United States of America Scoping: Build-a-Rolls 🚘

Build-a-Rolls 🚘

Posted by :

This is your last Nightcap before the long weekend, so savor it and then please go have fun. We'll see you back here, hopefully tanned and well rested, on Tuesday. Let's get into it.

By Allison Morrow

💼 THE LABOR SHORTAGE

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon suggested Thursday that companies are having trouble hiring in part because some Americans don't feel like working right now.

"People actually have a lot of money, and they don't particularly feel like going back to work," he told lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

Dimon, who made $31.5 million last year as the head of the nation's largest bank, didn't elaborate on that statement. So, *cracks knuckles* allow me to elaborate for you, J.D. …

REALITY CHECK

Here at Nightcap, we believe it's important to be real about the current labor shortage.

Economists have generally pointed to three main reasons why employers are struggling to fill jobs:

Lingering health concerns tied to Covid-19.
Lack of child care options.
The $300 boost to federal unemployment benefits could, indeed, make it harder to fill lower-wage positions.

But here's the thing: That $300 boost isn't making anyone lazy. It's simply allowing chronically overworked and underpaid people like restaurant workers to explore options that don't involve returning to a toxic workplace that paid them less than the federal minimum wage. People in the services sector don't have "a lot" of money now. But they may have just enough to not race back to jobs that compromise their well-being.

RELATED: The CEO of Best Buy says that although sales are up, applications for open positions have fallen. She cited several reasons for this — and none of them involve people having too much money.

🚀 QUOTE OF THE DAY

Invested all my savings into AMC!!! Wish me luck guys.

— An investor on the WallStreetBets Reddit board

Shares of AMC, GameStop and other so-called meme stocks soared Thursday as investors on the popular Reddit WallStreetBets board were once again rallying behind certain stocks they see as undervalued, in part to hurt short sellers. Sounds familiar, right? CNN Business' Paul R. La Monica explains what's going on.

🥂 ROLLIN'

Rolls-Royce on Thursday unveiled a new program called Coachbuild that will cater to a select clientele, who will work closely with designers and engineers to create custom cars, writes my colleague Peter Valdes-Dapena.

It's like going through the Chipotle line, but instead of a burrito you get a multimillion-dollar luxury automobile tailored to your very specific tastes. (R-R is keeping mum about the costs, but it's pretty clear these things will be, well, what you might expect the car of your dreams to cost.)

"If individuality and craftsmanship and design can be expressed in a way that's inspirational, let's go for it," said Torsten Müller-Ötvös, the CEO of Rolls-Royce. "Because why should we all drive the very same thing?"

Already got a Rolls? Fear not, forlorn uber-wealthy person. Porsche has a similar program called Sonderwunsch in German, or "Special Wish." Bentley also has a coachbuilding service, which it announced with its fully roofless $2 million vehicle, "The Bacalar." (Pretty sure that's Spanish for I got made fun of in high school and it's payback time.)

STUMPED FOR IDEAS?
Take inspo from the Boat Tail, a limited-edition Rolls inspired by three different buyers' penchant for yachting (that's not a joke, I swear).

The car, estimated to cost $25 million, has some fun and exceedingly unnecessary features:

A fully removable top, stored separately from the car (because nothing says "I'm rich" like not giving a crap about convenience or practical use).
A literal café in the backseat: Without a folding top taking up space in the back, the Boat Tail has room for a champagne cooler designed to fit the buyer's preferred bottle. Plus foldout cocktail tables, two Italian-designed stools, and a parasol. (What, we're supposed to sip our chilled Dom in the sun, like peasants?)

☀️ NUMBER OF THE DAY

$3.04

The sun's out, the White Claw's chilled and vaxxed-up Americans are ready to hit the road. But drivers may be in for a bit of sticker shock. Gasoline prices are at their highest level in seven years, my colleague Chris Isidore reports. The national average stands at about $3.04, according to AAA, up 58% from a year ago.

WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON?

📈 Shares of scrubs maker FIGS surged more than 35% in their market debut. At a price of around $30, the company was valued at nearly $6 billion.

🚗 Uber formally recognized a UK drivers' union — a global first for the company, which has strongly resisted labor efforts.

📲 Google, WhatsApp and Twitter are locked in an increasingly tense stand-off with India over strict new social media rules they fear will erode privacy, usher in mass surveillance and harm business in the world's fastest growing market.