An image of a woman holding a cell phone in front of a Huawei logo displayed on a computer screen. Canada on Thursday said it plans to ban the use of China’s Huawei Technologies and ZTE 5G gearto protect national security, joining the rest of the so-called Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network.
Artur Widak | Nurphoto | Getty Images
LONDON — The U.K. government extended a deadline for telecom companies to remove equipment from Chinese tech giant Huawei from their 5G mobile networks.
Telcos will now have until December 2023 to remove Huawei equipment, such as that used at phone mast sites and telephone exchanges, from their network “cores” — where some of the most sensitive data is processed. The government had originally ordered them to do so by January.
Meanwhile, a requirement for firms to reduce the level of Huawei equipment in their non-core networks to 35% has been delayed to October 31 2023 — later than an initial July ultimatum.
They will still need to ban new Huawei 5G installments and completely eliminate it from their networks by the end of 2027. The order was enshrined in law last year with a piece of legislation called the Telecoms Security Act.
Prime Minister Liz Truss’s government has sent legal notices to 35 U.K. telecoms network operators to officially enforce the move.
Britain had initially said it would allow Huawei in its rollout of 5G networks. But in 2020, the government opted to ban Huawei over data security concerns. The Shenzhen-based firm was classed as a “high risk” vendor, meaning it posed possible risks to national security.
Officials on either side of the Atlantic are worried Huawei’s technology could allow China to spy on sensitive communications and other data. Huawei has long denied the claims and said moves to block it are “politically motivated.”
That decision was a result of the National Cyber Security Centre’s emergency review of Huawei shortly after the U.S. imposed sanctions on the Chinese giant cutting it off from key semiconductor supplies. The move also came amid an intense trade battle between China and the U.S. — a close ally to the U.K.
Previously, telecoms groups like BT and Vodafone had been told to remove Huawei 5G equipment from their “core” by January 2023. However, some companies took issue with the measures, concerned this didn’t give them enough time to strip out the equipment from their infrastructure, a costly exercise.
In June, BT requested an extension beyond the government’s January 2023 for removal of Huawei from core 5G infrastructure, saying it might not meet the deadline due to delays caused by Covid-19 lockdowns. BT CEO Philip Jansen had even warned the ban may result network outages for customers.
In a press release Thursday, the government said it extended the January 2023 deadline to “balance the need to remove Huawei as swiftly as possible while avoiding unnecessary instability in networks.”
A BT spokesperson wasn’t immediately available when contacted for comment by CNBC.
U.K. Digital Minister Michelle Donelan said: “We must have confidence in the security of our phone and internet networks which underpin so much about our economy and everyday lives.”
She added: “Thanks to this government’s tough new laws we can drive up the security of telecoms infrastructure and control the use of high-risk equipment. Today I’m using these powers and making it a legal requirement for Huawei to be removed from 5G networks by 2027.”
Ian Levy, technical director of the U.K. National Cyber Security Centre, said: “Society increasingly relies on telecoms and the NCSC, government and industry partners work closely to help ensure that these networks are secure and resilient in the long term.”
“The Telecoms Security Act ensures we can be confident in the resilience of the everyday services on which we rely, and the legal requirements in this Designated Vendor Direction are a key part of the security journey,” he added.
People gather in protest against the death of Mahsa Amini along the streets on September 19, 2022 in Tehran, Iran. Anti-government uprisings are to remain a sticking point and increase in frequency in Iran’s political landscape as dissatisfaction with other factors like the country’s economic conditions surface, according to analysts.
Getty Images | Getty Images News | Getty Images
More than 180 people have reportedly been killed in Iran’s crackdown since protests ripped through the country following the death of a Kurdish Iranian woman — analysts say such protests are expected to intensify.
Protests have spread to more than 50 cities in the one month since the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was arrested for allegedly breaking Iran’s strict hijab rules. She died while in the custody of morality police.
“Expect anti-government protests to remain a feature of [Iran’s] political landscape and to increase in frequency, scale and violence as economic conditions worsen and social restrictions are tightened,” said Pat Thaker, Economist Intelligence Unit’s editorial director of Middle East and Africa.
These protests will be met with force, and increase the Islamic Republic’s dependence on Iran’s elite armed forces, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, she told CNBC.
Since early on in the protests, the chants of “women, life, freedom” has echoed through the streets.
Videos showing women burning their headscarves, cutting their hair and crowds chanting “death to the dictator” amid burning cars have flooded social media, despite the Iranian government’s intermittent shutdown of the country’s internet.
“It’s triggered by a violent act against a woman, so it started as a movement to revive women rights, and freedom,” an Iranian currently based in Toronto, who wanted to remain anonymous due to the sensitive nature of the situation, told CNBC.
While the current protests stand apart from previous ones due to their focus on freedom, women’s rights and demanding the end of the Islamic Republic regime, Iran has a history of protests sparked by socioeconomic and political issues, such as the 2019 protests over fuel prices, and in 2017 when people took to the street over rising inflation and economic hardship.
“In more recent years, we’ve seen protests over economic grievances. Those have been driven primarily by the working class and lower middle class,” said Suzanne Maloney, deputy director of the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution.
Young Iranians are frustrated by decades of economic mismanagement alongside the impact of international sanctions and they hold the Iranian leadership accountable…
Sanam Vakil
Royal Institute of International Affairs
She said the past periods of unrest have built up into the fierce fervor seen in current protests and could “culminate in something that is going to provide a very persistent and difficult challenge for the Islamic Republic to withstand.”
The decreasing likelihood of a successful Iran nuclear deal could also mean that various economic sanctions will continue to weigh on the country’s economy.
“There is no question that underlying the current tensions are issues that go beyond the forced hijab [situation],” said Djavad Salehi-Isfahani, professor of economics at Virginia Tech.
Iranians take part in a pro-government rally in Tajrish square north of Tehran, on October 5, 2022, condemning recent anti-government protests over the death of Mahsa Amini. Anti-government uprisings are to remain a sticking point and increase in frequency in Iran’s political landscape as dissatisfaction with other factors like the country’s economic conditions surface, according to analysts.
AFP | Afp | Getty Images
“Young Iranians are frustrated by decades of economic mismanagement alongside the impact of international sanctions and they hold the Iranian leadership accountable for both issues,” said Sanam Vakil, deputy director and senior research fellow at the Royal Institute of International Affairs.
“There is no economic justice or prospect of hope for the future, and this is driving widespread anger that is violently spilling over on the streets,” Vakil said.
What makes these economic conditions more difficult to bear for young people is that they are “better educated” than their older counterparts who are the ones who make the rules and run the country, according to Salehi-Isfahani.
This is very much a turning point for the Islamic Republic. The social movement we see underway today has the capacity to grow and continue.
Maloney
economics professor, Virginia Technology
“[The] average years of schooling for people under 40 is 11 years, compared to 6 for older Iranians. But education has not helped youth get a more favorable treatment in the labor market,” he said in an email.
The social movement that’s underway has the capacity to develop and persist even in the face of repression attempts, but it’s not likely to escalate into a civil war, Maloney said.
“This is very much a turning point for the Islamic Republic. The social movement we see underway today has the capacity to grow and continue,” she said.
A group of students burned some veils as a form of protest. Protest in front of the embassy of Iran organized by Iranian students living in Rome to protest against violence of Iranian regime and against death of Mahsa Amini. What makes these economic conditions more “difficult to bear” for the young is that they are “better educated” than their older counterparts who are the ones who make the rules and run the country, according to a professor at Virginia Tech.
Despite Iranians exhibiting more willingness to be more confrontational with security forces than before, Maloney expressed hesitancy at the prospect of regime change.
“This is a theocracy, it has a monopoly over the levers of power. And it has survived significant unrest throughout the course of the past 43 years,” Maloney said, citing the invasion by late Iraq president Saddam Hussein in 1980, and the latest Covid-19 challenges.
Pensioners protest over rising fuel prices at a demonstration outside Downing street called by The National Pensioners Convention and Fuel Poverty Action on February 7, 2022 in London, England.
Guy Smallman | Getty Images
LONDON — “The brains of humans and other animals contain a mechanism designed to give priority to bad news,” former Nobel Prize-winning economist Daniel Kahneman once said.
For Brits, this mechanism has been taking a beating in recent months.
A number of pension funds were hours from collapse when the central bank intervened on Sep. 28, and policymakers continue to battle against market volatility with further expansions of the bond-buying scheme on Monday and Tuesday.
The spike in interest rate expectations following new Finance Minister Kwasi Kwarteng’s so-called “mini-budget” also caused mayhem in the mortgage market, leading banks to withdraw products and rates to surge for prospective homeowners.
Meanwhile the British pound fell to an all-time low against the dollar in the aftermath of Kwarteng’s policy announcements, only regaining some ground when the government U-turned on some of its most radical policies, such as the abolition of the top rate of tax for the country’s highest earners.
Kwarteng on Monday announced that his scheduled expansion on last month’s controversial fiscal plans — and an independent assessment of their impact from the Office for Budget Responsibility — would be brought forward by three weeks to Oct. 31, as the Treasury and the Bank of England look to temper market concerns and restore credibility.
The same day, the central bank is expected to begin selling gilts (U.K. sovereign bonds), part of its delayed quantitative tightening efforts as it unwinds pandemic-era monetary stimulus in the hope of tackling runaway inflation.
Economists expect further volatility in the bond market, and peril for pension funds, in the coming weeks ahead of the full budget statement, while the Bank of England continues to walk a tightrope between ensuring fiscal stability and reining in inflation.
‘The recession has begun’
The U.K. is the only G-7 economy not to have re-attained its pre-pandemic GDP level by the second quarter of 2022, Citibank Chief U.K. Economist Benjamin Nabarro pointed out in an Institute for Fiscal Studies event on Tuesday.
The U.K. economy shrank by 0.3% in August, the Office for National Statistics estimated Wednesday, potentially beginning what economists expect will be a lengthy recession through the winter.
The ONS said GDP was only just returning to its pre-pandemic level, highlighting the challenge facing Prime Minister Liz Truss’ “growth, growth, growth” agenda. The prime minister has committed to a radical overhaul of the country’s economic policy, vowing to address anemic growth over the past decade or more, despite her party having been in power since 2010.
The government’s growth plan must also overcome the impact of Brexit, which most economists project will reduce real per capita GDP. The government’s independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) calculated that Brexit would reduce the U.K.’s potential productivity by 4% over the long term, while the OECD projects that the U.K. will have the lowest growth in the G-20 in 2023, apart from heavily sanctioned Russia.
“Real GDP is likely to retreat again in September in line with double-digit inflation eroding household purchasing power and the resulting output loss from additional bank holiday to coincide with Queen Elizabeth’s funeral on Monday 19 September,” said Raj Badiani, economics director at S&P Global Market Intelligence.
“We now believe the recession in the U.K. has begun in the third quarter of 2022 and will likely last for three quarters. Our near-term GDP outlook anticipates a recession spilling into 2023 because of a tight and prolonged squeeze on household budget fueling a consumer-led recession,” Badiani added.
S&P also expects the economy to contract over the full year of 2023, despite substantial fiscal stimulus such as the government’s energy price guarantee and income tax cuts, due to rising household borrowing costs, softer demand in critical export markets and persistent volatility in financial markets.
The latest labor market statistics showed U.K. unemployment falling to 3.5%, its lowest rate since 1974, fueled by a rise in the inactivity rate, which now stands at 21.7%.
From June to August, annual growth in average total pay (including bonuses) for employees was 6% while growth in regular pay (excluding bonuses) was 5.4%, representing a real terms decline of 2.4% and 2.9%, respectively.
A worst-case scenario laid out by national electricity system operator the National Grid warned that households and businesses may face three-hour power outages over winter to prevent a collapse of the grid. However, senior cabinet minister Nadhim Zahawi told the BBC this week that this scenario is “extremely unlikely.”
Prime Minister Liz Truss is also coming under pressure from lawmakers in her own party to guarantee an increase to welfare benefits in line with inflation, with reports suggesting she could opt for raising them in line with earnings instead, heaping further pain on the country’s lowest-income households.
New research by British investment house Charles Stanley found that 22% of U.K. adults said they were having sleepless nights over market volatility, soaring inflation and the rising cost of living, while one in 10 said they had experienced panic attacks.
“Even under ‘precedented’ circumstances, financial pressures can get the better of us, but we’re living in unprecedented times, and the term ‘financial stress’ has taken on a whole new meaning,” said Lisa Caplan, director of OneStep Financial Planning at Charles Stanley.
“The cost of living crisis is having a detrimental effect on individuals, not only financially, but physically and mentally too.”
Widespread strikes
Postal workers, rail workers, journalists and public barristers have all carried out strikes in recent months in protest over pay and conditions, as wages fail to keep up with inflation running at around 10%.
Rail strikes carried out by members of the RMT union, in protest over pay and conditions have brought the country to a standstill on multiple days throughout the summer and into fall.
Members of the CWU (Communication Workers Union) also continue to strike, including 115,000 postal employees of former state monopoly Royal Mail. CNBC reported Friday that CWU representatives had entered into talks with Royal Mail executives, but 19 days of further postal strikes are still set to go ahead in the runup to the festive period unless substantial progress is made in the coming days.
Meanwhile, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) is currently holding its first industrial action ballot in its 106-year history for 300,000 members, demanding a pay rise in line with inflation. The RCN cited new analysis from London Economics, which found that nurses’ real earnings have fallen at twice the rate of the private sector over the last decade.
The government imposed a minimum pay rise to most NHS staff of 4.5% in July, representing a real terms pay cut of more than £1,000 per year when adjusted for inflation.
Waiting times for access to the country’s National Health Service are at an all-time high, with public hospitals beset by staff shortages and a lack of beds.
The GMB union is also holding ballots for ambulance staff in various regions of the country, with paramedics’ real pay down £1,500 per year. Junior doctors will ballot for industrial action in early January, after the government refused to meet the British Medical Association’s demand to restore pay increases to 2008/9 levels by the end of September.
Junior doctors were excluded from the 4.5% NHS uplift, with the government instead imposing an increase of just 2%, which the BMA said is “derisory” in the face of the ongoing cost of living crisis and in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.
After more than two years of strict Covid-19 border controls, Japan reinstated visa-free travel to 68 countries on Tuesday.
Maki Nakamura | Digitalvision | Getty Images
The Japanese yen’s slump against the U.S. dollar has sparked some worry in Japan, but that could encourage more travelers to visit the country again, according to analysts — though they say a significant rebound in the tourism sector won’t happen without the return of Chinese tourists.
After more than two years of strict Covid border controls, Japan reinstated visa-free travel to 68 countries on Tuesday.
The daily entry limit of 50,000 people and the on-arrival PCR test at the airport have been scrapped. However, it is still mandatory for travelers from all countries and regions to submit a negative Covid test certificate or proof of vaccination, JNTO said.
With the easing of restrictions and the depreciating yen, tourism to the country will return quickly — especially from Asia, said Jesper Koll, director of financial services firm Monex Group told CNBC.
Koll said that although travelers from Europe and the U.S. are important in aiding Japan’s tourism recovery, “the bulk of the enthusiasm and the bulk of travel” still come from countries like Singapore, the Philippines and Thailand.
“The cheapness of the yen obviously increases the probability of tourism contributing greatly to the economy,” Koll said. “As the restrictions get rolled back further, and the capacity of inbound flights open up, I expect that we will see inbound spending and inbound tourism accelerate very, very quickly.”
In 2019, Japan welcomed 32 million foreign visitors and they spent about 5 trillion yen, but inbound spending is now only one-tenth of that, according to a Goldman Sachs note from September.
The investment bank estimated that inbound spending could reach 6.6 trillion yen ($45.2 billion) after a year of full reopening, as travelers will be encouraged to spend more because of the weak yen.
“Our ball-park estimation points to potentially larger inbound spending of ¥6.6 tn (annual) post full reopening versus the pre-pandemic level of ¥5 tn, partly helped by the weak yen,” the note said.
The Japanese currency plunged to a fresh 24-year low and was at 146.98 against the greenback during London’s trading hours on Wednesday.
Japanese officials intervened in the forex market in September when the dollar-yen hit 145.9.
“I don’t think the yen has been as cheap as it is now in living memory,” said Darren Tay, Japan economist at Capital Economics, said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Tuesday. “Tourists were already clamoring for borders to reopen … So I think the weak yen will serve as another motivating factor” for them to travel to Japan again.
Although flight ticket prices to Japan have increased since the announcement was made, tourists will still get a bang for their buck when they spend in Japan, Koll said.
“You can eat twice as many hamburgers, twice as much sushi for your dollar here in Japan compared to the United States, and even compared to the rest of Asia,” he added.
The outlook for Japan’s tourism recovery looks promising, but “the overall impact on Japan’s economy may not be a net positive” as Chinese tourists have yet to return, Tay said.
“Chinese tourists actually make up a large amount of what foreign tourists spent back in 2019 … They’re still pursuing a zero-Covid strategy so they won’t be returning anytime soon,” he said.
Goldman Sachs said Chinese tourists, who made up 30% of foreign visitors to Japan in 2019, could return only in the second quarter of 2023.
Once China fully reopens, inbound spending from Chinese visitors has the potential to increase from 1.8 trillion yen in 2019 to 2.6 trillion yen — 0.5% of Japan’s gross domestic product, said Yuriko Tanaka, economist at Goldman Sachs.
“Chinese visitors hold the key to a bona fide rebound in inbound spending,” Tanaka said.
Without visitors from China, it could take some time before inbound spending in Japan returns to pre-pandemic levels, Koll said. But strong demand from the rest of Asia could drive inbound spending to return “relatively quickly” to over $3 trillion by March 2023.
As markets expect the U.S. Federal Reserve to hike interest rates by 75 basis points in November, the yen will continue to weaken as the dollar continues to strengthen, said Koll.
“You’ve got the widening interest rate differential [between Japan and the U.S.], and the Federal Reserve is not done yet. There is at least one more interest rate hike in the cards,” he said.
He added that yen could weaken further toward the 155 level, strengthening only next spring — and that wouldn’t be the result of action from Japan, but of the Fed signaling that it has “stepped enough on the brake.”
In a recent analysis of visas given to H-1B workers in Q2 2022 from Insider, Twitter salaries listed ranged from $122,000 to $332,000, spanning roles from IT engineers to senior software engineers.
The U.S. Office of Foreign Labor Certification publishes data on the positions and salaries of foreign workers. H1-B Visas specifically require companies to pay employees the same as U.S.-based ones.
In Q1, Twitter hired about 100 people through the program. But in Q2, that number went up to 400 workers.
Insider noted that a tumultuous back-and-forth over Elon Musk’s bid to buy Twitter has increased turnover at the company. (Musk has until October 28 to bring his financial backers back on board and close the $44 billion deal with the company.)
Here’s a selection of salaries from engineers, product managers, and analysts at Twitter, per Insider.
Engineers
IT apps engineer I : $135,000 to $140,000
Senior IT apps engineer: $175,000 to $195,000
Manager, software engineering: $200,000 to $230,000
Senior security engineer: $175,770 to $205,000
Staff Machine Learning Engineer: $215,280 to $255,000
Senior staff software engineer: $271,130 to $332,000
US President Joe Biden and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman arrive for the family photo during the Jeddah Security and Development Summit (GCC+3) at a hotel in Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coastal city of Jeddah on July 16, 2022.
Mandel Ngan | Afp | Getty Images
President Joe Biden is angry at Saudi Arabia for its decision to slash oil production along with its OPEC allies against U.S. wishes, and he’s made no secret of it.
With the global economy on a knife-edge and energy prices high, Washington sees the kingdom’s move – which it made in coordination with Russia and other oil-producing states – as a snub and a blatant display of siding with Moscow.
The oil producer group in early October announced its largest supply cut since 2020, to the tune of 2 million barrels per day from November, which its members say is designed to spur a recovery in crude prices to counter a potential fall in demand.
For this, Biden said in an interview with CNN on Tuesday that there would be “consequences.” He did not go into further detail as to what those consequences might be.
But what are the Biden administration’s options, and could they backfire?
The Saudi-U.S. relationship was founded, broadly speaking, on the principle of energy for security. Washington has since the 1940s provided billions of dollars in military and security aid to Saudi Arabia. But in recent years, and particularly since the Obama administration began making diplomatic inroads with Iran, Riyadh feels the U.S. commitment to its security has waned.
“The truth is, neither side has been holding up their end of the bargain for nearly 10 years now,” Michael Stephens, an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London, told CNBC.
“And what you’re seeing, I think, are permanent fractures in the relationship that are based on the fact that neither side really sees as much strategic benefit in the other as they did 20 years ago,” Stephens said, adding that Saudi Arabia’s OPEC oil production cut “is a reflection of that.”
The potential “consequences” Washington can put into action include cutting its military support to the Saudi kingdom, and going after OPEC with U.S. laws.
A file photo of cannisters containing Patriot missiles to intercept missiles fired at Saudi Arabia or its neighboring countries.
Greg Mathieson | Mai | The LIFE Images Collection | Getty Images
Indeed, just one day before Biden’s comments, Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, demanded that the U.S. immediately halt all cooperation with Saudi Arabia — including weapons sales.
“The United States must immediately freeze all aspects of our cooperation with Saudi Arabia, including any arms sales and security cooperation beyond what is absolutely necessary to defend U.S. personnel and interests,” Menendez said in a statement.
In an earlier interview with CNBC, Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., asked, “What’s the point of looking the other way when the Saudis chop up journalists and repress political speech inside Saudi Arabia if when the chips are down, the Saudis effectively choose the Russians over the U.S.?”
Even Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., weighed in, demanding in a tweet that: “If Saudi Arabia, one of the worst violators of human rights in the world, wants to partner with Russia to jack up US gas prices, it can get Putin to defend its monarchy. We must pull all US troops out of Saudi Arabia, stop selling them weapons & end its price-fixing oil cartel.”
Beyond withholding military aid, there are legal channels the U.S. government can pursue.
One is the NOPEC bill, which stands for No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels. This would classify OPEC as a cartel and subject its members to antitrust legislation.
Something long discussed by lawmakers, the bill is designed to protect U.S. consumers and businesses from artificial oil spikes.
It passed a Senate committee in early May and hasn’t yet been signed into law, but could expose OPEC countries and partners to lawsuits for coordinating supply cuts that raise global crude prices.
The bill would still need to be passed by the full Senate and House and signed into law by the president to go into effect. OPEC ministers have previously criticized the NOPEC bill, warning it would bring greater chaos to energy markets.
The decision by OPEC+ – which constitutes OPEC and its non-OPEC allies like Russia – to cut its output “underscores the extent to which the Biden administration has lost its ability to influence Saudi OPEC+ policy,” said Torbjorn Soltvedt, principal MENA analyst at risk intelligence firm Verisk Maplecroft.
“The White House has few good options despite Biden’s warning of ‘consequences’ after the cut,” he said, noting U.S. lawmakers’ threats of antitrust legislation and removal of U.S. military assets from Saudi Arabia.
While both courses of action would send a clear message, they could backfire for both the U.S. and for crude prices.
“Both of these options would threaten to break already fraught relations, which in turn would put even greater upward pressure on oil and fuel prices,” Soltvedt said.
“In short, a breakdown in U.S.-Saudi relations would mean a higher Middle East risk premium for the global oil market and higher oil and fuel prices,” he said. “This is the opposite of what the White House is trying to achieve ahead of midterm elections in November.”
It’s also key to note that the 2 million barrel per day cut will not in fact be as big as that headline figure; several member states have already been far short of their individual production ceilings, and Iraq for instance has indicated it will be producing more than its assigned quota.
Still, many American politicians have long been out of patience with the nature of the U.S.-Saudi relationship, especially as U.S. imports of Saudi oil have shrunk over the years and more than 80% of the Middle East’s crude exports now go to Asia.
This, Soltvedt said, has made a growing number of U.S. lawmakers “question why the American Navy should underwrite the security of Middle Eastern oil exports when those barrels are increasingly going East rather than West.”
The owner of a Milwaukee bar once frequented by Jeffrey Dahmer isn’t happy with its new crime-junkie clientele.
Curt Borgwardt | Getty Images
Following the release of the Netflix miniseries Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, the Wall Street Stock Bar, which was once called Club 219, has seen an increase in customers looking for a glimpse at the place the serial killer once looked for victims, despite it having a new look, name and owner.
People have been requesting a “Dahmer drink,” which isn’t on the menu, current owner Charese Gardner told Fox6 News Milwaukee, and some have even left face marks on the bar’s windows from trying to look inside.
Gardner says not all paying customers are good for business, and she isn’t pleased with the unwanted attention.
“I don’t really understand the obsession with walking on a place he walked at,” the business owner said in an interview with the Milwaukee-based news outlet. “It’s just kind of traumatizing to see how people would praise a serial killer.”
Gardner is also trying to remove phony Google reviews of the bar that she says say things like “Jeffrey Dahmer approved” and a “great place to meet new friends.”
“It’s senseless,” Gardner added. “Obviously, those people don’t care about the family members either. To me, it’s kind of like, whose side are you on? Are you really on the killer’s side? Because you’re like promoting for the killer, or is it just like sick jokes?”
To discourage the new wave of Dahmer-obsessed customers, Gardner said she going to make its “219” address less visible while she waits for the true crime craze to blow over.
Microsoft has been making its GitHub subsidiary more dependent on the company’s own Azure public cloud.
That lines up with Microsoft’s desire to increase the use of Azure, whose revenue was growing 40% in the second quarter, faster than any other major product category the company discloses every three months.
At the same time, it must be careful not to break commitments it made at the time of the $7.5 billion GitHub acquisition in 2018. Otherwise, some developers wary of Microsoft’s past behavior might not want to use GitHub to store their software code.
In the late 1990s, the U.S. Department of Justice argued that Microsoft had illegally required device makers to commit to including the Internet Explorer browser on every PC they shipped with the Windows 95 operating system. In the settlement of the landmark antitrust case, Microsoft agreed to a ban on pacts mandating exclusive support of its software, among other changes.
When GitHub was a standalone company, software developers saw it as a neutral ground where they could house their software projects and then run the code on the market-leading Amazon Web Services cloud or any other computing environment. Then Microsoft announced its plan to buy GitHub. Some developers objected, and over 1,900 people signed a petition to block the deal.
“Microsoft likely acquired GitHub so it could more closely integrate it with Microsoft Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS) and ultimately help drive compute usage for Azure,” Sid Sijbrandij, co-founder and CEO of GitHub competitor GitLab, was quoted as saying in a company blog post.
On the day Microsoft announced the GitHub deal, Microsoft published a blog post from its CEO, Satya Nadella, that communicated Microsoft’s intent.
“Going forward, GitHub will remain an open platform, which any developer can plug into and extend,” Nadella wrote. “Developers will continue to be able to use the programming languages, tools and operating systems of their choice for their projects — and will still be able to deploy their code on any cloud and any device.”
The company would also speed up the ability for developers at large companies to use Microsoft’s cloud infrastructure, Nadella wrote.
Some developers worried that Microsoft would adjust GitHub so that running code on Azure would be the easiest approach.
But Microsoft has employed more subtle tactics.
Instead of pushing developers to run their code on Azure, GitHub has simply introduced new products and features, many of which are built on Azure. So when developers use GitHub, Azure is increasingly the backbone.
For instance, GitHub Copilot, a tool that helps developers complete their coding projects line by line, uses Azure, said Scott Guthrie, Microsoft’s executive vice president for cloud and enterprise, in an interview with CNBC. The GitHub Actions service for building and deploying code and the Codespaces cloud-based development environment operate in Azure, too, Guthrie said.
“GitHub, historically, I could say, has run in their own data centers, not actually on a public cloud, and a lot of the new features of GitHub are using our public cloud,” Guthrie said.
That means the GitHub acquisition can increase Azure usage — even if customers don’t realize it — and Microsoft can say that GitHub continues to allow people to run their code on any server.
Under Nadella, Microsoft has transformed other companies it has bought into Azure users. In 2019 LinkedIn announced plans to move the business social network to Azure, and in 2020 Microsoft said Mojang Studios, publisher of the popular Minecraft video game, would stop using Amazon’s AWS.
“There is a lot of great stuff we’re doing, but at the same time, we’re being super careful, obviously, because you know, GitHub has a gestalt of its own, and so we’re making sure — and I think we’ve done a really good job of that — sort of being able to integrate all of those features in a very native way inside of GitHub,” Guthrie said.
In September Microsoft informed investors that its closely watched Azure and Other Cloud Services revenue growth number each quarter would expand to include “additional GitHub cloud revenue now delivered via our datacenter infrastructure.” Until now that revenue has fallen under the company’s Server Products category.
Wholesale prices rose more than expected in September despite Federal Reserve efforts to control inflation, according to a report Wednesday from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The producer price index, a measure of prices that U.S. businesses get for the goods and services they produce, increased 0.4% for the month, compared with the Dow Jones estimate for a 0.2% gain. On a 12-month basis, PPI rose 8.5%, which was a slight deceleration from the 8.7% in August.
Excluding food, energy and trade services, the index increased 0.4% for the month and 5.6% from a year ago, the latter matching the August increase.
Inflation has been the economy’s biggest issue over the past year as the cost of living is running near its highest level in more than 40 years.
The Fed has responded by raising rates five times this year for a total of 3 percentage points and is widely expected to implement a fourth consecutive 0.75 percentage point increase when it meets again in three weeks.
A worker installs the instrument cluster for the Ford Motor Co. battery powered F-150 Lightning trucks under production at their Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn, Michigan on September 20, 2022.
Jeff Kowalsky | AFP | Getty Images
However, Wednesday’s data shows the Fed still has work to do. Indeed, Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester on Tuesday said “there has been no progress on inflation.” Following the PPI release, traders priced in an 81.3% chance of a three-quarter point hike, the same as a day ago.
Stock market futures trimmed gains following the news, while Treasury yields were little changed on the session.
The PPI release comes a day ahead of the more closely watched consumer price index. The two measures differ in that PPI measures the prices received at the wholesale level while CPI gauges the prices that consumers pay.
Some two-thirds of the increase in PPI was attributed to a 0.4% gain in services, the BLS said. A big contributor to that increase was a 6.4% jump in prices received for traveler accommodation services.
Final demand goods prices also rose 0.4% on the month, pushed by a 15.7% advance in the index for fresh and dry vegetables.
Check out the companies making headlines before the bell:
PepsiCo (PEP) – The snack and beverage maker reported an adjusted quarterly profit of $1.97 per share, 13 cents above estimates, with revenue also topping forecasts. PepsiCo was able to successfully raise prices on its products and raised its guidance for the year. The stock gained 2.4% in the premarket.
Intel (INTC) – Intel added 1% in premarket trading following a Bloomberg report that the chip maker was planning to cut thousands of jobs to deal with a slumping personal computer market. Intel had 113,700 employees as of July.
Philips (PHG) – Philips shares slumped 8.1% in the premarket after the Dutch health technology company said its third-quarter core profit would be down about 60% from a year ago. The company also said it would take a nearly $1.3 billion charge against the value of its troubled respiratory care business.
Cameco (CCJ) – The uranium producer and power plant operator Brookfield Renewable Partners (BEP) will buy nuclear power equipment maker Westinghouse Electric in a deal worth $7.9 billion, including debt. Cameco tumbled 11.5% in premarket action, while Brookfield was unchanged.
Diamondback Energy (FANG) – Diamondback Energy announced a deal to buy energy producer FireBird Energy for $1.6 billion in cash and stock. Diamondback fell 1% in the premarket.
El Pollo Loco (LOCO) – El Pollo Loco shares rallied 15.2% in premarket action after the restaurant operator announced a $1.50 per share special dividend and a stock repurchase program worth up to $20 million.
CME Group (CME) – The exchange operator’s stock was upgraded to buy from hold at Deutsche Bank, citing an attractive valuation after shares fell 33% from March’s 52-week high. CME added 1.2% in premarket action.
Lyft (LYFT) – Lyft gained 4.3% in the premarket after Gordon Haskett upgraded the stock to buy from hold. The firm said the ride-hailing service’s stock is now attractively valued and an improving driver supply and other factors should help Lyft’s results. The stock tumbled yesterday after the Labor Department issued a new proposal that may classify drivers as employees rather than contractors.
Norwegian Cruise Line (NCLH) – Norwegian jumped 3.5% in premarket trading after being upgraded to buy from neutral at UBS, which noted a significant improvement in bookings for the cruise line.
KnowBe4 (KNBE) – The cybersecurity firm is close to finalizing a deal to be bought by private equity firm Vista Equity Partners for about $4.5 billion, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke to the Wall Street Journal. KnowBe4 stock surged 12.3% in premarket action.
US President Joe Biden arrives to speak at the Volvo Group powertrain manufacturing facility in Hagerstown, Maryland, on Friday, Oct. 7, 2022.
Craig Hudson | Bloomberg | Getty Images
President Joe Biden said he doesn’t believe there will be a recession in the near future and if there is, he expects it to be a “slight” economic dip.
“Every six months they say this. Every six months, they look down the next six months and say what’s going to happen,” Biden said in an interview with Jake Tapper on CNN that was aired Tuesday, referring to recent economic projections by major U.S. banks.
“It hadn’t happened yet. It hadn’t… I don’t think there will be a recession. If it is, it’ll be a very slight recession. That is, we’ll move down slightly.”
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon on Monday warned of the likelihood of a recession in six to nine months.
The concerns come as the Federal Reserve continues to raise interest rates aggressively in an effort to reduce inflation. In September, the U.S. central bank raised benchmark interest rates by three-quarters of a percentage point — it was the Fed’s third consecutive hike.
Biden didn’t fully discount the odds of a recession but told CNN the odds were low.
The president acknowledged the U.S. has “real problems” but credited legislation passed under his administration like the Inflation Reduction Act with putting the United States in “a better position than any other major country in the world economically and politically.”
An image showing Russian President Vladimir Putin at a meeting to discuss the Ukrainian peace process at the German federal Chancellery on October 19, 2016 in Berlin, Germany.
Adam Berry | Getty Images News | Getty Images
U.S. President Joe Biden said he doesn’t think Russian President Vladimir Putin will use nuclear weapons despite repeated threats to do so — even as the Russian leader continues to press on in the war in Ukraine.
“Well, I don’t think he will,” Biden said in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper that was aired Tuesday. “But I think that it’s irresponsible for him to talk about it.”
Putin has indirectly threatened to use nuclear weapons. In a televised speech in September, he announced a partial military mobilization and said he would “certainly use all the means at our disposal to protect Russia and our people.” He added that he was not bluffing.
The White House has repeatedly said it takes Russia’s threats of nuclear war seriously but does not see indications of a present threat. Biden on Thursday warned of the “prospect of Armageddon” if Russia were to use nuclear weapons.
“The whole point I was making was, it could leader to just a horrible outcome,” Biden said Tuesday referencing his previous comments. “And not because anybody intends to turn it into a world war or anything, but… once you use a nuclear weapon, the mistakes that can be made, the miscalculations. Who knows what would happen?”
Biden said he believed Putin is a “rational actor who’s miscalculated significantly.”
He clarified that he believes Putin is rational but his objectives are not, and added that he believes the Russian leader has committed war crimes in Ukraine.
“He’s acted brutally. I think he’s committed war crimes.”
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On Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Biden said: “I think he thought … he was going to be welcomed with open arms. That this was, this has been, the home of Mother Russia and Kyiv and, therefore, he was going to welcomed.”
“I think he just totally miscalculated it.”
Leaders of the Group of 7 met virtually Tuesday morning with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and agreed they would continue to back the besieged country against Russian aggression for “as long as it takes.”
In a statement released after the meeting G-7 leaders said Russia will face “severe consequences” if it uses chemical, biological or nuclear weapons.
Biden told CNN he has no intention of meeting with Putin at the upcoming G-20 summit but would be open to talking if Putin approached him there about releasing imprisoned American Brittney Griner.
Any meeting with Putin regarding Ukraine, as the G-7 agreed to earlier Tuesday, would not happen without Ukrainian officials present, he added.
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen during an armchair discussion at the Rotman School of Management in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on Monday, June 20, 2022.
Cole Burston | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Tuesday that the U.S. economy was “doing very well” as rising energy prices, Covid-19 variants and Russia’s war with Ukraine have caught global markets in a vice grip.
“From the perspective of the United States, I think the United States is doing very well,” Yellen told CNBC’s Sara Eisen Tuesday. The Treasury Secretary is meeting with world finance leaders at the International Monetary Fund and World Bank’s annual meetings this week in Washington, D.C.
She said the economy was expected to slow after a very strong recovery, but a recent jobs report released last week revealed a “very resilient” economy. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday that nonfarm payrolls increased 263,000 in September, while the unemployment rate fell to 3.5%, tied for the lowest level since late 1969.
Consumers, however, have been somewhat constrained by prices rising at close to their fastest pace in more than 40 years. The latest New York Fed Survey of Consumer Expectations shows that consumers expect the inflation rate a year from now to be 5.4%, the lowest number in a year and a decline from 5.75% in August.
That level peaked at 6.8% in June and has been coming down since then, as the central bank has instituted a series of rate hikes totaling 3 percentage points. Markets largely expect the Fed to continue raising rates until it brings inflation down to its long-run target of 2%.
Yellen acknowledged that inflation is too high and that lowering it is a priority for the Biden administration. But she said there is a way to do that while maintaining a healthy labor market.
“Firms, even with rising interest rates, have debt burdens that are by and large manageable,” Yellen said. She added that U.S. financial markets continue to function well and the Treasury is not seeing signs of deleveraging that generally happens in an environment of tighter monetary policy.
Yellen also said the OPEC+ decision to reduce oil output and Russia’s continued war against Ukraine have also affected liquidity in the markets, but there are no signs that merit serious concern. Worries about the strength of the U.S. dollar are also a natural result of different paces of monetary tightening in the U.S. and other countries, she said.
“The dollar is a safe haven, so when times are uncertain, we experience capital inflows into our safe markets,” Yellen said. “And all of those things are pushing up the dollar vis a vis a broad range of countries.”
People who stay up to date on their vaccines and receive treatments when they have breakthrough infections face almost no risk of dying from Covid-19, a top health official said on Tuesday.
Dr. Ashish Jha, head of the White House Covid task force, said the U.S. has made major strides in fighting Covid since the early days of the pandemic when thousands of people were dying daily from the virus.
“If you are up to date with your vaccines and if you get treated if you have a breakthrough infection, your risk of dying from Covid is now close to zero,” Jha told reporters at the White House.
More than 300 people are still dying every day from Covid on average, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Jha told reporters last week that 70% of the people dying from the virus are 75 and older and don’t have the latest shots or aren’t getting treated as needed. He said this level of death is unacceptable given all the tools the U.S. now has at its disposal to manage the virus.
Jha encouraged people who have Covid symptoms to get tested so they can get diagnosed and receive treatments such as the antiviral pill Paxlovid when needed.
“Treatments which we have available today for free keep people out of the hospital, keep people out of the ICU, prevent the worst outcome at all,” Jha said.
People older than 50 and those who are otherwise at elevated risk, such as people with weak immune systems or serious medical conditions, should be seriously considered for treatments, he said.
The U.S. rolled out new booster shots that target the dominant omicron BA.5 subvariant in September. Although there’s no real-world data on their effectiveness yet, Jha said they should provide a much higher degree of protection based on what scientists know about how the human immune system works.
Health officials are expecting Covid infections to increase in November through January as they have every fall and winter since the pandemic began, Jha said. But it’s difficult to predict whether the U.S. will face another major Covid surge because the virus continues to evolve, he added.
“We are not helpless against these challenges. What happens in the weeks and months ahead will have a large impact on how the winter goes and really what happens this winter is largely up to us as the American people,” Jha said on Tuesday.
He called on everyone ages 12 and older to get their new Covid booster shot by Halloween so they have protection in time for Thanksgiving when the holiday season gets into full swing. Everyone who is eligible should go out and get their annual flu shot as well because health officials are expecting a significant flu season for the first time since the pandemic began, he said.
One caveat is people who recently caught Covid can wait three months to get their booster because infection also boosts your immunity, Jha said.
“Don’t wait — get your new flu shot and your new Covid shot today,” Jha said. “If Americans did that we could save hundreds of lives each day this winter.”
A Florida-based company named Chetu was fined at least $70,000 by a Dutch court for firing an employee who did not want to keep their webcam on all day, according to NL Times, an English-language, Netherlands-focused news outlet.
According to the late September ruling, an employeewho was working remotely for the software company (stationed in the Netherlands) had been called into a meeting in late August. He was told he needed to screen share and have his webcam on all day.
The worker replied to the company thathe felt it was a violation of privacy and was fired three days later. A couple of weeks later, hefiled a lawsuit against the company — which he won.
The Dutch court cited Article 8 European Convention on Human Rights, which guarantees the right to privacy in the home and in your correspondence.
The court ordered Chetu to pay several fees, including unpaid salary and unused vacation days. The outlet calculated the total would come to at least $75,000 Euros, or about $73,000 USD — plus court fees.
The whole incident appears to have affected Chetu’s presence in the Netherlands. The NL Times reported that, per Chamber of Commerce records, the company’s branch in the country seems to have been shut down.
Chetu is a software company that says on its website it has clients all over the world. It plans to double its current workforce, according to a late September article in the South Florida Business Journal. It did not respond to a request for comment.
The company announced last week an overhauled rewards program, called Dunkin’ Rewards. (It used to be named, DD Perks and was beloved by customers for its relatively generous rewards structure.) But the new changes to the program have sparked anger on social media.
I agree, as a highly engaged customer who spends about $100 a week with Dunkin (we love your coffers), it’s now time for a change. I tried Starbucks, chick fil a and two local coffee shops this week.
Dunkin’s new program, promised, “more food and beverage rewards, increased flexibility on when and how guests choose to use their points, and an all-new Boosted Status, a special loyalty tier for Dunkin’s most dedicated fans,” per the press release.
But, parts of the new program make getting rewards harder. And, as Redditors are wont to do, they dug into the details, particularly on the subreddit for the company on the app.
The new program’s benefits are an attempt “to feebly try to justify the sky-rocket beverage ripoff,” as one user on the site wrote.
For example, under the old system, for every dollar you spent, you got five points, and it was 200 points — so, about 40$, with a limit of one per week — to get a free beverage coupon.
Under the new program, a beverage that’s not just iced or hot coffee costs 700 points, and even though customers now earn 10 points per dollar spent, that still means you need to spend $70 to get a free drink.
“They really think their customers are stupid. Well, we’ll be in Starbucks lines, now,” another Redditor wrote. Some took the company to task on Twitter, to which it responded:
After a few years, it was time for a change. We listened to our members’ feedback and made several new enhancements like redeeming points for rewards on food and drinks! -DNKN Care
One longtime Dunkin fan who did not want his name printed but provided a screenshot of his Dunkin’ loyalty profile (he has over 13,000 loyalty points) told Entrepreneurvia Reddit that he is switching to an at-home machine.
“I have a Dunkin’s sweatsuit. I used to be a Dunkin’ loyalist. But I’ve since switched to a Nespresso Vertuo machine,” he said, adding that he also feels the quality of the food and drink has gone downhill this fall.
Writer Magdalene J. Taylor (one of the first to do so) pointed out this trend on Twitter.
there is drama in the Dunkin world right now… daily Dunkin drinkers are boycotting because they revamped their app rewards program and devalued points. the Dunkin subreddit is fuming! I fear the brand is no longer the people’s coffee. pic.twitter.com/CCWhpiX4e8
One or two people on Reddit said they were heading to competitors. Another told Entrepreneur that he would miss one perk in particular, the free birthday drink. It “is just salt in the wound,” Tampa-based retiree Mike Matthews said via phone.
Matthews added he first went to Dunkin’ in the 1980s in Oradell, New Jersey, and got free drinks with a punch card. “But, I am very disappointed, because now, I am going to have to spend a lot more money for my coffee,” he added, just when inflation is hitting his wallet.
It’s a double whammy for would-be homebuyers. Not only are interest rates soaring, it’s getting harder to qualify for a loan.
The average rate on the popular 30-year fixed mortgage climbed over 7% at the end of last week, according to Mortgage News Daily, and is expected to hit around 7.125% on Tuesday. It’s been over 7% for several days.
Meanwhile, mortgage credit availability is now at the lowest level since March 2013, which was when housing was in a slow recovery from the financial crisis at the end of the prior decade. It fell for the seventh consecutive month in September, down 5.4% from August, according to a monthly index from the Mortgage Bankers Association.
While lenders may be desperate for business, as mortgage demand drops due to higher rates, they are also more concerned about a weaker economy, which could lead to higher delinquencies. Executives and economists have warned that the U.S. could fall into a recession in the coming months as the Federal Reserve hikes rates to battle high inflation.
“There was a smaller appetite for lower credit score and high [loan-to-value] loan programs,” Joel Kan, a Mortgage Bankers Association economist, said in a release.
Mortgage delinquencies, at the moment, sit near record lows. While new foreclosure actions rose 15% from July to August, they were still 44% below pre-pandemic levels, according to Black Knight, a mortgage software and analytics company.
Credit availability fell the most for jumbo loans, which more borrowers today have to use due to higher home prices, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Higher prices also have more borrowers turning to adjustable-rate mortgages, because they offer lower interest rates. These loan rates can be fixed for up to 10 years, but they are considered riskier mortgages.
Borrowers are clearly concerned that mortgage rates will move even higher. While mortgage rates don’t follow the federal funds rate exactly, they are influenced heavily by the Fed’s policy.
“The Fed is determined to hike rates as high as it can and keep them there as long as it can, even if that means the economy suffers,” Matthew Graham, chief operating officer of Mortgage News Daily, wrote on its website.
Graham noted the Fed is not considering mortgage rates or the housing market because home prices are overheated and a correction is “good and necessary.”
Aside from the global financial crisis and the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, this is “the weakest growth profile since 2001,” the IMF said in its World Economic Outlook published Tuesday. Its GDP estimate for this year remained steady at 3.2%, which was down from the 6% seen in 2021.
More than a third of the global economy will see two consecutive quarters of negative growth, while the three largest economies — the United States, the European Union and China — will continue to slow, the report said.
“Next year is going to feel painful,” Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, the IMF’s chief economist told CNBC Tuesday on the back of the report. “There’s going to be a lot of slowdown and economic pain,” he said.
‘Volatile conditions’
In its report, the IMF laid out three major events currently hindering growth: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the cost-of-living crisis and China’s economic slowdown. Together, they create a “volatile” period economically, geopolitically and ecologically.
The war in Ukraine continues to “powerfully destabilize the global economy,” according to the report, with its impacts causing a “severe” energy crisis in Europe, along with destruction in Ukraine itself.
The IMF anticipates global inflation will peak in late 2022, increasing from 4.7% in 2021 to 8.8%, and that it will “remain elevated for longer than previously expected.”
Global inflation will likely decrease to 6.5% in 2023 and to 4.1% by 2024, according to the IMF forecast. The agency noted the tightening of monetary policy across the world to combat inflation and the “powerful appreciation” of the U.S. dollar against other currencies.
China’s “zero-Covid policy” — and its resulting lockdowns — continue to hamper its economy. Property makes up around one fifth of China’s economy, and as the market struggles the ramifications continue to be felt globally.
For emerging markets and developing economies, the shocks of 2022 will “re-open economic wounds that were only partially healed following the pandemic,” the report said.
The IMF also spoke of a “deteriorated” economic outlook in its Global Financial Stability Report, released Tuesday just after its World Economic Outlook. “The global environment is fragile with storm clouds on the horizon,” the report said.
Policymakers around the world are facing an “unusually challenging financial stability environment” where further shocks “may trigger market illiquidity, disorderly sell-offs, or distress,” the report added.
Speaking at the 2022 Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group, Axel Van Trotsenburg, the World Bank’s managing director of operations, echoed the sentiment in both reports.
“We see extreme poverty again increasing … The number of people living on $7 … That’s 47% of the world population [who are living] in poverty. So this is very clear, people are hurting,” van Trotsenburg told CNBC’s Geoff Cutmore Tuesday.
World economy is ‘historically fragile’
The IMF also highlighted that the risk of monetary, fiscal, or financial policy “miscalibration” had “risen sharply,” while the world economy “remains historically fragile” and financial markets are “showing signs of stress.”
The report Tuesday suggested “front-loaded and aggressive monetary tightening” is needed, but that a “large” downturn is not “inevitable,” citing tight labor markets in the U.S. and U.K.
The organization also highlighted that “fiscal policy should not work at cross purposes with monetary authorities’ efforts to quell inflation.” Those comments reflect the rare statement issued late last month by the IMF after U.K. Prime Minister Liz Truss laid out a series of tax cuts. The IMF suggested Truss should “re-evaluate” the fiscal package.
When asked if the U.K. was a “poster child for economic illiteracy,” Gourinchas said “certainly not.”
“We’ve welcomed the recent development, the fact that the government has announced a fiscal event at the end of the month and the OBR [Office for Budget Responsibility] is going to be involved in evaluating the proposals,” he said.
“I think all of this is going in the direction of ‘let’s have a three-sixty on fiscal plans and make sure we’re all pointing in the right direction’,” Gourinchas told CNBC.
Winter 2022 will be challenging, but 2023 ‘will likely be worse’
The energy crisis is also weighing heavily on the world’s economies, particularly in Europe, and it “is not a transitory shock,” according to the report.
“The geopolitical re-alignment of energy supplies in the wake of Russia’s war against Ukraine is broad and permanent,” the report added. “Winter 2022 will be challenging for Europe, but winter 2023 will likely be worse,” the IMF said.
Europe’s approach to the energy crisis has had a mixed response.
U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy criticized Europe’s overreliance on Russian energy, saying it was a mistake for Europe “to have been welded to Russia when it comes to energy” in an interview with CNBC’s Hadley Gamble at the Warsaw Security Forum in Poland on Oct. 4.
“America needs to play a real leadership role. America is the swing producer, not Saudi Arabia. We should have gotten that right starting in March,” he said, referring to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.
“Lack of gas, very expensive prices of gas and electricity all over Europe – this is the real price of the agreement between Germany and Russia,” Morawiecki told CNBC’s Charlotte Reed in an exclusive interview.
A Joby Aviation Electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft outside the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) during the company’s initial public offering in New York, U.S., on Aug. 11, 2021.
Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Delta Air Lines, which has watched competitors map future plans with electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft startups, is joining the growing list of airlines looking to make short trips to and from airports faster and easier.
The carrier is investing $60 million in startup Joby Aviation, which is planning to build and operate an electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, or eVTOL, effectively an air taxi.
Delta will also have an exclusive five-year partnership with Joby operating eVTOLs as part of the Delta network.
Delta CEO Ed Bastian envisions moving passengers to and from airports quicker and with less hassle.
“We’ll flash them an opportunity to enhance that experience by taking a Joby vehicle from someplace close to their home or their business right into the airport experience and cut out 50%, if not more, of their travel time on the ground.”
Initially, Joby and Delta will target eVTOL service to and from airports in New York City and Los Angeles, though the companies envision the service growing to other airports around the country and eventually overseas.
“The airport routes are the cornerstone routes for any city building really valuable infrastructure that is close to the terminal and can save customers time is critical,” Joby founder and CEO JoeBen Bivert told CNBC.
Delta’s deal with Joby means the three legacy airlines in the U.S. have all taken stakes with eVTOL startups.
American Airlines has invested $25 million in Vertical Aerospace and ordered 50 aircraft from the U.K. based company.
United Airlines has two eVTOL investments and aircraft orders. One for $15 million with Eve Air Mobility while ordering 200 aircraft. The other for $10 million with Archer Aviation and an order for 100 Archer eVTOLs.
In the last year, eVTOL stocks like Joby have struggled as investors moved away from pre-revenue companies.
When will that day come for Joby and other eVTOL companies? It depends on when their aircraft are certified and enter commercial service.
Some are targeting 2024, but Joby CEO Bivert won’t commit to a launch date. “There are pieces within our control and there are pieces that are not in our control, so I can’t give you a firm date,” he said.
