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Microsoft Said to Be in Talks to Buy TikTok, as Trump Weighs Curtailing App

July 31, 2020 by Leave a Comment

As the app has become more popular, TikTok’s Chinese offices have swollen to thousands of employees. The company has also maintained a U.S. presence, with offices in New York and Los Angeles.

In response to the heightened scrutiny from Washington, TikTok in May hired a top Disney executive, Kevin Mayer to be its chief executive. The app has also pledged to publicly reveal the algorithm that powers its app.

In addition, TikTok has bulked up its lobbying operation in Washington. With help from prominent investors like SoftBank and General Atlantic, it has hired the former head of the Internet Association, a trade group that represents companies like Google and Facebook, and staff members from prominent members from Congress.

The company has signed on more than 35 lobbyists, including David J. Urban, a former West Point classmate of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and an ally of Mr. Trump. The company’s lobbyists have highlighted TikTok’s American investors and Mr. Mayer’s hire.

Sensing weakness, rivals like Facebook have homed in on lawmakers’ distrust of TikTok’s Chinese ownership. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, has said that American companies like his would suffer if the government put them at a competitive disadvantage against TikTok.

On Wednesday, with the chief executives of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google testifying in front of Congress about their market power, Mr. Mayer defended TikTok while pledging to do right by the U.S. government.

“The entire industry has received scrutiny, and rightly so. Yet we have received even more scrutiny due to the company’s Chinese origins,” he said in a statement. “We believe it is essential to show users, advertisers, creators, and regulators that we are responsible and committed members of the American community that follows U.S. laws.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/31/technology/tiktok-microsoft.html

Filed Under: Media Business

Can’t Afford a Birkin Bag or a Racehorse? You Can Invest in One

July 31, 2020 by Leave a Comment

“In the beginning, it was like equity markets: just safe, blue-chip investments,” said Rob Petrozzo, a founder and the chief product officer at Rally Rd. “Over the past few months, we’ve seen with people being inside, they’ve gotten access to more information and they have been exploring the app more fully.”

He said existing investors on the platform had doubled the number of items they owned shares in. Initial offerings have sold out five times faster than before the pandemic, as new investors on the platform began buying up shares more quickly.

To accommodate growing interest, MyRacehorse, which sells shares in racehorses that are far smaller stakes than those sold by traditional racing syndicates, has partnered with a top stud farm, Spendthrift, to extend the length of the investments. Before, its model had been to sell the horse when it was done racing. Now, investors can participate in the breeding fees, which can be many times any racetrack winnings.

The fractional movement is not limited to luxury items. Fidelity, the mutual fund giant, offers “stocks by the slice” where you can buy a portion of a share starting at $1. And many private equity funds, which have high minimum investments and long lockup-periods, have created mutual fund versions of their funds.

Eugene Olmstead, a retired internet technology executive, said he had 1 percent to 1.5 percent in 11 horses, all bought through his self-directed individual retirement account.

“You’re not going to get a worthwhile return on your investment unless you have a certain percentage,” said Mr. Olmstead, 58. “I’ve done my research, and I’m investing in ones that I think in the long run will give me a decent return.”

Of the 11 horses he has bought shares in, only two are old enough to race. He said both had average winnings of $12,000 a race. He has received some dividends from those races, but said the money was not substantial yet.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/31/your-money/birkin-bag-racehorse-invest.html

Filed Under: Your Money

Trump White House Meets Its Match With Barstool Sports

July 31, 2020 by Leave a Comment

As millennials continue to cord-cut ESPN into irrelevance, Trump aides have correctly identified Barstool Sports and its network of popular podcasts and social media personalities as a way to reach younger voters, a demographic with which this president is underwater. It is both a cultural fit and an untapped resource: A Morning Consult poll this week stated that “Barstool sports fans are younger, more Republican and more politically engaged than the public overall.”

“He’s smart to reach out in that regard, it humanizes you,” said Sig Rogich, a former media adviser to President George H.W. Bush. In his time, Mr. Rogich facilitated successful collaborations between Bush I and the National Collegiate Athletic Association and Sports Illustrated. “If Trump can create connectivity with the sporting world, it’s a plus for him. There’s no downside to it,” Mr. Rogich said.

Besides, maybe Washington is just the place for a guy like Mr. Portnoy after all.

There are so many pink-hued Vineyard Vines shorts here in summer that 14th Street often resembles an Alaska salmon run in May. As Jim Webb, the Democrat and former senator, once said about the town’s defining work of architecture: “Watching the white phallus that is the Washington Monument piercing the air like a bayonet, you feel uplifted.” (Speak for yourself, dude!)

There is something about working in the White House, in particular, that inspires Greek life-like behavior. Nicholas Syrett, the author of “The Company He Keeps: A History of White College Fraternities,” said the similarities stem from “the degree to which it is both insular and all-consuming in terms of socializing and work, and the degree to which they would see themselves against either the world or against their critics.”

With every administration, White House staffers cling to a culture of conformity.

The idealistic, progressive bros who rode into town on the waves of Obama’s historic victory were treated as young princes of the city, but they became wary of a press corps that wanted every little piece of them. Their modus operandi was to throw house parties, where they could do keg stands in peace. When Jon Favreau, then a young Obama speechwriter, and his buddy Tommy Vietor, then a press aide, played a game of shirtless beer pong at a Georgetown bar, they got burned when photos circulated. Politico huffed that the administration’s critics saw the aides as behaving like two “frat boys in the midst of two wars and the Gulf oil spill.”

Mr. Vietor said the culture of the Obama White House doesn’t even compare to what came after it. “I’d argue that the big cultural problem with this White House is hiring white nationalists like Stephen Miller,” he said. “Put down the tiki torch and pick up a baseball.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/31/style/trump-twitter-barstool-sports.html

Filed Under: Media Business

U.S. Adds Sanctions Over Internment of Muslims in China

July 31, 2020 by Leave a Comment

“Today’s designations are the latest U.S. government action in an ongoing effort to deter human rights abuse in the Xinjiang region,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the most vocal of the China hawks, said in a statement on Friday.

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The Coronavirus Outbreak ›

Frequently Asked Questions

Updated July 27, 2020

  • Should I refinance my mortgage?

    • It could be a good idea, because mortgage rates have never been lower. Refinancing requests have pushed mortgage applications to some of the highest levels since 2008, so be prepared to get in line. But defaults are also up, so if you’re thinking about buying a home, be aware that some lenders have tightened their standards.

  • What is school going to look like in September?

    • It is unlikely that many schools will return to a normal schedule this fall, requiring the grind of online learning, makeshift child care and stunted workdays to continue. California’s two largest public school districts — Los Angeles and San Diego — said on July 13, that instruction will be remote-only in the fall, citing concerns that surging coronavirus infections in their areas pose too dire a risk for students and teachers. Together, the two districts enroll some 825,000 students. They are the largest in the country so far to abandon plans for even a partial physical return to classrooms when they reopen in August. For other districts, the solution won’t be an all-or-nothing approach. Many systems, including the nation’s largest, New York City, are devising hybrid plans that involve spending some days in classrooms and other days online. There’s no national policy on this yet, so check with your municipal school system regularly to see what is happening in your community.

  • Is the coronavirus airborne?

  • What are the symptoms of coronavirus?

  • Does asymptomatic transmission of Covid-19 happen?

    • So far, the evidence seems to show it does. A widely cited paper published in April suggests that people are most infectious about two days before the onset of coronavirus symptoms and estimated that 44 percent of new infections were a result of transmission from people who were not yet showing symptoms. Recently, a top expert at the World Health Organization stated that transmission of the coronavirus by people who did not have symptoms was “very rare,” but she later walked back that statement.

The Xinjiang Production and Construction Corp was founded in 1954 as a group entwined with the People’s Liberation Army that would oversee the deployment of large numbers of ethnic Han citizens, many of them military veterans, to Xinjiang to build farms, factories and towns that would allow China to consolidate control of the important border region and the many ethnic minority groups there. As of 2009, the group, which reports directly to Beijing, had an annual output of goods and services of $7 billion, and the settlements and entities overseen by the bingtuan, or soldiers corps, included five cities, 180 farming communities and 1,000 companies. They also run their own courts, universities and media organizations.

On July 9, the United States imposed sanctions on four Chinese officials associated with Xinjiang policy, including Chen Quanguo, the party chief of the region and a member of the Chinese Communist Party’s 25-member ruling Politburo. That move was largely symbolic, but it sent a stronger message than an October 2019 action in which the administration placed 28 Chinese companies and police departments deemed to be associated with Xinjiang abuses on a blacklist that forbids American companies from selling technology and other goods to them without a license. At that time, the State Department also announced visa restrictions on some Chinese officials.

On July 20, the Trump administration added 11 new Chinese entities, including companies supplying major American brands like Apple, Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger, to the list that restricts them from purchasing American products, saying the firms were complicit in human rights violations in Xinjiang. That brought to 48 the total number of Chinese companies and security units on the U.S. entity list for violations related to Xinjiang.

On July 1, the administration warned businesses with supply chains that run through Xinjiang to consider the reputational, economic and legal risks of doing so.

The Associated Press reported on July 3 that agents of U.S. Customs and Border Protection in New York had seized 13 tons of hair weaves and other beauty products suspected of having been made by detainees in a Xinjiang internment camp. The products were worth an estimated $800,000. In May, the agency conducted a seizure of similar products that were being imported by companies in Georgia and Texas, to be sold to salons and individuals across the United States.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/31/us/politics/sanctions-china-xinjiang-uighurs.html

Filed Under: Economy News

Coronavirus pandemic triggers huge contraction in eurozone economy

July 31, 2020 by Leave a Comment

The second-quarter preliminary reading is the lowest since records by the region’s statistics office Eurostat began in 1995.

The 19-member bloc that shares the euro currency had experienced a fall of 3.6 percent in GDP during the first quarter of 2020. 

EU’s largest economy Germany contracted by 10.1 percent in Q2, Italy’s GDP sank by 12.4 percent, France’s economy shrank by 13.8 percent, while Portugal slumped 14.1 percent. Spain was hit the hardest, with its GDP nosediving by 18.5 percent. 

The German economy’s 10.1 percent contraction was its largest drop in GDP since the country began keeping quarterly records in 1970. Germany’s GDP fell by 5.7 percent in the aftermath of the 2009 crisis. 

READ MORE: EU agrees ‘historic’ €750bn coronavirus stimulus plan after marathon summit

According to EU Economy Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni, “all European countries” suffered unprecedented consequences due to coronavirus-induced lockdowns.

Also on rt.com Eurozone unemployment rises despite lifting of coronavirus restrictions

Senior economist at the Frankfurt-based ING bank Bert Colijn told the AFP news agency that the drop “doesn’t tell us that much about the general state of the economy” due to the unusual circumstances. “It is a shocking drop, but completely understandable as the economy was shut down for a considerable period during the quarter,” he said, adding: “The hard part of this recovery is set to start about now.”

For more stories on economy finance visit RT’s business section

Article source: https://www.rt.com/business/496751-eurozone-gdp-plunge-coronavirus/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS

Filed Under: Global Business

France suffers worst economic collapse on record due to Covid-19 lockdown

July 31, 2020 by Leave a Comment

The historic decline marked a third consecutive quarter of negative growth in a worsening recession. France’s economy started shrinking in the last quarter of 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic hit Europe with full force. It continued to retreat in the first three months of this year, when the rapid spread of the virus was starting to trigger lockdowns, contracting by 5.9 percent, according to the updated figures.

“GDP’s negative developments in first half of 2020 are linked to the shut-down of ‘non-essential’ activities in the context of the implementation of the lockdown between mid-March and the beginning of May,” INSEE said in a statement.

Also on rt.com Europe’s economy on path to outshine US after coronavirus crisis is over – report

According to the latest data, domestic consumption – one of the key economic drivers – dropped even more than in the first quarter, as people, many of whom rely on government aid, had to cut spending. Household consumption fell by 11 percent in April-June, following a drop of nearly six percent in the first quarter.

The French government has warned that it faces its worst economic shock of the post-war era. Earlier this week, the head of Bank of France (BdF), Villeroy de Galhau, said that he expects the economy to drop by 10 percent for the whole of 2020 and does not believe it will return to pre-crisis levels until early 2022.

Also on rt.com EU agrees ‘historic’ €750bn coronavirus stimulus plan after marathon summit

However, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said he hopes that the country will be able to beat the gloomy forecast. He said France is not “powerless in the face of the crisis,” reminding that the government had taken “extraordinary measures” to shield businesses from the crisis.

The devastating economic impact of the pandemic – which has wiped out years of GDP growth – has been seen across Europe. France’s decline is worse than in Germany, Europe’s’ top economy, which on Thursday revealed an unprecedented 10.1 percent plunge in GDP for April-June. However, Spain, which also released fresh data on Friday, suffered an even bigger blow from the pandemic, with its GDP nosediving by a staggering 18.5 percent over the same period. Meanwhile, the eurozone’s third largest economy, Italy, shrank by over 12 percent in the second quarter from the previous three months.

Also on rt.com WORST DROP EVER for US economy as GDP crashes 33% due to Covid pandemic lockdowns

As of Friday, over 1.7 million infections and 182,136 deaths from coronavirus have been reported in the EU, the European Economic Area (EEA) and the UK, according to the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control. Some European governments are already worried about a second wave of the Covid-19, as nations including France and Spain have seen a rising number of cases after borders reopened.

For more stories on economy finance visit RT’s business section

Article source: https://www.rt.com/business/496723-france-record-economic-slump/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS

Filed Under: Global Business

Dollar crash will topple the entire US ‘house of cards’ economy by year end – Peter Schiff

July 31, 2020 by Leave a Comment

According to Schiff the ignorance is “likely to remain the case until the fall becomes a crash, which I don’t think will begin until the Dollar Index breaks 80. At its current rate of decline that level could be breached before year end, perhaps by election day.”

The decline of the US dollar accelerated in recent weeks on a rise in coronavirus cases in the United States and indications of a pickup in global economic activity. The ICE US Dollar Index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, fell 0.4 percent on Friday to 92.635 and traded at its lowest since July 2018. Meanwhile, gold continued its rally to hit fresh all-time highs.

“Coronavirus just accelerated the process of the dollar’s fall and there’s nothing that the Federal Reserve could do right now to preserve the dollar from falling,” Schiff said on his podcast.

He explained that the negative interest rates are actually far more negative because the US government is using the CPI (Consumer Price Index) “which barely scratches the surface on how high inflation is.” 

Also on rt.com ‘The world is going back to a GOLD STANDARD as the US dollar is about to collapse’ – Peter Schiff

According to Schiff, gold will supplant the dollar because the euro and other currencies are not ready to take its place. “No other currency will take the dollar’s place, real money will take its place, particularly gold, because gold was there before the dollar,” he said, noting that the greenback “did a lousy job, and now gold is taking its spot back.”

Schiff said: “The entire house of cards economy that has been erected over the years, and the Federal Reserve has been the architect of this house of cards economy, is rested on the foundation of the dollar’s reserve currency status. If the dollar loses that status then the foundation crumbles and the whole house of cards topples.”

For more stories on economy finance visit RT’s business section

Article source: https://www.rt.com/business/496719-us-economy-dollar-falling/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS

Filed Under: Global Business

China’s manufacturing recovery accelerates while global economies grapple with coronavirus fallout

July 31, 2020 by Leave a Comment

China’s closely watched manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose to 51.1 in July from 50.9 in June, hitting its highest level since March. This is higher than analysts predicted – those polled by Bloomberg had forecast it to remain at June’s level, while economists polled by Reuters expected it to ease to 50.7. 

The PMI is a key gauge of manufacturing activity measured through a survey of factory owners and purchasing managers. Any reading above 50 signals growth in factory output, while a reading below signals contraction. It is the fifth month in a row that the key figure topped the 50 mark.

Also on rt.com China’s economy roars back to growth after record coronavirus contraction

The official non-manufacturing PMI, also released on Friday, was 54.2 for July, down from 54.4 in June. 

“Policies of balancing epidemic control and economic development further yield tangible fruit, as economic vitality continues recovering and enterprises keep registering better operational outcomes,” said Zhao Qinghe, senior statistician at China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), a body that publishes the PMI data. 

Chinese consumer sector in ‘reasonably good shape’ despite disappointing retail data – JP Morgan Chinese consumer sector in ‘reasonably good shape’ despite disappointing retail data – JP Morgan

While the NBS says that businesses are optimistic about future recovery, analysts warn that further headwinds lie ahead for the country’s factories. They say that pent-up demand is set to wane, while floods in Chinese provinces, considered the worst in decades, may disrupt economic activity.

A resurgence of coronavirus in the country could create another hurdle. Chinese health authorities reported 127 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, up from 105 the previous day. This is the highest daily number since March.

The recovery of the world’s second largest economy comes as some leading nations are reporting sharp contractions. US gross domestic product (GDP) shrank by 32.9 percent in the second quarter, marking the sharpest decline on record. During the same period, Germany’s economy contracted by 10 percent and France’s economy shrank by 13.8 percent.

For more stories on economy finance visit RT’s business section

Article source: https://www.rt.com/business/496713-china-factory-activity-recovery/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS

Filed Under: Global Business

With Jobless Aid Set to Lapse, Lawmakers Fail to Agree on Extension

July 30, 2020 by Leave a Comment

Faced with significant pressure to prevent the expiration of the unemployment insurance benefit, Republicans worked feverishly to coalesce around a stopgap bill that could extend it, though most proposals unveiled this week would slash the aid and present overwhelmed state systems with a difficult switch that experts say is likely to disadvantage lower-wage workers.

One such proposal, which Senators Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Mike Braun of Indiana tried to push across the Senate floor on Thursday, would have continued the extra jobless aid payments through the end of the year, but slashed the payments to $200 a week from $600 or allow the benefit to replace two-thirds of a worker’s prior income.

Mr. Meadows said President Trump would support a flat, one-week extension of the $600 benefit in order to buy lawmakers time to negotiate a longer agreement. But Democrats rejected an attempt by Senator Martha McSally, Republican of Arizona, to win approval of such an extension, with Mr. Schumer dismissing the effort as “a stunt” on the Senate floor.

“This is disappointing and a political stunt and a game,” Ms. McSally, who is badly trailing her Democratic opponent in Arizona’s Senate race, shot back. “It’s the minority leader who is against this on his path to try to become the majority leader, and that’s unfortunate.”

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The Coronavirus Outbreak ›

Frequently Asked Questions

Updated July 27, 2020

  • Should I refinance my mortgage?

    • It could be a good idea, because mortgage rates have never been lower. Refinancing requests have pushed mortgage applications to some of the highest levels since 2008, so be prepared to get in line. But defaults are also up, so if you’re thinking about buying a home, be aware that some lenders have tightened their standards.

  • What is school going to look like in September?

    • It is unlikely that many schools will return to a normal schedule this fall, requiring the grind of online learning, makeshift child care and stunted workdays to continue. California’s two largest public school districts — Los Angeles and San Diego — said on July 13, that instruction will be remote-only in the fall, citing concerns that surging coronavirus infections in their areas pose too dire a risk for students and teachers. Together, the two districts enroll some 825,000 students. They are the largest in the country so far to abandon plans for even a partial physical return to classrooms when they reopen in August. For other districts, the solution won’t be an all-or-nothing approach. Many systems, including the nation’s largest, New York City, are devising hybrid plans that involve spending some days in classrooms and other days online. There’s no national policy on this yet, so check with your municipal school system regularly to see what is happening in your community.

  • Is the coronavirus airborne?

  • What are the symptoms of coronavirus?

  • Does asymptomatic transmission of Covid-19 happen?

    • So far, the evidence seems to show it does. A widely cited paper published in April suggests that people are most infectious about two days before the onset of coronavirus symptoms and estimated that 44 percent of new infections were a result of transmission from people who were not yet showing symptoms. Recently, a top expert at the World Health Organization stated that transmission of the coronavirus by people who did not have symptoms was “very rare,” but she later walked back that statement.

Mr. Schumer, his flip phone ringing in his pocket, spent a portion of his day on the Senate floor, swatting last-ditch attempts by Republicans to push through short extensions of the jobless aid and to try to pin the blame on Democrats for blocking them. He responded with a futile and politically loaded tactic of his own: an attempt to win approval of the $3 trillion stimulus package House Democrats passed in May. Republicans blocked that as well, with Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, deriding it as “a totally unserious proposal.”

“The House speaker moves the goal posts while the Democratic leader hides the football,” said Mr. McConnell, accusing Democrats of blocking discussions among rank-and-file lawmakers. “They won’t engage when the administration tries to discuss our comprehensive plan. They won’t engage when the administration floats a narrower proposal. They basically won’t engage, period.”

Comparing negotiations with Republicans to “trying to nail Jell-O to the wall,” Mr. Schumer noted that Mr. McConnell, whose conference remained divided over another relief package, was notably absent from the daily negotiations with administration officials in Ms. Pelosi’s Capitol Hill suite. The time crunch, he said, came because Republicans had “dithered for months” and still had yet to reach agreement on the $1 trillion proposal they had put forward on Monday.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/30/us/politics/senate-virus-aid.html

Filed Under: Economy News

Amazon posts record profits as Apple thanks stimulus spending for smash earnings, despite worst US quarter on the books

July 30, 2020 by Leave a Comment

The two tech giants announced their second quarter results on Thursday, both topping expectations on Wall Street as online sales and virtual products see a surge amid the ongoing health crisis.

Amazon revenue jumped to $88.9 billion, up 40 percent from 2019, and the company brought on some 175,000 new employees in recent months. Though it had predicted it would lose money after dropping billions on coronavirus-related measures, Amazon’s net income nonetheless doubled compared to the year prior, from $2.6 billion to $5.2 billion, in what CEO Jeff Bezos deemed “another highly unusual quarter.”

“I couldn’t be more proud of and grateful to our employees around the globe. As expected, we spent over $4 billion on incremental Covid-19-related costs in the quarter to help keep employees safe and deliver products to customers in this time of high demand,” Bezos said in a press release.

Despite the big spending, Amazon has come under fire for its handling of the pandemic, with employees repeatedly complaining of major shortages of protective gear and unsafe working conditions, some even saying they were fired after speaking out about the lack of equipment. The e-commerce king also took heat after slashing a meager $2 hazard pay boost for workers, even as Bezos and other company executives see their fortunes swell.

Also on rt.com WORST DROP EVER for US economy as GDP crashes 33% due to Covid pandemic lockdowns

Despite a massive US economic contraction due to lingering business closures driven by the pandemic – declining nearly 33 percent between April and June alone, the worst drop on record, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis – Apple also reported blowout earnings for the second quarter, noting revenue gains in every category.

The pandemic has been something of a boon for Apple, as consumers are forced to work and learn from home and increasingly look to its devices and apps. CEO Tim Cook also credited emergency relief spending in the US and elsewhere for the company’s performance.

“I think the economic stimulus that was in place – and I’m not just focused on the US, but more broadly – was a help,” he told Reuters, adding that a “strong” launch for the iPhone SE also played a role in recovering sales following a slump in April.

Stocks for both Amazon and Apple rallied during after-hours trading on the heels of Thursday’s optimistic quarterly reports, surging by 4.9 and 6.1 percent respectively.

Also on rt.com US headed for double-dip recession as coronavirus shows no signs of slowing down – veteran economist Stephen Roach

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Article source: https://www.rt.com/business/496705-amazon-apple-us-worst-quarter/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS

Filed Under: Global Business
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