The Top 5 Business Stories From the Third Quarter – Morning Brew

Our goal for this section: Take the entirety of business news that happened over the last three months and distill it into the 5 stories that truly mattered. Heres what we came up with.

Its hard to say just yet, but this summer could be considered a Wright brothers moment for commercial space travel. Billionaires Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson blasted off to space in homegrown rockets. And while he didnt go to space himself, Elon Musk did something even more impressiveSpaceX sent the first all-civilian crew into orbit on the Inspiration4.

Something the industry still needs to figure out: literally astronomical costs. Tickets for Virgin Galactic space flights start at $450,000 a seat.

Chinas government tightened the screws on numerous industries as it tries to center the countrys culture around an ideal of common prosperity.

In no particular order, Beijing has a) expanded its ban on crypto-related transactions b) limited the amount of time kids can play video games c) stopped ride-hailing giant Didi from signing up new customers d) banned effeminate men from appearing on TV e) blocked tutoring companies from taking profits, and much more.

The new regulations amount to one of Chinas most dramatic attempts to reset the relationship between business and culture in recent memory.

From record-shattering temps in Oregon to Hurricane Ida in the East, weather disasters affected nearly 1 in 3 Americans this summer. These weather events, plus a new UN report that deemed climate change a code red for humanity, sparked more conversation around climate mitigation and adaptation efforts.

Will it lead to action? Democrats cited failures of our current system (like the NYC subway flooding) as justification for the bipartisan $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill theyre hoping to pass this week.

Hot Vax Summer fizzled out as the highly contagious Delta variant sent Covid cases soaring once again. The wave also created more urgency from the government and businesses to get employees vaccinated.

While some large corporations mandated vaccinations early on, the Biden administration turned the volume up to 11 when it said that all companies with 100 or more employees need to ensure their workers are vaccinated, or otherwise present a weekly negative Covid test. Good news is, the Delta wave appears to have peaked in many pockets of the US.

Turns out, the Ever Given being stuck in the Suez Canal was the least of our supply chain worries this year. Factory closures in Asia due to Covid-19 have prolonged bottlenecks, driving inflation higher and delaying your new couch from arriving.

Some stats that illustrate the brokenness of the global supply chain:

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The Top 5 Business Stories From the Third Quarter - Morning Brew