An American Beauty abroad
Little Venezuelan girls are now even more inclined to grow up to be enthusiastic supporters of state intervention in the country's economy. There's a long list of subsidized products – oil and many foods and consumers staples – and for others, the government decrees what the prices should be. And this holiday season, joining the list is America's plastic sweetheart, Barbie.
President Nicolas Maduro has ordered the toy be a centrepiece of this year's "Operation Merry Christmas," an annual attempt to stymie speculators who put the squeeze on parents desperate to please their little ones, the Associated Press reports.
Dolls such as the "I Can Be Cheerleader" Barbie and "Spa to Fab" Barbie are flying of the shelves for as little as 250 bolivars, or about $2.50 (U.S.) at the widely used black market conversion rate.
The move is unlikely to sit well with some: Barbie is seen by leftists as a training tool for capitalist consumerism, and Mr. Maduro's mentor, the late president Hugo Chavez, once denounced "the stupidity of Barbie."
Feminists, meanwhile slam Barbie for presenting an unrealistic image of womanhood – though in Venezuela, they're fighting a pretty uphill battle on that one: The country is the undisputed queen of the international beauty pageant circuit with a whopping 21 wins to boast of.
MikeBloomberg-is-very-touchy.com
If you're in the market for a website domain name, you'll be interested to hear that about 400 of them have just come back on the market after Michael Bloomberg instructed his lawyers to abandon a purchase last week, as Reuters reported.
Hard to imagine why the billionaire and former New York mayor would want all those names in the first place. Apparently Mr. Bloomberg was keen to protect his legacy and reputation, and so it's no surprise that bloombergfamilyfoundation.nyc and officialmikebloomberg.nyc appeared on the list.
But it seems his lawyers were pretty, well, proactive when it came to covering all the bases. Among the domain names they had on their shopping list were MikeBloombergIsADweeb.nyc, bloombergfail.nyc, and michaelbloombergistooshort.nyc, according to an online registry.
It must have been some brainstorming session when Mr. Bloomberg's lawyers sat down to try and cover all the bases to come up with these names:
Bloomberg-is-a-loser – have we got that?
Yeah, got it already. What about bloomberg-is-a-wiener?
No, we haven't, put that one down. Also bloomberg-moron, and bloomberg-is-an-idiot, and bloomberg-is-an-ass – they're pretty obvious.
Goldman anoints new partners
Twitchy Goldman Sachs bankers waited eagerly by their phones on Wednesday for a call from boss Lloyd Blankfein or president Gary Cohn, as the pair informed 78 lucky employees worldwide that they had won a coveted partnership.
The Wall Street Journal reported the 78 names formed the second-smallest of the biennial graduating classes since the bank went public in 1999.
Candidates are thoroughly vetted through Goldman's "cross-ruffing" process, Business Insider explains, during which lengthy conversations are held to discuss the value each has added to the firm, and the degree to which they embody Goldman's "Business Principles." Few details of the secretive process are known.
Those who pass through the initial screening move on to the next level, for the evening wear and swimsuit competitions.
Partners will take home a base salary of about $900,000 a year, before bonuses, which can reach multiples of that.
Nice work, if you can get it.
Bankers are such romantics
"Don't tell my wife this, but being made partner was the greatest moment of my life." Former Goldman Sachs partner, speaking to eFinancial News
PWYC money managers
Investors have always grumbled about the fees they pay to money managers, and one of those compensation structures has been getting a lot of attention in Canada lately as regulators debate whether to ban the trailing commissions that are an integral part of financial advisers' incomes.
Now, an online investment house that threw open its (virtual) doors this week is trying to appeal to that sentiment. Aspiration, an L.A.-based based money manager, is more or less a busker in the financial world with its pay-what-you-can (PWYC) fees, as MarketWatch reports.
"At Aspiration, you decide what to pay us. No, we're not joking. And we're not crazy (we hope)."
Jay-Z and champagne
Superstar rapper Jay-Z last week followed in the footsteps of the late Victor Kiam. Though he's not buying a shaver maker, he decided he liked obscure champagne brand Armand de Brignac so much, he bought the company.
The story goes back to 2006, as Quartz explains, after a snub by the makers of Cristal, the hip-hoppers' brand of choice. In an interview with The Economist at the time, then head of the label Frédéric Rouzaud expressed his ambivalence about how Cristal had been associated with the rap set.
"What can we do? We can't forbid people from buying it. I'm sure Dom Pérignon or Krug would be delighted to have their business."
From that point, Jay-Z swore off Cristal on a matter of principle and switched his allegiance to Armand de Brignac. Well, partly on principle, anyway.
Sovereign Brands was pleased to pay him millions in cash and equity in the company to promote the brand, and now that it's hot, he's taking full ownership.