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☆ Why did we get a monster jobs report if the economy is slowing?
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-04 | by ( Alicia Wallace | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

And yet, even though it seemed impossible, the labor market is somehow getting tighter, said Rucha Vankudre, senior economist at business analytics firm Lightcast. “I think pretty much all the labor economists in the country this morning are shocked,” Vankudre said Friday during a webinar after the jobs report was released. The January jobs report shouldn’t trigger a wholesale change of what Fed members are thinking or what they were planning on doing before this report, Sarah House, senior economist at Wells Fargo, told CNN. Strong labor market in a slowing economy? January’s jobs report came with added complexity, because it included annual updates to populations estimates and revisions to employer survey data.

☆ Marie Kondo says she's 'kind of given up' on tidying up her home
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Cheryl Teh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Tidying guru Marie Kondo says she's done with constantly keeping her house neat. Kondo said after three kids, she's "kind of given up" on constantly tidying up, per The Washington Post. "I have kind of given up on that in a good way for me. Her book, "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up," topped the New York Times Best Seller list in 2014. Her book also sparked a Netflix special, "Tidying Up," which gave people tips on how to keep their living spaces neat.

☆ CDC is talking to airlines about wastewater testing in planes. New reports support that strategy.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-21 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Aria-Bendix-Byline-Jm.Jpg | Aria Bendix | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

The U.S. has been monitoring for the coronavirus in wastewater since the CDC launched its National Wastewater Surveillance System in September 2020. But that testing mainly involves wastewater from households or buildings, not samples from airports or planes. Previous Covid-19 wastewater surveillance has shown to be a valuable tool, and airplane wastewater surveillance could potentially be an option," CDC press officer Scott Pauley told NBC News. Politico first reported that the agency is considering airplane wastewater testing. As of October, more than 1,250 sites were conducting wastewater testing across the U.S.

☆ Cathie Wood says she's as bullish on Tesla as she's ever been, sees stock up fivefold in 5 years
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Yun Li | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Ark Invest's Cathie Wood said her conviction in Tesla remains strong as ever as she kept buying the dip in the electric vehicle company. "Just from electric vehicles there could be... it is almost a fivefold increase in this stock during the next five years," Wood said during an investor webinar on Thursday. Wood previously predicted that the shift to electric vehicles will be drastic, resulting in 60 million EVs sold in five years. The innovation investor has been a longtime Tesla bull, seeing shares hitting a split-adjusted level above $1,500 by 2026. Wood revealed Thursday that she took some profits in Exact Sciences and put much of those profits into Tesla.

☆ Ark's Wood remains bullish on Tesla, says oil stock rally 'defying logic'
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( David Randall | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

NEW YORK, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Star stock picker Cathie Wood of Ark Invest suggested the rally in energy stocks will soon end and reiterated her bullish view on electric vehicle maker Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) in a webinar on Thursday. Yet the rally energy stocks over the last six months despite the roughly 30% decline in the price of oil suggests that the market is now over-valuing value stocks, she said. Tesla, meanwhile, will continue to take market share as global oil demand falls by 30% or more over the next five years, Wood estimated. Wood's ARK Innovation fund fell 3.2% on Thursday while the benchmark S&P 500 fell nearly 0.8%. The fund fell nearly 67% in 2022, leaving it among the worst performing U.S. equity funds tracked by Morningstar.

☆ Morning Bid: Ugly duckling
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

A look at the day ahead in European and global markets from Anshuman DagaWhile Chinese economic data didn't come in worse than markets had feared, investors still couldn't come to terms with the scale of the economic pain being felt in the world's second-largest economy. Asian stock markets dipped and the broad-based MSCI's Asia Pacific share index outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) retreated away from seven-month highs, and Chinese equities stocks also retreated. European and UK stock futures, however, pointed to a steady start. The FTSE 100 (.FTSE) is just a whisker away from its record high of 7,903.5 points. Tuesday's batch of economic data coming up include UK jobs numbers, German inflation and Germany's ZEW economic sentiment survey.

☆ I make up to $10,000 a month as a notary signing agent. I was able to quit my 9-to-5 and have more time with my kids — here's how I got started.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-16 | by ( Dorothy Cucci | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Amber Gist is a notary signing agent, a notary who specializes in property or loan documents. Becoming a notary signing agent gave her a flexible schedule and more time at home with her kids. This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Amber Gist, a 39-year-old notary signing agent in Texas. A notary public and notary signing agent aren't the same thing: Every notary signing agent is a notary public, but not every notary public is a notary signing agent. I also spend about 4 hours a week teaching classes on how to become a notary signing agent and hold a webinar about every other month.

☆ Companies Are Inventing Silly, Cute Executive Titles but It's a Trick
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Drew Limsky | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Chief amazement officers, chief heart officers, and chief empathy officers are popping up across companies. They also found that titles like chief people officer and chief happiness officer were gaining in use. If you thought home's where the heart is, think again, because the workplace now has a chief heart officer. Sometimes the chief heart officer exists in addition to the head of human resources, a role that is increasingly called, more humanistically, the chief people officer. Claude Silver, the chief heart officer at VaynerMedia and self-proclaimed "first chief heart officer," told Forbes in 2017 that she was "here to be of service" to her staff.

☆ Delta's first-ever Boeing 767 jet was bought for $30 million in 1982 with the help of employees and the public. See the historic plane's full history.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Taylor Rains | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: 1 min

"It's hard enough to say what we'll be flying in January, let alone what we'll be flying in 2027," Delta President Glen Hauenstein said during a November 2021 pilot webinar. "You don't want to get yourself in a box where you've committed specifically to flying or retiring those planes." Flying on Delta's Boeing 767-300ER. Taylor Rains/InsiderSource: Airline Weekly

☆ The supply chain crisis is coming to an end — but 2 looming threats could reignite the chaos
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Emma Cosgrove | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Holiday shopping went well, so you might assume supply chains are fixed. At a quick glance, supply chains have healed and shopping seems back to normal. Supply chains are running much more smoothly than they have in more than two years right now. A major indicator that supply chains have been off balance is the inventory-to-sales ratio, which is tracked by the US Census Bureau. A return to seasonal rushes and lulls, without massive, global disruptions, will be the sign that supply chains are "back to normal."

☆ LinkedIn has a fake account problem it's trying to fix. Real users are part of the solution
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-10 | by ( Bob Violino | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

While 95.3% of those fake accounts were stopped at registration by automated defenses, according to the company, there was a nearly 28% increase in fake accounts caught compared to the previous six-month period. For these reasons it can serve the purposes of bad actors to have fake LinkedIn profiles, Khan said. "Bad actors are trying to craft fake identities and make them look real by leaving a plausible-looking digital footprint across different platforms," Khan said. The challenge for LinkedIn users is that profiles on social media platforms are easy to create and are typically not verified in any way. The model helps increase the effectiveness of LinkedIn's automated anti-abuse defenses to help detect and remove fake accounts before they can reach members.

☆ Wall Street experts are warning that stocks are in for more trouble as a robust November jobs report is crushing investor hopes of a dovish Fed
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-03 | by ( William Edwards | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Stocks fell on Friday after the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced a robust November jobs report. But with the economy resilient, the Fed could continue to cause more pain for stocks going forward. November's jobs report, however, puts a pin the hopes of those anticipating easier policy sooner. He added: "Chairman Powell's speech earlier in the week was interpreted with a dovish lens, but that spin is likely to be reassessed based on the jobs report. Even before Friday's jobs report, some Wall Street strategists and money managers have been warning of further trouble ahead.

☆ This California city asked where its recycling went. The answer wasn’t pretty.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( Saqib Rahim | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

In recent years the global plastic trade has shrunk amid new controls by rich and developing countries alike. U.S. plastic waste exports to Asia fell to 330 million pounds in 2021, according to government data, half their 2017 level. But even these reduced volumes, environmental groups charge, can overwhelm developing countries that lack the facilities to manage them. In May, city staff asked to divert some of Palo Alto’s waste streams to facilities in Louisiana and Southern California. The second lesson, City Manager Ed Shikada said, is that Palo Alto can’t transform the global recycling system alone.

☆ Bank of America says the US economy is hurtling toward a recession. Their stock chief shares her 5-part investing playbook for thriving during the downturn.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( William Edwards | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Bank of America economists say a mild recession is coming in 1H 2023. In a webinar on Monday, the bank's stock chief Savita Subramanian shared her playbook. First, Subramanian said she likes sectors of the market that offer free-cash-flow yields, growing income streams, and protection from inflation. Next, Subramanian likes two sectors that are more traditional recession plays: consumer staples and utilities. For consumer staples, she said she would start moving out of the sector once the economy shows clear signs of a recovery.

☆ Asia markets poised to fall for a second day; China's Covid situation remains in focus
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( Abigail Ng | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said Monday that the Fed should continue to raise its benchmark interest rate in the coming months and that the market may be underestimating the chance that the Fed has to get more aggressive. "We're going to have to continue pursue our interest rate increases into 2023, and there's some risk that we've have to go even higher than [5%]," Bullard said at a Barron's Live webinar. Bullard made waves in financial markets earlier this month when he said the Fed's hikes have had "only limited effects" on inflation so far and that the benchmark interest rate may need to rise to between 5% and 7%. "I think we'll probably have to stay there all through 2023 and into 2024, given the historical behavior of core PCE inflation or Dallas Fed trimmed mean inflation. But they probably won't come down quite as fast as markets would like and probably the Fed would like," Bullard said.

☆ Fact Check-No evidence titanium dioxide in face masks is dangerous to wearers
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-25 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Some face masks contain minute quantities of titanium dioxide, a mineral that has been flagged as a possible cancer risk when inhaled, but there is no evidence that mask users inhale it at all, or in harmful quantities. Experts told Reuters that some masks approved in the U.S. may contain small amounts of titanium dioxide. However, the study tested masks distributed in Europe and did not test whether mask users inhaled any particles. Although some face masks approved by the FDA can contain titanium dioxide, the study cited in online claims does not provide evidence that titanium dioxide is released from face masks or that face mask users can inhale titanium dioxide released from masks. Titanium dioxide has only been classified as a carcinogen by the European Chemicals agency under specific conditions.

☆ How TikTok is changing the music industry
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-25 | by ( Dan Whateley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +15 min

TikTok is an essential promotional tool for music artists and record labels. Watch a full replay of Insider's webinar on TikTok's impact on the music industry, featuring execs from TikTok, Universal Music Group, and UnitedMastersFor some, the hyper-focus on TikTok can be draining. "The argument from TikTok's side is TikTok is now so important to the music industry that they can't afford to not have their music on the platform." Read more about the 'complicated' and codependent relationship between TikTok and music rights holdersBut the industry's attention on TikTok isn't unfounded. Read about why TikTok music marketers are turning to general-interest accounts to promote songsCreating TikTok music challenges to spark user-generated videosAnd some marketers are opening the door for social-media users who wouldn't traditionally be considered influencers to get paid to promote music.

☆ 50-plus voters were the deciders.' How seniors influenced key congressional districts in the midterm elections
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Lorie Konish | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Amalia Conner registers to vote so she can cast her ballot in midterm elections at the Bay Ridge Civic Association in Annapolis, November 8, 2022. An expected "red wave" of votes for Republican candidates did not come to fruition in the November midterm elections. The survey was conducted in November immediately after the election by bipartisan polling team Fabrizio Ward and Impact Research. Inflation and rising prices topped the list of overall voter concerns, with 33%, followed by abortion, 28%, and threats to democracy, 25%. Democratic candidates ranked high with voters who are concerned most with abortion and threats to democracy.

☆ Argentina cenbank debt poses 'systemic risk' to financial sector, Moody's says
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Nov 16 (Reuters) - Argentina's rising central bank debt poses a risk to the country's monetary stability, ratings agency Moody's said on Wednesday, adding it could further stoke inflation and aggravate any exchange rate shock if savers flee from the local peso currency. "With the amount of pesos the central bank and government have, they may conclude that they have no choice but to limit access," Moody's analyst Gabriel Torres said in a webinar. "Argentina has not been in that situation for a while, but it has done so in the past," he added. In a report Moody's said central bank interest-bearing debt had increased significantly relative to GDP in the last two years, while its ratio to the monetary base was now over 200%. "Argentinean banks' exposure to government and central bank debt – mostly denominated in local currency – has recently increased and poses systemic risks for the financial sector."

☆ How fuel cells could power the transition to a greener digital infrastructure industry
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( Sponsor Post | Created Vertiv With Insider Studios | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The data center industry is booming and eager for land, which can push up property prices in residential areas. The partnership aims to develop a proof-of-concept for how low-carbon fuel cells can provide green power for data centers. Fuel cells are recognized as a cleaner and quieter power solution that can reduce the strain on urban power grids. Fuel cells can help reduce the data center industry's reliance on natural gas and diesel-powered generators, he added. In the webinar, Summers emphasized how important it is that any solution for low-carbon fuel cells turns into an "open standard."

☆ Cathie Wood's Innovation ETF surges 13%, on track for its best day ever
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Yun Li | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Cathie Wood's flagship ARK Innovation ETF staged a dramatic relief rally Thursday on the back of an easing inflation reading . ARKK's biggest holding Zoom Video popped about 12%, while Tesla jumped nearly 7%. The innovation investor has been calling deflation for some time, betting the high prices were caused by temporary Covid-related supply issue. The innovation investor just doubled down on a slew of her favorite stocks this week, unfazed by the turmoil in many of these names. Wood snapped up shares of six companies Wednesday, including adding to some of her largest holdings Zoom Video and Tesla.

☆ Climate change is the biggest issue facing our planet. A public-private partnership is helping address it with zero-carbon tech.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-07 | by ( Sponsor Post | Created Vertiv With Insider Studios | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

So, how can data centers provide more computing power while reducing their carbon footprint? "The RISE partnership will help us see the bigger picture of sustainability," he said. "We are creating greenhouses and vertical farming to reuse the heat and analyzing the data from medium-sized data centers." Other areas for improvement in data centers' environmental performance include making hardware and software more energy efficient, said Tor. Vertiv and RISE are also members of the E2P2 Tech Consortium, leading low-carbon fuel cell development to power data centers.

The COP27 climate summit gets underway in Egypt from Nov. 6. Climate Change Conference will see more than 30,000 delegates convene in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh to discuss collective action on the climate emergency. Loss and damage funding, meanwhile, is recognized by many as the third pillar of international climate policy. Kerry's openness to talks on loss and damage funding marked an abrupt change in tone from just one month earlier. Singh said political mobilization over loss and damage funding makes COP27 the most important COP yet.

☆ As Supplemental Security Income turns 50, some are calling for the program's outdated rules to change
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-30 | by ( Lorie Konish | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Fg Trade | E+ | Getty ImagesA key federal program providing benefits to elderly, blind and disabled people — Supplemental Security Income — is turning 50 years old. The program, which currently serves nearly 8 million beneficiaries, was created by legislation signed by President Richard Nixon on Oct. 30, 1972. But even as Supplemental Security Income — called SSI for short — provides crucial income for adults and children with disabilities and elderly individuals, its benefits and requirements have gone decades without major updates. That's despite the fact the population served by Social Security is eight times the size of SSI. (To be sure, some beneficiaries receive both Social Security and SSI, though their benefits are reduced for doing so.)

PSLF helps workers at nonprofit, government, and tribal organizations get their student loans forgiven after 120 eligible payments. Under a limited waiver that expires on October 31, more payments count toward the 120 eligible payments. To help you apply for PSLF before the limited waiver expires, here are three guides — two completely free, and one that costs $47 — to help you fill out your application. Chipper app (free)The Chipper app, founded by Tony Aguilar, is designed to help people with student loans chip away slowly at their balances using spare change from everyday purchases. Additionally, Chipper has helped over 5,600 people get their student loans forgiven through PSLF.

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