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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss version="2.0" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/" xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/" > <channel> <title>Influential Magazine</title> <atom:link href="https://influentialmag.co.uk/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" /> <link>https://influentialmag.co.uk</link> <description>Latest Entrepreneur & Business News</description> <lastBuildDate>Sat, 18 May 2024 14:32:45 +0000</lastBuildDate> <language>en-US</language> <sy:updatePeriod> hourly </sy:updatePeriod> <sy:updateFrequency> 1 </sy:updateFrequency> <generator>https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.2</generator> <image> <url>https://influentialmag.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/cropped-inf-icon-32x32.png</url> <title>Influential Magazine</title> <link>https://influentialmag.co.uk</link> <width>32</width> <height>32</height></image> <item> <title>The Night That Sotheby’s Was Crypto-Punked</title> <link>https://influentialmag.co.uk/the-night-that-sothebys-was-crypto-punked/</link> <comments>https://influentialmag.co.uk/the-night-that-sothebys-was-crypto-punked/#respond</comments> <dc:creator><![CDATA[News Room]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Sat, 18 May 2024 14:32:45 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[Business]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">https://influentialmag.co.uk/the-night-that-sothebys-was-crypto-punked/</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p>It would have been the greatest insult to rock the Upper East Side on any normal night, but instead the private equity heir Holly Peterson could only laugh. Why had a Sotheby’s official denied her access to a bidding paddle? In February 2022, Ms. Peterson, an author and art collector, was surrounded by a new [...]</p><p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://influentialmag.co.uk/the-night-that-sothebys-was-crypto-punked/">The Night That Sotheby’s Was Crypto-Punked</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://influentialmag.co.uk">Influential Magazine</a>.</p>]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">It would have been the greatest insult to rock the Upper East Side on any normal night, but instead the private equity heir Holly Peterson could only laugh. Why had a Sotheby’s official denied her access to a bidding paddle?</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">In February 2022, Ms. Peterson, an author and art collector, was surrounded by a new clientele: the crypto nouveau riche, who made a temporary home of the art market. Their purchases occurred through the trendy innovation of NFTs, or nonfungible tokens, which registered the ownership of often digital artworks on the blockchain. Collectors then used the NFTs as rapidly appreciating investments to build their crypto fortunes.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The young collectors arrived in sweatpants and greeted one another by their Twitter handles. It was supposed to be another banner evening for the booming art market, where NFTs had come to represent almost half of the industry’s $65 billion valuation in only a couple of years. The marquee lot included 104 CryptoPunks, a selection of algorithmically generated portraits of pixelated people that epitomized the rise of blockchain-based collectibles. They were estimated to sell for $20 million to $30 million, and, for the first time, Sotheby’s had devoted a major sale to just a single lot of NFTs. It was a rare honor — one that hadn’t even occurred when the auction houses had a $450 million Leonardo da Vinci on their hands.</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><div><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The night received all the marketing gusto that a company serving billionaires and their baubles could muster. Sotheby’s had described the event, called “Punk It!”, as “on par with the most significant and high-profile sales for contemporary and modern art.”</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><div><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">But there were early signs that the NFT market was crashing — a spectacular implosion that would shine a spotlight on the government’s failure to regulate the art market.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Ms. Peterson was one of many traditional collectors who attended the auction to purchase their first NFT. Her father was Peter G. Peterson, the private equity billionaire who founded Blackstone and served as a Museum of Modern Art trustee. And she was a trustee at the Studio Museum in Harlem and on several acquisition committees for organizations like the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Brooklyn Museum and Centre Pompidou.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">But none of that pedigree could prepare her for the bizarre scene at Sotheby’s.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Ms. Peterson looked around and saw these new collectors who reminded her of little toddlers with paddles, she recalled in an interview. “What’s going on?” she said. “I’m a Park Avenue woman with a fancy art collection and I couldn’t even get a paddle.”</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><div><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Buyers could pay in cryptocurrencies or regular dollars. A panel that preceded the sale included Kenny Schachter, a rabble-rousing collector and columnist at Artnet News, who, from his brownstone on the Upper East Side, had situated himself as a communicator between the crypto and traditional art worlds. (He had his own NFT project to promote.) A bulldog for the digital art movement, he managed to corner Max Hollein, the Met Museum director, one evening in Central Park, recalling that the museum executive said that his curators were too scared of the new technology to partake.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Speaking to the V.I.P. attendees at the Sotheby’s auction, Mr. Schachter waxed poetic about the promises of NFTs, saying they had “changed the history of art without even intending to be an art piece in the first place.”</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">An audience that included celebrity influencers like the rapper Ja Rule and Snoop Dogg’s son Cordell Broadus clapped. Behind the scenes, employees were scrambling to salvage what was supposed to be a historic sale.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">According to three people close to the sale, there had been signs of trouble from the beginning of the auction house’s relationship with the seller, who operated from behind the username <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="css-yywogo" href="https://twitter.com/0x650d?lang=en" title="" target="_blank">0x650d</a>. There was virtually no public information about him; his digital identity was created to promote his CryptoPunk collection, which he purchased in 2021 for around $7 million, <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="css-yywogo" href="https://twitter.com/0x650d/status/1424779795892690946" title="" target="_blank">saying</a> that he acquired the NFTs “because I choose wealth.”</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">But he also <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="css-yywogo" href="https://twitter.com/0x650d/status/1421542646661537792" title="" target="_blank">said</a> that he would never sell them, which should have been Sotheby’s’ first warning sign.</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><div><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Sotheby’s had been the collector’s second choice to sell his CryptoPunks after he initially failed to secure a deal at Christie’s. And unlike the traditional collectors who attended the auction ready to buy the newfangled art, there was a lack of enthusiasm from crypto collectors. These NFTs were known as “floor punks,” meaning that they lacked certain attributes that gave other CryptoPunks their higher market prices. The algorithm that generated the entire collection of 10,000 images had statistical rarities baked into the code; for example, there were only nine punks dressed as aliens and 24 who looked like apes. (In March 2024, someone reportedly purchased an alien punk for $16 million.) But 0x650d’s collection contained only basic, run-of-the-mill examples of the NFTs originally created by Larva Labs, a studio run by the Canadian software developers Matt Hall and John Watkinson.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">So there was little incentive for a serious NFT collector to buy this suite of tokens, especially at a time when purchasing a single CryptoPunk at floor price would have cost about $150,000. A simple calculation would have made clear that at $30 million, Michael Bouhanna, a digital art specialist at Sotheby’s, had overpromised on the total value of the lot by nearly double the high estimate of what a retail trader could find online, where a group of CryptoPunks this size would have gone for around $15 million. And then there was the matter of poor timing. Cryptocurrencies had just taken a nosedive with news that Russia had invaded Ukraine; risky assets looked less enticing with interest rates rising. There was still an appetite for speculation, but perhaps not as much when everyone’s wallets had suddenly depreciated in value. Risk needed some promise of reward.</p><h3 class="css-15h6bi9 e1gnsphs0" id="link-24577787"><span>NFTs Were a Symptom of the Unregulated Art Market</span></h3><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The NFT boom coincided with the art market’s growing reputation as a Wild West where paintings by artists like Marc Chagall and René Magritte turned into vehicles for sanctions evasion, money laundering and fraud, disguised by shell companies.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">In 2020, for example, Senate investigators found that auction houses and dealers had allowed two sanctioned Russian oligarchs, the brothers Arkady and Boris Rotenberg, to buy and sell art using shell companies fronted by an art adviser. Their report concluded that brokers went through with the sale despite a failure to determine the true identities of their clients.</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><div><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Despite that congressional scrutiny, a new era of deregulation was approaching, happening just in time for NFTs to thoroughly scramble the relationship between artistic merit and financial value.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The auction at Sotheby’s took place just weeks after the federal government had shied away from enforcing the Bank Secrecy Act on the art industry, which would have increased the scrutiny of financial transactions and ended the use of shell companies to conceal the true identities of buyers and sellers.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">When Congress commissioned a report in 2021 to address concerns that the art market had become a safe haven for a number of financial crimes, the responsibility fell upon the Treasury Department and its aptly named deputy assistant secretary for strategic policy: Scott Rembrandt (no relation to the old Dutch master of the same name), who was unfamiliar with the financial esoterica of the art world.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Dealers were prepared for the worst after regulators in the European Union and Britain banned straw purchases — the practice of buying something on behalf of a secret purchaser — and other schemes that cloaked the true parties behind a painting’s sale.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Anxiety rolled into the next year as the New York attorney general’s office accused Sotheby’s of an alleged tax fraud scheme in which more than a dozen clients obtained false resale certificates to pose as dealers and avoid paying millions in tax revenue on their purchases. A judge allowed the investigation to proceed, saying there was enough evidence that senior members of the auction house “willfully turned a blind eye” to the scheme.</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><div><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Tight-lipped dealers were not afraid of making noise when their profits were threatened; galleries and auction houses spent nearly $1 million over the past two years on lobbying federal officials in Washington on regulatory issues.</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><div><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">When the Treasury Department released its highly anticipated report in February 2022, it did not recommend immediate government intervention, despite clear evidence of criminal activity.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">“We have found that while certain aspects of the high-value art market are vulnerable to money laundering, it’s often the case that there are larger underlying issues at play, like the abuse of shell companies or the participation of complicit professionals” who might look the other way, Mr. Rembrandt said in an interview, implying that art crime was more a byproduct of a flawed financial system than a characteristic of the industry.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">But the Treasury official had relied on bad statistics. Mr. Rembrandt said that only $3 billion in money laundering and other financial crimes flowed through the art market every year. That was an errant number, which could be traced back to an unattributed claim from a 1990 article in The Independent by the British journalist Geraldine Norman about the antiquities market. (The Treasury Department did not respond to a request for comment.)</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><div><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The lack of original research in the Treasury report demonstrated the government’s failure to deeply scrutinize the art market.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">NFTs were, in some ways, a result of that oversight. They were more easily abused as vehicles for fraud than other kinds of art by virtue of their digital existence. Sales happened within seconds and without nosy customs officials or know-your-customer practices to impede criminals. </p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">And although Mr. Rembrandt was unwilling to bring federal oversight to the art market, he still specifically called out the rising danger of NFTs in his report, warning: “These types of contracts can create an incentive to shape a marketplace where the work is traded repeatedly in a short period,” and adding that “traditional industry participants, such as art auction houses or galleries, may not have the technical understanding of distributed ledger technology required to practice effective customer identification and verification in this space.” </p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">What happened only a few weeks later at Sotheby’s would illustrate the problems that Mr. Rembrandt raised and highlight the Treasury’s failure to establish new oversight regulations on the art market that would have required the auctioneer to perform more due diligence on its clients.</p><h3 class="css-15h6bi9 e1gnsphs0" id="link-1740566f"><span>A Rug Pull to Remember</span></h3><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Back in the salesroom, the audience eagerly looked toward an empty podium where the auctioneer should have started the bidding nearly a half-hour ago. Instead, officials announced that the consignor had withdrawn the lot; everyone was still welcome to enjoy the after-party and listen to the sick beats of D.J. Seedphrase. Stunned, the young crypto investors sipped their last drops of champagne and exited out the auction houses’s revolving doors onto York Avenue. It looked like 0x650d had sized up the money he stood to make at auction and decided that it was unlikely to add up to the number he was looking for.</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><div><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">“The whole evening was totally surreal,” said Ms. Peterson. “The auction definitely made me think that something was rotten.”</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">For market rainmakers like Amy Cappellazzo, a former Sotheby’s executive, the event was even more significant. “It was an early sign that the crypto market was in trouble.”</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">NFT collectors needed strong sales to continue their momentum. But catastrophes like the Sotheby’s auction broadcast that the NFT industry’s best days were behind it. Traditional collectors like Ms. Peterson, who might have joined the digital art collectathon, were now backing away while skeptics celebrated proof of the blockchain’s impotence.</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><div><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">“Collectors from the old economy are afraid that their marketplace will be disrupted by these crazy, wacky forces,” Ms. Cappellazzo said. “There is nothing more tried and true than owning a hard asset like a painting and putting it on the wall. But anything that softens a hard asset will make them feel uneasy.”</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><div><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The anonymous consignor, 0x650d, tried to salvage his online reputation. He posted on <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="css-yywogo" href="https://twitter.com/0x650d/status/1496646517003800578?s=20&t=XzwHy1DAxg_aadRwXFVK5A" title="" target="_blank">Twitter</a> at 7:41 p.m., nearly an hour after pulling the lot, to announce his decision to “hodl,” cryptospeak for holding on to digital assets. About an hour later, he shared a <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="css-yywogo" href="https://twitter.com/0x650d/status/1496663918927925253" title="" target="_blank">meme</a> that featured the musician Drake, saying he was “taking punks mainstream by rugging Sotheby’s.”</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">By “rugging,” he meant rug-pulling, a scheme in which crypto developers intentionally attract investors to a project, only to disappear without handing over a product.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Of all the crypto scams that deflated the NFT market, rug pulling was the most notorious and frequent because it transformed good will into a liability; there were at least four such scams that totaled more than $11 million in lost investments involving projects that imitated the Bored Ape Yacht Club, a high-profile set of NFTs. .</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">But the failed Sotheby’s auction was an unusual moment in which the provocative behavior of the crypto world bled into the art market.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">And there was very little strategic benefit to the consignor’s public mocking of the world’s largest auction house; his rug-pull could only be bad for crypto’s reputation. </p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><div><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">In the short term, it was clear that 0x650d believed he’d made a smart move. After the auction fiasco, his accounts on social media went silent for nearly a month, until April 2022, when he announced that his CryptoPunks collection would be used as collateral for an $8.32 million loan, unlocking the liquidity of his NFTs while allowing him to “retain upside exposure” through the collectibles. That loan appeared to be 40 percent of the low estimate that Sotheby’s had given for the value of his collection, indicating that 0x650d was able to use the auction house’s appraisal to legitimize the value of his NFTs. It let him keep his punks, so that he could, theoretically, sell them for more than he would have made at Sotheby’s — and use them as a piggy bank for liquidity in the meantime. It looked as if he’d used the art world as a mark.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">But two years later, thanks in large part to the art world’s distrust of NFTs, Crypto Punks are worth far less. 0x650d appears to still hold his lot, which is now worth about $12.3 million, a significant decrease from the $20 million that he turned his nose up at Sotheby’s.</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><p><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p><p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://influentialmag.co.uk/the-night-that-sothebys-was-crypto-punked/">The Night That Sotheby’s Was Crypto-Punked</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://influentialmag.co.uk">Influential Magazine</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>https://influentialmag.co.uk/the-night-that-sothebys-was-crypto-punked/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> </item> <item> <title>Managing an Inheritance: When ‘Mom’s Money’ Becomes Yours</title> <link>https://influentialmag.co.uk/managing-an-inheritance-when-moms-money-becomes-yours/</link> <comments>https://influentialmag.co.uk/managing-an-inheritance-when-moms-money-becomes-yours/#respond</comments> <dc:creator><![CDATA[News Room]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Sat, 18 May 2024 13:32:04 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[Business]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">https://influentialmag.co.uk/managing-an-inheritance-when-moms-money-becomes-yours/</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p>Research shows that more adult children may find themselves unexpectedly inheriting wealth over the next two decades. The silent generation, or people born roughly between 1928 and 1945, and its successors, the baby boomers, are expected to transfer significant wealth to members of Generation X and millennials over the next 20 years, according to the [...]</p><p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://influentialmag.co.uk/managing-an-inheritance-when-moms-money-becomes-yours/">Managing an Inheritance: When ‘Mom’s Money’ Becomes Yours</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://influentialmag.co.uk">Influential Magazine</a>.</p>]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Research shows that more adult children may find themselves unexpectedly inheriting wealth over the next two decades. The silent generation, or people born roughly between 1928 and 1945, and its successors, the baby boomers, are expected to transfer significant wealth to members of Generation X and millennials over the next 20 years, according to the Wealth Report, a publication from Knight Frank, a London global property consultant.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Federal Reserve figures show that half of all inheritances are less than $50,000, but with boomers reaching 80 and beyond, members of their family may begin to inherit more wealth. More than half of millennials who are anticipating an inheritance from their parents or another relative expect to gain at least $350,000, according to a survey by Alliant Credit Union in Chicago. (Whether they actually receive that much is another question.)</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">An inheritance can feel like a gift, but it can also create stress, particularly for younger heirs. Many millennials lack the financial education to manage a large inheritance, said Katherine Fox, founder and adviser at Sunnybranch Wealth in Portland, Ore., and they typically don’t have a financial adviser to help them.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">“I see a wide variety of preparedness levels, but an overwhelming majority are totally unprepared to inherit and, when money actually comes, don’t know what to do,” said Ms. Fox, who works exclusively with inheritors between the ages of 25 and 55. In these cases, millennial heirs are essentially trading one set of stressors — not being able to save money, not being able to buy a home and not preparing for retirement — for a new set of stressors related to managing the money.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">“I’ve seen people become paralyzed by the money they inherited and burden of it because they want to make sure they steward it and grow it,” Ms. Fox said. Inheriting significant wealth at a relatively young age can give someone an incredible advantage that few people have — but for many inheritors, there is a fear of failure and losing something they didn’t earn.</p></div><p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://influentialmag.co.uk/managing-an-inheritance-when-moms-money-becomes-yours/">Managing an Inheritance: When ‘Mom’s Money’ Becomes Yours</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://influentialmag.co.uk">Influential Magazine</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>https://influentialmag.co.uk/managing-an-inheritance-when-moms-money-becomes-yours/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> </item> <item> <title>How Companies Dodge Tariffs</title> <link>https://influentialmag.co.uk/how-companies-dodge-tariffs/</link> <comments>https://influentialmag.co.uk/how-companies-dodge-tariffs/#respond</comments> <dc:creator><![CDATA[News Room]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Sat, 18 May 2024 12:30:15 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[Business]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">https://influentialmag.co.uk/how-companies-dodge-tariffs/</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p>No matter who wins the White House and control of Congress this autumn, one aspect of trade policy is likely to endure: Washington’s tough-on-China protectionist stance. But several trade experts predict that the America-first model of slapping tariffs on adversaries — as President Biden did this week — will backfire. Critics of tariffs and export [...]</p><p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://influentialmag.co.uk/how-companies-dodge-tariffs/">How Companies Dodge Tariffs</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://influentialmag.co.uk">Influential Magazine</a>.</p>]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">No matter who wins the White House and control of Congress this autumn, one aspect of trade policy is likely to endure: Washington’s tough-on-China protectionist stance. But several trade experts predict that the America-first model of slapping tariffs on adversaries — as President Biden did this week — will backfire.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Critics of tariffs and export restrictions say they not only will potentially exacerbate inflation and drag down economic growth, but are also likely to fail for a simpler reason: Chinese companies may see their businesses slowed down by the restrictions, but have found ways to beat them.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">As Alex Durante, an economist at the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan think tank that works with policymakers in the United States and Europe, bluntly put it: “They don’t work.”</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0"><strong class="css-8qgvsz ebyp5n10">Huawei has shown that companies can find workarounds.</strong> Last year, the Chinese telecom giant unveiled the Mate 60, a smartphone powered by a high-end semiconductor. The new product raised eyebrows in Washington because the advanced chip was precisely the kind of technology that the Biden administration was trying to keep out of China’s hands through the passage of the CHIPS Act a year earlier.</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><div><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Huawei’s breakthrough was less a breach of international trade rules than a result of a company’s using a web of gray channels to get the banned materials it needed to make the chips, concluded Douglas Fuller, an associate professor at Copenhagen Business School. “America’s flimsy controls” of those suppliers helped Huawei, he wrote in a recent research report.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0"><strong class="css-8qgvsz ebyp5n10">A similar approach could work for electric vehicles.</strong> Among the $18 billion worth of increased tariffs on Chinese-made goods that Biden announced this week, E.V.s were a major focus. The levies jumped to 100 percent from 25 percent.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Analysts expect to see Chinese E.V. companies ramping up production in Mexico to circumvent Biden’s import taxes. Trade chiefs are already eyeing that loophole, suggesting this phase of the trade war will feel like a game of Whac-a-Mole. (Relatively few Chinese E.V.s are sold in the United States, but the domestic industry fears they will soon flood the market as they’ve done in Europe.)</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0"><strong class="css-8qgvsz ebyp5n10">Free-market boosters say trade barriers pack other problems. </strong>Protectionist trade policies tend to stifle competition, limit consumer choice and drive up prices, Joachim Klement, the head of investment strategy at Liberum, an investment bank, told DealBook. (Even some within the Biden administration acknowledge there’s a link between tariffs and prices.)</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Another critique: Tariffs under Biden and President Donald Trump are expected to be a drag on economic growth and the labor market, the Tax Foundation calculates.</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><div><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0"><strong class="css-8qgvsz ebyp5n10">Both political parties embrace anti-China policies. </strong>Like Trump before him, Biden has justified increased tariffs by accusing China of “flooding global markets with artificially low-priced exports” and has framed them as a way to bolster national security, defend American economic interests and “protect American workers and companies.” As the TikTok divest-or-ban law shows, restricting Chinese tech in the United States is one of the few areas that unite a fractious Congress.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The number of protectionist policies by governments around the world has exploded since the U.S.-Chinese trade war kicked off under Trump, but not all are exclusively focused on tariffs. Sweeping industrial policies such as the Inflation Reduction and CHIPS Acts use a mix of tax breaks, subsidies <em class="css-2fg4z9 e1gzwzxm0">and</em> export restrictions to build up strategic sectors such as semiconductors and green technologies locally at the expense of foreign rivals.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0"><strong class="css-8qgvsz ebyp5n10">Companies often have a say in how industrial policies are shaped.</strong> “The system can be gamed by industry lobbyists,” Klement noted. The upshot: The legislation is watered down, potentially introducing loopholes that even trade foes can exploit.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0"><strong class="css-8qgvsz ebyp5n10">So what works? </strong>Economists who favor free markets tend to see greater potential in industrial policies that are more carrot and less stick. Rather than policies that restrict trade, for example, they prefer measures that offer businesses low-interest loans and grants designed to stimulate investment in research and development. Such incentives, over time, tend to fuel innovation and economic growth, Klement said. “They tend not to be inflationary,” he added.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel Prize-winning economist, told DealBook something similar this week, pointing to the Cold War space race as an example. Back then, Washington threw its support behind universities and research centers to achieve its moonshot ambitions and fend off rival nations. <em class="css-2fg4z9 e1gzwzxm0">— Bernhard Warner</em></p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><div><div class="css-53u6y8"><h3 class="css-15h6bi9 e1gnsphs0" id="link-36c9f6c7"><span>IN CASE YOU MISSED IT</span></h3><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0"><strong class="css-8qgvsz ebyp5n10">Mercedes-Benz workers in Alabama rejected a union. </strong>Workers at two Mercedes factories near Tuscaloosa voted against being represented by the United Automobile Workers. The election was seen as a test of whether the U.A.W. could build on a string of recent victories to unionize factories in the South, where political leaders have fiercely opposed organized labor.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0"><strong class="css-8qgvsz ebyp5n10">OpenAI and Google unveiled new A.I. technologies.</strong> Google began rolling out AI Overviews, which puts A.I.-generated summaries ahead of links in its search results, and OpenAI announced major updates to its ChatGPT chatbot. A day later, OpenAI announced the departure of Ilya Sutskever, its chief scientist and co-founder, who helped lead the rebellion that briefly ousted Sam Altman as the company’s C.E.O.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0"><strong class="css-8qgvsz ebyp5n10">Stocks soared to record highs.</strong> After a better-than-expected Consumer Price Index report, which showed so-called core inflation rising by its lowest level in three years, the S&P 500 rose to a record. The Dow Jones industrial average also passed a milestone this week, climbing above 40,000 for the first time.</p><h2 class="css-9ycfei eoo0vm40" id="link-5c44d5ac">Whither meme stock mania 2.0? </h2><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The beginning of the week felt like 2021 all over again. Driven by a burst in activity on @TheRoaringKitty, the X account belonging to the trader Keith Gill, who became the face of “meme stock” mania, shares in companies including GameStop and the theater chain AMC Entertainment shot up for a few days.</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><div><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Analysts and commentators have struggled to make sense of the brief resurgence in retail-fueled stock speculation. Was it a sign of overexuberance about the markets? That Wall Street is better prepared to handle sudden-onset trading manias? That Gill may not actually own the account anymore? Or maybe, given the stock boom’s ephemerality … nothing at all?</p><hr class="css-7ad88g e1mu4ftr0"/><h2 class="css-9ycfei eoo0vm40" id="link-78df936f">John Mackey’s next act</h2><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">John Mackey, the Whole Foods co-founder who ran the company for 44 years, says building a business is like having a baby: “You’re creating something from nothing, and it’s very soul satisfying.” And that’s what he tried to convey in his upcoming book, “The Whole Story,” which recounts how a single store grew into the giant upscale grocery chain that Amazon acquired for $13.4 billion in 2017. DealBook talked with Mackey about the merger, “conscious capitalism” and the health start-up that he’s opening in July. The interview has been condensed and edited.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0"><strong class="css-8qgvsz ebyp5n10">In the book, you describe a solo retreat where you processed anger over the ways in which you “felt disrespected and disempowered since the sale of Whole Foods to Amazon.” Do you regret selling Whole Foods?</strong></p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><div><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">I regret the circumstances that made selling the company and Amazon the best option. If I had to do it over again, I would make the same decision. But of course, I wish we hadn’t been in that circumstance in the first place, where we had shareholder activists who were trying to take over our company.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0"><strong class="css-8qgvsz ebyp5n10">You also mention the fallout from writing an op-ed about Obamacare in 2009, which led to protests against Whole Foods and hundreds of letters to the board calling for your resignation. C.E.O.s have since come under more pressure to speak out about social and political issues. What do you think they should do?</strong></p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Stay out of politics. People are going to wrongly assume that if a C.E.O. takes a position on an issue, the company is taking a position on the issue. You are running the risk that you’re going to be demonized, and your business is going to be attacked.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0"><strong class="css-8qgvsz ebyp5n10">Is staying out of politics becoming harder to do, as employees and customers demand that business leaders take a stance?</strong></p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">I stayed out of all the controversies that happened after George Floyd, which got a lot of C.E.O.s speaking up and then created a lot of blowback. You should take a stand if it’s directly related to what your business is about. So Whole Foods took stands on, say, organic produce or regenerative agriculture. I think that’s quite appropriate.</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><div><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0"><strong class="css-8qgvsz ebyp5n10">It’s been more than 10 years since you published “Conscious Capitalism,” your book that argues businesses can create value for all stakeholders, including society. If you were writing it again today, is there anything that you would change?</strong></p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">I’m actually worried about conscious capitalism because I think it’s being attacked by both the left and the right for different reasons. The traditional capitalists are attacking it because they’re worried that conscious capitalism is going to take away control of corporations from the owners and redistribute power, so to speak, to stakeholder groups. That you’ll have a labor union on the board, a customer representative on the board.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">And then on the other side, you’ve got people that are weaponizing conscious capitalism to change the power structure of businesses. I think businesses do have a purpose besides only maximizing profits, but making money is a very important purpose of business. It’s not like you throw that away. It’s just that it’s not the only reason business exists.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Conscious capitalism is not a political statement. It’s a business management philosophy. And I think that’s where people mostly misunderstand it. It’s not about redistributing power. It’s about how to manage the business to create more value in the world.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0"><strong class="css-8qgvsz ebyp5n10">Your new start-up, Love.Life, describes itself as a “holistic health and wellness club.” Why start a new company at 70?</strong></p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><div><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">We’re going to have a healthy food restaurant, a fitness center, a spa, yoga, Pilates. We’re going to have pickleball courts, a medical center that focuses on functional, integrative and lifestyle medicine<em class="css-2fg4z9 e1gzwzxm0">.</em></p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">My heart calls me to do it. I want to do it. And finally, even at age 70, it’s fun.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0"><strong class="css-8qgvsz ebyp5n10">Thanks for reading! We’ll see you Monday.</strong></p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">We’d like your feedback. Please email thoughts and suggestions to dealbook@nytimes.com.</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://influentialmag.co.uk/how-companies-dodge-tariffs/">How Companies Dodge Tariffs</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://influentialmag.co.uk">Influential Magazine</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>https://influentialmag.co.uk/how-companies-dodge-tariffs/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> </item> <item> <title>What’s BlackRock Without Larry Fink? Shareholders Fret About Future.</title> <link>https://influentialmag.co.uk/whats-blackrock-without-larry-fink-shareholders-fret-about-future/</link> <comments>https://influentialmag.co.uk/whats-blackrock-without-larry-fink-shareholders-fret-about-future/#respond</comments> <dc:creator><![CDATA[News Room]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Sat, 18 May 2024 11:28:47 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[Business]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">https://influentialmag.co.uk/whats-blackrock-without-larry-fink-shareholders-fret-about-future/</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p>Laurence D. Fink built BlackRock into the world’s largest asset manager with a steely grip, a thick skin and a cleareyed vision of what the company could become. Today, it’s a caretaker of $10.5 trillion of investor money and a provider of sophisticated trading technology, and Mr. Fink has been an informal financial adviser to [...]</p><p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://influentialmag.co.uk/whats-blackrock-without-larry-fink-shareholders-fret-about-future/">What’s BlackRock Without Larry Fink? Shareholders Fret About Future.</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://influentialmag.co.uk">Influential Magazine</a>.</p>]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Laurence D. Fink built BlackRock into the world’s largest asset manager with a steely grip, a thick skin and a cleareyed vision of what the company could become.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Today, it’s a caretaker of $10.5 trillion of investor money and a provider of sophisticated trading technology, and Mr. Fink has been an informal financial adviser to many governments, including the United States. Along the way, he has withstood criticism from lawmakers on both sides — and even the independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — about BlackRock’s policies and politics.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">He has also earned the adulation of its shareholders.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">But Mr. Fink’s age — he is 71 — and BlackRock’s enormous size, which makes it ever harder to find new assets to manage, are clouds on the horizon. They were on investors’ minds this week at BlackRock’s annual shareholder meeting, as they listened to Mr. Fink talk about the company’s performance and voted on ballot issues.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">One of the greatest concerns is succession. Mr. Fink, BlackRock’s chief executive and chairman, exerts an unusual level of control for someone leading a firm of its size, with nearly 20,000 employees. From writing LinkedIn posts defending BlackRock’s policies to personally finding key deals, he has put his stamp all over the company, which he co-founded in 1988.</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><div><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Because of Mr. Fink’s all-in approach, the question of who will take over from him has become important, despite a deep bench of talent and several potential successors. It has become even more pertinent because some shareholders are unsure about how much growth BlackRock has ahead of it.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">“It’s really hard for anyone to argue that Larry hasn’t done a great job with the company,” said Craig Siegenthaler, an analyst at Bank of America who covers BlackRock. “They’ve outperformed the industry and grown a lot over every single time period.” But Mr. Siegenthaler added that the “Larry Fink question” was a key one.</p><p>Asked about the concerns, BlackRock pointed to past public statements on the matter. At last year’s shareholder meeting, for example, Mr. Fink said, “BlackRock’s board and I have no higher priority than developing the next generational leaders.”</p><p>Since the beginning of 2023, BlackRock has added $365 billion in new assets and the market value of its assets has increased by more than $1 trillion. Although its results have been buoyed by a bull market — the S&P 500 stock index has risen about 38 percent over the same term — investors have handsomely rewarded the company’s performance. Shares of BlackRock, which has a market capitalization of about $120 billion, have risen roughly 14 percent.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">BlackRock has kept growing even as several state pension funds, largely in states with Republican-controlled legislatures, have said they would pull money from it because of Mr. Fink’s comments and writings urging corporations to consider environmental, social and governance, or E.S.G., goals in their work. In March, the Texas Permanent School Fund said it would withdraw $8.5 billion.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Mr. Fink has stepped away from such statements in the past year; at a conference in 2023, he said he had stopped using the term E.S.G. because politicians had “weaponized” it.</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><div><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">BlackRock has gotten more “tactical in their messaging,” said Christopher Allen, an analyst at Citigroup. “It’s been more subdued.”</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><div><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Still, in a Republican presidential primary debate in December, Vivek Ramaswamy called Mr. Fink “the king of the woke industrial complex, the E.S.G. movement.”</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">BlackRock’s core business is managing money for clients — both big institutions and individuals. It is the world’s largest provider of low-cost index funds through its iShares platform, after its 2009 purchase of Barclays Global Investors for $13.5 billion.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Additionally, BlackRock’s technology platform, Aladdin, provides trading and risk-measurement services for financial portfolios, not only to BlackRock clients but also to rivals like Vanguard and State Street and other major companies.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">“Being big is hard on some level,” Mr. Siegenthaler said. All asset managers see clients withdraw money, but because BlackRock is so large, not only does it need to replenish assets, but it must do so far in excess of what was withdrawn, he said.</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><div><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">BlackRock has consistently said its assets represent only a small fraction — or about 4 percent — of the roughly $230 trillion in the world’s investable assets. The company has also said it can keep expanding because of its business mix. Vanguard and State Street, its two closest competitors, manage roughly $9 trillion and $4 trillion.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">In January, BlackRock announced plans to buy Global Infrastructure Partners for about $12.5 billion, which would be its largest acquisition since the Barclays deal. The deal would allow BlackRock to expand into what it sees as a big area of growth — infrastructure investing. The target company is one of the largest global financiers of building or rebuilding airports, bridges, tunnels and even green energy projects.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The Global Infrastructure Partners deal is also an example of how closely Mr. Fink drives BlackRock’s business, using his deep network from a decades-long Wall Street career and even scouting for merger targets and negotiating transactions personally, according to two people with knowledge of the deal who were not authorized to speak publicly. They pointed to the fact that Mr. Fink had worked with the chief executive and chairman of Global Infrastructure Partners, Bayo Ogunlesi, at the investment bank First Boston before founding BlackRock.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Mr. Fink is the main — and in some cases only — point of contact for top world leaders and finance chiefs, including on occasion the Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell, according to three people familiar with Mr. Fink’s discussions and public records. Current and former associates said he was regularly on the phone or in face-to-face meetings with key political and economic figures, sharing insights and information on world events.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Mr. Fink is also heavily involved in many aspects of BlackRock’s messaging to the outside world, whether it’s writing his annual letter to chief executives or choosing to respond directly on LinkedIn to Republican criticisms of BlackRock during the December debate.</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><div><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">“BlackRock is a one-man show,” said Giuseppe Bivona, a co-founder and co-chief investment officer of Bluebell Capital, a small London-based activist investor. Mr. Bivona’s firm has agitated for change at BlackRock, questioning both the large size of its 17-member governing board and Mr. Fink’s close ties to the firm’s directors. At the annual meeting, BlackRock shareholders voted down a Bluebell proposal that called for Mr. Fink to step away from the chairman role.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">To assuage shareholders, BlackRock has regularly highlighted the rest of its senior executives. Mr. Fink, who said he would step down as chief executive and chairman in a few years, has said that there’s no clear successor but that several executives could step into his seats. BlackRock’s president, Rob Kapito, a co-founder who runs the firm with Mr. Fink, is 67.</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><div><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The speculation is so rampant that current and former BlackRock employees have betting pools with wagers on Mr. Fink’s potential replacements. Two senior executives — Rob Goldstein and Mark Wiedman — are considered the most likely successors.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Mr. Goldstein, the chief operating officer, oversaw the growth of Aladdin. Mr. Wiedman, the head of the global client business, was known for building out the company’s iShares business. Both command wide leads in those pools.</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><div><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Mr. Fink and BlackRock’s board members have also discussed two other executives — Martin Small, the chief financial officer, and Rachel Lord, head of international — as possible successors, a person close to BlackRock said. In the past two years, the company announced expanded roles for both Mr. Small and Ms. Lord.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">At least one potential successor to Mr. Fink recently left. Salim Ramji, who was global head of iShares and index investments, was appointed this week as the next chief executive of Vanguard.</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://influentialmag.co.uk/whats-blackrock-without-larry-fink-shareholders-fret-about-future/">What’s BlackRock Without Larry Fink? Shareholders Fret About Future.</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://influentialmag.co.uk">Influential Magazine</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>https://influentialmag.co.uk/whats-blackrock-without-larry-fink-shareholders-fret-about-future/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> </item> <item> <title>Caitlin Clark Is Here. Can the Business of the W.N.B.A. Flourish?</title> <link>https://influentialmag.co.uk/caitlin-clark-is-here-can-the-business-of-the-w-n-b-a-flourish/</link> <comments>https://influentialmag.co.uk/caitlin-clark-is-here-can-the-business-of-the-w-n-b-a-flourish/#respond</comments> <dc:creator><![CDATA[News Room]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Sat, 18 May 2024 10:28:03 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[Business]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">https://influentialmag.co.uk/caitlin-clark-is-here-can-the-business-of-the-w-n-b-a-flourish/</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p>The business of women’s basketball is booming. And the start of the 2024 W.N.B.A. season has many wondering if the sport is entering a new economic era. The arrival of stars like Caitlin Clark, the former University of Iowa phenom who is now a rookie with the Indiana Fever, has boosted interest and ticket sales. [...]</p><p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://influentialmag.co.uk/caitlin-clark-is-here-can-the-business-of-the-w-n-b-a-flourish/">Caitlin Clark Is Here. Can the Business of the W.N.B.A. Flourish?</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://influentialmag.co.uk">Influential Magazine</a>.</p>]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The business of women’s basketball is booming. And the start of the 2024 W.N.B.A. season has many wondering if the sport is entering a new economic era.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The arrival of stars like Caitlin Clark, the former University of Iowa phenom who is now a rookie with the Indiana Fever, has boosted interest and ticket sales. All the league’s teams will fly charter for the first time this season, team sponsorships are growing, and marquee players are racking up endorsement deals. A new TV deal could fill its coffers and further elevate the league’s profile.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">But there are still obstacles the league needs to overcome before attaining the kind of stature that other professional sports leagues have. The average W.N.B.A. salary is around $120,000, much lower than the N.B.A.’s, and the relatively low pay has traditionally prompted even the highest-earning players to play overseas during the league’s off-season in order to make extra money. The league has long had stars, but it has struggled to market their skills and personalities to a mass audience.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">How the W.N.B.A. capitalizes on the current moment — and approaches its more prominent place in the media landscape — could have a significant effect on the league’s future.</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><div><div class="css-53u6y8"><h2 class="css-9ycfei eoo0vm40" id="link-d252b25">A chance to capitalize.</h2><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">More than 18 million people, a record, watched the University of South Carolina beat Clark and Iowa in the women’s N.C.A.A. tournament final this year, up from the roughly 10 million who watched the title game in 2023, which was also a record. This year, for the first time, more people watched the women’s final than the men’s.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Clark has had a unique effect. In her four years at Iowa, she broke the Division I scoring record for men and women and led the Hawkeyes to consecutive national title games. She also helped sell out arenas and boost TV ratings, and has become one of the most visible stars in all of college sports. According to a March poll conducted by Seton Hall University’s School of Business, Clark was the most well-known college basketball player in the country, with 44 percent of Americans saying they had heard of her.</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><div><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Supporters of the W.N.B.A. are hoping that the growth in the college game translates to the pros. Last year’s finals averaged 728,000 viewers per game, the highest in 20 years.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Players say they can sense a difference already. Sue Bird, the former Seattle Storm and University of Connecticut star, said in an interview that compared with 2002, when she entered the league, the W.N.B.A. is taken more seriously by fans. The common sentiment back then, Bird said, was that “you were taking a step down” coming from playing college basketball.</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><div><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">“They were accustomed to a certain standard in college, and they’re now seeing it in the W.N.B.A.,” Bird said.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">And so far, the interest in Clark seems to have carried over to the league. A record 2.5 million people watched the W.N.B.A. draft on April 15, when Clark was selected No. 1 overall. Three of the Fever’s first four games are being nationally televised, on ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC, and the other was on Amazon Prime. As a testament to the league’s growing popularity, the Bay Area will get a W.N.B.A. team in 2025, and another team is reportedly planned in Toronto.</p><h2 class="css-9ycfei eoo0vm40" id="link-346e4cef">W.N.B.A. players — even stars — don’t make a lot.</h2><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">When the Indiana Fever picked Clark in the draft, many — including President Biden — were shocked to learn her starting salary: $76,535.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Clark’s college endorsements — valued at more than $3 million, according to On3, a site that tracks name, image and likeness deals for college athletes — and ones she has signed with since getting to Indiana make her base salary a small portion of her overall compensation.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Base salaries in the W.N.B.A. range from about $64,000 for rookies drafted in<span class="css-8l6xbc evw5hdy0"> </span>the third round to about $240,000 for veterans. Out of roughly 144 players in the league, 22 make more than $200,000 annually, and 78 make less than $100,000, according to Spotrac, a site that tracks players’ contracts.</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><div><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Players can earn more, with bonuses for those who win individual awards and whose teams are successful. The league pays a small, rotating cohort of players a total of $1 million each season to participate in leaguewide marketing partnerships.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">But lucrative endorsements are not a reality for the bulk of the league’s players, and some see the promise of sponsorships as the wrong answer to improving player compensation.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">“The new messaging point around a player in the new rookie class is, ‘Don’t worry about the top pick, because she can make up to a half-million dollars,’” said Terri Jackson, executive director of the W.N.B.A. players’ union.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">In turn, players have looked overseas, playing for teams in countries like Russia, Turkey, China and Australia that pay more than the W.N.B.A. Brittney Griner had been playing in Russia when she was detained for nine months.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Today, about half of W.N.B.A. teams share ownership with an N.B.A. team, and in some cases facilities and front offices. That includes the Fever, who share ownership and facilities with the Indiana Pacers. Ownership of the W.N.B.A. itself is still split between the collective 30 N.B.A. teams and 12 W.N.B.A. teams. In 2022, the W.N.B.A. announced $75 million of new investments from more than two dozen investors, including N.B.A. and W.N.B.A. team owners.</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><div><div class="css-53u6y8"><h2 class="css-9ycfei eoo0vm40" id="link-3e8b73f">New deals could change things.</h2><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The leagues remain worlds apart when it comes to revenue. But proponents of higher pay for W.N.B.A. players point out that they make a lower share of league revenue than N.B.A. players do, 10 percent compared with around 50 percent.</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><div><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Negotiations for media rights, a key driver of the revenues of sports leagues, are underway for the N.B.A. and W.N.B.A. The two leagues have generally negotiated rights deals together. </p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The current deal expires at the end of the 2024-25 N.B.A. season. At that point, the W.N.B.A. could choose, for the first time, to separate its agreement from the N.B.A.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The league must prioritize continuing to expand its fan base and market its stars, as the N.B.A. did with Larry Bird and Magic Johnson in the 1980s, said Len Elmore, a former N.B.A. player and a senior lecturer at Columbia University’s Sports Management Program.</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><div><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">“Television rights are what’s catapulted N.B.A. salaries,” Elmore said. “It comes down to having those players, and it comes down to TV.”</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The current collective bargaining agreement between the W.N.B.A. and the union that represents the players governs players’ compensation. Chiney Ogwumike, a forward for the Los Angeles Sparks, said the recent growth of the W.N.B.A. was buttressing the players’ case that they should receive a greater share of league revenue.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">“The numbers are supporting players finally being rewarded as drivers of revenue,” she said in an interview.</p><h2 class="css-9ycfei eoo0vm40" id="link-13500e0f">Endorsements are a wild card.</h2><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">As the profile of the college game has risen, stars have earned millions through endorsements. For instance, Angel Reese, now in her rookie season with the Chicago Sky, had N.I.L. deals worth a reported $1.8 million while at Louisiana State University.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">But more endorsement deals are happening with W.N.B.A. players. Clark is reportedly signing a $20 million deal with Nike. The company is also making a signature shoe with A’ja Wilson, the Las Vegas Aces star.</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><div><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Research has consistently demonstrated that women’s sports receive a tiny fraction of the media attention that men’s sports do, limiting their reach and ability to attract new fans. That has changed in recent years, with global sponsorships for female athletes increasing 22 percent in 2023, according to SponsorUnited, which tracks company sponsorships and deals.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">But now, there’s an upside for companies in that pursuit. Compared with leagues like the N.B.A. and the N.F.L., “it’s not as cluttered,” said Sarah Lane, the chief marketing officer at CarMax, which became a partner of the league in 2021.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Bird said she was optimistic that the current crop of rookies, combined with the league’s existing stars, would draw more attention — and sponsorships — to the W.N.B.A.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The current stars, Bird said, “have a certain value both in their play and their marketability, and that will just grow the pot and the pie for everybody else.”</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://influentialmag.co.uk/caitlin-clark-is-here-can-the-business-of-the-w-n-b-a-flourish/">Caitlin Clark Is Here. Can the Business of the W.N.B.A. Flourish?</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://influentialmag.co.uk">Influential Magazine</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>https://influentialmag.co.uk/caitlin-clark-is-here-can-the-business-of-the-w-n-b-a-flourish/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> </item> <item> <title>A Loss at Mercedes-Benz Slows U.A.W.’s Southern Campaign</title> <link>https://influentialmag.co.uk/a-loss-at-mercedes-benz-slows-u-a-w-s-southern-campaign/</link> <comments>https://influentialmag.co.uk/a-loss-at-mercedes-benz-slows-u-a-w-s-southern-campaign/#respond</comments> <dc:creator><![CDATA[News Room]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Sat, 18 May 2024 09:26:42 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[Business]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">https://influentialmag.co.uk/a-loss-at-mercedes-benz-slows-u-a-w-s-southern-campaign/</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p>After suffering a setback at two Mercedes-Benz plants in Alabama on Friday, the United Automobile Workers union’s efforts to organize other auto factories in the South is likely to slow and could struggle to make headway. About 56 percent of the Mercedes workers who voted rejected the U.A.W. in an election after the union chalked [...]</p><p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://influentialmag.co.uk/a-loss-at-mercedes-benz-slows-u-a-w-s-southern-campaign/">A Loss at Mercedes-Benz Slows U.A.W.’s Southern Campaign</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://influentialmag.co.uk">Influential Magazine</a>.</p>]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">After suffering a setback at two Mercedes-Benz plants in Alabama on Friday, the United Automobile Workers union’s efforts to organize other auto factories in the South is likely to slow and could struggle to make headway.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">About 56 percent of the Mercedes workers who voted rejected the U.A.W. in an election after the union chalked up two major wins this year. In April, workers at a Volkswagen plant in Tennessee voted to join the union, the first large nonunion auto plant in the South to do so. Weeks later, the union negotiated a new contract bringing significant pay and benefit improvements for its members at several North Carolina factories owned by Daimler Truck.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">“Losing at Mercedes is not death for the union,” said Arthur Wheaton, director of labor studies at Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations. “It just means they’ll have less confidence going to the next plant. The U.A.W. is in it for the long run. I don’t think they’re going to stop just because they lost here.”</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Since its founding in 1935, the U.A.W. has almost exclusively represented workers employed by the three Michigan-based automakers: General Motors, Ford Motor, and Chrysler, now part of Stellantis. And it has long struggled to make headway at plants owned by foreign manufacturers, especially in Southern states where anti-union sentiment runs deep.</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><div><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Workers at the Volkswagen plant had voted against being represented by the U.A.W. twice by narrow margins before the recent union win there. An effort a decade ago to organize one of the Mercedes plants failed to build enough support for an election.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Harley Shaiken, a professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, noted that broad union organizing efforts seldom proceeded smoothly. In the 1930s, the U.A.W. won recognition at G.M. and Chrysler but struggled at Ford, which continued employing nonunion workers for a few years.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">“I have no doubt they will continue organizing and eventually try for another vote,” he said.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">In its past efforts in the South, the union was hampered by a negative image, which may have also played a part in the U.A.W.’s loss at Mercedes. For years, the three Michigan automakers were cutting jobs and closing plants, in part because of rigid and costly labor contracts. The union was also hurt by corruption cases that put several former senior officials, including two former U.A.W. presidents, behind bars.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Business leaders in Alabama ran a campaign against the U.A.W. that was based in part on the contention that the union was responsible for the decline of Detroit. In a January opinion essay published in The Alabama Daily News, the chief executive of the Business Council of Alabama, Helena Duncan, said the state would suffer the same fate if workers voted for the union.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">“Much of the decay that exists in the ‘Motor City’ today results from untenable demands that the U.A.W. placed on its automobile manufacturers, an unwise move that sent untold numbers of jobs to right-to-work states like ours and crippled a once great metropolis,” Ms. Duncan wrote.</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><div><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">A year ago, the union elected a new president, Shawn Fain, who was untouched by the corruption scandals and vowed to take a more aggressive approach in contract talks. Then last fall, the union came away with substantial pay and benefit gains in negotiations with the Detroit automakers, after targeted strikes over some 40 days. Hundreds of Southern autoworkers began reaching out, asking for help organizing their nonunion plants. The U.A.W. responded by announcing that it would spend $40 million on organizing drives over the next two years.</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><div><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">“I’m not scared at all,” Mr. Fain said Friday in Alabama after the union lost the Mercedes vote. “I believe workers want unions, I believe they want justice, and we’re going to continue doing what we can do.”</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Mercedes in a statement emphasized its direct relationship with workers and said it looked forward to making sure the company was “not only their employer of choice, but a place they would recommend to friends and family.”</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The union has signaled that it expects to focus its organizing efforts on another Alabama plant — a Hyundai factory in Montgomery. But organizing that plant will probably be even harder than the campaign at the Mercedes factories, said Erik Gordon, a University of Michigan business professor who follows the auto industry.</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><div><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The U.A.W. had allies at Volkswagen and Mercedes. Unions are powerful players in Germany, where those two companies are based. Under German law, worker representatives must occupy half the seats on a company’s supervisory board, the equivalent of an American board of directors.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Volkswagen and Mercedes both have groups called works councils through which managers and employees discuss and negotiate workplace issues and production plans. In its drive at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, the U.A.W. had the support of the company’s works council and IG Metall, the powerful union that represents all German automotive workers.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The U.A.W. won’t have that kind of support at Hyundai’s Montgomery plant, Mr. Gordon said. “In general, Korean car companies have more adversarial relationships with unions than do the German manufacturers,” he said. “Korean companies are less used to sitting together in a conference room with unions.”</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Last year, weeks after the U.A.W. won pay and benefit increases from the three Michigan-based automakers, Hyundai announced that it would increase its workers’ pay sharply over the next four years — a move widely seen as an attempt to dampen workers’ interest in joining the U.A.W.</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><div><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">“The decision to be represented by a union is up to our team members,” Hyundai said in a statement.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The Montgomery plant makes two popular sport utility vehicles — the Tucson and Santa Fe — and employs about 4,000 workers. An earlier U.A.W. drive to organize the plant in 2016 petered out without coming to a vote.</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><div><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Last fall, the union said it planned to target plants owned by 10 foreign-owned automakers — Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, Nissan, BMW, Mercedes, Subaru, Volkswagen, Mazda and Volvo — and others owned by Tesla, which is based in Texas, and two smaller electric vehicle start-ups, Lucid and Rivian, both based in California.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The U.S. plants owned by those foreign and U.S. companies employ nearly 150,000 workers in 13 states, the union said.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">In Alabama, however, the U.A.W. faced perhaps a more hostile environment than anywhere else. While it was campaigning at Mercedes, Gov. Kay Ivey spoke out against the union and headed a group of six Southern governors, all Republicans, who issued a letter suggesting unionizing could cause automakers to move jobs out of their states. One senior Alabama politician described the U.A.W. as “leeches.”</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Mercedes brought in Nick Saban, the hugely popular former football coach at the University of Alabama, to talk to workers in an effort to persuade them to vote against the U.A.W.</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><div><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Unions are traditionally seen as a Northern institution and are often linked with the civil rights movement, which alienates many people in Alabama, Mr. Gordon said. “It’s a very tough place for the U.A.W.,” he said.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">That antipathy could also make it hard for the U.A.W. to negotiate contracts guaranteeing its members raises and other gains even if it wins unionizing votes. Lawmakers who oppose unions may put pressure on employers not to make big concessions in negotiations.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0"> Mr. Fain and the U.A.W. have argued that unions are the best way for workers to demand higher wages when automakers are enjoying strong sales and profits in North America.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Public support of unions is stronger than it has been in years, including in the South. This year, 600 workers at an electric bus factory in Alabama voted to join the Communications Workers of America union. A week ago, they negotiated a new contract delivering pay raises and enhanced benefits.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The U.A.W. and other unions also have enjoyed the support of President Biden, who<span class="css-8l6xbc evw5hdy0"> </span>last fall joined striking autoworkers on a picket line in Michigan. The union endorsed Mr. Biden in this year’s election.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">But that close association with the president may also hurt the U.A.W. with conservative workers in a Southern state who prefer Mr. Biden’s opponent — former President Donald J. Trump. Mr. Fain and Mr. Trump have often criticized each other, but polls have shown that a sizable minority of union households support the former president.</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://influentialmag.co.uk/a-loss-at-mercedes-benz-slows-u-a-w-s-southern-campaign/">A Loss at Mercedes-Benz Slows U.A.W.’s Southern Campaign</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://influentialmag.co.uk">Influential Magazine</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>https://influentialmag.co.uk/a-loss-at-mercedes-benz-slows-u-a-w-s-southern-campaign/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> </item> <item> <title>Biden’s China Tariffs Are the End of an Era for Cheap Chinese Goods</title> <link>https://influentialmag.co.uk/bidens-china-tariffs-are-the-end-of-an-era-for-cheap-chinese-goods/</link> <comments>https://influentialmag.co.uk/bidens-china-tariffs-are-the-end-of-an-era-for-cheap-chinese-goods/#respond</comments> <dc:creator><![CDATA[News Room]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Sat, 18 May 2024 04:20:11 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[Business]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">https://influentialmag.co.uk/bidens-china-tariffs-are-the-end-of-an-era-for-cheap-chinese-goods/</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p>For the first two decades of the 21st century, many consumer products on America’s store shelves got less expensive. A wave of imports from China and other emerging economies helped push down the cost of video games, T-shirts, dining tables, home appliances and more. Those imports drove some American factories out of business, and they [...]</p><p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://influentialmag.co.uk/bidens-china-tariffs-are-the-end-of-an-era-for-cheap-chinese-goods/">Biden’s China Tariffs Are the End of an Era for Cheap Chinese Goods</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://influentialmag.co.uk">Influential Magazine</a>.</p>]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">For the first two decades of the 21st century, many consumer products on America’s store shelves got less expensive. A wave of imports from China and other emerging economies helped push down the cost of video games, T-shirts, dining tables, home appliances and more.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Those imports drove some American factories out of business, and they cost more than a million workers their jobs. Discount stores and online retailers, like Walmart and Amazon, flourished selling low-cost goods made overseas. But voters rebelled. Stung by shuttered factories, cratered industries and prolonged wage stagnation, Americans in 2016 elected a president who vowed to hit back at China on trade. Four years later, they elected another one.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">In separate but overlapping efforts, former President Donald J. Trump and President Biden have sought to revive and protect American factories by making it more expensive to buy Chinese goods. They have taxed imports in legacy industries that were hollowed out over the last quarter-century, like clothes and appliances, and newer ones that are struggling to grow amid global competition with China, like solar panels.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Mr. Biden’s decision on Tuesday to codify and escalate tariffs imposed by Mr. Trump made clear that the United States has closed out a decades-long era that embraced trade with China and prized the gains of lower-cost products over the loss of geographically concentrated manufacturing jobs. A single tariff rate embodies that closure: a 100 percent tax on Chinese electric vehicles, which start at less than $10,000 each and have surged into showrooms around the world, but have struggled to crack government barriers to the U.S. market.</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><div><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Democrats and Republicans once joined forces to engage economically with Beijing, driven by a theory that America would benefit from outsourcing production to countries that could manufacture certain goods more cheaply, in part by paying their workers low wages. Economists knew some American workers would lose their jobs, but they said the economy would gain overall by offering consumers low-cost goods and freeing up companies to invest in higher-value industries where the United States had an innovation advantage.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The parties are now competing to sever those ties. Lawmakers have taken increasingly hard lines on China’s labor practices, intellectual property theft from foreign businesses and generous subsidies for factories that produce far more than Chinese consumers can buy.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">It is unclear what new era of policymaking will emerge from those political incentives: Mr. Biden’s brand of strategic industrial policy, Mr. Trump’s retrenchment to a more self-contained domestic economy, or something else entirely.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">It is also not clear whether the American public, still reeling from the country’s most rapid burst of inflation in 40 years, will tolerate the pains that could accompany the transition.</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><div><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">“The old consensus has been blown apart, and a new one has not arisen,” said David Autor, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who helped lead the pioneering research into what has come to be known as the China Shock of the early 2000s, when China’s acceptance into the World Trade Organization helped wipe out manufacturing jobs across the<span class="css-8l6xbc evw5hdy0"> </span>developed world.</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><div><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">But consumers and voters, Mr. Autor cautioned, “can’t have it both ways. You can make a trade-off. All the world is trade-offs. If you want to get to the point where the U.S. maintains and regains leadership in these technological areas, you’re going to have to pay more. And it’s not clear it’ll work.”</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Despite their mutual embrace of forms of protectionism, Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump are offering voters contrasting views of how the American economy should engage with China in their rematch election.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Mr. Trump wants to tear down the bridges of commerce between the world’s two largest economies and dramatically restrict trade overall. He has pledged to raise tariffs on all Chinese imports, by revoking the “most favored nation” trade status that Congress voted to bestow on China at the end of the Clinton administration, and ban some Chinese goods entirely. He would impose new taxes on all imports from around the world.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Mr. Trump bluntly asserts China will pay the cost of those tariffs, not consumers, though detailed economic studies contradict him. But Robert Lighthizer, his former trade representative who remains an influential voice in Mr. Trump’s trade discussions, told New York Times reporters late last year that it was worth trading higher consumer prices for increased manufacturing employment.</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><div><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">“There’s a group of people who think that consumption is the end,” Mr. Lighthizer said. “And my view is production is the end, and safe and happy communities are the end. You should be willing to pay a price for that.”</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Mr. Biden rejects Mr. Trump’s proposals as too broad and costly. He wants to build a protective fortress around strategic industries like clean energy and semiconductors, using tariffs and other regulations. Mr. Biden is also showering companies in those sectors with billions in government subsidies, including for green-energy technologies through the Inflation Reduction Act.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">“Investment must be paired with trade enforcement to make sure the comeback we are seeing in communities around the country is not undercut by a flood of unfairly underpriced exports from China,” Lael Brainard, who directs the White House National Economic Council, said in a speech on Thursday. “We have learned from the past. There can be no second China Shock here in America.”</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Many economists who continue to favor less restricted trade with China have criticized both candidates’ plans, and not simply because they risk raising prices for American shoppers. They say Mr. Trump’s and Mr. Biden’s policies could slow economic growth. Cutting off Chinese competition, they say, could force companies and consumers to spend money on artificially expensive domestic goods, instead of on new and innovative products that would create new industries and new jobs.</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><div><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">“We’re going to hurt our productivity by massively overspending on these things,” said R. Glenn Hubbard, a Columbia University economist who led the White House Council of Economic Advisers under former President George W. Bush.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Some Democrats say Mr. Biden’s best hope of building a lasting, successful China trade policy is by spending more, including potentially another round of subsidies for semiconductors and other high-tech manufacturing, and by going further on enforcement. Senator Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio, a career-long China and trade hawk in Congress, has pushed Mr. Biden to ban Chinese electric vehicles outright.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Jennifer Harris, a former Biden aide who now leads the Economy and Society Initiative at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, has pushed the administration to couple its industrial policy spending with even stricter rules on what the recipients of that money can do with it. She wants stronger mandates for domestic automakers to shift to electric vehicles, for example, and stricter curbs on stock buybacks to force companies receiving government grants, like semiconductor manufacturers, to invest more in research and development.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">“This begins the much harder chapter that I think is much less attempted in U.S. history of industrial policy,” Ms. Harris said: “Making industry really prove it out.”</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Voters will sour on those efforts, she added, if Mr. Biden’s policies do not help quickly drive down prices of Made-in-the-U.S.A. products. “Americans want it both ways, and they’re going to get grumpy when prices go up,” she said.</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><div><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Polls show voters are already extremely grumpy about price increases, which are related to supply-chain snarls and government and central bank stimulus as the world emerged from the Covid-19 recession.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Inflation concerns are weighing on Mr. Biden’s re-election chances. Current and former Biden aides are hopeful they will not also discredit Mr. Biden’s economic policy strategy, if he were to win a second term. Persistently higher prices from new tariffs could also hurt Mr. Trump’s approval, if he were to regain the White House.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Those political questions are driving uncertainty about what the new era of China policy will ultimately settle into. Mr. Hubbard would like to see a retreat from protectionism and a re-embrace of what you might call more traditional views of trade policy: enforce global rules, invest heavily in national innovation to retain an edge, and when you do lose industries to a global rival, spend big to retrain the workers who are displaced so they can find new jobs.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">He concedes there is little appetite in the American electorate for such a policy. So does Ms. Harris. “The idea that we’re just going to run this movie again, knowing the political fallout that came from the first round, is just complete suicide to me,” she said.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Mr. Autor said that, economically speaking, he would not like to return to the previous era of China trade. He is generally complimentary of Mr. Biden’s industrial efforts, including his China policy, but says the president should “give up” on support for some sectors of the economy where China has driven costs extremely low, like solar cells.</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><div><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">His latest research warns of the economic perils of poorly designed trade policy, but it also explains why presidents might keep pursuing it. In a recent paper, written with several fellow economists, Mr. Autor found that Mr. Trump’s tariff-centered approach did not succeed in bringing many factory jobs back to America.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">But, the economists found, the policy seemed to have won Mr. Trump and his party more votes.</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://influentialmag.co.uk/bidens-china-tariffs-are-the-end-of-an-era-for-cheap-chinese-goods/">Biden’s China Tariffs Are the End of an Era for Cheap Chinese Goods</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://influentialmag.co.uk">Influential Magazine</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>https://influentialmag.co.uk/bidens-china-tariffs-are-the-end-of-an-era-for-cheap-chinese-goods/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> </item> <item> <title>Sony and Apollo Take Key Step in Bid for Paramount’s Assets</title> <link>https://influentialmag.co.uk/sony-and-apollo-take-key-step-in-bid-for-paramounts-assets/</link> <comments>https://influentialmag.co.uk/sony-and-apollo-take-key-step-in-bid-for-paramounts-assets/#respond</comments> <dc:creator><![CDATA[News Room]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Sat, 18 May 2024 00:14:19 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[Business]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">https://influentialmag.co.uk/sony-and-apollo-take-key-step-in-bid-for-paramounts-assets/</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p>Sony Pictures Entertainment and Apollo Global Management have taken a significant step forward in their effort to court Paramount, three people familiar with the matter said on Friday. The two companies have signed nondisclosure agreements with Paramount, allowing them to look at Paramount’s nonpublic financial information, said the people, who spoke on the condition of [...]</p><p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://influentialmag.co.uk/sony-and-apollo-take-key-step-in-bid-for-paramounts-assets/">Sony and Apollo Take Key Step in Bid for Paramount’s Assets</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://influentialmag.co.uk">Influential Magazine</a>.</p>]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Sony Pictures Entertainment and Apollo Global Management have taken a significant step forward in their effort to court Paramount, three people familiar with the matter said on Friday.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The two companies have signed nondisclosure agreements with Paramount, allowing them to look at Paramount’s nonpublic financial information, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss active negotiations. Paramount previously shared materials with another suitor, the Hollywood studio Skydance.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Early this month, Sony and Apollo sent Paramount a nonbinding expression of interest in acquiring the company for $26 billion. The two had been seeking to buy Paramount for its studio and then sell off other parts of its empire, which includes CBS, cable channels like MTV and the Paramount Plus streaming service.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">But Sony’s shareholders have fretted over the possible acquisition, given the potential cost of a bid for Paramount and the headwinds facing the subscription streaming business. Sony and Apollo are now contemplating a variety of approaches to acquire the company’s assets, but are backing away from their plan to make an all-cash, $26 billion offer for Paramount, two of the people said.</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><div><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Sony’s new vision for a deal could alter the dynamics of Paramount’s effort to sell itself or merge with another company. Paramount previously rebuffed Sony’s offer to buy just its studio, and Paramount’s controlling shareholder, Shari Redstone, has long sought a deal for the entire company.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">A person familiar with Ms. Redstone’s thinking has said that a breakup of the company is not a deal breaker, depending on the terms, but that she prefers to keep Paramount intact.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Ms. Redstone has blessed a deal to sell her stake in National Amusements, Paramount’s parent company, to Skydance, but Skydance’s bid for the entire company has faced significant pushback from Paramount’s common shareholders.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Paramount let an exclusive negotiation window with Skydance lapse in recent weeks, but the two are still talking, and Skydance remains interested in a deal.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The deal talks are happening at a tumultuous time for Paramount. The company’s chief executive, Bob Bakish, stepped down last month after more than a quarter-century at the company. He was replaced in the interim by three executives running an “office of the C.E.O.”: George Cheeks, the chief executive of CBS; Chris McCarthy, the chairman of Showtime and MTV Entertainment Studios; and Brian Robbins, the chief executive of Paramount Pictures.</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://influentialmag.co.uk/sony-and-apollo-take-key-step-in-bid-for-paramounts-assets/">Sony and Apollo Take Key Step in Bid for Paramount’s Assets</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://influentialmag.co.uk">Influential Magazine</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>https://influentialmag.co.uk/sony-and-apollo-take-key-step-in-bid-for-paramounts-assets/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> </item> <item> <title>‘Blockout 2024’ Wants to Send Celebrities to the ‘Digital Guillotine’</title> <link>https://influentialmag.co.uk/blockout-2024-wants-to-send-celebrities-to-the-digital-guillotine/</link> <comments>https://influentialmag.co.uk/blockout-2024-wants-to-send-celebrities-to-the-digital-guillotine/#respond</comments> <dc:creator><![CDATA[News Room]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Fri, 17 May 2024 21:11:31 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[Business]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">https://influentialmag.co.uk/blockout-2024-wants-to-send-celebrities-to-the-digital-guillotine/</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p>As protests over the war in Gaza unfolded blocks away, last week’s Met Gala was largely devoid of political statements on the red carpet. That the organizers of fashion’s most powerful annual spectacle (one for which tickets cost $75,000 this year) achieved this proved surprising to many observers. Less than two weeks later, though, a [...]</p><p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://influentialmag.co.uk/blockout-2024-wants-to-send-celebrities-to-the-digital-guillotine/">‘Blockout 2024’ Wants to Send Celebrities to the ‘Digital Guillotine’</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://influentialmag.co.uk">Influential Magazine</a>.</p>]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">As protests over the war in Gaza unfolded blocks away, last week’s Met Gala was largely devoid of political statements on the red carpet. That the organizers of fashion’s most powerful annual spectacle (one for which tickets cost $75,000 this year) achieved this proved surprising to many observers. Less than two weeks later, though, a fast-growing online protest movement is taking shape. At least, it is on TikTok, the social media platform that was a sponsor of the Met event.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Blockout 2024, also referred to as Operation Blockout or Celebrity Block Party, targets high-profile figures who participants feel are not using their profiles and platforms to speak out about the Israel-Hamas war and wider humanitarian crises. Here’s what has happened so far, what supporters hope to achieve and why it all began.</p><h2 class="css-kypbrf eoo0vm40" id="link-2407bb60">How did it start?</h2><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The criticism began on May 6, when Haley Kalil (@haleyybaylee on social media), an influencer who was a host on E! News before the event, posted a TikTok video of herself wearing a lavish 18th-century-style floral gown and headdress with audio from Sofia Coppola’s 2006 film “Marie Antoinette,” in which Kirsten Dunst proclaims, “Let them eat cake!”</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><div><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The clip (for which Ms. Kalil later apologized and which was deleted) was viewed widely. Given the current global conflicts and humanitarian crises, critics described it as “tone deaf.” Then posts emerged comparing ostentatious costumes worn by celebrities on the Met red carpet to scenes from “The Hunger Games,” in which affluent citizens in opulent outfits wine and dine while watching the suffering of the impoverished districts for sport.</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><div><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Images of Zendaya, a Met Gala co-chair, spliced with photographs of Palestinian children, incited the online masses. A rallying cry soon came from @ladyfromtheoutside, a TikTok creator who found inspiration in Ms. Kalil’s parroting of Marie Antoinette.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">“It’s time for the people to conduct what I want to call a digital guillotine — a ‘digitine,’ if you will,” she said in a May 8 video post with two million views. “It’s time to block all the celebrities, influencers and wealthy socialites who are not using their resources to help those in dire need. We gave them their platforms. It’s time to take it back, take our views away, our likes, our comments, our money.”</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">“Block lists” of celebrities thought to be deserving of being blocked were published and widely shared online.</p><h2 class="css-kypbrf eoo0vm40" id="link-42a39b43">What do the social-media protesters want?</h2><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The movement is made up of pro-Palestinian supporters who have been assessing the actions and words of A-listers in order to decide if they have adequately responded to the conflict. If they have said nothing or not enough, the movement calls for those supporting Gaza to block that celebrity on social media. What constitutes sufficient action by the famous person — be it calls for a cease-fire, donations to aid charities or statements — appears unclear and can vary from celebrity to celebrity.</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><div><div class="css-53u6y8"><h2 class="css-kypbrf eoo0vm40" id="link-7be66e0f">What is the point of blocking celebrities?</h2><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">“Blockout” supporters argue that blocking is important because brands look at data on the followers and engagement of influencers and celebrities on social media before choosing whether to work with them to promote a product. Blocking someone on social media means you no longer see any posts from the person’s accounts, and it gives the blocker more control over who has access to their own updates and personal information. It can have more impact than unfollowing a celebrity account because many product deals thrive on targeted ads and views that can accumulate even if a user simply sees a post, without liking or sharing it.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">If enough people block a content creator, it could reduce the creator’s ability to make money. Also, adherents of this thinking say, why follow someone whose values don’t align with yours?</p><h2 class="css-kypbrf eoo0vm40" id="link-496541d9">Who are the key targets?</h2><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Attendees with huge followings, like Zendaya, Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner, have been at the top of the chopping blocks. But so have celebrities who didn’t attend the gala this year, including Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift and Selena Gomez.</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><div><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Vogue, which according to Puck News published 570 Met Gala stories on its platforms and recorded more than a billion video views of content from the night, has also been targeted because of its ties to the event.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">“The Met Gala is by far and away Vogue’s biggest cash cow,” Elaina Bell, a former Vogue employee, said in a TikTok post with 850,000 views. She explained that the event sold sponsorships “based on the data of past events,” adding, “How the Met Gala is seen is so important to the bottom line of Vogue specifically but also to Condé Nast.”</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><div><div class="css-53u6y8"><h2 class="css-kypbrf eoo0vm40" id="link-13fdd408">And wasn’t there some ballyhoo about the theme?</h2><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">It certainly raised some eyebrows. The dress code was “The Garden of Time,” inspired by the J.G. Ballard short story of the same name. It’s an allegorical tale about an aristocratic couple isolated in their estate of fading beauty harassed by an enormous crowd preparing to overrun and destroy the space. Rather on the nose.</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><div><div class="css-53u6y8"><h2 class="css-kypbrf eoo0vm40" id="link-6847835b">Are there critics of the movement?</h2><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Yes. Some posts say the blockout is a negative example of “cancel culture.” Others suggest that, like other social media-led movements, it is digital posturing that generates little meaningful change.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Some argue that celebrities do not have a duty (or the awareness) to speak out on complicated geopolitical issues, and they question why it matters what famous people think about those issues, anyway. Others feel the movement has blurred parameters, given that some A-listers, like Jennifer Lopez and Billie Eilish, have previously shown support for a cease-fire in Gaza but are being punished for not speaking up now.</p><h2 class="css-kypbrf eoo0vm40" id="link-1ef340b6">So what has come out of it so far?</h2><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Several stars on the widely circulated block lists, including Lizzo and the influencer Chris Olsen, posted their first public videos asking followers to donate in support of aid organizations serving Palestinians. Blockout supporters have also worked to “boost” celebrities who have recently spoken about the conflict, like Macklemore, Dua Lipa and The Weeknd.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">According to metrics from the analytics company Social Blade, many names on block lists have lost tens or hundreds of thousand of followers per day since the “digitine” began. But murky claims that stars like Kim Kardashian have lost millions of followers are unsubstantiated.</p><h2 class="css-kypbrf eoo0vm40" id="link-3359f80">What happens now?</h2><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Will more A-listers start speaking out on the red carpet as a result of the lists? It is too soon to tell. But for frequent users of TikTok, the brand aura of the Met Gala is being profoundly altered. And while social-media-led boycotts are by no means unprecedented, this latest movement is a clear example of the growing power of creators to redistribute or even weaponize platforms that are cornerstones of a modern celebrity-centric — and capitalist — system.</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><p><script async src="//www.instagram.com/embed.js"></script><script async src="//www.tiktok.com/embed.js"></script></p><p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://influentialmag.co.uk/blockout-2024-wants-to-send-celebrities-to-the-digital-guillotine/">‘Blockout 2024’ Wants to Send Celebrities to the ‘Digital Guillotine’</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://influentialmag.co.uk">Influential Magazine</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>https://influentialmag.co.uk/blockout-2024-wants-to-send-celebrities-to-the-digital-guillotine/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> </item> <item> <title>Mercedes Workers in Alabama Reject Union</title> <link>https://influentialmag.co.uk/mercedes-workers-in-alabama-reject-union/</link> <comments>https://influentialmag.co.uk/mercedes-workers-in-alabama-reject-union/#respond</comments> <dc:creator><![CDATA[News Room]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Fri, 17 May 2024 20:10:49 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[Business]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">https://influentialmag.co.uk/mercedes-workers-in-alabama-reject-union/</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p>Workers at two Mercedes-Benz factories near Tuscaloosa, Ala., voted on Friday against joining the United Automobile Workers, a stunning blow to the union’s campaign to gain ground in the South, where it has traditionally been weak. The defeat, based on an unofficial union tally, came after Kay Ivey, Alabama’s governor, and other Republican leaders argued [...]</p><p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://influentialmag.co.uk/mercedes-workers-in-alabama-reject-union/">Mercedes Workers in Alabama Reject Union</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://influentialmag.co.uk">Influential Magazine</a>.</p>]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Workers at two Mercedes-Benz factories near Tuscaloosa, Ala., voted on Friday against joining the United Automobile Workers, a stunning blow to the union’s campaign to gain ground in the South, where it has traditionally been weak.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The defeat, based on an unofficial union tally, came after Kay Ivey, Alabama’s governor, and other Republican leaders argued that a pro-union vote would choke off the investment that has transformed the state into a major auto producer. Hyundai and Honda also have large factories in Alabama that the U.A.W. is trying to organize.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The vote took on national significance as a test of whether the U.A.W. could build on a string of recent victories and gain ground in a state whose elected officials have been hostile to organized labor. The union has said it wants to organize every automobile factory in the United States, expanding its membership to include the employees of companies like Toyota and Tesla.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">But the loss at the Mercedes plants will almost surely slow down the union’s campaign and probably force it to do more spadework to secure the support of workers before seeking to hold elections at other auto plants. Union leaders will want to spend time figuring out how best to counter the messages and tactics of local lawmakers and company executives.</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><div><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">“It hurts to lose, no doubt,” Elizabeth Shuler, president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., said on Friday. “But we see it not as a loss, but a temporary setback. Workers will persevere no matter what it takes.”</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Auto executives and conservative lawmakers are also likely to closely study the vote at Mercedes to figure out the best approaches to fend off the U.A.W. and other unions in future contests and to deter union campaigns from the get-go.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The South has become an important battleground. States like Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee are attracting much of the billions of dollars that automakers and suppliers are investing in electric vehicle and battery factories. The U.A.W. wants to represent workers at those factories.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Mercedes produces sport utility vehicles at a factory in Vance, Ala., and battery packs for electric vehicles at a plant in nearby Woodstock. Polling had been underway all week at the two factories under the supervision of the National Labor Relations Board.</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><div><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">In a campaign conducted largely by word of mouth, union activists argued that in addition to better pay and benefits, the U.A.W. would protect Mercedes’ 5,200 workers from abrupt changes in their schedules and long shifts, including on weekends.</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><div><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0"><strong class="css-8qgvsz ebyp5n10">“</strong>If it wasn’t for us building those cars, you wouldn’t be putting the money that you’re putting in your pockets,” said Kay Finklea, who works in quality control at Mercedes and campaigned for the union. “So treat us with dignity, treat us with respect and pay us.”</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">But activists acknowledged that many workers who were unhappy with working conditions at Mercedes were also reluctant to join the union, swayed by warnings from company executives and politicians that membership would lead to onerous dues and loss of control over their jobs.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Mercedes tried hard to block the union. Last month, in an apparent attempt to address employee complaints, the company shook up local management, appointing Federico Kochlowski as chief executive of the German company’s U.S. unit.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Mr. Kochlowski, who has worked at Mercedes for about 20 years in various manufacturing positions in China, Mexico and the United States, acknowledged that there were problems at the Alabama plants and promised to make improvements. “I understand that many things are not OK,” he said in a video posted by Mercedes online. “Give me a shot.”</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><div><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Union activists noted that Mr. Kochlowski had already been a member of top management and interpreted his appointment as a last-minute attempt to fend off the U.A.W.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The U.A.W. has filed six charges of unfair labor practices against Mercedes with the labor relations board, saying the company disciplined employees for discussing unionization at work, prevented organizers from distributing union materials, conducted surveillance of workers and fired workers who supported the union.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Mercedes denies the claims.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Previous attempts by the U.A.W. to represent workers at Mercedes and other auto manufacturers in the South have failed. But the U.A.W. is stronger than it has been in years after winning a unionization vote at a Volkswagen plant in Tennessee last month after losing two previous elections at that plant. The union also won hefty pay raises last year for workers at Ford Motor, General Motors and Stellantis, the parent company of Chrysler, Jeep and Ram.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Mercedes workers who support joining the U.A.W. said they would keep fighting.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">“Mercedes is going to be unionized,” Robert Lett, who works in the Woodstock battery factory and campaigned for the union, said ahead of the vote. “It doesn’t matter if it’s Friday or in the future. There’s too much frustration there for us to not eventually unionize.”</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"/></div><p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://influentialmag.co.uk/mercedes-workers-in-alabama-reject-union/">Mercedes Workers in Alabama Reject Union</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://influentialmag.co.uk">Influential Magazine</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>https://influentialmag.co.uk/mercedes-workers-in-alabama-reject-union/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> </item> </channel></rss> If you would like to create a banner that links to this page (i.e. this validation result), do the following:
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