6 Most Important Things in Business Today

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Mar 13, 3:51PM EDT · Published Nov 14, 5:18AM EST

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6 Most Important Things in Business Today — © Thinkstock

S&P has issued a report that said Venezuela was in default. According to Bloomberg:

Venezuela’s grand gathering with creditors Monday lasted all of 30 minutes and didn’t produce anything of substance. To make matters worse, S&P Global Ratings declared the country in default while Fitch Ratings cited missed payments by the state oil company.

AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) believes the White House may be behind a government plan to block its takeover of Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX). Bloomberg reports:

AT&T Inc. will try to dig into whether the White House influenced the Justice Department’s review of the company’s planned takeover of Time Warner Inc. if the government sues to block the deal, according to people familiar with the matter.

In the event of a trial over the $85.4 billion deal, AT&T intends to seek court permission for access to communications between the White House and the Justice Department about the takeover, said the people, who asked not to be named because the deliberations are private.

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OPEC may expand its membership. According to CNBC:

United Arab Emirates Minister for Energy Suhail al-Mazroui said Tuesday there is “definitely” an appetite for non-OPEC members to join the 14-member cartel.

When asked whether the non-OPEC countries currently complying to the global supply cuts could eventually become official members of the cartel, al-Mazroui replied: “There is definitely a willingness and a wish to expand OPEC.”

The International Energy Agency says that electric car demand will soar in future decades. According to its 2017 Global Energy report:

A strengthening tide of industry initiatives and policy support pushes our projection for the global electric car fleet up to 280 million by 2040, from 2 million today.

Lord & Taylor will start to sell its inventory at Walmart.com. According to CNNMoney:

Walmart is about to up its fashion game — with a little help from Lord & Taylor.

The two retailers announced Monday that they’re teaming up to launch a “flagship” Lord & Taylor shop on Walmart.com.

An employee of Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) has accused it of racist behavior. According to Fortune:

A former Tesla employee is seeking an order against harassment at Tesla, calling the company’s production floor a “hotbed for racist behavior.”

The worker filed a suit against the company, claiming he was fired after complaining to Elon Musk, reported Bloomberg. He claims over 100 employees have experienced racial harassment at the electric car-making company.

In the complaint, the employee alleged black workers at Telsa suffer direct, sustained harassment. “Although Tesla stands out as a groundbreaking company at the forefront of the electric car revolution, its standard operating procedure at the Tesla factory is pre-Civil Rights era race discrimination.”

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.