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Recently released survey data highlights some people regret quitting their jobs.
That's based on a June survey part of Joblist's second quarter of 2022 report which found that 26% "job seekers who quit their previous job" regret their decision. Just over 600 people were asked about this regret for the survey.
A Harris Poll survey for USA Today from earlier this year also found that roughly 1 in 5 people who quit felt regret.
"The Great Resignation continues because many people who regret quitting their job started looking for – and landing – a new one recently," Vicki Salemi, career expert at Monster, said in a statement to Insider.
As some people who regret their choice apply to yet another job or seek to return to their old positions, Insider looked into the reasons people regret quitting. The following are just three reasons people may regret joining the Great Resignation.
They quit in hopes of finding a better job — but that didn't happen
The level of quits in the US has been over 4 million a month for almost a year, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. And job openings have been over 11 million for six straight months as of May 2022. But even in today's hot labor market, some people are not having the easiest time landing a job.
"The most popular reason (40%) is that they quit without a new job lined up and the job market has proved more difficult than expected, which is perhaps a surprising insight at a time when job openings in the US are near record levels," Joblist wrote about its findings.
Kevin Harrington, the CEO of Joblist, told Insider he suggests people "take advantage while they can" of the labor market.
"If the job market does turn in the second half of the year, which hopefully it won't, it might be more difficult to switch roles later," Harrington said. "So especially for people who have certain regrets about their last switch it's important to be very thoughtful and detail-oriented when selecting their next role, especially right now."
Just maybe wait to have something new lined up this time before you say, "I quit."
The new job simply wasn't what they thought it would be
Per the recently released quarterly report from Joblist, 17% said their "new job is not what they hoped for" and 16% said their "old job was better than they realized" as the reasons behind their regret. Almost a third of those with regret, 30%, said in the Harris Poll that the job wasn't what they expected.
"Those of you who are unhappy with the move, it's probably because you were just moving too fast, both on the company side and on the employee side," Catherine Fisher, LinkedIn career expert, told CBS Mornings.
Workers who have yet to quit but are considering it should also take precautions so they can mitigate concerns of potential regret. Alison Sullivan, Glassdoor career trends expert, said in a statement that workers should "carefully evaluate" their next steps before you hand in your resignation letter and leave.
"No one wants to find themselves with quitter's remorse," Sullivan said. "That can happen when a new job or company isn't what you expected. This is why it's critical to conduct research when making these career decisions."
Sullivan added this includes checking reviews left by others for instance and examining the "the pros and cons of a new job or company before you quit."
Although people may regret leaving because the new job is unlike what they thought it would entail, regret could also just be due to new job nerves.
"Regret may also be part of the comfort zone; a former job is familiar, it's something you know rather than a new job which is unfamiliar at first," Salemi said. "Also, as a new hire, there may be some stumbling blocks that can be overcome, but there's often a learning curve both to the job and the employer's culture and processes."
Some job quitters miss their colleagues or their previous position
Just under a quarter in the Joblist survey, 22%, said missing the people they had worked with as the reason why they regret quitting. In the Harris poll, 24% of those with regret said they missed the workplace culture at their former job.
Some people who regret their job have thought about being a boomerang employee and returning to the colleagues and the position that they missed.
Survey data from Monster shows 61% of respondents would think about actually heading back to a previous employer. Fifty-nine percent said in the Joblist survey that they wouldn't want to be a boomerang employee. About a quarter, 24%, said maybe.
"I think for those who regret their decision and wish they had kept their old job, it never hurts to reach back out to an old manager or representative at a company, especially if you have a good relationship there," Harrington said. "It's a super competitive market for employers right now to attract and retain talent. Many would welcome back former employees, especially high performers I think with open arms."
Did you quit your job and regret it? Have you gone back to your previous employer after regretting leaving? Contact this reporter at mhoff@insider.com.
More: Economy Joblist great resignation Quitting job
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2022-07-17T10:42:24Z
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www.businessinsider.com
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3 Reasons People Regret Quitting Job, Joining the Great Resignation
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https://www.businessinsider.com/regret-quitting-job-great-resignation-labor-market-hot-joblist-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/regret-quitting-job-great-resignation-labor-market-hot-joblist-2022-7
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Investors can 'get paid while they wait' for the bear market to end. A Chief Investment Strategist with $130 billion in assets under management lays out how, and which sectors look particularly attractive right now.
Anastasia Amoroso is chief investment strategist at iCapital.
Anastasia Amoroso says that "investors shouldn't fight the Fed" as it hikes rates to cut inflation.
She advised investors to consider three sectors to "get paid while they wait" for equities to rally.
She also believes selective opportunities still exist within energy, financials, and semiconductors.
Last year the Federal Reserve tried to assuage rising market fears by labeling soaring inflation levels as "transitory." But now, with June's Consumer Price Index climbing 9.1% — yet another 41-year-high — most of Wall Street agrees that elevated inflation levels are here to stay.
The Federal Reserve will continue to be aggressive with rate hikes, said Anastasia Amoroso, who now believes that a 100 basis-point rate hike is on the table at the Federal Open Market Committee meeting later this month. Amoroso serves as the chief investment strategist at fintech firm iCapital, which services over $130 billion in global client assets.
"As long as the Fed is hiking rates, that's going to continue to exert pressure on the equity markets," Amoroso told Insider in a recent interview. "The biggest takeaway in this environment is that the Fed is clearly very much focused on fighting inflation, and investors shouldn't fight the Fed."
But lowering raging inflation isn't a quick and easy fix to the economy's problems, she clarified, pointing to systematic slowdowns in global supply chains caused by massive underinvestments in certain physical capacities of the economy, like housing and energy infrastructure.
Whereas the Fed was previously advocating for a soft landing, Amoroso believes that now the central bank might actually welcome a modest recession to slow down current consumer demand and ultimately cool inflation. Amoroso said that if a recession were to occur, it would be shallow thanks to the strong financial positions of consumers, banks, and corporations.
How investors should play it
As for investing in this new economic environment, Amoroso emphasized three points for investors: they should get paid while they wait for the equity bear market to end, they can commit long-term capital now to deploy lower valuations later, and they can slowly and selectively begin to buy stocks with a longer time horizon.
Making money in a bear market is no easy feat, but Amoroso believes that there are income-generating opportunities in fixed income, private credit, and infrastructure assets within multifamily residential real estate. Multifamily residential real estate, she noted, is an especially supply-constrained sector with fairly inelastic and recession-proof demand.
"The increasing unaffordability of housing pushes the would-be buyers to become renters, so I expect the demand for rental units to continue to be very robust and maybe strengthen at the same time that vacancy rates in multifamily residential are at rock-bottom levels," explained Amoroso. "All else equal, this should create a very supportive environment for market rents and pricing to support the multifamily residential sector."
While publicly traded REITs with exposure to multifamily residential housing exist, Amoroso personally favors private real estate assets with exposure to apartments. Within fixed income, she recommended investors buy into short-duration, high-quality Treasury and municipal bonds for attractive yields. For investors with a larger risk appetite, she recommended high-yield bonds that are currently trading with yields above 8%.
To her second point, Amoroso recommended investors look into private equity and venture capital — sectors she said will experience lower valuations in the near future. "Committing to them now would allow you to deploy that capital as it gets called in the coming quarters," she explained.
Lastly, Amoroso believes that the relative value for stocks has diminished, making them currently less attractive compared to other asset classes, and believes investors should avoid increasing their overall broad equities exposure. However, she still believes opportunities exist for investors to selectively add stocks, particularly in the semiconductors, energy, and financials sectors.
"I think now investors can make some long-term allocations already, but the closer the S&P 500 gets to 3,500, the more they can step in," said Amoroso. "Historically, buying at lower valuations when things feel terrible has paid off in forward returns."
Within the financials sector, Amoroso believes that the diversified financial services subsector stands out due to its expected year-over-year increase in earnings growth, exposure to consumers, and because it would benefit from rising interest rates.
Despite the robust rally in energy markets, Amoroso still likes the sector because it's both supply-constrained and underinvested. Additionally, she pointed to the sector's combination of high dividend yields and "handsome" free cash flow returns to shareholders as providing an extremely attractive investment opportunity.
On the other hand, Amoroso recommended investors avoid stocks with low profit margins, like automobile firms. She's also less enthusiastic about the travel reopening trade, since she expects the sector to experience a slowdown along with consumer discretionary names.
More: Investing stock market investing Stock market advice
Make money investing
how to make money from investing
how to make money investing
how to make money stock market
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2022-07-17T10:42:36Z
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www.businessinsider.com
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Investment Strategies: Make Money Waiting for Bear Market to End
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https://www.businessinsider.com/stock-market-make-money-get-paid-investing-recession-bear-market-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/stock-market-make-money-get-paid-investing-recession-bear-market-2022-7
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How a 31-year-old mom of 3 spun her 'side hustle for Target money' into a home-organizing company that made $1.3 million in revenue last year
Ría Safford with some the home-goods collection that she sells on Amazon.
Bradley Hart
Ría Safford launched her home-organizing company in 2016 after leaving the corporate world.
Safford's company, whose clients include Ciara and Russell Wilson, grossed $1.3 million last year.
Safford broke down how she decided to become a professional organizer and grew her business.
In 2015, Ría Safford made six figures in her first year working in commercial real estate, but the rigid hours were stifling as a new mom to daughter, Landry.
"The corporate life was not for me," Safford, now 31 and living in Frisco, Texas, said. "Every day got harder and harder, leaving my daughter at childcare."
In her rare free time, Safford began organizing her own home, bringing in bins, baskets, and labels that helped her maintain control amid the chaos of being a new parent.
That's when the light-bulb moment came. She founded a home-organizing company, RíOrganize, which started out as a "side hustle for Target money."
"It just turned into so much more," she said.
RíOrganize now works with over 350 clients a year, mostly in Southern California and around Dallas. She's been called on to organize everything from pantries to beauty closets to garages "so packed, you could barely get the door open." The business counts Chrissy Teigen, Paris Hilton, and Jesse Tyler Ferguson among its celebrity clients, as well as a few billionaires, royalty, Oscar winners, and Olympians whose identities are protected by nondisclosure agreements.
Safford and Paris Hilton in Hilton's freshly RíOrganized closet.
Ría Safford
RíOrganize charges by the hour, plus the cost of materials like clear boxes and shelf risers, with one-day jobs starting at around $2,500, Safford said. In 2021, RíOrganize grossed $1.3 million before expenses.
A lot of Americans want to control the chaos in their homes. Television shows like "Get Organized with The Home Edit" and "Tidying Up with Marie Kondo" were major pandemic hits as the business of daily life became confined within four walls.
The home-organization industry has ballooned over the past decades: In 1995, there were 834 members of the National Association of Professional Organizers. Within five years, that number grew to 1,358. Now, there are well over 4,000 members.
'I got to know the Container Store like the back of my hand'
When Safford first started exploring the profession, she learned her rhythm and what kinds of products she liked use by volunteering her time to family and family friends.
"I got to know the Container Store like the back of my hand," she joked.
Now she's at a point where she can easily estimate what kinds of products she'll need and how long it will take her or her team to complete a project simply by looking at photographs of the space.
It's helpful for Safford's business model that home organizing is such a social-media-friendly endeavor. When she first launched the business, she said she didn't skip a day of posting on Instagram for months.
Through that consistency, she was able to grow her audience @RíOrganize from "barely any followers" in March 2016 to some 30,000 followers in March 2019.
And that was before her first celebrity client reached out.
Safford gained 66,000 Instagram followers 'overnight' when Chrissy Teigen shouted her out
Safford gave birth to her son, Jack, in March 2019. She said it was only about 10 hours later that she got a message on Instagram from Jen Atkin, a celebrity hairstylist with 4.6 million Instagram followers whose clients include the Kardashian-Jenner clan and Gigi Hadid.
A post shared by Founder/CCO/Hairstylist (@jenatkinhair)
"I was in the hospital room and Jen Atkin DMed me. I didn't know who she was at the time, but I just see a blue checkmark and think, 'A blue checkmark is asking you to organize, this sounds so cool,'" Safford said. "Thank God it was my third kid, because I really would just hand him to a mechanic. Who cares? And I went and did a consult, mesh panties and all."
Atkin tapped RíOrganize to arrange a beauty closet in her home, and the end result went viral, with stories on Daily Mail and Yahoo, among others. Less than a year later, Chrissy Teigen came calling for a pantry makeover, which the supermodel posted on Instagram.
Safford's account got "66,000 followers overnight," she said. "People magazine called me within 10 minutes. I'm, like, cooking dinner for my kids. It was just crazy because it all started with me helping small families, and then it had just taken us into this whole new realm."
The company now has 327,000 Instagram followers, not to mention product collaborations sold in Target and on Amazon.
It's not all about the aesthetics
But, Safford notes, not every project is fit for Instagram.
Safford uses clear plastic containers and bins to make pantries more accessible and visually pleasing.
Courtesy of RíOrganize
"It's rarely, 'Hey, I feel like getting organized. Can you guys come and do it?'" Safford said of new clients. "It's usually these major life moments that are leading people to reach out. We've gone in after the most horrifying moments — people have lost children, people have lost family members, and we've gone through those items and tried to help them make sense of things."
Safford said the projects that alter her clients' relationships with their families remind her why she got into the business.
She recalled a time when a busy dentist — who gave up on making her kids lunch when the pantry became overwhelming — cried at its organized unveiling and vowed to maintain it and return to cooking for her kids.
"To know that at the end of the day there are people who truly trust us to handle anything for them is just everything," she said.
RíOrganize now has 14 employees — a number that includes her husband, who came on full time in October 2020.
And just as she intended, Safford has more time to spend with her kids.
"Unless there's a major project and I'm gone for a couple of days, I'm really home, and able to pick up my kids up every single day from school," she said, "which was always my goal when this started."
More: Home Organization Chrissy Teigen Jen Atkin Container Store
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2022-07-17T12:13:30Z
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www.businessinsider.com
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How a 31-Year-Old Mom Became a Well-Paid Professional Home Organizer
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https://www.businessinsider.com/how-ria-safford-became-a-professional-home-organizer-via-instagram-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/how-ria-safford-became-a-professional-home-organizer-via-instagram-2022-7
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National Ice Cream Day is Sunday.
Purveyors of the tasty treat are offering free ice cream and discounts to mark the sweet day.
Here's the scoop on the ice cream freebies and discounts you can get today.
National Ice Cream Day is here, and that means a chance to get free ice cream.
Here's the scoop on where you can find discounts and freebies today:
Rewards members can get three ounces of soft serve and toppings for free by entering a promo code that'll be announced on Instagram and in the company's email newsletter on Sunday morning. The deal is available in stores, as well as for pick-up or delivery.
This organic ice cream brand is giving away 10,000 scoops throughout July. You can enter on its website. On Sunday, 20 people will be chosen to receive 100 scoops each, in the form of coupons for any of the company's products.
From July 17 to 23, customers can use the promo code BECOOLER to get $5 off of any purchase of $15 or more, online and in stores.
Carvel is offering a buy-one-get-one deal on soft serve in a small cup or cone.
Guests can get $4 off of a purchase of $20 or more. The offer is valid from July 17 through 21 on orders placed through the Cold Stone Creamery app.
On Sunday, you can use the Dairy Queen app to get $1 off of any Dipped Cone at participating locations.
Participating locations are giving away free mini cups of Dippin' Dots during a two-hour window on Sunday. Check with your local store for more information.
You can get a small cone for $2 on Sunday by mentioning the deal at participating locations.
This cookie company will let customers level-up purchases with a free scoop of ice cream. The deal applies to purchases made in-store or ordered for local delivery.
Klondike is holding pop-up events in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles on Sunday to give away free frozen treats.
Rewards members can redeem randomized offers in the app throughout July. Deals include a free small ice cream, a BOGO deal on a small ice cream, and more.
Customers can get a free extra scoop with purchase of a single cup or cone in stores on Sunday and 20% off of online orders with the promo code NICD2022.
For $3, you can get a Size 1 of the Pressed Freeze soft serve with up to three vegan toppings at participating locations on Sunday. The deal is available in stores and for local delivery orders with the promo code ICECREAMDAY.
More: Freebies Ice cream Free Food Discounts
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2022-07-17T12:13:48Z
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www.businessinsider.com
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Where to Get Free Ice Cream on National Ice Cream Day
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https://www.businessinsider.com/national-ice-cream-day-list-places-free-ice-cream-discounts-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/national-ice-cream-day-list-places-free-ice-cream-discounts-2022-7
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10 SoftBank-backed startups that have laid off hundreds of workers amid a wave of job cuts
SoftBank Group Chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son.
At least 10 companies backed by SoftBank have had layoffs so far this year.
Many of these companies have cut staff within the past month.
SoftBank said in March that it lost $27 billion from investments across its two venture funds.
Layoffs have hit a series of SoftBank-backed startups with at least 10 companies cutting their workforce in the past few months.
SoftBank portfolio companies Gopuff, Remote, and NextBite have all made cuts within the past week. Rapid delivery startup Gopuff recently had a second round of layoffs after parting ways with some employees in March.
Two companies that laid off workers had also raised fresh capital from SoftBank this year. In February, ethnic ecommerce grocer Weee! announced that SoftBank led its $425 million Series E funding round, while onboarding startup Remote raised $300 million Series C funding, also led by SoftBank. Both companies have since laid off 10% of their staff.
For SoftBank itself, the past year has been turbulent. Amidst a souring market and rising inflation rates, many of SoftBank's investments have struggled to keep pace. In March, SoftBank said that it had lost more than $27 billion across its two venture funds, Vision Funds 1 and 2, since the previous year. Through these funds, the Japanese conglomerate has invested in more than 400 companies. And several key executives have also left this year.
The layoffs at the SoftBank-backed startups also come as several tech companies have either cut jobs or slowed hiring as they grapple with a broader market downturn. Many once thriving tech startups have been forced to downsize and scale back amid rising interest rates, inflation, and drying pools of VC funding.
Gopuff bags are transferred to a delivery driver near one of the company's warehouses.
In mid-July, Insider reported that rapid delivery startup Gopuff would be cutting 10% of its staff. This was the second time the company has made cuts this year. It first laid off 400 members, or about 3% of its workforce in March.
Gopuff also plans to cut costs by closing down at least 76 of its warehouses, which will save the company about $100 million in costs, according to a memo to investors shared with Insider. Many of the job cuts will come from laying off workers at the closing warehouses.
SoftBank has been one of the company's biggest backers, participating in several of its funding rounds.
Read the full story: Delivery startup Gopuff is laying off 10% of employees, leaked email reveals
Nextbite CEO Alex Thompson
Ordermark/Nextbite
Restaurant software company, Nextbite, cut a portion of its staff in July, Insider reported. Nextbite's CEO, Alex Thompson, did not disclose how many jobs had been cut to Insider.
The company, which originally launched as Ordermark in 2017, licenses delivery only brands to restaurants who are looking for ways to optimize their sales. The company raised $120 Million in Series C funding led by SoftBank in 2020, before rebranding as Nextbite in 2021.
Read the full story: SoftBank-backed food-tech startup Nextbite is cutting staff, restructuring operations
A screenshot of the Weee! website.
The Asian and Hispanic grocery delivery service Weee! laid off 150 employees or about 10% of its workforce in late June.
Weee! does not focus on rapid grocery delivery. Instead, it serves a market of customers looking for specialized Asian and Hispanic groceries. Just months before the layoffs, the company announced a $425 million Series E round led by SoftBank, bringing its valuation up to $4.1 billion.
Read the full story: SoftBank-backed online grocer Weee!, which recently raised $400 million, lays off 150 employees
Remote's cofounders Job van der Voort and Marcelo Lebre.
Remote, a company that provides onboarding and payroll tools for global teams, laid off 100 people or 10% of its staff in early July. A source told Insider that most of the company's management team had already left the company after it tried to reduce salaries.
The company completed a $300 million funding round in April that was led by SoftBank.
Read the full story: Remote, a SoftBank-backed onboarding startup valued at nearly $3 billion, is cutting 10% of its staff
Reef operates its ghost kitchen trailers under different names such as Reef Kitchens or NBHD Kitchens
In May, the SoftBank-backed ghost kitchen startup Reef Technology cut 5% of its global staff, Insider reported. The company had already shut down dozens of underperforming food trailers at the beginning of 2022.
Reef Technology expanded quickly during the pandemic and made deals to prepare orders for national chain restaurants. Sources told Insider that once the company shut down one-third of its food trailers, it began doubling down on its partnerships with fast-food chains like Wendy's, Buffalo Wild Wings, and Popeyes.
SoftBank led Reef's $900 million fundraise in 2018 and then took part in a subsequent funding round in 2020, according to PitchBook data.
Read the full story: In leaked memo, SoftBank-backed Reef says it will lay off 5% of its employees, while insiders say it's delaying bonuses and owes $8 million to vendors
OneTrust CEO Kabir Barday
In June, privacy management startup OneTrust cut 950 employees from its workforce or about 25% of its staff. CEO Kabir Barday announced the layoffs in a blog post.
OneTrust helps companies manage privacy, security, and governance requirements. SoftBank led a $210 million extension of the company's Series C round. In late 2020, the company raised $300 million for the Series C funding, which brought its valuation to $5.1 billion.
Read the full story: After raising $920 million and predicting 'record quarters', SoftBank-backed OneTrust laid off 25% of its staff
In June, the creator economy startup Jellysmack cut 8% of its staff. The layoffs came as part of a broader company restructuring that impacted several departments.
The company has raised $991 million in funding to date, according to PitchBook dat. Aside from SoftBank, the company's backers include Unilever, Interplay, and Partech.
Read: Creator economy startup Jellysmack has laid off 8% of its staff amid concerns of an ad downturn. Here's the email the cofounders sent to employees.
A screenshot of Sendoso's website.
In June, Sendoso, a platform that helps companies send gifts to business contacts, laid off 100 people from its staff of 700. The layoff affected employees in the US, Ireland, and across Sendoso's business units.
The company's latest round of funding was a $100 million Series C round led by SoftBank in 2021.
Read the full story: SoftBank-backed gifting startup Sendoso just announced it laid off 14% of its staff amid a broader wave of tech downsizing
In early May, video-sharing startup Cameo laid off 87 employees, or about one quarter of its workforce. Many of the company's senior executives, international employees, and members of its talent and marketing team were affected by the layoffs.
Many employees told Insider the cuts came as a shock, who believed the company was still thriving. SoftBank took part in Cameo's Series C funding round in 2021, which valued the company at just over $1 billion.
Read the full story: Cameo insiders pull back the curtain on its brutal layoffs, revealing slowing growth, internal dissent, and concerns about overspending.
The mortgage company first laid off 900 workers via a Zoom call in December 2021. Since then, Better.com has had three rounds of layoffs and cut thousands of jobs. Several executives at the company are also resigning, with three senior executives giving their notice in June, according to TechCrunch.
The company experienced a wave of new customers during the pandemic and hired aggressively to keep up with demand. In April 2021, it raised $500 million from SoftBank, which brought its valuation to $6 billion.
Read the full story: Better.com is reportedly set to lay off 4,000 more workers this week
More: Features Softbank gopuff
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2022-07-17T12:14:12Z
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www.businessinsider.com
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Here Are 10 SoftBank-Backed Startups That Have Cut Jobs This Year
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https://www.businessinsider.com/softbank-backed-startups-that-have-cut-jobs-this-year-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/softbank-backed-startups-that-have-cut-jobs-this-year-2022-7
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The retrofitted electric 1964 Volkswagen Bus
Adamski (left) and Smith (right) on the first day of the road trip.
In 1903, physician Horatio Nelson Jackson (at wheel) and his driving partner Sewall K. Crocker became the first men to drive an automobile across the United States.
An EV West technician working on the VW Bus.
Price (left) and Adamski (right) at Price's shop.
Jack Smith skateboards across America with a handful of friends in 1976.
Nissan Leaf Drive Electric Tour Sneak Preview at Westfield Century City on October 21, 2010 in Los Angeles, California.
Charley Gallay/WireImage
Smith driving the VW Bus in California.
Newland (left) and Smith (right) visiting the Gemini Giant in Wilmington, Illinois.
RV Park at Utah/Nevada border
Newland, Smith, and Adamski (in that order) in New York City.
Smith (left) and Adamski (right) at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio with the crew that recreated the Woodstock Bus.
Smith and Newland arrive back in San Francisco on the last day of the 42-day road trip.
An EV charging station.
More: Features Cars Business Visual Features Visual Features
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2022-07-17T13:45:05Z
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PHOTOS: All-Electric 1964 Volkswagen Bus Takes a 6,000-Mile Road Trip
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https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-electric-car-cross-country-road-trip-1964-volkswagen-bus-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-electric-car-cross-country-road-trip-1964-volkswagen-bus-2022-7
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"Ellie Paige" says she makes about $1,500 a week to insult men online.
Women are using Twitter to find men who enjoy being insulted and financially exploited.
Insider spoke to three women who are turning the fetish into a side hustle to save money.
One woman said she is using the cash to pay off medical bills and another to build up her savings.
Hurling insults at men is turning out to be a lucrative side-hustle for some women seeking financial independence.
A typical day for one woman cashing in on the fetish starts by telling her Twitter followers to pay her in a post with a degrading message.
"Rise and shine, my little human ATMs. I know exactly what buttons to push to make you spit out as much money as I want and I do it with an evil smile," one post says, using keywords like "findom", "paypig" and "moneyslave".
A "pay pig" is someone who likes to be humiliated by sending women money without getting anything in return. The pay pig worships their "findom" – the dominating woman – by paying them and gaining gratification from the exchange.
"They want to be laughed at and called pathetic," says a findom from Chicago who uses the name Ellie Paige. "It's a psychological fetish. What's more humiliating and pathetic than sending money for nothing in return? It plays into how society views men and money."
Pay pigs approach findoms who post using the term "pay pig" as well as pictures of themselves. Findoms typically ask their pay pigs to offer up a small tribute fee. Once they receive that, the "finsub" is asked about their kinks and triggers.
Paige joined the subculture at the start of the pandemic as a way to build up her savings. "The idea of it was really intriguing to me and I knew I could be good at it, especially the creativity aspect and being mean to men."
Paige says she makes an average of $1,500 a week from pay pigs. "It has definitely helped me with financial freedom and I enjoy it. I feel like it has helped me gain so much confidence."
"As a woman, I'm often in situations where I feel powerless and that so much is out of my control, so it's cathartic for me to take some of my power back through this," she added.
A lot of work goes into creating visibility as a findom and finding pay pigs. Paige spends about four hours a day brainstorming tweet ideas, having photoshoots and messaging people.
"The way I would describe it is like running social media for a brand and making sure you put out good content," Paige said. "It's time consuming but interesting because the whole shtick is putting on a facade that it's easy for you but there's a lot of behind the scenes work to look effortless."
Paige has a full-time job but works from home and uses downtime for her side hustle.
Another woman, who uses the alias Findomina Camille, has been a findom on and off for two years. "My main goals are paying off very high medical bills and getting the chance to take a trip around the world," she said.
"Most finsubs [pay pigs] are satisfied with the act of giving money itself. I have one I chat with on Snapchat who is a regular client," she added.
One findom, using the alias Goddess Mijha, says she has been engaging in the practice for five years. Mijha has new pay pigs who seek out her attention as well as regulars who pay her whenever she asks.
"What made me get started was finding out one of my best friends was in the business who started it as a hobby but ended up affording a mortgage for a house," she said.
More: Careers Side-Hustle Twitter Financial Freedom
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2022-07-17T15:15:57Z
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Side Hustle With a Difference: Women Making Thousands From 'Pay Pigs'
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https://www.businessinsider.com/side-hustle-with-a-difference-women-making-thousands-from-pay-pigs-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/side-hustle-with-a-difference-women-making-thousands-from-pay-pigs-2022-7
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Russian President Vladimir Putin at an Orthodox Easter mass in Moscow, Russia, on April 24, 2022.
The Head of the UK military dismissed what he called fanciful claims that Putin may be near death.
Sir Tony Radakin said the "threat of Russia" would be present for decades.
It came after Ukrainian officials and others pushed rumors suggest Putin may soon die.
The head of the UK armed forces has said claims Russia's President Vladimir Putin is ill or could be assassinated are "wishful thinking."
Sir Tony Radakin, the UK's chief of the Defence Staff, made the comments in a Sunday interview with the BBC.
When asked about the stability of the Russian government, Sir Tony Radakin said "I think some of these comments that 'he's not well' or 'surely someone is going to assassinate him', they're wishful thinking."
He also argued that Russia has been badly damaged by its invasion of Ukraine, citing its losses of equipment and soldiers there, and noting that its original plan to swiftly conquer the nation did not work.
Radakin did not cite specific claims of Putin being either ill or at risk of assassination.
But claims of health problems have for years followed Putin — as noted in an article by Insider's Mia Jankowicz.
Since the invasion of Ukraine began, the claims became more prominent. An anonymous Russian oligarch claimed to have been told Putin had a kind of blood cancer.
Ukrainian intelligence officials also made claims of ill-health and instability around Putin, without evidence to support it.
At one point they alleged that an assassination attempt had taken place, a claim which drew skepticism from Western officials.
In late May, Insider's John Haltiwanger and Mattathias Schwartz reported that US intelligence and military experts had concluded that there was no good evidence that Putin was seriously unwell.
They wrote that, similar to Radakin's assessment, wishful thinking may be at the root of such claims.
More: Military and Defence Russia Ukraine Putin
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2022-07-17T16:42:55Z
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Claims of Putin Illness, Assassination 'Wishful Thinking': UK Army Chief
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https://www.businessinsider.com/claims-of-putin-illness-assassination-wishful-thinking-uk-army-chief-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/claims-of-putin-illness-assassination-wishful-thinking-uk-army-chief-2022-7
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Sacrebleu! A shortage of Dijon mustard sparks a very French food crisis
Raifalsa makes mustards and mayonnaise.
Maurice Rougemont/Getty Images
A shortage of Dijon mustard has left French people desperately searching for a substitute.
Mustard is mainly used to accompany red meats or to make vinaigrettes for salads.
Despite its substitutes, Dijon mustard is "irreplaceable" and "indispensable" to French cuisine.
Dijon mustard is a must-have condiment for most French families – whether it be to accompany red meat or to make a vinaigrette – but an ongoing shortage of the condiment has left French people up in arms.
"We managed to find one pot in an independent grocery store that received only six pots last week," Nathalie Prevos told Insider.
Despite its name, Dijon mustard is produced using seeds from other countries such as Canada. About 80% of the brown seeds used to make the Dijon mustard come from there, Luc Vandermaesen, director of Reine de Dijon mustard manufacturer and president of the Burgundy Mustard Association, told The New York Times.
"The main issue is climate change and the result is this shortage. We can't respond to the orders we get, and retail prices are up as much as 25% reflecting the soaring cost of seeds," he said.
Prevos, 50, said: "My husband uses it often to add to pie or to use alongside crème fraiche, and we always use it in vinaigrettes. We have yet to find a substitute."
France is the world's largest consumer of mustard, getting through about 2.2 pounds a year per person, according to The Times report. Other countries might be hit by a mustard shortage, but France's crisis is unique as it relies so heavily on Canadian seeds.
Paul-Olivier Claudepierre, the co-owner of Martin-Pouret, which sells French mustards and vinegars, told Le Monde it was time to "relocalize production."
"We cultivate, thousands of kilometers away, a seed that we are going to harvest, bring to a port, transport across the ocean in containers, in order to transform it at home," he said. "That costs a lot, and what a great carbon toll."
A substitute?
What distinguishes the mustard from other condiment is its kick, or as French describe it, "ça me monte au nez," or "it's rising into my nose."
One substitute is raifort, a French sauce made of horseradish, according to Actu.fr. It belongs to the family of the brassicaceae. It is a root vegetable, used as a spice and as a condiment.
Agathe Hochard, 24, told Insider that older generations may want Dijon mustard with their steaks, but people her age did not: the younger generation would not think twice about it.
"I can't remember a time when I chose Dijon mustard over anything else. I would rather go for a sauce blanche, burger, or even barbecue."
However, Hochard's mother said Dijon mustard is "irreplaceable" and "indispensable" to French cuisine.
In most supermarkets in France, mustard shelves have been emptied for at least a couple of months, with some supermarkets apologizing for the lack of stock. Signs in Intermarché blame "a drought in Canada" and Ukraine's "conflict with Russia" for the shortages.
US consumers do not appear to be affected, however. Neither Kraft Heinz, which owns Grey Poupon, and McCormick, which makes French's mustard, nor foresee empty shelves in American stores, USA Today reported.
More: Weekend BI UK Mustard Dijon Shortage
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2022-07-17T16:43:07Z
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Sacrebleu! Shortage of Dijon Mustard Sparks a Very French Food Crisis
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https://www.businessinsider.com/shortage-of-dijon-mustard-sparks-a-very-french-food-crisis-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/shortage-of-dijon-mustard-sparks-a-very-french-food-crisis-2022-7
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Rep. Victoria Spartz, an Indiana Republican, addresses reporters while wearing the colors of the Ukrainian flag.
Republicans are concerned over Rep. Victoria Spartz's pointed criticism of Zelenskyy, per Politico.
"It is not helpful to what we're trying to do and I'm not sure her facts are accurate," a GOP lawmaker said.
Spartz earlier this month accused both Biden and Zelenskyy of "playing politics" with the war effort.
Republicans are becoming increasingly concerned with GOP Rep. Victoria Spartz's pointed criticism of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his top aides, with many in the House GOP caucus distressed that her stance could be hurting the American alliance with the war-torn country at a critical time, according to Politico.
While President Joe Biden and most members of the Republican caucus have expressed unequivocal support of Ukraine after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched an invasion of the country in February, Spartz's comments have led some GOP lawmakers to worry that her words could also boost the small minority of Republicans who have opposed the billions of dollars in American aid flowing to the country.
"Her naiveness is hurting our own people," a Republican lawmaker on the House Foreign Affairs Committee told Politico. "It is not helpful to what we're trying to do and I'm not sure her facts are accurate … We have vetted these guys."
The lawmaker also told the news outlet that the Indiana congresswoman's remarks could potentially "hurt" the ongoing effort to aid the Ukrainian people.
Since February, the United States has committed over $7 billion in aid to Ukraine, according to The Associated Press.
Earlier this month, Spartz — a businesswoman who was born in Ukraine and emigrated to the United States in her 20s — released a statement criticizing both Biden and Zelenskyy for "playing politics" as it related to military strategy and called for a "proper oversight of critical infrastructure and delivery of weapons and aid" by Congress.
"President Biden has to stop playing politics, have a clear strategy and align security assistance with our strategy," she wrote, adding that "President Zelensky has to stop playing politics and theater, and start governing to better support his military and local governments."
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry swiftly responded, blasting Spartz for what they said was "baseless speculation" on the part of the freshman congresswoman.
"We advise Ms. Spartz to stop trying to earn extra political capital on baseless speculation around the topic of war in our country and the grief of Ukrainians," said spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko in a statement on Facebook. "Especially cynical are manipulations about Ukraine and its leadership from congresswomen of Ukrainian origin."
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy holds a press conference with Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin on July 6, 2022, in Kyiv, Ukraine.
A House Republican who spoke with Politico said that Spartz had become known for attending briefings for committees where she is not a member, including meetings on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, where several members have spoken to her privately about her comments.
And Biden administration officials have also taken note of her statements, aware that her sentiments could greatly affect the Western alliance that has so far kept the entire country from falling to Putin.
Per Politico, Spartz was briefed about her allegations in a classified environment late last week.
While issues of corruption in Ukraine have been raised by some Western officials in the past, such concerns have largely been dismissed in the wake of the brutal assault against the country.
GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina told Politico that he differed with Spartz on her claims.
"I don't share her criticisms," he told the outlet. "I believe that the Zelenskyy government and the Ukrainian people have risen to the moment."
Spartz in the past has called for more stringent oversight of the weaponry that has been sent to Ukraine by the US government, and she has needled Zelenskyy for not "understanding" the full scope of the war.
"You are not preparing for war," Spartz said of the country's leadership in a Ukrainian publication last week. "You even act like you don't have a war! You do not understand that you have the biggest war after the Second World War!"
But Spartz stressed that she isn't questioning Zelenskyy's support of the country's war effort, but simply wants to address what she sees as oversight issues with the war effort.
"I am not saying that the support of your president is not there," she told the Ukrainian publication. "I am saying that some of your country's actions are troubling us. And if problems are not voiced, it does not mean that they do not exist."
More: Victoria Spartz Volodymyr Zelenskyy House Republican Conference GOP
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2022-07-17T16:43:19Z
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Republicans Worried Over GOP Rep. Spartz's Criticism of Zelenskyy: Politico
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https://www.businessinsider.com/zelenskyy-spartz-ukraine-russia-conflict-republican-party-biden-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/zelenskyy-spartz-ukraine-russia-conflict-republican-party-biden-2022-7
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Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
Bernie Sanders says Joe Manchin is "intentionally sabotaging" President Biden's legislative agenda.
While on ABC, Sanders said Manchin doesn't represent "working families in West Virginia or America."
Manchin last week threw cold water on a climate and tax plan that Democrats spent weeks negotiating.
Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders on Sunday blasted Sen. Joe Manchin after the West Virginia Democrat sunk the Democratic-led climate and tax bill that the party had been negotiating for weeks.
While speaking with ABC News correspondent Martha Raddatz, the Vermont lawmaker decried Manchin's stance that he could no longer support the legislation due to his concerns over inflation and said the lawmaker was "sabotaging" President Joe Biden's agenda.
fAnd he became visibly animated when Raddatz said that Manchin "abruptly" ended talks with Democratic leaders regarding the bill.
"Senator Joe Manchin, of course abruptly pulled the plug this week on the Democratic plan," Raddatz said before Sanders interjected.
"He didn't abruptly do anything," Sanders said. "He has sabotaged the president's agenda."
He continued: "If you check the record six months ago, I made it clear that you have people like Manchin and [Arizona Sen. Kyrsten] Sinema to a lesser degree who are intentionally sabotaging the president's agenda, what the American people want, what a majority of us in the Democratic caucus want. Nothing new about this."
Sanders then laced into Manchin's political fundraising, pointing out his ties to the energy industry — which holds immense sway in West Virginia — and Republican donors.
"This is a guy who is a major recipient of fossil fuel money ... a guy who has received campaign contributions from 25 Republican billionaires," he said.
When Raddatz countered that Manchin said he wanted to act in the best interest of West Virginia given that inflation last month rose 9.1 percent from a year earlier, Sanders replied: "Really? Really?"
During a Friday interview with West Virginia broadcaster Hoppy Kercheval, Manchin said he told Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York that he wanted to see July's inflation figures next month before taking any further action on the bill.
"I said, 'Chuck until we see the July inflation figures, until we see the July Federal Reserve rates, interest rates, then let's wait until that comes out so we know that we were going down the path that won't be inflammatory to add more to inflation. Inflation is absolutely killing many, many people,'" he said during the interview, pointing to higher food and fuel costs.
Sanders on Sunday was not impressed with Manchin's reasoning regarding the proposed bill.
"Same nonsense that Manchin has been talking about for a year," he told Raddatz. "You ask the people of West Virginia whether they want to expand Medicare to cover dental, hearing and eyeglasses. Ask the people of West Virginia whether or not all people should have health care as a human right, like in every other country on Earth."
"In my humble opinion, Manchin represents the very wealthiest people in this country, not working families in West Virginia or America," he added.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington, who chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told Politico last week that Manchin could no longer be trusted.
"Senator Manchin has said a lot of things," she expressed. "Every time what he makes clear, over and over again, is that he can't close a deal and that you can't trust what he says."
Last December, Manchin tanked the party's expansive Build Back Better legislation, which was intended to be a multitrillion-dollar social-spending bill that would have established universal pre-K, renewed monthly child tax credit payments to families for another year, and tackled climate change, among other provisions.
Democrats sought to pass the bill through the reconciliation process, but with Manchin effectively holding veto power in the evenly-divided Senate, he scuttled the legislation much to the dismay of Biden and congressional Democrats — despite the White House and party leaders having worked to make major concessions to win his support.
Biden on Friday urged Democrats to pass a slimmed-down bill focused on health care provisions and federal deficit reduction.
More: Bernie Sanders Joe Manchin Democratic Party Joe Biden
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2022-07-17T18:18:13Z
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Sanders: Joe Manchin 'Intentionally Sabotaging the President's Agenda'
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https://www.businessinsider.com/bernie-sanders-manchin-biden-climate-tax-economic-agenda-democrats-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/bernie-sanders-manchin-biden-climate-tax-economic-agenda-democrats-2022-7
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Billionaire Peter Thiel and Arizona GOP Senate candidate Blake Masters.
Marco Bello/Getty Images and Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
Blake Masters has surged in the Arizona GOP Senate primary after securing Trump's endorsement.
His main opponent, Jim Lamon, has made Masters' association with Thiel into a campaign issue.
Lamon is drawing on GOP suspicions of Silicon Valley, big tech, and wealthy financiers.
PRESCOTT, Arizona — Billionaire tech CEO Peter Thiel may be more responsible than anyone else for Blake Masters' ascent in the Arizona Republican Senate primary.
The PayPal founder and early Facebook investor has poured $13.5 million into a super PAC called "Saving Arizona" that's supporting his protégé. And Masters' opponents — particularly Republican businessman Jim Lamon — want voters to know it.
"Masters only ever worked for Peter Thiel, who, by the way, was a founding Facebook board member in 2005," Lamon told a crowd of roughly 200 people who showed up on July 15 at the Prescott Hotel and Resort, where the one-time Army Airborne Officer with a thick Southern accent was holding a town hall in the Goldwater Ballroom.
It was a Friday evening, and former President Donald Trump was set to speak the following day alongside Masters, who he endorsed last month, in an adjacent town in the mountainous Yavapai County — until the rally was postponed by nearly a week due to the death of Trump's first wife, Ivana.
The 35-year-old first-time candidate now leads the pack, despite polling in the single digits as recently as April.
Serving as the chief operating officer of Thiel's investment firm and the president of the Thiel Foundation until just four months ago, Masters has been associated with the conservative tech mogul for his entire adult life. He is the co-author with Thiel of Zero to One, a book about building startups that draws on notes that Masters took when he was an undergrad student of Thiel's at Stanford University.
Thiel, meanwhile, is associated with a variety of Silicon Valley companies; he co-founded PayPal and founded Palantir, a big data analytics firm. He was also the first outside investor in Facebook, serving on the board of the social media giant until earlier this year.
Despite their Silicon Valley ties, both Thiel and Masters are conservatives who are fiercely critical of so-called "big tech" and the world from which they come; Thiel also notably spoke in support of then-candidate Trump at the 2016 GOP convention.
But since being passed over for the Trump endorsement, Lamon has been hammering Masters over his relationship with Thiel — whose name he frequently mispronounces as "theel" rather than "teal" — and labeling the conservative tech billionaire as a "globalist Facebook board member" while trying to recast his relationship with Silicon Valley into well-worn Republican narratives.
Businessman Jim Lamon at the town hall event in Prescott, Arizona on July 15, 2022.
"Oh by the way, just a little tidbit — again, because I'm on a little rail here about Big Tech," said Lamon as he addressed a question about "burdensome regulations" from government agencies. "Palantir, which is a Peter Thiel company, is one of the largest companies that the federal government is doing business with to spy on Americans."
Recent polling indicates that the primary campaign may be developing into a head-to-head race between the two candidates in the final two week stretch, and one of Lamon's main closing arguments against Masters — aside from highlighting his former libertarian leanings — is that Republicans should be suspicious of Thiel and his allies.
"Oh and by the way, Blake, stop trying to tell us that you're not a puppet for big tech, because you are," said Lamon at the event, prompting a murmur of agreement among the attendees.
Lamon, a self-funder, also frequently emphasizes the differences in the source of their respective campaigns' largesse; while Masters owes much of his campaign's viability to Thiel's money, Lamon has largely self-financed his own campaign.
"There is no amount of money I will not spend of mine to save my country," said Lamon, a solar energy tycoon who's loaned $14 million of his own fortune to his campaign, to applause.
An emerging megadonor
In addition to his investments in Masters, Thiel gave a total of $15 million to a super PAC supporting the Ohio Senate campaign of JD Vance, a fellow venture capitalist and the author of "Hillbilly Elegy."
But while plenty of Republicans may be aware of megadonors like the Koch brothers or Sheldon Adelson, Thiel has emerged only recently as a donor of that caliber.
Though he's made sizable contributions to Republicans like Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri and right-wing groups like the Club for Growth, the over $25 million that Thiel has spent in Ohio and Arizona combined dwarf all of his prior political contributions.
Masters has previously defended his ties to Thiel. At a FreedomWorks-sponsored event in late June, he said the PayPal founder was the "one America First billionaire that we have," prompting boos from some audience members.
"Okay, not a fan? I think he's great," Masters shot back at the debate. "If you know other America First billionaires, give them my cell phone number, okay? Get you a candidate who can marshal some resources."
Evidence of those resources abound across Maricopa County; yard signs financed by the outside group can be found at a smattering of major intersections, alongside all of the other signs competing for attention.
A yard sign for Blake Masters funded by the Peter Thiel-backed Saving Arizona PAC in Chandler, Arizona.
While Masters' own campaign has stuck with a simple, white-on-black design, signs financed by the Thiel-backed super PAC are bright yellow and include an image of Masters with his family.
An endorsement lost
Lamon has gone as far as to create an entire website of negative attacks on Masters.
"That's right," reads one section of the site. "The same Big Tech that's censoring conservatives and selling our country out to China are funding Fake Blake Masters' faux conservative campaign.
But Lamon's attacks on Thiel have already cost him at least one endorsement. Ric Grenell, a former Trump administration official who served as acting Director of National Intelligence and ambassador to Germany, announced on Twitter in June that he was withdrawing his endorsement of the businessman over the attacks.
At a Masters campaign event, Grenell said Lamon's rhetoric on Thiel "really burned me" and compared Lamon to Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, who's drawn the ire of conservatives for her criticism of Trump and her service as vice chair of the January 6 committee.
"One thing that drives me crazy, and really convinced me that I needed to un-endorse Jim and endorse Blake Masters, was because I watched as Republicans on the committee began to attack their own," said Grenell at the event, condemning what he described as "Republicans attacking Republicans with phony messaging."
An official Blake Masters campaign sign in Prescott, Arizona.
'The same kind of guy that George Soros is'
Milling around the hotel's Goldwater ballroom following Lamon's town hall, attendees told Insider that what they've heard about Thiel is giving them pause.
"It bothers me a great deal," Steve Zipperman, a candidate for state Senate in the Prescott-based 1st legislative district, told Insider following the town hall. "I'm looking at Peter Thiel as being the same kind of guy that George Soros is, trying to control things and manipulate things from outside."
Zipperman's wife, Sharon, told Insider that her "BS detector" went off at a recent dinner she and her husband had with Masters.
While complimenting him as a "delightful young man, very smart," she said he failed to sufficiently address Lamon's critique of him when it was presented to him.
"It would be easy for him to answer that," she said. "But instead, what he did is what a consultant would advise him to do, which is just laugh it off."
Meanwhile, others say they're hearing about Thiel for the first time.
"That's the first I heard about Blake and that connection," said Laura Stewart, a 52-year-old town hall attendee. "So I don't know."
Pat Newbert, 66, told Insider at the event that she had ultimately decided to support Lamon despite some of her friends' enthusiasm for Masters.
"Well, Trump endorsed him, so he must have looked into him and everything. But yeah, he also endorsed Dr. Oz," said Newbert, referring to Pennsylvania Senate candidate Mehmet Oz. She added that she doesn't "necessarily agree with a lot of people that Trump's backing."
She added that Lamon's broadsides against Thiel and his connection to Facebook were an "eye opener" that had convinced her to not to support Masters.
"I don't know why Trump's backing Masters after everything that I've learned about him now," she said. "Because Facebook is — I mean, they're squashing our First Amendment."
It was at that point that her husband Ray, 71, interjected.
"I just got out of Facebook jail," he said. "For posting the truth!"
More: Elections Peter Thiel Blake Masters Jim Lamon
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2022-07-17T19:49:43Z
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Peter Thiel Under Fire for Spending $13.5 Million in Arizona Senate Race
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https://www.businessinsider.com/peter-thiel-blake-masters-jim-lamon-arizona-senate-campaign-tech-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/peter-thiel-blake-masters-jim-lamon-arizona-senate-campaign-tech-2022-7
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Rep. Adam Kinzinger said Sunday the committee found Trump mostly watched TV.
Rep. Adam Kinzinger said Sunday that the January 6 committee has "filled in the blanks" on actions taken by President Donald Trump on the day of the Capitol riot.
The Illinois Republican was speaking on CBS's Face the Nation on Sunday when moderator Margaret Brennan asked if the committee had discovered what Trump was doing and who he had spoken with in the 187 minutes that passed between when he left his "Stop the Steal" rally to when he tweeted a video asking his supporters to leave the Capitol.
"We have filled in the blanks," Kinzinger said. "I can't necessarily say that the motives behind every piece of information we know we'll be able to explain. But this is going to open people's eyes in a big way."
The actions, or inaction, taken by Trump to quell the insurrection is one of the key questions the House select committee investigating the Capitol riot has been exploring. The committee has said the upcoming hearing on July 21 will include witness testimony that demonstrates Trump ignored those around him who urged him to call off his supporters sooner.
"The reality is — I'll give you this preview — the president didn't do very much but gleefully watch television during this timeframe," Kinzinger said Sunday.
He continued: "I knew what I felt like as a US Congressman, if I was a president, sworn to defend the Constitution — that includes the legislative branch — watching this on television, I know I would have been going ballistic to try to save the Capitol. He did quite the opposite."
Explosive testimony from Cassidy Hutchinson, who served as a top aide to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, included some details about the president's actions that day. She testified she heard Trump got into a confrontation with Secret Service agents while demanding to join his supporters at the Capitol, and that Trump knew some people in the crowd were armed. Trump has denied her testimony and called her "bad news."
Trump has repeatedly dismissed the January 6 committee hearings as illegitimate and criticized Kinzinger as a RINO, an insult that stands for Republican In Name Only.
Kinzinger said last week the committee was considering asking Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence for testimony. On Sunday he said he's not sure if talking to Trump would be valuable, adding he believes he could lie under oath, but that talking to Pence would be more valuable.
More: January 6 committee Capitol Siege Donald Trump Adam Kinzinger
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2022-07-18T01:54:40Z
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Adam Kinzinger: January 6 Committee 'Filled in Blanks' on Trump Action
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https://www.businessinsider.com/adam-kinzinger-january-6-committee-filled-in-blanks-on-trump-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/adam-kinzinger-january-6-committee-filled-in-blanks-on-trump-2022-7
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In his nightly address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced new treason investigations.
"It can truly be called self-purification," Zelenskyy said.
In his nightly national address on Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced hundreds of criminal proceedings resulting from treason investigations in the nation's security services and among prosecutors in the country.
"As of today, 651 criminal proceedings have been registered regarding treason and collaboration activities of employees of prosecutors' offices, pretrial investigation bodies, and other law enforcement agencies," Zelenskyy said. "In particular, more than 60 employees of the prosecutor's office and the security service of Ukraine remained in the occupied territory and are working against our state."
Zelenskyy added that on Sunday he dismissed the Prosecutor General, Iryna Venediktova, from her position and fired Ivan Bakanov, the head of the Security Service of Ukraine, citing the growing concerns about treason in their offices.
Zelenskyy said as violence spread through the region, members of the Ukrainian security services and law enforcement offices shared secret information with invading forces and cooperated with Russian officials.
"I want to thank everyone who participated in this operation," Zelenskyy said. "It can truly be called self-purification."
More: Volodymyr Zelenskyy Zelenskyy Ukraine Russia
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2022-07-18T01:54:58Z
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www.businessinsider.com
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Zelenskyy Fires Top Security Chief and Prosecutor, Citing Treason
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https://www.businessinsider.com/zelenskyy-fires-top-security-chief-and-prosecutor-citing-treason-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/zelenskyy-fires-top-security-chief-and-prosecutor-citing-treason-2022-7
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George Conway said Ron DeSantis may be the only GOP figure who stands a chance of beating Trump.
Conway said Trump might announce a run soon to prevent donors from backing other GOP candidates.
Neither DeSantis nor Trump has formally declared his intention to run for president in 2024.
Conservative lawyer and Trump critic George Conway said he thinks Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is the only GOP candidate who stands a chance of defeating Trump in 2024.
Conway made the remarks on Saturday during an appearance on CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360." He is the husband of former Trump aide Kellyanne Conway, and has publicly broken with his wife on their differing political views.
During the segment, anchor Anderson Cooper asked Conway whether he thought Trump would announce a presidential run before the midterms to disrupt the Republican field of candidates, to which Conway said it was "absolutely" possible.
"I think he understands that he can deter people from running, and he's going to end up freezing donors from giving money to other people," Conway said.
He added that donors are likely to think twice about wasting their money on other candidates if Trump is "probably going to win."
"The only way he gets beaten for the nomination is if maybe somebody is able to run a one-on-one campaign against him, probably DeSantis," Conway said, adding that it's "quite possible" that DeSantis makes a presidential bid.
Conway also highlighted how a multi-candidate race might split the votes between Trump and the rest, allowing the former president to clinch the nomination due to the GOP's "winner-take-all delegate rules."
Conway also told Cooper he thought Trump was "definitely going to announce" his run soon.
"I think he can't help himself. I think that he thinks that this is his way of undermining the investigation against him and immunizing himself against the investigation by saying, 'Oh, this is all political. Look at this. They want to stop me from winning and becoming president again, and I'm going to save the country and so on and so forth,'" Conway said.
Conway isn't the only conservative figure who has weighed in on a possible Trump run. Former House GOP staffer Kurt Bardella said he thinks Trump is likely to announce his campaign soon because he has "the impulse control of a freaking toddler." And as early as October, Trump's former chief of staff Mark Meadows said he was willing to bet all the money he had that Trump would run again in 2024.
The Washington Post reported this month that Trump has been meeting with top donors privately, where they discussed the midterms and the likelihood of him running in the next election. In the meantime, Trump is continuing to hint at campaigning without officially declaring his candidacy.
Insider previously reported that Trump considered announcing his 2024 bid on July 4, but nixed the plan.
Both DeSantis and Trump are viewed as frontrunners for the 2024 presidential ticket, though neither has formally declared intention to run. A DeSantis representative told Insider last week that DeSantis remains "focused on Florida and running for reelection as governor this year."
Meanwhile, Trump has teased a presidential run multiple times. In January, a video emerged that showed Trump calling himself the "45th and 47th president."
More: Ron DeSantis Donald Trump Trump 2024 2024
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2022-07-18T06:24:41Z
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George Conway: Ron DeSantis May Be the Only Person Who Can Beat Trump
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https://www.businessinsider.com/george-conway-ron-desantis-may-be-only-person-beat-trump-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/george-conway-ron-desantis-may-be-only-person-beat-trump-2022-7
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How 2 ex-quant traders exploited their industry's notorious noncompetes to bootstrap a billion-dollar crypto startup
Tarun Chitra exploited his network of quant traders sitting out noncompetes to build Gauntlet into a unicorn.
Tarun Chitra
Before founding Gauntlet, Tarun Chitra and Rei Chiang worked in quant trading.
To scale up quickly, they hired other quants sitting out the industry's onerous noncompetes.
The startup, which helps companies manage risk for their crypto-lending operations, became a unicorn in March.
Tarun Chitra first started building trading tools for cryptocurrencies as a hobby in 2016, while working full time as a quant researcher and developer at high-frequency-trading firm Vatic Labs.
He'd dabbled in bitcoin mining starting in 2011, while he was a programmer at D.E. Shaw Research, the biomedical research arm of the famed quant hedge fund. But he didn't take the movement — relegated then to the societal fringes — too seriously at the time, selling all of his bitcoin "way too early," in 2013.
The movement gradually gained momentum amid a flurry of papers from cryptographers and academics, as did demand for Chitra's talents. By 2016, Chitra was becoming a frequent face at crypto meetups, where budding entrepreneurs frequently courted him to join forces.
The quirky characters inhabiting crypto in this era were rough around the edges, especially compared to the MIT and Harvard Ph.D.s Chitra was accustomed to working with.
"I just didn't really trust any of them, so I was like, 'I'll consult for you instead,'" Chitra told Insider.
By 2018, Chitra's work moonlighting for crypto startups had ballooned, and he decided to take a calculated leap: He quit Vatic to consult full time — and he began building a company of his own.
Ditching the lucrative world of systematic trading was a gamble.
A key factor in Chitra's decision was that Vatic, like many quantitative-trading firms, enforced a lengthy noncompete that banned him from working for competitors in any capacity for up to two years after he left the company.
Because Vatic would continue to pay his salary for the duration of his noncompete, he viewed the contract as an insurance policy. It bought him time to gamble on uncertain and entrepreneurial ideas far afield of a trading floor while still earning a solid income, regardless of whether the efforts succeeded.
"I was like, 'I'll be on noncompete anyways, so who cares?'" Chitra said.
If the adventure in tech didn't work out, he could always head back to Wall Street once his noncompete expired.
In mid-2018, he met Rei Chiang through some mutual quant-trading friends. Chiang had worked in high-frequency trading at Getco and 3Red Trading before spending three years at Uber, and he'd been considering pursuing a similar idea. The pair joined forces.
They quickly got validation that they were onto something that summer when Facebook tried to acquire Gauntlet — about a year before it would announce its own ill-fated digital coin, libra.
"People are putting real money in this. We should just go raise money and actually make a run for it," Chitra remembered thinking.
They rebuffed the offer from Facebook, and instead the duo tried to ramp up as quickly as possible. They raised a seed round from First Round Capital.
They also intentionally exploited the noncompete dynamic at Wall Street quant firms to bootstrap Gauntlet.
"Our first few hires were actually just people on noncompetes. That was our network — we also knew, and they knew, that they would just be sitting out doing nothing during that time period," Chitra said. "It was a great way to bootstrap a startup."
As of March, Gauntlet is a unicorn and a leading provider of software that helps financial institutions stress test and manage risk for their crypto-lending operations.
The firm, now with more than 40 employees, raised $24 million in its Series B from VCs including Ribbit Capital, Paradigm, and Polychain Capital.
Chitra thinks more Wall Street quants, who have a reputation for risk aversion borne from their daily grind of obsessing over Sharpe ratios, would benefit from learning to live a little bit and taking a calculated career gamble every once in a while.
"They're so unwilling to do something with a tiny amount of risk," Chitra said. "Life is a little too short to be always focused on that."
NOW WATCH: Wall Street's biggest bull explains why trade war fears are way overblown
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2022-07-18T09:31:04Z
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How Gauntlet Founders Used Quant Talent to Build a Crypto Unicorn
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https://www.businessinsider.com/how-gauntlet-founders-used-quant-noncompetes-to-build-crypto-unicorn-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/how-gauntlet-founders-used-quant-noncompetes-to-build-crypto-unicorn-2022-7
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Three ways Joe Biden can whip inflation — without screwing over average Americans
Joe Biden needs to stop acting powerless. Here's how he can whip inflation, fix our broken supply chains, and bring down gas prices — and prevent the same kind of chaos from hitting the US economy in the future.
Taming inflation — and stabilizing the increasing prices of everything from gas to food to used cars — is the greatest economic challenge facing the US. Many people, including President Joe Biden, are looking to the Federal Reserve to solve the problem.
The problem is the Fed has one tool to slow rising prices: interest-rate hikes. Basically, inflation is caused by a mismatch between supply and demand. While raising rates can control some forms of inflation, it does so by crushing the demand side of that equation, making it more expensive to take out loans or make investments. This leads to slower economic growth, fewer businesses expanding their operations, and higher unemployment. Americans already feel poorer today because of increases in the costs of food and energy. The Fed's strategy for slowing down these price increases? Make those same Americans even poorer.
Thankfully, there is another way. There are a few notable places where White House and Congress can step in to help slow inflation without crushing average Americans. Policymakers in Washington can follow a three-point plan to tackle inflation:
On the supply side, they can make direct investments in productive capacity to increase the amount of goods that businesses can deliver.
They can pass measures that push companies to bring prices down through greater competition and technological diffusion.
On the demand side, they can use policies far more targeted than the Fed's interest-rate hammer to surgically reduce demand in specific sectors.
Following this threefold plan would allow Biden and lawmakers on Capitol Hill to slow inflation without cutting into much-needed new investment or throwing people out of work. Unlike interest-rate hikes, these strategies would counter inflation at its root and have more direct, identifiable, and predictable effects on key prices.
Investments to enhance and preserve productive capacity
Much of today's inflation comes from an acute shortage of physical capacity in capital-intensive sectors. There simply aren't enough factories and experienced workers to make the basic things we need, from oil to semiconductors to housing inputs. Add in the disruptions caused by COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine, and you end up with inflation measures at multidecade highs.
But while these issues are coming to a head now, the physical limitations of our supply chains are the result of decades of cost cutting and downsizing by companies in response to weak demand after the financial crisis. The capacity cuts alongside reduced investments in new manufacturing facilities and a push for more "efficient" business strategies left a fragile system that broke during the pandemic.
To build back this capacity, the US government should make direct investments to increase physical production capacity and encourage businesses to follow up with their own. This would help stabilize prices in the near term while strengthening the economy in coming years. In particular, Washington should push for increased investment in the production of major commodities: energy sources like oil and gas, metals like aluminum and copper, and agricultural inputs like potash and wheat.
Employ America has already laid out a plan for accelerating investment within the American oil industry. The first step is to allow the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, a reservoir of oil controlled by the federal government, to sell physical put options — contracts that guarantee the government will buy a barrel of oil at a certain price in the future. Oil producers are reluctant to invest in new equipment because they're concerned that the price of oil will have fallen again by the time their investment comes online. But by providing insurance with these contracts, the government can alleviate that concern and incentivize these producers to build new facilities to pump oil. The Biden administration can then use the Exchange Stabilization Fund to make financing for these new investments more affordable and invoke the Defense Production Act to coordinate production to increase the supply of parts used in extracting oil like steel pipe and fracking sand.
However, these production increases would be meaningless if we fail to preserve existing energy capacity. This is particularly true for refineries, where crude oil is processed into products that cars and other machines can use. More than 1 million barrels a day of the nation's refining capacity has shuttered as a consequence of low demand early in the pandemic. In a promising move, the Biden administration has begun inquiring about keeping open some refineries scheduled to close and restarting recently shuttered refineries. The administration should also help keep two nuclear-power plants in Michigan and California online to increase the supply of energy and ease the burden on oil producers. Without investments to maintain and restart existing energy assets, we could be looking at power outages across multiple states and persistently higher prices at the pump.
Another important segment of the US economy dealing with capacity issues is the housing market. Despite the strong labor-market bounce-back and elevated activity in both the rental and the home-sales markets, over 1.6 million housing units are still mired in construction backlogs — the highest number of in-progress units in decades. Over half of these incomplete units are multifamily buildings that could help alleviate pressures stemming from rapidly increasing rental demand. Quickly completing these new homes is critical given that the US faces a shortage of nearly 4 million homes (or more, by some estimates) to accommodate the population.
Congress and the administration should explore mechanisms for directly funding and addressing the additional costs associated with the backlogs in residential construction, particularly where single-material inputs, like plastic resins and aluminum, remain in short supply. And Congress can consider direct measures, like the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit and the Housing Trust Fund, to fund new housing and encourage homebuilders to increase supply even as the economy shifts.
The Bipartisan Innovation Act would also, helpfully, reduce costs for firms already investing aggressively to ease arguably the most impactful "core inflation" bottleneck: semiconductors. Insufficient semiconductor production capacity is affecting the prices of several durable goods, most notably automobiles. Most of the supply of vehicles that would be required to bring prices back down is sitting in factories waiting on a handful of semiconductors. Once those chips become available, that bottleneck will become much wider, with significant disinflationary effects. Congress should also consider further appropriations for the Defense Production Act fund that could be flexibly deployed to address bottlenecks in critical industries.
Targeted demand reduction
There are two key areas where Congress and the Biden administration could slow inflation by directly reining in costs: healthcare and higher education. Reforming the way the government pays businesses in these sectors could significantly affect inflation in a more equitable and closely targeted way than interest-rate hikes.
In healthcare, the administration should follow up on reforms originally made as part of the Affordable Care Act to establish fixed prices for services, regardless of where that service is rendered (site-neutral payments, in the jargon). Today, the same outpatient treatments can command substantially different prices depending on whether they are performed at a hospital or the office of an independent physician. By standardizing the amount medical providers can charge for these procedures, the administration would immediately reduce public spending as well as waste and fraud.
While the government can standardize costs only for Medicare and Medicaid patients, in the longer term these reforms would help increase the bargaining power of insurance companies over providers to do the same for private healthcare plans, potentially lowering deductibles and premiums for all Americans. One study from the Chicago Fed found that similar reductions made as part of the ACA contributed to persistently weaker inflation between 2014 and 2016.
The federal government exerts even more authority over universities and colleges than over healthcare. Federal funding, in one form or another, accounted for 14% of college revenue in 2018. The federal government should place a cap on the amount by which colleges can raise tuition or require schools to commit to bringing costs down for students in other ways in order to keep receiving funding.
The final arrow in Biden's quiver for fighting inflation is policies that enhance competition between firms. Two unexpectedly linked industries would particularly benefit from this: telecommunications and air transportation.
Widespread 5G adoption has been stymied because the frequencies used for the new cellular service are close to those used by airline altimeters, which help a plane determine its height. To avoid issues, telecoms have not installed 5G towers near airports, and airlines have been pushing to upgrade their equipment. But both the altimeter upgrades and the 5G rollout have been slow, and regulatory action to speed up the process would be helpful.
But what does this have to do with inflation? On the telecoms side, expanding 5G coverage would amount to a "quality adjustment" in inflation readings, helping bring down the overall figure the same way unlimited data plans did in 2017. Passing the Bipartisan Innovation Act — which would appropriate money that could speed up efforts to ensure 5G rollouts are compatible with existing aircraft and equipment — would remove barriers to universal 5G adoption. And universal expansion would force more price competition among cellular providers.
Funding airport-gate expansions would help drive down a disproportionate source of inflation over the past two months: airfares. While rising airfares likely reflect a recovery from the pandemic and the outsized effects of jet-fuel price spikes, increasing the number of gates at airports would lower the barriers to entry for lower-cost airlines. Demand for air travel will likely remain robust for the rest of the year as Americans look to make up for lost vacations — all the more reason to encourage price competition as soon as possible.
As Robert Frost once wrote, there is "no way out but through." Inflation is at levels not seen in decades, but there are nearly as many causes as solutions. An exclusive reliance on interest-rate increases risks setting back an incredible jobs recovery. Instead, the federal government should use every tool at its disposal to relieve price pressures in a more equitable and direct manner. These policies could dramatically reduce inflation over the coming years without ending a historically strong labor recovery.
Alex Williams is a research economist at Employ America, a think tank working towards full employment.
More: Inflation Joe Biden Federal Reserve Oil
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2022-07-18T11:02:27Z
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How Biden Can Whip Inflation, High Gas Prices Without Screwing Over Americans
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https://www.businessinsider.com/biden-fight-inflation-high-gas-prices-without-screwing-over-americans-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/biden-fight-inflation-high-gas-prices-without-screwing-over-americans-2022-7
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Edinburgh airport, where workers are increasingly being subjected to abuse from passengers, per a spokesperson.
Edinburgh airport says it cut its customer support line over abuse from passengers who lost luggage.
Suspending phone lines will protect staff and allow them to work through queries, per the airport.
Baggage problems relate to 90% of the customer support team's queries, the airport said.
A major airport in Scotland has suspended its customer support helpline because of the amount of verbal abuse from angry passengers who have lost their luggage while traveling.
BBC News first reported the story.
"Unfortunately, we have seen a rise in the amount of abuse our teams are facing from passengers," a spokesperson for Edinburgh airport, which is located to the west of Scotland's capital city, told Insider.
Around 90% of the problems which the airport's customer support team are handling relate to luggage, the spokesperson said. Airlines and handling agents are responsible for passengers' baggage, not the airport, they added.
"In order to allow our teams to work through a backlog of airport queries, and to protect them from this verbal abuse, we have taken the decision to temporarily suspend the phone lines," the spokesperson said.
The airport appreciates that air passengers are frustrated, but the abuse is unacceptable and inexcusable, the spokesperson said. Although the phone lines are down, passengers can contact customer support via email or the chatbot on the airport's website, they added.
BBC News reported on July 6 that hundreds of bags belonging to passengers were being held at a warehouse at Edinburgh airport. One passenger told the broadcaster that she spent hours searching for her luggage in the warehouse after her Air Canada flight.
Edinburgh airport's decision to suspend its customer helpline comes at a time when the airline industry is grappling with a surge in summer travel demand as staffing shortages take their toll. Passengers have reported issues with long lines for check-in, problems contacting customer service, and missing luggage.
One American Airlines passenger drove 45 minutes to Denver airport to rebook his plane seats after the customer service helpline left him on hold for almost four hours, The Wall Street Journal reported.
A passenger who lost their baggage said it contained their parents' ashes, while another person whose luggage worth $10,000 went missing had her wedding dress inside.
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2022-07-18T11:02:33Z
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Airport Cuts Phone Line As Passengers Get Angry Over Missing Luggage
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https://www.businessinsider.com/edinburgh-airport-suspend-customer-phone-line-angry-passengers-lost-luggage-2022-7
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Welcome back, markets people. I'm Phil Rosen, and today we're breaking down how Russia's war on Ukraine continues to reorder energy markets.
Moscow's wartime gambit —from seeking new buyers to siphoning off supplies to former customers — has exacerbated a global energy shortage, and it's worth taking a moment to retrace what's happened so far.
Sure, gas prices in the US have dropped for more than 30 consecutive days, but don't mistake the trees for the forest — energy markets are still incredibly tight.
Packed schedule today — let's get right to it.
1. Energy markets have tracked Russian oil moves all year, as the war in Ukraine has impacted crude flows across the world and put downward pressure on supplies.
Moscow has sought out alternative customers since invading Ukraine, and even launched new chartered ships to circumvent blocked routes.
Saudi Arabia, for example, has more than doubled its Russian oil imports in the second quarter, and Cuba emerged as a new buyer of the shunned supplies, too.
But Europe is facing the worst of the global energy crunch — the CEO of Shell said Europe may have to resort to rationing energy this winter. Germany especially is in crisis mode given its reliance on the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which Moscow shuttered for maintenance last week.
Deutsche Bank forecasted that Germans could turn to wood as an alternative energy source, and utility giant Uniper, Europe's biggest buyer of Russian gas, has had to tap into its winter emergency reserves.
The US has tried to prop up global supply with barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, and crude exports to Europe from January to May surpassed exports to Asia for the first time since 2016.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has pushed for a Russian crude price cap to squeeze Moscow's ability to fund its war efforts, but Russia is now looking to launch its own national oil trading platform as a way to create a national benchmark akin to WTI or Brent, which would help it absorb the blow of sanctions.
2. US stock futures rise early Monday amid a weaker dollar. Oil also rose and was trading at around $100 a barrel, while bitcoin rallied to trade above $22,000. Here are the latest market moves.
3. On the docket: Goldman Sachs and Bank of America headline earnings today, among others reporting.
4. A recession is beginning now, and in a worst-case scenario stocks could fall another 20%. BofA analysts said the stock market still can decline further and isn't close to staging a recovery. They broke down how to know when things are turning around and determine when markets hit rock bottom.
5. Sam Bankman-Fried is positioning himself as crypto's "lender of last resort" — but even the billionaire founder of FTX couldn't deal with the $2 billion hole in Celsius' balance sheet, according to a report. Here's the latest.
6. Goldman Sachs identifies stocks to buy that have historically held up the best during previous recessions. The team evaluated the companies based on the expected change in their profit margins in 2023, and the average profit margin decline they've endured over the past three recessions. These are the 21 low-downside stocks analysts picked.
7. Cheaper oil and gas won't stop the Fed from making an aggressive interest rate hike this month. That's according to BofA analysts, who on Friday said a 75-basis-point move is likely, but there's still potential for a 100-basis-point rate hike. "[U]nderlying price pressures remain robust and unacceptably high relative to the Fed's mandate."
8. This brokerage founder explained the different stock sectors investors should stick to and which ones to avoid. In an interview with Insider, Jason Trennert said he's expecting a recession but that this downturn is different from others. Watch the full exclusive interview here.
9. Three Wall Street experts broke down what inflation surging to 9.1% means for Fed policy moving forward. Top market-watchers from BlackRock, Credit Suisse, and Global X dug into the implications of June's hot CPI reading. Here's where they think inflation and stocks are heading next.
10. Get ready for a summer of sales, as prices for everything from department store goods to high-end watches get deep discounts. Retail inventories are ballooning across the country because they have a backlog of pandemic-era products they need to offload. Here's what you want to know.
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2022-07-18T11:02:58Z
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Everything You Want to Know About Russia's Wartime Crude Flows
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https://www.businessinsider.com/oil-prices-russia-wartime-crude-flows-ukraine-energy-markets-economy-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/oil-prices-russia-wartime-crude-flows-ukraine-energy-markets-economy-2022-7
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Today's mortgage and refinance rates: July 18, 2022 | Rates up this week
Mortgage rates have remained relatively high after ticking up late last week.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics released its Consumer Price Index data for June on Wednesday, which showed that inflation had increased again. This caused mortgage rates to tick down temporarily, as the higher than expected inflation data fueled fears of a looming recession . Rates have since trended back up.
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2022-07-18T11:03:04Z
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Today's Mortgage, Refinance Rates: July 18, 2022 | Rates up This Week
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Former President Donald Trump and Arizona GOP House Speaker Rusty Bowers.
Jamie Squire and Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
Rusty Bowers recently testified about the pressure campaign he faced from Trump after the 2020 election.
But the AZ GOP House Speaker later garnered attention for saying he'd still support Trump in 2024.
He told Insider he believes Trump has engaged in "tyrannical" behavior and would prefer someone else.
PHOENIX, Arizona — Russell "Rusty" Bowers, the Republican speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives, is still doing damage control after telling the Associated Press he'd vote for former President Donald Trump again despite testifying to the House January 6 committee that Trump illegally attempted to overturn the 2020 election.
Bowers brought up the issue, which he called "the magic question," during an interview with Insider on Friday that focused largely on his contentious primary race for a state Senate seat in his hometown of Mesa.
"Any intimation that I have some overriding, some powerful support for Mr. Trump just would be false," Bowers said. "I'm looking for a good candidate. And I hope we can certainly provide one, otherwise it's just going to be a hard thing."
Bowers also said he believes Trump has behaved like a tyrant.
"I think much of what he has done has been tyrannical, especially of late," Bowers told Insider. "I think that there are elements of tyranny that anybody can practice on any given day, and I feel like I've seen a lot of it, a lot of bullying and name calling."
In late June, Bowers testified alongside Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and his deputy, Gabriel Sterling, in a hearing that focused on Trump's effort to pressure state officials to overturn the 2020 election results.
At the public hearing, Bowers detailed the intense pressure campaign he faced from Trump and his allies to reconvene the Arizona House after the election in order to decertify his state's electors, which had been elected to then-President elect Joe Biden. That campaign included months of harassment from Trump supporters at his home, where his daughter was sick with a terminal illness that she died from in January 2021.
"We have various groups come by and they have had video panel trucks with videos of me, proclaiming me to be a pedophile and a pervert and a corrupt politician," Bowers said at the hearing.
Bowers testified alongside Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, and Georgia Secretary of State Chief Operating Officer Gabriel Sterling before the January 6 committee on June 21, 2022.
Michael Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images
But prior to the hearing, he told the AP that he'd still support Trump in 2024 if he was the party's presidential nominee, saying Trump's tenure prior to the COVID-19 pandemic had been "so good for the country." Those remarks prompted an array of opinion pieces expressing shock at how Bowers could've endured what he did and still support the former president.
By the time Bowers spoke with Insider, he'd already tried to clarify the remarks, telling Deseret News that he's "not inclined" to support Trump in 2024, while complaining that he'd been "boxed" by the question.
He told Insider on Friday that he would prefer an alternative to Trump, such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis or former Vice President Mike Pence.
"DeSantis has some of the Trumpian persona, but he's got some character," said Bowers. "Mr. Pence. My family is very solidly impressed with Mr. Pence."
"Pence, DeSantis — that level of person, I think, would be awesome as a candidate," he added.
A view of Pass Mountain in Mesa, Arizona.
But Bowers also offered some praise for the former president in his interview with Insider, capturing the complexity of his views about Trump.
"At the same time, as I've said — hey, the regulatory environment that he turned over to other people went fantastic," said Bowers. "The EPA was streamlined and more functional and did a better job, the Abraham Accords in the Middle East — any one of those. Others haven't accomplished as much."
Term-limited in the state House, Bowers is now running for the state Senate, where he previously served from 1997 to 2003. He faces former state Sen. David Farnsworth, who was endorsed by Trump following Bowers' testimony in Washington, in the August 2 primary.
NOW WATCH: Arizona was an early battleground for 'Stop The Steal' protesters leading up to the Capitol siege
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2022-07-18T11:03:10Z
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Rusty Bowers Backs Away From Supporting 'Tyrannical' Trump in 2024
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https://www.businessinsider.com/rusty-bowers-arizona-trump-2024-tyrannical-january-6-committee-2022-7
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Tesla Model Ys leave the company's Gigafactory in Grünheide, Germany.
A Munich court ordered Tesla to reimburse a woman 99,416 Euros ($101,000), court documents show.
The woman said her Model X's Autopilot feature failed to recognize hazards and braked unexpectedly.
Tesla's lawyer argued Autopilot isn't supposed to be used in city traffic, an argument the court rejected.
A court in Munich, Germany has ordered Tesla to pay a woman over $101,000 after she complained her Tesla had problems with its Autopilot feature, as first reported by Der Spiegel.
The woman who brought the case said she signed a contract to buy the car in December 2016 for 112,640 Euros ($114,500). The car was then delivered in March 2017, per a copy of the judgement seen by Insider. The owner paid an extra 5,500 Euros ($5,58o) for the Autopilot feature, per the judgement.
The Tesla owner said it started to have repeated problems with the car's Autopilot function as far back as November 2017.
The court upheld the woman's complaint that the car's Autopilot was defective. The judgement said the Autopilot been unreliable identifying obstacles and that the brakes could suddenly activate for no apparent reason. The court ruled the sudden braking posed a "massive danger" in city traffic.
Tesla's lawyer argued the Autopilot function is not intended for use in city traffic, per Der Spiegel, but in its ruling the court did not accept this argument.
The judgement said that manually toggling Autopilot on and off for different kinds of traffic could be distracting for the driver.
Tesla does not list city traffic as a limitation on autopilot's functionality on its support page.
The judgement also upheld complaints from the woman about the car not related to Autopilot, for example that its doors didn't open and shut properly.
The court ordered Tesla to pay the woman 99,420 Euros ($101,000) plus 5% interest. It also ruled Tesla must pay 80% of the legal fees, while the woman must pay 20%.
Tesla did not immediately respond when contacted by Insider about the case.
The case sets an uncomfortable precedent for Tesla, which is under close regulatory scrutiny over its Autopilot feature.
Autopilot is a driving assistance feature which allows the car to drive and brake automatically. Tesla's website says Autopilot does not make vehicles fully autonomous and requires "active driver supervision."
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is also conducting a broader probe into the effectiveness and safety of Autopilot which it launched after finding 11 instances of Tesla cars crashing into first responder vehicles while using Autopilot.
The US NHTSA launched an investigation into so-called "phantom braking" — when Teslas on Autopilot slam on the brakes for no apparent reason — in February. It told Tesla in May it had received complaints about phantom braking from over 750 Tesla drivers.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has lauded the company's self-driving technology, and said in December 2021 it is unfairly criticized.
"I think it's one of those things where you're not going to get rewarded necessarily for the lives that you save, but you will definitely be blamed for lives that you don't save," Musk told TIME.
Musk has repeatedly promised fully autonomous cars would arrive in the near future, but the company has yet to realise this goal.
More: Tesla Autopilot Safety Elon Musk
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2022-07-18T11:03:28Z
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Tesla Ordered to Refund $101,000 Over Unreliable Autopilot
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https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-ordered-to-refund-101000-over-unreliable-autopilot-german-court-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-ordered-to-refund-101000-over-unreliable-autopilot-german-court-2022-7
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Boeing's long-term airline industry forecast has excluded sales to Russia and Central Asia.
The company had previously predicted sales of 1,540 aircraft to buyers in the region.
The Commercial Market Outlook cites the war in Ukraine and Russian sanctions for the exclusion.
Plane manufacturer Boeing has cut its long-term industrywide forecast due to uncertainty over the impact of sanctions against Russia.
The new estimate predicts a global demand for 41,170 aircraft deliveries over the next 20 years. This excludes the previous projection of 1,540 aircraft sales to Russia and Central Asia made in the 2021 report.
Boeing's projection is down from its previous 20-year forecast of 43,610 global deliveries.
The company's 2022-2041 Commercial Market Outlook (CMO) cited the war in Ukraine and global sanctions against Russia for its decision not to include an estimate for the region.
The new report said it was "highly uncertain" how long the sanctions against Russia that make it impossible to deliver planes to the country will persist.
The forecast came ahead of the Farnborough International Airshow, an industry show for the aerospace and defense industries.
Despite the loss of the Russian market, Boeing forecasts that worldwide airline fleets will nearly double by 2041 and predicts the aviation sector will recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic by early 2024.
Boeing slightly increased its forecast over the next 10 years, even after excluding the Russian market, projecting 19,575 aircraft deliveries.
Darren Hulst, vice president of commercial marketing at Boeing, told reporters ahead of the report's release that Boeing's view "of medium-term recovery" is "largely unchanged," per Reuters.
"Overall, we still see late 2023, early 2024 as the time where the industry recovers to full or at least the level of pre-pandemic traffic," he said.
Representatives for Boeing did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
Earlier this month, Boeing lost out to rival European plane manufacturer Airbus on one of the biggest deals in aviation history. Boeing blamed the loss of a $37 billion aircraft deal with China on "geopolitical differences."
More: transport Travel Boeing Planes
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2022-07-18T12:33:45Z
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Boeing Cuts Forecast After Excluding Sales From Russia, Central Asia
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https://www.businessinsider.com/boeing-cuts-forecast-russia-planes-airline-industry-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/boeing-cuts-forecast-russia-planes-airline-industry-2022-7
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Happy earnings Monday! It's Aaron Weinman here. Citi stood tall, but peers like JPMorgan, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo missed estimates as lenders come to grips with weak dealmaking and high inflation.
Goldman Sachs is reporting today.
Citigroup's second-quarter profit and revenue beat analysts' expectations on Friday. Its numbers were a bright spot amid a series of misses for US lenders.
Citi reported $19.6 billion in revenue for the quarter, an 11% jump on the first quarter. This was ahead of analysts' predictions of $18.2 billion, according to a survey conducted by Refinitiv.
The bank benefited from more interest income (thanks to rising rates), and logged strong results in its trading and institutional services business.
JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and Wells Fargo all missed analysts' marks.
Wells — which reported $17 billion in revenue versus a $17.5 billion estimate — said its second-quarter profit declined 48% from a year ago. Chief Executive Charlie Scharf said he expected credit losses to increase in the future.
"Citigroup appears to be one of the highlights," David Wagner, portfolio manager at Aptus Capital Advisors, said. "It was all treasury and trading solutions — helping international businesses manage payments. This business line was firing on all cylinders, insulating all of the losses from the investment-banking segment."
Indeed, investment banking was a sour spot for most banks. JPMorgan logged $1.35 billion in investment-banking revenues, down 61% on the same quarter in 2021, and Morgan Stanley recorded $1.1 billion in revenue, down 55% for the same period last year. Bank of America's investment banking arm has also seen a slowdown in activity, as the bank's second-quarter earnings came in lower than expected this morning.
To be fair, 2021's record year was also going to be a outlier. An economic slowdown meant that 2022 was poised to be a harsh reality check for investment banks.
Wall Street rushed to hire as transaction volumes swelled, and some bankers pocketed hefty bonuses — and bought some shiny new toys — just a few months ago. But with dealmaking on the fritz, these same bankers are bracing for job cuts.
"September and October is gonna be a hot season for sure," one capital-markets banker said of the potential for cuts.
Capital markets are likely to come under the microscope as IPOs grind to a halt and bond sales slow. Investors, borrowers, and bankers are all coming to terms with weaker company valuations, choppy stock markets, and rising borrowing costs.
Coinbase announced last week that it plans to rescind job offers and freeze hiring indefinitely.
2. Coinbase is temporarily shutting down its US affiliate-marketing program. In leaked emails to Insider, the crypto exchange said it plans to relaunch the program in 2023.
3. Goldman Sachs-backed AlphaSense is laying the foundation for an IPO. After raising new capital at a $1.7 billion valuation, it has now set sights on growth in Asia.
4. Bank of America was fined $225 million for "botching" the payment of unemployment benefits. The bank was fined $100 million by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and $125 million by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
5. Ken Griffin's Citadel plans to open an office in Palm Beach, according to Bloomberg. The firm — which announced that it's moving headquarters to Miami from Chicago last month — will take space in Palm Beach's former Neiman Marcus building.
6. Tiger Global-backed Chinese grocery delivery firm Missfresh faces a fight for survival. The Financial Times reports that the company, which pulled in more than $1 billion in funding and gained a $3 billion valuation, now has a market value of $88 million.
7. The cofounder of MetaMask likened crypto to gambling. Aaron Davis' popular crypto wallet company boasts 30 million users, yet he thinks it's "extremely dangerous" to call crypto the future of finance.
8. Vue Cinema will be taken over by its lenders, Bloomberg reported. Vue's Canadian pension fund owners, Alberta Investment Management and Omers, are exiting the cinema chain.
9. We were wrong about the Great Resignation. Workers remain powerless, and with a recession on the horizon, things could get worse.
10. This economist who has argued against doom and gloom had a change of heart. Here's why he thinks the US economy is headed toward a recession.
NOVA Infrastructure has completed a $565 million fund raise. The NOVA Infrastructure Fund I received commitments from pension funds, insurance companies, family offices, and asset managers. NOVA will target investments in environmental services, transportation, and energy, among others.
Private-equity firm TA Associates has made a growth investment in Intelerad, a medical imaging company. TA joins Intelerad's majority investor Hg and ST6, a minority investor focused on the software space.
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2022-07-18T12:33:51Z
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www.businessinsider.com
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Analysis: Citi Beats Expectations, All Eyes Shift to Goldman Sachs
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https://www.businessinsider.com/citi-goldman-sachs-earnings-profits-sales-trading-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/citi-goldman-sachs-earnings-profits-sales-trading-2022-7
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Check out the 13-page pitch deck a Swiss startup making Web3 more accessible used to raise a $3 million Series A
Nevermined cofounders Don Gossen, Aitor Argomaniz, and Dimitri De Jonghe built a platform that helps Web3 application builders.
Nevermined
Nevermined is a Swiss startup focused on opening up access to Web3.
The startup raised a $3 million Series A just months after its April launch.
The capital will be used to support the company's plug-and-play services for Web3 builders.
A Swiss startup that helps users create their own digital assets just scored $3 million in Series A funding within months of its April launch.
Nevermined announced the round on July 12, which was led by Signature Ventures, a German blockchain venture-capital firm, and Polymorphic Capital, a VC headquartered in Saint Louis.
Nevermined offers digital-asset development software for making Web3 more accessible for decentralized application (dapp) builders. The startup was incubated at Keyko AG, a Web3 product and services company founded by Nevermined's cofounders in 2019.
Don Gossen, Nevermined's CEO, said it was in stealth mode for nearly three years before launching this April. Gossen, along with fellow cofounders Dimitri De Jonghe, the CIO, and Aitor Argomaniz, the company's CTO, privately built the platform while simultaneously soliciting backing from VCs in their Rolodex's.
"We built this as initially a data-sharing concept and that evolved into a platform that's enabling integration with Web3 technologies," Gossen told Insider.
The trio started Nevermined as a project where they sought to get databases to work in conjunction with each other without having to format them and then move them to a data-storage center. Moving data around comes with security risks and then there's the issue that aggregate data can get so voluminous that it "breaks" the consolidation process, Gossen said.
The cofounders discovered that there was another way to integrate databases through data federation, a process where a virtual database is created to represent a number of other databases. This allows databases to remain safely where they are while also allotting access to them.
It wasn't long before the three men realized the Web3 potential for their solution. It could be used to simplify the creation, monetization, and control of a user's data and the assets created from that data.
A number of enterprises have been developed on Nevermined, including VitaDao, an organization that's funding scientific research through intellectual property NFTs; Autonomies, a music NFT marketplace; and Carbon Credits Marketplace, an exchange for carbon offset NFTs.
Based in Zug, Switzerland, Nevermined plans to use its funding to become more of a plug-and-play platform for builders and ramp up its marketing and branding.
"We wanna make components available via the website so that we don't need to have that customer relationship management piece that's a physical relationship between us and the adopter," said Gossen.
Below is the 13-page pitch deck Nevermined cofounders used to score its Series A funding.
Nevermined pitch deck
More: Fintech Web3 NFT
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2022-07-18T12:34:03Z
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www.businessinsider.com
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Nevermined's Pitch Deck That Helped It Raise a $3 Million Series a
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https://www.businessinsider.com/nevermined-pitch-deck-series-a-web3-crypto-nft-digital-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/nevermined-pitch-deck-series-a-web3-crypto-nft-digital-2022-7
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Eurostar says its managed corporate accounts also increased by 40% between 2019 and 2022.
Business travelers are catching the Eurostar train instead of gambling with chaotic airports and flight disruptions, new Eurostar data shared with Insider suggests.
The rail operator's data shows that corporate travel via the international rail service has increased to 70% of pre-COVID levels over the last six months, despite Eurostar only running 75% of its pre-2019 timetable.
Eurostar's chief commercial officer, Francois Le Doze, said via the statement that business travel had resumed "faster than we expected in 2022," especially considering the company was "only running around three-quarters of our pre-pandemic timetable."
He added: "We are confident that this trend will continue after the summer period, with September traditionally marking a busy month for corporate travel."
A spokesperson for Eurostar told Bloomberg that the rail service planned to continue with plans to build back services gradually, despite the increase in passengers, to avoid experiencing the chaos that is affecting the global aviation industry.
The aviation sector has experienced huge upheaval in recent months. A series of last-minute flight cancelations, stories of lost luggage, and chaotic scenes at airports are making some passengers think twice about travel plans.
Corporate travel between London and Paris saw the fastest recovery among US companies, according to the data. The banking, consultancy, and luxury sectors were the main US industries driving this increased demand.
Eurostar says its managed corporate accounts also increased by 40% between 2019 and 2022 amid growing concerns over sustainable travel. Almost a quarter of Eurostar's clients mandate train travel for journeys where possible, the statement said.
More: Travel Train Planes flight
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2022-07-18T12:34:27Z
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Travel Chaos: Business Travelers Ditch Planes for Eurostar Trains
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https://www.businessinsider.com/travel-chaos-eurostar-planes-business-travelers-flight-delays-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/travel-chaos-eurostar-planes-business-travelers-flight-delays-2022-7
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Venture capital's biggest firms like Andreessen Horowitz and Lightspeed are raising giant multibillion dollar funds despite a market downturn. Here's why.
Bejul Somaia, a partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners.
Even amid a down market, big VC firms are still rolling out massive billion dollar funds.
Most recently, Lightspeed Venture Partners announced $7 billion in new early and growth stage funds.
One firm said this signals that both LPs and startup founders will flock to established VCs.
The great venture capital downturn of 2022 for startup funding has been in full swing. But for the VCs and firms writing those checks, the capital for their funds is still coming in.
Despite economic uncertainty, well-known VC firms such as Andreessen Horowitz and Tiger Global have kicked off the first half of 2022 by closing "mega funds," or funds with over $1 billion. Andreessen raised $14.1 billion and Tiger raised $12.7 billion.
In the second week of July alone, Battery Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners announced new multibillion dollar raises across their newest funds, raising $3.8 billion and $7.1 billion, respectively.
These mega funds could be keeping the venture market above water, according to PitchBook's most recent quarterly venture funding report. 2022 has already seen $121.5 billion in capital raised across 415 venture funds and is on track to be the largest fundraising year ever.
Record capital raises amid a down stock market, a pullback in VC funding to startups, and fears of a looming recession may seem counterintuitive. Yet, it's important to note that the fundraising process for many of these funds began at the end of last year and closed just as the market downturn was happening.
Lightspeed's Chief Business Officer Michael Romano says these recent mega fund announcements signal a new "flight to quality" by limited partners, who invest in these mega funds, and startup founders.
"In these periods of uncertainty, people want to partner with firms and organizations that have experience in these different economic periods," said Romano. "Our funds have outperformed during the financial crisis, we did a great job during COVID, and I think that really resonates with folks who are looking for substance."
The latest data indicates this as well. About 80% of the capital raised by VC firms last quarter went to established firms, while the remaining 20% was raised by emerging fund managers, according to the PitchBook report.
This flight to quality also applies to VCs who are looking to invest their new funds, said Lightspeed partner Bejul Somaia.
"Last year we did less net new growth deals and leaned in more on our best portfolio companies," he said. "Sixty seven percent of our growth investment has been on teams we have already invested in, because we also have some asymmetry of info on these companies."
And with all this new capital floating around, strong early stage startups shouldn't worry too much about filling their cap tables as "really strong founding teams going after opportunities will always have multiple options," said Somaia.
More: Venture Capital Startups Annie Fu
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2022-07-18T12:34:39Z
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www.businessinsider.com
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How Lightspeed and Other VCs Raised Billion Dollar Funds in a Downturn
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https://www.businessinsider.com/venture-capital-funds-lightspeed-multibillion-dollar-funds-during-market-downturn-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/venture-capital-funds-lightspeed-multibillion-dollar-funds-during-market-downturn-2022-7
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A tech recruiter went viral after posting about her job loss on LinkedIn. Here are 5 ways being open about a professional setback can help you land a new role.
A laid-off contract recruiter went viral after posting about her job loss on LinkedIn.
Appealing to her network helped her get interviews with Amazon, TikTok, and Lyft, she said.
Being open about what most consider to be a professional setback can help you land a new job.
After 29-year-old Stephanie got a call in May telling her she had been laid off days before she was due to start, she posted on LinkedIn about her experience.
Stephanie, whose full name Insider is withholding to maintain her privacy, had been offered a contract position in April as a remote scheduler for Meta, via staffing agency Mindlance. But her offer was rescinded a few days later, coinciding with Meta announcing a hiring freeze.
In a now-deleted viral LinkedIn post, she detailed her experience of being laid off and appealed to her network to help her find another job.
One contract recruiter at Meta was laid off before she started and detailed her experience in a LinkedIn post.
Sawdah Bhaimiya/
"I didn't think it was going to go viral," Stephanie said. "The intention of me posting the post, in general, was for me to use my resources, which is the network that I had built on LinkedIn. And it just blew up overnight, it got over five million views and there was a lot of good that came out of it because I did have people reach out for opportunities for me to move forward."
Stephanie is just one of many laid-off workers who have taken to social media to share their experiences. Such posts may become more common amid predictions of recession and a wave of layoffs.
Posting about negative personal news in this way may feel counterintuitive, not least since social media is usually a place for bragging. But using LinkedIn to talk about being laid off is actually pretty handy because it's a "matchmaking mechanism" for employers and job seekers, according to professor Andreas Lanz, assistant professor of marketing at business school HEC Paris.
Lanz's prior research has involved looking at "influence corridors."
"We actually see that leveraging your own network helps you heavily in order to activate your second degree connections," he said. Publicizing the fact you're looking for a job through a network of LinkedIn helps you activate friends-of-friends, who may be more useful here than your immediate circle.
Lanz noted that Stephanie's approach "played out nicely for her," because she was able to garner sympathy and support. Her post helped her get interviews with companies like Amazon, TikTok, Lyft, Disney, and Logitech, she said.
Here's how and why posting on LinkedIn can help you bounce back after a setback.
1. Maximize reach by having a clear call to action
There's more to posting about being laid off on LinkedIn than just venting.
Instead, Lanz suggests it's about strategizing and that begins with having "a clear call to action in your post" so that readers know what they can do for you.
"It's about maximizing reach," Lanz said. "There's this saying that if you want to land a job, acquire business, or raise funds for ventures, ask people for advice. So, when it comes to these posts, I would add call to actions of people giving you advice in one-to-one calls, or commenting for reach so that your message reaches people that may be looking for your talents."
Lanz added that call-to-actions encourages people to comment on your post which creates interest over a longer span of time.
He said: "LinkedIn is only pushing your post if there's continuous interest, otherwise you have a very strong peak and then it decays very fast, and then all the attention is just around this one peak. So the best case is you also want to be interacting with people in the comments, which then secures you attention, a bit more stretched than just around a very short peak."
2. Highlight your strengths from your past jobs
It might be difficult to stay optimistic after you've been laid off, but keeping the tone of your post positive will only boost your chances.
This includes being appreciative of your previous job as well as emphasizing the growth you've experienced through the role.
Lanz said: "I would highlight and give thanks for all the opportunities that have been created for you in the past, and then say that you actually want to now take the insights and the lessons learned from that and make your next career move."
3. Don't bash your previous employer
Being laid off is difficult, but bashing a previous employer on social media may make your life harder.
Lanz said that prospective employers will be able to see the post and may view you as a hiring risk.
"The bashing thing I would really avoid because, of course, a new employer will also make this assessment of: Is it worth the risk of taking that employee?
"This is always something that they take into account, and so they want to have a new colleague that is fun to be around, and that will not bash you once he or she leaves for whatever reason that may be."
4. Activate friends of friends
Lanz emphasized the importance of getting the attention of second degree connections on LinkedIn. In order to "maximize reach," you have to formulate posts to "activate the friends of friends," in to action.
"It's actually the weak ties that create opportunities for you when it comes to securing new jobs or creating new business, and the weak ties are actually into your second degree follower base, and to the friends are friends," he said.
Getting friends who are also active on LinkedIn and have a wide professional network to reshare your post can help, he added.
Also consider using hashtags that will get people's attention. Lanz pointed to Stephanie's post and her use of the hashtag "#metalayoffs."
5. Emotional vulnerability can add to your credibility
It might seem logical not get too emotional in a professional post but "the more personal you get in these posts, the more successful you are," Lanz said.
Stephanie's post is an example of raw vulnerability, which activated people's empathy for her, he said.
"I think a certain degree of emotionality is important, because it also signals credibility, that you're desperate. I mean you were just laid off, and this also triggers your friends and friends of friends to help you. In that case, being emotional is not necessarily a bad thing. It's just a question of how to channel it."
Don't overdo it though at the expense of your own privacy though.
Stephanie found that going viral had downsides. Her post attracted criticism from those who noted she had been laid off as a contractor at a talent agency that recruits for Meta, rather than by Meta directly. She told Insider that some criticism was simply outright bullying, and that she had received racial slurs.
"If you want to gain more followers and have more interaction, you have to give up more of your personal life, but this comes at a very severe cost potentially, and this is the trade off every one of us has to very actively manage," said Lanz.
For Stephanie, who landed a new recruitment role within a month, opening up still ended up throwing more opportunities her way. "I could have just sat and done nothing about it, and sat in my misery and cried about it and stayed in this depressive state, but I chose to do something different and it worked out in my favor," she said.
More: Meta Layoff Hiring Freeze
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2022-07-18T12:34:45Z
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Why Posting to LinkedIn About Getting Laid Off Can Help You Land a Job
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https://www.businessinsider.com/why-posting-to-linkedin-about-getting-laid-off-can-help-you-land-a-job-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/why-posting-to-linkedin-about-getting-laid-off-can-help-you-land-a-job-2022-7
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Ann Gehan, Tasmin Lockwood, and Madeline Renbarger
Amazon aggregators are confronting a very different environment today than the one that powered their initial successes in 2020 and 2021.
Amazon aggregators were once white-hot investment targets, raking in billions in venture capital.
Facing lower e-commerce volumes and an uncertain macro environment, aggregators are adapting.
Here are the four biggest changes industry insiders anticipate for the former pandemic darlings.
"The party is over — buckle up and enjoy the ride."
The warning from one speaker's slide deck at a Fortia Group event for Amazon aggregators last month mirrored the mood of many presenters. After two years of rising valuations and cheap money, Amazon aggregators face a reality check.
When e-commerce boomed earlier in the pandemic, investors flocked to aggregators, which roll up top-performing brands on Amazon and attempt to optimize them to increase profitability. Some aggregators' valuations quickly climbed into the billions, and the space rapidly became crowded.
Now, investors are growing leery because of concerns over the macro environment and aggregators' business models.
Figures from the e-commerce-data firm Marketplace Pulse showed funding for aggregators was $2 billion for the first half of 2022, down 60% from the $5 billion raised in the first half of 2021.
Aggregators are trimming costs as layoffs hit the industry — Suma, Heroes, and the industry heavyweight Thrasio have announced significant staff cuts since April.
"The gold rush to fund aggregators has disappeared," Juozas Kaziukėnas, Marketplace Pulse's founder, told Insider.
Here are the four most significant challenges and changes industry experts and insiders anticipate in the space.
Consolidation is coming
Experts and the aggregators themselves agree consolidation is coming.
"It's not surprising when you see hundred-plus entrants all come into a new space within an 18-month time frame," Tom Welch, a partner at Victory Park Capital, a venture-capital firm with 10 aggregators in its portfolio, told Insider. "They're not all going to make it."
The sector has already seen aggregators acquire smaller competitors: Razor Group acquired Factory14 in April, and Olsam purchased the US firm Flywheel in December.
Smaller, less successful aggregators may be forced into fire sales.
"To me, the term consolidation means when a few leaders combine to form an even bigger leader," Kaziukėnas said. "In this space, we don't really have that many succeeding aggregators yet."
Consolidation, he said, may be "much closer to liquidation, where struggling aggregators are just looking for any sort of a return, even if it's cents on a dollar."
Financing strategies in flux
Many aggregators are finding equity funding harder to come by, and debt financing is more expensive because of rising interest rates.
"A year ago, you click your fingers, and someone would write you a $20 million, $30 million check," Ryan Gnesin, the CEO of the Austin, Texas, aggregator Elevate Brands, said at the Fortia Group event. "Today, it's a very different situation."
Even before equity financing became difficult to get, many aggregators often leaned on debt financing, which allows founders to raise money, while retaining more of a stake in the company. But that comes with risks, according to Anisha Kothapa, a senior research analyst at CB Insights.
"If a business takes on too much debt, it actually becomes difficult to keep up with ongoing expenses and debt repayments at the same time," Kothapa told Insider. "That's going to incur late fees and maybe even higher interest rates if there was a variable-rate loan. Overleveraging is a huge risk."
In March, The Information reported that for every $1 a typical aggregator raised in equity, it raised $4 in debt, and that interest on that debt typically ranged from 7 to 15% — and that was before the Federal Reserve raised overall interest rates.
Welch said he's encouraging aggregators to find a balance.
"You can't fund a startup business with liquid debt — that just doesn't work," Welch said. "We are telling folks, 'Look, if you are in the market, now's not the time to optimize for valuation or dilution. Now's the time to make sure you have plenty of capital to execute on your growth plans,'" he said.
Small now looks smart
Aggregators once bragged about how many deals they could make in a week, but firms that remained smaller or more conservative with acquisitions may be best positioned to weather the storm.
Razor Group recently announced a round of debt financing and is still actively hiring for its Berlin and Austin offices, according to Razor's chief financial officer, Christoph Gamon, and job listings on LinkedIn.
"What's helped us is a German conservative approach," Gamon told Insider.
Razor didn't try to bulk out its holdings, he said, and "stayed away from competitive auctions in the market."
Gamon said the company was continuing to acquire Amazon brands, even as the competition on deals appears to be thinning out.
"On a lot of these transactions, everyone has disappeared," he said.
Smaller companies may also have more flexibility, allowing them to pivot more quickly than larger competitors that might take longer to redistribute resources or change strategies.
"This type of period is much easier for the smaller folks who have less brands and who have done less acquisitions because they can adjust with more agility, as opposed to the bigger ones who have already bought up things and now have to build the plane while flying," Kaziukėnas said.
Aggregators look beyond Amazon — and being aggregators
Some experts think the aggregators' focus on Amazon will be phased out. Already, some companies are rejecting the aggregator label outright.
San Francisco's Heyday, which owns a collection of about 15 home and lifestyle brands, is one of many firms that said it planned to eventually look beyond Amazon to selling in brick-and-mortar retailers.
"Amazon is a launchpad, and we are not an aggregator," Heyday CEO Sebastian Rymarz told TechCrunch in November.
Pattern, a Salt Lake City firm, performs much of the same optimization work as aggregators but does not acquire brands. Instead, it works with them as clients. Pattern's work isn't limited to Amazon brands, either — its clients sell their products in other retailers, including Target and Walmart.
Pattern CEO David Wright said the company's "accelerator" model allowed brands to achieve more success through an omnichannel approach. He thinks aggregators will have to pivot to the structure of more traditional consumer-packaged-goods companies, like Procter & Gamble or Unilever, to survive, he said.
"Over time, they'll either start to look more like the CPGs that they've been bashing for a long time and accelerators like us, or they will probably cease to exist."
Are you a current or former employee of an Amazon aggregator with a tip about a company? Contact this reporter via email at agehan@insider.com, via Twitter direct message @anngehan, or via encrypted message on Signal at +1 (646) 374-8461 using a nonwork device.
More: E-Commerce Amazon aggregators
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2022-07-18T14:04:58Z
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Amazon Aggregators Will Live or Die Based on 4 Key Things: Insiders
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https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-aggregators-business-model-funding-analysis-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-aggregators-business-model-funding-analysis-2022-7
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Congressional Democratic leaders are planning on moving forward with a drastically reduced domestic spending bill proposed by Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Punchbowl reported.
Manchin last week declared that he would not back any climate change spending or tax provisions in a proposed bill that he has been negotiating for weeks with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
The announcement effectively ended already faint Democratic hopes that they would be able to pass some much reduced form of President Joe Biden's Build Back Better bill, which was originally priced at $3.5 trillion and contains sweeping plans for climate change and social care.
Instead, Punchbowl reported, Democratic leaders will be moving forward with a drastically reduced bill allowing MediCare to negotiate drug prices, and extending enhanced Obamacare subsidies for 2 years.
Plans to move forward with Manchin's-approved bill have sign off from Biden, who in remarks on his tour of the Middle East said that Democrats should back the smaller package, and that he could take executive action on climate change measures.
Facing sliding poll ratings, the president is under mounting pressure to produce a legislative achievement ahead of the midterms, when the Republican Party is expected to take back control of the House, and possibly the Senate.
Manchin in a Fox News interview last year said he would not back Build Back Better in its original form, citing concerns about inflation. But Democratic hopes of passing some form of the bill remained intact, as Manchin entered into discussions with Schumer to broker measures both could support.
Some Democrats have angrily turned on Manchin in the wake of last week's announcement, with Sen. Bernie Sanders accusing Manchin in an ABC News interview Sunday of "sabotaging" Biden's agenda.
With their razor-thin one vote majority in the Senate, Democrats need the unanimous support of their caucus to overcome the filibuster and pass bills using a mechanism called "budget reconciliation." This means the opposition of one Democratic senator can torpedo bills.
More: Joe Manchin Democratic Party Build Back Better Drug pricing
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2022-07-18T14:05:04Z
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Democrats Cave in and Accept Slimmed-Down Manchin Bill: Report
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https://www.businessinsider.com/democrats-cave-in-and-accept-slimmed-down-manchin-bill-report-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/democrats-cave-in-and-accept-slimmed-down-manchin-bill-report-2022-7
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See the 12-slide presentation Andreessen Horowitz-backed Tomorrow Health used to raise $60 million for its home-healthcare tech
Vijay Kedar, Tomorrow Health's cofounder and CEO.
Tomorrow Health
Tomorrow Health wants to help people get better home healthcare with its care-coordination software.
The startup partners with health insurers, home-health providers, and medical-equipment suppliers.
Check out the pitch deck Tomorrow Health used to land $60 million in Series B funding.
Tomorrow Health stepped onto the home-health scene in 2020, launching three years after its founding to help people get durable medical equipment, from walkers to ventilators, for home-based care.
Now the startup is expanding its approach, working with health plans, home-based-care providers, and suppliers of medical equipment to coordinate a home-healthcare experience.
The New York company provides tools for ordering equipment, picking the right home-health provider for a person's needs, and sorting through reimbursement requirements for billing insurers.
At the end of June, Tomorrow Health said it had raised a $60 million Series B funding round led by Bond, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Obvious Ventures, BoxGroup, and Sound Ventures.
Andreessen Horowitz also led the company's $25 million Series A round. The startup has raised $32.5 million since its founding in 2017.
Tomorrow Health's CEO, Vijay Kedar, said he saw the disjointed home-healthcare system firsthand while helping to manage his mother's care. After stage-three cancer led to four months in the intensive-care unit, his mother required a year of intensive at-home care — but it was so difficult to get the supplies she needed for that care, Kedar said, and she was readmitted to the hospital twice in the first month.
"We were working with nearly a dozen home-based-care providers, guided to us by our insurance company, and we saw how challenging and unreliable the home-based-care system could be," he said.
Tomorrow Health says that by using technology to connect insurers, providers, and medical-equipment suppliers, it can help people quickly and easily get better care.
Tomorrow Health provided Insider the presentation it used to raise $60 million in June. A company representative said the slides were edited to remove sensitive information about Tomorrow Health's financials and proprietary technology.
Here's the 12-slide presentation Tomorrow Health used to land $60 million in Series B funding
Tomorrow Health connects providers, insurers, and medical-equipment suppliers to support people who need healthcare at home.
The startup provides software to coordinate that care, helping home-health providers place orders for medical equipment like canes and walkers while complying with reimbursement requirements.
Tomorrow Health also has care coordination platforms designed for health plans and medical equipment suppliers in addition to providers.
Kedar founded Tomorrow Health after three years at the health-insurance upstart Oscar Health. He said that at Oscar he saw the challenges that health insurers face in coordinating at-home care.
Kedar said Tomorrow Health works with health plans to manage home healthcare for members, connecting them with the "highest-value" home-health provider for their needs.
Kedar said Tomorrow Health's multiyear contracts with health plans hold the startup accountable for metrics like how quickly patients get their medical equipment and how long those patients stay out of the hospital.
Tomorrow Health's tech also helps suppliers manage medical-equipment orders, aiming to get that equipment to people quickly while lowering operating costs.
Kedar said that when his mother was recovering from stage-three cancer with a year of intensive home care, it took six weeks to get her the supplies she needed, including portable oxygen and mobility equipment. She was readmitted to the hospital twice in her first month back home.
Kedar's mother is now in remission.
"Patients are often left coordinating across a wide breadth of providers to get the care that they need," Kedar said, adding that managing his mother's home-healthcare experience led him to start Tomorrow Health to ease that process for other people.
Tomorrow Health provides its services in all 50 states, and the startup says it has strong market presence in the Northeast, in the Southwest, and on the West Coast.
The startup plans to use the fresh capital to bring in new partners, including health plans, hospital and physician groups, and home-based-care providers.
While many startups are scaling back on growth as the market sinks, Kedar said Tomorrow Health is leaning into its new funding to accelerate its expansion.
Tomorrow Health is still hiring, with a focus on engineering and product, business development, and operations, Kedar said.
More: Features Dispensed Tomorrow Health
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2022-07-18T14:05:40Z
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The Pitch Deck Tomorrow Health, Backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Used to Raise $60 Million
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https://www.businessinsider.com/pitch-deck-tomorrow-health-andreessen-horowitz-backed-home-health-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/pitch-deck-tomorrow-health-andreessen-horowitz-backed-home-health-2022-7
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8 new Netflix power players driving games, marketing, and other key businesses — and 8 execs who left the streamer for Amazon, NBCU's Peacock, and more
Netflix CMO Marian Lee, right, with head of global TV Bela Bajaria and producer Shawn Levy at the season 4 premiere of "Stranger Things."
Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images for Netflix
In the past year, turnover has hit every level at Netflix, with layoffs as well as exec hires and departures.
High-profile exits at the streamer include CMO Bozoma Saint John as PR pro Richard Siklos.
Netflix has also hired power players from PepsiCo, Facebook, Electronic Arts, and more companies.
Netflix is at a crossroads.
Having leapfrogged every other entertainment company over the past decade to become the leading streamer in the US and around the world, it has precipitously tumbled out of favor with Wall Street over the last six months. The company's share price — which hit an all-time high of over $700 in November — has fallen by more than two-thirds year to date amid grim subscriber forecasts and a sense that the disruptor has perhaps reached its Hollywood peak.
Amid all that, turnover has come at all echelons of the company, from C-suite executives such as marketing chief Bozoma Saint John to contract workers at the streamer's editorial publication Tudum. The streamer has laid off at least 450 staffers so far this year, and if the company's earnings reports continue to be ill received, industry observers are bracing for more rounds of cuts.
Along with those affected by layoffs, a number of high-profile Netflix executives have moved on to roles at other big entertainment companies — comedy marketing director Casey Benesch moved on to Amazon, while content exec Lindsay Salt joined the BBC. But even as Netflix faces unprecedented challenges, it's gearing up for ambitious growth and has hired heavy hitters to lead in areas like gaming, bringing on former Facebook Oculus exec Mike Verdu as vp of game development.
And while Netflix has partnered with Microsoft to jumpstart its advertising business, the streamer may eventually build its own team and tech, which would mean more major hires in that arena.
Here's a list of eight new power players who've joined Netflix from rival streamers, gaming companies, and other industry giants, as well as eight execs who've moved on from the company over the past year.
Ken Barker
Ken Barker is not the only Electronic Arts veteran to be recruited by Netflix in the past year as the company forges ahead with efforts to expand its gaming offerings. After 19 years at the game maker, he joined the streamer in late June to assume its accounting duties. He previously worked at Sun Microsystems and Deloitte.
As vp and principal accounting officer at Netflix, the exec reports to chief financial officer Spencer Neumann.
Deborah Black
Deborah Black, Netflix head of engineering
Deborah Black boarded the company in August 2021 as head of engineering after spending nearly four years shepherding e-commerce services at Amazon — in particular the systems that make its retail, marketplace and web services run. With Hollywood increasingly dependent on data and analytics pros to compete in the streaming wars, Black's title (previously held by Mark White) comes with a lot of influence at the company.
Black's career has also included 12 years at Microsoft's Windows division and a decade at Bell Northern Research as a distributed systems researcher.
Sergio Ezama
Sergio Ezama, Netflix chief talent officer
While the streamer is poaching from rival studios and entertainment companies in Hollywood, it's not averse to looking to other industry majors for new talent. Such is the case with Sergio Ezama, who joined as Netflix 's chief talent officer in September 2021 after two decades at PepsiCo as the beverage giant's global chief talent officer.
Ezama replaced Jessica Neal, who left the streaming company in April 2021 after four years leading human resources (and an earlier 7-year stint at the company); Neal joined investment firm TCV as a venture partner in November.
In announcing the Spain-born executive's hire, Netflix COO Greg Peters touted Ezama's "truly global perspective that will be critical as we continue to build teams around the world — enabling us to better serve the needs of members everywhere."
On a February podcast with Naomi Halle, Ezama spoke about Netflix's famous culture memo and called the company a place where "leadership accountability" is paramount.
Marian Lee, CMO of Netflix
Marian Lee stepped up to the role of chief marketing officer in March in the wake of Bozoma Saint John's departure, after spending less than a year at Netflix as vp of marketing in the US and Canada. (She joined in July 2021.)
Lee's career has included eight years at Spotify and tenures at Vogue and other Condé Nast publications, as well as J. Crew.
Sarandos called her an "exceptional leader, who understands how to drive conversations around brands and popular culture."
Michelle Lee, Netflix's vp of editorial and publishing
Rob Kim/Getty Images for Gold House
Michelle Lee joined Netflix in the early summer of 2021 as vp of editorial and publishing, a newly formed role, after a nearly six-year tenure as the editor-in-chief of lifestyle magazine Allure, where she worked to evolve the magazine's conversation around aging, race, and beauty.
Brought on to oversee the streamer's social media channels and podcasts, Lee also leads Tudum, an in-house Netflix publication that in April shed many contracted editors and writers.
Niija Kuykendall
Netflix vp of film Niija Kuykendall
Most recently at Warner Bros. as executive vp of production, Kuykendall joined Netflix in the fall of 2021 as the vp of film under the streamer's film chief Scott Stuber amid an effort to create more mid-range films. She was tapped to oversee a newly formed team centered on developing and producing mid-budget movies.
"For some time there has been a significant gap in the market for mid-range films and Niija has a fantastic track record of championing those projects," said Stuber of her hiring. Kuykendall, who at Warner Bros. worked on "It" and "A Star Is Born," has also spent time at 20th Century Fox as a features creative exec and at Viacom in corporate comms.
Amir Rahimi
After stints at EA, Zynga, and Scopely, Amir Rahimi boarded Netflix as vp of game studios in November 2021 as part of the streamer's foray into video games. Reporting to the company's vp of game development Mike Verdu (who joined from Facebook a few months prior), Rahimi has been tasked with building out the streamer's games team and content library, according to the statement announcing his hire.
Mike Verdu
Most recently Facebook Reality Labs' vp of content, Mike Verdu marked a high-profile hire for Netflix in July 2021 as the streamer ventures further into the video game market. Verdu's hire preceded the acquisition of game creator Night School Studio a few months later.
Verdu's prior work at Facebook's VR operations involved the development of games and apps for Oculus headsets; his experience as vp of mobile for Electronic Arts should also prove useful to Netflix's mobile gaming endeavors. As VP of game development, he reports directly to chief operating officer and chief product officer Greg Peters.
After three years as director of communications at Netflix , Bing left in the spring to become chief communications officer at Vice Media Group, overseeing communications strategy across all of the group's brands, including Refinery29, Vice TV, and Vice News.
Lindsay Salt is one of the most recent high-profile departures from Netflix , having left the streamer in July for the BBC — notable for the unusual direction of the move, since Netflix has been prolific in poaching talent from traditional networks and streaming competitors. For about three years, Salt was part of Netflix's first scripted team in the UK, where she developed new titles and also worked on the fifth season of "The Crown."
Bozoma Saint John departed Netflix in April after two years as its CMO.
Shannon Willett led a global group of 250 staffers by the end of her time at Netflix , after working her way up to vp of global marketing strategy and operations over the course of nearly seven years. She initially joined the company as a marketing manager for North America, Australia, and New Zealand, before being elevated several times.
Former Netflix engineering exec Mark White said on LinkedIn he's now "Retired (ish)."
One of the longest-tenured Netflix execs, White joined the streamer in 2007, long before it became the most disruptive player in entertainment. As vp of engineering and a member of the high-level Lstaff, the PayPal alum oversaw Netflix's powerful personalized-recommendation algorithms, e-commerce, and content-creation tools that allow subscribers to discover new content on the platform.
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2022-07-18T17:08:05Z
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8 New Netflix Power Players and 8 Execs Who Left for Amazon, NBCU, More
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https://www.businessinsider.com/netflix-executives-joined-quit-left-company-streamer-layoffs-amazon-nbcu-2022-7
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The Russian billionaire Andrey Menichenko's superyacht.
Enrico Spanu/REDA&CO/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Superyachts allow billionaires to travel around the world in luxury.
The New Yorker recently profiled the world of superyachts.
From Imax theaters to "ski rooms," here are some of the most notable onboard perks.
"Superyachts" give a new meaning to sailing in style.
The New Yorker's Evan Osnos recently profiled the elite world of superyacht owners, which is largely made up of billionaires and powerful world leaders. According to the article, these massive seafaring vessels, which can go for millions of dollars — often come with all sorts of unique perks that reflect the owner's interests.
Here's a look at some of the most standout superyacht perks:
According to The New Yorker, the conservative megadonor Robert Mercer's yacht — the $90 million Sea Owl — was put up for sale recently.
The Sea Owl, Robert Mercer's former superyacht.
The yacht reportedly comes furnished with "several auxiliary boats, a Steinway piano, a variety of frescoes, and a security system that requires fingerprint recognition."
A Steinway piano in Times Square.
Kris Connor/Getty Images for NAMM
Bold, another superyacht, "styled like a warship" and featuring a helipad, was profiled.
An example of a helipad on the superyacht of former Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani.
Ibrahim Evrim Ayral/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
The New Yorker reported that more and more yachts have begun embracing "novelties" like Imax theaters ...
An Imax theater.
... miniature onboard hospitals, complete with pathogen-testing equipment ...
A medical professional conducting a rapid antigen test.
... and "ski rooms where guests can suit up for a helicopter trip to a mountaintop."
A superyacht off the coast of Crete.
According to The New Yorker, different groups of vastly wealthy people tend to gravitate toward clashing styles.
The superyacht Savannah sails around the Marshall Islands.
Ali Riza Akkir/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
According to the article, wealthy Middle Eastern sheikhs often commission "baroque indoor spaces" to beat the heat.
Dubai Sheikh Abdullah Al- Futtaim's superyacht Radiant in 2014.
Levent Kisi/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Meanwhile, Russian oligarchs often install spaces for banyas — steam baths that are significant in Russian culture.
Inside a Russian banya.
Other wealthy superyacht owners rely on showstopping artwork to awe passengers.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's super yacht Pegasus VIII in 2021.
Hugh R Hastings/Getty Images
Infamously, the Saudi crown prince hung up Leonardo da Vinci's "Salvator Mundi" — the most expensive painting ever sold — on his superyacht. Some claim the painting is not genuine.
A copy of Leonardo Da Vinci's "Salvator Mundi."
Salvatore Laporta/KONTROLAB/LightRocket via Getty Images
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2022-07-18T17:08:11Z
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Inside Modern-Day Superyachts, Which Have Perks Like Imax Theaters
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https://www.businessinsider.com/superyachts-perks-imax-theaters-hospitals-helipads-ski-rooms-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/superyachts-perks-imax-theaters-hospitals-helipads-ski-rooms-2022-7
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The 2023 Ford F-150 Raptor R.
Ford unveiled the most powerful F-150 ever, unseating the electric F-150 Lightning.
The 2023 F-150 Raptor R promises to produce 700 horsepower from a supercharged V8 engine.
It's built for crushing the harshest off-road terrain. It starts at more than $100,000.
If the Ford F-150 Raptor is something like a regular F-150 on steroids, then Ford's newest truck is like an F-150 on steroids on steroids.
Meet the Raptor R, Ford's most powerful F-150 yet.
Starting at $109,145, it's also the most expensive Ford F-Series pickup ever, a company spokesperson confirmed.
It's pricier than the roughly $96,000 F-450 Super Duty Limited and the $91,000 F-150 Lightning Platinum, the top-tier version of the company's new electric truck.
The Ford F-150 Lightning.
Ford took the regular Raptor — an extra-wide, off-road-ready behemoth geared toward high-speed desert racing — and injected even more power and capability to make a limited-edition, high-performance version.
The existing Raptor brings loads of power to the table, delivering 450 horsepower through its turbocharged V6.
The Raptor R steps things up a few notches. Ford says it churns out 700 horsepower and 640 pound-feet of torque.
It's powered by a supercharged, 5.2-liter V8 that Ford also used in the Mustang Shelby GT500 sports car.
Ford says it recalibrated the engine to offer more torque at low speeds, which should help the Raptor R tackle challenging terrain.
The new truck also cranks out more horsepower than Ford's electric pickup. Until now, the 580-horsepower Lightning had the most horsepower of any Ford truck.
Ford didn't just plop in a new engine and call it a day.
To make the Raptor R even more capable in harsh environments than the regular Raptor, Ford also upgraded the truck's exhaust system, air intakes, oil cooler, transmission, and driveshaft.
The Raptor R gets an advanced, long-travel suspension setup that monitors the terrain hundreds of times per second and adjusts the suspension accordingly, Ford says.
It comes with big, chunky 37-inch tires as standard equipment.
Like the regular Raptor, the Raptor R comes with a suite of off-road-focused tech features. Trail Control, for example, is like cruise control for unpaved roads.
Most of the big changes are under the hood. But the Raptor R also gets some outward updates that set it apart from the standard Raptor.
It has a larger bump-out on its hood, which helps extract warm air and cool the engine.
There are also unique "R" badges on the grille, hood, and tailgate.
The rear fenders get a special graphic that Ford says "mirrors the harsh, cracked desert earth, reinforcing the type of environment the Raptor R is built to conquer."
Inside, the Raptor R gets a black interior with seats made of leather and faux suede.
It has carbon fiber on the doors and dashboard.
The Raptor R is available to order now and production begins later this year.
More: Features Ford Ford F-150 Raptor Ford F-150
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2022-07-18T18:38:54Z
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Ford F-150 Raptor R: See the Most Expensive Ford Truck Ever
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https://www.businessinsider.com/2023-ford-f150-raptor-r-price-specs-most-expensive-2022-7
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The RAF Brize Norton base is the UK's largest military air force base.
David Goddard/Getty Images
RAF Brize Norton halted flights on Monday after extreme heat "melted" the runway, Sky News reports.
London's Luton airport also suspended flights due to a runway "surface defect" caused by the heat.
Britain is bracing for record temperatures as a dangerous heatwave blankets the country.
Britain's Brize Norton Air Force base and London Luton Airport halted flights on Monday as a dangerous heatwave hits the UK.
The Royal Air Force shut down operations at its Brize Norton base because the "runway has melted," as Sky News first reported.
On Friday, the UK declared a national emergency, warning of potentially record-breaking temperatures on July 18 and 19. For the first time, the country's national weather service has forecasted temperatures exceeding 104 degrees Fahrenheit. The UK's current record temperature is 101.6 degrees, recorded in Cambridge during the summer of 2019.
"During this period of extreme temperature flight safety remains the RAF's top priority, so aircraft are using alternative airfields in line with a long-established plan. This means there is no impact on RAF operations," The UK Ministry of Defence said in a statement on Twitter.
The ministry's press office did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
Meanwhile, London's Luton Airport is also experiencing flight interruptions due to the hot weather.
"Following today's high temperatures, a surface defect was identified on the runway," the airport said in a statement on Twitter. "Engineers were called immediately to site and repair works are currently in progress to resume operations as soon as possible."
According to Flight Aware, 17% of flights departing from London Luton airport have been delayed thus far. London Luton Airport did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
The Royal Air Force halted flights in and out of its Cranwell military base on Monday and Tuesday last week, a military source told Sky News, adding that tar has been sticking to RAF officials' boots and aircraft wheels since summer began.
Extremely hot weather has made this summer's flight chaos even worse. On top of runway damages, high temperatures can decrease the weight capacity of planes — forcing aircrafts to unload luggage and even passengers in order to safely take off.
One passenger told Insider that Air Canada "begged" 25 people to switch their flight after boarding in Denver because the plane was "too heavy" to take off in the triple-digit heat.
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2022-07-18T18:39:12Z
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UK Airport and Air Force Base Halt Flights Amid Heatwave
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https://www.businessinsider.com/london-luton-airport-raf-base-halt-delay-flights-heatwave-2022-7
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Created by Insider Studios with Adobe
Today's businesses have to send, edit, and update multiple forms and documents.
54% of workers say they spend more time looking for files than responding to messages.
Enterprises are streamlining workflows with flexible, secure document management applications.
Today's employees rely on digital documents to get their jobs done — from filing an invoice to editing a new business pitch. But actually finding and managing these documents can be challenging. According to a 2021 survey of 1,000 US office workers, 54% said they spent more time searching for files than responding to emails and messages.
And more often than not, documents require input from multiple stakeholders, adding additional delays to an already drawn-out process. For example, a contract agreement between business parties requires a thorough review from the client and vendor. Employees need technology that makes it possible for people inside and outside their organization to efficiently edit documents and collect comments.
Here are a few best practices for organizations looking to level up on their document management.
1. Enable collaboration
Nearly three years into the COVID-19 pandemic, many workers continue to work remotely — with no plans to return to the office full time (or at all). For many organizations, this hybrid approach has paid off. A large percentage of today's workers are more productive at home. And employers have realized they can attract and retain top talent by expanding hiring efforts to remote employees.
But successfully managing a distributed workforce means ensuring document management applications can support collaboration between employees in multiple places and time zones. For example, Adobe Acrobat is an application that enables people to edit, view, comment on, and approve relevant documents on their own time — regardless of where they are.
Collaborative applications like Acrobat can also help streamline communication with clients and vendors. Giving external stakeholders the opportunity to comment, and the sender the ability to track and respond to these comments, can drive transparency between both parties. This ensures necessary changes are made before the document is finalized and keeps business moving on schedule.
2. Get ahead of security threats
While the distributed workforce has introduced many benefits for employees and companies, it also comes with a number of security risks. With remote workers logging in from various locations and endpoints, the threat landscape has become more complex than it was just a few years ago. By creating guardrails around security, organizations can begin to minimize the risk of a security breach or attack.
However, organizations should also consider the security of their enterprise-wide systems and software as they navigate this evolving threat landscape. That's especially true for document management applications that are often shared with multiple people across various departments inside and outside an organization.
Acrobat can help secure documents with its protect tool, so only authorized users can view a PDF using a password. This is especially important for documents with sensitive information, such as financial statements with bank account data or employment forms with social security numbers.
3. Encourage flexibility
In a constantly evolving world, today's business documents are continuously updated with new information. For example, a sales manager might add an addendum to a contract to address a specific client concern. A human resources leader might update an employee handbook with new COVID-19 guidelines. These changes require teams to be flexible and call for document-sharing technology that can undergo multiple iterations.
For example, Acrobat allows users to edit PDFs in many different ways, including changing text and images or deleting pages.
4. Prioritize accessible technology
When different teams and stakeholders need to review a PDF, they should be able to access that document regardless of their device or where they are. For example, an employee on her way to a business meeting may have tucked her computer away in her bag, so she's fielding emails on her phone. She sees a time-sensitive email requesting her signature on a contract, and she wants to be able to give it a thorough review before she walks into her meeting.
This employee — and others like her — needs a document-management application that's accessible on any device, whether it's a computer, tablet, or smartphone.
While employees benefit from easy access to documents, they also must ensure any recipients of these documents can easily access what they need without having to purchase a subscription or download a new application.
By leveraging applications like Acrobat, people can easily edit, e-sign, or access documents from their computer or mobile device. They can also use Acrobat tools online even if they don't have access to their desktop app, from their web browser and other apps like Microsoft and Google. With document management tools that meet employees, stakeholders, and customers where they are, people can spend less time jumping from app to app and more time completing tasks and transactions that drive their businesses forward.
Learn more about how Adobe Acrobat is the all-in-one tool to get business done.
This post was created by Insider Studios with Adobe.
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2022-07-18T18:39:30Z
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How One App Is Helping Employees Share, Edit, and Sign Documents
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https://www.businessinsider.com/sc/how-one-app-is-helping-employees-share-edit-and-sign-documents
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Vimeo is cutting jobs
Grace Kay and Lucia Moses
Anjali Sud, CEO of Vimeo, speaks during the company's direct listing on Nasdaq May 25, 2021, in New York. The online video and software company is a spinoff from IAC.
Vimeo is conducting a round of layoffs.
The company confirmed the job cuts to Insider on Monday.
The company is one of several to initiate a round of layoffs amid fears the US is entering a recession.
Vimeo is conducting layoffs, a company spokesperson confirmed to Insider on Monday.
Vimeo employed just over 1,200 workers as of December 2021, according to the company's annual regulatory filing. The exact number of jobs impacted could not be immediately learned, but one source told Insider he knew dozens of people who had been laid off.
The individual, who requested anonymity to speak freely, said they learned that they were being laid off through a Zoom meeting with an HR representative and their manager. The employee was told the layoffs are effective immediately and access to work systems would be cut off by the end of the day, according to an email obtained by Insider.
The individual told Insider that numerous employees had been notified they were being terminated via one-on-one meetings, as well as some group Zoom meetings.
Vimeo is one of many tech companies that are downsizing their workforce amid fears that the US is on the brink of a recession.
Last month, Elon Musk said Tesla plans to lay off 10% of its salaried workforce. Coinbase laid off 1,100 employees or about 18% of its staff in June. Meanwhile, Meta slowed hiring in May and has reportedly warned some staff that cutbacks are coming.
Vimeo went public on the New York Stock Exchange in May 2021. The company's main business is software as a service that makes it easier for the average person to create and distribute video content; it's recently been shifting to big corporate clients like Gap, Nike, and Expedia and away from its role as a YouTube alternative.
"Today we are a technology platform, not a viewing destination. We are a B2B solution, not the indie version of YouTube," its CEO Anjali Sud wrote in a letter to shareholders earlier this year.
As part of that strategy shift, Vimeo notified independent video creators it was sharply increasing the cost of its services, leaving some scrambling for alternatives.
Anjali acknowledged the company had some stumbles earlier in its B2B transition but that the problems were fixable through better execution in 2022. She also predicted the company's growth would slow in 2022 as Vimeo transitions to focusing on bigger companies.
Have a tip or more information about this story? Contact reporter Grace Kay at gkay@insider.com.
More: Vimeo Streaming Layoffs Prime
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2022-07-18T18:39:36Z
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Vimeo Is Conducting Layoffs
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https://www.businessinsider.com/vimeo-conducts-layoffs-job-cuts-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/vimeo-conducts-layoffs-job-cuts-2022-7
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6 crypto startup founders reveal their predictions for the future of NFTs — from inspiring the next Disney to kicking off a new generation of gaming
NFTs need to become more useful to gain a large following outside of their core fan base, industry experts say. Crypto founders gave Insider their predictions for how that might happen.
NFTs need more use cases to gain broader adoption, even their biggest fans say.
Insider spoke with six crypto founders about the future of NFTs beyond the profile pic.
Among their predictions: NFTs will eventually replace event tickets and inspire the next Disney.
More than a year after a skit on "Saturday Night Live" brought non-fungible tokens into pop-culture consciousness, only a small group of people actually own one.
At their peak in the first quarter of 2022, fewer than one million crypto wallets — and potentially even fewer people — bought or sold NFTs, according to the Web3 security company Chainalysis.
Even some of NFTs' biggest proponents concede that the tokens need to become more useful to gain main adoption. Right now, they're primarily used as social-media profile pics, or PFPs.
But the excitement over NFTs hasn't completely abated. Metaplex, a company that makes tools for NFTs based on the Solana blockchain, recently announced that it crossed $3 billion in NFT sales in its first year, and certain marketplaces, such as Magic Eden, have reported growth.
Insider spoke with six crypto founders about their predictions for the future of NFTs. Here's what they said.
Offering perks in the real world
The number one prediction Web3 founders made to Insider is that NFTs will have greater importance in the physical world, not just the digital one. Recent crypto conferences such as Consensus and NFT.NYC have included ample references to "utility NFTs," which give their owners access to perks.
For instance, during NFT.NYC, those who owned NFTs from the World of Women collection gained access to Madonna's surprise concert in celebration of Pride.
"All of these giant projects, you're starting to see communities build and the offering of utility, things beyond the art itself," Jeany Ngo, the cofounder of the NFT-building platform Kairos, told Insider. "There has to be something delivered for value."
Enabling fans to cash out rewards on their own terms
Loyalty programs aren't a new concept. But NFT owners have the ability to sell their tokens should they lose interest in amassing rewards, said Kevin Chou, the founder of Rally, which offers tools for artists and entertainers to create crypto-based communities for their fans. That's a contrast from frequent flier miles, for instance, which are used to purchase travel on a specific airline and typically can't be exchanged for cash.
Plus, NFTs can be displayed publicly to signal membership in a particular community — which in the case of certain collections such as Bored Ape Yacht Club has lent its own cachet.
As a result, Chou said, it could become commonplace in the future for venues and entertainers to issue NFTs instead of traditional tickets.
"It becomes part of your identity for the things that you really care about," he told Insider.
Ushering in a new breed of gaming companies
NFTs have already gained adoption as a showcase for digital art. Now, some companies are turning their attention to NFTs as a platform for gaming.
NFT game enthusiasts talk up the potential for players to display the assets they buy — such as gear and weapons for their avatars — in other spaces outside of the games in which they're bought. They'd also be able to buy, sell, and trade those NFTs with other players.
The NFT marketplace Magic Eden is leaning heavily into this concept. Earlier this month, it announced the launch of a venture arm, Magic Ventures, devoted to backing emerging game developers in Web3. Traditional gaming companies are also seeking to enter the space: Epic Games , for instance, previewed its first Web3 game in June. (Its early reviews have not been glowing, however.)
"There are some independent studios, or even alumni from these studios who are coming out and starting companies," Jack Lu, the cofounder and CEO of Magic Eden, said. "Those folks are really exploring the edges of innovation, of using Web3 technology to do those games."
Inspiring the next Disney
Anatoly Yakovenko, the cofounder of the Solana blockchain, said he believed NFTs would inspire new forms of entertainment. Yuga Labs, the parent company of Bored Ape Yacht Club, has already hinted at such a direction: It's made a move into gaming in the metaverse, and Universal Music has purchased Bored Ape with the intent to create an NFT-based musical act.
Other popular NFT collections, such as Okay Bears, could go in a similar direction, according to Yakovenko.
"If you're imagining there's a chance for the next Marvel or Disney to be created over the next 10 years, it's probably going to come from NFTs," he said.
Securing a real "smart contract"
One core feature of blockchains is that they create a public, unalterable log of each transaction that occurs on it. That's the basis of what's known as a smart contract, which uses code to carry out a set series of transactions.
According to some crypto enthusiasts, smart contracts could pave the way for streamlining processes such as buying a house or a car: Instead of requiring reams of paperwork, the terms of the contract would be written into the blockchain.
(One caveat: That doesn't mean the legal process would be any different or speedier, as mentioned in a discussion between the investors Packy McCormick and Zach Weinberg on a June episode of the "Cartoon Avatars" podcast hosted by Redpoint Ventures partner Logan Bartlett.)
NFTs could become a convenient way to send and store these contracts, Alex Salnikov, the cofounder of Rarible, said: "I'm pretty sure 10 years from now, we will have home and mortgage NFTs."
Powering insurance companies — and other businesses
That "smart contract" capability could ultimately enable NFTs to provide the underpinnings for standalone businesses that operate off the terms of that code, Joseph Lubin, the CEO of ConsenSys, which makes tools for developers to build Ethereum-based applications.
One example Lubin offered was insurance: NFTs could enable automatic turnarounds of reimbursements on claims, he said, based upon the parameters set through smart contracts.
"An NFT can be a whole business in its own right," he said.
More: Startups Venture Capital crypto
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2022-07-18T18:39:42Z
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6 Crypto Startup Founders Share Their Predictions for NFTs' Future
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https://www.businessinsider.com/web3-crypto-startup-founders-predictions-future-nft-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/web3-crypto-startup-founders-predictions-future-nft-2022-7
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Travelers crowd Terminal 1 departures hall while queueing at check-in counters in Humberto Delgado International Airport on July 09, 2022 in Lisbon, Portugal.
Horacio Villalobos#Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images
It's been the summer of travel chaos, as flights get delayed and cancelled while luggage vanishes.
Many factors led to the current situation, including weather and the war in Ukraine.
Airlines also let a lot of workers retire early, have a training backlog, and have burnt out flight attendants.
If you've even thought about traveling this summer, you've probably heard at least one horror story.
Bags are vanishing into the ether, or commanding their own flights altogether. Planes are getting rebooked to leave from different countries. In June alone, thousands of flights were getting cancelled and delayed.
Some of that is due to things outside of any air carriers' control, like the weather and continued economic fallout from the war in Ukraine. But today's situation also stems from some pandemic-era measures — exacerbated by pre-pandemic trends.
Airlines opted to let a whole lot of people retire early during the pandemic
When the pandemic hit the airline industry, travel cratered. Airlines, like many sectors, got financial support to stay afloat, and keep workers paid. But with less customer interest in flying, airlines cut costs — and many offered workers the option to retire early, especially as funding lapsed between stimulus packages.
At Delta, for instance, nearly 2,000 pilots signed on for early retirement.
"It's easy to have a revisionist history and wonder whether we should have done that or not should have done that," Ed Bastian, Delta's CEO, said in the company's most recent earnings call. But, he said, there was "no knowledge" of when a vaccine would be found, and the "the world was going to start to reunite."
"I don't look back with any regret at all about those decisions," Bastian said. But the pilots who left were at senior levels, he said, and that "causes churn at a much higher level."
There's a training backlog, and training costs a lot of money
To be a pilot, you obviously need to be trained. And training takes a lot of time and a lot of money — something that's been an issue for years.
According to NPR, training can set a prospective pilot back $80,000 to even over $100,000. One commercial pilot in New Jersey told Insider's Kim Dahlgren that their flight school cost around $80,000.
"There are not enough training institutions. Those that exist are oversubscribed," Faye Malarkey Black, the president of the Regional Airline Association (RAA), told NPR's Alejandra Marquez Janse. There's also not enough "financial support for individuals who want to become a pilot," Black told NPR.
Some airlines are now stepping up to defray the costs. United, for instance, has opened its own flight school, with a special emphasis on making flight accessible to women and people of color. There were about 120 students enrolled at Aviate Academy in June.
The program covers the cost of private pilot training for those without a license, according to United, and there are scholarships and loans available to offset the cost — which still comes in at $71,250.
Flight attendants are dealing with abusive customers and hard conditions
The Federal Aviation Administration said that, in 2021, airline crews dealt with 5,981 unruly passenger reports — a record high. As of July 12, crews have dealt with 1,634 unruly passenger reports this year.
That persistence unruliness and aggression have led some flight attendants to feel burnt out, Insider's Allana Akhtar reported. Some said flight attendant mental health had been worsening, and wanted airlines to step in with mental health support — and guidance on keeping flight attendants safe.
And, with heavy workloads and travel chaos, there's more airlines could be doing to help flight attendants, according to Sara Nelson, the international president of the Association of Flight Attendants.
Nelson told Marketplace that airlines could add more workers to operational support, who are the people on the other end of the phone when airline crews call in.
"In some cases, crews are waiting online one, two, three, four hours to get in touch with someone," Nelson told Marketplace. "And for every one person that's added, you're gonna have an additional support to about 500 people who are out in the field trying to staff your flight."
More: Economy travel chaos plane travel demand
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2022-07-18T18:39:48Z
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3 Reasons for Summer Travel Flight Delays, Cancellations, Lost Luggage
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https://www.businessinsider.com/why-flight-delays-cancellations-lost-luggage-summer-travel-chaos-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/why-flight-delays-cancellations-lost-luggage-summer-travel-chaos-2022-7
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Best credit card bonuses and deals this week: A brand-new 3x card with a bonus offer worth $300, and a refresh on the Amex Blue Cash Everyday with new statement credits and categories
Whether you're planning a late-summer road trip or looking ahead to fall and winter travels, it's a great time to open a new credit card and earn cash back, airline miles, or hotel points to use to offset your expenses.
Balance Transfer is back! Enjoy 0% intro APR on purchases and balance transfers for 15 months from the date of account opening. After that, 15.49% to 26.49% variable APR.
New! 3% Cash Back on U.S. online retail purchases, on up to $6,000 per year, then 1%.
Get $7 back each month after using your Card to spend $13.99 or more each month on an eligible subscription to The Disney Bundle, which includes Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+. Enrollment required.
Wells Fargo launched the much-awaited Wells Fargo Autograph℠ Card last week, and it's a great deal for folks who want a no-annual-fee card with strong rewards categories and a good welcome offer. New cardholders can earn 30,000 bonus points when you spend $1,500 in purchases in the first 3 months from account opening (worth $300 in rewards). Plus, the card earns 3x points on dining, travel, gas, transit, popular streaming services, and phone plans.
Meanwhile, American Express rolled out a surprise refresh on the Blue Cash Everyday® Card from American Express. New cardholders can still earn a $200 statement credit after you spend $2,000 in purchases on your new card within the first 6 months, and the card has improved its bonus categories: 3% cash back at US supermarkets (up to $6,000 per year, then 1%), 3% cash back on US gas stations (up to $6,000 per year, then 1%), 3% cash back on US online retail purchases (up to $6,000 per year, then 1%), and 1% cash back on all purchases.
The card now offers statement credits toward The Disney Bundle ($7 per month)** and Home Chef ($15 per month)**, which is a solid deal considering the card has no annual fee.
Earns bonus miles at restaurants worldwide and U.S. supermarkets
Annual companion certificate can help you recoup most, if not all, of the annual fee
You get a free checked bag and priority boarding on Delta flights
Earn up to 20,000 Medallion® Qualification Miles (MQMs) with Status Boost® per year. After you spend $25,000 in purchases on your Card in a calendar year, you can earn 10,000 MQMs up to two times per year, getting you closer to Medallion® Status. MQMs are used to determine Medallion® Status and are different than miles you earn toward flights.
Earn 3X Miles on Delta purchases and purchases made directly with hotels.
Earn 2X Miles at restaurants worldwide including takeout and delivery in the U.S., and at U.S. supermarkets.
Earn 1X Miles on all other eligible purchases.
Receive a Domestic Main Cabin round-trip companion certificate each year upon renewal of your Card. Payment of the government imposed taxes and fees of no more than $80 for roundtrip domestic flights (for itineraries with up to four flight segments) is required. Baggage charges and other restrictions apply. See terms and conditions for details.
Fee Credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck® after you apply through any Authorized Enrollment Provider. If approved for Global Entry, at no additional charge, you will receive access to TSA PreCheck.
Enjoy an exclusive rate of $39 per person per visit to enter the Delta Sky Club® for you and up to two guests when traveling on a Delta flight.
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2022-07-18T19:36:08Z
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Best Credit Card Deals and Bonuses This Week: July 18, 2022
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https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/best-credit-card-deals-bonuses-this-week-july-18-2022-7
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5 things you never learned about money that everyone should know, according to a financial activist
Mena Darre
The majority of Americans lack proper financial education.
Dasha Kennedy is an acclaimed financial activist and creator of The Broke Black Girl.
Kennedy walked us through five things to know about money management, such as a sinking fund and payment flexibility tools.
No one is born with money management skills. And personal finance education is lacking in US schools. So most Americans are left to develop those skills through financial careers, self-education, or hard lessons learned from missteps.
Dasha Kennedy's got all three.
With over a decade as a financial professional, Kennedy is an acclaimed financial activist and creator of The Broke Black Girl. She sat down with us to dispel major money misconceptions and walk us through five things everyone should know about their money.
1. Preparing for the unexpected is a must
An emergency fund is a critical tool for saving. But most Americans struggle to sock away funds for unexpected costs.
And, particularly over the past two years, Kennedy has identified a key psychological obstacle holding people back: The ability to accept changing life circumstances. "My biggest piece of advice is to be okay with pivoting and readjusting your finances to match what your new normal is," she said.
Fortunately, you can kickstart your emergency fund in just minutes. And according to Kennedy, every little bit you can save helps.
2. Paying extra toward debt has a surprising impact
When it comes to managing debt, Kennedy echoes her wisdom for saving: You don't have to make big changes to have a big impact. "Small incremental change is so vital to personal finance because it builds consistency and momentum," she added.
Her advice? Pay more than your required minimums to tackle your debt — even if that's only $5 or $20 a month.
Suppose, for instance, you owe $5,000 on a credit card with a 16% interest rate and a $100 minimum. By paying just $20 extra each month, you'd pay off your card 22 months sooner and save nearly $950 in interest.
"You'll be able to free up some of your monthly income to be used for other things like saving and investing, or even something personal that you want to do," Kennedy said.
3. You're leaving free money on the table
Most Americans have access to an employer-sponsored retirement plan like a 401(k). But only one in three believes they're on track with retirement savings.
Here, Kennedy highlights the power of a 401(k) plan. "It's one of the easiest ways to streamline your retirement," she said.
And she points to what she considers the most valuable benefit of a 401(k) — the employer match. "It's free money given to you by your employer to match your contributions, up to a certain amount, without decreasing your salary," Kennedy said."That's very important, because most retirement savings come out of your earned income."
So if you're not capturing your full employer match, consider boosting your 401(k) contribution rate.
4. A sinking fund is a financial secret weapon
An emergency fund is invaluable for unexpected costs. But what about the ones you know are coming, like a summer vacation or an upcoming tax bill?
That's where a sinking fund shines. Each sinking fund holds money for a specific financial goal. The beauty of a sinking fund is that you spread out the cost upfront. "It's breaking that total amount down and saving for that amount over a series of months, instead of taking care of that expense all at one time," Kennedy noted.
For instance, Kennedy said, a third of Americans go into debt for holiday spending, owing an average of $1,249. But you can avoid that debt entirely by saving just $104 for 12 months before the holidays arrive.
To get started with sinking funds, consider opening a savings account for each major purchase you know is coming. Determine how much you'll need to save, and divide that amount by the amount of time available. Set up automatic transfers to your sinking funds, and the money will be exactly where you need it when the time comes.
5. You've got powerful options for payment flexibility
Even with the best planning, you might want some extra payment flexibility when you need to make a big purchase. Your house needs a major repair, your car breaks down, or you get an unexpected medical bill.
Payment flexibility tools, like the American Express Pay Over Time feature give you financing flexibility while still giving you the benefits of American Express Cards, like earning rewards, and purchase and fraud protection.
As an embedded feature on American Express Green, Gold, or Platinum Cards, Pay Over Time lets you carry a balance with interest up to your Pay Over Time Limit. Pay Over Time does not affect the cardholders' No Preset Spending Limit, meaning the spending limit is flexible. Unlike a traditional credit card with a set limit, the amount you can spend adapts based on factors such as your purchase, payment, and credit history.
Payment flexibility can mean the difference between slipping into unwanted debt and thriving financially.
"Having the flexibility to pay at your own pace can not only be life-changing, but it can be a life-saving experience," Kennedy said.
When it comes to personal finance, Kennedy shares her biggest piece of advice for everyone: Whenever possible, spend less than you earn. "You have more room to get out of debt, to build an emergency fund, to start saving for personal goals or retirement, or even just indulge in a life that you want," she said. "If the last two years have shown us anything, it's that having flexibility is priceless."
Looking for flexible financing? Get more time to pay with Pay Over Time from American Express.
More: Sponsor Post Studios Enterprise Studios Consumer Finance
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2022-07-18T19:36:26Z
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5 Things You Never Learned About Money That Everyone Should Know
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https://www.businessinsider.com/sc/5-things-you-never-learned-about-money
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https://www.businessinsider.com/sc/5-things-you-never-learned-about-money
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Netflix's Q2 subscriber loss may not be as steep as predicted, analysts say. Here's what it means for the rest of 2022 and the company's ad partnership with Microsoft.
With Netflix's Q2 results on tap, the number to beat is 2 million — in forecasted subscriber losses.
Both Hollywood and Wall Street seem to think the streamer's highest-flying glory days may be over.
But a Microsoft ad partnership, gaming, and password-sharing crackdown offer new revenue streams.
The number to beat is 2 million — in losses.
After Netflix forecasted in April that its streaming service expected to shed that many subscribers in the second quarter, the company's stock went into a tailspin, sinking below $200 a share after hitting a high of over $700 last November. That tumble had a ripple effect on other media stocks and is still weighing on the entire entertainment sector, as the once seemingly invincible New Hollywood company entered a period of uncertainty.
As Netflix laid off hundreds of staffers this spring, lost high-profile execs, and stunned industry workers and creative stakeholders with shifts in strategy and spending, both Hollywood and Wall Street have adopted the view that the disruptor's highest-flying glory days — and double-digit subscription growth it boasted over the last five years — may be over.
So where does a company like Netflix go from here? One hope for fresh revenue comes from a market the company once dismissed — i.e. creating an advertising-supported tier; cracking down on password sharing, a practice Netflix CEO Reed Hastings once called a "positive thing," should also boost the bottom line. To launch its ads business, Netflix has selected Microsoft as its official partner for its new AVOD tier, a choice that could also further the streamer's fledgling gaming efforts.
The rocky terrain of 2022 doesn't necessarily spell doom and gloom for the company — rather it puts Netflix on a more earthly plane alongside its legacy studio competitors. And a few equity analysts suspect the losses won't be quite as bad as feared.
Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter, though a longtime bear on the company, predicted a global Q2 net streaming loss of just 1.5 million subscribers, possibly the most optimistic forecast of the bunch. He credits the fourth season of "Stranger Things" — the show responsible for Kate Bush's 1985 "Running Up That Hill" becoming a 2022 hit — which was spread across Q2 and the current quarter, likely helping both periods' subscriber figures.
Wells Fargo's Steven Cahall believes the firm's correlation analysis based on monthly active users points to a subscriber loss of only 1 million. And yet, he isn't changing his forecast from a loss of 2 million and noted "low conviction" in the analysis, given Netflix's "new phase of customer churn" — read: more people canceling their Netflix subscriptions — that is making historical correlations more unreliable than they've been in the past. A handful of others on Wall Street, like Evercore ISI, expect Netflix to meet its own guidance for 2 million in sub losses.
And then there are the pessimists: Barclays' Kannan Venkateshwar predicts that Netflix will disappoint by missing its own negative guidance with subscriber losses of 2.8 million.
According to Morgan Stanley analyst Benjamin Swinburne, Netflix grew subscribers at a 25% clip from 2016-2020, resulting in 30%-35% annual revenue growth. But he sees rising churn weighing on the company's results.
And if the company guides for another quarter of subscriber losses, shares will remain even further away from rebounding. Still, Netflix's foray into live TV programming, especially in combination with the ad tier, also opens up new opportunities for programming — the company may finally move into sports — and revenue.
"We expect the global transition from linear to streaming, along with Netflix's high level of engagement compared to the competition, to support customer growth and ARPU growth over the long term," wrote Swinburne. "We also believe over time Netflix can benefit from additional monetization opportunities including live sports (built for advertising) and broad theatrical distribution of franchise films, while continuing to build its presence in gaming and consumer products."
More: Netflix Stranger Things Entertainment
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2022-07-18T20:06:11Z
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Netflix Q2 Subscriber Loss May Not Be As Steep As Predicted: Analysts
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https://www.businessinsider.com/netflix-subscriber-loss-forecast-stranger-things-advertising-strategy-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/netflix-subscriber-loss-forecast-stranger-things-advertising-strategy-2022-7
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3 steps to raise capital with equity crowdfunding
What happens after you've raised the money?
What are equity crowdfunding's benefits and drawbacks?
Is equity crowdfunding right for you?
Equity crowdfunding gives startups an alternative to venture capital by raising money from smaller investors
Equity crowdfunding lets the general public in on private-market investing.
Equity crowdfunding allows startups and early-stage companies to issue ownership stakes to many investors in exchange for capital.
Shareholders stand to profit if the company does well, but can lose all of their money if the company fails.
The Securities and Exchange Commission oversees equity crowdfunding because it involves issuing shares of the company.
Every startup needs capital, and securing that money can be a challenge. Traditionally, businesses looking to get going would look to some of the most common sources of funding, including business loans, angel investors, venture capitalists, or even an initial public offering of stock.
Nowadays, crowdfunding is an increasingly popular form of fundraising that lets founders raise capital on their own, bypass institutional funding, and retain more control over their companies. The idea behind crowdfunding is to convince large numbers of people to invest in or donate to a cause or business. There are several different types of crowdfunding, including an approach that allows companies to offer partial ownership in the form of equity.
Equity crowdfunding is the one type of crowdfunding that most closely mimics conventional methods of raising capital. It's used primarily by startups or early-stage companies. The founders, following a regulated process, issue securities (stock) to the public on a crowdfunding platform in exchange for cash.
Other types of crowdfunding include rewards-based crowdfunding in which investors receive a new product or other reward and donation crowdfunding where investors neither receive nor expect a reward. Debt-based crowdfunding operates much like a bank loan , except the "loan" comes from the crowd.
Note: Equity crowdfunding is overseen by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).
Among the most well-known and successful equity crowdfunding platforms are:
Wefunder has attracted a broad range of startups including an online encyclopedia, bionic pancreas, and film production. Any US-based startup can apply to join the platform, which charges a flat fee of 7.5% of funds raised only if the campaign is successful.
StartEngine carries a wide variety of listings including environment-friendly startups, tech companies, and a smattering of Cannabidiol (CBD) entries as well. Companies pay a fixed fee plus a dollar percentage of capital raised and an equity share.
Republic, owned and maintained by OpenDeal Inc., was set up in 2016 for US-based companies. The platform includes health and wellness startups, fintech companies , and cryptocurrency platforms. Startups pay a 6% charge on funds raised, but only if the funding goal is reached.
Mainvest, founded in 2018, specializes in supporting small brick-and-mortar businesses by letting investors deploy "community capital into the neighborhoods where they live, visit, and enjoy." Mainvest does not charge an upfront fee to launch a campaign and if the raise is not successful, there is no fee. Otherwise "in-network" funds (those you raise) are charged a 3% fee and "out-of-network" funds from Mainvest investors carry a 9% fee. Additional fees may apply.
SeedInvest is an exclusive marketplace that accepts just 1% of the startups that apply. The platform entertains a broad range of US startups seeking funding from robotics to food and beverage to several different types of healthcare platforms. Startups pay a 7.5% placement fee and 5% equity.
3 steps to raising capital with equity crowdfunding
Before you start, determine the amount of financing you will need, refine your business plan, and prepare for the questions you're likely to face in the due diligence phase of your campaign.
The amount you raise determines the certification requirements for your financial statement. Less than $107,000 only requires a company officer to certify. Amounts from $107,000 to $535,000 require independent review. Anything more than $535,000 requires independently reviewed or audited financial statements.
Once you've laid the groundwork, the process of choosing a platform and conducting a campaign begins.
1. Choose an equity crowdfunding platform
Start by researching platforms and zeroing in on those that tend to support projects similar to yours. "Many platforms specialize and have a pool of investors looking for specific types of investments," says Chris Rawley, founder and CEO of agriculture crowdfunding platform Harvest Returns.
Learn about SEC regulation of crowdfunding platforms including Reg CF, Reg D, Reg A+, and others. "Each of these has implications regarding the marketing of the offering, future reporting requirements and future capital raise implications," says Jay Jung, managing partner and founder of Embarc Advisors, who urges founders to make sure the platform is knowledgeable when it comes to these regulations.
Ask pointed questions about the platform to ensure you will get the support you desire.
CEO Jason Frishman at private fundraising company Netcapital advises founders to ask three questions as part of the platform vetting process: "How expensive is this funding portal going to be for me to use? How quickly can I get my deal live on the platform? And how will the platform help me get attention for my offering?"
Warning: Safdar Alam, CEO of the equity crowdfunding platform Maydan Capital, cautions that platforms that don't commit to significant due diligence pass all this risk onto retail investors and provide less support to founders.
Once you've chosen a platform that meets your needs, register and prepare for the next step — selling yourself and your company.
2. Pitch your business
Your pitch to potential investors can be in writing or a video, depending on what format the platform accepts or prefers. Factors to consider with either include:
Take a personal approach. Share who you are and why you started this project. Be relatable.
Share the mission. Explain the goal and the impact it will have on people, society, and the world.
Explain what's in it for investors.
Be transparent about how the funds will be used. Explain why outside funding is needed.
"Beware of platforms that ask you to bring a large number of investors long before you can launch a raise," cautions Rawley. "Additionally, ensure you fully understand the fees and any equity splits the platform may require."
3. Promote your campaign
All platforms have a system for running a campaign. Some are tightly structured, and others are more flexible. Make sure you understand the promotional structure of the platform you choose.
"The way the bigger platforms work is that they have certain events that get triggered which then leads to your startup being promoted on the platform," says Anna Gudmundson, CEO and founder of the startup, Sensate BioSelf Technology."It's a bit like if you build a website or a blog. Unless you promote it, not many people are going to visit it, and it's important that the founders understand the dynamics and algorithms that the platforms use to promote it to the crowd investors."
Warning: Many sites will only let you access your funds if you reach your fundraising goal. Otherwise, the money raised is returned to investors.
What's next for startups once they raise funds through equity crowdfunding? Some use it for the stated purpose of the campaign and concentrate on growing the business. Others move on to banks or angel investors for their next or follow-on campaigns. Many return to the original crowdfunding platform for a second or even third round.
Much of what happens next depends on the platform you select.
If you have wisely selected a platform that does its due diligence and isn't full of low-quality candidates, ask about post-investment involvement, Alam says. "Platforms that request regular updates from founders should be valued compared to platforms that do not want any contact with the founders post-investment."
As with any funding system, equity crowdfunding has pros and cons, both for founders and investors.
The biggest benefit to investors and founders alike is that nonaccredited investors are able to participate, increasing the pool of potential backers. "Depending on the way you structure your traditional raise, you may be limited to the number of nonaccredited investors, or you may not be able to have any," says Andrea Sager, a lawyer and owner of The Legalpreneur, a legal advice subscription service for small businesses. "Crowdfunding allows you to let any number of nonaccredited investors in."
The convenience for backers of investing online also makes raising capital easier for founders. "Anyone can invest with the click of a button. It doesn't get any easier than that for someone to be able to invest in your company," notes Frishman.
Alam points to the versatility of equity crowdfunding. "This approach can also be used alongside more traditional fundraising from venture capital firms – as the entire round does not need to be executed on a crowdfunding platform."
The ability to control the pace of the raise, is another issue that falls in favor of equity crowdfunding according to Steven Weinstein, CEO of early-stage growth investor Seismic Capital. "Typically when working with venture capitalists, startups are tied to quick turnaround times and deadlines to bring the product or service to market, regardless of whether or not it aligns with the time needed to refine the offering. With crowdfunding, startups are able to take a patient capital approach, forgoing immediate returns with the intent of gaining more substantial, lasting returns as their company grows."
Equity crowdfunding is also a good way to engage the community and allow your customers to become part of the business, says Gudmundson. "Your customers are people who actually understand your product, so you're allowing them to be part of the round, as well as professional investors who find valuable early-stage companies to invest in as part of their high risk/reward portfolio."
Equity crowdfunding is time consuming and the involvement it requires from founders can hurt the bottom line. "It can quickly become a distraction to the true business if you don't have a solid marketing plan in place," notes Sager.
Capitalization tables listing hundreds of small investors may scare off larger investors or worse, trigger disclosure requirements that can be costly and complicated, says Jung. "Thankfully, several crowdfunding platforms have introduced workarounds that allow the investors in the crowdfunding campaign to be aggregated as one registered shareholder on the cap table."
Frishman points out that while equity crowdfunding platforms can be a big help in marketing a company, they do not underwrite or guarantee a successful capital raise. "A big trap when launching a campaign is assuming the platform will raise all the money for you."
Alam points to another potential shortcoming that founders and investors should watch for. "Platforms that do not commit to significant due diligence, and pass all this risk onto retail investors without support, will treat the founders and the startup very differently than a platform that focuses on a lower volume of deals and specializes in specific sectors."
Crowdfunding campaigns require intense involvement on the part of founders. As Gudmundson says: "The main thing is to understand that it doesn't run itself. Simply creating a page with your product on it is unlikely to raise much money."
Open to nonaccredited investors
Offers easy online accessibility
Versatile (combine with traditional funding)
Pace controlled by the founder
Encourages community engagement
Campaign can distract from business
Potential for lengthy cap tables to trigger disclosure
Successful offerings not guaranteed
Possible lack of due diligence from platform
Intense involvement required of founders
Since equity crowdfunding is similar to traditional fundraising in many ways, it will seem more familiar to founders with prior experience. Strong support from the right platform along with an easier process makes equity crowdfunding a good match for inexperienced first-timers as well.
Review the pros and cons, especially the amount of involvement required. If you decide equity crowdfunding is for you, read and take the advice of experts to heart:
"Marketing is key when it comes to crowdfunding. Having an existing audience or community tends to make crowdfunding easier," says Sager.
Remember that just being listed on on a platform with tens of thousands of potential investors doesn't necessarily mean you're reach your funding target, Rawley says. "Investors are still looking for a solid team, executable business plan, and a path to an exit."
Also remember that a large "anchor investor" will lend credibility to your campaign, Jung says. "Sometimes we will see a $2 million raise with an anchor investor coming in with a 10%-30% of the offering."
PERSONAL FINANCE Crowdfunding is an increasingly popular source of borrowing for small businesses looking to grow
FINANCE Impact investing finances companies that aim to do good in the world — here's how it works and how to get involved
PERSONAL FINANCE The best real estate crowdfunding investment platforms
More: PFI Reference Freelance Crowdfunding TOC-jump-to
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2022-07-18T20:06:17Z
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Equity Crowdfunding: Definition, How It Works, Platforms, Investment
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https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/equity-crowdfunding
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https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/equity-crowdfunding
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Howard Schultz.
Stephen Brashear / Stringer / Getty Images
Starbucks CEO Schultz said more stores would close in leaked footage.
The chain announced 16 store closures in major cities due to safety issues.
Starbucks union organizers say the closures are about retaliation for organizing.
After announcing that 16 Starbucks locations would close because of what the company said were safety concerns, CEO Howard Schultz warned in a leaked video that more store closures were coming.
In the new footage — where Schultz was apparently addressing a group of employees — he said: "This is just the beginning. There are going to be many more." Starbucks confirmed the authenticity of the footage with Insider, but would not say when or where the video was taken. The company also didn't detail which other stores could be on the chopping block.
The coffee giant last week announced plans to close 16 locations across Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle, and other cities by the end of July citing "challenging incidents," including drug use and instances of disturbed patrons.
At the time the closures were announced, a Starbucks spokesperson told Insider the chain is "closing some stores in locations that have experienced a high volume of challenging incidents that make it unsafe to continue to operate, to open new locations with safer conditions."
Schultz said that he's heard retail employees express concerns about safety in listening sessions executives have held over the past year, including mental illness, homelessness and crime. "We are facing things which the stores were not built for," Schultz said, forcing some stores to close despite remaining profitable.
Starbucks union organizers claim that the chain is targeting some recently unionized stores: Pro-labor publication In These Times reported that two of the 16 stores slated for closure in the most recent announcement had recently voted to unionize; another was set to have a unionization vote in August, the publication reported.
"Every decision Starbucks makes must be viewed through the lens of the company's unprecedented and virulent union-busting campaign," Starbucks Workers United, which represents Starbucks workers who have voted to unionize, told Insider in a statement.
Starbucks denied that it was targeting pro-union stores. The company said it gives local leaders the authority to close bathrooms, reduce seating, and take other measures to keep conditions safe for employees, and that stores close when those measures aren't enough to keep customers and workers safe.
More: Retail Starbucks Fast Food QSR
Starbucks baristas
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2022-07-18T20:06:29Z
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Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz Says More Store Closures Are Coming
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https://www.businessinsider.com/starbucks-ceo-howard-schultz-says-more-store-closures-are-coming-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/starbucks-ceo-howard-schultz-says-more-store-closures-are-coming-2022-7
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Amazon Prime Video is getting a redesign — and it looks a bit like what we see on Netflix.
It'll include a navigation sidebar, less cluttered carousels, and a Top 10 list.
The news comes as Prime Video, HBO Max, Netflix, and others compete in the streaming race.
The streaming wars are raging on, and Amazon just updated part of its battle strategy.
The tech giant is rolling out a flashy new redesign for its Prime Video homepage, complete with an easy-to-find navigation sidebar and a Top 10 list that displays the most popular programs, which includes "The Boys" and the newly-released "The Terminal List" starring Chris Pratt.
There are also movie poster-style previews within the screen's carousels as well as clearer tags alerting viewers what is included in their Prime subscription and what requires add-ons to channels like AMC or Paramount+.
The interface, as shown in press release images, appears cleaner and similar to Amazon's streaming competitors like HBO Max and, of course, Netflix , showing that the tech giant recognizes the success of a non-cluttered home screen.
Amazon did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment but told The Verge that the update was meant to be "less busy and overwhelming for our customers."
Netflix has shown its sidebar to the left of the screen since 2018.
Amazon/Netflix/Insider
Amazon Prime Video's facelift has been in the works for a year and a half, The Verge reported, and comes after the streaming market saw skyrocketed viewership during the pandemic when people sought entertainment indoors.
It also comes as Netflix, long the reigning streamer, faces declines in both revenue growth and in the number of subscribers, even as its viewership goldmine, "Stranger Things," gave the giant its biggest English-language TV premiere, so much so that it caused some outages.
The update is only available on Android and connected streaming devices like Roku, Apple TV, and Fire TV at the moment but will roll out to iOS and web in the next few months.
More: Amazon Prime Video Streaming streaming services
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2022-07-18T21:41:30Z
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www.businessinsider.com
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Amazon Prime Video Gets Netflix-Style Redesign to Homepage, Navigation
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https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-prime-video-new-design-homepage-netflix-style-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-prime-video-new-design-homepage-netflix-style-2022-7
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A bright spot is emerging on the Bank of America trading floor from an unexpected place
Brian Moynihan, chairman and CEO, Bank of America
World Economic Forum/Sandra Blaser
Bank earnings this year have been buoyed by strong sales and trading performance.
A surprising bright spot for BofA has been FX and emerging market trading, historically a laggard.
The team, which was overhauled in 2020, has produced record revenues in the first half of 2022.
Bank of America followed the pattern of its Wall Street peers when it reported second-quarter earnings Monday: Anticipated lackluster results were cushioned in part by stellar trading performance.
At BofA, profits sank 32% as investment banking deals dried up, but the firm received a 17% boost from its sales and trading business compared with last year.
Within trading, BofA's performance received a jolt from an unexpected area: the firm's foreign exchange and emerging market trading group, a longtime laggard in the bank's fixed-income trading division and among its peers.
BofA doesn't break out performance from individual trading desks, but following a strong second quarter, the team produced more than $1.1 billion in revenues in the first half of 2022, a record pace, people familiar with the matter told Insider.
Part of BofA's outperformance in currencies and emerging markets is attributable in part to favorable market conditions. But the firm has also been investing in this area of trading in recent years, including 30 new hires since 2020, which has helped buoy results.
A Bank of America spokeswoman declined to comment on the first-half revenue figure.
BofA gains market share, even amid surging trading volumes
Trading volumes across a variety Wall Street business lines have surged this year as a result of heightened volatility , especially the geopolitical shocks from Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Global FX volumes are up 11% in 2022 compared with 2021, and pockets of the business like FX options and FX exotics have seen volumes surge between 33% to 100%, according to Dominic Clover, head of markets at research firm BCG Expand, leading to a "very strong increase in FX revenues for the major banks ."
Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan each cited strength from macro trading in earnings calls, according to transcripts from data provider Sentieo.
But Bank of America's performance stands out in part because it has taken business from its peers. Its market share in G10FX and emerging markets has increased by 20% since 2019, when BofA merged its foreign exchange and emerging markets desks, the bank said in a June press release.
Moreover, sales and trading performance at BofA has long revolved around its dominance in credit markets, especially in the US. With Wall Street credit trading muted this year amid rising rates and recession fears, BofA's trading gains would likely have been more subdued as well absent the gains in macro trading.
An overhauled trading desk
BofA's foreign exchange and emerging markets trading group has undergone a makeover in recent years that the firm also attributes to its strong performance. Bank of America tipped its hand to the momentum in FX in late June when it issued a press release touting the growth of the team.
In the statement, BofA noted that its global FX and emerging markets team has made 30 new hires since 2020, when ex-Goldman Sachs banker Carlos Fernandez-Aller joined to cohead the team with Denis Manelski, a BofA veteran who is now the head of global FICC sales.
"This bank has always been great at credit and mortgages, spread products. They wanted to be as good in the macro space," Fernandez-Aller said in a recent interview with Insider.
Fernandez-Aller, who spent two decades at Goldman before joining BofA, said he came with the mission of making BofA top-3 in every part of the business he oversees. In partnership with Manelski, certain areas have already seen dramatic improvement, the global FX head said, including Latin America, where revenues nearly doubled in 2021, and FX options and emerging markets trading in Europe.
"We're not there, but we're heading in the right direction," Fernandez-Aller said.
More: FICC Bank of America Sales and Trading
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2022-07-18T21:41:36Z
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Bank of America Earnings Get Lift From Revamped FX Trading Team
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https://www.businessinsider.com/bank-of-america-earnings-lifted-from-revamped-fx-trading-team-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/bank-of-america-earnings-lifted-from-revamped-fx-trading-team-2022-7
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Delta Air Lines has ordered Boeing aircraft for the first time in more than a decade.
An order from Delta Air Lines for at least 100 Boeing aircraft shows supply-chain challenges.
Boeing's CEO said shortages limited the pace of production on the 737 Max planes.
Low availability of key production materials continue to roil the global economy.
An order from Delta Air Lines for at least 100 Boeing aircraft shows that corporate leaders are still struggling with managing supply-chain challenges.
Supply-chain challenges have been a strain on businesses as they try to climb back from the damage done when the pandemic shuttered huge swaths of the economy. While backlogs in some parts of the economy appear to be easing, comments from Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun indicate obstacles remain.
Calhoun said the company was each month producing about 31 of the 737 Max planes that Delta ordered. It's a pace, Calhoun said, the company intends to maintain but won't boost for now.
"We'll get into rate increases when we get into rate increases, but the supply chain isn't ready for it yet," Calhoun told CNBC, referring to the speed at which Boeing could produce aircraft.
Calhoun is reluctant to say what the macro supply-chain landscape might look like beyond the next 18 months. For now, the company will continue working to maintain its monthly average.
"Averages don't work very well for customers; predictability does. We have to be at 31 every month, consistently and predictably," he said in the CNBC interview.
Production pacing likely won't affect Delta's purchase — worth an estimated $13.5 billion — as deliveries aren't set to begin until 2025.
Boeing isn't the only company to grapple with difficulty getting what it needs. From baby-formula shortages to slowed production of electric vehicles at Tesla, the low availability of key production materials has hampered seemingly every industry.
The clog to the transportation of goods and commodities was on full display last year as dozens of container ships jammed the port of Los Angeles while waiting to offload goods. The backlog is off its highs, but a recent increase suggests supply-chain headaches aren't going away soon.
Delta's order, which marks the carrier's first from Boeing in more than a decade, will upgrade its narrow-body fleet with the more fuel-efficient 737 Max to accommodate increased passenger travel following record slumps at the onset of the pandemic.
"The strategy was based on the fact that we have aircraft that are retiring, and the Max 10 fits into our network well," Mahendra Nair, Delta's senior vice president for fleet and tech operations, said at a press conference at the 2022 Farnborough International Airshow outside London on Monday. "The Max 10 fits in with our A321neos very well."
The deal extends a positive trend for Boeing, marking a likely turnaround to a tumultuous three-year course for the aerospace giant since the Boeing 737 Max passenger airliner was grounded in 2019. Year to date, Boeing has delivered 216 aircraft, compared with 156 in the first half of 2021.
Delta began addressing criticisms of its aging fleet in 2020. During pandemic travel lulls the company retired or announced the retirement of six aircraft types, including its McDonnell Douglas MD-88 and MD-90 aircraft that had been faithfully flying passengers since the 1980s. The new Boeing order is a continuation of recent fleet upgrades.
Boeing is still awaiting government approval on the Max 10 model because of regulations passed in the wake of the two crashes. They require new planes to be outfitted with a cockpit alert system. Calhoun is cautiously optimistic that approvals will come.
"We have to make our case, and it has to be persuasive, and we believe it is," Calhoun told CNBC.
Boeing is expected to report second-quarter earnings on July 27.
More: Boeing Max Boeing delta airlines supply chains
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2022-07-18T21:41:54Z
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www.businessinsider.com
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Boeing CEO Says Supply-Chain Shortages Limit the Pace of Production
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https://www.businessinsider.com/delta-air-lines-boeing-aircraft-supply-chain-challenges-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/delta-air-lines-boeing-aircraft-supply-chain-challenges-2022-7
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6 money habits that kept me afloat after rage-quitting my job without an emergency fund
Leo Aquino.
In 2018, I left a job that paid $60,000 a year without an emergency fund.
I developed six money habits that helped me get through difficult financial circumstances.
I still track my expenses manually in a Google Sheet because it works better for me than an app.
Nearly half of millennials and Gen Z don't see the point of saving for the future, according to a 2022 study conducted by Fidelity. With layoffs sweeping the nation, I can imagine that many young people are left without an emergency fund to fall back on when they lose stable income.
I went through something similar in 2018. I left a job that paid $60,000 a year without an emergency fund because I couldn't handle the toxic workplace anymore. The next three years after leaving that job were the most difficult financial circumstances I've ever faced — especially since I became an essential worker during the pandemic.
The one good thing that came out of this challenging time: I created a new relationship with my finances. With these six simple money habits, I learned how to live within my means without letting my income define my self-worth.
1. Manually tracking my expenses and income
I've tried personal finance apps like Mint and You Need A Budget. I become hyper-obsessed with tracking every expense for two weeks, then I become bored and disinterested once the allure of the shiny new app wears off.
While I know these apps work for some people, I found more success manually tracking my expenses with a good old Google Sheets spreadsheet. I create a tab for every month, and I use a simple SUM IF equation to tally up my expenses in each category.
A simple SUM IF equation on Google Sheets helps tally up spending in each category.
Courtesy of Leo Aquino
2. Keeping at least $20 in cash on hand
On the days when I had $10 left in my bank account for the next two weeks, I had a plan to use every single penny for fridge and pantry staples like tofu, peanut butter, and rice. Even though I was meticulously tracking my expenses, I'd still get caught off guard by automatic charges, like my Spotify subscription.
Sometimes, my account would be overdrawn on weeks where I had absolutely no groceries or pantry items to cook. I got in the habit of keeping at least $20 in cash on hand just in case I was caught in a similar type of emergency.
Now that I don't face the same fears of food insecurity, I still keep a little bit of cash in my car so that I can easily give a few dollars to panhandlers and unhoused folks in need.
3. Adding automatic bill payments to my calendar
To avoid overdraft fees, I started putting automatic bill payments on my Google calendar. When I first started this practice, it was hard not to feel bitter or compare myself to other people who had more disposable income. It was hard to believe that I would eventually start making enough money to pay for entertainment subscriptions that kept me sane during the pandemic.
Little by little, I got in the habit of making sure I had more than enough money to cover automatic bill payments. I still keep the automatic bill payments on my calendar to keep me from overspending.
4. Ordering groceries online
I started ordering groceries online for pick-up during the pandemic because it was a guaranteed way for me to stick to my $204 a month food budget, which is how much I got from food stamps. I still order groceries online because it's the best way to compare prices of products between stores to make sure I'm getting the best deal.
Ordering groceries online saves time, and it saves me from adding other snacks to my cart that I don't really need.
5. Adding a 'just for fun' category to my budget
No matter how little money I had, I still maintained a "just for fun" category in my budget — even if it was just $5 or $10 on a coffee or ice cream cone with a friend, tickets to a museum, or buying a snack to bring on a hike.
I have more money to put in my fun spending category now, but starting the habit of spending even just $5 on fun when I had very little money to spare created pockets of joy during a very difficult time.
6. Keeping money in my Venmo account for eating out
If I received any gifts, or if people paid me back for lunch or dinner, I would keep that money in my Venmo account for a rainy day instead of transferring it into my bank account. If people invited me to coffee, lunch, or dinner, it helped to see that I had some money in my Venmo account that I could use to pay for it, even if I only had a few bucks in my checking account.
PERSONAL FINANCE I got my bank to waive $74 in overdraft fees with a 5-minute phone call
More: Pandemic savings Budgeting Emergency Funds Emergency Savings
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2022-07-18T21:42:12Z
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Rage-Quitting My Job Led to 6 Money Habits I Still Swear by
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https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/money-habits-without-emergency-fund-recession-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/money-habits-without-emergency-fund-recession-2022-7
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Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) speaks to Sen. Ron Wyden at the Capitol last month.
A top Senate Democrat wants to try to lock in a bigger deal with an elusive Manchin.
"Legislation continues to be the best option here," Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon said.
It's early dissent to a Biden-led effort to advance a skinny healthcare bill without climate programs.
The Senate's top tax-writing Democrat is urging Democrats take a final shot at swaying Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia on a larger climate and tax package after he put another dagger into the economic legislation last week.
"Conversations on clean energy must continue to preserve our options to move forward," Sen. Ron Wyden said in a Monday statement. "Without long-term certainty, investment in clean domestic energy will fall far short of what is necessary to reduce carbon emissions and secure lower prices for American consumers."
"While I strongly support additional executive action by President Biden, we know a flood of Republican lawsuits will follow," Wyden said. "Legislation continues to be the best option here."
The Oregon Democrat's comments amount to the first sign of dissent to President Joe Biden's push for Congress to pass a skinny economic package centered on cutting health-care costs in the wake of Manchin's move against the broader bill. Biden vowed to combat the climate emergency using executive authority in lieu of pursuing bills in Congress if needed.
However, Wyden isn't threatening to hold up the reconciliation bill or oppose the more narrow legislation. All 50 Senate Democrats must coalesce behind the economic package to muscle it through the upper chamber without Republicans in budget reconciliation.
The slimmer bill is expected to contain two initiatives that Manchin said he could support before Congress adjourns for the recess: An extension of financial assistance for Americans buying insurance under the Affordable Care Act. along with a measure to slash prescription drug costs.
Democrats are fuming after Manchin abruptly came out against much of the bill that he'd spent months negotiating with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont lobbed a fresh attack and accused Manchin of "sabotaging" the Biden agenda on Sunday.
The conservative Democrat said in a West Virginia radio interview on Friday that he was unwilling to strike a deal on clean energy programs along with tax hikes to pay for it until the release of the July inflation report early next month. That's a major hurdle since Congress will have adjourned for its summer recess by then.
But Manchin has suggested that he is open to an agreement on a larger package without committing to the final product and backing it in September."I haven't walked away from anything, and inflation is my greatest concern," Manchin told reporters on Monday.
However, Manchin has previously either pulled the plug or demanded changes to shrink a potential reconciliation bill when Democrats believed they were close to locking down the support of the mercurial moderate.
A top White House economic adviser pushed back against Manchin's claims that the tax increases that he had long backed until he came out against them would worsen inflation. "It's really hard for me to put the phrase together because I think it's the other way," White House adviser Jared Bernstein said at a news conference. "Deficit reduction is disinflationary and tax increases fit into that.
More: Policy Congress Joe Manchin White House
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2022-07-18T21:42:30Z
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Top Senate Democrat Pushes Back Against Biden, Urges Larger Deal With Manchin
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https://www.businessinsider.com/wyden-biden-climate-deal-manchin-congress-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/wyden-biden-climate-deal-manchin-congress-2022-7
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Royal Caribbean Group's Silversea Cruises acquired its new luxury expedition ship for $275 million.
The cruise vessel initially belonged to Crystal Cruises before the brand dramatically collapsed this year.
Wealthy travelers have been demanding more luxury expedition cruises, according to Silversea.
Royal Caribbean Group's Silversea Cruises has acquired its newest luxury expedition cruise ship, the Endeavour, for $275 million as the brand continues to expand its expedition arm.
The cruise ship was delivered to Crystal Cruises in 2021 before the brand dramatically halted operations in February. Under its new management and name, the 200-passenger Silver Endeavour will return to sea with itineraries to Antarctica, servicing the growing number of "high-end, affluent customers" interested in expedition cruises, according to a press release.
Silversea's $275 million acquisition came at a steep discount: The cruise ship reportedly cost $385 million to build, making the vessel one of the most expensive cruise ships ever constructed, Gene Sloan reported for The Points Guy.
"With Endeavour, we are seeking to grow our ... fleet to meet the exceptional demand for ultra-luxury expedition cruising while also enhancing our profitability profile," Jason Liberty, the president and CEO of Royal Caribbean Group, said in a press release.
Like any luxury expedition ship, the polar class ship can accommodate zodiac boats, kayaks, high-quality camera systems, and observation areas. But it wouldn't be a true cruise ship without recreational and leisure offerings. Besides expedition gear, the eight-deck vessel also has typical cruise amenities like a spa, several restaurants and bars, a swimming pool, and an almost equal ratio of guests to crew.
This new acquisition marks Silversea's fifth expedition ship in its now 11-ship fleet. And this addition comes at a fortuitous time: Silversea has been seeing strong demand for its expedition cruises, according to the company. In response, in late June, the Royal Caribbean Group's cruise brand added three additional Antarctica itineraries to its 2023 to 2024 cruise season.
More: Royal Caribbean Royal Caribbean Group Silversea Cruises Luxury Travel
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2022-07-18T23:12:48Z
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Silversea Cruises' New Luxury $275 Million Cruise Ship
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https://www.businessinsider.com/royal-caribbean-group-silversea-cruises-luxury-275-million-cruise-ship-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/royal-caribbean-group-silversea-cruises-luxury-275-million-cruise-ship-2022-7
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Stefanik at a press conference on Capitol Hill on October 26, 2021.
Rep. Elise Stefanik said a GOP-led Congress would investigate the Biden family.
Stefanik accused the Bidens of "profiting" off Joe Biden's position of power.
Hunter Biden has been investigated, but neither he nor his dad have been charged with any crimes.
Rep. Elise Stefanik, the House Republican conference chair, said this weekend that the GOP will investigate the Biden family if they clinch a majority in Congress during the midterms.
The New York Republican was speaking during a Sunday appearance on Fox News program "Life, Liberty & Levin," where she said a Republican-led House would hold the Biden administration "accountable."
Stefanik accused President Joe Biden and his son Hunter of having "illegal ties to crime" and "relationships with other foreign adversaries, and entities that he should not be involved with," but didn't provide substantiation.
"And Joe Biden profited from that," Stefanik claimed. "So, we intend to investigate."
"We've already made those document requests and we're not going to hesitate when it comes to utilizing our subpoena power," she added. "Because again, the American people deserve accountability and deserve an investigation to what I believe is the Biden crime family."
Stefanik also claimed that the "entire Joe Biden family" had been "profiting" off Biden's position of power, particularly when he was vice president during the Obama administration.
"That is unacceptable in America. And imagine if the Republicans ever did that," Stefanik said. "Democrats would be investigating absolutely every aspect of that."
Stefanik is a top House Republican who sits on the House intelligence committee. The committee, which oversees the 18 US intelligence agencies and departments, is currently led by Rep. Adam Schiff since Democrats have control of the House.
Stefanik appeared to be echoing a pledge this month by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Reps. Jim Jordan and James Comer to investigate the Bidens.
"A Republican majority will be committed to uncovering the facts the Democrats, Big Tech, and the legacy media have suppressed," the three wrote in the New York Post.
In June, Comer also said investigating Hunter Biden would be a priority for the GOP, calling him a "national security risk."
Comer said committee members are already investigating Hunter Biden's business dealings in Russia and China.
Hunter Biden in late 2020 disclosed a federal investigation into his "tax affairs." The New York Times reported in March 2022 that while the younger Biden did pay his tax bill, a Justice Department inquiry into the president's son had not been closed.
Simultaneously, rumors have swirled in right-wing circles, including allegations that there is damaging information about Hunter Biden on a laptop that he left at a repair shop. NBC News later obtained a copy of Biden's hard drive and iCloud account, which contained documents indicating that he and his company brought in around $11 million from 2013 to 2018, while he was working with Chinese businessman Dong Gongwen and Ukrainian gas firm Burisma.
Neither Joe nor Hunter Biden have been charged with crimes. The younger Biden has denied any wrongdoing, while the president himself is not being investigated, a source told CNN in March.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.
More: Elise Stefanik Joe Biden Hunter Biden
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2022-07-19T06:49:15Z
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Elise Stefanik Says a GOP-Led Congress Would Investigate Bidens
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https://www.businessinsider.com/elise-stefanik-gop-led-congress-will-investigate-bidens-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/elise-stefanik-gop-led-congress-will-investigate-bidens-2022-7
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From left: Republican Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Matt Gaetz of Florida, and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia. All voted against Finland and Sweden joining NATO.
18 Republican lawmakers opposed Finland and Sweden joining NATO in a Monday vote.
The vote passed easily, but 'nay' voters included several far-right GOP members.
The House vote was symbolic; the US portion of the approval process takes place in the Senate.
Eighteen Republican lawmakers voted against the US allowing Finland and Sweden to join NATO.
Among the dissenters in the Monday vote were some of the party's farthest-right members, including Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA), Matt Gaetz (FL) and Lauren Boebert (CO).
The vote was a symbolic one to express support from the House for the applications — the formal process by which the US can ratify new NATO members takes place in the Senate.
The House bill passed easily with 394 votes, leaving the 18 Republicans in a small minority even among their own party.
Dan Bishop (NC)
Madison Cawthorn (NC)
Ben Cline (VA)
Michael Cloud (TX)
Warren Davidson (OH)
Bob Good (OH)
H. Morgan Griffith (VA)
Matthew M. Rosendale Sr. (MT)
Jefferson Van Drew (NJ)
Nineteen US lawmakers didn't vote —17 Republicans and two Democrats.
Finland and Sweden applied in mid-May, turning away from decades of neutrality in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Both countries have an uneasy proximity to Russia via the Baltic Sea.
Each of the 30 NATO member states must approve any further members joining. The US portion of that is driven the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which has yet to decide formally but had been urged strongly by the White House to give quick approval.
Finland has a land border with Russia and repelled a brutal invasion known as the Winter War in the 1940s.
NATO formally invited the countries to join at the end of June, saying it would fast-track the process. Once a country is in NATO, all other members of the alliance are obliged to go to war if it is invaded.
The move has proved infuriating to President Vladimir Putin, who said that opposing NATO expansion was one reason for invading Ukraine in the first place.
(Ukraine was also seeking NATO membership, but did not have access to the faster process given to Sweden and Finland.)
The 18 no votes are another sign of the ongoing, Trump-led pro-Russia shift in the right of the party.
Gaetz, Greene and Boebert are among those GOP members who repeatedly voted against US military and humanitarian support to Ukraine.
They also are among the 63 Republicans who, in April, voted against a resolution expressing support for NATO and its "founding democratic principles."
Greene, Gaetz and Kentucky's Thomas Massie were the only three representatives to oppose moves in April to restrict trade with Russia.
Editor's note: Shortly after publication this story was updated to clarify that the House vote was symbolic and not part of the formal ratification process. A reference to lawmakers voting to "block" Sweden and Finland from joining NATO was amended to instead say they voted "against" the process.
More: Finland Sweden NATO GOP
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2022-07-19T10:35:39Z
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List: 18 Republians Who Voted Against Sweden, Finland Joining NATO
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https://www.businessinsider.com/18-republicans-voted-against-sweden-finland-joining-nato-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/18-republicans-voted-against-sweden-finland-joining-nato-2022-7
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Buy these 13 deeply discounted stocks that will beat their peers as travel and service spending rally, according to Morningstar
Investors are concerned about the growing risk of a recession.
Investors are getting more concerned about the threat of a recession in the US.
Morningstar's Chief US Market Strategist says consumer spending will normalize even in a recession.
Dave Sekera wrote about his favorite stock picks as spending patterns change again.
The growing threat of a recession has changed a lot in markets, but Morningstar says at least one important trend is going to stay the same: COVID-hammered parts of the economy will continue to recover.
Morningstar Chief US Market Strategist Dave Sekera says it will still take another year or two for some consumer-oriented sectors to get back to where they were before the pandemic, but a recovery is going to happen regardless.
"The slowing rate of economic growth, including the possibility of a recession , compounded by inflationary pressures, may constrict the overall level of consumer spending," he recently wrote. "But we don't expect that these headwinds will derail the even larger trend for consumer spending to normalize, and shift back toward services and away from goods."
Consumer spending shifted dramatically when the pandemic started as people stopped going out and spent more money on things like home furnishings — but now, with people leaving the house more often and not needing more furniture, things have changed once again. That shift is making life hard for a lot of retailers, who have seen their inventory piling up this spring.
"We forecast that the current deviation in spending on goods and services will converge back to their prepandemic trends by mid-2023. This equates to a swing of about $450 billion, and this shift could even be larger," Sekera wrote.
Some industries and stocks have largely recovered their pandemic-related losses even while others haven't, and Sekera says there's a good deal of upside in those areas. Many of the worst performers are in sectors like travel, recreation, and leisure — which is exactly where Sekera sees the best opportunities.
"As consumer behavior continues to normalize, we expect that spending will return to prepandemic trends between goods and services," he said. "Recreation and transportation have the most ground to cover."
Below are the companies and industries that will benefit the most from that pattern, according to Sekera.
Ticker: DAL
Thesis: "While the stocks of all the airlines are currently undervalued, we think that Delta is best leveraged to benefit from the return of the business traveler and forecast that its operating margin will rebound to prepandemic levels in 2025."
Ticker: CCL, RCL
Market cap: $10.5 billion (CCL), $8.4 billion (RCL)
Thesis: "Booking trends for 2023 continued to be positive with both booked position and pricing higher and at record levels compared with 2019."
Park Hotels
Thesis: "In 2022 we expect that many hotels will return to 90% of their prepandemic levels. Generally, we expect the hotels under our coverage to return to prepandemic levels in 2023. ... It is the second-largest U.S. lodging REIT and is focused on the upper-upscale hotel segment. This stock is highly leveraged to the return of group, international, and business travel, and we forecast it will return to prepandemic levels in 2024."
Ticker: UBER, LYFT
Market cap: $42.8 billion (UBER), $4.5 billion (LYFT)
Thesis: "Both the number of riders and frequency per rider have been recovering. We think both Uber and Lyft are well positioned to benefit, and both company's stocks are trading at some of the most undervalued levels across our entire equity research coverage."
Thesis: "With over 60 million members in its industry loyalty program, leadership in digital and sports gaming, and additional synergies to be derived from its merger with Eldorado in 2020, we think Caesars is the best positioned to benefit from the recovery in the gaming industry."
Ticker: SABR
Thesis: "Sabre is the one we think is the most leveraged to the return of the business traveler. In addition, Sabre has revitalized its technology platform, which we project will help it drive greater innovation and higher margins."
Ticker: BUD, SAM, STZ, TAP
Market cap: $94.1 billion (BUD), $4.0 billion (SAM), $44.8 billion (STZ), $12.8 billion (TAP)
Thesis: "Consumers are becoming more comfortable going to public events, including sports and concerts. As more people attend these events, we think it could be a positive catalyst for alcoholic beverage manufacturers. "
Ticker: SBUX
Thesis: "As employees return to the office, if they're like most workers, they will also require coffee. With a loyalty program consisting of over 26 million users active over the past 90 days, we think Starbucks is undervalued. Loyalty program members represent over half of domestic sales, drive habitual purchases, and spend 2 to 3 times more than before joining the program."
More: Investing Features Stocks
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2022-07-19T10:36:03Z
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13 Best Stocks to Buy in Travel & Leisure: Morningstar
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https://www.businessinsider.com/investing-best-stocks-to-buy-travel-leisure-consumer-rebound-morningstar-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/investing-best-stocks-to-buy-travel-leisure-consumer-rebound-morningstar-2022-7
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Stocks could plummet another 43% and won't stop falling until these 3 events occur, according to a long-time bear who was one of the first economists to warn about a 2022 recession
Stocks have plenty more downside and will only rebound after three events occur, economist David Rosenberg said.
David Rosenberg went out on a limb when he predicted that a recession would strike in 2022.
The S&P 500 could fall by another 43% down to 2,200, the long-time bear warned.
Investors should watch for these three signs to see when stocks will bottom out.
Investors who bet big on stocks in 2022 are probably panicking as the massive market meltdown continues and recession risk rises.
But David Rosenberg, the head of the eponymous Rosenberg Research and a long-time bear, is likely enjoying some schadenfreude.
"Things are evolving and — very thankfully, belatedly — heading in the direction that I thought they would head six to nine months ago," Rosenberg told Insider in an interview in July.
Rosenberg rang the alarm bells about a 2022 recession early in the year, long before most of his peers. At the time, the consensus in markets was that the economy would slow but but that there likely wouldn't be a downturn before 2024, or even 2025. The economist dismissed that sentiment, and also cautioned that the stock market rout would continue.
Rosenberg's bear case: Stocks fall 43%
Though the Rosenberg Research head acknowledged that there's "quite a bit" of recession risk priced in to stocks already, he said he doubted that it was even as high as 50%.
That's because the 19% market decline so far has been caused by falling stock valuations — not downward earnings revisions, Rosenberg said.
"When the bull market was in full swing, these same people were saying, 'the stock market follows earnings — stay long,'" Rosenberg said. "Well, we're about to head to the other side of the mountain. The reality is that earnings haven't even started to go down yet."
The S&P 500's price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio is currently at 19.5x, which is down significantly from the 23.1x it entered the year at, but is still far from its long-term average of 15x to 16x. Meanwhile, earnings are still expected to rise 4.3% in Q2 2022, according to data from Factset.
In past recessions, the S&P 500's earnings multiple tends to bottom at 12x while earnings drop by about 20%, Rosenberg noted. If history repeats itself, then a further contraction in the index's P/E ratio paired along with an earnings decline will cause stocks to fall by 43%, Rosenberg said.
"There is the real possibility that the entire bull market, the prior bull market condition, gets unwound, which could take us back to 2,200 to 2,300 on the S&P 500," Rosenberg said. "And people should know their history, that in the post-WWII period, we did have four recessionary bear markets where the entire previous bull market run-up was unwound."
Rosenberg continued: "So history would otherwise suggest caution at this point, despite the damage that's already been done."
History also indicates that the severity of a stock market decline isn't closely tied to the corresponding magnitude of the drop in GDP, Rosenberg said. The economist noted that a "significant" recession in 1990 and 1991 was accompanied by a relatively mild 20% bear market for stocks, while a more modest recession in 2001 was paired with a massive market drop of 49%.
To Rosenberg, that means that even a "mild" recession could be devastating for stocks.
"I don't think that we should be debating whether it's a mild recession or a deep recession," Rosenberg said. "Because as far as the stock market is concerned, it doesn't really matter."
3 recovery signs to watch for
Regardless of whether the US gets a mild recession with a weak recovery, a deep downturn with a sudden snapback like in 2020, or any other combination of outcomes, even a staunch bear like Rosenberg believes that the economy will eventually recover.
That day might not come anytime soon, but Rosenberg said that investors should watch for the following three signals in the meantime: the S&P 500's P/E ratio hitting 12x, the Federal Reserve beginning to ease monetary policy, and US Treasuries rallying to the point where the 10-year Note's yield converges with that of the S&P 500's dividend yield.
A rally for US Treasuries and a convergence of the 10-year Note's yield with that of the S&P 500 go hand-in-hand, in Rosenberg's view.
Bond prices and yields move inversely, so a bond rally where prices rise coincides with yields falling. Currently, the widely watched 10-year Note's yield is at 2.92%, which is nearly twice as high as it was at the start of the year. Meanwhile, the S&P 500's dividend yield is at just 1.66%.
It would take a dramatic rally in Treasuries like the 10-year for the yield to get roughly cut in half and reach parity with the S&P 500's dividend yield. The only other way the two could become even is if the S&P 500 falls so far that its dividend yield rises. Rosenberg said that either the 10-year's yield must fall to 1.6% or the S&P 500 must retreat to 2,200 before a bottom will be in.
There have been some signs of a budding Treasury rally in the past month, as the 10-year's yield is down over 16% — or 0.56 percentage points — since mid-June. Investors typically buy bonds when they're worried about the economy, but that hasn't been the case this year because fixed income suffers tremendously when inflation is high and the Fed raises interest rates.
If Treasuries gain more steam, a stock market rebound could follow, Rosenberg said.
"The chicken has to come before the egg," Rosenberg said. "So before you turn bullish on equities — and it is absolutely necessary if you intend to turn bullish on equities — that you first turn bullish on Treasuries. Because there is no bottom in the stock market without a significant rally first in the Treasury market."
What to buy — and when
Investors should target four types of stocks when a recovery begins, Rosenberg said: small caps, retailers, homebuilders, and companies in emerging markets. All are economically sensitive and should outperform during an economic expansion, in Rosenberg's view. However, those investments will likely suffer in the near term if there's truly further downside for stocks and the economy.
While no one knows for sure when stocks will bottom, Rosenberg's hunch is that the S&P 500 will hit its trough of 2,200 to 3,100 in a best-case scenario in November or December of 2022.
In previous downturns, stocks peaked about six months before the recession began, Rosenberg noted. The S&P 500's all-time high was set on January 4, 2022, which suggests that a recession would have started in early July, and thus "is only getting going now," Rosenberg said.
Stocks tend to hit their low about two-thirds to three-quarters of the way through a recession, Rosenberg said, adding that most economic downturns last anywhere from two to four quarters.
So, in a downturn that lasts six to 12 months, the S&P 500 would therefore likely hit its low anywhere from four to nine months after the recession began. A back-of-the envelope calculation would suggest that stocks would bottom sometime between November and April 2023, assuming Rosenberg is right that the recession started in July.
More: Investing David Rosenberg Rosenberg Research david rosenberg rosenberg research
David Rosenberg business insider
David Rosenberg recession
when will stocks bottom
when will stocks rebound
when will stocks rally
when will inflation peak
when will the recession end
when will the bear market end
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2022-07-19T10:36:09Z
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3 Signs the Bear Market Will End & How to Invest: Rosenberg
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https://www.businessinsider.com/investing-stocks-bear-market-bottom-recession-when-to-buy-rosenberg-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/investing-stocks-bear-market-bottom-recession-when-to-buy-rosenberg-2022-7
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Here's the 14-page pitch deck Koffie, an insurance tech startup made to save small trucking firms money, used to raise an $11 million Series A
Ian White, left, and Mike Dorfman are the cofounders of Koffie
Rising insurance costs are a major force pushing small trucking firms out of the industry.
Insurtech startup Koffie raised $11 million to use alternative data to reward safe driving.
Check out Koffie's 14-page pitch deck below.
Mike Dorfman was part of the fourth generation to work at his family's trucking-insurance business, so it was tense when he broke the news that he was leaving to cofound Koffie, a startup in the same field.
"My great-grandfather started a trucking-insurance agency in New York in 1921," Dorfman told Insider. "I was the first person in 100 years to decide not to do this."
But Dorfman saw an opportunity to help small trucking firms by changing insurance underwriting.
"I watch trucking companies go out of business because they couldn't afford their premiums," Dorfman, now Koffie's COO, said.
Insurance premiums for trucking companies have been on the rise for years as "nuclear verdicts" with multimillion-dollar price tags hit companies.
According to the American Transportation Research Institute data, truck-insurance premiums went up 22.5% between 2019 and 2020. Carriers told the institute that insurance premiums were a top reason their trucking firms reduced salaries and bonuses in 2020. Experts say the resulting premiums are a fundamental threat to small carriers: Small fleets' premium costs per mile are three times higher than large fleets' premiums.
When Dorfman met Koffie's cofounder, Ian White, who's a champion of "alternative data," through a mutual contact, he saw an opportunity to make a dent in the problem.
White, Koffie's CEO, has a more traditional software and fintech background. After selling his mapping startup, Urban Mapping, in 2015, he spent several years applying alternative data analysis to the hedge-fund industry, but he was excited to bring his expertise to bear on trucking.
In trucking insurance, traditional underwriting is pretty simple, White said. It's based on rudimentary driver-safety records and fleet size.
Using alternative data, Koffie considers roughly 300 different features of each truck, including operational details like the truck's usual driving route and what kind of goods it usually hauls, along with more granular safety data.
"We think that the equipment is a much more tangible place to look at the risk than their fleet operations or the individual drivers," Dorfman said.
Koffie insures roughly 1,000 trucks today in fleets ranging in size from one truck to nearly 100.
Koffie is also generating its own data set to better tailor premiums and avoid claims. "We're connecting to every truck that we insure via a camera and a hardware telematics device," Dorfman said.
Koffie announced today that it raised $11 million in a Series A round led by Anthemis Group. Dorfman's deep industry experience is part of what convinced investors.
"The team has decades of experience serving the sector, uniquely positioning them to offer a broad array of solutions. The trucking industry has been vastly underserved in financial services for decades and Koffie is in a perfect position to meet truckers' needs," Amy Nauiokas, the founder and co-chief investment officer of Anthemis Group, said in a statement.
Other firms participating in the funding round include existing Koffie investors Lerer Hippeau Ventures and Plug and Play Ventures; new investors including CP Overture, Breakout Capital, Two Lanterns, Venture Partners; and a select group of strategic angel investors. After raising a total of $15.5 million, Dorfman's family is getting on board.
"My dad and my sister run our family business," Dorfman said. "We actually wrote our first policy with them as a partner a couple of months back, which I think is sort of bringing me a little bit full circle."
Here's the pitch deck Dorfman and White used to raise funds to help Koffie expand operations from three US states to 10 by the end of the year.
The Koffie pitch deck.
More: BITranspo Logistics Trucking
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2022-07-19T10:36:15Z
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Read the Pitch Deck From Koffie's $11 Million Series a
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https://www.businessinsider.com/koffie-pitch-deck-series-a-trucking-insurtech-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/koffie-pitch-deck-series-a-trucking-insurtech-2022-7
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Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker poses near an Airbus A350-900 aircraft.
Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker said his airline received 20,000 applications for 700 pilot jobs.
European startup Norse Atlantic Airways also received a large batch of applications for its pilot roles.
US airlines are not so lucky, with many struggling to recruit, forcing some planes to be grounded.
While there is an ongoing pilot shortage in the US, one Middle Eastern airline is not struggling to find qualified candidates.
In a meeting with reporters at the Farnborough Airshow in England on Monday, Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker said the airline decided a few months ago that it wanted to hire 700 pilots, and got 20,000 applications.
He emphasized that all the applications were from individuals who were "qualified and type-rated," meaning the pilots already had the necessary training and certification to fly a specific aircraft.
"They have to go through very a stringent testing facility before we select because we are very, very picky," Al Baker said.
According to the CEO, the applications came from all over the world, minus the US, and that Qatar's operation has not been impacted by staffing issues.
Qatar is not the only airline receiving thousands of applications for its pilot roles. In May, Norway-based Norse Atlantic Airways received 3,000 applicants for its first 50 pilot job openings, all of which were qualified candidates.
A Norse spokesperson told Insider at the time that the number was higher than expected and that pilots' desire to fly the Boeing 787 Dreamliner fueled the interest.
Airlines in the US have not been so lucky with their hiring pools, leading to a pilot shortage that is creating challenges for carriers and passengers. Companies like American Airlines and United Airlines have been forced to ground about 100 regional aircraft each due to not having enough pilots to fly them, which had also led to route cuts.
In an effort to find more crews, low-cost carrier Breeze Airways has sourced talent from Australia, while many regional airlines, like American Airlines' wholly-owned carriers PSA, Envoy, and Piedmont, have increased their hourly pay to entice pilots to stay with the company longer.
More: Qatar Qatar Airways Travel Aviation
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2022-07-19T10:36:33Z
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Qatar Got 20,000 Pilot Applications for 700 Positions Despite Shortage
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https://www.businessinsider.com/qatar-got-20000-pilot-applications-for-700-positions-pilot-shortage-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/qatar-got-20000-pilot-applications-for-700-positions-pilot-shortage-2022-7
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Ukrainian troops fire with surface-to-surface rockets MLRS toward Russian positions in the eastern Ukrainian Donbas region.
Russia wants Ukraine's long-range missiles destroyed as it seeks further gains in the Donbas.
Russia's defense minister told a militia to target weapons given to Ukraine by the West.
The long-range weapons have given Ukraine's effort a boost, and Russia appears increasingly threatened.
Russia told a militia group to prioritize destroying Ukraine's long-range weapons given by Western countries, its defense ministry said, in the latest sign that Russia is threatened by Ukraine's newer firepower.
The ministry said Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu met with the pro-Russia militia Vostock battalion that's fighting in Ukraine and, "instructed the commander to prioritize the destruction of enemy long-range missiles and artillery with high-precision weapons," the state-run Interfax news agency reported.
Shoigu also told all units to "eliminate the possibility for the Kyiv regime to inflict massive missile and artillery strikes" on areas under Russian control, The Moscow Times reported.
The ministry statement also said, without offering any evidence, that Russia was using long-range weapons to fire at residential areas and "deliberately" set fire to wheat fields and grain storage in pro-Russia separatist areas.
Since Russia invaded on February 24, Ukraine's Western allies have donated weapons. In recent weeks, those included long-range weapons that Ukraine had long asked for and said would give an advantage over Russia.
The weapons given to Ukraine include High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) missiles from the US, which Ukraine said last week was used to kill a Russian general. The first of those systems arrived in Ukraine on June 23.
The US Department of Defense said HIMARS weaponry was "making an impact" in helping Ukraine's military.
And Igor Girkin, a former commander of pro-Russia separatist forces in eastern Ukraine, said on July 10 that Russia suffered big losses over a week due to HIMARS attacks and that Russia's air defense systems "turned out to be ineffective against massive strikes by HIMARS missiles," The Moscow Times reported.
But despite that Western help, Russia appears to have a bigger weapons supply than Ukraine.
Ukraine says it still needs more long-range weapons shipped to it faster to hold back Russia and regain territory.
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2022-07-19T10:36:51Z
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Russia Tells Militia Prioritize Destroying Ukraine Weapons From West
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https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-tells-militia-prioritize-destroying-ukraine-weapons-from-west-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-tells-militia-prioritize-destroying-ukraine-weapons-from-west-2022-7
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One third of digital ad firm Integral Ad Science's C-suite is leaving in quick succession
Integral Ad Science CEO Lisa Utzschneider.
Integral Ad Science is losing a third of its C-suite in the space of a few months.
The company's head of marketing, finance, and revenue are all leaving.
IAS, which went public in June 2021, helps advertisers block ads on websites and social media platforms.
Three of digital ad firm Integral Ad Science's top execs — one-third of the people listed on its executive leadership page — are leaving the company in quick succession, according to multiple sources.
Chief Marketing Officer Tony Marlow and Chief Revenue Officer Chance Johnson are leaving the company, Insider has learned.
The third person, Chief Financial Officer Joe Pergola, is leaving the company in September, the company announced in May.
All three were hired in 2019 as part of CEO Lisa Utzschneider's team in a leadership shakeup. Former owner private equity firm Vista Equity acquired IAS in 2018 and brought in Utzschneider ahead of a 2021 IPO. Vista Equity remains IAS' biggest shareholder.
Marlow and Johnson recently were able to cash out their equity from IAS's IPO, said people with direct knowledge. According to a recent 8-K, Pergola is also eligible to cash out his equity. Pergola could receive $425,000 in severance as well as his $318,750 annual bonus. Insider was unable to determine the financial terms of Marlow's and Johnson's departures.
IAS did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
IAS helps advertisers target digital ads and provides tools that help advertisers ensure people saw their ads and avoid their ads appearing near content they deem negative, like news coverage. Its competitors include DoubleVerify, Zefr, Oracle-owned Grapeshot, and GumGum. IAS reported $89 million in revenue in the first quarter of 2022, up 33% year-over-year.
As advertisers increasingly ask for more controls over where their digital ads appear, the businesses and valuations of these firms have grown. IAS and its competitors have rolled out new products for formats like audio advertising, streaming TV, and social platforms like Facebook and Reddit. IAS has recently inked deals with Spotify and Pandora while DoubleVerify won Reddit's ad business and Meta announced a partnership with Zefr.
More: Ad Tech Digital Advertising Integral Ad Science
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2022-07-19T10:37:03Z
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Top Execs Leave Adtech Firm Integral Ad Science
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https://www.businessinsider.com/top-execs-leave-adtech-firm-integral-ad-science-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/top-execs-leave-adtech-firm-integral-ad-science-2022-7
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30 active startup founders who also invest in their fellow entrepreneurs
Rei Wang, Emmanuel Straschnov, Lauren Berson Sugarman, and Harold Hughes are top founder-investors.
Many startup founders are also active startup investors.
They leverage their experience and connections to help other companies succeed, for a stake.
We asked these pro multitaskers what they look for in startup investments.
Behind a great startup founder, more often than not, is another founder advising and investing in their potential.
Founders often seek out other founders to join their cap tables because they know what it takes to build a successful and enduring company. In recent years, more early-stage startups have trended away from raising large amounts of money from a few big venture-capital firms and instead taken a bunch of small checks from individual investors, who may also run companies on the side.
Even in a funding crunch, these startup founders and operators are still writing lots of checks, two dozen investors tell Insider.
For this list, we reached into our network of founders and investors to identify those who both run companies and invest. To qualify, a founder had to meet the following criteria (we noted any exceptions in their bios):
They still work at the startup they founded.
Their startup has raised more than $3 million in funding to date.
They have written at least two checks into startups, either as angel investors or fund managers, since January.
Here they are, listed alphabetically by last name.
Let us know who we missed by contacting Melia Russell at mrussell@insider.com or on Twitter at @meliarobin.
Toyin Ajayi, cofounder and CEO of Cityblock Health
Toyin Ajayi.
Key investments: Ajayi keeps busy as the CEO of Cityblock Health, a startup that aims to transform healthcare for underserved populations. She's also a founding partner of Coalition, a newly formed venture fund run by four female founders and operators — they've backed more than a dozen startups, including Vitable, which is building healthcare plans for previously uninsured and underinsured Americans; Equip, which provides digital treatment for eating disorders; and Zaya Care, a network of maternity-care practitioners.
How to get her attention: "With Coalition, we've set out to create the venture product we've always wanted as founders: capital and expertise from active founders and operators. We're excited to back early-stage startups that are building the future of healthcare, work, and climate. You can learn more on our website or get in touch via fund@coalitionoperators.com."
Adrian Aoun, founder and CEO of Forward
Adrian Aoun.
Adrian Aoun
Key investments: Aoun, whose healthcare startup, Forward, has been valued at more than $1 billion, has amassed a portfolio that's the envy of consumer-tech investors. His angel investments include ClassPass, Impossible Foods, Opendoor, Pinterest, Rippling, Robinhood, and Uber. And stormy conditions haven't slowed him down; he's made over 30 deals since January.
How to get his attention: "One of the things I look for is a founder with a key insight. What do they believe that the rest of the world doesn't? And what makes them believe it? Oftentimes founders realize something that is so obvious to them but the rest of the world has yet to understand. The better they can distill that insight down, the better they truly understand what problem they're trying to pursue."
Chris Bach and Matt Biilmann, cofounders of Netlify
Chris Bach and Matt Biilmann.
Key investments: Bach and Biilmann began writing personal checks into startups in their field a few years after they founded Netlify, which helps developers build faster websites. Their investments include OpenSauce, an open-source software startup founded by a former Netlify employee; Xata, a software developer; and Neon, a digital bank. The founders also invest out of the recently announced Jamstack Innovation Fund, a small corporate venture fund.
How to get Bach's attention: "I look for founders with a clear vision and who come across as relentlessly resourceful, to quote Paul Graham. Topically, with today's decentralized web economy, web developers need a variety of tools that connect via common ecosystem standards, that work together and help them to build a better web. Netlify simply can't exist without a thriving developer ecosystem of tools and services. That's why we created the Jamstack Innovation Fund to more formally reinvest in the community, and I look for founders that embody the ecosystem-centric philosophy."
How to get Biilmann's attention: "Build something cool! I'm a product-oriented CEO and will invest in builders, often after spotting their product or open-source software when developers in our ecosystem start talking about it. Some have built integrations or demos with Netlify or launched projects on Netlify that caught my attention. Some have a strong sense of business and direction, but others have had a really radical vision of how development and development tooling could be different. If I learn something new when meeting someone, I'm much more inclined to potentially invest."
Nitesh Banta, cofounder and CEO of B12
Nitesh Banta.
Key investments: Banta was recently recognized as one of the top seed-stage investors in the US thanks to his savvy bets on the typing assistant Grammarly, the low-code software developer Bubble, the bookkeeping app Pilot, the online bulk-grocery retailer Boxed, and others.
How to get his attention: "I look for spikes; a strong product demo, unique founder background in building software, or customer growth and love can all exemplify a compelling spike that gets my attention. It's not about being perfect in every dimension but instead showcasing that your company can be the best in the world at something."
Nami Baral, founder and CEO of Niural
Nami Baral.
Nami Baral
Key investments: Baral focuses on early-stage investments in her wheelhouse of financial-technology services, artificial intelligence, and Web3. Since January she's participated in six funding deals through direct investments and syndicates. Her portfolio includes Bonside, a company that matches small businesses with funding, and Build Republic.
How to get her attention: "I look for an iterative mindset and grit when it comes to founders I invest in. If I think I can help the founders in areas I have had direct experience in, and the founder is someone who exhibits nimbleness and hustle, I am more open to investing. I write small angel checks and connect founders to my network of other repeat founders and seasoned operators. Typically, a founder finds me through a warm intro or reaches out through a community I am active in (including First Round Angel Track and Post-Exit Founders Group). I am also open to Twitter DMs."
Editor's note: Baral's startup, Niural, has raised less than $3 million in funding to date. Before Niural, she founded a personal-finance startup, Harvest Platform, which raised $3.5 million in funding before Acorns acquired the company in March 2021.
Lauren Berson Sugarman, founder and CEO of Conceive
Lauren Berson Sugarman.
Conceive
Key investments: Berson Sugarman has scaled companies big and small, from working at Google to advising startups as an operating partner at Andreessen Horowitz. As an angel investor , she looks for companies where she can leverage her go-to-market experience and wealth of connections. Her portfolio includes Aunt Flow, a menstrual-products startup; Zeta, a fintech that helps couples join their finances; and Buzzer, a live-sports- streaming app.
How to get her attention: "I focus mostly on early-stage investing, which for me completely overindexes in a belief in the founder, that innate sense that this person will win no matter what to solve a problem worth solving. The vast majority of my investments fall within this thesis of the life cycle — that there is an inflection point in your life at which you are looking for trusted solutions. For me, it's about zeroing in on the 'need to have' versus a 'nice to have': Will this be a product that, once discovered, a person just can't live without at that point in their life?"
Alex Bouaziz, cofounder and CEO of Deel
Alex Bouaziz.
Key investments: Bouaziz, whose payroll startup, Deel, has been valued at $12 billion, invests early in startups that he says overlap with his expertise — or are just plain cool. His portfolio includes Kalshi, a prediction market that lets people bet on real-world events; Italic, an online marketplace for affordable luxury goods; and Sorare, a blockchain-based fantasy soccer game.
How to get his attention: "My main focus is on building Deel, so companies that are low maintenance and/or synergistic with our goal — to help companies hire, pay, and manage global teams — are most attractive as investments. I usually invest in companies operating in spaces where I can add value or are so interesting to me that I'd be working on them if I weren't working on Deel. Case in point: Sorare and football! Introductions from people I trust are always helpful."
Julia Cheek, founder and CEO of Everly Health
Julia Cheek.
Key investments: The founder of Everly Health, a $2.9 billion startup making at-home health tests, Cheek has a track record of investing in healthcare startups and those led by underrepresented founders. Her portfolio includes Poppy Seed Health, a chat app for pregnant people; Cabinet Health, an allergen-testing startup; Aavia, an app for tracking menstrual cycles and fertility; and Frontrow Health, a stealth startup led by a former Everly Health employee.
How to get her attention: "I have invested in over 20 companies directly, and I am focused on areas where I know the space well or personally have experienced the problem that the founder is working to solve. I also prioritize investments in underrepresented founders. I am not currently taking angel investments but continue to invest pro rata, and I hope to do more angel investing in the future when I have time to be an active angel. I also have been clear with founders that I don't have time right now to be particularly helpful between my more-than-full-time role as a founder and CEO and a board member, but I'm always available for a quick text, intro, or feedback."
Michelle Davey, cofounder and CEO of Wheel
Michelle Davey.
Key investments: Davey leads the telehealth unicorn Wheel by day and moonlights as an investor. Since January she's invested early in Parallel Health, a skincare startup, and Rupa Health, which helps doctors with ordering specialty lab work.
How to get her attention: "As a first-time female founder in healthcare, I know what it's like to be underestimated. With Wheel, I purposely focused on seeking women investors and mentors who could relate to my experience of being underestimated. But it wasn't always easy to find other females with similar backgrounds.
"Because of my experiences, I like to have active mentorship roles with all my investments. And while I've invested in a variety of founders at various stages, for seed-stage or angel investing, I generally back companies with CEOs who have similar experiences to me — female founders solving systemic problems in healthcare. I lean on my own network of advisors, mentors, and investors to help connect me with great founders and companies that are addressing pressing challenges across healthcare and need not only capital but also mentorship."
Lucy Guo, founder and CEO of Moment
Lucy Guo.
Key investments: Guo is known as the cofounder of Scale AI, the artificial-intelligence juggernaut that reached a $7 billion valuation last year, but she stepped away from the startup four years ago to try her hand at investing. She started Backend Capital to back brilliant engineers in 2019. Since then, Guo's made early-stage investments in Ramp, a provider of corporate cards; Pave, a startup that helps companies benchmark compensation for employees; and Popshop Live, a shopping app that's been described as QVC for phones.
She's also working on a new creator-economy startup she founded, called Moment.
How to get her attention: "I read cold emails! The best thing a founder can do is include a link to a prototype of the product they're building. I only invest in technical founders."
Jon Harlem, cofounder and chief operating officer of Loris
Jon Harlem and Christopher Harlem, the founding partners of RIL Capital.
RIL Capital
Key investments: Harlem, whose startup, Loris, develops software for customer support, has only recently dipped a toe into investing, but he's off to a good start. As an angel investor and partner at RIL Capital, a firm he cofounded with his brother, Christopher Harlem, he's invested early in Workmade, which makes software for hiring and managing blue-collar workers; R2, which provides funding to small businesses; and Sunthetics, a chemical company.
How to get his attention: "As an angel and part of RIL Capital, I look for tenacity. Do the founders really know what it means to try hard? What have they done to prove this either in their prior experiences or as a part of their current company? Founders walk the fine line between delusion and building a new reality. The best founders I've met have a level of perseverance that most people struggle to maintain for the period of time it takes to build a company. When I meet someone that has demonstrated perseverance and knows a market really well, that's when I get excited."
Alessandra Henderson, cofounder and CEO of Elektra Health
Alessandra Henderson.
Key investments: Henderson, whose health-tech startup, Elektra Health, focuses on women going through menopause, invests in the areas of digital health , women's health, and "taboo" industries. Her portfolio includes Aunt Flow, a menstrual-products startup; Ness, a credit-card provider that offers rewards for making healthy choices; and Poppy Seed Health, an app that connects people who are pregnant or recently had a baby with doulas, midwives, and nurses.
How to get her attention: "To start, I always ask myself, is this founder solving a big, meaningful problem that leaves the world a better place if it's successful? After that, the two qualities I most look for in founders are insatiable curiosity and generosity. Curiosity because it takes a lot of listening and learning to find product-market fit. And generosity because building a company takes a village, and the most successful people I know understand that the more you give — introductions, time, expertise — the more you receive.
"I'm also on a personal mission to invest in more female and underrepresented founders — that's where I see not only massive financial opportunity but also industry opportunity to move the needle. "
Harold Hughes, founder and CEO of Bandwagon
Harold Hughes.
Key investments: Hughes, whose startup, Bandwagon, helps people turn photos and videos from live events into digital collectibles, focuses on early-stage investments in the consumer sector. His portfolio includes Athletic Greens, a nutrition-supplement startup; Chipper, an app for paying off student loans; and Stix, a startup shipping fertility and pregnancy tests to people's doors. Hughes has added JobSage and Fidel to his list of angel investments since January.
How to get his attention: "When it comes to early-stage-startup investing, there is no shortage of great founders to back. The differentiator for me is looking at how founders go from idea to proof of concept — I do not invest at the idea stage, so seeing how quickly a founding team can get to market to test their idea. The bonus is when I am able to evaluate the resources that they used to get to market, because capital efficiency is a huge advantage, especially in this current market."
John S. Kim, cofounder and CEO of Sendbird
John S. Kim.
Key investments: Kim, whose messaging startup, Sendbird, has been valued at more than $1 billion, hasn't slowed his pace of angel investing in a downturn; he's written 21 checks into startups in the past six months. His portfolio includes Jeeves, a corporate-card startup; Embrace, a data-observability firm; and Baseten, a startup building machine-learning tools.
How to get his attention: "Best is to get warm intros through other founders/angels/seed investors. I primarily invest in B2B/SaaS, productivity, dev tools, fintech, and hard/deep tech."
Vahe Kuzoyan, cofounder and president of ServiceTitan
Vahe Kuzoyan.
Key investments: When he's not overseeing ServiceTitan's 2,000 employees, Kuzoyan invests in companies devoted to industries underserved by the technology industry — such as Squire, a startup that sells software to barbershops, and Shopmonkey, which provides software to auto-repair shops. He also invested early in Krisp, a pandemic-born software startup providing technology to remove background noise and echo from virtual meetings.
How to get his attention: "I look for founders with a chip on their shoulder and deep domain expertise that are interested in building vertical technology solutions for industries that have been overlooked by the technology industry. These markets aren't the most obvious, but there's a lot of opportunity in them. I also firmly believe that a founder's business strategy should draw a box around your target customer, instead of an arbitrary category of software. Vertical SaaS platforms are like custom-tailored suits, instead of trying to buy a bunch of pieces off the rack and hoping they will fit together. I expect in the next few years you'll see more and more industries digitized on vertical SaaS, both from net new and conversion from horizontal SaaS."
Hayley Leibson, cofounder of Lunchclub
Hayley Leibson.
Hayley Leibson
Key investments: Hayley Leibson, whose previous startup, Lunchclub, aims to make it easier for professionals to network, invests in founders who are as customer-obsessed as she is. She's backed the skincare brand Kinfield, the plant-based-dairy company Spero, the audio-only social network Quilt, and the creator-economy startup Zarta, which also raised from Andreessen Horowitz.
How to get her attention: "I'm excited about founders that are customer-obsessed and companies that are solving real problems for consumers that truly matter. I angel-invest in early-stage women- and minority-founded companies focusing on consumer, sustainability, and democratizing access. I'm always open to cold reach and accessible through Twitter DM."
Editor's note: Leibson stepped away from Lunchclub in 2020 and is now working full time on a new consumer-technology company in stealth.
Brian Long, cofounder and CEO of Attentive
Brian Long.
Key investments: Long's portfolio of angel investments stretches across sectors including productivity, data analytics, and mental health. He invested early in Notion, the note-taking app that hit a $10 billion valuation last year, and the cyber-insurance firm Coalition.
How to get his attention: "At the end of a meeting, founders should always ask investors for introductions to other investors. That's the easiest way to quickly expand the network of potential investors."
Shan-Lyn Ma, cofounder and CEO of Zola
Shan-Lyn Ma.
Key investments: Ma, whose wedding-registry startup, Zola, has been valued at $650 million, knows how to spot promising startups. She invested early in Deliverr, the e-commerce fulfillment company that sold to Shopify; Billie, the trendy razor brand that Edgewell bought; and Flow Commerce, an e-commerce software developer that sold to Global-e.
How to get her attention: "I invest in the idea, but even more so in the person: Why them, and why now? I'm investing in them to be the right person, with the right team, to solve a particular problem in a given market. Since the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior, I look for evidence of how their superpower has (or has not) shown up in past work. It doesn't mean they have to have been a founder previously, but I want them to demonstrate their relevant successes to make me confident in my investment: Yes, this person, and yes, now."
Zaki Manian, cofounder of Sommelier
Zaki Manian.
Key investments: Manian, whose startup, Sommelier, makes software for managing crypto investments, likes to roll up his sleeves and work with founders at the early stage. He's recently backed several blockchain companies including Agoric, Coinhall, Celestia, and Skip.money.
How to get his attention: "I'm intrigued by teams and projects that clearly demonstrate the ability to develop well-designed protocols. Design is critical but difficult and can impact everything from the way code is written to user experience. I'm also often engaged with a lot of projects at once, contributing to them or advising the founders, and I enjoy investing in projects I've had a chance to incubate. Almost universally, by the time I invest in a project, I've already spent a while working hands-on with the team, so I have both a clear understanding of what they're building and conviction that they're a team I want to continue helping by backing them financially."
Adam Nash, cofounder and CEO of Daffy
Adam Nash.
Key investments: Nash, a technology veteran whose new startup, Daffy, helps people set money aside for charity, has made over 120 angel investments in the past decade, including in Figma, Gusto, Kabbage, and Opendoor. In the past year he's picked up the pace with a dozen investments in startups like the fraud-fighting app Sardine and the legal-tech firm DoNotPay.
How to get his attention: "I look for three key things in seed-stage investments: products that bring real value to consumers, authentic product-founder fit, and a plausible set of ideas on customer acquisition.
"When founders raise money, it's easy to forget that adding an investor is actually a hiring decision. Why do you want to hire me? A great way to get my attention is to do your homework on what other founders and companies that I've invested in and how you think I can bring value to your company beyond just capital. As an angel, I typically help founders with their product, positioning, pricing, and fundraising."
Vibhu Norby, founder and CEO of B8ta
Vibhu Norby.
B8ta
Key investments: Norby, a serial entrepreneur and angel investor , writes checks into companies in his wheelhouse of retail, commerce, and Web3. His personal portfolio includes Throne, a high-tech-bathroom startup; Flow Club, a virtual coworking space; and Glimpse, a startup that lets short-term-rental hosts earn money by stocking products from paying brands. Norby also works part time as a venture partner at Interlace Ventures.
How to get his attention: "I don't angel-invest to make money; I invest to learn about new things. The weirder an idea is, the more interested I am. In the last two years I've invested in everything from toothpaste to construction materials to new museums. I have a soft spot for real-world companies where technology is an enabler."
Editor's note: Norby's startup B8ta, which operated a chain of concept electronics stores, shut down in March. Norby is now working on a new company in stealth.
Zaid Rahman, founder and CEO of Flexbase
Zaid Rahman.
Flexbase
Key investments: The founder of a fintech focused on small businesses, Rahman says he's constantly meeting fintech companies in San Francisco and Miami, where he splits his time. He said he started a small venture fund, 305 Ventures, with Joey Levy, a cofounder of Simplebet, to invest "as early as possible in founders we come across in our day jobs." The portfolio includes Rain, a fintech providing early wage access to gig workers; Magna, a company building cap-table-management software for crypto startups; and Underdog Fantasy, a fantasy-sports app.
How to get his attention: "Given my focus in building Flexbase, my own fintech startup that's disrupting the working capital and financial management for SMBs, we have encountered many other fintech and fintech-infrastructure innovators. Also, since I'm part of the Thiel Fellowship, there's a higher-than-ordinary chance that my friends are busy building the next great companies. (Thiel fellows are responsible for more than a dozen unicorns, a 10%-plus win rate.) In some ways, 305 Ventures can be considered an index fund for Joey Levy (also a Thiel fellow) and my friend group."
Soups Ranjan, founder and CEO of Sardine
Soups Ranjan.
Key investments: Ranjan, a former director of data science and risk at Coinbase, leaned on startup executives for advice as he was growing his anti-fraud startup, Sardine, and now thinks of angel investing as his chance to "pay it forward." In the past six months, he's invested early in the neobanks Juno and Ellis; the crypto- investing apps Mudrex and Runloop; and several other fintechs.
How to get his attention: "I usually only invest in the categories that I've worked in and understand very well, such as fintech, crypto, or AI. I also only invest at the seed or early stages. The most important criteria for me at those stages are founder-market fit (in other words, are the founders uniquely positioned for solving the problem they are tackling) and mission (are the founders passionate about their problem space)."
Varsha Rao, head of Nurx at Thirty Madison
Varsha Rao.
Key investments: Rao looks for mission-driven founders whose ideas can affect millions of people. Her portfolio includes startups in healthcare, consumer finance, marketplaces, education, and software for small businesses. Since January, Rao has invested in Eigen Therapeutics, a biotech working on cancer treatments; Pebble, a blockchain-based personal-finance app; and Nowadays, a plant-based-food startup.
How to get her attention: "I love meeting founders who are deeply passionate about the problem they are looking to solve, have identified unique insights through their own experience and user research, and have found scrappy ways to pilot and demonstrate early product-market fit. They also need to be great storytellers, because it's such an important part of fundraising, and have tremendous drive."
Editor's note: While Rao didn't found Nurx, she invested early in the company and joined as CEO in 2019. The telehealth unicorn Thirty Madison merged with Nurx last March. Before Nurx, Rao cofounded an online beauty retailer, Eve.com, which raised $14 million before Idealab bought it in 2000.
Emmanuel Straschnov, cofounder and co-CEO of Bubble
Emmanuel Straschnov.
Key investments: Straschnov and his Bubble cofounder bootstrapped their software startup for five years before raising any money. Now Straschnov is advising founders based on his experience. His portfolio includes Switchboard, an incident-response tech startup; Flaneer, a virtual-machine startup; and Den, a fintech that helps crypto startups manage their funds.
How to get his attention: "I prefer investing in fields or people I know. So if you're active in the no-code or product-development-tooling space, I'm curious. I also have a thing for community-based businesses, since community is so instrumental at Bubble."
Rahul Vohra, cofounder and CEO of Superhuman
Rahul Vohra.
Key investments: Vohra made his nest egg selling his last startup, Rapportive, to LinkedIn for $15 million and started writing personal checks into startups. Now his portfolio of angel and fund investments includes Eight Sleep, a mattress startup; Placer.ai, a location-data-analytics firm; and NexHealth, a $1 billion software developer focused on doctors and dentists.
How to get his attention: "Temperature matters much more than medium. In other words, it does not matter whether it's email, text, or Twitter DM. The best founders get introduced via warm introduction, from other founders and investors that I trust.
"This signal has an obvious implication: The introducer is willing to stake their social capital on an introduction. But it also has other less obvious implications, including the founder is able to network, the founder is able to connect with smart and successful people, and the founder is able to impress those people enough in order to be introduced. These outcomes are proxies for grit, hustle, listening, and learning — all of which are necessary to building a wildly successful business."
Alexandr Wang, cofounder and CEO of Scale AI
Alexandr Wang.
Key investments: Wang became the world's youngest self-made billionaire when his data-labeling company, Scale AI, hit a valuation of $7.3 billion in 2021. Now he's paying it forward as an angel investor . His portfolio includes unicorn startups such as Brex, Figma, Lattice, and Hugging Face, which helps businesses deploy machine-learning models.
How to get his attention: "I look for founders who are relentless learners, hold incredibly high standards, and work hard as hell. I also look for people who don't give up and have a track record of going to great lengths to have an impact on the world. Perhaps what I look for the most is founders who inspire me to have even greater resolve and relentless pursuit of my vision.
"From an idea perspective, I am inspired by founders who have a deep understanding of an industry, first and foremost, and a strong thesis on how technology can transform it."
Rei Wang, cofounder and chief product officer of The Grand
Rei Wang.
The Grand World
Key investments: Wang's portfolio represents the human experience from birth to death. She invested early in Conceive, a fertility startup; EarlyBird, a service for people to invest in their child's financial future; Lantern, a funeral-planning startup; and Webacy, a startup for protecting a person's crypto assets and social-media accounts after their death.
How to get her attention: "I'm interested in startups that are improving the human experience and creating greater love, belonging, and esteem for people. One of the critical qualities I look for in a founder is a first-person, deep understanding of their community's needs. For example, Maggie Norris at Aidaly was a caregiver for her dads, which inspired her to build a startup for family caregivers. I believe this type of lived experience gives founders resonance with their community and a truly unique advantage."
Editor's note: Wang's startup, The Grand, has raised only $2.5 million in funding.
Henry Ward, founder and CEO of Carta
Henry Ward.
Key investments: Ward has an eye for startup investments; his company, Carta, sells cap-table-management software to other startups and investment firms. His portfolio includes some of the buzziest names in enterprise tech, such as Airbase, Brex, Notion, and OnDeck.
How to get his attention: "Founders who think things should be more simple and operate from a first-principles basis are those who I am typically interested in getting to know more. I look for individuals who see the world differently with conviction — those who are contrarian and who are determined to make it work. I also particularly have a passion for founders who are serving other founders, making it easier to create and grow companies."
More: Features Startups Fundraising
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2022-07-19T10:37:09Z
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www.businessinsider.com
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Top Startup Founders Who Also Invest in Other Startups
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https://www.businessinsider.com/top-startup-founders-who-also-invest-in-other-startups-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/top-startup-founders-who-also-invest-in-other-startups-2022-7
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This summer has been marked by chaos in the aviation sector.
A flight attendant told The Guardian they were frequently dealing with abuse from customers.
The worker said they felt like "the physical embodiment" of customers' issues amid the travel chaos.
They said they take their uniform off for safety reasons when traveling home.
A flight attendant says they are having to deal with rude customers, mid-flight abuse, and vomiting children during a summer of chaos in the aviation industry.
The flight attendant, who works for an international airline, spoke to The Guardian under the pseudonym Meryl Love.
The attendant said they felt like the physical embodiment of all their customers' "flying woes" and that customers often take their anger out on them.
"I am seemingly responsible for every bad experience passengers have had so far with this airline," they said.
They described a scene in which a child "emptied the contents of their stomach," on a delayed flight. This led to vomit running down the aisle of the plane like "that chocolate river in 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,'" they said.
The attendant also told The Guardian that they have resorted to taking their uniform off when they finish work because they no longer feel safe in it.
"I used to leave it on for the way home but now, if you're anywhere in the vicinity of the airport, you're an unofficial public relations rep for the whole airline industry," they said. "People forget that people in uniforms are real people."
Airlines are struggling to keep up with the increased demand for travel post-pandemic after cutting staff during a business slump during COVID-19.
This summer has been marked by stories of chaos within the aviation sector. From lost luggage to canceled flights, travelers have faced a wave of disruptions to their vacation plans.
Staff shortages across the sector are also making travel disruptions more difficult for workers to deal with. The limited amount of workers is "only increasing the likelihood of difficult encounters," the attendant told The Guardian.
"I'm just a very minor player on a very minor salary," they added. "But it's part of my job to take it, so I do."
More: Travel Flights Flight Attendants transport
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2022-07-19T10:37:15Z
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www.businessinsider.com
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Fight Attendant Says They Constantly Deal With Anger, Disgust, Vomit
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https://www.businessinsider.com/travel-chaos-flight-attendant-abuse-vomit-threats-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/travel-chaos-flight-attendant-abuse-vomit-threats-2022-7
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Air Canada airplanes on the Terminal three tarmac at Toronto Pearson International Airport.
A passenger traveling from Atlanta to Copenhagen via Toronto says her bags have been lost for 28 days.
Nancy Gaines told Insider she had spent hundreds of dollars on calls trying to find the bags.
Gaines and her mother are now back in Atlanta but their bags have still not been returned to them.
An airline passenger who booked a flight from Atlanta to Copenhagen via Toronto says her and her mother's bags have been missing for almost a month.
Nancy Gaines told Insider she had spent hundreds of hours and dollars on international calls to both Air Canada and KLM in her efforts to track down the missing luggage.
Gaines said she planned to take a 14-day cruise with her 80-year-old mother that departed from Copenhagen on June 22.
But when Gaines and her mother's first flight to Toronto Pearson International Airport on June 21, operated by Air Canada, was delayed, the pair missed their connecting flight to Copenhagen, operated by KLM.
Gaines said Air Canada rebooked them onto a flight departing the next day to Bergen, Norway, where the cruise was due to stop. However, when they arrived in Norway on June 23, they discovered that neither of their bags had made the journey.
A spokesperson for Air Canada told Insider they only dealt directly with customers but said the airline was "working hard" with third-party partners and governments to resolve issues. Representatives for KLM did not respond to Insider's request for comment.
Gaines said she and her mother never even made it onto the cruise ship as her mother fell off a hotel bed in Bergen and fractured her hip. The accident left her mother hospitalized and the pair stuck in Norway for over three weeks with none of their belongings.
"I washed clothes every three days because I only bought three days of outfits hoping that they'd find our luggage," Gaines said.
"I also had to buy new contacts," she added. "Luckily, I had my prescription with me on my phone and the pharmacy at the hospital believed me."
"It was just one disaster after another between lost baggage, not having our stuff, staying overnight waiting for the next flight, the missed connection, and then she falls and fractured her hip," she said.
Gaines's arduous attempts to get her luggage back cost her almost $450 and caused her to spend more than 40 hours on the phone.
Her phone bill from June 5 to July 4 totaled $449.18, with $366.73 of that figure attributed to international usage, according to documents seen by Insider. Gaines said she had made more calls throughout July and was expecting another high phone bill in early August.
"Every day I would call on my cell phone and the hold times were crazy — if you could even get through," she said.
"They could only answer certain questions and a couple of times they just disconnected from me because they didn't know the answer," she said. "They just cut off and then I had to get back in line."
Gaines said the two arrived back in back to Atlanta on Sunday but have still not had their bags returned. Air Canada told Gaines they were delivered to the original destination, Copenhagen, on June 30 but she still doesn't have an update on when they will be shipped back to the US.
"They know where the bags are," she said. "They just still aren't getting them to us, calling us, or giving us updates."
Gaines said she's concerned the bags are now stuck in a backlog as airlines scramble to reunite customers with their lost baggage.
"The frustration is I feel like I'm doing all the work," she said. "They're just saying be patient with us, they're coming but they're not being proactive."
More: Luggage Airline Flights lost luggage
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2022-07-19T12:45:46Z
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www.businessinsider.com
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Airline Passenger Says Her Luggage Has Been Missing for Almost a Month
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https://www.businessinsider.com/air-canada-airline-luggage-missing-cruise-bags-travel-chaos-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/air-canada-airline-luggage-missing-cruise-bags-travel-chaos-2022-7
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Hello there, it's Aaron Weinman in New York. Goldman Sachs warned it will slow its hiring ambitions and bring back dreaded annual performance reviews. The bank put these reviews on hold during the earlier stages of the pandemic, but weaker earnings have forced its hand.
Let's look into it.
David Solomon, the chief executive of Goldman Sachs, has tasked Salisbury with one of his most prized initiatives: building its asset management business into a juggernaut.
1. Goldman Sachs will reduce the "velocity" of its hiring, and won't fill some roles that are vacated through natural attrition. The bank has also reduced compensation expenses for the first half of this year by $3.5 billion versus the same period in 2021, Chief Financial Officer Denis Coleman told analysts during Goldman's second-quarter earnings call on Monday.
Goldman also warned it will reintroduce its annual performance reviews, something it put on hold during the earlier stages of the pandemic. Banks have used such reviews to purge their workforces of under-performing bankers. Historically, Goldman's performance checks have led to the bottom 5% of the staff being laid off.
Weak earnings, particularly in firms' investment-banking divisions, have folks braced for job cuts as Wall Street firms come to terms with a volatile market and high inflation. That's contributed to a slump in dealmaking. M&A volumes are down 21% year-over-year, and fees from equity capital markets are down 72%.
And it's not just dealmakers that are fearing cuts. College grads are concerned that their full-time offers might dwindle, too.
BlackRock also told staffers that it's scaling back hiring plans on the back of economic uncertainty, Insider previously reported.
Wall Street firms' adoption of hiring freezes comes just months after many showered bankers with handsome bonuses. Dealmaking soared in the first two years of the pandemic as cheap money and high company valuations prompted firms to tap the capital markets for debt, or to go public via IPO, or through a tie up with a special purpose acquisition vehicle, or SPAC .
Today, however, the sharp dip in revenues in investment banking has prompted a sea change across Wall Street.
Here's everything we know about banks' belt tightening efforts and how it will impact jobs and pay.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk exits federal court in New York City.
2. Elon Musk's penchant for not playing by the rules could land him in prison. He could also cop massive fines or lose control of his Tesla stock if he doesn't comply with a court order in Twitter's suit, according to a legal expert.
3. Lawyers allege Carvana's founding family used unlawful means to stay in control. The Garcia family controls over 87% of the votes in the online car dealer, but the same lawyers who went after Palantir over its founders' voting power have set their sights on Carvana.
4. A bright spot is emerging on Bank of America's trading floor, and it's coming from an unexpected place. BofA's FX and emerging-market trading has enjoyed some wins as strong sales and trading numbers prop up an otherwise weaker earnings season.
5. Two ex-quant traders exploited their industry's notorious noncompetes to bootstrap a billion-dollar crypto startup. Tarun Chitra and Rei Chiang ditched quant trading to start Gauntlet, which helps companies manage risks around crypto lending.
6. SoftBank has put on hold plans for an IPO of Arm in London due to political uncertainty in the UK, the Financial Times reported. The Japanese investor's decision is another blow to an already wounded equity-capital-markets space, which is navigating a dip in dealmaking and potential job cuts.
7. A 38-year-old makes $2,200 in monthly interest investing in peer-to-peer loans. Here's how he set up this easy passive income stream.
8. Swiss startup Nevermined raised $3 million in Series A funding after launching in April. The company is focused on opening up access to Web3, and here's the 13-page pitch deck it used to secure the money.
9. Russia had ambitions of making Moscow a global finance hub. The annexation of Crimea in 2014, and today's war in Ukraine have crushed that dream.
10. Rich residents of Michael Meldman's Silo Ridge Club reckon they're getting fleeced. Dozens of owners of multimillion-dollar homes are suing Amenia, a town in New York, over property taxes.
Payments company Transact has acquired mobile-ordering company Hangry. Canadian Hangry provides a mobile-ordering platform for schools.
Australian bank ANZ agreed to buy local peer Suncorp Bank from its parent Suncorp Group for roughly $3.3 billion.
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2022-07-19T12:45:52Z
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Goldman Sachs Slows Hiring, Brings Back Performance Reviews
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https://www.businessinsider.com/earnings-goldman-sachs-hiring-slowdown-banks-layoffs-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/earnings-goldman-sachs-hiring-slowdown-banks-layoffs-2022-7
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Insiders at EV truck maker Xos fear layoffs were just the latest sign of trouble, as a bloated product line and competition from Big Auto squeeze the startup
Insiders say the recent layoffs at Xos signal trouble.
The electric-truck startup Xos said its recent layoffs were an effort to streamline operations.
But insiders fear the move is a sign of trouble.
Insiders say young leadership, cash spend, and a lack of focus may hobble the startup.
As the electric-truck startup Xos laid off 8% of its workers less than a year after its $2 billion merger with a special-purpose acquisition company, it said the move was needed to "focus on cost reductions and streamlined operations."
But insiders said it's more than just cutting costs, like many other startups bracing for an economic downturn have done: It's a sign Xos realized it was trying to do too much too fast.
The more than 300-person startup has gained momentum since its founding in 2016, selling electric trucks to FedEx, UPS, and the cash-transfer company Loomis and building a backlog of 6,000 contracted and optional orders.
Most other electric-vehicle newcomers, like Rivian or Lucid, launched with one flagship product. But Xos is different, with plans to build a wide variety of EVs from the get-go, including electric last-mile step vans, 18-wheelers, and medium- and heavy-duty trucks.
Led by its young founders, Dakota Semler and Giordano Sordoni, Xos faces heightened market competition and saw its stock price drop 80% in less than a year.
Kingsley Afemikhe, the startup's chief financial officer, said last year Xos would target delivery of 65,000 vehicles to customers by 2026, a long way to go from the 44 it ended up delivering in 2021 (which was short of the 116 that it anticipated).
Xos plans to hit $3 billion in revenue by 2024 but received just $7 million in revenue in the first quarter of 2022, with $129.7 million in cash left in its coffers from that period.
Fourteen former employees told Insider that without key changes, Xos might not be able to perfect its target market and may be hit by the same mixture of management, product, and cash challenges that have battered so many young EV startups. Three former employees called its ambitions "unrealistic" in light of the layoffs.
"I do believe in the product," a former employee who said they recently left Xos voluntarily said. "I just believe we have these two young kids that have great ideas, but they don't know how to manage a company."
Former employees who spoke with Insider for this story were granted anonymity, as they were bound by nondisclosure or severance agreements, or were not authorized to speak publicly about Xos. Their identities are known to Insider.
"Like many other high-growth companies, we are not immune to current market conditions and are realistic about where the economy is heading," an Xos spokesperson told Insider in a statement. "The reduction in force was a safeguarding effort to ensure we have a solid foundation for long term success.
"We remain focused on delivering tangible value to customers and this is evidenced through the numerous deliveries we made last quarter. We are confident in our overall business strategy."
'Bit off more than they can chew'
Xos went public via a $2 billion SPAC offering in August and then grew quickly, hiring talent and bulking up departments to win market share of the growing commercial-EV market.
But Xos has since been trying to deliver on big promises "without an influx of capital," said one former higher-up who was part of the recent layoffs. The prompts many challenges.
Some said Xos lacked the brand recognition or demand needed to land more orders — which has spurred a sense of panic across sales teams.
Some said growing competition from Ford E-Transit, GM's BrightDrop, Daimler Truck, and others in the electric-truck and -van market, estimated to be worth about $370 billion by 2030, forced engineers to try to make every possible product offering that competitors might offer, at the same time.
"They wanted to have a very broad portfolio of products, so they just pursued everything," a former manager, who recently left Xos voluntarily, said of leadership.
Even before Xos' recent waves of layoffs began in mid-June, insiders said they felt timelines didn't always match what was possible.
"How do you eat an elephant? One piece at a time," a former sales lead who was laid off said. "They hire all these account reps in all these markets. Maybe you should have just focused on FedEx."
Two other former employees said it would make more sense for Xos to focus on Class 5 and 6 vehicles first, rather than multiple classes at once.
This sparked a feeling that Xos "bit off more than they could chew," a former employee who resigned said, adding: "From the front, we look really nice and fancy. But on the back end, we have too much going on."
Xos has recently signed multiple purchase orders and fulfilled customer orders.
As of August, Xos was hoping to produce 2,007 vehicles in 2022. The company surpassed its 40 to 50 delivery target for the first quarter, delivering 56 vehicles. It has also recently signed multiple purchase orders and fulfilled customer orders at an increasing pace.
Hitting its goals will require resources and a strong workforce, which are both in limited supply. It could tap into its $125 million standby equity purchase agreement it has with an affiliate of Yorkville Advisors. But there's still the question of competition, the former employee who voluntarily left said.
"All the big guys are getting in the space now. Those big guys are well-funded, and they have the production experience," the former lead said. "They know how to put together a project, set all the milestones, build up the supply chain, and then flip the switch and start producing."
Some former employees don't think Xos is dead, but they do say it's key to pare down product aspirations to something more manageable, without relying on unavailable funding.
"I've heard people describe it as a death spiral," the former higher-up said. "I don't think it is. There is, fundamentally, product and value that is visible. But it's definitely going to require the company to restructure."
Are you a current or former Xos employee? Do you have a news tip or opinion you'd like to share? Contact this reporter at astjohn@insider.com from a nonwork device.
More: Transportation Electric Vehicles commercial electric vehicles
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2022-07-19T12:45:58Z
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Insiders at Electric-Truck Startup Xos Fear Trouble
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https://www.businessinsider.com/electric-truck-startup-xos-stock-plummet-management-production-spac-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/electric-truck-startup-xos-stock-plummet-management-production-spac-2022-7
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Happy July 19, readers. Phil Rosen here, coming to you from NYC. On this date in 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin went into orbit around the moon.
It's been five decades since astronauts walked in space and markets people still can't agree on what will happen next on Earth.
Today, I'm breaking down what two top firms are seeing for stocks this summer and beyond.
1. Recession or not, stocks are going to keep falling, according to Morgan Stanley's Mike Wilson. The firm's top strategist said traders are being too optimistic about company earnings, which are likely to slow under inflationary pressures that the Fed can't seem to quell.
"Counter-trend rally may continue, but make no mistake, we don't believe this bear market is over, even if we avoid a recession — the odds of which are increasing," Wilson said in a Monday research note.
To Wilson, there's a 36% chance of a downturn in the next 12 months, thanks to rising jobless claims and declining job openings.
All of the above are going to be too much for stocks to prop up, which has left Wilson with a 3,900 forecast for the S&P 500 next year — barely a whisper away from current levels.
So Wilson's a widely respected voice on the Street, but Stifel's chief equity strategist, Barry Bannister, has just about the opposite forecast — he's predicting the S&P 500 to jump at least 9% to 4,200 this summer. Though Bannister has said before that he thinks the market has entered a secular bear market that could last for quite some time, right now, stocks are poised to gain.
That relief rally will reward investors if the economy avoids a recession over the next six to nine months, which Bannister also expects because of better-than-expected earnings power, a decline in oil prices, and cooling inflation.
In his words: "Recession fear is over-done."
2. US stock futures rise early Tuesday. Global shares, however, wavered as investors focused on upcoming central bank meetings, starting with the European Central Bank this week. Meanwhile, cryptocurrencies were down, with bitcoin trading below $22,000. Here are the latest market moves.
3. On the docket: Johnson & Johnson, Novartis AG, and Lockheed Martin Corp, all reporting.
4. Experts gave advice on managing your career in an uncertain economy. Amid stock market drops and sky-high inflation, many workers are confused and have questions about their futures. For answers, Insider spoke to eight economists, career coaches, and management experts — here's what the mixed market signals mean for your career.
5. A key gauge of the housing market just saw its steepest drop since the early days of the pandemic. Builder confidence fell sharply in July, the National Association of Home Builders said Monday. The drop comes as high inflation and rising rates are crushing mortgage demand.
6. Ether prices jumped 10% Monday as the upcoming merge into "Ethereum 2.0" has renewed enthusiasm for the world's second largest cryptocurrency. Sitting just behind bitcoin in market cap , ether traded above $1,500 early Tuesday, gaining roughly 50% over the last four weeks. A member of the Ethereum Foundation said on Twitter that the highly anticipated "merge" event could happen mid-September.
7. Russia is further distancing itself from the US dollar as it moves to trade oil with India using the local currency of the United Arab Emirates. According to a Reuters report, Moscow is looking to insulate itself from Western sanctions by trading with the UAE's dirham — and sources said more of these non-dollar deals are set to follow.
8. Investors can "get paid while they wait '' for the bear market to end, according to a chief investment strategist with $130 billion in assets under management. Making money in a bear market is never easy, but iCapital's Anastasia Amoroso says certain sectors are attractive. She broke down what investors should keep an eye on for the best opportunities right now.
9. Real estate investors sitting on the sidelines could be rewarded for their patience as home sales slow down, price cuts increase, and consumer sentiment softens. Shifting market conditions could be a boon for those sitting on cash, since there could be a rise in solid deals these next few months. Here's what you want to know.
10. Millions of workers gained a bit more authority during the Great Resignation, but the economy isn't going to let things stay that way. People have quit or switched jobs at near-record levels over the past year, but a potential recession could make things a lot worse for workers — just take a look at the relationship between wages and inflation.
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2022-07-19T12:46:10Z
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Here's How the Stock Market Could Tumble or Rally This Summer
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https://www.businessinsider.com/heres-how-the-stock-market-could-tumble-or-rally-this-summer-2022-7
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A passenger told Insider that during her journey from Washington state to Italy she faced delays, last-minute cancellations, lost luggage, and poor customer service.
On a trip to Europe, three of Carlin Haidinger's flights were canceled and she flew into a different airport than planned.
She had to stand in line for five hours at Frankfurt Airport to get a new boarding pass from Lufthansa.
The airline lost her luggage, too, and she had to wait 20 days to get it back.
A passenger says she spent five hours standing in line to get a new boarding pass after Lufthansa canceled her flight last minute.
Carlin Haidinger told Insider that during her journey from Washington state to Italy she faced delays, last-minute cancellations, lost luggage, and poor customer service.
Haidinger booked her flights through United via her travel agent Capital One. Her original flights on June 24 were set to be operated by Brussels Air with a connection in Brussels before traveling to Florence.
After both flights were canceled amid industrial action at Brussels Air, United transferred her to Lufthansa flights, operated as a codeshare by Air Dolomiti, with a change in Frankfurt instead.
Haidinger's flight from Washington to Frankfurt went smoothly. But at 4:28 p.m., while Haidinger was waiting at the gates at Frankfurt Airport to board her 4:50 p.m. flight, Lufthansa emailed Haidinger to say her the flight was delayed. And just one minute later, she got an email saying the flight was canceled.
This was the third time one of Haidinger's flights had been canceled for her trip to Italy.
So she contacted United, who booked her onto a 9:35 p.m. Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt to Rome, which is around 175 miles south of Florence.
Haidinger said that United staff told her to get a new boarding pass from customer services and ensure that her luggage was transferred to her new flight.
Haidinger told Insider that only two people were working on the Lufthansa desk and she had to stand in line with "hundreds of people" for five hours. She said that because she was traveling solo she was unable to get food and water, but asked other people in the line to hold her place so she could use the bathroom.
"I was going on 24 hours of no sleep, no real food," Haidinger said.
At the customer service desk, "I was ensured by Lufthansa my baggage would make it on the flight with me," Haidinger told Insider. Lufthansa emailed her before her flight departed with a receipt for her baggage.
Her flight was delayed twice, by an hour in total. But after waiting 20 minutes at the luggage carousel in Rome, she realized she wasn't getting her bag.
Around 15 other passengers from her flight were also missing their luggage, Haidinger said. She had to spend another hour and a half in line to fill out a claim for her missing luggage, she said.
While on her vacation, she said that she checked Lufthansa's site "10, 15 times a day" for updates on her luggage. She said that Lufthansa's customer service was "extremely unhelpful" and she attributed the problems to "poor management through and through."
Haidinger said that during her vacation she had to borrow t-shirts from her relatives, and that because she didn't know when she was getting her suitcase back she spent around $1,000 on new clothes and toiletries after she returned to the US on July 3.
"Halfway through my vacation, I just kind of mentally accepted that I was never getting this bag back," she said.
Lufthansa told her that it had arrived in Rome on July 7 – days after Haidinger had left Italy – and she said it was sent to Washington via Frankfurt. Haidinger said that she was finally reunited with her luggage on July 14 – 20 days after the airline first misplaced it.
"At present, the personnel-intensive system of baggage handling is under considerable pressure due to the lack of personnel in all the areas mentioned," a Lufthansa spokesperson told Insider.
"Due to the current staff shortages and because aircraft cannot wait indefinitely due to booked turnarounds, it may happen that baggage was not loaded in time and arrives late." The spokesperson said that in these cases, passengers are informed of the delay "in a timely manner" and automatically notified when their bag is delivered.
Lufthansa has canceled 3,100 flights scheduled for July and August — or around 4% of its capacity.
Frankfurt Airport has warned that passengers are facing disruptions and longer wait times as more people travel.
"The problem will not get smaller going forward," the CEO of the airport's operator said in early July, per Reuters.
More: Frankfurt Germany Lufthansa United Airlines
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2022-07-19T12:46:16Z
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Passenger Waited 5 Hours to Get New Boarding Pass After Flight Canceled
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https://www.businessinsider.com/lufthansa-united-frankfurt-passenger-flight-canceled-lost-luggage-line-florence-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/lufthansa-united-frankfurt-passenger-flight-canceled-lost-luggage-line-florence-2022-7
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Weekly travel insurance rates: July 19 | Premiums pass the $300 mark
Average travel insurance rates are currently north of $300, but the exact amount you'll pay depends on your trip plans.
The summer travel season is in full swing, and you can tell we're in the middle of peak season by the higher travel insurance rates. Average premiums for travel insurance continue to climb; the current average cost is $315.10, up from $264.10 last week, according to travel insurance agency Squaremouth.
Keep in mind that the exact amount you'll pay for travel insurance depends on several factors, including where you're traveling, the length of your trip, and how many people you're looking to insure.
Israel $2,637.69 $106-$211
More: Personal Finance Insider PFI Squaremouth PFI Guide TOC-jump-to
Weekly travel insurance rates
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2022-07-19T12:46:34Z
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Travel Insurance Rates Today: July 19, 2022
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https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/travel-insurance-rates-today-july-19-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/travel-insurance-rates-today-july-19-2022-7
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The number of passengers making claims for lost luggage has soared 30% compared with 2019, per an insurer.
More lost baggage claims come as the industry faces staffing shortages and high travel demand.
Most of the missing luggage eventually reappears, the insurer told Bloomberg.
This summer's travel chaos has led to more passengers making claims about lost luggage, according to insurer Mapfre SA.
Bloomberg reported the news.
Mapfre said that compared with 2019, lost baggage claims have increased 30% this summer. The majority of the missing bags are eventually found, meaning no reimbursement is needed, Mapfre told Bloomberg.
Mapfre, based in Spain, didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment made outside of normal working hours.
The surge in lost baggage claims may not come as a surprise given that the airline industry is grappling with a staffing shortage as the COVID-19 pandemic eases. This has made it difficult for airports and carriers to provide all of the services needed for a smooth journey.
The Department of Transportation's Air Travel Consumer Report said US airlines lost, delayed, or damaged nearly 220,000 bags in April — an 135% jump from the same month last year.
In recent weeks, there have been many reports of lost luggage and airport warehouses being filled with stranded bags because of the lack of resources available at airports and within airline companies.
A passenger who lost their baggage worth $10,000 said she had her wedding dress inside, while another said their missing bag contained their parents' ashes. One traveler told Insider he had to spend almost $1,600 on replacement clothes and other items after his luggage got lost when flying from San Diego to Rome with Air Canada.
Some passengers told Insider they're using AirTags to locate their missing luggage but the airlines they traveled with contradicted the data from the tags.
In response to the lost luggage nightmare, Delta Air Lines chartered an Airbus A330 from London to Detroit on July 11 to deliver 1,000 delayed bags to passengers.
More: travels transport Transportation Airline
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2022-07-19T12:46:52Z
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Travel Chaos: Passengers' Lost Luggage Claims Jump 30%, Says Insurer
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https://www.businessinsider.com/travel-chaos-lost-luggage-claims-jump-compared-pandemic-insurer-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/travel-chaos-lost-luggage-claims-jump-compared-pandemic-insurer-2022-7
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JetBlue will waive the phone service fee for customers who encounter technical issues while attempting to modify their flights online, a spokesperson for the airline told Insider on Monday.
Many airlines charge extra fees to purchase or rebook a ticket with an agent over the phone.
As the summer's flight chaos continues, people are pushing back against the extra charges.
JetBlue and United charge a $25 call-center fee, while Spirit Airlines and Frontier charge $35.
In the era of automation and chat bots, talking to a real-life human can cost you extra. For travelers unable to use airlines' online booking systems, be warned — many companies charge between $15 and $35 to purchase, cancel, or modify a ticket over the phone.
While it's not an entirely new concept, the service fees are frustrating some passengers struggling to navigate this summer's travel chaos.
"JetBlue please help me. I'm trying to book online but I'm having technical difficulties," one customer tweeted last week. "Is there a phone number I can speak to an actual person to book this flight that doesn't cost $25?"
JetBlue and United both charge $25 to purchase or rebook a ticket with an agent on the phone, while Allegiant charges $15. Spirit Airlines and Frontier both charge $35 per ticket.
Delta stopped charging its $25 phone service fee in 2016, according to its website. Southwest does not charge for over-the-phone reservations. American Airlines' fee for "tickets issued by American Airlines travel centers" is currently suspended until further notice.
"To keep our phone hold times as short as possible and to allow our crewmembers time to assist those customers who cannot utilize our self-service tools, JetBlue charges a $25 nonrefundable fee per-person on a reservation when you change, cancel, or complete a new booking over the phone," the spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
Spirit Airlines said it charges a $35 fee because a "live agent is more expensive than self-service online."
More: Flight Delays Flight Cancellations summer travel chaos Delta
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2022-07-19T14:12:43Z
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Flight Chaos: Customers Pay $25 to Talk With Agents on Phone
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https://www.businessinsider.com/flight-delays-cancelations-25-phone-fees-jetblue-united-customer-service-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/flight-delays-cancelations-25-phone-fees-jetblue-united-customer-service-2022-7
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This startup helps healthcare providers offer better virtual care. Check out the 18-slide pitch deck Healthie used to raise $16 million.
Erica Jain, cofounder and CEO of Healthie.
Healthie has raised $16 million in Series A funding from Velvet Sea Ventures.
The New York-based startup has built a centralized platform for virtual health providers.
Check out the 18-slide deck it used to raise the fresh funds.
A startup that has built a centralized platform for virtual health providers has raised $16 million in fresh funds as it looks to take advantage of the surge in demand for care outside of hospitals.
New York-based Healthie, which was founded in 2016, manages everything from electronic health records and intake assessments to payment processing and telehealth chat services on behalf of its digital health clients.
The platform also connects external tools like Zoom, Stripe, and Salesforce to make managing virtual care services as simple as possible.
Healthie wants to capitalize on the growth of the burgeoning digital health industry, where US startups in the sector secured a record $29.1 billion in 2021, according to data from Rock Health. A shortage of doctors and healthcare professionals during the pandemic helped speed up the adoption of virtual care services.
Usually, health providers have to build in-house tools to develop their business infrastructure, such as managing clients or scaling their growth. By integrating these services with existing digital health platforms, Healthie hopes to reduce the time and expenses involved in the process so health providers can expedite their growth and increase their treatment output.
Healthie has been profitable for the past four years, which has allowed it to tap into a "venture market independent of a change in the macro-environment," according to cofounder and CEO Erica Jain. Investor appetite for its infrastructure surged after COVID-19 changed "how consumers expect to receive healthcare," Jain added.
Healthie makes its money through monthly or annual subscriptions. Its clients have the option to select which services they would like to integrate onto their platform, and can choose between an out-of-the-box option or an API-first option.
The startup's clients, which include the likes of healthcare giants Crossover Health, Plume, and Wellinks, offer treatments to 1.5 million patients and have raised around $700 million in VC funds. While its main customer base is digital health providers, Healthie has also partnered with national retailers and grocers, as well as universities and medical clinics.
The Series A round was led by Florida-based VC firm Velvet Sea Ventures, with additional backing from Greymatter Capital, Watershed, and Builders VC. A syndicate of 60 angel investors, including executive chairman of Primary Health Roushan Zenooz, and NBA basketball player Mason Plumlee, also participated in the round.
Healthie will ramp up its product development and pump funds into its development team with the latest fundraise.
More: Features Healthcare Digital Health
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2022-07-19T14:12:49Z
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Healthie: Virtual Care Platform Raises $16 Million in Fresh Funds
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https://www.businessinsider.com/healthie-virtual-care-platform-raises-16-million-in-fresh-funds-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/healthie-virtual-care-platform-raises-16-million-in-fresh-funds-2022-7
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Risk tolerance vs. risk capacity: at a glance
What is risk tolerance?
What is risk capacity?
How risk tolerance and risk capacity work together
Risk tolerance and risk capacity go hand-in-hand when creating an investment strategy
As an investor, you’ll want to strike a balance between your risk tolerance and risk capacity that provides the best outcome.
katleho Seisa/Getty
Risk is inherent to investing, and there's no ironclad rule about the best way to approach it.
Risk tolerance is based on your emotional response to financial risk, while risk capacity is more objective.
Balancing risk tolerance with risk capacity is key to developing the right investment plan for you.
Investing requires taking risks. There's no way around it. When creating an investment strategy, there are two aspects of risk to consider: risk tolerance and risk capacity.
Risk tolerance is generally associated with the emotional side of investing, while risk capacity is a more objective measure based on financial facts. Two investors with the same risk capacity might have significantly different risk tolerance levels due to personality, money history, and other factors.
As an investor, your personal perspectives and responses to potential loss are what determine your risk tolerance. Risk capacity, on the other hand, can be essentially boiled down to numbers: how much you need your investments to generate, how much you have, and how much you'll add to them in the future.
Risk tolerance: This is often defined as the emotional, subjective viewpoints on financial risk for an investor.
Risk capacity: You can calculate your risk capacity based on your income, assets, and expenses.
Risk tolerance is one of the first things an investor needs to consider before mapping out a plan. One might look at it as a person's ability and willingness to lose some or all of an investment in exchange for greater potential returns.
Risk tolerance isn't easily quantifiable, of course, because emotions rarely are. Warren Ward, a CFP® professional with WWA Planning & Investments, says he defines risk tolerance for his clients as how "emotionally comfortable" they are with risk.
One way to determine your risk tolerance is by asking yourself hypothetical questions, such as: "How would you react if the value of your investments dropped by 20%?" Financial advisors and planners often use this approach to gauge clients' risk tolerance.
Robert R. Johnson, a chart erd financial analyst (CFA) and professor of finance at Creighton University, explains that one's response to these what-if questions may be useful, although often inaccurate.
"What people say they would hypothetically be able to handle and what they are really able to handle are often different concepts," Johnson says. He reminds us of how investors reacted to the financial crisis of 2008 as well as the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many unfortunately exited the market at its lowest points.
This is why Johnson recommends long-term investors create an investment policy statement (IPS), ideally during a relatively "calm" market period, to prepare for how to respond to various market changes.
Important: Plan your investing strategy before a crisis hits. "The whole point of an IPS is to guide you through changing market conditions," Johnson says. "It should not be changed as a result of market fluctuations."
The three most common levels of risk tolerance are:
Conservative: A conservative investor prefers to avoid unnecessary risk and focus more on avoiding loss than on pursuing gains from investments.
Moderate: A moderate investor is willing to take some risks, but has backstops in place to prevent losing too much.
Aggressive: An aggressive investor is comfortable with higher potential risks in exchange for potentially higher returns.
As you assess your own risk tolerance, you may find that your automatic reaction to the idea of loss points you toward either conservative, moderate, or aggressive risk levels.
Nick Bormann, a CFP® professional and investment advisor at Bormann Wealth Management, LLC, notes that some investors may be tempted to adjust their strategies based on recent performance. "Usually when people have been making lots of money investing, their risk tolerance goes up, and that can lead to errors," he says.
While determining your risk tolerance as a matter of personal preference, remember to also look at the numerical side of the equation. Your risk capacity looks at your actual ability to bear risk based on your financial assets, time horizon, and other factors.
Note: There is no one right answer to how to invest based on your risk tolerance and risk capacity. "Your investment philosophy has to be consistent with your personal psychology," Johnson says.
Risk capacity is how much risk you can afford to take as an investor and depends on such aspects as your earning power, time horizon, and current assets. Johnson explains that it is "easily determined and quantifiable."
Ward also agrees that risk capacity is "just basic math" that shows your ability to withstand a financial setback. Look at these primary factors to determine your risk capacity:
Income you'll require during retirement
Number of years until retirement
Current income and savings rate
Current assets accumulated
Johnson points out that certain circumstances typically increase your risk capacity. A longer time horizon, substantial assets, and significant earning power all offer greater ability to bear risk. Conversely, factors like a short time horizon, less money in savings, and lower income potential reduce your risk capacity.
Examining these factors in your finances can benefit you by providing a baseline. They may even cause you to shift your risk tolerance, since seeing how much and how quickly you need to boost your portfolio could be shocking. Or, on the other hand, your risk capacity could provide reassurance that you're on the right track.
"Two people can have exactly the same ability to bear risk (same age, occupation, amount of other assets) and have dramatically different risk tolerances because they have different willingness to bear risk," says Johnson.
As an investor, you'll want to strike a balance between your risk tolerance and risk capacity that provides the best outcome. Focusing only on your emotions around financial losses and gains ignores the fundamental reality of your finances. Conversely, emphasizing your risk capacity neglects the impact emotions have on finances.
Emotional and subjective
Gauged by asking hypothetical questions about your reaction to market shifts
Typically declines as you age and near retirement
Can be difficult to accurately assess ahead of time
Quantitative and objective
Assesses your ability to bounce back from financial losses
Typically declines with age
Easier to calculate than risk tolerance
You can follow guidelines that are generally considered to help investors manage risk. Both asset allocation and diversification within asset classes can reduce your overall risk. With asset allocation, you spread investments across different asset classes, and with diversification, you further divide up your allocation among categories in each asset class.
Keep in mind that there's more than one way to view risk, as well. Ward reminds investors that sometimes playing it safe can be the riskier move.
"Following a strategy of considering CDs as safe and stocks risky will certainly lead to a loss of purchasing power (if not capital) over time," he says. "That sounds like a good definition of risky to me — investing with a guarantee that purchasing power will decline over your lifetime."
You can take a balanced approach by both calculating your risk capacity and thinking through your risk tolerance. One way to use both is by creating your IPS, mapping out your planned response to market fluctuations and corrections. Bormann recommends this because it "helps to avoid knee-jerk reactions which can throw off a long term plan."
For example, let's say you're a 35-year-old with $50,000 in a 401(k). You still have several decades to work and accumulate wealth. You could take a fairly aggressive investment approach with a significant amount of risk because time is on your side.
However, look at risk tolerance — your emotional view of risk. If you hate the idea of sustaining any losses, you may choose a conservative portfolio strategy knowing that in spite of potentially lackluster returns, the years will make up for the aversion to risk.
More: Personal Finance Insider PFI Reference Freelance Risk
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2022-07-19T14:13:01Z
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What to Know About Risk Tolerance Vs. Risk Capacity
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https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/risk-tolerance-vs-risk-capacity
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https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/risk-tolerance-vs-risk-capacity
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A bereaved Russian father shows a Rossia-1 reporter a white Lada bought with "coffin money."
Russia-1/YouTube
Russian state TV highlighted a family who got a new car with money from their son's death.
It showed the parents with a new white Lada they could afford because of his death in Ukraine.
Russia offers "coffin money" — in the tens of thousands of dollars — to families of dead fighters.
Russian state TV ran a bizarre segment on Sunday about a bereaved couple buying a new car with a payout from the government for losing their son to the war in Ukraine.
According to independent Russian news site Meduza, the Rossia-1 segment featured the parents of Staff Sergeant Alexei Malov, who died in the early days of the invasion.
The news item, filmed in western Russia's Saratovskaya region, showed Malov's parents exiting the driveway in a white Lada on a trip to the cemetery.
Russian families receive what is known as "coffin money" when their relatives are killed, the segment explained.
BBC Monitoring reporter Francis Scarr tweeted a clip from the show with English subtitles on Monday:
—Francis Scarr (@francis_scarr) July 18, 2022
"Like his grandfathers and great-grandfathers he fought against fascism," the Rossia-1 voiceover said of Malov, per Scarr's translation.
As a state-controlled outlet, Rossia-1 echoed the Kremlin's spurious claim that the invasion of Ukraine is a mission to defeat "Nazis."
His father told the outlet: "In memory of our son we bought a nice new car."
The voiceover continued by saying that Malov "dreamed about having a white car, just like this one."
It's unclear exactly how much the payout was in this instance. On March 3, President Vladimir Putin announced that 7.2 million roubles (around $134,000) would go to the families of each deceased soldier, according to Russian newspaper Vedomosti.
Most regional governments also offer compensation, varying between one and four million roubles (around $18,000-$73,000), the outlet reported.
In June, President Vladimir Putin decreed that families of National Guardsmen — the internal paramilitary force that reports directly to the Kremlin — would receive compensation of 5 million roubles ($81,500), Reuters reported.
It was the first admission that the servicemen, usually used in domestic matters, had been sent to the Ukraine war, the outlet reported.
More: ukraine-russia Russian state TV Russia Military News UK
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2022-07-19T14:13:07Z
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Russia TV Shows Car Parents Got With Payout for Son Killed in Ukraine
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https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-tv-segment-family-who-bought-new-car-coffin-money-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-tv-segment-family-who-bought-new-car-coffin-money-2022-7
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Tiger-backed health insurer Sidecar Health cut its staff as the digital-health market falls
Digital health startups that raised hundreds of millions in 2021 have been cutting staff this year as the market changes.
Health insurance startup Sidecar Health sliced its workforce in June, the company confirmed.
Last valued at $1 billion, the company is backed by investors like Tiger Global and Menlo Ventures.
Multiple LinkedIn posts by former employees claim about 40% of workers were affected.
Billion-dollar health insurance startup Sidecar Health has joined the ranks of digital health companies letting go of employees as the market sinks, the company confirmed to Insider.
The startup, which offers a health insurance app that provides patients fixed costs for healthcare services, is backed by investors including Tiger Global and Menlo Ventures.
According to at least four LinkedIn posts by former employees, the company let go of 110 employees, about 40% of its workforce.
Sidecar Health declined to comment on the number of employees affected. In a statement to Insider, Sidecar Health cited volatile market conditions as its primary motivation for making the cuts.
"Like many companies right now, given the changing capital markets, we notified our team in June that we will be reducing our workforce," the company said. "We are so grateful for the contributions of the impacted team members and are working hard to support them as they transition."
Sidecar's health insurance app.
Courtesy of Sidecar Health
Startups with billion-dollar valuations are cutting staff
Sidecar Health last raised $125 million in a January 2021 Series C round led by Drive Capital and including Bond, Tiger Global, Menlo Ventures, Cathay Innovation, and GreatPoint Ventures.
The round boosted the startup to a $1 billion valuation, according to the company.
The decision to cut its workforce slots Sidecar Health among its digital health peers announcing layoffs this year after raising hundreds of millions of dollars in 2021.
Most recently, Insider reported on July 7 that Cedar had cut 24% of its workforce after raising a $200 million series D round in March 2021.
Direct-to-consumer digital health startup Ro also let go of 18% of its workforce, Insider reported in June.
More: Dispensed Sidecar Health Layoffs
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2022-07-19T14:47:42Z
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Sidecar Health Cuts Employees As Layoffs Sweep Digital Health Startups
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https://www.businessinsider.com/sidecar-health-cuts-employees-as-layoffs-sweep-digital-health-startups-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/sidecar-health-cuts-employees-as-layoffs-sweep-digital-health-startups-2022-7
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BlackRock equities chief investment officer says now's the time to shift money from US stocks and cash into beaten-down European companies. He lays out the 3 key reasons why and reveals what investors should buy.
The US accounts for approximately 60% of the global stock market as measured by MSCI.
Investing giant BlackRock looks far beyond America and sees opportunity in Europe right now.
The firm's co-CIO for fundamental equities breaks down why and reveals what to buy.
The US accounts for approximately 60% of the global stock market as measured by the MSCI All-World Country Index, a widely accepted benchmark.
US companies should always be a large part of your portfolio, and if you are seeking to reflect the global market to some degree then domestic equities should be the majority.
It is not necessarily wise to only invest in US companies though as there is a whole world of opportunity out there. No major investment firm would ignore the opportunities in other parts of the world and the biggest of them all, BlackRock, certainly doesn't.
In a new investment outlook seen exclusively by Insider, the $10 trillion firm's fundamental equities co-CIO Nigel Bolton has said European stocks now look more attractive than US equities by specific criteria.
He acknowledged the economic picture in Europe is difficult, with an energy crisis sparked by sanctions on Russia in response to its Ukraine invasion, high inflation and the European Central Bank raising rates; but it is not a deal-breaker.
"Yet we believe it's possible to be positive on European equities without being positive on the region's near-term economic prospects," he said.
The first of BlackRock's three reasons for this stance is valuations.
"Near-term economic gloom is already reflected in stock prices, in our view – and in the valuation gap between European and US stocks. Europe's reliance on Russian energy supply puts the region in a vulnerable position as war rages on. But European equity valuations are now below their long-term average, whereas US stocks appear far more expensive on a historical basis."
"We believe European stocks now represent good value for investors seeking to capitalise on recent market volatility to gain exposure to long-term structural trends – such as the shift to a net-zero future."
The next factor Bolton highlighted is stability, provided by high quality, income-paying stocks.
"Europe is home to many companies with the characteristics we see as critical to riding out periods of inflation and slower economic growth," he said. "We believe it is important to invest in quality companies that are highly profitable, have strong market share and consistently grow their earnings, cash flow and dividends – regardless of economic conditions."
"We place an emphasis on dividends as a key source of return in the absence of strong share price gains – and more than 70% of European companies said they would reinstate or increase dividends following unprecedented cuts during the Covid crisis."
Bolton explained that in terms of which particular stocks to buy, mature, cash generative companies that have proven their business models are the best bet. These companies can be found across sectors, but BlackRock particularly favours the European healthcare sector as a source for stocks that fit this criteria.
The third reason behind this tilt toward European stocks is the push toward net-zero carbon emissions.
"Europe is home to many 'best-in-class' companies that we believe are well positioned to help global governments meet their net-zero emissions targets," Bolton said. "The European Union aims for greenhouse gas emissions to be 55% lower than 1990 levels by 2030, and to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. The war in Ukraine has injected greater urgency into this policy."
"We seek to invest in companies that provide innovative solutions to the energy crisis and the drive to a net-zero future, such as the production of 'green' hydrogen – hydrogen production powered by renewable electricity – that can replace fossil fuels in industrial manufacturing and also be used to power trucks. We also like the makers of semiconductor manufacturing equipment essential to the shift to electric vehicles."
Bolton also pointed to companies in the energy efficiency sector that can reduce bills, such as insulation and window makers, as well as heat-pump manufacturers.
One other related opportunity is providers of wind and solar energy, which are clear beneficiaries of the EU's push for renewable energy.
In addition to healthcare and renewable energy, a third sector BlackRock says investors should target is banks.
"As rates rise, we expect banks to benefit because they can increase their net interest income (NII) – the difference between revenue from loans and the interest they pay on deposits. This means profit margins at 'rate-sensitive' banks – where NII grows more as rates rise – may expand even if growth slows, and they could be able to buy back shares."
"COVID accelerated the shift to digital banking, allowing some banks to close branches and cut costs. And even as central banks forecast higher rates, banking sector valuations remain low on a historical basis. European banks are now trading at valuations near those during the 2008 financial crisis, on a price-to-earnings basis."
More: Stocks to Buy which stocks should I buy? stock tips 2022 Stock market recommendations
stock market tips
Nigel Bolton
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2022-07-19T14:47:48Z
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Stocks to Buy: BlackRock CIO Reveals Shift Away From US to European
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https://www.businessinsider.com/stocks-to-buy-cheap-picks-shift-away-us-european-blackrock-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/stocks-to-buy-cheap-picks-shift-away-us-european-blackrock-2022-7
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Rumors of layoffs complement banks' declining profit reports
Fewer investment deals and declining profits for US banks could signal layoffs.
However, banks are well positioned to hang onto employees until they see how H2 2022 shapes up.
The news: Rumors of hiring freezes and layoffs are swirling as numerous US banks report sinking profits.
Turning tides: Following a year of rampant hiring amid peaking equity valuations and abundant public offerings and mergers, some of the biggest banks have pivoted toward cutting costs and slimming down staffing.
Interest rates and inflation continue to rise and a recession looms, suppressing businesses' appetite for mergers, IPOs, and other business deals.
Some bank executives hinted that a decrease of as much as 10% in industry workforce could unfold by the end of the year.
Large banks like JPMorgan and Wells Fargo have already begun letting go of workers in their mortgage divisions as rising interest rates cool down the housing market. After a hot year for SPAC deals, some believe that banks' beefed up SPAC divisions will see cuts next.
Falling profits: As banks release their second quarter results, almost all have reported falling profits.
Bank of America reported quarterly earnings of $0.73 per share, missing its estimate of $0.77, as well as a 32% decline in profits.
JPMorgan Chase reported a 28% decline in profits, citing the need to build up reserves for bad loans and share buybacks.
Wells Fargo's profit fell 48%, with the bank earning only $0.74 per share versus the estimated $0.80.
Goldman Sachs reported a 47% decrease in profit, but blew away earnings estimates, reporting $7.73 earnings per share against the estimated $6.56.
The reports further confirm that banks' investment deals are trailing off as the pandemic fades and the economy remains on edge.
Holding onto hope: Banks are remaining optimistic on loan growth as a source of revenue, but they are concerned the worsening economy might cause a dropoff in borrowing.
Lending fell off during the pandemic due to government stimulus, but it picked up again in the first half of 2022, despite rising interest rates.
JPMorgan Chase saw its loan book grow 7% in the second quarter compared to the same time last year.
Wells Fargo said its loan book increased 8.4% over the same time, and saw a 10% quarter-over-quarter rise in net interest income.
But executives at these banks and others in the US have said they expect credit quality to deteriorate in the coming months and consumer loans are likely to decrease in the current economic uncertainty.
The big takeaway: Banks are teetering on a fine line between needing to trim down workforces due to the deal slowdown and holding onto the talent they've recently attracted. Unlike the fintech sector, which is laying off workers nearly every day, the banking industry has the funds and the time to hang on to employees at least through the summer. This leaves banks better positioned to react in H2 2022, which may see the economy finally fall into a recession or shake itself out into a recovery. Letting go of workers too soon would be a bad move—as banks that have tightened up their budgets might not be able to rehire or replace them.
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2022-07-19T16:36:34Z
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Banks Consider Layoffs and Hiring Freezes As Profits Decline
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https://www.businessinsider.com/banks-consider-layoffs-and-hiring-freezes-as-profits-decline-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/banks-consider-layoffs-and-hiring-freezes-as-profits-decline-2022-7
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House Homeland Security Committee Chair Benny Thompson (D-MS).
The chairman of the House committee investigating the January 6, 2021 insurrection, announced he has COVID-19.
Rep. Bennie Thompson said in a statement that he is isolating and experiencing "mild symptoms.
He told the committee to proceed with Thursday's primetime hearing, a spokesperson said.
Rep. Bennie Thompson, chairman of the House committee investigating the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the US Capitol, announced he has tested positive for COVID-19 ahead of the committee's primetime hearing on Thursday.
A spokesperson for the committee said the Mississippi Democrat "has instructed the Select Committee to proceed with Thursday evening's hearing."
Thompson, in a Tuesday statement, said he tested positive on Monday and he is experiencing "mild symptoms."
"Gratefully, I am fully vaccinated and boosted," he said. "I am continuing to follow CDC guidelines and will be isolating for the next several days."
—Bennie G. Thompson (@BennieGThompson) July 19, 2022
Thursday's hearing at 8 p.m. will focuson how the insurrection unfolded at the White House as former President Donald Trump refused to act to help stop the violence as rioters attacked the Capitol.
Ex-deputy national security adviser Matthew Pottinger and former White House deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews will testify at the hearing.
More: Bennie Thompson January 6 committee capitol seige COVID
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2022-07-19T16:36:40Z
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Chairman of House January 6 Committee Announces COVID Diagnosis
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https://www.businessinsider.com/bennie-thompson-chairman-house-january-6-committee-covid-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/bennie-thompson-chairman-house-january-6-committee-covid-2022-7
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Retailers like Walmart and Amazon are betting big on selling advertising and can't hire fast enough. Here's how to snag one of those coveted positions.
Seth Dallaire, executive VP and chief revenue officer at Walmart.
Retailers are staffing up on employees to run their advertising businesses.
They're looking for people with deep knowledge and relationships with big brands.
Experts shared which skills people need to land these roles, now and in the future.
Even as the advertising industry braces for layoffs and drops in ad spend, retailers like Walmart, Amazon, and Ulta Beauty are staffing upas they race to build ad-selling businesses. Retail ads are predicted to grow 31% to $41 billion this year.
Walmart's advertising arm Connect, for instance, has more than 700 job listings on its career website ranging from account managers to data scientists.
"There is a talent war going on where everyone is trying to recruit and staff these positions," said Seth Dallaire, executive VP and chief revenue officer at Walmart. "Candidly, I can't hire fast enough."
Jay Haines, founder of Grace Blue, an executive search firm focused on marketing and communications, said that the firm's work with retail media has grown 50% over the past year and makes up 15% of job searches.
Experts shared the key things people need to break into retail media today and what skill will be in demand as the space matures.
A strong advertising background is more important than retail experience…for now
Kristi Argyilan, SVP of retail media at Albertsons, said she's more interested in talent with strong advertising backgrounds over people with strong retail experience.
As more retailers get into the advertising business, Argyilan wants people who know how to use technology to help advertisers reach the right audiences.
Dominic Manna, director of advertising operations at Ulta Beauty, said that he recently filled three positions on his team with people from adtech and marketing tech backgrounds. He looked for people with experience launching and updating advertising products and who know how to create audiences for ad targeting. People who've worked at consumer data platforms companies are particularly attractive to retailers, he said.
"You want to either build something from scratch or take something to the next level," he said. "You're excited about the unknown."
Retail media units also need people who can understand the major challenges the ad industry is facing.
Cara Pratt, SVP of Kroger Precision Media, said she wants people who understand broader growing privacy issues and the shift to cookieless advertising.
Retailers are also hiring people who already have deep ties to ad agencies and adtech companies. Walmart, for instance, is building out a team to help agencies and tech firms use Walmart's API to buy automated ads, Dallaire said.
Kroger Precision Media wants to make inroads with the large ad agencies that control billions of ad dollars, said Pratt.
"You need to make sure that you've got talent that understands the choices that national brand investment teams are making," she said.
As retail media units mature, they'll start looking for people with retail experience
While retail media departments today are focused on advertising talent, some ad buyers want those reps to have more retail know-how.
Julie Liu, who manages commerce media at chocolatier Ghirardelli, finds it easier working with ad reps with a retail background because they better understand brand budgeting challenges. For example, a sales rep mostly familiar with advertising might pitch ad campaigns that advertisers are already buying through large shopper marketing deals with retailers.
"They don't quite know how to navigate the buyer relationship," Liu said.
Walmart's Dallaire said that he expects retail media roles to be staffed by people with more diverse experience.
"The lines between trade and brand marketing are starting to blur — being able to speak the same language is really important," he said.
NOW WATCH: 'The beauty industry had really moved on': CoverGirl's Ukonwa Ojo takes us inside the company's biggest ever rebrand
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2022-07-19T16:37:10Z
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How to Get a Job in Retail Media
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https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-get-a-job-in-retail-media-2022-7
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Nike-backed hands-free shoe company raises $20 million in venture capital as popularity of slip-on sneakers grows
The parent company of the hands-free shoe brand Kizik has raised $20 million from investors.
Courtesy Kizik
HandsFree Labs today announced a $20 million Series B round. It's now raised about $34 million.
Nike invested in the company in 2019 and remains a minority owner and licensee.
HandsFree Labs also sells shoes through its Kizik brand, which grew 400% last year.
Nike-backed HandsFree Labs has raised a $20 million venture round, the latest sign of the growing popularity of slip-on sneakers.
"We think this is the future of footwear," the HandsFree Labs CEO Monte Deere told Insider. "Convenience in the world today is a clear and obvious über-trend. Whether you're talking about prewashed jeans, TSA pre-check, a camera in your phone, or a key fob for your car. In footwear, there has never been a functional change to convention like what we're bringing to the market."
HandsFree Labs plans to use the funding to grow its Kizik brand, including adding a kids' line and making new hires. Kizik's sales increased 400% last year, Deere said. He expects sales to increase 300% this year to 1 million pairs.
Kizik shoes look like traditional sneakers, but a spring in the back allows wearers to step into the shoe without undoing the laces. They're sold direct-to-consumer and retail for between $99 and $139.
HandsFree at first planned to develop a licensing business and a brand, but Deere said the Kizik brand had such "explosive" growth that it's likely to be the future of the company. Still, it was the licensing business that caught the eye of and received funding from Nike.
Monte Deere, the CEO of HandsFree.
Courtesy HandsFree
In 2019, Nike invested in HandsFree in its Series A round. The size of the round wasn't disclosed, but Deere said that, including the $20 million Series B round, HandsFree has raised around $34 million of capital.
Nike also licensed the right to use HandsFree's technology.
In 2021, Nike released the GO FlyEase, a shoe that hinges near the back of the foot and allows hands-free entry. The shoe was somewhat controversial, given its limited initial supply. Nike has since released the shoe in greater quantities, but some sizes are still out of stock.
The investment in HandsFree suggests Nike sees significant sales potential in slip-on sneakers. Nike's CEO, John Donahoe, was even photographed wearing a pair of GO FlyEase sneakers in an August story in The Wall Street Journal.
Deere said HandsFree has about 130 patents and pending applications. He was prohibited from saying more about Nike's involvement with the company or whether Nike has used HandsFree tech in its sneakers.
Nike didn't respond to an email about how it uses HandsFree's technology.
Tom Clarke, Nike's president of innovation, said in a 2019 news release, "Our partnership with HandsFree builds on Nike's leadership in using innovative technology to meet consumer needs."
Mike Pratt founded HandsFree in 2017. He previously founded and sold the bag company Ogio to Callaway golf for $75.5 million.
Pratt started developing HandsFree's technology at Ogio, then bought it from Ogio before the company was sold to Callaway. Deere, a business and mergers-and-acquisitions attorney, helped Pratt buy the technology, then became a corporate adviser and later the company's CEO.
Skip Lei, who worked for Nike for more than 30 years, serves as Kizik's chief product officer.
Boston's Newcastle Network led the $20 million Series B round. Deere said Newcastle has already helped HandsFree get a better understanding of its customers. For example, Newcastle determined that two-thirds of Kizik customers wear their Kiziks four or five times a week.
For now, Kizik sells DTC, but Deere said he's developing plans to open retail stores, starting with one in the Salt Lake City area. He thinks physical stores will help convert new customers.
"When people put on our shoes and have that very satisfying first step, you can see it in their faces," he said.
More: Retail Sportswear Footwear
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2022-07-19T16:37:34Z
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Nike-Backed Hands-Free Sneaker Company Raises $20 Million
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https://www.businessinsider.com/nike-backed-hands-free-sneaker-company-raises-20-million-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/nike-backed-hands-free-sneaker-company-raises-20-million-2022-7
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Several Wall Street economists are optimistic the US can dodge a recession in 2022.
While inflation hit a fresh 41-year high in June, experts see signs that price growth will soon cool.
Others expect 2023 to pose a greater recession risk as the Fed continues to raise interest rates.
Skyrocketing prices and aggressive rate hikes from the Federal Reserve have much of the US bracing for a recession. A handful of experts on Wall Street still think the economy can dodge a downturn.
Americans already feel awful about the economy, with consumer sentiment sitting near five-decade lows. Financial markets are similarly bleak, with the S&P 500 roughly 20% below the all-time high notched at the start of 2022.
But where the general public might think a downturn is coming soon — or here already — economists and investors aren't so sure. Several big Wall Street firms have recently published more optimistic outlooks for the US economy over the rest of the year.
Stifel analysts laid out a handful of rosy forecasts in a Sunday note to clients, signaling that the second half of 2022 will be much more encouraging than the first. The team recommended clients pivot from defensive investments to growth assets, arguing the risk outlook will improve over the next several months. They see oil prices continuing to fall and inflation peaking, with goods and energy relief coming "soon."
The inflation cooldown will allow the Fed to pause its interest rate hikes by December and help the US avert a downturn, the analysts added. The central bank has begun aggressively raising rates in an effort to tamp down demand and cool the four-decade-high inflation seen in recent months, and the main reason to fear a recession is that the Fed could go too far and trigger a broad downturn. Price growth easing off would lower that risk.
"Recession fear is over-done, and we see no U.S. recession in six to nine months," the team led by Barry Bannister said.
Other banks have revised their odds of a near-term downturn higher in recent weeks, but even those more bearish economists don't regard an economic slump as the most likely outcome. Recessions are most accurately described as a plunge in employment and "an inability of consumers and businesses to meet their financial obligations," Jonathan Golub, chief US market strategist at Credit Suisse, said in a July note, adding "neither of the conditions are present today."
JPMorgan analysts have pored "very carefully" over economic data and are similarly confident in the economy's resilience, Jeremy Barnum, the bank's chief financial officer, told reporters on a call, according to DealBook.
"There is essentially no evidence of actual weakness," he added.
Morgan Stanley analysts boosted the chance of a recession in the next 12 months to 36% on Monday, citing the decline in job openings and an uptick in jobless claims as early signs that growth is slowing. Still, a downturn isn't their base case just yet. The economy is set to grow 2.9% through the year as hiring demand and spending hold strong, analysts led by Mike Wilson said in a recent note, adding the forecast was made during "the most chaotic, hard-to-predict macroeconomic time in decades."
But where the outlook for the rest of 2022 is encouraging, several experts worry next year will pose a greater risk. It's "inevitable" that the economy plunges into a recession in 2023 as inflation proves harder to quash than expected, Bill Dudley, former president of the New York Fed, said in a June column published by Bloomberg. The Fed will have to prioritize fighting inflation over reaching maximum employment as it looks to avoid permanently faster price growth, Dudley added. That opens the door to a rise in unemployment and a decline in economic output.
"From a risk management perspective, better to act now, whatever the cost in terms of jobs and growth. Powell does not want to repeat the mistakes of the late 1960s and the 1970s," Dudley said.
More: Economy Inflation inflation outlook inflation forecast
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2022-07-19T16:37:52Z
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Bankers, Investors More Confident the US Will Dodge Recession in 2022
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https://www.businessinsider.com/recession-outlook-inflation-forecasts-encouraging-wall-street-investors-bankers-economists-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/recession-outlook-inflation-forecasts-encouraging-wall-street-investors-bankers-economists-2022-7
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Stripe cut its internal valuation by 28%—falling from $40 billion last year to about $29 billion.
The company's valuation drop highlights economic uncertainty and investors' fears of a recession within the next year.
The news: Stripe reportedly cut its internal valuation by 28%, people familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal—falling from $40 billion last year to about $29 billion.
Fidelity, one of Stripe's investors, has cut Stripe's valuation every month this year except March.
How we got here: Stripe didn't give a reason for the valuation drop, but the macroeconomic climate likely played a role. A range of factors, like high inflation—which grew 9.1% last month, the fastest increase since 1981—and rising interest rates have triggered a rapid sell-off in fintech stocks, sending shockwaves through the broader tech space.
High inflation is also threatening to hamper consumer spending. This could hurt Stripe and other payment firms, whose revenues rely on consumer spending. Many firms are also bracing for an economic downturn by cutting costs—and in some cases trimming staff.
Stripe isn't the only payments company feeling the economic pressure:
After protracted fundraising negotiations, Klarna managed to snag $800 million last week at a $6.7 billion valuation—a jarring contrast to the $46 billion high it achieved last year.
Adyen's stock slid 40% since the start of 2022. And PayPal's has dropped 60% during the same period.
What this means: Stripe's valuation drop highlights economic uncertainty and investors' fears of a recession within the next year.
Stripe was once lauded as the most valuable startup in the US and the third most valuable in the world. This may not have come as much of a surprise considering it counts companies like Amazon, Lyft, and Shopify as clients.
Stripe's volume grew 60% year over year (YoY) in 2021, reaching a whopping $640 billion. It also managed to bring in 1,400 new businesses a day in 2021. Much of the growth from the last two years stemmed from the pandemic-induced ecommerce boom and the rapid shift of businesses moving online. Retail ecommerce sales in the US surged 36.4% and 17.8% YoY in 2020 and 2021, respectively, per eMarketer forecasts from Insider Intelligence. This year, sales are expected to grow 9.4% YoY.
The big takeaway: Despite declining valuations across the wider tech space, fintech still remains on top—putting firms like Stripe ahead of other tech upstarts.
An estimated 21% of all venture deals last year were for fintech startups, according to data from CB Insights cited by TechCrunch. And investments into fintech firms in Q2 weren't far off from the same period last year despite a notable slowdown.
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2022-07-19T16:38:04Z
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Stripe Reportedly Cut Its Internal Valuation by 28%
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https://www.businessinsider.com/stripe-slashes-its-valuation-to-29-billion-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/stripe-slashes-its-valuation-to-29-billion-2022-7
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4 veteran Taskrabbit users reveal how they make thousands a month doing odd jobs for strangers
Ann Matica
Taskrabbit matches gig workers with clients who are seeking help with everyday tasks.
The services can include anything from shoveling snow and building furniture to organization.
Insider spoke with four people about how they navigate work and maximize income on Taskrabbit.
Many people are turning to Taskrabbit — an online marketplace that matches freelance workers with clients who need help with everyday tasks — to make fast money, put their skills to use, and fund their own businesses and passion projects.
Insider spoke with four Taskers about what skills they offer, how much money they make, and their best tips and tricks for succeeding in the fast-paced gig economy.
Some offer snow removal or yard-work services, while others plan events or assemble furniture. The work isn't always easy, they said, and negotiating prices with clients can take some trial and error, but these workers have found ways to make thousands every month — and don't plan on stopping any time soon.
William Young optimizes his billable hours
William Young.
Emily Li
William Young was struggling to find work during the pandemic after graduating from New York University with an economics degree. Then, he hired someone from Taskrabbit to help him move and found out how lucrative work through the site could be. Young signed up to become a Tasker soon after and started working full-time in July 2020. Within his first week on Taskrabbit, he was already making $100 per day.
Today, Young is an elite Tasker — one of the site's highest-rated workers — with more than 1,400 tasks under his belt and a five-star rating. The majority of his work includes mounting TVs, mirrors, air conditioners, and other furniture.
To make the most profit possible while completing tasks, Young plans his routes the night before and abides by a tight schedule during the day. He always keeps his bag packed and goes on monthly Home Depot runs to stock up on equipment for jobs. Last year, Young made more than $155,000 on Taskrabbit by being strategic with his time and skills.
Young said the biggest mistake he made when first starting out as a Tasker was going over the time he allotted for each job. "Having a break in between tasks may help during situations like these, but you don't want to build too many buffers into your schedule or you won't be maximizing work potential and will have too much downtime."
Read more: I'm a 23-year-old who's made more than $130,000 on TaskRabbit this year — here's how
Read more: I've made more than $155,000 on TaskRabbit this year. Here's my best advice for other Taskers.
Giovanny Tarrago pays attention to the little details
Giovanny Tarrago.
Courtesy of Giovanny Tarrago
After quitting his sales job at Coca-Cola, Giovanny Tarrago entered the gig economy with a goal to make more money and be less stressed about work. He heard about Taskrabbit through a friend and joined the platform in 2020.
Initially, he offered moving and heavy-lifting services, but later added delivery, furniture assembly, and snow removal to his profile, too. In 2021, he made $78,000 in total.
February 2021 was Tarrago's best-earning month yet on Taskrabbit. He racked in more than $11,000 in one month by charging $60 an hour for snow removal services in Chicago. On days with lots of snowfall, he averages five to seven jobs. "When clearing driveways and sidewalks, you're being hired because the client might have young kids or they may be older adults. Take pride in your work, do the best job possible, and don't cut corners," he said.
"Your hard work and attention to detail will lead to repeat clients that will trust you enough to keep their house clear in the future and recommend you to their families and friends, which leads to more money," Tarrago added.
Read more: I make up to $11,000 a month on Task Rabbit — here's how I land and retain clients
Jeffrey Delerme keeps his skills fresh
Jeffrey Delerme.
Courtesy of Jeffrey Delerme
Jeffrey Delerme became a Tasker in 2017. He began picking up jobs to make extra money on the side while also working to build his own multimedia production company, Green Studio NYC.
"Taskrabbit helped me generate the income necessary to keep my personal life afloat while still being able to dedicate myself to my family and other business ventures," he said. On average, Delerme makes $10,000 a month doing moving tasks, yardwork, and removals.
His biggest tip for new Taskers is to learn skills you can apply to your jobs. "I used to do assembly and handyman work on Taskrabbit, and I took free classes at Home Depot that taught specific skills, like hanging drywall and mounting things, I also used the Tasker resources tab via the Taskrabbit app to learn new skills and stay informed."
Read more: I make $10,000 a month on TaskRabbit in New York City. My secret to success is investing in my business — here's how.
Vanessa Garcia diversifies her services
Vanessa Garcia.
Courtesy of Vanessa Garcia
In 2017, a friend of Vanessa Garcia's told her about people who were getting paid to assemble Ikea furniture through Taskrabbit. Once Garcia signed up on the site, she realized there was a lot more she could do than just build furniture.
"There were requests for everything from personal-assistant work to event planning and staffing, and much more," she told Insider. "I began doing event staffing and furniture assembly once a week in San Diego, where I lived at the time, and then it became my weekend gig."
When money started to get tight and Garcia was close to getting evicted in 2019, she turned to Taskrabbit work full-time. She now offers 25 different skills on the app and has completed more than 1,000 tasks.
Her favorite part of being a Tasker is getting to create her own schedule. "Since you're not forced to meet a quota, sometimes I'll work seven days a week, or sometimes I'll work three days a week. It's all about flexibility and the ability to choose when and how much you get to work for and what you want to do," she said.
Read more: I make $7,000 a month on Taskrabbit doing odd jobs like event planning, gift wrapping, and organizing closets. Here's how I got my start.
More: landing page TaskRabbit Careers Strategy
freelance work
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2022-07-19T16:38:10Z
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4 Veteran Taskrabbit Users Share How They Make Thousands a Month
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https://www.businessinsider.com/taskrabbit-users-share-best-advice-make-thousands-every-month
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https://www.businessinsider.com/taskrabbit-users-share-best-advice-make-thousands-every-month
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Away just parted with its marketing chief for the second time in about a year
Away just parted with its chief marketing officer for the second time in about a year.
Melissa Weiss was named as part of a leadership hiring spree to jumpstart growth as travel resumes.
Away has set big growth goals for 2022 after being crushed earlier in the pandemic.
More leadership change is afoot at direct-to-consumer luggage company Away, which has just parted with its CMO for the second time in a year.
Melissa Weiss, who started in November, left in July, the company said. She succeeded Selena Kalvaria, who left in June 2021 after 11 months for a role at Gucci. Weiss' appointment was announced along with two other key execs, Chief Operating Officer Charles Liu and Chief Digital Officer Luke Chatelain, who were considered key to the company's growth as it sought to rebound from the pandemic. Weiss previously had marketing roles at Lyft, Barry's Bootcamp, and others.
Away furloughed half its staff and laid off 10% early in the pandemic as its sales dropped 90%. But people have resumed traveling after the pandemic, and Away's CEO Jen Rubio said it has set aggressive growth targets for 2022. It just launched a new line of outdoor luggage, F.A.R—For All Routes—to appeal to male travelers and capitalize on an increase in outdoor travel in the pandemic.
Along with its business challenges, Away has had its share of leadership changes — Stuart Haselden left as CEO in early 2021, succeeded by cofounder Rubio. Rubio's fellow cofounder Steph Korey has resigned, returned, and resigned.
Away has not announced a replacement for Weiss, who hasn't been reachable for comment. Insider was unable to determine if Weiss had started a new role.
NOW WATCH: With digital business growing, AB InBev's CMO wants to deliver your beer right to your seat
More: Away Away luggage Marketing
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2022-07-19T18:29:18Z
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Away Luggage Company Has Lost Its Second Chief Marketer in a Year
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https://www.businessinsider.com/away-luggage-company-lost-second-chief-marketer-in-a-year-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/away-luggage-company-lost-second-chief-marketer-in-a-year-2022-7
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A food-tech CEO says he went 'cold turkey' after being 'addicted' to cheap venture capital and laid off 97 staffers to prep for a recession
Chris Webb, the CEO of ChowNow.
Chris Webb cofounded ChowNow in 2011 to help independent restaurants with digital orders.
The food-tech firm provides the industry a commission-free marketplace for web orders.
In an interview with Insider, Webb explained why he cut 97 workers last week.
On June 1, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon told investors to prepare for an economic "hurricane."
Chris Webb, the CEO of the veteran online-ordering company ChowNow, heeded the warning.
The Southern California food-tech firm, backed by 3L Capital and Catalyst Investors, cut 97 employees across all divisions last week, as TechCrunch first reported.
ChowNow, which works with 21,000 independent restaurants, follows a string of food-tech companies in cutting staff, including Reef Technology, Gopuff, Sunday, and Nextbite, as valuations plummet and investor look for profitability over growth.
But ChowNow didn't lay off people to reduce out-of-control burn rates or scrap underperforming parts of the company, Webb told Insider.
Instead, it was to prepare for an economic storm, he said.
"Interest rates have been essentially zero for 12 years, and that has allowed businesses, ChowNow included, to grow very quickly and take advantage of cheap capital," Webb said. "That era is now behind us."
It didn't feel that way in 2021. Webb said capital markets were humming, venture capitalist were generous with money, and food-tech companies like Toast and Olo went public with high valuations.
That momentum prompted Webb to declare 2022 an "investment" year for ChowNow, an online-ordering tool he cofounded in 2011 to help local restaurants grow their digital orders long before the food-delivery war between Grubhub and DoorDash.
"The world was very, very different last Thanksgiving," Webb, who made Insider's list of restaurant-tech power players last year, said.
ChowNow hired dozens of employees to develop products for 2022.
"It was the wrong year to do it," Webb said. "We were too ambitious with our plans for this year. And now we need to bring it back in line."
While food-tech market leaders like Olo, Toast, and DoorDash are posting record revenue, their stocks remain "at all-time lows," Webb said.
That was "the canary in the coal mine" that prompted ChowNow to cut staff, he said. The company is now at about 400 employees, the same staffing level as a year ago.
"It was strictly a financial decision as we prepare the company for what will be a recession," he said.
While some tech disruptors like Reef are on shaky footing, ChowNow recorded its best month of the year in June.
"We signed up more new accounts and new restaurants in June than we did all year long," he said, adding that ChowNow's churn rate was low in both May and June.
"It's not like our business has imploded. It hasn't at all," he said.
To date, ChowNow has raised about $75 million. By cutting staff now, Webb believes ChowNow can ride out the storm ahead without relying on investors, he said.
"We've been addicted to venture capital, like so many other companies for a decade," he said. "We went cold turkey this month like anyone that's trying to kick a bad habit."
And while others are scaling back, expansion is still in the works for ChowNow.
Webb declined to offer details but said the company was "investing in a number of partnerships" that would be announced soon and "be very big for us."
"As we look further out beyond this quarter, we are much closer to break even and profitable than we were going into this quarter," he said.
Are you a food-tech insider with insight to share on recent layoffs? Got a tip? Contact this reporter via email at nluna@insider.com or via the Signal encrypted number 714-875-6218.
More: Food tech Layoffs ChowNow
Reef Technologies
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2022-07-19T18:29:30Z
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ChowNow CEO Laid Off 97 Staffers to Prep for Recession
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https://www.businessinsider.com/chownow-layoffs-ceo-prepare-recession-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/chownow-layoffs-ceo-prepare-recession-2022-7
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11 cloud startups like Airtable, Notion, and Figma that are hiring even as others lay off staff
Paayal Zaveri and Emilia David
While numerous startups have laid off employees in recent months, some companies are still hiring and growing.
Cloud startups have been hit hard by the downturn, and many have laid off employees.
But some are still hiring and growing amid the downturn.
Insider identified 11 companies, like Canva, Figma, and Notion, that are still hiring.
Startups across the US have laid off staff, and cloud companies are not immune to cost-cutting in the economic downturn. Startups have been hit hard, especially companies that may have raised massive amounts of funding over the past few years but haven't experienced growth that matched the influx of cash from investors.
Cloud startups like Superhuman, ClickUp, DataRobot, Snyk, and others have laid off employees over the past few months. But some are still hiring and looking to grow their businesses.
Insider compiled a list of 11 cloud startups that are still hiring amid the downturn, including which types of roles they're hiring for and salary information where available. Many of the companies raised rounds in the past year and have additional cash to hire and expand their businesses.
Salary information is from H-1B visa-application data. Companies are required to disclose salary offers in work-visa applications submitted to the US Office of Foreign Labor Certification, which authorizes hiring non-US-based employees and publicly releases the data.
The companies that have been hiring range from established startups like Canva, Figma, and Notion to earlier-stage and mid-stage companies like Front and SpotOn.
Here are 11 cloud startups that are hiring amid the downturn:
Chargebee employees.
Jelle Draper
Total VC funding: $468.2 million
Notable investors: Sequoia Capital India, Tiger Global, Sapphire Ventures, Insight Partners
Chargebee, a revenue-management platform for subscription services like Calendly, Doodle, and GuavaPass, listed 41 job openings on its website. It's hiring for different departments with a focus on software engineers to work on its infrastructure.
Many of its openings are remote within North America, but the company is also hiring for positions in India. Chargebee plans to hire several engineers to work on its cloud platform and a senior executive to work in its governance-and-compliance unit.
H-1B visa data showed that product managers at Chargebee could make $146,000 as an associate to almost $280,000 as a director.
Chargebee said in a statement in June that its culture is built around four key values — curiosity, empathy, bias for action, and customer centricity — and that it's looking for candidates who fit those values.
Clear Street
Sachin Kumar, a cofounder of Clear Street.
Total VC funding: $335 million
Notable investors: Prysm Capital, NextGen Venture Partners, Walleye Capital, Belvedere Capital Partners, McLaren Strategic Ventures
Clear Street, a trading platform, hit unicorn status in May after raising $165 million, and the company plans to use its new capital to grow its product and hire. The round was led by Prysm Capital with participation from NextGen Venture Partners, Walleye Capital, Belvedere, Near Foundation, McLaren Strategic Ventures, and Validus Growth Investors.
Sachin Kumar, the company's cofounder and chief technology officer, said hiring is a top priority. "We're solving industrywide problems in a unique way and building our team of engineers to expand our reach across asset classes, geographies, and client profiles," Kumar said. "We're recruiting from places like Alphabet and Meta to build the infrastructure to make financial markets more accessible to all."
Clear Street lists more than 20 jobs on its careers site. As the company processes more than $3 billion in daily trading volume, many of its openings focus on the engineering side. Clear Street also listed an opening for a markets chief compliance officer with experience in crypto.
Narmi
The Narmi team.
Total VC funding: $55.5 million
Notable investors: Greycroft, NEA, Picus Capital, Contour Venture Partners, Firebolt Ventures, Patriot Financial Partners
Narmi, which provides the infrastructure behind digital banks and digital bank accounts, recently raised $35 million from NEA and Greycroft. With its new funding, the company is looking to expand its team, especially as it looks to invest more in research and development.
Nikhil Lakhanpal, a cofounder of Narmi, said the company wants to continue hiring as it grows its offerings for digital banks. "We are continuing to hire smartly and hire the best people," Lakhanpal said. "We want to keep delivering an employee experience that we're very proud of."
It lists jobs in marketing, product, engineering, and sales, including a director of growth with experience working with regional and community financial institutions.
In June, Notion acquired a calendar app, Cron, founded by Raphael Schaad, left, pictured with Ivan Zhao, Notion's founder.
Notable investors: Coatue, Sequoia Capital, Shine Capital, Octave, Bossanova Investimentos, Index Ventures, Offline Ventures
Notion, a cloud note-taking and workspace company, said it's hiring for 78 positions and hopes to add more to its jobs portal as it looks to "grow thoughtfully in the second half of the year."
The company is hiring across sales, marketing, legal, finance, engineering, product, and design. While the company did not share salary data, H-1B visa data suggests data engineers — one of the roles it's hiring for — can make $180,000 to $193,000.
Kate Taylor, Notion's head of global recruiting, told Insider in an email that the company has been growing but wants to find talent that fits its values.
"Our business has been growing steadily and we are always looking to find the best talent to support our global customer base," Taylor said. "At this stage of our growth, the most important thing we can do is hire talented people that excel in their craft and align with our company values. This is a huge moment in time for us to attract the best talent."
Christian Horz/Getty
Notable investors: Dragoneer Investment Group, Andreessen Horowitz, DST Global, Franklin Templeton, Mubadala Investment Company, G Squared
SpotOn, which makes cloud-based payments systems for restaurants and retailers, grew its product offerings in the past year, including launching a platform for independent retailers to compete with e-commerce companies and big-box stores.
SpotOn raised $300 million in May in a round led by Dragoneer Investment Group. It said in its funding announcement that it would use that capital to "further develop technology products." Part of its growth includes hiring talent to fill positions in its sales, corporate, and product and engineering teams.
The company is hiring for positions in all its offices — in San Francisco, Chicago, Detroit, Denver, Mexico City, and Krakow, Poland.
SpotOn listed several account-executive roles, including bilingual positions, to act as sales representatives to local businesses. It's also looking to bolster its product-design and marketing teams.
Melanie Perkins, Canva's cofounder and CEO.
Total VC funding: $581.49 million
Notable investors: T. Rowe Price, Dragoneer Investment Group, Blackbird Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Bond Capital, General Catalyst
Canva, a design-software startup, has been growing rapidly, and its valuation increased to $40 billion from $15 billion between funding rounds in April and September 2021. Jennie Rogerson, Canva's global head of people, said the company is "welcoming new talent to the team each week."
The company says it's added over 670 people this year and plans to continue hiring. It has over 200 job openings on LinkedIn. Rogerson said many roles are in engineering, design, product management, and marketing.
Canva is based in Australia but has been expanding to the US and other countries. The company is hiring several customer-success managers in the US, Australia, and the UK — the role pays $120,000 in the US, according to H-1B visa data. The company is also hiring product-marketing managers, who can earn $165,000 to $185,000 in the US, the visa data suggests.
Figma CEO Dylan Field.
Notable investors: Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, Greylock Partners, Index Ventures, Kleiner Perkins
The design startup Figma has over 200 job openings on LinkedIn. "We are hiring across departments with a specific focus on product, design, engineering, and sales," Nadia Singer, Figma's vice president of talent, said.
"In addition to role focus, we're scaling around the world. Our 100th employee in EMEA started today, we just opened offices in Paris and Berlin last month, and we are opening our office in Tokyo later this summer. We just hit the 750-employee mark globally and expect our headcount to be at 1,100 by the end of the year."
Many of Figma's open engineering jobs are for specific products, such as FigJam, the company's online whiteboard tool. Glassdoor suggests engineering salaries average around $170,000, excluding bonuses or other compensation.
Many roles list specific locations, but working remotely or from a different country is also an option — for example, a listing for an enterprise solutions architect says the person could work from the company's offices in UK or Germany.
Figma is also hiring for product-support roles outside the US, including specialist roles in Japan. It's unclear what those would pay in Japan, but Glassdoor suggests the average salary for a product-support specialist is about $83,000.
Howie Liu, Airtable's cofounder and CEO.
Total VC funding: $1.35 billion
Notable investors: Caffeinated Capital, CRV, Thrive Capital, Thread Capital, Benchmark, Coatue Management
Airtable has gained popularity as its no-code/low-code tools and productivity features helped people work from home. The company is looking to hire more than 300 people globally before the end of its fiscal year, a spokesperson told Insider.
Nineteen of those positions would be for the company's new Europe, Africa, and Middle East headquarters in London, and the rest would be based in the US. The company has 94 jobs listed across seven locations.
Many open roles are in product development and customer-facing teams like sales, customer success, and customer support. The company is also hiring engineers for mobile, platform, and security. H-1B visa data from 2021 and the first quarter of 2022 suggests the salary for a software engineer is $145,246 to $250,000.
The company has multiple listings for a customer-success manager, which the visa data indicates can earn $122,637.
Mihir Shukla, the CEO of Automation Anywhere.
Notable investors: New Enterprise Associates, Goldman Sachs, Salesforce Ventures
Automation Anywhere makes tools for robotic process automation, meant to help people automate mundane tasks. Its CEO, Mihir Shukla, told Insider the company is hiring for roles such as software engineers, sales account executives, product-marketing managers, and customer-success specialists over the next few months. It has 101 roles open.
"This is to support increased growth of automation," Shukla said. "Business leaders are indicating that intelligent automation has become a pivotal strategy to navigate current market challenges and sustain business performance."
The company is hiring software engineers at various levels; the H-1B visa data indicates it pays $119,350 to $184,080 depending on role and level.
On the customer-facing side, one high-level role the company is hiring for is a senior vice president of customer success to lead strategy, programs, and teams. It's also hiring several sales account executives and a senior sales engineer, which pays $95,139 to $119,000, according to the visa data.
Mathilde Collin, the cofounder and CEO of Front.
Courtesy of Front
Notable investors: Salesforce Ventures, Battery Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Social Capital
Front started as a shared-inbox tool to help companies collaborate but has pivoted to focus on making it easier for companies to communicate with their customers. It recently raised a new funding round that valued the company at $1.7 billion. It plans to expand both in the US and overseas; it just opened an office in Dublin.
Kelsey Biggs, Front's vice president of talent acquisition, said Front's investing in areas like IT, human resources, finance, product, and engineering across its four markets – San Francisco, Chicago, Paris, and Dublin — and hiring for remote roles too. Biggs said the company plans to grow its headcount in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa by 80% over the next two to three years.
The company has 25 roles open, most of which are in engineering or customer- and sales-related teams. One engineering job the company is hiring for is a senior security engineer, which pays $155,000 to $215,000 in the US.
Outreach CEO Manny Medina.
Notable investors: Sands Capital, Salesforce Venture, Lone Pine Capital, Trinity Ventures, Microsoft Ventures, Mayfield
Outreach, a sales-engagement company, has over 100 job openings on LinkedIn.
A lot of the openings are in engineering. Data from H-1B visa applications suggests a staff software engineer can earn $180,000 to $205,000, while a senior staff software engineer would earn a bit more.
The company is also hiring some data-science roles, including a senior staff applied scientist, which the visa data suggests can earn about $230,000. There's also an opening for a staff machine-learning engineer, who would likely earn about $180,500.
More: Features Cloud cloud startups
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2022-07-19T18:29:36Z
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Canva and Other Cloud Startups That Are Still Hiring Amid the Downturn
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https://www.businessinsider.com/cloud-startups-that-are-hiring-canva-notion-figma-layoffs-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/cloud-startups-that-are-hiring-canva-notion-figma-layoffs-2022-7
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Even though your grocery and gas bills are higher, Hasbro says people are still buying toys and games
Toymaker Hasbro found consumers were willing to pay more for some toys and games.
Toymaker Hasbro reported better-than-expected quarterly profits on Tuesday's earnings call.
The home of Transformers, Play-Doh, and Power Rangers found higher prices didn't deter consumers.
Hasbro expects inflationary pressures will continue through the holiday season.
Even with the cost of games and toys going up, players gonna play, play, play, play, play.
In the face of higher raw material costs and supply-chain disruptions, Hasbro, the maker of My Little Pony and games like "Magic: The Gathering," has raised prices. But consumers' appetite for toys and gaming remains sturdy despite the price hikes, company officials said on an earnings call Tuesday.
"We have very resilient segments across toys, games, and entertainment. These tend to be small luxuries that consumers value pretty highly." Chris Cocks, CEO of Hasbro, said on the call.
The toymaker reported better-than-expected quarterly profits on Tuesday, posting income of $142 million for the quarter ended in late June compared with a loss of $22.9 million a year earlier. Revenue edged up 1% to $1.34 billion.
With a toy portfolio that includes classic names like Transformers, Play-Doh, and Power Rangers, Hasbro found some consumers were not dissuaded by higher costs.
"We continue to see consumers being very resilient with a deep well of savings and a large amount of passion for pursuing what they love," Cocks said.
Hasbro expects inflation will continue through the holiday season, an assessment that's in line with many economists' forecasts. However, if past economic downturns indicate future performance, Cocks said he's confident that the company will continue to fare well.
"The games business tends to be very resilient," Cocks said. "'Magic: The Gathering' has grown 12 out of the last 13 years, and that growth vector started back in 2008, during the last financial crisis."
Consumers' willingness to plunk down more money for toys and card games like "Magic: The Gathering" — or, in some cases, get their parents to do so — comes as inflation sits at its highest level in 40 years. Costs for essentials like gas, groceries, and rent have soared amid surging demand and supply-line bottlenecks following the pandemic-induced shutdowns that battered large portions of the economy.
Despite absorbing higher production costs and commodity volatility, sales at Hasbro have remained stable with the second-quarter expansion of tabletop and online versions of "Magic: The Gathering." Hasbro's "Wizard's of the Coast" and digital gaming division, which includes the "Dungeons & Dragons" franchise, saw a 17% jump in operating profit. "Dungeons & Dragons" appears to be enjoying renewed interest in recent years after being prominently featured on the popular Netflix series "Stranger Things."
Last week, Hasbro announced a partnership with The New York Times to turn Wordle, the viral online puzzle game, into a board game. The forthcoming "Wordle: The Party Game" will hit shelves in October.
Hasbro shares rose about 1% in afternoon trading.
More: Hasbro Hasbro stock Earnings earning season
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2022-07-19T18:29:42Z
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Consumers' Appetite for Toys and Gaming Remains Sturdy
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https://www.businessinsider.com/consumers-appetite-toys-and-gaming-remains-sturdy-despite-price-hikes-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/consumers-appetite-toys-and-gaming-remains-sturdy-despite-price-hikes-2022-7
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Heinrich suggested on Friday that Manchin should be stripped of his chairmanship of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee after the latest round of talks fell apart. That belief does not seem to be widespread among Senate Democrats so far.
"Joe Manchin truly is Lucy, he just keeps moving the football every time the rest of the team runs up to kick it," Rep. Andy Levin of Michigan told Bloomberg. He was referring to the famous "Lucy and the football" gag in which Peanuts character Lucy van Pelt pulls the football away from Charlie Brown at the last second.
More: Policy Joe Manchin Congress Democrats
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2022-07-19T18:30:12Z
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Manchin Wants Congress to Pass Climate Programs After Blocking Climate in BBB
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https://www.businessinsider.com/manchin-climate-programs-congress-blocking-biden-bbb-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/manchin-climate-programs-congress-blocking-biden-bbb-2022-7
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I used to be able to fill up my gas tank for $40. Now it costs $90.
I'm anxious about inflation, but these 5 apps help me keep my spending in check.
I set a 10-minute time limit for food delivery apps like Postmates to curb spending on takeout.
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a 9.1% inflation rate from June 2021 to June 2022 — the fastest it's climbed since 1981.
Like any other brunch-loving millennial, I'm freaking out about inflation. When I first moved to Los Angeles in 2020, I could fill up my gas tank with $40 — now it costs $90. My fears of food scarcity are triggered when I see the rising cost of groceries at the store.
Even though I feel helpless against the rising cost of living in LA, these five apps are helping me keep my spending in check.
GasBuddy compares gas prices in your area so you can fill up at the cheapest gas station. GasBuddy users update gas prices on the app, and you can even see when the price was last updated. At some stations, gas is $7 a gallon. Filling up at the cheapest gas stations in my area gives me a tiny slice of peace.
2. SpotHero
Having lived in New York for five years, there are two things I absolutely loathe about LA: looking for parking and paying for parking. Some parking spots in this city cost $20 an hour — $4 more than the $15.96 an hour minimum wage in this city.
SpotHero allows me to scour the area for the cheapest parking spots so I don't have to waste gas looking for parking.
3. Chipper
I owe $96,000 in student loans, and my monthly payments for my private student loans are $637. When the federal student loan payments come back in September, I'll owe an additional $302 a month. My biggest worry about inflation is how I'll be able to afford my student loan payments in September.
Chipper is a free app that deposits your spare change directly to your student loan account. Unlike Navient and NelNet's online platforms, Chipper makes it really easy to track your debt repayment journey. Thanks to Chipper, I actually feel like I understand my student loans for the first time since I started taking them out in 2010.
Obviously, my spare change isn't going to make all of my student loan debt go away, but having all the information I need about my student loans and repayment options handy in one app gives me peace of mind.
When my friends pay me back for coffee, lunch, or dinner, I keep the money in my Venmo account and treat it like another savings account, or a sinking fund specifically for hanging out with my friends. This is a habit I started earlier in the pandemic when I was barely making ends meet.
This helps me save money by not dipping into my checking account every time I want to spend money with friends. It also makes it easier to decide if I actually have the money to go out. Instead of doing the mental math and checking what automatic payments are still going to come out of my checking account, I just need to look at my Venmo balance to see that I'll be able to afford going out.
5. Screen time limits for food delivery apps
On iPhones, there's a setting that allows you to limit your time on certain apps, like social media. You'll find the feature under Settings > Screen Time > App Limits. I set time limits for food delivery apps like GrubHub, Postmates, and DoorDash.
I noticed that the bulk of my time ordering food is spent indecisively scrolling through takeout options. Usually, after spending 30 to 45 minutes trying to decide what to eat, I'm unhappy with what I end up getting because I skimped and chose a cheaper restaurant, or a fancier option didn't deliver a fulfilling portion.
Instead of beating myself up for my takeout choices, I decided to nip the whole process in the bud and set a 10-minute time limit on food delivery apps. This way, when I order food, it's because I'm craving something specific — not because I'm bored or too lazy to cook.
I used to get takeout once or twice a week, but now I only order takeout once or twice a month because my timer method is so effective. Instead of wasting another 45 minutes finding the best deal across the apps, I'd rather spend that time making a meal with what I already have at home.
PERSONAL FINANCE The best budgeting apps of July 2022
TECH How to save money on gas with Google Maps' fuel-efficient routes
More: Inflation inflation 2022 recession 2022 recession 2023
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2022-07-19T18:30:24Z
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5 Apps I'm Using to Save Money While Inflation Rages on
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https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/personal-finance-apps-balance-out-help-inflation-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/personal-finance-apps-balance-out-help-inflation-2022-7
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From left to right, Republican Senate candidates Herschel Walker, Mehmet Oz and JD Vance.
Megan Varner, Jeff Swensen/Getty Images
From lackluster fundraising totals to low poll numbers, key GOP Senate candidates are in trouble.
Georgia's Herschel Walker, Pennsylvania's Mehmet Oz and Ohio's JD Vance are in winnable races.
Still, each of them has struggled to break away in general election matchups.
The road for Republicans retaking the Senate runs through Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Georgia.
While it's still early, these states' three GOP nominees who've picked up the backing of former President Donald Trump have yet to break away from their Democratic opponents in polling and have already fallen behind in fundraising.
Herschel Walker has struggled with gaffes on the campaign trail and revelations about secret children in Georgia.
A seemingly dormant Mehmet Oz campaign has struggled to unify the MAGA base in Pennsylvania.
JD Vance emerged from the second quarter with a paltry fundraising haul, bringing in just $2.3 million compared to $9.1 million for his Democratic opponent in Ohio, Rep. Tim Ryan.
"They're not the best choices because we're not going back to Trump," a member of the Republican National Committee told Insider, requesting anonymity to speak candidly about worries among the party brass.
Pennsylvania Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz joins former President Donald Trump onstage during a rally in support of his campaign at the Westmoreland County Fairgrounds on May 6, 2022 in Greensburg, Pennsylvania.
"I think the Trumpsters are loud, and they think we're going back to Trump," the RNC member continued. "And I could be wrong, but my gut is that we need independent voters to win, and we're not going to get the independents if we run Trump people."
The midterms climate still remains harsh for Democrats, with inflation persisting as a top issue for voters and President Joe Biden's approval rating still below 40%, according to FiveThirtyEight's rolling calculation.
Democrats would welcome the chance to win the pair of seats being vacated by retiring Republican Sens. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Rob Portman of Ohio. After all, they enter the 2022 midterms holding onto the tightest of margins in the Senate with a 50-50 split, bolstered by Vice President Kamala Harris as the tiebreaking vote when needed.
"It's simply amazing and/or scary to me that Democrats' greatest hope to keep the Senate depends on a bunch of right-wing whack jobs being too toxic to get elected in this day and age," Jim Manley, a Democratic strategist with decades of experience in the Senate under Ted Kennedy and Harry Reid, told Insider in a text message.
'Enough slippage' to give Democrats a chance
Alan Abramowitz, a political science professor at Emory University, outlined a trend of Vance, Oz, and Walker polling lower than other Republicans for statewide office in the same otherwise favorable midterms landscape.
With the slight exception of Vance — who sat 3 percentage points ahead of Ryan in the latest USA Today poll, within the margin of error — Oz and Walker both trail their Democratic opponents in the Real Clear Politics tracker. Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman leads Oz by between 6 and 9 percentage points, while Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock leads Walker by an average of 2.8 percentage points.
"Candidates still matter, especially in these high profile races for Senate governor compared to House races," Abramowitz told Insider.
They run the risk of repeating the mistakes of other Republicans fumbling seemingly safe Senate seats in recent years, such as Roy Moore of Alabama in a 2017 special election and Todd Akin of Missouri in 2012, he added. Moore lost to former Democratic Sen. Doug Jones amid allegations of sexual misconduct with teenage girls, while Akin failed to unseat former Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill after his false claim that survivors of "legitimate rape" are less likely to become pregnant.
Georgia Republican Senate nominee Herschel Walker
While there hasn't been an equivalent flashpoint for any of the three high-profile Trump picks as yet, Abramowitz identified weaknesses that Democratic opponents are already exploiting.
"He just seems to have trouble speaking in coherent sentences, like when he's trying to answer questions or actually staying on topic," Abramowitz said of Walker. "The result is that we're seeing him run behind [Republican Georgia Gov. Brian] Kemp, for example.
"It's not a huge gap," Abramowitz continued. "But given that both of these races are likely to be pretty close, it looks to me like there's enough slippage there, that there are enough of these swing voters who could determine the outcome."
'Personal baggage' and 'extreme positions' count at the ballot box
Candidates can become waylaid in easily winnable races if they carry "a lot of personal baggage" or take "extreme positions" in their primaries, Abramowitz explained.
Despite Walker having household name-level recognition among Georgians old enough to remember his national championship and Heisman Trophy-winning seasons for the University of Georgia college football team, the gaffes are "definitely having an impact," the professor said.
Recently, Walker pontificated about climate change in a mangled tangent about "good air space," which Georgia Democrats immediately used to campaign against him.
—stephen fowler (@stphnfwlr) July 11, 2022
"Since we don't control the air, our good air decided to float over to China's bad air so when China gets our good air, their bad air got to move," Walker said. "So it moves over to our good air space. Then now we got to clean that back up, while they're messing ours up."
Walker has also barred press from events, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, sticking to a "velvet rope" approach of limited access.
Mallory Blount, Walker's deputy campaign manager for communications, told Insider in a statement that the candidate "is doing open press events across the state to drive the message that Raphael Warnock has done more for Joe Biden than he has done for Georgia."
Meanwhile in Pennsylvania, Politico reported that Oz has kept low profile and went dark on the airwaves in the immediate aftermath of his razor-thin primary victory, all while his opponent, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, has been recovering from a stroke and is yet to return to the campaign trail.
Oz appeared at a pair of cheesesteak joints in Philadelphia over the weekend.
"I think he's given Fetterman kind of a break here by not campaigning more aggressively," Abramowitz said.
While both Vance and Oz are running as self-described outsiders, they both face lines of attack from their opponents questioning their authenticity. For Oz, it's his history of living in New Jersey. For Vance, it's his previous criticism of Trump that he has since walked back, saying Trump's performance in office changed his mind.
"Since Dr. Oz's victory remarks on June 9th, he has been to over 75 events," Oz campaign spokesperson Brittany Yanick told Insider in a statement. The Oz campaign would not say when it has plans to launch new TV ads.
The Vance campaign responded to Insider's request for comment by attacking Rep. Tim Ryan.
"Tim Ryan votes with Joe Biden 100% of the time. Everywhere JD goes, Ohioans make clear they're fed up with Joe Biden, Tim Ryan and Democrats' inflationary policies, the border crisis and their soft on crime attitude that's making our big cities more dangerous places to live," Vance's campaign press secretary, Taylor Van Kirk, told Insider in a statement. "JD just finished his Law and Order tour where he met with local law enforcement across Ohio to hear about the real problems they face, all while Tim Ryan slanders law enforcement and viciously labels them the new 'Jim Crow.'"
Mark Longabaugh, a longtime Democratic campaign operative, cited the threesome of Oz, Walker, and Vance, as the exact kind of candidates who might upend the GOP's chances in an otherwise favorable electoral climate in 2022.
"It's why Democrats have a chance of holding onto the Senate," he told Insider, "is just the horrible class of candidates they've nominated."
More: 2022 midterms analysis Dr. Mehmet Oz mehmet oz
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2022-07-19T18:30:36Z
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Trump-Backed Senate Candidates Are Struggling in Winnable Races
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https://www.businessinsider.com/republican-senate-candidates-trump-endorse-struggle-oz-walker-vance-midterms-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/republican-senate-candidates-trump-endorse-struggle-oz-walker-vance-midterms-2022-7
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Grace Kay and Kali Hays
Elon Musk and Twitter's legal teams squared off in court for the first time on Tuesday.
The Chancery Court granted Twitter its first request in its legal battle against Musk.
The hearing addressed Twitter's request to expedite the case and get it resolved as soon as possible.
The Delaware Chancery Court granted Twitter its first request in its legal battle against Elon Musk -- a step that could set up the company for future wins.
Kathleen St. Jude McCormick, the judge or chancellor overseeing the case, ultimately sided with Twitter at the end of the first hearing in its lawsuit against Elon Musk. Twitter asked the court to hear the case on an expedited basis in order to resolve the issue of whether Musk is able to back out of his $44 billion acquisition of the company, as he is attempting to do, before the end of October. McCormick agreed to do so, pointing to the "business risk" Twitter is currently exposed to. The case will now go to trial in October and last for five days.
"The longer the merger transaction remains in limbo, the larger a cloud of uncertainty is cast over the company," McCormick said on Tuesday.
Her decision is in line with the arguments made by Twitter's lawyers. During the Tuesday hearing, Twitter's lawyer William Savitt claimed that Twitter was being harmed "every day" that the case goes unresolved. He accused Musk of attempting to "delay this trial to avoid a reckoning in hopes of wearing Twitter down, running down the clock and increasing his leverage."
Twitter last week asked for a speedy trial. Musk's legal team pushed back, arguing the schedule Twitter proposed was "onerous" and did not leave enough time for fact discovery and depositions. They asked that the case instead go to trial in February.
During the hearing, McCormick said little, but she did interrupt Musk's lawyer once as he was arguing for a February trial date. She asked him about a specific case involving IPB Inc. and how long it took to get to trial. Before he could answer, she did, saying the case only took three months to be resolved.
Experts have previously told Insider it would be in Twitter's best interest to resolve the court battle as soon as possible, but that no matter the outcome, the company will likely face more shareholder lawsuits in the future. University of Michigan Ross Business School Professor Erik Gordon previously said Musk could drag the court battle on for years and could attempt to appeal the case if he loses.
Twitter's stock currently sits about 20% below what it was when Musk agreed in April to acquire the company and take it private.
The pursuant months have been chaotic for the platform, with Musk beginning in May to take public issue with the number of "bots" or spam accounts on Twitter and requesting massive amounts of data to run his own analysis. It resulted in Musk earlier this month sending Twitter a letter saying he was "terminating" the merger agreement because the company had repeatedly "breached" his information rights. Twitter is now arguing in court that Musk's decision is nothing more than a case of "buyer's remorse" and that he should be forced to close the deal.
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2022-07-19T18:30:44Z
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Twitter Wins First Battle With Musk After Judge Moves Case Forward
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https://www.businessinsider.com/twitter-upper-hand-elon-musk-court-battle-hearing-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/twitter-upper-hand-elon-musk-court-battle-hearing-2022-7
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It's finally getting easier to buy a home in hot spots like Austin, Boise, and Denver — and these 11 places are cooling the fastest
A family in Red Rocks Park in Denver.
Layland Masuda/Getty Images
Some of the most popular places to move during pandemic are cooling off, a new Redfin report says.
Home-sales contracts declined in Austin, Boise, and Denver.
But prices are still high, rising in all 20 of the fastest-cooling markets last month.
If you've been dying to move to Austin, Texas; Boise, Idaho; or Denver, Colorado, you may be in luck.
A July 8 report from the online brokerage Redfin suggests those three hot spots — along with other popular places Americans moved during the pandemic — are quickly cooling off.
Pinpointing the rare areas where homebuyers stand a chance at scoring a property may be more important than ever. As housing prices continue to rise, relatively higher mortgage rates diminish buying power for many people.
In order to determine which cities are experiencing the fastest slowdowns, Redfin analyzed several key market indicators — including pending home sales, the sale-to-list ratio, the share of homes that flew off the market in two weeks, and the number of price drops — that changed between June 2021 and June 2022 in the most populous US cities.
Here are 11 cities where it might be easier to buy a home — and we break down why.
The housing market is cooling in popular places to move during the pandemic
Many notable market cooldowns are taking place in southern, western, or midwestern cities with cheaper home prices than places like New York or Los Angeles, economic researchers at Redfin wrote in the report.
In addition to Austin, Boise, and Denver, those places include Phoenix; Las Vegas; Tacoma, Washington, and Seattle; Sacramento; San Diego; and Cape Coral and North Port, both in Florida.
U.S. metro area Median sale price Change in pending sales Change in sale-to-list ratio Change in share of homes off the market in two weeks Change in price drops
Sacramento, California $610,000 -15.4% -1.3% -10.6% 23.8%
Seattle, Washington $850,000 -13.7% -0.6% -4.7% 14%
Boise, Idaho $550,000 -39.2% -1.7% -18% 41%
Denver, Colorado $612,000 -3.5% 0% -5.7% 20%
San Diego, California $875,000 16.1% 0.8% -7.4% 16.7%
Tacoma, Washington $575,000 -8.3% -1.5% -7.2% 16.4%
Cape Coral, Florida $418,000 -16.9% 0.9% -7.7% 18.1%
Las Vegas, Nevada $450,000 -12% 0.4% -5.3% 13.3%
Austin, Texas $556,000 -6.6% -3.7% -3.9% 15.7%
Phoenix, Arizona $485,600 -7.6% -0.5% -4.1% 17%
North Port, Florida $475,000 -3.7% 1.6% -5.6% 12.9%
Data: Redfin
These spots, the researchers added, were all popular among people who moved during the pandemic from pricier places.
"The influx of out-of-towners, along with a limited supply of homes for sale, caused home prices in those places to rise rapidly, sending them from affordable to not so affordable," economic researchers at Redfin wrote in the report.
High prices deter buyers — especially when 30-year fixed-mortgage rates are around 5%, higher than they've been for the last several years. Fewer buyers mean less competition for available homes for sale.
Pending sales are down in Boise, Austin, Denver, and Phoenix
Redfin researchers said that reluctance to shell out for expensive homes — made even more expensive by higher interest rates — is apparent from the decrease in pending sales in key cities.
Boise saw a 39.2% decrease in pending sales — the number of homes in contract at a given time — year-over-year in June. Austin — another popular relocation spot, particularly for tech workers unchained from their desks in the Bay Area — saw a 6.6% drop in contracts signed.
The skyline of Austin.
Denver — a beacon for out-of-staters looking for mountain views and an outdoorsy lifestyle — saw a 3.5% drop in the contracts signed over the past year. And Phoenix — a favorite for Wall Street investors looking to snatch up single-family investment properties — saw a 7.6% decline in sales in contract.
The hottest pandemic cities to move to were not the only ones to see significant drops in pending sales. San Francisco, which has a median home price of over $1.6 million, saw a 13.7% decrease in sale contracts.
Homebuyer demand is decreasing in some popular spots
In some places, including Boise, the decrease in the number of sales is due to a decreasing demand for the houses on the market there.
To weigh demand, Redfin's economic researchers looked at the sale-to-list ratio, which is the final sale price — or what a buyer pays for the home — divided by the last list price. If it's more than one, the home sold for more than the list price, which indicates competition for available homes and more demand. If it's less than one, the home sold for less than the list price, which indicates that there's less demand for available homes, and buyers have the upper hand.
Redfin compared the ratios from June 2021 and June 2022 to see where demand was waning.
Hot-air balloons in Boise.
In Boise, the sale-to-list ratio fell 1.7%, meaning that more homes were snatched up for less than their asking prices even though more homes are available for purchase than there were last year.
The same thing is happening Austin, where the ratio fell 3.7%, and in Phoenix, where that ratio fell 0.5%.
The data also reveals that this isn't necessarily the case everywhere.
In Cape Coral, Florida — a beachside city in southwest Florida that's been a mecca for Chicagoans looking to escape the bitter cold — pending sales dipped 16.9% since last summer, but the sale-to-list ratio increased over the same time period. That means more people are buying available homes for their listed price than they did last year.
Other pandemic destinations like San Diego and Las Vegas — popular places for relocating LA residents — have seen similar dynamics, Redfin's data shows. Overall contracts are declining, but more people are buying properties that are closer to the asking price.
Prices in these places aren't feeling the cooldown yet
Despite the fact that fewer people are buying properties in these cities, home prices are still rising, Redfin's data shows.
Redfin found that in Boise the typical price per square foot rose by 15.5% between June 2021 and June 2022. Boise was named one of the most overvalued cities by Florida Atlantic University last month. FAU researchers found that homes in Austin, Las Vegas, and Phoenix were also overvalued.
The takeaway? Just because buying is slowing down doesn't mean it is the right time to dive in.
More: Real Estate homebuying Home Prices
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2022-07-19T18:30:50Z
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Chart: It's Getting Easier to Buy a Home in Austin, Boise, and Denver
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https://www.businessinsider.com/where-real-estate-market-cooling-buy-house-austin-boise-denver-2022-7
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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell predicted 2024 would feature a "crowded" presidential primary.
The comments come as former President Donald Trump keeps teasing another run at the White House.
McConnell was answering a question about what he'd do if Trump ran again.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell predicted on Tuesday that several Republicans will be running for the White House in 2024, even as former President Donald Trump has all but made it official that he'll be in the presidential contest.
"I think we're going to have a crowded field for president," McConnell said, speaking at the GOP's regular press conference after a caucus lunch on Capitol Hill. "I assume that most of that will unfold later. And people will be picking their candidates during a crowded primary field."
McConnell's response was to a reporter who asked how he'd handle Trump running for president in 2024. In February 2021, McConnell said he'd "absolutely" support Trump if he were the 2024 nominee. He added, however, that he expected several GOP senators and governors to also be in the running and predicted a "wide-open" GOP race.
A growing number of Republican presidential hopefuls appear to be testing the field with donor meetings and trips to early voting states. While polling shows that Trump is still the preferred presidential candidate among GOP voters, most potential candidates have not said they'd bow out of the race if Trump enters the GOP primary.
Various candidates also appear to be warming up to the idea of challenging Trump or not letting his plans get in the way of their own ambitions.
Insider previously reported that Trump, 76, had backed away from announcing a presidential run as early as July, and The Washington Post reported that the announcement could come as soon as September.
Congressional Republicans and candidates for office have said they would prefer that Trump delay an announcement until 2023 so they can focus their campaign messaging on issues that polls show are at the top of voters' priorities, from high gas prices to inflation. Political strategists worry that candidates will otherwise have to field questions about Trump and his efforts to overturn the election on January 6, 2021.
Even so, a long list of Republicans appear to already be evaluating their 2024 prospects.
They include well-known names such as former Vice President Mike Pence, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Marco Rubio of Florida, and Tom Cotton of Arkansas. Both former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, an anti-Trump Republican, have said they'll run for president regardless of what Trump does.
Trump could delay a formal announcement until the middle or even end of 2023 and still have plenty of time to qualify for primary ballots and run a nationwide campaign.
President Joe Biden, 79, has said he plans to run for a second term but some Democrats are skeptical given his age and low approval ratings.
It's possible, if Biden reverses course, that a Democratic primary could be wide open. Some Democrats are gaining prominent media attention through wading into national debates, gaining allies through campaign donations, and appearing at events in potential early voting states.
More: 2024 election Joe Biden Donald Trump presidential campaign
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2022-07-19T20:14:09Z
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McConnell Predicts Trump Will Face Stiff Competition in 2024 Run
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https://www.businessinsider.com/mcconnell-predicts-trump-will-face-competition-in-2024-run-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/mcconnell-predicts-trump-will-face-competition-in-2024-run-2022-7
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'I think the shoes have dropped': Crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried says we may have reached the bottom and shares the top developments he's most excited about
Sam Bankman-Fried believes that there won't be another shoe to drop in the crypto carnage.
Projects he's most excited about in web3 are payment platforms and consumer market structures.
He believes mass adoption would require user-friendly interfaces, regulation, and strong use-cases.
Since Monday, crypto has been making a slight comeback. Bitcoin is up by about 6.5%, trading above $22,000. Ethereum had an even stronger recovery: the crypto is now up by more than 16%, trading at around $1,550 as of Tuesday.
"I think that I don't know that we're waiting for the other shoe to drop right now," said Sam Bankman-Fried in a video interview that aired on July 8 with Raoul Pal, the CEO and co-founder of Real Vision. "I think the shoes have dropped and we're in a, 'well, let's see what happens with the world' type situation. But I don't feel totally confident in that, and obviously not financial advice."
Both Pal and Bankman-Fried agreed that the crypto plunge, which cut its $2.9 trillion market cap by more than 60% within eight months, isn't unique to the sector. Expectations of interest rate hikes triggered a domino effect that sent several markets spiraling downwards. Since the Federal Reserve imposed the second rate hike of this cycle on May 4, bitcoin has tumbled by about 44%.
"I think the way I would phrase it is, I don't see any particular reasons that we couldn't be at the bottom and I'm not trying to say that we definitely are at the bottom, but like I think the unwinding that had to happen has happened," Bankman-Fried said.
The 30-year-old billionaire and founder of the crypto exchange FTX swooped in to try and stop the crypto contagion that pushed some exchanges and lending platforms into bankruptcy. Crypto lender BlockFi received a $400 million line of credit and Voyager Digital got a $500 million lifeline
Bankman-Fried told Pal that the most important places he's deploying capital are in projects that would have been fine if it weren't for a really nasty, short-term liquidity crunch.
When it came to deciding what to save and what to let crumble, Bankman-Fried noted that it wasn't about only looking at perfect systems but it also wasn't about investing in a money pit. Instead, he focused on cases where a small capital outlay could stop the whole system from having to unwind..
The first casualty of the downturn, Terra Luna, and its stablecoin UST, weren't a surprise to the young billionaire who said that anything that's future was dependent on an unpegged stablecoin never decreasing that much in price, sort of deserved it.
As for CeFi, which is centralized finance, Bankman-Fried noted that one of the main issues is that there's no transparency. For example, by the time the world realized where Celcius was, the time to act was a year ago, he said. Since DeFi is on-chain, it's at least more transparent. Once the Terra Luna ecosystem blew up, no one was surprised because you could see it happen in real-time, he added.
The world of CeFi is one where you can't tell how many times the same collateral has been used in different loans, or when an institution gives out more assets than they have, also known as rehypothecation. For Bankman-Fried, the worry is that you effectively end up with way more leverage than you thought, and things become too far gone before the public realizes.
What's SBF most excited about now?
"I think payments, actually getting them down really well, both domestically and internationally, I think it's a huge opportunity area," Bankman-Fried said. "And then I think that consumer market structure, getting to a place where the average consumer has equitable access to financial markets compared to the biggest institutions is a huge, huge opportunity."
When it comes to making the web3 space mainstream and onboarding billions of people, Bankman-Fried noted that a few developments would need to occur to support the infrastructure. The first of which is user-friendly interfaces such as apps that load and work well.
"There just have to be really beautiful user experiences before the space is going to be able to scale to billions of people because that means scaling to people who aren't just natively incredibly excited to use the products, right?" Bankman-Fried said. "This is scaling to people who had no intention of ever using the products and that's a much higher bar."
Second, he noted that the sector needs regulatory clarity. Once that happens, it will open the doors for more capital from institutional investors.
And finally, projects will need to build out real use cases such as thoughtful social media platforms and payment apps.
More: Investing Sam Bankman-Fried FTX Exchange
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2022-07-19T20:14:27Z
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Sam Bankman-Fried on Crypto Bottom: 'I Think the Shoes Have Dropped'
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https://www.businessinsider.com/sam-bankman-fried-on-when-crypto-bottom-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/sam-bankman-fried-on-when-crypto-bottom-2022-7
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Amazon's first smart TV supports voice control without a remote, but image quality falls short of the competition
Alexa features
Webcam support
The Omni Fire TV is one of the first Amazon-branded smart TVs to hit the market.
It features Alexa built-in for easy voice control and even lets you connect a webcam for video calls.
The TV's picture quality is mediocre, however, and can't match competing models from TCL and Hisense.
Amazon's Omni Fire TV is one of the very first TVs developed by Amazon itself. With a built-in microphone and access to tons of apps, the Omni is basically a 4K display, Echo Dot, and Fire TV streaming stick all rolled into one device.
But, while the set's hands-free voice control is convenient, the Omni's picture quality can't match similarly priced TVs from Vizio, TCL, and Hisense. With a list price of $830, the 65-inch Omni is simply too expensive for what you get.
That said, the Omni is rarely ever sold at full price. Amazon frequently discounts the TV to as low as $500. At that price, it delivers better value, but it's still hard to recommend unless you're someone who really prioritizes the convenience of Alexa over image performance.
Amazon Omni Fire TV specifications
Amazon 65-inch Omni Fire TV Specifications
Resolution: 4K Ultra HD (3840 x 2160p)
HDR formats: HDR10, Dolby Vision, HLG
Backlight: Direct-lit LED (no local dimming)
HDMI ports: Three HDMI 2.0, one HDMI 2.1 eARC
Smart TV system: Fire TV OS
Remote: Alexa voice remote
Extra features: Built-in microphone with hands-free Alexa, video call support with webcam (sold separately)
Dimensions: 57.1" x 33.3" x 2.9" (without stand)
Weight: 42.5 lb (without stand)
Amazon sells two different smart TV models: the Omni Series and the 4-Series. The 4-Series is positioned as the entry-level model, while the Omni is meant to be the brand's flagship (or highest-end) offering.
Both series offer 4K panels with high dynamic range (HDR) support and voice remotes, but the Omni steps things up with hands-free Alexa capabilities, webcam support, and Dolby Vision playback.
Omni TVs are available in 43-, 50-, 55-, 65-, and 75-inch screen sizes, but Dolby Vision is only supported on the 65- and 75-inch versions. We received the 65-inch model for review.
Steven Cohen/Insider
The Omni is powered by Amazon's Fire TV OS (operating system), so using the display is a lot like using a Fire TV Stick. The home screen lets you see rows of recommendations, along with recently used apps and recently watched content.
Amazon supports every major streaming service, so there aren't any notable apps missing. The interface gets the job done and works well, but we find the simpler, app-focused design used on Roku TVs to be easier to navigate.
Navigation speed is solid but can be inconsistent. Moving around the home screen is generally snappy, but some occasional lag crops up when sifting through menus in individual apps.
Boot times for most apps are similar to what you'll get on other streaming devices, but certain services, like HBO Max, can take up to 20 seconds to load. That's double the time it takes on Amazon's own Fire TV Stick 4K Max.
There's also an occasional delay if you try to pull up the Omni's settings menu while the TV is playing a video. It can sometimes take a full five seconds for the menu to pop up after you click the button.
Despite the lag here and there, overall speed is similar to other models in this range. But, since the Omni is positioned as Amazon's best smart TV offering, we were hoping for an experience more on par with the company's Fire TV Stick 4K Max.
One of the Omni's biggest selling points is its support for hands-free voice control with full Alexa capabilities. There's also a handy switch on the front of the display to deactivate the microphone for privacy protection.
You can ask Alexa to turn the TV on, switch inputs, adjust volume, open apps, pause videos, scroll through menus, and search for content without ever touching the remote. Alexa can also answer questions, check weather, set timers, and handle other tasks while the display is off, just like any other Echo device would.
Response time is good, but it's a little more delayed than an Echo Dot. Voice recognition is also solid, but we've run into a few issues with Alexa misunderstanding certain search queries. For instance, the TV tends to hear "Hulu" instead of "Vudu" whenever we try to launch the latter app.
Alexa isn't a complete substitute for a remote, but you can get by watching a lot of content on the Omni without ever lifting a finger.
Video calls are now a big part of many people's work and home lives, so Amazon included webcam support for the Omni. You just need to plug a compatible webcam (sold separately) into the TV's USB port, and you're good to go.
The Omni supports video calling using Alexa Communications and the Zoom app. Amazon provided a Logitech C920x with the TV so we could test this feature, and it works really well. Using the Zoom app, we were able to join a meeting with family. The app runs smoothly with no issues.
Compared to typical video calls on a laptop or phone, being able to casually sit on the couch and see everybody on the big screen makes the chat feel a bit more like actually being in the room with everyone. Though we wouldn't call this a must-have feature, it's a handy option to have and it's not one that many other smart TVs support.
The Omni's image quality can best be described as entry-level. The TV lacks many of the handy contrast and color features you'll find on mid-range sets from competitors like TCL, Hisense, and Vizio. As a result, it just can't compete with those similarly priced displays.
Most notably, the Omni is missing local dimming support. Local dimming allows LCD TVs to brighten and darken in specific zones across the screen to create deeper black levels and brighter highlights.
The Omni just has a standard backlight, so black levels veer toward a gray appearance when watching movies in a dark room. Brightness is also limited with a max of around 300 nits when using the TV's "Movie" picture mode, which is the display's most accurate setting.
That's fine for casual viewing but it isn't enough to really show off the benefits of high dynamic range (HDR) content. Wide color gamut support is also missing, so HDR movies and shows aren't displayed with their full range of colors.
For comparison's sake, the 65-inch Hisense U6G, which often sells for $550, has local dimming with up to 600 nits of brightness, as well as quantum dots with wide color support. If you're buying a TV with HDR performance in mind, you're better off going with a set like the U6G.
That said, for people who don't care about home theater-level image quality, the Omni looks decent enough. 4K movies appear sharp, color looks punchy despite some accuracy issues, and the TV actually has solid contrast considering its lack of dimming. Just keep in mind, you can find much better looking TVs for a little more money.
Amazon's first attempt at its own smart TV is a decent effort, but it's not quite on par with the competition. At a list price of $830, the 65-inch Omni is way too expensive. When on sale for $500, the TV offers better value — but only if features like hands-free Alexa and webcam support are big selling points to you.
Buyers who want a budget-friendly home theater display with much better HDR performance should pay a bit more for the TCL 5 Series or Hisense U6G. Those TVs have better picture quality features, like quantum dots and local dimming, for a typical street price of $550-$600.
If you really want Amazon's interface, you could also just pair a Fire TV Stick 4K Max with one of the above displays. You'll lose the all-in-one Alexa integration and web cam support of the Omni, but overall performance will be better.
Pros: Built-in Alexa support with hands-free voice control, video call feature when paired with a webcam, Fire TV OS with access to many apps
Cons: No local dimming, can't get bright enough to show off HDR content, doesn't support wide color gamut
More: IP Tech Insider Reviews 2022 Insider Picks IP Reviews
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2022-07-19T21:58:29Z
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www.businessinsider.com
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Amazon Omni Fire TV Review: Great Alexa Features but Mediocre Picture
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https://www.businessinsider.com/guides/tech/amazon-omni-fire-tv-review
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https://www.businessinsider.com/guides/tech/amazon-omni-fire-tv-review
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Who should pay for a Blooom membership?
How much does Blooom cost?
How does Blooom work?
How can Blooom users work with financial advisors?
Is Blooom a fiduciary?
Bloom; Alyssa Powell/Business Insider
Blooom is an investment advisor that manages retirement accounts with no minimum balance requirement or asset under management fee.
Blooom has a free analysis tool that will analyze your workplace retirement plan or IRA.
For ongoing management of one retirement account, plus unlimited access to a financial advisor, Blooom charges $120 a year.
Learn more about Blooom »
Blooom Automated Investing
$120 - $395 annually
Automated and personalized management for 401(k)s and other employer-sponsored plans
Free 401(k) or IRA analysis
Human financial advisors available through Standard and Unlimited pricing plans
Account management only available for employer-sponsored plans and IRAs
Consider it if: A large portion of your wealth is in one or more employer-sponsored retirement accounts.
As long as you're of working age, you should be planning for retirement.
The savings part might be automatic if you're putting money into a 401(k) at work or making regularly scheduled contributions to an individual retirement account (IRA), but that's not all there is to it.
You need an investment strategy to make the most of the money you're setting aside. That means putting the right proportions into stocks and bonds to match up with your risk tolerance — how much risk you can stomach — and your time horizon — when you plan to retire and start drawing from your nest egg. Sounds a bit time consuming, right?
Enter: Blooom (yes, three o's). Blooom is an investment advisor that takes charge of your retirement accounts for you to make sure you're staying on course as the markets ebb and flow.
In short, Blooom reviews your retirement account (or multiple), determines your ideal stock/bond mix, and picks quality, low-cost funds so that fees — which are generally unavoidable but can be mitigated — aren't eating into your returns. And then it does all the heavy lifting.
Compare financial advisors in your area
You might like Blooom if you:
Prefer a hands-off approach when it comes to investing
Want one flat fee for investment management and financial advising
Get caught up in the details of investing and feel pressure to make the "perfect" decision
Know what you should do, but don't have the time to take action
Want easy access to a fiduciary financial advisor
You might not like Blooom if you:
Already have a financial planner
Like to get wrapped up in the details and research investments on your own
Care more about investing in specific funds than minimizing fees
Have an IRA that's not at Fidelity, Schwab, or Vanguard (the three brokerages supported by Blooom)
You can get an analysis of your retirement accounts for free when you sign up for a Blooom account. If you'd like Blooom to optimize and monitor your investment accounts, there's an annual fee.
Blooom has three membership tiers: $45, $120, or $250 a year. The distinguishing factor between them is how many retirement accounts you can link up. The two cheaper tiers will manage one account, while the most expensive membership will manage an unlimited number of accounts. You might prefer the pricier tier if you have a 401(k) through work and an IRA on the side, for example. Unfortunately the advisor doesn't support family accounts yet, so you won't be able to pay Blooom to manage both your and your partner's workplace plans through one membership.
The $120 and $250 a year memberships both review your retirement accounts, recommend a personalized strategy, execute trades on your behalf, and monitor your accounts periodically to make sure you're investing as cheaply as possible.
But just because Blooom takes the wheel doesn't mean you'll be totally in the dark. Before making any changes to your accounts, it will send an email to notify you. And as long as you keep your investment profile updated, Blooom will manage your retirement account according to that framework.
Both memberships also come with unlimited access to Blooom's in-house financial advisors — a feature that makes it well worth the sticker price.
Blooom currently manages about $5 billion in retirement money for more than 25,000 investors. It uses technology to optimize retirement accounts just like a human advisor might, but for a fraction of the cost.
Blooom has a free tool that reviews your employer-sponsored retirement plan or IRA to analyze how well your current investments — i.e. your stock/bond ratio and what funds your money is sitting in — match your goals and risk profile. All you have to do is sign up for an account and link your retirement accounts to it, like you would with a budgeting app and your bank, for example, and fill out a risk profile.
In addition to managing almost any 401(k), 403(b), 401(a), 457, and Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) accounts, Blooom can also handle most types of IRAs held at three major brokerages: Fidelity, Schwab, and Vanguard. You don't need a minimum account balance to qualify.
After reviewing your account, it recommends an ideal stock/bond mix for your situation and shows you where you stand currently. According to Blooom's analysis of client accounts, 38% of investors had portfolios that were too conservative for their own goals and risk tolerance when they signed up with Blooom. That's nearly twice the share of investors who were too aggressive with their investments.
Chris Costello, Blooom cofounder and chief investment officer, says there's a natural human tendency to be cautious with money. The company's aim, he told Insider, is to reassure people who need to take on more risk to reach their goals and keep people who tend to make emotional decisions from botching their long-term strategy.
"That's really what's at stake here is making sure — are people saving money and is that money invested properly? Is it working in the way it should be for people?" Costello says. "Then the next best thing we can do is keep people from harming themselves, which is getting in there and doing dumb things like selloffs and things of that nature. That's the biggest job in my opinion."
If you like the recommendations Blooom makes, which can range from shifting your asset allocation to creating a new portfolio from scratch using the options available in your retirement account, you can sign up for a membership and the digital investment manager will take it from there.
Blooom has licensed financial advisors on staff, including Costello himself, who are available to answer investors' questions about their retirement accounts and beyond.
"We've always told clients that any money-related question that you have is fair game to ask us," Costello says. "It could be a question about paying off debt. It could be questions about paying off student loans. It could be a question about refinancing your home mortgage."
The financial advisors are reachable during work hours via a chat box on the website. Depending on demand, members can get their question answered within two to three days. The advisors don't do phone or video calls or in-person visits — it's all virtual. Members are encouraged to fill out a profile within their account to give the advisors more information about their financial situation, like whether they're married, have kids, carry a credit-card balance, or own a home.
As long as your membership is active, you have access to an advisor at no additional charge. A typical financial advisor might charge anywhere from 0.5% to 2% of your account balance as an annual fee to manage it, and potentially an additional flat fee to help with your larger financial plan. The average account balance at Blooom is about $160,000, which would translate to an $800 annual management fee on the low end. Needless to say, Blooom provides some of the cheapest financial advising you'll find.
Most importantly, Blooom is a fiduciary, meaning its advisors have a legal and ethical responsibility to make decisions and give advice that's in the best interest of their clients. They can help run the numbers for investors who are weighing a big financial decision, but they're also there to offer unbiased support and guidance, particularly during market downturns and other economic chaos.
"In my opinion, this is the biggest value add of your Blooom membership — the ability when you're scared, you're confused, or you're concerned, to be able to message an advisor and we have no conflicts of interest," Costello says.
More: Personal Finance Insider Blooom PFI Reviews Retirement
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2022-07-19T21:59:00Z
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www.businessinsider.com
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Blooom Review: Financial Advisor Tool Makes Membership Well Worth It
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https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/blooom-financial-advisor-review
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https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/blooom-financial-advisor-review
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Sen. Ted Cruz during a Senate committee hearing on the DISCLOSE Act.
United States Senate Committee on Rules and Administration
The Senate Committee on Rules and Administration debated advancing the DISCLOSE Act.
If passed, the bill would require organizations to disclose donors who give $10,000 or more during an election cycle.
Variations of the DISCLOSE Act were defeated in the Senate multiple times in the past.
Calling it blazingly "unconstitutional," Republican Sen. Ted Cruz foreshadowed yet another defeat for Democrats' unrealized weapon against secret money in politics — the DISCLOSE Act.
"The DISCLOSE Act is designed to target and harass speech that the left doesn't like," Cruz said at a Senate hearing Tuesday.
As Cruz's comments indicate, most Republicans have no appetite for forcing politically active organizations to reveal the identities of their mostly wealthy donors, and the DISCLOSE Act is likely to again die this congressional session just as other versions have for years.
Conservatives argue that big-dollar bankrollers have a right to anonymously express their political views through campaign contributions, so long as they're not giving the money directly to candidates' own campaigns.
The DISCLOSE Act, as written, would require politically active organizations — including corporations, labor unions and independent political action committees — to disclose donors who contribute $10,000 or more during an election cycle. Most elected Democrats argue that unlimited political spending without transparency is corrupting.
Technically named the Democracy is Strengthened by Casting Light On Spending in Elections Act, the first DISCLOSE Act proposal first appeared a dozen years ago as Democrat-led response to the Supreme Court's 2010 ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.
At the time, then-President Barack Obama criticized the decision as one that would "open the floodgates for special interests … to spend without limit in our elections."
Since then, so-called "dark money" — both from the left and right — has flowed into national political elections, often via "social welfare" nonprofit organizations and business leagues that are not, by law, required to publicly disclose their funders. Sometimes, they spend it themselves. Lately, they've been injecting it into super PACs — political committees that may raise and spend unlimited amounts of money, including from non-disclosing nonprofits, corporations, and unions.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who sponsored the bill in 2010, said the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United is "one of the most awful decisions we've ever had from the court."
The DISCLOSE ACT "should be bipartisan through and through, sadly it's not," Schumer said. "The American people have a right to know who is trying to influence the elections. Democracy cannot prosper without transparency."
David Keating, president of the Institute for Free Speech, a nonprofit organization that supports the deregulation of political money, testified Tuesday that the DISCLOSE Act would hurt people who exercise their legal right to participate in the nation's elections.
"Significant portions of the bill would violate the privacy of advocacy groups and their supporters – including those groups who do nothing more than speak about policy issues before Congress or express views on federal judicial nominees," he said. "Free speech can mean the difference between liberty and tyranny."
During the questioning, Sen. Angus King, an independent from Maine who caucuses with Democrats, tore into Keating.
"A person who contributes a million dollars to a political campaign, why are their tender feelings any more worth protecting than my $200 donor who has to be disclosed?" King asked. "The nub of your argument is fear of harassment of people."
More: INSIDER Data Disclose Act Ted Cruz Republican
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2022-07-19T23:38:22Z
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An Election Transparency Bill Appears Headed for Defeat. Again.
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https://www.businessinsider.com/ted-cruz-free-speech-disclose-act-senate-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/ted-cruz-free-speech-disclose-act-senate-2022-7
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This fintech enables brands to make sales and market to customers through WhatsApp. Check out the 9-slide pitch deck Charles used to raise $20 million.
Charles cofounders Andreas Tussing and Artjem Weissbeck.
Berlin-based Charles has raised $20 million in Series A funding from Salesforce Ventures.
The startup offers "conversational commerce," which enables brands to sell via WhatsApp.
Check out the 9-slide pitch deck Charles used to raise the fresh funds below.
A startup that enables companies to sell products and services through WhatsApp and other chat apps has raised $20 million from Salesforce Ventures.
Berlin-based Charles, which was founded in 2020, uses what it calls "conversational commerce" to target customers where they interact with their friends and family. The company focuses on direct-to-consumer brands currently but wants to expand to enterprise customers in the future.
Charles' tech enables companies to market to customers, respond to consumer queries, and conclude sales through various chat platforms. The startup claims 90% of its promotional material is opened by customers, considerably higher than the open rate associated with newsletters delivered through email.
"We're humbled to raise given the current market conditions, this round size-wise is comparable to the rounds we saw last year which shows the faith investors have in us, plus our growth in the past two years," Charles cofounder Andreas Tussing told Insider.
Effectively, Charles connects chat app APIs to customer relationship management platforms like Shopify so that users can effectively begin and complete a purchase within one chat, without having to exit the page. The startup's cofounders told Insider it aimed to combine the best of traditional in-person retail with the ease and speed of e-commerce through its platform.
The company makes money by charging brands a small fee per month to cover Charles' costs while also taking a cut based on the number of conversions.
"Conversational commerce is very natural in Latin America and South East Asia but not in Europe because many people had the luxury of growing up with a desktop," Artjem Weissbeck, Charles CEO told Insider. "Unlike email, you have a high open rate for chat because it's a high level of trust that a consumer has in a brand to give up their number."
Half of Brazilians already buy goods and services via WhatsApp while WeChat transacted $400 billion in China last year, the company added.
Charles, which was previously backed by Accel and HV Capital, raised the Series A funding as it looks to expand to new countries. The fresh funds will also go toward tripling its headcount of 62 in the next 18 months.
Check out Charles' pitch deck below:
More: Features Fintech Venture Capital
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2022-07-20T09:07:22Z
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www.businessinsider.com
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Charles: Berlin Fintech Startup Raises $20m From Salesforce Ventures
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https://www.businessinsider.com/charles-berlin-fintech-startup-raises-20m-from-salesforce-ventures-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/charles-berlin-fintech-startup-raises-20m-from-salesforce-ventures-2022-7
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Passionfruit connects startups with Gen Z freelancers, and has raised $4.3 million in fresh funding
Issah Abdul-Moomin and Raffi Salama, cofounders of Passionfruit.
Passionfruit
Passionfruit has raised $4.3 million in seed funding from Firstminute Capital and Playfair.
The London-based startup connects Gen Z workers with freelance gigs at startups.
The firm eventually plans to offer freelancers, whose work is precarious, additional benefits.
A startup that connects independent workers with freelance jobs at startups has secured $4.3 million in seed funding from Firstminute Capital and Playfair.
London-based Passionfruit aims to give Gen Z workers — who will make up 27% of the workforce by 2025 — more autonomy in choosing what work they take up, to allow them to move away from the 9-to-5 corporate work model.
"There's a growing trust gap, off the back of the tech layoffs, between individuals and institutions," said cofounder Raffi Salama. "A lot of companies feel like they're not getting what they want out of their employees, and a lot of young workers feel like the traditional corporate ladder is not for them."
Workers can sign up to Passionfruit's marketplace platform, which connects them to companies in need of their specific skills or experience. Although the startup is largely focused on recruiting marketing specialists, it hopes to extend its talent pool to other specialisms in the future.
Currently, the startup has partnered with 65 portfolio companies across 100 VC firms globally, and makes its money by charging a take rate from both workers and companies.
Salama aims to make Passionfruit a "glue" between businesses and independent freelancers, so that companies can bring on new talent while enabling young workers to upskill. It is geared towards Gen Zs, Salama said, because the current freelancing market is dominated by those with existing networks and years of experience.
"Those without access, who are under 30, find it very hard to start and sustain a life as a freelancer," he added. "Going at it alone is a very difficult journey."
But Gen Z workers who choose to freelance must grapple with a lack of job stability, as well as losing out on employee benefits and holiday pay. Salama acknowledged the precarity, and said Passionfruit aimed to add features that helped make freelancers more stable down the line.
Salama has also noticed how freelancing complements a "sprint" approach to working that more Gen Z workers are adopting. "Maybe ahead of a big summer holiday season, freelancers can work really hard beforehand so they don't have to work over summer," he said.
In the past two years, more Gen Zs have turned to gig and freelance work in search of greater flexibility, a stronger work-life balance, and the opportunity to work as digital nomads. Financial anxiety has also played a role in this, with 43% of Gen Zs reported to be working an extra gig on top of their full time jobs in order to secure their finances, according to Deloitte.
Investors are taking note of the shifting labor landscape. Amid a downturn in funding, Passionfruit closed an oversubscribed seed round, led by London-based Firstminute, which has previously backed workplace safety software Protex AI and drug discovery startup bit.bio, and London-based Playfair, which has previously invested in HR onboarding platform Omnipresent.
Playfair also led the startup's $700,000 round in December, which takes Passionfruit's total funding to $4.3 million. Additional backing came from FJ Labs and Portfolio Ventures, as well as angels such as executives from Stripe, Airbnb, and Workday.
The startup will use the fresh funds for recruitment and to build out its software.
More: Future of Work Startup Freelancer
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2022-07-20T09:07:28Z
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www.businessinsider.com
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Passionfruit Has Raised $4.3 Million for Gen Z Freelancing
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https://www.businessinsider.com/passionfruit-raises-4-3-million-for-gen-z-freelancing-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/passionfruit-raises-4-3-million-for-gen-z-freelancing-2022-7
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State laws banning abortion "from the moment of fertilization" could interfere with access to emergency contraception.
Amazon has blocked sellers from running some ads related to abortion, according to an internal document seen by Insider.
The company has declined to take a public stance on abortion access.
Hundreds of Amazon employees have asked the company to speak out against the end of nationwide legalized abortion.
Six days after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Amazon instructed advertising content moderators to bar some ads related to abortion from appearing in Amazon's store, according to images of an internal document seen by Insider.
"To provide a welcoming experience to all our customers, we restrict content equally on certain highly debated topics," according to that document, an internal reference for implementing Amazon's Worldwide Advertising Policy. "Abortion and reproductive rights are an increasingly polarizing topic. To protect the customer experience, ads with content related to abortion topics are prohibited in all ad placements."
The restrictions, enacted June 30, still allow advertisements for abortion-related media like books and movies, the document notes.
It's not clear what impact, if any, such restrictions could have on sellers in Amazon's global ecommerce marketplace. The move, though, appears positioned to minimize Amazon's involvement in the nationwide tumult over abortion access, despite employee activism urging Amazon to wade into the fray.
Amazon also instructs moderators to block advertising campaigns by sellers of emergency contraceptive pills, the document notes. Moderators are instructed to prevent sellers of the over-the-counter drug Levonorgestrel, commonly marketed as Plan B, from running ads that make their listings "sponsored products."
Sellers who purchase a "sponsored product" placement typically do so to elevate their listings in search results.
Apart from emergency contraception, the document surfaces only one other category of merchandise for moderators to block Amazon ad placement: "Products containing the term 'Fisting' are prohibited" and cannot appear as sponsored products, according to the document.
The document reviewed by Insider is internal guidance instructing ad moderators how to apply Amazon's publicly-available advertising policy when reviewing whether to allow sellers' advertising campaigns to publish. Amazon's publicly-available advertising policy contains a lengthy list of products that cannot buy ads, including "adult products" and drug paraphernelia. It does not prohibit advertisements for contraceptives.
Nevertheless, "given the sensitive nature" of contraceptives, "we try to be thoughtful" about how and where advertisements for contraceptives appear, an Amazon spokesperson said in a statement. "We've already done the work to help ensure that condoms appear in the store in a way that customers would expect. We're doing the work now for other contraceptive products—and when complete, we'll begin allowing these kinds of advertisements." The spokesperson declined to respond to a request to clarify the nature of the work needed to allow advertising for emergency contraceptives.
Amazon has not taken a public position on abortion access. Internally, the company has asked workers to "be respectful of everyone's perspectives" on reproductive rights. Its other moves have closely shadowed those of its corporate peers: Like many online drugstores, Amazon imposed purchase limits on emergency contraception in the days following the overturn of Roe v. Wade. Amazon also joined dozens of other businesses in announcing that it will cover travel costs for employees who need to seek reproductive healthcare outside their home state.
Some Amazon employees have urged the company to speak out against the Supreme Court's decision last month to end legalized nationwide abortion. Hundreds of employees signed an internal petition asking the company to take "immediate and decisive action against the threat to our basic human rights with the overturning of Roe v. Wade."
The Supreme Court's majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization did not change contraception access, meaning patients are still legally allowed to obtain Plan B and other forms of emergency birth control. Some state lawmakers, though, have taken the court's ruling as an opening to consider banning emergency contraception.
More: Amazon Advertising Plan B Roe v Wade
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2022-07-20T10:38:45Z
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www.businessinsider.com
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Amazon Blocked Abortion-Related Advertising on Its Platform
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https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-blocked-abortion-related-advertising-on-its-platform-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-blocked-abortion-related-advertising-on-its-platform-2022-7
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The pilot sleeping area on a Boeing 787-9.
Stephen Jones/ Insider
Aviation regulators set the total hours pilots fly and how much sleep they must get between flights.
During ultra-long-haul flights, pilots sleep in special cabins, which passengers can't access.
Insider recently toured a Qatar Airways Boeing 787-9 and saw where pilots sleep — take a look.
It matters how much pilots rest.
Country aviation regulators govern the amount of sleep that flight crews must get between flights and the maximum amount of hours they can work per day.
This requires multiple pilots for ultra-long-haul flights, so one crew can be flying while the other rests.
An American Airlines pilot.
COOPER NEILL/AFP/Getty
Carriers like Singapore Airlines and Australia-based Qantas operate the world's longest flights, which stretch upwards of 19 hours nonstop.
To ensure that the crew are comfortable and have somewhere to properly rest in privacy on the ultra-long-haul journeys, planemakers, including Boeing and Airbus, equip widebody jets with sleeping compartments.
Touring SAS Scandinavian Airlines' Airbus A350-900 XWB.
Inside the secret plane bedrooms where pilots sleep on long-haul flights
Insider toured one of Qatar Airways Boeing 787 Dreamliners at Farnborough International Airshow 2022 and spoke with a pilot to learn more about the secret room — see inside.
Insider toured one of Qatar Airways Boeing 787 Dreamliners at Farnborough International Airshow 2022.
According to the pilot, the cabin is accessed via a small stairwell in the crew galley behind the cockpit. It's restricted to crew only and is locked to passengers during flights for security.
The stairwell leading from the galley to the pilot sleeping area on the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner.
It's prohibited to use the room during takeoff and landing for safety reasons, but also because all pilots are required to be in the cockpit during those critical phases of flight.
The staircase leads to a small room containing a chair, and two bunks.
Instead the resting crew sit on two jumpseats in the back of the cockpit.
The Boeing 787 compartment has two bunks, each with a private curtain for privacy.
The compartments are different on other plane models. The 777 for example has seats.
There are also reading lights, drinks holders, and areas for pilots to store their personal belongings.
Each bunk has its own area for pilots to leave their personal items
Pilots are not allowed to store drinks during takeoff and landing, however.
The drinks holder in the pilot sleeping cabin aboard a Qatar Airlines Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner.
Stephen Jones/Insider
In case of emergencies, each bunk has a phone that enables pilots to speak directly to the cockpit.
Each bunk has a phone to enable pilots to speak to those in the cockpit while they're resting during long haul flights.
Seatbelts also protect anyone snoozing through turbulence.
Each bunk has its own seat able to protect pilots while they're sleeping during long haul flights.
If pilots don't feel like lying down, there is a seat they can relax in, which comes with an emergency phone.
The seat inside the crew rest cabin aboard a Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
Rest time is split equally between the two crews during the flight, the pilot explained to Insider.
A Qatar Airways Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner.
InsectWorld / Shutterstock.com
Qatar Airway's longest route is Doha to Auckland non-stop, which typically takes around 16 hours and 30 minutes.
During that flight, each of the two crews will typically spend seven hours resting and seven hours on duty in the cabin, with an additional hour an a half in total spent on the flight deck during take-off and landing, the pilot said.
It's not just pilots that need rest, flight attendants have their own dedicated sleeping cabin located in the aft, or rear, section of the plane.
The cabin crew sleeping area on a Boeing 787.
Chris McGrath / Staff
Here's an example of the cabin on a Boeing 787, not visited by Insider. Like pilots, cabin crew split their shifts evenly during long haul flights.
However, some airlines do not have a separate room for flight attendants, but rather a specific row of reclining seats, like on United's Boeing 767. The seats can be closed off using a curtain.
More: Features transport Aviation Airlines
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2022-07-20T10:38:51Z
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See Inside the Secret Cabin Where Pilots Sleep During Long Flights
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https://www.businessinsider.com/boeing-787-dreamliner-cabin-pilots-sleep-long-haul-flights-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/boeing-787-dreamliner-cabin-pilots-sleep-long-haul-flights-2022-7
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Inside the crypto scheme that investors like WeWork founder Adam Neumann claim will help solve the climate crisis
A new crop of startups are putting carbon credits on the blockchain as a way to make money while supposedly helping the planet.
You may remember Adam Neumann, the WeWork cofounder who built a personality cult and promised to "elevate the world's consciousness" through office rentals. You may also remember when his tower of cards finally collapsed in 2019 as WeWork was trying to go public.
Now, after burning through billions of dollars and getting booted from the company he founded, Neumann is back. And this time he wants to help save the world — or at least that's what he wants us to believe.
Neumann and his wife, Rebekah, are cofounders of Flowcarbon, a company that aims to tackle the climate crisis by promising to "create democratized access to offsets and incentivize high impact climate change mitigation projects." Translation: The company plans to sell a cryptocurrency backed by carbon credits. They're calling it the Goddess Nature Token.
Flowcarbon claims its crypto token will help fund more projects aimed at decarbonizing the world and fighting the climate crisis. But it's hard not to see Flowcarbon as an attempt to use the largely unregulated crypto ecosystem to profit off a booming industry — one that has its own dubious connection to actually helping stop climate disaster.
Climate-change red herring
After decades of delay, the worsening climate reality is finally forcing many of the world's largest corporations to respond with commitments to reduce their emissions. Sometimes that involves making changes to the way they do business. But many companies seem more interested in opportunities to say they're heading toward net zero without doing the hard work of actually decarbonizing their operations.
Enter carbon credits. The idea, which emerged in the 1990s, is that companies can pay to "offset" their own carbon emissions by purchasing credits, which are then used to reduce emissions or store carbon elsewhere in the world. Advocates argue that the credits are a key tool to get money to projects that play a critical role in fighting climate change, like protecting forests from logging. Enabling companies to pay a fee to reduce other people's emissions — rather than forcing them to address their own contribution to climate-warming pollution — has also made carbon credits a big business. McKinsey estimates that the market for credits could reach $50 billion by 2030.
If that all sounds too good to be true, that's because it is. A growing body of research has found that many carbon offsets don't do much to actually help the environment. A 2016 European Union report on carbon credits found that 85% of the offset projects they studied had a "low likelihood" of delivering real emissions reductions. And the most common type of offset projects — ones involving forest preservation or other "nature-based" efforts — have a long history of questionable benefits. In 2019, ProPublica published an extensive and damning investigation into forest-preservation offsets, demonstrating that many credits were "saving" forests that were in no real danger of being chopped down in the first place. And in cases where the credits did protect forests at risk, polluters received the benefits of the offsets even though the trees could be logged later, with no penalty.
ProPublica found repeated instances where "polluters got a guilt-free pass to keep emitting CO2, but the forest preservation that was supposed to balance the ledger either never came or didn't last." In 2014, for example, FIFA bought credits to offset the emissions of the World Cup in Brazil, supposedly by protecting forests in the western part of the country. But after the games, more trees were logged on the protected site than all the credits that were sold.
Carbon credits were often sold to protect forests that were eventually logged.
Florian Plaucheur/AFP/Getty Images
Similarly, a project launched in 2008 with funding from the Clinton Foundation claimed to protect 13 forest sites in Cambodia — but satellite imagery found that forest cover in those areas actually decreased by nearly half between 2008 and 2017. One of the protected areas, in fact, had been stripped completely bare by logging — but by 2019 polluters were still trading credits for the project that had been certified by Verra, a nonprofit carbon-credit registry, to "offset" their own emissions.
An investigation by Bloomberg in 2020 found that offset projects run by the Nature Conservancy were also failing to live up to their claims. The environmental organization sold carbon credits to major corporations like JPMorgan, Disney, and BlackRock, which could then boast about offsetting their carbon footprint without actually reducing their own carbon emissions. But in reviewing hundreds of documents and interviewing landowners, Bloomberg found that the projects were "often preserving forested lands that don't need defending," because some of the forests being "preserved" by the credits had actually been protected for many decades.
Despite these deep flaws, corporations continue to use such projects to promote their climate credibility. Apple, for example, launched its Restore Fund last year to funnel $200 million into "forestry projects to remove carbon from the atmosphere," touting the "robust international standards developed by recognized organizations such as Verra" to dispel concerns. Amazon, meanwhile, is making investments in forest-based offset projects of its own to show how much it cares about the environment, even as the company's own emissions rose by 15% in 2019, then by another 19% in 2020. Its partner on the initiative? None other than the Nature Conservancy.
The crypto spin on carbon credits
Even though the overwhelming evidence suggests that carbon credits don't actually help the environment, investors like the Neumanns are trying to cash in on this growing and lucrative market. And they're doing it by linking carbon credits to an equally suspect financial tool: cryptocurrency.
The soaring values of crypto over the past two years kicked off a hype cycle in the tech industry where a range of companies and venture capitalists claimed that blockchains, the technology that undergirds the currencies, were the solution to almost all of the world's ills. Instead, the technology was used to steal billions of dollars from crypto users while generating carbon emissions as high as many medium-sized countries.
Now crypto promoters like the Neumanns want to enable companies to purchase carbon credits with crypto — combining the worst of both worlds. Flowcarbon, which recently raised $70 million in a funding round led by the venture-capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, claims its Goddess Nature Token token will shed light on the "opaque and fractured market infrastructure" for carbon credits. Flowcarbon converts the credits into crypto tokens, which people can then buy and sell on its platform. The company says that tokenizing carbon credits will make them easier to trade, better track who owns which credits, and help offset projects get access to funding more easily.
But experts say that simply making the credits easier to buy and sell won't solve anything if the underlying carbon projects do nothing to actually help the climate. When asked by Vox how Flowcarbon would ensure that the credits being traded are coming from high-quality projects, a spokesperson for the company said it would "follow the criteria of the global carbon market." But as years of investigative reporting has demonstrated, those criteria don't amount to much. Flowcarbon might well make money selling its crypto-carbon tokens — but if they're backed by the same kinds of meaningless carbon credits that already plague the market, the company won't be doing anything to curb climate-warming pollution.
WeWork founder Adam Neumann his wife Rebekah are tackling the climate crisis by turning carbon credits into cryptocurrency.
The former WeWork visionaries aren't the only ones getting in on the game. In April, the Financial Times reported that nearly 20 million carbon offset credits have recently been converted into crypto tokens, in particular the cryptocurrency klima. Klima's pitch is similar to Flowcarbon's — tokenizing carbon credits to make trading easier — but it has become clear that many of the people involved are just looking to turn a quick profit. Carbon-market watchdogs and sellers told the Financial Times that instead of helping drive demand for high-quality credits, many traders are simply gobbling up "junk" carbon credits and flipping them for a profit while doing nothing to reduce emissions.
Other climate-related crypto projects have faced similar issues, leading experts to worry that these startups may actually be doing more harm than good. Even Verra, the credit-verifying marketplace that has come under fire for its practices, has stopped allowing the carbon credits it verifies from being turned into crypto tokens for fear that the process is actually making things more confusing.
The problem with offsets isn't whether they're accessible enough, or whether there's enough incentive for companies to buy them. It's whether they actually work as promised. Putting carbon credits on the blockchain enables easier speculative trading, but it's essentially selling something that doesn't work. "Offsetting projects simply don't deliver what we need — a reduction in the carbon emissions entering the atmosphere," Greenpeace has explained. "Instead, they're a distraction from the real solutions to climate change."
As crypto companies like Flowcarbon rush into the growing market for carbon credits, we're presented with a big question: Is this really about addressing the existential threat we face as a species? Or is it about creating a new means for investors, traders, and the financial industry to extract profits as our global ship sinks? Adrienne Buller, a senior fellow at Common Wealth, has argued that financial institutions are "betting that ecosystems could be to the 2020s what subprime mortgages were" to the 2000s.
What we're witnessing, Buller says, is the emergence of "nature as asset" — a new financial system that involves "the transformation of the natural world into a new suite of tradable assets." Companies like Flowcarbon are essentially seeking to marketize the Earth's demise, swapping tokens while the planet burns — tokens that themselves produce massive amounts of carbon pollution. It's pretty evident at this point that you can't stop climate change with crypto coins. But if you can convince enough buyers to invest in your Goddess Nature Tokens, you might make a tidy profit while you're at it.
Paris Marx is a tech writer and host of the Tech Won't Save Us podcast. They are the author of the book Road to Nowhere: What Silicon Valley Gets Wrong about the Future of Transportation.
More: carbon offsets Greenwash Adam Nuemann Cryptocurrenies
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2022-07-20T10:38:57Z
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www.businessinsider.com
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New Crypto-Climate Scheme: Putting Carbon Credits on the Blockchain
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https://www.businessinsider.com/crypto-climate-scheme-carbon-credits-offsets-market-flowcarbon-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/crypto-climate-scheme-carbon-credits-offsets-market-flowcarbon-2022-7
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These are the 9 top stocks investors should buy for safe and stable gains during the bear market, according to Morningstar's chief market strategist
Playing defense with your money can be a smart way to invest right now.
megaflopp/Getty Images
Defensive stocks have been overlooked in the easy monetary policy environment of the past few years.
But Morningstar's Dave Sekera said investors should consider the stocks in the face of a recession.
Sekera shared the 9 top picks for undervalued defensive stocks from Morningstar analysts.
As fears of an impending recession take hold of Wall Street, investors have turned their attention to a particular group of assets that have been oft-overlooked in the easy monetary environment of the past few years: defensive stocks.
Defensive stocks — which include stocks in sectors such as utilities, consumer staples, and healthcare — tend to thrive during economic contractions because of their relative safety and stability. However, it's exactly because of these characteristics that they also tend to underperform during periods when the economy is flourishing, despite the higher dividend yields they generally offer investors to compensate for subpar growth.
But according to Dave Sekera, chief market strategist of Morningstar, the time for defensive stocks to take center stage again has already arrived.
"Thus far this year, defensive sectors have held their value better to the downside," Sekera said in a recent video commentary. "Sector valuations among the defensives are largely in line with a composite of the fair values of the underlying stocks that we cover in each of those individual sectors."
He continued: "These stocks in the consumer defensive sectors have benefited as investors are becoming increasingly concerned that the US economy is weakening enough that we could soon be entering a recession, and of course earnings among the defensive sectors are less sensitive to economic variability."
Which stocks look cheap and which look overvalued
Within the defensive stocks space, Sekera pointed out that the valuations of alcoholic-beverage manufacturers look particularly cheap. He also expects the subsector to receive another boost when pandemic restrictions ease.
"As consumers begin to venture back out into public events, we expect that consumption will shift from at-home to on-premises, and in on-premises consumption, consumers typically imbibe higher-margin branded products," he said.
On the other hand, Sekera explained that his top healthcare picks were more idiosyncratic and based on a company's fundamental growth potential rather than one overarching sector theme.
Finally, Sekera pointed out that while utilities stocks have "certainly provided investors with a safe haven in a turbulent market year to date," he believes the sector is slightly overvalued. And while Sekera believes that inflation will be more controlled going forward, he cautioned that persevering levels of elevated inflation would pose high risks to utilities companies.
"Utilities are the most sensitive sector to inflation, mainly because of their mostly fixed revenues, large capital investment budgets, and borrowing needs," he explained.
In his commentary, Sekera rounded up the nine top picks for undervalued defensive stocks from Morningstar analysts. The full group is listed below, along with each company's ticker and market capitalization.
3. The Hain Celestial Group
6. Moderna Therapeutics
7. Edison International
8. Entergy
9. Dominion Energy
More: Investing stock market investing stock investing
stock outlook
stocks to buy inflation
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2022-07-20T10:39:15Z
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www.businessinsider.com
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9 Cheap Stocks to Buy for Safe and Stable Gains in a Bear Market
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https://www.businessinsider.com/investing-cheap-safe-stocks-to-buy-gains-bear-market-morningstar-2022-7
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https://www.businessinsider.com/investing-cheap-safe-stocks-to-buy-gains-bear-market-morningstar-2022-7
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