San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
If you missed it ...
In a week filled with mourning, curfews and strife, this also happened:
The Lego Group cut back on promoting a variety of policerelated toys amid all the protests over George Floyd’s death at hands of police. The Toy Book reported that affiliate marketers got a list of more than 30 items that they shouldn’t promote for the moment, including a “City Donut Shop Opening set — which includes Police Officer ‘Duke DeTain’ and ‘Crook’ Minifigures.” Lego also tweeted that it will donate $4 million “to organizations dedicated to supporting black children and educating all children about racial equality.” U.S. consumer borrowing plunged in April as households fretted about the disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic and cut back on their use of credit, the Federal
Reserve reported. Total borrowing fell by $68.8 billion, or 19.6%. That was the biggest one-month decline in percentage terms since the end of World War II. Borrowing in the category that includes credit cards fell by $58.3 billion, or 64.9%, a record decline in a series that began in 1968. Borrowing in the category that covers auto loans and student loans fell by $10.5 billion, or 4%. Economists believe consumers will keep cutting back on their borrowing for the rest of this quarter, reflecting an overall economy that is expected to shrink by a record annual rate of around 40% during this period. The Trump administration is expecting a sharp rebound in the second half of this year, but many economists are concerned that those hopes could be derailed if coronavirus cases begin rising sharply as the country tries to reopen.
We’re all entitled to a little guilty pleasure, and this is about as little as possible: When the CEO of Zoom, Eric Yuan, started talking on Zoom about his company’s great quarterly earnings, he was on mute.
Daily Briefing is compiled from San Francisco Chronicle staff and news services. For more items and links, subscribe to the Tech Chronicle newsletter at www.sfchronicle.com/newsletters/techchronicle. Twitter: @techchronicle