Amazon saw an increase in demand for their services during the pandemic which led to a hiring spree, offering job opportunities to people in industries that had collapsed due to the pandemic.
Amazon's workforce mentality of undervaluing essential workers was exposed when the pandemic hit leading to workers taking time off and Amazon introducing more flexible policies but ultimately leading to further tension between the company and its employees.
The pandemic has led to a shift in the economy towards those who work with SaaS software, while businesses such as restaurants and retail have been left behind. The speaker predicts that interest rates will stay at zero for the next five years.
Many publishers, such as BuzzFeed and Vox, are building custom CMS and trying to sell it, but it's often a distraction from their main business and a risky move, as they may not have enough resources to support it. Comparing to Amazon's early launch of AWS with 5,000 total employees, small publishers with eight people working for them wouldn't have the capacity to handle it.
The podcast discusses the job situation where people are resigning despite more job openings and salary hikes. Bill Ackman's tweet about the inaccurate calculation of CPI and the sources of data is also talked about.