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Billy McFarland Is Out of Jail and Prepared for His Subsequent Transfer

Billy McFarland Is Out of Jail and Ready for His Next Move

“Is this technically Dumbo?” Billy McFarland asked, walking toward the East River shoreline. “It’s super cool. Are the rents here crazy too?

“I never spent much time in Brooklyn, until the Brooklyn detention center,” he continued. “I was always like, ‘I’m never going to live in Brooklyn.’ Now, I think it’s kind of nice.”

Mr. McFarland, who in 2018 entered guilty pleas for fraud stemming from his role in organizing the Fyre Festival — a Coachella-for-the-Bahamas affair that went spectacularly awry and established him as the Elizabeth Holmes of party promoters— had been a free man for all of 15 minutes. And he didn’t seem inclined to lay low after spending close to four years in prison, plus another six months of additional confinement.

Moments after removing an electronic ankle monitor at the Gold Street halfway house where he had stayed earlier this year, he was posing for a New York Times photographer and talking to a reporter whom he’d approached toward the end of his confinement with the help of a publicist.

“I thought it was going to be a big process, but it turns out they just hand you scissors and you cut it off,” said Mr. McFarland, 30, who is 6-foot-3 and post-prison lean. He was wearing a dark T-shirt and navy pants that he said were from Uniqlo. On his feet were Gianvito Rossi sneakers that looked like Converse All Stars, but retail for around $700.

Mr. McFarland — who has little money in the bank, around $26 million in financial amends to make and no immediate job prospects — said he had purchased the shoes before his legal problems.

“Friends joke that my entire wardrobe is from 2016,” he said.

Back then, Mr. McFarland — who grew up in Short Hills, N.J., and dropped out of Bucknell University after less than a year — was known as the founder of a company called Magnises, whose flagship charge card was pitched as a kind of American Express Black card for millennials.

Mostly, those who joined were given access to an open bar at a Greenwich Village townhouse where he held parties. Another membership perk: Bahamian excursions, including to Norman’s Cay, a small island that once served as a hub for the Medellín Cartel’s cocaine-smuggling operation.

That was the site Mr. McFarland had selected to hold an epic coming-out festival for his next invention, Fyre, an Uber-like app through which people could book their favorite celebrities for special events. He enlisted Ja Rule, Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid and Emily Ratajkowski to help promote the 2017 party, which featured more than 30 musical guests, including Blink-182 and Tyga. Tickets cost up to $12,000.

But the Fyre Festival — which would go on to achieve cultural notoriety, if not for the reasons Mr. McFarland had intended — was poorly planned, and its finances were a mess.

The night before the first attendees arrived on the island, an intense rainstorm hit.

People showed up to find that the “luxury villas” that came with their ticket packages were, in fact, disaster relief tents located on a makeshift camping ground.

And the “uniquely authentic island cuisine” guests were promised in promotional materials turned out to be cheese sandwiches served in plastic foam containers, though Mr. McFarland countered in our interview last week that reports of the meals had been vastly overblown.

“There’s a reason there’s only one photograph of that,” he said, referring to a viral shot of a sad pile of lettuce topped by two tomato slices, above two slices of prepackaged cheese serving as a sort of garnish for two slices of untoasted wheat bread.

Ultimately, the event — which stranded thousands of attendees in the Bahamas and left them scrounging for makeshift shelter on a dark beach — was scrapped without a single performance taking place. Less than two months later, Mr. McFarland was arrested and charged with fraud.

“They took me to the Brooklyn detention center for one night,” he said. “My head was swirling with all these things, and I panicked like, ‘I need to pay everybody back tomorrow or else this is real.’”

Class-action lawsuits followed.

While on probation, Mr. McFarland launched a V.I.P. ticket service that promised users tickets he didn’t have to events including the Broadway musical “Hamilton,” the Victoria’s Secret fashion show and the Met Gala.

There was another round of fraud charges.

“I probably added years on to my sentence by doing that,” he said. “I just was making bad decision after bad decision.”

By the water in Dumbo, Mr. McFarland struck a few plaintive poses. “I can’t wait to go swimming,” he said.

He then took an Uber to his small second-floor apartment in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood.

On the curb outside his new building, he continued to speak of the borough with tourist-like wonder. “Was this street terrible years ago?” he asked. “Because there are all these nice new buildings.” (Before the Fyre Festival, Mr. McFarland had lived in the meatpacking district. “I was 21 when I moved there — cut me some slack,” he said.)

With characteristic vagueness, Mr. McFarland said the rent for his new place was being paid by “family and friends.” He did not say whether that included his parents, Steven and Irene McFarland, who are real estate developers based in New Jersey.

It had taken a lot, Mr. McFarland said, for his parents to understand that “someone they were so close to was capable of lying like I did.” He continued, “I hurt them, and it sucks.”

Had he personally apologized to his victims? “No,” he said, then posed a question of his own:

“What would you say to them if you were me?”

The terms of Mr. McFarland’s six-month house arrest allowed him to go outside only to go to the grocery store or the gym. He chose a membership at Blink Fitness, which he paid for with a debit card. “I don’t think I can get a credit card,” he said.

His new apartment was Airbnb-neutral. The only decorations were a few plants he’d picked up at Trader Joe’s — a bird of paradise, two money trees — along with a white board that was blank as the decor. The bed was perfectly made, the floor immaculate.

The work of a cleaning service? “You’re never going to believe it,” he said. “I learned how to do it!”

As Mr. McFarland recalled it, his housekeeping education began at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where he was first held, then continued at the Otisville Correctional Facility in upstate New York, where he was transferred in early 2019. “It was like Danbury,” he said, referring to the less hard-line cushy-by-prison standards facility where Martha Stewart did her time. “But I messed it up.”

Guards confiscated the drive and Mr. McFarland spent three months in solitary confinement, where he said he fell asleep to the sounds of a screaming gang member known as the White Tiger, so named because of tattoos of the animal that covered his face and other areas of his body.

After that, he was resettled at FCI Elkton, a low-security federal correctional institution located in Ohio.

Then, in 2020, the coronavirus pandemic hit. Mr. McFarland appealed for compassionate release, claiming that allergies and asthma placed him in a high risk category for health complications. His efforts were unsuccessful. “Hope clouds your judgment,” he said. “There was no way I was going to get out.”

Ultimately, prison records show, Mr. McFarland spent six months there, though the records do not specify why. His lawyer, Jason Russo, said in a phone interview that he had written letters to prison officials attempting to get Mr. McFarland out of solitary confinement, only to be stonewalled at every turn. Mr. Russo said he could not even get a specific answer as to why Mr. McFarland was there for such an extended period of time. Emails and phone calls to the prison by the New York Times were not returned.

Mr. McFarland read a lot during those months. “There was nothing else to do,” he said.

One of the books he finished was Simon Sinek’s “Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action.” Another was Gregory David Roberts’s novel “Shantarum.”

“It’s about an Australian who breaks out of jail and joins the Indian mafia,” said Mr. McFarland. “Really cool.”

In Mr. McFarland’s Bedford-Stuyvesant living room, on a small shelf by the gray couch from Wayfair — “A friend bought it for me,” he said, “I couldn’t afford it” — were copies of Don Winslow’s “City on Fire” and Sebastian Mallaby’s “The Power Law: Venture Capital and the Making of the Future.”

But Mr. McFarland said hadn’t been doing as much reading since he began home confinement and acquired a Mac desktop computer with a Westinghouse screen. “I just missed the computer so much,” said Mr. McFarland. “I missed that more than anything.”

As part of his plea, Mr. McFarland is barred for life from serving as a director of a public company. His earnings will be garnished until he pays back the full amount he owes his victims, more than $25 million.

“Obviously, he’s got a lot of work ahead of him,” Mr. Russo said.

At least for now, Mr. McFarland has abandoned the idea of writing his memoir.

“The book’s not going to pay the restitution, let me put it that way,” he said.

So what will?

“I’d like to do something tech-based,” he said a few minutes later, walking to BKLYN Blend, where he ordered an egg sandwich and a coffee. “The good thing with tech is that people are so forward-thinking, and they’re more apt at taking risk.

“If I worked in finance, I think it would be harder to get back,” he continued. “Tech is more open. And the way I failed is totally wrong, but in a certain sense, failure is OK in entrepreneurship.”

Seated at a quiet table in the corner — no one at the coffee shop appeared to recognize him — Mr. McFarland mulled whether he’d prefer to work for himself or someone else. “At the end of the day, I think I could probably create the most value by building some sort of tech product,” he said. “Whether that’s within a company or by starting my own company, I’m open to both. I’ll probably decide in the next couple of weeks which path to go do.”

He said he was “not particularly interested in crypto,” though he would make an exception for the latest frontier in blockchain technology, decentralized autonomous organizations, which he said were “allowing people to come together online to effect real world change in a way they previously couldn’t, taking people to places they couldn’t get to — and, once they’re there, enabling them to effect real-world change.”

In April 2020, while in prison, Mr. McFarland made his first foray into philanthropy. He led a drive called Project 315, which raised money to cover the costs of calls between underprivileged inmates and their families. Four days after the project’s Instagram launch, fees were waived nationwide. “We did it,” the Instagram account associated with Mr. McFarland’s “non profit organization” said, claiming credit. (In fact, the suspension of fees came after campaigning by Senator Amy Klobuchar and a group of other Democratic senators that had begun well before Mr. McFarland got the idea.)

But it whetted his appetite for good works, he said. Now, Mr. McFarland is talking about forming a charity that would pay travel costs for the families of prisoners.

“I met some really amazing people in prison,” he said. “Half the people are just naturally bad and the other half are great.” (Mr. McFarland hedged, when asked which group he belonged to. “But I think I’m a better person than I was four years ago,” he said.)

Mr. McFarland said he wanted people to know that he was sorry for what went wrong with the festival and for his actions. “I deserved my sentence,” he said. “I let a lot of people down.”

He attributed his choices in part to “immaturity” and hubris.

“I didn’t know what I didn’t know,” he said.

Partly, he blamed the tech world — the very same world he was musing about re-entering — which he said sometimes operates by an “ends justify the means” ethos.

Still, he took some issue with news articles that compared him to Bernie Madoff; he wasn’t running a decades-long scheme to defraud people of their life savings, after all. Plus, he said, he hadn’t planned for things to end up the way they did.

Much was made in both the Hulu and Netflix documentaries about the local workers in the Bahamas who were stiffed when the festival was canceled and debts piled up.

Mr. McFarland argued that this characterization was somewhat misleading because, he said, most of them were working on a day-to-day or week-to-week basis, and therefore suffered limited losses. (One restaurant owner said in the Netflix documentary that she spent $50,000 of her savings preparing for the festival and received no compensation from organizers. In May 2017, she told The New York Times that she was owed $134,000.)

Two of his former Bahamian employees traveled to New York for a post-house-arrest party Mr. McFarland hosted on the evening of his release at Marylou, a French bistro in the East Village.

Ozzy Rolle, Mr. McFarland’s principle consigliere in the Exumas, an island district in the Bahamas, said the following afternoon that he’d been paid almost everything he was owed for the festival, before it imploded. “I was treated good. Probably a week I wasn’t paid for.” He even went as far as to say the Fyre Festival had been good for tourism in the Bahamas. “So many people came after reading about what happened,” he said.

But Scooter Rolle, his cousin and travel companion, said he had yet to get a dime of what he was owed for his work, in the days before Fyre. “I came to clarify things,” he said.

That didn’t exactly happen, but Mr. McFarland did buy him a post-party lobster roll at Sarabeth’s Kitchen. “Billy tried his best,” he said.

Back at the Bed-Stuy cafe, Mr. McFarland said the biggest sin he had committed was digging himself in deeper with dishonesty.

“I lied,” he said. “I think I was scared. And the fear was letting down people who believed in me — showing them they weren’t right.”

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Politics

Key Republicans Say They’re Able to Take Up an Infrastructure Deal

Key Republicans Say They're Ready to Take Up an Infrastructure Deal

The new agreement would save $50 billion by delaying a Medicare rebate rule passed under President Donald J. Trump and raise nearly $30 billion by applying tax information reporting requirements to cryptocurrency. It also proposes to recoup $50 billion in fraudulently paid unemployment benefits during the pandemic.

Republicans blocked the Senate from moving ahead with the plan last week, saying that too many issues remained unresolved. Mr. Portman’s comments and those of other Republicans in the group, who spoke after meeting with Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the minority leader, suggested that they would now allow it to move forward.

It remained unclear whether enough Republicans would join the five core negotiators in advancing the measure, although a handful of G.O.P. senators outside the group signaled that they would be open to doing so.

“It’s not perfect but it’s, I think, in a good place,” said Senator Thom Tillis, Republican of North Carolina, who said he would vote in favor of taking it up.

Some Senate Democrats, including at least one key committee chairman, said they were still reviewing the plan before deciding whether to support it.

But Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York, said he believed “we have the votes.”

If they do, Democrats would still have to maneuver the bill through the evenly divided Senate over a Republican filibuster, which will require the support of all 50 Democrats and independents and at least 10 Republicans. That could take at least a week, particularly if Republicans opposed to it opt to slow the process. Should the measure clear the Senate, it will also have to pass the House, where some liberal Democrats have balked at the emerging details.

The five Republicans who have spearheaded the deal with Democrats — Mr. Portman and Senators Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Mitt Romney of Utah — urged their colleagues to support a measure they said would provide badly needed funding for infrastructure projects across the country.

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Business

When Covid Hit, China Was Able to Inform Its Model of the Story

When Covid Hit, China Was Ready to Tell Its Version of the Story

But Mr Rigoni, whose company is owned by former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, said he didn’t think China’s mix of media and state power was unique. “It is not the only country where major television and radio programs are controlled by the government or parliament,” he said.

And the Secretary General of the International Federation of Journalists, Anthony Bellanger, said in an email that his view on the report is: “While China is a growing force in information warfare, it is also important to respond to US pressure resist Russia and other governments around the world. “

However, there is no question which government is currently more involved in this campaign. A report by Sarah Cook last year for Freedom House, an American nonprofit advocating political freedom, found that Beijing “spends hundreds of millions of dollars a year getting its message across to audiences around the world.” .

The United States may have pioneered covert and overt influence during the Cold War, but the official channels of government have withered. The boastful CIA influence operations of the early Cold War, in which the agency secretly funded influential magazines like Encounter, gave way to American branches like Voice of America and Radio Liberty, which sought to expand American influence by broadcasting uncensored local news to authoritarian countries. After the Cold War, these became softer tools of American power.

More recently, President Donald J. Trump tried to turn these outlets into blunt propaganda tools and Democrats and their own journalists resisted. The lack of American consensus domestically about using its own media has resulted in the American government being unable to project much of anything. Instead, the cultural power of companies like Netflix and Disney – far more powerful and better funded than any government effort – has done the job.

And journalists around the world have voiced skepticism about the effectiveness of the propaganda from the often ham-handed Chinese government, a skepticism I no doubt shared when last week I recycled unread issues of China Daily that were sent to my home last week . The kind of propaganda that can work in China without a real journalistic response can barely compete in the intense open market for people’s attention.

“China is trying to get its content out in the Kenyan media, but it’s not that influential yet,” said Eric Oduor, secretary general of the Kenya Union of Journalists.

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Health

EU prepared to speak wave of IP rights after US backs transfer

EU ready to talk wave of IP rights after US backs move

Ursula von der Leyen, European Commission president.

Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

LONDON – The European Union has said it is ready to discuss surrendering intellectual property rights for Covid-19 vaccines after the US announced it would support the initiative.

The proposed patent waiver, which aims to boost global production of Covid-19 vaccines, has proven controversial for European lawmakers, with some supporting the move while others strongly oppose it. Proponents of the idea say it is crucial to increase vaccination rates in low-income countries. So far, the European Commission, the EU executive, has expressed doubts about the renunciation of intellectual property rights.

On Thursday, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said her team was open to “discuss any proposals that would address the crisis in an effective and pragmatic way”.

“Therefore, we are ready to discuss how the US proposal to remove intellectual property protection for Covid-19 vaccines could help achieve this goal,” she said during a speech.

It comes after the White House announced on Wednesday that it was in favor of the abolition of intellectual property rights, citing the “exceptional circumstances of the Covid-19 pandemic”.

The move caused stocks of large pharmaceutical companies that developed Covid-19 shots to decline.

However, the announcement received praise from the World Health Organization. WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the US decision was a “monumental moment in the fight against Covid-19”.

The GAVI Vaccine Alliance also welcomed President Joe Biden’s stance, recognizing “the importance of the government’s commitment to increasing raw material production.”

Milestone proposal

The landmark proposal to renounce intellectual property rights was jointly presented to the World Trade Organization by India and South Africa in October. However, a handful of countries have blocked the proposal. This includes the UK, Switzerland, Japan, Norway, Canada, Australia, Brazil, the EU and – so far – the US.

“In the short term, however, we are calling on all vaccine-producing countries to allow exports and to avoid measures that disrupt the supply chain,” said von der Leyen on Thursday.

The EU has hailed itself as a top exporter of Covid-19 vaccines and has criticized countries like the UK for failing to take similar measures.

A medical worker prepares a syringe of AstraZeneca vaccine in a local sports hall that has been converted into a vaccination center in Ventspils, Latvia.

GINTS IVUSKANS | AFP | Getty Images

“While others keep their vaccine production to themselves, Europe is the world’s largest exporter of vaccines. To date, more than 200 million vaccine doses made in Europe have been shipped to the rest of the world,” said von der Leyen.

The EU, a group of 27 nations, got off to a slow start with vaccine adoption. Vaccinations have steadily increased, however, and the block expects 70% of adults to be vaccinated by July.

“The US has a similar goal. This shows how well our vaccination campaigns have aligned,” added von der Leyen.

The latest data shows Israel, the UK, the US and Chile lead the way in the number of Covid-19 shots given to date. However, the figures also show that vaccination rates in the EU are well above the world average, which was not the case a few weeks ago.

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Business

Retirees able to hit the street ought to test their Medicare protection

Retirees ready to hit the road should check their Medicare coverage

aldomurillo | E + | Getty Images

Retired, Vaccinated, and Ready to Hit the Street? Don’t forget to check if your Medicare plan will travel with you.

While coverage when away from home will depend in part on where you are going, it will also depend on the specifics of your coverage. Whether the care you receive is routine or emergency can also play a role.

Around 70% of people 65 and over have now received their first Covid shot, and 43% are fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As more people get vaccinated against the virus, the people who huddled together over the past year are thinking about travel again.

Here’s what you should know about the differences in Medicare coverage outside of your home.

The essentials

Basic or original Medicare consists of Part A (health insurance) and Part B (outpatient care). Individuals who choose to keep this coverage rather than opting for a benefit plan usually combine it with a standalone prescription drug plan (Part D).

If this is your situation, coverage when traveling in the US and its territories is pretty straightforward: you can go to any doctor or hospital that accepts Medicare (most do), whether for routine care or an emergency. When you venture beyond US borders, it gets tougher.

“When you travel outside of the United States, Medicare only covers you in very limited or infrequent circumstances,” said Danielle Roberts, co-founder of insurance company Boomer Benefits.

More from the new path to retirement:
Required minimum distributions are back – and different
How marginal and effective tax rates differ
How social security services have changed during the pandemic

These exceptions include when you are on a ship in the territorial waters bordering the country – within six hours of a U.S. port – or traveling from state to state, but the nearest hospital for treatment is in a foreign country (i.e., a foreign country) H. You are in Canada while traveling to Alaska from the 48 contiguous states.

Note that in light of the ongoing pandemic, the State Department has plenty of advice to travel abroad. In addition, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention require that all passengers – including citizens – flying to (or returning) to the United States have evidence of a negative Covid test or evidence of a recent recovery from the virus provide.

However, if you are considering another country for a vacation, you can get some overseas coverage by combining basic Medicare with supplemental insurance – also known as Medigap.

If you are traveling outside of the United States, Medicare will only cover you in very limited or infrequent cases.

Danielle Roberts

Co-founder of Boomer Benefits

These policies, which are generally standardized across states but differ in cost, provide some coverage for the cost sharing associated with basic Medicare such as medical insurance. B. Copays and Co-Insurances. Some of them also have limited overseas travel coverage, said Elizabeth Gavino, founder of Lewin & Gavino and independent broker and general agent for Medicare plans.

“A member pays a deductible of $ 250 and 20% of the cost of medical treatment received, up to a lifetime maximum of $ 50,000,” said Gavino.

Note that this coverage is for emergency medical care and there may be other restrictions according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

Benefit plans

For beneficiaries who receive their Medicare benefits – Parts A, B, and usually D – through a benefit plan, it is worth checking to see if you can get emergency cover abroad. And even if you didn’t leave U.S. soil, see what your plan would cover.

While benefit plans are required to cover your emergency care anywhere in the United States, you may be hooked for routine out-of-service care.

“With a traditional HMO plan, you only have emergency coverage when you travel outside of the network,” said Roberts. “With a PPO, you have both emergency coverage and off-network coverage for non-emergencies [but] will pay more for these out network services. “

There are also hybrid plans that could allow limited off-network treatment in certain circumstances, Roberts said.

It is possible for your benefit plan to deregister you if you are outside of the service area for a period of time – usually six months. In this situation, you would switch to Medicare.

Some beneficiaries, regardless of their specific coverage, take out travel health insurance for trips overseas, Gavino said.

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Politics

Curiosity teams prepare for battle

Interest groups get ready for battle

President Joe Biden joins Air Force One as he leaves Wilmington to return to Washington on March 17, 2021 at New Castle Airport in New Castle, Delaware, United States.

Kevin Lemarque | Reuters

Stakeholders from across the political spectrum are preparing for an all-out war over President Joe Biden’s upcoming tax reform proposal, which is expected to include tax increases for wealthier families and businesses as part of his massive infrastructure plan.

It will become the “Super Bowl of Tax Reform,” according to one person planning to join the fight. This person, who refused to be called to speak freely, is in for a “protracted battle”.

These are some of the groups that, according to interviews with their leaders and representatives, will be involved in the struggle:

  • Americans for Prosperity, which is part of the Koch network
  • Americans for Tax Reform, a conservative group
  • Our Revolution, a progressive group that emerged from Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2016 campaign
  • Americans for tax justice
  • Progressive Change Campaign Committee
  • Patriotic Millionaires, a liberal group that aims to raise taxes for the rich

Biden has said since his campaign that he wants to increase taxes for those who earn more than $ 400,000 a year and that he wants to increase the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%. The president also wants to tax long-term capital gains at the same tax rate as wages for households making more than $ 1 million a year.

Several reports indicate that Biden is considering using these tax increases to at least partially pay for the infrastructure package, which is expected to cost over $ 2 trillion.

Conservative and libertarian groups made the adoption of former President Donald Trump’s tax plan a top priority at the start of this administration. With the exception of then-Sen, all Senate Republican lawmakers voted yes to the 2017 bill. John McCain, R-Ariz., Who was absent from his battle with cancer.

Now such groups, including those backed by billionaire Charles Koch, are preparing to crack down on Biden’s tax reform proposal.

The plan on the right

The Koch network, through its political advocacy group “Americans for Prosperity”, has made maintaining Trump’s tax cuts part of its agenda under the new administration and the new Congress. Democrats also control the House and Senate, albeit with a narrow margin.

The group warns that a tax hike will weigh on a recovering economy that has taken a heavy blow from the coronavirus pandemic.

“The Tax Cut and Jobs Bill has been a tremendous asset to the American people and has helped them keep more of what it deserves for their families, businesses and communities,” AFP President Tim Phillips told CNBC. “Reclaiming those cuts or adding new taxes would worsen our already shattered economy, affect workers’ wages, smash small businesses, and ultimately go nowhere near the partisan wish list proposed by President Biden and the leaders of Congress.”

Trump’s tax cuts lowered the company’s rate from 35% to 21%.

A person familiar with the matter said AFP had already taken tax and other economic policies with the offices of lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. This person would not specify which offices.

In one of the group’s digital advertisements, only “no tax increase” is requested.

Americans for Tax Reform, founded by anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist, has for years pushed back all attempts to raise taxes. The group was a strong advocate of Trump’s tax cuts and is already promoting some ways to attack Biden’s plan on its website.

Norquist, the group’s president, told CNBC that Americans for Tax Reform plans to use national and regional options to convince voters that the Biden tax plan will affect their 401 (k) s, utility bills and other personal Data would have article.

He hopes that such an approach will put pressure on moderate Democrats to oppose or water down the tax proposals. Democrats have a slim majority in the Senate due to Vice President Kamala Harris being tied.

“Our plans are full court press to make it the most expensive vote,” said Norquist. “They want to make it so politically expensive that people reduce the size and scope of the legislation.”

The campaign, he added, will “move forward in the hope that you will make it so successful that they say we will not do it until next year, not this year”.

Norquist suggested that Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., And Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., Who are up for re-election in 2022, might feel pressure from his group’s efforts. Cortez Masto and Kelly representatives have not returned requests for comment.

Senator Joe Manchin, DW.Va., who is not standing for re-election next year, said he supported a large-scale infrastructure move that he believes should include increasing the corporate tax rate to around 25%.

How the left will play it

Across the aisle, progressive organizations see an opportunity to meet one of their top priorities: raising taxes for the rich. The struggles of working and middle-class families during the pandemic show that the time has come to pass comprehensive tax reform targeting the rich, they argue.

Democratic lawmakers and liberal organizations pushing for higher taxes on the corporate and wealthy often cite opinion polls that have many voters in favor.

A 2020 Reuters / Ipsos poll found that 64% strongly or reasonably believed that “the very rich should contribute an additional percentage of their total wealth to support public programs each year”.

Our Revolution, a progressive organization led by Sanders, is planning a full grassroots effort to convince lawmakers of both parties to support the tax hike for the rich. Sanders, who describes himself as a democratic socialist, has urged the rich to pay more taxes for years. The Vermont Senator, along with Democrats including Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, recently proposed a 3% total annual tax on assets over $ 1 billion.

Paco Fabian, campaign leader at Our Revolution, said the teams will be doing phone banking as part of this effort.

“Businesses and the rich have to pay their fair share. We made an incredible amount of pandemic profit while people lost their jobs and health care,” said Fabian, describing the message the group will convey to lawmakers during public relations.

The Progressive Change Campaigns Committee, coordinated with Warren, said it would be active behind the scenes on the issue.

“For the ‘Better Back Down’ debate, we’ll be doing things like polls, communicating behind the scenes with Democratic lawmakers, and making sure our national membership and the general public are fully buoyed,” said Adam Green, co-founder of the group on the name gave Biden his infrastructure plan.

He said the organization plans to liaise with the White House and members of the House and Senate.

Green said his group wanted the White House to focus on raising taxes for the richest Americans – but avoiding a gas tax.

“The best way for the White House to be brave and keep the peace in the country on the tax front is to focus on progressive taxes, namely the rich and corporations, rather than regressive measures like a gas tax,” he said.

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Business

People able to restock wardrobe, however delivery snafus might plague retailers

Americans ready to restock wardrobe, but shipping snafus may plague retailers

An Anthropologie on Fashion Island employee greets customers at the store in Newport Beach, CA on Tuesday, May 26, 2020.

Paul Bersebach | MediaNews Group | Orange County Register via Getty Images

Some of us say “so long” about sweatpants.

In the last week of February, seven of the top ten best-selling items on the anthropology website were dresses, the company, a unit of Urban Outfitters, said during a conference call this week. Up until that point, it was lucky to have only included one or two dresses in the top 10 list.

Richard Hayne, CEO of Urban Outfitters, described the change as striking and very positive.

“Until recently, fashion was mostly … casual and homely,” said Hayne. “We’re starting to see what I call ‘go-out fashion’ is starting to catch on. The clothing business is going to change in terms of the categories we sell.”

Apparel sales fell 19% last year as Americans stayed at home and focused their spending on groceries and other household items, according to market researcher The NPD Group.

When shoppers were shopping for clothing, convenience was the issue: sweatpants sales rose 17% year over year and nightwear sales rose 6%, according to NPD. For fashion shoes, which fell 27% over the year, slipper sales rose 21% as consumers mixed From cooking in the kitchen to holding video conference calls from the bedroom to streaming the latest series from the living room sofa.

Retailers like Urban, Gap, Abercrombie & Fitch, Macy’s and Nordstrom had to swiftly swivel their wares when lifestyle changed abruptly last spring. They pulled blazers, skirts, and slim-fitting pants from mannequins to replace them with stretchy joggers and roomy pajamas.

However, the adoption of Covid vaccines has increased rapidly in recent weeks. In the United States, an average of 2 million vaccine doses are currently administered each day. At the same time, the number of reported cases is falling. Encouraged by the positive trends, a wave of states has eased restrictions on Covid – opening up the possibility for people to venture into restaurants or spend a night at the movies. That means many Americans will be looking for something new in their closets.

It’s time for retailers to turn again. It won’t be easy, however. Businesses continue to face congested US ports and shortages of containers, leading to a backlog of goods, which makes warehouse shelves with fresh outfits all the more complicated. According to management teams, the shipping delays are between three and four weeks and are associated with higher transport costs.

“Historical volumes, social distancing measures for workers and the lack of drivers to unload goods lead to congestion and significant delays in processing times,” said Ike Boruchow, an analyst at Wells Fargo.

“Sick of equality”

Macy’s department store chain has announced it has a fast work and evening restocking plan as its customers resume more normal activities. Many analysts are counting on a rapid trend reversal in purchasing behavior.

“People have money in their pockets, they are tired of equality and there is going to be an explosion of feel-good shopping,” said Stacey Widlitz, president of SW Retail Advisors. “The weather is turning and people feel positive when they go out again – or even sit in the park in a dress.”

“The nature of people is that they want to feel good,” she added. “You want to feel fresh – especially for the younger generations. It’s your entrance fee to make new contacts.”

Retailers are already taking advantage of this news. Kohl’s website proclaims “The Great Refresh” while Banana Republic advertises “Spring Awakening”. Men’s suit maker Suit Supply’s new ad campaign, alluding to a “new normal”, went viral on social media this week.

However, others are still hedging their bets, Some consumers will likely want to stick to a more casual wardrobe that they have become accustomed to over the past 12 months. Corporations, in turn, might choose to relax the dress code in the office when their workforce returns.

Nordstrom continues to market “Work-from-Anywhere Style” on the home page of its website. Rent the Runway includes part of its mobile app for outfits for Entertaining at Home.

Tween and teen clothing retailer American Eagle announced earlier this week that its current quarter sales will be its strongest in three years. This depends on the growth of its Aerie brand, which sells work-from-home options like yoga pants and sports bras, pajamas, and lingerie.

Scott Baxter, CEO of Kontoor Brands, told CNBC that jeans are making a comeback as Americans look for a way to dress up, only slightly more than at home. Kontoor’s brands include denim labels Wrangler and Lee.

“Denim is casual, it’s just … you can wear it, you can wear it,” Baxter said in an interview earlier this week. “When people go back to the office, people think about how they’re going to dress and denim seems like the choice.”

Logistical headaches persist

Retailers don’t just have to worry about measuring demand for resuscitated garments, however. They had logistical headaches for much of the pandemic. And those don’t seem to be letting up, which makes planning for the spring, summer, and back-to-school seasons even more difficult.

Nordstrom found that shipping delays caused some of its vacation merchandise not to hit shelves and warehouses on time, which hurt fourth quarter results. Work is still in progress to sell this inventory, the company told analysts earlier this week and hopes to get back to normal inventory levels by the second quarter.

Gap noted on Thursday that ports congestion is expected to continue into the first half of the year, as mixed results were reported for the fourth quarter. This will lead to increased inventory levels in the second quarter, the company said.

For Urban, the bigger problem today is getting access to containers for shipping goods, said Frank Conforti, chief operating officer, earlier this week.

“While the ports, especially on the west coast, are absolutely overloaded … and we are seeing two to seven days delay in the ports, the bigger challenge is actually with the arriving ships that have enough containers over in Asia to import products “said Conforti.

The limited availability of truck drivers to move goods from retailers across borders remains another problem, said Dana Telsey, CEO and chief research officer of the Telsey Advisory Group, in an interview with CNBC’s Sara Eisen on Thursday.

Companies are unlikely to sort their inventory until just before school starts to meet buyer demand, she said. But like Widlitz, Telsey doesn’t think this will stop shoppers from hitting the stores again for a new look anytime soon.

“We haven’t had any apparel spending in over a year,” Telsey said. “I think [people] want to freshen up their wardrobes. “

Categories
Politics

New York AG able to oversee Cuomo sexual harassment probe

New York AG ready to oversee Cuomo sexual harassment probe

New York Attorney General Letitia James

Lucas Jackson | Reuters

New York attorney general Letitia James said Sunday she was ready to oversee an investigation into the sexual harassment allegations against New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, but needed an official referral from the governor’s office, which includes a subpoena.

“I am ready to oversee this investigation and make any necessary appointments,” James said in a statement. “Given state law, this can only be achieved through an official referral from the governor’s office based on state law (§ 63-8) and must include subpoena authority. I request the governor to make this referral immediately.”

Cuomo’s office on Sunday withdrew a plan to appoint a former federal judge who is in close contact with one of the governor’s top advisors to oversee an investigation into sexual harassment allegations against him.

The Cuomo administration said it would ask James and Janet DiFiore, the chief justice of the state’s highest court, to decide who will oversee an independent investigation. The decision would help “avoid even perceiving a lack of independence or inferring politics,” Cuomo’s special adviser Beth Garvey said in a statement.

“We will leave all decisions regarding the investigation at the discretion of the independent attorney chosen by the Attorney General and the Chief Justice,” Garvey said.

The governor’s reversal came after a number of Democrats criticized the governor’s initial decision to conduct a review and called for an independent investigation into the allegations after a second aide came forward to allege sexual harassment against Cuomo. Some Democratic lawmakers also joined some Republicans in urging Cuomo to resign immediately.

Cuomo’s office initially said it would select former federal judge Barbara Jones to lead the review. Jones had worked with Cuomo’s top advisor, Steven Cohen.

The calls for an independent investigation follow a New York Times report released Saturday night describing the allegations made by Charlotte Bennett, a 25-year-old former aide to the governor, who said Cuomo asked her about her sex life and whether she did it was monogamous in relationships and had ever “been with an older man”.

It was the second allegation against the governor in a week. Former adjutant Lindsey Boylan, a former state economic development officer, released detailed information about sexual harassment against Cuomo last week, including a kiss without her consent in his Manhattan office. Cuomo has denied Boylan’s allegations.

Cuomo responded to Bennett’s allegations in a statement on Saturday, saying he intended to act as a mentor and “never make any progress on Ms. Bennett, nor did I ever intend to act in an inappropriate manner”.

Pressure from democrats

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Cuomo should undergo an independent review of both allegations in an interview on CNN on Sunday. President Joe Biden supports this and “we believe we should move forward as soon as possible”.

A spokesman for Senator Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., said the Senator believes the allegations “should be investigated thoroughly and independently.” Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, DN.Y., also called for an “independent, transparent and prompt investigation into these grave and deeply worrying allegations.”

MP Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, DN.Y., along with other Democrats, called for an independent investigation into the governor, led not by someone chosen by Cuomo, but by the Attorney General.

“Lindsey Boylan and Charlotte Bennett’s detailed reports of sexual harassment by Governor Cuomo are extremely serious and painful to read,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote in a tweet on Sunday morning. “There needs to be an independent investigation – not one led by someone chosen by the governor, but by the attorney general.”

The new allegations also come after a January report that the Cuomo government failed to report thousands of Covid-19 deaths in state nursing homes.

New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio, a Democrat, said Sunday that Cuomos state lawmakers must immediately revoke emergency powers overriding local scrutiny and called for two separate independent investigations into the sexual misconduct allegations and the undercounting Deaths in nursing homes.

“New Yorkers have seen detailed, documented reports of sexual harassment, multiple cases of intimidation and admitted withholding of information about the deaths of over 15,000 people,” De Blasio said in a statement. “Questions of this magnitude cannot hang over their heads as New Yorkers fight a pandemic and economic crisis.”

New York State Senator Alessandra Biaggi praised the two women for their allegations and called on the governor to step down in a statement posted on Twitter Saturday night.

“The harassment of these former employees is part of a clear pattern of abuse and manipulation by the governor, and that pattern makes him unworthy of the highest office in New York,” wrote Biaggi.

Republicans again urged Cuomo to resign after the second allegation, including MP Elise Stefanik, RN.Y., who described the governor as a “criminal sexual predator” in a statement on Saturday and said he should resign immediately.

Categories
World News

Shares prepared to shut out highly effective 2020 as dangers loom in January

Dow rebounds, rising more than 100 points as new stimulus proposal unveiled

Traders work on the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

NYSE

At the end of trading next Thursday, the bull market will be ready to run through 2021, but likely at a slower pace.

January is the month Wall Street tradition says sets the tone for the year – “this is January, this is the year,” as the saying goes. This January could be challenging as the spreading pandemic slows the economy and the all-important Georgia Senate runoff takes place on January 5th.

Joseph Biden is sworn in as president on January 20th.

“It’s a year-end autopilot market,” said Sam Stovall, CFRA chief investment strategist. Three out of four years there will be a year-end Santa rally in the market, but Stovall is also waiting to start trading in the first five days of January for signs of how the market might trade in 2021.

If the market is higher in the first five days, history shows the S&P 500 is up 82% for the full year, with an average gain of 12.5%.

“There are things that we might be worried about in January. If it were real worries, the market would already react or already step on water,” said Stovall. “What scares me is that the market is building itself. It’s a correction in the search for a catalyst and we don’t yet know what the catalyst is.”

Some strategists expect a pullback earlier in the year, but the consensus is that the market will end higher in 2021. The average expectation for the S&P 500 by the end of 2021 is 4,056, according to a CNBC poll of strategists.

Stovall said the market has gotten expensive and there are signs of foam. The 12 month value for money for S&P 500 companies is 41% premium versus the average multiple of 16.7 dating back to 2000.

“I don’t really believe that the first few days of January should set the direction for the market for the year’s balance sheet,” said Michael Arone, chief investment strategist, State Street Global Advisors. “If indeed [stocks] Doing a rally is more of a sign of strength. But if they hiccup I wouldn’t throw in the towel. “

The outcome of the Georgia races is a wild card for stocks and regardless of the outcome, it could trigger a market reaction. Should there be a surprise and the Democrats win both seats, the Senate would be split evenly between Republicans and Democrats. This would mean the elected Vice President Kamala Harris cast the votes.

Some strategists say the market could sell out if the Democrats win, as investors fear the party would have the votes to pass the Biden-favored tax hikes. On the flip side, a GOP win could spark a relief rally.

But Stovall said the market could rebound towards a Democratic victory if investors considered the prospect of a bigger infrastructure and stimulus package, favored by the Democrats.

Arone said uncertainty over the current $ 900 billion stimulus package approved by Congress last week could be cause for concern if President Donald Trump decides to veto or not sign the bill.

The president criticized the package, saying individuals should be given more than the $ 600 that would go to many adults and children as part of the relief.

The law extends unemployment benefits to millions of Americans, and those benefits will expire on December 31st unless signed up.

“We face deadlines rather than just being a political matter,” said Peter Boockvar, chief investment officer at Bleakley Advisory Group. “There are actual deadlines for services that expire. Because of the deadlines, the market assumes that they will be exceeded.”

But the concern will hang over the market until it is resolved.

Quiet trading is expected in the coming four-day holiday week. There are few economic reports; Jobless claims on Thursday are being closely monitored. The following week, the December jobs report is expected to show a weaker labor market, with some estimates suggesting only about 100,000 jobs or fewer added.

9 month old bull

The S&P 500 starts the final week of the year up around 15% for 2020, but from the March low, the index has risen around 65%. The bull market turned nine months old this past week.

According to CFRA’s Stovall, that nine-month gain is more than double the average nine-month gain of 32.2% for all bull markets since WWII. Over the remainder of the bull markets, their average growth was only 20.3%, showing a slowdown in the profit rate.

“After those typical jackrabbit starts, the bull market advance rates typically slowed and saw lower average annual rates for the remaining bull market runs,” noted Stovall. Based on previous bull markets, he said returns could slow to around half of their current profit for the remainder of the bull run.

Calendar for the week ahead

Tuesday

9:00 am S&P / Case-Shiller real estate prices

Wednesday

8:30 a.m. Advanced Leading Indicators

9:45 am Chicago PMI

10:00 a.m. Pending home sales

Thursday

8:30 a.m. unemployment claims

Friday

New Year

Markets closed

Categories
Business

‘The world is prepared and open’ for extra range on Wall St, exec says

'The world is ready and open' for more diversity on Wall St, exec says

Tiffany McGhee, founder of Pivotal Advisors, told CNBC on Tuesday that the increasing opportunities for various companies are starting to recognize historical barriers that have been present in the financial services industry in particular.

“If you’re interested in working with a company that is variously owned, the traditional metrics may not work. We may not have a 50-year track record,” McGhee said in an interview. But she emphasized, “that doesn’t mean we don’t know what we’re doing.”

McGhee officially founded New York-based Pivotal Advisors this week after nearly a decade at Momentum Advisors where she was CEO and Co-CIO of institutional investment practice. Pivotal, which is outsourcing the duties of chief investment officer, specializes in working with institutional clients such as pensions and foundations, McGhee said.

According to a press release, Pivotal is the first in its class to be run by an African American and an Afro-Latina woman. McGhee, whose career began on Wall Street 16 years ago, believes the 2020 calculation of racial justice helped create an opportunity for Pivotal to be formed.

“I think there has never been a better time to start a company for someone like me because it seems the world is ready and open,” said McGhee, who is also a CNBC employee. She pointed to the protests against Black Lives Matter that swept the nation that summer, and subsequent commitments companies made to increase board diversity, for example.

Businesses can do more to address economic inequalities in the US, such as hiring differently owned companies for professional service contracts, she said. “If you want to move the needle, that’s how you do it.”

John W. Rogers Jr., Co-CEO and Chief Investment Officer of Ariel Investments, offered a similar roadmap to help drive the success of companies of diverse ownership. In an interview Tuesday on CNBC’s “Mid-Term Report,” Rogers said that established organizations have a role to play across the US economy.

“If you really want to build a big business, you need access to both customers and capital. And many of us in the financial services industry who started our own businesses fondly remember those early customers,” said Rogers.

For Ariel, which Rogers founded in 1983, those early customers were the city of Chicago and Howard University, a historically black college in Washington, DC, he said.

“They gave us the opportunity and once we had those early customers it gave us the confidence to get more customers and it attracted more customers, so customer access is vital,” said Rogers, whose Ariel’s first run by African Americans was firm to have a family of mutual funds.

McGhee agreed with Rogers, especially for various financial firms. “Nobody in the investment industry likes to be your first. And I think when you’re a fund, people get the idea that you’re starting from scratch,” she said. “If you’re an investment advisor, that first client is difficult to find because the first thing they’ll ask you is, ‘How much money are you managing?'”

Typically, Rogers said companies have focused their efforts on creating opportunities for minority-owned companies through supplier contracts. In today’s knowledge economy, however, Rogers cautioned decision makers to take a broader perspective.

“That’s why we want anchor institutions in our country – whether it’s a university, a museum, a hospital, or a large corporation – to ensure that they really do business with minority companies in everything we do.”