Day: July 3, 2020

How your July 4th plans could affect the economy, according to Wall Street analysts

wayne July 3, 2020

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Who cares if you don’t wear a mask to your barbecue for Fourth of July weekend? Well, Goldman Sachs does.

Heading into the holiday weekend, cases of the coronavirus are spiking in key states like Texas, Florida, California, and Arizona, which have also begun putting restrictions back in place, including on restaurants, bars, beaches, and more.

While many states don’t require wearing masks to be worn all the time, economists at Goldman Sachs wrote in a note Monday that creating a national mandate to wear masks could help prevent 5% of GDP from being lopped off, which could be the result if shutdowns were put reinstitute across the country.

Whether or not your state requires you to wear a mask at all times right now, the firm says its research suggests making it mandatory to wear face masks “could raise the percentage of people who wear masks by 15 [percentage points] and cut the daily growth rate of confirmed cases by 1.0 [percentage point] to 0.6%,” economists led by Jan Hatzius, Goldman’s top …

Free Webinar | July 20: Working with Co-Founders and Splitting Equity

wayne July 3, 2020

Join us as we chat with Anthony Rose, CEO of SeedLegals, to discuss how to best choose a co-founder who can help you build a successful and profitable business.

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Considering bringing on a co-founder to launch your new business? Join us for our live webinar with Anthony Rose, serial entrepreneur and founder & CEO of SeedLegals, as he discusses how to best choose a co-founder who can help you build a successful and profitable business. 

Key takeaways: 

  • The pros and cons of bringing on a co-founder 
  • How to choose a co-founder who complements your skill sets
  • How to split equity and structure your business 

Register Now

Anthony Rose is the Founder & CEO of SeedLegals, an insight-driven automated platform that lets founders and investors easily create, negotiate, and sign all the legal agreements they need to do a funding round. SeedLegals recently received a $4M seed round. Founding a number of startups including Beamly, 6Tribes, and QJAM has taught Anthony the good, bad, and ugly of finding the perfect co-founder.

*Based on

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Iconic department store Harrods opens its first outlet store—and lays off hundreds of staff

wayne July 3, 2020

Harrods opened its first outlet store Friday only days after announcing hundreds of job cuts—moves that the London luxury emporium’s managing director said are necessary to adapt to the realities of a post-lockdown retail landscape.

“I don’t think people understand how painful the last 90 days has been,” Michael Ward said in an interview while walking through the new site in the U.K. capital’s Westfield shopping mall.

During the shutdowns aimed at containing the coronavirus, unsold goods piled up at Harrods’s million-square-foot flagship store in London’s Knightsbridge district. That site has reopened, but with safety restrictions and reduced hours that limit customer traffic.

Now, shoppers can hunt for bargains in 80,000 square feet of space set over two floors at the mall in West London. Ward said Harrods snapped up the store as soon as its previous tenant, Debenhams Plc, went into administration, a form of insolvency in Britain. Within five weeks it created the outlet, which is manned by 80 employees and selling an edited version of the brands available at the original site.

“Our normal sale in the Knightsbridge store takes us four weeks to clear and that is with 80,000 people going through the store each day,” …

To fight the coronavirus budget crisis, act like Alexander Hamilton

wayne July 3, 2020

Some U.S. states are facing disproportionate financial challenges due to the pandemic. Plunging tax revenue, unemployment, and rising healthcare expenses, coupled with high levels of existing state debt have driven some states into acute financial distress – threatening the nation’s unity.

This is not the first time the U.S. has confronted a common, disparately borne struggle. In 1790, Alexander Hamilton spurred the federal government to take over the debt accumulated by states in the fight for independence. It was the “price of liberty.” The agreement caused controversy, particularly among the states asked to contribute more. In the event, unity prevailed, and the nation strengthened.

Today, a similar act of solidarity is needed. To be clear, we are not suggesting indebted states be bailed out, but they should not be made to pay for their pandemic-induced financial strain. Instead, the incrementalcosts states incur during recovery should be considered the “price of unity” and shared at a national level, as they were over 200 years ago.

Investors, however, seem pessimistic about U.S. unity. In fact, judging by financial market indicators, they have already chosen which states are likely to come out on top post-crisis (the likes of Texas and Florida), and which …

The good news: The U.S. just added 4.8 million jobs. Here’s the bad news

wayne July 3, 2020

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In the annals of economic surprises, the news that the U.S. added 2.7 million jobs in May, marking an astounding reversal from COVID-19’s crushing blow to employment, was one for the ages. Few predicted that such a momental jump could be repeated, let alone surpassed in the next month, but the seemingly impossible just happened. At 8:30 a.m. on July 2, the U.S. Department of Labor announced that 4.8 million more Americans returned to work in June. That almost doubles the May dazzler, itself an all-time record, and beats any monthly number in history prior to the pandemic by a margin of 4 to 1.

Predictably, the stock market cheered, the S&P jumping 35 points, or 1.15%, by midmorning on Thursday to stand within 3% of where it started the year, as the Nasdaq notched another all-time high. The jobs jump is as heartening as it is stunning. But to stage a full comeback, to restore America’s consumer spending and confidence to the robust levels that prevailed before the crisis, the U.S. needs to get back to …

SoftBank shares shake off WeWork losses to hit one year high

wayne July 3, 2020

SoftBank Group Corp. shares just reached a new high this year, propelled by a series of buybacks that have seen the stock recoup the losses suffered during the coronavirus market rout.

The stock rose 2.6% on Friday to 5,778 yen ($54), the highest since July 2019. That’s more than double the level of a March low.

The recovery is something of a vindication for CEO Masayoshi Son, who unveiled plans to sell 4.5 trillion yen of assets to reduce debt and bankroll record share buybacks. Son has frequently complained that SoftBank’s shares, even at their peak, trade at less than the value of its portfolio of investments.

SoftBank has also had a series of wins over the same period, finally solving the puzzle of Sprint Corp. and T-Mobile Inc. with their merger completed in April, and seeing a welcome return to successful investment bets as online home-insurance provider Lemonade Inc. surged as much as 86% in its U.S. IPO. Thursday.

“The steps being taken to improve its balance sheet, such as repurchase of its debt, are being recognized,” said Tomoaki Kawasaki, a senior analyst at Iwaicosmo Securities Co.

SoftBank shares have had a volatile run over the past year as …