All posts by Amelia Jacobs

About Amelia Jacobs

Amelia Jacobs began her career in business following a surprisingly successful trip to China. Having visited the region as a tourist, she returned to America as an import-exporter. Today, Jacobs runs a thriving import-export company, splitting her time between Chicago and Shanghai. Contact Amelia at amelia[at]businessdistrict.com

Surprising Facts About Refugees to the US

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Immigrants on deck of steamer “Germanic.” Unknown photographer, 1887.

Immigration and how the US handles refugees seeking to live in the country of the free has been a hot subject in the news lately. Here are a few facts about refugees many people might not be aware of:

  • Refugees must repay the cost of the airfare to the United States. Although the government does pay for the flights of refugees to the US, that money is an interest-free loan which must be repaid as soon as the refugee begins to earn an income. That money is then funneled back into a fund that pays for additional refugees to be brought over.
  • Studies show that although there are costs involved in resettling refugees, the positive contribution they make to the economy balances out the expense. Money is spent mostly to provide social services like language and vocational training, healthcare and cash allowances. One study showed that in Cleveland, where 4,518 refugees were resettled between 2000 and 2012, 38 new businesses were started, yielding an additional 175 jobs and $12 million in spending in Cleveland in 2012.
  • Refugees must prove their status. International law states that a refugee is someone with a “well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.” Being poor is not enough.
  • The process of resettlement is a long and arduous one. According to the World Bank Group, the average length of time a refugee waits in “limbo” until he is resettled is 10.3 years. The median is four years until a permanent home is found. Once the process of resettlement in the US begins, the minimum amount of time it takes is 18 months. Immigration lawyers say that it is not unusual for the process to take from four to eight years.

Small Businesses Also Included in Wells Fargo Scandal

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Photo courtesy of Mike Mozart.

Louisiana’s Republican Senator David Vitter sent a letter on September 29, which was viewed by Reuters, to John Stumpf, chief executive of Wells Fargo, asking him to provide a “full accounting” of customers affected by their improper sales practices.

As a member of the US Senate’s banking committee and the head of its small business committee, Vitter wrote that discussions between congressional staffers and Wells Fargo representatives “have indicated that the fraudulent activity of your employees was not limited to Wells Fargo’s consumer banking operations. Thousands of small business owners were impacted by this fraud.”

Investigations by Vitter’s committee can point to Wells Fargo’s fraudulent practices being directed to about 10,000 small businesses in addition to the possible 2 million consumer accounts which Wells Fargo opened fraudulently. This new revelation comes about one month after the bank reached a settlement of $190 million with its customers for opening accounts for them without their knowledge.

The news of the bank’s behavior caused a sensation among consumers, resulting in the firing of about 5,300 employees for opening up accounts improperly.

Stumpf appeared before two congressional committees, and other oversite governmental authorities such as the Justice and Labor Departments, which led to investigations into the bank’s sales practices.

“While the vast majority of accounts in the settlement were consumer accounts, to the extent there were small business accounts included, all were previously reported in the total number of potentially impacted accounts,” said Wells Fargo spokeswoman Jennifer Langan. “As stated earlier, Wells Fargo has already refunded 115,000 accounts. The impacted accounts, including Small Business, were part of our Retail Bank business.”

But a Consumer Financial Protection Board spokesman said Langan’s words were incorrect. The two million accounts in the settlement did not included any small business accounts.

Unilever Buying Seventh Generation Green Products Brand

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Unilever PLC, the European consumer products powerhouse, agreed to purchase Seventh Generation Inc, maker of environment-friendly detergents and household cleansers, for $700 million.

The London-based giant, known for its popular brands such as Dove soaps and Axe deodorants, is looking to gain a toe hold into the growing market for “natural” cleaning products. Unilever had been in preliminary talks with a different company, Jessica Alba’s Honest Co. Actress Alba’s company claims to avoid any harsh chemicals in its cleaning products. Honest Co’s asking price was $1 billion, but the deal seems to have fallen through and is unlikely to happen.

Seventh Generation was founded in 1988 and is based in Vermont. The company has been growing steadily, and had sales of over $200 million last year. In 2007 an investment deal valued the company at $100 million.

“We look at this as having a multiplier effect for our business,” said Seventh Generation Chief Executive John Replogle, who will stay on to run the company. “We always aspired to be a billion-dollar brand. We see this as a springboard as opposed to throwing in the towel.”

Commercial Droning Regulations to Take Off

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Along with the huge rise in the commercial use of drones has come the need to regulate this activity. Such laws are about to emerge which will clear the way for a regulated business-related drone flight everywhere in the US, hopefully bringing some order to what some have considered chaos.

The FAA announced its first set of laws which will permit anyone to use drones, as long as they follow the steps and meet the requirements. The first of those will be the acquisition of a remote pilot’s certificate, which can be had by sitting for a written test at an FAA testing center.

Once you’ve received your license to fly, you will need to make sure your drone is under the 55 lb. (25 kg) limit. This covers the vast majority of drones generally in use.

The new rules also limit the maximum altitude an operator can send their drone to under 400 ft. (122 m). Speeds must also be kept under 100 mph (161 kmh) and must always be within seeing distance of the pilot. No night flying with the exception of 30 minutes before sunrise and after sunset, but only if your drone is fitted with anti-collision lights. One pilot-one drone: a single operator cannot fly more than one drone at a time, and a drone is never allowed to fly over the heads of people.

The FAA says it is willing to be lenient on some of the rules if the operator can demonstrate that safety will not be compromised. A special on-line portal will be set up for pilots to make their cases for special waivers.

This is a step towards the future of retail drone delivery, but as Matt Sweeney, whose startup Flirtey carried out the first FAA-approved drone delivery exercise last year explains:

“This is to some extent broader than some people in the industry were expecting. But as currently written, you can still not fly over people, you can still not fly beyond the line of sight and you cannot operate more than one drone at a time. And those are really the three key things that are required for the drone delivery industry to emerge at scale.”

Supreme Will Not Hear Challenge to Seattle Minimum Wage Law

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After Seattle became one of the first US cities to adopt a minimum wage law aiming to reach $15 per hour, five franchises and the International Franchise Association sued the city. The group says that the new law is discriminatory against them because the law treats the 623 franchises in Seattle like big businesses just because they are part of a multi state network.

The Seattle law is the first of such laws to reach the US Supreme Court, but the courts decided on Monday that it will not hear the case.

Labor advocates say that the court’s move is a sign that SCOTUS will continue to refrain from hearing challenges to similar laws from other cities.