Athletes Aaron Donald and Jaylen Brown have announced they are leaving Kanye West’s Donda Sports following the rapper and fashion designer’s recent antisemitic remarks. The moves come after multiple companies, including Adidas, announced they were ending their partnership with West, now legally known as Ye.
Donald, an all-pro and Super Bowl-winning defensive tackle with the Los Angeles Rams, along with his wife, Erica Donald, said Tuesday in a statement that the decision was made in part because of Ye’s recent “irresponsible” statements.
“Our family has made the decision to part ways with Donda Sports,” the statement read. “The recent comments and displays of hate and antisemitism are the exact opposite of how we choose to live our lives and raise our children. We find them to be irresponsible and go against everything we believe in as a family.”
“As parents and members of society, we felt a responsibility to send a clear message that hateful words and actions have consequences and that we must do better as human beings,” the two added. “We do not feel our beliefs, voices and actions belong anywhere near a space that misrepresents and oppresses people of any background, ethnicity or race.”
Brown, a guard for the Boston Celtics, also announced his departure from Ye’s sports marketing agency. Brown on Monday had told The Boston Globe that he would not depart Donda Sports, despite disagreeing with Ye’s antisemitic comments.
In a statement Tuesday, Brown apologized and said his earlier comments “lacked clarity.
“In the past 24 hours, I have been able to reflect and better understand how my previous statements lack clarity in expressing my stance against recent insensitive public remarks and actions,” Brown wrote. “For that, I apologize. And in this, I seek to be as clear as possible. I have always, and will always continue to stand strongly against any antisemitism, hate speech, misrepresentation, and oppressive rhetoric of any kind.”
“I now recognize that there are many times when my voice and position can’t coexist in spaces that don’t correspond with my stance or my values… I am terminating my associating with Donda Sports,” Brown added.
Earlier in October, Ye tweeted that he was going to go “death [sic] con 3” on Jewish people, an apparent reference to the U.S. military’s readiness system, DEFCON. He also posted a screenshot on Instagram of an alleged text exchange with Sean “Diddy” Combs, in which Ye accused Combs of being controlled by Jews.
In addition to his recent antisemitic comments, Ye earlier this month was criticized for wearing a “White Lives Matter” T-shirt to his Yeezy collection show in Paris. The phrase has been used by white supremacist groups and sympathizers in response to the Black Lives Matter movement, according to the Anti-Defamation League. Criticism of the shirt is what appeared to lead Ye to lash out at Combs.
Ye has in the past also come under fire for suggesting that slavery was a choice and for calling COVID-19 vaccines the “mark of the beast.”
The firestorm of controversy has prompted multiple business entities to distance themselves from Ye.
In the past few days, Ye’s talent agency, CAA, dropped him, and television studio MRC announced Monday that it is shelving a completed documentary about him. Ari Emmanuel, CEO of talent firm Endeavor, wrote an op-ed in the Financial Times calling for all businesses to stop working with Ye over his antisemitism.
Foot Locker on Tuesday said that it will “not be supporting any future Yeezy product drops, and we have instructed our retail operators to pull any existing product from our shelves and digital sites.”
Adidas announced on Tuesday that they were cutting ties with Ye, formally known as Kanye West, in the wake of his public antisemitic remarks and rants.
Getty Images
The partnership between the two will be terminated on “immediate” grounds, the company said in a statement. This includes ending the production of Yeezy-branded products.
“Adidas does not tolerate antisemitism and any other sort of hate speech. Ye’s recent comments and actions have been unacceptable, hateful and dangerous, and they violate the company’s values of diversity and inclusion, mutual respect and fairness,” the company said in a release. “After a thorough review, the company has taken the decision to terminate the partnership with Ye immediately, end production of Yeezy branded products and stop all payments to Ye and his companies. Adidas will stop the Adidas Yeezy business with immediate effect.”
The company went on to explain that the decision is “expected to have a short-term negative impact” — an estimated $250 million — on the company’s overall net revenue for 2022, but said that more information will be provided during Adidas’ Q3 2022 earnings announcement expected on November 9.
Adidas is still the “sole owner of all design rights to existing products as well as previous and new colorways” in its partnership with Ye and his Yeezy brand, per the release.
Later on Tuesday, Bloombergreported that Adidas will continue to sell Yeezy products under Adidas’ branding and name as early as next year.
“Looking ahead, on our understanding, the company will not sell any Yeezy-branded products and all Yeezy products will be branded under Adidas brand,” Morgan Stanley analyst Edouard Aubin told clients in a note on Tuesday, per the publication.
The company has faced mounting pressure to cut ties with the rapper following his October 16 appearance on the Drink Champs podcast where he stated “I can say antisemitic things, and Adidas can’t drop me. Now what? Now what?”
Among those making a statement is Ye’s ex-wife, Kim Kardashian, who condemned the “terrible violence and hateful rhetoric” via social media.
Hate speech is never OK or excusable. I stand together with the Jewish community and call on the terrible violence and hateful rhetoric towards them to come to an immediate end.
Adidas said earlier this month that their partnership with the rapper was “under review” following a slew of posts from Ye attacking the company, claiming that the athletic brand “stole” his designs. He then sent “White Lives Matter” T-shirts down a runway at Paris Fashion Week.
Ye’s partnership with Adidas was first announced in 2013 and officially inked in 2016 as Adidas + Kanye West, a “YEEZY branded entity creating footwear, apparel, and accessories for all genders across street and sport.”
According to the Washington Post, Yeezy is estimated to generate around $2 billion a year for Adidas, the equivalent of about 10% of the company’s annual income.
The termination of the deal is expected to severely affect Ye’s net worth, as Yeezy was reportedly responsible for $1.5 billion of the rapper’s roughly $2 billion.
Per most recent reports, Ye has now lost his billionaire status with his net worth now estimated to be around $400 million.
What Companies Have Dropped Ye?
Adidas is not the first company to drop Ye amid the backlash and outrage.
In September, Gap and West ended their business partnership after West and his team penned a letter to the company which claimed that the retailer did not follow the terms and conditions that were first stated upon signing the initial agreement, namely selling Yeezy Gap products in-store.
Late Tuesday afternoon, Gap announced that it would be removing all Yeezy Gap products from shelves immediately.
“Our former partner’s recent remarks and behavior further underscore why. We are taking immediate steps to remove Yeezy Gap product from our stores and we have shut down YeezyGap.com,” the company said in a release. “Antisemitism, racism and hate in any form are inexcusable and not tolerated in accordance with our values. On behalf of our customers, employees and shareholders, we are partnering with organizations that combat hate and discrimination.”
Fashion house Balenciaga told WWD earlier this week that it “no longer has any relationship nor any plans for future projects related to” Ye.
Longtime Vogue Editor-in-Chief and Global Chief Content Officer for Condé Nast Anna Wintour said in a statement that neither she nor the magazine plan to ever work with West again in any capacity.
Gap said Tuesday it is removing products made in collaboration with Kanye West’s Yeezy brand from its stores and website in response to West’s recent antisemitic outbursts, as the fallout against the rapper continues, after the clothing retailer previously said last month it would “wind down” its partnership with West.
Ye attends the Kenzo Fall/Winter 2022/2023 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on January 23, 2022 … [+] in Paris, France.
Corbis via Getty Images
Key Facts
In a statement, Gap said it is taking “immediate steps to remove Yeezy Gap product from our stores” and has “shut down YeezyGap.com.”
The brand said “antisemitism, racism and hate in any form are inexcusable and not tolerated in accordance with our values,” an it is “partnering with organizations that combat hate and discrimination.”
Gap’s statement comes after Adidas—which partnered with the rapper on Yeezy sneakers—announced Tuesday it was immediately ending its partnership with West.
Key Background
Gap ended what was supposed to be a 10-year-long partnership with West in September after West accused the company of breaking its contract with him, which he said included plans to open brick-and-mortar stores. Since the beginning of October, West has made repeated antisemitic comments, including saying he was going to go “death con 3 on Jewish people.” As a result, several of his high-profile collaborators have parted ways with him, including talent agency CAA and luxury fashion house Balenciaga, which engineered one of West’s lines with Gap. Adidas said it expects to lose $246 million as a result of the decision.
Forbes Valuation
As a result of West losing his contract with Adidas, he has fallen off Forbes’ billionaires list, and is now worth an estimated $400 million.
Adidas has cut ties with Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, following intense pressure for the company to drop its partnership with the musician over his recent antisemitic outbursts.
On Tuesday, the brand shared a public statement claiming the company does “not tolerate antisemitism and any other sort of hate speech.”
“Ye’s recent comments and actions have been unacceptable, hateful and dangerous, and they violate the company’s values of diversity and inclusion, mutual respect and fairness,” wrote Adidas.
The 45-year-old rapper and business owner had his Twitter account restricted this month after he tweeted that he would go “death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE.” (A reference to the defence readiness condition — DEFCON — used by the United States Armed Forces.) The tweet was removed for violating the app’s hate speech policy.
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Ye’s Instagram account had earlier been restricted after he publicly suggested rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs was controlled by Jewish people.
Adidas claimed they will immediately stop production of all Yeezy branded products and halt any payments to Ye.
Jared Kushner confirms he met with Kanye West
The brand predicted the severance from Ye will cause a short-term negative impact of up to €250 million (about $339 million) on the company’s fourth quarter income.
Adidas is the most recent company to cut ties with Ye. Over the last month, Balenciaga, Vogue, the record label Def Jam, the major talent agency CAA and the movie studio MRC (who had financed and filmed a documentary about Ye) have all separated from the artist.
In September, Ye himself ended a 10-year contract with Gap after only two years because of “substantial noncompliance.”
The already loud public call for brands to drop Ye was amplified this week when an antisemitic hate group was accused of hanging several banners over a Los Angeles highway that read “Honk if you know Kanye is right about the Jews.”
“Kanye is right about the Jews” – white supremacist group ‘Goyim Defense League’ headed up by Jon Minadeo II dropped vile banner on the busy 110 highway in Los Angeles today.
Minadeo is a well known neo-Nazi that was recently arrested while visiting Auschwitz. pic.twitter.com/BCQqRHTpr7
Also, this week, Ye’s ex-wife Kim Kardashian spoke out publicly against her former husband’s antisemitic comments. Kardashian tweeted, “Hate speech is never OK or excusable. I stand together with the Jewish community and call on the terrible violence and hateful rhetoric towards them to come to an immediate end.”
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Hate speech is never OK or excusable. I stand together with the Jewish community and call on the terrible violence and hateful rhetoric towards them to come to an immediate end.
Ye, who is bipolar, is no stranger to public scandal. At the start of October, Ye inspired outrage for the “White Lives Matter” shirts he and several others wore at his Yeezy Season 9 event during Paris Fashion Week.
International civil rights law organization the Anti-Defamation League has defined “White Lives Matter” as “a white supremacist phrase.” They claim the slogan emerged as “a racist response to the Black Lives Matter movement.”
Kanye West and Candace Owens wearing “White Lives Matter” shirts at the Yeezy Season 9 event at Paris Fashion Week.
Twitter / Candace Owens
On Oct. 17, it was announced that Ye would also purchase the controversial, conservative social networking site Parler. Parler, which advertises itself as “the premier global free speech platform,” is often viewed by its predominately right-wing users as an alternative to existing social media options like Twitter or Facebook.
Adidas has ended its partnership with the rapper formerly known as Kanye West over his offensive and antisemitic remarks, the latest company to cut ties with Ye and a decision that the German sportwear company said would hit its bottom line.
“Adidas does not tolerate antisemitism and any other sort of hate speech,” the company said in a statement Tuesday. “Ye’s recent comments and actions have been unacceptable, hateful and dangerous, and they violate the company’s values of diversity and inclusion, mutual respect and fairness.”
The company faced pressure to cut ties with Ye, with celebrities and others on social media urging Adidas to act. It said at the beginning of the month that it was placing its lucrative sneaker deal with the rapper under review.
Adidas said Tuesday that it conducted a “thorough review” and would immediately stop production of its line of Yeezy products and stop payments to Ye and his companies. The sportswear company said it was expected to take a hit of up to 250 million euros ($246 million) to its net income this year from the move. The company is the sole owner of the design rights to Yeezy, Adidas said.
Adidas’ deal with West started in 2016, with the company the time calling it “the most significant partnership ever created between an athletic brand and a non-athlete.”
Other companies drop Ye
Adidas is just the latest company to end connections with Ye, who also has been suspended from Twitter and Instagram over antisemitic posts that the social networks said violated their policies.
Earlier this month, Ye tweeted a threat that he would go “death [sic] con 3” on Jewish people, alluding to a defense readiness designation used by the U.S. military. He also posted a screenshot of a text exchange with Sean “Diddy” Combs in which he suggested Combs was being controlled by Jews.
West recently suggested slavery was a choice and called the COVID-19 vaccine the “mark of the beast,” among other controversial comments. He was also criticized for wearing a “White Lives Matter” T-shirt to his Yeezy collection show in Paris. The phrase has been adopted and promoted by white supremacist groups and sympathizers, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
Ye’s talent agency, CAA, dropped him, and the MRC studio announced Monday that it is shelving a complete documentary about him. Ari Emmanuel, CEO of talent firm Endeavor, last week penned an op-ed in the Financial Times urging all enterprises to stop working with Ye over his antisemitism.
The Balenciaga fashion house cut ties with Ye last week, according to Women’s Wear Daily. JPMorganChase and Ye have ended their business relationship, although the banking breakup was in the works even before Ye’s antisemitic comments.
Demonstrators on a Los Angeles overpass Saturday unfurled a banner praising Ye’s antisemitic comments, prompting an outcry on social media as celebrities and others said they stand with Jewish people.
In 2021, Bloomberg ranked West as the wealthiest Black American, pegging his net worth at $6 billion. Morningstar analyst David Swartz told the Washington Post that Yeezy product sales generated roughly $2 billion a year for Adidas, or nearly 10% of its annual revenue.
Adidas shares fell more than 4% in trading on Tuesday and are down 61% this year.
Adidas had ended its partnership with Ye, also known as Kanye West, with “immediate effect.”
In a statement Tuesday, the sportswear maker said it “does not tolerate antisemitism and any other sort of hate speech” and said that his recent comments were ‘unacceptable, hateful and dangerous.” Adidas said they violated the company’s “values of diversity and inclusion, mutual respect and fairness.”
Sales and production of his Yeezy branded products have stopped as well as payments to Ye and his companies. Adidas said it will take a €250 million hit ($246 million) to its fourth quarter sales.
Adidas has partnered with West since 2013, when the company signed his brand away from rival Nike. In 2016, Adidas expanded its relationship with the rapper, calling it “the most significant partnership ever created between a non-athlete and an athletic brand.”
But Adidas put the “partnership under review” in early October after he wore a “White Lives Matter” T-shirt in public. The Anti-Defamation League categorizes the phrase as a “hate slogan” used by White supremacist groups, including the Ku Klux Klan.
Recently, Ye said “I can say antisemitic s*** and Adidas cannot drop me,” during a tirade against Jews on the Drink Champs Podcast.
The list of brands distancing themselves from West is growing. Balenciaga and Vogue publicly cut ties last week, and on Monday, talent agency CAA dropped West as a client. Production company MRC said that it’s shelving a documentary on West.
Shares of Adidas fell about 5% in Frankfurt. Adidas said it will release additional information about the financial implications of dissolving its partnership with Ye in its upcoming earnings report on November 9.
– CNN Business’ Jon Sarlin contributed to this report.
MRC studio executives Modi Wiczyk, Asif Satchu and Scott Tenley announced in a memo Monday: “We cannot support any content that amplifies his platform.”
West was recently restricted from posting on Twitter and Instagram over antisemitic posts that the social networks said violated their policies. He has also suggested slavery was a choice and called the COVID-19 vaccine the “mark of the beast.” Earlier this month, the rapper was criticized for wearing a “White Lives Matter” T-shirt to the showing of his latest collection at Paris Fashion Week.
Wiczyk and Satchu are co-founders and co-CEOs of MRC Entertainment. Tenley is the chief business officer. Shelving the documentary comes just days after the French fashion house Balenciaga cut ties with Ye, according to Women’s Wear Daily.
In their lengthy memo, Wiczyk, Satchu and Tenley reach deep into the history of antisemitism.
“Kanye is a producer and sampler of music. Last week he sampled and remixed a classic tune that has charted for over 3000 years — the lie that Jews are evil and conspire to control the world for their own gain. This song was performed acapella in the time of the Pharaohs, Babylon and Rome, went acoustic with The Spanish Inquisition and Russia’s Pale of Settlement, and Hitler took the song electric. Kanye has now helped mainstream it in the modern era,” they wrote.
West’s talent agency, CAA, has dropped him as well. That news Monday and the scrapped documentary comes after UTA CEO Jeremy Zimmer condemned the Donda musician in a companywide memo denouncing antisemitism. West was briefly a client but returned to CAA after a year.
Others in Hollywood, including West’s estranged wife, Kim Kardashian, and other members of her family, have also condemned antisemitism. Demonstrators on a Los Angeles overpass Saturday unfurled a banner praising West.
After weeks of Kanye West making anti-Semitic and controversial remarks, companies including CAA and Balenciaga have severed ties with the rapper, while Adidas has put its relationship with him “under review”—here are the companies reassessing their ties with West.
Kanye West is seen on October 21, 2022 in Los Angeles, California.
GC Images
Key Facts
Major talent agency CAA stopped working with West—whose legal name is Ye—within the last month, severalnewsoutlets reported Monday, citing unnamed sources.
Studio MRCsaid Monday it would not air a completed documentary about West, with executives, saying “We cannot support any content that amplifies his platform.”
Luxury fashion house Balenciaga—which was closely tied to West, and had West walk in a recent fashion show—said Friday it “has no longer any relationship nor any plans for future projects related to this artist,” making it the first major company to publicly cut ties.
West is also no longer with record label Def Jam—a Universal Music Group subsidiary—as he has fulfilled his contract, Forbes reported Thursday, and his own label, G.O.O.D. Music, is no longer linked to Def Jam, the New York Times reported Monday.
Jeremy Zimmer, CEO and co-founder of talent agency UTA, told staff in a memo on Sunday to “please support the boycott of Kanye West,” and the Endeavor talent agency’s CEO Ari Emanuel said companies that make money from West like Spotify and Apple should drop the rapper—though it’s not clear what relationship the two companies have with West.
Key Background
West has made repeated anti-Semitic remarks over the last month, including saying he would go “death con 3 on Jewish people,” a remark that got him restricted on Twitter. West was also restricted on Instagram after sharing a post in which he accused Sean “Diddy” Combs of being controlled by Jewish people. Last month, West ended what was supposed to be a 10-year-long partnership with Gap, after he accused them of breaking their contract. However, Gap sent out an email recently promoting its Yeezy Gap line. As West began making inflammatory comments at the start of this month, it was reported bank JPMorgan Chase severed ties with him, but West was informed of the bank’s decision before his recent bizarre actions began, sources told the Associated Press. The family of George Floyd said last week it intended to sue West for $250 million for falsely claiming on a podcast that Floyd was killed by fentanyl.
Tangent
Adidas, who has distributed West’s Yeezy brand since 2013 and is responsible for a large portion of his wealth, has remained silent since saying a few weeks ago it was reviewing its relationship with West. The Anti-Defamation League on Friday called on Adidas to drop West. Demands for the German-owned brand to cut ties with West intensified over the weekend, when a small group of anti-Semitic protestors in Los Angeles were spotted holding signs that said “Kanye West was right about the Jews.”
Forbes Valuation
West is worth $2 billion, according to Forbes estimates, though he could lose his billionaire status if Adidas drops him.
Los Angeles officials are condemning the display of banners from a freeway overpass this weekend by a group of demonstrators seen in bystander photos showing support for antisemitic comments recently made by rapper Kanye West, also known as Ye.
West has recently made a series of antisemitic outbursts, notably on October 8, when he tweeted he was “going death con 3 [sic] On JEWISH PEOPLE,” and also that, “You guys have toyed with me and tried to black ball anyone whoever opposes your agenda,” without specifying what group he was addressing, according to the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine records pulled by CNN.
His tweet has since been removed, and Twitter locked his account. In an interview conducted after the controversial tweet, West told Piers Morgan that he was sorry for the people that he hurt, though he also said that he didn’t regret making the remark.
Photos taken Saturday show a small group of demonstrators with their arms raised in what appears to be the Nazi salute behind banners reading, “honk if you know” alongside “Kanye is right about the Jews.”
Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón lambasted the incident on Twitter Sunday saying, “We cannot tolerate the #AntiSemitism that was on full display today [Saturday] on an LA Fwy. #WhiteSupremacy is a societal cancer that must be excised. This message is dangerous & cannot be normalized. I stand with the Jewish community in condemning this disgusting behavior.”
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti also took to Twitter, saying, “We condemn this weekend’s anti-Semitic incidents. Jewish Angelenos should always feel safe.There is no place for discrimination or prejudice in Los Angeles. And we will never back down from the fight to expose and eliminate it.”
The number of reported incidents of assault, vandalism and harassment targeting Jewish communities and individuals in the United States was the highest on record in 2021, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
A total of 2,717 antisemitic incidents were reported last year – the highest on record, according to an ADL audit released in April. That was a 34% increase compared to the 2,026 incidents reported in 2020, the group said.
“This is an outrageous effort to fan the flames of antisemitism gripping the nation,” ADL of Los Angeles Regional Director Jeffrey Abrams said in a statement posted on the group’s Twitter account Sunday. “This group, known for espousing antisemitism and white supremacist ideology, is now leveraging Ye’s antisemitism and is proof that hate breeds more hate.”
Abrams went on to call out Adidas, which is reviewing its partnership with West, saying “decisive action against antisemitism by Adidas is long overdue.”
CNN has been unable to reach a representative for West for comment.
The banner appeared over the busy Los Angeles freeway a day before Beverly Hills police reported antisemitic flyers being distributed in the city, CNN affiliate KCAL/KCBS reported.
Beverly Hills Mayor Lili Bosse condemned the flyers and the banner as “disgusting hate speech” in a tweet. “As a daughter of an Auschwitz survivor, I will always bear witness and speak out.”
“What I have beef with is us as a society not coming together around the person and going like, ‘Hey, maybe this is not the moment to put a microphone in your face so that you just go off saying everything,’” Noah said regarding West’s string of recent interviews.
“If somebody says to me that they have a mental health issue, and they say to everyone that when they don’t take their medication they’re unable to control themselves, and then everyone ignores when that person is having an episode and…they platform the person…I sometimes think it’s a little shitty,” said Noah.
Noah said in March that what Kardashian was going through was “terrifying,” and that it “shines a spotlight” on what many women endure when choosing to leave a man. West called him a “koon” in a since-deleted Instagram post, spurring their alleged “beef.”
“I still love him despite the shit that he talks,” Noah said Friday. “But I’ve promised myself I’ll never be the person who just sits by and gleefully says things about people that I care about and then also joins the group of mourners afterward and acts like I wasn’t part of it.”
Noah added he “grew up loving this man” and that very few have shifted the paradigm in music and fashion like West. He said he still listens to “College Dropout” and loves West’s sense of humor, but despises the voyeurism of a society ogling at a troubled celebrity.
“Too many people like to mourn you when you’re dead, and they don’t say anything to you when you’re alive,” said Noah. “So I don’t know where to end. But that’s it.”
Kanye West was in the mood to chat about seemingly everything he’s been scrutinized for lately, including businesses cutting ties with him and his anti-Semitic remarks.
“I ain’t losing no money,” West told TMZon Friday outside of his daughter North West’s basketball game. “The day I was taken off the Balenciaga site, that was one of the most freeing days.”
While West said he’s unsure about the future of his deal with Adidas, he added, “I think people are just trying to score points.”
The Donda artist then shifted attention to his anti-Semitic remarks.
“I want to talk about the Jewish comment. It’s actually proving the exact point that I made,” he told TMZ. “So many actors been bullied behind the scenes.”
West even weighed in on his controversial “White Lives Matter” T-shirt, the incident that would soon after see West’s name take over media headlines in the weeks to follow.
“I’m talking about my life has been threatened for having a political opinion,” he said. “To wear the wrong colour hat or the audacity of me as a black man to have a ‘White Lives Matter’ t-shirt. I’ve seen white people wearing ‘Black Lives Matter’ t-shirts. it’s pretty one-sided, if you think about it.”
It’s been a week since Kanye West, also known as Ye, went on the Drink Champs podcast for a controversial 45-minute conversation. And there have been some repercussions.
West’s claims that George Floyd was not murdered by police officers, but died from fentanyl use, has inspired a $250 million lawsuit from the surviving family. The appearance, which included a litany of antisemitic conspiracy theories, was also the last straw for Balenciaga and its parent company Kering, which severed all ties with West.
The German multinational sportswear company Adidas had already stated that their distribution deal of Kanye’s Yeezy line was “under review” following the star’s appearance in a “White Lives Matter” shirt, but many are asking just what the heck is taking so long.
The Drink Champs appearance was so chock-a-block with startling statements that it took a few days for one short aside to bubble its way up through the sludge and get attention on social media. On Friday, the former NBA player and current Twitter influencer Rex Chapman signal boosted a 13-second clip isolated by an account called @StopAntisemitism that has since received a great deal of commentary. In it, West boasted that his relationship with Adidas is such that “I can literally say antisemitic shit, and they can’t drop me.” After a dramatic pause, West lowered his voice and repeated ominously, “I can say antisemitic things, and Adidas can’t drop me. Now what?”
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On Thursday, the Anti-Defamation League urged the company to break ties with West. “In light of Kanye West’s increasingly strident antisemitic remarks over the past few weeks, we were disturbed to learn that Adidas plans to continue to release new products from his Yeezy brand without any seeming acknowledgment of the controversy surrounding his most recent remarks,” they wrote in a statement. They continued, “We urge Adidas to reconsider supporting the Ye product line and to issue a statement making clear that the Adidas company and community has no tolerance whatsoever for antisemitism.”
The #BoycottAdidas hashtag was trending on Saturday morning, with many scratching their head over how Adidas seems to be standing by their man. Josh Gad, Alexander Vindman, Rosanna Arquette, and screenwriter Randy Mayem Singer were among the many who directed queries to Adidas. David Schwimmer did the same on his Instagram Stories.
Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, will now be receiving legal counsel on a “variety of business matters” from a team of lawyers including Camille Vasquez, one of the attorneys who represented Johnny Depp in his defamation trial, a spokesperson for the law firm Brown Rudnick told CBS News. No other details were provided.
“Balenciaga has no longer any relationship nor any plans for future projects related to this artist,” the outlet reported, citing a statement from Balenciaga’s parent company Kering.
West had walked in the luxury brand’s show during Paris Fashion Week earlier this month.
The decision comes as West faces backlash for wearing a shirt with a “White Lives Matter” slogan, making several antisemitic comments, and sharing offensive statements on Twitter and Instagram. The social media platforms subsequently restricted the rapper’s access to his accounts.
West then announced that he would be entering into an agreement to buy the right-leaning social network Parler.
Other companies that have worked with West in the past have also cut ties with him. According to a person familiar with the matter, JPMorgan Chase sent a letter to West on Sept. 20 to essentially dissolve their banking relationship. The bank gave the rapper 60 days from the date of the letter to find a new banking relationship.
Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, has reportedly retained Camille Vasquez, along with others at the Brown Rudnick firm. Vasquez may be a familiar face and name; she was the breakout star in the macabre courtroom drama that was Johnny Depp’s defamation case against his ex-wife, Amber Heard.TMZ reports that Vasquez is one of a group of lawyers at the firm hired to handle West’s “business interests,” which are unlikely to be televised anytime soon. Vanity Fair has reached out to Vasquez for confirmation.
West has found himself in a number of potentially legally significant quagmires, business or otherwise, of late. Balenciaga announced it had severed ties with the rapper, a move that came after he debuted “White Lives Matter” shirts on the runway at Paris Fashion Week and followed that with sustained antisemitic vitriol in various spaces online and off. Adidas said their relationship was “under review” weeks ago, but the current official status is unclear. JPMorgan Chase dropped him as a client, though it reportedly predated the antisemitic statements and the shirts.
Also, after West said last week on the podcast Drink Champs that George Floyd’s death was due to a fentanyl overdose, and not former police officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck for nine and a half minutes, as the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled, Floyd’s family announced their intention to sue. Per NPR, Roxie Washington, the mother of Floyd’s daughter, Gianna, plans to file, and her lawyers announced that they’ll be suing for $250 million in damages for “harassment, misappropriation, defamation, and infliction of emotional distress.”
West is also finalizing his divorce with Kim Kardashian, and has cycled through several lawyers for that. If they can’t come to an agreement on it, it’ll go to trial in December, per TMZ.
The Anti-Defamation League is urging Adidas to end its partnership with Kanye West – who has changed his name to Ye – after the rapper and fashion designer made several antisemitic comments. Ye was also restricted on Twitter and Instagram earlier this month, after sharing antisemitic and offensive statements on the social media platforms.
The ADL is “surprised and concerned that Adidas – a brand that supports inclusion and diversity – continues not only to support the Ye product line, but to release new products even as he continues to espouse hateful antisemitic ideas,” said Jonathan A. Greenblatt, CEO of the ADL, in a letter to Adidas CEO Kasper Rorsted and the company’s board.
Adidas began its partnership with the rapper in 2016, calling it “the most significant partnership ever created between an athletic brand and a non-athlete.” The partnership led to a massively popular shoe line.
CBS News has reached out to both Adidas and representatives for Ye and is awaiting response.
Earlier this month, Ye tweeted a threat that he would go “death [sic] con 3” on Jewish people. He also posted a screenshot of a text exchange with Sean “Diddy” Combs in which he suggested Combs was being controlled by Jews. He was promptly restricted on both platforms, but has access to his Twitter account again.
Ye also criticized so-called “Jewish underground media mafia” during an interview with Chris Cuomo on NewsNation this month. He also faced backlash for wearing a “White Lives Matter” at his fashion show in Paris.
“Two weeks ago, after he wore a White Lives Matter shirt, Adidas said he was under review. At this point, what more do you need to review?” Greenblatt writes.
Greenblatt said Adidas is set to release a shoe from the line in the “run-up to the anniversary of the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre on Oct. 27 – the most violent antisemitic attack in U.S. history.” In 2018, a gunman opened fire on the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, killing 11 men and women for being Jewish.
Greenblatt pointed to a rise in anti-Semitism incidents in the U.S., saying that “such statements [by Ye] are more than damning – they are dangerous.”
The ADL, an anti-hate organization founded in 1913 “to stop the defamation of the Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment to all,” found antisemitic incidents in the U.S. hit an all-time high of 2,717 in 2021, the highest on record since its tracking began in 1979. Antisemitic incidents include assaults, harassment and vandalism.
The incidents of antisemitism have already led to the termination of several relationships. JPMorgan Chase sent a letter to Ye ending their relationship, after he publicly said he was going to cut off ties with the bank. He was also dropped from LeBron James’ talk show “The Shop,” after taping an episode earlier this month.
Ye told Bloomberg News that he was terminating his partnership with Gap Inc. His Yeezy x Gap apparel is still available for purchase online. CBS News has reached out to Gap for comment and is awaiting response.
The Campaign Against Antisemitism also created a petition this week to urge Adidas to end its relationship with Ye.
N.O.R.E., co-host of “Drink Champs,” is expressing regret over allowing Kanye West to make controversial comments during the podcast.
The rapper called “The Breakfast Club” radio show Tuesday to address what happened with West on the Revolt.TV show.
“I just want to be honest, I support freedom of speech,” N.O.R.E said. “I support anybody not being censored. But I do not support anybody being hurt. I did not realize that the George Floyd statements [made by West] on my show were so hurtful.”
During his appearance, West made antisemitic comments and suggested George Floyd was killed by a fentanyl overdose, despite a medical examiner’s testimony that fentanyl was not the direct cause of Floyd’s death, only a contributing factor when he died after being knelt on by a police officer.
N.O.R.E. has come under fire for not pushing back on West during the interview. He explained to “The Breakfast Club” that the controversial Floyd comments happened during the “first five minutes of the show” and said West told the producer that if they stopped filming he would walk out.”
“I wanted the man to speak,” N.O.R.E. said. “Later on I actually checked him about the George Floyd comments, I actually checked him about the ‘White Lives Matter’ but it was so later in the episode…I was so inebriated at the time that maybe people looked over it.”
“But I apologize to the George Floyd family, I apologize to anybody that was hurt by Kanye West’s comments,” he added.
Lee Merritt, a civil rights attorney who has represented the Floyd family on matters in the past, told CNN Monday that he has put together a team to explore a possible suit against West at the request of Floyd’s brother, Philonise Floyd.
On Tuesday, lawyers representing Roxie Washington, the mother of George Floyd’s daughter, provided CNN with a cease-and-desist letter addressed to West. They indicated they intend to also file a lawsuit “for harassment, misappropriation, defamation, and infliction of emotional distress.”
N.O.R.E. was asked during his call with “The Breakfast Club” if he was aware of the possible legal action and whether he too might he be a target of that. He said that while he knew about it, “It’s not even about suing or the money, It’s about the hurt from the thing.”
“I was locked down, I’m a supporter of the George Floyd movement,” he said. “I saw that video too. I seen that cop’s knee on his neck. I seen [Floyd] calling for whoever. I’m embarrassed of myself.”
N.O.R.E. said he spoke with West Tuesday and told him he would be addressing what happened. The episode has since been removed.
West, who has legally changed his name to Ye, is just the latest controversial figure to bet on a nascent, alternative set of social media platforms favored by conservatives and members of the far-right who profess to feel outrage over content moderation on more mainstream services.
After being banned from Twitter following the Jan. 6 insurrection, former President Donald Trump backed Truth Social, an alternative to Twitter. In a slide deck, Trump’s digital media company touted the ambitious possibility of creating not just alternatives to the major social media platforms but also to cloud computing products like Amazon Web Services and payment service Stripe.
Separately, Peter Thiel, an influential venture capitalist and Republican donor, invested in Rumble, a conservative alternative to YouTube. Other services, including Gab and Gettr, are also part of what Ben Decker, CEO of digital threat analysis company Memetica, calls an “alt social media ecosystem,” fueled by “the deplatforming of high-profile conservative” figures from other larger platforms in recent years.
There are a range of potential reasons why West — an erratic figure known for chaotic business dealings — may have wanted to acquire Parler, a platform that’s been home to election denialism, antisemitism and adherents to the conspiracy theory QAnon. He was likely frustrated with his antisemitic comments being removed from Twitter
(TWTR) and Instagram, and for being permanently suspended from the latter. West is also friends with conservative political commentator Candace Owens, who has reportedly encouraged the rapper’s political involvement and whose husband is Parler’s CEO.
In a statement included with the Parler announcement on Monday, West alluded to the need for a different, safe space for conservatives, a camp with whom he identifies. “In a world where conservative opinions are considered to be controversial we have to make sure we have the right to freely express ourselves,” he said. West also discussed his planned Parler takeover with Trump, a source familiar with the conversation told CNN Monday, although it was unclear if the two spoke before or after the news of the rapper’s acquisition was made public.
But to the extent he is serious about the acquisition, which remains very much unclear, West faces an uncertain path forward that mirrors the challenges for other services promising unfettered “free speech.”
For starters, the audience for these alternative platforms remains far smaller than the mainstream services theyare competing with. Even if all 40,000 of Parler’s estimated daily active users followed West on the platform, his audience would pale in comparisonto the 31.4 million followers he has on Twitter, not to mention Twitter’s more than 200 million daily active users.
And despite professing to provide an unrestricted home for fringe content, some services, including Parler, have had to make concessions on content moderation to be allowed on the major app stores. Apple said last year that it had approved Parler’s return to the iOS app store following improvements the company made to better detect and moderate hate speech and incitement, and Google did the same last month. But even with app store approvals, large marketers tend to shy away from running ads alongside content that even whiffs of controversy.
Perhaps the biggest wild card of all comes from West’s friend and fellow erratic rich guy, Elon Musk. The billionaire Tesla CEO appears closer than ever to taking over an already established platform,Twitter, with plans to cut back on its content restrictions. (Following the Parler announcement, Musk tweeted, and later deleted, “fun times ahead!” along with a meme showing the two men’s smiling faces superimposed over a cartoon.)
Various regulations and business interests may keep Musk from fully committing to letting anything stay on Twitter, in the same way it has for Parler and others. But it might not take much to get right-leaning users, including influential figures, to return to Twitter. Musk has said he would restore Trump’s account on the platform; and while the former president has said he will stick to Truth Social, it’s hard to imagine he wouldn’t at least be tempted to return to Twitter’s much larger megaphone.
Shares of the investment vehicle set to take Trump’s Truth Social public slid when Musk first announced his plan to buy Twitter, and fell again earlier this month when Musk revived his proposal to buy it. Likewise, Rumble, which only recently went public via a similar path, saw its stock decline recently when Musk said the deal was back on.
Many of the right-leaning figures who have championed alternative platforms have cheered Musk’s plan to take over Twitter, a sign that they might abandon their dedication to a right-leaning social media ecosystem if a more mainstream platform was willing to welcome them back. Radio personality Joe Rogan — who previously discussed a move to Gettr — said in a text message to Musk in April, “I REALLY hope you get Twitter. If you do, we should throw one hell of a party.”
Social platforms are attractive in large part because they enable conversations and connections between lots of different kinds of people. With alternative conservative platforms, many users may be discouraged by the echo chamber. “If you go to these platforms, there is one conversation happening,” said Darren Linvill, a Clemson University professor who studies disinformation and inauthentic behavior on social media. Conservative users uninterested in politics may also avoid the alternative platforms because of other objectionable content they host, according to experts who study the space.
Putting the political discourse aside, many such platforms also suffer from technical issues and poor user interfaces. Unlike their mainstream rivals, these newer services lack sufficient resources to fix those issues. That could only make it harder to compete with a Musk-owned Twitter.
“Elon Musk could buy Twitter and say, ‘Trump, you’re back, Kanye, you’re back,’ and then Kanye is stuck owning a relatively defunct, somewhat irrelevant platform,” said Decker. “The question is going to come down to how serious Elon Musk is about any of this.”
Lawyers representing Roxie Washington, the mother of George Floyd’s daughter, have drafted a cease-and-desist letter to Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, over comments he made claiming Floyd was killed by a fentanyl overdose.
On the podcast “Drink Champs,” West claimed George Floyd was killed by a fentanyl overdose, despite a medical examiner’s testimony that fentanyl not the direct cause of Floyd’s death, only a contributing factor when he died after being knelt on by a police officer.
Attorneys at Witherspoon Law Group told CNN the comments were especially damaging to Gianna Floyd, George Floyd’s daughter.
“She’s a little girl that’s been traumatized and is being re-traumatized by Kanye West,” attorney Kay Harper Williams said of George Floyd’s daughter. It’s “intentional infliction of emotional distress,” she added.
When CNN sat with then-6-year-old Gianna Floyd in June 2020 she didn’t say a word during the interview.
The attorneys have indicated they intend to also file a lawsuit “for harassment, misappropriation, defamation, and infliction of emotional distress.”
CNN has reached out to a representative of Ye for comment.
As of Tuesday, the episode of “Drink Champs” appeared to have been removed from YouTube and Revolt TV. However, “it still exists, that does not remove it from the universe,” said Williams.
“Too little too late, the harm has been done to our client,” she added.
A cease-and-desist letter, provided to CNN, was addressed to an attorney they believed was representing Ye, however, they told CNN they were informed this attorney was not actually affiliated with Ye in this matter. They’re actively trying to make sure it’s received, though they added there will be more pressure once the lawsuit is formally filed.
Regarding a separate legal effort being explored by attorney Lee Merritt, who has represented the Floyd family on matters in the past, Williams told CNN the two legal have not been coordinating efforts up to this point.
Merritt told CNN on Monday that Floyd’s brother contacted him to pursue a defamation suit against the star.
While that’s not legally possible because George Floyd is deceased, Merritt said, there are other legal avenues to pursue, including the Floyd family possibly suing for intentional infliction of emotional distress.
“I have put together a working team to investigate [Ye’s] statements and to investigate the source of those statements,” Merritt said.
CNN has reached out to Merritt for comment on the cease-and-desist letter.
“George Floyd, just like Gianna said, changed the world so to have Kanye West come back and speak in a way that’s harmful to that legacy,” Williams said, “I’m offended as a human, as a black woman, as a mother.”
“Gianna is a child and she’s being harmed,” she added.
“There’s a really important discussion right now around the country about speech,” said Witherspoon. “But at the end of the day you cannot say these things that are false.”
Editor’s Note: Kara Alaimo, an associate professor in the Lawrence Herbert School of Communication at Hofstra University, writes about issues affecting women and social media. She was spokeswoman for international affairs in the Treasury Department during the Obama administration. The opinions expressed in this commentary are her own. View more opinion on CNN.
CNN
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The conservative social media company Parler announced on Monday that it is being purchased by Kanye West, who was temporarily suspended from Twitter this month for an antisemitic tweet. A statement from Parler’s parent company announcing the deal described West, who has legally changed his name to Ye, as having taken “a groundbreaking move into the free speech media space” where “he will never have to fear being removed from social media again.”
In a release by Parler, West said that “in a world where conservative opinions are considered to be controversial we have to make sure we have the right to freely express ourselves.”
This development means several social media companies could soon be left in the hands of mercurial, mega-rich men who have pledged to promote “free speech,” including the kind of extreme views that got West temporarily booted from Twitter. Elon Musk is currently in the process of buying Twitter, though Twitter said in a recent court filing that federal authorities (it was not clear which ones) are investigating Musk (while Musk’s attorney said this filing was designed to distract from Twitter’s own legal issues).
If West and Musk go through with their deals, these three social media platforms are likely to serve as ecosystems for conservative thought. This will likely make the views of those who remain on them more extreme — which could have a radical effect on our politics. That’s because when people who think similarly come together, they reaffirm and heighten one another’s initial beliefs.
While men such as West, Musk and Trump claim to promote free speech by not favoring the moderation of problematic content, here’s what lack of moderation really does: It drives away the people victimized by abusive content such as West’s tweet.
A 2020 study of women in 51 countries by The Economist Intelligence Unit found that 38% have been victims of online violence, from stalking to doxxing to violent threats. As Amnesty International and others have found, women of color are most affected. Antisemitic content is also rampant online. A 2021 report by the Center for Countering Digital Hate found that a sample of 714 anti-Jewish posts on five social networks had been viewed 7.3 million times.
When women become victims of online hate, they often “shut down their blogs, avoid websites they formerly frequented, take down social networking profiles, (and) refrain from engaging in online political commentary,” according to University of Miami law professor Mary Anne Franks.
In practice, what these so-called free speech policies really boil down to is an ugly form of censorship that scares away the voices of people who are attacked by users of these platforms.
West has already described Parler as a place where conservative views can flourish, and nonconservatives are unlikely to flock to Truth Social, given its association with Trump. If women, people of color and others start fleeing Twitter, that could leave it as a platform for conservatives as well. This would likely make the views of those who remain even more zealous.
“When like-minded people get together, they often end up thinking a more extreme version of what they thought before they started to talk to one another,” Harvard University law professor Cass Sunstein writes in “On Rumors: How Falsehoods Spread, Why We Believe Them, and What Can Be Done.” Sunstein says this happens because their exchanges heighten their preexisting beliefs and make them more confident.
So, when conservatives get together on social media, we can expect them to become more far right. And just as Rush Limbaugh and other conservative talk-show hosts radically altered the political landscape in the 1990s in ways that laid the groundwork for Trump’s presidency, the far-right views nurtured on these social networks could have a huge impact on our country’s politics. It isn’t hard to imagine that the people who commune on these sites could band together to support and elect political candidates who share their worldviews.
We can also expect these male owners to use their platforms to amplify their own views — even when they’re sexist, misogynistic, racist or otherwise hateful.
If West comes to own Parler and Musk takes the reins of Twitter, an already-extant conservative ecosystem will be supercharged on social media. These men’s “free speech” policies are likely to drive away people victimized by hate online. Those who remain in these conservative spaces will become even more extreme as a result of their interactions, which could cultivate a dangerous far-right ideology that has far-reaching effects on our politics.
Hand is turning a dice and changes the direction of an arrow symbolizing that the value of the … [+] crypto currency Ethereum (ETH) is going up (or vice versa)
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The week after the Securities and Exchange Commission settled charges against Kim Kardashian for (allegedly) illegally promoting a cryptocurrency, JPMorgan Chase JPM and Ye (formerly Kanye West), much like Kim and Ye, wenttheir separate ways. For very different reasons, both moguls’ mishaps provide an opportunity to discuss what’s wrong with financial market regulation in the United States.
The problems go much deeper than just legacy securities and banking regulation. They even bleed over to the newly forming fintech industry.
While it very well may have been JP Morgan’s intent to steer clear of political controversy by dropping Kanye West as a client, it remains unclear exactly what West did to anger JP Morgan. (For what it’s worth, it does appear that JP Morgan sent their letter to Ye before his recent controversial comments.) Perhaps all the clickbait headlines caused him to launch an alarming anti-inflation tirade in JP Morgan’s headquarters.
But it’s not surprising that some people suspect political motives could be behind the breakup. (Between JP Morgan and Ye, not Kim and Ye.) Again, I have no idea what truly happened and I’m not defending anything he may have said or done.
Regardless, as I’ve pointedout before, the much bigger threat to Americans is how much power federal regulators have over banks, not whether banks can ditch their customers.
Federal regulators can ultimately revoke banks’ federal deposit insurance and shut them down. If regulators deem, for example, that lending to fossil fuel companies puts a bank’s reputation at risk, or that doing so constitutes an unsafe or unsound practice, they can force the bank to change who it does business with. They have enormous leverage to do so.
That sort of leverage has many climate change activists excited, but they should reconsider. As soon as people with different views run the agencies, the very same authority could be used to target today’s popular activities and activists. The United States has spent decades leading most developed nations down the same path, discounting fundamental principles in the name of preventing mistakes, financial crises, money laundering, tax evasion, and terrorist financing.
Federal regulators could easily use their authority to target groups engaged in constitutionally protected political protests. (Fourth Amendment protections, for example, have been severely watered down.)
The details of Kim Kardashian’s mishap are a bit different, especially in that they involve a capital markets regulator.
As reported by the Wall Street Journal, the SEC believes that Kim Kardashian violated securities laws when she used her Instagram page to promote a crypto token (EMAX) without disclosing that she was paid $250,000 for the post. Sometime after her post, EMAX lost most of its value.
To be extra clear: The problem isn’t that EMAX took a deep nosedive, or that Kim promoted a crypto token which (according to the SEC) is a security. The problem is that she didn’t disclose she was being paid to promote EMAX.
Section 17(b) of the Securities Act of 1933 requires any person who gives publicity to the sale of a security to disclose any compensation for doing so. The SEC has enforced this anti-touting rule aggressively, bringing cases against people who have published entirely accurate internet posts about companies in return for undisclosed benefits.
The jurisdictional limits of the SEC allow it to go after her [Kim Kardashian] and Floyd Mayweather, while Matt Damon’s Super Bowl ad for Crypto.com, part of a $65 million campaign, escapes enforcement because it was promoting a platform and not a security.
Setting all these technical and legal arguments aside and ignoring whether securities laws might provide a false sense of security, the bigger problem here is that federal officials have overly broad discretion to act in the name of “protecting” people from making “bad” investment choices. In other words, a guiding principle behind federal securities laws is that federal officials need to prevent Americans from making mistakes and losing money. The SEC has gone way past prosecuting fraud.
Congress should not have given securities regulators so much discretion and it should not have based securities laws on these principles. The same critique applies to U.S. banking law. What Americans have, though, is a complex web of rules and regulations that blunts innovation and competition, as well as the ability to raise private capital.
In the extreme (not theabsurd), the result of this kind of regulatory system is that government officials can allocate credit to politically favored interests.
So, Congress should rethink these principles, but that’s not what they’re doing. Instead, these same ideas, and these same harmful outcomes, are playing out right now as the House tries to craft new stablecoin legislation.
For months, Financial Services chair Maxine Waters (D-CA) and ranking member Patrick McHenry (R-NC) have been negotiating a bill to regulate stablecoins. Negotiations seem to have broken down, and based on the discussion draft, that’s probably a good thing.
During DC Fintech Week, Yahoo!reported that McHenrytold his audience “It [the bill] doesn’t look like a modern regulatory regime. It actually looks pretty retrograde.” He then characterized the “current status of the legislation as an ‘ugly baby,’” and added that “It is a baby nonetheless, and we’re grateful and hopeful it can grow and prosper into something that is a lot more attractive.”
As I and my fellow Cato scholars wrote in early October, the “best part of the draft is that the House…is not trying to enact the President’s Working Group recommendation to ‘require stablecoin issuers to be insured depository institutions.’” The problem, though, is that Congress is arguing over which assets stablecoins should be backed with, who can hold stablecoins, what people can do with stablecoins in their own digital wallets, and which regulator should be in charge.
Congress should write laws to protect Americans from fraud and theft. But that goal does not require Congress to dictate which assets can legally back stablecoins. Let fintech companies and other financial firms experiment, and let people take risks with their own money. Most people aren’t going to use something called a stablecoin if it isn’t stable, so anyone issuing stablecoins better figure out how to make them stable.
Moreover, Congress should not protect legacy firms or the best-connected upstart firms from competition. That’s how free enterprise breaks down, not how it works best for the largest number of people.
Hopefully, McHenry’s wish comes true, and Congress comes up with a bill that’s much more attractive.
Unfortunately, that outcome is wishful thinking unless Congress changes its underlying approach. This time, though, a misstep is likely to keep the U.S. payments system stuck somewhere in the 20th century while the rest of the world races ahead. With or without Kim and Ye.
