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leaagueofrevolutionarie · 4 years ago

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The Amazon-ification of America

By Steven Miller 8-14-2020

Last week, tech leaders spoke to Congress on Capitol Hill. Google’s Sundar Pichai, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos all spoke from prepared remarks. As the US economy shrank by 32.9%, Amazon’s share price rose by half, and Facebook’s growth rate approached 60%.

Congresspeople were supposedly “grilling” these uber-capitalists, but they were politely slobbering at their wealth. Since COVID began, American billionaires have made $637 billion, while 50 million people have lost their jobs. Timidly asking these billionaires questions about monopoly practices, the politicians refuse to address how this mega-wealth could be used to help people out in the greatest collapse in the history of capitalism.

Tech capitalism is fomenting the Amazon-ification and the Google-ization of America, right now in real time. This will culminate in a major re-organization and the State. This is class warfare on the rights of humans to control their own basic needs to live and thrive. Private property is on the march to seize every resource of the public and to re-organize society in its own image.

Microsoft has controlled the Pentagon’s cloud computing efforts since October, 2019. Big tech is constantly making inroads into the military, including $11 billion in contracts in the last 3 years.:

“’As we continue to execute the DOD Cloud Strategy, additional contracts are planned for both cloud services and complementary migration and integration solutions necessary to achieve effective cloud adoption,’ the Pentagon said”. (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pentagon-jedi-idUSKBN1X42IU)

Then just look at what we are already seeing! Capitalism’s massive collapse as a result of COVID means that an estimated 40% of African-American business will not open. One-third of restaurants will never open again.

What happens when the restaurants close? People increasingly order online. Big Tech becomes ever more dominant. Then Big Box stores enter the scene and become the only places that provide the distribution of the necessities of life. Private equity corporations and hedge funds actively finance this extermination. Amazonification aims far higher than replacing mom and pop stores. It also rises to counter the demand for the domination and extension of public property to benefit everyone..

Then Rent Apocalypse is about to hit, with multi-billion dollar corporations waiting to evict up to 28 million people by Thanksgiving. This tidal wave is lead by Blackstone, the world’s largest private equity management corporation. Blackstone works closely with Blackrock, the world’s largest asset-manager, and shadow bank to the world, which was founded in partnership with Blackstone in 1988. While Blackstone proclaims that the rentership society is here, Blackrock manages the government multi-trillion bailout for financial speculators and the financial industry. By driving millions out of their homes, these criminals will keep the homes empty, and turning them into rentals, in an attempt to extract more wealth from our communities..

“Today the fast-growing ETF (“exchange-traded funds) sector controls nearly half of all investments in US stocks, and it is highly concentrated. The sector is dominated by just three giant American asset managers – BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street, the “Big Three” – with BlackRock the clear global leader. By 2017, the Big Three together had become the largest shareholder in almost 90% of S&P 500 firms, including Apple, Microsoft, ExxonMobil, General Electric and Coca-Cola….

“Giant pension and other investment funds largely control the stock market, and the asset managers control the funds. That effectively puts BlackRock, the largest and most influential asset manager, in the driver’s seat in controlling the economy.”

(https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/06/24/meet-blackrock-the-new-great-vampire-squid/)

These corporations are hell-bent on impose extractive capitalism on our communities and families. This model that vacuums wealth and information out of communities and sends it to the top. Oh yes, and what about the morality of evicting people to live on the street in the middle of a pandemic? Oh well, it’s just collateral damage.

That, of course, is what the Amazon-ification of America is all about. No longer even pretending to offer jobs, the capitalist class, lead by Big Tech, is re-organizing the economy and the government to extract wealth and give it to themselves.

Before COVID hit, the government had already authorized “Opportunity Zones” in 2017 to re-invest in impoverished American communities. Such predatory gentrification and dispossession is beloved by both Jared Kushner and Gavin Newsome. The giant capitalist equity companies and hedge funds are now in charge.

From “Displacement Zones: How Opportunity Zones Turn Communities into Tax Shelters for the Rich”:

“Boosters promised Opportunity Zones would help bring capital to the neighborhoods that most need it, but in reality allow wealthy investors to benefit from huge tax breaks while they speculate at the expense of the most vulnerable communities. The structure of the Opportunity Zones program was designed with the interests of speculators, not communities, in mind. Communities living inside many Opportunity Zones across the country are already experiencing rapid changes. Unregulated speculative investment will throw even more fuel on the fire. The Opportunity Zones program will exacerbate an already unbearable

“Opportunity Zones were created by the rich, for the rich.

“Opportunity Zones are an invention of the Silicon Valley millionaire-backed Economic Innovation Group, and contain some of the most generous tax breaks currently available. The program gives capital gains tax exemptions that scale up based on the length of time an investment is held, eventually culminating in a 15% reduction in the taxable basis of the principal, and complete tax exemption of any profits made on the investment after 10 years. Because the distribution of capital gains income is highly unequal, the overwhelming majority of these tax benefits will flow directly to the richest investors in the country. Indeed, 90% of all capital gains income in the United States is owned by the wealthiest 10% of people, and 70% of all capital gains is owned by the wealthiest 1%.” (www.saje.net/.../2019/11/SAJE_DisplacementZones.pdf)

This was before COVID. The virus is now aggravating and amplifying every tendency that existed before its advent. It should be no surprise, therefore, that New York Andrew Cuomo recently invited Google and Microsoft into the state to “re-imagine” the new world where Big Tech companies seize control of telehealth, public education and the entire society.

In other words, Cuomo is abrogating the responsibilities of government to guarantee a safe and healthy environment for everyone and turning this charge over to corporations. They, of course, will place private profit above the public good.

“This is a future in which, for the privileged, almost everything is home delivered, either virtually via streaming and cloud technology, or physically via driverless vehicle or drone, then screen “shared” on a mediated platform. It’s a future that employs far fewer teachers, doctors, and drivers. It accepts no cash or credit cards (under guise of virus control) and has skeletal mass transit and far less live art. It’s a future that claims to be run on “artificial intelligence” but is actually held together by tens of millions of anonymous workers tucked away in warehouses, data centers, content moderation mills, electronic sweatshops, lithium mines, industrial farms, meat-processing plants, and prisons, where they are left unprotected from disease and hyperexploition. It’s a future in which our every move, our every word, our every relationship is trackable, traceable, and data-mineable by unprecedented collaborations between government and tech giants.

“If all of this sounds familiar it’s because, pre-Covid, this precise app-driven, gig-fueled future was being sold to us in the name of convenience, frictionlessness, and personalization.” (https://naomiklein.org/the-screen-new-deal/)

The Social Response

Yes, the US capitalist class could have responded to the virus by taking steps, similar to Europe, to make things easier, but it didn’t. Now that the capitalist class is doubling down to make ever greater political and private profit from the crisis, we have already seen a decisive social force take the political stage. Two new generations have now mounted the stage of history. The great mass of protestors, though not all, in the massive George Floyd rebellion came from these new generations.

Millennials are roughly those who were born after 1980 and came to political awareness in 2000 or after, and who came into political maturity around 2000. This year they would be 40 years old. Rising behind them is he generation that came to political maturity with the Parkland Massacres in 2018, often called Gen Z by the corporate media. There are 74 million people in the US in this group who were born between 1995 and 2015.

These generations intend to assert their agency. They understand that their future will be there long after the Boomers have passed on. They intend to take control of the situation. For these generations, the American Dream is a hollow antiquated notion. They understood already that their future was imperiled with Climate Crisis. They already were the primary casualties of the digitally-driven laborless-production that is sweeping through every branch of the economy. Somehow, they must survive the Gig Economy that is consuming them. They are a substantial part of a new proletarian class, one that is being replaced by digitally-driven production.

The new social force already clearly holds government for guaranteeing the safety of the public. This issue began with the murder of Trayvon in 2012, and escalated with the response to Michael Brown’s and Eric Garners murders, to name a few. It expresses itself as righteous rage at white supremacy and police murder. And it correctly holds the government and the State accountable. This rising demand for the public good threatens to overflow the narrow limits that the Democratic Party tries to impose. Voices from myriad directions have been asserting that if government cannot do the job, we know very well how to govern ourselves and society.

This new proletarian class has much to learn, but objectively it cannot back down. We are witnessing the concretization for our times of Lenin’s famous statement that revolutions begin when the working class cannot live in the old way and the ruling class cannot rule in the old way.

As society is drawn further into political crisis with re-opening schools, massive voter suppression and an election that may well be suborned, the social response, sooner or later, will build its political consciousness. As Engels observed long ago, the people today are transforming themselves into the people of tomorrow:

“You will have to go through 15, 20, 50 years of civil wars and national struggles not only to bring about a change in society but also to change yourselves, and prepare yourselves for the exercise of political power.” [Revelations concerning the Communist Trial at Cologne]

Steven Miller

[email protected]

August 9, 2020

Steven Miller is a retired public school science teacher in Oakland, California

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romancatholicreflections · 6 years ago

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11th November >> Sunday Homilies and Reflections for Roman Catholics on the Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B.

Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time - Cycle B

Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Gospel text: Mark 12:38-44

vs.38 In his teaching to the crowds Jesus said, “Beware of the scribes who like to walk about in long robes, to be greeted obsequiously in the market squares, vs.39 to take the front seats in the synagogues and the places of honour at banquets; vs.40 these are the men who swallow the property of widows, while making a show of lengthy prayers. The more severe will be the sentence they receive.” vs.41 He sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the treasury, and many of the rich put in a great deal. vs.42 A poor widow came and put in two small coins, the equivalent of a penny. vs.43 Then he called his disciples and said to them, “I tell you solemnly, this poor widow has put more in than all who have contributed to the treasury; vs.44 for they have all put in money they had over, but she from the little she had has put in everything she possessed, all she had to live on.”

******************************************* We have four commentators available from whom you may wish to choose

Michel DeVerteuil :A Trinidadian Holy Ghost Priest, director of the Centre of Biblical renewal . Thomas O’Loughlin: Prof, MRIA, FRHistS, FSA , President of the Catholic Theological Association of Great Britain, Director Studia Traditionis Theologiae, Professor of Historical Theology University of Nottingham NG7 2RD Sean Goan:Studied scripture in Rome, Jerusalem and Chicago and teaches at Blackrock College and is now a Religious Education/Religious Studies teacher at Blackrock College located in Blackrock, Dublin. Donal Neary SJ: Editor of The Sacred Heart Messenger and National Director of The Apostlship of Prayer.

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Michel DeVerteuil Lectio Divina with the Sunday Gospels www.columba.ie

Textual Comments

Jesus is teaching in Jerusalem, the center of the Jewish religion, the heart of the opposition to all he stood for. Remembering this context will give an added dimension to our meditation. The passage is in two sections: – verses 38 to 40, – verses 41 to 44, the touching story of the widow. In verses 38 to 40 we see first the simple fact that Jesus spoke out courageously in Jerusalem – a model not merely for the church but for all his followers. Then there is the content of his teaching – the tendency for all of us religious people to seek public approval (usually an unconscious tendency brought to light by a Jesus person). Follow St Mark in making a connection between that tendency and swallowing the property of widows in verse 40. We must be careful to interpret verses 42 to 44 correctly. Jesus is not pointing out the difference between people who can give plenty and people who can give very little, as the passage is often interpreted. He is pointing out the difference between giving what we have left over and giving all that we have. You might like to focus on Jesus again in this section – for example, on the fact that he noticed the widow. What kind of person does this show him to be? You might also like to see if you can make a connection between the two sections of the passage, based on your own experience.

Scripture reflection prayers

Lord, people today set great store on show; – the wealthy and powerful are much sought after; – -when people give donations to charity it is written up in the papers. We pray that the church may continue to judge things like Jesus did. When we sit down opposite a treasury and see those who are putting in a great deal we may notice, like Jesus did, the poor widow who comes and puts in two small coins, the equivalent of a penny. Give us the courage then to call people and to say plainly to them that the poor widow has put in more than all who have contributed to the treasury, for they put in what they had over, but she, from the little she had, put in everything she possessed, all she had to live on.

Lord, if the property of defenseless people is so often swallowed up in society today it is because we are putting too much store on public acclaim, on who is wearing long robes, and being greeted obsequiously in the market squares; on who takes the front seats in church and places of honour at banquets. Lord have mercy.

Lord, we remember with gratitude a time when we were not succeeding – at school, no matter how much we tried we could not get our sums right; – in our family, a brother or sister just kept getting on our nerves; – at work, others finished their tasks long before we could We thank you that at that moment you sent Jesus to us – a teacher, a parent, a supervisor, someone who understood that even though we did not have much to show we were giving more than all the others because from the little we had we were giving everything.

Lord, Jesus was such a balanced person. He pointed out the faults of the powerful, those who made a show if lengthy prayers and at the same time swallowed the property of widows. But he was also constructive. By praising the poor widow who gave everything she possessed, he showed us all the way we could go.

Lord, when we find people using lengthy prayers to cover up the fact that they are swallowing the property of widows we are more severe in our judgment of them, Now we know that Jesus felt the same way.

“A society that does not value women turns likewise a deaf ear to its children; in other words, it cuts off its own future.” …Jeanne Henriquez of Curaçao

Lord, we pray that like Jesus we may always notice the women of our society Who give themselves unreservedly to bringing up their families. From the little they have, they put everything they possess, All they have to live on.

“A young woman asked an old woman, ‘What is life’s hardest burden?’ And the old woman replied, ‘To have nothing to carry.’” …A Jewish tale

Lord, we feel sorry for people who only know about giving what they have left over. They do not know the joy of giving everything they possess to a cause they believe in.

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Thomas O’Loughlin Liturgical Resources for the Year of Matthew www.columba.ie

Introduction to the Celebration

We can gather here because each of us has heard, in some way , „ another, the divine invitation to become beloved daughters and son of the Father. The Spirit has moved our hearts to set out (o follow the Lord, and we have started on a journey towards the Father in the way we live our lives. However, as we gather today to celebrate this journey, we are also conscious that we often fail to live life in accordance with this invitation. The gospel recalls Jesus seeing a poor widow in the temple treasury and his way of looking at this woman is a challenge to all of us who accept his invitation to follow him.

Homily notes

1. When we stand and recite the creed we affirm our belief in the events surrounding our salvation: the life, death and ressurection of Jesus and in what he has revealed to us about the Father and the Spirit. Because we solemnly affirm this faith each Sunday, it is all too easy to slip into thinking that to be a Christian is simply a matter of accepting that creed. The argument runs like this: I profess the creed, therefore I am a ‘Christian. That is fine if you think of being a ‘Christian’ in terms of accepting a particular set of religious beliefs. But one might be described as a Christian, and yet not be a follower of the Christ.

2. To be a follower of Jesus is far more engaging than just accepting a creed, it is a whole way of thinking about life, a way of acting, and an alternative vision of the world.

Following Christ involves us as social beings – how we relate to other human beings, economic actors in society – what constitutes our values for success and what we believe to be worthy economic goals, and how we work to build up the society around us – how we relate to the larger problems such as peace-making, global poverty, the destruction of the environment.

3. Being a Christian involves seeing the whole of the universe as the creation of a loving God.

4. We glimpse this new vision of life in the tiny incident that is recalled today. It seems so banal: a tiny incident by an anonymous poor woman and a comment by Jesus upon it – can that really indicate a wholly different vision of the world from that which is our society’s common ‘default option’?

5. The widow, the proverbial image for the most marginalised in ancient society, is a person of no importance whatsoever. She is just one of the mass of people who need to be processed through this particular system – namely people wanting to make an offering to God at the temple – as fast as possible. She is indistinguishable from thousands of others and what she actually contributed is, equally, viewed as in¬significant. She is not a person, but a biological entity. She is the type of person that can be left queuing indefinitely without being spoken to or given a sign of fellow human recognition. She can be brusquely pushed aside by clearly uni¬formed minor officials when a VIP has to be given special treatment and impressed. She is, if she dared to speak to one of those officials, just a problem. In terms of her economic significance, she is nothing. And the frightening reality is that we view so much of the world using that optic. If an individual, a group, a country does not impact on us economically, then it and its problems do not matter. We are more interested in countries whose land has oil than carrots!

6. The wealthy making a carefully calculated donation to the temple, and getting VIP treatment while they do so, are a familiar group: they would love to be alive today in The age of celebrity’ and would be happy to volunteer to participate in some glitzy event. But we also see the widow. One might even experience her plight while waiting in casualty in a hospital, trying to obtain justice from some vast bureaucracy, or even at a large religious gathering when it is dear to the stewards that some are more united to Christ than others.

7. Jesus’s view of the situation is radically different. Each per¬son is to be viewed as an individual. And each individual is worthy of respect for each is to be understood from within her or his own circumstances. This woman, her situation, her intention: these form the framework of how Jesus her. Only within this framework can it be seen that she has given more than the rich.

8. To learn to view others with dignity and respect is no easy task: it goes right against the grain. To relate to individuals rather than mobs is also counter-cultural and flies against the fundamentals of mass consumption. To appreciate that each person is a beloved of God can only be known by those who themselves have responded to divine invitation to become beloved themselves.

********************************** Sean Goan Let the reader understand www.columba.ie

Gospel

This incident takes up a theme present in the first reading, namely that those who show the greatest generosity are not always those with the most to give. However, before Jesus comments on the poor widow who gives of her all he roundly condemns those whose behaviour brings the practice of religion into discredit. Their aim is to be noticed and well thought of be¬cause of their adherence to religious ritual but by their actions they are revealed as oppressors who care nothing for the plight of those most in need, in fact they even add to their misery. This is a sham that offends Jesus to the core. It is in the context of condemning such behaviour that he notices the poor widow whose actions show her to be a woman of deep faith and trust. It is worth pointing out that Jesus is not suggesting that the poor who give of what they have and leave themselves with nothing are doing wht is expected of them. No, he is merely using the behaviour of the woman the show up the inadequacies of others who could learn much from her.

Reflection In the modern era it is no doubt hard for us to relate to language a out the blood of animals and sacrifices by priests in the temple. However, the language of sacrifice is still very relevant to our world. Ironically this can be seen in the first reading where the actions of a poverty-stricken widow show us that the only sacrifice that matters is self sacrifice. God is not interested in the spilling of blood for this makes no change either in him or us; Rather God is concerned about whether we live for ourselves of for others, and Jesus in offering his life, not just by his death on the cross but by everything he did, has shown us the way.

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Donal Neary SJ Gospel Reflections for Sundays of Year B www.messenger.ie/bookshop.

A series of of contrasts

The gospel is a series of contrasts – rich and poor, greedy and generous, arrogant and humble and it is not difficult to guess which of them Jesus is praising. The lady in question, a poor widow, may not even have heard the praise of Jesus but the disciples were left in no doubt where Jesus’ sympathies lay.

He praises true religion in the widow who gave all she had in the cause of God. He berates the co-existence of long prayers and the greed which took away the property of people like this widow. The religious people of the day were meant to look after the widow and the orphan who had nobody else to fight their cause.

From the gospel we take the invitation of Jesus to give all; the amount given is not the big question, it is the giving of the heart. Jesus knows the listeners would cop on that what he was talking about was more than money – it was to give the first place in life to God and the things of God. That is the call to all of us.

The things of God we can glibly refer to are the love we are called to receive and to give, it is to care for other things of God too like creation, justice, peace and reconciliation. It is to give time to worship God in common and in private – to ensure a space and time for prayer in each day.

The widow of the gospel had a generous heart, as did the widow in the first reading. They looked outward to the needs of other and the things of god, and gave what they could in this direction. Can we not do the same?

Lord teach me to know you more, love you moreand serve you more faithfully in my life – St Ignatius Loyola

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cryptodictation · 5 years ago

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The moment of truth for the new capitalism | Business

The city of Madrid is practically empty as a result of the closure of shops and the hospitality service due to the coronavirus.© Jaime Villanueva

Try to forget about the coronavirus and look back. As of June 24, 2019. That day, The New York Times published a letter signed by billionaires like George Soros, Chris Hughes (one of the founders of Facebook), and many others requesting a (moderate) wealth tax. Larry Fink, the director of BlackRock and theoretically the most powerful man on the market, has been talking for two years that corporations should think not only of shareholders, but of “employees, customers and the communities where they operate.” Thousands of companies, also the Spanish ones, have been since then repeating that achieving shareholder value is not their only objective. Well, the moment of truth has arrived. Will the response to this crisis be different from that of 2008? Will the companies, within their scope of action, remember these “interest groups”?

Of course, the shareholders have thought. This month, with the health alarm raised, listed companies have continued to pay dividends and have accelerated the purchase of shares for treasury stock, taking advantage of the stock market collapse with a dual objective: to obtain significant discounts on their own securities so that, when the market recovers, they can placing them at higher prices and obtaining capital gains, and, secondly, preventing shareholders from being so badly affected by the collapse, although the latter is practically impossible under the circumstances. The exception was made by Inditex on Wednesday, when it decided for the first time in its history that it would freeze that payment until the situation begins to normalize.

On the employment side, the reaction has also been immediate. Although the exact data will not be known until the March figures are published, many companies have begun to terminate temporary contracts. A minority, the one that cannot facilitate teleworking to its employees and has to stop the activity, has chosen to send their staff on vacation, but this was not the norm at all. Only the measures announced by the government on Tuesday have helped contain a safe bleeding of ERE by encouraging flexibility mechanisms, such as the ERTE, which prevent layoffs. When these lines are published, tens of thousands of temporary job suspension applications will have been counted throughout the territory. The slogan has been to cut fixed spending immediately, even though the forecasts said that the stoppage of activity was going to be only two weeks.

In this health and social debacle, the companies' strategic plans have also been changing on the go. The third thing that has happened is a wave of profit warning (warning of cutbacks in forecasts) that has traveled the Stock Exchanges. Apple, Microsoft, Danone, Mastercad, Barclays, BMW … Catering companies suffer like never before. French group Sodexo, one of the largest in the world, warned on Tuesday that the virus may cost 2 billion in sales and left its forecasts for this year in the air. Also textiles. The owner of Primark, Associated British Foods, predicts a gigantic drop in sales after having closed 20% of its commercial space (all stores in Italy, France, Spain and other countries), according to The Guardian. The announcements have happened in Spain. Caixabank, Inditex, Meliá, Merlin Properties, Amper, Adolfo Domínguez … The list is as long as the lines in supermarkets, and the problems described are similar. What differs from one and other companies is optimism.

Caixabank spoke on Wednesday that it will be a “short and severe” recession. The famous V: a precipitous drop in activity and an equally rapid recovery. A day earlier, BlackRock analysts said that, although market movements may recall 2008, this will not be a repeat: “Strict policies of containment and social distancing will lead to the activity falling almost to a standstill, but if aggressive fiscal and monetary policy measures are taken to save businesses and households, the activity should return quickly with little permanent economic damage. Some companies only talk about having delays, but not significant, that will drop their billing and that while the borders are not closed to the transit of goods, everything is relatively controlled.

Change of actitud

In any case, the consulted economists and experts believe that without a change of attitude of the whole society (and fast) the recession will be dramatic. Seneca said that adversity is an occasion for virtue. Crises make you show who you are, what you prioritize. This is going to show who was committed, ”reflects Pascual Berrone, professor of strategic management at IESE. CC OO and UGT demand that the internal flexibility measures that the Government has made available to companies be linked to the prohibition of using other adjustment mechanisms, such as layoffs or the non-renewal of temporary contracts. It occurs in the ERTE, where the discounts in the contribution are conditioned to keep the job for six months. But if this lengthens, the centrals go further and ask that whoever uses public money limit the distribution of dividends or the perception of bonuses among managers.

Without going so far, Alfred Vernis, from Esade's general management and strategy department, thinks that this should not end up leading to the usual business as usual. “Either we reinvent companies and production systems, or … (silence) this is a good time to innovate, but I have my doubts that companies understand this.” The same companies that in recent years demanded tax cuts (also small ones) now look to the State in need of urgent solutions. “A certain capitalism said that the public sector is unproductive. But a strong public sector that supports policies to prevent workers from ending up unemployed, something that seems left-wing, is not, is of all political colors. It cannot be that large multinationals are not paying the taxes they owe. ” Vernis talks about the economy marveled in the past by startups, who are going to be naked when the tide goes out. “The Glovo, Uber, Airbnb … don't make any sense. They are going to be the flower of a day ”. Enrique González, professor of Economics at Icade, insists that the model of earning money without taking into account the rest can have its days numbered. “The system itself is questioned … It is not acceptable that companies take advantage of the circumstances. They must be careful because in today's times mistakes have a great cost. The short-term vision that can favor the shareholder or the executive is bread for today and hunger for tomorrow. The shareholder should not be left unprotected, but neither should the other people involved ”.

There will be companies willing to use retained benefits to pay wages and not kick anyone out, Pascual Berrone estimates, and others who will not. “Making an analogy with the disease, that would be like acetaminophen. Then, depending on how long it lasts, there will be a need for respirators and there will be situations where many companies will really disappear. That is why it is so necessary for policies to be coordinated. ”

From Forética, its director of corporate development, Jaime Silos, recalls that in this global market crash, the most sustainable companies in Europe “have fallen 5% less than their benchmarks.” You may be right, but recent examples of anti-competitive practices, from the Volkswagen emissions scandal to the closest cases of corruption and irregularities in Spanish companies, have not been widely criticized by consumers or shareholders.

Will it be different now? Ramón Pueyo, partner responsible for sustainability and good governance at KPMG, does believe that “society has a memory” and that he will remember those companies that have lent their shoulders. “We live in a moment that is unmatched, it is as if economic activity crashed into a wall. There will be cases of corporate patriotism, just as it happened after the crash of 1929 or after World War II ”.

Without going so far back, Gayle Allard, professor of Economics at IE University, remembers that 2008 was a great opportunity to learn. Cross your fingers so that Spain does not waste it. “If we really care about corporate social responsibility (CSR), we must defend the worker. If people are not fired, with measures to work fewer hours and earn less but being on staff, when this ends, companies will continue to have experienced workers and they will also have some loyalty to companies. ” The same asks for the self-employed. “You have to do the same as Germany.”

Too bad that both economies, the Spanish and the German, look like an egg to a chestnut. From Fedea, Marcel Jansen believes that at least now the decisions are fast and forceful. Something has been learned. “Sánchez's message yesterday (by Tuesday) about doing 'whatever it takes' was accompanied by a call for social responsibility. If we are going to irrigate the economy with 200,000 million, the companies will not have arguments to proceed with hard adjustments. At least until the economic situation and the duration of the crisis have been clarified. “

It is about walking together and sharing the losses. “If the break is brief, companies must free up resources by not paying dividends, maintaining the relationship with workers, who in turn must commit to compensating companies for the rest of the year. We all have to contribute to avoid a lasting crisis ”, insists Jansen.

Irresponsible politics

Six months after the fall of Lehman Brothers, Spain lost 1.3 million jobs. Since then, says the Fedea spokesman, the dual labor situation has not been resolved (very weak contracts compared to others with extensive protection). The country has also not provided itself with a fiscal cushion to face new recessions. “That means that Spain, unilaterally, may not be able to develop measures without European coverage. We have spent years with an irresponsible fiscal policy, maintaining tax cuts with 14% unemployment and a debt / GDP ratio that is close to 100% ”. Francisco Román, president of the Seres Foundation, recalls by email that “the strength of companies is embodied in the strength of the communities of which they are part.” Demonstrating that solidity as a society is what the country needs to get ahead with the least possible damage.

“We don't want to fire, but …”

Business employers do not believe that this is a good time to open a debate on the future of capitalism. “The scenario has nothing to do with the one presented now, which is the consequence of a catastrophic health crisis never seen before,” they respond in the Spanish Chamber. “No company, large or small, wants to fire just one of its workers, but in the face of a radical drop in income, they need mechanisms to cut expenses, while this absolutely exceptional situation lasts. The ERTE are a way to preserve employment, not to destroy it, “they insist. Cepyme calculates that if it only lasts a month, the stoppage will mean the loss of 300,000 jobs. The priority to avoid major catastrophes, supports the UOC Josep Lladó, is to sustain the income, “and that means many things: mortgages, rents, supplies, bonus contracts, lost wage subsidies …”. Also with imaginative decisions, like the one proposed by Alfred Vernis from Esade: let's start thinking about short working hours, in four-day weeks to distribute the work. “It is not crazy. We have to reinvent ourselves without fear, learning and looking to the long term, with strong regional systems ”. Overcoming this crisis will be sequential, the Chambers insist. “The first is health, the second is the survival of the companies, then the recovery – hopefully V-shaped, not U- or L-shaped – and, finally, reconstruction.” Cross our fingers.

Information about the coronavirus

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– Guide to action against the disease

– In case of symptoms, these are the phones that have been enabled in each community

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jenniferramona1 · 7 years ago

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How Investors Can Protect Themselves

Financial advisers help manage more than $30 trillion of investible assets and provide services to fifty-six percent of U.S. households. That’s why at Ascent Law, we want to help you protect what is yours, not just while you are alive, but after you are gone, to help you leave a legacy.

Yet the Securities and Exchange Commission reports that most Americans don’t conduct a broker background check, while those who do rely on search engine results.

Failure to perform a comprehensive background check can be costly. The median settlement paid to consumers is $40,000—nearly 60% of the average household’s net worth. One-quarter of settlements exceed $120,000. Over a recent two-year period, financial industry misconduct settlements totaled $974 million.

The FINRA Broker Check database (the same database used by the study authors) is a free, easy way for customers to run an advisor background check. Checks can be performed using an adviser’s name, or their unique CRD number.

Should You Trust Your Financial Adviser?

Widespread financial adviser misconduct costs investors hundreds of millions of dollars per year, new research shows.

The first ever large-scale study of misconduct by financials advisers and financial advisory firms finds that bad behavior tends to cluster around repeat offenders at an individual and an organizational level, with many advisers who get fired for misconduct landing at large firms with high misconduct rates. This concentration, the authors suggest, is not the result of random mistakes, but of firms targeting vulnerable customers.

KEY FINDINGS FROM FINRA DATABASE ANALYSIS

Researchers from the University of Minnesota, the University of Chicago, and Stanford collaborated on an economy-wide analysis of financial adviser misconduct in the United States in order to document the extent of unscrupulous behavior in an industry that many Americans rely upon, but few trust.

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Trusting one’s financial advisor is crucial, they argue, because stockbrokers are experts relative to investors, making it difficult for customers to gauge the level of services and creating the potential for abuse. Financial advisers consistently rank among the least trustworthy professionals, surveys reveal.

Mistrust of brokers seems to be justified, according to “The Market for Financial Adviser Misconduct,” which found that misconduct is an industry-wide problem.

“It’s everywhere, not just small firms. It is pervasive,” said study co-author Amit Seru.

But while misconduct is widespread, it is not spread equally across the industry. Several of the largest financial advisory firms displayed a pattern of misconduct against financially unknowledgeable customers. “Such firms are more tolerant of misconduct, hiring advisers with unscrupulous records,” the researchers write.

Conversely, firms with a low tolerance for misconduct use their clean records to attract knowledgeable customers.

Other key findings from the study include:

About 7% of financial advisers have records of misconduct.

At some large brokerages, more than 15% of advisers have misconduct records.

Misconduct is concentrated in financial firms with retail customers and in counties with low education, elderly populations, and high incomes (including areas like Palm Beach, Florida, where 18% of advisers had misconduct records).

Prior offenders are five times more likely than the average adviser to engage in misconduct.

Roughly 50% of advisers are fired as a result of misconduct; of these, 44% are reemployed in finance within a year.

Nearly 3 in 4 financial advisers disciplined for misconduct are still active after a year.

Firms that hire past offenders tend to have higher rates of misconduct.

Oppenheimer & Co., First Allied Securities, Wells Fargo, UBS Financial Services, and Cetera Advisors are among the financial firms consistently engaging in misconduct.

Brokerages with the lowest misconduct rates include Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, BNP Paribas, SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, and BlackRock Investments.

To count as misconduct, disputes must have settled (not be dismissed or pending). Misconduct includes activities such as recommending unsuitable investment products, misrepresentation, omission of key facts, recommending risky investments, unauthorized activity, negligence, fraud, and breach of fiduciary duty.

True financial misconduct levels are likely higher than the study estimates, according to the researchers.

Free Initial Consultation with a Securities Lawyer

When you need legal help, please call Ascent Law for your free consultation (801) 676-5506. We want to help you.

Ascent Law LLC8833 S. Redwood Road, Suite CWest Jordan, Utah 84088 United StatesTelephone: (801) 676-5506

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