Daily Dozen – Forbes

Both cryptocurrencies and the stock market took a hit as investors remain spooked by the Fed’s next expected interest rate hike. New York is hitting the jackpot when it comes to sports betting. LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman will lobby lawmakers in Washington, D.C. over the league’s business ties to Saudi Arabia.

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In The News Today

• Hurricane Fiona has caused “catastrophic” damage, says Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi. At least two related deaths occurred on the island and prompted evacuations of hundreds of residents as it knocked out power and sparked landslides and massive floods. Fiona has since been upgraded to a Category 3 storm with maximum sustained winds of nearly 115 mph as it continues on to the Dominican Republic, where at least one more person has died.
• About 2,000 people on Monday attended the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, England’s longest-reigning monarch. President Joe Biden and New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern were among 500 world leaders in the crowd, while hundreds of thousands of people gathered in the streets. Her funeral could become one of the most watched television events in history.

Top Take-Aways

Fresh off the market’s worst week since June, stocks fell on Monday due to investor fears the Federal Reserve will again hike interest rates this week, with the Dow and S&P 500 both dipping 0.4% and the Nasdaq dropping 0.3% Similarly, bitcoin hit a three-month low while ether is experiencing a 20% drop since the Merge as investors flee risky assets ahead of the Fed’s announcement.

Amazon, Hilton and PepsiCo are among the almost four dozen large companies that newly agreed to hire a cumulative 22,000 refugees in coming years as part of an initiative by nonprofit Tent Partnership for Refugees, founded by Chobani billionaire Hamdi Ulukaya, a Kurd raised in eastern Turkey. Tent estimates the commitment will generate $915 million in annual income for refugees in the U.S., while the organization previously found that 73% of employers reported higher retention among refugees than other employees.

New York sports experienced more than a couple wins during the NFL’s first week of the season as the Empire State recorded 15.7 million mobile transactions on sports betting apps, eclipsing the rest of the states that have legalized betting. The action accounted for 15.3% of all mobile wagers across the country during the first week of football games, even though New York just launched its mobile sports betting market in January.

With federal law banning cannabis, marijuana companies struggle to access the banking system even in locales where sales are sanctioned. That means the price of doing business is double-digit interest rates that sometimes hit loan-shark territory at 40%. And when companies are able to procure financing, interest rates can skyrocket to 100% if loans aren’t paid within 30 days.

LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman is headed to Washington D.C. to discuss concerns about the controversial new circuit’s business ties to Saudi Arabia with lawmakers. The commissioner will reportedly meet with both Democrats and Republicans to unpack LIV’s business model, which attracted attention this year as the league swiped multiple top PGA Tour players for sums rumored to reach as high as $200 million.

The same hacker who gained access to ride-hailing giant Uber’s servers purportedly also breached the systems of Rockstar Games, developer of the popular Grand Theft Auto video game series, just days later. The culprit, who uses the alias “TeaPot”, alleged he pulled off the schemes via a process called social engineering, where a company employee provides login credentials thinking a hacker is an internal IT department representative, or another similar ploy.

Today’s Must-Read

How Putin’s Invasion Of Ukraine Produced A Windfall For Enviva’s Wood Pellets Business

Environmentalists have doubts, but John Keppler’s faith in the energy source is rewarded by European customers willing to pay top dollar.

In Case You Missed It

Pan Sutong bet billions on a massive project to build opulent homes in Tianjin for China’s nouveau riche—but the gamble backfired and now Pan’s creditors want to seize his assets. The grand plans of the once flamboyant entrepreneur, who rose as high as No. 6 on the Hong Kong wealth ranking just five years ago, are now unraveling under a mountain of debt.

Tips You Can Trust

• Getting blown off by a recruiter can be painful, not to mention confusing if their once-persistent communication has ended in them ghosting you. Here’s a look inside the cutthroat headhunting business, offering a few hints as to why that recruiter changed their tune and how you can move forward in your job search.
• Not only did Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard’s decision to hand over his $3 billion business to a tax-exempt nonprofit make headlines last week, it also ignited discussion about the tax code that allowed the move to happen sans income, gift or estate taxes. The loophole has been used by other businesspeople in the past for similar transactions, which recipient organizations can then put toward supporting political causes with very few restrictions. Here’s why Congress may step in to end that tax break.

Must-Watch Video

Ethereum’s Merge is Complete: Behind the Scenes of a Pivotal Moment in Blockchain

Ethereum Core Developer Preston Van Loon describes watching the recent livestream of the Merge—Ethereum’s transition from the proof-of-work consensus mechanism to a more energy efficient proof-of-stake—as similar to “a New Year’s Eve ball drop.” Other blockchains may now feel pressure to consider similar options because of the energy efficiency and improved decentralization benefits, he speculates. “This unlocks the next level of Ethereum to help reach a global scale and actually to become that global settlement layer that it aims to be.”

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