October 23, 2020
what we are watching...
empowering you with insights and information from the edge of today’s headlines
Business
Paying the Fine: Goldman Sachs has agreed to pay $3B to settle a probe into its role in Malaysia’s 1MDB corruption scandal. The settlement resolves a probe by U.S. authorities into the bank’s role in underwriting three bond offerings in 2012 and 2013 that raised $6.5 billion for Malaysia’s government. Prosecutors said that between roughly 2009 and 2014, Goldman paid more than $1.6 billion in bribes to foreign officials in Malaysia and Abu Dhabi to win 1MDB business. Goldman will also work to claw back millions in bonuses from its top executives including David Solomon and former CEO Lloyd Blankfein. For more background on the 1MDB scandal check out the Billion Dollar Whale.
JP Morgan also agreed to pay more than $920M to resolve claims of market manipulation on two of its largest trading desks (precious metals and Treasury markets). Five traders on the Treasury desk manipulated prices of U.S. Treasury contracts, as well as trading in notes and bonds in the secondary market, over eight years, according to the settlement, causing $106 million in losses to other parties in the market. None of those traders have been charged publicly. While 10 precious metals traders caused losses of $206M to market counterparties between 2008 and 2016.
In-App Messaging: California enacted a new law (AB5) in 2019 that was aimed at the gig economy, and established rules used to determine whether workers are employees or contractors. The ride sharing companies didn’t like the new rules, so they threatened to leave the state, and then sponsored a proposition on the California ballot which would exempt the ride-sharing companies from the labor regulations. Uber has been using its large network in order to push in-app messages to both its drivers and riders in support of Prop 22. Uber drivers, however, have filed a $260M lawsuit alleging the company has violated their employment rights by using the platform as a political tool. Uber has backed off the practice in light of the lawsuit, but personally, we are sick of the political text messages, emails and pop-ups invading our inbox zero.
In-App Purchasing: WhatsApp, the messaging app owned by Facebook, announced that it will be offering in-app purchases and cloud hosting services. WhatsApp will enable businesses sell products inside WhatsApp via Facebook Shops, and the company will also enter the cloud computing sector, offering firms who use its customer service messaging tools the ability to store those messages on Facebook servers. WhatsApp said that more than 175 million people interact with a business each day on the app, although the majority of its users are for personal messaging.
Designing Airbnb: Jony Ive, the former Chief Design Officer of Apple, has announced a multi-year relationship with Airbnb. Ive will be designing “the next generation of Airbnb products and services,” so we are not quite sure if this means we will have amazingly packaged chocolates on our pillows or just a great new app design. (Airbnb is still expected to go public this year.)
Virtual Power: Virtual power plants are popping up across the globe, as an alternative to aging electricity grids. While these sound like something out of Fortnite or Animal Crossing, the virtual power plants are networks of homes outfitted with solar panels and batteries. The network of connected homes feeds power back to the grid, which can prevent blackouts and provide clean energy. Unlike traditional power plants and even large solar farms, virtual power plants distribute energy generation over a wider area — so it isn’t as vulnerable to a localized calamity, like a hurricane.
Sand Dollars: The Central Bank of the Bahamas has officially launched its national digital currency, called the Sand Dollar, a digital version of the Bahamian dollar. The project is designed to bring more “inclusive access to regulated payments and other financial services,” per the central bank. Underserved communities of the Caribbean nation are the primary target of the initiative, which the bank said would reduce financial service delivery costs and boost transactional efficiency.
Culture
Civility: This week we saw two competing narratives when it comes to inclusion and discrimination. Pope Francis called for the creation of civil union laws, giving his clearest support to date for the rights of same-sex couples while breaking from the official teaching of the Roman Catholic Church, while a new Texas rule lets social workers turn away clients who are LGBTQ or have a disability. U.S. health officials have already identified more than 100 Texas counties, particularly in rural areas, with a shortage of social workers and other mental health professionals. Considering a social worker is literally someone who helps others cope with challenges in their lives, and the LGBTQ and disabled are often populations in need of a helping hand, we suspect Texas will have a lot of social workers twiddling their thumbs.
The Sword in the Lake: An eight-year-old Swedish girl found a pre-Viking-era sword while swimming in a lake in Sweden during the summer. She successfully pulled the 1,500 year-old sword from the lake, but there is no word on whether she will be the next ruler (although we’d happily take her in the US).
Memory Lane: Fisher-Price wants to take you through your childhood nostalgia by opening up a virtual Toy Museum on Instagram. The museum is also linked to a virtual gift shop selling limited edition toys and accessories. Fisher-Price is celebrating 90 years in the business, and hoping to start the holiday shopping season early. The virtual exhibits show artistic renderings of Fisher-Price's toys throughout the decades, including the Snoopy Sniffer wooden dog launched in 1938, roller skates from 1983 and its cassette player from 1981.
Political Gaming: AOC and Ilhan Omar played Among Us on Twitch earlier this week, racking up more than 430,000 viewers. While Twitch (owned by Amazon) has a block on political advertising, the streaming platform may be the next gateway for political pundits. Ilhan Omar even posted the specs of her gaming machine to show her cred or enthusiasm for the platform.
Comedy Central: Ziwe Fumudoh, the popular comedian who hosts a popular YouTube series about race, has signed a deal with Showtime for a yet-untitled show. Ziwe has said that she wants to “be the Ellen deGeneres of race relations.” Some of her most viral moments came from interviews with internet-cancelled personalities such as Alison Roman and Caroline Calloway.
Next week, we’ll see the premier of Sarah Cooper’s Netflix show, Everything’s Fine. The show is billed as “a variety special full of vignettes dealing with issues of politics, race, gender, class, and other light subjects. Sarah is joined by a fantastic array of special guests who participate in short interviews, sketches, and more shenanigans.”
Bend…and Snap: We missed this reunion, but earlier this week the cast of Legally Blonde reunited online for a benefit for World Central Kitchen. Legally Blonde 3 is expected to drop in May 2022, but Reese Witherspoon has yet to divulge any secrets. (Mindy Kaling and Dan Goor will be writing the screenplay.)
Show Me the Monet: Banksy’s “Show Me the Monet,” a reimagining of Monet’s iconic water lillies sold for more than £7.5M auction. Sotheby’s described the work as “more canal than idyllic lily pond, Banksy litters Monet’s composition with discarded shopping trollies and a fluorescent orange traffic cone. Ever prescient as a voice of protest and social dissent, here Banksy shines a light on society’s disregard for the environment in favor of the wasteful excesses of consumerism.”
Men getting into trouble: This week we saw two prominent men get into trouble for inappropriate behavior, and the Fort Bragg twitter account was deleted for porn-related tweets. Our advice: STOP and listen to Elaine Benes (of Seinfeld fame), from over 20 years ago.
— Lauren Eve Cantor
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