Financial Daily Dose 2.22.2021 | Top Story: Boeing Grounds Some 777 Models After Engine Explosion on United Flight

Boeing needs another aircraft problem like a hole in the head, but that’s just what it got after a right-engine explosion on one of its 777-200 models that had just left Denver en route to Hawaii. The crew of the United Airlines flight managed to return to DIA and land the plane without injury or further incident. Boeing has now called for a “global grounding” of all 128 777 aircraft models featuring Pratt & Whitney PW400 engines - NYTimes and Bloomberg and WSJ and MarketWatch

Since the pandemic’s messed so badly most aspects of the economy, why wouldn’t it have played a role in the GameStop frenzy. A leap, you think? Well, try this on for size: months of lockdowns and loneliness is credited for fueling the “amateur day-trading boom” that led to WallStreetBets and Roaring Kitty’s big moment. It’s all part of what the Times is calling the “Boredom Economy” - NYTimes

The Biden administration is renewing efforts to get more PPP relief in the pockets of struggling small businesses, in part by “imposing a 14-day freeze on loans to companies with 20 or more employees” in hopes of focusing “lenders’ attention on the tiniest businesses” - NYTimes and WSJ

Would you have guessed that “Air Bud” champion turned out to be one of the most consequential features of newish Disney CEO Bob Chapek’s resume? I would not, but as it turns out, Chapek’s time at Disney’s home-entertainment division 20 years ago is paying dividends now as he guides the Big Mouse’s streaming platform (which is, itself, saving’ Disney’s cheese as its parks have struggled with Covid-forced lockdowns) - WSJ

A promised No vote from swing Senator Joe Manchin appears to have imperiled the confirmation chances for President Biden’s OMB pick, Neera Tanden - NYTimes and HuffPost

A recently updated Bureau of Labor Statistics assessment of likely job growth—a challenging prognostic effort that looks 10 years into the future—has “alarming implications for jobs requiring less education—while also forecasting a boom for epidemiologists and other health-science jobs” - NYTimes

Just months after the abrupt departure of “well-known” Google AI researcher Timnit Gebru after she criticized the company’s treatment of employees “who were working on ways to address bias and toxicity in its artificial intelligence systems,” a second Ethical AI team leader, Dr. Margaret Mitchell, has been fired. Mitchell had “strongly and publicly criticized Google’s stance” on Gebru’s termination, and her departure is “another example of the rising tension between Google’s senior management and its work force” - NYTimes and TechCrunch

Meanwhile, over at Big Blue, IBM’s decision to explore the sale of its Watson Health unit is highlighting “the challenges of attempting to apply AI to treating complex medical conditions” - WSJ

A deeper look at the “quality issues” for Elon Musk and Tesla that have piqued the interest of Chinese regulators and are throwing a wrench in Tesla’s “dominance” in China’s EV market - WSJ

Weeks after settling out of an investigation into its role in the opioid crisis in America, McKinsey’s finding itself on the wrong end of pointed questions in France for the previously undisclosed work it did laying out the vaccine distribution plan for France, which was quickly “derided for being far too slow” - NYTimes

We know that Musk twitter fingers giveth to cryptos. Do they taketh away, too?  - Bloomberg

With The Muppet Show making its Disney+ debut recently, seems like just about the right time to appreciate its genius, as this thread lays out so ably - KenPlume

Stay safe,
MDR