| Good morning. How are everyone's New Year's resolutions going so far? This might be a fireable offense at a company called Morning Brew but...some writers here are trying to ditch the coffee habit. Trust us, writing this newsletter every single day gives you plenty of adrenaline. See also: tea. | | | |  | NASDAQ | 12,683.26 | - 1.59% | | | | S&P | 3,693.73 | - 1.66% | | | | DOW | 30,137.99 | - 1.53% | |  | GOLD | 1,944.40 | + 2.60% | | | | 10-YR | 0.916% | - 0.30 bps | | | | OIL | 47.52 | - 2.06% | | | *As of market close | - Markets: Stocks pulled back from their record highs yesterday, the first trading day of 2021.
- Senate: The massively important Georgia runoff elections that will determine control of the Senate are being held today. GOP Sen. David Perdue is facing Democrat Jon Ossoff, and GOP Sen. Kelly Loeffler is facing Democrat Raphael Warnock.
| |  Francis Scialabba | A union. The rift between Google employees and management continued to escalate Monday, when 226 workers revealed they had formed the Alphabet Workers Union, a reference to Google's parent company. - The group will be supported by the Communications Workers of America, which operates in the IT and telecom industries.
Why it matters: In Silicon Valley, unions are rarer than personal style. Salaries aren't particularly contentious because they're already quite high, and the tech industry's globally scattered workforces are hard to organize, per the NYT. So this development is...a major development. But it's not surprising For years, Google employees have criticized management for their approach to issues including sexual harassment in the workplace, the company's work with the Pentagon, and treatment of contract workers. A few examples: - In 2018, more than 20,000 Googlers walked out of work to protest the company's handling of sexual assault claims.
- That same year, thousands of employees signed a petition protesting Google's work with Project Maven, a Defense Department initiative that could theoretically improve the precision of drone strikes. Google discontinued the contract.
- The most recent flashpoint was the December 2020 firing of leading AI ethics researcher Timnit Gebru, a Black woman who said Google dismissed her because she was fighting bias in algorithms.
In response to the new union, Google's Director of People Operations Kara Silverstein said, "We've always worked hard to create a supportive and rewarding workplace for our workforce. Of course, our employees have protected labor rights that we support. But as we've always done, we'll continue engaging directly with all our employees." Zoom out: Other labor organizing efforts in tech are in the works. Kickstarter workers unionized last year, and Amazon warehouse workers in Alabama will likely vote in a few weeks on whether to form the company's first U.S. union. | | | Yesterday, Amazon, JPMorgan, and Berkshire Hathaway confirmed they're disbanding Haven, their high-profile, would-be healthcare disruptor. Investors were more excited for the joint venture's arrival in January 2018 than Bachelor nation was for last night's premiere. Haven's premature demise is a reminder that the U.S. healthcare sector is incredibly resistant to makeovers, even with three iconic American corporations working together. What went wrong? A big part of the problem, CNBC reports, was that each company was also running separate healthcare projects, which sort of defeated the point of working together to tackle rising employee healthcare costs. - After two years, Haven's biggest announcements were 1) its name and 2) no-deductible plans with wellness incentives for employees of Amazon, JPMorgan, and some Berkshire companies.
- The joint venture also faced departures from several high-profile execs, including CEO Atul Gawande last May.
Looking ahead...even without Haven, Amazon has big healthcare plans, including the wearable health tracker Amazon Halo, virtual and in-person Amazon Care clinics for employees, new Alexa features, and prescription deliveries through its digital Amazon Pharmacy. | |  Wang HE/Getty Images | It's a question many in the business world have been asking this week. The billionaire founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba and its fintech affiliate, Ant Group, has not made a public appearance since he gave a controversial speech at a Chinese economic forum in late October. - In that surprisingly aggressive speech, Ma criticized Chinese regulators for throwing a wet blanket on innovation in the financial sector.
He got sent to the principal's office On November 2, a few days after the speech, Ma was called in by authorities for questioning. Ant's IPO, which was expected to be the largest in history, was nixed the next day. And after Ma missed an appearance as a judge on his own Shark Tank-esque TV show last week, raised eyebrows turned into raised alarms. Zoom out: Ma could be sipping Mai Tai's on a secluded beach for all we know, but given his recent run-ins with Chinese authorities, investors are starting to get antsy. Alibaba's stock fell a little over 3% yesterday. | | SPONSORED BY COMPARECREDIT™ |  | Well let us tell you, it probably should be. Especially if you're looking to start the new year off with less debt. Why? Cause this savings superstar has 0% intro APR until 2022, 0% interest balance transfer APR for 18 months, and no annual fee. That means if you had this card when you went on your holiday shopping spree, you'd have a little more wiggle room in your budget. So while we all know that some resolutions can be hard to keep, this card with no annual fee and 0% interest until 2022 makes it easier than ever to downsize your debt. Apply here. | |  Giphy | If 2020's focus was the healthcare response to the pandemic, 2021 "will overwhelmingly be about economic responses to Covid-19's lingering symptoms and scar tissue (debt burdens and misaligned politics)," Eurasia Group wrote in its 2021 political risk report, published yesterday. More than 7 billion people need to be vaccinated. Countries are facing higher unemployment, rising debt loads, and unequal recoveries. That's not even the No. 1 risk So what's scarier than Covid-19? The U.S. government. Specifically, a Joe Biden presidency hindered by a split Congress, growing political polarization, and unfounded allegations of a fraudulent election by outgoing President Donald Trump and other Republican lawmakers. - Fearing another "America First" president come 2024, foreign leaders may hesitate to coordinate action with the U.S. as they have following previous crises.
Other risks identified by Eurasia Group: The challenge of executing net-zero emissions plans without global coordination. Ongoing U.S.-China tensions. The departure of German chancellor (and Europe's de facto leader) Angela Merkel. More cyberattacks. The collapse in oil demand weighing on energy-producing countries. And growing calls to rein in cross-border data flows. | | | Especially when it comes to safety protocols for large sporting events involving tall humans and squeaky shoes. Yesterday, the NCAA announced it will be adopting an NBA-esque bubble approach to hosting its men's postseason basketball tournament, aka March Madness. - Basketball-lovin' Indiana is the locale of choice, with the majority of games taking place in multiple venues across Indianapolis.
Economically, it's a mixed bag The Division I men's tournament generates around $868 million annually from television and marketing rights alone. That's the vast majority of the NCAA's annual revenue, so putting on a tournament at all after last year's cancellation would be a Hoosiers-level victory. Still, the 13 metro areas that typically host opening-round matchups will miss out on the economic activity generated by UMBC fans hitting the town to celebrate an upset win. Zoom out: While the NBA's bubble experiment for the 2020 season provided a blueprint for the NCAA, March Madness is a much bigger logistical challenge. Only 22 NBA teams entered the Orlando bubble, but 68 will arrive in Indiana this March. | | - The New York Stock Exchange reversed its decision to delist three major Chinese telecom companies.
- British PM Boris Johnson ordered a nationwide lockdown until mid-February to combat the spread of the highly contagious new coronavirus variant. Schools and all nonessential retail must close.
- That new variant has been found in infected people in several U.S. states, including New York.
- Top business leaders pressed lawmakers to certify Joe Biden's victory in the presidential election when they convene tomorrow.
- Slack suffered a major outage for several hours yesterday morning, disrupting WFH operations across the globe.
- SkyBridge Capital, Anthony Scaramucci's hedge fund, is launching a bitcoin-focused fund. SkyBridge is down 7.5% on the year.
- Important fast food updates: McDonald's is launching new chicken sandwiches and Chipotle added cauliflower rice for a limited time.
| | | Turn resolutions into reality in 2021. Sakara's Metabolism Super Powder fights cravings, eliminates bloat, and helps you look and feel your best. Boost energy and rev your metabolism with 20% off Sakara's chocolatey plant-based powder today using code BREW2021.* They got you covered. Policygenius will help you cross "get life insurance" off your 2021 to-do list. By using their wildly useful service to compare insurers, you can save over 50% on life insurance. That could be $1,300 or more per year! Yowza! Get covered today.* Tech Tip Tuesday: Learn all about the hidden tricks behind "user experience" (UX) with this exclusive deep dive into Spotify's new Group Sessions feature. Career advice: a Twitter thread that will make you think differently. And more wisdom from Charlie Munger. Air frying a hot dog for 120 minutes: Don't try this at home. Help us help you: This newsletter is only made possible through our brand partnerships, and sometimes, we need to know a little more about you to make those partnerships really click. If you have a second this morning, please take this quick survey. Thanks. *This is sponsored advertising content | | | Something named "Stellantis" was in the news yesterday. What is it? - The name of SpaceX's next-gen rocket
- A small cryptocurrency that gained 500% in one day after it was endorsed by three former Treasury secretaries
- A virtual reality unicorn that just raised $150 million from SoftBank
- The new auto company created by the merger of Fiat Chrysler and PSA
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