Disney Deals DeSantis a $1 Billion Blow With Project’s Cancellation

Economic recession on the eve of the presidential election

After months of anticipation, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis will formally declare his candidacy for the presidency next week, formally competing with Donald Trump for the Republican nomination.

But while Mr DeSantis privately told donors and supporters in a call on Thursday that he, not Mr Trump, was the most likely person to win against President Biden, he said he was the only one to win the fight against Disney. Another hit: Thousands of jobs and potentially lost jobs in Florida. Let’s raise more questions about his policies and strategies.

Mr DeSantis denied the chances of Mr Trump winning. “Biden and I are the only two people who have a chance to be elected president,” he said in a call. Mr. DeSantis also checked a list of legislative accomplishments.

No doubt he is on a solid financial footing, more than $80 million will be transferred from his country account to Super PAC, which has already collected more than $30 million.

But Disney gave Mr. DeSantis a major defeat on Thursday. Plans to build a $1 billion office complex in Orlando have been scrapped and were expected to create more than 2,000 jobs at an average salary of $120,000. Florida officials have repeatedly said the development is a promising economic opportunity for Orlando, and hotel chains and retailers had arrived expecting the project.

People familiar with the decision told The Times that feuds between Disney and Mr. DeSantis, which escalated into a bitter battle for control of the organization that oversees Disney World, were a big factor. That said, the plan was conceived under former Disney head Bob Chapek, whose predecessor and successor Bob Iger had long been cool with the idea.

DeSantis didn’t mention Disney’s decision during Thursday’s call, but a spokeswoman said it wasn’t surprising given Disney’s “financial difficulties.”

The news may raise further doubts about Mr. DeSantis’ judgment. Several prominent Republican donors, including billionaire Thomas Peterfy, have already questioned the governor’s opinion. A far-right approach to social issues It also includes a ban on abortion and some books in Florida schools.

Billionaire investor Ken Griffin was among those who criticized DeSantis for using his office to punish Disney. “It’s important that leaders of both parties continue to avoid conflict when it comes to retaliation against American corporations,” Griffin said. said this month.

Fox News commentator Dagen McDowell summarized the points made by many critics On Thursday’s broadcast, she said, “Ron DeSantis has no financial plan at the moment, and Disney just pulled a $1 billion investment out of Florida today.”

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Volodymyr Zelensky will attend the G7 Summit. The Ukrainian president plans to call on leaders in Hiroshima, Japan, for more help this weekend as Ukrainian forces prepare for a new counteroffensive against Russia. Mr. Zelensky is likely to urge the United States to supply F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, but President Biden hesitates to do so.

TikTok users sued Montana for banning Chinese-owned video apps. Consumers argued that the new state law, the first of its kind in the United States, violated First Amendment rights and exceeded Montana’s legal authority. It was the first attempt to block the law, and experts had already said it would be difficult to enforce.

Twitter has accused Microsoft of misusing the data. Elon Musk’s social network said the tech giant didn’t pay for additional usage of user information. The dispute may be rooted in his use of Twitter data to train artificial intelligence products. Meanwhile, ad agency GroupM told clients that Twitter reportedly said: No longer a “high-risk” platform The tech platform now hires former NBCUniversal head of advertising Linda Yaccarino as CEO

Diane Feinstein’s illness is more complicated than initially made clear. The Democratic senator from California, who recently returned to Washington after a two-month vacation to recover from shingles, also suffers from: Ramsay Hunt Syndromethe Times reported. The disease causes paralysis, further raising concerns that Feinstein will not be able to perform his job effectively.

Will rate hikes be on the table again?

Friday’s market futures priced in a near 40% chance that the Fed will raise rates at next month’s meeting as the sharp rise in interest rates in recent days cast doubt on a much-anticipated moratorium on rate hikes.

Wall Street said last week that further increases were unlikely. Especially after the latest consumer price index report showed inflation slowed — just barely — for the 10th straight month.

But consumer prices are still well above the Fed’s 2% inflation target, with Fed officials suggesting they still have hawkish sentiments this week, saying, “We’re not quite there yet.” It hasn’t arrived,” he said. Laurie LoganDallas Fed President, non-voting member Loretta Mester “We need to see more evidence that inflation is still on the decline,” said Cleveland Fed’s Mr.

A further quarter percent increase is a “serious possibility.” Deutsche Bank strategist Jim Reid said in a letter to investors on Friday: Quincy Crosby, chief global strategist at LPL Financial, wrote that Fed officials were sending the message “Don’t start pricing in a moratorium on rate hikes, let alone rate cuts.”

The latest indication of the Fed’s mindset could come out in Chairman Jay Powell’s speech on Friday. He will speak at the Thomas Laubach Research Conference in Washington. LPL’s Crosby said Powell was “critical of the ‘stop-and-go’ monetary policies of the 1970s” that led to stagflation.

Crosby added that if Powell brought up the topic on Friday, it could send a signal to the market that he would insist on raising rates again unless data showed a notable improvement in inflation. rice field.

Another notable factor is the progress in the debt limit negotiations. Washington is slowly approaching the so-called X-date, the point at which US funds will run out.Some are cautiously optimistic that a breakthrough will be made Arrived this weekendbut I’m not sure President Biden can win a progressive Democrat.

Tech giant wins big in Supreme Court

On Thursday, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in two cases, leaving in place the broad legal protections that have helped social media giants such as Google, Meta and Twitter become a force in online publishing. Tech companies have won big.

The fate of the case rested on the future of Article 230 of the Communications Decency Act. The tech industry believes the 1996 Act is crucial to their business model and allows users to escape legal liability when publishing content on online platforms. The same law provides protections when companies intervene in management positions.

Right-wing and left-wing lawmakers argue that Article 230’s protections are too strong. Democrats have called on social media to crack down on the network to prevent misinformation, while Republicans say social media has gone too far in silencing right-wing voices.

The case stems from complaints filed by families of victims of ISIS terrorist attacks. in Paris and Istanbul He claimed that the Google and Twitter platforms helped spread the group’s message.

The judges disagreed, but write in“The mere creation of a media platform is no more culpable than the creation of email, mobile phones, and the Internet in general.” It also turned out that the post comments were intentionally not highlighted.

The tech industry welcomed the decision. “The results will reassure the companies, academics, content creators and civil society groups who have collaborated with us in this lawsuit,” Halima Delane Prado, Google’s general counsel, said in a statement. Tech companies worried that watering down Section 230 could lead to a chilling of internet activity and hurt their businesses.

In the end, the judges circumvented Section 230. opinion of the court don’t mention anything of law. Instead, the judges focused on legal issues related to anti-terrorism laws, finding companies doing the same. do not violate them.

In memory of ‘Grave Dancer’ Sam Zell

Real estate mogul Sam Zell, who made his fortune buying distressed assets, died Thursday at the age of 81. Over the course of his decades-long career, he built an unforgettable personality as a real estate investor, amassing millions by making smart investments in properties others overlooked. He’s a foul-mouthed, jeans-wearing financial guru.

Zell has built an empire of undervalued real estate assets. It includes apartments, offices and other commercial real estate that will benefit when the market turns around and values ​​recover. It’s an approach he first honed in college, when he and his partner bought a cheap house, fixed it up, and rented it out to other students.

In 2007, a year before the global financial crisis devastated the real estate market, Zell sold his holdings (then known as Equity Office Properties) to Blackstone for $39 billion. This made me very profitable. It was Mr. Zell himself who came up with his most enduring nickname, “Grave Dancer.”

of ZELL’S IMPACT ON THE REAL ESTATE INDUSTRYNew York developer Scott Leckler told The Wall Street Journal, “He was an evangelist, a cheerleader, disciplined, and he tried to keep it growing in the right direction.”

But Zell made a disastrous investment in Tribune. The newspaper and television station owners closed the $8.2 billion deal by contributing just $315 million and leaving employees with $13 billion in debt. (The Times’ Floyd Norris called it “one of the most irrational deals ever.”)

Mr. Zell has tried to apply his real estate strategy to newspapers and TV stations, but he has been unable to effectively stem the drastic decline in viewership and advertising. Less than a year after buying Tribune, the company filed for bankruptcy, and a few years later it was worth half as much and he left.

speed reading

Information of sale

• Billionaire investor Carl Icahn has admitted he was wrong in speculating that the market would crash starting in 2017. $9 billion bet. (FT)

• Lazard CEO Ken Jacobs is quoted as saying: preparing to resignhe is likely to be replaced by former Obama administration official Peter Orzag, who runs Lazard’s financial advisory business. (WSJ)

• Alibaba is start destroying yourself Consider spinning off its $12 billion cloud computing division and listing its grocery and logistics divisions. (Bloomberg)

policy

• Chinese President Xi Jinping has reportedly appointed Chen Yixin, the top security official, to head national security affairs. Crackdown on foreign companies active in the country. (WSJ)

• Unions have accused Pennsylvania’s leading hospital system, UPMC, of ​​abusing its market position to drive down workers’ wages. (New York Times)

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