🥤 The job situation, feat. expiring unemployment $$

...August job numbers were a real bummer

Disclosures

Taking the jobs report out of the oven like [Alan Thornton/The Image Bank via GettyImages]

Last Week's Market Moves   Dow Jones 35,369 (-0.24%) S&P 500 4,535 (0.58%) Nasdaq 15,364 (1.55%) Bitcoin $50,174 (3.10%) Dow Jones 35,369 (-0.24%) S&P 500 4,535 (0.58%) Nasdaq 15,364 (1.55%) Bitcoin $50,174 (3.10%)

Hey Snackers, Labor Day is over, and spooky season has begun. Home Depot sold out of an early drop of Halloween decorations, Starbucks dropped the PSL early this year, and we're already hearing murmurs of a turkey shortage. Stocks notched new records last week, as tech gains lifted the broader market. The S&P 500 index, which broadly tracks the US stock market, has clinched 50+ fresh highs in 2021. Want to start getting Snacks daily? Or prefer to unsubscribe? Manage your subscription preferences here.

Labor

The bummer August jobs report: from expiring unemployment $$, to Delta's dent Check the math again… August job numbers were as disappointing as a Fyre Festival sandwich. The US economy added only 235K jobs, the lowest gain since January — economists were expecting 720K new hires. The unemployment rate dipped to 5.2% from 5.4% in July — still higher than pre-pandemic. The labor force participation rate — aka: the percentage of 16+ year olds that are working or actively looking for work — stayed at 61.7%, well below 63.3% pre-pandemic. It's not that there aren't enough jobs. There are record high ~10M US job openings. Still, 8.4M Americans are unemployed. A few reasons why workers aren't returning... 1. Covid fears are keeping workers home as Delta surges, especially in customer-facing jobs. Leisure and hospitality jobs (think: waiters), which have been the primary driver of job growth this year, actually lost workers last month. 2. Childcare needs: Delta uncertainty has forced dozens of US school districts to postpone their return to IRL classrooms. That could slow job growth among parents — especially women, who've shouldered a larger share of pandemic childcare duties. 3. Boosted unemployment benefits: The extra $300/week in enhanced unemployment benefits are set to expire nationwide this week. Half of US states already cut off boosted payments earlier this summer. And they've seen about the same job growth as states that didn't. It's still too early to know how the nationwide cut-off will affect job growth. 4. Favorable labor market: Jobs are plentiful, and wages are rising faster-than-expected as companies from CVS to Walmart hike pay and benefits to attract workers. People are becoming choosier about jobs they take, which can mean sitting out longer. THE TAKEAWAY It's the Delta jobs report... In August, the number of people who said they couldn't work for a pandemic-related reason jumped by a whopping 400K, for a total of 5.6M. The US is seeing ~150K new Covid cases/day as the Delta variant spreads. It's raising concerns that economic recovery could stall. The August jobs report could also cloud policy for the Fed, which is weighing when to reign in its economy-boosting policy.

Zoom Out

Stories we're watching... International lawyers on speed-dial… Data privacy and antitrust troubles are piling up globally for tech giants. Facebook-owned WhatsApp was fined $270M for privacy violations last week as part of Europe's GDPR crackdown. Meanwhile: South Korea passed the first law in the world that dents Google and Apple's app store payments dominance, setting a precedent other countries could follow. Corporate thirst… Extreme climate events — like CA's wildfires and Hurricane Ida — are diminishing global water supply by contaminating reservoirs. The number of people with limited water is expected to more than double by 2025 to 1.8B. Now, companies that use water for everything from making cookies to cooling data centers are making moves: Procter & Gamble is donating money to protect water supplies, and Nestlé plans to conserve more water than it uses by 2025.

Events

Coming up this week... Love the pleather skirt... Don't love the $300 price tag. The "buy now, pay later" biz is booming, as younger shoppers skip credit cards. BNPL giant Klarna hit a $46B valuation in June, and Square bought Afterpay last month for a whopping $29B. Now, BNPL company Affirm is partnering with Amazon to allow 'Zon shoppers to pay in installments. We'll see if BNPL's growth — which took off when money was tight last year — is still strong when Affirm reports earnings on Thursday. Labor Day BBQ vibes... On the grill: earnings reports. Rival grill-makers Traeger and Weber went public this summer as the pandemic fueled outdoor activities, including a BBQ boom. One in four grills on Earth are Weber's, but Traeger's sales have been growing faster. Shares of both grill giants are up 20%+ since listing. We'll see if sales are still sizzling when Traeger serves up earnings on Thursday.

ICYMI

Last week's highlights... NFTs: From Simone Biles to Shawn Mendes, sports stars and celebs are embracing non-fungible tokens to unlock the next opportunity in the fan economy. Ida: Hurricane Ida is impacting consumers and businesses across industries, from oil and gas to insurance. Drive: Apple is continuing its wallet takeover with a virtual driver's license — and digital keys are next.

What else we're Snackin' Work: Four rules for identifying your life's work and "finding your marshmallow." Visualize: The highest paid athletes in 2021, from Conor McGregor to Naomi Osaka. Live: How buying time — the right way — can lead to much greater life satisfaction. Chill: The five-minute habit that will change your day, according to neuroscience. 🍪 Want to start Snacking daily? Sign up here for our daily market newsletter.

The Snacks Daily Podcast Our snackable 15-minute pod is back with a fresh episode. "Call it the rise of Brotox." Pharma giant Abbvie saw its Botox sales double last quarter as more men went under the needle. Tune in to hear why "Brotox" was Abbvie's highlight drug.

Snack Fact Of the Day GPS is a public service owned and operated by the US military, and offered for free to the entire world by the US govt

This Week Tuesday: Earnings expected from UiPath Wednesday: Earnings expected from Lululemon, SentinelOne, GameStop, and Genius Sports Thursday: Weekly jobless claims. Earnings expected from Affirm, Riskified, Traeger, Dave & Buster's, and Zumiez Friday: Earnings expected from Kroger Authors of this Snacks own shares of: Apple, Amazon, Google, Square, CVS, Walmart, and Starbucks ID: 1827204

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Do you expect cable news hosts to tell the truth?

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View this email in your browser WELLNESS CHECK This edition leans... Hey Below the Fold fam, At this point, we're all aware of the proliferation of fake news across the world. And in a country built on freedom of speech, a recent Pew report shows more Americans are now in favor of the government (or tech companies) restricting digital misinformation. But what about things said by cable news show hosts? In full transparency, today's story riled up our team. We'll let you read on to understand why. TODAY'S STORY Dissecting the nuance between cable news and cable news shows Wed Aug 25 Back in 2019, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow told her viewers that a far-right cable channel was "literally paid Russian propaganda." In stating this, Maddow specifically referenced an individual employee's work history at a Russian news company before they joined One America News Network (OANN) — a channel once revered and favored by Trump. But OANN claims they never received any funds from Russia and filed a defamation lawsuit against Maddow. In May last year, a federal judge dismissed the case but OANN went on to file an appeal. Last month, that appeal was also dismissed on the grounds that it was an obvious exaggeration and therefore not defamatory. This is worth unpacking. Legally, defamation must: Be a falsehood of statement (an opinion can neither be proven true nor false) Have malicious intent (or at least negligence) Be published to a third party (so telling your brother he's crazy is not defamatory) And be proven to harm the plaintiff's reputation (by exposing them to public hatred, or damaging their business image) So if Maddow made a false statement that hurt OANN's reputation, why was the case dismissed? The court argues that her statement was within the bounds of protected free speech and that audiences would recognize the obvious exaggeration. The ruling specifically stated that her statement — given the context of the show — "could not reasonably be understood to imply an assertion of objective fact." In other words, as viewers, we would never assume that a cable news show host is entirely factual. Put differently, the responsibility of detecting false statements is the responsibility of the listener. This brings us to the often misinterpreted media space that cable news occupies, and if a cable news show could ever possibly be guilty of defamation. While audiences view cable news shows as a source of concrete news, courts treat these shows as opinionated entertainment. One law professor says this disparity dooms the U.S. from ever solving the problem of misinformation. Others in defamation law are more cautious about using courts as arbiters of truth. While the debate continues, Americans, as noted earlier, are voicing more interest overall in online misinformation regulation. In the case of OANN, they're on the hook for $250K in legal fees and $10K to Maddow and her team. Ironically enough,OANN is also fighting against a defamation lawsuit for making repeat, on-air claims that the 2020 election was rigged. 🎬 Take Action As you review your reporting sources, consider digging deeper into the bias in cable news. Stanford has a detailed report evaluating CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, and more.  Post Tweet Share   RESOURCE CENTER Tech & Marketing Law Blog (Where we found this story) 1 week old | 6 minutes long San Diego Union Tribune: Lawsuit and appeal summary 2 weeks old | 3 minutes long Cornell Law: Defining defamation 4 minutes long San Diego Union Tribune: OANN sued for defamation 1 month old | 3 minutes long   ICYMI (AGAIN) Yesterday: U.S. law enforcement is struggling Friday: The global supply shortage is here to stay Thursday: The fungi-est thing about grapes CLASSIFIEDS Say Goodnight to Clickbait What is painfully dry, littered with jargon, and too dense to get through? Any guesses? It's traditional business news. The Daily Upside is your antidote. Packed with equal doses of charisma and insight, The Daily Upside brings you premium business news that goes beyond the headlines and is actually worth reading. Want to know if rising inflation will erode the cash sitting in your bank account? Or why 90 new airlines have been founded during the pandemic? Yeah, us too. It's why we subscribe to The Daily Upside. Sign up here to join 125,000 big-brained readers. It's completely free. >> Check out The Daily Upside ASCII-ING ABOUT THE NEWS \ / \/ .===============. | .-----------. | | | | | | | | | | | | | __ | '-----------'o| |o.| |===============| |::| jgs |###############| |::| '===============' '--' Honey, come quickly! The not-news news segment is on. Art Credit: Joan G. Stark Copyright © 2021 Below the Fold, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in via our website. Our mailing address is: Below the Fold 2261 Market St # 4135 San Francisco, CA 94114-1612 Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.