SAO PAOLO – Despite a weak increase in sales of 1.2%, retail trade in Latin America’s largest economy suffered its biggest pullback since 2016 — when the country was in the midst of the worst recession in memory — according to data from the National Confederation of Trade in Goods, Services and Tourism of Brazil. … Read more
The iconic hotel The Standard on the Sunset Strip was a perennial bastion for Hollywood stars and a legendary boutique hotel, and was said to have been a model for boutique hotels worldwide. It closed after losing its lease. By Milan Sime Martinic Read more
Following similar defamation lawsuits in federal court against former Trump attorneys Rudy Guiliani and Sidney Powell (both also sued for $1.3b) for claiming election fraud to enrich themselves, this lawsuit has a twist in that it alleges MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell used conspiracy claims against the voting systems company “because the lie sells pillows,” according … Read more
Authorities in the tourist town of Uyuni, famous for its salt flats, are demanding the extradition (from one department to another) and prosecution of a Bolivian singer who goes by the pseudonym Frances P. The musician in a social media post said the town was so ugly she would not move there even for $3,000,000. … Read more
The drop started last Friday, and continued over the weekend and on Monday. The big tech stocks, like Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, and Microsoft, which have been on a long upward trend, have dropped significantly. The drop is considered possibly overdue given the high out-performance and positioning of the stocks. Read more
17% revenue growth is expected between now and 2022, according to a recent report by Research and Markets. Currently, revenues for these 20 countries is $3.5b. The 2022 number will be $4.1, and of the 20 countries, 5 countries will make up 75% of that revenue. The 17% gain in revenue will be from 5m … Read more
Japanese telecom company Softbank (the 62nd largest public company in the world) is buying Boston Dynamics from Alphabet (Google’s parent company). Softbank also got Japanese bipedal robotics company Schaft as part of the deal. Details of the deal weren’t published. Google bought Boston Dynamics in 2013 but put it back up for sale again last … Read more
Who is Tencent? It’s the largely unknown (maybe because it’s pretty media shy) parent company of China’s ubiquitous WeChat social media app. Their market cap is $330b, more than JPMorgan Chase. 500m people in China (of 650m total) use WeChat for communicating, finding goods and services, getting directions, and paying for things. Who else is … Read more
Why You Get Spam Voicemail When Your Phone Doesn’t Even Ring Now It’s the latest thing in telemarketing. The phone doesn’t ring, but you hear a notification that you have a new voicemail. It’s called “ringless voicemail” and it’s getting more common this year. The great thing about ringless voicemail — if you are a … Read more
According to Alexei Kutrin, speaking at the SPIEF economic forum this week, “The oil sector should be fully privatized in the next 7-8 years. No state companies are required there now as the statehood brings more harm than benefit to those companies.” He added that oil companies are able to deal with business issues without … Read more
The popularity and value of dealing in cryptocurrency has been established over the past couple of years, with Bitcoin the most prominent of many new digital moneys. The Russian Central Bank’s Deputy Chairman Olga Skorobogatova spoke at SPIEF 2017 spoke about Russia’s interest in developing their own. “Regulators of all countries agree that it’s time … Read more
The Supreme court in a 7-1 decision found that consumers can do what they want with the printers they buy, despite Lexmark forcing buyers to “sign” a “post-sale restriction” contract that the buyer won’t tamper with their patented product after they buy it. The case is “Impression v Lexmark.” Lexmark makes two similar types of … Read more