Bitcoin has been on a wild ride in the past week, losing more than half of its value then recovering slightly today.  It is to be expected for a cryptocurrency that has no inherent value other than what people believe.  There is no there there, no government backing its value, no commodity like gold assuring its worth.  What people choose to accept is what it is valued.  Wall Street is warming to cryptocurrencies but one wonders why.  From a credibility perspective, they are not worth much, yet traders risk billions to own them and engage in enormous digital mining operations.  It is not a market I will ever understand.

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Republicans in the House and Senate are trying to avoid a Jan.6 commission to look into the insurrection that invaded the capitol building.  They fear what it will find and they are wary that Democrats will use it against them.  Instead, they want to move on and concentrate on the 2022 midterms.  Democrats are having none of that.  They want a full and nonpartisan investigation because they are sure of what will be found — complicity with former president Trump and some House members who provoked the invasion.  Indeed, some Republican House members are already trying to rewrite history, calling it a normal tourist reaction.  Whether or not the commission comes into being, Democrats won’t let the party live down the day.  They will tar Republicans’ reputation for years to come, or at least until Trump no longer has a hold on the party.  Republicans have good reason to fear for their future.  

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Bill Gates’ divorce has destroyed his image and reputation.  Ugly stories are coming out about his treatment of women and the media are on the hunt.  In the internet age, secrets are no longer kept for long, and the do-gooder image of an individual is at risk in light of facts.  One would think Gates understands that.  He is a founder of the modern computer age and grew fabulously wealthy through building a company that makes key software nearly everyone uses.  It would have been better for him had he accepted his behavior publicly.  At least the world wouldn’t have looked up to him as a “nerdy” philanthropist.  Now he is falling in estimation with little chance of recovery.  Billionaires aren’t free to do what they will.  Money doesn’t guarantee reputation.  

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Colonial Pipeline apparently paid hackers $5 million in cryptocurrency to unlock its computer files from ransomware.  The better approach would have been to rebuild its system and not to pay at all.  But, that wasn’t possible with looming fuel shortages in the Southeast US.  The hackers had lodged the company between a rock and a hard place.  There was nothing Colonial could do.  The problem with paying up is that it opens a company to other hackers who will try the same ransomware attack again.  Colonial has earned a reputation as an easy mark.  Its only safety is to take cybersecurity seriously and to harden its systems to the largest extent possible.  The ransomware was a lesson to other companies as well that have yet to spend what it takes to be mostly protected.  If they paid little attention in the past, they know now they can be put out of business.

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 Authorities are telling the public not to panic over possible gasoline shortages with the Colonial Pipeline shutdown.  So, of course, motorists are panicking and idling in long lines waiting to get to pumps.  Their fears have resulted in one station after another running out of fuel in the Southeast.  Why does this happen?  People are driven by primal fear and distrust of authorities.  It demonstrates the limits of communication.  Telling people not to panic ignites the very reaction one doesn’t want.  There are no good persuasion techniques to overcome such irrationality.  Government’s response should be to limit how much any one person can buy at a time — rationing.  Authorities are not doing that in this case because the problem hasn’t become severe enough.  But it is a reminder that sometimes jawboning doesn’t work.

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 An Arizona state senator is expressing regret that he voted for an ongoing audit of the presidential election vote.  He says it makes the state GOP “look like idiots.”  He is correct.  The audit, being performed by a company with no experience in verifying elections and with a pronounced bias toward Trump, is a reputation disaster.  The state GOP must now see it through even though it might take months, and during that time, the embarrassment will continue.  It’s a gift to Democrats.  They are saying, “This is what the Republican party has become.  How can you vote for its candidates?”   Die-hard Republicans won’t change their vote but independents will and that is enough to carry Arizona, as we learned last November.  The GOP has compounded one PR disaster with another of its own making, and it is just now awakening to the debacle.    

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 Afghan citizens who cooperated with US troops as interpreters and in other vital functions are panicked about the drawdown of US troops from the country.  They are convinced the Taliban will hunt them down and slaughter them for their aid to America.  They have reason to be concerned with daily bombings taking the lives of men, women and children.  The US’ reputation is on the line for carrying out the moral obligation to these people.  It was true when we left Vietnam.  The tens of thousands of Vietnamese who made their way to the US have become vital citizens of our country.  There is no reason to believe Afghans will be any different.  The backlog at the State Department and the slowness of Congress to authorize more slots for visas are indefensible.  These people helped us.  There is no reason for denying them entry.  Rather, they too can become productive parts of the US economy and enrich our culture.  America’s moral duty and reputation hang in the balance. 

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 Waymo, Google’s driverless van company, seems to be stuck without a profitable way forward. The company’s reputation as the first to launch driverless vehicles also is in jeopardy.  It serves today a suburb of Phoenix, AZ and has not expanded its coverage for two years.  The article analyzes the potential problems the company is facing and comes up with significant challenges to Waymo ever becoming profitable and wide-spread.  Along with Tesla’s flawed AutoPilot, it is becoming evident that self-driving technology might not be ready for general use and might never be.  There are too many traps and exceptions a human driver can avoid with ease but an automated vehicle cannot.  Waymo has spent money and done research, but increasingly it is looking like a dead-end.  The question for marketing at the company is what to do now.  There doesn’t seem to be a way forward.

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This article from Bloomberg BusinessWeek details how Jeff Bezos of Amazon turned the table on the National Enquirer over his love affair and divorce. It demonstrates what money can do to protect reputation.  Bezos spent freely to corner AMI, the parent of the the Enquirer and was able to flip its story from marital infidelity to a politically motivated assault on Bezos, the owner of the Washington Post.  The media bought Bezos’ explanation and the Enquirer never had a chance.  Chalk that up to the Enquirer’s reputation as a scandal monger loose with the facts in pursuit of a sensational story.  It’s an interesting read, but few people have the resources of Bezos to repair their reputations after being attacked.  

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Facebook’s oversight board has upheld the social medium’s ban of former president Trump from its service.  It was gratifying for the company that had been in a no-win situation of whether to cut Trump off or leave him be.  The company determined after the Jan. 6 insurrection that it was too dangerous to allow Trump to continue to claim he was defrauded in the 2020 election.  The company ducked a bullet by letting the board decide, but the board has called for Facebook to come up with clear standards for determining who should be banned and who allowed to stay.  This will be difficult unless Facebook uses the clear and present danger standard for overriding free speech.  That has worked well for media in the past.  In any event, Facebook will need to proceed in a more orderly fashion, and that is good.  

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