Billionaires these days . . . . We’re away for a week, and Elon goes and blows everything to hell. After announcing that, actually, he would not be buying Twitter for the $44 billion he promised back in April, Musk presided...more
Meta has reached a deal with federal authorities in which the Facebook parent will “adopt new online advertising practices” aimed at resolving allegations that its online ads “discriminated against users by race, gender and...more
Hardly the start to mid-June that we wanted, with markets around the world taking a beating on Monday. The Nasdaq was down more than 4.5%, the Dow nearly 2.8%, and the S&P 500 dipped into official bear market territory. Last...more
Under growing antitrust scrutiny, Google announced on Wednesday that it would let some apps “offer their own billing system within the Google Play store as part of a pilot program.” That move, affecting Spotify, among others,...more
Back at it. Let’s dive right in. Fed Chair Powell Jay Powell went on the record to start the week with an attempt to prepare markets for the central bank’s big moves ahead “in its quest to cool off demand and temper...more
New CPI numbers out this week showed inflation in the U.S. rising unabated in the “month leading up to the war in Ukraine,” and the conflict is now upending hopes that 2022 would see an easing in rising prices. Certainly, the...more
A weekend of skyrocketing oil prices prompted by talk of the U.S. cutting off all Russian crude imports pushed markets to their worst performance in over a year to start the week. The Nasdaq is now down more than 20% from its...more
3/9/2022
/ Biden Administration ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Cybersecurity ,
Digital Assets ,
Financial Markets ,
Google ,
Imports ,
Oil & Gas ,
Oil Prices ,
Personal Information ,
Russia ,
Trade Relations ,
Ukraine ,
US Trade Policies
Recent news of misinformation out of Russia about alleged troop withdrawals (when, in fact, troops and shelling near the border are up) sent skittish markets down on Thursday. Tech companies were again among “some of the...more
DOJ officials are investigating whether some activist investors—including “prominent short sellers . . . Carson Block and Andrew Left”—crossed lines in their efforts to expose “companies with shoddy or even fraudulent...more
We know Zuck’s all in on the metaverse. And a decrease in Q4 profits and full-year accounting help us understand the monetary size of that commitment: some $10 billion in 2021, as Meta poured cash into its Reality Labs...more
Alphabet posted Q4 revenue of $75 billion that resulted in more than $20 billion of profit for Google’s parent company—a 32% increase from a year earlier. The figures topped analyst expectations across the board and sent...more
Tuesday saw another Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde day on Wall Street, with markets diving to start the day before a late rally that petered out and left the Nasdaq down more than 2% and the S&P 500 down about half that...more
Markets pulled themselves back from the brink of a truly devastating Monday of trading to end the day, but their one-day fall of 3-4% yesterday suggests that the volatility that’s marked the first three weeks of 2022 may be...more
Jobs Report Friday! Here’s what we’re looking for in the numbers, including a possible rebound from November’s lower-than-expected figures. Note that the report also likely doesn’t account for the recent Omicron surge, which...more
1/7/2022
/ Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Privacy ,
Facebook ,
Financial Markets ,
Google ,
International Trade Commission (ITC) ,
Public Policy ,
Starbucks ,
Subscription Services ,
Supply Chain
Jobs Report Friday, again. Here’s what we’re looking for in the numbers and why economists are generally optimistic about these pre-Omicron figures - NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg and MarketWatch Count Thursday as a...more
The bad news (in case you’ve missed it, a feat in itself given the amount of ink spilled on the topic): inflation’s not nearly as transitory as first promised. The good news: consumers are so far managing to spend their way...more
In a blow to Google and the rest of Big Tech, an EU appeals court has refused to “overturn a landmark antitrust ruling by European regulators” from 2017 over Google’s alleged “preferential treatment to its own...more
11/10/2021
/ Antitrust Violations ,
Big Tech ,
Competition ,
DoorDash ,
EU ,
Facebook ,
Financial Markets ,
Google ,
NYDFS ,
OK Supreme Court ,
Opioid ,
Prescription Drugs ,
Public Nuisance ,
Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) ,
Technology Sector ,
Tesla ,
Zillow
Friday’s sudden end to the years-long Meng Wanzhou drama (she, the Huawei scion and exec who had been under house arrest in Canada and the subject of possible extradition to the U.S. who was released and returned to China)...more
Justice Department officials have filed a federal antitrust action against American Airlines and JetBlue, asserting that the “growing alliance between the two carriers had created a ‘de facto merger’ in the New York and...more
9/22/2021
/ American Airlines ,
China ,
Competition ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Facebook ,
Financial Markets ,
Google ,
National Security ,
Real Estate Market ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Social Media ,
Vaccinations ,
Zoom®
Dispatch #1 from the Elizabeth Holmes Theranos criminal fraud trial, which opened yesterday with jury selection and saw the excusing of 9 of the initial batch of about 50 potential jurors for lack of vaccination...more
9/1/2021
/ Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Facebook ,
Financial Markets ,
Fraud ,
Google ,
Initial Public Offering (IPO) ,
Jury Selection ,
OCC ,
Oil & Gas ,
Private Equity ,
Surface Transportation Board ,
UK Brexit ,
Wells Fargo
Facing pressure from Congress and a groundswell of complaints by parents, many of the biggest technology companies are taking belated action to improve privacy protections for their teenage users. Though the Children’s Online...more
8/18/2021
/ Big Tech ,
COPPA ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Collection ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Protection ,
Facebook ,
Google ,
Online Advertisements ,
TikTok ,
YouTube
Hyatt Hotels revealed plans this weekend to buy resort company Apple Leisure Group from PE owners KKR and KSL Capital Partners for a reported $2.7 billion. The move is “the latest sign of optimism about a return to vacation...more
8/16/2021
/ Apple ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Currency ,
Financial Markets ,
FinTech ,
Google ,
Huawei ,
Institutional Investors ,
International Trade Commission (ITC) ,
NASA ,
Patent Infringement ,
Startups
EU antitrust officials are targeting Google for “potentially abusing its dominance in the online advertising market to box out competition”—all part of a “broader push by the European authorities to clamp down on the world’s...more
This weekend saw groundbreaking action by the G-7 nations on the Biden administration’s proposal for a new global minimum tax of at least 15% “that companies would have to pay regardless of where they locate their...more
6/7/2021
/ Acquisition Agreements ,
Biden Administration ,
Bitcoin ,
Bitcoin Mining ,
Corporate Taxes ,
Cryptocurrency ,
G7 ,
Google ,
Job Creation ,
Leveraged Buyout ,
Medical Supplies ,
Online Advertisements ,
Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) ,
Tax Reform ,
Unemployment
Despite the reemergence of inflation and bubbles as the concerns-of-the-day that caused markets to quiver their way to a 3-month low yesterday, Fed officials remained committed to their “wait and see” strategy on removing...more
5/12/2021
/ Antitrust Violations ,
App Store ,
Apple ,
Artificial Intelligence ,
Bankruptcy Court ,
Biden Administration ,
Census ,
CFTC ,
Chapter 11 ,
China ,
Clean Energy ,
Commercial Bankruptcy ,
Consumer Price Index ,
Criminal Investigations ,
Deutsche Bank ,
Federal Reserve ,
Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) ,
Google ,
Inflation Adjustments ,
Job Creation ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Mobile Apps ,
NRA ,
OCC ,
Renewable Energy ,
Sales Commissions ,
True Lender ,
UK ,
Unemployment ,
Whistleblower Awards