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Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, the two wealthiest people on this planet, both want to be center stage when NASA returns astronauts to the moon. But NASA only has enough money for one of them, and it went with Musk's SpaceX. That means Bezos' Blue Origin is mad.
Both of the billionaires' space companies are working to develop lunar landers, vehicles capable of making a gentle touch down on the moon's rocky surface. READ MORE
Tesla CEO Elon Musk introduced a prototype of a humanoid robot at the company's AI Day event on Thursday.
Musk says the "Tesla Bot" will probably be launched next year, saying the robot would "eliminate dangerous, repetitive, boring tasks." READ MORE
This alert provides an overview of shareholder proposals submitted to public companies during the 2021 proxy season, including statistics and notable decisions from the staff (the “Staff”) of the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) on no-action requests. READ MORE
Employers usually pepper job ads with qualification requirements, salary ranges and employee benefit information. The latest inclusion on job postings is a sign of the COVID times: vaccine mandate requirements. READ MORE
SEC Chair Gary Gensler said agency support for the Nasdaq rule aligns with the preferences of investors, who are increasingly focused on environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals when committing their capital. READ MORE
At Kevin Smith's home health care agency in Massachusetts, only 52% of his 400 staff members have been vaccinated. He'd like to order them all to get the shot, but he says he can't risk a mass exodus.
It's a legitimate fear. The labor market is very tight, with a record number of job openings and not enough job candidates. And among unvaccinated workers asked what they would do if their employer instituted a mandate, 50% said they'd leave their job, according to a June survey by health policy think tank KFF. READ MORE
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said Tuesday that the U.S. economy has been permanently changed by the COVID pandemic and it is important that the central bank adapt to those changes.
“We’re not simply going back to the economy that we had before the pandemic,” Powell said at a Fed virtual town hall for educators and students. “We need to watch carefully as the economy continues to get through the pandemic and try to understand the ways that the economy has changed and what the implications are for our policy.” READ MORE
Critics of stakeholder capitalism and ESG—investing based on environmental, social, and governance metrics—have been out in force over the past few weeks, portraying them as empty marketing, as radical liberal activism, or as approaches antithetical to free enterprise and shareholder interests. Vivek Ramaswamy’s Woke, Inc. is now a bestseller, and a former BlackRock sustainable finance executive has labeled ESG “a dangerous placebo.” READ MORE
Driving change is not always possible. The conventional wisdom regarding distressed credit investing is that the complex negotiations and fast pace of transactions at companies under duress thwart transitions toward sustainability and inclusion. Negotiating haircuts and covenants is already challenging, and the urgency of corporate distress amplifies the myriad difficulties of evaluating ESG, including inconsistency in defining and measuring ESG and lack of ESG data. The conventional wisdom is wrong: lenders and sponsors are increasingly incorporating ESG in investment decisions, and distressed investors can harness restructuring to drive sustainability and inclusion and with it long-term value creation. READ MORE
On July 29, 2021, both the SEC and the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York announced charges against Trevor Milton, the founder, former CEO and former executive chairman of Nikola Corporation, a company engaged in the development of electric trucks. The complaint and indictment allege a series of misleading and inaccurate public statements by Milton on social media and elsewhere leading up to and after the company’s merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) through which Nikola became a public company, which included related private placements (PIPEs). READ MORE
Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio said Wednesday that China has weaponized America's own "corporate lust for profits" against the U.S.
In a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, Rubio said, "It is time to wake up" and look at corporate America’s reliance on the Chinese Communist Party. READ MORE
More companies are bringing workers back into the office -- and some employers want to know about vaccination status.
Morgan Stanley (MS) told employees who work at its Manhattan headquarters that they have to be vaccinated against Covid-19 before returning to the office. The bank also said in a memo to New York employees that staff working in buildings with a "large employee presence" must confirm their vaccination status by early July. READ MORE
Microsoft is joining the growing list of companies that are requiring workers to get vaccinated.
The tech firm said Tuesday that employees, vendors and guests entering Microsoft's (MSFT) buildings in the US will be required to show proof of vaccination beginning in September. READ MORE
Last year, Uber (UBER), Lyft (LYFT), DoorDash and Instacart succeeded in getting Californians to vote in favor of a ballot measure exempting them from classifying drivers and delivery workers as employees. Now, the companies are in the early stages of taking a similar approach in Massachusetts.
The coalition representing these gig companies, Massachusetts Coalition for Independent Work, said it filed Wednesday to have a question put on the state's 2022 ballot that would "grant historic new benefits" and allow workers to "maintain their flexibility as independent contractors," something it says most drivers want. READ MORE
The US once again ranked last in access to health care, equity and outcomes among high-income countries, despite spending a far greater share of its economy on health care, a new report released Wednesday has found.
The nation has landed in the basement in all seven studies the Commonwealth Fund has conducted since 2004. The US is the only one of the 11 countries surveyed not to have universal health insurance coverage. READ MORE
Turbulent times call for decisive measures and actions. Drastic changes in economic and sociopolitical landscapes create crucial decision-making points for business owners or managers. Unfortunately, it is not possible to choose when to address critical quandaries or when they would come up. READ MORE
Between companies and departments, businesses typically have many different people running interviews. While not everyone is good at reading personalities, an interviewer should be — if he or she hopes to find the best candidate. Interviewing for the right personality in a potential employee gives you greater security in his or her fit for the role and within the company and in that person's ability to build a long-term relationship. Combining human interviewers with AI systems allows you to find the best fit faster. READ MORE
Americans are trickling back to their pre-pandemic workplaces, but most offices are still largely empty. And that's affecting local economies in a major way.
Love it or hate it, commuting is good for the economy. You pay train conductors' salaries with your subway fare. The dry cleaner by the office and the coffee shop around the corner all count on workers who have been largely absent for nearly a year and a half. READ MORE
An increasing number of companies are requiring their employees to be fully vaccinated before heading back to the office amid fears that the delta variant of the coronavirus will hinder the economic recovery.
In recent weeks, the corporate world has begun requiring masks and COVID-19 shots for employees, in order to combat the delta variant, which is fueling infection surges and threatening efforts to stamp out the pandemic. In certain cases, some companies have even delayed their return to office dates out of an abundance of caution. READ MORE