Economy

Kenneth Griffin has donated more than half a billion dollars to Harvard University, committing $300 million this year alone. Last Monday, with his alma mater convulsed after a coalition of student groups blamed Israel for Hamas’s attack that had left more than 1,000 people dead, Mr. Griffin, who earned his billions on Wall Street, placed a call to the head of the university’s board.In a private conversation with Penny Pritzker, senior fellow of the Harvard Corporation, Mr. Griffin urged the university to come out forcefully in defense of Israel, he said in an interview.It was a move that would have…

President Biden’s top antitrust officials have used novel arguments over the past few years to stop tech giants and other large companies from making deals, a strategy that has had mixed success.But on Friday, when Microsoft closed its blockbuster $69 billion acquisition of the video game publisher Activision Blizzard after beating back a federal government challenge, the message sent by the merger’s completion was incontrovertible: Big Tech can still get bigger.“Big Tech companies will certainly be reading the tea leaves,” said Daniel Crane, a law professor at the University of Michigan. “Smart money says merge now while the merging is…

Ford Motor has recalled about 238,000 Explorers because of a defect that poses a risk of the sport utility vehicles rolling away if the parking brake is not engaged.The affected models, from 2020 through 2022, have been discontinued.“The rear axle horizontal mounting bolt may fracture and cause the drive shaft to disconnect,” the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in a letter to Ford on Thursday.If the shaft, a rod that transfers power to the wheels and makes the vehicle move, disconnects, it could result in a loss of drive power or a vehicle rollaway if the parking brake is…

In the latest sign of growing frustration among professionals, doctors employed by a large nonprofit health care system in Minnesota and Wisconsin have voted to unionize.The doctors, roughly 400 primary and urgent-care providers across more than 50 clinics operated by the Allina Health System, appear to be the largest group of unionized private-sector physicians in the United States. More than 150 nurse practitioners and physician assistants at the clinics were also eligible to vote and will be members of the union, which will be represented by a local of the Service Employees International Union.The result was 325 to 200, with…

Ian Graham does not make for an especially likely revolutionary. He has a distinctly academic air: genial, whip-smart, just a touch crumpled. He is not a natural salesman. He does not particularly enjoy giving interviews. Roughly once every 10 minutes, he allows a mischievous, outré sense of humor to get the better of him. He feels this makes appearing on any broadcast medium something of a risk.It is hard to deny, though, that he is a resoundingly successful insurgent. Twenty years ago, he was among the first to explore the idea that soccer might be able to understand itself better…