YCLOAK

Promising startups in the United States receive a shred of the billions of dollars investors pump into them when led by women, a major study found Tuesday.

Between 2011 and 2013, companies with a female CEO received $1.5 billion of the $51 billion that venture capital investors poured into those they deemed promising, or a mere 3 percent of available dollars, according to the study by U.S. researchers.

They also found that all-male teams were four times more likely to win venture funding than teams counting at least one woman among them.

Venture capital is money invested in small businesses thought to have high-return potential.

The findings published in the journal Venture Capital confirmed a pattern of historically low levels of venture funds flowing into businesses led by women.

A prior milestone study, the Diana Project, had found that venture capital injected into female-led companies never exceeded 4 percent of total funds invested between the early 1950s and the turn of the century.

In the new study, researchers examined nearly 7,000 U.S. companies that received venture capital between 2011 and 2013. They then identified companies with women on their executive teams.

‘Not in the right network’

Just why female-led companies were recipients of less venture capital raised questions about the industry’s inner workings, said co-author Candida Brush, a professor of entrepreneurship at Babson College in Massachusetts.

“What is the disconnect?” Brush said in a phone interview.

“My hypothesis on the disconnect is that women are not in the right network [or] they’re either being put through a tighter screen,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

The report’s authors, who include other Babson College professors and an entrepreneurial consultant, found there was no significant performance difference between companies whose CEOs were women and those whose leaders were men.

The ratio of male to female startup entrepreneurs is fairly equal, according to the 2013 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor’s Global Report.

But the venture capital industry in the United States, where most leading venture capital firms are located, is 92 percent male, said Brush.

“Those are things that have to be looked at,” she said.

Earlier this month, prominent Silicon Valley investor Dave McClure resigned from his position as a partner at the venture capital firm 500 Startups following allegations of sexual harassment.

McClure’s resignation came after entrepreneur Sarah Kunst accused the investor of misconduct in a New York Times story.
…

U.S. President Donald Trump named on Tuesday two possible candidates to run the Federal Reserve over the next few years: current Fed Chair Janet Yellen and Trump’s economic adviser Gary Cohn, according to an interview with The Wall Street Journal.

Yellen, whose four-year term expires in February, “is in the running, absolutely,” to be renominated, Trump was quoted as saying. In addition, Cohn, a former Goldman Sachs president who is now director of the National Economic Council, “certainly would be in the mix,” he said.

Trump said he probably would make the announcement at the end of the year, the paper reported. He was also quoted saying that there are “two or three” other contenders, though he declined to name them.

Any Fed nominee would need Senate confirmation.

Trump’s comments could sharpen speculation over who will take the helm of the world’s most influential central bank, which is leading a global shift toward tighter monetary policy.

Earlier this month, Politico reported that Yellen was increasingly unlikely to serve another term, while Cohn was the top candidate.

Cohn, a Democrat who is managing the White House’s search for candidates, did not work on Trump’s campaign and only got to know him after the November election. “I’ve gained great respect for Gary working with him,” the paper quoted Trump as saying on Tuesday.

Yellen took over from Ben Bernanke as Fed chair in February 2014 with the U.S. economic recovery from the 2008 financial crisis still on shaky ground. As unemployment has since fallen, she has overseen four interest rate hikes and aims for at least one more before the end of this year.

“I like her. I like her demeanor. I think she’s done a good job,” Trump was quoted as saying. “I’d like to see rates stay low. She’s historically been a low-interest-rate person.”

During last year’s presidential election campaign, Trump had accused the Fed of keeping rates low to help President Barack Obama, saying the Fed had created a “false economy” and that rates should change.

In an April interview with The Wall Street Journal, Trump did not rule out a second term for Yellen.
…

Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook has committed to build three big manufacturing plants in the United States, the Wall Street Journal quoted U.S. President Donald Trump as saying.

“I spoke to [Cook], he’s promised me three big plants — big, big, big,” Trump told the Journal in an interview on Tuesday.

Trump didn’t elaborate on where those plants would be located or when they would be built, the paper reported.

Cook said in May that Apple planned to create a $1 billion fund to invest in U.S. companies that perform advanced manufacturing. He also said the company intended to fund programs that could include teaching people how to write computer code to create apps.

Apple came under fire from Trump during his campaign because it makes most of its products in China.

“We’re gonna get Apple to start building their damn computers and things in this country, instead of in other countries,” Trump had said in a speech in January last year.

Apple, on its part, had been making disclosures to highlight how it had been contributing to job creation in the United States.

Cook said in February that Apple spent $50 billion in 2016 with its U.S. suppliers.

The world’s largest company by market valuation had also claimed that it created 2 million jobs in the United States, 80,000 of which are directly at Apple and the rest coming from suppliers and developers for the company’s app ecosystem.

Trump’s comments on Tuesday were some of the first he has made regarding Apple’s manufacturing since assuming the presidency.

“I said you know, Tim, unless you start building your plants in this country, I won’t consider my administration an economic success,” the Journal quoted Trump as saying.

Apple didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump also said that Foxconn, a major Apple supplier, plans to build a big plant in the United States and is “strongly considering” putting it in Wisconsin, the Journal reported.

Foxconn said last month it plans to invest more than $10 billion in a display-making factory in the United States.
…

Colombian officials received $27 million in bribes from Brazilian engineering firm Odebrecht, more than double previously thought, as the company sought to win a road-building contract, Colombia’s attorney general said on Tuesday.

As fallout from a massive corruption scandal continues to bite Odebrecht, Attorney General Nestor Humberto Martinez said bribes paid for the contract to build a 528-km (328-mile) highway were much more than the $11 million originally estimated.

Martinez said criminal charges for money laundering would be filed against two Brazilian citizens, one Portuguese and three Colombians. He will also ask the Supreme Court of Justice to investigate five congressional lawmakers.

Seven people, including a former senator and an ex-vice minister of transport, have been jailed for involvement in the corruption scandal.

Odebrecht’s bribes in Colombia spilled over into the election campaigns of President Juan Manuel Santos, who in March acknowledged that his 2010 election campaign received illegal payments. He said he had no knowledge at the time of the payments.

Odebrecht allegedly paid hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes in association with infrastructure projects in 12 countries, including Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela, between 2002 and 2016.
…

Peruvian authorities have launched a major crackdown on modern slavery after a warehouse fire in Lima last month killed four workers, including two who were trapped inside a padlocked container on the roof.

Officials said they had shut down six furniture factories in the capital on Monday in an operation to root out forced labor and exploitation, following raids by prosecutors, police and labor inspectors.

Last month’s toxic blaze which tore through several warehouses in the city center highlighted labor exploitation in the capital and prompted calls for better protection of workers’ rights and more labor inspections.

President visits site of blaze

Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski said the victims were “practically slave workers” when he visited the site following the June 22 blaze.

Peru’s attorney general said on Monday there would be more raids on factories and warehouses to prevent further “tragic accidents.”

Another eight operations are planned this year in the wider Lima region and the north of the country where forced labor has been linked to the fishing industry.

Prosecutors said the furniture factories targeted in Monday’s raids were operating without a licence, health and safety was “inadequate” and fire exits had been blocked, putting workers at risk.

Over 200,000 trapped in slavery

An estimated 200,500 people are trapped in modern day slavery in Peru, according to rights group The Walk Free Foundation, the third highest number in Latin America after Mexico and Colombia.

The International Labor Organization (ILO), which estimates there are 21 million people in forced labour worldwide, welcomed the new labor inspections in Peru.

“The tragic fire was shocking. People were outraged,” said Teresa Torres, coordinator of ILO’s program against forced labor in Peru.

“Having this kind of task force carrying out inspections is progress and an important response from the government,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Need for ‘justice’

Public prosecutors have launched an investigation into possible human trafficking following the fire.

“What’s important in this case is that there’s justice, and as such those people responsible are punished,” Torres said, adding those found guilty could face up to 25 years in prison.

Across Peru, forced labor is more commonly linked to the illegal logging industry and illegal gold mines in the Amazon jungle. Girls are also trafficked to these areas for sex work.

Forced labor widespread

Torres said the warehouse blaze showed forced labor is more widespread than many Peruvians believe.

“This is more evidence to show that forced labour doesn’t just happen in … remote areas of the Amazon, but it could be happening right in the center of the capital too,” Torres said.

“We have information that forced labor is also happening in the north of Peru, in other sectors such as the shrimp fishing industry.”

She said victims of forced labor were often hidden from view, working on fishing vessels, in small clandestine workshops, commercial agriculture or private homes.
…

Following a lack of agreement at the U.S. China Comprehensive Economic Dialogue in Washington last week, analysts say they expect the Trump administration to impose stiff penalties on Chinese steel and other imports. They are also predicting the U.S. might go a step further and start questioning some of the rules of the World Trade Organization, which it regards as being unduly favorable to Beijing.

“It appears that not much was accomplished. Negotiations were deadlocked,” said Charles W. Boustany Jr., a retired U.S. Congressman and Counselor at The National Bureau of Asian Research. “I believe the Trump Administration is intent on imposing tariffs and other restrictions on steel imports”.

The dialogue mechanism was created last April after talks between Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping as a means to resolve old sticking points, including a huge trade imbalance of $347 billion that favors Beijing. But the first meeting, which was co-chaired by U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, and Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang, merely helps to highlight the stiff differences between the two sides.

At the heart of the differences were Chinese steel exports and the massive trade deficit. The U.S. feels cheap steel exports are resulting in job losses, a view echoed regularly in Europe.

Boustany said the Trump administration would impose controls on steel imports using national security as the reason. Similar views are being expressed by several experts.

” I do expect in some point in the near future for the Trump administration to impose penalties on steel imports from China and perhaps a few other countries justifying those limits on national security grounds,” Scott Kennedy, Deputy Director, Freeman Chair in China Studies at the Washington based Center for Strategic & International Studies, said.

Rejecting WTO rules

He said the U.S. government may go further and start reviewing its commitment to some rules of the World Trade Organization.

“I think during the last five years, China’s economic policies, the level of innovation by the government in different industries, its promotion of high-tech in a discriminatory way has widened the gap between Chinese practices and its commitments (to WTO). And given China’s size, that had a big affect on the global economy, including on the U.S. and its high-tech industries,” he said.

Kennedy also said, “I think that has generated anxiety and doubts in the United States about the WTO’s rules and whether those rules were good enough to constrain Chinese trade practices.”

After the talks, Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang said the world’s two biggest economies need to cooperate and warned that “confrontation will immediately damage the interests of both.” U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin blamed the trade gap between the two countries on “Chinese government intervention in its economy.”

Trump’s surprise

“The Chinese basically wanted to bring Trump and his team back on the mainstream of U.S.-China bilateral dialogue on economic and trade cooperation the way it used to be during the Obama period. Even Bush did the same thing,” said Sourabh Gupta, Institute for China – America Studies in Washington. “Trump came with so much radicalism on trade issues that they just want to maintain a workable format, which is productive and result oriented.”

Paul T. Haenle, Director of the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy, said Trump’s approach to trade has completely thrown China’s long-term economic plans off the rails. He added that Beijing is not being helped with signs of rising protectionism in Europe.

“I think the Chinese side has been somewhat surprised by the toughness of the Trump administration, particularly on White House priority areas like trade (steel) and North Korea,” he said.

China recently began importing U.S. beef and took other measures to placate Washington. But these items are not enough to placate the new administration in Washington, Haenle said.

“The new U.S. administration has come away with a more realistic sense of the limits of Chinese cooperation, particularly in the lead up to the 19th Party Congress,” he said.

Analysts said the ruling Communist Party is unlikely to make too many concessions and appear weak in its negotiations with Washington ahead of the crucial Communist Party meeting later this year.

 
…

A Ghanaian teenager wanted to develop a video search engine that could challenge the dominance of YouTube. As Faith Lapidus reports, he’s well on his way.
…

From recycled paint to rented jeans, businesses large and small are looking at ways to cut waste, use fewer resources and help create what has been coined a “circular economy” in which raw materials and products are repeatedly reused.

Unilever, Renault, Google and Nike are some of the companies starting to move towards a circular business model, experts say.

Cities too – including London, Amsterdam and Paris – are looking at how they can shift to a circular economy, which means reusing products, parts and materials, producing no waste and pollution, and using fewer new resources and energy.

London’s Waste and Recycling Board last month published a road map for how the city as a whole could make the shift, thereby cutting emissions and creating jobs.

“As London grows it faces unprecedented pressure on its land and its resources. If we are to meet these challenges, moving London to a circular economy will be vital,” Shirley Rodrigues, London’s deputy mayor for environment and energy, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

The city would likely need less land and infrastructure to manage waste, freeing up space for housing and saving up to 5 billion pounds ($6.5 billion) in infrastructure costs. The shift could generate 40,000 jobs, including 12,500 new jobs across London, she said.

It would also cut harmful greenhouse gas emissions.

“It is widely accepted that the circular economy has the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions … through using less resources to make products in the first place and releasing less gases from energy generation, for example,” Rodrigues said.

“This can also be achieved through using resources more efficiently by extending the life of products and through the sharing of goods,” she added.

PwC, which offers audit, tax and consulting services, is going circular, and offering advice about this to its clients, who number 26,000 in Britain with more overseas.

The company uses cooking fat from its canteens and other kitchens to fuel its offices, it re-uses and remanufactures office furniture where possible and donates the rest to charity, and when its computers and phones need upgrading – a frequent occurrence – they send them to another company which resells them.

‘Walk the talk’

Bridget Jackson, PwC’s head of corporate sustainability, is looking at everything from office carpets to recycled wall paint to see how to cut the company’s waste and use of resources. Even worn out company uniforms are taken apart and reused.

“There are big cost savings, there’s reputational benefits from being responsible, and it is a topic which is of a lot of interest to our employees,” Jackson said.

“We are often giving advice to clients about how they can make their operations more efficient and be more sustainable, and we try to walk the talk,” she said.

Some companies are looking for ways to become less reliant on raw materials because they fluctuate in price and become harder to source.

That can mean recycling aluminum for cars, old trainers for sportswear, and others are looking at reusing parts.

Many have developed ways to lease products – including jeans, lighting and photocopiers – to customers who return them when they want to upgrade.

London authorities are hoping that architects will increasingly design buildings which can be taken apart at the end of their lives and the materials and components used again.

“I think increasingly, everything that we do will be seen through the lens of a circular economy,” said Wayne Hubbard, chief operating officer of the London Waste and Recycling Board.

Experts say change is happening in pockets.

“We’re still in the early stages where you see some businesses, some cities, national governments playing around with these ideas and … starting to make moves towards a circular economy,” said Ashima Sukhdev, head of governments and cities at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. “I’m very hopeful that London will become a circular economy.”
…

More steps to free up trade globally have been taken since Donald Trump was elected than measures to restrict it, the World Trade Organization said, despite concerns his administration would introduce a raft of punitive rules to protect U.S. jobs.

The WTO’s global monitoring report, debated at a trade policy review on Monday, covers October 2016 to May 2017.

“The report shows an encouraging decrease in the rate of new trade-restrictive measures put in place — hitting the lowest monthly average since the financial crisis,” WTO Director-General Roberto Azevêdo said in a statement.

The semi-annual report, largely coinciding with the period since the election of U.S. President Donald Trump, showed that the 164 WTO members put 74 new restrictive measures in place, including tariffs, customs regulations and quantitative restrictions, with an impact of $49 billion of trade.

At the same time, they took 80 steps to help trade, such as cutting tariffs or simplifying customs procedures, affecting a much bigger $183 billion of trade.

Restrictions peaked in 2011

Trade-restrictive steps peaked at 22 per month in 2011, roughly twice the level in the period of the latest report.

During the period under review, the United States introduced new restrictions including a provisional duty on Canadian softwood lumber, suspecting it of being unfairly priced.

It also brought in “Buy America” provisions to ensure that, subject to some conditions, state loan funds are not used for water infrastructure projects unless all the steel used in the project was produced in the United States, the WTO report said.

Liberalized trade

Trump had also liberalized trade by scrapping broadband privacy rules, allowing Internet service providers to commericalize user data without explicit permission from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, the report said.

China, routinely the WTO member most often accused of unfair pricing and illegal subsidies, had introduced new restrictions with a cybersecurity law, requiring data generated in China to be stored in China, and a film production law, requiring Chinese movies get two-thirds of the screen time at Chinese cinemas.

But it also eased approval requirements for foreign-owned banks to invest in Chinese banks and to supply some investment banking services in China, the WTO report said.
…

Thailand’s justice ministry froze some of former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s bank accounts, the ministry and her legal team said on Monday, in relation to a $1 billion fine imposed by the ruling junta over her administration’s rice-subsidy program.

She has filed a court petition to revoke the freezing of her bank accounts and to grant an injunction to suspend asset seizures, saying they were unlawful.

Yingluck, whose government was ousted by the junta in a 2014 coup, will deliver a closing statement in a separate criminal case over the rice subsidies next week.

The program, which helped Yingluck sail to victory in a 2011 election, bought rice from farmers at above-market rates and distorted global prices but proved popular with rural voters.

Finance Ministry permanent secretary Somchai Sujjapongse told reporters on Monday that government committees submitted details of 12 bank accounts which belong to Yingluck to the Legal Execution Department, which then took action.

Yingluck received a formal notice about her frozen accounts from the department on Monday, her legal team said.

Yingluck declined to comment when contacted by Reuters.

Her supporters have accused the courts of bias in frequently ruling against Yingluck and her family members.

The rice scheme was a policy engineered by Yingluck’s brother, former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was toppled in a 2006 coup and lives abroad, to avoid a two-year prison sentence from 2008 for graft in a land purchase case.

Thaksin won the hearts of voters in the populous northeast and the north but made enemies among the powerful, military-backed Bangkok elite.

In 2015, a military-appointed legislature banned Yingluck from politics for five years after finding her guilty of mismanaging the rice scheme.

The Supreme Court will give its verdict in the criminal case against Yingluck on Aug. 25.

Yingluck, who says the trial against her is politically motivated, faces up to 10 years in prison if she is found guilty of negligence over her role in the scheme.
…