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☆ Former Walmart manager arrested after leaving the store with $135,000 in shopping bag, police say
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-11 | by ( Jordan Hart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Melissa Vanderwall, 47, was caught on surveillance footage leaving the Walmart she worked at with $135,000, police say. The cash was emptied from cash recyclers used to restock registers, according to reports. Vanderwall turned herself in on Monday, months after a warrant for her arrest was issued for the crime. Melissa Vanderwall — a 47-year-old former night manager for a Walmart store in Joliet, located about 45 miles southwest of Chicago — is accused of emptying $135,988 into a shopping bag and leaving the store on November 27. According to Patch.com, local police were called to the scene the same day the crime took place, and an arrest warrant was issued just two days later.

☆ Homebuyers, take note: 21 spots across the US where prices may fall
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-11 | by ( Aj Latrace | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Real-estate data firm Attom evaluated which counties across the country are most vulnerable. Attom's researchers looked at a number of key indicators to determine the overall health of a region's real-estate market. Home prices that are out of reach for many locals suggests they are overly elevated. One is that the counties around major cities such as Chicago and New York are particularly vulnerable. Out of the 581 counties Attom analyzed, here's a look at the 21 counties that are most vulnerable to a decline.

☆ 15 Best Dress Shirts for Men, According to Style Experts
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( ) www.wsj.com time to read: +10 min

Since dress shirts are a closet staple, there are also hundreds to pick from, making a trusted recommendation invaluable. “Hands down, it’s my top selling button-up dress shirt,” she says. Though it has the appearance of a traditional dress shirt, it’s actually made of a sweat-wicking cotton-polyester blend with four-way stretch. “Without a doubt, this is a favorite of each client that tries it,” Alexander says of the dress shirt he recommends most often. Soft silk pickAs an alternative to cotton or synthetic blends, silk is a luxurious option that’s lightweight and soft on the skin.

☆ Here's an exclusive look at how startup HeadRace raised $6 million in seed funding from Greylock to help headhunters beat the hiring slowdown
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Stephanie Palazzolo | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Marketplace startup HeadRace helps connect recruiters with employers looking to hire. The startup has raised $6 million in seed funding from Greylock, Susa Ventures, and Breyer Capital. After going through the exhausting process of hiring dozens of employees while at Uber and Flexport, Korsos was inspired to change the hiring system. Although hiring has slowed in large, public companies, it's actually accelerated in early-stage startups looking to fill a number of specialized roles, Korsos told Insider. Moving forward, the startup plans on using its seed funding to build out its technology offerings and improve its scalability, Korsos told Insider.

☆ Corporations are keeping food expensive because they can
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Allison Morrow | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

To be sure, food manufacturers have to factor in costs of labor and transportation, which remain elevated compared with a few years ago. Anyway, it isn’t just food companies taking advantage of the inflationary moment. Many food companies are forecasting that they might slow down or pause price increases — but not lower them, Danielle explains. But [companies] have, I think, taken price increases that exceed that,” said Mark Lang, an associate professor of marketing at the University of Tampa who specializes in food marketing. Lower prices could, for example, make people think food quality has gone down — or make them think they were paying too much in the first place.

☆ Food is getting cheaper. But not for you
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Danielle Wiener-Bronner | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

When food producers started raising prices a few years ago, they blamed their own costs, including higher ingredient prices. Many food companies are forecasting that they might slow down or pause price increases — but not lower them. But ingredients typically make up a small portion of overall food costs. Companies are maintaining elevated prices, or continuing to increase them, at a time when many Americans are already struggling to pay for food, especially as pandemic-era food stamp benefits expire. So people keep buying food at the grocery store, despite higher prices — giving producers an opportunity to convince retailers that those higher prices won’t drive customers away.

☆ Fact Check-Picture does not show Lori Lightfoot buying beer after losing re-election bid
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

A months-old picture of Chicago’s incumbent Mayor Lori Lightfoot buying beer has been shared online as if taken in February 2023, after she lost her re-election bid. The image has been shared on Facebook (bit.ly/3yeNVxk) and Twitter (here) with captions such as: “Losing my election and immediately crushing 24 chilly ones.”In fact, the photo dates from at least October 2022, months before Lightfoot lost her election bid. One TikTok user shared it on Oct. 4, along with footage that shows Lightfoot shopping (bit.ly/3L9i34S). One of the users sharing the claim on Twitter seemingly acknowledged it was meant as a joke. A picture of Lori Lightfoot buying beer dates from at least October 2022.

☆ Putin's war in Ukraine is endangering Russia's centuries of great-power status
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( Robert Farley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

And yet Russian power and influence have waned in the past; the first 20 years of the 20th century represented a nadir in Russian power, as the Russian Empire lost most of its western territories after suffering a series of defeats at the hands of Japan, Germany, and Poland. Russian soldiers in World War II uniforms parade at Dvortsovaya Square in St. Petersburg in January 2019. AP Photo/Dmitri LovetskyBy virtue of its size and legacy, Russia is undoubtedly an important military power. Even as Russia has struggled mightily to impose its will upon Ukraine, nuclear weapons have ensured that NATO stays on the sidelines. Thomson ReutersBut is Russia a great power if it can't even crush its neighbor without help from China?

☆ Salesforce CEO asks if tech execs should 'unleash' their inner Elon Musk. Experts say that's an awful idea.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-05 | by ( Grace Kay | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Scott Latham, a strategic management professor at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, called Musk's leadership "incredibly dysfunctional." He said he's never seen a company recover from the type of drastic cuts Musk initiated at Twitter. "Every CEO in Silicon Valley has looked at what Elon Musk has done and has asked themselves, 'Do they need to unleash their own Elon within them?'" If you're going to have a successful company, you need good employees and good employees typically have options. "If more companies start treating their employees like Musk has, that would be a very grim future," Alon-Beck said.

☆ Fed should look at how to efficiently support markets in times of stress -Bowman
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

March 3 (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve should consider how to most efficiently support financial markets in times of strained liquidity using information it has gleaned from its interventions at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Fed Governor Michelle Bowman said on Friday. The U.S. central bank should explore how "to minimize the Fed's footprint and amount of asset purchases needed to restore market functioning" in times of severe stress, Bowman said in prepared remarks at a conference organized by the University of Chicago Booth School of Business at which she was moderating a panel on market dysfunction in global financial markets. Bowman did not comment on her outlook for the U.S. economy or monetary policy in her brief speech. The Fed's targeted purchase of affected assets to quickly support financial market functioning, as occurred in Treasury markets in the spring of 2020, also meant "a key issue for central banks to consider is how to clearly distinguish asset purchases from the central bank’s monetary policy actions," Bowman added, as well as how to communicate an exit strategy to reduce the resulting enlarged balance sheet over time. Reporting by Lindsay Dunsmuir; Editing by Andrea RicciOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ U.S. financial system vulnerable to bond market stress, Fed's Logan says
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( Michael S. Derby | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Logan, who holds a vote in this year's Federal Open Market Committee monetary policy meetings, did not comment on the outlook for monetary policy and the economy in her prepared remarks. She spoke amid ongoing concern about how financial markets, most notably the sector that trades U.S. government debt, will respond to the next chapter of stress. That said, a semi-annual monetary policy report released by the Fed on Friday sounded a somewhat sanguine note on market risk at the current moment. Trading in the Treasury market has been "orderly," although that particular market was more challenged on the liquidity front compared to others, it said. "The public and private sectors must work together to enhance market resilience so that these episodes will be far less frequent going forward," Logan said.

☆ Fed's Logan says financial system vulnerable to bond market stress
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( Michael S. Derby | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Logan, who holds a vote on this year’s Federal Open Market Committee monetary policy meetings, did not comment on the outlook for monetary policy and the economy in her prepared remarks. Before joining the Dallas Fed last year as its leader, Logan was a key official at the New York Fed designing and implementing the monetary policy directives of the FOMC. Those increases coupled with the Fed’s ongoing efforts to shed bonds to reduce its market footprint, have raised questions about what authorities might do to support markets in the future. A paper this week from the New York Fed said the official sector needs to move toward finding a more formalized approach to providing support. Logan said authorities are continuing to work on methods to formalize how they might intervene and to shore up underlying market strength.

☆ Full-time office work is 'dead': 3 labor experts weigh in on the future of remote work
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( Greg Iacurci | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

watch nowInitially, remote work was seen as a necessary measure to contain the spread of the virus. Twitter recently shut its Seattle offices as a cost-cutting measure and told employees to work from home, a reversal from an earlier position that employees work at least 40 hours a week in the office. "It's still an evolving trend, but the movement is very much toward increased remote work," Pollak said. Remote work may endure even in a recessionNot everyone agrees that the benefits of working from home outweigh costs. Evidence suggests employee mentoring, innovation and company culture may suffer if jobs are fully remote, Bloom said.

☆ Uber drivers reveal the 5 worst things passengers can do during a ride. You could be guilty of doing them without even realizing.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Kate Duffy | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Five Uber drivers told Insider about the worst types of passengers they pick up. You may not like it, but you could be an Uber driver's worst nightmare. They pick up all sorts of people during their shift, and five told Insider how unpleasant some passengers can be. Five drivers told Insider about the worst things passengers do during a trip. Unlike traditional cabs, Uber drivers have to wait two minutes until they can start getting paid for a trip.

☆ Biden administration lawyer may have saved student loan forgiveness plan at Supreme Court
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Annie Nova | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

The government's top Supreme Court lawyer may have saved President Joe Biden's $400 billion student loan forgiveness plan from what experts considered all-but-certain defeat. Experts lobbed praise on Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, the lawyer who represented the Biden administration in front of the nine justices on Tuesday. "The Biden administration now seems more likely than not to win the cases," said higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz. University of Chicago Illinois Law Professor Steven Schwinn agreed: "Prelogar knocked it out of the park." On Wednesday, Fordham Law professor Jed Shugerman tweeted that he remains "struck by SG Elizabeth Prelogar's brilliant performance."

☆ UAW leadership faces historic upheaval ahead of union negotiations with Detroit automakers
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Michael Wayland | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

DETROIT – As the United Auto Workers prepares for what are expected to be highly contentious negotiations with the Detroit automakers later this year, the union's leadership is undergoing its largest upheaval in decades. The shuffle follows a years-long federal investigation that uncovered systemic corruption involving bribery, embezzlement and other crimes among the top ranks of the organized labor group. A reform group called UAW Members United has successfully campaigned to elect five new representatives to the 14-member board, but not all seats are settled. For investors, UAW negotiations are typically a short-term headwind every four years that result in higher costs. Canadian union Unifor will also be simultaneously negotiating this year with the Detroit automakers, adding even more complexity and competition for investments and jobs.

☆ Wall Street is upping its expectations for rate hikes — and a recession
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( Jeff Cox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

The outlook comes ahead of the central bank's March meeting when investors expect another quarter-percentage point — or 25 basis point — rate increase. Bank of America, for instance, said it thinks policymakers may have to take the benchmark funds rate to the 6% range. "This will likely lead to a recession, because the non-consumer sectors of the economy already look soft. In the Cleveland Fed white paper , the authors suggested the central bank reconsider its 2% inflation target because it isn't likely to achieve it anytime soon. It said core PCE inflation is likely to cool only to 2.75% by 2025, adding that "a deep recession would be necessary" for the Fed to achieve its goal.

☆ Police say Volkswagen refused to track a stolen car with a 2-year-old inside — after the thieves ran over the child's pregnant mother — until the owner paid a fee
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( Bianca Giacobone | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A carjacker knocked and ran over a pregnant woman to steal her Volkswagen car. Volkswagen said the incident is a "serious breach of the process" it has in place for emergencies. On February 23, a 34-year woman, who's six-months pregnant according to news reports, pulled into her driveway with her Volkswagen car. A man got off the BMW, knocked the woman to the ground, and drove off with her car with the child inside, running her over, according to police. The woman, whose injuries were serious, according to the police statement, is in the hospital in stable condition, and her car was found abandoned in a parking lot.

☆ Real-Time Data Was Used to Regulate Water Use. It May Have Worked Too Well.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( Sam Ori | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Researchers see promise—but also shortcomings—in using real-time data monitoring to encourage people to conserve scarce resources. Sam Ori is the executive director of the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago. Real-time data and monitoring technology informs and improves so many aspects of our daily lives—from sensors that avoid a collision before drivers can respond, to smartwatches that can detect when we’ve been in an accident and call for help.

☆ Fed's Mester says hot inflation data affirms case for more rate hikes
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( Michael S. Derby | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The government inflation report “is another indication that the impulse of inflation and price pressures is still with us. Mester spoke in the wake of the release of government data on incomes, spending and price pressures. “We just need to see all those prices coming back down and we haven't seen that sustainably yet,” Mester said. Since Mester called for a 50 basis point hike, jobs data has been very robust and inflation has been stronger than expected, suggesting her case for larger action remains in place. Mester reiterated in the interview that she still believes the federal funds rate, now at between 4.5% and 4.75%, needs to get above 5% and stay there to bring inflation down.

Some estimates have suggested the unemployment rate, currently at more than a five-decade low of 3.4%, may have to approach 7% for inflation to fall on a reasonable timetable. But a series of rapid rate hikes last year, which pushed the Fed's benchmark overnight interest rate from near zero to the current 4.50%-4.75% range, has so far been relatively cost-free. Those projections have inflation dropping to 2.1% by the end of 2025, with the economy growing throughout and the unemployment rate rising only to around 4.6%. By contrast, they said "the cost of lowering inflation to the Fed's 2% target by 2025 will likely be associated with at least a mild recession." Perhaps too reliant on the tame inflation of recent decades, the Fed made a "significant error" by not raising interest rates "preemptively" when inflation began accelerating in 2021, the group concluded.

☆ Fed's Collins says more rate hikes needed to curb 'too high' inflation
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( Michael S. Derby | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

NEW YORK, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Boston Federal Reserve President Susan Collins said on Friday more interest rate increases are needed to tame high levels of U.S. inflation. One of the U.S. central bank's newest regional bank presidents, she is not a voting member of the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee this year. Collins, who took over as Boston Fed chief in July, 2022, voted in favor of every one of the aggressive rate hikes the Fed delivered last year while she was a voting member of the FOMC. Collins spoke after the release earlier on Friday of fresh data suggesting U.S. inflation pressures, which had been easing, may be more resilient than thought. The data suggested more Fed action will be needed, either in the form of more aggressive rate increases, a higher stopping point for rate increases, or a combination of both.

☆ Fed can't tame inflation without 'significantly' more hikes that will cause a recession, paper says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( Jeff Cox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

The Federal Reserve building is seen before the Federal Reserve board is expected to signal plans to raise interest rates in March as it focuses on fighting inflation in Washington, January 26, 2022. The Federal Reserve is unlikely to be able to bring down inflation without having to raise interest rates considerably higher, causing a recession, according to a research paper released Friday. The Fed has implemented a series of interest rate hikes in an effort to tame inflation that had been at its highest level in some 41 years. That change implemented "average inflation targeting," allowing inflation to run hotter than normal in the interest of a more inclusive employment recovery. Fed Governor Philip Jefferson released a reply to the report, saying that the current situation differs from previous inflation episodes.

☆ Inside Citadel's internship program for aspiring traders that paves the way for a six-figure salary at the elite hedge fund after college
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Emmalyse Brownstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +15 min

Citadel, one of the largest hedge funds, accepts just 1% of applicants to its associate program. Few college students know what a hedge fund is, let alone that they want to work for one. Its associate program lets aspiring fund managers skip the traditional two-year investment banking program that is usually a prerequisite for a hedge fund job. The associate program is different from Citadel's broader internship program. But the accelerated nature of the CAP program appealed to him over other opportunities, he said.

☆ Falling behind on federal student loans can lead to other major financial problems
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Annie Nova | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Falling behind on federal student loans is likely to trigger other major financial consequences for borrowers, according to new research by The Pew Charitable Trusts. More than 80% of borrowers who experienced default stated that they'd faced at least one additional consequence as a result. The most common impact was a drop in their credit score (62%) followed by being subject to collection fees (47%) and losing eligibility for future federal financial aid (37%). Other consequences that followed from a default on federal student loans included wage garnishment, the suspension of professional licenses and having Social Security or tax refunds offset. Most recently, U.S. Department of Education Undersecretary James Kvaal said that if the government isn't allowed to carry out its sweeping student loan forgiveness plan, there could be a "historically large increase in the amount of federal student loan delinquency and defaults as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic."

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