ECONOMY

When You Hear Lawmakers Worked Together

So the Senate did a thing yesterday, passing a landmark $1 trillion infrastructure bill that will fund everything from roads and bridges to broadband networks and EV charging stations. 

We say $1 trillion, but new spending accounts for $550 billion of the package, while the rest is previously approved funding. The legislation will move to the House next, where it could face some challenges.

Why it matters: Infrastructure is the rhythm section to the economy’s sax solo. Without smooth highways, good luck getting an Amazon package in two days. And, as we all learned over the last 18 months, a modern workforce can’t function without access to high-speed, reliable broadband.

This bill, which had support from all 50 Democratic senators and 19 Republicans, represents the biggest investment in US infrastructure in decades. 

3 things to know about US infrastructure spending

It peaked with the New Deal: During the Great Depression in 1933, the federal government spent 2.96% of US GDP on infrastructure, and we haven’t hit that mark since. To reach those heights, according to Brookings, the US would need to spend $4 trillion over a decade, or roughly what it spends annually on national defense. This infrastructure bill won’t do that. 

Most infrastructure investments are not made by the federal government. State and local governments accounted for nearly 78% of all US public infrastructure spending in 2017. The idea is that local governments are more responsive to local needs; however, they’re often strapped for funds.

We lag behind other wealthy countries: The US spent 0.55% of its GDP investing in inland infrastructure in 2019, putting it behind peers like the UK (0.91%) and Japan (0.94%), and way behind China (5.56%), per the Council on Foreign Relations. 

Bottom line: With this infrastructure package, the Biden administration is trying to reassert the federal government’s role in public works spending. And while it’s not a New Deal, it is a big deal.  

COVID

Influencers, Assemble

Benny Drama, aka Benito Skinner, aka the internet comedian with 1.4 million Instagram followers, released a video Monday in partnership with the White House to encourage “shots in the arms of every single American.” 

The video (and the only Benny Drama clip that’s appropriate to share in this newsletter) is one of many instances of US health leaders utilizing social media influencers to fight Covid-19 vaccine misinformation and encourage young people to get vaccinated.

Big picture: 71% of Americans over the age of 18 are at least partially vaccinated. But only about 42% of teens aged 12–17 have received at least one shot, the lowest vaccination rate of any eligible group in the country. 

• While Olivia Rodrigo grabbed headlines for her vaccine hype at the White House, most of the influencer work has been local. City and state health authorities are tapping micro-influencers to convince young people to vax up on their own turf.

Bottom line: Officials are ramping up influencer campaigns as another school year starts and more young people are getting sick from the Delta variant.

SPORTS

Messi in Paris

Lionel Messi, considered by many the best soccer player in the world, flew to France yesterday and confirmed his stunning move from Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain (PSG). 

Sports fans, we know we have your attention. Nonsports fans...here’s why this move will reverberate off the pitch.

The backstory: PSG is a relative youngster on the international soccer scene, founded in 1970 by the merger of two other French clubs.

Everything changed in 2011, when Qatar Sports Investments, an arm of Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, took over ownership. The Qatari government poured its oil money into PSG to increase the country’s global profile, turning the club into one of the richest soccer franchises in the world.  

• Even before signing Messi, PSG spent more than $1 billion attracting the top names in soccer, and they made Brazil’s Neymar the most expensive player in the sport in 2017.

“Gulf riches have so altered modern soccer’s economics that even some of the world’s biggest, richest, and best-supported clubs are now no match for state-sponsored teams in the arms race to acquire the most elite players,” writes the NYT.

Looking ahead...Qatar will remain in the spotlight when it hosts the 2022 World Cup, but not without loads of controversy over alleged workers’ rights abuses.

+ For fun: Craft a personalized message from Messi.

SPONSORED BY TRACKSMITH

Back on Track

To many of us, a year or two of couch-bound laziness doesn’t sound like an awful fate. But to runners, months of forced lockdown sounds like talons on the world’s largest chalkboard.

All that pent-up running energy is about to get let out in a big way: With pandemic restrictions lifting worldwide, an unprecedented wave of marathons are set to break over the world’s roads. 

• New York, Boston, Paris, London, Berlin, Washington D.C., and Chicago will all host tens of thousands of runners this fall.

Ahead of mega marathon season, we spoke with two renaissance runners about balancing training and high-octane day jobs, the good vibes of the running community, and why now is the time to invest in your running gear, download a training plan, and get out there.

Click here to read the full story.

GRAB BAG

Key Performance Indicators

Stat: About 9,000 health clubs in the US, or 22% of the total, have closed since the pandemic started, according to the International Health Racquet & Sportsclub Association. Meanwhile, Peloton broke ground on its first US factory in Ohio on Monday.

Quote: “SpaceX could do it if need be.”

Elon Musk volunteered his company to make spacesuits for NASA’s upcoming moon missions, because, well, the agency’s spacesuit development is whatever the opposite of fast fashion is. NASA said making spacesuits could delay its goal of landing on the moon in 2024. 

Read: Grief, conspiracy theories, and one family’s search for meaning in the two decades since 9/11. (The Atlantic)

RETAIL

TFW You Take a Zoom Call in the Changing Room

WeWork is closing the loop on capitalism by building a string of coworking spaces within current Saks Fifth Avenue stores—so you can earn a paycheck and immediately spend it on Louboutins.

The first five locations of the venture, known as SaksWorks, will open in the New York tristate area next month, including at the Saks flagship on Fifth Avenue.

Big picture: Unlike its name, SaksWorks actually makes a lot of sense.

• Brick-and-mortar retail, already pummeled before Covid, needs a life raft after drowning in pandemic closures. 
• And while many office workers plan to log in remotely even after their workplaces reopen, they may want a day or two uninterrupted by puppies, kids, and the siren call that is Netflix.

Converting stores into offices is such a sensical move, in fact, that SaksWorks isn’t even the first to try it this year.

Bottom line: Turning stores into offices is the latest development in an ongoing quest to repurpose empty retail space, and it’s way less bizarre than when Spirit Halloween takes over an abandoned Babies R Us.

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• Fanatics, the sports merchandising company, raised $325 million from investors including Jay-Z at a valuation of $18 billion.
• Citigroup is requiring its employees to be vaccinated before returning to work.
• SoftBank is rolling back its Chinese investments amid a government crackdown on the tech sector.
• Three words: Hard Mountain Dew.

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BREW'S BETS

Websites you could spend hours on: Make your own music box and the OG Kid Pix. 

Niche work background music: Titanic vibes (the good kind), oldies playing in another room while it thunders, time travel to 1921, and a medieval potion shop.

The post-pandemic workplace: Don’t worry, it’s not going to look like a scene out of I Am Legend. In fact, the biggest changes companies are planning for their offices are pretty much invisible.

GAMES

The Puzzle Section

Word Search: Today's puzzle is not good, it's gr-r-reat! Play it here.

Nick Trivia

On this day 30 years ago, three classic cartoons all premiered on Nickelodeon. Can you name them? 

ANSWER

Rugrats, Doug, and Ren & Stimpy 

Also make sure you watch the Nick documentary if you haven't already