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The economy just experienced its fastest three months of growth in U.S. history.

In the third quarter, from July to September, GDP climbed 33.1% on an annualized basis, according to data released Thursday by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.

This historic climb follows the U.S. record 31.4% annualized GDP decline in the second quarter, and the 5% annualized decline in the first quarter. During that period economists around the world were in panic and questioning if the United States—as well as the rest of the world—were on the cusp of an economic depression. But once states began to ease lockdown restrictions in the summer, the U.S. economy sprung from deep contraction to high growth.

It’s the last major piece of economic data before Election Day, and President Trump was quick to celebrate the numbers.

It was already a big deal when Visa agreed to acquire fintech startup Plaid for $5.3 billion in January—two times the company’s previous private market valuation. But the deal heralded something even larger, helping ignite a flurry of mega fintech deals: Intuit announced plans to acquire Credit Karma for $7.1 billion just a month later, while competitor Mastercard said it planned to acquire Finicity for nearly $1 billion in June.

Now the Department of Justice is scrutinizing all three deals, each involving a startup selling to an older and larger incumbent. In particular, the DoJ could soon decide whether it will sue to block Visa’s planned acquisition of Plaid, according to the Wall Street Journal—and it is also looking into the Finicity and Credit Karma deals. 

Plaid and Visa aren’t direct competitors—Visa focuses on payments while Plaid builds software that helps digitally connect consumers’ various bank and fintech … Read the rest

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If the Earth’s atmosphere is a bathtub, it’s getting close to full. The analogy is one that Steve Oldham, CEO of Carbon Engineering, uses to explain what he believes are the best strategies to fight climate change.

A bathtub, Oldham explains, can only hold so much water before it overflows—and it’s too late to turn off the faucets all the way. But if you slow the stream of water and, at the same time, open the bathtub’s drain, you can still stop the tub from reaching its limit.

“The bathtub is going to continue to fill,” Oldham said at the Fortune Global Forum on Monday. “If we had the ability to pull the plug at the same time as we turn down the taps, the water … Read the rest

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For the first seven years after founding Chobani, CEO Hamdi Ulukaya rarely left his yogurt-making factory as he worked to get his business off the ground. “I saw the dedication, the work, the discipline, the human connections,” he says. “But I also saw the struggles.”

As the industry grew, Ulukaya also witnessed what he describes as a disconnect between the sector prospering but not all of its workers sharing in that success—especially those working the factory floor. “Society moves on the shoulders of people like that,” he tells Fortune.  

In an effort to bridge the gap Ulukaya sees between employee and company success in the business world, Chobani plans to increase its starting hourly wage to at least $15 an hour—more than double federal minimum … Read the rest

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In 2016, Hillary Clinton went into Election Day leading Donald Trump in the RealClearPolitics poll average in Pennsylvania (+1.9 percentage points), Michigan (+3.4 points), and Wisconsin (+6.5 points). Trump would go on to win all three states by less than 1 percentage point—a polling error that shocked the world.

This time around, Democratic nominee Joe Biden also leads poll averages in Michigan (+8.1 points), Pennsylvania (+5.3 points), and Wisconsin (+4.6 points). But it doesn’t stop there. In all, Biden is leading in seven states Trump won four years ago, including Arizona (+2.4 points), Florida (+1.5 points), Iowa (+0.8 points), and North Carolina (+1.2 points). Trump holds narrow leads in Georgia (0.4 points), Ohio (0.6 points), and Texas (2.6 points).

But what’s the result if the polling … Read the rest