The humanitarian emergency in Ukraine has led to a global outpouring of support. In times of crisis, the feeling that you're looking on helplessly at atrocities is partially assuaged when there are actually ways to help, at least a little.
Why it matters: That impulse is a philanthropic one. All philanthropies are constantly on the hunt for government funding — and in this case the government funding is already there, to the tune of many billions of dollars. That can change the calculus of where to give.
S&P on Friday lowered its gauge of the Russian government's ability to pay foreign debt, citing increased sanctions imposed over alleged war crimes during the country's invasion of Ukraine.
Why it matters: The downgrade is another sign that the country could soon default on its foreign debt for the first time since the Bolshevik Revolution.
The JOBS Act celebrated its 10th birthday on Tuesday. Signed into law by President Obama to great bipartisan fanfare, it was intended to increase the number of companies going public but has yielded mixed results.
Why it matters: The bill was designed as an antidote to some of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act’s onerous auditing and reporting rules and the SEC's failure to make it easier for companies to go public.
In an alert to clients this week Bank of America strategists warned in blunt language: "'Inflation shock' worsening, 'rates shock' just beginning, 'recession shock' coming."
Why it matters: The ultra-tight job market and high inflation are two sides of the same coin, Axios chief economic correspondent Neil Irwin notes.
Amazon is seeking to overturn the union victory at a Staten Island warehouse, citing grievances with the election process in a legal filing on Friday, AP reports.
Driving the news: Amazon is accusing organizers with the Amazon Labor Union of trying to intimidate workers into voting for the union and seeks to redo the election.
AT&T and Discovery have closed their $43 billion deal that will combine Discovery with WarnerMedia, the company confirmed in an internal memo that was reviewed by Axios.
Why it matters: Warner Bros. Discovery, as the newly combined company will be known, immediately becomes one of the entertainment industry's biggest players alongside Disney and Netflix.
New COVID lockdowns in China have disrupted the world’s second-largest economy.
Why it matters: With Chinese commerce, shipping, transportation and manufacturing hobbled, global consumers could feel the effects in the form of continued supply chain issues and higher inflation.
Employees at six Starbucks coffee shops in upstate New York voted to unionize on Thursday and Friday.
Why it matters: The move brings the number of Starbucks locations to have voted for unionization to 16 total nationwide, out of the coffee giant's 9,000 U.S. stores, per the Washington Post.
The work from home revolution, grudgingly embraced by Corporate America, has evolved into a thing that workers both love and hate.
Why it matters: This week, an Atlantic article confirmed something knowledge workers have known for a while: Remote work has led to much longer hours, and a grueling schedule of meetings that underscore the limits of flexible arrangements.
Wireframe Ventures raised $77 million for a pre-seed and seed fund focused on climate tech, biology, and other verticals.
Why it matters: Competition in climate-tech is driving funders to seek earlier-stage — and riskier — companies.
Between the lines: Wireframe's founders say its second fund has attracted a wider range of limited partners compared to 2016, including a broader array of institutional investors.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Friday that it has banned Will Smith from all Academy events, including the Oscars, for the next 10 years as a consequence of his actions at this year's ceremony.
A former Goldman Sachs banker was convicted Friday for his role in a $4.5 billion scheme to ransack the Malaysian state investment fund known as 1MDB, AP reports.
Driving the news: Roger Ng on Friday pleaded not guilty to three counts, including conspiring to violate U.S. anti-bribery laws and conspiring to launder money. He faces up to 30 years in prison, Bloomberg reports.
The internet oligarchs, referred to now as Web2, are playing catch-up with cryptocurrencies — tentatively tiptoeing into the kiddie pool with waders on — floaties, too.
Why it matters: These companies have huge networks and if one of them finds a way for crypto to complement their business, they could switch on millions of new users with the stroke of a digital pen.
Blockchain.com, a 10-year-old crypto company that began as a digital bitcoin wallet, is the latest in the industry to double down on sports marketing with the hiring of Marissa Brooks to head its global sports and entertainment partnerships.
Why it matters: Crypto companies have increasingly looked to sports audiences as a way to acquire new users — and spread the gospel of digital assets.
Aclarity, a Hadley, Mass.-based solution for eliminating PFAS (aka forever chemicals) from drinking water and wastewater, raised $3.3 million in seed funding.
Why it matters: PFAS have been tied to numerous forms of cancer, which is why the federal government has devoted increased spend and attention on cleanup. Right now that means filtering the chemicals and then disposing of them elsewhere, like in landfills or deep-injection wells, but Aclarity claims its tech can actually destroy PFAS.
We're all familiar with "pain at the pump," the narrative that launched a thousand local news segments. But there's more than one fuel product that can be pumped, and the extent of the pain can vary.
Driving the news: The price surge for industrial fuels such as diesel and jet fuel — byproducts of petroleum refining, known as distillates — have far outstripped the rise in price for consumer-facing products such as gasoline.
Pressure is mounting for the European Union to do the unthinkable: cut off imports of Russian oil and gas, which have been flowing to the West through all manner of crises for decades.
Why it matters: No one quite knows what happens economically if the EU is cut off from its supply. "It's not something that's been in the models because it was never considered an option," said Antoine Halff, senior research scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy, Columbia University.
Soak this up: Sally Jenkins, sports columnist at the Washington Post, captured brilliantly the secret to success in business and life.
Tom Brady, the greatest NFL quarterback ever, she wrote, “proved that any kid with perfectly ordinary athletic prospects, the middle-of-the-packer who doesn't come with some preloaded or far-fetched anatomical gift, can construct greatness.”
“What made him great was an inner curiosity, an urge to fill in his blanks and see what might happen with enough study and sweat."
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