Cambodian Prime Minister has COVID: https://www.wsj.com/articles/cambodian-prime-minister-tests-positive-for-covid-19-after-meeting-world-leaders-11668484599 . The diagnosis was made after Han Sen met with world leaders in Asia, including President Biden.
Whoopi Goldberg has COVID: https://ew.com/tv/whoopi-goldberg-absent-from-the-view-covid-diagnosis/ .
Referees sue NBA over vaccine mandate: https://www.usnews.com/news/top-news/articles/2022-11-14/nba-is-sued-by-fired-referees-who-refused-covid-vaccines . Why? They endangered the players. If their firing was reasonable at the time, why would there be a duty to reinstate?
White House to seek $10 billion of COVID public health funding: https://money.usnews.com/investing/news/articles/2022-11-14/white-house-to-ask-for-10-billion-in-public-health-funds-by-year-end-report .
China promotes Zero COVID adherence: https://apnews.com/article/health-china-beijing-covid-f90dc253b3aa12341e66e719950430b1 . So stupid …
Cancer cells silence X chromosome: https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-discover-x-chromosomes-being-silenced-in-male-cancer-cells .
WSJ: Roche Alzheimer’s drug fails: https://www.wsj.com/articles/alzheimers-drug-from-roche-fails-in-late-stage-trials-11668425663 .
Global population to reach 8 billion Tuesday: https://www.un.org/en/dayof8billion . Well, give or take 10 million.
Fed governor says market has overreacted to most recent inflation data: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/fed-s-waller-says-market-has-overreacted-to-consumer-inflation-data-we-ve-got-a-long-long-way-to-go/ar-AA144xKu?cvid=25ad908fe3d040daba4d1461e448c6e3 . I agree. WSJ: Still, the Fed may back off to a 50 basis point increase in December: https://www.wsj.com/articles/feds-brainard-says-rate-rise-pace-can-slow-soon-11668445354 . I continue to view this as data-driven based on the December data.
Senate to vote this week to protect gay marriage: https://www.wsj.com/articles/senate-moves-ahead-with-vote-on-gay-marriage-bill-11668466403 . This has taken on significant urgency after screwball comments from Justice Thomas.
Amazon to lay off 10,000 workers soon: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/amazon-lay-off-10-000-161301623.html . Note that the layoffs relate to devices and human resources, not Amazon’s central business. At the start of this year, Amazon has over 1.6 million employees (!). These layoffs do suggest that overall corporate hiring will slow because of the HR layoffs.
Bezos commits to giving the majority of his fortune to charity: https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/14/business/jeff-bezos-charity . This interview fills in some blanks about the award to Dolly Parton. On the one hand, Bezos decided to make a significant gift to someone already heavily involved in charity work, believing Dolly could make a difference with that money now. There is the indirect suggestion that his ex-wife has given the money away too quickly. Bezos believes careful planning is necessary to leverage the effect of the gifts. In my view, ideally you want to see the effects of your charity in your lifetime. So what will he do next, and when? WSJ: More: https://www.wsj.com/articles/amazon-founder-jeff-bezos-to-give-most-of-his-money-to-charity-11668437278 .
Zelensky calls Kherson recapture “beginning of the end” of the war: https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-zelenskyy-europe-business-war-crimes-037bd016533420a707250d15e8075536 . WSJ: More: https://www.wsj.com/articles/ukraines-zelensky-visits-newly-recaptured-kherson-11668428367 . Meanwhile, the Russians look to advance in Donbas: https://www.wsj.com/articles/russia-eyes-gains-in-ukraines-east-after-kherson-withdrawal-11668421801 . Unless Russia re-equips these troops (how), this will be another meat-grinder.
WSJ: China to support property market: https://www.wsj.com/articles/investors-cheer-beijings-plan-to-support-chinas-housing-market-but-challenges-remain-11668423791 . More: https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-throws-developers-a-lifeline-but-buyers-might-stay-cautious-11668430831 .
Democrat Katie Hobbs elected Arizona governor: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2022-election/democrat-katie-hobbs-defeats-maga-favorite-kari-lake-high-stakes-race-rcna55172 . Voters have (narrowly) turned away MAGA firebrand and election denier Kari Lake. Will she concede? WSJ: More: https://www.wsj.com/articles/democrat-katie-hobbs-defeats-kari-lake-in-high-profile-arizona-governor-race-11668479658 .
Has democratic order returned?: https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2022-11-14/across-the-us-a-return-to-democratic-order-will-it-last . Bernie Sanders has it right: continued election denial is bad politics. Orange Julius’ expected announcement tomorrow of a 2024 presidential bid is a mistake. It may doom Herschel Walker in Georgia (good), and OJ will be blamed for it. It will not deflect OJ’s multiple legal problems. And it demonstrates in strongest terms that OJ worries about himself and absolutely nothing else.
However, the GOP fruitcakes in the House remain in full force: https://www.aol.com/news/rep-raskin-said-gop-majority-033843103.html . This won’t happen, because it’s truly nuts. But McCarthy will have major difficulties as Speaker, as we discussed yesterday.
The election denial problem remains, at least for the sore losers: https://www.aol.com/news/trump-backed-mastriano-concedes-pennsylvania-171510632.html .
Meanwhile, Marjorie Taylor Greene calls for GOP “civil war”: https://news.yahoo.com/marjorie-taylor-greene-calls-gop-203754851.html . She also suggests “the Democrats” will try to install Liz Cheney as Speaker. Greene should be very careful, as “the other side” controls the secret Jewish space lasers.
Orange Julius document fight resumes: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/justice-department-and-trump-lawyers-clash-over-status-of-seized-documents/ar-AA146h9e?cvid=35d71b234a094036b0be5f3c65bf18ed . Cutting to the case, the DOJ brief lays bare the absurd arguments advanced by OJ’s lawyers. I would expect Judge Dearie to reject essentially all of them. Judge Cannon would be well-advised to do the same, and quickly. More, from the Washington Post: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/investigators-see-ego-not-money-as-trump-s-motive-on-classified-papers/ar-AA146LqQ?cvid=216a83e18a33456e81f1fa89b51e6e6d . The short answer is, OJ is unwilling to be told no or respect legal norms. Even the president’s power is limited in that respect. A former president has essentially no power in that regard. WSJ: More or less: https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-lays-out-executive-privilege-claims-on-mar-a-lago-documents-11668449766 . Decide for yourself. Smells like a pile of manure to me.
TO CLARIFY: Orange Julius thinks of no one but himself: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-hoarded-94-million-2022-elections-republican-candidates_n_6372c91ce4b0d82d23aa8fe3 . And this is still going on: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2022-election/walker-calls-gop-deceptive-fundraising-georgia-race-rcna57136 . You might want to make your GOP friends aware of this. It’s stealing. This separate stunt may fit the same category: https://www.aol.com/news/watchdog-asks-u-election-regulator-184606106.html .
John Oliver explains the British monarchy: https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-recaps/john-oliver-last-week-tonight-british-royal-family-1234630288/ . And here’s the actual show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWterDbJKjY . Um, ouch! If you saw Dave Chappelle on Saturday Night Live, you saw a host monologue that was reminiscent of Mort Saul or Lenny Bruce. For your consideration – after the relief of no Red Wave, are we ready to re-examine all the absurd crap around us, Orange Julius being Exhibit No. 1?
Yet another reason not to own Tesla stock: https://apnews.com/article/elon-musk-technology-business-lawsuits-delaware-0e34385b554305c66c7956e204447ac4 . Stock compensation is a key component of most executive pay structures. So Musk has built a huge company in Tesla, where many auto start-ups have failed. However, a $55 billion potential reward is essentially unheard of. This one would require either substantial, expensive stock buybacks, or stock issuance which would dilute the investors’ interests. The key allegation is that the proxy statement was incomplete and misleading. Here is some staggering additional information (downshift to the “2nd Gear” portion of the article): https://jalopnik.com/ev-makers-losing-hundreds-of-thousands-of-dollars-on-ev-1849779098 . WSJ: More: https://www.wsj.com/articles/elon-musks-tesla-compensation-trial-in-delaware-court-set-to-kick-off-11668385268 .
An article in one of my feeds this morning indicated that Musk’s overall plan for Twitter was beginning to emerge (the young author of this newsletter also enthusiastically spent the weekend playing a newly released video game). No. Business management requires keeping a lot of balls in the air at all once. Musk has dropped a big one: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/a-fake-tweet-sparked-panic-at-eli-lilly-and-may-have-cost-twitter-millions/ar-AA145rR8?cvid=ab9463e71daa4f10801cac4bccd1b679 . The article is talking about the loss of advertising. But failure to rapidly correct fake news can be fatal for a social platform in many ways.
Firing people by tweet is not a great management practice: https://knowyourmeme.com/news/twitter-engineer-eric-frohnhoefer-publicly-calls-out-elon-musk-gets-fired-via-tweet-immediately-after .
Crypto dominoes continue to fall: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/crypto-lender-blockfi-says-it-has-significant-exposure-to-ftx/ar-AA146n6r?cvid=d089b81201f043c3b3e922db72fa7be5 . The outlook for FTX customers is not good: https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/14/business/ftx-customer-money-bankruptcy . Unsurprisingly, the Feds are investigating FTX: https://abcnews.go.com/Business/crypto-trading-site-ftx-federal-investigation-amid-bankruptcy/story?id=93288119 . More: A major player is actually able to retrieve missent funds: https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/14/cryptodotcom_gateio_400m/ . Still more: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/sam-bankman-fried-cryptic-twitter-195953113.html . I’m thrilled to not have any assets involved with S-B-F. WSJ: More: https://www.wsj.com/articles/ftxs-digital-coin-was-at-heart-of-crypto-exchanges-fall-11668416718 . Still more: https://www.wsj.com/articles/ftx-crypto-sam-bankman-fried-11668446621 . And: https://www.wsj.com/articles/ftx-sam-bankman-fried-sit-in-the-crosshairs-of-u-s-prosecutors-11668398012 .
The spillover has also hit a hedge fund: https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/11/14/ikigai-asset-management-had-large-majority-of-assets-on-ftx/ .
Meanwhile, this article suggests staggering stupidity is SBF’s best defense: https://futurism.com/the-byte/sbf-ftx-legal-defense-ignorance . Maybe this author was also playing a new video game this weekend. The allegation is that SBF used customer assets to cover risky bets at an allied company. None of the customers signed up for that. But I suppose this could be seen as the best defense where there really is no defense.
WSJ: Roberta Flack hospitalized with ALS: https://www.wsj.com/articles/singer-roberta-flack-has-als-finds-it-impossible-to-sing-11668459579 .
The man who inspired the movie “The Terminal” dies – at the terminal: https://apnews.com/article/mehran-karimi-nasseri-the-terminal-dies-in-paris-airport-d13124fc1f2f1c3d3c3609904373573b .