Ivanka Trump is in hot water for her business practices for the second time in as many weeks, this time for a report from the Guardian detailing alleged workers’ rights abuses.
Over a dozen employees at Trump’s Subang, Indonesia, factory told the outlet they’re being paid the lowest minimum wage in Asia to work a job that requires many of them to endure verbal abuse and long stretches of time away from their children. Read more (6/13/17)
Eric Trump’s signature charitable foundation has been funneling huge amounts of cash intended to benefit children with cancer into the for-profit Trump Organization, potentially violating federal and state laws on taxesand charitable foundations, Forbes reported Tuesday.
Eric Trump, who is now co-head of the Trump Organization with his older brother Donald Jr. has run the Eric Trump Foundation for years.
The organization’s signature event, an annual golf invitational, has provided the “vast majority” of the more than $11 million it has raised.
According to Forbes, filings show Eric Trump’s foundation eventually paid out more than $1.2 million to the Trump Organization for use of the courses; golf charity experts told the site that “the listed expenses defy any reasonable cost justification for a one-day golf tournament.” Read more (6/6/17)
The president was elected on a platform that promised to “drain the swamp.” A new report offers yet another data point showing Donald Trumpis not sticking to that campaign promise.
Since taking office, Trump has met with more than 270 executives, 122 of them from corporations that paid a combined nearly $90 billion in fines to the federal government since 2010, according to analysis by Washington watchdog group Public Citizen.
The analysis shows Trump is meeting with some of the leading CEOs in the United States, including Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, accounts for more than $28 billion of the fines.
Leaders of other large banks, including Citigroup and HSBC, that were fined for legal and regulatory violations during the financial crisis have also met with the president. Read more (6/5/17)
It looks like President Donald Trump finally did something to really piss off Elon Musk. The Tesla CEO tweeted Wednesday he “will have no choice but to depart councils” in the event the president withdraws from the Paris climate agreement.
Two senior U.S. officials told CNN on Wednesday he is expected to withdraw. Meanwhile, Trump tweeted he would announce his decision regarding the agreement “over the next few days.” Read more (5/31/17)
President Donald Trump is expected to pull the United States out of the historic Paris climate agreement on Wednesday, according to a report by Axios that was later confirmed by CBS News.
According to the reports, specific logistics on how are still being arranged by a team that includes EPA administrator Scott Pruitt.
The Paris agreement, in which the U.S. pledged to lower its greenhouse gas emissions 26% by 2025, was formally signed by 195 countries in December 2015. The pact is the world’s largest effort to reverse the damaging effectsof man-made climate change. Read more (5/31/17 9 AM)
At least 365 companies, including fossil fuel titans like ExxonMobil and BP, support sticking with the Paris Agreement on climate change. Trump, the pro business president, doesn’t seem to care.
Wednesday reports indicated the president is planning to pull to the U.S. out of the landmark agreement.
The move contradicts the desires of Exxon officials, who recently wrote a letter to the White House saying the U.S. is “well-positioned to compete” with the Paris Agreement in place. Read more (5/31/17)
Once again, a member of President Donald Trump’s administration is in hot water over potentially unethical conduct.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) sent a letter to the director of the Office of Government Ethics alleging that Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin may have violated an ethics agreement that prohibits him from promoting his own business interests.
Wyden said the alleged violation came during an interview with Mike Allen, a co-founder of the start-up news website Axios, when Mnuchin plugged The Lego Batman Movie. The movie is being produced by Mnuchin’s company, Ratpac-Dune Entertainment.
“I’m not allowed to promote anything that I’m involved in,” Mnuchin said during a live interview with Allen on Friday, according to the letter. “So I just want to have the legal disclosure, you’ve asked me the question and I am not promoting any product. But you should all send your kids to Lego Batman.”Read more (3/27/17 4:21 PM)
According to court records, back in 1980, Trump employed undocumented Polish workers to demolish the building that occupied the site where he would erect Trump Tower.
“The men were putting in 12-hour shifts with inadequate safety equipment at subpar wages that their contractor paid sporadically, if at all. A lawyer for many of the Poles demanded that the workers be paid or else he would serve Trump with a lien on the property.”
Trump has long acknowledged that undocumented workers helped build Trump Tower, but he continues to deny he knew about it at the time.
According to testimony and depositions, Trump was personally involved in hiring the workers and paying (or, more accurately, not paying) them. Read more (2/13/17 5:20 PM)
Nordstrom pulled Ivanka Trump’ products last week.
Trump wasn’t happy about it and tweeted against the department store, raising concerns he was using his power to bully a private business.
Nordstrom seems to have had the last laugh.
Nordstrom ended the day with a share price of $44.46 on Wednesday, a nearly 5% jump over the day’s starting price of $42.48, Businessweek’s Joshua Green noted on Twitter. Read more
Trump announced on Jan. 11 a plan to leave management of his businesses completely in order to eliminate the perception of financial conflicts of interest — and put the matter behind him.
As Mic has reported, legal scholars found the plan inadequate because Trump would continue to own the businesses and therefore could profit from them.
Now, a ProPublica investigation is suggesting that Trump hasn’t even taken the basic steps that he said he would take at last week’s conference.
According to ProPublica, Trump is still listed on business filings as the sole authorized representative on several of the companies he owns, and some of the paperwork haven’t been updated in “years.” Read more
On Thursday morning, Trump tweeted out to his 19.6 million followers in support of buying stuff from outdoors clothing company L.L.Bean.
The tweet appears to be in response to Linda Bean, the granddaughter of L.L.Bean’s founder, decrying anti-Trump protesters on Fox News
Over on Twitter, Trump’s call to “Buy L.L.Bean” already seems to be having a reverse effect.
Almost immediately, people announced that they’d never buy from the company again. In fact, they plan to #BoycottLLBean.“
In a statement, L.L.Bean insisted that Linda Bean doesn’t speak on behalf of the entire company.
The post ended with: "L.L.Bean does not endorse political candidates, take positions on political matters, or make political contributions. Simply put, we stay out of politics." Read more
Trump tweeted early Wednesday morning that he was in the process of crafting legal documents to leave the Trump Organization completely
The Dec. 15 date falls less than a week before the Electoral College will meet to choose the president.
As critics have pointed out, even if Trump does “leave” the company, there’s still a big conflict if his children run his business in his stead.
It’s particularly thorny if they remain active in his presidency — as they have so far, with positions on his transition team.
But even if they step away from his government, that would not solve the fundamental ethical problem.
As the Washington Post’s Anne Applebaum pointed out on Twitter, leaving his company would have to be only the first of many steps toward meaningful divestment. Read more
Quietly daydreaming about starting your own company? Before you get too excited, though, you should know what you are up against: About half of small businesses do not make it to their fourth year.
We looked at businesses that soared and failed, and listened to serial entrepreneurs about what they wish they had known when they were starting up. Here are their secrets.
If you are a sole proprietor, find B2B partners — don’t reinvent the wheel.
You may be offering your one-of-a-kind rum-dipped peanut-doodle cookies to market, but that doesn’t mean you need to build your own store and construct your own vending machines to sell them. Better to rely on existing infrastructure and expertise.
Be prepared: It will take longer to launch than you think — and there are no days off.
Contrary to what Tim Ferris is selling, there is no four-hour workweek for budding entrepreneurs.
“No one ever told me that I would be trading my 50-hour workweek for a 100-plus hour workweek when I first started my company,” Roger Bryan, of Enfusen Digital Marketing, told the Muse. “The one piece of advice I would give new entrepreneurs is to plan on investing all of your time and then some if you plan on being successful.”
Protecting yourself from liability — and getting insurance — can’t be an afterthought.
If you are selling food and someone gets sick; if you are giving advice and someone loses money; if you are selling a product and it is defective and hurts someone — you are liable.
Setting up a limited liability corporation separates you (and your personal money and assets) from your company’s money. Someone cannot come after your personal assets when trying to sue the business.
Competition is good and advisers are a must.
Startup activity is growing: Entrepreneurship, as measured by revenue and number of employees, is up in 2016, according to the Kauffman index of startup activity. That follows an upward swing that started in 2015; in 2014 the startup activity index was at its lowest point in the last 20 years. This should motivate — not discourage you.
Marketing isn’t what you think it is.
Let’s say your business is struggling and you have a little extra cash. Should you put it toward marketing or investing in technology? The smart money is on technology — and innovation.
The emoluments clause forbids office-holders from accepting compensation from foreign governments.
“No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.”
