Friday saying they were considering a name change. That announcement comes after the team completely phased out its heavily criticized "Chief Wahoo" logo by 2019.

Looking ahead...this thing is happening. Washington is expected to change its name before kickoff in September, Axios reports. So here's our question for Brew readers: What should the new name be? Share your answer here.

ENERGY

When Buffett Opens His Checkbook...

He makes it in the Brew. That’s the rules. After generating a whole lotta headlines for doing a whole lotta nothing, yesterday the legendary investor's company, Berkshire Hathaway, said it's acquiring natural gas assets of Virginia-based Dominion Energy.

• The deal, which is worth almost $10 billion including debt, is Buffett’s biggest addition by enterprise value to the Berkshire portfolio since 2016.

What’s Buffett getting? A little more gassy. Right now subsidiary Berkshire Hathaway Energy carries 8% of interstate natural gas transmission in the U.S. After the Dominion deal, that will jump to 18%.

What’s Dominion getting? A cleaner conscience. “We offer an industry-leading clean-energy profile,” said CEO Thomas Farrell in a statement, which he hopes just got industry-leadier after selling its natural gas assets.

• In a separate announcement yesterday, Dominion said it was scrapping the $8 billion Atlantic Coast Pipeline project with Duke Energy due to mounting costs and regulatory hurdles.

Bottom line: Berkshire Hathaway has been sitting on an enormous pile of cash that just reached $137 billion. Perhaps the recent economic downturn has Buffett ready to wheel and deal.

FOOD AND BEV

England Keeps Calm and Drinks On

You might think reopening bars after more than three months and urging folks to not go bananas is a bit unrealistic, but England tried it anyway.

Dubbed “Super Saturday,” the government lifted restrictions on bars (and several other businesses) for the first time since late March. It’s a long-awaited moment for England’s 37,500 pubs, which furloughed 90% of their workers through a government relief program, the country’s Beer and Pub Association calculated.

Still, considering we are in a global pandemic, this will be a different bar experience:

• People won’t be able to congregate at the actual “bar,” so table service will be the norm.
• You’ll have to register with your info upon entering in case you need to be contacted later about a virus outbreak.
• Background music will be quieter so that patrons don’t have to shout to talk to one another (please make this one permanent.)
• This is interesting: The wearing of face masks—by staff or by patrons—is optional.

Bottom line: “Let’s not blow this,” said Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

POLITICS

So this happened...

ENVIRONMENT

Retired Gadgets Don’t Just Play Golf

If you didn't already have enough problems to worry about, let’s throw another on your plate: e-waste.

E-waste, defined as discarded electronic gadgets like TVs, phones, and toasters, is a major and growing environmental problem, according to a new UN report. The amount of e-waste has increased 21% over the last five years, reaching 54 million tonnes in 2019.

• If you’re craving an odd factoid, that’s the same amount of weight as 350 cruise ships the size of the Queen Mary 2.

Big picture: Electronic gadgets fuel economic growth across the world, but as anyone with a $5 iPhone charger can attest, they have a short lifespan. 17% of e-waste was recycled in 2019, writes the UN, which means the rest of it was mostly dumped or burned. That’s bad news, considering these devices contain hazardous materials, such as mercury.

But there’s opportunity. Electronics are also made of valuable materials that can be recovered and reused in a “circular economy.” The report estimates the value of raw materials in e-waste last year at $57 billion.

CALENDAR

The Quiet Week Ahead

It appears everyone decided to take a vacation this week and didn’t tell us.

Monday: ISM non-manufacturing index

Tuesday: New Jersey and Delaware primaries

Wednesday: The MLS returns with a one-off tournament in FL

Thursday: Jobless claims; Walgreens earnings

Friday: Live Nation’s “Live from the Drive-In” concert series begins

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• President Trump signed an extension of the PPP small business program.
• Tripadvisor's CEO said travelers are shunning coronavirus hotspots across the Sun Belt.
• Luckin Coffee's chairman has been booted from the scandal-ridden company, a Chinese web portal reported.
• Racial and ethnic minorities accounted for all of the U.S.’ population growth for the first nine years of the decade, per the Census Bureau.