All About the DealBook DC Policy Project

In addition to feeling the pandemic’s economic effects, the airline industry is at the center of health policy debates, like one over making masks mandatory, which airlines have welcomed, and another over requiring coronavirus tests before travel, which they have resisted for domestic flights.

The industry over all is shedding more than $150 million each day, and it won’t turn around meaningfully until high-margin business travel picks up. But some experts say corporate travel may never fully recover, with in-person meetings permanently replaced by video conferences.

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“Leadership is not a popularity contest,” Mr. Bastian told our Corner Office columnist, in a wide-ranging interview about managing the company through booms and busts.

Monday, Feb. 22, 4 P.m. – 4:30 P.m.

Steve Ballmer of USAFacts on stimulus by the numbers

Since stepping down as Microsoft’s chief executive in 2014, Steve Ballmer has kept busy as the N.B.A.’s most energetic team owner. He has also founded USAFacts, a nonprofit group dedicated to presenting crucial data about the United States in easy-to-read formats.

The idea behind the group, whose projects include a yearly scorecard for the U.S. modeled on corporate annual reports, is to give Americans the important facts about their government that they need to make informed political decisions. Working with academics and other experts, Mr. Ballmer’s group aims, in his words, to “figure out what the government really does” with taxpayers’ money.

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Where $3.4 trillion in economic relief — the equivalent of $10,300 for every American — has been spent over the past year.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/20/business/dealbook/policy-project.html