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[1/2] Goldman Sachs' Chairman and CEO David Solomon attends a session at the 50th World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, January 21, 2020. REUTERS/Denis BalibouseNEW YORK, Jan 27 (Reuters) - To listen to Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) chief executive David Solomon, the bank is doing "great," while skeptical investors wonder what comes next. Still, Goldman shares are up 3.6% over the past year, outperforming the S&P 500 banking index and peers. In October, Goldman scaled back ambitions for Marcus by placing it under the newly-merged asset and wealth division. "Going back to what has made Goldman great for decades will allow the firm to reset and recover," he said.

☆ Stunned Google staff want 'psychological safety' after layoffs. 'How are we supposed to ever feel safe again?' one employee asks in a tense all-hands meeting.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( Rosalie Chan | Hugh Langley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

"How can we reestablish psychological safety for Googlers after these layoffs?" A third employee, based in the UK noted Google has stressed that "psychological safety is paramount." 'If you interpret psychological safety as removing all uncertainty, we can't do this'Philipp Schindler, Google's chief business officer, weighed in on the topic of psychological safety during the all-hands meeting. Google's SVP and chief business officer Philipp Schindler Matthias Balk/picture alliance via Getty Images"If you interpret psychological safety as removing all uncertainty, we can't do this," Schindler added. Brian Glaser, who heads Google's people development team, reiterated Schindler's comments that a big part of psychological safety is about being able to have "real" conversations with each other.

☆ Amazon's drone delivery unit hit with layoffs just as 10-year-old project finally launches
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( Annie Palmer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +12 min

Two employees said Carbon, who replaced Prime Air co-founder Gur Kimchi, was hired to turn Prime Air into a real business with a sensible budget. Sources with knowledge of Prime Air said cuts in the drone delivery business were expected considering the division's many struggles. Monica Williams, a College Station resident, poses with a Prime Air drone at a community event in July. College Station residents also expressed concern about the prospect of drones harming the deer, foxes and birds that are native to the area. "As we continue to expand, we will update you when drone delivery is available for your household."

☆ Trader Talk: Earnings are mostly about hopes for the second half
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( Bob Pisani | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Earnings: It's all about the second half of 2023. Wall Street analysts agree, but they are expecting a much rosier outcome in the second half of the year. "The big question is, are the worst of the earnings estimate cuts for 2023 behind us?," Nick Raich from Earnings Scout told me. Big cap tech earnings: laggards (Q4 year over year earnings ests.) Analysts embrace 'tough first half, better second half' scenario All the hopes for earnings growth are now pinned on the back half of the year, when the Fed is expected to have halted its rate hike frenzy.

☆ Walmart bans single-use bags in more stores
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Nathaniel Meyersohn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

New York CNN —Walmart will eliminate single-use paper and plastic carryout bags at the register from stores in New York, Connecticut and Colorado this month. The company previously stopped giving out single-use plastic bags in New York and Connecticut and in some areas in Colorado. Plastic-bag bans reduce the number of these bags in stores and encourage customers to bring reusable bags or pay a small fee for paper bags. In New Jersey, a ban on single-use plastic and paper bags has meant grocery delivery services have switched to heavy-duty bags. Reusable bags — cloth totes or thicker, more durable plastic bags — aren’t a perfect solution, either, unless they are actually reused.

☆ Apple is searching for a head of ad sales as its streaming TV and sports ambitions grow
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-11 | by ( Claire Atkinson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Apple has a recruitment firm searching for a top TV and streaming executive to head up its ad sales. The search suggests the company may be considering an ad-supported tier for Apple TV+. Recruiters are quietly working on a search for a head of ad sales, according to a person familiar with conversations. This new executive search indicates that Apple has plans to create an ad tier for Apple TV+. An ad executive familiar with plans said Apple was negotiating a major beachfront presence this year.

☆ A major beer maker says shoppers are finally balking at rising prices — and it could signal inflation's near its peak
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-07 | by ( Emma Cosgrove | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Supply chain costs have driven up beer prices. The maker of Corona says customers have started to buy less beer where prices are highest. And for that reason, beer sales are a solid indicator of the state of the economy when inflation is in play. Other players in the beer supply chain, including the stores that sell Modelo and Corona, up their own prices to varying degrees on top of the wholesale price, Newlands explained Thursday. Some supply chain costs are coming down as imports and overall freight demand cool, but those will take time to hit the balance sheet, and then perhaps eventually the shelf.

☆ Beer Sales Drop as Consumers Balk at Higher Prices
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Jennifer Maloney | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

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☆ Meet the little-known Google exec steering the company's $209 billion ad business through an uncertain economy and the minefield of privacy concerns
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-24 | by ( Ryan Joe | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Jerry Dischler is steering Google's $209 billion ads business through major challenges. It falls to him to reinvent digital advertising to keep its $209 billion ad business going. At the same time, he has to keep growing Google's ad business amid increasingly dour spend forecasts. He went on to search ads in 2008, and by 2009, he was overseeing Google's team that developed new ad formats. Even when some parts of Google's ad business slows, as YouTube and Google network ads did last quarter, it gains strength in other areas, such as search.

"On Tuesday, all of a sudden I'm hearing the interest rates are going up," said the 48-year-old father of two. Like Nakamura, many Japanese fear they may eventually start paying more for mortgages. "Even a small increase would have a big impact on consumer incomes," said Masaaki Kanno, chief economist at Sony Financial Group and a former central bank official. Fixed-rates are seen rising first, because the central bank allowed 10-year yields to creep up. The company is telling them that floating-rate loans won't be affected as long as the central bank keeps short-term rates negative, he said.

☆ Manhattan renters face sticker shock with average rent at $5,200
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Robert Frank | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

The median rent for a Manhattan apartment in November hit $4,033, up from $3,964 in October, according to a report from Douglas Elliman and Miller Samuel. The rise in New York rents also adds pressure to overall inflation, since rents are a large component of inflation indexes and New York is the nation's largest rental market. Brokers and real-estate experts say landlords over-reached when they started renewing the leases signed in 2020 and 2021, often demanding rent increases of 20% or more. The vacancy rate in November was 2.4% — still below the historical norm in Manhattan of about 3%, according to Miller Samuel. Real-estate experts say the big drop in new leases, if it continues, will eventually force landlords to meet renters at a lower price point.

Another state court then replaced that map with one drawn by a bipartisan group of experts. Conservative Chief Justice John Roberts wondered whether such broadly worded provisions provide proper "standards and guidelines" for state courts to apply. The Republican lawmakers argued that the state court usurped the North Carolina General Assembly's authority under that provision to regulate federal elections. Justice Brett Kavanaugh emphasized the "historical practice" that "nearly all state constitutions regulate federal elections in some way." David Thompson, arguing for the North Carolina lawmakers, said the Constitution "requires state legislatures specifically to perform the federal function of prescribing regulations for federal elections.

☆ Merck could keep its patent edge by shifting Keytruda cancer drug to a simple shot
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-02 | by ( Michael Erman | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

If successful, Merck could begin marketing the new formulation within a few years, a top Merck executive told Reuters. "The clock for that patent would start ticking from the time we would get that patent approved." Drug patents have a guaranteed term of exclusivity for 20 years after receiving a patent under U.S. law, but sometimes the companies are able to add additional patents that extend their exclusivity. Merck's patents on the subcutaneous version of Keytruda could protect that formulation until at least 2040, according to Tahir Amin, co-founder of drug patents watchdog group Initiative for Medicines, Access & Knowledge (I-MAK). Northwell's Mulloy said moving patients to subcutaneous versions of drugs also opens up spots in infusion centers for additional patients.

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☆ Office space is tougher than ever to rent out. See the pitch deck that raised $15 million to help landlords compete for demanding tenants.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-26 | by ( Alex Nicoll | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

WiredScore certifies buildings' tech capabilities, like LEED does with environmental ratings. WiredScore CEO Arie Barendrecht walked Insider through the pitch deck he used to raise $15 million. In a world of remote work, potential office tenants have become pickier about their spaces. Generally speaking, prospective office tenants have little insight into what their office WiFi will look like. The company now also certifies technology in apartment buildings, the office of the remote worker.

A sour mixture of manufacturing hiccups, Chinese Covid lockdowns and other issues have watered down Oatly’s once-heady growth rates. On that basis, the company could exhaust its $116 million cash pile early next year. Petersson has announced layoffs and other cost-cutting measures, which he hopes will save $50 million in annual terms. And even if he finds a manufacturing partner soon, it’s unlikely to stop the company burning cash. That leaves Petersson two options: sell the company, or raise cash.

☆ House prices might plunge 20% in the hottest US markets - and the slump could hammer the wider economy, top investor says
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Theron Mohamed | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Home prices could tumble 20% in some of the hottest US markets, top investor Peter Boockvar said. He cited the surge in prices during the pandemic, and soaring mortgage rates pricing out buyers. The Bleakley Advisory boss warned a housing slump could hit consumer spending and the wider economy. "It's an extraordinary rise, and now you have 7% mortgage rates, which are 15-year highs," he said. Paul Krugman, a Nobel Prize-winning economist, has also predicted a housing slump.

☆ Climate justice gets harder as world population passes 8 billion
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Gloria Dickie | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

These are also among the countries most vulnerable to climate impacts, and most in need of climate finance. "A SIGN OF HUMAN SUCCESS"Globally, the 8 billion population milestone represents 1 billion people added to the planet in just the last 11 years. Even while the global population reaches ever-new highs, demographers note that the growth rate has fallen steadily to less than 1% per year. "A big part of this story is that this era of rapid population growth that the world has known for centuries is coming to an end," Wilmoth said. Rapid population growth combined with climate change is likely to cause mass migration and conflict in coming decades, experts said.

☆ Analysis: Airbus widens A350 cabin in mile-high real estate war
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-27 | by ( Tim Hepher | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

The latest salvo concerns some of the world's prime real estate - the cabin of a big jet where comfort meets cost. Airbus said in a blog it was introducing a New Production Standard (NPS) to make A350s lighter and more flexible. Changes include scraping four inches off interior walls and making the cabin longer by moving a bulkhead and squeezing the cockpit. Currently most A350 economy cabins have nine 18-inch wide seats per row. Airlines opting to add an extra seat per row to fly 10 abreast will have 17-inch wide seats.

☆ The Trump and COVID eras tanked immigration to the US. Reversing that could help ease a recession risk, sky-high inflation, and a labor crisis.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-18 | by ( Ben Winck | Jason Lalljee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

More than a third of Americans want less immigration, but more could actually help cool inflation. Letting more people move to and work in the US could close that gap and ease inflation without a severe recession. While many Americans view immigration as a threat to the country's financial well-being, data continually suggests that the opposite is true. There remain some 10.1 million job openings but only about 5.8 million workers available to fill them. Increased immigration, then, provides a rare chance to rebalance the labor market and drag inflation lower without driving millions of Americans out of work.

☆ Tesla investors try to ignore Musk's many distractions
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-16 | by ( Paul R. La Monica | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

While that’s good news for Twitter’s long-suffering shareholders, Tesla investors hope he still has some time for them. There are big challenges in China as well, with Tesla going up against homegrown EV rivals like Nio (NIO), Xpeng and Li Auto. Too many distractionsGary Black, managing partner at the Future Fund and a Tesla shareholder, has been tweeting for the past few weeks that concerns about Twitter are a headache for Tesla investors. In one tweet, Black said there are several problems for Tesla due to Twitter. The underwhelming deliveries and production numbers also underscore how a slowing global economy (and possible recession) could hurt Tesla.

☆ 'Dr. Doom' Nouriel Roubini warns the world economy is in danger - as he predicts an imminent US recession plus more pain for stocks
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-14 | by ( Theron Mohamed | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Economics professor Nouriel Roubini warned the global economy faces a stagflationary debt crisis. Roubini, known as "Dr Doom", predicted an imminent US recession and more pressure on stocks and bonds. Roubini, an economics professor at NYU Stern, is nicknamed "Dr. Doom" for his dire predictions. As a result, Roubini expects a full-blown domestic recession by the end of this year. He emphasized that private and public debt, as a share of global GDP, has soared from 200% in 1999 to 350% today.

☆ Chick-fil-A remains teens' favorite restaurant chain in US
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-13 | by ( Sarah Belle Lin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Chick-fil-A is teenagers' favorite US restaurant chain, a study finds. Fast-food chicken restaurant Chick-fil-A was ranked by 15% of respondents as their favorite restaurant, the same as in the spring 2022 and fall 2021 surveys. Read on to find out the top five restaurant chains where teens prefer to spend their money. In 2019, Insider asked more than 3,000 readers of our fast-food coverage to tell us their favorite chains. Chick-fil-A ranked third-highest in sales among chain restaurants in the US in 2021, just after McDonald's and Starbucks, according to The NPD Group's 2022 restaurant report.

The pork industry has defended the size of the cages used at pig farms as humane and necessary for animal safety. A legal doctrine called the "dormant" Commerce Clause bars states from passing laws discriminating against commerce in other states. "If you're looking for an example of an unconstitutional law, this is it," said Michael Formica, chief legal strategist for the pork producers. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a district court's decision to throw out the lawsuit, finding no Commerce Clause violation. 'DRAMATIC EXPANSION'A ruling by the Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, favoring the pork industry would have major implications for Commerce Clause interpretation, according to some legal experts.

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