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December 11, 2020

Welcome to this edition of The Reader, a weekly roundup of our stories and insights.

This week, our reporters examined why America isn't in another Great Depression, despite a devastating pandemic; the cottage industry trying to revive Aunt Jemima; the science behind the leading COVID vaccines; and why 2020 was a banner year for European tech investment.

Read on for more stories.

Clifton Leaf

Editor-in-chief, Fortune

MUST READ

Why aren’t we in another Great Depression?

The pandemic outlook is the grimmest it has ever been. But economists seem happily oblivious of it all.

BY GEOFF COLVIN

DECEMBER 6, 2020

RETAIL

Inside the cottage industry trying to revive Aunt Jemima and other brands with racist roots

The fact that companies were dropping these iconic brand names means that someone else can eventually obtain and use them instead.

BY BETH KOWITT

DECEMBER 8, 2020

COVID-19

The science behind the leading COVID vaccines will lead to faster manufacturing

The fate of the COVID pandemic may well be dictated by a biological building block that’s just several hundred nanometers long.

BY SY MUKHERJEE

DECEMBER 5, 2020

TECH

2020 was a banner year for European tech investment. Not even a pandemic could slow it down

Venture capital investment in Europe is poised to reach record levels this year.

BY JEREMY KAHN

DECEMBER 8, 2020

MUST WATCH

Airbnb's IPO raises $3.4 billion

The company had priced its IPO at $68 per share but debuted at $148.

Here's a peek at Fortune Analytics, our exclusive newsletter for Premium subscribers that brings you weekly business insights based on timely data analysis by our editorial team and exclusive polling.

This week, we polled 2,247 U.S. adults on their views of the COVID-19 vaccine.

40%

... of U.S. adults say they'd want to take the COVID-19 vaccine as soon as possible. While 39% say they'd want to wait a while, and 19% never want to take it.

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More essential reads

How China has used the pandemic to pull ahead on trade, by the numbers by Rey Mashayekhi
5 ways the post-pandemic office will look very different by S. Mitra Kalita
Stimulus update: Everything to know about the bipartisan $300 unemployment benefit plan by Lance Lambert
The American heartland needs jobs. Could Bitcoin mining become its next savior? by Jeff John Roberts

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From the archives

“The Aunt Jemima character has long come under fire for its racist past. In a 2007 interview with NPR, Maurice Manring, author of Slave in a Box: The Strange Career of Aunt Jemima, said that the marketing of Aunt Jemima came of age in an era when middle-class housewives were not able to employ black maids as easily as they once did. The ads targeted the nostalgia for those earlier days. “You can’t have Aunt Jemima today but you can have her recipe and that’s the next best thing,” Manring said, explaining the ads. “And so what we’re talking really about is trying to ease the transition from having someone do something for you to doing it yourself, and that’s where the slavery nostalgia was particularly effective,” he said.”

—Why it’s so hard for Aunt Jemima to ditch her unsavory past, Claire Zillman, August 2014