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☆ Forget 'quiet quitting': Men earning six figures are openly cutting their work hours more than their coworkers
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Jason Lalljee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Men earning with college degrees earning at least $100k a year are clocking fewer hours at work. That's as men without degrees have been quitting due to perceived low social and financial prospects. Highly paid men typically work more hours than their peers, Yongseok Shin, an economist who co-wrote the paper, told Insider. Fueling that figure are young men without college degrees, according to the Boston Fed. Higher-paid men with college degrees have more financial mobility, and likely a stronger social self-estimation.

☆ U.S. watchdog identifies $5.4 billion in potentially fraudulent COVID-19 loans
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( Kanishka Singh | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, Jan 30 (Reuters) - The U.S. government likely awarded about $5.4 billion in COVID-19 aid to people with questionable Social Security numbers, a federal watchdog said in a report released on Monday. The watchdog, the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC), said it "identified 69,323 questionable Social Security Numbers (SSNs) used to obtain $5.4 billion from the Small Business Administration's (SBA) COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan (COVID-19 EIDL) program and Paycheck Protection Program (PPP)." In May 2021, Attorney General Merrick Garland launched a COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force. In September, the inspector general for the U.S. Labor Department said fraudsters likely stole $45.6 billion from the United States' unemployment insurance program during the coronavirus outbreak by applying tactics like using Social Security numbers of deceased individuals. Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by David GregorioOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Feds seized a party boat, a Rolls Royce, and a motorcycle from a man accused of using COVID loans to buy his way into a Texas yacht club
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Azmi Haroun | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A deceased Texas man had his party boat, Rolls Royce, and yacht club membership seized by the feds. He secured the goods through a COVID PPP loan fraud scheme, seeking $23 million, feds alleged. Between April 2020 and May 2020, he received almost $1 million in PPP loans and started spending. McQuarn agreed to hand over the items he bought with some of the $23 million in COVID PPP loans he tried to secure, which included a Rolls Royce and a sizable boat. By June 2020, federal investigators had caught up to McQuarn and his associates, seizing all of the money and luxury items that they had amassed in their scheme.

☆ A 26-year-old college dropout makes up to $73,000 a month in revenue selling products on Amazon FBA. He shares his top 5 tips to find the best products and sell them out.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Laila Maidan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Kevin Pak lost money on the first two products he tried to sell on Amazon FBA. In 2022, Pak made $289,000 in revenue and $127,000 in profit, according to screenshots of his Amazon seller's account viewed by Insider. Pak realized that the manufacturer he ordered shipped out poor-quality products. His product didn't look anything different, except he didn't have any reviews. If you're unsure about this step, Pak recommends consulting with an attorney or hiring a freelancer from Fiverr to do it for you.

☆ Lender Popular Bank Fined Over Bad Covid Relief Loans
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Richard Vanderford | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +3 min

Popular Bank has been fined $2.3 million for allegedly failing to stop fraud by applicants to the Paycheck Protection Program, the federal government’s massive Covid-related bailout for struggling small businesses. The Federal Reserve announced the fine Tuesday, saying New York-based Popular Bank, a subsidiary of Puerto Rico-based Popular Inc., had processed six PPP loans worth about $1.1 million despite having detected significant signs of potential fraud. The federal government used PPP loans to help businesses that experienced hardship during the Covid-19 pandemic, leaning on banks to dole out the money. The bank consented to the fine, a Popular Bank spokeswoman said, though the Fed order said the bank didn’t formally admit to or deny the allegations. The loans at issue originated with Popular Bank in August 2020, during a year in which millions of applicants sought access to the government money to try to keep their struggling enterprises afloat.

New research conducted by a professor at University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School found that the AI-driven chatbot GPT-3 was able to pass the final exam for the school's Master of Business Administration (MBA) program. Prof. Christian Terwiesch, who authored the research paper "Would Chat GPT3 Get a Wharton MBA? Terwiesch’s findings come as educators become increasingly concerned that such chat bots could inspire cheating. The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, on Sept. 28, 2022. Experts who work in both artificial intelligence and education have acknowledged that bots like ChatGPT could be a detriment to education in the future.

☆ 'Quiet quitting is the natural sequel to the Great Resignation' as workers still rethink their jobs 3 years into the pandemic
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-21 | by ( Madison Hoff | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

"I think that in some ways quiet quitting is the natural sequel to the Great Resignation," professor Adam Grant said. But so has been the Great Resignation, which has seen a massive number of workers actually leaving their jobs. James Detert, a professor of business administration at the University of Virginia, detailed in a post on The Conversation how the Great Resignation, quiet quitting, and unionization efforts at big companies are actually similar. As noted during the panel and seen in previous coverage from Insider, "quiet quitting" isn't actually a new thing. The Great Resignation, and thus its "sequel" of quiet quitting, may continue in 2023 and be sticking around.

☆ Firms use Google ads to entice small businesses to pay for help the gov't provides free
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( Jesselyn Cook | Jesselyn Cook Is An Investigative Tech Reporter For Nbc News. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +11 min

Several draw in unwitting customers like Talbot through Google ads that outrank the legitimate SAM.gov page, illustrating the ease of buying visibility on the world’s largest search engine. Google removed the ads for a number of these sites in response to an inquiry for this article but subsequently reversed its decision. “We have strict ads policies that govern the types of ads and advertisers we allow on our platforms,” Google spokesperson Davis Thompson said in a statement. But the Small Business Administration urges people not to spend their precious resources on these services when so many free alternatives exist. She expects new, prominently displayed Google ads to play a part in the problem.

☆ The 3 biggest reasons startups failed in 2022, according to a poll of almost 500 founders
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Knowing the biggest risks that most commonly cause new startups to fail could make the difference between whether your own business sinks or swims. And roughly 20% of new businesses fail within their first year, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Luckily, some new research can shed some light on the biggest recent obstacles that have thwarted startups. Skynova, which makes invoicing software for small businesses, surveyed 492 startup founders in November 2022 and analyzed startup data from CB Insights for the new study that looks at the most common reasons behind startup failures in 2022. The study notes that 47% of startup failures in 2022 were due to a lack of financing, nearly double the percentage that failed for the same reason in 2021, based on CB Insight's data.

☆ Paying back Covid loans is hammering millions of businesses
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( Gabe Cohen | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Unlike some other pandemic programs, these 30-year loans, carrying an interest rate of 3.75% for businesses, were intended to be paid back. But revenue is still down more than 45% — and it's time to start paying back those government loans. Coming out of the pandemic, small businesses have faced difficult hurdles, like staffing shortages, supply chain issues and inflation. Now add a possible looming recession, just as these EIDL loans come due. For EIDL loans over $200,000, a personal guaranty was required for individuals with 20% or more ownership in the business.

☆ What to expect at work this year
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-11 | by ( Jeanne Sahadi | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

New York CNN —The pandemic has transformed work over the past three years in ways few expected. Work flexibility is here to stay, and may improve for front-line workersWhile there is still tension between executives and employees about how many days people should be physically present at work, hybrid work and work flexibility isn’t going away. “The big shift is in recognizing our work force is in trouble,” McRae said. Roughly 70% of workers say they’re already doing work outside of their job, according to Deloitte. One recent example, cited in Deloitte’s latest work report, comes from M&T Bank, a leading Small Business Administration lender.

☆ Marc Benioff may be right that Salesforce's young, remote employees are hurting the company's productivity. But it's not their fault.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( Shana Lebowitz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Salesforce's CEO said the company's younger, remote workers may be less productive than their peers. It's possible that Salesforce's younger, remote employees are less productive than the rest of the staff. But it's unlikely that the problem is remote work itself, or the work ethic of remote employees, based on the growing body of research on flexible work. The problem isn't remote work — it's how remote workers are managedBut Salesforce's problem probably isn't necessarily that it permits remote work. On the other hand, Neeley wrote, leaders who micromanage their employees' time "are the kiss of death in hybrid work."

☆ Connecticut lawmaker killed in tragic collision hours after being sworn in
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Taiyler Simone Mitchell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A Connecticut lawmaker died hours after being sworn in as state representative. Lawmakers mourned state Rep. Quentin "Q" Williams following the announcement of his death. The collision occurred around 12:45 a.m. local time just outside of Middletown, Connecticut, on Route 9 in a town called Cromwell. The 39-year-old lawmaker, state Rep. Quentin "Q" Williams of Middletown in the 100th District, a Democrat serving in the Connecticut General Assembly, had been sworn in on Wednesday. The Connecticut State Police and Williams' office did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

☆ Connecticut lawmaker dies in wrong-way crash after attending his own swearing-in ceremony
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

CROMWELL, Conn. — A Connecticut state representative was killed overnight in a wrong-way highway crash after having attended the governor’s inaugural ball and his own swearing-in ceremony for a third term, House Democratic leaders said Thursday. Quentin Williams, a Democrat from Middletown known as “Q,” died in the crash on Route 9 in Cromwell. State police said both drivers were killed and one of the vehicles became fully engulfed in flames. Connecticut State Representative Quentin “Q” Willams. CT House DemocratsSpeaker of the House Matt Ritter, D-Hartford, and Majority Leader Jason Rojas, D-East Hartford, issued a statement saying Williams’ family had announced the lawmaker’s death.

The families prayed for a miracle, knowing their loved ones were trapped in their cars for days as an unprecedented blizzard paralyzed Buffalo, New York, with freezing temperatures and blinding snow. On Christmas, Syta’s friends, who loved Jóźwiak and called her "Mama," set out to bring her home. Taylor called the police, but she had no choice but to wait inside her car, which she kept running for warmth, said her mother, Wanda Brown Steele. Taylor familyTwo days later, on Christmas night, a family friend found Taylor's car, which was still running, and broke through a window. In the snowed-in Buffalo home that Taylor called home, there is nothing much to do but mourn her.

☆ The Best Banks for Small Business
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( ) www.wsj.com time to read: +15 min

To find the best business banks, we evaluated two dozen of the biggest institutions, looking for accounts that are easy to use, with low or no fees, and that don’t require large balances. Amex is one of relatively few banks that offers a competitive interest rate on its business checking account, with a current APY of 1.3% on balances up to $500,000. If you’re on the lookout for a new business credit card, the American Express Business Gold Card is Buy Side’s pick for Best Business Credit Card. How we pickedTo pick Buy Side from WSJ’s Best Banks for Small Business, we evaluated small-business checking accounts offered by two dozen traditional and digital banking institutions. We looked for business checking accounts that offered the best combination of convenience, low fees and features that make running a business easier, like integration with other business technology platforms and the availability of (or ability to connect with) payment processing systems.

☆ From a Lamborghini to a custom Rolex, here are the wildest things business owners bought with their PPP loans
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Jennifer Ortakales Dawkins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

The Justice Department has charged many business owners with fraud over their PPP and EIDL loans. The Paycheck Protection Program made forgivable loans of up to $10 million available for business owners to cover payroll and certain business expenses. The Small Business Administration awarded nearly $800 billion in PPP loans to 11.47 million businesses. A similar low-interest program made Economic Injury Disaster Loans of up to $500,000 available to business owners to pay operational expenses. Here are the most notable charges from the Justice Department.

The lawmakers are co-sponsors of the National Development Strategy and Coordination Act. That's why we've joined forces to jumpstart a national project to restore American manufacturing leadership. This committee would be charged with developing a National Development Strategy, recommending investments to improve national security, strengthen domestic manufacturing, create good-paying jobs and develop new technologies. Second, our proposal — the National Development Strategy and Coordination Act — would give this committee the authority to direct the Department of Treasury's Federal Financing Bank to achieve its goals. This would bring overdue strategic coordination to our federal loan system and inject much-needed long-term capital into critical industries.

☆ Connecticut college basketball player shot dead at New Jersey nature preserve
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( Marlene Lenthang | Marlene Lenthang Is A Breaking News Reporter For Nbc News Digital. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

A Connecticut college basketball star was fatally shot over the weekend at a New Jersey nature preserve, according to officials. Phil Urban, a 6-foot-6 forward at Post University in Connecticut, was shot in Hopewell Township, New Jersey, on Saturday, about 30 miles away from his native Manalapan Township. Post University CEO & President John L. Hopkins said the community was "heartbroken" to learn of Urban's death. Urban was a freshman, according to Post University’s 2022-23 basketball roster. Post University's basketball team welcomed him back in April on Twitter, calling him a “skilled wing” who “can play multiple positions.

☆ Ex-NBA player Amar’e Stoudemire arrested after allegedly punching, slapping daughter
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-18 | by ( Julianne Mcshane | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

Former NBA player Amar’e Stoudemire was arrested early Sunday morning in a domestic violence incident involving his daughter, according to documents obtained by NBC News. The daughter allegedly told Stoudemire she didn't have an attitude, and he allegedly responded with "you're talking back again" before allegedly punching her in the jaw and slapping her on her face and body, allegedly causing a bloody nose, the document states. Police who responded to the scene allegedly "observed blood stains" on the victims' sweater and pants and the daughter's mother allegedly showed police a picture she had received of the daughter allegedly crying with blood running down her face. The mother allegedly told police that Stoudemire "told her to come pick up the victim because she was being disrespectful." The University of Miami also featured Stoudemire in a post on its feed on Friday congratulating graduates.

☆ Fintechs are under scrutiny over fraudulent PPP loans and small businesses could suffer. Here are the biggest takeaways from the federal investigation.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( Jennifer Ortakales Dawkins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A federal investigation blames fintechs for rampant Paycheck Protection Program loan fraud. It could jeopardize fintechs' participation in future federal lending programs. The Paycheck Protection Program was a federal rescue program intended to help the 7.5 million US small businesses at risk of closing permanently in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Small Business Administration awarded nearly $800 billion in PPP loans to 11.47 million businesses. Here are the biggest takeaways from the federal investigation.

☆ Pandemic Loans Are Coming Due but Some Businesses Aren’t Ready to Repay
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Ruth Simon | Photographs Jessica Pons For The Wall Street Journal | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Many small businesses that received federal pandemic aid are now on the hook for repayments, and some say the timing couldn’t be worse. WrightIMC, based in Allen, Texas, borrowed $150,000 from the Small Business Administration’s Covid-disaster loan program two years ago. The 20-person digital marketing agency made its first $1,600 loan payment this month, just as ad sales are softening.

☆ Fed rate hike pushes small business loan interest over 10% for first time in nearly a generation
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Eric Rosenbaum | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

Many business owners have never seen double-digits," said Rohit Arora, co-founder and CEO of small business lending platform Biz2Credit. Almost a quarter of small business owners said they are paying a higher rate on their most recent loan, and the highest since 2008. The latest CNBC Fed Survey shows the market forecasting a peak Fed rate around 5% in March 2023 and the rate being held there for nine months. "Talking to small business owners looking for financing, it's starting to slow things down," Hurn said. Small business loan approval percentages at big banks dropped in November to the second lowest total in 2022 (14.6%), according to the latest Biz2Credit Small Business Lending Index released this week; and also dropped at small banks (21.1%).

☆ Stephen Miller led-group emerges as top legal foe of Biden initiatives
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Chandelis Duster | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —A conservative legal group led by former top Trump aide Stephen Miller has emerged as a frequent opponent to several Biden administration initiatives by mounting court challenges, succeeding in blocking policies they say are examples of reverse discrimination. Miller touts America First Legal as “the long-awaited answer to the (American Civil Liberties Union),” and his group has garnered several legal victories against the Biden administration in the past few weeks and months, most notably on issues of racial discrimination. The lawsuits led to an injunction that blocked the debt relief payments. Several Black farmers and social justice advocates have said Miller’s actions are harmful. “I want to set the record straight – no one is against White farmers in this country,” John Boyd Jr., 57, a fourth-generation farmer who is founder and president of the National Black Farmers Association, told CNN.

More than 40 million borrowers like Morales-Bartlett were eligible to cancel up to $20,000 in federal student loan debt under President Joe Biden’s one-time student loan forgiveness plan. Meanwhile, the pandemic-era federal student loan repayment pause has been extended while the government awaits the court’s decision. The average federal student loan debt nears $30,000. Brown’s son still has about $50,000 in student debt despite being one of the thousands of North Carolinians who received some student loan relief as part of a multistate settlement with Navient, one of the nation’s largest student loan servicers, over allegations of unfair and deceptive student loan servicing and predatory lending practices, according to Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Stein's office. He also applied to the currently blocked student loan forgiveness program and is waiting to hear back.

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