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Tag: Society/Community

  • The price tag for happiness? Millennials say it’s $525,000.

    The price tag for happiness? Millennials say it’s $525,000.

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    Some people think money can buy happiness.

    Millennials say they need a $525,000 salary to achieve financial happiness, the highest among all generations, according to an Empower survey conducted by the Harris Poll.

    Here are the yearly salaries Americans of different generations say they need to feel happy, according to the poll:

    …

    Master your money.

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  • Musk Strategy to Contain Anti-Semitism Fallout Is to Go ‘Thermonuclear’

    Musk Strategy to Contain Anti-Semitism Fallout Is to Go ‘Thermonuclear’

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    Elon Musk employed an aggressive strategy—including the threat of a “thermonuclear” lawsuit— to contain the fallout after his endorsement of anti-Semitic rhetoric on X that prompted an advertising backlash at the billionaire’s social media company and some on Wall Street to call for his censure.

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  • IBM pulls ads from X after Elon Musk’s incendiary comments over white pride

    IBM pulls ads from X after Elon Musk’s incendiary comments over white pride

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    IBM Corp.
    IBM,
    +0.31%
    has abruptly pulled ads from X, formerly Twitter, amid a maelstrom of controversial comments from billionaire owner Elon Musk and the placement of IBM ads.

    “IBM has zero tolerance for hate speech and discrimination and we have immediately suspended all advertising on X while we investigate this entirely unacceptable situation,” the company said in a statement emailed to MarketWatch.

    IBM suspended advertising following a report by the Financial Times on Thursday that IBM ads appeared next to posts supporting Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. A Media Matters study also found ads from Apple Inc.
    AAPL,
    +0.90%    ,
    Oracle Corp.
    ORCL,
    +0.53%    ,
    and Comcast Corp.’s
    CMCSA,
    -0.28%
    Xfinity and Bravo were adjacent to pro-Nazi content.

    On Wednesday, Musk agreed with a post on X supportive of an antisemitic conspiracy theory that Jewish people hold a “dialectical hatred” of white people. “You have said the actual truth,” Musk wrote in response to the post.

    Compounding matters, Musk on Thursday said on X it was “super messed up” that white people are not, in the words of one far-right user’s tweet, “allowed to be proud of their race.”

    Adding fuel to the fire, Musk said on Wednesday that the Jewish advocacy group the Anti-Defamation League “unjustly attacks the majority of the West, despite the majority of the West supporting the Jewish people and Israel.” (Musk has threatened to sue the ADL because of its criticism of lax moderation practices on X that it says have allowed antisemitism to spread.)

    The cascading conflagration prompted Tesla Inc.
    TSLA,
    -3.81%
    bull and investment adviser Ross Gerber to grumble on X: “Getting a flood of messages from clients wanting out of tesla and anything to do with Elon Musk. Many saying they are selling their cars as well. What is he doing to the tesla brand??!!?!?”

    Earlier this year, Gerber backed down from his “friendly activist” efforts to join Tesla’s board, saying he felt his concerns had been addressed. His firm, Gerber Kawasaki Wealth and Investment Management, has its own ETF, AdvisorShares Gerber Kawasaki 
    GK,
     which has Tesla as its top investment, and has attracted many clients with Tesla shares in its portfolios

    In an interview on CNBC late Thursday, Gerber said that while he is not selling his Tesla stock, ” I’m not going to mince words about it anymore as a shareholder. It’s absolutely outrageous, his behavior and the damage he’s caused to the brand.”

    Gerber said Musk has essentially abdicated his responsibilities as Tesla CEO: “It’s all about Twitter, and what he can tweet, and how many people he can piss off… What’s going to happen to Tesla over the next 10 years, are they gonna achieve their mission if the CEO isn’t actually the CEO? Because he’s certainly not acting as the CEO of Tesla.”

    An X executive told MarketWatch that the company did a “sweep” of the accounts next to the IBM ads. Those accounts “will no longer be monetizable” and specific posts will be labeled “Sensitive Media.”

    The executive said 99% of measured ad placements on X this year have appeared adjacent to content scoring “above the brand safety floor” criteria set by industry standards.

    Late Thursday, X’s chief executive, Linda Yaccarino, tweeted: “X’s point of view has always been very clear that discrimination by everyone should STOP across the board — I think that’s something we can and should all agree on. When it comes to this platform — X has also been extremely clear about our efforts to combat antisemitism and discrimination. There’s no place for it anywhere in the world — it’s ugly and wrong. Full stop.”

    The posts and ad placement come amid a wave of antisemitism on digital forums including X and a downturn in advertising on the platform linked to hate speech and misinformation. Musk said in July that ad revenue had plunged about 50%.

    The latest kerfuffle is likely to complicate the efforts of Yaccarino, who was hired in June from Comcast Corp.’s
    CMCSA,
    -0.28%
    NBCUniversal to sway advertising agencies and major brands to stay on, or initiate relationships with, the platform now known as X.

    Tesla shares fell nearly 4% on Thursday but are still up about 90% to date in 2023.

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  • Here’s how to use the new tax-bracket information for 2024 to lower your tax bill

    Here’s how to use the new tax-bracket information for 2024 to lower your tax bill

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    When it comes to managing your taxes, where you fall in one of the seven progressive tax brackets is the key to understanding how much you’re going to end up paying when you file your return.

    The Internal Revenue Service announced new inflation-adjusted brackets for 2024 on tax rates that go from 10% to 37%. The dollar amounts of income separating the bands run from as little as $11,600 to more than $365,000, for those filing single, with similar ratios for those married filing jointly. 

    You can pay no attention to this at all, and just let your tax preparer or software figure out the math for you. Or you can delve into the details and potentially reduce the amount you owe. 

    A progressive tax system means you don’t pay the top rate on your whole income. Instead, you pay the rates for each band in a row as you go up the income ladder. If your taxable income as a single filer is $11,600 in 2024, you’ll pay 10% on the entire amount. Anything above that, and you pay the 10% tax on that first chunk, and then add each additional band on top of it.

    Next year, for instance, if you have taxable income of more than $609,350, that puts you in the 37% bracket. You’ll pay $183,647.25 — the stacked combination of the 10%, 12%, 22%, 24%, 32% and 35% brackets — plus 37% of the excess over $609,350. 

    To figure out where you fall on the spectrum, you just need to estimate your 2024 taxable income or extrapolate from your previous tax returns. You can see the full tax-bracket charts here. 

    This may seem like just a curiosity for those with straightforward income, but you’ll need to pay close attention if you’re planning any atypical financial moves, such as a retirement, a conversion from a 401(k) to a Roth IRA or the sale of a business or significant piece of property. 

    “Everyone seems to care about tax brackets,” says Sri Reddy, the senior vice president of retirement and income solutions at Principal Financial Group. “But I wouldn’t tell you to worry about it. You should make as much money as you want, because you get to keep some portion of it. I’d just rather have you have an awareness of what it might mean to you.”

    Here’s where tax-bracket management matters most: 

    Retirement savings

    You can know your tax bracket now, but you don’t know what it will be in the future. Your retirement savings are stuck in the middle. 

    Should you pay tax on your retirement savings now and save in a Roth IRA or Roth 401(k), so the growth is tax-free after you’re 59½? Or should you save in tax-deferred accounts and pay tax down the road when you spend the money — or are forced to withdraw it yearly for required minimum distributions? And if you do this, at some point do you want to convert some of those funds to Roth, pay the tax and then let the funds grow tax-free into the future? 

    “If you’re in a high tax bracket now, doing a Roth contribution to your 401(k) makes no fiscal sense,” says Chris Chen, a Boston-based certified financial planner who runs Insight Financial Strategists. 

    Chen recently advised a couple in their 50s who wanted to shift all of their 401(k) contributions from tax-deferred accounts to Roth to save the hassle of converting the funds later. The challenge is they are currently in the 35% tax bracket, and must also pay Massachusetts’ 5% state income tax. They plan to retire early, at which point they’ll probably drop to the 12% bracket.

    “So putting money in Roth now does not make sense from a tax standpoint,” says Chen. “They got persuaded to continue putting money into a traditional 401(k), and they deferred the Roth idea to later.”

    Roth conversions

    When you do come to the Roth conversion stage, you’ll need to look even closer at your tax bracket so that you can see how much income you can add without pushing into the next level. It’s a particularly steep increase from the 12% bracket to the 22% bracket, and then from the 24% bracket to the 32% bracket. 

    “You have to see at what point is it too painful to pay the tax,” says Ryan Losi, a CPA and executive vice president at PIASCIK, based in Glen Allen, Va. “We don’t want to go up to 32% or 35%, because that’s too big a payment.”

    For example, if your taxable income for 2024 is going to be $80,000 as a married couple, you’d be in the 12% bracket. If you plan to convert $20,000 from your 401(k) or IRA to Roth, that pushes you over the $94,300 limit, and $5,700 would be taxable at 22%, to the tune of $1,254. So perhaps you’d want to only convert $14,000 instead, and by controlling the size of the conversion, you can minimize your tax liability. 

    You can do some of this tax-bracket management on the income side as well, Reddy says. You can employ a bunching strategy, meaning you make all your stock sales that would cause capital gains in one year and avoid transactions the following year. Or you might be due a lump-sum payment for disability or severance or from an annuity, and you can spread it out instead. “This is where awareness is important,” says Reddy. 

    Charitable giving

    Bunching strategies also are helpful with charitable giving. Losi’s high-income clients are big users of donor-advised funds, which are charitable accounts that allow donors to take a deduction the year they deposit the funds and then distribute them later. “Clients will call and ask me, ‘What do I need to contribute this year to get me out of the 37% bracket?’” Losi says. 

    This works with the lower brackets, too, not just among the rich. If you’re in a high-tax state or paying a mortgage, it might benefit you to see where you are in your tax bracket. If you make a charitable donation of even a few hundred dollars, it could make sense for you to itemize instead of taking the standard deduction, and that extra amount could push you into a lower bracket. 

    Business owners and QBI

    Business owners and sole practitioners are the ones who pay the most attention to their tax brackets, Losi says, especially because of the qualified business income deduction that can reduce taxes on business income by up to 20%. The rules are complicated, and it takes a lot to manage not only where you fall in the brackets, but also the phase-outs for specific trades. 

    For these taxpayers, it may make sense to try to get paid less by clients in a certain calendar year, and pay themselves more. 

    “You can invoice, but tell clients to hold off on payment,” Losi says. “You can accelerate deductions. You can deduct 100% of capital spent for automobiles, desks, chairs — everything [a business] needs to run.”

    Losi also encourages business owners to pay themselves a healthy salary, which can reduce business income, and then set up solo qualified plans and cash-balance pension plans to put that money away pretax. “Heck yeah, cash-balance pension plans,” Losi says. “I’m the trustee of ours.”

    More on investment tax strategy:

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  • Haley, Christie open to raising Social Security retirement age

    Haley, Christie open to raising Social Security retirement age

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    Social Security’s pending insolvency grabbed attention at the Republican presidential debate Wednesday night, with some candidates saying they would be willing to raise the full retirement age for young people just starting out.

    “We have to raise the retirement age,” said former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. “I have a son who’s in the audience tonight, who’s 30 years old. If he can’t adjust to a few years increase in Social Security retirement age over the next 40 years, I got bigger problems with him than his Social Security payments.”

    Also see: ‘Rich people should not be collecting Social Security,’ Chris Christie says at GOP debate

    Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor, said promises to current older adults must be kept, but young people just starting out should see higher retirement ages.

    “What we need to do is keep our promises, those that have been promised should keep it,” Haley said. “But for like, my kids in their 20s, you go and you say ‘We’re going to change the rules.’ You change the retirement age for them.”

    Currently, the full retirement age is 67 for those born in 1960 or later.

    Read: Social Security is now projected to be unable to pay full benefits a year earlier than expected

    Haley declined to cite a specific age that retirement should be raised to, but said it should reflect longer life expectancy.

    Sen. Tim Scott, however, said he would protect Social Security for older adults and not raise the retirement age.

    “Let me just say to my mama and every other mama or grandfather receiving Social Security: As president of the United States, I will protect your Social Security.”

    Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he’d protect Social Security for seniors.

    “I know a few people on Social Security and … my grandmother lived until 91 and Social Security was her sole source of income. And that’s true for a lot of seniors throughout this country,” DeSantis said. “So I’d say to seniors in America: Promise made, promise kept.”

    When pressed whether he would raise the retirement age, he said: “So it’s one thing to peg it on life expectancy, but we have had a significant decline in life expectancy in this country, and that is the fact.”

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  • You can save up to $23,000 in your 401(k) next year, IRS says

    You can save up to $23,000 in your 401(k) next year, IRS says

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    Retirement savers can tuck away slightly more in 2024 than in 2023, but this year’s contribution increases are more modest than last year’s, according to new inflation-related adjustments released by the IRS.

    People who are building up their 401(k) accounts will be able to contribute a maximum of $23,000, a more than 2% increase from the $22,500 maximum for 2023.

    IRA contribution limits will climb to $7,000 for 2024, a 7.6% increase over the $6,500 limit in 2023.

    When the IRS announced its adjustments for 2023, 401(k) savers got a big increase of nearly 10% year over year, and the IRA contribution limit went up more than 8%.

    The 2024 adjustments reflect an economy where inflation rates, although cooling, are still warm.

    For 2024, the catch-up amount for workers 50 and older is holding at a maximum of $1,000 on IRA contributions and of $7,500 for people with 401(k)s and other defined-contribution plans, the IRS said.

    The IRS numbers set a limit on how much people can set aside each year in 401(k) accounts, but data suggest many people fall far short of those maximums.

    In 2022, people with retirement accounts through Vanguard had an average account balance of $112,572. The median account balance was $27,376, the wealth-management giant reported.

    The new retirement-account contribution limits are part of the tax code’s yearly changes to account for inflation.

    Taxpayers are still awaiting the IRS adjustments for tax brackets, standard-deduction amounts and other provisions for tax year 2024.

    The tax agency adjusted the ranges on income-tax brackets last year by 7%.

    Roth IRA rules and the Saver’s Credit

    The numbers on 401(K) and IRA contributions were just one part of the IRS announcement Wednesday.

    The tax agency also lifted the income thresholds for people making Roth IRA contributions. Roth IRAs are funded with after-tax dollars, so they aren’t taxed when account holders pull out the money.

    Read also: If saving $23,000 in your 401(k) next year isn’t enough, you can double that (or more) with the right strategy — and it’s legal

    But Roth IRA contributions hinge on household income. In 2024, individuals and people filing as head of household who make between $146,00 and $161,000 must limit their Roth IRA contributions. People with incomes above $161,000 won’t be able to contribute to a Roth IRA.

    That’s up from a 2023 phase-out range of $138,000 to $153,000.

    For married couples filing jointly, the phase-out range climbs to $230,000 – $240,000. That’s an increase from this year’s range of $218,000 to $228,000.

    Other retirement tax rules are also slated for 2024 updates.

    For example, there’s the “saver’s credit” which is designed to help low- and moderate-income households that are finding a way to put aside money for retirement. It pays up to $1,000 for individuals and up to $2,000 for married couples. The amount depends on income and contribution amounts.

    For 2024, married couples saving for retirement are eligible for the credit if their income stays under $76,500, up from $73,000. The income maximum is $38,250 for individuals, up from $36,500.

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  • How stock-market investors can ride out a ‘fear cycle’ as S&P 500, Nasdaq fall into correction

    How stock-market investors can ride out a ‘fear cycle’ as S&P 500, Nasdaq fall into correction

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    Many people like to feel at least a little bit of fright.

    That has been the whole point of Halloween for ages. The spooky traditions might even be a sort of hedge, a way to limit carnage should darker days lurk around the corner.

    Where it gets trickier is when fear impacts a nest egg, retirement fund or portfolio holdings. And fear of looming mayhem has been higher in October, with a sharp selloff causing the S&P 500 index
    SPX
    to break below the 4,200 level, landing it in a correction on Friday. It also joined the Nasdaq Composite Index in falling at least 10% from a summer peak.

    In addition, a brutal bond-market rout has pushed the 10-year and 30-year Treasury yields
    BX:TMUBMUSD10Y
    up dramatically, with both recently dancing around the 5% level, which can drive up borrowing costs for the U.S. economy and cause havoc in financial markets.

    “Round numbers matter,” said Rich Steinberg, chief market strategist at The Colony Group, which has $20 billion in assets under management. He said the backdrop has investors trying to figure out “where to put money” and wanting to know “where can we hide?”

    “When you get into a fear cycle, the dynamics can get out of whack with reality,” Steinberg said. He thinks investors won’t go wrong earning roughly 5.5% on shorter term risk-free Treasurys, while penciling in stock prices they like.

    “That’s where investors really get rewarded over the long-term,” he said, granted they have enough liquidity to ride out what could be elongated patches of volatility.

    Increasingly, investor worries tie back to U.S. government spending, with the Treasury Department early next expected to release an estimated $1.5 trillion borrowing need to accommodate a large budget deficit. That would unleash even more Treasury supply into an unsettled market, and potentially strain the plumbing of financial markets.

    Higher U.S. bond yields threaten to make it more expensive for the federal government to service its debt load, but they also can be prohibitive for companies, sparking layoffs and defaults.

    Fed decisions, yields

    The Federal Reserve is expected to hold its policy interest rates steady on Wednesday following its two-day meeting, keeping the rate at a 22-year high in the 5.25%-5.5% range.

    The real fireworks, however, often appear during Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s afternoon press conference following each rate decision.

    “I firmly believe they are done for good,” said Bryce Doty, a senior portfolio manager at Sit Investment Associates, of Fed hikes in this cycle, which he notes should set up bond funds for a banner 2024, after two rough years, given today’s higher starting yields.

    Yet, Doty also sees two “wild cards” that could rattle markets. Heavy Treasury debt issuance could overwhelm liquidity in the marketplace, causing yields to go up higher and potentially force the Fed to restart its bond-buying program, he said.

    War abroad also could expand, including with the Israel-Hamas conflict, which could spark a flight to quality and push down U.S. bond yields.

    With that backdrop, Doty suggests adding duration in bonds
    BX:TMUBMUSD03M
    as longer-term yields rise above short-term yields, and the so-called Treasury yield curve gets steeper. “This is the time,” he said. Investors should “keep marching” out on the curve as it steepens.

    “Yields, in my mind, have been the main challenge for the equity market,” said Keith Lerner, chief markets strategist at Truist Advisory Services, while noting that stocks have been wobbly since the 10-year Treasury yield topped 4% in July.

    Lerner also said the near 17% drop in the powerful “Magnificent Seven” stocks, while notable, isn’t as bad as in some other S&P 500 index sectors, like real estate, were the retrenchment is closer to 20%.

    “We’ve had a pretty good reset,” he said, adding that lower stock prices provide investors with “somewhat better compensation” for the uncertainties ahead.

    “This is one of the most challenging investment environments we’ve seen in a long time,” said Cameron Brandt, director of research at EPFR, which tracks fund flows across asset classes.

    With that backdrop, he expects investors to keep more dry powder on hand through the end of this year than in the past.

    The Dow Jones Industrial Average
    DJIA
    shed 2.1% for the week and closed at its lowest level since the March banking crisis. The S&P 500 lost 2.5% for the week and the Nasdaq Composite fell 2.6% for the week.

    Another big item on the calendar for next week, beyond the Treasury borrowing announcement and Fed decision Wednesday is the Labor Department’s October jobs report due Friday.

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  • No, you don’t need to buy Costco’s $4,500, 157-piece Le Creuset cookware set

    No, you don’t need to buy Costco’s $4,500, 157-piece Le Creuset cookware set

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    No, you don’t need to spend $4,500 on that 157-piece Le Creuset cookware set from Costco
    COST,
    -0.83%    .

    The pricey package has become an everyone-is-talking-about-it sensation, owing largely to social media. A post about the set on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, that has now been viewed some 21 million times seems to have been the initial source of the buzz. It noted that the Costco offering has “probably every kitchen item you will ever need.”

    In turn, that post generated more social-media chatter, along with articles in publications including the New York Post and the Delish website.

    Now the set is apparently so popular, you can’t even get it. In several parts of the country, the Costco site doesn’t even list it as being available. MarketWatch reached out to the retailer for details but did not receive an immediate response.

    Perhaps it’s just as well that home cooks won’t be tempted to spend all that money. When MarketWatch spoke with several prominent New York chefs and restaurateurs, they all said the set was overkill, even if it represented a savings compared with buying the items individually.

    If anything, these culinary pros noted that purchasing so many pieces not only poses a storage issue, but it can also create confusion in the kitchen, especially for the home cook.

    “I don’t even have one-tenth of that set,” says veteran chef Konstantinos Kvasilava, who works at Kyma, a high-end Greek restaurant in New York, and who previously was at Geranium, a Michelin-starred establishment in Copenhagen.

    So what are the items you should buy for your kitchen? Here are five rules chefs say you should keep in mind.

    Stick with the basics

    The Costco Le Creuset set includes several pots and pans, plus bakeware, dinnerware and more. Let’s presume you already have some plates and utensils in your kitchen. Beyond that, chefs generally recommend a small number of pieces — think in terms of as few as four and as many as 10, says Franklin Becker, chef and owner of the Press Club Grill and Point Seven restaurants in New York. His must-have list includes 8-inch and 10-inch nonstick pans, a high-sided stainless-steel sauté pan and 1-quart, 4-quart and 8-quart pots. “Those are the essentials,” says Becker, explaining that such items will cover your needs depending on what you’re cooking — the nonstick pans are great for eggs, he notes — and how many people you’re cooking for. The 8-quart pot will work if you’re entertaining a crowd and need to make a big dish.

    Other chefs’ must-haves include a cast-iron pan, often a preferred method for cooking steaks; a casserole dish, which is good for casseroles, naturally; and a Dutch oven. It’s always best to think of items that can be used in multiple ways. Rose Noel, executive chef at New York’s Peak restaurant, likes a cast-iron pan, for example, because it can go into the oven and can also be used on an outdoor grill. “It carries everywhere,” she explains. And, she says, a decent-sized casserole dish can double as a roasting pan for, say, cooking a chicken.

    Add extras, depending on what you eat

    One you have those basics, look at your daily diet and buy items that fit your own needs. Simon Kim, proprietor of Cote Korean Steakhouse, which has locations in New York and Miami, says he doesn’t make eggs at home for breakfast, but he always makes smoothies, so a powerful blender is a must for him. And he eats a lot of rice, so he has a rice cooker, which he says is much better than an everyday pot when it comes to preparing that staple.  

    Buy quality

    It’s always tempting to go the cheap route, but chefs say you’ll pay for it in the end by having cookware that doesn’t last as long and doesn’t cook as well. Becker notes that aluminum cookware, which typically costs less, should be avoided at, well, all costs.

    In terms of brand preferences, chefs mention many higher-end names, such as T-fal , All-Clad and Le Creuset. And when it comes to that blender for his morning smoothies, Kim says he swears by his Vitamix.

    Avoid sets

    The problem with buying any cookware set, even one with as few as 10 pieces, is that it often means duplicating items you already have, chefs say. Plus it doesn’t allow you to mix and match brands and take advantage of the fact that certain brands may be better than others for certain items.

    Noel suggests you purchase cookware for your kitchen the same way you purchase clothes for your wardrobe. “Buy pieces to fill in what you’re missing or need to update,” she says.

    Take care of what you own

    Even the best cookware won’t measure up if you don’t treat it properly. Becker says it’s important to wash pots and pans pretty much immediately after each use so that food and grease don’t harden and become difficult to remove. And when it comes to that cast-iron pan, Becker suggests that it be seasoned and cleaned with salt before being oiled lightly to seal it.

    Now read: Americans are sick and tired of tipping. Here’s why we need to tip more — not less.

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  • Inside Kanye West’s troubled Adidas partnership: Tears. Rage. Thrown shoes. Even a scrawled swastika.

    Inside Kanye West’s troubled Adidas partnership: Tears. Rage. Thrown shoes. Even a scrawled swastika.

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    The ending of the partnership between the artist Kanye West, who now goes by Ye, in October 2022 appeared to come after weeks of his comments about Jewish people and Black Lives Matter, but the New York Times is reporting that the relationship was troubled from the very start.

    At a meeting on the collaborative creation of the very first shoe in 2013, Adidas
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    -0.10%

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    designers were stunned when West rejected all of the ideas that were presented using fabric swatches on a table and a mood board, the seven-month investigation found. Instead, West, the Times reports, grabbed a sketch and drew a swastika in marker.

    The move shocked the Germans in the room. Germany has a strict ban on displaying the symbol of the Nazi era apart from for artistic purposes. Adding to the sense of horror, the company’s founder — Adolf, or “Adi,” Dassler, who died in 1978 — was a Nazi Party member, and the meeting took place close to Nuremberg, where leaders of the Third Reich were famously tried for crimes against humanity.

    “A year ago this week, Adidas threw in the towel.”

    West’s fixation on the Nazi era continued, the Times reports, when he later told a Jewish manager at Adidas to kiss a portrait of Adolf Hitler every day. He also told Adidas workers that he admired Hitler’s use and command of propaganda.

    West also brought porn to the workplace and made crude, sexual comments at meetings, according to the Times report. Before the swastika episode, West, according to the Times, had made Adidas executives watch porn at a meeting in his Manhattan apartment.

    In 2022 he reportedly ambushed executives with a porn film. Other workers complained to top managers that he had made angry sexual comments to them.

    The artist, said to have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, also frequently cried or became angry during meetings, according to the Times investigation. In one instance in 2019, he reportedly moved the operation designing his shoes to Cody, Wyo., and ordered the Adidas team to relocate. In a meeting to discuss his demands with executives, he threw shoes around the room, the Times reports.

    Adidas sought to adapt to this behavior, given how valuable the West-established Yeezy brand was to the company, locked in a perennial battle for both revenue and buzz with its U.S.-based rival Nike Inc.
    NKE,
    -2.04%    .
    Yeezy sales would rapidly surpass $1 billion a year and help Adidas resonate with young American customers.

    Ratings Game (July 2020): Gap hopes it can burnish its image with a new Kanye West clothing line, repeating the rapper’s brand success with Adidas

    Managers launched a group text chain they called the “Yzy hotline” to discuss his behavior. To reduce stress on individuals, the company is said to have rotated managers in and out of dealing directly with West.

    Over time, meanwhile, Adidas sweetened the terms of West’s deal. Under a 2016 contract, he was entitled to a 15% royalty on sales with a $15 million upfront payment as well as millions of dollars in Adidas stock. In 2019, a further $100 million a year was earmarked for marketing, but, in reality, West could spend those funds at will.

    A year ago this week, though, as public awareness of West’s problematic attitudes are remarks spiked, Adidas threw in the towel, and as sales of Yeezy shoes fell away, it warned it would record its first annual loss in decades. As West’s net worth plummeted, the company wrestled with the decision of how to dispense with its final $1.3 billion in Yeezy products, mulling options including disassembly and repurposing, donation to charity, and outright disposal.

    When a decision was reached to sell the product — in release batches — with some of the proceeds directed to charity and most of the rest flowing to Adidas, West, even then, was entitled to royalties.

    From the archives (October 2022): Kanye West is no longer a billionaire after Adidas shelves Yeezy partnership

    Also see (November 2022): Nike parts ways with Kyrie Irving as controversy swirls over Brooklyn Nets star’s apparent endorsement of antisemitic film

    After bottoming in October 2022, Adidas shares have mounted a 67% comeback, with relief over the company’s not having had to book a damaging loss on the Yeezy line one factor in the restoration of investor confidence.

    Adidas is quoted as having told the Times that it “has no tolerance for hate speech and offensive behavior, which is why the company terminated the Adidas Yeezy partnership,” while West reportedly declined requests for interviews and comment.

    The Times investigation is said to have been based on access to hundreds of previously undisclosed internal records.

    Read on: Michael Jordan is now worth $3 billion. Here’s what billionaire athletes have in common.

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  • The Nasdaq just fell into a correction. Now what?

    The Nasdaq just fell into a correction. Now what?

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    The Nasdaq Composite Index fell into its 70th correction in history on Wednesday, as surging long-term Treasury yields increased borrowing costs and weighed on stocks.

    The interest rate sensitive Nasdaq
    COMP
    barreled higher in the year’s first half, in part on optimism about a potential Federal Reserve pivot away from rate hikes to fight inflation, but stocks have been under fire in recent months as the Fed dialed up its message that interest rates could will stay higher for longer.

    The tech-heavy equity index fell 2.4% on Wednesday to close below the 12,922.216 threshold, marking a drop of a least 10% from its prior peak, which was set in mid-July at 14,358.02, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

    That met the common definition for a correction in an asset’s value and is the Nasdaq’s 70th close in correction territory since the index’s inception in February 1971.

    Robert Pavlik, senior portfolio manager at Dakota Wealth Management, said the sharp rise in long-term Treasury yields has spooked investors, especially those in highflying, high-growth technology stocks where rising rates can be particularly corrosive.

    Pavlik likened the dynamic to the spending power of a lottery winner hitting a jackpot when rates are at 2% versus someone who wins when rates are closer to 10%.

    He also expects the 10-year Treasury yield
    BX:TMUBMUSD10Y,
    which rose to 4.952% Wednesday, to top out at 5.25% to 5.5% and likely complicate any recovery for the Nasdaq.

    In the past 20 corrections for the Nasdaq, it took an average of three months for performance to improve, with index then gaining 14.4% on average a year later, according to Dow Jones Industrial Average.

    Nasdaq corrections are usually followed by a bounce in a few months


    Dow Jones Market Data

    The damage on Wednesday was most acute in shares of highflying technology stocks, including Alphabet Inc.
    GOOG,
    -9.60%
    as shares skid 9.5%, after it reported earnings that were overshadowed by downbeat performance for its Google Cloud business. Spillover also hit shares of rival cloud computing giant Amazon.com Inc.,
    AMZN,
    -5.58%
    with its shares slumping 5.6%

    “You’re feeling the pressure in some big-name stocks,” Pavlik said. “But this too will, at some point, end. But concerns about the Fed are still in the forefront of everybody’s minds.”

    The Nasdaq was still up 22.5% on the year through Wednesday, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average
    DJIA
    was down 0.3% and the S&P 500 index
    SPX
    was up 9% in 2023, according to FactSet.

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  • Junk food is as addictive as alcohol and cigarettes: report

    Junk food is as addictive as alcohol and cigarettes: report

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    Apparently, you really can become a junk-food junkie.

    That’s what a new study published by the British Medical Journal says, noting that ultra-processed foods — meaning food that contain “ingredients not available in home kitchens” and that typically have high levels of refined carbohydrates or added fats — are plenty addictive. And they’re on par with alcohol and tobacco, the study notes.

    Specifically, the study says that food addiction — again, closely connected with the consumption of ultra-processed foods — is prevalent in 14% of the adult population. That matches the percentage for alcohol addiction and is just slightly below the percentage for tobacco addiction (18%).  

    The study warns that junk foods like sweets and snacks deliver those carbs and fats to the gut at a speedy rate, contributing to their addictive potential. It’s not unlike how cigarettes “rapidly deliver nicotine to the brain,” the study warns.

    Additives also play a role in making these junk foods so appealing, the study says. That is, they increase sweet and savory tastes. Not surprisingly, the study notes that additives “that aim to improve [flavor] and mouthfeel are also common in cigarettes, including sugar, cocoa, menthol, and alkaline salt.”

    If anything, the study points to issues with food addiction that don’t exist with other addictions since food is a critical part of our lives. “Addictive drugs are not necessary for survival; eating is,” the study says.

    The study says understanding that ultra-processed foods are indeed addictive could “lead to novel approaches” in addressing the issue. It points to several policies that are already being taken across the world, such as levying taxes on sweetened beverages or posting nutritional information on the front of packages.

    MarketWatch reached out to SNAC, a trade group representing snack-food manufacturers, about the study, but didn’t receive an immediate response.

    Americans’ desire to snack doesn’t appear to be abating. In its most recent annual report, SNAC says the annual total sales for salty snacks grew by 15.6% in 2022 to $28.4 billion. Potato chips alone saw 14.5% growth to $7.8 billion in sales.

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  • Homes are expensive right now, but these mortgage bonds look cheap

    Homes are expensive right now, but these mortgage bonds look cheap

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    U.S. homes may be wildly unaffordable for first-time buyers, but mortgage bonds backed by those same properties could be dirt cheap.

    Shocks from the Federal Reserve’s dramatic rate increases have walloped the $8.9 trillion agency mortgage-bond market, the main artery of U.S. housing finance for almost the past two decades.

    Spreads, or compensation for investors, have hit historically wide levels, even through the sector is underpinned by home loans that adhere to the stricter government standards set in the wake of the subprime-mortgage crisis.

    Bond prices also have tumbled, sinking from a peak above 106 cents on the dollar to below 98, despite guarantees that mean investors will be fully repaid at 100 cents on the dollar.

    From $106 to $98 cents, agency mortgage-bond prices are falling.


    Bloomberg, Goldman Sachs Global Investment Research

    “It’s really, really struggled,” Nick Childs, portfolio manager at Janus Henderson Investors, said of the agency mortgage-bond market during a Thursday talk on the firm’s fixed-income outlook.

    Yet Childs and other investors also see big opportunities brewing. While mortgage bonds have gotten cheaper with the sector’s two anchor investors on the sidelines, the stalled housing market should breed scarcity in the bonds, which could help lift the sector out of a roughly two-year slump.

    Prices have tumbled since rate shocks hit, but also since the Fed continued winding down its large footprint in the sector by letting bonds it accumulated to help shore up the economy roll off its balance sheet.

    Banks awash in underwater securities have pulled back too. The repricing of similar bonds helped hasten the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in March.

    “Banks have been not only absent, but selling,” said Childs, who helps oversee the Janus Henderson Mortgage-Backed Securities exchange-traded fund
    JMBS,
    an actively managed $2 billion fund focused on highly rated securities with minimal credit risk.

    “But we’re moving into an environment where supply continues to dwindle,” he said, given anemic refinancing activity and the dearth of new home loans being originated since 30-year fixed mortgage rates topped 7%.

    The bulk of all U.S. mortgage bonds created in the past two decades have come from housing giants Freddie Mac
    FMCC,
    +0.66%    ,
    Fannie Mae
    FNMA,
    +1.09%
    and Ginnie Mae, with government guarantees, making the sector akin to the $25 trillion Treasury market. But unlike investors in Treasurys, investors in mortgage bonds also earn a spread, or extra compensation above the risk-free rate, to help offset its biggest risk: early repayments.

    While homeowners typically take out 30-year loans, most also refinanced during the pandemic rush to lock in ultralow rates, instead of continuing to make three decades of payments on more expensive mortgages. If someone refinances, sells or defaults on a home, it leads to repayment uncertainty for bond investors.

    “To put this another way, the biggest risk to mortgages is now off the table, yet spreads are at or near historic wides,” said Sam Dunlap, chief investment officer, Angel Oak Capital Advisors, in a new client note.

    That spread is now far above the long-term average, topping levels offered by relatively low-risk investment-grade corporate bonds.

    Agency mortgage bonds are offering far more spread that investment-grade corporate bonds. But these mortgage bonds will fully repay if borrowers default.


    Janus Henderson Investors

    Agency mortgage bonds typically are included in low-risk bond funds and can be found in exchange-traded funds. While they have been hard hit by the sharp selloff in long-dated Treasury bonds
    BX:TMUBMUSD10Y

    BX:TMUBMUSD30Y,
    there has also been hope that the worst of the storm could be nearly over.

    Goldman Sachs credit analysts recently said they favored the sector but warned in a weekly client note that it still faces “high rate volatility and a dearth of institutional demand.”

    As evidence of the U.S. bond selloff, the popular iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF
    TLT
    recently sank to its lowest level in more than a decade. It also was on pace for a negative 10% total return on the year so far, according to FactSet. Janus Henderson’s JMBS ETF was on pace for a negative 2.7% total return on the year through Friday.

    “Frankly, why they fit portfolios so well is that because the government backs agency mortgages, there is no credit risk,” Childs said. “So if a borrower defaults, you get par back on that. It just comes through as a typical payment.”

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  • Subprime car-loan rates are hitting 17%-22%. Should investors be worried?

    Subprime car-loan rates are hitting 17%-22%. Should investors be worried?

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    Many borrowers with subprime credit have been paying 17% to 22% rates on new auto loans this year as the Federal Reserve’s inflation fight takes a toll on lower-income households.

    That borrowing range reflects the average cost, or annual percentage rate, for a loan in recent subprime auto bond deals, according to Fitch Ratings, an increase from last year’s average APR of closer to 14%.

    Higher borrowing costs can mean households need to put more of their income into monthly auto payments, ramping up the risks of late payments, defaults and car repossessions. Those risks, however, have yet to make investors flinch.

    The subprime auto sector already has cleared almost $30 billion of new bond deals this year, according to Finsight, a pace that’s slightly below volumes from the past two years, but still above historical levels since 2008.

    The subprime auto bond market is revved up, even as borrowing rate soar


    Finsight

    “I do believe there has to be a reckoning if rates stay higher for longer,” said Tracy Chen, a portfolio manager on Brandywine Global Asset Management’s global fixed income team.

    Figuring out when the tumult might hit has proven difficult. Instead of slowing, the economy has shown resilience despite the Fed lifting its policy rate to a 22-year high of 5.25% to 5.5%. The central bank also indicated it might need to keep rates higher for some time to fight inflation. Longer-duration bond yields, as a result, have pushed higher, but still hover below 5%.

    Subprime standoff

    Inflation eats away at paychecks, especially those of lower-wage workers, a problem the Fed hopes to solve by keeping borrowing rates elevated. A gauge of inflation out Thursday showed consumer prices were steady at a 3.7% yearly rate in September, above the Fed’s 2% target.

    “This recession has been on everyone’s mind for the past three years,” Chen said. While she thinks the economy will likely contract in the middle of 2024, a lot of damage could be done before that. “The longer rates stay here, the harder the landing.”

    For now, the Fed is widely expected to hold rates steady at its next meeting in November. “Fed policy makers are now shifting their focus from ‘how high’ to raise the policy rate to ‘how long’ to maintain it at restrictive levels,” said EY Chief Economist Gregory Daco, in emailed comments.

    Stocks were flat to slightly higher in choppy trade at midday Thursday after the inflation report came in hotter than forecast, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average
    DJIA
    near unchanged and the S&P 500 index
    SPX
    up 0.2%.

    Past recessions and the burden of higher interest costs typically hit lower-wage workers harder, making subprime credit a canary in the coal mine for the rest of financial markets. Even so, investors in subprime auto bonds have yet to demand significantly more spread, or compensation, to offset potentially higher defaults among these borrowers.

    Related: Subprime auto defaults on path toward 2008 crisis levels, say portfolio managers

    Take the AAA rated 2-year slice of a new bond deal issued in mid-October by one of the subprime auto sector’s biggest players. It priced at a spread of 115 basis points above relevant risk-free rate, up from a spread of 90 basis points on a similar bond issued in August, according to Finsight, which tracks bond data.

    When factoring in Treasury rates, the yield on the bonds bumped up to about 6% and 5.7%, respectively. The shot at higher returns and low delinquencies in subprime auto bonds have likely helped with investor confidence. The rate of subprime auto loans at least 60-day past due in bond deals was about 5% in September, according to Intex, up from historic lows around 2.5% two years ago.

    “I think people still feel confident,” Chen said of subprime auto bonds. When putting a recent bond out on a Wall Street list to gauge its market value, she said bids come in right away.

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  • ‘Banks fail. It’s OK,’ says former FDIC chair Sheila Bair.

    ‘Banks fail. It’s OK,’ says former FDIC chair Sheila Bair.

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    Higher interest rates may be painful in the short term, but banks, savers and the financial ecosystem will be better off in the long run, said Sheila Bair, former chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

    “When money is free, you squander it,” Bair said in an interview with MarketWatch. “It’s like anything. If it doesn’t cost you anything, you’re going to value it less. And we’ve had free money for quite some time now.”

    Bair, who led the FDIC from 2006 to 2011, caused a stir recently in criticizing “moonshots,” the crypto industry and “useless innovations” like Bored Ape NFTs, which proliferated because of speculation and near-zero interest rates.

    Her main message has been that the path to higher rates, while potentially “tricky,” ultimately will lead to a more stable financial system, where “truly promising innovations will attract capital” and where savers can actually save.

    Former FDIC Chair Sheila Bair was dubbed “the little guy’s protector in chief” by Time Magazine in the wake of the subprime mortgage crisis.

    Bair sat down for an interview with Barron’s Live, MarketWatch edition, to talk about the ripple effects of higher rates, what could trigger another financial crisis and why more regional banks sitting on unrealized losses could fail in the wake of Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse in March.

    “We probably will have more bank failures,” Bair said. “But you know what? Banks fail. It’s OK. The system goes on. It’s important for people to understand that households stay below the insured deposit caps.”

    The FDIC insures bank deposits up to $250,000 per account. It also has overseen 565 bank failures since 2001.

    “I know borrowing costs are going up, but your rewards for saving it are going up too,” she said. “I think that’s a very good thing.”

    However, Bair isn’t focused only on money traps and pitfalls for grown-ups. She also has two new picture books coming out that aim to explain big financial themes to young readers, including where easy-money ways, speculation and inflation come from.

    “One thing that I’ve learned from the kids is to not ask them what a loan is, because when I did that, a little hand when up, and she said: ‘That’s when you’re by yourself,’” Bair said.

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  • Family Dollar recalls dozens of P&G, J&J, Colgate products in 23 states due to incorrect temperature storage

    Family Dollar recalls dozens of P&G, J&J, Colgate products in 23 states due to incorrect temperature storage

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    Family Dollar voluntarily recalled dozens of over-the-counter drugs, products and medical devices sold at its stores because they had been stored at improper temperatures, according to the Food and Drug Administration late Tuesday.

    On the FDA’s website, the regulator said products affected by the recall were stored “outside of labeled temperature requirements by Family Dollar and inadvertently shipped to certain stores on or around June 1, 2023 through September 21, 2023.”

    Brands affected by the recall include Procter & Gamble’s
    PG,
    +0.99%
    Crest, Vicks and Pepto Bismol; Colgate
    CL,
    +0.26%
    ; Johnson & Johnson Inc.’s
    JNJ,
    -0.11%
    Tylenol and Listerine; and Bayer’s
    BAYN,
    +3.04%
    Aleve, according to a list provided by the FDA.

    The items were sold at stores in Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Nebraska, New Mexico, Nevada, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wyoming, between June 1 and Oct. 4, the FDA said.

    Family Dollar was acquired by Dollar Tree Inc.
    DLTR,
    +3.26%
    in a deal that closed in July 2015.

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  • Treasury yields are climbing: ‘There’s never really been such an attractive opportunity for fixed-income investments’

    Treasury yields are climbing: ‘There’s never really been such an attractive opportunity for fixed-income investments’

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    While stocks get clobbered by rising bond yields, financial experts say everyday investors can roll with the punches by increasing their exposure to longer-term Treasurys and other fixed income — so long as they understand what they are doing.

    Yield — and more of it — has been a great-sounding idea for more people ever since the Federal Reserve started increasing its benchmark interest rate in March 2022.

    High-yield savings accounts, certificates of deposit and money market-mutual funds have all become alluring ways to reap rewards for parking cash. It’s easy to find these products with rates in the 4% and 5% range.

    Treasury bills, which come due within a year, have also been a yield-producing place to put cash. Yields on T-bills
    BX:TMUBMUSD06M
    of varying length are over 5%, up from roughly 4.5% around the start of the year.

    “High-yield savings accounts, certificates of deposit and money market-mutual funds have all become alluring ways to reap rewards for parking cash. ”

    Yet yields have been inducing anxiety lately. For well over a month, the speedy ascent of yields for longer-term Treasury debt and a bond market sell-off have been knocking the stock market for a loop.

    Still, some financial experts say there’s nothing wrong with buying longer-term Treasurys for the person who wants to keep putting their cash to work. Of course, they need to understand the risks and rewards for bonds when interest rates rise and fall.

    Also see: As Treasury yields rise, Wall Street wonders what the Fed will do next. Where should you park your extra cash?

    “Moving from cash to fixed income is the right move right now,” said wealth adviser Marisa Bradbury, managing director of the Florida offices for Sigma Investment Counselors. “You can definitely lock in some decent rates we haven’t seen in a long time.”

    “Before, fixed income was so much a principal protection piece of the portfolio. Now you can actually earn a decent income on it too,” she said.

    “The upside to what’s happened is for savers,” said Matt Sommer, head of specialist consulting group at Janus Henderson Investors. “There’s never really been such an attractive opportunity for fixed income investments as there is now.”

    To be sure, there was a time when Treasury yields where far above their current mark. In the early to mid-1980s, the yields on the 10-year Treasury note and 30-year Treasury bond exceeded 10%. Of course, Sommer and other financial planners are focused on the present and the future because that’s what financial planning is all about. Here’s what they are thinking:

    The ‘barbell’ approach

    When clients building their nest egg want to go all in on T-bills, Sommer is instead advising they use a “barbell” approach that adds a mix of longer-term Treasurys and fixed income too.

    “This is exactly the time investors shouldn’t hibernate on the short end of the [yield] curve,” said Richard Steinberg, chief market strategist and a principal at The Colony Group, a wealth advisory firm. He’s also advising clients to extend their duration on their Treasury and fixed income investments.

    Yields climbed again Friday morning after the stronger than expected September jobs report. The yield on the two-year Treasury note
    BX:TMUBMUSD02Y
    rose to almost 5.1%, up from 5.023% Thursday afternoon and up from 4.26% a year ago.

    The yield on the ten-year Treasury note
    BX:TMUBMUSD10Y
    climbed to 4.86%, up from 4.715% Thursday afternoon, and up from 3.82% a year ago. The yield on the 30-year bond
    BX:TMUBMUSD30Y
    reached 5.01%, up from 4.88% on Thursday and up from 3.78% a year ago – heading Friday morning for the highest level since August 2007.

    Bond yield and price always move in different directions. When interest rates rise, bond prices decrease and bond yields increase. When rates fall, prices increase and yields decrease. That’s where the note of caution comes in.

    Brace for losses if the Fed keeps increasing interest rates, said David Sekera, chief U.S. market strategist at Morningstar, the investment research firm.

    For now, it may be a good time for bond portfolios to beef up the long side. “Part of what we are seeing in the stock market is a reallocation out of stocks and into fixed income,” he said.

    Related: Why rising Treasury yields are upsetting financial markets

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  • Social Security Administration to review overpayments, may claw back payments

    Social Security Administration to review overpayments, may claw back payments

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    The Social Security Administration said Wednesday it would review its overpayment procedures and policies, and may claw back any overpayments found.

    During the 2022 fiscal year, the agency recovered $4.7 billion of overpayments, according to a report by the SSA’s Office of the Inspector General. 

    While payment accuracy rates are high, overpayments do happen given the number of people the agency serves, the number of changes in their circumstances and the complexity of the programs, the SSA said.  

    “Despite our high accuracy rates, I am putting together a team to review our overpayment policies and procedures to further improve how we serve our customers,” said Kilolo Kijakazi, acting commissioner of Social Security.

    “There is misinformation in the media claiming that the Social Security Administration is attempting to collect $21 billion. This figure was derived from the total amount of overpayments that have occurred over the history of the programs,” the SSA said in a statement.

    The announcement comes the week before Social Security’s cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, is expected to be released.

    The 2024 COLA for Social Security is expected to rise about 3.2%, according to estimates from the Senior Citizens League, a pro-senior think tank. That’s compared with an 8.7% increase for 2023, which was the highest COLA in more than 40 years amid high inflation.

    Social Security is an important benefit for most Americans. Half of the population age 65 or older live in households that receive at least 50% of their family income from Social Security benefits, according to SSA data, and about 25% of senior households rely on Social Security benefits for at least 90% of their income.

    “The government’s got to fix this,” Sen. Sherrod Brown, the Ohio Democrat who chairs a Senate panel that oversees Social Security, recently told KFF Health News on the subject of overpayments. Meanwhile, Rep. Mike Carey of Ohio, the No. 2 Republican on a House panel that oversees Social Security, has called for a congressional hearing to review the problem, according to the KFF Health News report.

    Social Security pays $1.4 trillion in benefits to more than 71 million people each year. Only around 0.5% of Social Security payments are overpayments, the SSA said.

    “For the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program, overpayments also represent a small percentage of payments — about 8% — but are higher due to the complexity in administering statutory income and resource limits and asset evaluations,” the agency said in the announcement.

    If a person doesn’t agree that they’ve been overpaid, or believes the amount is incorrect, they can appeal. If they believe they shouldn’t have to pay the money back, they can request that the agency waive collection of the overpayment. There’s no time limit for filing a waiver.

    The SSA said it is required by law to adjust benefits or recover debts when overpayments occur. The law allows Social Security to waive recovery in some cases.

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  • How to maximize your streaming in October 2023, and why Netflix is all you really need

    How to maximize your streaming in October 2023, and why Netflix is all you really need

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    It’s time to churn, baby, churn.

    The streaming scene has changed significantly over the past year or so, and for the worse: more expensive, less new programming, smaller libraries of older shows. And it’s coming at a time when consumers are being increasingly pressed by higher costs on all fronts. Prices for Disney’s ad-free tiers are rising sharply in October, and Amazon will jack up prices early next year for those who don’t want to see commercials. So it’s time for consumers to once again reassess which services are really worth paying for.

    There are three options if you don’t want your monthly streaming bill to look like your old triple-digit cable bill: bundle (you can save significantly with a Hulu-Disney+ package, for example), move to cheaper plans with commercials (ugh) or just drop the services you watch least. Pick a maximum monthly price ceiling and stick to it — at this point, most people don’t need more than two or three services anyway.

    If you’re frustrated by paying more for less, and want to make a point, cancelling a service is the one way that companies will take notice. Streaming services hate churn (adding and dropping services month-to-month) because it lowers their subscriber base and forces them to raise their marketing costs to win you back. As a consumer, it’s really your only weapon.

    Don’t like how Max keeps removing older shows? Dump it. Finding yourself watching less and less Disney+? Ditch it. It’s satisfying, it’s economical and you can always sign up again in the future.

    One benefit of streaming services is they’re a lot easier to cancel than cable. With prices soaring, now’s the time to be brutal in winnowing your subscriptions. A churn strategy takes some planning, but it pays off. Keep in mind that a billing cycle starts when you sign up, not necessarily at the beginning of the month.

    Each month, this column offers tips on how to maximize your streaming and your budget, rating the major services as a “play,” “pause” or “stop” — similar to investment analysts’ traditional ratings of buy, hold or sell, and picks the best shows to help you make your monthly decisions.

    Here’s a look at what’s coming to the various streaming services in October 2023, and what’s really worth the monthly subscription fee:

    Netflix ($6.99 a month for basic with ads, $15.49 standard with no ads, $19.99 premium with no ads)

    After a ho-hum past few months, Netflix
    NFLX,
    +0.33%
    is rolling out a more robust lineup in October. Which is nice, because no other streaming service is.

    After a two-year layoff, the French heist thriller series “Lupin” (Oct. 5) returns for its third season. Omar Sy stars as a master thief who’s now on the lam, and he carries the show largely on his charisma. It’s a fun one, and a welcome return for viewers.

    But the big-name show of the month is “The Fall of the House of Usher” (Oct. 12), from horror hit-maker Mike Flanagan (“The Haunting of Hill House,” “Midnight Mass”). The miniseries, based on Edgar Allan Poe’s classic story, combines Gothic horror with a modern twist, as the corrupt CEO of a family-owned and scandal-plagued pharmaceutical company is forced to face demons from his past as his family members keep dying, one by one, in increasingly gruesome ways. The sprawling cast includes Bruce Greenwood, Annabeth Gish, Carl Lumbly, Carla Gugino, Rahul Kohli, Mark Hamill, Henry Thomas and Mary McDonnell. This should be one to watch, if for nothing else than to finally see a Sackler-like family get their comeuppance.

    Also on the way: the seventh seasons of the raunchy animated adolescent comedy “Big Mouth” (Oct. 20) and the Spanish high school soap “Elite” (Oct. 20); “Pain Hustlers” (Oct. 27), a meh-looking satirical crime drama starring Emily Blunt and Chris Evans as scheming pharmaceutical reps; and the nature documentary “Life on Our Planet” (Oct. 25), narrated by Morgan Freeman.

    More: What’s new on Netflix in October 2023 — and what’s leaving

    And you may have missed it, but Netflix snuck in a new season of “The Great British Baking Show” at the end of September. New episodes stream every Tuesday, and feature new co-host Alison Hammond, replacing Matt Lucas, who always seemed out of place.

    Who’s Netflix for? Fans of buzz-worthy original shows and movies.

    Play, pause or stop? Play. Between some good-looking new shows, fresh eps of the “Great British Baking Show” and recent additions such as “Sex Education” (though its final season is underwhelming) and HBO’s classic “Band of Brothers,” Netflix is once again a must-have.

    Max ($9.99 a month with ads, or $15.99 with no ads)

    After a dismal September, Max has a better October lineup, with Season 2 of the beloved pirate comedy “Our Flag Means Death” (Oct. 5), starring Rhys Darby and Taika Waititi as wildly different ship captains involved in a star-crossed romance; Season 2 of “The Gilded Age” (Oct. 29), Julian Fellowes’ “Downton Abbey”-esque costume drama set in 1880s New York high society, with a sprawling cast that includes Carrie Coon, Cynthia Nixon, Christine Baranski, Morgan Spector and Louisa Jacobson; and the fourth and final season of the DC superhero dramedy “Doom Patrol” (Oct. 12).

    Notably, Warner Bros. Discovery’s
    WBD,
    +1.59%
    Max is launching its live-sports tier — the unfortunately named Bleacher Report Sports — on Oct. 5, just in time for the MLB playoffs and upcoming NBA season. The add-on tier will be free for all subscribers through February, when its price will shoot up to $9.99 a month.

    Also: What’s new on Max in October 2023 — and what’s leaving

    This is also your last chance to watch a bunch of AMC shows that are getting a two-month promotional run on Max: “Fear the Walking Dead” Seasons 1-7, “Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire” Season 1, “Dark Winds” Season 1, “Gangs of London” Seasons 1-2, “Ride with Norman Reedus” Seasons 1-5, “A Discovery of Witches” Seasons 1-3, and “Killing Eve” Seasons 1-4 will all leave Oct. 31. Do yourself a favor and at least watch “Dark Winds.”

    One more hidden gem to discover: Season 3 of the British rom-com “Starstruck,” which landed Sept. 28. It’s utterly charming and unwaveringly romantic, with literal LOL moments and some of the most swoon-worthy banter in recent years. Catch up with all three seasons, it’s an easy binge that’s well worth it.

    Who’s Max for? HBO fans and movie lovers. And now, unscripted TV fans too, with a slew of Discovery shows.

    Play, pause or stop? Pause and think it over. It’s an exceptionally weak month for streamers, but Max’s lineup — especially with the addition of live sports and its deep library — makes it one of the least weakest.

    Amazon’s Prime Video ($14.99 a month, or $8.99 without Prime membership)

    Prime Video has a fine lineup in October. Not great. Not terrible. But very OK.

    “Totally Killer” (Oct. 6) looks to be a cleverer-than-most spin on a horror trope, as Kiernan Shipka (“Mad Men”) stars as a 17-year-old who travels back in time to 1987 to stop a serial killer before he can start a slaying spree that terrorized her mother (Julie Bowen).

    Greg Daniels’ existential comedy “Upload” (Oct. 20) is back for its third season of rom-com exploits in a digital afterlife, thanks to uploaded consciousness. (Disclaimer: I liked Season 1, but can’t for the life of me remember if I ever watched Season 2, which doesn’t bode well, but perfectly fits this month’s “meh it’s OK” theme.)

    Meanwhile, Amazon’s
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    free, ad-supported channel, Freevee, has the second season of “Bosch: Legacy” (Oct. 20), the “Bosch” spinoff starring Titus Welliver as a private investigator in L.A., while his daughter Maddie (Madison Lintz) charts her own path as a police officer. As gritty detective shows go, it’s solid.

    Prime Video also has a decent lineup of NFL Thursday Night Football; “The Burial” (Oct. 13), a funeral-home drama movie starring Oscar-winners Jamie Foxx and Tommy Lee Jones; all 11 seasons of the classic sitcom “Frasier” (Oct. 1), just in time for the reboot on Paramount+; as well as new eps every week of “The Boys” spinoff “Gen V” and the season finale of “The Wheel of Time” (Oct 6).

    See more: Everything coming to Amazon’s Prime Video and Freevee in October 2023

    It’s also a good time to dig into Prime Video’s extensive library, before commercials come early next year. In an obnoxious move, rather than add an ad-supported tier at a lower price, Amazon will subject all subscribers to commercials — unless they pay an extra $3-a-month ransom. Commercials will be especially annoying on Prime’s more cinematic series, so watch great-looking shows like “I’m a Virgo,” “Dead Ringers” and “The English” interruption-free, while you still can.

    Who’s Prime Video for? Movie lovers, TV-series fans who value quality over quantity.

    Play, pause or stop? Pause. There’s no a compelling reason to start a subscription now, but if you already have one, there’s probably enough to watch.

    Disney+ ($7.99 a month with ads, $13.99 with no ads, starting Oct. 12)

    After a hiatus of more than two years, Marvel’s “Loki” (Oct. 5) is finally back for its second season. The new season finds the eponymous god of mischief (played by Tom Hiddleston) bouncing across the multiverse in a battle for free will while trying to elude agents of the mysterious Time Variant Authority. Season 1 of “Loki” was one of Marvel’s better TV adaptations, and hopes are high that Season 2 can recapture that sense of chaotic fun. Owen Wilson returns as TVA agent Mobius, and Oscar winner Ke Huy Quan (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”) joins the cast, which also features Jonathan Majors as big bad Kang the Conqueror, which is… problematic. Disney is reportedly still planning for Majors to play a key role in “Loki” and the next phase of “Avengers” movies despite his arrest on assault charges earlier this year, which prompted troubling allegations of past physical and emotional abuse toward women. (“Loki” had already finished filming prior to his arrest.)

    Disney also has “Goosebumps” (Oct. 13), about a group of high school friends fighting supernatural forces as they uncover long-buried secrets about their small town in this series adaptation of R.L. Stine’s hugely popular series of spooky novels. (It’ll also stream on Hulu.)

    The “Star Wars” spinoff “Ahsoka” has its season finale Oct. 3, while ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars” will stream every Tuesday.

    Who’s Disney+ for? Families with kids, hardcore “Star Wars” and Marvel fans. For people not in those groups, Disney’s
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     library can be lacking.

    Play, pause or stop? Pause. The price of ad-free Disney+ jumps by $3 a month starting Oct. 12 — how much do you or your family really want to watch “Loki” and “Goosebumps”? It’ll be worth it for some, but an opportune time to cancel for others.

    Hulu ($7.99 a month with ads, or $17.99 with no ads, starting Oct. 12)

    Hulu has been on a fantastic run since the start of summer, but all good things must end. And it happens to coincide with a $3-a-month hike to its ad-free subscription.

    October’s lineup is weak, and heavily weighed toward Halloween-themed fare, such as Season 2 of FX’s spinoff anthology “American Horror Stories” (Oct. 26); the Stephen King thrillers “Rose Red” (Oct. 1) and “The Boogeyman” (Oct. 5); the Starz horror series “Ash vs. Evil Dead” (Oct. 1); the body-horror movie “Appendage” (Oct. 2); and “Goosebumps” (Oct. 13), a live-action adaptation of R.L. Stine’s bestselling kids’ book series (which will also stream on Disney+).

    Non-horror shows include new seasons of Fox’s “The Simpsons,” “Family Guy” and “Bob’s Burgers” (all Oct. 2), and Season 2 of the comedy “Shorsey” (Oct. 27), the “Letterkenny” spinoff series about minor-league hockey that has a surprising amount of heart to go with its absolutely filthy dialogue.

    For more: What’s coming to Hulu in October 2023 — and what’s leaving

    As an added bonus, all five seasons of ABC’s 1980s detective-agency rom-com “Moonlighting” (Oct. 10), starring Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd, will stream for the first time ever (legally at least). If I remember correctly, there were some really high highs but also some really low lows — but it’ll be worth checking out, for nostalgia if nothing else.

    There are also new eps every week of “The Golden Bachelor” and “Bachelor in Paradise,” the season finale of “Only Murders in the Building” (Oct. 3) and the series finale of “Archer” (Oct. 11). And if you missed it, all three seasons of “Reservation Dogs” are there and just begging to be watched, or rewatched. (It’s about as perfect as a TV series could ever be, and the recently concluded Season 3 is the best thing I’ve seen this year.)

    Who’s Hulu for? TV lovers. There’s a deep library for those who want older TV series and next-day streaming of many current network and cable shows.

    Play, pause or stop? Stop. If you’re on the ad tier, this month might be tolerable, but it’s certainly not worth $17.99.

    Paramount+ ($5.99 a month with ads, $11.99 a month with Showtime and no ads)

    Twenty years after ending its 11-season run (with 37 Emmy wins), the classic sitcom “Frasier” (Oct. 12) is back. Sort of. Kelsey Grammar returns in this revival as the pompous Dr. Frasier Crane, who’s moved back to Boston to be closer to his adult son (played by Jack Cutmore-Scott), who doesn’t necessarily want him there. The cast is mostly new, though Bebe Neuwirth (as Frasier’s ex-wife Lilith) and Peri Gilpin (his radio producer Roz) will reportedly guest star. David Hyde Pierce (Niles) and Jane Leeves (Daphne) will not return, however, which is a bummer since that’s where much of the original show’s laughs came from (John Mahoney, who played Frasier’s father Marty Crane, died in 2018). The jury’s out on this one — while in theory, it could be a refreshing update to a nostalgic favorite, the trailer is not encouraging.

    Paramount+ also has “Pet Sematary: Bloodlines” (Oct. 6), a creepy prequel to the 2019 horror reboot; “Fellow Travelers” (Oct. 27), a decades-spanning queer love story starring Matt Bomer and Jonathan Bailey; and Showtime’s courtroom drama “The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial” (Oct. 6), the late director William Friedkin’s last film, starring Keifer Sutherland, the late Lance Reddick and Jake Lacy.

    That’s on top of a live-sports lineup that includes SEC and Big Ten college football on Saturdays, NFL football every Sunday and UEFA Champions League soccer matches.

    Who’s Paramount+ for? Gen X cord-cutters who miss live sports and familiar Paramount Global
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     broadcast and cable shows.

    Play, pause or stop? Stop. There’s a good football lineup, at least.

    Apple TV+ ($6.99 a month)

    It’s another slow month for Apple
    AAPL,
    +0.30%    ,
    highlighted by the miniseries “Lessons in Chemistry” (Oct. 13), based on Bonnie Garmus’ bestselling novel. Brie Larson stars as a woman in the 1950s whose dreams of becoming a scientist are scuttled by male chauvinism, and instead becomes the host of a TV cooking show, where she inspires housewives and fights the patriarchy. Apple is getting a reputation for getting big-name stars for prestige-type series, only for the shows to fizzle out and quickly be forgotten (like “Mosquito Coast,” “Hello Tomorrow” and “Dear Edward,” for starters). I have yet to see any marketing for this series, and it would not be a surprise for someone to ask six months from now: “Wait, Brie Larson was in an Apple show?”

    There’s also a new documentary from Errol Morris, “The Pigeon Tunnel” (Oct. 20), about the life of spy-turned-writer David Cornwell, aka John le Carré; and “The Enfield Poltergeist” (Oct. 27), a four-part docuseries about the supposed real-life haunting that inspired “The Conjuring 2.”

    Apple’s biggest title will be on Oct. 20 in movie theaters, with the wide release of Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon,” the spectacular-looking historical drama about a series of mysterious killings of Osage tribal members in Oklahoma in the 1920s, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone and Robert De Niro. There’s no streaming release date yet, but expect it to land on Apple TV+ after its theatrical run, possibly in November but more likely in December.

    There are also new episodes every week of “The Morning Show,” “The Changeling” (season finale Oct. 13) and “Invasion” (season finale Oct. 25).

    Who’s Apple TV+ for? It offers a little something for everyone, but not necessarily enough for anyone — although it’s getting there.

    Play, pause or stop? Stop. Apple’s had a great year, but there’s just not a lot on right now. But there’s good stuff coming in November (Season 4 of “For All Mankind”) and December (Season 3 of “Slow Horses”).

    Remember, you can get three free months of Apple TV+ if you buy a new iPhone, iPad or Mac. Strategically, if you buy an iPhone 15, and wait a bit to redeem the free trial, you’ll want it to extend into January.

    Peacock (Premium for $5.99 a month with ads, or $11.99 a month with no ads)

    It’s all about horror and sports for Peacock this October.

    On the scary side, there’s Season 2 of the werewolf rom-com “Wolf Like Me” (Oct. 19), starring Josh Gad and Isla Fisher; “Five Nights at Freddy’s” (Oct. 27), a horror movie based on the videogame about a troubled security guard who starts working the night shift at a cursed pizza parlor, starring Josh Hutcherson and Matthew Lillard; and the true-crime anthology “John Carpenter’s Suburban Screams” (Oct. 13).

    On the sports side, Peacock has the Rugby World Cup (through Oct. 28), NFL Sunday Night Football, Big Ten and Notre Dame college football, English Premier League soccer, and a full slate of golf, motorsports and horse racing.

    Meanwhile, the “John Wick” prequel miniseries “The Continental” ends Oct. 6.

    Who’s Peacock for? Live sports and next-day shows from Comcast’s
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     NBCUniversal are the main draw, but there’s a good library of shows and movies.

    Play, pause or stop? Stop. The live-sports offerings are the only lure.

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  • Tesla sued for racial discrimination, retaliation by EEOC

    Tesla sued for racial discrimination, retaliation by EEOC

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    Tesla Inc. was sued Thursday by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which alleges the EV maker violated federal law by “tolerating widespread and ongoing racial harassment of its Black employees” at its Fremont, Calif., plant, and by retaliating against those opposing the harassment.

    Black employees at the Fremont factory, Tesla’s
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    first assembly plant and for years its only vehicle-manufacturing facility in the U.S., “have routinely endured racial abuse, pervasive stereotyping and hostility” as well as having racial slurs hurled at them, the lawsuit alleges.

    “Slurs were used casually and openly in high-traffic areas and at worker hubs,” the EEOC said. Black employees “regularly” saw graffiti with slurs, swastikas, threats and nooses throughout the facility, including on desks, in bathroom stalls and elevators, according to the suit.

    Tesla, which disbanded its media relations team during the pandemic, did not immediately return a request for comment. In August, SpaceX, another one of Tesla’s Chief Executive Elon Musk’s companies, was sued by the Justice Department over its hiring practices.

    Employees who spoke up against the racial hostility suffered retaliations that included being fired or transferred, the EEOC said.

    The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California after attempts at reaching a settlement before the litigation. It seeks compensatory and punitive damages as well as back pay for the affected workers. It also seeks changes to Tesla’s employment practices to prevent discrimination in the future, the EEOC said.

    A Black Tesla employee was awarded $137 million in 2021 by a jury that agreed he was subjected to racial harassment at the Fremont factory, but in April 2022 a judge reduced the award to $15 million.

    Shares of Tesla have doubled so far this year, compared with an advance of around 12% for the S&P 500 index
    SPX.

    The first Model S rolled out of the Fremont factory in 2012, and the plant now makes Model S, Model 3, Model X and Model Y vehicles, with capacity to make more than a million vehicles a year as well as energy products and battery cells.

    Tesla opened up its second U.S. vehicle-making factory in the Austin, Texas, area in the spring of 2022.

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