Hello, Quartz members, and welcome to Sunday Reads!
Hopefully you’ve had a fulfilling (and stomach-filling) Thanksgiving, and have also had your fill of Black Friday shopping. Now you’re home and catching up on the week that was. So it’s Sunday, and time to shift your gaze to some hand-selected reads. Here are some of our favorite Quartz stories from the week, plus a sneak peek at one story coming next week to get your day started.
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5 things we especially liked on Quartz
🧔♂️ Walmart rolls back DEI: Amid fears of a conservative-led boycott over its diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, Walmart has ended its DEI efforts. Conservative influencer Robby Starbuck took credit for Walmart’s decision. William Gavin sifts through the wreckage.
🖥️ Phony-ing it in: A Harris poll ordered by Google shows that 82% of young adults in leadership positions at work said they leverage AI in their work, and most respondents said they use AI to start a task that feels overwhelming, improve their writing, and take notes. Rocio Fabbro has the details.
💸 Trump’s tariff move: President-elect Donald Trump says he’s planning to slap 25% tariffs on everything imported from Mexico and Canada, and a 10% duty on everything coming in from China. That’s more than $1.3 trillion worth of goods, and economists say it will raise prices on everything. William Gavin crunched the numbers.
🦬 Tesla’s “Animal Spirits”: The post-election jump in Tesla’s stock price is driven purely by “animal spirits/momentum,” and not by anything that could translate to a boost to the company’s bottom line, a UBS analyst warned. Check out the full story.
🫲 Buffett keeps giving away stock: Warren Buffett was born poor and is slowly but surely trying to die poor. He’s pledged to give away 99% of his now-$150 billion fortune, and last week gave away another $1.1 billion to charity. Rocio Fabbro looks at the world’s biggest spend-down.
1 sneak peek
⚖️ Where to get out of the rat race: Tired of always working. never getting enough sleep, and that constant nagging feeling that somehow, somewhere, there must be a better way? Then head to Finland. A survey of 4,200 workers by the remittance company Remitly found that the Finnish capital, the world’s second most-northerly capital city, has the best work-life balance. Ben Kesslen takes us on a world tour of the cities with the best (and worst) work-life balance. Visit qz.com on Monday morning for a look at the future of everything.
What we’re watching this week
- Monday: Cyber Monday
- Tuesday: Giving Tuesday, Salesforce reports earnings.
- Wednesday: A busy day for retail earnings, with Foot Locker, Dollar Tree, American Eagle, and Five Below all set to report.
- Thursday: Kroger, Lululemon, Dollar General, and Ulta Beauty report earnings.
- Friday: The monthly jobs report for November is released.
Thanks for reading! Here’s to the week ahead, and don’t hesitate to reach out with comments, questions, feedback, joy, or your favorite city for work-life balance. Sunday Reads was brought to you by Peter S. Green.