The Kellington Times
Here's A Roundup Of This Week's Biggest News Stories!
Spotify, the fast-growing audio streaming and media services provider, announced on its corporate blog Friday, “Today, Spotify is proud to introduce Work From Anywhere, a new way of collaborating that allows Spotifiers to work from wherever they do their best thinking and creating.” The company emphasized the importance of choice, writing, “We are giving employees the opportunity to elect a Work Mode—whether they’d prefer to work mostly at home or in the office—as well as their geographic location.”
Things are starting to get real with the WallStreetBets Reddit day traders and hedge fund short sellers. The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that “Federal prosecutors and regulators are investigating whether market manipulation or other types of misconduct fueled the rapid rise last month in prices of stocks such as GameStop Corp. GME -4.58% and AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc., AMC -1.90%.”
Amazon employs over ONE MILLION workers. That’s a lot of people! It’s the second largest employer in the U.S.—after Walmart. What would happen if Amazon employees unionized? This question isn’t theoretical any longer. There’s an aggressive movement among workers to form a union. A vote will be taken this week in an Alabama suburban facility to determine if the warehouse becomes the company’s first unionized U.S. facility.
Newly appointed U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said, “[The United States] could reach full employment next year if Congress passes President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus package.”
Annual revenue for U.S. distillers spiked in 2020, as alcohol retailers bought $31.2 billion in liquor, up from $29 billion in 2019. This marks the highest growth and sales in the past four decades, according to the Distilled Spirits Council.
It’s interesting how in the real work world, there’s rampant ageism, but this doesn’t inhibit the livelihood of career politicians.
The nonpartisan U.S. Congressional Budget Office said on Monday that “raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025 could deliver raises for 27 million workers and lift 900,000 Americans above the poverty threshold—but the policy would cost 1.4 million Americans their jobs over the next four years.”
In an effort to generate greater revenue and profits, Twitter is flirting with the idea of a subscription model. This will reduce its dependence on advertising, which has been slow across the board during the pandemic.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Salesforce announced on Tuesday that its employees may work “remotely part or full time after the pandemic” and the company will scale back its “real-estate footprint as a result.”
According to Barron’s, public cannabis stocks have been growing higher to dizzying heights. Companies, such as Tilray (ticker: TLRY), jumped about 51% on Wednesday. Sundial Growers (SNDL) jumped 79%. Shares of Aurora Cannabis (ACB)—a name that’s been popular with retail traders in the past—rose 21%. Canopy Growth (CGC) closed up 6%, after it had already popped 12% early this week.
On Tuesday, Brian Gallagher stepped down as CEO of United Way Worldwide, amid claims that the organization neglected to properly handle internal allegations of sexual misconduct and discrimination. According to the Huffington Post, three former female executives are claiming they were retaliated against by United Way, one of the largest nonprofit organizations, after coming forward with allegations of sexual harassment.
