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Elon Musk turned off many potential buyers of his Tesla cars and sent sales plunging with his foray into politics. But the stock has soared anyway and now he wants the company to pay him more a lot more. Shareholders gathering Thursday for Tesla’s annual meeting in Austin, Texas, will decide in a proxy vote whether to grant Musk, the company’s CEO and already the richest person in the world, enough stock to potentially make him history’s first trillionaire. It’s a vote that has sparked heated debate on both sides of the issue, even drawing the pope’s comments on it as an example of income inequality. Several pension funds have come out against the package, arguing that the board of directors is too beholden to Musk, his behavior too reckless lately, and the riches offered too much. Supporters say Musk is a genius who is the only person capable of ushering in a Tesla-dominated future in which hundreds of thousands of self-driving Tesla cars many without steering wheels will ferry people and humanoid Tesla robots will march around factories and homes, picking up boxes and watering plants. The pay is necessary to incentivize him, they say, and keep him focused. Musk has threatened to walk away from the company if he doesn’t get what he wants and has blasted some of the packages critics as corporate terrorists.” What is up for a vote To get his Tesla shares, Musk has to secure approval from a majority of the company’s voting shareholders. Improving the odds, Musk gets to vote his own shares, worth 15% of the company. Shareholders first heard about the pay package in September when the board of directors proposed it in a detailed filing to federal securities regulators. The document, running 200 pages, also contains other proposals up for a vote at the meeting, including whether to allow Tesla to invest in another Musk company, xAI, and who should serve on the board in the future. How Musk can get $1 trillion Musk won’t get necessarily get all of that money, or even a cent of it, if the package is approved. He first has to meet several operational and financial targets. To get the full pay, for instance, he has to deliver to the car market 20 million Teslas over 10 years, more than double the number he has churned out over the past dozen years. He also has to massively increase the market value of the company and its operating profits and deliver one million robots, from zero today. If he falls short of the biggest goals, though, the package could still hand him plenty of money. Musk will get $50 billion in additional Tesla shares, for example, if he increases the company’s market value by 80%, something he did just this past year, as well as doubling vehicle sales and tripling operating earnings or hitting any other two of a dozen operational targets. Musk vs. Rockefeller Musk is already the richest man in the world with a net worth of $493 billion, according to Forbes magazine, and well ahead of some of the wealthiest of years past. The steel giant, Andrew Carnegie, was once worth an inflation-adjusted $300 billion, according to the Carnegie Corp., well below Musk’s wealth. Musk is still trailing John D. Rockefeller, but he’s closing in fast. The railroad titan hit peak inflation-adjusted wealth of $630 billion in 1913, according to Guinness World Records. For his part, Musk says its not really about the money but about getting a higher Tesla stake it will double to nearly 30% so he can control the company. He says that’s a pressing concern given Tesla’s future robot army,” a reference to the company’s Optimus humanoid workers that he doesn’t trust anyone else to control. Split among shareholders Many investors have come out in support of the package, including Baron Capital Management, whose founder called Musk indispensable to the company. Without his relentless drive and uncompromising standards, wrote founder Ron Baron, there would be no Tesla. Critics include the biggest in the U.S. public pension fund, Calpers, and Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest. They argue the pay is excessive, with the Norway fund expressing concern that the board that designed it, which includes Musk’s brother, is not independent enough. That echoes a decision from a Delaware court nearly two years ago that blasted the process for approving a previous Musk pay package as deeply flawed given his extensive ties to directors. Even the Vatican has weighed in, decrying the wealth gap in the world and blasting the trillion dollar offer in particular. If that is the only thing that has value anymore, said Pope Leo XIV, “then were in big trouble. Musk’s record at Tesla is mixed Judging from the stock price alone, Musk has been spectacularly successful. The company is now worth nearly $1.5 trillion. But a lot that runup reflects big bets by investors that Musk will be able deliver things that are difficult to pull off, and the way Musk has run the company recently doesn’t inspire confidence. He has broken numerous promises, and his tendency to say whatever is on his mind has sabotaged the company. Just this year, for instance, he vowed to deliver driverless taxis in several cities, secure regulatory approval in Europe for his self-driving software, and push sales up 20% or 30%. Instead, his driverless robotaxis in Austin and San Francisco have human safety monitors inside. Europeans still haven’t approved his software. And Tesla sales continue to plunge, with new figures out Monday showing a stunning 50% drop last month in Germany alone. That said, Musk has pulled off the impossible before. His company, a half dozen years ago, was widely feared to be near bankruptcy because he wasn’t making enough cars, but then he succeeded, and the stock soared. He frequently teeters on the edge of disaster,” said Tesla owner and money manager Nancy Tengler, “and then pulls back just in the nick of time. Bernard Condon, AP business writer
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E-Commerce
Monday, November 3, saw nearly 5,000 flights delayed in the U.S. The weekend prior saw more than 10,000. Cancellations are stacking up as well. As the length of this most recent government shutdown sets new records, those headaches at the airport aren’t expected to ease. They are, in fact, likely to get worse. And while that’s scary news for anyone who might be planning to head home for Thanksgiving, there’s a chance it could be what gets the government back to work. Republicans and Democrats are still at odds, and neither is showing any sign of backing down. Even the brief cessation of SNAP benefits (and the lawsuits that followed) hasn’t brought about a détente. But airlines are key to the financial health of the countryand air traffic controllers have been the key factor in ending a shutdown in the past. Major airlines are already applying pressure. Delta, United, American, and Southwest have all called on Congress to pass a stopgap funding bill that would allow the government to reopen, citing risks to aviation safety. The airline industry lobby typically carries significant weight in Washington, as it represents 10 million jobs. It’s also a critical part of the tourism and cargo transport industries, in addition to general business. Last year, companies spent $1.47 trillion on business travel worldwide. The delays and cancellations have been increasing for the past few weeks, as staffing shortages become more common. Air traffic controllers have been working without pay for over a month, and as a result, some have begun to call in sick. That’s reminiscent of the government shutdown of 2019. And it was those shortages that were largely credited for breaking the logjam in Congress. On January 25, 2019, the 35th day of that shutdown, 10 air traffic controllerssix from northern Virginia and four from Floridastayed home. That wasn’t a huge number in the grand scheme of things, but with just those 10 absences, delays stacked up at several hubs and shut down travel temporarily at LaGuardia Airport in New York. The shutdown was settled before the end of the day. The National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) has said it does not “endorse, support or condone” any coordinated activity by members that would impact the capacity and safety of air traffic control systems (i.e., no organized sick-outs), but it has urged the government to end the shutdown and pay its workers as soon as possible to ensure the skies are safe. “For this nations air traffic controllers, missing just one paycheck can be a significant hardship, as it is for all working Americans. Asking them to go without a full months pay or more is simply not sustainable,” said NATCA president Nick Daniels in a statement. “These professionals are required to oversee the movement of the nations passengers and cargo while many are working 10-hour days and six-day workweeks due to the ongoing staffing shortage, all without pay. This situation creates substantial distractions for individuals who are already engaged in extremely stressful work.” This comes on top of an existing shortage of air traffic control workers. There is, of course, no guarantee that delays and cancellations will force Democrats and Republicans to reopen the government this time around. Both sides are playing an ongoing game of chicken, which reached new heights Tuesday when U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said that “some” airspaces in the U.S. might need to be closed if the shutdown continues. He also warned that should air traffic controllers miss another full paycheck, it would result in “mass flight delays and mass cancellations” around the country. That came a day after he told CNBC that if he thought travel was to become too risky in his department’s opinion, he would “shut the whole airspace down. We won’t let people travel.” The last time that occurred was following the September 11 terror attacks in 2001.
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E-Commerce
On the same day Shein opened its first store in Paris, the French government said Wednesday it will suspend Shein’s website over its alleged online sale of childlike “sex dolls” online until it complies with French law, according to the Associated Press. Fast Company has reached out to Shein for comment. A spokesperson for the company told Reuters it was working with authorities; and it has banned sex dolls on its site. A French consumer watchdog discovered the dolls and weapons on the site over the weekend, per Reuters. (Under French law, the government can order businesses to remove illegal content from their websites, such as child pornography within 24 hours, and block access to those sites, AP reported.) This is the online Chinese retailer’s first brick-and-mortar store in Paris, which is located on the sixth floor of the iconic BHV department store in the heart of the city. Shein sells heavily discounted, ultra “fast-fashion” and has drawn protests and boycotts from French shop owners and consumers, who decry the environmental impact that comes from making large amounts of cheap products, as well as the working conditions at its factories. Police stood guard outside BHV on Tuesday, and again on Wednesday, bracing for the store’s opening, after several weeks of intermittent strikes, protests and boycotts; including by activists stood topless outside BHV on Monday, while several French fashion brands said they were pulling out, according to CNN. Meanwhile, Disneyland Paris cancelled its holiday window display and pop-up store in BHV Marais, Agence France-Presse reported. “Conditions are no longer exist to calmly hold Christmas events,” Shein told AFP. Shein said it plans to open five other store locations in France in: Dijon, Reims, Grenoble, Angers and Limoges, AFP reported.
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E-Commerce
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