Financial Mindset

A federal judge ordered the Pentagon to give  Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.  a reprieve from a law that caused all of its lobbyists to drop it as a client while she considers the constitutionality of the measure, in a case set to test the US’s ability to curtail Chinese companies’ activities. Washington’s most powerful lobbying firms rushed to sever ties with Alibaba and other Chinese tech giants after a new law targeting entities allegedly aiding China’s military took effect last week, Bloomberg News previously  reported .    The restriction bars the Defense Department from working with any company represented by lobbyists who also work for entities blacklisted by the Pentagon for allegedly aiding the Chinese People’s Liberation Army. In practice, the provision forced lobbyists to choose between the sanctioned Chinese companies and US defense contractors, causing them to abandon the former. US District Judge Eumi K. Lee, who is overseeing a lawsuit ...

David Senra will tell you he doesn’t care if you listen to his podcast. And he means it. For five and a half years after he launched Founders in 2016, almost nobody did listen. He read one business biography per week—hard copy, with a pen and a six-inch ruler and a stack of Post-its— photographed his annotations, recorded his thoughts alone in a room, and published the result. No audience. No income. No feedback worth mentioning. “I told everyone, from day one, even with a single listener, that I was going to do this whether anybody listened or not,” he told me over FaceTime the first time we spoke. The proof is in the RSS feed. Hidden inside the code for Founders is a single line still bearing the podcast’s original title: “Autotelic”—a word that means an activity done purely for its own sake. Senra chose the name when he launched the show and never changed it, not even after the audience arrived. Courtesy of David Senra Founders began in Senra’s Miami kitc...

Former House Speaker  Nancy Pelosi ‘s husband was involved in a hit and run on Friday in California’s wine country that left one car with “major damage,” according to local authorities, who said that the 86-year-old could face misdemeanor charges for the collision. Paul Pelosi was driving his brown convertible in Yountville, a small town in the heart of wine country in Napa County, when he struck a legally parked car on the side of the road, briefly stopped and then drove away, Napa County Sheriff’s department said in a news release on Saturday. There were no reported injuries. A witness saw the collision and called 911. Shortly after, sheriff’s deputies then found Paul Pelosi with severe damage to the front of his car on a nearby road roughly one quarter of a mile away. The octogenarian told officers that he knew he hit something but wasn’t sure when or what caused the damage to his car. Paul Pelosi didn’t have any alcohol in his s...

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced that US dollar-denominated bills featuring President Donald Trump’s signature were being introduced to commemorate the nation’s 250th birthday. Bessent  reposted  a social-media message on Saturday by the president with an image of a $100 bill bearing Trump’s familiar signature to confirm the move. “There is no more powerful way to recognize the historic achievements of our great country and President Donald J. Trump than U.S dollar bills bearing his signature, and it is only appropriate that this historic currency be issued at the semiquincentennial,” Bessent wrote. Traditionally US paper currency contains the signature of the treasury secretary and the US treasurer, not the president.  Trump, a former New York businessman, has been eager to put his stamp — and his name — on institutions throughout Washington and the country.  The administration added Trump’s name to the US Institute of Peace last year, as well ...

The fuel shortage ravaging Russia has forced motorists around the country to wait in endless lines to fill up, evoking memories of communist-era privation. Ukraine’s months-long campaign of drone strikes on oil infrastructure deep inside Russian territory has forced oil refineries to shut down. Energy analysts have estimated that 25% or more of Russia’s refining capacity has been taken offline by the attacks. The head of Russia’s biggest oil company even called the damage to refineries “unprecedented,” according to a letter to President Vladimir Putin that was leaked to Russian newspaper Kommersant . The long-range drones and widespread shortages mean Russian civilians far from the frontlines are suffering the effects of Putin’s war on Ukraine. In the Siberian city of Irkutsk—about 3,000 miles from Ukraine—gas station lines are so long that local officials have vowed to provide portable toilets for Russians waiting along the road. One such motorist, Alyo...

Nike isn’t turning the corner just yet. The sports gear giant’s quarterly results this week showed a company still tripping over its own unforced errors, undercutting whatever progress it’s made toward a comeback. Nike shared some positive news in its earnings report on Tuesday, notably modest growth in North America, where revenue rose 3%. The bump reflects gains in Nike’s key footwear business and its mended relationships with the wholesalers it dumped a few years ago. But big sales declines in China, the loss of market share in areas like running shoes to brands such as On and Hoka, and the revenue free fall at Nike’s Converse brand cast a shadow over the bright spots. Nike CEO Elliott Hill and his team gave a cautious financial forecast for the current quarter in a tough macro environment. Nike finance chief Matthew Friend told analysts, “Our consumer is under pressure around the world.” Consumer sentiment is an easy scapegoat, but Nike’s own missteps...

Japan—famously slow to adopt digital technologies common across the developed world—has become a surprisingly fast adopter of AI, as it confronts both a shrinking population and aging digital infrastructure built on legacy code.  “Japan was our first or second most popular country in terms of user engagement overall,” said Russell Kaplan, president of Cognition AI, the San Francisco startup behind AI coding tool Devin, in early June.  The East Asian country has the world’s oldest population, with almost 30% of its residents over the age of 65. Japan’s working-age population is projected to decline by over 30% between now and 2060. The decline leads to a shortage of programming talent: In 2023, Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) estimated that the country would face a shortage of 789,000 software engineers by 2030.  Cognition AI is making Japan the first step in its Asian expansion, opening a Tokyo office in April; it will f...