Wednesday, July 31, 2024

Olympics - Rupert Murdoch’s attempt to rule from the grave is stranger than fiction

Intelligent people are just as prejudiced, but toward different groups

Bernard Arnault has been dubbed the Olympics’ godfather. Here’s how he built LVMH’s fortune AP

‘Olympics sabotaged’ and ‘La Farce!’ BBC

Barbora Seemanova and bizarre Kafjaeque sequence

“Clearly there was never an intention to show disrespect to any religious group. [The opening ceremony] tried to celebrate community tolerance,” the Paris 2024 spokesperson Anne Descamps told a press conference. “We believe this ambition was achieved. If people have taken any offence we are really sorry.”

The unintended parody of the biblical scene, performed against the backdrop of the River Seine, was actually intended to interpret Dionysus and raise awareness “of the absurdity of violence between human beings”, organisers wrote on X

The Secret Russians at the Paris Olympics WSJ

Kansas biologists find ‘super rare’ threatened species in the mouth of a hungry toad KSNT

11 Extraordinary Sharks That Live in Deep Sea WatersZME Science

How private equity tangled banks in a web of debt FT. Commentary: Private Equity Puts Debt EverywhereMatt Levine, Bloomberg

The Financial Consequences of Legalized Sports Gambling

by Tyler Cowen

Following a 2018 ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court, 38 states have legalized sports gambling. We study how this policy has impacted consumer financial health using the state-by-state rollout of legal sports gambling and a large and comprehensive dataset on consumer financial outcomes. Our main finding is that overall, consumers’ financial health is modestly deteriorating as the average credit score in states that legalize sports gambling decreases by roughly 0.3%. The decline in credit score is associated with changes in indicators of excessive debt. We find a substantial increase in bankruptcy rates, debt collections, debt consolidation loans, and auto loan delinquencies. We also find that financial institutions respond to the reduced creditworthiness of consumers by restricting access to credit. These results are stronger for states that allow sports gambling online compared to states that restrict access to in-person betting and larger for young men in low-income counties. Together, these results indicate that the ease of access to sports gambling is harming consumer financial health by increasing their level of debt.

That is from a new paper by Brett Hollenbeck, Poet Larsen, and Davide Proserpio.

Rupert Murdoch’s attempt to rule from the grave is stranger than fiction

Family patriarch, media mogul, nonagenarian and serial groom Rupert Murdoch has been famed for his remarks that he will live forever. He now appears to be aiming for the next best thing – the right to rule from the grave.

For the past nine months, he has been ensconced in an (until now) secret legal battle with three of his children aimed at securing his eldest son Lachlan as his successor to the corporate throne of his media empire.

Yet again , the Murdoch clan is demonstrating that truth can be stranger than fiction. The HBO television series Succession, which is loosely based on the machinations of this dynasty, doesn’t do justice to reality.

Through the decades, Murdoch senior has been no stranger to taking risks, but this latest roll of the dice is next level.

If his legal strategy backfires, the future of the empire could fall to a different heir with a very different plan for its future.

To facilitate his plans, he needs the court to approve a change to the terms of an irrevocable family trust – one which currently splits the controlling stakes in News Corporation and Fox Corp between his four eldest children (Prudence, Elisabeth, Lachlan and James) upon his death. (Rupert’s younger daughters Chloe and Grace have a financial interest, but no voting interest.)

Rupert is arguing in court that only by empowering Lachlan to run the company without interference from his more politically moderate siblings can he preserve its conservative editorial bent, and thus protect its commercial value for all his heirs, according to the New York Times, which obtained legal documents that spewed the contents of the tawdry succession battle.

Unlike most succession battles, Rupert’s move isn’t about money – it’s about power and control. He wants his business empire to continue to reflect his political views by giving control to the child who is most closely cut from his ideological cloth: Lachlan.

If Rupert loses, he has managed to galvanise three of his children into a bloc against Lachlan, which would likely ensure he will not remain on the throne of the Murdoch empire, which controls Fox and an international stable of publishing assets across the US, Britain and Australia.

To execute this legal manoeuvre, Rupert will rely on a narrow provision that enables changes to be made for the sole purpose of benefiting all of its members – the four elder Murdoch children.

Yet again, the Murdoch clan is demonstrating that truth can be stranger than fiction.

Murdoch’s lawyers have argued that he is trying to protect James, Elisabeth and Prudence by ensuring that they won’t be able to moderate Fox’s politics or disrupt its operations with constant fights over leadership, according to the New York Times.

The rationale is that Lachlan will allow media assets like Fox to retain their ultra-conservative political bent, one that has charged their profitability. And in doing so, this will be financially advantageous to his siblings.

It feels like Rupert is mounting a risky argument, given the counterfactual that if Elisabeth or James end up in control, their corporate strategies would diminish the value of Fox and/or News Corp.

Elisabeth in particular has been highly successful in her own business endeavours, and has been viewed by media experts as the most capable of the four children.

Happier days: Rupert with (from left) James, Elisabeth and Lachlan at a private family gathering in London in 2007.CREDIT: GETTY

The trial will begin in September, with the more liberal-leaning Prudence, Elisabeth and James jointly fighting their father’s move. They are being represented together by the same counsel.

Apart from the obvious strain Rupert’s move will place on family relationships, it calls into question whether his actions are necessary.

Over recent decades, allegiances between various family members appear to have changed, but division has been a recurring theme.

James and Elisabeth have previously competed with each other, and Lachlan, to eventually take over the company. James left the company in 2019 and now oversees an investment fund, and Elisabeth runs a successful movie studio, Sister.

Rupert Murdoch, 93, at his most recent wedding to Elena Zhukova in 2024.

Since leaving the family business, James has been vocal in his criticism of parts of the business, and in particular the corrosive impact of the ultraconservative Fox News.

His views may be supported by Elisabeth privately, but she has been scrupulous about not revealing any partisanship.

Prudence, who is most distant from the corporate empire, keeps a low profile, and while there have been suggestions over the years that she is most aligned with Lachlan, she also keeps her private counsel.

Had Rupert not intervened through the courts, it’s possible that Lachlan could have garnered enough sibling support to retain his position after his father’s death.

But if Rupert is unsuccessful, he will probably have ensured that Lachlan will no longer be wearing the crown. That is a very bold roll of the succession dice.

Wired [

webXray

unpaywalled]- This Machine Exposes Privacy Violations. A former Google engineer has built a search engine, WebXray, that aims to find illicit online data collection and tracking—with the goal of becoming “the Henry Ford of tech lawsuits.”…It’s a search engine for rooting out specific privacy violations anywhere on the web. By searching for a specific term or website, you can use WebXray to see which sites are tracking you, and where all that data goes. Its mission, he says, is simple; “I want to give privacy enforcers equal technology as privacy violators.” To level the playing field.

webXray – Privacy is inevitable: “webXray is a specialized tool for finding privacy violations on the web. While it shares similarities with a typical search engine like Google or Bing, its purpose, and features, are geared towards professionals in the legal and compliance sector who need to find specific violations of privacy law.

The best way to approach webXray is to first come up with some category of protected data you are interested in, many of which are defined by laws referenced in our knowledge base. Once you have an idea of what you are looking for – be it violations of children’s privacy, medical privacy, or other such topics – you are ready to begin a search. Each field below has text to help guide your use of the search engine.”

Adrian Katong - Stephen Jones - Fighting Scammers, Fighting for Australians

Adrian Katong ran a one-stop shop for phishing scams. Here's how he was tracked down

The digital economy has brought enormous benefits to Australians. It has enabled faster payments, better communications and instant access to global markets for goods, services, and ideas. It has also brought with it new social, economic and democratic harms – including a pandemic of scams which must be confronted. In this address Stephen Jones will talk about the Australian Government fight against the criminal scammers, how it fits in our broader digital agenda and why we are one of the only countries that has succeeded in reducing scam losses and what comes next.

Wednesday, 31 July 2024

Arrival 11:30am, Lunch served 12pm, Address commences 12:30pm, Concludes 1:30pm

The National Press Club of Australia

Fighting Scammers, Fighting for Australians - The Hon Stephen Jones MP

National Press Club Speech …

Digital and Cyber Security Strategy 2024–26

TPB’s November deadline for finalised ethics guidance

Stephen Jones retains role in recent Ministry shake up

Jones will remain Minister for Financial Services despite recent backlash over his administration of the portfolio from both the accounting and advice sectors.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced changes to the cabinet and broader ministry for the Labor Party on the weekend with the federal election drawing closer.

Tony Burke will take over the entire home affairs ministry, replacing Clare O'Neil and Andrew Giles. O'Neil will take over as Minister for Housing and Homelessness, previously looked after by Julie Collins.

Collins is now the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, and continues to be the Minister for Small Business.

Stephen Jones will remain as assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services despite the strong criticism he's received from both the accounting and advice sectors in relation to his approach to reform.

Earlier this month, Minister Jones released a ministerial determination which provided tax practitioners with only weeks to prepare for vague and "inconsistent" changes to the tax agent code of conduct.

The determination is the first use of new ministerial powers provided under legislation that was enacted last year in Treasury Laws Amendment (2023 Measures No. 1) Bill 2023.

The legislation enables a Minister to supplement the existing code with additional obligations via a legislative instrument.

The changes have received considerable backlash from professional bodies and the wider accounting sector. A coalition of ten industry bodies united to write an open letter to the Assistant Treasurer, demanding the withdrawal of his changes to the code of conduct.

Shadow Assistant Treasurer Luke Howarth accused Jones of waging war on both financial advisers and accountants following the release of the determination.

“Labor’s war on financial services professionals must end. After botching long awaited reforms to reduce red tape for financial advisers, the Assistant Treasurer has turned his attention to attacking local accountants, bookkeepers and tax agents," Howarth said in a recent statement.

“Some of these new obligations are far-reaching and potentially impossible for thousands of small tax practitioners to comply with. In his haphazard attempt to address bad behaviour from a few large international accounting firms, the Assistant Treasurer has caused chaos and confusion for the rest of the industry."

TPB chairman Peter de Cure has sought to assure the tax profession that the changes to the code of conduct are consistent with existing obligations and that many practitioners would already be complying.

The accounting sector has also been critical of the dob-in provisions introduced for practitioners, which were agreed to by Labor.

Industry bodies have called for a six-month delay to the start date for the breach reporting provisions to allow for further consultation and guidance from the TPB.

Kamala Harris economic record

Australian universities accused of awarding degrees to students with no grasp of ‘basic’ English

US carbon capture tax credits to persist no matter who wins elections: experts S&P Global

Investment companies running RV parks ‘into the ground’ RV Travel

TPB’s November deadline for finalised ethics guidance

In referring to a series of measures implemented by Beijing to rein in the surge in debt, S&P says that “the measures are more focused on ‘buying time’ than addressing the weak fundamentals of local governments.”

China’s crippling debt levels seen worsening as government measures focus on ‘buying time’ South Cnina Morning Post

Bill Gates on Kamala Harris’s US presidential bid: ‘It’s great to have somebody younger’ France24

Kamala Harris economic record

by Tyler Cowen

As a presidential candidate, Ms. Harris proposed replacing Mr. Trump’s 2017 tax cuts with a monthly refundable tax credit worth up to $500 for people earning less than $100,000. The policy, known as the LIFT the Middle Class Act, was unveiled in 2018 and aimed to address the rising cost of living by providing middle-class and working families with money to help pay for everyday expenses. She framed it as a way to close the wealth gap in the United States.
In 2019, Ms. Harris proposed increasing estate taxes on the wealthy to pay for a $300 billion plan to raise teacher salaries. In what was billed as the “largest federal investment in teacher pay in U.S. history,” the plan would have given the average teacher in America a $13,500 pay increase.
…Ms. Harris wanted to raise the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 35 percent, which is higher than the 28 percent that Mr. Biden had proposed.

And:

Ms. Harris made affordable housing a priority during her tenure in the Senate and her presidential campaign, but took a different approach. She proposed the Rent Relief Act, which would have provided refundable tax credits allowing renters who earn less than $100,000 to recoup housing costs in excess of 30 percent of their incomes.
To help the poorest, Ms. Harris also called for providing emergency relief funding for the homeless and for spending $100 billion in communities where people have traditionally been unable to get home loans because of discrimination.

And:

Ms. Harris, who served as California’s attorney general from 2011 to 2017, has also focused heavily on consumer protection. In 2016, she threatened Uber with legal action if the company did not remove driverless cars from the state’s roads.
After the 2008 financial crisis, she pulled California out of a national settlement with big banks, leveraging her power to wrest more money from major mortgage lenders. She later announced that California homeowners would receive $12 billion in mortgage relief under the settlement.

Here is the full NYT piece by Alan Rappeport

James Scott was working on rivers when he died

Jonathan Swift, microfinance pioneeer

Trees reveal climate surprise: Microbes living in bark remove methane from the atmospherePhys.or

France faces glut of unwanted Olympics tickets

by Tyler Cowen

The number of unwanted Paris Olympics tickets available for resale has hit more than a quarter of a million, as lack of demand increases concerns just days before Friday’s opening ceremony that many athletes will compete against a backdrop of empty seats.
The number of listings rose to 270,465 on Monday, up from about 180,000 a month ago, a Financial Times analysis of the official resale site shows. The most expensive offers on the resale site are for the opening ceremony, with the best seats priced at €2,970.

Note:

Tickets must be resold at face value.

Ahem. Here is the full FT story.

Tuesday, July 30, 2024

Banks play Jones like their fiddle; Application rejected but all’s well at The Australian Club

Not only is Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones wrapped tightly around Australian Banking Association chief Anna Bligh’s finger, but it’s the worst-kept secret in Canberra.

YONI BASHAN

@yoni_bashan

July 30, 2024

Sydney storm swells Bra Beach

The well-worn cliche is that politicians are always acting at the behest of someone influential, a deep-pocketed backer with incredible force-exertion over their office. And when it comes to Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones, it’s sadly, unmistakably true.

Just try to name a minister who’s been more thoroughly played by stakeholders. In Jones’s case, his masters occupy the deep-leather chairs of the Australian Banking Association, led by the indomitable former Queensland premier Anna Bligh. Not only is Jones wrapped tightly around her finger, but this is also the worst-kept secret in Canberra. We have it on impeccable authority that the ABA all but writes the minister’s speaking notes.

Not on every topic in Jones’s portfolio, of course – just one special inconvenience that they loathe with incredible passion. It’s called the Consumer Data Right, and the policy has been a target of an aggressive, covert lobbying campaign by the ABA since the Albanese government came to power.

Banks hate the CDR. Implemented in 2020, it forces them to share hard-earned consumer data with their competitors, data that – in the distorted worldview of the banks – belongs to them, not you. The CDR allows customers to switch banks with far greater ease than would otherwise be possible.

This was a Morrison-era policy. The vision was for a CDR that would span economy-wide, beyond mere banks and energy companies, its reach to eventually include telecoms, superannuation funds and non-bank lenders. Since 2022, when Labor won government and a frazzled Jones found himself in the ministry, the CDR has been basically spat out like a bad oyster. This is no accident.

In a week’s time, Jones will deliver a speech on the CDR at a CEDA forum in Sydney. Attendees paying $1500 per table are truly waiting bated for any hint of an update on this policy – if only to know when this pivotal policy will finally touch their sector. Jones said last year that non-bank lenders such as Afterpay and Cash Converters would be forced to comply by 2024.

But in crushing news to many, and in an extraordinary victory for the banks, Margin Call understands the minister’s speech will largely repeat the moth-eaten talking points of a year ago and conveniently kick the can down the road on CDR expansion.

How do we know this? Because indiscreet banking officials, claiming to be privy to the contents of the speech, have been gabbing all over town that they’ve successfully killed off the rollout.

And they’re not cheering because CBA suddenly likes sharing data with ANZ or Westpac; the banks still hate the CDR and even released a report last month arguing strongly for its uselessness.

They’re celebrating because the banks truly see consumer data – your data – as their property. Deranged by their own Smeagol-like obsessiveness, they cannot bear the notion of sharing this information with anyone else beyond their fiefdoms.

The ABA has truly played a blinder on Jones. With all the topspin it can muster, its people have skilfully convinced a Labor minister to back away from a policy of broad, unquestionable consumer benefit – for the strategic advantage of the nation’s largest banks.

This is quite a knot for any Labor minister to try to untie on their own, but especially Jones, whose credulousness suggests a daily struggle with his shoelace, and who’s abandoned all pretence of even trying to fight for the consumer any more.

Bar is raised, again

Stern words have reached us out of The Australian Club in Melbourne following Margin Call’s report on Tuesday that the high bar for membership had recently dropped at the male-only establishment – and that a row had erupted over this easing of the entry rules.

So easy is it to swan in to the William St venue, apparently, that prospective member Ryan Batros, formerly of Morgans, was on the verge of receiving the nod for admission. That’s despite receiving a five-year ban from ASIC some years ago, a blemish on the record that would ordinarily deem him a non-starter.

Club bosses, yet to have heard of “the internet” or “Google”, said on Tuesday that they were never told about it.

“Members may have read the article in the Margin Call column in The Australian today,” wrote president Charles Henry, in a very unhappy note to the fellas, and acting as though he didn’t have eight weeks to conduct a few mouse-clicks of due diligence himself.

“In light of the nondisclosure, the candidate has been withdrawn from the ballot pursuant to the rules of the club.

“Furthermore the committee categorically rejects the allegation that there has been a fall in any standards at the club.”

Sure about that? Quoth one recently resigned club member to Margin Call: “When I joined, this was a place where you saw captains of industry dining with the best legal minds in the city. Now it’s boorish trust fund kids and journeyman lawyers running the place.”

Meanwhile, in truly bizarre timing, some 45 minutes after Henry’s fist-clenched note arrived, members received a second email inviting them to the annual “prospective members cocktail party”.

“This is a wonderful opportunity to showcase the club and enjoy a wonderful night in equally excellent company!” the invitation said.

Sneesby reception

The menacing of Mike Sneesby by his aggrieved staff continues, although he managed to evade further efforts at harassment on Tuesday. The Nine CEO has definitely departed Paris and was rumoured to be arriving in Sydney during the afternoon. Some two dozen journalists and union representatives gathered at Kingsford Smith Airport to give him a very special welcome on arrival.

Perhaps he walked in off another flight, or is lying low elsewhere, or ducked out through the VIP entrance on arrival? The disappointed protest troupe couldn’t find him anywhere. Calls to Sneesby’s mobile were still yielding an international dial tone around the time he was expected to be wheels down.

Cups runneth over

Did you know Treasury spent $3300 on Keep Cups? The department spends quite a pretty penny on knick knacks and tchotchkes of little value (consistent with a few of its in-house policies). Some $5000 on protein shakers for the gym sharks who end up in its entry-level programs. Commemorative coins, click-top pens, hand sanitiser. Nearly $50,000 all up in FY24 on promotional bulls..t. But the biggest expense? $8058 on Bluetooth speakers, given out to volunteers at a tax event.