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Johnson & Johnson effort to resolve talc cancer lawsuits in bankruptcy fails a second time 2023-07-28 - In this photo illustration, a container of Johnson and Johnson baby powder is displayed on April 05, 2023 in San Anselmo, California. A federal bankruptcy judge on Friday rejected Johnson & Johnson 's second attempt to resolve tens of thousands of lawsuits alleging the company's talc baby powder and other talc-based products caused cancer. J&J in 2021 offloaded those talc liabilities into a new subsidiary, LTL Management, and immediately filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protections. Judge Michael Kaplan in Trenton, New Jersey, said in an opinion that LTL Management's second bankruptcy must be dismissed because the subsidiary was not in "imminent" or "immediate financial distress." A U.S. appeals court in April dismissed the first bankruptcy attempt over the same reason. The decision jeopardizes J&J's proposed $8.9 billion settlement that would stop new lawsuits from being filed. The company previously said more than 60,000 claimants have already committed to voting in favor of the plan. "LTL commenced its bankruptcy case in good faith and in strict compliance with the Bankruptcy Code," J&J said in a statement. "The Bankruptcy Code does not require a business to be engulfed in 'flames' to seek a reorganization supported by the vast majority of claimants," said Erik Haas, J&J's worldwide vice president of litigation in the statement. J&J contends that research and clinical evidence demonstrates that its talc products remain safe.
Congress hands the crypto industry two wins and a loss before August recess 2023-07-28 - Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, speaks during a Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee hearing in Washington, DC, US, on Tuesday, May 16, 2023. WASHINGTON — Lawmakers took big steps this week aimed at regulating digital assets before closing up shop until September. Two of them represented victories for the nascent crypto lobby on Capitol Hill. The other could spell trouble ahead for the industry. The House Financial Services Committee advanced a measure Thursday to establish a clear regulatory framework for the issuance of payment stablecoins. The bill also allows new stablecoin issuers into the marketplace under certain conditions. Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., chair of House Financial Services, said his long-awaited stablecoin regulatory framework, the Clarity for Payment Stablecoins Act, creates a "uniform federal floor" for the digital assets, and protects consumers by requiring stablecoins to be backed "one-to-one by specific high-quality liquid assets." Committee Democrats, meanwhile, argued the bill undermines its own requirements by allowing any federal or state regulator to expand the list of eligible reserve assets. Nonetheless, several Democrats voted with Republicans to move the bill forward, including Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut and Rep. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey. The stablecoin vote came just a day after the same committee advanced a highly anticipated framework for crypto regulation, which delineated when a digital asset is a commodity and when it is a security, for purposes of oversight. The bills' approvals, after a roughly 14-month debate between committee Republicans and Democrats, can be viewed as wins for the crypto industry, whose reputation on Capitol Hill was battered by the failure of crypto giant FTX last fall. But these victories were tempered by an effort in the Senate to rein in crypto's far-reaching influence. Late Thursday night, the Senate passed a massive defense funding bill that included several measures from different bills the digital assets industry has opposed. One of them authorizes the Treasury Department to establish examination standards to help prevent cryptocurrencies from being used to finance illicit activities. Another authorizes Treasury to conduct a study on how to counter anonymous crypto transactions, and solicits recommendations for legislation. "Crypto has become the payment method of choice for rogue nations, drug lords, ransomware gangs, and fraudsters to launder billions of dollars in stolen funds, evade sanctions, fund illegal weapons programs, and profit off of devastating cyberattacks," said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who sponsored one of the bills which informed the amendment, in a statement. Warren also highlighted the NDAA rider this week by reintroducing her bill, the Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act. Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, W.Va., and Republicans Roger Marshall of Kansas and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina also cosponsored the bill, to strengthen enforcement against foreign actors engaging in illicit crypto schemes. The Senate defense bill will need to be reconciled with a House version this fall. The House crypto bills would likely garner enough support to pass in the Republican controlled House, but struggle to gain traction in the Democratic-controlled Senate
Disney loses bid to dismiss or pause DeSantis board's state case 2023-07-28 - A Florida judge on Friday rejected Disney's bid to dismiss a state lawsuit filed by the board of supervisors that Gov. Ron DeSantis had picked to oversee Walt Disney World's operations amid a bitter political feud. The ruling in the state-level case is separate from Disney's ongoing federal lawsuit accusing DeSantis and his allies of waging a political retaliation campaign against the entertainment giant over its opposition to a controversial classroom bill last year. "Today's decision has no bearing on our lawsuit in federal court to vindicate Disney's constitutional rights, and we are fully confident Disney will prevail in both the federal and state cases," a Disney spokesperson said in a statement Friday afternoon. The protracted battle between Disney, one of Florida's largest employers, and DeSantis, a high-profile contender for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, is being fought on multiple battlefields. In the two lawsuits, it currently centers on the special tax district that had allowed Disney's Orlando-area parks to effectively self-govern their operations since the 1960s. But the clash began last year, when Disney denounced legislation in Florida that limited classroom discussion of gender identity and sexual orientation — dubbed "Don't Say Gay" by critics. Soon after, DeSantis and his allies in the state's GOP-led Legislature moved to dissolve Disney World's special district. The district, formerly known as the Reedy Creek Improvement District, was ultimately left intact. But its name was changed to the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, or CFTOD, and its five-member board of supervisors was replaced with figures picked by DeSantis himself. Before that new board took charge, Disney crafted and secured development deals that it says were aimed to protect its investments in the region. But the DeSantis-picked board cried foul, accusing Disney of thwarting its power. The board voted in April to void those deals, and Disney sued in federal court, accusing DeSantis of orchestrating a "relentless campaign to weaponize government power." The CFTOD board countersued days later in state court. In May, Disney asked the court to dismiss that case, arguing in part that it was moot after DeSantis signed additional legislation that voided the company's development contracts. In Friday's ruling, Judge Margaret Schreiber disagreed. The dispute over Disney's contracts "will not be resolved until a court of competent jurisdiction decides the issue in favor of one party or the other," she wrote in a 14-page decision. "That issue is alive and active and has real-world consequences for both parties." DeSantis, whose political rhetoric is steeped in the language of conservative cultural warfare against "woke" issues, has kept up his attacks on Disney even as his campaign appears to be under strain. Once considered former President Donald Trump's only real challenger in the GOP primary fight, DeSantis has dealt with sagging poll numbers and growing questions from even his allies about his campaign strategy.
Here's why this AI chipmaker continues to outflank the competition 2023-07-28 - Intel (INTC) may have jumped over Wall Street's low bar in the second quarter , but the embattled chipmaker's results further highlight rival Nvidia (NVDA) as the semiconductor firm to beat in the nascent race to dominate artificial intelligence. The biggest takeaway — or " read-through," in Wall Street parlance — from Intel's results is that data-center customers have recently emphasized spending on AI projects, leading to softer demand for the company's bread and butter: traditional server chips, known as central processing units (CPUs). The shift is boosting demand for graphics processing units (GPUs), a type of high-powered chip that can run complex AI workloads. That's great news for Club holding Nvidia, which dominates the GPU market. Nvidia's GPUs, for example, helped train OpenAI's viral ChatGPT. The semiconductor firm has been the best-performing stock in the S & P 500 this year, soaring around 219%, on the back of the generative AI boom. Intel's GPU offerings, on the other hand, are still in the infancy stage. "We do see that big cloud customers, in particular, have put a lot of energy into building out their high-end AI training environments...and that is putting more of their budgets focused or prioritized into the AI portion of their build-out," Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger said Thursday. As a result, he explained, data-center CPUs "contracted meaningfully" in the first half of 2023, partly a result of a weaker-than-expected economic recovery in China and some elevated inventories among enterprise customers — weakness he expects to last "at least" through the third quarter. Indeed, two big cloud-computing providers — Club holdings Microsoft (MSFT) and Alphabet (GOOGL) —indicated earlier this week that they're investing heavily in AI infrastructure, which bodes well for Nvidia . Now throw Intel's commentary in the mix, and Nvidia seems very capable of not only meeting its jaw-dropping second-quarter guidance when it reports Aug. 23, but also issuing a strong third-quarter forecast. In a CNBC interview Friday, Bank of America semiconductor analyst Vivek Arya illustrated why the shift toward AI servers lifts Nvidia at the expense of Intel. "Let's take a traditional server where Intel is very dominant. A traditional server sells for $10,000, and Intel sells about 20% of it," Arya said on CNBC. "But when we go to an AI server, Intel's contribution drops to low-single digit percent, and that's where Nvidia's contribution gets to almost 60%, 70% of the price of the server." Meanwhile, Intel's report Thursday paints a somewhat mixed picture for our other Club chip name, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), its longtime rival in data-center CPUs. Under CEO Lisa Su's leadership, AMD has taken meaningful market share from Intel in recent years. This has sometimes meant that Intel and AMD take divergent paths within the same quarter. Earlier this year, for example, Intel issued disastrous fourth-quarter results and first-quarter guidance, only for AMD to deliver far better numbers and guidance a few days later, which suggested Wall Street's concern was overblown . Still, it's possible AMD also saw softer demand for its data-center CPUs in the last quarter due to ramped-up AI spending. Like Intel, AMD is also working to bring its own AI-focused chips to market . More broadly, we still see AMD as well-positioned to capture additional share from Intel in the server market, even if in the second quarter, as Gelsinger contended, Intel's slice of the pie remained "relatively stable." Intel's personal-computer division was a relative bright spot in the second quarter. After a multi-quarter PC chip glut, Gelsinger said inventory has reached a healthy level, helping clear the way for a "sustained recovery" in the second half of the year. That would generally be good news for AMD because it also competes with Intel in the PC market and has been suffering from excess inventory, too. But Gelsinger's assertion that Intel's PC business gained share in the quarter could complicate that picture when AMD reports. Intel shares rose more than 5% Friday, to around $36.50 each, while Nvidia and AMD each climbed more than 1.5%, to roughly $466 and $113 per share, respectively. Bottom line Nvidia wins again — again. We made that argument Wednesday after Microsoft and Alphabet reported, and Intel's results and commentary further indicate the AI tailwinds are blowing strong at Nvidia's back. Yes, Nvidia stock has had a monster run, more than tripling year-to-date, but the fundamental reason for that outperformance — its AI dominance — is completely intact. It remains an "own it, don't trade" stock, alongside Apple (AAPL). For AMD, we're not overreacting to anything we heard from Intel, which offered some reason for caution and some reason for cheer. Ultimately, AMD's own second-quarter results and forward guidance Tuesday will speak the loudest. (Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust is long AMD and NVDA . See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED. Jen-Hsun Huang, president and chief executive officer of Nvidia Corp., speaks during the company's event at Mobile World Congress Americas in Los Angeles, California, U.S., on Monday, Oct. 21, 2019. Patrick T. Fallon | Bloomberg | Getty Images
As Ford loses billions on EVs, the company embraces hybrids 2023-07-28 - Ford Motor Co. displays a new 2021 Ford F-150 pickup truck at the Rouge Complex in Dearborn, Michigan, Sept. 17, 2020. Heads up, hybrid fans: Ford Motor is working on a whole bunch of new hybrid models. "You're going to see a lot more hybrid systems from us," CEO Jim Farley said Thursday after the company reported second-quarter earnings that revealed widening losses on its electric vehicles unit. The comments run slightly counter to recent messaging from the Detroit automakers, which have touted the performance and popularity of all-electric favorites as the industry moves to meet EV targets. The hybrid hype, however, falls more closely in line with global hybrid leader Toyota , which has faced criticism for what some saw as resistance to the EV transition. To be clear, Ford isn't turning away from its much-touted EV push, though it said Thursday that its EV ramp-up may take longer than it had previously anticipated. But even as it spends billions to ramp up EV production, it's planning to bring more hybrid options to market, driven by the success of its current gasoline-electric options. "We have been surprised, frankly, at the popularity of hybrid systems for F-150," Farley said during Ford's second-quarter earnings call. More than 10% of F-150 pickup customers are opting for the hybrid model, Farley said, and that percentage has been increasing. Ford also offers a hybrid version of its small Maverick pickup. That has been an even greater success, Farley said, with more than half of Maverick buyers — 56% — choosing the $1,500 optional hybrid powertrain over the standard four-cylinder engine. But why double down on hybrids just as the industry is making a big push toward pure EVs? "What the customer really likes is when we take a hybrid system that's more efficient for certain duty cycles and then we add new capabilities because of the batteries," Farley said. Among those new capabilities: Ford's "Pro Power Onboard" system, which gives customers the ability to tap the truck's electricity via outlets in the pickup bed to power tools at a job site — or a refrigerator at a tailgate party — eliminating the need to carry a separate generator.
Meta is rebooting Horizon Worlds as the VR platform struggles to grow 2023-07-28 - Meta is overhauling its Horizon Worlds virtual reality app to include more video games as the social platform struggles to find a big audience. Horizon Worlds is the company's free virtual reality social network where people can create avatars and interact with other players. In an effort to make Horizon Worlds more compelling, Meta now has an in-house studio dubbed Ouro Interactive that's focused on making first-party virtual reality games, Meta's Vice President of Metaverse Vishal Shah said in an interview published Friday with the Lowpass technology newsletter. The studio's first VR game, a shooter called Super Rumble, debuted Friday and reportedly contains better graphics and fidelity than other VR games built on top of Horizon Worlds. The video game will also be one of the first VR video games Meta plans to test when it eventually debuts a mobile version of Horizon Worlds, Shah said. "This is definitely more than just a new world," Shah said, referring to it as "the next generation of Horizon Worlds." Expect more video games to debut as Meta builds the new Horizon Worlds, Shah said, explaining that Meta has also revamped the VR platform's infrastructure to support higher-quality and more complex games and provide more tools for third-party developers. "As consumers come to Horizon, we want to make sure there's a bunch of compelling content that they can find on day one," Shah told the newsletter. "We're going to seed the ecosystem, bootstrap it with stuff that we build both in-house, but also with some studios that we're working with." Shah said that when Meta releases a mobile version of Horizon Worlds, he plans for the app to act as the bridge between smartphones and the company's Quest VR headsets. "We're going from a world where we are VR only to a place where we're going to be VR first," Shah said. The revamping of Horizon Worlds comes amid Meta's latest earnings report, which showed the company's Reality Labs units recorded a $3.7 billion operating loss while generating $276 million in revenue. Since the beginning of 2022, the Reality Labs unit has lost over $21 billion, underscoring the massive investment required to develop the VR and augmented reality technologies needed to build a compelling metaverse. Meta's Horizon Worlds represents the company's Roblox-like digital playground intended to attract users who wish to play games and interact with others like a 3D social network. But it hasn't become the mainstream hit with the service reportedly attracting less than 200,000 monthly active users, underscoring the public's current general lack of enthusiasm for VR. Watch: Facebook bowed to White House pressure, removed Covid-19 posts
As the heat turns U.S. into an oven, millions of Americans at risk of power cutoffs 2023-07-28 - A punishing heat wave has led to record-high temperatures across much of the U.S., with more than 180 million people living under a heat advisory on Friday. At the same time, the nation is suffering from a "power disconnection crisis," with millions at risk of having their electricity turned off because of overdue bills, researchers say. About 1 in 4 Americans is uncertain about being able to to pay household energy bills, with low-income people most at risk of having their utilities disconnected, according to Sanya Carley, a professor of energy policy and city planning at the University of Pennsylvania. Last year, energy utilities cut off power to about 3 million households, she noted. But even more households could be at risk this summer given the soaring mercury and the impact of inflation and higher energy costs, deepening the financial woes of many Americans, Carley said. Only 19 states restrict summer shutoffs of utilities, meaning most people live in states where they lack any recourse if they fall behind in paying their electric bill during a heatwave. "Millions of people face this problem, and once a household faces the problem of disconnection, they often enter this kind of pernicious cycle of being regularly disconnected and frequently energy insecure," Carley told CBS MoneyWatch. Losing electricity places people at "immense risk" because they can't run fans or air conditioning to regulate their body temperatures, she said. In some cases, the loss of power can be deadly, she added. Forecasters expect several heat records could be broken Friday with temperatures 10 to 15 degrees Fahrenheit above average. In the Southwest and southern Plains, oppressive temperatures have persisted for weeks. One meteorologist based in New Mexico called the prolonged period of temperatures over 100 degrees unprecedented. Many Americans rely on different strategies to keep their electric bills low, but that can also heighten the risks, Carley's research found. For instance, 27% of low- to moderate-income people say they take on debt in order to pay their utility, while another 26% set their temperatures at risky levels to keep their bills down. A deadly power cutoff over a $51 bill In the most dire cases, an electricity cutoff during the summer can be deadly. But that can be hard to track because a person's cause of death might be listed as heart failure, even though the fatality likely would't have occurred if the power had remained on, Carley noted. One case that drew attention in recent years is that of Stephanie Pullman, a 72-year-old whose electricity was shut off in 2018 when outside temperatures in her retirement community near Phoenix reached 107 Fahrenheit. She had paid $125 toward a past-due bill of $176, but her power was cut off because she didn't pay in full. Her body was found during a wellness check, with the medical examiner attributing her death to "environmental heat exposure," according to the Associated Press. Last year, Arizona prohibited utilities from disconnecting customers during periods of extreme weather, such as days over 95 degrees. But most states lack any protections against power cuts, including states where summer temperatures are normally high — and are getting hotter due to climate change — such as Alabama, Florida, and North and South Carolina. The patchwork nature of legal restrictions suggests that federal regulators should step in to issue a national directive to protect citizens during extreme weather, Carley noted. "The federal government should absolutely have this on their radar, and I think they can do it in multiple ways," she said. "One is an emergency moratorium for disconnections ... the federal government can say, across all utilities, nobody is allowed to disconnect where we know that most of the population is under a heat advisory." The federal government could also expand funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP, which helps low-income households pay their energy bills. By summer, LIHEAP funds are often running low, which suggests that more funding could help more people with their bills during the hot months. Where to get help People at risk of having their electricity shut off should contact their utilities to ask about payment plans or other aid, Carley said. Only about 6% of low-income households request such assistance, her research found. "People would much rather accumulate debt, for example, or forego eating than they would call the utility and talk to the utility about what kinds of payment plans they might have or assistance that they might have," she said. Local government agencies or charities might also offer aid for paying utility bills, while in an emergency families can also look for cooling centers at schools or other public buildings if they do lose power. "There is an increase in the incidence of energy insecurity across the United States, and it's not just low-income households that are energy insecure," Carley said. "As climate change gets worse and as energy prices go up, it will be an increasing share of the population that face these conditions as well." —With reporting by the Associated Press.
Trader Joe's issues third recall in a week, this time for falafel that may contain rocks 2023-07-28 - Trader Joe's has issued its third food recall in a week, alerting customers on Friday that its Fully Cooked Falafel product may contain rocks. The falafel was sold in stores in 34 states and Washington D.C., the supermarket chain said, noting that unsold boxes of the item at its stores have already been destroyed. "If you purchased or received any donations of Fully Cooked Falafel, please do not eat them," Trader Joe's said in its recall notice. "We urge you to discard the product or return it to any Trader Joe's for a full refund." Trader Joe's didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Customers with questions about the recall can contact Trader Joe's at (626) 599-3817 or send an email. The falafel recall comes just four days after the company recalled two kinds of almond cookies because they also might contain rocks. And Thursday Trader Joe's recalled some 11,000 cases of broccoli cheddar soup because the product "has insects in the frozen broccoli florets." The soup is being voluntarily recalled by its manufacturer, Winter Gardens Quality Foods of New Oxford, Pa., according to the Food and Drug Administration. It was sold at Trader Joe's stores in seven states, including California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Texas and Washington.
Why the U.S. government may try to break up Amazon 2023-07-28 - A showdown between Amazon and government regulators over whether it is overly dominant may soon be coming to a head, with the Federal Trade Commission preparing to sue — and possibly break up — the world's largest e-commerce company, according to Politico and Bloomberg. The retailer, which also operates an advertising agency, shipping network, supermarket chain and movie studio, has become a mainstay in Americans' lives. But its explosive growth, which has made founder Jeff Bezos one of the world's richest people, has also long spurred calls for the company to be reined in, with consumer activists claiming that the behemoth uses monopolistic practices to preserve its stronghold. For FTC Chair Lina Khan — who first came to prominence while still in law school by writing a paper arguing that Amazon is a monopoly — an effort to fracture the company would amount to a career-defining throw of the dice. Of late, meanwhile, the FTC has lost battles to block high-profile mergers, including Microsoft's $68.7 billion purchase of Activision and Meta's takeover of VR startup Within. "The point of her article was that traditional antitrust, in the last 40 years, is a very awkward fit for addressing competitive concerns with Amazon, so it kind of makes sense that the FTC has struggled to bring the case," said Rebecca Haw Allensworth, associate dean for research at Vanderbilt University Law School. To succeed, an FTC case would need to explain how Amazon's business practices run afoul of antitrust law first passed a century ago. Here are the arguments the government is likely to bring up in a suit to break up Amazon, according to legal experts. Platform power According to Politico, government regulators are homing in on several areas of concern: Amazon's requirement that third-party sellers don't sell items cheaper elsewhere; its encouragement of sellers to use Amazon's shipping and advertising services; and its bundling of services as part of the company's Amazon Prime shopping club. More than 60% of Amazon's sales come from independent sellers that sell their wares through the retailer, and Amazon forbids these businesses from selling items cheaper elsewhere as a condition of hawking using its platform. Guaranteeing low prices sounds like a good thing, since low prices are good for consumers. But they can have negative effects on other platforms, Allenworth said. "It makes for less competition between the platforms. Now, Amazon doesn't have to worry that Etsy is going to be undercutting it on these products," she said. Washington, D.C., and the state of California have sued Amazon on similar grounds, arguing that its demand for the cheapest prices forces merchants to raise prices elsewhere, harming both sellers and consumers. "Other online marketplaces cannot effectively compete with Amazon by lowering their fees and commissions because doing so would have no effect on the final consumer price for that product, which is pegged to the Amazon price," Washington, D.C.'s attorney general argued in its suit. "This artificially raises the price of goods to consumers across the internet above competitive levels and enables Amazon to charge sellers higher commissions and fees than it could in a truly competitive market." A judge threw out the District's case last year, and prosecutors are appealing that dismissal. California's suit against Amazon is in progress. Package deal Another likely focus of the FTC's complaint, according to reporting from Bloomberg, is that Amazon forces vendors who sell products on its platform to use the company's logistics services, including shipping, warehouse storage and advertising. A congressional investigation in 2020 concluded that Amazon rewards sellers that use its other services by giving them better placement on its site, including the so-called "Buy Box," and punishes sellers that don't use those services by putting their items further down the page. Demonstrating that this practice, called "tying," is illegal depends on the government's ability to prove that its only purpose is to undermine competition. "It's defensible if the company can come up with some sort of good explanation for it that doesn't have to do with crushing its competitors," Allensworth said. "Is there an efficiency justification for having these things be offered together?" Unfair treatment? The government could also consider whether Amazon treats third-party sellers unfairly by giving a boost to identical products that the retailer itself sells, media reports note. A congressional investigation concluded in 2020 heard testimony from a number of sellers that accused Amazon of giving preference to its own branded products in search results, even when they cost more, and of creating Amazon-owned copies of popular third-party products sold on the platform. One former seller described being put out of business by the company. "On at least two different occasions, his company did all the legwork to create a new, top-selling product or product line, as well as creating the product listings, only to have Amazon copy the idea and offer a competing product," the congressional report found. It also concluded that Amazon could access product data that other sellers could not and that it "can give itself favorable treatment relative to competing sellers." Amazon's so-called "mimic and destroy" approach has drawn criticism, but it may not be illegal, Allensworth noted. "This was a big focus of the congressional investigation into Amazon that Lina Khan was very involved in, but it doesn't have an obvious antitrust hook — unlike in the European Union where there's a law about [how to treat] the other sellers on your own platform," she said. Amazon is currently disputing its designation by the EU as a large platform that deserves tight regulation.
People are bragging about "lazy girl jobs" on TikTok. What are they? 2023-07-28 - "Lazy Girl Jobs:" Finding the balance between life and work "Lazy Girl Jobs:" Finding the balance between life and work 01:57 A new workplace term is going viral on social media to describe jobs that allow young professionals to achieve the elusive goal of work-life balance: the "lazy girl job." A number of Generation Z TikTok users are promoting this new approach to work, which bucks the trend of the United States' always-on, hustle culture that can lead to young people feeling they must be chained to their desks in order to succeed in their careers. Members of Gen Z, the oldest of whom are now in their early- to mid-20s and are entering the workforce, came up with the lazy girl label themselves and are wearing it proudly. In fact, the hashtag has nearly 18 million views on the social media platform. Younger workers may be disillusioned by older generations' insistence that overworking is the way to get ahead, experts said. "[T]hey're not convinced that buying into the system is going to get them anywhere," noted Suzy Welch, a professor of management practice at NYU's Stern School of Business and a senior adviser to corporations at Brunswick Group, an advisory firm, told CBS MoneyWatch. She added, "They're saying, 'I'm not going to wait for my work-life balance and postpone my joy. I don't know that if I play by the rules I'm going to win the game.'" @gabrielle_judge Replying to @Daina Macdonald lazy girl jobs is not offensive. Its a term i coined to promote work life balance in the american hustle culture we live in today. Any one can partake in this workplace trend. Especially not just gen z. #lazygirljob #corporateburnout #overworkedandunderpaid #careeradvice ♬ original sound - Gabrielle👸🏻 Not actually lazy A "lazy girl job" doesn't actually mean that a worker is lazy, as one TikToker noted. "It is no dig on women, it's not you being lazy or a jerk at your job," Gabrielle Judge, who claims to have coined the term, said in a video she posted on TikTok. "It's that this job should be paying your bills and have so much work-life balance that you should feel as almost you're operating at a lazy state." Workers across the nation are already burned out. Just 23% of workers said they were "engaged" at work in 2022, according to a recent Gallup survey. The remainder — 77% — were either doing the bare minimum and "quiet quitting" their jobs, or actively disengaged and "loud quitting" at work. What are "lazy girl jobs"? Judge is encouraging young professionals — both female and male — to live authentically every day, as opposed to just on weekends and days off, or at some distant point in the future. So, what are some examples of so-called lazy girl jobs, and why are they desirable? "A 'lazy girl job' is basically something that you can quiet quit," Judge said in another video. She described some such jobs as nontechnical roles at tech companies that pay between $60,000 and $80,000 a year, sometimes offer workers equity in a firm, can be done remotely and have flexible hours. They allow workers to cover the basic costs of living, and balance work with child care and other tasks. Marketing associate, account manager, or customer success manager roles often fit the bill, according to Judge. Lazy girl jobs versus the "toxic" workplace "It's an anti-hustle gig," Judge said in one Instagram video. "Back in the day, you would be, like, the first one into the office and the last one to leave." She said she deliberately chose the term "lazy" to describe the anti-hustle ethos from the perspective of a toxic job environment, not because she thinks workers seeking "lazy girl jobs" aren't motivated, or hard workers. "Everything that I'm talking about here is considered lazy if you compare it to the toxic corporate workplace expectations," Judge said. While she wants to promote awareness of this alternative approach to work, Judge warns aspiring "lazy girl job" holders not to brand themselves as such on social media over concerns that it could lead to repercussions in the workplace. Judge herself is a self-employed content creator. Generational discord Certainly there's a difference in generational points of view driving the new phenomenon, Welch of NYU's Stern School of Business said. "There is a gigantic divide between how boomer bosses think about work and how their newest employees think about work," she said. "This is a situation where people are talking right past each other." Welch said professionals in management positions logged years in a career to achieve a type of financial security that may be out of reach for younger generations, no matter how committed they are to their jobs. Welch, who teaches a class called "Becoming You: Crafting the Authentic Career You Want and Need," said many of her students are anxiety-averse, and she believes this is partly what's driving the "lazy girl job" trend. "The boss generation thought, 'If I buy into the system and play the long game, I will be rewarded for it.' Gen Z is saying, 'If I buy into the system and play long game, there is no guarantee I'll be rewarded for it, so I'm not going to act like you. This sets up a lot of tension," Welch said. "Lazy girl jobs" are "partly to avoid anxiety," she added.
Chick-fil-A testing drive-thru restaurant where orders arrive in a chute 2023-07-28 - Chick-Fil-A will test two new restaurant concepts prioritizing digital-focused, to-go orders in a bid to offer customers a speedier ordering experience. The fast-food chain will open a walk-up restaurant in New York City and a drive-thru restaurant in the Atlanta metropolitan area with features aimed at "cutting down wait-time[s]," Chick-fil-A Executive Director Khalilah Cooper said in a statement on Thursday. Digital orders have eclipsed traditional in-store orders in some of the company's markets, where they make up more than half of all orders. Both restaurants will open in 2024. The Atlanta store will feature four drive-thru lanes, two of which will be dedicated to mobile order pick-ups. The lanes will run under the second story of the restaurant. But the drive-thru isn't the only thing that will be bigger. The kitchen will be twice as large as at typical Chick-fil-A locations, which will be above the drive-thru, and orders will travel through an overhead conveyor belt connected with chutes that run down the sides, according to the company. A new drive-thru restaurant concept Chick-fil-A plans to test near Atlanta in 2024, seen here in a digital rendering, will feature four drive-thru lanes and deliver orders to customers via an overhead conveyor belt and chutes. Chick-fil-A Chick-fil-A's push to offer a faster ordering experience comes as the company looks for ways to meet high consumer demand for its sandwiches, nuggets and other products. In 2022, Chick-fil-A customers spent nearly eight and a half minutes on average waiting in the drive-thru lane, more than customers at any other popular fast-food chain evaluated in a report from customer experience solution firm Intouch Insights. Drive-thru wait times have slowed since before the pandemic. The time customers spent waiting in drive-thrus was 45 seconds longer on average in 2022 than it was in 2019, according to QSR and Intouch Insight's annual Drive-Thru Report.
United Airlines becomes first U.S. carrier to add Braille signs to aircraft interiors 2023-07-28 - United Airlines announced Thursday it will add Braille to the interiors of its planes, becoming first U.S. carrier to implement the signage. The airline said it has about a dozen aircraft with Braille markings for individual rows, seat numbers and inside and outside lavatories. United said it expects to equip its entire mainline fleet with Braille by the end of 2026. More than 27 million people with disabilities traveled by air in 2019, according to the Department of Transportation. Linda Jojo, executive vice president and chief customer officer for United, acknowledged the difficulties experienced by customers who are blind or have visual disabilities. "Finding your seat on a plane or getting to the restroom is something most of us take for granted, but for millions of our customers, it can be a challenge to do independently," she said in a statement. "By adding more tactile signage throughout our interiors, we're making the flying experience more inclusive and accessible, and that's good for everyone." Image of Braille markings for an individual row on an aircraft. Hand-out United said it was working with the National Federation of the Blind (NFB), the American Council of the Blind (ACB) and other disability advocacy groups to implement other tactile navigational aids, including raised letters, numbers and arrows. In a statement, NFP President Mark Riccobono commended United for making its aircraft "more accessible to blind passengers." "The flight experience is often frustrating for a number of reasons, one of which is the amount of information that is available exclusively through printed signs and other visual indicators," Riccobono said. "We hope to continue working with United to explore additional ways to make flying more accessible and less stressful for blind passengers." Last month, a "first-of-its-kind" design was unveiled that would make airplanes more accessible for travelers who rely on electric-powered wheelchairs.
Old homes in the U.S. now cost just as much as new properties. Here's why. 2023-07-28 - Looking for a house? A newly built home might not cost you any more than buying an older one. Historically, older houses have cost tens of thousands of dollars less than newly constructed properties. But existing homes now cost a median of $416,000, which as of May is the same price as for new homes, Axios reported, citing data from FactSet. A decade ago, a typical new home cost $60,000 more than an existing house. The shrinking gap in the cost of old and new home stems from the sharp rise in prices for older homes during the pandemic, as well as the recent jump in mortgage rates. Fewer property owners are listing their homes this year because of the "lock-in effect," with homeowners hesitant to give up low mortgage rates that they secured during the pandemic, when rates were 3% or lower, Sami Sparber, a real estate reporter for Axios, told CBS News. The upshot: With current rates near 7% and home prices still climbing higher, homeowners may not want to consider moving. "A lot of people are telling us they want to move, but they don't want to get rid of this amazing [mortgage] rate they have," Sparber said. As a result, they typically either stay in their current home or move and rent it out as a second property. Sparber added, "Looking back at the pandemic in the home buying frenzy, a lot of people took advantage of those really low rates." With so many homeowners staying put, the supply of properties on the market has fallen sharply, pushing up the prices of older homes. One often more affordable option for people who are eager to move: renting a condo or townhouse, said Sparber, who also urges homebuyers to consider newly built properties. "The market for brand new homes is booming right now," Sparber said. "With fewer people wanting to give up their rates, fewer transactions are happening on the existing home side, leaving room for the market for new homes to grow."
With Actors on Strike, Sony Pushes Big Releases to 2024 2023-07-28 - Hollywood studios, scrambling to contend with a strike by unionized actors, have started to remove big-budget movies from the 2023 release calendar, newly imperiling theaters and undoubtedly irritating fans. Sony Pictures Entertainment on Friday pushed back the release of two major films that had been set to arrive in theaters by the end of the year — the Marvel Comics-based “Kraven the Hunter” and a sequel to “Ghostbusters: Afterlife.” In addition, Sony is postponing some of its big 2024 releases. “Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse,” is no longer on track for a March premiere, and a new “Karate Kid” will no longer arrive in June. Until now, the 2023 theatrical release schedule had been left relatively unscathed by the actors’ strike, which started on July 14. But other studios are likely to follow Sony’s lead. Warner Bros. has been debating whether to postpone “Dune: Part Two,” which is supposed to arrive in theaters on Nov. 3. “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom,” a big-budget superhero sequel, and “The Color Purple,” based on the Broadway musical, are among other 2023 holiday-season movies that could be delayed.
Mastercard Moves to Stop Use of Debit Cards at Cannabis Shops 2023-07-28 - Mastercard instructed U.S. financial institutions this week to stop allowing purchases of cannabis on its debit cards, stripping customers of a convenient way to purchase marijuana without cash. Cannabis businesses say the decision will increase the risk of robbery and violent crime. Because federal law prohibits the sale, possession and use of marijuana in all its forms, Mastercard said that purchases were not allowed on its systems, even when customers use bank cards and PINs to access their own cash to buy cannabis in states where the drug is legal for recreational or medical reasons. “As we were made aware of this matter, we quickly investigated it,” a spokesman for Mastercard, one of the world’s largest payment processors, said in a statement on Friday. “In accordance with our policies, we instructed the financial institutions that offer payments services to cannabis merchants and connects them to Mastercard to terminate the activity.” Medical marijuana is legal in 38 states, three territories and the District of Columbia. Recreational use of the drug is legal in 23 states, two territories and the District of Columbia.
Emmy Awards Will Be Postponed Because of Actors’ and Writers’ Strikes 2023-07-28 - The fallout from the Hollywood actors’ and writers’ strikes continues. The 75th Emmy Awards will be postponed because of the strikes, according to a person briefed on the plans. The ceremony, originally planned for Sept. 18, does not yet have a new date but will most likely be moved to January, the person said. Emmy organizers are hopeful that would give the Hollywood studios enough time to settle the labor disputes. A new date will be finalized in the next few weeks. Fox, which is broadcasting this year’s event, and the Television Academy, which administers the Emmys, had concluded last month that it would have to postpone the event if the writers’ strike continued to linger until the end of July, The New York Times reported last month. The writers have now been on strike for 88 days and have not returned to the bargaining table with the major Hollywood studios since negotiations broke down in early May. By the time tens of thousands of actors joined the writers on picket lines and went on strike on July 14, it all but put a nail in the coffin for an Emmys ceremony in September.
Quantum Tech Will Transform National Security. It’s Testing U.S. Alliances Now. 2023-07-28 - According to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s critical technology tracker, China appears to be lagging more in quantum computers — which perform many calculations in one pass, making them faster than today’s digital computers that perform each calculation separately — while narrowing the gap in quantum sensing for navigation, mapping and detection. Chinese scientists have even said they are building a quantum-based radar to find stealth aircraft with a small electromagnetic storm, though quantum specialists outside China have questioned their claims. One of the doubters is Michael Biercuk, 43, the founder of Q-CTRL, an American physicist with a military mien and a Harvard Ph.D. who moved to Australia in 2010 to teach at the University of Sydney. He and his start-up, with offices in Sydney, Los Angeles, Berlin and Oxford, are among a cutting-edge group of global quantum leaders who see hyperbole and statecraft in many Chinese quantum announcements and hope to capitalize on what technology-sharing partnerships like the AUKUS security agreement represent. “AUKUS, for us, is exceptionally important,” said Professor Biercuk, noting that Q-CTRL works on sensors and quantum computing. “It’s a real opportunity for the homegrown capability we’re building in Australia to be deployed into an international framework.” About half of Q-CTRL’s 100 employees are Australian, half from other countries, and many, including Professor Biercuk, have experience working for America’s elite defense and civilian laboratories. The company’s main software product, which “stabilizes the hardware against everything that goes wrong in the field,” Professor Biercuk said, is already being used by quantum developers in the United States, Canada and Europe, where precise sensor technology is also advancing.
Wage Growth Slowed in Second Quarter, a Sign the Economy is Cooling 2023-07-28 - So far, that is exactly what is happening. Wage growth, by various measures, has softened in recent months, but inflation has fallen by even more. Workers are better off as a result: Pay, adjusted for inflation, rose in the second quarter for the first time in two years. “Households are getting back some purchasing power,” said Beth Ann Bovino, chief economist for U.S. Bank. Still, many economists argue wages are still rising too quickly for the Fed’s comfort, particularly in certain sectors such as leisure and hospitality. If compensation costs keep rising at their recent pace, companies are likely to keep raising prices — especially if consumers prove willing to keep spending anyway, as they have recently. “At the end of the day, if the wage bill is rising at between 4 and 4.5 percent, it will be hard for the Fed to have confidence that services inflation will be consistent with their preferred outcome,” said Michael Gapen, chief U.S. economist for Bank of America. The slowdown in wage growth has surprised some economists because the unemployment rate remains very low, which ordinarily would put pressure on companies to raise pay to attract and retain workers. But other evidence suggests that the labor market has softened even without a big increase in joblessness. Employers are posting fewer job openings, are adding fewer new jobs and are poaching fewer employees from competitors, all signs that demand for workers has slowed. At the same time, the supply of workers has increased, as immigration has picked up and more people are coming off the sidelines to join the labor force.
Economic Data Bolster Soft Landing Hopes 2023-07-28 - Falling inflation. Moderating wage growth. Resilient consumer spending. This is what a soft landing would look like. It is too soon to say whether the Federal Reserve will succeed in its effort to bring inflation under control without causing a recession. But recent economic data — including two reports released Friday — have looked more positive than even optimists had dared to hope a few months ago. Data from the Commerce Department on Friday showed that inflation continued to cool in June, even as consumer spending rose — signs that the economy retains substantial momentum 16 months into the Fed’s campaign to slow it down. Separate data from the Labor Department showed that wage growth slowed in the spring — an encouraging sign for policymakers who have been worried that rapid pay increases could feed into inflation.
Why ‘Soft Landing’ Optimists Shouldn’t Celebrate Just Yet 2023-07-28 - The principle is that nature is an unpaid worker providing services, like carbon sequestration, soil retention, water filtration, replenishing raw materials and more. It is providing an invisible subsidy to world economies. Protecting the environment is portfolio management. How would placing a price tag on nature help? Take carbon pricing. If you can put a value on a ton of carbon dioxide, which we can do now, then why wouldn’t it be feasible to pay countries to not drill for oil or cut their trees, to protect resources instead of exploiting them? Poor countries that have abundant natural resources are loaning their economic resources, like the carbon-sequestering value of their rainforests, to rich countries without compensation. Last year at COP [the U.N. climate conference], [Special Presidential Envoy for Climate] John Kerry practically begged the Democratic Republic of the Congo not to drill for oil in rainforest and peat lands, which would release lots of carbon, and the retort was “pay us.” It’s not a bad answer, actually. Are there examples of successful projects for preserving natural resources? The Forest Resilience Bond is the brainchild of four Berkeley graduate students. What they did was look at standing forests in the Lake Tahoe area as infrastructure. And they raised funds to maintain the forest — like you would for an infrastructure project — from the beneficiaries of the environment, such as the local wildlife service, the tourism industry, insurers and even hydropower companies that rely on standing forest to replenish groundwater. That kind of bond could be done all around the world. Why add such a pricing structure when economies can exploit nature for free? We are facing real costs now. Nature is the thing underpinning our economies and it is a depreciating asset. We speculate about price all the time when it comes to company valuations. Yet the atmosphere is worth nothing. We need a new kind of thinking.