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☆ The Shows May Be Over. But John Mayer’s ‘Guitar Face’ Lives On.
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-20 | by ( Alex Beggs | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

During the final show of Dead & Company’s so-called Final Tour on Sunday night, the crowd at Oracle Park in San Francisco swayed and bobbed like the current of a turning river. A man in cowboy regalia cupped his hands around his ears and two-stepped to the beat. Other fans, who were not as lucky, danced on the sidewalk outside of the park. Mr. Mayer has been a member of Dead & Company, an offshoot of the Grateful Dead, since it formed in 2015. Though he is not the band’s face, the faces he has made while performing — which can cover the full spectrum of human emotion, from despair to sweet relief to sublime pleasure — have for some been almost as unforgettable as the music itself.

Persons: John Mayer, Althea, ”, Mayer Organizations: Oracle, Twitter, & Company Locations: San Francisco

☆ Remembering the Dead
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-16 | by ( Tom Wright-Piersanti | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Fans of the Grateful Dead are saying goodbye to the band this weekend. The day Garcia died in 1995, the Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir gave a concert near Boston. One fan, Albie Cullen, recalled that the encore felt like an emotional send-off for Garcia and the band. It was another emotional send-off, but it wasn’t the end, either. During Dead & Company’s eight-year run, the band once again became a cultural touchstone.

Persons: It’s, Jerry Garcia, Marc Tracy, Garcia, Bob Weir, Albie Cullen, ” Cullen, John Mayer, Mayer Organizations: &, Citi Field Locations: Boston, New York

☆ How Economists Got the Inflation Debate Wrong (on Both Sides) - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-14 | by ( Paul Krugman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

True, economists’ games have been rather lacking in sex and, at least so far, violence. But while I’m tempted to use the old line about how academic disputes are so vicious because the stakes are so small, these debates matter. A current case in point is the determination of central banks across the world to get inflation down to 2 percent. That target emerged in large part from academic research suggesting (probably wrongly) that inflation at that rate would be more or less optimal. I was on Team Transitory, but as inflation went far higher for far longer than I had imagined possible, I admitted that I got it wrong.

Persons: I’m, John Maynard Keynes, Madmen Organizations: HBO

☆ Taylor Swift's album release 'Speak Now (Taylor's Version)' comes during her very good, un-'cruel summer'
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-06 | by ( Alli Rosenbloom | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

And on Friday, the throwback Swift love continues, when the beloved singer-songwriter releases her hotly-anticipated “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” album, a re-record of her 2010 hit album. While I haven’t yet seen the “Eras Tour,” I managed to secure tickets to an upcoming August show in Los Angeles. Taylor Swift performing the 'Eras Tour' in New Jersey in May. Swifies react to hearing Taylor Swift's 'Eras Tour' set begin from the parking lot of Philadelphia's Lincoln Financial Field in May. Taylor Swift performing the 'Eras Tour' in Cincinnati in June.

Persons: Taylor Swift, –, Swift, ” Alan Light, ”, I’ve, Kevin Mazur, ” Swift, John ” –, John Mayer –, ” Taylor Swift, ” She’s, it’s Swift, “, Taylor Swift's, Rachel Wisniewski, what’s, “ Taylor, David Perrigo, ” Perrigo, Swifties, it’s, Taylor Organizations: CNN, Stone, Swift, CNN Entertainment, Chicago’s, Pride, Lincoln Financial Field, Washington Post, Pittsburgh’s, Nashville, Nissan Locations: Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, New Jersey, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, ”, Chicago, Atlanta , New Jersey, Swifties, Cincinnati

A net 1,400 lots of short positions were covered by the time the market was suspended at 08:15. Xiang Guangda, the charismatic head of China's Tsingshan Holding Group, has attracted much media attention for being the big nickel short. The existence of at least once big nickel short wasn't exactly a secret in the market. LME nickel crisis had turned into potential LME clearing house crisis with Chamberlain having to juggle both parts of the meltdown while also being a nickel market specialist. The handful that remained, as one participant later recalled, knew nothing whatsoever about what was going on in the nickel market so decided to call everyone else back into the room.

Persons: Elliott, Street, Matthew Chamberlain, Chamberlain, Jane Street, Oliver Wyman's, Xiang Guangda, wasn't, Oliver Wyman, John Maynard Keynes, Xiang, doesn't, David Evans Organizations: London, Royal, of Justice, Hong Kong Exchanges, HK, Elliott Associates, Jane, Global, Tsingshan Holding, SEE, Bloomberg, Thomson, Reuters Locations: U.S, Ukraine

☆ US cities with military bases risk economic damage in debt ceiling fight
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-20 | by ( Bryan Mena | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Washington, DC CNN —The United States could default on its debt in less than two weeks, and cities with a large military presence risk an economic firestorm if lawmakers don’t act. About a sixth of government spending goes toward national defense, a quarter of which is to pay military personnel, according to the Congressional Budget Office. If the United States can’t pay its national defense bills, cities with large military bases face a potentially massive fallout, encompassing missed payments, rising debt and a significant pullback in spending that would cut into local businesses’ bottom lines. That could further damage local economies grappling with financial market turbulence that could unfold even ahead of a possible default. Federal workers could get stuck pulling from their savings accounts or relying on credit to make everyday purchases, Mayo said.

☆ Biden finally met with top lawmakers to discuss a debt ceiling solution — but McCarthy says there wasn't 'any new movement' as a catastrophic default inches closer
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | Juliana Kaplan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Biden met with congressional leaders on Tuesday to discuss raising the debt ceiling. The US could default on its debt as soon as June 1 if Congress doesn't act. "I didn't see any new movement," McCarthy told reporters following the meeting. In the hours leading up to the meetings, McCarthy told Punchbowl News that "we should just get in the room and solve this thing. If Congress fails to raise the debt ceiling, Americans could experience devastating consequences.

☆ Science Proves the 4-Day Workweek Prevents Burnout, Helps Productivity
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Shubham Agarwal | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

At the time, back in 2018, a New Zealand firm had just wrapped up a landmark trial to test the efficacy of a four-day workweek. A lot of the benefits of the four-day workweek come down to a simple, everyday activity: sleep. A lot of the benefits of the four-day workweek come down to a simple, everyday activity: sleep. Less time, more productiveThough the four-day workweek may seem like a recent phenomenon, it's been decades in the making. But for now, the four-day workweek certainly has the potential to be a far-reaching antidote to pressing workplace concerns such as mass resignations and the burnout crisis.

☆ Guest view: Why bank investors have it the hardest
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Rupak Ghose | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

But what matters at least as much for shareholders is the risk of near or total wipe-out, as demonstrated by Silicon Valley Bank and Credit Suisse. No investor could have known that Credit Suisse allowed Archegos to fund its trades with insufficient cash collateral. More recently, U.S. authorities seemed to flip-flop on whether uninsured depositors at other banks would enjoy the same protection offered to Silicon Valley Bank’s customers. The upshot for bank investors is that seemingly low valuations might not be low enough. Previously, he was head of corporate strategy at UK-based brokers ICAP and NEX, and an equity research analyst at Credit Suisse focused on the financial sector.

☆ A flawed but useful economic model for a bleak age
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Edward Chancellor | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

Modern Monetary Theory, which endorses unlimited government spending, was all the rage during the years of ultra-low interest rates. John Cochrane’s fiscal theory fits the bill. Cochrane, a senior fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, recently published “The Fiscal Theory of the Price Level”. Not only are high interest rates incapable of arresting inflation, fiscal theory suggests they actually make the problem worse. Nor do bondholders operate with rational expectations, as fiscal theory suggests.

☆ ChatGPT is strengthening the case for a 4-day workweek
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( Jacob Zinkula | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Such a productivity boost could make a four-day workweek more possible. Calls for implementing a four-day workweek have picked up steam over the past year as pilot programs have described promising results. "Any technology that increases productivity, ChatGPT included, makes a shorter workweek more feasible," Carl Benedikt Frey, an Oxford economist, told Insider. 'The workweek length is up for grabs'Rep. Mark Takano, a Democrat from California, is among those advocating a four-day workweek. "Yes, ChatGPT might make a four-day workweek more feasible in principle," Frey said.

☆ Lawyer who has negotiated salaries for decades: Female clients were offered less '100% of the time'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( Gili Malinsky | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Justice is a longtime entertainment lawyer and spent decades representing an array of clients ranging from male and female executives to talent like rapper Jay-Z. When she expressed how much her female clients were looking to get paid, she says, "I got ridiculous pushback." Here are some of the excuses she heard most often for why her women clients didn't get offered what their male peers did. It was assumed, by contrast, that single men would one day need to support their families. When Justice asked for a salary comparable to the client's male counterparts, the in-house counsel she was negotiating opposite "laughed at me," she says.

☆ Let's ditch the 5-day workweek and the 8-hour workday, says a professor writing a book on how to fix work
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-05 | by ( Juliana Kaplan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

He thinks a shorter week and a shorter work day are overdue, and that we're heading in the right direction. People do want to work, Bruno said, but they don't want to be resentful about being there. When it comes to a shorter workweek, Bruno said, "I'm very confident it would bring people in, because what are you saying to those people? Senator Bernie Sanders is calling for a shorter workweek; Rep. Mark Takano has reintroduced his proposal to make a 32-hour workweek law in the US. Have you tried out a shorter workweek or workday?

☆ The US could be 4 months away from a potentially disastrous debt-ceiling breach, but nobody's negotiating over how to fix it
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-04 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | Juliana Kaplan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

GOP lawmakers have refused a clean increase, but have yet to produce details on what they want in a deal. The US could breach the debt ceiling as soon as July, the CBO estimated. That's because no one seems to be ready or willing to negotiate over how to raise the debt ceiling. The debt ceiling dictates how much money the government can borrow to pay off the expenses it's already approved. For now, Biden's administration has maintained that raising the debt ceiling should be done in a bipartisan way, and without negotiations.

Analysts agree that U.S. equity valuations are expensive, nominally and relative to history and overseas peers. The S&P 500 is still up 3.5% this year, the Nasdaq up 10%, and the S&P 500 price-to-earnings ratio comfortably above historical averages and current international comparisons. "The equity market is buying into a pretty rosy outlook, the 'immaculate disinflation' concept. The S&P 500 is currently trading at around 18.5 times 12-month forward earnings. "Neither of these outcomes are favorable for premium market valuations," Lerner wrote in a note on Monday.

☆ An ex-Instagram employee says Meta's 'impatience' has hurt its shopping efforts
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Sydney Bradley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

But as Instagram axes shopping products, ex-staffer Meghana Dhar points to Meta's "impatience." The moves have left many asking: What's going on with Instagram shopping? While at Instagram, Dhar worked on Instagram's early shopping features, from onboarding brands to getting John Mayer to host a live shopping event with laundry company The Laundress. But it's also had a tendency to launch and then axe shopping products, like Instagram (and Facebook) live shopping and affiliate marketing. Scaling back on shopping, for now, could also be a blessing in disguise for Meta, Dhar added.

☆ Factbox: Four-day working week: some are seeing a win-win
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Mark John | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Whether they will have the longevity of France's landmark 35-hour working week bill, enshrined into law in 2000, remains to be seen. The country's telecom giant Telefonica separately offered its employees a four-day week - but in exchange for a 12% pay cut. ITALY - Italy's biggest bank Intesa Sanpaolo last year offered staff the option of a four-day working week on the same salary from this January, the first such move by a major Italian employer. Travel company Nordic Visitor, with offices in Iceland, Scotland and Sweden, reduced the working week to 35 hours from 40. Consumer goods giant Unilever has also experimented with a four-day working week for local staff.

Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs - often a market mover with its big macro calls - is a good example. Last month's Bank of America survey of fund managers around the world still had net 68% expecting recession this year. Rates markets reared up to price Fed rates back above 5% and now expect them higher at yearend than they are today. And yet market volatility gauges have stayed peculiarly serene. Bond market volatility (.MOVE) remains well above its 20-year mean - but it has retreated sharply to two-thirds of last year's peaks.

☆ We could soon be facing the biggest financial crisis in history as Republicans threaten to stop paying America's bills
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | Juliana Kaplan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

Republicans are using the debt ceiling as leverage to achieve spending cuts on Democratic priorities. But failing to raise the debt ceiling by the summer could cause the US to default on its debt. Consequences of default are dire, and Biden has urged the GOP to not bargain with the debt limit. "Failure to raise the debt limit will not reduce our debt, but it would wreck the economy if it led to a default. "When you talk about the trillion dollar platinum coin, it sounds very silly — and it is really silly!"

☆ CES technology trade show adopts social theme
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-07 | by ( Dawn Chmielewski | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Las Vegas, Jan 6 (Reuters) - Farm equipment took the keynote spotlight at the CES technology trade show in Las Vegas, as "human security for all" became the first theme in its 56-year history. "Technology allows farmers to create more with less," May told an audience of 2,000 at one of the world's largest tech events, organized by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA). The trade group is partnering with the World Academy of Art and Science and the United Nations Trust Fund for Human Security to encourage the tech industry to help tackle the world's most pressing problems. The CES sessions are the first phase of the trade group's "rolling thunder" campaign to raise awareness across all sectors of the economy, said Garry Jacobs, executive chairman of the Human Security For All campaign. Reporting by Dawn Chmielewski in Las Vegas; Editing by Richard ChangOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ This CEO was Jay-Z’s lawyer for 17 years—her best advice for women at work: 'Always try to get to the top'
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( Gili Malinsky | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Jennifer Justice, CEO of legal and startup services company the Justice Department, did not come from a family of high-powered CEOs herself. Justice ended up becoming rapper Jay-Z's lawyer in 1998 and representing him for 17 years. "That's really where my passion for representing women came from," she says. She preferred not to share her age as she's seen that kind of openness hurt women in business in the past. As someone who's represented people at various levels of the corporate ladder, Justice has a wealth of knowledge about work.

☆ Why recession fears are back: Americans are losing faith
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( Christine Romans | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

The famous British economist John Maynard Keynes coined the phrase “animal spirits” to describe what drives investors, consumers and business leaders. “At the end of the day, a recession is a loss of faith,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics. Yellen explained this week that recession risks permanently exist. “There are always risks of a recession,” Yellen told CBS’s “60 Minutes” in an interview that aired on Sunday. Hopefully we don’t lose faith and run for the bunker and go into recession.”— CNN’s Elizabeth Yang contributed to this report.

☆ Why Inflation Took Off in 2022—and What Happens Next
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Vincent Reinhart | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

In 2022, the Federal Reserve made history, almost surely launching hundreds of academic papers, dissertations and tell-all tomes to occupy interest for years to come. For most central bankers, attention is the worst of outcomes. Rather, most believe their ambition should be to follow John Maynard Keynes’s advice and “manage to get themselves thought of as humble, competent people, on the level with dentists.”The Fed only garners such attention making or correcting a major mistake—and there was a bit of both this year. Inflation was allowed to hit a 40-year high. Monetary policy had to pivot forcefully to raise the target range for the overnight rate to 4.25% to 4.5% in 2022, including four 0.75-percentage-point installments.

These so-called Twitter Files were proof of “free speech suppression,” the billionaire claimed. But for supporters, the details are less important than the narrative: another battle in Musk’s grand war to protect and enable “free speech” — seemingly everywhere and anywhere. Before Musk, Twitter wisely began labeling and then removing tweets that disseminated false information about the pandemic. But it feels like Musk’s actions as head of Twitter are incorrectly being blended with his statements on free speech. Musk’s self-proclaimed defenses of free speech sound good — most Americans remain, rightly, committed to this fundamental tenet of constitutional freedom.

☆ ‘Young Bloomsbury’ Review: A Bohemia of Their Own
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-25 | by ( Donna Rifkind | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

It’s impossible to appreciate the context of Nino Strachey’s book “Young Bloomsbury” without a clear understanding of what Old Bloomsbury was. Unfortunately, that presents its own difficulties, since no one, not even the Bloomsbury Group’s original members, has ever agreed on how to define it. The achievements of the group took place in a variety of fields: literature (Virginia Woolf and E.M. Forster), art history (Roger Fry and Clive Bell), biography (Lytton Strachey), painting and decorative arts (Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant), international politics (Leonard Woolf) and economics (John Maynard Keynes). Among them, Virginia Woolf, Keynes and Fry were the farthest-reaching innovators. But if the others did not reach the same heights, their work nonetheless remains significant.

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