Insider Finance - Business - The stock market is going to hell

Nicholas Carlson, November 21, 2022

Hello, Insiders! Elon Musk’s Twitter is already a very different place to work. Those who remain at the company say they’ve been told to work 84-hour weeks. And a recent photo of a Twitter employee sleeping at the office went viral. 

I asked if any of you had similar experiences sleeping at work. Many Gen Xers and baby boomers said they were happy to do so “when it is necessary.” John B. said he slept at work “many a time” while working as a software developer for Microsoft in the 1990s and early 2000s: “It was kind of fun.” David B. likened it to pulling an “all-nighter” in college: “Well… it’s no different when you enter the workforce.”

But not everyone is open to the overnight grind. One workplace well-being expert told Insider’s Jacob Zinkula that the Musk-model is no longer “cool or acceptable” for younger generations of workers. You can read more on that here, and keep sending me your own stories at insidertoday@insider.com. 

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The big story

Tyler Le/Insider

Whether the US economy goes into a recession or not, the stock market is royally screwed.

It may seem like the problems affecting the market and economy are the same, senior correspondent Linette Lopez writes, but in reality, the heartburn facing each is wildly different. 

On the one side, you have the economy, which is trying to work out a violent, but relatively short-lived bout of inflation. And on the other, there's the stock market, which is facing down a ferocious correction that isn’t going to end anytime soon. This isn’t just a little hiccup, it’s a huge comedown after a decade-long debt-fueled party. 

"It doesn't matter whether it's technically a recession," one legendary fund manager told Lopez. "It's a bear market. We sit in the middle innings."

Wall Street’s hype machine will come up with silly reasons why relief is just around the corner, but it's not. All stocks can do is fall in a spectacular fashion. And all investors can do is get out of the way.

Go inside Wall Street’s bad hangover here.

Top reads

Ted S. Warren/Isaac Brekken/Elaine Thompson/AP; Anna Kim/Getty; Amazon; Anna Kim/Insider.

• Amazon employees describe the chaos within the Alexa unit. While Alexa was once one of the company's most rapidly growing projects, mounting losses and massive job cuts underscore the swift downfall of the voice-assistant. More than a dozen current and former staffers spoke to Insider about this “colossal failure of imagination” and said the division is in crisis.

• Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Ken Griffin are sounding the alarm on a US recession. They join a chorus of CEOs, investors, and academics who are predicting a prolonged economic downturn — here are 12 economic warnings from elite commentators.

• Caroline Ellison is a math whiz, trader — and the shadow figure behind FTX's collapse. Ellison was the head of Alameda Research, the trading firm through which Sam Bankman-Fried moved crypto tokens. She’s since emerged as an important character behind the crypto exchange’s seeming success and surprising downfall. How she got involved in crypto's biggest implosion.

• A tale of two Swifties: Paige, 31, is one of the many Taylor Swift fans who struggled to get tickets to the Eras tour. (Swift, herself, said the whole debacle really pissed her off.) Eventually, Paige snagged tix on resale for $5,500 — and now says she regrets it. Meanwhile, Kasey spent more than 13 hours over two days on her quest. She paid $500 each for six tickets, and says she plans to buy even more.

• How small-town Maine embraced a family that fled the Taliban. In the fall of 2021, a family from Afghanistan was resettled in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. Here, we detail how they rebuilt their lives, the community that welcomed them, and a friendship that bridged two cultures. Read their story here.

Today’s sound bite

"A group that tracks weights and measures has reached a big decision about a small unit. The ‘leap second’ will be scrapped in 2035."

Hear the latest headlines on The Refresh from Insider.

Watch this

Dijon mustard takes its name from a town in France, where it originated — but the majority of Dijon mustard that's sold around the world doesn't come from there. The few jars that do will cost you up to six times more, though. So why is it so expensive? Watch to find out.

Today's team

This edition was curated by Nicholas Carlson (@nichcarlson), and edited by Hallam Bullock (@hallam_bullock), Lisa Ryan (@lisarya), Jordan Parker Erb (@jordanparkererb), and Bob Bryan (@robertbryan4). 

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