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Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin It’s not surprising that compliance with worker classification laws is a bigger deal in the freelance revolution. Why? Well, three factors drive this development. First, the globalization of work, and the impact of new work and collaboration technologies that make it possible to work from anywhere. As readers may know, 51 countries now have active and ongoing programs inviting “digital nomads” to sojourn in their country. The second driver: countries need tax dollars, and proper classification is essential to tax collection. For example, Argentina annually exports almost 5 billion dollars in tech expertise through the work of over 200,000 freelancers living in Argentina but “gigging” for US companies. Third, advances in technology are beginning to make available new solutions offering indemnification quickly and more cost effectively, and gives companies more visibility over their freelancers and a better experience for … [Read more...] about As More Freelancers Work Across Borders, Expect More Emphasis On Worker Classification And Tax Collection

MANILA, Philippines—The Malampaya deep water gas-to-power project has remitted $13 billion to the national government since inception, the operator of the gas field said on Wednesday (Feb. 8). “The SC (service contract) 38 has generated and remitted to the Philippine government some $13 billion since its inception,” said Prime Infrastructure Capital Inc. (Prime Infra) president and CEO Guillaume Lucci at the Powertrends International Business Forum held on Wednesday. The Malampaya gas field is operated through SC 38 granted to the consortium of Prime Energy Resources Development B.V. (Prime Energy)—a subsidiary of Razon-led Prime Infra—UC38LLC and state firm Philippine National Oil Company-Exploration Corp. (PNOC-EC). Lucci said the consortium remains committed to ensuring gas supply from the depleting Malampaya gas field. “We’re here to stay, we’re here to invest, we’re here to increase dramatically the gas production with the extended term of the service contract and resource … [Read more...] about Malampaya contribution to gov’t revenue: $13B

The overall budgetary allocation for the agriculture ministry was increased to an estimated Rs 1.25 lakh crore for FY24 financial year, including Rs 60,000 crore for the government's ambitious PM-KISAN scheme. Small farmers will benefit from the budget, the ministry said, adding that emphasis has been laid on promoting the agriculture sector through technology. A look at what the budget offered: The Hits Technology Push Budget 2023 was largely along the lines expected by industry players. The emphasis on technology adoption in agriculture was announced at the right time, with the creation of Centres of Excellence for Artificial Intelligence. Read More Leading industry players will partner in conducting interdisciplinary research and developing cutting-edge applications and scalable problem solutions in various areas including agriculture. This is a welcome step to leapfrog to the next level with focus on ‘Industry 4.0’. Agri Credit The proposed … [Read more...] about Budget 2023: Hits and misses in the agriculture sector

Google CEO Sundar Pichai [REUTERS/YONHAP] Amid the accelerated rivalry for artificial intelligence (AI) leadership between Microsoft and Google, Korea's tech companies are eyeing the non-English speaking countries with their capabilities in search engine and messenger services. Whereas the ChatGPT — a free chatbot system capable of generating conversational dialogue — displays a surprising level of sophistication in response to English language prompts, the Korean version of its service is lacking. And that might leave an opening for a niche market for local competitors. On Tuesday, Microsoft said that it will incorporate Open AI’s GPT technology into its Bing search engine. “This technology is going to reshape pretty much every software category that we know,” said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. The updated version of Bing will have a conversational interface similar to ChatGPT. The goal is to have the unpopular search engine compete against Google. Microsoft CEO … [Read more...] about As AI war rages, Korea seeks a place among giants

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Popular Bloomberg News columnist Matt Levine likes to make a comical point in his popular Moneystuff column for Bloomberg that from the SEC’s perspective nearly everything a company does (or its executives) that violates the law can be construed as securities fraud. The Federal Trade Commission under Lina Khan has embraced a similarly omnivorous jurisdictional appetite by declaring that a wide array of heretofore commonly accepted business practice could potentially be construed as a violation of antitrust laws. Abandoning the notion that the FTC should be concerned first and foremost with consumer welfare and prices has given Khan the freedom to pursue an overtly political agenda, which a cursory exam of the industries in her crosshairs makes abundantly clear. Two issues in particular illustrate the extent to which the current FTC is pursuing a narrow ideological agenda rather than attempting to improve consumer welfare. … [Read more...] about The FTC’s Fight Against Non-Monopolies Won’t Help Consumers

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin There is no doubt that over its 36-year life that the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) has housed many people. But how many? As my last post showed, there are many known unknowns about how and how well the LIHTC has functioned over those years. For example, a common number offered as an answer to the question, “how many units has LIHTC created over its 36 years?” the answer is often something like 29 million. Where does that figure come from? Column V in the LIHTC “database,” a column in the Excel spreadsheet that has 3,000 blanks and 1,500 cells with “0” as the answer. It is a challenge to reform a federal expenditure when no deep evaluation is possible for lack of good data. However, I’d like to close the LIHTC portion of the look back at Paul Ryan’s critique with some ideas for reform. I’ve concluded that the Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program isn’t really a program at all. It is behemoth , a complex of … [Read more...] about Series: Unwind The LIHTC, Create Tax Benefits For Builders And Families

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin For over a decade, reality television star Lisa Vanderpump has brought a memorable sense of elegance and style into our homes. From her nine seasons on Bravo’s The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills to her ongoing reign with Vanderpump Rules , Lisa has effectively utilized her notoriety to now be able to create the projects that matter most to her today. “I’ve got to a stage in my life where everything has to be a passion project,” Lisa, 62, tells me over tea at her vibrant “Villa Rosa” home in Beverly Hills. “I’ve done so many different things that now I find that I am motivated by something that excites me. I love design. My design partner [ Nick Alain ] is here now. We have two new big projects coming up. We’re designing two new restaurants that have a deadline and nothing is as motivating as a deadline. I’ve just opened Paris Casino in Las Vegas, which we presented to them and they fell in love with our visuals. … [Read more...] about Lisa Vanderpump On Being Her Own Boss, Reality Television Today And Her Expanding Business World

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin As any sourdough bread enthusiast can attest, beneficial microbes live all around us. Estimates suggest the Earth harbors as many as a trillion microbial species. Many make our lives better, enabling us to do everything from fermenting foods to synthesizing human insulin. Those possibilities attracted the attention of Tara Karimi, an academic researcher specializing in biologically inspired technologies. Her brother, Moji Karimi, worked with a company that wanted to sequence the DNA of microbes living in oil and gas wells. Both Karimi siblings were passionate about sustainability; when their professional lives intersected, they started thinking about ways their knowledge of science and technology might help reverse climate change. Ultimately, their collaboration led to Cemvita Factory, a biotech startup they founded in 2017. Today, their focus is to bring biotechnology to the energy transition with applications such as … [Read more...] about How Oil-Eating Microbes Could Revolutionize The Energy Transition [Video]

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin In 1958, economist William Phillips wrote a paper which found a relationship between unemployment and wages. Less unemployment led to higher wages; more unemployment led to lower wages (or slower wage growth). People have been arguing over this ever since. The basic problem here has been distinguishing between “monetary” and “non-monetary” causes of “inflation” — a topic we wrote about extensively in our new book Inflation (2022), because we knew this was going to be an issue. You may have noticed the excessive use of quotes above. Unfortunately, even these words are rather vague, and I use them mostly because other people use them. “Inflation” to some people means a specifically monetary process (what we called “monetary inflation.”) For others, it means the change in some common price indicator like the Consumer Price Index, which can certainly be affected by “non-monetary” factors. Sometimes the same people go … [Read more...] about The Phillips Curve Silliness

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Chief Information Officer, Skyworks Solutions, Inc . Recently, my son asked me about how cricket, the sport that we love to watch together, has evolved over the past two to three years. I explained to him that there are longer versions of the sport as well as shorter ones and that there are players who are trained to only play specified versions of the game. This adaptive flexibility means that we have the option to watch more permutations of the sport, as Team India trains specialists for each of the formats, and select members of the team roster can effectively perform in talent-appropriate formats more frequently while minimizing player burnout. As I reflected on these varying flavors of a core sport, it prompted me to think about how modern-day IT has also experienced a similar metamorphosis as organizations have become more "digitally immersive," especially over the past two to three years. IT teams are now … [Read more...] about Driving The Digital Enterprise And Organizational Agility Through Bimodal IT