Catégorie : Business News

• Trump’s lawyers allege there was juror « misconduct » at his NY hush-money trial.
• Details of the allegations, which Trump hopes will void his conviction, are not being released.
• Manhattan prosecutors called the allegations « unsworn, unsupported, heresay. »

One day after Donald Trump lost his 11th-hour bid to void his hush-money conviction, a juror « misconduct » battle is brewing, according to a newly-public series of court filings in the case.

The heavily-veiled dispute began with a December 3 letter, in which the president-elect’s lawyers told the trial judge, New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, that « the jury in this case was not anywhere near fair and impartial. »

Nearly two-thirds of the 15 page letter is redacted, but in it, defense lawyer Todd Blanche — Trump’s pick for deputy attorney general — complained to Merchan about « extensive and pervasive misconduct » that « violated President Trump’s rights under the federal Constitution and New York law. »

Details of the alleged misconduct, and even whether it concerns a single juror or more than one, are redacted. The letter demands that the misconduct be considered as evidence in Trump’s yet-resolved request that Merchan void the case in the interest of justice.

The defense followed up their December 3 letter to the judge with two more dated December 5 and 9. Both asked that the December 3 letter be made public in redacted form, a request opposed by prosecutors with New York Attorney General Alvin Bragg.

Prosecutors responded December 9 by noting that Trump’s misconduct claim « consists entirely of unsworn allegations, » based on « hearsay and conjecture. »

As part of Monday’s 41-page denial of Trump’s most recent dismissal effort, Merchan responded by saying he would only consider Trump’s misconduct claims if they were formalized in a motion.

This story is developing, check back for more information.

• Investment tactics often require big buy-ins and high fees.
• New tech is lowering the price of entry in fields like direct indexing and private markets.
• This article is part of « Transforming Business, » a series on the must-know leaders and trends impacting industries.

Investing like a billionaire comes with a high price tag. But thanks to technology, the barriers to these elite opportunities are starting to crumble.

Consider direct indexing, a strategy favored by the rich to lower taxes by selling underperforming stocks and using the losses to offset other gains. These personalized portfolios used to be out of reach of the merely affluent, requiring steep account minimums. Over the past five years, direct indexing has exploded as technological advancements have made it worthwhile for wealth managers to offer the services to Main Street customers. The account minimum for Fidelity’s FidFolios, for example, is only $5,000.

« Direct indexing has become accessible at a different level of wealth than it has been in the past, » said Ranjit Kapila, the copresident and chief operating officer of Parametric. « That wouldn’t have been available or possible without the technology trends we’ve had to be able to do this level of computation at scale in a cost-efficient manner. »

Parametric, the pioneer of direct indexing, is also moving downstream. By adopting fractional-share investing, Parametric lowered the minimum for its core product to $100,000 from $250,000. The firm plans to offer a direct-indexing product with fewer customization features for $25,000 in 2025.

Private markets face steeper hurdles. This opaque field was traditionally reserved for deep-pocketed investors like pension funds and ultrarich individuals. But now investors have more access to financial results for funds and privately held companies as data providers race to meet their needs. Machine learning and AI have made it easier for these firms to extract and analyze data.

BlackRock views this data as the great equalizer and has grand ambitions of indexing these opaque private markets. The asset-management giant agreed this summer to acquire the data powerhouse Preqin for $3.2 billion.

« We anticipate indexes and data will be important to future drivers of the democratization of all alternatives, » BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said on a conference call. « And this acquisition is the unlock. »

Leon Sinclair, Preqin’s executive vice president, argued that with the number of public companies dwindling, it’s imperative for mass-affluent investors to get better access to private markets.

« Clearly there’s more, deeper, better sources of funding for private companies that could stay private for longer, » Sinclair said. « I think it’s fair that the mass affluent can — in the right way — be brought along on that journey to get exposure to that part of the mosaic earlier. »

Investing in automation for a competitive edge

Kapila described these technological developments as part of a trend in wealth management to capture customers before they make it big.

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« There’s a desire by financial advisors to try and engage investors earlier in their wealth-accumulation cycle, » Kapila said.

Parametric, acquired by Morgan Stanley in 2021, operates in a competitive arena. Thanks to a wave of similar acquisitions, Parametric faces well-capitalized rivals such as BlackRock’s Aperio and Franklin Templeton’s Canvas. Industry stalwarts like Fidelity and upstarts like Envestnet also want a piece of the action.

Kapila said the need to compete on scale and fees required Parametric’s technology to be as efficient as possible.

« It’ll be harder, » he said. « We have to do many, many more accounts to really drive growth in assets, etc. But those challenges are exciting to me as a technologist. »

To meet that need, Kapila is pushing Parametric to develop more automated products, such as Radius, which launched this year. Radius constructs equity and fixed-income portfolios and runs simulations to identify the best selections for portfolio managers. He plans to launch more cloud-native tools, which are easier to scale and manage, for other asset classes in 2025 and 2026. Parametric is also piloting generative-AI tools to onboard accounts more efficiently.

Clients’ expectations are also rising. There’s demand for Parametric’s tax benefits but with actively managed strategies rather than indexes, he said, spurring partnerships with asset managers.

Parametric recently launched an offering that allows customers to pick equities off strategies from the financial-advisory and asset-management firm Lazard.

To stay ahead of the curve, Preqin is developing more sophisticated products. Last year, the UK firm launched an Actionability Signal that uses machine learning to identify private companies likely to be open for investment.

« The sole focus on public information for certain tasks around valuation and risk management are not really going to be the way that people do this, » Sinclair said. « We’re moving much more to a world where real proprietary private information at the asset level, which is transactionally oriented, is available to people. »

In June, his division launched a data tool that analyzes $4.8 trillion worth of deals across 6,500 funds. This database can be used in a slew of ways, from backing up valuations in negotiations to identifying which financial factors, such as revenue growth or debt paydown, contributed the most value to a successful deal.

With the rise of generative AI, Sinclair expects that users will be able to interpret data with more ease using natural language commands.

« I think you’ll see that be more prominent across the industry where people expect to interact with large data sets in really natural common ways, » he said. « We think all that will probably start to be visible over the coming years. »

Tech is the first step to narrowing education gaps

On average, retail investors allocate just 5% of their portfolios to alternative investments. If BlackRock successfully indexes private markets, it could go a long way toward boosting that percentage.

However, Sinclair said more work is required to help mass affluent investors feel comfortable investing in private markets. As someone who grew up working class and was only introduced to finance in college, he knows there is an education gap to overcome.

« To get Joe Bloggs very excited and comfortable with committing capital, they need to be able to understand what the different basis of those returns are, » Sinclair said.

He added: « I think it’s in the industry’s interest to enable those new sources of capital, to bridge the gap in understanding, to bridge the gap in analytics, to bridge the gap in frequency of reporting, to make that an easier journey for people to go on. »

• I’ve always been a perfectionist, pushing myself to the extremes for success.
• I felt like a failure when I became a mother, so I had to shift my perspective.
• I now want my daughter to embrace failure and be resilient.

I am a trifecta of eldest daughter stereotypes: overachiever, people-pleaser, and perfectionist. I have always been a rule follower, and as a teenager, I rarely challenged my Indian immigrant parents‘ strict rules.

By some combination of nature and nurture, I channeled these traits into academics in high school, spending inordinate amounts of time obsessing over my grades (especially that one B+ that ruined my high school valedictorian dreams).

Academic success became the cornerstone of my self-esteem as I entered college, and my priorities reflected this. I turned down invitations to socialize, travel, and explore in order to study, study, and then study some more. I lost more sleep worrying about a possible B or C grade than over developmentally appropriate partying.

Even though my perfectionism helped me get into graduate school and pursue my career of choice as a psychologist, by my 20s, I knew intellectually that putting all my self-worth eggs in the external achievements basket was a recipe for disappointment and anxiety.

However, without a constructive perspective on failure, I was unmotivated to take risks. What I didn’t realize until later was that my fear of failure would also affect my parenting.

Achieving my highest professional goal left me unfulfilled

After earning tenure at my university, I was euphoric but soon felt restless. I didn’t understand why the achievement was so anticlimactic, but with the help of my therapist, I discovered that I wanted something more, something more meaningful. It turned out that after having spent my entire adult life firmly in the child-free zone, I wanted to have a baby.

A few years later, at age 38, I got pregnant. At the time, I was working six days a week, so I couldn’t do my usual overpreparation by reading dozens of books about pregnancy and parenting. I told myself that this was actually a blessing in disguise because it forced me to curb my overachiever tendencies.

Well, even if I had read a library of books on parenting, I would not have avoided the inevitable uncertainty of being a parent. I struggled with breastfeeding, as many mothers do, and in my postpartum period, I filtered this experience through my default lens of success vs. failure. I carried guilt about my breastfeeding challenges for many months, counting them as failures.

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A lactation consultant transformed my perspective on parenting

Thankfully, the next day, my daughter’s pediatrician referred me to a lactation consultant to whom I will forever be indebted.

She met with me via Zoom, and her long white hair and confident smile instilled hope. She normalized my feelings of failure, imparted an attitude of experimentation and grace, and helped me refocus on the task at hand. She helped me see that what really matters is learning how to be the parent that my daughter needs, not the parent that I or others think I should be.

Of course, this is no easy task. The lexicon of modern parenting styles continues to grow. At the same time, both parents and youth are struggling with mental health, and social media glorifies success. Our educational system further reinforces the connection between self-worth and achievement through grades.

I hope to set a good example for my daughter

While we work on changing our systems and culture to be more compassionate, there are many immediate ways to foster resilience in ourselves and our children.

Some of the strategies I’ve been implementing include trying things that I’m not good at. I recently took a satire writing class and won’t be pitching The Onion anytime soon. I’m also allowing myself to meet an 80% standard on any task that is not related to a current priority and practicing grace toward myself, my husband, and my daughter.

My hope for my daughter has always been that she sees her innate worth reflected in the love of her family and support system and that she is equipped with the tools to face challenges with confidence and courage. Now I know that this starts with me.

• My family moved to Alaska for my husband’s job.
• I went into labor a month early, and our hospital couldn’t treat him.
• We flew to Washington state to receive care and my husband was able to come with us.

When my family and I decided to move to Alaska for my husband’s job, we didn’t know I’d be newly pregnant when we eventually arrived at our island home.

My husband began teaching at a small university campus in southeast Alaska, and we enrolled our daughter in pre-K. We made some lovely friends, and I set up a writing desk in a corner of the master bedroom, with views of the Tongass National Forest out the window.

I thought I was ready to welcome an infant to this new life we’d embarked on — but I didn’t expect to go into labor early.

The doctors recommended flying down south

When my water broke at 35 weeks and five days, I had a sinking feeling: it was too soon. I gave birth to a seven-pound boy the next day, and the doctors and nurses were initially optimistic.

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He was big — that was a good thing. But he began to have trouble breathing almost right away, and within a few days, it became clear that our small hospital didn’t have the capacity to treat him. « If I were you, » the pediatrician said gravely, « I’d fly south. »

We did. My son and I were loaded into a Lear Jet and flown to Washington state, where we spent most of the month in a succession of neonatal intensive care units. But he and I are not the heroes of this story: that title goes to my husband.

When it became clear that we’d have to be medically evacuated out of Alaska, Steve left the hospital and packed me a bag. He searched for flights so he and our 5-year-old could join the baby and me in Washington the next day. He coordinated with my mom, who flew in from across the country, and he picked her up at SeaTac. He found a hotel near the hospital and spent those weeks sharing a room with his preschooler and his mother-in-law — like I said, a hero.

He worked remotely

In the course of packing up our lives for a trip of unknown duration to a destination 750 miles away, Steve also packed up his work. Our baby was born just before the start of the spring semester. Steve was able to start the semester remotely, thanks to a supportive campus director and staff and a long history of remote teaching in Alaska, which accommodates students in rural villages and towns across the state.

Each night in the hotel, Steve would stay up long after our daughter went to bed, preparing lessons, grading papers, and engaging asynchronously with students’ discussion posts.

What this meant, practically speaking, was that during an incredibly challenging time, Steve and I were able to confer about everything from our son’s medical advice to our daughter’s big feelings. We were even able to find moments of levity and joy together, like when we took our daughter to the therapy pool at the children’s hospital and watched her diving under the warm water to retrieve little plastic sharks. In other words, we were able to be a family.

I know it wasn’t easy for Steve to work from a hotel room. Nor was it easy for him to focus on his job when there were so many critical decisions that we had to make daily. Sure, it was hard on me, too — but everyone seemed to recognize that. I was treated like a queen.

Everyone gave me credit, but he deserved it too

In one of the hospitals, I had access to my own private bedroom, where I could sleep for a few hours while the baby slept. I was also given daily coupons for the Starbucks downstairs. In another hospital, I was able to order meals on demand since I was a breastfeeding mother.

My husband, on the other hand, was mostly ignored. By the end of our time in the NICU, I could read the exhaustion on his face. He started to tell me what a good job I had done, but I cut him off. I didn’t need the compliment, but I thought maybe he did, so I said it: « This was hard on you, and you did an amazing job, and I’m so glad you were here. »

I’m grateful to a lot of people for their help during that month: the friends who cleaned out our fridge and then delivered soup, fresh bread, and flowers when we arrived home; the doctors and nurses who were diligent and kind; my mother and my daughter, both of whom made sacrifices of their own during that stressful month.

But mostly, I’m grateful to my husband, who made it possible for us to get the best care for our son without breaking up the family into little pieces. I hope when our son grows up, he becomes the same kind of man.

• Palantir CEO Alex Karp joked the software giant was like a « cult » — minus the sex and drugs.
• He says Palantirians tend to be « snobby » about their intellect and aren’t easily persuaded by orders.
• « My success has been getting Palantirians to believe that my ideas are theirs, » Karp says.

Palantir CEO Alex Karp acknowledged that working at the company can feel a bit like a « cult. Employees share a like-minded drive that can occasionally raise eyebrows from those outside, he said.

« It’s a rare cult with no sex and very little drugs — and we’re not poisoning anyone, » he joked during an interview with investor Stanley Druckenmiller. Karp spoke about his coming book, « The Technological Republic. »

Cofounder Peter Thiel is an « artist » when it comes to appointing leaders, Karp said, and attracting top engineering talent has always been the company’s strong suit.

The founding team started by calling their smartest friends, and the talent pool quickly compounded. Early employees tended to be « very high-mission, very high rigor, very low pay, very high-equity — we lived together, » Karp said. « It just was a really cool vibe, and there was nothing like it. »

The company was « hated » by the outside venture capital world, Karp said — but it was a welcome dynamic that reminded him of his childhood. Karp’s parents were unusual, but it was a happy home. (He’s previously described them as hippies who took him to protests.) And if outsiders considered his parents « freaks, » Karp said, that just made them « even happier. »

Today, Palantirians are « snobby » when it comes to intellect — though not about where they went to school, Karp said. They’re also « not convinced by orders. » The culture is one of low authority that prizes self-starters.

« My success has been getting Palantirians to believe that my ideas are theirs, » Karp said, adding that lateral hiring can be difficult at the company, where respect is hard-earned.

It’s also a relatively small team of 3,600 employees, and Karp doesn’t harbor ambitions of massively scaling the head count — thanks in no small part to AI, which has meant « you can power whole industries with 100 people, » he said.

Palantir did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Palantir has had an explosive year, with its stock up around 350% so far this year. In a recent earnings call, Karp attributed the company’s growth to an AI revolution and said its success had silenced longtime critics.

A San Francisco jury found Nima Momeni guilty of second-degree murder in the fatal stabbing of Cash App creator Bob Lee, local news station KTVU reported.

Momeni was accused of killing Lee in the early morning hours of April 4, 2023.

Prosecutors successfully argued to the jury that Momeni stabbed Lee three times with a knife he took from his sister’s kitchen set.

Prosecutors said Momeni planned the killing after learning Lee introduced his sister to a drug dealer who drugged and sexually assaulted her, Fox News reported.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated.

• Rahm Emanuel reignited one of the longest-running debates about Obama’s legacy.
• Emanuel said more Wall Street bankers should have faced justice.
• Now Biden’s US ambassador to Japan, Emanuel is considering a possible run to lead the Democratic Party.

Former Obama White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel said on Tuesday that it was a mistake that more top Wall Street executives didn’t pay a price for their role in the 2008 financial crisis.

« Not only was no one held accountable, but the same bankers who engineered the crisis were aggrieved at the suggestion of diminished bonuses and government intervention, » Emanuel wrote in a Washington Post op-ed. « It was a mistake not to apply Old Testament justice to the bankers during the Obama administration, as some had called for at the time. »

Emanuel, Biden’s US ambassador to Japan, is eyeing the potential of returning to politics by running to become the next chair of the Democratic National Committee. In his column, Emanuel said the Democratic Party has been « blind to the rising sea of disillusionment. »

« When Donald Trump declared, ‘I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution,’ he was channeling a nation’s fury, » Emanuel wrote. « The online cheerleading for the killer of a health-care insurance CEO in New York City is just more evidence of this seething, populist anger. »

In a subtle rebuke of Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign, Emanuel said the nation is not looking for rosy optimism in a time of great instability.

« Campaigns of joy in an era of rage don’t win elections, » he wrote.

Emanuel’s comments reignite one of the longest-running debates of the Obama era: why more top-level executives were not prosecuted in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. Kareem Serageldin, a former top official at Credit Suisse, was the only top banker to receive a sentence connected with The Great Recession. Progressives, including Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent, have said the lack of prosecutions is a « clear indictment of our broken criminal justice system. »

Former Attorney General Eric Holder has said that the DOJ didn’t have the needed evidence.

« I think you have to understand, if we could have made those cases, we certainly would have, » Holder told NBC late-night host Seth Meyers in 2016. « These are the kind of things that are career-defining. People come to the Justice Department to make these kind of cases. But given the statutes we had to work with and the burdens of proof we had to meet, we were simply unable to do that. »

A former mayor of Chicago, Emanuel is a polarizing figure for some in the Democratic Party. He ditched a 2018 reelection campaign for a third term amid signs that his unblemished electoral streak might be squelched. Obama’s choice of Emanuel as his first chief of staff surprised some observers who saw the Illinois native as an embodiment of political insiders for a president who ran to shake up the nation’s capital. He is widely regarded as a key force behind the passage of the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, Obama’s singular domestic achievement.

Emanuel’s younger brother, Ari, is a Hollywood titan and CEO of Endeavor, which owns World Wrestling Entertainment and the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

The race to lead the Democratic Party during Trump’s second administration is particularly crowded. Until Emanuel formally enters the field, the three major candidates are former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, Wisconsin Democratic Party chair Ben Wikler, and Ken Martin, chair of the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party, are also in the running.

The next Democratic leader will have a high-profile role, given that Republicans will have complete control over Congress.

• I swear by a few items to help make my solo trips more convenient.
• My portable tripod allows me to capture photos of myself without relying on help from strangers.
• My other must-haves include a back-lotion applicator, first-aid kit, and portable charger.

As a travel writer, I’m often taking off by myself — as often as 15 times a year.

Because I typically travel without a partner, I make sure to pack a few essential items to make my trips easier, safer, and more enjoyable.

Here are seven things I don’t leave for a solo trip without.

• I attended one of Dolly Parton’s famous dinner shows, Hatfield & McCoy Dinner Feud.
• My party of two spent $165 on the multicourse, two-hour dining experience.
• The dinner show was very entertaining, and our meal was delicious, making the price tag worth it.

During a recent visit to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, I checked out Dolly Parton‘s Hatfield & McCoy Dinner Feud show.

I’d been to her nearby Dollywood theme park many times while in the area — and Parton’s other dinner shows — but this was my first time visiting this particular venue.

Hatfield & McCoy Dinner Feud is loosely based on the real-life feuding families from the 19th century. Operating since 2011, the two-hour experience features a live show and multicourse meal housed in an extravagant theater.

Adult seats start at about $60 each, though visitors can pay more for VIP perks. Reservations can be made online, over the phone, or in person at the box office.

I booked two adult tickets in advance for $135. Here’s what the dinner show was like.

• Alex Karp pursued a Ph.D. and invested on behalf of wealthy European clients before founding Palantir.
• The secretive and controversial big-data company went public in 2020 and recently posted strong quarterly earnings.
• Karp is an outspoken CEO who hasn’t held back in defending the company against critics.

Alex Karp, longtime CEO of data mining company Palantir, has been taking a victory lap on the heels of the company’s latest blowout earnings and rising stock price.

Palantir, which creates software to manage, analyze, and secure data, saw its stock hit an all-time high earlier this month.

Karp, who has been CEO since 2004, is known as an unusual leader, even by Silicon Valley standards. He pursued a Ph.D. in philosophy before joining the startup and sometimes works from a barn.

He and the company have courted controversy over the years, and he’s known to be outspoken in defending the company’s work with government agencies and the military, saying at a recent talk that he’s proud « the death and pain that is brought to our enemies is mostly, not exclusively, brought by Palantir. »

Here’s how the 57-year-old Karp got his start, took the helm of the secretive startup, and built it into a multi-billion-dollar company.