Tag: Big

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World News

Asia markets combined following massive miss in U.S. jobs knowledge

Asia markets mixed following big miss in U.S. jobs data

CNBC Pro’s Stock Picks and Investment Trends:

US employment data released on Friday fell far short of expectations as the economy added just 235,000 jobs in August. Economists polled by Dow Jones had sought 720,000 new hires.

Meanwhile, in line with estimates, the unemployment rate fell from 5.4% to 5.2%.

“In our view, the setback in the labor market recovery and the rise in serious Covid infections will cause the FOMC to wait before announcing it will reduce its monthly security purchases. We now expect the FOMC to reduce its monthly security purchases by 10 billion at its November 3rd meeting, “Commonwealth Bank of Australia analysts wrote in a Monday note.

US markets are closed on Monday for the Labor Day holiday.

Currencies and oil

The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback versus a basket of its competitors, hit 92.164 after falling over 92.4 recently.

The Japanese yen was trading at 109.81 per dollar, stronger than the 110.1 levels seen against the greenback last week. The Australian dollar changed hands at $ 0.7433 after falling below $ 0.732 last week.

Oil prices were lower on the morning of Asian trading hours, with international benchmark Brent crude oil futures falling 0.91% to $ 71.95 a barrel. The US crude oil futures fell 0.88% to $ 68.68 a barrel.

Categories
Entertainment

How ‘Candyman’ Star Yahya Abdul-Mateen II Turned the Subsequent Huge Identify

How ‘Candyman’ Star Yahya Abdul-Mateen II Became the Next Big Name

“One of the first things that I did when I went to Chicago was to go to Cabrini-Green and put on that community planner hat,” he said. “And for a place that has a history of being as Black as that neighborhood was, that was not what I found. One has to wonder what happened to all of those families, all of those spirits? For every household, there’s a story, but when there’s no one there anymore to tell those stories, then that’s a tragedy.”

With the clout he’s beginning to accrue, Abdul-Mateen wants to make sure those stories are told right. He also knows that if he can bring even more of himself to bear on these movies, he can start steering the wave instead of surfing it.

Maybe it will help, too, once he feels he has a world to return to. Abdul-Mateen has spent the last few hectic years without a home of his own; even when he secured the keys to a New York apartment in January, he left the next day to film a new movie in Los Angeles. “This has been a very isolating experience,” he said. “I don’t want to do that anymore. I don’t have to do that anymore.”

In the future, he plans to take more cues from his “Aquaman” co-star Jason Momoa, who keeps his family and close friends around him on set: “It helps him to stay true to who he is, because he’s not always the one having to speak up and support his own values all the time.” Abdul-Mateen hopes that will help the movies he makes feel more like himself, more like the homes he grew up in, more like the community that raised him in New Orleans.

In the meantime, he’ll bring that feeling with him. When I asked Abdul-Mateen if he could name the most New Orleans thing about him, he grinned and spread his legs wide.

“The way I take up space,” he said. “Somebody from New Orleans, they sit with their legs from east to west, they’re going to gesture big.” He waved his hands, then looked into the camera and fixed me with those high beams. “I don’t necessarily do that in my everyday life. But when I decide to take up space, nobody can take it from me.”

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Politics

Senate Democrats Start $3.5 Trillion Push for ‘Large, Daring’ Social Change

Senate Democrats Begin $3.5 Trillion Push for ‘Big, Bold’ Social Change

In a memo, senior lawmakers also indicated that they plan to adjust the cap on how much taxpayers can deduct in state and local taxes, a provision that Mr. Biden did not originally include in his proposals, but one that remains a key priority for a number of lawmakers in high-tax states, particularly New York, New Jersey and California. (It will likely be a partial repeal, according to an aide familiar with the ongoing discussions.)

With an ongoing effort to get countries, including the United States, to adopt a global minimum tax of at least 15 percent, Democrats also hope to make significant changes to the international tax system to reduce incentives for companies to move their profits and operations abroad to tax havens. Lawmakers and aides have been discussing doubling the U.S. tax on foreign income to 21 percent.

After Republicans rejected beefing up the I.R.S.’s tax enforcement abilities as part of the bipartisan infrastructure package, Democrats are also likely to substantially bolster the tax collection agency’s staff and enforcement resources to help narrow the gap between what the federal government is owed in taxes and what it actually collects, which has reached an estimated $1 trillion per year.

Notably, Democrats declined to address the approaching statutory limit on the federal government’s ability to finance the country’s debt in the budget blueprint. It is a risky decision, given that Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, has said Republicans will not vote to raise the borrowing limit. A failure to raise the limit could prompt a default on the nation’s debt and a global economic crisis.

Democrats would like to use separate, bipartisan legislation to raise or suspend the debt limit, a strategic decision made in part because of the budget rules. Janet L. Yellen, the Treasury secretary, endorsed that approach in a statement on Monday, after employing “extraordinary measures” earlier this month to delay the official deadline to extend the Treasury’s borrowing authority.

But Republicans have warned that on the brink of being cut out of both the $1.9 trillion pandemic bill and the $3.5 trillion package, they have little will to address the debt ceiling, which allows the government to pay debts already incurred. Their debt ceiling threat is potent in a chamber that normally requires at least 10 votes from their side to advance legislation.

“Democrats want Republicans to help them raise the debt limit so they can keep spending historic sums of money with zero Republican input and zero Republican votes,” Mr. McConnell said. He added, “If they want 50 lock-step Democratic votes to spend trillions and trillions more, they can find 50 Democratic votes to finance it.”

Categories
World News

Inventory futures maintain regular forward of an enormous week of Large Tech earnings

Stock futures hold steady ahead of a huge week of Big Tech earnings

Traders working on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) today, Wednesday, April 21, 2021.

Source: NYSE

Stock futures opened little changed after major averages closed the previous session with record closing highs and a busy week ago with earnings reports from the tech’s biggest hits.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 5 points, or 0.01%. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures were down 0.03% and 0.01%, respectively.

In the previous session, the Dow rose 238.20 points, or 0.68%, to 35,061.55. The S&P 500 gained 1.01% to 4,411.79 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 1.04% to 14,836.99.

All three major averages closed at record highs last week after markets slumped earlier in the week on concerns about the spread of the Delta variant of Covid and the potential hindrance to economic recovery. Uncertainty caused bond yields to decline briefly and investors moved into tech stocks. Both bonds and stocks rallied quickly by the end of the week.

Tech stocks rose last week on better-than-expected earnings reports for the second quarter as well as the continued proliferation of the Delta variant. Twitter and Snap both rose Thursday after better-than-expected earnings reports for the second quarter. Twitter finished 3% higher on Friday while Snap shot up 24%.

One of the busiest weeks with results reports is on deck next week, and Tesla is kicking off after the closing bell. Last week, CEO Elon Musk said the automaker would likely accept bitcoin for vehicle purchases again.

Big tech giants Apple, Alphabet and Microsoft will be reporting on Tuesday, and Google, Facebook and Amazon will be reporting later in the week as well.

Investors will follow the Fed’s two-day monetary policy meeting starting Tuesday. The Federal Reserve Open Market Committee and Board of Governors are expected to issue a policy statement on Wednesday. On Thursday the Ministry of Commerce will publish the GDP data for the second quarter.

On Monday morning, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development will release new data on home sales and the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas will release its monthly business activity index for Texas manufacturing.

Categories
Politics

Biden’s Antitrust Group Indicators a Massive Swing at Company Titans

Biden’s Antitrust Team Signals a Big Swing at Corporate Titans

WASHINGTON – President Biden has assembled the most aggressive cartel team in decades, equipping his administration with three legal crusaders preparing to take on corporate consolidation and market power with efforts that could include blocking mergers and liquidating large corporations.

Mr Biden’s decision last week to appoint Jonathan Kanter to head the Justice Department’s antitrust division is the latest sign of his willingness to join forces with American businesses to foster more competition in the tech industry and across the economy. Mr. Kanter has spent years as a lawyer fighting giants like Facebook and Google on behalf of rival companies.

If the Senate confirms this, he will join Lina Khan, who reorganized the academic debate on antitrust law and now heads the Federal Trade Commission, and Tim Wu, a longtime advocate of the breakup of Facebook and other big companies, who is now the Special assistant from. is the President for Technology and Competition Policy.

The appointments show both renewed antitrust activism by the Democratic Party and the Biden government’s growing concern that the concentration of power in technology, as well as other industries such as pharmaceuticals, agriculture, healthcare, and finance, has harmed consumers and workers and slowed economic growth.

They also underscore that Mr Biden is ready to use the power of his office and not wait for tougher action from Congress, an approach that is both quicker and potentially riskier. That month it issued an order of 72 initiatives designed to increase competition in a variety of industries, strengthen control over mergers, and curb the widespread practice of forcing workers to sign non-compete agreements.

External groups and government ideological allies warn that if Mr Biden really hopes to follow in the footsteps of his antitrust idols, Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt, he must push for sweeping laws to give federal regulators new powers grant, especially in the technology area. The core federal antitrust laws, written more than a century ago, did not provide for the kind of trade that exists today, where large corporations may offer their customers low prices, but at the expense of competition.

The government has tacitly backed the legislation working its way through the House of Representatives, but it has not yet attempted an antitrust push by Congress in the way that Mr Biden did on infrastructure, childcare and other components of his $ 4 trillion economic agenda to advance.

This could prove problematic if judges continue to oppose action by the Department of Justice, the FTC, or other agencies.

Last month, a federal judge threw an FTC lawsuit against Facebook saying the agency had failed to make a convincing argument that the company was a monopoly and instructed it to better justify its claims. Ms. Khan faces her first major review when she re-files that lawsuit, and on Friday the agency asked the court for more time.

Mr Biden’s antitrust experts argue that Facebook, Google, and Amazon have monopoly power and have used their dominant positions in social media, search, and online retail to crush competitors, leaving consumers with fewer options, even if they haven’t leads to higher costs.

Businesses and some economists disagree. Facebook cites TikTok, Snap, and Twitter as examples of competitors, and Amazon argues that it makes only 5 percent of all retail sales in the United States, despite an eMarketer study showing 40 percent of all online retail sales are made on its platform.

The President and his staff have seen his adoption of a “trustbuster” mentality as a critical step in realigning the economy to not only lower prices, but also to encourage more competition and create high-paying jobs.

“I always thought the free market system wasn’t just competition between companies, but guess what: companies should have to compete for workers,” Biden told a CNN audience in Ohio on Wednesday, promoting his executive order. “Guess what – maybe they’ll pay more money.”

White House officials argue that putting stubborn regulators in positions of power can enable them to thrive in antitrust efforts in a way that President Donald J. Trump did, who also made an executive order on competition and talked about technology – and not to dissolve hospital mergers.

“We’re confident,” said Diana Moss, president of the American Antitrust Institute and advocate of stronger competition enforcement. “But when the rubber hits the streets, they have to juggle an aggressive agenda with the reality of the courts, Congress and outside pressure.”

Updated

July 23, 2021 at 5:42 p.m. ET

Some economists are warning that the staff Mr Biden appointed could go beyond efforts to break the focus that is really stifling competition and hurting consumers and getting into industries like restaurants or grocery stores. The entry of national players into local markets has in many cases opened up more opportunities for customers and created more jobs.

“I’m most concerned about rhetoric,” said Chang-Tai Hsieh, an economist at the University of Chicago whose research has shown that some corporate concentration in recent years has led to innovation that drives the economy. “You look at what you see in tech – and tech is different. And they extrapolate from the tech industry to all other industries. “

Corporate America is already fighting Mr. Biden’s efforts. Google, Facebook and Amazon have filled their legal teams with antitrust experts and have hired seasoned government antitrust officials in recent years. Facebook and Amazon have filed for Ms. Khan’s dismissal on antitrust matters related to their businesses. They say Ms. Khan, who worked on a House of Representatives antitrust investigation into digital platforms, comes with prejudice about her companies. Critics of Mr. Kanter, a private antitrust attorney, cite his previous representation for Microsoft and News Corp as a conflict of interest while the Justice Department leads its legal battle against Google.

Mr Biden’s moves reflect the growing influence of a movement to curb corporate power that has spread from progressive scholars and liberal leaders like Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren to some of the most conservative Republicans in Congress.

Thomas Philippon, an economist at New York University, concluded in 2019 that increasing market concentration had damaged the US economy and cost the typical US $ 5,000 a year. Administrative officials repeatedly cite these statistics in support of Mr Biden’s recent order.

Tackling market concentration and promoting competition “can change the lives of millions of people in this country tremendously,” Bharat Ramamurti, associate director of Mr. Biden’s National Economic Council and former employee of Ms. Warren, said in an interview.

Mr. Ramamurti cited potential benefits not only from company dissolution, but also from giving consumers more and cheaper checking account options, selling hearing aids without a prescription, and limiting the company’s restrictions on whether employees can work for a competitor.

The approach is in stark contrast to the views of regulators during the Obama administration when Mr. Biden was vice president.

The number of hospitals that have merged has quadrupled during President Barack Obama’s first term, leaving millions of patients with fewer choices and higher health care prices.

In 2011, regulators cleared Comcast’s merger with NBCUniversal – the merger of a powerful cable and internet company with a media giant – on terms that the company’s own executive vice president, David Cohen, dismissed as not “particularly restrictive.”

Only one in three Democrats at the Federal Communications Commission turned down the deal, and Christine Varney, director of the Justice Department’s antitrust division, said the deal would “bring new and innovative products to market and give consumers more program choice.”

In 2016, Tom Vilsack, Mr Obama’s Secretary of Agriculture who has taken that role back for Mr Biden, downplayed the harms of agricultural mergers.

“I don’t think that just because some of the key players may merge or are considering some other type of arrangement, I don’t think farmers absolutely guarantee that farmers will have less choice in the long run,” Vilsack said in an interview with USA Today.

Mr Biden has directed federal regulators to consider a tougher line against corporate consolidation in hospitals, health insurance, meat processing and technology, which could include reviewing previous mergers that have been approved.

And its antitrust authorities are trying to reverse mergers that were approved during the Obama years. The Federal Trade Commission’s recent lawsuit to liquidate Facebook focuses on the company’s 2012 purchases from Instagram and WhatsApp in 2014. The agency did not block the mergers because it did not see enough evidence of harm to consumers and competition.

These decisions have come back to keep the FTC prosecuted. The federal judge, who dropped his Facebook complaint in June, questioned the U-turn and why the commission had waited so long to try to resolve these deals.

The courts have become more and more conservative in cartel cases and are more firmly convinced that higher prices are the strongest sign of competition violations.

Administration officials acknowledge this challenge and say they are reviewing the antitrust views of potential justice candidates in hopes of moving the courts to a more benevolent view of the government’s efforts to block mergers and dissolve monopolies.

Categories
Politics

Biden to Identify a Critic of Huge Tech because the Prime Antitrust Cop

Biden to Name a Critic of Big Tech as the Top Antitrust Cop

The White House said on Tuesday that it would nominate Jonathan Kanter to be the top antitrust official at the Justice Department, a move that would add another longtime critic of Big Tech and corporate concentration to a powerful regulatory position.

President Biden’s plan to appoint Mr. Kanter, an antitrust lawyer who has made a career out of representing rivals of American tech giants like Google and Facebook, signals how strongly the administration is siding with the growing field of lawmakers, researchers and regulators who say Silicon Valley has obtained outsize power over the way Americans speak with one another, buy products online and consume news.

Mr. Biden has named other critics of Big Tech to prominent roles, such as Lina Khan, a critic of Amazon, to lead the Federal Trade Commission. Tim Wu, another legal scholar who says regulators need to crack down on the tech giants, serves in an economic policy role at the White House. And this month, Mr. Biden signed a sweeping executive order aimed at increasing competition across the economy and limiting corporate dominance.

Mr. Kanter, 47, is the founder of Kanter Law Group, which bills itself online as an “antitrust advocacy boutique.” He previously worked at the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. His services have attracted some of the most prominent critics of Big Tech in corporate America, including Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp and Microsoft as well as upstarts like Spotify and Yelp.

If he is confirmed by the Senate, Mr. Kanter will lead a division of the Justice Department that last year filed a lawsuit arguing Google had illegally protected a monopoly over online search services. The antitrust division of the agency has also been asking questions about Apple’s business practices.

The White House took more than six months from Mr. Biden’s swearing-in to land on Mr. Kanter. The administration has had to juggle progressive and moderate factions within its own party, as well as the likelihood of Republican support in a divided Senate.

The decision won immediate approval from policymakers and advocacy groups helping to lead the charge for more stringent antitrust enforcement.

Senator Amy Klobuchar, the Minnesota Democrat who leads the antitrust subcommittee of the Judiciary Committee, called Mr. Kanter “an excellent choice,” citing his “deep legal experience and history of advocating for aggressive action.”

Sarah Miller, the executive director of the American Economic Liberties Project, a progressive advocacy group, said in a statement that “President Biden has made an excellent choice to lead the D.O.J.’s antitrust division,” noting that Mr. Kanter had “devoted his career to reinvigorating antitrust enforcement.”

Makan Delrahim, a lawyer who led the Justice Department’s antitrust efforts under President Donald J. Trump, said in a text message that Mr. Kanter would be a “great leader” of the division and called him a “serious lawyer” with private sector and government experience.

Daily Business Briefing

Updated 

July 20, 2021, 6:55 p.m. ET

The announcement may be less warmly embraced by deal-makers on Wall Street who have helped drive mergers and acquisitions volumes to record levels, propelled in part by an exuberant stock market.

Scrutiny in Washington on acquisitions has expanded beyond headline-grabbing Big Tech deals to industries like consumer goods, agriculture, insurance and health care.

The Justice Department has sued to block the proposed merger of Aon and Willis Towers Watson, its first major antitrust action since Mr. Biden took office. The F.T.C. announced in March that it was forming a group to “update” its approach to evaluating the impact of pharmaceutical deals, an industry that generally falls under its purview. That followed a report led by Representative Katie Porter, a Democrat from California, scrutinizing deals in the industry.

In recent years, Mr. Kanter built an unusual practice out of criticizing the tech giants from inside Washington’s corporate law firms. The tech giants have become lucrative clients for major law firms, often making it difficult for those firms to work for their opponents.

But last year, he left Paul, Weiss — an elite corporate litigation firm — because his portfolio representing critics of the tech giants conflicted with other work the firm was doing.

“Jonathan made this decision due to a complicated legal conflict that would have required him to discontinue important and longstanding client representations and relationships,” the firm said at the time.

Mr. Kanter’s critics are likely to question whether his previous work is a conflict of interest that should keep him out of investigations into the tech giants. Both Facebook and Amazon have asked that Ms. Khan recuse herself from matters involving the companies at the F.T.C., even though her background is as a legal scholar and not a paid representative for their rivals.

Asked whether Mr. Kanter would recuse himself from cases involving Google and Apple, a White House official simply said the administration was confident that it could move forward with his nomination given his expertise and record.

Even if Mr. Kanter has the votes to be confirmed it is likely to be months before he takes over at the Justice Department. Congress takes a long break during August — which could push his confirmation past Labor Day.

Cecilia Kang contributed reporting.

Categories
Entertainment

N.B.A. Professionals on the Huge Display: Can These Stars Act?

N.B.A. Pros on the Big Screen: Can These Stars Act?

Does every N.B.A. superstar really want to be in movies? You might think so, judging by the long and checkered history of players going Hollywood (not to mention the amount of flopping in today’s game). As the newly released “Space Jam: A New Legacy” takes the booming subgenre of films built on hoops talent into the era of remakes, here’s a guide to the best and worst performances by pro basketball players, starting in the 1970s.

1979

Rent it on most major platforms.

If we are to believe this goofy 1979 movie — and why not? — basketball at the height of disco meant players doing the splits to celebrate buckets, coaching by astrology and Dr. J as the coolest man alive. Much of his mellow performance is shot in slow motion, adding to its swagger. In one scene, he seduces a woman by taking her to a playground and dunking in street clothes by himself in street clothes. In another, he enters a game by hot-air balloon, wearing a glittery silver uniform, backed by funky soul music. If John Travolta had a sports counterpart, this was it.

1979

Rent it on most major platforms.

In this easygoing drama about a coach (played by Gabe Kaplan at the height of his “Welcome Back, Kotter” fame) who builds an underdog college program, the Knick star Bernard King delivers an understated, lived-in performance as a pool hustler with a silky jump shot. He keeps up with an ensemble of actors without outshining them too much on the court. Compared with the hectic video-game aesthetic of “Space Jam,” this character-driven movie feels refreshingly human.

1980

Rent it on most major platforms.

There is no more famous jock cameo than Kareem Abdul-Jabbar playing himself pretending to be an ordinary commercial airplane pilot. The idea that the seven-foot superstar could disguise himself even after being challenged on it by a young fan is one of the countless jokes in this classic comedy. But when his frustration is supposed to turn into anger, Abdul-Jabbar can’t transcend his coolly unflappable stoicism.

In the greatest basketball movie of all time, this five-time all-star makes a brief but electric appearance as a guy enraged after getting hustled out of money, clearing the courts by swinging a knife around in ineffectual rage. It’s so convincing that you would never know he became famous for basketball, not acting.

1994

Stream it on Hulu and Paramount+.

This unsung morality tale about a Bobby Knight-like college coach (Nick Nolte, crusty as ever) tempted into corruption is filled with performances by famous players (Shaquille O’Neal, Larry Bird) and coaches (Rick Pitino, Knight). They all capably play versions on themselves, but the revelation here is the Boston Celtic great Bob Cousy, who transforms into a morally ambivalent athletic director. It’s a startlingly assured performance from a Hall of Famer from the early years of the N.B.A.

Shaq is the most charismatic big man in history, funny in cameos and as a talking head, but as the star of his own movie, his track record is more like his foul shooting. The year before he would make one of the most forgettable DC superhero movies (“Steel”), he delivered this much-mocked performance as a rapping genie in this schmaltzy fantasy. Trying to grant the wishes of a blandly likable white kid with divorced parents, he lumbers through, shouting his lines, mugging and even burping for laughs.

1997

Rent it on most major platforms.

Despite winning three Razzie Awards for this Jean-Claude Van Damme flop, Dennis Rodman is actually a plausible action star. He convincingly kickboxes, looks good in flamboyant get-ups (lots of hair die and leather) and wryly delivers corny lines riffing on his persona. (“You’re crazier than my hairstylist.”) All of this movie’s camp humor comes from the glint in his eye, which he needs when delivering one of many basketball references, despite the fact that he’s not supposed to be a player but rather an extremely tall arms dealer.

Making your major movie debut opposite Denzel Washington must be as daunting as entering the pros and guarding LeBron James in your first game. Exuding innocence and quiet charisma, Ray Allen, in the meaty role of Coney Island basketball prodigy Jesus Shuttlesworth, accounts himself well, even if you never forget he’s moonlighting. He’s persuasive as a diffident, paralyzed high school star with buried anger at his father. It’s a role player of a performance that executes the game plan skillfully, occasionally with panache.

1998

Rent it on most major platforms.

At 7 foot 7 inches, the Romanian center Gheorghe Muresan was the tallest player in the history of the N.B.A. That was enough for a solid pro career, even if his skills, especially early on, were unrefined. But for amateurs, acting can be tougher than sports. In this Billy Crystal buddy movie, he’s stuck in a slump. It can be hard to understand him (English is not his first language), and in his reaction shots, he might hold another record: least expressive star in the history of comedy.

When it comes to movies starring Brooklyn Nets, “Uncle Drew,” featuring Kyrie Irving, is flashier and funnier. But there’s nothing in it as impressive as Kevin Durant pretending to be awful at basketball in this rigorously wholesome “Freaky Friday”-like movie in which he accidentally trades talents with a clumsy high school kid. A common trope for this genre (“Space Jam” also includes a plot point with N.B.A. stars losing their skills), Durant really commits to being bad, adjusting his form in subtle and consistent ways. It’s a cringey delight to watch this perfectionist trip making a crossover, airball a dunk and miss his patented midrange shot, over and over again.

2018

Rent it on most major platforms.

You know that old guy on the playground who everyone underestimates because he looks slow and out of shape, but then dominates the game through wily moves and sneaky change of pace. Kyrie Irving’s performance is an affectionate ode to this figure, right down to the sweatpants. Most current stars moonlighting in movies perform versions of themselves, so it’s a bold move for Irving to try a completely different character, doing a nice job shifting his posture to a hunch and affecting a weary voice. And if he seemed a little stiff, it’s not easy to act underneath such an elaborate makeup job.

2019

Stream it on Netflix.

On-court personality usually doesn’t translate to the screen, but this is a notable exception. Playing an amped-up version of himself, Kevin Garnett was as intense and ferocious getting in Adam Sandler’s face as he was with Patrick Ewing.

1996

Michael Jordan has enough star power to light up a commercial or a “Saturday Night Live” sketch, but his wooden acting needed the animation of Bugs Bunny to make the original Tune Squad a powerhouse.

2021

Stream it on HBO Max.

Who’s better: M.J. or LeBron? This endless sports-talk debate over the greatest ever usually focuses on stats amassed and rings won, but now we have another metric to argue over: Who is the best — or more precisely, least terrible — lead actor? It’s close, but James gets the edge, showing more range playing opposite cartoons, pretending to be the overbearing sports dad along with the goofy big-kid corporate hero, even tapping into sloppy sentiment that Jordan reserves for meme-able Hall of Fame inductions.

Categories
Politics

Biden condemns Trump’s ‘Massive Lie’ in main voting rights speech in Philadelphia

Biden condemns Trump's 'Big Lie' in major voting rights speech in Philadelphia

President Joe Biden on Tuesday delivered a major speech on voting rights in Philadelphia, slamming his predecessor’s “Big Lie” claim that the 2020 election was stolen. 

“It’s clear, for those who challenge the results or question the integrity of the election, no other election has ever been held under such scrutiny or such high standards. The ‘Big Lie’ is just that: a big lie,” Biden said at the National Constitution Center, just steps away from Independence Hall.

The speech comes as his administration faces growing pressure from civil rights activists and other Democrats to do more to combat attacks on voting rights, an issue that Biden called “the most significant test” of American democracy since the Civil War. 

Biden blasted former President Donald Trump’s claims that widespread voter fraud cost him the 2020 election, a claim that has pushed GOP leaders to enact a flurry of new voting laws in key states, including Florida and Georgia. Critics argue the new laws are discriminatory and restrict access to the ballot. 

The president directly denounced these efforts by GOP-controlled legislatures as a “Jim Crow assault” and compared them to behaviors seen in autocracies around the world. 

“To me, this is simple. This is election subversion. It’s the most dangerous threat to voting in the integrity of free and fair elections in our history,” Biden said. “They want the ability to reject the final count and ignore the will of the people if their preferred candidate loses.”

Protecting voting rights

Biden pressed for the passage of federal voting rights legislation during his remarks, saying that the fight to protect voting rights begins with passing the For The People Act.  

“That bill would help end voter suppression in states, get dark money out of politics, give voice to people, create fair district maps and end partisan political gerrymandering,” Biden said. 

He criticized Republicans for opposing the sweeping Democratic voting rights and government ethics bill, which failed to pass in the Senate last month after Republicans deployed the filibuster.

Biden also underscored the importance of passing the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, which would “restore and expand voting protections and prevent voter suppression.” He pressured Republican lawmakers to support such Democratic legislation that would protect voting rights. 

“We’ll ask my Republican friends in Congress and states and cities and counties to stand up, for God’s sake, and help prevent this concerted effort to undermine our election and the sacred right to vote,” Biden said. 

The president criticized the Supreme Court’s “harmful” decisions that weaken the Voting Rights Act of 1965, noting that the court first gutted a key provision of the act in 2013 and on July 1 it upheld two Republican-backed Arizona voting laws that Democrats say violate the act. 

The court has also limited the ability to “prove intentional racial discrimination,” according to a White House memo sent before the speech, making it difficult for advocacy groups and the Department of Justice to combat restrictive voter laws.

Biden called on Congress to repair the “damage done” by passing voting rights legislation.

Preparing for the midterms

Biden warned that the U.S. will “face another test in 2022” during the midterm elections, adding that the nation needs to prepare for voter suppression and election subversion. 

“We have to prepare now. As I said time and again, no matter what, you can never stop the American people from voting. They will decide, and the power must always be with the people. That’s why just like we did in 2020, we have to prepare for 2022,” Biden said. 

As of mid-June, at least 17 states have enacted laws that restrict access to voting, with more being considered, according to a report from the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University’s School of Law. 

Republican Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia signed a restrictive election bill into law in March after it was passed by the state’s Republican-controlled legislature. The law requires voters to provide identification for mail-in ballots and prohibits people from giving food and water to voters waiting in line, punitive steps that critics say could harm turnout in minority communities. 

Biden’s administration has turned to the courts in response. The Department of Justice sued the state of Georgia on June 25, arguing that the election bill infringed on the rights of Black Georgians. 

Passing new legislation in Congress to protect voting rights would likely require a change to filibuster rules, especially as Democrats hold a razor-thin majority in the Senate. But Biden has backed reforming rather than eliminating the filibuster, making the future of new voting laws uncertain. 

Looking beyond Washington

Now, with Democrats’ legislative efforts stalled, the White House is beginning to look outside of Washington for ways to combat the wave of new voting restrictions. 

Biden has had several meetings at the White House with civil rights groups, who pushed the administration to keep fighting for voting rights despite resistance from Republicans. The groups have opposed the Republican-backed voting restrictions, which critics say are aimed at Hispanic, Black and younger voters. 

Vice President Kamala Harris, who has been tasked to lead the administration’s efforts to protect voting rights, also recently announced a new $25 million investment by the Democratic National Committee to expand its program that will help boost voter engagement in the upcoming midterm elections. 

During the first few months of his presidency, Biden also signed an executive order directing agencies to promote voter access. This includes developing better methods of distributing voting information and increasing opportunities to participate in the electoral process, which includes voters with distinct needs, such as service members, people with disabilities and tribal communities, among others.

Categories
Politics

Biden indicators order to crack down on Huge Tech, enhance competitors ‘throughout the board’

Biden signs order to crack down on Big Tech, boost competition 'across the board'

President Joe Biden signed a new executive order on Friday aimed at tackling anti-competitive practices in big tech, labor and numerous other sectors.

“Capitalism without competition is not capitalism. It’s exploitation, “Biden said in a speech ahead of the signing of the directive in the White House.

The comprehensive arrangement, which includes 72 measures and recommendations involving more than a dozen federal agencies, is intended to reshape thinking around corporate consolidation and antitrust laws, according to a White House leaflet.

These broad goals and initiatives include:

  • Call on the Federal Trade Commission to “question previous bad mergers” that previous governments let slip
  • Urging the FTC to ban restrictions on professional admission on the grounds that they “impede economic mobility”
  • Encourage the FTC to prohibit or restrict non-compete agreements
  • Encouraging the Federal Communications Commission to restore “net neutrality” rules that were reversed during the Trump administration
  • Request to the FCC to block exclusive contracts between landlords and broadband providers
  • Lowering prescription drug prices by helping government and indigenous efforts to import cheaper drugs from Canada
  • Allow hearing aids to be sold over-the-counter
  • Establishment of a “White House Competition Council” to guide the federal response to the growing economic power of large corporations

“The impetus for this executive order is really where we can encourage more competition across the board,” said White House chief economic adviser Brian Deese, Ylan Mui of CNBC in an exclusive interview aired early Friday morning.

Through its technology-related measures, the Biden order aims to ensure that the largest companies in the industry wield their power to crowd out smaller competitors and exploit consumers’ personal information.

The regulation calls on regulators to undertake a number of reforms, including increased scrutiny over technology mergers and a greater focus on maneuvers like “killer acquisitions” where companies buy smaller brands to take them off the market.

The tightened grip of the technology giants has led to a decline in innovation, Deese told Mui.

These platforms have “caused significant problems,” Deese said. These include “privacy and security issues for users” and “small business entry issues,” he said.

The executive order “is not just about monopolies,” said Deese, “but about consolidation in general and the lack of competition when you have a limited number of market participants.”

He noted that some research suggests that wages are lower in more concentrated markets dominated by only a handful of companies. A White House factsheet cites a May 2020 Journal of Human Resources paper that based on data from CareerBuilder.com, it found that market consolidation points to a double-digit percentage decline in wages.

The order was announced just weeks after the House Judiciary Committee voted for six antitrust laws to reinvigorate competition in the technology sector.

The draft laws that would make it more difficult for dominant companies to complete mergers and forbid certain common business models for such companies have been significantly pushed back by those concerned that they will not go far enough or have unintended side effects.

In late June, a judge dismissed complaints from the Federal Trade Commission and a group of attorneys-general alleging that Facebook illegally maintained monopoly power.

Biden’s executive order also calls on the FTC to enact new rules for Big Tech’s data collection and user monitoring practices, and calls on the agency to ban certain unfair competition practices in internet marketplaces.

The arrangement could provide some relief to small and medium-sized businesses that have complained about the alleged crippling grip of tech companies like Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google on the digital markets.

Biden’s executive ordinance does not unilaterally impose its will on big tech companies, but instead often calls on independent agencies to take action.

But the new FTC chairman, Lina Khan, a Biden-appointed person who, at 32, was the youngest person to ever hold that role when she was sworn in last month, already has a reputation for being a vocal advocate of reform and empowerment Developed regulations for technology giants.

Amazon is demanding that Khan be excluded from ongoing investigations into his business, arguing that it lacks impartiality and that it has repeatedly said the company is “guilty of antitrust violations and should be liquidated.”

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Categories
World News

S&P 500 rises to new document as Large Tech shares acquire

S&P 500 rises to new record as Big Tech stocks gain

The S&P 500 rose to a fresh record on Wednesday as investors poured back into trusty mega-cap technology stocks.

The S&P 500 advanced 0.35% to a new intraday high after the index ended a seven-day winning streak in the previous session. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose about 70 points. The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 0.1% after hitting a fresh record shortly after the open.

With rates falling and Wall Street fretting about a peak in economic growth, investors have rediscovered their old Big Tech favorites. Apple and Amazon are both up more than 10% over the past month, far outpacing the S&P 500’s 2.8% return.

Defying many predictions, the 10-year Treasury yield fell to 1.306% on Wednesday. Major technology names like Apple and Google-parent Alphabet rose on Wednesday. Shares of Amazon gained 1% even after the e-commerce giant rallied nearly 5% on Tuesday.

“As has been the case for some time, the direction of bond yields and tech stock have been joined at the hip,” Jim Paulsen, chief investment strategist at the Leuthold Group, told CNBC. “Traders will be watching as S&P 500 tech index move closer to its relative price high established last September. A break above that level would certainly reinforce a sustained leadership cycle for tech.”

The Federal Reserve’s minutes from its June 15-16 meeting, during which it held short-term interest rates near zero but also indicated that it might be adjusting policy otherwise in the months ahead, revealed the central bank discussed tapering but was in no rush to start the process.

Energy stocks were in the red as oil prices fell. WTI crude touched a 6-year high briefly on Tuesday before retreating. Crude was down again on Wednesday. Occidental Petroleum, APA Corp. and Pioneer Natural Resources all dipped more than 2%.

Bank shares including Goldman Sachs and Bank of America continued their retreat on Wednesday as long-term bond yields fell further, hurting the industry’s profitability prospects. Yields on the short-end of the so-called Treasury curve, including 1-year bills and 2-year notes, were flat to higher.

During the regular session on Tuesday, the 30-stock Dow fell 208 points. The S&P 500 ended the day down by 0.2%, retreating from a record. The Nasdaq Composite rose nearly 0.2% to a fresh all-time high.

Investors may be worried the economy might be approaching its peak and that a correction could be on the way. In addition to complacency in the market, the combination of profit-margin pressures, inflation fears, Fed tapering and possible higher taxes could contribute to an eventual drawdown, market strategists say.

— CNBC’s Patti Domm contributed reporting.