Business & Politics News and Discussions

weatheriscool
Posts: 12727
Joined: Sun May 16, 2021 6:16 pm

Re: Business & Politics News and Discussions

Post by weatheriscool »

The euro and the US dollar are at parity for the first time in 20 years
Source: CNN Business
New York (CNN Business)For the first time in 20 years, the exchange rate between the euro (EUU) and the US dollar has reached parity -- meaning the two currencies are worth the same.The euro hit $1 on Tuesday, down about 12% since the start of the year. Fears of recession on the continent abound, stoked by high inflation and energy supply uncertainty caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The European Union, which received roughly 40% of its gas through Russian pipelines before the war, is attempting to reduce its dependence on Russian oil and gas. At the same, Russia has throttled back gas supplies to some EU countries and recently cut the flow in the Nord Stream pipeline to Germany by 60%. Now that critical piece of gas import infrastructure in Europe, has been shut down for scheduled maintenance due to last 10 days.

German officials fear that it may not be turned on again.The energy crisis comes alongside an economic slowdown, which has cast doubts over whether the European Central Bank can adequately tighten policy to bring down inflation. The ECB announced that it will hike interest rates this month for the first time since 2011, as the eurozone inflation rate sits at 8.6%. But some say the ECB is far behind the curve, and that a hard landing is all but inevitable.

Germany recorded its first trade deficit in goods since 1991 last week as fuel prices and general supply chain chaos significantly increased the price of imports. "Given the nature of Germany's exports which are commodity-price sensitive, it remains hard to imagine that the trade balance could improve significantly from here in the next few months given the expected slowdown in the eurozone economy," Saxo Bank foreign exchange strategists wrote in a recent note.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/12/investin ... index.html
weatheriscool
Posts: 12727
Joined: Sun May 16, 2021 6:16 pm

Re: Business & Politics News and Discussions

Post by weatheriscool »

U.S. court says FCC cannot compel broadcasters to verify sponsors identities
Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday struck down a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) requirement that broadcasters check federal sources to verify sponsors’ identities.

The court noted the FCC has raised concerns "that the Chinese and Russian governments have been secretly leasing air time to broadcast propaganda on American radio." The FCC rules finalized in April 2021 require foreign-government sponsorship disclosure at the time of a broadcast if a foreign governmental entity paid a radio or television station, directly or indirectly, to air material.
Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/us-co ... ar-AAZuKMh
User avatar
wjfox
Site Admin
Posts: 8666
Joined: Sat May 15, 2021 6:09 pm
Location: London, UK
Contact:

Re: Business & Politics News and Discussions

Post by wjfox »

User avatar
Time_Traveller
Posts: 2025
Joined: Sun May 16, 2021 4:49 pm
Location: Clermont, Indiana, USA, October 7th 2019 B.C.E

Re: Business & Politics News and Discussions

Post by Time_Traveller »

wjfox wrote: Wed Jul 20, 2022 6:07 pm
Is that how they play it in the US then just for workers to form a union.
"We all have our time machines, don't we. Those that take us back are memories...And those that carry us forward, are dreams."

-H.G Wells.
weatheriscool
Posts: 12727
Joined: Sun May 16, 2021 6:16 pm

Re: Business & Politics News and Discussions

Post by weatheriscool »

US Postal Service to boost purchases of electric vehicles
Source: ABC News

The U.S. Postal Service plans to substantially increase the number of electric-powered vehicles it’s buying to replace its fleet of aging delivery trucks, officials said Wednesday.

The Postal Service anticipates boosting electric vehicles from 20% to 50% in its initial purchase of 50,000 vehicles — with the first of them rolling onto delivery routes next year. It also proposes buying an additional 34,500 commercially available vehicles over two years, officials said.

The proposal, to be posted in the Federal Register on Thursday, came after 16 states, environmental groups and a labor union sued to halt purchases of next-generation delivery vehicles under the initial plan that was skewed heavily toward gas-powered trucks.

The new environmental proposal effectively pauses the purchases at 84,500 total vehicles — 40% electric — even as the Postal Service seek to buy up to 165,000 next-generation vehicles over the next decade to replace aging delivery trucks that went into service between 1987 and 1994.
Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireSto ... s-87124524
weatheriscool
Posts: 12727
Joined: Sun May 16, 2021 6:16 pm

Re: Business & Politics News and Discussions

Post by weatheriscool »

T-Mobile settles to pay $350M to customers in data breach
Source: AP

By ANNE D'INNOCENZIO
NEW YORK (AP) — T- Mobile has agreed to pay $350 million to customers affected by a class action lawsuit filed after the company disclosed last August that personal data like social security numbers had been stolen in a cyberattack.

In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Friday, the mobile phone company said the funds would pay for claims by class members, the legal fees of plaintiffs’ counsel and the costs of administering the settlement. It also said it would spend $150 million next year and in 2023 to fortify its data security and other technologies.

T-Mobile said the settlement contains no admission of liability, wrongdoing or responsibility by any of the defendants.

The company said that it expects court approval of the terms of the settlement as early as December 2022.



Read more: https://apnews.com/article/technology-l ... 84ce3a55f0
weatheriscool
Posts: 12727
Joined: Sun May 16, 2021 6:16 pm

Re: Business & Politics News and Discussions

Post by weatheriscool »

Amazon to buy primary care provider One Medical for $3.9B
Source: ABC News

Amazon announced Thursday it will acquire the primary care organization One Medical in a deal valued roughly at $3.9 billion, marking another expansion for the retailer into health care services.

The Seattle-based e-commerce giant said in a statement it will acquire One Medical for $18 per share in an all-cash transaction. It marks one of Amazon's biggest acquisitions, following its $13.7 billion deal to buy Whole Foods in 2017 and its $8.5 billion purchase of Hollywood studio MGM, which closed earlier this year.

One Medical, whose parent company is the San-Francisco based 1Life Healthcare, Inc., is a membership-based service that offers patients in-person and virtual doctor visits. As of this March, it had about 767,00 members and 188 medical offices in 25 markets, according to its first-quarter earnings report, which also showed the company had incurred a net losses of $90.9 million after pulling in $254.1 million in revenue.

Neil Lindsay, the senior vice president of Amazon Health Services, said in a statement the acquisition is geared towards reinventing the healthcare “experience" for things like booking an appointment and taking trips to the pharmacy.
Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireS ... b-87181767
User avatar
caltrek
Posts: 6474
Joined: Mon May 17, 2021 1:17 pm

Re: Business & Politics News and Discussions

Post by caltrek »

China, Vietnam, and Indonesia Among Fastest-growing Countries for Coming decade in New Harvard Growth Lab Projections
July 27, 2022

Introduction:
(EurekAlert) Cambridge, MA – China, Vietnam, Uganda, Indonesia, and India are projected to be among the fastest-growing economies to 2030. That is the conclusion of researchers at the Growth Lab at Harvard University who presented new growth projections in The Atlas of Economic Complexity. The release provides the first detailed look at 2020 trade data, including major disruptions to tourism and transport vehicle exports from the global pandemic. As the effects of the pandemic dissipate, long-term growth is projected to take off between Asia, Eastern Europe, and East Africa. China is expected to be the fastest growing economy per capita, even if the projection finds growth to be slowing from what the country achieved over the past decade. The research finds that countries that have diversified their production into more complex sectors, like Vietnam and China, are those who will experience the fastest growth in the coming decade.

The Growth Lab researchers released new country rankings of the Economic Complexity Index (ECI), which captures the diversity and sophistication of the productive capabilities embedded in the exports of each country. Despite the trade disruption of the pandemic, countries’ economic complexity rankings remain remarkably stable. The ECI ranking finds the most complex countries in the world held steady with, in order, Japan, Switzerland, Germany, South Korea, and Singapore at the top. Other notable countries include the United Kingdom at 10th, the United States at 12th, China at 16th, and Italy at 17th. The measure of economic complexity is able to closely explain differences in country income levels. Among the most complex countries, the greatest improvements in the rankings for the decade ending in 2020 have been made by the Philippines (ECI: 30th), China (16th), and South Korea (4th). Those developing economies that have made the greatest strides in improving their complexity include Vietnam (51st), Cambodia (72nd), Laos (89th), and Ethiopia (97th). Those countries that show the fastest declines in the complexity rankings in the past decade have become increasingly dependent on commodities or failed to diversify their exports, namely Botswana (111th), Zimbabwe (114th), Ecuador (119th), and Cuba (120th). Among the most complex countries, France (19th) fell the most, having lost 6 positions in the ranking.
Read more here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/960057 and here: https://atlas.cid.harvard.edu/growth-projections
Don't mourn, organize.

-Joe Hill
weatheriscool
Posts: 12727
Joined: Sun May 16, 2021 6:16 pm

Re: Business & Politics News and Discussions

Post by weatheriscool »

Shell Posts Record Quarterly Profit of $11.5 Billion. Exxon and Chevron Are Next.
Source: Barrons

Shell , the United Kingdom–domiciled energy giant, posted record quarterly earnings Thursday a day before U.S. rivals Exxon Mobil and Chevron issue their quarterly updates.

Strong performance at Shell ’s (ticker: SHEL) refining and gas trading divisions fueled adjusted earnings of $11.5 billion in the second quarter, more than double the $5.5 billion in the same period the previous year, and up from $9.1 billion the previous quarter.

Shell SHEL +0.26% also announced plans to buy back a further $6 billion of shares. Shell’s U.S.-listed stock rose 1.89% in premarket trading to $52.39.

Big oil has been a beneficiary of soaring energy prices triggered by economies rebounding post-Covid from booming demand, and more significantly sanctions on Russia restricting supply following its invasion of Ukraine.
Read more: https://www.barrons.com/articles/shell- ... 1659002041
User avatar
raklian
Posts: 1746
Joined: Sun May 16, 2021 4:46 pm
Location: North Carolina

Re: Business & Politics News and Discussions

Post by raklian »

To know is essentially the same as not knowing. The only thing that occurs is the rearrangement of atoms in your brain.
Post Reply