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☆ 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.

☆ 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.

☆ I asked ChatGPT about its carbon footprint, and for now, it's a mystery
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Catherine Boudreau | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

ChatGPT said its carbon footprint depended on the energy use of its computers and servers. Concerns about ChatGPT's carbon footprint, which is likely small at the moment, could rise as more people turn to it for day-to-day search. For now, a lot of mystery surrounds the carbon footprint of AI, including ChatGPT. I asked the chatbot what its carbon footprint was, and its answer felt, well, human: It depends. "As an AI language model developed by OpenAI, I do not have a physical body or personal actions that generate carbon emissions," ChatGPT wrote.

☆ Stanford just became the latest school to offer free tuition to families making under $100,000 a year
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Stanford announced plans to offer free tuition to families making under $100,000 a year in the upcoming academic year. Currently, it offers free tuition to families making under $75,000 a year. On Wednesday, the California university announced that beginning in the upcoming 2023-24 school year, it will offer undergraduate families making under $100,000 a year free tuition, room, and board. Currently, that offer stands for families making under $75,000 a year, and according to the press release, families making under $150,000 a year will continue receiving scholarship support to help cover tuition. "We are pleased that this newest expansion of our financial aid program continues and extends that commitment."

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.

☆ GDP report could show solid fourth-quarter growth but still signal a recession is coming, economists say
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Patti Domm | In | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Economic growth is expected to have slowed slightly in the fourth quarter but was still solid, driven by a strong consumer. According to Dow Jones, economists expect that U.S. gross domestic product grew by 2.8% in the fourth quarter, down from the 3.2% pace in the third quarter. While economists see a strong fourth quarter, they are divided on where the economy goes from here and a key is the consumer. The slowdown in residential investment has taken a full percentage point off of growth in the fourth quarter, he said. Some market strategists see a strong fourth quarter as another sign the economy could avoid falling into recession, and a better-than-expected report could reinforce that view.

☆ 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.

The toll of confirmed storm-related deaths climbed to 27 in Buffalo and the rest of Erie County on Monday, from 13 the night before. The fatalities included cases of people found in snow banks and in cars or who had died from cardiac stress while plowing or blowing snow, county executive Mark Poloncarz said. The greater Buffalo region, on the edge of Lake Erie near the Canadian border, was hardest hit. [1/9] An ambulance passes an abandon car during a winter storm that hit the Buffalo region, in Amherst, New York, U.S., December 26, 2022. She and local officials ranked it as the worst Buffalo-area snowstorm since a 1977 blizzard that killed nearly 30 people.

Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said the storm's confirmed death toll climbed to 13 on Sunday, up from three reported overnight in the Buffalo region. The latest victims included some found in cars and some in snow banks, Poloncarz said, adding that the death tally would likely rise further. New York Governor Kathy Hochul called it an "epic, once-in-a-lifetime" weather disaster that ranked as the fiercest winter storm to hit the greater Buffalo area since a crippling 1977 blizzard that killed nearly 30 people. RESCUING THE RESCUERSThe latest blizzard came nearly six weeks after a record-setting but shorter-lived lake-effect storm struck western New York. [1/9] A snow plow is left stranded on the road following a winter storm that hit the Buffalo region on Main St. in Amherst, New York, U.S., December 25, 2022.

☆ Deadly blizzard, deemed worst in 45 years, paralyzes greater Buffalo, N.Y.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-26 | by ( Gabriella Borter | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

[1/3] Vehicles are left stranded on the road following a winter storm that hit the Buffalo region in Amherst, New York, U.S., December 25, 2022. The greater Buffalo region, lying at the edge of Lake Erie near the Canadian border was one of the hardest-hit places. The governor called it an "epic, once-in-a-lifetime" weather disaster that ranked as the fiercest winter storm to hit Buffalo, New York state's second-largest city, since a crippling 1977 blizzard that killed nearly 30 people. The latest blizzard, which initially overwhelmed emergency crews, came nearly six weeks after a record-setting but shorter-lived lake-effect storm struck western New York. He said one electrical substation knocked offline was sealed off by an 18-foot-tall mound of snow, and utility crews found the entire facility frozen inside.

☆ Wall Street landlords who've stockpiled $110 billion are lying in wait for their biggest American home-buying spree yet
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( James Rodriguez | Daniel Geiger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

Institutional investors have earmarked as much as $110 billion to buy or build single-family homes. Institutional investors now own about 3% of the roughly 20 million single-family-rental homes in the US, according to Roofstock, an online marketplace for single-family investment properties. That would be nearly 9% of the roughly 88 million single-family homes in the US, according to the Census Bureau's most recent statistics from 2020. Better deals expected in the years aheadThere are signs the institutional investors won't have to wait long to begin buying. That leaves between roughly $70 billion and $80 billion that could still flow into the sector.

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.

[1/3] A view of the land repair work underway at site of an oil spill from Keystone Pipeline, located north of Washington, Kansas, U.S December 15, 2022. Erwin Seba/REUTERSCompanies TC Energy Corp FollowDec 21 (Reuters) - The U.S. pipeline regulator launched a review this year of its special permits that waive certain operating requirements for pipelines, following a government report into spills on TC Energy's Keystone oil pipeline, a source familiar with the matter said. The most recent major spill occurred this month in rural Kansas along Keystone, the only U.S. oil pipeline with a special permit to operate at higher pressure. PHMSA commissioned Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a Department of Energy research institution, to review special permits following a 2021 report on Keystone accidents, the source said. The latest Keystone spill raises doubts about whether PHMSA adequately assesses risk in granting special permits, said Don Deaver, a pipeline consultant.

☆ Housing slump to continue but some hopeful signs ahead
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-18 | by ( Paul R. La Monica | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

While that’s already had a negative impact on the housing market, we’ll get more details this week about how much worse the damage has become. A long list of housing data is on tap. On Tuesday the US Census Bureau will report housing starts and building permits figures for November, followed by Friday’s release of new home sales data for the same month. Housing market was frothy, but not a bubbleOthers in the industry are cautiously optimistic as well. That all amounts to a few good reasons why the housing market could avoid a severe and prolonged slump.

☆ More Foreclosures, Easier Mortgages Would Help Fix America's Housing Market
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-03 | by ( James Rodriguez | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +15 min

These standards are based on factors including the borrower's financial stability and the state of the housing market and economy. Finding the right size for the credit box is much easier said than done. A tidal wave of foreclosures followed, plunging the US housing market — and the global economy — into chaos. Even just stabilizing the credit box over time could also help smooth out some of the boom-and-bust cycles that have come to define the housing market. "If we do not address this intrinsic cyclicality, the housing market will continue to experience boom-bust cycles, leaving destruction in their wake," the paper said.

☆ 3 steps that would help 'cure the disease' of the student-debt crisis after Biden's one-time relief, according to experts
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-24 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

"We really need to figure out a way to cure the disease and fix the problem," Levine said. "The rising cost of college can put valuable options out of reach for students who need them the most. Grants, when based on financial need, are a key step toward a more equitable system." Biden noted his plan was a "one-time" relief measure and borrowers would not see another broad loan forgiveness action during his term. While its implications are significant — the relief would wipe out the entire balances for 20 million borrowers — it's currently blocked.

☆ How much college athletes are getting paid from NIL deals with brands, according to 4 creators
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( Colin Salao | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Four student-athletes told Insider how much they've made from NIL and how they've secured deals. Deals ranged in value from free stuff to a few thousand dollars per post, depending on the athlete's reach. But there are about half a million NCAA athletes with differing skill-levels, reach and influence, and this affects the size of their NIL endorsements. Betts has since secured dozens of NIL deals and shared with Insider the email template and resume he uses to pitch to brands. He's one of four student-athletes from different NCAA divisions who shared with Insider how much they've made and how they've secured their NIL deals.

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.

☆ The companies that won that war for talent during the Great Resignation had one major thing in common: they offered paid leave
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Juliana Kaplan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

During the pandemic, workers with paid leave were more likely to stay in their roles. They were also more likely to get raises and promotions, suggesting that paid leave helps with retention. At companies that didn't offer paid leave, employees were three to four times more likely to quit than at companies with the benefit. In one company the report analyzes, over a third of female hourly workers without access to paid leave quit in 2020. Workers who took leave quit less frequently than workers who didn't.

A Hampton University football player came out publicly as gay, a first for a football player at a historically Black college or university, according to Outsports.com, an LGBTQ sports news site. Byron Perkins, a Division I defensive back for the Hampton University Pirates, came out as gay in an Instagram story shared Wednesday. Perkins told Outsports that he’d like to help other gay Black men who are struggling with their sexuality. “There hasn’t been an out gay football athlete at an HBCU. “I’m sure the young man has heard his fair share of slurs from teammates unaware that he is gay.

☆ Why a small midterm race in Arizona could have big consequences for U.S. democracy
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-19 | by ( Tim Reid | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

REUTERS/Brian Snyder/File PhotoOct 19 (Reuters) - The fight to become Arizona’s next attorney general in November’s midterm elections smashed fundraising records this week. Former President Donald Trump has endorsed the Republican attorney general candidate Abe Hamadeh and appeared on stage with him. “I think that American democracy runs through the state of Arizona in 2022,” Mayes said in an interview with Reuters. AG EMPOWERED TO STEP INHamadeh downplayed the role an attorney general has in election certification in a statement to Reuters. “What look like these relatively inconsequential races will have enormous consequences in terms of the 2024 presidential election,” Douglas said.

☆ He’s CEO of Two Companies—and a Ranked Fencer
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-15 | by ( Jen Murphy | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Aaron Luo must choose between attending his sons’ fencing contests and his own. “When tournaments overlap, it’s such a dilemma,” says Mr. Luo, who, like his sons, competes at a national level. Mr. Luo, 42, fenced in high school and competed with a club at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He took a 10-year hiatus from the sport to co-found Caraa, a New York-based luxury accessories brand, in 2014. So he dusted off his epee, the largest and heaviest of the three fencing swords.

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