‘Grey’s Anatomy’ star Ellen Pompeo explains why she chose to ‘make money’ instead of pursuing a more diverse career

 Emmie Martin

@EMMIEMARTIN

For Ellen Pompeo, the decision to continue to play Dr. Meredith Grey on ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” for 15 seasons and counting has largely been a practical one. 

“I made a decision to make money,” Pompeo said on an episode of Spotify’s “Jemele Hill Is Unbothered” podcast, first reported by People. 

Pompeo, 50,  made a choice to put her family first instead of pursuing a more diverse and creative career. “For me, personally, a healthy home life was more important than career,” she told Hill. “I didn’t grow up with a particularly happy childhood. So the idea that I have this great husband and these three beautiful children [and] a happy home life was really something I needed to complete.”

“Grey’s Anatomy” has been a lucrative role for Pompeo. She’s one of the highest-paid women in Hollywood, earning more than $20 million a year, according to The Hollywood Reporter. During season 14, she negotiated a deal for $575,000 per episode, a seven-figure signing bonus, producing fees and back-end equity, among other perks.

It was a groundbreaking moment for Pompeo, who spent years fighting to earn as much as her male co-stars. In one instance, she asked to be paid $5,000 more than Patrick Dempsey, who played Grey’s husband on the show for 11 seasons, on principle, since she was the titular character. The studio turned her down. 

“For me, Patrick leaving the show [in 2015] was a defining moment, deal-wise. They could always use him as leverage against me — We don’t need you; we have Patrick — which they did for years,” she told The Hollywood Reporter in 2018. 

Pompeo didn’t originally plan to stay on the show for very long. In fact, when her agent brought her the script for “Grey’s,” she balked. “I was like, I’m not going to be stuck on a medical show for five years,” she said. “Are you out of your f------ mind? I’m an actress.”

But when “Grey’s” became an immediate hit, Pompeo realized she wasn’t going to find a better deal anywhere else. And she’s OK with that. 

“I knew coming up on 40, I don’t want to be out there chasing things, running after things, begging,” she told Hill. “I’d rather just see this as the blessing that it is.”

Source : cnbc.com

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The antitrust lawsuits against Google just keep coming

 By Brian Fung, CNN Business

(CNN Business)Google is now facing its third antitrust lawsuit.

As many as 38 state attorneys general filed the latest suit against Google Thursday. The suit alleges that the company has operated an illegal monopoly in the markets for online search and search advertising.

The lawsuit is being led by eight states: Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, Tennessee and Utah. It mirrors an earlier antitrust suit filed by the Justice Department and 11 states earlier this fall that claimed Google uses anticompetitive agreements to secure a dominant position for its search engine on smartphones.

But it also goes further, tacking on additional allegations that Google moved to block or downrank search results from specialized engines in the travel, home improvement and entertainment sectors.

"The states also allege that Google's acquisition and command of vast amounts of data obtained because of consumers' lack of choice has fortified Google's monopolies and created new barriers to competition and consumer value," said a release from the office of Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser.

New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement: "For decades now, Google has served as the gatekeeper of the internet and has weaponized our data to kill off competitors and control our decision making — resulting in all of us paying more for the services we use every day."

Google didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Thursday's lawsuit opens up vast new fronts against Google by going after other parts of its operation that were either skipped or minimally addressed by the Justice Department suit, legal experts say.

The new complaint highlights how Google's alleged decision to prioritize its own services at the expense of rival websites that also provide search — which could include sites such as Hotels.com or Angie's List, said David Dinielli, a former Justice Department antitrust official and a senior adviser at the Omidyar Network.

The outcome appears to harm consumers and small businesses, Dinielli said.

"If you are a hotel in Taos, you can't rely on the fact that you have good ratings on Hotels.com or that there was an article that mentioned you in Travel & Leisure, because Google has decided to monetize the vast majority of the first screen of search results," Dinielli said. "The only way you can reach the customers you want to reach are to pay Google to ensure you are on that first screen as an ad, rather than as an organic result."

As part of Thursday's suit, the states behind the complaint are also moving to merge their case with the Justice Department's.

The lawsuit comes a day after Texas and nine other states sued Google alleging anticompetitive practices in the advertising technology industry.

The coalition is currently reviewing the complaint filed by Texas, according to a person familiar with the matter, but no decision has been made about whether to participate in that case.

Source : cnn.com

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Warren Buffett recommended these 4 books to learn about investing

 Taylor Locke

@ITSTAYLORLOCKE

A few years ago at a dinner, Trey Lockerbie, founder and CEO of kombucha company Better Booch, met billionaire Warren Buffett. He took the opportunity to ask him a few questions about investing, Lockerbie said on “The Good Life” podcast with Sean Murray on Dec. 14.

Lockerbie, who was at the time an avid options trader (a more risky method of investing in which a trader can bet on which way the market will swing), asked Buffett whether books by Benjamin Graham, who was Buffett’s mentor, were somewhat outdated. Graham wrote “Security Analysis” in 1934 and “Intelligent Investor” in 1949.

Buffett — widely regarded as the best investor alive — has used the same strategy of value investing taught by Graham for decades. So Buffett suggested that Lockerbie reread Graham’s books and focus on the chapters about the psychology of investing, Lockerbie said.

In addition, Lockerbie told “The Good Life,” Buffett recommended he read two books by the late economics commentator George Goodman, who wrote under the pen name “Adam Smith.”

Here are the books Lockerbie said Buffett recommended.

Books by Graham

“Security Analysis”

Written by Columbia Business School professors Graham, the father of value investing, and David Dodd, “Security Analysis” highlights the basis of value investing, or buying stocks and holding them for a long period of time.

The book had a big impact on Buffett – in fact, after he found out Graham and Dodd taught at Columbia University, Buffett contacted Dodd and asked to be admitted for classes there.

“I said, ‘Dear Professor Dodd. I thought you guys were dead, but now that I found out that you’re alive and teaching at Columbia, I would really like to come,’” Buffett said in HBO’s “Becoming Warren Buffett.” (Buffett got his Master’s there.)

“Intelligent Investor”

Buffett has recommended “Intelligent Investor” countless times.

After all, “my financial life changed with that purchase [of ‘Intelligent Investor’],” Buffett wrote in his 2013 letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders. “Ben’s ideas were explained logically in elegant, easy-to-understand prose.” 

The book offers a deep dive into the process of value investing.

“Of all the investments I ever made, buying Ben’s book was the best (except for my purchase of two marriage licenses),” Buffett said in 2013.

Books by Goodman (aka Smith)

“The Money Game”

″[Goodman, aka Smith], especially in ‘The Money Game,’ was incredibly insightful, and he knew how to make the prose sing as well,” Buffett told The Wall Street Journal in 2014.

In “The Money Game,” which was published in 1968, Goodman argued that the stock market should be viewed as a game and wrote of the frenzy of Wall Street in the ’60s as an example.

“He knew how to put his finger on things that nobody had identified before. [Goodman] stuck to the facts, but he made them a helluva lot more interesting,” Buffett said.

“Supermoney”

Published in 1972, “Supermoney” highlights the stock market in the ’70s and even profiles Buffett himself.

“In this book, Adam Smith says I like baseball metaphors. He’s right,” Buffett wrote in a forward to the book.

“So I will just describe this book as the equivalent of the performance of [New York Yankees’] Don Larsen on October 8, 1956. For the uninitiated, that was the day he pitched the only perfect game in World Series history.”

Source : cnbc.com

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Covid resurgence in some parts of Asia could threaten the region’s economic recovery

Yen Nee Lee

@YENNEE_LEE

SINGAPORE — As 2020 draws to a close, many investors consider Asia as the region with one of the best economic prospects next year thanks to its relatively better control of the coronavirus outbreak.

But a recent surge in Covid cases in some countries threatens to dim the region’s economic outlook, some analysts have warned.

“For some of Asia’s giants, this year’s Covid-19 woes are unlikely to get any better when the clock strikes 12 on New Year’s Eve,” said research firm Pantheon Macroeconomics.

To be sure, daily reported cases in many parts of Asia — where the virus first hit — remain lower compared with those in Europe and the U.S., data compiled by Johns Hopkins University showed.

But some countries are now battling a resurgence far worse than what they experienced earlier in the pandemic. Even territories that had major successes in containing the virus may not be spared, with Taiwan this week reporting its first locally transmitted case since April 12 — underscoring the difficulty in eradicating Covid.  

Here’s a look at the Asian economies battling a renewed surge in coronavirus infections and how that would affect their economic outlook.

Japan

Covid-19 tally: 207,007 cumulative confirmed cases and 2,941 deaths as of Wednesday, according to Hopkins data.

The number of daily reported coronavirus infections in Japan started to rise again in November and last week surpassed 3,000 for the first time, Hopkins data showed.

Medical groups in the country warned that the health care system is coming under considerable strain from the pandemic, according to Reuters. But Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has refrained from declaring a national state of emergency — even though he said he would suspend a travel subsidy program to slow the spread of the coronavirus, the news agency reported.

Economists from Pantheon Macroeconomics wrote in a Wednesday report that the Japanese government’s “relatively soft” social-distancing rules have not appeared to work, and that could result in tougher measures in the coming months.

“As such, a second, and more effective, nationwide state of emergency in Japan early next year cannot be ruled out,” the economists said. That would weigh on Japan’s economy in the first quarter of 2021, they added.

South Korea

Covid-19 tally: 53,533 cumulative confirmed cases and 756 deaths as of Wednesday, according to Hopkins data.

Like Japan, South Korea’s daily new cases this month reached levels not seen before — surpassing 1,000 for the first time since the outbreak.

But unlike in Japan, the government has taken a tougher stance in South Korea in response to the fresh wave of Covid cases.

The government on Tuesday announced a nationwide ban on gathering of five or more people, and ordered tourist attractions — such as ski slopes and other winter sports facilities — to close, reported Yonhap News Agency.

Taking that step would allow the bulk of South Korea’s economic damage to be contained mostly in the fourth quarter of this year, according to Pantheon Macroeconomics.

Malaysia

Covid-19 tally: 98,737 cumulative confirmed cases and 444 deaths as of Wednesday, according to Hopkins data.

The Southeast Asian country brought Covid cases down to a trickle before the latest surge starting in October, Hopkins data showed. That led the government to impose a fresh round of partial lockdown measures in some parts of the country.

Economists from consultancy Capital Economics said the outlook for the Malaysian economy has turned “less upbeat” this quarter, particularly on the private consumption front.

“A second wave of the virus and the reimposition of many restrictions to movement will have sent Q3′s strong rebound in private consumption into reverse. The high-frequency Google mobility data suggest social distancing remains a drag on activity,” they said in a Tuesday report.

But the other parts of the economy — such as exports — should continue to perform strongly, so the overall economic hit from the latest resurgence will likely be “much smaller” than the previous wave, said the economists.

Source : cnbc.com

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How to Become a Successful Real Estate Investor

 Transforming into a productive land monetary trained professional 

Transforming into a productive land theorist requires having the choice to find incredible land adventure game plans and set up them. Your occupation isn't to transform into an end legal counselor, an organization ace, or an upkeep person. Use specialists! 

You should sort out some way to assess and find the certified assessment of land this information will help you make better endeavor decisions. Realtors, appraisers, and banks sort out what a property is worth by looking at equal arrangements regularly three to five arrangements of near property that has starting late sold in a comparable zone. You ought to have the choice to do similarly. 

Getting an overview of essentially indistinguishable expenses of properties bought or sold (and when it sold) for the neighborhood you need information about, and asking dynamic land examiners in your overall region what the market looks like will be valuable and making an unrivaled endeavor decision. 

What is the ideal market for contributing? 

There isn't anything of the sort as an ideal land market for contributing. It will as a rule be all the more difficult to find bargains in rising business areas if the market keeps rising the probability of selling the property quickly for a tremendous advantage increases. Strangely yet when property assessments are falling more arrangements become available. 

You ought to have the alternative to overview the veritable assessment of properties subject to when you plan to sell. Your purchase should be made at an adequate markdown to consider a helpful arrangement soon. 

Impact 

Impact is critical for examiners considering the way that the less cash you put down on each property the more properties you can buy. If the properties go up in worth your speed of return goes up. Regardless if the properties go down in worth and you have a huge load of commitment on the property this can achieve negative pay. 

Since land is all things considered repetitive negative pay is only a transient issue and can be managed if you have other compensation or a cash saves. This makes "Hardly any" contributing incredibly strong to make sure about against negative pay for high impact examiner. 

If you are a drawn out land monetary expert impact will work on the side of yourself if the business areas in which you put recognize as time goes on and your compensation from the properties can pay for by far most of your month to month commitment. Strategies to confine peril 

To confine risk become trained in your close by land market first by understanding the huge extension designs from overall down to public common and express zones. Get some answers concerning target neighborhoods with the help of compelling area monetary experts in your overall region in transit. 

Land monetary experts can help you with interpretting market pointers, for instance, the ordinary time interval houses have been accessible this month versus a month back or a year prior. With this information it will help you make better endeavor decisions. 

Leave strategies 

It is huge not to calculate the inevitable destiny of a local land market you need to have an obvious plan as a main concern when purchasing property. As a land monetary expert you should know unequivocally how you will leave the property before you buy. Besides, have a support plan or two if the essential methodology doesn't work. You should know your market and your plan before you begin to contribute.

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