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☆ Sam Bankman-Fried borrowed $546 million from his hedge fund to buy a Robinhood stake
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-28 | by ( Allison Morrow | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

In an affidavit that emerged Tuesday, Bankman-Fried said he and FTX co-founder Gary Wang borrowed more than $546 million from the hedge fund, Alameda Research, which they used to purchase the Robinhood shares via a holding company primarily controlled by Bankman-Fried. Wang has since pleaded guilty to four counts of fraud and conspiracy, in cooperation with US prosecutors investigating FTX’s collapse. Four separate entities have laid claim to the approximately 56 million shares, worth about $450 million. Also claiming the Robinhood shares are bankrupt crypto lender BlockFi, and an individual FTX creditor. BlockFi is suing Bankman-Fried for the Robinhood shares, which BlockFi claims it is owed after Alameda defaulted on $680 million in collateralized loan obligations.

☆ Business partners turn on Sam Bankman-Fried
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-26 | by ( Allison Morrow | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

Last week, as FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was being extradited to the United States from the Bahamas, two of his former business partners pleaded guilty to multiple charges of fraud and conspiracy. “I am truly sorry for what I did,” Ellison told the court. She and Bankman-Fried were close business associates who briefly dated. Bankman-Fried, 30, appeared Thursday in a US courtroom in New York, where a federal judge released him on a $250 million bond. Following his court appearance, Bankman-Fried was spotted in a business class lounge at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.

Insider's experts choose the best products and services to help make smart decisions with your money (here’s how). Instead of stressing over a recession, I'm taking my financial advisor's advice not to panic. My research into why my grocery bill has gone up so drastically led me to a fun new term: stagflation. I'm a natural worrier (world class) and I've had to fight this instinct when it comes to managing my money. Recent upgrades I've done to my home helped shave a few dollars off my recently increased home insurance payments.

☆ It's time to revive the 'pink-slip parties' of the early 2000s
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-23 | by ( Jordan Parker Erb | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

First: Remember "pink-slip parties"? Now, 20-some years later, pink-slip parties are being floated as a way to ameliorate the pain felt by recently laid-off tech workers. Pink-slip parties originated with the dot-com bubble burst, when laid-off employees would gather to commiserate, laugh, drink, and meet prospective hiring managers. Hemming began running regular meetups for laid-off tech workers — misery loves company, after all — giving them an opportunity to network. She shared her thoughts on everything from the current hiring landscape to the benefits of pink-slip parties for younger generations.

☆ Analysis: U.N. nature deal can help wildlife as long as countries deliver
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( Gloria Dickie | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Conservationists praised the deal's ambition, saying it amounted to a Paris Agreement for nature in setting out 23 specific targets against which countries can measure their progress. "This is equivalent to the 1.5 degrees Celsius global goal for climate," said Marco Lambertini, director-general of World Wildlife Fund International. "Otherwise, there is a big risk that the cheapest areas are protected rather than those that matter most for biodiversity." During the talks, delegates discussed whether protected areas should be entirely off-limits to human settlement and development, or if some resource extraction should be allowed if managed sustainably. Canada, one of the world's largest nations, is expanding protected land and marine areas in the Arctic.

☆ Corporate Tech Leaders Untangle Their Cybersecurity Roles
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( Belle Lin | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +6 min

Information technology and cybersecurity chiefs grew closer than ever in 2022, a dynamic allowing for more comprehensive threat mitigation, but raising new questions over responsibilities. About 50% of the company’s threat planning simulations, in which IT plays an active role, involve ransomware scenarios, according to Ms. Smart. Ms. Allison is retiring at the end of the year, the company said, and will be succeeded by Gary Harbison. Photo: Adobe Inc.Prasad Ramakrishnan, the CIO and former CISO of software maker Freshworks Inc., said IT and security have shared roles in evaluating the cybersecurity resiliency of corporate software purchases. And in securing a hybrid work environment, his joint cybersecurity and IT roles included adding a new cybersecurity layer on top of cloud-based software on company laptops.

☆ Revised third-quarter GDP up 3.2% compared with prior 2.9%
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailRevised third-quarter GDP up 3.2% compared with prior 2.9%Allison Schrager, Manhattan Institute senior fellow, Julia Coronado, president and founder of Macropolicy Perspectives, and CNBC's Rick Santelli and Steve Liesman join 'Squawk Box' to discuss the revised third-quarter GDP data and more.

☆ Allison Holker mourns husband Stephen ‘tWitch’ Boss in new Instagram post: ‘Oh how my heart aches’
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( Becca Wood | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

One week after announcing the death of Stephen “tWitch” Boss, his wife shared her heartbreak Wednesday in a new Instagram post. We miss you so much,” Holker wrote, sharing a photo of the couple together. Boss was pronounced dead just before 11:30 a.m. local time on Dec. 13 in Encino, a Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner spokesperson said. “Stephen, we love you, we miss you, and I will always save the last dance for you,” Holker said. “Happy anniversary my love @allisonholker #9years,” Boss wrote in a post that included several red heart emojis.

☆ Stephen ‘tWitch’ Boss, high-functioning depression and why ‘checking in’ isn’t enough
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Randi-Richardson-Byline-Jm.Jpg | Randi Richardson | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +12 min

High-functioning depression is a colloquial term and not a technical clinical diagnosis, explains Rheeda Walker, Ph.D., psychologist and leading researcher on suicide in the Black community. Persistent depressive disorder is another official diagnosis that, for some patients, may include high-functioning depression, Walker says. But she also stresses that because high-functioning depression is not a technical diagnosis, she’s hesitant to say they’re the same. But a 2021 study indicates the Black suicide rate is likely higher than documented because the manner of death is often misclassified. If you’re concerned about a loved one attempting suicide, Walker notes that anxiety is “as strong a predictor” as depression.

New York CNN —Lawyers for Sam Bankman-Fried are negotiating with federal prosecutors in New York on a bail arrangement that would enable him to avoid detention, people familiar with the matter told CNN. FTX crypto exchange founder Bankman-Fried, who oversaw his now-bankrupt crypto empire from a luxury compound in the Bahamas, is expected to return as early as Wednesday to the United States. Sam Bankman-Fried is escorted out of court following a hearing in the Bahamas on Monday. Rebecca Blackwell/APIn the week and a half since his arrest in the Bahamas, Bankman-Fried has been held in a prison that US officials have described overcrowded, dirty and lacking medical care. Facing life in prisonFederal prosecutors last week charged Bankman-Fried with defrauding investors and customers of FTX, which he founded in 2019.

☆ Silicon Valley's job cuts are everybody else's gain as tech workers find exciting new opportunities outside Big Tech
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( Diamond Naga Siu | Rebecca Knight | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Recruiters and other experts tell Insider that tech workers are in especially high demand in sectors including insurance, healthcare, retail, government, and banking. As you may expect, the traditional tech industry remains the largest employer of tech workers, the experts say. ZipRecruiter's Pollak said the turmoil in Big Tech was pushing "some tech workers to explore opportunities outside" the usual suspects for the first time. Tech job creation and hiring numbers remain strong, but layoffs keep coming, underscoring a tech labor market in flux. As for how laid-off tech workers ought to position themselves for these jobs, the Hired Guns recruiter Hemming has some advice.

Dec 20 (Reuters) - Private U.S. oil and gas companies are increasingly turning to a niche financing structure that securitizes their production, providing a funding avenue for producers and owners as traditional sources become more expensive or simply dry up. With banks pressured by stakeholders to restrict loans to the oil and gas sector over its environmental impact, private energy producers - more reliant on bank lines than listed peers - are able to maintain access to outside finance through this niche product. While the first rated PDP securitization was completed in September 2019 by Raisa Energy, volatile commodity prices and a wave of producer bankruptcies in 2020 stymied its initial application. The investment bank helped arrange, among others, a $750 million ABS sold by Jonah Energy in October - currently the largest PDP securitization completed. GROWING APPEALAs well as financing day-to-day operations, private equity firms that own energy producers are exploring using PDP securitizations as an investor pay-day.

Another was the requirement for companies to assess and disclose their impact and reliance on nature, despite the word "mandatory" being dropped from the final deal. While protecting nature comes at a cost, those companies that step up will attract more investors. "The big losers across the board will be 'business as usual'," said Eurasia Group senior analyst Franck Gbaguidi. A body representing some of the world's largest mining companies, including Glencore (GLEN.L) and Newcrest (NCM.AX), said disclosure would lead to a level playing field between sectors. The bill was ultimately calculated at $20 billion per year by 2025 and $30 billion per year by 2030.

☆ Who's afraid of Wells Fargo?
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Allison Morrow | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

New York CNN —Wells Fargo reached a $3.7 billion deal with regulators over the bank’s “widespread mismanagement” that allegedly hit more than 16 million consumer accounts. KEY CONTEXTSadly, all of this echoes earlier reports about Wells Fargo’s practices that have emerged since 2016, when its fake-accounts scandal made national headlines, my colleague Matt Egan writes. Wells Fargo workers ended up creating millions of bank accounts for customers without their knowledge. Chopra described Wells Fargo as a “repeat offender” and a “corporate recidivist,” adding that Tuesday’s fine is just an initial step toward holding the bank accountable. The web of scandals at Wells Fargo is massive, and after six years of fallout, a lot of folks aren’t convinced the bank can save itself.

☆ Polycrisis may lead to polycentric world order
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( Hugo Dixon | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

Another scenario is possible: a “polycentric order” with multiple centres of authority, where the United States is the leading power but not the hegemonic one. Indeed, the outlines of such an order may already be emerging out of the conflagration of economic, political and other shocks often labelled the polycrisis. A polycentric order would be different from what is often called a “multipolar” system - a dog-eats-dog world where big powers have a licence to dominate their neighbours. The United States is not nearly as powerful as it was. President Joe Biden realises the United States needs allies, says Peter Engelke of the Atlantic Council think tank.

Nassau, Bahamas CNN —FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried Monday morning arrived in court in the Bahamas where he is expected to drop his extradition fight, clearing a significant hurdle to return him to US soil to be prosecuted on multiple charges of fraud and conspiracy. Bankman-Fried had initially planned to fight efforts to return him to the United States. But after a week in Nassau’s notorious Fox Hill prison, he appears less interested in keeping up what would have likely been a yearslong battle to avoid extradition. The US State Department reported that conditions at Fox Hill, the Bahamian prison where Bankman-Fried has stayed since his arrest last Monday, are harsh. Bankman-Fried’s lawyer declined to comment on a timeline for his return to the United States.

☆ Analysis: After a day of courtroom bickering and confusion, SBF is coming home
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( Allison Morrow | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

The tl;dr version: It seems that SBF’s US lawyers worked out an agreement with Bahamian prosecutors to drop the extradition fight, which would have taken months, if not years, to play out. But SBF’s local defense lawyer, Roberts, said he wasn’t included in that plan, and claimed prosecutors wouldn’t share the US indictment with him. But then he was denied bail in the Bahamas, meaning he wouldn’t be able to fight extradition from the comfort of his luxury home. After a week of that, SBF is ready to face the music on US soil. To be sure, the federal detention facility in Brooklyn where SBF could end up while awaiting trial isn’t exactly the Ritz.

☆ What could GOP control of the House mean for U.S.-China tensions?
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-18 | by ( Megan Lebowitz | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +10 min

McCarthy also says he plans to create a House select committee on China, the first since the late 1990s. House Republicans will also investigate the origins of the coronavirus and “the CCP’s role in the spread,” the blog post said, although it is unclear whether that investigation would be part of the select committee. Tensions were further inflamed in August by Pelosi’s Taiwan visit, the first by a sitting U.S. House speaker since 1997. The most volatile issue in U.S.-China relations is the status of Taiwan, which Beijing has not ruled out seizing by force. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi speaks with Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen in Taipei, Taiwan on Aug. 3, 2022.

☆ Sam Bankman-Fried to appear in court Monday to drop extradition fight
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-18 | by ( Cnn Business | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

CNN —Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried is expected to appear in a Bahamas court on Monday to reverse his decision to contest extradition to the US, a person familiar with the matter told CNN. The New York Times also reported that Bankman-Fried is expected to agree to extradition to the US, citing a person briefed on the matter. Bankman-Fried could face up to 115 years in prison if convicted on all eight counts against him, though he likely wouldn’t get the maximum sentence. He was arraigned Tuesday, and a Bahamian judge denied his request for bail, saying that he posed a flight risk. His extradition to the United States could take weeks.

☆ The pink-slip parties of the dot-com bust helped laid-off tech workers get new jobs. They need to make a comeback.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-17 | by ( Rebecca Knight | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Allison Hemming started "pink-slip parties" in the early aughts after the dotcom bust. Back then, like now, tech workers lost their jobs en masse. Hemming began running regular meetups for laid-off tech workers — misery loves company, after all — giving them an opportunity to network and meet prospective hiring managers. Will the latest tech layoffs spur a return of pink-slip parties? The tech workers losing their jobs today have a nice runway because a lot of big nontech companies are still hiring.

☆ Glacier, Rocky Mountain, Arches National Parks Plan More Reservations
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( Allison Pohle | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Glacier National Park will begin requiring reservations for some areas May 26 and others July 1. Three of the most popular U.S. national parks said on Friday that they would maintain—and by some measures, expand—their reservation systems. Glacier National Park in Montana is making the biggest changes, increasing the types of reservations required to visit during peak visiting months. Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado and Arches National Park in Utah announced expanded windows for their reservation systems.

☆ Wall Street's shift to the public cloud hasn't come cheap. From dashboards to automation, here's how firms like Morgan Stanley and Vanguard are keeping costs down while using the tech.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( Carter Johnson | Bianca Chan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

But the pay-as-you-go subscription model associated with the cloud can also lead to higher expenses when usage goes unchecked. Collaboration is keyAs with most technology applications, there's a human behavior element to cloud cost savings. At Capital One, it took years to build a culture of collaboration between technology and finance teams within the bank's centralized cloud expense management division, Johnston said. Before, the finance team would send the tech team an aggregate bill at the end of each month and "that was kind of the end of the story," Johnston said. Speaking the same language has instilled a greater sense of empathy across different teams, like finance, technology, business, and others.

MONTREAL/BOGOTA Dec 16 (Reuters) - Latin America is drawing early investment for jet fuel produced from materials like forest residues and palm oil as emission-conscious airlines scour emerging markets for less-polluting fuel to power flights, industry executives say. While most sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF, is produced in the United States, Europe, and Singapore, Latin America is emerging as a budding market. "Latin America right now is really a hot spot for Honeywell." Producing and distributing SAF in regions with faster-growing traffic like Latin America is key to meeting industry targets, said Landon Loomis, Latin America president for U.S. planemaker Boeing (BA.N). And Vibra Energia (VBBR3.SA) is working with Brasil BioFuels (BBF) to produce palm oil-based jet fuel in 2025.

There have been 53 reports of tornadoes since early Tuesday morning in seven states, including three confirmed whirlwinds in Louisiana that killed three people. Reports came in from Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Florida. Typically, reports are made by citizens or law enforcement who spot the tornadoes or areas of damage. St. Charles Parish President Matthew Jewell said 55 structures were damaged during the storms, 21 of which have been deemed uninhabitable. One family had their home destroyed in Wayne, about 50 miles southeast of Oklahoma City, NBC Montana reported.

☆ As more men leave the workforce, women are stepping in to fill those jobs
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Vanessa Yurkevich | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

And that is reflective of new trends developing both for men and women in the labor force. In recent months, more men aged 30-44 have been dropping out of the workforce, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Although more men are stepping out of the workforce to take care of children post-pandemic, it’s still only in the single digits, according to economist Richard V. Reeves. The data showed that the total number was skewed more towards women than men, since so many women assumed caretaker roles at home when daycare centers and schools closed during lockdowns. Since then, men and women have gained back all the jobs lost.

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