I’m usually a big hugger. One of the hardest parts of the pandemic for me is not being able to show affection as I naturally would with my family and close friends. This all came home dramatically when the first of my six grandchildren turned 12 in the fall. On the way to our physically […] More
Silicon Valley tech companies took many millions in government bailout money this year via a program intended to allow employers to retain their employees during the pandemic. According to newly released Small Business Administration data, 885 Silicon Valley tech companies borrowed a total of $381.3 million via the Paycheck Protection Program. That figure excludes telecommunications […] More
Update Friday, 2 p.m. ET: With just a few hours to go before the midnight deadline, the Senate passed an extension to keep the government open for one week, Bloomberg reports. Original story: Many Americans are devastated by the fact that the chances of them receiving another much-needed stimulus check before the end of the […] More
Cyberpunk 2077 was one of the most hyped and hotly anticipated games of 2020, but like most things this year, the game’s release has brought despair, frustration, and anger. That’s because Cyberpunk 2077 has been plagued with a host of major bugs, especially on Playstation and Xbox consoles, which many players say makes the game […] More
Mature, well-rounded, steeped in terroir, these are often descriptions of a great wine. However, they also describe one of the world’s most successful wine makers, Gerard Bertrand. Many of us are in the reevaluation and discovery of what is important and meaningful phase of our lives. Bertrand had his revelation in 1987, when he took […] More
Something more fundamental than “change” is needed right now to set America on a path to realizing the true ideals of its founding. We must transform our mindsets and rearchitect the systems that have contributed to entrenched disparities. The challenge is clear, but so is the opportunity: These systems were designed by humans and they […] More
The amount of funding that governments are throwing at the economic recovery from COVID-19–more than $12 trillion announced so far, or 15% of the global GDP–is unprecedented. How much of that would it take to put the global energy system on track to meet the goals of the Paris climate agreement? With only a fraction […] More
Stripe, the digital payments startup, wants its customers to get in the carbon removal business. Through a new tool called Stripe Climate, the first of its kind for online businesses, users can contribute a fraction of their revenue to projects that permanently remove carbon from the atmosphere–something that’s necessary for the world to do in […] More
Few industries have been as hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic than the hospitality business, and now hotel executives are asking President Donald Trump for help. In a new letter–signed by everyone from leaders at Hyatt, Marriott, Best Western, and Hilton to small, local hotel owners to trade groups–industry representatives request that he direct the […] More
It’s a time of reckoning for American monuments. Over the summer, monuments to Confederate figures became the focus of protests and teardowns in the aftermath of uprisings against systemic racism and police brutality in the United States. The calls and actions to tear down these monuments highlighted the anger that memorials to racist figures have […] More
We all know the buzzwords, and we’re all guilty of the occasional eye-roll when we hear them wheeled out: sustainability, eco-friendly, green, ESG. The message now is that companies must all be ecologically aware and mindful of their impact on the environment and that customers and investors are ever-more attracted to enterprises which build this […] More
Remember the leaked Panama Papers in 2016, which revealed a laundry list of wealthy people stashing money offshore? The bold-font names ranged from heads of state like former U.K. prime minister David Cameron to Simon Cowell, Emma Watson, and Pedro Almodovar. (We should note here that parking money offshore itself is not necessarily illegal.) University […] More