REI CEO Says Closing On Black Friday Is A 'Radical Idea'

REI will be sacrificing one of its top business days when it closes its 143 retail stores on Black Friday to encourage customers to spend time outside.

CEO Jerry Stritzke told HuffPost Live on Wednesday that the decision to close up shop for the day wasn't "made lightly," and admits that "it's a bit of a startling idea from a retail perspective."

"[We] certainly had to think hard about it. This is new news. I haven't spoken to very many of my contemporaries about the issue, but I'm excited by the idea," Stritzke said. "I think it's intriguing that we can create this conversation [about] something so central to our brand and kind of who we are."

This is the first time REI will close on Black Friday, even though the day after Thanksgiving has historically been a "top 10 business day" for the company, according to Stritzke. However, the company's decision exemplifies some retailers' recent opposition to keeping stores open on what is traditionally a family holiday, and the day after.

Online shoppers will still be able to purchase items from REI on Black Friday, though they'll initially be directed to a blackout screen imploring them to explore the outdoors. Online sales aren't the initiative's priority, however.

"It's easier to leave [the website] on than turning it off," Stritzke explained.

Watch Jerry Stritzke's conversation with HuffPost Live in the clip above.

Want more HuffPost Live? Stream us anytime on Go90, Verizon's mobile social entertainment network, and listen to our best interviews on iTunes.

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Volkswagen Diesel Scandal Is Starting To Hit Company Where It Hurts

Volkswagen posted its first quarterly loss in at least 15 years on Wednesday and said the 6.7 billion euros ($7.4 billion) set aside to cover the costs of its rigging of diesel emissions tests was likely just a start.

The news came as the carmaker's new CEO was about to fly out to China with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other business leaders to promote trade in a major export market and try to limit the damage of a scandal that has rocked the auto industry.

Almost six weeks after it admitted using illegal software to cheat U.S. diesel emissions tests, Europe's biggest carmaker is under pressure to identify those responsible, fix up to 11 million affected vehicles and convince regulators, investors and customers that it won't make the same mistakes again.

The biggest business crisis in its 78-year history has wiped more than a quarter off VW's stock market value, forced out its long-time CEO and tarnished a business held up for generations as a model of German engineering prowess.

New CEO Matthias Mueller said on Wednesday the cost of the scandal would be "enormous, but manageable," without giving details. He said VW had hired consultants Deloitte to support an investigation by U.S. law firm Jones Day, and that those responsible would face tough consequences, without elaborating.

Mueller also said VW would focus more on profitability than sales volumes in future. His predecessor, Martin Winterkorn, set VW the goal of becoming the world's biggest carmaker by sales volumes, and critics have said this may have inadvertently led to the use of software that allowed VW to disguise the level of real toxic emissions in its diesel engines.

Though Mueller has promised far reaching change, some analysts and investors have questioned whether the company veteran is the right man to lead the overhaul, which they say needs greater openness from the family, local government and trade union interests that control the carmaker.

"That Volkswagen now finds itself in this current situation is something that some might say is not so surprising," said Yngve Slyngstad, the CEO of Norway's wealth fund which owns a stake in VW and has been a critic of its corporate governance.

He added it was too early to say whether the steps taken by VW's new leadership were enough, as his fund posted a quarterly loss on its investments in part due to the plunge in VW shares. 

BAD NEWS TO COME

VW reported a third-quarter operating loss of 3.48 billion euros, in line with the 3.47 billion loss forecast in a Reuters poll of analysts.

It set aside 6.7 billion euros in the July-September period to cover costs related to the scandal, up from the 6.5 billion announced a week after the cheating became public on Sept. 18.

As a result, the German group said it now expected its operating profit to drop "significantly below" last year's record 12.7 billion euros, even though its auto sales are seen matching last year's record 10.14 million deliveries.

The costs of the scandal so far are largely related to the refitting of affected vehicles, and CEO Mueller has said they are likely to rise due to regulatory fines and lawsuits.

"It is currently impossible to assess the legal risks connected with the diesel issue due to the early stage of the comprehensive and exhaustive investigations," VW said in its quarterly report. "As a consequence, corresponding provisions have not been recognized in the interim financial statements."

SOME COMFORT

Analysts took comfort in VW's robust balance sheet, however, suggesting it should be able to cope with the final bill for the scandal which some have said could reach 35 billion euros.

VW's net cash and liquid assets jumped 29 percent in the quarter to 27.8 billion euros after it sold a 19.9 percent stake in Suzuki Motor Corp (7269.T).

Reserves may keep growing in the fourth quarter when proceeds from a transaction involving VW's holding in financing company LeasePlan, valued at 3.7 billion euros, are expected to be booked, analysts said.

"We see it as a positive signal that VW has pretty much kept the provision (of 6.7 billion euros) for the scandal unchanged," London-based analyst Arndt Ellinghorst at Evercore ISI said.

"Together with the very strong net liquidity, this should reassure both equity and fixed income investors."

VW shares were trading up 1.1 percent at 106.3 euros at 1322 GMT.

VW has said it will speed up development of electric and hybrid vehicles in the wake of the crisis, and the head of its namesake brand told reporters at the Tokyo motor show the company's next flagship model would be an all-electric vehicle.

However, Herbert Diess added the carmaker remained committed to diesel engines, amid warnings from some analysts that the technology - which tends to produce less carbon dioxide than gasoline engines and accounts for about half of vehicle sales in Europe - could be irreparably damaged by the VW scandal.

"We still believe in the future of diesel engines because they are in the trade-off of emissions and CO2, they are a very good option for many vehicles," he said.

Excluding costs of the scandal, VW said it still expected the group operating margin to come in between 5.5 and 6.5 percent this year, after 6.3 percent in 2014.

Group deliveries, which also include premium brands Audi and Porsche, slid 1.5 percent in September to 885,300 vehicles and fell 3.4 percent in the third quarter to 2.39 million, causing VW to drop behind Toyota in nine-month global auto sales charts after briefly overtaking its Japanese rival to become world No.1 three months earlier.

 

(Additional reporting by Camilla Knudsen in Oslo and Naomi Tajitsu in Tokyo; Writing by Mark Potter; editing by Susan Thomas)

J. Crew Will End On-Call Shifts For U.S. Workers

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — J. Crew has agreed to end on-call scheduling at stores nationwide, following similar moves by several other major retailers, New York's attorney general said Friday.

In April, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's office wrote to 13 retailers questioning the practice of keeping workers on call for shifts on short notice. The letter also cited possible violations of New York's requirement to pay hourly staff for at least four hours when they report for work.

"Workers deserve protections that allow them to have a reliable schedule in order to arrange for transportation to work, to accommodate child care needs and to budget their family finances," Schneiderman said Friday. The company has agreed to provide one week of advance notice about schedules at all its New York stores, he said.

Senior Vice President Maria Di Lorenzo said J. Crew ended on-call shifts nationally this month. The on-call shifts had helped the company deal with unexpected staff absences and schedule changes for product deliveries, she said. The retailer began discussing possible changes 10 months ago, has disabled the on-call feature from its scheduling software and now will fill needed slots on a voluntary basis, which may present some challengers for managers, she wrote in a letter to the New York attorney general.

"Further, J. Crew has strict anti-retaliation policies," Di Lorenzo wrote. "Consistent with those policies, J. Crew will not retaliate against associates who do not volunteer to cover these shifts."

That follows announced agreements confirmed by Bath & Body Works and affiliate Victoria's Secret, Abercrombie & Fitch and Gap Inc. Williams Sonoma said it's also ending the practice.

Urban Outfitters has agreed to end on-call shifts at its New York stores, according to the attorney general.

 

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Federal Judge Rips DOJ For Letting Corporate Lawbreakers Off Easy

A federal judge, disgusted by cushy deals that allow lawbreaking corporate bosses to avoid jail time, used a ruling in a little-known corruption case to tear into Department of Justice prosecutors this week. 

In an 84-page opinion Wednesday approving a deferred prosecution agreement for ex-Army contractors indicted in a bribery and kickback scheme, U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan, of the District of Columbia, slammed federal prosecutors for striking a similar deal with General Motors last month.

Faulty ignition switches in GM vehicles killed at least 169 people. The company, accused of concealing the defect from regulators and lying about it to customers, agreed to pay a $900 million fine as part of a deferred prosecution settlement. No individual GM executive or employee has been prosecuted.

In his opinion in the case of the former Army contractors, Sullivan called the Justice Department's deal with GM "a shocking example of potentially culpable individuals not being criminally charged."

“Despite the fact that the reprehensible conduct of [GM's] employees resulted in the deaths of many people, the agreement merely ‘imposes on GM an independent monitor to review and assess policies, practices, and procedures relating to GM’s safety-related public statements, sharing of engineering data, and recall processes' plus the payment of a $900 million fine," Sullivan wrote.

Charges against GM will be dropped in as few as three years. The deal was criticized as a slap on the wrist -- the fine amounted to less than one-third of the automaker's 2014 profit. As USA Today noted in an editorial last month:  

"Individuals are deterred from wrongdoing by the prospect of going to jail, much more so than by the prospect of seeing the corporate treasurer pay money to the government."

Days before the settlement with GM, the Justice Department released an internal memo pledging to prosecute individual corporate employees for white-collar crime, rather than just the institutions that employ them. That memo came after years of harsh criticism that the department had failed to successfully jail even a single top finance executive in the 2008 financial crisis.

Deferred prosecution agreements are intended to give defendants a chance to clean up their act and rehabilitate. If they comply (and pay fines), the charges are dropped. 

Increasingly, Sullivan wrote, such offers are extended to corporations accused of criminal misconduct.

From 2000 to 2005, the government made "just over four" deferred prosecution agreements a year, Sullivan wrote. That number "increased dramatically" since, with a record number this year, the judge said. 

Sullivan called the Justice Department's reliance on deferred prosecution deals for corporations "disappointing" and said the department should grant the same lenience to individuals.

"People are no less prone to rehabilitation than corporations," Sullivan wrote. "Drug conspiracy defendants are no less deserving of a second-chance than bribery conspiracy defendants. And society is harmed at least as much by the devastating effect that felony convictions have on the lives of its citizens as it is by the effect of criminal convictions on corporations."

H/T: National Law Journal

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Even The Most Elite Women Are Subject To The Gender Pay Gap

A business degree, even from one from a top school in the country, won't be enough to protect women from the gender gap in compensation.

A report Bloomberg Businessweek published Tuesday found that the difference in pay for men and women swells as time goes by. Both groups leave their MBA programs earning about the same -- men's $105,000 to women's $98,000 -- but the split becomes more exacerbated years later. By the time they're six to eight years out of school, median compensation for men is $175,000, and $140,000 for women. For the latter, that rounds out to about 80 percent of men's paychecks, proving unfortunately that the roughly 78 cents women make to a man's dollar still holds up.

The study counters arguments that the pay gap between men and women results from a discrepancy in education and skills, Businessweek reporter Natalie Kitroeff told HuffPost Live on Wednesday. "We're looking at them coming out of the same schools, in the same years," Kitroeff said. "It was surprising to find that there was such a persistent gap, and we found this across every single industry."

Men gain the most ground in year-end bonuses. When those are excluded, the pay gap shrinks. Women who graduated Columbia's business school between 2007 and 2009, for example, earned a median of $170,000 in 2014, while men raked in $270,000. The difference in base salaries, though, was just $30,000.

The study's findings also reject the notion that the gap stems from women choosing to go into fields that pay less. Generally, men do enter the more lucrative industries, including consulting, real estate and finance, at higher rates -- 43 percent of men versus 32 percent of women -- but "even when women went into the highest-paying industries, they were paid less," Kitroeff said.

And let's not forget that the gender pay gap starts way before higher degrees. At the most elite colleges in the U.S., male alumni far outearn their female classmates, with Harvard men earning an average of $53,600 more than women 10 years after they start their undergraduate studies.

Price-Gouging Pharma CEO Refuses To Talk About Drug Prices On TV

Martin Shkreli, the Turing Pharmaceutical chief executive reviled for jacking up drug prices, doesn't want to talk about drug prices anymore.

But he does want to be heard.

The so-called "most hated man in America" wanted to appear Thursday on CNBC to defend rival Valeant Pharmaceuticals against a short-selling firm's report accusing the company of Enron-like accounting fraud. But when producers said they wanted to probe him about drug prices, too, he refused to go on air.

Scott Wapner, the host of CNBC's "Halftime Report," tweeted the story:

.@MartinShkreli wanted to come on @CNBC to defend $VRX. We said have to talk RX prices too. He said no. We said see ya. Tells u all u need..

— Scott Wapner (@ScottWapnerCNBC) October 22, 2015

This is the same @MartinShkreli who also insulted our star healthcare reporter @megtirrell on Twitter. I guess that tells you more...

— Scott Wapner (@ScottWapnerCNBC) October 22, 2015

His bait and switch thing is compete BS. What news organization would put that guy on and NOT ask about drug prices? Find me one.

— Scott Wapner (@ScottWapnerCNBC) October 22, 2015

Instead, it appears that Shkreli took his interview to Fox Business Network, Fox News' business and finance branch that has struggled to compete with CNBC for viewers. 

Will be on Fox Business News tomorrow, exclusively, with Maria Bartiromo @MariaBartiromo .

— Martin Shkreli (@MartinShkreli) October 22, 2015

CNBC @CNBC asks me to come on and talk $VRX. then they tell me they want to talk Turing. i tell them to pound sand. pic.twitter.com/z5RSXcvCwv

— Martin Shkreli (@MartinShkreli) October 22, 2015

It remains unclear why his opinion on the subject is worth pursuing. However, it's bound to be entertaining television. 

Uber Driver's Rape Sentencing Is Just The Latest Controversy For Company

A former Massachusetts Uber driver has been sentenced to 10 to 12 years in prison after raping a female passenger, adding to a growing list of Uber drivers accused of sexual assault.

Boston native Alejandro Done, 47, who pled guilty, was sentenced last Friday on charges including kidnapping, assault and battery, and aggravated rape, according to USA Today.

On Dec. 6, 2014, Done picked up a woman heading to her home in Cambridge. Done told the woman that she would have to pay him in cash. The two went to an ATM to withdraw money, then Done drove her to a secluded location, reported the Star Tribune.

Done kept the victim trapped in the car as he strangled and sexually assaulted her. 

The felon has previously been charged with five other unsolved sexual assaults that happened in the Boston area between 2006 and 2010. That case is still pending. Uber told USA Today that Done had passed a background check, and had no prior criminal record.

"The defendant preyed upon a young woman who trusted that he was who he portrayed himself to be," District Attorney Marian Ryan said in a statement. "I encourage the public to take precautions when using any ride-sharing service."

In another recent case, in South Carolina, a sixth-grade teacher, who was moonlighting as an Uber driver was arrested on charges of kidnapping and forcible rape. Patrick Aiello, 39, allegedly assaulted a 23-year-old woman in August. The woman managed to escape from the car and was struck by another one in the process.  

A former Uber driver in India, Shiv Kumar Yadav, was convicted of raping a female passenger Tuesday. 

Many states in the U.S. are demanding that Uber ensure its background checks are more thorough. Last year, prosecutors in California filed a complaint against the ride-hailing service for failing to adequately vet drivers, some of whom have been convicted sex offenders, kidnappers and murderers.

Last April, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker proposed a bill giving his state oversight in background checks. Uber has backed the legislation proposal, and hosts a petition on its website in favor of the governor's plan, which has more than 30,000 signatures.

Uber faces a litany of other problems. Last weekend, drivers called for a strike and demanded better pay and higher fares. The service has been suspended in Spain for creating unfair competition and it is banned in Italy for not adhering to licensing rules. French taxi drivers, who were upset by having to compete with Uber, took to the streets last summer, smashing cars and setting tires on fire.

IHOP Tweeted A Joke About Breasts. It Didn't Go Too Well.

A year ago, IHOP got the Internet’s attention when it sent out a tweet with a "hip new voice." 

Pancakes on fleek.

— IHOP (@IHOP) October 21, 2014

“Who knew IHOP was so hip? The pancake chain has found its voice on Twitter, and it sounds an awful lot like a teenage hip-hop fan,” quipped Adweek at the time.

Since then, the breakfast haven has been using the social media platform as a way to engage younger customers, frequently sending out cheeky and slang-filled tweets. 

Pancakes, you look good, won't you back that stack up.

— IHOP (@IHOP) October 7, 2014

Is it worth it, let me work it. I put my fork down, flip it and reverse it. pic.twitter.com/5IoqsqoqUA

— IHOP (@IHOP) October 8, 2014

DEEZ are NUTS pic.twitter.com/eqfq1gFm01

— IHOP (@IHOP) October 9, 2015

The strategy has been working in the company’s favor, with some of their posts garnering thousands of retweets. This week, however, IHOP was skewered for going a step too far.

On Sunday, the restaurant chain posted a photograph of a stack of pancakes with the caption: “Flat but has a GREAT personality.”

The backlash to the post was swift, with several IHOP customers expressing outrage at what they said was too racy a tweet.

"Can't teach my Girl Scouts that casual misogyny is okay," wrote Twitter user Laura Perkins Cox. 

Another user named Seamus Bellamy criticized the pancake house for "snark" and "sexism." 

Someone on the @IHOP social media team don' gonna get fired, yo. pic.twitter.com/ddT2z7nJGX

— Andrew Husband (@AndrewHusband) October 18, 2015

@IHOP my son follow this account, this is ridiculous

— mike (@FARTDAUGHTER) October 18, 2015

Uh @IHOP I really must advise against. pic.twitter.com/wFKzP1YDSR

— Katie Mack (@AstroKatie) October 18, 2015

There were other netizens who responded with humor -- and utter bafflement.  

Something is going on with IHOP on Twitter and I hope I never find out what it is

— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) October 18, 2015

@IHOP my seven beautiful sons saw this tweet and asked me what it means. what do I tell them? they are all in their thirties

— Hot Food Ma (@crushingbort) October 18, 2015

.@IHOP I like my breakfast fertile, submissive to man's God-given authority, lush, and available 24 hours per day. Please advise.

— Old Hoss Radbourn (@OldHossRadbourn) October 18, 2015

What th-- ?!? https://t.co/VCdcbEqymi

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) October 18, 2015

This is a...weird brand tweet https://t.co/RS9zXw1MUr

— Ben Dreyfuss (@bendreyfuss) October 18, 2015

The company has since taken down the post and issued an apology.

Earlier today we tweeted something dumb and immature that does not reflect what IHOP stands for. We're sorry.

— IHOP (@IHOP) October 19, 2015

IHOP isn’t the only fast food company that has been using social media as a means to reach a younger customer base. Several other big chains, including Taco Bell and Burger King, have employed similar strategies.

 

Also on HuffPost:

The Secret Behind Norway's Electric Car Revolution

Norway is speeding past other countries in the electric car race.

The trick, it seems, is setting high vehicle taxes and offering generous exemptions.

By stripping electric cars of a 25 percent sales tax and a registration tax that averages more than $12,000 depending on  a vehicle's weight and polluting fossil fuel emissions, the Nordic country has zoomed past its original projections for swapping out its gas-burning fleet for electrics, according to a report published Friday in The New York Times. 

Norway expected 50,000 of the country's 2.5 million registered private vehicles to run on electricity by 2017. Instead, it hit 66,000 last month, in addition to 8,000 gasoline-electric hybrids.

But what's most impressive is how Norway powers those electric vehicles: gushing rivers. Over 95 percent of the country's electricity is produced by hydropower, according to 2011 data from the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate, a government agency. 

As David Jolly wrote in the Times:

That makes Norway’s electricity cleaner and relatively cheap -- a further impetus for adopting e-cars. (A country where much of the electricity is generated by coal-fired power plants would not see as many environmental benefits from switching to electric vehicles.)

And all that despite the fact that fossil fuels have enriched Norway. The country -- which is not part of the European Union and uses its own currency, the krone -- is the world's seventh-largest producer of oil and third-biggest natural gas exporter. 

The issue with electric cars in the United States is they suck energy from a grid powered by burning fossil fuels. That increases their carbon footprint. Considering electric cars are meant to reduce global emissions and combat climate change, that's a problem.

In contrast with Norway, hydropower made up just 6 percent of U.S. electricity production last year, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Coal accounted for 39 percent, and natural gas hit 27 percent. 

Sorry Folks, But Standing Desks May Not Make You Any Healthier

You've probably heard that keeping your rear planted in your desk chair for hours on end may be as much of a health hazard today as smoking was for previous generations.

Prolonged sitting has been linked to an increased risk of heart disease, cancer and even premature death. But at least we have standing desks to combat the problem, right? Maybe not.

According to a new study, published online in the International Journal of Epidemiology on Oct. 9, standing at your desk may be no better than sitting, and that's because it's the being still that has the negative impact on your health. (Maybe it's time to replace your standing desk with a treadmill desk.)

For the study, the researchers monitored the behavior and health of 3,720 men and 1,412 women over the course of 16 years. Beginning in 1985, the London-based volunteers recorded how many hours a week they spent sitting.

At the end of the 16-year period, the researchers tallied the hours and then checked the National Health Service Central Registry and determined that 450 of the participants had died. But the researchers found no correlation between time spent sitting and mortality.

The findings challenge previous research showing that sitting for long periods can shorten your lifespan even if you exercise often.

"Any stationary posture where energy expenditure is low may be detrimental to health, be it sitting or standing. The results cast doubt on the benefits of sit-stand work stations," Dr. Melvyn Hillsdon, associate professor of Sport and Health Sciences at the University of Exeter in England and a co-author of the study, said in a written statement.

The researchers concluded that sitting itself won't kill you. Rather, a sedentary lifestyle in general may be what's harmful to your health. 

"Research is not black and white, and if a single study finds X or Y that doesn’t mean that this is the truth we should all go along with," Dr. Emmanuel Stamatakis, associate professor at the University of Sydney in Australia and a co-author of the study, said in an email. "The recent study findings are in disagreement with the rest of the literature and there must be a reason for this."

Also on HuffPost:

Square, Mobile Payments Giant, Just Filed For Its IPO

NEW YORK -- Square, the mobile payment firm co-founded by Jack Dorsey, on Wednesday filed for an initial public offering.

In a press release, Square said its shares would be listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "SQ." The company's Form S-1, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, did not specify the price of the shares or how many would be available for sale. Square hopes to offer up to $275 million in stock, though that amount may be subject to change. 

Based in San Francisco, California, the business is currently helmed by Dorsey, who is also the CEO of Twitter. Square offers peripherals for smartphones and tablets, allowing vendors to accept credit card payments, track their stock and send invoices.

The move is sure to send ripples through a financial world that has seen significantly fewer IPOs this year. No private U.S. companies valued at $1 billion or more -- so-called "unicorn" firms -- have gone public yet in 2015, according to The Wall Street Journal. Square was valued at about $6 billion a year ago, following a $150 million funding round.

The IPO filing comes more than a week after Twitter named Dorsey its permanent chief executive. The decision, just as Square was expected to go public, drew criticism from those who believe Dorsey's split attention will be blamed for future stumbles at the payments startup.

Even Square's SEC paperwork nods to the challenges Dorsey's dual responsibilities present.

"Jack Dorsey, our co-founder, President, and Chief Executive Officer, also serves as Chief Executive Officer of Twitter," Square wrote in its S-1. "This may at times adversely affect his ability to devote time, attention, and effort to Square."

Square will need all three.

The company processed $30 billion in payments from millions of merchants last year, and has begun offering business loans and payroll processing. But it's losing money. Its $104.5 million in losses in 2013 ballooned to $154.1 million in 2014. So far this year, Square was losing $77.6 million by the end of June, according to The Verge. 

To avoid withering under Wall Street's scrutiny, Dorsey will need to build out strong teams at both Square and Twitter, which lately faced its own ruthless probing by traders and analysts.

"To make something like this work, you have to have a world-class team around you," Sydney Finkelstein, management professor at Dartmouth College’s Tuck Center for Leadership, told The Huffington Post recently. "Effective leaders delegate. In this case, you probably have to delegate more than normal. … You have to be able to process in your brain two different worlds."

But -- despite Wall Street's obsession with quick, quarterly gains -- Dorsey said he plans to take a long-view approach to Square.

"As a public company our decisions will continue to reflect what we’ve done as a private one—we put our customers first," Dorsey wrote in the filing. "That means constantly asking the question: how can the financial system better serve people? We’ll measure ourselves by our commitment to take the long view and focus on building a company that creates value over decades and not just a few fiscal quarters out."

Economics Nobel Prize Winner Radically Redefined What It Means To Be Poor

Princeton professor Angus Deaton won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences on Monday for his work on consumption, income and poverty. 

Much of his work focuses on how to measure poverty around the world. The question of who is poor, he says, is very easy to determine at a community level. It's doable at a national level. But when you try to determine just who is poor worldwide, it's nearly impossible. Figuring out what poverty is globally is a big part of Deaton's work.

He has asked whether poverty should just be measured in terms of the question, "Do you have enough to eat?" or whether there are other factors that should play into the definition -- and whether those factors are different across different societies. 

Deaton wrote a very good (non-technical) essay about the difficulties of measuring poverty back in 2003. In it, he writes of all the different factors that have nothing to do with having enough food that go into determining if someone is poor around the world:

Even if you have enough goods, they are worth little if you are not healthy enough to enjoy them. Children who live in an unsanitary environment will obtain little nutritional benefit from the food that they eat if they continually suffer from diarrhea. More broadly, girls who are denied the opportunity to go to school experience yet another type of poverty, the poverty of not being able to read and to participate in activities that are only open to the literate. People are also poor in another sense if they lack the resources to participate fully in the society in which they live, who in Adam Smith’s term “are afraid to appear in public,” even if their incomes would be sufficient in some other society.

Deaton's 2013 book The Great Escape looks at the interaction between health and wealth over the last 250 years, and how the two in combination have contributed to the amount of inequality that we see today. Here's a small excerpt (taken from a longer excerpt posted by Cardiff Garcia), in which Deaton argues that income inequality has a huge effect on democratic outcomes, and is therefore a big problem: 

The very wealthy have little need for state-provided education or health care; they have every reason to support cuts in Medicare and to fight any increase in taxes. They have even less reason to support health insurance for everyone, or to worry about the low quality of public schools that plagues much of the country. They will oppose any regulation of banks that restricts profits, even if it helps those who cannot cover their mortgages or protects the public against predatory lending, deceptive advertising, or even a repetition of the financial crash.

To worry about these consequences of extreme inequality has nothing to do with being envious of the rich and everything to do with the fear that rapidly growing top incomes are a threat to the wellbeing of everyone else.

In this video, Deaton himself gives an overview of his work on the origins of inequality.

For more on Deaton and his work, see Monday's posts from Alex Tabarrok and Tyler Cowen.

Self-Driving Buses Are Coming, But Not To America (Yet)

Singapore said Monday that it plans to start rolling out self-driving buses sometime next year.

The Ministry of Transport designated almost 4 miles of road to test the buses.

"We hope to one day deploy a network of demand-responsive shared vehicles to form a new mobility system for intra- and inter-town travel," the government said in a statement on Facebook. "This will provide convenient point-to-point transport mode within towns, and help us rely less on private cars. In time to come, we also wish to have self-driving buses operating on fixed routes and scheduled timings to reduce the heavy reliance on manpower."

But the tiny city-state isn't the only place in East Asia actively pursuing self-driving public transportation.

In nearby China, bus manufacturer Yutong said last October that tests on its autonomous bus yielded successful results while driving on a 20-mile stretch between Zhengzhou and Kaifeng, in Henan province.

By contrast, the race to produce safe self-driving vehicles in the U.S. has focused on personal cars. Google's self-driving cars look like individual bug-like pods. Tesla, on the hand, has added autonomous features to its newest all-electric vehicles.

Urban Outfitters' Call For Free Labor Is Just Its Latest Shameful Move

No, Urban Outfitters. Just no.

The retailer's parent company, URBN, which also oversees Anthropologie and Free People, asked some of its salaried employees to volunteer at a fulfillment center in Pennsylvania in anticipation of a busy month, Gawker reported earlier this week. What this means is that employees at the URBN home office were being asked to work for free in order to help make sure customers got their orders speedily.

Reached for comment from The Huffington Post, the company said that employees were enthusiastic about the request:

[W]e received a tremendous response, including many of our senior management. Many hourly employees also offered to pitch in -- an offer which we appreciated, but declined in order to ensure full compliance with all applicable labor laws and regulations. The dedication and commitment of URBN employees are second to none, and their response to this request is a testament to their solidarity and continued success.

Urban had been making some progress on labor practices. The retailer announced Wednesday that it would end on-call scheduling in its New York stores. But clearly it still has work to do. 

The the chain doesn't have the cleanest record when it comes to cultural or political sensitivity, either. Here's a reminder of some other controversies Urban Outfitters has stirred in years past:

Supporting anti-gay agendas

CEO and founder Richard Hayne has donated $14,000 over the years to presidential hopeful Rick Santorum, who has been vocal in his opposition to gay marriage. In 2008, Urban Outfitters quickly discontinued a T-shirt that had the slogan "I support same-sex marriage."

Appropriating Native American culture

After releasing Navajo-themed clothes and accessories in 2011, Urban Outfitters was slapped by a lawsuit from the Navajo Nation for using its name on products. 

Commercializing the death of students

Someone at the the company actually thought it was a good idea to make sweatshirts emblazoned with "Kent State" along with some bloody-looking stains. Four students were killed and many others wounded in a shooting at that Ohio university in 1970. The retailer received immediate backlash and pulled the item from its site, claiming the stains were the result of discoloration and "natural wear and fray.”

Ripping off artists

Urban Outfitters has a long history of stealing other people's designs. It's lifted freely from jewelry sellers on Etsy and artists who are trying to sell their work online.

Stephen Hawking Says We Should Really Be Scared Of Capitalism, Not Robots

Machines won't bring about the economic robot apocalypse -- but greedy humans will, according to physicist Stephen Hawking.

In a Reddit Ask Me Anything session on Thursday, the scientist predicted that economic inequality will skyrocket as more jobs become automated and the rich owners of machines refuse to share their fast-proliferating wealth.

 

If machines produce everything we need, the outcome will depend on how things are distributed. Everyone can enjoy a life of luxurious leisure if the machine-produced wealth is shared, or most people can end up miserably poor if the machine-owners successfully lobby against wealth redistribution. So far, the trend seems to be toward the second option, with technology driving ever-increasing inequality.

Essentially, machine owners will become the bourgeoisie of a new era, in which the corporations they own won't provide jobs to actual human workers.

As it is, the chasm between the super rich and the rest is growing. For starters, capital -- such as stocks or property -- accrues value at a much faster rate than the actual economy grows, according to the French economist Thomas Piketty. The wealth of the rich multiplies faster than wages increase, and the working class can never even catch up.

But if Hawking is right, the problem won't be about catching up. It'll be a struggle to even inch past the starting line.  

Also on HuffPost:

Volkswagen's Top U.S. Executive Knew Company May Be Breaking Emissions Rules 18 Months Ago

BERLIN, Oct 8 (Reuters) - Volkswagen's top U.S. executive knew the carmaker might be breaking U.S. emissions rules as long as 18 months before it admitted cheating diesel tests to regulators, he will tell a panel of U.S. lawmakers on Thursday.

The admission by Michael Horn, in a written testimony to a congressional oversight panel a day ahead of Thursday's hearing, is likely to raise questions about why the German company did not act more quickly to tackle its wrongdoing.

Almost three weeks after it confessed publicly to rigging U.S. emissions tests, Europe's largest carmaker is under huge pressure to identify those responsible, fix affected vehicles and clarify exactly how and where the cheating happened.

The biggest business crisis in Volkswagen's 78-year history has wiped more than a third off its share price, forced out its long-time chief executive and sent shockwaves through both the global car industry and the German establishment.

"In the spring of 2014 ... I was told that there was a possible emissions non-compliance that could be remedied," Horn, President and CEO of Volkswagen Group of America, said in his statement published on a U.S. House of Representatives website.

"I was also informed that the company engineers would work with the agencies to resolve the issue," he said, without identifying the people providing him with the information.

It was not until Sept. 3, 2015, that Volkswagen told U.S. regulators it had installed so-called "defeat devices" in some diesel engines to mask their true level of toxic emissions. U.S. regulators made public the wrongdoing on Sept. 18.

Volkswagen has come under fire on both sides of the Atlantic for its handling of the crisis, with lawmakers, investors and customers saying it has been too slow to release information.

Analysts are still unsure how widespread the cheating was.

Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper reported on Thursday that Volkswagen's manipulation software was switched on in Europe.

The company has previously said that, while the software was installed in around 11 million diesel vehicles, mostly in Europe, it was not active in the majority of them.

Volkswagen did not respond to requests for comment.

IN-HOUSE

Volkswagen has suspended more than 10 senior managers, including three top engineers, as part of an internal investigation. It has also hired U.S. law firm Jones Day to conduct an external inquiry.

But some analysts have questioned whether new Chairman Hans Dieter Poetsch and new CEO Matthias Mueller, both company veterans, will introduce the sweeping changes in business practices they think are necessary to restore Volkswagen's reputation.

Poetsch said on Wednesday it would take "some time" to get to the bottom of the matter.

The company, controlled by the Piech-Porsche clan, is not drawing on outside public relations and restructuring experts to help with damage-limitation efforts or its plans for a new company structure, one source close to the board said.

"There's a strong tradition to handle such matters in-house," the source said, adding the company was also unlikely to draw on outside experts as it reviews investment plans and steps up cost savings to help meet the cost of the scandal.

UBS analysts have estimated Volkswagen could face a bill of around 35 billion euros ($40 billion) to refit cars, pay regulatory fines and settle lawsuits, though they also say this is more than factored into the stock price after its plunge.

The crisis has been a major embarrassment for Germany, which has for years held up Volkswagen as a model of the country's engineering prowess and looks to the car industry as a source of export income and an employer of more than 750,000 people.

Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel on Thursday urged Volkswagen to be pro-active in addressing its problems, but also said critics should not overstep the mark.

"There should not be a debate about the automotive industry or about diesel technology," Gabriel said after attending a meeting of Volkswagen's world workers council.

European carmakers rely heavily on diesel vehicles, which account for about a half of new sales in Europe compared with only a small fraction in the United States.

Horn, reaffirmed in his position by Volkswagen on Sept. 25, also said in his testimony Volkswagen had withdrawn its U.S. certification application for some model year 2016 vehicles over a software feature that should have been disclosed to regulators as an auxiliary emissions control device.

($1 = 0.8855 euros)

(Additional reporting by Reuters bureaus; Writing by Mark Potter; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)

How Jack Dorsey Can Keep His Chill While Running Two Companies

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Jack Dorsey has his plate full -- doubly full.

Twitter on Monday named him its permanent CEO, nearly four months after he took over as the interim chief executive following Dick Costolo's sudden departure.

The company he co-founded nine years ago is in flux, struggling to attract new users and make money. Shareholders clamored for Dorsey to stay in the position in large part because few other business leaders seemed qualified to meaningfully correct Twitter's course. 

But Dorsey is also the full-time chief executive of mobile-payments firm Square, a position he will keep in addition to heading up Twitter. Square is quietly preparing for an initial public offering -- a process that, judging from Twitter's own IPO, can become quite volatile.

That's a lot for anyone to take on. As much as he's going to need the people around him, Dorsey -- who's known to meditate and jog early in the morning and take long, meandering walks during the day -- will also need to turn inward for the tools to help him succeed in both roles.

Twitter is a social media company. Square processes credit card transactions. The two firms have little in common, which helps in a certain way -- perhaps there are few conflicts of interest. But the arrangement will require Dorsey's mind to be nimble. He'll navigate very different realities at the helm of each company.

"It's unusual and really challenging," Sydney Finkelstein, management professor at Dartmouth College’s Tuck Center for Leadership, told The Huffington Post.

Finkelstein said the people in Dorsey's professional inner circle will be crucial to him, perhaps more than they've ever been. 

"To make something like this work, you have to have a world-class team around you," Finkelstein explained. "Effective leaders delegate. In this case, you probably have to delegate more than normal. … You have to be able to process in your brain two different worlds."

Dorsey must also remain mindful of his own emotions to prevent himself from succumbing to stress and becoming reactionary.

“Oftentimes what we do is we withdraw and we tighten and we become reactive,” Janice Marturano, executive director of the nonprofit Institute for Mindful Leadership, told HuffPost. “That’s exactly the opposite of what we need to do during stressful times in our lives.”

Simple activities like napping, taking a walk and finding a quiet room to meditate for 10 minutes can be helpful. Some of this is undoubtedly part of Dorsey's routine already, but not everyone has time for that. Training the brain to take what Marturano calls “purposeful pauses” -- receding into the mind during a brief moment of free time -- can help keep a leader grounded, even when she or he is stretched thin.

“In times of real craziness, you have to be able to find your training that allows you to meditate with a cup of coffee, or with the two minutes you walk from this office to this meeting,” said Marturano, whose book Finding The Space To Lead was released recently in paperback. “Rather than texting along the way, you say, ‘I’m going to use that time for meditation.’”

To be sure, not everyone enjoys the perks of a chief executive whose net worth Forbes estimates at $2.2 billion. Many workers struggle as wages remain low. Nearly two million people in the United States work multiple part-time jobs, and nearly 1.6 million of those do not have a primary full-time job. That means many are likely disqualified from receiving health insurance coverage or other benefits as part of their compensation. The perks and privileges enjoyed by Dorsey and others in the executive set certainly make their struggle a bit less difficult.

Still, Marturano said the principles of mindfulness apply as much to workers stocking shelves for minimum wage as they do to someone running two large technology companies.

"We influence the people around us every day, so we're all leaders," she said. "It's about making the time to reflect." 

 

At This Rate, It'll Take 100 Years To Get Gender Equality At Work

Things are improving so slowly for women in corporate America that we aren’t going to achieve gender equality at the top for another 100 years, according to a report released Wednesday.

It's not for the reasons you might think -- i.e., it's not a “mommy issue.” Both women and men reported feeling strained by the competing pulls of work and family, according to the survey of nearly 30,000 workers at 118 North American companies. The survey was conducted by McKinsey & Company and LeanIn.org, a nonprofit focused on women's advancement founded by Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer at Facebook.

The big, ugly, hard-to-fix issue, the study suggests, is gender bias. That contradicts a lot of the conventional wisdom about why women don’t make it to the so-called C-suite -- the highest levels of a company where you find the jobs with “chief” in the title, like chief executive and chief finance officer. Only 17 percent of those lofty positions are held by women, according to the McKinsey/LeanIn survey. There are only 24 female CEOs on Fortune’s list of the 500 biggest companies in the U.S. That's an improvement from 1998, when there was just one woman on the list, but it still means that men hold the chief executive spot at over 95 percent of those businesses.

“Some of the biggest barriers are cultural and related to unconscious biases that impact company hiring, promotion, and development processes,” said Dominic Barton, global managing director of McKinsey & Company, in a press release. He's using the current corporate jargon for sexism at work.

These days, sexism has (mostly) moved beyond the crass discrimination of the "Mad Men" years, shape-shifting into something we now call unconscious bias -- the things a lot of us believe about women without even realizing it. These attitudes are harder to combat, or even prove, but they show up again and again in the research. A lot of people, for example, believe on some level that women are less competent than men. There's also something called a "maternal bias," in which mothers who do well at their job are disliked -- and kept from advancing -- because they're believed to be terrible parents. 

Women hold 45 percent of entry-level jobs at the companies surveyed, and their ranks thin out as you go higher. Only 27 percent of vice presidents at those companies are women, as are 23 percent of senior vice presidents and 17 percent of C-suite execs. These figures are a very slight improvement from 2012 (see the chart below). Very slight -- that’s where that 100-year estimate comes from. 

So what’s going on? First off, women aren’t quitting their jobs or “opting out.” In fact, the survey found that women, on average, quit their jobs at the same rates as men, or even less often. At the higher levels, women are more likely than men to stick around, the study found.

The issue is that women aren’t getting promoted at the same rate as men -- and at every step along the corporate ladder, women say they are less interested in becoming a top executive.

The reasons why are telling. For single women, the main reason they said they didn’t want to advance any higher at work was stress. And while women with children said the main reason they didn't want to advance was because of work and family pressures, stress came in at a very close second for that group.

This isn't a case of "women are uniquely unsuited for the corporate environment because of their families and stuff." For men with children, the difficulty of balancing work and family was also the top reason they weren't interested in holding a higher-ranking job -- 62 percent of men with children said that, compared to 65 percent of women with children. And mothers were 15 percent more interested in becoming a top executive than the women surveyed who didn’t have children.

“Historically, we thought women were less interested in promotions because of their concerns with family responsibilities,” Rachel Thomas, the president and co-founder of LeanIn, told The Huffington Post. “This study points to a new reason: There’s something in the workplace that’s more stressful for women. Women say stress and pressure is a top obstacle for them -- all women, not just mothers.”

The stress, Thomas suggests, comes from the bigger hurdles women face at the office. For example, there’s research showing that women are often believed to be less competent at their jobs than they really are, while men are often believed to be more competent than they are. Women have to prove themselves again and again.

There's also a Catch-22 involving personality: Women who are seen as competent are less likely to be seen as likable, and women viewed as more likable are less likely to be seen as competent, research has shown.

“We always say that women walk on a tightrope," Thomas said. "Men are not on that tightrope."

According to the report, “women are almost four times more likely than men to think they have fewer opportunities to advance because of their gender -- and are twice as likely to think their gender will make it harder for them to advance in the future.”

Yet most men surveyed said that women had equal or greater opportunities at work than men do.

"There’s a break between what people think and how they really understand the issue,” Thomas said.

LeanIn, of course, wants to change things. The group’s report contains a lot of good advice for companies looking to advance women:

1. Gather the data. Companies must systematically look at how many women they employ and how many women they promote. You need to be able to truly see the problem in order to fix it. Some companies, like Accenture and Ernst & Young, already do this.
2. Make it a priority. If leaders care about this, everyone else will, too. Get managers involved. Hold them accountable for achieving gender equality goals. Make sure employees know how to counteract bias. You see more companies like Facebook and Google doing unconscious bias training these days.
3. Create programs that actually help. At PricewaterhouseCoopers, for example, the performance review process is structured in such a way that it doesn’t hurt women who take maternity leave.

There’s no magic bullet on this issue, Thomas said. You can’t just create a “women’s networking group” or say you’re focusing on the issue and expect the problem to vanish.

The report also touches on the gender inequalities that exist in other areas of life. For example, women still report that they do more of the work at home, which undoubtedly adds to their stress. 

There are a lot of things companies need to do, Thomas said. “This is a big ship we’re trying to turn.”

Elon Musk Knows His Life Makes The Average Mortal's Head Spin

NEW YORK -- Elon Musk is a busy man, and he knows it.

At a Friday event announcing super-efficient rooftop solar panels, the SolarCity chairman, who also serves as chief executive of both Tesla Motors and SpaceX, conceded that he sometimes ponders what drives him to take on so much.

"It certainly does end up being a lot. I wake up and I'm like, where am I?" he said in response to a journalist's question during the gathering, held at the Nasdaq Marketsite in Times Square. 

His admission comes at an interesting time. 

Twitter seems poised to name co-founder and interim CEO Jack Dorsey its permanent chief executive. Dorsey also runs the mobile-payments firm Square. His appointment at Twitter has drawn comparisons to Musk and the late Steve Jobs, who served as chief executive of Apple and Pixar simultaneously.

The problem for Dorsey is that both his companies are at critical turning points. Twitter, struggling to attract new users, needs an overhaul. Square is gearing up for an initial public offering, after which the company will face the same short-sighted Wall Street scrutiny that dogs Twitter.

For Musk, that isn't as much of a problem. SpaceX, his space travel firm, is a private company. And, though Tesla is subject to Wall Street's whims, the company is firmly established.

"In the beginning I thought we would die," Musk said. "Now, I think we have a decent chance of making it." 

How the billionaire copes with the stress of his lifestyle is another story. While we know that Dorsey makes time each day to meditate, jog and take long walks outside, Musk hasn't spoken much about his wellness routines, other than to say he exercises once or twice a week.

Massive Data Breach At Experian Exposes Personal Data For 15 Million T-Mobile Customers

Experian, the world's biggest consumer credit monitoring firm, on Thursday disclosed a massive data breach that exposed sensitive personal data of some 15 million people who applied for service with T-Mobile US Inc.

Connecticut's attorney general said he will launch an investigation into the breach.

Experian said it discovered the theft of the T-Mobile customer data from one of its servers on Sept. 15. The computer stored information about some 15 million people who had applied for service with telecoms carrier T-Mobile during the prior two years, Experian said.

T-Mobile Chief Executive John Legere said the data included names, addresses, birth dates, Social Security numbers, drivers license numbers and passport numbers. Such information is coveted by criminals for use in identity theft and other types of fraud.

"Obviously I am incredibly angry about this data breach and we will institute a thorough review of our relationship with Experian," T-Mobile Chief Executive John Legere said in a note to customers posted on the company's website. "But right now my top concern and first focus is assisting any and all consumers affected."

The Experian breach is the latest in a string of massive hacks that have each claimed millions - and sometimes tens of millions - of customer records, including the theft of personnel records from the U.S. government this year, a 2014 breach on JPMorgan Chase and a 2013 attack on Target Corp's cash register systems.

It is also the second massive breach linked to Experian. An attack on an Experian subsidiary that began before Experian purchased it in 2012 exposed the Social Security numbers of 200 million Americans and prompted an investigation by at least four states, including Connecticut.

Experian on Thursday said it had launched an investigation into the new breach and consulted with law enforcement.

The company offered two years of credit monitoring to all affected individuals. People, however, said that they did not want credit protection from a company that had been breached.

Legere responded by promising to seek alternatives.

"I hear you," he said on Twitter. "I am moving as fast as possible to get an alternate option in place by tomorrow."

Experian said the breach did not affect its vast consumer credit database.

Legere said no payment card or banking information was taken.

T-Mobile had nearly 59 million customers as of June 30. A representative for the carrier said that not all 15 million of the affected applicants had opened accounts with T-Mobile.

The telecom carrier's shares were down 1.3 percent in extended trading after closing little changed at $40.13 on the New York Stock Exchange.

In the earlier data breach affecting Experian, a Vietnamese national confessed in U.S. court last year to using a false identity to opening an account with the unit, known as Court Ventures, sometime before Experian purchased it in 2012.

A spokeswoman for Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen said on Thursday that it would investigate the latest attack.

The spokeswoman, Jaclyn Falkowski, declined to elaborate on the T-Mobile incident, but said the investigations of the Court Ventures matter "is active and ongoing."

(Additional reporting by Karen Friefeld and Arathy Nair; Editing by Leslie Adler)

Related On HuffPost:

 Biggest Data Breaches of  

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Walmart Planning To Slash Hundreds Of Jobs At Arkansas Headquarters

Sept 30 (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc is planning to lay off hundreds of people at its headquarters in Arkansas as part of the retail giant's efforts to pare costs, people familiar with the matter said.

Fewer than 500 employees are expected to lose their jobs and an announcement could be made as early as this Friday, according to one of sources, who declined to be named because the move had not been made public.

Wal-Mart declined to comment. News of the impending cuts was reported earlier on Wednesday by the Wall Street Journal.

The cuts will make up a small portion of the more than 18,000 people employed at the Bentonville, Arkansas office but fit in with a streamlining effort that has been flagged by Chief Executive Doug McMillon in recent months.

"There are no cash registers in the office," McMillon told analysts after the company's annual shareholders' meeting in June to emphasize his focus on stores as the earnings driver for the company.

Speculation of job losses has percolated in Bentonville for several weeks, fueled in part by reports on the matter by local media outlet City Wire. Recruiting firms have reported an influx of resumes from Wal-Mart employees concerned about losing their jobs and suppliers have braced for cuts that could have a knock-on impact on their local operations.

The cuts come as the world's largest retailer struggles to shore up its profit margins, which have been weighed down by a $1 billion investment announced earlier this year to increase wages for half a million store-level workers and other cost pressures. The company's stock is down 26 percent so far this year.

In August, Wal-Mart reported weaker quarterly earnings and lowered its annual profit forecast, hit by higher labor costs, a squeeze on pharmacy margins and the stronger dollar, which has crimped its overseas business.

McMillon and other top executives are due to present their strategy for the company at an annual meeting with analysts and investors later this month in New York. 

Earlier On HuffPost:

 9 Things Walmart Would Like You To Forget of  

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