Week InReview
Friday | Jul 30, 2021
Remote-work czar is shortcut to C-suite.
Photo: Daphne Geisler/Bloomberg Businessweek
The fast-growing pandemic-era position of “vice president of productivity and remote experience” has emerged as a previously unimaginable path to the C-suite — or at least to a virtual desk nearby.

let's recap...
Jerome Powell.
Photo: Al Drago/Bloomberg
Two places inflation anxiety isn’t present are the stock and bond markets, where investors have taken Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s “transitory” mantra to heart. Breakeven rates – a gauge of bond market inflation expectations – have barely budged in a month, even after the hottest price sprint in more than a decade. (Bloomberg Markets | Jul 27) see also Fed to stress patience as virus threat lurks (Bloomberg Economics | Jul 28)

The Securities and Exchange Commission is considering requiring disclosure of climate-change-related risks in regulatory filings, which could open new litigation threats. (The Wall Street Journal | Jul 28) see also Gensler says SEC climate risk rules will be proposed by year end (Bloomberg Green | Jul 28)

The central bank on Wednesday said it would put a so-called standing repo facility in place, effective Thursday. The Fed said the new tool would take in Treasury, agency-debt and agency-mortgage-backed securities from primary dealer firms in exchange for one-day loans of cash, at a rate of 0.25%. It said there is a daily cap of $500 billion on the facility, and it offered a similar tool to foreign official institutions. (The Wall Street Journal | Jul 28)

The stock market has been relatively quiet lately. The benchmark S&P 500 hasn’t suffered a 5% pullback since October and has advanced 35% since the end of that month. The brief selloff at the beginning of last week suggests there is anxiety percolating in the market, though. (The Wall Street Journal | Jul 27)

U.S. regulators are wagering a major shakeup of the multitrillion-dollar interest-rate swaps market is just what’s needed to wean Wall Street off the London interbank offered rate for good. In a key development in the shift from the discredited benchmark, beginning yesterday, swaps desks will switch from Libor to the Secured Overnight Financing Rate when entering into most interdealer trades, effectively changing how they hedge their interest-rate risk. (Bloomberg Markets | Jul 26)
the cyber cafe
NSA, CISA, and FBI detail Chinese state-sponsored actions, mitigations
The National Security Agency, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and Federal Bureau of Investigation released a Cybersecurity Advisory, Chinese State-Sponsored Cyber Operations: Observed TTPs. The advisory describes more than 50 tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) Chinese state-sponsored cyber actors used when targeting U.S. and allied networks, and details mitigations.

Cybersecurity community capacity building
On Tuesday, the National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) held a virtual workshop on preventing and recovering from ransomware and other destructive cyber events at which experts from government and industry explored models for building resilient cyber systems, shared case studies on public-private information sharing and best practices for distributed and community-based cyber capacity building.

Turn off, turn on: Simple step can thwart top phone hackers
Step One: Turn off phone.
Step Two: Turn it back on.
That’s it. At a time of widespread digital insecurity it turns out that the oldest and simplest computer fix there is – turning a device off then back on again – can thwart hackers from stealing information from smartphones.
binge reading disorder
Illustration: Harry Haysom/Financial Times
What will arise from the demise of mass commuting?
In the former commuter belts of big cities, remote work is now creating community. Is this a net gain for humanity, or is it outweighed by downsides elsewhere? For one thing, the pandemic has transformed many suburbs vastly for the better.

Covid reality check: Kids, the Delta variant, and vaccines
More than a year into the Covid-19 pandemic, several studies suggest children are significantly less likely than adults to get seriously ill or die from the coronavirus. Despite the low risk of severe disease, health authorities are urging vaccination of adolescents, especially as the Delta variant spreads and students prepare to return to schools. Here’s everything you need to know.

Culture in a post-pandemic workplace
Panelists at a web event on corporate culture, hosted by the New York Fed, discussed the challenges and opportunities of this period of change. Participants considered how norms are transmitted to a virtual workforce, whether physical distance influences employee ethics, the cultural implications of blending work and home, the potential return of the office clique, and the impact of hybrid work on collaboration.
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