Survey: Class divide causes trust gap over institutions like government and media - Axios

Illustration: Rebecca Zisser/Axios

Established institutions like the media and government are no longer seen as competent or ethical enough to address crises like climate change and health care, according to Edelman's 2020 Trust Barometer study. So businesses are leading the way.

Between the lines: The survey shows a stark class divide — a growing gap in institutional trust between wealthier, more educated and better informed people vs. the rest of the population.

For the first time, a record number of developed countries, including Australia, France, Germany and the UK, are experiencing double digit divides in trust between the informed class and the mass population.

Around the world, business is considered the most trusted institution. In the U.S., there are plenty of examples of business filling the void left by other institutions.

• BlackRock CEO Larry Fink surprised Wall Street last week when he released his annual letter to CEOs and clients announcing that it would make sustainability its new standard for investing.
• In August, 181 of the nation’s top CEOs agreed to embrace a new business model in which driving shareholder value is no longer their sole business objective. Rather, service to society, communities and employees would become a top priority.

Yes, but: Even though people around the world say they increasingly trust corporations to solve problems, they also say they don't trust capitalism.

• 57% of people globally believe that capitalism as it exists today "does more harm than good in the world." The percentage of people who think capitalism is working for them is down year over year by 3%.

Declining trust in media also contributes to the trust gap between the informed public and the public at large, according to the survey.

• 57% of people globally believe that the media they use is "contaminated with untrustworthy information." and the vast majority (76%) worry about false information or fake news being used as a weapon.

The bottom line: “We are living in a trust paradox,” said Richard Edelman, CEO of Edelman in a press release. “Fears are stifling hope, as long-held assumptions about hard work leading to upward mobility are now invalid.”

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2020-01-20 10:45:00Z
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Oil prices jump as Libyan pipeline shutdown cripples output - Aljazeera.com

Oil prices jumped on Monday after two large crude production bases in Libya began shutting down following a military blockade, setting the stage for crude flows from the significant energy exporter to be cut to a trickle.

Tensions in Iraq also contributed to the jump in crude prices.

More:

Brent crude futures were up by 75 cents, or 1.2 percent, to $65.60 by 01:09 GMT, having earlier reached $66.00 a barrel, the highest since January 9. The West Texas Intermediate (WTI) contract was up by 60 cents, or 1 percent, at $59.14 a barrel, after rising to $59.73, the highest since January 10.

In the latest development in a long-running conflict in Libya, where two rival factions have claimed the right to rule the country for more than five years, the National Oil Corporation (NOC) on Sunday said two big oilfields in the southwest had begun shutting down after forces loyal to renegade military commander Khalifa Haftar closed a pipeline.

If exports are halted for any sustained period, tanks for storage will fill within days and production will slow to 72,000 barrels per day (bpd), an NOC spokesman said. Libya has been producing about 1.2 million bpd recently.

"The situation there [eastern Libya] remains very chaotic. Four important oil terminals have been blocked by pro-Haftar protesters including armed groups and militiamen," Al Jazeera's Mahmoud Abdelwahed in Tripoli reported.

Also on Sunday, foreign countries agreed at a summit in Berlin on Sunday to shore up a shaky truce in Libya, even as the talks were overshadowed by the latest blockade.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters that the Berlin summit, attended by the main backers of the rival Libyan factions, had agreed that a tentative truce in Tripoli over the past week should be turned into a permanent ceasefire to allow a political process to take place.

"The oil and gas sector is the lifeblood of the Libyan economy and the single source of income for the Libyan people," NOC Chairman Mustafa Sanalla said on Friday. "They are not cards to be played to solve political matters."

“Prices are likely to remain capped, given the market’s reactive nature to fade geopolitical risk quickly,” Stephen Innes, Asia Pacific strategist at AxiTrader, said in a note.

In Iraq, security guards seeking permanent employment contracts blocked access to the al-Ahdab oil field, prompting a production halt, according to an official who couldn’t be identified, Bloomberg reported. 

Protesters closed large roads in cities across Iraq, escalating their campaign for political change, as the clock ticked down the final hours to their deadline for the government to meet their demands for reform.

The spike in oil prices is a rational response to the news on Libya and reflect the jumpy nature of the market, but the temporary stoppage of production in Iraq is more significant, Michael McCarthy, chief market strategist at CMC Markets in Sydney, told Bloomberg. The $60 mark for WTI is providing “pretty solid resistance,” he added.

Oil prices surged earlier this month after Iran retaliated for the US killing of General Qassem Soleimani before retreating back to where they were in mid-December as the market shrugged off the threat of further disruptions. Members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) have spare production capacity after cutting supply to prop up prices, analysts say, while non-OPEC output is expected to climb this year, adding a buffer to potential outages.

SOURCE: Al Jazeera and news agencies

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2020-01-20 04:47:00Z
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Capitalism seen doing 'more harm than good' in global survey - Reuters

LONDON (Reuters) - A majority of people around the world believe capitalism in its current form is doing more harm than good, a survey found ahead of this week’s Davos meeting of business and political leaders.

FILE PHOTO: The national flags of several countries and a flag with the logo of the World Economic Forum (WEF) fly at the roof of the congress center during preparations for the annual WEF meeting in the Swiss Alps resort of Davos, Switzerland January 19, 2020. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

This year was the first time the “Edelman Trust Barometer”, which for two decades has polled tens of thousands of people on their trust in core institutions, sought to understand how capitalism itself was viewed.

The study’s authors said that earlier surveys showing a rising sense of inequality prompted them to ask whether citizens were now starting to have more fundamental doubts about the capitalist-based democracies of the West.

“The answer is yes,” David Bersoff, lead researcher on the study produced by U.S. communications company Edelman.

“People are questioning at that level whether what we have today, and the world we live in today, is optimized for their having a good future.”

The poll contacted over 34,000 people in 28 countries, from Western liberal democracies like the United States and France to those based on a different model such as China and Russia, with 56% agreeing that “capitalism as it exists today does more harm than good in the world”.

The survey was launched in 2000 to explore the theories of political scientist Francis Fukuyama, who after the collapse of communism declared that liberal capitalist democracy had seen off rival ideologies and so represented “the end of history”.

That conclusion has since been challenged by critics who point to everything from the rising influence of China to the spread of autocratic leaders, trade protectionism and worsening inequality in the wake of the 2007/08 global financial crisis.

‘INTO THE VOID’

On a national level, lack of trust in capitalism was highest in Thailand and India on 75% and 74% respectively, with France close behind on 69%. Majorities prevailed in other Asian, European, Gulf, African and Latin American states.

Only in Australia, Canada, the United States, South Korea, Hong Kong and Japan did majorities disagree with the assertion that capitalism currently did more harm than good.

The survey confirmed a by-now familiar set of concerns ranging from worries about the pace of technological progress and job insecurity, to distrust of the media and a sense that national governments were not up to the challenges of the day.

Within the data there were divergences, with Asians more optimistic about their economic prospects than others across the world. There was also a growing split in attitudes according to status, with the affluent and college-educated much more likely to have faith in how things were being run.

Of possible interest to corporate leaders gathering in Davos this week was the finding that trust in business outweighed that in governments and that 92% of employees said CEOs should speak out on the social and ethical issues of the day.

“Business has leapt into the void left by populist and partisan government,” said Edelman CEO Richard Edelman. “It can no longer be business as usual, with an exclusive focus on shareholder returns.”

Writing by Mark John; Editing by Alexander Smith

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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2020-01-20 05:08:00Z
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Royal Caribbean cruise line says Indiana grandfather leaned out window, so knew it was open before his grandda - Chicago Tribune

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2020-01-19 14:45:00Z
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First 2020 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray auctioned for $3 million - Fox News

2020 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray revealed

The eighth-generation Chevrolet Corvette Stingray is the first mid-engine version in the model's history, and promises supercar performance at a bargain basement price less than $60,000.

And you thought dealer markups on hot new cars were big.

(Barrett-Jackson)

The rights to the first 2020 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray off the production line were auctioned at the Barrett-Jackson event in Scottsdale, Ariz., on Saturday night for $3 million. The base price for the model is just $59,995.

As the first-ever mid-engine Corvette, the coupe is set to be one of the most historic examples of the model ever built. NASCAR team owner Rick Hendrick was the winning bidder. Hendrick has one of the largest Chevrolet sports car collections in the world and has purchased several significant examples at past charity auctions.

GM CEO Mary Barra with auction winner Rick Hendrick. (Barrett-Jackson)

All of the proceeds from the sale were earmarked for the Detroit Children’s Fund, which is aimed at improving the city’s schools. A red pre-production prototype stood in for VIN001 on the auction block, while the actual car will be black with a black interior, red seat belts, GT2 performance seats, performance data recorder and outfitted with both the 3LT trim and Z51 performance packages.

The price Hendrick paid sets a record for a new Corvette sold at a charity auction, eclipsing the $2.7 million that the final front-engine Corvette went for at a Barrett-Jackson event last summer.

Production of the 2020 Corvette is expected to begin in February.

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2020-01-19 13:30:37Z
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'You're stealing our water': Germans protest against Tesla gigafactory - Yahoo Finance

Demonstrators hold anti-Tesla posters during a protest against plans by U.S. electric vehicle pioneer Tesla to build its first European factory and design center near Berli

By Riham Alkousaa

BERLIN (Reuters) - Around 250 Germans on Saturday protested in the outskirts of Berlin where electric car startup Tesla is planning to build a gigafactory, saying its construction will endanger water supply and wildlife in the area.

The U.S. carmaker announced plans last November to build its first European car factory in Gruenheide, in the eastern state of Brandenburg.

Politicians, unions and industry groups have welcomed the move, saying it will bring jobs to the region, but environmental concerns drove hundreds of locals to the streets on Saturday.

"We are here, we are loud, because Tesla is stealing our water," protesters called.

Saturday's protest came after a Brandenburg water association on Thursday warned against "extensive and serious problems with the drinking water supply and wastewater disposal" for the proposed factory.

Anne Bach, a 27-year-old environmental activist, said Tesla's plans published earlier this month showed it would need more than 300 cubic meters of water per hour which would drain the area's declining reserves.

"I am not against Tesla ... But it's about the site; in a forest area that is a protected wildlife zone. Is this necessary?" Bach said.

"In such an ecological system like the one here and with the background that climate is changing, I cannot understand why another location was not selected from the beginning," said Frank Gersdorf, a member of "Citizens' Initiative Gruenheide against Gigafactory", a local group that organised Saturday's protest.

Environmentalist protests in Germany have previously halted and delayed major companies' plans such RWE's lignite mining at the Hambach forest, near Cologne, which has become a symbol of the anti-coal protests.

Saturday's protest, which Gersdorf and Bach said developed spontaneously from a 50-people forest walk demonstration, highlighted the deforestation of around 300 hectares to build the factory and its impact on wildlife, including birds, insects and bats.

People were also protesting against an expected "enormous" increase in traffic on a nearby highway and through the villages.

Next to the protest, on the other side of the street, around 20 people carried banners welcoming Tesla in their village, with children chanting, "We are here, we are loud, because Tesla is building our future."

Bernd Kutz, a Gruenheide local, said Tesla would bring improvement to the area, create jobs and give chances to young people.

"I am here because I don't understand those demonstrators who shout and show us the finger," Kutz said. "Why has it always to be negative?"

(Reporting by Riham Alkousaa; editing by Christina Fincher)

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2020-01-19 04:37:04Z
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At antitrust hearing, Boulder company says ‘bully’ Amazon cut prices, demanded repayment - FOX 31 Denver

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1. At antitrust hearing, Boulder company says ‘bully’ Amazon cut prices, demanded repayment  FOX 31 Denver
2. PopSockets, Sonos, and Tile Ask Congress to Rein in Big Tech  WIRED
3. Anticompetitive complaints against Google, Apple, Amazon, Facebook  Business Insider
4. Watch Sonos, Tile, and PopSocket testify against tech giants today  The Verge
5. Sonos, Popsockets, Tile and Basecamp lay out gripes with Big Tech in an antitrust hearing  Axios
6. View full coverage on Google News

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2020-01-18 13:42:00Z
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