As early indicators point to a strong recovery that will create a “supercharged” economy once the coronavirus crisis slows down, Moody’s Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi says that the biggest risk to that recovery isn’t the runaway inflation that has many experts sounding alarm bells but a dangerous surge in asset values. READ MORE
Raising the steaks: First 3D-printed rib-eye is unveiled
An Israeli company unveiled the first 3D-printed rib-eye steak on Tuesday, using a culture of live animal tissue, in what could be a leap forward for lab-grown meat once it receives regulatory approval. READ MORE
Bezos leaves behind a company that's created value but has also triggered a national reckoning
In 1997, the year Amazon (AMZN) became a publicly traded company, CEO Jeff Bezos promised investors they would be in for a journey. Amazon would not chase short-term profits, he warned in a letter to shareholders. It would focus "relentlessly" on customers. It would act with urgency but prioritize long-term investments. And it would run a lean culture that minimized costs and cut waste.
A quarter-century later, Bezos's approach has made Amazon a global behemoth that employs more than a million people and touches almost every aspect of modern life, a fact that's become even more apparent during the pandemic. READ MORE
U.S. Navy Has Patents on Tech It Says Will ‘Engineer the Fabric of Reality’
The U.S. Navy has patents on weird and little understood technology. According to patents filed by the Navy, it is working on a compact fusion reactor that could power cities, an engine that works using “inertial mass reduction,” and a “hybrid aerospace-underwater craft.” Dubbed the “UFO patents, The War Zone has reported that the Navy had to build prototypes of some of the outlandish tech to prove it worked. READ MORE
'Stop f---ing selling!!!' WallStreetBets Redditors go ballistic over GameStop's sinking share price
Reddit favorite GameStop (GME) isn't looking so hot this week and some of the stock's biggest backers are freaking out.
After selling off sharply all week, the stock fell another 42% Thursday.
"Stop f---ing selling GME," is the title of a thread on the WallStreetBets forum, home of the Reddit army that boosted the gaming retailer's stock price in recent weeks. READ MORE
Super Bowl ads aim to comfort and connect
Super Bowl ads each year offer a snapshot of the American psyche. And this year, it's a doozy.
After a year of pandemic fear and isolation, a tumultuous election capped by a riot at the Capitol, and periodic uncertainty as to whether there would even BE a Super Bowl, marketers have to tread carefully. The ideal: promote their brands to a weary audience looking for comfort and escapism without crossing any lines that might trigger viewers. READ MORE
10 Verbal and Nonverbal Buying Signals to Watch Out For in Sales
So, you’ve identified the right moment to reach out to your prospect using critical buying signals, you’ve personalized your outreach, and maybe got a little creative with custom video content, and voila! You’ve successfully connected with your prospect and they’ve agreed to speak with you and see a product demo.
So, how do you know if they’re actually interested in purchasing? READ MORE
Investors set priorities for 2021 proxy season
Workforce and board diversity are among the top engagement priorities for investors in the 2021 proxy season, according to a report released Thursday by the EY Center for Board Matters.
The organization interviewed governance specialists from more than 60 institutional investors with a collective $38 trillion under management, including asset managers, public funds, labor funds and faith-based investors. READ MORE
With Bezos out as Amazon CEO, Zuckerberg is the last man standing
But Bezos’s departure as CEO after 27 years doesn’t just mean the end of an era for Amazon, a company he transformed from a novel online bookstore into one of the most innovative, powerful and ubiquitous firms in the world. READ MORE
Two Google engineers resign over firing of AI ethics researcher
An engineering director and a software developer have quit Alphabet Inc's Google over the dismissal of AI researcher Timnit Gebru, a sign of the ongoing conflicts at the search giant over diversity and ethics.
David Baker, a director focused on user safety, left Google last month after 16 years because Gebru's exit "extinguished my desire to continue as a Googler," he said in a letter seen by Reuters. Baker added, "We cannot say we believe in diversity, and then ignore the conspicuous absence of many voices from within our walls." READ MORE
How To Pump $700 Million A Day Into The Restaurant Industry
Will your neighborhood restaurants still be there when the Covid-19 pandemic ends? It’s likely you already know of eateries in your own hometown that have shut down for good in the past year. READ MORE
How to Deal With a Bad Boss During Quarantine
Remember the good old days, when you could clear up an ambiguously curt email from your boss with a stroll by her desk? Or when the anxiety of getting a dreaded “We need to chat” Slack message could be alleviated with a quick pop-in?
If only we knew how good we had it! READ MORE
Tesla's Profits Are Not From Selling Cars
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) is a car company worth over $800 billion that has never turned a profit selling cars. Despite a cult following and intense brand loyalty, Tesla has been unable to wring any profits out of the half a million cars it now sells annually.
To be clear, Tesla did report a profit for 2020, under generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), marking the company's first full year of profitability. But that profit did not come from the core business of manufacturing cars. Tesla booked a whopping $1.58 billion of revenue from selling regulatory credits last year, more than the previous three years combined. Tesla's net income of $721 million in 2020 turns into a substantial loss if those regulatory credit sales are backed out. READ MORE
Inside the Reddit army that's crushing Wall Street
Omar couldn't believe what was happening.
He should have been concentrating on the student he was tutoring in physics — a job he did during his free time while enrolled in a post-baccalaureate pre-med program — but Omar's eyes kept darting back to the Robinhood app open on his phone. READ MORE
5 ways to improve remote performance evaluations
As we enter the new year, organizations continue to adjust to the impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak, including an extension of work-from-home policies for many employees. As more time goes on between "what used to be" and "the new normal," the need to establish updated procedures for employee performance conversations becomes imperative. READ MORE
Who Will Control the Software That Powers the Internet?
AS THE INTERNET has evolved over its 35-year lifespan, control over its most important services has gradually shifted from open source protocols maintained by non-profit communities to proprietary services operated by large tech companies. As a result, billions of people got access to amazing, free technologies. But that shift also created serious problems.
Millions of users have had their private data misused or stolen. Creators and businesses that rely on internet platforms are subject to sudden rule changes that take away their audiences and profits. But there is a growing movement — emerging from the blockchain and cryptocurrency world — to build new internet services that combine the power of modern, centralized services with the community-led ethos of the original internet. We should embrace it. READ MORE
Hedge-Fund Titans Lose Billions to Reddit Traders Running Amok
For once, Main Street is beating Wall Street.
In a matter of weeks, two hedge-fund legends -- Steve Cohen and Dan Sundheim -- have suffered bruising losses as amateur traders banded together to take on some of the world’s most sophisticated investors. In Cohen’s case, he and Ken Griffin ended up rushing to the aid of a third, Gabe Plotkin, whose firm was getting beaten down. READ MORE
What to Do If Your Team Doesn’t Want to Return to the Office
As the pandemic continues, there are growing tensions at organizations where employees who have been working from home are now expected to come into reopened offices. Many knowledge workers—who have happily shed their commutes, decreased their interaction with difficult colleagues and let go of other frustrations of the office—relish the freedom, flexibility, and the increased productivity of working from home. But some senior leaders, who may not have confidence in their own ability to manage remote workers, aren't necessarily on the same page. READ MORE
Biden’s paid leave plan meets the nation's ‘messy’ policies
The word you often hear associated with the current system of paid leave in the United States is patchwork.
Research from employment law firm Seyfarth tracks the issue and lays out just how true that is. Some states, like Massachusetts and Arizona, have statewide sick and personal leave laws. Others, including Georgia to Iowa, have what’s described as anti-local leave laws to stop their cities from passing leave laws on their own. READ MORE
Elon Musk to offer $100 million prize for 'best' carbon capture tech
Tesla Inc chief and billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk on Thursday took to Twitter to promise a $100 million prize for development of the "best" technology to capture carbon dioxide emissions.
Capturing planet-warming emissions is becoming a critical part of many plans to keep climate change in check, but very little progress has been made on the technology to date, with efforts focused on cutting emissions rather than taking carbon out of the air. READ MORE