#Business brokers Washington

[ctadvise]

CTA sells the business in a significant event and typically involves a primary asset; it must remain confidential and be done right. The business owners are not only looking to maximize exit value at acceptable terms but also have concerns about the future of the company as it pertains to employees, customers, and vendors. CTA associates are highly knowledgeable in multiple industries and well versed in the process for a factor that qualified buyers expect to be presented in an analysis of a specific company or industry. https://www.ctadvise.com/

[ctabusinessbrokers]

CTAdvise: Your Trusted Business Brokers for Small Businesses in Washington

04/05/2024, Kirkland, WA- CTAdvise, a distinguished strategic consulting firm, is pleased to announce its dedicated business brokerage services tailored to small businesses in Washington State. With a focus on facilitating seamless business sales and acquisitions, CTA Business Brokers is committed to providing exceptional support to entrepreneurs and small business owners throughout the region.

Operating as seasoned business brokers, CTAdvise is primed to serve small businesses in key cities such as Seattle, Spokane, Tacoma, and Vancouver. Understanding the unique challenges faced by small enterprises, we offer personalized solutions crafted to meet the individual needs of each client.

"Small businesses are the cornerstone of our economy, and our mission is to empower them with the guidance and resources they need to thrive," remarked the CEO of CT Advise. "Drawing upon our extensive experience in strategic consulting and transaction advisory, we are well-equipped to assist small business owners in navigating the intricacies of selling a business."

CTA Business Brokers' comprehensive suite of brokerage services encompasses business valuation, market analysis, targeted marketing, seller representation, negotiation facilitation, and transaction oversight. Leveraging its industry expertise and vast network of sellers, we ensure that clients achieve optimal value and seamless transactions.

"We are excited to extend our support to small businesses across Washington State," added the CEO. "Whether you're looking to sell your business in Seattle, Spokane, Tacoma, or Vancouver, or seeking opportunities for business acquisition, CTA Business Brokers is your trusted partner every step of the way."

For small business owners in Washington State seeking to sell a business, we at CTA Business Brokers offer a reliable ally with a proven track record of success. With a personalized approach and unwavering commitment to client satisfaction, CTA Business Brokers emerges as the region's premier choice for business brokerage services.

Choosing the right mergers & acquisitions – a business brokerage advisor is important in your transition journey. Feel free to call (425) 658-0454 to confidentially discuss your company and transition goals we would welcome the opportunity to learn more and see how we can assist.

About CTA:

CTA Business Brokers is a leading Pacific Northwest mergers & acquisitions – business brokerage firm with the market knowledge, expertise, and transaction experience to effectively process and guide your business sale. We are experts in business valuation, locating qualified buyers, and guiding the process through due diligence. Straight talk, seasoned professionals, with expected results, is a motto and what you can expect when you associate with our firm. Our vast knowledge across a wide spectrum of industries is an asset and we are knowledgeable on how to present specific business models in most industries.

Media Contact:

CTA Business Brokers

Website: https://www.ctadvise.com/ 

Tel: +1 (425) 658-0454

Email: info@ctadvise.com

Address: 11335 NE 122nd Way, Suite 105, Kirkland, WA 98034, United States 

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[fdelopera]

America owes its independence to Haym Salomon, a Sephardic Jewish Patriot

A Jewish American Hero

by Yosef Kaufmann

October 17, 1781. An eerie silence takes hold over the battlefield outside Yorktown, Virginia. After weeks of non-stop artillery shells and rifle fire, the rhythmic pounding of a drum is all that is heard. Through the wispy smoke that floats above the battlefield, a British officer can be seen waving a white flag. General Cornwallis has surrendered Yorktown, ending the last major battle of the American Revolution. The surrender of Yorktown and the nearly 8,000 British troops convinced the British Parliament to start negotiating an end to the war. On September 3, 1783, the treaty of Paris was signed. The war was over.

If not for Haym Salomon, however, the decisive victory at Yorktown never would have happened.

Haym Salomon was born in Leszno, Poland, in 1740. In 1770, he was forced to leave Poland for London as a result of the Partition of Poland. Five years later, he left London for New York City, where he quickly established himself as a broker for international merchants.

Sympathetic to the Patriot cause, Haym joined the New York branch of the Sons of Liberty, a secret society that did what it could to undermine British interests in the colonies. In 1776, he was arrested by the British and charged with being a spy. He was pardoned on condition that he spend 18 months on a British ship serving as a translator for the Hessian mercenaries, as he was fluent in Polish, French, German, Russian, Spanish and Italian. During those 18 months, Haym used his position to help countless American prisoners escape. He also convinced many Hessian soldiers to abandon the British and join the American forces.

In 1778, he was arrested again and sentenced to death for his involvement in a plot to burn the British Royal fleet in the New York Harbour. He was sent to Provost to await execution, but he managed to bribe a guard and escape under the cover of darkness.

He fled New York, which was under the control of the British army, and moved to Philadelphia, the capital of the Revolution.

He borrowed money and started a business as a dealer of bills of exchange. His office was located near a coffee house frequented by the command of the American forces. He also became the agent to the French consul and the paymaster for the French forces in North America. Here he became friendly with Robert Morris, the newly appointed Superintendent of Finance for the 13 colonies. Records show that between 1781 and 1784, through both fundraising and personal loans, he was responsible for financing George Washington over $650,000, today worth approximately over $13 million.

By 1781, the American congress was practically broke. The huge cost of financing the war effort had taken its toll. In September of that year, George Washington decided to march on Yorktown to engage General Cornwallis. A huge French fleet was on its way from the West Indies under the command of Comte De Grasse. The fleet would only be able to stay until late October, so Washington was facing immense pressure to lead an attack on Yorktown before then.

After marching through Pennsylvania, with little in the way of food and supplies, Washington’s troops were on the verge of mutiny. They demanded a full month's pay in coins, not congressional paper money which was virtually worthless, or they would not continue their march. Washington wrote to Robert Morris saying he would need $20,000 to finance the campaign. Morris responded that there was simply no money or even credit left. Washington simply wrote, “Send for Haym Salomon.” Within days, Haym Salomon had raised the $20,000 needed for what proved to be the decisive victory of the Revolution.

Haym’s chessed continued after the war. Whenever he met someone who he felt had sacrificed during the war and needed financial assistance, he didn’t hesitate to do whatever he could to help.

He was also heavily involved in the Jewish community. He was a member of Congregation Mikveh Yisroel in Philadelphia, the fourth oldest synagogue in America, and he was responsible for the majority of the funds used to build the shul’s main building.

He also served as the treasurer to the Society for the Relief of Destitute Strangers, the first Jewish charitable organization in Philadelphia.

On January 8, 1785, Haym died suddenly at the age of 44. Due to the fact the government owed him hundreds of thousands of dollars, his family was left penniless.

His obituary in the Independent Gazetteer read:

Thursday, last, expired, after a lingering illness, Mr. Haym Salomon, an eminent broker of this city, was a native of Poland, and of the Hebrew nation. He was remarkable for his skill and integrity in his profession, and for his generous and humane deportment. His remains were yesterday deposited in the burial ground of the synagogue of this city.

Although there is little proof, many believe that when designing the American Great Seal, George Washington asked Salomon what he wanted as compensation for his generosity during the war. Salomon responded “I want nothing for myself, rather something for my people.” It is for this reason that the 13 stars are arranged in the shape of the Star of David.

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

by Jacob Magid

Following a request by the US, Qatar told Hamas over a week ago that it must close its diplomatic office in Doha, senior Biden administration officials told The Times of Israel on Friday.

Qatar has hosted Hamas officials in Doha since 2012, when the terror group moved its headquarters out of Damascus amid the Syrian civil war and after successive US administrations from both parties urged Qatar to serve as a conduit to the terror group.

Following Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, the US informed Qatar that Doha would not be able to maintain “business as usual” with the terror group. However, the administration held off on asking the Gulf state to shutter the Hamas office, viewing the communication channel with Hamas to be as critical as ever in brokering a ceasefire and hostage release deal.

Those talks yielded in a week-long deal last November, but they have failed to secure a permanent ceasefire or the release of the remaining 101 hostages.

A US official told The Times of Israel that Hamas’s execution of American-Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin along with five other captives in late August and subsequent rejection of more ceasefire proposals are what led the administration to change its approach regarding the terror group’s continued presence in Doha, deeming it “no longer viable or acceptable.”

The US decision also coincided with its unsealing of indictments against Hamas officials, including one of its top leaders Khaled Meshaal, who is known to reside in Doha, the US official said.

“After rejecting repeated proposals to release hostages, its leaders should no longer be welcome in the capitals of any American partner,” a second senior administration official told The Times of Israel.

Hamas showed no signs of budging from “unrealistic positions” in the negotiations, maintaining conditions that would have effectively ensured its ability to remain in power in Gaza — “something the US and Israel will never accept,” the American official said.

[mariacallous]

Congress may be closer than ever to passing a comprehensive data privacy framework after key House and Senate committee leaders released a new proposal on Sunday.

The bipartisan proposal, titled the American Privacy Rights Act, or APRA, would limit the types of consumer data that companies can collect, retain, and use, allowing solely what they’d need to operate their services. Users would also be allowed to opt out of targeted advertising, and have the ability to view, correct, delete, and download their data from online services. The proposal would also create a national registry of data brokers, and force those companies to allow users to opt out of having their data sold.

“This landmark legislation gives Americans the right to control where their information goes and who can sell it,” Cathy McMorris Rodgers, House Energy and Commerce Committee chair, said in a statement on Sunday. “It reins in Big Tech by prohibiting them from tracking, predicting, and manipulating people’s behaviors for profit without their knowledge and consent. Americans overwhelmingly want these rights, and they are looking to us, their elected representatives, to act.”

Congress has tried to put together a comprehensive federal law protecting user data for decades. Lawmakers have remained divided, though, on whether that legislation should prevent states from issuing tougher rules, and whether to allow a “private right of action” that would enable people to sue companies in response to privacy violations.

In an interview with The Spokesman Review on Sunday, McMorris Rodgers claimed that the draft’s language is stronger than any active laws, seemingly as an attempt to assuage the concerns of Democrats who have long fought attempts to preempt preexisting state-level protections. APRA does allow states to pass their own privacy laws related to civil rights and consumer protections, among other exceptions.

In the previous session of Congress, the leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committees brokered a deal with Roger Wicker, the top Republican on the Senate Commerce Committee, on a bill that would preempt state laws with the exception of the California Consumer Privacy Act and the Biometric Information Privacy Act of Illinois. That measure, titled the American Data Privacy and Protection Act, also created a weaker private right of action than most Democrats were willing to support. Maria Cantwell, Senate Commerce Committee chair, refused to support the measure, instead circulating her own draft legislation. The ADPPA hasn’t been reintroduced, but APRA was designed as a compromise.

“I think we have threaded a very important needle here,” Cantwell told The Spokesman Review. “We are preserving those standards that California and Illinois and Washington have.”

APRA includes language from California’s landmark privacy law allowing people to sue companies when they are harmed by a data breach. It also provides the Federal Trade Commission, state attorneys general, and private citizens the authority to sue companies when they violate the law.

The categories of data that would be impacted by APRA include certain categories of “information that identifies or is linked or reasonably linkable to an individual or device,” according to a Senate Commerce Committee summary of the legislation. Small businesses—those with $40 million or less in annual revenue and limited data collection—would be exempt under APRA, with enforcement focused on businesses with $250 million or more in yearly revenue. Governments and “entities working on behalf of governments” are excluded under the bill, as are the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and, apart from certain cybersecurity provisions, “fraud-fighting” nonprofits.

Frank Pallone, the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, called the draft “very strong” in a Sunday statement, but said he wanted to “strengthen” it with tighter child safety provisions.

Still, it remains unclear whether APRA will receive the necessary support for approval. On Sunday, committee aids said that conversations on other lawmakers signing onto the legislation are ongoing. The current proposal is a “discussion draft”; while there’s no official date for introducing a bill, Cantwell and McMorris Rodgers will likely shop around the text to colleagues for feedback over the coming weeks, and plan to send it to committees this month.

[femmmie]

THE ISLAND

Read the entire fic on AO3

Chapter 9: The crash

Things have taken a turn. What will Dave Dilford do now he's unemployed? Also, Ian, Shayne and Courtney are flying on Air Force 1. But Ian senses something's not right...

Chapter word count: 1.503

Rating: teen

“Effective immediately, Defy Media has ceased business.”

As soon as he read the e-mail, Dave Dilford dropped his phone.

“What the hell?!”

He scrambled to pick it back up. His custom Roblox case fell off, but he didn’t have time to put it back. He immediately called every member of the board.

“Shit! Pick up, you boring fucks!”

Noone responded.

As he walked out of his office, into the hall, several other people were already standing there. They were holding their phones and stared at each other with expressions of disbelief and just dumbfoundedness.

“Is it really true?” Dave mumbled, more to himself than to his colleagues. But one of them said, “yeah, we’re unemployed now.”

Suddenly, a junior consultant ran through the hall, screaming, “LET’S SET THIS BUILDING ON FIREEEE”.

This got everyone out of their trance, and they all walked to the lunch hall where people were already rioting.

“Hecox…” Dave balled his fists and punched one against the wall. In the chaos that surrounded him, nobody even noticed. He screamed and stormed out of the building.

Still fuming, and with a sore hand, he drove home in his Volkswagen Atlas Cross Sport. He was deep in thought. His plans were all ruined now. Helping this new guy win over the U.S. with a smile and a wink and nod, and memes. Dave had hoped to become chief of communications in the Hecox administration.

At home in his small living room, he switched on the tv. The news had just now broken about Defy.

“It is a grim day for president Hecox. Donors have fled ever since he shared his extreme and populist agenda. And now, superPAC Defy Media has stopped operations. Hecox’s radical decisions have been quite popular with the people but the former power players in Washington are not happy. Without access to the president, how can they advance their interests?”

“Hecox! You ruined me!” Dave stood up and called a number.

~

Ian, Shayne and Courtney entered Air Force One. They were headed to a foreign country to broker peace talks and try to get some sort of ceasefire deal.

“I love the country,” Courtney said. They were absolutely rocking a hot pink blazer and shorts. “But I don’t see how we’re going to stop this conflict… it’s gone on for so long.” They looked out of the window as the plane ascended.

“Yeah, and the people are so friendly! Why is it that good people elect terrible leaders so often? No offense, Ian.” Shayne shot Ian a playful smirk.

“None taken, man. Just wait until I decree statues of myself all over the world, with a huge dong of course.”

“Actually, that would be pretty awesome.”

Ian and Shayne often bantered like this, and Ian found some solace in it. But even so, he would love someone who would shock HIM with something outrageous. And Shayne had tried but never succeeded, at least not yet.

“It would be, right?”

“Guys!” Courtney said fake-exasperated.

After a few hours had passed, Ian looked out of the window. He saw blue skylines in every direction. And he got an awful feeling in the pit of his stomach. Was this it?

He tried to act cool. “Shouldn’t we be there yet?”

Shayne was totally relaxed. “Maybe some high-altitude winds or something?”

“Only high-altitude wind here is Courtney’s passing gas all the time.”

“Hey!” Courtney protested with a burp.

Shayne kissed them on the cheek.

“Yall are disgusting,” Ian joked. But he couldn’t help but feel like something was off.

“We haven’t heard from the pilot once yet, right? I find it a bit odd. Could you check with them on why we’re taking a detour?”

“Sure!” Shayne walked up to the cockpit.

~

They were falling, fast.

“What’s happening?!”

Courtney stumbled towards the cockpit where Shayne had disappeared just moments ago. Where was he? But then they heard shots, and a couple of loud thuds.

“Shayne!” Courtney shrieked. “Shayne!!”

No answer. The door of the cockpit was locked.

The oxygen was quickly running out and their vision became blurry. They banged their fists on the closed door, then tried to claw it open.

“Shayne, honey… please hold on… I’m… I’m on my way…”

~

What was left of the plane, was quickly filling with water and beginning to sink.

A black boat appeared out of the thick mist that lay over the water. And a guy dressed in all black dove in. He was under for a long time.

Tommy nearly fainted as he held his breath, standing on deck. He really didn’t like the sea. He did respect it, he wanted the best for it, but he didn’t want to be in, on or even near it. And he certainly didn’t want Spencer to risk his life diving around a sinking plane.

Tommy and Spencer had been stealthily following a speedboat. But their plans had dramatically changed as they saw Air Force 1 fall out of the sky.

Spencer immediately went into GI Joe mode. It was like a switch had flicked inside of him. From goofy and lovable back to being a dangerous spy.

He resurfaced with not one but two people. They were both unconscious.

Panting, he handed the bodies to Tommy. “Do you know CPR?”

“Uhm, uhh..” Tommy was stuttering. “Y- Yes, I am OSHA-certified…”

“Quickly, save their lives, I’m going back in.”

“But Spe-” and he was gone. Damn.

Tommy tried his hardest. The first person, a beefy blonde guy, barfed up some sea water and came to his senses. At first, he just blinked and tried to reorient himself. But then he saw the other person. He jumped up.

“Courtney!” Shayne cried, horrified.

“I’m going to try to get her back,” Tommy tried to reassure him.

Shayne kneeled at Courtney’s side and squeezed their hand. He was bleeding but he only had eyes for his beloved Courtney. Tears ran down his face, or maybe it was water still running down from his hair. “Please, save them…”

Tommy kept pumping, blowing air into their lungs… Shayne screamed, it was horrible to see someone so distraught up-close.

Finally, a whole heap of water catapulted out of Courtney.

They slowly opened their eyes. “Hmm, still better than My Favorite Coffee.”

Shayne took them into his arms and hugged them so tightly, Courtney winced.

“Oh no, I’m so sorry, honey, are you okay?”

“As okay as you could be after a plane crash, I guess.” They said it so matter-of-factly that both Shayne and Tommy laugh-cried.

“Thank you so much, mister, for helping us. What an incredible coincidence that you just happened to be here!”

“Yeah, about that…” Tommy began, but Spencer resurfaced again.

“We have to go,” he said urgently.

“Where is the president?!” Shayne and Courtney protested.

“The president?!” Tommy gasped.

“NOW!” Spencer commanded and shuttled all of them into the cabin of the boat. He went out on deck once more and released a couple of lifeboats.

“That’s the best I can do for now, president Hecox, I’m sorry. But I’ve met my match.”

Spencer couldn’t believe it. All his years of experience couldn’t have prepared him for this.

There were several adversaries on board the sinking plane. How that could even happen was beyond him. But he fought most of them off easily, his martial arts training paying off handsomely.

Only one of them remained. Spencer had a hard time cornering him.

It wasn’t even a guard or a terrorist. He looked like some tech-bro or something. a sickly pale skin color, bags under his eyes… but a terrifying fire lay within them. Spencer had never known fear until he saw that face. His entire body told him this man was dangerous.

They brawled for a while but neither of them could get the upper hand. Until the guy took a can of gasoline that was randomly aboard the plane and got a golden anime-boob lighter out of his wet jorts.

“But the president is still out there!” Spencer had shouted, catching the guy off-guard.

“He’s still out there?! Okay, that’s even better!”

Dave licked his lips maniacally, and spat, “I am going to blow this shit up, so you better run, boy!”

Spencer was ashamed to say that he did run.

But there was still no explosion. Should he turn back? Had he failed? Spencer’s world was spinning.

A warm hand touched his shoulder, bringing him back to earth.

“Spencer?”

“Oh. Hey.”

Tommy hugged him.

“Thank you for keeping me safe.”

“Thank you for saving those people’s lives.”

“We saved them together…” Tommy walked his fingers around Spencer’s neckline.

“I was pretty awesome, I’ll admit. It kinda felt like a Solid Snake mission.”

“Oh my god!” Tommy couldn’t help but laugh. Why was this FBI-agent also a gamer?

“Hey. Want an ice cream?” Spencer caught him off-guard.

“We have those on board?”

“Of course.”

Tommy blushed. “Spencer… you know exactly what I need.”

“Do I, now?”

Tommy got all four of them ice creams.

[scotianostra]

William Playfair the Scottish engineer and political economist was born on September 22nd 1759.

I read one article about Playfair that describes him as "a kind of Forrest Gump of the Enlightenment" perhaps a bit harsh, I would say he was a bit of a polymath, another source in my opinion is more accurate, Playfair is without doubt to many of you out there "the most famous man you have never heard of" he rubbed shoulders with the era’s many giants, switching careers at the drop of a hat, and throwing himself headlong into history-changing events, from the storming of the Bastille to the settling of the American West.

William had a lot to live up to, his brothers were architect James Playfair and mathematician John Playfair, his father passed away when he was 13 and it was left to John to lead the family and his education.

After serving his apprenticeship with Andrew Meikle, the inventor of the threshing machine, William Playfair became draftsman and personal assistant to James Watt at the Boulton and Watt steam engine factory in Soho, Birmingham then seems to have just wander from one trade to another, the way Gump wandered through life, so you can see where the analogy comes from.

William, was, during his adult life, (takes a deep breath) a millwright, engineer, draftsman, accountant, inventor, silversmith, merchant, investment broker, economist, statistician, pamphleteer, translator, publicist, land speculator, convict, banker, ardent royalist, editor, blackmailer and journalist.

Okay they are not all jobs, but they do put you in the picture a wee bit on the character of the man I think.

Most interestingly in my opinion was his time as a spy in France during the Revolution and was on the scene during the storming of the Bastille. He even helps trigger the first major political scandal in the newly formed United States, a land speculation gone bad involving Washington, Hamilton, and Jefferson.

To go into all of this man's adventurers would take too long, instead I will just tell you that the one thing he did, that has been a part of all your lives, in one way or another, is he invented the graph. Before William invented the graph you had to read through pages of statistics to find things out, the graph, you "get it" in a glance.

In 1786, he published "The Commercial and Political Atlas" , a compendium of bar and line charts representing different European countries’ imports, exports, wages, and other trends for which he had the data handy. As the man himself explained, “Men of high rank, or active business, can only pay attention to outlines… It is hoped that, with the Assistance of these Charts, such information will be got without the fatigue and trouble of studying the particulars.” he went on “No study is less alluring or more dry and tedious than statistics, unless the mind and imagination are set to work,” in the book’s introduction.

His old boss Watt, was sent a copy of the Commercial Atlas for review, and wasn't impressed, called the book “mere plummery” and its author “a Rascal.”

To finish I must say that he was a rather humble man and actually gave credit for the invention to his brother writing, "John taught me to know that whatever can be expressed in numbers, may be represented by lines,” Playfair wrote much later, in the introduction to one of his books of diagrams. “To the best and most affectionate of brothers, I owe the invention of these Charts.”

He was never a success in his lifetime and was seen as a ditherer by Watt.

William Playfair died in 1823, in poverty and relative obscurity, banned from any good society. Slowly, over the next century or so, the supply of readily available data grew—as did the the public’s appetite for it. Bar, line and pie charts began trickling into newspapers and textbooks. Two hundred years later, as we barrel forward into the Information Age, you can’t click a link without stumbling upon some kind of data visualisation.

The next time you come across a graph, remember, like many other notable inventions in our history, take pride in that it was the work of a Scot that gave us these easy to read information "pictures".

You can find more on William Playfair here https://www.atlasobscura.com/.../the-scottish-scoundrel...

[rjzimmerman]

As climate change produces more extreme weather, insurers are losing money, even in states with low hurricane and wildfire danger. Across the country, insurers are facing more bad years than good years. If this trend continues, it could destabilize the broader economy.

Excerpt from this story from the New York Times:

The insurance turmoil caused by climate change — which had been concentrated in Florida, California and Louisiana — is fast becoming a contagion, spreading to states like Iowa, Arkansas, Ohio, Utah and Washington. Even in the Northeast, where homeowners insurance was still generally profitable last year, the trends are worsening.

In 2023, insurers lost money on homeowners coverage in 18 states, more than a third of the country, according to a New York Times analysis of newly available financial data. That’s up from 12 states five years ago, and eight states in 2013. The result is that insurance companies are raising premiums by as much as 50 percent or more, cutting back on coverage or leaving entire states altogether. Nationally, over the last decade, insurers paid out more in claims than they received in premiums, according to the ratings firm Moody’s, and those losses are increasing.

The growing tumult is affecting people whose homes have never been damaged and who have dutifully paid their premiums, year after year. Cancellation notices have left them scrambling to find coverage to protect what is often their single biggest investment. As a last resort, many are ending up in high-risk insurance pools created by states that are backed by the public and offer less coverage than standard policies. By and large, state regulators lack strategies to restore stability to the market.

Insurers are still turning a profit from other lines of business, like commercial and life insurance policies. But many are dropping homeowners coverage because of losses.

Tracking the shifting insurance market is complicated by the fact it is not regulated by the federal government; attempts by the Treasury Department to simply gather data have been rebuffed by some state regulators. To understand what’s happening in the insurance industry, The New York Times interviewed more than 40 insurance executives, brokers, officials and homeowners in a dozen states, and also reviewed financial records from insurers in all 50 states going back more than a decade.

[archinform]

George W. Maher, architect - part 1

Hutchinson Street District, Chicago

Unless otherwise noted, photographs are by Roger Jones

George Maher in the 1890s (Kenilworth Historical Society)

George Washington Maher (December 25, 1864 – September 12, 1926) was an architect who worked in the United States mainly during the first quarter of the 20th century. Maher was noted for his designs in the Prairie Style, and in his time was often more well-known than his contemporary Frank Lloyd Wright.

Maher was part of a new movement in architecture that sought to establish a distinctive American style. East Coast architect Henry H. Richardson had garnered attention by designing monolithic stone buildings. In Chicago, a new architectural style was emerging. Variously labeled as “The New School of the Midwest,” “Rationalism” or “Chicago Style,” it is today known as the Prairie School.Many young architects had begun their careers together and were inspired by Richardson and Sullivan. Maher, George Elmslie and Frank Lloyd Wright had worked together in the office of architect Joseph Lyman Silsbee, whose influence can also be seen in their work. Evanston Roundtable

Maher is well-represented in Chicago, notably in the Hutchinson Street District, and found early success in Oak Park, as well as in Kenilworth, where he lived.

This post focuses on five houses he designed on Hutchinson Street, and includes links to interior photos and historic images.

Mosser House, 750 W. Hutchinson St., 1902

The facade of the Mosser House isn't easily seen from the street. Photo: Zillow

Exterior views

This house was designed by George W. Maher in 1902, and sits on 6 city lots of private landscaping, designed by landscape architect Jens Jensen. The home's interior features details crafted by designer Louis Millet, who also designed the stained glass Tiffany dome in the Chicago Cultural Center. The home is located in the former Scales parcel (see Scales house below).

Above floor plans and fireplace views courtesy of Pricey Pads. Click on link for extensive views of the house.

Willliam H. Lake House, 832 W. Hutchinson St., 1904

Front view

Above: images from the Inland Architect and News Record, Vol. XLVI No. 3, Oct. 1905

W.H. Lake was a grain broker and senior partner in the firm of W.H. Lake   & Company which was located in the Board of Trade Building. Lake, following the lead of his neighbor, John Scales, chose to commission George Maher as architect for his home, which was constructed in 1904. In the Lake House, Maher developed his final version of the Farson House (1897) type. In this type of design Maher made his most significant contribution to the indigenous American architecture he worked so hard to develop. Unity is achieved by formal arrangement of elements within the design. The basic form of this house type is a massive rec- tangle with horizontal elements dominating the composition and drawing it together. Hutchinson Street District, City of Chicago Landmark Designation Reports

Images of the interior an be found on the real estate site here.

Seymour House, 817 W. Hutchinson St., 1913

The house at 817 Hutchinson was designed by George W. Maher and constructed in 1913 for Claude Seymour. Drawings of the front facade were published in the Chicago Architectural Club Catalog for 1913. Seymour was a vice-president of Otto Young and Company, an upholstery business. Like many of his neighbors, Young was active in the Chicago Automobile Club and a member of many other fashionable clubs.

In his design for the Seymour House, Maher borrowed heavily from English country houses by C.F.A. Voysey and the firm of Parker and Unwin. The two-story house is basically H-shaped, though a one-story porch (not an addition) does break the symmetry of the facade. The many windows and their arrangement here are typical of Parker & Unwin's designs, but the geometric pattern in the leaded glass is distinctly the work of Maher.

This design and its variations are used consistently in all decorative elements to lend a measure of continuity; Maher called it his motif-rhythm theory.

City of Chicago Landmark designation Reports

Image from The Western Architect, March 1914

Images of the interior an be found on the real estate site here.

John C. Scales House, 840 West Hutchinson Street, 1894

John C. Scales came to Chicago with his parents in 1845 when he was just 4 years old, and his father set up a commission business in town, where John eventually became a partner. Scales, the son, invested his money in real estate and purchased a section of the Buena Park subdivision on the city's then remote north side. Chicago designslinger

The Queen Anne style and busy roofline contrast strongly with Maher's later designs along Hutchinson St. The rough-cut stone along with half-timber design is almost playful.

Archival photo of the Scales House

Brackebush House, 839 W. Hutchinson St., c. 1909-10

Maher designed this home in 1909 for Mrs. Grace Brackebush.

Despite the rather awkward handling of certain elements in the design of the house at 839 Hutchinson Street certain experts feel that the design is��the work of George W. Maher. The design probably dates from the period between 1905 and 1910, when Maher was beginning to work with a new type of design, one that was inspired by English architects such as C.F.A. Voysey and the Viennese architect Joseph M. Olbrich. - Hutchinson Street District, City of Chicago Landmark Designation Report

Images of the interior can be found on the real estate site here

Sources:

City of Chicago Landmark Designation Reports, Hutchinson Street District, Revised Summary of Information September 8, 1975, Commission on Chicago Historical and Architectural Landmarks

Geo. W. Maher, a democrat in Architecture. The Western Architect, March 1914

George W. Maher's Prairie Style. Owlcation.

Four Architectural Gems in Chicago's Buena Park for Sale. Chicago Magazine.

Buena Park Neighbors, History of Hutchinson Street.

The George W. Maher Society, About George W. Maher.

Block Club Chicago, Want to Own a Piece of Chicago's Past?

Evanston Roundtable - George W. Maher

[ctadvise]

Find the best business broker.

A business broker is someone who is involved in the buying and selling of your business on the path that you want to take. A business broker also provides the business on the market with the best piece of advice, although their offer also retains the service of a business broker or business transfer advisor.

A business broker always works with the seller, and even if you’re a buyer or you want to retain the services of the business broker or transfer advice, you’ll receive the most benefit from the broker. The same way a real estate broker sells houses, business brokers are just like that, except they sell businesses. They are intermediaries between a business owner who’s selling their business and an acquirer who wants to purchase it.

The broker is someone who holds things together between the buyer and seller for the progress of the business transaction. CTA business broker sectors work with different sectors such as manufacturing, wholesale distribution, service, industrial, construction traders, aerospace, consumer goods, automotive, marine, landscaping, technology, and e-commerce.

An automotive business broker is there to give you advice or help you with a reliable valuation of your automotive M&A advisory. CTA Business Advisory is here to help you with a reliable valuation as well as preparation for due diligence. At CTA, business brokers have the right to assemble a team to help you equalise the negotiation process and approach buyers with an offer when your company is not on the market.

Selling an aerospace business is a challenge for an M&A advisory because it is very difficult to get the best business valuation and maximise value per sale through quality due diligence. A CTA business broker or advisor provides you with the best opportunities and outcomes for your company. At CTA, you will receive expert advice from people who will assist you in drafting a letter of intent, negotiating the deal, managing buyer requests, and helping to level the playing field during negotiations.The CTA team's experts break down all cultural barriers, integration challenges, and communication snafus.

CTA Business Brokerage, Auburn, WA, is the right mergers and acquisitions business brokerage advisor who draws on our extensive M&A experience to support you. We have great knowledge of business valuation, locating qualified buyers, and guiding the process through due diligence. CTA is a performance-based company that only earns a fee when your company is sold, and they do not require any upfront fees or administration fees for representation.

CTA is here to associate you with a knowledgeable marketplace, have an understanding of multiple industries, and have the transaction experience to ensure that your company transitions in an efficient manner. We are here to provide exceptional results for our clients. Visit us now at https://www.ctadvise.com/

[beardedmrbean]

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has threatened “an out and out brawl” with billionaire backers of Kamala Harris in a row over attempts to curb Silicon Valley’s power.

The Democrat congresswoman warned supporters of Ms Harris, who has attracted hundreds of millions of dollars in donations from businesses and tech entrepreneurs, against attempting to remove Lina Khan, the chair of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

The Democratic competition tsar, who was appointed to lead the FTC aged just 32 under Joe Biden, has led a crusade against Silicon Valley monopolies. 

Ms Khan has spearheaded a crackdown on technology giants, launching investigations into Amazon, Meta and Microsoft. She has also zeroed in on pharmaceutical giants and drugmakers, as well as data brokers and grocery chains.

Her relentless campaign against alleged breaches of competition law has earned the ire of technology investors and Silicon Valley executives, who have accused her of “waging war” on the sector.

A former senator for California, Ms Harris is well known among Bay Area entrepreneurs and many have donated to her past campaigns.

On Wednesday, Mark Cuban, the billionaire businessman and a supporter of Ms Harris, told news website Semafor the Democratic nominee should sack Ms Khan if she wins power. “The bigger picture is she’s hurting more than she’s helping,” Mr Cuban said. “If it were me, I wouldn’t [keep her].”

It follows similar calls from Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn, who has donated millions of dollars to the Democrats. In June, Mr Hoffman said Ms Khan was “a person who is not helping America. Antitrust is fine, waging war is not”.

In response, Ms Ocasio-Cortez, the firebrand New York congresswoman, claimed billionaires were “trying to play footsie with the ticket”. She added: “Anyone goes near Lina Khan and there will be an out and out brawl. And that is a promise.”

“She proves this admin fights for working people. It would be terrible leadership to remove her.”

Bernie Sanders, the independent senator who stood for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, said: “Lina Khan is the best FTC chair in modern history.”

Last week, Ben Horowitz, a prominent Silicon Valley venture capitalist who had previously said he would donate to Donald Trump’s campaign, appeared to change sides, telling employees at his company he would be “making a significant donation” to the Harris campaign. Mr Horotwitz has also been a vocal critic of the Biden administration’s crackdown on the tech sector.

While Ms Khan has frustrated many senior figures in the tech sector, she has won plaudits among smaller start-ups, who believe her efforts to tame big tech will help boost competition.

[psalm22-6]

The Exhibitors Herald, June 1926

The first of the deluxe presentations was at the Forrest theatre, Philadelphia, Thursday evening. The audience was composed largely of members of the Advertising Clubs of the World, which was holding an international convention in the Quaker City, and the members of the Poor Richard Club. There were also present a large turnout of society, official and judicial life of Philadelphia. The other audience, which included Mrs. Coolidge, members of the diplomatic corps and Washington newspapermen, as guests of the National Press club, viewed the picture at a special screening Friday night at Poli’s theatre in Washington. General W. W. Atterbury; Senator-elect [and notorious political boss] Wm. S. Vare; Senator [and law professor] George W. Pepper; Lieut. Commander Geo. B. Wilson, U. S. Navy [not to be confused with the character from the Great Gatsby] ; Mrs. Barclay Warburton [civil rights supporter and journalist] ; Major Norman MacLeod; E. T. Stottsbury; Paul Thompson; Alexander Van Rensselaer; Mrs. Charlemagne Tower; Dr. H. J. Tily [department story owner, mason] ; Mr. and Mrs. Theodore W. Reath; Frank Smith; Mr. and Mrs. Jos. N. Snellenburg [merchant in clothing trade] ; Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Block; Mr. and Mrs. Jules E. Mastbaum [movie theater and department store magnates] ; George Nitsche [possibly an affiliate of U. Penn]; Josiah H. Penniman [Provost of U. Penn] ; J. Willis Martin [a judge]; H. S. McDevitt; John J. Monaghan. Judge Buffington, of Pittsburgh; Thos Finletter [could be one of a a number of lawyers with this name]; Mr. and Mrs. A. L. Einstein; Maurice Paillard, French consul; Robt. Von Moschzisker [justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania]; Mayor W. Freeland Kendrick; Geo. H. Elliott, director of public safety; Chas. B. Hall, president of City Council; Dr. Charles Hart; Rev. Wm. H. Fineschriber; Chas Fox, district attorney [could be a coincidence but Charles Fox III and IV are both currently lawyers in Pennsylvania]; John Fisler, president Manufacturers Club [golf afficianado]; Albert M. Greenfield [real estate broker and developer]; Jos. P. Gaffney; Mr. and Mrs. Ellis Gimbel [department store owner]; Daniel Gimbel [brother and co-owner along with Ellis]; J. D. Lit; Richard Gimbel [son of Ellis Gimble]; Benedict Gimbel [brother of Ellis and Daniel]; Colonel Robert Glendinning [banker]; Benjamin Golder [member of the Pennsylvania State House of Representatives], Agnew T. Dice [President of Reading Railroad]. Dr. Leon Elmaleh [founder of the Levantine Jews Society of Philadelphia]; H. Gilbert Cassidy [a judge]; Utley E. Crane [author of Business Law for Business Men]; Cyrus H. K. Curtis [magazine publisher]; Chas. S. Caldwell; G. W. Cole; Hampton L. Carson [lawyer, professor, state Attorney general]; A. Lincoln Acker [Philidelphia port collector]; Max Aron [lawyer]; Eugene C. Bonniwell [a judge]; Chas. L. Brown; Edward Groome; Chas. L. Bartlett; Edward Bok [editor of the Ladies Home Journal]; Mr. and Mrs. Geo. H. Lorimer [editor of the Saturday Evening Post]; Edw. Bacon; Chas. Curtis Harrison [a judge]; Samuel S. Eels, Rev. J. J. O’Hara [future Archbishop of Philadelphia], and Bishop Thos. J. Garland, D. D. [Episcopalian bishop]

There were a bunch of Universal employees in attendance too but that's less interesting to me. Let's see who went to the Washington show

Both showings were under the auspices of Ambassador Henri Beragner of France and Marcel Knecht, French publisher and trade representative. Dr. Ferdnand Heurteur, leader of the orchestra of the Paris Opera House, came to the United States to conduct the orchestras at these two showings. Among the distinguished guests at the Washington showing were: Don Juan Riano, Spanish ambassador; Senor and Senora de Mathieu, Chilan ambassador; Raoul Tilmont, secretary, Belgium embassy; G. H. Thompson, second secretary, British embassy; A. J. Pack, British embassy; Eduardo Racedo and Madame Racedo, first secretary, Argentine embassy; Conrado Traverso, Argentine embassy; Dr. and Senora Velarde, Peruvian ambassador; Dr. and Madame Santiago F. Bedoya, secretary, Peruvian embassy; Senor and Senora Tellez, Mexican ambassador; Senor and Senora Castro, secretary, Mexican embassy; Ambassador de Martino, Italy; Colonel Augusto Villa, miltary attache, Italian embassy; Count and Countess Sommati di Mombello, Italian embassy; Signor Leonardo Vitetti, Italian embassy. Baron and Baroness Ago Maltzan, German embassy; Mr. and Madame Matsuidaira, Japanese embassy; Mr. and Madame Gurgel de Amaral, Brazilian embassy; Senor and Senora de Sanchez Aballi, Cuban embassy; Senor Don Jose T. Baron, secretary, Cuban embassy; Brigadier General Georges A. L. Dumont, military attache, French embassy; Mr. Jules Henry, first secretary, French embassy; Major and Madame Georges Thenault, French embassy; Captain and Madame Willm, French embassy; Mr. A. Konow Bojsen, secretary, Danish legation; Mr. and Madame Marc Peter, Swiss ambassador; Mr. Andor de Hertelendy, Hungarian embassay; Senor and Senora Ricardo Jaimes Freyre, Bolivian embassy. Mr. and Mrs. Timothy A. Smiddy, minister, Irish Free State; Mr. and Madame Simoposilis, Minister from Greece; Mr. and Madame Prochnik, Austrian ambassador; Mr. and Madame Charles L. Seya, Latvian embassy; Mahmoud Samy Pasha and Madame Samy Pasha, Egyptian embassy; Mr. Zdenek Fierlinger, Minister from Czechoslovakia; Mr. Simeon Radeff, Bulgarian embassy; Mr. and Madame Jan Ciechanowski, Polish minister; Senor don Manuel Zavala, Nicaragua embassy, and Mr. and Madame Bostrom, Swedish ambassador.

[lboogie1906]

Dr. Maceo Crenshaw Dailey, Jr. (July 4, 1943 - October 11, 2015) historian, professor, publisher, and academic administrator, was born in Norfolk to Marguerite L. Britton, a pharmacy clerk, and Maceo C. Dailey, Sr., a steelworker. At six, his family moved to Baltimore.

Earning a BA in History from Towson and Morgan State Colleges. He enrolled at Howard University, writing the dissertation “Emmett Jay Scott: The Career of a Secondary Black Leader” which was a biography of Booker T. Washington’s closest adviser.

His teaching spanned over four decades at Towson High (awarded “Teacher of the Year”), Colby College, Boston College, Brown University, Howard University, Morehouse College, Morgan State University, New York University, Smith College, Spelman College, and as associate professor and the first director of the African American Studies Program at the University of Texas–El Paso.

The Atlanta Historical Society awarded him the “Alex W. Bealer Prize” for “Neither ‘Uncle Tom’ nor ‘Accommodationist’”: Booker T. Washington, Emmett Jay Scott, and Constructionism.” His other essays are in Freedomways, The Langston Hughes Review, The Review of Black Political Economy, Harvard Business History Review, and Dígame! He chaired the Texas Humanities Council. He was a member of the American Historical Association and the Association for the Study of African American Life and History.

Books co-edited/ authored by him include Wheresoever My People Chance to Dwell: Oral Interviews with African American Women of El Paso; Tuneful Tales; When the Saints Go Hobbling In: Emmett Jay Scott and the Booker T. Washington Movement; and African Americans in El Paso. At the time of his death, his long-awaited Scott biography, From Private Secretary to Power Broker: The Life of Emmett Jay Scott, 1873-1957, was being reviewed by a Texas academic press.

He married Sandra L. Prettyman (1967) and their union produced five sons. He married Sondra Elise Banfield (2003) and they established Sweet Earth Flying Press which produced books by women and people of color. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[mariacallous]

Earlier this year, McKinsey executives found themselves in serious political trouble. The Financial Times reported that their China branch had boasted in 2019 of its economic advice to the Chinese central government, while a McKinsey-led think tank prepared a book which advised China to “deepen cooperation between business and the military and push foreign companies out of sensitive industries.”

McKinsey, which had previously gotten media attention for promoting China’s Belt and Road initiative, responded with a statement saying that China’s central government had never to its knowledge been a client, and stressing its “75 year history of supporting the US government.” But the damage was done: Senior Republican policymakers called for McKinsey to be banned from tens of millions of dollars in federal contracts.

Once, information brokers like McKinsey could advise governments and share data across national borders with little controversy. Now, they are being forced to make hard choices—and not just by U.S. politicians. The Beijing branch of the Mintz group, a consultancy specializing in due diligence, was raided last year by Chinese authorities, which had apparently started worrying that accurate statistics about the Chinese economy were a national security threat. Bain, which provides detailed advice to corporations, was raided a month later.

These changes in practice go hand in hand with changes in regulation. Although China has eased off on some of the harshest implications of its new rules preventing the export of data, businesses still face serious uncertainty over what information they can export and what they can’t. The U.S, long notoriously lax in its treatment of sensitive data, has acquired a newfound zeal to prevent the export of certain kinds of information and moved sharply away from its past blanket support of “free cross-border information flows.”

Not so long ago, consultancies and other information brokers could work easily with different clients in different countries. Just as they talked to competing firms, they advised competing governments. In 2015, when senior McKinsey partner Lola Woetzel hoped the think tank’s book “provides useful input for the planning and development of China’s technology enterprises and government institutions,” she likely didn’t think she was making a controversial statement.

But what may have seemed banal then may now be depicted as smoking gun evidence that companies are helping the enemy. For decades, business leaders assumed that globalization meant market expansion. Their big worry was gaining and keeping market share, and competing with their rivals. Now, they are being thrown unprepared into a world where globalization means geopolitical risk—and information is the riskiest asset of all.

Top officials in Washington and Beijing no longer see economic information simply as the fuel for innovation and better business services. Instead, they worry about economic confrontation and act on fears over what might happen if there was an actual war, where data could power artificial intelligence, disinformation or surveillance. As markets become battlefields, government leaders begin to worry about who has crucial information about the contours of the combat zone—and who they might be sharing it with.

That is why leaders on both sides of the Pacific are ratcheting up actions aimed to limit the exchange of strategic information. Semiconductors—where the U.S. has imposed extensive restrictions on the export of tools and expertise—took the first hit. Now, business consultancies and compliance groups are in trouble. Soon, it may be everyone.

Once, information brokering seemed to be politically risk free. When political consultancies like McKinsey were criticized, it was usually left wingers deploring their business advice, not centrists and conservatives condemning their work with adversary governments. As governments realized they needed greater information and access, they started to rely more on international consultants, which worked with many clients in many countries.

Consultancy firms were already crucial middlemen in the globalized economy, providing advice and shaping so-called best practices. Big companies in Beijing could see what their peers in Boston were doing, and adapt it to local circumstances. Consultants began to do the same for government clients. Other major international businesses, such as accountancy firms and data brokers, got in on the action, providing governments with specialized information that they didn’t have themselves.

Just as specialized compliance firms told business how to raise capital or make safe investments under different regulatory regimes, business consultancies advised governments how to attract investment, optimize public service delivery, and learn from what other regulators were doing. Governments saw themselves as innovating and competing for market share in a global economy. That seemed to allow information brokers to become middlemen for governments too.

Businesses are rarely happy when an information broker offers advice to an economic competitor as well as to themselves, but they can live with it, so long as confidentiality is preserved. When governments thought of themselves like businesses, they could accept the same rough bargain.

All that has changed now that governments worry less about market competition and more about security competition. What once seemed like market advice to competing governments may now seem like trading information with the enemy. Building up an adversary’s economy may help fuel a military machine that might someday be used against you, and providing data and information might directly enhance their arsenal. Microsoft offered to “relocate” cloud computing staff from China amidst dire pronouncements from the Biden administration that cloud computing might help adversaries train AI.

These sweeping changes explain McKinsey’s current troubles. Business activities that seemed innocuous a few years ago may be depicted as near-treasonous today. Companies that did not directly engage with foreign governments, but that just gathered market information, face similar dilemmas. Chinese regulators justified their action against Mintz by claiming that the company had conducted “foreign-related statistical investigations.”

In a world of geopolitical competition, even apparently innocent collection of economic data can be penalized harshly. After all, other governments could potentially use such data to discover and exploit economic vulnerabilities, discovering which businesses have financial relationships with which, or which rely on foreign technologies that might be weaponized against them.

The U.S. has already acted to choke off China’s access to certain highly advanced semiconductors, and has targeted businesses with close relationships to China’s military.

China has cut off foreign access to key data on business relationships and technological advances, which it fears may be deployed against it.

Chinese officials have also complained furiously at U.S. actions, but their rhetorical conversion to the gospel of free exchange of information is belated and hypocritical. China does not just censor its own citizens and try to silence dissidents abroad. It has spent decades enthusiastically trying to force reporters and information companies to comply with the party line, exploiting the vulnerabilities of parent companies, which want access to China’s market.

When Bloomberg ran a story on the corruption of China’s party elite, the government searched its bureaus and ordered state-owned companies not to lease Bloomberg terminals. Bloomberg reportedly killed a second story that would bring the corruption story closer to Xi Jinping, suspending, and later firing, the reporter responsible, reportedly for revealing what had happened.

The U.S. and China have each made efforts to limit the economic repercussions. Jake Sullivan, the White House national security advisor, has taken to using the more anodyne term “derisking” as an alternative to “decoupling,” and has stressed that the U.S. wants a “small yard, high fence” approach that would limit China’s access to a limited number of “foundational” technologies, while allowing continued financial and informational exchange elsewhere. China has partly rolled back a national security law that would have made it vastly more difficult for companies to transfer internal data across borders.

But even so, the trend seems to point toward more restrictions on information exchange rather than less. It is nearly impossible to define what “foundational” technologies are in advance, or to keep the yard small when a bipartisan coalition wants to dramatically expand it. And while some in China’s complex internal political system might want continued international exchange of trade and information, national security hawks are ascendant, suggesting that the future may see more rather than fewer restrictions on information exchange.

Nor are traditional information brokers like McKinsey—or even Ernst & Young—the only plausible targets. The U.S. Congress has started investigating whether cranes used at U.S. ports are phoning back to the mothership in China, while the E.U. worries about Chinese produced airport screening equipment The data revolution means that nearly every major business is an information broker, and hence at risk of being targeted or pressed into service as a possible unwilling combatant.

Indiscriminate data collection has itself become a risky bet as the logic of national security devours the globalized economy. TikTok’s business model and its Chinese roots have led U.S. politicians to see it as an urgent national security risk. That is why they swiftly passed legislation intended either to force its sale or shut down its U.S. operations. Biden administration executive orders limit cloud service providers and data brokers from sending data to China. Elon Musk has had to hustle and build an alliance with Baidu to get China to consider approving Tesla’s compliance with data security laws.

Every prominent international business that extensively gathers data risks unwelcome attention and action. And nearly everyone is gathering data. So what can businesses do to minimize the risk of being McKinseyed?

The first and most obvious step is to map their exposure. Companies need to understand how much they have become information brokers, the specific information and data that they have collected, and the different jurisdictions that they are exposed to. Very often, data practices are consigned to middle management and company lawyers—but they now pose potential existential risks.

As a result, capacity needs to be built at the level of top management. Senior executives in strategic sectors of technology, such as semiconductor production, have had to educate themselves in a hurry about how geopolitics is transforming their business model.

Some businesses will have to consider reforming their internal organizational structures to make themselves more robust. McKinsey itself is moving toward a more centralized risk management system to make it less likely that ambitious partners, hungry to grow their client relationships, create risk for the firm as a whole.

But for some businesses, the best step may be the most radical one—considering whether they want to be in the business of information gathering and brokering at all. As Fourcade and Healy suggest, the drive to gather data on everything was at least as much the result of businesses piling in on what everyone else was doing, as of cool consideration of the possible business model.

Others may want to support national privacy and data protection laws that they previously opposed. Such laws provide them with a potential legal shield against foreign demands for data and information that would hurt their reputation and get them into political trouble back home. Finally, businesses may find themselves increasingly forced to choose between the U.S. and China.

Information brokers like McKinsey and Bain have long been criticized for their association with a particular model of globalized capitalism. That model is in trouble—and so are the businesses that helped propagate its gospel. As information increasingly comes to be seen not solely as an economic input, but also as a source of geopolitical risk and disadvantage, McKinsey won’t be the last information broker to end up being targeted by angry politicians.

[tmarshconnors]

"If you're stupid enough to buy it, you'll pay the price for it one day."

James Dimon is an American banker and businessman who has been the chairman and chief executive officer of JPMorgan Chase since 2006. Dimon began his career as a management consultant at Boston Consulting Group.

Born: 13 March 1956 (age 68 years), New York, New York, United States.

Leadership at JPMorgan Chase: Jamie Dimon has been the chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase since 2006. Under his leadership, JPMorgan Chase has become the largest of the big four American banks and one of the most prominent financial institutions in the world.

Early Career: Dimon started his career as a management consultant at Boston Consulting Group before moving on to work with Sandy Weill at American Express and then at Commercial Credit.

Education: Dimon holds a Bachelor's degree from Tufts University and an MBA from Harvard Business School, where he was a Baker Scholar, one of the highest academic honors.

Crisis Management: Dimon is renowned for his management during the 2008 financial crisis, where JPMorgan Chase not only survived but also acquired Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual, solidifying its position in the banking sector.

Personal Background: Jamie Dimon was born on March 13, 1956, in New York City. He comes from a family with Greek heritage and has a strong personal connection to the banking industry, as his grandfather was a Greek immigrant who was a broker and a trader in the Greek stock exchange.

[scotianostra]

William Playfair the Scottish engineer and political economist was born on September 22nd 1759.

In a day where anniversaries are thin on the ground, thank god for William Henry Playfair.

I read one article about Playfair that describes him as "a kind of Forrest Gump of the Enlightenment" perhaps a bit harsh, I would say he was a bit of a polymath, another source in my opinion is more accurate, Playfair is without doubt to many of you out there "the most famous man you have never heard of" he rubbed shoulders with the era’s many giants, switching careers at the drop of a hat, and throwing himself headlong into history-changing events, from the storming of the Bastille to the settling of the American West.

William had a lot to live up to, his brothers were architect James Playfair and mathematician John Playfair, his father passed away when he was 13 and it was left to John to lead the family. After serving his apprenticeship with Andrew Meikle, the inventor of the threshing machine, Playfair became draftsman and personal assistant to James Watt at the Boulton and Watt steam engine factory in Soho, Birmingham then seems to have just wander from one trade to another, the way Gump wandered through life, so you can see where the analogy comes from.

William Playfair, was, during his adult life, (takes a deep breath) a millwright, engineer, draftsman, accountant, inventor, silversmith, merchant, investment broker, economist, statistician, pamphleteer, translator, publicist, land speculator, convict, banker, ardent royalist, editor, blackmailer and journalist. Okay they are not all jobs, but they do put you in the picture a wee bit on the character of the man I think.

Most interestingly in my opinion was his time as a spy in France during the Revolution and was on the scene during the storming of the Bastille. He even helps trigger the first major political scandal in the newly formed United States, a land speculation gone bad involving Washington, Hamilton, and Jefferson.

To go into all of this man's adventurers would take too long, instead I will just tell you that the one thing he did, that has been a part of all your lives, in one way or another, is he invented the graph. Before William invented the graph you had to read through pages of statistics to find things out, the graph, you "get it" in a glance. In 1786, he published The Commercial and Political Atlas, a compendium of bar and line charts representing different European countries’ imports, exports, wages, and other trends for which he had the data handy. As the man himself explained, “Men of high rank, or active business, can only pay attention to outlines… It is hoped that, with the Assistance of these Charts, such information will be got without the fatigue and trouble of studying the particulars.” he went on “No study is less alluring or more dry and tedious than statistics, unless the mind and imagination are set to work,” in the book’s introduction.

His old boss Watt, was sent a copy of the Commercial Atlas for review, and wasn't impressed, called the book “mere plummery” and its author “a Rascal.”

To finish I must say that he was a rather humble man and actually gave credit for the invention to his brother writing, “[John] taught me to know that whatever can be expressed in numbers, may be represented by lines,” Playfair wrote much later, in the introduction to one of his books of diagrams. “To the best and most affectionate of brothers, I owe the invention of [these] Charts.” He was never a success in his lifetime and was seen as a ditherer by Watt, William Playfair died in 1823, in poverty and relative obscurity, banned from any good society.

Slowly, over the next century or so, the supply of readily available data grew—as did the the public’s appetite for it. Bar, line and pie charts began trickling into newspapers and textbooks. Two hundred years later, as we barrel forward into the Information Age, you can’t click a link without stumbling upon some kind of data visualization. The next time you come across a graph, remember, like many other notable inventions in our history, take pride in that it was the work of a Scot that gave us these easy to read information "pictures".