Luxury Brands Are Overstocked, Leading To Discounts That Threaten Their Reputations - Forbes   

PARIS, FRANCE - MARCH 02: A horsebit 1955 small shoulder bag with GG supreme by Gucci, seen during ... [+] Paris Fashion Week Fall/Winter 22/23 on March 2, 2022 in Paris, France. (Photo by Streetstyleshooters/Getty Images)

Gucci is celebrating the 70th anniversary of its iconic Horsebit hardware motif, introduced first on men’s loafers in 1953. It tapped the brand archives to host a museum exhibition at Milan Men’s Fashion Week this summer and recruited NewJeans’ Hanni, Halle Bailey, and Julia Garner as the face of a new campaign supporting the Horsebit embellishment in the women’s leather goods collection.

So it was quite a surprise to see Gucci Horsebit 1955 handbags on ShopHQ, the television shopping channel. On offer were two small handbags embellished with the distinctive hardware – one in canvas for $1,690 that looks exactly like the one above and another in leather at $1,800. And both were available with a value pay option to split up payments.

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China’s Population Problem Worsens - Forbes   

In Chengdu, a billboard shows newlyweds being counseled about China's one-child policy, now ... [+] abandoned but with present-day implications

If population issues were like steel production, China would be making all the right moves. A rise of 10% in steel production can be generated simply by a government decree. Unfortunately for China, the same top-down, party-directed steps that would generate that increase in steel is not likely to be the right approach to reversing the population decline, and might make the problem worse.

The bad news is that China's response, initially at least, might make the problem worse. When General Secretary Xi Jinping addressed the Women's Congress, he did not focus on the need for financial incentives to help new moms or the need to create family-friendly workplaces, with flexible leave policies or day-care centers. Instead, his approach was purely hortatory:

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The King Of Cones: Inside The Cannabis Industry’s $75 Million Pre-Roll Empire - Forbes   

When Bryan Gerber grinds cannabis to roll a joint, he breaks out in hives. But that hasn't stopped the 32-year-old entrepreneur—along with his co-founders Ravjot "RJ" Bhasin, Henry Kochhar and Thai Tran—from building Hara Supply into the biggest manufacturer of pre-rolled cones for the industry.

Except for those in the business of selling joints—or stocking the shelves of a bodega—most weed smokers probably haven't heard of Hara, which assembles empty, pre-rolled paper fit with a filter tip.

"We always like to say we're that sleeping giant behind a lot of companies," says Gerber while sitting on a couch in his office in front of a coffee table covered with glass bongs at his company's Las Vegas headquarters.

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Here’s How Much Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh Is Worth - Forbes   

Brett Kavanaugh is worth an estimated $2 million. That might sound like a lot, but for an attorney at the top of his field, it's really not much at all. Why isn't Kavanaugh richer? Simple: He has spent most of his career in the public sector and, at 58, is still seven years away from qualifying for his Supreme Court pension, which could double his net worth the instant he turns 65.

For now, Kavanaugh's largest asset is his Chevy Chase, Maryland home, worth roughly $1.6 million. He has an estimated $700,000 of debt against it. He has already locked in a smaller pension, from his days serving in both Bush administrations and on Ken Starr's investigation of Bill Clinton. There's also several hundred thousand stuffed into the government's equivalent of a 401(k), his wife's retirement account and some bank accounts. Other than that, there's nothing else—no rental real estate, private business or extensive stock portfolio.

For Kavanaugh, who frequently notes that he lives "on the sunrise side of the mountain," life has always been comfortable, though. He was born to two D.C.-area lawyers. His mother, to whom he credits his interest in government service, was a history teacher for much of his childhood, then went to law school when he was 10 and eventually became a circuit court judge in Maryland. He talks less about the career of his father, a retired lobbyist who made millions working for 31 years as the president of the Cosmetics, Toiletry, and Fragrance Association, an industry group now called the Personal Care Products Council. It is based three blocks from the White House.

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