Financial Daily Dose 10.13.2021 | Top Story: Record 4.3 Million Americans Voluntarily Left Jobs in August

Labor Department figures out Tuesday showed that a record 4.3 million U.S. workers voluntarily quit their jobs in August, “up from four million in July and . . . by far the most in the two decades the government has been keeping track.” The mass exodus appears to confirm that “the balance of power in the labor market has swung toward workers, at least temporarily,” and the “abundance of opportunities may be helping to fuel the wave of quitting” - NYTimes and MarketWatch and Marketplace

LG Electronics will fork over $1.9 billion to General Motors to cover “almost the entire cost of a recall of fire-prone batteries in the Chevrolet Bolt electric car that has become a big problem for the automaker.” The fire danger has prompted GM to recall over 140k Bolts “to replace battery packs that can catch on fire because of manufacturing defects” - NYTimes and WSJ

Even as major tenant Amazon is adjusting its once-strict return-to-office policies as the Delta variant wave continues, Seattle appears poised to emerge from these past 18 pandemic months as a commercial real-estate winner. The region “became the top market in the United States in 2020 for large office spaces leased by tech firms . . . surpassing the San Francisco Bay Area for the first time since 2013” - NYTimes

The latest info on inflation expectations—the NY Fed’s Survey of Consumer Expectations—is raising an already-high central banker concern level about rising prices in the U.S. True, we’re talking expectations and not actual prices this time around, but the upward trend has Fed officials concerned - NYTimes

IMF economists find themselves largely in the same boat, citing persistent inflation as a reason to cut its global growth forecast - NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg

And we’ll likely really have cause for a freak-out when CPI numbers are released later this morning - NYTimes and WSJ

West Coast banking groups Columbia and Umpqua have announced a merger as part of a “roughly $5 billion all-stock deal that creates one of the largest based” on that side of the country. The combined company will hold more than $50 billion in assets and will operate under the Umpqua Bank brand - WSJ and Law360

Meanwhile, over at Citi, CEO Jane Fraser talks turnaround plans for “the original banking behemoth,” with some competitor tweaking along the way for good measure - Bloomberg

American and Southwest Airlines announced on Tuesday that they would ignore Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s recent executive order purporting to bar private employers from mandating coronavirus vaccines in the state. The carriers cited federal vaccine mandates, which they argue would supersede any conflicting state laws. A series of other Texas corporate heavyweights are joining the airlines in challenging the governor’s order - NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg

Apple’s the latest company humbled by the computer chip shortage, with Cook & Co. expected to cut projected production targets for its iPhone 13 by as many as 10 million units - Bloomberg and MarketWatch

Mere days after stepping aside from his top role at the company, Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner has passed away at the age of 58. His sudden death “leave the company, which has a market value of about $12 billion, in the hands of lieutenants to navigate selling strategies and supply-chain challenges during a make-or-break time of year” - WSJ

Ahhh, the power of a bigger overhead bin to cure [at least some of] what ails air travelers - WSJ

Stay safe, and get vaxxed,

MDR