Google’s Sergey Brin Admits He’s Hiring Workers Without Degrees

Whether it’s Nike’s Phil Knight, LinkedIn’s Reid Hoffman, or Google’s Sergey Brin, many of the world’s most influential business founders can trace part of their success back to Stanford University. Nestled in the foothills of Silicon Valley, the school has long functioned as a launchpad for tech’s elite. 

But the rise of artificial intelligence is challenging long-held assumptions about the value of higher education. As tech reshapes entry-level work and companies rethink traditional hiring pipelines, the payoff of a four-year degree – especially from elite institutions – is increasingly up for debate. 

Still, Brin (right) doesn’t regret his own academic path. Speaking to Stanford engineering students last month, he said his decision to study computer science was not driven by a fixation on credentials. 

“I chose computer science because I had a passion for it”, he said. “It was kind of a no-brainer for me. I guess you could say I was also lucky because I was also in such a transformative field”. 

Even in an era when AI can write code, Brin cautioned students against chasing – or abandoning – fields of study based solely on automation fears. 

“I wouldn’t go off and switch to comparative literature because you think the AI is good at coding”, he said. “The AI is probably even better at comparative literature, just to be perfectly honest anyway”. 

Brin met Google cofounder Larry Page in 1994 during his second year of graduate studies at Stanford. Together they developed PageRank, an algorithm they later renamed Google and would become a company in 1998. 

Google’s hiring practices today reflect how dramatically the industry has shifted. The tech giant is now embracing workers without college degrees. 

“In as much as we’ve hired a lot of academic stars, we’ve hired tons of people who don’t have bachelor’s degrees”, Brin said. “They just figure things out on their own in some weird corner”. 

Between 2017 and 2022, the share of job postings at Google requiring a degree dropped from 93% to 77%, according to analysis from the Burning Glass Institute. And Google aren't alone: companies including Microsoft, Apple, and Cisco have reduced degree requirements in recent years, signaling a broader industry shift toward skills-based hiring. 

That’s forcing a broader reckoning over what a degree actually signals and whether it’s still a reliable proxy for talent.

“I don’t think necessarily because you go to an Ivy League school or have great grades it means you’re going to be a great worker or great person”, said JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon in 2024. For many roles, skills matter far more than credentials, he added: “If you look at skills of people, it is amazing how skilled people are in something, but it didn’t show up in their resume”.

Palantir CEO Alex Karp has made a similar case, despite holding three degrees (including a JD from Stanford). He’s been outspoken about the pressure young people face to pursue elite credentials – and dismissive of how much they matter once on the job. 

“If you did not go to school, or you went to a school that’s not that great, or you went to Harvard or Princeton or Yale, once you come to Palantir, you’re a Palantirian. No one cares about the other stuff”, Karp said during an earnings call last year. 

That mindset is spreading beyond Silicon Valley and Wall Street, according to Great Place to Work’s CEO Michael Bush. 

“Almost everyone is realizing that they’re missing out on great talent by having a degree requirement”, Bush told Fortune. “That snowball is just growing”. 

For Brin, the implications ultimately go beyond hiring. With credentials losing their gatekeeping power, he said universities themselves may need to evolve: “I just would rethink what it means to have a university”.

Legal Actions Against 1MDB-involved Global Financial Institutions Stepped Up

Malaysia is focusing on global financial institutions accused of facilitating misappropriation of funds linked to 1Malaysia Development Bhd. 

The government are requesting courts in Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong to set early hearing dates in 2026 to “fast-track” existing suits against the financial firms, said Johari Abdul Ghani, who chairs a task force set up to recover assets of the state-owned company also known as 1MDB. 

“We are also reviewing other banks and financial intermediaries involved in the flow of funds from 1MDB”, he was quoted as saying. Malaysia has filed lawsuits at home and abroad against Deutsche Bank AG, Standard Chartered plc, Julius Baer Group Ltd, and RBS Coutts. 

As well as specialised corporate management Amicorp and law firm White & Case. 

1MDB had earlier dropped suits against Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Coutts and Co after the firms agreed to pay billions of dollars as settlement. Malaysia, nevertheless, is open to settlement negotiations, Johari was reported as saying. 

On October 14, the Finance Ministry reported that more than RM20 billion had been reclaimed through settlements with several financial institutions involved in the scandal. 

Separately, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission had recovered about RM8 billion in cash and assets, which were already returned to the government’s consolidated fund under the Finance Ministry. 

The Malaysia Open jinx continued to haunt Pearly Tan-Thinaah Muralitharan after the second seeds crashed out in the second round on Thursday. 

The Malaysian pair went down 26-24, 21-17 to Indonesia's world No. 60 pair Febriana Dwipuji Kusuma–Meilysa Trias Puspitasari. 

It meant Pearly-Thinaah have now failed to progress beyond the second round in all five of their Malaysia Open appearances. They exited in the second round on debut in 2022, before suffering first-round defeats in the next three editions.

The Chinese Fightback

Of course, China refuses to submit to the sweeping tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump on Wednesday!

On Friday, China fought back, hitting US goods with import taxes of 34%, starting April 10. 

Beijing said it would sue the United States at the World Trade Organisation and also restrict export of rare earth elements used in high-end medical and electronics technology. 

China’s State Council Tariff Commission said in a statement: “This practice of the US is not in line with international trade rules, seriously undermines China’s legitimate rights and interests, and is a typical unilateral bullying practice”.

But other big US trading partners held back as they digested the unfolding international standoff and fears of a recession.

And for a second day, markets plunged, wiping vast sums off investment and retirement portfolios alike. Wall Street went into free fall, following similar collapses in Asia and Europe. The Dow Jones dropped 5.5 percent and the S&P 5.97 percent, capping the worst week for the US stock market since 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic led to global shutdowns and other disruptions. 

Trump, who has vowed to remake the global trade order, dismissed concerns about the market shock, touting it as a chance to "get rich". 

"Hang tough", he urged his followers on social media. "We can't lose".

Also speaking on Friday, Jerome Powell, the head of the Federal Reserve, the US central bank, said he thought the economy remained "solid", pointing to the latest data showing strong hiring in the US in March.

But he acknowledged a high degree of uncertainty. "What we've learned is that the tariffs are higher than anticipated, higher than almost all forecasters predicted", Powell admitted, warning that growth would slow and prices were likely to rise.

In a note to investors, JP Morgan said they now put the odds of a global economic recession this year at 60%, up from 40% previously, noting that the shock from the tariffs could drive growth in the US down by two percentage points this year.

In a more concrete sign of how tariffs are impacting trade, Nintendo announced they were delaying pre-orders of their hotly anticipated Switch 2 gaming console while they assess "evolving" conditions.

Meta and Amazon Axe DEI Initiatives, Joining US Corporate Rollback

Now, even Meta and Amazon are axing DEI initiatives and joining the US corporate rollback.

 

Walmart, McDonalds, Ford, John Deere, Harley-Davidson, JPMorgan Chase and BlackRock are among the other companies to have made similar DEI abandonment decisions, a sign of the acceleration of a retreat that started two years ago, as Republicans ramped up attacks and accusing them of "woke" progressive activism and threatening political punishment. More so, since Donald Trump won re-election.

 

Many of the diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives were put in place after the Black Lives Matter protests that erupted in 2020 following George Floyd's murder at the hands of police. 

 

However, recent court decisions have bolstered critics of the programs, who said that they were discriminatory. The Supreme Court in 2023 struck down the right for private universities to consider race in admissions decisions. Another court of appeals ruling invalidated a Nasdaq policy that would have required companies listed on that stock exchange to have at least one woman, racial minority or LGBTQ person on their board or explain why not.

 

Celtic overcame sub-zero temperatures in the Highlands and a Ross County team in good form to secure a 4-1 victory and move 18 points clear in the Scottish Premiership yesterday. 

 

Kyogo Furuhashi put the table toppers in front when he poked in a lovely cross from right-back Alistair Johnston in the fortieth minute. But the Dingwall side leveled just twenty minutes later.

 

Celtic restored their advantage when Arne Engels crossed from the left and Furuhashi headed into the top corner in the 81st minute despite the Staggies keeper getting his hands to the effort.

 

As if that was not enough, the Celts scored two more in stoppage time. Within 6 minutes, a spot-kick for a challenge on Reo Hatate with Engels converting at the second attempt. And then, Luke McCowan completed the scoring when he slotted home in the 98th minute after managing three touches in the box.

 

 

Bud Light Rebate Means (Almost) Free Beer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bud Light sales continue to take a beating as the consumer boycott persists. 

 

So much so that US customers who purchase a 15-pack of Budweiser beer this Memorial Day weekend can get it for just about free, the latest move to stem the tide of falling sales. 

 

Through May 31, beer drinkers can get up to a $15 rebate on the purchase price of Budweiser, Bud Light, Budweiser Select and Budweiser Select 55 in a 15-pack or larger. The rebate, in the form of a digital prepaid card, will be equivalent to the purchase price, up to $15. In most cases, the rebate will be enough to cover the entire cost of the case! 

 

That’s how desperate Anheuser-Busch are. 

 

Customers must be at least 21 years old. The rebate is available through a website where customers must upload a photo of the UPC and receipt for a purchase made between May 17 and May 31. The sweepstake isn’t open nationwide though. 

 

Bud Light’s sales are wallowing in deep shit. 

 

Sales of the US’s No. 1 beer were down 24.6% for the week ended May 13 compared to a year ago – slightly worse than the 23.6% dip they suffered a week earlier, according to Bump Williams Consulting and NielsenIQ research. [Kindly refer to my May 18 post “Bud Light Sales in the US Continue to Tumble”]. 

 

Even more alarming, industry experts say, is the negative impact on Anheuser-Busch InBev’s other brands, including Budweiser, Michelob Ultra – with the latter being the nation’s No. 3 beer last year with more than $3.3 billion in sales last year. Michelob Ultra sales were off 2.9% versus a year ago in the latest week, in line with a drop a week earlier, according to a Bump Williams analysis of NielsenIQ data. 

 

And sales of Budweiser, last year’s No. 7 beer with more than $1.8 billion in sales, were down 9.7% in each of the two most recent weeks. 

 

Sales of Busch Light were also down 6.8% compared to 0.3% decline the previous week, while Anheuser-Busch’s Natural Light sales were down by 2.8% in the week ended May 13 compared to a 2.5% decline the previous week. 

 

“Bud Light is ‘sick’”, Bump Williams, founder of the consultancy said of the US’s top-selling beer, which raked in $4.8 billion in sales last year. “It’s now infected other healthy brands with the InBev portfolio and that’s a bigger problem in my mind”. 

 

Meanwhile, Anheuser-Busch’s competitors are guzzling market share with Coors Light up 23.2% in the week ended May 13 compared to a bump of 22.2% the previous week. Sales of Modelo Especial – the second most popular beer brand in the US with more than $3.7 billion in sales last year – are up by 10% in the most recent week compared to a 5% increase the previous week. 

 

Earlier this month, JPMorgan acquired most of First Republic’s assets after the San Francisco-based regional bank was seized by the US government – read my post “First Republic Bank in the US Bites the Dust” dated May 02, 2023. 

 

And on Thursday, they informed about 1,000 First Republic Bank employees that they will no longer have jobs. 

 

JPMorgan said the company’s May 01 deal with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to buy most of First Republic did not include all of the company’s employees.

 

No surprise here because mergers and acquisitions typically tend to result in job losses.

First Republic Bank in the US Bites the Dust

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the banking system, San Francisco-based First Republic Bank have folded and US regulators have brokered a deal for JPMorgan Chase to take over the troubled bank. 

 

The Wall Street giant said they would pay $10.6 billion to the Federal Insurance Deposit Corp, after officials shut down the smaller bank. First Republic had been under pressure since last month, when the collapse of two other US lenders sparked fears about the state of the banking system. [Refer to my post “Gold Surges Amidst Banking Crisis” published March 19, 2023]. 

 

Authorities said they hoped the deal would resolve the panic. The failure of the Californian bank is the second-largest in US history and the third in the country since March. Worth more than $20 billion at the beginning of last month, the bank known for their big home loan business and for their stable of wealthy clients, were ranked as the 14th largest lender in the US at the end of last year. 

 

The bank's 84 offices in eight states reopened on Monday as branches of JPMorgan Chase Bank and all depositors of the regional bank are now depositors of their bigger peer. 

 

In a scramble to come up with a rescue package, US officials were understood to have contacted six banks before landing on America's largest lender, according to news agency AFP. US President Joe Biden said the actions would ensure that the banking system is "safe and sound". 

 

But the deal appeared poised to renew political debate about financial regulation and the power of America's biggest banks. 

 

Jamie Dimon (left), chief executive of JP Morgan Chase, said the government had "invited" their bank, along with others, to "step up, and we did" and offered assurances about the industry. 

 

"This part of the crisis is over", he said, noting that few other banks were at risk of customers withdrawing deposits on mass, which caused the problems at First Republic and the two other lenders: Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank. 

 

"Down the road – rates going up, recession, real estate – that’s a whole different issue. For now, we should take a deep breath", he added.

Gold Surges Amidst Banking Crisis

Financial regulators closed Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), which catered to venture capitalists and start-ups, on March 10, 2023, making it the second-biggest bank failure in US history. 

 

Depositors had rushed to withdraw their money after the firm filed a notice that they were selling billions in assets to shore up their finances. The bank was tightly linked to the tech industry, which is beset by layoffs. 

 

Two days later, regulators closed Signature Bank, a New York, US-based financial institution crucial to the cryptocurrency industry, after a deposit run. 

 

And then San Francisco, US lender, First Republic Bank that specialize in private banking and wealth management saw their shares plunge earlier this week, raising the specter of a third major US bank implosion in days. 

 

This is why 11 of the largest banks in the United States stepped in with an announcement on Thursday that they would deposit a total of $30 billion into their smaller peer in the midst of the widening banking crisis triggered by the collapse of the two aforementioned lenders, SVB and Signature Bank. 

 

Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo said they would each make a $5 billion uninsured deposit, while Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are each depositing $2.5 billion. BNY-Mellon, PNC Bank, State Street, Truist, and US Bank have pledged $1 billion each. 

 

In Europe, Credit Suisse had disclosed “material weaknesses” in their financial reporting, before announcing this week they would borrow up to $53.7 billion from Switzerland’s central bank to reinforce their finances. 

 

Credit Suisse’s troubles predated SVB’s collapse, and they’re not caused by the same factors that brought down the US banks. But the failure of SVB greatly alarmed markets, and the Swiss bank’s announcements made investors even more fearful of a broader contagion. 

 

This raises the odds that the US economy, already widely seen as prone to recession, might actually tip into one. 

 

The above-mentioned banks have spooked investors who quickly turned their attention to safe haven assets amid concerns of further market turbulence – and this has pushed up gold prices. 

 

The precious metal has been extending gains since Monday, when it opened trading at $1,879 per ounce, to $1,936 on Friday afternoon, having started the day at $1,921. Investors traditionally turn to gold in times of market uncertainty, to hedge risks. 

 

Throughout history, gold has been seen as a reliable investment instrument during periods of economic instability, stock market crises, military conflicts and pandemics. 

 

It’s worth highlighting that the central banks of many countries are unleashing a big appetite for gold during 2022 and this year, will be no different. It is claimed that gold-buying is at its fastest pace since the 1960s. 

 

Seeing how Russia has been hit by monetary sanctions by the West, China and other countries are said to be hurrying to reduce dependence on the Dollar by stockpiling gold, analysts reckon. 

 

In fact, central banks and government institutions have been accumulating gold reserves over the past 10 years or so, after the 2008 financial crisis eroded confidence in US Treasury bonds and other Dollar-denominated assets, sending them scrambling to diversify their portfolios. Emerging countries with low creditworthiness are also seeking to strengthen their reserves of gold, which has high liquidity and no sovereign risks. 

 

I had previously read that central banks had bought a net 399.3 tonnes of gold in the July-September 2022 period, more than quadrupling on the year, according to the November report by industry group the World Gold Council. The latest amount marks a steep jump from 186 tonnes in the preceding quarter and 87.7 tonnes in the first quarter, while the year-to-date total alone surpasses any full year since 1967 (Nikkei Asia, November 22, 2022).

 

Go for gold is good advice!

The FinCEN Files Scandal

Rogue banks are in the spotlight again. 

Leaked documents from the US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) – the people at the US Treasury who combat financial crime – involving about $2 trillion of suspicious transactions have revealed how some of the world's biggest banks have allowed criminals to move dirty money around the world.

These banks such as JPMorgan Chase, HSBC, Deutsche Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, Bank of New York Mellon and more, not only turned a blind eye but they have immensely profited from the dirty money transactions. 

It’s alleged that BNY Mellon, for example, moved more than $1 billion for the financier behind Malaysia’s 1MDB political scandal, and JPMorgan processed more than $50 million for Paul Manafort, the former campaign manager for US President Donald Trump.  

The FinCEN files are more than 2,500 documents, most of which were files that banks sent to the US authorities between 2000 and 2017. They raise concerns about what their clients might be doing. 

These documents are some of the international banking system's most closely guarded secrets. Banks use them to report suspicious behaviour but they are not proof of wrongdoing or crime. 

They were leaked to Buzzfeed News and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which distributed them to 108 news organizations in 88 countries – and disclosing activities that banks don't want the public to know about. 

A BBC News report had given us insights into some of these activities: 

HSBC allowed fraudsters to move $80 million of stolen money around the world, even after it learned from US investigators the scheme was a Ponzi scam. 

JP Morgan allowed a company to move more than $1bn through a London account without knowing who owned it. The bank later discovered the company might be owned by a mobster on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list. 

Evidence that one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's closest associates used Barclays bank in London to avoid sanctions which were meant to stop him using financial services in the West. Some of the cash was used to buy works of art. 

The husband of a woman who has donated £1.7m to the UK's governing Conservative Party's was secretly funded by a Russian oligarch with close ties to President Putin. 

The UK is called a "higher risk jurisdiction" and compared to Cyprus, by the intelligence division of FinCEN. That's because of the number of UK registered companies that appear in the SARs. Over 3,000 UK companies are named in the FinCEN files - more than any other country. 

Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich once held secret investments in footballers not owned by his club through an offshore company. 

Deutsche Bank moved money launderers' dirty money for organised crime, terrorists and drug traffickers. 

Standard Chartered moved cash for Arab Bank for more than a decade after clients' accounts at the Jordanian bank had been used in funding terrorism. 

The above illustrates all too clearly that existing regulations and bank compliance processes are grossly inadequate. 

And according to the ICIJ, in the US, almost 200 banking entities filed suspicious transactions.

Part of the list of 200 US banking entities. Data from ICIJ

By law, these banks have to know who their clients are – it's not enough to file SARs and keep taking dirty money from clients while expecting enforcers to deal with the problem. If they have evidence of criminal activity, they should stop moving the cash.

Scandalous – that’s what it is!

Does JP Morgan's Jamie Dimon Even Care?

A US Democratic congresswoman from California, Katie Porter spelled out to JP Morgan's CEO, Jamie Dimon (left), the real-world implications of the low wages his bank pays their junior employees at a senate hearing on Wednesday. 

After running Dimon through the numbers, Porter found that a single mother on the bank's starting salary for a teller would be $567 in the red at the end of each month. 

When asked how a woman in that situation could get by, Dimon could only respond with a 'I don't know'. 

He is a CEO and yet, very much a dumb-ass!

One cannot help but conclude that even in the US of A, a living wage is still out of reach for many of its citizens!

Compare this to Dimon's full compensation for 2018 totaled $31 million, up from $29 million, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The compensation includes a base salary of $1.5 million for Dimon and $29.5 million from performance-based incentives, the filing says. 

This is disgraceful, despicable, sad. To all the high-income earners out there – stop taking so much money for yourselves. When is it enough? 

For God’s sake, do something for the common folks out there who are trying hard to make ends meet. Kindly help those in need! Please learn to give!

Monday, April 15, 2019 marks the 30th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster. A human tragedy that has become synonymous with one city. 

Yesterday, touching tributes had poured in once again from across the world of football – all of them offering support and solidarity with the people of Liverpool. And they are all gratefully received. 

But it is worth remembering that the calamity that unfolded in Sheffield 30 years ago yesterday when 96 LFC fans lost their lives have been felt far beyond the confines of the city of Liverpool. 

Hillsborough is really football’s tragedy.