EP 665 American Business and the Hangover From the Pandemic

The pandemic was an economic catastrophe the likes of which CEO’s running America’s biggest companies had never seen or prepared for.  There was no playbook and the shock was even greater given the fact that it seemed that the good times would roll on unimpeded as cheap money(zero percent interest rates)sparked tremendous growth.  But as we all know, as in life, business has good and bad cycles and nothing lasts forever.  So what did company leadership learn from this and what are the ramifications of what happened–good and bad–that can be seen in today’s economy?  All of this leads to a great conversation with Liz Hoffman, a longtime Wall Street Journal senior reporter, who is now at semafor.com as its business and finance editor.  Her book “Crash Landing: The Inside Story of How the World’s Biggest Companies Survived an Economy on the Brink,” is our starting point as she analyzes key decisions that had to be made during the pandemic and how American business came out the other side.  It’s clear that issues like supply chains, just in time inventory and the value of labor have all been impacted tremendously at this moment and well into the future.  It’s a must listen.

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