US helpless as oil prices climb higher
Despite the Biden administration’s best attempts, oil prices are set to continue to climb this year, as many OPEC members are struggling with higher production quotas because of technical issues.When President Joe Biden announced plans to release up to 50 million barrels of oil from the strategic petroleum reserve (SPR) to lower retail fuel prices, many analysts warned that any effect this move would have would be short-lived. Indeed, prices dropped for a very short while and are now on the climb again, with the number of three-digit price forecasts growing.The strategic reserve release was already a desperate attempt to put a lid on gasoline prices, pushed up by crude oil prices, themselves the result of a faster rebound in global demand and production constraints among the Organization … [READ MORE...]
Jodie Ginsburg, a Fighter for Press Freedom, Is Expanding Her Battle
The Committee to Protect Journalists was started in 1981 by two American journalists who had worked on the side to raise awareness about the case of Alcibíades González Delvalle, a Paraguayan columnist and critic of his country’s military government who had been arrested over one of his columns.Within weeks of their campaign, Mr. González Delvalle was released. Realizing that no other organization was monitoring press freedom from the United States, the two journalists, Michael Massing and Laurie Nadel, brought together a board of prominent, award-winning journalists from large organizations including The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Washington Post and CBS. The celebrated CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite, recently retired, signed on as the group’s honorary chairman. Its mandate was … [READ MORE...]
What It Was Like on the Elizabeth Holmes Jury for 18 Weeks
“I knew she had started a company,” Ms. Stefanek said. “I knew that it had failed. I knew she liked to wear black turtlenecks. That was about it.”Ms. Holmes’s trial began with opening statements on Sept. 8. That started a new routine for Ms. Stefanek: She often woke up at 5 a.m. to squeeze in some work and pack lunch for her 12-year-old daughter before driving from Mountain View, Calif., where she lives, to the San Jose courthouse.During testimony, Ms. Stefanek said, she took 541 pages of notes. At times, she said, jurors struggled to stay awake. Other times, they were shocked to see star witnesses like James Mattis, the retired four-star Marine Corps general and former defense secretary, who had served on Theranos’s board.“When he walked in the door, I kind of felt this rustle in the room … [READ MORE...]
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Supply Chain Woes Could Worsen as China Imposes Covid Lockdowns
West Coast ports could see further disruptions this year as they renegotiate a labor contract for more than 22,000 dockworkers that expires on July 1. Previous negotiations led to work slowdowns and shipping delays.“If you have four closed doors to get through and one of them opens up, that doesn’t necessarily mean quick passage,” said Phil Levy, the chief economist at Flexport. “We should not delude ourselves that if our ports become 10 percent more efficient, we’ve solved the whole … [Read More...]
Taking On Starbucks, Inspired by Bernie Sanders
Starbucks allows employees who work at least 20 hours a week to obtain health coverage, more generous than most competitors, and has said it will increase average pay for hourly employees to nearly $17 an hour by this summer, well above the industry norm. The company also offers to pay the tuition of employees admitted to pursue an online bachelor’s degree at Arizona State University, helping it attract workers with college aspirations.Such people, in turn, tend to be sympathetic to unions and a … [Read More...]
Critics Say I.M.F. Loan Fees Are Hurting Nations in Desperate Need
A review of the surcharges last month by the fund’s executive directors ended without any agreement to halt the charges. An I.M.F. statement explained that while “some directors were open to exploring temporary surcharge relief” to free up resources to deal with the pandemic, most others preferred a comprehensive review later on in the context of the fund’s “overall financial outlook.”Strapped countries that are subject to the surcharges like Argentina balked earlier at the extra payments, but … [Read More...]
Biden Will Nominate Three New Fed Officials
She has not said much publicly about her monetary policy philosophy, though she has spoken favorably about keeping the Fed independent from politics. Her published work examines a wide range of topics: her doctoral thesis focused on credit markets in tsarist and post-Soviet Russia, while some of the work she is most famous for looked into mortality and race, and segregation and lynching.Dr. Cook is an academic focused on macroeconomics, but “she is not a traditional one — she has looked at what … [Read More...]
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Small Business
What It Was Like on the Elizabeth Holmes Jury for 18 Weeks
“I knew she had started a company,” Ms. Stefanek said. “I knew that it had failed. I knew she liked to wear black turtlenecks. That was about it.”Ms. Holmes’s trial began with opening statements on Sept. 8. That started a new routine for Ms. Stefanek: She often woke up at 5 a.m. to squeeze in some work and pack lunch for her 12-year-old daughter before driving from Mountain View, Calif., where she … [Read More...]
Sara Menker and Gro Intelligence Are Tackling Global Hunger
Even if you didn’t experience the famine personally you must have been deeply aware of it and affected by it.A thousand percent. First of all, you have to remember we come from massive families. My mom has 24 siblings. And you grow up very much aware of it. I grew up in a country where fuel was rationed, where food, sugar, toilet paper was rationed no matter who you are. It didn’t matter if you … [Read More...]
Your Money
Financial Planning for People With Chronic Diseases
Before she became eligible for Medicare, Deborah Rosenwinkel, who lives in Wheaton, Ill., and has rheumatoid arthritis, used a manufacturer’s discount card for Enbrel, a biologic she injected at home once a week. The $12,000 card covered her deductible and co-payments, while her individual insurance policy picked up the balance, of up to $80,000 a year.But when Ms. Rosenwinkel turned 65 last … [Read More...]
I.R.S. to Start Tax Season With Major Backlog
The Biden administration is seeking an additional $80 billion over a decade for the I.R.S. to increase its staff, upgrade its technology and improve its enforcement and customer service capacity. That request is part of the administration’s Build Back Better Act, which is stalled in Congress.“Additional resources are essential to helping our employees do more in 2022 — and beyond,” Charles P. … [Read More...]