Financial News on Retail

Consumer spending makes up about 70% of the economy of the USA. That translates into earnings, as in Price/Earnings of stocks. As of Q3 2024, Americans had $1.166 trillion in credit card debt. As of February 2025, the richest 10% of Americans accounted for nearly half of all consumer spending. Wikipedia: Retail Industry KukaXoco: Retail stock charts

Note: some of the articles below are locked, accessible only to paid subscribers of the respective publication. Titles of the news articles are often edited to make them more informative or more honest. Bracketed comments [] are our glosses to headines. Bracketed comments [KM: ] are comments inserted when Karl and Groucho Marx temporarily intrudes on our thoughts, especially with their catch phrase: ... the rich get richer ....

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• Another 'cockroach': subprime auto-lender PrimaLend enters bankruptcy. PrimaLend finances "buy here, pay here" auto dealerships, which target low-income borrowers
  - Zero Hedge, 22 October 2025

• As auto loan delinquencies soar, reposessions on track to break record
  - Zero Hedge, 22 October 2025

• The legal cannabis market in Los Angeles is hitting a breaking point. At least two-thirds of LA marijuana businesses have failed to pay their local taxes, and the city is currently out hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue.
  - SF Gate, 22 October 2025

• Millions of Americans are already seeing their health insurance costs soar for 2026 as Congress remains deadlocked over extending covid-era subsidies for premiums. Premiums nationwide are set to rise by 18 percent on average. Nationally, the average marketplace consumer will pay $1,904 in annual premiums next year, up from $888 in 2025, due in part to a loss of federal subsidies.
  - Bezos' Washington Post, 22 October 2025

• Health insurance plans for families now cost $27,000/year. Higher spending on chronic diseases, weight-loss drugs and hospital bills helped drive the increase.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 22 October 2025

• Health insurance plans for families now cost $27,000/year. Higher spending on chronic diseases, weight-loss drugs and hospital bills helped drive the increase.
  - The Hill, 22 October 2025

• [Bubbles do not lift all boats]: OpenAI's ChatGPT should make retailers nervous. Retail companies risk losing control of the online shopping experience.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 22 October 2025

• Low-income consumers pulling back on restaurant spending may signal trouble ahead
  - Zero Hedge, 21 October 2025

• $50,000,000 - Why the chocolate we are eating is not really chocolate anymore. Penguin and Club bars are no longer legally chocolate - and they are not the only ones. Hannah Twiggs investigates how soaring cocoa prices, shrinking portions and quiet recipe changes have turned Britain's sweetest treats into something else entirely.
  - The Independent, 21 October 2025

• Roughly three million people in the USA canceled their Disney+ streaming service in the month that Disney temporarily suspended Jimmy Kimmel's show. About 4.1 million people canceled Disney-owned Hulu.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 21 October 2025

• Roughly three million people in the USA canceled their Disney+ streaming service in the month that Disney temporarily suspended Jimmy Kimmel's show. About 4.1 million people canceled Disney-owned Hulu.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 21 October 2025

• The effect of Trump's taxes/tariffs in the USA paint a less than pretty picture. The evidence is growing that American companies and consumers are bearing a substantial portion of the financial burden of the levies.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 21 October 2025

• For the first time in human history, more children in schools around the world are obese than are underweight. According to a report from Unicef, ultra-processed, sugary and energy-dense food has been replacing fruits, vegetables and protein in children's diets, leading to potentially long-lasting health issues.
  - Zero Hedge, 20 October 2025

• Convenience stores in Nihon are hiring robots run by serf-workers in the Philippines, helping to train robots to restock shelves
  - Rest of World, 20 October 2025

• One third of the people in the USA have more credit card debt than savings
  - Zero Hedge, 20 October 2025

• GDP growth in Zhōngguó grows at the slowest pace in one year, amid crumbling domestic demand and crashing real estate market
  - Zero Hedge, 20 October 2025

• Ever increasing insurance costs for home and auto insurance bring back talk of price caps. Increasingly, insurers in both Republican and Democratic states are being told to cap prices as lawmakers come under pressure from voters.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 20 October 2025

• Man buys new Tesla Cybertruck for about $102,000 - drives it just 340 miles, but is only to sell it for $69,420 - a 30% loss
  - The Cool Down, 19 October 2025

• Wealthy people - the rich - in the USA are spending less [should be not good for the SP500]. The non-rich are struggling to keep on spending, due to high prices and a weakening job market.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 19 October 2025

• Credit card rewards (funded through swipe fees - online and offline) benefit the rich the most. It is the fees from the non-rich that makes this possible, even the non-rich that don't use credit cards but use cash or debit cards. Merchants are forced to choose between lower profits [making them poorer] or raising their own prices [which hurts the non-rich]. [KM: yes, the rich must get richer]
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 19 October 2025

• Trump's high taxes/tariffs on imports of coffee (99% of coffee in the USA is imported) is forcing up the price of coffee in the USA
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 19 October 2025

• The spritzes and carbonaras that ate Italy - while being Instagrammed. Tourism has turned some Italian streets into monochromatic eating zones. Some officials have banned the opening of new restaurants. For many food vendors, selling a stereotypical lineup of Italian cuisine to high-spending, easy-to-please crowds descending from cruise ships has proved more profitable than eking out a living from a fruit or fish stand that caters to a dwindling local clientele. Streets in some cities have been turned into what critics see as endless open-air restaurants serving carbonara in Instagrammable pans as women roll out tagliatelle behind display windows, in zoo-like simulations of Italian grandmothers.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 18 October 2025

• Kim Kardashian's most recent Skims launch is her most cynical yet. Kardashian's newest line of faux pubic hair-adorned underwear [seriously?] is the latest example of how lucrative the commodification of bodies of women can be. [KM: she wants to get in on some of the Internet porn profits].
  - Comcast's MSNBC, 18 October 2025

• Higher Obamacare prices become public in a dozen states. Consumers are facing greater costs for their 2026 Affordable Care Act health coverage as Congress continues to debate whether to extend subsidies that help people afford their premiums. Filings from insurance companies show that prices for plans are rising by an average of 18 percent nationwide next year. [But for Repubicans in Congress to extend health subsidies for the non-rich, it would have to give less subsidies to the rich.]
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 18 October 2025

• [TACO] Trump is quietly ending many of Trump's signature taxes/tariffs. Grocery prices are on the rise, and evidence suggests Trump's taxes/tariffs are not helping consumers.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 18 October 2025

• The [crimes] behind your clothing's "made in Guatemala" label, crimes committed against tens of thousands of women who work in clothing factories in Guatemala making cheap clothes for people in the USA. These crimes include imposing impossible work quotas, wage theft and sexual harassment.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 18 October 2025

• [VIDEO]: Female workers describe impossible quotas, sexual harassment and death threats inside factories in Guatemala producing clothes bound for the USA and for clothing brands in the USA
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 18 October 2025

• Automobiles made in Zhōngguó, long a rarity in South Africa, now outsell some brands of vehicles from Europe, the USA and Nihon - now with 15% of the car market in South Africa
  - Comcast's CNBC, 18 October 2025

• The rental boom is remaking the furniture market. For many young adults priced out of the housing market, long-term rentals have become the new starter home. That is a challenge and an opportunity for the home-furnishings industry.
  - Barron's, 18 October 2025

• Biden's antitrust crusade protected big corporations. Four airlines control more than 66% of airline travel in the USA. Yet the Biden administration prevented two small airlines (JetBlue - 4.6%, and Spirit - 4.1%) from merging to provide more competition to the big airlines to lower prices for flyers - the point of antitrust law.
  - Washington Examiner, 17 October 2025

• Apple is reported to be reducing iPhone Air production by one million units, amid underwhelming sales. A separate report earlier today claimed that Samsung has canceled plans to release a successor to its own iPhone Air rival, the Galaxy S25 Edge, due to low sales.
  - MacRumors, 17 October 2025

• Apple greatly reduces iPhone Air production plans, boosts other 17 models: sources. Overall sales of new lineup defies weak market and Trump's tax/tariff war.
  - Nikkei Asia, 17 October 2025

• Auto loan delinquencies surge 50% as cracks deepen across credit markets in the USA
  - Zero Hedge, 17 October 2025

• The first new commercial banana in 75 years is coming to the market next year. The banana that "doesn't brown" is hitting the shelves. Scientists used biotechnology to delete the gene responsible for browning in bananas. One third of all bananas in the world are discarded after then turn brown.
  - ZME Science, 17 October 2025

• Delta and United are leaving other airlines behind. Delta Air Lines and United Airlines have accounted for most of the airline industry's profits since 2022. Their appeal to wealthy travelers could become a liability if the economy weakens.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 17 October 2025

• Due in part to Trump's taxes/tariffs, prices of groceries continue to rise. Record beef prices and coffee that costs $1 more per pound since May have shoppers cutting back on some foods, stockpiling others.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 17 October 2025

• IKEA's yearslong price-cutting bonanza is coming to an end. The furniture retailer is raising prices on some products, and working to source more goods in the USA because of Trump's taxes/tariffs.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 17 October 2025

• Small businesses are being financially damaged by Trump's taxes/tariffs and economists say it is a warning for the economy. Many of the small businesses said they have been forced to freeze hiring, pull back growth plans, take on new financing or cut salaries to keep operations afloat.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 17 October 2025

• Trump's taxes/tariffs to cost companies in the USA about $1.2 trillion in 2025, with consumers paying for most of the costs
  - Comcast's CNBC, 17 October 2025

• The 'Great Mall': how Zhōngguó is turning foreign tourists into shoppers. Could tax refunds and visa-free travel turn Zhōngguó into a bastion of international shopping trips?
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 17 October 2025

• The state of New York bans "algorithmic price collusion" - using AI systems to determine rental rates for aparrment (some cities have also banned the software).
  - The Verge, 16 October 2025

• Today's retail sales data was delayed, and good thing: it was very ugly. BofA is looking for a 0.2% m/m drop in the Census Bureau's retail sales ex-autos estimate. BofA also forecasts an even weaker -0.4% print on the control group.
  - Zero Hedge (locked), 16 October 2025

• A major legal claim has been filed in the UK against pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson, accusing the firm of knowingly selling baby powder contaminated with asbestos. The claim involves 3,000 people and focuses on internal memos and scientific reports, which have been seen by the BBC. The sale of baby powder containing talc stopped in the UK in 2023. Many similar lawsuits have been filed in the USA.
  - BBC, 16 October 2025

• A major legal claim has been filed in the UK against pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson, accusing the firm of knowingly selling baby powder contaminated with asbestos. The claim involves 3,000 people and focuses on internal memos and scientific reports, which have been seen by the BBC. The sale of baby powder containing talc stopped in the UK in 2023. Many similar lawsuits have been filed in the USA.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 16 October 2025

• [The economic idiocy] of taxes/tariffs is renewed. Trump's wrongheaded economic policies fuels his unconstitutional tax/tariff trade war. Try as he may, Trump cannot grasp these basic economic truths: first, that any tax imposed on one party to a voluntary transaction (China) necessarily gets passed on in whole or in part to another (their American purchasers), and second, from the sales lost to these high tariffs. There are no reciprocal trade deals that can work, or have worked, and increasing anxiety continues to spread as the president presses forward with a losing policy.
  - Richard Epstein - Civitas Institute, 16 October 2025

• If you were [gambling on the AI bubble], the percent of ChatGPT users willing to pay for it might make you break out in a cold sweat. Only 5% of ChatGPT users pay a subscription of a measily $20/month. So of course, OpenAI announces a culturally-rich/socially-meaningful new service: ChatGPT sexbots. [KM: bubble bubble, toil and t-rubles for OpenAI]
  - Futurism, 16 October 2025

• Retail traders' incredible support of the stock market continues with biggest options volume day ever
  - Comcast's CNBC, 16 October 2025

• Furious MAGA supporters of Trump say that they were "scammed" by watches sold by Trump, who as a grifter hawked the watches on cable TV as a government shutdown drags on over healthcare funding. Customers scammed complain of delays, non-arrivals, and ignored demands for refunds.
  - Daily Beast, 15 October 2025

• Trump keeps on lying that he "defeated" inflation. So why do prices continue to increase? More than three in four Americans now rate the U.S. economy as poor, and they blame Trump's boneheaded trade policies for heaping pain upon pain. 2025, under Trump, will come to be known as the year everything in the country got more expensive.
  - The Hill, 15 October 2025

• JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon about recent sub-prime credit bankruptices: "My antenna goes up when things like that happen. I probably should not say this but when you see one cockroach there are probably more."
  - Zero Hedge, 15 October 2025

• Shares of LVMH soar as much as 14% after it unexpectedly returned to sales growth in the third quarter, signaling a potential end to the multi-year luxury downturn that had halved the stock
  - Zero Hedge, 15 October 2025

• Once consumed mainly in small, formal tea ceremonies in Nihon, matcha is now mixed into fruity lattes and preyed on by counterfeiters. Can it survive its own popularity? Highly respected Japanese firms are at war with scores of vendors who resell their matcha far above the normal retail price on Amazon, Facebook Marketplace and other sites.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 15 October 2025

• The crunchy honeycrisp apple, the most popular apple in the USA, is nightmare for farmers, because it is difficult to grow.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 15 October 2025

• Global deliveries of electric vehicles soared to record 2.1 million units in September, 62% made in Zhōngguó.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 15 October 2025

• The rest of the world is following the USA's retreat on electric vehicles. Canada, the UK and the European Union are backing off from electric-vehicle targets as economic concerns arise. Even Zhōngguó is showing cracks.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 15 October 2025

• $181,000,000+ - The European Union's competition regulator fined Kering-owned Gucci, LVMH's Loewe and Richemonte's Chloe fashion labels more than $181.6 million, saying that they engaged in unfair pricing strategies that reduced freedom for distributors
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 15 October 2025

• Albertsons lifts outlook as price cuts, private-label push boost sales. Albertsons is absorbing higher costs to keep prices in check for budget-conscious shoppers.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 15 October 2025

• Elon Musk is [pathetically] making Cybertruck sales look better by selling a huge number to his own companies - more circular money flows [for pumping-and-dumping]. It is an embarrassing admission that what was once Musk's most beloved pet project has turned into a disaster.
  - Futurism, 14 October 2025

• Running shoes made for women have a critical design flaw - they are not designed for the actual anatomy of the feet of women. "They are based on a male foot model and then simply scaled down in size and recolored - what is often called the 'shrink it and pink it' approach."
  - BBC, 14 October 2025

• California has enacted new legislation that aims to limit companies from charging consumers "exorbitant fees" to cancel fixed-term contracts. This includes services that lure consumers into signing annual contracts by allowing them to pay in installments that appear similar to rolling monthly subscriptions, but with hefty cancellation fees for not locking in for the full year. The bill bans companies from hiding early termination fee disclosures within fine print or obscured hyperlinks, and limits the total fee amount to a maximum of 30 percent of the total contract cost.
  - The Verge, 14 October 2025

• Sticker shock: car prices top $50,000 for first time in the USA, according to the Kelley Blue Book. Taxes/tariffs and pricier vehicles catering to wealthier buyers are driving the new-vehicle market higher.
  - Apollo Global's Yahoo Finance, 14 October 2025

• Trump ramps up trade war as new taxes/tariffs on lumber and furniture take effect. Trump is threatening to widen his trade war against Zhōngguó as tariffs on timber, lumber, kitchen cabinets and other products take effect.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 14 October 2025

• In the furniture capital of the USA in North Carolina, a mix of hope and fear as the impact of Trump's taxes/tariffs start hurting the industry (North Carolina voted to put Trump in office). Some furniture executives worry that Trump's tax/tariff trade war on foreign goods, including supplies needed by furniture people, instead of creating jobs, will make things worse for an industry grappling with notoriously thin profit margins, a shortage of skilled workers and whiplash from other taxes/tariffs.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 14 October 2025

• LLoyds banking group sets aside further $1.07 billion for car-loan redress. The lender said it is now more likely that a higher number of historical cases are eligible for redress and that the level of compensation is above what had been anticipated.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 14 October 2025

• JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said Tuesday that bankruptcies in the U.S. auto market are a sign that lending standards grew too lax in the past decade-plus
  - Comcast's CNBC, 14 October 2025

• Walmart teams up with OpenAI to allow purchases directly in ChatGPT
  - Comcast's CNBC, 14 October 2025

• [KM: Bubble bubble toil and trouble] The very rich Mark Cuban just helped raise $50 million for a Series B round in a Dallas-based financial technology firm that lets people with terrible credit scores tap into the equity in their depreciating used cars at a 30% interest rate - even if it is not paid off - in which the entire auto loan is transferred. The startup, Yendo Inc., makes it even easier to squeeze blood from that stone. After signing up, the company issues the borrower a credit card - which incurs an additional 3% fee if used at an ATM to pull cash out. [KM: bubble economy, not sustainable economy
  - Zero Hedge, 13 October 2025

• Canada's boycott of products from the USA, because of Trump's trade war with Canada, is hurting innocent bystanders. Fewer people from Canada are visting the USA, hurting tourist businesses in the USA. Bans on alcohol from the USA is hurting alcohol businesses in the USA.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 13 October 2025

• Consumers in the USA are paying for 55% of Trump's taxes/tariffs, businesses in the USA 22% and foreign exporters 18% (and not 100% that Trump claimed)
  - The Hill, 13 October 2025

• For many people in the USA - the non-rich, this recession will feel like a depression. The conventional means to drag the economy out of recession have all reached their limits and will no longer work as anticipated. FOr the past 50 years, wages' share of the economy have plummeted, reducing the standard of living of wage earners, and the official response has been to rely on financial gimmicks to keep expanding consumption/GDP with borrowed money.
  - Charles Hugh Smith (substack), 12 October 2025

• Inside Brazil's methanol poisoning crisis due to illicit alcohol production (methanol is a cheaper substitute for ethanol in alcoholic beverages)
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 12 October 2025

• Forgive the alliteration, but Korean automaker Kia (000270.KS) is killing it with sales in the USA
  - Apollo Global's Yahoo Finance, 11 October 2025

• Backlash in Paris. Online fast-fashion retailer Shein plans to open its first bricks-and-mortar shops in France in November under an agreement with department store owner Société des des Grands Magasins, a move that sparked criticism from French retailers. "In front of the Paris City Hall, they are creating the new Shein megastore, which -- after destroying dozens of French brands - aims to flood our market even more massively with disposable products". Several French fast-fashion retailers such as Jennyfer and NafNaf went into insolvency proceedings earlier this year. [KM: yes, but rich tech companies must get richer]
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 11 October 2025

• Air Canada is offering free beer and wine to economy class passengers on all its flights - making it the only North American legacy carrier to do so. This burst of bonhomie is not as altruistic as it might seem; it is a sweetener following passenger pushback about additional fees for extra baggage and legroom, reports Reuters.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 11 October 2025

• National home improvement chain Lowe's finalized an $8.8 billion deal this week to acquire one of its competitors. On Thursday, the company confirmed it had completed the purchase of California-based Foundation Building.
  - MLive, 11 October 2025

• People regret buying smart displays from Amazon after being bombarded in their homes with advertisements [to sell more shit]. The authoritarian Amazon does not allow users to disable the home screen ads. [Yes, but Jeff Bezos must get richer]
  - Condé Nast's Ars Technica, 10 October 2025

• Delta predicts premium seat sales to overtake economy as soon as 2026. Shares of the largest U.S. airline by market capitalization traded 4% higher by midday Thursday after it unveiled quarterly earnings.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 10 October 2025

• Politicians in the European Union voted to limit "burger", "sausage" and other meat terms to animal products, upsetting consumers and producers of veggie burgers and tofu/soybean sausages
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 09 October 2025

• Politicians in the European Union voted to limit "burger", "sausage" and other meat terms to animal products, upsetting consumers and producers of veggie burgers and tofu/soybean sausages
  - The Guardian, 09 October 2025

• Equifax reduces prices for its credit score products, after FICO offers competitive services directly. Equifax will offer its VantageScore 4.0 mortgage credit scores for less than half of the price of FICO's scores through the end of 2027.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 09 October 2025

• The Federal Reserve has not defeated high inflation. Has it failed?
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 09 October 2025

• Delta's profit forecast tops estimates, buoyed by higher fares and resilient luxury demand for airline travel
  - Comcast's CNBC, 09 October 2025

• The latest abusive use of AI: homeowners and real estate agents are using AI to virtually enhance photos in real estate listings - 'virtual staging'. If not clearly stated on the listing, potential buyers will be deceived into thinking the enhancements exist in reality, as opposed to costing as much as $100,000 more to make real.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 09 October 2025

• BMW shares post sharpest drop in year after profit warning; Citi flags troubles in Zhōngguó as potentially "irreversible"
  - Zero Hedge, 08 October 2025

• Why did Walmart just buy a shopping mall? Walmart plans to turn the Monroeville Mall in Pennsylvania into a mixed-use development that will include retail, dining and entertainment space, according to a recent filing.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 08 October 2025

• Inside the death spiral of San Francisco's most storied mall. San Francisco Centre, once among Bay Area's top-performing retail centers, is bleeding millions of dollars a year.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 08 October 2025

• McCormick trims outlook as costs, and Trump's taxes/tariffs, weigh on profits. This demand for flavor [from condiments] - as CEO Brendan Foley calls it - increased McCormick's sales and profits, but was not enough to offset rising costs and Trump's high taxes/tariffs on imports.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 08 October 2025

• The year without artificial Christmas trees: importers in the USA are warning of major holiday goods shortages
  - Comcast's CNBC, 08 October 2025

• Retail investors buy a record-shattering $100 billion stocks in the past month
  - Zero Hedge, 07 October 2025

• Trump recently announced 100 percent taxes/tariffs on brand-name and patented medicines unless the manufacturer is also actively building a new plant in the United States. The policy will drive up prices, especially hurting non-rich patients, create uncertainty in the market, create shortages, invite gamesmanship across the pharmaceutical industry, and will not lead to much more manufacturing in the USA - Trump's nationalist socialist industrial policy.
  - Real Clear Markets, 07 October 2025

• Constellation Brands, which imports Modelo and Corona, posted lower second-quarter sales and lowered its full-year earnings outlook again as its core Hispanic demographic continues to buy less beer amid Trump's [racist] immigration crackdown.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 07 October 2025

• The "Death to Spotify" event in the San Francisco Bay Area sells out within 24 hours. Many in the public are upset with most musicians on Spotify not making any money, while Spotify earned $1.1 billion in 2024 - "There is a massive amount of royalty theft going on." [KM: the rich must get richer.] Many in the public are also upset with the rich CEO of Spotify wanting to become richer by investing in weapons companies.
  - SF Gate, 06 October 2025

• Governor Gavin Newsom on Monday signed a law banning excessively loud [obnoxious, misanthropic] advertisements on streaming platforms like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime that could become a de facto national standard
  - Politico, 06 October 2025

• The world's largest sanitary landfills (garbage dumps) are in the USA. The USA faces a major waste problem, with a high reliance on single-use and disposable plastics as well as a culture of low recycling and composting rates.
  - Zero Hedge, 06 October 2025

• Freelance PR agents - 'influencers' currently yield the the biggest power over people's purchasing decisions in Brazil, Zhōngguó and Bharat
  - Zero Hedge, 06 October 2025

• $17,000 per month: how sky-high prescription prices financially ruin patients. Insurance and financial stability do not always insulate people from the impact of high drug prices.
  - Zero Hedge, 06 October 2025

• A third of countries plagued by "abnormally high" food prices - brings risks of social unrest
  - Zero Hedge, 06 October 2025

• First there was the Tricolor subprime bankruptcy, now UBS warns: consumer weakness spreading from low-income to middle-class people, for example, as seen in reduced spending at restaurants
  - Zero Hedge, 06 October 2025

• More high-tech misanthropy: Samsung wants to shove advertisements in your face by displaying them on screens on the 'smart' fridges that they sell
  - Zero Hedge, 06 October 2025

• Craft breweries are struggling as sales and appetites wane
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 06 October 2025

• Climate pollution from inhalers (which use and releases global-heating HFAs - hydrofluoroalkanes) has the impact of half a million cars per year, study finds. Ironically, people use these inhalers to deal with harder-to-breathe air due to ... global heating.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 06 October 2025

• Rite Aid closes all remaining stores (89) after 63 years in business, after filing bankruptcy in May
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 04 October 2025

• Ford CEO says customers are not interested in buying electric vehicles that cost over $75,000. "They are willing to buy a $30,000 EV if they can save $2,000 a year compared to gasoline costs.
  - Apollo Global's Yahoo Finance, 04 October 2025

• $80,000,000+ - Harrods sets aside more than 60 million pounds ($80 million) for compensation to women who were raped and sexually assaulted by former Harrods owner Mohamed Al Fayed between 1985 to 2010
  - BBC, 04 October 2025

• Immigrants from Bharat own and/or operate 60% of the hotels and motels in the USA, many of the immigrants from the state of Gujarat in Bharat
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 04 October 2025

• How Costco, Sam's Club, and BJ's won over the USA. Walmart is leveraging its scale and technology to make Sam's Club even more appealing to its loyal shoppers. Why all three warehouse-club chains stand to win.
  - Barron's, 04 October 2025

• Coming to a chatbot near you: advertising and online shopping
  - Barron's, 04 October 2025

• 30% of food produced worldwide goes to waste. The shockingly high number means that one billion meals are wasted every day at the household level.
  - Zero Hedge, 03 October 2025

• Tourism in Las Vegas is declining, down 11% year-to-year, as prices skyrocket and international travel declines (due in part to Trump's attacks on foreign countries such as Canada). Legalized sports betting across the country has also hurt Las Vegas.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 03 October 2025

• Non-paid, non-tipped, food delivery robots are starting to clog sidewalks in the USA, while taking hobs for paid-human deliverers. The cameras and microphones are another privacy intrusion by corporations. Despite their cuteness, these delivery robots are nothing more than a a bunch of rich investors privately encroaching on a community or workplace.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 03 October 2025

• AI data centers [KM: which are mostly making the rich richer] are the "primary reason" for high capacity prices for the PJM electricity grid in the eastern USA. Capacity prices - a cost that is ultimately paid for by electricity consumers [whom are mostly non-rich] - surged in PJM's last two capacity auctions in July. Separately, the Union of Concerned Scientists this week found that utility ratepayers in PJM will pay about $4.4 billion for data center-related transmission projects that were approved in 2024 with similar results expected this year.
  - Zero Hedge, 02 October 2025

• Researchers at the University of Birmingham published a new study analyzing 31 different beverages, including coffee, tea, juices, sodas, and energy drinks, and found microplastics in every single one. The biggest disappointment was the discovery of the highest concentrations of microplastics in hot beverages, such as tea and coffee. Researchers found that heat significantly increased plastic shedding from packaging, with polypropylene and PET among the most common polymers found in the drinks.
  - Zero Hedge, 02 October 2025

• Copper prices are highest in year on supply disruptions that collide with AI and power grid demand. And those copper pipes and gutters just got pricier.
  - Zero Hedge, 02 October 2025

• The state of California declares kratom illegal, and raids stores in Sacramento and San Diego. The enforcement actions come as kratom and the related drug 7-hydroxymitragynine, commonly called 7-OH, undergo increased scrutiny across the country. Kratom is an herbal drug that has opioid-like properties and has been used for decades in the United States. The much more potent 7-OH drugs, which can be extracted from kratom or synthetically produced, have a high risk of addiction and can cause fatal overdoses, experts warn. Scientists estimate that 7-OH can be more than 10 times stronger than morphine.
  - SF Gate, 02 October 2025

• Visa is opening its cross-border real-time payments network, Visa Direct, to a stablecoin prefunding pilot that will allow companies to move money to accounts in different countries instantaneously, even when banks are closed.
  - American Banker, 02 October 2025

• Online fast-fashion retailer Shein plans to open its first bricks-and-mortar shops in France in November under an agreement with department store owner Société des des Grands Magasins, a move that sparked criticism from French retailers. "In front of the Paris City Hall, they are creating the new Shein megastore, which -- after destroying dozens of French brands - aims to flood our market even more massively with disposable products". Several French fast-fashion retailers such as Jennyfer and NafNaf went into insolvency proceedings earlier this year. [KM: yes, but rich tech companies must get richer]
  - Thomson's Reuters, 02 October 2025

• Sales show improvement at Nike, though profits fell 31 percent in the last quarter as the sneaker giant tries to execute a turnaround plan. Trump's taxes/tariffs are expected to cost Nike $1.5 billion.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 02 October 2025

• Student-loan debt is strangling Gen X. For many in the 'forgotten generation', the promise of higher education has become an albatross of debt and regret. And the debt is only getting more burdensome.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 02 October 2025

• Conagra logged lower profit and sales in its fiscal first quarter, hurt by ongoing inflationary pressures and budget-conscious shoppers who continue to cut back on snacks
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 02 October 2025

• To justify his authoritarian tactics, Trump promised to reduce inflation for the average American. However, according to a new Harris Poll, 47% of the people in the USA find it harder to afford groceries after one year's of Trump's policies
  - The Daily Beast, 02 October 2025

• Apple's AirPods Pro 3 are impossible to repair, and earn a score of 0 in a teardown by iFixit
  - MacRumors, 01 October 2025

• Amazon launches cheap grocery brand as value war with Walmart heats up
  - Zero Hedge, 01 October 2025

• A housing heat map for the USA signals ongoing deceleration as buyers wait for lower interest rates
  - Zero Hedge, 01 October 2025

• OpenAI just introduced a new shopping feature that allows people to buy items directly from online retailers from inside ChatGPT -- a move that instantly attracted online jeers from critics who framed it as another effort to milk cash from a hugely unprofitable and at times flawed platform. [KM: yes, but rich AI companies must get richer]
  - Futurism, 01 October 2025

• Energy bills are soaring in West Virginia, the coal capital of the USA. As electricity prices have risen for residents of the state, nearly one out of five customers of the leading utility company in the state is behind on monthly bills. Despite Trump's support for coal, generating electricity is expensive (especially compared to natural gas, and to wind and solar which Trump is opposed to). While utilities (governed by economics) have stated that they have no plans to build new coal plants, the governor remains committed to increasingly un-economic coal.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 01 October 2025

• Trump's taxes/tariffs mean you pay more for worse products. Even if America could make as much coffee as Colombia, it wouldn't be nearly as flavorful.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 01 October 2025

• Big corporate landlords have unwelcome new competition. Regular homeowners who cannot sell their properties are renting them out instead, and the growing number of 'accidental landlords' is a headache for big corporate landlords.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 01 October 2025

• $1,350,000 - The California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA) Board has issued a decision requiring Tractor Supply Company, the largest rural lifestyle retailer in the USA with more than 2,500 stores in 49 states, to change its business practices and pay a $1,350,000 fine to resolve claims that the company violated the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).
  - California Privacy Protection Agency, 30 September 2025

• Affordable Care Act premiums will rise 114% if enhanced subsidies expire. The enhancced subsidies - or, enhanced premium tax credits - make health insurance premiums cheaper for 22 million ACA enrollees.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 30 September 2025

• Soaring home prices in Australia force a record number of retirees to rent
  - Zero Hedge, 30 September 2025

• Brazil has a new, popular, digital spending system - PIX. Brazil's fast and free homegrown digital payment system, PIX, has become wildly popular. The Trump administration says it unfairly undercuts USA companies, such as Visa and Apple with their payment systems. Unlike many other payment systems, PIX charges no fees for individuals and small businesses. For small businesses, they have more profits, since they have to pay fewer higher fees to credit card companies. [KM: more nationalist socialist industrial policy from Trump - the USA government must control everything.]
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 30 September 2025

• Small businesses in the USA wither under Trump's taxes/tariffs: "It is hard to breath". Import taxes/duties are posing a challenge to some smaller companies, which fear that raising prices to cover higher costs will drive away customers.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 30 September 2025

• Get ready for higher health insurance premiums next year. Employers say they are facing the biggest increase in health costs in more than a decade - almost 9 percent on average.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 30 September 2025

• The dangers of letting AI plan your next trip. An imagined town in Peru, an Eiffel tower in Beijing: travellers are increasingly using tools like ChatGPT for itinerary pans - and being sent to destinations that do not exist, which could cost travellers their lies. "This sort of misinformation is perilous in Peru."
  - BBC, 29 September 2025

• Shares of Etsy rise 15% as OpenAI announces ChatGPT Instant Checkout for the shopping site - a new feature that will allow users to make single-item purchases directly from merchants through ChatGPT
  - Comcast's CNBC, 29 September 2025

• The bubbled stock market may be keeping the stock market out of a recession (by letting spend some of their bubbled profits). Why that is a bad thing for the economy.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 27 September 2025

• The videogame industry has a problem - there are too many games
  - Bloomberg, 26 September 2025

• Trump's 100$ taxes/tariffs on imports of drugs will spare many rich drugmarkers while punishing some small drugmakers
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 26 September 2025

• Trump's 100% pharmaceutical taxes/tariffs will not apply to the European Union and Nihon, because of negotiated agreements with the USA that contain provisions on drugs
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 26 September 2025

• Trump to impose a 100% tax/tariff on branded, patented drugs imported into the USA, unless drug companies build manufacturing facilities in the USA
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 26 September 2025

• Trump's plan to impose a 100% tax/tariff on branded and patented drug imports was greeted with a shrug by many investors, who are betting his exemptions for companies manufacturing in the USA will soften any blow. "The actual comment from Trump is direct but its impact may be somewhere between nebulous and negligible."
  - Bloomberg, 26 September 2025

• Trump's proposed taxes/tariffs on imported drugs "not a big concern" for drug companies in Zhōngguó, which have "minimal sales exposure to the USA"
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 26 September 2025

• Real-world impact of Trump's new drug taxes/tariffs to remain negligible, UBS advises clients
  - Zero Hedge, 26 September 2025

• Trump to impose a 100% tax/tariff on branded, patented drugs imported into the USA, unless drug companies build manufacturing facilities in the USA
  - Comcast's CNBC, 26 September 2025

• BYD reports a surge in sales in Europe. BYD's sales in Europe tripled in August, a sign that customers are embracing its lineup of electric and hybrid vehicles as the auto giant, based in Zhōngguó, continues to expand in Europe.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 26 September 2025

• The Fed's favorite inflation indicator, the Personal Consumption Expenditures price index, stayed stubbornly high in August at 2.7% year-to-year, up from an annual increase of 2.6% year-to-year in July. Core price inflation (not including food and energy) rose 2.9% year-to-year, the same as in July.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 26 September 2025

• The Fed's favorite inflation indicator, the Personal Consumption Expenditures price index, stayed stubbornly high in August at 2.7% year-to-year, up from an annual increase of 2.6% year-to-year in July. Core price inflation (not including food and energy) rose 2.9% year-to-year, the same as in July.
  - Investopedia, 26 September 2025

• $112,000,000 - A pair of flashy e-commerce entrepreneurs who bought bankrupt retailers like Pier 1 Imports, RadioShack, and Modell's Sporting Goods were accused by the feds this week of running a Ponzi scheme - and the clampdown came after ex-employees blew the whistle on them, The Post has learned. The duo bilked hundreds of investors out of $112 million through Miami-based Retail Ecommerce Ventures or REV, according to a US Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit filed in Florida federal court on Tuesday.
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 25 September 2025

• Drinking sugary beverages containing sweeteners fructose and glucose can increase the risk of colorectal cancer spreading in the body, according to a peer-reviewed study published on Sept. 19 by the journal Nature Metabolism
  - Zero Hedge, 25 September 2025

• Shares of CarMax crashed 25% in early New York trading. If the losses hold through the close, it would mark the largest daily decline since the Dot-Com bust. The selloff was sparked by second-quarter earnings that Truist Financial Services analysts described as a "miss across the board," with "really nothing good to see." The news also dragged down peers, including Carvana. CarMax's second-quarter results shocked Wall Street desks earlier with profit, sales, and pricing misses, signaling a very challenging used-car market in the second half of the year.
  - Zero Hedge, 25 September 2025

• Auto industry is flashing a warning sign on the economy of the USA. CarMax, the biggest seller of used cars, said that sales and profit plunged in the latest quarter. Its shares closed down 20%.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 25 September 2025

• Existing home sales in the USA remain near 15 year lows as prices keep rising
  - Zero Hedge, 25 September 2025

• Existing home sales in the USA remain near 15 year lows as prices keep rising
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 25 September 2025

• $2,500,000,000 - Amazon to pay a historically high $2.5 billion settlement for allegedly tricking customers into easily signing up for Amazon Prime, but making it hard to cancel. The settlement affects 35 million customers. [None of the white executives involved in this retail crime will go to jail.]
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 25 September 2025

• Amazon to pay a historically high $2.5 billion settlement for allegedly tricking customers into easily signing up for Amazon Prime, but making it hard to cancel. The settlement affects 35 million customers. [None of the white executives involved in this retail crime will go to jail.]
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 25 September 2025

• $112,000,000 - The Securities and Exchange Commission accused two men who bought well-known brands including RadioShack, Modell's Sporting Goods and Pier 1 Imports out of bankruptcy of running a Ponzi scheme that raised about $112 million from investors through fraudulent means.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 25 September 2025

• $949,000,000 - CVS Health subsidiary Omnicare has filed for bankruptcy after the pharmacy-services provider was ordered to pay $949 million over claims it improperly dispensed prescription drugs (without legitimate prescriptions) to individuals in long-term care
  - Apollo Global's Yahoo Finance, 25 September 2025

• CVS Health subsidiary Omnicare has filed for bankruptcy after the pharmacy-services provider was ordered to pay $949 million over claims it improperly dispensed prescription drugs (without legitimate prescriptions) to individuals in long-term care
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 25 September 2025

• Starbucks announces it will close hundreds of stores (about 1% of its locations) and fire about 900 people at its headquarters (having fired 1000 people in February). It plans to remodel more than 1000 locations.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 25 September 2025

• Starbucks announces it will close hundreds of stores (about 1% of its locations) and fire about 900 people at its headquarters (having fired 1000 people in February). It plans to remodel more than 1000 locations.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 25 September 2025

• In a $1 billion restructuring, Starbucks announces it will close hundreds of stores (about 1% of its locations) and fire about 900 people at its headquarters (having fired 1000 people in February). It plans to remodel more than 1000 locations.
  - Bloomberg, 25 September 2025

• Shares of Carmax were down more than 20% Thursday after the used auto retailer missed Wall Street's quarterly earnings and revenue expectations
  - Comcast's CNBC, 25 September 2025

• Shoplifters could soon be chased down by drones. Flock Safety is pitching its police-style drone program to private businesses. It could bring aerial surveillance to shopping centers, warehouses, and hospitals. [Laser-equipped drones?]
  - MIT Technology Review, 25 September 2025

• New home sales exploded higher in august, but prices soared
  - Zero Hedge, 24 September 2025

• Stablecoins versus credit cards: the coming $100 billion payments battle in the USA. Can stablecoins disrupt Visa and Mastercard? Can blockchain payments may capture billions in fees from US credit card networks.
  - Zero Hedge, 24 September 2025

• Raids, fines and secrecy: inside the hidden, illegal world of tattooing in South Korea. Though now, the parliament is voting on a law to legalize tattooing, which can only be done now by medical professionals.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 24 September 2025

• Inflation could be a third lower without Trump's taxes/tariffs, financial decision makers say
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 24 September 2025

• Seasonal retail hiring to fall to lowest level since 2009, signaling trouble for holidays, report says. The number of seasonal jobs retailers hire for is an indicator of how strong or weak they expect the holiday shopping season to be.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 24 September 2025

• Heineken acquires Costa Rica's Imperial Beer brand throught its purchase of FIFCO, the leading beverage company in Costa Rica, FIFCO.
  - The Takeout, 23 September 2025

• Michelob Ultra has become the number one selling brand of beer in the USA, rising above Modelo Especial
  - The Takeout, 23 September 2025

• ODP, the holding company for Office Depot and OfficeMax, will be taken private by Atlas Holdings for $842 million
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 23 September 2025

• Amazon to close all 19 of its Fresh grocery stores in United Kingdom
  - Comcast's CNBC, 23 September 2025

• Morgan Stanley is months away from offering cryptocurrency trading to retail customers through its E-Trade division as the Wall Street giant embraces what it called a transformative moment for the wealth management industry. The firm is working with the startup Zerohash for liquidity, custody and settlement around cryptocurrency trading.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 23 September 2025

• Morgan Stanley is months away from offering cryptocurrency trading to retail customers through its E-Trade division as the Wall Street giant embraces what it called a transformative moment for the wealth management industry. The firm is working with the startup Zerohash for liquidity, custody and settlement around cryptocurrency trading.
  - Zero Hedge, 23 September 2025

• Cryptocurrency startup Zerohash raises $104 million from Morgan Stanley, SoFi, Apollo and others. Zerohash provides banks and fintech firms with the ability to offer blockchain-based products in three major areas: cryptocurrency trading, stablecoins and tokenization.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 23 September 2025

• Crime rates aboard cruise ships are continuing to rise and have reached an almost two-year high in 2025
  - The Week, 22 September 2025

• Agent payments are about to revolutionize global financial infrastructure. Coinbase, Google and numerous others have teamed up to build payment rails that allow Autonomous AI Agents (Agents) to instantly transact at vast scale, without the need for banks, using stablecoins on blockchain rails.
  - Zero Hedge, 22 September 2025

• The Broadway musical is in trouble. With costs skyrocketing and audiences drawn to older hits, none of the musicals that opened last season have made a profit. Fewer are planned this season.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 22 September 2025

• Is the USA ready for 7-Elevens that are similar to the stores in Nihon?
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 22 September 2025

• Why 7-Eleven and other convenience stores in Nihon are so special
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 22 September 2025

• The Feds' Bostic sees little reason to reduce interest rates further for now. The Atlanta Fed president, Raphael Bostic, said risks of weaker employment outcomes have risen, but years of elevated inflation remain a serious concern.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 22 September 2025

• Saks in talks to sell 49% of Bergdorf Goodman for about $1 billion. The department-store operator intends to use the proceeds to pay down debt after the acquisition of Neiman Marcus in 2024.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 22 September 2025

• The iPhone Air is Apple's most impressive phone in years. But most people should not buy it - it has a smaller battery, a single camera and tends to heat up quickly - at a higher price. The iPhone 17 is better at $200 less.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 20 September 2025

• Sales of 'Hamburger Helper' rise as people in the USA try to stretch their food dollars. The price of beef and other grocery items is climbing, and consumers are relying more on canned meats and a 1970s food booster, 'hamburger helper'.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 20 September 2025

• Young consumers in Zhōngguó set the global trend. What they are buying now. Zhōngguó's young adults are tastemakers with spending power, even in a slowing economy, says Zak Dychtwald, founder of YCG Bridgeworks. Why every company needs a strategy to compete with Zhōngguó.
  - Barron's, 20 September 2025

• More bad news for Americans battling higher prices: winter heating bills are about to rise.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 19 September 2025

• Walmart's online marketplace, Marketplace, has been on a meteoric rise, but a CNBC investigation found it fueled growth in part by making it easier for third-party sellers to join and sell on its platform. Over time, Walmart made its seller and product vetting more lax in a bid to compete with Amazon, according to sellers and current and former employees. CNBC uncovered dozens of third-party sellers impersonating legitimate businesses, who were offering potentially dangerous counterfeit health and beauty products at steep discounts.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 19 September 2025

• Alibaba-Meituan battle heats up as rivals clash in in-store dining: report. Alibaba's latest initiative is expected to start in selected districts in Shenzhen, Shanghai and Jiaxing in eastern Zhejiang province.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 19 September 2025

• Sold on Walmart, sent by Amazon: the weird new world of online retail
  - Geekwire, 18 September 2025

• Samsung is bringing advertisements to the refrigerators it sells to homeowners in the USA, making the lives of people more miserable. [KM: but the rich must get richer]
  - The Verge, 18 September 2025

• Spirit Airlines to reduce flight capacity by 25%, and fire people to prioritize its "strongest markets"
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 18 September 2025

• The Federal Trade Commission filed a bombshell lawsuit against Ticketmaster on Thursday, accusing the online, high-tech, broker of earning huge profits through exorbitant fees and turning a blind eye as AI bots illegally resell millions of tickets to customers. The FTC's lawsuit alleges that Ticketmaster has allowed AI bots to resell millions of tickets beyond the purchase limits it publicly announced since the BOTS Act took effect. [KM: but rich companies must get richer with AI]
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 18 September 2025

• The Federal Trade Commission filed a bombshell lawsuit against Ticketmaster on Thursday, accusing the online, high-tech, broker of earning huge profits through exorbitant fees and turning a blind eye as AI bots illegally resell millions of tickets to customers. The FTC's lawsuit alleges that Ticketmaster has allowed AI bots to resell millions of tickets beyond the purchase limits it publicly announced since the BOTS Act took effect. [KM: but rich companies must get richer with AI]
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 18 September 2025

• The top 20% of rich Americans are keeping the economy alive. That is not a good sign, a sign of a 'K-shaped' economy, where a small share of high-wealth Americans is seeing continued gains while a larger share of middle- and lower-income households is experiencing increased strain. A significant correction in stock prices - the wealth of the rich - could cause them to spend less, causing a recession.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 18 September 2025

• The top 20% of rich Americans are keeping the economy alive. That is not a good sign, a sign of a 'K-shaped' economy, where a small share of high-wealth Americans is seeing continued gains while a larger share of middle- and lower-income households is experiencing increased strain. A significant correction in stock prices - the wealth of the rich - could cause them to spend less, causing a recession.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 18 September 2025

• Here is how the wealthy are propping up the car market. Wealthier customers have been boosted by rising house values, stock market returns and favorable credit, while lower- and middle-income car buyers find themselves unable to buy increasingly expensive cars.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 18 September 2025

• Paying higher prices for electricity? Thank Trump. Bigger electricity bills are a direct result of Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which reduced socialist subsidies for renewable energy [KM: to give more socialist subsidies to oil and natural gas companies].
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 18 September 2025

• Trading by retail investors is taking over the market: odd lots now represent 66% of all equity trades in the USA, up from 31% in January 2019, more than 20% of notional volume and 8% of total executed shares
  - Zero Hedge, 17 September 2025

• "That is cute": the CEO of Fronteir Airlines fires back at United CEO who declared that the discount airline model is dead
  - Comcast's CNBC, 17 September 2025

• Sales of heavy trucks are falling like the USA is headed for a recession
  - CNBC (locked), 17 September 2025

• In high-profile closings, restaurant owners in Los Angeles see trouble. The city's turmoil, from wildfires to curfews, has exacted a toll on some of its best-loved restaurants and raised worries about the future.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 17 September 2025

• The government of Zhōngguó unveils a 19-point plan to encourage people to spend. Support and investment incentives unveiled for sectors such as tourism, sports, healthcare and culture, while visa-free access and school holidays could be enhanced.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 17 September 2025

• $1,000,000+ - A pair of Southern California brothers have been charged with failing to report more than $1 million in income from an alleged scheme centered around the opaque underworld of golf tee-time brokering
  - SF Gate, 16 September 2025

• 'Real' retail sales rise for the 11th straight month in August
  - Zero Hedge, 16 September 2025

• Electric vehicles on the used market increase in sales numbers, as they often cost less than comparable gasoline models, making the technology affordable to many more buyers
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 16 September 2025

• Shoe prices are expected to rise further as footwear companies burn through stockpiles of inventory they rushed in before Trump's taxes/tariffs raised import costs, an industry group warns
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 16 September 2025

• How Luckin Coffee, based in Zhōngguó, is challenging Starbucks in the USA
  - Comcast's CNBC, 16 September 2025

• More Big Brother: a data broker owned by the country's major airlines, including American Airlines, United and Delta, is selling access to five billion plane ticketing records to the government for warrantless searching and monitoring of peoples' movements, including by the FBI, Secret Service, ICE, and many other agencies, according to a new contract and other records reviewed by 404 Media. "Americans' privacy rights shouldn't depend on whether they bought their tickets directly from the airline or via a travel agency."
  - 404 Media, 15 September 2025

• Hedge funds become buyers again after the CPI report, and flood into tech stocks at fastest pace since February
  - Zero Hedge, 15 September 2025

• $7,500,000 - More Silicon Valley misanthropy: Chegg has agreed to pay $7.5 million to settle U.S. Federal Trade Commission claims that the educational technology company made it difficult to cancel subscriptions. Chegg buried cancellation options behind multiple menus on its website, according to the FTC complaint.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 15 September 2025

• Beef prices are at a record high. The winners: cattle ranchers. Demand for beef is high, cattle herds are thin, prices are soaring - and after years of struggling, cattlemen like it this way.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 15 September 2025

• Trump's taxes/tariffs are larger than his tax reductions for most people in the USA. According to calculations by the Yale Budget Lab, American households could pay $2,300 more, on average, as result of Trump's tax/tariff policy, nearly three times the average roughly $800 benefit for Trump's tax/spending law that mostly makes the rich richer
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 15 September 2025

• About 26.6% of trade-ins toward new car purchases had negative equity in the second quarter of 2025, according to Edmunds, that is, the cars' owners owe more on their current auto loan than what the auto is worth. People buying new cars will need to find cash to make up the negative value, or add it to the loan for the new auto, making it harder to buy new autos.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 15 September 2025

• Food-forward convenience stores are stealing breakfast customers from fast-food restaurant chains. Morning meal traffic to fast-food chains rose 1% in the three months ended in July, while visits to food-forward convenience stores climbed 9% in the same period, according to Circana. Prepared foods have offered a lifeline for convenience stores as demand for gasoline, tobacco and lottery tickets has fallen over time.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 15 September 2025

• Consumers love a new form of incurring debt: "buy now, pay later" loans. Here is why banks and credit card companies are wary of them. For banks, it takes business from their credit card operations. Also for traditional financial institutions, "Buy now, pay later to date represents a giant black hole in the credit profile and their understanding of consumer credit quality."
  - Comcast's CNBC, 15 September 2025

• The economic slowdown in Zhōngguó deepens in August as retail sales and industrial output are reported lower than expectations of analysts
  - Comcast's CNBC, 15 September 2025

• The economic slowdown in Zhōngguó deepens in August as retail sales and industrial output are reported lower than expectations of analysts
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 15 September 2025

• On the third world's insatiable appetite for hollow consumerism. Of all cancerous American exports, the mega-shopping mall is the most unforgivable.
  - Armageddon Safari, 14 September 2025

• Tesla insurance rates have been increasing and putting electric vehicle enthusiasts in challenging financial positions. Because of that, some drivers are trading in their Teslas for other EV brands.
  - The CoolDown, 13 September 2025

• Why many foreign travelers have stopped visiting the USA. Many international travelers say they are put off by Trump's taxes/tariffs, Trump's anti-foreigner rhetoric and aggressive/[racist] immigration enforcement, leading to a tourism slump that is hurting local economies in the USA.
  - Axios, 13 September 2025

• Food-price inflation is not going away. It is due more that just because of Trump's taxes/tariffs.
  - Barron's, 13 September 2025

• Are (adult) moveigoers tired of adaptations of comic books? Adaptations of comic books and graphic novels accounted for just 15.6 and 3.2 percent of ticket sales at the North American box office in 2023 and 2024, down from 29.9 and 31.0 percent in 2021 and 2022, respectively.
  - Zero Hedge, 12 September 2025

• Small businesses face a new threat: pay up or be flooded with bad reviews. Movers, roofing companies and others are being bombarded with phony one-star reviews on Google Maps. Then they are asked to pay up. Google makes it difficult to remove the lies once they are posted to Google Maps. AI tools have made this situation worse. "These businesses are being extorted and Google isn't doing enough [i.e., spending some of its billions] about it."
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 12 September 2025

• Yes, your morning coffee has gotten more expensive. Coffee prices are up nearly 21 percent over the past year, partly because of Trump's punishing taxes/tariffs on Brazil and Vietnam.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 12 September 2025

• Editorial: many on Wall Street, and Trump [and his puppets], keep saying that inflation is vanquished as they hope - plead - for lower interest rates. Yet the economic data are not supporting their optimism. This makes it harder for significant interest rate reductions by the Fed.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 12 September 2025

• Steady inflation, and soft jobs data, pull the Fed in opposing directions with regards to reducing interest rates. Consumer prices were up 2.9% in August from a year earlier, more than July's gain of 2.7%. The year-over-year reading was the highest since the start of 2025.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 12 September 2025

• CocaCola shed its bottling business and and poured money into marketing. Unless Pepsi slims down, the gap between the two will continue to widen.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 12 September 2025

• Trump's crackdown on advertisements for drugs could financially hurt television networks. Pharmaceutical industry spending on TV ads topped $6 billion in 2024.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 12 September 2025

• Editorial: the bankruptcy of Tricolor, a major subprime auto lender. Is Tricolor's surprise bankruptcy an outlier or a harbinger?
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 12 September 2025

• Tricolor, a major subprime auto lender, just filed for bankruptcy. It will not be like subprime mortgage lenders sparking the Great Recession. The cars involved have steady value (unlike plummeting home prices in 2007/2008). And auto loans are not bundled into bonds and sold to other investors.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 12 September 2025

• The weight-loss drug boom is resizing clothing racks around the USA, with the most significant changes to date measured in the amount of plus-size clothing showing up in the resale market. But fashion experts warn that the market for big and tall consumers has long been underserved and it would be a mistake to retreat on plus-size clothing with expensive drugs like Ozempic and Zepbound still only used by a minority of the population.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 12 September 2025

• Broadcom's VMware will lose 35% of its current workloads as Broadcom's licensing changes and rising costs push customers toward competitors like Nutanix and public clouds, as VMWare seeks less favorable licenses for its customers
  - The Register, 11 September 2025

• Rise in the rate of inflation in the USA is likely to keep the Fed cautious on pace of interest rate reductions. The central bank is likely to lower borrowing costs at its meeting next week amid budding concerns about the labor market.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 11 September 2025

• Persistent inflation means that the Fed will reduce interest rates next week by 0.25%, not by the bigger market-cocaine reduction of 0.50%
  - Yahoo Financea, 11 September 2025

• Prey on the "blessed meek": Klarna goes public [KM: to get rich] as more than 50% of non-rich people say risky buy-now-pay-later is the only way they can afford to buy things
  - Murdoch's MarketWatch, 11 September 2025

• The CEO of RH (formerly Restoration Hardware) predicts "significant inflation" to hit in 2025, and get worse in 2026, as the furniture industry suffers from Trump's taxes/tariffs.
  - Murdoch's MarketWatch, 11 September 2025

• Why 7-Eleven and other convenience stores in Nihon are so special. Convenience stores are a fixture of Japanese life, and 7-Eleven is the dominant chain in Nihon. They are a place to shop, pay bills and gather during disasters.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 11 September 2025

• Inditex narrowly misses sales forecasts, but growth picks up after slowdown. The Zara owner reported first-half sales that fell slightly short of analysts' projections, but growth accelerated despite fierce competition.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 11 September 2025

• 10-year Treasury Bond yield falls to 4% as traders assess inflation data
  - Comcast's CNBC, 11 September 2025

• The European Central Bank does not change interest rates, as the fallout lingers from Trump's tax/tariff trade war
  - Comcast's CNBC, 11 September 2025

• The European Central Bank does not change interest rates, as the fallout lingers from Trump's tax/tariff trade war
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 11 September 2025

• What is ruining the food scene in México City? Americans. As restaurants change to reflect new tastes of more residing Americans, local reactions have ranged from fascination to fury. At some taquerías, locals grumbled that their beloved condiments were less spicy because of the growing presence of foreigners. Then it was pizzerias opening on seemingly every corner. And third-wave coffee shops charging 100 pesos for a croissant.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 10 September 2025

• Wholesale prices surprisingly fell slightly in August by 0.1%, providing breathing room for the Federal Reserve to approve an interest rate cut at its meeting this month
  - Comcast's CNBC, 10 September 2025

• Wholesale prices surprisingly fell slightly in August by 0.1%, providing breathing room for the Federal Reserve to approve an interest rate cut at its meeting this month
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 10 September 2025

• Inflation erased the wage gains of people in the USA last year, leaving household incomes little changed beyond the richest households
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 10 September 2025

• Robinhood, a stock/ETF broker built for the social-media age, to launch its own social network. Robinhood Social will allow users to post their trades and track those of public figures - competing with Reddit's WallStreetBets.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 10 September 2025

• Robinhood, a stock/ETF broker built for the social-media age, to launch its own social network. Robinhood Social will allow users to post their trades and track those of public figures - competing with Reddit's WallStreetBets.
  - Bloomberg, 10 September 2025

• ATM fees are at a record high, as banks gouge people trying to access their money. Americans are now paying an average of $4.86 for out-of-network ATM withdrawals. [There are no laws for such fees, and a Trump/Republican government destroying at least one consumer protection agency won't do anything soon.]
  - CBS News, 10 September 2025

• Mortgage demand jumps to the highest level in three years, as interest rates drop sharply
  - Comcast's CNBC, 10 September 2025

• Deflation in Zhōngguó takes a toll with zero revenue growth. Goldman Sachs analysts pored over financial statements of more than 6,800 listed companies in Zhōngguó, and found that their revenue growth hovered around 0% despite the real GDP allegedly growing at a pace of over 5%.
  - Zero Hedge (locked), 09 September 2025

• $25,000,000 - A federal judge approved Vanguard Group's $25 million settlement of a lawsuit accusing the U.S. mutual fund company of improperly saddling investors in its target-date funds with inflated tax bills.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 09 September 2025

• Editorial: Trump says that foreign countries, not Americans, will pay his border taxes. But a new analysis by Anderson Economic Group shows how Trump's automobile taxes/tariffs on México and Canada are starting to hurt USA auto makers and will soon hurt consumers.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 09 September 2025

• After the Covid pandemic, many retail chains, political leaders, law enforcement officials and others told America there was an unprecedented level of shoplifting. But national crime data never showed a retail theft increase. William Blair retail analysts in 2023 suggested that chains had "overexaggerated" the impact, using it as an excuse for inventory mismanagement and strategic mistakes. Walgreen's then-chief financial officer even said "maybe we cried too much" about lost merchandise and overspent on security measures.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 09 September 2025

• Consumer credit increases trounces estimates on unexpected surge in credit card usage
  - Zero Hedge, 08 September 2025

• People in the USA start complaining about people in the USA having to pay for Trump's taxes/tariffs (and not the foreigners, as he promised/lied): "Being charged $54 in taxes/tariffs for a $100 jacket from Japan. Insane fees. $36.50 of it is the actual taxes/tariffs, and the rest is DHL fees. So, being charged over 36% for a jacket that was made in the USA, just being sold by a Japanese eBay seller. The new taxes/tariffs are so awful for commerce. The job of government is supposed to be to facilitate commerce. What a joke. But at least our lord and savior Donald Christ gets a bigger pot of money to grift and siphon from our government and economy and into his pocket."
  - BuzzFeed, 08 September 2025

• The biggest airlines in the USA make billions of dollars from their loyalty programs and branded credit cards, which some analysts believe are now essential to the businesses. By one estimate, the programs are worth hundreds of billions of dollars globally, accounting at times for a large share of the value of the companies that run them.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 08 September 2025

• Software companies that audit expense reports for businesses are adding new AI tools to try to detect receipts that have been created using AI chatbots [KM: offered by rich AI companies]
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 08 September 2025

• Sugar-drug trafficker Krispy Kreme is making a concentrated push to get its doughnuts into even more big-box retailers, as well as convenience and grocery stores, around the USA. Its stock is down 66% in the last year, as sales decline.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 08 September 2025

• Lululemon faces further pain ahead as casual offerings grow stale. Challenges to the brand may continue for some time as the activewear market becomes more saturated.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 08 September 2025

• Tesla market share in USA, under the (mis)management of Elon Musk, drops to lowest since 2017 as competition heats up
  - Comcast's CNBC, 08 September 2025

• AI isn't free. The first costs are on your electric bill, and more costs are coming, as the public is forced to pay for the unseen costs [KM: needed for filthy rich AI companies to get richer]
  - Zero Hedge, 07 September 2025

• Throwaway plastics has corrupted us. For example, in 1957, 92 percent of American children were potty-trained by 18 months of age. Four decades later, that number had dropped to just 4 percent. Why? Disposable, oil-derived, plastic disposable diapers, first offered by Procter & Gamble, eroded the incentives to start potty training early. Worse, between 2011 and 2018, disposable diapers were among the top 25 most littered items on the seafloor and among the 40 most littered items on land. In the United States alone, more than 18 billion diapers are discarded every year, creating an enormous drain on natural resources. Cheap, versatile plastics made throwaway culture explode, fueling overconsumption and turbocharging corporate profits.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 07 September 2025

• Visiting the USA is about to get more expensive for foreign travelers, as Trump imposes more visa-related fees on travellers entering the USA. The World Travel and Tourism Council projected in May that the United States will lose $12.5 billion in international visitor spending in 2025.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 06 September 2025

• Consumers in the USA are just fine, thanks, based on recent spending trends. Bank of America Institute finds that checking and savings account balances have grown 50% since 2019, while the ratio of total debt payments to disposal income has fallen.
  - Barron's, 06 September 2025

• Trump does more to make the rich richer: Trump to undo a Biden-era policy that forced airliens to compensate their customers for flight disruptions. The Trump administration said Thursday it is abandoning a Biden-era plan that sought to require airlines to compensate stranded passengers with cash, lodging and meals for flight cancellations or changes caused by a carrier. The proposed rule would have aligned USA policy more closely with European airline consumer protections. [KM: A rule that wouldn't do anything for the rich.]
  - Comcast's MSNBC, 05 September 2025

• Trump does more to make the rich richer: Trump to undo a Biden-era policy that forced airliens to compensate their customers for flight disruptions. The Trump administration said Thursday it is abandoning a Biden-era plan that sought to require airlines to compensate stranded passengers with cash, lodging and meals for flight cancellations or changes caused by a carrier. The proposed rule would have aligned USA policy more closely with European airline consumer protections. [KM: A rule that wouldn't do anything for the rich.]
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 05 September 2025

• Rising electricity prices (up 5.5% in the last year) become a political problem for Trump and Republicans.
  - The Hill, 05 September 2025

• Six Flags amusement park company has racked up $500 million in debt, seen revenue fall by $100 million in Q2, attendance drop 9%, and season pass sales decline 8%. Two parks have already been shut down, with Great America in California set to close in 2027. The company could go bankrupt.
  - Zero Hedge, 05 September 2025

• $380,000,000 - The data protection authority in France will fine Google $380 million because Google (and Shein) are flouting French regulations about advertising 'cookies', arguing that neither company adequately informed users they were being tracked for advertising.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 05 September 2025

• $170,000,000 - The data protection authority in France will fine Shein $170 million because Shein (and Google) are flouting French regulations about advertising 'cookies', arguing that neither company adequately informed users they were being tracked for advertising.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 05 September 2025

• Shares of Lululemon plunge 20% as it slashes its earnings outlook, and predicts losses of $240 million from Trump's tax/tariff policies
  - Comcast's CNBC, 05 September 2025

• Shares of Lululemon plunge 20% as it slashes its earnings outlook, and predicts losses of $240 million from Trump's tax/tariff policies
  - Zero Hedge, 05 September 2025

• BYD reduces its annual sales target as demand slumps, and competition intensifies
  - Zero Hedge, 04 September 2025

• McDonald's escalates the restaurant industry's fight over tipping. McDonald's says all workers should receive a minimum wage, including tipped servers employed by rivals.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 04 September 2025

• As of this week, the European Union is prohibiting the use of a key chemical ingredient in some gel nail polishes and other cosmetic products. The ban targets the use of trimethylbenzoyl diphenylphosphine oxide or TPO, which was classified as a type of "reproductive toxicant" by European regulators, according to the European Commission.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 04 September 2025

• The current bubbles (AI, real estate) are bigger than the DotCom and RealEstater crises; interest rates at 4.25% to 4.5% can't contain inflation, but at 5%, the USA would have to spend 40% of its income servicing its debt; and if the Fed reduces rates this fall, long term Bond yields will go even higher, so the USA will have to borrow using short-term bonds, i.e, the equivalent of an adjustable rate mortgage system that never works.
  - Zero Hedge, 03 September 2025

• Roku is celebrating a milestone that says a lot about where entertainment is heading. For the third month in a row, people in the United States spent more time streaming on Roku-powered devices than they did watching traditional broadcast television
  - NERDS.xyz, 03 September 2025

• From the Ottoman Empire to the modern Starbucks, coffee seems to power entrepreneurship and innovation
  - The Daily Economy, 03 September 2025

• $134,000,000 - UK supermarket giant Tesco has sued Broadcom for breach of contracts pertaining to its VMware licenses, named Computacenter as a co-defendant, and warned it may not be able to put food on the shelves if the situation goes pear-shaped. Tesco alleges that after Broadcom acquired VMware, it stopped selling support services for software sold under perpetual licenses, such as those bought by Tesco. Other companies are using Broadcom for the same reason.
  - The Register, 03 September 2025

• Aldi wants to conquer the grocery store industry in the USA. The retail chain based in Deutschland plans to add more than 200 stores on a net basis in the USA this year.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 03 September 2025

• ~$1,000,000 - Two men connected to a Jacksonville car dealership are facing felony charges in what investigators call a nearly $1 million organized fraud scheme
  - ActionNewsJax.com, 02 September 2025

• $100,000,000 - A federal judge in San Jose has approved a $100 million settlement with Google in a 14-year class action over the company's ad system, despite concerns over "disappointing" financial ties discovered during the final approval process.
  - Courthouse News, 02 September 2025

• Tesla's auto sales in Europe continue their decline into August, with sharp declines in key markets underscoring the electric vehicle maker's struggles against rising Chinese competition and a consumer backlash against CEO Elon Musk
  - Zero Hedge, 02 September 2025

• Hotels in Thailand reduce room rental tates due to falling tourist numbers. Pricing pressure seen for first time in four years.
  - Bangkok Post, 02 September 2025

• Kraft Heinz will split into two companies, reversing much of the blockbuster $46 billion merger from a decade ago that created one of the biggest food companies in the world
  - Comcast's CNBC, 11 July 2025

• Kraft Heinz will split into two companies, reversing much of the blockbuster $46 billion merger from a decade ago that created one of the biggest food companies in the world
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 11 July 2025

• Kraft Heinz to break up its food businesses. A planned split of the mega company that makes products from Velveeta to Kool-Aid comes as consumers shift away from processed foods.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 11 July 2025

• Shares of Pepsi rise 5% as activist Elliott invests $4 billion, seeing a "historic" value opportunity
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 11 July 2025

• Shares of Pepsi rise 5% as activist Elliott invests $4 billion, seeing a "historic" value opportunity
  - Comcast's CNBC, 11 July 2025

• The USA closed many of its shopping malls, but Zhōngguó continued to build shopping malls. Now Zhōngguó has too many. The first closing of an Apple Store in mainland Zhōngguó hints at broader troubles facing Zhōngguó's shopping malls as developers open more of them.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 31 August 2025

• American consumers are facing a new wave of pricing pressure as companies from food giants to hardware chains warn that Trump's taxes/tariffs are already making their way onto store shelves. "We haven't seen the worst of the price increases yet [due to Trump's taxes/tariffs]. You do not know what he cost of your goods are relative to retailing and margin." And Walmart CEO states: "As we replenish inventory at post-tariff price levels, we've continued to see our costs increase each week, which we expect will continue into the third and fourth quarters."
  - Apollo Global's Yahoo Finance, 31 August 2025

• Is shopping for a bed turning into a nightmare for consumers? Is the bewildering thicket of mattresses, mattress toppers, pillows and bed frames, often augmented by specialty materials and technologies, doing anything to relax consumers? Or is it having the opposite effect by stressing us out?
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 31 August 2025

• The "self-inflicted injury" [i.e., the authoritarian Trump's tax/tariff wars and attacks on Canada and Europe] that is hurting the tourism business in the USA that is making Americans who work in the tourism industry angry and disappointed. Canadians calling to cancel their tours "explicitly tell me that it was because of the policies and the behavior of Trump". One estimate is that tourists visits in the USA, instead of rising 9% will decline by 8%, all due to Trump's attacks on foreign countries, a lose of more than $12 billion. A new $250 "visa integrity fee/tax" imposed by Trump makes things worse.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 31 August 2025

• The "self-inflicted injury" [i.e., the authoritarian Trump's tax/tariff wars and attacks on Canada and Europe] that is hurting the tourism business in the USA that is making Americans who work in the tourism industry angry and disappointed. Canadians calling to cancel their tours "explicitly tell me that it was because of the policies and the behavior of Trump". One estimate is that tourists visits in the USA, instead of rising 9% will decline by 8%, all due to Trump's attacks on foreign countries, a lose of more than $12 billion. A new $250 "visa integrity fee/tax" imposed by Trump makes things worse.
  - Al Jazeera, 31 August 2025

• The significant decline in international tourism to the USA could continue well into the future. Trump's taxes/tariffs, Trump's racist immigration crackdown, and the 'good' Christian Trump's repeated insults about friendly foreign countries (such as Canada) are alienating travelers from all over the world from visiting the USA. The power of Trump's Christian hate to wreck part of the economy of the USA.
  - The Hill, 31 August 2025

• Weakening Malaysia's RON95 subsidy for petrol/gasoline will cost the country dearly. The government keeps delaying the inevitable with full RON95 subsidy reform, but diluting it will cost the country in the long run. Fuel subsidies in 2022 cost the government of Malaysia about $12 billion.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 31 August 2025

• Trump's hostility to foreigners includes imposing a $250 "visa integrity fee" imposed on travellers entering the USA, raising the total cost of a visa to $442. Travel and tourist companies in the USA are worried about losing even more business due to Trump's policies. he visa fee reinforces a bleak perception of the U.S. under Trump, whose immigration policies, cuts to foreign aid and sweeping tariffs have eroded America's appeal as a destination.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 30 August 2025

• The big economies of the eurozone show few signs of rising inflation. This might allow the European Central Bank to reduce interest rates a bit in September.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 30 August 2025

• The fierce competition in the food-delivery industry in Zhōngguó has started to show up in the results of Alibaba, with the e-commerce titan reporting weakness in a key profitability metric in its latest quarter.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 30 August 2025

• Nearly 60% of Americans now keep their cars longer to manage rising interest rates, insurance premiums, and fuel prices
  - Zero Hedge, 29 August 2025

• How high-tech online fast-fashion companies keep poor people poor. Companies such as Shein are using influencers to get Zoomers addicted on truckloads of shoddy clothing. [KM: yes, but the rich must get richer]
  - The American Prospect, 29 August 2025

• Gasoline prices this Labor Day are the lowest since 2020
  - Zero Hedge, 29 August 2025

• Why are anti-government protests taking place in Islamic Indonesia? Protesters angered by police violence, parliamentarians' wages (including $3000/month for housing, 10-times the Jakarta minimum wage), and soaring inflation are staging nationwide demonstrations.
  - Al Jazeera, 29 August 2025

• The destructive power of tourism. Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve in Hawai'i, a popular snorkeling destination that attracts nearly a million annual visitors, underwent a remarkable and rapid recovery when tourism ceased during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. During this time period of human absence, the water was cleaner, there were increased sightings of endangered Hawaiian monk seals, and more active fish populations.
  - Phys.org, 29 August 2025

• Farmers in the USA are reducing spending in a big threat to the rural economy. The reasons are low prices for their crops, and Trump's tax/tariff trade war with countries that buy farm products from the USA, especially Zhōngguó.
  - Bloomberg, 29 August 2025

• Higher prices are coming for household products. Companies are forecasting rising prices as the costs of Trump's taxes/tariffs are passed on to consumers.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 29 August 2025

• Core inflation rose to an annual rate of 2.9% in July, the highest since February, as Trump's taxes/tariffs start increasing inflation
  - Comcast's CNBC, 29 August 2025

• The end of 'de minimis' shipping (less than $800 packages imported into the USA didn't have to pay taxes) could be the biggest Trump tax/tariff for many businesses in the USA. These shipments represents 92% of all cargo arriving to the U.S., up to four million packages daily, and the loss of their tax-free status could result in new costs to small to medium-sized businesses estimated as high as $71 billion.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 29 August 2025

• Don't shove AI technology down the throats of buyers: Tesla's Full Self-Driving technology repels more potential buyers (35%) than it attracts (14%). Nearly half of consumers surveyed by Slingshot said they think FSD technology should be illegal.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 29 August 2025

• PepsiCo increases its investment in energy drink maker Celsius by $585 million. As part of the agreement, Celsius' health and wellness drinks brand, Alani Nu, will move into PepsiCo's distribution system in the USA and Canada.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 29 August 2025

• PepsiCo increases its investment in energy drink maker Celsius by $585 million. As part of the agreement, Celsius' health and wellness drinks brand, Alani Nu, will move into PepsiCo's distribution system in the USA and Canada.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 29 August 2025

• Premium bottled water is emerging as restaurants' answer to declining alcohol consumption as establishments offer curated water menus featuring bottles priced up to $25.70 to idiotic customers
  - The Guardian, 28 August 2025

• Every industry is now an 'airport lounge' with their endless, humiliating upsell and self-service. Airport lounges are a miserable disaster. But it is not just lounges. It is not even just the airline industry. It is every. single. industry. More and more, customer service no longer exists. It takes 15 minutes to find an employee in many stores, many of whom suggest - "but it online". Forget about custorer support. Every road leads to an automated voice system with the warmth of a Soviet switchboard. And self-checkout - you are an unpaid employee scanning your own groceries while the one overworked human employee hovers like a prison guard.
  - QTR's Frince Finance, 28 August 2025

• Trump's taxes/tariffs are making your morning coffee more expensive. JM Smucker (which manufacturers Folgers coffee) reported a fiscal first-quarter loss, as tariffs raised coffee prices and sapped profit from its retail coffee division.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 28 August 2025

• How tax/tariff 'troll' Trump will ruin Christmas. A Wells Fargo report predicts that Trump's taxes/tariffs will trigger higher prices, fewer choices, and scant holiday promotions.
  - The Daily Beast, 28 August 2025

• The tourism business in Las Vegas suffers as prices explode and amenities disappear. A morning bagel at $12? The basic model for the city's economy has been turned upside-down and companies are trying to drain tourist cash through a nickel-and-dime model on comforts they can get at home for 10% of the cost. The result has been an 11% collapse in tourism year-over-year and Las Vegas officials are worried.
  - Zero Hedge, 27 August 2025

• Trump's taxes/tariffs on imports of furniture will make it harder to turn yuor house into a home. Protectionism will not save the American furniture industry, but it will increase the cost of living.
  - Reason.com, 27 August 2025

• Shares of Kohl's jump more than 20% after the retailer topped Wall Street's fiscal second-quarter earnings and revenue expectations
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 27 August 2025

• Shares of Kohl's jump more than 20% after the retailer topped Wall Street's fiscal second-quarter earnings and revenue expectations
  - Comcast's CNBC, 27 August 2025

• JPMorgan Chase, already the largest processor of credit card transactions, wants even more such business
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 27 August 2025

• Trump's renewed threat to impose taxes/tariffs on imported furniture could erode some of Zhōngguó, while doing little to bring manufacturing back to America as he promised. Such taxes/tariffs could "wipe out" have of the furniture export market of Zhōngguó. "It can be done easily, because furniture is not like electronics. You cannot ship in bits and parts and screw it together in North America."
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 27 August 2025

• The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence index declines in August as inflation fears reignite ... labor market weakness accelerates as inflation fears re-surge
  - Zero Hedge, 26 August 2025

• Home prices in the USA decline for the 4th straight month in June
  - Zero Hedge (locked), 26 August 2025

• It is time to stop lying about what Trump's taxes/tariffs really are: a giant national sales tax that will hobble economic growth in the USA, .
  - Jiaravanon's Fortune, 26 August 2025

• Denmark has proposed eliminating its tax on chocolate, cake and other sweets, as well as coffee, to help consumers cope with high food prices
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 26 August 2025

• A local ice-cream chain based in Zhōngguó shows what American brands of ice cream are doing wrong in Zhōngguó. With flavors such as rice and kale, Mr. Wild Man has grown to nearly 1,000 stores.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 26 August 2025

• Most department store chains are leaving shopping malls. Dillard's is buying one. The department-store chain this month purchased the Longview Mall in Texas, about two hours east of Dallas.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 26 August 2025

• Many people say that 'Feel Free' (manufactured by Botanic Topics), a kratom-kava drink, has them trapped in addiction and debt. While the drink is sold in a 2-ounce bottle, the label says half that is a serving size, recommends consuming no more than one bottle within 24 hours and warns the product can be "habit-forming". The FDA has called kratom an opioid and firmly discouraged people from consuming it, but the herb is not federally regulated.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 26 August 2025

• GLP-1 weight loss drugs are impacting food spending habits, and spillover effects also look set to impact industries from retail to travel and hospitality
  - Comcast's CNBC, 26 August 2025

• Sales incentives offered by homebuilders soar as new home sales in the USA disappoint in July, as prices plunge. The share of builders who reported using sales incentives reached a post-pandemic high of 66% this month.
  - Zero Hedge, 25 August 2025

• Robomart unveils a new non-paid delivery robot with a $3 flat-fee, to challenge the non-paid delivery robots of DoorDash and Uber Eats - [KM: the rich wanting to become richer by] destroying paid-human jobs
  - TechCrunch, 25 August 2025

• Financial losses of solar pnael makers in Zhōngguó deepen, as the industry voews to end its price war
  - Nikkei Asia, 25 August 2025

• Ratings agency S&P Global put a negative credit outlook on U.S. soft drinks giant Keurig Dr Pepper after the company announced Monday it will buy Dutch coffee group JDE Peet's. S&P analysts highlighted the increased debt profile of Keurig following the announcement of its $18 billion takeover of Peet's.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 25 August 2025

• Keurig Dr Pepper will acquire JDE Peet's - whose brands include Douwe Egberts, Kenco and Peet's Coffee - for more than $18 billion and split into a soft drinks company (Beversge Co.) and a coffee group (Global Coffee Co.). Dr Pepper was the second-most popular soda in the United States last year, below just Coca-Cola and ahead of Pepsi. Global Coffee Co., with around $16 billion in expected annual sales, will be the world's largest 'pure-play' coffee company, selling coffee in more than 100 countries, according to the statement.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 25 August 2025

• Keurig Dr Pepper will acquire JDE Peet's - whose brands include Douwe Egberts, Kenco and Peet's Coffee - for more than $18 billion and split into a soft drinks company (Beversge Co.) and a coffee group (Global Coffee Co.). Dr Pepper was the second-most popular soda in the United States last year, below just Coca-Cola and ahead of Pepsi. Global Coffee Co., with around $16 billion in expected annual sales, will be the world's largest 'pure-play' coffee company, selling coffee in more than 100 countries, according to the statement.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 25 August 2025

• Keurig Dr Pepper will acquire JDE Peet's - whose brands include Douwe Egberts, Kenco and Peet's Coffee - for more than $18 billion and split into a soft drinks company (Beversge Co.) and a coffee group (Global Coffee Co.). Dr Pepper was the second-most popular soda in the United States last year, below just Coca-Cola and ahead of Pepsi. Global Coffee Co., with around $16 billion in expected annual sales, will be the world's largest 'pure-play' coffee company, selling coffee in more than 100 countries, according to the statement.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 25 August 2025

• A stagnant job market is a rising risk for the economy of the USA. Employers are holding on to workers but have slowed hiring to a crawl, creating a fragile labor market.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 25 August 2025

• It is now twice as expensive to buy an entry-level home than rent
  - Zero Hedge, 24 August 2025

• PepsiCo is on another list of a region's biggest oil-dervied plastic polluters - this time for the polluting the Himalayan region of Bharat. Coca-Cola is on the top-10 list as well. The socialist economics that profit Coca-Cola and Pepsi - they profit, everyone else pays for the pollution.
  - The Cool Down, 24 August 2025

• Workers at a local restaurant in Montana are exhausted as Google AI continues to tell customers about daily specials ... that do not exist
  - Futurism, 24 August 2025

• Under the sun in Italy, a debate rages over the cost of a beach day, in particular, the cost of beach umbrellas, for example, 50 euros to rent two beach chairs and an umbrella Beaches are public, but the government in Italy leases portions of the coastline to more than 7,000 mostly family-run beachfront clubs, which charge whatever they want. Are these businesses charging too much, or are people in Italy earning less money to pay?
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 24 August 2025

• Sneaky "sneakflation" - how Trump's taxes/tariffs are gradually raising costs for consumers in the USA, as companies in the USA - NOT foreigners - are paying for Trump's taxes/tariffs.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 24 August 2025

• Why foreign brands in Zhōngguó are losing market share to domestic rivals. Industry findings and trending online comments help explain how product brands based in Zhōngguó are steadily outpacing foreign firms, as their store closures make headlines.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 24 August 2025

• People in the USA spent slightly less ($8.1 billion) on plant-based foods in 2024
  - Zero Hedge, 23 August 2025

• The cost of attending an NFL game has risen 40% in the last 10 years
  - Zero Hedge, 23 August 2025

• More advertisements making human lives miserable. Boat advertisements are becoming increasingly common along our beaches, particularly in Florida. Many people's beach vacations are ruined by over-the-top advertisements that disrupt the serenity of the natural environment.
  - The Cool Down, 23 August 2025

• The pub culture of Britain faces a mortal threat: the single-file queue. Concerned citizens and bartenders are campaigning to end the lines snaking out of pubs. "I know this is England, but please stop queuing."
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 23 August 2025

• Some warehouse stockpiles have been abandoned as prices for premium Puer tea plummet to lowest levels since 2019
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 23 August 2025

• Demand for single-gender spaces -- including bars, gyms, hostels and co-working hubs -- has grown in Zhōngguó, as women flex increasing economic power to secure peace of mind and physical safety. The male-free spaces in Zhōngguó offer women havens from harassment and stress.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 23 August 2025

• Walmart and other retailers have paid the cost of Trump's taxes/tariffs. Now consumers in the USA will have to pay for Trump's taxes/tariffs.
  - Barron's, 23 August 2025

• $4,500,000 - Two seemingly normal Los Angeles hardware stores, DJ General Tool & Wire's Montebello and Huntington Park locations, were actually elaborate fronts for a massive cargo theft operation that netted $4.5 million worth of stolen goods ripped off from trains, trucks and cargo ships
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 22 August 2025

• Trump's tax/tariff "inclusion" process is corrupted with high costs, absurd outcomes and extra cronyism. The corruption is Trump, his aides, and corrupt businesses using the 'national security' justification to punish competitors.
  - Cato at Liberty, 22 August 2025

• Trump says he will impose taxes/tariffs on imports of furniture, causeing shares of Wayfair (down 6%), RH (down 6%) and Williams-Sonoma (down 4%) to plunge
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 22 August 2025

• Trump announces that he will be imposing higher taxes/tariffs on imports of furniture, to be imposed in the next 50 days
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 22 August 2025

• Walmart wins over more shoppers as Trump's taxes/tariffs push prices higher. The retail giant missed its earnings target but reported that U.S. comparable sales rose 4.6% in the latest quarter.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 22 August 2025

• How Target lost to Walmart in the online shopping wars
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 22 August 2025

• A good PR diversion: major automakers in Nihon say that they are not raising prices in the USA because of Trump's taxes/tariffs, but rather because of annual increases in "operational costs". Yeah, costs such as taxes/tariffs.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 22 August 2025

• People in Florida may be paying $10 billion more for utilities by 2030, the largest increase in the history of the USA. Florida Power & Light says the $10 billion is needed to pay for new solar and battery storage facilities and to ensure a more reliable power grid. But critics observe that this helps the rich get richer at the expense of poor people, since "about 50 cents of every consumer dollar paid for base rate tariff electric service goes for shareholder return and associated federal income taxes"
  - Moneywise, 22 August 2025

• Walmart still has lower food prices than Amazon as last-mile grocery race intensifies
  - Zero Hedge, 21 August 2025

• A broken housing market: in unprecedented inversion, it has never cost more to buy an existing home over a new home
  - Zero Hedge, 21 August 2025

• $289,900,000 - A federal judge has ordered CVS Health's pharmacy benefit manager, Caremark, to pay nearly $290 million after a whistleblower accused the business of overcharging Medicare on prescription drugs more than a decade ago.
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 21 August 2025

• "Too expensive and risky": Bed Bath & Beyond explains why it will not operate stores in "overregulated" California
  - Zero Hedge, 21 August 2025

• From trash to golf grass: can cigarette butts actually be recycled? The world's 1.3 billion smokers produce an estimated 4.5 trillion smoked cigarette butts each year, collectively weighing 1.2 million tons. Two-thirds of butts are rudely tossed on the ground, where their various pollutants -- including nicotine, heavy metals, and cyclic aromatic compounds -- then leach into the environment. The socialist cigarette industry doesn't have to waste profits cleaning up this mess they cause.
  - Real Clear Science, 21 August 2025

• "Too expensive and risky": Bed Bath & Beyond explains why it will not operate stores in "overregulated" California
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 21 August 2025

• Shares of beauty product giant Coty plummet over 20%, after it warned of a deeper sales slump this quarter and posted a steeper-than-expected loss for the fourth quarter
  - Zero Hedge, 21 August 2025

• A new Gallup poll shows only 54% of adults in the USA now drink alcohol - the lowest level in the 90 years. Those who do drink also report consuming less. For the first time, most Americans believe even one to two drinks a day harm health.
  - Zero Hedge, 21 August 2025

• A competition is heating up in the streaming world as millions of people in the USA sign up for multiple services through a single provider instead of separate apps.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 21 August 2025

• More workers are getting job-skill certificates. They often do not pay off. Many of the thousands of online courses and other credentials employees pursue to boost careers fall short in delivering, a new study finds.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 21 August 2025

• Guess signed an agreement to be taken private by Authentic Brands in an all-cash transaction that values the clothing retailer at roughly $1.4 billion
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 21 August 2025

• From musicals to a theme park: how one company is innovating with the world's most divisive fruit, the durian - a spiky, football-sized fruit that many have siad smells like "stale vomit", but others say that it has the flavor of caramel or cheesecake. Zhōngguó imported almost $7 billion worth of durian in 2024.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 21 August 2025

• Cracker Barrel loses almost $100 million in market value, after a divisive logo "refresh"
  - The Hill, 21 August 2025

• Shares of Cracker Barrel decline 10%, after a controversial logo change, in which it removed a barrel from its logo
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 21 August 2025

• Trump's steel taxes/tariffs now apply to milk and hundreds of other products that aren't steel (but involve steel). It makes little sense, but that's what happens when idiot puppets give Trump unchecked, unilateral tax/tariff powers.
  - Reason.com, 20 August 2025

• More bad news for paid-human workers, more good news for rich AI companies: 'virtual human' AI sales systems in Zhōngguó are outperforming their paid-human equivalents. Built using AI technology from Baidu and DeepSeek, the virtual livestreamers sell everything from wet wipes to printers 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
  - Wired, 20 August 2025

• FTC sues LA Fitness for making it difficult for consumers to cancel gym memberships. The FTC alleges LA Fitness put roadblocks in cancellation and failed to provide a simple cancellation mechanism as required by law.
  - Federal Trade Commission, 20 August 2025

• FTC sues LA Fitness for making it difficult for consumers to cancel gym memberships. The FTC alleges LA Fitness put roadblocks in cancellation and failed to provide a simple cancellation mechanism as required by law.
  - Zero Hedge, 20 August 2025

• A new review of nearly 700 studies on portable air cleaners found that over 90% of them were tested in empty spaces, not on people, leaving major gaps in evidence about whether these devices actually prevent infections or if they might even cause harm by releasing chemicals like ozone or formaldehyde
  - The Conversation, 20 August 2025

• Costco switches its sugar drug-trafficking supplier, switching from Pepsi to Coca-Cola
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 20 August 2025

• Shares plummet 30% of James Hardie Industries - the world's largest producer of fiber cement products, headquartered in Ireland and dual-listed in Sydney and New York - issued a grim housing outlook that sent its Sydney shares plunging the most in 50 years. James Hardie generates about 70% of its revenue from North America. Its flagship product, HardiePlank, is widely used in residential housing as an alternative to wood or vinyl siding.
  - Zero Hedge, 20 August 2025

• Is a second wave of inflation coming, if the authoritarian Trump terrorizes the Federal Reserve enough to get them to reduce interest rates, which can worsen inflation. Jerome Powell is correct to resist the calls for a rate cut. He is not being ornery.
  - Zero Hedge, 20 August 2025

• Filthy rich Big Tech's AI data centers are driving up electricity bills for everyone
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 20 August 2025

• Bad enough filthy rich AI companies want to eliminate paid-human workers. Now they want to much eliminate parents. New types of cuddly toys, some for children as young as 3, are being sold as an alternative to screen time -- and to parental attention. [KM: The rich must get richer, at least until they destroy society.]
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 20 August 2025

• New weight-loss drugs are reducing appetites. Restaurants are reducing the food. Some businesses are trying to lure diners on GLP-1s with miniature meals and tiny tasting menus.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 20 August 2025

• Target shares tumble 9% as the retailer picks a new CEO, and as sales decline again
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 20 August 2025

• Target shares tumble 9% as the retailer picks a new CEO, and as sales decline again
  - Comcast's CNBC, 20 August 2025

• McDonald's to reduce the price of combo-meals, after convincing franchisees. The burger chain has been working to improve its affordability, after consumers have recoiled from escalating restaurant menu prices.
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 20 August 2025

• Demand for rental housing causes an unexpected jump in building. Apartment construction is climbing steadily, while the construction of single-family homes is declining.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 20 August 2025

• Homeowners are doing small projects but deferring big ones, according to Home Depot. Home Depot said Trump's taxes/tariffs will soon start hitting some price tags even as consumers continue to hold off on larger projects because of higher interest rates and economic uncertainty.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 20 August 2025

• Home Depot warns it may raise prices because of Trump's taxes/tariffs
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 20 August 2025

• Even without tax incentives, solar and wind are beating fossil fuels such as oil and gas in the affordability department. As reported by PV Magazine, Lazard's latest Levelized Cost of Energy report finds that unsubsidized utility-scale solar ranges from $0.038 to $0.078 per kilowatt-hour, while onshore wind comes in at $0.037 to $0.086 per kWh. By comparison, new-build natural gas peaker plants cost $0.138 to $0.262 per kWh, even before factoring in volatile fuel prices.
  - The Cool Down, 20 August 2025

• The government of Zhōngguó voews stronger actions to tackle aggressive competition and price wars in the country's solar technology industry, after a meeting in July failed to stop falling prices. Meanwhile in the USA, the environment-hating Trump is trying to destroy all competition in the solar industry.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 20 August 2025

• Hertz to sell used vehicles online through Amazon Autos partnership
  - Comcast's CNBC, 20 August 2025

• Hertz to sell used vehicles online through Amazon Autos partnership
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 20 August 2025

• Much white, racist, Christian Texas and Florida are the two most financially stressed states in the country, according to a new report by WalletHub, which defines financial distress as having credit in forbearance or deferring payments due to financial difficulty
  - WalletHub, 19 August 2025

• Passengers sue Delta, United over windowless "window sears". Plaintiffs taking on United and Delta cite posts on Reddit and X of passengers complaining about their windowless seats, and who were denied a refund.
  - Courthouse News Service, 19 August 2025

• Passengers sue Delta, United over windowless "window sears". Plaintiffs taking on United and Delta cite posts on Reddit and X of passengers complaining about their windowless seats, and who were denied a refund.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 19 August 2025

• How Crocs conquered Zhōngguó. Fans flocked to Crocs' products after it discovered the secrets of tastes of people in Zhōngguó.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 19 August 2025

• "They do not want the rabble anymore." - why Europe is rising up against mass tourism, including the misanthropy of the sharing economy seen in AirBnB. "Most of the shops - even food shops, clothes shops, restaurants, everything in the center - is basically addressed to tourists. Prices have gone up. Airbnb basically evicted many locals. Most of my friends have fled the neighborhood because they can't afford to live there anymore. The tourists don't mingle with the locals."
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 19 August 2025

• Xiaomi posts record revenue in second quarter on strong electric vehicle sales. Net profit rose 75.4 per cent year on year to reach a record high of US$1.5 billion, exceeding the forecast by analysts.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 19 August 2025

• Xiaomi posts record revenue in second quarter on strong electric vehicle sales. Net profit rose 75.4 per cent year on year to reach a record high of US$1.5 billion, exceeding the forecast by analysts.
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 19 August 2025

• In the USA, vegetable prices are up 38.9% (Trump's taxes/tariffs), coffee prices up 25% (Trump's taxes/tariffs on Brazil), and electricity prices are rising twice as fast as inflation (thanks to the AI bubble). 83% of people in the USA are suffering from 'stressflation'.
  - Zero Hedge, 18 August 2025

• Idiotic farmers, who helped get Trump elected, are turning against his 'Make America Healthy Again' policies. They voted for Trump's and Kennedy's MAHA policies to improve wages and lower inflation and healthier foods. Instead Mr. Kennedy has cast doubt, fairly or not, on the utility of established industrial farming practices, such as pesticide use. He has stood by as programs beneficial to American farmers have been cut. Trump eliminiated $1 billion in government purchases that provided schools, child care centers and food banks with fresh food from local farmers. Many farmers are also alarmed by the anti-science rhetoric coming from Mr. Kennedy and the MAHA movement.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 18 August 2025

• Why cheap airline seats are getting harder to find. Airfares rose in July for the first time since January as airlines try to regain pricing power.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 18 August 2025

• Fast-casual chains struggle as diners ditch pricey bowls for cheaper eats. Quarterly results from Cava Group, Chipotle Mexican Grill and Sweetgreen raised warning signs about the strength of the fast-casual consumer.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 18 August 2025

• Stock markets in Bharat rose in value after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a set of tax reductions to boost domestic consumption.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 18 August 2025

• Bharat proposes reducing taxes on small cars under reforms proposed by Prime Minister Modi, send shares of stocks higher in price
  - Thomson's Reuters, 18 August 2025

• Elon Musk's Tesla reportedly slashes monthly lease fees in the United Kingdom as sales plummet
  - Comcast's CNBC, 18 August 2025

• Very rich Bad Bunny and Selena Gomez sell themselves to big junk-food companies to help the companies get Americans to eat more unhealthy snacks and junk foods
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 17 August 2025

• Eli Lilly increases the prices of its Mounjaro weight-loss drug in the United Kingdom, to make it cheaper in the USA
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 17 August 2025

• Samsung taking market share from Apple in the USA, as foldable phones gain more consumer demand
  - Comcast's CNBC, 17 August 2025

• Swatch apologizes for a 'slanted eyes' advertisement after a social media backlash in Zhōngguó. Users condemn Swatch's advertisement as "racist", and say that it is terrible to "disgust Asians and degrade people in Zhōngguó" when the "watch industry is going downhill".
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 17 August 2025

• The 'vertical dramas' made in Zhōngguó are very popular in the USA. Should Hollywood be worried? Media companies from Zhōngguó are bite-size soap operas about werewolves and mafia dons, and are attracting big audiences - and shaking up the streaming market.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 17 August 2025

• End of 'de minimis' alarms e-commerce sellers and consumers. The trade provision that allows companies to avoid taxes on shipments worth $800 or less is ending for all countries, not just Zhōngguó.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 16 August 2025

• Electricity prices are climbing more than twice as fast as inflation, a burden to the poor. Blame the power needs of AI data centers [KM: to make the rich richer].
  - NPR, 16 August 2025

• Big Pharma has a new vision for selling medicines. Amid pressure from the White House, drug companies in the USA are experimenting with direct-to-consumer sales models that cut out the middlemen.
  - Barron's, 16 August 2025

• Should (at least the large) credit unions lose their tax exempt status? The top 100 credit unions hold over $1.2 trillion in assets, offering services nearly identical to banks, while buying tax-paying community banks. The socialist Navy Federal Credit Union has over $190 billion in assets, and pays no taxes, and don't file the IRS Form 990 to report its activities.
  - Real Clear Markets, 15 August 2025

• Consumer sentiment in the USA, according to the Univ. Michigan survey, tumbled from five month highs in preliminary August data, down (for the first time in four months) from 61.7 to 58.6 (62.0 exp) with both Current Conditions and Expectations declining. Will the authoritarian Trump try to have fired the director of the survey unit at the University of Michigan?
  - Zero Hedge, 15 August 2025

• 'Real' retail sales in the USA rise for 10th straight month in July
  - Zero Hedge, 15 August 2025

• Bitcoin and gold dumped as a hot PPI prompts plunge in bonds
  - Zero Hedge, 15 August 2025

• Sales of Tesla's autos are plummeting across major countries in Europe. Rising competition from other EV makers, high prices, and public backlash tied to Musk's personal [racist] views have all contributed to waning consumer interest.
  - The Cool Down, 14 August 2025

• Kellogg's agrees to remove artificial dyes from all cereals
  - Zero Hedge, 14 August 2025

• $24,600,000 - Nashville car dealership owner convicted of fraudulently obtaining $24.6 million. The owner was convicted of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, bank fraud, making false statements to a bank, bankruptcy fraud and making a false statement under oath.
  - WKRN News, 14 August 2025

• Editorial: now we know who is paying for Trump's taxes/tariffs: consumers and businesses in the USA. Producer prices surge, and real wages for the non-rich still are not rising fast enough, proving Trump's lie that the rest of the world will pay for his taxes/tariffs.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 14 August 2025

• One measure of inflation just increased at the fastest rate in three years. Wholesale inflation jumped to a recent high, likely pushing up the Fed's preferred price metric.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 14 August 2025

• One measure of inflation just increased at the fastest rate in three years. Wholesale inflation jumped to a recent high, likely pushing up the Fed's preferred price metric.
  - Zero Hedge, 14 August 2025

• The alcohol industry in the USA is suffering greatly from the boycott of their products by consumers in Canada who are outraged at Trump's attacks and trade war against Canada
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 14 August 2025

• Exports of alcoholic products to Canada plunge more than 60% as fury over Trump taxes/tariffs sparks boycott
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 14 August 2025

• Saving money on a used car is getting harder. Used-car prices are rising faster than overall inflation after crossing the $30,000-mark again early this year.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 14 August 2025

• $200,000,000+ - The DoJ and SEC criminally charge two men for the alleged $200 million Ponzi scheme for water vending machines
  - Comcast's CNBC, 14 August 2025

• Can the far-flung counties of Zhōngguó become a key driver of consumption? Survey last year found that nearly 80 per cent of consumers in s third- and fourth-tier cities were optimistic about the economy.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post (locked), 14 August 2025

• A credit shock in Zhōngguó: new loans fall for first time in 20 years amid relentless deleveraging
  - Zero Hedge (locked), 13 August 2025

• Customers of Hertz, charged large amounts of money for minor damages - damages detected by non-paid AI systems [KM: eliminating the need for paid-humans to perform more accurate damage inspections] can fight back using phone apps (such as Proofr). One expert believes rental agencies are currently charging excessive fees for minor blemishes to "justify the cost" of their scanning equipment. [KM: yes, rich rental executives must get richer]
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 13 August 2025

• Is Instagram doomed because of authoritarian Amazon/Bezos launching a same-day grocery-delivery service?
  - Zero Hedge, 13 August 2025

• Authoritarian Amazon/Bezos launches a same-day grocery-delivery service, causing Instacart to plummet 11% and Doordash to plummet 5%
  - Zero Hedge, 13 August 2025

• Authoritarian Amazon/Bezos launches a same-day grocery-delivery service, causing Instacart to plummet 11% and Doordash to plummet 5%
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 13 August 2025

• Fewer Americans are reporting that they drink alcohol amid a growing belief that even moderate alcohol consumption is a health risk. The survey finds that 54% of U.S. adults say they drink alcoholic beverages such as liquor, wine or beer. That is lower than at any other point in the past three decades.
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 13 August 2025

• Shares of restaurant chain Cava plummet 20% after company lowers forecast on disappointing same-store sales growth
  - Comcast's CNBC, 13 August 2025

• Shares of restaurant chain Cava plummet 20% after company lowers forecast on disappointing same-store sales growth
  - Zero Hedge, 13 August 2025

• Do you need to own a house? Many older people in the USA decide they do not. Rising property tax, insurance and home-repair costs are prompting some people 55 and older to consider renting.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 13 August 2025

• Shoppers in Singapore are willing to buy products "Made in Zhōngguó". Brands based in Zhōngguó are winning more market share in Singapore as they shed their image as cheap knockoffs.
  - Al Jazeera, 13 August 2025

• Building on UBS' note to clients last month, which flagged an inflection point as streaming TV recently overtook traditional TV, a new report from Goldman, citing its very own Nielsen TV ratings tracker, shows a continued steep deterioration in broadcast and cable viewership in recent weeks.
  - Zero Hedge, 12 August 2025

• Coffee prices spiked 14.5% in July from a year ago, while the average retail price for a pound of ground coffee hit $8.41. That is before Trump's 50% taxes/tariffs on imports from Brazil took effect last week
  - Apollo Global's Yahoo Finance, 12 August 2025

• Restaurants from IHOP to Chipotle sound alarm over Trump's taxes/tariffs spooking customers into staying home
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 12 August 2025

• Bond yields spike after Trump threatens to sue the Fed over building repairs, and as one inflation index, PCE, shows increasing inflation
  - Zero Hedge, 12 August 2025

• Central banks do not prevent financial crises or control inflation. Independence vanished when central banks abandoned or ignored price stability, blaming inflation on various absurdities instead of government spending and money supply growth.
  - Zero Hedge, 12 August 2025

• Wall Street now predicts 3 interest rate reductions by the Federal Reserve this year, on a slowing economy
  - Comcast's CNBC, 12 August 2025

• Consumer prices rise 2.7% annually in July, less than expected. But a gauge of underlying inflation in July showed prices increasing at the fastest annual pace in five months, a sign that businesses are passing along tariff-related costs to customers.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 12 August 2025

• Consumer prices rise 2.7% annually in July, less than expected. But a gauge of underlying inflation in July showed prices increasing at the fastest annual pace in five months, a sign that businesses are passing along tariff-related costs to customers.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 12 August 2025

• Consumer prices rise 2.7% annually in July, less than expected
  - Comcast's CNBC, 12 August 2025

• Falling gas prices helped keep overall inflation tame in July; however, a broader array of products got even more expensive last month, showing that Trump's the costs of expansive taxes/tariffs are being passed along to consumers
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 12 August 2025

• Ford's response to cheap EVs from Zhōngguó starts with a $30,000 electric pickup. Ford said it would spend $2 billion to overhaul a Louisville, Kentucky, factory to build a new line of affordable, high-tech EVs, and it aims to launch the pickup in 2027.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 12 August 2025

• Ford's response to cheap EVs from Zhōngguó starts with a $30,000 electric pickup. Ford said it would spend $2 billion to overhaul a Louisville, Kentucky, factory to build a new line of affordable, high-tech EVs, and it aims to launch the pickup in 2027.
  - Detroit Free Press, 12 August 2025

• As a global treaty to reduce plastic pollution inches forward, the hunt continues for workable substitutes
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 12 August 2025

• Elon Musk said his artificial intelligence start up xAI will sue Apple for allegedly favoring AI competitors in its App Store in what he called a breach of antitrust regulations
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 12 August 2025

• Elon Musk said his artificial intelligence start up xAI will sue Apple for allegedly favoring AI competitors in its App Store in what he called a breach of antitrust regulations
  - Zero Hedge, 12 August 2025

• Elon Musk said his artificial intelligence start up xAI will sue Apple for allegedly favoring AI competitors in its App Store in what he called a breach of antitrust regulations
  - Comcast's CNBC, 12 August 2025

• The Christian Trump's and Republican's new tax/spending law to make the rich richer will cause 2.4 million poor people, the "blessed meek", to loose food stamps
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 12 August 2025

• Adidas and designer Willy Chavarria apologize to Mexican Indigenous community for an "appropriated" sandal design. Officials in the Mexican state of Oaxaca accused Adidas last week of copying the 'huarache' handmade sandal from the Oaxacan community of Villa Hidalgo Yalálag.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 12 August 2025

• Adidas and designer Willy Chavarria apologize to Mexican Indigenous community for an "appropriated" sandal design. Officials in the Mexican state of Oaxaca accused Adidas last week of copying the 'huarache' handmade sandal from the Oaxacan community of Villa Hidalgo Yalálag.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 12 August 2025

• A pastor sees boycott of Target stores as new civil rights fight. Jamal Bryant is urging Black shoppers to steer clear of the retailer because of its reversal on diversity and equality programs [in its kowtowing to the racist and sexist Trump].
  - Bloomberg, 12 August 2025

• $5,600,000 - Walmart to pay $5.6 million as part of settlement for overcharging customers
  - USA Today, 11 August 2025

• In Bharat, Trump's taxes/tariffs spark calls to boycott products from the USA. Beverages like Pepsi and Coca-Cola often dominate store shelves, and people still queue up when a new Apple store opens or a Starbucks cafe doles out discounts.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 11 August 2025

• Trump's taxes/tariffs threaten to worsen the tourism slump in Costa Rica. As people in the USA have less money to spend due to Trump's taxes/tariffs, they will travel less.
  - Tico Times, 11 August 2025

• Global inflation is projected to remain elevated significantly above the recommended 2 percent in much of the world even this year
  - Zero Hedge, 11 August 2025

• Can AriZona's 99-cent iced tea survive Trump's taxes/tariffs? The price has been Arizona's calling card for nearly three decades. A 50% tax/tariff on impors of aluminum may change that.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 11 August 2025

• A new generation of 'buy the dip' individual investors is propping up the market
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 11 August 2025

• How Warby Parker has kept the price of glasses at $95 for 15 years. The eyewear brand is betting it can mitigate Trump's taxes/tariffs and other costs with recent increases on more expensive offerings.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 11 August 2025

• Consumers/votes in the USA will pay for most of the costs of Trump's tax/tariffs on imports to the USA, a lagged impact which is now being measured.
  - Bloomberg, 11 August 2025

• Consumers/votes in the USA will pay for most of the costs of Trump's tax/tariffs on imports to the USA, a lagged impact which is now being measured.
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 11 August 2025

• 86% of people in the USA feel stressed about the cost of groceries, and many people are starting to really panic
  - The Most Important News, 10 August 2025

• Restaurants in the USA are under threat as costs greatly increase (e.g., beef prices) and consumers reduce spending at restaurants. Their food costs are up over 20% in four years. It is harder to find quality workers - hard to pay them more, and harder to retain if paying them the minimum wage.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 10 August 2025

• A public backlash is brewing against the "Next AI Trade" as power bills surge nationwide, especially in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast areas, where the Mag 7's massive CapEx boom is carpeting the region with data centers lined with rows of energy-hungry GPUs running chatbots and all things AI, [KM: while the rich get richer.]
  - Zero Hedge, 09 August 2025

• Strong economy? 120 million square feet: store closings in the USA are on pace to set a new record high in 2025
  - Zero Hedge, 09 August 2025

• As the government of Zhōngguó pushes consumer lending to stimulate the economy, millions of borrowers in Zhōngguó, especially the young, are falling into debt spirals
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 09 August 2025

• Kohl's has bigger problems than the it being meme-stock traded. A sustained rally will depend on fixing its flagging business.
  - Barron's, 09 August 2025

• Inflation is rising, growth is slowing, and stocks are bubbly. What could go wrong?
  - Barron's, 09 August 2025

• Global food prices that continue to increase serve as a warning for 'fragile states'. The FAO Food Price Index averaged 130.1 in July, up 1.6% from June, driven primarily by sharp increases in meat and vegetable oil prices, the highest since early 2023.
  - Zero Hedge, 08 August 2025

• Costa Rica confronts the potential collapse of its national waste management system. The country generates more than 4,000 tons of solid waste each day, an estimated 80% of which could be recycled or reused.
  - Tico Times, 08 August 2025

• Airlines using personalized AI ticket pricing would face probe: Transportation Secretary
  - Zero Hedge, 08 August 2025

• Prices of used Tesla vehicles average less than overall prices for used vehicles for first time ever, as sentiment toward Tesla weakens and strengthens against Elon Musk. Many Tesla owners are trading in their cars for other brands, boosting supply and forcing sellers to cut prices to compete.
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 08 August 2025

• As the world runs out of spring/mineral water, are spring/mineral water companies relying on filtration systems to use 'non-pure' water, water contaminated due to global heating? The water is still healthy, but it is false advertising to say that it is 'natural', and you can obtain treated water ... for free from the tap. This won't make the rich richer, but at least their tears will be 'natural' water.
  - BBC, 08 August 2025

• Shares of Under Armour crash 20% as its turnaround plans are not successful
  - Zero Hedge, 08 August 2025

• Shares of Under Armour crash 20% as its turnaround plans are not successful
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 08 August 2025

• Retailer Aldi's passionate, cultlike following fuels its rapid expansion plans. In 2025, Aldi plans to open 200 stores across the USA, and expects to have around 2,600 locations by the end of the year, making it the third-largest supermarket chain by number of stores. Kroger has 2,700 under various names, and Walmart has 5,206 locations.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 08 August 2025

• Many cooking spices are imported from Bharat into the USA, and Trump's 50% taxes/tariffs on imports from Bharat could drive costs higher for consumers in the USA.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 08 August 2025

• Shares of Pinterest fall 10% after it reported better sales but missing on earnings
  - Comcast's CNBC, 07 August 2025

• For the first time since the Covid crash, credit-card debt shrinks for the second month - will the economy now suffer a sharp slowdown with consumers clearly hunkering down and no longer charging it - or effect - has the economy already stalled and this is just the consequence.
  - Zero Hedge, 07 August 2025

• The economic bubble is bursting: delinquency rates have doubled and credit card defaults are soaring. Sadly, most of the country is just barely scraping by from month to month in this very harsh economic environment, and turning to credit cards for some relief can be extremely risky.
  - Zero Hedge, 07 August 2025

• Letter: Trump's new taxes/tariffs will hurt you in the shopping mall. The abolition of the de minimis exemption means that you will soon be paying more for everything you buy from abroad.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 07 August 2025

• American airlines have transformed into financial services companies that happen to fly planes as loyalty programs now constitute their primary profit engine rather than passenger transport. Delta, American, Southwest, and United all operated their passenger services at a loss in 2024 while generating $14 billion in combined operating profits from credit card partnerships.
  - The Economist, 06 August 2025

• The Mexican state of Oaxaca is threatening legal action against Adidas, accusing the footwear company of cultural appropriation over a newly unveiled shoe that resembles a traditional handmade sandal
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 06 August 2025

• Shares of E.l.f Beauty drop 11% after it reports that its profits fell 30% in its fiscal first quarter as new tariffs on imports from Zhōngguó begin to impact the profits of the cosmetic company
  - Comcast's CNBC, 06 August 2025

• The CFO of McDonald's reveals that its customers classifed as the "working-poor" are skipping breakfast. "Real incomes have declined with the low-income consumer. That absolutely is going to put pressure on visits into the fast food industry." And "... unease with low income customers" ... has caused these people "to skip a daypart like breakfast, or they're trading down either within our menu, or they're trading down to eating at home".
  - Zero Hedge, 06 August 2025

• Health Secretary Kennedy's crusade against food safety rule threatens supplement industry. By going after an obscure regulatory designation he describes as a "loophole" - the 'Generally Recognized as Safe' designation, Kennedy has put an industry he champions on the defensive. Almost 99% of chemicals introduced in foods since 2000 have been self-certified using GRAS.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 06 August 2025

• Trump's recent trade deal with Nihon to make it easier to import American cars into Nihon will do little to increase sales of such cars in Nihon. Problem? Car buyers in Nihon don't want American cars. In Nihon, where streets are narrow and often congested, most consumers prefer small, fuel-efficient vehicles, typically with steering wheels on the right. Domestic brands like Toyota, Honda and Nissan offer a wide array of such options. American cars instead are mostly big SUVs and trucks.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 06 August 2025

• UnitedHealthcare said in its second quarter earnings call that it plans to drop Medicare Advantage plans that currently serve over 600,000 users, becoming the latest health insurer to announce a scaling back of this magnitude. "It is bad for a healthcare plan's business when people use healthcare from a plan that offers ... healthcare coverage." [Yeah, it interferes with making the rich richer.]
  - Apollo Global's Yahoo Finance, 06 August 2025

• Shares of Snap plummet more than 18% after the Snapchat parent company reported second quarter earnings and revenue the prior afternoon that missed analyst's estimates amid a problem with its ad platform
  - Apollo Global's Yahoo Finance, 06 August 2025

• Your weight loss drugs may pay for themselves. The market is driving prices on GLP-1 drugs down, and an added benefit is lower spending on food.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 06 August 2025

• Credit scores are supposed to start incorporating [risky] "buy now, pay later" loans this fall. But Klarna says it plans to withhold data until it is assured its customers will not be unfairly penalized.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 06 August 2025

• Shopify stock soars 20% on rosy guidance as CFO says Trump's taxes/tariffs did not cause too many losses
  - Comcast's CNBC, 06 August 2025

• Home-sellers outnumber home-buyers by the most in over a decade
  - Zero Hedge, 05 August 2025

• Diesel prices at the pump in the USA have surged to the highest in almost a year as retail markets catch up with tightness in global supplies of the widely used fuel, threatening to boost inflation
  - Bloomberg, 05 August 2025

• Starbucks is under financial pressure again, as Trump's huge 50% taxes/tariffs on imports from Brazil increase the price of coffee
  - Apollo Global's Yahoo Finance, 05 August 2025

• How Trump's taxes/tariffs are raising production costs for farmers, making food in the USA more expensive. The latest round of Trump's taxes/tariffs is likely to make agricultural production even more expensive and, potentially, limit access to goods not produced in the USA.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 05 August 2025

• Tyson Foods reports of protein switching among consumers, who are buying more chicken-based products and less beef-based products
  - Zero Hedge, 04 August 2025

• Shares of American Eagle jump 23% after the racist Trump praises controversial Sydney Sweeney ad that many think is racist
  - Forbes, 04 August 2025

• The vast majority of adults in the USA are majorly stressed out about the costs of groceries
  - HuffPost, 04 August 2025

• Why even basic airline seats keep becoming more "premium". As travel demand sinks, both legacy airlines and budget brands have turned to a strategy of ever-expanding upgrades.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 04 August 2025

• Shoppers in the USA are becoming thrifty again. Generic brands and bulk buying are on the rise as shoppers find themselves in a summer of economic uncertainty.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 04 August 2025

• BYD, the largest manufacturer of electric vehicles in Zhōngguó, posted its first monthly delivery decline this year, amid stiff competition from a price war that has attracted attention from policymakers in Beijing
  - Comcast's CNBC, 04 August 2025

• The abusive "algorithmic audit" done by AI systems could soon plague customers of hotels at checkout time. Loss prevention, or money gouging?
  - Comcast's CNBC, 03 August 2025

• After a lag, consumers begin to feel the pain of Trump's taxes/tariffs. There are growing signs that Trump's taxes are filtering through to consumer prices, as companies exhaust options for keeping them stable.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 02 August 2025

• Why companies are battling taxes/tariffs meant to benefit them. Economists say the way the Trump administration is imposing taxes/tariffs is backfiring for some of the businesses they are meant to help.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 02 August 2025

• With a new 40% tax/tariff on transhipments, Trump tries to further reduct the dependence of the USA on imports from Zhōngguó. Trump's executive order carved out a special tariff on products shipped indirectly to the USA by way of other countries.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 02 August 2025

• Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway reports a 4% drop in operating earnings in Q2 of 2025 due to less earnings with its insurance businesses and due to currency fluctuations
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 02 August 2025

• Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway reports a 4% drop in operating earnings in Q2 of 2025
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 02 August 2025

• A $3 tax on cigarettes (nicotine drug delivery devices) has made California the cigarette-smuggling 'capital' of the USA, with a lucrative black-market trade in out-of-state cigarettes
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 02 August 2025

• At high-end stores and summer pop-ups, smoothies are now selling for eye-popping prices, boasting ingredients that wellness enthusiasts cannot resist and makers say are worth the price
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 02 August 2025

• Etsy turns from television ads toward search, with AI as the wild card. The online seller is making a long-term bet on fashion marketplace Depop as Etsy's overall buyers continue to decline.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 02 August 2025

• Potatio chips are getting stale. How Walmart, Kroger, and other food titans are reinventing snacks. As sales of doughnuts, cookies, and brownies slip, healthy snacks with protein, collagen, and fiber are winning more market share.
  - Barron's, 02 August 2025

• Stagflation is coming. Do not blame the Federal Reserve - blame Trump's taxes/tariffs
  - Barron's, 02 August 2025

• Strong corporate earnings cannot save the stock market from job losses and Trump's taxes/tariffs
  - Barron's, 02 August 2025

• Trump vows to use "every tool in the arsenal" to force Big Pharma to reduce drug prices. "In case after case, our citizens pay massively higher prices than other nations pay for the same exact pill, from the same factory, effectively subsidizing socialism aboard [abroad] with skyrocketing prices in the USA."
  - Zero Hedge, 01 August 2025

• Big Beer companies (AB InBev, Heikeken) plan to expand sales in Brazil and Zhōngguó as sales drop due to Trump's taxes/tarriffs, and declining sales of alcoholic beverages
  - Thomson's Reuters, 01 August 2025

• Big Tech USA, [KM: which wants to control the world in their misanthropy], have struggled to compete with Brazil's digital payments system, Pix - a good example of national-based technology. Having failed to crush on their own, Big Tech is relying on the government of the USA to investigate the country's "unfair trade practices". Unlike [authoritarian] Apple Pay and Google Pay, Brazil's payment system is a free, public model that strengthens democracy that doesn't need to be bubbled..
  - Rest of World, 31 July 2025

• Apple retreats in Zhōngguó, as it closes its flagship store that it opened in 2008, as iPhone sales in Zhōngguó continue to decline
  - Zero Hedge, 31 July 2025

• I am calling it: SouthWest's new seat policy is just a money grab. The airline's switch to assinged seating comes with those annoying seat fees.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 31 July 2025

• Shares of AB Inbev, the world's largest brewer, decline 9% on declining volumes of sales
  - Comcast's CNBC, 31 July 2025

• In a huge blow to Temu and Shein based in Zhōngguó, Trump signs an executive order eliminating the 'de minimis' exemption for imported goods sent through the international postal network that are valued at or under $800. These items will be subject to full customs duties.
  - Zero Hedge, 30 July 2025

• In a huge blow to eBay and Etsy, Trump signs an executive order eliminating the 'de minimis' exemption for imported goods sent through the international postal network that are valued at or under $800. These items will be subject to full customs duties. Many sellers in the USA on eBay and Etsy buy from Zhōngguó.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 30 July 2025

• After six consecutive quarters of declining sales, Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol said on July 29 that price increases at the Seattle-based coffee giant would be a last resort
  - Zero Hedge, 30 July 2025

• Starbucks is moving away from operating stores that only accept mobile orders for pickup because they don't have the right vibes
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 30 July 2025

• The CEO of Sysco, the largest foodservice distributor in the USA, serving nearly 20% of the nation's restaurants and commercial kitchens, issued a warning on Tuesday: Consumer sentiment and confidence remain lackluster.
  - Zero Hedge, 30 July 2025

• Hotel occupancy rates and gambling revenue in Las Vegas are down over 10%, not as bad - YET - of declines before the financial crisis and market crash in 2008
  - Zero Hedge, 30 July 2025

• Trump's taxes/tariffs on medicines imported from Europe stand to cost drugmakers billions of dollars
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 30 July 2025

• Actress Jamie Lee Curtis has thoughts about the harm done to "a generation of women by the cosmeceutical industrial complex"
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 30 July 2025

• The $20 minium wage law in California has eliminated 18,000 restaurant jobs, according to a new study
  - Zero Hedge, 29 July 2025

• Because of Trump's taxes/tariffs on imports, Procter and Gamble will raise prices. The world's largest consumer goods maker said it will have to raise prices on a quarter of its products starting in August to manage the costs of Trump's taxes/tariffs.
  - Al Jazeera, 29 July 2025

• With funding from the candy giant Mars, scientists at the University of Georgia are genetically designing a peanut that can thrive in a changing climate
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 29 July 2025

• Forget Cartier: made-in-Zhōngguó luxury captivates consumers in Zhōngguó. Homegrown names such as Laopu, Mao Geping and Songmont are winning over customers who are losing their taste for high-end Western brands.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 29 July 2025

• UnitedHealth says 2025 earnings will be worse than expected as high medical costs hurt profits
  - Comcast's CNBC, 29 July 2025

• PayPal expands cryptocurrency payments for merchants in the USA to lower cross-border fees
  - Silicon Angle, 28 July 2025

• Trump's new tax/spending bill [to make the rich richer], may force many local grocery stores to close because of their reliance of SNAP (food stamps for the poor) funds for which are being eliminated [to give more money to rich people]
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 28 July 2025

• Prices of ground beef rise to another record high, as the population of cattle in the USA declines to 50-year lows
  - Zero Hedge, 28 July 2025

• Health insurance companies in the USA have a problem - customers are making more claims on their policies. Their earnings (and stock prices) are dropping in response.
  - Apollo Global's Yahoo Finance, 28 July 2025

• A "longtime" customer of Hertz says that he is "done" with renting cars from Hertz, after an incompetent AI scanner decided that a water reflection was actual car damage that the customer would have to pay for - as much as hundreds of dollars. Worse, he was unable to reasonably obtain access to human customer service representatives.
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 28 July 2025

• Tesla could lose the ability to sell its vehicles in California for 30 days, if it cannot fight charges that its lied advertising about the self-driving capabilities of its cars
  - Jalopnik, 28 July 2025

• Has Musk lied about self-driving Tesla? Tesla could lose the ability to sell its vehicles in California for 30 days, if it cannot fight charges that its lied advertising about the self-driving capabilities of its cars
  - Los Angeles, 28 July 2025

• Trump wants Zhōngguó to buy more products from the USA. Right now, the opposite is happening. Zhōngguó has slowed or halted purchases of a significant number of USA energy and farm goods in 2025, but shipments could soar again after a USA-Zhōngguó trade deal.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 28 July 2025

• Apple is closing a retail store in Dalian, marking Apple's first shutdown of a directly managed outlet in mainland Zhōngguó amid struggling iPhone sales. Meanwhile, Huawei rises above Xiaomi for the biggest share of the market for smartphones (18% versus 17%).
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 28 July 2025

• The stock market is signalling that consumers are running out of money to spend. While the SP500 is up 10% year-to-date, the Consumer Discretionary ETF (XLY) is flat for the year
  - Apollo Global's Yahoo Finance, 27 July 2025

• A heartbreaking economic indicator in the USA: more people are giving up their pets
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 27 July 2025

• Health insurance premiums in 2026 could see the largest increase in 5 years. Enhanced 'Obamacare' insurance premium tax credits will expire at the end of 2025, resulting in an average increase of more than 75 percent in out-of-pocket premium payments. "This is expected to cause healthier enrollees to drop their coverage and create a sicker risk pool."
  - Zero Hedge, 26 July 2025

• Vogue magazine allows fashion brand Guess to use a non-paid AI model for one of its advertisements in the magazine. If a trend, it is less income for paid-human models, and allows advertisers to use extremely beautiful non-paid AI models that will add to the struggle of young women who are already struggling with unrealistic beauty standards. [KM: But rich AI companies will get richer.]
  - BBC, 26 July 2025

• 30% of firms have now reported their earnings, and 84% are beating EPS and 79% beating top-line estimates
  - Zero Hedge (locked), 26 July 2025

• Why do greedy publishers charge as much as 10-times more for libraries to license e-books than for libraries pay to buy printed books? Some e-book licenses prohibit interlibrary loans, and limit the number of checkouts of the e-books. Now state legislatures are considering laws to crack down on this high-tech abuse.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 26 July 2025

• Starbucks faces a new rival for coffee sales that is very competitive. Luckin, based in Zhōngguó, opened its first stores in New York, showing off its mobile app and low prices, areas where Starbucks has struggled.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 26 July 2025

• One to three cups of coffee each day could cause healthy aging in women. One to three cups a day was also linked to heart health benefits and lower mortality rates. But limit caffeine consumpton to 400 milligrams a day or less.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 26 July 2025

• McDonald's has lost its marketing advantage as place to buy meals at a reasonable price. McDonald's loss of affordability is hurting the company during the USA's current shaky economy.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 26 July 2025

• WalMart's Sam's Club supermarkets in Zhōngguó may have made a retail mistake. It is now offering less-than-premium products, such as a pack of 48 small chocolate cakes at a low price, than can be found at neighborhood convenience stores that are not viewed as offering 'decent/premium' products. What then is the point of paying a membership fee to Sam's Club?
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 26 July 2025

• I am a nutritionist and visted Costco in Nihon. The variety of foods was incredible, and not as expensive as I thought they would be.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 26 July 2025

• Television is finally dying. What that is good news for Disney. While the stock has been glad for 10 years, at around $121, it could be a time to buy the stock.
  - Barron's, 26 July 2025

• "Terrible fuel efficiency, and no right-hand drive" - why Trump's trade deal with Nihon will not much increase sales of USA automobiles in Nihon - USA automobiles are too big and unreliable gas-guzzlers. USA car companies such as GM and Ford really don't try anyways - they don't do much marketing, and don't even offer right-hand drive models. And Ford's F-150 pickups is a poor fit for the narrow roads and small parking spaces in Nihon.
  - The Guardian, 26 July 2025

• Matcha green tea from Nihon is becoming too popular. Surging demand, combined with smaller tea crops due to heatwaves and US tariffs on Japan, is pushing up matcha prices.
  - BBC, 25 July 2025

• Coca-Cola's failed investment into retail coffee, Costa Coffee, faces an uncertain future. Acquired for $5.1 billion in 2018, its revenues have been flat since the acquisition.
  - Apollo Global's Yahoo Finance, 25 July 2025

• $48,650,000 - As a precursor to México investigating banks for antitrust violations, in August 2021, Mexico's antitrust watchdog COFECE fined five pharmaceutical distributors and 21 individuals roughly 903 million pesos ($48.65 million) for a decade of fixing prices and restricting the supply of essential medicines between 2006 and 2016.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 25 July 2025

• Shares of Puma crash 19%, the most since 1991, after a "major profit warning" citing dismal global demand
  - Zero Hedge, 25 July 2025

• Behind the decision of a coffee company based in Maine to raise prices. Like many companies, Rock City Coffee resisted increasing prices as Trump's tax/tariff trade war drove its costs up. Then it ran out of options.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 25 July 2025

• Banks are being more selective about whom they want to issue credit cards
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 25 July 2025

• Frederick Tudor of Boston - the 'Ice King', in part the reason why people in the USA love ice in their drinks while Europeans mostly prefer ice-free beverages
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 25 July 2025

• During Tesla's earnings conference, no one want to talk about Tesla's lousy earnings. Instead, it was the usual pump-and-dump hype with promises of a glorious future of AI (which is highly competitive) and robotics [KM: which requires profiting from replacing paid-humans].
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 25 July 2025

• During Tesla's earnings conference, no one want to talk about Tesla's lousy earnings. Instead, it was the usual pump-and-dump hype with promises of a glorious future of AI (which is highly competitive) and robotics [KM: which requires profiting from replacing paid-humans].
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 25 July 2025

• Is Las Vegas becoming too expensive for a middle class traveler to enjoy anymore, as the number of tourists travelling to Las Vegas declining in 2025? For one, tourists are complaining of "shameless price markups and ever-increasing add-ons".
  - SF Gate, 25 July 2025

• $78,000,000 - Real estate agent Stephen Costa will be going back to prison after being sentenced to about 14 years in prison for spearheading a $78 million prescription drug gang - comprised of medicine meant for HIV and cancer patients
  - Miami Herald, 24 July 2025

• The CEO of American Airlines says that Delta Airlines use of AI to adjust ticket prices is "inappropriate ... a bait and switch", and that American Airlines won't do the same
  - Investopedia, 24 July 2025

• The rise of stablecoins and the signing of the Genius Act sets the stage for a steeper yield curve, wider swap spreads and higher inflation. But it will make rich moneychangers richer.
  - Zero Hedge, 24 July 2025

• Alcohol drug delivery companies, Big Alcohol, prepare to compete harder with the marijuana drug delivery industry as cannabis drinks steal sales from alcohol companies
  - Thomson's Reuters, 24 July 2025

• Target ends price-matching policy after more than a decade. Shoppers will no longer be able to buy an item for a lower price if they can prove that they found an identical product listed for less by Amazon or Walmart.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 24 July 2025

• The giant markets of Bharat are very attractive to Western fashion brands - buy culturally misappropriations can be costly to the brands, as Prada found out by copying a centuries-old sandal design from Bharat - Kolhapuri chappals
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 24 July 2025

• The insolvency of mountain biking company YT Industries (backed by the Ardian investment firm) underscores just how much Trump's taxes/tariffs have shaken the biking industry
  - Jiaravanon's Fortune, 23 July 2025

• Shares of Chipotle drop as much as 9% after it reported another quarter of negative sales growth
  - Apollo Global's Yahoo Finance, 23 July 2025

• Shares of Chipotle drop as much as 9% after it reported another quarter of negative sales growth
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 23 July 2025

• A mayoral candidate in New York City wants the city to create its own network of supermarkets to better serve the public. This is a difficult logistics problem in an industry where profit margins average about 2%.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 23 July 2025

• Hershey lifts candy prices, citing high cocoa costs. The chocolate maker has notified retail customers of a double-digit percentage increase, as cocoa markets have stayed high on supply concerns.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 23 July 2025

• Hershey lifts candy prices, citing high cocoa costs. The chocolate maker has notified retail customers of a double-digit percentage increase, as cocoa markets have stayed high on supply concerns.
  - Jiaravanon's Fortune, 23 July 2025

• Tesla's earnings report today could reveal more sales and financial problems for Elon Musk's company
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 23 July 2025

• Non-rich consumer should prepare for higher electricity bills, as the largest power grid in the USA sets prices for electricity at record highs to profit from the demand creating by AI systems owned by [KM: we-want-to-be-even-rich rich] AI companies
  - Zero Hedge, 22 July 2025

• I replaced my Tesla Model 3 with a BYD Seal. I want nothing to do with Elon Musk anymore.
  - Business Insider, 22 July 2025

• Sales of Tesla's vehicles have declined for seven straight quarters [because more and more people hate Elon Musk] in California, while rivals Toyota and Honda increase their sales
  - Jiaravanon's Fortune, 22 July 2025

• Shares of retailer Kohl's are the latest to be meme-ed with a short squeeze - skyrocketing almost 100% at the open (10.85 to 19.65), before plummeting to 13.00)
  - Zero Hedge, 22 July 2025

• Weight-loss drugs such as Ozempic help you lose a lot of weight. Until you stop using the drugs, and then the lost weight starts returning to your body.
  - ZME Science, 22 July 2025

• Many users start boycotting Etsy, after it allows 'Alligator Alcatraz' branded products to be sold on the e-commerce site, 'Alligator Alcatraz' referring to a detention camp being used as part of Trump's racist immigration policies
  - TechCrunch, 22 July 2025

• The economic problem of the capitalistic-socialism of Zhōngguó -- too much capitalistic competition
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 22 July 2025

• Misanthropic predatory "buy now pay later" schemes are so questionable that banks will consider such use a negative factor in approving mortgages or credit cards
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 22 July 2025

• Global food prices are spiking up, due to extreme weather caused by global heating due to the burning of fossil fuels. Staple foods - including potatoes, rice, onions, lettuce and fruit - are rising in price due to the effects of extreme weather.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 22 July 2025

• Very high levels of toxic PFAS chemicals are found in eco-friendly menstrual pads and panties.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 22 July 2025

• Imprint, the 5-year-old credit card startup, beat out banks in a competitive bidding process for a new co-branded card from online shopping platform Rakuten
  - Comcast's CNBC, 22 July 2025

• Coca-Cola, in the fall of 2025, will return to using cane sugar, instead of high fructose corn syrup, in its leading cola soda products
  - Comcast's CNBC, 22 July 2025

• BYD outsells Tesla and BMW in the right-hand electric vehicle market in Hong Kong
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 22 July 2025

• Since the 1970s, the prices of homes has increased more rapidly than the salaries of homebuyers. The price/income ratio has gone from around 4.0 to 5.3
  - Zero Hedge, 21 July 2025

• Fake AI reviews of real estate agents are taking over Zillow, with over 25% of the agents' reviews written by AI. While making rich AI companies richer, "If an agent's online reputation is inflated with reviews that were never written by real clients, it misleads users into thinking the agent is more experienced, successful, or in-demand than they actually are. This 'fake clout' can ultimately steer consumers toward agents who may not deliver the level of service they are expecting, putting them at financial and emotional risk." [KM: But rich, unaccountable AI companies richer.]
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 21 July 2025

• Barcelona is closing two of its cruise-ship terminals (five will remain) to reduce the number of tourists entering the city. Barcelona is the biggest cruise port in Europe.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 21 July 2025

• An orange juice distributor in the USA is suing over Trump's hostile attack to impose a 50% tax/tariff on imports from Brazil starting next month. Johanna Foods argues that Trump's reasons [hissy fit] for the tax increase - including support for Brazil's former right-wing President Bolsonaro - does not present "unusual and extraordinary" threats that give him emergency authority to circumvent the taxing power of (the currently puppetish) Congress. The unconstitutional taxes/tariffs will force the company to raise its prices by 20-25% to consumers.
  - Blommberg, 21 July 2025

• US retail giant Costco will create a global capability center in Charat, to employ 1000 people
  - Thomson's Reuters, 21 July 2025

• Amazon has raised prices on hundreds of products it sells, while Walmart has reduced prices on low-cost products.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 21 July 2025

• Large rich Big Tech companies are using non-paid robots and non-paid drones to deliver more foods to homes and apartments, destroying more and more paid-human delivery jobs.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 21 July 2025

• The Christian USA is turning into a nation of 'return fraudsters'. Americans are stealing over $100 billion a year from retailers with return fraud.
  - Business Insider (locked), 20 July 2025

• The depressing phenomenon of declining quality in the e-commerce era. Airplane seats are getting smaller and smaller, clothes are unrecognizable after the second wash, and machines now answer our calls. Quality and care for craftsmanship seem to be things of the past. [KM: apparently it is hard for the rich to get richer spending money on quality and care.]
  - El Pais, 19 July 2025

• The government of Zhōngguó plans to prohibit the resale of cars within six months of their initial registration as part of efforts to combat sales of so-called zero-mileage used cars, to control "irrational" competition in the domestic auto market.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 19 July 2025

• Consumer product brands based in Zhōngguó are rapidly expanding across southeast Asia
  - Zero Hedge, 18 July 2025

• The government of Zhōngguó pledges to reduce/end price wars between electric vehicle companies, in light of concerns about increased deflation in Zhōngguó
  - Zero Hedge, 18 July 2025

• Shares of Block soar 10% on entry into the SP500, replacing Hess which is being bought out by Chevron. This makes the SP500 even more tech-heavy, and thus more linked to the AI/cryptocurrency bubbles.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 18 July 2025

• $300,000,000+ - Christine Hunsicker, a prominent entrepreneur who founded the now-bankrupt clothing technology startup, CaaStle, was criminally charged on Friday with defrauding investors out of more than $300 million
  - Comcast's CNBC, 18 July 2025

• To further discourage travel to the USA, visitors who travel to the USA will have to pay a new $250 "visa integrity" tax
  - Comcast's CNBC, 18 July 2025

• Hedge funds hammered as 'not too hot, not too cold' economic data causes odds of interest rate reductions to plummet
  - Zero Hedge (locked), 17 July 2025

• It will take more than low interest rates to make houses affordable in the USA. Even if mortgage rates were to go down again, rising prices mean homeowners would still be stuck with higher costs and higher property taxes that result from rising prices.
  - Mises Institute, 17 July 2025

• Why FHFA meddling in credit score reporting, allowing the less-reliable ratings from VantageScore to be used along with FICO's credit scores, is unwarranted. FICO cannot generate reports for people with minimal credit histories.
  - Real Clear Markets, 17 July 2025

• Has the 'rice minister' of Nihon reducde the prices of rice enough to revive his Liberal Democratic Party before upcoming elections?
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 17 July 2025

• Whey, the liquid byproduct of cheese making, was once considered waste in the dairy industry. Now, it is an important ingredient in the protein powders that many people in the USA are consuming in greater quantity.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 17 July 2025

• The [criminal] racket of the tomato industry in the USA. Trump is giving tomato growers in Republican Florida the protection/socialist-subsidy of taxes/tariffs on imports of tomatoes. This will do nothing but raise prices for consumers in the USA, without creating jobs or addressing any economic problem.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 17 July 2025

• United Airlines says that it is more confident in a rebound in the number of people travelling. The airline reset its profit guidance for the year, citing improved demand for travel after economic turmoil and flight disruptions depressed bookings this spring.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 17 July 2025

• Can the develoepd world grow its way out of stagnation by boosting productivity?
  - Of Two Minds blog, 16 July 2025

• Delta Airlines introduces a new form of predatory pricing, using AI to individually price each ticket per the nature of the traveller, eventually eliminating static pricing. A company in Israel, Fetcherr, provides the AI technology. "The price you see is the price the algorithm thinks that you will accept, not a universal rate."
  - Jiaravanon's Fortune, 16 July 2025

• New economic data for June on price increases for consumers and businesses could be signals of even higher costs if TACO Trump doesn't TACO, and imposes very high tariffs on imports starting August 1st
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 16 July 2025

• New economic data for June on price increases for consumers and businesses could be signals of even higher costs if TACO Trump doesn't TACO, and imposes very high tariffs on imports starting August 1st
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 16 July 2025

• No interest rate reduction in July: new economic data for June on price increases for consumers and businesses could be signals of even higher costs if TACO Trump doesn't TACO, and imposes very high tariffs on imports starting August 1st
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 16 July 2025

• Non-linear economics: the effects of Trump's tax/tariff trade wars are now measurable in the economy, as evidenced by increased inflation and increased unemployment
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 16 July 2025

• Huawei becomes the leading seller of smartphones in Zhōngguó for the first time in 4 years, with about 18% of the marketplace
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 16 July 2025

• The consumer price index - inflation - rose 0.3% in June, the equivalent of a 2.7% annual rate. Core inflation (less food and energy) rose to 2.9%. The Fed won't rush to 'cocaine' the markets with an interest rate reduction. The game is to wait to see any further impact of Trump's taxes/tariffs.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 15 July 2025

• The consumer price index - inflation - rose 0.3% in June, the equivalent of a 2.7% annual rate. Core inflation (less food and energy) rose to 2.9%. The Fed won't rush to 'cocaine' the markets with an interest rate reduction. The game is to wait to see any further impact of Trump's taxes/tariffs.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 15 July 2025

• The consumer price index - inflation - rose 0.3% in June, the equivalent of a 2.7% annual rate. Core inflation (less food and energy) rose to 2.9%. The Fed won't rush to 'cocaine' the markets with an interest rate reduction. The game is to wait to see any further impact of Trump's taxes/tariffs.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 15 July 2025

• For how much more time can Zhōngguó continue to provide subsidies to its consumers to prop up the economy?
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 15 July 2025

• Consumers are slowly reducing their purchases of products using oil-derived, unsustainable, plastic packaging
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 15 July 2025

• Sirius, the ad-free audio entertainment company mostly popular in car audio systems, has cost $10 to $25 a month. To keep customers, Sirius will offer a cheaper version at less than $7/month which will include ads.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 15 July 2025

• More elimination of paid-human jobs: in Shenzhen, Zhōngguó, delivery robots will ride the human-used subway to restock more than 100 stores of the 7-Eleven retain chain
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 15 July 2025

• Elon Musk panics: Tesla sales are so abysmal in Canada (which is being attacked by Musk's former buddy Trump) that Elon Musk has made the drastic choice to dramatically lower the price of the new Model Y as it attempts to rebuild sales
  - Futurism, 14 July 2025

• Nearly one-third of 100 major housing markets in the USA now have home prices declining as inventory/supply increases
  - Comcast's CNBC, 14 July 2025

• While the USA (at $2.4 trillion) has the bigger tourism economy than Zhōngguó (at $1.3 trillion), Zhōngguó should have the bigger tourism economy within ten years. Though Europe as a whole is around $2 tillion.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 14 July 2025

• The authoritarian Trump's threat to impost taxes/tariffs of 50% on imports from Brazil (to interfere with Brazil's criminal justice system) will drive up the prices of coffee and orange juice for people in the USA (just so Trump can interfere with Brazil's criminal justice system to help a friend).
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 14 July 2025

• The very rich Google's YouTube places pirated [a crime] videos next to ads for politicians including Trump, as well as next to ads for corporate giants such as JPMorgan, General Motors and Pizza Hut, according to a bombshell repoprt - and insiders claim Google is ignoring the criminal infringement to illegally earns of billions of dollars it doesn't need
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 14 July 2025

• Criminals are profiting more from 'superfake' luxury handbags. A new breed of counterfeits is indistinguishable from the real thing.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 14 July 2025

• How to panic people in Italy? Raise the price of espresso. Prices for coffee beans have risen, but in a country where coffee drinking is a ritual, customers demand cheap espresso. That has left coffee bars in a bind.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 13 July 2025

• Costco's private product branding division, Kirkland Signature, is now bigger than some of the world's biggest companies
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 12 July 2025

• Over 1000 stores and vendors in Bhutan accept cryptocurrency payments
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 12 July 2025

• We visited an outpost of Zhōngguó-based Luckin Coffee in New York City. Quieter, since most orders handled by cellphone apps.
  - Investopedia, 12 July 2025

• A long-term competition in the food-delivery market in Zhōngguó has reduced the market value of Alibaba Group by $100 billion, with no end in sight for damage to profits and investor confidence
  - Bloomberg, 11 July 2025

• Kraft Heinz is planning to split-up the company. The company's stock has underperformed since its megamerger in 2015 and changing consumer tastes have hampered results.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 11 July 2025

• Kraft Heinz is planning to split-up the company. The company's stock has underperformed since its megamerger in 2015 and changing consumer tastes have hampered results.
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 11 July 2025

• Kraft Heinz is planning to split-up the company. The company's stock has underperformed since its megamerger in 2015 and changing consumer tastes have hampered results.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 11 July 2025

• Shareholders of Walgreens Boots Alliance approve a $10 billion buyout by private equity investment firm Sycamore
  - Associated Press, 11 July 2025

• $9,000,000 - Pawn shop owner FirstCash will pay a $4 million fine, and further pay victims $5 million, for alleged violations of the Military Lending Act for crimes committed against soldiers borrowing money
  - Thomson's Reuters, 11 July 2025

• Much of our food in the USA is 'trash', and our health care system is designed to keep it unhealthy. People are forced to eat too many ultraprocessed foods. Get sick? Go to a pharmacy for increasingly ineffective medicines. The worst addictive white powder? Sugar, made worse in the form of high-fructose corn syrup.
  - Quoth The Raven (substack), 11 July 2025

• Editorial: how to increase mortgage defaults in the USA. Trump's regulator for Fannie and Freddie wants to reduce the use of FICO for housing credit, while factoring in rent payments of borrowers.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 11 July 2025

• Home are flooding onto the market in Las Vegas as retirees leave the city and investors decide to take profits
  - Realtors.com, 11 July 2025

• A record high of over $7 billion worth of homes are on sale in Las Vegas. High interest rates are causing fewer homes to be sold.
  - Benzinga, 11 July 2025

• Wells Fargo ends a partnership with Bilt that offered a credit card that earned rewards when you charged your rent to the card
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 11 July 2025

• Sales of sugary breakfast cereals have declined for decades before WK Kellogg agreed to be taken over by sugary candy company Ferrero Group. Too many breakfast cereals are the worst of sugary processed foods.
  - Associated Press, 11 July 2025

• Ferrero to buy WK Kellogg in sugar-candy (Nutella, TicTacs) meets sugary-cereal (Frosted Flakes, Froot Loops) deal
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 11 July 2025

• Some gasoline stations in the USA are charging customers $1 more per gallon of gasoline if they use a credit card. In fact, they can charge any additional amount they want, and be sneaky about it by printing notice in small print on the pumps.
  - Moneywise, 11 July 2025

• USA Treasury Bonds, being overbought, have a bigger problem than Trump's taxes/tariffs. The only plausible salvation for bonds is a recession.
  - Zero Hedge, 10 July 2025

• Black American customers react in outrage after Carnival Cruise Line imposes rules to limit 'ghetto' behavior. Or is the cruise line trying to limit 'asshole' behavior such as playing music that is too loud and smoking marijuana onboard ships?
  - Zero Hedge, 10 July 2025

• Sales of Tesla vehicles - "uninspired and stale" are in serious trouble in Zhōngguó
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 10 July 2025

• Market turmoil has spurred a fierce debate among consumers of matcha tea about who exactly is responsible for the dwindling supply - and who deserves to drink it.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 10 July 2025

• Shares of WPP plummet 18% after the advertising company reduce its forward-looking profit guidance
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 10 July 2025

• The number of people in the Christian USA who are suffering from food insecurity has almost doubled since 2021 to 16%, and store closings in the USA are on pace for a new record high. Why has hunger in America absolutely exploded during the past 4 years?
  - The Economic Collapse blog, 09 July 2025

• Ignore the scientifically-illiterate: in moderation, seed-based oils are health for you
  - Genetic Literacy Project, 09 July 2025

• It appears that Amazon's decision to be more greedy and extend Prime Day from two to four days is a failure. Sales on Day plunged 40% year-to-year.
  - Zero Hedge, 09 July 2025

• Shares of WK Kellogg spiked 50% on a report that sugary candy company Ferrero is nearing an agreement to buy the sugary cereal and breakfast food company for about $3 billion
  - Comcast's CNBC, 09 July 2025

• Ferrero, the parent of Nutella and other highly sugary/fatty products, is buying sugary cereal maker WK Kellogg for $3.1 billion
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 09 July 2025

• Ferrero, the parent of Nutella and other highly sugary/fatty products, is buying sugary cereal maker WK Kellogg for $3.1 billion
  - Comcast's CNBC, 09 July 2025

• How the extremely rich Google fails to ensure that its Youtube platform cannot be used for others to profit from copyright infringement by illegally posting copyrighted music and movies which earn the 'pirates' money from advertising.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 09 July 2025

• Big investors target a $40 billion business: youth sports. Private equity's interest in youth sports is intensifying the another gap between rich and poor families.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 09 July 2025

• More and more customers of Hertz are outraged that new AI scanners charge lots amounts of money for the tiniest of 'dings' when they return rental cars, made worse by the difficulty in contacting customer support to dispute the charges
  - The Drive, 08 July 2025

• More and more customers of Hertz are outraged that new AI scanners charge lots amounts of money for the tiniest of 'dings' when they return rental cars, made worse by the difficulty in contacting customer support to dispute the charges
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 08 July 2025

• Credit card debt declines by $3.5 billion in May, as student loan debt payments soar
  - Zero Hedge, 08 July 2025

• On July 14th, the Trump administration will impose a tax/tariff of 17% on tomatoes imported from Mexico, which will raise prices of tomatoes in the USA nearly 10%
  - Bloomerg, 08 July 2025

• Delistings of homes for sale increase 50% as home sellers who cannot obtain the selling price they want leave the market, even with reductions in prices offered by sellers.
  - Realtor.com, 08 July 2025

• The hypocrisy of Health Secretary Kennedy: he promotes a food company, Mom's Meal, whose products he says are healthy. A lie. Their products are ultraprocessed, the type of foods that Kennedy routinely criticizes for making people sick. Many menu items are high in sodium, and some are high in sugar or saturated fats.
  - HuffPost, 08 July 2025

• Shares of FICO drop 17% (recovering to being down 9%) after the government announces that borrowers for government-backed loans can use credit ratings from a competitor, VantageScore. Welcome relief, as FICO fees have greatly increased in recent years. VantageScore is owned by Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 08 July 2025

• Shares of FICO drop 17% (recovering to being down 9%) after the government announces that borrowers for government-backed loans can use credit ratings from a competitor, VantageScore. Welcome relief, as FICO fees have greatly increased in recent years. VantageScore is owned by Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 08 July 2025

• Will high rice prices in Nihon cause huge problems for the government, adding to inflation and a strong yen, could hurt government bonds of Nihon
  - Zero Hedge, 08 July 2025

• The number of people renting housing in the USA rose to a record high, as fewer people can afford to buy a new home with the current salaries
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 08 July 2025

• Elon Musk is losing his popularity and opportunities for Tesla in Zhōngguó. Local competition, such as BYD, is grabbing more of the market for electric vehicles that Musk helped create. Worsening his plight, the government of Zhōngguó is less interested in Musk, now that he is fighting with Trump.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 07 July 2025

• The government of Zhōngguó is urged to implement more aggressive policies to tackle price wars, deflation and weak demand. As Beijing cracks down on cutthroat competition, analysts call for stable jobs, a better social safety net and support for companies.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 07 July 2025

• Facebook's large-scale WhatsApp fintech experiment in Bharat has fizzled. Despite having 500 million users in India, WhatsApp could not crack the $3 trillion fintech market of Bharat.
  - Rest of World, 07 July 2025

• The buying of stocks by retail/individual investors in the first half of 2025 rises to a new high. Dip-buying is still popular, as are high-beta and leveraged stocks/ETFS.
  - Zero Hedge, 06 July 2025

• Why do Yemeni coffeehouses currently seem to be everywhere in the USA? They are popular late-night, alcohol-free places for people to enjoy.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 05 July 2025

• Thanks to Trump's hostility to the rest of the world, Americans travelling in other countries are confronting hostile attitudes towards the USA
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 05 July 2025

• UPS offers buyouts to drivers to leave their jobs, a first in its 117-year history. UPS is reducing costs because of flat parcel volumes, rising labor costs and a long-term decline in its stock price.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 05 July 2025

• $40,000,000+ - Government regulators in France fine Shein more than $40 million for offering misleading discounts to buyers
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 05 July 2025

• Investors in 'virtual' farming inside of networked computer games such as Grow a Garden offered by Roblox
  - Barron's, 05 July 2025

• Trump's immigration policies could hurt telecommunication companies such as ATT. (Illegal) immigrants are a large purchaser of wireless cellphone plans.
  - Barron's, 05 July 2025

• The coming 'stagflation' will be different from that of the 1970s (which had high unemployment - to 9% - and gasoline prices). As Trump's racist immigration policies reduce the labor supply while more Americans are retiring, wages will be pushed up which will push up prices. Huge government spending (by borrowing trillions for Trump's new tax/spending law) will increase demand faster than supply - pushing up prices. Higher interest rates (needed to sell Treasury Bonds) will make things worse.
  - Barron's, 05 July 2025

• Why Elon Musk's and Tesla's Cybertruck has been a business failure, having sold about a tenth of the Cybertrucks Musk had earlier promised.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 04 July 2025

• Colombia, el segundo país de la OCDE que tuvo la inflación mensual más alta en mayo. Por Colombia, iflación llegó a 5,1% en mayo. Por la OCDE en general, inflación llegó a 4,0%.
  - La Republica, 04 July 2025

• Craft brewers in the USA are suffering financially due to Trump's taxes/tariffs on steel and aluminum, and taxes/tariffs on ingredients such as hops from Europe, cocoa from Africa, etc.
  - Cato At Liberty, 03 July 2025

• Shares of Tripadvisor jump 17% as investment firm Starboard Value reports that it now owns about 9% of the shares of Tripadvisor
  - Comcast's CNBC, 03 July 2025

• Investment firm Starboard Value reports that it now owns about 9% of the shares of Tripadvisor
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 03 July 2025

• How the libertarian president of Argentina, Javier Milei, mostly eliminated inflation, from 211% in 2023 to 2% in 2025. He balanced the budget, reduced public spending and borrowing, and deregulating more of the economy.
  - The Daily Economy, 02 July 2025

• Chains of department stores across the USA are increasing the prices of the product they sell, such as apparel and footwear, in response to Trump's tax/tariff trade war
  - Comcast's CNBC, 02 July 2025

• Saks Fifth Avenue is able to continue to pay its bondholders, six month after it acquired Neiman Marcus, but still has financial and operational (including vendor-related) problems
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 02 July 2025

• Tesla's energy storage business gets sucked into the business decline of Tesla itself, with sales peaking at the end of 2024
  - TechCrunch, 02 July 2025

• Sales of Tesla's vehicles dropped 13.5% year-to-year in the second three months of 2025
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 02 July 2025

• More competition: sales of Tesla's vehicles dropped 13.5% year-to-year in the second three months of 2025
  - Comcast's CNBC, 02 July 2025

• People still don't like Elon MusK: sales of Tesla's vehicles dropped 13.5% year-to-year in the second three months of 2025
  - Associated Press, 02 July 2025

• Costs of home insurance are increasing in most states of the USA, an average of 8% for the whole country (according to Insurify), with some states having larger increases (such as California at 21% and Louisiana at 28%)
  - Comcast's CNBC, 02 July 2025

• The racist immigration policies of Trump, greatly hurting the Latino communities of the south and west of the USA, is also hurting sales of beverages manufactured by Constellation Brands. Half of its sales are due to the Latino community, who are spending less out of fear of the impact of Trump's racist immigration policies.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 02 July 2025

• Constellation Brands, which owns Modelo, reported quarterly earnings less than predicted, due to decreased demand and paying more for aluminum because of Trump's taxes/tariffs reducing profit margins
  - Comcast's CNBC, 02 July 2025

• Constellation Brands, which owns Modelo, reported quarterly earnings less than predicted, due to decreased demand and paying more for aluminum because of Trump's taxes/tariffs reducing profit margins
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 02 July 2025

• Only 51% of people in the USA have life insurance
  - CNBC Select, 01 July 2025

• More Big Tech misanthropy: despite states such as California and Minnesota passing "right to repair laws", many product manufacturers are doing little to help consumers use these laws to get their broken products fixed by themeselves or by repair shops
  - The Register, 01 July 2025

• Torture their eyeballs and patience: AMC Threatres is warning customers to expect "25 to 30 minutes" of advertisements and trailers
  - The Verge, 01 July 2025

• $9,000,000 - Columbia University to pay $9 million to settle a lawsuit filed by students who claimed it submitted false data to boost its position in US News & World Report's influential college rankings
  - Thomson's Reuters, 01 July 2025

• Columbia University to pay $9 million to settle a lawsuit filed by students who claimed it submitted false data to boost its position in US News & World Report's influential college rankings
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 01 July 2025

• Deutsche Bank predicts that Tesla will fail to meet expecations for deliveries of its vehicles in Q2 2025
  - Zero Hedge, 01 July 2025

• Microsoft has lost about 400 million users of its Windows operating system in the past few years, as more people use cellphones and tablets, and because of the costs and strict requirements to upgrade to new versions of Windows
  - Toms Hardware, 01 July 2025

• While Kodak failed to survive the transition to digital photography ($19 billion in revenues in 1990 to $1 billion in 2024). But outside the USA, its logo has become a very popular retro fashion statement which earns it $20 million a year - though little comfort to Kodak shareholders.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 01 July 2025

• As Canada exports less to the USA because of Trump's tax/tariff trade war, can Canada increase the amount of local consumption of its manufactured products (the same problem that Zhōngguó is trying to solve)?
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 01 July 2025

• Prada causes a cultural controversy in Bharat. After Prada launched a leather sandal that is similar to a leather sandal worn by many people in Bharat, social media in Bharat saw a large number of complaints about Prada stealing part of the culture of Bharat.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 01 July 2025

• Prada causes a cultural controversy in Bharat. After Prada launched a leather sandal that is similar to a leather sandal worn by many people in Bharat, social media in Bharat saw a large number of complaints about Prada stealing part of the culture of Bharat.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 01 July 2025

• Luckin Coffee, based in Zhōngguó, opens its first two stores in the USA, both in New York City. New competition for Starbucks.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 01 July 2025

• The lone star tick, a tick that feeds on blood and can trigger a bizarre allergy, the alpha-gal syndrome, to meat in the people they bite, are rapidly increasing in number and spreading across the USA, to the extent that they could cover the entire eastern half of the country and infect millions of people, experts have warned. They can expand because of global heating due to the burning of fossil fuels.
  - The Guardian, 01 July 2025

• A survey by AlixPartners reports that online shopping has declined in volume the most in the last 10 years, due to Trump's tax/tariff trade wars
  - Comcast's CNBC, 01 July 2025

• Lululemon files a lawsuit against Costco, alleging that Costco is selling copies of Lululemon's products, at much cheaper prices, that infringe Lululemon's patents on some of its clothing products
  - Comcast's CNBC, 01 July 2025

• Lululemon files a lawsuit against Costco, alleging that Costco is selling copies of Lululemon's products, at much cheaper prcies, that infringe Lululemon's patents on some of its clothing products
  - SF Gate, 01 July 2025

• Lululemon files a lawsuit against Costco, alleging that Costco is selling copies of Lululemon's products, at much cheaper prices, that infringe Lululemon's patents on some of its clothing products
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 01 July 2025

• Jessica Turlov, a host on "we love Trump" Fox News, strongly criticizes Trump's latest "gross" commercialization of the presidency, as he launches a new line of high priced fragrances
  - The Daily Beast, 01 July 2025

• The prices of homes is rising fast in both Republican and Democratic states (not just Democratic California). Republicans whined that overregulation caused more expensive houses in Democratic states. True, but just because these states were early. Now whining Republican states are overregulating.
  - The Atlantic, 30 June 2025

• Stablecoins are now the "default settlement layer for the internet", surpassing Visa and Mastercard in onchain transaction volume
  - Zero Hedge, 30 June 2025

• Home Depot is buying GMS (a building products distributor) for about $4.3 billion as retailer chases more home pros
  - Comcast's CNBC, 30 June 2025

• Home Depot wins a biding war to buy GMS (a building products distributor) for about $4.3 billion as retailer chases more home pros
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 30 June 2025

• Customers of Hertz rental cars are outraged by AI-powered scanners that charge them hundreds of dollars for small scuffs detected on rental cars
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 30 June 2025

• How Raising Cane's overtook Kentucky Fried Chicken to become the third largest chicken food chain in the USA (Chick-fil-A and Popeyes are number one and two)
  - Comcast's CNBC, 30 June 2025

• The rebuilding of cattle herds in the USA begins just as consumers get 'slaughtered' by record high beef prices
  - Zero Hedge, 29 June 2025

• Companies deliberately design customer service friction to discourage refunds and claims, according to research into a practice academics call "slidge"
  - The Atlantic, 29 June 2025

• 1 In 3 Americans are spending less on insurance in order to be able to buy food to survive. Nearly 1 in 4 Americans (24%) said that they have reduced coverage for a home or car to save money, and 29% reported downgrading or canceling at least one type of insurance over the past year.
  - Zero Hedge, 29 June 2025

• The latest Big Tech misanthropy, "buy now pay later", exploits the "poor-impulse-control-economy" created by Big Tech social media and cellphone apps. "What I worry about is that the convenience and the impulsivity that it allows for allows for the expansion of the grift economy, of a world where people are spending money on things that they do not need to, adn they are just totally lost in that cycle." [KM" But it allows the rich to get richer.]
  - Vox, 29 June 2025

• Of all the companies to announce a rollback to their DEI policies [under pressure from the Trump administration], McDonald's January announcement may count as the biggest betrayal. Those swearing off Big Macs, Quarter Pounders and McCafMcdonald lattes during a weeklong national boycott of the Golden Arches scheduled to end Monday may be withholding their money not just because Mconald's disavowal of DEI policies is upsetting by itself. They may also be doing so because for so long McDonald's portrayed itself as one of Black people's day ones - a company that has always supported Black people.
  - Comcast's MSNBC, 29 June 2025

• The glamorous era of Condé Nast, when magazines were hugely influential. Opulent days are over at Vogue, Vanity Fair and other once-powerful glossies. Anna Wintour is giving up (some) control. Now that everyone is an 'influencer', why do we keep recreating the status-obsessed world of these magazines?
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 29 June 2025

• McDonald's is prospering in the war zone of Ukraine, and plans to open about 10 new restaurants in Ukraine this year, evidence of Ukraine's rebounding economy and its enduring love of Big Macs.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 29 June 2025

• Are marijuana stores the new 'local bar'? Young adults are drinking less alcohol and seeking more connection, and dispensaries of marijuana in New York are marketing themselves as alternative gathering spaces.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 29 June 2025

• The 'family warehouses' powering the rapid expansion of Shein and Temu in the United Kingdom. Immigrants from Zhōngguó in Britain are converting their homes into makeshift warehouses for goods ordered via the booming shopping apps of Zhōngguó.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 29 June 2025

• Why people in Zhōngguó are buying less ice cream madein other countries. As in many other areas of shopping, young people in Zhōngguó are shunning from global brands like Haagen-Dazs in favor of cheaper, nimbler brands of ice cream made in Zhōngguó.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 29 June 2025

• Trump wants an automobiles manufactured entirely in the USA. Such automobiles would be so expensive that vehicle sales in the USA could plunge as much as 20% if Trump relies on massive taxes/tariffs to achieve this nonsensical economic goal.
  - Barron's, 28 June 2025

• Oklahoma has become the latest state to request federal permission to exclude soft drinks and candy from the list of items that can be purchased through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
  - Zero Hedge, 27 June 2025

• Nestle to stop using artificial dyes by mid-2026
  - Zero Hedge, 27 June 2025

• The USA dollar is likely to further decline in price if odds rise of the Fed reducing interest rates in July
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 27 June 2025

• The latest reading of the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation gauge showed price increases accelerated in May as inflation remained above the Fed's 2% target. The release comes as investors have been closely watching data releases for signs of when, or if, the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates this year. The "core" Personal Consumption Expenditures index, which removes food and energy costs and is closely watched by the central bank, rose 2.7% on an annual basis, above the 2.6% economists had expected and higher than the 2.6% seen in April. The April reading was revised higher to 2.6% from an originally reported 2.5% increase.
  - Apollo Global's Yahoo Finance, 27 June 2025

• The latest reading of the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation gauge showed price increases accelerated in May as inflation remained above the Fed's 2% target. The release comes as investors have been closely watching data releases for signs of when, or if, the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates this year. The "core" Personal Consumption Expenditures index, which removes food and energy costs and is closely watched by the central bank, rose 2.7% on an annual basis, above the 2.6% economists had expected and higher than the 2.6% seen in April. The April reading was revised higher to 2.6% from an originally reported 2.5% increase.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 27 June 2025

• Xiaomi outmaneuvered Silicon Valley with the launches of a new SUV and of AI Glasses. Xiaomi's newly launched YU7 SUV garnered 200,000 preorders within minutes and nearly 300,000 in the first hour. Also unveiled were AI smart glasses, the MIX Flip 2 foldable phone, and a new tablet powered by Xiaomi's in-house chip. Where are the U.S. companies that match Xiaomi's full-stack business model? There are none - too busy being lazy monopolists.
  - Zero Hedge, 27 June 2025

• Gloomy Americans reduce spending spending as inflation ticks higher
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 27 June 2025

• Your cat's food probably comes from Thailand. Trump's taxes/tariffs may change that. After rapid growth, Thailand is the biggest overseas supplier of pet food in the USA. Volatility in policy has some importers looking elsewhere.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 27 June 2025

• Canada is trying to solve a huge economic problem due to too many regulations and restrictions that apply to cross-border trade between provinces in Canada. Over the long run, if all barriers on goods and services were dismantled, the economy of Canada could grow between 4.4 and 7.9 percent, one economist has estimated.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 27 June 2025

• Madison Avenue lands a bigger role in Hollywood. Marketers are pushing for their brands to appear in more movies and TV shows, and entertainment execs are adjusting the way things are done to let them in.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 27 June 2025

• Apple has reworked the terms and conditions for developers that use its highly lucrative App Store in the European Union in a bid to avoid racking up more fines under the EU's digital antitrust law.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 27 June 2025

• Nike warns of whopping $1 billion loss from Trump's taxes/tariffs, but shares jump over 10% on upbeat sales forecast
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 27 June 2025

• Nike says Trump's taxes/tariffs will cost it $1 billion before price increases and supply chain shifts
  - Comcast's CNBC, 27 June 2025

• Nike expects the decline in its sales and margins to slow in the current quarter as it continues to clear aged inventory and crank up marketing
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 27 June 2025

• Why hotels are eliminating the presence of mini-bars in hotel rooms. The convenient novelty for guests is a logistical nightmare for hotels and staff. Restocking, food spoilage, operational costs and rampant theft all contribute to an amenity that cost more to run than it earned.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 27 June 2025

• Shares of BYD decline 3% after scaling back production in light of rising inventories and slower sales growth
  - Zero Hedge (locked), 26 June 2025

• Winnebago slashes guidance as the slump deepens of sales of recreational vehicles; management uses cautious tone
  - Zero Hedge, 26 June 2025

• FICO credit scores to include a shopper's 'buy now, pay late' loan history
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 26 June 2025

• Your next online purchase could be delivered by Delta. Delta Air Lines now offers door-to-door delivery service for brands such as Figs scrubs and Arezzo Shoes.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 26 June 2025

• 'Princess' Mehgan Markle's new herbal tea could be a scam. A new report claims to have located the factory making her tea, which is selling something very similar at a fraction of the price.
  - The Daily Beast, 26 June 2025

• How a retail chain in Bharat, Tata's Zudio, is outcompeting in Bharat retail giants such as Europe's Zara and H&M
  - India Dispatch, 25 June 2025

• Republican Senator Josh Hawley slammed the stranglehold (80% control) that four mega-corporations (JBS, Tyson Foods, Cargill and National Beef) - two of them foreign-owned - have over the beef processing industry in the USA, calling it a "modern-day monopoly". "The losers? Farmers and grocery shoppers." But at least the right get richer, right?
  - Zero Hedge, 25 June 2025

• "Gold is money good" - Ed Dowd warns "deflationary scare" will prompt panic at the Fed. "Chairman Powell is dead-ass wrong. Taxes/tariffs are actually deflationary, and he is holding rates higher for longer."
  - Zero Hedge, 25 June 2025

• Nicotine drug trafficking devices, disposable vapes, release more cancer causing chemicals than traditional cigarettes. Vapor from three of the tested devices contained levels of lead and nickel above cancer safety limits, and two had elevated levels of antimony -- an element used in batteries and as a flame retardant.
  - The Daily Mail, 25 June 2025

• The Bank of International Settlements argue that stablecoins fail as money, and calls for strict limits on their uses in the economy
  - Zero Hedge, 25 June 2025

• Retailers are rushing product returns back to the resale market as costs of dealing with Trump taxes/tariffs hurt item economics
  - Comcast's CNBC, 25 June 2025

• Consumer confidence in the USA dropped last month to a reading of 93, a 5.4 point decline from May, according to data the Conference Board released on Tuesday. The decline was seen across all political affiliations but was strongest among Republican respondents.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 25 June 2025

• Consumer confidence in the USA dropped last month to a reading of 93, a 5.4 point decline from May, according to data the Conference Board released on Tuesday. The decline was seen across all political affiliations but was strongest among Republican respondents.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 25 June 2025

• The central bank of England argues that the conflicts in the Middle East increase the risk of higher expectations of inflation, with businesses and households raising their prices and wage demands
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 25 June 2025

• Why the prices of gasoline are not declining in parallel with the decline of the price of oil
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 25 June 2025

• Sales of Tesla vehicles in Europe decline for the fifth month, as car buyers switch to buying electric vehicles made by companies in Zhōngguó such as BYD
  - Comcast's CNBC, 25 June 2025

• Sales of Tesla vehicles in Europe decline for the fifth month, as car buyers switch to buying electric vehicles made by companies in Zhōngguó such as BYD
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 25 June 2025

• Nearly 20% of packaged foods and drinks sold in the USA contain oil-derived synthetic food dyes, according to a startling new study of 40,000 grocery items. The researchers determined that confectionery companies had the most products with synthetic dyes. Ferrero (60%) and Mars (52%) were named the "worst offenders". Around 79% of sports drinks were found to have these dyes, with researchers highlighting that 51% of PepsiCo's energy drinks contain them. Remarkably, the average sugar content of synthetically dyed products was more than double that of foods without the dyes, the study also found.
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 25 June 2025

• Hertz is using non-paid AI to scan your rental car for damage instead of paid humans, and it might cost you. The rental car company's AI-based scanners are being rolled out across the U.S., but a report suggests they could add extra fees to the inspection process. One person who experienced the system was asked to pay $190 in processing and administrative fees to repair a roughly one-inch scrape on a wheel.
  - Car and Driver, 24 June 2025

• June 'gloom' hits consumer confidence after a 'gay' May: expectations of inflatinon plunge
  - Zero Hedge, 24 June 2025

• Home prices in the USA continue to plunge in April, with the biggest drop since December 2022
  - Zero Hedge, 24 June 2025

• Amazon Fresh, Kroger, UNFI and other food production, distribution and retail companies together are firing over 1500 people in a new surge of firing people
  - Freight Waves, 24 June 2025

• Trump's taxes/tariffs are expected to increase the cost of vehicles by $2000, according to consulting firm AlixPartners. The firm estimates that automakers will pass on 80% of the $30 billion tariff cost, adding about $1,760 per car. Trump also plans to end subsidies for electric vehicles. These policy shifts could seriously undercut USA automakers in the global EV race, potentially making them reliant on platforms and technology from Zhōngguó. Another gift to Zhōngguó. Another prediction: "Zhōngguó will have the world's best V8 engines by 2028. Zhōngguó will probably have the only V8 engines by 2028."
  - Zero Hedge, 24 June 2025

• If food and beer cans get more expensive, consumers may pay the price. Trump's taxes/tariffs on steel and aluminum may raise the cost of containers. Food and beverage companies say they cannot absorb the expense caused by Trump.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 24 June 2025

• A $30 minimum wage has hotel owners in Los Angeles in revolt. They are seeking to suspend a city ordinance requiring what union leaders say is the highest minimum wage in the USA.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 24 June 2025

• Ripping the plastic wrap from the meat or prepackaged fruit and veggies you purchased at the grocery store may contaminate your food with micro- and nanoplastics. Plastic contamination may also occur when you are unwrapping deli meat and cheese, steeping a tea bag in hot water, or opening cartons of milk or orange juice. Glass bottles and jars with a plastic-coated metal closure may also shed microscopic bits of plastic, the study found.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 24 June 2025

• Apple adopts the price discount practices of other cellphone companies in Zhōngguó, to lift sales amid heated local competition. Consumers in Beijing and Shanghai can avail themselves of discounts of up to US$278 on select models of Apple devices, including the iPhone.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 24 June 2025

• Shares of Hims & Hers plummet 35% after Novo Nordisk ends a deal with Wegovy
  - Apollo Global's Yahoo Finance, 23 June 2025

• Novo Nordisk ends deal with Hims & Hers, a telehealth company, over sales of Wegovy copycats; shares of HIMS drop 20%. Novo Nordisk said Hims & Hers has "failed to adhere to the law which prohibits mass sales of compounded drugs" and accused Him & Hers of "deceptive" marketing that is putting patient safety at risk.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 23 June 2025

• Shares of Him & Hers crash after Novo Nordisk ends deal with Hims & Hers, a telehealth company, over sales of Wegovy copycats; shares of HIMS drop 20%.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 23 June 2025

• Top credit card companies have stumbled on a winning formula at odds with almost every other sector of the inflation-obsessed economy of the USA: raising their prices is good for business. A large number of customers are willing to eat the costs, already sold by the status the cards convey.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 23 June 2025

• Amazon's efforts to sell more premium beauty products might help it offset losses from some Amazon sellers who no longer sell less expensive beauty products sourced from Zhōngguó because of Trump's taxes/tariffs
  - Thomson's Reuters, 23 June 2025

• Tensions rise on Maui as decision over a phaseout looms for short-term, Airbnb-like, vacation rental. If the bill passes, Maui County would cut its number of vacation rentals in half. "We are here to preserve our community."
  - SF Gate, 20 June 2025

• Walmart remains the leader in offering the lowest prices to consumers
  - Zero Hedge, 21 June 2025

• New York City eliminated real estate broker fees last week in a supposed win for tenants, but landlords had the last laugh - wasting little time sending rents skyrocketing in an effort to recoup their anticipated losses. Rents shot up a shocking 15% in the week since the controversial FARE Act took effect, with the average rental in the Big Apple jumping from $4,750 to $5,500, according to an analysis by real estate analytics firm UrbanDigs.
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 21 June 2025

• High costs have ended the USA's love affair with cars. Cars now cost a fortune in repairs, insurance and shocking expensive replacement parts.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 21 June 2025

• The Senate considers effectively killing a regulation that drove the rise of fuel-efficient cars. The regulation helped launch fuel-efficient mainstays like Toyota's Prius.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 21 June 2025

• Shares of Krogers rise as the supermarket chain attracts weary customers. Kroger raised its 2025 same-store sales outlook as a result of the latest quarter's performance, helping send shares up more than 9%.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 21 June 2025

• CarMax profit rises as worries about Trump's taxes/tariffs spur used-car demand. Used-car retailer CarMax logged higher profit and sales in its latest quarter as tariff uncertainty sparked an uptick in demand for used cars.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 21 June 2025

• The top three countries with the best wines in the world are France, Italy and Españna
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 21 June 2025

• Why electricity prices are surging for households in the USA
  - Comcast's CNBC, 21 June 2025

• Premium credit cards are getting pricier. Do the perks match the fees? Chase's Sapphire Reserve is charging $795, topping the American Express Platinum card. We look at the slew of rewards premium credit cards offer.
  - Barron's, 21 June 2025

• Pepsi lost its 'fizz'. Getting it to pop again back will not be easy. The multinational conglomerate has been hurt recently by slowing sales volume for its snacks.
  - Barron's, 21 June 2025

• Under Ernie Herrman, TJX consistently provides the best bang for the customers's buck. The CEO has run T.J. Maxx's parent for nearly a decade. The retailer is renowned for good merchandising decisions.
  - Barron's, 21 June 2025

• Watch these stock price levels as stablecoins threaten to bypass the credit card fees earned by Visa and Mastercard
  - Investopedia, 20 June 2025

• J&T Express is the $10 billion delivery empire built on processing orders for Shein and Temu. The company is out-delivering Amazon - and everyone else - across 13 countries in Southeast Asia. Its hybrid model - combining self-owned infrastructure with regional partners - allows it to compete in markets where most players cannot afford to build first.
  - Rest of World, 20 June 2025

• These sleek, energy-sustainable homes are breaking the stereotype for prefab construction
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 20 June 2025

• General Mills announces the removal of oil-derived synthetic food dyes from its products, starting with cereals
  - Zero Hedge, 19 June 2025

• "It has been on the market 157 days ... only four people have looked at it". Sellers of housing in Florida struggle in once-booming destination: "An effing mess". Sellers blame insurance hikes, high mortgage rates, and hurricane damage as dealbreakers.
  - Benzinga, 19 June 2025

• $75,000,000+ - Kroger is ordered to pay $75M+ to man who lost part of hands while working at one of Kroger's stores in Michigan
  - WJBK News, 19 June 2025

• How retail credit cards could bankrupt consumers with record high interest rates
  - Comcast's CNBC, 19 June 2025

• How Walmart and Amazon could upend the banking system by issuing their own stablecoins. "Every year, Amazon and Walmart fork over billions to credit card networks and banks in interchange fees ($14 billion in 2024). By launching or accepting stablecoins - especially dollar-backed ones - hey can bypass the Visa/Mastercard mafia, cut costs, and settle instantly, including cross-border."
  - Investor Place, 18 June 2025

• Chase Sapphire leapfrogs Amex Platinum with a new $795 annual fee for its credit cards. The price jump is part of an ongoing shift for credit card companies and airlines toward premium rewards and high-end travelers.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 18 June 2025

• Bitcoin will never circulate as money, but stablecoins sponsored by Amazon and Walmart will be as useful as money.
  - Real Clear Markets, 18 June 2025

• In May, more Americans watched television on streaming than on cable and network television combined, Nielsen said. It is the first time that has happened over a full month.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 18 June 2025

• $23,000,000 - TransUnion, one of the three largest credit bureaus in the USA, has agreed to a $23 million class action settlement to resolve claims it failed to remove disputed hard inquiries from consumers' reports for nearly 10 years.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 17 June 2025

• Retail sales in the USA declined in May, as the price of gasoline declined, and an even bigger drop in Auto Sales (as the tariff front running surge evaporates)
  - Zero Hedge, 17 June 2025

• Finding a new car for under $20,000 is becoming increasingly difficult, with only 3 models below the threshold. The average price of a new car in the U.S. is around $48,000. Nine of the 10 cheapest models come from Japanese or South Korean brands, reflecting their ability to produce cheaper, value-driven vehicles.
  - Zero Hedge, 17 June 2025

• According to customer surveys, none of the 10 best airlines in the world are American. Qatar Airways is number one, followed by Singapore Airlines.
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 17 June 2025

• JetBlue to cut more flights, and other costs, with achieving a break-even by 2025 "unlikely" due to weaker travel demand
  - Comcast's CNBC, 17 June 2025

• Homebuilder confidence in the USA declines to near 13-year-lows
  - Zero Hedge, 17 June 2025

• Homebuilder sentiment nears Covid pandemic low as economic uncertainty and higher mortgage rates plague consumers
  - Comcast's CNBC, 17 June 2025

• Can this not-particularly-cute elf doll, Labubu, make Zhōngguó cool? Zhōngguó has long struggled to improve its image, especially in the West. It may be scoring some victories now.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 17 June 2025

• Here comes the AI sponcon to eliminate more human jobs. TikTok will let brands generate non-paid AI influencer content that mimics what paid human creators might share. [KXnote: though getting rid of 'influencers' might be one of the few good uses of AI.]
  - The Verge, 16 June 2025

• A new Bankrate survey reveals that 46% of Americans plan to travel this summer. Of the remaining 54%, 65% say affordability is keeping them from venturing out - and will be taking 'staycations' near home.
  - Zero Hedge, 16 June 2025

• Overseas express delivery services based in Zhōngguó report robust growth in May, despite Trump's taxes/tariffs
  - Global Times, 16 June 2025

• A town's single largest taxpayer is also its biggest headache. An empty shell for years, the shopping mall, the Berkshire Mall, in Lanesborough, Massachusetts, shows how difficult it is to redevelop malls in smaller towns. The owners of the mall refuse to sell the property so it can be redeveloped.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 16 June 2025

• Non-rich people in the USA are financing the purchase of their groceries with debt. What does it say about the economy? Increased use of dangerous "buy now, pay later" loans may signal shifting consumer habits, but could also be a troubling sign of financial stress.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 16 June 2025

• Shares of Gucci-owned Kering rise 10% on report that Renault's de Meo to be the next CEO
  - Comcast's CNBC, 16 June 2025

• The owner of Gucci selects an auto executive for one of global luxyry's top jobs. Francois-Henri Pinault is stepping back as CEO of Kering, hoping Luca de Meo can pull Gucci and Saint Laurent out of a slump.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 16 June 2025

• New real-estate math: half a million more sellers than buyers. Home prices are up more than 50% in the last five years, and mortgage rates are holding above 6.5%. New listings have not been enough to jolt the market out of its slumber.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 16 June 2025

• Congress considers a crackdown on those spammy calls from mortgage lenders. Legislation would reduce 'trigger leads', whereby credit bureaus sell your mortgage application information to competing lenders.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 16 June 2025

• The fog of Trump's tax/tariff trade war is causing confusion about price increases. Consumers in the USA are making spending decisions in a haze of uncertainty about whether higher prices are the result of tariffs, inflation or a push for more profits by companies.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 16 June 2025

• Trump destroys another USA business: At Home, a popular home goods retailer with 260 stores across the USA, has filed for bankruptcy citing Trump's taxes/tariffs hurting its business and causing consumers to spend less, which made it unable to service its $2 billion of debt.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 16 June 2025

• Trump destroys another USA business: At Home, a popular home goods retailer with 260 stores across the USA, has filed for bankruptcy citing Trump's taxes/tariffs hurting its business and causing consumers to spend less, which made it unable to service its $2 billion of debt.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 16 June 2025

• Starbucks moves to the next phase in its turnaround: winning over employees. Store managers applauded coming changes, like more seating inside cafes and full-time assistant managers.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 15 June 2025

• A woman was wrongly accused in the UK of shoplifting a toilet roll due to an apparent mix-up with a facial recognition system. Madeleine Stone, senior advocacy officer at the civil liberties campaign group Big Brother Watch, said they had been contacted by more than 35 people who have complained of being wrongly placed on facial recognition watchlists. "They have been wrongly flagged as criminals."
  - BBC, 14 June 2025

• People in España use water pistols to protest the destructive impact of mass tourism for a housing crunch worsened by Internet services such as Airbnb (now worth $83 billion, so its executives can afford to rent apartments listed in its services). Cities across the world are struggling with how to cope with overtourism and a boom in short-term rental platforms, like Airbnb, but perhaps nowhere has surging discontent been so evident as in Barcelona, where protesters plan to take to the streets on Sunday. [KM: These ungrateful protesters wanting to not allow the rich to get richer.]
  - Associated Press, 14 June 2025

• People in España use water pistols to protest the destructive impact of mass tourism for a housing crunch worsened by Internet services such as Airbnb (now worth $83 billion, so its executives can afford to rent apartments listed in its services). Cities across the world are struggling with how to cope with overtourism and a boom in short-term rental platforms, like Airbnb, but perhaps nowhere has surging discontent been so evident as in Barcelona, where protesters plan to take to the streets on Sunday. [KN: These ungrateful protesters wanting to not allow the rich to get richer.]
  - The Hill, 14 June 2025

• Trump shifts the focus of his deportation efforts, pausing most raids on farms, hotels and eateries. The pivot on one of Trump's important issues suggested that his immigration crackdown was hurting industries and constituencies that he did not want to lose.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 14 June 2025

• Trump shifts the focus of his deportation efforts, pausing most raids on farms, hotels and eateries. The pivot on one of Trump's important issues suggested that his immigration crackdown was hurting industries and constituencies that he did not want to lose.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 14 June 2025

• Trump shifts the focus of his deportation efforts, pausing most raids on farms, hotels and eateries. The pivot on one of Trump's important issues suggested that his immigration crackdown was hurting industries and constituencies that he did not want to lose.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 14 June 2025

• Editorial: Trump shifts the focus of his deportation efforts, pausing most raids on farms, hotels and eateries. The pivot on one of Trump's important issues suggested that his immigration crackdown was hurting industries and constituencies that he did not want to lose.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 14 June 2025

• Trump's steel taxes/tariffs expanded to hit home appliances. The move is one of the first times this year that consumer products were specifically targeted with higher import taxes. Washing machines, refrigerators and other common household appliances made with steel parts will soon be subject to expanded taxes/tariffs. The Commerce Department said in a notice that levies would take effect on so-called steel derivative products on June 23 and will be set at 50 percent, the current level for all other steel and aluminum imports. The new tariffs will apply to the value of steel content in each import, the notice said.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 14 June 2025

• Google Search is fading. The whole Internet is at risk. The lifeblood of the internet is drying up. What the decline of search means for users, companies, and stocks. Internet search traffic has been falling for much of the past year as web surfers experiment with AI-powered searching. Last month, search referrals to top U.S. travel and tourism sites tumbled 20% year over year, according to the latest data from Similarweb. E-commerce companies saw their referrals fall 9%. For news and media sites, search traffic dropped 17%. The finance, lifestyle, and food-and-drink categories all saw similar types of declines on the month.
  - Barron's, 14 June 2025

• Rents in New York City rise to a record high as the FARE law may send prices higher. The FARE law requires broker fees to be paid by the party who hired the broker, most often the landlord or property management company, rather than the tenant. As a result, the upfront broker fees for most tenants searching for apartments will most likely be passed along in the form of higher rents.
  - Zero Hedge, 13 June 2025

• A federal judge rules that the authoritarian Trump's firings at the Consumer Product Safety Commission are illegal, enabling them to return to their posts. This is the latest district judge to block Trump's efforts to fire Democratic appointees at independent agencies across the federal bureaucracy despite federal law providing them with for-cause removal protections.
  - The Hill, 13 June 2025

• Sales/registrations of new Tesla vehicles declined 16% in April, mirroring plummeting sales in Europe, due to Elon Musk's authoritarian political activities, and new competition
  - Apollo Global's Yahoo Finance, 13 June 2025

• Tesla experiences a delivery decline with its vehicles, as Wells Fargo continues to predict a $120 price target for Tesla (now at $290)
  - Insider Monkey, 13 June 2025

• Two senators propose a ban on drug advertising to consumers. Bernie Sanders and Angus King introduced a proposed law that would ban pharmaceutical manufacturers from using direct-to-consumer advertising, including social media, to promote their products.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 13 June 2025

• Two senators propose a ban on drug advertising to consumers. This will greatly hurt the finance of television networks, with such ads comprising 24 percecnt of all advertising minutes on evening news broadcasts across major networks.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 13 June 2025

• Two senators propose a ban on drug advertising to consumers. This will greatly hurt the finance of television networks, with such ads comprising 24 percecnt of all advertising minutes on evening news broadcasts across major networks.
  - Zero Hedge, 13 June 2025

• Tesco sales rise as market share increases despite tough competition. The UK grocer maintained its full-year expectations after like-for-like sales in its home market rose 5.1%, and edged up 4.1% in central Europe.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 13 June 2025

• New AI advertising tools from Big Tech threaten big advertising agencies. Large companies will eventually follow small ones in using AI to create advertising campaigns - undermining the agencies that have ruled the business for years, analysts say.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 13 June 2025

• The CEO of Chipotle says that non-paid AI has reduce the time to hire new people by 75% by reducing the need for paid-humans to interview prospective new hires
  - Comcast's CNBC, 13 June 2025

• Coinbase introduces its first branded credit card in partnership with American Express
  - Comcast's CNBC, 13 June 2025

• Retail prices for common baby items are rising due to Trump's taxes/tariffs. New parents across the U.S. could collectively pay an additional $875.2 million for key baby products this year, the report found. The analysis tracked the prices of five popular baby gear categories: car seats, bassinets, strollers, high chairs and baby monitors.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 12 June 2025

• Limited price increases in the lastest PPI report shows that companies are paying for some of the added costs of Trump's taxes/tariffs
  - Zero Hedge, 12 June 2025

• Nissan stuns vehicle buyers with new ultra-affordable electric vehicle starting at $16,500 (similar to the cost of BYD's Qin L) - and it is not bare-bones with no flashy smart tech
  - The Cool Down, 12 June 2025

• Shopify partners with Coinbase and Stripe in landmark stablecoin deal
  - Jiaravanon's Fortune, 12 June 2025

• Raids by ICE immigration police have sent Latino shoppers into hiding and big brands are hurting. Coca-Cola and other companies have seen a drop in sales due in part to a pullback by Hispanic consumers.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 12 June 2025

• Thanks to Trump's taxes/tariffs, small retailers in the USA are on a "vacation from hell", as they seek clarity on Trump's taxes/tariffs on imports from Zhōngguó. The big concern is what happens when that three-month agreement of taxes/tariffs at 30% expires in August.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 12 June 2025

• $4,000,000 - A New York financier and his publicly traded firm, Medaalion Financial, that bankrolled loans to taxi drivers were fined $4 million for planting fake news articles online to boost the stock price of the company.
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 11 June 2025

• Treasury Bonds face several risks, not least from stubborn inflation. Longer-term yields will be unable to go down significantly, absent a recession, while inflation remains stubborn and ongoing fiscal risks deter Treasury Bond buyers.
  - Zero Hedge, 11 June 2025

• OpenAI, after years of saying it would not profit from advertising, is considering profiting from advertising. OpenAI will probably join the gang of "surveillance capitalists": an extensive system in which corporations treat our experiences and identities as commodities they can use to manipulate us through advertising.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 11 June 2025

• How Home Depot became ground zero in Trump's deportation efforts. The White House told ICE to target Home Depot, disrupting the company's symbiotic relationship with the day laborers outside its stores.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 11 June 2025

• The authoritarian Elon Musk and Twitter/X CEO Linda Yaccarino launched a campaign to strong-arm advertisers back onto the platform - give us your business or we will sue
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 11 June 2025

• If Republicans reduce Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program by $300 billion through 2034, retail store chains will be affected. Goldman Sachs' retail desk found that SNAP dependency across major retail chains is very alarming and clear, with Dollar General (DG) and Dollar Tree (DLTR) most exposed if SNAP reductions are seen. Many of the SNAP-dependend stores are located in Republican states that put in office the people eliminating the SNAP support.
  - Zero Hedge, 10 June 2025

• Wine and spirits distributor Republic National Distributing Company is leaving the California market. RNDC cited increasing costs and losing distribution deals to a competitor, Reyes Beverage Group.
  - Zero Hedge, 10 June 2025

• A survey done by UBS finds that there will be "little growth" in smartphone units "over next few years"
  - Zero Hedge, 10 June 2025

• Redburn Atlantic analyst Edward Lewis became the first in recent memory to downgrade McDonald's, cutting the stock from "Buy" to "Sell" on the premise that GLP-1 weight-loss drugs will suppress consumer appetites.
  - Zero Hedge, 10 June 2025

• The retail tactic in Zhōngguó of selling brand new cars as heavily discounted second-hand vehicles to get rid of inventory should be ended, the official newspaper of the Communist Party of Zhōngguó stated in an article on Tuesday. "This disguised form of price cutting disrupts normal market order and is a striking example of the auto industry's 'involution'.", the People's Daily said, using a term popular in Zhōngguó that describes a race to the bottom driven by excessive competition.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 10 June 2025

• News sites are getting crushed by Google'e new AI tools. Chatbots are replacing Google's traditional search results, devastating traffic for some publishers - [KM: rich AI companies getting richer once again].
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 10 June 2025

• At $3,000 a night, luxury farm resorts are the next glamorous getaway
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 10 June 2025

• The coffee retail giants of Zhōngguó, such as Luckin Coffee and Cotti, are preparing an expansion into the USA. Coffee chains in Zhōngguó combine budget pricing with unusual flavors that often blur the line between coffee and bubble tea.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 10 June 2025

• Solar panel manufacturers in Zhōngguó seek an antidote to market ills as glut, price war, taxes/tariffs bite. Market players should aim for technological innovation, enabling higher profit margins and sustainable growth, GCL founder Zhu says.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 10 June 2025

• Shares of Apple drop 1% as it gives a presentation at an Internet conference, and as UBS warns on declining iPhone demand
  - Zero Hedge, 09 June 2025

• Tether's USDT stablecoin is seen on retail pricetags in Bolivia
  - Zero Hedge, 09 June 2025

• The Federal Reserve is very worried about Trump's taxes/tariffs being added to the prices of consumer products, fueling inflation
  - Zero Hedge, 09 June 2025

• Walmart is using its own fintech firm, OnePay, to provide credit cards after dumping Capital One. OnePay is partnering with Synchrony, a major behind-the-scenes player in retail cards, which will issue the cards and handle underwriting decisions starting in the fall.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 09 June 2025

• Car dealerships are replacing paid-human phone call agents, with non-paid AI voice agents
  - Futurism, 08 June 2025

• Make it make sense: why are we punishing the farmers doing the right thing? Why is it that the organic apple must wear a label, pay a certification fee, and carry a price premium... while the conventional apple, grown with chemical fertilizers and synthetic pesticides, is simply called an apple?
  - Zero Hedge, 08 June 2025

• Who is paying for Trump's taxes/tariffs? Consumers are, according to businesses. Some companies are passing the full cost of Trump's taxes/tariffs onto customers, while others are paying some of the costs themselves.
  - Investopedia, 08 June 2025

• Farmers in Florida are destroying perfectly good fields of tomatoes, due to Trump's anti-immigrant policies that hurt farmers who rely on immigrants to pick produce (something that Trump's racist MAGA supporters do not want to do). About 50% of farm workers in the USA are undocumented migrants. As Trump's administration proceeds with mass deportations of undocumented migrants, there are far fewer pickers in the fields, and crops are left to go bad.
  - Moneywise, 08 June 2025

• Book review: "Little Bosses Everywhere: How the Pyramid Scheme Shaped America" - which exposes the criminal deceptions of direct-selling companies that make their profit not off customers but off their own sales force
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 08 June 2025

• The city of Shenzhen, a technology hub in Zhōngguó, launches plan to support consumption, exporters amid Trump's trade war. Shenzhen aims to boost the spending power of residents, leverage strengths in AI, and extend more consumer subsidies as part of 39-point strategy.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 08 June 2025

• Microplastics from biodegradable material may be linked to diabetes, study finds. Polylactic acid - used in food packaging, disposable tableware and clothing - found to alter gut metabolism and harm gut barrier of mice.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 08 June 2025

• Consumer debt surges in April, as student debt soars. Consumer credit growth more than doubled, from a revised $8.6 billion to $17.9 billion, the single biggest monthly increase of 2025 and the second highest going back to November 2023.
  - Zero Hedge, 07 June 2025

• In Uji, Nihon, the historic capital for matcha tea, demand for premium green tea is outpacing supply. As tourists scramble for tins, locals fear that tradition may be getting diluted. In 2023, 4176 tons of matcha were produced in Nihon - yet not enough for all of the global demand.
  - BBC, 07 June 2025

• Dollar stores are seeing higher-income shoppers rush in the door. It is a warning sign for the economy of the USA.
  - Apollo Global's Yahoo Finance, 07 June 2025

• $705,000 - A New Jersey couple admitted their Sayreville strip club was a hotbed of prostitution as part of a plea deal with prosecutors. Doreen and Anthony Acciardi, of Freehold, will pay $705,000 in unpaid taxes and avoid jail, authorities said.
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 07 June 2025

• How the Cybertruck came to embody all of the problems of Tesla. The electric pickup was supposed to create a halo effect for the brand, but the Cybertruck's (and Musk's) reputation has been tarnished by Musk's politics, and by production snafus.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 07 June 2025

• The tax/tariff trade way of the Grinch-y Trump will result in fewer, more expensive, dolls for children in the USA. Toy makers are raising prices and are cautious about producing more amid uncertainty over whether Trump's taxes/tariffs on Zhōngguó imports will increase again.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 07 June 2025

• Because of Trump's insulting politicl and economic attacks on foreign countries, such as Canada, fewer foreign tourists are visiting New York City. Businesses in the city are being financially hurt. Spending by international travelers to the United States is expected to be down $12.5 billion this year, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 07 June 2025

• What the pizza economy of the USA is indicating about the overall economy. Higher-end pizzas are still selling, but for lower-income consumers even frozen pizza is becoming a luxury.
  - Bloomberg, 06 June 2025

• $205,000 - Timber Cannabis, a chain of 7 marijuana stores in Michigan, will pay $205.,000 to settle a workers' lawsuit alleging that management was keeping tips left by happy customers
  - Disney's ABC News, 06 June 2025

• Lovers of Lululemon's products are furious as Trump's taxes/tariffs threathen to drive prices even higher amid a stock plunge. "We experienced lower store traffic in the Americas, partially reflective of economic uncertainty, inflationary pressures, lower consumer confidence, and changes in discretionary spending." - that is, consumers don't want to pay $128 on sweatpants (leggings).
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 06 June 2025

• The central bank of Bharat shocks markets with the biggest interest rate reduction since Covid pandemic as growth and inflation stall. The Reserve Bank of Bharat surprisingly cut the repo rate by 0.5% (double the expected 0.25%) to 5.50%, and in a surprise move, also shifted its stance from accommodative to neutral.
  - Zero Hedge, 06 June 2025

• AI surveillance will not stop theft, but AI surveillance might stop unions. The loss prevention industry is excited about using technology to combat shoplifting. But workers are getting caught up in the dragnet.
  - The American Prospect, 06 June 2025

• Trump, not understand business economics, orders coal and natural gas plants to continue operating, despite their owners wanting to close the power generation facilities - do not go bankrupt. The grid operators that buy electric power from the plants said they never asked for them to remain open, and consumers may have to absorb the extra costs (on top of the extra costs from Trump's taxes/tariffs).
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 06 June 2025

• Trump, not understand business economics, orders coal and natural gas plants to continue operating, despite their owners wanting to close the power generation facilities - do not go bankrupt. The grid operators that buy electric power from the plants said they never asked for them to remain open, and consumers may have to absorb the extra costs (on top of the extra costs from Trump's taxes/tariffs).
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 06 June 2025

• Foreign buyers are fleeing the condo market in south Florida. Sales to international buyers fell to 10 percent of transactions last year, a steep decline from 50 percent in 2018.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 06 June 2025

• Used vehicle prices ease from tariff fear-buying highs but remain elevated
  - Comcast's CNBC, 06 June 2025

• Gold discounts in Bharat widened this week to their highest levels in more than a month, as a rally in domestic prices to near-record highs weighed on demand, while elevated rates also dampened buying across other major Asian hubs. The spike in prices forced Indian dealers to offer discounts of up to $56 an ounce below official domestic prices, which include a 6% import duty and 3% sales tax, up from $31 last week.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 05 June 2025

• Shares of Lululemon plummet 20% after slashing guidance
  - Zero Hedge, 05 June 2025

• Disney says that its theme parks generate $67 billion in annual economic impact in the USA
  - Comcast's CNBC, 05 June 2025

• Back in 2012, Gerard Comeau, a power utility lineman, slipped back into his home province of New Brunswick in his Honda Accord with a trunk full of cheap beer bought in Quebec. The police stopped him, confiscated the beer and fined him for bringing too much of it into New Brunswick. His arrest raised many questions. Didn't Canada's founding Constitution Act guarantee free trade across the land? Why were there so many barriers inside Canada, with each province and territory acting like fiefdoms? Why was it easier for a brewery in Quebec to export to France than to neighboring New Brunswick? Was Canada even a real country? Because of his arrest, and fight for justice, trade barriers across Canada are being eliminated.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 05 June 2025

• People in Deutschland are buying more electric vehicles, but not from Tesla. Tesla's sales have been hurt by protests against Elon Musk's support for Trump and several racist far-right politcal parties in France, Deutschland and Italy.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 05 June 2025

• Brown-Forman, the parent of alcohol drug-trafficker Jack Daniels, is having its sales hurt by weight-loss drugs and marijuana. Its latest earnings decline sent its stock price down 17%.
  - Murdoch's MarketWatch, 05 June 2025

• Brown-Forman, the parent of alcohol drug-trafficker Jack Daniels, is having its sales hurt by weight-loss drugs and marijuana. Its latest earnings decline sent its stock price down 17%.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 05 June 2025

• Supersonic travel in airplanes may soon return to the USA. But there is a big problem - will busines travelers be willing to pay a lot more money for tickets to fly on the fuel-guzzling expensive airplanes?
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 05 June 2025

• Shein and Temyu see demand plummet in the USA for their low cost products, after Trump closed the 'de minimis' loophole for reduced taxes/tariffs/paperworks on imports into the USA of low cost products
  - Comcast's CNBC, 05 June 2025

• The city of Los Angeles passes a new law requiring a $30 minimum wage for people working at hotels and airports
  - Zero Hedge, 04 June 2025

• Electricity prices are surging in the USA. The Rapublican proposed tax/spending law could push electricity prices higer. The combination of a data center boom, rising gas exports and reductions of clean energy tax breaks could increase energy costs for people in the USA
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 04 June 2025

• Eurozone inflation falls below target level. Consumer prices were 1.9% higher on year in May, down from 2.2% in April, as the ECB moves closer to securing victory over inflation.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 04 June 2025

• Automobile dealers in Zhōngguó requested that automakers to stop offloading too many cars on dealerships, as intense price wars are pressuring their cash flow, driving down their profitability and forcing some to shut.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 04 June 2025

• Inside the thriving wild-animal markets (for example, pangolin) that could start the next pandemic, an industry worth hundreds of billions of dollars a year. Live-animal markets are a natural laboratory for viruses to evolve and spark deadly outbreaks, yet scientists lack support to study the risks they pose.
  - Nature, 03 June 2025

• Consumers are financing their groceries. What does that say about the dangerous state of the consumer-driven economy of the USA? Increased use of dangerous "buy now pay later" loans signals shifting consumer habits, but could also be a troubling sign of financial stress.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 03 June 2025

• $373,000,000 - The European Union fines Delivery Hero and Glovo a total of $373 millino in a criminal cartel investigation. Both companies admitted their involvement in the cartel and agreed to settle, the commission said, ultimately leading to a lowered fine.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 03 June 2025

• Dollar General is reasonably managing the effects of Trump's taxes/tariffs, and winning over higher-income consumers
  - Comcast's CNBC, 03 June 2025

• Nearly half of the $700 billion in homes for sale have gone 'stale' as sellers outnumber buyers by 500,000
  - Zero Hedge, 02 June 2025

• The Atlanta Fed increases its growth outlook for USA GDP in Q2 to the highest since 2021
  - Zero Hedge, 02 June 2025

• Manufacturing surveys in the USA mixed in May, as imports collapse due to Trump's tax/tariff trade war, with prices paid at 3 year highs
  - Zero Hedge, 02 June 2025

• Manufacturing surveys in the USA mixed in May, as imports collapse due to Trump's tax/tariff trade war, with prices paid at 3 year highs
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 02 June 2025

• Gen Z doesn't want to start a bar tab. To the chagrin of bartenders, many 20-something bargoers prefer to close out and pay after every single drink, no matter how many they might order during an outing.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 02 June 2025

• A 355-year-old company that once owned one-third of Canada is shutting down. Bargain hunters picked over what was left at the remaining stores of the Hudson Bay Company, part of a vast empire that was the oldest corporation in North America.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 02 June 2025

• Airlines and airplane makers oppose a crackdown on credit card fees charged by Visa and Mastercard, that could imperil their free flight offers. They argue that the proposed law could force them to stop offering rewards credit cards that give consumers frequent flyer miles for making transactions.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 02 June 2025

• It is summer vacation time. But tourists are saying "no" to visiting the USA. Overseas travelers are demonstrating their ire at Trump's attacks on their countries by taking their tourism dollars elsewhere, another way Trump is hurting businesses in the USA.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 02 June 2025

• Mars will remove titanium dioxide from its Skittles candies. Titanium dioxide may cause problems for the human body.
  - Zero Hedge, 01 June 2025

• How Trump's regulatory rollbacks are increasing costs for people in the USA. A new DOGE tally claims/lies that eliminating rules on credit card fees, appliance standards and health insurance "saves the American people" money. Data show the opposite - that the claims of Musk's DOGE are "thou shalt not" lies as prices increase.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 01 June 2025

• Tony Xu, the CEO of DoorDash, is taking on the role of industry consolidator in food delivery
  - Comcast's CNBC, 01 June 2025

• VIDEO: what the rise in crime in Costa Rica means for tourists seeking 'pura vida'
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 01 June 2025

• Howler monkeys in Costa Rica are facing a growing threat from bot fly larvae infestations, and new research points to tourism and land use changes as key drivers. The bot fly larvae burrow under the skin of howler monkeys, creating painful nodules that can lead to infections and weaken the animals. The study suggests that stress from constant human presence, noise, and habitat disruption weakens their immune systems, making them more susceptible to parasites.
  - Tico Times, 31 May 2025

• Southwest sells soul to hedge funds. Starting in June, it will charge $35 for the first checked bag and $45 for the second. Previously, Southwest had a longstanding policy of allowing all passengers two free checked bags, but it finally caved in to pressure from a Florida-headquartered hedge fund that has been buying up the Southwest's stock and has demanded many changes at the airline to increase revenue and profitability.
  - SF Gate, 31 May 2025

• A sharp increase in steel/aluminum taxes/tariffs to 50% by Trump could imperil Trump's promise of lower grocery prices, since steel and aluminum are ubiquitous in packaging of consumer products
  - Comcast's CNBC, 31 May 2025

• As cocoa prices surge, consumption of chocolate in Europe is proving more resilient than consumption in the USA.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 31 May 2025

• Target at the tipping point. It is n a dicey place, plagued by empty shelves, skimpy staff, and messy stores. It is time for drastic action.
  - Barron's, 31 May 2025

• $66,000,000+ - The Agricultural Department and Justice Department have arrested 6 people for stealing more than $66 million in taxpayer food stamp funds, a bribe and fraud scheme that generated more than $66 million in unauthorized transactions under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
  - Murdoch's Fox News, 30 May 2025

• Despite tax/tariff-flation fearmongering, the Fed's favorite inflation indicator declines to four-year low
  - Zero Hedge, 30 May 2025

• Women-hating in Europe: in many countries, women pay high tax rates on period supplies like pads and tampons as if they were luxury goods. Denmark and Sweden tax tampons at 25%, and Greece at 24%.
  - Zero Hedge, 30 May 2025

• Starbucks is changing one of the most generous parts of its loyalty program. Beginning June 24, the coffee chain is eliminating the 25-star bonus for customers that bring in a personal, reusable cup for drink orders. Moving forward, they will instead earn double stars on their entire order, a Starbucks spokesperson confirmed, which might result in fewer stars to earn free drinks and food. Starbucks is trying to increase profit margins.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 30 May 2025

• Shares of Gap fall more than 15% in after-hours trading, after the company reported that Trump's taxes/tariffs could cause it to lose $100 million to $150 million in profits.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 30 May 2025

• Retail giants in the USA, such as Walmart, are pushing suppliers in Zhōngguó to pay up to 66% of costs due to Trump's taxes/tariffs. American retailers - under pressure from Trump to "eat the tariffs" - are now demanding that producers in Zhōngguó split the cost of the import taxes.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 30 May 2025

• Non-alcoholic beer projected to overtake alcoholic ale as the second-largest beer category worldwide this year, behind alcoholic lager beer
  - Comcast's CNBC, 29 May 2025

• Hyundai is considering a 1% price increase on its vehicles sold in the USA, to counter Trump's taxes/tariffs. The South Korean automaker is also likely to raise charges on shipping and fees for options such as floor mats and roof rails in a move that would help it avoid further raising the base price of its vehicles.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 29 May 2025

• A price "race to the bottom": BYD is slashing prices to prompt a consolidation of the electric vehicle market in Zhōngguó
  - Zero Hedge, 29 May 2025

• The Fed is "well positioned" to wait on interest rate reductions even as economic risks rise, meeting-minutes show. Officials at the Federal Reserve have adopted a wait-and-see approach to policy moves amid extreme uncertainty about the economic outlook.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 29 May 2025

• Macy's to manage its finances in light of Trump's taxes/tariffs with some price raises, and supply chain changes. MAcy's cut its full-year earnings guidance to account for global tariffs and some moderation in consumer spending, but reported a smaller decline in sales than expected for the spring quarter.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 29 May 2025

• Airlines in the USA are quietly charging higher fares for solo and business travelers. For example, buy a solo one-way ticket from Chicago to Peoria on United, the cost is $269 for one person. For two or more people, the cost is $181.
  - Traveler.com, 29 May 2025

• Luxury brands (such as Chanel, Christian Dior, LVMH) are hurting financially for their over-the-top price increases. Companies that raised prices the most during the Covid pandemic are now reporting disappointing numbers.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 28 May 2025

• Home values are dropping in 27 of 50 states in the USA as the housing market shifts amid continuing high interest rates, according to data from Zillow
  - Benzinga, 28 May 2025

• First-time home buyers downsize amid tight supply, high interest rates. Newly built homes have been getting smaller since the a trend home builders have been leaning into to entice buyers and alleviate costspandemic.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 28 May 2025

• Abercrombie & Fitch soars 27% even as retailer slashes profit outlook due to Trump's taxes/tariffs, which it expects will cause a loss of $50 million
  - Comcast's CNBC, 28 May 2025

• Fewer international tourists are visiting the USA - thanks to the global hostility that Trump has caused with his insults and tax/tariff trade war - and the resulting economic losses for businesses in the USA could be "staggering". Spending among international visitors to the U.S. is poised to fall $8.5 billion this year, according to Oxford Economics. The World Travel & Tourism Council said this month it expects the USA economy to lose a "staggering" $12.5 billion in spending from international visitors in 2025.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 28 May 2025

• With its family-friendly bulk packages, high-quality Kirkland store brand, and, more recently, competitively priced gold and silver bars, Costco has always taken care of its customers. So its introduction of yet another way to accumulate ruinous debt, "buy now pay later" plans, feels like a betrayal. Costco's 'buy now, pay later' plan charges up to 36% interest for up to 36 months. So it is not credit card adjacent; it is actually much worse than a typical high-tech-loan-shark credit card. As for Costco itself, this attempt to turn customers into debt slaves has a desperate feel. Could revenue trends be signaling a recession?
  - John Rubino Substack, 27 May 2025

• More than 4% of Americans are taking the blockbuster class of GLP-1 drugs for overweight or obesity, up nearly 600% over six years.
  - Axios, 27 May 2025

• A major hack exposes usernames and passwords to over 184 million Apple and Google accounts
  - The Daily Mail, 27 May 2025

• Home prices in the USA dropped in March for the first time in over 2 years, down a modest -0.12% month-to-month.
  - Zero Hedge, 27 May 2025

• The European Commission has warned e-retailer Shein, based in Zhōngguó, to stop cheating its customers, after finding several practices on its website breach local consumer law. The EU accuses Shein of the following law violations: fake discounts, pressure selling, incorrect returns/refunds information, deceptive product labels, misleading sustainability claims, and hidden contract details.
  - The Register, 27 May 2025

• Trump's taxes/tariffs on imports from Zhōngguó are having a "massive impact" on small business in the USA. For example, a small Vermont business that sells water bottles used by cyclists and others is struggling to adapt to Trump's taxes/tariffs even after they were temporarily lowered.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 27 May 2025

• Zhōngguó seeks to have consumers boost economic growth, but households are wary. Beijing has offered incentives to prod shoppers to spend more, but leader Xi Jinping is reluctant to push a bigger shift away from manufacturing.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 27 May 2025

• Trump's tax/tariff trade war with Zhōngguó is hurting the economy of ports in southern California. Declining shipments financially hurt dockworkers, truckers and Big Nick's Pizza.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 27 May 2025

• Trump's taxes/tariffs are forcing up the price of used-cars and increasing the sales of user cars. Demand for the vehicles is rising as prices climb and supplies shrink on dealer lots.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 27 May 2025

• Warning signs for Tesla: the new Model Y electric vehicle struggles to find buyers, with many Model Ys sitting untouched on dealership lots across the country. Sales of competing EVs from rivals like Ford, Hyundai, and even upstarts like Rivian and BYD have surged, while Tesla's sales have declined.
  - Mens Journal, 27 May 2025

• Sales of Tesla vehicles have dropped by more than 50% in Europe, even as the size of the EV market has grown in Europe. Car buyers are disgusted with Musk's suporting for racist far-right political candidates in Europe, his support of the authoritarian Trump's hostile attacks on Europe, and that EV companies from Zhōngguó such as BYD are outcompeting Tesla.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 27 May 2025

• Sales of Tesla vehicles have dropped by more than 50% in Europe, even as the size of the EV market has grown in Europe. Car buyers are disgusted with Musk's support for racist far-right political candidates in Europe, his support of the authoritarian Trump's hostile attacks on Europe, and that EV companies from Zhōngguó such as BYD are outcompeting Tesla.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 27 May 2025

• Beer drinkers beware: scientists find oil-derived 'forever chemicals' exceeding EPA limits in American beers. Through their research, it was found that beer brewed in North Carolina, California, and Michigan had elevated levels of these PFAS chemicals.
  - Murdoch's Fox News, 26 May 2025

• Alibaba's addictive new Taobao Instant Commerce portal acquires more than 40 million daily orders.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 26 May 2025

• Walmart, Costco and even Dollar general are entering the business of selling gasoline
  - Quartz, 26 May 2025

• Walmart to open 45 gasoline stations, in bid to compete with Costco. Costco is responding by extending fuel station hours - most now open until 10 p.m. - to strengthen member loyalty as EV adoption remains slow.
  - Zero Hedge, 26 May 2025

• Southwest Airlines will start charging many passengers for checked bags on Wednesday. Travelers with Southwest credit cards or who book in the highest classes of service can still check bags without paying a fee.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 26 May 2025

• The huge depreciation on Tesla's Cybertruck is mindblowingly bad. Estimates reflect as much as a 35% drop in value after only about a year. Typically, anything more than 15% in the first year is considered significant depreciation for a new vehicle.
  - AutoBlog, 25 May 2025

• Scott Galloway, a prominent marketing professor at New York University, said that Elon Musk's government-destroying efforts with Trump and DOGE outraged so many consumers that it fueled "one of the greatest brand destructions" of all times
  - Business Insider, 25 May 2025

• Tesla scrambles to increase sales of its vehicles, as new vehicle models reportedly site untouched on lots nationwide. In most of the world, there is little to no wait time to get a Model Y at the moment, and Tesla is offering 0% financing on them. Given that the Model Y has only been out since January, analysts say that offering those kinds of financing deals on them is a bad sign.
  - The Cool Down, 25 May 2025

• Tesla customers are shocked after uncovering truth about 'new' vehicles they purchased -- and it is part of a discouraging trend. Tesla customers have serious concerns about receiving vehicles that have deteriorated from months of outdoor storage. Buyers who receive vehicles that were stored outdoors for months face potential quality and reliability issues. Electric vehicles suffer particular risks during extended storage, including battery degradation from temperature fluctuations, reduced charge capacity, moisture damage from inadequate ventilation, and possible rust formation.
  - The Cool Down, 25 May 2025

• A new report from the Agriculture Department describes the crisis with the cattle industry in the USA, which will not recover soon. The report showed that the number of cattle fattening on grain at large commercial feedlots declined to the lowest seasonal level since 2020, while cold storage supplies of beef fell to 418 million pounds in April - the lowest for this time of year since 2014, according to Bloomberg. The cattle shortage, plus new developments of U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins shutting down live cattle, horse, and bison imports from southern border land ports, have sent Chicago cattle futures soaring to new heights. The Health Secretary and consumers seeking healthier foods (which isn't meat from cattle fed growth hormones) doesn't help.
  - Zero Hedge, 25 May 2025

• $67 in France and $798 in the USA - why prescription drug prices are so high in the USA. One answer is that other governments leverage the power of their national health plans to control pricing, while the United States lacks a comprehensive national prescription drug strategy. Drug companies argue that this causes shortages for some drugs, and make other drugs harder to obtain.
  - Zero Hedge, 25 May 2025

• 'Lilo & Stitch': how a fuzzy blue alien became very profitable for Disney. In recent years, Stitch has quietly become one of the most popular - and most merchandised -- animated characters for Disney.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 25 May 2025

• How a sneaker company in Switzerland, On, is challenging Nike and Adidas
  - Comcast's CNBC, 24 May 2025

• Beef prices set records last month at grocery stores in the USA, and economists expect they will climb further as demand increases during the summer grilling season that traditionally begins with cookouts on Memorial Day on Monday. Ground chuck prices in April reached a record $6 per pound, up 14% from a year ago, after farmers slashed their cattle herds to a 74-year low due to a years-long drought that reduced grazing lands.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 24 May 2025

• McDonald's is ending its CocMc's spinoff just two years after the alien-themed spinoff was launched. CosMc's menu consisted of sweet drinks and light snacks, with the company hoping customers would visit during their afternoon slump. A spinoff was launched because executives thought the customizable drinks would be too much of a strain on its McDonald's employees, but fewer people customized their drinks than the company thought.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 24 May 2025

• McDonald's is ending its CocMc's spinoff just two years after the alien-themed spinoff was launched. CosMc's menu consisted of sweet drinks and light snacks, with the company hoping customers would visit during their afternoon slump. A spinoff was launched because executives thought the customizable drinks would be too much of a strain on its McDonald's employees, but fewer people customized their drinks than the company thought.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 24 May 2025

• How the obsession of people in the USA with staying hydrated became a $1.5 billion a year business. Useful for athletes to restore their electrolytes, less useful to most people. One nutritionist is skeptical that dehydration is a common problem for people with unrestricted water access and that people being "chronically dehydrated is probably an overstatement".
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 24 May 2025

• C15:O, a recently new essential fatty acid good for longevity. Grass-fed cheese is a good source of the fatty acid, combined with fiber, is very nutritious. Pecorino, a hard Italian cheese, is also a good source of C15:O.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 24 May 2025

• Home sellers are dropping prices, but buyers are still not buying. What could change that.
  - Barron's, 23 May 2025

• The retail price for regular-grade gasoline in the United States on May 19, the Monday before Memorial Day weekend, averaged $3.17 per gallon (gal), 11% (or 41 cents/gal) lower than the price a year ago
  - Zero Hedge, 23 May 2025

• Wells Fargo warns that Trump's taxes/tariffs will not greatly increase manufacturing jobs in the USA, which will need a minimum $2.9 trillion investment to regain their peak levels of manufacturing jobs
  - Jiaravanon's Fortune, 23 May 2025

• Retailers in the USA will not accept Trump's "eat the taxes/tariffs" demand for much longer, before increasing prices of their products. These are public companies that have a fiduciary responsibility to shareholders, and if they can't pass along costs they will begin firing people. The hypocrisy of Trump: Tump Incorporated for decades has never "eaten a cost" when it came to his business profits.
  - MNPY, 23 May 2025

• The AI middleman expanding in the consumer-bond exploitation. Pagaya is helping lenders such as 'buy now pay later' Klarna expand, by financing risker loans
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 23 May 2025

• More consumers in the USA are "buying now, paying ... never", a new warning sign for the economy. 41% of BNPL users said they paid late on one of their loans in the past year, up from 34% one year ago.
  - Apollo Global's Yahoo Finance, 23 May 2025

• The department store chain Dillard's sued Wells Fargo on Thursday, saying the bank repeatedly breached a since-abandoned co-branded credit card relationship, causing tens of millions of dollars in losses.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 22 May 2025

• Broadcom has upped VMware licensing costs by between eight to 15 times since it took over the organization, and a lack of alternatives in the tech industry means trade and end customers have no choice but to pay the huge increases in prices. A report by a European consumer watchdog predicts end of perpetual licenses, death of monthly pay-as-you-go model, and "punitive" changes by Broadcom.
  - The Register, 22 May 2025

• Existing home sales in the USA are weakest since the great Financial Crisis of 2008
  - Zero Hedge, 22 May 2025

• Nike to start selling its products directly on the USA website of Amazon
  - Associated Press, 22 May 2025

• Adidas and Puma expected to increase prices of its sportswear products, as Nike has already announced, in response to Trump's taxes/tariffs
  - Thomson's Reuters, 22 May 2025

• Liquidity in the market for government bonds in Nihon is deteriorating as heightened inflation expectations become entrenched
  - Zero Hedge, 22 May 2025

• Investors have been rattled by rising yields for USA Treasury Bonds. They should be more worried about rising government bond yields in Nihon.
  - Murdoch's MarketWatch, 22 May 2025

• Yields on 20-, 30-, and 40-year government bonds in Nihon have been climbing, fuelled by growing concerns over the worsening fiscal health in Nihon, as some political parties advocate for consumption tax reductions to counter rising prices (too eerily similar to the problems of the USA). The 30-year JGB yield rose 1 basis point to 3.175%, hovering near an all-time high of 3.185% hit on Wednesday. The 40-year yield slid half a basis point to 3.665%, edging lower from the record 3.675% touched on Thursday.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 22 May 2025

• Core inflation in Nihon increases to 3.5%, highest in more than 2 years, due in part to surging prices for rice, as the central bank considers pausing its rate hike posture to assess the impact of Trump's taxes/tariffs
  - Comcast's CNBC, 22 May 2025

• $400,000,000 - Incompetent management at Marks & Spencer, one of the largest retailers in the UK, have lost about $400 million in corporate profits to repair costly disruptions from a cyberattack that crippled its operations last month (which will last until July)
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 22 May 2025

• Trump's taxes/tariffs mean electoral defeat for Republicans. The debacle of 1932 is the most famous example, but Republican losses span the period 1842 through 2020.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 22 May 2025

• Walmart to fire 1500 people in corporate jobs in a reorganization aimed at trimming its expenses and speeding up decision-making
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 22 May 2025

• Inventory of the Tesla's cybertruck has surpassed 10,000 in the USA, an alarming level of inventory that raises a lot of questions about how well it is accepted in the truck market
  - The Cool Down, 21 May 2025

• Frugality rules as people in the USA start making the most of constrained finances in a hand-me-down market. Thrift stores and consignment shops are an alternative to buying new as import tariffs loom and price hikes look set to bite.
  - Zero Hedge, 21 May 2025

• Nike is the most favorite apparel brand in the USA, followed by Adidas, Calvin Klein, Levis and Ralph Lauren
  - Zero Hedge, 21 May 2025

• Why Congress is, and should, protect the non-profit status of the 4,500 credit unions in the USA. Credit unions provided members over $27 billion in direct financial benefits last year. That figure rises to $38 billion for all consumers, who see the benefit from banks trying to match credit unions' interest rates. This makes the credit union tax status one of the best investments the U.S. government makes, with a roughly 1,200 percent annual rate of return. Removing the exemption would have cost the federal government $33 billion in lost income tax revenue over the next 10 years. GDP would have been reduced by $266 billion, and 822,000 jobs would have been lost over the next decade. Congress should reject all donations/bribes from Big Banks to eliminate the credit union's non-for-profit status.
  - Real Clear Policy, 21 May 2025

• Kowtowing to Trump's anti-equality and anti-diversity campaign, Target's sales fall 3.8% year-to-year in the latest quarter, due to boycotts of the store by shoppers unhappy with Target's cowardice
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 21 May 2025

• $2,300,000 - Dior to pay $2.3 million help victims of labor exploitations after an investigation in Italy. Last year prosecutors in Milan uncovered workshops where underpaid workers, often immigrants who were in the country illegally, produced leather bags then sold to Dior and Armani for a tiny fraction of their retail price.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 21 May 2025

• $83,000,000 - Department of Justice officials on Tuesday charged members or associates of an Armenian organized crime ring with stealing more than $83 million worth of cargo from Amazon by posing as legitimate truck drivers and siphoning off goods destined for the warehouses of Amazon.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 21 May 2025

• Tesla is now accepting Cybertruck trade-ins. 2 owners showed us how much their vehicles have depreciated - down over 35% in one year. Typical new cars decline 30% in two years.
  - Business Insider, 21 May 2025

• The theme park capital of Zhōngguó in a "stage of rapid growth" as foreign capital invests. From Peppa Pig to Lego, Shanghai leads the way in attracting global amusement parks -- a sector free from trade tensions, analysts say.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 21 May 2025

• Gold prices continue to rise as buying in Zhōngguó returns
  - Zero Hedge, 20 May 2025

• AI systems are predicted to consume electricity equivalent to 22% of the homes in the USA by 2028 - mostly wasted energy to generate AI porn, slop and videos
  - Technology Review, 20 May 2025

• Kraft Heinz looking at M&A opportunities as packaged foods demand slows
  - Thomson's Reuters, 20 May 2025

• Only 25% of sunscreens on store shelves in the USA deliver safe and effective protection against the harmful rays of the sun, according to an annual report which analyzed more than 2,200 sunscreens available for purchase in 2025.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 20 May 2025

• Shares of Warby Parker surged 15% after Google announced a smart glasses partnership on Tuesday. Google has committed up to $150 million as part of the agreement.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 20 May 2025

• In an absolute shocker - if you a financial idiot - Klarna, the Swedish financial technology firm known for its 'buy now, pay later' scheme, reported a sharp increase in losses for the first quarter, driven by a rise in consumer defaults and economic unease in the USA.
  - Zero Hedge, 20 May 2025

• Over 50% of companies in the USA plan to raise the prices of their products, in response to Trump's tax/tariff trade war. These companies are unwilling to absorb the costs of taxes/tariffs despite pressure from Trump, according to new research.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 20 May 2025

• Home Depot plans to keep prices steady despite tariffs. The retailer has been pushing suppliers to shift production out of Zhōngguó and keep prices low.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 20 May 2025

• Ryanair posts earnings decline as costs rise, fares fall. The drop in earnings was in line with analysts' expectations, as passengers paid 7% lower average fares while operating costs increased 9%.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 20 May 2025

• Levi Strauss to sell Dockers to brand management firm Authentic Brands Group for $311 million
  - Comcast's CNBC, 20 May 2025

• Tourism in Costa Rica flounders between insecurity and overpricing. Local merchants lament high prices, coupled with a low exchange rate, which leaves them with less income, even though they must continue buying products at the same price.
  - Q Costa Rica, 19 May 2025

• The 'hunger' of AI data centers for more electric power could raise the electric bills for everyone. Individuals and small businesses may end up bearing some of the cost of grid upgrades needed for rich AI companies and their much-socially useless AI systems.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 19 May 2025

• $425,000,000 - Capital One to pay $425 million to settle suits over savings accounts. Depositors said the bank cheated them out of higher interest rates. As part of the settlement, the bank admitted no wrongdoing and agreed to make up for lost interest earnings.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 19 May 2025

• College towns in the USA go from boom to bust. Many state universities are losing more students every year, failing the local economies they once fostered.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 19 May 2025

• Españna orders Airbnb to block nearly 66,000 holiday rental listings over rule violations
  - Associated Press, 19 May 2025

• Trump's taxes/tariffs on imports from Zhōngguó are no longer 1455, but for some small businesses in the crossfire, "it is still awful" with taxes/tariffs at 30% (and only for 90 days)
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 19 May 2025

• Trump lowered taxes/tariffs on imports from Zhōngguó. Here is why that will not spare Americans from price hikes and shortages.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 19 May 2025

• The UK and European Union agree to a post-Brexit reset deal. The UK-EU deal will make it easier for British food and drink to be imported and exported as it reduces red tape for businesses. he two sides also agreed on a new partnership paving the way for the U.K. defense industry to participate in the EU's proposed new $200 billion defense fund. This new deal also extends fishing rights for EU trawlers in U.K. waters until 2038 and British holidaymakers will be allowed to use more 'eGattes' in EU airports.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 19 May 2025

• The UK and European Union agree to a post-Brexit reset deal. The UK-EU deal will make it easier for British food and drink to be imported and exported as it reduces red tape for businesses. he two sides also agreed on a new partnership paving the way for the U.K. defense industry to participate in the EU's proposed new $200 billion defense fund. This new deal also extends fishing rights for EU trawlers in U.K. waters until 2038 and British holidaymakers will be allowed to use more 'eGattes' in EU airports.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 19 May 2025

• Shoppers at Kroger-owned stores may be unknowingly paying more at checkout due to pricing errors, according to a Consumer Reports investigation with The Guardian and the Food and Environment Reporting Network. Consumers Report ecruited shoppers to check 26 Kroger-owned stores in 14 states and D.C., finding overcharges averaging $1.70 per sale item, or 18.4% more. An internal Kroger audit found nearly 6% of items had wrong tags -- far above its 1% error policy.
  - Zero Hedge, 18 May 2025

• Borrowers report credit-score carnage as student loans hit reports. "My score was in the high 700s and dropped to about 480."
  - Zero Hedge, 17 May 2025

• Costco is now offering debt-ridden customers the "buy now, pay later" service for sales between $500 and $17,500. More and more Americans are using dangerous "buy now, pay layer" platforms to pay for food amid inflation and ongoing economic uncertainty.
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 17 May 2025

• Trump berates the billionaire owners of Walmart for wanting to raise prices on products imported from Zhōngguó that now have higher taxes/tariffs imposed by Trump on the products: "Eat the tariffs!"
  - The Hill, 17 May 2025

• "It is crazy": inside the growing obsession in Europe for blind-box toys from Zhōngguó (you can't see the exact toy or doll in the covered box)
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 17 May 2025

• Facebook and Instagram are riddled with an "epidemic of scams". Fake puppies and phony offers of mouthwatering bargains are often seeded by overseas crime networks; employees say that Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook/Instagram are reluctant to impede its advertising juggernaut and the billions it earns .
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 16 May 2025

• Facebook and Instagram are riddled with an "epidemic of scams". Fake puppies and phony offers of mouthwatering bargains are often seeded by overseas crime networks; employees say that Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook/Instagram are reluctant to impede its advertising juggernaut and the billions it earns .
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 16 May 2025

• "He won't sell one toy in the USA", says Trump, suggesting a 100% tariff on Mattel products, idiotically mistaking the company Mattel for a foreign country
  - Benzinga, 16 May 2025

• Delta Air Lines is eliminating with Basic Economy seating. The airline will fold the base fare into its new Delta Main category - previously called Main Cabin. Premium select, its premium economy service, and Delta One business class will keep their names.
  - USA Today, 16 May 2025

• Profits are stagnant, but the funeral industry is not dead yet. As cremation rates rise and consumer preferences shift, funeral homes are innovating in surprisingly unconventional ways so they don't die out.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 16 May 2025

• The plans of Walmart to raise prices, in light of Trump's tax/tariff trade war, gives support to price increases by "everybody else". This will worsen inflation in the USA, despite Trump's promises to reduce inflation.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 16 May 2025

• They paid $3,500 for Apple's Vision Pro headset. A year later, it still hurts. The mixed-reality headset launched with great promise, but all these buyers got were dirty looks and sore necks.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 16 May 2025

• Profits at Geely Automobile more than tripled on record sales
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 16 May 2025

• Automakers in the USA would have to charge $10,000 to $20,000 more per automobile, killing sales, if they are forced to build 100% of their automobiles in the USA in light of Trump's tax/tariff trade wars
  - Comcast's CNBC, 16 May 2025

• Trump's taxes/tariffs on pharmaceuticals could reduce exports of pharmaceuticals from Zhōngguó, hurting profit margins. The USA is reliant on companies in Zhōngguó for the the raw materials needed to make life-saving drugs, but experts say import taxes are likely.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 16 May 2025

• The consumer in the USA is maxed out: loan delinquencies surge 700%. With household debt now sitting at a record $18.2 trillion and credit card balances surpassing $1 trillion, the American consumer is maxed out from additional spending.
  - Zero Hedge, 15 May 2025

• Sotheby's high-stakes auction turned into a jaw-dropping spectacle Tuesday night when a $70 million Alberto Giacometti bronze bust failed to sell, leaving bidders and art insiders shocked. The price started at $59 million, rose to $64 million, but didn't reach $70 million.
  - New York Post, 15 May 2025

• USA homebuilder sentiment declines to its lowest level since 2023. Homebuilders blame Trump's taxes/tariffs as homeBUYERS remain the most depressed in 45 years.
  - Zero Hedge, 15 May 2025

• The profitable reason that very popular restaurants are moving to OpenTable. With backing from Visa - its partner, the reservations platform OpenTable is staking its claim on in-demand restaurants and paying them handsomely to jump ship from Resy (which is owned by American Express).
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 15 May 2025

• Consumers in Britain are skeptical of meat from the USA. Will they change, after a new trade deal between the UK and USA? British officials have said they are upholding high standards for food safety, animal welfare and environmental protections as the public recoils from the thought of hormone-treated beef or chlorine-washed chicken.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 15 May 2025

• Samples of store-bought rice from more than 100 different brands purchased in the United States contained dangerously high levels of arsenic and cadmium
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 15 May 2025

• Uber is launching a new service called Route Share. Route Share will function somewhat like a commuter shuttle: "consistent and frequent pickup options along direct routes", running every 20 minutes during the peak commute hours of 6 to 10 AM and 4 to 8 PM on weekdays, with designated pickup and drop-off points.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 15 May 2025

• The CFO of Walmart says that prices could start increasing later this month at its stores, due to Trump's taxes/tariffs
  - Comcast's CNBC, 15 May 2025

• The CFO of Walmart says that prices could start increasing later this month at its stores, due to Trump's taxes/tariffs
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 15 May 2025

• The CFO of Walmart says that prices could start increasing later this month at its stores, due to Trump's taxes/tariffs
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 15 May 2025

• Shares of Alibaba drop 5% in pre-marketing trading, after a big profit miss
  - Comcast's CNBC, 15 May 2025

• In response to alarmingly low levels of cattle herds pushing cattle futures in Chicago to record highs, Tyson Foods CEO Donnie King noted that Tyson plans to ramp up chicken production. Chicken is viewed as an affordable alternative to beef, making it increasingly attractive to cost-conscious consumers.
  - Zero Hedge, 14 May 2025

• Living on meds, Vitamin C and the pyschedelic ibogaine is not a way of life. The burgeoning Precariart Class are those who are increasingly depending on tips, side hustles, credit cards and buy now, pay later schemes to survive in a stupidly high-cost economy where all the media-hyped "GDP growth" . If the quality of life of the majority is tanking, all the glowing economic statistics in the world are nothing but the self-serving bleating of financial toadies, apparatchiks and sycophants.
  - Of Two Minds blog, 14 May 2025

• [KM: To make more billions more for Jeff Bezos], YouTube viewers will start being force to view ads after 'peak emotional' moments in videos - emotion-based targeting that is an obnoxious disruption of the aesthetic pleasure of viewing a video.
  - TechCrunch, 14 May 2025

• More than 1,000 people working at Starbucks, baristas, go on strike to protest the new dress code
  - Associated Press, 14 May 2025

• TD Cowen downgrades Dick's Sporting Goods, calls its acquisition of Foot Locker to be a "strategic mistake"
  - Comcast's CNBC, 14 May 2025

• To corner the market on Nike sneakers, Dick's Sporting Goods is close to a deal to buy rival footwear retailer Foot Locker for about $2.3 billion (about $24/share for Foot Locker, an 86.5% premium to the current stock price)
  - Comcast's CNBC, 14 May 2025

• Dick's Sporting Goods is close to a deal to buy rival footwear retailer Foot Locker for about $2.3 billion (about $24/share for Foot Locker, an 86.5% premium to the current stock price)
  - Thomson's Reuters, 14 May 2025

• After incredible demand, Costco restricts purchases of gold bars at its stores. Buyers will only be able to buy 1 gold bar per transaction, not two.
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 14 May 2025

• Automakers based in Europe and the USA risk losing all market share in Zhōngguó, warns the owner of the Jeep brand, Stellantis
  - Financial Times, 14 May 2025

• The consumption of alcohol is declining in the USA. The consumption, especially in beverages of THC (less addictive than alcohol, from marijuana) is increasing.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 14 May 2025

• A 2024 report by the RAND Corporation found that drug prices in the USA were almost three times higher than in 33 other high-income countries. That is largely due to the "highly complex and fragmented reimbursement system and lack of national pricing control for the USA
  - Comcast's CNBC, 14 May 2025

• Trump's taxes/tariffs will not bring back manufacturing back to the USA. Onshoring decision analysis itself takes months if not years, and must be cleared by multiple levels within organizations, and by country regulatory agencies at local and national levels. This won't happen with Trump's erratic economic policies, greating uncertainty for corporations. Shareholders would likely sue corporate boards that approve such uncertain investments.
  - The Hill, 13 May 2025

• Trump's taxes/tariffs will not bring back jobs to the USA. They are more likely to raise prices and unemployment. Reshoring is a complex, long-term endeavor that requires substantial investment and planning, often spanning several years. Businesses will not commit to long-term manufacturing plans if one president's executive order can be reversed by the next president's executive order (which Trump did to Biden, and will be done to Trump).
  - City Journal, 13 May 2025

• The white rich supporter of Trump who admits that Trump's taxes/tariffs are a massive tax on (mostly non-rich) people in the USA
  - The Daily Beast, 13 May 2025

• State Farm has been approved for an emergency 17% rate increase on homeowner insurance policies in California, part of an effort to shore up the largest insurer in California, after the devastating wildfires in the Los Angeles area
  - Bloomberg, 13 May 2025

• Gold advanced as the dollar pushed lower after the latest US inflation data offered support for odds that the Fed will reduce interest rates this year.
  - Bloomberg, 13 May 2025

• Hundreds of people working at Starbucks strike over new dress code, and signal more walkouts. Starbucks implemented a new dress code that requires baristas to wear solid black tops, a change from prior practice that allowed any color.
  - Bloomberg, 13 May 2025

• Walgreens closing dozens of stores across 17 states
  - The Hill, 13 May 2025

• A Trump executive order on Monday slashed the "de minimis" tax/tariff on shipments from Zhōngguó to 54% from 120%, with a $100 flat fee starting May 14.
  - Apollo Global's Yahoo Finance, 13 May 2025

• Even if Trump gets taxes/tariffs to "zero", people in the USA will be worse off economically.
  - Real Clear Markets, 13 May 2025

• Inflation in the USA was little changed at 2.3% in April, though economists and policymakers are bracing for inflation to re-accelerate as companies adapt to Trump's tax/tariff trade war
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 13 May 2025

• Inflation in the USA was little changed at 2.3% in April, though economists and policymakers are bracing for inflation to re-accelerate as companies adapt to Trump's tax/tariff trade war
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 13 May 2025

• UnitedHealth Group announced the surprise exit of CEO Andrew Witty on Tuesday and suspended its 2025 forecast due to surging medical costs, sending its shares down more than 10% premarket.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 13 May 2025

• UnitedHealth Group announced the surprise exit of CEO Andrew Witty on Tuesday and suspended its 2025 forecast due to surging medical costs, sending its shares down more than 10% premarket.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 13 May 2025

• Is the USA entering the 'golden age' of secondhand shopping? First inflation, now Trump's taxes/tariffs: the resale economy is becoming more successful.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 13 May 2025

• Apple reduces the prices of its iPhones in Zhōngguó by up to 33% amid tough competition
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 13 May 2025

• Meanwhile, in the USA, Apple considers raising iPhone prices, without blaming Trump's taxes/tariffs
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 13 May 2025

• Trump has temporarily reduced taxes/tariffs on imports from Zhōngguó over the weekend, but import taxes have already made baby gear, power drills, mattresses and other everyday products more expensive for people in the USA. Companies have been raising prices to survive cost increases from both 10% universal taxes/tariffs on every product entering the USA and higher taxes on products from Zhōngguó, at 30% even after an agreement between Washington and Beijing. The Federal Reserve said last week that tariffs have led to a 0.3% increase in prices this year.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 13 May 2025

• On-demand service giant Meituan, based in Zhōngguó, has signed a US$1 billion deal to expand its Keeta food delivery platform to Brazil, following successful launches in Hong Kong and Saudi Arabia
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 13 May 2025

• McDonald's says it plans to hire 375,000 people this summer. The hiring surge is focused on staffing up its 13,000 US restaurants as the company prepares to open 900 new locations over the next two years.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 12 May 2025

• Aimed at pressuring Big Pharma, Goldman Sachs says that Trump's drug executive order is "symbolic, not substantial"
  - Zero Hedge, 12 May 2025

• With no real policy, Trump asks drugmakers to lower their prices in the USA. Trump has long complained that the USA pays more for medicines than other wealthy countries. But he offered no clear legal authority to mandate lower prices.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 12 May 2025

• Price controls on pharamceuticals will not make the USA healthy. Trump's executive order will stifle pharmaceutical innovation, raise costs and endanger the lives of patients.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 12 May 2025

• Trump's plan to lower drug prices in the USA contains threats but few 'teeth'. Trump announced a plan that was less aggressive than his first-term effort in 2020, surprising analysts who were bracing for something tougher.
  - Bezos' Washington Post, 12 May 2025

• Shares of global pharmaceutical companies rebound, having declined, as investors see legal hurdles to Trump's new executive order on drug prices
  - Investopedia, 12 May 2025

• Shares of global pharmaceutical companies rebound, having declined, as investors see legal hurdles to Trump's new executive order on drug prices
  - Thomson's Reuters, 12 May 2025

• Trump signs an executive order to reduce prescription drug prices. He said the "most favored nation" policy would tie the prices the U.S. government pays for certain medications to lower rates charged in other developed countries, a policy that drug companies have severely attacked for decades. Trump warned that, if necessary, his administration would launch investigations into pharmaceutical companies, vowing to confront the pharmaceutical industrial complex and powerful pharma lobby groups.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 12 May 2025

• Trump signs an executive order to reduce prescription drug prices. He said the "most favored nation" policy would tie the prices the U.S. government pays for certain medications to lower rates charged in other developed countries, a policy that drug companies have severely attacked for decades. Trump warned that, if necessary, his administration would launch investigations into pharmaceutical companies, vowing to confront the pharmaceutical industrial complex and powerful pharma lobby groups.
  - HuffPost, 12 May 2025

• Trump signs an executive order to reduce prescription drug prices. He said the "most favored nation" policy would tie the prices the U.S. government pays for certain medications to lower rates charged in other developed countries, a policy that drug companies have severely attacked for decades. Trump warned that, if necessary, his administration would launch investigations into pharmaceutical companies, vowing to confront the pharmaceutical industrial complex and powerful pharma lobby groups.
  - The Hill, 12 May 2025

• Trump will sign an executive order to reduce prescription drug prices. He said the "most favored nation" policy would tie the prices the U.S. government pays for certain medications to lower rates charged in other developed countries, a policy that drug companies have severely attacked for decades. Trump warned that, if necessary, his administration would launch investigations into pharmaceutical companies, vowing to confront the pharmaceutical industrial complex and powerful pharma lobby groups.
  - Zero Hedge, 12 May 2025

• The head chef at McDonald's explains the techniques the fast food chain uses to offer the best tasting coffee at a much lower price than Starbucks
  - New York Post, 12 May 2025

• New-vehicle prices in the USA surged up in April, a sign that the effects of President Trump's vehicle taxes/tariffs are rippling through the car market. The average price consumers paid, after discounts and promotions, rose 2.5% from March, more than double the typical 1.1% increase over those two months in recent years.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 12 May 2025

• Apple considers raising the prices of its iPhones, without blaming Trump's taxes/tariffs
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 12 May 2025

• Apple considers raising the prices of its iPhones, without blaming Trump's taxes/tariffs
  - Zero Hedge, 12 May 2025

• The rest of 2025 is not looking good for retail-property market. A rebound is fizzling amid store-chain bankruptcies and tax/tariff concerns.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 12 May 2025

• The spring season for home sales is shaping up to bel a dud. Although inventory has been rising, high home prices and mortgage rates are putting off buyers during the prime selling season.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 12 May 2025

• Record high beef prices poised to hurt consumers this summer
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 12 May 2025

• A recession and drop in sales at drive-thru restaurants has begun. Burger King, Popeyes, and Tim Hortons sales are in freefall.
  - Investors Observer, 12 May 2025

• To save money, Walgreens will start using non-paid robots to fill prescriptions
  - Comcast's CNBC, 12 May 2025

• On Saturday, the movie "Sinners" released by Warner Brothers achieved box office sales that no original film has achieved in eight years: over $200 million in the USA and Canada. The last movie to do so was "Coco" in 2017.
  - The Wrap, 12 May 2025

• People using GLP-1 weight loss drugs are starting to dislike meat and fried foods, and are avoiding sugary beverages and junk foods
  - Live Science, 10 May 2025

• Chipotle Mexican Grill will try expanding to Mexico, where Taco Bell twice failed miserably (as did Domino's Pizze in Italy). One critic said such attempts are like "bringing ice to Antarctica".
  - Zero Hedge, 10 May 2025

• WeightWatchers, after dominating the diet industry for more than half a century, it has lost more than a million members and filed for bankruptcy, struggling to compete in a market transformed by social media influencers and weight loss injections. In a statement, WeightWatchers says its weight loss program (which also includes its own brand of weight loss drugs) and weight loss workshops will continue.
  - BBC, 10 May 2025

• "It is not a question that cannabis drinks are effecting alcohol sales". Cannabis-infused drinks are gaining popularity as an alternative for consumers embracing an alcohol-free lifestyle. This year, the cannabis market in the U.S. is anticipated to exceed $45 billion.
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 10 May 2025

• There is a national egg crisis, and one company is making a lot of money. The price of eggs has tripled, and no one sells more of them than Cal-Maine. From his Mississippi operations, the CEO says that America is "looking for a villain".
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 10 May 2025

• Consumer prices in Zhōngguó decline 0.1% in April, increasing fears of deflation due to Trump's tax/tariff trade war
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 10 May 2025

• Dopamine drug-trafficker made over $10 billion in commissions from sales of apps at its USA App Store in 2024
  - TechCrunch, 10 May 2025

• $1,400,000,000 - Google agrees to pay Texas $1.4 billion to settle a data privacy lawsuit. The state sued Google in 2022 for allegedly unlawfully tracking and collecting the private data of users.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 10 May 2025

• On average, people consume roughly 10 kilograms of eggs per year. A dozen eggs costs from less than $2 in Zhōngguó, Brazil and India, to over $4 in the USA, much of Europe and Australia
  - Zero Hedge, 09 May 2025

• Some coffee shops across the country are trying to keep remote workers from taking over, nixing WiFi and laptops to dissuade Zoom squatters from setting up shop
  - Axios, 09 May 2025

• Web software business, 37signals, has started to migrate its data out of the cloud and onto on-premise storage -- and expects to save a further $1.3 million a year after completing its high-profile cloud repatriation project and getting off Amazon Web Service once and for all. The cloud industry "pulled a fast one convincing everyone cloud is the only way" according to the company's Chief Technology Officer.
  - The Register, 09 May 2025

• The automobile market in the USA is bankrupting people in the USA, and it will only get worse. The clearest sign of this is the rising rate of auto loan borrowers who are falling behind on their monthly payments. As of January this year, 6.6% of subprime auto borrowers were at least 60 days past due on their loans, the highest level since the 1990s.
  - MoneyWise, 09 May 2025

• Trump unconstitutionally fires 3 Democrats from the Consumer Product Safety Commission
  - The Hill, 09 May 2025

• "The only material buyer of this dip was 'Mr & Mrs Retail'"; Goldman Sachs macro trader sees "path to real market tailwinds"
  - Zero Hedge, 09 May 2025

• Strong advertising sales at the Big Tech companies such as Google are showing signs of problems due to Trump's tax/tariff trade war
  - Comcast's CNBC, 09 May 2025

• Costco customers sound off on unexpected price hikes at Costco's food courts: "Shrinkflation is evident". At some locations, the sandwiches have reportedly gone up in price from $3.99 to $6.99. "The price of everything at Costco has gone up."
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 09 May 2025

• Car insurance rates were ready to decline. Then Trump's taxes/tariffs came along. Tariffs on autos and auto parts present what insurers say is a risk of inflation to their claims costs. Insurers have slowed requests to regulators for rate decreases.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 09 May 2025

• 7 of the top 10 used car brands are automakers in Nihon (Buick, Volvo and Cadillac being the other three)
  - Zero Hedge, 08 May 2025

• De Beers, the largest diamond producer by value in the world, plans to shut down its lab-grown diamond jewellery brand Lightbox, marking a retreat from synthetic gems sold to consumers.
  - Mining.com, 08 May 2025

• Affirm, the provider of buy now, pay later loans reported, beat on third-quarter earnings and met expectations for revenue. But weaker than expected guidance sent shares of Affirm down 8%.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 08 May 2025

• Generation Z people are drinking less alcoholic products because they are financially broke
  - The Hill, 08 May 2025

• Editorial: Trump's worst economic idea since taxes/tariffs. Trump is proposing a plan to outdo the Democrats on drug price controls. The [idiotic] idea is for Medicaid to pay drug manufacturers the lowest price charged to other developed countries.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 08 May 2025

• A 'darker' economic outlook at many companies is causing less travel by businesspeople, as companies more closely scrutinize travel expenses and seek more meetings via videoconferencing
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 08 May 2025

• Jewelers likely to increase prices due to taxes/tariffs, according to the CEO of Pandora. Higher taxes/tariffs on imports will eventually be passed on to consumers in the USA, even if the industry was holding off on price hikes for now, the chief executive said.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 08 May 2025

• Pandora, the world's largest jewelry brand, says returning manufacturing to the USA "simply will not work". "If I wanted to build another plant somewhere, it would take roughly three years to get something up and running. You would actually need to go to places where there is a tradition of crafting. I have almost 15,000 craftspeople working for Pandora in Thailand at the moment. Those craftspeople have many years of tradition in doing crafted jewelry."
  - Zero Hedge, 08 May 2025

• Shares of sugar-trafficker Krispy Kreme plummet 25% in record-low territory, after the doughnut seller reported disappointing earnings and said it would no longer pay a dividend, as it looks to save cash and pay down debt
  - Murdoch's MarketWatch, 08 May 2025

• The bankruptcy of Rite Aid is a warning about health care in the USA. This is more than a story of a less-than-current business model failing to keep up with customers. Instead, Rite Aid is an instructional tale about a mismanaged company that was so fatally weakened it could not survive amid the increasing consolidation of health care in the USA.
  - Comcast's MSNBC, 07 May 2025

• Samsung is paying $350 million for audio brands Bowers & Wilkins, Denon, Marantz and Polk. They are joining brands like Harman Kardon and JBL under the Samsung umbrella.
  - EnGadget, 07 May 2025

• Gasoline prices in California could rise 75% by the end of 2026, due to the expected shutdown of oil refineries in California.
  - Zero Hedge, 07 May 2025

• Trump's taxes/tariffs could force people in the USA to pay $123 billion more each year, for 10 common gadgets such as smartphones, game consoles and laptops, according to the Consumer Technology Association
  - Condé Nast's Ars Technica, 07 May 2025

• "We do not have a choice", but to resist. The Consumer Technology Association flew company executives into Washington for its first weeklong trade campaign in an effort to stop Trump's tax/tariff trade war -- a rare direct pushback against Trump that could come with political costs.
  - Politico, 07 May 2025

• Cargill, a top turkey producer in the USA, is considering an exit from the turkey industry, as bird flu, surging costs spark industry crisis heading towards a shortage
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 07 May 2025

• At this humble used car lot in Oklahoma, taxes/tariffs are beginning to cause economic harm. Antonio Austin is trying to hold his car business together as Trump's taxes/tariffs increase costs -- and force his customers deeper into crisis.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 07 May 2025

• Brides in the USA settle for flowers from Costco and American wine as Trump's taxes/tariffs make weddings more expensive
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 07 May 2025

• WK Kellogg reduces outlook over Trump's taxes/tariffs, and softening sales. The cereal maker now forecasts sales to decline 2% to 3% for the year instead of 1%, as previously predicted.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 07 May 2025

• Serf ride-hailing company Uber misses revenue expectations with trips up 18% over last year
  - Comcast's CNBC, 07 May 2025

• Banks are keeping credit card interest rates high even after the CFPB rule they blamed for high APRs was killed. Banks quickly raised interest rates to record levels and added new monthly fees on credit cards last year when a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rule threatened a key revenue source for the industry. Another corporate "thou shalt not" lie.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 07 May 2025

• Pandora warns that Trump's taxes/tariffs will spark sweeping price increases for jewelry
  - Comcast's CNBC, 07 May 2025

• Sales of Tesla vehicles plunge in both Zhōngguó and Europe, despite a surge in all electric vehicles
  - Zero Hedge, 07 May 2025

• Deliveries of Tesla vehicles in Zhōngguó drop as buyers favor cheaper domestic models. A sales increase in March proves short-lived, as April deliveries by the Tesla's Shanghai factory plunge nearly 26%.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 07 May 2025

• Trump's 'Grinchy' taxes/tariffs will cancel way more than just Christmas. After campaigning on "thou shalt not" lies of bringing prices down for consumers in the USA, the Trump's economic message now seems to be, "Do you really need to eat every single day?"
  - The Daily Beast, 07 May 2025

• Trump orders the EPA to shut down the Energy Star program, a popular energy efficiency certification program with its blue labels on consumer products. Since its creation under the first President George Bush in 1992, Energy Star has helped households and businesses save more than $500 billion in energy costs and to get rebates and tax credits, according to the program's 2024 report. At the same time, it has also prevented four billion metric tons of greenhouse gases from being released into the atmosphere.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 08 May 2025

• Trump orders the EPA to shut down the Energy Star program, a popular energy efficiency certification program with its blue labels on consumer products. Since its creation under the first President George Bush in 1992, Energy Star has helped households and businesses save more than $500 billion in energy costs and to get rebates and tax credits, according to the program's 2024 report. At the same time, it has also prevented four billion metric tons of greenhouse gases from being released into the atmosphere.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 08 May 2025

• Drugstore chain Rite Aid Corporation has again filed for bankruptcy less than a year after exiting from the previous one, with the chain now looking to sell "substantially all of its assets".
  - Zero Hedge, 06 May 2025

• WeightWatchers files for bankruptcy protection to eliminate a debt burden of $1.5 billion, so it can focus on its transition into a telehealth services provider.
  - Associated Press, 06 May 2025

• Sales of Tesla vehicles continue to decline across Europe even as car buyers there increasingly buy electric vehicles. Tesla sales were down sharply in April in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Denmark and Portugal, as well Sweden and France, according to monthly sales figures. Just as in the United States, Tesla CEO Elon Musk's authoritarian politics has inspired backlash and protests across Europe.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 06 May 2025

• McDonald's, Wendy's and other burger joints are introducing more chicken products, as customers avoid more beef products due to the rising cost of beef
  - NBC News, 06 May 2025

• Buy products from the USA? "No Thanks", people in Europe say, as the backlash grows to Trump's taxes/tariffs. A shifting perception of the United States amid Trump's trade war is prompting people in Europe to pivot decisively away from goods and services from the USA.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 06 May 2025

• Large auto lenders such as Wells Fargo and Capital One have tightened their standards over the past few years, meaning more people are getting rejected as demand rises. And some firms have tightened further in the past few months.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 06 May 2025

• Ford's first-quarter profit drops 64%; suspends outlook. Tariff-related uncertainty led the company to withdraw its profit forecast for the year.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 06 May 2025

• Ford's first-quarter profit drops 64%; suspends outlook. Tariff-related uncertainty led the company to withdraw its profit forecast for the year.
  - Zero Hedge, 06 May 2025

• Uber will acquire an 85% stake in Turkish food delivery platform Turkiye GO for about $700 million in cash
  - Comcast's CNBC, 06 May 2025

• Hispanic shoppers in the USA are spending less on groceries, putting pressure on consumer companies
  - Comcast's CNBC, 06 May 2025

• Two of the largest players in gasoline distribution are looking to form a marriage, and it could create a ripple effect when consumers head to the pump. Sunoco, which is based in the USA, has announced its intention to purchase Parkland (based in Canada) in a multi-billion-dollar deal that would create a dominating force in the North American petroleum industry. But the deal for Sunoco to acquire its rival in Canada also hinges on regulatory and government approval that could be made harder by the current political rift between the USA and Canada.
  - Zero Hedge, 05 May 2025

• At the newly opened Burgerbots in Silicon Valley, home of misanthropy, non-paid robots run the restaurant, and can serve your meal in just 27 seconds, replacing the need for paid-human workers. Naturally, automating the fast food process might seem rough on human employees at a time when machines threaten to render various vocations, including restaurant gigs, obsolete.
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 05 May 2025

• Do not punish pharmacy benefits managers (PBMs) for the pricing problems due to pharmaceutical companies. Politicians should target the actual source of inflated pharmaceutical costs, namely, the limited competition in the pharmaceutical market, abetted by slow and cumbersome regulatory approval processes.
  - Real Clear Markets, 05 May 2025

• It is the end of cheap flying as Americans tire of budget airlines, in part due to declining consumer confidence thanks to Trump's economic policies.a
  - Bloomberg, 05 May 2025

• Shares of Skechers soar 25%, after 3G Capital announces that it will buyout Skechers and make it a privately-held company
  - Comcast's CNBC, 05 May 2025

• Shares of Skechers soar 25%, after 3G Capital announces that it will buyout Skechers and make it a privately-held company
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 05 May 2025

• "People are visiting less": McDonald's joins Starbucks and Chipotle in customer visits amid consumer "pressure". Trump's flipflopping economic policies has caused uncertainty among spenders and has weighed on consumer sentiment.
  - Apollo Global's Yahoo Finance, 04 May 2025

• A new survey of users of weight loss drugs such as GLP-1 determines that users are spending less at restaurants
  - Zero Hedge, 04 May 2025

• 12,000 coffee shops are opened in Zhōngguó, while Starbucks suffers. A presidential endorsement increases thirst for the drink while aggressive expansion and price competition make it more accessible.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 04 May 2025

• Hawaii lawmakers have passed a first-of-its-kind law to raise the tax on hotel stays and other vacation rentals, specifically to fund efforts to fight climate change.
  - SF Gate, 03 May 2025

• Global food prices climb toward the highs of the 'Arab Spring" era amid the turmoil of Trump's tax/tariff trade war
  - Zero Hedge, 03 May 2025

• When Congress raised the threshold for imported goods to enter the USA tax-free to $800 from $200 nearly a decade ago, it threw open the door to the consumer market in the USA. Companies in Zhōngguó rushed in. First on platforms like eBay and Amazon, and then on apps like Shein and Temu, exporters funneled the products of the vast manufacturing supply chain in Zhōngguó straight to consumers in the USA.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 03 May 2025

• Trump's taxes/tariffs on imports from Zhōngguó are raising the prices of wedding dresses and threatening the small businesses that sell the dresses
  - Comcast's CNBC, 03 May 2025

• The Federal Reserve has 3 tools to fight inflation due to Trump's tax/tariff trade war. All 3 tools have drawbacks. The Federal Reserve has successfully fought demand-driven inflation. Trump's tax/trade policy is creating a supply-driven shock that the central bank is less equipped to handle.
  - Barron's, 03 May 2025

• Airbnb says that international travelers are increasingly skipping visits to the US, an indication that Trump's tax/tariff trade war may be impacting consumer preferences
  - Apollo Global's Yahoo Finance, 02 May 2025

• Uber signs a deal with Momenta to launch a non-paid robotaxi service next year in Europe,
  - Comcast's CNBC, 02 May 2025

• Shares of Block plunge 20% after a brutal quarterly report and a wave of analyst downgrades. Analysts flagged fresh concerns around stagnant Cash App user growth, muted consumer demand and a soft macro environment that may weigh on monetization.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 02 May 2025

• The Central Pacific beaches of Costa Rica are among the most contaminated in Central America with plastic bottles and caps. "Beaches in Central America had the highest abundance of collected items, which could be explained by the trash generated in nearby cities and the possible influence of ocean currents, which carry bottles from other regions."
  - Q Costa Rica, 02 May 2025

• Companies in the USA are serving notice: "we are raising prices because of Trump's taxes/tariffs". Trump's trade policies are already starting to frustrate consumers in the USA who have noticed higher prices when shopping.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 02 May 2025

• Cue the chaos - today, the 'de minimis' tax/tariff exemption (tax-free/paperwork-free import of products less than $800) goes into effect. More than 80% of total US e-commerce shipments in 2022 were de minimis imports, the vast majority of which come from Zhōngguó. Lower-income households will suffer the most from the end of cheap e-commerce sites in Zhōngguó. About 48% of 'de minimis' packages shipped to the poorest zip codes in the USA.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 02 May 2025

• Cue the chaos - today, the 'de minimis' tax/tariff exemption (tax-free/paperwork-free import of products less than $800) goes into effect. More than 80% of total US e-commerce shipments in 2022 were de minimis imports, the vast majority of which come from Zhōngguó. Lower-income households will suffer the most from the end of cheap e-commerce sites in Zhōngguó. About 48% of 'de minimis' packages shipped to the poorest zip codes in the USA.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 02 May 2025

• Retailers in the USA fear toy shortages at Christmas as Trump's taxes/tariffs freeze supply chains. Toy makers and stores are freezing holiday orders, predicting shortages and higher prices. Some are consulting bankruptcy lawyers, fearing their firms will not survive.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 02 May 2025

• How the oil and natural gas industries have suffered financially under Trump: their stocks have plummeted, crude oil prices have plummeted and gasoline prices remain high.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 02 May 2025

• Earnings for Estee Lauder decline as it continues to fire people. Estee Lauder confirmed it will fire thousands of more people as the beauty-products maker logged a sharp decline in its fiscal third quarter net income due to ongoing weakness in the once-hot Asian market.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 02 May 2025

• Home builders are increasing discounts as they struggle to entice buyers. Demand has been disappointing during the spring home-buying season, and Trump's taxes/tariffs threaten to raise costs.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 02 May 2025

• As Trump destroys the FDA with firings, what was food like before the FDA? Formaldehyde, brick dust, lead, and borax once made grocery shopping a minefield. n the gap between the industrialization of the food system during the mid-1800's and those first laws dictating what could be sold as food, working class Americans spent decades eating "mostly crap". Borax, which you may recognize as a general-purpose pesticide, was used as a milk and butter preservative. Formaldehyde (AKA embalming fluid) was also a common milk additive and antibacterial agent. In cheese, lead compounds were added to boost its golden color. Plaster of Paris, gypsum, and other white, powdery fillers made their way into milk and flour for color and texture. Ground coffee was often about 80 to 90 percent adulterated in the mid-19th century.
  - Popular Science, 01 May 2025

• Amazon announces a $4 billion rural delivery network, and estimates it can create 100,000 new jobs
  - Zero Hedge, 01 May 2025

• "It is really killing our industry": for the marijuana marketplace in Massachusetts, the profits are less and less. Because of oversupply and federal restrictions, the marijuana industry in Massachusetts has financial difficulties.
  - Boston Globe, 01 May 2025

• Could Apple exist without its ties to Zhōngguó? Probably Not. The world's most valuable company has become so reliant on suppliers and sales in Zhōngguó that it would be worth half as much or less without them.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 01 May 2025

• Apple delivers better than expected results for iPhone sales, and announces a $100 billion stock buyback
  - Investopedia, 01 May 2025

• Trump's taxes/tariffs challenge the e-commerce 'superpowers' of Zhōngguó. Companies such as Alibaba that built the world-leading online sector in Zhōngguó are now helping its sellers find markets beyond the USA.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 01 May 2025

• Thanks to Trump's taxes/tariffs on imports, people and companies in the USA are weeks away from Covid pandemic-like supply chain disruptions that will make some products hard to find or expensive to buy
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 01 May 2025

• McDonald's just had its worst quarter since Covid. It said customers are getting nervous.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 01 May 2025

• McDonald's just had its worst quarter since Covid. It said customers are getting nervous.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 01 May 2025

• Apple violated a court order issued in 2021 requiring it to open up the App Store to third-party payment options and must stop charging commissions on purchases outside its software marketplace, a federal judge said in a blistering ruling that referred the company to prosecutors for a possible criminal probe. The decision was a victory for Epic Games, which had sued Apple. The changes the company must now make could put a sizable dent in the double-digit billions of dollars in revenue the App Store generates each year. Apple is potentially facing another multibillion-dollar hit from losing payments Google makes to be the default search engine for its Safari browser, which is the subject of an ongoing Justice Department antitrust case against Google.
  - Bloomberg, 30 April 2025

• A federal court ruled that Apple was in "willful violation" of a 2021 injunction designed to allow iOS developers to steer customers to alternate payment processors for in-app purchases. In a scathing Wednesday night order, District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers determined that Apple had engaged in a plan to "thwart the injunction's goals", and then engaged in an "obvious cover-up" to prevent that plan from being revealed.
  - Condé Nast's Ars Technica, 30 April 2025

• Stagflation scenario slammed as the Fed's favorite inflation indicator, the PCE, tumbles to four year lows
  - Zero Hedge, 30 April 2025

• Private payroll growth slowed to 62,000 in April, well below expectations of 120,000 jobs
  - Comcast's CNBC, 30 April 2025

• Private payroll growth slowed to 62,000 in April, well below expectations of 120,000 jobs
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 30 April 2025

• Stanley Black & Decker raising prices to offset tariff costs. The company said the global trade war is expected to dent its full-year earnings.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 30 April 2025

• Retail giants manage to keep a lid on prices but warn it cannot last
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 30 April 2025

• Why new deals for its Wegovy weight-loss drug will not restore Novo Nordisk's obesity lead. The Danish drugmaker is expanding Wegovy access via telehealth providers like Hims and Ro. But the gap with Eli Lilly is only getting wider.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 30 April 2025

• Starbucks says that it is making progress on quest to fulfill orders faster. The coffee chain says its new technology can cut in-store wait times by two minutes, as it has been struggling with slowing sales.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 30 April 2025

• Sugar drug trafficker Coca-Cola sales decline to a boycott by the Hispanic community, and lower demand in general
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 30 April 2025

• A 400-year-old tea and coffee shop, 't Zonnetje, faces closure in Amsterdam as tourism has caused years of skyrocketing rent which the owner cannot afford to pay anymore. Centuries-old businesses such as 't Zonnetje, which have long been entrenched in their local neighborhoods, remain increasingly susceptible to rising rents, as TikTok trendy eateries, generic sweet shops and 'coffeehouses' that specialize in marijuana proliferate among the tourist set.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 30 April 2025

• The economy of the USA declined 0.3% in the first quarter of 2025, as uncertainty over Trump's erratic economic policies hurt businesses. Imports soared 41.3%, driven by a 50.9% increase in goods. Imports subtract from GDP, so the contraction in growth may not be viewed as negatively given the potential for the trend to reverse.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 30 April 2025

• The Conference Board Consumer Expectations survey plunges to 14 year lows; inflation expectations soar
  - Zero Hedge, 29 April 2025

• "Business has ground to a halt": tax/tariff uncertainty paralyzes businesses. The Times heard from hundreds of American companies, most of them small businesses, that face a reckoning because of Trump's very high import taxes/tariffs.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 29 April 2025

• Amazon cowardly abandons plans to display the impact of Trump's taxes/tariffs on its ultracheap website Haul, after Trump publicly attacked Amazon and Jeff Bezos
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 29 April 2025

• The White House on Tuesday slammed Amazon for reportedly planning to display the cost of Trump' taxes/tariffs next to the total price of products on its site. An Amazon spokesperson told CNBC later Tuesday morning that the company was only ever considering listing tariff charges on some products for Amazon Haul, its budget-focused shopping section.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 29 April 2025

• Amazon considers displaying tax/tariff surcharges due to Trump on its low-cost Haul products
  - Comcast's CNBC, 29 April 2025

• Homeowners insurance has risen over 50% in these states: Utah, Illinois, Arizona, Pennsylvania and Nebraska. The most expensive states to insure your home are Florida, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Kentucky and Nebraska.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 29 April 2025

• High-volume, non-luxury, products made in Zhōngguó may soon be disappearing from store shelves or racks at e-commerce warehouses in the USA, as 145% tariffs on products from Zhōngguó entering the US have triggered a massive slowdown in trans-Pacific shipping activity
  - Zero Hedge, 28 April 2025

• Black And Latine shoppers continue to boycott Target - and it might be working. Target has ended its diversity and equality initiatives under pressure from Trump. Many are switching to Costco, which has defied and continued its diversity and equality initiatives. "Target, more than other comapnies ... made a specific promise to the Black community, and then they bent to bigotry ." Foot traffic at Target stores, in general, has dropped for 11 straight weeks, according to Placer.ai, while foot traffic at Costco has been steadily increasing over the past 16 weeks.
  - HuffPost, 28 April 2025

• The government is the only reason that milk is not dangerous. Only the federal government is potent enough to even try to hold food producers to account. Trump is allowing the Health Secretary to suspend inspections that ensure the safety of the food supply of the USA, putting in jeopardy Trump's "blessed meek".
  - Comcast's MSNBC, 28 April 2025

• The pharmaceutical industry in Europe prepares for financial losses as Trump's tax/tariff threats loom. Medicines and chemicals are huge exports for European Union countries. That makes the sector a weak spot as trade tensions continue without resolution.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 28 April 2025

• Once shunned by consumers in Nihon, rice from Korea is being readily bought in Nihon. Faced with shortages and rising prices for domestic rice, many people in Nihon are doing what was once unthinkable -- buying a foreign variety.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 28 April 2025

• Challenging Musk, politicians in New York state are trying to revoke a legislative waiver that has let Tesla directly operate five New York dealerships rather than sell cars through dealer franchises, as other carmakers must do.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 28 April 2025

• Business is bad at Tesla. Sales are dwindling. Profits are plunging, as is its share price. There are regular protests outside its showrooms. The Cybertruck is a flop. And somehow, business is actually a lot worse than all of this. Thanks to Trump, it could lose regulatory credits, the sales of which are the only thing making Tesla profitable. And competition from Zhōngguó is more intense.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 28 April 2025

• Product label obsession grips Canada as shoppers shun products from the USA. Grocery store trips can take forever when you have to trace the lineage of every can of soup; now, shoppers can use "O SCANada".
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 28 April 2025

• Airlines collect $33 billion in baggage fees -- and they are looking to get more money from flyers. The fees to check your luggage can account for as much as 20% of a airline's revenue, according to one analysis.
  - Murdoch's MarketWatch, 28 April 2025

• Airplane tickers are becoming less expensive as domestic travel demand weakens
  - Comcast's CNBC, 28 April 2025

• DHL will resume global shipments from businesses to American consumers worth more than $800 after a suspension earlier this month. DHL adjusted its customs processing systems to handle the higher volume of packages requiring formally processing (the threshold used to be $2500).
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 28 April 2025

• Shein increases its prices in the USA as much as 377% ahead of the imposition of Trump's taxes/tariffs on imports from Zhōngguó
  - Bloomberg, 27 April 2025

• For baby strollers, there is no way to avoid Trump's taxes/tariffs on imports from Zhōngguó. Zhōngguó makes a huge share of baby strollers, cribs and toys sold in the USA, with few other options for sourcing baby products elsewhere.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 26 April 2025

• The central bank of Rossiya does not change its key interest rate for a fourth straight meeting, despite a continuing rise in inflation driven by the diversion of men and material to prosecute the invasion of Ukraine. The bank also warns of the impact of Trump's taxes/tariffs.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 26 April 2025

• More people are buying groceries with "buy now, pay later" loans, and more people pay these bills late. The danger is that people have to pay high fees if the pay off their loans late.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 26 April 2025

• More people are buying groceries with "buy now, pay later" loans, and more people pay these bills late. The danger is that people have to pay high fees if the pay off their loans late.
  - Zero Hedge, 26 April 2025

• Airplane tickets are becoming less expensive as domestic travel demand weakens
  - Comcast's CNBC, 26 April 2025

• Trump's proposed 25% tax/tariff on pharmaceutical imports would increase drug costs in the USA by nearly $51 billion annually, boosting retail prices in the USA by as much as 12.9% if the tax/tariffs are passed onto consumers
  - Thomson's Reuters, 25 April 2025

• Coca-Cola is not afraid of Health Secretary Kennedy's crackdown on sugary beverages. Why investors should not be afraid as well.
  - Barron's, 25 April 2025

• Jack in the Box plans to close up to 200 underperforming locations, aiming to bolster its balance sheet amid declining consumer spending. The San Diego-based chain also announced s exploring a sale of its struggling Del Taco brand. Most closures will target older, low-performing stores, with up to 120 shutting down by year's end and the rest phasing out based on franchise terms.
  - Zero Hedge, 25 April 2025

• Manufacturers in Zhōngguó are flooding TikTok and other social media apps with direct appeals to American shoppers, urging people to buy the equivalent of luxury items straight from their factories (which make many luxury products for companies such as Lululemon and Hermes), but at a fraction of the cost.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 25 April 2025

• Credit-card companies prepare for a downturn in the economy. JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup added money to their rainy day funds to cover expected future losses. Retail-card issuer Synchrony is tightening its lending standards.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 25 April 2025

• Tesla sales declined again last month in the European Union. Sales plunged for the third consecutive month, a setback for Elon Musk's EV maker even as demand for battery-electric vehicles grew in the European Union.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 25 April 2025

• Sellers on Amazon raise prices after Trump's high taxes/tariffs on imports of products from Zhōngguó. About 25% of price increases in recent weeks have come from sellers based in Zhōngguó.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 25 April 2025

• Alipay leads the payments market in Zhōngguó as tap-and-pay is used by 100 million people. Alipay, launched 20 years ago by Alibaba Group, has proved to be a revolutionary product that changed the way people make payments in Zhōngguó.
  - SCMP, 25 April 2025

• Sales of electric vehicles have jumped 10% year-to-year in the first quarter for 2025. With new vehicles from Ford, GM and others, Tesla's share of the EV market has declined in the USA.
  - HuffPost, 24 April 2025

• The CEO of Perplexity says its browser will spy on everything users do online to be able to sell "hyperpersonalized" ads, as if anyone is that desperate for such ads to want to be spied upon
  - TechCrunch, 24 April 2025

• 12 signs that consumers in the USA are experiencing far more financial stress than most people realize
  - Zero Hedge, 24 April 2025

• Hedge funds are selling stocks, while retail investors are buying stocks
  - Zero Hedge, 24 April 2025

• Neat Burger, which sells vegan and plant-based burgers, will close all of its locations in the United Kingdom
  - Parade, 24 April 2025

• Orders for big-ticket items such as autos and appliances surged 9.2% in March in rush to beat Trump's taxes/tariffs
  - Comcast's CNBC, 24 April 2025

• Toy maker Hasbro predicts that it could lose as much as $300 million if Trump's taxes/tariffs on imports from Zhōngguó are not reduced
  - Comcast's CNBC, 24 April 2025

• Tesla has a deep economic hole to pull out of. Elon Musk promises more attention on the EV maker, but brand damage from his political activities working with Trump will not be easy to repair
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 24 April 2025

• Gucci owner Kering reports weak sales as slowdown in luxury spending persists. After years of strong results fueled by a rise in demand for luxury goods after the pandemic, customers dialed back on spending amid inflation and high interest rates.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 24 April 2025

• American Airlines withdraws its business forecasts for 2025, due to an unclear outlook on the economy of the USA, and weaker-than-expected leisure travel bookings in 2025
  - Comcast's CNBC, 24 April 2025

• American Airlines withdraws its business forecasts for 2025, due to an unclear outlook on the economy of the USA, and weaker-than-expected leisure travel bookings in 2025
  - Zero Hedge, 24 April 2025

• PepsiCo reduces its earning forecast as it predicts "uncertainty" with Trump's taxes/tariffs, and reduced consumer spending
  - Comcast's CNBC, 24 April 2025

• PepsiCo reduces its earning forecast as it predicts "uncertainty" with Trump's taxes/tariffs, and reduced consumer spending
  - Zero Hedge, 24 April 2025

• Merck lowered its full-year profit guidance, citing a charge tied to a recent licensing deal and $200 million in estimated additional costs for tariffs implemented to date
  - Comcast's CNBC, 24 April 2025

• Trump contemptously shrugs off plunging numbers of tourists visiting the USA, good for the economy, as "no big deal"
  - The Daily Beast, 24 April 2025

• Businesses in the USA are already trying to increase prices to consumers to cover the costs of Trump's taxes/tariffs, according to recent Fed data
  - Comcast's CNBC, 23 April 2025

• Chipotle is seeing a "slowdown" in consumer spending as 2025 gets off to a rough start
  - Comcast's CNBC, 23 April 2025

• Macy's, the iconic retail chaine, closes 150 stores in the USA, after more than 150 years in business
  - El Adelantado, 23 April 2025

• $15,000,000 - After a six-year investigation, a Minnesota couple has been charged in a $15 million fraud scheme that has left the community of Eden Prairie reeling.
  - MoneyWise, 22 April 2025

• Nearly 50% of the home-sellers in the USA are offering price concessions/reductions to buyers
  - Zero Hedge, 22 April 2025

• Resale values of Tesla vehciles are plummeting as owners sell up amid an escalating backlash over Elon Musk's involvement with Trump and their massive, slash-and-burn, unconstitutional reductions of government spending
  - Business Insider, 22 April 2025

• Tesla used vehicle prices are declining, another worrying sign for Tesla, declining 10% in March year-to-year
  - Apollo Global's Yahoo Finance, 22 April 2025

• Tesla short sellers are up an estimated $11.5 billion for the year-to-date in 2025. Tesla shares have tumbled 40% in 2025, due to competition and Tesla shares have tumbled 40% so far this year due to an escalating backlash over Elon Musk's involvement with Trump and their massive, slash-and-burn, unconstitutional reductions of government spending
  - Thomson's Reuters, 22 April 2025

• State treasurers, worried about their stock holdings, raise concerns over Musk's lack of focus on Tesla
  - Thomson's Reuters, 22 April 2025

• Trump's tax/tariff flipflopping and confusion leaves advertisers "paralyzed" and "somber". Hundreds of billions of marketing dollars are in flux as companies struggle to plan.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 22 April 2025

• Millions of student loan borrowers are behind on payments. They are seeing their credit scores drop, which will make it more difficult to buy a car or rent a home. And that has implications for the already slowing economy.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 22 April 2025

• Zhōngguó plans to launch a payment system, the Cross-Border Interbank Payment System, as an alternative to the SWIFT system controlled by the USA and based on the USA dollar.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 22 April 2025

• Here comes the next shock to the economy: student loan default wave = $63 billion GDP hit. 15.6% of federal student-loan balances, more than $250 billion, are past due by the end of the September 2024 ramp-up period, affecting 9.7 million borrowers.
  - Zero Hedge, 21 April 2025

• 61 percent of all Americans are taking at least one pharmaceutical drug, making the USA one of the most drugged nations in the history of the world, and one reason drug companies spent $15 billion a year on advertising. 27 percent of Americans are taking at least four pharmaceutical drugs. 75 percent of medicines are imported from Zhōngguó and Bharat. With Trump's taxes/tariffs driving up medicine costs, a lot of people will suffer.
  - Zero Hedge, 21 April 2025

• The Federal Trade Commission on Monday sued Uber, accusing the ride-hailing and delivery company of deceptive billing and cancellation practices tied to its subscription service.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 21 April 2025

• The Federal Trade Commission on Monday sued Uber, accusing the ride-hailing and delivery company of deceptive billing and cancellation practices tied to its subscription service.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 21 April 2025

• Garment factories in Zhōngguó that supply Shein are shutting down amid Trump's tax/tariff trade war: "There are only risks to doing business with the USA now."
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 21 April 2025

• United Airlines leans on wealthier travelers through choppy demand. The airline said it is leaning into its business catered toward wealthier consumers, including premium seating and travel to international destinations, as those spenders appear relatively unfazed by economic storm clouds.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 21 April 2025

• Marketers are putting more content and quality control in the hands of non-paid AI, and thus needing fewer paid-humans
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 21 April 2025

• Under pressure from , Target reduced its diversity and equality efforts. A boycott ensued, and foot traffic at Target is down 5% to 10% year-to-year in 2025.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 21 April 2025

• The housing market in the USA may finally see relief as foreign buyers, illegals and Airbnbs disappear
  - Zero Hedge, 20 April 2025

• $50,000,000 - A court orders General Motors to pay $50 million to owners of certain Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra vehicles due to a fault in the injection system that left thousands of drivers stranded with high repair costs
  - Union Rayo, 20 April 2025

• Cattle inventories are historically low in the USA, forcing up the retail price of beef
  - Zero Hedge, 20 April 2025

• "Huge increases in prices for the working families of the USA ": three experts on the impact of Trump's economic and tax/tariff policies
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 20 April 2025

• Food producers in Italy worry that Trump's taxes/tariffs may force them out of the marketplace in the USA, at the same time having to compete in Italy with foods from the USA that look and sound as if they are from Italy
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 20 April 2025

• Walmart's warehouse retailer, Sam's Club, is phasing out traditional checkouts across its 600 stores and create a friction-free shopping experience which will include customers scanning goods on the go with an app and then having and AI scanner verify the goods as customers leave. The technology would eliminate the need for receipt checks at the door.
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 19 April 2025

• Trump wants to lower the prices of eggs. He is also imposing taxes/tariffs on imported eggs. Trump's trade policy is scrambled.
  - Reason, 19 April 2025

• People were deactivated from delivering. Their finances were devastated. Millions of Americans earn money finding gig work through platforms like Uber, Lyft or DoorDash. Many see their financial lives upended when their account is suddenly blocked for unclear reasons .
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 19 April 2025

• Tomatoes become one of the first everyday casualties of Trump's tax/tariff trade war. New taxes will be imposed on fresh tomatoes imported from México starting in July unless a new bilateral agreement is reached.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 19 April 2025

• Retailers of low-cost products have been waiting for the higher-income consumer. They have arrived. As financial stress mounts, chains like Dollar Tree and Academy that cater to the budget-conscious are seeing more of a new class of shoppers.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 19 April 2025

• Apple lost its top spot in the smartphone market in Zhōngguó, dethroned by local rival Xiaomi as Beijing's consumption-boosting subsidies help buoy demand for cheaper products. Apple has dropped to 5th place with a 13% market share.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 19 April 2025

• Coffee and cocoa will stay expensive. Judy Ganes of JGanes Consulting follows 'soft' commodities, which have seen price spikes due to poor harvests (due to global heating) and strong demand.
  - Barron's, 19 April 2025

• Panama City, Panama, approves the use of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies for payments for taxes, fees and permits
  - Zero Hedge, 18 April 2025

• Tourism is the next casualty in Trump's tax/tariff trade war. Trump's hostile policies toward the rest of the world pose a massive risk to the hospitality industry, which employs millions of Americans.
  - USA Today, 18 April 2025

• $6,900,000 - The airport retail company Paradies Shops is close to finalizing a $6.9 million settlement to resolve a class-action lawsuit on behalf of employees whose personal information was stolen in a ransomware attack in 2020
  - The Record, 17 April 2025

• Netflix revenue rises to $10.5 billion following price hike. The streaming service will not report subscriber numbers starting this quarter -- but its revenue signals more growth.
  - The Verge, 17 April 2025

• Shares of Hertz rise 125% over two days, as Bill Ackman's Pershing Square takes nearly a 20% stake, and with a prospect of a partnership with Uber
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 18 April 2025

• Trump's taxes/tariffs disrupt the world's largest wholesale market 'Christmas Town' in Yiwu, Zhōngguó, which supplies nearly 90% of all decorative Christmas goods used in the USA -- and thus disrupts the holiday supply chain for the USA
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 18 April 2025

• Tesla offers $10,000 discounts on its Cybertrucks as sales decline and inventories increase
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 17 April 2025

• People in the USA who live in communities that have long played host to an influx of winter travellers from Canada during the winter months are laying bare the devastating economic impact of the boycott of the USA is having on their local economies, a boycott created Trump's hostile attitudes towards Canada. People from Canada are now seeking out sunshine in places like México -- a move that has dealt a serious economic blow to the American towns and communities they once traveled to.
  - Realtor.com, 17 April 2025

• $4,000,000 - HP agrees to pay $4 million to customers in a settlement over claims of "falsely advertising" some of its PCs and keyboards
  - Condé Nast's Ars Technica, 17 April 2025

• Inflation in Nihon grew 3.6% year on year in March, marking three straight years that the headline inflation figure is above the 2% target of the Bank of Nihon
  - Comcast's CNBC, 17 April 2025

• Trump has signed an executive order on April 15 that directs a wide range of actions to lower the cost of prescription medications, including through the importation of prescription drugs from Canada by the states.
  - Zero Hedge, 17 April 2025

• Temu and Shein greatly reduce their advertising spending in the USA, and threaten to raise prices because of Trump's taxes/tariffs. Temu alone was the top U.S. advertiser on X last year.
  - Zero Hedge, 17 April 2025

• The latest Philadelphia Fed survey 'screams' stagflation as the decline in 'soft' data continues. Another day, another sentiment survey collapsing into the abyss of Trump-tax/tariff-driven hell.
  - Zero Hedge, 17 April 2025

• Will Americans pay a $100 tariff for packages from Shein? Trump's plan to add steep taxes to packages from Zhōngguó will financially hurt Temu, Shein and some TikTok Shop sellers, driving up prices for consumers in the USA
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 17 April 2025

• Google hit with second criminal antitrust ruling, adding to concerns about future of ads business (the first was in September 2024)
  - Comcast's CNBC, 17 April 2025

• A federal judge rules that Google has a criminal monopoly on online advertising technology
  - Comcast's CNBC, 17 April 2025

• Honk Kong suspends the shipment of packages to the USA. "The USA is unreasonable, bullying and imposing taxes/tariffs abusively.", the postal service said in a statement posted to the government website for Hong Kong.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 17 April 2025

• Toothpaste widely contaminated with lead and other metals, US research finds. Most of 51 brands tested, including those for children, contained dangerous heavy metal.
  - The Guardian, 17 April 2025

• The CEO of retailer Target will meet with the Reverend Al Sharpton to discuss the company's decision to end its diversity and equality programs, under pressure from Trump. Target is facing public demands that it be boycotted for kowtowing to Trump. Sharpton will help organize a boycott if Target doesn't publicly recommit to its former diversity and equality programs. Trump can't afford a boycott as its sales decline.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 17 April 2025

• Shares of Hertz jump 56% as billionaire investor Bill Ackman discloses stake. Pershing Square Capital Management says it now owns about 4.1% of the company.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 17 April 2025

• More 'Big Brother': 'smart' televisions sold by LG will soon leverage an AI model built for showing advertisements that more closely align with viewers' personal beliefs and emotions
  - Condé Nast's Ars Technica, 16 April 2025

• Stock prices plummet as Fed Chair Powell raises specter of stagflation, while the Fed awaits "greater clarity" from Trump on his tax/tariff trade war
  - Zero Hedge, 16 April 2025

• Trump's tax/tariff wars could destroy the television industry, if the wars push the USA economy into a recession, causing a huge drop in advertising revenues that television networks rely upon
  - Apollo Global's Yahoo Finance, 16 April 2025

• Little noticed in Trump's tax/tariff trade war is that women pay more than $2 billion on imported clothing, as compared to men. For decades, the USA tax/tariff system has taxed women's clothing more heavily than men's, a policy without justification.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 16 April 2025

• Europe rejects imports of chlorinated chicken from the USA, citing food safety concerns. Critics argue it could encourage lower hygiene standards earlier in the production process.
  - NewsNation, 16 April 2025

• Editorial: Trump's taxes/tariffs are causing a 'meltdown' for chocolate makers in the USA. Cacao grows in the tropics, so small businesses in the USA need imports. What will happen to artisan chocolate makers in the USA when Trump's huge taxes/tariffs raise the cost of cacao?
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 16 April 2025

• United Airlines offered two sets of profit guidance depending on whether the USA enters a recession or not, as it reported quarterly results that beat Wall Street expectations
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 16 April 2025

• Albertsons saw its top-line figure increase in the latest quarter as its pharmacy business powered identical sales growth
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 16 April 2025

• The on-demand services market in Zhōngguó sees a "clash of titans" as JD.com challenges Meituan. The new rivalry is a fresh sign of the hyper-competitive marketplace in Zhōngguó, where profit margins have been steadily pushed down.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 16 April 2025

• Temu (owned by PDD Holdings) has suspended advertising in the USA on Google and Facebook after Trump's taxes/tariffs, as downloads of its app plunge. Temu has been a significant advertiser since launching in the USA in September 2022.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 16 April 2025

• Proposed reductions in funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which covers some grocery costs for low-income Americans ), could be greatly reduced by as much as $230 billion over the next 10 years. At the same time, at least 11 states have proposed banning using SNAP benefits to buy soda, candy or other junk food. If implemented, those changes would impact millions of USA shoppers and the retailers and food and beverage companies that sell to them.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 16 April 2025

• Supplies of new and used vehicles for sale in the USA are declining rapidly as consumers flock to stores ahead of potential price increases due to Trump's taxes/tariffs. If high taxes/tariffs remain in place on imports of autos and auto parts, car sales could decline significantly in the USA.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 16 April 2025

• Google faces $6.6 billion lawsuit in Britain for alleged abuse of dominance in online searching, by charging higher prices for the advertisements that appear in search inquiries than it otherwise could in a competitive market
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 16 April 2025

• Johnson & Johnson plan $400 million in extra tax/tariff costs even before Trump's drug taxes/tariffs begin. The price of pharmaceuticals will likely go up soon, and generics are poised to be hit the hardest.
  - GizModo, 15 April 2025

• Hermès overtakes LVMH to become the most valuable luxury company in the world
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 15 April 2025

• Thanks to Trump ending the 'de minimis' exemption on small product imports, the backruptcy of Forever 21 will not be the last in the retail sector in the USA.
  - Real Clear Markets, 15 April 2025

• Sony increases prices for its Playstation 5 up to 11% in major markets, except for the USA. Making people in Europe pay for Trump's taxes/tariffs?
  - Zero Hedge, 15 April 2025

• Shares of LVMH drop 7.5% after the luxury conglomerate reported Q1 earnings that fell short of Bloomberg Consensus estimates. The miss was driven by softening demand for high-end goods in top markets such as Asia and the USA, as Trump's deepening trade war pressured consumer sentiment.
  - Zero Hedge, 15 April 2025

• Roasted duck, plums and cheese: the bizarre brews fueling coffee 'wars' in Zhōngguó. Cafes are putting everything they can think of into drinks to stand out in hypercompetitive market.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 15 April 2025

• The USA may lose as much as $20 billion in income from tourists, as anxious foreigners stop travelling to the USA. Increased hostility at the border and rising geopolitical frictions prompt potential visitors to rethink their holiday plans.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 15 April 2025

• Universal's new Epic Universe theme park in Orlando is predicted to generate $2 billion in revenues for the state of Florida in its first year of operations, including 17,500 jobs
  - Comcast's CNBC, 15 April 2025

• [VIDEO]: the Trump taxes/tariffs will kill the guitar industry in the USA
  - Rhett Shull (Youtube), 14 April 2025

• Companies in the USA are already adding a 'Trump surcharge' to their prices to deal with Trump's tax/tariff increases
  - The Independent, 14 April 2025

• Travel by people in Europe to the USA drops 17%, amid a blacklash to Trump's immigration and economic policies, and treatment of foreigners in the USA
  - Zero Hedge, 14 April 2025

• For restaurants that rely on imports, the tariff news is scant relief. Confusion and uncertainty worry an industry with thin profit margins and few domestic sources for foreign ingredients and foods.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 14 April 2025

• Small businesses in the USA that rely on imports from Zhōngguó are selling off inventory, and firing people, amid Trump's escalating tax/tariff trade war
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 14 April 2025

• Hollywood is producing movies based on original concepts. But people are not showing up in movie theaters to see the new films.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 14 April 2025

• Small sellers of fireworks, ski apparel and other imports cannot escape Trump's tax/tariff war. Uncertainty about Trump's taxes/tariffs is leading many small businesses to interrupt or halt production because they cannot absorb price hikes and lack leverage to negotiate.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 14 April 2025

• Amazon wants to keep prices low . One seller's tariff woes show why it is hard to keep prices low. If taxes/tariffs on products from Zhōngguó stay high, Ramon Gonzalez said he might have to close his online store.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 14 April 2025

• The government of Zhōngguó launches a comprehensive effort to boost domestic consumption as the USA trade war worsens. The government is offering more measures to boost consumer spending.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 14 April 2025

• Airlines are hoping that leisure travelers willing to treat themselves to pricier, roomier seats, but warn that domestic demand could be weaker in the near-term. With problems brewing, consumers might be able to find better deals if airlines offer discounts, even to popular international destinations.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 14 April 2025

• Goodbye to the 'landfill' economy. Globalization's great gift wasn't low prices--it was the collapse of durability, transforming the global economy into a Landfill Economy of shoddy products made of low-cost components guaranteed to fail, poor quality control, planned obsolescence and accelerated product cycles--all hyper-profitable for e-commerce companies, all to the detriment of consumers and the planet.
  - Zero Hedge, 12 April 2025

• 145% tariffs on imoprts from Zhōngguó are clobbering the toy industry. For American families, this means relatively inexpensive toys could become luxuries. Nearly 80% of all toys sold in the US are manufactured in Zhōngguó.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 12 April 2025

• Facebook, especially Facebook Marketplace, is just Craigslist now. The social-media giant has manifested its final form: not digital connector, but digital bazaar. Sponsored posts that don't sell what is in the description junk-up Marketplace's feed, just like the spam posts that have eroded Craigslst's usefulness.
  - The Atlantic, 11 April 2025

• The USA Postal Service to increase stamp prices by about 7.4% to 78 cents, effective the summer of 2025
  - Zero Hedge, 11 April 2025

• Millions of Americans rely on the anti-coagulant drug, heparin. The vast majority is manufactured in Zhōngguó. Trump's taxes/taxes on pharmaceuticals will make the drug much more expensive - some Americans could end up dying.
  - Bezos' Washington Post, 11 April 2025

• A bitter price increase in coffee shops in the USA due to Trump's tax/tariff war, which threatens a $100 billion/year industry, with 10% taxes/tariffs on most coffee imports. The vast majority of coffee in the US is imported. This will force coffee sellers in the USA to raise their prices.
  - BBC, 11 April 2025

• Following the massive cyberattack on UnitedHealth Group's Change Healthcare unit in 2024, the company launched a temporary funding assistance program to help medical practices with their short-term cash flow needs, offering no-interest loans with no added fees. A little over a year later, UnitedHealth is aggressively going after borrowers, demanding they "immediately repay" their outstanding balances. Many doctors are struggling with their finances, making it hard to repay quickly. "Rapaying them $750,000 in five days is obviously not going to happen."
  - Comcast's CNBC, 11 April 2025

• Environmental historian Adam Rome considers the history of environmental destruction due to (fast) fashion and style, especially cheap synthetic clothes that pollute the environment.
  - JSTOR Daily, 11 April 2025

• Wholesale prices in the USA fell last month, new data showed Thursday, an indication that inflationary pressures were not necessarily building before they reach the consumer. The better-than-expected Producer Price Index reading -- which showed that the prices paid to producers fell 0.4% in March from the month before and slowed sharply to an annual rate of 2.7%, from 3.2% - provides a snapshot of economic health before Trump's aggressive trade policies fully impact the economy.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 11 April 2025

• Wholesale prices unexpectedly fell 0.4% in March, showing easing inflation backdrop ahead of the impact of Trump's tax/tariff trade war. More than 70% of the decline in final demand prices came from a 0.9% decline in goods prices, a key measure as policymakers look for inflation drivers.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 11 April 2025

• Inflation eased in March but Trump's taxes/tariffs raise risk of higher prices. Policymakers and economists say the latest data is only a temporary reprieve as tariffs could stoke higher inflation.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 11 April 2025

• Prices of gasoline in the USA expected to decline, now at $3.20 per gallon, as oil prices hover near $60 per barrel
  - Apollo Global's Yahoo Finance, 11 April 2025

• $88,000,000 - Fintech founder Albert Saniger is charged with fraud after his 'AI' shopping app, Nate, is found to be powered by humans in the Philippines.
  - TechCrunch, 10 April 2025

• Publishers Clearing House files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. It will shift away from its legacy business of direct-mail, retail merchandise and magazine subscriptions - to go purely online.
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 10 April 2025

• $300,000,000 - Destiny USA, the largest mall in Syracuse, New York (owned by Carousel Center, a division of the Pyramid Companies), defaults on its $300 million mortgage. Pyramid had been required to make interest-only payments on the loan and then pay off the loan in its entirety or refinance it when its maturity date came on June 6, 2019.
  - Zero Hedge, 10 April 2025

• Inflation rate eases from 2.8% in February to 2.4% in March, lower than expected; core inflation at 4-year low of 2.8%
  - Comcast's CNBC, 10 April 2025

• State Farm pleads for emergency insurance premium rate hikes on homeowner policies in California. The company argues it needs the additional funds to boost capital and avert an increasingly dire financial situation following the devastating Los Angeles wildfires. State Farm General has about 20% of the homeowners market in California with nearly 3 million policies.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 10 April 2025

• Inflation rate eases from 2.8% in February to 2.4% in March, lower than expected; core inflation at 4-year low of 2.8%
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 10 April 2025

• Egg prices rose to a record high in March of $6.23 per dozen despite optimism from Trump last month (which touted the drop in the wholesale prices of eggs, lower costs not passed onto consumers). It was $4.95 in January.
  - Nextstar Media's The Hill, 10 April 2025

• Cal-Maine Foods is cooperating with a Justice Department probe into increases in egg prices. Cal-Maine said revenue doubled to $1.42 billion in its fiscal third quarter. The revenue increase was driven by the net average selling price , which jumped to $4.06 a dozen compared with $2.25 a year ago, the company said.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 10 April 2025

• Cal-Maine Foods is cooperating with a Justice Department probe into increases in egg prices. Cal-Maine said revenue doubled to $1.42 billion in its fiscal third quarter. The revenue increase was driven by the net average selling price , which jumped to $4.06 a dozen compared with $2.25 a year ago, the company said.
  - Zero Hedge, 10 April 2025

• Egg prices are 60% more expensive than they were a year ago
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 10 April 2025

• Prada is buying smaller rival Versace from Capri Holdings for $1.375 billion, which includes its debt, in a move that unites two of the biggest names in the fashion industry in Italy
  - Comcast's CNBC, 10 April 2025

• Prada is buying smaller rival Versace from Capri Holdings for $1.375 billion, which includes its debt, in a move that unites two of the biggest names in the fashion industry in Italy
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 10 April 2025

• Automobile sales in Zhōngguó rose sharply in March on subsidies, and softer price competition
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 10 April 2025

• Inflation rate eases from 2.8% in February to 2.4% in March, lower than expected; core inflation at 4-year low of 2.8%
  - Comcast's CNBC, 10 April 2025

• Amazon CEO Andy Jasser says he believes sellers will pass increased tax/tariff costs on to consumers in the USA, which will fuel inflation
  - Comcast's CNBC, 10 April 2025

• Trump's taxes/tariffs are sparking "demand destruction" concerns for makers of electronic equipment. Capital expenditures are new projects are being halted across the USA and will continue "until this chaotic situation is better understood by CEOs and business leaders around the world".
  - Investors Business Daily, 09 April 2025

• REI president and CEO Mary Beth Laughton issued a video apology on Wednesday for REI's endorsement of Interior Secretary Doug Burgum in February. Laughton's apology is one of the latest broadsides that REI has thrown against the Trump administration, which include accusing Burgum of undermining the public lands of the USA, while refusing to rescind REI's diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
  - SF Gate, 09 April 2025

• New study accuses Amazon of skirting a law in California by allowing minors to purchase these dangerous items
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 09 April 2025

• Consumer prices in Zhōngguó decline for a second straight month, declining 0.1% year-to-year; producer deflation deepens, with producer prices declining 2.5% year-to-year
  - Comcast's CNBC, 09 April 2025

• The government of Zhōngguó says its own consumers will save the economy. But they are still not buying enough.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 09 April 2025

• How Zhōngguó has amped up its factories and is threatening to crush US industry with a new 'tsunami' of cheap products
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 09 April 2025

• Trump threatens to end the tax/tariff exemption on imported drugs that benefits the pharmaceutical industry. In 1995, a World Trade Organization agreement resulted in few or no taxes/tariffs on finished drugs, to keep medicines affordable. Bharat supplies nearly half of all US generics, or cheaper versions of popular drugs, saving the USA billions in healthcare costs. Europe exports over $100 billion of drugs to the USA.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 09 April 2025

• Are 10-minute online delivery services in Bharat killing the corner shop and causing the shopowners to lose their jobs and livelihoods ? A lobby group of consumer product distributors estimated last October the number of closed shops to be 200,000 in Mumbai, while the municipal body of the southern city of Chennai estimated 20% of small grocers and 30% of larger departmental stores had shut down in the city in the past 5 years.
  - BBC, 09 April 2025

• Disney's Magic Kingdom in Orlando will begin offering ticket discounts from late May through September 20, as the upcoming launch of Universal's Epic Universe next month is expected to draw families away from Disney.
  - Zero Hedge, 09 April 2025

• The number of shipments of personal computers from Asia jump most in years, as importers manuever around Trump's tax/tariff trade war
  - Zero Hedge, 09 April 2025

• Amazon cancels orders from Zhōngguó, and Walmart scraps its quarterly forecast, as Trump's taxes/tariffs go into effect
  - Zero Hedge, 09 April 2025

• Walmart scraps its quarterly operating income forecast, citing Trump's tax/tariff trade war, which affects its imports from Zhōngguó, Vietnam and other countries where it can buy low-cost products for resale in the USA.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 09 April 2025

• Shares of pharmaceutical stocks fall as Trump doubles down on his tax/tariff threats. Trump has said tariffs will incentivize drugmakers to move manufacturing operations to the U.S., but analysts and experts argue that it will be difficult and costly for them to do so and could disrupt the pharmaceutical supply chain at the expense of patients.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 09 April 2025

• I am the owner of a small business, Gowanus Kitchen Lab. I invented a popular kitchen gadget, the Frywall splatter guard. Trump's taxes/tariffs on imports from Zhōngguó and Taiwan will kill my business.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 09 April 2025

• Inflation in the USA? Zhōngguó is more worried the trade war will make goods too cheap. As demand in the USA declines for products from Zhōngguó, manufacturers in Zhōngguó will be forced to compete even more fiercely for orders at home.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 09 April 2025

• The CEO of Delta says that Trump's taxes/tariffs are hurting its sales of tickets, as Delta withdraws its 2025 forecast. CEO Ed Bastian called Trump's taxes/tariffs "the wrong approach".
  - Comcast's CNBC, 09 April 2025

• The CEO of Delta says that Trump's taxes/tariffs are hurting its sales of tickets, as Delta withdraws its 2025 forecast. CEO Ed Bastian called Trump's taxes/tariffs "the wrong approach".
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 09 April 2025

• Tourists from the USA are facing a scary backlash when travelling, as Trump is making the USA a global frenemy, while fewer foreigners are travelling to the USA.
  - Business Insider, 08 April 2025

• Memory chipmaker Micron Technology, based in the USA, has told customers in the USA that it plans to impose a surcharge - raise prices - on some products from Wednesday onwards to account for Trump's new taxes/tariffs on imports from Asia
  - Thomson's Reuters, 08 April 2025

• Buy or wait? Americans wrestle with how tariffs will affect their shopping. In the first weekend since Trump unveiled broad taxes/tariffs, many shoppers sought to get ahead of expected price increases, while others showed patience.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 08 April 2025

• Why Zhōngguó is struggling to convince consumers to borrow. Beijing is offering easier access to credit in a bid to boost consumption, but households are reluctant to take on debt amid a global trade war.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 08 April 2025

• Consumers in the USA prepare for pain as Trump's taxes/tariffs reaffirm the manufacturing dominance of Zhōngguó. Despite recent supply chain shifts, consumers in the USA will have a hard time finding replacements for many staple goods still produced in Zhōngguó.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 08 April 2025

• Zhōngguó urges Shein to halt any planned supply-chain shifting out of Zhōngguó, after the imposition of taxes/tariffs by Trump
  - Bloomberg, 08 April 2025

• Cambodia got hit with the highest tax/tariff rate in Trump's global trade war, at 49%, even though its trade surplus with the USA is relatively low compared to other nations. Among retailers IN THE USA importing from Cambodian factories are Under Armour, Lululemon, Black & Decker, Hugo Boss, Eddie Bauer, Dollar General, and Bass Pro Shops, according to customs data. A trade group that represents USA companies relying on manufacturing in Cambodia tells CNBC factories and workers are in a fight for financial survival, but manufacturing IS "absolutely not going to go back to the USA".
  - Comcast's CNBC, 08 April 2025

• Walmart is facing tariffs and recession fears. It may have a secret weapon to keep growing. Walmart+ members drove nearly half of the total spent across Walmart's website and app in the USA in the most recent fiscal year, the company told CNBC. The membership program is an example of the newer moneymakers that have allowed Walmart to grow profits faster than sales.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 08 April 2025

• Walgreens reported fiscal second-quarter earnings and revenue that topped expectations, as the retail drugstore giant benefits from cost cuts and prepares to go private. Walgreens reported fiscal second-quarter earnings and revenue that topped expectations, as the retail drugstore giant benefits from cost cuts and prepares to go private. The results include a $4.2 billion charge related to a loss in value of its U.S. retail pharmacy and investment in primary care clinic chain VillageMD.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 08 April 2025

• A 6-sigma miss in consumer credit confirms that consumers in the USA are finally running out of money to spend. Judging by the shocking collapse in consumer credit in February, the economy - and certainly the US consume - not good for many SP500 stocks.
  - Zero Hedge, 07 April 2025

• Trump's taxes/tariffs that will take effect this week risk stoking even higher inflation and slower growth, complicating the Federal Reserve's decisions on monetary policy.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 07 April 2025

• The Federal Reserve is not rushing to save the markets for the latest economic chaos caused by the government
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 07 April 2025

• Trump's says that his taxes/tariffs will remain in force until the trade deficit disappears
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 07 April 2025

• Shares of automobile companies continue to decline as the impact of Trump's taxes/tariffs threaten to decimate sales. New data shows the US may lose as many as 1.8 million auto sales because of tariffs.
  - Apollo Global's Yahoo Finance, 7 April 2025

• Cars were already unaffordable before Trump's taxes/tariffs. Trump's auto tariffs are about to give another boost to car prices that have already surged over the past four years. That will be an additional burden on household budgets.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 07 April 2025

• What is the VAT? The tax Trump hates and the rest of the world will not give up. Value-added taxes, which Trump says discriminate against exporters in the USA, fund a large share of government budgets in many countries.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 07 April 2025

• "Fewer choices and higher prices": tax/tariff increases are likely to be passed on to consumers while companies look for cheaper locations to manufacture.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 07 April 2025

• Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan bank, says that Trump's taxes/tariffs will boost inflation, slow an already weakening economy in the USA
  - Comcast's CNBC, 07 April 2025

• Mission impossible: 2 percent inflation: inflation or deflation shocks that cause the long-term historic inflation rate to gap up or gap down will also cause long-term inflation expectations to gap up or gap down. Long-term inflation expectations in the euro area and Japan will be close to the sweet spot near 2 percent, while those in the US and the UK will be stuck uncomfortably above 2 percent.
  - Zero Hedge, 05 April 2025

• Where will we go when the middle-class restaurant is gone in the USA? The boom in American sit-down chains has come and gone. What replaced them (e-commerce delivery apps ) is not so great for human connection and the social fabric of the USA. [KM: while the rich AI companies get richer.]
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 05 April 2025

• Your new lunch habit is hurting the economy. More people are bringing lunch to work and restaurants are selling fewer lunches than they did in 2020.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 05 April 2025

• It will cost an extra $714 billion in tariffs/taxes to bring shoes, televisions and all other imports into the USA, a new analysis of trade data shows.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 05 April 2025

• The Trump administration rejects expanding Medicare and Medicaid coverage of obesity drugs
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 05 April 2025

• The Trump administration rejects expanding Medicare and Medicaid coverage of obesity drugs
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 05 April 2025

• Milton Friedman on taxes/tariffs: "We call a tariff a protective measure. It does protect ... it protects the consumer against low prices."
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 05 April 2025

• The unscientific crusade against seed oils. The anti-seed oil movement is dealt a blow as a Harvard study suggests plant-based oils lower mortality - but questions remain.
  - McGill University, 04 April 2025

• Pharmacy chain Rite Aid is weighing a possible second bankruptcy after its recent financial restructuring failed to put the drugstore chain on a sustainable path. It entered and exited bankruptcy in 2023/2024, when it filed for Chapter 11 in October 2023, after reporting $750 million in losses and $24 billion in revenue for the fiscal year ended March 2023. The pharmacy has used its bankruptcy to close hundreds of stores, sell its pharmacy benefit company Elixir and negotiate settlements with its lenders, drug distribution partner McKesson and other creditors.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 04 April 2025

• A brewery trade group which represents Carlsberg, Asahi and brands from 28 countries has decried Trump's latest 25 percent tax/tariff on beer imports to the USA. They say they have become a "collateral victim" of taxes imposed on Wednesday afternoon as part of Trump's "liberation day" announcement. Brewers of Europe warned that the tariffs could lead to 100,000 job losses and brewery closures across Europe.
  - The Daily Beast, 04 April 2025

• Klarna, the specialty lending and online payments provider for "buy now, pay later" services - has halted its planned initial public offering, the latest IPO casualty in the wake of Trump's tax/tariff trade war
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 04 April 2025

• Thomas Sewell: "People hang on to their money until they figure out what you [Trump] are going to do. And when a lot of people hang on to their money, you can get results such as you got during the Great Depression."
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 04 April 2025

• Hershey completes a $750 million deal to buy LesserEvil popcorn brand. The deal value could grow over time if LesserEvil, a snack maker, hits certain milestones in its performance.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 04 April 2025

• Fintech stocks such as Affirm and PayPal plunge on concern that Trump's taxes/tariffs will hurt consumer spending. Affirm, which offers buy now, pay later purchasing options, plunged 19%, while stock trading app Robinhood slid 10% and payments company PayPal fell 8%. American Express and Capital One each tumbled 10%, and Discover was down more than 8%.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 03 April 2025

• Automobiles were already unaffordable before Trump's latest taxes/tariffs
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 03 April 2025

• The new Pepsi challenge: saving Pepsi from years of decline. After its cola dropped to No. 3, PepsiCo is trying to win back soda drinkers: "maybe we lost the focus".
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 03 April 2025

• Trump's elimination of the 'de minimis' exemption for products imported from Zhōngguó will ultimately hurt consumers in the USA, while cross-border e-commerce firms in Zhōngguó are facing a short-term loss but could remain competitive.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 03 April 2025

• Elon Musk's troubles with declining sales of Tesla vehicles are only getting started. Trump turned the White House into a Tesla showroom. His Commerce Secretary urged people to buy Teslas. People in the USA are not buying the government marketing private sector products. The people who would buy Tesla's electric cars (liberals, environmentalists, techies) are, figuratively and now very literally, not buying what Musk is selling.
  - The Next American Century, 02 April 2025

• Eurozone inflation falls close to target but price pressures remain as unemployment hits new low
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 02 April 2025

• Visa offers Apple about $100 million to take over credit card from Mastercard. Visa, Amex and Mastercard are all competing to be the network for Apple's credit card.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 02 April 2025

• Shares of airline companies decline as waning demand, and Trump's tax/tariff concerns, threaten summer travel. Some carriers have started cutting prices and available seating to mitigate falling demand. But many are holding off on making major cuts in hopes that uncertainty will subside ahead of the peak summer season.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 02 April 2025

• Here is more proof that highways are terrible for cities. Highways block social connections between communities.
  - Fast Company, 01 April 2025

• Trump has fired the chair of the Tennessee Valley Authority Board of Directors, stripping the governing body of the nation's largest public power provider of its ability to conduct business with only four members left. Trump's second firing of a TVA board member in less than a week emphasizes the administration's attention on TVA as the board moved swiftly to select a new CEO and faces pressure to meet growing power demand.
  - Knoxville News Sentinel, 01 April 2025

• Illycaffe, a premium coffee maker in Italy, will be forced to raise prices in response to any taxes/tariffs imposed this week by Trump. "Taxes will be passed on to the final price." Illy kept prices steady last year despite a sharp increase in arabica bean prices but in 2025 it has increased prices by an average of 4% globally. The CEO added that some of the products sold in the U.S. could possibly be produced locally but the rest of the production would remain in Italy, where she confirmed a 120 million euro investment to double production capacity.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 01 April 2025

• Manufacturing PMIs decline despite surge in 'hard' data; prices paid spike to 3-year-highs. "Tariffs were the most cited cause of factory input costs rising in March, and at a rate not seen since mid-2022 during the pandemic-related supply shock."
  - Zero Hedge, 01 April 2025

• Manufacturing PMIs decline despite surge in 'hard' data; prices paid spike to 3-year-highs. "Tariffs were the most cited cause of factory input costs rising in March, and at a rate not seen since mid-2022 during the pandemic-related supply shock."
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 01 April 2025

• Manufacturing in the USA declines into contraction as cost surge, pressured by Trump's taxes/tariffs
  - Apollo Global's Yahoo Finance, 1 April 2025

• Chipotle went on a seven-year quest to find avocados outside of Mexico. The burrito chain, heavily reliant on Mexican imports, has worked since 2018 to diversify sourcing for the guacamole ingredient.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 01 April 2025

• $162,400,000 - The competition regulator in France fines Apple $162,400,000 over concerns the company abused its dominant position in mobile apps through the privacy measures it imposes on developers on its iPhone and s operating system.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 11 March 2025

• Target is reportedly pushing its suppliers in Zhōngguó to absorb some of the costs of Trump's taxes/tariffs, following similar requests by retail giants such as Costco and Walmart
  - Quartz, 31 March 2025

• Are used car prices set to soar again? Consumers unable or unwilling to pay a higher price (due to tariffs) may resort to purchasing a used car.
  - Zero Hedge, 31 March 2025

• Tesla plunges 36% in the first quarter, the worst performance for any period since 2022. The company has seen declining new vehicle sales and faces concerns surrounding Trump's tariffs as well as protests related to CEO Elon Musk's role in the administration. Tesla lost over $460 billion in market cap in the quarter, while the Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency claims it has so far saved $140 billion.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 31 March 2025

• Republicans in Florida, pass a law allowing workers to 'voluntarily' request to get paid less than the minimum wage. Republicans passed a law, but also despite clear language in the Fair Labor Standards Act and Florida case law that employees cannot waive their rights to minimum pay. In the end, this bill is just a legally flawed gift from politicians to businesses looking to cut labor costs at the expense of their poorest, unskilled workers.
  - USA Today, 31 March 2025

• The financial demise of Forever 21 means that fast-fashion (Forever 21, H&M, Zara) - an environmentally bad industry, is losing out to the ultra-fast fashion companies such as Temu and Shein, even worse for the environment
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 31 March 2025

• Efforts to eliminate fake users for online advertisers are failing. Brands spend billions on ads without knowing if they are being shown to humans. With fake users making up 40% of web traffic, bot-detection companies cannot keep up, and advertising brokers don't want to spend more of their money solving the problem.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 31 March 2025

• Huawei's consumer business reports a 38% surge in revenue on robust smartphone sales, signalling progress in overcoming sanctions imposed by the USA.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 31 March 2025

• Huawei reports a decline in profits due to higher expenses, but solid revenue growth signals that the company is making a comeback after years of heavy sanctions imposed by the USA that have affected its businesses.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 31 March 2025

• How TikTok Shop is beating Amazon and Temu in the social shopping space
  - Comcast's CNBC, 30 March 2025

• Soaring demand for Toyota's gasoline-electric hybrids has left suppliers struggling to keep pace, leading to shortages of parts and months-long waits for car buyers. Stocks of hybrids are low at Toyota dealers across major markets, including the USA, Nihon, Zhōngguó and Europe.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 30 March 2025

• The economy is slowing fast. Inflation or not, interest rate reductions might be the answer.
  - Barron's, 29 March 2025

• Another business challenge for food giants: upstart brands. Watch out Hershey and Kraft Heinz: Consumers have developed a taste for fresh brands, such as Chocolonely chocolate bars, Poppi soda, and Lesser Evil popcorn.
  - Barron's, 29 March 2025

• Because of Trump's trade war and political threats, people in Canada are cancelling their trips to the USA, which will widen the $50 billion travel deficit that the USA has with foreign countries. The cross-border travel trends and Trump's policies are worrying some in the travel industry in the USA, which draws in more than $1 trillion in direct spending a year. Airlines in Canada and the USA are reducing some routes and flights to the USA.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 29 March 2025

• $1,640,000,000 - A federal judge ordered a Johnson & Johnson's Janssen unit on Friday to pay the U.S. government $1.64 billion after a jury found it liable in a whistleblower lawsuit for illegally promoting the HIV drugs Prezista and Intelence for off-label uses.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 28 March 2025

• $100,000,000 - Google has agreed to pay $100 million in cash to settle a long-running lawsuit claiming it overcharged advertisers by failing to provide promised discounts and charged for clicks on ads outside the geographic areas the advertisers targeted.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 28 March 2025

• Sales of junk food rise 0.8% one year after a state legalizes marijuana. The increase in spending on junk food is even more impressive if you realise that people start to make fewer trips to the supermarket. Which is where gym owners come in. If people are hanging out on their sofas getting high, they are most certainly not going to the gym to work out.
  - Klement on Investing, 28 March 2025

• Gold Flora, a cannabis company in California with 16 dispensaries, with $100 million in revenues, is seeking receivership, looking to sell off all of its assets as it faces mounting financial losses and eventually to shut down the sprawling business.
  - SF Gate, 28 March 2025

• Bharat is asking the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global money-laundering watchdog, to reduce compliance requirements for cross-border payments made through its homegrown system, several sources familiar with the discussions said. Launched in 2016, the Unified Payment Interface (UPI) accounted for 83% of India's digital payments volume in 2024, up from 34% in 2019, and dominates the domestic retail payments sector. The government now wants to increase the use of its own payments network by Indians travelling abroad, which could potentially tap into a growing market, and make the global cross-border payments market more competitive. But its expansion for cross-border payments has been hampered by compliance requirements on smaller payments, to which payments made via networks such as Visa, Mastercard, and SWIFT are not subject, the sources said.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 28 March 2025

• Chuck E. Cheese owner CEC Entertainment is struggling to drum up enough demand for a $660 million high-yield bond sale to refinance debt it has due next year. One of the people attributed the difficulties to a broader market rout stemming from concerns about Trump's erratic tax/tariff policies as well as the economy of the USA.
  - Bloomberg, 28 March 2025

• Core inflation, the Fed's key inflation measure, in February rises to 2.8%, higher than expected. Consumer spending accelerated 0.4% for the month, below the 0.5% forecast. That came as personal income posted a 0.8% rise, against the estimate for 0.4%.
  - Zero Hedge, 28 March 2025

• Core inflation, the Fed's key inflation measure, in February rises to 2.8%, higher than expected. Consumer spending accelerated 0.4% for the month, below the 0.5% forecast. That came as personal income posted a 0.8% rise, against the estimate for 0.4%.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 28 March 2025

• The Dow Jones Index drops 500 points as inflation worries dent market sentiment. The SP500 fell 1.1% and Nasdaq fell 1.5%.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 28 March 2025

• The Dow Jones Index drops 500 points as inflation worries dent market sentiment. The SP500 fell 1.1% and Nasdaq fell 1.5%.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 28 March 2025

• Fashion retailer H&M will use non-paid digital clones of paid human fashion models in its ads and social media. Some fear the move could impact other models, photographers and make-up artists - paid humans.
  - BBC, 27 March 2025

• Shares of Lululemon drop more than 10% as the CEO says inflation and economic concerns are causing consumers to spend less
  - Comcast's CNBC, 27 March 2025

• $2,800,000+ - Walgreens to pay over $2.8 million in settlement agreements in violation of federal, Georgia and Massachusetts False Claim Acts. The settlement alleges Walgreen inflated prices for generic medications to Georgia and Massachusetts Medicaid programs.
  - WRBL News, 27 March 2025

• Walmart CEO Doug McMillon says customers are exhibiting "stressed behaviors" - and it has already caused the company's valuation to decline by $22 billion, closing own 3% by market close on Tuesday
  - Jiaravanon's Fortune, 26 March 2025

• RFK Junior, Health and Human Services Secretary, is pushing a plan to ban pharmaceutical advertisements from television. Television drug ads are not designed to inform - they are design to manipulate. Make viewers want a drug before they even talk to their doctor. America has normalized a pill-for-everything culture, supercharged by the fact that doctors are often nudged by patients demanding whatever drug they saw advertised last night during a commercial break. This revenue isn't just padding Big Pharma's pockets - it is quietly buying influence in the media. Nearly 31% of ad minutes on major nightly news broadcasts in 2024 came from pharmaceutical brands. That means a huge portion of media budgets depend on the very companies they should be holding accountable. And surprise, surprise: when Big Pharma misleads the public, many news outlets are either silent or hesitant to report critically. The financial conflict of interest is baked in.
  - Zero Hedge, 26 March 2025

• Shares of Tesla drop 6% more on Wednesday, following news of soft sales in Europe and a White House announcement that auto taxes/tariffs are coming
  - Comcast's CNBC, 26 March 2025

• The surprising good news for shopping mall owners: the bankruptcy of Forever 21. The fast-fashion retailer's store closures create an opportunity for stronger tenants that can pay higher rents.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 26 March 2025

• Sake producers in Nihon are struggling to find a way to remain profitable as whisky continues to gain ground among drinkers in Nihon
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 26 March 2025

• $~8,000,000,000 - Dollar Tree is selling Family Dollar for $1 billion to private equity investors, ending its disastrous merger. It bought Family Dollar for about $9 billion in 2015. Since its stock has been flat since 2015, with no dividend, Dollar Tree effectively lost about $8 billion of shareholder money.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 26 March 2025

• Dollar Tree is selling Family Dollar for $1 billion to private equity investors, ending its disastrous merger. . It bought Family Dollar for about $9 billion in 2015.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 26 March 2025

• Dollar Tree is selling Family Dollar for $1 billion to private equity investors, ending its disastrous merger. . It bought Family Dollar for about $9 billion in 2015.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 26 March 2025

• Over 9 million student loan borrowers are past due with loan payments, after the Covid-era payment pause expired
  - Comcast's CNBC, 26 March 2025

• Consumer Board consumer expectations plunge to 12-year lows, as expectations of inflation increase. Another day, another sentiment measure disappoints.
  - Zero Hedge, 25 March 2025

• Carvana could become the 'Amazon of auto retail', according to analysts at Morgan Stanley, with its competitive advantages with vertical integration and scale
  - Investopedia, 25 March 2025

• Sales of Tesla vehicles in the EU plunge 40% year-to-year in February, but ARK's Cathie Woods remains bullish
  - Zero Hedge, 25 March 2025

• Sales of Tesla vehicles in the EU plunge 40% year-to-year in February, but ARK's Cathie Woods remains bullish
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 25 March 2025

• It is time for Black Americans, led by the church leaders, to boycott corporations that are abandoning their diversity and equality initiatives under threats from Trump
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 25 March 2025

• Fintech lender Affirm said Tuesday that it has reached an agreement with JPMorgan Chase to offer Affirm's "buy now, pay later" services to merchants on the bank's payments network. Merchants in the USA who use JPMorgan to handle payments can now add Affirm to their checkout pages. Financially-stressed consumers will have access to loans ranging from 30 days to 60 months, according to Affirm.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 25 March 2025

• The consumer in the USA is running out of money to borrow to spend, spend, spend the SP500 up. The share of active credit card accounts making only the minimum payment hit a series high, 10.75% in third quarter 2024. n addition, more consumers are falling behind on their monthly card payments. The balance-based 30+ days past due rate increased 33 basis points year-over-year to 3.52% in third quarter 2024. This represents more than double the delinquency rate of 1.57 percent at the pandemic low in second quarter 2021 (during Covid).
  - Zero Hedge, 24 March 2025

• A growing number of Europeans and citizens of other countries are choosing not to buy American products to demonstrate their anger at Trump's authoritarian policies and attacks against their countries.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 24 March 2025

• Small businesses are running out of moves in Trump's trade war. Lacking large cash cushions or leverage with suppliers, small-business entrepreneurs say they are cutting costs and putting expansion plans on hold.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 24 March 2025

• Zhōngguó is increasing the pressure on Walmart. That could mean higher prices for consumers in the USA. Walmart thought it could use its immense power as the biggest retailer in the USA to make suppliers in Zhōngguó pay the cost of Trump's tax/tariff trade war. The government of Zhōngguó is saying: "NO". The backlash from Zhōngguó also contradicts Treasury Secretary Bessent's prediction that manufacturers in Zhōngguó will "eat the tariffs" and prices for consumers in the USA "will not go up". Walmart obtains 20% of its products from Zhōngguó.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 24 March 2025

• Creatine, a popular health supplement to build muscle mass, might be worthless. "We have shown that taking 5 grams of creatine supplement per day does not make any difference to the amount of lean muscle mass people put on while resistance training."
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 24 March 2025

• Coffee roasters that were betting on lower prices opted out of hedging. Now consumers will pay the price. Coffee buyers didn't use the futures market to hedge costs, betting they could obtain a better price in the future. But supply shortages persisted and prices kept climbing, leaving companies from JDE Peet's NV to Starbucks no option but to raise costs for consumers. Average prices for a pound of ground roast coffee reached a record $7.25 a pound in February.
  - Bloomberg, 23 March 2025

• The deal betweeen DoorDash and Klarna, that will let cash-strapped consumers pay for restaurant food, groceries and other delivery orders in four equal, interest-free installments - feeds the addiction to debt in the USA . "The problem is these things start having a very pervasive and very negative influence on people who cannot afford it. They just want something now, and they go into this spiral of debt and always trying to chase up and meet the payment requirement." News of the DealDash BNPL arrangement comes against a backdrop of steadily rising consumer debt and signs that Americans are increasingly unable to keep up with their obligations.
  - Zero Hedge, 22 March 2025

• The deal betweeen DoorDash and Klarna, that will let cash-strapped consumers pay for restaurant food, groceries and other delivery orders in four equal, interest-free installments - feeds the addiction to debt in the USA . "The problem is these things start having a very pervasive and very negative influence on people who cannot afford it. They just want something now, and they go into this spiral of debt and always trying to chase up and meet the payment requirement." News of the DealDash BNPL arrangement comes against a backdrop of steadily rising consumer debt and signs that Americans are increasingly unable to keep up with their obligations.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 22 March 2025

• Meituan nearly triples profit despite competition. The food-delivery giant in Zhōngguó continued its run of strong earnings even as it faces fierce competition and a weaker economy in Zhōngguó.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 22 March 2025

• How popular is bottled water around the world? Very popular, despite being 100 times more expensive than tap water (which is mostly just as healthy), while causing huge environmental damage.
  - Zero Hedge, 21 March 2025

• How safe are seed oils, some which have been part of traditional diets for centuries with those created for large-scale food production? Sesame seed and flaxseed oil are extracted through natural, cold-press methods that preserve their nutrients and antioxidants. Others, however, are highly processed. Industrial seed oils - suhc as soybean, corn, canola, sunflower, safflower, cottonseed, grapeseed, and rice bran - are mass-produced through high-heat extraction and chemical refining. This process makes them neutral in taste and more shelf-stable, but it also removes beneficial compounds like vitamin E and antioxidants. Many industrial seed oils were never intended for human consumption. Canola oil began as rapeseed oil, primarily used as a machine lubricant until Canadian scientists modified it in the 1970s to remove toxic compounds.
  - Zero Hedge, 21 March 2025

• Omega-3s oil are great for your health - but supplements may not be. Fish oil can reduce inflammation and lower cardiovascular disease risk. Yet a growing body of research suggests that supplements may not offer those same benefits.
  - National Geographic, 21 March 2025

• Viktor Orban, the prime minister of Hungary, is seeking to tame inflation with methods, such as fixing the price of eggs, that remind his critics of communist-era central planning.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 21 March 2025

• ~$6,500,000 - The Manhattan art adviser Lisa Schiff, who admitted to stealing about $6.5 million that clients gave her to buy art, but which she instead burned through to fund her life of luxury, was sentenced to two and a half years in federal prison on Wednesday.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 21 March 2025

• Central banks around the world wrestle with slowing growth, and stubborn inflation. Bank of England kept interest rates steady, mirroring the Federal Reserve's move a day earlier.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 21 March 2025

• Nike is in a major slump. Nike's global sales dropped 9% last quarter, including a 17% drop in Zhōngguó. In North America, Nike's largest market, sales dropped 9%. The largest shoemaker in the world faces a consumer slowdown and tough competition from upstart running brands like Hoka and On. Customers are changing their behaviors, not buying expensive sneakers and athletic clothing.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 21 March 2025

• Nike expects sales will plunge in current quarter as it faces Trump's taxes/tariffs, and sliding consumer confidence. During Nike's important holiday quarter, sales declined 9%, driven by weakness in Zhōngguó.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 21 March 2025

• Apple has been hit with a lawsuit in the federal district court in San Jose which claims that the company's promotion of now-delayed Apple Intelligence features constituted false advertising and unfair competition
  - Axios, 20 March 2025

• Restaurants in Zhōngguó are becoming unprofitable, and many failing, as staglation plagues the economy. The deflation has caused a price war amongst restaurants, while consumer spend less on eating outside their homes. "In first-tier cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, the monthly restaurant closure rate exceeds 10%, sometimes even surpassing 15%."
  - Thomson's Reuters, 20 March 2025

• From the Philippines to Senegal, billions of people are finding it easier to feed their families now that rice prices have plunged off 15-year highs. While good news for consumers, ample stockpiles and falling prices are creating challenges for farmers and their profit margins. If prices fall too far, it could spur farmers to plant less in the approaching season, risking a cut in supplies.
  - Bloomberg, 20 March 2025

• Klarna lands a "buy now, pay later" debt-delaying services deal with DoorDash, obtaining another deal ahead of its IPO
  - Comcast's CNBC, 20 March 2025

• West Texas crude oil prices are not changing much, as inventories of crude oil rise. Meanwhile, retail prices of gasoline decline for the 4th straight week.
  - Zero Hedge, 19 March 2025

• Salmon prices rise in Nihon due to dwindling populations in the coastal waters of Nihon, and global heating and climate change is the culprit
  - The Cool Down, 18 March 2025

• With consumption of beer declining in the USA, barley farmers with overdue loans and mounting interest payments now have to fear the fallout of Trump's tax/tariff trade war. Canada is the biggest importer of barley from the USA, and México is the third biggest importer. Costs for fertilizer, which is mostly sourced from Canada, will rise with tariffs. Much barley is grown in the states that voted to re-elect Trump.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 18 March 2025

• DOGE's budget reductions at the Department of Agriculture could cause grocery prices to rise in the USA and allow invasive species to spread. Thousands of Department of Agriculture employees, including food inspectors and disease-sniffing-dog trainers, remain out of work, leaving food to rot in ports and pests to proliferate. The pest/species problem is of little interest to Trump.
  - Wired, 18 March 2025

• State Farm gets 'provisional' approval in California for a 22% increase in premiums for insurance policies on homes and buildings for owners, and 15% for renters
  - Zero Hedge, 17 March 2025

• RFK Junior, the Health Secretary, and beauty 'influencers', are raving about the health benefits of beef tallow. Scientific nonsense, of course. The American Health Association, based on science, encourages the use of seed oils, stating: "The lie is that seed oils are high in omega-6 fatty acids that break down into toxins when used for cooking, causing inflammation, weakening the immune system, and contributing to chronic illnesses." RFK Junior isn't attacking the actual health threat: "People are blaming the seed oils when that is not what is toxic. It is the sugar and salt in the junk food that they are using."
  - Jiaravanon's Fortune, 17 March 2025

• Shares of Affirm drop 12%, as rivel Klarna secures a deal with Walmart to offer "Buy Now Pay Later" loan services
  - Zero Hedge, 17 March 2025

• Shares of Affirm drop 12%, as rivel Klarna secures a deal with Walmart to offer "Buy Now Pay Later" loan services
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 17 March 2025

• Treasury Secretary Bessent last week articulated the ideological underpinnings of the Trump economic agenda as clearly as anyone when he said that "access to cheap goods is not the essence of the American Dream". This is a landmark statement, because access to cheap consumption goods has been the essence of the American dream since the 1950s at least and the USA's role as consumer of last resort for foreign surplus has been one of the enduring linchpins of the post-WWII economic system. The rise of Zhōngguó - a nation that does not share American values - and the structural imbalances created by suspected state-subsidized overproduction means that this model is now past its use-by date. Thus, a new model is being adopted to safeguard pre-eminence of the USA in world affairs.
  - Zero Hedge, 17 March 2025

• Wholesale egg prices have fallen more than 40% since the end of February. The pullback comes amid a reprieve from major bird flu outbreaks so far in March and weaker consumer demand, which have helped the egg supplies in the USA to start recovering.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 17 March 2025

• "Danish Viking blood is boiling" - people in Denmark are boycotting products from the USA with fervor, as are other consumers in Europe, to protest Trump's authoritarian and erratic economic policies and tax/tariff wars
  - Associated Press, 17 March 2025

• Shares of Tesla decline 6% on Monday, after dropping 8% last week, after Tesla offers free self-driving trial in Zhōngguó, which may not be enough to take on Tesla's rivals on the mainland
  - Apollo Global's Yahoo Finance, 7 March 2025

• Trump says that he is cracking down on fentanyl smugglers at the borde , but customs officers are more likely to bust people sneaking in eggs. Customs officers have seized 3,768 poultry-related products, compared to 352 busts of fentanyl.
  - The Daily Beast, 17 March 2025

• Forever 21 files for bankruptcy for the second time, and plans a "liquidation sale". Forever 21, which at its height operated more than 500 locations in the US and at least 800 worldwide, is preparing to shutter all 350 stores as part of a bankruptcy filing in the coming days. It would be the second time in six years that the 41 year-old company files for bankruptcy protection as it faces stiff competition from Temu and Shein, based in Zhōngguó.
  - Zero Hedge, 17 March 2025

• A secret mortgage blacklist is leaving homeowners stuck with unsellable condos. Fewer homes can get Fannie Mae-backed mortgages, a response to Surfside condo collapse and insurance crunch.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 17 March 2025

• The USA could experience a deficit of beef. Trump's tax/tariff plans with make it worse, and burgers more expensive.
  - Economist, 16 March 2025

• Tourists cancel their plans to visit the USA, as Trump disrupts international allies with policies and taxes/tariffs
  - The Independent, 16 March 2025

• Tourists cancel their plans to visit the USA, as Trump disrupts international allies with policies and taxes/tariffs
  - Jiaravanon's Fortune, 16 March 2025

• Wine businesses fear disaster in threat of huge tariffs. Trump's threat to impose 200 percent fees on wines from Europe could harm importers, distributors, retailers and restaurants without necessarily helping producers in the USA, including idiot producers who voted for Trump.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 16 March 2025

• Trump's tax/tariff trade war and retaliation by other countries will economically hurt the hardest the people that voted for Trump. Foreign countries are targeting their counterattacks, with taxes/tariffs that have been carefully designed to hit Trump where it hurts: nearly 8 million Americans work in industries targeted by the levies and the majority are Trump voters.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 16 March 2025

• Why Zhōngguó is worried about Trump's taxes/tariffs on Mexico. Zhōngguó's exports to developing markets have soared, opening indirect routes to the USA market that officials in Beijing worry may be closed under pressure from Trump.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 16 March 2025

• Not just condo prices: the entire housing market in Florida is softening, especially along the southwest coast. Prices are falling and inventory is rising in much of Florida. The turning market comes as migration to the Sunshine State slows, and a combination of hurricane fears, rising insurance and tax bills, and a steady supply of new construction has given buyers more leverage.
  - Apollo Global's Yahoo Finance, 5 March 2025

• Trump's taxes/tariffs create chaos in the producer aisles of supermarkets. Suppliers of fruits and vegetables cancel orders to avoid Trump's trade battle, while grocers look to hold prices steady.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 15 March 2025

• Elon Musk's Tesla reportedly halts deliveries of Cybertrucks, after owners complain of metal sides falling off because the glue holding the truck's stainless steel exterior in place is failing for many Tesla customers. It is the latest of numerous instances of build quality issues with the Cybertruck.
  - Jiaravanon's Fortune, 14 March 2025

• Kering lost around $3 billion in stockmarket value on Friday after the group chose in-house talent Demna to reinvigorate its Gucci label rather than hiring one of fashion's big-ticket names as chief designer. Shares of Kering fell by up to 13% in Paris and posted their worst day in almost a year following the appointment of Balenciaga designer Demna, eventually closed down 11%.
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 14 March 2025

• Forever 21 moved closer to shuttering its stores forever, as it nears filing for bankruptcy. Forever 21, which at its height operated more than 500 locations in the US and at least 800 worldwide, is preparing to shutter all 350 stores as part of a bankruptcy filing in the coming days. It would be the second time in six years that the 41 year-old company files for bankruptcy protection as it faces stiff competition from Temu and Shein, based in Zhōngguó.
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 14 March 2025

• Consumers in the USA are starting to spend less as Trump's taxes/tariffs add to inflation and concerns of recession. CEOs of strong companies like Delta, Walmart and Dick's Sporting Goods have struck cautious tones in recent weeks, leading them to cut their guidance or give weaker-than-expected outlooks.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 14 March 2025

• Shoppers are skimping on cigarettes, doritos and Twinkies. Convenience-store sales have fallen as consumers cut back on snacks due to rising prices and health concerns.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 14 March 2025

• Hugo Boss warns of lingering uncertainty amid weak consumer sentiment. The apparel company said subdued consumer sentiment and muted store traffic have hurt its performance in the year so far, warning that it expects market uncertainty to persist.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 14 March 2025

• Puma warns of sluggish sales growth amid trade wars, and currency volatility. The company forecasts sales should rise in the low- to mid-single-digit percentage range on a currency-adjusted basis this year.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 14 March 2025

• Why buying/studying-for an MBA is a waste of time. On today's world of accelerating technological change, an MBA is little more than an overpriced badge that adds little real value.
  - Hindustan Times, 13 March 2025

• Core producer prices decline the most since Covid lockdowns in April 2020. Prices for eggs and other foods were up, prices for gasoline were down
  - Zero Hedge, 13 March 2025

• Drivers in Zhōngguó that once flocked to Tesla are turning more and more to local brands that offer more efficient cars with better technology, sometimes at half the price. It doesn't help Tesla that Elon Musk fully supports Trump's trade war with Zhōngguó.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 13 March 2025

• Egg prices are still surging, damaging the finances of consumers
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 13 March 2025

• Target improves its grocery supply chain as consumer spending shifts. The retailer is bringing its supply chain for fresh and frozen foods in house to better forecast demand and plan inventory.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 13 March 2025

• The billionaires at Spotify say it paid $10 billion in royalties in 2024 (about two-thirds of its revenues) -- but only 4% of its artists make a living. The music-streaming giant has long been the target of criticism from artists about paltry payments, but said it doled out record royalties in 2024. Earlier this year, Icelandic singer Bjork said that "Spotify is probably the worst thing that has happened to musicians." Spotify says some 1,500 artists received over $1 million in royalties last year, with 670 getting checks of $2 million or more. Of those, 70 took in $10 million or more. But with work from over 225,000 musicians appearing on the platform, that means that just 0.6% of them are seeing big money.
  - Murdoch's MarketWatch, 12 March 2025

• After Trump imposes an import tax/tariff of 25% for aluminum, will hurt the beer industry. When Trump imposed a tax/tariff of 10% in 2018, within one year, it increased costs to beer companies by $250 million. What really irked the Beer Institute was that the import tariff was being passed through even though USA cansheet typically contains around 70% recycled metal sourced domestically.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 12 March 2025

• Major packaged food makers including Quaker Oats and Folgers coffee asked Trump for targeted exemptions from taxes/tariffs on imports like cocoa and fruit.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 12 March 2025

• North American coffee market participants are seeking clarity on how the trade war started by the administration of Trump impacts their businesses across the region, where operations are highly interconnected.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 12 March 2025

• Owners of vehicles sold by Tesla, controlled by Elon Musk, who are selling their cars in protest of Musk , are in for a shock: used car prices are plummeting as the market floods with people selling their Teslas. Things have gotten so bad for reluctant Tesla owners that the average price of a pre-owned Tesla is now nearly $10,000 less than a non-Tesla EV.
  - Jalopnik, 12 March 2025

• How BYD outcompetes Tesla around the world. BYD is more affordable than Tesla in at least 10 places outside the West.
  - Rest of World, 12 March 2025

• Costco Wholesale fell 6.1% on Friday in response to its second-quarter fiscal 2025 results and management commentary on the earnings call. Costco's earnings only came in slightly below Wall Street analyst estimates. So the extent of the sell-off may seem a bit surprising, especially considering Costco isn't usually a volatile stock.
  - Motley Fool, 12 March 2025

• Airlines reduce their forecasts, raising an early alarm about consumer spending. The revised revenue projections suggest that flagging economic confidence has started to hurt travel, which can be an indicator for other industries.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 12 March 2025

• Consumer prices rose 2.8 percent in the year through February, a slightly better result than expected. But analysts are worried that Trump's taxes/tariffs could add to future price pressures.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 12 March 2025

• Core consumer price inflation slowest in 4 years as energy and airfare costs tumble
  - Zero Hedge, 12 March 2025

• Inflation declined to 2.8% in February, lower than expected (at 2.9%), down from 3% in January. Core CPI rise slowed to 3.1%, but looming taxes/tariffs may put upward pressure on prices.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 12 March 2025

• Consumers keep bailing out the economy. Now they might be running out of spending money. Recession fears rekindle concerns that Americans are overstretched on debt.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 12 March 2025

• $1,900,000 - Gilda Rosenberg, a wealthy Golden Beach woman who owns a vending machine business, pleaded guilty on Monday to cheating the federal government out of $1.9 million in taxes by failing to report income on millions of dollars hidden in foreign bank accounts.
  - The Miami Herald, 11 March 2025

• Tesla could be the next corporation to suffer the public relations disaster that Bud Light suffered, with the company's traditional politically left-leaning owners turned off by CEO Elon Musk's right-leaning political activities.
  - Murdoch's MarketWatch, 11 March 2025

• Shares of Kohl's plunge 15% as retailer gives rough outlook for the year ahead
  - Comcast's CNBC, 11 March 2025

• Shares of Kohl's plunge 15% as retailer gives rough outlook for the year ahead
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 11 March 2025

• The rise and fall of the "Napa Valley of cannabis". Pueblo, Colorado, had high hopes for a marijuana boom. Now financial troubles plague the industry.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 11 March 2025

• Can Keeta, the global brand for Meituan's delivery service, use the Middle East as a springboard for other international markets? It is now the 3rd largest food delivery platform in Saudia Arabia. ts aggressive, price-slashing strategy is squeezing smaller players and challenging dominant platforms in the lucrative Middle Eastern market, which could be a springboard for other international markets.
  - Rest of World, 10 March 2025

• BlackRock CEO Fink says that Trump's nationalistic policies will stoke inflation
  - Thomson's Reuters, 10 March 2025

• How Beyond Meat and the plant-based meat industry lost their allure. Instead of continued growth, the industry has seen declining sales, mounting layoffs and shuttered factories.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 10 March 2025

• Trump insults Americans who are complaining about the high cost of eggs: "Shut Up About Egg Prices", i.e., 'let them no eat cake'. Can't blame it on Biden, since promised (i.e., "thou shalt not" lied) that he would bring food prices down as soon he became president. Not!
  - HuffPost, 10 March 2025

• CVS's new mini stores go all in on medicine and skip everything else. The national drugstore chain is preparing to open a dozen stores offering full-service pharmacies but very limited retail.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 10 March 2025

• The end of cheap palm oil for consumer products? Output stalls as the demand surges for biodiesel made from palm oil. Indonesia boosts biodiesel consumption, curbs exports. Palm oil production growth plummets to 1% from 7%. Prices of cooking oil could be buoyed up for years by stagnating production and a biodiesel push in top producer Indonesia that are making traditionally cheap palm oil costlier, eliminating an advantage that also curbed prices of rival oils.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 09 March 2025

• Inflation hits a popular, inexpensive, meal in France, beef bourguignon. Businesses across Europe, including restaurants in Paris that make the popular dish, are being squeezed by sticky inflation, which makes it harder and harder to offer the meal for no more than 10 euros, its traditional price.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 09 March 2025

• Hudson's Bay, the oldest retail chain in Canada, nears bankruptcy. Department store operator is planning to file for insolvency after separating from Saks Global.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 08 March 2025

• Inflation numbers do not capture all the economic pain. What we are not measuring. The way economists measure inflation does not always match up with the way people experience rising costs.
  - Barron's, 08 March 2025

• Trump vowed to lower home prices. He could push them up. Taxes/tariffs (such as on lumber from Canada) and deportations of illegal immigrants (who build houses) threaten to push homeownership out of reach for millions.
  - Barron's, 08 March 2025

• Coffee prices skyrocket in the Bay Area. With the cost of coffee at an all-time high, Bay Area cafes fear alienating customers. Last year, coffee was under $2 per pound. As of March 6, the price is still a staggering $4.13 per pound. As a result, many Bay Area cafes and roasters have been forced to jack up the cost of java. A hard decision: "You are so afraid of alienating your customer base."
  - SF Gate, 07 March 2025

• Because of the mass culling of chickens infected with avian flu was part of the USDA's "stamping out policy", the USA is now actively searching for supplies of eggs from around the world
  - Zero Hedge, 07 March 2025

• Macy's said it expect sales to decline again this year as even affluent customers of the department store chain wait to see how swirling tariffs and inflationary pressures affect the economy.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 07 March 2025

• Shares of Costco decline 8% following the discount retailer's earnings miss. he company reported earnings per share of $4.02 for the quarter that ended February, missing analyst estimates for $4.09, according to FactSet.
  - Barron's, 07 March 2025

• Walgreens Boots Alliance said that it had agreed to be acquired by Sycamore Partners, a private equity firm, in a $10 billion deal that will take the struggling pharmacy chain out of the glare of public markets
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 06 March 2025

• Consumers in Minnesota, Michigan and New York will have to pay more for electricity, as Canada imposes taxes/tariffs on exports of electricity, in response to Trump imposing taxes/tariffs on imports f;5Drom Canada
  - The Daily Beast, 06 March 2025

• People in the USA fall behind on payments for their car loans at the highest rate in decades. Delinquincies on auto loans among subprime borrowers are spiking as consumers continue grappling with higher interest rates.
  - Bloomberg, 06 March 2025

• Tesla is now offers discounted financing, at rates as low as 1.99% a year, for loans to buy its Cybertruck, as the truck increasingly becomes a failure in the marketplace. Tesla launched a single new vehicle in the last 5 years and it is a flop.
  - Electrek, 06 March 2025

• The fortunes of Musk, and his Tesla, fall as Musk rises in influence in the world of Trump. Musk's politics have eroded the appeal of Tesla vehicles among some buyers of electric vehicles, surveys indicate.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 06 March 2025

• Shares of Gap spike 17% as retailer blows away expectations again, showing turnaround has staying power. In fiscal 2024, Gap posted its highest gross margin in more than 20 years.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 06 March 2025

• The CEO of Starbucks tells its workers to worker harder, after many other workers were fired
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 05 March 2025

• McDonald's is now using non-paid AI to improve order accuracy and help restaurants detect equipment issues before they fail
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 05 March 2025

• Adidas aims to increase sales, win market share amid Nike's struggles. Adidas targets continued sales growth and market-share gains as arch-rival Nike seeks a turnaround to revive its struggling brand.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 05 March 2025

• Foot Locker expects Nike reset, and Trump's taxes/tariffs to decrease sales. Foot Locker sees a bumpy road ahead for the rest of the year as it contends with cautious consumers and turnaround efforts at Nike.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 05 March 2025

• Trump is about to make your insurance bill more expensive. Trump's every action, from tax/tariff threats to targeting immigrant workers, is setting off actuarial alarm bells in the insurance industry.
  - Comcast's MSNBC, 05 March 2025

• The CEO of Brown-Forman, the maker of Jack Daniel's whiskey, said that provinces in Canada taking alcohol products in the USA off of store shelves in Canada was "worse than a tax/tariff" and a "disproportionate response" to taxes/tariffs imposed by Trump. The CEO, Lawson Whiting, didn't comment that Trump's taxes/tariffs on Canada are a "disproportionate response".
  - Comcast's CNBC, 05 March 2025

• Target is facing a 40-day consumer boycott starting Wednesday over Target's shift away from diversity, equity and inclusion policies, a shift due to pressure from activists
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 05 March 2025

• A store-brand supplier feels the pain as shoppers pull back even on lower-cost groceries. First, shoppers squeezed by inflation began ditching name-brand snacks and drinks in favor of lower-price store brands. But now, with costs for coffee, eggs and other basic grocery items surging, consumers are cutting out many cheaper items as well. That has TreeHouse Foods, one of the largest manufacturers of private brands in the USA, feeling the pinch.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 05 March 2025

• Are you splurging on food and drink before the departure of your flight? Your airport really hopes so. Airports are repositioning to cater to rising demand for dining, but they face lower fee income and big investment bills.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 05 March 2025

• Just one in three Americans approve of Trump's handling of the cost of living in the USA, a sign of unease as he enacts steep tariffs on imports that are stoking inflation worries, a Reuters/Ipsos survey that concluded on Tuesday found.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 04 March 2025

• Actress Michelle Trachtenberg was working on a screenplay exposing Mattel, and its controversial business practices, before her sudden death
  - Page Six, 04 March 2025

• Shares of Best Buy plunge 13% as its CEO warns that price increases are "highly likely" due to Trump's taxes/tariffs
  - Comcast's CNBC, 04 March 2025

• Shares of Best Buy plunge 13% as its CEO warns that price increases are "highly likely" due to Trump's taxes/tariffs
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 04 March 2025

• Target warns that Trump's new taxes/tariffs could raise produce prices in the next few days in the USA. Prices for strawberries, avocados and bananas could rise. Target relies heavily on Mexican produce during the winter months, and the tariffs could force the company to raise prices on fruits and vegetables as soon as this week.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 04 March 2025

• Walgreens Boots nears roughly $10 billion deal to go private. The deal price for the struggling drugstore chain is still being ironed out with Sycamore but could be completed as soon as Thursday.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 04 March 2025

• Microchip Technology is reducing its workforce across manufacturing and corporate operations by about 2,000 as the embattled maker of semiconductor processors looks to cut costs amid declining sales.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 04 March 2025

• Target warns that sales in February were 'soft', adding to concerns about the ability of consumers to continue to spend. Target's tepid guidance comes after Walmart raised similar concerns last month about consumer spending. Many worry that Trump's taxes/tariffs will drive up prices of consumer product, causing even less consumer spending.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 04 March 2025

• It is too early for investors to worry about a recession just yet. Most of the widening in the trade deficit in January was driven by a surge in gold imports.
  - Zero Hedge, 03 March 2025

• Trump's new taxes/tariffs on Canada and México could increase average car prices by up to $12,000. The increase would be three times that for an electric vehicle, and the costs will likely be passed on to the consumer.
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 03 March 2025

• Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody's Analytics, warned Monday that the U.S. is "gagging" on uncertainty around the Trump administration's economic policymaking, and that the situation could get worse. He agrees with other analysts that Trump's taxes/tariffs will add over $1000 to the annual costs of an American consumer. That is, more inflation.
  - The Daily Beast, 03 March 2025

• Trump has ignored higher prices in recent months. Republicans worry that it will cost them their control of the government. Trump talks more often about federal workers, diversity programs and foreign policy than price of eggs, while imposing taxes/tariffs that will hurt the poor the most - many of whom vote Republican.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 03 March 2025

• Forget McDonald's as the biggest food seller. Mixue, based in Zhōngguó, is now the largest fast-food restaurant chain in the world. Mixue lures cost-conscious customers with ice cream and drinks under $1 during the economic slump in Zhōngguó. Mixue is found across Asia and Australia and ended last year with 45,000 stores.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 03 March 2025

• Ireland's Primark - Spain's Mongo - Canada's Aritzia - Nihon's Uniqlo: foreign retailers are opening stores in more malls and cities in the USA
  - CBNC, 03 March 2025

• Xiaomi launches $1,600 Samsung phone challenger as it rides 300% stock rally to record high. Xiaomi is continuing its push into higher end devices where it is trying to challenge market leader Samsung.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 02 March 2025

• How Trump's proposed taxes/tariffs on lumber imports from Canada is the latest headache for homebuilders. In 2024, soaring lumber prices were a poster child of the inflation shock. Shortages of the building material slowed construction and put upward pressure on home prices.
  - Axios, 01 March 2025

• Trump orders a new probe into imports of lumber from Canada and other countries, which could result in more taxes/tariffs on imported lumber, driving up the cost of building homes
  - Thomson's Reuters, 01 March 2025

• Trump orders a new probe into imports of lumber from Canada and other countries, which could result in more taxes/tariffs on imported lumber, driving up the cost of building homes
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 01 March 2025

• Memecoins: from social experiment to retail theft -'value extraction' tools. Memecoins are evolving into retail investor traps, with insider trading and 'rug pulls' raising regulatory concerns, according to industry observers.
  - Coin Telegraph, 01 March 2025

• One in three people in Spain say that their area of Europe suffers from over-tourism, followed by 18% of the people in Frnace
  - Zero Hedge, 01 March 2025

• "How are we going to afford this?" - companies in the USA face the economic burdens of Trump's new taxes/tariffs, which could lead to higher costs. The business owners expressed frustration at the sudden uncertainty about policy.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 01 March 2025

• How people in Canada are making their anger towards the USA loud and clear. People are Canada are shunning products imported from the USA and abandoning trips to the USA to protest the insults and economic punishment imposed by Trump and his new taxes/tariffs
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 01 March 2025

• The four top-selling whiskeys in the world are produced in Bharat
  - Zero Hedge, 28 February 2025

• Retailing giants , such as Target and Walmart and McDonald's, which have moved to eliminate diversity and equality initiatives under pressure from activists, and now being pressured by non-white, non-female organizations to continue their diversity and equality initiatives.
  - Apollo Global's Yahoo Finance, 8 February 2025

• People in California are falling behind on bill payments amid soaring debt. People in California have accrued the highest per capita debt levels since 2008 as a growing number fall behind on their bills.
  - Zero Hedge, 28 February 2025

• Amazon plans a global expansion of its Amazon Haul service (a discount online store), a competitor to Shein and Temu.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 28 February 2025

• The Atlanta Fed economic model suddenly signals a recession in the USA as stagflation takes hold. All of which could be seen as good news for Trump: he can impose tariffs (inflation) AND the Fed will be forced to cut rates (growth).
  - Zero Hedge, 28 February 2025

• Pending home sales in the USA collapse to record lows
  - Zero Hedge, 27 February 2025

• 18 horrifying statistics about medical bills, medical debt, and the healthcare industry . Our "healthcare industry" has turned large numbers of doctors, lawyers, health insurance company executives and pharmaceutical company executives into multi-millionaires.
  - Zero Hedge, 26 February 2025

• Margarete Schutte-Lihotsky, the World War II resistance fighter who created the modern kitchen, with her Frankfurt Kitchen that she designed in 1926, which introduced many of the elements we now take for granted: a continuous countertop with a tiled backsplash, built-in cabinets, and drawers optimized for storage -- all laid out with comfort and efficiency in mind.
  - Atlas Obscura, 26 February 2025

• New home sales in the USA plunge in January as mortgage rates spiked, while median new home prices exploded higher
  - Zero Hedge, 26 February 2025

• Shares of Instacart plummet 12%, the steepest drop on record after the company reported a fourth-quarter revenue miss and offered light guidance for the current period. The stock was up 76% in 2024.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 26 February 2025

• The Federal Reserve's favorite recession indicator is flashing a danger sign ahead. The 10-year Treasury yield passed below that of the 3-month note in Wednesday trading. In market lingo, that is known as an "inverted yield curve, and it has had a sterling prediction record.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 26 February 2025

• Tropicana is in big financial trouble. Florida has been blasted with stronger hurricanes than ever before. A prolific disease carried by insects continues to devastate orange groves. And, on top of all that, consumers are watching their sugar intake. It is adding up to a disaster for Tropicana orange juice.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 26 February 2025

• Shares of AB InBev rise 8% after posting fourth-quarter revenue beat even as volumes slide. Total volumes declined 1.9% in the quarter and 1.4% over the full-year stretch, which the company largely attributed to weak demand in Zhōngguó and Argentina.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 26 February 2025

• People in the USA are expecting higher prices. That could unnerve the Federal Reserve as it tries to push inflation back to 2% a year. If workers expect inflation to rise, they will want higher salaries, which forces businesses to raise prices, creating more inflation, more wage increases, more price increases - a vicious inflationary circle.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 26 February 2025

• $16,800,000 - DoorDash will pay $16.8 million to workers for, in its early years, not giving customer-paid tips to the workers - pure theft.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 26 February 2025

• Egg prices are soaring, but the bird flu may not be the only cause. Cal-Maine Foods, the biggest egg producer in the USA, has experienced higher revenues and profits . Now some Democrats are calling for an investigation into pricing practices in the industry.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 26 February 2025

• Sales of Tesla vehicles fall 45% across Europe, as buyers respond to Musk's move to politics
  - Zero Hedge, 25 February 2025

• The egg-laying population of hens in the USA implodes, while wholesale egg prices hit new record highs
  - Zero Hedge, 25 February 2025

• Goodbye mom-and-pop investors: retail traders sell a record $1.1 billion of stocks and ETFS in the first two hours on Monday
  - Zero Hedge, 25 February 2025

• Home prices in the USA accelerated again to a new record high in December, just six months after the Fed fueled the fire by reducing interest rates a total of 1.0%
  - Zero Hedge, 25 February 2025

• According to a January news release from the American Customer Satisfaction Index, Walmart-owned Sam's Club dethroned Costco, its longtime contender, as the warehouse retailer with the highest satisfaction rate among customers in 2025. Since unveiling its Scan & Go technology, which allows shoppers to bypass lines at checkout, its score increased by 5% from 81 to 85. Now, the company is piloting receipt-scanning technology to move customers in and out of stores even faster, the release said. Meanwhile, Costco's customer satisfaction score in the warehouse category remained flat at 82 both years, a 2025 ACSI study showed.
  - SF Gate, 24 February 2025

• All 50 states in the USA have now introduced legislation giving consumers the "right to repair". Right to repair laws are designed to make it easier for consumers to fix their electronics, farmers to fix their agricultural equipment, for hospitals to fix their medical devices, and so on. The high technology industries continue to fight these attempts to help consumers not be overcharged to repair high-priced electronic equipment.
  - 404 Media, 24 February 2025

• John Fieldly, the CEO of Celsius, said that the sugar-free category is a dominant force on the energy drink market and detailed his company's growth trajectory after a recent acquisition of Alani Nutrition
  - Comcast's CNBC, 24 February 2025

• Starbucks to fire 1,100 people working in corporate positions, amid sluggish sales
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 24 February 2025

• Starbucks to fire 1,100 people working in corporate positions, amid sluggish sales
  - Comcast's CNBC, 24 February 2025

• Retail store closures outpace openings amid "historic shift" to service-based tenants. But the outlook is not all bad, as the real estate churn may open up 140 million square feet of retail space in a market where high quality storefronts are in short supply, a JLL report says.
  - Zero Hedge, 24 February 2025

• Global prices for gasoline surge anticipating summer scramble to refill storage. Spot market gas prices around the world have doubled over the last twelve months as reported inventories in all the major consuming regions have fallen to multi-year lows.
  - Zero Hedge, 24 February 2025

• Another effect of the rich getting richer in the USA : the richest 10% of people in the USA account for almost 50% of consumer spending
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 24 February 2025

• A test for Apple's new iPhone: beating rivals in Zhōngguó with home-field edge. Apple hopes the new device will allow it to become more competitive in Zhōngguó after the iPhone lost its spot as the bestselling smartphone in Zhōngguó.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 24 February 2025

• How Amazon and the Internet made in-store shopping, an important social activity, miserable. Physical stores do not have enough staff. Now, physical stores also do not have enough stuff to sell. [KM: But rich companies do keep getting richer.]
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 24 February 2025

• Surging prices of eggs are pummeling the bakeries of the USA, forcing them to raise prices for many products. Sales of egg substitutes have risen sharply.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 23 February 2025

• How the USA earns billions of dollars selling gristly chicken feet to Zhōngguó. Chicken feet are regarded as a waste in most countries such as the USA, but in Zhōngguó they are a beloved delicacy - and a lucrative import category.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 23 February 2025

• Large numbers of people in Canada are cancelling their travel plans to the USA, in response to Trump's attacks on Canada and plans to impose new taxes/tariffs
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 22 February 2025

• The wild economics behind the domination of the luxury car market by Ferrari. Limiting production is helping to make its sports cars coveted -- and the company the most valuable automaker in Europe.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 22 February 2025

• Frequent flyers have spent years staying loyal to airlines. Now airlines are giving them the 'middle finger', as airlines increasingly change their programs to make it harder to accrue status. "Airlines have raised [flight] redemption costs and made rewards less valuable. Higher spending requirements make status harder to achieve. Dynamic pricing means award flights cost more points than before."
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 22 February 2025

• Shares of Carvana 11% after the used-car retailer reported lower gross profit per vehicle and shrinking wholesale volumes for the latest quarter, undercutting a turnaround narrative that had buoyed the stock
  - Bloomberg, 21 February 2025

• Shares of Block plummet 18%, the most in almost five years after the digital-payments company posted fourth-quarter profit and revenue that fell short of the predictions of analysts
  - Bloomberg, 21 February 2025

• Hooters of America is reportedly gearing up for a bankruptcy filing in the coming months as the iconic restaurant chain struggles with declining foot traffic and mounting debt
  - Zero Hedge, 21 February 2025

• The USA Service Sector PMI plunges into contraction for the first time in 2 years
  - Zero Hedge, 21 February 2025

• Does Elon Musk still care about selling cars? Elon Musk, and an important advisor to Trump, has not outlined a plan to reverse falling sales at Tesla of which he is chief executive.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 21 February 2025

• Shares of energy drink company Celsius soar more than 25% on big quarterly results, acquisition of Alani Nu
  - Comcast's CNBC, 21 February 2025

• Alibaba reports the fastest revenue growth since 2023. Alibaba reported a better-than-expected 7.6% rise in revenue as it worked to put growth back on track amid fierce domestic competition and a slowing economy in Zhōngguó.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 21 February 2025

• Investors in Alibaba hail the e-commerce giant's pivot to AI as it plots major investment outlay
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 21 February 2025

• Trump's lie that he would reduce prices "starting on Day One" . People in the USA are already mad at him about inflation - 62% of Americans feel that Trump has not done enough to tackle inflation.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 21 February 2025

• Shares of Walmart drop 8% in premarket trading, set for the largest daily decline since mid-November 2023, after its ts first-quarter and full-year profit guidance missed, citing ongoing pressure from its product mix and an uncertain economic environment
  - Zero Hedge, 20 February 2025

• Shares of Walmart drop 8% in premarket trading, set for the largest daily decline since mid-November 2023, after its ts first-quarter and full-year profit guidance missed, citing ongoing pressure from its product mix and an uncertain economic environment
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 20 February 2025

• Walmart warns of slower sales gains after a bumper year. Walmart's shares retreated after executives set 2026 fiscal-year revenue and profit targets below expectations of analysts.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 20 February 2025

• Zhōngguó issues new plan to boost consumption by creating a healthier market environment. Beijing plans to encourage consumers to open their wallets by eliminating scams, price gouging and shoddy goods.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 20 February 2025

• The Egg Clearinghouse connects large-volume buyers with sellers, providing a crucial service at a time avian flu is limiting supplies.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 19 February 2025

• Shares of Etsy decline 9% on revenue miss as company reports drop in number of goods sold. The company also missed expectations for gross merchandise sales, pointing to "significant headwinds", including dampened consumer spending on discretionary goods.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 19 February 2025

• Home-builder confidence plunged to the lowest level in five months as concerns over Trump's taxes/tariffs and how they could raise the cost of housing weighed on the industry. For buyers, the sentiment shift only adds to the likelihood that home prices could go up in an already expensive housing market. Trump's taxes/tariffs on imported goods from Canada, Zhōngguó and México are increasing the cost of building materials, which is spooking home builders.
  - Murdoch's MarketWatch, 18 February 2025

• The Empire State Manufacturing survey surges higher on soaring inflatin fears. Smells very stagflationary to us.
  - Zero Hedge, 18 February 2025

• The Empire State Manufacturing survey surges higher on soaring inflatin fears. Smells very stagflationary to us.
  - Zero Hedge, 18 February 2025

• The Federal Reserve has stopped pretending that price inflation is going away. Whatever the thinking is, forcing down interest rates even further will not benefit ordinary people.
  - Zero Hedge, 18 February 2025

• The desire in Zhōngguó for luxury goods has cooled. A sluggish economy, an austere political mood and the feeling among some consumers that pricey brands are passé have combined to end the boom that propelled the industry in recent years.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 18 February 2025

• Why there is no relief ahead for high used-car prices. Factory disruptions three years ago are coming back to haunt the auto market.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 18 February 2025

• High-cost sickle cell gene therapies push insurers and Medicaid programs to find new payment models so that the financial burden of the treatments is spread beyond just one state or one company.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 18 February 2025

• Shein is under pressure to slash its valuation from $50 billion to $30 billion before its IPO in London. Earlier this month, Reuters reported that Shein was set to cut its valuation in the potential London listing to around $50 billion, nearly a quarter less than Shein's fundraising value of $66 billion in 2023, amid growing headwinds.
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 17 February 2025

• The NAACP is urging Black Americans to refrain from shopping at retailers that have stepped back from diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs. The project comes as corporations and the federal government have rolled back DEI policies under the administration of Trump.
  - BBC, 17 February 2025

• Collagen supplements might make your skin more elastic - but the evidence is weak. Overall, many marketing claims made about oral collagen products don't stand up to scrutiny. Claims such as the idea that collagen helps to maintain skin elasticity, or that it improves joint functioning, have not yet been demonstrated sufficiently by scientific research.
  - BBC, 17 February 2025

• The Consumer Price Index calculations are deeply flawed, and the Federal Reserve feeds those flaws. The Fed makes horrendous policy decisions because it does not understand inflation. The Fed ignores home prices in its calculations, a big economic factor.
  - Zero Hedge, 17 February 2025

• The soaring cost of eggs is hitting your local breakfast spot. As the wholesale price of eggs rises, breakfast specials at some restaurants are getting more expensive.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 17 February 2025

• The 'scary' product warning labels on products in California might be working. Products must state if they contain chemicals tied to cancer or other risks. As a result, manufacturers have pulled back from using the chemicals, researchers found.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 17 February 2025

• Acer, a giant in computing devices, will raise prices 10 percent - which consumers in the USA will pay, in response to Trump imposting taxes/tariffs on imports from Zhōngguó. The Consumer Technology Association, the trade body for the electronics industry, has said that Trump's taxes/tariffs could cost American consumers up to $143 billion and lead to a slump in sales.
  - Barclay's The Telegraph, 16 February 2025

• Trump reduces the control over industry of FDA employees in food safety, medical devices and tobacco products. Recently hired employees who review the safety of food ingredients, medical devices and other products were fired.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 16 February 2025

• California rejects the request for an increase of 22% in home insurance rates/premiums sought by State Farm insurance company. The insurer said the rate increase is needed to prevent further depletion of capital that may affect its credit rating and harm mortgage customers.
  - Zero Hedge, 16 February 2025

• Coffee is in a "perfect price storm" - up 30% in 2025, and it is causing higher prices for consumers, with instant coffee prices up 7%
  - Apollo Global's Yahoo Finance, 6 February 2025

• Americans have always sought debt-relief after holiday spending. Now their struggle with credit card debt and auto loan payments lasts all year. Many are stuck in what have become unaffordable car loans, while others turned to their credit cards over the past years to buffer themselves from higher prices on groceries and gas.
  - Apollo Global's Yahoo Finance, 6 February 2025

• For decades, budget carriers successfully offered travelers no-frills, cheap flights. But that scrappy business model is now eroding as costs soar and passengers opt for more comfortable seats and spacious upgrades.
  - Apollo Global's Yahoo Finance, 6 February 2025

• Criminals in Brazil are targeting pharmacies and stealing weight-loss medication in a country with body image insecurities and where many cannot afford the drugs
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 16 February 2025

• Which interest rate should you care about? The Fed's short-term interest rates matter, but the main action now is in the 10-year Treasury Bond market, which influences mortgages, credit cards and much more
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 16 February 2025

• The debt problem of people in Texas is getting worse. The major cities of Texas lead the USA in non-mortgage debt, with Austin residents owing an average of $45,920. People in San Antonio and Houston have similar levels of debt as compared to people in Austin, with average non-mortgage debts of $44,812 and $44,640, respectively.
  - Benzinga, 15 February 2025

• Asia must act to avoid eating pangolins out of existence. Only decisive, coordinated action can help Asia curb wildlife smuggling and keep its appetite for pangolin from killing off the species. Pangolins are among the most trafficked mammals in the world, driven by relentless demand across Asia.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 15 February 2025

• The USA is headed toward a landlord-friendly era in the Trump era. Expect higher rent prices. The prospect of apartment rents rising could further stoke inflation and give the Federal Reserve another reason to pause the reduction of interest rates.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 15 February 2025

• Uber sues DoorDash over food-delivery practices. The lawsuit accuses DoorDash of strong-arm tactics that inflate costs for restaurants. DoorDash said Uber's allegations have no merit.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 15 February 2025

• Shares of wine, beer, and liquor companies have been hit hard as consumers cut back on alcohol consumption. But some are finding value in beer stocks.
  - Barron's, 15 February 2025

• Capital One's airport lounges are great. Stay for the stock as Discover joins the party. Capital One's deal for Discover looks like a good bet for investors, creating a new financial giant that will control both ends of the credit card business.
  - Barron's, 15 February 2025

• A price surge for cocoa has been mainly driven by tightening global supplies, with cocoa inventories in New York and London sliding to new record lows. Cocoa inventories at Intercontinental Exchange's London warehouses sank to 21,000 tons this week, down from 100,000 tons one year ago. Sliding global stocks are a byproduct of adverse weather conditions in West Africa, crushing cocoa production, along with elevated demand worldwide, have been some of the reasons that cocoa prices in New York have tripled since the start of 2023.
  - Zero Hedge, 14 February 2025

• The extent of supply issues for a key ingredient, cocoa, means that prices are unlikely to return soon to the levels chocolate makers and consumers have been accustomed to paying, analysts say.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 15 February 2025

• Inflation in the USA could be increasing again, as money-growth in Zhōngguó flashes a 'red flag'
  - Zero Hedge, 14 February 2025

• Retail sales in the USA in January decline the most in almost 2 years
  - Zero Hedge, 14 February 2025

• Retail sales in the USA in January decline the most in almost 2 years, more than expected
  - Comcast's CNBC, 14 February 2025

• Shares of Roku surged more than 10% Friday, as the company halves quarterly losses, adds 4 million streaming households
  - Comcast's CNBC, 14 February 2025

• As Target and other retailers drop diverity and equality programs in the face of pressure from activists, Black American founders of businesses could face a tougher battle to get their products on shelves of retail chains. Destroying equality and diversity efforts could jeopardize a valuable pathway for Black founders to build their businesses and reach the millions of shoppers who browse retailers' websites and aisles.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 14 February 2025

• Walmart is gaining market share among affluent shoppers
  - Zero Hedge, 14 February 2025

• Hot inflation has raised the stakes of Trump's plans to escalate his use of tariffs on the biggest trading partners of the USA, risking even higher consumer prices and pushing back the prospects of the Federal Reserve lowering interest rates soon.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 14 February 2025

• Companies in Zhōngguó work around Trump to keep selling to people in the USA. Shein, Temu and their suppliers are moving to shift production out of Zhōngguó before they potentially lose a duty-free provision in the USA.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 14 February 2025

• Nestle posts weakest sales growth in more than two decades as shoppers retreat. A pullback from budget-conscious shoppers is hurting Nestle, but the company said there are early signs of progress in reviving sales growth.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 14 February 2025

• The consumer in the USA is likely to pay the cost of proposed taxes/tariffs on aluminum, according to the CEO of South32. Aluminum maker South32 sells thousands of tons of aluminum each month to the USA, and its chief executive is not expecting that to change as Trump prepares blanket duties on imports of aluminum.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 14 February 2025

• The household debt of people in the USA - including credit cards, mortgages, auto loans and student loans -- is at a new all-time high of $18.04 trillion. Overall debt grew by $93 billion in the last three months of 2024 -- and about half of that increase was new credit card debt.
  - Disney's ABC News, 13 February 2025

• Producer prices surge at the fastest pace in 2 years as energy 'deflation' ends
  - Zero Hedge, 13 February 2025

• "Farmers cannot bear it!". The poultry industry in Zhōngguó is hurt by falling prices. While the USA faces egg shortages, poultry farmers in Zhōngguó are dealing with the opposite problem: plunging prices due to chronic overproduction.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 13 February 2025

• Editorial: more questionable economics from Trump. He wants easier money (for the Fed to reduce interest rates) even though consumer prices keep rising. Does he want even higher prices?
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 13 February 2025

• "Does he understand money?" (NO). An editorial in Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal strongly criticizes Trump's (lack of) intellect. "The layers of (Trump's) intellectual confusion here are hard to parse."
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 13 February 2025

• Shares of Heineken soar 12% after the company posted earnings that beat market forecasts and its own guidance, boosted by sales of premium and nonalcoholic beer, and launched a share buyback of $1.55 billion.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 13 February 2025

• Eating from takeout containers made from oil-derived plastics can increase the risk of congestive heart failure. Chemicals that leach from the plastic causes changes to the gut biome that cause inflammation that damages the circulatory system.
  - The Guardian, 12 February 2025

• The high cost of cheap chicken. The poultry supply chain has perfected the art of turning living creatures into nuggets with more chickens slaughtered in two years than all the humans who have ever existed. Can emerging technologies make this conveyor belt of clucking misery less immoral and less environmentally destructive that involves a lot of businesspeople abusing chickens in the production process?
  - American Council on Science and Health, 12 February 2025

• "These numbers are uncomfortable for the Fed": the reaction of Wall Street to today's high CPI numbers. "There is nothing in this report that suggests the Fed should lower interest rates."
  - Zero Hedge, 12 February 2025

• Consumer prices rose 3%, extending a recent pattern of increases at the start of the year that likely derails the prospect for Federal Reserve rate cuts anytime soon
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 12 February 2025

• Inflation rises unexpectedly, complicating the economic challenges of the Fed
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 12 February 2025

• Less than a month after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for the second time in a year, craft retailer JOANN is preparing to close over 500 of its stores in 40 states
  - Comcast's CNBC, 12 February 2025

• Stock index futures (for the Dow, SP500, Nasdaq) drop 1% pre-market, after , both headline and core CPI rose more than expected in January. Headline CPI jumped 0.5% MoM (+0.3% exp) dragging the price series up 3.0% YoY (+2.9% exp).
  - Zero Hedge, 12 February 2025

• Consumer prices rise 0.5% in January, higher than predicted. Excluding volatile food and energy prices, CPI rose 0.4% on the month, putting the 12-month inflation rate at 3.3%. That compared to respective estimates for 0.3% and 3.1%.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 12 February 2025

• A weaker yen is one reason why Nihon is the leading travel destination for tourists from Zhōngguó
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 12 February 2025

• 10-year Treasury Bond yields rise above 4.6% after consumer prices rise 0.5% in January, more than expencted. The 2-year Treasury Bond yield rose to 4.386%.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 12 February 2025

• How Dave's Hot Chickens beat rising labor costs. The restaurant chain added menu items and tweaked operations to offset rising wages for employees in California and other markets.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 12 February 2025

• Profits for Shopify double after revenue surges during holidays. The results reflect that Spotify's platform, which provides the backbone for online storefronts, is playing a critical, if unseen to consumers, role to a wider swath of ecommerce transactions.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 12 February 2025

• Companies in the USA making craft/artisanal beers - brewed in steel, canned in aluminum - could be financially destroyed by Trump's new taxes/tariffs on steel and aluminum
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 12 February 2025

• Zelle, owned by a group of banks, reports transactions topping $1 trillion in 2024 as network's growth outpaces rivals including PayPal. The payments network said its user base jumped 12% to 151 million accounts in 2024, and that the total dollars sent on the platform jumped 27% from the year earlier.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 12 February 2025

• Shares of CVS rise 10% after a big earnings beat, even as high medical costs drag down insurance unit. The company also issued a full-year 2025 adjusted profit outlook of $5.75 to $6.00 per share, which was in line with Wall Street's predictions.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 12 February 2025

• Nearly 4,000 people have signed an open letter calling on Christie's New York to cancel an upcoming sale dedicated solely to art created with artificial intelligence -- the first of its kind for a major auction house -- over concerns that the programs used to create some generative digital pieces are illegally trained on copyrighted work and exploitpaid-human artists.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 11 February 2025

• House cats, many bought at pet stores, could acquire bird flu from the environments, and pose a risk to human public health
  - Real Clear Science, 11 February 2025

• Gucci owner Kering SA reported fourth-quarter earnings that showed a modest improvement following a prolonged downturn in the luxury market that rippled through Asia and the West in recent years. Some Wall Street analysts are asking if the worst is over.
  - Zero Hedge, 11 February 2025

• Editorial: Trump's steel/aluminum taxes/tariffs are bad econonmics. His first-term taxes/tariffs on steel hurt consumers and manufacturers in the USA. It is worth revisiting the damage of that blunder as he threatens to repeat it.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 11 February 2025

• Taxes/tariffs imposed during the first Trump administration led Samsung to invest in a washing machine factory, giving Newberry, South Carolina, more profits. But they also pushed up prices of washers for consumers nationwide.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 11 February 2025

• Trump's immigration moves hurt small businesses. Business owners in Latino neighborhoods are saying fear of raids has caused a sharp drop in consumer spending.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 11 February 2025

• Coca-Cola on Tuesday reported quarterly earnings and revenue that topped expectations of analysts, as global demand for its drinks rose. Shares of Coca-Cola climbed more than 3% in premarket trading.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 11 February 2025

• Renters are tired of moving, settling in for the long haul. Soaring home prices keep many on the sidelines. Renters in need of more space and privacy are making house rentals their long-term homes.
  - Zero Hedge, 10 February 2025

• BYD, based in Zhōngguó, on Monday started offering advanced autonomous driving features on most of its models including ones priced as low as $9,555, far undercutting competitors such as Tesla in a move analysts say is set to start a new price war.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 10 February 2025

• More questionable economics: Trump's new taxes/tariffs on imports from Zhōngguó could drive up the cost, or cause shortages, of popular generic medicines such as antibiotics or cancer treatment drugs for consumers in the USA, since most of the most common medicines in the USA are made in ... Zhōngguó
  - The Independent, 10 February 2025

• Trump wants to eliminate the 1-cent penny because it costs more than one cent to produce (about 3 cents). But he doesn't understand economics. Phasing out the penny could result in needing to make more nickels, and the US Treasury Department loses far more money on every nickel than it does on every penny.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 10 February 2025

• Sales in the USA for McDonald's decline as customers spend less. The fast-food giant's store sales and earnings in the USA fell as the burger chain dealt with the fallout of an E. coli outbreak hitting its domestic business last year.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 10 February 2025

• McDonald's quarterly earnings met expectations, but its revenue fell short of Wall Street's estimates. The burger chain's USA same-store sales declined as customers spent less at its restaurants. But both of its international divisions reported same-store sales growth.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 10 February 2025

• Even Disney is worried about the high cost of a Disney vacation. Price hikes have moved the Happiest Place on Earth out of reach for many Americans, alienating parkgoers and worrying executives.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 10 February 2025

• Xiaomi shares hit all-time high amid glowy outlook. Shares of Xiaomi hit a new intraday high in Hong Kong as optimism grew over the earnings outlook for the consumer-electronics specialist this year in Zhōngguó.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 08 February 2025

• E-commerce retailer Alibaba stock is a winner - if it can survive the turbulence of Trump's tax/tariff wars
  - Barron's, 08 February 2025

• Vanguard makes biggest cuts to fund fees in its history. Vanguard's sweeping expense ratio cuts for dozens of funds may pressure other asset managers to lower their costs too.
  - Barron's, 08 February 2025

• Automakers sue to kill Maine's hugely popular 'Right to Repair' law, which was passed into law in 2024 by 83% of the residents of Maine - hugely popular. The law reasonably requires that automakers standardize on-board diagnostic systems and provide remote access to those systems and mechanical data to consumers and third-party independent repair shops.
  - Tech Dirt, 07 February 2025

• Is chicken meat next to experience shortages and soaring prices, as eggs are experiencing? Supplies of chicken meat are good, but a lack of eggs and steep prices may lead consumers to move to other cheap forms of protein, which could lead to consumer-induced shortages and price increases.
  - USA Today, 07 February 2025

• One month after a near-record drop in consumer credit we just saw the biggest increase in consumer credit on record, coming at a time when credit card APRs are the highest on record
  - Zero Hedge, 07 February 2025

• More confusion - Trump has suspended tariffs on small packages from Zhōngguó, after his sudden order ending duty-free treatment for shipments worth less than $800 left the US postal service and other agencies scrambling to comply. The move comes as some of the other rapid-fire changes Trump has announced since taking office last month have also met with roadblocks, including legal challenges.
  - BBC, 07 February 2025

• The Dow Jones Index, SP500 and Nasdaq decline as inflation and fears of Trump's taxes/tariffs push stocks to another losing week
  - Apollo Global's Yahoo Finance, 7 February 2025

• Quiksilver, Billabong and Volcom stores across the USA will close as their owner, Librerated Brands, files for bankruptcy
  - Associated Press, 07 February 2025

• Governor Kathy Hochul announced that New York state is temporarily shutting down all live bird markets in New York City and Westchester, Nassau and Suffolk Counties through February 14 after inspectors discovered seven cases of bird flu in poultry.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 07 February 2025

• Soaring levels of debt in Indonesia due to "buy now, pay later" schemes is creating an increased number of demands for tighter rules. While regulators are looking to tighten rules for BNPL schemes, an analyst has urged related service providers to enhance their oversight.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 07 February 2025

• State Farm insurance company was all in on business in California - until it pulled out before the recent wildfires. The insurer aggressively grew in Los Angeles, despite getting overweight on fire risk, but decided to cut thousands of policies last year, adding to the home-insurance crisis in California.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 07 February 2025

• Anglo American warns of an impairment with its De Beers subsidiary amid subdued demand for diamonds. The miner said it would examine De Beer's value in light of sluggish demand for diamonds as it seeks to exit the business.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 07 February 2025

• The British Pound declines after the central Bank of England reduces interest rates 0.5% (to 2.6%) while warning of mounting stagflation
  - Zero Hedge, 06 February 2025

• The British Pound declines after the central Bank of England reduces interest rates 0.5% (to 2.6%) while warning of mounting stagflation
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 06 February 2025

• The plan to revive Michael Kors and Versace tanked their sales instead. Owner Capri says its quarterly revenue fell nearly 12% after sharp price increases and other missteps.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 06 February 2025

• Amazon set to pass Walmart in revenue for the first time
  - Comcast's CNBC, 06 February 2025

• Shares of Peloton surge 13% as it edges closer to profitability, posts better than expected sales
  - Comcast's CNBC, 06 February 2025

• To work-around Trump's taxes/tariffs, Temu steers customers to "local" products that are shipped from warehouses in the USA. But even though the products are stored in warehouses in the USA, many local listings state that the items are sold by businesses based in Zhōngguó.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 06 February 2025

• Every 1% increase in the tariff rate raises core PCE by 0.1%, and so Goldman Sachs calculates that tariffs will provide a one-time boost to year-on-year core PCE inflation of 0.5% (vs. 0.3% previously), leaving it at 2.6% in December.
  - Zero Hedge, 05 February 2025

• Mattel shares spike 15% after toy giant says it will raise Barbie prices because of tariffs Zhōngguó
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 05 February 2025

• Disney+ lost 700,000 subscribers from October to December
  - IndieWire, 05 February 2025

• Zhōngguó finds leverage ahead of trade talks with Trump: Zhōngguó considers an investigation into the practices of Apple's App Store. "Regulators in Zhōngguó believe that Apple may be charging local developers unreasonably."
  - Zero Hedge, 05 February 2025

• As force companies to abandon their racial equality initiatives, what happens to Black sellers? Black-owned brands got a foot in the door through accelerator programs at companies like Target and Amazon. Now they worry it might be closing, thanks to the efforts of activists.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 05 February 2025

• Towns with lots of factories in the USA that were hurt by the 'Zhōngguó Shock' bounced back economically. But not the factory workers. Retail and restaurants have helped communities that were hit by the tidal wave of cheap products from Zhōngguó two decades ago. That does no do much for former factory workers.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 05 February 2025

• The USA Postal Service says it will resume accepting inbound packages and pacels from Zhōngguó and Hong Kong
  - Comcast's CNBC, 05 February 2025

• The USA Postal Service says it will resume accepting inbound packages and pacels from Zhōngguó and Hong Kong
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 05 February 2025

• Copying the USA, the European Union is seeking to end tax breaks for low-value shipments from Zhōngguó into Europe, as it cracks down on "dangerous" goods sold by firms such as Temu and Shein.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 05 February 2025

• Trump orders the USA Postal Service to suspend the reception of shipments of parcels from Zhōngguó. This service is popular with big online retailers in Zhōngguó such as Shein and Temu.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 05 February 2025

• Trump orders the USA Postal Service to suspend the reception of shipments of parcels from Zhōngguó. This service is popular with big online retailers in Zhōngguó such as Shein and Temu.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 05 February 2025

• Editorial: Trump ordering the USA Postal Service to suspend the reception of shipments of parcels from Zhōngguó, and closing the $800 "de minimis" exception, will financially hurt countless importers in the USA and especially low-income consumers .
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 05 February 2025

• Trump orders the USA Postal Service to suspend the reception of shipments of parcels from Zhōngguó. This service is popular with big online retailers in Zhōngguó such as Shein and Temu.
  - Zero Hedge, 05 February 2025

• USPS halts all packages from Zhōngguó, sending the e-commerce industry into chaos. As part of new tariffs on imports from Zhōngguó, Trump eliminated an exemption for small packages, vastly increasing the amount of parcels US Customs and Border Protection needs to inspect.
  - Wired, 05 February 2025

• Estée Lauder will fire up to 7000 people. The cosmetics company has been struggling with weak demand, especially in Asia.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 05 February 2025

• Amazon, king of online retail, cannot seem to make its physical stores work. The e-commerce giant is closing more of its convenience stores. "I do not think they really understand retail.", a consultant said.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 05 February 2025

• Shares of Merck tumbled more than 11% Tuesday morning after the drugmaker gave 2025 revenue guidance that fell short of analyst expectations and said it was pausing shipments to Zhōngguó of its top-selling vaccine Gardasil.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 05 February 2025

• Trump's taxes/tariffs threaten the advertising industry, from brands to digital sellers. Automotive and other sectors will likely cut spending if all threatened tariffs take effect, while the tariffs on products from Zhōngguó now in place stand to undermine big-spending brands like Temu.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 05 February 2025

• Restaurants in the USA suffer under pressure of shortages in egg supplies as prices keep rising. Soaring costs and dwindling supplies have forced some eateries to switch to liquid eggs for dishes such as omelettes.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 04 February 2025

• Shares of PepsiCo dropped more than 2% as demand for its snacks and drinks fell in North America for the fifth straight quarter
  - Comcast's CNBC, 04 February 2025

• Registrations for Tesla automobiles decline 12% in California in 2024
  - Thomson's Reuters, 03 February 2025

• Shares of Tesla drop 5% due to Trump's taxes/tariffs, and a decline in vehicle registrations in France, Sweden and Norway.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 03 February 2025

• Shares of PDD decline 6%, after Trump ordered the end of the "de minimis" trade exception, which allows packages under $800 to enter the USA duty-free. PDD-owned budget online retailer Temu and its rival Shein have relied on de minimis to maintain their rock-bottom prices.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 03 February 2025

• Shares of Apple decline 3% on Monday, after Trump announced 10% tariffs on Zhōngguó, where Apple assembles most of its products
  - Comcast's CNBC, 03 February 2025

• The stock market recovers a lot of its early-morning losses after Trump pauses his taxes/tariffs on Mexico
  - Comcast's CNBC, 03 February 2025

• Trump said that he is pausing for one month a new 25% tariff on goods entering the United States from México after Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum agreed to immediately send 10,000 soldiers to the USA-Mexico to prevent drug trafficking.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 03 February 2025

• The automobile industry in Canada faces a shutdown amid Trump's taxes/tariffs imposed on imports from Canada. The impact of the taxes on the industry means that "absolutely nobody in our business is profitable by a long shot".
  - Zero Hedge, 03 February 2025

• "It is shit anyways": people in Canada vow to stop buying beer and alcohol from the USA amid a burgeoning trade war
  - Zero Hedge, 03 February 2025

• People in Canada cancel trips to the USA, and ban alcholic products from the USA, in response to Trump's taxes/tariffs
  - Thomson's Reuters, 03 February 2025

• Premier Doug Ford of Ontario: "Starting today and until USA taxes/tariffs are removed, Ontario is banning companies from the USA from provincial contracts. Every year, the Ontario government and its agencies spend $30 billion on procurement, alongside our $200 billion plan to build Ontario. USA-based businesses will now lose out on tens of billions of dollars in new revenues. They only have Trump to blame. We are going one step further. We will be ripping up the province's contract with Elon Musk's Starlink. Ontario will not do business with people hellbent on destroying our economy. Canada didn't start this fight with the USA, but you better believe we are ready to win it.
  - Zero Hedge, 03 February 2025

• One response to Trump's taxes/tariffs: global trade that excludes the products from the USA. As Trump erects a higher fence around the global commerce of the USA, a growing number of countries, including allies of the USA, are striking their own deals that exclude the USA.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 03 February 2025

• President Claudia Sheinbaum of México said she would unveil her government's plans on Monday in response to the 25% tariffs levied by Trump. Canada has already set levies of 25 percent on goods from the USA.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 03 February 2025

• Trump's decision to impose sweeping tariffs on imports from Mexico, Canada, and Zhōngguó, justified under emergency economic powers to combat the fentanyl crisis, is legally questionable, economically risky, and geopolitically shortsighted, writes Dewardric McNeal, who worked on a federal commission to stop illegal opioids from entering the USA. The linkage of trade policy to narcotics enforcement sets a dangerous precedent, destabilizing fragile diplomatic efforts, potentially undermining constitutional prerogatives, and threatening global supply chains critical to businesses in the USA.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 03 February 2025

• Shares of automobile companies fall pre-market as Trump's taxes/tariffs spark trade war concerns. In pre-market trading, shares of General Motors was 6.6% lower at around 6:25 a.m. ET, while Ford was more than 4% lower. In Europe, shares of French car parts supplier Valeo and Milan-listed Chrysler parent Stellantis fell 9% and 6.6%, respectively. Deutschland's Volkswagen also slipped nearly 7%. In Asia, auto giants Toyota and Nissan both fell more than 5% on Monday, while domestic rival Honda tumbled 7.2%. Shares of Japan-listed Mazda Motor Corp traded more than 7.5% lower, while Kia Motor Corp fell nearly 6%.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 03 February 2025

• As of 9:30 pm Sunday night, Dow futures are down -1.31%, SP500 futures down -1.84%, and Nasdaq futures down -.247%
  - Comcast's CNBC, 02 February 2025

• Multiple provinces in Canada to remove all alcohol products from the USA from their shelves in response to Trump's taxes/tariffs on imports from Canada. The province of British Colombia is more specific, with its premier ordering state alcohol stores to "immediately stop buying American alcohol from Republican states" and to remove the top-selling "Republican-state" brands from their shelves.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 02 February 2025

• Zhōngguó to file a lawsuit at the WTO against the USA, in response to Trump's decision Saturday to impose 10 percent tariffs on goods from Zhōngguó. Zhōngguó will impose its own taxes/tariffs on goods from the USA, as a countermeasure.
  - Nextstar Media's The Hill, 02 February 2025

• One reason Trump is imposing taxes/tariffs on imports from Canada is that he believes that a large amount of fentanyl enters the USA from Canada. But data from his own USA government shows that the vast majority of fentanyl enters from Mexico.
  - The Daily Beast, 02 February 2025

• Multiple provinces in Canada to remove all alcohol products from the USA from their shelves in response to Trump's taxes/tariffs on imports from Canada. The province of British Colombia is more specific, with its premier ordering state alcohol stores to "immediately stop buying American alcohol from Republican states" and to remove the top-selling "Republican-state" brands from their shelves.
  - The Daily Beast, 02 February 2025

• Trump orders the end of the "de minimis" exemption, which allows exporters in Canada, México and Zhōngguó to ship packages worth less than $800 into the USA without being taxed. This was key to the success of online retailers such as Temu and Shein, based in Zhōngguó.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 02 February 2025

• Goldman Sachs predicts the inflation is more likely than growth because of Trump's idiotic tax/tariff war, as the Mexican peso plummets
  - Zero Hedge, 02 February 2025

• Inflation seems stuck, and Trump's idiotic taxes/tariffs might worsen it
  - Comcast's CNBC, 02 February 2025

• Canada and México move to retaliate against Trump's imposed taxes/tariffs by imposing their own taxes/tariffs on imports from the USA
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 02 February 2025

• Canada announce retaliatory taxes/tariffs of 25% on imports of over $100 billion of products from the USA
  - Thomson's Reuters, 02 February 2025

• "It does not have to be this way": Canada, México and Zhōngguó respond to Trump's imposed taxes/tariffs with plans to impose their own taxes/tariffs on imports from the USA
  - Comcast's CNBC, 02 February 2025

• México will retaliate against tariffs imposed by Trump with tariffs and other measures of its own, President Claudia Sheinbaum has announced. Sheinbaum said on Saturday that she had ordered her economy minister to implement tariff and non-tariff measures to defend Mexico's interests, after the US slapped across-the-board duties on goods coming from Mexico.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 02 February 2025

• How electric vehicle battery makers are making their batteries in Morocco to avoid taxes/taxes imposed by the USA and Europe. The Africa-Zhōngguó joint venture is latest company to find way past Western trade barriers while leveraging abundant battery materials in Africa.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 02 February 2025

• Americans do not eat enough bacon. The pork 'king' has a plan. Smithfield CEO Shane Smith took the largest pork producer in the USA public in the stock markets this week. Now he faces the big challenge of getting us all to eat more pork products.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 01 February 2025

• Walgreens to suspend dividend in cash-saving push. Cash needs for the next several years, "including with respect to litigation and debt refinancing", were important considerations, the company said.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 01 February 2025

• Dollar General is no Walmart. Buy the stock anyway. The company has a depressed stock, depressed earnings, a solid balance sheet, and a well-defined position in rural areas that no other retailer can match.
  - Barron's, 01 February 2025

• Walmart, Costco, and Amazon are not the only good retail stocks. Our best investments in the sector include apparel, footwear, and home-improvement chains.
  - Barron's, 01 February 2025

• How inexpensive AI systems could boost retail stocks such as CVS and BestBuy
  - Barron's, 01 February 2025

• Cattle herds in the USA shrink to the lows of 1951, as the beef crisis deepens. The ongoing cattle supply crunch continues to push supermarket ground beef prices to record highs. About a year ago, the USDA projected that the cattle herd could begin rebuilding by 2025. However, that timeline has since shifted to 2027. The reason is primarily because of high interest rates and poor pasture conditions in the Midwest.
  - Zero Hedge, 31 January 2025

• LVMH's disappointing results burst the bubble for luxury bulls celebrating what looked like a rapid recovery for the industry. The hype of the past few months now seems to have come too early.
  - Zero Hedge, 31 January 2025

• $20,000,000 - Apple will pay $20 million to settle Apple Watch battery swelling lawsuit
  - The Verge, 31 January 2025

• Apple is automatically turning on Apple Intelligence in the latest iPhones, requiring as much as 7 gigabytes of storage. This, despite the fact that 73% of Apple users think AI adds little to no value to the experience. Here is how to turn off this waste.
  - CNET, 31 January 2025

• Senator John Thune is caught between supporting Trump, or fighting Trump over taxes/tariffs that will hurt consumers and the agricultural industry in his state of South Dakota. Retaliatory tariffs during Trump's 2018 trade war with Zhōngguó crippled South Dakota's agriculture-dependent economy -- which relies on the billions of dollars worth of soybeans, corn, beef and other agricultural products it exports abroad every year, plus more in manufactured goods. Farmers there are still reeling from their financial losses due to Trump's policies, and a standoff with México and Canada -- which are now American farmers' two largest export markets -- would be devastating.
  - Axel Springer's Politico, 1 January 2025

• Profits for Tesla fell sharply last year. The electric car company run by Elon Musk is facing increasing competition, but investors have focused mostly on the prospects for Tesla's self-driving technology. Tesla has cut prices and offered low-interest financing to increase sales, but the measures have come at the expense of profit. Investors are focusing instead on promises by Musk to produce self-driving "cybercabs" that he says could generate trillions of dollars in revenue for Tesla, while causing millions of paid humans to lose their taxi driving jobs.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 31 January 2025

• An important Fed statistic, personal consumption expenditures, ncreased 2.6% on a year-over-year basis in December, while core PCE was at 2.8%, both in line with expectations but well above the Fed's 2% target.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 31 January 2025

• An important Fed statistic, personal consumption expenditures, ncreased 2.6% on a year-over-year basis in December, while core PCE was at 2.8%, both in line with expectations but well above the Fed's 2% target.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 31 January 2025

• The headline pce inflation index continues to rise; savings rate revised down... again
  - Zero Hedge, 31 January 2025

• Some Republicans in Congress worry that Trump's taxes/tariffs will financially hurt their constituents.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 31 January 2025

• Restaurants throughout the Gulf Coast are serving imported shrimp but telling their customers they are feasting on fresh crustaceans fished in the Gulf of Mexico, a series of new studies found. The cities with the highest "shrimp fraud rate" were Tampa Bay and St. Petersburg, Florida, at 96%. Family-owned shrimp businesses operating out of the Port of Tampa are struggling to survive while local restaurants bamboozle customers into thinking locally caught shrimp are being served."
  - USA Today, 30 January 2025

• The Internet almost killed Barnes & Noble, then saved it. BookTok readers are flocking to physical stores to snag a copy of the latest viral hit -- and helping the once-struggling chain become more profitable.
  - Bloomberg, 30 January 2025

• Retailer Costco Wholesale will increase pay for most of its hourly U.S. store workers to more than $30 per hour. The pay hike comes after Costco Teamsters union members said earlier this month that they voted in favor of a nationwide strike as they entered final round of talks to reach a new contract ahead of a Jan. 31 deadline.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 30 January 2025

• Kohl's is firing 200 people as it scrambles to make up for mistakes in its retail business, such as carrying less inventory and shrinking its fine-jewelry business
  - Jiaravanon's Fortune, 30 January 2025

• Shares of Apple rise over 3% after positive sales outlook signals a recovery of iPhone sales
  - Thomson's Reuters, 30 January 2025

• Shares of Apple decline after iPhone sales miss analysts' estimates, and revenues from Zhōngguó unexpectedly decline
  - Zero Hedge, 30 January 2025

• Shares of Comcast fall 12% after company underwhelms in broadband, Peacock subscribers. Comcast topped Wall Street's fourth-quarter estimates despite reporting larger-than-expected broadband subscriber losses and stagnating paid subscribers for its streaming service, Peacock.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 30 January 2025

• Shares of Caterpillar drop 5% pre-market, after it reported adjusted fourth-quarter earnings per share that exceeded the Bloomberg Consensus. However, the Texas-based company warned that 2025 revenue is forecasted to be "slightly lower" as demand concerns for heavy equipment weighed on shares in premarket trading. There are also destock headwinds and elevated inventories impacting dealers.
  - Zero Hedge, 30 January 2025

• Q4 GDP growth comes in unexpectedly light despite red hot personal spending beating estimates by a record. The bubbled USA economy is all about consumer credit and increased debt.
  - Zero Hedge, 30 January 2025

• The GDP of the USA grew 2.5% in 2024, but slowed slightly in final quarter. Consumer spending fueled growth, despite ongoing fears about inflation.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 30 January 2025

• Swatch profit sinks 75% on weakness in Zhōngguó, leaving luxury bulls disappointed
  - Zero Hedge, 30 January 2025

• The latest high-frequency data indicates that consumers are increasingly trading down as the inflation storm triggered under the Biden-Harris regime continued to strain household finances in the early days of the Trump-Vance administration. While Walmart's mobile app download growth slowed in December, active user engagement surged the most in years.
  - Zero Hedge, 30 January 2025

• Persistent high food inflation leaves many people in the USA more reliant on charitable food banks. Ethan Amos, the head of the Flagstaff Family Food Center in Arizona, said his food bank broke records in 2022 by serving an average of 28,000 meals per month. That figure has now surged to a staggering 40,000 meals per month.
  - Zero Hedge, 30 January 2025

• As Elon Musk is busy gutting the federal government, his chief cash cow, Tesla, is falling by the wayside. According to the automaker's latest earnings report, Tesla made a net profit of just $2.3 billion in the fourth quarter of 2024 -- a 71 percent drop of $5.6 billion compared to the same period a year earlier, even though its revenue saw a slight bump. That's bad, but we should note that Tesla's profits in 2023 were boosted by a one-time tax benefit of $5.9 billion.
  - Futurism, 30 January 2025

• CVS knows you hate those locked cabinets in their stores. The company said it was testing a feature on its app that would allow customers to unlock the cabinets instead of waiting for an employee to do so.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 30 January 2025

• Senator Ted Cruz, who apparently does not support his poor constituents, leads a Republican effort to defund the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which mostly protects Cruz's "blessed meek" when the CFPB prosecutes bad "money changers".
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 30 January 2025

• Only around one in ten Oracle Java customers are likely to stick around following costly licensing changes Big Red made to its development and runtime environments in January 2023, according to research.
  - The Register, 29 January 2025

• Indie bookstores will soon be able to sell e-books to customers. Bookshop, a site that lets independent, bricks-and-mortar bookshops sell their books online, is launching an app that will allow the sales of e-books, too.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 29 January 2025

• Amazon was sued on Wednesday by consumers who accused the retailing giant of secretly tracking their movements through their cellphones, and selling data it collects. According to a proposed class action in San Francisco federal court, Amazon obtained "backdoor access" to consumers' phones by providing tens of thousands of app developers with code known as Amazon Ads SDK to be embedded in their apps. This allegedly enabled Amazon to collect an enormous amount of timestamped geolocation data about where consumers live, work, shop and visit, revealing sensitive information such as religious affiliations, sexual orientations and health concerns.
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 28 January 2025

• $200,000,000+ - Nine people have been charged in connection with a scheme to smuggle at least $200 million worth of counterfeit and other illegal goods from Zhōngguó into the USA via the San Pedro Bay port complex of Los Angeles and Long Beach
  - Sourcing Journal, 28 January 2025

• Americans' consumer confidence fell for the second month in a row in January according to The Conference Board, dropping from an upwardly revised 109.5 (how do you revise 'confidence'?) to 104.1 (vs 105.7 exp) with expectations and current conditions both falling (from upwardly revised data)
  - Zero Hedge, 28 January 2025

• Starbucks earnings exceed expectations, but same-store sales decline for fourth straight quarter. Starbucks said its same-store sales fell 4%, fueled by a 6% decline in visits to its stores.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 28 January 2025

• Starbucks earnings exceed expectations, but same-store sales decline for fourth straight quarter. Starbucks said its same-store sales fell 4%, fueled by a 6% decline in visits to its stores.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 28 January 2025

• Elon Musk's Twitter/X said it has struck a deal with Visa, the largest credit card network in the USA, to be the first partner for what it is calling the X Money Account. Visa will enable X users to move funds between traditional bank accounts and their digital wallet and make instant peer-to-peer payments, like with Zelle or Venmo.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 28 January 2025

• Shares of JetBlue plummet 20% after the airline's financial outlook disappointed investors. The company is in the middle of a cost-cutting program that includes culling unprofitable flying.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 28 January 2025

• Justin Trudeau promised a better life for the middle class in Canada. Then prices soared. While many issues turned Canadians away from their prime minister, the high cost of groceries and homes has become a chief grievance.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 28 January 2025

• The Federal Reserve is about to suspend additional interest rate reductions. Faced with a solid economy and mounting inflation concerns, the Fed has said it will "move cautiously" on cutting interest rates.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 28 January 2025

• Wall Street still predicts two interest rate reductions in 2025, but their conviction is becoming weaker
  - Comcast's CNBC, 28 January 2025

• Whole Foods workersl in Philadelphia form the grocer's (a subsidiary of Amazon) first union in decades. Employees vote to organize under UFCW as the store becomes the only union-represented Whole Foods location.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 28 January 2025

• Whole Foods workersl in Philadelphia form the grocer's (a subsidiary of Amazon) first union in decades. Employees vote to organize under UFCW as the store becomes the only union-represented Whole Foods location.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 28 January 2025

• Broadcom's ownership of VMware has discouraged many of its customers, as companies are displeased with how the trillion-dollar firm has run the virtualization business since buying it in November 2023. Many have discussed reducing or eliminating ties with the company. Customers are unhappy with Broadcom gouging them by bundling unwanted VMware products together.
  - ArsTechnica, 27 January 2025

• Starbucks is getting back to basics -- but trains baristas in de-escalation to manage new tensions. The new CEO is bringing back ceramic mugs and plush chairs for customers who want to enjoy their coffee in-store.
  - Salon, 27 January 2025

• In Zhōngguó, a rare dissent over a program to save on drug costs. Top doctors raised concerns about domestically made drugs, saying Beijing's effort to lower costs is sacrificing quality.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 27 January 2025

• Facebook's free-speech shift made it clear to advertisers: 'brand safety' is not longer a concern. Facebook's loosening of speech restrictions is unsettling advertisers, who say a decade of efforts to protect their reputations is at risk. What is not at risk is more billions of dollars for Mark Zuckerberg.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 27 January 2025

• People in the USA spend $3 billion a year on meat sticks
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 27 January 2025

• Airlines are charging higher fares and are confident that you will pay more. Pricing power is shifting toward airlines and other companies that provide services consumers crave.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 27 January 2025

• $60,000,000 - Pfizer will pay $60 million to settle criminal allegations that one of its subsidiaries incentivized healthcare providers to prescribe one of its drugs, resulting in the submission of false claims to federal healthcare programs
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 27 January 2025

• Morgan Stanley: changes in immigration and tariff policy are more negative for growth than perceived. They both boost inflation, though possibly temporarily. This means that when the inflation arrives, the Fed will be prevented from reducing interest rates.
  - Zero Hedge, 26 January 2025

• Pepsi buys Siete Foods for $1.2 billion, which makes ood products that cater toward people looking for grain-free and dairy-free options in Mexican-American food.
  - The Motley Fool, 26 January 2025

• Homeowners' associations are struggling to find master insurance policies, forcing fees higher for residents. Insurers are boosting premiums or exiting the business, citing rising losses from extreme weather and aging buildings. The steep premium hikes usually end up passed on to individual owners in the form of higher monthly dues.
  - Apollo Global's Yahoo Finance, 6 January 2025

• The Wahlberg's Wahlburgers, Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville and Robert DeNiro's Nobu are at the top of the list of the worst celebrity-owned restaurants
  - Murdoch's New York Times, 25 January 2025

• Egg prices are high. They will likely go higher. Avian influenza has led to a shortage of eggs and wholesale prices that are through the roof. Consumers can expect to feel the pain for a while.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 25 January 2025

• Target drops its diversity and equality goals and ends programs to boost Black suppliers, as a result of pressure from activists. Once a stalwart supporter of Black and LGBTQ rights, the retailer joined American corporation's retreat from diversity and equality initiatives.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 25 January 2025

• The Microsoft 365 Copilot launch (the new name for Windows) was a total disaster with its huge price increase. No one wants to pay for AI.
  - ZD Net, 24 January 2025

• The CEO of United Airlines says that lower-cost airlines such as Southwest are in trouble because of their business models. For example, when airlines fly into one of the three major airports in New York, they pay $8 per passenger in expenses. It is hard then to be profitable when you are charging an average of $67 for a ticket.
  - SF Gate, 24 January 2025

• $12,250,000 - Fitbit will pay a civil penalty of $12.25 million after it "knowingly failed to immediately report" a defect in its Ionic smartwatches that caused dozens of people to sustain burn injuries, the Consumer Product Safety Commission stated.
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 24 January 2025

• Mastercard and Visa failed to stop their payment networks from laundering proceeds from child sexual abuse material and sex trafficking on the popular website OnlyFans, according to allegations in a previously undisclosed whistleblower complaint filed with the financial crimes unit of the USA Treasury Department.
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 24 January 2025

• Egg prices soar into "blue-sky breakout' as the bird flu worsens shortages of eggs in supermarkets
  - Zero Hedge, 23 anuary 2025

• Puma shares crashed as much as 19% on Thursday, the largest intraday decline since September 2001. The selloff was triggered after the German sportswear company released preliminary 4Q24 net income figures that fell short of consensus analyst estimates. Also spooking investors, Puma announced a cost-efficiency program to curb margin pressures.
  - Zero Hedge, 23 January 2025

• Shares of American Airlines drop as much as 13% pre-market, and open down 8%, after its first-quarter earnings outlook on Thursday fell short of predictions of analysts
  - Comcast's CNBC, 23 January 2025

• Shares of American Airlines drop as much as 13% pre-market, and open down 8%, after its first-quarter earnings outlook on Thursday fell short of predictions of analysts
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 23 January 2025

• A "national tragedy" in Bharat: popcorn is taxed three ways. Critics say the multiplicity of tax rates on the humble snack is emblematic of why Bharat remains a difficult place to do business.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 23 January 2025

• $3,000,000 - The California mom who pleaded guilty to leading an extensive retail theft crime ring that stole beauty products from Ulta and Sephora to resell on Amazon has been ordered to pay millions of dollars in restitution. Michelle Mack, 54, the married, mother-of-three 'queenpin', was ordered to pay $3 million in restitution to Ulta, Sephora and a number of other retailers her crime ring targeted, according to CNBC.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 22 January 2025

• Biden's big failure: wages didn't keep up with inflation during his administration
  - Zero Hedge, 22 January 2025

• Walmart remains the discount juggernaut in price war among supermarkets. Cash-strapped consumers are increasingly turning to Walmart for the best grocery deals. Even wealthier consumers are trading down from Whole Foods and other upscale supermarkets to Walmart. A new price survey of 38 SKUs in dairy, frozen goods, dry grocery, HPC, and produce categories across Kroger, Albertsons (under Randalls), Walmart, Sprouts Farmers Market, Whole Foods, and Dollar General found that Walmart "continued to have the lowest prices".
  - Zero Hedge, 22 January 2025

• These frequent fliers are done with loyalty programs. Forgoing access to airport lounges and early boarding can be worth it for travelers who are tired of chasing points and want to save money on flights.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 22 January 2025

• Sales of Apple's iPhones in Zhōngguó decline as Huawei gains market share. Apple's fourth-quarter iPhone sales fell 18% in the world's largest smartphone market.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 22 January 2025

• Procter & Gamble earnings beat analysts' predictions, as shoppers buy more household products
  - Comcast's CNBC, 22 January 2025

• Shares of Netflix rose 13% after-hours to a new all time high of $986, after reporting excellent earnings, a record number of new subscribers, an increase in subscription fees, and a $15 billion stock buyback
  - Zero Hedge, 21 January 2025

• Why Trump's proposed taxes/tariffs on imports from México and Canada could increase core inflation in the USA by 1.4%
  - Zero Hedge, 21 January 2025

• 18,000 unionized workers at Costco prepare to strike after a vote passes to do so
  - Zero Hedge, 21 January 2025

• Trump's proposed new taxes/tariffs on imports from Zhōngguó have already triggered the CEO of Williams-Sonomo to reduce the company's exposure to Zhōngguó
  - Apollo Global's Yahoo Finance, 1 January 2025

• A law that coaxed companies to lower the price of insulin drugs came with a little-known consequence: smaller discounts for low-income health clinics.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 21 January 2025

• Food prices are rising again in the USA. Bird flu, extreme heat and dry weather are helping drive grocery prices higher at the fastest pace in more than a year.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 21 January 2025

• Peter Schiff: all the data confirms the economy of the USA is experiencing stagflation
  - Zero Hedge, 20 January 2025

• The central banker of México predicts that inflation will decline below 4% in January
  - Thomson's Reuters, 20 January 2025

• Sierra Leone: the country in West Africa that is welcoming the world. Long known as one of the great beach destinations in Africa, a new generation of people in Sierra Leone is eager to show visitors that the formerly war-torn nation is now safe and reintroduce it to the world.
  - BBC, 20 January 2025

• The Justice Department sues Walgreens, alleges it filled and trafficked millions of illegal prescriptions for opioids and other controlled drugs. According to the complaint, the violations began around August 2012 and continued through the present, with millions of prescriptions allegedly written and trafficked for opioids and other controlled substances that lacked a valid medical purpose. Walgreens argues that its pharmacists obeyed all of the rules that apply to drug trafficking.
  - Zero Hedge, 20 January 2025

• What if no one misses TikTok? TikTik's cultural footprint in the USA is huge. Why is its disappearance being met with a shrug?
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 19 January 2025

• Most economists agree taxes/tariffs are a tax on consumers. A Trump adviser, Stephen Miran - and the next head of the Council of Economic Affairs - says they are all wrong.
  - Barron's, 18 January 2025

• Oil prices are up, but oil stock prices are not. Why energy markets have gotten so unpredictable.
  - Barron's, 18 January 2025

• $620,000+ - Peter Leach, an attorney in Providence, Rhode Island, is sentenced to nearly 3 years in jail for defrauding clients and not paying taxes, and will pay over $600,000 in fines and back taxes
  - WPRI Providence, 17 January 2025

• $2,056,116 - The owner of two restaurants on the North Shore of Massachusetts and one on the seacoast of New Hampshire was sentenced to prison Thursday for defrauding the Internal Revenue Service of federal employment taxes and the Massachusetts Department of Revenue of state meals taxes. John Drivas was ordered to pay restitution of $1,596,775 to the Massachusetts Department of Revenue and $439,341 to the IRS, in addition to a $20,000 fine.
  - Boston 25 News, 17 January 2025

• The Biden administration on Friday issued last-minute proposed rules to curb duty-free imports under the $800 "de minimis" threshold, denying the low-value shipments exemption for goods that are subject to other punitive USA taxes/tariffs. The move marks a setback for e-commerce firms, including Zhōngguó-based Shein and PDD Holdings' Temu, which have exploited the de minimis threshold to ship millions of small packages a day to customers in the USA.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 17 January 2025

• Ozempic among the next drugs subject to price negotiations with Medicare. The list of drugs account for $41 billion in annual Medicare spending.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 17 January 2025

• The FTC sues PepsiCo, alleging that it gave WalMart an unfair pricing advantage. PepsiCo "forced onsumers and competing retailers to pay higher prices".
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 17 January 2025

• The FTC sues PepsiCo, alleging that it gave WalMart an unfair pricing advantage. PepsiCo "forced onsumers and competing retailers to pay higher prices".
  - Murdoch's Fox News, 17 January 2025

• Trump's selection to head the Treasury Department defends Trump's plans to cut taxes , while raising tariffs
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 17 January 2025

• Deliveries of vehicles from Stellantis deliveries fell 9% in the fourth quarter of 2024 as the Jeep and Ram-maker took action to reduce excess inventory in the USA
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 17 January 2025

• $32,500,000 - Cargill has agreed to pay $32.5 million to settle a class action accusing it of conspiring with rival processors to fix the price of turkey, according to a filing in Chicago federal court
  - Thomson's Reuters, 16 January 2025

• The very bad, no good trillion-dollar trade surplus of Zhōngguó. It is a sign of weakness, not strength, because Zhōngguó relies too much on exports and not enough on internal consumer demand.
  - Krugman Wonks Out, 16 January 2025

• Shares of Swiss luxury group Richemont soared 17%, after it reported third-quarter sales that topped Bloomberg Consensus estimates, fueling a rally in European luxury goods stocks. The earnings have ignited optimism that "demand for high-end goods may be recovering", Goldman Sachs analysts told clients. Shares of French peers Kering and Hermes were up 8% and 5%, respectively. Italian high-end brands Brunello Cucinelli, Salvatore Ferragamo and Moncler increased 2%, 5.7% and 7.4%, respectively, while Burberry advanced 8%.
  - Zero Hedge, 16 January 2025

• $230,000,000 - American Express will pay a fine of $230 million to resolve allegations of the Justice Department that it misrepresented features of some credit cards targeting small businesses and entered false information on card applications
  - Payments Dive, 16 January 2025

• $255,000,000 - Digital payments company Block agreed to pay $255 million to federal and state regulators for deficiencies in its oversight of its peer-to-peer payments tool Cash App and to compensate users who became victims of fraud. Block will pay the CFPB a $55 million penalty, will compensate victims with up $120 million, and pay an $80 million fine to state regulators. Block allegedly directed consumers that suffered financial losses to their banks for redress, but when the banks went back to the company for compensation, it would deny the requests, the CFPB said.
  - Payments Dive, 16 January 2025

• Inflation increased in December, a fresh challenge for the Federal Reserve
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 16 January 2025

• The FDA finanlly bans Red Dye 3 in foods. Consumer and food safety groups have long urged the agency to revoke the use of this dye and others. The FDA says studies have shown that it causes cancer iin rats, but not in humans.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 16 January 2025

• The FDA finanlly bans Red Dye 3 in foods. Consumer and food safety groups have long urged the agency to revoke the use of this dye and others. The FDA says studies have shown that it causes cancer iin rats, but not in humans.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 16 January 2025

• Why Costco is not joining the backlash against diversity and equality initiatives. The retail giant is swatting back at a conservative activist group, buoyed by loyal customers and staff.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 16 January 2025

• Astral, a new startup, uses AI agents to flood Reddit with posts shilling clients' products. Astral founder Savannah Feder showcases the speed with which Astral can mercilessly spam Reddit threads with targeted ad copy designed to read like posts by actual people -- complete with a fake disclosure, to keep things [un]ethical.
  - The Byte, 15 January 2025

• Fraud losses in card payments will keep rising over the next decade, culminating in $403.88 billion of losses worldwide over the next ten years. "Criminals from outside the US do business inside the US because American merchants and card issuers are reluctant to impose the strictest fraud fighting technologies."
  - Payments Dive, 15 January 2025

• Landlords in Los Angeles increase rents as much as 124% as fires force thousands to flee. "The vultures are circling and the flames are not even out yet."
  - Zero Hedge, 15 January 2025

• A benign inflation report and bullish bank earnings sparks a short-squeeze across all assets: gold, bitcoin, stocks, bonds and oil rise higher in price as the dollar dips in value
  - Zero Hedge, 15 January 2025

• The Dow surges 700 points, and the SP500 posts the best day in a few months, after a tame inflation report is issued
  - Comcast's CNBC, 15 January 2025

• The FTC sues John Deere for "unfairly" raising repair costs on farm equipment. John Deere's "unfair" practices raised repair costs for farmers and kept them from being able to make repairs on tractors and other equipment they own. The complaint accuses John Deere of "decades" of unlawful practices that forced farmers to turn to the company's own network of authorized dealers for repairs.
  - The Verge, 15 January 2025

• The FTC sues John Deere for "unfairly" raising repair costs on farm equipment. John Deere's "unfair" practices raised repair costs for farmers and kept them from being able to make repairs on tractors and other equipment they own. The complaint accuses John Deere of "decades" of unlawful practices that forced farmers to turn to the company's own network of authorized dealers for repairs.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 15 January 2025

• The FDA proposes new food labels to detail the levels of sugar, fat and salt in foods and beverages
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 15 January 2025

• The FDA proposes new food labels to detail the levels of sugar, fat and salt in foods and beverages
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 15 January 2025

• $7,300,000,000 - The largest pharmacy-benefit managers hiked the prices of dozens of drugs dispensed through their own pharmacies, according to a new report by the Federal Trade Commission released on Tuesday. The excessive markups helped the PBMs reap $7.3 billion from 2017 to 2022.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 15 January 2025

• The great agave bust unfolds as the oversupply worsens of tequila
  - Zero Hedge, 14 January 2025

• Shares of Eli Lilly plummeted almost 8% in the first 30 minutes of trading, the worst decline in 4 years, on declining demand for its obesity and diabetes drugs.
  - Zero Hedge, 14 January 2025

• Shares of Eli Lilly plummeted almost 8% in the first 30 minutes of trading, the worst decline in 4 years, on declining demand for its obesity and diabetes drugs.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 14 January 2025

• Shares of Signet Jewelers, the world's largest diamond jewelry retailer, plunged over 20% in premarket trading in New York after the retailer slashed its fourth-quarter sales forecast. Signet attributed the revision to weaker-than-expected holiday same-store sales. Signet warned that cash-strapped consumers "gravitated" to cheaper jewelry during the holiday season - yet another sign low/mid tier consumers are tapped out with drained personal savings and insurmountable credit card debt.
  - Zero Hedge, 14 January 2025

• The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced it was suing Capital One for "cheating" its customers out of more than $2 billion in interest. The agency said the banking giant used deceptive marketing to obscure differences in interest rates between two of its savings account options. Capital One denied the allegations and said it widely advertised its high-yield savings account.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 14 January 2025

• The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced it was suing Capital One for "cheating" its customers out of more than $2 billion in interest. The agency said the banking giant used deceptive marketing to obscure differences in interest rates between two of its savings account options. Capital One denied the allegations and said it widely advertised its high-yield savings account.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 14 January 2025

• Hanging out at Starbucks? You now need to order something. The coffee giant is reversing a policy that had allowed open access to its cafes, in a push to improve store environments.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 14 January 2025

• Starbucks reverses open public bathroom policy after junkie influx created unsafe environment
  - Zero Hedge, 14 January 2025

• FTC prepares to sue the largest apartment landlord in the USA over hidden fees. The FTC is weighing a lawsuit alleging Greystar failed to disclose fees related to trash services and background checks.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 14 January 2025

• Apple faces $1.8 billion lawsuit in UK court over App Store. Lawyers representing the class action said that Apple excluded potential rivals from competing for customers on devices running its iOS operating system by forcing developers to sell their apps exclusively through its own App Store and charging commissions of 30% for purchases.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 14 January 2025

• Consumer inflation expectations jump as the labor market and household finance sentiments crumble
  - Zero Hedge, 13 January 2025

• Global sales of smartphones rebound, but Apple AI fails to spark an upgrade boom for iPhones
  - Zero Hedge, 13 January 2025

• Shares of Abercrombie plunge 16% as retailers post early holiday results, and as investors worried if Abercrombie's rapid growth is coming to an end.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 13 January 2025

• Inflation in Bharat declines to a lower-than-expected 5.22% in December, increasing odds of a reduction in interest rates. Annual growth in food prices declined to 8.39% in December from 9.04% in November.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 13 January 2025

• After years of raising prices, food companies making everything from cookies to snacks and frozen meals say they need to sell more products to post a profit. Volume growth is even more critical when consumers are stretched, executives say. Discussions about brand, price and package size that historically took place once or twice a year now come up monthly to help adjust based on the performance of a product.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 13 January 2025

• JCPenney merges with Aéopostale owner to form Catalyst Brands. The department store chain said that the all-equity merger brings its banner and various exclusive private brands under the same umbrella as Space's portfolio, which includes Eddie Bauer, Lucky Brand and Nautica.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 13 January 2025

• Trump's plans for mass deportation of (illegal) immigrants could have a big effect on prices. Experts are concerned that deporting such a large number of undocumented immigrants at once could leave a hole in the labor force. A 2023 study in the Journal of Labor Economics found that 44,000 U.S.-born workers could lose their jobs for every 500,000 immigrants removed from the labor Immigrants, especially unauthorized immigrants, are much more likely to work in the types of jobs that create the goods and services where we are seeing the prices go up."
  - Comcast's CNBC, 11 January 2025

• Macy's and Kohl's announce closures of 93 stores in total, citing inflationary pressures on costs and decreased consumer spending
  - Zero Hedge, 10 January 2025

• The easy credit, high interest rate swindle has been a financial feature of the landscape for so long it's rarely examined for what it is: not just a reliably profitable swindle, but as a safety valve for a broken system. We all know how it works, either from experience or observation: credit cards are distributed like candy on Holloween, with one little kicker: insanely high rates of interest, i.e. 21% and up, and rapacious late fees.
  - Zero Hedge, 10 January 2025

• Shares of Walgreens soar more than 20% on big earnings beat, as the drugstore chain reduces costs
  - Comcast's CNBC, 10 January 2025

• DHL invests in the growing retail returns business. The acquisition of a returns services provider comes as retailers are grappling with the higher volumes that shoppers are sending back.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 10 January 2025

• Frigid weather adds to high beef price pains. Live cattle futures trading on the CME rose on Thursday to a new record, climbing up to $1.98 a pound intraday. They are up approximately 15% from this time last year.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 10 January 2025

• Ford's electric Mach-E SUV outsold the gasoline-powered Mustang for the first time in 2024
  - Zero Hedge, 09 January 2025

• The digital payments system of Bharat is ending access by Visa and Mastercard. Regulators around the world are notching up scrutiny on Visa and Mastercard over the fees they charge merchants, but Bharat has chosen a different path: creating rival payment networks that are increasingly sidelining international card networks. The strategy of Bharat builds on the Unified Payments Interface, known as UPI, a nine-year-old system that lets consumers and merchants bypass traditional card networks by connecting bank accounts directly through QR codes and phone numbers. The UPI network now processes more than 13 billion real-time transactions monthy - that is about 71% of all transactions in the world's most populous nation -- and accounts for 36% of all consumer spending in the country, according to an analysis by Bernstein.
  - TechCrunch, 09 January 2025

• In May, Nvidia will start selling a $3,000 AI supercomputer combining a 20 Arm core CPU with a 1 petaflop Blackwell GPU
  - Comcast's CNBC, 09 January 2025

• Notes from the latest Fed FOMC meeting show 'almost all' Fed members predicting higher risks of inflation, cite Trump's proposed policies of tax reductions, more government borrowing, and new taxes/tariffs
  - Zero Hedge, 08 January 2025

• Fires in California expose a $1 trillion hole in home insurance availability in the USA. Homeowners in increasingly risky areas cannot obtain adequate coverage as insurers flee the state to avoid losses. Pacific Palisades, where over 1000 buildings have been destroyed, has $6 billion in coverage with the State's FAIR insurance system. Even a fraction of that amount would exceed the capabilities of FAIR, which at last report had about $700 million in cash. Additional damage can be passed on to private insurers, which would pass those costs immediately to their less-risky customers.
  - Bloomberg, 08 January 2025

• $788,000 - Mike Lindell, the fervant supporter of Trump, is ordered by a judge in Minneapolis to pay DHL for unpaid bills and other costs
  - Associated Press, 08 January 2025

• A lender to purchasers of mobile homes, owned by Warren Buffett, is sued because of its risky mortgages. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, owned by Berkshire Hathaway, made loans to buyers of manufactured homes that it knew the buyers could not repay.
  - Zero Hedge, 08 January 2025

• Apple's pricey iPhones will not be eligible for a new 15% government subsidy for smartphones, tablets and smartwatches in Zhōngguó. The subsidy is a new policy to boost domestic consumption, giving domestic smartphone makers the opportunity to lift sales on the back of the stimulus measure.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 08 January 2025

• Abortion pills prescribed by pharmacists are newest effort in abortion fight. The state of Washington's program is the first, but other states are expected to try allowing pharmacists to prescribe the pills to counter growing efforts to curtail abortion access.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 08 January 2025

• For years, Starbucks was the dominant coffee chain in Zhōngguó. Now rivals (such as Luckin Coffee, ChaGee, HeyTea) offering local flavors and cheaper prices are crushing the company's profits in its second-largest market.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 08 January 2025

• The Department of Justice said on Tuesday that it is suing six large landlords over alleged anticompetitive practices in housing rental markets, expanding the DOJ's first case alleging algorithmic collusion. The DOJ alleged the landlords exchanged competitively sensitive information on rents, occupancy rates, and pricing strategies through phone calls, emails, and user groups hosted by RealPage. The landlords -- Cortland Management, Greystar Real Estate Partners, Blackstone's LivCor, Camden Property Trust, Cushman's Pinnacle Property Management Services, and Willow Bridge Property -- were named as defendants in the amended complaint.
  - Zero Hedge, 08 January 2025

• The Justice Department expands its price-fixing lawsuit against RealPage to include six big landlords. Greystar, the largest apartment owner in the USA, and Blackstone's LivCor are among the firms added to the lawsuit.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 08 January 2025

• Why deflation is good for the economy
  - Zero Hedge, 07 January 2025

• Thailand has banned plastic waste imports over concerns about toxic pollution, as experts warn that failure to agree a global treaty to cut plastic waste will harm human health. Thailand is one of several south-east Asian countries that has historically been paid to receive plastic waste from developed nations who refuse to penalize the producers and users of plastic. Thailand became a leading destination for exports of plastic waste from Europe, the USA, the UK and Nihon.
  - The Guardian, 07 January 2025

• Wholesale prices for eggs hit a record high, with shortages reported at supermarkets
  - Zero Hedge, 07 January 2025

• The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau will remove an estimated $49 billion in medical debt from credit reports. With the change, Americans with medical debt could see their credit scores increase by an average of 20 point. More than 100 million Americans struggle with medical debt, which comprises the largest type of debt in collections ahead of auto loans, credit cards and utilities. The action comes after research determined that medical bills on credit reports are not good predictors of whether someone will repay a loan.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 07 January 2025

• The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau will remove an estimated $49 billion in medical debt from credit reports. With the change, Americans with medical debt could see their credit scores increase by an average of 20 point. More than 100 million Americans struggle with medical debt, which comprises the largest type of debt in collections ahead of auto loans, credit cards and utilities. The action comes after research determined that medical bills on credit reports are not good predictors of whether someone will repay a loan.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 07 January 2025

• A lender to purchasers of mobile homes, owned by Warren Buffett, is sued because of its risky mortgages. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, owned by Berkshire Hathaway, made loans to buyers of manufactured homes that it knew the buyers could not repay.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 07 January 2025

• Online behavioral ads fuel the surveillance industry. Each time you see a targeted ad, your personal information is exposed to thousands of advertisers and data brokers through a process called "real-time bidding" (RTB). This process does more than deliver ads - it fuels government surveillance, poses national security risks, and gives data brokers easy access to your online activity. RTB might be the most privacy-invasive surveillance system that you have never heard of. A key vulnerability of real-time bidding is that while only one advertiser wins the auction, all participants receive the data. Indeed, anyone posing as an ad buyer can access a stream of sensitive data about the billions of individuals using websites or apps with targeted ads. [KM: meanwhile, Google and other rich companies earns more billions].
  - EFF, 06 January 2025

• "It is fucking killing me" - the skyrocketing prices of eggs is devastating the profits of restaurants in California
  - SF Gate, 06 January 2025

• Retail is fashionable with property investors again, but only the unflashy kind. More people than ever are running errands at their neighborhood shopping center. Supply of this type of property is surprisingly scarce.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 06 January 2025

• Comcast might be the most complicated company in the USA. That is holding back the stock from rising. It is movies, theme parks, television, sports, telephones, etc.
  - Barron's, 04 January 2025

• Shares of Apple are pricier -- and more vulnerable -- than ever. This year could test the mettle of Apple.
  - Barron's, 04 January 2025

• Mercado Libre - the digital backbond of Latin America. The logistics of Amazon, the marketplace of Alibaba, and the fintech capabilities of Block, all rolled into one company in a region experiencing rapid structural growth.
  - Quartr, 03 January 2025

• Coca-Cola is under fire for drastically reducing its sustainability goals. This is a big blow to the environment, as the company has long been one of the top plastic polluters in the world. Coca-Cola announced it will try to use 35% to 40% recycled material in its packaging by 2035. This might sound good, but it previously pledged to use 50% recycled material by 2030. The company also announced drastic reductions to its recycling pledges. After stating it wanted to recycle every bottle it produced by 2030, it says it will recycle only 70% to 75% of bottles and cans.
  - The Cool Down, 03 January 2025

• Cattle futures hit a new record high as a polar blast is soon to hit the beef supply of the USA
  - Zero Hedge, 03 January 2025

• Big Retail gets bigger as smaller retailers struggle. Walmart, Amazon and Costco are growing faster than the rest of retail and investing to stay ahead.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 03 January 2025

• Foreign phone sales plunge 47% in Zhōngguó, which is big trouble for Apple
  - Comcast's CNBC, 03 January 2025

• $2,000,000 - JetBlue is fined $2 million by the Department of Transportation for "chronically delayed flights"
  - Comcast's CNBC, 03 January 2025

• $95,000,000 - Apple to pay $95 million to settle a proposed class action lawsuit claiming that its voice-activated Siri assistant violated the privacy of Apple's customers. Mobile device owners complained that Apple routinely recorded their private conversations after they activated Siri unintentionally, and disclosed these conversations to third parties such as advertisers.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 03 January 2025

• Ozempic could destroy modern civilization. But would that be such a bad thing? What if it turned out that the next generation of Ozempic-like drugs was an antidote not just for overeating but all compulsive behaviours? What would happen to the world that we have created? Here is my theory: very quickly, everything would fall apart. Whole industries would collapse. The economy would hit rock bottom. Individually and collectively, d have to figure out how to rehabilitate ourselves. That is because we live in a world of what the historian David Courtwright calls "limbic capitalism": an economic system that drives profit by capturing the part of our brains responsible for emotions, rewards and behavior -- regardless of the havoc it wreaks on our bodies and minds.
  - UnHerd, 02 January 2025

• Apple is offering rare discounts of up to 500 yuan ($68.50) on its latest iPhone models in Zhōngguó, as Apple acts to defend its market share against rising competition from domestic rivals such as Huawei.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 02 January 2025

• Belgium becomes the first country in the European Union to ban sale of disposable nicotine-delivery vapes. The nicotine drug-delivery devices are banned on health and environmental grounds, while Milan outlaws outdoor smoking.
  - The Guardian, 01 January 2025

• Has the business of craft/artisanal beers peaked? After decades of meteoric success, this year marked the first time since 2005 that more breweries closed than opened.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 01 January 2025

• $133,000,000 - Marks & Spencer is making a huge insurance claim after management allowed a cyber attack to expose sensitive customer data, seeking up to 100 million pounds ($133 million) through its cyber insurance policy.
  - Finimize, 31 December 2024

• The government of Bharat again delays new rules to break the authoritarian PhonePe (Walmart) and Google Pay (Google) duopoly that controls the digital payments system of Bharat. The National Payments Corporation of Bharat said on Tuesday it would extend the deadline for implementing a 30% cap on any individual app's share of transactions on the Unified Payments Interface, or UPI, the ubiquitous digital payments network in Bharat, to December 31, 2026. On Tuesday, Bharat also lifted restrictions on WhatsApp's mobile payments service, letting the Facebook-owned instant messaging app roll out WhatsApp Pay to all its 500 million-plus users in the South Asian market.
  - TechCrunch, 31 December 2024

• Drugmakers plan to raise prices on at least 250 branded medications in the USA, including Pfizer COVID-19 treatment Paxlovid, Bristol Myers Squibb's cancer cell therapies and vaccines from France's Sanofi at the start of 2025, according to data analyzed by healthcare research firm 3 Axis Advisors. Nearly all of the drug price increases are below 10% - most well below. The median price increase of the drugs being hiked Jan. 1 is 4.5%, which is in line with the median for all price increases last year. Larger drug price increases were once far more common in the U.S. but in recent years drugmakers have scaled them back after price hikes drew sharp criticism in the middle of the last decade.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 31 December 2024

• A family-owned restaurant in California was sued out of business by a women-hating Christian activist group, for offering "Ladies' Nights" (discounted drinks and/or meals for women to attract more women, and thus more men), which is in violation of an idiotic California law against discrimination
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 31 December 2024

• How President Jimmy Carter warned, without knowing, of the dangers of social media and e-commerce. In 1979, in a speech, he rightly anticipated: "Too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption."
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 31 December 2024

• The party is long over for the bottom third of US consumers, as maxed-out credit cards and depleted personal savings have pushed credit card loan defaults to their highest level since the 2008 financial crisis. Credit card companies wrote off $46 billion in "seriously delinquent loan" balances in the first nine months of 2024 -- an alarming 50% increase from the same period in 2023, and the highest level in 14 years.
  - Zero Hedge, 30 December 2024

• $20,000,000 - On December 19, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul announced a landmark settlement of $20 million with Leader Automotive Group, a company that runs 10 dealerships in the Bloomington, Illinois area. The settlement comes after allegations that the company engaged in deceptive and unfair practices in violation of Section 5 of the FTC Act and state laws.
  - EcoNews, 30 December 2024

• Pending home sales in the USA rose again in November as mortgage rates fell, but mortgage rates have soared since
  - Zero Hedge, 30 December 2024

• Prices of natural gas futures spike ahead of forecasted "historic gold" in the eastern USA
  - Zero Hedge, 30 December 2024

• The board of directors of Costco urgesl shareholders to reject calls to end DEI programs
  - Zero Hedge, 30 December 2024

• AI tools may soon manipulate the online decision making of humans. A study predicts that an 'intention economy' will arise where companies bid for accurate predictions of human behavior. "Unless regulated, the intention economy will treat your motivations as the new currency. It will be a gold rush for those who target, steer and sell human intentions." [KM: yes, the rich must get richer.]
  - The Guardian, 30 December 2024

• Huawei slashes prices in fight for an increased share of the high-end smartphone market in Zhōngguó. Huawei is offering a markdown of up to 20 percent for its premium handsets in its official online store.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 30 December 2024

• More and more young people are becoming addicted to nicotine-delivery tobacco packets such as Zyn, no surprise, given that nicotine is one of the most addictive, fully legal, drugs in the world
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 30 December 2024

• Discounts on the car dealership lot lift car sales. New-vehicle prices are expected to ease further in 2025, with discounts continuing to flow as many automakers return to prepandemic inventory levels.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 30 December 2024

• Wall Street is concerned about an inflation resurgence in 2025. Trump's proposed policies, such as high tariffs on imported goods, tax cuts for corporations, and curbs on immigration, are considered potentially inflationary by economists.
  - Apollo Global's Yahoo Finance, 29 December 2024

• A test of plastic chemicals in 300 foods bought in the San Francisco Bay area found: plastic chemicals in 86% of all foods, with phthalates in 73% of the tested products and bisphenols in 22%; and detected phthalates in most baby foods and prenatal vitamins. And sadly for humans, almost every single one of the foods we tested satoisfy both USA FDA and EU EFSA regulations.
  - Zero Hedge, 28 December 2024

• Migrants and the end of Covid restrictions fuel a rise in homelessness. The number of people experiencing homelessness in the USA topped 770,000, an increase of more than 18 percent in one year.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 28 December 2024

• The epic mess at TGI Fridays. The restaurant chain that spread happy hour and family dining across America has unpaid bills and a vacant headquarters. One restaurant owner sees a revival plan.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 28 December 2024

• Amazon and UPS are in a race to see who can replace the most paid-human delivery drivers with non-paid drones. A multibillion-dollar drone delivery market is taking shape. The rewards could be massive. [KM: yes, the rich must get richer].
  - Barron's, 27 December 2024

• $259,500,000 - UnitedHealth and CVS received millions in opioid rebates through Medicare. As the USA opioid crisis deepened, Medicare plans administered by UnitedHealth and CVS Health were a top source of OxyContin sales, a Barron's investigation found. Barron's found that Medicare plans using CVS' PBM comprised the largest source of OxyContin sales in 2016, according to internal Purdue documents listing health plan accounts. The PBM, CVS Caremark, collected $132.6 million in rebates and fees on the sales. Another set of Medicare plans, those using UnitedHealth's Optum Rx PBM, were the third-largest source of sales in 2016, the documents show. Optum Rx took in $126.9 million in rebates.
  - Barron's, 27 December 2024

• Costco is battling an anti-DEI wave with a stern rebuke to activist shareholders looking to end the warehouse retailer's diversity ambitions. Walmart, John Deere, Tractor Supply and other companies are changing or walking away from diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies. But Costco believes DEI helps its "treasure hunt" shopping atmosphere, and it is standing behind its efforts. "Among other things, a diverse group of employees helps bring originality and creativity to our merchandise offerings, promoting the 'treasure hunt' that our customers value.", Costco said in its proxy statement to investors.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 27 December 2024

• The bear market in luxury consumer products is crushing the wealth of billionaires in France
  - Zero Hedge, 27 December 2024

• RFK Junior wants to ban ads for drugs on television. It will not be easy. Attempts to restrict pharmaceutical advertisements have failed many times over the years, often on First Amendment grounds.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 27 December 2024

• Holiday sales reveal a split in consumer spending. Gains were driven by households earning $100,000 or more, while retailers and brands experienced a pullback by lower-income shoppers.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 27 December 2024

• Taiwan blocks Uber's $950 million takeover of local Foodpanda business because the takeover is anticompetitive. This thwarts Uber's efforts to expand in Asia.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 27 December 2024

• Prosus to buy Latin American online travel agency Despegar for $1.7 billion. The investment group, which is Despegar's largest shareholder, aims to serve 100 million customers across local e-commerce, travel and fintech sectors following the acquisition.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 27 December 2024

• E-mart and Alibaba plan online-shopping joint venture. Alibaba and E-mart will combine the assets of their separate e-commerce platforms, AliExpress Korea and Gmarket, to form a 50-50 joint venture.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 27 December 2024

• Temu's takeover of the online retail world with its addictive apps is now complete. Despite the arrival of new competitors and growing political tensions between the USA and Zhōngguó, the addictive ecommerce juggernaut Temu proved in 2024 that is here to stay.
  - Wired, 26 December 2024

• Microsoft - desperate to earn money from its tens of billions of AI investments, is forcing its AI Assistant on its customers, and making them pay. What about people who do not want to pay for an AI assistant to spruce up their documents and summarize emails [preferring to use/improve their brains]? They are out of luck - they are forced to pay.
  - Wall Street Journal, 26 December 2024

• Trump's tax/tariff plan to hurt affordable cars the hardest . The car industry in the USA has a "big case of anxiety" about Trump's proposed 25% tax/tariff on imports from Mexico and Canada.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 26 December 2024

• A credit-score hangover is hitting the riskiest borrowers in the USA. Credit scores soared during the pandemic, enabling a borrowing binge that has now forced a reckoning.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 26 December 2024

• Cost of buyer incentives looms over home builders. Lower-rate loans and other incentives have helped the biggest home builders sell new houses at a decent clip this year, even as stubbornly high mortgage rates weigh on sales of existing homes.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 26 December 2024

• The number of Americans turning to marijuana as a substitute for alcohol, cigarettes, and painkillers has surged in recent years, according to a new survey by Bloomberg Intelligence. Amir Islam of Bloomberg Intelligence highlighted a "sudden spike" in the substitution of marijuana for alcohol, with the latest survey showing 44% of respondents making the switch, up from 33% in 2022.
  - Zero Hedge, 25 December 2024

• The non-paid delivery drones of Amazon are ready for replacing lots of paid-human delivery people. A recent visit to Amazon's overhauled drone delivery program in Arizona left me impressed by the drones, but skeptical that the public will welcome them.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 25 December 2024

• Baristas at more than 300 Starbucks stores go on strike
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 25 December 2024

• Drinks giants Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Keurig Dr Pepper are pushing to keep their products eligible for the subsidies derived from purchases using Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits as prominent Republicans eye banning unhealthy drinks and snacks for food stamp recipients.
  - Newsweek, 24 December 2024

• Consumers in the USA feel less confident as economy concerns mount. Confidence among American consumers dropped unexpectedly in December, with expectations growing bleaker for the economic situation in the new year.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 24 December 2024

• The Container Store files for bankruptcy amid mounting pressures. The company said it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in a Texas district court, with plans to complete a reorganization plan within 35 days.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 24 December 2024

• The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has filed suit against Rocket Homes, alleging the real-estate company provides incentives to brokers and agents to steer home buyers to its parent company's mortgage-lending wing, Rocket Mortgage
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 24 December 2024

• Demand at food banks has soared to record levels all over the USA
  - Zero Hedge, 23 December 2024

• Walmart and one of its financial technology partners allegedly opened expensive bank accounts for delivery drivers without their consent. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau claimed that Walmart and Branch Messenger Inc. required the delivery drivers to be paid through costly accounts. The agency sued the two companies in the US District Court for the District of Minnesota, according to a statement.
  - Bloomberg, 23 December 2024

• Walmart and one of its financial technology partners allegedly opened expensive bank accounts for delivery drivers without their consent. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau claimed that Walmart and Branch Messenger Inc. required the delivery drivers to be paid through costly accounts. The agency sued the two companies in the US District Court for the District of Minnesota, according to a statement.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 23 December 2024

• Nordstrom will become a private company after it agreed to a buyout deal valued at $6.25 billion from s founding family and Mexican retailer El Puerto de Liverpool
  - Comcast's CNBC, 23 December 2024

• Diamonds are plunging in value around the world. Is Zhōngguó to blame? The demand in Zhōngguó for natural diamonds has "fallen off a cliff" amid plunging marriage rates, while its factories are churning out synthetic alternatives that are up to 90 per cent cheaper. Wholesale diamond prices have fallen by about 40 per cent over the past two years.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 22 December 2024

• Death on the night shift at frozen pizza factories in Chicago. Undocumented workers help feed America's addiction to prepared foods, but some take jobs with staffing agencies that expose them to hazardous conditions
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 22 December 2024

• From 2018 to 2023, the average sale price of a new manufactured home (mobile home) grew faster than that of a new single-family home, according to a recent study, rising 58% to $124,300. During the same period, the average sale price of a new single-family home rose nearly 38 percent, to $409,872.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 22 December 2024

• Cocoa is the biggest commodity winner of year as food inflation "enters dangerous territory"
  - Zero Hedge, 21 December 2024

• How Walmart's $90 billion Sam's Club is aiming to take down Costco. Yahoo Finance sat down with Sam's Club CEO Chris Nicholas for a Q&A on the club model, technology investments, competition, and more.
  - Apollo Global's Yahoo Finance, 21 December 2024

• Party City filed for bankruptcy Saturday for the second time in less than two years. Party City is the second largest party supply chain in the USA. It has about 700 stores, and about $800 million in debt. The company has faced competition from e-commerce sites and pop-up supply concepts like Spirit Halloween. Big box retailers have also crushed smaller chains.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 21 December 2024

• Small-time retail investors may soon gain easier access to so-called private markets. That usually means higher fees, greater risk, more conflicts of interest and a harder time selling.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 21 December 2024

• A woman lost her life savings. How Big Tech addicts shoppers . The rise of affiliate links, Buy Now buttons, and other technology has made it easier than ever to binge, often with dire consequences to consumers' debt.
  - Barron's, 21 December 2024

• The prices of a dozen of eggs at supermarkets hit record high as blue flu ravages chicken farms. 17 million egg-laying hens and younger birds known as pullets had been culled since mid-October.
  - Zero Hedge, 20 December 2024

• Commercial tea bags release millions of oil-derived microplastics, entering human intestinal cells
  - Medical Xpress, 20 December 2024

• Boom, bust, back from the dead: Why are mall retailers the most interesting stocks on the market? Malls defined a generation. Those mallrats grew up. Guess what stocks they're buying?
  - Sherwood News, 20 December 2024

• CFPB sues JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo over Zelle payment fraud. The agency alleges that the firms failed to properly investigate fraud complaints or give victims reimbursements. The CFPB said that customers of the banks have lost more than $870 million since the launch of Zelle in 2017.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 20 December 2024

• The Fed's favorite (until it starts rising) inflation indicator - Core PCE - printed cooler than expected for November (+0.1% MoM vs +0.2% MoM exp) which held it steady at +2.8% YoY (below the expected 2.9%) - tied for the highest since April.
  - Zero Hedge, 20 December 2024

• The Fed's favorite (until it starts rising) inflation indicator - Core PCE - printed cooler than expected for November (+0.1% MoM vs +0.2% MoM exp) which held it steady at +2.8% YoY (below the expected 2.9%) - tied for the highest since April.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 20 December 2024

• Crocker Gallery, a small upscale shopping center in San Francisco, has only three tenants
  - Zero Hedge, 20 December 2024

• Baristas at Starbucks hit the picket lines in a multi-state strike campaign. Do these kids realize that their jobs will just get automated by AI from Silicon Valley ?
  - Zero Hedge, 20 December 2024

• Baristas at Starbucks hit the picket lines in a multi-state strike campaign. Do these kids realize their jobs will just get automated by AI from Silicon Valley from the rich companies that are attuned to the rich owners of Starbucks?
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 20 December 2024

• Why are people in the USA paying so much more for healthcare than they used to? National healthcare spending increased 7.5% year over year in 2023, much faster than in the year before.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 20 December 2024

• The risky strategy behind the massive holiday discounts of Nike. The sneaker giant's new CEO is trying to clear out inventory, pressuring retailer partners.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 20 December 2024

• $632,000,000 - The French Competition Authority has fine a dozen home-appliance manufacturers (including LG, Miele, Smeg, Electrolux, SEB and Whirlpool) $632 million over concerns they fixed prices on retail products to weather competition from e-commerce platforms.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 20 December 2024

• In recent years, luxury products of all kinds has become obscenely, disgracefully, inconceivably costly. But with declining quality. These hoity-toity brands, which cheapened their essence and eviscerated their desirability with down-market celebrity partnerships, licensing deals and influencer advertising, have no one to blame but themselves.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 19 December 2024

• Lamb-Watson, a major supplier of french fries to McDonald's, missed its second-quarter earnings and slashed full-year guidance for the second consecutive time this year as demand for frozen potato products sputtered, sending shares in premarket crashing lower, down 17% in pre-market trading
  - Zero Hedge, 19 December 2024

• TCL, based in Zhōngguó, overtakes Samsung in premium market for ultra-large television (80 inches and larger)
  - Chosun Daily, 19 December 2024

• Marc Lore is betting that artificial intelligence will choose your meals for you in the future, and is pushing this misanthropy through Wonder, his food delivery service. What next? Have AI eat your food as well, leaving humans to be ... 'Soylent Green' food?
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 19 December 2024

• Because of large rich healthcare insurance companies, Minnesota has lost hundreds of pharmacies in a little over a decade, creating "pharmacy deserts" that are forcing people to travel a lot farther or rely on mail service to obtain their prescription medications.
  - Murdoch's Fox News, 18 December 2024

• Trump criticizes "rich as hell" pharmacy benefits managers, accusing them of being responsible for raising drug prices
  - Jiaravanon's Fortune, 18 December 2024

• Fed Chair Powell explains why he again reduced interest rates by 0.25%, as inflation data surges and with the Fed believing Trump will further increase inflation? Who paid off the Fed?
  - Zero Hedge, 18 December 2024

• Textron halts production of ATVs, UTVs and snowmobiles amid imploding consumer demand
  - Zero Hedge, 18 December 2024

• $275,000,000 - Sandoz agrees to pay $275 settlement in a price-fixing case in the USA involving generic drugs
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 18 December 2024

• $25,000,000 - Grubhub to pay $25 million in FTC settlement over harmful practices against diners and workers
  - Comcast's CNBC, 17 December 2024

• Asking rents fall 0.7% to lowest level since March 2022. The median rent is now 6.2% lower than when it hit an all-time high of $1,700 in August 2022.
  - Zero Hedge, 17 December 2024

• FTC bans hidden junk fees for hotels, concerts and sports, but ... spares other industries, such as airlines, auto dealers and other industries that prey on consumers.
  - Zero Hedge, 17 December 2024

• FTC bans hidden junk fees in hotel and event ticket prices. The new rule will require ticket sellers, hotels and vacation rental sites to disclose total prices, including fees upfront, prohibiting them from concealing add-on charges until the last minute. The FTC estimates the rule would save U.S. consumers 53 million hours per year they would not have to spend sleuthing out total costs before making purchases.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 17 December 2024

• FTC bans hidden junk fees in hotel and event ticket prices. The new rule will require ticket sellers, hotels and vacation rental sites to disclose total prices, including fees upfront, prohibiting them from concealing add-on charges until the last minute. The FTC estimates the rule would save U.S. consumers 53 million hours per year they would not have to spend sleuthing out total costs before making purchases.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 17 December 2024

• Surging car sales spark upside surprise for retail spending in November
  - Zero Hedge, 17 December 2024

• What ended a $20 billion grocery deal? Albertsons says Kroger did. In an unsealed complaint, Albertsons claims that s hubris and reluctance to divest of stores sank their merger; Kroger has said its rival breached the agreement.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 17 December 2024

• Shopping malls are betting you still want that Gucci bag -- at a discount. High-end brands in outlet shopping centers are drawing bargain-seekers as retail continues its recovery.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 17 December 2024

• How will Apple compete with $168 to $280 AI smartphones from Zhōngguó, such as the Honor Magic V?
  - Zero Hedge, 16 December 2024

• Most iPhone owners see little to no value in Apple Intelligence so far. Things are even worse for Samsung smartphones, with an even greater majority of owners saying they cannot see much point in the AI features offered.
  - 9to5 Mac, 16 December 2024

• More than a million nicotine-delivery vaping cartridges are discarded each day in the United Kingdom, the nicotine drug addicts causing an environmental nightmare. From June 2025 it will be illegal to sell single-use vapes, a move designed to combat environmental damage and their widespread use by children.
  - The Guardian, 16 December 2024

• What in the world is going to happen if global food supplies continue to get even tighter? During the second half of this year global food prices have been surging. A 'perfect storm' of factors is suppressing production all over the planet, and meanwhile worldwide demand for food just keeps rising. Needless to say, higher prices hurt those at the bottom of the economic food chain the worst. Food prices have become a major issue in country after country, and if current trends continue it will not be too long before widespread unrest breaks out. Here in the United States, the cost of living is absolutely eviscerating the middle class. If a way cannot be found to stabilize food prices, we will be seeing a tremendous amount of anger and frustration in 2025 and beyond.
  - Zero Hedge, 16 December 2024

• A "dire situation" - government bond yields in Zhōngguó hit record low on a "big disappointment" with reports on retail sales
  - Zero Hedge, 16 December 2024

• Alibaba to sell department store Intime to focus on core e-commerce, sources say. The reported Intime sale is part of Alibaba's broader efforts to restructure its business and refocus on its e-commerce and cloud businesses.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 16 December 2024

• The solar power enthusiasts importing their own equipment from Zhōngguó. Fed up with cost estimates from residential solar installers, DIYers are taking matters into their own hands.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 16 December 2024

• A new report has shown that the world's largest cruise line, Carnival, released more harmful pollution than Scotland's biggest city, Glasgow, during 2023, illustrating the significant damage cruise ships cause to the planet.
  - The Cool Down, 15 December 2024

• How supporters of Trump, and everyone else, will have to pay more for food, such as guacamole, if Trump imposes his tariffs on Canada and Mexico (from which the USA gets a lot of food) and expels millions of illegal immigrants, illegal immigrants that many farmers need to work the harvests of their farms.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 15 December 2024

• Norway considers nationalizing power and limiting exports, amidst a surge in electric power prices in Europe. "In spite of full water reservoirs, power prices are sky high. It is very hard to explain to people in Norway why a country with a large power surplus should have high electricity prices."
  - Zero Hedge, 14 December 2024

• Grocery prices are high in New York City. Could city-owned grocery stores help? A New York City mayoral candidate wants the city to open its own, more affordable grocery stores. The idea has gained momentum in Chicago and other cities.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 14 December 2024

• Most Americans say they have good health insurance, polls show. Many have encountered problems with their coverage, but the recent rage on social media is only part of the picture of the views of people in the USA on health care.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 14 December 2024

• Prices will not stop falling in Zhōngguó, and the government in Beijing is grasping for solutions. As prices spiral downward, companies are pumping out more goods to avoid losses, creating a vicious cycle that is eroding confidence.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 14 December 2024

• The $1 billion cookie empire that teens love and parents hate. Crumbl Cookies, sugar traffickers, addicts young fans with social media and sugar. Each cookie packs in 700 calories and costs $5.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 14 December 2024

• Cattle futures rise to record highs on import snags, and a screwworm infestation. Canada and Mexico are among the leading countries exporting beef to the USA, making Trump's threats of taxes/tariff on these countries particularly important to the cattle industry.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 14 December 2024

• Good riddance to the merger of grocers Albertsons and Kroger, which would have cost you money. At the heart of the merger, as I further reported, was a $4-billion dividend to be paid to Albertsons stockholders. Six of the largest stockholders were corporate insiders, defined as holders of more than 5% of Albertsons shares each. The biggest shareholder was the private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, which owns more than 26% of the shares and has four nominees on the company's board of directors. The other five are investment and real estate funds that hold a total of an additional three board seats. The six investors control about 75% of Albertsons shares. In other words, they voted themselves a multibillion-dollar handout. It should go without saying that funneling $4 billion to insiders off the top was not going to make it any easier to bring consumers lower prices at the checkout counter.
  - Los Angeles Times, 13 December 2024

• Why are 'buy now pay later' systems so popular? They serve plenty of people. To be sure, they do cost money. What is the interest they charge? That is a complicated question because mostly they are fee-based, like an ATM. The fees can be quite high in accord with the going rate, so anywhere from 7 percent to 20 percent.
  - Zero Hedge, 13 December 2024

• A new Federal rule limits overdraft fees at large banks. It is unclear whether the rule, which could help save Americans billions in fees each year, will remain in place after Trump returns to office.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 13 December 2024

• A new Federal rule limits overdraft fees at large banks. It is unclear whether the rule, which could help save Americans billions in fees each year, will remain in place after Trump returns to office. The rule change will take effect in October 2025, if Trump doesn't cancel the rule or modify it.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 13 December 2024

• Advisers to Trump seek to shrink or eliminate bank regulators, making it easier for banks to commit crimes. The advisers have asked potential nominees whether Trump could abolish the FDIC.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 13 December 2024

• Following yesterday's reported re-ignition in consumer price inflation (despite people seemingly being exuberant that it was 'as expected' - we don't remember The Fed's mandate being stable prices in line with consensus expectations?), this morning's producer prices were expected to accelerate further also to +2.6% YoY from +2.4% YoY. But it didn't. Headline PPI surged 0.4% MoM (+0.2% MoM exp) - biggest MoM jump since June - which lifted the YoY rise in producer prices to +3.0% - far above expectations and the highest since February 2023. With PPI and CPI rising again, do we need another interest rate reduction by the Fed?
  - Zero Hedge, 12 December 2024

• Gen Z consumers, despite growing up as digital natives, shop in stores about as much as their baby boomer grandparents do. Up-and-coming spenders in this generation are seeking social connection, instant gratification and moments to post on social media, according to interviews with shoppers and experts. Mall owners and retailers are trying to cater to teens and twenty-somethings with unique store features, such as selfie mirrors or videos, and experiences such as pop-up concerts.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 12 December 2024

• Inditex, owner of Zara, reported an increase in sales at the start of its final quarter, helped by its fall and winter collections and despite intense competition in the fashion industry
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 12 December 2024

• Wall Street is "suprised" by Sycamore's buyout offer made to Walgreens. "...a buyout is harder to contemplate given its already sizable debt burden and paltry cash flow, making the value creation pathway harder to decipher..."
  - Zero Hedge, 11 December 2024

• Shares of Macy's fall 11% after it reported its financial results for the third quarter on Wednesday and slashed its outlook after concluding an investigation into an employee who intentionally hid $151 million in delivery expenses from the fourth quarter of 2021 through the third quarter of this year
  - Zero Hedge, 11 December 2024

• Inflation in the USA rises slightly ahead of the next meeting of the Federal Reserve. Consumer prices rose 2.7 percent in the year through November, slightly more than in October. The Federal Reserve is considering whether to reduce interest rates next week.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 11 December 2024

• Inflation in the USA rises slightly ahead of the next meeting of the Federal Reserve. Consumer prices rose 2.7 percent in the year through November, slightly more than in October. The Federal Reserve is considering whether to reduce interest rates next week.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 11 December 2024

• [KM: Seeking to make the rich richer, and get more humans fired], Amazon has expanded into online car sales with the launch of Amazon Autos, an e-commerce business that lets customers find, order, and buy new cars, trucks, and SUVs from dealerships
  - TechCrunch, 10 December 2024

• The inventory of beef cows in the USA has steadily declined over the last half-decade, reaching 64-year lows and signaling a deepening crisis across the cattle industry. As the cattle crisis worsens, consumers should brace for higher ground beef prices. The shrinking beef supply has pushed the herd size in the USA to its smallest level since 1961. With severe droughts, high interest rates, costly feed prices, sliding farm income, surging farm debt, and a shifting consumer preference toward cheaper chicken, struggling ranchers have been culling heifers, preventing any meaningful recovery in the number of calves necessary to expand the nation's herds.
  - Zero Hedge, 10 December 2024

• Arabica coffee futures in New York hit a record high on Tuesday, driven by ongoing fears of a global supply crunch. Prices surged nearly 5% during the session, reaching their highest level in data dating back to 1972. At that time, coffee prices soared due to the disastrous Black Frost, which devastated Brazilian yields. In the cocoa market, the most active contract in New York jumped to the highest level in seven months over West Africa's dismal production outlook, yet another crop experiencing dwindling global supplies. The most-active cocoa contract has jumped 58% to $10,500 per metric ton since late October, the highest since June. This comes as adverse weather dents supplies from top growers in Ivory Coast and Ghana.
  - Zero Hedge, 10 December 2024

• Washington, we have a problem - inflation is not going away. The Federal Reserve has embarked on a rate-cutting cycle despite an absence of lasting economic or market distress.
  - Zero Hedge, 10 December 2024

• Shares of Walgreens spike 25%, from a plateau of a 28-year-low, after reports that Walgreens is in talks to sell itself to a private-equity firm in a deal that would take the pharmacy chain off the public market after its shares have been on a downward slide for nearly a decade
  - Zero Hedge, 10 December 2024

• Shares of Walgreens spike 25%, from a plateau of a 28-year-low, after reports that Walgreens is in talks to sell itself to a private-equity firm in a deal that would take the pharmacy chain off the public market after its shares have been on a downward slide for nearly a decade
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 10 December 2024

• How WhatsApp ate the world. WhatsApp is already the most widely used messaging app in the world. Facebook wants it to be a lot more. More ads, more messaging products, the introduction of more features to sell shit.
  - Rest of World, 09 December 2024

• Shares of Hershey surged the most in years, as high as 19%, after a Bloomberg report revealed that Mondelez International has mulled over a potential takeover of the chocolate maker for the second time in nearly a decade.
  - Zero Hedge, 09 December 2024

• Shares of Hershey soar on report of another Mondelez takeover attempt. In 2016, the board of directors of Hershey's rejected an offer $23 billion made by Mondelez. Concerns about GLP-1 drugs and soaring cocoa prices have hurt shares of Hershey's this year.
  - Zero Hedge, 09 December 2024

• Leading economic indicators suggest that 'price growth' is becoming entrenched
  - Zero Hedge, 09 December 2024

• The average age of cars keeps rising, but people cannot afford maintenance
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 09 December 2024

• TikTok warned that small businesses and social media creators in the USA would lose $1.3 billion in revenue and earnings in just one month if the popular app is effectively shut down in the United States on January 19th at the orders of the government of the USA. A law targeting national security concerns about TikTok's parent company, Zhōngguó-based ByteDance, gives it until January to sell TikTok.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 09 December 2024

• Why Trump, despite his lies, will not be able to make great again the struggling beef industry in the USA. A severe shortage of cattle, which has fueled grocery-store price hikes and wiped-out billions in meat-processor profits, is primed to get worse before the next election cycle. The US beef herd is already the smallest since 1961 after years of depressed prices, severe droughts and surging costs forced farmers to send more females to slaughter. Now, the possibility of new tariffs and immigration reform risk constraining supplies further still.
  - Bloomberg, 09 December 2024

• At least three major retailers will quickly raise prices to consumers (many of whom voted for Trump) if Trump raises taxes/tariffs on imports: AutoZone, Stanley Black & Decker, and Columbia Sportswear
  - GO Banking Rates, 08 December 2024

• Shenzhen-based Transsion Holdings is known as the "smartphone king of Africa", and for years has dominated the mobile phone market in Africa. But now, Shenzhen-based Transsion Holdings is facing some stiff competition from rival brands in Zhōngguó. By 2021, Transsion's barnds controlled half of Africa's market share for cellphones. But now brands including Xiaomi and Realme are eating into that share. Transsion is struggling to hold its own at the retail level as costs rise and supply chains are disrupted.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 08 December 2024

• The Food and Drug Administration is considering a potential ban on a carcinogenic food dye, Red Dye No. 3, derived from petroleum, commonly found in beverages, snacks, cereals, and candies. No problem, because alternatives are widely available. For example, "Froot Loops" in the USA uses 4 such oil-based dyes, but "Froot Loops" in Canada uses natural coloring agents.
  - Zero Hedge, 07 December 2024

• The global benchmark for food commodity prices rose in November, reaching its highest level since April 2023. The increase was driven primarily by a surge in vegetable oil prices. What's particularly concerning is that global food prices have resumed an upward trajectory this year, climbing steadily since the first quarter. This raises fears that global food inflation is re-accelerating.
  - Zero Hedge, 07 December 2024

• Retail chain WaWa closes its 9th location in Philadelphia since 2020. In 2022, Wawa attributed several city closures to crime and homelessness. Since then, the company has shifted focus to larger suburban stores with gas stations.
  - Zero Hedge, 06 December 2024

• In a "last hurrah", credit card debt explodes higher despite record high APR interest rates as savings rate plummets. Everyone is bracing for the moment when the US economy suddenly grinds to a halt and collapses under the weight of its own debt.
  - Zero Hedge, 06 December 2024

• Data centers for generative AI are sending global electricity demand soaring, which will push up prices for non-rich people,
  - Zero Hedge, 06 December 2024

• The CEO of Starbucks claims he will fix the coffee chain's most infuriating problem - waiting in line a long time for a drink, but people don't believe him
  - Daily Mail, 06 December 2024

• The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau sues Comerica Bank, alleging it failed to administer federal benefits program. The lawsuit claims Comerica Bank "intentionally terminated" more than 24 million customer service calls, charged more than 1 million cardholders ATM fees they didn't owe and mishandled fraud complaints. The Direct Express program is a prepaid card that beneficiaries, many of whom are older and disabled, can use to pay for expenses including groceries and gasoline.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 06 December 2024

• Electric vehicles are not selling. Carmakers have scaled back production plans, with EV output in the USA expected to drop by 50% and European plans by 29% next year, according to Bernstein. By 2025, EV market share is projected to reach 23% in Europe and 13% in the USA.
  - Zero Hedge, 05 December 2024

• In a worsening political climate, Visa and Mastercard must fight back
  - Real Clear Markets, 05 December 2024

• Retailers like Amazon, Walmart and Target have figured out that if they get you your online order today - with a bit of dopamine resulting, you will probably be more addictied to spend more tomorrow.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 05 December 2024

• Chipotle raises prices in the USA by 2% to offset costs due to inflation. The chain aims to balance higher costs for avocados, queso and sour cream while maintaining its appeal to inflation-weary consumers.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 05 December 2024

• A decrease in home renovations forces home furnishing retailers to increase deals. Record-high home prices, combined with the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate surpassing 7% once again, continue to create the worst housing affordability environment in a generation. Consequently, the residential renovation market sours, pressuring home furnishing companies to offer better deals.
  - Zero Hedge, 04 December 2024

• Dollar Tree said on its earnings call Wednesday that Trump's plans to tax imported goods may lead it to alter some product specifications, change sizes or remove them from stores altogether if they become too costly. Dollar Tree may also raise prices from their current level of $1.25.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 04 December 2024

• The stock-gambling website, Robinhood, is considering entering the sports gambling business
  - Comcast's CNBC, 04 December 2024

• Coca-Cola is scaling back its packaging sustainability goals, igniting outrage from environmental activists. The beverage company, which has long been criticized for being one of the top producer of plastic pollutants in the world, changed its "voluntary environmental goals" this week. It now aims to use 35% to 40% recycled material in its packaging by 2035 -- a drastic reduction from its previous goal of 50% by 2030. It will further socialize its pollution, profiting more while the public pays for waste disposal.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 04 December 2024

• ADP job employment statistics are reported less than expected, as manufacturing in the USA reports the biggest job losses since June 2023. Worse still, wage inflation re-accelerated.
  - Zero Hedge, 04 December 2024

• Shares of American Eagle plunge 13% as company issues weak holiday guidance
  - Comcast's CNBC, 04 December 2024

• Shares of Foot Locker decline 15% as it issues a gloomy holiday outlook. It slashed its full-year guidance after reporting a rough set of quarterly results that could be a warning sign for its largest brand partner Nike. Shares of Foot Locker fell short of Wall Street's predictions on the top and bottom lines and blamed the miss on soft consumer demand and elevated promotions across the marketplace.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 04 December 2024

• Sales of Tesla vehicles in Zhōngguó fall 4.3% in November as competitor BYD sees its sales surging
  - Zero Hedge, 03 December 2024

• Sales on 'Cyber Weekend' rise 9% as sales on 'Cyber Monday' fade into oblivion
  - Zero Hedge, 03 December 2024

• As cash fades, small retailers embrace efforts to rein in credit card swipe fees. Business owners say credit card transaction fees are a growing monthly expense, one often passed to consumers. They are cheering efforts to lower them.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 03 December 2024

• Trump's pick to be the Secretary of (un)Health, RFK Junior, wants more use of unhealthy tallow/cow-fat for frying in restaurants, as opposed to more healthy seed oils. Cardiologists shudder at the thought of more consumption of saturated fats found in animal fat.
  - The Atlantic, 02 December 2024

• California cannot use all of its solar power. As residents see sky-high bills, solar plants in California don't even operate at full capacity. The state needs more electricity storage systems and been electric power transmission capabilities.
  - SF Gate, 02 December 2024

• Carlos Tavares, the CEO of Stellantis, abruptly resigns as sales of the company's Jeep and Ram vehicles falter in the USA. The maker of Fiat and Peugeot cars has lost around 40% of its value this year.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 02 December 2024

• How the cost-cutting mantra of the CEO of Stellantis cost him his job. Carlos Tavares's abrupt exit from the Jeep maker came amid concerns over his renewed efficiency drive.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 02 December 2024

• Carlos Tavares, the CEO of Stellantis, abruptly resigns as sales of the company's Jeep and Ram vehicles falter in the USA. The maker of Fiat and Peugeot cars has lost around 40% of its value this year.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 02 December 2024

• Stoli Group USA, the owner of the namesake vodka, has filed for bankruptcy as it struggled to contend with slowing demand for spirits, a major cyberattack (allegedly by Rossiya) that has snarled its operations and several years of fighting Rossiya in court. The bankrupcy only affects its operations in the USA.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 02 December 2024

• How Jay Z's Monogram, a luxury marijuana company in California, went from having $575 million in cash, to a "debt seath spiral". After flashy launch, Jay Z's pot brand can't be found on California shelves. After going public in a SPAC deal in 2020, with the $575 million in cash, it wasted all of the money on expenses and acquisitions, to sell a $50 marijuana cigarette that wasn't worth $5.
  - SF Gate, 02 December 2024

• For decades, installing chargers for electric vehicles outside their stores was not profitable for retailers. Now it is. Companies see charging as a potentially profitable business in and of itself, not just as a spur for foot traffic and sales.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 02 December 2024

• Imports (mostly from Zhōngguó) are an 'addictive habit' that small businesses in the USA can't quit. Trump's tax/tariff plans are among the top risks for owners, even those who have shifted some production out of Zhōngguó.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 02 December 2024

• Consumers in the USA are reading the fine print of product return policies, and some have stopped buying altogether from retailers that charge for returns for products purchased online.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 02 December 2024

• How a federal policy change in the 1980s created the modern food desert, where low income neighborhoods no longer have supermarkets for basic foods needs. The federal policy change in the 1980s was supposed to reward the biggest retail chains for their efficiency. Instead, it devastated poor and rural communities by pushing out grocery stores and inflating the cost of food. Food deserts will not go away until that mistake is reversed.
  - The Atlantic, 01 December 2024

• Why online retailers Temu and Shein could give retailers in the West much competition for sales this holiday season. The two companies have mastered 'impulse buying', a place of guilty pleasures where the selection is vast, every day is Cyber Monday, and an instant dopamine hit that will have faded by the time your package arrives is always just a click away.
  - Associated Press, 01 December 2024

• The surprising negative impact of QR code menus on diminishing customer loyalty due to perceived inconvenience, and the customer's legitimate need for human interaction.
  - Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 01 December 2024

• A majority of people in the USA will rely on credit for this year's Black-Friday/Cyber-Monday purchases, despite deep discounts
  - Zero Hedge, 30 November 2024

• The specialty coffee wave sweeping across small towns in Bharat
  - BBC, 30 November 2024

• Distress with commercial real estate bonds reaches a record high. CRE-CLO bonds are packaged commercial real estate mortgages comprising short-term floating rate loans. At the end of Q3, the distress rate for CRE-CLO loans across all commercial real estate sectors reached 13.1 percent, an all-time high. Unsurprisingly, office properties have the highest rate of distress, with nearly one in five CRE-CLO office loans experiencing current distress.
  - Zero Hedge, 30 November 2024

• A misanthropic startup in Zhōngguó wants to build non-paid AI robot chefs to eliminate paid humans in the kitchen. Cooking robots can help restaurants cut labor costs by 30 percent, and reduce food and seasoning waste by 10 percent. [KM: If all companies do this, who is going to have a job to eat in such restaurants?]
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 30 November 2024

• United Aircraft, based in Shenzhen, Zhōngguó, is preparing for mass production of its drone, as demand for aerial deliveries by unpaid drones eliminates the need for paid-human delivery drivers. The company is preparing to fill 1 billion yuan in orders for its new drone as the 'low altitude, fewer employees' economy gains momentum.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 30 November 2024

• Frequent fliers are rethinking loyalty programs and setting themselves free. Some travelers, frustrated with changing airline rewards programs, have stopped chasing status and adopted different strategies when booking flights and using credit cards.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 30 November 2024

• Jobs and inflation data tell us interest rate reductions will continue, but more slowly
  - Barron's, 30 November 2024

• Shares of TJX are not a bargain like the clothes it sells. The shares are still worth buying anyway. Shares of the off-price retailer have performed , and should continue to do so.
  - Barron's, 30 November 2024

• Tesla owners turn against Musk: "I am embarrassed driving this car around". Sales of anti-Musk stickers have boomed since the world's richest man declared his support for Trump.
  - The Guardian, 29 November 2024

• "We have become an amusement park." Residents of Juneau, Alaska, are divided over whether to embrace the economic benefits of millions of visitors, or reclaim their town from an industry that has reshaped it. For example, the noise from helicopters shuttling cruise tourists to remote glaciers is one of the many reminders of how their lives are being upended by a city that has embraced industrial tourism. Environmentalists are sounding the alarm about the impact of cruise ships on fragile ecosystems. Large cruise companies and tour companies, led by Disney, Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian Cruise Line - have invested about $500,000 to fight new restrictions in the law against their activities. Supporters have raised $500.
  - The Guardian, 29 November 2024

• The Container Store could be the next big retail chain to go bankrupt. A weak housing market and steep competition have squeezed the chain. Credit rating agencies rank the Container Store as one of the most financially distressed companies in the retail industry.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 29 November 2024

• Consumer spending during the holidays (November to December) comprises 20% to 25% of the annual income of most retail stores and chains. If evenly distributed across the year, that statistic would only by 16%.
  - Zero Hedge, 29 November 2024

• The plunging value of the ruble in Rossiya is putting financial pressure on e-commerce merchants in Zhōngguó. About 150,000 merchants in Zhōngguó are active on major e-commerce platforms in Rossiya. "On the one hand, the ruble's depreciation causes a causes a sharp increase in domestic commodity prices, weakening the willingness of consumers in Rossiya to buy, and thus reducing orders from Zhōngguó. On the other hand, exchange rate fluctuations further erode the profit margins after settlement of transactions of merchants in Zhōngguó."
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 29 November 2024

• The 850-year-old Smithfield Market in London will be closing. In an era of supermarket chains, which buy produce directly from far-flung food-processing plants, a wholesale meat market in the heart of London makes little sense. The property, in any case, is more valuable as a site for offices, apartments or retail businesses.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 29 November 2024

• Women in Zhōngguó mobilize against subpar sanitary pads. An online campaign has prompted major pad manufacturers to apologize. Regulators said they would consider the criticisms of women when writing new standards.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 29 November 2024

• Taylor Swift is upending another industry playbook - this time, in books. Target's exclusive deal to sell Swift's elf-published Eras Tour book could brighten an otherwise rough run for the retailer.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 29 November 2024

• Shopify looks to bigger clients for steadier profits. The e-commerce company has launched a dedicated effort to sign on more big businesses to its platform, which helps companies manage their online storefronts.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 29 November 2024

• Canada sues Google, alleging anticompetitive online-ad practices. The accusations are the latest antitrust headache for the tech giant.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 29 November 2024

• Customers are quitting luxury brands as price hikes rise too high. By charging more, the industry is inadvertently encouraging its shoppers to buy from cheaper rivals and the resale market.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 29 November 2024

• Workers at Amazon plan a strike between Black Friday and Cyber Monday in major cities in 20 countries around the world. The 'days of resistance' seek to "hold Amazon accountable for [labor] abuses, environmental degradation and threats to democracy".
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 28 November 2024

• A month-long fuel shortage in Bolivia is happening at the same time as the country's foreign currency reserves plummet, leaving Bolivians unable to find U.S. dollars at banks and exchange houses. Imported goods that were once commonplace have become scarce. The fuel crisis has created a sense that the country is coming undone, disrupting economic activity and everyday life for millions of people, hurting commerce and farm production and sending food prices soaring.
  - Associated Press, 28 November 2024

• Absent quick action, AI data centers will drive energy prices sky high for non-rich consumers, [KM: while making rich investors and corporations richer]
  - Real Clear Markets, 28 November 2024

• Republicans in oil/coal-loving Texas sue BlackRock and other investment firms for "conspiring" to quash dirty coal as a power source
  - Zero Hedge, 27 November 2024

• Revisions in the savings-rate of Americans erase $140 billoin in American's wealth as the Fed's favorite inflation indicator jumps to 6-month high
  - Zero Hedge, 27 November 2024

• Generative AI fails to spark an upgrade supercycle for Apple iPhones. Apple's shipments are only expected to grow by a mere .4% this year. This underscores the growing challenge Apple faces as Android-based competitors continue to chip away at its market share in top markets, particularly in Zhōngguó and emerging markets.
  - Zero Hedge, 27 November 2024

• The bond market's prediction for Trump's economic plans - the plans will cause more inflation. Since the US election, the bond market foresees higher inflation, while fixing swaps have marked up CPI expectations from the second quarter of next year.
  - Zero Hedge, 27 November 2024

• The bubbling-lies of generative AI have not resulted in a 'must have' gadget for the holiday shopping season. The reality is that while GenAI has captivated the bubble-makers of Silicon Valley, the industry is still many years from achieving widespread adoption. It is not mainstram - porno-stream, yes.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 27 November 2024

• The decline of Target from cheap chic to dull chore. With customers griping about out-of-stock items, long checkout lines and locked-up products, Target has slid into a sales funk and is losing ground to Walmart and Amazon.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 27 November 2024

• Burlington Stores revenue surges, outlook signals offerings resonating ahead of holidays. Burlington Stores posted higher sales in the latest quarter and said the holiday selling season has started strong, as the off-price retailer's offerings resonate with consumers looking for deals.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 27 November 2024

• Shares of Kohl's plummet 20% as CEO abruptly quits before crucial Black Friday kickoff, as the retailer reported plummeting sales, a decline of 9.3% decline in same-store sales - its 11th quarterly same-store sales decline in a row.
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 26 November 2024

• Shares of Kohl's plummet 20% as CEO abruptly quits before crucial Black Friday kickoff, as the retailer reported plummeting sales, a decline of 9.3% decline in same-store sales - its 11th quarterly same-store sales decline in a row.
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 26 November 2024

• Softbank-backed online shopping site Meesho has rolled out what it claims is the first GenAI-powered voice bot among Indian e-commerce firms for customer support, allowing it to fire up to 75% of the people working in its customer call centers.
  - TechCrunch, 26 November 2024

• Walmart, the largest private employer in the United States, will curb some diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. Walmart is the atest company to backtrack on diversity initiatives in the face of right-wing Christian pressure.
  - Zero Hedge, 26 November 2024

• Walmart, the largest private employer in the United States, will curb some diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. Walmart is the atest company to backtrack on diversity initiatives in the face of right-wing Christian pressure.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 26 November 2024

• Walmart, the largest private employer in the United States, will curb some diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. Walmart is the atest company to backtrack on diversity initiatives in the face of right-wing Christian pressure.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 26 November 2024

• Beef from Brazil was headed back to the shelves of Carrefour-owned grocery stores in Eruope on Tuesday after a brief boycott sparked by remarks from the Carrefour's chief executive about nations in the South America trade bloc Mercosur. Carrefour CEO Alexandre Bompard apologized to the Ministry of Agriculture of Brazil for social media posts in which he said that Mercosur nations had an unfair competitive advantage due to lower environmental and sanitary standards. Bompard was seeking to show support for French farmers angered over a potential trade deal with the bloc, which includes Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay.
  - Associated Press, 26 November 2024

• Airlines have extorted billions of dollars in so-called "junk fees" by charging customers extra to select a seat or to carry on bags, according to a Senate subcommittee report published on Tuesday. The report said some airlines have even paid workers cash incentives to identify customers trying to avoid fees for carry-on bags. From 2018 to 2023, five US airlines made more than $12 billion on seat selection fees alone, an "unbundled" cost that used to be included as part of an airline ticket.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 26 November 2024

• Airlines have extorted billions of dollars in so-called "junk fees" by charging customers extra to select a seat or to carry on bags, according to a Senate subcommittee report published on Tuesday. The report said some airlines have even paid workers cash incentives to identify customers trying to avoid fees for carry-on bags. From 2018 to 2023, five US airlines made more than $12 billion on seat selection fees alone, an "unbundled" cost that used to be included as part of an airline ticket.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 26 November 2024

• Why are planes so jammed, with 84% of seats filled? Airlines want it that way so they can charge more. Airlines are signaling prices will probably go higher as some of the lower-fare airlines struggled with ongoing losses and sharply reduced their capacity.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 26 November 2024

• Only 50% of the people in Britain prefer to eat British food
  - Zero Hedge, 26 November 2024

• New publisher Spines aims to 'disrupt' industry by using AI to publish 8,000 books in 2025 alone. The company charges authors up to $5,000 a book, but it can take just three weeks to go from a manuscript to a published title.
  - The Bookseller, 25 November 2024

• A William Blair survey finds one-third of shoppers plan gift shopping at Walmart this year
  - Zero Hedge, 25 November 2024

• Food prices in Rossiya are soaring, even with interest rates at 21% -- but no one dares blame Putin or his war with Ukraine. Prices are so high that people are stealing butter from stores. Many residents are experiencing food prices inflated by 10% to 40% per year.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 25 November 2024

• The biggest winners in the airline industry are betting that consumers will pay to fly in style. United and Delta dominate industry profits by promoting premium travel options like carved up cabins and luxe lounges.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 23 November 2024

• The Fed's Williams predicts that inflation is cooling and interest rates will fall further. John Williams, who heads the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, says 2% is the rate that can best balance the Fed's employment and price stability goals.
  - Barron's, 23 November 2024

• Inflation will not hit the Fed's targets in 2025. Interest rates will decline anyway.
  - Barron's, 23 November 2024

• Luxury sales are slowing around the world, but not in Nihon. Shoppers in Nihon are snapping up designer goods, fueled by rising wages and a strong stock market. What that means for LVMH, Hermes and other luxury good manufacturers.
  - Barron's, 23 November 2024

• Up to 70% of the diet of Americans is ultraprocessed foods, many with high levels of salt, sugar and fat. But the USA still has no policy on ultraprocessed foods [as politicians in Washington continue to accept bribes donations to do nothing.]
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 22 November 2024

• McDonald's revamps its "Meal Deals" as fast-food restaurants fight over cash-strapped consumers
  - Zero Hedge, 22 November 2024

• Egg prices surge again as grocers face shortages amid bird flu outbreak
  - Zero Hedge, 22 November 2024

• Exports from the USA of liquid natural gas to Europe are predicted to surge as natural gas prices in Europe soar
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 22 November 2024

• At least 50 of the largest retailers in the USA boosted interest rates on their store credit cards in the months before the Federal Reserve began reducing interest rates, in moves that protected their profit margins. Gap made the second largest increase, a 5 percentage point hike on its Banana Republic, Athleta, Old Navy and namesake cards. Petco came in third with a 4.5 percentage point increase.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 22 November 2024

• U.S. government researchers have found that a widely prescribed asthma drug originally sold by Merck may be linked to serious mental health problems for some patients, according to a scientific presentation reviewed by Reuters. The researchers found that the drug, sold under the brand name Singulair and generically as montelukast, attaches to multiple brain receptors critical to psychiatric functioning.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 22 November 2024

• $5,200,000 - The data protection authority of Italy has imposed on Delivery Hero-owned Foodinho a fine of 5 million euros ($5.20 million) for unlawfully processing the personal data of more than 35,000 riders registered on its digital platform
  - Thomson's Reuters, 22 November 2024

• BJ's Wholesale Club to raise annual membership cost, ups guidance. The bulk retailer raised its earnings guidance after announcing it would increase its annual membership fee for the first time in seven years and add more fresh food to its shelves.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 22 November 2024

• Revenue at Baidu declines again as advertising demand remains weak. The search-engine giant in Zhōngguó reported lower revenue for the second straight quarter on falling sales from online-marketing services and an economy struggling to regain momentum.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 22 November 2024

• The shirt on your back, the carpet beneath your feet, and the takeout container from last night's dinner share a troubling secret: they are slowly breaking down into invisible particles, microplastics, that are turning up everywhere from the peak of Mount Everest to your bloodstream.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 21 November 2024

• Natural gas prices in the USA hit the highest prices in a year, on a "very cold pattern developing in the lower 48 states"
  - Zero Hedge, 21 November 2024

• Alibaba to merge domestic and global e-commerce units, names Jiang Fan as CEO. The new group brings together Taobao and Tmall Group, Alibaba International and a slew of other e-commerce operations.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 21 November 2024

• Walmart hits new highs and Target dives after earnings as rivals diverge even more. oth discounters are contending with price-conscious shoppers, but Walmart reported improving trends with discretionary merchandise and sharper gains with online sales.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 21 November 2024

• Huge interest e-commerce sites are a "huge harm for industries in Zhōngguó". Zhong Shanshan, the second-richest man in Zhōngguó, strongly criticizes Pinduoduo for hurting brands with cutthroat pricing. As the economy of Zhōngguó has slowed and consumer spending has weakened, Pinduoduo's ascension contributed to a fierce price war among the country's largest e-commerce players, putting pressure on merchant profits.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 21 November 2024

• Sales of iPhones in Zhōngguó fall during the Singles' Day shopping festival. The event's two-week sales period saw a "double-digit, year-on-year, decline" in iPhone sales amid stiff competition from rivals in Zhōngguó.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 21 November 2024

• Sales of new iPhones powered by AI drop during the world's biggest shopping holiday in Zhōngguó
  - Zero Hedge, 21 November 2024

• Shares of Freddie Mac are up 116%, and shares of Fannie Mae are up 143, since Trump won re-election, on bets that Trump will loosen restrictions over the two mortgage giants. They both play a central role in the US housing market by purchasing mortgages from lenders and re-packaging them as securities, and both fell under government control during the 2008 financial crisis as mortgage defaults soared.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 21 November 2024

• Earnings at Walmart: holiday shopping is off to a strong start. The retailer said sales rose during the most recent quarter, propelled by shoppers buying groceries, home goods and toys -- and a sign that spending is off to a steady start this holiday season.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 20 November 2024

• Big cities in the USA take up fight against apartment rental prices being set by 'BigTech' AI algorithms. The federal price-fixing lawsuit against rental-software firm RealPage could take years, but some cities and states are already cracking down on abuses the company fosters with landlords.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 20 November 2024

• Shares of Target plunge 20% after its annonuces a profit miss, it downgraded earnings forecasts and lost market share, as Walmart reigns supreme
  - Zero Hedge, 20 November 2024

• Shares of Target plunge 20% after the company reduces its earnings forecasts, and posts the biggest earnings miss in two years. Target struggled to drive sales even after reducing prices on thousands of items. The results come a day after Walmart beat Wall Street expectations and hiked its outlook.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 20 November 2024

• The new bundling strategy of Disney will be important to its long-term streaming success. Adding Hulu content to the Disney+ app has significantly increased bundle subscriptions, and ESPN is set to be added as well.
  - Variety, 19 November 2024

• Management at fintech firm Finastra allegedly allowed the large-scale theft of information from its internal file transfer platform, KrebsOnSecurity has learned. Finastra, which provides software and services to 45 of the world's top 50 banks, notified customers of the security incident after a cybercriminal began selling more than 400 gigabytes of data purportedly stolen from the company.
  - Zero Hedge, 19 November 2024

• Average fuel prices in the USA are nearing a three year low. "Refineries are struggling under weak crack spreads already, meaning that gasoline demand is anemic, and they are having a hard time finding a home for all the gasoline that they are producing".
  - Zero Hedge, 19 November 2024

• Shares of Walmart rise 3% after it beats earnings estimates, and increases its outlook for the third time, as increasingly more wealthy Americans trade down to shop at Walmart
  - Zero Hedge, 19 November 2024

• Walmart and other US companies raise concerns over taxes/tariffs proposed by Trump. Oxford Economics estimated a 60% Zhōngguó tax/tariff could boost U.S. inflation by 0.7 percentage points, and across-the-board tariffs would boost inflation by 0.3 points. Oxford believes any tariffs would be gradually introduced, but some analysts are worried about a shock effect.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 19 November 2024

• Blackstone strikes an $8 billion deal to buy a sandwich chain, Jersey Mike's Subs. The chain has over 3,000 locations nationwide open and in development.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 19 November 2024

• The USA has been in a recession for year - Americans are not stupid. A study reveals that understating the CPI and GDP deflator measures of inflation has boosted GDP and real disposable income, resulting in figures that no American who pays bills and receives a wage can relate to. Once adjusted, the harsh reality arrives. The economy of the USA has been in recession for years. "Underweighting of rising food prices and overweighting of falling transport prices are the main causes of the underestimation of inflation."
  - Zero Hedge, 18 November 2024

• Nearly 40% of cars financed since 2022 now have negative equity. Nearly 46% of electric vehicles have negative equity. The median loan for a Tesla has negative equity.
  - Zero Hedge, 18 November 2024

• $500,000,000+ - Vevor, a company based in Zhōngguó that sells $500 million a year in tools and appliances on Amazon has been accused of manipulating its customer product reviews -- and competitors gripe that Amazon has been ignoring the advertising crime. Vevor has been systematically creating multiple listings for identical products in a bid to sidestep negative reviews -- ingoring Amazon's rules as well as US regulations on consumer protection and unfair competition, rival sellers claim. Vevor also faces lawsuits over copyright violations from established brands including Vitamix. The fact that Amazon has failed to prevent Vevor's false advertising partly signals that the Seattle-based e-commerce giant is desperate to work more collaboratively with manufacturers in Zhōngguó -- and tolerate violations of its seller rules -- as it faces rising competition from e-commerce apps from Zhōngguó.
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 18 November 2024

• Homeowners with spray foam insulation are struggling to sell or remortgage as some major lenders are rejecting properties with it fitted, the BBC has found. A quarter of the UK's biggest mortgage providers will not lend against homes with spray foam in the roof, our research suggests. Some mortgage firms are reluctant to deal with homes with spray foam insulation due to concerns over poor fitting leaving moisture trapped and roof timbers at risk of decay.
  - BBC, 17 November 2024

• In most OECD countries that collect self-reported weight data, more than half of adults are overweight or obese (2023 or latest available data). Processed foods, especially with addictive added sugar, are a big cause of the obesity.
  - Zero Hedge, 17 November 2024

• The hidden truth linking the broken border to your online shopping cart. The incoming Trump administration promises an immigration crackdown. But for years, the on-demand economy has been fueled by unscrupulous staffing agencies exploiting migrant workers to work at huge distribution warehouses, so that rich people can become richer (Kendall Jenner and Jennifer Lopez promoter Alo clothng that used this exploitative system). Thousands of companies have exploited the borders' porousness by exploiting workers from the ranks of unauthorized migrants, sometimes with impunity. One exploiter, BaronHR, cheated immigrant workers out of wages and stole their tax payments.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 17 November 2024

• New drug approvals in Zhōngguó take market size beyond $13 billion as innovation increases. Zhōngguó has already approved nearly thrice the number of innovative drugs than in the 13th five-year plan.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 17 November 2024

• Returns of products are a headache. More retailers are saying, just "keep it". In a survey, nearly 60 percent of retailers said they had policies that refund customers for items that are not financially viable to send back. Which causes more pollution when these rejected products are thrown into the garbgae.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 17 November 2024

• Greed is good! After earning a record $19.7 billion in yearly profits, partly due allegations by the government that it and Mastercard are monopolies, Visa celebrates its good fortune by firing 192 people
  - SF Gate, 16 November 2024

• Is a 'green' revolution poisoning the capital of Bharat? Bharat promised to burn its mountains of consumer product trash, and safely turn them into electricity. But a New York Times investigation found hazardous levels of toxic substances around homes, playgrounds and schools.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 16 November 2024

• Chefs using Facebook Marketplace deliver homemade tamales, empanadas and other foods. Facebook Marketplace, a platform often used for furniture and electronics, is an increasingly popular place to buy and sell home-cooked meals.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 16 November 2024

• Alibaba revenue misses views amid weaker economy in Zhōngguó, and due to competition. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization declined about 4% to 47.33 billion yuan in its fiscal second quarter.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 16 November 2024

• Social media skits encourage Americans to sip tea from Zhōngguó. An American fan of crosstalk comedy in Zhōngguó finds that cultural connection helps attract customers to online teahouse.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 16 November 2024

• Inflation may not be tamed. Commodities can protect you. If prices start rising again, copper, corn, and oil could offer protection.
  - Barron's, 16 November 2024

• Inflation isn't dead yet. The post-election stock market rally may be dead.
  - Barron's, 16 November 2024

• Rents for apartments in Texas are declining due to a surge in new supply and reduced demand. In Austin, Texas, he median apartment rent dropping 15% over the last 2+ years. The vacancies have skyrocketed. Rental concessions are everywhere.
  - Zero Hedge, 15 November 2024

• Consumers in the USA have piled up the largest mountain of household debt in the history of the world. If the federal government was not almost 36 trillion dollars in debt, the fact that households in the USA are nearly 18 trillion dollars in debt would be making a lot more headlines. Sadly, our entire society is absolutely saturated with debt at this point. Government debt on all levels is spiraling out of control, corporate debt has ballooned to absurd levels, and consumers have been gorging on debt as if there will never be any consequences. Unfortunately, a time of reckoning has arrived, and it is going to be incredibly painful.
  - Zero Hedge, 15 November 2024

• Young people in Zhōngguó flock to 'academic pubs' as space for free expression shrinks. In recent months, 'academic pubs' hosting free lectures by students from universities worldwide have sprung up in the major cities of Zhōngguó -- Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou - offering a rare open space for free-flowing intellectual conversation in a country where the public sphere is shrinking as censorship tightens.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 15 November 2024

• Processed food stocks fall as investors brace for RFK Junior being the next secretary of Health and Human Services, who has pushed for major changes to the FDA, including the removal of nutrition departments. PepsiCo dropped 3%, Coca-Cola dropped 1%, General Mills and Conagra Brands dropped 3%, Lamb Weston fell 5%, and Campbell Soup fell 3%.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 15 November 2024

• Coca-Cola heavily criticized for an "ugly" AI-generated Christmas commercial: a "creepy dystopian nightmare", probably appropriate for the creepy, dystopian nightmare of a future of non-paid AI replacing paid-humans, including paid-humans who make non-dystopian video commercials.
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 15 November 2024

• The 'control group' of retail sales (retail sales less auto sales, food services, gasoline sales) in the USA unexpectedly tumbled in October after a huge 'seasonal adjustment'.
  - Zero Hedge, 15 November 2024

• Global diabetes cases are increasing. According to the International Diabetes Federation, 537 million people between the ages of 20 and 79 suffered from diabetes worldwide in 2021. This represents 10.5 percent of the world population in this age group. The total number of adults with the disease is projected to increase to 787 million (12.2 percent of the global population) by 2045. Thank addictive added sugar in many consumer products.
  - Zero Hedge, 15 November 2024

• Trump's immigration plans could cause much economic harm ... to the USA. Expelling noncitizens on a mass scale is likely to raise prices on goods and services and lower employment rates for U.S. workers, many economists say.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 15 November 2024

• How new fuel standards in California could affect drivers. Regulators say the changes are essential to reducing carbon emissions. But political leaders in both parties are worried that gas prices could further increase. Fuel producers were previously required, by 2030, to cut carbon emissions over the life cycle of their fuel by 20 percent below 2010 levels. In a 12-2 vote at the end of a 12-hour meeting, the regulators tightened these standards, raising the 2030 target to 30 percent and adding a 2045 target of a 90 percent reduction. A key point of tension is the concern that the changes could significantly raise gas prices. Oil companies already pass about 8 to 10 cents per gallon onto consumers as a result of the Low Carbon Fuel Standard program, according to the agency. Last September, the agency estimated that an earlier version of the proposal could have hiked gas prices by 47 cents per gallon starting next year and could have potentially added $1.80 per gallon by 2040. However, officials have said that the estimates did not take into account many important factors that affect gas prices and also did not reflect the changes that ultimately passed.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 15 November 2024

• Food prices at airports, already high, are set to rise as much as 7.5% in the New York area. The three big airports that serve New York City have proposed allowing concession prices to rise and adding a surcharge to cover higher wages and improved worker benefits.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 15 November 2024

• The earnings outlook for Disney rises as streaming unit posts gaines. The streaming profit and studio are bright spots, while income from cable and theme parks declines.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 15 November 2024

• Revenues and profits rise for JD.com as consumer sentiment improves in Zhōngguó. The e-commerce giant in Zhōngguó reported higher profit and revenue in the third quarter despite fierce competition from Alibaba and PDD Holdings.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 15 November 2024

• Why Home Depot made an $18.25 billion investment on the real estate professionals business. The retailer announced it was acquiring SRS Distribution, a company that sells supplies to roofing, pool and landscaping professionals, for $18.25 billion in March and closed the deal in June.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 15 November 2024

• The world's largest olive oil producer, Deoleo, based in Spain, predicts that olive oil prices will decline by 50%. A prolonged period of climate-fueled extreme weather and drought in southern Europe has severely impacted olive harvests in recent years, culminating in a dizzying price rally that shocked industry veterans and consumers alike. Prices have since cooled, however, as industry estimates point to a much better harvest in the 2024-2025 season, particularly in key producing countries such as Spain, Greece and Tunisia.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 15 November 2024

• Fed Chair Powell admitted in his remarks today that all is not completely awesome, as he warned The Fed is in "no hurry" to cut rates... and inflation is on a "bumpy path". His comments send down the prices of stocks and bonds.
  - Zero Hedge, 14 November 2024

• Fed Chair Powell says that there is no need to "hurry" to reduce interest rates. A strong economy is giving Federal Reserve officials room to move "carefully" as they lower interest rates.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 14 November 2024

• Fed Chair Powell says that there is no need to "hurry" to reduce interest rates. A strong economy is giving Federal Reserve officials room to move "carefully" as they lower interest rates.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 14 November 2024

• Advance Auto Parts reported a third-quarter loss, slashed its full-year outlook, and announced plans to close 700 stores and distribution centers by summer 2025. The top automotive aftermarket parts provider for professionals and do-it-yourself consumers was pressured by soft demand for vehicle parts, as elevated inflation and broader economic pressures left fewer consumers repairing their vehicles.
  - Zero Hedge, 14 November 2024

• Advance Auto Parts reported a third-quarter loss, slashed its full-year outlook, and announced plans to close 700 stores and distribution centers by summer 2025. The top automotive aftermarket parts provider for professionals and do-it-yourself consumers was pressured by soft demand for vehicle parts, as elevated inflation and broader economic pressures left fewer consumers repairing their vehicles.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 14 November 2024

• Lindt, a gourmet chocolate brand, admitted in court that its delectable goodies are not "expertly crafted with the finest ingredients", as indicated on the packaging for its chocolate products. Lindt found itself in a sticky situation in 2023 after a U.S. consumer organization reported alleged high levels of lead in its dark chocolate bars. Customers from California, Alabama, Florida, Illinois, Nevada and New York have taken legal action against the Swiss company regarding the high amounts of lead they have consumed.
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 14 November 2024

• Altering two genes to produce sweeter tomatoes without sacrificing size, weight or yield
  - Phys.org, 14 November 2024

• The New York City Council approves a law shifting broker fees to landlords. The City Council approved a bill on Wednesday that would curb a loathed New York City real estate practice: making renters pay thousands of dollars in broker fees.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 14 November 2024

• $840,000,000 - The European Commission fined Facebook $840 million over abusive practices benefiting Facebook Marketplace. "The European Commission has fined Meta ... for breaching EU antitrust rules by tying its online classified ads service Facebook Marketplace to its personal social network Facebook and by imposing unfair trading conditions on other online classified ads service providers.".
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 14 November 2024

• $6,600,000,000 - Just Eat Takeaway, the biggest meal delivery company in Europe, in four years loses $6.6 billion of shareholder value, after buying GrubHub for $7.3 billion in 2020 (during the height of Covid) and sellling it now for $650 million
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 13 November 2024

• The online, e-commerce, retail giants of Zhōngguó are transforming the shopping habits of consumers in Latin America. Local stores and shopping malls are suffering as multibillion companies such as Shein, Temu and AliExpress flood countries in Latin America with cheap, quickly delivered goods. Countries in Latin America, to protect their economies, to keep riches in Latin America, are raising import taxes.
  - Tico Times, 13 November 2024

• Coffee shops are replacing the office for independent workers, but being a 'third place' can be a 'third rail'. Independent cafe owners are not profiting much and even Starbucks is struggling to adapt, even with paid memberships.
  - Sherwood News, 13 November 2024

• Advertisers plan return to Twitter/X to get in the "good graces of Elon Musk" .
  - Zero Hedge, 13 November 2024

• Amazon launches a discount webstore, "Amazon Haul", to compete with Temu and Shein, which are based in Zhōngguó. Shoppers can get free shipping on orders over $25, and Amazon says items will be delivered in two weeks or less.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 13 November 2024

• Amazon launches a discount webstore, "Amazon Haul", to compete with Temu and Shein, which are based in Zhōngguó. Shoppers can get free shipping on orders over $25, and Amazon says items will be delivered in two weeks or less.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 13 November 2024

• Inflation rises to 2.6%, but chances are still good that the Fed will reduce interest rates once more by 0.25%. The rise in October in core consumer prices held steady at 3.3%; both readings match estimates.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 13 November 2024

• Inflation rises to 2.6%, but chances are still good that the Fed will reduce interest rates once more by 0.25%. The rise in October in core consumer prices held steady at 3.3%; both readings match estimates.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 13 November 2024

• How big toilet paper companies deceive consumers about the value of the big packs of toilet paper they buy, making it easier to charge consumers more money for less toilet paper, another example of 'shrinkflation'.
  - Vox, 12 November 2024

• Amazon and Walmart could not kill the mom-and-pop stores of Bharat, a source of many jobs. But services such as Blinkit and Zepto are estimated to put more than 25% of the neighborhood kirana stores in Bharat out of business by 2030. 200,000 stores have closed just in 2024. Millions of people will lose their jobs [KM: as rich owners of delivery services get richer].
  - Rest of the World, 12 November 2024

• Are retail stock traders "ready to chase" stocks, after mom-and-pop investors lost money in 2024 as stocks soared
  - Zero Hedge, 12 November 2024

• The middle class in Bharat tightens its belt, squeezed by food inflation
  - Thomson's Reuters, 12 November 2024

• Plummeting home prices in Florida haven't been this bad since 2011. A mix of problems are pressuring the market, including increased housing supply, skyrocketing insurance premiums and accelerated construction in recent years.
  - New York Post, 12 November 2024

• As the inflation rate cools in Argentina, consumers still feel squeezed. Argentine President Javier Milei's dramatic austerity agenda has helped lower inflation, but the slowdown has come at the cost of consumption in a battered economy where more than half of the country has fallen into poverty. The government's slashing of subsidies on public services has sent expenses soaring, while public sector layoffs are up and annual inflation - which remained well into triple digits at 209% in September - has contributed to a deep fall in purchasing power.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 12 November 2024

• Alibaba and JD.com wrapped up their respective Singles' Day promotions this year, with both e-commerce giants in Zhōngguó claiming strong results that signify a rebound in domestic consumer spending during the largest annual shopping festival in the world.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 12 November 2024

• Shares of Hertz fall as much as 12% after the company reported a worse-than-expected loss stemming from Hertz's effort to unwind a failed bet on electric vehicles that has pummeled earnings for most of the past year
  - Bloomberg, 12 November 2024

• Shares of Shopify jump 26% after the e-commerce firm reported Q3 revenue that topped estimates amid strong growth in the subscription business
  - Investor Business Daily, 12 November 2024

• Buying shoes at Macy' is not fun. Its new CEO is trying to change that. The retailer is putting fewer styles on shelves and using technology to get shoes out of the stockroom faster.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 12 November 2024

• Companies have plans for higher taxes/tariffs under Trump. The plans include increasing the prices of products. Trump has proposed a tariff of 60% on goods from Zhōngguó, and an across-the-board tariff on imported goods. The price increases will worsen inflation, causing the Fed to increase interest rates, not surprisingly, hurting Trump's supporters.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 12 November 2024

• Home Depot's quarterly sales rose more than 6% year over year, as it folded in a newly acquired business and hurricane-related repairs and better weather in many parts of the country boosted demand for home improvement supplies. The retailer also raised its full-year outlook to reflect its better-than-expected results. But the CEO said consumers are still deferring purchases as they wait for lower mortgage rates and borrowing costs and express caution about the economy.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 12 November 2024

• Home Depot lifts full-year outlook after third-quarter sales rise. The home-improvement retailer raised its guidance following strong third-quarter sales as demand rose for grills and paint. Hurricane preparations in the Southeast also provided an increase in sales.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 12 November 2024

• How Starbucks plans to reclaim its identity and increase revenue: more Sharpies (less pickups making it like a warehouse), fewer customizations of coffee drinks (which clog workflow and upset customers who have to wait)
  - Salon, 11 November 2024

• Credit card debt among retirees increases. About 68% of retirees had outstanding credit-card debt in 2024, up "substantially" from 40% in 2022 and 43% in 2020. It is not just retirees. About two in five cardholders have maxed out or nearly hit their card limit since early 2022, resulting from inflation and higher interest rates.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 11 November 2024

• Using generative AI saves ad agencies a lot of time and money (that they don't have to pay to human workers). Should they still charge by the hour? Some ad agencies are trying to move to new compensation models that focus on the scope of work they perform, not the hours it takes for them to do it. A nice tactic, until their clients use the AI tools themselves, and eliminate the need not only for ad agency workers, but ad agency executives.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 11 November 2024

• From Ikea to Muji, foreign lifestyle brands are still betting big on Chinese consumers. Lifestyle-product retailers are investing in new stores in Zhōngguó, as richer consumers continue to splurge on quality imports.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 10 November 2024

• Shoppers are not imagining it: luxury goods cost a lot more these days, with no improvement in quality to make up for it. Weak sales look like a more deep-seated problem than some brands will admit.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 09 November 2024

• Steve Madden, a $3 billion shoe company, announced Thursday that it would rapidly reduce in half its production in Zhōngguó to avoid taxes/tariffs imposed by Trump. But Steven Madden won't bring production back to high-priced USA - it will be sourcing its goods from Cambodia, Vietnam, Mexico, Brazil and some other countries.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 08 November 2024

• Steve Madden, a $3 billion shoe company, announced Thursday that it would rapidly reduce in half its production in Zhōngguó to avoid taxes/tariffs imposed by Trump. But Steven Madden won't bring production back to high-priced USA - it will be sourcing its goods from Cambodia, Vietnam, Mexico, Brazil and some other countries.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 08 November 2024

• Hershey reduces its full-year sales outlook as Americans reduce their snack consumption
  - Zero Hedge, 08 November 2024

• Food prices around the world re-accelerate to more expensive for second month as inflation remains 'sticky'
  - Zero Hedge, 08 November 2024

• Americans have spent all of their savings from the Covid pandemic era. At the end of September 2024, Americans had collectively dis-saved $291 billion since March 2020.
  - Zero Hedge, 08 November 2024

• An investigation by the antitruse regulators of Bharat found food delivery giants Zomato and SoftBank-backed Swiggy breached competition laws, with their business practices favouring select restaurants listed on their platforms
  - Thomson's Reuters, 08 November 2024

• The FDA is preparing to prohibit the use of oral phenylephrine used in over-the-counter could and cold medicines, because FDA scientists have concluded that the drug is completely ineffective, acting no better than a placebo. One problem is that only a tiny fraction of phenylephrine is absorbed into the body when digested from a pill or syrup containing phenylephrine. This is different from other formulations like the inhaled nasal spray versions of the drug, where larger percentages of the drug can make it into the bloodstream.
  - CBS News, 07 November 2024

• Molson Coors says that demand for beer in the USA plummets in a "challenged economic environment"
  - Zero Hedge, 07 November 2024

• MercadoLibre shares sink as lending provisions erode profits. The e-commerce and financial technology giant grew its overall credit book by 77% from a year earlier to $6 billion, with the portion tied to credit cards surging 172% over the same period, according to a release. Provisions set aside for all the lending cut into net income, which at $397 million fell short of the $513 million average estimate of analysts polled by Bloomberg.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 07 November 2024

• Headline inflation in Mexico quickened near expectations in October while a closely-watched core measure slowed, likely keeping the central bank on track for another interest rate cut next week
  - Bloomberg, 07 November 2024

• Why a community in Memphis is fighting a supercomputer facility that will make Elon Musk richer and the community poorer [as usual]. Resident say that Musk's data center for artificial intelligence is compounding their pollution burden and adding stress on the local electrical grid. While waiting for a decision of the TVA to obtain electric, Musk bypassed the electric grid by installing the mobile natural gas plants that cause a lot of pollution. Those living nearby -- a predominantly African American community with little wealth -- say it all happened with no warning, no public review and no opportunity to understand how the community would benefit, [KM: as opposed to the rich white Musk who doesn't have to live in this polluted environment].
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 07 November 2024

• Wayfair increases promotions without taking a big financial loss. Bruised by a sluggish housing market, the home-furnishings retailer has been offering more deals this year -- largely without hurting its margins.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 07 November 2024

• The e-commerce 'gold rush' in Southeast Asia attracts the giant e-commerce companies of Zhōngguó. The e-commerce market in the region is predicted to double by 2030.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 07 November 2024

• The Fed is widely expected to continue with its easing cycle in November with money markets pricing in 100% odds of a 0.25% reduction, however with rates surging amid a repricing of inflation expectations, the bigger question is what happens afterwards.
  - Zero Hedge, 06 November 2024

• Inflation risks are now even more woefully underpriced. TIPS have burst into life after Trump's win, with breakevens up over 10 bps, but the market is still to fully reflect extant inflation risks that have been exacerbated by the result of the election.
  - Zero Hedge, 06 November 2024

• A high-pressure system over North America has caused widespread dryness across the Lower 48, pushing a record percentage of the USA population into drought conditions, damaging crop harvests and cattle pastures.
  - Zero Hedge, 06 November 2024

• A series of new state regulations are set to make gas prices in California rise even higher in 2025, despite the state already having the highest gas prices in the nation. New fuel standards regulations which will go into effect immediately if approved, will increase the average price of gas in the state by 47 cents.
  - Zero Hedge, 06 November 2024

• AMC Entertainment on Wednesday reported a fall in third-quarter revenue and saw a decline in attendance at its theater chain, hurt by fewer blockbuster releases from Hollywood studios
  - Thomson's Reuters, 06 November 2024

• More than 70 percent of the products that wholesalers and retailers sell on Amazon are produced in Zhōngguó. The USA is the second largest producer of items sold on Amazon, accounting for 30 percent of all total goods sold. Bharat is third with 14% of goods sold.
  - Zero Hedge, 06 November 2024

• Taxes/tariffs proposed by Trump (10% tariff on all imports and 60% on imports from Zhōngguó) could financially hurt discount retailers and footwear companies. Shares of Wayfair fell 12%, Best Buy fell 4% and Home Depot fell 3%.
  - Apollo Global's Yahoo Finance, 06 November 2024

• Empty apartments in the USA are finally starting to fill up. If that demand is sustained, landlords likely will have more pricing power starting sometime next year.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 06 November 2024

• Why companies are migating away from cloud services: the rise of cloud repatriation to private owned/managed cloud servers. Major organizations like 37signals and GEICO highlight the economic and strategic reasons to reconsider cloud infrastructure.
  - The New Stack, 05 November 2024

• The working poor in the USA are hurt by "weaker credit metrics and mixed confidence" as Black Friday shopping weekend nears
  - Zero Hedge, 05 November 2024

• The ISM Services survey soars to 27-month highs, no surprise, after the Fed lowered interest rates by 0.5%, another failure to keep inflation down
  - Zero Hedge, 05 November 2024

• Sales growth for Foxconn slows amid underwhelming AI-enabled iPhone upgrade supercycle
  - Zero Hedge, 05 November 2024

• Profits at Nintendo plunge 69% as it reduces prediction for sales of ageing Switch console
  - Comcast's CNBC, 05 November 2024

• The mpox epidemic in Africa continues to grow, prompting fears of another outbreak in the USA. But the vaccine is no longer free, and vulnerable people are going without the vaccine.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 05 November 2024

• People are hooked on hearing aids sold by Costco. Devoted customers come for the free hearing aid cleanings and leave with full shopping carts.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 05 November 2024

• A consortium of financial technology and cryptocurrency companies including Robinhood, Kraken and Galaxy Digital, on Monday introduced a joint stablecoin pegged to the USA dollar
  - Thomson's Reuters, 04 November 2024

• Tech partnerships with power companies for AI in doubt after government rejects important agreement between Amazon and Talen Energy. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission rejected a request to increase the amount of power the Susquehanna nuclear plant can dispatch to an Amazon data center campus. The FERC was concerned about such a deal to make tech companies more profitable would be paid for by higher electricity costs to consumers. Shares of Talen fall 9%, shares of Constellation Energy fall 8% and shares of Vistra fall 3%.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 04 November 2024

• The mysterious fees inflating your grocery bill. Some food makers complain about a flood of obscure charges from distributors. "Is that price gouging or costs going up?", asks a hot-sauce maker in Texas.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 04 November 2024

• The Federal Reserve prepares for more interest rate reductions amid economic contradictions. The job market is slowing but consumer spending is strong, posing a riddle for central-bank officials as they reduce interest rates.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 04 November 2024

• Whether 7-Eleven is bought or not, consolidation of convenience stores looms over the industry. The historically fragmented industry will likely see lots of M&A in the years ahead.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 04 November 2024

• Debanking - the increasing practice of banks to shut down a person's bank account based on an unsigned and unexplained decision in which the account holder is merely notified, often by a non-human generated letter, that all services are hereby denied. Indeed, the letter could be sent and the account removed without any knowledge of someone at the bank. The algorithms are ruling the people in this case, a problem that has become extremely serious in a range of areas.
  - Zero Hedge, 03 November 2024

• Protesters in London demand that privatized water companies clean-up the sewage-tainted rivers. Private companies that provide both water and sewage have failed to update their often-Victorian infrastructure as populations have grown and demand swelled. Leaks are common, and during heavy rainfall companies discharge raw sewage into rivers, lakes and the sea. The number of discharges increased by more than 50% last year to a record 464,000 spills, according to the Environment Agency. Shareholders prefer the companies borrow more money for dividends, and not fix anything.
  - Associated Press, 03 November 2024

• When the price of your burrito clashes with your 'reference price'. The term refers to what we have internalized as the fair price for a product or service. It is out of sync with what things now actually cost.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 03 November 2024

• $6,500,000 - IKEA will pay $6.5 million towards a government fund compensating victims of forced labor under the former communist dictatorship in East Germany, in a move campaigners hope will pressure other companies to follow. Political as well as criminal prisoners in Deutschland during the Cold War era were forced to build flatpack furniture for IKEA.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 03 November 2024

• Robinhood's earnings showed investors' love affair with options is growing, with $200 million in options traded at Robinhood in Q3 of 2024, versus about $35 million for stocks
  - Apollo Global's Yahoo Finance, 02 November 2024

• Walmart is on a winning streak. How the Walton family keeps the the biggest retailer in the world on track. Beyond bricks and mortar: Walmart's executives and family owners quietly share a bond that helps the grocery and retail giant thrive, year after year.
  - Barron's, 02 November 2024

• As data centers for AI strain the power grid, electric power bills rise for everyday customers
  - Jeff Bezos' Washington Post, 01 November 2024

• Nissan reducing the production of cars in the USA by 30%, putting its 2024 global sales target at risk
  - Zero Hedge, 01 November 2024

• Supermarket trends: "pocketbook pressure" increases chicken demand as consumers seek savings by shifting towards cheaper private label brands.
  - Zero Hedge, 01 November 2024

• US Manufacturing Survey hits 16-month-lows but prices paid spiked in October
  - Zero Hedge, 01 November 2024

• Chipotle brings back bigger portions after criticism from customers posted on social media
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 01 November 2024

• Shares of Estée Lauder plunge 21% after it slashes dividend
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 01 November 2024

• Shares of Apple are down 3% after revealing some very lukewarm guidance on the call, saying it now expects Q1 revenue to grow in the low to mid-single digits YoY (assume 4-6%). The sellside consensus is at 7%. Revenues in Zhōngguó dropped again, down 0.3% Y-t-Y. The rest of the product suite was mixed with Mac revenue coming in line with est at $7.74bn, while both iPads and wearables missed expectations ($6.95BN vs exp. $7.07 billion, and $9.04 billion, vs exp. $9.17 billion).
  - Zero Hedge, 31 October 2024

• Studying WWII-era rationing shows that sugar is dangerous even in utero. A new study indicates that limiting sugar exposure in the 1,000 days post-conception (including the in-utero period and first two years of life), lowers the risk of chronic disease later on. The group of people born before or just after the end of sugar rationing were 35 percent less likely to develop type 2 diabetes, 30 percent less likely to become obese, and 20 percent less likely to develop hypertension during their lifetimes than their un-rationed peers, per the study. If those in the rationed group did develop diabetes or hypertension, they tended to do so years later in life.
  - Science, 31 October 2024

• Studying WWII-era rationing shows that sugar is dangerous even in utero. A new study indicates that limiting sugar exposure in the 1,000 days post-conception (including the in-utero period and first two years of life), lowers the risk of chronic disease later on. The group of people born before or just after the end of sugar rationing were 35 percent less likely to develop type 2 diabetes, 30 percent less likely to become obese, and 20 percent less likely to develop hypertension during their lifetimes than their un-rationed peers, per the study. If those in the rationed group did develop diabetes or hypertension, they tended to do so years later in life.
  - Popular Science, 31 October 2024

• Studying WWII-era rationing shows that sugar is dangerous even in utero. A new study indicates that limiting sugar exposure in the 1,000 days post-conception (including the in-utero period and first two years of life), lowers the risk of chronic disease later on. The group of people born before or just after the end of sugar rationing were 35 percent less likely to develop type 2 diabetes, 30 percent less likely to become obese, and 20 percent less likely to develop hypertension during their lifetimes than their un-rationed peers, per the study. If those in the rationed group did develop diabetes or hypertension, they tended to do so years later in life.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 31 October 2024

• Cutting sugar in the first 1,000 days of a baby's life - from conception to the age of two - appears to reduce the risk of developing significant health issues in adult life, say researchers
  - BBC, 31 October 2024

• Hidden sugars in baby food products in Asia raise public health concerns. Nestlé's Cerelac - an instant porridge mix - is a huge seller but has large amounts of sugar. A Unicef study of 1,600 baby foods across South East Asia found nearly half included added sugars and sweeteners.
  - BBC, 31 October 2024

• "Homes are still overpriced and unaffordable", as the Fed's socialist 0.5% reduction in interest rates sparks a mortgage rate increase
  - Zero Hedge, 31 October 2024

• The European Union to investigate Temu, the online marketplace based in Zhōngguó, over suspected illegal products and exploiting an "addictive" platform. If found guilty, Temu could face fines amounting to 6 percent of annual global revenue.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 31 October 2024

• 300 percent price hikes are pushing disgruntled customers of VMware twoards rivals of VMware's owner, Broadcom (which bought VMware one year ago for $69 billion). "As on-premises virtualization projects move from [enterprise license agreements] and perpetual licenses to new bundling, socket-to-core ratios, and consumption models, the costs and pricing can increase two or three times." Some suspect that Broadcom is trying to get rid of smaller and mid-sized corporate customers.
  - Condé Nast's Ars Technica, 31 October 2024

• A key Fed inflation statistic, the personal consumption expenditures price index, was a seasonally adjusted 0.2% increase for the month, with the 12-month inflation rate at 2.1%, both in line with Dow Jones predictions
  - Comcast's CNBC, 31 October 2024

• The Fed's favorite inflation indicator is hotter than expected in September, while government subsidies soar as Americans drained $49 billion from savings last month (to stay alive) the 7th monthly drain in the last 8.
  - Zero Hedge, 31 October 2024

• West Texas crude oil prices hold gains after inventories of gasoline decline to 2-year lows (and as gasoline pump prices plunge?)
  - Zero Hedge, 30 October 2024

• Cites in Zhōngguó dominate Amazon seller network, outnumbering hubs in the USA. More than half of Amazon's top 20 seller bases are in Zhōngguó, including top-ranked Shenzhen.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 30 October 2024

• Starting next week, Starbucks customers will no longer pay more for adding non-dairy milk to their orders. The company said the removal of the non-dairy milk surcharge means customers who request it will pay around 10% less than they did previously.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 30 October 2024

• Somewhere amid the Frappuccinos, fans say Starbucks lost something. Customers are turning away from the coffee giant, and its new chief executive, Brian Niccol, has to figure out how to get them back, and recognizes some of the problems. "t can feel transactional, menus can feel overwhelming, product is inconsistent, the wait too long or the handoff too hectic."
  - Boston.com, 30 October 2024

• The biggest banks and lenders in Britain are scrambling to avoid a collapse in the car sales market after a shock court judgement prompted chaos at forecourts across the country. The Court of Appeal ruled last week that car salesmen now have a "fiduciary duty" to inform customers about bonuses, commissions and fees they receive from lenders. This means they have to put the needs of the customer ahead of their own, which has implications for the payment of commissions. Lloyds Bank, one of the UK's largest motor financiers through its Black Horse arm, became the latest lender to revamp its practices by abolishing bonuses paid to car dealers.
  - Barclay's The Telegraph, 30 October 2024

• Shares of Chipotle fall about 7% after quarterly sales fall short of investor estimates
  - Bloomberg, 30 October 2024

• Shares of Garmin rise 22%, a maker of devices for outdoor recreation, fitness and navigation, on Wednesday after Garmin handily beat analyst estimates for the third quarter and raised its outlook for the full year. Garmin stock surged in early trading, signaling a possible breakout.
  - Investors Business Daily, 30 October 2024

• Shares of Italian beverage giant Davide Campari-Milano crashed 15% on Wednesday following a disappointing third-quarter report that underscored the deepening global luxury slowdown
  - Zero Hedge, 30 October 2024

• Shares of Eli Lilly decline 10% after drug giant misses estimates and slashes profit guidance
  - Comcast's CNBC, 30 October 2024

• Shares of Eli Lilly decline 10% after drug giant misses estimates and slashes profit guidance
  - Zero Hedge, 30 October 2024

• Stellantis is pausing production of Durango and Grand Cherokee due to "slow sales"
  - Zero Hedge, 30 October 2024

• Their car is totaled, but they still owe years of payments. Roughly a third of people who financed cars owe more than their vehicles are worth, which can be consequential once they get rid of the car.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 30 October 2024

• A Wall Street landlord bought your neighbor's house. It is a mixed blessing. The zip codes where investors own a bigger share of homes have seen higher-than-average increases in both prices and rents.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 30 October 2024

• Visa and Coinbase offer real-time cryptocurrency purchases using debit cards
  - Bloomberg, 29 October 2024

• Shares in Crocs sank by more than 17% in early US trading on Tuesday after the shoe seller tempered its full-year revenue guidance due to weakness at its Hey Dude casual footwear brand
  - Investing.com, 29 October 2024

• Apple predicted to have the biggest revenue jump in two years on increased iPhone demand in Zhōngguó
  - Thomson's Reuters, 29 October 2024

• Intel predicted to have a big drop in quarterly revenue as chipmaker struggles to bounce back, the decline potentially signaling more erosion of data center and personal computer market share for Intel
  - Thomson's Reuters, 29 October 2024

• After consumers reject the concept, Starbucks abandons the olive oil coffee that it launched less than one year ago. The failed idea was the brainchild of former CEO Howard Schultz, who got the idea after meeting with an olive oil producer who introduced him to the practice of consuming a tablespoon of olive oil each day. What resulted was a beverage lineup at Starbucks that was met with largely negative responses from media and consumers.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 29 October 2024

• Starbucks threatens to fire employees who do not work in the office - just weeks after reportedly letting new CEO work from home
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 29 October 2024

• People working at the Jeff Bezos' Washington Post are unsure if the newspaper as 250,000 people cancel their subscriptions after the paper refused to endorse a presidential candidate
  - Murdcoh's Fox News, 29 October 2024

• Over 200,000 digital subscriptions were cancelled, about 8% of the paper's paid circulation of 2.5 million subscribers, which includes print as well, after Jeff Bezos' Washington Post refuses to endorse a presidential candidate in this year's elections
  - Zero Hedge, 29 October 2024

• Why nobody in the USA believes the "data": surging prices of everyday items are excluded from the CPI statistic. The CPI excludes several significant costs faced by households today - ranging from property taxes to soaring interest payments. Interest charges on rising consumer debt are largely absent from the CPI. The CPI doesn't include the cost of insuring the physical home - a critical oversight as climate-related risks drive premiums higher. Legal but selectively regulated goods, such as marijuana in some states, and gambling expenses remain unaccounted for.
  - Zero Hedge, 29 October 2024

• Shares of PayPal fall 7% after it reported better-than-expected third-quarter earnings on Tuesday, but revenue came in slightly below expectations. Revenue increased about 6% year-over-year to $7.85 billion, but analysts were expecting the company to report revenue of $7.89 billion for the quarter.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 29 October 2024

• The battle brewing over how much red meat you eat. Scientists advising the government have drafted recommendations that would tell Americans to limit red meat.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 29 October 2024

• Surgery for weight-loss has declined 25 percent as the use of new anti-obesity drugs has soared.
  - Harvard Gazette, 28 October 2024

• Buying 'digital' gold in Bharat, where one can easily buy the gold at the current market price with no additional charges, with a provision to buy or sell digital gold at the current market price.
  - Indian Express, 28 October 2024

• Coffee price war burns Keurig and Starbucks. Both companies say they are reversing their strategies after price promotions dented sales.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 28 October 2024

• Swiggy, a food delivery giant in Bharat, has slashed its IPO valuation again, to $11.3 billion, 25% below the initial goal of $15 billion as market volatility and the lacklustre debut of Hyundai Bharat weigh on sentiment
  - Thomson's Reuters, 27 October 2024

• England plans to ban disposable vapes, nicotine drug delivery devices, next year. The measure, which echoes plans in Scotland and Wales, aims to protect the health of young people, and reduce environmental damage.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 27 October 2024

• Peter Schiff: gold is exposing the phony economy. "Lending rates are rising for the same reason the gold price is rising. It is because the Fed's interest rate cuts are an economic mistake. The inflation genie is not back in the bottle."
  - Zero Hedge, 26 October 2024

• Michael Hartnett, of Bank of America: if Republicans get control of the government in 2025, they will push for much stricter controls on illegal immigrants. But too many businesses rely on this low-paid form of labor, so if restricted, the Republican's efforts will spark the next inflation crisis.
  - Zero Hedge, 26 October 2024

• Shares of McDonald's drop 7.5% for the week, after it "indefinitely" halts onion purchases from Taylor Farms' Colorado plant as the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention investigate a severe E. coli outbreak. The outbreak has already sickened at least 75 people and resulted in one death.
  - Zero Hedge, 26 October 2024

• Rossiya raises interest rates to 21 percent, its highest in decades. Military spending and recruitment are causing the economy of Rossiya to overheat, leaving regulators in a struggle to rein in rising prices.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 26 October 2024

• Kroger and Walmart deby 'surge pricing' after adopting digital price tags. Some members of Congress have expressed concerns that stores will monitor customers and raise prices. Business experts say the technology has not raised the grocery bills of consumers.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 26 October 2024

• Why it is getting harder and more expensive to fly to Zhōngguó. European carriers are enduring higher costs because they have to avoid the airspace of Rossiya , while a sluggish economy and geopolitical tensions are hurting business travel to Zhōngguó.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 26 October 2024

• The maker of Remy Martin and Cointreau ditched its forecast of a gradual organic sales recovery over the course of the year to March 2025 and projected, instead, a decline in the double-digit percentage, as sales decline in the USA and Zhōngguó.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 26 October 2024

• Porsche AG posted lower sales and operating profit as it faced challenges in Zhōngguó and a slower-than-expected shift to electric vehicles
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 26 October 2024

• Shares of Electrolux plummet 15% after North America weakness weighs on results. Electrolux shares fell sharply after the company reported third-quarter profit that missed analysts' expectations on continued weakness in North America, where it is turning to promotions to entice shoppers back.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 26 October 2024

• One type of fiber may have weight loss benefits similar to Ozempic. A form that is readily found in oats and barley, called beta-glucan, can control blood sugar and assist in weight loss among mice fed a high-fat diet. The other fibers considered, including wheat dextrin, pectin, resistant starch, and cellulose, had no such effect, despite shifting the makeup of the mouse microbiome significantly compared to mice fed no fiber supplements. The findings align with another recent study by Duca, which fed barley flour, rich in beta-glucan, to rodents. Even though the rats continued eating just as much of their high-fat diet as before, their energy expenditure increased and they lost weight anyway.
  - Science Alert, 25 October 2024

• Sales of iPhones in the 3rd quarter of 2024 decline, as competition from Huawei increases
  - Zero Hedge, 25 October 2024

• Shares of Capri, the parent company of fashion brands Michael Kors and Jimmy Choo, saw its stock tank by more than 50% in pre-market trading on Friday after a federal judge blocked its pending $8.5 billion merger with Coach owner Tapestry.
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 25 October 2024

• A federal judge blocks luxury fashion deal, citing risk of higher handbag prices. The FTC had sued to halt the merger of Tapestry, the parent of Coach and Kate Spade, and Capri, the owner of Versace and Michael Kors.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 25 October 2024

• Keurig Dr Pepper to buy energy-drink maker ghost for over $1 billion. The energy-drink market includes bigger rivals Monster Beverage and Celsius.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 25 October 2024

• $334,000,000 - The data-protection watchdog of Irelan fined LinkedIn 310 million euros ($334.3 million), saying the Microsoft-owned career platform's personal-data processing breached strict European Union data-privacy and security legislation.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 25 October 2024

• Delivery giant UPS breaks a revenue-miss streak after 10 quarters, stock soars 8%
  - Benzinga, 24 October 2024

• Shares of Peloton surge 11% after David Einhorn says stock is significantly undervalued
  - Comcast's CNBC, 24 October 2024

• Home sales in the USA on track for worst year since 1995. Existing-home sales in September fell 3.5% from a year earlier, as persistently high prices and elevated mortgage rates are keeping potential home buyers on the sidelines.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 24 October 2024

• Sales for Heineken miss forecasts as consumers shy away from beer. The Dutch brewer posted sales below analysts' expectations in the third quarter as the group grappled with challenging consumer and industry trends in some markets, particularly the Americas and the Asia Pacific.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 24 October 2024

• Management at Denny's has informed Wall Street that the weakest one-fifth of the system is dragging down the healthier performers, who'll be encouraged with a grant offer and loan accessibility to enhance the brand's consistency.
  - Zero Hedge, 23 October 2024

• In recent weeks, Apple has told Luxshare, which is responsible for the Vision Pro's final assembly, that it might need to wind down its manufacturing in November, due to weak demand
  - Zero Hedge, 23 October 2024

• Heat pumps were supposed to transform the world. But that is not going as planned. Heat pump sales, critical to the transition to clean energy, have slowed in the USA and stalled in Europe.
  - Boston.com, 23 October 2024

• Shares of Tesla jump 9% after an unexpected jump in profit margin suggests price war is over
  - Zero Hedge, 23 October 2024

• Gucci owner Kering SA's problems in mainland Zhōngguó are worsening by the month. After issuing a profit warning earlier this year, the company now expects its annual profits to hit their lowest level since 2016, driven by weak demand from the world's second-largest economy. Shares have plunged by over 40% this year, marking the steepest annual decline since the GFC in 2008.
  - Zero Hedge, 23 October 2024

• Shares of Apple drop about 2% after an analyst warns iPhone 16 orders reduced by 10 million units for 45h quarter of 2024 and first half of 2025
  - Zero Hedge, 23 October 2024

• Existing home sales in the USA slump to the lowest level since 2010, with the recent 0.5% reduction in interest rates not semming to help much
  - Zero Hedge, 23 October 2024

• $89,800,000 - Apple and Goldman Sachs ordered to pay $89 million after Apple Card failures
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 23 October 2024

• $50,000,000 - American Airlines is fined $50 million for not providing wheelchairs to disabled passengers over a five-year period. American said it has made significant investments to improve the handling of wheelchairs. The airline will be credited $25 million, or half of its civil penalty, for those investments and compensation paid to affected passengers, according to a consent order.
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 23 October 2024

• Coca-Cola tops earnings estimates, as higher prices offset sluggish demand. The unit case volume for Coca-Cola in North America was flat for the quarter, as shrinking demand for its healthier water, sports, coffee and tea products offset growth in its namesake sugary soda, juice, dairy, plant-based beverages and sparkling flavors.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 23 October 2024

• TGI Fridays may be the next restaurant chain to enter bankruptcy
  - Zero Hedge, 23 October 2024

• Retail space is going fast and pushing out local shops. Small businesses struggle to compete with national chains as rents rise.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 23 October 2024

• Streaming subscription fees have been rising while content quality is dropping. Surveys show decline in customer satisfaction with what is available to stream. As treaming services struggle to reach or maintain profitability, 2024 saw a drop in the number of new scripted shows for the first time in at least 10 years, FX Research found.
  - Condé Nast's Ars Technica, 22 October 2024

• Mexico announces food and agriculture plan that could take the country back to the 1980s. The new president of Mexico announced an agriculture plan Tuesday that could make food production and distribution in Mexico look a lot more like it did in the 1980s, when meals in Mexico were dominated by tortillas, beans, instant coffee and cheap hot chocolate. Four decades ago, the ingredients for those meals were often bought at government stores that stocked a few basic goods.
  - Associated Press, 22 October 2024

• Shares of Polaris drop 7% after the company, known for selling ATVs, UTVs, jet skis, and snowmobiles, posted disappointing third-quarter earnings. The company also cut its full-year earnings per share and sales forecast, citing sagging consumer demand for outdoor vehicles due to elevated interest rates
  - Zero Hedge, 22 October 2024

• Shares of Starbucks decline 3% after the coffee chain says sales fell again, suspends outlook for fiscal 2025. Starbuck's same-store sales slid for the third consecutive quarter, fueled by a 10% tumble in traffic to its North American stores.
  - Zero Hedge, 22 October 2024

• Starbucks suspends guidance as sales slump persists. The coffee chain needs to "fundamentally change" strategy, the new CEO, Brian Niccol, said. Shares fell in after-hours trading.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 22 October 2024

• Shares of McDonald's drop 7% after the CDC says an E.coli outbreak is linked to Quarter Pounders
  - Zero Hedge, 22 October 2024

• ADR Shares of French cosmetics giant L'Oreal fell nearly 5% after third-quarter sales missed analysts' expectations, as tracked by Bloomberg. The slowdown in sales was primarily attributed to worsening consumer sentiment in Zhōngguó.
  - Zero Hedge, 22 October 2024

• Automakers in Europe suffer the first sales decline in two years
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 22 October 2024

• Walmart will start delivering prescriptions to doorsteps as CVS and Walgreens financially struggle, the two companies shuttering hundreds of stores nationwide. The prescription delivery service is another example of how Walmart is trying to outmatch competitors on convenience along with low prices. With the new service, customers can get a mix of items dropped off during the same delivery, such as a box of tissues, blanket or chicken noodle soup.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 22 October 2024

• Private water companies in the UK are lobbying for bill rises of up to 84 per cent in the next five years in a fresh blow to customers. They want to upgrade their infrastructure, after years of underinvestment during which they were exploiting their companies by paying large dividends to their private owners.
  - The Independent, 22 October 2024

• Empty tables and rising costs push more restaurants into bankruptcy. Red Lobster, Roti and other chains are closing locations as chapter 11 filings grow.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 22 October 2024

• The mutation of Halloween: from humble holiday to retail monstrosity. Americans once made their own costumes and candy. Now, the holiday has rapidly commercialized, transforming into an economic juggernaut.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 21 October 2024

• Can a $350 million plan transform 5th Avenue into a grand boulevard? New York City officials and business leaders plan to expand sidewalks, add seating areas and trees and remove two car lanes to make the renowned avenue more pedestrian friendly.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 21 October 2024

• The powerful authoritarian companies driving local drugstores out of business. The biggest pharmacy benefit managers are profiting by systematically underpaying independent drugstores, creating 'pharmacy deserts' across the country. PBMs frequently pay the pharmacies at rates that do not cover the costs of the drugs, according to more than 100 pharmacists around the country and dozens of examples of insurance paperwork and legal documents. The PBMs make money in part by charging employers more for certain drugs than what the PBMs pay pharmacies for them.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 20 October 2024

• Halloween could taste different this year thanks to soaring cocoa prices which have more than doubled in 2024. For the past three years, a series of adverse weather events has slammed the cocoa-producing regions of West Africa responsible for over 70% of global cocoa supply.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 20 October 2024

• What a crackdown on immigration could mean for cheap milk. Undocumented labor quietly props up the entire American economy -- but nowhere more dramatically than on dairy farms. Dairy farms have rising production costs, while the price they obtain for their milk products doesn't change much. They need (undocumented) immigrant workers.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 20 October 2024

• Storch Advisors CEO and former Target executive, Gerald Storch: "It is very clear that consumers are running out of money. They are increasingly stressed by inflation and the exhaustion of their pandemic-era savings. When you take a look over the last several years, what you see month after month, everyone talks about, the consumer is still spending. They might be, but they are spending less than the growth of inflation."
  - Zero Hedge, 19 October 2024

• No central bank wants to stop price inflation. Interventionist governments never reduce consumer prices because they benefit from inflation, dissolving their political spending commitments in a constantly depreciated currency.
  - Zero Hedge, 19 October 2024

• Here is why inflation may appear to be easing but is still a huge problem. Even as inflation measures have eased, the high price of goods and services across the U.S. economy continues to pose a burden for individuals, businesses and policymakers. Since prices started spiking in early 2021, food inflation has surged 22%. Eggs are up 87%, auto insurance has soared nearly 47% and gasoline, though on a downward trajectory recently, is still up 16%. So should the Fed reduce rates in November, and maybe make inflatin worse?
  - Comcast's CNBC, 19 October 2024

• Visa wanted a vast empire. First, it had to destroy its foes. By wooing partners and strong-arming competitors, Visa sits atop the payments world and in the sights of the antitrust regulators of the Justice Department.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 19 October 2024

• In sports, American socialism is beating European capitalism. The more egalitarian, redistributive club competitions that exist in the USA are starting to be copied in Europe.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 19 October 2024

• Economist have long hated taxes/tariffs (Milton Friendman: "Taxes/tariffs protect the consumer against low prices"), but idiotic voters love them. Trump embraced tariffs while president and plans even more of them if re-elected. Kamala Harris, meanwhile, promises targeted tariffs if elected president. Adam Smith, the classical economist, well argued that taxes/tariffs and other protectionist measures are gifts to special interests, governments bowing to the "sophistry of merchants and manufacturers, who are always demanding a monopoly against their countrymen".
  - Barron's, 19 October 2024

• Costco is downstairs and the living is easy. The discounter will anchor 800 apartments. The chain signed onto its first residential mixed-use building in Los Angeles, signaling a potential shift in its real estate strategy.
  - Barron's, 19 October 2024

• The Starbucks stock rally has fizzled. Can its new CEO get it going again?
  - Barron's, 19 October 2024

• Port of Los Angeles freight rail delays reach two-year high, with holiday and everyday items piling up. Record September imports driven by the recent East Coast and Gulf Coast strike diversions and ongoing Red Sea issues have clogged up container rail yards at the busiest ports in the USA.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 18 October 2024

• According to a survey released Thursday by Bankrate, a financial analytics firm, 37 percent of American credit card holders have maxed out or nearly maxed out on their card limits since the Federal Reserve began raising interest rates in March 2022
  - Zero Hedge, 18 October 2024

• With Halloween just 13 days away, consumers should expect higher supermarket prices for candy bars from Hershey's, Nestle, Mars, and Cadbury. Cocoa prices have doubled this year due to a supply crisis in West Africa, a top cocoa-producing region, which has already impacted global production.
  - Zero Hedge, 18 October 2024

• Bharat is expected to limit imports of laptops, tablets and personal computers after January, two government sources with direct knowledge of the matter said, a move to push companies such as Apple, in order to to increase domestic manufacturing. This plan, if implemented, could disrupt an industry worth $8 billion to $10 billion and reshape the dynamics of the IT hardware market in Bharat, which is heavily reliant on imports.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 18 October 2024

• The European Union has prepared a list of American goods it could target with tariffs if Trump wins the USA election and follows through on his threat to hit the bloc with punitive trade measures such as higher taxes/tariffs
  - Zero Hedge, 18 October 2024

• At their debut, iPhone 16 sales soar 20% in Zhōngguó as demand returns
  - Bloomberg, 18 October 2024

• Consumer spending in Zhōngguó hits a 4-month high in September as trade-ins drive sales. Consumption gets a jolt from 'pockets of consumer confidence', but broader gains across industries would require more fiscal support, analysts say.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 18 October 2024

• Home prices in Zhōngguó decline the most since 2015, despite efforts to revive market. New home prices in September fell 6.1 per cent year on year in 70 mainland cities, widening from a 5.7 per cent slump in August.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 18 October 2024

• Weight-loss drugs cut drug and alcohol abuse, according to new study. Drugs such as Novo Nordisk's Ozempic can cut drug and alcohol abuse by up to 50%, a study found, adding to mounting evidence that the drugs yield health benefits beyond diabetes and weight loss.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 18 October 2024

• Nestlé says slowdown in rising food costs is not soothing to consumers with less money to spend. Nestlé lowered its sales expectations for the second time this year as the food company offers bigger discounts to lure back shoppers deterred by rising prices in recent years.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 18 October 2024

• NFL stadiums could experience $11 billion in climate-related losses by 2050, a new report finds. Stadiums near the water and could see insurance premiums rise and repair costs soar as weather-related losses hit.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 17 October 2024

• Shares of Netflix fall, rise and settle little changed, after beating earnings estimates and adding 5 million new subscriptions. Most analysts believe the boost from the password crackdown is temporary, and that Netflix will soon need to find another way to grow. The company has yet to see material financial returns from its investment in advertising or video games, and some on Wall Street now worry the stock is overvalued.
  - Zero Hedge, 17 October 2024

• The goal of Netflix to boost earnings pays off. The streaming giant delivered its most profitable quarter ever despite slowing subscriber growth, as the company gave priority to profitability over adding customers.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 17 October 2024

• Illinois-based John Deere said a deepening farm slump has led to a drop in demand for its agricultural equipment, triggering a new round of layoffs across multiple tractor factories in the USA. Local media outlet De Moine Register reported a new round of layoffs will total about 287 workers from two Deere factories.
  - Zero Hedge, 17 October 2024

• $6,500,000 - A New York art adviser who once counted actor Leonardo DiCaprio among her wealthy clients pleaded guilty Thursday to wire fraud, admitting to cheating over a dozen clients out of $6.5 million in the sale of 55 artworks. Lisa Schiff, 54, of Manhattan, entered the plea in federal court, agreeing that she diverted client money from 2018 to May 2023 to pay personal and business expenses.
  - Associated Press, 17 October 2024

• Walmart has begun selling tiny homes, months after Amazon offered the unusually stylish pop-up abodes. The "expandable prefab house" from Chery Industrial will cost you $15,900 for the 19-by-20-foot option.
  - Jiaravanon's Fortune, 17 October 2024

• Why drivers in the world's largest food delivery market, Zhōngguó, are having explosive confrontations with customers. Drivers are working longer hours, and being squeezed financially. A sluggish economy means people are ordering cheaper meals. That cuts into workers' earnings because most work on commission, which forces them to work longer hours to maintain their earnings. In addition, the dominance of two major food delivery platforms (Meituan and Alibaba's Ele.me) enables them to dictate contractual terms, leaving little room for workers to push back on deteriorating work conditions, labor rights watchers say.
  - Zero Hedge, 17 October 2024

• As we warned in our preview last night, the almost omniscient folk at BofA warned, 'brace' for a blowout retail sales print this morning, forecasting a huge 0.8% MoM rise in spending (well above the 0.2% consensus) all due to seasonal adjustments.
  - Zero Hedge, 17 October 2024

• Inflation in the UK falls below the target of 2% of the Bank of England, increasing the probability of a reduction in interest rates
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 17 October 2024

• Interest rate cuts by the ECB are still expected with disinflation "well on track"
  - Zero Hedge, 17 October 2024

• The ECB accelerates interest rate cuts to counteract flagging growth. The European Central Bank lowered interest rates for the second meeting in a row, speeding the pace of rate cuts to support an economy flashing increasing signs of weakness.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 17 October 2024

• Car deliveries by Stellantis decline 20% on sales woes in the USA. Stellantis vehicle deliveries fell 20% in the third quarter as the Jeep and Ram-maker began to take measures to address excess inventory in the USA.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 17 October 2024

• Prepare for a 'blowout' retail sales number. While the actual number will be a nearly 1% drop, huge upward seasonal adjustments will make one of the last pre-election economic datapoints a grotesque blowout.
  - Zero Hedge, 16 October 2024

• The many dishonest practices of car dealers in the USA, making car buying the worst kind of shopping. Sometimes, the tactics car salespeople use go beyond just the hard sell to the downright deceptive. One common trap is bait and switch prices, where a car is initially advertised as one price (usually achieved by piling on discounts that you may not qualify for). When you run to the dealership to snag the deal, you are told the vehicle has already been sold but there is a similar one that is more expensive. Or take 'yo-yo' sales, in which you drive your new car home only to be told a few days later that the financing fell through so you will have to accept a higher interest rate or make a bigger down payment. A dealer might also try to sneak unneeded add-on -- like extended warranties or protective coatings -- onto the total price of the car.
  - Vox, 16 October 2024

• Consumption of alcohol in the USA hit highest levels since 1970s inflation storm, as tequila demand soars
  - Zero Hedge, 16 October 2024

• A pharmacist explains driving forces behind Walgreens closures. Walgreens said it currently operates about 8,500 stores and about 6,000 are profitable. Two reasons: first, insurance companies are failing to reimburse pharmacies at a fair rate. Second, pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) dictate where patients can go to fill a prescription. He said PBMs work on behalf of insurance companies.
  - WXYZ News, 16 October 2024

• Holiday sales growth expected to normalize in an abnormal year. Despite shoppers' election-year concerns and worries about the economy, retail executives predict sales to increase as much as 3.5 percent over the holiday season of 2023.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 16 October 2024

• PepsiCo, the owner of Lay's, Doritos, Tostitos and Ruffles junk food, will put more chips in some bags to claw back customers tired of higher prices with skimpier bags. Shoppers have balked at downsized chips, cookies, paper towels and other products, widely known as shrinkflation, and turned to cheaper options or stopped buying altogether. PepsiCo is the largest manufacturer of salty snacks in the United States, and its competitors are likely to follow its lead with increased sizes of their own.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 16 October 2024

• $1,900,000 - The Justice Department and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau penalized Fairway Independent Mortgage Corporation for alleged redlining in Black neighborhoods in Birmingham, Alabama, the agencies said on Tuesday, which the company denies. The mortgage lender will pay a $1.9 million penalty and provide $7 million in loan subsidies as a result, the CFPB said in a statement.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 15 October 2024

• $15,000,000 - Johnson & Johnson, must pay $15 million to a Connecticut man who alleges that he developed mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer, as a result of using the company's talc powder for decades, a jury found on Tuesday.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 15 October 2024

• $4,000,000 - Lufthansa fined record $4 million for discriminating against Jewish passengers because of the clothing they were wearing
  - Comcast's CNBC, 15 October 2024

• Shares of Walgreens surged 15%, the most in 16 years, after the struggling pharmacy chain delivered an unexpectedly optimistic forecast for 2025. Simultaneously, Walgreens announced plans to shutter over a thousand stores nationwide as its turnaround plan gains steam
  - Zero Hedge, 15 October 2024

• An inflation shock is predicted to be imminent, as a liquidity tsunami looms
  - Zero Hedge, 15 October 2024

• The National Retail Federation's annual Prosper Insights & Analytics survey shows that total Halloween spending is forecasted to drop by 5% to $11.6 billion this year, down from last year's record $12.2 billion. With inflation still elevated and interest rates sky-high, low- to mid-tier consumers are expected to cut back on seasonal splurges this fall.
  - Zero Hedge, 15 October 2024

• Macy's covered up a violent 2008 sexual attack by Sean "Diddy" Combs at its flagship Herald Square, Manhattan store to protect a "multi-million-dollar" deal with Combs' clothing brand, Sean John, a new lawsuit alleges.
  - Insider, 15 October 2024

• American shoppers are increasingly trading down from department stores and opting to spend their money at off-price retailers. TJX Companies is the largest player in the off-price industry and has helped to change the way Americans think about the discount space.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 15 October 2024

• Walgreens says it will close 1,200 stores by 2027, as earnings top estimates. The results cap a rocky fiscal 2024 for Walgreens, which is grappling with pharmacy reimbursement pressure, softer consumer spending and challenges related to its push into primary care.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 15 October 2024

• As the last full-size Kmart in the continental United States prepares to close, shoppers reminisced about the store that once sold everything, everywhere. But Kmart fell victim to executive mismanagement, and failed to compete with Walmart's low prices, Target's stylish branding and, later, the rise of Amazon. In 2002, it filed for bankruptcy, and merged with Sears in 2005, which filed for bankruptcy in 2018.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 15 October 2024

• Four decades after privatization, calls to nationalize the water industry have swept across England and Wales amid sewage spills and rising household bills. The number of people getting sick from polluted waters is growing. Across England and Wales, insufficient investment in the sewage infrastructure and the water supply has led to a crisis that has been brewing for years. Now, more people are putting the blame on the ownership of the water utilities, which are regional monopolies, predominantly owned by multinational conglomerates and asset managers, including sovereign wealth funds and pension funds. Critics argue that shareholders in the water companies have received billions of pounds in dividends since privatization but failed to put enough money back into the water system while piling up debt.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 15 October 2024

• Barclays to replace Goldman Sachs as issuer of credit cards for General Motors. The deal aims to expand the consumer ambitions of Barclays in the USA while getting Goldman closer to exiting consumer lending.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 15 October 2024

• Convenience store chain 7-Eleven will close more than 400 stores (out of 13,000) as the company faces declining sales at its stores in the USA and Canada
  - Zero Hedge, 14 October 2024

• True Value, a 75-year old hardware store brand, has filed for bankruptcy and is selling substantially all of its operations to a rival, Do it Best
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 14 October 2024

• Goldman Sachs issues a grim outlook for AutoZone, citing "significant exposure" to struggling working-poor consumers
  - Zero Hedge, 14 October 2024

• The new CEO of Starbucks indicates that the company will reduce coffee deals and promotions
  - Zero Hedge, 14 October 2024

• The new CEO of Starbucks indicates that the company will reduce coffee deals and promotions
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 14 October 2024

• Norway, of the most cashless economies in the world, just made it a lot easier to pay with cash
  - Zero Hedge, 14 October 2024

• As hurricanes strike, insurance costs soar for commercial real estate. Struggling landlords and developers are seeking leeway on coverage from their lenders - mostly without success. The insurance brokerage Marsh McLennan estimated that premiums on commercial properties rose an average of 11 percent across the country last year but as much as 50 percent in storm-vulnerable places like the Gulf Coast and California. This year, premiums may have doubled in some of those places, the brokerage said. For apartment buildings, insurance costs now account for 8 percent of operating expenses, twice what they did about five years ago.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 14 October 2024

• Hurricanes amplify the insurance crisis in riskiest areas. After Helene and Milton (estimated damages are over $200 billion), some small Florida insurance companies risk bankruptcy. Larger insurance companies will be in the hot seat with lawmakers and consumer groups. Since 2021, nine property and casualty insurers have gone bankrupt in Florida. The socialist National Flood Insurance Program is $20 billion in debt.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 14 October 2024

• People moved to Florida for a slice of paradise. Now they are packing their bags. Hurricanes have driven up the cost - and headaches - of living in the Sunshine State. Some Floridians are reaching their breaking point.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 14 October 2024

• Sales of Apple headsets slow down, as Apple struggles to attract killer apps in first year. Many of the most successful virtual-reality software developers have not built apps for the Vision Pro headset, leading some users to opt out.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 14 October 2024

• Used electric vehicles sell for bargain prices now, putting owners and dealers in a bind. The sharp drop in the value of preowned electric vehicles stands in contrast to the broader used-car market.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 14 October 2024

• Nu-metal band, Limp Bizkit, is suing the Universal Music Group, alleging that Universal owes the band more than $200 million in unpaid royalties.
  - The Guardian, 13 October 2024

• Private equity firms are now acquiring skilled trade small businesses. Private equity firms nationwide are acquiring home services companies, such as HVAC, plumbing, and electrical businesses, aiming to create larger, more profitable operations.
  - Zero Hedge, 13 October 2024

• The government of Indonesia asks Apple and Google to block the Temu app from its app stores, in an effort to protect small businesses in Indonesia from the small-business crushing online retailer Temu
  - Zero Hedge, 13 October 2024

• Experian wants you to use its new debit card. Be wary. There is not a lot of love for the credit bureaus, so why would you want one of them in your wallet? Experian's claim: a slightly better credit score. Maybe. The company is not a bank, so it has a partner for the debit card and the direct deposit, ATM access and other checking-account features that come with it.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 12 October 2024

• How some restaurants are staying out of the deep discounting game. While many restaurants have rolled out substantial discounts and deals to attract inflation-weary consumers, some are trying a different strategy: introducing carefully sculpted offers to keep business flowing without training consumers to expect to regularly pay less.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 12 October 2024

• Volkswagen car deliveries fall as industry challenges mount. Volkswagen delivered fewer cars in the third quarter as the automaker navigates an increasingly challenging market hit by a price war in Zhōngguó and high domestic production costs.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 12 October 2024

• Brides losing weight before their wedddings, using Ozempic-like weight reducing drugs, is wrecking havoc on the wedding dress industry, which has to order wedding dresses nine months or so before the wedding. Drastic weight loss requires an expensive re-fitting of the wedding dress.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 11 October 2024

• A slump in sales of snack foods hits Big Food. Blame high prices, not obesity medications.
  - Barron's, 11 October 2024

• The USA has one of the highest obesity rates in the world, with over 40 percent of adults classified as obese. The highest rates of obesity are in the Christian Bible Belt states, with over 40% of the people in West Virginia, Mississippi and Arkansas being obese - their 'sin' of gluttony.
  - Zero Hedge, 11 October 2024

• $450,000,000 - Teva Pharmaceuticals USA and Teva Neuroscience (collectively, Teva) have agreed to pay $450 million to resolve allegations that they violated the Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS) and the False Claims Act (FCA), according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
  - Zero Hedge, 11 October 2024

• Urban Outfitters admits it does not know how to sell fashion to Gen Z. Urban Outfitters, the young adult retailer known for its alternative, vintage-inspired styles, learned this the hard way. Now it wants to pull off an Abercrombie-like turnaround.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 11 October 2024

• Core producer price inflation hotter than expected; food costs surge. Headline PPI was unchanged MoM (cooler than the +0.1% expected) but it was up 1.8% YoY (hotter than the +1.6% exp)... but down from the upwardly revised 1.9%!?
  - Zero Hedge, 11 October 2024

• Pharmacy 'deserts' are appearing across the USA as Rite Aid, Walgreens, CVS drug store closures spread. Decreased reimbursements are putting the squeeze on drug retailers, and some point the finger at pharmacy benefit managers, which are the target of a new FTC lawsuit, but PBMs are not the only cause of the struggles.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 11 October 2024

• Danish biotech Zealand Pharma is targeting the "next generation" of weight loss drugs as competitors pile into a market dominated by heavyweights Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly. CEO Adam Steensberg told CNBC Thursday that early-stage trials of its experimental obesity injection point to higher-quality weight loss -- with reduced muscle loss and fewer side effects -- versus traditional GLP-1 treatments. The company is now scouting for a global pharma firm to partner with, he added.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 11 October 2024

• The warm winter last year in the USA likely means cheaper natural gas for heating this year. An abundance of natural gas has kept prices low heading into the heating season.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 11 October 2024

• The PC market is not showing many signs of a rebound, despite the hype around AI PCs, with market watchers split over whether unit shipments are up or down slightly.
  - The Register, 10 October 2024

• Inflation in the USA is declining more slowly than expected. CPI rose 2.4% in September, slightly exceeding estimates.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 10 October 2024

• Inflation is higher than expected in September, CPI indicates. Additional Fed interest rate cuts still seen as likely.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 10 October 2024

• Sales of smartphones by Huawei in Zhōngguó surpass those of Apple in August. That aligns with data showing a 12.7 per cent year-on-year decline in foreign smartphone shipments, including those of Apple, in August.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 10 October 2024

• Amazon's costly space race is grounding profit margin hopes. Satellite launch costs and a focus on household goods are likely to weigh on Amazon's impressive margin growth.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 10 October 2024

• Domino's Pizza misses sales estimates amid shift by inflation-battered consumers to value meals. It announced Thursday it fell short of sales estimates in the third quarter as restaurant operators intensified their pursuit for price-conscious customers by doubling down on value offers.
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 10 October 2024

• The largest cannabis delivery company in California, Eaze, will shut down by the end of the year, according to a letter from the chief executive officer Sunday, joining a growing number of marijuana businesses in the state that are going out of business. A report by GreenWave Advisors found that marijuana companies owe California around $732 million in unpaid sales, excise, and cultivation taxes which include penalties and interest. However, 72 percent of those taxes are owed by businesses that are no longer in operation.
  - Zero Hedge, 09 October 2024

• Just how doomed is home insurance? Hurricanes like Milton and Helene are making it harder than ever to insure your home. Most banks will not offer a mortgage without homeowners insurance, and letting a policy lapse can lead to foreclosure. The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), a federal program that provides flood coverage to 4.7 million policyholders, is more than $20 billion in debt to the US Treasury accruing $1.7 million in interest daily. In September, Congress reauthorized the program for a few months. The next funding deadline is December 20, 2024. If authorization lapses, the NFIP would stop selling and renewing flood insurance for millions of people. Hundreds of thousands of Americans have come home to a breakup letter from their private insurers, canceling their coverage. Others cannot find any company that will protect their home, leaving expensive, state-run insurers of last resort as their only option. Some private insurance companies have entirely pulled out of states like California, Florida, and Louisiana.
  - Vox, 09 October 2024

• McDonald's has filed an antitrust lawsuit with the New York Federal Court against the top four meatpackers, Tyson, JBS, Cargill, and National Beef Packing Company, and their subsidiaries. McDonald's is suing these leading meat producers for allegedly inflating beef prices, which violated federal antitrust laws and fair competition practices. These four meatpacking giants control around 80% of the U.S. beef production industry, making them the most prominent meat processing companies worldwide.
  - Associated Press, 09 October 2024

• Hurricane Milton threatens to swamp Florida's troubled property-insurance market, potentially pushing prices higher and threatening coverage in a storm-prone region that already has the highest insurance costs in the nation. Some 41 Florida insurers have declared bankruptcy or otherwise failed since 2003, while only 37 have failed in the rest of the country over that time period.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 09 October 2024

• $52,000,000 - Marriott agrees to pay a $52 million penalty to 49 states and the District of Columbia to resolve the harm to its customers from three large data breaches, which took place from 2014 to 2020, affected more than 344 million customers worldwide
  - Thomson's Reuters, 09 October 2024

• At a warehouse in Brooklyn, robots are reshaping the grocery-delivery business. A pilot program at Save A Lot, a discount grocer, at their fulfillment center, is using robots to help complete orders - eliminating the need for paid humans, and according to the company behind the tech, keep grocery bills down (or corporate profits up).
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 09 October 2024

• Americans are revolting against the high prices of McDonald's and other fast-food chains. That is hurting french fry suppliers like Lamb Weston. Lamb Weston, the largest producer of french fries in North America and a major supplier to fast-food chains, restaurants and grocery stores, is closing a production plant in Washington state. The company announced last week that it would lay off nearly 400 employees, or 4% of its workforce, and temporarily cut production lines in response to slowing customer demand. Shares of Lamb Weston (LW) have dropped 35% this year.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 08 October 2024

• Just a month after a bizarre surge in revolving credit - with total consumer debt surging by $27 billion, the Fed reported that in August, the growth in total consumer credit plunged by more than half to just $8.9 billion, below the $12 billion estimate. Finally, in light of the collapse in credit card funded spending, we can stop pretending that the government's recent fabrication of savings data, which was upwardly "revised" from a record low 2.9% to a nice and balmy 4.8%, is even remotely credble.
  - Zero Hedge, 07 October 2024

• Shares of Google drop 2% after a federal judge rules that Google must open its App store to competition, in a lawsuit filed by Epic Games
  - Zero Hedge, 07 October 2024

• Electric big-rig trucks do not make sense even with $40,000 in tax credits. Electric trucks cost twice as much as diesel-powered rigs and have a limited driving range -- 150 miles on average, compared to between 1,000 and 1,500 for diesel trucks. There are also few truck charging stations.
  - Zero Hedge, 07 October 2024

• Three of the four fastest growing number of jobs in the USA are also the lowest paid: home/personal health care aides, restaurant cooks, and fast food workers
  - Zero Hedge, 07 October 2024

• Costco is running out of gold bars to sell, as shoppers continue to buy the gold bars as gold prices soar
  - Murdoch's Fox News, 07 October 2024

• Defese Distributed, a Texas company that makes machines used to manufacture ghost guns, must face a California lawsuit after a federal judge denied its venue request change to the Texas courts. It is easier to help people kill people in the 'good' Christian state of Texas.
  - Zero Hedge, 07 October 2024

• The diets of children in the USA are now "over 70%" addictive ultra-processed foods, according to one dietitian. "We are seeing a strong decline in mental health and well-being."
  - Zero Hedge, 07 October 2024

• Did Apple just kill social apps? Some app makers worry that a subtle change to the iPhone's contact-sharing permissions could make it hard for them to get the fast growth they need to compete.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 07 October 2024

• How e-commerce is making deflation worse in Zhōngguó. The push by Pinduoduo to lower prices has helped it become one of the fastest-growing e-commerce apps in Zhōngguó, and epitomizes a broader force plaguing the economy. Shoppers flock to the app for its staggering discounts, the result of Pinduoduo's unyielding push to lower prices. Because a growing portion of spending in Zhōngguó is happening online, the price reductions by the app and other e-commerce platforms copying its success have contributed to a deflationary downturn.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 07 October 2024

• Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Madeleine Dean, Democrats, demand food and beverage CEOs put a stop to 'shrinkflation' -- the practice of reducing product sizes while charging prices that are the same or higher. Two women accused General Mills, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo of engaging in a "pattern of profiteering" through shrinkflation and by "dodging taxes"
  - Comcast's CNBC, 07 October 2024

• After the "historic" damage caused by Hurricane Helene, the Appalachian Trial may need years to recover. Downed trees and flooding have left the trail impassable in many of the 14 states on its route.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 06 October 2024

• GLP-1 weight loss drugs are everywhere now. How the copycats took over. Wegovy and Zepbound are still hard to get. Knockoff versions from Noom, Ro, and others are filling in the gaps.
  - Barron's, 05 October 2024

• Inflation isn't tamed yet. The loneliest Federal Reserve governor was right - the others predicted wrong.
  - Barron's, 05 October 2024

• What is financially wrong with CVS? Start with its drugstores. The drugstore business stinks, as evidenced by Rite Aid filing for bankruptcy a year ago. One problem is that the top three PBMs now control 81% of the market by prescription volume, up from 48% in 2008. The top five control 96%, up from 60%. That leaves druggists with little bargaining power on reimbursement rates.
  - Barron's, 05 October 2024

• Amazon has shut down three more stores featuring its Just Walk Out technology, but the company says it remains committed to building out that technology as an offering for third-party merchants [KM: to help them eliminate more human workers].
  - TechCrunch, 04 October 2024

• Solar and wind energy prices plummet to record lows. Countries across Europe have invested heavily in wind and solar energy projects in recent decades as the price of these clean energy sources has decreased in line with the falling costs of installations.
  - OilPrice.com, 04 October 2024

• Dozens of meat processing plants expected to shut down under new EPA rules that impose controls on contamination of groundwater due to wastewater from the plants
  - Zero Hedge, 04 October 2024

• People in California will pay more for earthquake coverage in 2025, as the California Earthquake Authority - a not-for-profit organization funded by insurance companies and managed by the state - is raising rates by an average of 6.8 percent in January. Cited as reasons for the spike are inflation, higher construction costs, and the price of reinsurance - coverage that insurers purchase to help pay claims. About 10 percent of Californians carry insurance to cover damage.
  - Zero Hedge, 04 October 2024

• Global food prices jump most in 18 months as supermarket inflation worsens. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations' Food Price Index, which tracks the international prices of a basket of globally traded food, averaged 124.4 in September, up 3% from August and 2.1% higher versus the same month one year ago.
  - Zero Hedge, 04 October 2024

• Global food prices jump most in 18 months as supermarket inflation worsens. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations' Food Price Index, which tracks the international prices of a basket of globally traded food, averaged 124.4 in September, up 3% from August and 2.1% higher versus the same month one year ago.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 04 October 2024

• Shares of Spirit Airlines plummeted 40% pre-market on Friday after the Wall Street Journal reported that the ultra-low-cost carrier was in talks with its bondholders about a potential bankruptcy filing.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 04 October 2024

• Spirit Airlines explores bankruptcy filing. The budget carrier has been discussing a possible restructuring agreement to be implemented in chapter 11.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 04 October 2024

• Food products sold in California will no longer have a "sell by" stamp after July 1, 2026, after Gov. Gavin Newsom approved the s first law governing food labeling. The new law will require the use of two standard terms for food products that choose to use a date label - "best if used by" to indicate the quality date of food, or "use by" to indicate the safety of the food.
  - Zero Hedge, 03 October 2024

• On Wednesday, the Food and Drug Administration announced that the supply shortages of Eli Lilly's popular weight-loss and diabetes drugs have been resolved. These drugs have been in short supply since the anti-obesity drug craze erupted several years ago. Now, an ample supply of GLP-1 drugs could signal that the 'fat bubble' in equity markets has popped. Shares of telehealth firm Hims & Hers Health plunged nearly 12% in premarket trading in New York.
  - Zero Hedge, 03 October 2024

• Eli Lilly's weight-loss and diabetes drug shortages are over, FDA says. The removal of Zepbound and Mounjaro from the FDA's shortage list could lead to restrictions on pharmacies making custom-made versions.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 03 October 2024

• The USA Services Survey soars in September, and prices paid explode higher. "... the inflation signals from the survey point to reviving price pressures, principally linked to stubbornly elevated wage growth, which could temper the Fed's enthusiasm for further aggressive rate cutting".
  - Zero Hedge, 03 October 2024

• Falling prices of hairy crabs in Zhōngguó has raised concerns as the seven-day 'golden week' holiday is seen as an important time to gauge domestic demand in Zhōngguó. Hairy crabs are enjoyed for their exceptional flavour and quality, and have long been seen as an ideal gift for companies and wealthy individuals to present to important clients and officials.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 03 October 2024

• Food sold by McDonald's in Europe is healthier than food sold by McDonald's in the USA. For instance, in the United States, fries sold by McDonald's contain 11 ingredients, while the UK version has only three. Europe tends to take a precautionary approach towards food additivies, looking at evidence of harm and protecting their public from food corporations, whereas the USA is more company-friendly, requiring specific evidence to remove unsafe ingredients from the food supply. The USA GRAS system allows ingredients to enter the market without thorough testing. Companies can self-designate substances as GRAS based on their own evaluations, with limited oversight from the FDA. Notably, potentially harmful chemicals, like azodicarbonamide, a chemical used in bread -- which is linked to cancer in animal studies and banned in several countries -- remain legal in the U.S. because of the GRAS principle. "In other countries, this is the same chemical they use in yoga mats and shoe rubber ... when this chemical is heated, studies show that it turns into a carcinogen."
  - Zero Hedge, 03 October 2024

• Truckers see ports turn into ghost towns, and worry about their future. The strike by longshoremen has halted commerce at Newark and other ports on the East and Gulf Coasts, affecting an ecosystem of supply-chain workers.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 03 October 2024

• Google is leveraging the deep-rooted affinity for gold in Bharat to expand its reach in the lending market of the most populous nation in the world. The company said on Thursday that Google Pay has partnered with Muthoot Finance, the largest gold-backed loans provider in Bharat, to offer secured loans to users across Bharat.
  - TechCrunch, 03 October 2024

• Costco will start selling small bars of platinum to customers, along side sales of gold and silver bars
  - Quartz, 03 October 2024

• The fashion industry needs a hero. The only question is who. Hedi Slimane's exit from Celine marks the latest in a flurry of high-profile departures as the industry faces a significant downturn. Slimane was the creative director of the French luxury giant LMVH's Celine division.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 03 October 2024

• Bank of America customers on Wednesday reported having problems accessing their bank accounts or that their account balances currently show $0
  - Zero Hedge, 02 October 2024

• JPMorgan analysts flip-flop iPhone 16 demand forecast in just three days, from "slower initial demand" to "AI-upgrade cycle expectations remain intact" for iPhone 16 sales. With shares near all-time highs, the last thing bulls want to hear is how quickly some of Wall Street's top analysts are downshifting their outlook on iPhone 16 demand - thus the logic of the JPMorgan flipflop?
  - Zero Hedge, 02 October 2024

• Shares of Tesla decline a bit, after report 462,903 deliveries in Q3, missing analyst estimates
  - Zero Hedge, 02 October 2024

• Shares of Tesla decline a bit, after report 462,903 deliveries in Q3, missing analyst estimates
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 02 October 2024

• Shares of Nike drop 5.5% on the biggest sales drop in years, and after withdrawal of guidance and the postponement of investor day
  - Zero Hedge, 02 October 2024

• Sales at Nike fall 10%. The company is working off a 'Jordan hangover'. The sneaker company is reducing supply of its Air Force 1, Air Jordan 1 and Dunk models to revive the interest of consumers.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 02 October 2024

• CVS, considering a breakup, will find it is hard to do. Splitting the healthcare company into stand-alone pharmacy or health insurance businesses could leave each struggling.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 02 October 2024

• Inflation in the Eurozone comes below target for first time in three years. Eurozone inflation fell below the European Central Bank's target for the first time in more than three years, suggesting a lengthy struggle to bring price rises under control is nearing an end.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 02 October 2024

• Car sales are idling as prices remain high. Car sales in the USA remain stuck below prepandemic levels despite better vehicle availability and more deals.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 02 October 2024

• Stellantis recalls more than 150,000 hybrid Jeeps over fire risk. The news comes a day after the s shares plunged as it cut its earnings guidance.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 02 October 2024

• Chowdeck is 'hungry' for the food delivery market in Nigeria. One day, it wants to be a 'super-app for Africa'.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 02 October 2024

• 500 Starbucks locations have voted to unionize as labor talks continue
  - Comcast's CNBC, 02 October 2024

• Oil and natural gas output slides, squeezed by lower prices. Oil production growth in the USA continues to slow in response to the fall in prices, as the initial shock from Rossiya's invasion of Ukraine and the sanctions imposed in response more than two years ago fades.
  - Zero Hedge, 01 October 2024

• A senior executive at Chipotle says that there is "macro resistance" to inflation from consumers in California. "When when you look at the restaurant industry, the restaurant transactions are down for everybody."
  - Comcast's CNBC, 01 October 2024

• Analysts at Barclays find "weak" iPhone 16 demand after supply chain check
  - Zero Hedge, 01 October 2024

• Coldplay tickets for $11,000? Uproar in Bharat after tickets sold out in minutes and resold for outrageously high prices.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 01 October 2024

• Meat substitutes are still a tiny fraction of the meat market in the USA
  - Zero Hedge, 01 October 2024

• We tried to buy less expensive car insurance, offline and online. It was pretty much impossible.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 01 October 2024

• As union dockworkers began striking against employers at East and Gulf Coast ports early Tuesday morning, reports of panic-buying at supermarkets almost immediately started spreading across social media.
  - Freight Waves, 01 October 2024

• Dockworkers launch strike at ports from Maine to Texas. Retailers say they can weather a short shutdown but prices are likely to rise and shortages might grow in a prolonged walkout, though billions of dollars of products will be stranded at the ports.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 01 October 2024

• Dockworkers launch strike at ports from Maine to Texas. Retailers say they can weather a short shutdown but prices are likely to rise and shortages might grow in a prolonged walkout, though billions of dollars of products will be stranded at the ports.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 01 October 2024

• US port strikes erupt, first shutdown in 50 years sparks fears of supply chain crisis
  - Zero Hedge, 01 October 2024

• US port strikes erupt, first shutdown in 50 years sparks fears of supply chain crisis
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 01 October 2024

• Verizon outage reports are surging on Downdetector, with issues being reported nationwide. Additionally, X users complain that their smartphones using the mobile carrier are stuck on 'SOS' mode.
  - Zero Hedge, 30 September 2024

• As big Western supermarkets make windfall profits , their aggressive pursuit of ever-lower wholesale prices is causing misery for people at the bottom end of the supply chain -- people like Cahyonugroho who produce and process the seafood, according to an investigation by an alliance of NGOs focused on three of the world's largest producers of shrimp. The analysis of the industry in Vietnam, Indonesia and Bharat, which provide about half the shrimp in the world's top four markets, found a 20%-60% drop in earnings from pre-pandemic levels as producers struggle to meet pricing demands by cutting labor costs.
  - Associated Press, 30 September 2024

• Earnings guidance from Stellantis was so bad that Ford and General Motors are getting crushed, with Ford down about 2.5% and GM down about 4%
  - Barron's, 30 September 2024

• Shares of Stellantis drop 13%, and shares of Aston Martin drop 23%, after reporting decreased profits and lower-than-expected sales, and difficulties selling cars in Zhōngguó
  - Comcast's CNBC, 30 September 2024

• Jeep-owner Stellantis warns of deterioration across global car industry. The car giant said it will accelerate its push to reduce inventories on dealer lots in the USA by adding discounts and shipping fewer vehicles.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 30 September 2024

• Lithium-ion batteries just keep getting cheaper, from $290 per kilowatt-hour of storage in 2014 to $78 in 2024
  - Zero Hedge, 30 September 2024

• Shares of CVS rise nearly 2% on report of a meeting with hedge fund Glenview Capital. The reported meeting signals potential changes to improve shareholder value after weak stock performance.
  - Murdoch's MarketWatch, 30 September 2024

• Why Stellantis, owner of Chrysler, Jeep and Ram, is struggling. The automaker, created by a 2021 merger, is dealing with labor unrest, slumping sales and a revolt from its dealers.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 30 September 2024

• Chicago, the third-biggest city in the USA, is on the verge of losing its only intercity bus terminal, jeopardizing access for many low-income, elderly and minority travelers with few other transportation options. It is part of a nationwide trend that disporportionately hurts minority Americans. Greyhound, owned by German company Flix Mobility (which also owns FlixBus), has sold its terminals to investors for lucrative redevelopment in recent years, including dozens to investment firm Alden Global Capital.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 29 September 2024

• $8,850,000 - Breyers Ice Cream is paying out nearly $9 million as part of a class action settlement. The class action lawsuit pertains to Breyers' Natural Vanilla ice cream flavor, which allegedly falsely advertised itself as having real vanilla flavor.
  - Fox News, 29 September 2024

• Students paid thousands for a 'boot camp' at Caltech. Caltech did not teach it. Hundreds of universities have lent their names to online programs, plugging budgets but alienating students who feel misled.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 29 September 2024

• Rising egg prices are linked to the impact of the bird flu on the supply chain
  - The Hill, 28 September 2024

• After years of showing touch screens down the throats of consumers, electronic products now have more buttons. Product designers are embracing how users actually feel after years of pushing flat and sleek.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 28 September 2024

• Volkswagen reduces profit forecast again amid sliding car demand
  - Zero Hedge, 27 September 2024

• The European Union seeks to halt the business of Zhōngguó's fast fashion online retail giants, Shein and Temu. The European Commission considers punitive actions to curb explosive market growth of fashion merchants from Zhōngguó deemed a "direct threat" to fashion companies in Europe.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 27 September 2024

• The Fed's favorite inflation indicator is the hottest since April at 2.7% year-to-year, as government handouts continue to soar by $200 billion. The headline PCE slowed but core jumped higher in August. On a YoY basis, both spending and income growth slowed. In other words, the consumer is now wiped out and yet key inflation measures refuse to drop materially. So yes, the Fed will continue to cut (election year after all) and then we can finally unleash the second coming of the Arthur Burns hyperinflation Fed.
  - Zero Hedge, 27 September 2024

• After the Fed reduces interest rates by 0.5%, small businesses are preparing to borrow more money to restart expansion plans and boost marketing
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 27 September 2024

• The addiction to discounting at Michael Kors is revealed in court. Antitrust trial over proposed merger with Coach owner shows how far handbag maker has fallen. Michael Kors and the executives who ran his fashion label knew they had a serious problem: many of the handbags were selling for less than $100, far from the regular price of $450.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 27 September 2024

• H&M to miss margin target as higher costs hurt earnings. H&M will not hit a key profitability target this year but said sales momentum picked up through July and August before accelerating further in September.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 27 September 2024

• Diageo warns of continued challenges as consumers remain cautious. The spirits maker confirmed its outlook for the near and medium term, but cautioned that a tough consumer backdrop means both the beverage industry and the company continue to face challenges.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 27 September 2024

• Apple's iPhone 16 has seen lower-than-expected initial sales, deepening concerns for South Korean display manufacturers. According to recent reports from South Korean media, LG Display (LGD) is facing particularly severe challenges. Citing industry sources, South Korean media DealSite reported that the iPhone 16 series' initial sales performance has fallen short of expectations, which is expected to impact South Korean OLED panel suppliers' performance in the second half of 2024.
  - Zero Hedge, 26 September 2024

• Pending home sales limp off all-time record lows in August in the USA -- "... contract signings remain near cyclical lows even as home prices keep marching to new record highs"
  - Zero Hedge, 26 September 2024

• The market for works of art is economically declining. Sotheby's has even bigger problems. The auction house, owned by highly leveraged billionaire Patrick Drahi, is pushing off payments, awaiting a financial lifeline from an Abu Dhabi fund.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 26 September 2024

• Does the Gen Z "doom spending" trend explain why retail sales haven't collapsed yet? Almost 30% of the US consumer population has no plans to prepare for the future and is incapable of mentally adapting to sour financial conditions.
  - Zero Hedge, 25 September 2024

• $193,000 - DoNotPay has to pay $193,000 for falsely touting untested AI lawyer, FTC rules. You can't "sue anyone with a click of a button" without testing it first. The FTC announced that it took action to stop DoNotPay from making bogus claims after learning that the AI startup conducted no testing "to determine whether its AI s output was equal to the level of a human lawyer." DoNotPay also did not "hire or retain any attorneys" to help verify AI outputs or validate DoNotPay's legal claims.
  - Zero Hedge, 25 September 2024

• Ongoing shortages of popular weight loss and diabetes drugs in the USA have spurred fierce competition between established drugmakers and an emerging market of compounded versions as telehealth companies look to tap into the fast-growing industry
  - The Hill, 25 September 2024

• Restaurant portions are about to get smaller. Are Americans ready? The towering burger and ballooning bagel have withstood public health campaigns, but a new movement to shrink servings is finally gaining traction. Restaurants sinking under rising food costs are trying to figure out how to sell smaller servings without upsetting value-minded customers.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 25 September 2024

• A looming East Coast port strike could shake the economy. Businesses are preparing for a strike by dockworkers on the East and Gulf Coasts, which could begin October 1 if negotiations do not yield a new contract.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 25 September 2024

• Supermarkets in Australia sued over claims of fake discounts. In a rare case of legal action tied to rising prices, the government sued Woolworths and Coles for what it described as a pattern of deceiving consumers.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 25 September 2024

• Argentina scrapped its rent controls. Now the market is thriving. Landlords in Buenos Aires are rushing to put properties back on the market, and many renters are getting better deals after the new president, Milei, scrapped rental laws, along with most government price controls.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 25 September 2024

• A big increase in wind and solar power has pushed wholesale prices to zero or below for many hours of the year, spurring a big change in the way people use power in some parts of the world.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 25 September 2024

• $48,000,000 - Invitation Homes, one of the largest owners of single-family homes in the USA, to settle allegations of hidden costs charged to renters. Invitation Homes agrees to pay $48 million to refund consumers.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 25 September 2024

• Consumer confidence in the USA plunges most in 3 years as labor market weakens significantly
  - Zero Hedge, 24 September 2024

• As more than one trillion dollars worth of food is thrown away each year around the world, up to 783 million people are affected by hunger. At the same time, food waste generates an estimated 8-10 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions and takes up the equivalent of nearly 30 percent of the agricultural land in the world.
  - Zero Hedge, 24 September 2024

• Grocery chains are bigger than ever. See who runs the stores near you. Walmart, Kroger, Aldi and Albertsons own a third of all grocery stores locations in the USA.
  - Jeff Bezos' Washington Post, 24 September 2024

• Hawaii is the only state boasting large-scale commercial coffee farming. Coffee beans revel in the mineral-rich volcanic soil, elevation and climate in Hawaii's coffee-growing regions on Maui, Kauai and Hawaii Island. The most famous is Kona, home to hundreds of coffee farms. But that bag of Hawaii coffee you bought on your last visit to Hawaii may not actually be Hawaii-grown coffee. Coffee claiming to be from Hawaii often consists of just 10% coffee grown on the Hawaiian Islands, with 90% from other places in the world.
  - SF Gate, 24 September 2024

• Drinking bottled water is much worse for you than tap, scientists find. According to researchers from Weill Cornell Medicine in Qatar, bottled water in the US is often not subject to the same rigorous quality and safety checks as tap water, meaning it can carry more harmful chemicals leaching in from the plastic bottles.
  - BBC, 24 September 2024

• $71,000,000 - Rapper T.I. and his wife Tameka Harris have won a $71 million lawsuit against the maker of the popular L.O.L. Surprise! dolls after alleging the brand's line of "O.M.G" dolls copied the likeness of members of the now-defunct OMG Girlz, a teen pop group founded by the pair 15 years ago that included Harris' daughter.
  - Forbes, 24 September 2024

• You are not imagining it - online discounts are getting stingier. Retailers are feeling squeezed, and one way to improve their margins is to cut back on markdowns. The average discount offered by online retailers in the US is down to 36% so far this year.
  - Sherwood News, 24 September 2024

• Goodbye Louis Vuitton, as Gen Z people in Zhōngguó lean into the 'dupe economy' as growth prospects stall. These days, she and her friends are spending their more limited funds on so-called "pingti" products, high-quality replicas of branded goods known in English as dupes. Some are virtually indistinguishable from the real thing, while others are inspired by the original design and offer more colors or textures. The popularity of this product category is soaring as consumer confidence in Zhōngguó nears a historic low, according to analysts.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 24 September 2024

• Shares of Visa are down 2% in premarket trading in New York after a Bloomberg report revealed that the US Justice Department is preparing to file a lawsuit against the world's largest payment network operator as soon as Tuesday.
  - Zero Hedge, 24 September 2024

• The USA accuses Visa of a criminal monopoly in debit cards. The financial giant, which processes the majority of debit card spending in the USA, unfairly imposed fees on merchants and deterred rivals, the Justice Department said.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 24 September 2024

• The attorney general of California, Rob Bonta, sued Exxon Mobil on Monday alleging that the oil giant carried out a "decades-long campaign of deception" that overhyped the promise of recycling and spawned a plastic pollution crisis. The lawsuit, filed in superior court in San Francisco, argued that people were more likely to buy single-use plastics because of a false belief, promoted by Exxon Mobil, that they would be recycled. Mr. Bonta said the company is a leading producer of a key component used to make single-use plastics.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 24 September 2024

• The economic scam behind Shein's rise comes under threat: tax-free, duty-free shipping. Proposed regulations from around the world would squeeze the Zhōngguó-founded bargain site founded in Zhōngguó.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 24 September 2024

• The Manufacturing PMI in the USA plunges to 15-month lows, as prices soar again
  - Zero Hedge, 23 September 2024

• European PMIs plunge after Olympics hangover hammers France
  - Zero Hedge, 23 September 2024

• Johnson & Johnson files third bankruptcy case seeking to end talc lawsuits.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 23 September 2024

• The House of Representatives passes a new law to label products from Jewish settlements in the Islamic West Bank as "Made in Israel", a tactic to worsen controversies in the Middle East
  - Zero Hedge, 21 September 2024

• Looming insurance crisis threatens taxis and Uber vheicles in New York City. American Transit, the largest insurer of the city's for-hire vehicles, is insolvent. Its collapse could create a crisis that would take thousands of cars out of service.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 22 September 2024

• The price war in weight-loss drugs is here. Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly are offering discounts to encourage more insurance coverage of the medicines, which carry price tags of over $1,000 a month.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 21 September 2024

• How luxury stocks lost their shine. These are the ones that will get it back. Shares of Burberry, LVMH, and others have had a tough 2024. But there is no need to worry about an economic slowdown.
  - Zero Hedge, 21 September 2024

• Sales of cheap clothing knockoffs by Temu are soaring. The threat to brands such as Gucci and Hermes. Online Chinese discounters like Temu now offer ultracheap items -- 'dupes' -- that look remarkably similar to fancier goods, even if they do not stand up to scrutiny.
  - Zero Hedge, 21 September 2024

• The business failure of 23andMe, which sells DNA testing kits, has never made a profit, and hasn't found something to sell to customers beyond the initial genetic testing
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 20 September 2024

• Electric vehicle demand in Deutschland plummets 69%
  - Zero Hedge, 20 September 2024

• A study by the FTC finds "vast surveillance" of social media users by billion-dollar corporations. Facebook, Google'YouTube and other sites collected more data than most users realized, a new report by the Federal Trade Commission finds. The companies earn more billions they don't need from the surveillance data by feeding it into advertising that targets specific users by demographics, according to the report. The companies also failed to protect users, especially children and teens.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 20 September 2024

• A study by the FTC finds "vast surveillance" of social media users by billion-dollar corporations. Facebook, Google'YouTube and other sites collected more data than most users realized, a new report by the Federal Trade Commission finds. The companies earn more billions they don't need from the surveillance data by feeding it into advertising that targets specific users by demographics, according to the report. The companies also failed to protect users, especially children and teens.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 20 September 2024

• Walmart customers will soon have the option to pay directly from their bank accounts with instant transfers for online purchases. The enhanced feature is a flash point in the escalating tensions between merchants and the card networks, Visa and Mastercard mainly, that set the fees for payment processing.
  - Bloomberg, 19 September 2024

• Olive Garden-owner Darden Restaurants said on Thursday it has entered into a delivery deal with Uber Technologies, sending its shares up about 7% in premarket trading
  - Zero Hedge, 19 September 2024

• Consumers have too much of the wrong kind of debt: credit card debt that charges high interest rates
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 19 September 2024

• There is no economic evidence that a merger of Kroger and Albertsons would harm competition
  - Real Clear Markets, 18 September 2024

• Declining sales of mooncakes in Zhōngguó - a must-have product when families reunite for the Mid-Autumn Festival - has raised more worries about weak consumer spending in Zhōngguó and also the national economy. The volume of mooncake sales this year had dropped about 6 per cent from a year earlier to 300,000 tons.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 18 September 2024

• $1,600,000 - Wendy Halstead Beard, an art gallery owner in Detroit, was sentenced last week to five years and three months in prison for defrauding photography collectors out of $1.6 million worth of fine art photos, in what the F.B.I. has called a criminal scheme to swindle older collectors.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 18 September 2024

• $1,600,000 - Wendy Halstead Beard, an art gallery owner in Detroit, was sentenced last week to five years and three months in prison for defrauding photography collectors out of $1.6 million worth of fine art photos, in what the F.B.I. has called a criminal scheme to swindle older collectors.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 18 September 2024

• JPMorgan in talks with Apple to take over credit card processing from Goldman Sachs. The bank could become the new Apple credit-card issuer, but is seeking concessions from the tech company.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 18 September 2024

• Junk fees charged by hotels and airlines are easier to detect -- and you will keep paying. It is becoming more normal for travelers to know upfront all costs associated with overnight stays at hotels, and with airplane tickets.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 18 September 2024

• Dollar stores are expanding aggressively even as sales shrink. Both Dollar General and Dollar Tree are facing growing competition from Walmart and Target.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 18 September 2024

• Mercedes-Benz has sold its remaining 10% stake in premium EV and hybrid maker Denza to BYD in the wake of disappointing sales in Zhōngguó.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 18 September 2024

• Tupperware, known the world over for its plastic food storage containers, has filed for bankruptcy after years of falling popularity and financial troubles. Tupperware shares have plummeted 74.5% this year and last traded at just 51 cents.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 18 September 2024

• No AI-fueled upgrade supercycle? Apple iPhone 16 discounts offered at major online retailers in Zhōngguó
  - Zero Hedge, 17 September 2024

• Retail sales in the USA unexpectedly rise, lowering odds for big interest rate reduction by the Fed
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 17 September 2024

• Online returns fraud finds a home on Telegram, costing retailers billions of dollars. Efforts to exploit retailers' product return programs are growing more organized through websites and messaging apps.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 17 September 2024

• In a federal courtroom on Monday, storied fashion designer Michael Kors spoke about the steep challenge of staying relevant in a world where brands can rise and fall based on viral TikTok videos and photos of handbags on the arms of celebrities such as Taylor Swift and Beyoncé. In an antitrust trial to block a merger of Tapestry and Capri, Kors described how even legacy brands like his own can struggle and lose shoppers' interest.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 17 September 2024

• For Apple, the European Union is a cash sinkhole. The world's largest company has racked up fines, taxes and investigations in a region where it says it cannot sell its latest technology. Apple obtains about a quarter of its massive revenue from Europe.
  - Politico, 16 September 2024

• Shares of Apple are down 6% in two weeks, on an analysis of pre-orders for iPhone 16 that are showing weak demand for iPhone 16 Pros
  - Zero Hedge, 16 September 2024

• Goldman Sachs losses on consumer credit business loses a massive $6 billion as the bank scrambles to exit credit card business
  - Zero Hedge, 16 September 2024

• Americans are falling behind on the paying of their bills. Wall Street is alarmed. Lenders are seeing a rise in late payments on credit cards and auto loans.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 16 September 2024

• Zhōngguó is risking a deflationary spiral. Economists on Wall Street are calling for more fiscal stimulus in the country. But Beijing may still not act boldly enough.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 16 September 2024

• Many people in California are losing the ability to buy insurance for their homes. Insurance carriers are canceling policies because of the difficulty of raising premiums and increased costs due to environmental damages
  - Zero Hedge, 15 September 2024

• $1,977,000 - Home Depot will pay nearly $2 million to settle a civil enforcement claim from California district attorneys that the home improvement company was engaging in false advertising and unfair competition. The complaint filed in San Diego Superior Court said that when people at Home Depot brought an item to checkout, they would be charged more money than was written on the shelf tag or on the item itself.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 14 September 2024

• Stranded in the failures of airline IT systems due to CrowdStrike: a failure of airline customer service - "no hotel, no food, no assistance". Airlines pledged assistance, refunds and reimbursements to passengers whose travel had been disrupted by this summer's software outage. Instead, passengers told us, they were on their own, as the airlines grossly undercompensated passengers on cancelled flights.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 14 September 2024

• The Fed has helped rich investors become richer, but has hurt poorer consumers. An interest rate reduction alone will not help consumers benefit more.
  - Barron's, 14 September 2024

• A year ago, retail stores in the USA declared a shoplifting epidemic. They closed stores in major cities, hired extra security, locked up key merchandise and declared big losses in their financial statements. This year, retailers are telling a very different story -- or no story at all. It is as if the shoplifting crisis suddenly vanished.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 13 September 2024

• Supplies of chickens in the USA grower quicker than expected, as prices decline - good for consumers
  - Zero Hedge, 13 September 2024

• In a first, researchers scale up cultured chicken -- and dramatically curb its cost. Researchers grew chicken meat cells at four times the density they are grown in regular bioreactor systems -- bringing it down to the price of organic meat.
  - Anthropocene Magazine, 13 September 2024

• The stunning economic success of OnlyFans. And because it doesn't use the AppStore of Apple for sales, OnlyFans can give its content providers 80% of revenues, while still being quite profitable for the owners of OnlyFans.
  - MatthewBall.co, 13 September 2024

• Frozen concentrated orange juice futures on the Intercontinental Exchange in New York recently soared to $5/lb, a staggering 433% jump from the Covid lows of around $1/lb. This parabolic move in OJ prices has been mostly driven by sliding yields across the US and Brazil, now squeezing cash-strapped consumers.
  - Zero Hedge, 13 September 2024

• The Biden administration increases taxes/tariffs on products from Zhōngguó. The administration moved to block off a popular tariff-free path for Chinese apparel coming into the United States, and added stiff levies on electric vehicles, solar panels and other products.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 13 September 2024

• A new rule proposal from the Biden administration would prohibit products that are subject to USA-Zhōngguó taxes/tariffs from being eligible for a special customs exemption. The de minimis loophole allows packages with a value of less than $800 to enter the United States with relatively little scrutiny. Officials say a recent explosion in the number of de minimis shipments is due largely to online retail giants like Shein and Temu based in Zhōngguó.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 13 September 2024

• A new rule proposal from the Biden administration would prohibit products that are subject to USA-Zhōngguó taxes/tariffs from being eligible for a special customs exemption. The de minimis loophole allows packages with a value of less than $800 to enter the United States with relatively little scrutiny. Officials say a recent explosion in the number of de minimis shipments is due largely to online retail giants like Shein and Temu based in Zhōngguó.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 13 September 2024

• A new rule proposal from the Biden administration would prohibit products that are subject to USA-Zhōngguó taxes/tariffs from being eligible for a special customs exemption. The de minimis loophole allows packages with a value of less than $800 to enter the United States with relatively little scrutiny. Officials say a recent explosion in the number of de minimis shipments is due largely to online retail giants like Shein and Temu based in Zhōngguó.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 13 September 2024

• Satellite television is in trouble. DirecTV'ss dispute with Disney shows why. While the cable TV business is declining quickly, satellite TV is decaying even faster. Unlike cable TV, basic satellite TV technology does not allow viewers to watch content on demand. Instead it offers a large menu of shows and movies, with the option to record with a DVR. But satellite TV still resembles a traditional broadcaster and is out-of-step with the current era of streaming video.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 13 September 2024

• McDonald's is set to extend its $5 meal deal, originally a summer promotion launched in June, through December across all US markets. This move signals the fast-food giant's acknowledgment that its core customers are struggling to afford Big Macs in a period of elevated inflation and high interest rates.
  - Zero Hedge, 12 September 2024

• The combination of extremely tight beef supplies in the US, with the national cattle herd size sliding to the lowest levels since 1951 and new estimates of declining beef production in agricultural juggernaut Brazil, points to elevated burger prices for the foreseeable future, yet more bad news for cash-strapped consumers struggling with rampant food inflation.
  - Zero Hedge, 12 September 2024

• More criminal incompetence from richly-paid executives: credit card processing service Slim CD, popular in the U.S. and Canada, has revealed a massive data breach that exposed the personal information of nearly 1.7 million customers. The hack, which went undetected for almost a year, has raised serious concerns about data security in the financial sector.
  - Zero Hedge, 12 September 2024

• Producer prices rose more than expected in August. Services costs rebounded significantly in August (offset by energy costs deflating).
  - Zero Hedge, 12 September 2024

• The ECB reduces interest rates by 0.25% to 3.50% (as expected); projects worsening stagflation.
  - Zero Hedge, 12 September 2024

• The ECB reduces interest rates by 0.25% to 3.50% (as expected); projects worsening stagflation.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 12 September 2024

• A new study found for the first time that common skin care products used by young children may increase their exposure to hormone-disrupting chemicals. Phthalates, often found in skincare products, can disrupt the endocrine system, potentially interfering with hormones. These chemicals may be added to skincare products to improve absorption, prolong fragrances, or make the product more lubricating. "Phthalates are endocrine-disrupting chemicals, and the exposure of children has been associated with differences in body composition, neurodevelopment, and pulmonary and immune function."
  - Zero Hedge, 12 September 2024

• Companies from North American and Europe that flocked to Zhōngguó are now withdrawing. As growth in Zhōngguó slows and the difficulty of doing business there rises, Western companies have stopped plowing money into the country.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 12 September 2024

• Inditex, the owner of Zara, has its sales grow as it holds off on major price hikes. Zara parent Inditex said sales grew at a steady pace in the first half, as the fashion group held off on significant price hikes in a bid to fend off competition from the likes of Shein.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 12 September 2024

• McDonald's rolls out self-serve cash kiosks that could make eliminate the need for paid-human cashiers. Existing kiosks can handle credit cards, not cash. The new kiosks can handle cash, eliminating the need for people to be paid. Taco Bell and Panera have used similar self-order screens at their restaurants. [KM: Anything to make the rich richer.]
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 11 September 2024

• BurgerFi restaurant chain files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Only its corporate-owned BurgerFi and Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza & Wings restaurants are included in the bankruptcy proceedings, it said. There are 17 and 50 of those, respectively. In its filing, BurgerFi estimated a range of $50-$100 million for its assets. Estimated liabilities were $100-$500 million.
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 11 September 2024

• Core inflation comes in hotter than expected as shelter costs unexpectedly rise. One week from today, the Fed will reduce interest rates by 0.25%, sparking the next inflationary deluge.
  - Zero Hedge, 11 September 2024

• Inflation extends cooling streak to hit 2.5% in August. Inflation eased to new three-year lows, teeing up the Fed to begin gradually reducing interest rates at a meeting next week.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 11 September 2024

• Inflation cooled in August, keeping the Fed poised to cut interest rates. Consumer Price Index inflation continued to cool, reaching a new three-year low. But signs of stubbornness lingered under the surface.
  - New York Time, 11 September 2024

• An "imminent health threat" found at a Boar Head's plant 2 years before a fatal outbreak of listeria. Inspectors from the USA Department of Agriculture listed serious problems in 2022 that could have resulted in strict measures like a pause in production. But they allowed to let the plant continued operating, and some conditions persisted, such as extensive rust, deli meats exposed to wet ceilings, green mold and holes in the walls. "Consumers had to die before this plant got shut down, really is the bottom line."
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 11 September 2024

• Experts say megamerger helps corporations that used pandemic to raise costs. Kroger and Albertsons merger would benefit brands that exploited the pandemic and high inflation to raise prices. Four out of five consumer product mergers in the U.S. (which includes food retailers) lead to higher prices for customers, according to a 2008 study from the FTC and Princeton University.
  - Salon, 11 September 2024

• Just miles from Kroger's court battle, a food desert shows what is at stake. Federal regulators are trying to block Kroger's merger with Albertsons. In a Portland suburb, residents already know what deteriorating access to fresh food looks like. In communities like Rockwood, the dearth of places to buy food is particularly acute. Almost 13 percent of the population of the USA lives in a food desert, defined by the Department of Agriculture as a low-income area with limited access to a large grocery store. Food deserts and food insecurity arise when retailers pull out of poor urban areas. That happened in Rockwood in 2003 when Kroger, citing slipping sales, closed one of its Fred Meyer supermarkets. But corporate consolidation also plays a role. In 2015, the Safeway and Albertsons chains merged nationwide; the Safeway in Rockwood shut down soon after. That left only the Albertsons.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 11 September 2024

• Goldman Sach's exit from the credit-card business is hampered by lax lending standards. The bank lent loosely on some credit cards, contributing to a big loss as it tries to sell the General Motors card business.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 11 September 2024

• Apple is at a disadvantage against phone makers in Zhōngguó that are offering artificial-intelligence services in Zhōngguó, where sales of iPhones have declined for four consecutive quarters.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 11 September 2024

• An ugly picture emerges for cosmetics makers in Zhōngguó. Sales are plunging, sending an economic warning signal in what was once their most important market.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 11 September 2024

• Retailers and manufacturers are seeking to mitigate a potentially multibillion-dollar hit if members of the International Longshoreman's Association go on strike beginning October 1 at 13 of the major East Coast and Gulf Coast ports in the USA.
  - FreightWaves, 10 September 2024

• You can buy a diamond-making machine for $200,000 on Alibaba. Making diamonds is cheaper than ever, creating a weird problem: too many diamonds.
  - Condé Nast's Ars Technica, 10 September 2024

• Apple's new AI features are magically mediocre. Apple Intelligence is not that scary, not that advanced, and definitely not finished.
  - Vox, 10 September 2024

• $1,500,000 - Keurig Dr Pepper will pay $1.5 million to settle charges that it made inaccurate statements about the recyclability of its K-Cup single use beverage pods, according to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
  - Zero Hedge, 10 September 2024

• Shares of Ally Financial plummet 17% reported that their auto delinquencies soared a whopping 20 basis points compared to their expectation, while net charge offs (NCOs) were up ~10 bps compared to their expectations.
  - Zero Hedge, 10 September 2024

• The decline could continue in the price of shares of companies that make luxury consumer goods, as shoppers in Zhōngguó continue to spend less on luxury goods
  - Zero Hedge, 10 September 2024

• Bad news for electric vehicles: consumers less likely to buy one compared to last year. The latest sentiment survey by ErnstYoung finds fewer Americans are interested in electrified vehicles compared to 2023.
  - Apollo Global's Yahoo Finance, 10 September 2024

• Bird flu has already appeared in live animal markets in New York City, where most markets butcher and sell chickens, ducks and quail. About one in four also slaughters larger animals, like sheep, goats, cows and pigs. If the bird flu jumps to the human population, with New York City as a global crossroads, we could have another pandemic.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 10 September 2024

• Greece to restrict cruise visits as Greek islands struggle with tourist crowds. In a country where vacationers are a keystone of the economy, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is embracing a European trend toward tighter tourism regulation. Vacation rentals and foreign buyers have also driven home prices to a level that many locals say they struggle to afford on many islands, while a wave of villa construction has contributed to water shortages.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 10 September 2024

• $2,650,000,000 - The top court in the EU, the European Court of Justice, upheld a 2.4 billion euro ($2.65 billion) fine imposed on Google for abusing its dominant position by favoring its own shopping comparison service
  - Comcast's CNBC, 10 September 2024

• Greed, gluttony and the crackup of Red Lobster
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 09 September 2024

• Can the most popular red wine in the USA, cabernet sauvignon, endure global heating? In California's Napa Valley, cabernet sauvignon is king. The bold red wine has made the region world famous, with some bottles retailing at hundreds of dollars. But increasingly severe heat waves are taking a toll on the grape variety, especially in late summer during ripening. As temperatures keep rising, the wine industry is slowly confronting a future where Napa may not be the prime cabernet region it once was.
  - NPR, 09 September 2024

• The Consumer Brands Association, representing many household brands such as Coca Cola and Clorox, believes companies should be able to stamp "recyclable" on products that are technically "capable" of being recycled, even if they are all but guaranteed to end up in a landfill. They want to appear more environmentally friendly while remaining environmentally hostile . No one in the oil industry wants to take any responsibility for its environmental, crimes.
  - ProPublica, 09 September 2024

• In a "last hurrah", credit card debt unexpectedly soars in the USA despite record high APR rates for credit cards, as savings rate hits record low. It is difficult to see how the US consumer pretends that all is well after this.
  - Zero Hedge, 09 September 2024

• Inflation expectations rise over medium-term as delinquency fears unexpectedly hit 4 year high. Americans continue to grow more concerned about their ability to keep up with debt payments, even as inflation expectations over the next 3 years rebounded.
  - Zero Hedge, 09 September 2024

• Big Lots, a discount retailer with 1,400 stores in the SUA, files for bankruptcy as stock loses 50% of its value, having lost 50% of its value as well last week
  - Zero Hedge, 09 September 2024

• Zhōngguó is experiencing the worst deflationary streak since 1999, putting pressure on corporate profits, wages and asset prices
  - Zero Hedge, 08 September 2024

• FTC accuses drug middlemen companies of inflating insulin prices. The case takes aim at the major pharmacy benefit managers, agency officials said, claiming that they favored more expensive insulin products and forced patients to pay more.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 20 September 2024

• FTC accuses drug middlemen companies of inflating insulin prices. The case takes aim at the major pharmacy benefit managers, agency officials said, claiming that they favored more expensive insulin products and forced patients to pay more.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 20 September 2024

• FTC accuses drug middlemen companies of inflating insulin prices. The case takes aim at the major pharmacy benefit managers, agency officials said, claiming that they favored more expensive insulin products and forced patients to pay more.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 20 September 2024

• Frequent flyer programs have become a crucial part of the airline industry's profitability. And that is due to the billions of dollars banks and credit card issuers pay to buy bulk miles from airlines to reward and entice cardholders to make purchases with their cards. Last year, Delta Air Lines received $6.8 billion in revenue from American Express on its co-branded Delta Amex card. American Airlines reported revenue of $5.2 billion from co-branded cards and other partnerships. United reported a mere $3.2 billion on its other operating line that came primarily on payments to its frequent flyer program. And when considering the adjusted incomes of 2023 for Delta ($4 billion) American ($1.9 billion) and United ($3.3 billion), it is easy to understand why the major carriers rely so heavily on frequent flyer programs. Airlines don't mind - with profit margins less than 10%, the 50% profit margins on miles sold are hugely important.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 08 September 2024

• Bharat tops global plastic waste emissions with 9.3 million ton, study shows. Experts say lack of infrastructure for proper waste collection is a primary cause, call for industry-specific policies to address crisis. Bharat is responsible for nearly one-fifth of global plastic emissions.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 08 September 2024

• Macy's plans to close 55 stores by the end of 2024
  - Zero Hedge, 08 September 2024

• How to be an insurance company in an increasingly chaotic economy. In 2022, U.S. property and casualty insurers reported an annual loss of $3.8 billion and $26.9 billion in 2023. nsurers have responded by sharply increasing the cost of car insurance and property insurance in the last few years. They have also dropped the customers who constitute the biggest potential outsize risks, such as thousands of homeowners in California with homes at risk of being affected by wildfires. Over eleven percent of all homeowners do not currently carry insurance.
  - Real Clear Markets, 08 September 2024

• Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop slashing 18% of workforce to focus on beauty products
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 07 September 2024

• As cheap imports from Zhōngguó flood markets in Southeast Asia, industries in these countries struggle to stay afloat. Lcoal industries - from truckers in Thailand to retailers in Malaysia - are being financially hurt due to low-cost products from Zhōngguó. Half of the ceramics factories have closed in the northern Lampang province of Thailand. In Indonesia, thousands of textile workers have lost their jobs. Throughout the region, makers of textiles, cosmetics, electronics and kitchenware find themselves outmatched by manufacturers in Zhōngguó, whose highly automated supply chains and relentless pursuit of new markets are reshaping the competitive landscape.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 07 September 2024

• Why doctors are changing their minds about full-fat dairy. The new stance is particurarly important for seniors, who stand to benefit from consuming full-fat milk products.
  - Barron's, 07 September 2024

• Energy drink maker Celsius Holdings was a stock market darling until four months ago, when shares began to slump over signs of the company's slowing growth and economic headwinds. The stock tumbled 12% on Wednesday after management said at a conference that orders from a major distributor declined from last year. Compared with their peak in May, shares are now down more than 66%.
  - Barron's, 07 September 2024

• Why you might not be able to watch your favorite sport -- or reality show -- on television right now. For DirectTV, it is existential. For Disney, it is just business as usual crushing others - with DirectTV and Disney fighting over ESPN.
  - Slate, 07 September 2024

• Cybertrucks sold by Tesla are a disaster now, But winter will be a nightmare. Here is why cybertruck owners should be worried.
  - Benzinga, 06 September 2024

• 4 big airlines face an inquiry over frequent flier programs. The USA Department of Transportation ordered American, Delta, Southwest and United to share more information about their rewards practices to ensure they are fair to consumers and rivals.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 06 September 2024

• In Massachusetts, the once-thriving beer business is losing its fizz. New England breweries are facing a sobering truth: Craft beer is no longer the hopped-up industry it once was. Why did the buzz fade away?
  - Boston.com, 05 September 2024

• The rent control market failure in the Netherlands. The radical expansion of rent control by the government of the Netherlands is displacing tenants and aggravating a preexisting housing shortage.
  - Reason, 05 September 2024

• Prices of diamonds plummet to multi-decade lows, as the markets for art, wine and Rolex watches also declines - not a good time for luxury goods
  - Zero Hedge, 05 September 2024

• A record number of firms plan to cut advertising spending on X next year because of concerns that extreme content on the platform could damage their brands, dealing another blow to the financial fortunes of Elon Musk's social media company
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 05 September 2024

• USA services surveys confirm "baffle 'em with bull$hit" season is back. New orders improve, employment worsen and prices paid rise.
  - Zero Hedge, 05 September 2024

• Is your water bottle really made from recycled plastic? A dishonest green accounting method called 'mass balance' certifies that something was manufactured with recycled plastic -- just not necessarily much of the bottle making the claim. So the company can market Tritan Renew as "up to 50 percent recycled plastic", even if it has little recycled material in it, because something it manufactured contained those recycled chemical building blocks.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 05 September 2024

• Alibaba will offer payment services from rival Tencent on its biggest online marketplaces, a milestone toward breaking down the walls dividing internet giants in Zhōngguó..
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 05 September 2024

• Billions of people have inadequate micronutrients, a study estimates. Many diseases worldwide are caused by vitamins and mineral deficiencies. The researchers identified seven common micronutrients that people are deficient in, namely iodine, vitamin E, calcium, iron, riboflavin (vitamin B2), folate, and vitamin C.
  - Zero Hedge, 04 September 2024

• Amazon banned my book on the Israel-Hamas war -- and I am not the only one being silenced. Amazon now sells half of all print books in the United States and 80% of e-books. In essence, it controls the public square.
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 04 September 2024

• Dollar stores are struggling. Blame Walmart. Walmart, Target and other chains have lowered prices on some items in an effort to draw inflation-fatigued shoppers, taking a toll on trips to dollar stores. "I do not believe that anybody in the world shares more customers than Dollar General and Walmart because of their close proximity to each other and the density of their locations in the southeast."
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 04 September 2024

• First Dollar General, now shares of Dollar Tree plunge 12% as both discount retailers warn of core customer under pressure
  - Zero Hedge, 04 September 2024

• Coca-Cola and rival PepsiCo spent hundreds of millions of dollars over decades building demand for their soft drinks in Islamic-majority countries including Egypt to Pakistan. Now, both face a challenge from local sodas in those countries due to consumer boycotts that target the globe-straddling brands as symbols of the USA, and by extension Israel, at a time of Israel's brutal war in Gaza.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 04 September 2024

• Nordstrom founders offer $23 per share to take the department store private
  - Comcast's CNBC, 04 September 2024

• Nordstrom founders offer $23 per share to take the department store private
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 04 September 2024

• Shares of Dollar Tree fall 10% in pre-market trading after the discount retailer reduces its full-year outlook, citing increasing pressures on middle-income and higher-income customers
  - Comcast's CNBC, 04 September 2024

• Samsung said to slash 8% of sales team in mainland Zhōngguó amid weak performance. This marks the start of a broader restructuring that would potentially cut up to 30 per cent of the workforce of Samsung in mainland Zhōngguó by next year.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 04 September 2024

• The world is spewing out 57 million tons of plastic pollution a year. The study examined plastic that goes into the open environment, not plastic that goes into landfills or is properly burned.
  - Associated Press, 04 September 2024

• Good news for deal-seekers this fall: travel demand has softened. The post-pandemic rush seems finally to be easing, which has airfares lower and hotels offering more inducements to book.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 04 September 2024

• Two airlines, Ryanair and Wizz Air, reported a jump in passenger numbers in August, bringing both airlines to new records as demand for low-cost summer travel continues.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 04 September 2024

• Rise of the pint-size startup is reshaping the economy of the USA. The number of employees at companies launched since the pandemic is sharply lower, reflecting broader trends in the way people work.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 04 September 2024

• Apartment construction is slowing, and investors are betting on higher rents. The rise in interest rates pushed construction-loan costs up and property values down.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 04 September 2024

• Constellation Brands cuts outlook on wine market woes in the USA. Constellation Brands cut its earnings outlook due to an impairment for the Wine & Spirits business, as negative trends continue in the wine market in the USA.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 04 September 2024

• Molson Coors is the latest company to submit to Christian hatred of women and minorities by reducing some of its diversity policies and initiatives
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 04 September 2024

• Should we think twice about fluoride? Too much fluoride might lower IQ in kids, a new federal report says. The science (and debate), explained.
  - Vox, 03 September 2024

• "I have worked at Starbucks for 20 years -- my trendy, quirky coffee shop has become a soulless fast food joint." And the new CEO from Chiptotle will not help. "No matter what time of day I go in [to Chiptotle], they always looked pissed off."
  - Murdochs's New York Post, 03 September 2024

• A leaked pitch deck presentation from Cox Media Group (CMG) - a major player in the digital advertising space, appears to detail how its "Active Listening" software uses artificial intelligence to capture and analyze "real-time intent data" from the conversations of cellphone users. The slideshow goes further, showcasing authoritarian tech giants like Facebook, Google, and Amazon as clients of CMG, suggesting they may use this controversial technology. These companies have long denied listening to user conversations through device microphones, but this leaked document raises new questions.
  - Zero Hedge, 03 September 2024

• While taking it can be timed to help overcome jet lag, melatonin is no good for chronic sleeplessness - another retail scam
  - Real Clear Investigations, 03 September 2024

• USA Manufacturing ISM signals accelerating stagflation as PMI turns downright apocalyptic. "The combination of falling orders and rising inventory sends the gloomiest forward-indication of production trends seen for one and a half years, and one of the most worrying signals witnessed since the global financial crisis."
  - Zero Hedge, 03 September 2024

• Persistent economic pressures, and changing consumer habits, send more restaurants into bankruptcy. "Consumers who dine at lower-end restaurants are the ones who will stop dining out first."
  - Zero Hedge, 03 September 2024

• Hungary is first central bank to pause interest rate cuts as inflation suddenly jumps
  - Zero Hedge, 03 September 2024

• Record rainfall spoils crops in Zhōngguó, rattling its leaders. Some vegetables cost more than they have in five years. Top officials in Zhōngguó have made a point of showing that they are doing something about it.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 03 September 2024

• As the number of fees rise for booking lodging using Airbnb, more and more consumers are questioning whether or not it just makes sense to book a hotel. After all, at a hotel, you are guaranteed customer service, housekeeping and amenities. With Airbnb, those add-ons can be exactly that ... costly add-ons. Travelers have noticed a shift with Airbnb becoming more expensive than hotels and offering less value, leading to frustration over high fees and uncooperative hosts, according to travel experts.
  - Zero Hedge, 02 September 2024

• As the number of fees rise for booking lodging using Airbnb, more and more consumers are questioning whether or not it just makes sense to book a hotel. After all, at a hotel, you are guaranteed customer service, housekeeping and amenities. With Airbnb, those add-ons can be exactly that ... costly add-ons. Travelers have noticed a shift with Airbnb becoming more expensive than hotels and offering less value, leading to frustration over high fees and uncooperative hosts, according to travel experts.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 02 September 2024

• How a leading chain of psychiatric hospitals traps patients. Acadia Healthcare is holding people against their will to maximize insurance payouts, a Times investigation found - as it stock price has soared . In at least 12 of the 19 states where Acadia operates psychiatric hospitals, dozens of patients, employees and police officers have alerted the authorities that the company was detaining people in ways that violated the law. Acadia, which charges $2,200 a day for some patients, at times deploys an array of strategies to persuade insurers to cover longer stays, employees said. Acadia has exaggerated the symptoms of patients. It has tweaked medication dosages, then claimed patients needed to stay longer because of the adjustment. And it has argued that patients are not well enough to leave because they did not finish a meal. The success has attracted the exploiters of Wall Street. With its stock price rising, Acadia is valued at about $7 billion. Its chief executive, Christopher H. Hunter, was paid more than $7 million last year.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 02 September 2024

• Has the spread of tipping reached its limit? Do not count on it. Both major presidential candidates propose exempting tips from taxes. That could encourage more reliance on tipping, and leave workers vulnerable.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 02 September 2024

• Global heating has made Cairo so hot, and economic problems have reduced electricity production, that the government of Egypt has mandated earlier closing times for retail establishments for 10pm. To save electricity, stores must close by 10 p.m. and cafes, restaurants and malls by midnight, slightly later on weekends. Only groceries and pharmacies are exempt.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 02 September 2024

• Why interest rate reductions will not fix a global housing affordability crisis. Central bankers are lowering borrowing costs, but that will not be a cure-all for a widespread lack of affordable housing. Housing supply is failing to meet demand, helping to push home prices to levels that are out of reach even for middle-income families.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 02 September 2024

• Is a Disney theme park vacation still worth the price? As Disney has raised the cost of tickets and hotel rooms at its theme parks, and added pricey, difficult-to-navigate tools, even its most loyal fans are asking themselves if they should rethink their vacations.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 02 September 2024

• Hotel strikes by workers during Labor Day weekend reflect the frustrations of a workforce largely made up of women of color. The strikes targeting Marriott, Hilton and Hyatt hotels were set to last one to three days.
  - Associated Press, 01 September 2024

• Strikes start at top hotel chains in the USA as housekeepers seek higher wages and daily room cleaning work. Unionized housekeepers, however, have waged a fierce fight to restore automatic daily room cleaning at major hotel chains, saying they have been saddled with unmanageable workloads, or in many cases, fewer hours and a decline in income.
  - Yahoo News, 01 September 2024

• Strikes start at top hotel chains in the USA as housekeepers seek higher wages and daily room cleaning work. Unionized housekeepers, however, have waged a fierce fight to restore automatic daily room cleaning at major hotel chains, saying they have been saddled with unmanageable workloads, or in many cases, fewer hours and a decline in income.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 01 September 2024

• Homebuyers flock to city centres as pandemic-induced demand for flats close to nature wanesisland. That shift has become evident in metropolises across the UK and Australia, as well as in compact cities like Singapore and Hong Kong.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 01 September 2024

• How Big Pharma traded principles for profits : 'hype fears' and "exaggerated supposed benefits". Both the public and physicians have been repeatedly deceived ""to believe that drugs are much better and much safer than they really are". Many doctors do not know that the medical journals they rely upon "are filled with unreliable studies hopelessly tainted by drug industry interests".
  - Murdochs's New York Post, 01 September 2024

• For generations of people in Alaskka, a livelihood is under threat. Something is broken in the economics of the fishing industry in Alaska, and the communities that have long depended upon it. Can Washington come to the rescue? The problem is not a lack of fish. Toward the end of the summer of 2023, nobody wanted to buy them. Processors, having already slashed by half the prices they paid fishermen for salmon, started turning them away entirely. Inflation-weary consumers turned from fish to less expensive protein sources like chicken. The strong dollar and the collapse of the yen made it difficult to sell to Japanese consumers, who have been eating less fish and high-value roe than generations past.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 01 September 2024

• How protests against Israel's mass killings in Gaza are costing companies billions of dollars of lost revenue because the companies are/preceived-to-be supporters of Israel's war in Gaza with the support of the USA
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 31 August 2024

• Parenthood has become too expensive in the USA. That imperils economic growth. A population decline stemming from falling birthrates and tighter immigration policies could derail prosperity in the USA. Politicians of both persuasions are promising to help families.
  - Barron's, 31 August 2024

• The USA wants to stop the Kroger-Albertsons merger. A history of supermarkets under attack. The combined companies would have less market share than Walmart, the top grocer these days in the USA.
  - Barron's, 31 August 2024

• Shoppers are the only thing standing between the USA and a recession
  - Barron's, 31 August 2024

• Retailers from Zhōngguó, once sweet on Mexico, say locals are turning sour. What changed? Merchants from Zhōngguó in Mexico, initially welcomed with open arms, are now contending with resentment and occasional hostility from locals.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 30 August 2024

• Synthetic diamonds are now purer, more beautiful, and vastly cheaper than mined diamonds. Beating nature took decades of hard graft and millions of pounds of pressure.
  - Works in Progress, 30 August 2024

• SAD: more than 50% of commercial baby foods are unhealthy
  - Zero Hedge, 30 August 2024

• Big banks are being criticized for paying low interest rates on idle cash of depositors. Raymond James (RJF) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM) were hit with lawsuits in recent days by customers alleging they were shortchanged on the interest due from idle cash.
  - Apollo Global's Yahoo Finance, 30 August 2024

• The Fed's fiat money printing is the real cause of price inflation. Only the Federal Reserve can cause a general rise in prices and only when it creates new US dollars that didn't previously exist.
  - Zero Hedge, 30 August 2024

• Stop & Shop, a major grocery chain in the northeast of the USA, announces that it will stop trafficking the deadly/addictive drug nicotine by ending the sales of tobacco products.
  - The Hill, 30 August 2024

• The Fed's favorite inflation indicator - Core PCE - came in line with expectations of 0.2% month-to-month increase, and even missed estimates on a core year-to-year basis of 2.5%
  - Zero Hedge, 30 August 2024

• The Fed's preferred inflation gauge stays cool, keeping an interest rate cut imminent
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 30 August 2024

• The Fed's favorite inflation indicator - Core PCE - came in line with expectations of 0.2% month-to-month increase, and even missed estimates on a core year-to-year basis of 2.5%
  - Comcast's CNBC, 30 August 2024

• The top airlines in Zhōngguó post financial losses amid slow international travel
  - Thomson's Reuters, 30 August 2024

• The Federal Trade Commission inked a new rule to combat fake online reviews and sham social-media clout. The new rule, finalized this month and set to go into effect later this year, prohibits a slew of practices including: providing incentives for reviews that convey a particular sentiment; reviews and testimonials by company insiders that do not disclose the author's connection to the brand; suppressing unflattering reviews; reviews and testimonials attributed to people who have not used the product or are not real.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 30 August 2024

• A deli meat factory in Virginia owned by Boar's Head that is tied to 9 deaths of consumers, had mold, leaky pipes and flies.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 30 August 2024

• A New Yorker is among the nine people who have died as a result of the nationwide listeria outbreak tied to Boar's Head deli meats, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed. At least 57 people have been hospitalized so far in connection to the outbreak. Boar's Head has recalled 7 million pounds of deli meats last month as reported illnesses started to spike.
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 29 August 2024

• Bloomberg reports that Ohio-based Big Lots, with about 1,400 stores nationwide, has mulled over whether a potential bankruptcy filing is the right move in the near term given the slide in sales, which resulted in a multi-year crash of shares trading in New York
  - Zero Hedge, 29 August 2024

• Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike said that in the wake of a massive computer outage it caused last month it will give customers about $60 million in credits to remain with the company, possibly a mere fraction of the damages those clients say they incurred. The company also cut its guidance for full-year earnings by about $86 million to $109 million. But that still leaves CrowdStrike expecting to make $3.9 billion on the year [so it could easily afford to offer more credits to companies with damages if it had any ethics or sense of responsibility, ].
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 29 August 2024

• Claw machine games, popular in shopping malls, are the new 'public enemy' in Rio de Janeiro. Police say the claw machines defraud users who believe scoring stuffed animals to be a test of skill. In fact, they are games of chance -- just like slot machines -- and therefore illegal. Many games permit winning pulls only after a set number of attempts -- gambling.
  - Associated Press, 29 August 2024

• Marijuana is too strong now. As marijuana has become easier to obtain, it has become harder to smoke. By 2022, levels of THC in marijuana had more than tripled compared to 25 years ago, from 5% to 16%. It is making makrijuana dangerous to smoke.
  - The Atlantic, 29 August 2024

• $4,300,000 - The owner of a resale business in Pittsburgh is convicted of selling $4.3 million of stolen retail items
  - BBC, 29 August 2024

• Shares of Birkenstock plunge more than 15% after sandal maker misses profit estimates
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 29 August 2024

• $3,290,000 - Four land title companies in the District of Colombia are fined $3.29 million for operating an illegal kickback scheme. The title companies offered real estate agents "exclusive, lucrative, and discounted investment opportunities in either the companies themselves or in shell entities" in exchange for client referrals.
  - BBC, 29 August 2024

• In what should hardly be a surprise after today's record plunge in Dollar General, moments ago two other discretionary consumer icons, Lululemon and Ulta Beauty, reported catastrophic results. Shares of Ulta were down 8%.
  - Zero Hedge, 29 August 2024

• Goldman Sachs says that Five Below's earnings indicate that "core customer pressured and is reducing discretionary spending"
  - Zero Hedge, 29 August 2024

• Q2 GDP unexpectedly revised higher on bizarre surge in personal consumption. Another 6-sigma shocked out of the Biden department of economic analysis.
  - Zero Hedge, 29 August 2024

• Inflation in Deutschland declines to 2% as the ECB prepares to reduce interest rates. With price gains moderating in line with ECB projections, wage pressures easing and economic momentum faltering, officials in Frankfurt led by President Christine Lagarde have warmed to a September rate cut. That would be the second reduction after an initial step in June began unwinding the spate of hikes enacted to tame record inflation.
  - Bloomberg, 29 August 2024

• Shares of Dollar General crashed 23.5% to hit levels not seen since 2018 in premarket trading in New York following a disappointing second-quarter earnings report. The nation's largest discount retailer missed Wall Street's profit and sales expectations and slashed its full-year forecast. The retailer warned that its core customers "feel financially constrained".
  - Zero Hedge, 29 August 2024

• Shares of Dollar General crashed 23.5% to hit levels not seen since 2018 in premarket trading in New York following a disappointing second-quarter earnings report. The nation's largest discount retailer missed Wall Street's profit and sales expectations and slashed its full-year forecast. The retailer warned that its core customers "feel financially constrained".
  - Comcast's CNBC, 29 August 2024

• Credit scores without debt? Fintech cards baffle credit industry. So-called credit-builder cards let users deposit money to pay bills. The fintechs say this counts as borrowing. The companies that create credit scores and reports are not so sure.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 29 August 2024

• Yelp sues Google, alleging abuse of position to dominate local search. The lawsuit accuses Google of spending years impeding its ability to reach consumers through Google's general search platform.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 29 August 2024

• Xpeng, a rival of Tesla, is launching a $22,000 electric vehicle with self-driving features. Here is why that is a big problem for Tesla - it is half the price of Tesla's Model 3 in Zhōngguó.
  - Business Insider, 28 August 2024

• Elon Musk offers free cellular Starlink for emergencies worldwide as space race with legacy mobile carriers heats up
  - Zero Hedge, 28 August 2024

• Shares of Affirm (buy now pay later) surge 16% after better-than-expected results, strong guidance
  - Comcast's CNBC, 28 August 2024

• Public will get 'bug' for eating insects under Government-backed drive. Scientists hope to encourage increased consumption of meat alternatives amid fight to cut emissions from agriculture.
  - Telegraph, 28 August 2024

• Shares of Abercrombie & Fitch plunge 15% after CEO warns of "increasingly uncertain environment"
  - Comcast's CNBC, 28 August 2024

• Price war nibbles as embattled restaurants in struggle to stay afloat in Zhōngguó. Restaurant owners and operators in the biggest cities in Zhōngguó are facing challenges to remain profitable, with some lowering prices to tempt consumers.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 28 August 2024

• Walmart to offer logistics outside its own marketplace sales. Walmart's new services for third-party sellers take a page from the fulfillment operations of Amazon.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 28 August 2024

• The "buy-now-pay-later" service, Zip, based in Australia, is in talks with Apple to integrate its installment-payments product in the USA, and expects to announce partnerships with more large merchants in the USA in its current fiscal quarter, its CEO said.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 28 August 2024

• Tesla investor Ross Gerber says he can't get sell his used Tesla. Here is why Musk's cars are not retaining value like they used to. Price cuts and a dump from Hertz hastened the decline in Tesla's resale values. In mid-2022, a used Model Y could sell for as much as $70,000 - now it is worth less than $40,000 on the used market.
  - Business Insider, 27 August 2024

• Higher prices, lower turnover, more workers: the reality of California's $20 fast-food minimum wage. Since increasing the state's fast-food minimum wage from $15.50 to $20, California has added more fast-food jobs.
  - Salon, 27 August 2024

• "I feel that a recession is going to hit the USA" - as the Dallas, Richmond and Philadelphia Fed surveys decline
  - Zero Hedge, 27 August 2024

• Did the 'fatty bubble' pop? Eli Lilly discounts low-dose Zepbound vials by 50%. "This new option helps millions of adults with obesity access the medicine they need."
  - Zero Hedge, 27 August 2024

• Eli Lilly will now sell cheaper vials of Zepbound, presenting a direct challenge to telehealth companies that offer compounded versions of the medication.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 27 August 2024

• Conference Board survey signals weakest labor market since Covid lockdowns, snd purchase plans for homes, cars, and appliances all plunged.
  - Zero Hedge, 27 August 2024

• FTC to battle restaurants over "junk fees" added to customer checks. These fees are surcharges or fees added on to bills to cover anything from credit card processing, to taxes, to inflation to tips.
  - Zero Hedge, 27 August 2024

• If everything is so great, why are millions of people in the USA sleeping in their vehicles? The primary reason why so many people are living in their vehicles is because the cost of living has soared to unprecedented heights.
  - Zero Hedge, 27 August 2024

• Economic problems for the recreational vehicle industry, with the largest RV dealership offering 55% discounts
  - Zero Hedge, 27 August 2024

• One of the last remaining bright spots for consumption in Zhōngguó is rapidly fading, as the economic malaise in Zhōngguó takes a toll on demand for even the most accessible of goods. PDD's warning about consumers in Zhōngguó stunned investors because the company was long viewed as the main beneficiary of a "consumer downgrade" in buying in Zhōngguó -- its low-pricing strategy on Pinduoduo domestically and Temu abroad was intended to appeal to cost-conscious shoppers at a time of unprecedented economic volatility.
  - Bloomberg, 27 August 2024

• Apple rethinks its movie strategy after a string of movies that were financial failures
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 27 August 2024

• Why California is considering banning food dyes in schools. Concerns about their risks have been swirling for years. Here is what the science suggests. Question: do the synthetic dyes used to add vibrant colors to foods like certain breakfast cereals, candies, snacks and baked goods cause behavioral issues in children?
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 27 August 2024

• $324,000,000 - Uber is fined $324 million by a government regulator in the Netherlands over driver data protection. The authorities in the Netherlands said the ride-hailing company had violated European data protection laws when it sent sensitive information to the USA.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 27 August 2024

• Cryptocurrency 'brothers' are not flipping watches. That is an issue for luxury brands. It is becoming less lucrative to speculate on luxury watches, which has a knock-on effect in the brands' stores.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 27 August 2024

• The surprisingly subdued resurreciton of Abercrombie & Fitch. How the once-maligned retailer quietly became a closet staple -- and a stock giant -- once again.
  - Vox, 26 August 2024

• An uptick in sausage demand can offer the latest sign of consumers tightening their belts as they continue grappling with high prices, giving a worrying signal on the economy.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 26 August 2024

• The National Labor Relations Board in the USA has determined that a union's claims that Chipotle Mexican Grill illegally refused to give raises to workers at a Michigan restaurant after they became the first and only employees of the fast-casual chain to unionize have merit
  - Thomson's Reuters, 26 August 2024

• If grocery rivals merge , do workers suffer? As Kroger seeks to acquire Albertsons, federal regulators argue that the biggest supermarket combination in history will hurt not only consumers, but workers as well.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 26 August 2024

• There are a bazillion possible orders you can make at Starbucks, and it is killing the company as it disrupts revenues at the point-of-sale, as a-holes order multiple drinks with multiple combinations of ingredients. This plagues many retail chains - offering too many products to earn as much revenue as possible, even while the complexity decreases revenue.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 26 August 2024

• The prospects for consumer firms in Zhōngguó are looking increasingly bleak after PDD Holdings cautioned that its revenue growth will slow as competition continues to heat up.
  - Bloomberg, 26 August 2024

• Shares of PDD Holdings, the parent company of Pinduoduo and Temu, plummet over 25%, after a profit warning despite record revenue in the June quarter
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 26 August 2024

• Shares of PDD Holdings, the parent company of Pinduoduo and Temu, plummet over 25%, after a profit warning despite record revenue in the June quarter
  - Comcast's CNBC, 26 August 2024

• Airlines based in the USA and Europe where eager to return to Zhōngguó after years of Covid restrictions. But now, several Western airlines are slashing flights they brought back just a year ago, with aviation industry analysts citing lukewarm demand due to the slumping economy of Zhōngguó. The airlines are seeking more profitable opportunities elsewhere. And domestic travellers in Zhōngguó prefer national airlines with crews that speak their language.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 25 August 2024

• Why 7-Eleven is a national treasure in Nihon. Convenience stores are a part of the culture of Nihon, meaning that the foreign buyout bid for 7-Eleven, the largest chain, could be a hard sell in Nihon.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 24 August 2024

• Johnson & Johnson takes aim at hospital drug-discount program. The drugmaker told hospitals participating in the discounting program that they will have to pay full price upfront, then wait for rebates.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 24 August 2024

• Reddit battles Facebook and Google using ads based on topics - not your personal data
  - Bloomberg, 23 August 2024

• The latest retail sales report seems to have given Wall Street something to cheer about. We uncover a more troubling picture when we peel back the layers of this seemingly positive data. Seasonal adjustments, downward revisions, and rising delinquency rates on credit cards and auto loans suggest a more cautious view. The consumer -- the backbone of the USA economy -- may be in more trouble than the headline numbers indicate.
  - Zero Hedge, 23 August 2024

• The Justice Department has filed a civil lawsuit against the real estate company RealPage, alleging the software sold by RealPage uses landlord data to artificially inflate the price of rent across the United States by quelling competition in the market. Americans should not have to pay more in rent because a company has found a new way to scheme with landlords to break the law." The software, according to the complaint, uses non-public data provided by landlords to see what competitors are charging or offering to maximize the amount landlords can charge as well as other ways they can make more money from renters.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 23 August 2024

• The Justice Department has filed a civil lawsuit against the real estate company RealPage, alleging the software sold by RealPage uses landlord data to artificially inflate the price of rent across the United States by quelling competition in the market. Americans should not have to pay more in rent because a company has found a new way to scheme with landlords to break the law." The software, according to the complaint, uses non-public data provided by landlords to see what competitors are charging or offering to maximize the amount landlords can charge as well as other ways they can make more money from renters.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 23 August 2024

• The Justice Department has filed a civil lawsuit against the real estate company RealPage, alleging the software sold by RealPage uses landlord data to artificially inflate the price of rent across the United States by quelling competition in the market. Americans should not have to pay more in rent because a company has found a new way to scheme with landlords to break the law." The software, according to the complaint, uses non-public data provided by landlords to see what competitors are charging or offering to maximize the amount landlords can charge as well as other ways they can make more money from renters.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 23 August 2024

• Businesses owned by Trump are earning millions of dollars in bribes from Republican political campaigns - including his own. More grifting by Trump. Trump and associated political groups have funneled more than $28 million in campaign donations to his businesses -- helping convert the enthusiasm of his political supporters into personal profit.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 23 August 2024

• Here is how one retailer is finding profits in borrowed clothing. Urban Outfitters and its Nuuly brand are finding that automation is among the most important accessories when it comes to renting apparel.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 23 August 2024

• Fast-food restaurants fight to keep cusomters, as food and wage costs spike
  - Zero Hedge, 22 August 2024

• 25% of people in Britain consider turning off the heat in winter as power-bills soar. he concern follows plans by the national electricity market regulator to raise the cap on bills by another 9.2%, equal to 150 pounds or $195.
  - Zero Hedge, 22 August 2024

• Shares of Advance Auto Parts tumbled 15.8% through 10:35 a.m. ET after the company beat on sales but missed on earnings in its latest earnings release Thursday morning. Sales declined year over year, but only by a fraction of 1%. However, even tiny single-digit-percentage increases in cost of goods sold, and selling, general, and administrative expenses, however, were enough to turn those relatively flat sales into a dramatic 43% plunge in operating income.
  - The Motley Fool, 22 August 2024

• Congress asks federal regulators about "troubling" health insurance tactics. Lawmakers are focusing on MultiPlan, a company that has helped insurers cut payments while sometimes leaving patients with large bills. The firm and the insurers can collect higher fees when payments to medical providers are lower, but patients can be stuck with large bills, the investigation found. At the same time, employers can be charged high fees -- in some cases paying insurers and MultiPlan more for processing a claim than the doctor gets for treating the patient.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 22 August 2024

• Consumers are still bargain shopping, according to the latest sales data from Macy's and Target. Department store chains have struggled as Americans, squeezed by budget constraints, spend less time and money at their stores.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 22 August 2024

• Discount-hungry shoppers propel sales gains for Target and T.J. Maxx. Retailers say shoppers are resilient and hunting for deals.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 22 August 2024

• Luxury brands have a strict hierarchy. Burberry found out the hard way. The British label's seven-year push to attract wealthier shoppers has failed and left it with a threadbare share price.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 22 August 2024

• Don't trust Google for statistics on its customer service. They are probably lying. A Washington Post article argues that Google "makes you largely responsible for dodging the criminals who are hurting legitimate businesses and swindling people."
  - Jeff Bezos' Washington Post, 21 August 2024

• Microplastics, from plastics used in consumers goods to make more profits, are infiltrating brain tissue, studies show: "There is nowhere left untouched". Twenty-four brain samples collected in early 2024 measured on average about 0.5% plastic by weight.
  - The Guardian, 21 August 2024

• Shares of Macy's plunge more than 13% on a "sharp cut" to its full-year forecast. Macy's missed analysts' estimates for its quarterly revenue and lowered its outlook for sales for the full year, citing "more discriminating consumer and heightened promotional environment relative to its prior expectations".
  - Zero Hedge, 21 August 2024

• How Costco hacked the shopping psyche of people in the USA. More than 100 million people visit the retailer for their groceries -- and gasoline and TVs and gold bars and pet coffins -- but saving money may not be the only motive.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 21 August 2024

• The British have finally learned to love peanut butter. The land of Marmite and jam is finally embracing the favorite food spread of the USA, with dozens of varieties on supermarket shelves.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 21 August 2024

• Fewer teenagers want to drive. It is changing how they spend. Young drivers point to high prices for cars and insurance, combined with other viable options, from public transportation to rides from Mom and Dad.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 21 August 2024

• Lowe's reduces its full-year earnings predictions due to "challenging macroeconomic backdrop" hurting homeowners
  - Zero Hedge, 20 August 2024

• BurgerFi might go bankrupt. The chain expects to report restaurant sales declines of $1.8 million, or 4% year-over-year, last quarter. BurgerFi, which went public in 2020 following a merger with a SPAC, has struggled during the last few years as its net losses have persisted. In 2022, net losses topped $100 million, before improving to $30 million last year.
  - Zero Hedge, 20 August 2024

• Shein has sued Temu for copyright infringement as it fends off similar allegations from a host of brands and independent artists. In a civil complaint, the fast-fashion giant based in Zhōngguó accused Temu of routinely stealing its designs and alleged an employee stole confidential trade secrets. Shein alleged that Temu loses money on each sale it makes and uses trademark infringement to make up for the losses.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 20 August 2024

• "Travel is too expensive right NOW": Americans are spending less on travel or skipping it altogether.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 20 August 2024

• Your television set has become a digital billboard. And it is only getting worse. TV software is getting loaded with ads, changing what it means to own a TV set.
  - Condé Nast's Ars Technica, 19 August 2024

• What happened to the bull market and the notion that all artworks appreciate in value? The art market has been experiencing a downturn for the last few years, but the slump has been particularly acute for young artists. During the early pandemic, a speculative boom driven by a misplaced belief in quick returns set in, with collectors spending $712 million at auction in 2021 on works by artists born after 1974 -- a giant leap from the $259 million buyers spent just a year earlier. But from 2021 to 2023, the prices for these artists -- "ultracontemporary" is the industry term for them -- plummeted by almost a third. Experts say the downward trend is continuing; in the first half of 2024, sales of work by young artists fell 39 percent over last year.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 19 August 2024

• Unhappy customers reveal why Starbucks is no longer the king of coffee. Customers are tired of the rising costs, long wait times, and what some view as the company's bad political positions.
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 18 August 2024

• Over a million square feet of retail space is empty in vacant chain-drugstore locations across New York City - 'zombie' pharmacies. Here is why its so hard to fill these empty stores.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 18 August 2024

• Con Edison charges nearly 100% more for gas delivery to some customers in New York City than rival National Grid, according to Bronx Rep. Ritchie Torres, who said a new study by his office exposes the energy "hidden overcharges".
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 17 August 2024

• Chipotle is first in line on drive-throughs. Why its lanes are smarter and faster. Chipotle and other quick-service restaurants are adopting new technologies to usher in a new generation of drive-throughs.
  - Barron's, 17 August 2024

• Streaming is getting more expensive for consumers. Legacy media companies including Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount Global and Comcast entered the streaming market with a focus on gaining subscribers but are now looking for a return on their investments. Their strategies include cheaper, ad-supported models, platform bundles and a crackdown on password sharing, though price hikes have shown more immediate results toward profitability. That means consumers are facing higher subscription costs with increasingly frequent price hikes.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 16 August 2024

• Wall Street skeptical as Kroger promises to slash grocery prices at Albertson stores by $1 billion after it merges with Albertsons. Wall Street is increasingly skeptical the deal will win government approval as food inflation continues to roil US politics.
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 16 August 2024

• Canceling memberships is a pain for consumers. New rules from the Biden administration aim to make it easier. A new set of rules could also require businesses to make it easier to reach customer-service agents.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 16 August 2024

• Stocks rise for sixth day as retail sales ease concerns about economy
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 16 August 2024

• Walmart's latest earnings and retail sales data in July show consumers are not quitting. Walmart posted strong sales and higher profit in its latest quarter, and the latest government readout on retail spending in the USA showed the strongest gain since January 2023.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 16 August 2024

• Alibaba delivered weaker-than-expected profit and revenue in the latest quarter amid fierce domestic competition in Zhōngguó.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 16 August 2024

• E-commerce giant JD.com, based in Zhōngguó, reported that its second quarter net profit rose 92%, while revenue grew slightly amid fierce competition from Alibaba Group and PDD Holdings
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 16 August 2024

• A gradual decline in inflation in the USA raises new political challenges for Trump, as he is relying on attacks on the economics of Biden to get re-elected
  - Apollo Global's Yahoo Finance, 15 August 2024

• Retail sales in the USA "beat" predictions thanks to yet another massive downward revision of the previous month's data (making it easier for this month's M-t-M ratio to increase to depict a health economy). According to one report, two-thirds of the increase in retail sales was due to autos -- wihle dealers are slashing prices?
  - Zero Hedge, 15 August 2024

• 10-year Treasury yield tops 3.9% after strong retail sales quiet concern about a slowdown
  - Comcast's CNBC, 15 August 2024

• Retail sales surpassed Wall Street's estimates in July, helping ease concerns of a significant slowdown in the US economy. Retail sales rose 1% in July, wihle economists had expected a 0.4% increase in spending.
  - Apollo Global's Yahoo Finance, 15 August 2024

• Consumer spending jumped in July as retail sales were up 1%, much better than predicted
  - Comcast's CNBC, 15 August 2024

• Walmart beats earnings, lifts outlook as consumers trade down to the 'big box' retailer
  - Zero Hedge, 15 August 2024

• Medicare to save $6 billion in 2026 from the first ever Part D drug pricing negotiations. The new prices will save seniors $1.5 billion in out-of-pocket costs. The power to negotiate was part of the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022. The largest industry lobbying firm, PhRMA, which is suing the government over the negotiation process, said the IRA did not do enough to protect patients from unintended consequences.
  - Apollo Global's Yahoo Finance, 15 August 2024

• Medicare to save $6 billion in 2026 from the first ever Part D drug pricing negotiations. The new prices will save seniors $1.5 billion in out-of-pocket costs. The power to negotiate was part of the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022. The largest industry lobbying firm, PhRMA, which is suing the government over the negotiation process, said the IRA did not do enough to protect patients from unintended consequences.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 15 August 2024

• $1,800,000+ - Giuseppe Mirenda, a Utah restauranteur and part-owner of the Sicilia Restaurant Management company, has been sentenced to a year in prison after defrauding the USA government's COVID-19 Relief program of over $1.8 million
  - Disney's ABC News, 15 August 2024

• Stretched consumers, selective grocers and more store brands are squeezing already competitive shelf space in stores and supermarkets.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 15 August 2024

• Subway has called a hasty meeting with franchisees of its 19,000 North American sandwich shops as they grapple with faltering sales and profits
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 14 August 2024

• Shein,Temu and AliExpress products made in Zhōngguó found to contain high levels of toxic chemicals. Authorities in South Korea found that some items of Shein clothing contained carcinogenic substances hundreds of times over the legal limit.
  - Le Monde, 14 August 2024

• Wizz Air, based in Hungary, launches a $550 "all you can fly" annual subscription pass, which allows passengers to book flights to any of the carrier's international destinations -- including Athens, Greece, Madrid and Paris -- up to three days before departure. It comes as Wizz Air has seen its profits deteriorate and customer satisfaction wane amid wider pressure on the sector following the post-pandemic travel boom. Earlier this month, the Hungarian airline reported a 44% drop in its first-quarter operating profit. Meantime, a customer satisfaction rating of 44% put it at the bottom of a February ranking of short-haul European carriers.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 14 August 2024

• A construction boom in the USA is sending rents lower and creating perks for renters. The median asking rent prices for all bedroom counts declined in July, the first that that has occurred since 2020. The median asking rent price for a studio or one-bedroom apartment fell 0.1% to $1,498 a month; two-bedroom apartments decreased 0.3% to $1,730; and units with three bedrooms or more, were down 2.0% to $2,010.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 14 August 2024

• Core consumer prices hit new record high - up for 50th straight month. It is only the decline in prices of consumer goods that allows the overall CPI to be a bit lower this last month (declining from 3.0% to 2.9%). So, will the Fed really cut rates as rent inflation inflects higher for the first time since 2023?
  - Zero Hedge, 14 August 2024

• Annual inflation rate slows to 2.9% in July, lowest since 2021. The consumer price index, a broad-based measure of prices for goods and services, increased 0.2% for the month, putting the 12-month inflation rate at 2.9%.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 14 August 2024

• Annual inflation rate slows to 2.9% in July, lowest since 2021. The consumer price index, a broad-based measure of prices for goods and services, increased 0.2% for the month, putting the 12-month inflation rate at 2.9%.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 14 August 2024

• The cancer causing chemical benzene has been found in generic store-brand versions of Mucinex cold medicine, according to a new report by Bloomberg. Bloomberg writes that despite international warnings, regulators in the USA have permitted the use of benzene in drugs for decades. The FDA announced plans to phase out benzene by 2025, but the deadline was extended to 2026 after pushback from the industry. Swapping benzene-containing carbomers is costly and time-consuming due to the need for additional testing and FDA approval. Prices for safer carbomers are higher, with Bloomberg noting a $4 price difference on Amazon between benzene-made and benzene-free versions.
  - Zero Hedge, 14 August 2024

• A hot summer threatens efficacy of mail-order medications. The temperatures inside delivery trucks (150 Fahrenheit) can reach twice the recommended threshold (68 to 77), but federal rules on drug storage conditions do not apply to the booming world of mail-order delivery, which the FDA says is regulated by the states.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 14 August 2024

• Google debuts AI-powered phones in latest attempt to best Apple's iPhone. The internet giant unveiled the next generation of Pixel phones, headphones and watches to stand out in a hardware market that has mostly ignored it.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 14 August 2024

• A federal regulator signaled it would take a tougher stance with seller-financed home sales on Tuesday, saying that they were subject to many of the same consumer protections as a home bought with a more traditional mortgage. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released an advisory opinion that put sellers on notice that it would not tolerate the predatory practices that have come to dominate the so-called contract for deed market. Contract for deeds are multiyear installment contracts in which the seller retains the title to a home until the buyer makes a final payment. These risky deals often have above-market interest rates and put the burden of repairs on the would-be buyer.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 14 August 2024

• The new business tactic of hospitals: treating patients in their homes. Institutions say it is safe and opens hospital beds, but policymakers fear it is too pricey and lacks strict standards.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 14 August 2024

• Mars is near to closing a $30 billion deal to acquire Kellanova, the manufacturer of Cheez-It and Eggo waffles
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 14 August 2024

• The largest telephone companies in Canada, led by BCE and Telus, must provide smaller rivals with wholesale access to their fiber-optic networks in a bid to foster affordable access to high-quality internet services.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 14 August 2024

• The most innovative marijuana companies in California are giving up on the legal market, including giving up their licenses, and moving to the hemp industry. The hemp industry has lower taxes, cheaper regulations and the ability to sell in 30 states across the country instead of just in California.
  - SF Gate, 13 August 2024

• Refueling a hydrogen car in California is so annoying that drivers are suing Toyota
  - Los Angeles Times, 13 August 2024

• Gemini is replacing Google Assistant on Pixel phones, and it is a 'train wreck'. Google is throwing out a perfectly good voice assistant for one that frequently fails at basic tasks.
  - Fast Company, 13 August 2024

• Young people in Zhōngguó are not spending on romance. That is a problem for the economy of Zhōngguó. Young people, who used to be big spenders during the Qixi Festival (their Valentine's Day), are struggling to find jobs.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 13 August 2024

• Avon Products, the US-based "non-operational" holding company, is seeking Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection "to address its debt and legacy talc liabilities". Avon, once valued at around $21 billion, ceased selling products in the US in 2016 when the parent company divested its North American-based business. The company remains active in international markets.
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 13 August 2024

• Home Depot, the largest home improvement retailer in the USA, beat second-quarter earnings and sales expectations but lowered its comparable sales and profit forecasts for the year as higher interest rates "put pressure on demand"
  - Zero Hedge, 13 August 2024

• Shares of Starbucks rise over 20%, and shares of Chipotle fall over 10%, afer Starbuck's fires its CEO and hires/steals the CEO of Chipotle
  - Comcast's CNBC, 13 August 2024

• Child care, rent, insurance: where inflation hits hardest now. Costs for child care, rent and car insurance are up. Inflation might be easing, but it does not feel that way.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 13 August 2024

• AI's demand for electricity is about to increase consumer bill's for electricity, but who will be responsible for this theft? High prices are a windfall for power plant owners but are starting to raise difficult questions, as the 'poor' pay more for electricity .
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 13 August 2024

• AI's growing power demands could trigger a global energy crisis
  - The Street, 13 August 2024

• With McDonald's and Burger King already offering $5 meal deals, it was inevitable that Yum! Brands' KFC would introduce its own $5 deal, signaling that the value wars in the fast food indusry are intensifying.
  - Zero Hedge, 12 August 2024

• The six economic one-offs that drove growth and pulled the global economy out of bubble-bust recessions for the past 30 years have all reversed or dissipated. They are: 1) industrialization in Zhōngguó, 2) growth-positive demographics, 3) low interest rates, 4) low debt levels, 5) low inflation, and 6) technology productivity boom.
  - Zero Hedge, 12 August 2024

• Dopamine-trafficker Apple says Patreon must switch to its billing system or risk removal from App Store. Apple now allows developers to promote their subscriptions via links to a website, but with a 27% commission instead of the standard 30%, or 12% instead of 15% for auto-renewing subscriptions in year two.
  - TechCrunch, 12 August 2024

• Credit-card and auto-loan delinquencies surged in the second quarter
  - Zero Hedge, 12 August 2024

• "Travel trends deteriorating", as consumer downtown worsens. "Consumers have less disposable income available and less capacity to do anything, including travel."
  - Zero Hedge, 12 August 2024

• It is one of the "biggest data breaches ever" and you might be exposed as a result. Background check company Jerico Pictures, which does business under the name National Public Data was breached back hackers earlier this year, a new lawsuit alleges. The suit says that as a result, 2.9 billion people have had confidential data exposed and stolen, according to a new report from Mashable. The worst part is that those impacted by this cyberattack may be unaware of their involvement since National Public Data allegedly collects data from non-public sources without consent.
  - Zero Hedge, 12 August 2024

• Investors borrowed like crazy during the stock market rally. Now they are paying the price. Behind the market tumult of the past month: the rapid unwind of several popular trades and the heavy use of leverage.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 12 August 2024

• San Francisco is sinking in bad hotel debt. The sharp drop-off in visitors since before the pandemic is squeezing the city's hospitality sector.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 12 August 2024

• Locking up merchandise at drugstores and retailers, to deter shoplifting (which is only partially successful), is pushing shoppers online
  - Axios, 11 August 2024

• Starbucks loses its 'perk' in Zhōngguó as drinkers flee for cheaper brews. "Frankly, I do not think Starbucks can gain a lot of traction in the small towns and villages of Zhōngguó.", an analyst says after the revenues for Starbucks declines.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 11 August 2024

• We are entering an AI price-fixing dystopia. Algorithmic collusion appears to be spreading to more and more industries. And existing laws may not be equipped to stop it. [KM: but the rich AI companies must get richer]
  - The Atlantic, 10 August 2024

• A study published in the Journal of "Hospitality Marketing & Management" in June found that describing a product as using the term "AI" lowers the intention of a customer to buy the product. Consumers have trust issues with AI, and don't understand the technology.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 10 August 2024

• Politicians in the USA act to restrict a trade provision, de minimis - few restrictions/taxes on shipments worth less than $800, favored by the e-commerce giants of Zhōngguó. A bipartisan group of USA lawmakers have proposed a new law to restrict a trade provision, favored by retailers such as Temu and Shein, that lets goods flow in from Zhōngguó with little scrutiny and no taxes/duties.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 10 August 2024

• Wall Street is addicted-to/fixated-on faster interest rate reductions. Won't happen. The fundamental economic outlook has not changed, and neither has the inflation outlook.
  - Barron's, 10 August 2024

• The economy is fine for now, and the stock market will be, too, says Torsten Sløk. Despite the turbulence of this past week, the chief economist of Apollo Global argues that there is little need for big interest rate reductions.
  - Barron's, 10 August 2024

• It is a stock market problem, not an economic problem. Do not expect the Federal Reserve to rescue the stock market.
  - Barron's, 10 August 2024

• Theme park inflation is a win for cruise lines
  - Barron's, 10 August 2024

• Cadbury Australia is the latest confectionery company to warn about rising candy bar prices due to high cocoa prices. It said Freddo Frogs and Caramello Koalas prices will now double. "Due to the record global price of cocoa and increased input costs, we have adjusted the RRP from $1 to $2, the first price change in over a decade."
  - Zero Hedge, 09 August 2024

• Inflation in Zhōngguó unexpectedly hits five month high driven by soaring pork prices, even as core inflation continue to decline, raising concerns over persistent deflation in the second largest economy in the world
  - Zero Hedge, 09 August 2024

• Customers did not stop spending. Companies stopped serving. Many Americans are still eager to spend, they are just not willing to pay Texas Roadhouse prices on McDondald'ss food that they summon by tapping buttons on a kiosk and eat in their car. Instead, they are going to Texas Roadhouse, where they can sit down and have some service with their meal. Or they are swinging through Chipotle, which saw sales shoot up 11% last quarter at stores open at least a year. Executives don't want to admit publicly that their customers simply no longer like their products, which have become more expensive with virtually no added value in the past few years.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 09 August 2024

• Supplying Saks was a soapmaker's dream, until he got a $74 check. Small vendors complain retailer owes months-old debts or pays fractions of their invoices.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 09 August 2024

• Heat waves and droughts are a bonanza for sugary junk food companies. It is hard to find drinking water in La Guajira, an arid peninsula in northern Colombia, where drought and overuse are sucking wells and small reservoirs dry. But it is easy to find soda for sale. In 2017, Postobon, the largest soda company in Colombia, adopting drug trafficking tactics, gave free sugary fruit drinks to thousands of young people in La Guajira under the guise of ending malnutrition. As of 2020, children there still had a malnutrition mortality rate that was six times the national average. Since at least the early 2000s, from Bharat to Mexico to South Africa, Coca-Cola has been accused of extracting water from drought-prone areas. The company claims it returns 94 percent of the water it uses to nature, but the process is still incredibly water-intensive: One 2010 paper estimated that it takes hundreds of liters of water to produce just a liter of a standard carbonated, sugary beverage.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 08 August 2024

• Restaurant Brands International, the owner of Burger King, Tim Hortons, Popeyes, and Firehouse Subs, posted second-quarter earnings that were weaker than expected by the average Wall Street analyst. This is more evidence that the consumer downturn theme is gaining momentum as low/mid-tier consumers pull back on spending amid elevated inflation and high interest rates.
  - Zero Hedge, 08 August 2024

• Monster Beverage sees worst growth since 2020 amid energy drink downturn. "US energy-drink sales are under pressure from a more price-conscious consumer."
  - Zero Hedge, 08 August 2024

• Under Armour sales fall 14% after retailer cuts discounts and promotions in bid to be more premium
  - Comcast's CNBC, 08 August 2024

• Recession risks rise as consumers turn cautious. Consumer spending has powered the economic recovery from the pandemic shock. Now wallets are thinner, and some businesses are feeling the difference.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 08 August 2024

• Credit card debt posts biggest drop in June, of $1.7 billion, since Covid crash as interest rates hit record high. To get a sense just how rare it is to get a negative credit card debt monthly change, consider that in the six years prior to the covid crash, the US had recorded just 5 months of negative prints, and all tended to precede major drawdowns in the economy.
  - Zero Hedge, 07 August 2024

• Shares of Airbnb plunge 15% on slowing demand in the USA as the consumer downturn worsens
  - Zero Hedge, 07 August 2024

• Refresco, a supplier of Prime, a range of energy drinks cofounded by Logan Paul -- a controversial YouTuber known for posting in Japan's "Suicide Forest" and being accused of promoting a series of crypto scams -- is suing the beverage company, saying it cut ties when demand for the once red-hot drink cratered and owes at least $67.7 million.
  - Business Insider, 07 August 2024

• I have reviewed restaurants for 12 years. They have changed, and not for the better. Pete Wells reflects on a dining world of touch screens and reservation apps, where it is getting hard to find the human touch [KM: the human touch that eats into profits].
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 07 August 2024

• Dolce & Gabbana idiotically launch a perfume for dogs. Veterinarians think it is a horrible idea, because dogs rely heavily on smell to navigate the world. Dogs rely heavily on smell to navigate the world, which is filled with subtle odor cues from other dogs, humans, food and potential dangers. Applying strong scents can mask these important signals, potentially causing social issues and confusion among dogs. Changing a dog's scent can also cause other dogs to misidentify it, which could lead to aggression or social rejection.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 07 August 2024

• Why people in California have some of the highest power bills in the USA. Utilities are investing billions to upgrade infrastructure and build out green energy, passing budget-breaking costs to households.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 07 August 2024

• Residents of California face the second-highest average electricity bills in the USA, driven by investments in wildfire mitigation, grid upgrades, and renewable energy integration. The surge in electricity costs has left nearly 1 in 5 California households behind on their energy bills.
  - OilPrice.com, 07 August 2024

• 7 in 10 people in the USA say that extreme heat is impacting their electricity bills, even while many of these Americans vote for politicians who are lobbied[/bribed to deny the existence of global heating
  - The Hill, 07 August 2024

• Spirit is one of three budget airlines in the USA that are making fundamental changes to their business models as they struggle to boost revenue. Those reinventions have longtime fans worried, especially those on a budget, asking: "What about us?" Is the nickel-and-dime approach to air travel on its way to extinction?
  - Jeff Bezos' Washington Post, 07 August 2024

• Left behind in the retail real-estate comeback: department stores. Department stores are bleeding customers, and landlords no longer view them as magnets for shoppers.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 07 August 2024

• CVS Health slashed its full-year profit outlook and announced a new plan to cut $2 billion in costs over several years as higher medical costs continue to squeeze the company and the broader insurance industry in the USA.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 07 August 2024

• My insurance company spied on my house with a drone. Then the real nightmare began, after they cancelled my home insurnance policy. When homeowners are threatened with cancellation, they pick up the bill for repairs, even if repairs are unnecessary. If the Boston homeowner throws out a slate roof with 70 years of life left in it, the insurance company never knows it was wrong to remove it. It never updates the model to be less aggressive for similar homes.
  - Business Insider, 07 August 2024

• Homeowners increasingly tap home equity lines as savings rate plummets
  - Zero Hedge, 06 August 2024

• Consumer giants from Starbucks to General Mills have one big sales problem: Zhōngguó. Starbucks reported same-store sales in Zhōngguó dropped by 14% in the quarter ended June 30, far steeper than the 2% decline in the USA. "Consumer sentiment in Zhōngguó is quite weak."
  - Comcast's CNBC, 06 August 2024

• Collectively, Americans owe a record $1.14 trillion on their credit cards, according to a new report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. As credit card debt mounts, young adults, who are likely renters with less of a financial cushion than their elders, are increasingly falling behind.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 06 August 2024

• Elon Musk's social media platform Twitter/X has sued a group of advertisers, alleging that a "massive advertiser boycott" deprived the company of billions of dollars in revenue and violated antitrust laws. Twitter/X filed the lawsuit Tuesday in a federal court in Texas against the World Federation of Advertisers and member companies Unilever, Mars, CVS Health and Orsted. It accused the advertising group's initiative, called the Global Alliance for Responsible Media, of helping to coordinate a pause in advertising after Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion in late 2022 and overhauled its staff and policies.
  - Associated Press, 06 August 2024

• The one-hour nurse visits that let insurers steal collect $15 billion from Medicare
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 06 August 2024

• Shares of Google decline, after a federal judge ruled Monday that Google's payments to make its search engine the default on smartphone web browsers violates US antitrust law. Judge Amit Mehta in Washington said that Google's $26 billion in payments effectively blocked any other competitor from succeeding in the market.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 05 August 2024

• Shares of Google decline, after a federal judge ruled Monday that Google's payments to make its search engine the default on smartphone web browsers violates US antitrust law. Judge Amit Mehta in Washington said that Google's $26 billion in payments effectively blocked any other competitor from succeeding in the market.
  - Zero Hedge, 05 August 2024

• Why Starbucks is losing customers. Starbucks cafes have long been a 'thrid place' for customers to work and socialize outside of their home or office. But experts say the company is now less experiential than it used to be. This has led to increased competition, with value players like McDonald's and quick-service restaurants vying for a more price-conscious customer.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 05 August 2024

• Fewer burgers, botox and Birkins: reduced spending by consumers in Zhōngguó and the USA broadly hurts corporate earnings. From McDonald's to Mercedes-Benz, executives are saying that many consumers in Zhōngguó and the USA are pulling back on spending, but for different reasons.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 05 August 2024

• The new formula for deodorant sales: move beyond the armpit. Brands are promoting whole-body deodorant with risqué ads and supermarket displays to drive sales growth.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 05 August 2024

• Some 'charger hogs' are ruining the electric vehicle experience. EV fast chargers are not generally designed to completely fill an EV's batteries, so the chargers slow down once the batter is 80% full. But some people wait until their batteries are charged over 90%, which takes a long time, and creates long lines at the chargers.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 05 August 2024

• Hotels in New York City do not need licenses. Should they? New York's hundreds of hotels are subject to less regulatory scrutiny than many other businesses. The industry is resisting City Council efforts to change that.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 04 August 2024

• Residents of Maryland, and in surrounding states, should prepare for rising power bills due to capacity constraints on the regional power grid and the increasing peak load from new AI data centers. This combination creates a perfect storm of continued utility bill inflation, which will only pressure cash-strapped households in the years ahead, .
  - Zero Hedge, 03 August 2024

• ~$6,000,000,000 - A Tax Court judge in the USA has ruled that Coca-Cola owes about $2.7 billion, or about $6 billion including interest, in a long-running dispute with the Internal Revenue Service.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 03 August 2024

• ~$6,000,000,000 - A Tax Court judge in the USA has ruled that Coca-Cola owes about $2.7 billion, or about $6 billion including interest, in a long-running dispute with the Internal Revenue Service.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 03 August 2024

• Merck created the biggest drug in the world, an immunotherapy drug that has revolutionized how doctors treat cancer. Now it has to replace it. Keytruda will generate $25 billion in sales for Merck this year, about 40% of its total revenue. But its patent is will expire in 2028, leaving Merck with a gaping hole to fill -- and a stock price that could be at risk. Generic competition will happen just as Keytruda becomes eligible for a government program that could allow Medicare to pay reduced prices for the medicine beginning in 2028. That could all cause a dramatic revenue drop for Merck as the decade comes to a close.
  - Barron's, 03 August 2024

• Inflation has always been tough to measure. A history of the controversial CPI. Economists, politicians, and opinion writers have been criticizing how the government calculates inflation ever since the consumer price index was introduced in 1921.
  - Barron's, 03 August 2024

• Costco Wholesale is a prime candidate for time arbitrage. The stock is down 8.4% since July 10, as investors have grown concerned that consumer spending is coming under pressure. Yet Costco's long-term merits should appeal to anyone who is interested in a company with pricing power and the potential to use technology to increase e-commerce sales, as Walmart and Amazon.com have done.
  - Barron's, 03 August 2024

• How Whole Foods (now owned by Amazon) revolutionized the way that people eat in the USA
  - Barron's, 03 August 2024

• The market for cattle and beef in the USA is troubled by risks of recession, as cash-strapped consumers spend less on meat
  - Zero Hedge, 02 August 2024

• A director of the central bank of Zhōngguó calls for direct money transfers to households, arguing that authorities should change their strategy of "focusing on investment and neglecting consumption", shift policy preference from investment to consumption, set a hard CPI target of 2-3%, adopt fiscal measures to support consumption (such as allowing migrant workers to settle in cities, something which would spark a new Chinese housing bubble overnight) and last but not least, directly send money to households.
  - Zero Hedge, 02 August 2024

• Prices for cocoa decline to five-month lows on fears of demand destruction from Hershey. US chocolate maker Hershey slashed its sales and earnings outlook on Thursday, citing higher cocoa prices that have resulted in demand destruction among cash-strapped consumers. This development spooked cocoa futures, sliding to a five-month low at the end of the week. Cocoa futures in New York fell as much as 6% to $6,574 a ton, hitting their lowest level since early March following the dismal earnings report from Hershey. Prices, which peaked at $12,000 a ton in mid-April, have nearly halved and have been oscillating within a triangle formation ever since.
  - Zero Hedge, 02 August 2024

• Oxxo, the largest convenience store chain in Mexico owned by FEMSA, said Friday it will reopen 191 stores in the border city of Nuevo Laredo that it had closed last week because of drug cartel threats.
  - Associated Press, 02 August 2024

• Data shows that 1.6 million people in the USA will have their car repossessed by the bank before the end of the year, a slight increase from the 1.5 million autos repossessed in 2023 and a drastic upturn from the 1.1 million in 2021.
  - Zero Hedge, 02 August 2024

• The financial strain on families in the USA means they are spending less, hurting sales and incomes at retailers
  - Zero Hedge, 02 August 2024

• Global investor appetite for the most expensive multi-strategy hedge funds has fallen. Goldman Sachs' data from a survey of more than 300 investors like family offices, sovereign wealth funds and pension schemes showed that just 15% were still willing to pay for so-called pass-through fees, where the hedge fund passes on its costs.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 02 August 2024

• Wayfair executives warn of a slowdown in the sales of home goods that correlates with the 2008 global financial crisis
  - Zero Hedge, 02 August 2024

• After years of raising prices , food companies hit the limits of consumer spending. Companies are dangling $5 burger meals and flakier biscuits to encourage consumer spending while trying to keep profits steady.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 02 August 2024

• Apple on Thursday announced that its third-quarter financials beat Wall Street expectations, as its overall revenue ticked up 5%. iPad, which had languished in recent years, saw the biggest category increase for the quarter, up from $5.8 billion to $7.2 billion year-over-year. Tablet sales, fueled by the line's largest refresh in years, helped counter slowed iPhone revenue, which dropped from $39.7 billion to $39.3 billion year-on-year.
  - TechCrunch, 01 August 2024

• Shares of Hershey's drop 1% (after being up 6% year-to-date) after the company slashed its sales and earnings outlook for the year as shoppers continue to reduce purchases of higher priced chocolates and candies
  - Zero Hedge, 01 August 2024

• Online shopping site Temu has faced tough questions before about its business practices. Now it has a new problem: a backlash from independent merchants based in Zhōngguó who sell their products on the wildly popular rival to Amazon. Hundreds of them staged a demonstration this week at an office affiliated with Temu in the southern city of Guangzhou. They were protesting what they called "unjust" fines levied by the company or withheld payment on goods already sold, among other complaints.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 01 August 2024

• Suppliers said that many merchants on Temu, the online shopping platform, have shut down factories and incurred debts after it started imposing hefty penalties over what was deemed to be after-sales issues
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 01 August 2024

• The CEO of Wayfair likes the slowdown in consumer spending on products for the home to conditions during the 2008 financial crisis. The category has been impacted by a stagnant housing market but could see a resurgence when the Federal Reserve cuts interest rates. Wayfair's sales declined in the second quarter of 2024.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 01 August 2024

• Badcock Home Furniture & More, a 20-year-old furniture chain which has stores throughout the South, will shutter all 380 stores after its parent company filed for bankruptcy -- the latest brick-and-mortar business to buckle from high overhead costs and massive debt.
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 01 August 2024

• Tourists are flocking to Nihon to scoop up high-end clothes and handbags at a discount thanks to the weak value of the yen. Luxury goods companies such as Louis Vuitton parent LVMH would rather the tourists stayed at home and shopped where the prices are higher. Global luxury brands aren't cheering, because their goods, ranging from designer sneakers to whisky, now tend to be cheaper in dollar terms in Japan than elsewhere, denting profits.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 31 July 2024

• It is a summer for single-digit dollar deals as IHOP and Denny's join other big-name food chains in offering value menu options. The two companies are the latest restaurants trying to appeal to consumers being more selective with their dollars in the wake of price increases.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 31 July 2024

• Millions of sports fans and concertgoers are being duped by a deceptive pricing scheme at StubHub that hides the true cost of tickets until the very last moment, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday by Washington, DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb. "StubHub uses a classic bait-and-switch scheme", the lawsuit said, describing what is known as 'drip pricing' where only part of the product's price is advertised initially.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 31 July 2024

• Why orange juice futures hit records and prices may even go higher. Orange production in the USA has plummeted as the industry faces volatile threats from extreme weather events, an incurable disease and economic pressures.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 31 July 2024

• Amazon pushes fast delivery into rural areas in challenge to the USA Post Office. Amazon is expanding into remote areas after years of fine-tuning its delivery systems in more dense cities.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 31 July 2024

• Starbucks asks for time with a turnaround as retail sales slip. The world's largest coffee chain said same-store sales in the USA declined 2% for its June quarter, the second consecutive decline in the key metric since Covid-19 business disruptions in 2020.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 31 July 2024

• Prada reported an increase in net revenue for the first half of the year, despite a more challenging environment for a luxury sector that is grappling with a slowdown in sales growth and lower demand in Zhōngguó.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 31 July 2024

• $447,000,000 - Spain fines Booking.com $447 million over competition concerns, ruling that since at least early 2019, Booking.com set several unfair conditions that have not been the same for all hotels in Spain using the platform for their bookings.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 31 July 2024

• Minimum-wage increase takes toll on fast-food restaurants in California, survey finds. "Now after just a few months, the policy has been a disaster, killing jobs and shuttering restaurants."
  - Zero Hedge, 30 July 2024

• Shares of Diageo decline 5% on a full-year sales decline, but Guiness is a bright spot
  - Zero Hedge, 30 July 2024

• It is not just Big Macs that consumers cannot afford. Consumers are also buying less Johnnie Walker whisky and Casamigos tequila.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 30 July 2024

• Many top porn stars on OnlyFans hire 'chatters' to impersonate them online and entice subscribers into splurging on explicit content. These impostors are not formally affiliated with OnlyFans but have brought it riches -- and new legal threats. Some subscribers say the deception amounts to retail fraud.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 30 July 2024

• Nihon wanted higher inflation. It is here, and the inflation hurts. The economy of Nihon is faltering after a rise in prices led consumers to cut back on spending.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 30 July 2024

• The argument against low interest rates. The dollar is strong, inflation is down, and the average American is not requesting cheap money.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 30 July 2024

• The USA is running out of generic drugmakers. Another one, USAntibiotics, is on the brink. The last maker of amoxicillin in the USA, a vitally important medicine, was once a powerhouse of domestic antibiotic manufacturing. Now it is not even close to breaking even financially.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 30 July 2024

• "Deadpool and Wolverine" isn't just a bad movie - it is worsening the definition of what a 'movie' is. It is a film that is about absolutely nothing -- a film with no discernable purpose or artistic ambitions, beyond the perpetuation of its own corporate myth for Disney's Marvel. Over the past two decades, Marvel has re-shaped Hollywood in its own image, whittling away some of the things that made filmmaking unique as an art form and shifting it towards something more televisual and serialised. The problem with the movie isn't that it tells its story badly -- it is that it has no interest in telling a story at all. The movie's only purpose is the maintenance and consolidation of Marvel's brand, in its viability as both product and advertisement, a snake eating its own tail.
  - The Independent, 29 July 2024

• Casting Robert Downey Jr. as 'Doctor Doom' proves Disney's Marvel is running on fumes. One Marvel fan offers his take on why this cynical casting decision is evident that things are really bad over at Marvel and proof that they have given up entirely.
  - The Daily Beast, 29 July 2024

• Global sales at McDonald's are in decline, down 1% in the USA, because people can't afford fast-food with their current salaries
  - CBS News, 29 July 2024

• Global sales at McDonald's are in decline, down 1% in the USA, because people can't afford fast-food with their current salaries
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 29 July 2024

• Big Mac demand drops at McDonald's as same-store sales decline for first time since 2020
  - Zero Hedge, 29 July 2024

• Many resourceful house-hunters are doing an end-run around high mortgage rates -- by seeking out sellers who have assumable, low-rate mortgages. Generally speaking, the only assumable loans are those backed by a federal agency such as the Veterans Affairs Department (VA) or the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). By "backed", we mean loans where the government -- acting well beyond the bounds of the Constitution -- guarantees lenders they will be made whole if the borrower defaults. Roughly 80% of outstanding VA mortgages have a sub-5% rate. Plenty are sub-3%.
  - Zero Hedge, 29 July 2024

• Shares of Heineken fall 8% after a miss on first-half profit earnings
  - Zero Hedge, 29 July 2024

• Conn's, a 134-year-old American furniture chain has filed for bankruptcy and is shuttering all of its 553 stores after experiencing a slowdown in recent years that affected both sales and liquidity. Conn's voluntary bankruptcy petition states that it has between 25,001 and 50,000 creditors, with assets and liabilities in the range of $1 billion to $10 billion.
  - Zero Hedge, 27 July 2024

• Why Europe has become an epicenter for anti-tourism protests this summer. At the center of the protests lies the growing issue of rising rents and house prices, which has made home ownership almost impossible for some residents.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 27 July 2024

• Bats, the interesting flying mammals had survival problems. Now, add taxidermy listings on Etsy and eBay. Online sales to idiots appear to be compounding threats from climate change and habitat loss, according to new research.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 27 July 2024

• How the government is slowing destroying the wine industry, as consumers drink less wine. Due to the three-tier system that nearly every state subjects alcohol to, wholesalers or distributors act as government-mandated middlemen connecting alcohol producers to retail stores. The purported rationale for the three-tier system is to prevent Big Alcohol monopolies from forming at the producer level of the supply chain. And yet, it has essentially done the opposite. For decades there were multiple distributors available for almost every winery. Today, there are fewer than 1,000 distributors for over 8,000 American wineries -- and out of those distributors, it is actually just three goliath distributors that control up to 67 percent of all the U.S. wine sales (in some states this climbs to over 90 percent). This begets a form of government-sponsored socialist collusion, in which the largest distributors disproportionately focus most of their energy on servicing the accounts from the largest wineries. Many smaller and medium-sized wineries are often unable to find distributors who will carry their products. In turn, their wines never even make it to store shelves, severing them from their main market-access channel entirely. When less wine is being produced or sold, fewer grapes are needed -- hence the growing epidemic of vineyard desecrations.
  - Reason, 27 July 2024

• Motels are having a new moment. What is old is new again, and the humble roadside motel that an older generation might dismiss as outmoded is appealing to a new group of younger fans attracted to hit-the-road adventures.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 27 July 2024

• In Nihon, turning the tables on rude customers. Nihon is famous for its hospitality. But businesses have had enough of people screaming at workers or tormenting them on social media.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 27 July 2024

• JPMorgan Chase the largest credit card issuer in the USA, will prevent customers from using its credit cards to repay increasingly "buy now, pay later" installment loans. Financial regulators and consumer advocates frown upon using credit cards to pay off installment loans because of the risk that consumers will dig themselves further into debt.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 27 July 2024

• Hotel owners and union clash over proposal to regulate nonunion hotels. The New York union says the measure would enhance safety, while hotel owners say it would destroy businesses.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 27 July 2024

• The latest problem for Putin is runaway inflation in Rossiya. Even as price rises have moderated across much of the developed world, Rossiya's struggles with price stability are getting worse.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 27 July 2024

• Shares of EssilorLuxottica rise over 7%, after the eyewear giant said Google and other big tech companies showed interest in exploring partnerships, following its tie-up with Facebook to make Ray-Ban smart glasses.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 27 July 2024

• Shares of 3M soar 23% on Friday, the most in 40 years, as investors embraced its new CEO's plan to put the iconic conglomerate back on track
  - Bloomberg, 26 July 2024

• Shares of Deckers Outdoor jumped as much as 17% on Friday, after multiple brokerages raised their price targets following the company's bet on full-price sales of its hot-selling Hoka running shoes and UGG boots to raise its annual profit forecast.
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 26 July 2024

• Rates of delinquency of credit card payments hits a 12-year high
  - Zero Hedge, 26 July 2024

• Apple's iPhone Falls out of the top five most popular cellphones in Zhōngguó, while sales are growing 10% year-to-year. Apple faces intense competition from Huawei, and consumers in Zhōngguó are increasingly abandoning foreign brands for domestic ones as the tech war between Washington and Beijing intensifies.
  - Zero Hedge, 26 July 2024

• Retail sales decline 9.4% in Shanghai, revealing a weak link in consumption in Zhōngguó
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 26 July 2024

• The discount retail chain, Big Lots, will close more than 50 stores in California
  - Zero Hedge, 26 July 2024

• The Fed's favorite inflation indicator, Core PCE, unexpectedly jumped in June, rising 2.6% year-to-year. The so-called SuperCore PCE rose 0.2% MoM, which saw YoY rise to 3.43%... which is awkwardly stagnant at elevated levels. That is the 50th straight monthly rise in SuperCore prices with Healthcare costs soaring.
  - Zero Hedge, 26 July 2024

• The last inflation data for the USA was moderate enough to raise hopes for the Fed to reduce interest rates in September
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 26 July 2024

• OpenAI is launching search engine, taking direct aim at Google and Google's advertising revenue. Built with input from publishers, the search engine will summarize real-time information found on websites, including news sites.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 26 July 2024

• Nestle lowers sales guidance as shoppers seek cheaper goods. The Swiss food producer said pricing was being pressured by increased promotional activity, among other things, and that it now expected to report organic sales growth of at least 3% this year, from around 4% previously.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 26 July 2024

• Cars are rolling computers now. So what happens when they stop getting updates? Cellphones are supported well beyond their average ownership lifetime. In stark contrast, automakers are struggling to work out how long their "smartphones on wheels" can be kept on the road - one reason not to load cars with lots of useless electronic features to make more money
  - Wired, 25 July 2024

• Earnings guidance by Nestle adds to rough start for consumer earnings season
  - Zero Hedge, 25 July 2024

• We bought everything needed to make $3 million worth of fentanyl from chemical suppliers in Zhōngguó. All it took was $3,600 and a web browser, and the chemicals were air-shipped door-to-door to anywhere in North America. Reuters purchased enough to make 3 million pills.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 25 July 2024

• The deadly chemistry of fentanyl - how rogue labs make opioids. The illicit synthetic opioid industry is built on surprisingly simple chemistry. Here is the science between fentanyl, and how underworld 'chemistry cooks' exploit the simple chemistry.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 25 July 2024

• Shares of Keurig Dr Pepper rise 5% after earnings meet estimates as higher prices fuel sodas sales in the USA
  - Comcast's CNBC, 25 July 2024

• Chocolate maker Lindt & Spruengli AG has warned the global chocolate market is under strain due to high prices. Reducing demand is necessary to prevent cocoa prices from surging once again amid persistent cocoa supply issues stemming from adverse weather conditions impacting some of the world's largest farms in West Africa.
  - Zero Hedge, 25 July 2024

• After losing crops to drought, Sicily fears losing tourism, too. Parts of southern Italy and other countries in the region are experiencing one of their worst droughts in decades. It is particularly devastating, experts say, because the lack of rainfall has been made worse by the higher temperatures caused by climate change. Agriculture, though, still accounts for the vast majority of water use, with the general population using just a fraction of it, even when it includes millions of tourists during the summer.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 25 July 2024

• Xbox players are the credit-card indusrty' next 'Big Thing'. Banks such as Barclays are seeking out customers in the $57 billion-a-year videogame industry.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 25 July 2024

• Google fails to 'wow' as its expenses for AI increase. The advertising business faces tough growth comparisons, while AI spending continues to surge.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 25 July 2024

• Federal regulators step up their campaign against predatory payday lenders and their rip-offs. Their actions were stopped during the Trump administration after the 'loan sharks' bribed contributed to officials in the Trump administration.
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 24 July 2024

• Amazon will reportedly start charging $10 a month for premium Alexa AI features. The new technology has been tested by 15,000 customers, according to the report, and while it excels in human-like conversation, it is "deflecting answers, often giving unnecessarily long or inaccurate responses."
  - Zero Hedge, 24 July 2024

• "They have lost our family for good". Disney World forced to slash prices due to increased customer dissatisfaction. $89 tickets are a significant drop from the previous high of $254 for a single-day Park Hopper pass.
  - Zero Hedge, 24 July 2024

• Shares of Lamb Weston crash 21%, one of the world's largest producers and processors of frozen french fries, waffle fries, and other frozen potato products reported fourth-quarter profit and sales that missed estimates. The company also issued a below-consensus full-year adjusted EBITDA outlook due to sliding global restaurant traffic. This is an ominous sign, as elevated inflation and high interest rates are squeezing consumers.
  - Zero Hedge, 24 July 2024

• Restaurants in Nihon say that they are not charging tourists more -- they are just charging the local people less, to balance the costs of overtourism
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 24 July 2024

• Shares of Chipotle rise more than 10% as earnings and revenue top estimates, traffic rises again
  - Comcast's CNBC, 24 July 2024

• New car incentives soar 53% amid rising inventories and lackluster consumer demand, hint at economic downturn
  - Zero Hedge, 24 July 2024

• Alexa is in millions of households -- and Amazon is losing billions of dollars. Amazon's strategy to set prices low for Echo speakers and other smart devices, expecting them to generate income elsewhere in the tech giant, has not paid off.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 24 July 2024

• Demand for pork products in the USA has "uncharacteristically declined" during the peak grilling season in the summer
  - Zero Hedge, 24 July 2024

• European Union to investigate Delivery Hero (based in Berlin) and Glovo (its subsidiary in Spain) over food delivery cartel. "The Commission is concerned that, before the takeover, Delivery Hero and Glovo may have allocated geographic markets and shared commercially sensitive information (e.g., on commercial strategies, prices, capacity, costs, product characteristics)."
  - TechCrunch, 23 July 2024

• Drug middlemen push patients to pricier medicines, a probe by the House of Representatives determines. Findings from the House Oversight investigation add to criticism that pharmacy-benefit managers are driving up drug spending.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 23 July 2024

• Middlemen for the pharmaceutical industry in the USA defended their role in the healthcare system during a Congressional hearing on Tuesday after committee members accused them of pushing patients toward expensive treatments even when lower-cost options are available. The middlemen, pharmacy benefit managers, blamed "patent abuses" by drug manufacturers that delay launches of cheaper generic and biosimilar medicines for the heightened costs to consumers. The launch price of new drugs was also an issue, they said.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 23 July 2024

• Shares of Polaris decline 14% as high interest rates crush demand for ATVs and jetskis
  - Zero Hedge, 23 July 2024

• The Greek Islands, known for their idyllic towns, rugged landscapes and sun-baked beaches, are in the grip of a serious crisis. Many are running alarmingly low on water -- a problem set to get worse as the tourist season hits full flow and hot dry weather continues. One stupidity is building too many pools on islands with such fantastic beaches.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 23 July 2024

• The world recorded its hottest ever day, as many parts of the Mediterranean face extreme wildfire risks
  - Bloomberg, 23 July 2024

• Landlords used software to determine rents. Then came the lawsuits. Antitrust cases contend that use of RealPage's algorithm, which lets property owners share private data, amounts to collusion.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 23 July 2024

• Thinking about a cruise on the Mississippi River? There is one big 'if'. Though operators are building ships, and towns are investing in landings and other infrastructure, fluctuations in the river's flow, exacerbated by climate change, are hampering sailings.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 23 July 2024

• Higher prices on tampons and sanitary pads prompt hard choices for American women. With few low-price alternatives available in the feminine-product aisle, sales of period products are falling as many women and girls find their budgets cannot cover all essentials.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 23 July 2024

• Abercrombie won by leaving teens behind. Sibling brand Hollister is taking the opposite approach. Abercrombie & Fitch Co. wowed Wall Street when it turned around its namesake brand, partly by shifting its focus from teenagers to adult women. Now the company will find out if it can give a similar boost to its Hollister brand as it sticks with high-schoolers.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 23 July 2024

• Cash-strapped consumers flock to McDonald's for its $5 meal deal
  - Zero Hedge, 22 July 2024

• Between 1990 and 2022, worldwide adult obesity rates more than tripled from 5% to nearly 16% of the global adult population, with 42% of Americans being obese, more than all other developed countries. Egypt is the largest Islamic country with obese people, with 44% of its people obese.
  - Zero Hedge, 22 July 2024

• The central bank of Brazil said on Monday that a new feature for its popular Pix instant payment system aimed at automatically paying recurring bills will be launched next June instead of this October, as had been originally scheduled. The delay follows repeated calls from the Brazilian central bank's governor, Roberto Campos Neto, for the approval of a constitutional amendment granting financial autonomy to the institution.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 22 July 2024

• Grocery store favorites Costco and Trader Joe's just topped a third annual list of the best retailers in America.
  - SF Gate, 22 July 2024

• Shares of Ryanair decline 17% as the budget airline reports 46% decline in quarterly profit, and predicts lower fares
  - Comcast's CNBC, 22 July 2024

• Zhōngguó shows few signs of tilting the economy toward consumer in a new economic plan. The Communist Party rebuffed calls from economists to shift away from investment-led growth and toward consumer spending. A plan released on Sunday offered more than 300 steps on everything from taxes to religion. It echoed many familiar themes, like an emphasis on government investments in high-tech manufacturing and scientific innovation. There was little mention of anything that would directly address plunging real estate prices or the millions of unfinished apartments left behind by failed developers.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 22 July 2024

• Feared in the West, manufacturers in Zhōngguó struggle at home. Huge overinvestment, weak domestic sales and trade barriers abroad have depressed profits of companies, and pushed many to the brink of bankruptcy.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 22 July 2024

• Borrowers/consumers in the USA are on shakier financial ground. Years of higher inflation and interest rates have left consumers mired in debt, even as the overall economy is healthy.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 22 July 2024

• Luxury brands need to win back middle-class shoppers. The luxury industry has been so eager to woo ultrawealthy shoppers that it forgot who really pays the bills.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 22 July 2024

• Pork prices in Zhōngguó 'served up' as a reason why badminton is now a "rich people's sport". Demand for pork has increased in Zhōngguó, meaning less duck and goose is being sold, resulting in badminton shuttlecocks becoming more expensive.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 21 July 2024

• Ultra-processed foods make up 2/3rds of the diet for children in Britain. These foods have been linked to increase risk of obesity and heart disease.
  - Zero Hedge, 20 July 2024

• Global IT outage shows dangers of cashless society, campaigners say. Cash provides essential fallback when digital payments break down, Payment Choice Alliance points out.
  - The Guardian, 20 July 2024

• A plan by the Biden administration to limit rent increases across the USA is reigniting debate. A proposal to make tax breaks for landlords contingent on rent limits has drawn industry pushback, progressive applause and some alternative approaches.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 20 July 2024

• Fashion brands face new skepticism on green claims. A greenwashing lawsuit against Lululemon and a documentary on the recycling of a Swiss brand of shoes have cast environmental pledges into question.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 20 July 2024

• Bank stocks celebrate return of M&A, and ignore the health of the consumer. Shares of JPMorgan and others have been rallying, but the struggles faced by everyday Americans were visible in their earnings.
  - Barron's, 20 July 2024

• Femsa is more than a Coca-Cola bottler in Mexico. Why it is time to buy the stock. With a growing convenience-store business, shares of Femsa are looking attractive.
  - Barron's, 20 July 2024

• Shares of Starbuck rose nearly 7%, after news that activist investor Elliott Investment Management has reportedly built a sizable position in Starbucks
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 19 July 2024

• Get ready to pay more for less-reliable electricity. As the grid becomes increasingly unstable due to age and extreme weather, utilities are ramping up spending on long-overdue maintenance and capital improvements.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 19 July 2024

• How Forewarn, a $20/month database, is sweeping the real estate industry by giving instant access to vast amounts of homebuyer data. Forewarn allows users to gather publicly available information without having to visit courthouses and municipal offices, a process which would normally take days. Authoritarianily, Forewarns tells its customers: "Do not tell the prospect that they are not permitted or unqualified to purchase or sell property because of information you obtained from Forewarn". As Forewarn continues to penetrate the real estate industry, one of the biggest questions for the company is whether it will be able to evade scrutiny and pushback by privacy advocates who say it is essentially mass profiling renters and potential homebuyers in silence, as well as regulators who have cracked down on similar practices.
  - The Record, 18 July 2024

• The Federal Communications Commission today voted to lower price caps on prison phone calls and closed a loophole that allowed prison telecoms to charge high rates for intrastate calls. Today's vote will cut the price of interstate calls in half and set price caps on intrastate calls for the first time. The federal courts had prevented the FCC from regulating high-priced, extortionist, intrastate calls after Congress passed the obvious law that gave the FCC this power to regulate. Under the new rules, the cost of a 15-minute phone call will drop to $0.90 from as much as $11.35 in large jails and, in small jails, to $1.35 from $12.10".
  - Condé Nast's Ars Technica, 18 July 2024

• Highly profitable ultra-processed foods linked to increased risks for 32 health conditions
  - Zero Hedge, 18 July 2024

• Shares of Netflix decline 3% on lower guidance as free cashflow sinks
  - Zero Hedge, 18 July 2024

• Shares of Domino's crash 15%, the most since late 2008, after "temporarily suspending" store growth guidance metric
  - Zero Hedge, 18 July 2024

• Inflation in the UK is steady as economists puzzle "Taylor Swift effects". Consumer prices rose 2 percent in June from a year earlier, a bit higher than economists expected, with a big jump in hotel prices coinciding with a blockbuster series of concerts.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 18 July 2024

• Inflation in the UK holds steady at the target of the Bank of England, keeping interest rate cut in play. Consumer prices in June remained unchanged at the Bank of England's target, leaving the door open for an interest-rate cut at its August meeting, despite concerns about rapid rises in services prices.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 18 July 2024

• A New York City pension fund makes the rights of renters an investment priority. The fund has adopted standards aimed at encouraging the landlords it invests in to limit rent increases, and provide 30 days of notice for eviction filings. The city's four other pensions could do so as well.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 18 July 2024

• Dollar General to pay $12 million to settle alleged safety violations including blocking fire exits and unsafe storage
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 17 July 2024

• Competitors from Zhōngguó are grabbing more global market share from Amazon. The e-commerce leader in Europe is Amazon - but Chinese ventures into international e-commerce, for example AliExpress or more recently Temu, have made inroads.
  - Zero Hedge, 17 July 2024

• Rental car firms are offering temporary deals on electric cars, which they are selling after they lost value more quickly than expected
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 17 July 2024

• More Americans are falling behind on car payments as repos soar 23%
  - Zero Hedge, 16 July 2024

• Saved by the seasonals: headline spending surprises as 'real' retail sales, but real retail sales plunged
  - Zero Hedge, 16 July 2024

• "Taylor Swift is my nemesis" - hotel prices soar due to the pop star's concert tour in Europe. Some people assume they could book a hotel at a given rate, only to find they would have to pay what sometimes equates to hundreds of dollars more per night.
  - Murdoch's MarketWatch, 16 July 2024

• Many substances used for food processing are never listed on ingredient labels. Many of these are processing agents, such as enzymes, catalysts, clarifying/clouding agents, etc.
  - Zero Hedge, 16 July 2024

• Evictions surge in major cities in the American Sunbelt. Filings in cities including Las Vegas, Houston, and in Phoenix over the past year in a half-dozen cities are up at least 35% from pre-2020 norms.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 16 July 2024

• Trade strains between the USA and Zhōngguó are hitting the mattress market. Manufacturers in the USA say that mattress sellers from Zhōngguó are dumping cheap bedding in the USA, sometimes by shipping through third countries.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 16 July 2024

• The death of the electric vehicle has been greatly exaggerated. Electric vehicles are more omnipresent than ever before, but people do not quite seem to realize it yet.
  - Slate, 15 July 2024

• How Jeff Bezos' Amazon destroyed a successful mom-and-pop business that sold washable swim diapers, after Amazon arrogantly resold a used diaper originally sold by the mom-and-pop business, which caused the buyer of the used diaper, reasonably outraged, to post a scathing review that destroyed the mom-and-pop business, even though the fault was solely that of Amazon.
  - Bloomberg, 15 July 2024

• Malaysia is building malls like crazy, but shoppers are not coming and buying. Dozens of new malls are under construction in the country even as existing complexes struggle to attract customers. Many tenants of less popular malls are finding it difficult to compete amid an explosion in retail space that even the COVID-19 pandemic failed to stymie.
  - Al Jazeera, 15 July 2024

• Inflation, not Trump, is driving the steepening of the yield-curve in the USA steepening... and there is more to come
  - Zero Hedge, 15 July 2024

• Shares of Swatch Group crash 11%, the most in four years, as profits plunge on the worsening economic slowdown in Zhōngguó, after Swatch reported a stunning 70% plunge in operating profit and a 14.3% plunge in sales for the first six months of the year compared with the same period last year
  - Zero Hedge, 15 July 2024

• Shares of Burberry drop 15% after the luxury giant offered a disappointing first-quarter performance and issues a profit warning and replaces its CEO.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 15 July 2024

• Kwik Kopy' CEO Sonia Shwabsky says the ubiquity of the online world, [KM: powered by the misanthropy of Google and Facebook], is compelling business owners and marketing managers to rethink how the impersonal manner in which they connect with customers. Instead, a renewed yearning for face-to-face human interaction in the post-COVID years is galvanising the fortunes of one of longest-running franchise brands in Australia.
  - Zero Hedge, 13 July 2024

• When rents rise, so does homelessness
  - Zero Hedge, 13 July 2024

• Insurance premiums for homes in the USA are wildly distorted. Climate change is driving rates higher, but not always in areas with the greatest risk. Higher premiums are being charged in states where regulators apply less scrutiny to requests for rate increases, compared with states where officials question the justifications offered by companies and try to keep rates low, the research shows.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 13 July 2024

• Costco raises membership fees for first time in 7 years. An increase of more than 8 percent will take effect on September 1. The base membership will go up by $5, to $65 per year. Supermarkets such as Costco have their profit margins threatened by high inflation and gasoline prices.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 13 July 2024

• Inflation weighs on the largest banks in the USA. JPMorgan and Wells Fargo reported that overall deposits dropped, and they had to hike the average interest rates on checking and savings accounts. At Citi, losses piled up from credit.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 13 July 2024

• Retail prices for ground beef in the USA jump the most since the Covid meatpacking crisis
  - Zero Hedge, 12 July 2024

• Visualizing the soaring costs of fast food chains in the USA. On average, eating at 10 of the biggest fast food restaurants has gotten 63% more expensive since 2014, led by McDonald's whose prices are up 100% from 2014 to 2024.
  - Zero Hedge, 12 July 2024

• Cookies. Pizza. Cake. All are delicious -- but potentially deadly. In addition to their often-high sugar, salt or fat content, these foods can also contain a toxic ingredient that kills almost 300,000 people from coronary heart disease each year (five times more deaths than from cocaine): industrially produced trans fat. This invisible killer must be eliminated from the the food supply of the world.
  - Al Jazeera, 12 July 2024

• US producer prices surge at fastest pace in 15 months as services costs soar - not good news for those waiting for the Fed to 'cocaine' the markets with an interest rate reduction
  - Zero Hedge, 12 July 2024

• Wholesale prices in the United States rose by a larger-than-expected 2.6% last month from a year earlier, a sign that inflation pressures remain high.
  - Associated Press, 12 July 2024

• Home insurance premiums are surging -- and states are allowing it. Industry denies 'bullying' tactics after getting approval for premium increases averaging 20% since last year.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 12 July 2024

• Insurers are braced for more early-season 'Hurricane Beryls'. Despite its early arrival, the storm hits an insurance market that has already raised the price of catastrophe coverage.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 12 July 2024

• Apple and the European Union settle a long-running mobile-payments probe. The bloc said the Apple's decision to let third parties use the technology behind its Apple Pay app addressed concerns that it was stifling competition.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 12 July 2024

• Sagging profit signals from Delta Airlines signals trouble for airlines this summer. Airports are attracting record traffic, but higher costs and discounted fares are expected to weigh on carriers.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 12 July 2024

• How large corporations conspired with the government of the USA to create the Covid-era lockdowns, a massive violation of human rights, in order to increase corporate profits. Lockdowns are a massive interference with competitive capitalism. They provide the best possible subsidy to big business while shutting down independent small businesses and putting them at a huge disadvantage once the opening up happens. In other words, it is an industrial racket, very much akin to interwar-style fascism, a corporatist combination of big business and big government. Throw pharma into the mix and you see exactly what came to pass in 2020, which amounted to the largest transfer of wealth from small and medium-sized business plus the middle class to wealthy industrialists in the history of humanity.
  - Brownstone Institute, 11 July 2024

• Lawsuit alleges Hyundai conducted "secret program" with dealers to "inflate" sales of electric vehicles
  - Zero Hedge, 11 July 2024

• General Mills, maker of many sugary foods, is pushing research supporting "health at any size" using diet influencers, even as the rate of obesity doubles
  - Zero Hedge, 11 July 2024

• Nasdaq pukes to worst day versus small cap stocks in 22 years, as gold soars near record high after 'soft' CPI report
  - Zero Hedge, 11 July 2024

• Costco is raising membership fees on 52 million members, which Wall Street views as 'positive catalyst'
  - Zero Hedge, 11 July 2024

• Pepsi warns that snack demand in the USA is "subdued" as consumer slowdown worsens
  - Zero Hedge, 11 July 2024

• PepsiCo reports in its earnings that people are buying fewer salty snacks from its Frito-Lay brands. It is not the only food company that is seeking to lure back consumers stung by high prices.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 11 July 2024

• PepsiCo reports in its earnings that people are buying fewer salty snacks from its Frito-Lay brands. It is not the only food company that is seeking to lure back consumers stung by high prices.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 11 July 2024

• Apple's augmented reality headset, the Vision Pro, costs $3,499 and was released earlier this year during a period of elevated consumer stress, which has only worsened by the month. There have been notable signs of mounting demand woes for the overpriced headset, and new estimates forecast dismal sales until a cheaper version debuts next year.
  - Zero Hedge, 11 July 2024

• Seeking to become more larger, JPMorgan seeks to obtain a 15% share of US consumer bank deposits (now at 11%), and boost its share of credit card transactions from 17% to 20%
  - Thomson's Reuters, 11 July 2024

• PepsiCo to cut prices of some snack foods to boost sales. Stock falls toward a 9-month low after revenue missed expectations, as higher prices hurt demand.
  - Murdoch's MarketWatch, 11 July 2024

• Gold approaches record highs, touching $2430 an ounce, as a slight decrease in the CPI gives the Fed 'ammo' to support interest rate reductions
  - Murdoch's MarketWatch, 11 July 2024

• With tiny shampoo bottles soon to be banned, hotels in New York consider options. Starting January 1st, large hotels will no longer be able to offer small containers of shampoo and conditioner. The bill is part of an effort to cut down on single-use plastic.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 11 July 2024

• Shoppers have fewer choices. Brands and retailers like it that way. Finance chiefs are lopping their wares down to a select, smaller assortment to raise profit margins, cut costs and hopefully get inflation-singed consumers to spend.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 11 July 2024

• The yield on 10-year Treasury bonds decline after June CPI statistics unexpectedly decrease by 0.1%, though Core CPI increased 0.2% in June
  - Comcast's CNBC, 11 July 2024

• The consumer price index, a broad measure of costs for goods and services across the U.S. economy, declined 0.1% from May, putting the 12-month rate at 3%, around its lowest level in more than three years. Excluding volatile food and energy costs, so-called core CPI increased 0.1 % monthly and 3.3% from a year ago, compared to respective forecasts for 0.2% and 3.4%, according to the report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 11 July 2024

• 26 million tons of clothing end up in the landfills of Zhōngguó each year, propelled by fast fashion. Textile waste is an urgent global problem, with only 12% recycled worldwide.
  - Associated Press, 10 July 2024

• Discount retailer Big Lots plans to shut down 35 to 40 stores this year as it battles with worsening financials and a tough consumer market in the USA. The company also said it had "substantial doubt" about the ability of the company to continue operation, leading to speculation of a potential bankruptcy filing.
  - USA Today, 10 July 2024

• Comic-Con may stop its main convention in San Diego due to price gouging by local hotels, say organizers
  - Forbes, 10 July 2024

• Apple expects 10% rise in new iPhone shipments on hopes of AI-driven upgrade cycle. "Oh wait, because Siri can now plagiarize as good as ChatGPT everyone will want to buy an iPhone, got it."
  - Zero Hedge, 10 July 2024

• Housing market cracks: a record number of listed homes have price drops. The housing market is on the verge of creating its own reflexive and self-reinforcing liquidation spiral, as more sellers cut prices, forcing even more sellers to cut prices until suddenly the specter of a full-blown housing crash returns.
  - Zero Hedge, 10 July 2024

• The upcoming second quarter earnings period should mark the end of what is been a stealth earnings recession for the vast majority of companies in the SP500. For the 493 non-Mag 7 stocks, earnings growth is forecast to clock in at 6%, 7%, and 13% annually over the second, third, and fourth quarters of 2024.
  - Apollo Global's Yahoo Finance, 10 July 2024

• BYD breaks into America to sink Tesla with this new plan: the unexpected country that has betrayed us - Mexico
  - Ecoticias, 09 July 2024

• Shares of consumer products company, Helen of Troy, crash 25% in premarket trading in New York after missing earnings expectations and slashing its full-year outlook. This is yet another warning of lingering inflation and high interest rates impacting consumer spending.
  - Zero Hedge, 09 July 2024

• Vacuum cleaner manufacturer, Dyson, plans to fire 1000 people in the United Kingdom (our of 3500 employees)
  - Comcast's CNBC, 09 July 2024

• The end of the Olympics' scam? If t seems like neither the citizens nor the cities are benefiting from hosting the games, why do we still have big cities like Los Angeles, Milan, and Brisbane committed to hosting the next editions ?
  - Zero Hedge, 09 July 2024

• What do bagged chickens have to do with sliced cheese? Both have gotten caught up in fights over plastic packaging. When Costco recently tried to trim its plastic use by selling rotisserie chickens in bags, some shoppers disapproved.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 09 July 2024

• Vanguard won an army of loyal customers by cutting fees to the bone and promoting simple index-tracking investing. Now many of its die-hard customers have a message for the new CEO - "The service is abysmal." Complaints of poor customer assistance plague the otherwise beloved asset manager.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 09 July 2024

• Data shows that early adopters of electric vehicle trucks, who overpaid in secondary markets, are suffering severe price plunges
  - Zero Hedge, 08 July 2024

• Battery majors suffer profit drop on lower-than-expected EV sales. LG Energy, one of the biggest players in the EV battery space, reported a 58% drop in operating profits for the second quarter of the year, attributing the figure to the slowdown in EV sales.
  - Zero Hedge, 08 July 2024

• Credit card debt unexpectedly surges as credit card interest rates (APR) rise to new all-time highs
  - Zero Hedge, 08 July 2024

• Delivery drivers in California now being accompanied by armed guards due to "crime concerns"
  - Zero Hedge, 08 July 2024

• The turnaround plan of Burberry falters, as the clothing company plans to fire people. Goldman Sachs believes such small, listed, brands are in an M&A sweet spot.
  - Zero Hedge, 08 July 2024

• As more foreigners, especially Americans, visit or move to Mexico City, some taco shops have lowered the heat in their sauces. Not everyone is happy.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 08 July 2024

• Apartments could be the next real estate business to struggle. Owners of some rental buildings are starting to struggle because of rising interest rates and waning demand in some once booming Sun Belt cities. Only some have stopped making payments on their mortgages, but analysts worry that as many as 20 percent of all loans on apartment properties could be at risk of default.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 08 July 2024

• To make it easier to kill people, grocery stores in nine conservative states are installing vending machines for bullets
  - Zero Hedge, 07 July 2024

• This week's inflation report in the USA could have serious implications for stocks. A softer-than-expected number could pressure the Fed to signal an interest rate cut is likely in September -- or even earlier in July or August. A smaller than expected rise in inflation could encourage Fed Chair Jerome Powell to more forcefully prime the market for a rate cut at the Fed's September meeting, but some believe that a sufficiently weak number could even open the door to a rate cut in a few weeks.
  - Murdoch's MarketWatch, 06 July 2024

• The big 'fat' wedding industry in Bharat is a $130 billion gold mine for the economy. On average, couples in Bharat spend twice as much on their weddings than on education, a recent study shows. Bharat holds more wedding ceremonies each year than any other country, with between 8 million and 10 million.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 06 July 2024

• Why the Walmart model of retail operations does not work in healthcare. Retailers such as Walmart and Walgreens are pulling away from the doctor's office.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 06 July 2024

• Fast-food chains jacked up their prices. Now they are trying to win you back with value menus. Fast food prices have soared over the recent years, and consumers are eating there less often.
  - Barron's, 06 July 2024

• Beef consumption in Argentina in 2024 is expected to total around 44.8 kg (98.77 lb), the lowest since record-keeping began in 1914, said the Rosario exchange, which publishes market updates for grains and livestock. The historic average is nearly 73 kg. The economy of Argentina has been hit hard by triple-digit inflation, a recession and rising poverty and unemployment.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 05 July 2024

• $1,300,000 - Italian fashion influencer Chiara Ferragni will donate at least 1.2 million euros ($1.3 million) under a deal with Italian antitrust authorities investigating misleading communications that led consumers to believe proceeds from the purchase of Easter eggs with her logo would go to a charity for children
  - Associated Press, 05 July 2024

• JPMorgan warns customers that they should prepare to pay for their checking accounts at Chase Bank (a subsidiary of JPMorgan), a bank that is the biggest bank for consumers in the USA and one of the biggest credit-card issuers.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 05 July 2024

• The average price paid for automobilies is expected to fall this year for the first time since 2008, but interest rates are keeping payments high.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 05 July 2024

• Bird flu is the latest financial challenge for dairy farmers in the USA. Pressure is growing for the dairy industry to address the spread of the bird flu virus as farmers confront thin margins and rising costs.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 05 July 2024

• Netflix, Walt Disney, and other U.S. streaming companies have asked a Canadian court to stop plans by authorities to force them to fork over 5% of their sales in the country to finance local broadcast news and other domestic content.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 05 July 2024

• Your old clothes are worth billions. Secondhand apparel retail is a booming business, but turning a profit is harder than it sounds.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 05 July 2024

• Prosecutors in Italy investigated the local supply chains of two major Italian fashion houses - LVMH's Dior and Giorgio Armani. Their investigation found that some designer handbags are manufactured by exploited foreign labor. This revelation, while shocking to some, comes as no surprise to readers who already understand the agenda of the Western elites: flood Europe and the US with illegal aliens to capitalize off cheap labor (also votes).
  - Zero Hedge, 04 July 2024

• New research, based on samples from 3000 pregnant women, aimed at identifying foods that contain higher levels of PFAS found people who eat more white rice, coffee, eggs and seafood typically showed more of the toxic chemicals in their plasma and breast milk
  - The Guardian, 04 July 2024

• How reliant is the USA on avocados from Mexico? A temporary halt on inspections by USDA workers in Mexico on safety concerns highlighted how dependent the United States had become on one region for supplies of the popular fruit.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 04 July 2024

• Cafes in Paris are a cherished part of the culture of France. But such cafes increasingly rely on immigrant workers - half of the 86,000-plus chefs in the Paris are immigrants, who are increasingly threatened by anti-immigration sentiment seen as one of the factors driving the popularity of far-right party Rassemblement National (National Rally).
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 04 July 2024

• Vexi, the neobank in Mexico that has issued more than one million credit cards to underbanked individuals in Mexico. It was founded by Gabriela Estrada, who spent years working in the banking industry in Mexico, where only one in four people have a bank card.
  - Rest of World, 03 July 2024

• It is not your imagination -- restaurant reservations are becoming harder to obtain. Bots, scalpers and even credit card companies are making reservations a rare commodity .
  - The Week, 03 July 2024

• FOMC minutes show "vast majority" expect economy to cool, see deflationary effects of AI
  - Zero Hedge, 03 July 2024

• The Federal Reserve says that it is not ready to cut rates until it has "greater confidence" that inflation is moving closer to its goal of 2%. The Fed indicated that inflation is moving in the right direction but not quickly enough for them to lower interest rates.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 03 July 2024

• Half of the e-commerce scams in Singapore now happen on WhatsApp, Facebook, or Instagram. After a 50% increase in scams in 2023, Singapore authorities say that Facebook is not doing enough to stop the explosion in fraud [why waste profits on crime protection?].
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 03 July 2024

• The parent of Saks Fifth Avenue sealed a $2.65 billion deal to buy rival Neiman Marcus, creating a powerhouse in luxury retailing that seeks to hang onto wealthy shoppers -- all with a little help from Amazon which will take a minority stake in the company.
  - Murdoch's Fox News, 03 July 2024

• Bob's Stores on Monday announced the impending closure of every one of its nearly two dozen clothing retail stores. The retailer started conducting "Going Out of Business" sales at its 21 locations in six Northeastern states to offload all of its merchandise late last week.
  - Murdoch's Fox News, 03 July 2024

• The debt of students in the USA rises over $1.6 trillion, with nearly half of borrowers not resuming payments on their loans
  - Murdoch's Fox News, 03 July 2024

• Fed chairman Powell talks up progress, putting interest rate cuts back into view. The central bank is trying to pull off a soft landing in which inflation slows without a serious downturn.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 03 July 2024

• Shein and Temu are swamping airfreight capacity, sending rates soaring. Bargain shopping apps Temu and Shein are reshaping the air cargo market out of Zhōngguó, eating up aircraft space at a pace that is driving up freight rates and sparking fears of a capacity squeeze during the busy peak shipping season later this year.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 03 July 2024

• Shares of Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly decline slightly, after President Biden and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders co-authored an opinion piece in USA Today, urging big pharma to slash the prices of anti-obesity drugs
  - Zero Hedge, 03 July 2024

• Message from President Biden and Senator Sanders: Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly must stop ripping off Americans with high drug prices. If Novo Nordisk and other pharmaceutical companies refuse to substantially lower prescription drug prices in our country and end their greed, we will do everything within our power to end it for them.
  - USA Today, 03 July 2024

• Apple, the most valuable company in the world, reported that its market share in Zhōngguó shrink in May, even after "deep" discounting. In May, iPhone "sell-through" declined by 2% year-over-year (YoY), marking the fifth consecutive monthly decline.
  - Zero Hedge, 02 July 2024

• "Upflation": some of the world's largest packaged goods makers are getting very creative by rebranding existing products for expanding uses, then marked up substantially, and marketed in a way to trick consumers about some new blockbuster innovation. This is happening at a time when consumers are pulling back spending, and the goal of the new sales tactic is to drive more revenue with less. One example of 'upflation' is all-over-body deodorants, which skin doctors say are unnecessary. With expanded use and new marketing, these all-over-body deodorants are sold for double the price by major brands.
  - Zero Hedge, 02 July 2024

• $2,000,000 - Costco agrees to pay $2 million to settle a lawsuit about false advertising claims for its flushable wipes
  - Zero Hedge, 02 July 2024

• The fast-food fight over the $5 meal deal. McDonald's, Burger King and Denny's are using promotions such as $5 meal bundles to win back diners.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 02 July 2024

• Shares of Carnival Cruise drop 5%, and shares of Norwegian Cruises drop 6%, as the record breaking Hurricane Beryl sweeps through the Caribbean
  - Zero Hedge, 01 July 2024

• Poultry fans may be in for a bit of sticker shock this July 4th: wholesale boneless chicken breasts have soared 67% this year, more than quadruple beef and pork prices. Wholesale prices offer a leading indicator for what shoppers will eventually pay at the supermarket.
  - Zero Hedge, 01 July 2024

• Young people in Zhōngguó are "revenge saving", even as Gen Zers around the world are amassing a lot of debt. 73% of Gen Zers in the U.S. said they would rather have a better quality of life than extra money in a bank.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 01 July 2024

• No one believes the Fed's data, nor Jake Tapper reporting the Fed's data, that inflation is up only 20% in the last three years under Biden
  - ZeroHedge, 01 July 2024

• Tesla is running out of excuses for its prolonged sales slump
  - Bloomberg, 01 July 2024

• Zhōngguó dangled rebates to lure people to spend. It is not enough. The leaders of Zhōngguó vowed to kick-start spending by offering subsidies for households to buy cars and appliances. But many consumers are not increasing their buying.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 01 July 2024

• The tyranny of tipping today. When did it become expected to shell out a 25% gratuity for soggy takeout fries, demands made easier by technology?
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 01 July 2024

• The airport authority in Philadelphia is adding a 3% tax to every purchase at stores inside the airport. According to the report the tax/surchage is "to offset the employee wages and benefits" that must be paid to airport workers, but none of the money actually goes to employees. It can't allow vendors to charge more than 15% than something sold outside the airport, so it lies by calling the price increase a 'tax/surchage'.
  - Zero Hedge, 30 June 2024

• Barcelona officials plan to ban short-term tourist apartment rentals by 2028, mirroring policies that have bubbled up across Europe in recent years. The city will scrap all 10,101 apartment licenses approved as short-term rentals. The tourism boom has benefited the country but choked the local supply of apartments and driven up the cost of rentals for locals by around 68% in the last 10 years. And the cost of a house rose 38%, exacerbating already problematic inequality.
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 30 June 2024

• A customized therapy base on B vitamins could help some people with Parkinson's disease. A study found, in people with Parkinson's, fewer genes in the gut bacteria responsible for making vitamins B2 (riboflavin) and B7 (biotin). Both have anti-inflammatory properties and may help counteract the neuroinflammation associated with Parkinson's disease.
  - Zero Hedge, 29 June 2024

• For years, Japan's Fujifilm (4901.T), pivoted away from its legacy camera business to focus on healthcare. But thanks in large part to the TikTok crowd, its retro-themed X100 digital cameras are now a roaring success, boosting its bottom line. Fujifilm is struggling to meet demand for the $1,599 camera, prized by young 20-something social media fans for its looks and high-end functions.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 28 June 2024

• Shares of Nike slumped as much as 20.6% in afternoon trade on Friday and were on track for their worst day, as a forecast for a surprise drop in annual sales amplified investor concerns about the pace of the sportswear giant's efforts to stem market share losses to upstart brands such as On and Hoka
  - Thomson's Reuters, 28 June 2024

• 4 in 10 Americans will not travel this summer, as money is tight
  - Zero Hedge, 28 June 2024

• The Federal Reserves's preferred inflation gauge, core Personal Consumption Expenditures, shows prices rose at the slowest pace since March 2021. But the measure is kind of useless because it doesn't include the costs of food and energy.
  - Apollo Global's Yahoo Finance, 28 June 2024

• New inflation reading offers hope for the Fed to reduce interest rates later this year
  - Apollo Global's Yahoo Finance, 28 June 2024

• Prices of 'supercore' goods and services rise for the 49th month as spending disappoints, with healthcare costs soaring
  - Zero Hedge, 28 June 2024

• $4,500,000,000 - The former CEO of a retail giant in Brazil - Americanas, Miguel Gutierrez, was arrested Friday in Madrid, accused of participating in a 25 billion reais ($4.5 billion) fraud scheme. Police in Brazil determined that the company falsified financial results to inflate cash flow and artificially boost the company's stock. Former directors committed fraud by advancing payments to suppliers through loans, engaging in market manipulation, insider trading, criminal association and money laundering, according to a statement from investigators. The probe began in January 2023 after Gutierrez's successor took over as CEO and soon disclosed a cash shortfall of 20 billion reais ($3.6 billion).
  - Zero Hedge, 28 June 2024

• With global coffee production under threat from global heating and fungal diseases, coffee farmers seek new solutions. One study in a journal, Science, estimates that 60 percent of all coffee species are at risk of extinction. "Research shows that the number of regions best suited for growing coffee will be cut in half over the course of the next 25 years or so."
  - Zero Hedge, 28 June 2024

• $4,700,000,000 - NFL ordered to pay $4.7 billion in Sunday ticket case. A federal jury in California ruled that the league violated antitrust laws with its out-of-market broadcasts, a verdict that delivers a sweeping blow to the business model of richest sport in the USA. [A judge nullified in August 2024]
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 28 June 2024

• Shares of Hennes & Mauritz ("H&M") fell 13% after it made a weak start to its third quarter and warned that its performance would be hurt by rising raw material costs and adverse currency moves
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 28 June 2024

• Enrollment loss, financial woes an increasing problem at colleges in the USA. College and university enrollment has decreased by about 1.5 million students, or 7.4 percent, in the past decade.
  - Zero Hedge, 27 June 2024

• Shares of Nike are down over 11% after-hours following an ugly earnings picture that saw Q4 revenues disappoint and more notably, a sizable cut in guidance for the first half of this fiscal year
  - Zero Hedge, 27 June 2024

• The humble onion could be holding hostage the economy of Bharat. The price of raw onions has risen 165% over the past year. Prices have also inflated for other vegetates, such as tomatoes, which now cost nearly twice as much as this time last year. Poor weather has been behind much of the havoc - droughts and heat waves. "Food prices are holding back any consideration of possible changes in the monetary policy stance.".
  - Comcast's CNBC, 27 June 2024

• Pending home sales in the USA unexpectedly plunge in May to a record low, lower than during the Covid lockdowns
  - Zero Hedge, 27 June 2024

• Final 1Q GDP report confirms a sharp decrease in consumer psending
  - Zero Hedge, 27 June 2024

• Why Walgreens, CVS and Rite Aid are closing thousands of drug stores across America. Walgreens and other retailers have been hit by shoplifting and resorted to locking up items or closing high-theft stores since the pandemic. Drug store chains are struggling because of falling reimbursement rates for prescription drugs, according to analysts who cover the industry. The majority of sales of pharmacies comes from filling prescriptions. But their profits from that business have dropped in recent years because of lower reimbursement rates for prescription drugs and higher fees. The prices customers pay for drugs and the payments pharmacies receive are largely determined by pharmacy benefit managers, known as PBMs, which negotiate rebates from drug manufacturers to insurers. PBMs have been cutting reimbursement rates to boost their own profits.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 27 June 2024

• Shares of Walgreens plummet 22% after it reduced its profit forecast for fiscal 2024 and said it would close more underperforming U.S. stores as weak consumer spending hurts retail operations
  - Thomson's Reuters, 27 June 2024

• Walgreens plans major store closures in the USA. Shares of the pharmacy chain plummeted 25% after The Wall Street Journal reported the CEO's plans and the company lowered its guidance for the full year.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 27 June 2024

• Walgreens is planning to close more of its roughly 8,700 stores in the United States, its parent company said on Thursday, after the retail pharmacy giant reported third-quarter earnings that fell short of analyst expectations
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 27 June 2024

• The war over cheaper forms of Ozempic will not end well for some investors. Once Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk increase the supply of weight-loss medications, companies such as Hims & Hers may find it trickier to sell compounded versions of the drugs.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 27 June 2024

• Visualizing the lower number of cash transactions around the world. As credit cards and digital wallets (e.g. Apple Pay, Paytm, Alipay) see increasing adoption around the world, the share of cash being used in transactions is plummeting.
  - Zero Hedge, 26 June 2024

• Hotel room rates in Hawaii have increased dramatically in the past five years. It is causing some travelers to look elsewhere, as the number of visitors to Hawaii is declining.
  - SF Gate, 26 June 2024

• Toys-'R'-Us upsets critics with the "first-ever" commercial generated by AI (using Sora). The criticisms are that the AI video is of lousy quality, and if successful, it will reduce the need for paid-humans to create ads. One sarcasm: "This commerical is like Toys R Us started with the dream of a little boy who wanted to share his imagination with the world. And to show how, we fired our artists and dried Lake Superior using a server farm to generate what that would look like in Stephen King's nightmares."
  - Condé Nast's Ars Technica, 26 June 2024

• Amazon plans to launch a discount store in the USA in an effort to fend off Temu and Shein
  - Comcast's CNBC, 26 June 2024

• Amazon plans to launch a service focused on shipping cheap goods directly from warehouses in Zhōngguó as it faces growing competition from the Chinese e-commerce platforms Temu and Shein.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 26 June 2024

• Daily multivitamins do not help people live longer, major study finds. Analysis of 400,000 healthy adults finds no health benefits from taking daily multivitamins.
  - The Guardian, 26 June 2024

• General Mills shares plunged nearly 8% at the start of the US cash session, marking its steepest intra-day drop since May 2022. The decline followed the packaged-food company's report of fourth-quarter sales that missed average analyst estimates, coupled with a full-year sales forecast that also fell short. This disappointing outlook signals more evidence of a consumer pullback amid elevated food prices and builds on our weak consumer theme.
  - Zero Hedge, 26 June 2024

• Shares of Southwest plunge 10% in pre-market trading, after revenue guidance slashed as troubles mount
  - Zero Hedge, 26 June 2024

• After Seattle mandates a $4.99 fee on the failed business model of Uber Eats, "to help drivers", deliveries crash 45%
  - Zero Hedge, 26 June 2024

• "It is all happening again." The supply chain is under strain. As Houthi rebels intensify strikes on vessels headed for the Suez Canal, global shipping prices are soaring, raising fears of product shortages and delays.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 26 June 2024

• Biden administration to lower costs for 64 drugs through inflation penalties on drugmakers. A provision of Biden's Inflation Reduction Act requires drugmakers to pay rebates to Medicare if they hike the price of a medication faster than the rate of inflation.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 26 June 2024

• Sixteen Nobel prize-winning economists warn a second Trump term would "reignite" inflation
  - Comcast's CNBC, 26 June 2024

• Mail-order drugs were supposed to keep costs down. It is doing the opposite. One employer was paying about $100 for a prescription for a generic antidepressant, though it could be bought elsewhere for about $12. Another scammy Internet business model.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 26 June 2024

• Brookfield's plan to turn malls into minicities falls short. Six years after a big bet, only two projects have been completed.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 26 June 2024

• If you adjust economic statistics for inflation, which the government doesn't do, and measure inflation more honestly, then maybe a global depression is already here.
  - Brownstone Institute, 25 June 2024

• Shares of Pool Corporation drop 8% as full-year profit forecast slides on dive in consumer spending
  - Zero Hedge, 25 June 2024

• Tesla issued two new recalls for the 11,688 Cybertrucks it has sold, one to fix windshield wipers with faulty motor controllers and the other to fix loose trim that can rattle or fall off. The recalls are the third and fourth in the U.S. for the newest electric vehicle from Tesla, which began shipping to customers in late 2023.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 25 June 2024

• How Delta Air Lines made itself the luxury airline of the USA, and what United Airlines wants to do about it
  - Comcast's CNBC, 25 June 2024

• Fed Governor Bowman says that she is still open to raising interest rates if inflation does not improve. On the other hand, Fed Governor Lisa Cook expressed optimism that inflation would show more significant progress in 2025, allowing the Fed to lower rates at some point.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 25 June 2024

• The European Union on Tuesday accused Microsoft of breaching antitrust rules with the "abusive" bundling of its Teams and Office products.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 25 June 2024

• The European Union on Tuesday accused Microsoft of breaching antitrust rules with the "abusive" bundling of its Teams and Office products.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 25 June 2024

• The scientific evidence that pets can consistently make people healthier is, at best, inconclusive -- and, at worst, has been used to mislead the American public, psychologist Hal Herzog argues. Studies often fail to find any robust link between pets and human well-being; some even find evidence of harms.
  - Real Clear Science, 25 June 2024

• The corruption of the privatization of electric power in Puerto Rico. The contract awarded to a newly minted Canadian-American private company, Luma Energy, is outrageously generous. It receives a fixed management fee regardless of whether it keeps the lights on, is guaranteed federal funds for repairs and can charge PREPA for any unexpected operational costs. Luma has even threatened to charge residents more if they seek compensation for appliances damaged by outages and surges. Additionally, until PREPA's debt restructuring is resolved, Luma is operating under an interim contract that nearly doubles its fee, to $115 million from $70 million. To date, Luma has spent only a small fraction of the hundreds of millions of dollars allocated for improvements. When Luma took over the electric grid, PREPA's skilled line workers were forced into contracts with reduced benefits. Some were left with little choice but to transfer to jobs mopping floors or cutting grass for other public agencies. Luma replaced them with an inexperienced team led by executives who command extravagant salaries.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 25 June 2024

• Apple is imposing unfair restrictions on developers of applications for its App Store in violation of a new European Union law meant to encourage competition in the tech industry, regulators in Brussels said on Monday. Apple is the first company to be charged with violating the Digital Markets Act, a law passed in 2022 that gives European regulators wide authority to force the largest "online gatekeepers" to change their business practices.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 25 June 2024

• Apple is imposing unfair restrictions on developers of applications for its App Store in violation of a new European Union law meant to encourage competition in the tech industry, regulators in Brussels said on Monday. Apple is the first company to be charged with violating the Digital Markets Act, a law passed in 2022 that gives European regulators wide authority to force the largest "online gatekeepers" to change their business practices.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 25 June 2024

• Inflation accelerates in Mexico, raising the probability that the central bank will not soon reduce interest rates
  - Bloomberg, 24 June 2024

• Australia will impose hefty fines on supermarket chains found to be abusing their bargaining power over suppliers. Under the rules announced by the government on Monday, supermarket chains earning more than 5 billion Australian dollars ($3.3bn) in annual revenue will be required to comply with a previously voluntary industry code of conduct. Violators of industry code of conduct to be subject to fines of up to 10 percent of annual turnover.
  - Al Jazeera, 24 June 2024

• It is time to ban the advertising of pharmaceuticals. Drug companies are avoiding FDA rules for advertising by using telehealth companies to promote their drugs. The FDA has not updated its nonbinding draft guidance on social media advertising since 2014. "Consumers can be inundated with promotions for medications from influencers with no expertise and whether or not the influencer has ever used the medication. ... Such ads often overstate benefits and minimize harms."
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 24 June 2024

• Children in Britain are getting shorter, fatter, and sicker. Obesity levels in 10- and 11-year-olds have increased by 30 percent since 2006.
  - Zero Hedge, 23 June 2024

• The opaque industry secretly inflating prices for prescription drugs. Pharmacy benefit managers are driving up drug costs for millions of people, employers and the government. The three largest are owned by CVS Health, Cigna and UnitedHealth Group. They steer patients toward pricier drugs, charge steep markups on what would otherwise be inexpensive medicines and extract billions of dollars in hidden fees. Falsely-claimed savings for consumers are likely a mirage, a product of a system where prices have been artificially inflated so that major PBMs and drug companies can boost their profits while taking credit for reducing prices. If they were stand-alone companies, the three biggest PBMs would each rank among the top 40 U.S. companies by revenue.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 23 June 2024

• The mostly all-white 'Mad Men' era is long over. Why is advertising still so white? Despite corporate promises and hiring campaigns, the ad industry is among the least diverse job sectors of New York City, with a multi-billion dollar revenue stream. It shows in the work, critics say. Of 70,000 people working for New York advertising agencies, less than 8% are Black, 11 percent Asian and under 15 percent Latino - leaving 56% white. 90% of ad agencies are owned/controlled by white people.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 23 June 2024

• Gold is Goldman Sachs's preferred USA presidential election inflation hedge. GS sees significant value in long gold positions as a hedge against the risk of inflationary US policies after the elections from geopolitical shocks including tariffs, Fed subordination risk, and debt fears.
  - Zero Hedge, 22 June 2024

• Affordability, charging-infrastructure, and range-anxiety continue to keep Americans from fully embracing electric vehicles. And the Biden administration's new tariffs on EVs made in Zhōngguó likely won't help price points move lower anytime soon.
  - Zero Hedge, 22 June 2024

• Cancer-drug costs skyrocket, leaving even insured patients in financial ruin. As cancer rates rise for people under 50, the cost of life-saving treatment is rising far past their ability to pay.
  - Zero Hedge, 22 June 2024

• Do not call it an 'ethnic' grocery store. As Asian groceries like H Mart, Patel Brothers and 99 Ranch expand, they are reshaping American eating habits, and the American grocery market. Despite their recent growth, Asian American grocers still represent less than one percent of the total U.S. grocery business, which is dominated by retailers such as Kroger and Walmart. But these stores exercise an outsize impact, she said, as they dictate which products the big-box chains stock.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 22 June 2024

• $434,000,000 - Under Armour to settle claims over past financials with $434 million payment. The sportswear brand said it has agreed to pay $434 million to settle claims related to past company financials and focus on its restructuring plan.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 22 June 2024

• Why going cashless has turned Sweden from one of the safest countries into a high-crime nation. Law-enforcement agencies in Sweden estimate that the size of criminal economy could amount to as high as 2.5% of the gross domestic product of Sweden. Swedish authorities have put pressure on banks to tighten security measures and make it harder on tech-savvy criminals.
  - Jiaravanon's Fortune, 21 June 2024

• Nearly half of electric vehicle drivers in the USA consider switching back to gasoline vehicles
  - Zero Hedge, 21 June 2024

• Costco bending over backward to continue to price hot dogs at $1.50 will no doubt go down as one of the most effective uses of loss leader in corporate history.
  - Zero Hedge, 21 June 2024

• Existing home sales tumble in May, while prices set new record highs, making it harder for first-time home buyers
  - Zero Hedge, 21 June 2024

• Zhōngguó asks Visa and Mastercard to reduce credit card fees to encourage spending by foreign visitors. The Payment & Clearing Association of Zhōngguó is proposing lowering the fees charged on foreign card transactions to 1.5% from between 2% and 3%.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 21 June 2024

• Forever 21 is asking some landlords for rent concessions as high as 50% as it faces financial difficulties. The company is struggling to manage its sprawling store footprint and compete with savvier digital upstarts.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 21 June 2024

• UK retailer J Sainsbury to sell core banking business to NatWest Group. Sainbury's is selling its core banking business to NatWest for an undisclosed sum, as part of its plan to focus on retail, and said it would return $316 million of excess capital to shareholders.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 21 June 2024

• Potates are the perfect vegetable -- but you are eating them wrong (too many french fries and potato chips, which of course is profitable to the fast-food industry and weight-loss-drug industry). The humble potato is a miraculous vegetable, but Americans are eating less of them than ever before and have ditched fresh potatoes for frozen. Is it time to rebrand the spud?
  - Wired, 20 June 2024

• Olive Garden hiking menu prices again -- despite admitting losing customers to inflation
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 20 June 2024

• To benefit investors and companies, Republican politicians in Texas have added at least $38 billion to the cost of electricity through higher bills or higher taxes since 2019. Instead of restoring grid reliability by ending subsidies for wind and solar farms, they started flinging taxpayer money at natural gas and other dispatchable generation.
  - Master Resource, 20 June 2024

• In California, hotels and rentals must reveal fees upfront. What does that mean for you? Two new laws target surprise charges like resort fees, cleaning fees and service fees, forcing companies to tell you about them before you book, even if you live elsewhere. Here is what you need to know.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 20 June 2024

• A new documentary explores why the first 'Black Barbie' was much more than just a doll, though it took decades for Mattel to starting selling a Black Barbie, the first one in 1980.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 20 June 2024

• Meet the Southwest superfans who do not want the airline to change. As the carrier weighs seat assignments and extra-legroom seats, some loyalists worry it will become just another airline.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 20 June 2024

• What recession: New York City targets crackdown on resellers of $250 to $1000 dinner reservations. Scalping dinner reservations for $1000? Maybe interest rates do need to stay higher for longer.
  - Zero Hedge, 19 June 2024

• People across regional Australia are selling a curious Japanese machine that "electrolyzes" tap water and promises "triple health" for the drinker. Proponents of the multi-level marketing scheme promise six-figure salaries but most recruits never make a profit. Many more are ending up in serious debt.
  - Disney's ABC News, 18 June 2024

• RealPage, the rent-fixing software company currently under FBI investigation, also has apps for bogus fees, monetizing vacant apartments and inflating toxic property bubbles. By now, you have probably heard of Yieldstar, the private owned software that numerous plaintiff's attorneys, tenant advocates, and state attorneys general say is actually a front for a sprawling nationwide cartel that fixes rent prices to ludicrous heights and has caused the cost of an apartment to surge between 50 and 80 percent over the past seven years in several of the markets where the software is employed. In theory, and in its early days, Yieldstar offered property managers 'recommendations' for pricing and duration of leases based on real-time data on what competitors were offering. But by the time Yieldstar parent RealPage acquired its biggest competitor, Lease Rent Options, from the hotel price-fixing giant Rainmaker in 2017, the algorithm had metamorphosed from a tool for informing pricing decisions into a weapon for systemically and liberally hiking them to "way too high" levels, to quote a leasing manager in one of the many lawsuits. RealPage has also been accused of retaliating against anyone who balked or attempted to circumvent the program, with newer 'clients' especially singled out for indoctrination and surveillance to root put rogue leasing agents and ensure maximum compliance with the system's demands.
  - The American Prospect, 18 June 2024

• Ozempic fuels 'downsize me' trend as slimmed down Americans hunt for new clothes in smaller sizes
  - Zero Hedge, 18 June 2024

• Apple reportedly halts work on Vision Pro 2, focuses on cheaper version as demand falters. "Far too expensive for normal people. It is a product for the rich made by millionaires. Completely out of touch!"
  - Zero Hedge, 18 June 2024

• Retail sales in the USA disappoint in May, rising just 0.1% in one month, and worse, April's 0.0% change was revised down to a 0.2% decline in one month
  - Zero Hedge, 18 June 2024

• The 'lust' for the durian fruit in Zhōngguó is creating fortunes in Southeast Asia. Demand for the fruit, known for its rich taste and intense smell, has reshaped parts of Southeast Asia, where it has long been a staple. Last year, the value of durian exports from Southeast Asia to Zhōngguó was $6.7 billion, a twelvefold increase from $550 million in 2017.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 18 June 2024

• How urgent-care centers in neighborhoods can secretly and deceptively charge hospital-level prices for routine medical examinations, by being 'hospital-affiliated'
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 18 June 2024

• The climate is the economy. Intensifying hurricanes, floods, and heat waves are wreaking havoc across the country -- and on all of our bank accounts, as everything becomes more expensive.
  - Slate, 17 June 2024

• How mundane grocery store runs turned into an opportunity for ... your handprint to get hacked, such as when using Amazon One at Whole Foods Market? Our tech overlords have proven themselves incapable of self-policing for the greater good. Consumers become the product, monetized over and over. By normalizing biometric data as a means to pay for goods, Amazon has managed to sell a useful fiction, one that is much more dystopian than aspirational.
  - Slate, 17 June 2024

• Fast-food managers in California are obtaining massive pay raises, despite restaurants raising prices and shutting stores, and whining about their woes by blaming it on having to pay their employees a minimum wage of $20 - a minimum wage imposed by law that also by law increased managers salaries by 25%
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 17 June 2024

• McDonald's to end a 3-year test-run of drive-thru kiosks that use AI supplied by IBM
  - Comcast's CNBC, 17 June 2024

• Shares of Adidas fall 4% after the German sportswear brand said it was investigating allegations of corruption in Zhōngguó after receiving an anonymous letter
  - Thomson's Reuters, 17 June 2024

• Major sports and entertainment venues are punishing people for using cash, forcing them to use credit cards
  - Zero Hedge, 17 June 2024

• In Zhōngguó, retail sales in May beat expectations - rising 3.7% year-to-year, but industrial output and fixed asset investment were below expectations, rising 5.6% year-to-year instead of 6.0% as expected
  - Comcast's CNBC, 17 June 2024

• $2,000,000 - The owner of a pair of upscale boutiques in ritzy Palm Beach, Florida, who hob-knobbed with the likes of former President Trump was nabbed peddling $2 million in phony goods, according to police. Olena Austin, 51, was charged with selling counterfeit clothing and jewelry at two Blesk Jewelry locations in the city.
  - Zero Hedge, 16 June 2024

• Prices of used electric vehicles continue to decline, now selling for thousands of dollars less than comparable gas-powered vehicles. The difference between the price of a used Tesla Model 3 and BMW 3 Series shows how a 'premium' associated with EVs in the initial boom has been erased.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 16 June 2024

• The disturbing truth about hair relaxers. They have been linked to reproductive disorders and cancers (one troublesome chemical being formaldehyde). Why are they still being marketed so aggressively to Black women?
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 16 June 2024

• Amazon has upended the ad market for streaming content, and Netflix is paying the price. Netflix embraces product placement and cuts ad rates significantly as Prime Video helps drive prices down for ads.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 15 June 2024

• The big AI question: are you ready to pay for it? Consumers who are tempted to upgrade will find higher prices for new AI-powered gadgets -- and new subscription fees to access their full capabilities.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 15 June 2024

• 76 percent of those under the age of 40 in the USA would consider buying a vehicle sold by a company from Zhōngguó
  - Zero Hedge, 14 June 2024

• Mondelez says that the prices of Oreo cookies will not be increased, despite the chaos with cocoa supplies in West Africa
  - Zero Hedge, 14 June 2024

• Taylor Swift's record-shattering Eras Tour is continuing to supercharge consumer spending as it starts its concerts in the UK, suggesting that the Bank of England may not be out of the woods yet in its fight against inflation. The economic boost could be enough to defer a possible September interest rate cut.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 14 June 2024

• James Grant, editor of the Interest Rate Observer, predicts that interest rates will continue to rise. He argues that persistent inflation, increased military spending, and significant fiscal deficits could drive rates higher.
  - Zero Hedge, 14 June 2024

• Montana has more cows than people. Why are locals eating beef from Brazil? Beef processors (JBS, Tyson Foods, Cargill) send beef from Montana through their nationwide supply chains.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 13 June 2024

• Initial jobless claims surge to 10-month highs as california joblessness soars
  - Zero Hedge, 13 June 2024

• Producer Price Inflation cooler than expected (but hovers near 1 year highs)
  - Zero Hedge, 13 June 2024

• Our collective appetite for on-demand inexpensive meat and dairy is leading us toward another catastrophic pandemic - such as due to bird flu, not just pink eye and coughing in a few people. We have surrounded ourselves with chattel animals, raised and milked and fattened and slaughtered and plucked and butchered in staggering numbers. It is no surprise that sometimes they give us their viruses.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 13 June 2024

• Why Americans are eating a sunscreen ingredient in their frozen pizza, cupcakes, M&Ms. Scientists are raising concerns about the use of titanium dioxide in popular food products.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 13 June 2024

• Why America is running low on addictive Zyn nicotine pouches. Nicotine trafficker Philip Morris expects the shortage to last until year-end, as the brand's single factory in the USA tries to meet surging demand in "Zyndemic".
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 13 June 2024

• The price for owning a home is rising rapidly in the USA -- and we are not just talking about mortgage payments. Homeowners in the USA are now paying an average of $18,118 a year on property taxes, insurance for their homes, maintenance, energy and various other expenses linked to owning a home, according to a new Bankrate study. These expenses have risen 26% in the last four years.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 12 June 2024

• The number of drug shortages has increased over a decade, with 125 active drug shortages monitored by FDA at the end of 2023. Most of the drugs in short supply cost less than $5 to make - not enough profits for drug companies. "The economics of generic drugs often leave manufacturers with razor-thin margins, making it challenging to prioritize investment in modern machinery or to elevate standards of quality. Without sufficient profitability, the cycle of innovation and improvement becomes difficult to sustain."
  - Zero Hedge, 12 June 2024

• The parliament of Nihon has approved a law that will force third-party App stores on Apple and Google
  - Apple Insider, 12 June 2024

• Elliott Management may force Southwest to abandon 'bags fly free' policy
  - Zero Hedge, 12 June 2024

• Inflation eases in May as consumer prices rise at slower than expected pace, with no rise in one month, and up 3.3% since last May.
  - Apollo Global's Yahoo Finance, 12 June 2024

• Consumer prices hold at record highs - up 20% since Biden elected. But Core CPI fell to its lowest since April 2021.
  - Zero Hedge, 12 June 2024

• With inflation driving up costs of everything including labor, employers now find themselves in the position of grave reluctance to hire. Instead, they are squeezing existing payrolls for every bit of labor they can. As a result, job openings are falling, and dramatically so. Even now, labor participation still has not recovered to pre-pandemic levels. The underlying finances of households right now are on track toward disaster, with credit card debt still rising despite high interest rates and saving rates far below pre-lockdown levels. This is simply not sustainable.
  - Zero Hedge, 12 June 2024

• The Dow rises 300 points and the SP500 hits a record high, after inflation slowed in May, sending Treasury Bond yields tumbling before the Federal Reserve's June interest-rate decision
  - Comcast's CNBC, 12 June 2024

• The ECB decided to cut rates by 25 basis points the same day it elevated its own inflation estimates for 2024 and 2025. The purpose is to fund the biggest expansion of the government's size since the euro's inception and uphold the delusion of a sovereign debt bubble.
  - Zero Hedge, 12 June 2024

• Mastercard launches its authoritarian biometric retail payment system in Europe, using poland as a testing ground
  - Zero Hedge, 12 June 2024

• Nigeria confronts its worst economic crisis in a generation. People in Nigeria - the most populous nation in Africa - are suffering as the price of food, fuel and medicine has skyrocketed out of reach for many. Unions strike to protest salaries of around $20 a month. People die in stampedes, desperate for free sacks of rice. Hospitals are overrun with women wracked by spasms from calcium deficiencies. The crisis is largely believed to be rooted in two major changes implemented by a president elected 15 months ago: the partial removal of fuel subsidies and the floating of the currency, which together have caused major price rises.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 12 June 2024

• The new e-commerce strategy of Alibaba faces tough competition. The strategic shift by Alibaba to prioritize long-term growth over substantial near-term profits is showing some early success, but analysts say increasing competition could prevent the e-commerce giant from regaining its past market dominance.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 12 June 2024

• To address falling sales, Best Buy carried out another round of layoffs and job restructurings last week, with the company cutting some of its sales staff and reducing the pay for others.
  - The Verge, 11 June 2024

• The "buy now, pay later" service is coming to Apple Pay. Meanwhile, the Bank for International Settlements has warned that BNPL adoption is high among young adults, particularly those with low education. The report said this is a troubling trend, given that overuse and poor understanding of the service can be disastrous for consumers and lead to overindebtedness.
  - Zero Hedge, 11 June 2024

• Global food prices rise for third straight month, fueling instability risks in the developing world
  - Zero Hedge, 11 June 2024

• What retail apocalypse? Shopping centers are making a comeback. Vacancy is the lowest it has been in two decades, at 5.4 percent, according to a recent report. The properties are thriving even as retailers such as Macy's and Express shutter many stores.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 11 June 2024

• People in Bharat get 'addicted' to 10-minute grocery apps (such as SoftBank's Swiggy -- and Zepto and Blinkit), squeezing small retailers. It is threatening income for millions of mom-and-pop stores that for decades dominated the grocery trade in a country where big supermarkets are relatively scarce and are located in more affluent neighbourhoods or malls.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 10 June 2024

• Onion farmers in Pakistan onion farmers and exporters are celebrating a windfall due to an unprecedented surge in exports over the past few months, an unlikely win at the cost of their counterparts across the border in Bharat, after in December, when Bharat imposed an export ban due to a decline in local onion production, ahead of national elections. The success of onion exports from Pakistan resulted in a shortage of onions in the domestic market for a few months.
  - Al Jazeera, 10 June 2024

• Nihon runs on vending machines. It is about to make them unusable. New yen notes set to be introduced this summer will not be compatible with many machines that businesses like ramen shops rely on.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 10 June 2024

• Books written in the English language are filling bookstores in Europe. Young people, especially, are choosing to read in English even if it is not their first language because they want the covers, and the titles, to match what they see on TikTok and other social media.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 10 June 2024

• Consumers in the USA really, really hate inflation -- and that is a big problem for the Federal Reserve. The Fed for years has targeted 2% inflation. Some economists think 4% would give the Fed more room to get out of downturns.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 10 June 2024

• 10,000 fast food workers in California 'McFired' thanks to $20 minimum wage
  - Zero Hedge, 09 June 2024

• Trump has not released a detailed economic plan. But three of his key proposals would push up prices, according to economists, hurting the poor, and benefitting the rich, his true consituency.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 09 June 2024

• The plight of the marijuana market in Colorado. What once was a success story has now left a trail of failed businesses and cash-strapped entrepreneurs in its wake. Regulatory burdens, an oversaturated market and increasing competition from nearby states have all landed major blows, leaving other states with newer marijuana markets scrambling to avoid the same mistakes.
  - Politico, 09 June 2024

• The plight of the marijuana market in Colorado. What once was a success story has now left a trail of failed businesses and cash-strapped entrepreneurs in its wake. Regulatory burdens, an oversaturated market and increasing competition from nearby states have all landed major blows, leaving other states with newer marijuana markets scrambling to avoid the same mistakes.
  - Zero Hedge, 09 June 2024

• Big food, bigger conspiracy. Smaller farms that cannot hire lobbyists will inevitably fewer socialist subsidies because they have no way to bribe remind the politicians of their existence.
  - Zero Hedge, 08 June 2024

• Costly USA sugar taxes/tariffs drive candy makers in the USA over the border to Canada. The USA sugar industry is heavily protected, and buyers such as confectioners and processed-food makers can only import certain amounts of raw and refined sugar before incurring hefty tariffs. The decades-old socialist regulations are intended to protect US farmer profits and prevent other countries from flooding the country with sugar. But critics say it also keeps US sugar prices artificially high, burdening American sweets companies and refineries trying to operate at home.
  - Bloomberg, 08 June 2024

• Soaring prices of coffee force the owner of Folgers to increase supermarket prices
  - Zero Hedge, 08 June 2024

• South Korea has vending machines selling gold bars, and they are selling out
  - Zero Hedge, 08 June 2024

• "Not Sustainable": high insurance costs threaten affordable housing. Homeowners in areas battered by climate disasters are facing dizzying insurance rate increases. But builders of housing for the homeless and other low-income families are also struggling.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 08 June 2024

• It is a buyer's market for boats, RVs and other pandemic toys. Sales of recreational items went from pandemic boom to inflationary bust. Some sellers were braced for the downturn.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 08 June 2024

• Apple is expected to make AI the heart of the next iPhone, but pent-up demand following three weak years may be a bigger factor helping sales this time
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 08 June 2024

• Investing in sports has arrived. Here is the state of play. A fluid and disparate sports business ecosystem is being etched by a handful of pioneering private-equity firms.
  - Barron's, 08 June 2024

• Is fast food affordable anymore? A detailed look at menu prices over the years. Menu prices at McDonald's have doubled since 2014 across popular items.
  - Zero Hedge, 07 June 2024

• Ultra-cheap meals from the delivery giant of Zhōngguó are hugely popular. Drivers are bearing the costs [KM: which allows the companies to become richer]. Meituan's group order program boomed amid Zhōngguó's post-Covid-19 thrift economy, but delivery drivers say they are working longer for less pay.
  - Rest of the World, 07 June 2024

• A shocking decline in credit card debt (as people pay off their credit card debt) is first since Covid crash, as credit card APRs hit new all time high
  - Zero Hedge, 07 June 2024

• The retail bloodbath: more than 2,600 store closings have been announced so far in 2024
  - Zero Hedge, 07 June 2024

• Stop & Shop could shutter over 10% of stores as shoppers flee high prices
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 07 June 2024

• Airline industry leaves Covid turbulence behind. Having left behind most Covid-related turbulences, the global airline industry emerged from the storm in 2023, returning to profitability after three years of deep losses.
  - Zero Hedge, 06 June 2024

• Bolt's drive-to-win insurance scheme is putting drivers' lives at risk. Many drivers in Nigeria who attempted to win health care said they have become ill while doing so -- and still can't afford treatment.
  - Rest of the World, 06 June 2024

• Food delivery giant Meituan, based in Zhōngguó, beats estimates to post 25% quarterly revenue increase. Meituan reported better-than-expected earnings in March quarter, with revenue of US$10.1 billion and profit of US$745 million. Meituan co-founder and chief executive Wang Xing said the company is looking to expand into more international markets, including in Southeast Asia.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 06 June 2024

• Novo Nordisk braces for a generic challenge to Ozempic and Wegovy in Zhōngguó. The patent on semaglutide, the active ingredient in both Wegovy and Ozempic, expires in 2026 in Zhōngguó. Competitors are developing at least 15 generic versions.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 06 June 2024

• Zara owner Inditex sales grow on success of spring/summer collections. Zara owner Inditex said second-quarter sales rose 12%, above expectations, with new store openings, refurbishments and online business expected to further support growth going forward.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 06 June 2024

• Renters and owners live in separate economies. In short, renters are in dire straits financially, while homeowners are "continuing to reap the rewards" of cheap pandemic money.
  - Zero Hedge, 05 June 2024

• Online marketplace eBay to drop American Express, citing high fees, relying on customers having other credit options
  - Associated Press, 05 June 2024

• How the demand for air conditioning in Asia is threatening the climate change goals of the region
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 05 June 2024

• $50,000,000 - The multimillion-dollar scandal rocking pickleball. Hundreds of retirees and other creditors say a man who sold Pickleball Rocks merchandise at tournaments across the U.S. owes them nearly $50 million.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 05 June 2024

• The YOLO economy (spend all you can, "you only live once") is dying. That could be bad news for a consumer-driven economy. Inflation is still elevated and consumers are running out of their Covid-era savings, the job market is beginning to tighten and workers are getting worried about losing their jobs.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 04 June 2024

• How influencer cartels manipulate social media: fraudulent behavior hidden in plain sight. An influencer cartel is a group of influencers who collude to boost their advertising fees by inflating engagement metrics.
  - Zero Hedge, 04 June 2024

• Electric cars are suddenly becoming affordable. More efficient manufacturing, falling battery costs and intense competition are lowering sticker prices for battery-powered models to within striking distance of gasoline cars.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 04 June 2024

• As shoppers buy less, retailers bring back discounts
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 04 June 2024

• Enough guests have complained about QR codes and scanning for food options that many restaurants are reverting back to printed menus designed for humans
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 04 June 2024

• ISM Manufacturing Survey signals further stagflation: growth slows, prices rise
  - Zero Hedge, 03 June 2024

• Dollar General to eliminate the "vast majority" of self-checkout terminals in its stores due to soaring theft
  - Zero Hedge, 03 June 2024

• Companies counter pushback on price increases with promotions. "The consumer was a fat pig -- and now there is nothign left, and they need to feed the pig again."
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 03 June 2024

• In Miami, jobs are plentiful -- and you might need two jobs to afford living in Miami. The Fed wants strong employment and low inflation. Miami shows just how hard it is to attain both at once.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 03 June 2024

• Dr. Pepper soda, owned by Keurig, ties Pepsi as the 'number 2' soda in the USA. After decades as a distant contender, Dr Pepper has climbed the ranks with help from hefty marketing, novel flavors and TikTok videos."
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 03 June 2024

• A "restaurant apocalypse" is starting to sweep across the USA, and that is really bad news for the economy of the USA
  - Zero Hedge, 02 June 2024

• A global shortage of cocoa is much worse than previously forecasted as prices surge
  - Zero Hedge, 01 June 2024

• Electricity from coal is pricey. Should consumers have to pay?
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 01 June 2024

• American Express zooms ahead as Gen Z gets hooked on credit card rewards. Amex has found that young spenders enjoy perks as much or more than their parents. Now it has to keep them happy.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 01 June 2024

• Do not expect the Fed to reduce interest rates this year. Chairman Powell and his team had hoped to lower rates in 2024. But sticky inflation, a strong economy, and calendar quirks are thwarting their plans.
  - Barron's, 01 June 2024

• How retail giant Walmart conquered inflation. As millions of shoppers grapple with rising prices, the retail titan has managed to attract a wide range of customers, from low-income to high-net-worth households.
  - Zero Hedge, 31 May 2024

• The Chicago Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) unexpectedly plummets to Depression-era levels. We have not just a depression, but a stagflationary depression in which everything else is going to hell, except prices: they keep on rising.
  - Zero Hedge, 31 May 2024

• The Fed's preferred inflation measure, the PCE, rose 0.2% in April, as expected
  - Comcast's CNBC, 31 May 2024

• The Core PCE measure grows at slowest pace in three years after lowest monthly increase of 2024, as spending drops
  - Zero Hedge, 31 May 2024

• Inflation seems to be cooling again. Americans are not convinced. A slew of big-box retailers have lowered prices on items in recent weeks, citing moderating inflation and frugal customers. Amazon Fresh is discounting thousands of grocery items. Ikea and Aldi have also reduced prices. Americans are just spending less.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 31 May 2024

• Why the use of marijuana is replacing the use of alcohol is a growing trend in the USA
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 31 May 2024

• While good to eat, shrimp is bad for the environment. When it comes to the health of the oceans, many experts say shrimp is among the most damaging foods you can eat. Most prawns on American plates are imported, primarily from Asia and Latin America. More than half of them are raised in farms: sprawling networks of densely packed coastal ponds, often next to the ocean. Building them destroys crucial coastal habitats like mangrove swamps and other wetlands. And once built, farms can further pollute the coasts with runoff like fertilizers and antibiotics. Wild-caught shrimp also come with an enormous ecological price: bycatch. Because shrimp are so small, the nets used to catch them tend to catch everything else in their path. In some countries, as much as 90 percent of what comes up in a shrimp net is not shrimp. Those sharks, turtles, baby snappers and hundreds of other species tend to die in the nets or on the deck of the boat.
  - New York TImes, 31 May 2024

• Home insurance is clobbering consumers. Yet it is barely counted in inflation statistics. Skyrocketing premiums are hitting homeowners hard, but they barely factor into common price measures. The biggest jumps occurred in Texas, Arizona and Utah - three leading climate-change-denying states run by Christians.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 30 May 2024

• Senators see possible conflicts of interest in health care pricing tools. MultiPlan, a data analytics firm, helps insurance companies collect big fees while leaving some patients with unpaid bills -- has been summoned to Washington to explain its business model.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 30 May 2024

• Store brands are filling up more of your shopping cart. Consumer's efforts to cut their food spending have boosted lower-cost private-label brands.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 30 May 2024

• Orange juice prices are going through the roof, now at a record high of $4.77 pound -- forcing some makers to consider alternative fruits. Prices are rising due to declining output in Florida, and climate-fueled extreme weather in the main orange producing areas of Brazil
  - Comcast's CNBC, 30 May 2024

• Shares of Foot Locker rise 13% as the company posted better-than-expected comparable sales as CEO Mary Dillon's turnaround plan begins to bear fruit
  - Comcast's CNBC, 30 May 2024

• Shares of Kohl's plummet 20% after a massive earnings miss and after lowering its forecast for the full year
  - Comcast's CNBC, 30 May 2024

• Best Buy set for tenth straight quarter of sales drop on weak electronics spending
  - Thomson's Reuters, 29 May 2024

• The president of MacDonald's USA says the average menu item is up 40% since 2019, not 100% as some critics claim
  - Comcast's CNBC, 29 May 2024

• The "worst since the great recession" of 2008 -- the Dallas Fed Services Survey slumps in May as respondents fear "inflation is getting pretty scary"
  - Zero Hedge, 29 May 2024

• Cancer is destroying the finances of Americans. Higher drug prices, rising out-of-pocket costs and reduced incomes create economic strain for many patients.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 29 May 2024

• Bankruptcies have left more stores vacant, but the space does not sit empty for long. Available retail locations are near record lows, and that makes it easier than ever for landlords to replace departing tenants.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 29 May 2024

• The junk-food industrial complex is on notice after pumping American consumers with sugars and carbs for decades, sparking an obesity crisis that has weighed on the nation's healthcare system. Remarkably, big pharma's response to the obesity crisis is an injectable drug, while the federal government is nowhere to be found in promoting healthy diets and exercise to the masses.
  - Zero Hedge, 28 May 2024

• HubSpot shares jump 8% on talks of potential deal with Google
  - Comcast's CNBC, 28 May 2024

• Shipments of Apple's iPhones in Zhōngguó rebound 52%, as market share loss to Huawei may be stabilizing
  - Zero Hedge, 28 May 2024

• Most biodegradable plastic really does not biodegrade
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 28 May 2024

• Retailers are being urged to stop making everyday products such as drinks bottles, outdoor furniture and toys out of brightly coloured plastic after researchers found it degrades into microplastics faster than plainer colours
  - The Guardian, 27 May 2024

• Why hotels in New York City are so expensive right now. The average hotel room rate in the city is $301 a night, a record. A major reason: One of every five hotels is now a shelter, contributing to a shortage of tourist lodging.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 27 May 2024

• Not long ago, streaming TV came with a "thou shalt not lie" promise: sign up, and you will not be harassed by commercials. Not unexpectedly, it was a lie - ads are getting increasingly hard to avoid on streaming services.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 27 May 2024

• 300% inflation in Argentina and a propped-up peso have spawned a border ghost town in Uruguay. Shoppers from Paraguay used to flock in their droves to the border town of Nanawa to buy cheap imports from Argentina. Now Nanawa is a ghost town, with prices of the contraband pushed up steeply by Argentina's rare mix of near 300% inflation and a propped-up peso that has even rallied against the dollar in widely-used parallel markets under libertarian President Javier Milei.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 27 May 2024

• The average vehicle in the USA is 12.6 years old, as inflation makes it harder to buy new vehicles
  - Zero Hedge, 25 May 2024

• Americans are delaying their home renovation plans and opting for more affordable options amid high borrowing costs and a housing market recovery that has yet to materialize. Two of the top home improvement retailers in the USA, Home Depot and Lowe's, reported this month that consumers are spending less on big-ticket projects that often require loans and trading down for more affordable do-it-yourself remedies. Customers are looking for cheaper alternatives in categories like cabinets, flooring, lighting fixtures, and countertops.
  - Apollo Global's Yahoo Finance, 25 May 2024

• Rise of resort day passes offers travelers luxury on a budget. Day passes at hotels and resorts offer guests access to amenities without the cost of reserving a room.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 25 May 2024

• A lender to consumer start-ups falters, rattling its clients. Ampla, which lent money to smaller businesses that sold clothing, home furnishings and other items directly to consumers, is struggling financially and seeking a buyer.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 25 May 2024

• Dealers of Jeep and Ram vehicles gripe to Stellantis as cars sit on lots. The automaker is cutting prices and launching an unusual incentive program following a meeting with retailers.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 25 May 2024

• Why a shabby luxury brand is hard to fix. Slowing sales and the growing clout of LVMH are a tough backdrop for turnarounds at brands such as Gucci and Burberry.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 25 May 2024

• What cheap electric vehicles from Zhōngguó mean for General Motors and Tesla. Inexpensive vehicles are not a threat to automakers in the USA, but better quality vehicles could be a threat. And these higher quality cars from Zhōngguó are coming, even if the taxes/tariffs delay them for awhile.
  - Barron's, 25 May 2024

• First McDonald's, now Burger King admits that consumers have less money to spend, as Burger King plans to reintroduce a $5 meal deal
  - Zero Hedge, 24 May 2024

• Many Americans say they will never retire. Everyday expenses and housing costs, including rent and mortgage payments, are the biggest reasons why people are unable to save for retirement.
  - Zero Hedge, 24 May 2024

• The USA files a lawsuit to breakup the owner of Ticketmaster. Accused of violating antitrust laws, Live Nation Entertainment faces a fight that could reshape the multibillion-dollar live music industry.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 24 May 2024

• The USA files a lawsuit to breakup the owner of Ticketmaster. Accused of violating antitrust laws, Live Nation Entertainment faces a fight that could reshape the multibillion-dollar live music industry.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 24 May 2024

• In SouthEast Asia, companies in Zhōngguó making electric vehicles, such as giants such as BYD and Great Wall, are offering discounts in an effort to outcompete rivals from Nihon whose gasoline vehicles dominate the market
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 24 May 2024

• $2,800,000,000 - The NCAA and Power Five college sports associations agree to pay $2.8 billion over 10 years to more than 14,000 former and current college athletes who say now-defunct rules prevented them from earning money from endorsement and sponsorship deals dating to 2016
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 23 May 2024

• Stocks fade as the market pump, after Nvidia's earnings report, withers, and as 'hot' PMI data causes bond yields to rise
  - Zero Hedge, 23 May 2024

• $366,000,000 - Mondelez, the maker of Oreos, milk chocolates and other added-sugar and fatty foods, is fined $366 million for hindering the trade of chocolate, cookies and coffee between European Union countries in order to keep prices high. The European Union ruled that Mondelez had illegally limited cross-border sales within the EU to maintain higher prices for its products.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 23 May 2024

• Americans desperate for bargains are flocking to online retailer Temu, and making its owner in Zhōngguó very rich
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 23 May 2024

• Walmart and Target unless a 'tsunami' of price cuts, as the working-poor hit a 'brick-wall' of spending
  - Zero Hedge, 23 May 2024

• Inflation in the United Kingdom falls to 2.3%, the lowest in 3 years
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 23 May 2024

• Inflation in the United Kingdom falls to 2.3% in April, nearing the Bank of England's target and opening the way for an interest rate reduction in the coming months, although prices of services continued to rise at a pace that will concern policymakers.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 23 May 2024

• Target reports another sales drop. Comparable sales fell 3.7%, marking the fourth straight quarter of declines for Target.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 23 May 2024

• Shares of Target dorp 8% after the retailer's comparable sales missed Wall Street's consensus estimates for the quarter that ended May 4.
  - Zero Hedge, 22 May 2024

• Increasing demand for power and raw-materials from new technology is likely to be a secular tailwind for commodities and thus an impediment to a return to a low-and-stable inflation regime.
  - Zero Hedge, 22 May 2024

• Trump's proposed tariffs would cost families about $1,700 annually. And lower-income households would be hit relatively harder.
  - Reason, 23 May 2024

• Rent is harder to pay for and inflation is a burden, a Fed financial survey finds. The Federal Reserve's 2023 survey on household financial well-being found Americans excelling in the job market but struggling with prices.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 22 May 2024

• CVS, Walgreens and Rite Aid are closing hundreds of stores as discount retailers and e-commerce outlets increase competition
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 22 May 2024

• Regular use of fish oil supplements, a source of omega-3 fatty acids, may increase, not reduce, the risk of first-time stroke and atrial fibrillation among people in good cardiovascular health.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 22 May 2024

• How private first screwed Red Lobster with a sale/leaseback deal that profited private equity but left Red Lobster with overpriced rents, and then Red Lobster was further screwed by horrible marketing decisions by new management and a lousy supply deal for shrimp.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 21 May 2024

• Red Lobster, a seafood institution in the USA, files for bankruptcy
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 21 May 2024

• A European Union law that aims to make chocolate more sustainable has left farmers racing to map their plots -- and is predicted to add to the high prices of chocolate.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 20 May 2024

• Another online pharmacy, Him & Hers Health, bypasses the FDA to offer cut-rate weight loss drugs. The copycat versions are made by compounding pharmacies. The formulations are not the same as the FDA-approved versions of the drug and have not been directly evaluated by the FDA, either. But they are cheaper than the real thing: $199 a month, compared to the branded version, which can cost more than $1,000 a month without insurance.
  - The Verge, 20 May 2024

• Apple reduces the prices of iPhone 15 smartphones in Zhōngguó as demand decreases
  - Zero Hedge, 20 May 2024

• Americans are falling deeper into debt to buy groceries. To get relief, some are turning to credit cards, buy now pay later or payday loans to buy food. But those balances can be difficult to pay down due to a higher cost of living.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 20 May 2024

• Target starts price war with Walmart by reducing the cost of 5000 of the most popular items
  - Daily Mail, 20 May 2024

• $108,000,000 - Vantage Travel Services files for bankruptcy, owing customers $108 million for cruises and other travel products they had paid for but never received.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 20 May 2024

• Proposed taxes/tariffs by the Biden administration on goods from Zhōngguó are the end of the era of cheap goods from Zhōngguó
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 19 May 2024

• Under Armour was a real threat to Nike. Now Under Armour is fighting to stay relevant. It is struggling -- badly -- to find its footing in an increasingly competitive and crowded sportwear marketplace for regular folks, where younger shoppers are more googly-eyed over newer entrants like Hoka and On running shoes.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 18 May 2024

• Surging hospital prices are helping keep inflation high. Hospital prices last month notched their highest increase in 13 years. The hikes are a reason inflation remains elevated in the USA.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 18 May 2024

• Replacement inventory for dairy cows in the USA collapses to two-decade low
  - Zero Hedge, 17 May 2024

• Shares of Walmart rose 7%, after reporting strong growth in sales and profit in the first quarter, helped by higher-income shoppers.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 17 May 2024

• Millions of people in eastern Texas as thunderstorms topple electricity transmission towers
  - Zero Hedge, 16 May 2024

• Under Armour approves restructuring, warns of collapse in clothing demand as buyback authorized to save plunging stock, dropping 10% before bouncing back after the buyback news
  - Zero Hedge, 16 May 2024

• Under Armour approves restructuring, warns of collapse in clothing demand as buyback authorized to save plunging stock, dropping 10% before bouncing back after the buyback news
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 16 May 2024

• The Supreme Court ruled that the funding mechanism that feeds the Obama-era agency Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is constitutional. In a 7-2 decision, authored by Justice Clarence Thomas, the court held that Congress uniquely authorized the bureau to draw its funding directly from the Federal Reserve System, therefore allowing it to bypass the usual funding mechanisms laid out in the Appropriations Clause of the Constitution.
  - Murdoch's Fox News, 16 May 2024

• The Supreme Court ruled that the funding mechanism that feeds the Obama-era agency Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is constitutional. In a 7-2 decision, authored by Justice Clarence Thomas, the court held that Congress uniquely authorized the bureau to draw its funding directly from the Federal Reserve System, therefore allowing it to bypass the usual funding mechanisms laid out in the Appropriations Clause of the Constitution.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 16 May 2024

• Shares of Walmart rise 5% in pre-market trading after beating estimates, guiding higher, as consumers "trade down"
  - Zero Hedge, 16 May 2024

• The Bloomberg Commodity Index hits highest in year as sticky inflation becomes nightmare for Fed
  - Zero Hedge, 16 May 2024

• Users of Google's smartphones are more more likely to switch to another brand, than users of smartphones sold by Apple or Samsung
  - Zero Hedge, 16 May 2024

• Inside the rent inflation measure that economics nerds love to hate -- the 'owner's equivalent rent'. Detractors blast if for being so slow-moving that it does not reflect up-to-date conditions in the economy. Critics argue that it uses convoluted statistical methods that make little sense. The most intense haters insist that it is giving a false impression about where inflation stands. The Consumer Price Index inflation measure accounts for housing costs in a complicated way. There are reasons for it.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 16 May 2024

• The reign of Walmart is the biggest retailer in the USA is under threat. With Amazon a close and second biggest retailer, Walmart is seeking ways to continue growing.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 16 May 2024

• The economy of Japan shrinks again as inflation causes consumers to spend more money, or buy less goods. The weakness of the yen currency drives up the prices of imported food and gasoline.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 16 May 2024

• Inflation puts more retirees at risk of running out of money. Rising prices require bigger withdrawals from retirement savings.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 16 May 2024

• The 100-year quest to make a paper bottle. Diageo, Pernod Ricard and Procter & Gamble are among a raft of companies testing designs they are betting can help their brands stand out on shelves, woo consumers concerned about plastic and cut carbon emissions.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 16 May 2024

• The CEO of Tyson Foods is not sure when the collapsing beef herds of the USA will reverse in size, resulting in higher beef prices for longer
  - Zero Hedge, 15 May 2024

• Many people in Utah are getting cheap 10 Gbps fiber network access, thanks to local governments creating a shared public fiber network that any ISP can connect to and compete on. No surprise, regional monopolies notorious for overcharging for network access, have been trying to attack the success of this public-private initiative.
  - Zero Hedge, 15 May 2024

• Rice, the grain that feeds the world, is at risk of an upside breakout, reaching 15-year highs in 2023 of around $650/ton. This could worsen food price inflation around the world.
  - Zero Hedge, 15 May 2024

• A soft CPI report and sloppy sales spark run to record highs for stocks, bonds, gold and bitcoin
  - Zero Hedge, 15 May 2024

• Stocks, bonds, gold and bitcoin soar in price as hopes for interest rate cuts rise on small CPI miss
  - Zero Hedge, 15 May 2024

• The latest CPI report shows that inflation eased in April, with consumer prices rising 3.4% from one year ago
  - Comcast's CNBC, 15 May 2024

• Inflation eases as core prices post smallest increase since 2021. The results were in line with expectations. Investors cheered, sending stocks higher.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 15 May 2024

• Bnod yields decline, and could drop further if today's CPI figure is low
  - Zero Hedge, 15 May 2024

• Walgreens to offers its own cheaper version of the opioid overdose reveral drug, naloxone
  - Comcast's CNBC, 15 May 2024

• Dozens of Red Lobster restaurants are auctioning off their equipment. The seafood chain has been losing money for years. The liquidator behind the auction said more than 50 of its locationsin the USA had closed.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 15 May 2024

• Fed Chair Jerome Powell maintains wait-and-see posture on inflation and interest rates. The Fed chief said he expected inflation to continue heading lower but that he was less confident than he had previously been about that outlook.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 15 May 2024

• Quarterly profits for Alibaba decline despite an increase in sales in its key e-commerce, cloud and logistics businesses.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 15 May 2024

• Samsung tops Apple in Q1 global shipments of cellphones
  - Zero Hedge, 14 May 2024

• Electric vehicles unable to be sold by Tesla pile up in the parking lots of shopping malls, with big discounts likely
  - Mish Talk, 14 May 2024

• Record levels of household debt, a jump in delinquencies, signall "worsening financial distress", according to the Federal Reserve
  - Zero Hedge, 14 May 2024

• Shares of Alibaba fall 7% after the Chinese tech giant posts 86% drop in profit
  - Comcast's CNBC, 14 May 2024

• Tencent profit jumps 62% as tech giant returns to growth on back of strong ad revenue, as video games business slows
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 14 May 2024

• Wholesale prices, the Producers Price Index, rose 0.5% in April, more than predicted by economists. Services prices boosted the wholesale inflation reading, climbing 0.6% and accounting for about three-quarters of the headline gain.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 14 May 2024

• Shares of AMC rose over 90% today, after it announces it sold $250 million in new stock shares as its stock price is being bubbled-up again
  - Comcast's CNBC, 14 May 2024

• Why is inflation so stubborn? Ask your local small business. Many small operations, squeezed by higher costs, say they plan to keep raising prices.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 14 May 2024

• Airlines fight back against fee-disclosure rules required by the Biden Administration to protect consumers. The Transportation Department says its rule, requiring added disclosure of baggage and flight-change fees, helps consumers avoid overpaying for surprise charges.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 14 May 2024

• Marketing budgets as a share of revenue fall to postpandemic low. New Gartner survey of CMOs and other marketing leaders finds average budgets have declined in the years following the pandemic as marketers are required to do more with less.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 14 May 2024

• Fast casual dining foot traffic "plummets" across New York - New Jersey as consumer cracks
  - Zero Hedge, 13 May 2024

• Zhōngguó is facing an epic deflationary crash that it can no longer hide. One of the more disturbing trends in Zhōngguó, though, is the effort to use large infrastructure projects to hide the nation's deflationary decline.
  - Zero Hedge, 13 May 2024

• Shein, the online retailer based in Zhōngguó, has attempted to become a member of the National Retail Federation in the USA, the largest trade association for retailers, numerous times but has been rejected. If Shein can earn a stamp of approval from the NRF, it would be a form of validation for the retailer and could help legitimize it in the eyes of politicians in the USA.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 13 May 2024

• Zhōngguó is raising the fares of bullet train as debts and costs sharply rise. The politically fraught move comes as part of a broader push in Zhōngguó to stem losses at subsidized public services.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 13 May 2024

• Investors and analysts on Wall Street are forcing companies to increase performance. Shares of companies that missed first-quarter earnings estimates have slid an average of 2.8%, compared with the five-year average of a 2.3% decline.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 13 May 2024

• The new libertarian president of Argentina pledged shock therapy. So far, all he is delivering is economic pain. Poverty, hunger and food prices are rising, but Javier Milei says the "promise of prosperity" is at hand if his overhaul can take hold.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 13 May 2024

• Chicken wings are the new inflation hedge. Diners are buying more wings at fast-food chains and frozen tenders at grocery stores. Meat giants like Tyson Foods and Pilgrim's Pride, in turn, are bringing in higher profits.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 13 May 2024

• The average credit card debt in the USA is soaring past $6500, which is not surprising as many people are forced to use their credit cards to survive inflated prices for consumer goods
  - Zero Hedge, 11 May 2024

• McDonald's admits that consumers have little extra money to spend, as it plans to reintroduce a $5 meal
  - Zero Hedge, 11 May 2024

• Why companies are nervous about the consumers. On earnings calls, dozens of corporate executives have cited a slowdown in spending to explain why sales are slipping.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 11 May 2024

• $10,000,000 - T-Mobile, Verizon, and AT&T will pay a combined $10.2 million in a settlement with US states that alleged the carriers falsely advertised wireless plans as "unlimited" and phones as "free".
  - Zero Hedge, 10 May 2024

• Diamond giant De Beers slashed the price of its lab-grown rocks by nearly 40% (for $800/carat to $500/carat), citing their plummeting wholesale prices
  - Murdcoh's New York Post, 10 May 2024

• How Alibaba is leading the evolution of online luxury shopping. Alibaba's Tmall Luxury Pavilion is the first e-commerce platform to collaborate with major luxury groups such as LVMH, Richemont and Kering, uplifting sales for high-end brands using new digital strategies.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 10 May 2024

• Supersize it: expansion of domestic market urged to avoid middle-income trap. Policy adviser Liu Yuanchun says expanding weak domestic demand remains the 'key measure' for Zhōngguó, with reforms needed to empower rural population as Beijing eyes sustainable economic growth.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 10 May 2024

• Hospitals are refusing to do surgeries unless you pay in full first. The facilities say that advance billing helps them avoid chasing patients to pay after their procedures.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 10 May 2024

• Hate-driven conservative Christian groups are filing more proposals implying that companies working with LGBTQ organizations could become the next Bud Light (instead of following Christ to help such companies make the world better for LGBTQ people)
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 10 May 2024

• Manhattan apartment rents gain momentum, signal potential record highs this summer
  - Zero Hedge, 09 May 2024

• Behind the missing "strength" of consumers in the USA is $700 billion in 'phantom debt' - debt arising from "buy now pay later" plans
  - Zero Hedge, 09 May 2024

• In all its hubris, the Fed is stuck between preventing a banking crisis and preventing inflation from getting even more out of control
  - Zero Hedge, 09 May 2024

• Shares of Roblox, a video-game platform, drop more than 20% as the company cuts annual bookings forecast on muted player spending
  - Comcast's CNBC, 09 May 2024

• In an effort to curb microplastics and marine pollution, state lawmakers in FLorida voted to ban intentional releases of balloons
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 09 May 2024

• The "cash for clunkers" (dealers pay for your old car to get you to buy a new one) popular in the USA has returned -- in Zhōngguó. Some economists believe incentives for people to trade in old machinery could flood the world with more exports.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 09 May 2024

• "Is consumer travel spending easing?" - Bank of America identifies new trend as travel companies miss earnings
  - Zero Hedge, 08 May 2024

• Shares of Shopify fall 18% on weak guidance
  - Comcast's CNBC, 08 May 2024

• Shipments of iPhones in Zhōngguó rise 12% after Apple offers discounts
  - Zero Hedge, 08 May 2024

• The gap between the price you see and what you pay is getting worse. A mass unbundling of charges creates more surprise fees when it is time to pay.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 08 May 2024

• How online shopping is saving the bricks-and-mortar store. Retailers are increasingly relying on their shops as fulfillment hubs.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 08 May 2024

• Instacart and Uber join forces to add Uber Eats to Instacart app. The two companies announce the partnership as they face competition from common rival DoorDash.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 08 May 2024

• Bad-loans hit record-high as used-car prices suffer worst bear-market ever
  - Zero Hedge, 07 May 2024

• A Trojan tomato: a new GMO is designed to infiltrate gardens of the USA. Gardeners can buy a new seed, a genetically modified tomato the FDA barely looked at and GMO proponents hope will win Americans over to more modified foods.
  - Zero Hedge, 07 May 2024

• Shocking collapse in credit card debt growth just as card APRs (annual interest rates) hit all time high
  - Zero Hedge, 07 May 2024

• Shares of Disney drop 8.5%, the biggest decline in a year, after not meeting expectations for susbcriber growth and offering disappointing guidance
  - Zero Hedge, 07 May 2024

• Gold bars are selling like 'hot cakes' in the convenience stores and vending machines in South Korea
  - Comcast's CNBC, 07 May 2024

• Tesla pullback puts onus on others to build electric vehicle chargers. The automaker led by Elon Musk is no longer planning to take the lead in expanding the number of places to fuel electric vehicles. It is not clear how quickly other companies will fill the gap.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 07 May 2024

• Minor automobile accidents causes very high repair costs, because every new vehicle sold in the last few years has sensors and cameras, including radar and sonar, throughout the body of the vehicle. These have made the repair process more complex because, unlike a smashed fender, a sensor or camera cannot just be bolted or welded back on. To work, they need to be carefully and precisely aligned. It has changed the process of collision repair a lot.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 07 May 2024

• How TikTok is wiring Gen Z's money brain. Endless videos about the economy and consumerism are giving 20-somethings a case of "money dysmorphia" - worrying that they don't have enough -- stuff.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 07 May 2024

• Tyson Foods warns low-income consumers are cracking under inflation storm. "And in retail, we are seeing roughly 20% cumulative inflation over the last three year."
  - Zero Hedge, 06 May 2024

• $79,000,000 - Qantas Airways has agreed to pay 120 million Australian dollars ($79 million) to settle a lawsuit over the sale of thousands of tickets on already canceled flights, in an attempt to end a reputational crisis that has engulfed the airline.
  - Zero Hedge, 06 May 2024

• The 'rocket fuel' behind Zhōngguó Shock 2.0: a weak currency, and deflation. Flat to falling prices coupled with inflation elsewhere and a lower exchange rate have turbocharged the export boom from Zhōngguó.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 06 May 2024

• The iPhone is losing its cutting-edge appeal in Zhōngguó. A fall in sales for Apple in Zhōngguó shows that some consumers there no longer see the iPhone as the most advanced in technology.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 04 May 2024

• After installation, solar panels become a maintenance nightmare, as sales-oriented solar panel companies ignore costly service and maintenance owed to customers
  - Zero Hedge, 03 May 2024

• Starbucks is running out of people in the USA to drink its expensive coffee. Starbucks is relying on foreigners, especially in Zhōngguó, to buy a lot more of its drinks, but competition is insane, such as fron Luckin.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 03 May 2024

• Bloomberg reports that Pilgrim's Pride and the industry as a whole have developed 'hatchery issues', which means a large number of eggs in incubators aren't hatching. This could raise chicken prices even higher.
  - Zero Hedge, 03 May 2024

• ISM Services Survey slumps in April - first contraction since 2022 but prices are accelerating
  - Zero Hedge, 03 May 2024

• Americans greatly increased their use of self-storage. That demand is suddenly cooling. Many developers, spurred by the Covid pandemic to invest money in new self-storage facilities, have been caught short by this drop in demand.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 03 May 2024

• Fed Chair Jerome Powell projects optimism, but inflation data are in 'the driver's seat'. Some analysts warn of limits as to how long the central bank can keep avoiding increases in interest rates.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 03 May 2024

• Mentions of "sticky inflation" during earnings calls hits new high as big brands warn about buckling consumers
  - Zero Hedge, 02 May 2024

• An unruly passenger must pay United Airlines $20,638 for disrupting flight
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 02 May 2024

• BYD and other electric vehicle makers in Zhōngguó reported higher sales and deliveries in April, offering a sign of rebounding demand amid continuing price wars.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 02 May 2024

• Shares of Nio soar more than 20% as electric vehicle deliveries more than double in April
  - Comcast's CNBC, 02 May 2024

• Shares of Peloton rise 12% in pre-market trading, after the CEO announces that he will resign, that the company will fire 15% of its people, and as it looks to refinance debt
  - Comcast's CNBC, 02 May 2024

• Shares of Wayfair surge 17% after the furniture retailer cuts losses by more than $100 million, including by firing 1650 people in January
  - Comcast's CNBC, 02 May 2024

• The long-predicted reducing spending by consumer finally starts reducing sales at restaurants such as Starbucks, Kentucky Fried Chicken and McDonald's.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 02 May 2024

• Shares of Carvana rise 30% during after-hours trading Wednesday after the used car retailer reported record results and turned a profit during the first quarter
  - Comcast's CNBC, 01 May 2024

• This year's Whitney Biennial shows how the elite art institutions of the USA are stifling innovation and creativity in the arts
  - Manhattan Institute, 01 May 2024

• The demise of Red Lobster is a perfect case study in how to kill a business. It has too much debt, some of its "all you can eat" promotions lost a lot of money, waning customer interest, constant leadership turnover, and, as has become a common tale, private equity's meddling in the business.
  - Business Insider, 01 May 2024

• Shares of Wiking rise more more than 10% after the stock market debut of the cruise line operator
  - Comcast's CNBC, 01 May 2024

• More stagflation signals as manufacturing surveys show soaring prices, while orders tumble
  - Zero Hedge, 01 May 2024

• Shares of CVS are down 18% in pre-market trading on earnings miss, and a slashed outlook on rising medical costs
  - Comcast's CNBC, 01 May 2024

• Shares of Starbucks fall 12% overnight, after it misses on earnings and sales esimates
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 01 May 2024

• A court in Pennsylvania rules that Perrier is a soda, not a mineral water, and therefore taxable
  - New York Post, 01 May 2024

• $6,500,000,000 - Johnson & Johnson said it plans to pay $6.5 billion over 25 years to settle nearly all of the thousands of lawsuits in the U.S. claiming its talc-based products caused ovarian cancer, pending approval of the claimants.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 01 May 2024

• The fastest drop since the 'Lehman' crisis: the Chicago PMI plummet screams 'stagflation'
  - Zero Hedge, 30 April 2024

• Walmart launches new grocery brand - Bettergoods, as it tries ot hang on to inflation-fuelded growth. The growth of low-priced grocery chains such as Aldi, Lidl and Trader Joe's has increased the willingness of consumers to stray from national brands.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 30 April 2024

• Walmart launches new grocery brand - Bettergoods, as it tries ot hang on to inflation-fuelded growth. The growth of low-priced grocery chains such as Aldi, Lidl and Trader Joe's has increased the willingness of consumers to stray from national brands.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 30 April 2024

• Walmart plans to close its healthcare clinics around the country, a stunning reversal of its plans to bring its low-priced reputation to the dentist and doctor office along with the grocery aisle. Walmart said it would also shutter its telehealth provider, which it acquired for an undisclosed amount in 2021. In a release, the company said it could not operate a profitable business due to a challenging reimbursement environment and rising costs.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 30 April 2024

• Dave & Buster's to allow customers to bet on arcade games. Customers can soon make a friendly $5 wager on a Hot Shots basketball game, a bet on a Skee-Ball competition or on another arcade game.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 30 April 2024

• Inflation is stubborn. Is the federal budget deficit making it worse? Economists are divided over whether the growing amount of federal borrowing is fueling demand and driving up prices.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 30 April 2024

• Rising food prices send more shoppers to Aldi. The German grocer keeps prices low with smaller stores, fewer staffers and a slimmer product menu than bigger supermarkets.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 30 April 2024

• McDonald's supersizes its investment in Zhōngguó as corporate America pulls back. The fast-food chain aims to nearly double restaurants in the country after spending $1.8 billion to buy back a bigger stake in the company's business there.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 30 April 2024

• ~$200,000,000 - The FCC fined four wireless carriers - Verison, ATT, T-Mobile and Sprint - nearly $200 million for sharing customer-location data without consent.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 30 April 2024

• A man is furious after cybertruck breaks down repeatedly in the first month
  - Futurism, 29 April 2024

• Elon Musk publicly dumped California for Texas -- now customers in California are getting revenge, dumping Tesla in droves. The top two car sellers in California in the first quarter of 2024 were Toyota's Camry and Honda's Civic.
  - Jiaravanon's Fortune, 29 April 2024

• Sari shops and street food stalls: How e-payments have taken over Bharat
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 29 April 2024

• How the new minimum wage law in California could shrink the Subway sandwich chain to its smallest size in decades. Subway shrunk its sandwich chain in the US by 443 stores last year, a surprise downsizing that experts said could continue as its shops in California have to pay people more because of the new increased minimum wage.
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 29 April 2024

• The once-bustling Flatiron District of New York City (6th avenue between the 16th and 21st streets) is now a wasteland of empty storefronts as rampant shoplifting wreaks havoc on iconic neighborhood
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 29 April 2024

• Weaker growth and higher inflation -- why the predictions of many economists were wrong. Many economists argue that the economy is growing, and that inflation is a secondary problem. Not for the average American. Citizens are poorer in absolute and relative terms.
  - Zero Hedge, 29 April 2024

• People in New Orleans like to drink. Students realized a huge recycling opportunity. College students started a venture that has diverted glass bottles from landfills and crushed them into sand for coastal restoration efforts.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 29 April 2024

• Companies such as Experian and TransUnion argue that it is time fopr 'buy now, pay later' loans to appear on consumer credit reports. The lenders are not ready to sign on.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 29 April 2024

• A month after a higher state minimum wage for fast-food workers went into effect, consumers picking up burgers and burritos at chains in the Golden State grapple with prices rising at a faster clip than in other states.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 29 April 2024

• $1,100,000,000 - Shares of Philips rise 46% as the company agrees to pay $1.1 billion for personal injury cases linked to the recall of some of its sleep apnea devices
  - Comcast's CNBC, 29 April 2024

• Mounting evidence is pointing to the nightmare scenario of stagflation for the economy of the USA, coupled with high amounts of government spending and debt. "We have basically pulled forward trillions of dollars of economic growth by borrowing from the future, but that must be repaid at some point. And it is highly inefficient as well".
  - Daily Caller, 28 April 2024

• The reckless policies that helped fill our streets with ridiculously large cars. Dangerous, polluting SUVs and pickups took over America. Lawmakers are partly to blame. For half a century, a litany of sociailst federal policies has favored large SUVs and trucks, pushing automakers and American buyers toward larger models. Instead of counteracting car bloat through regulation, policymakers have subtly encouraged it - bribed by automobile lobbyists. That has been a boon for car companies, but a disaster for everyone else.
  - Vox, 28 April 2024

• A Chipotle double steak bowl is now $39 in California
  - Zero Hedge, 28 April 2024

• $250,000,000 - Warren Buffett's real estate brokerage agrees to $250 million settlement. HomeServices of America, the largest residential real estate brokerage in the United States, will settle the claims brought by home sellers who said they were forced to pay inflated commissions, pending court approval.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 27 April 2024

• Sales of used-cars have move online -- here is why both customers and dealers are happy. The migration has armed consumers with much more information and choices. It has done the same for dealerships.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 27 April 2024

• Veterinarians in the United Kingdom are warning that people are shooting their own animals because they cannot afford to pay their veterinarians. Some corporately-owned veterinary chains have put profit before care, allegedly recommending costly treatments where simpler ones could work. n 2013 just 10 per cent of vet practices were run by large corporations, but that figure has risen to 60 per cent. Some vets routinely insist on expensive overnight stays, although pets are often better off at home.
  - Barclay's The Telegraph, 27 April 2024

• How realtors tamed a wild housing market and created a lucrative monopoly. The National Association of Realtors has long protected its high commissions but has agreed to big changes after losing a landmark court case.
  - Barron's, 27 April 2024

• Biden administration abandons plan to ban menthol cigarettes to avoid 'angering Black voters'
  - Zero Hedge, 26 April 2024

• Biden administration abandons plan to ban menthol cigarettes to avoid 'angering Black voters'
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 26 April 2024

• Chipotle tells workers to "preserve" chicken supply as demand soars. "We temporarily asked all of our employees at corporate and in-restaurants to select another protein option for their meals to preserve our supply."
  - Zero Hedge, 26 April 2024

• With new salt and sugar limits in food for children, school cafeterias are "cringing". Many parents and nutritionists applauded stricter federal regulations to protect the health of their children, but food companies say the changes could increase costs and waste. Rapid inflation has made it harder for schools to prepare meals at or below the cost of $4.30 per student, the federal reimbursement level for the roughly 30 million students who receive federally subsidized meals. Meanwhile, competition for labor has resulted in higher wages -- putting a strain on lunch program budgets -- and shortages of employees in some cafeterias.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 26 April 2024

• The tricky logistics behind direct-to-consumer sales strategies. Suppliers stepping up efforts to reach shoppers are having to mount costly new supply chains built to the task.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 26 April 2024

• Nestle sales growth slows sharply as consumer demand remains weak. The first-quarter organic sales by Nestle missed forecasts as consumer demand remained weak, particularly in North America, while supply-chain disruptions continued to hold back volumes.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 26 April 2024

• 'Stagflationary' GDP data sparks market turmoil - the Dow drops 400 points (Dow and Nasdaq down about 1%), and crushes hopes for interest rate reductions this year
  - Zero Hedge, 25 April 2024

• Stagflation shock: the latest GDP numbers stun with lowest print in 2 years, below lowest estimates, as the PCE inflation statistic comes in 'red hot'
  - Zero Hedge, 25 April 2024

• Stagflation shock: the latest GDP numbers stun with lowest print in 2 years, below lowest estimates, as the PCE inflation statistic comes in 'red hot'
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 25 April 2024

• Hertz loses another $200 million from its investment into electric vehicles, as it increases the number of EVs it will sell from 20,000 to 30,000, sending the stock down 20%
  - Apollo Global's Yahoo Finance, 25 April 2024

• Automatic refunds and no more hidden fees: the Transportation Department sets new rules for airlines in the USA. The Transportation Department issued new requirements on refunds when flights are canceled or delayed and on revealing 'junk' fees before booking.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 25 April 2024

• The true cost of megamergers in healthcare: higher prices. Larger hospital systems negotiate higher pay from insurers that show up as higher premiums for workers.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 25 April 2024

• The price war for electric vehicles in Zhōngguó is just getting started. With a historic round of price cuts this month, Tesla, Li Auto and a host of others have extended the monthslong electric-vehicle price war in Zhōngguó into a new quarter.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 25 April 2024

• The USA steps up monitoring as the FDA warns bird flu found in pasteurized milk from grocery stores
  - Zero Hedge, 24 April 2024

• Ford just reported a massive loss on every electric vehicle it sold, a loss of $132,000 for each of the 10,000 vehicles it sold in the first three months of 2024
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 24 April 2024

• Apple slashes Vision Pro shipment projections by 50% as demand for $3,500 headset plummets
  - Zero Hedge, 24 April 2024

• Shares of Kering SA (the owner of Gucci and other luxury brands) drop 10%, down to a six-year low, on profit warnings and problems with sales in Zhōngguó
  - Zero Hedge, 24 April 2024

• Elon Musk and Tesla learns hard lesson: go anti-woke, go broke. When CEO Elon Musk took a hard turn to the right, the number of Democrats buying Teslas dropped 60 percent.
  - Jalopnik, 23 April 2024

• One, a fintech company backed by Walamrt, introduces a "buy now, pay later" predatory financing scheme as it prepares bigger push into lending. The expanding role of One at Walmart raises the possibility that the company could force Affirm, Capital One and other third parties out of some of the most coveted partnerships in American retail.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 23 April 2024

• US PMIs scream stagflation as manufacturing 'contracts', prices rise, heaviest job cuts since the global financial crisis
  - Zero Hedge, 23 April 2024

• Euro area PMI activity hits 11 month high on service expansion as manufacturing recession gets worse
  - Zero Hedge, 23 April 2024

• iPhone sales in Zhōngguó decline 19% in worst quarter since 2020
  - Zero Hedge, 23 April 2024

• How Pinduoduo rewired online shopping. Pinduoduo appeals to people seeking deals and "downgraded spending" as consumer purchasing in Zhōngguó has slowed recently amid economic rockiness.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 23 April 2024

• Kroger and Albertsons have agreed to sell over 160 additional stores in a divestiture package, a bid to appease competition regulators and close their long-pending merger.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 23 April 2024

• Tesla Q1 preview: investors brace for "worst results in 7 years", a pivot to AI, with cybertruck and robotaxis in focus
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 22 April 2024

• Chipotle keeps raising prices. gym rats and millennials are still buying burritos. Despite repeated price increases, the burrito chain is outperforming restaurant competitors with customers who tend to have higher incomes and be health conscious.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 22 April 2024

• The world procduces about 400 million tons of plastic waste each year. Every day, 2000 tons of plastic are dumped into the ocean, rivers and lakes. Only 9% of plastic products are recycled each year.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 22 April 2024

• A gold coin from Costco costs, at the time of this aricle, $2470, which is about $64 more than the spot price (about a 2.6% 'commission'). If you are buying these coins as an investment, the price of gold needs to rise more than this 2.6% for you to make a profit.
  - Motley Fool, 21 April 2024

• <$45,000,000 - A court in Illinois ordered pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson and Kenvue to pay $45 million to a family that alleged the comopanies' talcum-based baby powder led to the death of a relative diagnosed with a fatal cancer linked to asbestos exposure
  - Forbes, 20 April 2024

• To fight 'shrinkflation', France will force retailers to warn shopper
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 20 April 2024

• Natural gas is inexpensive. Why electricity is not.
  - Barron's, 20 April 2024

• Recent studies show that chlormequat, a pesticide linked to reproductive issues, has been found in popular breakfast cereals like Quaker Oats and Cheerios. As this substance infiltrates the American food supply, the potential risks to our health and future generations loom larger, raising urgent questions about the safety of our everyday food choices.
  - Zero Hedge, 19 April 2024

• Nike "permanently" firing 740 people at its headquarters in Oregon, as part of a restructuring to trim costs
  - Zero Hedge, 19 April 2024

• $110,000,000 - Walgreens will pay the city of Philadelphia $110 million to settle charge of the drug trafficking of opioids
  - WHYY News, 19 April 2024

• $108,000,000 - The state of Virginia will receive $108 million from seven pharmacy chains and healthcare companies, for their role in the drug trafficking of opioids: Teva, Allergan, CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, Cencora/AmeriSourceBergen and Cardinal Health
  - 13 News Now, 19 April 2024

• While recent government data on economic growth and employment remain robust, the NFIB small business confidence survey declined in its latest reading. Not only did it fall to the lowest level in 11 years, but, as far as an economic warning goes, it remained at levels historically associated with a recessionary economy. In the most recent NFIB report, the percentage of business owners planning capital expenditures over the 3-6 months dropped to the lowest level since the pandemic-driven shutdown.
  - Zero Hedge, 19 April 2024

• Fears of a luxury slowdown are materializing. New data from the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry shows that exports of luxury timepieces tumbled the most since 2020 as demand crashed in Asia. Swiss watch exports dropped in March. Their value fell by 16.1% compared with the same month in 2023 to 2 billion Swiss francs ($2.2 billion). Cratering demand in Zhōngguó and Hong Kong caused most of the decline. Weakness was reported across all six main markets.
  - Brownstone Institute, 19 April 2024

• Why is the Federal Reserve always surprised by inflation? The central bank owes the public an explanation -- and a serious effort to correct its flawed model.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 19 April 2024

• Pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) are essentially middlemen/grifters who make obscene profits playing a sophisticated arbitrage game. One of the Big Three PBMs, Express Scripts/Evernorth - made $153.5 billion in revenue, which made up nearly 80 percent of the revenues of its parent The Cigna Group, which, in turn, holds the Cigna health plans. How can a humble PBM, supposedly working to drive down healthcare costs on behalf of health plans, get richer than the health plans? PBMs are oligarchic, anti-competitive creators of pharmacy deserts -- and bad for the health of patients.
  - Real Clear Markets, 18 April 2024

• The punishment in Zhōngguó for people with bad debts: no fast trains or nice hotels. People across the country are being weighed down by their debts and a system that is penalizing them for not repaying what they owe.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 18 April 2024

• The world has an insatiable appetite for maple syrup from Canada
  - Economist, 18 April 2024

• Food is not an investment -- here is why inflation is not going away anytime soon
  - Zero Hedge, 17 April 2024

• Amsterdam bans construction of new hotels as a way to fight overtourism
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 17 April 2024

• Welcome to pricing hell. The ubiquitous rise of add-on fees and personalized pricing has turned buying stuff into a game you cammpt win. Fees, long the specialty of banks and credit-card companies, have proliferated across industries. Previously self-contained products (toothbrushes, movies, Microsoft Word) have turned into subscriptions, while previously bundled items (Wi-Fi at hotels, meals on airplanes) are now sold separately. Buying stuff online means navigating a flurry of discount codes, often just expired. Meanwhile, prices are becoming more personalized as companies hoover up customer data.
  - The Atlantic, 16 April 2024

• Managers at Amazon reportedly hounded an ex-Trader Joe's employee (who was working for Amazon) for trade secret data on the best-selling products of Trader Joe's. Amazon sought to steal market share from Trader Joe's by stealing trade secrets. Ironically, Trader Joe's has been accused of stealing trade secrets from smaller companies. And it agrees with Amazon in filing a lawsuit to shut down the National Labor Relations Board, which protects the rights of private sector employees.
  - Salon, 16 April 2024

• Jeff Bezps' Amazon is filled with garbage ebooks, more billions for Amazon while polluting culture. It is partly AI, partly a get-rich scheme, and entirely bad for confused consumers.
  - Vox, 16 April 2024

• Fed chairmen Jerome Powell suggests that interest rates could stay high for a longer period of time. He stressed uncertainties over job growth and the persistence of elevated inflation.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 17 April 2024

• Fed chairmen Jerome Powell suggests that interest rates could stay high for a longer period of time. He stressed uncertainties over job growth and the persistence of elevated inflation.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 17 April 2024

• Fed chairmen Jerome Powell suggests that interest rates could stay high for a longer period of time. He stressed uncertainties over job growth and the persistence of elevated inflation.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 17 April 2024

• Shares of Dr. Martens, a brand of footwear bsaed in the UK, plunge 30% to all-time low, and trading briedly halted, after the shoemaker flagged a challenging 2025 outlook on the back of weaker revenues
  - Comcast's CNBC, 16 April 2024

• Nominal retail sales soared in March as gasoline prices spiked. Americans are spending more ... for less.
  - Zero Hedge, 15 April 2024

• Retail sales jumped 0.7% in March, much higher than expected
  - Comcast's CNBC, 15 April 2024

• The Visa/Mastercard class action settlement won't benefit anyone. The lawsuit is long-running litigation about the unfair ways that the major credit card companies and banks impose credit card swipe fees on merchants in the USA. The proposed settlement creates a mirage of change that will not benefit anyone long-term -- other than the credit card companies and large banks that caused these problems in the first place.
  - Real Clear Markets, 15 April 2024

• California, the biggest market for residential solar power in the USA, has sales and installations declining significantly. Nationwide, sales are installations have declined 13%.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 15 April 2024

• A few New York City restaurants are experimenting with virtual staff members, who greet customers onscreen via Zoom from the Philippines.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 13 April 2024

• Electric cars are modern and good for the environment. But please make them less boring to drive - more thrills like a stick shift, syncing with an engine, the fun of driving
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 13 April 2024

• Inside the authoritarian plans of Amazon to conquer Trader Joe's. A secret war room and other tactics fueled the rise of Amazon.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 13 April 2024

• Mild recessions are rare. We had one in go-go 1967, and ended up in an inflationary storm
  - Barron's, 13 April 2024

• OnePlus faces complaints from retailers in Bharat, as the smartphone brand based in Zhōngguó tries to maintain its slice of the market. OnePlus, a sub-brand of Oppo, is facing a slew of complaints related to low profit margins and warranty claims in Bharat. A local industry association said it will suspend sales from May 1, threatening the progress OnePlus has made in the face of anti-Zhōngguó sentiment.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 12 April 2024

• Americans now worry about out-of-control power bill inflation
  - Zero Hedge, 11 April 2024

• In the first three months of 2024 in the USA, there were 323 active medication shortages, surpassing the previous high of 320 shortages in 2014. Experts have pointed to demand outstripping supplies, manufacturing constraints and disruptions in supply lines for raw materials.
  - CBS News, 11 April 2024

• In the first three months of 2024 in the USA, there were 323 active medication shortages, surpassing the previous high of 320 shortages in 2014. Experts have pointed to demand outstripping supplies, manufacturing constraints and disruptions in supply lines for raw materials.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 11 April 2024

• Family Dollar said it will close nearly 1,000 stores and 99 Cents Only said it will go out of business. Years of strategic mistakes and underinvestment have plagued Family Dollar and 99 Cents Only, retail analysts say. Both brands were acquired by other companies and faltered under their new owners. "Family Dollar said it will close nearly 1,000 stores and 99 Cents Only said it will go out of business."
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 11 April 2024

• Stamp prices in the USA rise by 8% for the second time in 4 months, with first-class stamps rising to $0.73.
  - Zero Hedge, 11 April 2024

• With low recession risk, there is no need to own Treasuries for those that do not have to, and with increasingly entrenched inflation, there is little reason not to short them as yields rise.
  - Zero Hedge, 11 April 2024

• Shares of CarMax dropped over 12% after the used-car retailer missed financial targets for its fiscal fourth quarter and said it was extending its timeframe goal to sell more than two million units annually
  - Barron's, 11 April 2024

• CarMax gets slammed by high rates, tight used-car supply. Used cars are getting harder to obtain just as new cars get more affordable.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 11 April 2024

• How not to run a water utility. Let Thames Water go into bankruptcy. But after that, water bills need to rise.
  - Economist, 11 April 2024

• What the central bank of Zhōngguó, and Costco shoppers have in common. Hint: it is not a fondness for cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin.
  - Economist, 11 April 2024

• Sean 'Diddy' Combs loses 18 brand partnerships amid sexual assault allegations
  - Zero Hedge, 10 April 2024

• $39,000,000 - Pzifer subsidiary Wyeth has agreed to pay $39 million to resolve claims from drug purchasers that it conspired with rival Teva to delay launching a less-expensive version of the antidepressant drug Effexor XR.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 10 April 2024

• Surveying the market carnage after the latest CPI report. Expectations for Fed action have collapsed - now less than two initerst rate-cuts priced in for 2024.
  - Zero Hedge, 10 April 2024

• Consumer prices rose 3.5% from a year ago in March, more than expected, making an acceleration for inflation. Following the report, traders pushed the first expected interest rate cut out to September.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 10 April 2024

• After the CPI report, the major stock indexes dropped over 1% with the Dow down over 500 points, as Treasury Bond yields rise with the 10-year above 4.5%
  - Comcast's CNBC, 10 April 2024

• 10-year Treasury yield jumps back above 4.5% after March inflation tops estimates
  - Comcast's CNBC, 10 April 2024

• The relationship between gold and inflation is variable, but we are at the point in the cycle where the sensitivity of the price of gold to CPI is heightened. Overbought gold is thus particularly exposed should inflation data released today come in softer than expected.
  - Zero Hedge, 10 April 2024

• Demand for Spam and canned meats "is on fire" as relentless food inflation forces cash-strapped shoppers to scale back
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 09 April 2024

• Mega drive-throughs explain everything wrong with cities in the USA. They are great for helping the fast food industry make more billions -- but not so great for the social structure of cities as they displaced sit-down restaurants.
  - Vox, 09 April 2024

• Pump prices for gasoline surge to 6-month highs ahead of the latest CPI report, while crude inventories see another build
  - Zero Hedge, 09 April 2024

• A disappointing auction of 3-year Treasury Bonds, as investors wait for Wednesday's inflation data.
  - Zero Hedge, 09 April 2024

• Jamie Dimon, the head of JPMorgan Chase, predicts that interest rates could rise to 8%, because of "persistent inflationary pressure".
  - Zero Hedge, 09 April 2024

• Discount retailer Dollar Tree has sparked a revolt among some of its customers after increasing the price cap of items to $7 across thousands of stores nationwide. "I would rather get everything at Walmart."
  - Zero Hedge, 09 April 2024

• The National Federation of Independent Business reported Tuesday that its small-business optimism index declined .9 points to 88.5, the lowest level since the second half of 2012 - or about when the US economy climbed out of the worst financial crisis ever.
  - Zero Hedge, 09 April 2024

• Costco is selling as much as $200 million worth of gold bars each month, according to an estimate from Wells Fargo
  - Comcast's CNBC, 09 April 2024

• Luxury brands go shopping for upmarket boutiques. Big luxury companies have spent more than $9 billion on real estate since the start of 2023.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 09 April 2024

• Blackstone makes $10 billion bet on multifamily homes as real rents begin re-accelerating
  - Zero Hedge, 08 April 2024

• Blackstone makes $10 billion bet on multifamily homes as real rents begin re-accelerating
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 08 April 2024

• Treasury Bond yields to stay elevated as inflation emboldens short bond trade
  - Zero Hedge, 08 April 2024

• Some colleges will soon charge $100,000 a year. How did this happen? Some Vanderbilt students will have $100,000 in total expenses for the 2024-25 school year. The school does not really want to talk about it. The average now at private universities is $56,000/year, while at public universities it is $24,000. Is it worth the investment? About half of the expenses are for wages and salaries and benefits.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 08 April 2024

• Prices of products are up 2500% since FDR abandoned the gold standard during the Great Depression, confiscating gold to raise prices to lift the economy
  - Schiff Gold, 07 April 2024

• More easy money from central banks will plunge the world into stagflation. Thirty major central banks are expected to cut rates in the second half of 2024, a year when more than seventy nations will have elections, which often means massive increases in government spending. Additionally, the latest inflation figures show stubbornly persistent consumer price annualized growth.
  - Zero Hedge, 06 April 2024

• Prices for Arabica coffee jump the most in a week in nearly three years. Arabica coffee futures with May delivery jumped 12.5% on the week (the largest weekly gain since July 2021), closing at $2.12 per pound.
  - Zero Hedge, 06 April 2024

• There is an explosion of plastic waste, as big companies want more billions by shifting disposal problems to taxpayers. Big brands like Procter & Gamble and Nestlé say a new generation of recycling plants will help them meet environmental goals, but the technology is struggling to deliver, meaning more billions earned at the public expense.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 06 April 2024

• Credit card debt surges to new all-time high of $1.339 trillion, just as card APR interest rates hit fresh record high of 21.59%, and the personal savings rate drops from 5% to 3.6%.
  - Zero Hedge, 05 April 2024

• A combination of failed 'Bidenomics,' i.e., elevated inflation, disastrous progressive social justice reforms that ignited a tsunami of retail theft nationwide, and snarled supply chains left over from the Covid era have led to the demise of "99 Cents Only" stores nationwide, which began the liquidation process on Friday.
  - Zero Hedge, 05 April 2024

• Sellers on Amazon are plagued by surge in scam returns. Merchants receive dirty clothes and used soap instead of returned purchases, a sore point as they say the policies of Amazon remain tilted toward customers - more money for Amazon, less money for sellers.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 05 April 2024

• Gasoline prices in the USA hit the highest levels in six months, amid speculation that President Biden will order more oil be withdrawn from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
  - Zero Hedge, 04 April 2024

• A recent study showed that the average price of an electric vehicle fell 31.8% in the past year compared to just 3.6% for internal combustion engine vehicles
  - Comcast's CNBC, 04 April 2024

• Shares of Ulta Beauty plunged 15% on Wednesday, the largest daily decline since March 2020, after the company warned investors at the JPMorgan Chase & Co. conference that first-quarter demand for beauty products cooled as consumers reduce spending
  - Zero Hedge, 04 April 2024

• Inflation declines in the Eurozone, nearing the target of the European Central Bank. Prices in the countries that use the euro rose 2.4 percent in the year through March, coming closer to the European Central Bank's 2.0 percent inflation target.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 04 April 2024

• Retailers like Peloton and Saks in the last few months have been paying vendors late, signaling possible "financial distress".
  - Comcast's CNBC, 04 April 2024

• People may be putting plastic into recycling bins, but most of it generally ends up in landfills or incinerated. The Center for Climate Integrity alleges that as the plastics industry faced mounting concerns over plastics being incinerated and piling up in landfills, they promoted recycling as a viable solution while dismissing it internally as impractical. They argue that the efforts to sell the false promise of plastic recycling were to avoid restrictive regulations and potential product bans.
  - Zero Hedge, 03 April 2024

• Despite making pledges to cut down on plastic packaging, a new report from the nonprofit conservation organization Oceana estimates that Amazon's plastic waste has continued to grow in the USA. The company created 208 million pounds of plastic waste from its packaging in the US in 2022 alone, which Oceana says is enough trash to circle Earth more than 200 times in the form of plastic air pillows. That is a nearly 10 percent jump from the amount of plastic waste it generated the year before, according to the report.
  - Zero Hedge, 03 April 2024

• Inflation in Turkey rises to 68% despite continued increases in interest rates, now at 50%/year. Much of the inflation in recent months stems from a significant increase to the minimum wage that s government mandated for 2024.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 03 April 2024

• The dollar-store showdown comes down to real estate. Dollar General, located mostly in rural areas, plans to expand, while the more urban-focused Family Dollar will close hundreds of stores.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 03 April 2024

• Shares of Tesla plunge as much as 7% as it reports a first Q1 delivery decline since 2020
  - Zero Hedge, 02 April 2024

• Sales of vehicles by Tesla drop, a sign that its domination of the electric vehicle market is declining. Sales of electric cars by Tesla dropped in the first three months of the year, even as other automakers sold more battery-powered vehicles.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 02 April 2024

• How fast food restaurants use electronic ordering kiosks to lure people into ordering and spending more on their junk food
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 02 April 2024

• Outrage over new minimum wages for workers at fast-food restaurants is hard to believe. When it comes to the fast-food industry, we have made it normal to equate cheap and disposable food with cheap and disposable workers. We are captives to a turbocapitalist narrative that questions even the most miniscule gains for workers, while giving egregious corporate greedflation a pass.
  - Comcast's MSNBC, 02 April 2024

• Sales of vehicles by Tesla plunge more than expected
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 02 April 2024

• A viral AI influencer, completely computer-generated, is going to host a television show. Who needs paid-humans?
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 02 April 2024

• Shares of Tesla plunge as much as 6% as it reports a first Q1 delivery decline since 2020
  - Apollo Global's Yahoo Finance, 02 April 2024

• Restaurants are filing thousands of people, while some restaurant chains are closing multiple locations because the cost of operation will be higher than the benefits, after a new $20 minimum wage law comes into force.
  - Zero Hedge, 02 April 2024

• Shares of PVH (owners of Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein) crash 24% in pre-market trading, following the release of full-year sales guidance that missed Wall Street's expectations on Monday evening.
  - Zero Hedge, 02 April 2024

• The climate change denying governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, raises alarm by call the state's self-insurance program, Citizens Insurance, "not solvent" as an 'explosive' hurricane season is predicted to cause great damage in Florida. The state has to self-insure becauses of its policies that don't allow insurance companies to set rational premiums for such insurance.
  - Benzinga, 02 April 2024

• Bullish bets on gasoline futures soar as pump-prices risk rising to "politically sensitive" $4/gallon level
  - Zero Hedge, 01 April 2024

• Improving airports and ending delays won't make flying better. It is the airplane, people, [that suck]. Instead of those dinky little earbuds, how about a virtual reality set so I can imagine m anywhere else but in a crowded tin box in the sky with lousy seats?
  - USA Today, 01 April 2024

• Manufacturing PMIs mixed on growth but both see prices soaring. "Most notable was an especially steep rise in prices charged for consumer goods, which rose at a pace not seen for 16 months."
  - Zero Hedge, 01 April 2024

• Gross domestic income shows that the USA is in stagnation. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, real GDI increased only 0.5% in 2023, compared with an increase of 2.1% in 2022. Keyynesian government spending funded by debt has failed.
  - Zero Hedge, 01 April 2024

• How can Robinhood afford 3% cash back on its new credit card? The pressure is on as Robinhood lost 10 million users between 2021 and 2023.
  - Lex - Substack, 01 April 2024

• Would-be buyers in the USA of vehicles from Tesla are snubbing Tesla as the reputation declines of Elon Musk
  - Thomson's Reuters, 01 April 2024

• Declaring a victory over inflation is proving elusive, challenging central banks and markets. In the USA and Europe, underlying inflation has stopped falling or edged higher recently, weakening the case for interest rate cuts.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 01 April 2024

• The conundrum of Nigeria for companies: stay or go? Unilever, Walmart and GSK take different approaches to one of the biggest markets in the world, where it is hard to turn a profit.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 01 April 2024

• How Zomato, a food delivery app in Bharat, sparked a caste and purity debate. Delivery workers worry that vegetarian-only fleets today could pave the way for caste-based delivery systems tomorrow.
  - Al Jazeera, 30 March 2024

• Les Gold, the star of 'Hardcore Pawn', says his economically desperate customers increasingly focused on living week-to-week, not monthly. "Right now, the pawn line is probably twice as long as the redemption line for people picking up merchandise."
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 30 March 2024

• Has the luxury e-commerce bubble burst? Some of the biggest names in fashion e-commerce, including Farfetch and MatchesFashion, have imploded. What does that mean for fashion brands, investors and customers?
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 30 March 2024

• Credit card swipe fees are going down. Are points going with them? A new agreement by Visa and Mastercard to reduce fees charged to merchants may drain the lucrative rewards that grant free travel to many credit card users.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 30 March 2024

• Stripe, the only payment processor Substack writers can use, has backed off a demand that Dr. Robert Malone link his bank account, according to the law firm Dr. Malone retained. Stripe earlier in March asked Dr. Malone to "link the primary bank account for your business to your Stripe account", which would enable Stripe to spy on review the account's "current account balance and transactions, as well as historical transactions".
  - Zero Hedge, 30 March 2024

• Winners and losers as a $20/hour wage for fast-food workers takes effect in California, the highest such wage in the USA. Better pay for workers could come at the cost of forcing businesses to fire some people and raise prices.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 29 March 2024

• Home Depot buys roofing distributor in deal valued at $18 billion including debt. The retailer said it would acquire SRS Distribution in a deal with a value of $18.25 billion, which includes assumed debt.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 29 March 2024

• The latest crime thanks to generative AI. With just a few seconds of footage, scammers can now combine video and audio using tools from companies like HeyGen and Eleven Labs to generate a synthetic version of the voice of a real person, swap out the sound on an existing video, and animate the person's lips - making the doctored result more believable. Because it is simpler and cheaper to base fake videos on real content, criminals are scooping up videos on social media that match the demographic of a sales pitch, leading to what experts predict will be an explosion of ads made with stolen identities, [KM: while generating more money for rich Big Tech companies].
  - Jeff Bezos' Washington Post, 28 March 2024

• Renting is now cheaper than owning in all of the largest metro areas in the USA
  - Zero Hedge, 28 March 2024

• The declining value of the federal minimum wage in the USA. In 1960, the federal minimum wage was $1 per hour. After accounting for inflation, this would be worth around $10.28 today (it's at $7.25).
  - Zero Hedge, 28 March 2024

• Has Zhōngguó lost its preference for the iPhone? Apple has deep ties in the country, its second-largest market. But there are signs that onsumers in Zhōngguó are becoming a harder sell.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 28 March 2024

• The governor of Oregon signs the first right-to-repair law in the USA that bans parts pairing. Starting in 2025, devices can't block repair parts with software pairing checks.
  - Condé Nast's Ars Technica, 27 March 2024

• $8,000,000 - Amazon has been fined in Poland for misleading consumers about the conclusion of sales contracts on its online marketplace. The sanction, of close to $8 million (or in local currency: PLN 31,850,141), also calls out the e-commerce giant for deceptive design elements which may inject a false sense of urgency into the purchasing process and mislead shoppers about elements like product availability and delivery dates.
  - Condé Nast's Ars Technica, 27 March 2024

• What pawn shops know about the economy that Biden does not know. Biden's economy caused consumers to pawn their possessions just to handle their debts.
  - Murdoch's Fox News, 27 March 2024

• Novo Nordisk's $1,000 diabetes drug Ozempic can be made for less than $5 a month, a study suggests
  - Comcast's CNBC, 27 March 2024

• Why tech companies are not your friends: lessons from Roku. Roku recently changed its policy to make it even harder for customers to take legal action. It is a reminder of how we need to protect ourselves.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 27 March 2024

• Visa and Mastercard agree to cap their swipe fees in settlement. The deal could save merchants $30 billion over five years. It would also allow them to adjust prices based on the costs of accepting different credit cards.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 27 March 2024

• Visa and Mastercard agree to cap their swipe fees in settlement. The deal could save merchants $30 billion over five years. It would also allow them to adjust prices based on the costs of accepting different credit cards.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 27 March 2024

• Retail prices for gasoline to rise back to $4 per gallon as "real sleeper risk" for oil market looms
  - Zero Hedge, 26 March 2024

• Restaurants in California fire people as fast-food wages set to rise. Restaurant chains fire workers and reduce hours ahead of a state minimum-wage increase; California fast food workers will earn $20 an hour starting in April.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 26 March 2024

• With the tip tax credit falling, full service restaurants in Washington, DC, fire 3700 people
  - Zero Hedge, 26 March 2024

• Shares of Apple decline on a report from Zhōngguó that shipments of iPhones plunged 33%
  - Zero Hedge, 26 March 2024

• Canada Goose, a manufacturer of high-end outerwear, is firing nearly 1000 people, about 17% of its people, mostly corporate jobs.
  - Murdoch's Fox News, 26 March 2024

• Hyperinflation of cocoa prices strikes before Easter, prices surge to new record high
  - Zero Hedge, 26 March 2024

• Hyperinflation of cocoa prices strikes before Easter, prices surge to new record high
  - Comcast's CNBC, 26 March 2024

• Trader Joe's raises banana prices for the 1st time in more than 20 years, from 19 cents to 23 cents per banana
  - CBS News, 26 March 2024

• Shares of Krispy Kreme soar 24% after it announces that McDonald's will sell Krispy Kreme's donuts at its restaurants nationwide by the end of 2026
  - Comcast's CNBC, 26 March 2024

• The financial troubles of Tesla raise questions about its invincibility. As the share price plunges, investors wonder whether the company, led by Elon Musk, can withstand intensifying competition. While the stock market has reached record highs, Tesla is down by 33%.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 26 March 2024

• Hospitals are adding billions in 'facility' fees for routine care. Unsuspecting patients are finding themselves at the mercy of institutions tacking on the bills.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 26 March 2024

• The price war for electric vehicles in Zhōngguó is killing brands and infuriating consumers. Fast depreciation in an already slow market has panicked car buyers, many of whom are venting their frustrations on social media. Some startups are on the brink of collapse, leaving software maintenance in limbo.
  - Rest of The World, 25 March 2024

• The Dallas Fed Manufacturing survey 'screams' stagflation: "It is a far deeper recession than publicized."
  - Zero Hedge, 25 March 2024

• The USA is agonizing over the possibility of a ban of TikTok, but Bharat did it quickly. People in Bharat adjusted quickly, and Instagram and YouTube built big audiences.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 25 March 2024

• With Tiktok under fire, brands that rely on it worry. Many companies, particularly in the beauty and fashion industries, have boosted sales through the platform. They do not really have a backup plan.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 25 March 2024

• One in four people in Costa Rica borrow money to pay for food and utilities. Research shows that a quarter of loan recipients use the funds for essential needs like buying food, personal items, or covering utility bills such as water and electricity.
  - Q Costa Rica, 25 March 2024

• Renewcell, a startup in Sweden, promised to help the fashion industry go 'green' by launching a new material made from recycled textiles. Renewcell just filed for bankruptcy. Many clothing brands say environmentally friendly materials are key to their future, but uptake has been sluggish.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 25 March 2024

• The new target of a drug cartel in Mexico? Seniors and their timeshares. One the most violent criminal groups in Mexico, Jalisco New Generation, offer to buy the vacation properties of retirees. Then the cartel empties its victims' bank accounts. Over the last ten years, the cartel has stolen hundreds of milions of dollars. This crime builds on the crime of timeshare businesses in general, which charge high fees and make it hard for owners to cancel their contracts.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 24 March 2024

• The same old crime song: private equity is destroying our music ecosystem. Private equity is making money by gobbling up the rights to old hits and pumping them back into our present. The result is a markedly blander music scene, as financiers cannibalize the past at the expense of the future and make it even harder for us to build those new artists whose contributions will enrich our entire culture.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 24 March 2024

• A new report is raising concerns over General Mills' new cereal line after testing revealed that Trix LOADED cereal is literally loaded with high levels of heavy metals and agrochemicals. 'LOADED' is a new cereal line with "puffed-up larger-than-lifesquares" of General Mills' Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Trix, and Cocoa Puffs cereals filled with artificially flavored vanilla creme.
  - Zero Hedge, 23 March 2024

• Deutschland is hurt by 'strike madness' while its economy stumbles. A wave of strikes by workers in Germany, feeling the sting of inflation and stagnant growth, is the latest sign of the bleak outlook for the economic powerhouse of Europe.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 23 March 2024

• Richard Lara, the insurance commissionerof California, declares a "crisis" after State Farm, the largest home insurance provider in California, announced that it would discontinue coverage for tens of thousands of policies this summer. tate Farm announced on March 20 that it would cut 72,000 home and apartment policies in California because of inflation, regulatory costs and increasing risks from catastrophes.
  - Murdoch's Fox News, 23 March 2024

• Herbalife (one brand ambassador was Madeeleine Albright, a former secretary of state), Amway (a substantial owner is the devout Christian Betsy DeVos), Avon, Tupperware and Mary Kay: how multi-level marketing 'pyramid schemes' (i.e., scams) are bankrupting America. The financial scam is that most of the money is made via recruitment fees (from people lower down on the pyramid) and disrtibutors buying products for their own inventories which they often can't resell. Trump owned one pyramid scheme, the Trump Network. The Consumer Awareness Institute has concluded: "99% of the people who do join these multilevel marketing schemes make no money or lose money."
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 23 March 2024

• How have retailers fought off the fees they charge home buyers/sellers for so long? A political action committee tied to the National Association of Realtors has been the top briber contributor to campaigns in every election cycle since 1999.
  - Barron's, 23 March 2024

• Gold has climbed to a record high and, as an asset historically seen as a hedge against inflation, its performance could offer a sign of what is to come for inflation and the Federal Reserve's efforts to tame it, which if it can't means the Fed will delay reductions in interest rates
  - Murdoch's MarketWatch, 23 March 2024

• In a trailblazing study, researchers have discovered bottled water sold in stores can contain 10 to 100 times more bits of plastic than previously estimated -- nanoparticles so infinitesimally tiny they cannot be seen under a microscope. At 1,000th the average width of a human hair, nanoplastics are so teeny they can migrate through the tissues of the digestive tract or lungs into the bloodstream, distributing potentially harmful synthetic chemicals throughout the body and into cells, experts say.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 22 March 2024

• Shares of Lululemon plunged 13% in premarket trading as the company's forecast for first-quarter net revenue fell short of Wall Street's expectations. The athleisure brand blamed a slowdown in sales at its US stores for the underwhelming sales forecast. The CEO explained that customers are more cautious with their spending.
  - Zero Hedge, 22 March 2024

• Large supermarket chains exploited tyhe pandemic supply chain disruptions, according to the FTC. A FTC report found that large firms pressured suppliers to favor them over competitors. It also concluded that some retailers "seem to have used rising costs as an opportunity to further hike prices".
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 22 March 2024

• Large supermarket chains exploited tyhe pandemic supply chain disruptions, according to the FTC. A FTC report found that large firms pressured suppliers to favor them over competitors. It also concluded that some retailers "seem to have used rising costs as an opportunity to further hike prices".
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 22 March 2024

• The new threat to Amazon: fending off two rivals, Temu and Shein. The e-commerce companies based in Zhōngguó have, for now, replaced Walmart and Target as the central competitive focus of Amazon.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 22 March 2024

• Food prices and overall inflation will rise as temperatures climb with climate change, a new study by an environmental scientist and the European Central Bank found
  - Zero Hedge, 21 March 2024

• Olive Garden and LongHorn Steakhouse owner Darlden warns lower income customers are spending less
  - Zero Hedge, 21 March 2024

• US PMIs signal "unwelcome upward pressure on consumer prices in the coming months"
  - Zero Hedge, 21 March 2024

• Next, a clothing retailer in Britain, is the retail superstar of Britain
  - Economist, 21 March 2024

• Could Aldi's supermarkets conquer America? The European discount chain is the fastest-growing retailer across the Atlantic. Meanwhile, in Europe, Aldi is losing marketshare to Lidl.
  - Economist, 21 March 2024

• Signet Jewelers, the parent company of Kay Jewelers and Zales, warned that persistently high inflation and job market uncertainty have forced some young folks to delay engagements.
  - Zero Hedge, 20 March 2024

• Shares of French luxury group Kering tumbled as much as 15% on Wednesday -- the largest drop in more than three decades. The luxury goods company issued a profit warning, expecting sales at Gucci, its biggest brand, to plunge 20% year-on-year in the first quarter, notably because of slumping demand across the Asia-Pacific region.
  - Zero Hedge, 20 March 2024

• Watch exports from Switzerland have declined for the second time in three years, primarily due to a slowdown in shipments to Zhōngguó and Hong Kong. Sliding demand for luxury timepieces comes as the Zhōngguó;'s economy suffers from a litany of economic challenges, including an underwhelming pace of economic growth, deflationary pressure, a property rout, a vicious bear market in stocks, and worsening relations between the USA and Zhōngguó. This could read across incrementally negative for hard luxury stocks."
  - Zero Hedge, 20 March 2024

• Unilever to fire 7,500 people and spin off Ben & Jerry's ice cream subsidiary, as consumers trade down to cheaper brands amid high inflation
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 20 March 2024

• Unilever is better off without Ben and Jerry. Its ice-cream business is struggling and enjoys less overlap with the rest of the consumer company.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 20 March 2024

• Unilever to fire 7,500 people and spin off Ben & Jerry's ice cream subsidiary, as consumers trade down to cheaper brands amid high inflation
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 20 March 2024

• Sorghum: the ancient grain for modern health, which has been a popular food source in diets throughout Africa and Asia for millennia. It has a high yield and is resistant to heat and droughts, making it a highly prized crop in hot and arid regions. It is a hearty, versatile crop that, in addition to being a nutritious food for humans, is used for animal feed and biofuel, and a sweet variety is used to make syrup, molasses, whiskey, and rum.
  - Zero Hedge, 20 March 2024

• Crafts retailer Joann files for bankruptcy. After a pandemic-era boom in sales, Joann has been dealing with a pullback in consumer spending on at-home projects. The retailer will become a private company owned by a group of its creditors.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 19 March 2024

• More and more Americans rely on TikTok to obtain the news, now up to 14% of Americans relying on TikTok for the news
  - Zero Hedge, 18 March 2024

• "Less flights and more full aircraft": airlines stung by delays in delivering new Boeing airplanes ahead of busy summer travel season
  - Zero Hedge, 18 March 2024

• What the fight over the Capital One-Discover merger misses about our terrible credit card system. The merger would keep intact the broken and predatory system in which credit card companies profit handsomely by rewarding our richest Americans and advantaging the biggest corporations. Credit card companies found they could command ever-greater swipe fees from merchants while at the same time offering their wealthiest consumers more deluxe credit cards that reward big spending with cash back, travel points, access to fancy airport lounges and the like -- and then pass on the cost of those rewards to merchants. Merchants must then choose whether to accept and pay the higher swipe fee demanded by these platinum expensive cards or not take any from that card company. In our increasingly digital economy, most merchants have little alternative but to accept the pricey versions and to pay for the privilege. Naturally, merchants pass on their increased cost to all of their customers.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 18 March 2024

• How dollar stores exacerbated American food deserts. . In many rural and urban food deserts, dollar stores have come to double as grocery stores, though critics have pointed out that their existence does not actually solve many food security concerns and, in some cases, only exacerbates them, making this rash of closures a complex loss. Dollar stores focus on prepackaged, shelf-stable food items. These items might be convenient, but they often have suboptimal nutritional value. The Center for Science in the Public Interest found that when dollar stores stores saturate a s grocery market, full-service food stores are deterred from opening, and existing grocers are pushed out, reporting that "sales in local grocery stores are known to drop by 30% following the opening of a nearby dollar store".
  - Salon, 17 March 2024

• Closing costs for buying a home have risen along with rates. These mortgage fees increased 22 percent from 2021 to 2022. One likely factor is the greater use of discount points to nudge interest rates down.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 16 March 2024

• The Consumer Price Index doesn't measure what is really hurting consumer confidence
  - Barron's, 16 March 2024

• Is generative AI ruining Etsy? A loosening definition of 'handmade' frustrates artists and buyers. Tools like Midjourney make it easy to churn out AI images and list them for rock-bottom prices without disclosures, endangering the livelihoods of the real-life artists who struggle to compete. [KM: yes, but AI companies must get richer].
  - PC Magazine, 15 March 2024

• A pioneering bill to slow the fast fashion industry (they profit while forcing taxpayers to dispose of their crappy products when discarded) gets approval from lower house of France. Next stop the Senate. The bill will introduce stringent measures, including banning advertising for the most inexpensive textiles and imposing an environmental levy on these low-cost products.
  - Associated Press, 15 March 2024

• "I cannot even save": Americans are getting absolutely crushed under an enormous debt load. Two years after the Federal Reserve began hiking interest rates to tame prices, delinquency rates on credit cards and auto loans are the highest in more than a decade.
  - Zero Hedge, 15 March 2024

• $358,000,000 - The National Association of Realtors agrees to pay $418 million in damages, and eliminate the fixed 6% commission on home sales, to settle its shares of a jury penalty of $1.8 billion levied in November of 2023.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 15 March 2024

• Shares of Polish retailer LPP fall 30%, after a Hindenburg report alleges "sham" divestment of assets in Rossiya
  - Zero Hedge, 15 March 2024

• The Kansas City Chiefs, owned by the Hunt family with an estimated worth of $25 billion), effectively demand a subsidy of around $500 million to repair the Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City (the Hunts will contributed $300 million). They hint at leaving Kansas City if they don't get the socialist subsidy of taxpayers' dollars.
  - Inside Hook, 15 March 2024

• Private equity wants your credit card debt. And car loan. And mortgage. Private fund managers like Apollo, Blackstone and KKR are pushing into asset-based lending and targeting the biggest prize in the global economy: the American consumer.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 15 March 2024

• "Urgent Action Needed", as rents in New York City get closer to record highs
  - Zero Hedge, 14 March 2024

• Producer prices surged again in February as energy costs re-accelerated. 70% of the rise in February Goods PPI can be attributed to the index for energy, which jumped 4.4%.
  - Zero Hedge, 14 March 2024

• 'Real' retail sales tumbled for second straight month in February
  - Zero Hedge, 14 March 2024

• Two of the biggest manufacturers of locks (Securam based in Zhōngguó, and Sargeant Greenleaf based in the USA) used in commercial safes have been accused of essentially putting 'back doors' in at least some of their products. Senator Ron Wyden has found that the DoD banned the use of such locks for U.S. government systems, but deliberately kept information about the backdoors from the public.
  - 404 Media, 14 March 2024

• The highest rates of credit card delinquency in the USA are in the 'Bible Belt', led by Misissippi, Alabama, Louisiana and Arkansas
  - Zero Hedge, 13 March 2024

• Time for a backyard chicken coop? Supermarket egg prices soaring once-again. Grade A egg prices per dozen jumped 40% from $2.13 to $3 between November and February.
  - Zero Hedge, 13 March 2024

• The Wawa supermarket chain shutters yet another location in Center City Philadelphia
  - Zero Hedge, 13 March 2024

• Retail prices of gasoline are set to soar as inventories of gasoline plunge
  - Zero Hedge, 13 March 2024

• Shares of Dollar Tree are down 7% pre-market after an earnings miss, and it plans to close 600 stores amid a reduction in spending by customers
  - Zero Hedge, 13 March 2024

• Owner of Family Dollar to close 1,000 stores. Dollar Tree, which operates the Family Dollar chain, said inflation, store theft and merger indigestion are eroding the discount retailer's results.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 13 March 2024

• 'Green imperialism': de facto EU ban on recycled plastics imports sparks row in Brussels. A last-minute 'mirror clause' from France has EU trade officials scrambling to kill landmark packaging rules seeking level global playing field. EU recycling sector figures warn that if plastic imports from Zhōngguó are not curbed, "the industry will collapse".
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 13 March 2024

• As online dating became as easy as swiping a finger across your phone screen, the companies who own apps like Tinder and Bumble became Wall Street darlings. But about a decade later, those platforms are now struggling to live up to expectations, and investors have grown frustrated and eager for something new. Match Group and Bumble -- which make up nearly the entire industry by market share -- have lost more than $40 billion in market value since 2021. They face one critical obstacle: Not enough young people are willing to pay for subscriptions to dating apps -- partly because younger daters are increasingly looking to platforms like Snapchat and TikTok to make connections.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 13 March 2024

• The hybrid-first strategy of Toyota is delivering big profits. Toyota, the world's largest automaker, has been criticized for selling few electric vehicles, but its decision to focus on hybrids is paying off financially.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 13 March 2024

• According to a new analysis of the subscription app economy from mobile subscription toolkit provider RevenueCat, the top 5% of apps generate 200 times the revenue of the bottom quartile after their first year, while the median monthly revenue an app generates after 12 months is less than $50.
  - TechCrunch, 12 March 2024

• Jerome Powell just revealed a hidden reason why inflation is staying high: The economy is increasingly uninsurable. Several types of insurance, including home and car insurance, have surged over the past few years, and it is hurting the Fed's effort to get interest rates down to its 2% target.
  - Jiaravanon's Fortune, 12 March 2024

• "That is not the direction the Fed wants to see", to be able to lower interest rates: Wall Street reacts to the hot CPI report
  - Zero Hedge, 12 March 2024

• Inflation is still 'hot', rising 0.4% in one month: consumer prices hit new record high, up 19% since 'Bidenomics' began. Food costs are up over 21% since Biden's term began, but non-supervisory wages are up only 18%.
  - Zero Hedge, 12 March 2024

• Inflation picks up to 3.2%, slightly hotter than expected. The consumer-price index rose faster than expected last month, introducing greater uncertainty over when the Federal Reserve will lower interest rates.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 12 March 2024

• A yen-ning for minimalism: why brands of products from Nihon are taking young people in Bharat by storm. A new wave of mid-range retailers is capitalising on Nihon's reputation for quality goods, winning millennial and Gen Z fans seeking "practical, functional" items.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 12 March 2024

• In the first in-depth interview given by a retail CEO about organized theft, Ulta Beauty CEO Dave Kimbell said e-commerce sites are contributing to organized retail crime. "[Online marketplaces] give more scale and more opportunity for people to liquidate this product. ... We should not have an environment where it is possible to steal from one retailer and [have it] end up on any other platform, any other large-scale, mainstream platform.", such as Amazon.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 12 March 2024

• The cable and satellite (and fiber) services are not only losing members, but losing more customers each year than the year before, the entire industry losing over 5 million subscribers last year.
  - SpyGlass, 11 March 2024

• Over 80% of tattoo inks contain unlisted substances that can cause organ damages and allergies
  - Zero Hedge, 11 March 2024

• Mall retailer 'The Body Shop' files for chapter 7 bankruptcy, and has ceased sales at its 50 outlets
  - Zero Hedge, 11 March 2024

• The New York Fed finds medium, long-term inflation expectations jump amid surge in stock market optimism
  - Zero Hedge, 11 March 2024

• As some of Alaska Airlines' 737 MAX aircraft take flight again on Friday, online travel booking website Kayak has seen an uptick in users who are filtering out the airplane when searching for flights. Kayak first rolled out its aircraft filter in March 2019, but the company said it saw 15 times the typical use of the tool between Saturday, Jan. 6 and the following Thursday, specifically for 737 MAX planes immediately following the Jan. 5 Alaska Airlines incident, in which a door plug fell off of a 737 MAX 9 aircraft a few minutes after takeoff. Kayak recently added a capability to its filter for users to specify 737 Max 8 and 737 Max 9 models, which are still in flight, and moved the filter higher on their website's landing page to make the tool more prominent for travelers.
  - Zero Hedge, 11 March 2024

• Expect another surge in food prices caused by 'dynamic pricing'. Makes it harder for the Fed to reduce interest rates.
  - Zero Hedge, 11 March 2024

• Electric vehicle sales in Zhōngguó start 2024 with battery-based electric vehicle sales slowing and even more price reductions being implemented
  - Zero Hedge, 11 March 2024

• Vinyl records are now so popular that they influence the statistics on inflation in the UK
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 11 March 2024

• Surge pricing is coming to more menus near you. Restaurants are experimenting with technology that can move prices up and down based on demand and staffing.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 11 March 2024

• Trade groups sue to block credit card late fee limit. Banking groups and Texas business associations asked a federal court to abolish a new federal rule that would cap most late fees at $8. The new rule would slash most fees from their current average of $32, saving households $10 billion a year.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 09 March 2024

• Consumer prices in Zhōngguó rise slightly, ending a four-month decline. Strong exports and a rare increase in consumer prices offer positive signs for 2024, though economists say deflationary pressures have not gone away.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 09 March 2024

• Shares of Prada rise 15% after annual profit and sales surged past predictions of analysts, outperforming other European luxury-goods firms that are grappling with a slowdown in the industry.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 09 March 2024

• Shares of Costco dropped 7.6% on Friday for its worst day since May 2022 after the membership-only retail chain missed second-quarter revenue expectations and signaled a negative impact from lower gasoline prices
  - Thomson's Reuters, 08 March 2024

• Shares of HelloFresh plummet 42% after the meal-kit giant, based in Berlin, said it expected lower earnings in 2024.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 08 March 2024

• Big technology companies in the USA profit from ad spending spree done by big tech companies from Zhōngguó. Temu, Shein, and streaming and gaming apps looking to break into the U.S. market are spending huge sums to get their wares in front of consumers in the USA.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 08 March 2024

• Big technology companies in the USA profit from ad spending spree done by big tech companies from Zhōngguó. Temu, Shein, and streaming and gaming apps looking to break into the U.S. market are spending huge sums to get their wares in front of consumers in the USA.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 08 March 2024

• Long associated with hunger, Bharat is now confronting an epidemic of obesity and lifestyle diseases. Too much butter, not enough chicken. The country suffers from a dual burden of poverty-induced undernutrition and a growing overweight population.
  - Economist, 07 March 2024

• The currency crisis in Nigeria is decades in the making. Because Nigeria is dependent on imports, its weaker currency is pushing the annual inflation rate towards a three-decade high at almost 30%. The naira, which is moving towards being fully floated, has been devalued twice in attempts to close the gap with a parallel market rate. That makes it the second-worst-performing currency in the world, after the Lebanese pound.
  - Economist, 07 March 2024

• Credit card debt jumps to new all-time high, as card rates rise to new record high of 21.47%
  - Zero Hedge, 07 March 2024

• Why Costco is selling gold bars and silver coins
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 07 March 2024

• Shares of Victoria's Secret plunge 30% in the worst day ever as lingerie sales plummet
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 07 March 2024

• The euro declines against the USA dollar after the ECB cuts 2025 inflation forecast to 2.0% target
  - Zero Hedge, 07 March 2024

• Offices of doctors are now charging administrative fees. Doctors say that administrative tasks are "taking more time away from patient care", which hurts their profits.
  - Zero Hedge, 07 March 2024

• BYD reduces starting price of cheapest electric car amid fierce competition. BYD unveiled an updated version of its cheapest electric car model, Seagull, and further slashed its starting price, deepening a price war amid rising competition in Zhōngguó , the largest car market in the world.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 07 March 2024

• FICO credit scores for consumers in the USA decline for the first time in 10 years
  - Zero Hedge, 06 March 2024

• New highs in the price of gold signal that central banks fear inflation, as they continue to buy gold
  - Zero Hedge, 06 March 2024

• Shares of Foot Locker drop more than 10% after heavy promotions lead to holiday-quarter losses
  - Comcast's CNBC, 06 March 2024

• New Federal rule caps most credit card late fees at $8. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said its new restriction would save households $10 billion a year in 'junk fees'. It applies only to large issuers that have more than one million open accounts, but the agency estimates that the rule will cover 95 percent of outstanding credit card balances. Banking trade groups fiercely oppose the rule and are likely to sue to try to block it.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 06 March 2024

• We can't help but notice them: car washes seem to be everywhere nowadays. Everywhere you go, new ones are popping up and, with that, they're usually packed.
  - Zero Hedge, 05 March 2024

• The Services Surveys in February signal stagflation: higher prices, slower economic growth
  - Zero Hedge, 05 March 2024

• Gloom and doom: sales of Apple's iPhones in Zhōngguó plunge 24% - stock is down 5% in two days
  - Zero Hedge, 05 March 2024

• Gloom and doom: sales of Apple's iPhones in Zhōngguó plunge 24% - stock is down 5% in two days
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 05 March 2024

• Increases in auto insurance premiums hampers the inflation fight. Costlier vehicles and repairs are pushing premiums higher even as the increase in U.S. consumer prices is tapering overall.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 05 March 2024

• $1,500,000 - Ohio fines CVS Health $1.5 million over safety and staffing issues. The penalty is part of a settlement of 27 cases involving safety concerns revealed during inspections of nearly two dozen stores, officials said.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 05 March 2024

• The skyrocketing costs driving cheeseburger prices up -- and restaurant owners out of business. Escalating payroll costs and diners' dwindling tolerance for higher checks are putting independent restaurants in a squeeze.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 05 March 2024

• $2,000,000,000 - The European Union has fined Apple $2 billion for preventing Spotify and other music streaming services from informing users of payment options outside its App Store. Apple will appeal, as it doesn't want any government interferring with its authoritarian practices.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 04 March 2024

• How phones made in Zhōngguó are dominating the marketplace in Africa, as they beat phones from global giants such as Samsung and Apple. Transsion, a company based in Zhōngguó, leads the African mobile market, with its three brands -- Tecno, Infinix and iTel -- holding 48 per cent of the market share. The brands have never been sold in Zhōngguó, but have come to dominate the affordable phone segment across the continent and are expanding into other markets.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 03 March 2024

• Elon Musk promised/lied that Tesla cars would rise in value after you bought one. The opposite happened. Used Teslas have dropped precipitously in value over the past year or two, as Tesla has struggled to maintain its commanding dominance in the market for new electric vehicles. By aggressively slashing price of its own new cars and SUVs, Tesla has also created a domino effect, pushing down the values of other EVs, as well.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 03 March 2024

• Shrinkflation 101: the economics of smaller groceries. Have you noticed your grocery products shrinking? Here is how that gets counter -- and what gets missed -- in inflation data. From 2019 to 2023, shrinkage added about 3.6 percentage points to inflation for products like paper towels and toilet paper, up from 1.2 percentage points from 2015 to 2019. Shrinkflation has also contributed more heavily to price increases in both candy and cleaning products in recent years.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 02 March 2024

• LVMH does not have the luxury of pulling back from Zhōngguó. The economy of Zhōngguó is sputtering and geopolitical tensions are rising, but shoppers in Zhōngguó are the growth engine for the maker of Louis Vuitton, Dior and Hennessy.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 02 March 2024

• Imports surge under closely watched trade loophole in the USA. More packages than ever are entering under the trade provision -- frequently used by e-commerce giants Temu and Shein -- that allows duty-free entry with little scrutiny, even as lawmakers call for action.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 02 March 2024

• Eye-catching jump in inflation expectations threatens bonds, and will put upward pressure on yields
  - Zero Hedge, 01 March 2024

• Ten reasons the Federal Reserve will not reduce interest rates in 2024
  - Zero Hedge, 01 March 2024

• Interest rate reductions by the European Central Bank are less likely to occur, as inflation data in Europe for January just came in higher than expected, as hinted by the readings in Germany, France, etc earlier this week. About 1.0% in interest rate reductios priced in for this year are at risk as the fall in cyclical inflation in Europe reaches its limit.
  - Zero Hedge, 01 March 2024

• Companies in the USA were big on CBD, but not anymore. A lack of federal regulation and a mishmash of state laws have made selling products featuring the cannabis-derived ingredient not worth the trouble.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 01 March 2024

• One says 2.4%, another says 3.1%. Which inflation metric is right? The Labor Departmnet's measure makes headlines. The Commerce Department's measure, released Thursday, is what the Federal Reserve actually watches.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 01 March 2024

• Whirlpool, maker of big home appliances, focuses on its small ones. The company is pinning its hopes on espresso machines, stand mixers and other high-margin small appliances as it slashes costs and transforms itself, CFO says.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 01 March 2024

• Wendy's cancels the use of 'surge pricing' after a huge public backlash
  - Zero Hedge, 29 February 2024

• Supercore inflation soars in january, services costs re-accelerate as socialist government handouts spike, with the biggest MoM rise in Services inflation ex-shelter since December 2021.
  - Zero Hedge, 29 February 2024

• Key Fed inflation measure rose 0.4% in January as expected, up 2.8% from a year ago
  - Comcast's CNBC, 29 February 2024

• Stocks, bonds, commodities and other real assets are dramatically unpriced for a resurgence in inflation. Inflation complacency can be seen clearly in one chart. CPI fixing swaps foresee a continued steady decline in headline inflation in the US back toward 2% through this year.
  - Zero Hedge, 29 February 2024

• A devastating wildfire ravages parts of the Texas Panhandle, home to more than 85% of the state's cattle herd. This comes when the nation's cattle herd has collapsed to a seven-decade low, pushing up retail beef prices at the supermarket to record high levels.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 29 February 2024

• Climate change is raising the already high wildfire risks of climate-change-denying Texas. The Smokehouse Creek fire is a sign of more to come. Property insurers in Texas are already raising the price of their policies, and withdrawing sales from some parts of the state. Homeowners in Texas saw their insurance rates increase 53.6 percent between 2019 and 2023.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 29 February 2024

• The second-largest wildfire on record in Texas raged across 850,000 acres on Wednesday, as firefighters from around the state tried to contain it. The blaze has consumed houses, burned vast ranch lands, killed livestock and forced evacuations across the sparsely populated Texas Panhandle.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 29 February 2024

• A chemist tests $380 Creme de la Mer, a moisturizing creme, versus Nivea's $7 Nivea Soft. Their moisturizing effect is pretty much the same.
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 28 February 2024

• Why is mercury stubbornly high in tuna? Old accumulations of the toxic metal in the deep sea are circulating into shallower waters where the fish feed, new research found.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 28 February 2024

• What to know about lead exposure in children. Hundreds of children sickened from high levels of lead in applesauce pouches last year put a spotlight on lapses in the food-safety system.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 28 February 2024

• Employee shortages at hotels threaten to push travel costs even higher. Room rates look poised to rise as owners pass on escalating wage costs.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 28 February 2024

• The electric vehicle champion of Zhōngguó, BYD, wants to conquer more. BYD has announced discounts that put prices below those of gas-powered equivalents built by some foreign competitors.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 28 February 2024

• Macy's to close 150 stores, and instead focus on luxury consumer with Bloomingdale's
  - Zero Hedge, 27 February 2024

• Macy's to close 150 stores, and instead focus on luxury consumer with Bloomingdale's, and with its Bluemercury
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 27 February 2024

• WTF is going on with the Conference Board's Consumer Confidence index? Headline consumer confidence was revised dramatically lower for the 4th straight month!?
  - Zero Hedge, 27 February 2024

• US durable goods orders collapsed in January - biggest drop since Covid lockdowns. On the bright side, core capital goods shipments, a figure that is used to help calculate equipment investment in the government's gross domestic product report, bounced back from contraction in December.
  - Zero Hedge, 27 February 2024

• President Biden targets a new economic villain: the economic scam of shrinkflation. Liberals prodded the president for years to blame big corporations for price increases. He is finally doing so, in the grocery aisle.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 27 February 2024

• Can your personal medical devices be recycled? Inhalers, EpiPens, home tests for flu or Covid, mouth guards. They accumulate in our homes, and recycling methods and advice can be tricky to pin down.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 27 February 2024

• Cigarettes are losing their hold on the nicotine fix. Consumers have more nicotine alternatives than ever and they are making the switch faster than expected, putting fresh pressure on tobacco giants.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 27 February 2024

• The entry into the USA by Temu, the online marketplace based in Zhōngguó, is a warning flag for Etsy. Temu is taking the USA by storm as Etsy and Wayfair are already struggling to expand their audience.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 27 February 2024

• Wendy's to test 'surge pricing' using 'high-tech menu boards' that change in real time, meaning a burger and fries will cost people more during the lunch or dinner rush than slower times of day. According to industry experts, the public will not like this gouging.
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 26 February 2024

• $41,675,000 - Family Dollar Stores pleaded guilty on Monday to storing food, drugs and cosmetics in unsanitary conditions in a rodent-infested Arkansas warehouse and has agreed to pay $41.675 million, the Justice Department of the USA said.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 26 February 2024

• New home sales in the USA in January decline a bit, while median prices are at 2-year lows as supply jumps
  - Zero Hedge, 26 February 2024

• A hardware store in San Francisco implements one-on-one shopping with an employee escort to reduce "rampant shoplifting"
  - Zero Hedge, 26 February 2024

• Electric vehicle startups struggled to build cars. Now they struggle to sell them. Lucid and Rivian are more exposed to cooling demand than their legacy rivals, which can lean on gas-powered vehicles to support electric investments.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 26 February 2024

• Are you 'bleeding' money on car insurance? So are insurers. Even as used-car prices fell in 2023, an eye-watering rise in premiums often t enough to offset higher costs for auto insurers. And it is not just happening in the USA.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 26 February 2024

• Has Starbucks surpassed Amazon as the villain of big labor in New York? New York has stood at the vanguard of progressive workplace legislation. Is Starbucks ignoring the law?
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 25 February 2024

• Ahead of the entry of Tesla into Bharat, electric vehicle makers slash prices to boost demand in the world's third large automobile market
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 24 February 2024

• The sate of Washington wants to limit annual rent increases to 7 percent. Oregon and California have passed similar measures.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 24 February 2024

• The skin of donkeys (a source of gelatin - 'ejiao' - for medicines, candies and beauty products) is a coveted consumer item in Zhōngguó. But governments in Africa are trying to reduce the export of donkey skins to Zhōngguó, where demand for traditional medicine and other products is threatening animals that rural households need for transportation and agriculture. The ejiao industry of Zhōngguó now causes the deaths of between four million and six million donkey hides every year -- about 10% of the world's population of donkeys.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 24 February 2024

• Plastic experts say recycling is a scam. Should we even do it anymore? Evidence shows fossil fuel companies pushed recycling instead of addressing our growing plastic problem. The oil and plastics industry have known for a long-time that plastic recycling is not technically or economically viable at scale.
  - Salon, 24 February 2024

• Spicy food and dental implants: low prices lure people in Hong Kong to Zhōngguó. Residents of Hong Kong are finding in Shenzhen, the mainland city next door, lower prices, better service and tasty cuisine.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 24 February 2024

• Surging home insurance costs could force families to leave these 10 states - with Florida having the most expensive home insurance
  - Murdoch's Fox News, 24 February 2024

• Half of college graduates are working jobs that do not use their college degrees. Choice of major, internships and getting the right first job after graduation are critical to career paths, new data show.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 24 February 2024

• Home prices in Zhōngguó decline, increasing pressure on Beijing. A prolonged fall in home prices shows the huge task facing policymakers, who have so far proved unable to turn the market around.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 24 February 2024

• Express, a retailer of business causal-focused clothing, is moving towards filing for bankruptcy, having struggled since the Covid pandemic
  - Zero Hedge, 23 February 2024

• Reckoning for realtors in the USA? An estimated $100 billion in annual real estate commissions could be cut by 30%, analyst says -- putting as many as 1.6 million agents out of work. Here is why.
  - MoneyWise, 23 February 2024

• Nestlé reported full-year earnings and sales that were just shy of expectations, and cautioned that sales growth will moderate this year as higher prices push shoppers to ease spending
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 23 February 2024

• Chief information officers say they are concerned about vendors shifting sales strategies in favor of bigger, pricier software bundles thanks to an uptick in business technology acquisitions
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 23 February 2024

• Profiteering hampers the expansion of the electrical grid in the USA. Private utility companies are blocking new interregional transmission lines.
  - IEEE Spectrum, 22 February 2024

• Zhōngguó urgently needs to issue "most effective" cash coupons to boost insufficient consumption. Recovery in consumption was a major source of growth last year, but Beijing has failed to heed calls to issue cash coupons and consumption vouchers.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 22 February 2024

• The lifespan of large appliances is shrinking. A push toward computerization, an increase in the amount of components and flimsier materials have undercut reliability.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 22 February 2024

• Cheap products from Zhōngguó are becoming a costly problem for Hong Kong. Shoppers from Hong Kong are hopping across the border to shop in Zhōngguó, where prices have dropped. Neighboring countries in Asia could also be hit if companies from Zhōngguó dump their goods there amid weak domestic demand in Zhōngguó.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 22 February 2024

• Why car insurance rates are so high. The price of car insurance was up more than 20 percent over the same time last year, and up 38% since January 2020. Inflation is definitely a big part of the equation. Everything now costs more, including cars and car repairs, and insurance companies are passing those costs on to consumers.
  - Vox, 21 February 2024

• The average American can save more than $400 a year in interest charges by switching to a smaller credit card provider, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The financial watchdog found that the largest lenders charged an APR that was 8 to 10 percentage points higher than that of smaller credit card issuers.
  - Credit News, 21 February 2024

• Spending on food, as a percent of disposable income, hits the highest level in the USA in 30 years
  - Zero Hedge, 21 February 2024

• Spending on food, as a percent of disposable income, hits the highest level in the USA in 30 years
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 21 February 2024

• As the costs of home insurance continue to increase, coverage is decreasing. Frequent natural disasters and high inflation have led insurers to raise premiums, and forced many customers to pare reduce their policies. Underinsurance is not a new problem, but it has become far more widespread and severe over the past three years, as rising inflation and climate change have created a highly volatile and unreliable insurance market and raised costs for homeowners.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 21 February 2024

• Will food prices stop rising quickly? many companies say "yes". Food companies are talking about smaller price increases this year, good news for grocery shoppers, restaurant diners and the White House.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 21 February 2024

• Small businesses sound alarm over the weakening economy in Germany. Thousands of companies, concerned that Deutschland is facing a recession, are calling for an end to political infighting that has blocked a possible stimulus plan.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 21 February 2024

• To cut costs, restaurants are employing fewer wine sommeliers. The job, once seen as an essential feature of any establishment serious about wine, now seems to be a luxury in the post-pandemic restaurant economy. One result is fewer, more boring choices of wine for customers.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 21 February 2024

• Shares of Palo Alto, a cybersecurity company, plummet 20%, wiping out all 2024 gains, after slashing revenue guidance amid "spending fatigue"
  - Zero Hedge, 20 February 2024

• Ford is slashing prices and increasing incentives on its electric Mach-E and F-150 Lightning. It is not just Tesla -- the increasing saturation of the electric vehicle market continues driving down prices as manufacturers strive to remain competitive.
  - Zero Hedge, 20 February 2024

• Shares of Walmart rise 5.7% Teusday morning, after its earnings report beat estimates, despite soft future guidance, and a warning about "choiceful" consumers spending less
  - Zero Hedge, 20 February 2024

• Sales at Home Depot decline for the fifth quarter on weak demand for housing, the result of higher mortgage rates that have put a big freeze on the housing market
  - Zero Hedge, 20 February 2024

• America's anti-obesity craze, courtesy of GLP-1-based weight-loss drugs such as Wegovy and Mounjaro, produced by Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, continues to create anxiety among the food-industrial complex after a new study cited by Morgan Stanley shows households on the weight-loss drugs are spending less at the supermarket. Many GLP-1 households increased purchases of fish, vegetables, and yogurt while sales of snacks, pastries, and ice cream fell.
  - Zero Hedge, 20 February 2024

• Workers are not suffering just from low wages. Retailers are mistreating workers in a more insidious way: relying on more part-time workers (who don't get benefits) and unpredictable hours
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 20 February 2024

• With both delinquency and charge off ratios at the two largest credit card companies, it is hardly surprising that the easiest way to cover up the growing delinquency/NCF rot below the surface is simply to throw billions in "synergies" at the problem while also combining two (very ugly) balance sheets in hopes of confusing shorts. Thus, the announcement that Capital One plans to buy Discover Financial Services in a deal that would combine two of the largest - and ugliest - credit-card companies in the USA.
  - Zero Hedge, 19 February 2024

• With both delinquency and charge off ratios at the two largest credit card companies, it is hardly surprising that the easiest way to cover up the growing delinquency/NCF rot below the surface is simply to throw billions in "synergies" at the problem while also combining two (very ugly) balance sheets in hopes of confusing shorts. Thus, the announcement that Capital One plans to buy Discover Financial Services in a deal that would combine two of the largest - and ugliest - credit-card companies in the USA.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 19 February 2024

• The antitrust enforcers aimed at Big Tech. Then came the backlash. South Korea pledged to protect its online platforms from marketplace giants, but lobbyists are crying foul play spending tons of money to fight the government of South Koreaa's efforts to protect smaller businesses.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 19 February 2024

• How private equity firms have destroyed for profit much of the newspaper industry, greatly weakening democracy and increasing authoritarianism, which the private equity funds like because it gives them more freedom for more profitable destruction
  - Politico, 18 February 2024

• $539,000,000 - Apple will reportedly have to pay a $539 million fine due to an antitrust complaint filed by Spotify in the European Union. Spotify alleged that Apple policies prevent iPhone apps from telling users about cheaper alternatives to the music service of Apple. It is, admittedly, a meaningless fine for a company as wealthy as Apple.
  - Zero Hedge, 18 February 2024

• By 2030, the five largest consumer markets in the world will be, in order: Zhōngguó, Bharat, the USA, Indonesia and Brazil
  - Zero Hedge, 16 February 2024

• Investors push up the prices of bitcoin and oil as stagflation in the USA wrecks a 52-year-old equity streak
  - Zero Hedge, 16 February 2024

• Another sector of the commercial real estate market is in trouble. Major retailers are returning to a "just-in-time" lean inventory management strategy after Covid forced "just-in-case" inventory management due to snarled supply chains. This shift in inventory management style has forced consumer goods maker Newell Brands, retail pharmacy chain Rite Aid, and sports apparel retailer Fanatics to shrink warehouse footprints.
  - Zero Hedge, 16 February 2024

• Another sector of the commercial real estate market is in trouble. Major retailers are returning to a "just-in-time" lean inventory management strategy after Covid forced "just-in-case" inventory management due to snarled supply chains. This shift in inventory management style has forced consumer goods maker Newell Brands, retail pharmacy chain Rite Aid, and sports apparel retailer Fanatics to shrink warehouse footprints.
  - Zero Hedge, 16 February 2024

• More persistent inflation: producer prices surged in January as service costs soared. Core producer prices reached a new record high (reminder, disinflation does not mean lower prices), now up 17.4% since Biden was elected. Fed won't be reducing interest rates for awhile.
  - Zero Hedge, 16 February 2024

• January wholesale prices rise more than expected, another sign of persistent inflation
  - Comcast's CNBC, 16 February 2024

• Lucid is the latest electric vehicle maker to cut prices as demand ebbs. Pricing pressure in the automobile industry is hitting unprofitable electric-vehicle startups hard.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 16 February 2024

• Nike to fire over 1000 people. The firings are part of the plans of Nike to shed $2 billion in costs over the next three years.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 16 February 2024

• $8,300,000 - AMC agrees to pay $8.3 million to subscribers of its streaming services, in response to allegations that AMC illegally shared subscribers' viewing history with tech companies like Google, Facebook, and Twitter/X in violation of the Video Privacy Protection Act.
  - Modernity, 15 February 2024

• Many consumers are addicted to "buy no, pay later" plans, another sign of consumer stress. One scam: if you miss a payment, interest likely accrues from the initial purchase. At the same time, credit card debt at a record high is another sign of financial stress, So are delinquencies.
  - Zero Hedge, 15 February 2024

• Retail sales in the USAM plunged in January, the worst YoY growth since the Covid lockdown
  - Zero Hedge, 15 February 2024

• Retail sales in the USA posted a larger-than-expected 0.8% loss after a strong round of holiday shopping in December.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 15 February 2024

• A jarring decline in retail sales in January is predicted. One month after a blowout retail sales print, here comes the hangover.
  - Zero Hedge, 15 February 2024

• 80% of Americans test positive for chlormequat, a chemical found in Cheerios, Quaker Oats that may cause infertility, delayed puberty. When applied to oat and grain crops, chlormequat alters the growth of a plant, preventing it from bending over and thus making it easier to harvest.
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 15 February 2024

• Researchers in South Korea have developed a new hybrid of rice, grown in a lab with cow muscle and fat cells inside the rice grains. The rice -- which is colored pink -- could offer a cheaper, more environmentally sustainable source of protein with a much lower carbon footprint than beef, the researchers say.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 15 February 2024

• Researchers in South Korea have developed a new hybrid of rice, grown in a lab with cow muscle and fat cells inside the rice grains. The rice -- which is colored pink -- could offer a cheaper, more environmentally sustainable source of protein with a much lower carbon footprint than beef, the researchers say.
  - Nature, 15 February 2024

• Many households are repeating the same debt mistakes they made more than 15 years ago during the 2008-2009 financial crisis. Specifically, they are aggressively spending and piling on debt just at the moment when they should be prudently cutting back on both. While household debt has grown at 5.5 percent per year (over $3 trillion) since 2019, real personal income has only grown by 1.9 percent per year over the same period. Other indications of the financial distress of people in the USA include that they are both saving less relative to their income and dipping into existing savings to try to make ends meet.
  - Zero Hedge, 14 February 2024

• A growing percentage of Americans are becoming reckless with their spending, fueling what one economist calls "super duper" credit bubble.
  - Zero Hedge, 14 February 2024

• Tax refunds crater a recessionary 57%, sparking fears about collapse in low income spending
  - Zero Hedge, 14 February 2024

• Nisin, a 'safe' food additive that is an antibiotic that kills threatening pathogens may also be killing beneficial bacteria in the gut microbiome
  - Zero Hedge, 14 February 2024

• The cost of owning a car is getting painful. Gasoline prices are in check, but nearly everything else related to your vehicle is getting more expensive.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 14 February 2024

• Walmart in talks to buy Vizio, a manufacturer of televisions. The retail giant is discussing a more than $2 billion deal that would boost its advertising business in the battle with Amazon.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 14 February 2024

• Instacart, the grocery delivery company, is firing about 250 people (about 7% of its employees) amid rising competition and food costs
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 14 February 2024

• Search trens for "return Apple Vision Pro" erupt as users complain
  - Zero Hedge, 13 February 2024

• "Magnificent sentiment": for the first time in years, investors no longer expect a recession as everyone piles into Mag7 stocks
  - Zero Hedge, 13 February 2024

• Stocks, bonds and gold plummet after the latest CPI numbers remain high, further dampening hopes that the Fed will reduce interest rates in the near future
  - Zero Hedge, 13 February 2024

• Hotter-than-expected inflation clouds interest rate-cut outlook. Inflation declined slightly to 3.1% in January, while underlying prices ticked up slightly more than expected.
  - Zero Hedge, 13 February 2024

• Expectations were for a big drop in the YoY consumer price index (from +3.4% to +2.9%, a decline of 0.5%) but instead it surprised to the upside (just as we warned) with a +3.1% YoY print for headline CPI (spoiling the sub-3% partiers). Consumer prices rose 0.3% MoM (more than the 0.2% predicted) but the headline CPI did decline from +3.4% to +3.1% YoY.
  - Zero Hedge, 13 February 2024

• Zero Hedge CPI prediction: "There is a genuine risk" inflation will come in hotter/higher than expected
  - Zero Hedge, 13 February 2024

• The negative impacts of discount shopping companies such as Temu and Shein: they cater to a culture of instant gratification and overindulgence. The allure of cheap clothes blinds many to the environmental toll: excessive water usage, toxic dyes, microplastics, and mountains of discarded textiles. The fashion industry is responsible for approximately 10% of global carbon emissions, with textile dyeing being the second largest polluter of clean water globally. All of this is a high price to pay for products that end up in landfills just as quickly as they end up in our shopping carts. Beyond the visible environmental impact lies another hidden health danger: chemicals. Reports reveal elevated levels of lead, PFAS, and phthalates in fast fashion items.
  - Washington Examiner, 13 February 2024

• Shares of Hasbro drop 10% in pre-market trading, after it reported a more than 20% hit to its fourth-quarter revenue and issued a downbeat 2024 forecast
  - Comcast's CNBC, 13 February 2024

• Why are solar panels 44% cheaper in Zhōngguó than the USA? The short answer is that everyting in Zhōngguó is cheaper from matierals to electricity to labor. Trump proposes 60 percent taxes/tariffs on Zhōngguó. To date, Biden took tariffs Trump imposed and increased most of them.
  - Mish Talk, 12 February 2024

• A USA Today survey of the most brands of consumer goods that are least relying on shrink-flation (same price, lower quantity) reports that Sharpie, Costco, Honda, Toyota have the fairest pricing. Few companies with food and beverage products ranked highly (these products are easist to shrink-flate.
  - Zero Hedge, 12 February 2024

• Household debt tops $17.5 trillion and Americans are feeling the strain. The bigger problem is the double whammy of rising debt and rising interest rates. Average credit card interest rates eclipsed the previous record high of 17.87 percent months ago. The average annual percentage rate (APR) currently stands at 20.75 percent.
  - Zero Hedge, 12 February 2024

• A new law in the state of New York mandates more transparency in credit card surcharges. The state law, which goes into effect Sunday, requires businesses to include any surcharges in the prices listed for the products or services they sell.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 12 February 2024

• Why three media giants made a 'hail Mary' bet on sports streaming. Disney, Fox and Warner's venture to bundle live sports content -- the latest hit to traditional cable packages -- needs to cover high costs and keep leagues on board.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 12 February 2024

• $1,000,000,000 Staggering rise in catheter bills suggests a scam against Medicare. Seven medical supply companies (many of which have shared executives) made suspicious claims involving thousands of Medicare beneficiaries, an advocacy group found. From less than $100 million/quarter in 2021, by Q4 of 2024, Medicare was being billed/scammed of $800 million/quarter.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 10 February 2024

• Oakland grapples with rising crime: "when the cop leaves, they come." In-N-Out Burger, Denny's and Clorox are among the companies either closing locations or hiring security for employees.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 10 February 2024

• Consumers in the USA are not eating enough bacon, and that is a problem for the economy. The pork industry in the USA has become so efficient that demand cannot keep up with supply. In search of solutions, farmers and processors are looking at everything from new overseas markets to fattier, tastier pigs.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 10 February 2024

• The spend, spend, spend strategy behind the rapid ascent of Temu in the USA. The rise of Temu, based in Zhōngguó, as one of most popular places to shop in the USA is powered by its ultracheap goods and billions of dollars of advertising, including in the Super Bowl on Sunday. Of course, that is billions that they do not have to spend on environmental remediation for all of the waste they induce.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 10 February 2024

• Barclays has agreed to buy the retail banking branches of Tesco for a consideration of around $760 million in a deal that allows the U.K. grocer to focus on its core food offering and return cash to shareholders.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 10 February 2024

• Pharmacy chains are in a world of financial hurt. You can blame shrinking remimbursements for drugs and pharmaceuticals. Chains like Walgreens and CVS have pivoted from endless expansion to closing stores to boost profits.
  - Murdoch's Barron's, 10 February 2024

• Pharmacy chains are in a world of financial hurt. A tale of one troubled CVS store in Virginia Beach.
  - Murdoch's Barron's, 10 February 2024

• Some idiots are buying cars and trucks that require monthly payments of $3000, enough to buy a house< that depreciates far less slowly than vehicles
  - Zero Hedge, 09 February 2024

• There are now huge sales of nicotine drug delivery pouches. Critics say that they are dangerous for children in making it so easy to obtain a hit of a highly addictive drug. Philip Morris International announced Thursday that it shipped about 350 million cans of Zyn in 2023, a whopping 62% growth compared to the previous year.
  - Newhouse CNN, 09 February 2024

• Household belt-tightening: will the trickle become a flood of lesser spending? The top 0.1% will weather a recession just fine, but that will offer cold comfort to the other 130 million American households. Will consumer-related stocks suffer?
  - Zero Hedge, 09 February 2024

• Credit card and auto delinquencies soar, especially age group 18-39. Credit card debt surged to a record high in the fourth quarter. Even more troubling is a steep climb in 90 day or longer delinquencies. Serious delinquencies on auto loans have jumped from under 3 percent in mid-2021 to to 5 percent at the end of 2023 for age group 18-29.
  - Zero Hedge, 09 February 2024

• Big banks have drastically cut overdraft fees, but customers still paid $2.2 billion last year. The three biggest American retail banks collected 25% less overdraft revenue last year as the companies created new ways for customers to avoid the penalties. JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Bank of America reported a combined $2.2 billion in overdraft fees in 2023, roughly $700 million less than the previous year, according to regulatory filings.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 09 February 2024

• More Australians turn to shoplifting groceries as food prices remain high. Food inflation and public furore over potential price gouging by Australia's supermarket duopoly are pushing more people to shoplift groceries. Heat on the supermarkets intensified after a report revealed the two chains -- Coles and Woolworth -- might have been overpricing and had no incentive to cut prices.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 09 February 2024

• The middle class of Zhōngguó put spending on hold over wealth and income concerns. A widely used measure to gauge the health of the middle class in Zhōngguó showed household wealth and income indices remained in contraction in the fourth quarter of last year.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 09 February 2024

• Deflation in Zhōngguó is raising worries, as caused by falling prices for food and cars. In addition to consumer price declines in January, wholesale prices fell last month, and have been down in every month since October 2022.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 09 February 2024

• The deflation problem in Zhōngguó is getting worse, a stark symptom of a deepening economic malaise that spells trouble for the global economy.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 09 February 2024

• The newest competitors for Amazon are stepping into its territory - literally. Shein and TikTok are expanding in the 'backyard' of Amazon and recruiting its employees.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 09 February 2024

• Cocoa futures in New York soared to a new record high this morning as fears of a global bean shortage worsened. Hyperinflating cocoa prices used mainly in candy could pressure companies like Hershey Co. to raise chocolate and other confectionery items at the supermarket.
  - Zero Hedge, 08 February 2024

• Shares of Alibaba sank as much as 7% in Hong Kong on Thursday, after the tech giant in Zhōngguó reported disappointing sales figures and announced it would suspend listings plans for two of its units
  - Newhouse CNN, 08 February 2024

• Zhōngguó's economic woes continue: consumer prices suffer worst deflation sicne the Global Financial Crisis, and producer price (downside) pressures persist.
  - Zero Hedge, 08 February 2024

• Average credit card balances jump 10% to a record $6,360 as more consumers fall behind on payments. Total credit card debt also reached a record $1.13 trillion in the latest quarter. As consumers increasingly lean on their credit cards, more borrowers are also struggling with their payments.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 08 February 2024

• Credit cards could swipe the profits of department stores. A government crackdown on late fees for missed payments (from $41 to $8), and more delinquent credit card accounts poses a threat to Macy's, Kohl's, Nordstrom and others. Credit card income accounted for 49% of operating income in 2022 for Macy's, and 44% for Nordstrom's.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 08 February 2024

• Stunning collapse in the increase of credit card debt levels as average APR hits new all-time high of 21.47%. After several months of wild swings in US consumer debt, culminating with last month's explosion in credit card debt which was the 2nd biggest on record, in December households finally hit a brick wall because according to the latest consumer credit data published by the Federal Reserve moments ago, in the last month of 2023 total consumer debt rose by a paltry $1.561 billion, which was not only nearly a 90% miss to consensus estimates of $15.9 billion. It is only a matter of time before US GDP prints deep negative now that that pillar supporting 70% of the US economy, consumer purchases, is about to crack.
  - Zero Hedge, 07 February 2024

• JPMorgan Chase plans massive branch network expansion while small banks implode
  - Zero Hedge, 07 February 2024

• Luxury retailers are buying out their landlords. The parent companies of Prada and Gucci are among those spending hundreds of millions of dollars for Fifth Avenue properties.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 07 February 2024

• McDonald's pushed its customers to the brink of losing them, due to multiple price increases. The customers are starting to push back. On Monday, as the burger chain reported weaker-than-expected sales at its US stores, CEO Chris Kempczinski addressed McDonald's "affordability" problem, and indicated the chain would cut prices on some menu items.
  - Newhouse CNN, 06 February 2024

• How the funeral industry got the FTC to hide bad actors, in a deal struck 25 years ago - an unethical deal unique to the funeral home industry. Mortuaries that violate fair-practices rules are allowed to take a remedial training program that shields their names from public scrutiny.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 06 February 2024

• The cost of running a McDonalds in California will jump $250,000 in April, due to increases in the minimum wages
  - Zero Hedge, 05 February 2024

• Some California residents are "stunned" by the high cost of their latest electric and gas bill, after Pacific Gas & Electric raised prices for millions of customers last month. Millions of Californians can expect to pay an extra $400 a year on average on utilities.
  - Fox News, 05 February 2024

• 'Shrinkflation' is in the airplanes, online and everywhere else. You pay more for "extras" that used to be part of the base price. The CPI doesn't measure that.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 05 February 2024

• Apple, Mondelez and Procter & Gamble are bullish on consumer spending growth in Zhōngguó despite recent economic turmoil there
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 05 February 2024

• Cattle herds in the USA are at 73-year lows, as retail prices for beef are at record highs
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 04 February 2024

• A group of antitrsut lawsuits accuse large landlords of price-fixing the market rate of rent in the USA using RealPage. One complaint filed by Washington D.C's Attorney General alleges 14 landlords in the district are sharing competitively sensitive data through RealPage, a real estate software provider. They allege that landlords share competitively sensitive data through RealPage, which then sets artificially high rents on a key slice of the local rental market.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 04 February 2024

• Fast fashion is an industry ensnared in labor issues and copyright problems, and it has an immense environmental impact due to its wastewater and carbon emissions. It also happens to have the potential to make a lot of money, fast. But despite all these issues, VCs will not stop loving the sector. But it is time for VCs to stop investing in these troubled companies.
  - TechCrunch, 03 February 2024

• Why companies in Zhōngguó hope the USA won't change the de minimis regulation, which allows them to import shipments of less than $800 without paying import duties, taxes or fees, or undergoing tedious screening procedures. This allows e-commerce giants such as Shein and Temu to import parcels worth over a $250 billion/year. US critics have claimed the rule has given Chinese e-commerce platforms and sellers an unfair advantage and squeezed out American retailers
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 03 February 2024

• The FTC warns 39 funeral homes to provide accurate costs to consumers. The FTC said an "undercover phone sweep" of more than 250 homes found that 38 failed to provide prices or supplied inconsistent prices in separate calls.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 03 February 2024

• The hottest beer in the USA does not have alcohol. Founded by a hedge-fund trader and a brewer, Athletic Brewing has become the king of nonalcoholic beers. So what is all the buzz about?
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 03 February 2024

• The 6% commission for sales of home is under attack (why not flat fees?). Inside the fight to keep the high fees in force. Despite years of technology disruption, home commissions remain stuck near 6%. Now courts, consumers, and some brokers are fighting back, with the National Association of Realtors spending $52 million to bribe lobby politicians in Washington. "Changes to the commission structure would save consumers between $20 and $30 billion dollars a year", says Stephen Brobeck, a senior fellow at the Consumer Federation of America who previously served as its executive director.
  - Murdoch's Barron's, 03 February 2024

• Starting February 1, renters in Los Angeles renters, in full, any unpaid rent between October 1, 2021, and January 31, 2023, ending a pandemic-era policy. Landlords in Los Angeles are owed an estimated $898 million. Landlords sent an estimated 77,000 notices to Los Angeles renters from last February to December with 96 percent of such for overdue rent, with the average rent owed about $3,774.
  - Zero Hedge, 02 February 2024

• Shares of Paytm, once the hottest startup in Bharat offering digital payments technology, crash 36% in two days, extending a plunge that has wiped 77% off its value since it went public in the biggest IPO in 2021 in Bharat.
  - Newhouse CNN, 02 February 2024

• Apple has a new plan for its App store. Many developers hate it. To comply with European regulations, Apple has proposed reducing its commission on app sales while adding new fees and hurdles. Tucked inside the plan, they argue, are new fees and rules that make it prohibitively expensive and risky to make the changes that the law was intended to bring.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 02 February 2024

• One of the most in-demnd commodities in the USA is in your trash. Demand for old corrugated boxes is rising thanks to new cardboard mills fed with recycled fiber.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 02 February 2024

• Should Amazon be responsible for everything it sells and ships? A Consumer Product Safety Commission order could classify Amazon as a distributor, potentially exposing it to more legal claims.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 02 February 2024

• $70,000,000 - Keller Williams agrees to pay $70 million to settle real estate agent commission lawsuits nationwide
  - Associated Press, 01 February 2024

• Shares of Amazon rise 10% in after hours trading, after beating earnings estimates despite some weakness in AWS revenues
  - Zero Hedge, 01 February 2024

• Shares of Peloton plummet 24% as the fitness company gives a dismal outlook, warning investors it is still months away from growing sales or turning a profit.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 01 February 2024

• Shares of Apple drop 4% after-hours, after it beat estimates for revenue and earnings, but reported a 13% decline in sales in Zhōngguó, one of its most important markets.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 01 February 2024

• The stock market's high odds of a cocaine fix from the Fed (interest rate reductions in the next six months), which implies a weak economy needing boosting, contradicts an exploding stock market and a full order book at Lamborghini
  - Zero Hedge, 31 January 2024

• Electric vehcicle sales in the USA increased 29% in Q4, within the context of a much more moderate total car sales increase of 8%
  - Zero Hedge, 30 January 2024

• Home prices in the USA rose for the 10th straight month in November, but gains slow
  - Zero Hedge, 30 January 2024

• Tax-cuts, not Bidenomics, explains surge in consumer spending in 2023. On January 1, 2023, 38 states had noteworthy tax changes. 37 of the changes gave extra money for consumers to spend.
  - Zero Hedge, 30 January 2024

• Philips suspends sales in the USA of breathing machines after recall. Under a settlement with regulators, the company must revamp some operations before resuming sales of its CPAP and ventilator devices in the USA. Millions of the Philips' ventilators and CPAP machines, used to ease breathing at night, were recalled after reports that they blew bits of foam and potentially toxic gases into the airways of consumers.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 30 January 2024

• For retailers, business is back and landlords say no more rent discounts. Landlords are having a much easier time filling prime retail space and are far less likely to agree to concessions.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 30 January 2024

• Businesses and consumers are borrowing again. Falling interest rates have spurred debt sales by highly rated and riskier borrowers.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 30 January 2024

• General Motors invested heavily in electric vehicles. Dealers say buyers want hybrids. Some influential dealers are pressing General Motors to introduce hybrid models, worried they risk losing customers who are not ready to make the switch to fully electric cars.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 30 January 2024

• General Motors invested heavily in electric vehicles. Dealers say buyers want hybrids. Some influential dealers are pressing General Motors to introduce hybrid models, worried they risk losing customers who are not ready to make the switch to fully electric cars.
  - Zero Hedge, 30 January 2024

• Jewelry brand Pandora will switch to using 100% recycled gold and silver in its trademark bracelets, necklaces and other pieces by the second half of 2024. Pandora estimates it will avoid 58,000 metric tons of carbon-dioxide emissions each year.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 30 January 2024

• Plummeting inflation raises new risk for the cenbnk{USA}: rising real interest rates. If inflation has sustainably returned to the 2% target of the cenbnk{USA}, then nominal rates adjusted for inflation have risen and might be restricting economic activity too much.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 29 January 2024

• $8,000,000 - The two brother-owners of the famous Philadelphia Cheesesteak restaurant Tony Luke's were sentenced to prison for tax fraud on Thursday after concealing over $8 million over the course of a decade. Between 2006 and 2016, court documents show, the two men hid over $8 million in cash receipts from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and only deposited a portion of the cash they received into restaurant business accounts.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 28 January 2024

• Most of the increase in retail sales over the past two years can be attributed to rising prices, as shoppers have spent more bucks for the same products. However, in order to maintain that 'quality' of life, Americans have decimated their savings, and taken on more and more debt. Debt delinquencies are at their highest level since 2012 - as the USA was coming OUT OF a recession.
  - Zero Hedge, 27 January 2024

• Median rents in the USA slide for eighth month on surge in new apartment supply
  - Zero Hedge, 27 January 2024

• The growth of wages for government workers hits a record high, as the Fed's favorite inflation slows. The PCE Deflator declined to +2.9% YoY in December, but acyclical inflation remains high.
  - Zero Hedge, 26 January 2024

• Reduced inflation keeps door open for interest rate reductions this year. The personal-consumption expenditures price index rose 0.2% in December from the previous month, consistent with subdued inflation.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 26 January 2024

• Automobile insurance rates soar at fastest pace since 1970s inflation spike. "It is the complexity of vehicles these days."
  - Zero Hedge, 26 January 2024

• The rooftop solar industry could be on the verge of collapse due to the many business scams/loans for rooftop installations. In late 2023 alone, more than 100 residential solar dealers and installers in the USA declared bankruptcy, six times more than in the previous three years combined. At the root of these struggles is the complicated financial engineering that helped companies raise money but that some investors and analysts say was built on a framework of lies.
  - Marc Benioff's Time, 25 January 2024

• What recession? Growth ended up accelerating in 2023. The economy of the USA grew 3.1% over the last year as strong consumer spending and hiring upended recession fears.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 26 January 2024

• Insurers earn huge profits as they force customers to pay soaring premiums. The shares of Travelers and Allstate have climbed to records after big rate increases.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 26 January 2024

• Kansas City griefs: Fed manufacturing survey screams stagflation in January
  - Zero Hedge, 25 January 2024

• The cenbnk{ECB} keeps interest rates unchanged, sees "declining trend in inflation" continuing
  - Zero Hedge, 25 January 2024

• $104,500,000 - Yale, Duke and Columbia are among elite schools to settle in price-fixing case. Five universities have agreed to pay $104.5 million to settle a lawsuit accusing them of violating an agreement to be "need-blind" when admitting students.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 25 January 2024

• Credit card debt has greatly increased -- and it is taking longer to pay down the debt. From fuel and groceries to hotels and airline tickets, consumers are putting more purchases on credit cards -- and taking longer to pay them off.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 25 January 2024

• $7,500,000 - MGM Grand and The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas agree to pay about $7.5 million in fines related to anti-money-laundering failures
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 25 January 2024

• [Christian] wars are always inflationary. We will continue to see high inflation in the Christian USA to the extent these current engagements remain unchecked or others are allowed to mushroom from them.
  - Zero Hedge, 24 January 2024

• Medical scrubs designer and distributor Careismatic Brands filed for bankruptcy to eliminate $833 million in debt, a restructuring prompted by falling demand and higher interest rates
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 24 January 2024

• $700,000,000 - Johnson & Johnson has reached a tentative settlement (reportedly to pay $700 million) to resolve investigations by more than 40 states into whether the company misled patients about the safety of its talc baby powder and other talc-based products.
  - Zero Hedge, 23 January 2024

• Shares of 3M drop 10% Tuesday morning, the biggest drop in 5 years (having declined 12% in the last year before Tuesday's drop), after it forecast 2024 profits and sales growth that fell short of estimates, disappointing Wall Street after a major restructuring push had lifted results last year
  - Zero Hedge, 23 January 2024

• Your new $3,000 couch might be garbage in three years. This is why. Furnishings that used to last for a decade or more fall apart much sooner now. Think fast fashion for furniture - both industries destroying the environment while their owners become richer.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 23 January 2024

• WeWork wrestles to amend leases as landlords seek clarity on restructuring plan. The co-working company has achieved at least $3.7 billion in savings through rejecting and amending leases, but talks for further concessions are dragging on.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 23 January 2024

• No films made in the USA ranked among the 10 highest grossing in Zhōngguó last year as viewers who once flocked to foreign blockbusters continued to disappear.
  - Zero Hedge, 23 January 2024

• The Federal Trade Commission ruled in a final order and opinion Monday that TurboTax, the popular tax filing software, engaged in deceptive advertising and banned the company from advertising its services for free unless it is free for all customers.
  - Newhouse CNN, 22 January 2024

• Average price of a used Tesla tumbles for 18 straight months
  - Zero Hedge, 22 January 2024

• An AI customer service chatbot for international delivery service DPD used profanity, told a joke, wrote poetry about how useless it was, and criticized the company as the "worst delivery firm in the world", after prompting by a frustrated customer.
  - Marc Benioff's Time, 20 January 2024

• The latest boom in advertising: lawyers seeking plaintiffs for mass litigation. The ad flood reflects the growth in mass product-liability and personal-injury cases -- and investor interest in backing the lawsuits.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 20 January 2024

• Solving the college tuition puzzle is only getting harder. With costs of tuition skyrocketing, would-be students are being forced to get creative.
  - Murdoch's Barron's, 20 January 2024

• $100,000,000+ - CFPB and seven state attorneys general sue a debt-relief business, Strategic Financial Solutions, for illegally swindling more than $100 million from financially struggling families
  - ConsumerFinance.gov, 19 January 2024

• Wayfair is firing 1,650 people, amounting to 13% of its global workforce, as the online home goods retailer struggled to rebound following its success amid pandemic lockdowns.
  - Newhouse CNN, 19 January 2024

• Goldman Sachs predicts "battery price deflation" through 2030
  - Zero Hedge, 19 January 2024

• Americans are suddenly a lot more happy about the economy. The University of Michigan's gauge posted the largest two-month gain since 1991.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 19 January 2024

• UMich Inflation expectation survey plunges to lowest since 2020, sentiment soars
  - Zero Hedge, 19 January 2024

• THe manufacturing industries of Zhōngguó remain the largest in the world for the 14th consecutive year
  - Global Times, 19 January 2024

• Online reatil sales in Zhōngguó remain the largest in the world for the 11th consecutive year
  - Global Times, 19 January 2024

• How coffee farmers in Hawaii fought counterfeit Kona beans. A testing method borrowed from geology helped farmers sue a slew of stores selling supposed 'Kona' coffee.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 19 January 2024

• The economy of Zhōngguó is in serious trouble, experiencing Nihon-style deflation and high youth unemployment. One reason is that consumer spending is very low as a percentage of GDP, and Zhōngguó very high rates (40% of GDP) of growth based on investments (which are providing diminishing returns, such as its real estate bubble).
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 19 January 2024

• Hybrid cars (part gasoline, part electric) enjoy a renaissance as sales slow for all-electric vehicles. Automakers like Ford, Kia and Toyota are offering more hybrid options to appeal to buyers who are not ready for fully electric vehicles. Nearly one in 10 new cars pairs a gasoline engine with electric motors to save fuel and boost performance, which cost about $20,000 less than all-electric vehicles..
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 19 January 2024

• Ballooning credit and (delayed) interest rate reductions: a perfect storm for default. There is unfortunately no end in sight for consumers who are already borrowing just to finance basic needs.
  - Zero Hedge, 18 January 2024

• Macy's plans to fire more than 2,300 people, about 3.5% of its workforce, and close five stores
  - Comcast's CNBC, 18 January 2024

• Goldman Sachs predicts that the growth of consumer spending will accelerate as the number of 'affluent' people in Bharat doubles
  - Comcast's CNBC, 18 January 2024

• Consumer Financial Protection Bureau proposes overdraft fee limits for large banks. The options would include charging a benchmark fee, set by the bureau, that would be significantly lower than the current $35 standard. "Today, we are proposing rules to close a longstanding loophole that allowed many large banks to transform overdraft into a massive junk fee harvesting machine."
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 18 January 2024

• Retail sales in the USA rose a seasonally adjusted 0.6% in December from a month earlier, the Commerce Department said Wednesday, a larger gain than economists expected
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 18 January 2024

• The high cost of the Trump-Biden taxes/tariffs. The evidence shows they benefited a politically connected few, while consumers and producers in the USA paid the bill.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 18 January 2024

• Americans are ditching weeknight fun. Can they be tempted back? Entertainment chains ramp up deals and all-you-can-eat wings to boost Monday-through-Thursday outings.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 18 January 2024

• Apple changes its App Store policy. Critics call the changes "outrageous". The iPhone maker will allow developers to process purchases outside of its app store but will still charge a commission.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 18 January 2024

• $1,000,000,000+ - How Walmart's financial services became a fraud magnet and for money laundering. Scammers have duped consumers out of more than $1 billion by exploiting the lax security at Walmart (spending more gives less billions to the Walmart family). Walmart has resisted taking responsibility while breaking promises to regulators and skimping on training.
  - Business Insider, 17 January 2024

• The EU has proposed sweeping changes within the music streaming industry to promote smaller artists and make sure underpaid performers are being fairly compensated. The European Parliament is also calling for outdated "pre-digital" royalty rates to be revised, noting that some schemes force performers to accept little to no revenue in exchange for greater exposure.
  - The Verge, 17 January 2024

• How universities bend over backwards to accommodate food delivery robots that delivery much in the way of unhealthy food to students. Which profits the universities, as food services has become a profit center for universities and their contractors.
  - 404 Media, 17 January 2024

• Yet another recession red flag: net saving is negative. The only other times net saving has gone negative is in the lead-up to the great 2008 recession, and during the Covid recession.
  - Zero Hedge, 17 January 2024

• Diabetes is fueling an amputation crisis for men in San Antonio. A lethal combination of genetics, access to health care and diets high in processed foods is fueling a diabetes crisis in Latino communities, especially in Texas.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 17 January 2024

• Goldman Sachs was dumping billions in stocks and other assets as it told clients to buy
  - Zero Hedge, 16 January 2024

• Salaryment in Nihon choose ultra-cheap lunches as food prices continue to rise
  - The Guardian, 16 January 2024

• Consumers in the USA are spending themsleves into a historic debt binge, and delinquencies are ominously rising. Americans are going into debt as if tomorrow will never come, but of course tomorrow always arrives eventually.
  - Zero Hedge, 16 January 2024

• Renting clothes was supposed to be the future of fashion, but then shoppers got bored. Rent the Runway and Stitch Fix are adapting their business models to retain consumers as needs and tastes have changed.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 16 January 2024

• It is getting harder to make automobiles and trucks more fuel efficient. Thus, it is probably time to limit the production of large, fuel inefficient, vehicles such as SUVs.
  - The Week, 16 January 2024

• Still-expensive (even with subsidies) electric vehicles may not be cheaper to own than gasoline-powered vehicles. Researchers have found, using more complete economic models, that while small and low-range EVs capable of traveling around 200 miles are indeed less expensive to own than their gas-powered counterparts, larger, long-range EVs that can cover 400 miles are more expensive. Midsize SUV EVs -- currently the top-selling models by far -- only reach cost parity if government incentives are applied.
  - Real Clear Science, 16 January 2024

• Apple quietly introduced a rare discount on its latest iPhones in Zhōngguó, cutting prices as much as 500 yuan ($70) amid sagging demand and increasing competitive pressure in the world's top smartphone market.
  - Zero Hedge, 15 January 2024

• Apple quietly introduced a rare discount on its latest iPhones in Zhōngguó, cutting prices as much as 500 yuan ($70) amid sagging demand and increasing competitive pressure in the world's top smartphone market.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 15 January 2024

• The seemingly relentless decline in prices of Chinese goods amid tepid consumer demand is denting expectations that corporate earnings can revive the flagging stock market.
  - Zero Hedge, 15 January 2024

• The self-checkout nightmare may finally be ending. Self-checkout is a failed experiment, and a growing number of stores are backpedaling on these cursed machines.
  - Gizmodo, 15 January 2024

• The spectacular failure of self-checkout technology. Turns out that this excuse to fire people doesn't work. Customers are still queueing. They need store employees to help clear kiosk errors or check their identifications for age-restricted items. Stores still need to have workers on-hand to help them, and to service the machines. The technology is, in some cases, more trouble than it is worth.
  - BBC, 15 January 2024

• $1,100,000,000 - Uber is closer its drug alcohol delivery service, Drizaly, three years after it wasted $1.1 billion to buy Drizly
  - BBC, 15 January 2024

• Diamond prices are slashed 25% as lab-grown diamonds provide strong competition
  - MNYP,, 15 January 2024

• Buying home and auto insurance is becoming impossible
  - Zero Hedge, 14 January 2024

• One out of four consumers with huge debts are embracing even more "doom spending", spending sprees that are beyond their financial means. The last of their savings are being wiped out, they are hitting the credit limits of their credit cards, and previous debts are increasingly being left unpaid.
  - Zero Hedge, 14 January 2024

• Worries of deflation worsen in Zhōngguó. With domestic demand weak, fears are growing that Zhōngguó will try to export its way out of trouble, raising trade tensions.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 13 January 2024

• Why airline stocks are worth buying: passenger demand is growing
  - Murdoch's Barron's, 13 January 2024

• Shares in Burberry Group crashed as much as 15% in UK trading, hitting lows not seen since the early days of the Covid pandemic as the trenchcoat maker slashed its profit forecast. This is more evidence that the global luxury downturn will accelerate in the first half of 2024.
  - Zero Hedge, 12 January 2024

• The Treasury Bond yield-curve dis-inverts after a 'cool' PPI report, with gold and bond prices bouncing
  - Zero Hedge, 12 January 2024

• Core producer prices at record high in December, up 17% since Biden was elected
  - Zero Hedge, 12 January 2024

• Product returns are so expensive for online retailers, companies have focused on making the process as cheap and easy as possible - and for the most part, the planet pays the price. Online returns create 16 million tons of carbon emissions or the equivalent of 3.5 million cars on the road for an entire year. It is often cheaper for the seller to simply throw the item away than to inspect for damage, repackage and resell. Dumping returns (sometimes called "destroyed in field" or "damaging out") is often less costly than reusing them.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 12 January 2024

• A 'hot' inflation report dampens hopes of interest rate reductions by the Fed, sending up the prices of cryptocurrencies and the yields of Treasury Bonds
  - Zero Hedge, 11 January 2024

• Joseph Stiglitz is probably wrong in arguing that inflation has been reduced to the Fed's goal of 2%. Forward-looking data show that inflation pressures are beginning to build on multiple fronts.
  - Zero Hedge, 11 January 2024

• The connection with Zhōngguó: here is why inflation will not fall to 2% and stay there indefinitely. Where is the global deflator expansive enough to replace Zhōngguó's one-off deflation of global inflationary forces? There isn't one.
  - Zero Hedge, 11 January 2024

• Wall Street reacts to today's hotter than expected inflation report. "If today's report is the start of an upward pattern, there is a good chance that the Fed will delay rate cuts until later than previously expected."
  - Zero Hedge, 11 January 2024

• The headline Consumer Price Inflation printed hotter than expected in December, +0.3% MoM vs +0.2% exp and +0.1% prior, pushing the YoY headline CPI up to +3.4%. Powell is in a real pickle now - does the Fed begin shrinking QT in March (which it has to if it is terminating BTFP and Reverse Repo is drained) without starting interest rate cuts.
  - Zero Hedge, 11 January 2024

• Mortgage rates and inflation could draw attention to the Federal Reserve this election. The Federal Reserve is poised to cut interest rates in 2024 while moving away from balance sheet shrinking. Yet a key event looms in the backdrop: the election.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 11 January 2024

• Diamonds made with solar power are offering fiancées fashion that is ethical. Lab-grown diamonds, relatively unknown a decade ago, now make up a fifth of diamond sales by value.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 11 January 2024

• If the report on December's CPI has it above 0.3%, that would not be good for stock markets, as it would decrease odds that the Fed will reduce interest rates in the spring
  - Zero Hedge, 10 January 2024

• South Korea bans consumption of dog meat, a now-unpopular food. Breeding, killing and selling dogs for their meat will be banned in a country where it has fallen out of favor. Hundreds of thousands of the animal were still being bred for human consumption.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 10 January 2024

• No wonder Corporate America added $1.2 trillion in profits (a 50% boost post-Covid pandemic) to be distributed to the elites of America: everything is diminished, stripped of quality and rendered miserable. Too bad there's no real competition left in the US economy.
  - Zero Hedge, 09 January 2024

• Office vacancies hit record high across cities in the USA as CRE downturn worsens. "The bulk of the vacant space are buildings that were built in the 1950s, '60s, '70s, and '80s."
  - Zero Hedge, 09 January 2024

• The office space vacancy rate in the US has reached its highest level since 1979. In the fourth quarter of 2023 19.6% of office space in major US cities was not leased. Since 2021, commercial real estate prices are failing to keep up with inflation. Is this an indication that the commercial real estate bubble is already deflating?
  - Zero Hedge, 09 January 2024

• Wholesale used vehicle prices, tracked by Cox Automotive, peaked nearly two years ago and have since plunged into a bear market. The declines are a welcoming sign and give the Federal Reserve much-needed breathing room for interest rate cuts this year.
  - Zero Hedge, 09 January 2024

• Buying home and auto insurance is becoming impossible. Huge losses from national disasters have prompted the industry to jack up prices and pull back from some markets.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 09 January 2024

• $360,000,000 - Walgreens Boots Alliance has agreed to pay $360 million to insurance company Humana to settle a lawsuit alleging the retail-pharmacy chain overcharged for prescription-drug reimbursements.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 09 January 2024

• People are swallowing hundreds of thousands of microscopic pieces of plastic each time they drink a liter of bottled water. A new study finds that 'nanoplastics' are even more common than microplastics in bottled water.
  - Jeff Bezos' Washington Post, 08 January 2024

• The historical furniture fraud that threw the world of antiques in France into a furor
  - Atlas Obscura, 08 January 2024

• Consumer credit shocker: consumer debt in November soars after second biggest surge in credit card debt on record. This, despite the average interest rate on credit card accounts in Q4 flat at a record high 22.75% for the second quarter in a row.
  - Zero Hedge, 08 January 2024

• Jeffries analyst Edison Lee told clients that iPhone sales in Zhōngguó plunged 30% in the first week of 2024 compared to the same week last year. The tech giant in the USA faces rising competitive pressures from domestic brands, such as Huawei, spurred by "patriotic fervor" amid the technology war with the USA.
  - Zero Hedge, 08 January 2024

• $5,400,000 - George Washington University has agreed to pay $5.4 million to former students who sued the DC institution after it suddenly turned into a glorified version of the University of Phoenix by offering only on-line instruction during the Covid pandemic.
  - Zero Hedge, 08 January 2024

• Marijuana buyers from Texas (still illegal) help create a 'Little Amersterdam' in New Mexico (legal), across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas. Abortion clinics in New Mexico (mostly legal) are also doing a good business with women from Texas (mostly illegal).
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 08 January 2024

• The woman shaking up the $50 billion instant-ramen industry. Kim Jung-soo invented a super-spicy brand of noodles currently on the shelves of Walmart, Costco and major grocers in the USA.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 08 January 2024

• US News magazine sells 'badges' to colleges, so they can promote their rankings -- whether they are first, tenth or much, much lower
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 07 January 2024

• As once-routine weather events become increasingly destructive, the rising cost of home-owners insurance threatens to further stall a national housing market that is already groaning under the weight of high interest rates, rising prices and surging construction expenses.
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 06 January 2024

• The FDA issues first approval for mass drug imports to states from Canada. The agency authorized Florida to purchase medicines directly from wholesalers in Canada, where prices are far cheaper. Pharmaceutical companies oppose the plan. But significant hurdles remain. Some drug manufacturers have agreements with Canadian wholesalers not to export their medicines, and the Canadian government has already taken steps to block the export of prescription drugs that are in short supply. Several experts in pharmaceutical policy said that importation from Canada would not address the root cause of high drug prices: the ability of pharmaceutical makers to fend off generic competition by gaming the patent system, and the federal government's broad failure to negotiate directly with drugmakers over cost.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 06 January 2024

• Even as General Motors prepares to roll out electric versions of its Buick vehicles, hundreds of Buick dealerships nationwide, including at least four in Massachusetts, are turning their backs on the storied brand. Smaller, low-volume Buick dealers either can't or won't make the big investments needed to begin selling EVs, especially as sales growth in the sector has cooled and unsold electrics are piling up on dealer lots.
  - Boston Globe, 05 January 2024

• The supply of apartments in the USA hits the highest level in 40 years
  - Zero Hedge, 05 January 2024

• Google is finally eliminating cookies. Advertisers still are not ready.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 05 January 2024

• Most people still pick up prescriptions at their local drugstore. More and more insurance companies want to just mail medications -- and are working on their apps to make that happen.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 05 January 2024

• Why car buyers in the USA are rethinking electric vehicles. High sticker prices, steep financing rates and range anxiety will fuel a slowdown in electric-car adoption this year in the USA.
  - Business Week, 04 January 2024

• The unhealthy plastic chemicals hiding in your food. Consumer Reports tested popular fast foods and supermarket staples for bisphenols and phthalates, which can be harmful to your health. 79 percent of tested samples had bisphenols while 84 out of 85 items had phthalates. Exposure to such plasticizers can cause severe health issues, like for example in children, bisphenol A (BPA) exposure can negatively affect the brain and prostate glands as well as their behavior. BPA has also been linked with type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and high blood pressure. Phthalates have been associated with obesity, type 2 diabetes, lower sperm motility and concentration, early puberty in girls, and cancer.
  - Consumer Reports, 04 January 2024

• Apple hit with another downgrade on worries about retail demand for iPhones
  - Zero Hedge, 04 January 2024

• Shares of Mobileye plunged as much as 25% today, after the company warned that customer order numbers would fall short of the year-ago quarter. Mobileye is majority owned by Intel and develops autonomous driving technology for major automakers.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 04 January 2024

• Shares of Walmart plunge more than 11% after the drugstore chain slashes quarterly dividend nearly in half from 48 cents to 25 cents
  - Comcast's CNBC, 04 January 2024

• Carrefour, one of the biggest supermarket chains in Europe, will stop selling PepsiCo products because they have become too expensive. The move marks an escalation in Carrefour's attempts to pressure some of the s biggest consumer goods companies in the world to cut their prices after hiking them over the past two years in response to soaring energy, commodity, and labor costs.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 04 January 2024

• Carrefour, one of the biggest supermarket chains in Europe, will stop selling PepsiCo products because they have become too expensive. The move marks an escalation in Carrefour's attempts to pressure some of the s biggest consumer goods companies in the world to cut their prices after hiking them over the past two years in response to soaring energy, commodity, and labor costs.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 04 January 2024

• Big Fashion still has no interest in figuring out how to pay a living wage to the people making the clothes, while Big Fashion executives and shareholder earn billions
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 04 January 2024

• Streaming service cancellations rise as 'streamflation' bites. Did streaming companies get too greedy in 2023 when raising prices? Customer defections across streaming services topped 6.3% in November, up from 5.1% a year earlier.
  - Zero Hedge, 03 January 2024

• Pay television lost about 900,000 subscribers in Q3 of 2023 - a worst-ever third quarter for the industry. That poor result left US pay-TV shrinking at a record pace of 7.3%.
  - Light Reading, 03 January 2024

• $900,000,000 - Starbucks is sued for allegedly defrauding customers of over $900 million through its debit card program
  - Fast Company, 03 January 2024

• A reality check on government CPI announcements: Chick-Fil-A has increased prices 21% in just two years. While we keep letting the government tell us that inflation is at 3%, back out in the real world price hikes are staggeringly higher.
  - Zero Hedge, 03 January 2024

• The way that Big Banks shut down customer accounts is callous. Let's fix it. When banks close checking and credit-card accounts because of 'suspicious activity', chaos and anxiety ensue.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 03 January 2024

• Sales at Tesla jumped during the last three months of 2023 after Tesla slashed prices and customers rushed to take advantage of socialist subsidies / tax breaks on electric vehicles -- provisions that will be harder to come by in 2024.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 03 January 2024

• Shares of Rivian fall 10% on declinign fourth-quarter deliveries of electric vehicles
  - Comcast's CNBC, 03 January 2024

• Americans are canceling more of their streaming services. Hulu, Netflix and other streamers are turning to bundles, discounts and ad-supported plans as customer defections rise.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 03 January 2024

• A new lawsuit claims that an app of Starbucks traps customers in a cycle of spending. The Washington Consumer Protection Coalition alleges that platforms for the mobile app and digital payment cards used by Starbucks are designed to trick customers into a vicious cycle of spending more than they want. You can only add money to the card in $10 increments and must choose a tip from predetermined choices. That means no loading an exact amount for a single purchase or giving an odd tip amount to get your balance down to zero. Over the past five years, the lawsuit alleges, Starbucks has claimed nearly $900 million in unspent gift card and app money as corporate revenue.
  - Fast Company, 03 January 2024

• Apartment rent relief is expected to continue in 2024. A surge in new supply has pushed vacancy higher, making it harder for landlords to raise prices.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 03 January 2024

• Inflation in Turkey rises to nearly 65%, with more rises expected, though down from a peak of 85% in October 2022, and after the central bank raised interest rates to over 40%
  - Comcast's CNBC, 03 January 2024

• Shares of Apple drop 3% on a report that Barclays is downgrading the stock by expecting it to drop 17% this year
  - Zero Hedge, 02 January 2024

• The end of money as we know it - what to expect in 2024. The year of disinflation can only come from a recession. The market expectations of a massive reduction in inflation cannot come from what economists call a soft landing.
  - Zero Hedge, 02 January 2024

• Diamond prices are going to collapse, despite the powerful cartel organized by DeBeers, for one reason - industrial diamonds grown in laboratories. Lab-grown diamonds look spectacular - enough for the FTC to rule that they can be called 'diamonds'. And now - now - they are 40% cheaper than regular diamonds. But they can be 60 percent lower or even as much as 90 percent lower. And this is with the market just now starting to mature.
  - Zero Hedge, 02 January 2024

• The slowdown in the residential real estate market, a crucial cog in the American economy, is threatening sectors like home improvement and storage
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 02 January 2024

• Covid slashed consumer choices. Apparently, they didn't mind. Retailers and suppliers say it didn't pay to offer products for everyone, and consumers didn't care that much when they stopped.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 02 January 2024

• How Ikea downsized to go downtown. The furniture giant is opening compact, city-center stores but finding the optimal formula for the new, smaller shops has not been easy.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 02 January 2024

• Corn and wheat prices post the largest yearly decline in decade as hope for easing food inflation rises. "The price decline was driven by bumper crops in key crop suppliers Brazil, USA and Rossiya following years of disruptions.".
  - Zero Hedge, 01 January 2024