2019年9月4日星期三

DealBook Briefing: Walmart’s C.E.O. Sets an Example for Corporate America on Guns

September 4, 2019

Good Wednesday morning. Programming note: I’m going to be in conversation with Blackstone’s co-founder and C.E.O., Stephen Schwarzman, about his new book, “What It Takes: Lessons in the Pursuit of Excellence,” and about the global economy and philanthropy for a DealBook TimesTalk in New York on Sept. 16. Get your tickets here. (Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here.)

Doug McMillon, Walmart's C.E.O. Mark Wilson/Getty Images

Walmart takes a big step on gun sales

The retailer’s decision to adopt stricter firearms policies — after a shooting at one of its stores last month that killed 22 people — is a watershed moment for the American business community when it comes to guns, Andrew writes in his latest column.

Walmart said yesterday that it would stop selling ammunition for assault-style rifles and, eventually, all ammunition for handguns. It will also discourage customers from openly carrying guns in its stores in states where that is legal. And it called on Congress to increase background checks and debate reimposing a ban on assault weapons.

The decision will reduce Walmart’s share of the nation’s ammunition market to as low as 6 percent, from 20 percent. Last month, the company said it accounted for about 2 percent of American firearm sales.

That put Doug McMillon, Walmart’s C.E.O., squarely in the middle of the gun debate, Andrew writes.

• “His decision to engage in a meaningful conversation about responsible gun sales in America could give license to other business leaders to enter the conversation.”

• Other C.E.O.s “might want to study Mr. McMillon’s example. He has chosen not to sell certain products even though they are legal.”

• The moves adopt some of the suggestions Andrew had made in an open letter to the retailer, which called on C.E.O.s to use their power to create a model for more responsible gun-selling practices.

Walmart was quickly joined by Kroger, which also asked customers not to openly carry guns in its stores and also called for stricter background checks.

The move is sure to have repercussions. The N.R.A. has already criticized Walmart’s move as “shameful” and predicted that retailer would lose sales to more gun-friendly competitors. And those who favor tighter gun control are likely to urge Walmart to adopt even tougher policies.

More: The Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, said that he would bring gun control legislation to the floor — but only if it had the approval of President Trump.

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Today’s DealBook Briefing was written by Andrew Ross Sorkin in New York and Michael J. de la Merced in London.

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A Honda plant in Anna, Ohio. Jessica Phelps for The New York Times

The U.S. is suffering from the trade war

President Trump declared yesterday that Chinese manufacturing will “crumble” as his trade fight drags on. New data suggests it’s also hurting the U.S.

Mr. Trump warned Beijing yesterday not to delay a trade deal until after the 2020 elections, in hopes of a Democrat winning. He declared on Twitter that China’s supply chains would suffer. (Fact check: China is potentially putting its economy at risk by battling the U.S.)

But the American economy is hurting, too. The manufacturing sector contracted last month, according to a survey by the Institute for Supply Management. Though manufacturing is a relatively small part of the modern American economy, it’s considered an economic harbinger.

U.S. stock markets dropped on the news, with the S&P 500 down nearly 1 percent yesterday. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 1.45 percent. A Morgan Stanley strategist said yesterday that investors should buy defensive stocks and prepare for a potential recession.

And Mr. Trump may not get the economic aid that he wants. He called on the Fed yesterday to reduce interest rates again this month, to help support the U.S. economy in the trade fight. But the president of the Boston Fed, Eric Rosengren, told the WaPo that the American economy was “relatively strong” and didn’t need more cuts.

Walt Disney World John Raoux/Associated Press

But the bond markets are still on fire

Despite the economic malaise, debt investors don’t seem to feel any panic — and companies are eager to take advantage.

Companies sold nearly $28 billion worth of bonds yesterday, Joe Rennison of the FT reports. And those offerings came at attractive prices for the issuers: Disney sold $2 billion worth of debt at less than a percentage point above U.S. Treasury yields, a cheap deal for a corporate borrower.

The rush follows a huge rally in global bond markets over the past month. Investors have piled into bonds, which has sent their price higher and dropped the yields on that debt. They have been trying to find assets that are safer than stocks, which are vulnerable to markets being disrupted by the trade war, but yield more than government debt.

Some analysts think the fervor is unjustified. “In some ways you can argue yields have probably gotten a little bit ahead of fundamentals,” Simon Doyle, the head of fixed-income at Schroeder Investment Management Australia, told Bloomberg. But that view isn’t stopping him from continuing to recommend that investors pile into bonds for the time being.

Boris Johnson loses a vote to keep Brexit on track

The British prime minister was defeated by lawmakers in a move to block Britain from leaving the E.U. without a deal. That has put Britain on the verge of a new election.

Lawmakers voted to seize control of Parliament in order to advance legislation preventing a no-deal Brexit from happening on Oct. 31. (A vote on that bill is scheduled for today and is expected to pass.) Nearly two dozen members of the ruling Conservative Party joined the effort, risking expulsion from the party.

Mr. Johnson called for a new general election in mid-October, hoping to gain enough seats in Parliament to overturn the legislation. But officials in the opposition Labour Party suggested they wouldn’t support an election unless they felt assured that Britain would not leave the E.U. by Oct. 31 without a deal.

The battle in Parliament comes as the struggle over Brexit remains stuck. While Mr. Johnson has argued that he needs the threat of a no-deal departure from the E.U. as negotiating leverage, European counterparts have said that the new British government has offered no new proposals on Brexit.

Estimates for the costs of a no-deal divorce continue to rise. A new report by U.N. researchers said that Britain could suffer $16 billion in export losses in that event, as it would lose preferential access to European trading partners.

Reuters

States may investigate Google over antitrust

More than half of the country’s state attorneys general plan to announce an inquiry into whether the tech giant broke antitrust rules next week, Tony Romm of the WaPo reports.

More than 30 attorneys general could sign onto the investigation, Mr. Romm reports, citing unnamed sources. The group is expected to be bipartisan.

It’s a sign that states are stepping up efforts to investigate Big Tech. Federal officials have already begun looking into how these companies are using their huge stores of consumer data and potentially stifling competition.

A states-driven investigation could tie Google up for years with legal headaches. States can also contribute to any federal inquiry, as they did when the Justice Department investigated Microsoft in the 1990s.

It’s unclear whether the state officials will announce additional inquiries into other tech giants, like Amazon or Facebook, Mr. Romm adds.

Marty Chavez Fred R. Conrad for The New York Times

Goldman Sachs’s coding evangelist is leaving

Marty Chavez, who previously served as C.F.O. at the bank and was once considered a potential candidate for C.E.O., plans to retire at the year’s end, Kate Kelly of the NYT reports.

Mr. Chavez was the public face of Goldman’s efforts to stay on top of tech. He pushed the bank to share more of its data and software with clients. And he worked on Marcus, the Wall Street giant’s online consumer bank.

And “his ascension up Goldman’s ranks — a gay, tattooed, Latino techie who became the face of a new breed of nerds ruling Wall Street — was a sign of changes across the financial industry,” Liz Hoffman of the WSJ writes.

But Mr. Chavez’s star dimmed after he became C.F.O. in 2017. He had a hard time handling investor calls and Goldman struggled in government-mandated stress tests, Ms. Hoffman notes. He was made a co-head of the bank’s trading arm last year, with a mandate to advance its technology.

He will be replaced as trading co-head by Marc Nachmann, who is currently co-head of Goldman’s investment banking division.

Revolving door

AT&T named John Stankey, the head of its WarnerMedia division, to its newly created role of president and C.O.O. — and therefore its heir apparent.

Robert Khuzami, who was most recently the No. 2 prosecutor in the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan, will join the investment firm Guggenheim Partners as a its top lawyer.

Mark Burgess, the deputy global chief investment officer at the asset management firm Columbia Threadneedle, will leave later this month.

Tadashi Yanai, the billionaire founder of Uniqlo, wants a woman to succeed him as C.E.O.

John Slosar resigned as chairman of Cathay Pacific today, the second executive from the carrier to do so amid the Hong Kong protests.

The speed read

Deals

• Illinois has joined a lawsuit by several states aimed at blocking T-Mobile’s takeover of Sprint. (Reuters)

• The appointment of Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the head of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, as the new chairman of Saudi Aramco shows the growing influence of the investment fund. (FT)

• SmileDirectClub, which sells teeth-straightening products, hopes to raise up to $1.3 billion in its coming I.P.O. (FT)

• EBay’s StubHub unit has reportedly drawn takeover interest from potential suitors like Vivid Seats and KKR. (Bloomberg)

• The activist hedge fund Starboard Value said yesterday that it had taken a 7.5 percent stake in Box, a provider of cloud data storage. (CNBC)

Politics and policy

• Corey Lewandowski, President Trump’s former campaign manager, is weighing a run for New Hampshire’s Senate seat, but state Republicans are wary. (NYT)

• The Pentagon will divert $3.6 billion from 127 military construction projects to help build Mr. Trump’s wall on the southern U.S. border. (NYT)

• Vice President Mike Pence stayed at a Trump resort during his visit to Ireland — despite having to commute more than two hours — as Republicans become regular patrons of the president’s properties. (NYT)

• The Trump administration set a higher hurdle for students who say they were defrauded by their schools to erase their debt. (WaPo)

• Aides to Joe Biden are reportedly trying to prevent lobbyists from meeting privately with him at fund-raisers. (CNBC)

Trade

• The State Department imposed sanctions on Iran’s space agency after a failed rocket launch that the U.S. suspects was a ballistic missile test. (WSJ)

Tech

• Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, suggested that Mark Zuckerberg should face prison for lying about Facebook’s privacy lapses. (CNBC)

• Huawei accused the U.S., without evidence, of using harassment and cyberattacks against it. (NYT)

• Shares in Uber and Lyft fell yesterday amid fear that new California legislation could force them to classify drivers as employees. Separately, the companies have told Chicago officials that their drivers’ names are “trade secrets.” (FT, Fortune)

• Electric scooters were poised to become the next big tech thing. A visit to San Diego shows they’re hitting growing pains. (NYT)

• A top A.I. system passed an eighth-grade science test. Can you? (NYT)

Best of the rest

• Stocks in Hong Kong surged as the territory’s leader, Carrie Lam, said she was withdrawing the extradition bill that spurred months of protests. (NYT)

• Hurricane Dorian, now a Category 2 storm, has begun hitting Florida’s coast. (NYT)

• Johnson & Johnson, Cardinal Health and others involved in selling opioids must face lawsuits accusing them of banding together to increase the drugs’ sales, a federal judge has ruled. (Fortune)

• Internal emails show that University of Southern California officials weighed the ability of applicants’ families to make big donations as a criterion for admission. (WSJ)

• New York’s M.T.A. is tired of picking up your AirPods from the train tracks. (WSJ)

Thanks for reading! We’ll see you tomorrow.

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NYT Parenting: When Toddlers Attack!

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SEPTEMBER 4, 2019

When Toddlers Attack!

By Jessica Grose

Janet Mac

A year ago, my toddler accidentally stabbed me in the right eye with a Doc McStuffins otoscope. I can't really blame her. First of all, she was 2. Secondly, she had an ear infection, and I was trying to give her medicine, and so got extremely close to her face. She was flailing her arms in self-defense, and she just happened to have that purple plastic toy in one of her hands.

I tried to shrug off the injury. I went to work and suffered through several meetings. Then I went to buy an eye patch, thinking if I just closed my eye for long enough it would feel better. It didn't help, and made me look like a pirate.

Later that day, I went to an ophthalmologist, who told me that I had a corneal abrasion and gave me prescription eye drops. I asked if this was a common injury for parents of young children, and he said yes, but that usually he sees it in parents of infants, who scratch their parents' eyes with their talon-sharp nails. I was lucky that there was no lasting damage to my poor peeper.

Anecdotally, we at NYT Parenting have heard from many people who were accidentally injured by their small children. The biggest offenders are stepped-on Legos and L.O.L. Surprise! doll detritus, but head-butting is also an issue for parents of babies, who tend to have poor motor skills. Teresa Bowen-Spinelli, M.D., an emergency room physician in New York, said it's typical to see twisted or broken ankles from tripping over toys and broken noses from head-butting.

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But also, for men, she's seen "injury to genitalia." Maybe a kid throws a ball or swings a bat in unfortunately close range of your nethers, or you're roughhousing and get an errant foot to the groin. Dr. Bowen-Spinelli said, however, that she's never seen a really bad case of injured genitals, "because kids don't exert that much brute force."

So, how do you prevent injury by your little ones, who by definition can't fully control their limbs yet, and who aren't great at recognizing their physical limitations? Aaron E. Carroll, M.D., an NYT Parenting contributor and a professor of pediatrics at Indiana University School of Medicine, said that the first thing to do is to be aware of the unpredictability of their thrashing. Understand that little kids "don't have the guardrails of personal space," and don't understand when they "need to be more careful about flailing around," he said. "They don't have the same kind of differentiation between emotional and physical actions. When they might be frustrated or upset," they don't know how not to react physically.

With babies who are still getting their necks in control, be careful about getting very close to their faces, Dr. Carroll said. Both doctors recommended being mindful of your baby's nails, and making sure to trim them frequently, for your safety but also for the baby's. (If clipping your baby's nails freaks you out, filing them is a good option, Dr. Carroll said. Dr. Bowen-Spinelli recommended cutting babies' nails while they sleep, because they may struggle less.) If you're giving your kid medicine she doesn't want, as I did, Dr. Carroll suggested making it a two-person job, where one caretaker holds down the kid's arms while the other squirts antibiotics into her mouth.

If your kid does accidentally hurt you, Dr. Carroll recommended keeping that string of expletives that you undoubtedly want to shout under control. "If it is by accident, don't overreact, don't scream and yell," Dr. Carroll said. If your child is old enough (for many by age 2, though you know your kid's cognitive abilities best), try to give him positive instruction about watching where he puts his body. And make sure you're giving what Dr. Carroll calls "anticipatory guidance." Which is to say: If your 3-year-old is learning how to play tennis, keep a close eye on that racket, because you can bet that a preschooler with a racket is capable of causing accidental physical damage.

Overall, though, some of these injuries may not be preventable — part of the fun of kids is their physical spontaneity and excitable play, and we don't want to take that away from them, or from us. But, dudes, you may want to wear a cup.

P.S. We want to hear about your kid-related injuries — email us.

P.P.S. Thanks to all who submitted your amazing stories about the money woes that keep you up at night. Here's a roundup of your responses.

P.P.P.S. Forward this email to a friend. Follow us on Instagram @NYTParenting. Join us on Facebook. Find us on Twitter for the latest updates. Read last week's newsletter, which is about financial struggles when you're a parent.

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Want More on Kid Safety?

What happens when your kid is biting? If you missed it in May, Carla Bruce-Eddings has an essay about handling a preschool biter.
Ever cut your baby while trimming her nails? I sure have. If you feel bad about it, read this Reddit thread of parents who have done it, too — it will make you feel so much better.
Our pals at Wirecutter have compiled their favorite baby-proofing tools. They even found a not-hideous baby gate, which for me was the holy grail.

Tiny Victory

Parenting can be a grind. Let's celebrate the tiny victories.

"I succeeded in getting my 6-year-old and 3-year-old to clean out their exceedingly messy playhouse by putting a bucket outside the window and having them throw everything into it. They loved being able to 'throw it out the window!'"

— Cassia Carter, Milwaukee

If you want a chance to get your Tiny Victory published, find us on Instagram @NYTparenting and use the hashtag #tinyvictories; or enter your Tiny Victory at the bottom of this page. Include your full name and location. Tiny Victories may be edited for clarity and style. Your name, location and comments may be published, but your contact information will not. By submitting to us, you agree that you have read, understand and accept the Reader Submission Terms in relation to all of the content and other information you send to us.