January Blues & Davos
Edition 80
Happy Sunday and for the last time;-) Happy New Year!
Hope you all have had a great start to 2023. It’s a busy January so let’s dive straight in.
The Davos economy
If you’re on your way to Davos, I hope you’re muscle memory helps in handling the January cold in the Klosters. It is of course almost that time of the year when we’ll all be subjected to the world’s elite pontificating on the state of the world and how they’ll fix it. We might actually never see action toward the latter but let me get you up to speed on the obvious topics you’ll be bombarded with, for the next few days.
The World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2023 makes for a great ‘Davos 2023 for Dummies.’ It lays bare what our jet setting leadership will talk about on WEF’s stages, dinners and parties. It also makes for the perfect cheat sheet for the innumerable cocktail parties post Davos, when you’ll be asked - “Did you go this year?” Or the inevitable name drops of, “I loved what XYZ had to say…”
Here’s a quick snapshot: WEF’s risk perception report highlights the obvious of course — that technology is going to widen the gap between the haves and have nots and cyber security threats will remain a constant.
The most worrying bit in the report is that one economic era has ended and the new one we find ourselves in brings more risk of stagnation, divergence and distress. Blame Covid and Vladimir Putin. “Energy supply crisis”, “Rising inflation” and “Food supply crisis” – it all adds up to what the headlines tell us is a cost-of-living crisis. But, within that is the more dangerous risk — that the impact of this and the “slow decay of public infrastructure and services in both developing and advanced markets may be relatively subtle but accumulating impacts will be highly corrosive to the strength of human capital and development – a critical mitigant to other global risks faced.”
The quick summary
In the short term (the next 2 years) the biggest risk to the global economy is - Ta-da! Cost of living crisis! Weather, geoeconomics confrontation, climate change makes the list and do cyber security and involuntary migration.
Over the long term (10 years), WEF’s 1200 leaders surveyed have all things climate change related topping their concerns. The economic cycle of dips and peaks being factored in, leaders think the risk to the global economy is highest from the failure to mitigate climate change or adaptation to natural disasters and biodiversity loss. Cyber security and geoeconomic confrontation are a constant, but toward the bottom of that worry-list.
You can read the full report here. I always find it to be the best pre-Davos time saver by WEF.
The next tech con?
Elizabeth Holmes, move aside! There’s potentially a new con-artist in town according to the largest bank in the U.S. - JP Morgan. And they say, they got scammed!
Meet Charlie Javice, founder of Frank, a student financial aid platform. Described as a Forbes 30 under 30 Wizkid, she sold her company with 4.25 million student customers to JPM in 2021 for $175 million. The bank is now explosively claiming: 90% of that customer base was fake and a figment of Charlie’s imagination. Her lawyer (previously Elon Musk’s legal eagle) rebuttal? That this is a bad faith lawsuit by JPM retaliating to Charlie suing them for wrongful termination. Alex Shapiro alleges JPM bought the company and decided US Student privacy laws were a hurdle to growing Frank. Then the bank attempted to backtrack on the purchase and tried to exit Charlie out of JPM.
A JPM deal room would’ve/should’ve vigorously vetted the customer base claims as matter of course during the acquisition. It seems they asked and were given the data, which they now claim was faked. There was even precedent of troubled waters at Frank that should have prompted JPM to ensure details were looked at with a keen eye (a 2018 legal settlement between Frank and the U.S. department of Education for trademark violation and allegedly misleading students).
I think the more interesting question here is — who was doing the due diligence for this acquisition at JPM, if at all? Trust me - making any magazine’s “star” list doesn’t qualify (I should know - how lists like that get made!). Read more at Axios
Protests & Politics: It’s going to be a messy year
It’s all gone a bit January 6th (DC’s Capitol Hill riots for those who are terrible at dates!) in Brazil. Let’s admit it, we all expected trouble from Donald Trump’s brother from another Mother Jair Bolsonaro when he lost so resoundingly to Luiz Lula da Silva in the Presidential elections. But it turns out not all women led governments are doing as fabulously as the headlines were saying back in 2022 either!
Peru’s mad as hell!
Get yourself familiar with the names Dina Boluarte and Patricia Benavides. The former is at the centre of the political maelstrom that is Peru, while the other now has all eyes in the country on her, for her next move. And if you have plans to visit Machu Picchu in the next few months, I’d put them on hold.
Dina Boluarte is Peru’s first female President. She came into power when the country’s former Left-wing President, Pedro Castillo was impeached by the country’s Right-wing congress on December 7th last year. A former civil servant, Dina was a relative unknown who shot to prominence alongside Mr. Castillo as vice president and together they had pulled off a shock election victory in 2021 (we talked about that in a much earlier CB edition).
Fast forward to December of last year. Mr. Castillo attempted to suspend Congress, rule by decree and rewrite the constitution after losing an impeachment vote. He was ousted and placed in pre-trial detention for “rebellion” and “conspiracy.” Dina took over, denouncing him for his “attempted coup.”
He in turn as called her a “usurper” and wrote on Twitter saying he had been “humiliated, incommunicado, mistreated and kidnapped” but added (addressing his supporters) he was “still clothed with your trust and struggle.” He dismissed Dina as the “snot and slobber of the coup-mongering right”. That claim triggered mass anti-government protests that have turned deadly.
Mr Castillo was a rural teacher in the south and his often-disenfranchised supporters in their protests have been demanding new elections, Mr. Castillo’s release and calling for Dina's removal. The South of Peru is where most of the violence and deaths have also occurred. In response, Dina initiated emergency rule to curb protests, prompting human rights groups to accuse government authorities of using violence, including firearms on protesters and dropping smoke bombs from helicopters.
Patricia Benavides is Peru’s attorney general. She has opened 11 investigations to identify those responsible for more than 3 dozen mostly civilian deaths in the protests that have continued for more than a month. As the attorney general’s investigations kick off, Dina has refused to acquiesce to protestors and refused to step down.
Patricia has indicated that the investigations are in the "preliminary proceedings stage," and that the decision had been taken to open “a new prosecutorial file," aimed at "the high-ranking officials who are allegedly responsible for everything that is happening."
Who she ends up taking aim at - Mr. Castillo or Dina Boluarte is going to be very telling in a country that’s now had 6 Presidents in as many years and a government that is clearly divided — let the epic battle between extreme right and left continue and feed the breakdown of social cohesion the WEF Risk report warns us about!
News that caught my eye
Turns out it’s still the Middle Ages when it comes to being a flight attendant, well at least for Kuwait Airlines. Per Spanish newspaper El Diario recruiting firm Meccti, (which touts itself as the world’s largest recruiting firm for cabin crew) asked female candidates to strip to their underwear during their recruitment process. The agency’s recruiters also informed the 3 male applicants at the recruitment drive they couldn’t be part of the process, since only Kuwaiti men could be male cabin crews for the airline. The firm proceeded to top of their/Kuwait Airlines 1950’s racist misogyny by even texting one applicant her rejection - saying - Kuwait Airlines does not hire "dark-skinned," staff. The Spanish government has opened an investigation. Read the exclusive at El Diario here.
Stitch Fix CEO Elizabeth Spaulding who took on the job in 2021 stepped down this week. While not giving a reason, Elizabeth’s statement simply referred to “now time for a new leader to help support the next phase” for the online styling and fashion company. Former CEO, Founder and Chair of Stitch Fix Katrina Lake has taken over on an interim basis for six months until her successor is appointed, or until another agreement is reached. Read more at Market Watch
The Taliban might be cracking down on women working or studying, but the Wahabi conservative kingdom of Saudi Arabia seems to be marching in the opposite direction. 2.2 million Saudi men and women are now working in the private sector – the highest rate in the country's history. But more interestingly, female labour participation in the Kingdom reached a record 37% in 2022. Read more at Al Arabiya
It’s a bit of a tired hack, but if you’re still into feminist marketing, Mars the candy company has you sorted. It’s brand M&M is releasing "all-female" candy packages for a limited time to honour women who are "flipping the status quo." The all-female, limited-edition packs will feature the three female characters - Purple, Brown and Green – on the packs, with purple, brown, and green candies to chomp down on. Read more at Fox
There’s a new lobby group on the international stage and it’s focussed on women in sports, aiming to be the ultimate advocate for the preservation of the female sport category worldwide. The International Consortium on Female Sport (ICFS) launched globally this month and is co-founded by Dr. Linda Blade, a representative of member group Canadian Women’s Sex-Based Rights. Members are from the USA, U.K., Spain, France, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand along with Italy, Mexico, and Central America. Read more at Yahoo News
Indian cricket’s finally flying the feminist flag! Give three cheers to Vrinda Rathi, Janani Narayanan and Gayathri Venugopalan who have just become the first female trio to officiate in the prestigious Ranji Trophy. Who are the three ground breakers in the world’s largest democracy’s unofficial religion? Between them they are a former scorer, an ex-software engineer and a player, whose career was cut short by injury. Read more at The Deccan Herald
The US National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) commissioner Jessica Berman isn’t messing around. In a widespread NWSL investigation into abuse and malpractice she has named 4 football coaches, including a female coach - who have now been banned for life. Seven other individuals (including women) were also given suspensions or will be required to acknowledge wrongdoing and accept responsibility for inappropriate conduct before being considered for employment in the NWSL in future. Teams and the league itself have also been hit with millions of dollars in fines. In its Joint Investigative Report, the league says it found “ongoing misconduct” at most clubs after an earlier probe uncovered evidence of harassment and sexual abuse. Read more at Punch
I want end this first CB edition of 2023 with a little reminder to us all for one thing to remember this year - whether you identify as a woman, man or neither:
Never apologize for being sensitive or emotional. Let this be a sign that you’ve got a big heart and aren’t afraid to let others see it. Showing your emotions is a sign of strength. — Brigitte Nicole