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John Lothian Newsletter
​ August 04, 2023 ​ "Irreverent, but never irrelevant"
 
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Hits & Takes
John Lothian & JLN Staff

Ukraine has struck back at Russia for its strikes on grain export facilities by attacking Russia's oil export infrastructure, the Financial Times reports. The FT said "Ukraine's security services, in collaboration with the country's navy, carried out Friday's sea drone strikes outside the port, according to two Ukrainian sources with knowledge of the operation." Bloomberg also has a story about the attacks.

The STA announced Bryan Harkins as the 2023 Dictum Meum Pactum (DMP) Award Recipient. The STA said of Bryan, "An example of service to our industry and the greater community, many have seen firsthand the impact of Bryan's tremendous leadership in his support of both affiliate and national STA initiatives."

Congratulations to Bryan. He deserves this honor for all his hard work in philanthropy.

The Digital Dollar project completed a retail CBDC pilot study with Western Union focused on cross-border payments. The pilot study was conducted in collaboration with Western Union, BDO Unibank in the Philippines, and support from Accenture. The white paper from the study can be found HERE.

The world's biggest offshore wind turbine is being built about 15 miles south of Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, with a structure "as tall as the Washington Monument with the Statue of Liberty stacked on top," Bloomberg reports.

Today we published my interview with David Weild of Weild & Co., Inc. about the impact of the JOBS Act and his role in getting it passed. Weild is a former vice chairman of Nasdaq who has a terrific perspective about civic participation and the need to contribute without talking about position. This is a podcast, but I have published a couple of snippets of video on Twitter and LinkedIn from the interview. The videos can be seen HERE and HERE.

Have a great day and weekend and stay safe and treat people the same way you want to be treated: with respect, equality and justice.~JJL

*****

Our most read stories yesterday on JLN Options were:
- Introducing the 'No Downside' Exchange-Traded Fund
- A Sudden Jump in Volatility Spells Trouble for US Stocks
- The Economy's Odometer Is Broken ~JB

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David Weild Speaks to JLN About the JOBS Act and What it Accomplished and the Challenges We Still Face
JohnLothianNews.com

David Weild, chairman of Weild & Co., Inc., played a significant role in helping create the environment for and passing of the JOBS Act, which transformed the way companies can raise money in U.S. markets.

John Lothian News interviewed Weild for a podcast about the impact of the JOBS Act and what it accomplished, what challenges it left unaddressed and what we need to do to meet those challenges.

Listen to the podcast »

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The case for continued American equity exceptionalism; US stocks to benefit from AI boom as a moderating global economy weighs on more cyclical markets
Rebecca Patterson - Financial Times
After outperforming peers for 12 out of the last 13 calendar years, could US equities dominate for another decade? At first glance, another 10 years with the US on top seem unlikely. History shows relative equity performance alternating between US and non-US equities. High valuations, margins and ownership eventually all sow the seeds of a handoff, especially when there is a new growth catalyst. The popping of the US technology bubble in the early 2000s coupled with the growth emerging from China joining the World Trade Organization illustrates the dynamic: after years of US equity leadership in the 1990s, the baton was passed in the 2000s to more China-centric markets.
/jlne.ws/3QoM6rY

***** Even though this is a price story, it is a macro one that I think is important.~JJL

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Midwest Emerges as Return-to-Office Champ, Soundly Beating Northeast; Region's offices were twice as full as the Northeast, according to new research. Shorter commutes likely boosting visits.
Matthew Boyle - Bloomberg
Workers in the US Midwest are coming into offices more often than the rest of the country, new research shows. The region's offices posted a 60% weekly average peak occupancy rate in the first half of the year, the highest in the nation by far, according to data from Basking.io, a workplace-occupancy analytics company.
/jlne.ws/3KsR8zV

***** I have a very short commute to my office, just down my stairs and a right turn to the first door on the right.~JJL

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They're Not Like Regular Dads. They're Climate Dads. Move over, sports dads and car dads. Climate dads are a little bit nerdy, a little bit obsessive and 100% focused on saving the planet.
Olivia Rudgard - Bloomberg
Ben Block's family does all the things a climate-conscious brood can. They try to minimize driving, recently switched to an electric oven, and are constantly gut-checking purchases. When Block's five-year-old son asked for a new toy truck earlier this year, the 37-year-old calibrated his response carefully: Cheap plastic toys are fun, he conceded, but they tend to get thrown out quickly. How about a long-lasting Lego set instead? Still, Block worries. He worries about bringing up children in a world beset by environmental crises, what that world will look like and how difficult it might be to live in.
/jlne.ws/3KsHoWF

****** Why did I think of ICE's Gordon Bennett immediately when I read this headline?~JJL

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The Enduring Technology of the Book; Durable, stackable and skimmable, books have been the world's favorite way to read for two millennia and counting.
Amanda Foreman - The Wall Street Journal
A fragment of the world's oldest book was discovered earlier this year. Dated to about 260 B.C., the 6-by-10-inch piece of papyrus survived thanks to ancient Egyptian embalmers who recycled it for cartonnage, a papier-mache-like material used in mummy caskets. The Graz Mummy Book, so-called because it resides in the library of Austria's Graz University, is 400 years older than the previous record holder, a fragment of a Latin book from the 2nd century A.D.
/jlne.ws/3KqcKgt

***** I love books. I just don't know what to do with them anymore.~JJL

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Intern Hunger Games in Full Swing With VC Shop's Public Rankings
Magdalena Del Valle - Bloomberg
The summer interns at Insight Partners are learning the firm's number one value - "hunger to win" - the hard way. The New York-based company, known for taking early stakes in ventures like DocuSign Inc. and Shopify Inc., publicly ranks its investing interns using metrics like their phone calls, emails, and meetings, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The rankings are displayed on a so-called leaderboard for the firm, said the people, who asked not to be identified because they aren't authorized to speak about it. Some full-time employees are also ranked, they said.
/jlne.ws/3KoFxlu

****** Great, take a bad idea from a movie and make it real, kind of.~JJL

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Thursday's Top Three
Our top story Thursday was How bonds ate the entire financial system, from the Financial Times Magazine. Second was a tie between Warren Buffett Is Buying Treasuries Regardless of US Downgrade by Fitch from Bloomberg via Yahoo Finance and UK Pension Market Stress in 2022-Why It Happened and Implications for the U.S., from the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. Third was Fitch strips US of triple A rating after borrowing stand-off, from the Financial Times.

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John Lothian News (JLN) is the news division of John J. Lothian & Company, Inc. (JJLCO). The online media and financial services firm is staffed by derivatives industry, journalism and technology professionals.
 
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John Lothian News Editorial Staff:
 
John Lothian
Publisher
 
Sarah Rudolph
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Jeff Bergstrom
Editor
 
Patrick Lothian
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Robert Lothian
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Nichole Price
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Sally Duros
Freelance Editor reporting on ESG
 
Asma Awass
Intern
 
 
 


Lead Stories
A Look Inside Sam Bankman-Fried's Empire Before It Collapsed; Photos of the crypto exchange FTX in its final year capture SBF in his penthouse and a private jet.
Hannah Miller - Bloomberg
Sam Bankman-Fried spoke frequently about the beanbag he slept on in the office. He talked less about his naps on the private plane. In the months since Bankman-Fried was charged with running a massive crypto fraud, US prosecutors and legions of reporters have begun parsing his every word (and deed) to expose gaps between his public persona and what really went on behind the scenes. He really did sleep in the beanbag chair, but he also had access to the jets his company chartered and a $30 million penthouse it owned at an exclusive resort in the Bahamas. Bankman-Fried is scheduled to face a criminal trial on Oct. 2 over charges he misused billions of dollars in customer deposits. Federal prosecutors have accused him of indulging in luxuries purchased with stolen money. He has said he didn't commit fraud and that the missing money was a mistake.
/jlne.ws/47dfx6B

A Digital Dollar Is for Banks and Governments, But Not You; Using blockchain-like technology could speed up and simplify transactions among giant institutions.
Christopher Condon - Bloomberg
Almost nobody talks about digital dollars anymore. Just a couple of years ago, as cryptocurrency was peaking and China was experimenting with a virtual version of the yuan, Washington was abuzz with the idea that the Federal Reserve could create America's own digital currency.
/jlne.ws/43QBEfX

Teen Gamers Swiped $24 Million in Crypto, Then Turned on Each Other; Michael Terpin lost a fortune to a phone "SIM swap." When he went to war to get it back, he found some surprising allies.
Margi Murphy and Drake Bennett - Bloomberg
In January 2018 the Consumer Electronics Show brought its lanyarded hordes to Las Vegas, as it does every year, and Michael Terpin was among them. Then 60, he was hosting a cryptocurrency event at Caesars Palace to coincide with the mammoth tech conference. He and his wife, Maxine, were at a home they own in Vegas, getting ready for opening night, when Terpin received an email from Google telling him a new device had gained access to one of his accounts. He yelled up the stairs to Maxine: "I think we're getting hacked again!"
/jlne.ws/3Yja1LB

The World Needs More Women Fund Managers, Says $49 Billion CIO; HESTA report shows that 24% of investment managers are women; CIO Sawtell-Rickson says progress is welcome, but too slow
Amy Bainbridge - Bloomberg
Thirty years ago, as a young person starting out in Australia's finance industry, Sonya Sawtell-Rickson would often find herself the only woman in the room. Today, she's the investment chief of A$74 billion ($48.5 billion) pension fund HESTA, which also boasts a female chief executive officer and an investment team made up of 42% women. But that's still largely the exception in fund management, and Sawtell-Rickson laments the glacial pace of progress in the industry.
/jlne.ws/3YnpmdP

Crypto Heists Funneling Billions to North Korea's Nuclear Program Attract Senate Scrutiny; Democratic lawmakers, warning of national security threat, press Biden to disclose efforts to crack down on Pyongyang
Dustin Volz - The Wall Street Journal
Three Democratic senators are pressing the Biden administration to disclose more information about its efforts to counteract North Korea's dependence on stolen cryptocurrency to fund its nuclear program, calling Pyongyang's growing reliance on digital assets to evade sanctions a severe national security threat.
/jlne.ws/3OKwi1L

Stablecoins Offering Less Stability for Coinbase; Declining interest revenue from stablecoins is one of many headwinds for the crypto exchange
Telis Demos - The Wall Street Journal
Even the easy part is getting harder for Coinbase COIN 1.04%increase; green up pointing triangle Global. Given the company's brewing battle with the Securities and Exchange Commission following the regulator's lawsuit earlier this year, and the broader role of Washington in the future of digital assets, quarterly earnings might seem somewhat beside the point for Coinbase. That is especially the case during the current crypto winter, when little is expected from trading activity.
/jlne.ws/43RRSWd

Tech Entrepreneur Admits to Being Hacker in $4.5 Billion Bitcoin Heist; Ilya Lichtenstein, who pleaded guilty to laundering stolen digital currency, made an unexpected admission in court that he was behind the Bitfinex hack
Isaac Yu and James Fanelli - The Wall Street Journal
The mystery hacker behind one of the largest crypto heists ever revealed himself Thursday as a New York tech entrepreneur married to a wannabe rapper named Razzlekhan. Ilya Lichtenstein admitted to the hack at a hearing in federal court in Washington, D.C., saying that in 2016 he broke into crypto exchange Bitfinex's network and stole bitcoin that is now worth billions of dollars. He was in court to plead guilty to conspiring to launder money from the heist. What wasn't expected was the admission he played a critical role in the hack.
/jlne.ws/3qi6qkh

London Stock Exchange Group teams up with Microsoft to develop AI models; UK exchange operator says it is working with US group in effort to harness new technology
Nikou Asgari - Financial Times
The London Stock Exchange Group is working with Microsoft and several banks to create bespoke generative artificial intelligence models in a move that shows how the financial services industry is looking to harness the technology without exposing proprietary data. The launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT last year spurred a wave of interest in generative AI and while many financial services companies are interested in its potential benefits, they are wary of inputting confidential information in the models, which continually learn from the data they are given.
/jlne.ws/3rZD36U

Sam Bankman-Fried Faces Jail as DOJ Pushes for Incarceration; The DOJ responded to Bankman-Fried's defense team, which argued it was painting him in a negative light.
Nikhilesh De - CoinDesk
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried's defense isn't denying that he shared former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison's diary with the New York Times, and so he should be "detained pending trial," the U.S. Department of Justice said again in a filing late Thursday.
/jlne.ws/44XexSy

The evolution of original sin; Has it been eliminated, ameliorated or just shifted?
Robin Wigglesworth - Financial Times
One of the great (almost) untold positive global development stories of the past decade is the amelioration of "original sin". The economists Barry Eichengreen, Ugo Panizza and Ricardo Hausmann were the first to call the dangerous dependency on foreign-currency borrowing the "original sin" of emerging markets. Since a series of debt debacles in the 1980s and 1990s, this original sin has ameliorated if not eliminated by the nurturing of vibrant local bond markets in most major developing countries.
/jlne.ws/3DFJKxB

Global X files for ETF that combines bitcoin futures and T-bills; The fund will alternate between allocating to bitcoin futures and the manager's Treasury bill ETF
Brian Ponte - Financial Times
Global X has filed to launch an ETF that will alternate between allocating to Bitcoin futures and the firm's recently launched Treasury bill ETF, a regulatory filing shows. The Global X Bitcoin Trend Strategy ETF will dynamically and systematically allocate between the United States and, once available, Canadian exchange traded bitcoin futures contracts and the Global X 1-3 Month T-Bill ETF, a passively managed ETF that launched this year, the ETF's prospectus states.
/jlne.ws/3s2JeH3

New Definition of 'Fraud' Wipes Out High-Profile Prosecutions; Scandals in auditing, college admissions and a hedge fund are all hit by Supreme Court ruling
Dave Michaels - The Wall Street Journal
Fraud doesn't mean what it used to. A string of high-profile federal prosecutions are falling apart as courts apply a newly narrowed legal definition of the crime. The latest case came this week in the prominent "steal the exam" auditing case. Other prosecutions, in the Varsity Blues college-admissions scandal and a hedge-fund trading case involving confidential government data, also were dismissed.
/jlne.ws/43UromY

AI Boom Fuels 487% Stock Surge for South Korean Family; Isu Petasys supplies tech giants such as Nvidia with circuits; Patriarch Kim Sang-Beom and family see value of stake soar
Yoojung Lee - Bloomberg
As investor interest in artificial intelligence sends shares of technology giants soaring, a little-known circuit board maker in South Korea is cashing in big. Isu Petasys Co., which counts Alphabet Inc., Nvidia Corp. and Microsoft Corp. as customers of its multilayered boards, has seen its share price surge 487% this year - among the biggest gainers on South Korea's benchmark stock index.
/jlne.ws/3KreMwF

New superconductor frenzy seems too super to be true; Scepticism has built around initial reports that LK-99 might prove to be a transformative discovery
Anjana Ahuja - Financial Times Opinion
If you haven't yet heard of LK-99, where have you been? Over the past week and more, this pebble-sized dark rock - made of lead, phosphorus, copper and oxygen - has pushed social media into meltdown, sent stock markets surging and put Silicon Valley investors into a spin. Scientists all over the world struggled to make sense of the hallowed lump. One enthusiast livestreamed his effort to bake a replica, with 16,000 Twitch viewers tuning in to stare at a kiln.
/jlne.ws/3YmTLJh

Trading Card Wars Escalate With Antitrust Lawsuit Against Fanatics
Andrew Beaton and Miriam Gottfried - The Wall Street Journal
Sports collectibles company Panini America filed a federal antitrust suit against Fanatics, alleging that its new rival has attempted to monopolize the market for trading cards with its dramatic foray into the sector two years ago. In a lawsuit filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Florida, Panini alleged that Fanatics violated federal antitrust law with its aggressive move into the trading card business in August 2021.
/jlne.ws/43QjfzT

The Political Turf Battle Over the Future of Your Prime Rib; White House must decide whether the FDA or Agriculture Department will get to regulate genetically modified meat and fish
Liz Essley Whyte - The Wall Street Journal
The future of genetically modified bacon, steak and fish is at the center of a Washington food fight. The White House is refereeing whether the Food and Drug Administration or the Agriculture Department should regulate disease-resistant pigs, hornless cattle and faster-growing salmon-gene edits that could also result in unintended consequences if not done carefully.
/jlne.ws/3Qn0mBx

New York Times Pushes Back Against Sam Bankman-Fried Gag Order
Andre Beganski - Decrypt
The New York Times pushed back on Thursday against restrictions in FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried's criminal trial that would limit participants' ability to speak to the press. In a letter addressed to U.S. District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan, the newspaper advocated for the public's right to know about a scandal that's "stripped billions of dollars from the economy and harmed innumerable members of the public."
/jlne.ws/3rNKxJV

The nation's largest bank has been embroiled in a legal battle with the US Virgin Islands, which wants JPMorgan to pay at least $190 million to resolve a lawsuit accusing it of enabling Epstein's sex trafficking.
Shannon Thaler - NY Post
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said he was "so sorry" that his Wall Street bank ever did business with convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein and that the relationship hurt its brand "a little bit." The nation's largest bank has been embroiled in a legal battle with the US Virgin Islands, which wants JPMorgan to pay at least $190 million to resolve a lawsuit accusing it of enabling Epstein's sex trafficking. "We banked Jeffrey Epstein and I'm so sorry that we did. I wish we hadn't," Dimon said in an interview with CNBC on Wednesday.
/jlne.ws/3KwuCpV



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Ukraine Invasion
News about the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and its military, economic, political and humanitarian impact
Stakes are high as Ukraine's offensive starts to secure a military advantage; Despite heavy attrition of Russian equipment, the question remains whether Kyiv can build momentum
Jack Watling - Financial Times
For two months, Ukrainian forces have been on the offensive, trying to break through Russian defence lines to begin the liberation of the occupied territories. The fighting has been difficult and progress has been incremental. But over time, the Ukrainians have been securing the advantage. The question now is whether they can push Russian forces to breaking point.
/jlne.ws/47lIb5i

What's up with all these drones hitting Moscow?; Ukraine is trying to bring the costs of its war home to Russia.
Jen Kirby - Vox
This week, at least two drones have struck a skyscraper in Moscow, a sign that Ukraine is increasingly willing to take the war directly to Russia. The building, which houses some government ministry offices, was initially damaged in a Sunday drone hit before a second on Tuesday. Russian defense officials accused Ukraine of perpetrating both, and said that both drones were "jammed" before crashing into the exact same skyscraper.
/jlne.ws/3YoUrhA

A large group of Russian troops violated 'military operations 101' and paid the price in a deadly Ukrainian HIMARS strike, experts say
Erin Snodgrass - Business Insider
The Russian units targeted in a Ukrainian HIMARS attack this week flouted a key wartime rule, military experts told Insider: Don't gather in big, open spaces. Ukraine on Tuesday said it launched a HIMARS attack on five Russian units gathered on a beach resulting in 200 casualties and destroyed equipment. Insider couldn't independently confirm the number of soldiers killed in the attack.
/jlne.ws/47uoBnI

Russian warship seen listing in Black Sea after Ukrainian sea drone attack on base; Videos appear to show Ukrainian sea drone attacking Russian warship
Tim Lister, Victoria Butenko and Olga Voitovych - CNN
Ukraine said it had carried out a sea drone attack on a Russian naval base, as dramatic videos appeared to show a damaged Russian warship listing heavily in the Black Sea early Friday. Social media images showed the ship being towed near the Novorossiysk naval base, despite earlier claims by the Russian defense ministry that the attack had been repelled.
/jlne.ws/3DE4h5D








Exchanges, OTC & Clearing
Top news from exchanges, clearing, settlement and trade execution facilities
Crypto Options Volume on CME Rose to Nearly $1B in July: CCData; The increase in BTC options volume on the CME suggests that institutions might be hedging their positions.
Omkar Godbole - CoinDesk
Derivatives giant Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) recorded double-digit growth in crypto options trading volume in July, helped by investor appetite for hedging tools. Trading activity rose 24% to $940 million, registering the first increase in four months, according to data tracked by CCData. Volumes in bitcoin (BTC) options rose 16.6% to $734 million, while ether (ETH) options registered a 60% increase to $207 million.
/jlne.ws/3qgDhpw

Cboe Announces Winners of the Options Institute S&P Dow Jones Indices Dispersion Research Grant
Cboe Global Markets, Inc. via PR Newswire
Cboe Global Markets, Inc. (Cboe: CBOE), the world's leading derivatives and securities exchange network, today announced Dr. Lorenzo Schoenleber, Assistant Professor in Finance at the Collegio Carlo Alberto and the University of Turin, and Dr. Grigory Vilkov, Professor of Finance at Frankfurt School of Finance and Management, as the winners of the Options Institute S&P Dow Jones Indices (S&P DJI) Dispersion Research Grant, which is focused on exploring dispersion as an asset class.
/jlne.ws/440I2kN

Cboe Global Markets Reports Trading Volume for July 2023
Cboe
Cboe Global Markets, Inc. (Cboe: CBOE), the world's leading derivatives and securities exchange network, today reported July monthly trading volume statistics across its global business lines. The data sheet "Cboe Global Markets Monthly Volume & RPC/Net Revenue Capture Report" contains an overview of certain July trading statistics and market share by business segment, volume in select index products, and RPC/net capture, which is reported on a one-month lag, across business lines.
/jlne.ws/45co4EJ

Cboe Global Markets Reports Results for Second Quarter 2023
Cboe
Diluted EPS for the Quarter of $1.57; Adjusted Diluted EPS¹ for the Quarter of $1.78, Up 7 percent; Net Revenue for the Quarter of $467.1 million, Up 10 percent
Anticipates Higher End of Organic Total Net Revenue Growth2 Range of 7 to 9 percent in 2023; Reaffirms Data and Access Solutions Organic Net Revenue Growth Target2 of 7 to 10 percent; Decreases 2023 Adjusted Operating Expense Guidance2 to $766 to $774 million, from $769 to $779 million.Cboe Global Markets, Inc. (Cboe: CBOE) today reported financial results for the second quarter of 2023.
/jlne.ws/3OmDRKD

ICE Chat Helps Drive Execution Volumes
Shanny Basar - MarketsMedia
Proprietary large language models in ICE Chat have helped boost the number of users and driven a nearly 60% rise in energy volume executed via the exchange's messaging platform. Warren Gardiner, ICE Warren Gardiner, chief financial officer of ICE, said on the second quarter results call on 3 August that there has also been continued growth in the ICE Chat offering, a messaging system that can be tailored to support firms' compliance requirements.
/jlne.ws/3OmxkzB

Forfeiture of Unclaimed Interim Dividend for 2017
HKEX
As provided in the Articles of Association of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited ("HKEX"), any dividend unclaimed after a period of six years from the date for payment of such dividend shall be forfeited and shall revert to HKEX. Accordingly, HKEX's interim dividend for 2017 of HK$2.55 per share, payable on 21 September 2017 and remaining unclaimed on 21 September 2023, will be forfeited and will revert to HKEX.
/jlne.ws/3DFYgVM

JPX Monthly Headlines - July 2023
Japan Exchange group
JPX group companies undertake various initiatives and disseminate information with the aim of providing the most attractive markets to all users.
Every month, we showcase the highlights of these efforts in short and concise summaries just for you.
/jlne.ws/3OKvSIJ

ICE/LSEG: New York's strength gives London the delta blues; US markets are booming again and London is falling behind its rivals
Financial Times (Opinion)
Over the past two decades, the mantra for stock exchange operators has been diversification at all costs. First came an expansion into trading other asset classes such as derivatives. Then it was a move into clearing and settlement. More recently, these businesses have pushed into data and risk management. Diversification has made these companies financial estuaries. Trading and listing fees ebb and flow with the wider market. Cash channels never drop too low thanks to steady sales of data and analytics. These also swell valuation multiples.
/jlne.ws/3DGDEwH

ASX Group Monthly Activity Report - July 2023
ASX
Attached is a copy of the ASX Group Monthly Activity Report for July 2023. Release of market announcement authorised by: Johanna O'Rourke Group General Counsel and Company Secretary
/jlne.ws/46R1Cme

TMX Group Consolidated Trading Statistics - July 2023
TMX Group
TMX Group Limited today announced July 2023 trading statistics for its marketplaces - Toronto Stock Exchange, TSX Venture Exchange, TSX Alpha Exchange and Montréal Exchange.
/jlne.ws/44XlbrY

Moscow Exchange was the first in the Russian market to obtain a CFA exchange operator license
MOEX
On August 3, 2023, the Bank of Russia included the Moscow Exchange in the register of operators for the exchange of digital financial assets (DFA) that ensure the conclusion of transactions with DFA, and the National Settlement Depository (NSD, part of the Moscow Exchange Group) in the register of information system operators issuing DFA . Thus, the Moscow Exchange became the first CFA exchange operator in Russia.
/jlne.ws/3qga7a4




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Fintech
A roundup of today's market tech news and a look at tomorrow's disruptors
Elon Musk's X Seeks Data Partner to Build Trading Service on App: Semafor
Helene Braun - CoinDesk
Elon Musk's soon-to-be super app X, formerly known as Twitter, is looking for a financial-data giant to build a trading hub inside the app, news outlet Semafor reported, citing documents and people familiar with the matter. According to the documents, X sent a request to financial-data providers in recent weeks asking for proposals on financial content and real-time stock data, among others, Semafor said, adding that It wasn't clear if any firms had submitted proposals due last week.
/jlne.ws/43WDfRF

So What Do We Call Twitter Now Anyway?; With Elon Musk's rebranding of the app, is Twitter's name really retired? What about tweets? We unravel the terminology puzzle.
Kate Conger - The New York Times
With a simple name change, Elon Musk has created confusion in social media. The bewilderment stems from Mr. Musk's move last month to rebrand Twitter, which he owns, as X. No major social media app has undergone such a name change before, at least while it had tens of millions of active users. In 2016, Snapchat dropped "chat" from its corporate name, but kept the app's name unchanged.
/jlne.ws/3OFpnqu



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Cybersecurity
Top stories for cybersecurity
Curve Offers Hackers 10% Bounty in Exchange for Return of Crypto
Danny Nelson - CoinDesk
Curve Finance and other victims of this week's crypto lending heist have offered their hackers a 10% bounty in exchange for the return of the rest of their tokens. "You will have no risk of us pursuing this further, no risk of law enforcement issues, etc," Curve, Metronome and Alchemix wrote in an on-chain message sent to a hacker's Ethereum address.
/jlne.ws/44UXy33

Cybersecurity Lessons From The 'Mission: Impossible' Series
Lior Yaari - Forbes
The Mission: Impossible movie series, known for its exhilarating action and suspense, offers more than just entertainment. Within the thrilling plotlines lie valuable lessons about cybersecurity that, if the characters had already learned, would have resulted in a less entertaining movie. By exploring the lessons learned from the characters' endeavors, we can gain a deeper understanding of the challenges and best practices within cybersecurity.
/jlne.ws/3qkLUzx

Major Cybersecurity Agencies Collaborate to Unveil 2022's Most Exploited Vulnerabilities
The Hacker News
A four-year-old critical security flaw impacting Fortinet FortiOS SSL has emerged as one of the most routinely and frequently exploited vulnerabilities in 2022. "In 2022, malicious cyber actors exploited older software vulnerabilities more frequently than recently disclosed vulnerabilities and targeted unpatched, internet-facing systems," cybersecurity and intelligence agencies from the Five Eyes nations, which comprises Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the U.K., and the U.S., said in a joint alert.
/jlne.ws/43VhKAv

Are Public Companies Ready for the New SEC Cybersecurity Rules?
Carrie Pallardy - InformationWeek
Beginning in December, public companies will be subject to new rules regarding periodic and incident reporting for cybersecurity. On July 26, the U.S. Securities Exchange and Commission (SEC) voted 3-2 to adopt its final rules on public company cybersecurity disclosures.
/jlne.ws/47h7cyE





Cryptocurrencies
Top stories for cryptocurrencies
CZ Warns of Increasingly Popular Crypto Scam Using Mirrored Addresses
Hope C - CoinMarketCap
Changpeng "CZ" Zhao, the CEO of Binance, has tweeted a warning to his followers about a scam that preys on the cryptocurrency industry and uses fake wallet addresses to trick consumers into making fraudulent purchases.
/jlne.ws/3QpkNxK

Coinbase Sets Public Launch of 'Base' Layer 2 Blockchain for Next Week
Margaux Nijkerk - CoinDesk
Coinbase (COIN), the biggest publicly traded U.S. crypto exchange, announced that Base, its layer-2 blockchain built with Optimism's OP Stack, will open to the public on Aug. 9. Base went live for developers in July so that they could test applications on the new network. Starting Thursday, users will be able to bridge their ether (ETH) to Base, Coinbase wrote in a blog post.
/jlne.ws/3YkzBzG

If Binance Faces U.S. Criminal Charges it Could be a 'Death Blow': Former CFTC Division Director
CoinDesk
Josh Sterling, former CFTC Division Director and current partner at Jones Day reacts to Semafor reporting that Binance could face U.S. Department of Justice fraud charges, although prosecutors are weighing alternatives given the risk of an FTX-style bank run. Sterling notes that criminal charges against companies are usually a "death blow" and often have "severe consequences for all stakeholders."
/jlne.ws/458XWdS

Coinbase revenue beat estimates, executives expect to win battle with SEC
Manya Saini and Sri Hari N S - Reuters
Coinbase Global beat second-quarter revenue expectations on Thursday on higher interest income while its executives said the crypto exchange expects to win its legal battle with the U.S. securities regulator. The company and its rival Binance were sued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in June. It alleged that Coinbase traded at least 13 crypto assets that are securities without registering them with the regulator.
/jlne.ws/3QsFQQg

HashKey Exchange and OSL licensed to serve retail investors
Tom Zuo - Forkast
HashKey Exchange and OSL - the only two cryptocurrency exchanges licensed by the Hong Kong Securities and Exchange Commission (SFC) - both received upgrades to their licenses Thursday. A significant milestone in the development of Hong Kong's Web3 industry, the upgrades will allow the two companies to serve retail investors with immediate effect.
/jlne.ws/3KoBeXm

Coinbase chief says US exit 'not in the realm of possibility'; Plus, updates on Tether and Binance
Scott Chipolina - Financial Times
/jlne.ws/3QrNuua

Digital Dollar Project Launches Retail CBDC Pilot with Western Union Focused on Cross-Border Payments
Digital Dollar Project - PR Newswire
/jlne.ws/3OtCUjM

Hong Kong's New Crypto Regime Awards First Exchange License to HashKey; Hong Kong is seeking to develop a digital-asset center; City's pivot has received a guarded welcome from firms
Sarah Zheng, Suvashree Ghosh, and Kiuyan Wong - Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/45gztDt

Asia's Crypto Regulatory Clarity Contrasts With Disarray in US; Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea rolled out fresh frameworks; US lawmakers remain in heated debates over regulating crypto
Suvashree Ghosh - Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/3KsIMrY

Coinbase Beats Analyst Estimates for Q2, but Transaction Revenue Falls
Nelson Wang - CoinDesk
/jlne.ws/440IJdT

Traders Ditch USDT on Curve, Uniswap, Pushing Key Exchange Pools Into Imbalance
Krisztian Sandor - CoinDesk
/jlne.ws/3OIr2vo

Lack of 'Catalyst' Leaves Crypto Volatility At Multi-Year Lows; Bitcoin volatility falls even as trading volumes have declined; No news is good news as crypto prices stabilize: Jablonski
Vildana Hajric and Isabelle Lee - Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/3OIrgme

Metaverse Project Futureverse's Co-Founders Start $50M Venture Fund; The Born Ready venture studio will invest in early-stage Web3 and metaverse projects.
Brandy Betz - CoinDesk
/jlne.ws/3Qqtfgh




FTSE



Politics
An overview of politics as it relates to the financial markets
There is political logic to Fitch's downgrading of US debt; A divided Congress is in no position to tackle America's serious fiscal problems
Gillian Tett - Financial Times
Sometimes the gods of finance deliver choreography that might make future historians chuckle. This week in America provided one such moment. On Tuesday, the special counsel Jack Smith announced a blistering new indictment against former US president Donald Trump for allegedly launching "an unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy".
/jlne.ws/3OiwFz7

White House urged to limit US investment in Chinese stocks and bonds
Demetri Sevastopulo, Kana Inagaki and Henry Foy - Financial Times
The head of a US congressional committee has urged President Joe Biden to widen forthcoming limits on investments in China to cover stocks and bonds, saying anything less would "fail to address the bulk of the security threat" posed by Beijing. Mike Gallagher, chair of the House China committee, told the president that a new executive order expected soon from the White House must cover US participation in Chinese public markets, not just direct investments from private equity and venture capital groups.
/jlne.ws/3qfQkri

Canadian Oil-Sands Output Poised to Jump as Pipeline Project Nears Finish
Robert Tuttle - Bloomberg
Canadian oil-sands producers including Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. and Cenovus Energy Inc. are rushing to expand production to fill the biggest new pipeline project in more than a decade. Canadian Natural will raise output from its Primrose site by 25,000 barrels a day in the current quarter and boost production at its Kirby oil-sands operation by 15,000 barrels a day in the fourth quarter, the company said Thursday.
/jlne.ws/47m9UCT

Fine banks that blacklist customers for political views, says UK chancellor; FCA says review on de-banking already being prepared in wake of Farage-Coutts dispute
George Parker and Laura Noonan - Financial Times
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has told Britain's financial regulator to find out urgently how many bank customers have been blacklisted for their political views and to hit lenders with heavy fines if the practice is widespread. Hunt said the issue, exposed by former Brexit party leader Nigel Farage, was extremely serious and that "a threat to be de-banked is a threat to your right to express your opinions".
/jlne.ws/43UF8hF

Not Everyone Wants to Pay for Net Zero; Pushback against the cost of Britain's net-zero policies is likely to grow.
Merryn Somerset Webb - Bloomberg
Everyone likes nice-sounding policies. Not everyone wants to pay for them. We are beginning to see that this holds good for the UK's strategy to reach net zero as much as for any other policy. A FocalData survey shows, for example, that 40% of people say they would "not accept any increase to my cost of living" in order to take effective action on climate change - roughly the same number as those who would not pay more to reduce crime and to improve education. Those who think that politicians can carry on with net-zero policies with impunity point to figures like this as evidence that they will hit pushback.
/jlne.ws/47gk1Jw

Blinken Accuses Russia of 'Assault on the Global Food System' in UN Debate; 'Enough using the Black Sea as blackmail,' Blinken tells UN; US driven only by 'desire to punish Russia': Russian delegate
Courtney McBride and Eric Martin - Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/3qeLiLR

China Relaxes Business Visa Rules in Bid to Further Open Borders
Bloomberg News
/jlne.ws/45glCNy

Saudi Arabia says it could deepen oil production cuts; Fresh curbs risk stand-off with US, which wants lower prices to boost economy and squeeze Russian revenues
Tom Wilson and David Sheppard - Financial Times
/jlne.ws/3DMVkGU



Regulation & Enforcement
Stories about regulation and the law.
Massachusetts regulators launch probe into AI in securities industry
Nate Raymond and Chris Prentice - Reuters
Massachusetts securities regulators have opened an investigation into the ways in which investment firms use artificial intelligence in their interactions with investors, citing concerns about the technology's potential unchecked use. Massachusetts Secretary of State Bill Galvin, the state's top securities regulator, on Thursday announced that his office had sent letters of inquiry to a number of firms using or developing AI for their businesses, including JPMorgan Chase (JPM.N) and Morgan Stanley (MS.N).
/jlne.ws/3YjKm5s

SEC Says Crypto Mining Firm Fraudulently Raised $50M in Cash, Bitcoin and Ethereum
Mathew Di Salvo - Decrypt
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has frozen the assets of Digital Licensing Inc., a crypto mining firm allegedly involved in fraud. In an emergency move announced Thursday, the SEC also obtained a restraining order against the Utah-based company, which does business as DEBT Box.
/jlne.ws/3rYTBvN

New York couple plead guilty to bitcoin laundering
AFP
A married couple from New York dubbed "Bitcoin Bonnie and Crypto Clyde" pleaded guilty on Thursday to laundering billions of dollars in stolen bitcoin, prosecutors announced. Ilya Lichtenstein, 35, and Heather Morgan, 33, were arrested in February last year after the US government seized 95,000 bitcoin then valued at $3.6 billion.
/jlne.ws/47lapgs

SEC Obtains Emergency Relief to Halt Utah-Based Company's Crypto Asset Fraud Scheme Involving 18 Defendants
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that it obtained a temporary asset freeze, restraining order, and other emergency relief against Digital Licensing Inc., a Draper, Utah based entity doing business as "DEBT Box," as well as the company's four principals, Jason Anderson, his brother Jacob Anderson, Schad Brannon, and Roydon Nelson, and 13 other defendants in connection with a fraudulent scheme to sell crypto asset securities to hundreds of U.S. investors that raised approximately $50 million and unspecified amounts of Bitcoin and Ether.
/jlne.ws/3OtFd6q

SEC Charges Massachusetts Resident with $1.2 Million Offering Fraud and Ponzi Scheme
SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced charges against Brockton, Massachusetts resident Jose D. Rocha for running a Ponzi scheme in which he took approximately $1.2 million from 13 investors in the Cape Verdean community around the Boston area. Rocha promised investors he would invest their money in securities with guaranteed returns of 12% per month. Instead, Rocha used only a small percentage of the money to make highly leveraged, and highly unsuccessful, trades of stock and stock options. Rocha spent the balance of the funds, the vast majority, to feed his gambling habit and embark on a luxury lifestyle. Rocha also used money from later investments to pay out on earlier investments.
/jlne.ws/43TsiQH

An Inside Look into FINRA's Crypto Asset Work
Jason Foye - FINRA
FINRA's core mission is to protect investors and promote market integrity. This mission is at the heart of everything we do. An important example of this mission in action is our work to address the unique regulatory challenges presented by the activities of our member firms that relate to crypto assets-also known as digital assets-which are assets issued or transferred using distributed ledger or blockchain technology.
/jlne.ws/43PvFYU








Investing & Trading
Today's top stories from equities, indices and FICC (fixed income, currencies and commodities)
Petrobras Cuts Dividends After Political Outcry And Lower Prices; Oil giant makes first payout under more conservative policy; Previous dividend payments were criticized as too generous
Mariana Durao - Bloomberg
Petroleo Brasileiro SA slashed politically contentious dividends after profits declined and the Brazilian oil major set a more conservative policy for shareholder payouts. The Rio de Janeiro-based producer's board approved dividends of 15 billion reais ($3 billion), according to a filing on Thursday. It is down from 24.7 billion reais in the first quarter and the lowest dividend since Petrobras started making payments on a quarterly basis at the start of 2022.
/jlne.ws/3QrwS5M

Money-Market Assets Climb to Fresh Record With Rates Above 5%; Assets climbed to $5.52 trillion in the week ended Aug. 2: ICI; Inflows primarily driven by cash moving into government funds
Alex Harris - Bloomberg
Money-market fund assets climbed to a fresh record as interest rates north of 5% lure cash from banks and other short-term investments. About $29 billion poured into US money-market funds in the week through Aug. 2, according to data from the Investment Company Institute. Total assets reached $5.52 trillion, versus $5.49 trillion the previous week.
/jlne.ws/3OHbgRj

AT1s Deliver Big Returns to Traders Braving Credit Suisse Rout
Tasos Vossos - Bloomberg
In the days after Credit Suisse Group AG's AT1s were wiped out, speculation was rife that the market was broken. The worry among investors was that banks, faced with soaring refinancing costs, would leave their additional tier 1 bonds outstanding beyond the first call date, causing prices to crater. However, as the last few months have shown, anyone who took a chance on buying the deeply discounted notes pocketed hefty returns.
/jlne.ws/3rWNlob

Grandparents: give the gift of investment education; As inheritance tax bills rise, pass on your financial savvy as well as your cash
Claer Barrett - Financial Times
Rising inheritance tax bills are certainly keeping the exchequer happy, but they're also prompting more grandparents to think about tax planning while they are still alive.Lots of readers are giving a lump sum to adult children or grandchildren - perhaps to help with a house purchase or pay down a slice of their mortgage. If you start the clock now, they won't need to pay any IHT on the gift in seven years.
/jlne.ws/3Oq3dqO




Qontigo




Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance
Stories about environmental, social and governance investing
Biden administration proposes sustainable procurement policy; Proposed Sustainable Products and Services procurement rule includes recycled content among recommended purchasing qualifications.
Brian Taylor - Waste Today
The Biden-Harris administration has proposed a Sustainable Products and Services procurement rule it says will favor recycled-content products in purchases made by all U.S. government departments and agencies. The proposal is being made through the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Council with guidance coming from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
/jlne.ws/3OJwVs4

Sailors Are Collecting Climate Data as They Race Around the World; Competitors in some of the toughest ocean sailing events are making sacrifices on speed to gather new intel on dying coral, trash and pollution.
Siobhan Wagner - Bloomberg
Round-the-world sailors can sense something is different. Steeper waves? Shifting winds? There's no missing the calls to change course, sometimes drastically, to avoid icebergs in waters that were previously too far from the poles to be dangerous.
/jlne.ws/3YmWN0j

Floating Solar Panels Turn Old Industrial Sites Into Green Energy Goldmines; Coal pits, stone quarries and hydropower lagoons are becoming hot real estate as European countries seek out new sites for solar panels
Jonathan Tirone - Bloomberg
Putting solar panels on water to generate power sounded like a dangerous gimmick to Benedikt Ortmann when he first heard about the idea. "Every child knows electricity and water don't mix," said Ortmann, the top solar executive at Munich's Baywa r.e., one of Europe's biggest renewable energy developers.
/jlne.ws/47geXou

'Halliburton Loophole' Allows Fracking Companies to Avoid Chemical Regulation; New research finds fracking-industry exemption for 28 chemicals otherwise regulated by federal law.
Jon Hurdle - Inside Climate News
For almost 20 years, U.S. public-health advocates have worried that toxic chemicals are getting into ground water and harming human health because of an exemption to the federal Safe Drinking Water Act that allows operators of oil and gas fracking operations to use chemicals that would be regulated if used for any other purpose. The so-called Halliburton Loophole, named after the oil and gas services company once headed by former Vice President Dick Cheney, means that the industry can use fracking fluid containing chemicals linked to negative health effects including kidney and liver disease, fertility impairment and reduced sperm counts without being subject to regulation under the act.
/jlne.ws/3rP87WI

ESG Strategy Receives Tough Feedback in Latest Bloomberg Survey; Some see investment approach as little more than passing fad; Others expect it to become standard part of doing business
Tim Quinson - Bloomberg
The outlook for ESG is getting bleaker based on the results of Bloomberg's latest industry survey. Most Bloomberg terminal clients taking the survey expect ESG funds to underperform general market benchmarks in the next year, while a growing number say ESG is nothing more than a passing fad. Bloomberg recently concluded its second survey of terminal clients to get their views about environmental, social and governance principles. The results were broadly similar to the first survey at the end of last year, though clients "not directly engaged" in ESG are becoming increasingly more skeptical about the investment strategy than those who "are engaged."
/jlne.ws/3Qoi7k0

Verizon Faces Suit Over Toxic Lead Cable ESG Risks, Stock Drop
Ben Miller - Bloomberg Law
Verizon Communications Inc. and its chief executives are accused in a new federal lawsuit of concealing the threats posed by toxic lead cables the company owned, allegedly making misleading statements about its environmental safety commitments for more than three years.
/jlne.ws/3rQ3s6S

2023 Q2 ESG Market Review
Tiziana Maida - Tabbforum
/jlne.ws/3DHpeMR








Banks, Brokers & Managed Funds
The latest from banks, brokers, hedge funds and managed futures
Credit Suisse Collapsed, And Switzerland Went Back to Making Money; Despite widespread calls for reform in the wake of the country's biggest banking shock, little has changed. Is that stability or complacency?
Hugo Miller, Bastian Benrath, and Jeff Black - Bloomberg
In 2022 it was "Schwinger," or traditional Swiss wrestlers, that were the star attraction. This year it was youth groups. Every Aug. 1 since 1891, patriotic Swiss have gathered on an Alpine meadow overlooking Lake Lucerne to commemorate a rebellion in 1291 that was the foundation of "modern" Switzerland. This is a country that likes tradition.
/jlne.ws/3OIx6Ej

Bank of America, Truist, Wells Fargo could pay combined $4.1B to help replenish FDIC fund
Symone Graham - Charlotte Business Journal
Charlotte's three largest banks are expected to pay about $4.16 billion combined to help replenish federal funds tied to the collapses of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank. The fee is part of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s special assessment, which was proposed in May to help fill $15.8 billion back into its deposit insurance fund that was drained from losses associated with the banks' failures. Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank are the third- and fourth-largest bank collapses in U.S. history, respectively.
/jlne.ws/3KpCmtG

Hedge funds lose $6bn betting against cruise lines and hotels; Shares in Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Airbnb have surged as consumers keep spending
Nicholas Megaw and Silin Chen and George Steer - Financial Times
Hedge funds have lost more than $6bn this year betting against cruise lines and hotels after underestimating the resilience of US consumers. Cruise lines Royal Caribbean and Carnival are two of the 10 most heavily shorted companies in the S&P 500 but have confounded short sellers' expectations by more than doubling in value so far this year.
/jlne.ws/43UGBo4

Citi investment bank head Paco Ybarra to leave after 36 years at lender; Departure of top executive comes amid restructuring by chief executive Jane Fraser
Stephen Gandel - Financial Times
Paco Ybarra, Citigroup's investment banking head and leader of the bank's biggest business unit, is to leave the company in the most significant management departure since Jane Fraser became chief executive more than two years ago. Ybarra, a 36-year veteran of Citi, joined the bank as a junior manager in Madrid before climbing the ladder to become head of debt trading. In 2019, Citi's then-chief executive Michael Corbat named him as head of Citi's large institutional client group, which also includes the bank's transaction services business.
/jlne.ws/3Ojbugh

French Banks Miss Out on Europe's Rate Boom as Usury Rules Bite
Alexandre Rajbhandari - Bloomberg
France's largest banks are missing out on the earnings bonanza at their European peers because of a quirk in the country's rules that limits the benefit they get from higher interest rates. Credit Agricole SA saw revenue from retail banking in France fall 5% in the second quarter and Societe Generale SA even recorded a 14% slump, reports this week showed. At BNP Paribas SA, the country's largest bank, the figure was little changed.
/jlne.ws/47g561Z

Why Bigger 'Capital Cushions' Have Banks On Edge
Jennifer Surane and Katanga Johnson - Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/3OGN7JN




ADM Investor Services


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Work & Management
Stories impacting work and more about management ideas, practices and trends.
Managers Are Burned Out. Here's How to Help Them Recharge.
Rebecca Zucker - Harvard Business Review
Chances are managers in your organization are feeling burned out. Middle managers have felt the squeeze of having to execute strategy from above while coaching and developing their teams below them - often without receiving the same type of development or empowerment from more senior managers. Often under-resourced, they frequently roll up their sleeves to do the work alongside their teams, particularly given higher rates of turnover in the last few years.
/jlne.ws/43XjBES

You'd have to work five lifetimes to make what your boss makes in one year, report shows
Allison Morrow - CNN
The gulf between a CEO's paycheck and their typical employee's has always been vast. But the advent of AI is already threatening to exacerbate that gap, enriching the C-suite at the expense of their employees, according to a new report from the AFL-CIO. The average CEO compensation among S&P 500 companies last year was $16.7 million - the second-highest level of executive pay ever, according to the group's annual Executive Paywatch report. (2021 was the highest at $$18.3 million) CEO pay fell last year compared to the previous year, said Brandon Rees, the AFL-CIO's deputy director of corporations and capital markets. "However, it didn't fall nearly as much as stock prices fell, at which is the CEO's favorite yardstick for measuring their own performance."
/jlne.ws/45f2eRe








Regions
Stories of local interest from the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions
China's 'Sponge Cities' Are Not Built for Extreme Flood Events; Urban planners are struggling to keep pace with the wild changes in precipitation being driven by climate change.
Bloomberg News
Flooding has affected at least 30 million people in China so far this year, including at least 20 deaths in the past few days, raising questions about the country's preparation for catastrophic weather fueled by climate change. China has invested billions of dollars in recent years to protect against extreme rainfall after a 2012 flood in Beijing killed 79 people and prompted President Xi Jinping to call for building "cities like sponges."
/jlne.ws/3DGBIEr

Australian regulator blocks ANZ bank's $3.2bn Suncorp takeover; ACCC says mergers between smaller lenders preferred to strengthen competition against 'big four'
Nic Fildes - Financial Times
Australia's competition regulator has blocked the country's biggest banking merger since the 2008 financial crisis after ruling that ANZ's A$4.9bn ($3.2bn) takeover of smaller rival Suncorp would "further entrench an oligopoly" in the sector.
/jlne.ws/3YnnGB3

Spain Braces for Next Blast of Heat as Northern Europe Stays Cool; Southwest of Spain will see temperatures of 40C by Sunday; London to climb back to seasonal norm by middle of next week
Ellie Harmsworth - Bloomberg
Europe's next blast of heat is set to hit Spain early next week, with temperatures climbing back to 40C (104F) in the southwest of the country by Sunday. The mercury in the capital Madrid will also return to that level by Wednesday, 5C above the seasonal average and 11.5C above today's high, according to Maxar Technologies Inc. Catalonia in Spain notched a record temperature last month.
/jlne.ws/3Yj3noD








Miscellaneous
Stories that don't quite fit under the other sections
Washington Commanders Sale Cements High Finance's Status in NFL's Inner Circle; Private equity titan vows to transform a struggling franchise; Football following other sports in opening up to financiers
Kamaron Leach, Ira Boudway, and Randall Williams - Bloomberg
Dressed in the gray suit of a private equity boss, but with a rose-tinted button-down shirt and a Washington Commanders lapel pin, Josh Harris said everything a new sports team owner is expected to say. At a press conference following the approval of his $6 billion takeover of the National Football League franchise, Harris talked about growing up in Chevy Chase, Maryland, rooting for the once-mighty team. He promised to change the culture of an organization shadowed by allegations of harassment. He said he had a responsibility to a community that celebrated three Super Bowl titles in decades past - but hadn't witnessed a playoff victory in 17 years.
/jlne.ws/3YlyWOq







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