August 23 2024

1 ESG Out: Stakeholder Capitalism Faces Backlash
2 Midwest Sees Surge in Gen Z Homeowners
3 U.S. Military Presence Grows in the Middle East Amid Tensions with Iran
4 Election Roundup: Kamala at DNC, RFK exit, Trump v intel community
5 Friday Ukraine Update
8/23/2000 First “Survivor” finale airs

Podcast to resume Monday

1 ESG Out: Stakeholder Capitalism Faces Backlash

What are companies for? Five years ago the Business Roundtable, a club of American chief executives, overturned orthodoxy on this question. For decades company bosses had generally agreed that their mission was to make their shareholders richer. Doing good meant doing well. More precisely, it meant raising their firm’s share price. Such a narrow measure of success, it was argued, would keep managers focused and honest. The Business Roundtable’s memo of August 2019, by contrast, insisted that companies should act in the interests of all their “stakeholders”—not just shareholders but customers, employees and society as a whole. The timing was no coincidence. According to Gallup, a polling firm, the share of Americans who had very little or no confidence in big business had rocketed from a quarter in 2000 to almost two-fifths in the aftermath of the global financial crisis (see chart on next page). Corporate America needed a rebrand. The divisive presidency of Donald Trump provided the perfect opportunity, as America’s elites increasingly looked to companies to take action on problems ranging from climate change to racial inequality. Environmental, social and governance issues—together esg, a discordant triptych used by investors to quantify corporate goodness—soon reached the top of boardroom agendas. That project is beginning to crumble. Chatter about climate change on the earnings calls of companies in the s&p 500 index was nearly a third lower last year compared with its peak in 2021. “The esg pendulum has swung back,” said the boss of Glencore, a Swiss mining giant, earlier this month after scrapping a plan to shed its coal business

Article Source: Economist

2 Midwest Sees Surge in Gen Z Homeowners

Gen Z is crashing the housing market party, buying homes faster than their elders — especially in the Midwest. A recent SmartAsset analysis reveals that cities like Indianapolis, St. Louis and Cincinnati are seeing a surge in Gen Z homeowners, while California and the Northeast lag behind. In 2023, nearly 28% of 24-year-olds owned homes, outpacing millennials and Gen X at that age, according to a January Redfin report. A whopping quarter of Gen Z, aged 19 to 26, jumped into homeownership last year.

Article Source: NY Post

3 U.S. Military Presence Grows in the Middle East Amid Tensions with Iran

4 Election Roundup: Kamala at DNC, RFK exit, Trump v intel community

Vice President Kamala Harris used her acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention on Thursday to present herself as a pragmatic leader who could unite all Americans behind a “new way forward,” painting her opponent, former President Donald J. Trump, as a dangerous and “unserious man” whose election would alter the foundation of American democracy. 

NYT   

The independent US presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr has filed paperwork to withdraw from presidential ballots in the state of Arizona, the Arizona secretary of state, Adrian Fontes, said. The withdrawal came as Kennedy was set to address the nation on Friday in Arizona.  A Super Pac supporting Kennedy told Reuters on Wednesday that Kennedy wanted a deal with Donald Trump in which he endorsed his Republican rival in exchange for a job in a potential Trump administration.

Guardian

Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s anticipated exit from the presidential race could benefit Donald Trump, giving the Republican a small but potentially significant boost in the tight election fight with resurgent Democrats led by newly minted nominee Kamala Harris.  

WSJ 

Donald Trump said Wednesday he would not be getting intelligence briefings as the Republican nominee for president for fear of being accused of leaking classified information. U.S. spy agencies offer briefings to presidential candidates once they have secured their party's nomination to prepare them for life as commander in chief. n an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com, the former president said he could now get the briefings if he wanted them but sensed a trap. 'I don't want them, because, number one, I know what's happening. It's very easy to see what's happening,’…'So the best way to handle that situation is, I don't need that briefing. They come in, they give you a briefing, and then two days later, they leak it, and then they say You leaked it.  'So the only way to solve that problem is not to take it I don't want it understood. I'll have plenty of them when I get in.' 

Daily Mail

Article Source: NYT, WSJ, Guardian, Daily Mail

5 Friday Ukraine Update

A year and a half ago, Ms. Yatsina, 21, was working as a nanny. Then friends told her that a mine in the eastern town of Pavlohrad was hiring women to replace men drafted into the military. The pay was good and the pension generous. It wasn’t long before Ms. Yatsina was walking through the mine’s maze of tunnels, a headlamp strapped to her red helmet…Ms. Yatsina is one of 130 women who have started working underground at the mine since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022. They now operate conveyors that carry coal to the surface, work as safety inspectors or drive the trains that connect the different parts of the mine…They are part of a wider trend in Ukraine, where women are increasingly stepping into jobs long dominated by men as the widespread mobilization of soldiers depletes the male-dominated work force. They have become truck or bus drivers, welders in steel factories and warehouse workers. Thousands have also voluntarily joined the army. 

NYT   

The successes Kyiv has announced in its two-week-old incursion into Russia have not stopped the steady drive of Moscow’s forces into the eastern part of Ukraine, threatening a key logistical hub.  Officials in the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk say they are evacuating the population in case it falls to the Russian advance, which is now less than six miles from the city limits. If the city falls, it will be largest population center taken by the Russians since Bakhmut in May 2023. 

WaPo

Russian gdp will rise by over 3% in real terms this year, continuing its fastest growth spurt since the early 2010s. In May and June economic activity “significantly increased”, according to the central bank. Other “real time” measures of activity, including one published by Goldman Sachs, a bank, suggest the economy is accelerating. Unemployment is close to an all-time low. Inflation is too high—in July prices rose by 9.1% year on year, above the central bank’s target of 4%—but with cash incomes growing by 14% year on year, the purchasing power of Russians is rising fast. In contrast with people in almost every other country, Russians are feeling good about the economy. 

Economist

Article Source: NYT, WaPo, Economist

8/23/2000 First “Survivor” finale airs

Sources

1. https://www.economist.com/business/2024/08/12/patriotism-is-replacing-purpose-in-american-business

2. https://nypost.com/2024/08/07/real-estate/gen-z-leads-in-homeownership-especially-in-the-midwest/

4. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/22/us/politics/kamala-harris-dnc-speech.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb; https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/aug/23/robert-f-kennedy-jr-withdraws-presidential-bid-in-arizona; https://www.wsj.com/politics/elections/rfk-jr-drop-out-helps-trump-2024-election-abb377d5?st=z1m6lff6k7b40jm&reflink=article_copyURL_share; https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13766739/donald-trump-interview-intelligence-briefings.html

5. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/20/world/europe/ukraine-women-workforce-war.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSourc; https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/08/19/ukraine-pokrovsk-russia-evacuation/; https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2024/08/11/vladimir-putin-spends-big-and-sends-russias-economy-soaring