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☆ Amazon's drone business can't get off the ground as regulations, weak demand stymie progress
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-11 | by ( Annie Palmer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +11 min

He even had baseball caps made that said "D&R 2022" with the Prime Air logo on them. CEO Andy Jassy, who succeeded Bezos in mid-2021, hasn't talked a lot about Prime Air in public. Prime Air sites in Lockeford, College Station and Pendleton, Oregon, were all hit by the job cuts, further straining operations. An Amazon drone operator loads the single shoebox-size box that can fit inside its MK27-2 Prime Air drone AmazonIt was a surprising setback for Amazon. Meanwhile, Amazon is working on development of its next-generation Prime Air drone called the MK30, and known internally as CX-3.

☆ Automakers are using a legal loophole to get customers an extra $7,500 tax credit — and business is booming
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Alexa St. John | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Automakers might pass along the commercial EV credit to customers that lease their EVs. Last summer's Inflation Reduction Act introduced rules for new and used EVs to qualify for crucial tax credits. Startup Lucid, along with at least 10 "traditional" automakers, are leveraging the commercial credit, according to data from J.D. Meanwhile, automakers are interested in leasing EVs in part due to the commercial and used EV tax credits. Being able to pass along the commercial EV credit could bring in customers that might not have otherwise considered electric.

☆ Fiverr or Upwork: When freelancers should use one over the other
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Alexandra York | Jennifer Ortakales Dawkins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

While their expertise may vary, many freelancers rely on the platforms Fiverr and Upwork to advertise their services, find clients, and grow their businesses. In his experience, Upwork clients are CEOs, startup founders, and established companies, while Fiverr clients tend to be smaller business owners or general individuals. That means freelancers who use Upwork can pursue fewer projects at a time while Fiverr freelancers typically complete more shorter-term gigs to earn the same amount of income. Payment terms and protection vary between platformsFisher's biggest gripe about Fiverr is that it pays freelancers in up to 14 days while Upwork pays freelancers in up to 10 days. "Whether it's Fiverr, Upwork, or any of the other platforms out there, you need to build your profile," she said.

☆ The founder of the best-selling Black-owned spirit brand shares why she prefers to work with individual investors over VC firms and how they helped her reach $100 million in sales
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Jennifer Ortakales Dawkins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Fawn Weaver's Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey is the best-selling Black-owned spirit brand in the US. She chose to take funding from individual investors, not from VC or private-equity firms. "You also are gaining a sales force if your investors are excited about your brand," she said. "They have been a huge sales force for us." "One of our first really big accounts nationwide was to have Uncle Nearest cocktails on the menu."

☆ Car financing fintech Carmoola just raised $125 million in a mix of debt and equity. Check out the 12-slide pitch deck it used to raise the fresh funds.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Callum Burroughs | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Car financing fintech Carmoola has raised $125 million in a mix of debt and equity. The London-based startup offers credit for used car purchases and incentivizes EVs. Car financing fintech Carmoola has raised $10.3 million in a Series A round led by QED Investors and a further $115 million in debt. The London-based startup, founded in 2022, employs a buy now, pay later approach to car financing by offering loans for used car purchases in the UK. A frustrating and expensive personal journey led to the former CEO of home rental company MoveBubble, moving into the car financing sector.

☆ Salesforce engineers are about to be hit with new performance metrics, while some salespeople are being pressured to quit
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Ellen Thomas | Ashley Stewart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Some Salesforce employees have been offered a "Prompt Exit Package" instead of a layoff, with less severance. Employees say the company is ratcheting up performance expectations as activist investors invade. "The company is pushing hard for productivity tracking and metrics on all facets," one employee told Insider. Salesforce cut a few hundred salespeople in November, a person familiar with the matter told Insider, and the company told Insider the cuts were made for "accountability," implying that performance was a consideration. In some cases, the company has presented employees with PEP offers in the same week it has executed mass layoffs, employees told Insider.

☆ State of the portfolio: What Biden's address means for 10 Club stocks from Caterpillar to Ford
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Kevin Stankiewicz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

President Joe Biden 's State of the Union address put the spotlight on multiple tailwinds that will benefit 10 Club holdings including Caterpillar (CAT) and Ford (F). Linde Linde, a longtime Club holding, supplies industrial gases needed at semiconductor manufacturing facilities, known as fabrication plants. As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB.

☆ Goldman says these overlooked companies will play a key role in a more sustainable economy
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Pia Singh | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

Goldman analysts highlighted several service-oriented companies that they view as drivers of the inner loop of the circular economy transition. 'Inner loop' companies Here are the companies Goldman identified, and what Wall Street thinks about them. Impinj has an average target price of $128.86, which means the company stands to gain 4.2% from its close on Monday. Tupperware 's stock price is up 1.8% so far this year, sliding into the green after its shares declined by 73% over the past year. Caterpillar 's stock price has edged up 5% this year, and gained over 25% in the past year.

☆ I've been selling my clothes on Poshmark for 7 months. Here's how the algorithm works and how to get sales and followers.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-03 | by ( Jennifer Ortakales Dawkins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Some Poshmark sellers can make six figures in sales on the platform. I started selling on Poshmark in June to get rid of clothes I didn't wear and make room for my thrift-shopping habit. Getting likes, followers, and sales on Poshmark is just as addicting as it is on social mediaA screenshot of the author's Poshmark closet. Jennifer Ortakales Dawkins/ScreenshotAs soon as I started listing my clothes on Poshmark, I got a wave of followers on the app. Jennifer Ortakales Dawkins/InsiderOthers are time-consuming, like sharing your listings 5,000 times and sharing other sellers' listings 5,000 times.

☆ Maryland considers a bill incentivizing the 4-day workweek. Here's how the 5-day workweek became so popular in the first place.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( Marguerite Ward | Shana Lebowitz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Here's a timeline of how the US adopted the five-day, 40-hour workweek. Indeed, the pandemic accelerated public discourse over whether the 40-hour workweek still makes sense for some employees. Here's a look back at the history of the 40-hour workweek and how we got to where we are today. 1906: The eight-hour workday was instituted at two major firms in the printing industry. September 25, 1926: Ford Motor Companies adopted a five-day, 40-hour workweek.

☆ A 4-day workweek might be coming to Maryland: 'We could be on the verge of a win-win situation'
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Jennifer Liu | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

A four-day workweek could be coming to Maryland. A new bill introduced by Maryland lawmakers this month incentivizes both public and private employers to experiment with a shortened workweek without cutting pay and benefits. Under the program, businesses that shift at least 30 employees from a 40-hour week down to 32 could get a state tax credit. The bill also encourages state and municipal government agencies to implement a shorter workweek and report their results. Following a six-month trial, workers said their performance improved and their levels of burnout went down.

☆ Biden's new retirement law means you may not have to choose between paying off student debt and saving for the future
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( Jason Lalljee | Ayelet Sheffey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

One will allow employers to match workers' student loan payments in the form of retirement plan contributions. It's a boon for those who owe student debt, Tamara Telesko, Director of Wealth Planning at TIAA, told Insider. "Under our reforms, many more workers would access resources for retirement and see meaningful federal retirement contributions year after year." Telesko explained that this provision would be a way for people with student debt to build savings, which many can't. Shanna Bennett, a 37-year-old borrower who had more than $130,000 in student debt last year, currently works as a human resources manager.

☆ The threat of a transatlantic trade war is dominating Davos
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( Silvia Amaro | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Trade tensions between the EU and the US are dominating the talk in Davos. Transatlantic trade tensions are dominating conversations at the World Economic Forum this week. On the one hand, European officials are saying they will come up with more financial support for European firms. On the other hand, the business community is excited about green subsidies stateside and argue the EU needs to match what the U.S. administration is doing. At the same time we have to support our competitiveness," European Commissioner for Economics, Paolo Gentiloni, told CNBC in Davos.

☆ VCs are investing in these hot areas of climate tech
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-15 | by ( Catherine Boudreau | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Tens of billions of dollars are up for grabs for startups trying to solve the climate crisis. That means tens of billions of dollars are up for grabs for startups trying to solve the climate crisis. Industries known to be big polluters, such as agriculture, utilities, and commercial shipping, are ripe for change, the VCs said. Maxwell added that the influx of cash was encouraging more entrepreneurs and former Big Tech employees to enter the field. Methane is a far more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, so sizable reductions could be a climate win.

☆ Temu's low prices catapulted the Chinese app to the top of the US download charts. Here's what we know about it — and how it could avoid its competitors' pitfalls.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Madeline Stone | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Temu, a new shopping app from Chinese e-commerce giant Pinduoduo, is making waves in the US. In December, Temu had 9 million US downloads, topping Amazon, which had 4.2 million downloads; Shopify's Shop app, which had 3.4 million downloads; and fellow Chinese player Shein, which had 3 million downloads. Like Shein, Temu also boasts a large selection of products, with its app description claiming that it offers thousands of new items a day. Shein was the most downloaded app globally in 2022, with 229 million downloads, while Amazon was the top app in the US. Notably, Pinduoduo was also a top downloaded app globally, ranking seventh with 79 million downloads.

☆ From the Shanghai upgrade to U.S. regulation: Watch these 5 events to see where crypto markets are heading in 2023
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-11 | by ( Tanaya Macheel | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

Unlike in previous crypto winters, however, macro forces outside the crypto industry are the biggest drivers of the market. The Shanghai upgrade Ethereum developers are gearing up for the network's next big upgrade, the "Shanghai" upgrade, which has a target release of March 2023. "The problem right now is if you stake ether into the network, your ether will be locked until the Shanghai upgrade," Lau said. "There will be more liquidity of ether after the Shanghai upgrade," he added. Gox but the expected distribution of the bitcoin recovered from the exchange's 2014 implosion could be a near-term headwind for bitcoin investors.

Last week, the Bruces’ great-grandsons sold it back to the county for nearly $20 million. However, equally as shortsighted is treating this case as a model for reparations for all Black Americans, as some have suggested. Doing so would ignore that true reparation requires repair, and this solution doesn’t address the sources of racial inequality in America’s real estate system. Invariably, Blacks’ property was most endangered when it became valuable, or when it threatened the value of white property and business interests. In gentrifying housing markets, tax sales serve as a lucrative profit source, whose main victims are Black, elderly and low-income people.

[1/2] The sun is seen behind a crude oil pump jack in the Permian Basin in Loving County, Texas, U.S., November 22, 2019. U.S. natural gas tumbled about 18% in the first week of January, the biggest slide on record to start a year, according to Refinitiv Eikon data. The 12% drop in distillate futures , was the biggest dive to start a year since 1991. In natural gas, U.S. futures fell further on Friday, dropping 5% to $3.52 per million British thermal units during the session, its lowest since July 2021. This week, it forecast U.S. natural gas prices would drop to $4.00-$4.20 per million British thermal units in the second quarter through third quarter.

So if workplace weight loss programs don’t actually improve employee health — what is it they are attempting to do? And yet, workplace wellness programs that focus on weight loss and other fatphobic-related measures like BMI and fat percentage persist. There’s not much evidence to suggest these workplace weight loss programs even reduce costs. So we’re shaming fat folks, excluding people with disabilities and triggering those of us recovering from eating disorders for ... absolutely no reason at all. And any workplace wellness program that specifically incentivizes weight loss should be acknowledged as harmful and ended immediately.

☆ 5 ways to make affordable housing for all in 2023 — from construction laws to mortgage financing
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-01 | by ( Kelsey Neubauer | Alcynna Lloyd | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

Houston has been able to keep its housing affordable in large part because of just this, he said. Jeff Tucker, the chief economist at Zillow, also told Insider that the biggest hurdle to affordable housing was "zoning reform." California has already done this when its citizens voted to pass Proposition 46, which provides funding specifically for affordable housing. It allocated just shy of $1 billion to the multifamily sector, according to CCIM, and is expected to see $13 billion in private funds be pushed into affordable housing. In July, Ginnie Mae, a federally-backed mortgage provider, specifically focused on affordable housing, requested that a manufactured home mortgage program be extended.

☆ Privacy and crypto will likely lead tech policy under split Congress as hope for passing ambitious antitrust reforms dwindles
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( Lauren Feiner | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

After what started as a hopeful year for tech policy, the 117th Congress is about to close out its term with many key efforts tabled. That's the case with privacy legislation, where a bill proposed this year gained bipartisan support, passing out of a House committee with a near-unanimous vote. The pair blamed the bills' failure to advance on intense lobbying efforts by the tech industry against them. One prominent bipartisan bill in the Senate would put the CFTC in charge. "But the importance of tech policy issues will still be strong."

Title 42 is a part of U.S. law that deals with public health, social welfare and civil rights. Bottom line, a federal judge ordered the Biden administration to stop using Title 42 by Dec. 21, stating that it was "arbitrary and capricious." The administration had tried to stop using Title 42 sooner, but was blocked by a federal court in Louisiana. Why is using Title 42 controversial? So if we're still using Title 42, why are so many people illegally crossing the border now?

☆ Walmart shoppers are flocking to stores for cheap groceries, while website visits languish — proving how vital its stores are in a tough economy
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Ben Tobin | Alex Bitter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

But while online shopping has dipped this year, more people have been flocking back to Walmart stores. According to estimates from Placer.ai, a location-data company, Walmart stores saw a 1% increase in the average number of daily shoppers through December 4 compared to the same year prior. But those customers are typically not buying food online, according to Yarbrough. Online food sales slowing across retailersWalmart is the top US grocer. The membership platform that launched in 2020 incentivizes online shopping by offering free delivery.

☆ How almost $427 million in taxpayer money is locked away in a forgotten government fund — and lawmakers won't spend it or return it
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Dave Levinthal | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

The intended beneficiaries of the taxpayer-fueled Presidential Election Campaign Fund — presidential candidates — don't want it, as they're soured by its restrictions on their election fundraising and spending. An accounting of the Presidential Election Campaign Fund, as of October 31, 2022. Several nonprofit leaders told Insider that Congress could use the Presidential Election Campaign Fund money to immediately ease suffering, particularly in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. During the 2019-20 congressional session, two Republican lawmakers sponsored similar bills that attempted to kill the Presidential Election Campaign Fund. Until that or any other repurposing decision comes down, the FEC continues to spend taxpayer resources keeping the Presidential Election Campaign Fund alive.

In the early 2010s, Mr. Mellow set out for still more distant shores, traveling to many famous surf breaks in the South Pacific. Mr. Abdul-Rashed and Mr. Danian traveled to Hawaii to connect with Mr. Mellow, their spiritual guide and Pacific expedition leader. Mr. Mellow posted an ad on Facebook and Craigslist offering $10,000 for passage to the South Pacific. Mr. Schmidt was in sync with the young seekers when it came to fear of Big Brother and vaccines, but dreading port officials brandishing nasal swabs struck even Mr. Schmidt as a little unhinged. When asked if he was at all responsible for what had happened to Mr. Danian and Mr. Abdul-Rashed, Mr. Mellow looked genuinely confused.

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