A unique and controver-
sial Porsche that was to
be the highlight of the
annual Pebble Beach
auto auctions failed to
sell last week after the
auctioneer botched the
bidding, said Hannah
Elliott in Bloomberg
.com. The 1939 Type 64,
built for the Nazi Party,
predates the 1948
founding of Ferdinand
Porsche’s car company,
but it has the character-
istic lines that define the
brand. “Along with its
tiny, two-seat interior,
split-window windshield,
and wide, black steering
wheel, the car originally
consisted of VW parts
and special components
made by Porsche him-
self.” It was expected
to go for $20 million.
But “after rapid bidding
up to $70 million, with
the crowd on its feet,
iPhones raised, and
cheering,” the auction-
eer corrected that to
$17 million. The crowd
booed and shouted,
and the auction folded
minutes later. A repre-
sentative of the auction
house, RM Sotheby’s,
“walked away without a
word when approached
for statement.”An auction crash for
Nazis’ PorscheBUSINESS
Nearly 200 of the country’s
most powerful CEOs endorsed a
“major philosophical shift” in the
role of business in society, said
David Benoit in The Wall Street
Journal. The Business Roundtable,
a group of chief executives that
includes Apple’s Tim Cook, IBM’s
Ginni Rometty, and JPMorgan
Chase’s Jamie Dimon, changed
its statement of “the purpose of
a company” this week to urge businesses to look
beyond the profits of shareholders when mak-
ing decisions and take “all stakeholders” into
account. Only seven of the 188 CEOs in the
group declined to endorse the statement, which
promises to consider the interests of customers,
employees, suppliers, and communities.Farewell, Milton Friedman,
said Alan Murray in Fortune.
The economist’s dictum that
the only job of a business “is
to make money for sharehold-
ers” prevailed for decades in the
United States. But my interviews
with CEOs over the past few
years has told me “something
fundamental and profound
has changed in the way they
approach their jobs.” They are getting the mes-
sage that capitalism is under assault. Public inter-
est in corporate responsibility is higher than ever,
and social activism is growing among employees.
Some see the statement as grandstanding. But at
a time of political stagnation, business is “filling
the leadership vacuum.”Principles: Looking beyond shareholder value
Antitrust: States plan probe of Big Tech
A group of state attorneys general is planning to move forward with
a joint antitrust investigation of tech companies, said John McKinnon
and Brent Kendall in The Wall Street Journal. Revealed this week, the
probe “would add a third major layer of scrutiny for the tech sector” on
top of the Justice Department’s antitrust review, focused on Google and
Facebook, and the Federal Trade Commission’s investigation of com-
petition in tech. State involvement, however, is not unprecedented. Two
decades ago, “these officials were the driving force in the landmark joint
state-federal antitrust case against Microsoft.”
Texas: Power shortage makes prices skyrocket
Electricity prices shot past $9,000 a megawatt-hour on the Texas
power market last week, pushing the state to the brink of an energy cri-
sis, said L.M. Sixel in the Houston Chronicle. High temperatures com-
bined with “lower-than-expected levels of wind” and unforeseen out-
ages to make wholesale prices spike from $19 to $9,000, the maximum
allowed by the state. While many utility consumers were insulated from
the shock, some saw costs surge; one customer of the power provider
Griddy watched phone alerts come in as Griddy “repeatedly charged
his credit card $60 at a time to pay for power.”
China: U.S. delays move against Huawei
The U.S. has postponed its full Huawei ban for another 90 days, said
Vlad Savov in Bloomberg.com. The reprieve, announced this week, is
the second since the Trump administration blacklisted the Chinese tele-
com company in May. That delay let rural carriers keep using Huawei
equipment, and allowed Google to provide security updates to Huawei
phones. Though President Trump had previously said an extension was
unlikely, he plans to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping next month,
“and the Huawei move may sweeten the tone of those discussions.”
Overstock: CEO’s affair with a Russian agent
The CEO of Overstock.com revealed he had been “romantically
involved” with a Russian agent, said Michael Corkery in The New York
Times. Patrick Byrne’s three-year relationship with Maria Butina, who
“achieved notoriety by networking with groups like the National Rifle
Association and by posing for pictures with Republicans like Donald
Trump Jr.,” became known this week after Byrne issued a cryptic state-
ment about his involvement in a federal inquiry into the 2016 presiden-
tial election. Byrne’s bizarre comments referred to “men in black” and
the “Deep State,” sending his firm’s shares plummeting.32
The news at a glance
Newscom, AlamyDimon: Business needs to change.QThe top five tech companies—
Amazon, Apple, Facebook,
Google, and Microsoft—
account for 12 percent of the
pretax profits of nonfinancial
firms in America, up from
4 percent in 2010. They’re
also responsible for a full
30 percent of the S&P 500’s
spending on research and
development.
The Economist
QNewt Gingrich, a former Air
Force lieutenant general, and
the ex-publicist for Michael
Jackson are proposing a
contest that would pay up to
$2 billion to build the first lu-
nar base. That’s far less than
NASA’s estimation of the cost
of permanent housing on the
moon: $50 billion.
Politico.com
QShipments of recreational
vehicles to dealers have
dropped about 20 percent
this year, following a 4.1 per-
cent drop
last year.
Multiyear
drops in
RV ship-
ments have preceded the
last three recessions.
The Wall Street Journal
QChina’s retaliatory taxes on
American imports have cre-
ated a 93 percent surcharge
on every U.S. bottle of wine.
China was the fifth-largest
destination for U.S. wine; ex-
ports there are down 33 per-
cent compared with 2017.
Los Angeles Times
QWarren Buffett’s Berkshire
Hathaway has bought up
shares in banks and other
financial companies, recently
spurned by many investors.
They make up $96.5 billion of
the firm’s $200 billion stock
portfolio, a four-fold increase
since 2010. At $26 billion,
Bank of America is Buffett’s
biggest bank investment.
The Wall Street Journal
QA California man who
purchased a vanity plate with
only the word NULL was
hit with $12,049 in mistaken
traffic fines. When traffic cops
forgot to enter a license plate
number on a citation, it was
recorded as “Null.”
Wired.comThe bottom line