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☆ Why Prices, Inflation Are Still Soaring: Corporate Price Gouging
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Juliana Kaplan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +16 min

While many of the problems that helped trigger the upward spiral have abated, prices are still high and getting higher. The idea that companies are taking advantage of disruptions to push price increases on consumers has many names — greedflation, excuseflation, price gouging, corporate profiteering — but the gist is the same. Supply-chain issues and other disruptions made sense as drivers of higher prices, Chris Becker, a senior economist and the associate director of policy and research at the Groundwork Collaborative, told me. "Working people are suffering thanks to corporate greed, so we need to enact tougher rules to ensure corporations pay a price when they price gouge." Working people are suffering thanks to corporate greed, so we need to enact tougher rules to ensure corporations pay a price when they price gouge.

☆ Harry Belafonte, calypso star and civil rights champion, dies at 96
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Alex Johnson | Diana Dasrath | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

Singer Harry Belafonte speaks during a press junket at The Bing Decision Maker Series with the Sing Your Song Cast and Filmmakers on January 22, 2011 in Park City, Utah. American singer Harry Belafonte performing in a recording studio, circa 1957. By the early 1960s, Belafonte had become a force in the civil rights movement. A crowd of over 10,000 civil rights marchers gathers in the Manhattan Garment Center as Harry Belafonte sings at spiritual at a civil rights rally. A capacity audience of civil rights advocates turned out to watch a glittering array of theater personalities perform.

☆ Supreme Court will rule against Biden's student loan forgiveness plan, legal experts predict
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-22 | by ( Annie Nova | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 27: Student loan borrowers gather at Supreme Court the evening before the court hears two cases on student loan relief to state the relief is legal and needs to happen immediately on February 27, 2023 in Washington, DC. "I expect the court will rule against the Biden administration," said Paul Collins, Jr., professor of legal studies and political science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. "The Supreme Court is an incredibly ideological and partisan institution in 2023 — perhaps more so than at any other point in American history," he said. The White House has insisted that it's acting within the law, noting that the Heroes Act of 2003 grants the U.S. education secretary the authority to make changes to the federal student loan system during national emergencies. That act followed the 9/11 terrorist attacks, providing relief to federal student loan borrowers who'd been affected by those events.

The Supreme Court temporarily halted court orders that would have impacted the availability of an abortion drug. A Supreme Court decision Friday to keep available — for now — the widely used abortion pill mifepristone was met with relief from one side of the debate, disappointment from the other and a vow from both to keep fighting. Maura Healey of Massachusetts called the court’s decision a “victory” for abortion patients and providers. While statements of muted celebration poured in from elected Democrats and groups supporting abortion rights, comment from Republicans and anti-abortion groups was noticeably sparser. Attorney General Andrew Bailey of Missouri, who opposes abortion, said through a spokesman that the decision was a disappointment.

☆ Risks of Tupperware and other plastic containers
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Kristen Rogers | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Figuring out the answer to that question for any type of reusable plastic food storage products — not just Tupperware — often comes down to understanding what they’re made of. Risks of container wear and tearPutting stress on plastic food containers by washing them in the dishwasher or with rough scrub brushes “increase the ability of that plastic to leach whatever it was made out of,” Vandenburg said. The “microwave safe” label on some plastic containers doesn’t mean the product is totally safe from a health standpoint, she added. “Some of the plasticizers and chemicals can transfer from the plastic containers into the food during heating,” Rogers said. “If you can’t afford to replace everything all at once, replace them one at a time.”Glass food storage containers are a safer option.

☆ Premarket stocks: Inflation just reached an inflection point
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

According to some experts, inflation rates have reached an inflection point and painful interest rate hikes could soon ease. Some economists believe that this level — around 5% — is the point at which inflation is no longer considered an emergency issue. That means the Federal Reserve could feel less pressure to quickly stabilize prices through aggressive, economically painful interest rate hikes. “The Fed … will insist that their job is done when inflation hits 2%,” Ball told Before the Bell on Wednesday. The US Treasury, Federal Reserve and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation all intervened to ensure bank customers could access all their money and to attempt to stave off future bank runs.

☆ Here's the 9-page pitch deck Tealbook used to raise its $50 million Series B and help businesses source from more diverse suppliers
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-02 | by ( Emma Cosgrove | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The startup uses AI-boosted data to help institutions source from more diverse suppliers. Check out the nine-page pitch deck below. Ownership data can help meet diverse sourcing claims; raw-materials data can help with ethical sourcing goals; carbon-emissions data can help with climate goals. Here's the pitchbook Lapierre used to land her $50 million Series B round led by Ten Coves Capital, with participation from BDC Capital, Grand Ventures, RBC Ventures, Reciprocal Ventures, Refinery Ventures, S&P Global, Stand Up Ventures, RTP Global, Workday Ventures, CIBC Ventures, and Good Friends. Tealbook TealbookTealbook pitch deck TealbookTealbook pitch deck TealbookTealbook pitch deck TealbookTealbook TealbookTealbook pitch deck TealbookTealbook pitch deck TealbookTealbook pitch deck Tealbook

☆ Premarket stocks: How big of a problem is greedflation?
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

“Executives at SVB and Signature [Bank] took wild risks and must be held accountable for exploding their banks,” Warren said. Republican Senators say the Fed’s focus on climate change led to banking turmoilRepublican Senators repeatedly insinuated on Tuesday that the recent US banking turmoil came as a result of the Federal Reserve’s focus on climate change. In his opening statement, Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the ranking member of the banking committee, called the Fed’s focus on climate change a waste of time. It’s what our supervisors do all the time.”In an interview with Montana Public Radio in 2014, Daines said that “the jury’s still out” on whether climate change is real. The public reasonably expects supervisors to require that banks understand, and appropriately manage, their material risks, including the financial risks of climate change.”

The bottom line: The Ally High Yield Savings Account is a strong high-yield savings account with a competitive interest rate and solid savings tools. Ally High Yield Savings Account Learn more On Ally's site. Compare Today's Savings RatesHow Ally WorksAlly is an online bank with several strong accounts, including its high-yield savings account. We've compared the Ally High Yield Savings Account with savings accounts at two other online banks: Discover and Marcus by Goldman Sachs. See how Ally compares Ally High Yield Savings AccountDiscover Online Savings AccountMarcus by Goldman Sachs High Yield Online Savings Account Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options.

☆ The notion of 'fake work' or coasting in the tech industry has a long history, but experts say it's just an 'excuse for bad management'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-26 | by ( Grace Kay | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Tech workers have been accused of "coasting," as well as "resting and vesting" in the past. Experts said the notion of fake work is part of a larger issue in the industry and often an excuse. People have long accused tech workers of failing to pull their weight — they've just had different names for it over the years. These claims are shedding light on larger management issues and internal problems within major tech companies, experts told Insider. And while some experts say a certain level of "fake work" is a natural part of the boom-and-bust cycle in tech, not all agree.

☆ Meet Peter Tuchman, the most photographed stock trader on Wall Street
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-25 | by ( Morgan Chittum | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Peter Tuchman, one of the most recognizable stock brokers on Wall Street, has been at the NYSE for over 37 years. Tuchman, who has been at the New York Stock Exchange for nearly 38 years, is the most-photographed broker on the trading floor. Tuchman describes the New York Stock Exchange as "the delta of all information" and the "last standing human entity market in the world." He landed a summer job as a teletypist at the New York Stock Exchange days after getting back. In the midst of the craziness, the wildness, and the chaos of the stock market.

☆ How 'bailout' became a dirty word
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Nathaniel Meyersohn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

New York CNN —“Bailout” became a curse word in American politics following the 2008 global financial crisis, fueling backlash among people who felt the risks and potential consequences of capitalism didn’t apply to big corporations or the wealthy. A financial bailout is generally considered to be providing compensation for losses when there was reckless, irresponsible or nefarious behavior at play, he added. “Bailout is a dirty word. The politics of bailoutsBailout politics have returned in response to the Silicon Valley and Signature meltdown. If those depositors are made whole, that would constitute a bailout, he said.

☆ Low-Wage Workers Climb the Earnings Ladder
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( Justin Lahart | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Competition for low-wage workers will become more intense, a new paper says. With the broad job losses the pandemic set off concentrated in low-wage industries, the earnings gap between the rich and the poor seemed likely to only widen. It has narrowed instead, with wage growth among lower-paid and less-educated workers outstripping wage growth among the better-paid and more highly educated. Their findings suggest that even as the pandemic fades, competition for low-wage workers will be more intense than before the pandemic. That could lead to further reductions in income inequality, raise labor costs at firms that employ low-wage workers, and reshape the U.S. business landscape.

☆ Salesforce CEO asks if tech execs should 'unleash' their inner Elon Musk. Experts say that's an awful idea.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-05 | by ( Grace Kay | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Scott Latham, a strategic management professor at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, called Musk's leadership "incredibly dysfunctional." He said he's never seen a company recover from the type of drastic cuts Musk initiated at Twitter. "Every CEO in Silicon Valley has looked at what Elon Musk has done and has asked themselves, 'Do they need to unleash their own Elon within them?'" If you're going to have a successful company, you need good employees and good employees typically have options. "If more companies start treating their employees like Musk has, that would be a very grim future," Alon-Beck said.

☆ Lack of Crypto Audit Regulation Raises Questions About PCAOB Authority
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-17 | by ( Mark Maurer | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +6 min

Additionally, there isn’t a regulatory framework for audits for many crypto companies. The SEC, which oversees the PCAOB, is reviewing how crypto companies portray reports from audit firms in the aftermath of the FTX collapse. The PCAOB—which sets audit standards, inspects audits and disciplines audit firms—has said it can only oversee audits of public companies and SEC-registered broker-dealers. In a letter last month to PCAOB Chair Erica Williams, they said the watchdog ignored what they called questionable practices by auditors of crypto companies. Even potential improvements to crypto audit regulation might not prevent fraud in the crypto industry, said Andrew Kitto, an assistant professor of accounting at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a former PCAOB economic research fellow.

☆ Premarket stocks: Share buybacks could beat last year's record $1.2 trillion
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Companies have announced about $175 billion worth of planned stock buybacks so far this year. This year will likely be the first with at least $1 trillion in completed S&P 500 company buybacks, said Howard Silverblatt at S&P Dow Jones Indices. ▸ GM (GM) just inked an exclusive deal for the hottest product in automaking: Semiconductors. The strong dollar is hurting multinationalsThe rip-roaring dollar cut deeply into the earnings of multinational companies selling their wares overseas last quarter. “We got hit with that.”McDonald’s (MCD) and 3M (MMM) also said in earnings reports that they were worried that the strong dollar would affect future sales.

Millennials have lived through two recessions and might be facing a third as their parents retire. Talking money with your parents isn't going to be fun, but it's a good idea to know their status. A major part of that preparation is figuring out where the money will come from to care for their parents. Decide who can provide the financial caretakingSo should millennials be saving for their parents' care? But Williams, the financial planner, doesn't advise millennials to focus their saving efforts on their parents' care.

The wind, solar and EV manufacturing sectors are creating the new positions, which include electricians, mechanics, construction workers and technicians. Since President Joe Biden signed the historic Inflation Reduction Act into law last August, companies have announced more than 100,000 clean energy jobs across the country, according to a report by the nonprofit Climate Power. The IRA is the biggest climate bill ever passed by Congress and provides $369 billion in funding for initiatives like cutting emissions, manufacturing clean energy products and advancing environmental justice initiatives. So far, 22 companies have unveiled plans for new or expanded EV manufacturing in Alabama, Oklahoma and Michigan. And an additional 24 companies have released plans to expand wind and solar manufacturing in Colorado, Ohio and Texas.

☆ Amid 'Velma' pushback, Mindy Kaling is a 'lightning rod' held to impossible standard, some critics say
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-21 | by ( Brahmjot Kaur | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

In 2021, South Asian women made up 0.3% of onscreen representation in television and film, according to a study by the Nielsen company. Srinivas sees why the South Asian community feels incorrectly represented by Mindy, Devi, Bela or Velma. “When her characters have become so popular with the mainstream audience, I think it’s understandable that the South Asian community feels somewhat outraged by this portrayal of a South Asian individual,” she said. “It’s not inauthentic to the experience of South Asian kids growing up in this society. “They are very much the same as the characters Mindy portrays.”

☆ Columbia University will be led by a woman for the first time in its 268-year history
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( Ashton Jackson | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Since 1754, Columbia University has had a male president — but that's about to change. The University announced Wednesday that Nemat (Minouche) Shafik, a leading economist and author, will become its 20th president and first woman leader. In an announcement from Columbia's Board of Trustees, Shafik was praised for her character and dedication to sparking change. By age 36, Shafik had become the youngest-ever vice president of the World Bank in the 1990s. "I feel like, if I had looked all over the world for the best person to next lead Columbia, I would have chosen Minouche Shafik," Bollinger said in a statement.

In recent years, U.S. tech majors have stepped up hiring and made diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) a priority. But as the industry grapples with over-hiring since mid-2020, rising interest rates and changes in business and consumer behavior, tech companies have announced deep cuts, risking their diversity efforts. The rare shakeup in big tech companies risks further disrupting diversity pledges that have already grown stagnant as companies de-emphasize DEI efforts. Equal Employment Opportunity data for 2008-2016, found that about 7% of tech firms are actively trying to diversify their workforce. This will disrupt diversity efforts even further, said Benjamin Juarez, a recruiting consultant and co-founder of Latinos in Tech.

Dec 22 (Reuters) - FTX founder and former Chief Executive Sam Bankman-Fried, who faces U.S. fraud charges over the collapse of FTX, ran his crypto empire with a number of associates. GARY WANGGary Wang co-founded FTX and Alameda Research with Bankman-Fried, and served as FTX's chief technology officer. He and Bankman-Fried met at a math camp in high school and became college roommates, Bankman-Fried wrote in a now-unavailable FTX blog. Wang worked as a software engineer at Google before co-founding FTX and Alameda, according to an archived webpage for the FTX Future Fund, the company's charitable effort. NISHAD SINGHNishad Singh was a best friend of Bankman-Fried's brother in high school, Bankman-Fried wrote in the deleted blog post.

Ron DeSantis, who won re-election in a landslide Tuesday, threw his political weight behind 30 school board candidates this election cycle. In Florida, because school board races are nonpartisan, if candidates capture at least 50% of the vote in the primary, they don’t need to compete in the November elections. That stands in contrast to the results for the Florida Democratic Party, which supported 30 school board candidates, only nine of whom won seats this year. Riding a wave of conservative parent anger, Republicans in several states targeted school board races, with mixed results. However, GOP candidates running against progressive ideas captured seats on the State Board of Education, which sets curriculum standards.

For the most part, Mastodon looks like Twitter, with hashtags, political back-and-forth and tech banter jostling for space with cat pictures. People swap posts and links with others on their own server - or Mastodon "instance" - and also, almost as easily, with users on other servers across the growing network. But the jump in Mastodon users in a matter of days has still been startling. loadingBefore Musk completed the Twitter acquisition on Oct. 27, Mastodon's growth averaged 60-80 new users an hour, according to the widely-cited Mastodon Users account. Rochko started Mastodon in 2017, when rumours were spreading that PayPal founder and Musk ally Peter Thiel wanted to buy Twitter.

"Look we all love Emmanuel the Emu but he has avian flu. Avian flu experts, too, said touching an infected emu isn't advisable, given that the virus can jump from animals to humans in rare cases. H5N1, the bird flu strain currently spreading, is highly contagious among birds, and it can be deadly to them. "Once an avian virus can move to mammals, now we’re in the realm of 'Yeah, we better be careful.'" All three experts said scientists are watching this bird flu closely even though the risk to humans is low.

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