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☆ Securonomics is fuzzy new lodestar for investors
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-02 | by ( Felix Martin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

During the era of free trade and financial liberalisation, the politicians danced to the economists’ tune. President Joe Biden’s National Security Advisor explained that the era of unqualified support for free markets is over. The state will explicitly subsidise “specific sectors that are foundational to economic growth (or) strategic from a national security perspective,” Sullivan explained. Internationally, meanwhile, free trade is no longer the pole star. Sullivan’s 5,000-word speech devoted just three sentences to the World Trade Organization.

Persons: Rachel Reeves, Jake Sullivan, Joe Biden’s, ” Sullivan, Jacob Soll, Jean, Baptiste Colbert, Alexander Hamilton, Adam Smith, securonomics, Colbert, Hamilton, Christine Lagarde, Lagarde, ”, Soll, Peter Thal Larsen, Pranav Kiran Organizations: Reuters, Labour, Bank of England, White, U.S . Treasury, U.S . Trade Representative, Joe Biden’s National, Biden, offshoring, World Trade Organization, Industries, BAE Systems, Dow, Aerospace, Defense, U.S, Treasury, University of Southern, European Central Bank, Soviet, Russia, Thomson Locations: Washington, Tellingly, States, French, Scottish, University of Southern California, China, United States, Europe, Saudi Arabia

☆ The agony and ecstasy of scoring last-minute face value Taylor Swift tickets
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-13 | by ( Samantha Murphy Kelly | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

“My family [last weekend] took the gamble to drive down the 5 hours to Nashville to see if we could get face value tickets,” she said. Another Twitter account called @ErasTourResell, which has 120,000 followers, has gained significant traction working with resellers who want to sell their tickets at face value. The trio of twenty-somethings aim to make Swift tickets as accessible to fans as possible without them overpaying or getting scammed. “So far we’ve posted somewhere between 2,700 and 3,000 tickets, all for face value,” the trio said in a DM conversation on Twitter. “It’s truly so rewarding seeing these tickets go to real fans for face value when the resale market has insane prices with people making three times the profit.

☆ Warren Buffett's businesses are battling historic inflation, hefty interest rates, and tighter lending. 5 Berkshire Hathaway CEOs break down why they're thriving despite a brutal economic backdrop.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-12 | by ( Theron Mohamed | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway faces inflation, higher interest rates, and tighter credit. Its subsidiaries are also seeing signs that their customers, suppliers, and partners are being pinched by higher prices, steeper interest rates on their debts, and perhaps even reduced access to credit. "You just kind of have to take it," Egan said about some of the higher costs. Moreover, longstanding suppliers who refrained from passing on their higher costs to See's in 2021 have been forced to charge it more. The fast-food chain's franchisees face much higher costs for equipment, building materials, and construction work than they did a few years ago.

☆ A Chick-fil-A restaurant failed to build an extra lane to handle traffic, leaving city officials and the owner of a nearby funeral home fuming
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-11 | by ( Alex Bitter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Chick-fil-A didn't build a traffic lane it promised outside a new store in Bradenton, Florida. Now, residents and the mayor are worried about drive-thru traffic spilling into the city's streets. Chick-fil-A told Insider that it's "still waiting to receive all necessary permits" from Manatee County and the State of Florida. A history of Chick-fil-A drive-thru concernsAtlanta-based Chick-fil-A is among the most popular fast-food chains in the US, with non-mall locations averaging $8 million in sales annually. But that popularity has made drive-thru traffic a problem at numerous Chick-fil-A locations.

☆ Here’s the inflation breakdown for April 2023 — in one chart
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Greg Iacurci | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Where consumers saw prices fall in AprilConsumers saw average prices decline outright in April in certain categories. Housing — the largest component of the average household's budget — was the largest contributor to inflation in April, the BLS said. watch now"It looks like inflation in the [shelter] category has peaked," Andrew Hunter, senior U.S. economist at Capital Economics, said. Overall, households are faring much better than they were months ago relative to inflation in staples like food, energy and housing, according to Zandi at Moody's Analytics. Why inflation surged to multi-decade highsConsumer prices began rising rapidly in early 2021 as the U.S. economy started to reopen after the pandemic-related shutdown.

☆ Trump's rape trial defense? His accuser and her friends have Trump Derangement Syndrome
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-06 | by ( Jacob Shamsian | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

Donald Trump's lawyers have tried to undermine E. Jean Carroll, who accuses him of rape. Just moments later, Trump's lawyers rested their case as well, without presenting any evidence. Carroll and her friends, Trump's lawyers suggest, all have Trump Derangement Syndrome. According to Trump's lawyers, the whole lawsuit is a conspiracy schemed up by ardent Trump critic George Conway. AP Photo/John MinchilloTrump's attorney pointed out that Birnbach had said Trump and his allies had symptoms of Trump Derangement Syndrome.

Unlike much of the past 15 years, euro strength is on the ECB's side as it meets on Thursday. Indeed, ECB President Christine Lagarde and chief economist Philip Lane littered speeches with warning shots about an excessive euro strength when the euro last snarled up to this extent in October 2020. Lagarde's predecessors Mario Draghi and Jean-Claude Trichet similarly weighed in with verbal intervention to cool periodic 10% surges in the trade-weighted euro over its history. Euro strength has built on belated ECB interest rate hikes since July - up some 350 basis points to 3.0% so far and expected to go up at least another 25 bps this week. So should euro strength be finally embraced by ECB as way of slaying the inflation beast?

☆ 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.

☆ King Charles coronation concert fans slam Ticketmaster ‘shambles’
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Anna Cooban | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

The company was hired by the BBC to handle ticketing for a concert on May 7 to celebrate the ascension of King Charles to the British throne. Some fans who received an email from the ticketing site saying they’d won tickets for The Coronation Concert say they were later told that all tickets were gone. A total of 10,000 free tickets for next week’s concert were allocated to fans in three ballots. But some fans have said Ticketmaster’s instructions on how to secure the tickets allocated in the third ballot were confusing and contradictory. “Like so many others, [I] got the @Ticketmaster email to say I’d got tickets for the Coronation concert but they’re all gone.

☆ The US economy is facing the ultimate 'trilemma' as the Fed desperately tries to get inflation down, Mohamed El-Erian says
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Morgan Chittum | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Policymakers are navigating a "trilemma [of] price stability, maximum jobs, and also financial stability," he told Bloomberg TV. Meanwhile, a credit contraction in the bank sector is equivalent to 25-50 basis points of tightening. "This just makes the Feds' ability to navigate this trilemma [of] price stability, maximum jobs, and also financial stability that much harder," he told Bloomberg Television Thursday. The credit contraction will have a similar effect on the economy that Fed rate hikes do, equivalent to about 25 to 50 basis points, El-Erian estimated. The central bank has been on a monetary tightening campaign for over a year, raising borrowing costs by 475 basis points to combat decades-high inflation.

[1/2] Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at the National Rifle Association (NRA) annual convention in Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S., April 14, 2023. Kaplan said Trump has no obligation to show up or testify, and his lawyers, who said Trump "wishes to appear," can renew the request if he doesn't. The judge also noted that Trump, the Republican front-runner in the 2024 presidential campaign, is planning a New Hampshire campaign stop on April 27, which would be the trial's third day. Carroll, 79, has accused Trump, 76, of raping her in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in Manhattan in late 1995 or early 1996. Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; editing by Jonathan OatisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Here’s the inflation breakdown for March 2023 — in one chart
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( Greg Iacurci | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

But swings in gasoline and other energy mask price pressures that, while easing, remain under the surface, economists said. "It's improving and the economy is cooling, but it's still far from tepid," Diane Swonk, chief economist at KPMG, said of inflation. What drove inflation in March 2023Housing was a "notable" inflation driver in March and over the past year, according to the BLS. The shelter index increased 8.2% in the last year, accounting for over 60% of the total increase in consumer prices after stripping out the volatile energy and food categories. "It signals the food inflation fever has been broken," Zandi said.

New York CNN —Taylor Swift fans headed to court in Los Angeles Monday to face off against Ticketmaster after the ticketing giant fumbled online sales to the mega-star’s latest tour. Ticketmaster and parent-company Live Nation face a lawsuit from Swifties across the country filed in December for “unlawful conduct” in the pop star’s chaotic tour sale. The lawsuit alleges Ticketmaster and its parent company were anti-competitive, imposing higher prices on fans in the presale, sale and resale market. It’s the only place to get tickets,” Swift fan Penny Harrison told CNN. Pre-sale tickets for “The Eras Tour” frustrated Swift fans across the country in a debacle that stayed in the headlines for weeks.

☆ Here’s the inflation breakdown for February — in one chart
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( Greg Iacurci | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Overall inflation has moderated from June's pandemic-era peak over 9% but remains higher than any point since the 1980s. watch now"The pervasiveness of inflation is an ongoing issue," said Greg McBride, chief financial analyst at Bankrate. Inflation a byproduct of supply, demand imbalancesConsumer prices began rising at a rapid pace in early 2021 as the U.S. economy started to reopen after the pandemic-related shutdown. Goods inflation has retreated but has since spread to the services sector largely due to business' high demand for workers, economists said. The Fed is trying to manufacture a so-called "soft landing," whereby by inflation slows but the economy doesn't tip into a recession.

☆ The US housing market is in recession - and the pandemic has created a unique economic headache, elite strategist Liz Ann Sonders says
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Theron Mohamed | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Sonders touted stocks that can weather inflation, recession, and higher interest rates. "You've got recessions in areas like certain segments of consumer goods, certainly in housing," Sonders said during a recent episode of "The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway." Recession, inflation, and winning stocksSonders sounded the recession alarm during the interview. She singled out the housing market as particularly vulnerable, given valuations and mortgage rates are closely tied to interest rates. She suggested they look for companies that can thrive during periods of inflation, recession, and elevated interest rates.

☆ Senators press U.S. FAA on recent airplane near miss incidents
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( David Shepardson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Michael A. McCoyWASHINGTON, Feb 15 (Reuters) - U.S. senators on Wednesday raised concerns about a string of recent near miss airplane incidents with the acting Federal Aviation Administration head as well as about a FAA computer system outage that snarled thousands of flights last month. They impact Americans confidence in our aviation system," said Senate Commerce chair Maria Cantwell at Wednesday's hearing. "The FAA must have redundancies, and not a single point where a failure can happen in a key system." Cruz asked if new FAA safeguards remove the risk of a similar single point of failure. On Tuesday, Nolen said he was launching a safety review after the recent near miss incidents raised questions about the U.S. aviation system.

☆ Retailers Hope to Bargain for Lower Ocean-Freight Rates
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Paul Berger | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +5 min

Richard Galanti, chief financial officer of Costco Wholesale Corp. , said lower freight rates should lead to price cuts at the members-only retailer, which imports more than 200,000 containers a year from Asia. An International Monetary Fund study found that when ocean-freight rates double it causes inflation to rise by 0.7 percentage point. Jonathan Ostry, a Georgetown University professor and a co-author of the study, said cutting shipping rates in half should reduce inflation by the same amount. In the ocean-shipping spot market, where importers book containers without a contract, rates have dropped to $1,000 on some trans-Pacific routes. But they say lower ocean shipping expenses will help in steadying prices.

☆ U.S. FAA says update will prevent 'bad data' from corrupting key database
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( David Shepardson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Last month, the FAA told lawmakers it had revoked access to a pilot messaging database by contractor personnel who unintentionally deleted files in the Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) database. The NOTAM system provides pilots, flight crews and other users of U.S. airspace with critical safety notices. "We expect that a significant portion of the modernization work will be complete by mid-2025. Nolen's testimony said on Jan. 10, the NOTAM system became unreliable and technical experts sought to address the issue by switching to a NOTAM backup database. The FAA will need support from Congress to fund FAA "modernization needs," Nolen's testimony says.

☆ Fans soak up Super Bowl glow as 'Valley of the Sun' takes spotlight
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/6] Feb 12, 2023; Glendale, AZ, USA; Fans arrive Super Bowl LVII between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles at State Farm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Patrick Breen/The Republic via USA TODAY SportsGLENDALE, Ariz., Feb 12 (Reuters) - Fans dressed in Kansas City Chiefs red and Philadelphia Eagles green excitedly bounced up the walkway to State Farm Stadium on Sunday, as the curtain lifted on a tough-to-predict Super Bowl 57. The NFL said it expected the Glendale, Arizona, stadium's retractable roof to remain open. Mahomes has the benefit of experience over his 24-year-old rival Jalen Hurts, featuring in the Super Bowl for the third time in four years. Super Bowl 57 is set to kick off at 4:30 p.m. MT (2330 GMT).

☆ Retail CEO crisis: With recent shakeups at Kohl's, Adidas, Dollar General, and more, the industry's top job is suddenly the hardest to fill
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-11 | by ( Matthew Kish | Avery Hartmans | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

It's the surest sign yet of a crisis facing the retail industry. Supply chains got snarled, shoppers stopped visiting stores, and stimulus payments spiked demand, each making it difficult to measure how business was doing. Then stimulus payments sent demand for everything from sneakers to home goods spiking while supply chains snarled. And just when supply chains started to sort themselves out, inflation hit, and shoppers started to scale back spending. Retail CEOs need 'peripheral vision'Workers at Starbucks stores and Amazon warehouses across the country have pushed to unionize, with many calling out the pay disparity between front-line workers and top executives.

It is the worst violence in Peru in two decades and threatens to destabilize one of region's most reliable economies. Armas' comments come a day after the central bank maintained its benchmark interest rate at 7.75%, making it the first time since the second half of 2021 that the bank did not hike its rate. On Thursday, the International Monetary Fund called inflation Peru's most immediate policy challenge, in a statement following a staff visit to the country. Armas highlighted that inflation was seen to be on a "downward" trend, with January's figures slightly better than expected. The bank now forecasts inflation for early 2024 to reach 4.62%, above the previous forecast of 4.3%.

Feb 9 (Reuters) - Online travel booking company Expedia Group Inc (EXPE.O) missed Wall Street estimates for fourth-quarter profit on Thursday, hit by a spike in cancellations and bad weather near the end of the quarter. Travel demand has generally been strong throughout last year despite recession and inflation fears. Expedia posted revenue of $2.62 billion, missing Wall Street estimates of $2.7 billion. The company's quarterly adjusted profit was $1.26 per share, short of analysts' expectations of $1.67 per share, according to Refinitiv data. "They said last quarter that they're seeing evidence that they're getting better marketing ROI-wise, but it's not coming through in the numbers for us," he added.

☆ Expedia profit misses as severe weather weighs on holiday quarter, shares fall
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Feb 9 (Reuters) - Online travel booking company Expedia Group Inc (EXPE.O) missed Wall Street estimates for fourth-quarter profit on Thursday, as severe weather conditions toward the end of the year hurt its business despite strong travel demand. "While our Q4 results were negatively impacted by severe weather, demand was otherwise strong and accelerating," Expedia Chief Executive Officer Peter Kern said in the company's earnings release. Expedia reported fourth-quarter adjusted profit of $1.26 per share for the quarter ended Dec. 31, short of estimates of $1.67 per share, according to Refinitiv data. Expedia's revenue of $2.62 billion missed Street estimates of $2.7 billion. Meanwhile, the Seattle-based company reported $20.5 billion in total gross bookings across its travel products including lodging and flights, up 17% a year prior.

☆ Lawmakers’ Support for Macron’s Pension Overhaul in France Falters
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Noemie Bisserbe | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Workers in France’s education, transportation, healthcare and refinery sectors staged union-led strikes Tuesda, aimed at forcing the government to reverse course on its plan to raise the retirement age. PARIS—Continuing strike action is eroding parliamentary support for French President Emmanuel Macron’s proposed pension overhaul, with workers staging a new walkout that snarled traffic, canceled trains and shut some schools across the country. For the third time in three weeks, teachers, bus drivers, nurses, oil-refinery workers and others staged union-led strikes Tuesday aimed at forcing the government to reverse course on its plan to raise the retirement age from 62 years old to 64 by 2030. Masses of people took to the streets in demonstrations against the proposed overhaul that sprawled over dozens of French cities and towns including Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Toulouse.

☆ In Peru’s Andes, anger hardens as fast election hopes fade
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Alexander Villegas | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Congress has rejected multiple bills for early elections, a key demand by protesters, including shelving a proposal by President Dina Boluarte on Friday. It is the worst violence in Peru in two decades, and threatens to destabilize one of region's most reliable economies. Adelma Quispe, a protestor in the southern town of Ayavire, said protests would have calmed down if there had been an agreement on snap elections. Zamata, Quispe and others say they have collected money to send people to protest in Lima, but are dedicated to maintaining blockades in their towns. Throughout the region, protesters said they can survive on local crops and livestock, and outlast the capital until their demands are met.

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