● World-dominating companies 32

● Earn interest on your Bitcoin? 27

● AT&T + Discovery = Drama! 17

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May 24, 2021 More on page 5

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Sway a negotiation 44 Businessweek! For
highlights from the
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2021howto.
pandemic karaoke 45 Make pennies on Spotify 45
Build a business online 46 Meet deadlines 48
Sell a luxury condo 48 Think about a Covid
memorial 49 Pitch a VC 50 Tip your bartender 50
Erect a bike shed 51 Give an economics forecast 52 Fall
in love 52 Land on Mars 53 Buy happiness 54 Get financial
advice 54 Break up with plastic bottles 55 Extend a movie
franchise 56 Stay cool 58 Sketch a courtroom 58 Be
a champion gamer 59 Become a restaurant regular 60
Go everywhere on two wheels 60 Start a soccer
team 61 Upgrade your condiments 62 Make smarter
bets 62 Get wealthy Americans to pay taxes 63 Craft your own 5

quant strategy 63 Develop a cult following 64 Make the perfect

cheeseburger 64 Hire Jony Ive 65 Open a family
office 66 Use Robinhood, but sanely 67 Run a
loyalty program 67 Contemplate socializing
again … 68 … or not 69 Live the FIRE life 70 Beat
Silicon Valley 71 Market a new tequila 71 Come
up with a couch everyone wants to flop on 72
Keep a restaurant alive 73 Live with your family in
a van 74 Negotiate cheaper rent 76 Organize your workplace 77
Blow the whistle 77 Own a classic car 78 Negotiate with China 79
Make an airline green 79 Put together your personal board of
directors 80 Persuade people to take a chance on you 80 Inspire
your employees 80 Brainstorm 81 Think about your next act 81
Open doors for different kinds of people
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Mature as an investor 82 Rethink your portfolio 82 Perfectly

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  CONTENTS Bloomberg Businessweek May 24, 2021

 IN BRIEF 9 Commodities keep climbing ○ Bitcoin’s on a wild ride  COVER TRAIL

 OPINION 10 It’s past time to scrap the protectionist Jones Act How the cover
 AGENDA 10 A post-Brexit EU meeting ○ Jacob Zuma goes to trial gets made

①
“This week there’s
 REMARKS 12 China’s Belt and Road—and now Jab—diplomacy this virtual event, so
I was thinking, what if
the audience voted on
BUSINESS 15 Companies scramble to keep shelves stocked the cover?!”
1 17 AT&T and Discovery team up to challenge Netflix “You’re scaring me.”
“Nonsense. You art folks
TECHNOLOGY 21  The woman taking EA and gaming into the future always have so many
2 good ideas—let the
world sample more of
your genius.”
“Look, I love our readers.
But democracy is the
enemy of art.”
“Is that John Lennon?”
“Not even close.… Fine.
But let’s make it an art
vs. edit showdown. That
means edit has to make
a cover for once.”
“Fantastic! How hard
could it be?”
②
“OK, edit’s first cover.
What do you think?”

“It’s OK, I guess.”

“Where’s yours?”

TECHNOLOGY: PHOTOGRAPH BY JESSICA CHOU FOR BLOOMBERG BUSINESSWEEK. COVER TRAIL: ILLUSTRATION BY OSCAR BOLTON GREEN
“I thought the audience
was deciding.”
“Wow. OK. Playing it
close to the vest. Let’s
see what they think.”
[Votes come in]
“Here’s a shocker: Not
even one vote for edit.
Way to go, art.”
23 Vaccine disinformation goes global on social media
“Let’s do this
every week!”
FINANCE 27 The rising, risky world of Bitcoin shadow banking
3 29 For-profit college gets a private equity curriculum

ECONOMICS 32 Sizing up the globe’s 50 most valuable companies

4 35 The high cost of “Covid Zero” containment strategies

POLITICS 36 The Supreme Court could overturn Roe v. Wade

5 38 Under Biden, workers’ rights are a thing again
39 Do we really have to go back to the doctor’s office?

How to Contact Bloomberg Businessweek Cover: Photograph

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 IN BRIEF
○ Global coronavirus cases
passed 164 million, and
deaths topped
3.4m
Meanwhile, more than
1.5 billion vaccine doses
have been given. The virus
has flared up again in parts
of Asia: A new outbreak has
forced Singapore to return
to lockdown-like conditions.
○ Fidelity plans to
offer teenagers a
special brokerage
account.
GAZA: MAHMOUD KHATTAB/QUDS NET NEWS/ZUMA PRESS. CEUTA: MOHAMED SIALI/EFE/ZUMA PRESS. MATA’AFA: COURTESY FAST
The fund manager will provide
investing and savings accounts and
debit cards to 13- to 17-year-olds
whose parents are clients. There are
no account fees or commissions.
○ “You never know
how low is low
when a market gets
very emotional.”
Ark Investment Management founder Cathie Wood, talking about Bitcoin at The
Bloomberg Businessweek, a weeklong virtual gathering, on May 19. Bitcoin dropped
as much as 31% on May 19, then rallied 33%, ending the day near $40,000. Wood
expects the cryptocurrency, which peaked at $63,000 in April, to reach $500,000.
Bloomberg Businessweek By Benedikt Kammel
○ AT&T will spin off its
media operations and
○ Donald
merge them with Trump faces
Discovery’s assets to form
another
a new company. The
combined entity, which the
deal values at about
criminal
investigation.
$130b
could offer some serious
competition to streaming
○ Fighting between Israel and Hamas giants Amazon, Disney+, On May 18, New York Attorney
has now killed at least 224 Palestinians General Letitia James said her civil
and 12 Israelis. On May 19, Prime
and Netflix.  17 investigation of the Trump Organization
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rebuffed has morphed into a criminal probe,
President Joe Biden’s demand that he making her the second state official
wind down the conflict, saying airstrikes who might bring charges against the
on Gaza (above) would continue. former president.
○ Commodity prices are
on a tear as economies
emerge from the depths of
the pandemic.
Copper surged to a high this
month, surpassing 9
$10k a ton
For the first time in two months,
crude oil jumped above
$70 per bbl
Iron ore has also hit a high,
reaching more than
○ Looser patrols have made the city of Ceuta, a Spanish enclave on the coast of
$200 a ton Morocco, a magnet for Africans trying to reach the EU. On May 18 more than 5,000
people—a record—swam around border fences or walked the distance at low tide.
○ Fiame Naomi Mata’afa is ○ The EU’s
set to become Samoa’s first
female prime minister after member states
agreed on
the Pacific island’s supreme
court broke a political
deadlock following April’s
May 19 to allow
quarantine-free
contested election. She
succeeds Tuilaepa Sailele travel this summer
Malielegaoi, who held the for vaccinated
post for 22 years.
visitors from
countries
deemed safe.
 ◼ BLOOMBERG OPINION May 24, 2021

ships to China for repairs, which is cheaper even with the 50%
Don’t Just Waive the tariff they pay the U.S. government for the privilege.
The Jones Act survives because it supports the narrow
Protectionist Jones Act. interests of a handful of shipping companies and maritime
unions, which pump out a reliable stream of campaign cash
Scrap It for Good to the Congressional Shipbuilding Caucus. Never mind the
costs to all Americans—especially those in Alaska, Hawaii,
and Puerto Rico who depend heavily on maritime commerce.
Another domestic energy crisis, another waiver of the U.S.’s There are better ways to build up coastal commerce and
Jones Act. the maritime industry, from investing in neglected port infra-
In response to the ransomware attack on the Colonial structure and public shipyards to changing the tax treat-
Pipeline, which delivers about 45% of the fuel for the Eastern ment of U.S.-flagged ships. Yet the Biden administration
Seaboard, President Joe Biden’s administration said it would seems committed to preserving the Jones Act, whatever
allow two exemptions from the 101-year-old act, which the consequences. Here’s a question for the White House
restricts waterborne commerce between U.S. ports to ships to ponder: If this law is so successful and so vital, why does
that are built, crewed, and owned by Americans. Citgo it so often need to be waived in cases of emergency? <BW>
Petroleum Corp. and Valero Energy Corp. now have permis- For more commentary, go to bloomberg.com/opinion
sion to use foreign vessels to transport oil products between
the Gulf Coast and the East Coast.
Hurricanes forced previous presidents to suspend the law ◼ AGENDA
to ensure deliveries of food, fuel, and other goods. This time,
Biden should face reality and bury the act under the waves.
As with most protectionist measures, the Jones Act harms
the very people it purports to help. Because oceangoing
Jones Act-compliant ships are more expensive, and there aren’t
10 that many of them, the law leads to higher prices for goods,
more congested roadways and pipelines, and additional pollu-
tion from greater reliance on carbon-intensive transportation.
Its market-bending distortions could scarcely be exagger-
ated. As a direct result of the law, refineries on both coasts
can find it cheaper to import foreign oil than to use domes-
tic sources. Refineries on the Gulf Coast choose to send their
products to Latin America instead of the East Coast. The U.S.
is a natural gas powerhouse, but it has no Jones Act-compliant
liquefied natural gas carriers, which would cost two to three
times as much as equivalent ships from South Korea. So
Puerto Rico and Hawaii source their LNG from overseas,
▶ Let’s Meet Again
Northeast ports look to Trinidad and Tobago, and U.S. natu- EU leaders convene in person in Brussels on May 24-25.
ral gas goes abroad. Among the topics on their agenda: Reducing carbon
The act is even undermining the Biden administration’s emissions at least 55% by 2030 from 1990’s levels and
vaunted green energy plans. Offshore wind projects need navigating the tense post-Brexit relationship with the U.K.
Jones Act-compliant turbine-installation vessels. Right now,
the U.S. has one—under construction, that is, and due to ▶ The Bank of New ▶ Ford will brief ▶ At its 74th assembly,
Zealand announces its investors and analysts being held virtually from
launch in 2023 at a cost of $500 million. Hitting the adminis- interest rate decision on on May 26. The May 24 to June 1, the
tration’s goal of 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy produc- May 26. The bank has automaker is expected WHO will discuss ways
signaled it’s in no rush to to provide updates on out of the yearlong
tion by 2030 will require more vessels, which the law will only halt monetary stimulus its EV strategy as part pandemic and how to
make more expensive. as the economic outlook of the Ford+ plan. prevent the next one.
remains uncertain.
It would be one thing if the Jones Act met its stated goal
of sustaining a robust merchant fleet. But the number of
ILLUSTRATION BY EMMA ERICKSON

Jones Act-eligible U.S. vessels in 2019 was 99, vs. 193 in 2000. ▶ South Africa’s former
president, Jacob Zuma,
From 1960 to 2014, even as U.S. output more than quadrupled, is set to face trial
the tonnage of domestic contiguous coastal shipping dropped starting May 26 for
corruption and money
by 44%. The U.S.’s few remaining commercial shipyards are laundering. He intends to
expensive and superannuated: Indeed, some companies that enter a plea of not guilty.
shamelessly defend their Jones Act monopolies send their
▶ Finance ministers and
central bank governors
from the G-7 will gather
virtually on May 28
to prepare for their
in-person summit a few
weeks later, which the
U.K. will host in Cornwall.
▶ The CEOs of Bank
of America, Citigroup,
Goldman Sachs,
JPMorgan, Morgan
Stanley, and Wells Fargo
will testify before the
U.S. Senate Banking
Committee on May 26.
 DaVinci Resolve Studio ... US$295
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t l
 ◼ REMARKS ● Syria ● Equatorial Guinea

● Sudan
China’s ● Cambodia

12
● Laos
Vaccine ● Comoros

● Nepal
Diplomacy ● Dominica

 ● China, now that one of its Covid-19

 shots was cleared by the WHO, has a
GETTY IMAGES (7). REDUX (1)

 new soft-power lever 

 ● By Iain Marlow and James Paton 

◼ REMARKS Bloomberg Businessweek
The Covid-19 pandemic has been a devastating public-health
catastrophe the world over. For China, it’s also provided an
unprecedented geopolitical opportunity. After it got the out-
break under control, and with world leaders distracted by their
own countries’ health struggles, it was able to use the chaos of
the pandemic to step up political crackdowns in Hong Kong
and Xinjiang. Other nations cried foul, but China persisted.
Perhaps most important, early exports of its rapidly developed
vaccines have provided Beijing with a potent diplomatic call-
ing card in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East.
And as the global death toll mounts, Chinese officials get to
brag about their virus-fighting success around the world even
as they gain greater access and influence in far-flung capitals.
“The U.S. response to the epidemic is nothing short of a
mess and total failure,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman
Zhao Lijian, one of the original wolf warrior diplomats, named
for their confrontational stance, said last month. “In contrast,
China secured major strategic outcomes in fighting the virus.”
About China, at least, he’s not wrong. So far the country
has shipped about 265 million Covid vaccine doses, more than
all other nations combined, with commitments to provide an
impressive 440 million more, according to Airfinity Ltd., a sci-
ence information and analytics company. Other leading pow-
ers haven’t kept up. President Joe Biden has vowed the U.S.
will become an “arsenal for fighting Covid-19.” His administra-
tion promises to boost production of U.S. vaccines and donate
80 million doses overseas by the end of June, including 20 mil-
lion authorized for U.S. use—the first time he’s shared doses
he could have given to Americans. Europe has done better,
exporting about 118 million domestically produced doses so far,
according to Airfinity, even amid criticism for a slow start to
its vaccination drive at home. India, meanwhile, had exported
almost 69 million doses to nearly 100 countries until it suffered
the world’s worst outbreak and halted further deliveries.
China is about to get another big boost. After clearing
Western-made shots, the World Health Organization recently
authorized the vaccine made by China’s Sinopharm Group
Co. A nod for one from Sinovac Biotech Ltd. is expected soon.
This will allow Chinese shots to flow to dozens of develop-
ing nations through Covax, the global vaccine initiative,
which has managed to ship only 68 million of the 2 billion
doses it hopes to send out by yearend. “China is going to be
a critically important partner in the long run,” says Richard
Hatchett, chief executive officer of the Coalition for Epidemic
Preparedness Innovations, one of the groups leading Covax.
The WHO authorization, a de facto approval for regula-
tors in poorer countries, could help unleash hundreds of mil-
lions of doses of Chinese shots. The impact of the country’s
contributions will also be magnified by the absence of India,
making this “the best time for China to practice vaccine diplo-
macy and to make more use of its first-mover advantage,”
says Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the
Council on Foreign Relations.
Beijing’s vaccine diplomacy is clearly of the hardball vari-
ety. India’s desperately poor neighbors in South Asia were
May 24, 2021
among those China targeted. On April 27, the same day Chinese
Foreign Minister Wang Yi organized a virtual meeting with his
counterparts in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, and
Sri Lanka, Minister of National Defense Wei Fenghe was in
Bangladesh, pledging to enhance military cooperation. Within
days, officials there gave emergency approval to the Sinopharm
vaccine. Less than two weeks later, China’s ambassador to
Bangladesh surprised his hosts with an unexpected warning:
Any future cooperation with Australia, India, Japan, and the
U.S. would inevitably damage the nation’s ties with China.
“Bangladesh, which was reliant on Indian doses, is now
being subjected to pressure from China over its strategic
foreign partnerships in the midst of bilateral negotiations
for a large sale of urgently needed vaccines,” says Nicholas
Thomas, an associate professor at the City University of Hong
Kong and editor of several books on global health and foreign
policy. “It would be foolish to conclude that the aid and sup-
ply of vaccines that China is now giving to Asia and the world
will not translate into a long-term diplomatic advantage.”
The country’s upper hand may not last. India recognizes
China’s advantage, but believes it won’t be long-lasting and
expects its own exports will ramp up in a few months, accord-
ing to a foreign ministry official in New Delhi who asked not to
be identified. Chinese diplomats’ sometimes overzealous pres-
sure tactics could also backfire. Even Bangladesh complained
about the local ambassador’s comments. 13
Another wild card is the reliability of Chinese shots com-
pared with that of the other vaccines. The efficacy of the
Sinovac vaccine, for instance, varies wildly—from 50% to 90%—
in studies. Global surveys have shown Chinese shots are the
least favored in several places. Even in Hong Kong, only 37%
said they’d take a Sinovac jab, compared with 56% for Pfizer
Inc.’s. Western vaccine diplomacy with more effective shots
could easily push back gains by China, according to Thomas,
the Hong Kong academic. The official in New Delhi says India
remains a trusted partner for vaccines around the developing
world and that Chinese shots haven’t lived up to expectations.
Across Africa, nations have struggled with vaccine hes-
itancy, suggesting China’s shots may languish in storage
rather than generate the political goodwill Beijing intended.
“Although some of my workmates have been vaccinated, I am
still afraid to do it because of what I’ve read on social media,”
says Passmore Mwanza, a 29-year-old supervisor at a candy
maker in Zimbabwe.
Still, China’s contributions will be crucial in the race to
inoculate large populations across the developing world before
outbreaks—and variants—spread too widely. With Covax ship-
ments delayed by the India export collapse, China might be
the only choice in the near term for many poorer countries.
“The pandemic started as a Chernobyl moment for China,” says
Suisheng Zhao, director of the University of Denver’s Center
for China-U.S. Cooperation. “It has become an opportunity
for China to demonstrate to the world that its rise cannot be
stopped.” <BW> ——With Sudhi Ranjan Sen, Godfrey Marawanyika,
Arun Devnath, John Lauerman, and Josh Wingrove
 Connecting
the dots

for decision
makers.

See it all.
Get the ultimate source
of business intelligence,
analysis, and news.

bloomberg.com/subscriptions
Bloomberg Businessweek
F
FEA
R O
● Surging demand is upending
global supply chains. So scared
companies are stocking up
Dennis Wolkin, whose family has run a business
making crib mattresses for three generations,
should be sleeping soundly right now. Economic
expansions are usually good for baby bed sales. But
that extra demand can quickly turn from a bless-
ing to a curse without the key ingredient: foam
padding. Lately there’s been a run on the kind of
polyurethane foam Wolkin uses—in part because of
the deep freeze across the U.S. South in February,
and because of “companies over-ordering and try-
ing to hoard what they can,” he says.
“It’s gotten out of control, especially in the past
month,” says Wolkin, vice president of operations
at Atlanta-based Colgate Mattress, a 35-employee
May 24, 2021
U T
E
S
15
G O
N I N
R U N
S
company that sells products at Target stores and
independent retailers. “We’ve never seen any-
thing like this.” Although polyurethane foam is 50%
more expensive than it was before the Covid-19 pan-
demic, Wolkin would rather buy twice the amount
he needs and look for warehouse space than reject
orders from new customers. “Every company like
us is going to overbuy,” he says.
A year ago, as the pandemic ravaged country
after country and economies shuddered, consum-
ers were the ones panic-buying. Today it’s com-
panies furiously trying to stock up. From mattress
producers to car manufacturers, all are buying more
material than they need to keep up with rapidly
recovering demand and assuage that primal fear of
running out. The frenzy is pushing supply chains
to the brink. Shortages, transportation bottlenecks,
and price spikes are nearing critical levels, raising
concern that a supercharged global economy will Edited by
stoke inflation. James E. Ellis
 ◼ BUSINESS
Copper, iron ore, and steel. Corn, coffee,
wheat, and soybeans. Lumber, semiconductors,
plastic, and cardboard. The world is seemingly low
on all of it. “You name it, and we have a shortage on
it,” Tom Linebarger, chief executive officer of engine
manufacturer Cummins Inc., said on an investor call
this month. Clients are “trying to get everything
they can, because they see high demand,” Jennifer
Rumsey, the company’s president, said. “They think
it’s going to extend into next year.”
The difference between the big crunch of 2021
and past supply disruptions is the sheer magnitude
of it, and that there is—as far as anyone can tell—no
end in sight. Big or small, few businesses are spared.
The operator of Europe’s largest fleet of trucks,
Girteka Logistics, says it’s been a struggle to meet
all the demand for freight hauling. Monster Beverage
Corp. of Corona, Calif., is dealing with an aluminum
can scarcity. Hong Kong’s Momax Technology Ltd. is
delaying production of a new power charger prod-
uct because of a dearth of semiconductors.
Further exacerbating the situation is an unusu-
ally long and growing list of calamities that have
rocked commodities in recent months. A freak acci-
dent in the Suez Canal backed up global shipping
16 in March. Drought has wreaked havoc on crops. A
deep freeze and mass blackout wiped out energy
and petrochemical operations across the central and
southern U.S. in February. Then hackers brought
down the largest U.S. fuel pipeline, driving gasoline
prices above $3 a gallon for the first time since 2014.
Now India’s Covid-19 surge is threatening its biggest
ports, which handled $829 billion of goods in 2018.
For anyone who thinks it’s all going to end in
a few months, consider the somewhat obscure
U.S. economic indicator known as the Logistics
Managers’ Index. The gauge is built on a monthly
survey of corporate supply chiefs that asks where
they see inventory, transportation, and warehouse
The Crunch Is On
U.S. retailers, seasonally adjusted
Inventories Sales
$700b
550
400
1/2019 4/2020 3/2021*
*PRELIMINARY ESTIMATE. DATA: U.S. CENSUS BUREAU
Bloomberg Businessweek May 24, 2021
expenses—the three key components of managing
supply chains—now and in 12 months. The current
index is at its second-highest level in records dat-
ing back to 2016, and the future gauge shows lit-
tle respite a year from now. The index has proved
unnervingly accurate in the past, matching up with
actual costs about 90% of the time.
To Zac Rogers, who helps compile the index as
an assistant professor at Colorado State University’s “You name it,
College of Business, it’s a paradigm shift. In the past, and we have
supply chains were optimized for low costs and reli- a shortage
ability. Today, with e-commerce demand soaring, on it”
warehouses have moved from the cheap outskirts
of urban areas to prime parking garages downtown
or vacant department-store space where deliver-
ies can be made quickly, albeit with pricier real
estate, labor, and utilities. Once viewed as liabilities
before the pandemic, fatter inventories are in vogue.
Transport costs, more volatile than the other two,
won’t lighten up until demand does.
“Essentially what people are telling us to expect
is that it’s going to be hard to get supply up to a
place where it matches demand,” Rogers says, “and
because of that, we’re going to continue to see some
price increases over the next 12 months.”
More well-known barometers are starting to
reflect the higher costs for households and compa-
nies. An index of U.S. consumer prices that excludes
food and fuel jumped 0.9% in April from a month
earlier, the most since 1982. At the factory gate, the
increase in prices charged by American producers
was twice as large as economists expected.
Even multinational companies with digital
supply-management systems and teams of people
monitoring them are just trying to cope. Whirlpool
Corp. CEO Marc Bitzer told Bloomberg TV this
month the company’s supply chain is “pretty much
upside down,” and the appliance maker is phasing
in price increases. Usually Whirlpool and other large
manufacturers produce goods based on incoming
orders and forecasts for those sales. Now it’s pro-
ducing based on what parts are available.
“It is anything but efficient or normal, but that
is how you have to run it right now,” Bitzer said. “I
know there’s talk of a temporary blip, but we do see
this elevated for a sustained period.”
The strains stretch all the way back to global
output of raw materials and may persist, because
increasing production of what’s scarce—with either
additional capital or labor—is slow and expensive.
The prices of lumber, copper, iron ore, and steel
have all surged in recent months in the face of stron-
ger demand from the U.S. and China.
Crude oil is also rising, as are the prices of indus-
trial materials from plastics to chemicals. Some
 ◼ BUSINESS Bloomberg Businessweek May 24, 2021

of the increases are already showing up in stores.

Reynolds Consumer Products Inc., the maker of the It’s Shark Week for Discovery
namesake aluminum foil and Hefty trash bags, plans
another round of price increases, its third in 2021.
Food costs are climbing, too. The world’s most ● Will adding AT&T’s media brands in order to become a streaming
consumed edible oil, processed from the fruit of oil giant save it from the bite Netflix is taking out of cable programmers?
palm trees, has jumped by more than 135% in the
past year to a record. Soybeans topped $16 a bushel
for the first time since 2012. Corn futures hit an eight-
year high, while wheat futures rose to the highest
price since 2013.
Earlier this month, the Bloomberg Commodity
Spot Index touched the highest level since 2011. A
big reason is a U.S. economy that’s recovering faster
than most. The evidence of that is floating off the
coast of California, where dozens of container ships
are waiting to offload at ports from Oakland to Los
Angeles. Most goods are flooding in from China,
where government figures on May 11 showed pro-
ducer prices climbed in April by the most since
2017, adding to evidence that cost pressures for that
nation’s factories pose a global risk if they are passed
on to retailers and other customers abroad.
The semiconductor crunch is threatening the
broader electronics sector and may start to squeeze
Asia’s high-performing export economies, according 17
to Vincent Tsui of Gavekal Research. It’s “not simply Over the years, Discovery Inc., the owner of Animal
the result of a few temporary glitches,” Tsui wrote Planet and steward of Shark Week, has mesmerized
in a note to clients. “They are more structural in TV audiences with all sorts of Darwinian marvels.
nature, and they affect a whole range of industries, Alligator snapping turtles. Giant Tasmanian cray-
not just automobile production.” fish. Tree kangaroos. Now, Discovery is trying to
For London-based packaging company DS Smith pull off its own evolutionary leap, crawling out of the
Plc, challenges are coming from multiple sides. choppy seas of basic cable to invade the fertile land
During the pandemic, customers rushed to online of streaming TV. On May 17, Chief Executive Officer
purchases, raising demand for its ePack boxes and David Zaslav sat alongside John Stankey, the CEO of
other shipping materials by 700%. Then came the AT&T Inc., at a hastily convened investor call and
doubling of its supply costs to €200 ($245) a ton provided a blurry snapshot of their newly hatched,
for the recycled fiber it uses to make its products. multiheaded entertainment hydra.
“That’s a significant cost” for a company that buys The executives disclosed that AT&T, just three
4 million to 5 million tons of used fiber annually, says years after completing its costly acquisition of Time
Miles Roberts, DS Smith’s group chief executive, who Warner and renaming it WarnerMedia, would be
doesn’t see the lockdown-inspired web purchasing spinning off its media assets, which include CNN,
as a temporary trend. “The e-commerce that has TNT, TBS, and the Warner Bros. studio, and merg-
increased is here to stay.” ing them with Discovery. Zaslav will lead the new, as
At Colgate Mattress, Wolkin used to be able to yet unnamed, entity. Its portfolio will include a mix
order foam on Mondays and have it delivered on of highbrow brands such as HBO—known for cre-
Thursdays. Now his suppliers can’t promise any- ating lavishly expensive scripted programming like
thing. What’s clear is he can’t sustain the higher Succession—along with a slate of middlebrow, basic
costs forever and still maintain quality. “This is cable networks, including HGTV, Food Network, and
ILLUSTRATION BY NICHOLE SHINN

kind of a long-term issue,” he says. “Inflation is com-
ing—at some point, you’ve got to pass this along.”
�Brendan Murray, Enda Curran, and Kim Chipman
THE BOTTOM LINE Businesses are facing raw materials
shortages, transportation bottlenecks, and price spikes unseen in
years. That’s causing panic buying and inventory hoarding.
TLC that are adept at churning out low-cost reality
shows like 90 Day Fiancé. “There is no reason why
this can’t be the broadest, most successful direct-to-
consumer platform in the world,” Zaslav said.
AT&T and Discovery have struggled to master
the streaming ecosystem. Launched a year ago,
  BUSINESS
AT&T’s HBO Max got off to a slow start, but it’s
since gained traction after striking key distribution
deals with Roku and Amazon and showing Wonder
Woman 1984, Godzilla vs. Kong, and other Warner
Bros. films on the same day as their theater pre-
mieres. HBO Max and the traditional HBO channel
together have about 44 million subscribers in the
U.S. and 64 million total worldwide. Discovery’s
streaming service, Discovery+, started in January in
the U.S. By late April, it had 15 million subscribers.
The AT&T deal may have been inevitable given
the current state of streaming TV. The market is
increasingly global in its outlook and inhospitable
to minnows. Netflix Inc. remains the megalodon,
with 208 million subscribers worldwide and a pipe-
line of hits such as Lupin that are popular across con-
tinents. But Walt Disney Co., which two years ago
bought Rupert Murdoch’s entertainment empire
for $71 billion, is catching up fast, with more than
100 million subscribers to its service, Disney+.
WarnerMedia and Discovery are just starting to
expand streaming services overseas. WarnerMedia,
for now, can’t launch HBO Max in the U.K. and other
key European markets because of existing deals HBO
made with pay-TV provider Sky. And Discovery lacks
18 the buzzy movie franchises of Warner Bros. Their
tie-up is “an explicit acknowledgment that neither
company believes it can succeed in the streaming
future alone,” says Todd Juenger, a media analyst at
Sanford C. Bernstein.
Among the new breed of alpha streamers,
massiveness is seen as key to survival. After the
announcement, Zaslav boasted to reporters that
the new entity would have planet Earth’s “deep-
est programming and film library,” with more than
200,000 hours of programming including “scripted
movies and series, animation, sports, news, nonfic-
tion” and children’s programming: “All areas where
we have the talent and strength to compete and win.”
But other companies that claimed to have unique
synergies—simultaneously owning media prop-
erties and the means of distributing them—have
seen their hopes for media supremacy dashed.
Earlier this month, Verizon Communications Inc.
announced it will sell its media division to Apollo
Global Management Inc. for $5 billion, abandoning
its hold on several once-dominant online brands,
including AOL and Yahoo. And while telecom giant
AT&T will maintain a stake in the new, unnamed
company, it’s essentially ending its broader ambi-
tion to use media ownership as a way of reducing
churn among its wireless customers. “The fact of the
matter is, direct-to-consumer is a global opportunity
that is rapidly evolving, and the pace of that evolu-
tion is accelerating,” AT&T’s Stankey said.
Bloomberg Businessweek May 24, 2021
Traditionally, telecom executives have been
accustomed to luring subscribers with hot smart-
phones from the likes of Apple and Samsung, which
come yoked to long-term contracts customers may
not scrutinize for years, freeing executives to focus
on technical upgrades to wireless infrastructure—
engineering challenges that play out over decades.
The home-entertainment business, by contrast,
has much more short-term volatility and requires
constant tweaking of programming, cajoling of cus-
tomers, and fluffing of talent. The streaming world
is even more demanding. Netflix, Disney+, and HBO
Max have to win subscribers’ attention every hour,
every day, every week, or risk losing fickle consum-
ers to whatever streamer has the hottest new drama,
blockbuster action movie, or true-crime docuseries.
Zaslav, 61, has spent most of his career in the
now-fading cable-TV business. As CEO of Discovery
since 2007, Zaslav was among the last of the big
media chieftains to make his channels available to
the growing legions of cord-cutters. But while he’s
relatively new to streaming, Zaslav is well-versed in
the complexities of running an international media ○ Zaslav
business. Discovery gets about a third of its revenue
from outside the U.S. Its shows are seen in more than
220 countries, and it owns a broadcast TV station in
Poland. It specializes in the type of unscripted pro-
gramming that can easily cross borders. Not much
of Shark Week gets lost in translation. Discovery has
also become a significant player in European sports,
with long-term rights to broadcast the Olympics as
well as tennis, golf, and cycling across the continent.
One question is whether the new company can
afford to pay for all the programming it will need to ○ Amount AT&T and
Discovery together
compete in streaming. Before the deal, the two com- spend a year on content
panies spent about $20 billion a year combined on vs. Netflix’s $17b
content, according to Zaslav. That’s more than the
outlay of Netflix, which plans to spend $17 billion this $20b
year. But the company will be saddled with $55 bil-
lion in debt, which it will try to pay down using cash
from a declining cable business—while investing in
programming for money-losing streaming services.
“Even the best-in-class companies like Netflix
and Disney require constant updating of sexy new
content, deep reservoirs of glossy titles, and the
commitment to spend dearly until monthly sub-
scriber churn drops to a low enough level that sig-
nals it is time to start raising prices,” analyst Michael
Nathanson wrote in a note to clients the day after the
AT&T announcement. “As we saw yesterday, few had
the mettle to stare into this abyss and keep going.”
ZASLAV: GETTY IMAGES
—Felix Gillette and Gerry Smith
THE BOTTOM LINE After its marriage with AT&T’s media brands,
Discovery may have 80 million global subscribers. But that still
pales against streaming leader Netflix’s 208 million.
 What else can we do
for our children?
Help make the world more sustainable?
And our portfolio too?

For some of life’s questions, you’re not alone.

Together we can find an answer.

The value of investments may fall as well as rise and you may not get back the amount originally invested.
© UBS 2021. All rights reserved.
 Bloomberg Businessweek May 24, 2021

T
E
C
H
N
O
L
21

O
G
Y
Laura Miele
PHOTOGRAPH BY JESSICA CHOU FOR BLOOMBERG BUSINESSWEEK

Is Listening
The most powerful woman in gaming is trying to make
Edited by
EA more responsive to its customers Joshua Brustein
 ◼ TECHNOLOGY
One of the first things Laura Miele did when she
became chief studios officer of Electronic Arts Inc.
three years ago was to gather 19 video game influ-
encers in a conference room. “What do you want
me to hear? Lay it on me,” she recalls asking them.
“One guy sitting at the corner of the table, he just
said, ‘I don’t understand why you don’t give players
what they’re asking for.’ ”
It’s something many gamers have wondered
about EA for years. The $40 billion company, one of
the biggest in gaming, is responsible for Battlefield,
Madden NFL, and other megahit franchises. But
many gamers have long seen EA as a necessary
evil, resenting the direction in which it took some
games and bristling at its aggressive attempts to
extract money by charging extra for digital items in
games that cost as much as $70 upfront. This dissat-
isfaction was no secret in 2018: Gamers spent their
days filling up Reddit and other message boards
with free advice for EA—but many felt its decision-
makers weren’t listening.
EA’s leadership knows it has to improve that
relationship, and Miele is a key player in its efforts
to do so. Her focus group asked for new content for
Star Wars Battlefront II and requested new types
22 of games. Miele quickly assigned 70 people to the
Battlefront development project, which dramati-
cally improved its net promoter score, a measure
of how likely people are to recommend the game.
She also prompted EA to create a skateboarding
game and committed to reintroducing its college
football franchise, the two genres at the top of the
influencers’ list.
In a sense, the guy at the meeting became a
stand-in for all of EA’s long-suffering customers in
Miele’s eyes. “I wanted to do right by this player,”
she says.
As chief studios officer, Miele manages 6,000
staffers and thousands of contractors globally. She
oversees EA’s 24 studios, where she makes person-
nel decisions and sets strategy, and she’s reshaped
how the company uses analytics to create and mar-
ket its games.
In the process she may have become the most
powerful woman in gaming. In a 2019 International
Game Developers Association survey, fewer than
30% of the more than 1,100 respondents were
women, and few if any hold a more central role
at such an important company. “It’s a tough place
for a woman,” says Peter Moore, who was Miele’s
boss when he was EA’s chief operating officer. “It
wasn’t always smooth sailing, but she battled her
way through.”
Proving good intentions is more important for
EA than ever, as the business model of gaming
Bloomberg Businessweek May 24, 2021
continues to shift in ways that have the potential
to alienate customers. Like its rivals, the company
is increasing its focus on free-to-play games, mak-
ing money through sales of digital products such as
outfits and weapons for characters.
There are signs it’s succeeding. Apex Legends,
EA’s free-to-play hero shooter game, has posted
more than $1 billion in sales since it was first pub-
lished in 2019, and it continues to grow. “The way
to succeed with free-to-play games like that is to
listen to and engage your customer base and earn
their loyalty through incremental purchases,” says
Doug Clinton, managing partner of the venture cap-
ital firm Loup Ventures, who says Miele deserves
much of the credit for Apex Legends. “It feels like
a proof point for her that the company is adapting
well beyond traditional disk sales.”
Miele, 51, was born in San Francisco but grew up
▲ EA games
on the north shore of Lake Tahoe. She got her start
in games—the kind that require a board—during
family nights, when she pitted herself against her
brother in Monopoly, Clue, Yahtzee, and backgam-
mon. While attending the University of Nevada at
Las Vegas, she worked at architectural companies.
By the time she dropped out she’d moved on from
receptionist positions to more senior roles, while
gaining a reputation for organizing lunch-hour card
games with her co-workers.
Miele landed a job as a project manager at
Westwood Studios, a video game developer best
known for Command and Conquer, in 1996. She
eventually took over all marketing for its parent
company, Virgin Interactive.
It wasn’t always a hospitable atmosphere: Miele
remembers her colleagues expecting her to take
notes at meetings, then clean up afterward. “That
is just not something I would do today,” she says.
“I adapted a lot because I was so passionate about
what I was doing. I found my voice along the way.”
COURTESY ELECTRONIC ARTS (2). *OF PEOPLE WHO CONSUME NEWS. DATA: REUTERS INSTITUTE
When EA acquired Westwood in 1998, she
stayed on. At the time, the company did revenue
forecasting by looking at sales data once a month
and putting together spreadsheets by hand. Miele
was tasked with developing more advanced analyt-
ics. She hired a group of data analysts, nicknamed
“the Jedi,” and had them build EA’s first statistical
regression models to examine sales trends, season-
ality, and preorders. It took almost two years to put
the system in place, but it overhauled the company’s
business processes, and executives were soon using
it to determine how to invest in advertising and pro-
motions. “I loved how data and analytics can inform
your judgment and your gut instinct,” Miele says.
Miele also decided to make one major break
with EA’s existing business practices. In 2011 about
◼ TECHNOLOGY
80% of game advertising budgets were spent on
TV ads. But she saw how much time gamers spent
online and decided to spend the bulk of the ad
budget for Battlefield 3 on digital, downplaying
other types of ads and cutting the TV ad budget
to only 30%.
Messing around with the plan for Battlefield 3
was a good way to make people nervous. Miele
remembers two executives calling her in for a
meeting and demanding to know why they weren’t
seeing billboards for the game as they drove in to
the office. “It was scary for me, too, and I don’t
blame our executives questioning me on that,” she
says. But the game ended up being EA’s fastest-
selling, moving more than 5 million copies in its
first week. From that point, Miele’s marketing strat-
egy became the standard for the company.
When EA signed a 10-year deal with Walt
Disney Co. in 2013, Miele became Star Wars gen-
eral manager. In 2014 she took over publishing
operations, marketing, and other key areas, first
in the North American region, then globally in
2016. At the time, the game industry was moving
from physical disks to digital downloads, trans-
forming its relationship with retail partners such
as Walmart Inc. and Best Buy Co.
Miele was in charge of smoothing things over,
explaining that EA would start competing with
them for customers even as the retailers accounted
for the largest portion of the revenue. “I never
said to them, ‘Hey, see you later, we are moving
on,’ ” she says. “It was, ‘How can we move forward
together?’ ” EA began making physical cards with
digital credits that its retail partners could sell at
their stores, allowing them to share in the revenue
from digital sales.
EA’s studios are spread around the globe, and
Covid-19 altered Miele’s routine radically. “It was a
very difficult year, and I’m really proud about how
our company showed up,” she says. “I considered
myself a wartime leader last year. You had to get in
a bunker with everybody.”
Days became an endless progression of Zoom
calls. To keep up with gamers, Miele started spend-
ing evenings listening to Clubhouse chats while
answering work emails. Because she hasn’t been on
the road, she’s also had more time to dine at home
and play board games or Apex Legends and The
Sims with her 16-year-old twins. As the pandemic
retreats in the U.S., her schedule might change,
but she still envisions providing more flexibility to
her employees to work from home and office. “I do
think we’re going to have a different work environ-
ment as we go forward,” she says.
Miele is itching to get back to the studio visits.
Bloomberg Businessweek May 24, 2021
She’s helping steer EA further toward smartphones.
The company plans to release mobile versions of
Apex Legends globally this year and spent $2.1 bil-
lion in April for Glu Mobile Inc., a mobile game pub-
lisher, while also preparing the next releases in its
existing franchises. “I think the next Battlefield and
the mobile shooter games, along with how success-
ful the M&As come out will be key litmus tests of
her management this year,” says Matt Kanterman,
an analyst with Bloomberg Intelligence. “Her scope
is clearly rising.” �Olga Kharif, with Dina Bass and
Jason Schreier
THE BOTTOM LINE EA’s studio chief is trying to make the
company more responsive to gamers as its business model shifts
in potentially polarizing ways.
Exporting Misinformation
● Misleading or false content about Covid vaccines continues
to circulate abroad after being blocked in the U.S.
23
One of the earliest people to get Pfizer’s Covid-19
vaccine was a nurse in Tennessee, who fainted after
getting the shot on live television in December. The
incident sparked rumors that she had died and that
the vaccine was a tool of genocide. Five months ▼ Share of online
population getting news
later the nurse, who is not dead, continues to be from Facebook*
bombarded by messages from strangers on social
media. They send condolences to her family or Poland
demand details about the incident. Oddly, they 65%
often do so in German, Italian, or Portuguese. Italy
The international fixation on this case follows 56
what is becoming a common pattern. U.S.-based Brazil
social media users begin spreading misleading or 54
false information, which then moves to other coun- France
tries, according to researchers studying the rumors. 43
The U.S. may not yet have figured out an efficient Canada
way to distribute shots to other countries, but it 41
has become a major exporter of misinformation. U.S.
The U.S. “dominates social media culture the 35
way it dominates pop culture,” and not always to Netherlands
the world’s benefit, says Cameron Hickey, proj- 28
ect director for algorithmic transparency at the Germany
National Conference on Citizenship, a civic orga- 22
nization based in Washington. He’s been research- South Korea
ing misinformation in Spanish-speaking Facebook 19
communities and says most of what circulates is “a Japan
carbon copy of rumors that we first see in English.” 6
Major social media companies are con-
stantly criticized for failing to crack down
 ◼ TECHNOLOGY Bloomberg Businessweek May 24, 2021

on misinformation in the U.S., but advocates

complain their performance is even worse when
dealing with content in languages other than
English. The machine learning algorithms that com-
panies such as Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s
YouTube use for content moderation were built
in English first and aren’t as effective in other lan-
guages, Hickey says. Advocates have also criticized
the tech companies for not sufficiently staffing con-
tent moderation teams outside of the U.S.
Facebook has 80 fact-checking partner organiza-
tions working in 60 languages, according to Kevin
McAlister, a spokesman. “We use machine learn-
ing models in more than a dozen languages to send
potentially violating content about Covid-19 and
vaccines to reviewers—including native speakers—
who remove violating ones,” he says. The company
doesn’t share the number of content reviewers in a
given country, saying it wouldn’t reflect its efforts.
Elena Hernandez, a YouTube spokeswoman, says
its “approach to addressing misinformation is
global and applies across all languages.”
Content often continues to go viral abroad even
after it’s removed or fact-checked and deprioritized
in the U.S. Videos from anti-vaccination influencers
24 that Facebook has banned, such as Del Bigtree and
Sherri Tenpenny, have been translated into Arabic,
Dutch, German, and other languages, and continue
to circulate among Facebook groups and YouTube
channels. The Plandemic video, one of the most
prominent pieces of Covid-related disinformation
over the past year, spread widely in Italian, Polish,
and Spanish for days after Facebook took action on potential side effects. Patients can report reactions
the English version, according to Renée DiResta, independently, and doctors and vaccine makers
the technical research manager at Stanford also submit reports. Misleading content about side
Internet Observatory. effects and deaths based on Vaers data is spread-
A review by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, ing on Dutch, German, and Spanish Facebook
a London-based anti-extremism group, found that pages. Conspiracy theorists outside the U.S. have
Arabic-speaking communities are influenced by also begun to use Vaers-like programs in their
content from the U.S. or Europe, “using Arabic sub- countries as the raw material for their own claims,
titling or voiceovers often unencumbered by mod- O’Connor says.
eration and fact-checking efforts.” For instance, People disseminating disinformation abroad
Facebook removed U.S.-made videos of women don’t necessarily feel secure in their ability to
who appeared to be shaking in response to the continue using mainstream social media and are
Covid vaccine, but the same content with Arabic learning from their U.S. peers how to prepare for
subtitles continued to spread without a fact check. their potential expulsion, says Kristina Gildejev, a
U.S. groups pushing disinformation also provide researcher for the fact-checking group Logically.ai.
a “blueprint or how-to guide” for local anti-vaccine Gildejev has been monitoring anti-vaccine commu-
groups to follow, according to Ciaran O’Connor, nities in Germany. They were active on Facebook,
ILLUSTRATION BY ARNE BELLSTORF

an analyst at the Institute of Strategic Dialogue, a
counterextremism group.
People have used data from the U.S. Vaccine
Adverse Event Reporting System to undermine
public confidence. The government established
Vaers in 1990 as an early warning system to detect
she says, until recently, when they “followed their
English-speaking counterparts and switched to
Telegram.” �Sarah Frier and Daniel Zuidijk
THE BOTTOM LINE Social networks say their efforts to combat
disinformation are global, but critics say they’re falling down at
policing content in languages other than English.
MAKE THEIR FUTURE
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 Bloomberg Businessweek
Hodler, Can You
Spare a Bitcoin?
● Crypto savings accounts pay
yield to borrow your tokens, but
don’t mistake them for a bank
It’s not just the outlandish returns of the past year
that some Bitcoiners are bragging about these days.
There’s also the yield.
At a time when interest rates on conventional
ILLUSTRATION BY KLAUS KREMMERZ
bank deposits are pinned to the floor—often below
0.5%—financial technology companies are offer-
ing to pay owners of Bitcoin and other crypto-
currencies annual percentage yields of 2% to 6%
and sometimes more. You can deposit your coins
with a few taps on one of their smartphone apps.
May 24, 2021
F
I
N
A
N
C
E
27
What’s the catch? There are several, actually. In
addition to the risk you’re already taking in owning
crypto, the earnings are paid in cryptocurrencies,
too. As Bitcoin investors have seen in recent trad-
ing, token prices can fall sharply, wiping out what-
ever yield advantage you’re getting, if you’re
comparing it with what you could’ve made invest-
ing dollars. And you’re essentially lending compa-
nies your crypto without many of the protections
that come with a bank account, such as coverage
from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
Some of the companies hawking yield accounts
have websites that look more than a little like an
online bank’s. Crypto lender Nexo uses the tagline
“Banking on Crypto” and touts the $375 million of Edited by
insurance it carries on custodial assets. What that Pat Regnier
 ◼ FINANCE
policy covers, however, isn’t like FDIC insurance,
which protects savers from losses. On a separate
page on its site, Nexo says the insurance is in place
to protect users against “commercial crime,” which
includes “physical and/or cybersecurity breach,
and/or employee theft,” not losses that may be
incurred from its lending activities.
Yields are part of a surprising turn in the crypto
market. Bitcoin and its descendants, such as
Dogecoin, Ether, and countless other tokens, are
often seen as a way to avoid the established finan-
cial system. Some “hodlers” (crypto slang for long-
term holders) are wary of yield accounts because
they’d have to entrust the service with their private
keys, the alphanumeric strings that grant control of
a digital asset. But alongside that world has sprung
up a complex, interconnected market that looks a
lot like a wilder version of Wall Street—complete
with financial derivatives, arbitrage, borrowing,
and a panoply of middlemen. Some have called it
a shadow banking system for crypto.
At the lower end of yields is the 2.05% being
paid on Bitcoin by Gemini Earn. The product is
part of the Gemini crypto exchange, founded
by the billionaire twins Tyler and Cameron
28 Winklevoss. Deposits made into an Earn account
leave Gemini and go to another company called
Genesis, which in turn lends to institutional and
high-net-worth clients. These clients may want to
borrow cryptocurrency for financial trades.
For example, a trader might want to short a
cryptocurrency, or bet that its value will drop.
One way to do this is to borrow it, then sell it, and
pocket the difference if the price falls. But borrow-
ing for big speculative shorts on Bitcoin is compar-
atively rare these days. Another reason to borrow
Bitcoin could be to construct an arbitrage trade that
takes advantage of discrepancies in market prices.
Some crypto-based businesses and exchanges also
borrow Bitcoin for liquidity, such as to quickly
make a payment in crypto or settle a trade.
But all of that is happening behind the scenes.
Customers depositing their crypto with Gemini
Earn ultimately have to trust that Genesis is doing
a good job vetting its borrowers and controlling its
risk—and that it’s maintaining a strong enough bal-
ance sheet of its own to pay back Gemini Earn cus-
tomers even if some bets go wrong. “At the end of
the day, if anything would go wrong on the bor-
rower side, that risk is on Genesis,” says Roshun
Patel, vice president for lending at Genesis. “Since
inception to date, we haven’t had a single default
or capital loss.” Still, as with other crypto yield pro-
viders, Gemini Earn’s website notes that accounts
aren’t insured by the FDIC.
Bloomberg Businessweek May 24, 2021
BlockFi, perhaps the most visible nonbank
cryptocurrency firm, currently offers 5% on a
deposit of up to half a Bitcoin (at the recent price of
about $40,000 per token, half a Bitcoin is $20,000)
and 2% on additional deposits above that amount
and up to 20 Bitcoins. It, too, mostly depends on
lending to pay its depositors, co-founder and Chief
Executive Officer Zac Prince says in an email. He says
the firm also engages in its own trading.
After the 2008 financial crisis, U.S. lawmakers
were concerned enough about banks doing their
own trading that they restricted the practice with
the so-called Volcker Rule. BlockFi is neither a bank
nor subject to such regulations, but that rule points
to the fact that trading can be risky. Prince says
the company’s activities can be better described
as “market making.”
In addition to borrowing and lending, BlockFi
runs platforms for trading cryptocurrency. “For
example, when a retail or institutional client trades
with BlockFi, they are facing BlockFi directly for “Never risk
the trade, and we are not matching the order your whole
before confirming it for our client,” Prince says. stack, and
So BlockFi can potentially make or lose money if don’t risk
prices change after the trade. But Prince says the what you can’t
company isn’t trying to make bets on the direction lose. These
of prices. “Everything we do at BlockFi is sized are private
and managed relative to all risk considerations,” companies
he says, adding that the firm has “maintained a per- with no federal
fect track record in high Bitcoin volatility environ- backing”
ments” and that the “vast majority” of BlockFi’s
loans are overcollateralized—meaning they’re
backed by assets worth more than the loan.
Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in
the U.S., doesn’t offer a yield product for Bitcoin. It
does offer staking yields of as much as 6% for some
less well-known cryptocurrencies. Staking yields are
another kind of beast altogether, with no close paral-
lel in the rest of finance. In a stake-based cryptocur-
rency, owners can allow some of their tokens to be
used in the process that verifies transactions. Those
who do can earn a reward. If that’s all a bit baffling,
focus on the key risk trade-off: To earn a yield, you
have to bet on a crypto you might not otherwise
want, with a future at least as uncertain as Bitcoin’s.
Antoni Trenchev, co-founder and managing
partner of Nexo, echoes many crypto enthusi-
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY 731. PHOTOS: ALAMY
asts in dismissing the safety of banks. “When
you have a traditional bank deposit the standard
deposit insurance amount is up to $250,000 in the
US and up to €100,000 in the EU, and from there
on you are on your own,” he wrote in an email to
Bloomberg. “That feeling of security that deposits
are safe and insured above these amounts at tra-
ditional banks is largely rooted in the perception
 FINANCE Bloomberg Businessweek May 24, 2021

that banks are solid, trustworthy institutions.”

Trenchev added that Nexo can be trusted because
its loans are overcollateralized.
Yet many dedicated Bitcoiners remain skepti-
cal of crypto yield accounts in general. Dan Held,
Apollo Goes
To School
a longtime Bitcoin investor who writes a monthly
report on the state of the Bitcoin yield market, says
he deposits a small percentage of his Bitcoin hold-
ings into interest-bearing accounts but advises his
readers to be cautious. “Never risk your whole stack,
and don’t risk what you can’t lose,” he says. “These ○ The private equity giant says it can fix a for- ofit college.
are private companies with no federal backing.” The grades aren’t in yet
Some apps offer even higher yields if you accept
payment in the company’s own custom token. Held
says he avoids these. “There is no reason why you Apollo Global Management Inc. is known for its
need a token as it introduces regulatory and struc- no-holds-barred dealmaking. But not long ago,
tural risk,” he wrote in his March yield report. the private equity firm pitched itself to pension
For a sense of what can go wrong, consider the funds and other wealthy institutions as an emerg-
case of cryptocurrency lender Cred. It filed for bank- ing force in “impact” investing, the movement to
ruptcy in November after an executive was alleged to make money while also turning the world into a
have misappropriated at least 225 Bitcoins. Because better place. Exhibit A: higher education.
of stories like that, Brandon Quittem, head of user In 2017, Apollo led a $1 billion takeover of the com-
acquisition at Swan Bitcoin, an application that auto- pany that owns the University of Phoenix. Before
mates regular purchases of Bitcoin, urges hodlers to the acquisition, th he ffor-profit
fit college
ll g chain
h i “ “came
forgo seeking interest. under fire for aggrressive marketing prac-
“The historical precedent is custodians blow tices and lower-qu uality degree 29
up,” Quittem says. A custodian is anyone who holds programs,” Apollo said in a
your crypto instead of you. “Bitcoiners have a bit of confidential Octob ber presen-
PTSD around custodians, but to be fair we’ve come tation. But the firrm said it
a long way on the exchange and custodial front.” was working to trransform
To Quittem the idea of risking Bitcoin—an asset the school into a “trusted
that’s had a triple-digit annualized growth rate education provide er” that
over a decade—for single-digit interest payments helps working adults
isn’t worth it. “Why would I take on additional risk achieve their dre eams.
to seek a yield?” he asks. “I find the excitement Apollo said this ear-
around these products to be slightly misguided.” lier deal showed d its
Parker Lewis, head of business development social responsibiility
at Bitcoin financial-services company Unchained bona fides as it raissed
Capital, cautions against lending out more than a money for its firrst-
small percentage of one’s holdings and says half ever impact fund..
of Unchained’s clients indicate they’d never lend Fresh com-
their Bitcoin. (The company is working on its own plaints from cu ur-
lending product that’s meant to address concerns rent and form mer
about custody and the transparency of risk.) To students suggest the
fintech companies and traders, Bitcoin might be transformation—the doing good part—is still a work
just another asset to borrow, lend, and bet with. in progress. But in classic private equity fashion
fashion,
For many Bitcoiners it’s a precious asset that they Apollo has already nailed the doing well part.
firmly believe could take over the world. “If you do The U. of Phoenix’s parent company also owned
decide to lend Bitcoin,” Lewis says, “you better be other schools, including separate programs in
able to quantify the costs, because you’re trading Germany, Mexico, and South Africa. The company
the greatest asymmetry that has ever existed for sold those after the acquisition and is in the pro-
counterparty and credit risk.” —Brandon Kochkodin cess of selling a U.K. school. From these divestments
and other payments—including the return of cash
THE BOTTOM LINE Cryptocurrency you put in a yield account
is typically lent out to other financial players in a kind of shadow
the federal government had required the school’s
banking system. That comes with risk. new owners to put on temporary deposit—Apollo
  FINANCE
expects dividends to its fund that holds the
company to soon total $956 million, according to
March documents sent to investors. Apollo’s original
cost for its stake in the company was $634 million.
And the firm is still the majority owner of a prof-
itable enterprise, which it can one day sell or take
public. When all is said and done, Apollo told inves-
tors in March, they should expect to almost double
the money they invested in the for-profit colleges.
Apollo says it’s already reformed the college’s
offerings, and it held off paying itself dividends
until the U. of Phoenix was in strong financial shape.
Unlike many PE transactions, the acquisition was
funded without debt. “This is a great example of
how new ownership that is committed to serving
students and to providing the necessary capital can
combine with new management to change the tra-
jectory of an institution,” says Theo Kwon, an Apollo
partner who’s on the education company’s board.
John Sperling, a former San Jose State University
professor, founded the University of Phoenix in 1976
to offer an alternative for working adults who
needed flexible class schedules. It pushed early into
online education and catered to many traditionally
underserved students, such as members of minority
30 groups. At its peak the school enrolled almost half a
million students. Its business relied almost entirely
on federal financial aid.
As a publicly traded company, the school
saw its market value soar to $10 billion in 2009.
Confusingly, given its current ownership, its parent
company was called Apollo Group and then Apollo
Education Group Inc. By the time Apollo, the unre-
lated Wall Street investment firm, came calling, it
had only 165,000 students, and its stock had lost
about 90% of its value.
Apollo’s partner in the deal was Vistria Group, a
Chicago private equity firm. Vistria co-founder Marty
Nesbitt is a close friend of former President Barack
Obama and chairman of his foundation. Tony Miller,
Vistria’s chief operating officer at the time of the
deal, was deputy secretary in the U.S. Department
of Education under Obama, whose administration
led a crackdown on for-profit colleges.
Apollo says it’s put the U. of Phoenix’s bad prac-
tices behind it. It cites a drop in student loan default
rates, which are better than the national average for
for-profit schools and only a bit above the average
for all schools. Apollo says the college installed new
management, invested more than $600 million in
technology to support students, and eliminated 80
associate degree programs, which had poor records
for job placement or improving students’ earnings.
It cut marketing spending to focus more on student
retention, which Apollo says has improved.
Bloomberg Businessweek May 24, 2021
There’s reason to be skeptical of buyout funds as  Top private equity
deals in higher ed-
stewards of higher ed: Based on data from before related businesses
the U. of Phoenix sale, a 2020 study by research- from January 2016 to
April 23, 2021
ers from the University of California at Merced and
other schools found private equity ownership led to
declining graduation rates and greater levels of stu-
dent debt at for-profit colleges. $1.1b
More than 3,000 consumers have complained
to the Federal Trade Commission about the U. of
Phoenix since the 2017 acquisition, according to data Apollo Education Group
released under the U.S. Freedom of Information
Act. Their grievances include harassing sales calls 383m
and emails, being shortchanged on federal finan-
cial aid, and getting pushed to sign up for unneces- Laureate Education
sary classes. Apollo says many of the complaints are
from students who began or completed their studies
320m
before the change in ownership. Some complaints
are from military personnel and veterans, long a big Hobsons
source of students for the U. of Phoenix. “We haven’t
seen anything that would indicate a dramatic change
in their behavior,” says Aniela Szymanski, a senior Tiber
director at Veterans Education Success, a research
and advocacy group. “It is kind of disappointing Meteor Learning
when we speak to veterans.”
Brendon Walker, a 35-year-old U.S. Navy veteran
who’s studied on and off with the U. of Phoenix since
2014, doesn’t see improvement, either. He says his
online psychology and science bachelor’s program
offers little instruction. “It is not a lot of learning,”
says Walker, who filed a complaint with the veter-
ans group. “I don’t feel I can use the information.”
The U. of Phoenix points to students such as King
Imani, who completed his management doctorate
in December. The college’s new owners made the
school more efficient, says Imani, 31. “The changing
technology, the structuring of the staff, everything
seems to be more streamlined,” he says.
Apollo says the school doesn’t have an unusual
number of complaints for a for-profit college. To ○ Kwon
monitor sales and other practices, the school has
more than 85 compliance workers, and it records
calls and reviews them using artificial intelligence.
“We have probably been scrutinized more than any
other university, and we welcome that,” says Kwon.
KWON: APOLLO GLOBAL MANAGEMENT INC. DATA: PITCHBOOK
“This is an area where no corners are cut and we
embrace dialogue and focus on quality.”
The Biden administration has indicated it may
renew a crackdown on for-profits, and traditional
colleges are competing with beefed-up online
offerings. It may not matter much for Apollo,
given the value it’s already reaped from the deal.
—Sabrina Willmer
THE BOTTOM LINE Apollo has done well with its deal to acquire
the University of Phoenix, thanks largely to the sale of overseas
schools. But the college has a troubled legacy to overcome.
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 Bloomberg Businessweek May 24, 2021

E
C
O
N
O
M
I
32

C
S A trawl through 30 years of data traces the evolution
of superstar firms, a difficult-to-tame species

The world’s biggest businesses were doing fine until
Covid-19 arrived. Now they’re doing even better.
The top 50 companies by value added $4.5 tril-
lion of stock market capitalization in 2020, tak-
ing their combined worth to about 28% of global
gross domestic product. Three decades ago the
equivalent figure was less than 5%.
That’s just one measure of how superstar
seeking to rally global support for higher levies on
corporate profits.
The biggest companies generally post fatter
margins and pay less in taxes than they did in
decades past, the Bloomberg Economics study
shows. Their median effective tax rate of 35% in
1990 had dwindled to only 17% last year—while
profit margins headed in the opposite direction,
ILLUSTRATION BY TIMO LENZEN

firms have come to dominate the world economy,
according to a new study by Bloomberg Economics
that maps out their changing role. The findings pro-
Edited by
vide ammunition for policymakers bent on reining
Cristina Lindblad in the giants—including a U.S. government that’s
soaring from 7% to 18% over the same period.
They also devote a smaller portion of their earn-
ings to job-creating investments: In 1990, IBM—
at the time the world’s biggest publicly listed
company—devoted 9% of its revenue to capital
◼ ECONOMICS Bloomberg Businessweek May 24, 2021

expenditures. Fast-forward to 2020, when Apple—
its replacement in the top spot—spent just 3%.
The advantages superstar firms enjoy became
all the more glaring during the pandemic, which is
one reason why the issue of how to tame them has
vaulted up the political agenda in so many coun-
The 50 Largest Public Companies Globally in 2020
The rise of China, advances in technology, and the clean energy revolution
are driving turnover at the top of the rankings
● New to top 50 since 2010 ● Technology company ● Based in China
Apple 1 Market value $2.26t

tries. Tech giants such as Amazon.com Inc. have Aramco 2

business models that are tailor-made for a year of Microsoft 3

social distancing, unlike Main Street competitors Amazon 4

dependent on foot traffic. And government rescues Alphabet 5

worked best for the biggest companies, which ben- Facebook 6

efited from central bank backstops that kept bor- Tencent 7

rowing costs low and stock prices high. In contrast, Tesla 8 Market value of the 50
as percent of global GDP
patchwork relief efforts for small businesses left Alibaba 9

many struggling to pay their bills. Berkshire Hathaway 10 30%

In the U.S., President Joe Biden’s administra- Visa 11

tion is seeking to raise corporate taxes as part of a TSMC 12

wider effort to halt the long drift to inequality. He Samsung 13

wants to reverse at least some of the cuts imple- J&J 14 15

mented by his direct predecessor, Donald Trump. Walmart 15

He’s also pushing for a global tax deal that would JPMorgan 16

make it harder for the biggest companies to lower Kweichow Moutai 17

their bills by shifting profits to low-tax jurisdictions. Mastercard 18 0

That practice spread as corporations grew big- P&G 19

1990 2020
ger. A 2019 study by the International Monetary Nestlé 20

Fund found that as much as 40% of what on paper UnitedHealth 21

33
Median cash as percent
looks like foreign direct investment is “phantom Disney 22
of capital expenditures
investment into corporate shells with no substance Nvidia 23

and no real links to the local economy.” LVMH 24 360%

In a speech in April, Treasury Secretary Janet Roche 25

Yellen cited a global “30-year race to the bottom Home Depot 26

on corporate tax rates.” She said agreement among PayPal 27

Group of 20 countries on a global minimum charge ICBC 28 180

will create “a more level playing field in the taxa- Bank of America 29

tion of multinational corporations.” Toyota 30

The U.S. proposal for a 21% minimum rate is Verizon 31

putting pressure on European Union countries to Adobe 32 0

follow suit—and drawing objections from EU mem- Comcast 33

1990 2020
ber states such as Ireland, whose low corporate Netflix 34

tax rate has encouraged multinationals including Coca-Cola 35

Median profit margin
Apple Inc. and Google owner Alphabet Inc. to set Ping An Insurance 36
Median effective
up regional headquarters there. A fight could be in Novartis 37
tax rate
store, because EU decisions must be unanimous. Meituan 38

In 1990, there were no Chinese businesses among Nike 39 40%

the top 50 exchange-traded companies; last year Pinduoduo 40

there were 8. China’s gains have come largely at the L’Oréal 41

expense of European enterprises, whose presence Merck 42

on the list has shrunk from 15 to 7 over the period. PepsiCo 43 20

Alongside the shifting geography of the world AT&T 44

economy, the Bloomberg Economics study also Pfizer 45

captures a profound change in what the biggest Intel 46

companies do. Technology dominates the top of ASML 47 0

the list, and fossil fuel companies—with the excep- Salesforce 48

1990 2020
tion of Saudi Arabia’s flagship Aramco—have Abbott 49

dropped off. CCB 50 $191.9b

DATA: BLOOMBERG
 ◼ ECONOMICS
The extraordinary growth of tech companies
in particular is what’s spurring government action.
They’re in the crosshairs of politicians and regu-
lators almost everywhere. That includes China,
where regulators blocked a proposed initial pub-
lic offering by Jack Ma’s Ant Group, slapped record
fines on affiliates including Alibaba Group Holding,
and have extended the crackdown to other tech
giants like Tencent Holdings.
Europe has been working on ways to tax com-
panies such as Amazon and Alphabet based on
where they operate, rather than where they’re
based. The idea led to tension with the U.S. under
Trump, but with the Biden team in place, there’s
hope for a deal.
In the U.S., there’s bipartisan support for a
tougher approach to Big Tech that goes far beyond
tax rates. It’s one area where Biden looks set to stick
with the policies of his predecessor. The president
has nominated Lina Khan, a Columbia Law School
professor and author of a landmark paper accusing
Amazon of monopolistic behavior, to a key job on
the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC is already
seeking to break up Facebook Inc. in a lawsuit begun
under Trump, and the Department of Justice has
34 filed a monopoly case against Alphabet.
Amazon “has built its dominance through aggres-
sively pursuing growth at the expense of profits,”
a strategy that the economics of internet platform
markets encourages, Khan wrote in 2017. “Under
these conditions predatory pricing becomes highly
rational.” For his economic council, Biden has
tapped Tim Wu, another Columbia law professor
whose 2018 book, The Curse of Bigness, calls for more
aggressive use of antitrust law. The growing inter-
est in that agenda has drawn comparisons with the
classical age of U.S. trustbusting more than a century
ago, when politicians led by Theodore Roosevelt
broke up monopolies in oil, railroads, and other
industries and subjected the corporate titans of the
day to tougher regulation.
Back then, as today, politicians from both par-
ties worried that corporate wealth and power had
become concentrated to a degree that was anti-
democratic and that a failure to halt the trend
might open the way to more radical and populist
demands in a society riven by wealth inequalities
and a sharp urban-rural divide.
Many of the concerns driving governments are
specific to tech and its growing influence in all areas
of life, including free speech and the vast amounts
of personal data companies accumulate. But others
relate to bigness in general, which creates market
power: the ability to stifle competitors, strong-arm
suppliers, milk customers, and shape regulation.
Bloomberg Businessweek May 24, 2021
There’s also a growing body of research showing
the increased dominance of superstar firms has
placed workers at a disadvantage. Many econo-
mists have attributed the slow U.S. wage growth of
the pre-pandemic decades at least in part to waning
competition. Some tech companies have business
models that allow them to scale up without add-
ing many staff. Others, Amazon and Alibaba among
them, employ huge numbers of workers but often
in low-skill and low-paid jobs—though Amazon,
after defeating an attempt to form a union at an
Alabama warehouse, has announced pay increases
across the board.
Another measure of the growing might of super-
star firms is the increased profit margins that
Bloomberg Economics documented, which would
likely be even wider if some companies weren’t sac-
rificing short-term income for gains in market share
that will deliver larger payoffs in the years ahead.
Economists studying the problem of bigness
have concluded it shows up at levels below the
world’s top 50, too. For example, a 2017 study
found that three-quarters of U.S. industries saw an
increase in concentration over the previous two
decades, with the market dominated by fewer and
bigger companies.
With fat profits, light tax bills, and limited need
for capital or even workers, the new generation of
megafirms poses challenges for monetary and fis-
cal policy, too. The supply-side argument that lower
*“PEOPLE COVERED” DIVIDES THE DOSES ADMINISTERED FOR EACH VACCINE TYPE BY THE NUMBER OF DOSES REQUIRED FOR FULL VACCINATION;
taxes spur growth by fueling hiring and investment—
never particularly well supported by the data—now
looks even more tenuous. And the idea that central
banks can achieve the same effect with lower inter-
est rates takes a hit when the megacorporations have
amassed so much cash they don’t need to borrow.
In 2020 the top 50 companies were sitting on a cash
pile of $1.8 trillion, enough to fund their entire capi-
tal spending for the year more than five times over.
Amid all the concerns triggered by the emergence
DATA AS OF MAY 17. DATA: JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY, BLOOMBERG VACCINE TRACKER
of superstar firms, the Bloomberg Economics study
offers one finding that may be more reassuring. In
each of the last three decades, about half of the top
50 spots in the corporate rankings have turned over.
That doesn’t necessarily say much about the
prospects for newcomers trying to break into
an industry. It may merely reflect an economy’s
changing contours, such as the generational shift
from Big Oil to Big Tech. But it does show that mar-
ket dynamism is still at work and that getting to the
top is no guarantee of staying there. �Tom Orlik,
Justin Jimenez, and Cedric Sam
THE BOTTOM LINE The world’s 50 most valuable companies
have gotten bigger, techier, and more Chinese since 1990. The
pandemic has given fresh impetus to efforts to curb their influence.
◼ ECONOMICS
The ‘Covid Zero’ Trap
A smattering of places, mainly across the Asia-Pacific
region, have achieved stunning victories in the battle
against Covid-19, effectively wiping it out within their
borders. Now they face a fresh test: rejoining the rest
of the world, which is still awash in the pathogen.
In some ways, the success of “Covid Zero” strate-
gies is becoming a straitjacket. As financial and travel
hubs such as New York and London return to busi-
ness as usual—tolerating hundreds of daily cases while
vaccinations gather pace—counterparts in Asia like
Singapore and Hong Kong risk being left behind as
they maintain stringent border controls and tighten
other curbs in response to single-digit flareups.
China, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand
have suffered fewer deaths during the entire pan-
demic than many countries—even highly vacci-
nated ones—currently log in a matter of days.
That’s allowed their citizens to lead largely nor-
mal lives for much of the past year, even going
maskless. But sustaining this vaunted status also
has required stop-start lockdown cycles, near-
blanket bans on international travel, and strict
quarantine policies. The few travelers permitted
to enter must spend weeks in total confinement,
unable to leave a hotel room.
Now that mass inoculation drives are allowing
other parts of the world to normalize, experts and
residents are starting to question whether it makes
sense to stick with zero-tolerance policies. “This
is neither wise nor tenable for much longer,” says
Donald Low, a professor at the Institute of Public
Policy of the Hong Kong University of Science, who
argues that Hong Kong and other Covid Zero locales
are now “at a serious disadvantage” vis-a-vis coun-
tries where there’s an expectation the disease will
become endemic, meaning it will circulate at some
level without exacting large death tolls.
As other countries open up, Asian economies will
have to implement measures that are harsher and
more strict to maintain zero infection rates. Hong
Kong requires a three-week quarantine for most
travelers and recently forced the families of toddlers
who attended a playgroup together to isolate in a
cramped government-run quarantine center after
one of the parents became infected.
Singapore, where locally acquired cases have
climbed to the highest level since April 2020, is return-
ing to restrictions it last imposed a year ago, banning
indoor dining and limiting gatherings to two people.
The resurgence also forced authorities to postpone
Bloomberg Businessweek May 24, 2021
● Places that successfully corralled the
coronavirus are finding it harder to reopen
a highly anticipated travel bubble with Hong Kong.
Taiwan reported 333 local cases on May 17, more
than 10 times its previous peak. It promptly shut down
schools in Taipei for two weeks and banned entry
to foreigners for a month. Australia has said it prob-
ably won’t open its international borders until the ▼ Covid by country
second half of 2022. “Because we have been so suc- Cases in the past
month, per 100k
cessful, we are even more risk-averse than we were people
before,” says Peter Collignon, a professor of infec- Percent of people
tious diseases at the Australian National University covered by vaccines*
Medical School in Canberra.
For Hong Kong and Singapore, the economic costs China
of maintaining a Covid elimination strategy may be 0
significant. Both are particularly reliant on travel, New Zealand
compared with export-led economies such as China 1
and Australia that can stand being shut for longer. In Vietnam
2019, Hong Kong was the world’s most popular city 2
with international visitors—even after months of polit- Australia
ical unrest—while Singapore came in fourth, accord- 2
ing to market researcher Euromonitor. London was Hong Kong
No. 5, and New York was No. 11. 2
35
A major obstacle to reopening is the slow vac- Taiwan
cine rollout in these Covid havens, resulting from 5
a combination of supply limitations and citizens’ Singapore
lack of urgency about lining up for shots. China has 14
administered enough vaccines to cover about 15% Israel
of its population. In Australia the figure is 6%, and 24
in New Zealand it’s just 3%. The U.S. and the U.K., U.K.
which prioritized immunizations after having failed 97
to mitigate the spread of Covid-19, have fully vacci- U.S.
nated more than 40% of their populations. 394
Not everyone agrees that elimination can’t be Italy
pursued long term. For Michael Baker, a professor 491
of public health at the University of Otago in New UAE
Zealand, the benefits of the approach are evident in 521
how deaths in the country—from any cause—dropped Germany
in 2020. “If there had been the commitment to hav- 548
ing elimination as the first option, we may have been
able to eliminate it entirely and avoided this global
disaster,” he says.
Nonetheless, Covid Zero economies risk becom-
ing stuck in a perpetual cycle, unable to move past
the pandemic. “If their vaccination rates are low,
that further jeopardizes their ability to open up,”
Low says. “If so, the earlier ‘victory’ of these places
over Covid-19 would have been a Pyrrhic one.”
�Michelle Fay Cortez and Jinshan Hong
THE BOTTOM LINE Economies in the Asia-Pacific region
that embraced Covid Zero strategies risk falling behind as
immunizations gather pace in the U.S. and Europe.
 Bloomberg Businessweek May 24, 2021

P Roe v. Wade on the Line

O
The Supreme Court opens the door to a reversal
on abortion, stoking the culture wars

L The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to consider

gutting the constitutional right to abortion, saying on
May 17 it will hear Mississippi’s case to ban the pro-
cedure in almost all instances after 15 weeks of preg-
activists are preparing for a fight before next year’s
midterm elections. “Abortion just became one of
the top issues of the 2022 midterm elections. See
you on the battlefield,” tweeted Nikki Goldschein,

I
nancy. The move suggests the court’s strengthened
conservative wing may be ready to roll back, if not
overturn, the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision,
which legalized abortion nationwide.
associate director of Planned Parenthood’s political
action committee, after the court indicated it would
hear the case.
Mallory Quigley of the Susan B. Anthony List,

T The Mississippi case—which the court will hear which backs anti-abortion candidates, called the
in the nine-month term that starts in October—will Mississippi case “the most consequential case for
be its first abortion case since the confirmation the court to take up since Roe v. Wade” and said it’s
of Justice Amy Coney Barrett last October, which “encouraging for pro-life voters to see the fruit of

I gave the court a 6-3 conservative majority. It lobs a

contentious cultural issue back to the forefront of
national politics under a new president who’s so far
avoided wading into the culture wars and centered
past elections coming to bear.”
Mississippi’s law is part of a recent wave of abor-
tion restrictions passed by Republican-controlled
states, spurred by the prospect of a receptive

C
36
his agenda on the economy. high court reshaped by three appointees of for-
Already, abortion-rights groups and anti-abortion mer President Donald Trump. In 2021 alone, states

ILLUSTRATION BY REBEKKA DUNLAP

Edited by
Amanda Kolson Hurley
◼ POLITICS
have enacted more than 60 restrictions, including
near-total bans in Arkansas and Oklahoma,
according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research
organization that backs reproductive rights.
Abortion hasn’t played a key role in national
electoral politics for years. If the court strikes
down the Mississippi law, the issue could fade
again. But a decision that threatens Roe v. Wade
could fire up voters who haven’t been moved by
the issue for a long time, says Democratic pollster
Celinda Lake: “It has the potential to energize our
side and energize suburban women.”
Republicans need moderate and swing voters,
especially women who opposed Trump, if the
party hopes to regain control of the U.S. House
and Senate. Republican messaging has focused
on Biden’s economic plan, which the GOP calls a
move toward socialism, and its funding through
tax increases on people who make more than
$400,000 a year. Some voters may tune out that
message if the court rules against abortion rights.
A 2021 Pew Research Center poll found that 80%
of Democrats and 35% of Republicans believe
abortion should be legal in all or most cases, and
59% of moderate and liberal Republicans support
legal abortion.
The death of liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
last year, and her replacement by Barrett, led to
a surge in donations and volunteers to Planned
Parenthood’s advocacy arm, says Samuel Lau
of the group’s PAC. But abortion historically
has mobilized conservatives more than liberals.
That reflects the fact that abortion-rights advo-
cates have believed the issue is settled law, while
anti-abortion activists are fighting for change.
A Gallup poll last year found that Americans
who oppose abortion rights are more likely than
those who support them to say it’s a threshold
issue for them—meaning they’ll vote only for can-
didates who share their views. The gap was 30% to
19%, the largest in 20 years of the poll. “There’s a
complacency on the pro-choice side,” Lake says.
“The feeling is that ‘Mississippi could pass this law,
but it’s not going to impact me.’ ”
The Mississippi ban makes exceptions only
in cases of severe fetal abnormality or a major
health risk to the woman. A federal district judge
and then a federal appeals court said the ban
was unconstitutional.
Mississippi’s appeal seeks to let states out-
law abortion even before a fetus becomes viable.
That would eviscerate the core holding of the 1992
Planned Parenthood v. Casey ruling, which said
states can’t impose significant restrictions before
viability. In that ruling, the court didn’t pinpoint
Bloomberg Businessweek May 24, 2021
when viability occurs, but suggested it was at
around 23 or 24 weeks.
In its appeal, Mississippi claimed that viability
is “not an appropriate standard for assessing the
constitutionality of a law regulating abortion.”
“America cannot be a humane, civilized society
if its courts preclude lawmakers from imposing
reasonable limits on the taking of innocent life,”
Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch argued.
The state’s only abortion facility, the Jackson
Women’s Health Organization, challenged the 2018
law. “In an unbroken line of decisions over the last
fifty years, this court has held that the Constitution
guarantees each person the right to decide whether
to continue a pre-viability pregnancy,” the clinic
argued in a brief that urged rejection of the appeal.
Unchanging Views on Abortion
U.S. adults who believe abortion should be …
Legal under any circumstances Legal under certain circumstances Illegal
60%
Planned Parenthood v. Casey
37
30
0
4/1975 6/1992 5/2020
DATA: GALLUP
(The clinic provides abortions through 16 weeks.)
The Supreme Court will hear arguments on
the law this fall but likely won’t render a decision
until spring or summer of 2022. That’s just when
primaries and fundraising will be gearing up for
the midterms. Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski
of Alaska, who supports abortion rights, is up for
reelection and faces challenges from the right after
voting to impeach Trump.
The case will also drive some progressive groups
that are pushing to expand the court. Biden has
appointed a commission to study whether the
nine-member body should add four or more
justices, a proposal critics have attacked as “court-
packing.” Brian Fallon, director of the advocacy
group Demand Justice, says the institution is “a
looming threat to our democracy and in urgent
need of reform.” �Gregory Korte and Greg Stohr
THE BOTTOM LINE The test of Roe will energize anti-abortion
voters ahead of the midterms, but it could also mobilize ordinarily
complacent supporters of abortion rights—including swing voters.
 ◼ POLITICS
A Broader View of
Workers’ Rights
● NLRB Chairman Lauren McFerran signals a
new approach to enforcing labor law under Biden
In 1935, when Congress passed the National
Labor Relations Act and established employees’
right to protest and organize, it gave Americans a
single place to file complaints if those rights were
violated: the National Labor Relations Board, a
federal agency led by a five-member board charged
with interpreting and enforcing the law.
Under the Trump administration, the NLRB
took a narrow view of workers’ rights. Its general
counsel determined in 2019 that Uber drivers were
contractors, not employees entitled to legal pro-
tections. The board issued rulings and regulations
making it easier for companies to ban organizing
discussions via company email and harder to hold
companies such as McDonald’s Corp. liable for
38 what happens in franchised restaurants.
On his first day in office, President Joe Biden
fired the board’s general counsel and replaced
the chairman appointed by Donald Trump with
Democrat Lauren McFerran, an attorney and for-
mer Senate staffer who was first appointed to
the board by former President Barack Obama in
2014. She’s still outnumbered by Republican mem-
bers because terms are staggered, but the board
is likely to have a Democratic majority by winter.
That could mean big changes in such areas as who
counts as employees, what’s considered a work-
ing condition they’re allowed to protest, and how
they’re allowed to do so. The board could also
weigh in on such controversies as a union’s bid to
overturn its election defeat at Amazon.com Inc.’s
warehouse in Bessemer, Ala.
McFerran talked with Bloomberg Businessweek
on May 6. (The interview has been edited for length
and clarity.)  I wouldn’t want to elaborate on the board’s
When you meet people who have no idea what the
NLRB is, what do you tell them?
I guess I’m more interested in educating people
about the act than the board. I mean, the board
is just a group of people who decide cases, but I
always want people to understand what the act
is and what power it has. It’s such a foundational
tool for workers.
You know, I don’t think anyone, when the
Bloomberg Businessweek May 24, 2021
act was passed, would have contemplated
that it would potentially be used by their 2020
counterparts to join together and demand
personal protective equipment during a pan-
demic, or to challenge the denial of employment
protections in a gig economy, or to talk about the
silencing of harassment victims. But in my view,
it is manifestly clear from the plain language of
the act that it does protect all of this and more.
When you say the act covers protections for gig
workers, what is the scope of that?
It would depend on the specific factual
circumstances of that workplace and what those
people are doing. My personal perspective is
that the act’s definition of who is an employee
is broad. The Supreme Court says that we’re
supposed to be using the common-law definition
for employee, and that that is a broad definition.
In 2018, Elon Musk tweeted, “Why pay union dues ▲ McFerran
and give up stock options for nothing?” Tesla argued
that the tweet was First Amendment-protected free
speech on Musk’s personal Twitter account. An
agency judge and you and two of your Republican
colleagues all have ruled that the tweet violated
PHOTOGRAPH BY GABRIELLA DEMCZUK FOR BLOOMBERG BUSINESSWEEK
federal labor law. Why?
The Tesla case kind of speaks for itself, and
decision there. In terms of the issue more
generally, I’d say it’s actually one of the rare
issues where there’s not much disagreement,
even among the current board members. The
same principles of law apply in the context of
statements made on social media that apply to
other types of communications that workers
could be on the receiving end of.
People may be more intemperate in what
they say on social media, but there’s no Twitter
◼ POLITICS
sarcasm exemption to the NLRA. We’ve never, in
any context, allowed employers to get away with
threatening their workers by saying, “I was just kid-
ding.” So if a reasonable, economically vulnerable
employee would interpret your tweet or your
Facebook post or whatever as an attempt to inter-
fere with, restrain, or coerce them in their ability to
exercise their rights under the act, you violate the
law. And it doesn’t really matter what form you use.
There have been issues in recent years around what
sorts of collective worker action are protected by the
law. How do you approach those sorts of questions?
My view is broader than my current
colleagues’. Section 7, which grants rights to
employees, is the absolute heart of the act.
And construing it too narrowly—leaving work-
ers exposed to restrictions or reprisals that
undermine their ability to exercise their rights—
frustrates what Congress intended to do.
In Alstate Maintenance [a 2019 case involv-
ing an airport skycap who complained about
not being tipped and was fired], I said that tips
were a working condition, and that raising con-
cerns about tips was for mutual aid or protection.
Averting a Telehealth Cliff
● As legal relaxations on remote health care expire, supporters scramble to keep them
Video conferences have long outlived their charm,
but one pandemic staple remains popular: the
virtual doctor’s visit. Now politicians around the
country are racing against deadlines to make sure
their constituents aren’t forced back to in-person
medicine if they don’t want it.
For months, Jim Des Marais, who has ALS, or
Lou Gehrig’s disease, has been video-calling with
his specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital
instead of making the exhausting three-hour-plus
drive to Boston from his home in Vermont. For
now, he’s still able to make the drive. “But that
won’t last,” says Des Marais, a 60-year-old lawyer.
ALS is a degenerative neurological disease. “There
will be a point in time when my disease progresses,
and traveling will be very difficult for me.”
Many telemedicine visits became legal because
of emergency government measures early in the
Covid-19 pandemic. States and the federal govern-
ment swept aside some of the legal and insurance
Bloomberg Businessweek May 24, 2021
My colleagues disagreed, which I find a little
unfathomable. I don’t know if they ever worked
for tips in the past, but if you ask any tipped
employee whether getting stiffed on tips is a
matter of concern about their employment, they “We’ve never,
would say yes, I would think. [The NLRB ruled that in any context,
the former skycap’s dismissal was lawful.] allowed
In Amnesty International USA [a case about employers to
employees of the human-rights nonprofit advo- get away with
cating for interns to be paid], when employees threatening
stood up for the interns they worked with, even their workers
though the interns themselves weren’t covered by saying,
by the statute—in my view, co-workers helping ‘I was just
co-workers is mutual aid. [The NLRB ruled in 2019 kidding’ ”
the employees’ activism wasn’t legally protected.]
As long as some statutory employees are
involved, our job is not to read the act in the nar-
rowest way possible to try to exclude situations
from its protection. Section 7 is broad. It’s the
heart of what we’re supposed to be doing, and
we should interpret it broadly. �Josh Eidelson
THE BOTTOM LINE McFerran’s expansive view of worker
protections suggests that after other Democrats join her on the
NLRB, its rulings will shift in workers’ favor.
39
thicket that for years held back technological
progress in the almost $4 trillion U.S. health-care
sector. Practicing medicine across state lines with-
out all the usual licenses? Sure. Virtual Medicare
visits? Fine. Charging the same for online visits as
in-person? No problem.
In the last week of March 2020, telehealth visits
surged 154% from the year before, according to
a study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention. By the end of the year, a Harris
poll found that roughly two-thirds of Americans
would prefer to get at least some of their health
care online.
Now the emergency measures that enabled
many of those virtual visits have begun to expire. In
response, almost 600 bills to help support and reg-
ulate distance health care are pending in U.S. state-
houses, up from about 100 two years ago, according
to the American Telemedicine Association.
Congress is also considering relief, including a
 ◼ POLITICS
Senate measure that would expand telemedicine
access, particularly for Medicare. Led by Senators
Brian Schatz, a Democrat from Hawaii, and Roger
Wicker, a Mississippi Republican, it’s drawn 53
bipartisan sponsors, more than half the Senate.
“Telehealth has been a lifeline” for people in rural
Wisconsin, a Democratic congressman from that
state, Ron Kind, said at a recent hearing. “And I
feel, and I think most members do feel, that there’s
no going back at this point.”
Patients like Des Marais with out-of-state
doctors could be especially vulnerable to losing
access because of licensing rules. A doctor can
face criminal charges for providing care without
a state license. “It’s absolutely terrible,” says Lee
Schwamm, vice president for virtual care at Mass
General Brigham, Massachusetts’ largest hospital
system. “To do the right thing for their patients,
they would have to do the wrong thing.”
For now, Des Marais’s virtual visits are safe. The
Vermont legislature, just days before the state’s
pandemic-era telehealth rules expired this spring,
passed a one-year extension, including permission
for care by out-of-state doctors.
Earlier this year, Massachusetts passed a law that
40 requires equal insurance coverage of telemedicine
treatment for primary care, behavioral health, and
chronic disease management. It will assess the
results in two years. In Arkansas, a telemedicine
bill passed last month after backers argued that
equating telehealth with in-person health would
help bring more medical care to rural areas.
The wide support for telehealth comes as the
industry has taken off. Investors plowed more
than $10 billion into telehealth startups last year,
up from $6 billion in 2019, according to technology
data firm CB Insights.
But looming post-pandemic legal changes are
sowing uncertainty and talk of a telehealth “cliff ”
when the federal government ends the state of
emergency that vastly expanded virtual visits for
Medicare patients. “We see the cliff coming, and
Bloomberg Businessweek May 24, 2021
Remote Health Care Surges During the Pandemic
Telehealth visits as share of all visits (baseline week of March 1-7, 2020)
Weekly By specialty*
12%
Behavioral health 56%
Endocrinology 25
8 Neurology 17
Rheumatology 17
Gastroenterology 14
4 Anesthesiology 14
Pulmonology 13
Adult primary care 12
0 Pediatrics 8
12/29/19 12/20/20 Allergy/Immunology 7
Week began
*AVERAGE OF LAST THREE FULL NONHOLIDAY WEEKS OF 2020. DATA: COMMONWEALTH FUND
we’re on cruise control,” warns Kyle Zebley, public
policy director of the American Telemedicine
Association. The Biden administration has signaled
it will leave emergency measures in place at least
through this year.
At the same time, the U.S. Justice Department is
targeting a downside of telemedicine: the potential
for fraud. In October federal prosecutors charged
more than 86 criminal defendants with submitting
$4.5 billion in false claims to Medicare and other
government insurers. Telemed businesses paid
doctors to order unnecessary equipment, tests,
and pain medicine with fleeting or no interaction
with patients, the government alleges.
More remote care could also add to legitimate
health-care spending because of its convenience,
according to Harvard health-care policy professor
Ateev Mehrotra. “If you do see a big increase in
unnecessary spend without improvements in
health, then we’ll have to pull back,” he says.
Telemedicine companies, such as American
Well Corp., are fighting against any retrenchment.
Amid the pandemic, Boston-based Amwell saw
revenue jump 65% last year, to $245 million.
Shares of the company, which went public in
September, have lost half their value this year as
competition has grown and the proportion of care
that’s virtual has dropped.
Peter Antall, Amwell’s chief medical officer, says
reverting to more restrictions on digital doctor’s vis-
ILLUSTRATION BY XAVIER LALANNE-TAUZIA
its would be like cracking down on online banking.
“Imagine,” he says, “if some regulator came in and
said, ‘No, we can’t do that anymore. You’ve got to go
to the bank.’ ” �Carey Goldberg and John Hechinger
THE BOTTOM LINE Removing barriers to telemedicine beyond
the pandemic could help rural Americans in particular, although
fraud and higher spending are concerns.
Engage with the news you need,
vision that matters and data that
tracks progress at Bloomberg Equality.

Learn more:
Bloomberg.com/Equality
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 IF YOU SPENT THE PAST YEAR
FEELING LIKE GETTING BY
WAS THE BEST YOU COULD DO,
WELL, SAME .
So we thought, why not ask
experts how they do what
(executives! VCs!
movie directors!)

they do? The result is our

HOW-TO ISSUE.
It addresses questions from the 43

pressing to the frivolous

(how to sing (how to get wealthy
karaoke, page 45)
, Americans to pay their
taxes, page 63)

from the fiendishly hard , (how to sauce a parm, page 83)

to the ridiculously easy . (how to land a rover

on Mars, page 53)

Our experts’ answers explain —edited for length

and clarity!—

the inner workings of business, finance,

politics, technology, and luxury.
Plus, our own writers pitch in with
thoughts on subjects such as meeting
deadlines , tipping a bartender ,
(page (page
48) 50)

and falling in love . (page

52)

You may find, as we did, that reading about all of this is educational and inspirational.
And that might make whatever you’re going through a little more bearable. a
 PERSUADE PEOPLE TO
GET May 24, 2021

V A C C INAT JESS MCINTOSH

ED
Creative director,
Fellow Americans

Progressive organizations and

advocacy groups are using Fellow
Americans’ video ads to try to
increase coronavirus vaccine
 Gottemoeller rates. As of mid-April about 1 in 5
got into the American adults were unwilling
Christmas to be vaccinated, according to a
spirit—sort of
Monmouth University poll.

We’ve tested Covid

SWAY A NEGOTIATION
44
ROSE
GOTTEMOELLER
Distinguished lecturer,
Freeman Spogli Institute
for International Studies
at Stanford
She led talks with Russia
on behalf of the Obama
administration that culminated
in 2011’s New Strategic Arms
Reduction Treaty. Her book,
Negotiating the New START
Treaty, is out this month from
Cambria Press.
Anatoly Antonov, who’s
currently the Russian
ambassador to the U.S., was
my counterpart during the New
START negotiations. In any
negotiation, you want to have
It kind of took the air out of
his tires. I always say being
a nuclear negotiator is not
rocket science. If you’ve
got teenagers at home, you
know how to negotiate.
Some negotiators are
more histrionic. Some
pound the table more.
Some focus more on the
technical details. At various
points in the negotiations,
you have to show streaks
of each. Although I tend to
be a fairly even-tempered
person, I lost my temper
a couple of times and
pounded the table. I was
even told by my delegation
that my face turned bright
red. A good negotiator has
the range to surprise the
other side. In my case, the
Russians were so used to my being calm that
messaging several times
since the pandemic
began. Often, it performs quite well but causes
a backlash among conservatives, especially
men. To promote uptake, a good ad has to avoid
this. With this in mind, we commissioned three
vaccine-specific videos.
The first was a raw emotional appeal, lots
of footage of crying health-care workers
overwhelmed that the shots are finally coming
out. It tested sort of meh. The second ad was
a happy little celebration: footage of cases
of vaccines rolling off the conveyor belt, less
heartstring-tugging than the first one. For the last
one we went nuts with the exuberance level. It’s
basically a cheerleader number—people shouting,
“Gimme a V!” The tests showed it was far and
away the best.
We’d assumed going in that the
emotional appeal or the middle-
ground ad would be the winner.
Nope. The straight-up hype video
PHOTOS: GETTY IMAGES (2). ILLUSTRATION BY CAROLYN FIGEL

the capability to knock your
counterpart off balance from
time to time. He did it to me.
I did it to him. There has to be
that edge of uncertainty to get
people to pay attention.
I invited him to lunch one
day, and he ended up coming
almost an hour late, expecting
me to storm out or to be angry
when he showed up. But I
responded calmly: “I’m sorry
you’re late. Let’s get on with it.
We’ve got a lot of work to do.”
when I lost my temper it had a real effect.
In any negotiation, you have a front row
who sit at the table, and then you have
the back row, where the experts are. I made
a special point of reaching out to the
women in the back row. There were never
any women in the front row on the Russian
side. I began to hassle my counterpart,
saying, “Why don’t you let some of your
really good female experts come and talk?”
I sent the women White House Christmas
ornaments, and I didn’t send them to the
men. They got kind of mad at me.
—As told to Peter Coy
blew them away.
This suggests there’s a huge
appetite for optimism—for
unbridled joy—about the vaccine.
The ad didn’t just increase uptake,
including with Republicans. It made
people happy. Actually happy!
We tested a lot of videos over the
last year, and believe me, that’s
not a typical finding. —As told to
Joshua Green
Bloomberg Businessweek THE HOW-TO ISSUE My five-piece band,
the Gincident,
plays what we call
Compile a Post-Pandemic “twangwave and
grungegrass,” a
mashup of country,
Karaoke Playlist jazz, and punk. We’ve
gotten reasonably
good reviews on
There are plenty of things I feel sort of comfortable obscure websites,
doing again. But one of them is not packing into and we’re on Spotify
a cramped space that smells of Sapporo and and other streaming
screaming songs into the faces of a dozen people. platforms. But at a
I’ll know that we’re past the pandemic when fraction of a penny
I’m back in a karaoke room with co-workers after per stream, we’ve
a grueling week at the office. And when that earned just $9.58
happens, I’m going to be singing these songs, from our two albums
roughly in this order. in the past year. What
They all meet Standard Karaoke Code: They’re have I done with my
not too long (fade out that Prince jam at about earnings? I haven’t
3:45); they don’t have long instrumental breaks; gotten my share
and none are too obscure. The songs are also on yet, because…well…
theme. My post-Covid karaoke outing won’t be a
time for vulnerability. Or, to put it in Phil Collins-ese, MAKE what’s the point?
But I expect that in
the night will be less Against All Odds, more
Sussudio. —Sam Grobart PENNIES the next few months
we might be able to
buy some new guitar

DON’T STOP ME NOW, ON strings—and maybe

even a few beers for 45
QUEEN
“Tonight I’m gonna have myself a real
good time,” Freddie Mercury begins.
SPOTIFY the band to share.
—David Rocks

“I feel ali-i-i-ive. And the world, I’ll turn it

inside out.” Let’s do as the man says.

I WANT TO SEE THE BRIGHT

LIGHTS TONIGHT, RICHARD
AND LINDA THOMPSON
Next you’ll want something with a more
laid-back groove. Linda sings, “I’m gonna
dream till Monday comes in sight.”
This implies the existence of a weekend.
Remember those? It’s time to get pumped
about having two days off in a row.
RHYTHM OF THE NIGHT,
DEBARGE
Remind everyone how good it is that
you’re all here together, and “to the
beat of the rhythm of the night, dance
until the morning light.”
HOUNDS OF LOVE,
KATE BUSH
There’s always that point in the evening
when a few people peel off. With fewer
friends around to say, “Huh?” to your
choices, get weird. Take those shoes off,
as Bush sings in this 1985 indie rock hit,
and “throw them in the lake.”
UPTOWN, PRINCE
If you haven’t performed a Prince song,
you haven’t actually done karaoke. This
one, which “ain’t about no downtown,
nowhere-bound, narrow-minded drag—
it’s all about being free,” speaks to our
communal wanderlust.
NOTHING’S GONNA STOP
US NOW, STARSHIP
Karaoke nights live or die on duets. Is
there a more optimistic, let’s-do-this, two-
hands-on-the-mic song than this one? “Let
’em say we’re crazy. What do they know?”
FREEDOM! ’90,
GEORGE MICHAEL
You need a closer, a song for the whole
room. No, it’s not that one by Journey; this
past year has taught us that you very much
can stop believin’. When the day comes
that I’m standing on vinyl banquettes, I
want everyone around me to know: “I won’t
let you down, I will not give you up.”
 Bloomberg Businessweek THE HOW-TO ISSUE May 24, 2021

ETSY
KATE ANTESBERGER
(PLANNERKATE1)
For seven years, Antesberger and her
husband, Karl, have run a business
making stickers and sticker tape for
day planners. They did $2.5 million in
business in 2020.
I’ve always loved planners. I’d
posted a picture of my calendar on
Instagram—I’d made some stickers
that popped. People said, “You
should sell those.” That day, I started
an Etsy shop. In six months, I left my
job at IBM to do Etsy full time. I have
an accounting degree and an MBA.
My dad was like, “You’re foolish.”
[[]] Stickers from Antesberger’s shop The sticker industry has blown
up. We make everything ourselves.
There are stickers for things like a
doctor’s appointment that’ll just say
doctor, or it’s a stethoscope. There
are stickers to make your planner
look cute for birthdays, paydays.
Others are for therapy or women
tracking their cycles.
Some of the bestselling ones last
year were the quarantine trackers.
We started with one sheet marking
days 1 to 50. The stickers said
quarantine day #1, #2, etc. We ended
up going to day 460. There was also a
“quarantini” sticker of a martini glass
to mark another solo happy hour.
People had more time for it last
year, so that might have played
into our growth. The comfort of
being able to track things and keep
normalcy in our lives helped. I had
customers thank us for bringing
joy to their lives. We have such a
strong community of planner people.
�As told to Jordyn Holman

46

BUILD A BUSIN
TIKTOK
merchandise with the catchphrase on it.
Whatever you’re selling, make sure
you’re making videos of you creating the
product. Use songs that are trending.
COURTESY KATE ANTESBERGER. COURTESY NATHAN MILNER. DREAKNOWSBEST/TIKTOK. DHAR MANN STUDIO (2)

Music is the best way for your video to

DREA OKEKE get traction. Get some microinfluencers
to use your product and have them make
(@DREAKNOWSBEST) a video that’s authentic, like, “Hey, guys,
I was looking through the internet, and I
Okeke’s comedy, lifestyle, and culture
saw this, and I had to buy it—here’s how I
videos have attracted 5.3 million
used it to decorate my room.” Nobody’s
followers. She charges brands, including
going to know it’s an ad, because these
Amazon Prime, Bose, L’Oréal, and Tide,
guys don’t have many followers. You can
from $10,000 to $20,000 per post.
pay them or give them stuff for free.
If you don’t have your
Most people think the only
own product to sell, you
way to make money on
could try affiliate links, which
TikTok is through deals with
give you a kickback for
brands. But that’s not true—
posting about something.
it’s not even the easiest
This guy recently posted this
way. It took me a while to
cool video of a microscope
build the kind of following
thing that goes in your ear
that lets me charge what
and sees your earwax and
I charge. For example, you
put the link to buy it in his
could give your videos some
bio. Anytime someone clicks
type of catchphrase. Maybe
to purchase it, he gets
you’re always saying, “It’s [[]] Stills from Mann's videos
money. Whatever you do, put
food time!” in skits or in your
links in your bio. �As told to
tutorials. Then you can sell
Sarah Frier
[[]] Okeke
 ONLY
FANS
STARR HAWKINS
(@BABYMOMMAFIT)
Almost 400 people subscribe to
watch her workout videos, each
paying $30 a month.
I trained a lot of Miami’s hottest
moms, like Karlie Kloss and sports
agent Drew Rosenhaus’s wife [Lisa
Thompson]. But when the pandemic
hit, I couldn’t do classes in public.
I’d been teaching for eight hours a
day, charging up to $80 a class. At
first I started streaming on Instagram
Live, doing classes for free. Then
Beyoncé mentioned OnlyFans in a
song, so I decided to check it out.
I never miss a day. Consistency
NESS ON …
INSTAGRAM
DHAR MANN
(@DHAR.MANN)
Mann, who has 4 million followers,
produces videos that tackle thorny
subjects such as bullying (Student
Humiliates Special Ed Kid) and
overparenting (Mom Forces Girl
to Play With Barbies). He says the
content generates six figures in
annual revenue from ads on the
platform’s IGTV feature.
When I started, it was just me talking
to a camera. I wouldn’t break 1,000
views. Then I added animation with
a voice-over, and I’d get more than
10,000. Then I analyzed the data
to figure out what people wanted:
something that sparked emotion, was
about a topic of current conversation,
is key. If Christmas falls on a
Wednesday, we’re working out on
Christmas. When you become a part
of their day, they get hooked. I post
the video every day at the same time,
and now the girls are waiting for it.
There are months when the
business doesn’t grow. When that
happens, I make a challenge. The
person who lost the most weight
gets $200. I post photos to Instagram
showing what girls looked like before
they worked out with me and after,
to spread word-of-mouth. On Friday,
I do “Bring a Friend Friday” to expose
someone new. I sold 200 T-shirts in
a month and a half, and people wear
them to class. There are girls in
Singapore and Australia wearing my
shirts. They say “Baby Momma First”
and “Class of Ass.”
I started with 150 subscribers.
In January last year, I was a single
mom, $30,000 in debt, working from
6 a.m. to 8 p.m., and living paycheck
to paycheck. Now I’m making $10,000
to $12,000 a month on OnlyFans and
might have enough money to buy
a house. �As told to Lucas Shaw
and ended with a twist, leaving them
with a memorable feeling. I started
casting my own family members. My
third one, about a CEO talking down
to a janitor, took off.
I pull in more money on other
platforms, about $25 million a year
from the ads that run on my YouTube
and Facebook videos. IGTV became
a surprise hit for me, though, and is
starting to become more important
because of the new revenue share
from the ads.
If I were a creator starting fresh,
I’d focus on YouTube or TikTok.
Insta is saturated—you could make
$60,000 a year with 100,000 followers,
but it would be hard to become a
millionaire. Just don’t buy followers
or comments. People can tell it’s not
real. �As told to S.F.
[[]] Milner
YOUTUBE
NATHAN MILNER
(UNSPEAKABLE)
Milner, who has about 11 million subscribers for
five gaming and vlogging channels, says he has
annual revenue in the “tens of millions of dollars”
from posting videos with names such as ESCAPING
100 LAYERS OF CARDBOARD! WE’RE TRAPPED!
The first videos I posted were about
the game Minecraft. I didn’t expect
to make any money. I was only
13 or 14. In one video, I ranked my
top five modifications, like adding
a miniature map to the screen or
an option that lets you see how 47
hurt another character is. That
video now has 357,000 views—
about 50 times more than any of
my earliest videos. That’s when
I realized that not a lot of people
offered that kind of information.
I found that niche and went all-in.
When I was getting 100 million views a month,
I was one of the three most-watched Minecraft
channels. My most successful videos weren’t the
“top five” videos anymore. They were of me trying
to entertain people while I played games. That’s
when I decided to start a video-blog channel. I
saw a video of a dude making a Hot Wheels track.
So I made a Hot Wheels track, only I made it
go underwater.
I now operate five different channels. Our most
popular video is us building a massive Lego tower.
It’s gotten a lot easier now that I have a team. We
upload videos every week, and each one gets at
least a couple million views. We toss out 80% of our
ideas. If we film something and it doesn’t work, I’m
not going to upload it. That’s probably why I end up
working 80 hours a week.
Good titles and thumbnails are everything. I
make two or three for every video. I pick whichever I
think is best, but if it doesn’t perform, I switch it out.
The channels combined generate more than
300 million viewers a month, and revenue from
the business doubles every year. A lot of that
comes from ads, but a growing portion comes
from merchandise and branded-content deals.
I made enough money that I bought a house in
north Houston surrounded by water to film the
videos. My next goal is I want to buy a submarine.
�As told to L.S.

MEET A
DEADLINE
FOR YOUR
BOOK
ABOUT
DEADLINES
The problem with writing a book
48 about deadlines is that everyone
expects you to submit the
manuscript on time. I couldn’t
read my own book for advice; it
hadn’t been written yet. Luckily,
my reporting produced two early
insights for a treatise on timeliness
that saved me from being late.
One of my first interviews was
with Bill West, head of operations
for Airbus Americas Engineering.
Building a jet is incredibly
complex—more daunting than
writing a breezy business book,
even. It can require 10 years to
go from first designs to federal
certification to production. Even
so, airlines expect their planes to
arrive on time. “Once I tell JetBlue
I’m going to deliver an airplane on
the 15th of December,” West told
me, “it’s got to be delivered on
that date.” The secret was to plan
“right to left”: Fix your deadline
and work back from there, figuring
out big stuff first and filling in the
rest later. “People try to get too
detailed instead of building a top-
level schedule,” West said.
For my book I had a year to
THE HOW-TO ISSUE
get everything done, and I knew
I wanted to embed in as many high-
pressure workplaces as possible
to see how they approached
deadlines of various sizes and
severity. So I made a simple
calendar: I would report on two
places in the spring, three in the
summer, and three in the fall, filling
in expert research along the way.
That framework allowed me to
chart my way from the first blank
page to the completed book.
The second breakthrough
came during a month I spent with
chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten
while he prepared to open two
restaurants on back-to-back days.
(“A massive pressure,” he told
me.) Even as construction crews
were hammering and sawing and
drilling all around us, Vongerichten
began to offer daily dinner service
to staff. These mock services
were first for 20 employees,
then 30, then 40. They acted as
self-imposed deadlines, mini-
openings on the way to the
big night. The trick
was to treat each one
as if it were real—
demanding customers
SELL A
LUXURY
CONDO
MIKI NAFTALI  The Benson
Founder,
Naftali Group LLC
His New York development company’s
latest project, the Benson, a 19-story
condo on the Upper East Side of
Manhattan, is scheduled to open at
the end of the year. Apartments in
the Madison Avenue building start at
$13.25 million, and all 15 units were in
contract as of mid-April.
I start with location. What used to work
a few years ago on 57th Street and in
May 24, 2021
were out there judging the food,
the waitstaff, the menu.
I wanted to replicate that
checkpoint approach for the book.
Rather than scribbling down notes
and saving the writing for last,
I would complete a chapter right
after I finished reporting on each
workplace. In place of an audience
of hungry diners, I imagined my
editor, red pencil in hand. The
result was that, well before the
year was up, I had a rough draft of
the book waiting for me.
What did I do then? I read it,
revised it, and turned it in right on
time. —Christopher Cox
Cox’s The Deadline Effect: How
to Work Like It’s the Last Minute—
Before the Last Minute will be
published on July 6 by Avid Reader
Press/Simon & Schuster.
other parts of New York doesn’t work
now, because you don’t see as many
foreign buyers.
There’s still demand for what we
call “prime” Upper East Side between
Park and Fifth avenues, between the
PHOTOS: HAYES DAVIDSON/NAFTALI. BRITTA PEDERSEN/GETTY IMAGES. POPOW/GETTY IMAGES. ILLUSTRATION BY OSCAR BOLTON GREEN
high 60s and high 80s. There’s a
group of buyers who only want
to live in this rectangle on the
map, and there isn’t much
available.
In terms of floor
plans, they’re looking for
grand rooms, big spaces
without beams or
weird ceilings with
ducts. Then you
consider an open
vs. traditional
layout. We have
a kitchen with
a doublewide
opening with sliding
doors, so that you
can either keep it open to the dining room
or you can close it off so it’s more formal.
I strongly believe in pre-selling—we
sell while we’re still building the project.
When we opened the sales office for the
Benson, the first people who put in offers
were expecting a discount because of
the pandemic. I said, “I’m sorry, there
are no discounts in this building. The site
cost me a fortune. The building cost me a
fortune to build.” We priced the units very
fairly. —As told to James Tarmy
Contemplate because I’m 88 years old.
It’s so unnecessary, the
number of people who’ve

a Covid
died. It could have
been prevented if
the government
had acted better.

memorial
Do we want a
memorial that
memorializes the
ineffectiveness of
government? That’s
not what memorials
PETER EISENMAN are about.
Founder, Eisenman Architects, Where do
I love the idea of culture
and visiting professor, Yale School of we even put and remembrance and
Architecture
silence? institutionalizing memory.
His studio designed the We are a culture that needs
Memorial to the Murdered Jews these kinds of reminders. But a
of Europe in Berlin. Covid memorial right now? It would
be an empty gesture. I just can’t help
When I designed the Memorial to the but think that. Maybe I don’t have the
Murdered Jews of Europe, I wanted an visionary spirit. One thing I could think
abstract memorial. I didn’t want something of is an online memorial. A pandemic is 49

that had overt symbolism. No Jewish stars, placeless. It’s everywhere. What do we
no remembrances, nothing. Just silence have that can memorialize everywhere?
is what I was looking for—silence in the The internet. So why not design one that
field of stones. In a society of so much we could interface with?
noise, maybe silence was a good thing. If you asked me personally to do
If you said you wanted the same thing another one, I wouldn’t know what to do.
for a Covid memorial—“We want silence I don’t want to be involved with anything
to hear the voices of the dead”—I would to do with Covid. �As told to J.T.
say, “How would we create a different
kind of silence?” The victims of Covid
don’t speak. They’re silent. And they
never had a chance to speak at the end.
As I understand it, most people who
die of Covid don’t have a chance to say
goodbye. And so the memorial would
be their way of saying goodbye. But
where do we even put silence? Do we
put markers around the world that tell
you how much of a population was lost?
I would begin in 50 years. There’s
nobody that’s had a chance to reflect on
Covid because it’s still with us. I was in
this house for months, scared to death, [[]] Eisenman (top); the memorial in Berlin
 Bloomberg Businessweek THE HOW-TO ISSUE
[[]] The way you discover
an insight can be as
meaningful as the insight
itself, Gupta says
Pitch a VC
SUNEEL GUPTA You, published in March. Rise, his
Co-founder, Rise one-on-one nutritional coaching
startup, was sold to primary care
Gupta, a faculty member at provider 1Life Healthcare Inc. in
50 Harvard Medical School, is 2016 for a reported $20 million.
the author of Backable: The
Surprising Truth Behind What I’d gone zero for…more than
Makes People Take a Chance on 12 pitching Rise. It was going so
In my bar-going younger
days, a buddy of a friend
r
rt p a
taught me a trick. When
de
you hit the bank on Friday—
and, yeah, this will require
en
Ba Ti
that you go inside an actual
bank—ask the teller to give
you your withdrawal in as
many $2 bills as possible.
There aren’t many in
circulation. Sometimes
you’ll get one or two;
other times you might
[[]] e $1,5 circul asury
get $20 worth. But no
we ills in to tr
$2 ordin
As
acc
matter how many you get,
b
of A 49,05 tion .gov
you’ll be able to tip twice
pri 2,71 glob
as much as the schmuck
g
l 30
next to you—and you’ll be
, 20 wort lly,
a
e
much more memorable for
07,
4
future rounds. Anyway, after
the f
the past year, your bartender
re
ho
a
needs that extra buck more
than you do. �Joel Weber
May 24, 2021
poorly that, hoping there would be
investors in the audience, I agreed
to be the keynote speaker at the
2012 FailCon, a San Francisco
tech conference that celebrated
flops. Not only did that not work,
but my photo appeared in the
New York Times a year later at the
top of a story about failure.
If I didn’t get a VC to invest
soon, I’d have to shut down the
company. So I went to another
conference room at another VC
firm in Palo Alto and gave my
pitch. When the VC picked up
his phone and started answering
an email in the middle of my
presentation, I knew I was done.
I hurried through my slides,
which included one about our pilot
customers. He asked, “How did
you find them?” I was afraid to
give the answer, because it was
not very Silicon Valley. The truth
was that I stood outside Weight
Watchers meetings. I told him how
one group escorted me from the
premises. How I approached one
man who, it turned out, wasn’t a
GUPTA: PHOTOGRAPH BY EMILY ROSE BENNETT FOR BLOOMBERG BUSINESSWEEK. BARTENDER: CLASSICSTOCK. SHED: PROP STYLIST: JASON ROONEY
Weight Watchers member. The VC
put his phone in his pocket and
began to ask more questions.
He became the first VC to say yes,
even though we wound up going
with other investors.
I learned that how you
discover an insight can be just as
meaningful as the insight itself.
My story had clear characters and
vivid visuals. It showed that I had
dedication and drive.
I used the Weight Watchers
story at every pitch after that
first successful one, and it was
always the part VCs loved
the most. That’s because a great
pitch is based on an “earned
insight”—information you gather
from firsthand experience.
That could be through talking
to customers, test-driving
competitors’ products, or
attending obscure meetups.
Put yourself into the narrative.
�As told to Joel Stein
Bloomberg Businessweek THE HOW-TO ISSUE
erect
A  Photograph by
Bike
My middle son, who’s 18, is a heavy metal drummer,
and he did his best to stimulate the economy by
turning a pandemic unemployment check into the
biggest drum set he could find. To accommodate the
kit, I converted half of our garage into a music studio.
But then I had to figure out what to do with three bikes
that were now crowding my remaining garage space.
One of my neighbors wanted to replace a cedar
picket privacy fence on our property line, so I told
him I’d remove it. That was a lot of lumber to be
salvaged, and I needed a shed.
I spent a couple of weekends on the project, about
half the time pulling nails from the fence, tapping
them straight, and stashing them in a coffee can for
later use in the build. I sawed off the rotten bottoms of
4-by-4-inch posts—fences tend to rot from the ground
up—saving at least 6 feet from each one, which was
plenty to build a 4-by-6-foot frame for the shed’s base.
May 24, 2021
[[]] The structure,
reproduced as a
1:9 scale wood
architectural model
Ryan Duffin
Shed
I had a scrap piece of plywood from building the music
studio, and I used that for the floor. Then I framed the
walls using the slats from the fence. I made the rear
wall taller than the rest to slope the rolled asphalt
roof, which will drain the rain. I started feeling good
watching it come together when some neighborhood
children walked by and asked me why I was building
an outhouse.
The finished product is a 24-square-foot shed that
holds three bikes vertically on hooks, as well as my
bicycle tools, helmets, locks, and other stuff. I spent
about $100 on the roofing materials. I was so proud,
I made a YouTube video.
Lockdown made it easy to stay inside and be fairly
sedentary. The bike shed helped motivate me to get
outside. And maybe I’ve encouraged other people to
make use of old fences instead of sending them to a
landfill. �Spencer Soper
 Bloomberg Businessweek THE HOW-TO ISSUE May 24, 2021

Answer Someone Who Asks How

The Stock Market or Economy Will Perform
I get this question a lot when people find out I cover economics for
this magazine. What I’d like to say is: “Glad you asked! Of course I know
the answer. My perfect foresight has made me inconceivably rich.”
What I actually say is:
“The median forecast
of economists surveyed by
 Don’t Bloomberg predicts U.S. gross
even get him
started on domestic product will grow
Fed rates
6.3% this year. The median
estimate for the yearend
S&P 500 is 4,150.”

52
It’s the perfect way to end a boring conversation. —Peter Coy

FALL IN LaVE
Last spring, stuck alone in a studio mattered—I could easily see what made
apartment in Los Angeles, I redownloaded Anthony so special. He was intelligent,
Tinder. I had low expectations and a lot empathetic, deep, playful, sensitive,

of time, but it took me only a few swipes
to match with Anthony, a teacher with
striking blue eyes. In a normal world, we
might not have found each other: Anthony
had been teaching in China for two years,
only to be marooned with family in Florida
after visiting for a friend’s wedding.
Tinder’s Passport feature lets you choose
a city to swipe in—Anthony picked L.A.,
because he imagined living there one day.
After messaging on the app, we
moved to the phone. Our second call
lasted six hours. We didn’t experience
most of the standard first-date jitters,
though I later found out that until our
first Zoom date he’d been mildly anxious
that I might not have teeth, given my
predilection for not smiling in photos. He
was relieved to find out he was wrong.
Without the usual life distractions—
and a renewed focus on the things that
COY: COURTESY PETER COY. LOVE: COURTESY LAURA BOLT. MARS: COURTESY NASA/JPL-CALTECH
and strong. He made me feel like we
could have a future together. In one
care package, he included a sea bean.
He explained that they detach from
trees and float in the ocean, sometimes
for years, before washing up on shore
far from where their journey began but
exactly where they’re supposed to be.
By August, with no end in sight to the
pandemic, we decided we were tired of
waiting to be together. We picked a date,
and Anthony prepared to move more
than 2,600 miles across the country. We
realized there was a certain degree of
crazy to it, but what did the traditional
rules of dating matter when everything in
life had changed so much?
Anthony arrived a few weeks later.
We moved into a new apartment, and
on April 17 we celebrated our one-year  The couple on a road trip to
anniversary. —Laura Bolt Phoenix for Thanksgiving
ALLEN CHEN
Systems engineer, NASA’s Jet
Propulsion Laboratory
Chen leads the entry, descent,
and landing team for the Mars
2020 project, the mission that sent
the rover Perseverance to the
Red Planet.
Landing on Mars is all about
finding a way to stop, and stop
in a safe place. And really it’s
about the spacecraft doing it all
by herself. We can’t joystick it
down. It takes about 11 minutes
for signals to arrive from the
spacecraft to Earth.
There are so many
things that have to
go right! Every  Perseverance
spacecraft hits the
top of the Martian
atmosphere going
around 12,000
miles per hour
but needs to
touch down at
1 mph. The first
step of that is to
use the Martian
atmosphere
to slow down.
Encased in
that protective
capsule, it goes
streaking across
the Martian sky like a
meteor. Not only does
it have to survive that
intense heating and the
intense deceleration that it
sees during that part of flight,
it also has to steer its way to
the landing target. It’s using
thrusters to basically fly itself
like an airplane to the place we’re
trying to land.
That only takes you down from
hypersonic speed to supersonic
speed. When it’s still going
almost twice the speed of sound,
Perseverance has to deploy a
70-foot-diameter parachute. This
is a supersonic parachute, not a
parachute you normally think of
as folks jump out of a plane. This
parachute inflates in a fraction of
a second. It goes from being fully
packed to the density of an oak
tree, basically.
While slowing down on the
parachute, we’re going from
supersonic speeds to near
subsonic. Still going at about
six-tenths the speed of sound
on Mars, Perseverance jettisons
the heat shield that protects it
throughout the entry to get a look
at the ground. We start taking a
Land
On
Mars
look with the radar to figure out
how high up we are and what the
velocity of the vehicle is. And
then as we get lower we activate
a system called terrain-relative
navigation, which was a new
system for Perseverance. In the
past, we’ve taken pictures during
the descent but never asked
the spacecraft to do anything
with them. This time we gave
Perseverance an entirely separate
brain to process those images and
compare them with images we’d
taken from orbiters overhead.
I don’t think anyone does this
anymore, but I remember back
in the day driving around with a
map and looking out the window,
trying to line things up and figure
out where you are. That’s what
Perseverance does with that
terrain-relative navigation system,
still going at about 160 mph
down. That’s about the same
speed as you or I would be
going if you jumped out of an
airplane skydiving and headed
straight for the ground with no
parachute. Race-car fast.
The parachute has done
its job. It can’t slow
us down anymore.
So Perseverance
jettisons it and lights
up engines to finish
the job. That
terrain-relative
navigation
system, having
helped us figure
out where we 53
are, now has a
map of all the
safest spots at
the landing site
and flies to one
of them.
It’s still going
160 mph at that
point. It uses those
engines to slow down,
fly over that spot—in this
case, Jezero Crater—and
come down directly above it,
slowing down to 1 mph. We
have this rocket-powered
jetpack that’s been doing the
job of slowing us down. We deploy
the wheels of the suspension
system of the rover—the landing
gear, if you will.
So: Put those landing gear
down. Put that rover on the ground
safely at a nice, low speed of
1 mph. Make sure we’ve touched
down. Cut that rocket-powered
jetpack boost, and let it fly away
to a safe distance. And we have
a safe rover on the ground.
—As told to Justin Bachman
 I was employed, healthy,
and regularly donating
to a charity for seniors
BUY HAPPINESS (
in London. And yet
the pandemic gloom
persisted. I couldn’t go
out and do anything in
the city. Could buying
stuff make me happy?
The saying, of
course, is that money
can’t buy happiness.
But that’s not really $1 AB
DUNI 5 F OU
true. A recent study OR T
published in the ST PREMIUM 20
Proceedings of the AT AR NAPKINS
$1 TIN
National Academy of ,89 G
Sciences even refuted PELOTON 5 [[]] WHY I BOUGHT THEM A Psychology
Today story, “Get More Bang for Your
the roughly decade-old (Or $49 per month for 39 months, Happiness Buck: Revel in Anticipation,”
which is how I can afford it, plus convinced me of the benefit of eagerly
theory that money a $39-per-month membership fee) awaiting deliveries. The article said one
doesn’t affect your element of being happy is having things
[[]] WHY I BOUGHT IT I figured if I was to look forward to, because it makes the
sense of well-being going all-in on exercise equipment, I might future seem brighter. So I got excited
above a certain as well get the one piece people were
talking about. Elizabeth Dunn, co-author
about ordering napkins, printer paper, and
envelopes online. I’d also read that small
54 income level. of Happy Money: The Science of Happier luxuries (napkins, say, instead of paper
Spending, recently told Bloomberg towels) can bring a disproportionate
The past few months Opinion that it’s worth it to spend money amount of joy relative to cost.
are evidence that money on exercise in particular, because it
improves our emotional well-being. [[]] HOW IT MADE ME HAPPY Following
can, in fact, buy me every twist and turn of the supply chain
happiness. Here’s what [[]] HOW IT MADE ME HAPPY I ended up
using it about four days a week. When
on my orders page made it seem like
something exciting was happening. I read
I bought—and what it did the weather was dark and horrible, I felt all the emails about my orders being
less stressed knowing I was getting in a
for my mental health. workout. onepeloton.com
processed and dispatched. They were
even rerouted sometimes! amazon.co.uk
�Charlie Wells

Assess Every three months

I ask a group of the
you’re asking the right
questions.

FinAnciAl
best money managers Most people, most of
around a question for the time, don’t have a lot

Advice
Bloomberg News: of idle cash to throw at a
Where is the best creative investment idea.
CAPRI: NAUM CHAYER/ALAMY. BOTTLE: PHOTOGRAPH BY CHRISTINA POKU

place to invest They’re stashing away a

FOR BLOOMBERG BUSINESSWEEK. ILLUSTRATION BY AISHA FRANZ

$10,000 right now? bit of their paycheck each

They’ve introduced month for a long-term goal
me to ideas I’d never and should be asking their
have thought of— adviser how to build a
Chinese government sustainable strategy. The
bonds, dividend-paying answer to that question
companies in Japan. will be different from the
But when looking one I ask managers every
for money advice, quarter—and more boring:
you have to stop Build emergency savings,
and think whether max out your 401(k),
(IN A PANDEMIC) Avoid
Single-Use
Plastic Bottles
RAY MEARS
Woodcraft and
survival expert
His book, We Are Nature:
How to Reconnect With the
Wild, was published in
March by Ebury Press.

I remember as a boy that if we

$8 were going on a cycle ride in
,00 the summer, you needed to take

0
water with you, and the problem

ST
A FUTURE was that we all used glass
bottles. The worry was always
AT AR ITALIAN VACATION that if you put your pack down
$1 TIN too quickly, you might break the
99 G (With half due upfront, refundable until June) bottle. I was always envious of

THERAGUN [[]] WHY I BOUGHT IT Behavioral research

my friends who were getting
apple juice in those bottles with

MASSAGE TOOL
[[]] WHY I BOUGHT IT An article I read in
the Wall Street Journal, “Science of the
Perfect Gift,” quoted a study that found
toddlers exhibited greater happiness
when they were offering treats rather
than receiving them. I never give good
gifts. I decided to up my game for my
mom’s birthday.
[[]] HOW IT MADE ME HAPPY I worked with
my siblings to buy and ship the Theragun.
The plotting and planning were fun, and
I felt great when my mom, who loves
massages but couldn’t get them because
of the pandemic, told me it was the best
gift she’d ever received. theragun.com
the French clip top, because the
in the past few decades shows that
bottles were stronger.
people feel happier when they spend on
Now when I go for a walk, I
experiences rather than material goods.
can’t begin to tell you how many
The positive emotions last long after the
times I come across a plastic
outing is over, whereas the fun from a new
bottle, testament to somebody
thing wears off fairly quickly.
who’s walked into the forest with
a bottle full, drunk the contents,
[[]] HOW IT MADE ME HAPPY I booked a four-
and, when it’s at its lightest, left it 55
bedroom apartment in Capri. I spent hours
behind. How has humanity fallen
looking for properties, scouring maps, and
from the realms of wisdom?
reading blogs and articles about the best
Find a water bottle you’re
spots for a trip. I couldn’t afford this on
happy with. I reuse old army
my own and missed my family, so I invited
surplus bottles—it’s a plastic
them to join me and split the cost. Border
bottle, but it’s still functional.
policies have varied lately, so who knows if
I cherish my water bottle. For
this will happen? But I’ve started studying
somebody else, it might be the
Italian in case I’m miraculously able to travel
Gucci of stainless steel bottles.
con la mia famiglia questo agosto (“with my
Find one you can live with
family this August”). vrbo.com
for many years. �As told to
Jess Shankleman

and create a balanced are more valuable as

mix of stock and bond
index funds. The most
exciting thing to do then?
Rebalance every so often
so you’re selling high and
buying low. Chinese bonds
rarely enter the equation.
Even many professional
investors don’t often
change their deeply held
views. That’s what one
famous money manager
said when he dropped
out of the project—he
didn’t have a new idea
every quarter.
Many investment ideas
something to learn from
than as something to buy.
One theme in the experts’
advice is that they’ve
had to cast a wider net
to find reasonably valued
investments as the U.S.
market keeps climbing.
If your adviser’s ideas [[]] “I hate the
are getting more exotic, plastic bottle—
it’s the most
look out for the risk
awful thing,”
that’s building up in the Mears says
stocks you already have.
To borrow a saying from
financial planners: No one
ever went broke taking a
profit. �Suzanne Woolley
 Bloomberg Businessweek THE HOW-TO ISSUE May 24, 2021

KEEP A MOVIE FRA

JUSTIN LIN
Director — Photograph by
Elizabeth Weinberg
The Fast & Furious movies have
 Lin in his Los
grossed more than $5 billion Angeles office
worldwide since 2001. Lin, who
directed the third, fourth, fifth, and
sixth installments, has returned
to direct the ninth (filmed prior to
the pandemic and scheduled to be
released on June 25) and 10th.

1 HAVE A
POINT OF VIEW
I made my first film, Better Luck
56 Tomorrow, for $250,000, paid for
with credit cards. That got into
Sundance in 2002 and changed my
life. A few years later, I was making
my first studio film at Disney when
an executive at Universal tracked
me down to talk about the third
Fast, which was set in Tokyo.
When I read the script, which
had cars drifting around Buddha
statues and women in kimonos, it
was an easy no. The characters
were stale, and I had a big issue
with the White male lead hooking
up with the token Japanese
female. “I’ve seen this movie a
million times, and I’ve never liked
it,” I said. Stacey Snider, then
the studio chief, asked, “Well,
what if you get to do what you that. And it’s OK to say, ‘People
want instead?” We had two and 2 GO GATTACA see Fast as disposable.’ People
a half months until we had to go can see us however they want
into production. It was chaotic, When we were making the third to see us. But let’s redefine that
but it was fun to bring my indie film, Tokyo Drift, Universal had just through our work.”
sensibility and create Asian released The Bourne Supremacy. It reminded me of Gattaca, the
characters that did more than Bourne was already a blockbuster sci-fi movie from 1997, about two
GROOMER: SONIA LEE

serve “Asian” purposes. Then, franchise, plus it had critical brothers. To me, Bourne was like
like now, it’s my job to make sure acclaim. I remember talking to our the genetically engineered brother.
that I have a point of view on what producer and saying, “Look, it’s Fast was the merely human brother,
we’re going to explore. great to be next to a franchise like played by Ethan Hawke. In Gattaca

Bloomberg Businessweek
T HE HO
the brothers compete to be the
fastest swimmer, and once, Hawke
gets to the buoy first. So whenever
we’d start a new chapter of Fast, I’d
say, “Let’s go Gattaca! Let’s go all
out. We’re going to swim as hard as
we can to that buoy.”
3 DON’T BE
AFRAID TO
STEP AWAY
After we finished 6, which was
released in 2013, we were definitely
talking about 7, but I wasn’t feeling
the process was going to help me
grow. It wasn’t easy to walk away,
because we had built something.
But it was time.
Then J.J. Abrams called and
said, “Do you have any interest
in Star Trek?” Growing up in the
’80s, my family didn’t go to the
movies. Everybody was a Star
Wars fan, but I watched Star Trek
reruns with my dad. My parents’
fish-and-chips restaurant would
close at 9, we’d have family dinner
at 10, and we’d watch Star Trek
at 11. So I had a true connection.
I directed Star Trek Beyond, which
came out in 2016.
The next year there was a
15th anniversary screening of
the Sundance cut of my first
I E
ISS UE
A
May 24, 20
W-TO
feature. Afterward, at the Q&A,
someone in the audience brought
up #JusticeForHan, which was an
online fan movement. Han, played
by Sung Kang, was a character we’d
introduced in Tokyo Drift, who’d
supposedly died at the end of 6.
I hadn’t seen the eighth movie, so
I was confused when this fan said
it had a scene in which Han’s killer,
played by Jason Statham, showed
up at a friendly barbecue with the
Fast crew. I thought, “That’s weird.”
Months later, I woke up one
morning and felt like I had the idea
for the next chapter. In the trailer
for 9 we reveal “Justice Is Coming”
for Han, who is back from the dead.
It’s as if we didn’t miss a beat.
4 THINK LIKE
YOUR
AUDIENCE
It takes so much effort to figure
out, “OK, this is the ninth film. How
do we evolve this? How do we do
something that gets us excited and
gets the viewers excited?”
Vin Diesel and I are both old
school. He plays Dominic Toretto,
the patriarch of the Fast & Furious
group, and he’s an executive
21
 F10 will be released in two parts
producer. Before we jump into
the next chapter, we spend days
talking—not about the script or
action sequences, but about where 57
we are as human beings, where we
are as a world, and where these
characters are in that context.
I immigrated to the U.S. from
Taiwan when I was 8. The only
blood relatives I have in America
are my two brothers and my
parents. Vin has shared a lot of his
journey. Our conversations have
connected us to the DNA and the
soul of the franchise.
You have to try to understand
why, after 20 years, people still
love these characters. And then
you have to take the audience on a
journey that, thematically, explores
something else. The third movie
was about identity. In the fourth
movie we were exploring sacrifice.
In the fifth, freedom. For 6 it was
trust. Every Fast sequel that we’ve
done, there are elements that
scare me. Like having a pregnant
character in Fast 5. Even when we
were doing it, that was like, “Wait,
we’re going to have kids?” But
it’s necessary. Or else you’re just
doing the same thing over and over.
—As told to Amy Wallace
 [[]] Rosenberg
in her New York
Bloomberg Businessweek
City studio

STAY
COOL
JEFF CARVALHO international markets.
Co-founder and Supreme’s ability
managing director, to place its brand on  Photograph by
Savanna Ruedy
Highsnobiety a variety of products
is what keeps it ahead

Sketch a
Carvalho’s site is of the curve. They
one of the premier work with brands like
chroniclers of Meissen porcelain,
streetwear. No brand Comme des Garçons,

Courtroom
gets more attention and Louis Vuitton, but
than Supreme, which they also collaborate
started as a New York on Playboy jackets,
skateboard shop in Hanes shirts, Everlast
1994 and has since boxing gloves, and
become a major Spalding basketballs. JANE ROSENBERG
fashion label: Last What’s cool about Artist
year a one-of-a-kind the VF deal is that
T-shirt with its logo the company already Rosenberg’s pastel drawings have appeared in print
58 sold at auction for owns a group of media and on TV for more than 40 years. She sold her
$52,000. The Carlyle brands including first sketch while covering the 1980 arraignment of Craig
Group Inc., a private North Face, Vans, Crimmins, who was convicted of killing violinist Helen
equity company, paid and others that Hagnes Mintiks in the so-called Murder at the Met case.
$500 million for a 50% Supreme has been
stake in Supreme collaborating with My goal is to make the central character as realistic as
in 2017; its new for decades. So it’s possible. I prefer to capture an emotion, some quick
owner is VF Corp., a strong match, and gesture, like someone slouched over or looking askew,
an apparel and if we know anything not posing stiffly. My job is to sketch the expression
footwear company in about how VF has they portray inside the courtroom, not to render
Denver that acquired handled those judgment. I try my best to be objective.

ILLUSTRATION BY AMELIE FONTAINE. SKETCHES: COURTESY JANE ROSENBERG. CONTROLLER: GETTY IMAGES
it in November for brands, it’s going Everything depends on my view. I pray I get a good
$2.1 billion. to allow Supreme seat. My last trial before the pandemic hit was covering
to continue to do Harvey Weinstein, and they put the artists in the third
People in the what it does. VF is row. I’m not tall, so it was hard to see, and I had to wait
industry were doing going to bring in a for him to lean forward and back a lot. So I made this
their best to punch larger operational weird thing out of Styrofoam and smuggled it in as a
holes in Supreme support system and booster cushion, to give me a couple of extra inches.
going mainstream the opportunity for Generally speaking, women are harder than men.
in 2017. There’s this Supreme to work You can’t caricaturize them. Martha Stewart? Blond,
assumption that much closer with pretty, nothing exactly to grab onto. Leona Helmsley,
being cool means its brands. though, was quite puffy everywhere, and her makeup
you can never get Supreme has was so harsh.
bigger or “sell out.” stayed cool by doing I’ve been sketching from a screen for the past year.
But all companies what it’s always done: I don’t enjoy it. The images can be tiny, and everyone’s
at some point need keeping its head down in a mask. But Steve Bannon—he comes in, his face is
a hand, especially and not getting caught beet red. I’d never seen a face as red as that. Between
if you’re trying to up in the industry that and his hair, I could capture a likeness. I worked
scale, and Supreme conversation. �As on Derek Chauvin’s trial. His whole likeness is in his
was trying to get into told to Kim Bhasin thin lips. �As told to Mark Ellwood

BERNIE MADOFF
He had squinty little eyes, thin,
tight lips, a bumpy nose. He
did not exhibit any expression
of guilt.
MARTIN SHKRELI
He had that smirk on his face
all the time. I remember that
his hair parting was constantly
changing. He would come back
from a break, and his hair was
parted on the opposite side.
DONALD TRUMP
I had to draw Trump, but not
while I was in a courtroom. It
was for the cover of a magazine,
and they showed me my Madoff
sketch and said, “Can you do a
composition like this?”
They didn’t use it, and then
they wanted me to rework
the whole thing a year later,
with his hand up, taking the
oath in a theoretical court
setting [New York, “The
Case for Consequences,”
September 2020]. I was trying
to capture a certain expression,
like “how dare they annoy me
with this inconvenience?”
EDDIE MURPHY
He was suing his agent or
something, a civil case. And
he kept making fun of me
sketching him and even did a
little sketch of me on his tiny
yellow notepad. He gave me
the sketch.
ANTHONY
MARSHALL
Lawyer convicted of stealing
millions of dollars from his
mother, socialite-philanthropist
Brooke Astor
He was fun to draw, with clear,
big blue eyes and wonderful
hair. He was friendly and bought
a couple of my sketches of him
and his wife, who always sat
behind him in the courtroom.
JOHN GOTTI
Mob boss
He wanted to look better.
He said, “Make my double
chin less.”
GAME A GAME
SEAN “DAY9” PLOTT
E-sports commentator
Plott, who got his start playing StarCraft, won the
U.S. World Cyber Games tournament in 2005. His
YouTube and Twitch channels, where he dispenses
tips for strategy games such as Hearthstone,
Dota2, and Magic: The Gathering, have more than
500,000 subscribers each.
When I was in grad school, I lived with a bunch of
gamer nerds. I took everything way too seriously:
“Oh, Connect 4? I’ll f---ing crush you at this s---.”
One time I was showing friends one of my favorites,
[the card game] Dominion. I was explaining some
good things to do, some bad things to do. One of
my roommates says: “Guys, don’t listen to anything
Sean’s saying. Just f--- around a little bit and have
fun. Then after about 20 games, you can start thinking
about strategy.”
59
[[]] “Load up the game with no plan—
and have some fun with it”
That struck me. If someone said, “Hey, Sean, how
do I get good at Game X?” I’d say the first thing is to
have a good time. Try out some ridiculous ideas. Load
up the game with no plan—and have some fun with it.
Then come up with a plan. It’s not a plan that
guarantees you win. It just tells you what to do. I’ve
been playing Age of Empires II lately, and one plan is to
focus only on amassing workers and town centers but
never building combat units. This is a bad plan. It will
cause you to lose. But if you pick two or three things
you’re working on—and declare that you’re not working
on anything else—you’ll focus on a digestible amount.
The third piece is emotional. Be nice to yourself
and remember that, if you’re trying to improve, you’re
not trying to win every game. In fact, you’re not trying
to win at all. You’re trying to develop the skills that will
help you win later. �As told to Jason Schreier
 May 24, 2021
[[]] At Contra, in Manhattan, with chef
Become friends Jeremiah Stone (left) and
Fabián von Hauske Valtierra (center)
A Restaurant My commute from Brooklyn to
Midtown Manhattan is about
Regular 10 miles each way, and it takes me
roughly an hour by subway or car,

Commute
depending on the time of day. But
public transportation or driving
hasn’t always been reliable for me,

On Two even before the pandemic.

Sometimes I ride my bicycle

Wheels
(a Sirrus, by Specialized), which
is also an hour trek. Other times
I take my motorcycle, a BMW

CRAIG BARRITT/GETTY IMAGES. CHASTAIN: NEILSON BARNARD/GETTY IMAGES. FERRERA: FRAZER HARRISON/GETTY IMAGES. GARNER: ALBERTO E. RODRIGUEZ/GETTY IMAGES. LONGORIA: RICH FURY/GETTY IMAGES. PORTMAN: ROY ROCHLIN/GETTY IMAGES
R nineT, which cuts 15 minutes off,
because motorcycles are allowed
How far in the high-occupancy vehicle
do you need

RESTAURANT: HOWARD CHUA-EOAN. HELMET: COURTESY SHOEI. SCOOTER: COURTESY HONDA. MOTORCYCLE: COURTESY KAWASAKI. FOUDY: LISA BLUMENFIELD/GETTY IMAGES. HAMM: ALEXANDER HASSENSTEIN/GETTY IMAGES. WAMBACH:
lane for safety reasons. Want to
to go? try commuting on two wheels?
I’ve been doing it for 10 years,
I’ve started relationships and here’s what I’ve learned.
A few miles
�Lee Wilson
with restaurants for More than
a few miles
the flimsiest reasons—
once it was a crush Upgrade to a scooter or motorcycle
on the bartender—but I’d suggest a
and take a class from the
Motorcycle Safety Foundation
I’ve stayed on for the bicycle (prices vary; msf-usa.org) to learn
important ones: the the fundamentals. I get gear from
Union Garage (uniongaragenyc.com).
food, the service, the Invest in a helmet like Shoei’s RF-1400
($530), as well as gloves (starting at
community. $70), a jacket (starting at $160), and
Know that you’re How much sturdy footwear (starting at $120).
do you want
going in as a hapless to pay?
investor. You put in
time, money, and
What’s
enthusiasm—and give
Just get me Those stimulus your vibe?
over space on your where I need checks aren’t gonna
Instagram feed and to go spend themselves I don’t
need to set
Facebook Stories to any speed
keep the business records
Enroll in a bike-sharing [[]] Honda
going in these perilous program. They’re popular PCX150
times—ever aware that in New York ($179 annually;
citibikenyc.com), Chicago
you’ll be eating your ($108; divvybikes.com),
Portland, Ore. ($99;
profits. The benefit biketownpdx.com), and
of all your activity will other cities. A pedal-assist
bike can make your ride
be little more than the less strenuous.

occasional free drink

or dessert. But also,
a warm welcome at a
place where everybody
knows your name.
There is no greater love.
Brands such as Specialized sell
bikes that cost from $650 to $13,000
(specialized.com). Mount a bag,
like Ortlieb’s Back-Roller Free
($110; ortliebusa.com) to carry
lunch and a fresh shirt. Backpacks
are uncomfortable in the summer.
Scooters are good for urban centers—
you don’t have the annoyance of
shifting in traffic the way you do on a
motorcycle. Honda’s PCX150 (starting
at $3,799; powersports.honda.com)
and the Yamaha Zuma 125 (starting
at $3,599; yamahamotorsports.com)
are workhorses.

�Howard Chua-Eoan
Bloomberg Businessweek THE HOW-TO ISSUE May 24, 2021

START A SOCCER TEAM

JULIE UHRMAN
Co-founder and president,
Angel City Football Club
Angel City will be the 11th team in the National
Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) when the
club starts playing next year in Los Angeles.
Uhrman advises startups and venture funds.
The idea for Angel City came from Natalie
Portman. She heard a speech by Abby
Wambach, the retired U.S. Women’s National
Team star, about how the life of a retired
female athlete is significantly different from
the life of a retired male athlete. Natalie
started asking why. She met Becca Roux,
the executive director of the women’s team
players association. Becca explained the
world of soccer, the NWSL, and the national
Wambach
team’s fight against its governing body, the
U.S. Soccer Federation, for pay equity and better
playing conditions.
At some point, it turned from Natalie asking why to conversations in October 2019. We’re
asking what she could do. In April 2019 the national
team played a friendly against Belgium at Banc of
California Stadium in downtown L.A. Natalie showed
up wearing a USWNT jersey.
Her friends did the same
thing. But her friends
are Jessica Chastain,
America Ferrera,
Jennifer Garner, and
Eva Longoria.
After the women won
the 2019 World Cup that
I want to
zip to work
summer, Natalie said that of the organization is an incredible way
(and have we need to bring a team
fun on the to L.A. and be part of the to Mary Pilon
weekends)
NWSL. Natalie blew up Kara Nortman’s phone.
Kara’s a venture capitalist and a member of
Time’s Up’s board. [Portman is a founding
member of the organization, which raises
money for victims of sexual harassment.] They
Foudy started talking about the issue
of pay equity.
Kara and I have known each
other for 20-plus years. Our
friend Robyn Ward has this
women-in-tech basketball
league. So we’re at a friend’s Chastain
Hamm house, playing basketball, and
Kara tells me about the idea she
and Natalie have to bring a team
to L.A. Kara asked me if I wanted
to help. My first question was,
“What’s the NWSL?”
Ferrera
Kara said, “Natalie and
I have day jobs. You’re an
entrepreneur. Help us.”
We started having investor 61
funding this like it’s a startup, and
we heard a lot of noes. We were Garner
introduced to Alexis Ohanian, the
founder of Reddit and Serena Williams’s
husband. He understood. [Ohanian is
the largest shareholder and controlling
owner; Portman, Nortman, and Uhrman
are co-founders.] We have something
Longoria
like 60 investors. We have 14 former
women’s team players, including Julie
Foudy, Mia Hamm, and Wambach.
Having former USWNT players be part
for them to push their legacy. —As told
Portman

If your commute takes you on the highway, pick a bike  The Z400
with at least a 300cc engine so you can keep up with
the flow of traffic. The Kawasaki Z400 (starting at
$4,999; kawasaki.com) is a good choice for beginners.
Bikes from Japanese manufacturers tend to be easier
to maintain and cheaper to repair than more premium
European brands. I pay about $20 a day to park my
motorcycle in a garage near the office, though some
cities have made parking easier. Toronto, for example,
exempted motorcycles and scooters from having to pay
metered street parking.
 — Photograph THE HOW-TO ISSUE May 24, 2021
by Ryan Jenq

I keep a jar of soy

sauce dressing
in my fridge at
all times. The
mix is four parts
vegetable oil to
two parts soy
sauce and two
parts red wine
UPGRADE vinegar. Throw in
judicious amounts
of fresh crushed
garlic or garlic
YOUR powder, dry mustard,
and hot sauce. The
umami savoriness
GO-TO CONDIMENT makes it compatible
with whatever:
salads, pasta, roast
chicken, tacos, or, of
62
course, that leftover
Chinese takeout.
—Kate Krader

 Replace your classic

vinaigrette with this one

FOOD STYLIST (DRESSING): ERIKA JOYCE. FOODS: GETTY IMAGES (4). ILLUSTRATIONS BY TIM LAHAN
ED MILLER dominated by people who do this typically less uniform. You
professionally. It’s a common myth can use multiple apps and likely
Co-founder, among casual bettors that you will find different odds, partly
Deck Prism Sports should bet the over (3), but that because there’s far less money
strategy tends not to make you on the line. The bets are less
PLACE Miller is a poker expert and
co-author of The Logic of Sports
money in the long run, because
there are too many smart people
predictable. Your chance to find
a good bet on which NBA player
Betting; Deck Prism Sports looking at those numbers. is going to score the most points
SMART specializes in setting in-game
betting odds.
The more obscure or prop-like
(4) the bet, the better the chance
you’re going to have as a casual
in a given night or which team
will get 15 rebounds first is much
higher because there are no smart

BETS Bets on the point spread (1),

moneyline (2), and point total are
gambler to find a good wager in
terms of risk-reward. The odds are
people sweating those prices.
—As told to Bailey Lipschultz

1 Point spread: A number generated by oddsmakers that serves as a handicap. “Miami Heat -5.5” means that the team is
favored and must win by 6 points to result in a winning bet. 2 Moneyline: A wager in which a bettor simply picks a team or
player to win outright. Underdogs pay out more money than favorites. 3 Over-under: A bet on whether the outcome of a game,
normally the combined score of two teams, will be above or below a number set by a sportsbook. 4 Prop, proposition, or
novelty bet: A bet made regarding the occurrence or absence of an event in a contest or series of contests. Examples include
whether a specific golfer will hole-in-one and if the New York Islanders will win the Stanley Cup.

Get Wealthy
Americans to Pay
Their Taxes
CHYE-CHING HUANG
Founding executive director,
Tax Law Center, New York University
Huang was a corporate lawyer in her home
country of New Zealand and later the
senior director of economic policy at the
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities,
a Washington think tank. The Tax Law
Center is a new effort to analyze and
design tax policy.
One of the problems tax administration
has faced over the past 10 years is that
the IRS budget for enforcement has been
cut by more than a fifth. So one piece of
potentially low-hanging fruit is to ensure
that wealthy people pay the taxes they
already owe. A new paper estimates
that more than a fifth of their income
goes unreported.
The rates of audits on the highest-
income people and wealthiest corporations
have been cut by about half since 2010. The
number of people who are expert enough
to audit the most complex tax returns—
which tend to be the returns of wealthy
people—is down by more than 30%. Of
those left, a large number are eligible for
retirement over the next few years. There’s
a potential crisis there.
An underfunded IRS means
multinationals and high-net-worth
individuals can outgun the IRS when there’s
a dispute or an audit. They have more
resources available to them than the IRS
does. The service has performed admirably
in a pandemic, but it’s a critical time to
rebuild. —As told to Ben Steverman

If a CEO always talks it. Diversification

about numbers, you
need to know that.
Otherwise, it may be an
unfair comparison with
CEOs who tend not to
talk numbers.
Prepared remarks from
CEOs and CFOs have
been vetted—the gold
mine is the Q&A, because
it’s difficult to prepare for.
across ideas will help
you achieve the level
of consistency that’s
expected. There’s always
a risk of one type of idea
not working because
of the investment
environment or because
competitors are
crowding in.

Engineer a  BACKTEST
Get a sense of how
63

Ñ Quant Ò the strategy would

have performed if
you were going back

Strategy
JEFF SHEN
Co-head, Systematic
Active Equity,
BlackRock Inc.
Shen’s unit oversees
about $150 billion invested
using computer-based
methods.
 MEASURE
We look at the numeric
ratio—the percentage of
numbers relative to the
total number of words
in what CEOs and CFOs
say in a conference call
transcript. The idea
is if you have a good
quarter, you’re going to
be precise when talking
to analysts. It’s like when
a kid comes home and
you ask him or her, “How
did you do at school?”
If they’re precise and
say, “I got 97 on my math
test,” that’s pretty good,
vs. “I did all right.”
 KNOW
YOUR HISTORY
In any quant strategy,
you need to get as much
data going as far back
in history as possible.
five years. Would it have
made money?
Even if a strategy
makes money reasonably
consistently, there’s still
room to think: Is it making
money for the right
reasons? It’s important
to challenge your central
thesis to see if you just
got lucky.
 ASK: IS IT
SPECIAL?
Is this an enhancement
of something we
already have? Or is it
truly unique?
 DIVERSIFY
Combine it with
your other ideas, or
“signals,” and trade
 FINE-TUNE
When something isn’t
working, look at it. Adjust
your algos—or kill them.
We haven’t been shy
about turning things off.
Performance can
certainly be a driver. The
second one is: Is the
idea still relevant in the
current environment?
We’ve got to change the
model to adapt to the
new world, not the other
way around. —As told to
Justina Lee
 Bloomberg Busines e THE HOW-TO ISSUE

 Letterr’s
Roblox
avatar

Perfect
Excite
Cheeseburger
INA GARTEN
A Fan Base Chef, cookbook
author, TV host
a better job, but I like
to have the equipment
that other people have.
The other big
MEGAN LETTER Garten is the host of mistake people make
aka TheMeganPlays, gamer Barefoot Contessa and with hamburgers is
Barefoot Contessa: they don’t let them
Letter has 1.6 million followers, Cook Like a Pro on the rest. Just like any type
collectively known as the Peachy Squad,
Food Network. Her of protein, cover it with
on the Roblox platform. She and her
husband, Zach, run Wonder Works Studio, latest book, Modern foil and let it rest for
which produced the popular Overlook Comfort Food, was five minutes after it’s
Bay, a role-playing game that lets people published in October cooked. It makes them
decorate homes and adopt pets—and, she
says, that helps provide the couple with
by Clarkson Potter, particularly juicy.
“well over a seven-figure salary.” an imprint of Penguin Instead of cheddar,
Random House. I love blue cheese.
In a game like The Sims, you have a job,
Blue cheese and beef
and you live a life, and you age. But in
Overlook you stay the same. It’s like The first thing you together—it has a
playing house or playing pretend. You need is good ground spiciness and saltiness
use your imagination to create storylines. beef. Find a butcher and bite to it. And it’s
You can go fishing. Sometimes I log
who will grind the certainly better than
in, and I see people pretending to do
their homework. meat for you, and buy American cheese. No
Our demographic is anywhere from age it just before dinner. Kraft Singles here!
9 to 16. We even have grown adults, like I’ve tested the recipe When it comes to
50, 60 years old. It’s predominantly female.
with pre-ground meat, condiments, I use
I love my audience. It’s like my dream

AVATAR: MEGANPLAYS/TWITTER. PATTY, CHEESE, KETCHUP: GETTY IMAGES. GRILL, BUN, SAUCE: COURTESY COMPANIES.
audience—70% is in the U.S., 20% is in the and you can see the Heinz ketchup, and
U.K., and then it’s Australia, Canada, and difference in color. there’s no other one.
other countries. They’re so sweet, they’re I use a mix of sirloin I’m still rebelling
so kind, and they keep me going every day.
My audience is the reason I’m so bubbly
and chuck: sirloin for against when my
and happy. the flavor, chuck for mother would buy
I attribute a lot of my personality to the fat. I add steak cheap ketchup. I don’t
high school and being in a sorority [at the sauce, too. I prefer Smith & think this burger needs bacon,
University of Texas at Arlington]. I was
pretty down on myself, didn’t have a lot Wollensky ($25 for three bottles; but you can add it if you want.
of confidence. But when I went into a smithandwollensky.com), but use For the bun, I like a brioche
sorority, I learned a lot about philanthropy whichever one you like best. A roll from Eli Zabar ($24 for 12;
GARTEN: QUENTIN BACON. IVE: JUSTIN SULLIVAN/GETTY IMAGES

and treating others the way you want to

be treated. I always, always, always try to
remind my audience to treat everybody
with respect. Why would I want to make
anybody feel sad or upset?
They’re always talking to me. If I post a
video on my YouTube channel where I say,
“Today we had to take my dog to the vet
for a checkup,” they’ll say, “Hey, how is
your dog?” It’s like, oh my gosh, wait, they
know what’s happening in my life. They
care about what’s happening in my life, and
they care enough to check. —As told to
Jennifer Zabasajja
pat of butter, too, keeps it moist.
It’s important not to compress
the burger. I mix it with a fork, so
it’s not dense. I know everyone
likes to stand at the grill with
a spatula and press on it, and
it makes a satisfying splatter,
but then you’re just giving your
guests a bad hamburger. I cook
mine on a charcoal Weber grill.
There are fancier ones that do
elizabar.com), but Martin’s potato
rolls are also so good.
You want to lightly grill the
bun, just so it’s a slightly different
texture from being soft. And then
I build the burger by putting some
butter lettuce on the bottom of
the bun, then the grilled patty,
blue cheese, and a slice of
tomato. And there you have it.
—As told to Kate Krader
 ring with San Francisco-based Diamond Foundry,

HIRE and a Christmas tree display for London’s Claridge’s

Hotel. We reached out to some of Ive’s philanthropic
partners over the years—as well as to LoveFrom and

JONY IVE its clients—for insights into procuring his talents.

Here’s what they emailed us. —Austin Carr

LOVEFROM SPOKESPERSON inquiry and it isn’t something

“Sounds like we can’t help at we’re going into at this time.”
the moment and Jony’s not
For decades at Apple Inc., Ive designed some of the ready to do interviews about FERRARI SPOKESPERSON
most influential and iconic products on the planet— his plans quite yet.” “Thank you for your kind email,
the MacBook and iPod, the iPhone and Apple Watch. but we don’t provide comment
Then in June 2019 he announced he was leaving the MARC NEWSON LTD. on these kinds of topics.”
SPOKESPERSON
company to start LoveFrom, an independent studio, “I’ve passed on your message LEICA didn’t respond to
with fellow industrial designer Marc Newson. onto the press team and requests for comment.
Almost two years later, Ive has proved as elusive someone will follow up from
there if they’d like to pursue the DIAMOND FOUNDRY
as when he operated out of Apple’s hush-hush
feature further.” SPOKESPERSON
headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., under Steve “We can’t accommodate an
Jobs. Until last October, Apple was LoveFrom’s only APPLE didn’t respond to interview at this time.”
disclosed client. Then came the announcement of requests for comment.
CLARIDGE’S HOTEL
a partnership with Airbnb Inc.—co-founder Brian
AIRBNB SPOKESPERSON SPOKESPERSON
Chesky is good friends with “I’m sure you are unsurprised “Sadly we are unable to help
Ive—and media reports that to learn that you’re not the only further on contributing to
Ferrari NV was considering person who has this line of this story.”
INA GARTEN’S recruiting Ive. But unless
BLUE CHEESE you know Jony on a first-
BURGER name basis or run an
exotic sports car brand,
In a large bowl, using the hiring LoveFrom is likely
tines of a fork, carefully 65
mix 2 lb ground chuck a challenge. Its website
with 1 lb ground sirloin, is a blank white page
6 extra-large egg yolks, without text or contact
3 tbsp of your favorite
information. (A company
steak sauce, 1½ tsp
kosher salt, and ¾ tsp spokesperson says it’s
freshly ground black in development.)
pepper. Don’t mash the During his time at
mixture. Press lightly
Apple, Ive worked on a
into shape to form 8 to
10 patties. Press a thin limited number of outside
slice of cold unsalted projects, mostly eclectic
butter into the top of creations for charity  Ive with an iPad,
each patty (using 4 tbsp
auctions, such as a one- another of his designs
butter total), making sure
the meat entirely encases of-a-kind Leica camera,
the butter. an all-diamond
Light a charcoal
Luke Kowald, an Australian product designer who
grill or heat a grill pan
purchased the website LoveFrom.style to get Ive’s
over medium-high heat.
attention: “When I heard the news that Jony Ive was
Cook the hamburgers
leaving Apple and starting his own company, LoveFrom,
for 4 minutes on one
I thought, ‘Sweet! Let’s check out his website!’ So
side. Turn and cook for
I checked it out and there’s nothing there! I love doing
3 minutes on the other
random, creative, fun things, and I do web design and
side for medium rare.
search marketing, so I whipped up a page in a day. And
Transfer to a platter,
then—bang—within a few weeks, it was right at the top
cover with foil, and let rest
[of Google’s search results].
for 5 minutes. Meanwhile,
“I’ve had soooo many people contact me through
grill buns, cut side down,
there—hundreds and hundreds of people. It’s ridiculous.
until just toasted. Place
I’ve met some cool peeps: people adding me on Insta,
a hamburger and 1 oz
LinkedIn, WhatsApp, the whole lot. So many convos with
blue cheese on each
artisans. People looking for the LoveFrom website. All
burger. Add arugula and
sorts of people saying, ‘How do I get in contact with
tomato to the burger if
Jony?’ ” —As told to A.C.
desired and serve hot.
Makes 8 to 10.  Garten and her favorite ketchup
 Bloomberg Businessweek THE HOW-TO ISSUE May 24, 2021

WENDY CRAFT
Chief of staff, Fulcrum Equities LLC
Family offices are private companies
that handle the financial interests of a
rich person or family, with a focus on
preserving generational wealth. Fulcrum
manages the family money
of real estate developer
Kent Swig.
you’re big, you’ll have a tax department.
If you have full-time service staff in your
home or a security detail, you need a
concierge component of your family
office to help manage that. You can’t just
hire people and say, “Here’s your job—go
do it.” They need to be trained. They’re
your gatekeepers.
Then there’s what I call the
sustainability of the family office. By the
third generation, 90% of family offices
lose their wealth. There’s often a problem
where the person in control doesn’t want
the younger generations involved. This
has a detrimental effect on sustaining
wealth. �As told to Devon Pendleton

The first thing I ask anybody

who says, “I think I need a
family office,” is, “Really?
Why?” It’s different for
everybody. Do I want

Open a Family Office

great-grandchildren, who
I may never meet, to know
who I was? Do I want to
separate my wealth from
my business?
The next thing you need
to do is to come up with
a name. I always advise
against using your own
name. Everyone can find
you, and you’ll get 6,000
calls a day from people
raising money or looking for
investment. Pick something
that means something
to you.
66 You’re setting up
something that’s going to
survive for generations.
You need to start thinking
about things like, what if
my child marries a spouse
I don’t like? Am I going to
let the spouses have an
equal say at the table on
investment decisions with
my children? Are we going
to do prenups? Am I going
to treat my children equally
financially if one of them
follows me into the family
business and the other two
become schoolteachers [[]] Family wealth
and earn less? Remember, is rarely sustained
the family will grow. There through the
are families in Europe that third generation
are 12 to 14 generations old
that now have over 1,000
family members. If every
member does more than
just replace his or her own
life, then the share of the
pie is diminished.
A medium-size family
office has four to six staff
members. You need a
chief executive officer, a
chief investment officer,
a couple of accountants,
and a personal assistant
who are bright on their feet  Photograph by Tim Schutsky
and can run around and
help the family principals. If
 INVEST LIKE A
SANE PERSON ON Run a Loyalty
Program
ROBINHOOD on making it a
GREG premium experience.
GREELEY Obviously that was
CHARLES ROTBLUT stocks such as GameStop President and insightful. Eight years
Chartered financial analyst, vice Corp. But sorry, kids, the path chief operating later we were adding
to building wealth over time is more than fast
president, American Association officer, shipping—like Prime
of Individual Investors far more boring. Rotblut says Opentrons Video, music, and
newbies with about $5,000 to photos. Everyone
The trading app has amassed invest—the average Robinhood In 2004, Greeley and across the company
Amazon.com Inc. was asked, “What
a following among young customer account size as of
founder Jeff Bezos can your group do
investors, who helped fuel the February—should avoid single were trying to figure for Prime?”
rally earlier this year in meme stocks at first. out a way to get We initially
consumers to shop charged a $79 annual
more on the site, fee. Lots of analysts
where Greeley was were questioning
[[]] Run the then a vice president how we could afford
numbers before for worldwide media, it, because if you
you start when they came looked at the math,
picking stonks, up with Amazon the revenue we were
Rotblut says Prime. Greeley left collecting didn’t
Amazon in 2018. match the cost of our
At Opentrons, he shipping. What was
develops robots for not public was how
life scientists. much engagement
the service was
Jeff said, “I think driving. What we
it should be called quickly saw with
‘Prime.’” Because Prime members was
we had been a good combination
talking about it in of repeat visits
terms of “all-you-can- and putting more
eat” free shipping, than one item in
my initial thought the cart. We also
was, “Well, won’t knew that we would
people confuse continue to build
that with a prime rib more warehouses
IF YOUR PRIMARY GOAL IS SHORT-TERM SAVINGS buffet?” I thought to deliver that
there must be better fast, predictable
Bypass stocks for an interest-bearing savings account to keep branding there. experience more
three to six months’ worth of expenses. This is money that I said, “Jeff, economically.
shouldn’t be put at risk. ‘Prime’ is great, but Amazon
let me grab some Prime is not a
experts, and we’ll loyalty program.
come back with a
IF YOUR PRIMARY GOAL IS LONG-TERM SAVINGS list of alternatives.”
Because it’s a
great experience,
Opt for a broad equity market index fund or go for more We did a diligent people who use
exercise of getting it become loyal.
diversification by holding a few funds. Our aggressive allocation
hundreds of names Other programs
strategy calls for holding large-cap stocks, mid-cap stocks, and narrowed it to get caught in this
small-cap stocks, international developed stocks, and emerging- three or four we liked trap of thinking how
market stocks—roughly 20% each, maybe a little less for the riskier better. Jeff read this expensive it’s going
list and said, “OK, to be. Or how to
emerging-market category. You can allocate using ETFs—and with this is great. So we deceive customers
CALCULATOR: MONICA DURAN/GETTY IMAGES

fractional shares, you can do so even with small dollar amounts. all agree! We should into thinking that it’s
As investors build their wealth, they can then consider adding call it ‘Prime.’” more than it is. But
single stocks. I wouldn’t advise doing this until an investor has Many people doing the hard things
thought the service right generally ends
built up a portfolio of about $10,000, unless you’re experimenting was all about up working every
with a very small percentage of your savings to get familiar with shipping speed, but time. �As told to
investing. People who aren’t coming from wealthy families start out we were focused Brad Stone
with hardly anything in their accounts. Start simple. �As told to
Annie Massa
  Illustrations by THE HOW-TO ISSUE May 24, 2021
Dorothy Gambrell

REENTER ROBIN DUNBAR Dunbar is the author of Friends:

SOCIETY
Emeritus professor
of evolutionary
psychology,
University of Oxford
Understanding the Power of Our
Most Important Relationships,
which was published in March by
Little, Brown Book Group.

The “sympathy group” is about 10 people The quality of your friendships is

whose death would upset you deeply. the single best predictor of your
They’re a core part of your world and the psychological health, physical health,
people you see most often. and even your longevity.

Your inner core of

five includes the
ones who’ll drop
everything for you,
who’ll pick you up
when your world
falls apart. These
are the people you
need to see first.

Family members are more likely to help Social media slows down the rate of Social bonding depends on being able to
you out of obligation. decay, but staying in touch online is walk around to someone’s house, bang on
68 not going to stop a friendship from the door, and say, “Let’s have a beer”—or
eventually disappearing. your personal equivalent of that.

Friendships
need
more time
investment
to keep in
rhythm, so
choosing who
to see is a bit
of a dilemma.

You want to trigger endorphins, whether Physical touch is vital. Handshakes have
it’s singing in a choir, dancing, or having deep evolutionary roots. The way people
a coffee. touch can say more than a thousand
words. That’s why elbow bumping will
pass. We’re very good at adapting.
Bloomberg Businessweek THE HOW-TO ISSUE May 24, 2021

REMAIN PAMELA QUALTER Qualter led 2018’s Loneliness

A HERMIT
Professor of Experiment, a survey by the BBC
psychology for and academic institutions that
education, University asked more than 55,000 people in
of Manchester the U.K. about the subject.

As restrictions lift, we’re seeing increases Yet people are now also able to question If you’re anxious
in social anxiety, probably because we’ve how much social interaction they need. after being invited
been alone or only with the same few to a gathering, it’s
people for a long time. OK to say you’re not
sure you want to go.
You can probably
explain that you’re
enjoying spending
time on your own.

Or approach
the organizer
and say that
you’re going to
come along, but
you’re trying to
limit the amount
of time you’re
with people.

When you’re out, you can keep monitoring
how it’s going. It’s OK to say, “I’m going
to head back now”—or to take some time
out, do something else for 10 minutes,
reset the balance.
Be honest with friends about your
temperament. You might be quite surprised.
They may be feeling exactly the same.
A lot of people have found out during
Covid that they like certain hobbies,
maybe reading novels or painting. They’ve 69
found pleasure. It may be that they want
to do more of those activities than before.

We have the choice right now. When we go
back to work, many of these interactions
will almost be forced on us. But right now
we’ve got the choice.
There’s something to be said for being
with people but not interacting, just
feeling the pull of something. Going to the
supermarket or talking to someone at the
train station in the morning can be enough
for some people to feel like they’re a part
of the human world.

�As told to Adam Blenford

 I E THE ‘FIRE’ LIFE
FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE
 Photograph by
Braylen Dion
70
JULIEN AND
KIERSTEN
SAUNDERS
Bloggers,
Rich & Regular
Members of the FIRE
(Financial Independence,
Retire Early) community share
strategies for supersizing
savings. On their blog,
married couple Julien, 40,
and Kiersten, 36, discuss
everything from revisiting
financial plans in light of the
pandemic to how to eat
well on a budget. (Julien is
a former chef.) Their book,
tentatively titled Rich &
Regular: The Anti-Excellence
Guide to Financial Freedom,
is due out next year from
Portfolio Books.
JULIEN: We’re considered
“coast FIRE,” people who
have already saved enough
to sustain themselves in
retirement years or are close
to getting there. They may still
be working, but they have the
privilege of pulling back on
saving and perhaps in how they
earn income.
What led me to the
movement was frustration with
my job. I was a brand manager
for a hotel franchiser. We had
relatively high salaries, a rental
property, and were investing.
But I realized I didn’t want my
earnings potential—and my
family’s livelihood—in the hands
of other people. I quit in the
summer of 2018.
I bought my first home for
$102,000 in 2007. Kiersten and I
met in 2012. In 2014 we bought
our first rental property, for
RETIRE EARLY
$62,000 with $18,000 down.
At our peak in real estate
earnings, we could count
on about $2,000 a month to
supplement the income from
our jobs. From 2013 to 2017,
we saved about 40% of our
income on average. We had
good salaries, so we weren’t
scrimping, but when Kiersten
knew she’d be leaving her
executive role, she stopped
buying new work clothes.
KIERSTEN: I’d heard of FIRE,
but it sounded more extreme
and frugal than I was willing to
do. Then I met all these people
in the movement who talked
about what we could do as
a result of reaching the “FI”
part—we could work but didn’t
have to—and I was on board.
We had $200,000 in combined
debt in 2013. We paid it off using
[[]] The Saunderses at home
the snowball method, going
from the smallest to largest
debt. From early on we invested
at a high rate in index funds—
90% in stocks and 10% in bonds.
Once the debt was paid off, we
KANGAROO: FREDER/GETTY IMAGES. VARVATOS AND JONAS: CRAIG BARRITT/GETTY IMAGES
ramped up investing. We started
the blog in 2017 but didn’t treat
it as a business venture until
after Julien quit. Along with
blog income, we have brand
partnerships and the book deal,
and we launched a video series.
JULIEN: We’d hoped to hit
our “FI” number in 2021—
our minimum target net
worth is $1.8 million. It’s now
a goal we’ll likely reach in
2022 or 2023 given our self-
funded business venture,
raising a child, the pandemic,
and financially supporting
my mother. �As told to
Suzanne Woolley
Bloomberg Businessweek THE HOW-TO ISSUE May 24, 2021

MELANIE PERKINS
Co-founder and CEO, Canva Inc. Start a
The Australian graphic design
platform, which lets novices make
Tequila
posters, invitations, presentation
materials, and more, has 55 million
monthly active users (including
Company [[]] Varvatos and Jonas’s first
3 million who pay), giving it a collaboration was in fashion

$15 billion valuation.

I was teaching complicated
design programs at a university in
Perth. It took students the whole
semester to learn something
basic. People had to go and learn
different things—photo editing,
publishing, content management,
printing, website design. I
thought it should be simpler and
more collaborative. Our objective
was to integrate the design
ecosystem.
NICK JONAS [clothing] collection that I
AND JOHN VARVATOS did under my brand. And then
Co-founders, Villa One Tequila we launched a fragrance that
was a crazy success, and
The pop star and the menswear while we were working on it,
designer got their collaboration we were also working on the
off the ground in 2019 after Jonas Brothers documentary,
teaming up with master distiller Chasing Happiness—all of it
Arturo Fuentes. spent with a bit of tequila,
enjoying the moment or
VARVATOS: Nick and reflecting on positive things
I met probably in our lives.
five years ago at

ilicon Va
a dinner in New JONAS: Tequila was something
t S
ea ll e
York. We ended we shared a passion for and
up talking about wanted to learn more about,
B
71
music, fashion, and we kind of threw it out
our families. there: “What if we started our
y

We’d been own brand?” And so we built a

sipping tequila vision for it without having the
throughout our liquid, the bottle, anything like
conversation. that. We brought the idea to
The next Stoli Group. A couple of weeks
day, Nick called later we were on our way down
Fr and asked if I to Jalisco, Mexico, to meet
r

om d
e

wanted to come with Arturo Fuentes.

Down U n to the studio to We stopped in Cabo and had

listen to music a great night of food, music,
that he was and tequila. We were trying to
We focused on ensuring that Canva is a valuable working on. think of a name for the brand.
free product that helps people create unlimited He kindly had We couldn’t think of anything,
designs. We’ve had hundreds of thousands of another bottle but we knew that we wanted it
YouTube tutorials created by our community. of tequila sitting to embody the feeling that we
Being in Australia is a competitive advantage. there. We knew had that night, which was great
We’re able to attract top talent. We had that we were experiences with great people.
130,000 applicants last year from across the going to be fast I did a toast and said, “To life as
globe. If we were in Silicon Valley, we’d have friends and that it should be,” which became our
stiffer competition. there was going motto for the brand.
Everyone who works for us believes that to be something The following day, we woke
visual communication should be accessible we were going up a little bleary-eyed and
regardless of economic status or location. That’s to work on looked at the plaque on the
why we operate in 100 languages and focus on together. door of the villa we were staying
accessibility. People with no design experience The first in. It said “Villa One.” And
can create something that looks fairly good. thing was so we’d solved our problem.
�As told to Yoolim Lee a capsule �As told to Carol Massar
 DAVID BARON, connecting hinges], we

Build a Cult
RYAN COCCA & made something new.
HANNAH FUSSELL It’s a plaything, a puppet
Co-founders, theater, an obstacle
Nugget Comfort course, building blocks
for forts.
Nugget’s $230 “infinitely
configurable play FUSSELL: If you offer times what we had in Facebook groups, but we
couch” has been a children the opportunity stock. I remember being hear about things. I don’t
pandemic sensation with to play on furniture, you like, “What are we going know what it says about
homebound parents and allow them to have open- to do about the rest of the product [that adults
their kids; at one point ended play experiences. the year?” Many people use it for sex], or what we
there was a five-month Parents were putting were on there in bad faith, want to say about that,
waitlist. The couch’s their child on top of trying to get it before other than there’s a way
popularity—the company the shipping box and other people so they that we’ve connected
is on track for sales of taking a picture on the could resell it. It would with parents. �As told
more than $100 million porch with the hashtag vary from color to color, to Sarah Holder
this year—can be partly #nuggetsonnuggets. Now but most Nuggets would
attributed to cultish if a delivery person be listed at over $1,000.
Facebook groups, where messes up the box, we’ll Today, many listings on
parents swap fort ideas, get customers saying, EBay are still at a two- to
share pictures of their “Please send me a new three-times markup.
kids playing, and—in box. I want to take a We don’t administer
risqué Nugget After Dark porch picture.” or manage any
forums—talk about more,
uh, adult uses. COCCA: Aug. 14,
I believe, we did a
BARON: The concept summer release. Visitors
72 was a reaction to futons to the site were three
we had in dorm rooms.
They easily broke, they
weren’t comfortable,
they were difficult to
put together. Those
problems traced to the
connecting pieces.
By creating this way-
better futon [with no

 This page:
Photograph by
Naila Ruechel
Opposite page:
Photographs by
Justin Cook
 THE HOW-TO ISSUE May 24, 2021

Brand KEEP THE

spending a little bit here and
a little bit there on different
ideas to see what was going to

LIGHTS ON
stick. “A mercantile inside the
restaurant? Sure, let’s try it!” It
didn’t work terribly well. But our
brand manager and my director
LINDA DERSCHANG of operations had this attitude of
Owner, Oddfellows Café + Bar “Why not? Sure, that could work!”
Having that positivity around saved
Derschang has owned eateries me, because I wasn’t always as
and bars in Seattle for more positive as I needed to be.
than two decades. She opened On the first day when we were
Oddfellows in the Capitol Hill allowed to have limited seating
neighborhood in 2008. inside again in the fall, I saw these
stylish, twentysomething women
Our final day of service last year sitting with salads. At one time,
was Sunday, March 15. I had a it would’ve been such a normal
[[]] Baron thing—people dressed up
window of 8 to 12 weeks—
16, max—that our cash a little bit to spend the
would hold out, which day walking around
was a bit longer Capitol Hill, do a
than a number little shopping,
of independent and eat lunch
businesses. at Oddfellows.
73
I have an I looked at these
accountant who two women and
scolded me started crying.
about five years It hit me hard,
ago and said, what we had been
“You need to hold through. It was
a lot more cash for a maybe six weeks later
rainy day.” I called him when we had to shut
and thanked him. Three down again. It was getting
to four weeks in, we colder, and it didn’t
[[]] Baked goods at Oddfellows
[[]] Fussell knew that we were make sense to stay
going to try to get a PPP [Paycheck open through the winter.
Protection Program] loan, and once Even as we were closing
we received it, which I believe was down, we were making plans for
April 24, I felt like we’d been saved. reopening. I was in New York in the
We reopened the next month fall and took tons of photographs
for takeout only. Oddfellows is of the “streeteries” that cropped
known for homemade biscuits up, getting ideas of what we could
with scrambled eggs. At first we do to make ours look good when
thought that was going to be kind we reopened in March. We charted
of tricky. But I asked friends, and out how many tables we could
PASTRIES: COURTESY THE DERSCHANG GROUP

they said, “No, no. Please put it on fit and hoped for good weather.
the menu.” And it was a big seller. We ran the numbers. It’s all about
People were forgiving of the quality butts in seats.
of food at many restaurants that The response to our reopening
weren’t known for takeout. We has been phenomenal. Our regulars
were given a little bit of a pass, are coming back, and people are
[[]] Cocca which we all needed. telling us they’re so happy that we
As time went on, we were made it. �As told to Noah Buhayar
 Bloomberg Businessweek THE HOW-TO ISSUE May 24, 2021

MIKE: Everything can run off

the solar panels. We put an air
compressor in, so you can blow
up stand-up paddleboards and
bike tires. We’ve got a little
squatty-potty that’s flushable.
There’s a thermostat, so we
can keep the van whatever
temperature we want.

 Photographs
by Benjamin
Rasmussen AMBER: The kids
love the van. The
day we got it, we
cranked up the
music, and we all
just danced around
in here.

AMBER: A lot
of times I end
up working in
the front seat if
we’re in transit
and I have to do
some calls.
74
 Trick Out a Van 
AMBER, MIKE, BLAKELEY,
AND PIERS MCCORD
When the pandemic hit, Amber and Mike McCord
couldn’t do much about their kids’ transitioning to
remote learning. But they could try to retain some
normalcy around Blakeley and Piers’s extracurricular
passion: ski racing. They wanted more flexibility
for themselves, too, because they were also
working remotely—Mike as an outdoor-gear sales
rep, Amber at a pharmaceutical company—and didn’t
need to be home in Denver for morning-to-night
Zoom calls. They bought a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter
3500XD 170 and had Tourig, a company in Golden,
Colo., convert it so they could live and work in ski
resort parking lots and in Moab, Utah, where they like
to camp. “It was about $200,000, all-in, but we keep
adding stuff,” Mike says. (Tourig’s founder, Eric Miller,
says he expects to do 75 conversions this year and
double that in 2022.) �Kyle Stock

75

MIKE: The van has two queen beds that fold away,
and you can put a table there that stores up top. We
eat off it and work off it, and we play games there if
there’s crummy weather.

MIKE: We have
MIKE: There’s
plenty of storage.
a two-burner
It’s like an airplane:
induction
Everything is
cooktop. It boils
locked down. It will
water in like a
fit about 10 pairs
minute and a
of skis, and we
half. We’ll cook
typically travel
peanut butter
with at least six.
or chocolate
chip pancakes.
The fridge is
underneath.
We have a sink
with a 20-gallon
water tank.
 NEGOTIATE
MARCOS SEGURA Until recently, I can’t think of a
market where rents were going
Staff attorney, National down so much that tenants
Housing Law Project would have leverage. There’s no

YOUR RENT
His organization advocates for
tenants’ rights. According to a
U.S. Census Bureau survey, nearly
14% of renters were behind on
payments as of mid-April.
tried-and-true way to negotiate,
but success depends on the
market—and more important,
your neighborhood and even your
building. Here’s the email I’d write
your landlord for a rent reduction.
�As told to Sarah Holder

[[1]] Big companies

have more room to
negotiate, but they
may not need to,
because they’re Dear ([[1]]),
also better able to
absorb vacancies and
market dips. [[2]] While My name is , your tenant at ,
the U.S. Centers for
Disease Control and apartment No. . Because of the pandemic, [my work hours have been cut/
Prevention’s federal
moratorium on my wages have been reduced/I’ve had to cover unexpected medical and other
evictions has been
contested, many expenses]. Things haven’t improved in the past year. Although I’ve done my best
states and localities
to pay what I can, I’m stretched too thin to keep paying full rent moving forward.
have additional rules
preventing eviction This is why I’m proposing a reduction in my rent, to $ ([[2]]), which is the
for nonpayment
because of Covid. amount that’s financially feasible for me at the moment. That rent is also aligned
Check if your region
is covered at https:// with other area homes. For example, I’ve learned that a -bedroom unit such
www.rhls.org/
evictionmoratoriums/. as mine in the building across the street, [set up similarly with a dishwasher/
These protections
in-unit laundry/additional bathroom], is being rented for $ a month.
76 could preemptively
bolster your I also saw that you listed another -bedroom apartment in this building
case. [[3]] Find
your “Zestimate” for $ a month. And according to Zillow ([[3]]), my apartment is worth about
on zillow.com.
[[4]] Emergency rental $ a month.
assistance programs
vary by jurisdiction,
I’d respectfully ask that you apply for the rental assistance payments being
but for eligible low- distributed by the [city/county/state] ([[4]]). Attached is more information on
and moderate-
income tenants, the program ([[5]]).
they’ll cover close
to—if not 100%— These funds can be used to cover future rent obligations (not just past-due
of rent. If you’re
eligible for your amounts) for as many as months. OR ([[6]]): I understand that the
local program, then
before requesting
[city/county/state] will pay only % of the rent and requires you to forgive
a rent reduction, the balance.
you might want to
ask your landlord to Alternatively, or in addition to, a rent reduction, perhaps you’d be amenable
participate. It could
cover your entire to [switching to a month-to-month lease/a $ laundry credit/a free
PHOTO: RICHARD DRURY/GETTY IMAGES. ILLUSTRATION BY MIA NOLTING

rent for several

months. [[5]] The parking pass].
National Low Income
Thanks for considering my request. Please reach out if you’d like to discuss
Housing Coalition
has a database on the matter further.
rental assistance
for tenants and
landlords (nlihc.org/
rental-assistance). Sincerely,
[[6]] In California, for
example, landlords
can apply for as
much as 80% of
the rent. If that’s
the case, proceed
as follows.
Bloomberg Businessweek
Unionize
A Some people got calls from members of
Workplace
CHRISTINE BALL-BLAKELY
Staff attorney, Animal Legal
Defense Fund
She helped lead a successful campaign
to organize about 40 employees at the
42-year-old nonprofit headquartered
in the San Francisco Bay Area. ALDF
workers began the process in 2020, and
after management declined to voluntarily
start bargaining with them, they
petitioned the National Labor Relations
Board to hold an election. In March they
voted to join the Nonprofit Professional
Employees Union (NPEU).
We realized that management was gearing
up for an anti-union campaign. Bosses are
never happy about a union effort. That’s
just as true in the nonprofit context as in
any other.
B l ow
 Think you
have a case?
Thomas might
disagree
JORDAN THOMAS
Partner, Labaton Sucharow
A former assistant director for
enforcement at the U.S. Securities
and Exchange Commission, he
helped set up its whistleblower
program after the 2008 financial
crisis. Now in private practice,
THE HOW-TO ISSUE
They had weekly meetings. My
department had one where my director
would share anti-union information.
management on their personal phones on
nights and weekends, and even holidays,
trying to convince them to vote no.
Management would say that this outside
group is coming in and trying to unionize,
even though we were the ones to initiate it.
We counted at least 15 anti-union emails,
including one in which our executive
director told our staff that “the union does
not care about animals.”
The first thing we’d done was establish
an organizing committee. We tried to get
somebody from every department. We
had NPEU in our corner, preparing us. We
checked in on people: Some would be like,
“Oh my gosh, it’s so tense. It’s so hard.”
And we would sympathize with that.
At Zoom happy hours, we got speakers
from other nonprofits who’d gone through
this. At a certain point, you start to think,
“Maybe I’m crazy,” you know? And it’s
validating to hear other people explain
what they went through.
There’s a real power imbalance in
all workplaces, and we wanted more
democracy in ours. Though we have gone
through a lot as an organization, we are
excited about the future. Our union is
e
i st l
W h ! !
t h e ! ! ! !!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thomas files whistleblower cases
at the SEC, which lets individuals
collect monetary awards for
providing unique information on
violations such as accounting
fraud, bribery schemes, and
investment scams. (Payouts
average $5.3 million, but one
tipster got $114 million.)
Would-be whistleblowers always
think they have a case. Most
of them don’t. I get wack jobs
who don’t have any evidence of
“massive” fraud. I get Eagle Scouts
who think unethical behavior is the
same thing as illegal conduct.
My firm only takes about
12 clients a year. Once we think a
client has a case, we investigate
them. We have ex-law enforcement
empowering us to do our best work for the
animals. —As told to Josh Eidelson
ALDF CEO and executive director
Stephen Wells says the organization for
years has “focused a lot of energy on
making sure we were an outstanding place
to work.” He says management promoted
an “open conversation” on unionization.
Regarding the alleged anti-union emails,
calls, and meetings, he says, “How
someone characterizes something as
being pro or anti or whatever, that’s open
to interpretation.”
ALDF’s communications director,
Elizabeth Putsche, says, “Emails are
easy to ignore if you’re not interested in
reading them, and the meetings were never
mandatory.” She adds that she isn’t aware
of anti-union calls and that the ALDF is
now working with the union to schedule
contract negotiations.
77
on staff to probe any potential prior
convictions, social media posts,
or questionable affiliations. We’re
lending our reputation to them, so
we want to make sure they’re legit.
Our clients almost always file
anonymously. We sometimes
disguise their voices on calls with
the SEC using pitch-changing
technology. Clients have put
on FBI wires if there’s potential
criminal liability at their place
of employment.
A lot of our clients still work at
the hedge fund or private equity
firm they’re blowing the whistle
on. Some even stay on a year or
two after getting an award, so no
one suspects them. They’re secret
millionaires going to work every
day. —As told to Matt Robinson
 JAY LENO
Comedian

FOR
Leno, who owns hundreds of vintage

P
S O
rides, hosts Jay Leno’s Garage on
H
CAR
NBC and YouTube.

S S I C
CLA
Buy what you like. If it goes down in

A value, at least you still like it. If you

enjoy it and it goes up in value, great.

Ignore the mileage. I meet guys who

say, “I’ve got a Ferrari Enzo. I’ve had it
15 years. It’s got 9 miles on it.” That’s
in worse shape than a car that’s
— Photograph by driven regularly. Oil is blood. It needs
Tracey Nguyen to circulate. I have a Mercedes with
326,000 miles. These people who get
rid of a car—“Oh, it’s got 65,000 miles
on it, I gotta get rid of this thing.” No,
that’s barely broken in.

Join the club. There’s always an

elderly person who’s been in the
Model A club or whatever for 15 or
20 years. They can’t drive anymore.
They’d like to sell their car. You might
pay a little more, but you get a car
that’s been maintained properly.
78 Also, somebody in the club will let
you use their garage, and you’ll help
them fix their car. Maybe next week,
they’ll help you. That happens a lot.
You meet people who live and
breathe these cars. I have a Tatra.
It’s Czech. One day I see an ad in a
magazine, I call the Tatra club. I go,
“Hi, I’m Jay Leno. What Tatras do
you have? I’d like to join the club.”

LAMBORGHINI: MARTYN LUCY/GETTY IMAGES. MCLAREN: IAN BOTTLE/ALAMY. PLANE: JETHUYN CAN/GETTY IMAGES
They said, “Good, yes, $80. We have
 Leno in a Christmas party. We put out a
Burbank, Calif., in
front of a custom newsletter.” I said, “How many people
car built with a in the club?” “Including you? Four.”
tank engine from No matter what you’re into, there’s
the Korean War
always somebody way more into it.
—As told to Hannah Elliott

LAMBORGHINI MIURA MCLAREN F1 MASERATI 3500 GTi

I essentially got it for free in the early ’80s.
Dean Martin bought it new. His son cracked
the crank case. A buddy of mine bought
it. His wife said, “The thing’s sittin’ in the
yard. Give it to Leno.” Now, at minimum, it’s
a $1 million car.
When this came out in 1992, it was about
$1 million—Lamborghinis were $100,000.
They built 64. McLaren Cars shut down.
So the price of it went up [to $21 million
for one in top condition, according to the
Hagerty Price Guide].
A repair shop wanted to get rid of it. It
was $25,000 15 years ago. We needed to
do the engine, the transmission, other
work. Now it’s probably a $300,000 car.
The trick is to find something that broke
some other guy’s heart.
Bloomberg Businessweek THE HOW-TO ISSUE May 24, 2021

NEGOTIATE
Most countries have their own push comes to shove, the Chinese
negotiating style. It reflects their are nonideological. But they need that
culture, collective histories, and permission: If their government didn’t

WITH CHINA
CHARLENE BARSHEFSKY
Partner, WilmerHale
The U.S. trade representative from
1997 to 2001, Barshefsky, in her final
year on the job, was chief negotiator
with China on its historic agreement to
join the World Trade Organization.
personalities. People think of
Americans as talkative, generally
nice, and cooperative to a point. The
Japanese are resistant to change and
adept at teasing out tiny variations in
substance and tempo to understand
the other side.
The Chinese are pragmatic,
entrepreneurial. They get that
both sides have to come out with
something. You have to separate
out their obligatory rhetoric from
potential practical outcomes. When
have the political will during WTO
negotiations, the talks would have
gone around in circles.
Americans tend to benefit as
negotiators when they can be direct.
With the Chinese being direct and
analytical, not dramatic, this is often
met with a positive U.S. response: Say
what you mean to say—the Chinese
can be equally direct. The more direct,
the less room for misunderstanding
and the less room for finger-pointing.
——As told to Peter Martin

STOP BS’ING ABOUT

79

CARBON OFFSETS
SCOTT KIRBY
CEO, United Airlines Holdings Inc.
Kirby has pledged to eliminate the company’s
greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. To help United
do so, the company has announced multimillion-
dollar investments in carbon capture technology, an
electric air-taxi startup, and sustainable aviation fuel.
We can’t solve climate change unless we’re real
about the size of the challenge and the solutions.
It’s not as easy as saying, “Oh, let’s make
everything electric.”
The thing that burns me up is the number of
corporations using traditional carbon offset
programs as their way to get to net-zero. A CEO
who’s not a geek like me and hasn’t been reading
in Scientific American about climate change for
30 years says, “Oh, this is a problem. We need to do
something about it.” And somebody says, “Write a
check to this conservancy fund, and they’ll offset
our carbon flows.” And the CEO says, “Great!” They
think they’re helping, but they’re not. They’re doing
it because it’s convenient. It’s a marketing exercise.
We produce 4,000 times the emissions today as
we did in the pre-industrial era. We can’t plant
4,000 times as many trees.
If CEOs were given the education to do the right
thing, they would want to do the right thing. I view
my job as playing a role in forcing the conversation
to real solutions. [Carbon capture technology and
sustainable aviation fuels] are not economical today,
which is why we need to invest in them, just like
wind and solar, to drive the cost down. Ultimately it’s
going to require some kind of government scheme—
sticks and carrots.
Going through the pandemic strengthened my
conviction that this was the right thing to do. If you
didn’t believe we were part of the global community
and everything that happens everywhere in the world
affects us, it’s impossible to make that argument
after Covid. �As told to Brooke Sutherland
 Bloomberg Businessweek THE HOW-TO ISSUE May 24, 2021

LEARN FROM LEAD

NASDAQ
If I were giving advice to my 25-year-old member pushes for personal and career
self, I’d say start finding people who can evolution and adaptability.
help you. Create a personal board, and

INC. think of your board members as advisers

LAUREN DILLARD
Executive vice president,
Investment Intelligence
Dillard, who joined Nasdaq in 2019, has
increased the company’s analytics,
index, and data business 21% in the past
12 months.
80
or mentors. Few things have provided
as great a catalyst for my professional
development as these relationships.
THE ARCHETYPES
[[]] THE INDUSTRY VET Whatever
work-related matters you want to better
understand, this is your first call.
[[]] THE CHEERLEADER You want
someone who pumps you up, brings you
joy, and keeps you focused on a purpose.
[[]] THE TRUTH-TELLER You need this
adviser to tell you how it really is, to push
you and be ruthless with feedback.
[[]] THE INNOVATOR What’s the newest
trend? What podcast or book do you
need to spend time with? This board
[[]] THE NETWORKER This person helps
you make connections, ideally based
on your personality type.
[[]] THE WELLNESS GURU Your health is
crucial to your success, and you need
someone making sure you ride your
Peloton, do yoga, or whatever moves you.
THE RULES
[[1]] Nothing proprietary gets discussed.
[[2]] Everything is confidential.
[[3]] Schedule regular meetings.
[[4]] If follow-up is required, see it through.
[[5]] Change board members. These aren’t
lifetime commitments.
[[6]] Old age is not a prerequisite.
[[7]] Offer to join other people’s boards.
[[8]] Get outside your comfort zone. Maybe
even recruit a competitor you admire.
�As told to Joel Weber

VIMEO LLC I saw a bigger opportunity in

doubling down on better serving
“Inspire your
businesses with the tools to employees to see
ANJALI SUD use video. I got passionate. a green light where
CEO Investors invest in people as
much as ideas. Conviction others may see a
She’s guided the video is infectious. stop sign. People
software business, which has Ultimately you need to prove
more than 200 million users, yourself. I didn’t say, “I want will come up with
to a $6 billion valuation—and to pivot the strategy.” I asked new ideas and run
an anticipated spinoff from for a small, dedicated team to
IAC/InterActiveCorp. build a minimum viable
with them when
product to prove the they feel a sense
I was promoted to CEO strategy could work. of autonomy and
in 2017 after spending And it did. The more you
a year convincing our can “de-risk” the first creative ownership.”
investors we should ask with a short path
pivot. Instead of to validation, the more �MARCELO CLAURE
GETTY IMAGES (5)

investing in original people are willing to CEO, SoftBank Group

content or trying to be take a chance on you. International, and COO,
a viewing destination, �As told to J.W. SoftBank Group Corp.
 Bloomberg Businessweek THE HOW-TO ISSUE
DERS AT …
CURALEAF
HOLDINGS INC.
BORIS JORDAN
Chairman
Curaleaf is the biggest U.S. marijuana company,
with a market value of about $10 billion.
I spend a lot of time
reading. One of my
favorite things to do
is read biographies
or autobiographies
of entrepreneurs,
political leaders,
businesspeople. I’ve
learned a lot from
reading them. I started
my insurance business
[Renins Finans], which
I’m about to take
public, because I read Warren Buffett’s book on
how he got going. I loved that story.
But I’m planning the next phase of my life.
I don’t want to be involved in running businesses
anymore like I do now. I want to be a mentor to
young entrepreneurs. I had a great dinner the
other night with a guy from Massachusetts. He
was telling me about everything he’s doing in the
cannabis sector with minority communities in
Massachusetts and Maryland. I got super excited
about what he was doing. I told him I’d love to
seed him. I said, “Why don’t I use my 30-odd years
of experience in building businesses and the
capital I’ve built up to help you out?” At the end
of the day, who needs all that money if you can’t
help someone?
The world is not a static place. I remember
when I was going through my education, people
were doing 10-year plans. I don’t even do three-
month plans anymore. �As told to James E. Ellis
May 24, 2021
ARK INVESTMENT
MANAGEMENT LLC
CATHIE WOOD
Founder, CEO, and chief investment officer
Wood’s company has about
$40 billion in assets under
management thanks to her
pioneering practice of using
actively managed ETFs to make
bold bets on technology.
Our morning meeting starts at
8:45, and we’re usually on until
10:30. It’s a free flow of ideas.
Fridays, our analysts come in. They’ve selected
the most provocative ideas they’ve heard all week or
the biggest breakthroughs they’ve had in their own
research. They’ll throw out an idea for discussion.
Many people join our brainstorm who aren’t part
of Ark. Our analysts usually meet them on Twitter. It’s
a win-win: We push our research out on any social
network that will help our analysts engage with people
who are innovating. These people can spot errors in our
assumptions, and they have so much gratitude for what
81
we’re doing to highlight their innovation. There’s a natural
dialogue. �As told to Carol Massar
UBER
TECHNOLOGIES INC.
BO YOUNG LEE
Chief diversity and inclusion officer
In the past year, Lee says, the number of women in
leadership at the company grew more than 15%.
I have two rules to help open doors. First, don’t think of
yourself as the norm and everyone else a deviation from
your norm. Think of yourself as a deviation from everyone
else’s norm. If you assume
everyone has a different
normal than you, you’re more
open to shift your mindset.
Second, never assume.
How often do we ask, “How
do you like to work?” Or
“Can you tell me about your
communication style?” Instead we make assumptions,
and those assumptions can be based on stereotypes. I’m
dyslexic, so I process information differently than how you
might assume. It’s important to understand there’s not one
right way to do most things. �As told to J.W.
 Bloomberg Businessweek
Mature
As an
Investor
ALEX RODRIGUEZ
Chairman and CEO,
A-Rod Corp.
In addition to his company,
which oversees the former
MLB All-Star’s real estate
holdings and investment
portfolio, Rodriguez also runs
a special purpose acquisition
company and venture capital
firm with former Walmart Inc.
executive Marc Lore.
As a player, you’re presented
82
with endorsement or licensing
deals where you can rent your
name and walk away. As an
investor or owner, you have to
be much more involved—it’s a
different level of responsibility.
We’ve seen this power
shift with personal brands
becoming as powerful as big
institutions. Now athletes and
entertainers have a seat at the
table with these conglomerates
and can compete for the same
 “Think about
having a barbell-
shaped approach
within the 40%”
THE HOW-TO ISSUE
 Rodriguez
asset, which would have been
unthinkable 10 years ago.
As a professional athlete,
you learn to go narrow and
deep. You train to be perfect—
or at least try. You learn from
your coaches. It’s the same
as an investor. You adopt
attributes from mentors. I’ve
learned that we can be good
at a lot of things but can’t be
great at everything. Narrow
and deeper plays, where we
invest our energy and interests,
are the most worthwhile. By
investing with that philosophy,
others begin to learn what you
like, and we’re presented with
better opportunities.
To ensure we’re allocating
resources where it makes
sense, we like to move quickly
and say no to deals that don’t
fit. People appreciate clear
communication, and even if
that first deal doesn’t work
out, it can be the beginning
of a relationship. Declining
certain deals properly and
responsibly often creates
future opportunities.
—As told to Jason Kelly
May 24, 2021
Rethink the
in Your
60-40
Portfolio
SEEMA SHAH
Chief strategist, Principal Global Investors LLC
Shah helps oversee more than $820 billion for
the asset management company.
Investors are wondering if the traditional mix of
60% stocks and 40% bonds is the way forward,
given high stock market valuations and low
interest rates. I don’t think 60-40 is dead. There
are just different variations within the framework
that can be used now.
With your 40% bucket, you’re looking for
stability. If you want the diversification that
bonds provide, then real estate is a good way
to go. When inflation picks up, real estate tends
to do better than energy and commodities,
which are volatile. Crypto keeps coming up, but
from our perspective, it’s far too volatile to be
included in the 40% bucket. If anything, that’s
just a reflection of how desperate investors are
for some kind of return.
Think about having a barbell-shaped
RODRIGUEZ: MICHAEL LOCCISANO/GETTY IMAGES. 60-40: PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY 731; PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES
approach within the 40%. On one side you take
more risk—corporate or emerging-market
bonds, for instance. Emerging markets have
become a core part of portfolios, which makes
sense given that they’re more than 50% of
global GDP. The important thing is that there
are so many different variations
within emerging markets that
you need to understand
exactly what you’re
investing in and take an
active approach.
On the other side of the
barbell you play defense with U.S.
Treasuries and developed-nation government
bonds. Although you’re not going to get
much in returns, you still get that stability if
there’s disappointing growth. —As told to
Michael P. Regan
 CE A
CHICKEN PARM
[[]] “You don’t
wanna drown it”
JEFF ZALAZNICK
& MARIO CARBONE
Co-founders (with Rich Torrisi),
Major Food Group
In March, Major Food Group, best
known for its Carbone restaurants
in New York and Miami, announced
it was entering the consumer
packaged-goods market with three
sauces sold under the Carbone
Fine Foods label. The marinara,
inspired by the sauce that tops a
veal parm at Carbone, was bottled
 Photograph by
Justin J. Wee
with home cooks in mind, who’d
likely substitute with chicken.
ZALAZNICK: What is the role of
sauce in a chicken parm?
CARBONE: One of the major
players.
ZALAZNICK: You got the chicken,
you got the breadcrumbs, you got
the sauce, you got the cheese.
CARBONE: That’s it. That’s all
you got.
ZALAZNICK: The sauce is 25% of
that equation, but it probably has
May 24, 2021
the largest effect because it can
go wrong in so many ways. You
can not only have a sauce that
doesn’t taste good, but you can
put too much of it on, which is
prevalent right now in society.
CARBONE: Oversaucing.
ZALAZNICK: Oversaucing. We’ve
always focused on not oversaucing.
It’s something we really advocate.
CARBONE: In the Italian-American
culinary vernacular, the idea of
abundance went too far. You
wanna serve that abundant Italian-
American meal, but you don’t
wanna drown it in sauce.
ZALAZNICK: We’ve put in hundreds
of hours designing this sauce so
that it goes perfectly with chicken
parm. Me and you were sick of
eating chicken parm by the end.
CARBONE: It’s a cross we bear.
ZALAZNICK: It’s a cross we bear.
CARBONE: I think we made
chicken parm probably 100 times.
We kept tweaking the sauce, the 83
techniques. You wanna make sure
it’s not too sweet, it’s not too sour.
The very best tomatoes. Fresh
oregano. Dried oregano. Fresh
basil. Garlic.
I talked to my mom. I said,
“What do you use the sauce
for?” First answer: “Chicken
parm.” She’s very happy with it.
Mrs. Carbone’s happy.
ZALAZNICK: Mrs. Carbone’s
happy. That’s when we knew we
had something—2021, Year of the
Chicken Parm.
CARBONE: You heard it here.
ZALAZNICK: I’m gonna eat chicken
parm every single night of the
month of August in celebration of
my birthday.
CARBONE: I want you to call me
with a report on a nightly basis
after you eat the chicken parm.
ZALAZNICK: I thought you’d be
with me.
CARBONE: Most nights.
ZALAZNICK: When you’re not
there, I’ll call you.
CARBONE: Please. �As told to
Bima Mandic and Kate Krader
 May 24, 2021

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your breath. Your
A-hum …
attention is on
a-hum …
your breath, not
a-hum … your thoughts.
Become aware of
any sounds. Remind
yourself, “I am
present in everything
I hear.” Ask yourself,
“I wonder what my
next thought is going

Meditate to be?” Wait for it.

[[]] Chopra (below) says
to ask, “Am I present?”
DEEPAK CHOPRA
Doctor, author, wellness advocate
84
He’s founder and chairman of the nonprofit
Chopra Foundation, which promotes “spiritual
knowledge, expanding consciousness, and
world peace,” according to its website.
Meditation is a way to bypass the
thinking process, which gives
us anxiety. As soon as you feel
stress, your cortisol goes up,
your adrenaline goes up. Your
breath gets shallow, your
heart rate speeds up. The
best way to stop that is to
just stop. Take three deep
breaths. Smile from your
head to your toes. Observe
what’s happening in your
body and outside. Pause. Ask
yourself, “What’s the best way for me
AP PHOTO. CHOPRA: BUSINESSWIRE
Notice that when you
wait for a thought,
it doesn’t come.
Let your awareness
expand outside the
boundaries of your
skin. Let it pervade space and time.
Remind yourself, “I’m present in every
experience I have.”
Start to repeat your first name:
“I’m Deepak. I’m Chloe, I’m Sandra,
whatever.” Let go of your name and
just repeat, “I am. I am.” Now
replace that with the mantra, the
sound of “I am,” which is a-hum.
Repeat the mantra, a-hum. If you
get distracted, come back to
the mantra, a-hum.
Finally, release the
mantra and be aware of
the presence of your own
being. Feel the energy.
This is what we need to
do. Every once in a while,
stop and ask, “Am I present?”
That’s all. “Am I present?” Asking that

right now to handle this situation?” question will bring you into presence,
Sit quietly, close your eyes, and which is healing.
don’t do anything for 5, 10 minutes. That’s meditation. �As told to
Your mind will get silent. Observe Claire Suddath
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