OPEC and its oil-producing allies (in Russia and elsewhere) are reportedly working on a plan to ease cuts on oil production they agreed upon in April “amid signs that demand is returning to normal levels following coronavirus-related lockdowns” and internal pressure from the Saudis – WSJ and Bloomberg and NYTimes
Disney World’s back open, even as Florida hits some of its highest daily Coronavirus infections since the pandemic began. We’ll be keeping an eye on how well Mickey’s promised safety measures worked out (and what price, exactly, families are paying for no lines) – NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg and MarketWatch
Semiconductor producer Analog Devices is in late-stage talks to purchase rival Maxim Integrated for upwards of $20 billion, a deal that would be “one of the largest merger[s]” of the year – WSJ and Bloomberg and MarketWatch
A “little-noticed” part of Google’s response to Australian competition regulators in May could hold great insights for the tech company’s coming antitrust battle with U.S. authorities. More specifically, Google may argue that while it “accounts for almost 30 percent of spending in the global digital ad market, it does not control enough of the industry to overcharge its customers and box out competitors”—a theory posited by a lawyer and economist Google hired to help it address Aussie concerns that its ad business is too dominant – NYTimes
So how, exactly, does it play when academics collaborate with tech companies? Consider the case of Uber, Lyft, and the economists – NYTimes
Fraud? Confirmed. Debt forgiveness? Not from the Ed Department. Such is the reality these days for more than 45,000 borrowers who were defrauded by ITT Technical Institute, the now-defunct for-profit college chain, and yet rejected by the Feds in their efforts to reduce their student-loan debt – NYTimes
The latest from Zuck & Co. is a possible ban on political advertising in the days before U.S. elections in November, an idea Facebook has been kicking around “after facing intense pressure for allowing hate speech and misinformation to flourish across its site” – NYTimes and MarketWatch
A look at how new rules for Chapter 11 filings are expected to impact the anticipated surge in small business bankruptcies in coming months – WSJ
In public-health-actually-matters news, new estimates from the Fed, Goldman Sachs, and others suggest that many Americans’ aversion to mask-wearing “is restraining an already-shaky economic rebound” – Bloomberg
By “sharply raising the size threshold of funds required to report their U.S. stockholdings quarterly,” a new proposal from the SEC would dramatically curtail quarterly reporting altogether, effectively ending the practice “for nearly 90% of current filers” – WSJ
The White House announced late Friday that it intends to impose new tariffs on “$1.3 billion worth of French goods, including cosmetics, soap and handbags, in retaliation for a French tax that largely hits American technology companies, escalating a trade dispute that threatens to further damage the global economy” – NYTimes
With another High Court term coming to a close, now’s definitely the time for some analysis on the emergence of John Roberts as not only the resident “power broker” but one of the most powerful chief justices in the court’s modern history – Law360
FYI: we’ve hit peak cake stage of the lockdown. I repeat, peak cake stage – Mashable
Stay safe.
