Government Spending: Uncovering Hidden Costs

  • Post category:Avenir Suisse
  • Reading time:5 mins read

“What Is Seen and What Is Not Seen.”: In the 19th century, French economist Frédéric Bastiat developed a didactic tool that continues to help us better understand — and ultimately better shape — government activity. It is easy to lose sight of the fact that every government expenditure has a…

No Candidate Offers a Sound Economic Policy

The economic proposals of both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris present a target-rich environment. In many ways, they ignore sound economic thinking. In one short article, I can’t deal with all of both candidates’ proposals and thinking on economics. In this article, I’ll focus on taxes and spending where, it’s…

California Website Owners: Key Updates on Cookie Banners, Arbitration, and Privacy Compliance – Webinar on Sep 10, 2024

  • Post category:Seyfarth Shaw LLP
  • Reading time:3 mins read

Speakers – Kathleen McConnell, Gina Ferrari, and Vincent Smolczynski About the Program: Do you operate a website in California? Are you considering a cookies banner? Does your website terms compel arbitration? Then you need to know about the latest in California Privacy Litigation and Compliance.  Join us for an insightful…

What you don’t know about your employees’ engagement will hurt you

In the dynamic landscape of corporate culture, an engaged workforce isn’t just a nice-to-have; it’s a necessity for fostering growth and competitive advantage. According to Gallop research, companies with high engagement levels see 17% higher productivity, 20% higher sales, and 21% higher profitability compared to companies with low engagement levels.…

Financial Abuse and What Can you Do About It

Divorce is an emotionally taxing experience, especially when financial abuse has played a role in the relationship. Financial abuse, which can be subtle and often goes unnoticed, involves one partner exerting control over the other’s financial resources. It is a pattern of behaviour. If you are currently going through a divorce…

Why the negative impact of non-competes is overstated (Part 2)

  • Post category:Seyfarth Shaw LLP
  • Reading time:8 mins read

As we discussed in our previous blog on non-competes (as well as other types of restraint of trade), the move to add regulation has been gaining momentum since Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers announced in August 2023 a Competition Review to examine competition laws, policies and institutions. Whilst the move to…

It’s an Ant … It’s a Robot … It’s Picotaur! The Unrivaled Microrobot

  • Post category:Carnegie Mellon
  • Reading time:3 mins read

Picture this: hundreds of ant-sized robots climbing over rubble, under rocks and between debris to inspect the damage of a fallen building before human rescuers explore on-site. Downscaling legged robots to the size of an insect enables access to small spaces that humans and large robots cannot reach. A swarm…

Webinar – Enforcement Strategies Beyond Litigation: Leveraging Alternative Dispute Resolution

  • Post category:Seyfarth Shaw LLP
  • Reading time:2 mins read

Presenters: Daniel Hart, Daniel Whang, and Sierra Chinn-Liu Navigating the complexities of trade secret enforcement often involves more than just traditional litigation. Join us for a compelling webinar in our 2024 Trade Secrets Webinar Series, where our panel of Seyfarth attorneys will delve into the strategic advantages of using alternative dispute…

Election (Non)Interference: Update on State Voting Leave Requirements for Employers Ahead of the 2024 Presidential Election

  • Post category:Ogletree Deakins
  • Reading time:10 mins read

Quick Hits Voter turnout for the November 2024 elections is expected to be high, meaning many employees will be taking time off to exercise their right to vote. Most states require employers to provide unpaid leave to vote or do not have specific requirements, while some states require paid leave.…

Is Minnesota Nice for Business?

This essay was originally published on TIME. The rousing performances by Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz, along with the Obamas, the Clintons, Oprah, and many others, at the Democratic National Convention marked a pivotal moment in the 2024 presidential election. Now that both political parties have formally…

Global Economics Intelligence executive summary, July 2024

Despite current geopolitical tensions, the global economy remains resilient. Economic growth in surveyed economies is accelerating, as growth in both the manufacturing and services sectors picked up in June. Manufacturing growth was largely stable (except in the eurozone, where it contracted faster) while services sectors remained bright, albeit expanding at…

Learn about latest product innovations to elevate your security strategy at Microsoft AI Tour

  • Post category:Microsoft
  • Reading time:7 mins read

For the second year, the Microsoft AI Tour will bring together security practitioners, developers, and other technology professionals to learn about the latest AI innovations across the full Microsoft Security stack in multiple cities around the globe. Whether you’re a decision maker who evaluates investments, an IT team member charged…

Pixels of Progress: A granular look at Vietnam’s development journey

  • Post category:McKinsey & Company
  • Reading time:17 mins read

A country level perspective of Vietnam can provide a good, general overview of what is taking place in the country—just imagine what a pixelated breakdown 230 times more granular could reveal. Such a granular deep dive is now available with a new dataset, Pixels of Progress, compiled by the McKinsey…

Fundamental Basis for Rapprochement Between Russia, Iran and China

Over the past several years, we have observed an increasing rapprochement between Russia and Iran in different areas - political, geostrategic, military, economic, trade and transport. It is not only notable at the level of rhetoric; it is also being expressed in concrete steps. However, we see that a series…

The Surprising ROI of Small Online Influencers

For social media marketing, many companies gravitate to big-name endorsers. But there are good reasons to get “nano influencers” into the mix. Maximilian Beichert, Xiaoxi Zhang, Andreas Bayerl, Jacob Goldenberg, Xian Gu, P.K. Kannan, and Andreas Lanz August 22, 2024 Reading Time: 8 min  Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images…

Preventing Missteps in Hiring and Managing Seasonal Workers

  • Post category:Ogletree Deakins
  • Reading time:4 mins read

Quick Hits Many state and federal laws apply to seasonal workers the same way they do to full-time, year-round employees. These include antidiscrimination, antiharassment, wage-and-hour, workplace safety, and child-labor laws. About half of the states raised their minimum wage for 2024, which could impact many seasonal workers. Highlighting timekeeping practices…

Develop confident communicators: A guide to Speaker Progress for educators

  • Post category:Microsoft
  • Reading time:12 mins read

Speaker Progress, a Learning Accelerator from Microsoft, helps educators develop students’ public speaking skills. Designed to accompany Speaker Coach, Speaker Progress enables you to create, customize, and assign speaking projects to your students, and collect insights about their performance over time. With AI-powered real-time coaching, Speaker Progress allows students to…

Why “paying yourself first” could help you to secure the future you want

Creating a financial plan can help you to work towards and achieve your long-term goals. For example, your financial planner might help you by building a well-diversified investment portfolio or making the most of your pension contributions to ensure you save enough for the future. However, it’s often the simpler…

Reimagining insurance with a comprehensive approach to gen AI

  • Post category:McKinsey & Company
  • Reading time:10 mins read

Despite forging ahead with generative AI (gen AI) use cases and capabilities, many insurance companies are finding themselves stuck in the pilot phase, unable to scale or extract value. Jörg Mußhoff sat down with Cameron Talischi and Khaled Rifai to discuss how organizations can escape “pilot purgatory” by leveraging traditional AI…

The Joy and Opportunity of Living in Space

Q: What does it feel like to be launched into space? It’s noisy. There’s so much shaking. But what you really feel is pressure. With the weight of the solid rocket fuel plus all the hydrogen and oxygen, you move slowly off the pad. Relatively slowly, I mean—you’re going a…

Fifth Circuit Set to Weigh Challenge to FTC’s CARS Rule

  • Post category:Seyfarth Shaw LLP
  • Reading time:4 mins read

The administrative challenge brought by the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) and another trade association against the Combating Auto Retail Scams (“CARS”) Trade Regulation Rule, issued last year by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), will be heard by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on October 7,…

Enabling carbon reduction in the energy industry

  • Post category:Microsoft
  • Reading time:9 mins read

The ways the energy industry captures, transports, stores, and otherwise removes carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere are changing. Led by the European Union (EU), this new global push toward improved industrial carbon management (ICM) requires sophisticated new support mechanisms, including the development of technologies capable of orchestrating the carbon…

Will Artificial Intelligence Kill Us All?

  • Post category:INSEAD Knowledge
  • Reading time:8 mins read

Lately when I give lectures on leadership to various audiences, the topic of AI hardly ever fails to come up in the question-and-answer period. From what I hear, many people see AI as an ever-present and very worrisome development.It’s a paradox: On the one hand, plenty of observers are scared by how AI is…

SCO, NATO and the Fate of International Cooperation. Part 2

SCO, NATO and the Fate of International Cooperation. Part 1The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, unlike NATO, is not underscored by decades of tradition or any fundamental philosophy. It did not grow out of the experience of several centuries of interaction between states with relatively similar internal orders and a similar view…

What employees say matters most to motivate performance

  • Post category:McKinsey & Company
  • Reading time:10 mins read

The past few years have been a confounding time in performance management. Disruptions of long-standing workplace norms have led many employees to rethink their expectations of employers regarding remote work, employee burnout, and work–life balance. Compounding these challenges, an inflationary economy and a slower hiring market have put pressure on employers…

Ask Sanyin: How Can I Turn Around a Difficult Work Relationship?

Coaching for the Future-Forward Leader When you just don’t get along with a colleague, reset the relationship by focusing on trust. Sanyin Siang August 21, 2024 Reading Time: 2 min  Topics Coaching for the Future-Forward Leader Leadership roles come with new personal and professional challenges — and Sanyin Siang, board…

Federal District Court Blocks FTC Non-Compete Rule From Taking Effect

  • Post category:Ogletree Deakins
  • Reading time:4 mins read

Quick Hits On July 3, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas had granted a limited preliminary injunction staying enforcement of the FTC’s final rule prohibiting non-compete clauses, but only as to the parties in the case, pending a final ruling on the merits. On August…

Helping India’s e-commerce leapfrog into the future

  • Post category:McKinsey & Company
  • Reading time:18 mins read

In this episode of The Committed Innovator, McKinsey innovation leader Erik Roth speaks with Shiprocket cofounder and CEO Saahil Goel about how he built his e-commerce logistics company into a highly successful platform that is helping launch new entrepreneurs all over India. This is an edited transcript of their discussion.…

Angel City Football Club: A New Business Model for Women’s Sports

Brian Kenny: To say that men's leagues have historically dominated the world of professional sports is understating the case. In fact, it literally took a World War to launch the first professional women's league. In 1943, Philip Wrigley, owner of the Chicago Cubs proposed the idea of a professional women's…

The Importance of Knowing Your Team

  • Post category:INSEAD Knowledge
  • Reading time:9 mins read

People often ask us how to better understand others to be a more effective leader. Can we decipher a frown or someone’s folded arms to better understand them? Of course, some knowledge on reading people can be helpful. However, the challenge is that humans are, well, human, and that reactions don’t…

Charting India’s Foreign Policy Course: Challenges and Prospects Under Modi 3.0

Coalition Politics and The Rise of the Opposition With a coalition government steering foreign policy, questions have arisen about its coherence and impact. History offers some insights. In 2008, the Manmohan Singh government faced challenges due to a coalition partner's opposition to the US nuclear deal. However, experts believe the current…

Mother’s gut microbiome during pregnancy shapes baby’s brain development

Researchers have compared the development of the fetal brain in mice whose mothers had no bacteria in their gut, to those whose mothers were given Bifidobacterium breve orally during pregnancy, but had no other bacteria in their gut.Nutrient transport to the brain increased in fetuses of mothers given Bifidobacterium breve,…

PAGA Paraphrased – Stone v. Alameda Health System

  • Post category:Seyfarth Shaw LLP
  • Reading time:2 mins read

By: Phillip J. Ebsworth and Brian B. Gillis Seyfarth Synopsis: The California Supreme Court held that PAGA does not apply to public entity employers. The California Supreme Court overturned the Court of Appeal and prior appellate court decisions to conclude that the PAGA statute, legislative history, and public policy support…

Red and processed meat consumption associated with higher type 2 diabetes risk

The findings are published today in The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology.Global meat production has increased rapidly in recent decades and meat consumption exceeds dietary guidelines in many countries.  Earlier research indicated that higher intakes of processed meat and unprocessed red meat are associated with an elevated risk of type 2…

Why Competing With Tech Giants Requires Finding Your Own Edge

The following is an excerpt that was adapted and lightly edited from chapter nine of Smart Rivals: How Innovative Companies Play Games That Tech Giants Can't Win, written by Feng Zhu and Bonnie Yining Cao and published August 20, 2024. In today's global digital and tech business landscape, traditional businesses…

Arcadia awards over £10 million for 2 major archaeology projects

The McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Department of Archaeology and University of Cambridge Development and Alumni Relations are pleased to announce that the Arcadia charitable foundation has awarded grants totalling £10.3 million to continue the work of the Mapping Africa’s Endangered Archaeological Sites and Monuments (MAEASaM) project and the Mapping…