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The Morning Risk Report: Will Political Polarization Stop Companies From Supporting Social Causes?
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Gap Inc. faced attacks on Twitter when it posted a picture of a half-blue, half-red sweatshirt the day after Election Day. PHOTO: JUSTIN SULLIVAN/GETTY IMAGES
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Good morning. Companies eyeing the polarized election and its aftermath may be tempted to back away from supporting hot-button social issues. But experts say sitting on the sidelines won’t pay off, no matter the reputational risks.
Following record turnout for both major candidates in this month’s U.S. presidential election, some business are seeking to balance support for social issues while not alienating major segments of their audience who feel otherwise. The heightened threat of backlash hasn’t stopped some from doubling down on commitments to the social causes of their choice, Risk & Compliance Journal’s Dylan Tokar reports.
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“It used to be, ‘The less we say about this the better, because we’re only going to get ourselves into trouble,’” said Jonathan Copulsky, a professor of marketing at the Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management who focuses on brand management. “On the social-justice issues [today], I can’t think of a large organization where not saying anything benefits them at this point.”
Even as these companies are pushing ahead on their support of social causes, in many cases they also are evaluating their stakeholders and calibrating their messaging to remain as apolitical as possible.
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The U.S. has shared Terrorist Finance Tracking Program data with European partners about a number of serious terrorist incidents in Europe—including a 2017 truck attack in Stockholm. PHOTO: ODD ANDERSEN/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
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The Treasury Department’s Terrorist Finance Tracking Program is now widely used by European authorities—even as European Union institutions, concerned about the privacy of their citizens and possible surveillance, move to more strictly control transfers to the U.S. of data they gather.
Some 40% of the database searches performed by Treasury were on behalf of EU member states or Europol, the EU’s law-enforcement arm, according to information gathered as part of a review by the U.S. Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, an independent federal agency that advises the president on intelligence and counterterrorism programs.
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The Securities and Exchange Commission voted to remove certain disclosure requirements for companies, one of the last rule changes to pass under the regulator’s departing chairman, Jay Clayton.
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Thursday’s amendment focuses on the management discussion and analysis section of companies’ financial statements, among other disclosures. With the changes, companies no longer have to provide the previous five years of selected annual financial data to the SEC. Companies no longer need to disclose their contractual obligations related to leases, purchases and other liabilities in the form of a table.
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The real-estate industry’s largest trade group agreed to make the cost of brokers’ commissions more transparent as part of a settlement of a Justice Department lawsuit. The department sued the National Association of Realtors—and filed a concurrent settlement—in a Washington, D.C., federal court. The antitrust complaint accused the group of maintaining anticompetitive rules, alleging those rules created an environment in which there was little visibility for home buyers about the commissions a buyer’s agent would earn.
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The Trump administration is planning to roll out two final rules aimed at lowering drug prices—one curbing rebates paid to middlemen in Medicare and another pegging the prices of certain prescription drugs in the U.S. to their prices in other developed countries, according to a person familiar with the planning.
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President-elect Joe Biden said he had chosen a nominee to lead the Treasury Department who he thinks will be accepted by both the liberal and moderate wings of the Democratic Party. Mr. Biden has been considering a group of contenders with experience with the Federal Reserve, according to people familiar with the conversations, including Fed governor Lael Brainard, who was a Treasury undersecretary during the Obama administration; Roger Ferguson, a former Fed vice chairman; and Janet Yellen, a Fed chair under former President Barack Obama who departed in early 2018.
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Nasdaq has shifted in recent years away from trading toward businesses with more stable revenue such as selling data and software. PHOTO: MICHAEL NAGLE/BLOOMBERG NEWS
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Nasdaq will buy Verafin, a software company that uses artificial intelligence to help banks detect money laundering and fraud, for $2.75 billion, the companies said.
If completed, the Verafin acquisition would be Nasdaq’s largest deal in more than a decade and its latest effort to diversify away from its core exchange business into technology. The deal is expected to close early next year, subject to regulatory approval and other conditions.
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Workers outside a Tyson plant in Waterloo, Iowa, in May. PHOTO: BRANDON POLLOCK/THE COURIER/ASSOCIATED PRESS
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Tyson Foods said it suspended managers at an Iowa pork plant following allegations that some wagered on the number of workers who would become infected with Covid-19, as the pandemic roiled the meat industry last spring.
Dean Banks, Tyson’s chief executive, said the company had hired law firm Covington & Burling LLP to investigate the allegations. The claims were made in a wrongful-death lawsuit brought by the family of a former employee of the Waterloo, Iowa, plant who died in April after contracting the coronavirus.
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A Covid-19 Travel Advisory highlighting states from which travelers must quarantine upon arrival at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey on Monday. PHOTO: ANGUS MORDANT/BLOOMBERG NEWS
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Many employers are inquiring about workers’ Thanksgiving plans and urging them to celebrate with caution. Bosses say they worry family get-togethers could lead to more infections in workplaces and staffing crunches—though employment law limits how much say companies have on workers’ off-duty time.
Those legal restrictions haven’t stopped some companies from taking measures to encourage employees to limit their Covid-19 exposure over the holiday and to safeguard workplaces. Some are offering workers paid time off for potential post-Thanksgiving quarantines. Some are asking employees to sign pledges stating that they’ll keep celebrations small. Others are issuing memos and corporate videos reminding workers of guidance from public-health authorities on avoiding large gatherings and extensive travel.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday urged Americans not to travel for Thanksgiving, as an official said the agency is alarmed by the exponential growth in Covid-19 cases, as well as rising hospitalizations and deaths.
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Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin at the White House in August. PHOTO: J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE/ASSOCIATED PRESS
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Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin declined to extend several emergency loan programs established jointly with the Federal Reserve that are set to expire on Dec. 31. The Fed’s corporate credit, municipal lending and Main Street Lending programs won’t be renewed, Mr. Mnuchin said Thursday. The central bank signaled disappointment in his decision.
Meanwhile, two Federal Reserve officials at the heart of central bank decision making this year sent warnings about what lies ahead for the economy as coronavirus cases spiral higher. The number of applications for unemployment benefits rose sharply last week, indicating continued challenges for the U.S. economic recovery.
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The Food and Drug Administration will decide whether to grant an emergency use authorization, a quicker version of its normal approval. PHOTO: ANDREW KELLY/REUTERS
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The Food and Drug Administration is days away from beginning its evaluation of Covid-19 vaccines for emergency use—a process that could lead to vaccine distribution by year’s end to limited groups such as health-care workers and the elderly.
Pfizer and German partner BioNTech plan to submit their vaccine testing data to the FDA within days, followed closely by Moderna. That will set off a process in which FDA scientists will begin to assess the accuracy of company data, which is likely to take two to three weeks.
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A Covid-19 vaccine being developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca showed promising immune responses in elderly and older adults, with fewer serious side effects than in younger volunteers, according to a just-published interim analysis previewed in late October.
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Chinese authorities have inoculated nearly one million Chinese people with a Covid-19 vaccine from Sinopharm, though the state company has yet to provide solid clinical evidence of efficacy.
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Panasonic Avionics Corp. named Abby Bried as vice president and general counsel. Ms. Bried will oversee the Lake Forest, Calif., company’s legal team and advise on laws, regulations, public policy, ethics and risk, the company said. Ms. Bried, who has more than 25 years of experience in the aviation industry, was an associate general counsel at United Airlines from 2012 to 2017. She joins Panasonic Avionics from law firm Jenner & Block LLP, where she was a Washington, D.C.-based partner.
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