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Jack Dorsey dramatically shuts down Block's TBD crypto unit

chandankumarsoft — Sun, 10 Nov 2024 21:11:52 +0000

During the crypto-crazy summer of 2021, when memecoins like Dogecoin and Shiba Inu skyrocketed alongside Bitcoin and Ethereum, Square founder Jack Dorsey founded announced that his payments company is launching a brand new business unit with the aim of “simplifying the creation of non-neglected, permissionless and decentralized financial services.”

“Our main focus is on #BitcoinDorsey announced on Twitter. The business entity name would be TBD.

In December of that year, Dorsey went one step further: Change of name from Square Inc. to Blocka reference, he said, to a number of things, including blockchain, the technology that underlies Bitcoin. The Square crypto business became known as Spiral.

Three years later, Dorsey is in retreat.

To blockIn Thursday's third-quarter earnings call, CFO Amrita Ahuja said Block “has made some recent decisions related to some of our new initiatives” and will “discontinue our TBD efforts.”

Block continues to own a significant amount Bitcoin on its balance sheet, bringing the current value of its holdings to $630 million. And the company said it will invest in a Bitcoin mining initiative as well as Bitkey, its Bitcoin wallet, and will continue to allow users to purchase Bitcoin through Cash App.

It's a remarkable change of mood.

TBD was designed as a blockchain platform for developers. Calling it Web5, Block said the mission was to create a more decentralized, secure and private internet. Dorsey said in a tweet in mid-2022 that Web5 “will likely be our most important contribution to the Internet.”

Square's five-year stock chart

But Wall Street's opinion on crypto began to deteriorate dramatically. With inflation soaring in 2022 and interest rates rising, shareholders demanded faster returns on their investments. After peaking in 2021, Block shares lost more than 80% of their value before bottoming out in October 2023.

Block said in late 2023 that this would happen reduce the number of employees – at that time around 13,000 employees – by the end of 2024 even by 1,000. Block has laid off the majority of TBD employees in recent weeks. And in its third-quarter shareholder letter, Block said it is “reducing” its investment in Tidal, the music streaming service founded by Jay-Z, after spending about $300 million in 2021 for a majority stake in the company had issued.

Dorsey was asked by an analyst on Thursday about the company's current Bitcoin strategy.

“Our overall strategy for Bitcoin is focused on making it more accessible and ensuring that more people can access Bitcoin, buy it, sell it, but of course send it peer-to-peer,” Dorsey said.

Dorsey added that he wants “the internet to have its own currency” because that might allow Block to maneuver money faster and offer Cash App and other products in additional markets.

A Block spokesperson reiterated the corporate's public statement and referenced Dorsey's comments from the conference call.

It's turn out to be clear that Dorsey has limited options with crypto as he tries to appease a more demanding Wall Street. Shares of Block were down about 1% at Friday's close after the corporate reported revenue that fell wanting estimates and issued weaker gross profit guidance than some analysts had expected.

In his 1,400-word letter to shareholders, Dorsey focused exclusively on the corporate's loan offerings for small businesses. A good portion of that is Afterpay's buy now, pay later product, which Block acquired for $29 billion in 2021.

Dorsey didn't mention crypto or Bitcoin once.

REGARD: Block and make sure profit decline

image credit : www.cnbc.com

Trump tariffs could dramatically increase retail prices: NRF report

chandankumarsoft — Tue, 05 Nov 2024 07:03:16 +0000

Former President Donald Trump's proposals for universal tariffs could cause prices of clothing, toys, furniture, appliances, shoes and travel items to skyrocket, in accordance with a brand new report within the American newspaper National Retail Association.

The study, released on the eve of Election Day, adds to the array of economic and industry analyzes warning of the inflationary impact of the Republican presidential candidate's tough trade approach.

Trump has said he would impose a ten% or 20% tariff on all imports across the board. He also envisioned a very high China rate of between 60% and 100%.

In each cases, the NRF found that the impact of Trump's tariffs would result in “dramatic” double-digit price spikes in nearly all six retail categories studied by the trade group.

For example, the associated fee of clothing could rise between 12.5% and 20.6%, the evaluation found. That means an $80 pair of men's jeans would cost between $90 and $96 as a substitute. A $100 coat? That would cost between $112 and $121.

These latest prices would strain consumer budgets, particularly for low-income households, which spend thrice as much of their monthly budget on clothing as high-income households, the study said Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The report found that toys could see the most important price spikes: between 36.3% and 55.8%. The price of a $200 crib would also rise to $213 to $219.

At the macro level, these price increases would also undermine consumer spending. The report found that if Trump imposed each universal tariffs and particularly high China tariffs, the costlier retail goods would end in a loss of buying power of $46 billion.

“Broad-based tariffs of the magnitude proposed by former President Trump will represent a massive tax increase on American families as they pay more for all imports, reducing their purchasing power and thus placing a heavy burden on their spending and the overall economy,” Chief Moody's said economist Mark Zandi told CNBC.

The report didn’t keep in mind Trump's latest proposal announced Monday to impose a 25% tariff on Mexico if the country doesn’t adopt stricter border regulations, which he announced at his rally in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Black church leaders brought religion into politics within the Sixties – however it was dramatically different from today’s white Christian nationalism

chandankumarsoft — Sat, 07 Sep 2024 09:24:36 +0000

Fifty-eight years ago, in the summertime of 1966, a gaggle of black church leaders undertook a full page ad within the New York Times entitled “Black Power.” Their tightly worded statement called on national leaders, “white churchmen,” black residents, and the mass media to correct the country's racial power imbalance. Essentially, they called on their fellow residents to support Black Power.

The signatories included outstanding church leaders resembling Rev. Paul Washington of the Church of the Advocate in Philadelphia, Rev. Gayraud Wilmore of the Presbyterian Commission on Religion and Race, and Rev. Benjamin Payton of the National Council of Churches. With years of experience within the civil rights movement, 48 black church leaders courageously affirmed their unconditional support for the Black Power movement.

How many white Christian Nationalists in 2024These black church leaders believed that God was punishing their beloved country. Both groups called for repentance and fundamental change. And like white Christian nationalists, the black Christian activists of 1966 claimed that their faith had something to say in questions of racial identity and power politics.

Such a comparison might suggest that the 2 groups, each pleased with their ethnic identities, were the identical of their goals. However, the church-based Black Power proponents articulated their vision in 1966, pursued their goal of eliminating corruption within the country, and handled their fellow residents in a really different way than white Christian nationalists do today.

As Religious and racial studies scholars In social protest movements, I argue that the claim of Black Power was on no account a threat to democracy – unlike today's demands for power by white Christian nationalists.

A practical approach to power

Stokely Carmichael, center, along with his friends.
Ollie Noonan, Jr./The Boston Globe via Getty Images

Only just a few weeks before the ad was published, the activist Stokely Carmichael had made the term “Black Power” known nationwide during a freedom march in Greenwood, Mississippi. He announced: “We have been demanding freedom for six years and we have achieved nothing. What we have to say now is Black Power! We want Black Power.” His rhetoric and the racial unrest that was then sweeping the country in cities like Chicago, Cleveland And Dayton, Ohio, prompted black church leaders to publish their ad.

In the nearly 3,000-word statement, the pastors proposed that a good distribution of political and economic power would solve the cities' problems. Accurate reporting, full employment and equal education would make this power-sharing possible. As religious leaders, in addition they called on their congregations to beat internal divisions and practice racial self-love.

In addition, black church leaders used the text of your paid ad to refute the concept any “nation, race, or organization” had the fitting to “supreme power.” They desired to reassure readers that Black Power activists shouldn’t have supreme power either. They then tempered their patriotism by noting that “America is our beloved home,” but that the country was “not God.” Unlike some black nationalist activists of the time, they didn’t call for separation from white society.

Instead of an “otherworldly vision of God's power,” their ad focused on the exercise of power within the “here and now.” And they called for access to power that may allow black residents to take part in “all levels of our nation's life.”

As a historian and activist Vincent Harding observed that her words reflected the words of parishioners who would criticize excessively spiritual church leaders by claiming“Praying is fine at a prayer meeting, but it is of no use when meeting bears.” This implies that in a dangerous situation – be it a riot in town or an encounter with a wild animal – religious resources aren’t sufficient.

Their seizure of power was pragmatic and based on an appeal to the founding principles of the United States.

Performance with limits

However, their quest for Black Power had limits. Text of your adBlack church leaders were clearly in favor of empowering “all people,” which necessarily required that black people even have power.

They also acknowledged that the institutions they led – the black communities – already had a certain quantity of power. Since the mass exodus of black community members from white-run communities within the Aftermath of emancipationIndependent black communities provided religious support and food while also providing a basis for political motion.

Black communities had supported community members who challenged white supremacy during Reconstructiondemanded Access to jobs during World War II And marched to Washington for jobs and freedom in the course of the civil rights movement.

A way of participation

But perhaps a very powerful point is that the 48 signatories of the New York Times statement – like other secular Black Power supporters on the time – didn’t seek control of the country.

Instead of a “foolish attempt at domination” or a “new form of isolationism,” they said within the adThey sought power to participate effectively “at all levels of our nation’s life.” Their goal was to make “the rebuilding of our cities” the country’s top priority.

Within a decade of the declaration's publication in 1966, the term Black Power had been forgotten even amongst its most vocal proponents. often initiated by paid informantshad weakened the Black Power organizations. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover had organized violent attacks on Black Power activistsOther Black Power supporters were arrested and imprisoned by each local and federal officials.

As Leron Martinthe director of the King Center at Stanford University, Hoover’s motivation for undermining black power was his pious expression of a Christianity that “unerringly conservative, patriotic and white.”

Another option to mix faith and politics

Supporters of Donald Trump hold a “Stop The Steal” rally on the U.S. Capitol in Washington on January 6, 2021.
Brent Stirton/Getty Images

Proponents of white Christian nationalism proceed to hunt a religiously led, white-dominated governmentA recent PPRI study also found that White Christian nationalists were twice as prone to support political violence.

In contrast, the instance of the short-lived, church-based promotion of Black Power places contemporary Christian nationalism in a broader context. Black church leaders demonstrated that there was a option to incorporate religious commitments into political endeavors without insisting on racial dominance or rejecting the separation of church and state.

As these Black Power advocates made clear, it was possible to be patriotic while concurrently criticizing the nation's failure to realize racial justice. Unlike contemporary advocates of a faith within the United States based on Christian principles and characterised by “Non-whites, non-Christians and immigrantsIn their statement, the Black Power activists of 1966 condemned the “open violence of the riots.” Even Malcolm X, the outspoken activist of the Nation of Islam, was suspended from his religious duties for suggesting that President John F. Kennedy's actions led to his assassination. when he said that the chickens had come home to sleep.”

From a realistic and principled standpoint, black church leaders considered violence impracticable. Even as they promoted the highly controversial idea of black power in a white nation, they remained steadfast of their belief that democracy was compatible with, not in conflict with, their goals.

image credit : theconversation.com