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Ajay Banga, the former CEO of Mastercard that President Joe Biden has nominated to head the World Bank, told Axios Wednesday that both the bank and the private sector needed to spend “trillions” to combat both climate change and poverty. Banga has been aggressively campaigning for the job, meeting with officials from 37 different governments in the past three weeks, Axios reported . The World Bank faces competing pressure from wealthy and developing countries over whether to focus on combating climate change or poverty mitigation, but Banga said he does not view the two goals as inherently opposed to one another. (RELATED: Major Banks Bend The Knee To Climate Activists, Accelerate Plans To Cut Coal Investments) “I think it’s a fallacious argument that says, either-or,” Banga said to Axios. “I have every intention of focusing the bank and its people on the idea that this is an intertwined challenge.” The efforts to combat both climate change and poverty would cost … [Read more...] about Biden’s World Bank Pick Calls For ‘Trillions’ In Climate Spending

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin At it’s essence, ESG is a wonky acronym for evaluating companies based on environmental, social and governance factors. But depending on whom you are talking with these days, ESG is either a horrible “woke” concept endangering our society or a helpful tool in assessing how company’s take into account societal issues that can impact their and our futures. “ESG is a pernicious strategy, because it allows the left to accomplish what it could never hope to achieve at the ballot box or through competition in the free market,” wrote Mike Pence in a May 2022 Wall Street Journal piece. President Biden, on the other hand, issued his first veto recently to counter legislation that he said would make it illegal for pension fund managers “to consider risk factors MAGA House Republicans don't like.” Our country’s political discourse is so driven by extreme views that smart, nuanced discussion of how to take environmental, … [Read more...] about ESG Should Bring Us Together Not Tear Us Apart

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Key takeaways An internal memo revealed Disney’s three-stage plan for implementing 7,000-strong job cuts announced in February The layoffs are part of Disney’s $5.5 billion restructuring plan to cut costs and boost its ailing streaming services Some glimmers of hope for Disney stock investors as its parks show a strong performance Disney is in the doldrums. With a less-than-stellar earnings call last month and mass layoffs planned, CEO Bob Iger has a big job on his hands before a new chief executive is appointed in 2025. The embattled House of Mouse shared an internal memo this week detailing how the job cuts would pan out across the business, with the metaverse team being one of the first casualties. But the move and Disney’s planned $5.5 billion cost-savings plan might not be enough to sway Wall Street. While Disney’s short-term future looks bleak, it’s not necessarily out for the count. We’ve gone … [Read more...] about The Happiest Place On Earth? Not For 7,000 Disney Employees As They Begin First Round Of Layoffs

“Occupy DNC” protesters have locked down two campground sites where they will set up tent cities to use as home base for their anti-Hillary protests. One of the group’s organizers has said she expects “several thousand” protesters to stay at the campsites. As previously reported by The Daily Caller, more than 20,000 protesters have committed to protesting “a fraudulent Hillary nomination.” Hundreds of those protesters have already reserved two campgrounds in southern New Jersey, about twenty minutes from the Wells Fargo Center where the DNC Convention will be held. The protesters are in the process of locking down a third campground as well. Boston-area neuroscientist Laurie Cestnick, who is spearheading the Occupy DNC movement, told a local news station she expects “several thousand” protesters to stay at the campsites. Occupy DNC members on the group’s Facebook page have already come up with a name for their collection of tent cities: Camp Bernie . The group appears … [Read more...] about Occupy DNC Protesters Prepare Tent Cities For ‘Camp Bernie’

After months of disagreement about a U.S. mission against the Islamic State, a bipartisan team of senators is attempting to give American efforts legal backing. Sens. Tim Kaine and Jeff Flake have introduced a stand-alone measure that would provide legal basis for sending ground troops to fight against the terrorist group, to “protect the lives of United States citizens and to provide military support to regional partners in their battle to defeat ISIL.” A White House-drafted bill has gone largely untouched in Congress since February. That bill blocks permanent deployment of ground troops in Iraq until 2018. In the meantime, it would justify the ongoing airstrikes and advisory forces participating in the limited fight against ISIS. President Barack Obama’s administration justifies ongoing American efforts against the Islamic State with a law, called an Authorizations for Use of Military Force (AUMF), that allows for military actions against those who perpetrated the 9/11 … [Read more...] about Congress Reconsiders Untouchable Iraq War Bill

The U.S. is planning to open a new military base and increase the amount of advisers in Iraq’s Anbar province, seeking to oust the Islamic State after jihadis captured provincial capital city Ramadi last month. Officials say military strategy will focus on Anbar and delay operations to retake Iraq’s second-largest city of Mosul, reports The New York Times . The plan has not been formally announced by the White House. In an email to The Daily Caller News Foundation, Pentagon spokeswoman Cmdr. Elissa Smith said: “We are considering a range of options to accelerate the training and equipping of Iraqi security forces in order to support them in taking the fight to ISIL. Those options include sending additional trainers to Iraq.” The U.S. will send about 500 military personnel to the area, intending to nearly double the number of battle-ready Iraqi tribesmen. “To assemble a force to retake Ramadi, the number of Iraqi tribal fighters in Anbar that are trained and equipped is … [Read more...] about US Announces New Military Approach To Beating ISIS

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Following last week’s release of the 2023 American Express Travel trends, we sat down with President Audrey Hendley to discuss her projections. Q: Has the travel industry recovered post-pandemic? A: By the 4 th quarter of 2022, we had already lapped 2019. Today, the markets have all re-opened and our customers are thrilled because they want to travel the world. People have certainly had time to sit at home and think about what’s important to them, why they travel, and dream about their next destinations. Q: So let’s talk about destinations? A: Even though travelers continue to favor what we call the big five, they are seeking smaller, lesser-known destinations and communities. Once there, they want to experience the local merchants, the markets, the smaller restaurants, and they love reporting back that they’ve discovered a new spot. Travelers don’t mind spending more if that money goes to supporting a local … [Read more...] about American Express Travel Announces 2023 Trends

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin It was bound to happen. After appearing to walk on water for months on end after the cataclysmic exit of his predecessor at the Economy Ministry, Sergio Massa has begun to seriously feel the heat of an economy that remains up in flames. When the going gets tough, the tough get going says the phrase, which could be adapted for the current situation to, “when the going gets tough, the tough get pushed to the edge.” The man from Tigre has pulled out an unorthodox and pragmatic playbook aimed at complying with the International Monetary Fund while trying to absorb as many dollars as possible in order to bulk up reserves, yet the Central Bank’s coffers are always running on empty. The size of the fiscal hole coupled with voracious dollar appetite given a flight to quality away from the peso means that it’s never enough. Add exogenous factors like an unforgiving drought and you have an explosive cocktail. His latest move, a compulsory … [Read more...] about Running Out Of Hard Currency As Inflation Tops 100%, Argentina’s Economy Minister Sergio Massa Is Under Pressure

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Eric Waller is the owner of Total Roofing Systems, LLC . Shortly after the pandemic began, I left my role as CEO of an oil company and started the first of several businesses that I currently run: a roofing business that began serving the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, and now also operates in the western slope of Colorado. As the pandemic took hold, it became clear that outdoor businesses were the way to go, so I started my next project, an agri-business—a seasonal pumpkin patch/wedding and event venue/restaurant that is part of the burgeoning ecotourism scene in North Texas. And, at the same time, my wife and I also operate a small ranch together, which is now our primary business. I didn’t set out to run multiple companies. Rather, when I left the oil industry, I was looking to escape corporate bureaucratic culture—I wanted to work in a way that involved fewer boring meetings and more direct ownership over the … [Read more...] about How To Run More Than One Business—Successfully

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin In the wake of the spectacular collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, regulators, investors, and depositors are all seeking answers. How could an institution that had so recently been lauded fail so suddenly? While at SVB there were clearly problems with risk management (the standard practice of calculating and hedging risks at banks and financial institutions) — it even operated for months last year without a chief risk officer — it’s really a symptom of a more serious, underlying issue: The banking system hasn’t learned the hard lessons from the 2008 financial crisis. In 2008, one of the greatest companies in the world, Merrill Lynch (the institution where I got my start in business and worked from 1984 to 2001), blew up because of greed and a lack of accountability. Not one executive had to give back a dime! It shouldn’t have happened then, and it shouldn’t have happened again, but it just did with SVB. We are fortunate that … [Read more...] about SVB’s Collapse Is A Lesson In Personal And Corporate Greed