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☆ The Big Number: $30 Billion
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-29 | by ( Santul Nerkar | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The agreement may offer relief for smaller retailers and consumers who have been squeezed by rising costs. But there are reasons to be skeptical that you’ll be paying less every time you use a credit card. Swipe fees have increased over time. According to the Nilson Report, which tracks credit card payments, American merchants paid more than $70 billion in swipe fees to Visa and Mastercard last year.

Persons: you’ll, Nilson Organizations: Visa, Mastercard

In February last year, a new Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 Max plane was on one of its first flights when an automated stabilizing system appeared to malfunction, forcing the pilots to make an emergency landing soon after they took off. Less than two months later, an Alaska Airlines 737 Max plane with eight hours of total flight time was briefly grounded until mechanics resolved a problem with a fire detection system. And in November, an engine on a just-delivered United Airlines 737 Max failed at 37,000 feet. These incidents, which the airlines disclosed to the Federal Aviation Administration, were not widely reported. But since Jan. 5, when a panel on a two-month-old Alaska Airlines 737 Max 9 jet blew off in midair, episodes like these have taken on new resonance, raising further questions about the quality of the planes Boeing is producing.

Persons: Max, ”, Joe Jacobsen Organizations: Southwest Airlines Boeing, Alaska Airlines, United Airlines, Federal Aviation Administration, Max, Boeing Locations: Alaska

☆ Conservative Commentators Condemn Uproar at NBC
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-26 | by ( Santul Nerkar | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The decision by NBC News to hire Ronna McDaniel, the former chair of the Republican National Committee, as a political commentator set off a round of sharp criticism from her new colleagues in recent days. Leading on-air figures at NBC and its cable cousin, MSNBC, including Chuck Todd and Rachel Maddow, took the unusual step of condemning their bosses’ decision in public. Those internal critics have said that by hiring Ms. McDaniel, the network was authorizing election denialism. In the days after the 2020 election, Ms. McDaniel promoted some false theories pushed by then-President Donald J. Trump, including that votes had been miscounted in key battleground states, and she helped pressure election officials in one Michigan county to hold off from certifying the results. But the uproar at the network has played out differently among many conservative commentators, who have argued that it shows how the journalists at NBC News are overwhelmingly liberal and intolerant of conservative views.

Persons: Ronna McDaniel, Chuck Todd, Rachel Maddow, McDaniel, Donald J, Trump, Biden, Todd, Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski Organizations: NBC News, Republican National Committee, NBC, MSNBC, Fox, Fox News Locations: Michigan

☆ A Timeline of Dave Calhoun’s Rocky Tenure at Boeing
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-25 | by ( Santul Nerkar | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

When Boeing named Dave Calhoun its chief executive in 2019, his mandate was clear: to navigate the company out of a reputational crisis after a pair of deadly crashes on its planes. But on Monday, Boeing announced that Mr. Calhoun would depart at the end of 2024 as the company tries to manage another safety crisis. Max planes were grounded after those crashes. A week before the company announces Mr. Calhoun’s new role, Boeing says that it is suspending global production of the Max. It had already cut production to 42 planes per month from 52.

Persons: Dave Calhoun, Calhoun, Calhoun’s, Dennis A, Max Organizations: Boeing, Boeing Max

☆ For Women’s Basketball, Caitlin Clark’s Lasting Impact May Be Economic
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-20 | by ( Santul Nerkar | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Caitlin Clark, the University of Iowa basketball player who has dazzled crowds with her deep shooting range and preternatural scoring ability, is one of the biggest draws in sports. Tickets to her games this season were nearly 200 percent more expensive than they were last year, according to Vivid Seats, a ticket exchange and resale company. Fans routinely traveled hundreds of miles to catch a glimpse of her, lining up for hours before tipoff and boosting local economies. Nearly 10 million people, a record, watched her play in last year’s championship game, a loss to Louisiana State. More than three million tuned in this year when she set the career record for points scored by a Division I college basketball player.

Persons: Caitlin Clark Organizations: University of Iowa, Louisiana State, Division

☆ Boeing Directs Airlines to Check 787 Cockpit Seats After Latam Incident
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-15 | by ( Santul Nerkar | Sydney Ember | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Boeing has told airlines to check the cockpit seats of its 787 Dreamliner plane, the company said on Friday, after a Latam Airlines plane suddenly plunged on a flight to Auckland, New Zealand, on Monday, injuring passengers. Aviation regulators are investigating the incident and have not released any findings. In a statement, Boeing said it had reminded airlines of a safety memo from 2017 that instructed them on how to inspect and maintain switches on flight deck seats. “The investigation of Flight LA800 is ongoing and we defer to the investigation authorities on any potential findings,” the company said. “We are recommending operators perform an inspection at the next maintenance opportunity,” it added.

Organizations: Boeing, Airlines, Street, Aviation Locations: Auckland , New Zealand

☆ What’s Behind the Turmoil at New York Community Bank?
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-01 | by ( Santul Nerkar | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Shares of New York Community Bank slid more than 25 percent on Friday, a day after the lender said its loss in the fourth quarter was $2.4 billion more than it had previously reported, and also announced the departure of its chief executive and a board member. Shares of other regional banks were also lower: Valley National Bank and Columbia Banking System both fell more than 2 percent. The KBW Regional Bank Index, which tracks performance of U.S. regional banks, fell more than 1 percent. The drop in shares of other banks is a sign investors are still nervous about the potential for wider trouble in the banking sector — nearly a year after several small banks failed. But the fact that the declines in other regional banks were small suggested that NYCB’s problems are seen as unique to it.

Persons: ”, Christopher Marinac, Janney Montgomery Scott Organizations: New York Community Bank, National Bank and Columbia Banking System, Regional

☆ It’s a Great Deal, Before the ‘Drip Pricing’
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-23 | by ( Santul Nerkar | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The term drip pricing has been around since at least 2009, when the British publication New Age Media used it to talk about an inquiry into online advertising, and it became more widespread in 2012, when the Federal Trade Commission began raising alarms about it. The practice itself, which is especially widespread in e-commerce, has been going on for decades — probably because it works. A 2021 paper, for example, found that when StubHub, a secondary-ticket marketplace, used the technique on consumers, ticket revenue was about 20 percent more than when the total cost, with fees, was disclosed upfront.

Organizations: New, Media, Federal Trade Commission

☆ Ad Nods to Taylor Swift and Football, Drawing Cheers and Criticism
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-11 | by ( Santul Nerkar | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In the commercial, a father unsuccessfully tries to interest his teenage daughter, who’s distracted by something on her phone, in a football game. She then walks downstairs to see her father watching a football game while wearing a white jersey bearing the No. 13 jersey for her and jokingly applies cream to his face before imploring her to come and watch the game. 89 jerseys were implicit references to Ms. Swift’s “lucky number,” 13, and her (and Mr. Kelce’s) birth year, 1989. And the father in the ad wore friendship bracelets, as do many of Ms. Swift’s fans.

Persons: Taylor Swift, who’s, Travis Kelce, N.F.L, Swift’s, Kelce’s Locations: Kansas City

☆ For Gen Z, an Age-Old Question: Who Pays for Dates?
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-10 | by ( Santul Nerkar | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

During a recent dinner at a cozy bar in Upper Manhattan, I was confronted with an age-old question about gender norms. Over bowls of ramen and sips of gin cocktails, my date and I got into a debate: Who should pay for dates? My date, a 27-year-old woman I matched with on Hinge, said gender equality didn’t mean men and women should pay the same when they went out. Women, she said, earn less than men in the workplace, spend more time getting ready for outings and pay more for reproductive care. At work and on social media, where young people spend much of their personal time, they like to emphasize equity and equality.

Locations: Upper Manhattan

☆ Kansas City Stars, With Help From Taylor Swift, Are Advertising Champs
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-08 | by ( Santul Nerkar | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Kansas City Chiefs enter Sunday’s Super Bowl having already won — when it comes to commercials. Over the past year, the star players Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce, along with Coach Andy Reid, have been inescapable to TV viewers. The estimated amount spent to air the ads on television was $178 million for Mr. Mahomes, $120 million for Mr. Kelce and $69 million for Mr. Reid, according to iSpot.tv, an ad measurement company. Because there were several commercials in which at least two of the three appeared, the dollar totals have some overlap. Basically, the more spend an ad has, the more viewers are seeing it.

Persons: Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, Andy Reid, Kelce baring, Mahomes, Reid, Kelce, ”, Cassandra Arora, Deion Sanders, Nick Saban, Christian McCaffrey, Brock Purdy Organizations: Kansas City Chiefs, Sunday’s, Pfizer, National Football League, “ Brands, Chiefs, University of Colorado’s, University of Alabama, 49ers, Toyota Locations: San Francisco

☆ $7 Million for 30 Seconds? It’s Worth It at the Super Bowl.
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-06 | by ( Santul Nerkar | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

They all have one thing in common: Those companies paid seven figures to get their products in front of viewers during this year’s Super Bowl. For the second consecutive year, the average cost of a 30-second ad spot during the Super Bowl was $7 million. Even as many businesses are being more disciplined with the money they have for marketing, and with spending on advertising slowing in recent years, the cost of a Super Bowl ad continues to go up. The reason is simple: There is no opportunity guaranteed to reach more people than the Super Bowl, and the slice of every other pie keeps shrinking. “It’s a throwback in terms of reaching everyone all at once,” said Charles Taylor, a professor of marketing at the Villanova School of Business.

Persons: Peyton Manning, Bud, Kris Jenner, ”, Charles Taylor Organizations: Super, Villanova School of Business

☆ Boeing, Still Recovering From Max 8 Crashes, Faces a New Crisis
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-05 | by ( Santul Nerkar | Sydney Ember | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

After two deadly crashes involving its best-selling 737 Max 8 planes five years ago, Boeing spent billions of dollars to make its products safer and repair its reputation. Now, the company is again confronting a wave of uncertainty and costs following a harrowing incident involving a different 737 jet. Just four weeks ago, a hole blew open on a 737 Max 9 jetliner during an Alaska Airlines flight shortly after takeoff when what appears to have been a poorly attached panel tore away. The incident has prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to indefinitely halt Boeing’s ambitious plans to raise production of Max planes. The chief executive of United Airlines has gone so far as to suggest that his company might cancel some of its orders with Boeing.

Persons: Max, Trump Organizations: Boeing, Alaska Airlines, Alaska, Federal Aviation Administration, Passengers, United Airlines, Justice Department

☆ A City Built on Steel Tries to Reverse Its Decline
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-03 | by ( Santul Nerkar | Akilah Townsend | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The home of U.S. Steel’s largest mill, Gary churned out the product that built America’s bridges, tunnels and skyscrapers. The city reaped the rewards, with a prosperous downtown and vibrant neighborhoods. Gary’s smokestacks are still prominent along Lake Michigan’s sandy shore, starkly juxtaposed between the eroding dunes and Chicago’s towering silhouette to the northwest. More than 10,000 buildings sit abandoned, and the population of 180,000 in the 1960s has dropped by more than half. As U.S. Steel stands at a crossroads — a planned acquisition would put it under foreign control — so does the city that was named for the company’s founder and helped build its empire.

Persons: Gary, Gary ” Organizations: U.S, Steel Locations: Ind, U.S, Steel’s

☆ Airlines Hoping for More Boeing Jets Could Be Waiting Awhile
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-25 | by ( Sydney Ember | Santul Nerkar | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Boeing hoped 2024 would be the year it would significantly increase production of its popular Max jets. Since then, details have emerged about the jet’s production at Boeing’s facility in Renton, Wash., that have intensified scrutiny of the company’s quality control. Boeing workers opened and then reinstalled the panel about a month before the plane was delivered to Alaska Airlines. The directive is another setback for Boeing, which had been planning to increase production of its Max plane series to more than 500 this year, from about 400 last year. It also planned to add another assembly line at a factory in Everett, Wash., a major Boeing production hub north of Seattle.

Persons: Max Organizations: Boeing, Federal Aviation Administration, Max, Alaska Airlines, Portland International Locations: Oregon, Renton, Wash, Everett, Seattle

☆ 8 Key Moments in the Development of A.I.
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-05 | by ( Santul Nerkar | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

is hard to miss, whether in cheeky chatbots or while playing chess. But how did artificial intelligence rise to such prominence? Here are eight key moments that led to A.I.’s reigning supreme in the minds of business leaders and policymakers →

Persons: ’, →

Three years ago, journalists at Sports Illustrated were worried that the venerable magazine’s new owners and operators were drastically lowering its standards. On Monday, the science and technology publication Futurism reported that Sports Illustrated had published product reviews under fake author names with fake author biographies. “If true, these practices violate everything we believe in about journalism,” the union representing Sports Illustrated journalists said in a statement after the report was published. “We deplore being associated with something so disrespectful to our readers.”The Arena Group, which publishes Sports Illustrated under a complicated management structure, blamed a vendor, AdVon Commerce, for the situation. Sports Illustrated licenses product reviews from AdVon, and AdVon assured the Arena Group that “all of the articles in question were written and edited by humans,” said Rachael Fink, an Arena Group spokeswoman.

Persons: AdVon, ”, Rachael Fink, “ Organizations: Sports Illustrated, Sports, Group, AdVon Commerce, Arena Group

☆ Turkey Raises Interest Rates to 40 Percent to Tame Runaway Inflation
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-24 | by ( Santul Nerkar | More About Santul Nerkar | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Turkey’s central bank has raised interest rates to 40 percent, its highest level in nearly two decades, in a significant move to tame the country’s runaway inflation after the country’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, had previously defied economic convention by cutting rates to slow price increases. The increase of 5 percentage points on Thursday, which was larger than expected and the sixth consecutive increase by the bank, came as inflation in Turkey is running at 61.36 percent. That has sent the cost of basic household necessities soaring and sharply devalued the country’s currency, the lira. Under Mr. Erdogan, Turkey has struggled with persistently high inflation in recent years. As a result, Turkey’s gross domestic product, the primary measure of economic output, boomed to nearly more than $1 trillion, making it the world’s 19th-largest economy.

Persons: Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Erdogan Organizations: Mr Locations: Turkey

☆ Starbucks Workers Plan Walkout During Red Cup Giveaway Day
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-16 | by ( Santul Nerkar | More About Santul Nerkar | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The union represents more than 9,000 Starbucks workers at more than 300 stores across the country. Employees at some unionized stores started the walkout on Wednesday with the aim of surprising the company, which was aware of Thursday’s planned walkout. Starbucks says the union is the side that has prevented bargaining sessions by insisting on conducting the meetings online, with rank-and-file members observing, rather than having negotiating teams sit down in person. The union is calling on the company to shut down mobile orders on promotional days, which it says have gotten more frequent. The store was so overwhelmed that some drinks and food went to waste and orders were halted, Ms. Federspiel-Baier said.

Persons: Thursday’s, ” Andrew Trull, Daisy Federspiel, Baier Organizations: Employees, Starbucks Locations: Seattle

☆ New York Attorney General Sues Pepsi Over Plastic Packaging
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-15 | by ( Santul Nerkar | More About Santul Nerkar | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The New York attorney general sued PepsiCo on Wednesday, accusing the food and beverage giant of endangering the environment and misleading the public about its goals to eliminate single-use plastic in its packaging. The attorney general, Letitia James, said her office had found that much of the plastic waste along the Buffalo River was from the company’s products. Ms. James is seeking unspecified damages and demanding that the company provide a remedy for the contamination in the Buffalo region caused by its products and reduce the quantity of PepsiCo’s plastic packaging entering the river. Ms. James is also demanding that the company stop selling or distributing single-use plastic products in the Buffalo area that do not contain “adequate” warning labels. “All New Yorkers have a basic right to clean water, yet PepsiCo’s irresponsible packaging and marketing endanger Buffalo’s water supply, environment and public health,” Ms. James said in a statement.

Persons: Letitia James, James, Ms Organizations: New, PepsiCo Locations: New York, Buffalo

More Americans are buying heat pumps, an environmentally friendly alternative to furnaces and air-conditioners that can significantly lower monthly energy bills. But the pace of installations has slowed in the past year, posing an obstacle to the Biden administration’s climate plans. Rising interest rates and inflation combined with a slow and confusing rollout of federal government incentives for the purchase of heat pumps are largely responsible for the recent drop in sales, energy analysts said. These headwinds, if they persist, could jeopardize President Biden’s goals of effectively eliminating U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050. Those incentives defray only a small portion of the $16,000 an average heat pump installation costs, according to Rewiring America, a nonprofit group that is working to increase the use of cleaner forms of energy.

Persons: Biden’s Organizations: Biden Locations: America

But there was one topic Mr. Gilani was always wary of raising: The treatment of Palestinians. Instead it was attributed to “Muslim, Palestinian and Arab Google employees joined by anti-Zionist Jewish colleagues.” The New York Times discussed the matter with seven Google employees and reviewed messages posted in employee channels for this article. Google said the acrimony described to The Times by both Muslim and Jewish employees was limited to a small group of its many thousands of workers. “The overwhelming majority of those employees are not engaged in internal discussions or debate.”Google isn’t unique in facing this turmoil. Even compared with its Silicon Valley peers, Google has become a hub for employee activism, a legacy of the company’s open and informal founding culture.

Persons: Sarmad Gilani, Gilani, ”, Mr, Israel, —, ” Courtenay Mencini, Donald J, Rachel Westrick, Westrick, Israel’s, Sundar Pichai, Thomas Kurian, Kurian, he’s Organizations: Google, Hamas, New York Times, Times, Hollywood, Democratic Party, Microsoft, Pentagon, Asian, Meta, Washington Post Locations: Ukraine, Israel, Gaza, Palestinian, “, United States, Meta, Palestine

☆ Six Flags Merges With Cedar Fair, a Rival Amusement Park
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-02 | by ( Santul Nerkar | More About Santul Nerkar | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Six Flags, an amusement park corporation, is merging with its rival Cedar Fair in an $8 billion deal, the two companies announced on Thursday. Together, they will operate 27 amusement parks, 15 water parks and nine resort properties in North America. Combining the companies would generate more than $3 billion in revenue, the companies projected in a statement. “The combination of Six Flags and Cedar Fair will redefine our guests’ amusement park experience as we combine the best of both companies,” said Selim Bassoul, the president and chief executive of Six Flags. Cedar Fair operates popular parks such as Carowinds in Charlotte, N.C.; Kings Dominion in Doswell, Va.; and Canada’s Wonderland in Ontario.

Persons: ”, Selim Bassoul Organizations: Fair, Six, Dominion, Six Flags Locations: North America, Charlotte, N.C, Doswell, Va, Ontario, China

☆ Is a $500 Marathon Shoe You Can Race In Only Once Worth It?
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-02 | by ( Santul Nerkar | More About Santul Nerkar | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

When Ashley Mateo went through a recent track workout, something felt different. She hit her intervals faster than usual, her heart rate was lower, and her feet felt lighter. Ms. Mateo, a journalist and 15-time marathoner who reviews running shoes, believes she may have improved her performance thanks to the Adizero Adios Pro Evo 1 by Adidas, a new marathon race shoe with an eye-popping $500 price tag. “I don’t think the shoe is going to work for everyone,” she said. Only 521 pairs have been released to the public so far, targeted at runners who can run a marathon in 3 hours 30 minutes or faster.

Persons: Ashley Mateo, Mateo, Mateo isn’t, “, ” Organizations: Adidas

☆ U.S. Job Openings Were Steady in September
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-01 | by ( Santul Nerkar | More About Santul Nerkar | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

The Federal Reserve closely monitors job openings to understand whether the economy is running too hot. The overall trend of slowing job openings is a sign that rate increases have cooled the economy, according to experts. Job openings, which reached a record of more than 12 million in March 2022, have trended down, as has the job-quitting rate, while separations have been flat. As openings rose slightly in September, the number of openings per unemployed worker was flat, at 1.5, the same as August. Job openings remain much higher than they were before the pandemic, and the number of unemployed workers per job opening is much lower.

Persons: Julia Pollak, ”, Sarah House, Stephen Juneau, What’s Organizations: Federal Reserve, Fed, ” Fed, Bank of America, Treasury, Labor Department Locations: Wells Fargo, September’s

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