Disney has many businesses, but one of its most successful is in cruise ships. They’re popular and make money. Cruise ships in general are also problematic when it comes to environmental impact, as they are not fuel-efficient and create pollution in the air and water. How much? The Environmental Protection Agency in 2008 estimated that a single cruise ship, each day, produced the following pollution, according to The Daily Green:
“21,000 gallons of sewage
One ton of garbage
170,000 gallons of wastewater from sinks, showers and laundry
More than 25 pounds of batteries, fluorescent lights, medical wastes and expired chemicals
Up to 6,400 gallons of oily bilge water from engines”
Cruise ships haven’t lost favor with consumers, they won’t be outlawed, and they won’t voluntarily quit. But they can improve their environmental footprint and efficiency. One company that’s done this is Disney, which scored highest in a report card from Friends of the Earth last year for its efforts in sewage treatment, water quality, cuts in air emissions and improvement from two years prior. (read more…)
SmartBrief caught up with CME Group Executive Chairman and President Terry Duffy this week on the sidelines of the Milken Institute Global Conference. In Part one of this two-part interview, Duffy addressed the evolution of leadership in the exchange world. Today he chats about regulatory reform, the London Interbank Offered Rate and social media.
We are coming up on the three-year anniversary of the Dodd-Frank Act. What did Dodd-Frank get right?
The implementation of the first phase of mandated clearing went into effect in March and came off without a hitch because the central clearinghouses that are involved in it have been doing this for a lot of years, just using futures. We take our risk models and deploy them toward swaps. Obviously you have to add in a deeper cushion of liquidity with the swaps versus a standardized futures contract, but you are basically deploying the same kind of risk-management strategy. (read more…)
SmartBrief caught up with CME Group Executive Chairman and President Terry Duffy on the sidelines of the Milken Institute Global Conference. In Part 1 of this two-part interview, Duffy talks about leadership in the exchange industry. In tomorrow’s Part 2, Duffy shares his views on what Dodd-Frank got right, Libor reform and the role Twitter stands to play in the financial markets.
How has leadership in the exchange world evolved during your time in the industry?
We walk a very fine line. What we never want to do is disintermediate our futures commission merchants community. … When you are working with a big bank and you are working with their clients, you must work together. I think that is different today than it has ever been in the history of our business. An exchange used to be just four walls for gathering price. Now you have to go out and cultivate clients. (read more…)
Whether it was introducing Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Gary Gensler’s keynote address or sharing his witty take on NASCAR advertising with reporters, IntercontinentalExchange founder, Chairman and CEO Jeff Sprecher was the man about Boca at last week’s International Futures Industry Conference. There is no doubt that Sprecher is at ease in the spotlight that comes with ICE’s play for NYSE Euronext. Below are a few of the opinions Sprecher shared throughout the week.
On the very timely issue of exchange mergers and acquisitions: “We’ve had to move things around like chess pieces in order to keep up with our client needs. We think that’s driven a lot of growth for us. M&A has not so much been about trying to get big for scale sake. It’s about trying to have enough pieces to solve customer problems.”
On the greatness of U.S. capital markets: “The public markets are a great place to raise capital. (read more…)
Since virtually the day the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act was enacted, some policymakers and market participants have been working to see elements of the law changed or the entire legislation repealed. Those constituencies have been forced to adjust their tactics in recent months because of unique political winds swirling around the issue of major financial institutions being seen as “too big to fail.”
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have voiced their concerns that Dodd-Frank does not do enough to remedy what they see as the threat posed by some of the nation’s largest financial institutions. Panelists during the “Washington Outlook” session at the 38th Annual International Futures Industry Conference explained that the bipartisan movement to break up the big banks is making it tricky for the industry to advocate any legislative changes to Dodd-Frank.
“You have this bizarre left-right alliance that is coalescing around “too big to fail,’ ” explained Jimmy Ryan from Elmendorf | Ryan. (read more…)
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