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High inflation. Fear of recession. Disruptions, like the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. How did the U.S. economy get here? A two-hour documentary special traces the road to this moment, and the role of the Federal Reserve, the country’s central bank. This journalism is made possible by viewers like you. Support your local PBS station here: http://www.pbs.org/donate. FRONTLINE investigates the Fed’s epic economic experiment to revive the U.S. economy with what has been called an “easy money” policy and the far-reaching and sometimes unintended consequences. “If we hadn’t been driving our economy for 14 years with easy money and then…
Listen to this story. Enjoy more audio and podcasts on iOS or Android.Your browser does not support the <audio> element.At this year’s holiday soirées luxury bosses may be stingier than usual with the champagne. It has not been a sparkling six months for the industry, as well-heeled consumers from East to West have tempered the excesses of recent years. The S&P global luxury index, which tracks the industry’s performance, is down by 9% since the middle of the year. Still, the purveyors of splendour need not forgo the merrymaking altogether. The global market for personal luxury goods, from handbags to…
Rite Aid, the prominent retail drugstore chain, has agreed to discontinue using AI-powered facial recognition technology as part of its shoplifting prevention measures. This decision comes in response to a legal settlement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and amidst allegations of racial profiling. The AI system, employed since 2012, purportedly exhibited a bias, disproportionately targeting Black, Latino, and Asian shoppers over their white counterparts.Racial profiling allegations lead to actionRite Aid’s utilization of AI-powered facial recognition technology has been under scrutiny due to its alleged profiling of certain racial groups. Specifically, the system was employed to identify customers deemed likely…
The CPI inflation rate has fallen again to 3.9% in November – meaning the prospect of a base rate cut next year is more likely. This represents a reduction from 4.4% in October, and means it’s getting closer to the Bank of England’s 2% target. Samuel Tombs, economist at research consultancy Pantheon Macroeconomics, described is as a “surprisingly sharp fall”, adding that it means the Bank of England is likely to cut the base rate in the first half of 2024. Ed Monk, an associate director at Fidelity International, agreed. He said: “The Bank of England has been talking tough,…
Aspen Insurance Holdings, a specialty insurance and reinsurance company backed by Apollo Global Management Inc. APO, -3.26% filed for an initial public offering late Wednesday with underwriters Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, Citigroup, Jefferies and Apollo Global Securities. The Bermuda-based company has yet to disclose its proposed trading symbol or stock exchange where it will list its common stock. For the six months ended June 30, Aspen Insurance reported net income of $196.7 million and $2.13 billion in gross written premiums, compared to $26.2 million in net income and $2.35 billion in gross written premiums in the year-ago period. The…
The mere mention of a stock split can get an investor’s blood rushing but are they worth all the excitement? It depends on why they happen and what it means to the investor. Say you have a $100 bill and someone offers you two $50 bills in exchange for it. Most people don’t get excited over a proposition like this because you still end up with the same amount of money. Stock splits present similar situations for people in the investment industry. Key Takeaways A company divides its existing stock into multiple shares to boost liquidity in a stock split.Companies…
The doomsday clock from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists estimates how close we are to a “civilization-ending apocalypse.” Right now, it’s 100 second to midnight. CNBC’s Rahel Solomon takes a look at the doomsday preppers who are getting ready for the end of the world. For access to live and exclusive video from CNBC subscribe to CNBC PRO: https://cnb.cx/2NGeIvi » Subscribe to CNBC TV: https://cnb.cx/SubscribeCNBCtelevision » Subscribe to CNBC: https://cnb.cx/SubscribeCNBC Turn to CNBC TV for the latest stock market news and analysis. From market futures to live price updates CNBC is the leader in business news worldwide. The News…
Listen to this story. Enjoy more audio and podcasts on iOS or Android.Your browser does not support the <audio> element.It is part metaphor, part myth and part history. Thomas Hobbes thought life there was nasty, brutish and short. John Locke disagreed, proclaiming that it was where people first learnt how to own things. Jean-Jacques Rousseau described it as the place where people were born free, before they became ensnared in chains. Robert Nozick thought that people were so desperate to escape it, there was an inevitable result: the creation of a state.Ideas about the “state of nature”—how people lived before…
Elastos aims to use BeL2 to allow users to stake their Bitcoin holdings directly on the service. Blockchain network Elastos may have devised a strategy to take advantage of the current high demand for Bitcoin (BTC) staking on its platform. This follows after it launched BeL2, a Bitcoin layer-2 network, in a supposed effort to retain the billions of dollars in BTC volumes that currently flow from the staking tools it offers. According to Elastos developers, BeL2 is an upgrade to the base Bitcoin blockchain. And that is especially true in the way that it permits more sophisticated Bitcoin transactions…
The cost of mortgage payments have surged by 283% since 2021 for landlords using interest-only, highlighting the dramatic effects of rising interest rates, Octane Capital research shows. Buy-to-let mortgage rates have soared from an average of just 1.65% in October 2021 to 5.72% in October 2023. As a result landlords making interest-only payments on their mortgage have seen costs climb from £272 per month to £1,042. Jonathan Samuels, chief executive of Octane Capital, said: “It’s been a challenging year for the nation’s landlords, as mortgage repayments have dramatically eaten into their profit margins, margins that have already been reduced due…