Tag: News

This as-told-to essay is based on a transcribed conversation with 29-year-old Pete Ballmer, a standup comedian and former product manager in San Francisco and one of the sons of billionaire and former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. It has been edited for length and clarity.

As a kid, I liked computers. I used to subscribe to PCWorld Magazine because I liked reading about new products. I took computer science classes at my high school and really enjoyed them.

I majored in computer science with a concentration in human-computer interaction at Stanford. Many people told me I was doing what my dad, Steve Ballmer, did, but he wasn't a programmer. He was a business guy familiar with the subject but didn't push me into it.

My dad always told my brothers and me that he just wanted us to do what we were passionate about. He made it clear that he didn't have specific expectations for our achievements, but he did harp a lot on working hard and doing our best. He would always say, "If you're going to do a job, do a job. And if you're not going to do a job, don't do a job." The rhetoric was, if you're going to do something, do it to the fullest extent.

I worked a few internships

The summers after my junior and senior years of high school, I did a software engineering internship at a small startup called Dashwire.

I then did a software engineering internship at Expedia the summer after my first year of college. I kind of hated it. I was fine as a programmer but wasn't the best, and I learned that I didn't love programming.

During my sophomore year, I heard one of my friends talk about his product management internship. The nature of the role appealed to me; it's a people-oriented job while still being analytical and creative.

The next summer, I got a product management internship at a startup called Travelnuts, which I liked. After my junior year, I interned at TripIt.

I never considered not working a full-time job after college

During my junior year, I was told I would inherit a six-figure sum from my grandfather when I turned 25. When I graduated from college at 22, I didn't have that money yet and needed a job.

I had done some standup comedy in college and knew I wanted to do more, but I also knew the odds of "making it" were low. I didn't have a lot of material, and the material I had wasn't very good, so trying to pursue comedy full-time would've been a very risky move.

My parents paid for my college education, and it was unfathomable that I not get a full-time job after graduating. There was no way they would've paid for me to live in San Francisco and do open mics. Neither my brothers nor I have ever asked my parents for a notable sum, nor have our parents given us a significant amount of money.

I applied and was hired as a rotational product manager at Zynga, the company that made games like Words with Friends and Farmville. I was excited about having a product management job that paid well.

Working at Zynga was fantastic. It was a very fun environment with smart people, a good culture, and happy hours all the time with homemade beer. I respected my boss and liked the nature of my work.

I think there are two ways you can get fulfillment from a job: either the day-to-day work is enjoyable — that was true for me — or you have a long-term sense that what you're doing matters. I knew I wasn't making a massive impact on the world by making Harry Potter: Puzzles & Spells games, but I wasn't looking to get that out of my job, so that was fine.

I got all of my jobs without connections

I got all of my internships and jobs — I feel it's important for me to say — without leveraging my family connections.

My dad, however, did go to Stanford, and I don't think I would've gotten in if he didn't because I was a good student but not exceptional. I didn't want my family connection to influence my college acceptance, but I also really wanted to go to Stanford. I couldn't escape the fact that my connections helped me, so I decided to make the most of it.

I agree that it's kind of pathetic for rich kids to use connections to get everything they have. My parents had money, I went to good schools, and I had enough given to me that I should be able to then turn that into something on my own.

I did learn about my high school internship opportunity from a friend of my mom's, but my boss specifically told me that I was the strongest applicant they had and I didn't receive preferential treatment because of my family.

I wasn't entirely qualified for my job at Expedia, but my boss from my high school internship, who had moved to Expedia, put in a good word for me because he'd enjoyed working with me and I'd done a good job.

There were a couple of people at Expedia who made comments about my family, like, "Did he really deserve to get this job, or did he just get hired because of who his dad is?" That was frustrating because I did feel like I didn't deserve the job, but it wasn't because of who my dad was. That sucked.

I didn't know anyone at Zynga before getting the job, so I got it without any connections. Once I was working at Zynga, some coworkers would make little comments like, "Oh, you're using a Mac!" occasionally, but not a ton. Nobody made me feel uncomfortable.

I decided to focus on comedy in 2021

Four years into my time at Zynga, I'd been promoted twice, the game I was working on was doing well, and I'd accomplished enough in product management that I felt I could go back and do it again if I wanted to. By then, I'd also inherited the money from my grandfather.

I'd been doing comedy on the side, performing at open mics after work, and producing some shows. I'd gone from thinking of myself as a product manager who does comedy at night to a comedian with a day job as a product manager.

In 2021, I quit my job to pursue comedy full-time. I'm now a paid regular at some comedy clubs in the Bay Area. I do around five shows a week and an open mic or two. I've also done some festivals and produced Don't Tell Comedy shows.

I don't find it difficult to write relatable jokes. I joke about gossip, my dog, being red-green colorblind, and high school. It's all stuff that's just part of the human experience.

My family background is still a part of my perspective, so I have a few jokes about growing up rich or inheriting money. Once I have a following of people coming explicitly to see me at a show, I'm happy to do standup about growing up as a billionaire's son because I have a unique perspective.

My greatest fear is excuse-less failure

It's sad that some people have to stop pursuing comedy to earn money elsewhere, but at the same time, they can ask themselves, "Who knows what would've happened with my comedy career if I hadn't had to quit?"

I don't have that option.

My money allows me the luxury of time and choice to pursue my passion, but it also allows me to purely fail at it. At a certain point, maybe I'll plateau or stop progressing, and I'll have to choose to stop because I'm just not good enough.

I'm not saying that my situation is harder than being a comic without financial backing, but it would be really hard to fail so profoundly.

My dad has said that once someone is 35, their career trajectory is pretty set. I'm 29 now, so the idea that in about five years, I'm supposed to roughly know my trajectory kind of haunts me.

Would I ever be a product manager again? Maybe, but at the same time, I don't know if I'd choose to work 40 to 60 hours a week doing a job that I wouldn't need to work for the money, even if I enjoy it enough.

I'm pretty confident in my comedy, so I'm full speed ahead on being a comedian. I've continued to improve, and I don't see any reason that wouldn't continue. I'll keep going with this as long as I keep honing my skillset and moving up the ladder.

If you had a unique experience growing up with money and would like to share your story, email Jane Zhang at janezhang@businessinsider.com.

• When it was time for my 5-year-old to start school, I knew the public school setting wasn't for him.
• We've decided to pay for his private school, but not for his college. 
• We don't know if he'll even attend college, and there are scholarships he can apply to. 

As we entered the kindergarten room on a tour of our local public school, the entire class was wearing headphones and engrossed in their tablets.

Seeing my eyebrows rise in surprise, the teacher said, "Don't worry, they're only on devices for 20 to 30 minutes each day."

"And how long are they outside for recess?" I asked.

"Half an hour per day," came the response.

I couldn't imagine my energetic son thriving in an environment where he had daily tablet time and only 30 minutes a day outside at such a young age. Like most 5-year-olds, he was constantly on the move exploring, making up games, and figuring out life by doing. At the time, he attended a play-based preschool where imagination and play led to learning and discoveries.

I knew that moving him into our local public school setting would be at odds with who he is naturally and would be like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. After talking with my husband, we decided to enroll him in a Montessori school, where he has flourished.

We are not paying for his college tuition

The notion of sending a child to private school isn't entirely out of the ordinary, but what usually surprises people is our decision to pay for his early education but not for college.

We arrived at our decision because we truly believe that by setting the groundwork for a love of learning early in life, our son will ultimately be more successful. He is an outside-the-box thinker, a hands-on learner, and thrives in smaller environments. Unfortunately, the local public school system prioritizes teaching to the standardized state test, continuously makes cutbacks to the arts and music programs, and has burgeoning class sizes with too few teachers.

Investing in his education during these crucial formative years makes more sense for our family than paying college tuition, which he may or may not even attend.

There are options when it comes to college

If he does attend college, there are ways to reduce the tuition price, from scholarships — over $100 million worth go unclaimed yearly—to work-study programs to attending a community college for the first couple of years. It is also naive to think that the educational landscape will look the same when he is 18. Gaining knowledge outside the traditional classroom setting is easier than ever before and is only becoming more accessible.

While we will not pay for his college education, we have set up a custodial account for him, which he will have complete control of upon turning 18. Each birthday and Christmas, we deposit $500 and any financial gifts from family into his account, which we invest in an index fund. We are not stipulating what he does with this money, which is why we opted for a custodial account rather than a 529 account, which must be used for higher education.

Even if we did decide to help him with college expenses, rising tuition costs would make our contributions negligible. We believe using the money now will have a more significant impact on his educational experience than saving it for later.

The yearly tuition cost for my son's school is $9,000, and while we are comfortably considered middle class with both of us working, we are not wealthy. Rather than getting caught up in the lifestyle creep, we continue to live much as we did when we made less money. From owning one paid-off car to cooking at home to buying clothes from thrift stores, we have enabled ourselves to save the extra money we have made over the past few years.

Putting that money toward our son's primary education was an easy decision for our family.

• Italian police raided some of LVMH's Dior suppliers that make luxury handbags.
• Italian prosecutors found Dior paid $57 to produce bags retailing for $2,780.
• Judges placed Dior and Armani units under judicial administration for one year.

Two Italian luxury giants pay just a small amount to produce handbags that retail for thousands of dollars, according to documents in a sweeping investigation of subcontractors.

Italian prosecutors in Milan investigated LVMH subsidiary Dior's use of third-party suppliers in recent months. Prosectors said these companies exploited workers to pump out bags for a small fraction of their store price.

According to documents examined by authorities, Dior paid a supplier $57 to produce bags that retail for about $2,780, Reuters reported last month. The costs do not include raw materials like leather.

The relevant unit of Dior did not adopt "appropriate measures to check the actual working conditions or the technical capabilities of the contracting companies," a prosecution document said, per Reuters.

In probes through March and April, investigators found evidence that workers were sleeping in the facility so bags could be produced around the clock, Reuters reported. They also tracked electricity consumption data, which showed work was being carried out during nights and holidays, per Reuters.

The subcontractors were Chinese-owned firms, prosecutors said. Most of the workers were from China. Two were illegal immigrants, while another seven worked without required documentation.

The probe also said that safety devices on gluing or brushing machines were removed so that workers could operate them faster.

LVMH did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment sent outside regular business hours. Court documents showed that Dior, a subsidiary of LVMH, submitted a memo highlighting its supply chain improvements, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

The probe also extended to Giorgio Armani contractors, and the luxury company was accused of not properly overseeing its suppliers.

Armani paid contractors $99 per bag for products that sold for over $1,900 in stores, according to documents seen by Reuters. The company did not immediately respond to BI's request for comment.

Judges in Milan have ordered units of both companies to be placed under judicial administration for one year. They will be allowed to operate during the period, Reuters reported earlier this year.

A regular manufacturing practice

The prosecution said that violation of labor rules is a common industry practice that luxury giants rely on for higher profits.

"It's not something sporadic that concerns single production lots, but a generalized and consolidated manufacturing method," said court documents seen by Reuters about the decision to place Dior under administration.

"The main problem is obviously people being mistreated: applying labour laws, so health and safety, hours, pay," Milan Court President Fabio Roia told Reuters earlier this year. "But there is also another huge problem: the unfair competition that pushes law-abiding firms off the market."

Last year, LVMH had 2,062 suppliers and subcontractors and undertook 1,725 audits, per its 2023 environmental and social responsibility report.

LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault is the world's third richest person, per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. His daughter Delphine is the CEO of Dior.

• The stabbing of a Japanese mother and her son went viral in China after a local woman died protecting them.
• Her death ignited a clash between praise for the 55-year-old and a resurgence in anti-Japan posts.
• Tech giants finally intervened in a rare rebuke, deciding that the nationalism had gone too far.

It's no secret that people on Chinese social media dislike Japan.

The list of perceived grievances keeps growing, from the Rape of Nanking in World War II to fears of seafood in the Pacific Ocean being tainted by radioactive water from the Fukushima disaster.

That rhetoric was stoked again on June 24 when a knife-wielding man in Suzhou attacked a Japanese woman and her son at a school bus stop, injuring the pair.

But it was the third victim who seized the country's attention. School bus attendant Hu Youping, a 55-year-old Chinese woman, rushed to protect the two foreigners, suffering stab wounds herself.

She died later while receiving medical care, police said. They identified the suspect as an unemployed 52-year-old man with the surname Zhou, saying he'd only recently arrived in the city.

A whirlwind of emotion and debate ensued on social media. Hu was lauded as a hero — with some clamoring for the bus stop to be named after her — while anti-Japan hate speech swelled in posts and comments implying the attack was warranted.

As the two narratives intertwined, Chinese social media companies intervened in lockstep. It was clear the extremism had gone too far.

Tech giant Tencent published a statement on Saturday condemning the hate speech and said it would crack down on posts related to the Suzhou stabbing that "provoke extreme nationalism." Tencent runs WeChat, a super app that performs functions similar to WhatsApp and Facebook.

NetEase, a major gaming company, published a similar announcement, saying it observed posts calling for "resisting Japan and exterminating traitors" and accusing Hu of being a Japanese spy.

Douyin and Weibo, China's versions of TikTok and Twitter, publicly slammed accounts that they said "promote extreme xenophobia" and "cheered for criminal behavior in the name of patriotism."

The platforms said they took down thousands of posts and removed several dozen accounts.

China's uneasy balance with Japan

It's a rare rebuke of nationalism on these platforms, a hotbed for inflammatory posts like the 2022 calls to shoot down then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's plane when she visited Taiwan.

Though China's social media is heavily moderated, anti-Japanese rhetoric has been one of several popular nationalistic sentiments allowed to flourish in recent years.

As of Wednesday, the main hashtag for posts about the Japanese victims of the June knife attack was censored. However, discussion of Hu's death and her posthumous recognition for bravery are still allowed.

In recognition of Hu's actions, Japan's embassy in China flew its national flag at half-mast.

It's unclear if China's central government was directly involved in the crackdown. But social media firms in the country react sensitively to what the state deems acceptable, often simultaneously issuing announcements about undesirable posts.

China's Cyberspace Administration tasks social media platforms with self-regulating content and, on June 14, published a set of rules detailing how internet providers should censor violent content.

The anti-Japanese rhetoric also comes at an inconvenient time for Chinese officials hoping to bring in more business from Tokyo as the local economy struggles.

Suzhou, in eastern China's Jiangsu province, is one of the country's largest hubs for Japanese investment, with thousands of Japanese firms in the city.

On Tuesday, Chinese state media reported that Vice Premier He Lifeng had met with a trade delegation from Japan, saying his country welcomed Japanese companies and hoped they would expand.

Hu's death hung over the meeting, with officials on both sides pausing for a moment to honor her passing, The South China Morning Post reported.

• First a cold, then bad prep, and now jet lag.
• Biden's campaign has put forth a series of reasons trying to explain his bad debate performance.
• This comes as pressure has grown for Biden to step aside and make way for a replacement.

President Joe Biden has offered a new explanation for his disastrous debate performance — jet lag.

Giving a reason for his incoherent sentences, slurring and vacant expression on the June 27 CNN debate with former President Donald Trump, Biden said that he "nearly fell asleep on stage."

Speaking to donors at a fundraising event in Virginia on Tuesday, he added that he "wasn't very smart" about his use of time before the debate. "I decided to travel around the world a couple times, going through around 100 time zones," Biden said.

He added: "It's not an excuse but an explanation."

Other reasons for his poor performance

The jet lag explanation, however, deviates from the one his own campaign put out days ago.

The Biden campaign source said that he was suffering from a cold during the debate. That Biden had a cold going into the big night, The Wall Street Journal reported, which did explain his hoarse voice and coughing.

But post-debate, Biden critics and supporters alike have been speculating on whether his advanced age might kill the Democratic ticket's chances of winning in 2024.

And on that front, the Biden camp has been willing to admit the obvious — the president is old.

When asked at a White House press conference whether "Biden's cognitive decline" was "an episode or a condition," his press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that he was not a young man and "he's a little slower than he used to be."

Biden himself said at a post-debate campaign event in North Carolina on Friday: "Folks, I might not walk as easily or talk as smoothly as I used to. I might not debate as well as I used to.

"But what I do know is how to tell the truth," he added.

The Biden blame game

Multiple media reports indicate that the blame game continues behind the scenes, with several parties speculating that Biden's top aides failed to adequately prepare him for the big showdown with Trump.

His family has, behind closed doors, argued that the top aides who prepped Biden should be demoted or fired, per Politico. They pointed fingers at Biden's senior advisor, Anita Dunn; her husband, Bob Bauer, Biden's personal attorney; and Biden's former chief of staff, Ron Klain.

Three anonymous sources told Politico that the Biden family criticized these three aides — all of whom helped train Biden for the CNN debate — for not preparing him well enough to go on the offensive.

Donors have also weighed in. Democratic megadonor John Morgon said Biden needs to eliminate his "cabal," which includes Anita Dunn and Bob Bauer.

"I think he has misplaced trust in these three people, and I believe he has from the inception," Morgan told Politico.

Another longtime Democratic donor, Whitney Tilson, wrote on X that he felt "deceived" by Biden's poor showing.

"If the man I saw at the debate is the real Joe Biden right now, then it would be a waste of my time and money to support him because he has almost no chance of beating Trump," Tilson wrote.

Anxiety grows within the Democratic Party's ranks

Despite the multiple reasons given for the debate performance, Democrats are getting anxious.

Elected Democrats previously loyal to Biden have raised fresh doubts about the president's capabilities to run for a second term and are adding to the voices asking him to step aside.

A House Democratic aide told Reuters that 25 Democrats were preparing to call Biden to quit the race. Texas Rep. Lloyd Doggett was the first of them, calling the president to step aside on Tuesday.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll on Tuesday also revealed anxiety in the party, with one in three Democrats saying Biden should quit the race in favor of a replacement.

Several names have been floated — including Vice President Kamala Harris, Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, and more.

Representatives for Biden didn't immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.

• Gov. Gavin Newsom has brushed aside calls for him to replace President Joe Biden on the ballot.
• But the California Gov. has some fans in China, and they want him to step up.
• One user said that Newsom is good looking and is "really suitable to be president." 

Gov. Gavin Newsom might have maintained his support for President Joe Biden, but Newsom's Chinese fans think it's time for him to lead his country.

"The California governor is really suitable to be president. He's so handsome," one user wrote on the Chinese social media platform Weibo on Saturday.

Some said that Newsom's speaking style reminded them of former President Bill Clinton and that the California Democrat had a "bright future" ahead of him.

"Biden should have voluntarily stepped aside a long time ago. But even then, Newsom is waiting in the wings and has been playing a critical role in the Democratic Party," a user named Zheng Jun said in a Weibo post on the same day. "When the opportunity arises, he will be best prepared to seize it."

The goodwill for Newsom appears to stem from his last trip to China, which took place in October. During his trip, Newsom spent a week visiting Hong Kong, Beijing, and Shanghai, as well as the provinces of Guangdong and Jiangsu.

Following his visit, Newsom said in an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour that he didn't want the US-China bilateral relationship to deteriorate because the two countries are "interdependent."

"Divorce is not an option. We have to define the terms of the future. We have to live together across our differences," Newsom told Amanpour.

Representatives for Newsom did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BI sent outside regular business hours.

To be sure, the support for Newsom on Weibo wasn't unanimous. Some believed that, given his record running California, Newsom would be a disastrous replacement candidate.

"If Newsom becomes President, the US will be even more screwed. Just look at at the homeless people and illegal immigrants running around San Francisco and Los Angeles," one user wrote in a comment to Zheng Jun's post.

"Throw in those high taxes and the US will eventually turn into a place that exploits the middle class while raising homeless people," the comment added.

Dealing with homelessness in California has been a significant priority for Newsom. The Golden State has long housed a disproportionate share of the nation's homeless population.

According to a study by the Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative at the University of California, San Francisco, the state makes up less than 12% of the nation's total population but is home to 30% of people experiencing homelessness.

Rumblings of a potential Newsom ticket have grown after Biden's disastrous performance at last week's presidential debate. The 81-year-old's exchanges with his GOP rival, former President Donald Trump was riddled with gaffes and stumbles.

Newsom, for his part, has continued to brush aside calls for him to replace Biden on the ballot.

"You don't turn your back because of one performance. What kind of party does that?" Newsom told MSNBC's Alex Wagner on Thursday. "The president has delivered. We need to deliver for him at this moment."

• Russia's economy, boosted by military activity, is now classified as high-income by the World Bank.
• Russia's GDP grew 3.6% in 2023, with trade and financial sectors rebounding.
• The World Bank also upgraded Bulgaria and Palau, while the West Bank and Gaza were downgraded.

Russia's economy has defied sanctions in the two years since Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022 — so much so that the World Bank is now classifying Russia as a "high-income country."

On Monday, the World Bank announced it has upgraded Russia from an upper-middle-income country to a high-income country, according to a report from the financial institution's economists.

"Economic activity in Russia was influenced by a large increase in military-related activity in 2023," World Bank economists wrote in their report.

Last year, Russians earned $14,250 per person on a gross national income basis.

The World Bank's upgrade confirms reports from Russia that suggest the growth is primarily driven by wartime activities that generate demand for military goods and services, making some sectors winners in Russia's wartime economy.

Russia's trade jumped by nearly 7% last year, while activities in the financial sector and construction grew by 6.6% and 3.6%, respectively.

This boosted Russia's real GDP — which is economic growth adjusted for inflation — by 3.6%.

The development has made some poor Russians better off financially, complicating any calculus over how to end the war.

The World Bank upgraded seven countries, downgraded West Bank and Gaza

Other than Russia, the World Bank also upgraded Bulgaria and Palau from upper-middle-income to high-income countries. Their upgrades came after several years of post-pandemic growth.

Ukraine also moved up from a lower-middle-income country to upper-middle-income country as real GDP grew 5.3% — reversing a steep 28.8% slump in 2022.

"While Ukraine's economy was significantly impaired by Russia's invasion, real growth in 2023 was driven by construction activity (24.6%), reflecting a sizable increase in investment spending (52.9%) supporting Ukraine's reconstruction effort in the wake of ongoing destruction," the World Bank added.

In all, the World Bank upgraded the classification of seven countries this year and downgraded just one country: West Bank and Gaza.

West Bank and Gaza became an upper-middle-income country in 2023, but its economy was significantly impacted by its war with Israel.

"The conflict in the Middle East began in October 2023, and while the impact on West Bank and Gaza was limited to the fourth quarter, its scale was nonetheless sufficient to lead to a 9.2% drop in nominal GDP," the World Bank economists wrote. West Bank and Gaza's GDP declined 5.5% in real terms.

• China could end Russia's war on Ukraine if it wanted to, says Finland President Alexander Stubb.
• "Russia is so dependent on China right now," Stubb told Bloomberg on Tuesday. 
• But some analysts believe that China doesn't really want the war to end.

China could hold the key to ending Russia's war in Ukraine, Finland President Alexander Stubb said in an interview with Bloomberg on Tuesday.

China's influence on Russia, Stubb said, stemmed from the latter's growing reliance on the Asian giant as it grapples with crippling economic sanctions from the West.

"I argue that Russia is so dependent on China right now that one phone call from President Xi Jinping would solve this crisis," Stubb said of the Chinese leader."If he were to say, 'Time to start negotiating peace.' Russia would be forced to do that."

"They would have no other choice," he continued.

Representatives for Russia's and China's foreign ministries did not immediately respond to requests for comment from BI sent outside regular business hours.

Stubb, whose country joined the NATO military alliance in April last year, told the outlet that brokering a peaceful resolution to the Ukraine war would be in China's interest.

"If China is genuinely interested in harmonious relations between nation states, it cannot allow a country like Russia to drive an imperial, at the end of the day, aggressive and colonial war against an independent nation state," Stubb said.

"That is the right thing to do. And that would also show leadership from China," he added.

To be sure, China has called for peace in Ukraine.

In May, Xi hosted Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Beijing. He emphasized China's desire for an international peace conference involving Russia and Ukraine during the meeting.

Notably, China did not attend a Ukrainian peace conference in Switzerland in June because Russia wasn't invited.

"China has always insisted that an international peace conference should be endorsed by both Russia and Ukraine, with the equal participation of all parties, and that all peace proposals should be discussed in a fair and equal manner," Mao Ning, a spokesperson for China's foreign ministry, said of the Swiss effort on May 31.

However, some analysts believe China doesn't want the war to stop.

"Despite the fact that China has repeatedly called for a negotiated settlement in Ukraine, America's continued support for Kyiv — and hence Russia's inability to secure its gains in short order — is actually in Beijing's interest," Chels Michta, a non-resident fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis, said in his analysis in May.

In his article, Michta argued that an escalation of the war into "European NATO territory would pull the United States deeper in the theater."

An escalation, Michta argued, would also limit the US' ability to "respond to a crisis in Asia," thus allowing China to attain "regional hegemony in the Indo-Pacific."

"It must therefore be obvious that Ukraine is extremely important to China and that a continuing conflict is very much in its interests," Michta wrote.

• Democratic megadonor John Morgan said that Biden has placed "misplaced trust" in his top aides.
• Morgan said Biden needs to eliminate his "cabal," which includes Anita Dunn and Bob Bauer. 
• He joins the camp of Biden supporters who have pinned blame on his aides for his poor debate show.

Democratic megadonor John Morgan has joined the camp of people pointing fingers at President Joe Biden's top aides for his poor debate performance.

Speaking to Politico, Morgan said he thinks the president has a "cabal" of his closest aides. That group includes Biden's senior advisor, Anita Dunn; her husband, Bob Bauer, Biden's personal attorney; and Biden's former chief of staff, Ron Klain.

"I think he has misplaced trust in these three people, and I believe he has from the inception," Morgan told Politico.

Morgan also took to X on Sunday to express his displeasure with the aides.

"Biden has for too long been fooled by the value of Anita Dunn and her husband. They need to go… TODAY," he wrote.

He added: "The grifting is gross. It was political malpractice."

Morgan, who founded the law firm Morgan & Morgan, donated at least $355,000 to Biden's campaign in 2020 and helped raise some $1.7 million for it through a fundraiser at his home.

Morgan echoes the sentiments of some Biden family members, who, behind closed doors, have argued that the aides should be demoted or fired, per Politico.

Three anonymous sources told Politico that the Biden family begrudged these three top aides — all of whom helped train Biden for the primetime CNN debate — for not preparing him well enough to go on the offensive.

Despite growing criticisms from his party and donors, the Biden-Harris campaign raised $127 million in June, including $38 million after Thursday's debate.

From April to June, his campaign raised $264 million. However, the Trump campaign has outraised Biden's, amassing a $331 million war chest in 2024's second quarter, per Bloomberg.

Despite the positive fundraising spike, donors have been spooked post-debate and remain unsure of Biden's ability to pull off a win in 2024.

Another longtime Democratic donor, Whitney Tilson, said in a Saturday post on X that he felt "deceived" by Biden's performance.

"If the man I saw at the debate is the real Joe Biden right now, then it would be a waste of my time and money to support him because he has almost no chance of beating Trump," Tilson wrote.

Morgan and representatives for Biden didn't immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.

• Bob Iger has been heading one of the world's largest entertainment companies for nearly two decades.
• The House of Mouse boss stepped down as Disney CEO in February 2020 only to return in 2022.
• Here's a look at his wealth, spending, and career, from a lowly position at ABC to Disney CEO.

Bob Iger now has something money can't buy: the title of Honorary Knight.

He was given the title Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in a ceremony led by Prince William.

Perhaps most important on his résumé, though, is his tenure as the CEO of Disney.

Iger started his entertainment career in 1974 as a studio supervisor at ABC and climbed up the show business ranks to lead one of the most powerful businesses in the world.

Though he retired as CEO in 2020, Bob Iger returned to the role in a shocking shakeup two years later. Iger had stepped down as CEO in February 2020 but stayed on as executive chairman until December 2021, when he retired, albeit ultimately briefly.

Iger has amassed a sizeable personal fortune across his 15 years and counting as CEO.

Forbes reported in 2019 that Iger had a net worth of $690 million, which is thought to be higher than that of Disney heiress Abigail Disney, who said that year that she's worth about $120 million. Iger, meanwhile, received $31.6 million in total compensation in 2023, or 595 times what the median Disney employee makes.

Here's what we know about Iger's life and career rise, including how he makes and spends his multimillion-dollar fortune:

Iger was born Robert Allen Iger in Brooklyn, New York, and raised in the small town of Oceanside, New York.

"I am very lucky," Iger told Laurene Powell Jobs at The Atlantic Festival in Washington in 2019. "I was a lower middle class kid or middle class. My father had manic depression so he had trouble holding a job. I started as a $150-a-week employee at ABC 45 years ago and rose up to be CEO of this company. It is a great story, but it is not necessarily because I was extraordinary."

He attended Ithaca College where he graduated magna cum lade in 1973 with a degree in Television and Radio.

At Ithaca College, Iger hosted a campus television show called "Campus Probe." He graduated originally wanting to be a news anchor and briefly worked as a local weatherman in Ithaca, New York.

In 1974, Iger joined ABC, working in New York City. He wrote in his memoir "The Ride of a Lifetime" that he did "menial labor" for basically every show ABC produced out of Manhattan at the time.

Iger wrote in his book that he got his first job at ABC because of his uncle, who was in the hospital for eye surgery. His uncle was in the room next to someone who claimed to be a top executive at ABC, who said he would give the younger Iger a job.

Iger took the "top executive" up on his offer, though he quickly realized that the person was not a "top executive" but instead a lower-level one. Still, the person ran a small department at ABC known as Production Services and was able to secure Iger an interview with the department.

At age 23, Iger was brought on as a "studio supervisor."

But after a confrontation with his boss, Iger was almost fired and forced to look for a new job. Soon after, he moved over to a position at ABC Sports.

Iger has said that one of his bosses accused Iger of spreading rumors about him, causing the young Iger to almost be fired.

"He told me I wasn't promotable and I had two weeks to find another job somewhere in the company or I was gone," Iger recalled at the UCLA Awards Gala in 2013. "Fortunately, I was able to find another job in the company. They didn't think I wasn't promotable, I guess."

He worked his way up the ABC Sports ladder, working closely with Roone Arledge, "a relentless perfectionist," who was the head of ABC Sports at the time.

Iger wrote in his book that Arledge was the person who taught him the mantra which would follow Iger for the rest of his life: "Innovate or die."

Iger went on to become the vice president of ABC Sports.

ABC was later sold to Capital Cities Communications for $3.5 billion in a deal finalized in 1986.

Shortly after, Tom Murphy and Dan Burke — the heads of Capital Cities/ABC — tapped Iger to become the head of ABC Entertainment, and Iger moved to Los Angeles.

Iger wrote in his memoir that the constant traveling put strain on his first marriage, to Kathleen Susan. Eventually, the two divorced. They have two daughters.

While at the helm of ABC Entertainment, Iger was the one who took a chance and put David Lynch's "Twin Peaks" on air.

The critically-acclaimed series was cancelled after two seasons, but Iger wrote in his book that the risk he took putting it on television caught the attention of other famed directors such as Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. 

Iger and Lucas then developed a show based on the Indiana Jones franchise, which was cancelled after two seasons. But, Iger wrote in his book, Lucas never forgot the risk Iger took on his show, and he remembered it years later when he decided to sell Lucasfilm to Disney.

In 1993, Iger became president of ABC Network's Television Group.

 When Burke retired, Iger was tapped to replace him as president and COO of Capital Cities/ABC.

 

In 1995, Iger married journalist Willow Bay who, at the time, was a stand-in weekend news anchor on Good Morning America, and was poised to take over for then-full time host Joan Lunden.

Iger and Bay became engaged in 1995. But after Disney agreed to buy Capital Cities/ABC that same year, Iger had quick decisions to make.

At that time, he wrote in his memoir, he had been commuting weekly to Los Angeles to meet his new Disney colleagues. He knew that after the acquisition was approved, he and Bay would not have much time to honeymoon. So, they quickly married later that same year.

"Willow and I also knew we'd have no chance for a honeymoon once the deal closed," he wrote. "We radically shortened our engagement and got married in early October 1995."

They are still married and have two children together.

In 1996, The Walt Disney Company bought Capital Cities/ABC for $19 billion, and renamed it ABC, Inc.

Iger wrote in his memoir that he heavily considered walking away from Disney at this point. But as part of the Disney-ABC merger, Iger agreed to run a media division at Disney for five years.

In 1999, Iger became the president of Disney International, the business division overseeing Disney's global operations. A year later, he was tapped to become the COO of Disney, working directly under then-CEO Michael Eisner.

Forbes reported that between 1994 and 1999, Eisner made $631 million. In the year 1997 alone, Eisner reportedly made more than $550 million. Over the years, Eisner invested his Disney money and became a billionaire by 2008 — perhaps predicting a financial path Iger may follow.

In the early 2000s, tensions began to brew between Eisner and Disney heir Roy E. Disney. After Eisner stepped down, Iger became the CEO of the Walt Disney Company in 2005.

Iger wrote in his book that, despite being the COO and thereby second in command behind Eisner, his promotion to CEO was not a guarantee. If anything, he wrote, many had associated him with the turbulence of Eisner's era and wanted an outsider for the job. Iger said he campaigned for months until he was officially named CEO in 2005. 

Forbes reported in 2019 that in his first year as CEO, Iger made $22 million, a salary which did not include the stock options worth $2.9 million.

One of Iger's first major moves as CEO was to rebuild Disney's relationship with Pixar. At the time, the relationship between Disney and Pixar was strained, and Iger felt the future of Disney Animation relied on repairing it.

Before he officially became the CEO of Disney, he called to inform Steve Jobs — who was the majority shareholder in Pixar — that he was being appointed CEO and shared his hope they could discuss working together in the future. From there, the two began to slowly work on repairing the fraught relationship between the two companies. 

Iger wrote in his memoir that he felt Disney needed Pixar to help enter the future of animation. Pixar at the time was using technologies to produce content that had never been seen before, Iger wrote in his book.

Iger wanted Disney to be in on it — not just as a distributor for the films, as their previous agreement had stated, but to actually own what Pixar was bringing to the table.

In 2006, Disney announced that it would acquire Pixar for $7.4 billion, making Jobs, the majority shareholder in Pixar at the time, the majority shareholder in Disney.

Iger wrote in his book that the two companies were able to come together after he reached out to Jobs to forge a friendship and address any issues between the two companies. 

Iger and Jobs would go on to have a long friendship until Jobs passed away in 2011. A month after Jobs died, Iger joined the Apple board, where he remained until he stepped down in 2019 ahead of launching Disney+.

In 2009, Iger led Disney's acquisition of Marvel for $4 billion. This gave Disney access to the Marvel comic book library, which was the beginning of the now multibillion-dollar, box office record-breaking Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Iger wrote that part of the reason Marvel CEO Isaac "Ike" Perlmutter was willing to sell the company was because Jobs called Perlmutter to "vouch for" Iger and praised how Iger had handled the Disney-Pixar merger.

Still looking to help Disney expand into the future, in 2012, Iger led Disney's acquisition of Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion. This gave Disney control of not just the Star Wars franchise, but also the Indiana Jones franchise.

Iger said that he knew Lucas was nervous to sell Lucasfim to Disney — mostly because the "Star Wars" creator knew he would be selling his legacy along with it. But eventually, Lucas warmed up to the idea.

Lucas enlisted Kathleen Kennedy to lead Lucasfilm right before the company was sold to Disney. The first Star Wars film made without Lucas was released a few years later, in 2015 — "The Force Awakens," directed by J.J. Abrams.

The company's acquisition spree continued in 2018, when Disney agreed to buy 21st Century Fox. At the time, Fox was owned by billionaire Rupert Murdoch who, after the sale, became one of the largest shareholders in Disney.

Forbes reported in 2019 that, if Murdoch were to cash in all stock available to him from the Disney deal, he'd own about $10.5 billion worth of Disney stock. In addition, Variety reported that collectively, the Murdoch family members were "the largest individual shareholders in Disney."

Iger wrote in his memoir that Murdoch selling the company he had built from scratch was an indicator that the "disruption" threatening the entertainment industry was now inevitable. 

"As [Rupert Murdoch] pondered the future of his company in such a disrupted world, he concluded the smartest thing to do was to sell and give his shareholders and his family a chance to convert its 21st Century Fox stock into Disney stock, believing we were better positioned to withstand the change and, combined, we'd be even stronger," Iger wrote in his book. 

In March 2019, the merger between 21st Century Fox and Disney was completed, with a price tag of $71.3 billion.

This move made Disney the second-largest media company in the world at the time, Forbes reported.

That year, Iger was also named Time's businessperson of the year.

"In a year when the tide has shifted against Big Business, Big Media and Big Tech, Iger has transformed his enormous media company into a gargantuan media and tech business while ensuring that the Walt Disney Co.'s products remain widely beloved," Belinda Luscombe wrote in Time's profile of him. "But for now, for just this moment, Iger is unassailable. He's transformed his company from a stuffy media doyen into a sexy cultural force."

In 2020, Iger — along with Seth MacFarlane and Cicely Tyson, among several others — was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame.

Other inductees that year included the likes of Seth MacFarlane and Cicely Tyson.

In February 2020, Disney announced that Iger would step down as CEO and assume the role of executive chairman until his contract expired on December 31, 2021.

Iger was replaced by Bob Chapek, former chairman of Disney Parks, Experiences and Product. Iger would forgo his entire salary for the year, and Chapek would similarly take a 50% salary cut amid potential multibillion-dollar revenue losses due to the coronavirus pandemic, Business Insider's Ashley Rodriguez reported.

After a short-lived retirement, Bob Iger returned to Disney.

In November 2022, Disney made the shocking announcement that Iger was back to lead the company for two years, during which he'd work with the board to find a successor.

However, Disney's board in 2023 voted to extend his contract to the end of 2026.

In 2019, he had a net worth of $690 million, per Forbes' estimates.

Forbes reported at the time that Iger's net worth was actually higher than that of Abigail Disney, the Disney heiress, who said in 2019 that she was worth about $120 million.

In March 2020, it was announced that Iger would forgo his salary for the year, as Disney dealt with presumed multibillion-dollar losses due to the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent shutdowns. His base salary was $3 million in the previous fiscal year and he made $47.5 million in total compensation.

Iger is known among peers for being a very kind leader and has been praised by his contemporaries for the way he has handled the mergers of Pixar, Marvel, and Lucasfilm.

During his first stint as CEO, Iger grew Disney's profits 335% to $260 billion, Business Insider reported.

Forbes also reports that under Iger, Disney created more than 70,000 new jobs. 

"Literally, I have never heard one person say a bad thing about him and I have never seen him be mean," billionaire David Geffen told The New York Times in a profile on Iger. "To be honorable, decent, smart, successful, and a terrific guy is unusual anywhere. But it is most unusual in the entertainment business. He's in a category of one."

Iger's own increasing fortune has paralleled the rise in Disney's value over the years he's been at the helm.

Forbes reported that that Iger's fortune is split between his Disney shares "and cash or other investment from sales of Disney shares over the decades."

According to Forbes, Iger was compensated $65.6 million in 2018, which was 1,424 times the average Disney employee's salary. He had been given another $26.3 million in stock after he successfully closed the Disney-Fox merger and for agreeing to extend his contract until 2021. His initial compensation in 2018 was $39.3 million (not including stock rewards).

In April 2019, Abigail Disney publicly criticized Iger's high pay on Twitter and later wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post elaborating on her thoughts. 

"I'm not arguing that Iger and others do not deserve bonuses. They do," Disney wrote. "They have led the company brilliantly. I am saying that the people who contribute to its success also deserve a share of the profits they have helped make happen."

Most recently, Iger received $31.6 million in total compensation in 2023, or 595 times what the median Disney employee makes.

As Iger is a very private person, not much is known about his spending.

He and his wife bought a home in Brentwood, California, in 2006 from actress Michelle Pfeiffer for about $19 million, the Orlando Sentinel reported that year.

The home reportedly was 7,500 square feet and had five bedrooms, nine bathrooms, a guest house, a tennis court, and a pool. As of a 2018 interview with Vogue, Iger was still living in Brentwood with his wife and their two children.

The Igers also previously owned an apartment on the Upper East Side of New York City. The property sold in 2018 for $18.75 million, Business Insider reported.

The Igers' former home has a library, living room views of the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir in Central Park, and four bedrooms, including one master suite with two bathrooms and a walk-in closet.

Iger spends time — and likely money — maintaining his mental and physical health, about which he's notoriously rigorous. He told The New York Times that he wakes up at 4:15 every morning and doesn't touch his phone until he's finished with his morning exercise routine.

Iger has also said that he doesn't eat carbs unless it's pizza, recalling that during his high school years, he worked at his local Pizza Hut.

Iger reportedly has multiple yachts.

He has a 180-foot superyacht called Aquarius, which he wrote about in Vanity Fair in 2014.

He's also having another built, expected to be 30 feet longer, according to The Wall Street Journal.

When he's "off the clock," he travels. Iger is a regular attendee at the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference in Sun Valley, Idaho. The media conference is a hub for entertainment and tech moguls.

Variety reports that in 2019, Iger attended the conference along with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Shari Redstone, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky, and even former Democratic presidential candidate John Hickenlooper.

In 2019, Iger and his wife committed $1 million to launch the Iger-Bay Endowed Scholarship at Iger's alma mater, Ithaca College. The scholarship aims to boost diversity in the media industry.

The scholarship was funded through the proceeds from Iger's memoir.

Iger also spends some of his fortune on vacations. Beyond their business dealings related to Disney and Pixar, Iger was also close personal friends with Jobs and has said the two would vacation together in nearby resorts in Hawaii.

"We vacationed at adjacent Hawaiian hotels a few times and would meet and take long walks on the beach, talking about our wives and kids, about music, about Apple and Disney and the things we might still do together," he wrote in his book. "You don't expect to develop such close friendships late in life, but when I think back on my time as CEO — at the things I'm most grateful for and surprised by — my relationship with Steve is one of them."

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Iger has been seen on billionaire David Geffen's yacht. In August 2017, Iger was seen on the yacht with Oprah Winfrey, Diane von Furstenberg, and Diane Sawyer.

Geffen owns a megayacht, known to be a common hang-out spot for celebrities and fellow billionaires, including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, during the summer months, as seen on his Instagram page.

The yacht is worth $590 million, as previously reported by Business Insider.

In his personal life, Iger has a set of A-list friends who have been known to rave about him. One of those friends is Winfrey, who has said that if Iger were to run for president, she would not just vote for him but eagerly campaign on his behalf.

"I'll tell you the truth, this is not really where I intended to be tonight," Winfrey said at the Centennial Awards, where Iger was being honored, in 2019. "I was hoping that by this time in early fall, I would be knocking on doors in Des Moines, wearing an 'Iger 2020' T-shirt. Because I really do believe that Bob Iger's guidance and decency is exactly what the country needs right now."

Iger is also close to Jeffrey Katzenberg, cofounder of Dreamworks and former chairman of Walt Disney Studios.

After Comcast bought Dreamworks in 2016 for $3.8 billion, Katzenberg's net worth rose to $900 million. 

Iger and Katzenberg have been friends for years, and Katzenberg is among the group of people who tried to encourage the Disney CEO to run for president.

"No matter how much I begged Bob," Katzenberg said while presenting the Simon Wiesenthal Center Humanitarian Award to Iger in 2019. "He just wasn't willing to run for president of the United States."

In his memoir, Iger admitted that he once considered running for president, but ultimately decided against it.

"I think the Democratic Party would brand me as just another rich guy who's out of touch with America who doesn't have any sense for what's good for the plight of the people," he told The New York Times in a 2019 profile.

Despite many people — including some major Hollywood players — urging him to run for president in late 2019, Iger publicly remained firm that he had no plans to pursue a presidential campaign.

Iger has also spent his free time involved in politics in the past. Shortly after Donald Trump was elected president, Iger joined Trump's Strategic and Policy Forum.

Trump's Strategic and Policy Forum was a business council created to hear the perspectives of different leaders on how to improve job growth in the US. 

But Iger stepped down from the role in 2017 after Trump announced the US would withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement, Variety reported.

Iger announced his resignation from the council in a tweet stating: "As a matter of principle, I've resigned from the President's Council over the #Paris Agreement withdrawal." 

The council, which ultimately disbanded, also included JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, and Stephen A. Schwarzman, the cofounder of private equity firm Blackstone.

In September 2019, however, Iger did outline what would have been the central themes of his campaign, had he decided to run.

"America is gravely in need of optimism, of looking at the future and believing that so many things are going to be all right, or that we as a nation can attack some of the most critical problems of our day," Iger said at The Atlantic Festival in Washington in 2019. "And that could be the environment, that could be income disparity, that could be the technology's impact on the world from a disruption perspective. It could be the cost of education, availability of affordable housing, healthcare. You name it."

Iger's 2020 plans to retire from Disney were derailed by the coronavirus pandemic.

In 2020, Iger announced his plans to retire at the end of his contract term, though the coronavirus pandemic derailed his plan. Disney's board extended Iger's term as chairman to the end of 2021. At the end of his term, Susan Arnold took his place as chairman.

With a $3 million salary in 2019, plus a $21.8 million bonus, $10 million worth of stock awards, and $9.6 million worth of stock options, Iger was consistently one of Hollywood's highest-paid CEOs prior to his departure, Business Insider previously reported.

As Disney's on-again-of-again CEO, Iger fended off challenges to his control of the company.

Iger returned to Disney as the company's CEO following the ouster of his successor, Bob Chapek. His contract was originally set to expire in 2024, but Disney's board in 2023 voted to extend his contract to the end of 2026 — and increased his compensation package by several million dollars.

Upon his return, Iger faced challenges to his control over the company, including from activist investor Nelson Peltz over two board seats. Iger ultimately prevailed. The proxy fight over the seats is estimated to have cost all parties about $70 million.

Iger and Bay set their sights on purchasing the most valuable women's sports franchise in the world.

In the summer of 2024, Puck and Semafor reported that Iger and his wife were planning to purchase a controlling share of the Los Angeles women's soccer franchise Angel City FC — the most valuable women's sports team in the world.

The proposed deal, with a pre-money valuation of $250 million, would see the pair replace Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian as the team's primary shareholder.