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PACKED: The Moderna Covid-19 vaccine was prepared for shipping at a distribution centerin Olive Branch, Miss., on Sunday. Immunizations with it are slated to start Monday. A6

As Jack Ma was trying tosalvage his relationship withBeijing in early November, thebeleaguered Chinese billionaireoffered to hand over parts ofhis financial-technology giant,Ant Group, to the Chinese gov-ernment, people with knowl-edge of the matter said.

“You can take any of theplatforms Ant has, as long asthe country needs it,” Mr. Ma,China’s richest man, proposedat an unusual sit-down withregulators, the people said.

The offer, not previously re-ported, appeared a mea culpaof sorts from Mr. Ma as hefound himself face to face withofficials from China’s centralbank and agencies overseeingsecurities, banking and insur-ance. The Nov. 2 meeting tookplace a few days before Ant wassupposed to go public, in whatwould have been the world’sbiggest initial public offering.

Mr. Ma had angered Beijingby lashing out in a speech inOctober at President Xi Jin-ping’s signature campaign tocontrol financial risks, saying

it stifled innovation. Now, theregulators had called the meet-ing to voice their concernsabout Ant’s business model.

His olive-branch offer at themeeting failed at saving theIPO and Beijing has sincestepped up efforts to rein inChina’s Big Tech giants.

“Ant Group cannot confirmthe details of the meeting withregulators held on Nov. 2, 2020,because it is confidential,” acompany spokesman said.

The suspension of Ant’sshare sale of more than $34billion that followed the Nov. 2meeting was just the start. Itwas followed by a barrage ofactions against what is dubbedthe “platform economy,” or in-ternet-based businesses cham-pioned by large tech firms.

Mr. Xi personally orderedChinese regulators to investi-gate the risks posed by Ant,Chinese officials with knowl-edge of the matter said, and toshut down Ant’s IPO.

People close to China’s finan-cial regulators say there is nodecision, for now, to take Mr.Ma up on his offer. One plan be-

PleaseturntopageA11

BY LINGLING WEI

The world’s largest semicon-ductor companies face a grow-ing competitive threat: theirbiggest customers making theirown chips tailored to the super-charged areas of cloud comput-ing and artificial intelligence.

Chip making has long beenruled by big manufacturers anddesign houses such as IntelCorp., Advanced Micro DevicesInc. and graphics-chip makerNvidia Corp. Now Amazon.comInc., Microsoft Corp. and Googleare getting into the game in thehunt for improved performanceand lower costs, shifting thebalance of power in the indus-try and pushing traditional chipmakers to respond by buildingmore specialized chips for ma-jor customers.

Amazon this month unveileda new chip that, it says, prom-ises to speed up how algorithmsthat use artificial intelligencelearn from data. The companyhas already designed other pro-cessors for its cloud-computingarm, called Amazon Web Ser-

PleaseturntopageA2

Percentage of small firms that gotbank funding in the past five years

Sources: Small Business Credit Survey, Federal Reserve Banks

Annual revenue ofmore than$1million

57%57%57%between$100,000

and $1million

35%35%35%of

$100,000or less

24%24%24%

Magician and mind-readerChris Cox spent last Decemberon Broadway, and the one be-fore on the stage of the Syd-ney Opera House. This year,he is performing from hisspare bedroom in England’sBuckinghamshire, taking offhis sweater in front of hiswebcam to reveal a Lycra leo-tard emblazoned with a tiger.

Alacazoom! Magic Acts VanishFrom Theaters, Reappear Online

i i i

Magicians go virtual, presenting trickynew challenges; levitation, mind-reading

The stunt, which proves hecan correctly guess the animalan audience member wasthinking of, forms the finale ofMr. Cox’s new virtual act.

“However much I tell my-self it’s just like doing a stageshow,” he said, “there’s a big-ger part of me that knows it’sreally not the same as doing astage show.”

Magic has gone online, andPleaseturntopageA16

BY KATIE DEIGHTON

Moderna Vaccine Begins ShippingAcross U.S.

Countries across Europe andbeyond barred travelers fromBritain on Sunday in an effort tokeep out a highly infectious newstrain of the coronavirus that isspreading rapidly in England.

The British government onSaturday said the new strainappeared to be spreading 70%faster than earlier variantsand is responsible for a surgein cases in London and its sur-rounding areas. Recordedcases across the U.K. in theweek to Sunday rose 51% overthe week before.

The emergence of the vari-ant presents a serious setbackfor suppressing the pandemicbefore new vaccines can berolled out, suggesting major re-

By Daniel Michaelsin Brussels and JasonDouglas in London

Doctors are treating a new flood of criti-cally ill coronavirus patients with treatmentsfrom before the pandemic, to keep more pa-tients alive and send them home sooner.

Last spring, with less known about thedisease, doctors often pre-emptively put pa-tients on ventilators or gave powerful seda-tives largely abandoned in recent years. Theaim was to save the seriously ill and protecthospital staff from Covid-19.

Now hospital treatment for the most criti-cally ill looks more like it did before the pan-demic. Doctors hold off longer before placingpatients on ventilators. Patients get lesspowerful sedatives, with doctors checkingmore frequently to see if they can halt thedrugs entirely and dialing back how muchair ventilators push into patients’ lungs witheach breath.

“Let us go back to basics,” said Dr. Ed-uardo Oliveira, executive medical director

PleaseturntopageA16

BY MELANIE EVANS

Hospitals Retreat FromEarly Covid-19 TreatmentChanging practices appear to be improving outcomes for sickest

Ant Group’s MaMade Offer in BidTo Placate Beijing

BY ASA FITCH

Big-TechChallengeJolts ChipIndustry

Small Businesses SqueezedSmall businesses that endured coronavirus shutdowns andreceived government loans earlier this year now face anotherobstacle: Banks don’t want to lend to them. B1

strictions will continue into thenew year. There is no evidencethe new variant causes moreserious infections or will neu-tralize the vaccines, British sci-entists say, but there are con-cerns it will make controllingthe virus’s spread less manage-able, even with a vaccine.

Viruses mutate constantlyand scientists are on the alertfor new mutations that mayaffect how the virus behaves.The new strain hasn’t beenidentified in the U.S.

The British government im-posed a new lockdown on theaffected regions, which in-cludes the closure of all non-essential retail, and aban-

PleaseturntopageA8

Virus Variant SpursBan on U.K. Travel

WASHINGTON—Lawmakersreached a final agreement on aroughly $900 billion coronavirusrelief package, moving Congressclose to approval of a fresh infu-sion of aid to households, smallbusinesses and schools aftermonths of gridlock.

The emerging agreement isexpected to provide a $600 di-rect check to many Americans,$300 a week in enhanced fed-eral unemployment benefitsand aid for schools, vaccinedistribution and small busi-nesses.

Negotiators on Sunday hadbeen finalizing details for therest of the bill after settling adisagreement on the FederalReserve’s emergency lendingpowers settled earlier in the

weekend. Senate MajorityLeader Mitch McConnell (R.,Ky.) on Sunday afternoon saidall outstanding issues weresettled.

“At long last we have the bi-partisan breakthrough thecountry has needed,” Mr.McConnell said on the Senatefloor. “Now we need topromptly finalize text, avoidany last-minute obstacles andcooperate to move this legisla-tion through both chambers.”

Congress passed a 24-hourextension of government fund-ing Sunday evening, setting upvotes on the relief agreementand broader spending bill forMonday. The aid package is tiedto a roughly $1.4 trillion annualspending package, and Con-gress passed a series of tempo-rary spending bills in recent

PleaseturntopageA4

BY ANDREW DUEHRENAND KRISTINA PETERSON

LawmakersReach Deal onAid Package

Nursing home staff hesitateon vaccine.................................... A6

Companies ramp up testingto bring workers back.......... A6

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Lawmakers reached a finalagreement on the $900billioncoronavirus relief package,movingCongress closer to ap-proval of a fresh infusionof aidafter months of gridlock. A1 Countries across Eu-rope and beyond barredtravelers from Britain in aneffort to keep out a highlyinfectious new strain of thecoronavirus that is spread-ing rapidly in England. A1AU.S. panel recommendedthat both the nation’s oldest,most-vulnerable people andfront-line essential workersbe offered the next place inline for Covid-19 vaccines.A6 A congressional panelissued a report document-ing what it determinedwere safety-oversightlapses by the FAA. A3 A Pentagon proposal toput the nation’s top electronicspy agency under civilianleadership drew bipartisancriticism from lawmakers.A2 EU and British negotia-tors remained unable tomake a decisive break-through in trade talks as theBrexit transition periodnears its end on Dec. 31. A14 Jupiter and Saturn willappear to nearly touch in thenight sky on the winter sol-sticeMonday, in an alignmentthat has occurred only twicesince the Middle Ages. A3

Ant’s Jack Ma offered tohand over parts of the

fintech giant to the Chinesegovernment as the belea-guered billionaire tried tosalvage his relationship withBeijing in early November. A1 Semiconductor makersface the growing threat oftheir customers makingtheir own chips tailored tocloud-computing and AI. A1 FIS and Global Paymentsrecently held unsuccessfultalks for a merger deal thatcould have been valued ataround $70 billion. B1 Enthusiastic Tesla in-vestors have helped accel-erate the run-up in the carmaker’s shares ahead of itsinclusion in the S&P 500. B1 Thoma Bravo is buyingproperty-management-software provider Real-Page for $9.6 billion in oneof the largest recent lever-aged buyouts. B5 Congress is poised todeliver a tax benefit worthhundreds of billions dol-lars to business ownerswho took PPP loans. A4Wistron apologized formishandling wages at itsiPhone plant in India afterangry workers damaged itsfacilities a week ago. A14 The pandemic bluntedthe debut overseas of War-ner Bros.’ highly anticipated“WonderWoman” sequel. B1

Business&Finance

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P2JW356000-5-A00100-17FFFF5178F

A2 | Monday, December 21, 2020 THEWALL STREET JOURNAL.

U.S. NEWSECONOMICCALENDAR

MONDAY: A monthly surveyof eurozone households is ex-pected to record a weakening ofsentiment in the early weeks ofDecember, as worries about ris-ing coronavirus infections andthe prospect of a lengtheningperiod of restrictions outweighthe boost to optimism fromavailability of vaccines.

TUESDAY: U.S. existing-home sales rose to a 14-yearhigh in October, spurred on bylow mortgage rates and a questfor more space. Economists areestimating a step back in No-vember as limited supplies andhigher prices start to bite. Evenso, the outlook for the marketappears robust.

WEDNESDAY: U.S. joblessclaims have been trending in thewrong direction this month, asign of rising layoffs headinginto the winter. Economists ex-pect applications for unemploy-ment benefits to remain ele-vated in the week ended Dec. 19.

U.S. consumer spending isexpected to fall for the firsttime since April amid a resur-gence of Covid-19 cases and fad-ing fiscal support for householdsand businesses. Consumerspending is the main driver ofeconomic growth.

U.S. durable-goods ordersare expected to have risen forthe seventh straight month inNovember, highlighting the man-ufacturing sector’s relativelystrong rebound from shutdownsand supply-chain disruptionsduring the spring.

U.S. new-home sales are ex-pected to have fallen slightly inNovember as builders struggleto keep up with demand.

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The IAB Tech Lab, a digitalmedia nonprofit, has signaledplans to bring a set of stan-dards called “ads.txt” tostreaming television to combatad fraud. A Business News ar-ticle on Friday about scams instreaming-television advertis-ing incorrectly said that an in-dustry trade group was plan-ning the standards.

Tesla Inc. is based in PaloAlto, Calif. A Page One articleon Saturday about trading inthe stock incorrectly said insome editions that the elec-tric-car maker was based inFremont, Calif.

A Review article on Satur-day about dark Christmas tra-ditions misquoted a word inthe Christmas carol “We ThreeKings.” The lyric is “Sorrow-ing, sighing, bleeding, dying,”not “Suffering, sighing, bleed-ing, dying.”

Notice to readersWall Street Journal staff

members are working re-motely during the pandemic.For the foreseeable future,please send reader commentsonly by email or phone, usingthe contacts below, not viaU.S. Mail.

Readers can alert The Wall Street Journal to any errors in news articles byemailing wsjcontact@wsj.com or by calling 888-410-2667.

CORRECTIONS AMPLIFICATIONS

improvement—is losing rele-vance. As a result, companiesare searching for new ways toeke out better performance, notalways measured in speed, butsometimes lower power con-sumption or heat generation.

“Moore’s Law has beenaround for 55 years, and this isthe first time it’s slowed downvery materially,” said ParthaRanganathan, a vice presidentand engineering fellow inGoogle’s cloud unit, which hasbeen pursuing specialized chips.

The sheer size of the cloudgiants presents a challenge fortraditional chip producers. In thepast, the semiconductor makerstended to design their high-per-formance semiconductors forgeneric applications, leaving itto customers to adapt and getthe most out of the chips. Nowthe biggest customers have thefinancial muscle to push formore-optimized designs.

“Whereas Intel in the 1990swas an order of magnitudelarger than all their customers,now the customer has superiorscale over the supplier,” saidJames Wang, an analyst at NewYork money manager ARK In-vestment Management. “As aresult, they have more capitaland more expertise to takecomponents in-house.”

Nvidia, now the largest U.S.chip maker by market cap, hasa value of $330 billion, and Intelis at $207 billion. The cloud be-hemoths, Amazon, Microsoftand Google parent AlphabetInc., each top $1 trillion in mar-ket valuation.

The bespoke efforts arepartly made possible by the riseof contract chip makers, whichmake semiconductors designedby other companies. This ar-rangement helps tech giantsavoid the multibillion-dollarcost of building their own chip

making efforts took off largelywith its acquisition of an Israelicompany called Annapurna Labsabout five years ago.

Custom chips are also gain-ing favor in consumer products.Apple this year started usingits own processors in Macs af-ter 15 years of sourcing themfrom Intel. Google has incorpo-rated its AI chip in its Pixelsmartphones.

So far, the lost business fortraditional chip makers hasbeen modest, said Linley Gwen-nap, a chip-industry analyst.The market share of all custom-made, Arm-based central pro-cessors is less than 1%, he said.Google’s AI chips are by far thehighest-volume tech-company-designed processors, he said,comprising at least 10% of allAI chips. Intel still supplies thevast majority of CPUs that gointo data centers.

The incumbents also aren’tsitting idle in the race for cloudand AI chip supremacy. Nvidiathis year agreed to buy Arm inwhat would be the chip indus-try’s biggest acquisition. AndIan Buck, who oversees Nvidia’sdata center business, said thecompany is working closelywith its largest customers tooptimize the use of its chips intheir hardware setups.

Intel said around 60% of itsserver central processors soldto large data-center operatorsare customized to customers’needs, often by switching offfeatures of the chip that theydon’t need.

And Intel has invested in AIprocessors and other special-ized hardware of its own, in-cluding buying Israel-based Ha-bana Labs last year for about $2billion. AWS recently agreed toput Habana’s AI training chips inits data centers, as Amazon de-velops its rival chips.

vices, including the brains ofcomputers known as centralprocessing units.

The pandemic has acceler-ated the rise of cloud comput-ing as companies broadly haveembraced the kind of digitaltools using those remote serv-ers. Amazon, Microsoft, Googleand others have enjoyed stronggrowth in the cloud during theremote-work period.

Business customers also areshowing an increased appetitefor analyzing the data theygather on their products andcustomers, fueling demand forartificial-intelligence tools tomake sense of all that informa-tion.

Google was an early moveramong the tech giants, releas-ing an AI processor in 2016, andhas updated the hardware sev-eral times since. Software giantMicrosoft, the No. 2 in thecloud behind Amazon, has alsoinvested in chip designs, includ-ing a programmable chip tohandle AI and another that en-hances security. It is now alsoworking on a central processor,a person familiar with its planssaid. Bloomberg News previ-ously reported Microsoft’s CPUeffort.

Driving the tech giants’moves are changes in how thesemiconductor world operatesand a growing sense thatMoore’s Law—the sector’s fun-damental assumption that chipperformance will show steady

ContinuedfromPageOne

Tech FirmsJolt ChipIndustry

was feasible. At the depth ofthe SARS downturn duringthe second quarter of 2003,Hong Kong’s economyshrank 2.4% from the previ-ous quarter, before growing6.1% in the third quarter.China’s growth slowed to9.1% in the second quarter of2003, when SARS peaked—down from an 11.1% growthrate in the first quarter.

Yet Covid-19 spread as-ymptomatically and thusmore easily than SARS, sty-mying containment efforts.Countries responded with

THE OUTLOOK | By Harriet Torry

A Year That Whipsawed EconomistsAll year,

economists,central banksand privateforecastershave strug-

gled to predict the economicimpact of the Covid-19 pan-demic.

They went from barelyregistering it, to predictingit would cause the worsteconomic downturn sincethe Great Depression, tosomething much milder, on apar with the 2007-09 reces-sion.

Forecasters’ inability topin down how businessesand shoppers would respondto the Covid-19 outbreakechoes the black eye suf-fered by pollsters in thisyear’s presidential election.

Economists had no com-parable events to predict ei-ther the path of the virus orthe measures governmentswould take in response. Now,with infections and deathssurging again and as govern-ments reimpose or weigh re-imposing restrictions, econo-mists are again markingdown forecasts—though notas drastically as earlier thisyear.

The pandemic was a“very, very uncertain situa-tion,” and forecasters’ swingto very pessimistic and backis “understandable behaviorand good, because otherwisethey’re not really calling itas they see it,” said Prakash

Loungani, an economist atthe International MonetaryFund who has written abouteconomists’ tendency tomiss the magnitude of reces-sions. “From my perspective,forecasters have actuallydone a good job this yearrelative to their past perfor-mance.”

T he economy this yearappeared to start on asolid footing, coming

off 2.3% growth in 2019. InThe Wall Street Journal’sJanuary monthly survey ofeconomists, business and ac-ademic forecasters on aver-age expected gross domesticproduct to increase 1.9% inthe fourth quarter of 2020from the fourth quarter of2019. That held steady inFebruary, even as the U.S.began to register its firstcoronavirus deaths.

In early March, they low-ered expected growth mod-estly, to 1.2%. One reason forthe restraint: When the coro-navirus pandemic emerged,some forecasters looked toits closest modern equiva-lent for clues about how itwould play out. In late 2002and early 2003, severe acuterespiratory syndromeemerged in southern Chinathen spread to several othercountries, killing hundredsof people.

That experience suggesteda short, sharp shock to GDPfollowed by a quick rebound

measures never used before:closing all nonessential busi-nesses and schools and or-dering people to stay home.As economic activity came toa screeching halt, marketscratered, and economists re-vised 2020 U.S. growth to acontraction of 4.9% in April,then 6.6% in May, the worstsince the Great Depression.

But economic activitybounced back much morequickly than expected, andas of December, economistsnow think GDP will fall 2.7%this year, similar to the droprecorded in the fourth quar-ter of 2008 from a year ear-lier.

Why was the Covid-re-lated toll less bad than ini-tially feared? “I think that inmany cases the lockdownsstarted to be reversed andactivity returned,” said Mr.Loungani.

Another reason, said Jef-frey Frankel, a professor atHarvard University who hasstudied economic forecast-ing, was massive fiscal stim-ulus that lawmakers enactedin March to support theeconomy and household in-comes.

“That was a surprise inthe midst of a partisan Con-gress,” he said.

The twists and turns ofprivate forecasts wereechoed by official bodies. InMarch, Federal Reserve offi-cials didn’t issue their usualeconomic projections, then

in June said GDP would con-tract 6.5% in 2020. By Sep-tember, they had revisedthat up to a 3.7% contrac-tion, and at last week’s pol-icy meeting, they revised itup further to a 2.4% drop.The smaller-than-expecteddrop in 2020 has led them toexpect a smaller bouncebackin 2021, when the Fed nowsees growth of 4.2%, com-pared with 5% in June.

T he IMF in June ex-pected the U.S. econ-omy to shrink 8.2% in

2020 and grow 5.4% in 2021.By October, the forecast hadimproved to a contraction of4.1% in 2020, but expectedgrowth in 2021 slipped to3.2%.

“All countries are nowfacing what I would call ‘TheLong Ascent’—a difficultclimb that will be long, un-even, and uncertain,” IMFManaging Director KristalinaGeorgieva said in early Octo-ber.

Mr. Frankel said fiscalstimulus now remains essen-tial. Policy makers who “pre-maturely declared victoryand stopped fiscal stimulus”in the wake of the Great De-pression in 1937-1938, and in2011 after the 2007-09 reces-sion, ended up slowing theeconomic recoveries, he said.“I’m worried about a double-dip recession,” he added.“We’re not out of the woodsyet.”

MONTH ESTIMATEWASMADE

J F M A M J J A S O N D-8

-6

-4

-2

0

2%

As the Covid-19 pandemic hitthe U.S. in the spring,economists’ forecasts forgrowth in 2020 switched toexpectations of a deepcontraction. They improved asthe year progressed.

Gross domestic productgrowth estimates, 2020

Source: WSJ Survey of Economists

Note: Change measured from the fourthquarter of the prior year.

Google has pioneered artificial-intelligence processors, fueled by growing business demand for tools to analyze vast amounts of data.

MONICAM

DAVEY

/EPA

/SHUTT

ERST

OCK

factories. Taiwan Semiconduc-tor Manufacturing Co., in par-ticular, has jumped to the fore-front of chip-productiontechnology.

The changes have benefitedchip-design firm Arm HoldingsLtd., which sells circuit designsthat anyone can use after pay-ing a licensing fee. Apple is abig Arm customer, as are all ofthe big tech companies thatmake their own chips.

Amazon, Google and Micro-soft each are estimated to oper-ate millions of servers in globe-spanning networks of datacenters for their own use and torent out to their millions ofcloud-computing customers.

Even small improvements inperformance and minute reduc-tions in the cost of poweringand cooling chips become worththe effort when spread acrossthose vast technology empires.Facebook Inc. also has exploredworking on its own chips.

David Brown, a vice presidentat Amazon Web Services, saidmaking its own processors wasan obvious choice for Amazongiven the performance gains itcould achieve by dropping com-patibility with older softwareand other standard features ofIntel chips that big data-centeroperators don’t need.

“We were able to build a[chip] that’s optimized for thecloud, so we were able to re-move a lot of stuff that’s just notneeded,” he said. Amazon’s chip-

Big customers havethe financial cloutto push for moreoptimized designs.

U.S.WATCH

PENTAGON

Bid to Split AgenciesDraws Some Criticism

A Pentagon proposal to putthe nation’s top electronic spyagency under civilian leadershipdrew bipartisan criticism fromlawmakers who said the idea wasill-timed and against the law.

The proposal, which would for-mally separate the National Secu-rity Agency from U.S. Cyber Com-mand, was circulated in recentdays, according to two U.S. offi-cials and another person familiarwith the matter. It appears to bea dusted-off version of a previ-ously floated proposal inside thePentagon by then-Defense Secre-tary Jim Mattis, according to oneof the officials.

Many current and former offi-cials say the partnership betweenthe two spy entities is vital tosharing intelligence and resources,but critics have said the arrange-ment can lead to bureaucraticheadaches. Some officials alsosay the two agencies have duel-ing missions that are in conflict.

In a joint statement on Sun-day, four key lawmakers—Sens.Ben Sasse (R., Neb.) and Angus

King, an independent who cau-cuses with Democrats, and Reps.Mike Gallagher (R., Wis.) and JimLangevin (D., R.I.)—said the pro-posal lacks support.

—Dustin Volzand Gordon Lubold

ILLINOIS

City Attorney ResignsOver Botched Raid

The city of Chicago’s top attor-ney resigned Sunday in the falloutof a botched police raid on thehome of a Black woman whowasn’t allowed to put on clothesbefore being handcuffed.

Corporation Counsel MarkFlessner announced the move inan email, saying he was only re-cently involved with the legalcase connected to police video ofthe February 2019 wrongful raidon the home of social worker An-janette Young. Mr. Flessner didn’tsay if he was asked to resign.

Footage of the raid hasprompted an uproar. Police bodycamera video shows officersbreaking down Ms. Young’s doorand ignoring her repeated pleasthat they have the wrong home.

—Associated Press

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THEWALL STREET JOURNAL. * * Monday, December 21, 2020 | A3

U.S. NEWS

Alberto Cervantes/THE WALL STREET JOURNALSources: NASA; Perth Observatory

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Saturn

Saturn

Jupiter

Jupiter

0° 2 4 6 8

The twoplanetswill bevisible lookingtoward thewestern horizon inthe hour or so aftersunset throughoutmost of theworldandwill appear to beseparated by aboutone-fifth the diameterof themoon.

The conjunction between Jupiter andSaturn hasn’t occurred under a dark sky

for some800 years.

rn

of the full moon—about adime’s thickness—as seenfrom Earth, astronomers say.They will be visible just abovethe western horizon duringthe hour after sunset almostworld-wide in the days beforeand after they make their clos-est approach on the solstice.

This month’s planetary con-junction is part of the solarsystem’s celestial clockworks.Jupiter orbits the sun every11.86 years. Ringed Saturn cir-cles every 29.46 years. Theyregularly line up in the skyabout once every 20 years orso, but only rarely are theyquite so closely aligned.

“It is almost like watchingtwo runners going around avery large track, one fasterthan the other,” said Rice Uni-versity astronomer PatrickHartigan in Houston, who hascharted these conjunctions ofJupiter and Saturn datingback 2,000 years and calcu-lated future alignments of thepair for the next 1,000 years.“Every once in a while, theyline up.”

Astronomers often usethese apparent alignments tohelp calculate orbits more pre-cisely, to estimate the sizes of

distant worlds and to studyplanetary systems circlingother stars.

The two planets had a morerecent conjunction that wasjust as close, Dr. Hartigan said,in 1623, only 14 years afterGalileo made his first tele-scope. But it appears to haveattracted no notice at thetime, occurring so close to thesetting sun that it was likelyno one could spot it. “As far as

I know, there are no records ofanyone actually seeing thatone,” Dr. Hartigan said.

Among some sky watchers,the pairing of the planets dur-ing the Christmas season hasstirred comparisons to thestar of Bethlehem mentionedin the New Testament. It isn’tknown what astronomical oc-currence, if any, might haveprompted that biblical por-

tent, Dr. Wasserman said.Jupiter and Saturn have

aligned about 100 times in thepast 2,000 years. They linedup in the year 7 B.C., as seenfrom Earth, in May, Septemberand early December—a raretriplet occurrence, astrono-mers say. At those junctures,though, the planets were rela-tively far apart and wouldhave appeared much dimmerthan in the alignment ex-pected this month.

Many other celestial eventscould have been the Christmasstar, astronomers say. In amuch brighter and more read-ily visible event, for example,Jupiter aligned with Venus in2 B.C.

For many, the coming win-ter-solstice conjunction offersa moment to appreciate thebeauty of the night sky.

“It is really a lovely connec-tion between generations go-ing into the far distant pastand into the future, to markeras and the passage of time,”said Dr. Hartigan. “Regardlessof whatever travails or prob-lems we as humans may behaving, this grand celestialclock just keeps ticking andmoving along.”

Jupiter and Saturn will ap-pear to nearly touch in thenight sky on the winter sol-stice this Monday, in a rarealignment that has happenedonly twice since the MiddleAges.

Weather permitting, theconjunction of the solar sys-tem’s two largest planets dur-ing the Christmas season willbe bright enough to see afterdusk with a pair of binoculars.It is no star of Bethlehem, as-tronomers say, but rather aquirk of orbital mechanicsthat was last recorded deco-rating the sky with such bril-liance in 1226, when artisanswere still building the NotreDame Cathedral in Paris andGenghis Khan held sway overAsia.

“Jupiter and Saturn willhave an unusually close ap-proach,” said astronomerLarry Wasserman at the Low-ell Observatory in Flagstaff,Ariz.

The two worlds will appearso close on Dec. 21 that theywill resemble a double planet,separated by a distance equalto only one-fifth the diameter

BY ROBERT LEE HOTZ

The Planets Align: Jupiter, SaturnWill Appear Thisclose in Night Sky

The pairing in thisseason has stirredcomparisons to thestar of Bethlehem.

A congressional panel is-sued a report documentingwhat it determined weresafety-oversight lapses by theFederal Aviation Administra-tion, from agency intimidationof federally protected whistle-blowers to lax policing ofmaintenance errors.

The 101-page document, re-leased Friday by the SenateCommerce committee, issharply critical of FAA leader-ship’s handling of numerousmatters over several years.The findings stem from thebroadest review of agency en-forcement efforts conducted inthe wake of two fatal crashesof Boeing Co.’s 737 MAX jets.

Concluding that systemicFAA deficiencies pose an “un-necessary risk to the flyingpublic,” the report cited a pat-tern of agency managersavoiding responsibility for fail-ures to ensure proper stafftraining. Managers also under-mined or overruled enforce-ment decisions of some in-spectors, investigatorsdetermined.

“When inspectors pushedback,” according to the report,“they were investigated and insome cases reassigned.”

After examining some13,000 pages of documentsand interviewing dozens ofagency employees, investiga-tors described a “failed FAA

safety management culture”tending to favor companiesover FAA staff and “often ac-companied by retaliationagainst those who reportsafety violations.”

Specifics raised in the re-port pertain to two major U.S.passenger carriers, a numberof big cargo airlines andsmaller commercial-aircraftand helicopter operators.

The FAA said it was review-ing the information, butsounded a skeptical note. Thecommittee, according to theFAA, acknowledges its reportcontains a number of unsub-stantiated allegations.

A string of earlier reportsby House lawmakers, accidentinvestigators and independentsafety experts focused on theMAX’s flawed flight-controlsystem, which led to 346 fatal-ities and a nearly two-yearglobal grounding of the fleet.

The strongest and newestdetails in the latest safety re-view, however, related to otheraspects of the FAA’s dealingswith the industry. Investiga-tors found what they de-scribed as agency abuses ofvoluntary disclosure practicesthe FAA routinely relies on tolearn of hazards discovered bycarriers, pilots and mechanics.

FAA inspectors “were pres-sured or coerced by FAA man-agers” to accept such volun-tary disclosures even thoughthey clearly fell outside the

bounds of program proceduresand requirements, accordingto the report.

The report lays out in-stances of Southwest Airlinesexerting “improper influenceon the FAA to gain favorabletreatment.”

Early this year, an FAA in-spector reported that after pi-lots on a Southwest flight ex-perienced persistent flight-control problems duringtakeoff, cruise and descent,the crew opted to fly anotherleg with the malfunctioningplane instead of alerting main-

tenance personnel. The secondflight was beset by the samehandling difficulties.

“Despite the intentional na-ture of the event” whichshould have precluded protec-tions under voluntary disclo-sures, according to the report,Southwest successfully arguedthe behavior of the crew fitthe program’s guidelines andthey shouldn’t be subject topunishment.

An improperly done previ-ous repair turned out to bethe root cause of the controlissue, which could have re-

sulted in a crash, according tothe report. But the inspectorwho originally investigated theflights and the flawed repair,according to the report, toldthe committee he was con-vinced Southwest was gamingthe system and provided mis-leading information to theFAA.

The same inspector, who re-fused to accept another volun-tary disclosure from South-west, in that case toldinvestigators maintenancetape had been mistakenly lefton a sensor of a Southwest jet

but the captain failed to inves-tigate the discrepancy or noteit in the logbook before con-ducting two flights. A subse-quent crew, according to thereport, did note it in the log-book as required.

FAA whistleblowers told in-vestigators the tape wasplaced there for calibrationpurposes and “the result couldhave been catastrophic.” Thereport indicates Southwest re-fused to permit pilots to be in-terviewed unless their infor-mation was acceptedunconditionally as a voluntarydisclosure and any type ofpunishment was precluded.

Southwest said it wasaware of the report and hasused earlier discussion ofsome issues to improve inter-nal practices, adding the car-rier “maintains a culture ofcompliance” and recognizes“the safety of our operation asthe most important thing wedo.”

A spokeswoman added that“we absolutely disagree withallegations of improper influ-ence,” because Southwestdidn’t “inhibit or interferewith the FAA’s ability to exer-cise oversight and investiga-tive responsibilities.”

Boeing said lessons fromthe dual MAX crashes “havereshaped our company andfurther focused our attentionon our core values of safety,quality and integrity.”

BY ANDY PASZTOR

Senate Panel Faults FAA Over 737 MAX

A Boeing 737 MAX is shown at a company factory in Renton, Wash., last month.

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deal before Congress takes aholiday break.

Negotiations accelerated lastweek after congressional lead-ers agreed to drop two provi-sions: funding for hard-hitstate and local governments,which Democrats and some Re-publicans had sought, as wellas liability protections for busi-nesses and other entities oper-ating during the pandemic, aGOP priority.

Lawmakers also wrapped upnegotiations on the durationand limits around a temporaryincrease in food-stamp bene-fits, a person familiar with thetalks said. The bill was set toprovide $15 billion for airlinepayroll support, two people fa-miliar with the measure said.Roughly $277 billion would gotoward the Paycheck ProtectionProgram, the bulk of the $325billion the bill puts towardsmall businesses.

The fate of some tax provi-sions, including expiring busi-ness tax breaks and the taxtreatment of certain expensesfor small business aid recipi-

ents, remained uncertain.On a conference call with

Treasury Secretary StevenMnuchin on Sunday, severalHouse Republicans raised con-cerns about the possible absenceof a measure allowing busi-nesses to take tax deductions forexpenses covered by forgivensmall-business loans, people fa-miliar with the call said.

President Trump urged law-makers to finish work on therelief package. “GET IT DONE,and give them more money indirect payments,” he said onTwitter early Sunday morning.

One major sticking point re-garding Fed powers remainedat the start of the weekend. OnSaturday night, Mr. Schumerand Sen. Pat Toomey (R., Pa.)reached a compromise on theagency’s emergency-lendingpowers.

Under the deal, $429 billionpreviously provided to theTreasury Department to back-stop losses in Fed lending pro-grams would be revoked, andthe Fed wouldn’t be able toreplicate identical emergency

lending programs next yearwithout congressional ap-proval, aides familiar with thelegislation said. But the agree-ment wouldn’t prevent the Fedfrom starting other similarprograms, a key demand fromDemocrats.

“The Federal Reserve willretain its tools and authority inthe event of a true emergency,”Mr. Schumer said.

Mr. Mnuchin in Novemberdeclined to allow the programsto continue after Dec. 31, say-ing he didn’t think it was le-gally allowed. A nonpartisancongressional research armdisputed that interpretation onThursday.

Mr. Toomey had insisted thatthe Fed be prevented from re-viving those programs withoutexplicit congressional approval.The compromise will ensure theFed and the Biden administra-tion can’t restart the lendingprograms “by creating a cloneand calling it something differ-ent,”Mr. Toomey told reporterson Sunday. “These programswere never intended to hang

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Earlier in the week, thepresident in a meeting withKen Cuccinelli, the No. 2 officialat DHS, raised the prospect ofthe department seizing votermachines as part of the effortto pursue allegations of voterfraud, according to people fa-miliar with the meeting. Law-yers and Mr. Meadows pushedback in the meeting, saying theagency lacked the authority todo so, and Mr. Cuccinelli

agreed, the people said.On Thursday, Mr. Giuliani

called Mr. Cuccinelli and againpushed the agency to take con-trol of voter machines, the peo-ple said. Mr. Cuccinelli, askedto comment, said he couldn’ttalk about “active federal inves-tigations.”

On Sunday Mr. Trump’s cam-paign filed a new appeal at theSupreme Court related to threecases it lost in the Pennsylvania

U.S. NEWS

dle sticks.”In an Oval Office meeting

Friday with Sidney Powell, alawyer he ousted last monthfrom his legal team, the presi-dent discussed the prospect ofnaming her a special counsel toinvestigate his claims of elec-tion fraud, according to peoplefamiliar with the meeting. Thepresident doesn’t have thatpower.

The president and his per-sonal attorney, Rudy Giuliani,removed Ms. Powell from theTrump legal team last monthafter Mr. Trump told advisershe found her claims—includingthat Hugo Chávez, the presi-dent of Venezuela who died in2013, was behind the rigging ofthe election—too crazy. Duringthe meeting, the idea of deploy-ing the military to assist in hisfight to contest the election re-sults was raised and shot down,one of the people said.

White House counsel Pat Ci-pollone and chief of staff MarkMeadows firmly pushed backboth on the president’s effortto name Ms. Powell specialcounsel and on Mr. Giuliani’sDepartment of Homeland Secu-rity outreach, one of the peoplesaid. Mike Flynn, the formernational security adviser whomMr. Trump pardoned lastmonth, was also at the meeting.

Ms. Powell and Mr. Giulianididn’t respond to requests forcomment on the meeting,which was reported by the NewYork Times. The White Housedeclined to comment.

state courts. Mr. Trump and hissupporters have already beenturned away by the SupremeCourt, which rejected a Texaslawsuit to void 20 million votesin four other states. The courtalso rejected a Republican re-quest to block Mr. Biden’s vic-tory in Pennsylvania.

At other times, the presidentand first lady Melania Trumphave shown signs of wistfulnessabout leaving the White House.In a recent get-together in theOval Office, Mr. Trump beganfilling up bags with WhiteHouse trinkets for his visitors,telling them he didn’t knowwhat to do with the items, ac-cording to a person briefed onthe meeting.

The first shipments of aCovid-19 vaccine last weekmarked a breakthrough for theTrump administration. Some ofthe president’s supporters saythey would like to see him domore to capitalize on theachievement.

Mr. Trump acknowledgedthe development by tweeting avideo statement last week. Buthe didn’t attend an event Fri-day where Mr. Pence received avaccine shot, instead tweetingduring the event about a “Rus-sia hoax.”

And as new details haveemerged about a suspectedRussian hack that compromisedparts of the U.S. governmentwith a level of sophisticationthat surprised even veteran se-curity experts, Mr. Trump fordays was silent. Sen. Mitt Rom-

ney of Utah, a Republican and afrequent critic of the president,lambasted the “inexcusable si-lence and action” from theWhite House on the hack.

Mr. Trump Saturday onTwitter contradicted Secretaryof State Mike Pompeo andother administration officialsby dismissing its severity andquestioning whether Russiawas responsible.

“President Trump must getpast his grievances about theelection and govern for the re-mainder of his term,” TomBossert, Mr. Trump’s formerhomeland security adviser,wrote in an opinion piece lastweek about the hack. “This mo-ment requires unity, purposeand discipline.”

Asked why Americans ha-ven’t heard much from thepresident, White House spokes-man Brian Morgenstern told re-porters: “There’s a lot of workthat goes on that isn’t neces-sarily public.”

Judd Deere, another WhiteHouse spokesman, said Mr.Trump is focused on securingstimulus payments for Ameri-cans, funding the government,the pandemic response andvaccine distribution.

Advisers say the presidenthas been in touch with lawmak-ers and paid close attention tostimulus talks. They say he hasbeen briefed on vaccine-distri-bution efforts. The presidenthasn’t attended a coronavirustask-force meeting in months,including one last week.

WASHINGTON—In a pastweek that began with the Elec-toral College affirming Joe Bi-den’s victory and ended withVice President Mike Pence tak-ing a new Covid-19 vaccine,with a massive national secu-rity breach in between, Presi-dent Trump was largely out ofsight.

Instead, six weeks after theelection, the president re-mained fixated on his unsuc-cessful efforts to overturn theresults, advisers say. He paidclose attention to TV coverageof state hearings on allegedelection fraud, though no evi-dence of widespread fraud hassurfaced, and in tweets andphone calls urged his advisersand lawyers to keep going.

“He’s still in the fight-for-ev-ery-vote mode,” said Sen. Lind-sey Graham (R., S.C.), a Trumployalist, who last week ac-knowledged Mr. Biden’s victory.

An administration officialdescribed the president’s strat-egy to overturn the election re-sults as: “Let’s throw a giantplate of spaghetti at the walland hope that at least one noo-

By Rebecca Ballhaus,Alex Leary

and Dustin Volz

Election Reversal Retains Trump’s FocusAmid vaccine rolloutand a historic hack,president was largelyout of public sight

President Trump on the White House South Lawn Dec. 12.

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LawmakersSay DealIs Reacheddays to keep the governmentfunded while it finished the ne-gotiations.

“This agreement is far fromperfect, but it will deliveremergency relief to a nation inthe throes of a genuine emer-gency,” Senate Minority LeaderChuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) saidon the Senate floor.

The legislation is set to add$300 to weekly unemploymentpayments for 11 weeks and ex-tend two other unemploymentprograms until they beginphasing out in mid-March andend in early April. Those twoprograms expand the pool ofpeople eligible for unemploy-ment benefits and extend theirduration.

The payments are expectedto be $600 per adult and $600per child, with the amountsphasing out at $75,000 in in-come for individuals and$150,000 for couples. PresidentTrump had pushed for includingdirect checks in the legislation.

“We look forward to Con-gress sending a bill to his deskimminently for signature,”White House spokesman BenWilliamson said.

Households where somemembers have Social Securitynumbers but others don’twould be eligible for partialpayments, a person familiarwith the discussions said. De-pendents over age 16 wouldn’tqualify, just like in the firstround of stimulus payments,despite pleas from some law-makers. That means house-holds won’t get payments forthose who are college studentsor disabled adults.

Approving the bill wouldend an effort to craft anotherbipartisan aid agreement thatstretched for much of the year.After quickly passing nearly $3trillion in aid in the spring, Re-publicans and Democratsstruggled for months to negoti-ate another package, with talksat several points breakingdown.

But the rapid spread of thevirus this fall, signs of a slow-ing economic recovery, a gov-ernment funding deadline andthe looming expiration of sev-eral existing aid measurespushed lawmakers to reach a

ContinuedfromPageOne

around indefinitely.”In March, the Federal Re-

serve announced lending pro-grams to keep credit flowing tolarge companies and cities andstates. Days later, Congressprovided $454 billion for theTreasury Department to coverlosses in Fed lending programs.Credit markets reboundedstrongly and the Fed ultimatelypurchased fewer than $30 bil-lion in loans and other assets.

Currently, the Fed and theTreasury Department are al-lowed to establish any emer-gency-lending programs if theyagree jointly. In deciding to endthe current lending programs,Mr. Mnuchin had said the Fedand Treasury would be free torestart them next year with adifferent funding source.

Fed Chairman Jerome Pow-ell has made the same point,including at a press conferenceon Wednesday, in an effort toreassure markets should condi-tions deteriorate.

—Nick Timiraosand Ken Thomas

contributed to this article.

WASHINGTON—The beer in-dustry, struggling restaurantsand federal workers forced intoPresident Trump’s payroll-taxdeferral all stand to gain fromthe year-end congressionalagreement reached Sunday.

The deal is expected to in-clude tax breaks aimed at sup-porting the economy duringthe coronavirus pandemic aswell as extensions of popularprovisions that were set to ex-pire at the end of the year.

Beer, wine and spirits mak-ers had been bracing for excisetax increases Jan. 1. Instead,the lower tax rates they havehad since 2018 will be ex-tended permanently, accordingto a person familiar with theagreement.

Mr. Trump will get the busi-ness-meals break he has de-sired for 2021 and 2022. Somelawmakers and economistshave questioned the merits of a“three-martini-lunch” deduc-tion that encourages indoordining during a pandemic. Mr.Trump says the measure willhelp the restaurant industry.

The deduction will lead tomore spending “and will helpsave millions of restaurantsacross the nation from goingunder,” said Sen. Tim Scott (R.,S.C.), who championed the pro-vision.

Federal workers were amongthe few who were pushed intodeferring their Social Securitypayroll taxes for the final fourmonths of 2020. Mr. Trumpwas trying to offer a payroll-tax cut without congressionalsupport, but all he could do un-der the law was defer the pay-ments. Most employers chosenot to change workers’ pay-checks at all because of thecomplexities and potential lia-bility, but Mr. Trump made fed-eral employees participate.

Currently, the workers, in-cluding military service mem-bers, are required to pay backdeferred taxes over the firstfour months of 2021, and thatcould pose hardships for peo-ple who aren’t expectingsmaller paychecks. The con-gressional agreement would ex-tend the payback periodthrough December 2021.

Some low-income workerswill get flexibility on their2020 tax returns that Demo-crats had sought, according totheir leaders in Congress. Re-cipients of the child tax creditand earned-income tax creditcan qualify for the 2020 creditsbased on their 2019 incomes, ifthat is better for them. Thatchange can avoid situationswhere declines in income canshrink a low-income house-hold’s tax credits.

BY RICHARD RUBIN

Alcohol,DiningSectorsGet Break

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, above, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell were in the Capitol on Sunday to wrap up aid talks.

PPP Borrowers SetTo Gain Tax Break

WASHINGTON—Congress ispoised to deliver a tax benefitworth hundreds of billions ofdollars to business ownerswho took Paycheck ProtectionProgram loans.

The provision, part of theyear-end coronavirus relief bill,would ensure that PPP recipi-ents can deduct the payrollcosts and other expenses cov-ered by forgiven loans, eventhough the loans themselvesare tax-free income. The movewould reverse a Treasury De-partment ruling that deniedthe deductions.

Full details of the provision,including any limits on the de-duction, hadn’t been releasedas of Sunday afternoon. Sen.John Thune (R., S.D.) told re-porters that the agreement in-cludes the deduction.

Lawmakers say they wantto clarify what Congress in-tended when it created thePPP and prevent unexpectedtax bills from hitting businessowners.

Still, a full deduction couldreduce federal revenue byabout $200 billion, with a ma-jority going to very-high-in-come households, said AdamLooney of the Brookings Insti-tution, who is a former Obamaadministration official.

—Richard Rubin

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THEWALL STREET JOURNAL. Monday, December 21, 2020 | A5

Investments that track each of these indexes may have different performance as a result of fees, expenses, and tracking error, among other variables. Indexes are unmanaged, do not incur management fees, costsand expenses, and cannot be invested in directly.Past performance is no guarantee of future results and the opinions presented cannot be viewed as an indicator of future performance.All corporate names and market data shown above are for illustrative purposes only and are not a recommendation, offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy any security.©2020 Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. All rights reserved. Member SIPC. (1220-0Z0C) ADP113792-00

As I think most investors know by now, Tesla joins the S&P 500® Index this week. What’s less known is thatTesla became one of the country’s top 500 stocks by market cap back in 2013.

That is a roughly seven-year gap and about a 3100% increase in Tesla’s stock price during that time. It’san extraordinary story, and ironic in a way. The meteoric rise of a single company reveals something everyinvestor should know about an investment strategy that in many ways is the exact opposite of individualstock-picking – index investing.

The wisdom of the marketThe stock market is actively picking winning and losing stocks every minute of every day in a rational,unemotional way based on all the information available about companies’ growth potential. Because ofthat, many investors – myself included – have come to believe that one of the simplest and most effectiveways to manage money is to just “buy the market.”

At its heart, an index uses the pooled wisdom of the market as its manager. Harnessing that process iswhat index investing is all about: using objective criteria to win the day over human emotions and feelings.It’s why so few actively managed investments beat indexes over time.

But indexes come in many different shapes and sizes. Understanding those nuances is important.

Which brings us back to Tesla, which didn’t enter the S&P 500 Index back in 2013 because a committeeof people chose not to include it despite the fact it was one of the largest US stocks even back then. Manyinvestors find this surprising, and Tesla is far from the only one of America’s largest 500 companies bymarket capitalization not represented in the S&P 500 Index.

Markets pick winners and losers very efficiently.But how you buy the market matters.In my view, the smart way to buy the market is through:

Indexes that rely on objective criteria like market cap. I believe the very spirit of index investing is that itshould be objective, transparent, and rules-based. The Schwab 1000 Index®, for example, is made up ofthe top 1000 US common stocks as defined by market cap. In other words, it lets the market determinewhich companies get included. The S&P 500 Index uses a more subjective approach – via a committee –to decide which companies should enter the index, looking at factors like profitability, sector representation,or other considerations investors may not be aware of.

Indexes that are large enough to capture the fast-growing up-and-comers earlier in their success.The Schwab 1000 Index, for example, combines large-cap and mid-cap stocks in a single index. And it’sin those second 500 stocks – the smaller end of the companies in the index – where you can find theinnovative “highflyers” before they possibly become part of the S&P 500 Index. Tesla became part of theSchwab 1000 Index in February of 2011, and then continued to grow rapidly for two years to become oneof the largest stocks in the US. But there are many others. Companies like Lululemon, Moderna, Square,and DocuSign – none of which are in the S&P 500 Index yet.

By Charles R. SchwabFounder and ChairmanThe Charles Schwab Corporation

Learn more about the Schwab 1000 Index at Schwab.com/1000

The Secret Tesla RevealsAbout Index Investing

Tesla

Square

Moderna

Lululemon

DocuSign

STOCKADDED TOSCHWAB 1000 INDEX

11/30/2020MARKET CAP US$M

ADDED TOS&P 500 INDEX

February 4, 2011

February 8, 2018

February 6, 2020

February 6, 2014

February 7, 2019

$538,085

$94,446

$60,392

$48,253

$42,507

12/2020

No

No

No

No

Source: FactSet. Market cap subject to change based on current market conditions.

My intent is not to beat up on any one index. But as index investing continues to take hold, I believe investorshave something to learn from the Tesla story. I believe the ideal selection criteria for what goes into an indexbelongs in the hands of the dispassionate market. Market wisdom versus subjective choice.

It’s not enough to decide you want to buy the market. How you buy the market matters.

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8,000 employees report toGoldman’s New York head-quarters. About 1,000 havebeen coming in on an averageday this fall, with temperaturechecks at the door and floormarkings in the corners of ele-

vators indicating where peopleshould stand.

Under a deal reached in re-cent days, bank employeeswould receive a CVS-adminis-tered rapid test that deliversresults in 12 minutes while

Goldman Sachs Group Inc.plans to test workers report-ing to its New York offices forCovid-19 more frequently thanit has throughout the pan-demic. Netflix Inc. is addingmore rapid testing to quicklyclear the cast and crews of itsTV shows.

Eager to safely get employ-ees back to in-person work be-fore vaccines are widely avail-able, companies fromHollywood to Wall Street areembracing regular, sometimesdaily, testing—regardless ofwhether workers feel sick.

Behind both Goldman’s andNetflix’s efforts is CVS HealthCorp., which will provide on-site tests with results availablein minutes, people familiar

By Jared S. Hopkins,Sarah Krouse

and Liz Hoffman

Raynor, director of health-careservices. “It comes down tofear of the unknown,” he said.

In Chester, W.Va., the Or-chards at Foxcrest, which in-cludes a nursing home, assisted-living center and independentunits, had about 65% of eligiblestaffers agree to get the vaccineThursday and Friday. Matt Mur-ray, vice president of opera-tions, said the companymounted an extensive informa-tion campaign. The communityfaced a recent Covid-19 out-break, including two deaths, hesaid, and executives hope more

staffers will agree to get shotsin a later visit.

After its outbreak is over,Mr. Murray said the commu-nity plans to start requiringemployees who haven’t beenvaccinated to wear N95 masksat all times, except while eat-ing or drinking. Those whohave received the two requiredshots will be allowed to useless-restrictive surgical masks,and only in patient areas. “Thegoal is really to encouragepeople to get vaccinated,” andalso to protect residents andemployees, he said.

Despite efforts to bolstertesting and protective equip-ment in nursing homes, casesand deaths have continued tosurge inside the facilities.

Researchers say staffers ex-posed to the virus in theircommunities are likely un-knowingly conveying it to vul-nerable nursing-home resi-dents, highlighting the urgentneed to vaccinate workers.

Zenobia Carden is a 35-year-old certified nursing assistantwho is about to start a new jobat a residence for people withdevelopmental disabilities. She

venting Covid-19 in a large clin-ical study.

A panel of doctors and pub-lic-health officials advising theU.S. Centers for Disease Controland Prevention voted Saturdayto recommend that people re-ceive the Moderna vaccine.

The clearance came a weekafter the FDA authorized use ofthe first Covid-19 vaccine in theU.S., developed by Pfizer andits German partner BioNTechSE. The CDC committee alsorecommended the Pfizer vac-cine last week.

Health authorities view inoc-ulations as crucial to allowingpeople to gather in large num-bers, and for schools, busi-nesses and other establish-ments to fully reopen.

During the first week of the

mass immunization campaign,Pfizer shipped 2.9 million dosesof its vaccine, which largelywent to health-care workersand residents of long-term carefacilities.

Many hospitals, nursinghomes and other sites in morerural areas missed out becausethey lacked the freezers capa-ble of storing the shots at ul-tracold temperatures.

These hospitals and othervaccination sites have beenwaiting for Moderna’s vaccine,which also must be kept coldbut at higher temperatures thatmost standard medical freezerscan accommodate.

Another factor making Mod-erna’s shot more accessible forsmaller and harder-to-reachvaccination sites, Gen. Perna

said, is the shipment sizes. Anorder for Moderna’s vaccinecontains 100 doses, whilePfizer’s has 975.

George Garrow, chief medi-cal officer for the PrimaryHealth Network, said thehealth centers it covers acrossrural Pennsylvania are pleasedthat they will be among thefirst to receive the Modernavaccine this week. They havebeen preparing for the vaccinesince mid-November.

“We recognized that thePfizer vaccine was not a goodoption for smaller CommunityHealth Centers due to the cold-storage requirements and theincremental allotments of 975doses,” Dr. Garrow said in anemail.

This week, the federal gov-

U.S. NEWS

ernment planned for deliveriesof 5.9 million doses of Mod-erna’s vaccine and two milliondoses of Pfizer’s.

Michael Dacey, president ofRiverside Health System, a Vir-ginia-based health-care pro-vider that encompasses fivehospitals and 10 nursinghomes, said his company is an-ticipating an allocation of 5,000initial doses of the Modernavaccine in the coming weeks.

Riverside has already re-ceived 2,800 initial doses of thePfizer-BioNTech vaccine, ac-cording to Dr. Dacey. Alto-gether, he said, the supplieswon’t be enough for a systemwith 10,000 employees, as wellas 1,300 nursing-home resi-dents.

“It is going to leave us short,no doubt,” he said.

Jimmy Lewis, chief executiveofficer of HomeTown HealthLLC, an Atlanta-based companythat serves as a consultant torural hospitals throughoutGeorgia, expressed concernthat some people living aroundthe hospitals might be hesitantto take the vaccine.

“We get the vaccines, buthow do we convince peoplethat this is the right thing?” hesaid.

Other challenges remain inrolling out both vaccines. Thispast week, some shipments ofPfizer’s vaccine had tempera-ture variations that requiredthem to be returned for re-placement doses.

And several states, includingIllinois, Michigan and Iowa,complained they weren’t get-ting as many doses of Pfizer’svaccine as expected.

Immunizations using thenewly authorized Covid-19vaccine from Moderna Inc. areslated to start Monday, boost-ing the mass inoculation cam-paign that was launched justlast week.

Drug distributor McKessonCorp. began picking up dosesof the vaccine from manufac-turing plants on Saturday fordistribution around the coun-try. United Parcel Service Inc.and FedEx Corp. trucks startedrolling out Sunday to deliverthe doses to hospitals andother sites.

The federal governmentplans to distribute over thecoming week a total of 7.9 mil-lion doses of vaccines fromModerna and Pfizer Inc., whichdeveloped the first Covid-19shot authorized for use in theU.S.

“The second vaccine fromModerna, added to the Pfizervaccine, now allows us to be onthe offense” against the coro-navirus pandemic, Gen. GustavePerna, who is overseeing thefederal vaccine-distributionplan, said Saturday.

The U.S. Food and Drug Ad-ministration on Friday autho-rized the emergency use ofModerna’s vaccine in people 18years and older, citing theshot’s high effectiveness in pre-

BY PETER LOFTUSAND CHARLES PASSY

U.S. Starts New Vaccine RolloutModerna supply boostsa mass immunizationcampaign launchedduring the past week

A health-care worker got the first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in Torrance, Calif., Saturday.

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A federal advisory panelrecommended Sunday thatboth the nation’s oldest, mostvulnerable people and front-line essential workers be of-fered the next place in line forCovid-19 vaccines, hoping touse limited vaccine supplies inearly 2021 both to reduce hos-pitalizations and deaths andslow transmission of the virus.

This next group would in-clude people ages 75 and older,whose hospitalization anddeath rates are the highest ofall age groups. It would alsoinclude teachers, factory work-ers, police and firefighters,grocery store workers and oth-ers who are considered essen-tial to the functioning of theeconomy and at high risk ofexposure to Covid-19.

A third group would followthem, comprised of people be-tween the ages of 65 and 74,anyone age 16 or over with amedical condition that putsthem at high risk of complica-tions from Covid-19, and otheressential workers. They in-clude people who work intransportation and logistics,food service, water and waste-water, and energy sectors.

The recommendations weremade by the Advisory Commit-tee on Immunization Practices,which voted 13-1 in favor.

The ACIP advises the Cen-ters for Disease Control andPrevention on who should getvaccines and how they shouldbe used. If the recommenda-tion is accepted by the direc-tor, then these groups will beoffered vaccine after front-linehealth-care workers and nurs-ing home residents who arebeing vaccinated now.

The decision to include theoldest people in the next pri-ority group marks a shift forthe ACIP, which last monthconsidered giving priority toessential workers over the old-est generations for vaccines inearly 2021. That position wasbased on the argument that,like health-care workers, es-sential workers are puttingtheir lives on the line to keepthe economy and society go-ing.

In addition, many essentialworkers are older, have high-risk medical conditions, andare from racial and ethnicgroups and lower-income pop-ulations that have suffereddisproportionately high ratesof severe illness, according tothe CDC.

But some government offi-cials, health experts and mem-bers of the public pushed back,arguing that the nation’s pri-ority should be to protect theoldest Americans.

People 75 and older makeup 8% of the population but25% of hospitalizations andhave the highest death rate ofall age groups by far, accord-ing to the CDC. Their rates ofhospitalization have also beenclimbing more rapidly in re-cent weeks than other agegroups, the agency said.

Jose Romero, chair of theACIP and secretary of health inArkansas, said deciding how togive priority to the groups waswrenching. “This is withoutdoubt the hardest vote that Ihave taken in my six-and-a-half years on the committee,”he said.

BY BETSY MCKAY

Panel LaysOutWhoShouldGetNextDose

said she has seen firsthand theimpact of the virus, whichkilled several residents of thefacility where she used to work.She ultimately decided gettingthe vaccine still felt too risky.

Ms. Carden, who lives inBartlesville, Okla., worriesabout potential long-term sideeffects, as well as shorter-termones like headaches, becauseshe already suffers from mi-graines. “I’m scared,” she said.“It takes years to come outwith a vaccine, and for themto come out with it thisquickly—I don’t trust it.”

More nursing homes aroundthe country will start getting aCovid-19 vaccine Monday, butthe impact of the massive ef-fort will partly depend on win-ning over front-line workerslike LaShundra Williams, whosay they are skeptical of theshots.

Ms. Williams, 40 years old,is a certified nursing assistantat St. James Veterans Home inSt. James, Mo., and she saysshe is unlikely to agree to getthe shots, though her son iscurrently ill with Covid-19. Sherecently watched a webcast bynursing-home doctors aboutthe safety and benefits of thevaccines, but came away un-convinced. She is still worrieda vaccine might make her ane-mia worse, and she thinks theshots are being authorized forbroad usage too quickly.

“It’s too new,” she said.“I’m just not comfortable.”

The federal long-term-carevaccination program, led byCVS Health Corp. and Wal-greens Boots Alliance Inc.,will begin its rollout in adozen states this week, withhundreds of facilities slatedfor visits during the next fewdays. But surveys have sig-naled that many staffers arereluctant to get the shots, andsome have been decliningthem in the limited number offacilities where vaccinationshave been administered.

At the nursing home at JohnKnox Village, in PompanoBeach, Fla., which became oneof the first U.S. facilities to getthe vaccine last Wednesday,about one-third of staffers par-ticipated, according to Mark

BY ANNA WILDE MATHEWSAND SARAH TOY

Nursing-Home Staffers Hesitate on Shots

Zenobia Carden said getting the vaccine still felt too risky to her. She worries about potential long-term side effects.

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with the matter said. The twocompanies join Delta AirLines Inc. and others thathave already been using CVS’scorporate-concierge program.

It is one of many back-to-work testing programs offeredby pharmacies, labs and medi-cal consultancies as employerstry to bring workers safelyback to offices, trading floorsand movie sets. Alongsidetheir social-distancing proto-cols and mask rules, employ-ers are screening workersmore regularly to catch thosewho don’t show symptoms yetbut might carry the virus.

The testing is a bridge untilvaccines are available to thegeneral public, companies say.Doses of the Covid-19 vaccinefrom Pfizer Inc. and Germany’sBioNTech SE are limited fornow and prioritized forhealth-care workers and resi-dents of long-term care facili-

ties. Inoculations for the gen-eral public could come inspring or summer, health offi-cials say.

Workplace Covid-19 testsare typically covered by em-ployers and cost anywherefrom $15 to more than $100apiece depending on the typeof test and the frequency ofscreenings.

Goldman, whose CEO, DavidSolomon, has continued goinginto headquarters throughoutthe pandemic and has stressedthe importance of office cul-ture, had already converted acorner of the lobby for on-sitetesting. The deal with CVS—abig client of the investmentbank—will expand that effort inthe hopes of bringing as manyas 2,000 additional traders andbankers back to its New Yorkoffice in January, people famil-iar with the matter said.

In normal times about

they wait to enter. It was de-veloped by LumiraDX UK Ltd.,a diagnostics company thatsome other CVS clients haveused that counts Troy Bren-nan, CVS’s chief medical offi-cer, among its board members.

Netflix has tapped CVS toperform some of its point-of-care testing at productionsites, according to people fa-miliar with the matter. The ar-rangement doesn’t currentlycover Netflix office employees,they say.

HR executives say manyworkers become infected withthe virus at social gatherings,not at the office, but they arestarting to offer free testing,regardless of whether workersare physically returning to theoffice. Such testing helps catchinfected people early and mayhelp limit the virus’s spread toother members of their house-holds.

Companies Ramp Up Testing to Bring Their Workers Back

Goldman hopes to bring more employees back to headquarters.

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cells. One of the mutations,known as N501Y, has been as-sociated with increased infec-tivity in animal experiments.Another has been linked to animprovement in the virus’sability to enter certain cells ina host’s airway.

It is these unusual geneticfeatures, as well as the rapidpickup in cases of the newvariant, that led British scien-tists to alert the government,the World Health Organizationand the wider world abouttheir findings last week.

A group of scientists thatadvises the U.K. government,known by the acronymNervtag, estimated from ge-nomic data that the new vari-ant is between 67% and 75%more transmissible than older,more established strains, ac-cording to minutes of a Dec. 18meeting published on Sunday.

Susan Hopkins, chief medi-cal adviser on Covid-19 to Eng-land’s public health agency,said there was no reason tothink the new variant wouldbe resistant to vaccines beingrolled out in the U.S., Canada,the U.K. and some other coun-tries. The vaccines aim to trig-ger a broad immune responsethat teaches the body to rec-ognize the virus’s entire spikeprotein, she said.

Nor does it appear moredangerous. “We are not seeinga disproportionate number ofpeople being admitted to hos-pital over the last two weeksand we’re not seeing any in-creases in mortality yet,” Dr.Hopkins said in an interviewwith Sky News. Nervtag saidfour deaths in 1,000 caseshave been linked to the newvariant, and more work isneeded to compare fatalityrates across different strains.

Paul Hunter, professor ofmedicine at the University ofEast Anglia, cautioned that westill don’t know if herd immu-nity is achievable, since it isn’tclear how long the resistanceconferred by vaccine or priorinfection lasts. “But what I cansay confidently is that thisnew variant will make controleven with a vaccine less effec-tive,” he said. “More peoplewho choose not to have a vac-cine are likely to get infected,suffer severe disease and po-tentially die than would other-wise have been the case.”

base as VUI202012/01, has 17distinct mutations, and 23 ifadditional mutations thatdon’t serve any function areincluded. The most notable oc-cur in the virus’s spike pro-tein, which dots the surface ofthe virus and is the means bywhich it breaks into a host’s

result of tiny errors in copyingthe genetic code. More than1,000 variants of the coronavi-rus that causes Covid-19 havebeen identified since the pan-demic began. Most are unre-markable.

This variant of the patho-gen, known in the Gisaid data-

scientists across the world.The U.K. is its biggest contrib-utor, producing more than halfof its 275,000 submissions.

What is unusual, the scien-tists report, is the number ofmutations this new variantdisplays. Viruses replicatequickly and mutations are the

health agencies, has since thebeginning of the pandemicmapped the genetic makeup ofalmost 150,000 virus samplestaken from infected individu-als. Their findings are up-loaded to a global initiativecalled Gisaid, a vast databasethat collects similar data from

FROM PAGE ONE

The British government said the highly infectious new strain is responsible for a surge in cases in London and its surrounding areas.

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doned plans to allow a five-day truce of Covid-19restrictions across the countryover Christmas where threehouseholds could mingle.

Germany, France, Spain, It-aly, Canada, Israel, the Nether-lands and Belgium on Sundayannounced bans on passengerair travel from the U.K. Othercountries were consideringsimilar moves in an effort toprevent a worsening of thepandemic before Christmas.The U.S. hasn’t yet followedsuit.

The top U.S. official over-seeing coronavirus testingsaid he didn’t foresee a quickU.S. ban on U.K. travel.

“I really don’t believe weneed to do that yet,” Adm.Brett Giroir said on ABC News.Adm. Giroir said the new virusmutation was localized withinthe U.K., adding, “We have notseen a single [virus] mutationyet that would make it evadethe vaccine.”

The U.S. State Departmentrecommends travelers recon-sider visiting the U.K., whilethe U.S. Centers for DiseaseControl and Prevention recom-mends against going there.

The European Center forDisease Prevention and Con-trol said a few cases of thenew strain had also been re-ported in Denmark, the Neth-erlands and possibly Belgium.

Similar variants of the virusappear to have emerged sepa-rately elsewhere. In South Af-rica, a new version that showssome similarities to the oneidentified in the U.K. is drivinga second wave of infections,the country’s health ministryand virologists said.

British scientists identifiedand recorded the new variantas part of a broad effortworld-wide to track mutationsin the virus.

The Covid-19 Genomics U.K.Consortium, which brings to-gether universities, medical-research institutes and public-

ContinuedfromPageOne

CountriesBan TravelFrom U.K.

Swiss Ski ResortsResist Covid-19 Push

ST. MORITZ, Switzerland—Switzerland is holding outagainst pressure from other Eu-ropean countries to shut downits ski lifts, even though it isstruggling with one of Europe’shighest Covid-19 infection rates.

Like elsewhere in Europe,anti-contagion measures punc-tuate Swiss daily life: Facemasks are obligatory almost ev-erywhere, large gatherings arebanned, and restaurants andbars have limited hours. ButSwitzerland says skiing is safe.

Other European countriesare worried that ski resortscould become coronavirus hot

spots, as happened in early2020. Earlier this month, afterdiplomatic pressure from Ger-many, Italy and France, Austriaclamped down on foreign skitourists. Intrepid skiers turnedtheir attention to Switzerland.

“We have seen strong de-mand for Switzerland in thepast few weeks,” said RupertLongsdon, chief executive ofOxford Ski Company, which or-ganizes luxury ski vacations.“It’s a combination of clientsthat had booked in places nowclosed, and you always get peo-ple last minute asking wherethey can go ski.”

Instead of closing, Switzer-land is trying to apply social-distancing measures on theslopes. Restaurants and bars atski resorts can offer only take-

out, and lift capacity is cappedat two-thirds the normal maxi-mum. Face masks are requiredexcept while people are actuallyskiing. People must stay 1.5meters, or about 5 feet, apart.

In St. Moritz, ski-lift opera-tors stand by, ready to remindpeople to pull up their masks.In practice, they rarely need tointervene since virtually allguests wear a mask on or nearthe lifts, or when lining up fortakeout pizza, strudel and hotdrinks.

If Switzerland’s approachworks, it could become a tem-plate for reopening ski resortssafely elsewhere. Germany, Italyand France have said they planto allow ski resorts to open inJanuary. Austria will open itslifts for limited numbers on

Dec. 24, but since hotels willstay closed, few foreign touristswill be able to come.

In Europe, memories are stillfresh of the Covid-19 debacle atAustrian ski resort Ischgl earlythis year. Skiers returning homefrom Ischgl, where the partyscene is as big a draw as theslopes, were later linked tothousands of infections all overEurope.

“This isn’t Ischgl. Youcouldn’t even party here if youwanted to because everythingis closed,” said Daniel Schmidt,33 years old, who traveled toSt. Moritz from Germany and isstaying in an Airbnb rental withtwo friends. “There won’t bemuch chance for me to catchthe virus,” he said.

—Eric Sylvers

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government sought to increasethe number of intensive-carebeds across the country.

Many hospitals have strug-gled with the influx of Covid-19patients this fall anyway be-cause they didn’t have enoughdoctors and nurses to care forthem, partly a consequence ofdecades of spending cuts.

Even in the wealthy north-ern region of Lombardy, whichhas some of Europe’s best hos-

pitals, the local network of phy-sicians and smaller clinics ispoorly equipped to care forCovid-19 patients who remainat home, especially in remoterural or mountainous areas.

Since the start of the pan-demic, around 3.5% of Italianswho tested positive for the vi-rus have died, according to offi-cial data collated by Our Worldin Data, a nonprofit researchproject based at the University

BY MARGHERITA STANCATI

ing considered involves subject-ing Ant to tighter capital andleverage regulations, the peoplesaid. Under that scenario, statebanks or other types of state in-vestors would buy into Ant tohelp cover any potential capitalshortfall as a result of the tight-ened rules.

“The Chinese state has al-ready effectively nationalizedsome of the financial infra-structure Ant built, such asthe interbank payment systemthat became NetsUnion,” saidMartin Chorzempa, a researchfellow at the Peterson Insti-tute for International Econom-ics who specializes in China’sfintech sector, referring to thefirm now controlled by thecentral bank that clears trans-actions between banks andthird-party payment provid-ers. “So there is a precedentfor nationalizing platformsthat are viewed as serving acritical policy purpose.”

The government under Mr.Xi’s leadership in recent yearshas shown a resolve to bringto heel private conglomeratesviewed as undisciplined—how-ever politically invincible theirfounders might have appeared.

Property tycoon Wang Jian-lin’s Dalian Wanda Group, forinstance, has been forced to sellassets, shrink its business andpay back bank loans. Anbang In-surance Group, another privatehigh roller, has been taken overby the state, while its founderWu Xiaohui in 2018 was sen-tenced to 18 years in prison forfraud and embezzlement. HNAGroup, an airlines-and-hotelconglomerate, has had to pullback on aggressive acquisitionsoverseas and sell assets.

Until recently, Mr. Ma had areputation for well-cultivatedpolitical ties. He hasn’t madeany public appearances sincehis Oct. 24 speech.

For years, companies in-cluding Ant and e-commercegiant Alibaba Group HoldingLtd., both controlled by Mr.Ma, and internet conglomerateTencent Holdings had largelyenjoyed relatively little gov-

ContinuedfromPageOne

ROME—Italy, the first non-Asian country hit by the coro-navirus pandemic early thisyear, once again is strugglingwith one of the world’s deadli-est outbreaks.

Around 611 people are dyingof Covid-19 in Italy on an aver-age day, behind only Brazil andthe U.S. This year Italy has re-corded about 68,900 confirmeddeaths from the virus, thehighest total in Europe, andfifth in the world after the U.S.,Brazil, India and Mexico—which all have much biggerpopulations.

Once again, Italians are ask-ing themselves why Covid-19 iskilling more people here thanalmost anywhere else.

The answer lies partly in de-mographics, public health ex-perts say. Italy has one of theworld’s oldest populations, sec-ond only to Japan. Nearly onein four Italians is over 65, anage group much more likely tosuccumb to the disease.

Another factor: Multigenera-tional homes are especiallycommon in Italy, potentially ex-posing older people to infectionfrom their younger relatives.

Since the pandemic began,95% of those killed by the virusin Italy have been over 60, and86% over 70. Deaths in manyother countries have also beenconcentrated among older peo-ple, but there are proportion-ately more of them in Italy.

Italy’s death toll also looksbad on a per capita basis. Thecountry has recorded 15.9 coro-navirus deaths for every

be that different from the restof Europe,” said Dr. Viola.“There is a clear problem in theway that local health care is or-ganized. There are too few doc-tors. GPs have too many pa-tients to properly care for eachof them.”

In the spring, hospitals inbadly hit parts of northern Italydidn’t have enough beds totreat all severely ill Covid-19patients. To avoid a repeat, the

100,000 residents over the pasttwo weeks, compared with 6.3in Spain, 6.9 in Germany and8.3 in France, according to theEuropean Center for DiseasePrevention and Control.

After Italy suppressed thefirst wave with help from along and stringent lockdown,few Italians thought the highdeath toll would repeat itself.Virus infections slowed to atrickle in the summer. Millionsof Italians adopted mask-wear-ing. Hospitals and the govern-ment appeared better prepared.

Italy’s infections remainedmodest even in early fall, whena second wave of contagionswept over Spain, France andthe U.K. But as winter begins,Italy is back where it was inMarch: the worst-hit place inEurope.

On Friday, the Italian gov-ernment announced anotherlockdown, over the Christmasand New Year holidays, for fearthat hospitals could overflowand deaths rise even higher inJanuary.

From Dec. 24 to Jan. 6, barsand restaurants will have toclose and there will be traveland movement restrictionsacross the country. On specificdays, such as on Christmas Eveand weekends, most storesmust stay shut, too.

Despite policies aimed atsheltering older people, the vi-rus has again spread in nursinghomes and hospitals, affectingnumerous people over 65.

Yet age alone doesn’t explainItaly’s grim tally. A nationalhealth-care system that wasoverstretched and understaffedbefore the pandemic is also toblame, said Antonella Viola, aprofessor of pathology at theUniversity of Padua.

“Yes, the population is oldand frail, and there are pre-ex-isting conditions. But that can’t

Italy StrugglesWith DeadlyNew SurgeInadequate spendingon health care, too fewdoctors and olderpopulation are cited

by Mr. Xi of the CommunistParty’s Politburo pledged tostrengthen antimonopoly ef-forts next year and to “pre-vent the disorderly expansionof capital”—a message seen asportending a larger crackdownon internet giants.

Chinese officials say theleadership is particularly con-cerned that highflying entre-preneurs such as Mr. Ma keepattracting capital while expos-ing the financial system togreater risks.

Even before the halt ofAnt’s IPO, for instance, regula-tors were worried about thefrenzy over the deal. The stocksale would have valued thecompany at more than thelikes of JPMorgan Chase & Co.and Goldman Sachs Group.

Shortly after the Politburomeeting, China’s antitrust reg-ulator fined Alibaba and aTencent subsidiary for someacquisitions made in yearspast—again signaling the daysof laissez-faire are over.

In China, state-owned enter-prises tower over the country’stelecommunications, financialservices, airlines, energy andother sectors. By emphasizing“antimonopoly,” Mr. Xi issquarely aiming at China’s in-ternet giants that have har-nessed unprecedented data onmillions of Chinese consumersand businesses.

The country’s central bankand traditional lenders don’thave the direct line to China’sfree-spending younger con-sumers as Ant does. The com-pany’s Alipay app is used byone billion Chinese, which hasenabled it to collect troves ofconsumer data and use propri-etary algorithms to assess in-dividuals’ creditworthiness.But its data so far hasn’t beenfully integrated into the cen-tral bank’s credit-scoring sys-tem, and such informationgaps positioned Ant as a valu-able partner to originate mi-croloans for banks, especiallysmaller ones. In return, Antpocketed handsome profits.

For now, regulators are de-bating whether Alipay or anyother parts of Ant’s businessrepresent monopolistic com-petition and if so, what ac-tions should be taken.

“The odds of nationalizingat least parts of the companyare not zero,” a governmentadviser in Beijing said.

—Jing Yangcontributed to this article.

Ma TriedTo PlacateBeijing

Billionaire Jack Ma offeredregulators an olive branch.

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ernment oversight of theirquest to build and expand in-ternet-based payment, lendingand other businesses.

With Tencent’s WeChat andother apps developed by thesefirms, millions of Chinese con-sumers and small-businessowners can make a purchase,hail a taxi, execute an invest-ment or even take out a loanwith a swipe on their smart-phones. Firms such as Alibabaand Tencent have become sosuccessful that Chinese lead-ers regularly hail the use ofthe internet and big data ascrucial in driving future eco-nomic growth.

However, Beijing’s leader-ship also has shown increasingunease with the wealth and in-fluence these firms have builtas well as the risks posed bytheir lightly regulated activi-ties, such as online lendingmade popular by Mr. Ma’s Ant.In addition, the big tech firmsin some instances have com-plicated the government’s owneffort to use data and technol-ogy to tighten social control.

In November, China re-leased draft regulations aimedat preventing these firms fromcolluding to share sensitiveconsumer data, forming agree-ments to block out smaller ri-vals and engaging in other an-ticompetitive behavior. Earlierthis month, a meeting chaired

The government hasshown a resolve tobring to heel privateconglomerates.

of Oxford—a higher percentagethan in any other major Euro-pean country. In Germany,around 1.7% of those whotested positive succumbed.

While Italy spent $3,650 onhealth care per inhabitant in2019, Germany spent $6,650,according to data from the Or-ganization for Economic Coop-eration and Development. Aver-age spending among OECDnations was $4,224 per person.

Workers expanded Milan’s largest cemetery, Cimitero Maggiore, in November to accommodate rising Covid-19 deaths. Below, shopperspack a Rome street on Sunday, ahead of strict new lockdown measures that take effect across Italy on Dec. 24.

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Source: European Center for Disease Preventionand Control (deaths); the governments(populations); U.S. Census Bureau (Mexico'spopulation)

Note: Data through Dec. 14

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WORLD NEWS

NEW DELHI—Wistron Corp.apologized for mishandlingwages at its plant in India thatmakes iPhones, saying it willcorrect the problems that led agroup of angry workers to dam-age its facilities a week ago.

On Dec. 12, workers brokewindows and overturned carsat a Wistron facility near India’stechnology hub of Bangalore.They threw stones, tossed of-fice furniture and set fire to asign at Wistron’s operations,according to videos shown onIndian television.

Labor leaders said workersat the Taiwanese-owned com-pany that is a contract manu-facturer for Apple Inc. were up-set about late wage paymentsand confusion over expectedworking hours and overtimepayments.

Wistron has investigated anddiscovered the workers had le-gitimate complaints, Wistronspokeswoman Joyce Chou said.To try to fix the problems it has

WORLD WATCH

400,000 breeding pairs of kingpenguins, one of the largestconcentrations of the speciesin the world.

Growing up to 39 inchestall, they are the world’s sec-ond-largest penguin after theemperor penguins that live onAntarctica itself, and typicallyare deep-ocean hunters. Theydive up to 400 yards belowthe surface to feed on smallfish, squid and krill. Millionsmore of the smaller macaroniand gentoo penguins also liveon South Georgia.

Norman Ratcliffe, a seabirdresearcher with the BritishAntarctic Survey in England,said the concern is that A68amight spin around on the cur-rent and end up adjacent toSouth Georgia’s east coast,blocking the path to the ocean.

It could take a decade forthe berg to melt enough todrift away, Geraint Tarling, anecologist at the group, said,and the huge volume of freshwater it releases would shockalgae and other plants at thebase of the food chain, whichin turn would damage the pop-ulations of krill, fish and, ulti-mately, penguins and seals.

“If that happens, it will stopeverything else from thriving,”he said.

First mapped by CaptainJames Cook in 1775, SouthGeorgia Island is perhaps bestknown as the final restingplace of Antarctic explorer Er-nest Shackleton.

to seek food elsewhere,” saidMark Belchier, fisheries andenvironment director for thegovernment of South Georgiaand the nearby South Sand-wich Islands.

He and other scientists seeA68a—the name comes fromthe U.S. National Ice Center’snaming system—as a valuableopportunity to study whathappens when ever-largerchunks of ice break off fromthe Earth’s polar ice caps asthe planet’s climate warms.Often, such chunks stay wherethey are, like the slightlylarger A23a, which is still inAntarctica’s Weddell Sea afterbreaking off, or calving, fromthe Filchner Ronne Ice Shelf.

The berg bearing down onSouth Georgia has traveledmore than 930 miles sincecalving from the Larsen C IceShelf on the Antarctic Penin-sula in July 2017, sendingchills among scientists whowere already alarmed by thewarming Antarctic climate.

As temperatures rise—inFebruary they hit a record 70degrees Fahrenheit on Sey-mour Island, off the AntarcticPeninsula—they have the ef-fect of flattening the ice caplike a melting snow-cone. Thisdrives more ice to the edge ofthe continent where it eventu-ally snaps off into the ocean,pushing up sea levels.

A68a poses a more immedi-ate danger to South Georgia’spenguins, particularly its

Iceberg A68a is big. Almosthalf the size of Jamaica. Threetimes the size of London.Larger than Rhode Island.

And it is on the move. Afterbreaking from the Antarcticice shelf three years ago, it isclosing in on some of theworld’s largest penguin colo-nies on South Georgia Island,a British territory in the SouthAtlantic, where it could blockthem from their huntinggrounds and disrupt the envi-ronment closer to shore.

The giant iceberg, some1,500 square miles in size, isnow around 50 miles south ofthe similarly sized island. Sci-entists from the British Ant-arctic Survey are watchinganxiously to see where seacurrents take it.

The next few days could becritical in determiningwhether it will drift pastSouth Georgia’s continentalshelf to a watery end in thetropics, or if it will swirlaround to the island’s north-east coast and ground there,perhaps for years. That couldmake it tougher for the pen-guins to get to one of theirprimary foods, a small shrimp-like crustacean called krill.

“Remaining there intact fora considerable period coulddisrupt local oceanographicflows and potentially interruptthe flow of krill to the island,causing krill-feeding animals

BY JAMES HOOKWAY

Drifting Iceberg Opens WindowOn Ice Masses; Penguins at Risk

BREXIT

U.K., EU Still DividedAs Deadline Looms

European Union and Britishnegotiators extended theirstandoff over EU fishing rightsin U.K. waters and remained un-able to make a decisive break-through in trade talks aimed ataverting a costly post-Brexitsplit on New Year’s Day.

Despite movement on majorissues to keep trade going oncea Brexit transition period endson Dec. 31, the two sides hag-gled over fish quotas and therights of trawlers without muchsuccess, turning a sector of littlefinancial significance into onethat could decide the outcomeof the nine-month negotiations.

One official said the EU wasrefusing to yield more than aquarter of the fishing quotas thebloc stands to lose now thatBritain is regaining full control ofits waters due to Brexit. Britainis also steadfast that a 3-yeartransition period would be longenough for EU fishermen toadapt to the new rules, whilethe EU wants at least six years.

A failure to reach a post-Brexit deal would lead to morechaos on Britain’s borders withthe EU at the start of 2021,when new tariffs would add toother impediments to trade en-acted by both sides.

The European Parliamentneeds to ratify any agreement,and its members said theywould have needed to have theterms of any deal in front ofthem by late Sunday if theywere to organize a special gath-ering before year end. If a dealcomes later, it could only be rati-fied in 2021, as the parliamentwouldn’t have enough time todebate a proposed agreementbefore the new year starts.

—Associated Press

NIGERIA

Freed SchoolboysReunite With Parents

Nigeria’s freed schoolboyshave reunited with their parentsafter being held captive fornearly a week by gunmen alliedwith jihadist rebels in the coun-try’s northwest.

Parents hugged their sons onSaturday in Kankara, wheremore than 340 boys had been

abducted from the GovernmentScience Secondary school on thenight of Dec. 11. Other familiesmet their sons in Ketare, about15 miles away. More boys wentto their homes further away inKatsina state.

Many of the boys expressedworry about returning to school,saying their captors threatenedthem with death if they wentback to classes. Nigeria’s BokoHaram jihadist rebels claimed re-sponsibility for the abductions,saying they attacked the schoolbecause they believe Westerneducation is un-Islamic.

Another abduction of morethan 80 students happened Sat-urday night in an area nearby,but the pupils were quickly res-cued by security forces after agun battle, police said Sunday.

—Associated Press

BELARUS

Dozens of ProtestersDetained in Capital

Around 100 people were de-tained in the Belarusian capitalon Sunday in continuing anti-government protests promptedby the re-election of the coun-try’s authoritarian leader morethan four months ago.

Crowds of people have takenpart in dozens of small ralliesscattered all around Minsk—anew tactic used by the opposi-tion instead of one large gather-ing, intended to make it harderfor security forces to target theprotesters.

Demonstrators carrying red-and-white flags, the symbol ofthe protest, gathered in groupsand marched down residentialareas of the city, demanding theresignation of President Alexan-der Lukashenko and protestinghis government’s violent crack-down on activists and peacefuldemonstrators.

Police in Minsk said around100 protesters have been de-tained. The Viasna human rightscenter released the names of 141people detained in Minsk andother cities, where rallies alsotook place. Two journalists weredetained in the western city ofGrodno, according to the Belaru-sian Association of Journalists.

According to human rightsadvocates, more than 30,000people have been detained sincethe protests began in August.

—Associated Press

removed the vice president whooversees its business in Indiaand started an anonymoushotline for complaints and cre-ated other avenues for employ-ees to disclose their concerns.

“We deeply regret this andapologize to all of our workers,”Ms. Chou said. “This is a newfacility, and we recognize thatwe made mistakes as we ex-panded. Some of the processeswe put in place to manage laboragencies and payments need tobe strengthened and upgraded.”

Apple said it had also doneits own investigation and foundproblems. It is putting Wistronon probation until the problemsare fixed and structures are putin place to ensure they couldn’thappen again.

“Our preliminary findings in-dicate violations of our suppliercode of conduct by failing toimplement proper working-hour management processes,”Apple said. “We have placedWistron on probation, and theywill not receive any new busi-ness from Apple before theycomplete corrective actions.”

Wistron’s operations in Ban-galore were often pointed to bypolicy makers and economistsas an example of India’s abilityto attract investment by luringcompanies looking to diversifyaway from China.

India’s prime minister hasbeen trying to make it easier toinvest and expand in India for

years. Narendra Modi’s “Makein India” campaign gained morefirepower this year as foreigninvestment is seen as a crucialcomponent for India to dig itsway out of its current Covid-19recession. He has promised amore predictable and open reg-ulatory regime, a simpler cor-porate tax structure and incen-tives for targeted industries.

India is one of the largestphone markets in the world, somanufacturers have an incen-tive to be closer to their cus-tomers to avoid the cost of im-porting handsets and parts aswell as tariffs. It is trying to po-sition itself as a smartphone-production hub amid a U.S.-China trade war that hasdisrupted global supply chainsand left tech companies lookingfor alternatives to China.

Samsung Electronics Inc. isbuilding one of its biggestplants in the world near NewDelhi. Foxconn TechnologyGroup has gone from a fewhundred employees in southernIndia to more than 30,000 inrecent years. More than 300companies that supply parts forFoxconn have also set up pro-duction.

Wistron’s assembling andbuilding of iPhones in India wasone of the first high-profile vic-tories of the Modi government’sefforts and was often pointed toas proof that India could makeeven some of the most sophisti-cated phones.

BY ERIC BELLMANAND VIBHUTI AGARWAL

India iPhone Maker ApologizesPolice guarded the Wistron factory near Bangalore last week after workers rioted over pay and other labor complaints.

REUTE

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Apple putsWistronon probation untilstaff problems thatled to a riot are fixed.

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Iceberg path

A68a ICEBERG

SOUTH GEORGIA ISLAND (U.K .)

Clerke Rocks

100 miles

100 km

Area of detailArArAr etaf detaf etaetaf detaff detaf dAreArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArArAr etail

SOUTHAMERICA

Atlantic Ocean

Where It's Been andWhere It's GoingIceberg A68a is drifting closer toSouth Georgia after snapping off fromthe Antarctic ice shelf three years ago.

Source: British Antarctic Survey

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A16 | Monday, December 21, 2020 THEWALL STREET JOURNAL.

tioned whether Covid-19would require new treatmentapproaches. Better under-standing of severely ill corona-virus patients in respiratorydistress has increased confi-dence that they are similarenough to patients with otherinfections to rely on pre-pan-demic guidelines for ventila-tors, according to doctors andhospitals.

Doctors at AdventHealthCentral Florida use computersto select treatment options,and for Covid-19 patients, thesystem added options to cali-brate ventilators using long-standing protocols, Dr. Oliveirasaid.

The computerized guideshave helped spread the use ofpre-pandemic treatment op-tions, such as the amount ofair to push into lungs perbreath, across its 20 hospitalsand emergency rooms, Dr. Oli-veria said.

Nashville-based HCAHealthcare Inc., one of thelargest hospital chains in theU.S., went a step further. Doc-tors get an alert from comput-ers when patients aren’t get-ting the ventilator treatmentthat might benefit them. Thecompany rolled out the alertsin June. Afterward, it com-pared treatment and outcomesfor similar patients before andafter the alerts. It found moredoctors now follow the pre-pandemic protocols, whichhave reduced the number ofdeaths and shortened the timepatients spend on ventilators,HCA’s chief medical officersaid.

Overall, survival forCovid-19 patients increased28% from April to Septemberat HCA hospitals, though thecompany didn’t break out fig-ures for ventilated patients.Doctors can use their judg-ment to ignore the alerts whenother patient conditions makeit medically necessary, thecompany said.

Researchers and doctorscontinue to study Covid-19 pa-tients who require ventilators,and some experts have calledfor flexibility from pre-pan-demic standards for doctors todecide how to calibrate venti-lators. “It’s personalization,that’s the key word,” said JohnMarini, a professor of medi-

cine at the University of Min-nesota. “Guidelines are justguidelines.”

Before the pandemic, be-tween about 30% to more than40% of ventilator patientsdied, according to research.Numbers were sharply higherin the pandemic’s early hotspot in Wuhan, China. As thepandemic grew, hospitals inthe U.S. reported death ratesin some cases of about 50% forventilated Covid-19 patients.

One study of three NewYork City hospitals found thedeath rate for all Covid-19 pa-tients dropped to 7.6% from25.6% between March and Au-gust after accounting foryounger, healthier patients inthe summer. Hospitals in NewYork were less crowded in Au-gust than during the Aprilsurge, which could increasemortality, the study’s authorswrote in October in the Jour-nal of Hospital Medicine. The

study also suggests patientsmay have benefited from newmedications and improvedtreatment, they said.

Gains in treatment may di-minish in a prolonged Covid-19surge if doctors and nursesare overwhelmed and hospi-tals must keep out visitors,said E. Wesley Ely, a professorat the Vanderbilt School ofMedicine, who studies therisks of intensive-care treat-ment, which include neurolog-ical damage and physical dis-ability. Overextended doctorsmay again use heavy sedationif ICU teams can’t closelymonitor ventilated patients,Dr. Ely said.

Notes on recoveryLess sedation combined

with other measures alsoshortens hospital stays andimproves survival, researchshows. Among those mea-sures: halting intravenousdrugs for portions of each dayto see if they are still needed,attempting daily to removepatients from ventilators andkeeping patients moving. Con-tact with family also plays asignificant role in recovery, re-search shows.

Christopher Thomas, a phy-sician and assistant professorof clinical medicine and pul-monary and critical care withLouisiana State UniversityHealth, used heavy sedationon patients for a few weeks inthe spring. It wasn’t his nor-

mal practice. “It felt like youwere watching—being forcedto watch—patients not getbetter,” Dr. Thomas said. Hesoon reverted to lighter seda-tion.

Baton Rouge General, whereDr. Thomas works, had alsoprohibited family visits to re-duce contagion. In August,doctors decided it would bebetter to allow families to visitdelirious patients to help withrecovery, the usual practicebefore the pandemic.

“We tried iPads, FaceTime,”Dr. Thomas said, “but decidedthat in-person was essentialfor some patients.”

Deborah Walker couldn’tvisit her husband, RalphWalker Sr., for weeks after heentered the Baton Rouge, La.,hospital in mid-July. He wasdizzy, nauseous and feverish.Doctors put him on a ventila-tor.

Ms. Walker, forbidden fromvisiting, spoke to and prayedfor husband daily over aniPad. “Please come home,” shewould say, and she promisedhim he could buy a guitar hewanted.

Mr. Walker already had 10guitars hanging on the walls ofthe couple’s home in a BatonRouge suburb. He also playspiano—they own two—and adrum kit is set up in the din-ing room. The night the couplemet, Ralph sang to his futurewife from the stage of a barwhere he played.

Doctors halted Mr. Walker’ssedatives in early August, buthe was largely unresponsivefor about two weeks, Ms.Walker said. She first saw himopen his eyes on Aug. 17. Hesaid little for days. Doctors lettwo family members visit,hoping to rouse Mr. Walker.

His daughter arrived oneday with a keyboard. Ms.Walker watched on an iPad inthe hospital parking lot. “Hisfingers crawled up the key-board, and he put them on thekeys,” she said. Then he beganto play, and she sang along.

“You could just see the lightswitch on,” Ms. Walker said.

Mr. Walker has since re-turned home. He continues towork with physical therapiststo rebuild muscles to walk andregain enough strength in hiswrist to play his new guitar.

MagiciansReappearOnline

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The Covid-19 vaccine is administered to Dr. Eduardo Oliveira on Dec. 15.

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Above, a medical staff member treating a patient in the Covid-19 intensive-care unit at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, Texas; below, Ralph Walker Sr. withthe keyboard his daughter brought him while he was recovering at a hospital in Baton Rouge, La.

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that is changing most thingsabout being a magician. Thenew venue has illusionistslearning how to levitate onscreen, choose an audiencemember and practice virtualsleight of hand. Their skillsare in demand this holidayseason, but for those used toastonishing crowds in person,working remotely can betricky.

Andrew Evans, founder ofthe San Francisco theater theMagic Patio, said he beganfilming his virtual shows withmultiple cameras, but strippedback to a single camera set-upby fall. The move aims to fo-cus on the magic, rather thancalling attention to technol-ogy, which could make view-ers suspicious.

“My job is to convince theaudience early on that what

ContinuedfromPageOne

they are seeing is not only im-possible, but that it doesn’ttake advantage of the me-dium,” Mr. Evans said. “Theyneed to believe it’s exactlywhat they would see if wewere together in person.”

He has left some of hisbest-known stunts, such aslevitating and a modern ver-sion of sawing a woman inhalf, out of his Zoom show.Convincing audiences thatwhat they’re watching is mag-ical, not technical, is more dif-ficult with the barrier of thescreen, and such illusions onlyinstill genuine awe when theaudience is watching them inreal life, he said.

The Magic Patio’s virtualperformances are instead builtaround mind-reading tricks,he said, like correctly predict-ing a person’s ideal “quaran-tine vacation, including thedestination, preferred airline,and costs of the tickets.”

Dan Chan’s pre-pandemicperformance was a varietyshow of card tricks, jugglingand some mind-reading. Whilehe has adapted a levitationtrick for his video act—invest-ing in a camera that tracks hisbody as it ascends—his virtual

their acts for video, and per-forming tricks from start tofinish in full sight of the cam-era, said Noel Britten, presi-dent of the Magic Circle, aU.K.-based international soci-ety of magicians. Setting up astunt outside of the videoframe, obscuring the webcam,or using other camera trickerywouldn’t be accepted by anaudience as real magic, Mr.Britten said.

“That’s the same as some-one walking out of sight on atheater stage and doing theirdirty work behind the scen-ery,” he said.

Mind reading is one of thefew tricks that can appear tobe more impressive over videothan in person, said Darren

performance focuses onmind-reading and close-upmagic, the kind that “noteveryone has had the op-portunity to see if theirexperience of magic isspectacular stage showsin Vegas,” he said.

“Small tricks can nowplay really big,” he said. Thelocked- and zoomed-in view ofthe camera allows him greaterfreedom, as he doesn’t have toworry about a spectator at thewrong angle, he added.

Mr. Chan, who is based inSilicon Valley, spent the initialweeks of lockdown devisingtwists on close-up magic, wak-ing up at 5 a.m. some days toperfect his Zoom act.

The reveal of a “pick acard, any card” act in a liveshow, for instance, would seeMr. Chan present a volunteerwith their chosen card in hishand. The addition of thescreen now lets him unveil thecard in a more unexpectedway: It appears across theroom in his 13-year-old son’smouth. (Like any good magi-cian, Mr. Chan declined to dis-close how his tricks work.)

Most magicians are adapt-ing rather than reinventing

Delaney, a magician based inthe U.K. “If I read yourmind from London whileyou’re in Los Angeles, itseems more impossiblethan if I’m in the sameroom,” he said.

Zoom has its benefits.Props can be placed atarm’s length just out of

shot, which means transi-tions between tricks arequicker than they would be onstage, said Mr. Cox. He pinscue cards and scripts to theborder of his computer screenwhen performing new mate-rial, and uses a second camerato give the audience a betterview of his close-up magic, hesaid.

Another bonus: Audiencemembers are better behavedon Zoom and magicians canmute hecklers, Mr. Cox said.

“And it’s never been easierto find a test audience for atrick,” he said. “A quick socialmedia post and I’ve instantaccess to an audience who justhave to turn their computerson for me to try somethingout.”

The Bash, a booking plat-form for entertainment ven-dors, said “magicians and

mentalists” has been the mostpopular category for virtualcorporate events on its sitesince May. Pre-Covid, magi-cians were the fifth most-re-quested, behind mariachibands, cover bands, DJs andcaricaturists, the companysaid.

Mr. Chan said the nature ofvirtual magic means he is sav-ing on expenses such as gaso-line and meals in restaurants,and has time to perform moreshows. In one recent week, heput on 12 in one day, he said.Before the pandemic, six wasthe most he could manage.

“Back then I felt so burntout I swore to myself I wouldnever do that many shows inone day again,” he said. “NowI’m doing that easily, and I’mnot even breaking a sweat be-cause I can take a nap in be-tween.”

Mr. Cox would prefer to beon stage this December. Histransition to Zoom meant heis earning approximately 80%less this month than he was inDecember 2019.

But there is an upside, hesaid: “For the first time in fiveyears, I get to spend Christ-mas at home with my family.”

for critical-care services forAdventHealth Central Florida,which recommends its doctorsstick with pre-pandemicguidelines for ventilator use.“The less you deviate from it,the better.”

Advances also include newdrugs, most notably steroids,for severely ill patients.

As the U.S. surge stretchesinto winter, hospital ICUs areseeing record numbers ofCovid-19 cases. Even with moreeffective treatment, the highvolume has required a recordnumber of them on ventilatorsin the U.S. last week, accordingto Covid Tracking Project data.

Vaccines began distributionin the U.S. last week, but shotsfor most Americans remainmonths away. The disease haskilled 1.68 million world-wide,according to Johns HopkinsUniversity.

Last spring, doctors put pa-tients on ventilators partly tolimit contagion at a time whenit was less clear how the virusspread, when protective masksand gowns were in short sup-ply. Doctors could have em-ployed other kinds of breath-ing support devices that don’trequire risky sedation, butearly reports suggested pa-tients using them could spraydangerous amounts of virusinto the air, said TheodoreIwashyna, a critical-care physi-cian at University of Michiganand Department of VeteransAffairs hospitals in Ann Arbor,Mich.

At the time, he said, doctorsand nurses feared the viruswould spread through hospi-tals. “We were intubating sickpatients very early. Not for thepatients’ benefit, but in orderto control the epidemic and tosave other patients,” Dr.Iwashyna said. “That felt aw-ful.”

Ventilators can injure lungsby causing too much strain asthe machines force in air. Theydeliver air and oxygen througha throat tube, which the bodytypically fights. “We’ve got gagreflexes that are pretty hard togo away, precisely to avoidthings going into our lungs,”Dr. Iwashyna said.

As a safety precaution, doc-tors and hospitals limited theaccess of health-care workersto coronavirus patients on ven-tilators, giving them fewer op-portunities to check on them.That meant patients requiredmore powerful sedatives tokeep them from pulling outthroat tubes. Sedation in-creases risk for delirium, re-search suggests, and deliriumincreases the likelihood oflong-term confusion and death.

Subsequent research foundthe alternative devices to ven-tilators, such as delivering oxy-gen through nasal tubes,weren’t as risky to caretakersas believed. Doctors alsogained experience withCovid-19 patients, learning tospot signs of who might sud-denly turn seriously ill, somesaid.

Close threatWhen the pandemic first

overwhelmed hospitals inChina and Italy, doctors ques-

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HospitalsReturnTo Basics

Now you see it

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THEWALL STREET JOURNAL. * * * * Monday, December 21, 2020 | A16A

About one in three smallbusinesses has closed its doorsin Connecticut since the begin-ning of the coronavirus pan-demic, a setback for a statethat never fully recoveredfrom the last recession.

That number puts Connecti-cut behind New York, New Jer-sey and the nation as a whole,where about one in four smallbusinesses has closed, accord-ing to Opportunity Insights, aresearch and policy institutebased at Harvard Universitythat is tracking the economicdamage caused by the pan-demic.

The arrival of Covid-19 vac-cines has brought hope thatthe worst of the pandemic willend in 2021. But before thathappens, hundreds of Connect-icut small-business owners willstruggle to make it throughthe winter and spring.

Using funds from the federalCares Act, Connecticut starteda $50 million small-businessgrant program—enough toaward $5,000 to 10,000 busi-nesses by the end of the year.But nearly 20,000 businessesapplied, and the program is nolonger accepting applications,said David Lehman, commis-sioner of the Connecticut De-partment of Economic andCommunity Development.

Mr. Lehman said the statewas considering making morefinancial assistance availablenext year. But what that couldlook like depends on whetherWashington will be able to chipin and how the broader econ-omy performs, he said. Morefederal help is likely coming,but the timing and scope of as-sistance remains uncertain.

“We are contemplating ifthere are additional ways byyear-end and beyond that wecan help with additional fund-ing as the uncertainty aroundWashington continues,” he said.

Connecticut lost 120,300jobs during the 2007-09 reces-sion and regained less than90% of those positions duringthe economic expansion of the

past decade before the currentcrisis began, according to thestate Labor Department. Thestate’s current count of about1.6 million jobs is the lowest ithas been since 1996.

Restaurants are among thesmall businesses hit hardest bythe pandemic. The warm sum-mer months offered the chanceto make up lost revenue by of-fering outdoor dining, but thatisn’t a realistic option anymoreas temperatures drop, saidScott Dolch, executive directorof the Connecticut RestaurantAssociation. More than 600Connecticut restaurants sincethe pandemic began alreadyhave closed their doors perma-nently or temporarily.

Connecticut regulations al-low indoor dining up to 50%capacity, but most restaurantsare having trouble even ap-proaching that limit with cus-tomers fearful of catchingCovid-19, he said.

Patty Dauten used to em-ploy about nine people at herrestaurant in Litchfield, Conn.,where she has been servingomelets and burgers for morethan two decades. She wasforced to let her staff go, andnow she is doing all the cook-ing and serving.

Ms. Dauten has home equityand savings she can dip into tostay afloat, but she hopes the

government will be able tohelp her business survive thenext few months.

“I don’t know how long Iwill hold on. I honestly don’tknow. As long as I can,” shesaid. “But if it starts costingme more than I’m bringing in,I’m going to have to close.”

More small-business clo-sures are on the way withouthelp from the state or federalgovernment, said AndrewMarkowski, the state directorin Connecticut for the NationalFederation of IndependentBusiness.

“They need something toget them through to that newnormal, whatever or wheneverthat may be,” he said.

Mr. Markowski said restric-tions put in place to curb thespread of the coronavirus hadbeen painful for small busi-nesses, particularly in the hos-pitality industry. But he notedthat consumer behavior wasalso changing, with people cut-ting back on spending and pa-tronizing small businesses.

Mr. Dolch said hundredsmore restaurants could go outof business next year. “This isthe darkest time that we’vebeen faced with right now,” hesaid.

Dan Meiser said he recentlylaid off some staff at EngineRoom, a restaurant he owns in

Mystic, Conn., while revenuefell 34% compared with lastyear. Revenue at Oyster Club,another restaurant he owns inMystic, is down 50%, he said.

Mr. Meiser said he wants toavoid temporarily shuttingdown any of his restaurants toavoid laying off more staff.

“If I was just looking at thisequation from a strict businessstandpoint, we would haveclosed already,” he said. “Butthis isn’t just a business deci-sion—this is a decision that hasmy entire team in the balance,and their families and theirability to put food on the table.”

The office towers in down-town Hartford, the state’s capi-tal, remain largely empty, andthe theaters in the city that at-tracted out-of-town visitors re-main closed. The situationforced Max Restaurant Groupto temporarily close TrumbullKitchen, one of its eight res-taurants in the state, saidSteve Abrams, a partner of thebusiness. Another downtownHartford restaurant owned byMax Restaurant Group, MaxDowntown, remains open, butbusiness is slow, he said.

Mr. Abrams said he and hispartners would do their bestto keep their restaurants go-ing, but “it would be very diffi-cult to survive without any fi-nancial assistance,” he said.

BY JOSEPH DE AVILA

Connecticut’s Small Businesses Suffer

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A New York Police Depart-ment spokesman said thenumber of marked police vehi-cles deployed across the cityto monitor traffic hasn’tchanged this year. NYPD Chiefof Transportation Kim Roystersaid her officers set up “safetycorridors” in areas wherespeed and fatal crashes arecommon, parking vehicles atthe side of the road to monitorbehavior and encourage driv-ers to slow down.

“Visibility is very impor-tant,” Chief Royster said.

Drivers involved in deadlycrashes in New York City thisyear cover all age groups. But

they are overwhelmingly men,according to city data. A re-cent survey by AAA Founda-tion for Traffic Safety foundthat men were more likelythan women to speed, tailgateand to merge dangerously.

Economic downturns andreduced road congestion usu-ally lead to lower fatalityrates, according to the Na-tional Highway Traffic SafetyAdministration, a federalagency. NHTSA researchersfound in a recent report thatthe pandemic has bucked thistrend with a rise in fatalityrates nationwide.

The researchers noted an

New York City is on coursethis year to record the highestnumber of deaths of driversand passengers since itlaunched a traffic-safety initia-tive in 2014.

The rise in deaths comeseven as crashes and trafficplummeted during the corona-virus pandemic. City transpor-tation officials say speedingand other reckless behavior onthe city’s emptier roads, espe-cially at night, caused the in-crease.

Julia Kite-Laidlaw, the De-partment of Transportation’shead of policy for Vision Zero,the city program to reduceroad deaths, said many policereports this year involved driv-ers speeding and vehicle occu-pants not wearing seatbelts.

“These are the kind ofthings where choices as driv-ers and motorcyclists reallymatter,” Ms. Kite-Laidlaw said.

Through Dec. 16 this year,

BY PAUL BERGERAND COULTER JONES

GREATER NEW YORK

New York City had recorded234 total road deaths, includ-ing pedestrians and cyclists.They include 115 car drivers,motorcyclists and passengerswho have been killed, a 69%increase from the same periodlast year and the highest num-ber of such deaths since 2006.Meanwhile, pedestrian deathsare on track to reach a recordlow this year.

The fatalities have mounteddespite the total number ofcrashes in which people wereinjured or killed falling toabout 22,000 for the periodfrom April through Nov. 30,about 30% lower than thesame period last year, accord-ing to a Wall Street Journalanalysis of transportation de-partment data. For every 1,000serious crashes during thepandemic, there were 8.6deaths—almost twice as manyin the past three years.

Ms. Kite-Laidlaw said theincrease in road deaths hasbeen concentrated on high-ways and in the outer bor-oughs, especially in Queens,where fatalities including pe-destrians and cyclists roseabout 25%, and in the Bronx,where they rose about50%, compared with the previ-ous three years.

increase this year in frequencyof speeding as well as indeaths among passengers notwearing seatbelts, especiallymen aged 18 to 34. They alsosuggested that older drivers,who are typically more care-ful, have minimized travel dur-ing the pandemic, while youn-ger, less risk-averse drivershave taken to the roads.

Ms. Kite-Laidlaw said thatof the 66 motor vehicle occu-pants who died through Dec.16 in New York City, 23weren’t wearing a seatbelt.Among motorcyclists who diedin a crash, only 14 of the 49riders were properly licensedand registered.

The federal researchers alsonoted an increase in drug andalcohol use because of pan-demic-related stress, as wellas a reduction in policing asdepartments have beenstrained by the virus. Arrestsfor driving while intoxicatedand driving without a licenseare down more than 50% sofar this year in New York City,according to NYPD data.

Chief Royster said the re-duction mainly is due to offi-cers being out sick or togreater demand for policingcivil unrest earlier this year.But she said officers have

maintained significant en-forcement against speeding.The NYPD spokesman said140,000 speeding summonseswere issued between Novem-ber 2019 and November 2020,about 7% lower than a similarperiod a year earlier.

The city also deploys speedcameras at 750 school zonesthat are in operation on week-days between 6 a.m. and 10p.m. Speed-camera ticketspeaked in April at just over500,000 that month, accordingto city data. Since then, theyhave decreased to about300,000 tickets issued in No-vember.

The NYPD has also devotedresources to crack down ondrag racing, police officialssaid. Congestion has returnedto many roads during the day,but traffic at night remainsmuch lighter, providing oppor-tunity for those who want tospeed.

This fall, the city loweredthe speed limit by 5 miles perhour on stretches of nine ma-jor roads that had a high rateof crashes. But it can’t changelimits on highways, which arecontrolled by New York state.Ms. Kite-Laidlaw said it wastoo soon to say whether thechanges have had an effect.

City Road Deaths Soar During PandemicTraffic decreased butfatalities climbed amidspeeding and otherreckless behavior

STATE STREET | By Jimmy Vielkind

With Capitol Closed,Advocates LamentTheir Lack of Access

Advocacygroups saidthey are dis-appointedthat the NewYork state

Capitol remains closed to thegeneral public on the eve ofa legislative session wherelawmakers will consider rais-ing taxes, adjusting the statebudget and legalizing mari-juana for recreational use.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, withthe support of Democraticleaders of the state Assemblyand Senate, closed the Capi-tol to visitors on March 14after two legislators testedpositive for the coronavirus.

Access restrictions have re-mained in place since thespring, and both chambers ofthe Legislature passed resolu-tions allowing members tocast their votes remotely. Thehalls of the Capitol—normallycrowded with besuited lobby-ists, chanting protesters, bus-tling bureaucrats and lawmak-ers—were quiet this year, asofficials enacted a $178 billionbudget and passed laws over-hauling policing practices.

The Democratic governorand legislative leaders saidin recent weeks that thereare no plans to reopen theCapitol, citing the continuingpandemic. Groups who tradi-tionally advocate have had toshift their plans and saidthey hope officials will in-vest in digital tools to in-crease participation.

“To be locked out of theCapitol, essentially, is sort ofa shock to my system,” saidBlair Horner, executive di-rector of the New York Pub-lic Interest Research Group,an advocacy group.

The first weeks of Januaryare usually a time of majorconvening. The Assemblyand Senate lay out their pri-orities for the year. Mr.Cuomo proposes a state bud-get and delivers a “State ofthe State” presentation.

Officials expect theseevents will largely occur in avirtual fashion. On Dec. 9,Mr. Cuomo shifted hisEmmy-winning televisedpress briefings from an in-person exchange with re-porters to an online format,citing updated guidancefrom the Centers for DiseaseControl and Prevention.

“If you open the Capitol,then you open yourself tohundreds of people confinedin stairwells and people

walking around potentiallynot social distancing,” Mr.Cuomo’s top aide, MelissaDeRosa, said on Nov. 20. “Soit’s not something, at thispoint, we’re prepared to do.”

An administration spokes-man didn’t respond to re-quests for additional com-ment.

Rebecca Garrard, who cam-paigns for tenant protectionmeasures on behalf of CitizenAction, said face-to-face en-counters with legislators andprotests in Capitol hallwaysare an important part of hergroup’s advocacy efforts.

“The decisions that aremade during the 2021 ses-sion are literally going tohave life-and-death conse-quences for New Yorkers,”she said, including a broadermoratorium on the evictionof residential tenants duringthe pandemic.

Jason McGuire, a lobbyistfor evangelical Christianchurches, said he usually or-ganized 1,500 people totravel to the Capitol complexin March. The annual advo-cacy day was canceled in2020, and next year he is di-recting people to meet withlawmakers at offices in theirrespective districts.

“I understand the need forpublic safety, but it hasbothered me from the begin-ning that if government isessential, then we the peopleneed to have access to legis-lators,” Mr. McGuire said.

Assembly Minority LeaderWill Barclay, a Republicanfrom Oswego County, saidthere was more to participa-tion in government than ral-lies on the Capitol’s interiorstaircases. He said there hasbeen more focus on virtualmeetings with constituentsand called on Democrats inhis chamber to start webcast-ing the proceedings of legis-lative committees. (The stateSenate already does so.)

A spokesman for AssemblySpeaker Carl Heastie, a Dem-ocrat from the Bronx, saidmembers were “working hardevery day talking to theirconstituents and helping tokeep them safe. We, like allNew Yorkers, look forward toreturning things to normalwhen it is safe to do so.”

Lee Rowland, legislativedirector for the New YorkCivil Liberties Union, calledon officials to invest in IT in-frastructure to ensure massparticipation in decision-making—and then keep thoseprocesses in place forever.

“I actually think keepingremote and online access tothe legislative process helpsreduce the cronyism thatcomes from physical proxim-ity in the halls of govern-ment,” she said.

jimmy.vielkind@wsj.com

Restaurants, like Rodd’s Restaurant in Bristol, Conn., are among the hardest-hit businesses. Since the pandemic took hold, about onein three small businesses in the state has closed. Below, an empty storefront on an almost-deserted Westport shopping street in May.

Deaths per 1,000 seriouscrashes

2017 '20

4

0

8

12

Traffic deaths

Source: New York City Department of TransportationNote: Serious crashes involve injury or death. Data through Dec. 16 for each year.

MotorcyclistsDrivers and passengers

2013 '15 '20

0

20

40

60

Deaths ofmotorists and passengers in NewYork City areon course to surpass recent records during the pandemic,comparedwith previous years.

Face­to­faceencounters withlegislators are key togroups’ efforts.

NY

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A16B | Monday, December 21, 2020 * * THEWALL STREET JOURNAL.

GREATERNEW YORKWATCH

BROOKLYN

Motorist Dies AfterHitting Garbage Truck

Police say a motorist died af-ter he rear-ended a garbagetruck on a New York City street.

Kenneth Pamphile, 32 yearsold, was driving a 2002 NissanAltima at about 3:45 a.m. Sun-day in Brooklyn when heslammed into the back of a sta-tionary Department of Sanita-tion truck. A sanitation workerdriving the truck and anotherstanding nearby weren’t injured.

—Associated Press

STATEN ISLAND

Father Is ChargedIn Woman’s Slaying

Authorities say the father ofa woman whose body wasfound last year in a Staten Is-land park has been charged inher murder.

Kabary Salem was taken intocustody in Egypt earlier thismonth and brought late lastweek to the U.S., according tothe Staten Island Advance. Thebody of 25-year-old Ola Salemwas discovered on Oct. 24, 2019.

Prosecutors had no commenton Sunday. The name of an at-torney for the father wasn’tavailable.

Mr. Salem is a former profes-sional middleweight boxer whocompeted in the Summer Olym-pics in 1992 and 1996.

—Associated Press

QUEENS

Cause Is SoughtIn Deadly House Fire

The cause of a three-alarmhouse fire that killed three peo-ple is under investigation.

Two firefighters were amongthe injured in the blaze thatbroke out after 5:30 a.m. Satur-day in the Elmhurst section ofQueens. Officials said the roof ofthe three-floor building col-lapsed. The Fire Department ofNew York said dozens of fire-fighters brought the blaze undercontrol around 8 a.m.

—Associated Press

When it came to readingmaterial this past year, NewYorkers turned to books thathelped them make sense of ourincreasingly challenging world,particularly in terms of racerelations and social justice.

At least that is the takefrom New York Public Libraryofficials based on the librarysystem’s Monday announce-ment of the year’s most bor-rowed books. Topping the2020 NYPL list: Brit Bennett’snovel “The Vanishing Half,”which chronicles the story ofidentical twin Black sistersthrough the prism of race. Inthe No. 2 spot: Robin DiAn-gelo’s “White Fragility: WhyIt’s So Hard for White Peopleto Talk About Racism,” a non-fiction work.

New Yorkers are “looking tounderstand the world we’reliving in and learn about eachother,” said Andrew Medlar,director of book operations forNYPL. The system includesbranches throughout Manhat-tan, the Bronx and Staten Is-land.

Queens and Brooklyn havetheir own library systems andeach announced their mostborrowed books for 2020 aswell on Monday. The BrooklynPublic Library’s 2020 slatewas similarly dominated by ti-tles delving into the subject ofrace, with Ibram X. Kendi’s“How to Be an Antiracist,” anonfiction book, claiming theNo. 1 spot. Ms. DiAngelo’s“White Fragility” was the sec-ond-most checked-out book inthe Brooklyn system as well.

In the case of the QueensPublic Library, the list leanedheavily to bestselling authorsof fiction. John Grisham,known for legal thrillers, cameout on top with his novel,“The Guardians.” James Pat-terson, another popular novel-ist, had two books in the top10, “Lost” (written with JamesO. Born) and “Criss Cross.”

Hong Yao, director of tech-nical services at the Queenssystem, said residents of theborough were likely lookingfor books that took their mind

off the world’s troubles duringsuch a difficult year. “Youwant to escape,” she said.

Although the lists did varyfrom one library system to an-other, former first lady Mi-chelle Obama’s memoir, “Be-coming,” made it on all threetop-10 slates.

Other books featured on allthree library lists: Delia Ow-ens’s novel “Where the Craw-dads Sing” and Tara Westo-ver’s memoir “Educated.”

Although libraries in all sys-tems were completely closedat the onset of coronaviruspandemic, many branches havesince reopened for limited ser-vice. The top-10 lists incorpo-rate books that are borroweddigitally and the systems saythey have put increased em-phasis on e-book offerings.

BY CHARLES PASSY

New Yorkers Check Out Books on Race

The New York Public Library system includes branches throughout Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island.

RONADA

R/SO

PAIM

AGES

/ZUMAWIRE

Most BorrowedNew York PublicLibrary Books, 2020

u “The Vanishing Half,”by Brit Bennett

u “White Fragility: Why It’sSo Hard for White People toTalk About Racism,”by Robin DiAngelo

u “The Glass Hotel,”by Emily St. John Mandel

u “Where the Crawdads Sing,”by Delia Owens

u “The Dutch House,”by Ann Patchett

u “How to be an Antiracist,”by Ibram X. Kendi

u “White Fragility: Why It’sSo Hard for White People toTalk About Racism,”by Robin DiAngelo

u “Normal People: A Novel,”by Sally Rooney

u “Becoming,”by Michelle Obama

u “Where the Crawdads Sing,”by Delia Owens

u “The Guardians,”by John Grisham

u “Moral Compass,”by Danielle Steel

u “Becoming,”by Michelle Obama

u “Lost,”by James Pattersonand James O. Born

u “Where the Crawdads Sing,”by Delia Owens

Most BorrowedBrooklyn PublicLibrary Books, 2020

Most BorrowedQueens PublicLibrary Books, 2020

Medicine in the RawHealthcare Starts with Healthy Food.

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P2JW356000-2-A016B0-1--------NS

© 2020 Dow Jones & Company. All Rights Reserved. THEWALL STREET JOURNAL. Monday, December 21, 2020 | A17

came to the conclusion that whilemandatory training seemed moreeffective on behavior, participantsperceived voluntary training morefavorably.

One common pitfall of diversitytraining is trying to do too muchat once, argues Musa al-Gharbi, asociology research fellow at Co-lumbia University. It will be im-portant to focus the goals of diver-sity training, from somethingvague like fixing racism in theworkplace to more concrete objec-tives, Mr. al-Gharbi says. “This

For a few weeks last Juneand July, Seyi Fabode’sphone rang off the hook.

“I was constantly ropedinto calls with 20 otherwhite founders as the

‘Black founder’ to talk about myexperience,” says Mr. Fabode, anentrepreneur in Austin, Texas, andco-founder of Varuna, which pro-vides software and sensors for wa-ter utilities. He was happy to rec-ommend talented Black jobcandidates when asked.

“But as I followed up withthose same people months later,asking, ‘Did you make that hire?,’in almost every single instance,they say, ‘Oh, it’s been so busy…’Meaning, in a word, no.”

Offices across the country re-sponded to this summer’s racial-justice protests after the policekilling of George Floyd in Minne-apolis on Memorial Day with anunprecedented wave of diversityand antiracism training. Half ayear later, workers of color aretaking stock of the results.

It’s a mixed bag. It’s clear bynow that corporate diversity ef-forts require substantial follow-up,both in terms of interpersonal dy-namics and in translating rhetoricinto concrete policies. Not allworkplaces are up to the challenge.

Several consultants in the diver-sity, equity and inclusion field saythat summer 2020 was the busiestperiod of their careers to date.

“This year has been a rollercoaster,” says Lily Zheng, a diver-sity consultant based in San Jose,Calif. When Covid-19 first hit inthe spring, her industry was rav-aged by layoffs. Then, just a fewmonths later, the Floyd protestsprompted a sharp reversal. “Thedemand far exceeded the supply,”she says. “And it’s just been up-ward from there.”

The scramble to meet this de-mand led to a number of poorlythought-out initiatives, says Far-zana Nayani, a diversity consultantbased in Los Angeles. “There are alot of upstarts in this field,” shesays, who may not plan for theemotional impact of their work onparticipants.

She notes that unconscious biastraining, one popular program de-signed to reveal workers’ preju-dices, can backfire and actually en-hance stereotypes if it doesn’t leavepeople with tools to manage oreliminate those biases. “These ses-sions can bring up a lot of uncom-fortable emotions, like sadness, an-ger, frustration…shame and guilt,”she says. “Can they change officerelationships? Absolutely.”

Anthony Turner, a Black clinicalsocial worker in Brooklyn Park,Minn., says multiple white col-leagues approached him last sum-mer, after the public high schoolwhere he worked held a mandatorydiversity workshop. “There werethese liberal white women comingup to me and crying, asking me for

AT WORKKRITHIKAVARAGUR

of color and outreach to organiza-tions like the National Society ofBlack Engineers.

He believes that the personal-ized feelings of guilt experiencedby non-Black workers in one-offworkshops can be counterproduc-tive if they treat the emotional ca-tharsis as an end in itself.

“If you go through those pain-ful feelings and think that I, as aBlack co-worker, feel better some-how, the issue goes away and itkeeps you from doing anythingpractical,” Mr. Maples says.

But concrete policies and diver-sity training don’t need to be aneither/or choice.

CO Architects, a 130-person LosAngeles firm, is doing both, sayssenior associate Antoinette Bunk-ley. The company’s diversity taskforce of 20 volunteers has createdan agenda with several specificinitiatives. They’ve identified moreBlack or minority consultants andcontractors to do business with.They’ve set up a fortnightly, all-staff virtual town hall meeting.And they are also going to hostmore antiracism training in 2021.

The task force did a sessionwith an antiracism trainer in Sep-tember, and found it so meaningfulthat they asked management aboutrolling it out to their whole office,says Ms. Bunkley, who is Black.They got the green light, and she’slooking forward to the day wheneveryone at the office has experi-enced the emotional virtual work-shop. “I think it will deepen ourworking relationships and take ourcommunication to a new level,”she says.

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PERSONAL JOURNAL.CAREERS & LEADERSHIP

IN THE 1999 cubicle comedy, “Of-fice Space,” paper-pushers obsessover memos about cover sheets forreports. Today, some real-life em-ployees doing their jobs remotelyare trying to clear the decks of vir-tual busy work.

Claudia Allwood is among them.A month after joining a skin-carecompany in September, she knewshe needed to rethink part of herjob. During Covid, the marketingdeck she was in charge of present-ing to her colleagues each weekwas no longer relevant. Ratherthan spend hours polishing theslides that others now viewed vir-tually, Ms. Allwood suggested toher boss that instead she take afew minutes to plug the data intothe company’s project manage-ment app—without the charts orfancy fonts. Ms. Allwood calcu-lated the hours the report took ev-ery week and made a case for howthe time could be better spent.Her boss went for it. “I’m a singleparent, so time is precious,” saysMs. Allwood, senior vice presidentof marketing at Herbivore Botani-cals in San Francisco.

Working from home has in-spired some people to lobby forless busy work and more controlover how many hours they spendon the job. Without the usual in-

person oversight, some employeesfeel empowered to rethink tasksthat feel like a waste of time andare more open about their needsat home, said Jennifer Chatman, aprofessor of management at theUniversity of California Berkeley’sHaas School of Business. “Employ-ees are in a position where theyare calling more of the shots thanthey did before,” she said. “Thathas shifted the power balance alittle bit.”

Prioritize Critical TasksAlthough some workers gainedtime by not commuting, the addedhours spent caring for children,parents or others outside workleave many susceptible to burnout,says Jessica Calarco, a sociologyprofessor at Indiana University.She also is a member of the CareCaucus, a new advocacy group thatexamines how Indiana Universityemployees who also have care-giv-ing responsibilities are managing aheavier burden outside paidwork.“It’s not good for anyone ifwe’re being asked to do toomuch,” she said.

For those re-evaluating theirworkday, Dr. Calarco suggests pri-oritizing tasks that advance a com-pany’s core mission while doingaway with reports or projects be-ing done simply for tracking pur-poses. For instance, she said, the

Here’s How to ShedLow-Priority TasksBY ALINA DIZIK

Care Caucus suggested scrappingthe letter of recommendation re-quirement for internal awards andgrants and instead letting univer-sity employees be contacted tovouch for an applicant, if needed.

Seek Out EfficienciesBeing stretched thin spurred ReneAzeez to find more efficient waysto check in with co-workers at theMaRS Discovery District, a To-ronto-based technology innovationhub. This summer, Mr. Azeez, thedirector of venture engagement,asked his boss to let him addresscolleagues at large meetings andtown halls, instead of doing one-on-one catch-ups over Zoom. Mr.Azeez, who also is studying for anM.B.A., said working from homerules out informal in-person col-laborations or updates from quick

hallway chats. Ultimately, he real-ized that his typical 9-hour daysjust weren’t as productive outsidethe office.

Higher-ups allowed Mr. Azeez todelegate projects to others in hisfive-person department. He alsoplans to set department goals in“shorter sprints,” thinking aheadonly to the next 90 days.

Keep Meetings FocusedSteven Vigilante, growth-market-ing manager at Olipop, a maker ofhealthful sodas, said he ap-proached the company’s chief ofstaff after finding his days work-ing from home in Los Angeleswere jammed with “massive meet-ings,” driving him to resume work-ing from 8 p.m. to midnight. Mr.Vigilante suggested they deter-mine who is critical to each meet-

ing to pare the num-ber of attendees. Healso got the execu-tive’s support forquiet hours—athree-hour intervalduring the weekwithout scheduledmeetings. “Everyonewas feeling it, but Iput my hand up andsaid ‘I’m drown-ing,’” said Mr. Vigi-lante.

Know Your LimitsBeing open with his

manager about his workload hashelped Lee Gross feel less stressedabout meeting deadlines while onthe job at home in Irvine, Calif.Mr. Gross, who handles claims foran insurer, recently asked if hecould stop sending a spreadsheetthat updates senior executives onhis most high-value insuranceclaims. His manager agreed tocomplete the spreadsheet herself,using data from Mr. Gross’s files.Handing it off saves Mr. Grosshours each month and made workless likely to spill over into theweekend. “If I push back, they willlisten,” he said.

Finding the courage to turndown new projects also helps. Mr.Gross recently declined to take onclaims work from another depart-ment. “I thought, I’m going tobreak if I do this,” he said. EV

ERET

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TION

From left, Gary Coleand Ron Livingstonin the 1999 comedy,‘Office Space.’

reassurance, and I end up comfort-ing them,” he says. “It was avery uncomfortable experi-ence.”

Mr. Fabode, in Austin,says his conversations lastsummer were taxing, too.“Many folks on these calls,who had all recently under-gone some kind of uncon-scious bias or diversity train-ing, would offer up reallypatronizing examples of howthey’ve helped Black employees.”

Follow-up work is essential,says Ms. Nayani, and it has takenup most of her time this fall andwinter. She typically offers her cli-ents a few specific suggestions,like scheduling a weekly ormonthly discussion group or creat-ing a secure online form to fieldconcerns about diversity and dis-crimination.

As to the logistics of diversitytraining itself, research doesn’tprovide easy answers. A study ofonline diversity training publishedin the journal PNAS in 2019 con-cluded that one-off training ses-sions are “unlikely to be stand-alone solutions for promotingequality in the workplace.” And a2016 meta-analysis of over 40years of diversity training research

could be a great windowof opportunity for com-panies to try moreempirically backedpolicies,” he says.

He points tomentorship pro-grams, whose valuehas been demon-

strated by research. Aset of psychology stud-

ies from 2015 found thathigh-quality mentorship could

offset the negative impacts of ageneral climate of racial discrimi-nation in the workplace. The studylinked that kind of climate to ab-senteeism and even physical sideeffects like insomnia.

Practical changes are the pre-siding concern of Curtis Maples,an electromechanical developmentengineer at Ethicon, a Cincinnati-based subsidiary of Johnson &Johnson. He is the only Black per-son on his team of about 40 peo-ple, and says that today, his long-time efforts to get more Blackworkers into the company’s talentpool are taken more seriously.

“They are much more amenableto what we have to say,” he says.His strategies to recruit more di-verse talent include setting upmore co-ops with college students

The Unfinished BusinessOf Diversity Training

Seyi Fabode, left, a startupfounder, and Farzana Nayani, right,a diversity consultant, say thatcorporate diversity initiativesrequire practical follow-up.

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A18 | Monday, December 21, 2020 THEWALL STREET JOURNAL.

home on a particular schedule along-term option?n Job title. This is sometimes

easily negotiated since it doesn’tcost the employer anything.n Education stipends. Some

companies offer this as long as itis relevant to the job.n Allowances. The company

might offer a stipend for your car ifyou use it to do your job or a com-pany credit card to cover expenses.n Severance package. While it

may be difficult to imagine now,

nies have a policy that goes be-yond the three-month period typi-cally offered to parents. If thismatters to you, take the company’spolicy into consideration.n Flexible work. Does the com-

pany allow a four-day workweek?Or can you choose when to startand end your workdays? Thinkabout a working structure thatwould suit you and allow you tofulfill the duties of your role.n Remote work. Beyond the

current pandemic, is working from

there could be layoffs or a com-pany merger in the future that af-fects your job. A good severancepackage can give you peace ofmind and pay off in the future.Now is the best time to negotiateone, while your future bosses arewooing you and don’t think theywill ever have to use it, accordingto Wayne Outten, the foundingpartner at Outten and Golden LLP,a law firm that represents workersin employment matters.

After you have laid out all ofthe above, calculate what impactthe benefits package would haveon your take-home pay. Prioritizewhat matters most to you, so youare clear on what you want mostbefore you begin negotiating.

Explain why the job offer falls shortrelative to the responsibilities.Based on your research, you cannow share what people in similarpositions in the same industry andlocation are paid, and how valu-able your skills, credentials andexperience are for the role. This isyour chance to pitch yourself, asyou did during the application pro-cess, by raising all of your stron-gest attributes and past successes,and reiterating how you are ex-actly what the company needs.Then propose your ideal base sal-ary. The worst they can say is“no,” at which point you still haveroom to negotiate other elementsof your package. Be prepared toanswer tough questions. If you saythe role is a heavier lift than whatthe compensation signals, you willneed to explain why.

Negotiate face-to-face if you can,but then get it all in writing.It is always best to negotiate face-to-face, or at least over the phone,so that there isn’t a lot of backand forth over email. However,once you do finalize an agreement,make sure to get it all in writing,over email as well as in your offerletter. Otherwise, if your employerleaves the company, or simply for-gets, those agreements are null. “Ifit’s not in writing, it didn’t hap-pen,” says Dr. Crockett. TA

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TWO FILMS of “George Bal-anchine’s ‘The Nutcracker,’” onemade by Pacific Northwest Balletin Seattle and the other by NewYork City Ballet, began streamingon Friday. But for the current pan-demic, these troupes would beperforming the work, live, formost of December in front of theirtheaters’ audiences.

The films, which require aticket purchase for online viewing,are just two signs of the longcoast-to-coast fame of Bal-anchine’s ballet. First given byNYCB in 1954, the two-act work toTchaikovsky’s 1892 score set astandard that has made thisChristmas-themed ballet a sought-after holiday event. The NYCB filmwas shot in 2019 for use in a newDisney+ documentary series aboutthe School of American Ballet anddocuments the production Bal-anchine himself revamped in 1964and oversaw until his death in1983. PNB’s was first performed in2015 and was filmed in 2018 forarchival purposes, its tweaks indesign and production framing thescrupulously staged Balanchinechoreography.

Unlike numerous “Nutcracker”stagings by other choreographersin which adults play the story’syoungsters, the Balanchine workconfidently uses real children toartfully enact the narrative’s char-acters at its homey Christmasgathering—one that magicallyevolves into a story about an en-chanted Nutcracker and an ensu-ing battle between toy soldiersand aggressive mice, before con-cluding in a fairy kingdom. Morethan 60 students from their re-spective ballet schools are in-volved in each production filmedhere; the age range is 9 through13 in Seattle and 8 through 13 inNew York.

As caught in this filming, PNB’svisual style suggests a Currier andIves print; NYCB’s filmed result re-

BY ROBERT GRESKOVIC

Being offered a job is areason to celebrate, but itis also an opportunity tonegotiate the best termsyou can get, which maynot come up again for a

while. You should maintain a pro-fessional, friendly tone duringthese talks as you forge a relation-ship with your new employer.

“Once you receive a job offer,you stop being a candidate andyou start being an employee of thecompany to some extent,” says ca-reer coach Paolo Gallo. “The wayyou negotiate starts building yourreputation.”

Figure out your priorities, askfor what you want, and keep inmind all your options.

“Think about the entire com-pensation package and not just thepay you’ll be receiving,” says Dr.Hamaria Crockett, a career coachwith Korn Ferry Advance, the ca-reer-coaching arm of organiza-tional-consulting firm Korn Ferry.

Here, advice from experts:

Know your numbers.If you haven’t already researchedwhat your pay should be, do thisnow. Don’t go into the negotiationblind. Use publicly available infor-mation or network with current orformer employees at the company.Websites like Payscale.com, Sal-ary.com and Glassdoor.com alsotrack salaries for particular roles.You want to know what those incomparable positions earn at thecompany or at similar organiza-tions so that you can back up yourcounteroffer with hard data.

Find out what is negotiablebeyond the salary.Job candidates often focus all oftheir attention on the base salaryand miss out on other aspects ofthe job offer they can negotiate.You should have a thorough under-standing of the entire package, in-cluding health insurance, retire-ment benefits and time off, beforedeciding how to counter.

What to consider in your coun-teroffer:n Health insurance. Does it in-

clude dental and eye care? Findout what the copays are and whenbenefits kick in. For example, youcan negotiate a reimbursement ofCobra health insurance paymentsif there would be a gap in yourcoverage.n Retirement plan. Find out the

type of plan the company pro-vides, whether they match em-ployee contributions and, if so, byhow much.n Bonuses. Some companies of-

fer a signing bonus to help sealthe deal or if they can’t meet yoursalary target. You can also negoti-ate the length and terms of theclawback period, or the time youhave to remain employed to keepthe bonus. Keep in mind that bo-nuses may be taxed differentlythan your base pay.n Stock options. If these are

part of the offer package, you canask for more options or a changeto the terms, such as acceleratingthe vesting period.n Vacation time. You can nego-

tiate more time up front, insteadof waiting for it to increase overtime.n Parental leave. Some compa-

Negotiating andCounteringA JobOfferBY DEBORAH ACOSTA

PNB’s, which can seem more aboutcare and control than spirit andenergy. Leta Biasucci is staid as thePNB’s Sugar Plum, with her danc-ing echoing the stark, grape-purplehue of Mr. Falconer’s costuming.Still, in Elizabeth Murphy, PNB hasan especially fresh and fleet Dew-drop to galvanize its sweeping“Waltz of the Flowers.” Likewise,Margaret Mullin and Steven Lochmake stylish and lively work of thelead couple in the Spanish-flavored“Hot Chocolate” segment.

PNB’s filming neatly opens withglimpses of the orchestra and itsconductor, Emil de Cou, but es-chews any curtain calls for thecast. NYCB’s film leaves the or-chestra pit and musicians out ofsight, but does include curtaincalls, which show its conductor,Andrew Litton, applauded along-side the dancers.

Bringing a live ballet experienceto the small screen is a tall order.Working through today’s con-straints, both PNB and NYCB havemade notable efforts to set theirproductions of Balanchine’s ster-ling “Nutcracker” before home-bound audiences. Watching bothfilms in close succession adds upto something with less impactthan an in-person performance,but gives the viewer somewhatmore than either film could ac-complish on its own.

George Balanchine’s ‘TheNutcracker’Pacific Northwest Ballet, throughDec. 26, pnb.org/nutcracker

New York City Ballet, Marquee TV,through Jan. 3, 2021, marquee.tv/ny-cbnutcracker

Mr. Greskovic writes about dancefor the Journal. A

NGEL

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Pacific Northwest Ballet principaldancer Seth Orza as Drosselmeier,with PNB School student ZoeAlvarado as Clara

sembles a sepia-toned tintype pho-tograph. Wide shots allow viewersto appreciate the productions’ full-stage dimensions to the maximumand both movies feature occa-sional, judicious close-ups.

Both films were shot in HD,though PNB’s is clearer andcrisper, with James F. Ingalls’shigh-contrast lighting making forwondrous changes to both the in-terior and exterior scenes. Ian Fal-coner’s striking, New England-in-spired settings, amplified by someanimated film moments, and hishard-edge costuming ably supportthe choreography.

NYCB’s staging—with settingsby Rouben Ter-Arutunian and cos-tuming by Karinska evoking 19th-century Germany, where the bal-let’s E.T.A. Hoffmann narrative isset—can feel more removed fromthe viewer. Mark Stanley’s atmo-spheric lighting often bathes thestage in a glow that can turnmurky under the camera’s lens.Fortunately, however, when theChristmas tree grows and grows,the camera’s distance works to theballet’s advantage, dramaticallydwarfing the School of AmericanBallet’s Sophia Thomopoulos as thegirl-heroine, Marie, and helping to

make that climactic scene, cued toTchaikovsky’s soaring music, astowering a transformational mo-ment as possible on a little screen.

When adult dancers dominatethe Kingdom of Sweets in Act 2,NYCB’s cast hits more high marksthan PNB’s. In long-limbed, wil-lowy Maria Kowroski as the SugarPlum Fairy, dressed in shimmering,pale hues of tulle and satin, theballet has an especially queenlyballerina.

Overall, NYCB’s dancing of thedivertissements that make up thesecond act’s suite of numbers ismore light of tone and touch than

DANCE REVIEW

TheGift of Balanchine at Home

PERSONAL JOURNAL.NY

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THEWALL STREET JOURNAL. Monday, December 21, 2020 | A19

ARTS IN REVIEWART REVIEW

ANewPainter’s Poignant ScenesSalman Toor’s deft depictions of young gaymen signal hope for the future of figurative painting

his introspective green space, look-ing less like a hipster and morelike a 19th-century farmer (broad-brimmed hat; loose, well-usedtrousers with a patch; and under-sized jacket) just arrived in the bigcity. He gazes at his cellphone (ah,those light lines) instead of regard-ing the panoply of gay urban lifeall around him—adroitly drawn fig-ures who sleep, lounge, flirt, danceand smoke. We can’t quite tell ifthe central figure is taking refugein his electronic device becausehe’s ill at ease, or telling friendsthat, yes, this is the place. And wedon’t quite know, given the vicissi-tudes of diaspora life, if the artisthas decided the matter, either.

In “Man With Face Creams andPhone Plug” (2019), a disheveledman, wearing an untucked whiteshirt and ocher shawl, stands be-hind a counter on which the epon-ymous possessions sit. He seemsto be gathering himself to go homeafter a failed or frustrating nightout. Or perhaps he’s in the middleof security clearance for a flight.In any event, he’s melancholy atbest, unhappy at worst, and thestatic, pyramidal composition com-bined with the dull gray ambiencesuggest things are not going to getbetter anytime soon. In Mr. Toor’swork, the prospects for lasting or

profound happi-ness do not shinebright, but they doflicker. The artistsuggests that’s thebest any of us canhope for.

Mr. Toor is quoted in the pressmaterials as saying, “I really didnot think at all about whether themeaning in these paintings wouldbe coherent to others. I justthought of making something verystraightforward to me.” A lot ofartists say things like this—trans-lation: “I really don’t cater to anaudience”—but in Mr. Toor’s com-mendable case, we believe it be-cause his paintings don’t shout,“Look, everybody, I’m new and dif-ferent!” They do utter it, though,in a quietly convincing way.

Salman Toor: How Will I KnowWhitney Museum of American Art,through April 4, 2021

Mr. Plagens is an artist and writerin New York.

SalmanToor’s ‘BarBoy’ (2019)

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Agood many figurativepaintings these daysseem to aspire to beingcover illustrations forthe New Yorker maga-zine. They have the kind

of benign, politely progressive, op-ed flavor that hardly any educatedurbanite can resist—a perfectmatch for the magazine’s covers,which have evolved over the de-cades from pictures of tweedy, up-per-middle-class pleasures to, forlack of a better term, a persistentsocial conscience.

That’s not a bad thing, for eitherthe periodical (as a subscriber, Iawait each week’s punchy premierpictorial), or today’s figurativepainting—at least when it’s notstrident, self-congratulatory, ormawkish. The work of SalmanToor—a Pakistani-American painterborn in 1983 who depicts the livesof (in the words of the WhitneyMuseum of American Art’s pressmaterials) “young, queer Brownmen residing between New YorkCity and South Asia”—is an excep-tion to these debilities. Mr. Toor’swork is modestly original, deftlydone, poignant, and—by its veryexistence and the Whitney’s givingit museum exposure in the free,ground-floor lobby gallery—evi-dence of hope for imperfect hu-manity.

“Salman Toor: How Will IKnow,” a show of 15 oil paintingsranging in size from a little over afoot to more than four feet on aside, depicts young gay men—Mr.Toor and his friends—at home ingroups and in pairs, in clubs, inti-mately alone, and, occasionally, inperilous situations with the police.The exhibition is Mr. Toor’s firstmuseum solo show.

Mr. Toor can certainly draw. Ac-cording to a Whitney website es-say, the artist “spent years studi-ously poring over and copying theworks of Rococo, Baroque, andNeoclassical-era artists like Cara-vaggio, Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony

BY PETER PLAGENS

SHE WAS SINGING on theset of a motion picture thatwas being produced in war-time. She could have had noidea that her words wouldcarry such present-tensepower more than 75 yearslater.

The movie wasn’t aboutwar—it was a musical about aMidwestern family, set in theearly 1900s. The film, “MeetMe in St. Louis,” was releasedin 1944, and its star, Judy Gar-land, sang the words to Mar-garet O’Brien, who was play-ing her little sister.

Have yourself a merry lit-tle Christmas, let your heartbe light.

Next year all our troubleswill be out of sight.…

It was exactly what Ameri-cans, weary from the years ofWorld War II, needed to hear:those words of hope—thepromise that in the next yearall, at last, would be well.From phonographs in livingrooms and radios near battle-fields, the words to “HaveYourself a Merry Little Christ-mas” comforted mothers andfathers, sisters and brothers,soldiers alone in the dark.

The song, written by HughMartin and Ralph Blane,reached inside listeners likean electrical jolt to theirhearts. The soldiers and theirfamilies had been apart forholiday after holiday. They

had said goodbye before theyoung men had boarded thepacked ships that wouldtransport them to farawaywar zones; the only way tokeep in touch was throughthe mail, and with combatraging that was sporadic atbest. No telephone calls, notduring that war; the familieshadn’t heard each other’svoices for years. Then, withanother Christmas approach-ing, there was a differentvoice, Judy Garland’s, speak-ing to, and for, all of them:

Next year all our troubleswill be miles away.…

The song became a holidaystandard; for a version in the1950s, in peacetime, Frank Si-natra had the lyrics watereddown a bit, to de-emphasizethe baseline sense of depriva-tion. Some of the more pen-sive phrases were replacedwith cheery words about dec-orating a Christmas tree.

But as Christmas ap-proaches in 2020 it is theoriginal that can cause listen-ers to pause and ponder whatthey have gone through in thelong months since last Christ-mas. If, when the song wasnew, it brought a tender, frag-ile look to the eyes of its lis-teners, it is having a similareffect now, in a country inmany ways changed yet at itscore much the same as it everwas. In this year of so muchillness and death, when wehave been warned against sur-

rounding ourselves with lovedones at the gatherings we al-ways took for granted, thereare those haunting words ofyearning, over all the decades:

Once again as in oldendays, happy golden days ofyore,

Faithful friends who weredear to us, will be near to us,once more.…

What is it that we have incommon with those Ameri-cans of the 1940s? Their or-deal, after all, was quite dif-ferent from ours. Perhaps theconnective thread is just this:the knowledge that the liveswe take on faith, the daily as-sumptions about the worldaround us, can be yankedaway so quickly by uninvitedforces that overwhelm us.Which is why, as we are ad-monished to keep our dis-tance, those words, in a freshyet familiar context, can stopus in our tracks:

Someday soon we all willbe together, if the fates allow,

Until then we’ll have tomuddle through somehow.…

What is the message, aswe do our best to muddlethrough this cold December?Probably the same as it wasin 1944—nothing more sim-ple, or more complicated,than this: Have yourself amerry little Christmas now.

Mr. Greene’s books include“Duty: A Father, His Son, andthe Man Who Won the War.”

CULTURAL COMMENTARY

Judy Garland’s Good TidingsBY BOB GREENE

WARN

ERBR

OS.

Judy Garland,right, in‘Meet Me

in St. Louis’

van Dyck, and Jean-Antoine Wat-teau, incorporating their stylesinto his own original composi-tions.” He obviously picked upwhat he needed to know there, andalong the way added some semi-cartoonish aspects to his ulti-mately brushy painting style. Heincludes, for example, the comic-strip visual trope of light lines toshow the glow of a computerscreen. There’s considerableDaumier, and—Mr. Toor attendedcollege in the U.S.—maybe even alittle R. Crumb in his pictures. Mr.Toor’s people, with their Pinocchionoses, also look somewhat likemarionettes. His work depicts, inpart, the inherent tragedy of gay

life in places where governmentsprosecute it, and also adds a fainttension to scenes of nominallycomfy domesticity.

What’s most powerful in lendingMr. Toor’s paintings their emotivecombination of fleeting, gossamerhappiness and a semi-numbing so-cietal oppression is his palette. His

paintings range from those thatare mostly neutrals (i.e., the color-lessness of getting by day-to-day)to those with large areas of tur-quoise (Mr. Toor has called green“a space of self”), with punctua-tions of rust red and tangerine. Hegives a sense of atmosphere tootherwise flat backgrounds by ar-ticulating them with small patchesof color.

Generally, the exhibition’ssmaller paintings are better thanthe larger ones, for they embodythe tiny dramas of everyday liferather than narrate them. At 48 by60 inches, “Bar Boy” (2019) is awonderful exception. In it, the art-ist stands almost dead center in

Combining feelings ofgossamer happiness andsemi­numbing societaloppression

P2JW356000-0-A01900-17F7DF7178F

A20 | Monday, December 21, 2020 THEWALL STREET JOURNAL.

With high-ranking positions attwo of the world’s top sports bod-ies, a sharp-tongued Australian law-yer named John Coates has longbeen one of the most powerful play-ers in the Olympics universe.

Now those two roles have inter-sected in the form of a court rulingthat decided Russia’s near-termparticipation in the Olympics. Thesituation has intensified questionsabout whether Coates’ dual posi-tions represent a conflict in thegovernance of the Olympic sportsworld—especially when it comes toanti doping efforts.

The 70-year-old Coates is an in-fluential International OlympicCommittee member who chairs theTokyo Olympics coordination com-mission and is a confidante of IOCpresident Thomas Bach.

He is also president of the Courtof Arbitration for Sport, the Swit-zerland-based body also known asCAS that serves as a kind of Su-preme Court for international dis-putes.

On Thursday, a three-memberCAS panel cut in half the WorldAnti-Doping Agency’s four-year banof Russia for a state-sponsored dop-ing scheme at the 2014 Sochi Olym-pics and a subsequent elaboratecoverup. The ruling outraged U.S.athletes and antidoping experts,who had criticized even the initialfour-year ban because it would lethundreds of Russian athletes whomeet certain provisions slip throughto the Olympics.

The closed-door nature of thesports court’s inner workings andCoates’s dual positions as CAS pres-ident and as an IOC vice president,however, raise the question of howmuch influence the IOC has onCAS’s outcomes, said Travis T. Ty-gart, CEO of the U.S. Anti-DopingAgency.

“Russia’s put a ton of money intothe Games,” Tygart said. “They’revery powerful within the IOC andwithin international sport, and(Olympic officials) want to appeasethem. It’s profits over principle.”

Coates declined to be inter-viewed for this story. In response towritten questions, he said his posi-tion as CAS president “has no rolein the appointment of Panels or therunning of the proceedings.”

Tygart’s characterization of Rus-sia’s influence, Coates wrote, “doesnot bear scrutiny” or have any rela-tion to Thursday’s CAS decision orany previous one he is aware of.Coates said he would forward anyspecific allegations to the relevantCAS division for investigation.

An IOC spokesperson also re-futed the idea that there is a con-flict. “We would suggest that Mr.Tygart do a fact check first beforehe starts another political mission,”the spokesperson wrote in an email.The spokesperson added that it is“obvious and fully transparent” thatthe IOC does not have a Russiancompany among its highest-paying

global sponsors, and that Russiawill not host an Olympic Games be-fore at least 2030.

Questions about Coates’ influ-ence pre-dated last week’s ruling.Rob Koehler, director general of theinternational athlete-led advocacyorganization Global Athlete, criti-cized Coates’s dual roles beforeThursday’s CAS decision.

“Whether there are real or per-ceived conflicts of interests, they’rethere,” Koehler said. “And it under-mines the credibility and the inde-pendence of CAS.”

Coates is a major Olympic player.The coordination commission forthe Tokyo Olympics, on whichCoates is chairman, will soon decidewhether the Games go on next sum-mer despite the risks of 200 coun-

tries’ citizens gathering during thecoronavirus pandemic, or bescrapped and threaten NationalOlympic Committees world-widewith financial disaster.

With the IOC, Coates has oftenplayed the role of bad cop to Bach’splacid-faced good cop. For instance,it was Coates who publicly slammedthe organizers of the Rio 2016Games as their preparations lagged.

“Some people may not like hismethods, but he’s incredibly effec-tive,” said John Boultbee, a formerdirector of the Australian Instituteof Sport.

Coates climbed the ranks ofsports administration and by 1990became president of the AustralianNational Olympic Committee, a po-sition he still holds three decades

later. Coates helped secure the2000 Sydney Games and remadehow Olympics are organized. Unlikethe privately funded 1996 AtlantaGames, the Sydney Olympics wereunderwritten by the local govern-ment yet required to involve theAOC in all key decisions. An $88.5million bonanza from hosting Syd-ney enabled the AOC to operatewithout the funding and influenceof the government.

When a debate raged about theSydney Olympics bid process theyear before the Games, Coates tack-led it by disclosing that the AOChad offered inducements totaling$70,000 to two IOC members fromKenya and Uganda the night beforethe 1993 host-city vote. The offerwas contingent on Sydney winningthe bid—which it did, beating Bei-jing by two votes.

“I wasn’t going to die wonderingwhy we didn’t win,” he said at thetime.

Coates said the payments werecontingent grants offered to thosenations’ National Olympic Commit-tees under the Australian OlympicCommittee’s program of assistanceto African NOCs and “were not inbreach of any IOC candidature rulesat the time.” The rules werechanged in 2003.

Coates became an IOC memberin 2001 and rose to the executiveboard in 2009.

“He’s extremely smart, and atough competitor,” said longtimeIOC member and fellow AustralianKevan Gosper. “He doesn’t sufferfools. His last resort is compromise.He stays with intent to win to thelast minute, and there is a certainquality of arrogance in him. Whilehe listens to advice, he has a strongbelief in his own opinions.”

—Alastair Gale and StuartCondie contributed to this article.

BY RACHEL BACHMAN

Dual Olympic RoleDraws ScrutinyJohn Coates holds key positions at both the IOC and in the world’s top sports court

After a pandemic season filledwith chaos and surprise, the CollegeFootball Playoff is set with perhapsthe most unsurprising lineup ofpowerhouses imaginable: Alabama,Clemson, Ohio State and NotreDame.

No. 1 Alabama and No. 4 NotreDame will meet on Jan. 1 in thegame that was meant to be theRose Bowl, but has been relocatedfrom Pasadena, Calif. to AT&T Sta-dium in Arlington, Texas. No. 2Clemson and No. 3 Ohio State willreprise their semifinal meetingfrom last season in the Sugar Bowl.

College Football Playoff executivedirector Bill Hancock said the“Granddaddy of Them All” wouldrelocate and possibly take on a newname. He attributed the change to a“growing number of Covid-19 casesin Southern California.” Currentdata shows that the positivity ratein Tarrant County, where the gamewill now be played, is 17%–higherthan in Los Angeles County.

The last minute Rose Bowlswitch came after complaints fromcoaches who took issue with Cali-fornia’s prohibition on fans atsporting events that would preventparents from watching their sonsplay. California public-health offi-cials twice denied waiver requestsfrom the Tournament of Roses toallow less than 500 fans. About3,000 spectators can attend theSugar Bowl at Mercedes-Benz Su-perdome in New Orleans; AT&T Sta-dium has hosted upward of 30,000fans at Cowboys games this fall.

Alabama was the runaway No. 1seed, having finished the season as11-0 Southeastern Conference cham-pions after defeating Florida 52-46.

As usual, the most controversialteam to make the playoff was alsothe last. Notre Dame, in its firstyear of conference affiliation, be-came the first team to make theplayoff after losing a conferencechampionship game.

Texas A&M, which finished theseason 8-1, is the first one-loss SECteam to miss the semifinal.

JARE

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Notre Dame is the No. 4 seed.

BY LAINE HIGGINS

CollegePlayoffIs Set

Australian lawyer John Coates, below, used aggressive tactics to land the 2000 Olympics for Sydney.

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COLDCUTS | By Nina Sloan &Matthew StockAcross1 Hiking trail5 Org. with netsand Nets

8 Bitter brews, forshort

12 Ventricles’counterparts

14 Opinion survey15 “I ___ want a lot

for Christmas...”(lyric from20-Across)

16 Sleight of hand,maybe

18 “Show Boat”writer Ferber

19 Drink, as hotcocoa

20 “All I Want forChristmas Is You”singer

22 Internationalspheres?

24 Guiding principleof the universe,in Chinesephilosophy

25 Tool for a logger26 “Bing Crosby’s

Merrie ___Christmas” (1977TV special)

27 Nativity sceneanimal

29 Looped insecretly, in email

31 Gita Jayanticelebrator

34 Foals’ mothers35 One might

make a B-9announcement

37 Co-op alternative38 Dreadlocks

wearer, perhaps39 Arbitrary

stranger, in slang

40 Drink withscones

41 “They know ___Santa’s on hisway” (“TheChristmas Song”lyric)

45 California’sSanta ___ winds

46 Rowingimplement

48 Cover for a sword50 Group of close

associates54 The X of Xmas,

actually55 Slumber56 Get-to-know-you

game, and adescription ofthis puzzle’stheme

58 Carrier to Israel59 Ran out of juice

TheWSJ Daily Crossword | Edited by Mike Shenk

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61 62 63

s

Solve this puzzle online and discuss it atWSJ.com/Puzzles.

60 Property claims61 Bad-mouth,

informally62 Feeling low63 “Doggone it!”Down1 How to collect$200 inMonopoly

2 When one isready

3 Camera support4 Chart topper5 Seaweed used insushi

6 Swells up7 Hilo “hi”8 Notion9 AnakinSkywalker’shovercraft

10 Building wings11 Hung around13 Peak14 A pop17 Possesses21 Blue shade

named for anelement

23 In back of27 Big commotion28 Bolivia’s

constitutionalcapital

30 Invent

32 Like someswimming pools

33 Doctors WithoutBorders orHabitat forHumanity, e.g.

34 Sports groupthat includesthe L.A. Galaxy

35 Economic booms36 Motorists’ org.37 Ricotta-filled

pastry39 Cleaned out, as

a candy jar40 Helfer of

“BattlestarGalactica”

42 One mightcircumvent afirewall

43 Goddess ofwisdom

44 Desire for a drink47 Corrosive liquids48 High-tech

camera inits.49 Shoe part51 Snaky

swimmers52 Saxophonist’s

need53 Substance in

some adultgummies

57 Lend a hand

Previous Puzzle’s Solution

The contest answer is CATNAP. As suggested bythe clues to 11- and 34-Down (and the title), go ninesquares to the right of each Z in the grid (the letterZ representing sleep) to spell the contest answer.

Z O L A I M A P C N O I RI M O N P E T A L I N F OL A P D A T O N E S B E S TC H E R O N T A P M O EH A Z E P O E T H A I

I D L E R E R N S TB A H O A R S D R R U T HA R I Z O N A C L U S T E RE N T E R S F O I L E M UZ E S T S A N N E S

N A T O I C E C P A SA P O O Z O N E R I G AT O O K P A R T I N A X E LO O Z E R E E V E P I N TP R E Y K O R E A S E T S

SPORTS

P2JW356000-0-A02000-1--------XA

THEWALL STREET JOURNAL. Monday, December 21, 2020 | A21

The RiddleIn Her EyesThe SphinxBy Hugo Vickers(Hodder & Stoughton, 388 pages, £25)

BOOKSHELF | By Moira Hodgson

I n 1943 Henry “Chips” Channon, a well-known Britishsocialite and Conservative politician, spotted Gladys,Duchess of Marlborough, in a Bond Street jewelry shop.

He was shocked by her appearance, as was his dog, which-began to growl. When Channon reintroduced himself to her,she looked at him, “stared vacantly with those famousturquoise eyes that once drove men insane with desire.”She muttered, in French, “I have never heard that name.”Gladys dropped the ruby clip she was examining and leftwithout another word.

Hugo Vickers was 16 in 1968 when he chanced upon thisentry in Channon’s diaries. He was astonished. How hadthat great beauty, once the toast of Paris, the belle amieof Anatole France and Marcel Proust, turned into whatChannon called a “terrifying apparition”? Consumed withcuriosity, he was determined to find out.

In 1975 he finally tracked the duchess down in a psy-chiatric hospital. He became her trusted (and only) friend,

visiting her frequentlybefore she died aged 96 in1977. Two years later hepublished a biography,“Gladys, Duchess of Marl-borough.” Since then hehas uncovered unseenmaterial, which he hasreworked into his grippingnew book, “The Sphinx.”

Gladys Deacon was anAmerican heiress who mighthave walked out of a novel byHenry James. She was born inParis in 1881 at the height ofthe Belle Époque, the eldest offour sisters. When she was 11

her father was jailed for shootingher mother’s lover dead in a bedroom at the Hôtel Splendidein Cannes. The scandal sullied the family’s reputation andput the daughters’ chances for good marriages in jeopardy.Nevertheless their mother pressed on, as one observer put it,“dominating the social sea like a Dreadnought.”

When she was 14, Gladys read an article about the ninthDuke of Marlborough’s marriage to the American railroadheiress Consuelo Vanderbilt. Consuelo’s $200-millionfortune would pay for the restoration of his family seat,Blenheim Palace, one of Britain’s largest and most magnifi-cent houses, dating from the early 18th century. “O dear meif only I was a little older I might ‘catch’ him yet!” Gladyswrote to her mother. Her girlhood ambition to marry him,Mr. Vickers writes, was fueled by a visit to a fortuneteller.

The Deacon family’s dubious history didn’t preventtheir daughter’s rapid ascent into the upper echelons ofEuropean society. Gladys was “radiant”; she spoke sevenlanguages and possessed a wide knowledge of Greekmythology, art, literature and poetry. Proust commented,“I never saw a girl with so much beauty, such magnificentintelligence, such goodness and charm.” No wonder theart historian Bernard Berenson fell in love with her andfrequently had her to stay at I Tatti, his villa in Florence.Crown Prince Wilhelm of Prussia, son of the Kaiser, wasbesotted and gave her a ring so valuable his father insistedit be returned. Librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal describedGladys as “in [a] certain sense the most brilliant personthat I have ever seen . . . The speed and elasticity of hermind is astounding . . . She often has something of alascivious young god in girl’s clothes.”

In the fall of 1902 Gladys made a terrible mistake. Toobtain a more Grecian profile she had paraffin wax injectedinto the small depression above the bridge of her nose toform a straight line from the forehead to the tip. Her friendCount Robert de Montesquiou, the flamboyant aesthete andpoet (model for Baron de Charlus in Proust’s “In Search ofLost Time”), warned her against such a procedure. Sheshould have listened. The wax disfigured her face, meltinginto her cheeks, causing them to droop and turn blotchy.

In 1909 Berenson’s wife, Mary, found her to be “ratherheart-breaking now, when you think what she once was.”She’d become “impossible in manner and conversation,”and “gone off terribly in looks. . . . Yet with all this thereis something so thrilling, so exhilarating, so unusual abouther that you feel as if you cannot live away from her.”

Her botched nose job didn’t prevent Gladys fromachieving her lifelong dream, although it took some time.She was 40 when, in 1921, the Duke of Marlborough’smarriage to Consuelo was ended and she finally ensnaredhim. A dinner held to celebrate the impending weddingincluded Proust (in a floor-length sealskin dressing gown),while the ceremony itself was attended by guests such asEdith Wharton and Marshal Foch.

Gladys had always been difficult and at BlenheimPalace she was bored and unhappy. Her behavior becameincreasingly irrational. Her dogs were given free reinindoors, staining the carpets and damaging the sofas. Atone dinner party she pulled out a revolver and set it besideher plate. A startled guest asked what she was going to dowith it. “I might just shoot Marlborough,” she replied.

By 1933 the duke decided that he’d had enough anddecamped to his house on Carlton House Terrace inLondon, taking most of the staff with him. Gladys wasevicted from the palace. In 1938 she bought a farmhousein the village of Chacombe in Northamptonshire where shelived with a herd of cats. Eventually she became a recluse,stumping around in patched-up rubber boots like a tramp.The locals called her “the witch of Chacombe.” By 1962she was seen as a danger to herself. Four men in whitecoats came and dragged her out of the house.

Mr. Vickers, with his sharp eye for detail, splendidlycaptures the drama of Gladys’s life and the amazing cast ofcharacters she encountered. “She paid a high price for hercoronet,” he writes. “Her marriage failed as many of thoseAnglo-American matches failed. The British establishmentcan be witheringly unkind to those they do not understandand they were remorselessly unforgiving of her.”

Two sphinxes in Gladys’s likeness guard the firstterrace at Blenheim Palace. Her famous turquoise eyes,painted in 1928 on the ceiling of the portico, still gazedown, unblinking, at all who pass beneath.

Ms. Hodgson is the author of “It Seemed Like a GoodIdea at the Time: My Adventures in Life and Food.”

An American beauty who might have steppedout of a Henry James novel, Gladys Deaconbeguiled artists and aristocrats alike.

The Military Learned to Stop the Bleeding

R obyn Gardner lay bleed-ing by a river near Sac-ramento, Calif., her

thigh ripped open by a boat’spropeller. A former Armymedic happened to be nearby.He applied a tourniquet,which immediately stoppedthe bleeding and stabilizedGardner. But when the ambu-lance arrived, the crew re-moved the tourniquet, be-cause tourniquets weren’t anapproved trauma interventionin the jurisdiction. EMTs triedother techniques to controlthe bleeding, but Gardner diedat 38 in 2003.

Tourniquets save lives, butan exaggerated fear of tissuedamage led medical authori-ties to ban them from use onboth military and civiliantrauma patients. Some 3,400American lives were lost inVietnam from failure to usethese simple devices.

That realization prompted a

four-year review of battlefieldtrauma care, which led to thedevelopment of Tactical Com-bat Casualty Care, first de-scribed in 1996. TCCC recom-mends tourniquets for life-threatening extremity bleedinguntil the casualty reaches asurgeon. But most U.S. militaryunits ignored the advice at firstand didn’t carry tourniquetsinto Afghanistan and Iraq.

That changed as casualtiesmounted. In 2005 the U.S.Special Operations Commandand the U.S. Central Commandboth mandated tourniquetuse. Studies since have foundhundreds of American liveshave been saved on the battle-field with tourniquets and lit-tle danger of tissue damage.

Civilian trauma care has al-

ways benefited from militarywartime experience, but theprocess can be slow. By 2010tourniquets were routine inthe military but rare outsideit. Civilian tourniquet use in-creased significantly after2013, when Hartford, Conn.,trauma surgeon Lenworth Ja-cobs convened a group of ex-perts to study ways of savinglives in civilian mass casualtyincidents such as the SandyHook school shooting. TheHartford Consensus led theAmerican College of Surgeonsand the American College ofEmergency Physicians to en-dorse tourniquet use by pro-fessional first responders.

Yet scores, perhaps hun-dreds, of first-responder or-ganizations still don’t usetourniquets. EMS systems, firedepartments and other suchagencies are local and autono-mous, making it hard to holdthem to national standards.

Civilian studies show thatdeaths related to extremityhemorrhage increase 600%

when prehospital trauma sys-tems don’t use tourniquets. Byusing recently published, highquality regional data, we esti-mate that up to 5,300 deaths ayear could be preventedthroughout the countrythrough the use of these sim-ple devices. Money isn’t an is-sue: A tourniquet costs lessthan $30.

Too many Americans bleedto death every year from se-vere extremity hemorrhage.Every professional first re-sponder needs to have a tour-niquet in his medical kit. No-body should face RobynGardner’s fate because first-responder organizations failto keep up with evolving stan-dards in trauma care.

Dr. Butler, a retired U.S.Navy SEAL captain, is a for-mer command surgeon forU.S. Special Operations Com-mand. Dr. Holcomb, a retiredU.S. Army colonel, is a formercommander of the U.S. ArmyInstitute of Surgical Research.

By Frank K. ButlerAnd John B. Holcomb

Many civilian livescould be saved byusing tourniquets.

OPINION

Woody Allenwas ontos om e t h i n gwhen he said“80% of suc-cess is show-ing up.” Sure,that givesshort shriftto all thework we putin—Thomas

Edison’s “99% perspiration.”But never has showing upbeen more important than in2020. You had to be readywhen panic and turmoil andlockdowns hit.

Lots of things didn’t showup on day one: N95 masks,ventilators, toilet paper, kettlebells, flour and commonsense. But so many things didshow up during lockdowns.Teleconferencing has alwaysbeen lurking in the back-ground, but Zoom was ready.Where would we be withoutit? Same for the cloud com-puting it runs on, which wasready to scale. Add broadbandto the list. Europe, with fool-ish network-neutrality laws,had to throttle speeds.

Telemedicine was ready. Iwrote last year that I hadfired my doctor and taken uptelemedicine and I got tons ofemails telling me I would diesoon. I’m still here, and nowyou probably use it. Stream-ing via Netflix and a dozenother services was ready, andthen some. Next year majorstudio films will appear si-multaneously in theaters andon streaming services—previ-ously unthinkable.

The “ready” list was amaz-ing: Contactless payments(though Apple Pay didn’t

How Tech Got Ready for 2020work with masks), meal de-livery, grocery delivery, retaillogistics, e-billing, ticketlesstravel, airport-security line-cutting retinal scans, motion-sensing Purell dispensers.Amazon was ready with es-sentials, but six weeks to de-liver a book? Yes, I’ve heardof Kindle. And weirdly, ball-park crowd noise sold tovideogame companies wassold back to teams. Acciden-tally ready!

You can probably namedozens of others. But the big-ger question is: Why was allthis stuff ready to go?

The history of digital tech-nology is littered with exam-ples of lowering costs—eversince chips were invented in1958, things have magicallygotten smaller, cheaper, faster,better. The next step was get-ting humans out of the way.Operators. Tellers. Librarians.Stockbrokers. Taxi dispatch-ers. Ticket handlers. Everytime, quality went higher andhigher. TV and camera resolu-tions. Wireless 3G, 4G, 5Gcommunications. Connectedsocial networks.

Yeah, great history, butthat doesn’t explain whythings were ready in 2020.OK, for that you have to un-derstand the psyche of Sili-con Valley. There is anotheraspect of quality that’s rarelydiscussed, and that’s conve-nience. I could call a taxi ser-vice, but I’d rather simplyclick a button on my phone.Basically techies are lazy, andthank goodness. No, not worklazy: They do 80-hour weekscoding till dawn. But oftentheir goal is to get a machineto do things for them so they

don’t have to do it them-selves. No one really has toDoorDash dinner, but enoughtechies were too lazy to driveto Taco Bell.

This is a very Americanphenomenon. Kind of a “pur-suit of happiness” thing.We’re busy and have betterthings to do than sit in traf-fic, wait in lines, pay withcash, sort photos, go to themovies, sit knees-in-chest ona plane. We’re independentand appreciate the choice wehave—to be lazy.

I think messenger RNA,mRNA, which both Pfizer andModerna used to createCovid vaccines, was just ashortcut for scientists sothey didn’t have to do somuch work. Moderna had avaccine candidate ready twodays after the coronavirusgenetic sequence was re-leased by China in January.Lazy? The best kind.

That’s the history of inno-vation, from plows to pumpsto pizza-making robots.Someone too lazy to do it theold tedious way invents thefuture.

Early adopters try things,even if expensive. The origi-nal 2007 iPhone was, in ret-rospect, tiny, slow and kindawimpy. Fanboys chargedahead anyway. Just like therewas enough of a market for

Zoom before the rest of theworld verbed it.

Of course, plenty of thingswere 2020 no-shows. Itwould have been nice to haveself-driving cars. And ask anyparent or grandparent: Vid-eoconferenced education hasbeen awful for K-12 and amess for colleges (where’sthat tuition rebate form?).Would’ve been nice to have aPrimer—a tablet for self-paced learning, hopefully un-der development.

Medical supply chains,which ran through China formasks and antibiotics, were ahuge failure. Three-dimen-sional printing was small-time,and never scaled up to deliverN95 masks and other essen-tials. And government wasclearly unready, scrambling tohire Cobol programmers toupdate 50-year-old unemploy-ment-claims systems.

Still, society was surpris-ingly ready for this pan-demic. Many think we’ve ex-perienced a compression:Things that were going tohappen over the next five to10 years anyway came aboutmuch more quickly. I thinkthat’s right, but many thingswe needed most already ex-isted, and only need toscale.

So please encourage work-arounds to many of today’sways of doing things, espe-cially in eds, meds and feds.It’s almost guaranteed thenext turmoil will be totallydifferent. Let the lazy (andcrazy) run amok creating thisdecade’s inventions to showup during whatever 2030tries to throw at us.

Write to kessler@wsj.com.

Breakthroughs likevideo calling and quickdelivery are part of aquest for convenience.

INSIDEVIEWBy AndyKessler

In a telephoneinterview lastweek I askedLuis ManuelOtero Alcán-tara, one ofthe leaders ofthe dissidentSan IsidroMovement inHavana, whathe thinks of

Fidel Castro.His answer stunned me not

because I disagreed but be-cause challenging the godlikemyth of the comandante, aliveor dead, has always been taboo.

“For me he was a bad per-son, and what he did is notjustified by what he did inthings like health care,” the33-year-old performance artistsaid. “If you repress someonebecause they wrote a poemyou don’t like or you arrestyoung people continually, youare not a good person. This re-pression has destroyed thelives of intellectuals.”

Lots of Cubans will tell yousimilar things privately, butfew have dared utter them inpublic. Until now.

The San Isidro Movementwas formed in 2018 to oppose anew law making it a crime toengage in performance art with-out permission from the Minis-try of Culture. The group—made up of young adults ofdifferent races who are artists,writers, musicians, students,and researchers—hold a mix ofpolitical views but are united intheir quest for freedom.

There has been plenty oforganized opposition to the

Cuba’s San Isidro Uprisingdictatorship since 1959, whenCastro took power. In the late1990s and early 2000s the lateOswaldo Payá’s Varela Projectcollected more than 25,000signatures on a petition call-ing for free speech, free as-sembly, ownership of busi-nesses and political pluralism.Since 2003 the Ladies inWhite—wives, sisters anddaughters of political prison-ers—have been an interna-tional symbol of resistance toarbitrary incarceration.

As the San Isidro Move-ment gains street cred in thebarrio, support from otherdissident groups, and recogni-tion abroad, the question onthe minds of long-sufferingCubans is whether this timethings are different. There aregood reasons to remain cau-tiously pessimistic about theodds of political change. Butit’s also true that Cuban civilsociety seems to be undergo-ing a revival, and that makesthe landscape markedly dif-ferent than it was even 10years ago.

On Nov. 26 Mr. Otero Al-cántara and at least five oth-ers had been inside an apart-ment on a hunger strike formore than eight days, pro-testing rapper Denis Solis’seight-month prison sentencefor “disrespect.” That’s whenauthorities, using Covid-19regulations as a pretext,broke down the door andstormed the premises. Thestrikers were carted off to de-tention. Mr. Otero Alcántarawas taken to a hospital wherehis strike was broken.

The next day hundreds ofpeople gathered across thestreet from the Ministry ofCulture for 15 hours to protestthe raid. To defuse the tension,the regime agreed to meetwith 30 of the protesters todiscuss their demands forfreedom of expression.

It was an extraordinaryconcession. But dissidenthopes were soon dashedwhen the dictatorship can-celed a second promisedmeeting because the grouphad the temerity to requestthat its imprisoned membersbe included.

It was a predictable rever-sion to the mean. Yet in myconversation with Mr. OteroAlcántara I couldn’t shake thefeeling of something new un-folding. He told me that helaunched his hunger strikewhen Mr. Solis was arrestedbecause he was appalled athow quickly Cubans acceptsomeone being taken away andimprisoned. His objection is to“repression normalized.”

Nothing new there. Butthen I wondered aloudwhether this group of dissi-dents—many of whom wereselected and nurtured by theregime in their careers—iseven aware of the many mar-

tyrs that went before it. He an-swered that some names areknown, like Payá, killed in asuspicious car crash in 2012,and Orlando Zapata, a blackbricklayer who died a politicalprisoner in 2010. But there isalso “a lot of ignorance,” hesaid, “because every 10 yearsthe regime destroys the his-tory and dissidents have tostart over.”

One of San Isidro’s causes isgay rights. But Raúl Castro’sdaughter Mariela has beendining out for years interna-tionally as a champion of theLGBT community, so I askedMr. Otero Alcántara whatmakes it an issue. “Cubans areliving in a totalitarian dictator-ship where all institutions re-spond to the interests of thedictatorship,” he said. “But itis impossible for any institu-tion to cover all the pluralitiesin a society. Yes, there is a sec-tor in Cuba that feels repre-sented by her but others donot. These others are not al-lowed to be independent.” Somuch for identity politics.

One big change for dissi-dents came in December 2018when, under severe economicstrain, the regime began to of-fer internet access via a 3G cellnetwork. Today Mr. Otero Al-cántara maintains that the SanIsidro Movement “is far largerthan what can be seen becauseof social media. Social net-works are the big key,” he toldme, adding confidently that“the digital revolution is thegreatest revolution since 1959.Cubans want to be free.”

Write to O’Grady@wsj.com.

There has beenorganized dissent fordecades. This timecould be different.

AMERICASBy MaryAnastasiaO’Grady

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A22 | Monday, December 21, 2020 * * THEWALL STREET JOURNAL.

We’ll Keep Wishing You a ‘Merry Christmas’When a Christian believer says

“Merry Christmas,” the message con-veys personal feelings, beliefs and avalue system. If the response is“Merry Christmas” right back, thosewho exchange the wishes likely arekindred spirits. Awkward momentswith some nonbelievers or peoplewith other religious beliefs tend tobe brief and manageable. No harm,no foul.

Stephen Ford encourages us to gowith “Happy Holidays” as a noncom-bative wish that reflects quiet Chris-tian confidence (“‘Happy Holidays’ IsPro-Christmas,” Houses of Worship,Dec. 11). Thanks, but no thanks.“Happy Holidays” has all the punchand symbolism of putting “We Trust”on U.S. dollars without the “In God.”

America’s destiny appears to besecular, but a “Merry Christmas”spoken with joy and love is a mes-

sage that many will pass along whilewe still can.

JEFF ADAMSAtlanta

Mr. Ford’s sentiment seems en-lightened until one tries to reconcilehow avoiding saying “Christmas” ac-tually promotes it. In my experiencethere is a considerable overlap be-tween the people who can’t receive a“Merry Christmas” with the joy inwhich it was intended and those whoclaim the progressive virtue of valu-ing diversity and inclusion. If diver-sity and inclusion were taken seri-ously and applied consistently, thenhighly progressive recipients of thegreeting would bubble with joy inthe same way they do upon encoun-tering an all-gender restroom.

BRYAN BOATRIGHTAustin, Texas

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

“Ultimately, I would liketo drive my own sleigh.”

THEWALL STREET JOURNAL

Letters intended for publication shouldbe emailed to wsj.ltrs@wsj.com. Pleaseinclude your city, state and telephonenumber. All letters are subject toediting, and unpublished letters cannotbe acknowledged.

The Continuing Saga of Fannie and FreddieIn Washington, “least bad” solu-

tions are often the best that the po-litical process can produce (“The Fan-nie and Freddie Conundrum,” Review& Outlook, Dec. 9). But releasing gov-ernment-sponsored enterprises Fan-nie Mae and Freddie Mac from con-servatorship with little capital and noreforms is no solution at all. It wouldundermine investor confidence, cre-ate volatility in the mortgage marketand impede access to credit for con-sumers. Why upend the mortgagemarket at a time when it is one ofthe few economic bright spots?Moody’s recently wrote that an exitfrom conservatorship without a gov-ernment guarantee could result in adowngrade in the GSEs’ debt ratings.

The Mortgage Bankers Associationdoesn’t support an endless conserva-torship; we believe the Treasury De-partment should work with the Fed-eral Housing Finance Agency toimplement reforms so that Fannieand Freddie can eventually operateoutside of government control. Thesereforms include equal secondary mar-ket access for all lenders regardlessof size, business model, or volume ofloans delivered to the GSEs; strictlimits on the size and use of theGSEs’ mortgage investment portfo-lios; and the promotion of credit-risktransfers to protect taxpayers.

BOB BROEKSMITPresident & CEO

Mortgage Bankers AssociationWashington

Without appropriate oversightthese companies could easily repeatthe mistakes that put them in conser-

vatorship in the first place. Today’sGSEs are far safer entities as a resultof the conservatorship. A releasewithout congressional action wouldeliminate our ability to constrainthem at all—preventing protectionsfor lenders and taxpayers.

For true reform, we must frameexplicit guarantees on mortgage-backed securities. Further, GSEsshouldn’t be allowed to cut sweet-heart deals in exchange for marketshare with the biggest banks. Andrather than rely on unelected bureau-crats like FHFA Director Mark Ca-labria to ensure equitable access tolenders, Congress should take thelead in these reforms.

DAVID H. STEVENSMoneta, Va.

Mr. Stevens is a former assistantsecretary for housing (2009-11) andFHA commissioner.

The government purchased $191.5billion of Fannie Mae and FreddieMac preferred stock in the after-math of the 2007-08 financial crisis.Uncle Sam has thus far collectedmore than $301 billion in “divi-dends.” Do the math. The govern-ment never really put up a penny ofits own money. The cash came fromwhere the rest of our chronic deficitspending comes from: the bondmarket. The government borrowedthe money (at probably less than3%), and then reloaned it to Fannieand Freddie at 10%. Without the tax-payer putting up a dime, the gov-ernment has been earning at least a700-basis-point spread on almost$200 billion of “other people’smoney” for a dozen years. Brilliant!

“Hasn’t come close to being re-paid”? To the contrary, it has beenthe best deal for the taxpayer sincethe Louisiana Purchase.

GARY HINDESNew York

The big question is whether thegovernment should be involved in70% of home mortgages.

JIM SMEDRAGrand Prairie, Texas

Pepper ...And Salt

Mind What NeuroscientistsCan Tell Us About the Brain

In the book “Seven and a Half Les-sons About the Brain,” reviewed byEmily Bobrow (Bookshelf, Dec. 14),Professor Lisa Feldman Barrett writeswithout equivocation, “Your brain’smost important job is to control yourbody—to manage allostasis.” But isthat right?

The brain has higher-order pur-poses than serving as a conductor forthe body’s organs. It is also the seatof consciousness and the mind. Whatgives us identity or personhood?What allows us to think about think-ing—to wonder? The materialist in-terpretation is that consciousnessand the mind aren’t separate fromthe brain, but rather are products ofthe brain—of neuronal, synaptic andother activity. To borrow philosopherGilbert Ryle’s expression, there is no“ghost in the machine.”

KEITH TIDMANBethesda, Md.

What the Election RevealedAbout Institutional Health

It’s true, as William A. Galstonpoints out in “Institutions Saved the2020 Election” (Politics & Ideas, Dec.16), that federal judges ruled impar-tially on President Trump’s numer-ous appeals. But Mr. Galston fails tomention the activist judges and stateSupreme Court justices who ignoredstate law to change requirements formail-in voting, including the propercompletion of the ballots and thedate at which they would no longerbe accepted. Most Americans don’tknow if there were election shenani-gans or not, but I suspect mostwouldn’t want to go through this ev-ery four years. Can’t we acknowl-edge Joe Biden as the president-elect and still investigate the votingprocess?

TIM EICHENBRENNERCharlotte, N.C.

Mr. Galston writes, “What I shouldhave anticipated but didn’t was howmany of Mr. Trump’s supporterswould believe him” about electionfraud. Fair enough. But how many ofthe president’s detractors believedthat the Steele dossier was true andPresident Trump assumed office ille-gitimately? How many believed thatAdam Schiff had incontrovertible ev-idence of Mr. Trump’s collusion withRussia? How many believe that Mi-chael Flynn broke the law when talk-ing with Russia’s ambassador?

GREGG SCHULERCincinnati

Mr. Trump has done America aservice by demonstrating throughhis baseless legal challenges that oursystem can withstand attempts tosubvert fair elections and the rule oflaw. The free press, an independentjudiciary and the sovereign power ofindividual states have preserved thewill of the people, as expressed in awell-run election with historicallyhigh turnout. May we never take ourmore than two centuries of peacefultransitions of power for granted.

MEL SMITHNashville, Tenn.

Covid Political Relief

C ongressional leaders reached agree-ment on a $900 billion Covid-19 reliefbill Sunday evening, but please don’t

call this economic stimulus.With some exceptions, themain relief here is for the pol-iticians who want to takecredit for doling out morecash to constituents.

The best provision in thebill is the limit on potential abuse by the BidenTreasury and Federal Reserve. Credit here toPennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey, who held firmon limiting the Fed’s maneuvering room with-out a new act of Congress. Democrats are claim-ing victory, but that’s face-saving spin.

The bill will repurpose the $429 billion inCares Act emergency funding that the Fed hasn’thad to use. It also includes language barring theFed from restarting the facilities that are set toexpire on Dec. 31 or creating clones. That’s im-portant because the wailing over this languageproves that Democrats want to use the Fed tobail out state and local governments. They saidso in the House Heroes Act by demanding 10-year, 25-basis-point Fed loans.

Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and his me-dia echoes targetedMr. Toomey as their villaindu jour, as if financial markets are still in a cri-sis. They also claimed Mr. Toomey wanted torewrite the law governing 13(3) Fed facilities,but that is false. His aim is to make sure thatemergency facilities don’t become open-endedfiscal programs. Bigger companies now haveample access to private credit, and small busi-nesses are getting more direct aid.

Readers may recall that last March Demo-crats were calling the money for Fed pandemicfacilities a “slush fund” for Donald Trump.“Trumpwants our response to be a half-trilliondollar slush fund to boost favored companiesand corporate executives,” Elizabeth Warrentweeted. Joe Biden slammed the Fed programsas a “$500 billion slush fund for corporationswith almost no conditions.” The Trump Trea-sury used the money responsibly.

Yet now Brian Deese, Mr. Biden’s choice torun theWhite House National Economic Coun-cil, says “the Fed's ability to respond quicklyand forcefully” is still needed. But the Fed canstill do that in an emergency if it gets Con-gress’s assent. By the way, Mr. Deese has beenworking for BlackRock, theWall Street firm theFed tapped to buy corporate bond exchange-traded funds on its behalf.

i i iThe rest of the relief bill is a mix of good to

awful. Another $330 billion or so for the Pay-check Protection Program is warranted to aidsmall businesses until the pandemic eases. TheNational Restaurant Association reported thismonth that 500,000 restaurants are in free fall

and 110,000 have permanently closed this year.Many are victims of ham-handed governmentdiktats like California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s clo-

sure of outdoor dining.Eventually new businesses

will replace those that fail,but the human and economiccost will be smaller if Con-gress helps them and theirworkers ride out the months

until vaccines are widely available. The labormarket will also spring back faster if workershave employers to return to.

The deal includes several billion more dol-lars for vaccine distribution, which may bemore than necessary but will temper kvetch-ing by governors like New York’s AndrewCuomo who complain they can’t afford to in-oculate their populations. The feds are doingmost of the administrative work and havepaid for the vaccines. HHS secretary Alex Azarsays states merely need to operate as “airtraffic controllers,” coordinate logistics andclear the runway.

Although direct state and local governmentaid was left out of the deal, governors will stillget tens of billions for schools, child-care pro-viders, broadband, food stamps and publictransit. Much of this is pork.

i i iThe biggest fiasco is another round of

checks—this time $600—to most Americanswho earn up to $100,000. This will have littleor no economic impact since it won’t changeincentives; it also isn’t focused on the neediest.The personal savings rate in October was13.6%, about twice as high as before the pan-demic, with $2.4 trillion on the sidelines.

Another blunder is three more months of$300 in federal enhanced weekly unemploy-ment benefits. This plus-up will allow half orso of workers to earn more by not working andslow the labor market recovery once the vac-cine rollout gets underway since they will haveless incentive to find work.

Many businesses, especially in constructionand warehousing, are desperate to hire, andthere were 6.7 million job openings in October,according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.States like New York and California, whosegovernors have imposed excessive business re-strictions, will benefit most from the incometransfers.

GOP leaders are hoping this spending blow-out will help their two incumbents in the Geor-gia Senate runoffs on Jan. 5. It had better, be-cause this is merely for three months andDemocrats are viewing it merely as a downpayment on trillions more next year. The coun-try will be paying for the pandemic for de-cades, and Congress is adding ever more to thebill for future generations.

Another spendingblowout, but at least ithas limits on the Fed.

Education Rescue in Providence

A report last year found abject studentperformance, demoralized teachers anddeteriorating buildings in Providence,

Rhode Island’s traditionalpublic schools. Well, this par-ticular hell may have frozenover, as last week the state’seducation council voted to ex-pand and open more charterschools to rescue students inthe district.

About 13% of Providence’s 30,000 studentsattend 28 charter schools, some in other dis-tricts. But demand far exceeds supply. Only18% of the 5,000 or so charter school appli-cants were offered a seat this school year, ac-cording to the state education department.Eighty-four percent of Providence students arelow-income and 92% are minorities.

The state education council last week gavepreliminary approval for more than 5,700 newcharter seats in Providence and other dis-tricts. Three of four new charters that appliedgot a green-light to open, pending final ap-proval in the spring, and three existing char-ters (two of which serve Providence) are ex-panding. “Parents of color don’t have a lot ofchoice and resources,” said Education Com-missioner Angélica Infante-Green, whopushed the expansion. “We should not be clos-ing opportunities.”

The teachers union isn’t happy. In a letterto Gov. Gina Raimondo, three union leaders in-cluding American Federation of Teachers Pres-ident Randi Weingarten complained that theexpansion would “financially destabilize theProvidence school district, because it would

drain money from neighborhood publicschools.”

This is the usual rhetorical union trick. Char-ters are public schools, albeitwithout the barnacles andcosts of union control. Fund-ing for charter schools inRhode Island follows the stu-dent, though local districts re-tain a portion for fixed costs

when students leave for a charter. The statetook over the Providence school district, in-cluding the budget, last year after the JohnsHopkins Institute for Education Policy exposedthe school horror show in a study.

The Hopkins team reported that many peo-ple it interviewed, including school administra-tors and district leaders, said the union collec-tive-bargaining agreement makes it difficult tofire bad teachers. Only 11.9% of elementary andmiddle-school Providence students met or ex-ceeded state expectations in math and 17.2% inEnglish Language Arts on state exams in the2018-19 school year. Contrast that with 54%and 57.1% of students at Achievement First, acharter system with five schools in the state,which now has approval to add two K-8 schoolsand a high school.

“You knew from the minute you walked inthat there were expectations, that the teacherswere all on the same page, that parents werewelcome,” one city school board membernoted of Achievement First in the Johns Hop-kins report. Credit to Ms. Infante-Green forbucking union pressure to give more childrena chance at a better education and the oppor-tunities it creates for a better life.

Rhode Island allowsmore charter schoolsafter union failures.

Trump’s Bad Exit

P resident Trump accomplished a greatdeal in four years, but as he leaves officehe can’t seem to help reminding Ameri-

cans why they denied him a second term.He could focus on the positive, such as the

Covid-19 vaccines and his Arab-Israeli peacebreakthrough. Instead he’s callingMembers ofCongress and asking them to object on theHouse and Senate floor to the results of theElectoral College count.

This won’t change the outcome, but it willput pressure on Republicans to embarrassthemselves by indulgingMr. Trump’s attemptsto delegitimize the results. We hope the Mem-bers ignore his pleas.

Meanwhile, after days of silence over thehack on U.S. government agencies and privatecompanies, Mr. Trump chimed in Saturday toadd confusion. Secretary of StateMike Pompeo

said Friday that the evidence clearly points tothe Russians for the hack.

But Mr. Trump tweeted that “Russia, Russiais the priority chant when anything happensbecause Lamestream [media] is, for mostly fi-nancial reasons, petrified of . . . discussing thepossibility that it may be China (it may!).”Then he linked the hack to a possible “hit onour ridiculous voting machines during theelection, which is now obvious that I won big,making it an even more corrupted embarrass-ment for the USA.”

Mr. Pompeo has no incentive to dissembleabout Russia’s role, and Americans deserve toknow the truth about what happened. Mr.Trump doesn’t want to admit he lost, and hecan duck the inauguration if he likes. But hissore loser routine is beginning to grate even onmillions who voted for him.

REVIEW & OUTLOOK

OPINION

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THEWALL STREET JOURNAL. Monday, December 21, 2020 | A23

O n Jan. 13, 2017, I voted toallow retired Marine Gen.Jim Mattis to serve assecretary of defense. Likeevery Marine of my gen-

eration, I looked up to Gen. Mattisas the embodiment of the MarineCorps ethos. I still do. But I havecome to believe that my vote was amistake. Congress was wrong to ex-empt him from a legal prohibitionon recently retired military officersserving as defense secretary. AndCongress shouldn’t do the same forPresident-elect Joe Biden’s nominee,retired Army Gen. Lloyd Austin.

Before Secretary Mattis, Congresshad allowed only one exemptionsince passing the 1947 National Secu-rity Act, for Army Gen. George Mar-shall in 1950. Voting to allow a sec-ond exception didn’t seem like muchof a threat to civil-military relations.Yet with the benefit of hindsight, Ican see how Gen. Mattis’s tenure de-parted from norms in importantways. Despite my enormous respect

for him and the exceptional NationalDefense Strategy he wrote at thePentagon, his time as secretary rein-forced why recently retired officersshouldn’t serve in this role.

Like many military officers, Sec-retary Mattis never seemed inter-ested in the cabinet politics thatcome with the position. He avoidedfights with fiscal hawks in the WhiteHouse over defense spending, evenas defense hawks in Congressbegged him to make the case for ad-ditional dollars.

Secretary Mattis seemed to runthe Pentagon like it was a combatant

I voted to exempt JimMattis from the law butwon’t repeat that mistakewith Lloyd Austin.

No More Generals Atop the Pentagon

command. After hundreds of billionsin defense cuts under the Obama ad-ministration, he rightly made a pri-ority of improving readiness. Butthat came at the expense of long-term overhaul, despite bipartisansupport for efforts like growing theNavy to 355 ships.

Additionally, Gen. Mattis broughta warfighting-first perspective topublic relations. With no back-ground in politics, he undervaluedthe importance of engaging the pub-lic on national-security issues andscaled back the department’s publicrelease of information. This had theperverse effect of reducing the de-partment’s ability to persuade Con-gress and the public in importantbureaucratic fights.

In voting to grant an exceptionfor Gen. Mattis in 2017, Sen. JackReed, ranking member of the ArmedServices Committee, cautioned that“waiving the law should happen nomore than once in a generation.”Sen. Reed is right. Making such ex-ceptions a common practice wouldsubvert the intent of the NationalSecurity Act.

Mr. Biden is sensitive to theseconcerns: “I respect and believe inthe importance of civilian control of

our military and in the importanceof a strong civil-military working re-lationship at DoD—as does Austin,”Mr. Biden wrote in the Atlantic. Thatmisses the point. No serious ob-server is worried about Gen. Austinseizing power and threatening civil-ian control of the military. But de-fense scholars on the left and righthave laid out broader concerns thatare worth considering.

One is that the qualities thatmake a successful military officerdon’t necessarily translate into Pen-tagon leadership, and Gen. Austinhas little experience out of uniform.Soldiers are trained to carry out or-ders, and officers rarely becomegenerals by shaking things up.

There are also questions aboutGen. Austin’s time running CentralCommand. Congressional inquiriessuggest that intelligence briefingsduring his tenure understated thedangers of ISIS. Then there’s the re-porting suggesting that Mr. Bidentapped Gen. Austin because he won’trock the bureaucratic boat. The nextdefense secretary will have to dealwith coronavirus spending puttingdownward pressure on defense bud-gets. That will demand hard choicesthat won’t play well in all corners of

Congress or the White House. Thesecretary will have to be an ener-getic advocate.

Surveys consistently report thatthe military is one of the mosttrusted institutions in America, butpoliticization undermines that trust.Look at the 2016 Democratic and Re-publican conventions, where re-cently retired general officers at-tacked the other party’s nominee asa national-security threat. If install-ing general officers as defense sec-retary becomes the norm, seniormilitary leaders may try to ingrati-ate themselves with one politicalparty or another in the hopes of se-curing a powerful appointment.

America’s foremost military andnational-security threat is China.Both parties agree on this basicpoint. Gen. Austin has considerableexperience, but in the Middle East.He would be the third straight for-mer Army officer to oversee thePentagon, following ChristopherMiller and Mark Esper. He wouldwork alongside Gen. Mark Milley,chairman of the Joint Chiefs ofStaff, also an Army officer. Gen.Austin’s elevation would mean land-power advocates would continue todominate the Pentagon even as thethreat from China demands a com-pelling vision of American seapower. Further, Mr. Biden and hisclosest foreign-policy advisers willhave to deepen alliances andstrengthen partnerships in the Indo-Pacific to counter China. They willneed a defense secretary who knowsthe region.

I admire Gen. Austin for his life-time of honorable service. But thatservice doesn’t make him the bestfit for defense secretary during amoment of profound geopoliticalchange and challenges. When Con-gress decides whether to make anexception to the law for Gen. Austin,I will vote no.

Mr. Gallagher, a Republican, rep-resents Wisconsin’s Eighth Congres-sional District.

By Mike Gallagher

PJFMILITARY

COLLEC

TION/A

LAMYST

OCK

PHOTO

Gens. Lloyd Austin and Jim Mattis in Baghdad, Dec. 15, 2011.

OPINION

The CyberThreat Is RealAnd Growing

By Mike Rogers

T he SolarWinds breach could bethe most significant cyber inci-dent in American history. Rus-

sian intelligence—likely the SVR, theforeign-intelligence branch—infil-trated and sat undetected on U.S.government networks for nearly 10months. It was a sophisticated, smartand savvy attack that should alarmthe public and private sectors.

We may not know the full extentof the damage for some time. Don’tbe surprised if more government en-tities disclose that they too werevictims of this attack. Don’t be sur-prised either if it emerges that pri-vate companies were hit. SolarWindssays it has more than 300,000 cus-tomers, including 400 companies inthe Fortune 500. That’s a lot of po-tential victims.

It appears that this was purely anintelligence-gathering effort. The SVRsat on government networks collect-ing as much data as it could, when-ever and however it wanted. It wasless like tapping into phone lines andmore like breaking into the libraryand wandering around.

Every country conducts espionage.That’s not the alarming part. What istruly scary is that the Russians areinside the house now. Who knowswhere they’ve planted malware, cor-rupted or deleted data, locked usersout of systems, or destroyed systemsentirely? Turning off the system anduninstalling SolarWinds software isn’tenough. It may take years and thou-sands of hours to unpack fully wherethe Russians hid themselves and theircode.

Using a network-managementcompany’s supply chain of updatesto penetrate targeted networks is ex-ceptionally smart. This tactic willspawn imitators, and not only amonggovernments. Tools and techniquesused by state actors quickly end upin the hands of criminals, especiallywhen they work. Look how ransom-ware spread a few years ago.

Hostile governments and criminalgroups want to see not only how theattack was carried out, but how theU.S. responds, if it responds at all.The nature of cyberwarfare is secre-tive, but recent attacks on the U.S.don’t appear to have prompted anyresponse. Moscow, Beijing, Tehran,Pyongyang and the dons of cyber-criminal gangs see that there is noprice to pay for hacking the U.S.government. So why not give it atry?

The U.S. needs to respond in asmart, considered manner. Shuttingoff the lights in Moscow isn’t an ap-propriate or proportional response.Disrupting the networks of the SVRor GRU—Russian military intelli-gence—may well be. If the U.S.doesn’t define red lines today anddemonstrate that there are conse-quences for crossing them, we willcontinue to be the victim of cyberat-tacks. The breaches will only getworse.

As we work to uncover the fullextent of the hack, we need to get agrip on our collective national cyberdefenses. For too long the cyber de-fenses of the federal governmenthave been scattered across individ-ual offices, agencies and depart-ments. There hasn’t been a singleperson or office in the White Housetasked with managing the govern-ment’s cybersecurity policy. Thatneeds to end.

The incoming administration mustappoint a national cyber director, aprovision included in the recentlypassed National Defense Authoriza-tion Act, and an issue on which I tes-tified this summer. We can’t affordto have dozens of offices and agen-cies running their own cybersecuritypolicies and budgets. The WhiteHouse must assert itself.

The government can’t do it alone.Cooperation with the private sectoron cyber defenses is urgent and nec-essary. This goes beyond contractsand purchasing agreements, andmust include recognition that thenation—private and public sectors—are under attack. We need to craft atruly whole-of-nation and whole-of-government approach to collectivecyber defense.

The SolarWinds damage is done,but it isn’t too late to strengthenour cyber defenses, work to deterforeign actors, and prepare for fu-ture breaches. And there will bemore.

Mr. Rogers, a Michigan Republi-can, was chairman of the House Per-manent Select Committee on Intelli-gence, 2011-15. He is a director atIronNet Cybersecurity.

The U.S. must respondproportionally to theSolarWinds breach—andprepare for the next attack.

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Why Are Covid Antibody Drugs Sitting on Shelves?

The Friday approval of a secondCovid vaccine is welcome news,but much of the public won’t be

able to get inoculated for manymonths. Meanwhile, the best way toreduce suffering and hardship is thera-peutic technologies like antibodydrugs. But right now, many of thesedrugs are languishing on shelves athospitals and not reaching patients.

Moncef Slaoui, who runs Opera-tion Warp Speed, said recently thatmore than 80% of the available sup-ply is sitting unused, even as hospi-tals are inundated with critically illpatients. Antibody drugs infuse pa-tients with synthetic versions of thekinds of immune cells developed inresponse to an infection. Early trialsshow antibody cocktails can stopCovid symptoms from progressing.They can be used with or withoutvaccines for patients at highest riskof severe disease.

The supply is limited. The twocompanies with authorized versions,Eli Lily and Regeneron, will ship a lit-tle more than one million doses bythe end of the year. Evidence sug-gests that for every 10 high-risk pa-tients treated, one hospitalizationmight be avoided. That may soundmodest, but it adds up: a milliondoses administered could translateinto 100,000 fewer hospitalizations.Such a reprieve would help hospitalskeep up with the current surge.

The biggest difficulty is logistical.Patients need to be referred for anti-bodies soon after diagnosis. The infu-sion takes several hours to prepare, de-liver and monitor. A specialized nursemust supervise, with protective equip-ment, in a space separate from otherpatients to minimize spread.

Most early doses have been goingto hospitals. But many hospitals arestrapped by Covid and having a hardtime setting up dedicated space andredirecting trained nursing and sup-port staff. The government should

send more antibodies to communityinfusion centers and clinics that havetaken steps to administer doses.These clinics can work with testingsites to speed referrals.

Maryland has helped establish in-fusion-ready sites in each region andis educating providers on how to re-fer patients. Most health insurershave set up payment mechanismsbased on Medicare’s approach to re-imburse for the service. But this maynot be sufficient, particularly forhome infusion of nursing-home resi-dents and other hard-to-reach pa-tients. Health plans could enter spe-cialized contracts with home-infusionproviders to create more predictablecapacity to treat such patients.

Operation Warp Speed is funding apilot program to provide infusions innursing homes and patients’ homesin seven cities. But the scale is small.Medicare should also pay providersmore for counseling a patient whotests positive, since treatment hasimproved beyond merely telling peo-ple to isolate. Counseling could helpensure timely referrals to antibodytreatment when appropriate.

Another obstacle is the limited ev-idence about the drugs. Some doctors

aren’t convinced they have any bene-fit. Each emergency authorizationwas based on a single study of mod-erate size. This isn’t unusual in apublic-health emergency, especiallyfor a drug intended for high-risk pa-tients. But both approved antibody

treatments work similarly and the to-tality of the evidence seems to showcompelling effects, reinforced by evi-dence that the coronavirus can be ef-fectively neutralized by antibodies.Evidence is also growing that thedrugs are relatively safe.

There are ways to build on theavailable evidence. First, since theantibodies are in limited supply,states such as Colorado have set up asystem to randomize who gets dosesif supply runs short. That and similarsystems are opportunities to gathermore evidence on patient outcomes.

Many large health systems and in-surers are tracking their Covid pa-tients; if the antibody effects turnout to be as significant as suggestedin trials, it should show up in analy-ses using this data. These studiescould also help zero in on which pa-tients are most likely to benefit andassess the best ways to providetreatments, especially to underservedpopulations.

The latest Covid trends are miser-able, and it’s too late to stamp outthis surge. But there’s still time tosave lives and help contain Covidfrom now on—by making aggressiveuse of both vaccines and antibodytreatments now entering the market.

Dr. Gottlieb is a resident fellow atthe American Enterprise Institute andwas commissioner of the Food andDrug Administration, 2017-19. Dr. Mc-Clellan is the director of the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy atDuke University and was FDA com-missioner, 2002-04. Dr. Gottliebserves on the boards of Pfizer and Il-lumina and Dr. McClellan on theboards of Johnson and Johnson andCigna; each company is involved inaspects of the Covid response.

By Scott GottliebAnd Mark McClellan

Strapped hospitals arestruggling to set upinfusion sites. But statesand the feds can help.

Online Class and False ADHD Diagnoses

O nline learning is especially dif-ficult for young children, andschools are blaming parents. A

woman came to see me because her8-year-old daughter’s school recom-mended neuropsychological evalua-tion. Each day the girl was expectedto sit in a chair, stare at a computerfor hours, listen, memorize and re-peat. Not surprisingly, she had trou-ble staying engaged, often got upand moved around, and was dis-tracted when the teacher called onher. She had no learning or attentionproblems before Covid-19 and her re-

actions were perfectly normal. Theproblem was the school’s unrealisticexpectations.

The pandemic and the shift to on-line learning seem to be intensifyingthe trend toward pathologizing ordi-nary childhood behavior. Diagnosinga child with attention-deficit/hyper-activity disorder isn’t straightfor-ward. It can be challenging to deter-mine if the child’s behavior indicatesa neurodevelopmental disorder or anatural response to a stressful andstifling environment. The prevalenceof ADHD diagnoses among U.S. chil-dren and adolescents rose from 6.1%in 1997-98 to 10.2% in 2015-16 amongU.S. children and adolescents. A 2015study found a correlation betweenrates of ADHD diagnosis and laws pe-nalizing school districts when stu-dents fail, suggesting that diagnosticrates can be influenced by policy.

Covid-19 shutdowns complicatethe matter further. Teachers and ad-ministrators expect to be able toteach young children in the same waythey did when they were face to face.But children under 10 have a hardtime learning remotely, even if theyclearly don’t have ADHD—and theyounger the child, the more difficultthe task. Young children are filledwith exploratory energy, and needoutlets for play and creativity.

That said, it is exciting to watch aseducation-technology entrepreneurswork to find solutions to this schoolfailure. New online tutoring compa-nies for young children use more cre-ative and experiential methods ofteaching, don’t expect children tostay online for long and have realistic

expectations for what kids can learnin the online format. “Our childrenare feeling unheard and unseen, witha thoughtful, hands-on, playful andexperiential approach remote learn-ing can be successful for even theyoungest of learners,” said MaryCantwell, a co-founder of En-richedNYC. “But the schools are notimplementing such an approach. ”

As the second half of the schoolyear begins, parents and teachersmust accept that distraction and dis-engagement during online learningare normal, not pathological. Chil-dren are feeling frustrated and needcompassion rather than judgment,criticism and impatience from theadults in their lives. For most,2020-21 won’t be a year of great ac-ademic achievement. But it could bea year of strengthening relationshipswith family members, building resil-ience and emotional maturity, andlearning to cope with the disappoint-ment and adversity of missingfriends and activities. The most im-portant lessons for everyone thisyear will be learned outside theclassroom.

Ms. Komisar is a psychoanalystand author of “Being There: Why Pri-oritizing Motherhood in the FirstThree Years Matters.”

By Erica Komisar

Children under 10 can’tbe expected to stare ata computer for hours.

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A24 | Monday, December 21, 2020 THEWALL STREET JOURNAL.

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© 2020 Dow Jones & Company. All Rights Reserved. * * * * THEWALL STREET JOURNAL. Monday, December 21, 2020 | B1

PERSONAL TECHNOLOGY: FOOD-DELIVERY APPS CAN MAKE YOUR BURGER COST MORE B4

LastWeek: S&P 3709.41 À 1.25% S&PFIN À 0.12% S&P IT À 3.20% DJTRANS g 0.84% WSJ$ IDX g 0.96% LIBOR3M 0.236 NIKKEI 26763.39 À 0.42% Seemore atWSJ.com/Markets

BUSINESS&FINANCE

BY HEATHER HADDONAND JULIE WERNAU

FINANCEMan who runs

$1.3 trillion fund inNorway grapples

with public scrutiny. B8

thwarts consumers’ ability toreturn to public spaces. Mediameasurement company Com-score estimates only about athird of North America’s the-aters are open.

Abroad, the economies ofkey international box-officemarkets like the U.K., Braziland Mexico are also under se-vere strain as many peoplechoose to stay home. Over theweekend, the U.K. initiated

more lockdowns to curb thespread of the coronavirus,even as the nation recently be-gan distributing a vaccine.

“Wonder Woman 1984”stars Gal Gadot as the titularcharacter and is directed byPatty Jenkins. Immersed in theglitz and excess of 1980sAmerica, the Amazonian war-rior turned superhero istasked with battling villains

PleaseturntopageB2

Fidelity National Informa-tion Services Inc. and GlobalPayments Inc. recently heldunsuccessful talks for amerger deal that could havebeen valued at around $70 bil-lion, people familiar with thematter said, in a sign that awave of consolidation is stillsweeping through the pay-ments industry.

The companies, which maketechnology that facilitates mer-chant payments and banking,were in advanced talks andaiming to announce a deal thiscoming week before the nego-tiations broke down in the lastfew days, the people said. Itcouldn’t be learned what spe-cifically caused them to falter.

Had the companies managedto strike a deal, it would havebeen the biggest of the year byfar, eclipsing several transac-tions valued at about $40 bil-lion, according to Dealogic.Global Payments has a marketcapitalization of nearly $59 bil-lion. Fidelity National, widelyknown as FIS, has a marketvalue of around $90 billion.

Though there is little pros-pect of the talks coming backto life imminently, they couldget revived later, some of thepeople said.

Atlanta-based Global Pay-ments primarily provides tech-nology and point-of-sale ser-vices to merchants. Acombination would have ex-panded FIS’s merchant-facingbusiness, which currently ac-counts for roughly 20% of itsrevenue. The bulk of the Jack-sonville, Fla., company’s reve-nue last year came from serv-ing banks, helping them withsuch tasks as commerciallending and risk management.

There has been a rush ofdeal making in the sector inrecent years as establishedcompanies seek to gain econo-mies of scale and better com-pete with upstarts. Early lastyear, Fiserv Inc. agreed to payabout $22 billion for FirstData Corp. Then FIS struck a$35 billion deal for WorldpayInc., the largest payments dealto date. Months later, GlobalPayments did a roughly $22billion deal for Total SystemsServices Inc., which was betterknown as TSYS.

FIS’s deal for Worldpay,which closed in July 2019, ex-panded its merchant businessand brought it into more

PleaseturntopageB2

BY CARA LOMBARDOAND DANA CIMILLUCA

PaymentsFirms FailTo Reach$70 BillionMerger

The money and goodwill ex-tended to restaurants early inthe pandemic are drying up.

Independent restaurantowners say that lifelines ex-tended by landlords, banks andvendors when the pandemicfirst hit the U.S. are ending,while federal loans made aspart of pandemic-related stim-ulus programs are long gone.

The bleak financial picturemeans that many more restau-rants could close in the comingmonths, adding to the tens ofthousands of restaurants thathave already shut during thepandemic.

The timing couldn’t beworse. More states and locali-ties have ordered restaurantsto close their dining roomsagain to curb the virus’sspread, with New York Cityamong the latest to suspend in-door service earlier this month.Outdoor patios that helpedcarry restaurants throughwarmer months aren’t popularin much of the U.S. now, andlandlords and suppliers whoextended help earlier in thepandemic face challenges oftheir own after months of cus-tomers falling behind.

For independent restau-rants, the cash crunch is forc-ing hard decisions aboutwhether they should take on

U.S. business loans this year

Accommodationand Food Services

Arts, Entertainmentand Recreation

Construction

Educational Services

Mining, Quarrying,Oil and Gas Extraction

Administrativeand Support*

Accommodationand Food Services

COMMERCIAL LOANSchange from previous year, Aug.–Oct.

–20.9%

3.4

–18.7

8.4

–16.0

–16.2

7.0Public Administration

6.7%

3.2

2.8

2.8

2.3

3.0

1.6

SMALLBUSINESS LOANS IN DEFAULT,Oct.

Sales are falling again at independent restaurants at the same timethat financial supports to the industry are dwindling.

Sources: NPD Group (sales); PayNet (loans)*Includes waste management and remediation services

Sales at independent full service restaurants

$8

0

2

4

6

billion

Feb.Jan. March April May June July Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov.

Share-price and indexperformance

Sources: FactSet (performance); IHS Markit (shorts)

700

–100

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

%

Jan. Dec.

Tesla

S&P 500

ShortedTeslasharesasapercentageofsharesavailablefor trading

50

0

25

%

2011 ’20

ter the S&P 500 on Monday.Tesla’s run has been so

powerful that many bearish in-vestors have abandoned theirmoney-losing bets, sendingshort positions on the stock toa record low. Short interest inthe stock as a percentage ofshares available for trading re-cently fell to a low of 5%,down from roughly 18% earlierin the year, IHS Markit datashows.

Since Tesla went public adecade ago, its market valuehas surged to $659 billion tobecome the sixth-largest com-pany in the U.S. market. Teslais by far the biggest companyever added to the S&P 500. Itsmarket value ballooned evenbefore it delivered four con-

secutive quarters of profit tomake it eligible for inclusion.

Tesla bulls say the com-pany’s potential is limitlessand are buying even morestock as shares charge to newhighs.

“There’s so much goodnews to come,” said RostislavZotin, a 44-year-old businessengineer who said he has beenregularly buying Tesla sharessince 2013, stashing away ex-tra income in the investment.He pointed to Chief ExecutiveElon Musk’s ability to innovateand his promise of an on-de-mand robot taxi fleet. “I’d rec-ommend to buy Tesla at anyprice,” he added.

After buying a black TeslaPleaseturntopageB4

Die-hard Tesla Inc. inves-tors are feeling vindicated:The stock is extending its re-lentless run, and the companyis set to join the S&P 500, themost widely tracked stockbenchmark in the world. Manyare even buying more shares.

Tesla has surged 731% thisyear and reached a record Fri-day, padding the wallets of in-vestors who have poured theirsavings into both the stockand the company’s electriccars. The rally has acceleratedsince S&P Dow Jones Indicessaid it would add Tesla to thebenchmark. The shares are up70% since Nov. 16 and will en-

BY GUNJAN BANERJIAND MICHAEL WURSTHORN

Tesla Bulls Double Down on Shares

additional debt to survive—provided they can get loans atall.

Peter Mihajlov, co-founderof Parasole Restaurant Hold-ings Inc. group of restaurantsin the Minneapolis area, saidhis banks agreed to defer prin-cipal payments on loans afterthe March shutdown. Nowthose same banks are takingtheir time in responding to hisrequests for further deferrals,he said.

“The hand of fate is nowwithin an inch away from theoff switch. The industry is al-ready on life support,” said Mr.Mihajlov, who closed three ofhis restaurants during the pan-demic and is limping along atthe other seven after Minne-sota suspended indoor dininglast month.

More than 110,000 restau-rants and bars have closed forgood or fallen dormant sincethe pandemic hit, a figure thatrepresents at least 17% of alleating and drinking places inthe U.S., according to estimatesthis month from the NationalRestaurant Association. Of the6,000 operators surveyed bythe trade group, 37% said theydidn’t expect to survive thenext six months without help.

Restaurants have lobbiedCongress for months to pass abill that would allocate $120billion in grants to the indus-try. The bill has bipartisan sup-port but hasn’t moved forward.A deal was reached on Sundayfor a roughly $900 billion reliefpackage that includes aid forsmall businesses. In the deal,President Trump would get the

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RestaurantSafety Net FraysAsWinter Sets InManagers say optionsfor financial aiddecrease as thenew year approaches

INSIDE

over the past decade, removingthe main funding source formany of their local businesses.Small loans are also far lessprofitable: Bankers say it costsabout the same to process anapplication for a $100,000 loanas it does for a $1 million one.

Lenders have further pulledback during the pandemic,tightening underwriting stan-dards for small businesses thissummer to a degree unseensince the last financial crisis,according to a Federal Reservesurvey of loan officers.

At JPMorgan Chase & Co.,America’s biggest bank by as-sets, non-PPP loans to smallbusinesses fell to $956 millionin the third quarter, the lowestlevel since 2010. Nonbank lend-ers and financial-technologycompanies, go-to fundingsources for small businesses inrecent years, have scaled back,too. PayPal Holdings Inc. andSquare Inc. paused new creditoffers in the spring and haven’treturned to prepandemic lend-ing levels. Kabbage Inc. has yetto make new loans since it solditself to American Express Co.

PleaseturntopageB8

Small businesses thatcleared the hurdle of the coro-navirus shutdowns are now en-countering an all-too-familiarobstacle: Banks don’t want tolend to them.

The Paycheck ProtectionProgram funneled $525 billionin forgivable loans to millionsof small businesses in the pan-demic’s early days. Yet thatmassive infusion masked ayearslong contraction in small-business lending that happenedalongside a big-business bor-rowing boom.

In 2007, banks held $721 bil-lion in small loans to busi-nesses and small commercialmortgages of $1 million or less,according to an analysis ofbank regulatory filings by Flor-ida Atlantic University profes-sor Rebel A. Cole. By 2019, suchloan balances had fallen around6% to $680 billion. Bigger busi-ness loans and commercialmortgages, meanwhile, morethan doubled to $2.82 trillion.

There are a few reasons forthe credit chasm. Thousands ofcommunity banks disappeared

BY PETER RUDEGEAIR

Lack of Bank CreditHits Small Business

Warner Bros.’ highly antici-pated “Wonder Woman” se-quel faced stiff headwinds asthe studio rolled out themovie across a patchwork ofinternational markets, many ofwhich are still being hit hardby the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Wonder Woman 1984”grossed a mere $38.5 millionfrom 32 countries, accordingto preliminary estimates, justdays before Warner Bros. willdebut the film on ChristmasDay simultaneously in U.S.theaters and living rooms viathe company’s streaming plat-form HBO Max. The first“Wonder Woman” grossed$103.3 million in the U.S. andCanada during its openingweekend in 2017.

While some theaters in theU.S. have managed to reopenat limited capacity during thepandemic, others, includingthose in large metropolitanmarkets like New York Cityand Los Angeles, have re-mained closed because of lock-downs as the pandemic

BY R.T. WATSON

Virus Blunts Overseas DebutOf ‘Wonder Woman 1984’

The sequel attracts a line of moviegoers in Shanghai.

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More states and localities, including New York, have ordered restaurants to close their dining rooms.

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B2 | Monday, December 21, 2020 * * * * THEWALL STREET JOURNAL.

INDEX TO BUSINESSESThese indexes cite notable references to most parent companies and businesspeoplein today’s edition. Articles on regional page inserts aren’t cited in these indexes.

AAccenture....................B5Advanced Micro DevicesA1

Adyen. .........................B2Alamo DrafthouseCinema......................B2

Alibaba Group...........A11Alphabet................A2,B3Amazon.com...............A1American Express.......B1Ant Group...................A1Apple.........................A14ARK InvestmentManagement ............A2

Arm Holdings..............A2AT&T............................B2

BBank of America.........B5BioNTech SE...............A6Boeing.........................A3

CCarnival .......................B8CVS Health .................A6

DDelta Air Lines...........A6DoorDash.....................B4

EEquifax ........................B8

FFacebook .....................A2Fidelity NationalInformation ServicesB1

Fiserv...........................B1Ford Motor..................B9Foxconn TechnologyGroup ......................A14

GGlobal Payments.........B1Goldman Sachs GroupA6

IInstacart......................B4Intel.............................A1Iron Mountain.............B5ISHIR...........................B8

JJohnson & Johnson....B9

LLumiraDX UK..............A6

MMicrosoft...............A1,B9

Moderna......................A6

N

Netflix.........................A6Nvidia..........................A1

P

Parasole RestaurantHoldings....................B1

PayPal Holdings..........B1Pfizer...........................A6Primary Health NetworkA6

S

Samsung ElectronicsA14Shake Shack................B4Southwest Airlines....A3Square....................B1,B2

T

Taiwan SemiconductorManufacturing..........A2

Tesla............................B1

W

Walgreens BootsAlliance.....................A6

Walt Disney...........B2,B3Wistron.....................A14

INDEX TO PEOPLE

BUSINESS & FINANCE

porate umbrella, said lastmonth it planned to adopt ahybrid distribution model with“Wonder Woman 1984.” Thecompany will release themovie both in U.S. theatersand on HBO Max, in the hopesof attracting new subscribersto the streaming platformwhich has struggled sincelaunching in May.

Warner Bros. also said itwould follow a similar strat-egy with its entire 2021 slateof movies, a move heavily crit-icized by many filmmakersand theater owners.

“Wonder Woman 1984” isthe second $200 million movie

Warner Bros. has opted to re-lease during the pandemic. Aweek before Labor Day week-end, director Christopher No-lan’s sci-fi thriller “Tenet”made its debut in 41 interna-tional markets, grossing $53million. The film has grossed$362.2 million world-wide, ac-cording to Warner Bros., withmore than $300 million of itstotal generated from interna-tional ticket sales.

Theater chains in many in-ternational markets, particu-larly in Asia, haven’t sufferedas much as their Americancounterparts. For the firsttime in history, China—previ-

ously the world’s second-larg-est box office market—willsupplant the U.S. as theworld’s top market in 2020.

The bulk of ticket sales for“Wonder Woman 1984” thisweekend came from China,where the movie grossed $18.8million, according to WarnerBros.

Overall, however, the globalbox office market is on pace tolose billions of dollars in 2020.Comscore analyst Paul Derga-rabedian estimates the world-wide box-office total this yearwill fall within a range of $11.5billion to $12 billion versus$42.5 billion in 2019.

Gal Gadot and Kristen Wiig in the superhero film, which will open in the U.S. on AT&T’s HBO Max.

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snapped back with severalmegadeals—especially amongsectors that weathered the cri-sis relatively well such as tech-nology and health care—andthe year’s global deal volumetrails last year’s by just 8%, ac-cording to Dealogic.

Together with AstraZenecaPLC’s agreement to buy Alex-ion Pharmaceuticals Inc. for$39 billion, the payments talksunderscore what many dealmakers have been saying forweeks—that with stock priceshigh, interest rates at rock-bottom levels and many sec-tors of the economy perform-ing well, the ground is fertilefor more big mergers headinginto next year.

—Peter Rudegeaircontributed to this article.

shrinking number of majorplayers. Mr. Norcross in par-ticular has been open aboutwanting to continue to growthrough acquisitions.

One question likely to havearisen had they struck a dealis whether it would havepassed muster with regulators,given it would merge two ofthe largest companies in thepayments industry. But theground is shifting given therapid rise of newer rivals suchas Adyen NV, Square Inc. andStripe Inc.

The abortive deal is a fittingcoda to an erratic year of dealmaking. The pandemic broughtmergers and acquisitions to avirtual halt early in 2020 thatpersisted through the secondquarter. But activity soon

countries. Global Payments’spurchase of TSYS closed inSeptember 2019 and wasmeant to expand its e-com-merce presence in the U.S. andboost market share.

Both companies’ chief exec-utives—FIS’s Gary Norcrossand Jeffrey Sloan of GlobalPayments—are experienceddeal makers and influentialfigures in a sector with a

ContinuedfrompageB1

PaymentsFirms FailTo Get Deal

chine supplier deferred hispayments for three months.Now the landlord is struggling,too. “He already lost a quarterof his income for the year,” Mr.Roberts said. “I can’t go backto him at this point.”

As the number of tenantsnot paying rent has grown,many mall owners and retaillandlords have filed bank-ruptcy.

“Landlords were more be-nevolent and understanding,particularly early on,” said LewKornberg, a restaurant adviserwith Jones Lang LaSalle Inc.’s

retail tenant division. “Butlandlords have their own real-ity.”

Landlords that providedrent relief to restaurants ear-lier this year are now treatingthe relief as outstanding debtsthat must be paid, and in somecases heading to court, saidDavid J. Marmins, a partner atArnall Golden Gregory LLP,which is representing dine-incinema company Alamo Draft-house Cinema. The Texas-based chain is embroiled in alegal fight over rent.

Benjamin Walker, vice presi-dent of sales and marketing atBaldor Specialty Foods, Inc., afood supplier to restaurants inNew York City, said the com-pany was no longer able to beflexible after losing significantbusiness from both restaurantsand hotels and a 40% drop in

order size from existing clients.His company has had to bringseveral restaurants to court toseek payment. “We’re always incourt,” he said.

Some banks lending to theindustry say they are doingwhat they can to provide sup-port. But restaurants with littlecash left may want to take onan outside partner rather thanaccrue more debt, and somewill struggle to survive, saidMark Wasilefsky, head of TDBank’s Restaurant Franchise Fi-nance Group.

“The industry is going to bechanged irrevocably,” he added.

Restaurant owners said theyare cutting hours and furlough-ing workers again. Some opera-tors are closing individual res-taurants to try to focus on theones with the best chances.

Still, the bills keep coming.Blair Papagni, who already shutone of her two restaurants ear-lier in the pandemic, is downto two employees at her otherBrooklyn restaurant, Anella,and now faces thousands ofdollars in sales tax and liquor-license bills due.

“I have to figure out what todo. I just don’t have $4,500 inthe couch cushion,” Ms. Pa-pagni said.

Bill Kozlak, the third genera-tion in his family to run 88-year-old Jax Cafe in Minneapo-lis, isn’t ruling out bankruptcyafter sales have plummeted $3million this year.

Canceling indoor Christmasdecorations saved a few thou-sand dollars, and the Twin Cit-ies institution has asked itsbank for extensions on loanpayments, along with moreloans. “I’ve never been soscared,” he said.

—Richard Rubincontributed to this article.

AARO

NLA

VINSK

Y/ST

ARTR

IBUNE/ASS

OCIAT

EDPR

ESS

CCole, Rebel A. .............B1

DDergarabedian, Paul ...B2

FFoster, Alan.................B3

GGarrow, George...........A6Golub, Jonathan..........B5

HHalevy, Tammy...........B8

Hartigan, Patrick........A3

KKhanna, Rishi..............B8Kozlak, Bill..................B2

MMa, Jack......................A1

NNorcross, Gary............B2

PPapagni, Blair..............B2

Phelan, Bill..................B8S

Schwartz, Henry.........B4Siemer, Michael..........B8Sloan, Jeffrey .............B2

TTangen, Nicolai ...........B8

WWalker, Kent...............B3Wasilefsky, Mark........B2Wasserman, Larry......A3

More cities and states are banning indoor dining again.

amid efforts to save the world.Buoyed by the on-screenchemistry between Ms. Gadotand co-star Chris Pine, themovie has received generallypositive reviews, including acritics score exceeding 80% onRotten Tomatoes, despitemany grumbling about a two-and-half-hour run time.

Hollywood studios havelargely chosen to remove themost-anticipated and expen-sive movies from the calendarthis year. For one, Walt Dis-ney Co. delayed the release ofMarvel spinoff “Black Widow.”

While avid moviegoers, andfans of the DC Comics’ fran-chise, are likely to cheer thereturn of superheroes to thebig screen, the “WonderWoman” sequel will almostcertainly fall short of match-ing its predecessor’s successat the box office. In 2017,“Wonder Woman” went on togross $412.8 million in the U.S.and Canada and $822.3 millionglobally.

Aware of the film’s limitedbox-office prospects, Warner-Media, which controls WarnerBros. underneath AT&T’s cor-

ContinuedfrompageB1

‘WonderWoman’ inHard Debut

business-meals deduction hehas desired for 2021 and 2022.Critics have expressed concernthat a “three-martini-lunch”break would encourage indoordining during a pandemic. ButMr. Trump, swayed by restau-rateurs such as Wolfgang Puck,said it is important for the res-taurant industry.

States and cities that haveestablished grant programs forrestaurants have been floodedwith requests for help. Los An-geles County started a $5.6million fund to provide grantsof $30,000 to restaurants ear-lier this month. Demandcrashed the online applicationsite in its first day after it re-ceived thousands of inquiries,the county said. It reached thecap of 2,500 applications thefirst day after reopening.

Sales at many independentrestaurants recovered someover the summer, but height-ened restrictions put into placeby states in cities starting lastmonth have curbed the re-bound, according to industrydata firm NPD Group Inc. Salesat independent, sit-down res-taurants were down 24% in No-vember compared with lastyear, the first time since Aprilthat year-over-year declineshave deteriorated.

Nearly 7% of small-businessloans to restaurants and hotelswere in default as of October,the greatest percentage of anysector tracked by PayNet, acommercial-lending-data divi-sion of Equifax Inc. Commerciallending to restaurants and ho-tels has declined 24% this yearcompared with last, the steep-est plunge of any sector, ac-cording to PayNet.

Bill Roberts, owner of a res-taurant group in the Detroitsuburbs, said he had hoped todraw down some credit fromhis business to help pay billsbut said one of his lenders sawlittle value in his operationcurrently.

Mr. Roberts said one of hislandlords offered him severalmonths of free rent earlier thisyear, while his dishwasher-ma-

ContinuedfrompageB1

RestaurantSafety NetWeakens

More than 110,000restaurants and barshave closed for goodsince the pandemic.

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THEWALL STREET JOURNAL. Monday, December 21, 2020 | B3

ters. He and his wife are both inpoor health, and he said theroyalties could come in handyfor medical expenses. “I’m notSteve Spielberg. I’m not SteveKing. I don’t even have a namethat starts with Steve,” he said.

The dispute began in thesummer of 2019, when Mr. Fos-ter’s literary agent, VaughneHansen, first asked Disney whyhe had stopped receiving royaltychecks on three novels he hadwritten tied to “Alien,” theouter-space horror series pro-duced by Twentieth Century Fox,the studio Disney bought as partof a $71.3 billion deal in 2019.

Mr. Foster and his agentthen realized the same thinghad occurred to his royaltiesfor two Star Wars books afterDisney bought Lucasfilm.

In response to queries aboutthe “Alien” checks, a Disney at-torney told Mr. Foster that thecompany had acquired therights to these books, but notthe obligations to pay out royal-ties. But in the case of “Alien,”Ms. Hansen said, the rights toMr. Foster’s novels had been re-assigned several times, with nointerruption of royalty checks,before Disney bought Fox.

“Disney has acquired ahouse with a mortgage on it.They want to keep living in thehouse. They don’t want to paythe mortgage,” Mr. Foster said.

The writers group says asimilar pattern has emergedfollowing other Disney deals. Atleast a half-dozen writersacross a range of Disney-ownedproperties have since said theyare in the same boat, said MaryRobinette Kowal, president ofthe Science Fiction and FantasyWriters of America.

Disney has begun reviewingthe “Alien” case, but there is aline of writers behind Mr. Fos-ter waiting for a turn at the ne-gotiating table. The writers ofthe novelizations of “The Em-pire Strikes Back” and “Returnof the Jedi” have said they aremissing royalty checks, too.

petitive behavior. One of thestate lawsuits took a dim viewof the effectiveness of that ini-tiative, flagging a Google andFacebook Inc. agreement thatprosecutors say guaranteedspecial treatment for the so-cial-media company in Google-

run ad auctions.“Any collaboration between

competitors of such magni-tude should have set off theloudest alarm bells in terms ofantitrust compliance,” the law-suit said.

“This partnership has been

Alan Dean Foster was in hislate 20s when George Lucas,standing near a model of theMillennium Falcon in a ware-house in Southern California,met him to discuss writing thenovel adaptation of his forth-coming movie “Star Wars.”

The original contract calledfor an upfront payment of$7,500, until Mr. Lucas tossedMr. Foster a 0.5% royalty onsales that Mr. Foster, now 74years old, says added up to sev-eral times that initial payment.They arrived several times ayear as the original 1977 block-buster set box-office recordsand the novelization he wrotewent on to sell more than onemillion copies.

Then, in 2012, Walt DisneyCo. bought Lucasfilm Ltd.—andthe royalty checks stopped.

Now, Mr. Foster and otherauthors from Disney-purchasedfranchises are in a heated dis-pute with Hollywood’s biggestempire, which they say refusesto pay royalties on book con-tracts it absorbed in the $4 bil-lion Lucasfilm deal and otheracquisitions.

The amount of money atstake is minuscule to a com-pany of Disney’s size but im-portant to the writers seekingit. While Disney has mined Lu-casfilm for new movies thathave collectively grossed nearly$6 billion at the world-widebox office, these writers say thecompany has delayed dealingwith their complaints andstiffed them on checks thatrarely total a few thousandbucks apiece.

Since Mr. Foster’s disputewas taken public by the ScienceFiction and Fantasy Writers ofAmerica association, other au-thors of books tied to projectsfrom Indiana Jones to “Buffythe Vampire Slayer” have comeforward with similar stories ofroyalty checks that stopped af-ter Disney acquired the proper-ties. In each case, Disneythreatens to alienate an obscurebut vital tentacle of the fran-chises, as these novelizationshelped build and maintain fanloyalty. The exact amount ofmoney at stake is unknown,since sales for the books havefluctuated over time.

A Disney spokesman said:“We are carefully reviewingwhether any royalty paymentsmay have been missed as a re-sult of acquisition integrationand will take appropriate reme-dial steps if that is the case.”

Mr. Foster says Disney is ig-noring the workaday playerswho help build intergenerationalconnections to beloved charac-

BY ERICH SCHWARTZEL

‘StarWars’ NovelistsFight Disney for Pay

Author Alan Dean Foster

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Perhaps the most influen-tial executive at Google is aman who can’t write a line ofcode.

That is Kent Walker, thecompany’s chief legal officerand head of global affairs,whose role puts him at thecenter of the search giant’santitrust affairs. It also giveshim the power to lead the de-fense that will determinewhether one of the world’sdominant conglomerates isable to keep growing—or getsclipped.

Google faces formidable le-gal challenges. Its parent, Al-phabet Inc., was sued by fed-eral prosecutors in October forallegedly abusing monopolypower in its flagship searchengine, and last week state at-torneys general added theirown pair of lawsuits targetingdigital advertising, amongother areas. Google broadlydenies the claims and says itwill contest them in court.

While some of the specificallegations are new, Google’suse of its power has been un-der scrutiny for at least a de-cade. Under Mr. Walker, whobecame chief legal officer in2018, it has fended off inqui-ries in Australia, Brazil, Can-ada, France, India, Italy, Rus-sia, South Korea, Taiwan andthe U.K. without sustaining ameaningful blow. The Euro-pean Union made the biggestsplash, levying total fines ofmore than $10 billion, butsince the first of the EU’sthree decisions against Googlelanded in 2017, the company’srevenue and stock price haveshot up by about half.

Mr. Walker, a 14-year com-pany veteran, has long favoredproviding regulators withreams of data and paperwork,according to current and for-mer employees, yet those tac-tics might be wearing thin.

As part of the U.S. HouseJudiciary Committee’s probeinto technology giants’ marketpower this year, Alphabetturned in 1,135,398 documents,including strategy memos, pre-sentations and materials pro-duced in prior investigations.

The government’s responsewas withering. “AlthoughGoogle produced a significantamount of material, subcom-mittee staff did not view thisvolume as a proxy for quality,”the subcommittee report said.

Google spokesman JasonPost said: “We don’t seek tooverproduce, and we do ourbest to narrow requests.”

Mr. Walker, 59, declined tobe interviewed. Current andformer employees—many ofwhom worked closely withhim—said he is a true believerin the potential for technology,and thinks Google has beenunfairly maligned. His atti-tude, they said, is that Googleneeds to better explain its be-havior, rather than change it.

“Kent’s perspective, whichhe imbued his legal team with,is that the lawyers should biastoward making new thingshappen, and should not beagents of ‘no,’” said formerGoogle public-policy headAdam Kovacevich.

Among Mr. Walker’s priori-ties has been the expansion ofembedded groups of lawyersacross the conglomerate whoact as eyes and ears to spot,and stop, potentially anticom-

public for years. The idea thatthis was a secret deal is justwrong,” the Google spokesmansaid. Facebook declined tocomment.

Like most large companies,Alphabet hires scores of out-side lawyers, especially forprotracted litigation such asan antitrust case. Mr. Walkeris in charge of the company’slegal strategy and has beendeposed on behalf of Googleon occasion.

Mr. Walker is a relative rar-ity in Silicon Valley, havinggrown up in the area. He pickedup degrees at Harvard Univer-sity and Stanford Law School.

Mr. Walker is a Shakespearenut—he treks every Labor Dayto the Oregon Shakespeare fes-tival—and an unabashed square,friends say. In law school, heturned down front-row ticketsto see U2 because he wanted tocatch up on his reading, his for-mer roommate said.

A runner who once ran theBoston Marathon, he can becompetitive and flash a temper,people who know him said. Afew years ago, Google’s internalauditors flagged him for post-ing profane messages to themembers of Google’s internalultimate-Frisbee team, one ofthe people said. He was frus-trated that the team’s equip-ment kept being removed fromhis office, and circulated an in-ternal note, “Where the f--- aremy cones?”

After law school, Mr.Walker joined the Clinton ad-ministration as a prosecutor.

Mr. Walker’s remit is un-usually broad for a generalcounsel. In addition to legal,he supervises public policy,Google’s Trust and Safety or-ganization, a “responsible in-novation” department, thinktank Jigsaw and a charity armthat doles out $200 million ingrants yearly.

BY ROB COPELAND

Google’s Chief Lawyer Faces Biggest Struggle

Kent Walker is described as a true believer in technology.

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TECHNOLOGY & BUSINESS WSJ.com/Tech

bers-only savings. A Costcospokeswoman declined to pro-vide comment.

Rafi Mohammed, the au-thor of “The Art of Pricing,”found the same is true forsome restaurants on deliveryapps. A Boston-based Italianrestaurant, T Anthony’s, sellsa large meat lovers’ pizza for$19.20. On Uber Eats, thesame pie costs $23.90. Priceson DoorDash and Grubhub arelower but still elevated.

The difference helps coverUber’s 30% commission, saidJoe Rastellini, the restaurant’sowner. “Before, I just had myown drivers and Grubhub.Then, because of the pan-demic, I ended up adding newservices, and when you signup with them you’ve got toplay ball.”

Mr. Mohammed expects theprice of delivery will go downafter the pandemic. “Insteadof going to the movies or theballpark, we’ve been spendingthat money on ordering in,”he said.

That cost is already goingdown for some through sub-scription plans. You pay a setamount monthly or annuallyin exchange for reduced per-order costs (and sometimesfaster service). Are they worthit? Only if you order fre-quently enough. Here’s howsubscription plans for themost popular meal and gro-cery delivery services work:

Instacart ExpressPrice: $9.99 a month; $99 a

yearWorth-it monthly mini-

mum: Three ordersNonmember delivery fee:

$3.99

Instacart’s membershipwaives delivery fees for cartsof $35 or more. Benefits alsoinclude free one-hour pickupand a reduced service fee(1.9% instead of the nonmem-ber 5%). The service isn’t lim-ited to groceries, either: Re-tailers including Best Buy andCVS are on the app as well.

Walmart+Price: $12.95 a month; $98

a yearWorth-it monthly mini-

mum: Two ordersNonmember delivery fee:

$7.95Walmart’s new program is

a rebranded version of the

Bananas3 lbs.

Bounty paper towels12 ct.

Charmin toilet paper30 ct.

Kirkland Strawberries4 lb.

Kirkland tortilla chips40 oz.

Oreo cookies52.5 oz.Cauliflower2 lbs.Green beans2 lbs.

Apricots3 lb.

Thai Kitchen coconutmilk6 x 13.66 fl. oz.

$22.99

20.99

9.99

9.69

8.99

8.59

5.99

5.99

4.59

1.49

$27.49total

25.09

11.99

11.59

10.79

10.29

7.19

7.19

5.49

1.79

Costco price

Cost of ConvenienceComparing the price of groceries bought at a Costco inMountainView, Calif., withwhat Instacart charged the customerwhoordered them shows a hiddenmarkup, in addition to delivery fees.

Prices before delivery fees and taxes

Source: Rags Srinivasan

PERSONAL TECHNOLOGY | By Nicole Nguyen

Food-Delivery Fees Can Eat at Your WalletOn the Cav-

iar food-deliv-ery app forSan Francisco,a doubleShackBurger

from Shake Shack is listed at$8.99, the same price it costsin-store. Yet by the time itreaches your door, it costs$18.91. Here’s the breakdownof nearly $10 in addedcharges:

Tax: 76 cents Delivery fee: $1.99 Recommended tip: $3 Small-order fee: $3 Service fee: $1.17During the pandemic, peo-

ple have been willing to paythe delivery upcharge as away to exercise caution whileprocuring meals and grocer-ies. Following the first roundof shelter-in-place orders,suburbs drove the first profit-able quarter for DoorDashInc., which owns Caviar. InApril, Instacart Inc. experi-enced a 500% year-over-yearincrease in grocery orders.The company’s contractorshoppers became front-lineworkers overnight.

As states renew restrictionson indoor dining and extendstay-at-home orders acrossthe country, delivery is top ofmind once again. But consum-ers are growing wary of theinflated cost of delivery, andcompanies are offering usersbetter deals, in exchange forloyalty. What is the best wayto save money? Pay attentionto the details.

Fees aren’t the only sourceof extra costs. The prices ofindividual items can be pad-ded too. Costco, for instance,doesn’t require its Instacartgrocery-delivery customers tohold a $60-a-year member-ship the way in-store shop-pers must, but it does chargehigher prices on Instacartthan in its warehouse, on topof surcharges.

Rags Srinivasan, a pricingconsultant, recently deter-mined the markup of hisInstacart Costco order when ashopper mistakenly sent himthe original in-store receipt.The Instacart order ended upabout $20 higher.

An Instacart spokeswomansaid retailers set their ownprices on the platform, andthe company notifies custom-ers in the app whether pricesare the same or higher thanin-store. She noted thatCostco members can entertheir membership numberinto Instacart to unlock mem-

GrubHub, left, has a program at participating U.S. restaurants where subscribers can get lower prices. Amazon Prime Now is available to Prime subscribers in some cities.

JOHNMARS

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PAULMORR

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Model 3 in September—whichhe had long coveted—Mr. Zo-tin said he bought five sharesin early December for about$568 apiece and kept buyinglater in the month. The stockclosed Friday at $695. Attimes, he said, his wife hasquestioned whether theyshould be putting the cash to-ward a home instead. Theyrent an apartment in Schwer-zenbach, Switzerland, a tinytown near Zurich.

He is happy he has held on.Mr. Zotin and other investorsacknowledge that Tesla shareshave been a volatile ride, butright now they are reaping thebenefits.

“It’s going to let me retire afew years earlier,” said DaveMartin, a 67-year-old engineerwho lives in MendocinoCounty, Calif., and spends acouple of hours a day readingabout Tesla. An investor since2014, he picked up even moreshares this month and said herarely cashes out. An excep-tion was when he recentlybought a white Tesla Model Ysport-utility vehicle.

Bullish investors said theyexpect Tesla will bring electricvehicles to the masses, andmany compare the company toApple Inc., which reshaped thepersonal-computer, cellphoneand music industries whileoutperforming the broaderstock market.

“I feel like S&P needs Teslamore than Tesla needs S&P,”said Vincent Yu of Irvine, Ca-lif., who owns an auto-partscompany and runs a blog onTesla. Mr. Yu, 41 years old,

ContinuedfrompageB1

now-defunct Delivery Unlim-ited membership, which of-fered no-fee delivery from lo-cal stores. With Walmart+,you can order same-day gro-ceries from participating localstores between 7 a.m. and 8p.m.—and next-day knick-knacks from Walmart.com—without extra fees.

Free grocery delivery re-quires a $35 minimum cart.Orders from Walmart.comdon’t, but only items “shippedby Walmart” qualify. Sub-scribers also save 5 cents agallon on fuel at Walmart lo-cations and gain the ability toscan and buy in-store itemsfrom their phones.

ShiptPrice: $99 a yearWorth-it monthly mini-

mum: One orderNonmember delivery fee:

$10Shipt previously required

an annual membership to getsame-day delivery from retail-ers like Target, Petco, CVSand Costco—plus many localgrocery stores. Now the ser-vice, which is owned by Tar-get, offers one-time passes for$10. But if you order fromShipt at least once a month,the subscription is worth it.Orders under $35 still incur a$7 delivery fee.

Amazon Prime NowPrice (included in Prime

subscription): $12.99 amonth; $119 a year

Worth-it monthly mini-mum: Depends on your use ofPrime

Nonmember delivery fee:N/A

The same-day delivery pro-gram from Whole Foods, Am-azon and Pet Food Express isavailable exclusively to Ama-zon Prime members in selectcities. Orders under $35 comewith a $4.99 delivery fee. ThePrime subscription also offersfast, no-fee shipping fromAmazon.com and a large li-brary of streaming media, in-cluding movies and music.

DoorDash/CaviarDashPass

Price: $9.99 a monthWorth-it monthly mini-

mum: Three ordersNonmember delivery fee:

$1.99 to $3.99The meal-delivery subscrip-

tion waives delivery fees and

reduces service fees (17% fornonmembers) across Door-Dash and Caviar. The ordermust be at least $12, and itonly works with participatingDashPass restaurants. (Chi-potle, yes; Panera, no.) WhileDoorDash is known for offer-ing meal delivery from nation-wide chains, the service addedretailers such as Walgreensand CVS earlier this year.

Uber Eats Eats PassPrice: $9.99 a monthWorth-it monthly mini-

mum: Three ordersNonmember delivery fee:

Up to $3.99At eligible restaurants, you

get a waived delivery fee and5% off orders that meet the$15 minimum.

There is another way to getfree delivery from Uber Eats,but it isn’t guaranteed: Ifsomeone near you orderedfood, you can sometimes optfor the same restaurant andthe delivery fee is dropped.Think of it as an UberPool,but for your dinner.

Grubhub+Price: $9.99 a monthWorth-it monthly mini-

mum: Three ordersNonmember delivery fee:

Up to $3.99Earlier this year, Grubhub

launched this program with100,000 participating restau-rants across the U.S. Subscrib-ers receive no-fee delivery onorders of $12 or more, and afree meal for pickup ($10 orless) every month. They alsoget access to elite customerservice. The company is offer-ing a two-week free trial ofthe service.

said he invested in the stock in2013 and has added to hisholdings since, while closingpositions in such tech behe-moths as Amazon.com Inc. andApple.

He pointed to the NasdaqComposite—which includesTesla and is up 42% thisyear—compared with the S&P500’s 15% gain.

His devotion is so strongthat in addition to two Teslacars, he has also bought eightbottles of Tesla Tequila thatwere marketed on the carmaker’s website this year for$250 apiece before selling out.Fans say the souvenirs are anod to Mr. Musk’s tweet onApril Fools’ Day in 2018, whenhe joked that the auto maker

was bankrupt and he “wasfound passed out against aTesla Model 3, surrounded by‘Teslaquilla’ bottles.”

Mr. Musk often engages onTwitter with skeptics. Aheadof that 2018 tweet, investorswere concerned about thecompany’s cash levels, and itscredit rating had been down-graded. Since then, the stockhas surged 1,276%. Teslaended the third quarter withabout $14.5 billion in cash, andS&P Global Inc. upgraded thecompany’s credit rating Thurs-day.

James Anderson, a partner

at the investment firm BaillieGifford, Tesla’s third-biggestinstitutional shareholder, saidnear-daily criticism and doubtthrown at Tesla by short sell-ers and other detractors usedto be frustrating.

Baillie Gifford ignored nay-sayers and stuck with its beliefthat Tesla would eventuallygrow to be more than a carcompany, pointing to its ef-forts to expand the usage ofhigh-powered batteries, solarand autonomous driving. TheEdinburgh-based firm’s initial$89 million investment in 2013has ballooned to $21.6 billion,not including any proceedsfrom recent share sales.

The trajectory so far linesup with a bold vision Mr. Muskinitially laid out to Baillie Gif-ford’s executives when theyfirst met. “He said a phrase,‘There’s a small but growingpossibility that Tesla could bethe largest company in theworld,’” Mr. Anderson re-called.

Mr. Musk and his investors’riches have translated to biglosses for others. As Tesla’smarket value has ascended,controversy surrounding thestock has only intensified.

Tesla’s polarizing naturehas transformed the companyinto one of the biggest casinoson Wall Street. The optionsmarket tied to Tesla hasswelled, with more than half atrillion dollars in contracts re-cently outstanding, makingTesla the most popular wageron a company ever, accordingto Henry Schwartz, senior di-rector at Cboe Global Markets.

Although short interest onthe stock has dwindled thisyear, Tesla remains a popularbearish bet. Short bets total$32 billion, cementing Tesla’sstatus as the most-shortedstock in history, according toS3 Partners LLC. The shortshave racked up $39 billion inlosses this year, forcing someto surrender.

TeslaBulls AddShares

Tesla investor Vincent Yu

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THEWALL STREET JOURNAL. * * * * * Monday, December 21, 2020 | B5

BUSINESS & FINANCE

central banks and govern-ments, alongside a recognitionthat the U.S. stock marketdoesn’t reflect the economy.

Much of the moneypoured into consumers’pockets by Washingtonpoured back out into sav-ings—and the Federal Re-serve’s extraordinary actionsto push down interest ratesand bond yields encouragedthose savings into risky as-sets to find a return.

Money alone didn’t do it,though: The structure of theU.S. stock market was vitalto this year’s performance.Technology and other dis-ruptive growth stocks werethe big winners from lowerbond yields as so much oftheir profit lies far in the fu-ture; many were alsoboosted by lockdowns en-couraging life to move on-line. Sectors vulnerable tothe pandemic such as travel,leisure, oil and retail mallswere crushed, despite thefiscal and monetary support.

If it was only about gov-

ernment aid, one would ex-pect European markets to beboosted too. Yet despite evenlower long-term bond yieldsthan in the U.S. and plenty offiscal spending, Britain’s FTSE100 is down 11% this year indollar terms, while France’sCAC 40 index is barely up.Both suffer from their paucityof exciting tech disrupters,unlike the S&P 500, up 15%,or the Nasdaq-100, up 46%.

Of course, telling a story af-ter the fact is easy. Mr. Golubsays for next time, investorsneed to realize that policymakers have learned from2008 that it is best to comeup with a quick and over-whelming response to a crisis.

“It means that in the fu-ture the downside risksaround recessionary eventsare mitigated and thatmeans the stock marketshould trade with a slightlyhigher multiple,” he says.

Another way to under-stand the weirdness of stocksbeing so expensive at a timewhen the economy is so weak

STREETWISE | By James Mackintosh

Here Is a Forecast for Markets:2021 Will Be Hard to Predict

We knownow that asWall Street an-alysts werepublishingtheir 2020

forecasts the virus that wouldupend them all was spreadingin Wuhan, China. JonathanGolub was particularly un-lucky: On Jan. 21, Mr. Golub,Credit Suisse’s chief U.S. eq-uity strategist, upgraded hisprediction for the S&P 500 toend the year at 3600.

Discounting the threat ofCovid-19 that day was an easymistake to make, and one Imade too. But imagine he hadspotted the epidemiologicalconsequences, and correctlyrecognized that the economywould plunge into the deepestrecession in centuries. Surelyno one would have concludedthat his bullish S&P forecastwas way too cautious, and theS&P would be more than 100points higher than he ex-pected by December?

“We thought there was noenvironment that could beworse than 2008-9,” Mr.Golub says. “This [2020]made the Great Financial Cri-sis look like an appetizer. Andyet the market did so well.”

Dozens of investors andbank strategists put out pub-lic prognostications for whatwould happen in the markets,but 2020’s combination wasso unusual it was missed byeveryone, so far as I can tell:a far weaker economy, farweaker earnings, but signifi-cantly higher stock prices, atleast in the U.S.

By their nature, once-in-100-year events arehard to predict. But the

real lesson of 2020 is thateven correctly predicting fun-damentals just isn’t enough.What mattered this yearwasn’t earnings, but the speedand scale of the response by

is to consider the corporatebond market. Usually in a re-cession the Fed slashes inter-est rates and Treasury yieldsfall, but this is more than off-set for junk bonds by inves-tors demanding a fatter pre-mium yield above Treasurysto cover the risk of default.

This year not only haveTreasury yields fallen, but therisk premium—the spreadover equivalent-maturityTreasurys—is down too. As aresult, the yield on the junki-est CCC-rated bonds has fallenbelow 9%, well down from11.8% at the start of the year.

The equivalent of thislower yield for stocks is ahigher valuation. If you thinkone is overdone, the otherprobably is too.

Mr. Golub is concernedabout short-term market ex-cess, but his prediction is forthe S&P to hit 4050 by theend of 2021 (others are morebullish, including GoldmanSachs at 4300). The worldwill move to a post-Covidnormal midcycle growth pe-riod, he predicts. Earningswill rise and valuation multi-ples will pull back.

The danger is that thebizarre year we havehad leaves a legacy that

prevents a normal recovery.There is a huge hangover ofdebt, deep uncertainty abouthow consumer and office-worker behavior might havechanged, and many smallbusinesses clinging on bytheir fingernails. The marketdoesn’t seem to be reflectingthose risks in its valuation,because of the wild success ofBig Tech and similar disrup-tive stocks. Fundamentalsmight matter next year, or itmight again all be about fiscaland monetary support. Eitherway, it will almost certainlynot turn out the way anyoneis forecasting today.

2006 '10 '15 '20

0

10

20

30

40

50%

BothTreasury yields andthe corporate spread aboveTreasurys are down this year,even for the lowest-ratedjunk bonds.

ICEBofACCC-ratedU.S.corporate bond yield

Source: Ice Data Indices, LLC via St. Louis Fed

RECESSION

2005 '10 '15 '20

0

1

2

3

4

5%

ActualConsensus 12-month forecast

10-year U.S. Treasury yield

Source: Consensus Economics via FactSet

motely. More than 85% of theemployees are currently work-ing from home. “We experi-enced a sea change in work lo-cation almost overnight,” saidMs. Bessant, one of 45 IT exec-utives who responded via emailto The Wall Street Journal’s an-nual end-of-year questionnaireto discuss remote work andother issues.

The technology team at Ac-centure PLC oversaw a transi-tion to remote work that in-cluded an increase in audio andvideo calls. “Covid-19 has fun-damentally changed how wework,” said CIO Penelope Prett.Her team sent more than80,000 desktop computers toemployees’ homes world-wide.

Chief information officers in2020 have had to manage theeffects of the coronavirus pan-demic by quickly rolling outtechnology and overseeing newways of working that will likelycontinue through next year.

In addition, many CIOs havealso taken on the added re-sponsibility of ensuring em-ployees and teams feel con-nected to each other, despitebeing physically far apart.

Cathy Bessant, chief opera-tions and technology officer atBank of America Corp., saidher team delivered more than90,000 laptops this year to em-ployees so they could work re-

BY SARA CASTELLANOS

IT Executives FosterTeamwork Remotely

Private-equity firm ThomaBravo LP has struck a deal tobuy property-management-software provider RealPageInc. for $9.6 billion, in one ofthe largest recent leveragedbuyouts.

Thoma Bravo is paying$88.75 a share for the company,a 31% premium to RealPage’sclosing price Friday of $67.83,officials at the firms said.

Based in Richardson, Texas,RealPage provides a technologyplatform used by owners andmanagers of rental properties.Tenants might pay their rent orsubmit a maintenance requestusing RealPage’s software. Thecompany also keeps a big data-base of real-time lease transac-tions, allowing it to forecastwhere markets are heading.

Its shares are up nearly 25%this year.

“We were able to do quitewell during the pandemic be-cause there was a rush by ourindustry to go virtual, and we

were one of the platforms thatdid that,” RealPage Chief Exec-utive Steve Winn said.

Mr. Winn previously ranComputer Language ResearchInc., a maker of tax software,which he sold to Thomson Reu-ters Corp. in 1998. He boughtback a unit of the company thatfocused on real-estate softwareand built it into what is nowRealPage. The company hasgrown both organically andthrough a flurry of acquisitions,completing 12 deals in the pastthree years.

Software has been amongthe most resilient sectors dur-ing the pandemic as businesseshave demonstrated they willkeep paying for it even as theycut other costs. That has al-lowed Thoma Bravo, a technol-ogy specialist, to be among theyear’s most active private-eq-uity deal makers. RealPage isits biggest acquisition.

Based in San Francisco andChicago, Thoma Bravo managesmore than $70 billion, includ-ing $22.8 billion it finishedraising in October.

BY MIRIAM GOTTFRIEDAND CARA LOMBARDO

RealPage Is SoldFor $9.6 Billion

Fox BusinessFridays at 10 PM ET

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©2020 Barron’s Group & Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All rights reserved. 4E5140

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P2JW356000-5-B00500-16FF7F3178F

B6 | Monday, December 21, 2020 THEWALL STREET JOURNAL.

New to the Market

Commodities andCurrencies

LastWeek YTDClose Net chg %Chg % chg

DJCommodity 725.56 24.46 3.49 12.96

TR/CCCRB Index 166.45 5.20 3.23 -10.41

Crude oil,$per barrel 49.10 2.53 5.43 -19.59

Natural gas,$/MMBtu 2.700 0.109 4.21 23.34

Gold,$per troy oz. 1885.70 45.90 2.49 24.10

U.S. Dollar Index 89.94 -1.04 -1.14 -6.69

WSJDollar Index 85.13 -0.83 -0.96 -4.95

Euro, per dollar 0.8158 -0.0098 -1.19 -8.51

Yen, per dollar 103.32 -0.70 -0.67 -4.90

U.K. pound, in dollars 1.35 0.0304 2.30 2.04

52-WeekLow Close(l) High %Chg

DJCommodity 433.70 l 725.56 13.61

TR/CCCRB Index 106.29 l 187.39 -10.05

Crude oil,$per barrel -37.63 l 63.27 -18.76

Natural gas,$/MMBtu 1.482 l 3.354 15.98

Gold,$per troy oz. 1474.70 l 2051.50 27.87

U.S. Dollar Index 89.82 l 102.82 -7.93

WSJDollar Index 84.97 l 97.02 -6.03

Euro, per dollar 0.8150 l 0.9352 -9.63

Yen, per dollar 102.37 l 112.11 -5.61

U.K. pound, in dollars 1.15 l 1.36 4.08

Treasury yield curveYield to maturity of current bills,notes and bonds

0.00

0.50

1.00

1.50

2.00

2.50%

1month(s)

3 6 1years

2 3 5 7 10 20 30

maturity

t

Tradeweb ICEFriday Close

tOne year ago

Forex RaceYen, euro vs. dollar; dollar vs.major U.S. trading partners

–10

–5

0

5

10%

2020 2020

Euro

s

Yens

WSJ Dollar indexs

Sources: Tradeweb ICEU.S. Treasury Close; Tullett Prebon; DowJonesMarketData

CorporateBorrowingRatesandYieldsSpread+/- Treasurys,

Yield (%) in basis pts, 52-wkRange Total ReturnBond total return index Last Wkago Last Low High 52-wk 3-yr

U.S. Treasury, Barclays 0.600 0.570 7.84 5.08U.S. TreasuryLong, Barclays 1.560 1.490 16.15 9.54Aggregate, Barclays 1.170 1.170 n.a. 39 127 7.37 5.24Fixed-RateMBS, Barclays 1.300 1.320 n.a. 28 132 4.06 3.71HighYield 100, ICEBofA 3.791 3.874 344 271 1018 3.707 5.018MuniMaster, ICEBofA 0.879 0.897 28 -12 41 5.311 4.521EMBIGlobal, J.P.Morgan 4.351 4.424 326 277 662 5.931 4.824

Sources: J.P.Morgan; S&PDowJones Indices; BloombergBarclays; ICEDataServices

ConsumerRates andReturns to InvestorU.S. consumer ratesA consumer rate against itsbenchmark over the past year

0.00

1.00

2.00

3.00

4.00%

J2020

F M A M J J A S O N D

t

30-year fixed-ratemortgage

t10-year Treasury

note yield

Selected rates30-yearmortgage, Rate

Bankrate.comavg†: 2.87%EastBostonSavingsBank 2.50%Boston,MA 800-657-EBSB

MidWestOneBank 2.50%IowaCity, IA 800-247-4418

FirstNational Bank 2.63%Waverly, IA 319-266-2000

Teachers Federal CreditUnion 2.63%Farmingville, NY 631-698-7000

Charter Bank 2.75%EauClaire,WI 715-832-4254

Yield/Rate (%) 52-WeekRange (%) 3-yr chgInterest rate Last (l)Week ago Low 0 2 4 6 8 High (pct pts)

Federal-funds rate target 0.00-0.25 0.00-0.25 0.00 l 1.50 -1.25Prime rate* 3.25 3.25 3.25 l 4.75 -1.25Libor, 3-month 0.24 0.22 0.20 l 1.96 -1.39Moneymarket, annual yield 0.20 0.20 0.19 l 0.58 -0.14Five-year CD, annual yield 0.58 0.59 0.58 l 1.41 -0.9130-yearmortgage, fixed† 2.87 2.94 2.86 l 4.22 -1.0115-yearmortgage, fixed† 2.39 2.50 2.37 l 3.57 -0.92Jumbomortgages, $510,400-plus† 2.89 2.92 2.87 l 4.36 -1.37Five-year adjmortgage (ARM)† 3.19 3.22 2.85 l 4.59 -0.55New-car loan, 48-month 4.02 4.04 4.02 l 4.50 0.69Bankrate.com rates based on survey of over 4,800 online banks. *Base rate posted by 70% of the nation's largestbanks.† Excludes closing costs.

Sources: FactSet; Dow JonesMarket Data; Bankrate.com

S&P 500 Index3709.41 s45.95, or 1.25% last weekHigh, low, open and close for each ofthe past 52 weeks

Year agoLast

Trailing P/E ratio *P/E estimate *Dividend yield *All-time high

42.08 25.2326.25 19.581.63 1.83

3722.48, 12/17/20

2000

2250

2500

2750

3000

3250

3500

3750

D J F M A M J J A S O N D

65-day moving average

200-day moving average

Nasdaq Composite

s 377.77, or 3.05%last week

12725

12550

12375

1220011December

14 15 16 17 18

DJ US TSM

s 653.13, or 1.71%last week

38800

38450

38100

3775011December

14 15 16 17 18

InternationalStock IndexesLatestWeek 52-WeekRange YTD

Region/Country Index Close %chg Low Close High %chg

World MSCIACWI 639.80 1.58 384.04 • 641.89 13.2MSCIACWIex-USA 323.22 1.50 200.33 • 324.72 7.1MSCIWorld 2666.30 1.69 1602.11 • 2674.87 13.1MSCIEmergingMarkets 1268.36 0.85 758.20 • 1272.96 13.8

Americas MSCIACAmericas 1454.34 1.58 850.77 • 1458.35 16.5Canada S&P/TSXComp 17534.63 –0.08 11228.49 • 17944.06 2.8LatinAmer. MSCIEMLatinAmerica 2466.39 2.29 1382.94 • 2983.71 –15.5Brazil SaoPauloBovespa 118023.67 2.52 63569.62 • 119527.63 2.1Chile Santiago IPSA 2881.23 2.97 2045.49 • 3567.90 –13.63

S&P/BMVIPC 43873.81 0.60 32964.22 • 45902.68 0.8

EMEA StoxxEurope600 395.90 1.48 279.66 • 433.90 –4.8StoxxEurope50 3096.29 0.59 2383.14 • 3539.12 –9.0

Eurozone EuroStoxx 395.68 1.74 261.53 • 421.34 –2.0EuroStoxx50 3545.74 1.72 2385.82 • 3865.18 –5.3

Austria ATX 2713.69 3.10 1630.84 • 3229.37 –14.8Belgium Bel-20 3657.33 0.21 2528.77 • 4198.31 –7.5France CAC40 5527.84 0.37 3754.84 • 6111.24 –7.5Germany DAX 13630.51 3.94 8441.71 • 13789.00 2.9Greece AthexComposite 800.06 2.70 484.40 • 948.64 –12.7Israel TelAviv 1471.80 –0.06 1171.21 • 1751.79 –12.6Italy FTSEMIB 21976.12 1.26 14894 • 25478 –6.5Netherlands AEX 625.25 1.76 404.10 • 629.23 3.4Portugal PSI20 4763.03 0.43 3596.08 • 5435.85 –8.7Russia RTSIndex 1402.50 –0.73 832.26 • 1646.60 –9.5SouthAfrica FTSE/JSEAll-Share 59788.12 0.63 37963.01 • 60544.30 4.7Spain IBEX35 8037.40 –0.32 6107.2 • 10083.6 –15.8Sweden OMXStockholm 762.58 0.78 478.95 • 764.42 12.0Switzerland SwissMarket 10523.86 1.27 8160.79 • 11263.01 –0.9U.K. FTSE100 6529.18 –0.27 4993.89 • 7674.56 –13.4

Asia-Pacific MSCIACAsiaPacific 196.52 0.85 121.5 • 197.4 15.2Australia S&P/ASX200 6675.50 0.50 4546.0 • 7162.5 –0.1China ShanghaiComposite 3394.90 1.43 2660.17 • 3451.94 11.3HongKong HangSeng 26498.60 –0.03 21696.13 • 29056.42 –6.0India S&PBSESensex 46960.69 1.87 25981.24 • 46960.69 13.8Japan NikkeiStockAvg 26763.39 0.42 16552.83 • 26817.94 13.1Malaysia FTSEBursaMalaysiaKLCI 1652.49 –1.91 1219.72 • 1684.58 4.0Singapore StraitsTimes 2848.98 0.97 2233.48 • 3281.03 –11.6SouthKorea Kospi 2772.18 0.08 1457.64 • 2772.18 26.1Taiwan TAIEX 14249.96 –0.08 8681.34 • 14390.14 18.8

Source:FactSet;DowJonesMarketData

MajorU.S. Stock-Market IndexesLatestWeek 52-Week % chg

High Low Close Net chg % chg Low Close (l) High %chg YTD 3-yr. ann.DowJones

Industrial Average 30343.59 29849.15 30179.05 132.68 0.44 18591.93 l 30303.37 6.1 5.7 6.8TransportationAvg 12828.04 12330.96 12566.07 -106.31 -0.84 6703.63 l 12803.02 15.3 15.3 6.1UtilityAverage 877.09 852.68 857.26 2.16 0.25 610.89 l 960.89 -2.4 -2.5 4.8Total StockMarket 39023.10 38071.87 38854.83 653.13 1.71 22462.76 l 38947.55 17.9 17.6 11.8Barron's 400 851.02 824.65 848.18 24.20 2.94 455.11 l 848.18 15.6 15.8 5.8

NasdaqStockMarket

NasdaqComposite 12809.60 12432.71 12755.64 377.77 3.05 6860.67 l 12764.75 42.9 42.2 22.2Nasdaq 100 12793.47 12426.25 12738.18 362.77 2.93 6994.29 l 12752.06 46.8 45.9 25.1

S&P

500 Index 3726.70 3645.84 3709.41 45.95 1.25 2237.40 l 3722.48 15.2 14.8 11.3MidCap400 2309.73 2233.98 2287.26 47.32 2.11 1218.55 l 2297.91 10.7 10.9 6.3SmallCap600 1122.80 1083.05 1108.16 21.57 1.99 595.67 l 1116.74 8.3 8.5 5.4

Other Indexes

Russell 2000 1992.72 1913.86 1969.99 58.29 3.05 991.16 l 1978.05 17.8 18.1 8.3NYSEComposite 14529.88 14214.04 14467.82 112.53 0.78 8777.38 l 14516.73 4.2 4.0 4.2Value Line 570.04 555.52 566.13 6.89 1.23 305.71 l 568.7 2.6 2.5 0.2NYSEArcaBiotech 5924.66 5661.71 5918.43 376.02 6.78 3855.67 l 6142.96 14.5 16.8 12.5NYSEArcaPharma 690.21 673.25 686.11 -3.29 -0.48 494.36 l 691.7 4.7 5.0 7.7KBWBank 95.42 92.61 93.49 -0.70 -0.74 56.19 l 114.12 -17.4 -17.5 -4.6PHLX§Gold/Silver 149.79 135.26 144.90 6.29 4.54 70.12 l 161.14 48.5 35.5 21.1PHLX§Oil Service 47.33 44.62 44.89 -1.338 -2.89 21.47 l 80.99 -41.4 -42.7 -31.0PHLX§Semiconductor 2792.07 2723.89 2764.74 60.66 2.24 1286.84 l 2816.27 49.1 49.5 29.3CBOEVolatility 24.82 21.52 21.57 -1.74 -7.46 12.10 l 82.69 72.4 56.5 31.3

§NasdaqPHLX Sources: FactSet; DowJonesMarketData

Real-time U.S. stockquotes are available onWSJ.com. Track most-active stocks, newhighs/lows, mutualfunds and ETFs.

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BenchmarkYields andRatesBenchmarkYields andRates

MARKETS DIGEST

Dow Jones Industrial Average

30179.05 s132.68, or 0.44% last weekHigh, low, open and close for each ofthe past 52 weeks

Year agoLast

Trailing P/E ratioP/E estimate *Dividend yieldAll-time high

29.27 21.1624.84 18.992.04 2.23

30303.37, 12/17/20

16000

18000

20000

22000

24000

26000

28000

30000

D J F M A M J J A S O N D

Current divisor 0.15198707565833

Bars measure the point change from Monday's open

tt

Week's high

Week's low

Monday's open

Friday's close Monday's open

Friday's closeDOWN UP

Primarymarket t

t Composite

65-day moving average

200-day moving average

NYSE weekly volume, in billions of shares

0122436

D J F M A M J J A S O N D

*Weekly P/E data based on as-reported earnings from Birinyi Associates Inc.; †Based on Nasdaq-100 Index

Track the MarketsCompare the performance of selectedglobal stock indexes, bond ETFs,currencies and commodities atwsj.com/graphics/track-the-markets

CurrenciesU.S.-dollar foreign-exchange rates in lateNewYork trading

US$vs,Fri YTD chg

Country/currency inUS$ perUS$ (%)

AmericasArgentina peso .0121 82.7654 38.2Brazil real .1960 5.1025 26.9Canada dollar .7821 1.2786 –1.6Chile peso .001379 725.30 –1.9Colombiapeso .000292 3419.50 4.2EcuadorUSdollar 1 1 unchMexico peso .0501 19.9451 5.4Uruguay peso .02361 42.3550 14.0Asia-PacificAustralian dollar .7621 1.3122 –7.9China yuan .1530 6.5370 –6.1HongKong dollar .1290 7.7524 –0.5India rupee .01359 73.586 3.1Indonesia rupiah .0000709 14110 1.6Japan yen .009679 103.32 –4.9Kazakhstan tenge .002383 419.64 9.9Macau pataca .1251 7.9911 –0.3Malaysia ringgit .2475 4.0405 –1.2NewZealand dollar .7137 1.4011 –5.7Pakistan rupee .00625 160.100 3.3Philippines peso .0208 48.078 –5.2Singapore dollar .7532 1.3276 –1.4SouthKoreawon .0009095 1099.52 –4.8Sri Lanka rupee .0053277 187.70 3.5Taiwan dollar .03550 28.169 –5.8Thailand baht .03351 29.840 0.3

US$vs,Fri YTD chg

Country/currency inUS$ perUS$ (%)

Vietnam dong .00004324 23125 –0.2EuropeCzechRep. koruna .04689 21.327 –5.9Denmark krone .1648 6.0693 –8.9Euro area euro 1.2258 .8158 –8.5Hungary forint .003428 291.71 –1.2Iceland krona .007834 127.65 5.4Norway krone .1167 8.5691 –2.4Poland zloty .2742 3.6471 –3.9Russia ruble .01362 73.429 18.3Sweden krona .1211 8.2569 –11.8Switzerland franc 1.1322 .8832 –8.7Turkey lira .1311 7.6290 28.2Ukraine hryvnia .0357 28.0500 18.5UK pound 1.3531 .7390 –2.0Middle East/AfricaBahrain dinar 2.6521 .3771 0.01Egypt pound .0637 15.7090 –2.1Israel shekel .3090 3.2363 –6.3Kuwait dinar 3.2880 .3041 0.3Oman sul rial 2.5976 .3850 –0.01Qatar rial .2719 3.678 0.9SaudiArabia riyal .2665 3.7520 0.02SouthAfrica rand .0688 14.5442 3.9

Close Net Chg %Chg YTD%Chg

WSJDollar Index 85.13 0.16 0.19 –4.95

Sources: Tullett Prebon, DowJonesMarketData

PublicOfferings of Stock

IPOs in theU.S.MarketNone expected thisweek

LockupExpirationsBelow, companieswhose officers and other insiderswill becomeeligibleto sell shares in their newly public companies for the first time. Suchsales canmove the stock’s price.

Lockup Offer Offer amt Through Lockupexpiration Issue date Issuer Symbol price($) ($mil.) Friday (%) provision

Dec. 22 June 25, ’20 AlbertsonsCompanies ACI 16.00 1250.2 –2.4 180 days

Dec. 23 June 26, ’20 Ebang International Holdings EBON 5.23 106.3 –13.4 180 days

June 26, ’20 Agora API 20.00 297.5 128.9 180 days

June 25, ’20 FusionPharmaceuticals FUSN 17.00 125.3 –27.4 180 days

June 25, ’20 Akouos AKUS 17.00 212.5 8.9 180 days

June 26, ’20 PolyPid PYPD 16.00 50.0 –32.6 180 days

Dec. 24 Sept. 25, ’20Amesite AMST 5.00 15.5 2.0 90 days

Sources: Dealogic; DowJonesMarketData

Other StockOfferingsSecondaries and follow-ons expected thisweek in theU.S.marketNone expected thisweek

Off theShelf“Shelf registrations” allowa company to prepare a stock or bond forsale,without selling thewhole issue at once. Corporations sell asconditions become favorable. Here are the shelf sales, or takedowns,over the lastweek:

Takedowndate/ Deal valueIssuer/Industry Registration date ($mil.) Bookrunner(s)

MirumPharmaceuticals Inc Dec. 14 $75.0 JPM, SVBLeerink, Evercore IncHealthcare Aug. 3,320

Arvinas Inc Dec. 15 $400.0 GS, Piper SandlerHealthcare Dec. 14,320

Ocular Therapeutix Inc Dec. 15 $80.1 Jefferies, Piper SandlerHealthcare Dec. 14,320

GrafTech International Ltd Dec. 14 $77.8 MSChemicals June 18,319

CastleBiosciences Inc Dec. 15 $266.8 SVBLeerink, RWBaird&Co,Healthcare Dec. 14,320 CanaccordGenuity

SharpSpring Inc Dec. 16 $15.0 Needham&CoLLC,Professional Services Feb. 2,318 LakeStreet CapitalMarkets LLC

PhathomPharmaceuticals Inc Dec. 16 $94.5 Jefferies, Evercore Inc,Healthcare Nov. 10,320 GuggenheimPtnrs, BMOCptlMkts

Endra Life Sciences Inc Dec. 15 $5.0 FordhamFinancialMgmt IncHealthcare Dec. 28,318

NewFortressEnergy Inc Dec. 15 $279.6 MSUtility &Energy March 5,320

iQIYI Inc Dec. 17 $700.0 GS, BofASecurities, JPMTelecommunications Dec. 15,320

iQIYI Inc Dec. 17 $800.0 GS, BofASecurities, JPMTelecommunications Dec. 15,320

SCYNEXIS Inc Dec. 17 $85.0 GuggenheimPartners,Healthcare Sept. 11,320 Cantor Fitzgerald&Co

GamidaCell Ltd Dec. 17 $65.0 Piper Sandler, Evercore Inc,Healthcare Nov. 14,319 JMPSecurities LLC

VistaGenTherapeutics Inc Dec. 18 $58.0 Jefferies,W. Blair LLCHealthcare Sept. 30,319

AsureSoftware Inc Dec. 18 $18.9 RothCptl PtnrsComputers&Electronics April 2,318

Public andPrivateBorrowingTreasurysMonday, December 21 Thursday, December 24

Auction of 13 and 26week bills; Auction of 4 and8week bills;announced onDecember 17; settles onDecember 24announced onDecember 22; settles onDecember 29

AWeek in the Life of theDJIAA look at how the Dow Jones Industrial Average component stocksdid in the past week and howmuch each moved the index. The DJIAgained 132.68 points, or 0.44%, on the week. A $1 change in the priceof any DJIA stock = 6.58-point change in the average. To date, a$1,000 investment on Dec. 31 in each current DJIA stock componentwould have returned $32,681, or a gain of 8.94%, on the $30,000investment, including reinvested dividends.

TheWeek’sActionPct Stock price Point chg $1,000 Invested(year-end '19)chg (%) change in average* Company Symbol Close $1,000

3.52 7.32 48.16 McDonald’s MCD $215.08 $1,1163.47 4.25 27.93 Apple AAPL 126.66 1,7403.07 1.66 10.92 Dow DOW 55.66 1,0832.90 3.91 25.73 Travelers TRV 138.86 1,0422.53 1.12 7.37 Cisco CSCO 45.44 980

2.50 5.33 35.07 Microsoft MSFT 218.59 1,4012.46 5.07 33.36 Visa V 211.31 1,1322.25 5.01 32.96 salesforce.com CRM 227.43 1,3982.23 5.90 38.82 HomeDepot HD 270.45 1,2681.85 2.53 16.65 Procter&Gamble PG 139.04 1,141

1.38 2.40 15.79 3M MMM 176.42 1,0371.27 1.58 10.40 IBM IBM 125.85 9881.02 1.56 10.26 Johnson&Johnson JNJ 154.51 1,0880.93 1.67 10.99 Caterpillar CAT 180.96 1,2620.89 2.14 14.08 GoldmanSachs GS 242.13 1,079

0.73 0.39 2.57 Coca-Cola KO 53.74 1,0040.48 1.09 7.17 Amgen AMGN 228.49 9740.39 1.31 8.62 UnitedHealthGroup UNH 338.38 1,1700.18 0.11 0.72 Verizon VZ 60.46 1,028–0.09 –0.13 –0.86 Nike NKE 137.28 1,368

–0.40 –0.48 –3.16 JPMorganChase JPM 119.08 885–0.71 –1.05 –6.91 Walmart WMT 145.95 1,249–1.61 –2.83 –18.62 WaltDisney DIS 172.89 1,195–2.02 –0.84 –5.53 Walgreens WBA 40.69 721–2.14 –4.59 –30.20 Honeywell HON 210.04 1,214

–2.26 –2.72 –17.90 AmericanExpress AXP 117.51 961–4.13 –3.43 –22.57 Merck MRK 79.53 902–4.56 –2.27 –14.94 Intel INTC 47.46 813–4.59 –10.58 –69.61 Boeing BA 219.75 679–5.69 –5.26 –34.61 Chevron CVX 87.19 764

*Based onComposite price. DJIA is calculated on primary-market price.Source: DowJonesMarketData; FactSet.

P2JW356000-0-B00600-1--------XA

THEWALL STREET JOURNAL. Monday, December 21, 2020 | B7

Insider-TradingSpotlightTrading by ‘insiders’ of a corporation, such as a company’s CEO, vice president or director, potentially conveysnew information about the prospects of a company. Insiders are required to report large trades to theSECwithin twobusiness days. Here’s a look at the biggest individual trades by insiders, based on data received byThomsonFinancial onDecember 18, and year-to-date stock performance of the companyKEY: B: beneficial owner ofmore than 10%of a security class CB: chairman CEO: chief executive officer CFO: chief financial officerCO: chief operating officer D: director DO: director and beneficial owner GC: general counsel H: officer, director and beneficial ownerI: indirect transaction filed through a trust, insider spouse,minor child or other O: officer OD: officer and director P: presidentUT:unknown VP: vice president Excludes pure options transactions

Biggestweekly individual tradesBased on reports filedwith regulators this pastweek

No. of shrs in Price range ($) $ValueDate(s) Company Symbol Insider Title trans (000s) in transaction (000s) Close ($) Ytd (%)

BuyersDec. 10 Universal LogisticsHoldings ULH M.Moroun DO 1,472 19.45 28,618 21.82 15.1

Dec. 11 Frazier LifesciencesAcquisition FLACU J. Topper CEOI 1,000 10.00 10,000 10.35

Dec. 11 IGMBiosciences IGMS J. Topsoe DOI 111 90.00 10,000 84.28 120.9Dec. 11 C. Topsor DOI 111 90.00 10,000Dec. 11 M. Behrens DI 44 90.00 4,000

Dec. 2 Sinclair BroadcastGroup SBGI F. Smith H 300 28.72 8,616 28.64 -14.1

Dec. 14-15 Amerco UHAL M.Shoen BI 5 428.13-430.05 2,143 443.49 18.0Dec. 14-15 E. Shoen PI 5 428.13-430.05 2,143

Dec. 16 SouthernNational Bancorp ofVirginia SONA D. Zember CEO 100 11.57 1,157 11.90 -27.2

Dec. 14-16 StoneXGroup SNEX G. Stevens OS 15 50.79-53.19 779 56.00 14.7

Dec. 10 BancorpSouthBank BXS J. Campbell D 19* 26.39 499

Dec. 15-16 AcaciaResearch ACTG A. Tobia CEO 100 3.75-3.79 377 4.01 50.8

Dec. 14-15 Net 1U.E.P.S. Technologies UEPS A. Ball DI 108 3.47-3.50 376 4.00 7.5Dec. 14-15 M.Nkosi DI 108 3.47-3.50 376

Dec. 15-16 Greif GEF.B L. Hilsheimer CFO 7 49.22-49.61 352 49.89 -3.6

Dec. 9-10 CrownCastle International CCI J.Martin D 2* 157.02-157.90 330 153.81 8.2

Dec. 11 Enterprise Financial Services EFSC R. Sanborn DI 9 35.18 308 35.42 -26.5

Dec. 11 StateAuto Financial STFC K. Garland O 17 17.11 294 18.09 -41.7

SellersDec. 9-11 Walmart WMT S.Walton DOI 1,131 146.72-148.21 166,908 145.95 22.8Dec. 9-11 J.Walton BI 1,131 146.72-148.21 166,908Dec. 9-11 A.Walton BI 1,131 146.72-148.21 166,908Dec. 14-16 S.Walton DOI 822 145.52-147.47 119,910Dec. 14-16 J.Walton BI 822 145.52-147.47 119,910Dec. 14-16 A.Walton BI 822 145.52-147.47 119,910

Dec. 14 OptionCareHealth OPCH E. Betten DOI 10,000 15.00 150,000 15.00 0.5Dec. 14 T. Sullivan DOI 10,000 15.00 150,000

Dec. 14 OpenLending LPRO B. Greenberg DOI 4,836 26.88 129,985 31.81 201.8Dec. 14 G. Yoon DOI 4,836 26.88 129,985

Dec. 10 AdvancedDrainageSystems WMS R. Jones DI 1,670 75.00 125,250 79.61 105.0

Dec. 14-15 VirginGalacticHoldings SPCE C. Palihapitiya DO 3,800 24.67-27.54 97,827 23.84106.400

Dec. 11 PaylocityHolding PCTY S. Sarowitz DO 400 180.50 72,200 201.79 67.0

Dec. 10-11 AristaNetworks ANET A. Bechtolsheim H 247* 274.69-280.46 68,450 287.72 41.5

Dec. 11-15 Elastic ESTC S. Banon CEO 425 137.15-142.68 59,360 153.55 138.8Dec. 9-10 S. Banon CEO 354 136.45-145.92 49,991

Dec. 2-3 Sysco SYY N. Peltz DI 800 72.92-73.68 58,437 72.28 -15.5

Dec. 1-2 Datadog DDOG A. Le-Quoc PI 469 90.72-98.45 44,378 107.72 185.1

* Half the transactionswere indirect **Twoday transactionp - Pink Sheets

Buying and selling by sectorBased on actual transaction dates in reports received this pastweek

Sector Buying Selling Sector Buying Selling

Basic Industries 212,689 21,864,799 Finance 3,325,056 84,377,890

Business services 1,323,112 10,471,296 Health care 7,726,749 112,116,284

Capital goods 0 0 Industrial 352,300 57,866,455

Consumer durables 35,940 45,816,642 Media 8,616,000 7,553,745

Consumer nondurables 15,973 33,613,270 Technology 455,204 154,402,625

Consumer services 4,370,065 100,818,868 Transportation 0 3,229,077

Energy 193,281 27,685,993 Utilities 1,499 1,487,523

Sources: Refinitiv; DowJonesMarketData

Friday

EnergyCoal,C.Aplc.,12500Btu,1.2SO2-r,w 54.350Coal,PwdrRvrBsn,8800Btu,0.8SO2-r,w 11.550

MetalsGold, per troy ozEngelhard industrial 1883.00Handy&Harmanbase 1879.75Handy&Harman fabricated 2086.52LBMAGold PriceAM *1871.95LBMAGold Price PM *1890.75Krugerrand,wholesale-e 1960.30Maple Leaf-e 1979.15AmericanEagle-e 1979.15Mexican peso-e 2280.62Austria crown-e 1850.58Austria phil-e 1979.15Silver, troy oz.Engelhard industrial 25.8700Handy&Harmanbase 25.8670Handy&Harman fabricated 32.3340LBMAspot price *£18.9100(U.S.$ equivalent) *25.7400Coins,wholesale $1,000 face-a 19351OthermetalsLBMAPlatinumPrice PM *1045.0Platinum,Engelhard industrial 1041.0Palladium,Engelhard industrial 2346.0

Friday

Aluminum, LME, $ permetric ton *2028.0Copper,Comex spot 3.6285IronOre, 62%FeCFRChina-s 164.2ShreddedScrap, USMidwest-s,m 371Steel, HRCUSA, FOBMidwestMill-s 950

Fibers andTextilesBurlap,10-oz,40-inchNYyd-n,w 0.6400Cotton,1 1/16 std lw-mdMphs-u 0.7441Cotlook 'A' Index-t *82.45Hides,hvy native steers piece fob-u 45.000Wool,64s,staple,Terr del-u,w n.a.

Grains andFeedsBarley,top-qualityMnpls-u n.a.Bran,wheatmiddlings, KC-u 149Corn,No. 2 yellow,Cent IL-bp,u 4.3050Corn gluten feed,Midwest-u,w 152.0Corn glutenmeal,Midwest-u,w 554.3Cottonseedmeal-u,w 428Hominy feed,Cent IL-u,w 122Meat-bonemeal,50%proMnpls-u,w 295Oats,No.2milling,Mnpls-u 3.6175Rice, LongGrainMilled, No. 2AR-u,w 28.38Sorghum,(Milo)No.2Gulf-u 6.4750SoybeanMeal,Cent IL,rail,ton48%-u 403.00Soybeans,No.1 yllw IL-bp,u 12.0850Wheat,Spring14%-proMnpls-u 6.8100Wheat,No.2 soft red,St.Louis-u 6.3575

Friday

Wheat -Hard - KC (USDA) $ per bu-u 5.9425Wheat,No.1softwhite,Portld,OR-u 6.4000

FoodBeef,carcass equiv. indexchoice 1-3,600-900 lbs.-u 177.22select 1-3,600-900 lbs.-u 160.58Broilers, National compwtd. avg.-u,w 0.8178Butter,AAChicago 1.4550Cheddar cheese,bbl,Chicago 147.50Cheddar cheese,blk,Chicago 161.75Milk,Nonfat dry,Chicago lb. 115.00Coffee,Brazilian,Comp 1.1810Coffee,Colombian, NY 1.7335Eggs,largewhite,Chicago-u 0.7150Flour,hardwinter KC 15.70Hams,17-20 lbs,Mid-US fob-u 0.60Hogs,Iowa-So.Minnesota-u 62.41Pork bellies,12-14 lbMidUS-u n.a.Pork loins,13-19 lbMidUS-u 0.8208Steers,Tex.-Okla. Choice-u 108.00Steers,feeder,Okla. City-u,w 152.06

Fats andOilsCorn oil,crudewet/drymill wtd. avg.-u,w 41.0000Grease,choicewhite,Chicago-h 0.3200Lard,Chicago-u n.a.Soybean oil,crude;Centl IL-u 0.4107Tallow,bleach;Chicago-h 0.3775Tallow,edible,Chicago-u n.a.

KEY TO CODES: A=ask; B=bid; BP=country elevator bids to producers; C=corrected; E=Manfra,Tordella & Brookes; H=American Commodities Brokerage Co;M=monthly; N=nominal; n.a.=not quoted or not available; R=SNL Energy; S=Platts-TSI; T=Cotlook Limited; U=USDA;W=weekly; Z=not quoted. *Data as of 12/17

Source: Dow JonesMarket Data

CashPrices Friday, December 18, 2020These prices reflect buying and selling of a variety of actual or “physical” commodities in themarketplace—separate from the futures price on an exchange,which reflectswhat the commoditymight beworth in futuremonths.

| wsj.com/market-data/commodities

Borrowing Benchmarks | wsj.com/market-data/bonds/benchmarks

MoneyRates December 18, 2020

Key annual interest rates paid to borrowor lendmoney inU.S. and internationalmarkets. Rates beloware aguide to general levels but don’t always represent actual transactions.

InflationNov. index ChgFrom (%)

level Oct. '20 Nov. '19

U.S. consumer price indexAll items 260.229 –0.06 1.2Core 269.473 0.05 1.6

International rates

Week 52-WeekLatest ago High Low

Prime ratesU.S. 3.25 3.25 4.75 3.25Canada 2.45 2.45 3.95 2.45Japan 1.475 1.475 1.475 1.475

PolicyRatesEuro zone 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00Switzerland 0.00 0.00 0.50 0.00Britain 0.10 0.10 0.75 0.10Australia 0.10 0.10 0.75 0.10

Overnight repurchaseU.S. 0.10 0.08 1.65 -0.07

U.S. government rates

Discount0.25 0.25 2.25 0.25

Federal fundsEffective rate 0.0900 0.0900 1.6200 0.0600High 0.1000 0.1000 1.6500 0.1000

Week —52-WEEK—Latest ago High Low

Low 0.0500 0.0500 1.5800 0.0100Bid 0.0800 0.0800 1.6000 0.0100Offer 0.1100 0.1000 1.6300 0.0500

Treasury bill auction4weeks 0.075 0.065 1.575 0.00013weeks 0.075 0.080 1.555 0.00026weeks 0.085 0.090 1.570 0.080

Secondarymarket

FannieMae30-yearmortgage yields

30days 1.903 1.911 3.342 1.75160days 1.926 1.938 3.353 1.804

Other short-term rates

Week 52-WeekLatest ago high low

Callmoney2.00 2.00 3.50 2.00

Notes ondata:U.S. prime rate is the base rate on corporate loans posted by at least 70%of the 10 largestU.S. banks,and is effectiveMarch 16, 2020. Other prime rates aren’t directly comparable; lending practices varywidely by location; Discount rate is effectiveMarch 16, 2020.SecuredOvernight FinancingRate isas ofDecember 17, 2020. DTCCGCFRepo Index is Depository Trust&Clearing Corp.'sweightedaverage for overnight trades in applicable CUSIPs. Value traded is in billions ofU.S. dollars.Federal-funds rates are Tullett Prebon rates as of 5:30 p.m. ET.

Sources: Federal Reserve; Bureau of Labor Statistics; DTCC; FactSet;Tullett Prebon Information, Ltd.

Commercial paper (AA financial)90days 0.13 0.14 2.53 0.04

LiborOnemonth 0.14375 0.15863 1.80475 0.12663Threemonth 0.23575 0.21650 1.96050 0.20488Sixmonth 0.25850 0.24875 1.92438 0.23375One year 0.33400 0.33588 2.01200 0.32763

Euro LiborOnemonth -0.594 -0.582 -0.360 -0.621Threemonth -0.568 -0.572 -0.142 -0.572Sixmonth -0.537 -0.536 -0.052 -0.540One year -0.482 -0.497 0.008 -0.501

SecuredOvernight FinancingRate0.09 0.08 1.64 0.01

Value 52-WeekLatest Traded High Low

DTCCGCFRepo IndexTreasury 0.110 48.300 1.720 0.002MBS 0.115 66.000 1.763 0.011

Week —52-WEEK—Latest ago High Low

General Equity FundsAdamsDiversified Equity ADX 19.75 17.13 -13.3 15.0BoulderGrowth& Income BIF 13.38 11.08 -17.2 -1.7Central Secs CET 39.07 31.80 -18.6 1.6CohenStrsCEOppFd FOF 12.72 12.20 -4.1 -0.4EVTxAdvDivIncm EVT 24.58 23.65 -3.8 1.5GabelliDiv&IncTr GDV 24.61 21.28 -13.5 4.6Gabelli Equity Tr GAB 5.76 6.43 +11.6 18.8GeneralAmer GAM 43.54 36.76 -15.6 5.5JHancockTaxAdvDiv HTD 22.76 21.73 -4.5 -14.2LibertyAll-Star Equity USA 7.31 6.84 -6.4 12.8LibertyAll-StarGrowth ASG 7.91 8.74 +10.5 53.7RoyceMicro-CapTr RMT 11.69 10.00 -14.5 27.9RoyceValue Trust RVT 18.47 16.23 -12.1 18.7Source Capital SOR 44.91 40.40 -10.0 9.1Tri-Continental TY 32.95 29.31 -11.0 10.6SpecializedEquity FundsAberdeenGlb PremProp AWP 5.89 5.17 -12.2 -11.6AdamsNatural Resources PEO 13.97 11.59 -17.0 -22.9AllianzGIAI &TechOpps AIO 27.74 25.75 -7.2 37.5GIDivInt&PremStr NFJ 15.22 13.29 -12.7 8.6ASAGold&PrecMet Ltd ASA 26.06 21.84 -16.2 73.4BREnhC&I CII 18.93 17.54 -7.3 10.2BlackRock Energy&Res BGR 8.40 7.16 -14.8 -31.0BlackRock EqEnhDiv BDJ 9.26 8.35 -9.8 -7.0BlackRock EnhGlbl Div BOE 12.19 10.67 -12.5 5.1BlackRock Enh Intl Div BGY 6.46 5.80 -10.2 8.3BlackRockHlth Sci Tr II BMEZ 30.25 29.50 -2.5 NSBlackRockHlth Sciences BME 45.13 48.67 +7.8 23.3BlackRockRes&Comm BCX 8.48 7.24 -14.6 -0.2BlackRockSci&TechTr II BSTZ 38.03 36.02 -5.3 86.9BlackRockSci&TechTrust BST 51.39 53.00 +3.1 71.1BlackRockUtl Inf &Pwr BUI 23.42 24.16 +3.2 15.5CBREClrnGlbRlEst IGR 7.92 6.72 -15.2 -6.6ClearBridgeMLP&Midstm CEM NA 18.40 NA -65.1ChnStrInfr UTF 24.44 25.81 +5.6 7.3Cohen&SteersQualInc RQI 12.90 12.15 -5.8 -9.8Cohen&Steers TotRet RFI 12.95 13.27 +2.5 -0.8CohenStrsREITPrefInc RNP 23.31 21.89 -6.1 0.5Columbia Sel PrmTechGr STK 27.41 27.63 +0.8 26.6DNPSelect Income DNP 9.03 10.37 +14.9 -12.8Duff&PhUti&Infra Inc Fd DPG 13.16 11.52 -12.5 -13.8

Listed are the 300 largest closed-end funds asmeasured by assets. Closed-end funds sell a limitednumber of shares and invest the proceeds in securities.Unlike open-end funds, closed-ends generally do notbuy their shares back from investors who wish to cashin their holdings. Instead, fund shares trade on a stockexchange. NA signifies that the information is notavailable or not applicable. NS signifies funds not inexistence for the entire period. 12 month yield iscomputed by dividing income dividends paid (duringthe previous 12 months for periods ending at month-end or during the previous 52 weeks for periodsending at any time other than month-end) by thelatest month-end market price adjusted for capitalgains distributions. Depending on the fund category,either 12-month yield or total return is listed.

Source: Lipper

Friday, December 18, 202052wk

Prem TtlFund (SYM) NAV Close /Disc Ret

EtnVncEqtyInc EOI 16.74 16.15 -3.5 9.1EtnVncEqtyIncoII EOS 21.02 21.56 +2.6 29.4EVRskMnDvsEqInc ETJ 10.06 10.50 +4.4 23.2ETnVncTxMgdBuyWrtInc ETB 14.50 15.06 +3.9 0.7EtnVncTxMgdBuyWrtOpp ETV 14.35 15.35 +7.0 12.5EvTxMnDvsEqInc ETY 12.67 12.40 -2.1 7.3EtnVncTxMgdGlbB ETW 10.22 9.64 -5.7 2.1EVTxMnGblDvEqInc EXG 9.26 8.73 -5.7 7.1First Trust Energy IncG FEN 13.00 11.15 -14.2 -42.9First Tr EnhancedEq FFA 18.27 17.25 -5.6 7.6FirstTrMLPEner&Inc FEI 7.00 6.06 -13.4 -42.4Gabelli Healthcare GRX 13.66 11.78 -13.8 10.0GabUtility GUT 4.08 7.99 +95.8 18.7GAMCOGlGold&NatRes GGN 4.01 3.52 -12.2 -6.0JHanFinl Opptys BTO 27.80 29.01 +4.4 -11.4NuvDow30DynOverwrite DIAX NA 14.85 NA -9.8NuvCorEqAlpha JCE NA 13.97 NA 4.2NuveenNasdaq 100DynOv QQQX NA 25.49 NA 14.2NuvReal Est JRS NA 8.37 NA -12.4NuveenRl Asst Inc&Gro JRI NA 13.48 NA -18.1NuvS&P500DynOvFd SPXX NA 14.87 NA -1.5NuvSP500BuyIncFd BXMX NA 12.54 NA -0.9ReavesUtilityIncome UTG 32.33 32.93 +1.9 -3.7Tortoise Enrgy Infra Crp TYG NA 21.12 NA -70.0Income&PreferredStockFundsCalamosStratTot CSQ NA 15.84 NA 26.4CohenStrsLtdDurPref&Inc LDP 25.90 25.70 -0.8 4.3CohenStrsSelPref&Income PSF 26.74 27.29 +2.1 -6.0FirstTrIntDurPref&Inc FPF 24.31 23.60 -2.9 6.2JHanPrefInc HPI 19.91 19.71 -1.0 -5.9JHPrefIncII HPF 19.55 18.63 -4.7 -8.6HnckJPfdInco III HPS 17.51 17.14 -2.1 -3.5JHanPrm PDT 13.63 14.43 +5.9 -11.9LMPCapInco SCD NA 12.04 NA -12.3NuveenPref & IncOpp JPC NA 9.33 NA -2.9NuveenFd JPS NA 9.54 NA 2.1NuveenPref & Inc Term JPI NA 24.01 NA 1.0NuveenTxAdvDivGr JTD NA 13.83 NA -11.7TCWStrat Income TSI 5.58 5.58 0.0 0.6Convertible Sec's. FundsAdvntCnvrtbl&IncFd AVK 19.00 16.42 -13.6 18.2GI Conv& Inc NCV 6.19 5.67 -8.4 11.1AGI Conv& Inc II NCZ 5.55 5.01 -9.7 9.1AGIDvs Inc&Conv ACV 34.43 32.41 -5.9 42.0AGI Eqty&Conv Inc NIE 30.78 28.00 -9.0 28.3CalamosConvHi CHY NA 14.31 NA 35.1CalmosConvOp CHI NA 13.61 NA 34.4WorldEquity FundsAberdeenEmgMkts Eq Inc AEF 9.39 8.18 -12.9 10.1AberdeenTotDynDiv AOD 10.21 8.80 -13.8 7.6CalamosGloDynInc CHW NA 9.71 NA 25.3China CHN 32.93 30.00 -8.9 43.5EVTxAdvGlbDivInc ETG 19.39 17.89 -7.7 6.0EtnVncTxAdvOpp ETO 26.66 25.14 -5.7 5.1FirstTrDynEuro Eq Inc FDEU 13.64 11.76 -13.8 -15.6

52wkPrem Ttl

Fund (SYM) NAV Close /Disc Ret WesternAssetHi YldDO HYI NA 15.23 NA 7.4OtherDomestic TaxableBondFundsApollo Tactical Income AIF NA 14.29 NA 7.2AresDynamic CrdtAlloc ARDC NA 14.21 NA 8.9BlackRockMlt-Sctr Inc BIT 18.30 17.02 -7.0 8.7BlackRock TaxMuni Bd BBN 25.22 26.87 +6.5 5.0DoubleLine:Oppor Crdt Fd DBL NA 19.09 NA 7.1Duff&PhUtil Cor DUC 9.57 9.99 +4.4 5.9EVLmtDurIncm EVV 13.66 12.36 -9.5 9.8Franklin LtdDur Income FTF 9.47 9.00 -5.0 10.8JHan Investors JHI 18.27 17.20 -5.9 7.8KKR IncomeOpportunities KIO NA 14.35 NA 10.5MFSCharter MCR 8.91 8.42 -5.5 8.1NuveenTaxableMuni Inc NBB NA 23.05 NA 4.8PIMCOCorp& IncOppty PTY NA 17.85 NA 9.1PIMCOCorp& Inc Strat PCN NA 17.30 NA 8.3PIMCOHilnco PHK NA 6.08 NA 11.1PIMCO IncmStrFd PFL NA 11.21 NA 9.7PIMCO IncmStrFd II PFN NA 9.87 NA 9.8PutnamMas Int PIM 4.49 4.15 -7.6 8.6PutnamPrem Inc PPT 4.97 4.59 -7.6 9.1Wells FargoMulti-Sector ERC 12.99 12.10 -6.9 9.7World IncomeFundsAbrdnAP IncFd FAX 4.92 4.45 -9.6 7.8BrndywnGLBGlb IncOppts BWG NA 12.58 NA 7.0EtnVncStDivInc EVG 13.85 12.40 -10.5 7.2MSEmMktDomDebt EDD 7.33 6.34 -13.5 7.4PIMCODynCrd&Mrt Inc PCI NA 21.05 NA 12.2PIMCODynamic Income PDI 24.69 26.60 +7.7 11.5PIMCO IncomeOpportunity PKO 23.49 25.18 +7.2 9.1PIMCOStratg Inc RCS NA 6.92 NA 9.7TempletonEm Inc TEI 8.89 7.88 -11.4 7.7TempltnGlbl Inc GIM 6.09 5.48 -10.0 4.5WstAstEmergDebt EMD NA 13.95 NA 8.8WesternAssetGl CrDOp GDO NA 17.98 NA 6.7NationalMuni BondFundsAllBerNatlMunInc AFB 15.40 14.00 -9.1 4.2BlckRk InvQMun BKN 16.66 16.85 +1.1 4.2BlackRockMuni 2030Tgt BTT 26.76 25.10 -6.2 2.9BlackRockMuni BFK 14.69 14.93 +1.6 4.4BlackRockMuni II BLE 15.12 15.40 +1.9 4.6BlckRkMuni IncQly BYM 15.87 14.78 -6.9 4.0BRMuniAssets Fd MUA 14.36 14.41 +0.3 4.3BRMuniEnhanced MEN 12.47 11.74 -5.9 4.1BRMuniHoldingsQly MFL 15.11 13.90 -8.0 3.9BRMHQly 2 MUE 14.24 13.10 -8.0 4.3BRMuniHoldngs MHD 17.24 15.94 -7.5 4.5BRMuniVest Fd MVF 9.87 9.05 -8.3 4.4BRMuniVest 2 MVT 15.50 14.43 -6.9 4.4BRMuniYield Fd MYD 15.16 14.12 -6.9 4.7BRMuniYieldQlty MQY 16.59 16.43 -1.0 4.1BRMuniYldQlty2 MQT 14.58 13.74 -5.8 4.1BRMuniYldQly 3 MYI 15.26 14.12 -7.5 3.9BNYMellonMuni Bd Infra DMB 14.51 13.93 -4.0 4.5BNYMellonStrMuni Bond DSM 8.32 7.64 -8.2 4.7BNYMellonStratMuni LEO 8.64 8.38 -3.0 4.9DWSMuni Inc KTF 12.75 11.39 -10.7 4.1EVMuniBd EIM 14.33 13.32 -7.0 4.3EVMuniIncm EVN 14.24 13.22 -7.2 4.2EVNatMuniOpp EOT 21.82 20.72 -5.0 3.7InvAdvMuIncTrII VKI 12.20 11.23 -8.0 4.7InvescoMuniOp OIA 7.71 7.68 -0.4 4.9InvescoMuOppTr VMO 13.65 12.62 -7.5 4.7InvescoMuTr VKQ 13.67 12.62 -7.7 4.6InvescoQual Inc IQI 13.82 12.67 -8.3 4.7InvTrInvGrMu VGM 14.08 13.05 -7.3 4.7InvescoValMunInc IIM 16.78 15.40 -8.2 4.5MAINSTAY:MKDEFTRMUNOP MMD NA 21.48 NA 4.7NeubrgrBrm NBH 15.29 14.92 -2.4 4.8NuveenAMT-FrMuVal NUW NA 16.33 NA 2.8NuveenAMT-FrQltyMun I NEA NA 14.86 NA 4.5NuveenAMT-FrMuCI NVG NA 16.40 NA 4.8NuveenDynMuniOpp NDMO NA NA NA NSNuveenEnhMuni Val NEV NA 15.30 NA 4.5Nuveen IntDurMunTerm NID NA 13.66 NA 3.7NuveenMuCrdtOpps NMCO NA 12.82 NA 5.6NuvMuni Credit Income NZF NA 15.73 NA 4.8NuvMuniHiIncOpp NMZ NA 13.98 NA 5.3NuveenMuni Val NUV NA 11.02 NA 3.3NuveenQualityMuni Inc NAD NA 15.05 NA 4.4NuveenSel TF NXP NA 17.06 NA 3.2NuveenSel TF 2 NXQ NA 15.55 NA 3.2NuveenSel TF 3 NXR NA 16.74 NA 3.1PIMCOMuniInc PMF NA 13.70 NA 4.7PIMCOMuniIncII PML NA 14.25 NA 5.0PimcoMuni III PMX NA 11.89 NA 4.6PioneerHilncAdv MAV 12.34 11.48 -7.0 4.3PioneerMunHiIcmT MHI 13.23 12.15 -8.2 4.4PutnamMgd Inc PMM 8.21 7.88 -4.0 4.8

Prem12MoFund (SYM) NAV Close /Disc Yld

Prem12MoFund (SYM) NAV Close /Disc Yld

Prem12MoFund (SYM) NAV Close /Disc Yld

LoanParticipationFunds1WSCredit Income NA NA NA 6.0AlphCntrc PrimeMerid In 9.66 NA NA NSAngel OakStr Crdt:Inst 22.87 NA NA 7.9AxonicAlternative Inc NA NA NA 3.5Blackstone/GSOFREID 23.70 NA NA 5.7Blackstone/GSOFREI I 23.67 NA NA 5.9Blackstone/GSOFREI T 23.63 NA NA 5.5Blackstone/GSOFREI T-I 24.21 NA NA 5.4Blackstone/GSOFREIU 24.67 NA NA 5.4Blstn CommntyDev 10.06 NA NA 3.4BNYMAlcntr GlbMSCr Fd 101.06 NA NA 6.9CLIFFWATERCLFD;I 10.53 NA NA 5.1CNRStrategic Credit 10.47 NA NA 7.8FedProj&TrFinanceTendr 10.00 NA NA 2.8FSGlobal CrdtOpptysD NA NA NA 8.5SchrdrsOpp Inc;A 25.71 NA NA 1.1SchrdrsOpp Inc;A2 25.70 NA NA NSSchrdrsOpp Inc;I 25.72 NA NA 1.1SchrdrsOpp Inc;SDR 25.76 NA NA 1.2InvescoSr LoanA 6.25 NA NA 4.4InvescoSr LoanC 6.27 NA NA 3.7InvescoSr Loan IB 6.25 NA NA 4.6InvescoSr Loan IC 6.25 NA NA 4.5InvescoSr LoanY 6.26 NA NA 4.6Pioneer Sec Inc 9.66 NA NA NSHighYieldBondFundsGriffin InstAccess Cd:A NA NA NA 6.1Griffin InstAccess Cd:C NA NA NA 6.1Griffin InstAccess Cd:F NA NA NA 6.2Griffin InstAccess Cd:I NA NA NA 6.1Griffin InstAccess Cd:L NA NA NA 6.2PIMCOFlexible Cr I;A-2 9.21 NA NA 9.8PIMCOFlexible Cr I;A-3 9.21 NA NA NSPIMCOFlexible Cr I;A-4 9.21 NA NA 10.1PIMCOFlexible Cr I;Inst 9.21 NA NA 10.9PionrILSBridge NA NA NA 0.0WAMiddleMktDbt NA NA NA 7.8WAMiddleMkt Inc NA NA NA 8.7OtherDomestic TaxableBondFundsAmBeaconApollo TR:T 10.40 NA NA 1.7AmBeaconApollo TR:Y 10.45 NA NA 2.5AmBeaconSPEnh Inc:T 9.62 NA NA NSAmBeaconSPEnh Inc:Y 9.69 NA NA 3.3BRCredit Strat;A 10.44 NA NA NSBRCredit Strat;Inst 10.44 NA NA 5.1BlackRockMlt-SctrOppty 87.06 NA NA 8.6BlackRockMlt-SecOpp II 91.57 NA NA 8.3Carlyle Tact Pvt Cred:A NA NA NA 8.2Carlyle Tact Pvt Cred:I NA NA NA 9.1Carlyle Tact Pvt Cred:L NA NA NA 8.6Carlyle Tact Pvt Cred:M NA NA NA NSCarlyle Tact Pvt Cred:N NA NA NA 9.1Carlyle Tact Pvt Cred:Y NA NA NA 8.8CIONAresDvsfd Crdt;A NA NA NA 5.7CIONAresDvsfd Crdt;C NA NA NA 5.7CIONAresDvsfd Crdt;I NA NA NA 5.6CIONAresDvsfd Crdt;L NA NA NA 5.6CIONAresDvsfd Crdt;U NA NA NA 5.6CIONAresDvsfd Crdt:U2 NA NA NA NSCIONAresDvsfd Crdt;W NA NA NA 5.6CNRSelect Strategies 11.59 NA NA 0.0First Eagle CrdtOppsA 25.34 NA NA NSFirst Eagle CrdtOpps I 25.34 NA NA NSGLBeyond Income 0.64 NA NA NEKKRCREDITOPPTY;D NA NA NA NSKKRCREDITOPPTY;I NA NA NA NSKKRCREDITOPPTY;T NA NA NA NSKKRCREDITOPPTY;U NA NA NA NSLordAbbett CredOpps Fd NA NA NA 7.2LordAbbett CredOpps Fd NA NA NA 7.8LordAbbett CrdOp:U NA NA NA NSPalmer SquareOpp Inc 18.29 NA NA 6.0Resource Credit Inc:A 10.48 NA NA 8.0Resource Credit Inc:C 10.58 NA NA 7.3Resource Credit Inc:I 10.50 NA NA 8.2Resource Credit Inc:L 10.47 NA NA 7.7Resource Credit Inc:W 10.47 NA NA 8.0Thrivent Church Ln&Inc:S 10.88 NA NA 2.6World IncomeFundsDestra Int&Evt-DvnCrd:A 25.37 NA NA 4.6Destra Int&Evt-DvnCrd:I 25.38 NA NA 4.8Destra Int&Evt-DvnCrd:L 25.35 NA NA 4.4Destra Int&Evt-DvnCrd:T 25.33 NA NA 4.2NationalMuni BondFundsPIMCOFlexMun Inc;A-3 NA NA NA 2.1PIMCOFlexMun Inc:A1 NA NA NA NSPIMCOFlexMun Inc;A2 NA NA NA NSPIMCOFlexMun Inc;Inst NA NA NA 2.8Tortoise Tax-AdvSoc Inf NA NA NA 5.0

GabelliMultimedia GGT 7.96 8.00 +0.5 13.8HighlandGlobal Alloc HGLB 10.13 6.79 -33.0 -17.2India Fund IFN 22.35 19.97 -10.6 7.7JapanSmaller Cap JOF 10.49 9.03 -13.9 5.4LazardGlbTotRetInc LGI 19.58 17.73 -9.4 18.3MSChinaShrFd CAF 25.13 21.87 -13.0 11.6MS India IIF 24.63 20.75 -15.8 3.0NewGermany GF 23.74 20.42 -14.0 35.6TempletonDragon TDF 24.07 22.06 -8.4 46.5TempletonEmMkt EMF 19.55 17.90 -8.4 19.6Wells FargoGl DivOppty EOD 5.45 4.79 -12.1 -3.0

U.S.MortgageBondFundsBlckRk Income BKT 6.21 6.07 -2.3 6.7InvescoHI 2023Tgt Term IHIT 8.82 8.42 -4.5 7.2InvestmentGradeBondFundsBlRck CoreBond BHK 16.42 16.35 -0.4 4.9BRCredit Alloc Inc BTZ 15.66 14.96 -4.5 6.7Insight Select Income INSI 22.46 21.54 -4.1 3.9InvescoBond VBF 21.15 20.85 -1.4 3.6JHan Income JHS 16.30 15.66 -3.9 4.6MFS Intmdt MIN 3.94 3.81 -3.3 8.9WesternAsset Inf-Lk Inc WIA NA 13.76 NA 2.9WesternAsset Inf-LkO&I WIW NA 12.07 NA 3.4WestnAsst IGDefOppTr IGI NA 22.19 NA 3.8LoanParticipationFundsApollo Senior Floating AFT NA 14.27 NA 6.9BRDebt Strategy DSU 11.56 10.14 -12.3 8.2BRF/R Inc Str FRA 13.84 12.10 -12.6 7.8BlackRock FloatngRt Inc BGT 13.43 11.87 -11.6 7.7BlackstoneSr Fl Rt Tm BSL NA 14.30 NA 8.0BlackstoneStrat Cr BGB 14.29 12.59 -11.9 9.3Eagle Point Credit ECC NA 10.13 NA 15.8EtnVncFltRteInc EFT 14.40 13.24 -8.1 6.7EVSenFlRtTr EFR 14.18 13.00 -8.3 7.0EVSnrIncm EVF 6.77 6.33 -6.5 6.3FT/Sr FltgRte Inc 2 FCT 12.75 11.66 -8.5 9.7FT/Sr FltgRte 2022TgTr FIV 9.43 8.98 -4.8 2.9Highland Income HFRO 13.03 10.27 -21.2 10.2InvDYCrOpp VTA 11.60 10.43 -10.1 8.7InvSnrIncTr VVR 4.44 3.89 -12.4 6.8NuveenCredit Strat Inc JQC NA 6.20 NA 16.5NuvFloatRateIncFd JFR NA 8.76 NA 7.4NuvFloatRteIncOppty JRO NA 8.63 NA 7.4NuveenSenior Income NSL NA 5.20 NA 7.9PionrFltRate Tr PHD 11.22 10.84 -3.4 6.3HighYieldBondFundsAllianceBernGlHiIncm AWF 12.93 11.71 -9.4 6.9Angel Oak FS Inc Trm FINS 18.51 16.62 -10.2 7.4BaringsGlb SDHYBd BGH NA 14.98 NA 9.7BRCorporateHY HYT 11.91 11.47 -3.7 8.0BlackRock LtdDur Inc BLW 16.94 15.95 -5.8 7.4BNYMellonHi Yield Str DHF 3.27 2.96 -9.5 8.5Brookfield Real Asst Inc RA 19.89 17.89 -10.1 13.5CrSuisHighYld DHY NA 2.29 NA 8.5DoubleLine Inc Sol DSL NA 16.32 NA 10.7DoubleLineYldOpps DLY NA 18.51 NA NSFirst TrHi Inc Lng/Shrt FSD 16.46 14.63 -11.1 9.0First TrustHYOpp:2027 FTHY 21.33 20.41 -4.3 NSIVYHIGH INCOMEOPP IVH 14.55 12.84 -11.8 9.5NeubHgYldStrt NHS 12.64 11.61 -8.1 9.4NewAmerHi Inc HYB 9.82 8.52 -13.2 6.5NexPointStratOppty NHF 17.44 10.54 -39.6 14.3NuveenCINov 2021 Tgt JHB NA 9.17 NA 4.4NuveenCrdtOpps 2022TT JCO NA 8.04 NA 6.8NuveenGlobal High Inc JGH NA 15.22 NA 7.6PGIMGlobal HighYield GHY 16.30 14.43 -11.5 8.9PGIMHighYield Bond ISD 16.68 14.90 -10.7 8.5PioneerHilncmTr PHT 9.38 8.92 -4.9 8.4Wells Fargo IncomeOppty EAD 8.96 8.08 -9.8 8.8WstAstHIF II HIX NA 6.92 NA 8.4WesternAssetHi IncOpp HIO NA 5.02 NA 7.7

52wkPrem Ttl

Fund (SYM) NAV Close /Disc Ret

Prem12MoFund (SYM) NAV Close /Disc Yld

CLOSED‑END FUNDS

PutnamMuniOpp PMO 14.04 13.52 -3.7 4.7RiverNorthMgdDurMun I RMM 19.43 17.42 -10.3 5.7WesternAssetMgdMuni MMU NA 12.79 NA 4.2WestnAsstMuDefOppTr MTT NA 20.73 NA 3.2Single StateMuni BondBlackRock CAMun BFZ 16.02 14.03 -12.4 3.3BRMHCAQly Fd Inc MUC 15.99 14.75 -7.8 3.9BRMHNJQly MUJ 16.03 14.33 -10.6 4.8BRMHNYQly MHN 15.16 13.88 -8.4 4.2BRMuniYld CA MYC 16.36 14.60 -10.8 3.5BRMuniYld CAQly MCA 16.17 14.85 -8.2 4.0BRMuniYldMIQly MIY 15.87 14.42 -9.1 4.2BRMuniYldNJ MYJ 16.10 14.16 -12.0 5.1BRMuniYldNYQly MYN 14.54 13.07 -10.1 4.1EVCAMuniBd EVM 12.82 11.63 -9.3 4.0EatonVanceNYMuni Bd ENX 13.59 12.36 -9.1 4.1InvCaValMuIncTr VCV 13.72 12.99 -5.3 4.1InvPAValMuIncTr VPV 14.26 12.49 -12.4 4.7InvTrInvGrNYMu VTN 14.40 12.69 -11.9 4.3NuveenCAAMT-FQualMI NKX NA 15.53 NA 4.0NuveenCAVal NCA NA 10.58 NA 3.0NuveenCAQtyMuInc NAC NA 15.02 NA 4.1NuveenMDQualMuni Inc NMY NA 13.88 NA 4.1NuveenMIQualMuni Inc NUM NA 14.57 NA 3.8NuvNJQualMuni Inc NXJ NA 14.24 NA 4.5NuveenNYAMT/FrQualMI NRK NA 13.32 NA 4.2NuveenNYQualMuni Inc NAN NA 14.18 NA 4.3NuveenOHQualMuni Inc NUO NA 15.50 NA 3.4NuveenPAQualMuni Inc NQP NA 14.13 NA 4.5NuveenVAQltyMun Inc NPV NA 15.90 NA 3.5PIMCOCA PCQ NA 18.31 NA 4.5PIMCOCAMuniII PCK NA 9.01 NA 4.2PimcoCAMuni III PZC NA 10.30 NA 4.4

General Equity FundsSpecializedEquity FundsBluerock Total Inc+RE:A 29.18 NA NA 1.4Bluerock Total Inc+RE:C 27.77 NA NA 0.6Bluerock Total Inc+RE:I 29.74 NA NA 1.6Bluerock Total Inc+RE:L 28.93 NA NA 1.1BroadstoneRl EstAcc:I 9.60 NA NA -4.8BroadstoneRl EstAcc:W 9.59 NA NA -5.0CIMRA&CA 25.47 NA NA NSCIMRA&CC 25.34 NA NA NSCIMRA&C I 25.50 NA NA NSCIMRA&CL 25.42 NA NA NSGSReal EstDiv Inc:A 9.76 NA NA -2.5GSReal EstDiv Inc:C 9.74 NA NA -3.3GSReal EstDiv Inc:I 10.19 NA NA -2.3GSReal EstDiv Inc:L 9.76 NA NA -2.7GSReal EstDiv Inc:W 9.91 NA NA -2.5NexPointRlEstStrat;A 16.18 NA NA -12.5NexPointRlEstStrat;C 16.35 NA NA -12.8NexPointRlEstStrat;Z 16.34 NA NA -11.6PREDEX;I 25.33 NA NA 0.3PREDEX;T 25.43 NA NA 0.3PREDEX;W 25.43 NA NA 0.3Principal DvsSel RAA 25.53 NA NA 0.9Principal DvsSel RA Ins 25.59 NA NA 1.2Principal DvsSel RAY 25.66 NA NA 1.4SharesPost 100;A 35.19 NA NA 18.1SharesPost 100:I 35.45 NA NA 18.4SharesPost 100:L 35.01 NA NA 18.0Versus CapMMgrRE Inc:I 27.15 NA NA NEVersus Capital Real Asst 25.32 NA NA 1.3WildermuthEndwmnt:A 13.47 NA NA -3.8WildermuthEndwmnt:C 12.97 NA NA -4.6WildermuthEndowment:I 13.55 NA NA -4.0Income&PreferredStockFundsA3Alternative Cr 10.12 NA NA 3.5Calamos L/SEqty andDI CPZ NA 17.62 NA NADestraMulti-Altrntv;A 12.18 NA NA -5.3DestraMulti-Altrntv;C 11.64 NA NA -6.1DestraMulti-Altrntv;I 12.42 NA NA -5.2DestraMulti-Altrntv;T 11.82 NA NA -5.9Flat RockOpportunity 19.72 NA NA 13.6VariantAltrntv Inc:Inst 26.72 NA NA 5.7VariantAltrntv Inc:Inv 26.72 NA NA 5.5Convertible Sec's. FundsCalmosDynConv and Inc CCD NA 28.28 NA NAWorldEquity FundsACAPStrategic:A 27.24 NA NA 52.8ACAPStrategic:W 20.08 NA NA 53.8BMOLGMFrontME;I 6.38 NA NA -23.1CalamosGlbTotRet CGO NA 14.74 NA NAPrimark Priv Eq Inv:III NA NA NA NSVirtusTotalRetFd ZTR 9.28 8.84 -4.7 -1.1

52wkPrem Ttl

Fund (SYM) NAV Close /Disc Ret

IPOScorecardPerformance of IPOs,most-recent listed first

%ChgFrom %ChgFromCompany SYMBOL Friday3s Offer 1st-day Company SYMBOL Friday3s Offer 1st-dayIPOdate/Offer price close ($) price close IPOdate/Offer price close ($) price close

908Devices 49.00 145.0 ... SevenOaksAcquisition 10.16 1.6 ...MASSDec. 18/$20.00 SVOKUDec. 18/$10.00

DuneAcquisition 10.12 1.2 ... Virios Therapeuctics 10.40 4.0 –37.8DUNEUDec. 18/$10.00 VIRIDec. 17/$10.00

Golden FalconAcquisition 10.29 2.9 ... ScIONTechGrowth I 10.18 1.8 0.4GFX.UTDec. 18/$10.00 SCOAUDec. 17/$10.00

INSUAcquisition III 10.40 4.0 ... CornerGrowthAcquisition 10.35 3.5 ...IIIIUDec. 18/$10.00 COOLUDec. 17/$10.00

MedTechAcquisition 10.36 3.6 ... BioAtla 35.00 94.4 12.8MTACUDec. 18/$10.00 BCABDec. 16/$18.00

Sources: DowJonesMarketData; FactSet

P2JW356000-0-B00700-1--------XA

B8 | Monday, December 21, 2020 THEWALL STREET JOURNAL.

THE TICKER | Market events coming this week

CarMax is expected to post earnings on Tuesday of $1.18 a share, compared with $1.04 a year earlier.

NICKCA

REY/RE

UTE

RS

MondayEarnings expected*

Estimate/YearAgo($)

FactSetResearchSystems 2.59/2.43Heico 0.41/0.62

Tuesday

Consumer ConfidenceNov., previous 96.1Dec., expected 97.8

Existing homesalesOct.,previous 6.85mil.Nov.,expected 6.75mil.

GDPDeflator3rd qtr. sec. est.

up 3.6%3rd qtr., third est.

up 3.6%

Gross domestic productPercentage change, annual rate

3rd qtr. sec. est.up 33.1%

3rd qtr., third est.up 33.1%

Earnings expected*Estimate/YearAgo($)

CarMax 1.18/1.04Cintas 2.19/2.27Neogen 0.31/0.31

Wednesday

EIA status reportPrevious change in stocks inmillions of barrels

Crude-oil stocksdown3.1

Gasoline stocks up 1Distillates up 0.2

EIA report: natural-gasPrevious change in stocks inbillions of cubic feet

down122

Mort. bankers indexesPurch.,previous up2%Refinan.,prev. up1%

U.Mich. consumer indexDec., prelim. 81.4Dec., final 80.7

New-homesalesOct., previous 999000Nov., expected 990000

Personal spendingOct.,previous up0.5%Nov., expected

down0.3%

Personal incomeOct., previous

down0.7%Nov., expected

down0.3%

Earnings expected*Estimate/YearAgo($)

Paychex 0.66/0.72

Thursday

Durable-goods ordersOct., previous up 1.3%Nov., expected up 0.6%

Initial jobless claimsPrevious 885000Expected 900000

Short-selling reportsRatio, days of trading volumeofcurrent position, atNov 30

NYSE 2.8Nasdaq 1.9

Friday

Christmas DayU.S.bondandstockmarketsareclosed

* FACTSET ESTIMATES EARNINGS-PER-SHARE ESTIMATES DON’T INCLUDE EXTRAORDINARY ITEMS (LOSSES IN PARENTHESES) ADJUSTED FORSTOCK SPLIT NOTE: FORECASTS ARE FROM DOW JONES WEEKLY SURVEY OF ECONOMISTS

$744.2 million, according toThe Sunday Times Rich List.

Mr. Tangen said he aims tomake the fund as much moneyas he can within a mandategiven by the Ministry of Fi-nance. Portfolio managers canmake small tweaks to holdingsin 800 of the more than 9,000listed companies in which thefund invests. The rest are gov-erned by an index. The fundcan’t invest in most privatecompanies.

“Active management hasgiven the fund considerableextra return and is a prerequi-site for engagement with com-panies,” Mr. Tangen said.

In recent days he has ex-changed words in the Norwe-gian press with critics who saythe costs are excessive.

“You could eliminate stockpicking and reduce costs andyou wouldn’t have a returnthat would be any worse,” saidHalvor Hoddevik, who runs a

financial-advisory firm in Oslo.Mr. Tangen on Friday wrote

that since 2014, active manage-ment has earned an extra 66billion kroner for the Norwe-gian people. The fund’s activemanagement includes stockpicking and other strategies.

The fund has returned anannualized 5.8% since 1998and exceeded its benchmarkby roughly 0.25 percentagepoint. Anything over thebenchmark constitutes an ac-tive return.

The fund will further divestitself from companies on envi-ronmental, social and gover-nance grounds, Mr. Tangensaid, offering an example ofactive management. It willalso increase its use of exter-nal asset managers.

Active management haspaid off for the fund in thepast. Portfolio managers lastyear discovered irregularitiesat German payments company

Wirecard AG, which, coupledwith Financial Times coverage,caused them to sell holdings.When Wirecard in June saidcash had gone missing, thefund minimized its losses byunloading remaining sharesbefore their value plunged.

Diego López, managing di-rector of consulting firmGlobal SWF, said Mr. Tangen’shedge-fund background couldsignal a more agile and lessrisk-averse strategy.

That means using more ofthe tracking error, fund-watch-ers say, which refers to the de-viation from the benchmarkportfolio return. Others expectMr. Tangen to increase stockpicking and limit bets basedon macroeconomic environ-ments or tied to factors likegrowth.

People who know Mr. Tan-gen from his time at AKO Cap-ital, the $21 billion firm namedafter his children, said he is

Nicolai Tangen made hisname picking stocks in theworld of hedge funds. Now heis sparring over an active ap-proach to running the world’slargest sovereign-wealthfund—historically a bastion ofpassive investing.

Mr. Tangen—three monthsin as chief executive of NorgesBank Investment Management,the arm of the Norwegian cen-tral bank that operates thefund—says active managementboosts investment returns andlays the groundwork for inter-acting with companies. Puristssay stock picking, one form ofactive management, is a wasteof money and that returns atthe 10.838 trillion Norwegiankroner fund, equivalent to$1.265 trillion, would hold upfine without it.

Established in the 1990s toinvest revenue from oil discov-eries, the oil fund, as it isknown, is now valued at threetimes the country’s annual grossdomestic product and safe-guards wealth for the future.

“Norwegians really feel it’stheir money, and they reallycare who runs it,” Mr. Tangensaid in an interview.

Now the years-old debatehas bubbled up again, with Mr.Tangen himself weighing in.The core of the dispute: howintegral active asset manage-

BY JULIE STEINBERG

MARKETS

ment should be to the strategyof the sovereign-wealth fund.

Espen Henriksen, a financeprofessor at BI NorwegianSchool of Business, said it ispuzzling that a hedge-fundmanager was chosen to runthe engine room of a de factoindex fund.

That discussion was part ofa wide-ranging furor over Mr.Tangen’s appointment, whichattracted the most public at-tention in the fund’s history,said Camilla Bakken Øvald, aneconomist who has written abook on the fund.

Problems first arose whenit emerged Mr. Tangen, 54years old, had offered his pre-decessor, Yngve Slyngstad, aplane ride home from a glitzyseminar Mr. Tangen hosted inNovember 2019. Mr. Tangenhad invited Mr. Slyngstad tothe event, which featured aSting performance, a year anda half before the job cameopen, but questions wereraised over the pair’s interac-tions. Mr. Slyngstad later apol-ogized for accepting the ride.The central bank said Mr.Slyngstad had no part in hir-ing Mr. Tangen.

Then there was the centralbank’s willingness to let Mr.Tangen keep his 43% stake inAKO Capital LLP, the invest-ment firm he founded. An out-cry over potential conflicts ofinterest and the hedge-fundindustry’s use of tax havensforced him to transfer thestake to his charitable founda-tion and liquidate his personalfund investments. Mr. Tangenhas an estimated net worth of£550 million, equivalent to

process-oriented and rigorous.He studied interrogation in anelite Russian-language pro-gram in the Norwegian intelli-gence service.

“Nicolai is willing to pay upfor quality,” said LawrenceCunningham, who wrote abook on investing with AKOCapital portfolio managers.The firm has returned an an-nualized 11% since 2005 in itsflagship strategy.

Chats with 140 oil-fund em-ployees before he started(“one of the great characteris-tics of Scandinavians—theytell you the truth,” he said)have prompted Mr. Tangen toinitially focus on the fund’sperformance, communicationand talent development.

The fund has benefitedfrom its 70% allocation tostocks during the year’sswerving markets, despite a3.4% loss in the first half. Itssecond-quarter performancewas its best, boosted by equi-ties added during the springselloff. It was up 4.3% in thethird quarter.

Mr. Tangen is acclimatingto the public realm. Newlyprolific on LinkedIn, he re-vealed last month he had con-tracted, and then recoveredfrom, Covid-19. He also offeredto buy Cokes for successful jobapplicants. The fund wants tohire from all religious back-grounds, so drinks need to benonalcoholic, he wrote. De-spite the internal emphasis ondiversity, Mr. Tangen said thefund won’t divest itself fromcompanies on that basis.

—Jem Bartholomewcontributed to this article.

Norway Adds More Active InvestingNew CEO Tangengrapples with publicscrutiny and nudgesfund from passive role

There was wide debate when Nicolai Tangen was hired.

ANDRE

AGJEST

VANGFO

RTH

EWALL

STRE

ETJO

URN

AL

TheNorwegian oil fund'sreturn since inception

Source: Norges Bank Investment ManagementNote: 2020 data is for the first half of the year

30

–30

–15

0

15

%

2000 ’05 ’10 ’15 ’20

earlier this year.Lenders even curtailed loans

made under the Small BusinessAdministration’s traditionallending program, in which thegovernment bears most of thedefault risk.

Credit can’t save businessesthat aren’t viable. But withoutit, firms that perseveredthrough the pandemic couldlack the funding to rehire laid-off workers, preventing the la-bor market from healing itselfand hampering the economicrecovery. After the last reces-sion, a lack of credit forcedsmaller firms to reduce theiremployment growth by asmuch as 10.5 percentage pointsrelative to larger ones that hadmore borrowing options, ac-cording to research by FederalReserve economist Michael Sie-mer.

“We’ve never really fixed theaccess to capital problem tosmall business,” said BillPhelan, general manager ofPayNet, a division of EquifaxInc. that tracks commerciallending. “It probably has beenalleviated by PPP, but thatwon’t last forever.”

It took weeks this spring forthe Courtyard Brewery in NewOrleans to secure about$34,000 in PPP funds from itsbank, JPMorgan. Because of theway the bank processed appli-cations early on, its larger cus-tomers had a better chance ofgetting approved than smallerones.

ContinuedfrompageB1

Still, it was the most moneyowner Scott Wood had man-aged to get from JPMorgan inyears. The bank repeatedlyturned down the brewery’s re-quests for a higher limit on itssmall-business credit card. Andwhen Mr. Wood approached thebank about funding an expan-sion last year, he got nowhere.

Mr. Wood had plans for anew location in the Big Easy’sMid-City neighborhood—com-plete with a taproom and res-taurant. He lined up investorsand a property developer tocover about one-third of theroughly $2 million cost andasked JPMorgan to lend himthe rest.

JPMorgan, he said, guidedhim to apply for an SBA loansince his personal credit scoreand Courtyard’s income weremore than enough to qualify.After months of negotiations,JPMorgan asked Mr. Wood orone of his investors to person-ally guarantee the entire $2million project, not just theamount it would finance. Mr.Wood decided not to move for-ward.

“The bottom line is that un-less you come into the gamestacked, you’re not playing,”Mr. Wood said.

A JPMorgan spokeswomandeclined to comment.

Small businesses employednearly 61 million people in2017, or about 47% of the pri-vate-sector workforce, accord-ing to the most recent dataavailable from the Census Bu-reau. Despite their importanceto the economy, they have longstruggled to obtain financing.

Only 35% of small businesseswith at least one employee andannual revenue between$100,000 and $1 million had re-ceived bank funding in the pastfive years, according to anApril survey of the Federal Re-

serve’s 12 regional banks. Forfirms with $100,000 or less inannual revenue, the figuredropped to 24%.

Small businesses have his-torically turned to small banksfor their funding needs. Bankswith less than $10 billion in as-sets held nearly 53% of smallloans to businesses at the endof 2017, even though they rep-resented only 17% of all bank-ing-industry assets, accordingto the Federal Deposit Insur-ance Corp.’s most recent small-business lending survey.

But consolidation in thebanking industry has resultedin many fewer options for com-panies seeking smaller loans.Between the end of 2007 andSeptember 2020, the number ofFDIC-insured banks fell 41% to5,033.

Smaller firms tend to keepsparser financial records andhave more variable growth tra-jectories, making them awk-ward fits for big banks’ bureau-cracies, uniform underwritingsystems and centralized credit

committees.“The small-dollar loans,

which is what Main Streetsmall businesses need, are notfinancially viable and not cen-ter of the plate for” big banks,said Tammy Halevy, a senioradviser at Public Private Strate-gies.

Bank-industry groups alsopoint to postcrisis changes tocapital requirements, citingeconomists’ findings that banksthat are subject to the Fed’s an-nual stress tests reduce someforms of small-business creditsignificantly more than banksthat aren’t.

When policy makers andcentral banks moved to containthe pandemic’s economic fall-out, they focused on shoring upthe credit markets that servebigger businesses. The FederalReserve and Treasury Depart-ment committed up to $750 bil-lion to purchase corporatebonds and syndicated loans andbillions more to support themarket for commercial paper, akind of short-term corporate

IOU.Those measures largely suc-

ceeded. Junk-rated companiesissued more than $430 billionof speculative-grade bonds be-tween the start of the year andmid-December, a record, ac-cording to LCD, a unit of S&PGlobal Market Intelligence.Companies whose businesseswere upended by travel restric-tions and stay-at-home orders,such as cruise-line operatorCarnival Corp., were only ableto sell bonds to investors afterthe Fed intervened to unclogthe market.

The Fed’s tools were less ef-fective in ensuring creditflowed to small businesses.

Few small businesses metthe criteria to borrow underthe Main Street Lending Pro-gram, a $600 billion effortfrom the Treasury and Fed toencourage lending to medium-size businesses. Separate Fedfacilities targeting PPP loansand securitizations of small-business loans freed up parts ofbank and investors’ balancesheets, but that didn’t ulti-mately result in more newcredit being extended tosmaller firms.

Fed Chairman Jerome Pow-ell told Congress in Septemberthat the central bank’s ap-proach of focusing on bond-market interventions allowed itto act quickly where it could bemost effective. “The evidencesuggests that most creditwor-thy small and medium-sizedbusinesses can currently getloans from private-sector finan-cial institutions,” he said.

In the current environment,though, lenders are finding itmore difficult to assess thecreditworthiness of small busi-nesses when traditional mea-sures, like a prior year’s tax fil-ings or an owner’s credit score,have less predictive power.

Small-business credit-cardand commercial-loan balancesat Bank of America Corp., ex-cluding PPP loans, were about8% lower at the end of Septem-ber than they were at the endof 2019, despite lower defaultrates, according to securitiesfilings. The bank’s SBA lending,excluding PPP and other disas-ter loans, is running 30% belowwhere it was this time lastyear, Chief Executive BrianMoynihan said at a conferencethis month.

“You had to tighten in themiddle of the crisis,” he said.

Wells Fargo & Co. halved itscredit line to Rishi Khanna’ssoftware-outsourcing companyduring the last financial crisis.ISHIR Inc.’s borrowing limithas barely budged since, de-spite annual revenue that isnow orders of magnitude morethan his roughly $29,000 creditline.

A $45,000 PPP loan got thecompany through the pan-demic’s early months. Whenbusiness picked up in the fall,Mr. Khanna approached Wellsagain about increasing thecredit line. New clients wantedas long as 90 days to payISHIR’s invoices. He needed aloan to bridge the gap and, po-tentially, to hire more workers.

Wells declined his request,as did JPMorgan, with whichISHIR also had a credit line. Mr.Khanna turned to the Texascommunity bank that helpedISHIR secure the PPP loan.

Wells Fargo makes “everydirect loan we responsibly canto support customers’ creditneeds,” a spokesman said in anemail. JPMorgan declined tocomment.

Banks’ treatment of ISHIR“hasn’t been bothering me untilthe pandemic,” Mr. Khannasaid. “Now I need my help.Where are you?”

SmallerBusinessesLack Credit

Number of FDIC-insuredbanks

8,000

0

2,000

4,000

6,000

2007 ’10 ’15 ’20†

Small loans*to businessesBig loansto businesses

Commercial loans andmortgages on bankbalance sheets

Sources: Analysis of FDIC data by Rebel Cole (Commercial loans and mortgages);FDIC (Number of FDIC-insured banks)

*Amounts under $1 million †Through Sept. 30

$3

0

1

2

trillion

2007 ’10 ’15 ’19

P2JW356000-0-B00800-1--------XA

THEWALL STREET JOURNAL. Monday, December 21, 2020 | B9

HEARD ONTHESTREET

FINANCIAL ANALYSIS & COMMENTARY

Disbursed lending by internationalfinancial institutions in 2020

Source: Center for Strategic & International Studies

InternationalMonetary Fund

World Bank

European Investment Bank

Asian Dev. Bank

Asian Infrastructure Dev. Bank

African Dev. Bank

$41.7 billion

26.6

25.4

11.3

6.7

3.5

Source: Federal Reserve*Debt securities and loans

RECESSIONRECESSION

U.S. nonfinancialcorporations

U.S. households

Net debt, change froma year earlier

15

–10

–5

0

5

10

%

’10 ’15 ’202005

U.S. nonfinancial firms, change froma year earlier

30

–20

–10

0

10

20

%

’10 ’15 ’202005

Debt*

Liquid assets

Another is that the public sectorabsorbed the hit. Despite the surgein joblessness, expanded unemploy-ment benefits and other govern-ment outlays have boosted incomes.On average, families haven’t beenforced to take on extra debt or rundown their financial portfolio hold-ings, Fed data shows. Nor are prop-erty and asset prices tanking, hit-ting households’ net worth as theydid in 2008. So consumers havekept spending when they could.

Ford reported bumper third-

quarter results thanks to a jump intruck sales. Some pandemic win-ners like Microsoft and Johnson& Johnson—the only two U.S.companies with a top AAA rating—have both increased liquid assetsand paid down obligations.

Investors can bet against a bal-ance-sheet recession in the U.S.and the global economy, even ifthey don’t believe in a post-pan-demic boom, through the corpo-rate-bond market.

The net debt of its biggest seg-

ment, made up of firms rated justone step above “speculative,” islower than in 2019, figures by S&PCapital IQ suggest. Even withyields at all-time lows, their paperseems a good alternative to gov-ernment debt.

Whether future income state-ments from U.S. Inc. will be asstrong as the market expects re-mains to be seen, but at least itsbalance sheet shouldn’t be a bigconcern.

—Jon Sindreu

After the 2008 crisis, house-holds and firms spent years re-building their finances in whateconomist Richard Koo dubbed a“balance-sheet recession.” Debtlevels have jumped again this timeround, but on closer reading, thebooks tell a more positive story.

Due to Covid-19, the borrowingsof U.S. nonfinancial companieswere 8.5% higher at the end ofSeptember than a year earlier,when they were already above the2009 peak both in absolute levelsand as a percentage of gross do-mestic product. Some publicly-backed programs won’t need to bepaid back in full, but many inves-tors are still worried.

They can afford to relax. Bal-ance sheets are about assets aswell as liabilities.

Flow-of-funds data recentlypublished by the Federal Reserveshows that companies have accu-mulated even more cash than debt

this year: Their liquid assets wereup 25% in the third quarter. On anet basis, debt was down 7.9%.Relative to GDP, it remains wellbelow 2007 levels.

Back then, companies and fami-lies started a long process of de-leveraging that slowed the eco-nomic recovery. In the U.S., it tooknine years for households to consis-tently increase their net debt again.

This process is now happeningat an accelerated pace. Car makerFord, for example, drew on creditfacilities in March and was down-graded into “speculative” territoryby ratings firms. Yet as the yearprogressed it improved its net-cash position relative to 2019.

One reason is that most of themoney raised didn’t ultimately needto be spent. Debt issuance wasfront-loaded in the spring and hasn’tbeen as strong since, figures by Dea-logic show. The cash is starting tobe used to pay dividends again.

How Virus ReshapedBalance Sheets

China’s World Bank Challenger Has Fallen Short of PredictionsWorld Bank Group’s constituentparts: The International Bank forReconstruction and Development,the International Development As-sociation and the International Fi-nance Corp. together hold morethan $600 billion in assets.

Despite a surge in lending thisyear—the AIIB is well-capitalizedand was able to manage a consid-erable increase—it made up lessthan 5% of the new lending dis-bursed by international financialinstitutions, and even less of theapproved figure, according to datacompiled by the Center for Strate-gic and International Studies.

As in many areas of Asian com-mercial and economic diplomacy,Japan speaks quietly and carries a

broiled in a series of commercialand territorial disputes with Bei-jing this year.

The best argument for the AIIBis that it is a more narrowly fo-cused multilateral lender, whichdoesn’t differ all that much fromthe existing institutions. But inthat case it also can’t be a majorsource of Chinese government in-fluence or a vehicle to encouragethe use of the yuan, as somebreathless explanations suggestedfive years ago.

Whatever the AIIB’s futureholds, becoming the muscular fi-nancial sponsor of Chinese influ-ence abroad that some imaginedis unlikely.

—Mike Bird

big checkbook: It is the ADB’sjoint-largest shareholder. In com-parison, China’s large-scale finan-cial interventions sometimesamount to less than the thunder-ous headlines years earliersuggested.

The AIIB was assembled whenChina’s international relationswith many countries were muchwarmer. The U.K. and Australiajoined the AIIB against the protes-tations of the U.S. after visits byPresident Xi Jinping to bothcountries.

Such support today is difficultto imagine. China’s relations havesoured with many developed coun-tries. The second-largest capitalsubscriber, India, has been em-

In a little over a month, theAsian Infrastructure InvestmentBank will be five years old. Backthen, the nascent China-organizedmultinational lender was describedas a challenger to the AsianDevelopment Bank and even theWorld Bank.

But after half a decade in opera-tion, the reality doesn’t quitematch the hype.

The AIIB reported $30.78 billionin assets at the end of September.Even combined with the $19.32 bil-lion of the New Development Bank,another Chinese-led multilateralbank, that is still less than a fifthof the Asian Development Bank’s$250.8 billion.

Both are overshadowed by

Carefully consider the investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses before investing.A prospectus, obtained by calling 800-669-3900, contains this and other important information. Read carefully before investing.

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P2JW356000-0-B00900-17FFFF5178F

B10 | Monday, December 21, 2020 THEWALL STREET JOURNAL.

It’s already tomorrowin Shanghai.Stay a step ahead with the Deloitte Insightsmobile app, which gives you the latestbusiness news, research, and analysis fromtwo of the world’s most trusted sources,side-by-side: Deloitte and Dow Jones.

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P2JW356000-0-B01000-2--------XA