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☆ Asking about pay in a job interview makes you less likely to get hired
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-26 | by ( Rebecca Knight | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Research has found managers are less likely to hire people who ask about pay in job interviews. Asking about pay can make managers think you care more about the rewards than the actual job. The upshot for job seekers: Be patient. But research suggests that that's exactly how hiring managers will perceive you if you ask about pay and perks. The upshot for job seekers is that patience and restraint are key.

☆ Ukrainian Americans see Zelenskiy visit as promising sign, urge more U.S. support
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( Kanishka Singh | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Ukrainian Americans in Washington saw President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's U.S. visit as a promising sign that displayed strong relations between the countries but also urged more American assistance to defend against the Russian invasion. The group called "U.S. Ukrainian Activists" then headed to the U.S. Capitol for Zelenskiy's address to the Congress. Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, America has committed about $21.2 billion in military assistance to Kyiv. "In the long term, helping Ukraine will enable the U.S. to preserve national security," Catherine Pedersen, a board member of the U.S. Ukrainian Activists group, told Reuters. Had the U.S. provided the assistance sooner, more lives could have been saved," Durbak said, adding that Zelenskiy's trip could help make a case for more aid.

Megan Thee Stallion isn’t on trial. But if you consume content from some popular hip-hop bloggers, podcasters and social media accounts, you might be misled. Some question if Megan Thee Stallion was even shot at all. The narratives have become viral social media content. Milagro Gramz, a hip-hop news commentator, has been covering Pete and Peterson since before the trial started.

☆ Covid, flu and RSV: What science shows about being contagious
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-18 | by ( Benjamin Ryan | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +8 min

People know when they have Covid symptoms, but do minor sniffles at the end of a coronavirus infection, for example, mean they’re still contagious? It’s a good time to brush up on what scientists know, and still don’t know, about how long people remain infectious with viral diseases — Covid, influenza, RSV — that are spreading across the U.S.How long am I contagious with Covid? If you’ve been exposed to someone who has tested positive for Covid, symptoms from any of the omicron subvariants generally appear two to four days later. How contagious you are is connected to how much of the virus, known as the viral load, is in your body. As far as relying on Covid tests to determine whether someone is still contagious, PCR tests are good at diagnosing Covid.

"I don't think it would qualify as a recession," Powell said of the growth rate penciled in by policymakers. Recessions in the United States have come in many flavors - deep or shallow, short or long. That's twice the annual growth the Fed says the United States will have experienced in 2022, and what it foresees through 2023. The rise in the unemployment rate then was more than the Fed currently anticipates for next year. The Fed sees unemployment rising from 3.7% now to 4.6% in 2023 and remaining almost unchanged for two years after that.

He described the slow rate of economic growth penciled in by Fed officials next year as still "modest." Only two of 19 Fed officials see the benchmark overnight interest rate staying below 5% next year, a sign of a still broad consensus to lean against inflation. In the U.S. Treasury market, which plays a key role in the transmission of Fed policy decisions into the real economy, yields were little changed to slightly lower. Powell said the speed of coming rate rises is less critical now than earlier in the year when the central bank was "front-loading" rate hikes to catch up with accelerating prices. "Our focus right now is really on moving our policy stance to one that is restrictive enough to ensure a return of inflation to our 2% goal over time, it's not on rate cuts," Powell said.

[1/3] Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jerome Powell speaks during a news conference following the announcement that the Federal Reserve raised interest rates by half a percentage point, at the Federal Reserve Building in Washington, U.S., December 14, 2022. The Fed's policy rate, which began the year at the near-zero level, is now in a target range of 4.25% to 4.50%, the highest since late 2007. In the U.S. Treasury market, which plays a key role in the transmission of Fed policy decisions into the real economy, yields were little changed. "It's not as important how fast we go," Powell said, noting the bigger question facing policymakers is where the endpoint of the Fed rate hikes is and how long it stays at that level. Any debate over easing rates would only happen when officials are confident inflation is moving down, he said.

The New York Fed survey began in 2013. The one-year ahead expected inflation reading was also the lowest of the year. GOOD NEWS FOR FED'S INFLATION STRUGGLESThe expected path of inflation is a key variable in that process. A large part of the near-term fall in expected inflation is likely tied toward recent declines in always-volatile gasoline prices. The New York Fed reported that respondents said in November they see household incomes rising by 4.5%, from October’s 4.3%, a record-high reading.

Wage gains are strong and consumption, the mainstay of U.S. economic growth, continues to increase even after adjusting for inflation. Many factors influence when and if the economy falls into recession; but invariably it will involve rising unemployment and falling consumption. They have telegraphed plans to keep raising interest rates for now as they try to cool the economy and keep prices in check. To date, Fed officials do not feel they have overstepped. "The greatest upside risk is also linked to monetary policy actions," if the Fed navigates the economy to its aimed-for "soft landing" that avoids recession.

November's labor force participation rate of 62.1% was almost exactly where it was in January, with little variation in between. Each month millions of adults change their work status: Some join the labor market by either accepting a job or starting a job search; others move between a job and unemployment; some leave the labor market altogether. Increasingly "workers leaving employment are dropping out of the labor force, not becoming unemployed," TS Lombard economist Steven Blitz wrote recently. Recent changes in labor flow data "underscores the Fed's concern about the supply-demand labor imbalance underpinning inflation." Reuters GraphicsFEWER 'UNRETIREMENTS'The payroll jobs and labor force data come from different surveys, one of firms and one of households, and might be revised over time.

The month-to-month decline in the Adobe Digital Price Index, a measure of online shopping designed to mirror the basket of goods included in the government's Consumer Price Index, was an even faster 3.2%. U.S. shoppers spent $35.27 billion online overall during Cyber Week, the period from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday. Until that point online prices for years had been a drag on overall inflation. "If current trends continue, goods prices should begin to exert downward pressure on overall inflation in coming months," Fed Chair Jerome Powell said last week. As goods inflation has begun to slow prices for services have accelerated.

EARLY WARNING SIGNSAfter years of tame inflation, Fed officials and other central bankers say they have faced a chain of disruptive events beyond their control ranging from the COVID-19 pandemic to the Ukraine war. The central bank has made conservative estimates on inflation despite Russia cutting gas supplies to Europe in response to Western sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine. Even as some economists say an inflation peak could now be in sight, central bankers remain far from taming inflation. The concern among some central bankers is that politicians will respond by raising public spending and so aggravate the inflation pressure that their rate-hike cure is intended to heal. If that were to happen, central bankers “would have to reverse course to prevent the debt market from becoming more disorderly," Goodhart told Reuters.

“And the pulse oximeter is used from any age to geriatrics,” he said. The US Food and Drug Administration is mulling over next steps for the regulation of pulse oximeter devices, which may give less accurate readings for people of color. A panel of its Medical Devices Advisory Committee met in November to review clinical data on the issue. “I think of the pulse oximeter reading in the same way. Of course this can be dangerous.”Ultimately, the pulse oximeter can estimate the amount of oxygen a person has in their blood without the need for a blood sample.

☆ The Fed may wreck one of the greatest booms in history of Main Street America
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( Tim Mullaney | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

As interest rates rise, inflation lingers and home equity that many business founders use to get started shrinks, small business formations are doing something unexpected – they're rising. If the data persists, the resilience in small business formation points to a "new plateau" of activity that may add millions of jobs to the economy, Haltiwanger says. But the risks include the Fed itself choking off financial conditions so much that the small business boom is smothered. Danny Sweis opened his in the summer of 2022. If that lasts, that means 4 million per year, offset by 2.5 million lost as other small businesses close.

They issued a joint statement after the third ministerial-level of the U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council (TTC) vowed to work constructively to resolve it. EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis on Monday called the $430 billion U.S. Inflation Reduction Act discriminatory and urged steps be taken before year's end to modify the law. It offers consumers tax credits of $7,500 for new purchases of Tesla (TSLA.O), Ford (F.N) and other North American-made EVs that the EU fears will significantly hurt European. Other participants included U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and European Commission Vice President Margrethe Vestager. During a state visit to Washington last week, French President Emmanuel Macron told broadcaster CBS it was a "job killer" for Europe.

☆ Tax credits for EU electric vehicles to dominate U.S. trade talks
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-05 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

U.S. Secretary of State Blinken attends the Freedom of Expression Roundtable, in New York, U.S., September 19, 2022. The European Union's top trade official on Monday called for urgent steps before the end of the year to modify a U.S. climate law that would cut off the bloc's electric vehicles from U.S. tax credits, calling the measure discriminatory. EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis, speaking to Deutsche Welle before a meeting of the U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council (TTC) said the law threatened to undermine progress made by the year-old transatlantic forum. Dombrovskis said the EU was looking at how to make its own subsidies "more efficient" and potential increases in joint U.S.-EU financing. Participants include U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and European Commission Executive Vice Presidents Valdis Dombrovskis and Margrethe Vestager.

☆ Monday's EU-US trade talks overshadowed by tax concerns on climate measure
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-05 | by ( David Lawder | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

COLLEGE PARK, Md., Dec 5 (Reuters) - Top European Union officials intend to complain loudly to their U.S. counterparts at a trade meeting on Monday about the bloc's electric vehicles being cut off from tax credits in U.S. President Joe Biden's signature climate law. "The Inflation Reduction Act will be part of the range of discussions on trade," a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council said in a statement. The U.S. side was "committed to continuing to understand EU concerns" through a newly established task force, the spokesperson added. European and South Korean officials criticized the Inflation Act at the G20 Summit in Indonesia last month. French officials say they are hopeful an executive order from the White House could give European nations a break, without the need for seeking revisions from Congress - a move the White House wants to avoid.

Fed officials from San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly to St. Louis Fed President James Bullard, often at opposite ends of recent policy debates, have both discussed rates possibly rising above 5% next year. If there is concern about crossing that line, Fed officials have not voiced it. With the expected half-point increase at the next meeting, the policy rate will end the year in a range between 4.25% and 4.5%. The fed funds rate was seen ending 2023 at 4.6%. The upcoming projections will show that final destination perhaps coming into view, and give a better assessment of the possible cost as well.

Black users have long been one of Twitter’s most engaged demographics, flocking to the platform to steer online culture and drive real-world social change. But a month after Elon Musk took over, some Black influencers are eyeing the exits just as he races to shore up the company’s business. And while there is no hard data on how many Black users have either joined or left the platform over that period, some prominent influencers say they’re actively pursuing alternatives. Some signs indicate a slowdown among Black Twitter users that predates Musk. “It’s crippling to the economies of cities when Black folks leave, platforms when Black folks leave, entertainment sites when Black folks leave,” she said.

Central banks might make some progress toward their inflation targets by raising interest rates and managing demand, Morgan Stanley chief executive James Gorman said at the Reuters Next conference in New York. Central banks, by managing demand through interest rates, could probably "bring inflation down to around four percent. But he also nodded beyond the world's central banks to a needed supply-side solution to rising prices. So far, and particularly in the United States, the actions of central banks have not had an appreciable impact on core elements of the economy, particularly the job market. "I would be surprised if central banks officially moved the target, but they might decide to stay higher than it for some time."

The war on inflation is far from won, with the Fed's preferred measure of price increases still running at roughly three times the central bank's 2% target. That's the biggest ramp-up in U.S. rates over a nine-month period since Volcker battled even higher inflation in the early 1980s. Powell, who this year marked a decade since his appointment as a Fed governor and whose second term as Fed chief extends to 2026, has overseen some divided decisions. In a best-case scenario, inflation continues to fall and Fed officials, whether hawk or dove, align around a stopping point for the policy rate that doesn't lead to a sharp rise in unemployment. Reporting by Howard Schneider; Additional reporting by Ann Saphir; Editing by Paul SimaoOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

While the Fed chief did not indicate his estimated "terminal rate," Powell said it is likely to be "somewhat higher" than the 4.6% indicated by policymakers in their September projections. The Fed's response to the fastest outbreak of U.S. inflation in 40 years has been a similarly abrupt increase in interest rates. Powell said Fed estimates of inflation in October showed its preferred measure still rising at about triple the central bank's 2% target. The yield on the 2-year Treasury note , the maturity most sensitive to Fed rate expectations, dropped to about 4.47% from 4.52%. Bottlenecks in goods production are easing and goods price inflation appears to be easing as well, and this, too, must continue."

☆ AT 2022cmc: Rare cosmic event beamed light at Earth from 8.5 billion light-years away
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

But the rare cosmic event actually occurred 8.5 billion light years away from Earth, when the universe was just a third of its current age — and it has created more questions than answers. This graphic shows how a tidal disruption event might look in space. Carl Knox/OzGrav/Swinburne University of TechnologyWhen a star is torn apart by a black hole’s gravitational tidal forces, it’s known as a tidal disruption event. Observing more events like this could reveal how black holes launch such powerful jets across space, according to the researchers. “Scientists can use AT 2022cmc as a model for what to look for and find more disruptive events from distant black holes.”

In recent years, researchers have looked for supplements, in particular to data like JOLTS, to provide more nuance about job market dynamics. "When JOLTS came along it was stepping into a data void that it has done a good job of filling. An expanded JOLTS survey may get directly at that and other issues in the future, said Paul R. Calhoun Jr., who was involved with developing the survey in the 1990s and is its current manager. "You got all these job openings," Calhoun said. "We had the unemployment rate, so we knew how many people there are who are looking for work and don't have a job.

☆ Why Faulty Streetlights Are Turning Cities Purple — and Why It's Worrisome
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( Adam Rogers | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +14 min

LED streetlights are supposed to shine for the better part of a decade. Every city with purple lights that responded to my queries or has public records on the matter bought its LED lights from Acuity. The blue LED, with its narrow wavelength, enabled all sorts of modern tech, from the compact disc to flat-screen monitors. Acuity and the purple cities haven't been entirely transparent on that matter. "The purple streetlights are a result of the phosphor coating delaminating from the LEDs," says Fiona Hughes, a representative for the city of Vancouver.

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