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☆ Explainer: Why First Republic Bank failed and what JPMorgan's deal means
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Lawrence Delevingne | Thomson Reuters | Delevingne Works Primarily On Enterprise Stories Related To Finance. He Joined Reuters In | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

May 1 (Reuters) - The focus of the U.S. regional banking crisis turned on First Republic Bank in late March after the wealthy clients it courted to fuel its breakneck growth began pulling their deposits. The failure of First Republic, which said last week it had first-quarter outflows of more than $100 billion, marks the demise of a third major U.S. bank in just two months, after Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank . Merrill Lynch acquired the bank in 2007 but First Republic was listed on the stock market again in 2010 after being sold by Merrill's new owner, Bank of America. WHAT THE JPMORGAN DEAL MEANSJPMorgan said that under its deal First Republic's 84 offices in eight U.S. states would reopen as branches of JPMorgan Chase Bank from Monday, so customers of the failed bank will be dealing with the giant financial group instead. The biggest U.S. bank will get even bigger as a result of the deal for most of First Republic's assets.

☆ The 31 colleges with the best bang for your buck
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Ethan Dodd | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Most graduating high school seniors have until May 1 to decide where they will go to college. Here are the top 31 colleges based on their return of investment. To get the best bang for your buck, students need to consider how much they'll earn in the future from investing thousands of dollars in tuition, room, and board over the next four years. We ranked the top 31 colleges according to how much that investment will be worth in 40 years in today's dollars. Here are the top 31 colleges with the best return on investment.

☆ Seared Sea Bass and Kobe Beef Burgers: Retirement Community Food Goes High-End
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Alina Dizik | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

This week, The Wall Street Journal’s Mansion section is rolling out stories from our special retirement issue. Be sure to check out stories like this one on how one couple planned for retirement in North Carolina, but somehow ended up in South Carolina. Retirement communities aren’t generally known for their fine dining. But since Elaine Davenport, 76, moved into the Hacienda at Georgetown senior-living community earlier this year, she has grown accustomed to sampling fresh seafood, wine lists and perfectly executed steaks with her girlfriends at the facility’s three residents-only restaurants.

☆ Opinion | No One Knows the Value of a College Degree Like Someone Without One
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Christopher Zara | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

The good news is, future job searches may not always be as bleak as mine have been. to Delta Air Lines are dropping college degree requirements for many roles, focusing instead on “skills-based hiring,” a philosophy that emphasizes people over pedigrees. Consider the ever-persistent education wage gap, which has been widening for decades and by some measures got even worse during the past few years. Can we be so surprised that the media presents an incomplete picture about higher education when so few journalists navigate the working world without a four-year degree? One 2022 survey conducted by Morning Consult found that even though 72 percent of employers said they didn’t believe a college degree was a great indicator of a person’s skills, more than half still hired candidates from degree programs anyway because they saw doing so as a “less risky choice.”

☆ Gen Zers are taking over college cities — after they graduate
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Kelsey Neubauer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Gen Z is moving in droves to college towns after they get their degree. Alex Akmal and her partner, Alex, along Memorial Union Terrace on Lake Mendota. Gen Z bonds have been cemented even more because many young people are delaying marriage and having children, the center found. After her studies, she said she might move to Washington, D.C., an even larger Gen Z hangout with those offerings and more. For whatever reason they are coming to these cities, these Gen Zers are here to stay.

Tokyo, Japan CNN —Move over, boomers and older millennials – Japan’s young people are stepping into office. Most members of Japan’s parliament are aged 50 to 70 – and are 75% male, according to data from the Inter-Parliamentary Union. Making headlines is Ryosuke Takashima who, at 26 years old, is Japan’s youngest-ever mayor, according to Japanese public broadcaster NHK. Shin the Hiratsuka YouTuber, who was elected to the Hiratsuka city council. Ayaka Nasuno, 25, is another Gen Z politician making her debut after winning the highest share of votes for the Kawasaki City Council earlier this month.

☆ Dr. Fauci Looks Back: ‘Something Clearly Went Wrong’
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( David Wallace-Wells | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +55 min

Dr. Fauci Looks Back: ‘Something Clearly Went Wrong’ In his most extensive interview yet, Anthony Fauci wrestles with the hard lessons of the pandemic — and the decisions that will define his legacy. But when people say, “Fauci shut down the economy” — it wasn’t Fauci. But somehow or other, the general public didn’t get that feeling that the vulnerable are really, really heavily weighted toward the elderly. We also had a public-health system that we thought was really, really good. But it was really, really antiquated.

☆ 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.

☆ Tupperware has been struggling for some time. These charts show how
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-23 | by ( Alex Leeds Matthews | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —Tupperware may be on the verge of collapse, but the 77-year-old business’ potential demise isn’t necessarily a harbinger of worsening economic conditions. Some business experts say that’s because Tupperware has failed to adapt to changing consumer behaviors. The Tupperware brand name is so iconic that it’s become shorthand for all food leftover storage. That might be part of the problem, as other brands have emerged to compete against Tupperware, sometimes at lower price points. Tupperware has historically only sold to consumers through “direct sales,” most commonly at “Tupperware parties.” These parties were gatherings where people who enjoyed the product would demo and sell the Tupperware brand to their friends and acquaintances.

[1/2] A Tesla Model 3 vehicle drives on autopilot along the 405 highway in Westminster, California, U.S., March 16, 2022. Tesla denied liability for the accident and said in a court filing that Hsu used Autopilot on city streets, despite a user manual warning against doing so. "This case should be a wakeup call to Tesla owners: they can't over-rely on Autopilot, and they really need to be ready to take control and Tesla is not a self-driving system," he said. The Hsu trial unfolded in Los Angeles Superior Court over three weeks, with testimony from three Tesla engineers. The main question in Autopilot cases was who is responsible for an accident while a car is in driver-assistant Autopilot mode - a human driver, the machine, or both?

☆ Fed's Cook sees a less certain outlook for future of monetary policy
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Michael S. Derby | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Officials have signaled that they expect to raise rates by a quarter percentage point to between 5% and 5.25%, matching market expectations. But they are also unclear how much credit conditions might tighten and restrain growth as a result of the banking sector turbulence. In her remarks, Cook said that inflation has been moving down but underlying price pressures still remain strong and embedded in the economy. Cook also said the labor market remains strong but there are signs that’s also starting to slow down. “Wage growth has moderated somewhat from the rates reached about a year ago” and “indicators of hiring have slowed,” Cook said.

☆ Bidens report $580,000 in 2022 income, donation to police foundation
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Trevor Hunnicutt | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

WASHINGTON, April 18 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden and his wife Jill released their federal tax return on Tuesday, showing the couple earned nearly $580,000 last year and paid an effective federal income tax rate of 23.8%. The Bidens also donated roughly 3.5% of their income, or $20,180, to 20 charities, including one associated with U.S. police unions. The Bidens reported 2022 federal adjusted gross income of $579,514 and paid $137,658 in federal income tax. Their charitable donations included contributions to churches and organizations focused on helping children and first responders, including $2,000 to the National Fraternal Order of Police Foundation. Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, reported federal adjusted gross income of $456,918, paying $93,570 in federal income tax for an effective federal income tax rate of 20.5%.

☆ Fed Governor Bowman casts doubt on the need for a U.S. digital dollar
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Jeff Cox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Federal Reserve Governor Michelle Bowman expressed skepticism over the possibility of a digital U.S. dollar, noting Tuesday the multiple risks such a system could impose. For the past few years, Fed officials have been studying whether to join a handful of other central banks to implement its own type of cryptocurrency. However, she said an interest-bearing Fed digital dollar could provide harmful competition for banks, limiting their ability to lend. Like other Fed officials, Bowman said the looming implementation of the FedNow payments system also will address many of the needs cited by central bank digital currency promoters. Perhaps the CBDC's biggest Fed advocate has since left the central bank: Former Governor Lael Brainard is now director of the National Economic Council.

☆ Fed's Bowman sees potential for interbank digital dollar
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

April 18 (Reuters) - A so-called "wholesale" central bank digital currency could hold promise for the future settlement of certain financial market transactions and processing international payments, Federal Reserve Governor Michelle Bowman said on Tuesday. While a digital dollar could make sense for interbank transactions, there could be unintended consequences like disruptions to the banking system if the Fed were to design a central bank digital currency that would be directly available to the public, Bowman said in prepared remarks for an event at Georgetown University's Psaros Center for Financial Markets and Policy. The U.S. central bank has not yet said if it would embark on an effort to create a central bank digital currency, and has previously said it would seek authorization from Congress and the executive branch before doing so. Reporting by Ann Saphir and Hannah Lang; Editing by Paul SimaoOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

ORLANDO, Florida, April 14 (Reuters) - Engineering a soft landing is hard. Blinder posits that the soft landing parameters of avoiding recession completely are too narrow. "To achieve another soft landing under these circumstances, the Fed will have to be skillful indeed," Blinder concludes. The Fed cut rates five months later and the rest is soft landing history. Of these 70 episodes, 41 ended with a hard landing and 29 with a soft landing.

☆ Opinion: The revolving door access to state secrets has to end
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( Brett Bruen | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

The US national security team is once more ignominiously living out the line made famous by pop star Britney Spears after finding itself back in the uncomfortable position of watching state secrets ping-pong around the internet. As a veteran of the National Security Council and State Department, I have a couple of ideas about what we need to change to get Spears’ song off repeat. Indeed, whatever the cause of this latest breach, it should galvanize us to shut the revolving door of access to our most sensitive secrets. For starters, there should be a minimum time commitment from those appointed to high political office. This turnover creates massive disruptions and gaps in our national security structure.

☆ Wall Street is wrong: Former PIMCO chief economist Paul McCulley predicts rate hikes will end next month
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( Stephanie Landsman | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Wall Street is wrong about the Federal Reserve's interest rate path, according to former PIMCO chief economist Paul McCulley. Barring a surprise jump in inflation, he believes mounting economic pressures will convince the Fed to stop hiking interest rates next month. "It would be a pause and then a pivot [later this year]," McCulley told CNBC's "Fast Money" on Tuesday. According to Dow Jones estimates, Wall Street expects a 5.1% year-over-year increase versus 6% in February. "When the short end of the yield curve comes down and we re-slope the yield curve, then I think your garden variety, Main Street stocks will catch a bid," McCulley said.

☆ 10 ways Tasers and stun guns can damage your body and brain, from twisted testicles to temporary memory loss
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-10 | by ( Kelly Burch | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Tasers, AKA stun guns, cause your muscles to seize up, which can make them sore for days after. Police and law enforcement have been using Tasers, known generally as stun guns, since 1974 as a safer alternative to guns. Put another way, all Tasers are stun guns, but not all stun guns are Tasers. Stun guns make your muscles seize up like a Charley horseA police officer's painful reaction to being tasered during a training course on stun guns. Rarely, stun guns can severely harm kidney functionVery rarely, stun guns can cause a serious condition called rhabdomyolysis, AKA rhabdo, which can be fatal.

☆ Healthcare, college education, and childcare started getting worse decades ago. Now we're all finally feeling it.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-08 | by ( Juliana Kaplan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +16 min

Americans are accruing billions in debt to pay for things like education and healthcare. But that would require shifting the idea of childcare, education, and healthcare and thinking of them as public goods — not businesses. That ultimately meant millions in funding for public childcare. "If the US health system was a country, it would be about the fourth-largest country in the world," Cooper said. There's much less government involvement in the US healthcare system than in other countries, Cooper said.

☆ Gary Vaynerchuk to managers: Forget a 4-day workweek. If you want to make your people happy, fire the jerks.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( Jason Lalljee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Gary Vaynerchuk said companies should fire the "assholes" creating "toxic" work environments. He has also said recently that companies need to appeal to Gen Z better, given their many work options. In TikToks posted this week, Vaynerchuk railed against "toxic work environments," slamming companies for retaining employees and management that compromise the "joy" of their staff members. "Joy doesn't come from four-hour workweeks," Vaynerchuk said in one video, seeming to reference the current movement for a four-day workweek. And Vaynerchuk is betting that people also want to be treated right while on the clock.

☆ Top 10 colleges to attend if you want to make a lot of money—Harvard and Yale didn't make the list
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( Kamaron Mcnair | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Former Caltech attendees earn a median income of $112,166 a decade after starting school, making them the highest earners among the nearly 900 colleges ranked. California Institute of Technology Median income 10 years after attendance: $112,166Median debt among graduates: $17,747 2. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Median income 10 years after attendance: $111,222Median debt among graduates: $13,418 3. Stevens Institute of Technology Median income 10 years after attendance: $98,159Median debt among graduates: $27,000 8. Princeton University Median income 10 years after attendance: $95,689Median debt among graduates: $10,450 It shouldn't be too surprising to see several technical colleges make the list.

☆ Properties in Austin have skyrocketed in value over the last 25 years. Here are the top 10 US areas where house prices have grown.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( Beatrice Nolan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Property values in Austin have soared over the past 25 years, an analysis from SmartAsset found. The study analyzed average home value data in metro areas from 1998 to 2022. The study analyzed average home value data in 400 metro areas between 1998 and 2022, calculating collective increases to measure growth and drops in value to measure stability. Two areas in Colorado — Boulder and Fort Collins — also saw above-average home value growth. Here are the metro areas that have seen the biggest property value growth in the last 25 years:

☆ Starbucks' Howard Schultz was the gold standard for good bosses everywhere. Then Gen Z worked for him.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( Alex Bitter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Howard Schultz, the CEO of Starbucks at the time, then appeared with Clinton on a panel to discuss corporate responsibility. Schultz discussed his 1987 decision to offer Starbucks employees stock options and what he said was better healthcare than rivals, among other benefits. Starbucks workers participate in November's Red Cup Rebellion, a nationwide strike. Starbucks's health insurance option for part-time workers originates in a 1986 contract for unionized Seattle Starbucks workers that Schultz fought against at the time. Markey said that by unionizing, Starbucks workers are "just looking to be someone who can protect themselves in the way your father could not."

[1/3] FDIC representatives Luis Mayorga and Igor Fayermark speak with customers outside of the Silicon Valley Bank headquarters in Santa Clara, California, U.S. March 13, 2023. REUTERS/Brittany Hosea-SmallNEW YORK/WASHINGTON, March 31 (Reuters) - The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has retained advisers to sell the securities portfolios that the new owners of failed Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank rejected, according to people familiar with the matter. Silicon Valley Bank's and Signature Bank's securities portfolios carry a face value of around $90 billion and $26 billion, respectively, according to regulatory filings and statements by government officials. The FDIC estimates the sale of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank will cost the deposit fund $20 billion and $2.5 billion, respectively. It will release final figures once sales of the loan books of the banks and their securities portfolios are complete.

☆ Biden administration appeals Texas court decision striking down free Obamacare coverage of preventive care
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( Spencer Kimball | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

The Biden administration on Friday appealed a Texas federal judge's decision to strike down free Obamacare coverage of preventive health-care services ranging from screenings for certain cancers and diabetes to HIV prevention drugs. HHS estimates that 150 million Americans benefited from the free screenings, counseling, medications and other forms of health care that prevent disease under the Obamacare requirements. Working class Americans will get hit the hardest and might forgo essential health care because they can't afford the cost, Gostin said. O'Connor ruled that Obamacare cannot mandate free coverage of health care recommended by the Preventive Services Task Force because the organization's members were appointed in an illegal manner. They also argued the Preventive Services Task Force was appointed in an unconstitutional manner and therefore its recommendations cannot serve as the basis of an Obamacare mandate.

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