India’s December oil imports jump to highest level in three years
India’s crude oil imports jumped by 29 percent in December 2020 compared to November and by 11.6 percent compared to December 2019, to more than 5 million barrels per day (bpd), according to the data obtained by Reuters.At the same time, provisional data from India’s Petroleum Ministry showed earlier this month that fuel demand in India posted its fourth consecutive monthly rise in December, to the highest since February 2020.Fuel consumption was still two percent below the levels seen before the pandemic, but the rebound in economic activity and transportation resulted in four straight months of rising fuel demand in India. Also on rt.com Russia looking to bolster oil supplies to India for decades ahead India turned from the … [READ MORE...]
War-Zone Experience Carries Journalists Into Inauguration Coverage
CBS and The Associated Press said in statements that they were taking precautions to protect their inauguration reporters, while Reuters said it had “redoubled” its safety efforts before, during and after the presidential election. Time magazine said it was dispatching two of its journalists with conflict experience, Kim Dozier and Simon Shuster, to help cover the event.The New York Times is sending nearly all of its reporters in Washington to cover the inauguration, and many of them have experience reporting in war zones “given that the national security team and Pentagon correspondents are based in the bureau,” Elisabeth Bumiller, assistant managing editor and Washington bureau chief, said in a statement.Hugh Brumfitt, the managing director of the British company Insurance For, said he … [READ MORE...]
My Search for Lost Time in a Slice of Jewish Rye
Finding a suitable replacement was the least of my concerns when I moved to New York in the early ’90s. The city, after all, was the world capital of Jewish baking. It had the best bagels, the best rugelach. The brash, bumptious New Yorkers I’d encountered in college had assured me that everything in New York was “the best.”On a childhood visit, I’d marveled at the city’s Jewish delis, black-hatted Hasidim and Jewish mayor, all sources of wonder to a boy from Savannah, where Jews were a tiny minority. Surely this city had world-class rye bread.For years, I sampled the city’s brands and bakeries. One of my childhood friends, a kid named David Levy, had a poster in his bedroom, purloined from a famous ad campaign of the era, of a smiling Black child eating a rye sandwich under the slogan, … [READ MORE...]
Latest News
Is Rivian the Next Tesla? Investors Bet Big on Electric Truck Maker
Another big trend reshaping the auto industry is autonomous cars. On Tuesday, Cruise, a unit of G.M. that is working in that area, announced it had raised $2 billion from Microsoft, G.M., Honda and other investors. Rivian and Tesla are also working on automated-driving technology.Rivian is different from Tesla in several respects. Tesla so far has grown by selling sporty sedans, a type of vehicle that is falling out of favor with consumers. Tesla intends to begin making an oddly angular, … [Read More...]
How Full Employment Became Washington’s Creed
Such a government-aided rebound would come in stark contrast to what happened during the 2007 to 2009 recession. Back then, Congress’s biggest package to counter the fallout of the downturn was the $800 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, passed in 2009. It was exhausted long before the unemployment rate finally dipped below 5 percent, in early 2016.At the time, concern over the deficit helped to stem more aggressive fiscal policy responses. And concerns about economic overheating … [Read More...]
Is Inflation About to Take Off? That’s the Wrong Question
If, for example, the overall Consumer Price Index rises through May at a rate consistent with 2 percent annual inflation, it will show a 3.2 percent year-over-year rise from the depressed May 2020 level. That would be the highest level since 2011 — but would also be misleading, a result of “base effects” rather than the true longer-term trajectory of prices.For quite a few individual products and services, those numbers will look even more extreme. The price of home natural gas service is on … [Read More...]
Is Inflation About to Rise? That’s the Wrong Question
If, for example, the overall Consumer Price Index rises through May at a rate consistent with 2 percent annual inflation, it will show a 3.2 percent year-over-year rise from the depressed May 2020 level. That would be the highest level since 2011 — but would also be misleading, a result of “base effects” rather than the true longer-term trajectory of prices.For quite a few individual products and services, those numbers will look even more extreme. The price of home natural gas service is on … [Read More...]
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Small Business
My Search for Lost Time in a Slice of Jewish Rye
Finding a suitable replacement was the least of my concerns when I moved to New York in the early ’90s. The city, after all, was the world capital of Jewish baking. It had the best bagels, the best rugelach. The brash, bumptious New Yorkers I’d encountered in college had assured me that everything in New York was “the best.”On a childhood visit, I’d marveled at the city’s Jewish delis, … [Read More...]
A New Orleans Mardi Gras With a Different Sort of Mask
The bar scene here, which not even Hurricane Katrina fully shut down, has been brought to its knees by the pandemic, but it hasn’t been snuffed out. As current regulations forbid bars without food permits to serve indoors, the activity has largely moved outside, aided by relatively mild winters and laws that allow public consumption of alcohol. (Bars with food permits can serve indoors at 25 … [Read More...]
Your Money
The Estate Tax May Change Under Biden, Affecting Far More People
If this change came to pass, people of greater wealth might switch the assets they put into trust, said Edward Reitmeyer, a partner in charge of tax and business services at Marcum, an accounting firm. People with access to more sophisticated planning could put assets with greater embedded capital gains into a trust and leave others — like cash — directly to heirs.This strategy would minimize the … [Read More...]
How to Pay Off Credit Card Debt
Other financial planners suggest paying off the one with the smallest balance, which can give you a sense of accomplishment and encourage you to keep going.You can also consider consolidating credit card debt, perhaps with a lower-rate personal loan, to make payments more manageable, Ms. McAvoy said. Having just one bill to pay may be less stressful, she said.If you can find a card with a … [Read More...]