United States of America eSeries: I 💔 NY

I 💔 NY

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This Wednesday had some serious Friday vibes. Just me?
Anyway, let's get into it.

By Allison Morrow

💔 NY

What a dump.

New York I love you, but you're bringing us down…

Look, New York is the best, and I'll die on that hill. But we were also hit hardest by the pandemic last year, so the state's economy isn't bouncing back as fast as the rest of the country.

Although several states' economies have already fully recovered — and are even outpacing — their pre-Covid levels of economic activity, New York is by far the worst-performing state, according to the Back-to-Normal Index created by CNN Business and Moody's Analytics.

The US economy broadly is 93% "back to normal" as of this week, my colleague Anneken Tappe writes. But New York is at 83% — the bottom of the list. (Come on, New Yorkers, are we gonna let Florida play us like that?)

Once upon the Before Times… New York had the third-strongest economy among US states, behind only Texas and California, in 2019. Its GDP was nearly $1.8 trillion, on par with the economy of Italy. Fuhgettaboutit. The state contributed more than 8% to America's overall GDP in 2019.

Then, 2020 happened. GDP contracted by 5.9%, a bigger decline than the broader US economy.

We're bouncing back (she wrote while sipping a coffee purchased outside the office that she spent subway fare to get to…) but unemployment is still stubbornly high, at 7.8%, one of the highest jobless rates in the nation. US unemployment is around 5.8%.

HOW WE GOT HERE

The state isn't just the city (I hear you screaming up there, Ithaca) but New York City alone contributes more than half the economic activity for the state. And the city's economy hinges on service-driven industries — restaurants, cafes, dry cleaners, nail salons, the kind of businesses that couldn't function in the grips of a deadly virus.

And tourists — those lovely folks whom we love even if they don't know how to walk on a sidewalk correctly or swipe their MetroCards without causing a bottleneck — stopped coming. (We're sorry we yelled at you, Missourians, please come back soon and buy our overpriced booze in Times Square.)

📱NUMBER OF THE DAY

$2 trillion

Microsoft has officially entered the elitist of elite of clubs: a $2 trillion market cap. Who else is in the club? Right now, just Apple and Microsoft. But Amazon ($1.8 trillion) and Alphabet ($1.7 trillion) aren't far behind.

🏦 NO VAX, NO ENTRY

In the era of the Great Return to the Office, a lot of companies are opting for flexibility, recognizing that the change could be difficult for people after more than a year away.

And then there's Morgan Stanley, whose philosophy falls more into the "get your ass back in your chair" end of the spectrum. Last week, the CEO all but threatened New York workers who aren't back by Labor Day.

Now, it's going a step further, barring unvaccinated employees, guests and clients, from entering offices in New York.

Morgan Stanley said in a memo to its employees in the New York metropolitan area that all staff working in buildings with a "large employee presence" are required to confirm their vaccination status by July 1, according to a source close to the company.

CNN Business' Paul R. La Monica has more.

🗣️ QUOTE OF THE DAY

They're coming for everyone else soon.

—Mark Simon, adviser to Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai

Next Media announced that Apple Daily, Hong Kong's loudest pro-Democracy newspaper, would publish its final copy Thursday, a chilling sign of the crackdown on free media in the city. The paper's founder Jimmy Lai — already in jail for attending a pro-democracy rally — has been charged with colluding with foreign forces to endanger national security. Five of the newspaper's top editors and executives have been accused of the same crime.

WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON?

🥤 Someone over at Coca-Cola who's apparently never met the internet thought letting people personalize bottles might be fun. Predictable chaos ensued.

📦 This year's Amazon Prime Day, held Monday and Tuesday this week, broke sales records for the company. The robot vaccums were a bit hit.

🏈 Carl Nassib has the top-selling NFL jersey, according sports apparel retailer Fanatics. Nassib, a defensive lineman with the Las Vegas Raiders, earlier this week became the first active NFL player in league history to come out as gay.

⬛ John McAfee, the controversial antivirus software magnate who'd had multiple recent run-ins with the US law, has died at age 75. McAfee was awaiting extradition in a Spanish prison after being charged with tax evasion in the United States last year.