Saturday, December 10, 2022

Fortune

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FORTUNE is a global media organization dedicated to helping its readers, viewers, and attendees succeed big in business through unrivaled access and best-in-class storytelling.

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Fortune drives the conversation about business. With a global perspective, the guiding wisdom of history, and an unflinching eye to the future, we report and reveal the stories that matter today—and that will matter even more tomorrow. With the trusted power to convene and challenge those who are shaping industry, commerce and society around the world, Fortune lights the path for global leaders—and gives them the tools to make business better.

Our History

Henry Robinson Luce founded Fortune magazine in 1929 in the wake of the Great Depression and the death of Yale classmate Briton Hadden, with whom he cofounded Time magazine and the Time-Fortune Corporation (later Time Incorporated) in 1922. In a 1929 prospectus for advertisers, Luce wrote that Fortune should be “the Ideal Super-Class Magazine” for “wealthy and influential people.” It should be, he added, “surpassingly beautiful” and “so richly illustrated and so distinguished in appearance that it will be instinctive to turn the pages. And having turned the pages, his reader will discover the editorial content of such arresting vitality that, were it but mimeographed on cheapest newsprint, he would still pay dearly for it.” Its price? $10 per year, “a barrier so high that only the reader both enthusiastic and well-to-do will vault it.”

The first issue of Fortune, featuring on its cover the Roman goddess Fortuna with her wheel, was distributed to subscribers beginning in February 1930. (The magazine was not initially available on newsstands.) As with Time, Luce made himself editor of Fortune; its first managing editor was Parker Lloyd-Smith and its first art editor was Thomas Maitland Cleland. Fortune’s first headquarters were located in the Chrysler Building at 135 East 42nd Street in New York City; it later moved to the Time-Life Building at 1271 Avenue of the Americas and Brookfield Place at 225 Liberty Street and is currently headquartered at 40 Fulton Street.

The pages of Fortune have been filled with the work of some of the world’s greatest writers, editors, illustrators, and photographers. Among them: Ansel Adams, James Agee, Constantin Alajálov, John Atherton, Herbert Bayer, Lester Beal, Thomas Benrimo, Joseph Binder, Margaret Bourke-White, A.M. Cassandre, Thomas Maitland Cleland, Miguel Covarrubias, Walker Evans, John Kenneth Galbraith, George Gusti, Ernest Hemingway, Alfred Kazin, Fernand Léger, Leo Lionni, Fred Ludekens, Dwight Macdonald, Archibald MacLeish, Erik Nitsche, Miné Okubo, Antonio Petruccelli, Diego Rivera, Ben Shahn, and Charles Sheeler.

Today, Fortune is one of the world’s leading business media brands and comprises a multinational monthly magazine, daily website, and conference series. It is owned by Fortune Media Group Holdings Limited, which is wholly owned by Chatchaval Jiaravanon, and published by the Meredith Corporation. It occupies offices in Beijing, Boston, Chicago, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, and Shanghai.

SUCCESS

Gen Z’s antiwork mentality has a lot to do with the ‘world crumbling’ around them

Climate change is driving Gen Z’s antiwork mentality.

BYCHLOE BERGER

December 9, 2022

Latest

AutoBlog: The Price is Right!

Honda's all-electric N-Van will start at just $7,300

Honda hopes the electric van will boost EV sales in Japan

BEN HSU

Dec 10th 2022 at 2:00PM

" For decades kei trucks and vans have served as the backbone of Japan's infrastructure. The rugged and super-compact commercial vehicles are just as prevalent making deliveries in crowded metropolises as they are hauling crops on rural farms. Honda is betting that these no-frills vehicles will be an excellent way to get more EVs on the road in Japan.

Honda's N-Van is an already popular kei van that boasts incredible packaging efficiencies. The asymmetrical design has a pillarless structure on the passenger side, making for a vast loading portal. Commercial versions can be fitted with just one seat for the driver, while the rest of the interior folds completely flat. These features are a boon for packing and maximizing cargo capacity, so much so that Honda even created a solo camper concept out of an N-Van.

The N-Van debuted in 2018 and was engineered as a gasoline-powered car, so battery packaging is limited. Honda claims a cruising range of 124 miles, which should be plenty for a daily commute in Japan. It may even suffice for a workday's worth of last-mile delivery runs that kei vans are typically used for in urban areas.

The strongest selling point for the N-Van is likely to be its starting price, which is just ¥1 million, or just a hair under $7,300 at current exchange rates that favor the dollar. Leveled out to historic averages, the price would be closer to around $10,000. That's still an incredible entry price for a full battery electric vehicle. By comparison, the most affordable EV in the U.S. is the Chevy Bolt, which costs $25,600. Even with the federal credit of $6,000, that's still a $12,000 delta. Honda purposefully priced the N-Van EV the same as its gasoline equivalent, in the hopes that consumers will opt for the emissions-free variant. Japan's consumers have had a lower-than-average take rate on EVs, just 1% last year, compared to 2.5% in the U.S. Globally, the percentage was 8.3%.

However, public opinion might be shifting. . " READ MORE

KYRSTEN SINEMA: Politics of Narcissism (It's always about herself)

Michelle Goldberg

Credit...Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times

"In the self-congratulatory video that Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona made to announce that she was leaving the Democratic Party and becoming an independent, she didn’t mention any disagreements with her former caucus about issues. Instead, she framed the move as a step toward self-actualization. “Registering as an independent, and showing up to work with the title of independent, is a reflection of who I’ve always been,” she said.

It’s true: This is who she’s always been. The content of Sinema’s politics has changed over time, from Green Party progressivism to pro-corporate centrism. Her approach to elected office as a vehicle for the refinement of the self has not.

In Sinema’s 2009 book “Unite and Conquer: How to Build Coalitions That Win — and Last,” she described giving up shrill partisanship, which was making her unhappy, for a vaguely New Age ethos that prized inner tranquillity.

One chapter was called “Letting Go of the Bear and Picking Up the Buddha,” with the bear representing fear and anger. “Picking up the Buddha (becoming a super centered political actor) makes you a stronger, more effective you,” she wrote. “To be your most fabulous political self, you’ll need to learn to recognize the bear and learn to let go of it in your work.”

✓ Transcending fear and anger is an excellent spiritual goal. But becoming a more centered and fabulous person is a political project only when it’s directed toward aims beyond oneself. With Sinema, it’s not remotely clear what those aims might be, or if they exist. (Another chapter in her book is “Letting Go of Outcomes.”) Announcing her new independent status, Sinema wrote an essay in The Arizona Republic and gave interviews to outlets including Politico and CNN. Nowhere have I seen her articulate substantive differences with the Democrats, aside from her opposition to tax increases. Instead, she spoke about not fitting into a box, being true to herself, and wanting to work, as she told Politico, without the “pressures or the poles of a party structure.”

Until recently, Sinema has seemed to delight in the power an evenly split Senate gave her, which she used to benefit the financial and pharmaceutical industries...

“One of her deep flaws is that she doesn’t realize our actions have impacts every day on people who need our help,” said Ruben Gallego, a Democratic Arizona congressman who’d been considering a primary campaign against Sinema.

For much of this year, Sinema appeared to be preparing for a future in a Senate run by the Republican Mitch McConnell. In September, at a cozy appearance with McConnell in Kentucky, she said, “As you all know, control changes between the House and the Senate every couple of years. It’s likely to change again in just a few weeks.” She described McConnell as a friend, and he praised her as the “most effective first-term senator” he’d seen in his career.

Had Republicans won the Senate, Sinema could have become an independent who caucused with Republicans, preserving her place in the majority. A red wave might have seemed to vindicate her aggressive centrism, especially if Senator Mark Kelly, an Arizona Democrat far more loyal to his party, had lost. But Kelly won and Democrats picked up a Senate seat. That meant Sinema could no longer hold the rest of the Democratic caucus hostage, or argue that only Democrats who defy their base are electable in her state. She was about to become a lot less relevant. Now she’s center stage again.

For the immediate future, Sinema’s move is unlikely to have major national political consequences. . ." READ MORE

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"Kyrsten Sinema made official today what has been obvious for a long time: She’s not a Democrat.

The announcement is certainly not shocking — she ran in 2018 on her independent streak and has legislated that way — but it will have huge electoral ramifications if she chooses to run for reelection in 2024.

Most importantly, it paves the way for a Republican Party that has embarrassingly lost the past three U.S. Senate contests and has proven it would rather embrace extremism and batty conspiracies rather than competency and sanity to win back a Senate seat.

And maybe that’s exactly the leverage that Sinema hopes to use to keep Democrats at bay and retain her spot as one of the most consequential votes in the Senate. But, then again, this could all be window dressing for her to be a one-term-and-done senator who opts to run for something else — or leave the political arena altogether. . .

And given recent polling, Sinema is deeply unpopular in Arizona: A September poll by AARP found no constituency liked her, a shocking turnaround from just four years earlier when she won the election.

That all assumes she can keep serious Democratic candidates — people like U.S. Reps. Ruben Gallego or Greg Stanton — out of the race. Even in optimal circumstances, with the party behind an independent candidate, that is dicey. But after repeatedly punching Democrats in the gut for the past two years, the party infrastructure won’t lift a finger to help Sinema.

Her moving to an independent is far more harmful to the Democrats than it is the Republicans, of that there is no doubt. Suddenly, the Democratic nominee would have to fight Sinema to win those disaffected soft Republican voters and right-leaning independents.

But I think it’s all for naught. Those with knowledge of private campaign polling say Sinema had torpedoed her chances at winning in the 2024 primary by, over and over again, telling Democrats she wasn’t one of them and wouldn’t stand with them on core issues.

This move to be an independent strikes me as the first step in the next phase of her public life, not a serious move to win reelection in a hyper partisan political climate where the R or D after a candidate’s name is shorthand for voters who have already made up their minds. Whatever else she is, Sinema is a brilliant tactician and a canny political operator. She knows exactly how difficult a statewide three-way race as an independent will be.

Sinema has a constituency of one, and this is the ultimate selfish move in catering to her belief that she is uniquely qualified to be at the center of American governance. And when the clock runs out on that, she’ll use it to capitalize on the next opportunity." READ MORE

"Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema announced Friday morning that she was leaving the Democratic Party, a move that was not surprising to political observers and longtime former allies and foes of the senior senator who are now looking ahead to 2024. . .

In Sinema’s Friday announcement, she posted a video and op-ed in AzCentral stating she wants to be an “independent voice” and decrying the partisan nature of Washington, D.C. Coughlin and others see this as a move that will help her if she intends to run in 2024.

“We always knew that she was calculating, and I think we are only seeing the latest label that she has found to suit her purposes,” Sacha Haworth, senior advisor to the Change for Arizona 2024 PAC, told the Mirror. Haworth worked as Sinema’s campaign communications director in 2018 but recently joined the PAC.

The “rebrand and rename” only proves their points about Sinema and is pushing them harder to elect a “real Democrat” in 2024, Haworth said.

“She calculated that she would run as an independent,” Haworth said.

That idea was echoed by a former colleague and friend of Sinema’s from her days as a state lawmaker.

David Schapira, a former Democratic state legislator who ran in a three-way primary against Sinema in 2012 in a bid for Congress, said Sinema’s ambition is all-consuming.

“Whatever move for political expediency she can make, she will make. This is just the latest in a long line,” Schapira said, noting that she had been a member of the Green Party before becoming a Democrat.

“She’s not crazy, she’s not stupid. She’s a brilliant person, and she’s very calculating. She’s methodical and she has a plan,” Schapira said. “If the polling says she can win a three-way race as an independent, that’s what she will do.”

And some of the polling might show just that. . .' READ MORE

Friday, December 09, 2022

TRANSPARENCY ON THE TARMAC: Viktor Bout Welcome Back

Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout returns home in Moscow, is greeted by family

news.yahoo.com › russian-arms-dealer-vi...

11 hours ago · Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout was greeted by family after he landed in Moscow's Vnukovo Airport on Dec. 8, after he was exchanged by the ...

Brittney Griner arrives in U.S. following her release by Russia in prisoner swap for arms dealer Viktor Bout - CBS News

www.cbsnews.com › World

52 minutes ago · Arms dealer Viktor Bout is sleeping at home in Moscow after the long trip back from the U.S. after the prisoner exchange that freed him, the ...

Brittney Griner arrives in U.S. following her release by Russia in prisoner swap for arms dealer Viktor Bout - CBS News

www.cbsnews.com › World

52 minutes ago · Arms dealer Viktor Bout is sleeping at home in Moscow after the long trip back from the U.S. after the prisoner exchange that freed him, the ...

Viktor Bout Tells Maria Butina the US Is Trying to 'Destroy' Russia - The New York Times

www.nytimes.com › World › Europe

2 hours ago · Returning home, Viktor Bout says America is trying to 'destroy' Russia. He made the comments in an interview with Maria Butina, the Russian ...

9 Dec, 2022 14:18

Home Russia & FSU

Moscow reveals details of high-profile prisoner swap with US

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) worked on exchanging Brittney Griner for Viktor Bout, Vladimir Putin has said

"The Kremlin is not ruling out further prisoner swaps with the US, Russian President Vladimir Putin told journalists on Friday. Contacts between the security services of the two nations are “ongoing,” Putin said, adding that any further such initiatives would be an outcome of these negotiations.

The president was speaking in the wake of a prisoner swap that saw women’s basketball star Brittney Griner exchanged for jailed Russian businessman Viktor Bout on Thursday. According to Putin, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) had engaged in the talks on the swap deal on Russia’s behalf.

“Are further prisoner exchanges possible? Everything is possible,” Putin said, talking to a press conference at a Eurasian Economic Union summit in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek.

“Contacts are ongoing,” the Russian leader said, adding that Russian and American security services have never stopped talking to each other. Swapping Griner for Bout has “come as a result of the talks and the search for a compromise,” Putin said, adding that “this time, a compromise was reached.” Russia “is not giving up on continuing this work in the future,” the president said.

Viktor Bout speaks of time in US prison and his ‘value’ to Russia

Griner was exchanged for Bout in Abu Dhabi, UAE, following talks between Moscow and Washington and months of speculation surrounding the deal. The two-time Olympic gold medalist, who plays for the Phoenix Mercury in her homeland, was sentenced to nine years behind bars in Russia in August on drug charges after banned cannabis vape oil cartridges were found in her luggage at a Moscow airport. The 32-year-old was traveling to play in the Russian league during the WNBA off-season.

Bout had spent more than 14 years behind bars, including 12 years in US prisons, as part of a 25-year sentence stemming from arms-trafficking charges – which he has always denied. The businessman was taken into custody in 2008 after a sting operation in Thailand and in 2012 was convicted by a US court for illegal arms dealing. After his arrival in Russia, Bout told RT he had merely become caught up in the gears of geopolitics.

The swap deal faced criticism from some US politicians, including a former national security adviser, John Bolton, and a former US president, Donald Trump. The critics said it showed Washington’s weakness and pointed to the fact that a former US Marine, Paul Whelan, who was allegedly touted as part of the deal, remained in a Russian prison. Whelan is serving a 16-year sentence after being convicted of espionage in 2020.

You can share this story on social media: READ MORE

(Who remembers Iran-Contra?)

9 Dec, 2022 09:29

Home Russia & Former Soviet Union

Iran slams West over ‘uncontrolled’ arms shipments to Ukraine

Foreign minister warns that NATO-aligned states are fuelling the fighting

"Western military assistance to Ukraine is only prolonging its conflict with Russia, the Iranian foreign minister claimed on Thursday. Iran has repeatedly voiced a stance of “active neutrality” on the crisis.

Speaking with his Finnish counterpart by phone, Hossein Amirabdollahian stressed that Tehran is “opposed to the continuation of war, including in Ukraine.”

Iran believes that “the uncontrolled shipment of US and European arms to Ukraine has further complicated the situation” in the country, the diplomat told Pekka Haavisto, according to a readout of the call released by the Iranian Foreign Ministry.

In recent months, Kiev and Western countries have accused Iran of providing Russia with weaponry, including military drones. Tehran has on numerous occasions said it is not involved in the hostilities in any way and has not supplied Moscow with drones to be used on the battlefield.

Head of Crimea accuses Ukraine of ‘fairy tales’ over ‘Iranian instructors’

✓ “Iran has not sent and nor will it send any weapons to Russia to use in the Ukraine war, because Iranian officials believe that there should be a political solution to that crisis”, Amirabdollahian said in October.

In early November, however, the minister acknowledged that Iran had sent a “small number” of drones to Russia, but explained that the shipment took place several months before large-scale fighting in Ukraine broke out.

The same month, the Ukrainian military said the alleged Iranian drones contained mostly US-made components, and elements from a number of other countries, including Ukraine itself. Kiev also said it was “determining how it could have gotten there.”

Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said all weapons used by Russian troops in Ukraine come from domestic stockpiles.

✓ Moscow has repeatedly warned the West against pumping Kiev with weapons, arguing that this would only prolong the hostilities."

You can share this story on social media: READY to READ MORE 53 comments

MesaZona > Table of Contents : Here's The Menu. Enjoy

Saturday, December 10, 2022

Fortune

About Us

FORTUNE is a global media organization dedicated to helping its readers, viewers, and attendees succeed big in business through unrivaled access and best-in-class storytelling.

Our Manifesto

Our History

Latest

AutoBlog: The Price is Right!

Honda's all-electric N-Van will start at just $7,300

Honda hopes the electric van will boost EV sales in Japan

KYRSTEN SINEMA: Politics of Narcissism (It's always about herself)

Opinion | Kyrsten Sinema Is Right. This Is Who She’s Always Been.

As an independent, Kyrsten Sinema can play spoiler to Democrats. That's assuming she runs at all.

Former friends and foes unsurprised by Sinema's defection from Democratic Party

Friday, December 09, 2022

TRANSPARENCY ON THE TARMAC: Viktor Bout Welcome Back

Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout returns home in Moscow, is greeted by family

Brittney Griner arrives in U.S. following her release by Russia in prisoner swap for arms dealer Viktor Bout - CBS News

Brittney Griner arrives in U.S. following her release by Russia in prisoner swap for arms dealer Viktor Bout - CBS News

Viktor Bout Tells Maria Butina the US Is Trying to 'Destroy' Russia - The New York Times

Moscow reveals details of high-profile prisoner swap with US

(Who remembers Iran-Contra?)

Iran slams West over ‘uncontrolled’ arms shipments to Ukraine

US sanctions Russia over Iranian drones

Imperialst Rhetoric, Tom Horn to Defuse Tensions, Gold Tops $5,000 in Demand Frenzy, . . .Japan Bond Crash