The Whomp: Somebody’s Watching
Not Financial News. Financialtainment | February 23, 2017
DAILY WHOMP
“They’re hidden in lights, ID badges, and elsewhere, tracking things such as conference room usage, employee whereabouts, and ‘latency’ — how long someone goes without speaking to another co-worker.” Basically, your company knows every time you leave your desk or rolls your eyes at that irritating guy from marketing. And in the name of efficiency, they are legally permitted to track your movements everywhere except the bathroom. Not speaking to a coworker — human resources can collect vocal interactions and address the problem. Unionizing the proletariat near the urinals where cameras are not permitted — no one’s business. Your move, human resources.
IN THE MONEY
- Fed minutes: Trump policies could lead to rate hike ‘fairly soon’ CNBC
- Here’s a look at the new futuristic Apple headquarters C-Net
- Banks make $6.4 billion in ATM, overdraft fees CNN
- Trump rescinds transgender bathroom rules NYT
- 7 Earth-size planets found orbiting nearby star CNN
SHOP TALK
In the 2004 romantic sci-fi movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, a man tries to deal with rejection by paying someone to erase from his brain every recollection of the lady he loved. We don’t know how Kraft Heinz Co is planning to go about forgetting, but the US food company may need something close to a lobotomy to yank from its memory the $143 billion takeover bid consumer goods company Unilever Plc flat out rejected last week.
Kraft, which is controlled by Warren Buffett and Brazilian private equity firm 3G Capital, made a surprise offer for Unilever on Friday. The combination would have constituted “the third-biggest takeover in history and the largest acquisition of a UK-based company,” according to Reuters, at a time when the packaged food industry is facing more challenges including slow growth, new competition, and a global obsession with health and fresh foods.
For now, Kraft’s owners may have to lick their wounds and enjoy the much smaller Restaurant Brands-Popeyes victory this week.
THE NUMBER
68: Percentage of Americans who believe they are overqualified for their current job: Gallup
DID THINGS GO TO HELL THIS WEEK?
Things did not go to hell this week. The week began with mass ‘Not My Presidents Day’ protests in major cities, which were peaceful for the most part. President Donald Trump named a new National Security Adviser in H.R. McMaster. An updated immigration order was released, which did little to please administration foes. Mostly the week lacked a crippling press conference or defining insult that would have led us to conclude things were, indeed, going to hell. Then yesterday Business Insider helped clear up some questions with a nifty chart about how President Trump spends his day. 72% of his time is spent at the White House, 23% at his Mar-A-Lago Resort. He spends more time golfing than tweeting, more time tweeting than attending intelligence briefings, but he doesn’t seem to sleep that much, which should open up his day. All things considered, if he cuts down on the golf and Twitter, things should take a turn for the better.
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