Young job applicants’
CVs are coming in
adorned with colored
photos and head-
shots and wrapped in
“Instagram-friendly
palettes of mint green
and pastel pink,” said
Chip Cutter in The
Wall Street Journal.
Some “are even add-
ing bitmojis, those
personalized avatars
used in text messages
and on social media,”
to digital versions of
their résumés. The CEO
of a fitness startup said
a few résumés she has
received lately “looked
more like a Tinder
profile.” The trend
goes against efforts
by employers to strip
down CVs to the most
essential elements—in
some cases, blinding
out even names and
addresses—to reduce
bias in hiring. A few
managers like the per-
sonalization. One CEO
recalls a digital résumé
that “included an ava-
tar of the applicant
sweating,” to show
she could “hustle like
no one else.” The CEO
appreciated the effort.
But the applicant didn’t
get the job.Is that a résumé—
or a Tinder profile?BUSINESS
President Trump abruptly sus-
pended plans to impose new tar-
iffs on Chinese imports, to avoid
hurting the holiday shopping sea-
son, said Josh Zumbrun in The
Wall Street Journal. The U.S. has
already imposed tariffs of 25 per-
cent on about $250 billion worth
of Chinese imports. Angered by
the slow progress of negotiations,
Trump had threatened a 10 per-
cent levy on consumer goods like
smartphones, laptops, toys, and video games start-
ing Sept. 1. But the president retreated Tuesday,
saying he would offer a reprieve “for Christmas
season.” If all the tariffs planned for September
and December are put into effect, they will cover
“nearly everything the U.S. imports from China.”The president “finally acknowl-
edges his tariffs could hit con-
sumers,” said Heather Long
in The Washington Post. His
statements Tuesday were “a
noticeable change from his
insistence that the Chinese are
paying the full cost.” The truth
is, up till now, “many U.S. com-
panies opted to absorb a lot of
the added costs” of tariffs that
had mainly affected component
parts. But a tariff on “finished goods like shoes
and iPhones” that businesses had already commit-
ted to importing would likely be felt by consum-
ers. Suspending the September tariffs eases the
immediate burden, but “does little to mitigate the
uncertainty surrounding Trump’s trade policy.”Trade: A retreat on new China tariffs
Bonds: Markets tumble on recession signal
The U.S. bond market flashed a reliable recession warning this week
after the yield curve briefly inverted, said William Watts and Sunny Oh
in MarketWatch.com. The return on a 10-year Treasury note dipped
below that of a 2-year note for the first time since 2007, sending stocks
plunging. The same phenomenon has “preceded each of the past seven
recessions.” Typically, rates are higher for longer-term bonds. But an
inversion may occur when “investor worries about future economic
growth are stoking demand for safe, long-term Treasurys, pushing
down long-term rates.”Media: Shari Redstone reunites CBS-Viacom
CBS and Viacom “agreed to merge on Tuesday in a deal that will
reunite a roster of once mighty media businesses,” said Edmund Lee in
The New York Times. “Viacom’s Paramount film studio and MTV and
Nickelodeon cable networks will be added to the broadcast giant CBS
and the book publisher Simon & Schuster.” The two companies had
been a single entity, owned by Sumner Redstone, until 2006. Redstone’s
daughter Shari, who will be chairwoman of the combined company,
had fought to merge them, against fierce opposition from CBS chief
Leslie Moonves, who was pushed out after sexual assault allegations.Platforms: Trump seeks to regulate social media
The White House drafted an executive order last week that calls on gov-
ernment agencies to address Silicon Valley’s perceived anti-conservative
bias, said Brian Fung in CNN.com. The order would put the Federal
Communications Commission “in charge of shaping how Facebook,
Twitter, and other large tech companies curate what appears on their
websites.” It would also narrow the protections tech companies have for
content that users post on their platforms. The draft comes a few weeks
after President Trump met with right-wing social media activists.Video games: Microsoft teams with ‘Ninja’
Microsoft signed an exclusive deal with the world’s leading celebrity
video gamer to challenge Amazon in the game streaming business,
said Sarah Need le man in The Wall Street Journal. Streaming—
“watching others play games online”—is an increasingly big part of
the $150 billion–a-year video game industry. Last year, viewers spent
8.42 billion hours watching live-streamers on Twitch, which Amazon
bought in 2014. Tyler Blevins, known as Ninja, “had 14 million Twitch
followers” before leaving Twitch for Microsoft’s Mixer earlier this month.32
The news at a glance
AP,ReutersTrump offers Christmas reprieve.QTwenty-five families now
control almost $1.4 trillion in
wealth. The world’s wealthi-
est family, the Wal tons of
Wal mart, have grown their
fortune by $39 billion to
$191 billion since June
2018—an increase of $4 mil-
lion every hour.
Bloomberg.com
QVerizon is selling the social
network Tumblr to Word-
press for $3 million. That’s
a discount of more than
99 percent from the $1.1 bil-
lion that Yahoo, now owned
by Verizon, paid for Tumblr
in 2013.
Axios.com
QNew York City’s Uber
and Lyft drivers have one
overwhelming ride of
choice: Toyota Camry. The
model makes up 38 percent
of the 72,000 nonpremium
app-dispatched vehicles in
the city.
The Wall Street JournalQSaudi Aramco, the
kingdom-owned oil group,
earned $46.9 billion in
profits in the first half of this
year. That’s down 12 percent
from the year before, but al-
most eight times what Ama-
zon made. The company is
preparing for an IPO said to
be valued at $2 trillion.
TheGuardian.com
QSpaceX launched the cre-
mated remains of 152 people
on its Falcon Heavy rocket
into space. A company called
Celestis facilitated these
“funeral flights,” charging
over $5,000 for 1 gram of
“participant” ashes.
Axios.com
QBoeing sold zero new
737 Max jets for the fourth
straight month. The jet-
maker, however, still has
a backlog of 4,600 orders
left to fill.
CNBC.comThe bottom line