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☆ Members of Congress are so tired of government shutdowns that some want to pass a bill to get rid of them forever
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-22 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | Juliana Kaplan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Congress has yet to reach an agreement on avoiding a government shutdown by September 30. Politico reported that legislators in the House and Senate are passing around a letter calling for a vote on legislation to get rid of shutdowns. Under that law, a two-week extension of funding would automatically kick in should Congress not pass appropriations bills in time. Congress would also not be allowed to recess or adjourn for over 23 hours during that shutdown period. "There's Democrats talking to Democrats, Republicans talking to Republicans about the bill.

Persons: James Lankford, Maggie Hassan, SCOTUS, Lankford, Chuck Schumer, Kevin McCarthy, McConnell, It's, Schumer Organizations: Service, Politico, Act, Republican, Democratic, Republicans, Independents, CNN, Management Locations: Wall, Silicon, shutdowns, —

☆ Breakingviews: Rupert Murdoch will redefine chair emeritus
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-21 | by ( Jennifer Saba | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

NEW YORK, Sept 21 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Rupert Murdoch is tiptoeing slowly out the door. The decision at least solidifies succession plans, but there can be little doubt that his chairman emeritus title will be more than just a retirement honorific. He has been sharing the chairman’s job with his son, Lachlan, who will take the seat himself and keep his chief executive position at Fox. Follow @jennifersaba on XCONTEXT NEWSRupert Murdoch is stepping down as co-chair of media companies Fox and News Corp and his son, Lachlan, will become sole chair, the companies said on Sept. 21. Rupert will be chair emeritus of both Fox and News Corp.

Persons: Rupert Murdoch, tiptoeing, Murdoch, Lachlan, James, Walt Disney, Robert Thomson, ”, Rupert, Jeffrey Goldfarb, Sharon Lam, Aditya Sriwatsav Organizations: Reuters, Fox, News Corp, Fox News, Wall Street, Walt, Disney, Communications, . News Corp, Thomson

☆ Opinion: How Covid-19 is resurfacing after months of calm
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-05 | by ( Kent Sepkowitz | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Kent Sepkowitz CNNThere are several plausible reasons why this latest bump is occurring now after months and months of calm. To sort it out, I decided to perform an at-home rapid antigen test. One negative test on the first day of symptoms, especially with the rapid antigen test, is not determinative. The virus that causes Covid-19 infection is a simple scrap of RNA that cannot survive without a living cell to support it. This won’t be the last alarm, real or false, for me (and others) in the months ahead.

Persons: Kent Sepkowitz, Covid, —, overconfidence Organizations: Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, CNN, Kent Sepkowitz CNN, US, Twitter Locations: New York, United States, XBB

☆ Remote workers are falling behind in one major way: They're forgetting how to hang out with people
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-20 | by ( Juliana Kaplan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

But, unlike the Great Recession, there's been no rebound in chatting with each other even as more workers return to the office. All of a sudden, life and work could happen on their own terms, and where they wanted it. And some people may not want to socialize, or can't lead a social life the way they had before COVID, whether due to illness or other factors, such as increased susceptibility to disease. While quiet time and working from home might be a boon for work life, there's still the challenge of fitting socializing around it. "Now, on a Thursday I'm more likely to see people like a couple coming in and they're splitting their entrée."

Persons: hasn't, We're, Griffin Leeds, There's, I've, there's, haven't, Yvette Sheline, Emily Hessney Lynch, Lynch, It's, —, Sheline, it's, I'm Organizations: Service, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Center, Neuromodulation, University of Pennsylvania, Survey, Leeds Locations: Wall, Silicon, Brooklyn

☆ Soft landing hopes are drawing money back into this risky asset that’s paying 8% yield. How to navigate
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-10 | by ( Darla Mercado | Cfp | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

High yield mutual funds and exchange traded funds saw inflows of $1.9 billion in July, Barclays said, citing Lipper data. High yield bonds are corporate issues that are rated below BBB, meaning they have a higher risk of default compared to their investment-grade counterparts. "When we are in junk and high yield names, we prefer loans – more senior loan positions rather than high yield." Novak added outside of high yield loans, the firm's other big fixed income play is higher quality investment grade bonds. "We don't think taking a heroic position [in high yield] makes a whole lot of sense in our view," he said.

Persons: Dow Jones, Bill Zox, it's, Zox, Bryan Novak, Novak, Brandywine's Zox, nonbank financials, Bill Ahmuty, Lawrence Gillum, Michael Bloom Organizations: Barclays, Fitch, Management, Brandywine Global, SEC, Astor Investment Management, Corporate, State, LPL

☆ Goldman Sachs' investing playbook through year-end: 3 leaders share their advice, including how to cash in on a potential double-digit rally in stocks
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-26 | by ( Laila Maidan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

This analogy was the segue into Goldman Sachs' 2023 mid-year investment outlook. "Do not change lanes unnecessarily," said Sharmin Mossavar-Rahmani, head of the investment strategy group and chief investment officer of wealth management at the firm. Historically, when stocks draw down 20% or more, returns are favorable in the following 12 and 24 months, she added. "What is really fascinating when you've had this kind of narrow breadth, the market actually continues to rally," Mossavar-Rahmani said. On the one hand, private sector balance sheets remain healthy, prices in the global housing market remain stable due to an undersupply, and there has been a gradual recovery in the services sector.

Persons: Goldman Sachs, Robert Tibshirani, Sharmin, Jan Hatzius, you've, Rahmani, Hatzius, it's, Julian Salisbury, Salisbury Organizations: Drivers Locations: China, Salisbury, Banks

But the lure for OCI and others of making ammonia with a smaller carbon footprint is a business with potential beyond the farm. is the question, and I think it's a good question," OCI CEO Ahmed El-Hoshy told Reuters, when asked why his company is betting on producing so-called "blue ammonia." But even with U.S. support, blue ammonia economics hinge on further government incentives. If utility premiums don't emerge, OCI plans to use its Texas blue ammonia to make fertilizer in The Netherlands, where the company has under-utilized its plants due to high natural gas prices. OCI's Texas plant, to start production in 2025, will produce 1.1 million metric tons annually.

Persons: Ahmed El, Hoshy, Alexander Derricott, TD Cowen, JERA, Yara, Stephan Werner, Werner, Katrine Petersen, Petersen, Chris Bohn, Oystein Kalleklev, Harald Fotland, Fotland, Rod Nickel, Yuka Obayashi, Anna Driver Organizations: Reuters, OCI, REUTERS, Group, CF Industries, Gulf, CF, Yara, Mitsui, Mitsubishi, Nutrien, Investors, Germany's DWS, International Maritime Organization, Flex LNG, Avance, Victoria Klesty, Thomson Locations: Beaumont , Texas, U.S, Texas, Japan, South Korea, Netherlands, United States, El, OCI's Texas, Gulf Coast, Winnipeg , Manitoba, Oslo, Tokyo, Bengaluru

☆ Pink Floyd, ‘The Wizard of Oz’ and Me
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-21 | by ( Charlie Savage | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +19 min

Muted tk tkLike other band members have done consistently over the years, Waters denied that Pink Floyd intentionally structured its 1973 album to align with the 1939 film. Before my article, “The Dark Side of the Rainbow” was just a word-of-mouth thing on an early internet message board. I mostly listened to alternative rock in those days, but Pink Floyd’s Usenet group had a hold on me. I shared that page on the Usenet group and added it to a Pink Floyd “Web ring” — a system in which people with related pages linked to one another. The article page was logging hundreds, then thousands, and eventually tens of thousands of visitors.

Persons: Floyd, ‘, Oz ’, ”, Roger Waters, Joe Rogan, Waters, Noam Chomsky, Rogan, Pink Floyd —, Oz, Dorothy, Clare Torry’s, “, Pink Floyd, Alan Parsons, Willie Nelson, ” Waters, ” Rogan, “ I’ve, it’s, I’m, floyd, Kurt Cobain, Toto, Marvel, grooving, Dave Gilmour, Pink, Kurt Loder, Oz ”, “ Akira ” —, Dorothy tiptoeing, perversely Organizations: The, Gazette, New York Times, Hoosier, MGM, Miss, Journal Gazette, Columbia Records, Dave Gilmour & Co, MTV, New York Daily News, The Washington Post, The Baltimore Sun, YouTube Locations: Austin , Texas, Louisiana, Fort Wayne, Ind, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Indiana, Boston, York

☆ Mike Pence calls Trump indictment 'saddening' and 'divisive,' but won't say if he'd pardon the former president
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-18 | by ( Katie Balevic | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

In a "Meet the Press" exclusive, Pence dodged questions on whether he would pardon the former president. Pence said he has the support of all kinds of people, but wouldn't say if he's targeting Trump supporters. Still, Pence wouldn't say if he would pardon Trump himself if he were elected to the Oval Office, saying the "question is premature." We don't know what the verdict will be of the jury," Pence said in his NBC interview. "Look, I know the people in our movement, and I can honestly tell you that they're some of the best people in this country," Pence said.

Persons: Mike Pence, Pence, —, MAGA, Donald Trump, Trump, Chuck Todd, Jack Smith, he'd, he's, Todd Organizations: Press, Trump, Service, NBC News, Justice Department, NBC

☆ Tech pushes Nasdaq higher, dollar climbs on solid data, debt ceiling progress
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( Stephen Culp | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Investors were closely monitoring the debt ceiling negotiations in Washington for signs that Democrats and Republicans might be inching closer to a deal. Optimism about debt ceiling talks ebbed and flowed, with hopes for a deal that avoids a catastrophic default. European stocks closed higher and the German DAX rose to its highest level since January 2022 on optimism about the U.S. debt ceiling talks. The greenback extended its ascent against a basket of world currencies, reaching a seven-week high, powered by the economic data and debt ceiling hopes. Gold moved in opposition to the dollar, with the precious metal losing some luster as the economic data lowered the likelihood of a Fed rate cut before year-end.

☆ Apple’s balance sheet is golden and delicious
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Robert Cyran | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

But for Apple (AAPL.O), the sharp change in monetary conditions is golden and delicious. The iPhone maker said on Thursday that it ended the first quarter with cash and saleable investments $57 billion greater than its debts. That’s nearly enough to cover its newly-raised dividend for a year, and $90 billion buyback program, without touching the balance sheet. While the first two initiatives sit on Goldman’s balance sheet, the buy-now-pay-later product sits on Apple’s. Apple had $57 billion more in cash and saleable securities on its balance sheet than its debts at the end of the quarter.

☆ Stocks slip as focus falls back on Fed
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Tom Westbrook | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The Fed's "beige book" of economic conditions is published later on Wednesday and appearances are due from Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee and New York Fed President John Williams. Markets are pricing an 86% chance the Fed raises rates by 25 basis points at the May meeting, and that wasn't swayed terribly much by conflicting outlooks from two non-voting Fed officials on Tuesday. St Louis Fed President James Bullard told Reuters the Fed ought to keep raising rates to subdue persistent inflation. Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic told CNBC he thinks the Fed should hike one more time then pause to consider the next move. The prospect of peak rates has been applying downward pressure on the U.S. dollar.

☆ U.S., China Plunge Further Into a Spiral of Hostilities
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( James T. Areddy | Charles Hutzler | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Harsh new verbal attacks on the U.S. by Beijing’s top leadership demonstrate just how unsteady relations have become between the world’s two major powers. Just a few weeks ago, China and the U.S. were tiptoeing toward something akin to a diplomatic cease-fire. President Biden’s envoy was due in Beijing to craft a possible framework for high-level government-to-government dialogues and stabilize ties after years of bitterness.

☆ U.S., China Plunge Further Into a Spiral of Hostility
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( James T. Areddy | Charles Hutzler | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Questions posed by the conservative justices during arguments on Tuesday over Biden's debt relief indicated that the conservative-majority court could strike down the plan as an unlawful overreach of executive power. "If Congress can't or won't step up, and the court won't let presidents do so, what are we left with? Its conservative justices already have invoked it to scuttle a pandemic-era residential eviction moratorium, a COVID-19 vaccination-or-testing mandate for large businesses and federal limits on carbon emissions from power plants. In some instances, like Biden's unilateral effort to extend the eviction moratorium, he took executive action following congressional inaction. "I'm concerned that we're going to have a problem in terms of the federal government's ability to operate," Jackson said.

☆ 8 investments to make now as the Federal Reserve risks a recession by going 'way overboard' in raising interest rates, according to 7 top economists and strategists
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( James Faris | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Since March, Rosenberg has warned that by trying to crush inflation, the Fed would inadvertently kill the economy as well. "I think that the odds now are that it's going to be more severe than people think because the Fed has gone way overboard," Rosenberg said of a recession. The contrarian view: With inflation falling, a recession is no guaranteeHowever, not every strategist thinks that a recession is a sure thing. But what I think we can see is the Federal Reserve is overdoing it and eventually, the Fed will have to cut rates." Fittingly, Parker's bets are contingent on his view that the US economy won't suffer from a severe recession.

Per his defense, when conspiracy theorist Alex Jones called the Sandy Hook parents crisis actors, “he was looking at the world through dirty glasses.” Maybe so. But he has built a career selling “dirty glasses” to people like my mother, a self-described “truther” who spread misinformation before and after the Sandy Hook shooting. In this respect, my mother isn’t unique: Millions of Americans continue to spread Jones’ misinformation even as he is publicly debunked. Jones’ influence over my mother in the last months of 1999 is hard to overstate. During the trial in Texas, Jones’ attorney warned that “if you look at the world through dirty glasses, everything you see is dirty.“ Thirty years ago, Alex Jones sold my mother a pair of glasses, a lens into the world.

☆ The Ayahuasca Diaries
▼ + stars: | 2022-06-26 | by ( Mattathias Schwartz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +37 min

But please understand: I didn't drink ayahuasca so I could write an article about it. I wrote an article about it so I could drink ayahuasca. I was desperate to drink ayahuasca — I had been for several months, in fact — and the formality of an assignment would help me out at home. Instead, a friend of a friend linked me up with an ayahuasca sangha, a Buddhist word for a spiritual community. I thought of my old friend, Scott, who, many years before, had declined an opportunity to drink ayahuasca.

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