Musk's ‘Woke’ Entertainment Warning; Will Gov’t Boost CBDC After FTX Fall? | NTD Business

Thank you for watching NTD Business. Coming up tonight, billionaire Elon Musk warning about the entertainment industry pushing woke content. What does he say it will do to civilization? Amazon facing Black Friday protests in over 30 countries today. NTD catches up with protesters in Manhattan, New York. And frustration reaching a boiling point in China over stricter virus controls as the country reports another record high of daily COVID-19 infections. That and much more coming up on NTD Business. Great to have you with us. Don Ma here. Billionaire Elon Musk is warning that woke ideologies are threatening human civilization. The Oxford Dictionary says woke means alert to racial or social discrimination and injustice. Today, Musk tweeted, The woke mind virus has thoroughly penetrated entertainment and is pushing civilization towards suicide. There needs to be a counter-narrative. Hollywood's been at the forefront of promoting progressive culture. But box office numbers show Americans may be getting tired of woke content. According to the Wall Street Journal, this summer, Hollywood raked in 21% less than 2019, before the pandemic. It was the worst season since 2001. Breitbart writer John Nolte points out that children's movies that contained homosexual content did poorly. So did Marvel's Thor, Love and Thunder. It's been criticized for emasculating masculine heroes. On the other hand, the two big blockbusters this summer were Spider-Man No Way Home and Top Gun Maverick. Neither were woke. And next week, Twitter will be bringing back the old. As in, old accounts that were banned will be reactivated. Twitter owner Elon Musk made the announcement Thursday. Now exactly who that involves and when hasn't been made official. The move comes after Musk posted a poll asking if Twitter should reinstate suspended accounts that haven't broken the law. About 75% of responders agreed. Putting the question to a poll contradicts what Musk said after taking control of Twitter that there would be a council to decide on reinstating banned accounts. Meanwhile, Musk is postponing the launch of the Twitter Blue Verified Checkmark to next Friday. Today, he said Twitter will also roll out gold and gray checks. Gold for companies. Gray for government. Blue for individuals. Musk tweeted that all verified accounts will be manually authenticated before checks activates. He says painful but necessary. He paused the Twitter Blue Verified Checkmarks after users abused the system by impersonating famous people and brands. In the past, the Blue Checkmark was reserved for verified accounts of public figures. Last week, Musk said he was delaying the launch to make sure the service is rock solid. And Black Friday Amazon protests are taking place around the world. Workers demanding higher wages and better working conditions, among other things. NTT's John Marshall spoke with one group here in Manhattan, New York. Thousands of Amazon warehouse workers across more than 30 countries planned protests and walkouts on Black Friday. It's one of the busiest days of the year for online shopping and retail stores. Workers are tired of being treated as a disposable commodity. They're tired of treating as if they don't matter. They want their health and safety respected. They want to be treated with dignity. The hashtag Make Amazon Pay campaign told Bloomberg that workers in Germany are concerned with Amazon's use of computers to monitor their productivity. In New York City, the Make Amazon Pay group was protesting near Jeff Bezos' New York City home. I spoke with Stuart Applebaum, the chair of the Amazon Global Alliance. It is so bad to work at Amazon that there is a 150 percent turnover rate. People can't endure the conditions. At a facility in Bessemer, Alabama, that's been open for three years, seven workers have already died either within the facility or going from the Amazon facility to the hospital. French unions called for a higher cash bonus for the period preceding Christmas, during which employees at warehouses are asked to do a lot of overtime work. The way Amazon deals with its employees grinds them down both physically and psychologically, and that can no longer continue. Workers are standing up. They're rising up. They're saying that Amazon needs to change, and we're demanding that Amazon changes the way it operates, the way it treats its employees. We will not tolerate Amazon's model becoming the model for the future of work. And in recent news, federal judges ordered Amazon to stop retaliating against employees engaged in workplace activism. We reached out to Amazon for an official statement on Black Friday protests, but they did not get back to us by the time of this broadcast. Sean Marshall, NTD News. Black Friday is one of the biggest shopping holidays of the year. As many turn to shopping online, the days of lining up for deals are mostly behind us. But shoppers are still turning up at physical stores. Sparse but steady streams of Black Friday customers could be seen fanning out at Macy's flagship store in Midtown Manhattan. Products like strollers, speakers, and outdoor grills flew off the shelves. Mobile shopping drove 55% of online Thanksgiving sales. Black Friday is expected to bring in $9 billion from online sales. Adobe Analytics Analysts measures consumer transactions online covering over 1 trillion visits to U.S. retail websites. For Thanksgiving Day, Adobe estimates U.S. shoppers spent nearly 3% more online this year. But we don't know how much of that is due to inflation. And tomorrow is Small Business Saturday. Shop small has been growing in popularity nationwide. A new survey reveals shoppers are being intentional about where they spend their money this holiday season. That's despite historic inflation, ongoing supply issues, and recession fears. In this story, we take a look at what's driving a growing number of Americans to prioritize local entrepreneurs. Shopping small is making a big impact this holiday season. A recent QuickBooks survey found 80% of small businesses say this holiday season is more important to their overall financial picture than it was last year. It's a fight for survival. Allison Ashe, owner of this holiday store called The Wrapper, says this is a critical time for her finances. I just feel really lucky and blessed that we've had people who've been loyal to us. This year, nearly 60% of Americans say they will shop Small Business Saturday, more than the number of people who plan to shop on Black Friday. That's according to a recent survey by Bankrate.com. And economists say it means more holiday shoppers are warming up to the idea of investing in their local economy. Gen Z is actually a big part of that. There's a statistic that about 67% of TikTok users are buying items from small businesses that show up on their For You page. Economist Kathy Corman Fry says buying local is a great way to support entrepreneurs recovering from the lingering effects of the pandemic. For small fashion designers like Camila Romero, being a sustainable brand has helped her stay competitive against fast fashion and major retailers. I got everything made here in Los Angeles. I created my own community of people that I work with on a daily basis. Romero says her company, Deadblood, has found success because her pieces are unique and made to order, and because customers align with the brand's values. According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, when you support a local business, your spending benefits your city and neighborhood through sales tax, which is then used to support public schools, parks, roads, and funds public service workers like police and firefighters. In the aftermath of FTX's collapse, financial pundits predict the central government may use the opportunity to promote its own central bank digital currency, or CBDC. After all, people lost billions of dollars in the collapse. The federal government could say more government intervention could have stopped this from happening. A central bank digital currency is a very, very new idea. The general concept is that we would use this type of digital money to trade instead of using the money we're using now. Just last week, the New York Fed, along with many big financial firms, launched a CBDC pilot program. Meanwhile, Singapore and India are also looking into their own CBDCs. India hopes to launch its pilot program in December. The president of International Banking Association, FIBA, David Schwartz, says CBDCs carry many benefits. He generally supports them. Instead of writing a check for a bill payment, instead of paying cash, you would just use your app and send that payment electronically. So you would remove basically the physical currency from the marketplace. And this will allow it to move much quicker in terms of transmission. The cost will be much lower. And for banks, it would be very helpful in terms of anti-money laundering. Now, the positives are huge and are undeniable. The founder of education service, Theo Trade, Don Kaufman, believes a central bank digital currency is inevitable. It's going to happen. On the institutional side, it actually holds a lot of weight. It would be very, very effective to have some type of interbank system that's not tying up capital for days at a time. Instantaneous clearing and settlement. It's phenomenal. And again, it would really cut down how we actually record and transact throughout the entire world. The president of Castle Fund Partners, Peter Everly, is worried the government may be able to quickly see every purchase you make for the rest of your life. This gives individuals much less privacy. He's also worried it may have complete control over people's money. You have this ability to restrict how and when people spend money based on that. Take, for example, the protests in Canada with the trucker strike. The government there was able to freeze people's bank accounts. How much easier would it be to just freeze someone's government-approved wallet on their smartphone that holds their government-issued currency, right? They could just decide, okay, this person no longer has access to their savings. Everly believes the government may use FTX's fall to further regulate crypto while at the same time promote its own CBDC. However, he thinks this motive would be disingenuous. FTX was not a cryptocurrency issue, just like Enron was not an energy issue, and Bernie Madoff was not a stock market issue, right? In all three of these cases, you have fraud being the issue. What industry they're in matters very little. So FTX, it wasn't that Bitcoin was bad. It was that there were some fraudsters that stole money that people had on deposit FTX. If people actually did with their cryptocurrency what they should have done, which is remove it from the exchange as soon as you bought it, keep it on your own wallet where only you have the keys and only you have access to it, then they wouldn't have lost their assets. The founder of Web3 from Solidity.com Alex McCurry is also worried for the same reasons. He doesn't trust governments in general. In a perfect world where the government is right and just and does not want to want to do anything wrong and isn't going to hurt anybody, that could be fine in that perfect utopia. But unfortunately, we have governments all over the world who are not responsible at managing their balance sheets, are not responsible at managing inflation, are not responsible at managing government deficits, and they don't run countries in a way that is actually profitable and sustainable. McCurry says that in our current financial system, the government can see your finances if you committed a crime and they would have to go through the entire process just to do that. But with the CBDC, McCurry is worried that the government will be able to immediately see and control everyone. According to a recent report by consulting firm PWC, over 80% of global central banks are exploring CBDCs. In Nigeria and the Bahamas, all residents can access CBDCs through digital wallets and payment cards. And in mainland China, several large cities are testing the digital yuan. And now on to Wall Street. Stocks closed mixed today. Trading likely impacted by lower volume. Many traders take vacation for the market half-day due to Thanksgiving. The Dow rose 153 points or about 0.5%. S&P lost 1 point. NASDAQ fell 59 points or 0.5%. And now turning to China. Frustration is simmering among residents and business groups navigating stricter COVID-19 control curves. The country today reported another historic high of daily infections just weeks after hopes were raised of easing measures. NTD's Faye Corder reports. Dramatic footage of a violent anti-COVID lockdown protest in a southern Chinese city as anger over strict coronavirus curbs boiled over. Video taken by locals shows crowds of residents in a violent clash with police on Friday. They're trying to escape a compulsory lockdown in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou. Footage shows some tearing down COVID control barriers and throwing them at riot police. Some complain of not being paid if they are unable to turn up for work, and of food shortages and skyrocketing prices while living under COVID control measures. But Guangzhou is not the only place with strict COVID rules. The streets of Beijing look deserted, as authorities in the Chinese capital have locked down neighbourhoods and shut shops and businesses. Similar curbs have been placed on other cities across China, quashing investors' hopes that the country would soon ease its rigid zero COVID-19 policy. Some local residents are becoming increasingly frustrated as well. We just hope it will get better. Otherwise, don't talk about people's lives. People cannot even make a living now. It is not working anymore. Well, this really involves the interests of everyone. If this goes on, there may be a problem with access to food, and that is going to be serious. Elsewhere in China, at the world's largest iPhone factory in Zhengzhou, more than 20,000 new hires have left after COVID-induced worker unrest this week. Foxconn's flagship iPhone plant in China is set to see a further reduction in November shipments. This is according to a source with direct knowledge of the matter. The factory is the only one that makes premium iPhone models, including the iPhone 14 Pro, and the source said it is unlikely to resume full production by the end of this month. Fei Quarter, NTD News. And the UK government has told its departments to stop installing surveillance cameras made by some Chinese companies, citing security concerns. The ban applies to Chinese companies subject to China's national security law. And besides not installing new ones, the UK government also asked departments to Earlier this year, UK lawmakers called for a ban on technology by two Chinese surveillance camera makers, Hikvision and Dahua, citing allegations that the firms had been involved in enabling human rights abuses against Uyghurs in Xinjiang. The United States in 2019 placed Hikvision and other Chinese companies on a trade blacklist over similar allegations. And now turning to Europe. The Russia-Ukraine war has unleashed havoc on both economies. But one industry is booming. Eastern Europe's arms industry is churning out guns, artillery shells and other military supplies as governments in the region lead efforts to aid Ukraine in its fight against Russia. Here's the story. The war in Ukraine has taken a toll on Europe's economy, but one sector is quietly humming. Arms makers in Eastern Europe are churning out weapons and ammunition at a pace not seen since the Cold War. Many governments in the region are still wary of their old Soviet master Russia and keen to help Kiev resist. Arms firms are seizing the opportunity. Poland's state-owned PGZ makes everything from drones to armoured vehicles. Boss Sebastian Chwałek says it's almost doubling its investment plans over the next decade. We are developing, expanding our abilities. We're preparing for increased deliveries not only to the Polish market and we are aware of that. We are in many discussions with potential customers from third countries who would like to equip their armies with Polish equipment. PGZ says it has delivered all sorts of gear to Ukraine, including mortars, small arms and ammunition. It expects 2022 revenues to beat a pre-war target of almost $1.5 billion. There's a similar story in the Czech Republic. The country has supplied about $2.1 billion of weapons to Ukraine, and arms exports are on track to hit their highest since 1989. That's according to Deputy Defence Minister Tomas Kopechny. For the Czech defence industry, the conflict in Ukraine and the assistance the industry provides to the defenders is clearly a boost that we have not seen in the last 30 years. It is not only that this year will be an absolute record in the export of military material, but it is also about quality. It's about the fact that historically we can get access to technology, to partnership with one of the world's largest arms industries, and that's a huge opportunity. Eastern Europe's arms industry first boomed under communism, churning out weapons for the Soviet bloc. War in Ukraine has the factories busy again, but no longer in service to the Kremlin. The FIFA World Cup in Qatar has surpassed 3 million ticket sales, with attendance figures sitting at 94% after the first round, according to official FIFA figures. FIFA says so far the highest match attendance was the game on Thursday between Brazil and Serbia. 88 thousand tickets were sold. Brazil beat Serbia 2 to 0. NASA has released pictures of the moon taken Monday by the Orion capsule during its closest approach to the moon, about 80 miles above the lunar surface. Orion is part of the Artemis 1 mission, a 25 and a half day journey that will take Orion more than 40 thousand miles beyond the far side of the moon. The spacecraft also snapped a selfie on Wednesday, the 8th day of the mission. If Orion completes its trek beyond the moon and back to earth, it will be the furthest a spacecraft intended to carry humans has ever traveled. For now, though, it's only carrying inanimate scientific payloads. NASA's Artemis program aims to eventually establish a lunar outpost to permanently host astronauts for the first time in history. The hope is to one day pave a route to Mars. The Artemis 1 mission launched November 16th. The Orion capsule is expected to return to earth December 11th. And Christmas markets are opening in Paris. While there, you will find hot wine, an enormous array of cheese and lots of Christmas shopping. Our France correspondent David Vives went there to seek some festive cheer. It's considered the most popular Christmas market in the French capital. The opening of Tuileries Garden Christmas Market, located next to the Louvre Museum, is marked by a return of tourists after two years of pandemic. The market's alleys are filled with flavors of sausage, onion, soup and hot mulled wine. I love it. I love Christmas markets. It's just opened yesterday, so it's nice to come and visit. I think we come for the food, all the sweet stuff and the churros. It's really good. Gourmets can find here signature Christmas dishes. We have here the Christmas hamburger with foie gras, fried onions and a fig. These are heartwarming dishes served with a smile. We're happy to be here. It's party time. It's impossible for food lovers not to taste some famous winter cheeses. There are certain cheeses that are eaten more in winter, such as Raclette and Roblechon. But otherwise, cheese is eaten in France all year round. Raclette is a soft cheese that melts quickly and is a great treat in winter. Actually, I tasted the aglio. How is it called? It's like mashed potatoes with garlic and onions and cheese. That was good. This dish from southwestern France can be found at this vendor's stand. So the other good dish, there is butter, cream, water, cheese. And here it is, ready in four minutes. The market is also a chance to shop for artisan gifts. It's a mold-making workshop, so I display bas-relief sculptures. My speciality is the imitation of materials such as wood and stone. And I am inspired by Art Nouveau. This glassblower says the return of tourists is great news for local craftsmen. It's a great atmosphere. It allows us to showcase our expertise, a profession of 37 years. I learned this trade myself. And for the last 10 years, I've been sharing it in the capital. We have the pleasure of being here and meeting people from all over the world. The Tuileries Garden Christmas Market will run until the first week of January. David Vives, NTD News, Paris. And that's all the stories from the NTD business team and myself, Don Ma. You can follow me on Twitter, too, if you're there. And if you have any news tips or feedback for the show, you can email us at business at ntd.com. That's all for today. Have a great Thanksgiving weekend. Thank you for watching. We'll see you Monday.