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<title>The Business Economic &#45; Business Economic Syndicated News</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/rss/author/Business-Economic</link>
<description>The Business Economic &#45; Business Economic Syndicated News</description>
<dc:language>en</dc:language>
<dc:rights>Copyright 2022. The Business Economic &#45; All Rights Reserved.</dc:rights>

<item>
<title>Britain’s green start&#45;ups face ‘triple squeeze’ as early&#45;stage funding crashes to five&#45;year low</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/britains-green-start-ups-face-triple-squeeze-as-early-stage-funding-crashes-to-five-year-low</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/britains-green-start-ups-face-triple-squeeze-as-early-stage-funding-crashes-to-five-year-low</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Early-stage funding for Britain&#039;s clean tech start-ups halved in 2025, hitting a five-year low. Cleantech for UK warns the innovation pipeline is at risk.
Read more: 
Britain’s green start-ups face ‘triple squeeze’ as early-stage funding crashes to five-year low ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Sun, 03 May 2026 14:00:14 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Britain’s, green, start-ups, face, ‘triple, squeeze’, early-stage, funding, crashes, five-year, low</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Bristol leads UK innovation jobs boom as the regions close the gap on London</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/bristol-leads-uk-innovation-jobs-boom-as-the-regions-close-the-gap-on-london</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/bristol-leads-uk-innovation-jobs-boom-as-the-regions-close-the-gap-on-london</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
New research lays bare a striking paradox: workforces at Britain&#039;s most innovative firms are growing fastest outside the south-east, yet eight in every ten venture pounds still pour into the so-called golden triangle.
Read more: 
Bristol leads UK innovation jobs boom as the regions close the gap on London ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Sun, 03 May 2026 14:00:13 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Bristol, leads, innovation, jobs, boom, the, regions, close, the, gap, London</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Whisky tariffs lifted as Trump hails royal state visit</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/whisky-tariffs-lifted-as-trump-hails-royal-state-visit</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/whisky-tariffs-lifted-as-trump-hails-royal-state-visit</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Britain&#039;s distillers have been handed an unexpected fillip after Donald Trump announced the removal of all US tariffs and restrictions on whisky imports, a concession the president attributed directly to the influence of King Charles and Queen Camilla&#039;s four-day state visit to America.
Read more: 
Whisky tariffs lifted as Trump hails royal state visit ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Sun, 03 May 2026 14:00:12 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Whisky, tariffs, lifted, Trump, hails, royal, state, visit</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Britain doesn’t have a start&#45;up problem, it has a stay&#45;at&#45;home problem</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/britain-doesnt-have-a-start-up-problem-it-has-a-stay-at-home-problem</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/britain-doesnt-have-a-start-up-problem-it-has-a-stay-at-home-problem</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Britain launches companies brilliantly. It just can’t keep them. Richard Alvin on why the next British unicorn will probably IPO in New York, and what to do before it does.
Read more: 
Britain doesn’t have a start-up problem, it has a stay-at-home problem ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Sun, 03 May 2026 14:00:10 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Britain, doesn’t, have, start-up, problem, has, stay-at-home, problem</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Last orders for British hospitality: Are Reeves and Starmer trying to kill the UK restaurant sector?</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/last-orders-for-british-hospitality-are-reeves-and-starmer-trying-to-kill-the-uk-restaurant-sector</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/last-orders-for-british-hospitality-are-reeves-and-starmer-trying-to-kill-the-uk-restaurant-sector</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
From a £3.4 billion National Insurance hit to a refusal to cut hospitality VAT, the policies of Reeves and Starmer read like a hit job on Britain&#039;s high streets.
Read more: 
Last orders for British hospitality: Are Reeves and Starmer trying to kill the UK restaurant sector? ]]></description>
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<media:keywords>Last, orders, for, British, hospitality:, Are, Reeves, and, Starmer, trying, kill, the, restaurant, sector</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>The best AI dictation apps, tested and ranked</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/the-best-ai-dictation-apps-tested-and-ranked</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/the-best-ai-dictation-apps-tested-and-ranked</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ AI-powered dictation apps are useful for replying to emails, taking notes, and even coding through your voice ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Sun, 03 May 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>The, best, dictation, apps, tested, and, ranked</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Netflix delays Greta Gerwig’s ‘Narnia’ movie for big theatrical push in 2027</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/netflix-delays-greta-gerwigs-narnia-movie-for-big-theatrical-push-in-2027</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/netflix-delays-greta-gerwigs-narnia-movie-for-big-theatrical-push-in-2027</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ &quot;The Magician&#039;s Nephew&quot; looks like a big next step in Netflix&#039;s thawing relationship with movie theaters. ]]></description>
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<item>
<title>Farewell, Jeeves: Ask.com shuts down</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/farewell-jeeves-askcom-shuts-down</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/farewell-jeeves-askcom-shuts-down</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Owner IAC says it&#039;s discontinuing its search business. ]]></description>
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<media:keywords>Farewell, Jeeves:, Ask.com, shuts, down</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>AI&#45;generated actors and scripts are now ineligible for Oscars</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/ai-generated-actors-and-scripts-are-now-ineligible-for-oscars</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/ai-generated-actors-and-scripts-are-now-ineligible-for-oscars</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Bad news for Tilly Norwood. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Sun, 03 May 2026 14:00:06 +0000</pubDate>
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<media:keywords>AI-generated, actors, and, scripts, are, now, ineligible, for, Oscars</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>This tiny, magnetic e&#45;reader could stop you from doomscrolling</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/this-tiny-magnetic-e-reader-could-stop-you-from-doomscrolling</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/this-tiny-magnetic-e-reader-could-stop-you-from-doomscrolling</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ The Xteink X3 is a delightfully tiny, MagSafe-compatible e-ink reader that attaches to the back of your phone like a Pop Socket. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Sun, 03 May 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>This, tiny, magnetic, e-reader, could, stop, you, from, doomscrolling</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>This free website is like Wikipedia meets the CIA</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/this-free-website-is-like-wikipedia-meets-the-cia</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/this-free-website-is-like-wikipedia-meets-the-cia</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ You may or may not have ever realized it, but for more than six decades, the CIA published an incredible resource called The World Factbook​. It was a free reference guide to all the countries on Earth, along with several non-state entities such as the European Union, and it was filled with all sorts of eye-opening info.



You might’ve noticed I’m referring to it in the past tense. That’s because after having maintained this project since 1962—first as a printed book and then in more recent years online—the CIA unceremoniously discontinued and deleted The World Factbook earlier this year.



But, as so often happens, the internet has come to the rescue. And now this one-of-a-kind resource and all the wisdom within it is available for anyone to tap into again.



This tip originally appeared in the free Cool Tools newsletter from The Intelligence. Get the next issue in your inbox and get ready to discover all sorts of awesome tech treasures!



Your free global field guide



On February 4, the CIA announced​ it was shutting down The World Factbook once and for all. Every single page was deleted simultaneously.



That’s the bad news. The good news: Someone’s already brought it back, and it’s available once more as a free online resource.



➜ The new version is called OpenFactBook​. It’s a community-maintained successor to the original from the CIA.



⌚ You can start browsing it right now, in a matter of seconds.



✅ The simplest way to use OpenFactBook is to pick a country and dive in. Every page starts with a few key statistics, a map, and a brief history. Then, you’ll find a plethora of revealing statistics.



OpenFactBook may look simple on the surface, but it’s filled with mountains of invaluable info.



? Part of the fun is discovering cool or unusual stats. For example: The highest elevation in Vatican City is the Vatican Gardens, which is 78 meters above sea level. The lowest: Saint Peter’s Square, at 19 meters. They use 0% of their land for agriculture.



But there’s so much more here than unexpected stats about microstates.



? One feature I love is the Compare Countries tool​, found in the top menu bar. You can use it to see a quick breakdown of multiple countries, which is great when you’re trying to get a feel for something like the relative size, population, or standard of living between different places.



The ability to perform detailed country comparisons is one of OpenFactBook’s finer features.



Basically, this is the same data the government long offered, only now it’s maintained by dedicated volunteers. The information combines data from the original guide with data from the World Bank Group and a service called REST Countries API.



And now it’ll always be available for anyone to access. All you need to know is where to find it.




OpenFactBook is a good old-fashioned website​—no downloads or installations required.



It’s free, with optional donations to support the hosting and data access expenses.



The site has no cookies, tracking, or personal data collection of any kind.




Treat yourself to all sorts of brain-boosting goodies like this with the free Cool Tools newsletter—starting with an instant introduction to an incredible audio app that’ll tune up your days in truly delightful ways.
 ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Sat, 02 May 2026 14:00:10 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
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</item>

<item>
<title>Stop letting ChatGPT and other AI chatbots train on your data. Here’s why—and how</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/stop-letting-chatgpt-and-other-ai-chatbots-train-on-your-data-heres-whyand-how</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/stop-letting-chatgpt-and-other-ai-chatbots-train-on-your-data-heres-whyand-how</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ When you interact with a chatbot, there’s a good chance that everything you say, and every prompt you give, isn’t just used to generate replies to your queries. Nearly every chatbot company on the planet also uses the information you provide to train its AI models. This can leave your privacy—and even your employer’s confidential information—exposed. But you can mitigate these privacy risks by telling chatbots not to use your data for training. Here’s how.



What is AI chatbot training?



In order for a chatbot to provide knowledgeable and (hopefully) accurate answers, the underlying large language model (LLM) that powers it needs to assimilate a massive amount of information, which it then uses to help answer your questions. This process of information assimilation is known as “training.”



The more information an LLM trains on, the more intelligent the LLM, ostensibly, gets. LLMs acquire training data from numerous sources, including public websites, social media platforms, encyclopedias, video-sharing sites like YouTube, and, unfortunately, sometimes even without permission from authors, novelists, artists, musicians, and other creatives.



But LLMs also get their training data from you, too. Every time you enter a prompt to give a chatbot information, that information is likely being used by the AI company to further train its models. And that can leave your privacy severely exposed.



Why you shouldn’t let AI chatbots train on your data



It’s generally a good idea not to allow LLMs to train on your data, especially if, in your interactions with a chatbot, you share a lot of sensitive information about yourself. If you talk to a chatbot about your physical or mental health, your finances, or your relationships, you should know that that data is, by default, usually used by the AI company to further train its LLM, which means your most intimate thoughts, worries, and concerns are becoming part of the model.



AI companies say they anonymize the information you provide before using it to train their models—but you really just have to take them at their word. Even if they do anonymize your information, that doesn’t mean a bad actor in the future couldn’t use some technique to link all the prompts about a particular health, relationship, legal, or financial issue back to you.



And if you are using an AI chatbot for work, you could be exposing your employer to legal and regulatory risks if the data you feed it contains confidential user or client information. Even if it doesn’t, you could inadvertently give away your employer’s corporate secrets, such as proprietary code or sales data. The chatbot may give you the answers you’re searching for, but it will also use all the data you give it to further train its models—and retain that data as part of itself.



How to prevent AI chatbots from training on your data



All this means that it’s a very good idea to prohibit a chatbot from training on your data. Doing so will not hinder the quality of the results the chatbot provides to you, but it will ensure, as best as possible, that the data you provide to it won’t be permanently absorbed into the bot’s underlying LLM.



The good news is that most reputable chatbots—including the four most popular ones: OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, Anthropic’s Claude, and Perplexity AI’s Perplexity—now offer ways you can opt out of having your data used for training. Here’s how to tell the big four chatbots to stop training on your data:




ChatGPT: Select your profile to access the chatbot’s settings. Select Data Controls. Select “Improve the model for everyone.” Toggle the “Improve the model for everyone” switch off.



Gemini: Go to the Gemini Apps Activity settings page. Select the button that says “On.” From the pop-up, select “Turn off.” Select “Got it” in the confirmation box that appears.



Claude: Select your profile to access the chatbot’s settings. Select the privacy menu. Toggle the “Help improve Claude” switch off.



Perplexity: Select your profile to access the chatbot’s settings. Select the Preferences menu. Toggle the “AI data retention” switch off.




Once you’ve done this, none of the big four AI giants should be able to use the prompts and other information you give their chatbots to further train their LLMs. However, since these firms haven’t provided independent auditors with access to their systems, you have to take the companies’ word that they will stop using your data to train their models.



Also note that even if AI companies agree not to use your data to train their models, they may retain information from your chats and other information you provide for legal or regulatory purposes for a set period of time.



And even with these anti-training orders in place, it’s still a good idea to thoroughly (and correctly) redact sensitive information from any documents before you upload them to an AI chatbot. To get even more privacy when interacting with popular chatbots, consider using proxies like Apple Intelligence on the iPhone or DuckDuckGo’s Duck.ai, which can help better obscure your digital footprint from AI giants. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Sat, 02 May 2026 14:00:10 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
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<item>
<title>This NASA astronaut has spent years shaping the future of spaceflight. Now he’s finally heading to orbit</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/this-nasa-astronaut-has-spent-years-shaping-the-future-of-spaceflight-now-hes-finally-heading-to-orbit</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/this-nasa-astronaut-has-spent-years-shaping-the-future-of-spaceflight-now-hes-finally-heading-to-orbit</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Anil Menon might have the world’s spaciest resume. After several years as a NASA flight surgeon, he became SpaceX’s medical director in 2018, where he authored research on the effects of space on the human body. In 2021, he was selected as a NASA astronaut and has spent the past several years training for his own journey to space. Along the way, he also supported his wife, Anna Menon, who traveled to space on a private mission in 2024 and was herself selected as a NASA astronaut last year.



Somewhere in the margins, Menon has also served as an Air Force Reserve member and emergency room doctor.



Now, he’s finally heading to space himself. This July, Menon will travel to Kazakhstan, where Russia’s space program conducts launches, and join two cosmonauts on the next mission to the International Space Station. He’ll fly aboard the storied Russian Soyuz crew vehicle, which has been used successfully for decades, and is expected to spend eight months aboard the station.



For years, NASA and Roscosmos, Russia’s space agency, have maintained the practice of placing astronauts and cosmonauts on one another’s missions. One side effect of that arrangement, and of the modern space age more broadly, is that Menon brings an unusually expansive perspective on life in space, with experience spanning NASA, Russia’s space program, and SpaceX, as well as a firsthand view of NASA’s distinct institutional role.



“NASA kind of bridges the gap between some of these different cultures and synthesizes it,” he says. “As we look at the moon, everyone is going to pursue that as well. I think that NASA is this great synergy for all of that.”



Fast Company spoke with Menon about his upcoming mission, the future of commercial space stations, and the biggest unanswered questions surrounding microgravity’s effects on the human body. This interview has been edited for clarity and length.



Can you talk a little bit about the differences between the Soyuz and the Crew Dragon?



The Soyuz was developed for some of the first space flights and it’s got this long heritage tracing back to what we consider the space race. They’ve tried to keep things that work and just keep them working for high-reliability reasons. Some of the computers and screen layouts are things that are push-button… They work. 



The same goes for engines and some of the seats and comfort level. Most of the astronauts during the early Russian space program were shorter in stature, so someone who’s 6’1’’ like me doesn’t fit as well, but I fit… It works, and that’s the interesting thing. The spacesuit has a rubber pressure seal, and you twist it … and then you put a band around it to seal it—two bands—and that’s how you create your seal. It isn’t a zipper. It isn’t some locking mechanism, but it works. And it’s always worked. 



SpaceX, born in this era, is really pushing the frontiers of engineering and developing things. You’ll see more touch displays. It’s automated procedure sequences….you hit a button, and you get that procedure popping up for you with a lot of data flowing in, as you’d see in a sci-fi movie. It also works, and it’s a different way to tackle the problem, and it’s got some advantages. 



The suits: you zip them around and put them on… They look really cool, and they work really well. There are different sorts of engines —[where] the rocket itself lands—which adds usability. I’d say it’s pushing the frontiers of where we want to go with things, which is uniquely cultural to us in terms of the way we look at things.



As a physician, what do you see as the biggest open questions about, like, the impact of space on the human body? We’ve done a lot of studies on through the International Space Station, but what open questions intrigue you as we think about going to the moon, and maybe Mars?



I’ll answer that in a nebulous way and a very specific way. The more general answer is that there’s just so much new stuff. We’ve been flying healthy astronauts to space for a long time. We are going to be flying—and we are starting to fly—the whole spread of humans to space. You know, on Inspiration 4, Hayley Arceneaux had an osteosarcoma [bone cancer].  How does that change things? So there’s just a lot of unknown. 



At this point in time, in medicine, it’s not often you see totally new diseases, but we’re seeing new things in space. I think in the future, we’ll continue to see new things, and that’s probably like the biggest thing. 



If I were to just pick a specific thing for a concrete example, we’re seeing clotting happen in space in unexpected ways. You take a really healthy person, put them in space, there’s three things that increase your chance of a clot: One is injury, and that’s when your body, like closes the wound—[and] that’s normal. The other is stasis, which means if you just keep blood in a static spot, it’s going to clot. The other is like some element of hypercoagulability. If you take oral contraceptives for women, it  makes you a little more prone to clotting. In space, what you’re getting is stasis on some level, so blood isn’t moving the same. You’re getting one cornerstone of that clotting triangle, and it just takes a little bit more to see something else. 



As you send more people up there, a lot of these diseases that are related to that [and] you’re just going to see more of them. That could be deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, strokes, things like that. We’ll have to figure out, like, what do we do about it? 



On the flip side, is there any promise or hope that there are health metrics that seem to improve in space compared to on Earth?



You always see this in sci-fi, but if you have disabilities on Earth, maybe that goes away in space, right? You don’t need your legs in space, and so you can do a lot of things that you couldn’t do on Earth, which opens up the doors for a lot of people for whom that’s an issue. And I watch enough sci-fi movies that I’m hoping that I get a mutant gene while I’m up there and have some new superpower. I’m just kidding!



We’re preparing for the next generation of commercial space stations that will eventually replace the ISS. What do you have in mind for what we could do differently or change? 



ISS is a great stepping stone to leverage to learn about our next step. I think the next step, a commercial space station, will also be a stepping stone to the future. So what are the things we do on ISS that we could do better on those would be really important science. Increase the throughput and make it easier for people to do science. On the ISS, that’s great, but you can always do things better. 



Letting people do real-time feedback on some of the science that they’re doing there. Experimenting with things that could open up the door to going to Mars and staying on the Moon. 



Looking at those things that kick off the orbital economy, like printing and developing those manufacturing processes. They want to make new chips up there, and that stimulates more jobs in space and doing stuff. Focusing on the high-yield things and then kicking them off are going to be transformative…Think about all the things that need to go into a data center that’s in space. Some of these future stations can lean into that and help carry out or fix that technology until it’s like something that you can just deliver and launch. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Sat, 02 May 2026 14:00:10 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>This, NASA, astronaut, has, spent, years, shaping, the, future, spaceflight., Now, he’s, finally, heading, orbit</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Housing market power divide: States where buyers can find the most, and least, inventory right now</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/housing-market-power-divide-states-where-buyers-can-find-the-most-and-least-inventory-right-now</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/housing-market-power-divide-states-where-buyers-can-find-the-most-and-least-inventory-right-now</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambert’s ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter.



When assessing home price momentum, ResiClub believes it’s important to monitor active listings and months of supply. If active listings start to increase rapidly as homes remain on the market for longer periods, it may indicate pricing softness or weakness. Conversely, a rapid decline in active listings beyond seasonality could suggest a market where sellers are gaining power.



Since the national pandemic housing boom fizzled out in 2022, the power dynamic has slowly been shifting directionally from sellers to buyers. Of course, that shift has varied across the country.



Generally speaking, local housing markets where active inventory has jumped above pre-pandemic 2019 levels have experienced softer home price growth (or outright price declines) over the past 47 months. Conversely, local housing markets where active inventory remains far below pre-pandemic 2019 levels have, generally speaking, experienced, relatively speaking, more resilient home price growth over the past 47 months.



Where is national active inventory headed now?



While national active inventory is still up year over year, the pace of growth has slowed in recent months as softening has slowed.



National active listings are up 4.6% on a year-over-year basis from April 30, 2025, to April 30, 2026, according to Realtor.com’s inventory data. But if you go back 12 months, that year-over-year national inventory growth rate was much higher (+30.6%).



After a period in which leverage shifted more toward homebuyers, the supply-demand equilibrium in the nationally aggregated housing market has been more stable in recent months.



Nationally, we’re still below pre-pandemic 2019 inventory levels (-11.8% below April 2019) and some resale markets, in particular chunks of the Midwest and Northeast, still remain tightish, relatively speaking.







April inventory/active listings total, according to Realtor.com:




April 2017 -&gt; 1,198,424



April 2018 -&gt; 1,102,064



April 2019 -&gt; 1,137,198



April 2020 -&gt; 941,733



April 2021 -&gt; 435,663 (pandemic housing boom overheating)



April 2022 -&gt; 379,978 (pandemic housing boom overheating)



April 2023 -&gt; 562,966



April 2024 -&gt; 734,318



April 2025 -&gt; 959,251



April 2026 -&gt; 1,002,935




If we maintain the current year-over-year pace of inventory growth (+43,684 homes for sale), we’d have 1,046,619 active inventory come April 2027. (Note: That’s not a prediction—I’m just showing what the math looks like if that pace continues.)



Below is the year-over-year active inventory percentage change by state.







While active housing inventory is rising in most markets on a year-over-year basis, the pace of growth continues to decelerate across much of the country (see the side-by-side maps below). In fact, Florida—home to many of the weakest regional housing markets over the past two years—is now seeing active inventory edge down a little year over year (-12%).







Above, left: Year-over-year active inventory shift from April 2024 to April 2025



Above, right: Year-over-year active inventory shift from April 2025 to April 2026



And while active housing inventory is rising in most markets on a year-over-year basis, some markets still remain tightish.







As ResiClub has been documenting, both active resale and new homes for sale remain the most limited across huge swaths of the Midwest and Northeast. That’s where home sellers in the spring/summer are likely, relatively speaking, to have more power than their peers in many Southern markets.



Active inventory in April 2026 compared to pre-pandemic April 2019:




Southwest —&gt; +23%



West —&gt; +3%



Southeast —&gt; -2%



Midwest —&gt; -35%



Northeast —&gt; -50%




In contrast, active housing inventory for sale has neared or surpassed pre-pandemic 2019 levels in many parts of the Sunbelt and Mountain West, including metro area housing markets such as Punta Gorda, Florida, and Austin.



Many of these areas saw major price surges during the pandemic housing boom, with home prices getting stretched compared to local incomes. As pandemic-driven domestic migration slowed and mortgage rates rose, markets like Punta Gorda and Austin faced challenges, relying on local income levels to support frothy home prices.



This softening trend was accelerated further by an abundance of new home supply in the Sunbelt. Builders are often willing to lower prices or offer affordability incentives (if they have the margins to do so) to maintain sales in a shifted market, which also has a cooling effect on the resale market, with some buyers, who would have previously considered existing homes, opting for new homes with more favorable deals over the past couple years. That then puts some additional upward pressure on resale inventory.



Click here to view an interactive version of the map below.







At the end of April 2026, 12 states were above pre-pandemic 2019 active inventory levels: Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Washington. (The District of Columbia—which we left out of the table below—is also back above pre-pandemic 2019 active inventory levels.)









The big picture



Over the past several months, the post-boom softening has lost momentum, and inventory growth has decelerated on a year-over-year basis. That said, the nationally aggregated housing market remains soft. While home prices are declining in some parts of the Sunbelt, a large share of Northeast and Midwest markets are still eking out modest year-over-year gains. At the national level, home prices are essentially flat year over year.







Below is another version of the table; this one includes every month since January 2017.







If you’d like to examine the monthly state inventory figures further, use the interactive chart below.



Florida—which has been the epicenter of housing market weakness over the past two years, particularly in Southwest Florida—is no longer seeing the upward burst in inventory. Indeed, the intensity of Florida’s housing market correction is easing across many pockets of the state.



Click here to view a sortable version of the chart below.






 ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Sat, 02 May 2026 14:00:10 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Housing, market, power, divide:, States, where, buyers, can, find, the, most, and, least, inventory, right, now</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Lululemon needs its ‘Gap’ moment</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/lululemon-needs-its-gap-moment</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/lululemon-needs-its-gap-moment</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Heidi O’Neill is having a tough week. 



In late April, the Lululemon board announced it had ended its monthslong search to replace CEO Calvin McDonald, who left the company abruptly in 2025 after six years at the helm. As soon as the company announced that O’Neill, a 26-year Nike veteran, would be taking on the position, things got messy. Lululemon’s stock took a plunge, suggesting that investors didn’t think O’Neill was the right pick. And many analysts—including myself—argued that following the Nike playbook would not lead Lululemon out of its financial doldrums.



Then, Lululemon founder Chip Wilson weighed in. Wilson launched the company in 1998 as a yoga brand and left in 2005, but he has never stopped trying to stay involved, and he still wields considerable power at the company as its largest shareholder. He had made it clear that he didn’t approve of McDonald’s leadership, and in a LinkedIn post, he went after the board for choosing O’Neill, arguing they should be looking for “passionate, creative renegades who have a vision that will shake up the status quo.”



Wilson’s judgment is not always right. This is someone who once had to apologize for saying that women’s thighs rubbing together was responsible for the pilling on Lululemon leggings—a comment widely perceived to be body shaming. And last year he criticized Lululemon’s diversity, equity, and inclusion policies for welcoming customers “you don’t want . . . coming in.” But that doesn’t mean his instincts are always wrong.



What Lululemon needs right now is the kind of revitalization we’re seeing at Gap—and it’s worth paying attention to how that brand pulled it off. The legacy apparel brand, founded in 1969, had gone through several years of declining sales. But these days it’s having a moment.



Over the past two years, it has had hit marketing campaigns every season, tapping stars like Young Miko, Troye Sivan, and, most notably, Katseye. Zac Posen has created a high-fashion version of the Gap label called GapStudio, which has put red-carpet garments on the backs of celebrities like Timothée Chalamet and Anne Hathaway. The brand has also launched collaborations with Béis, Dôen, and, most recently, Victoria Beckham, all huge hits.



While this kind of turnaround is the stuff brands dream of, Mark Breitbard, president and CEO of the global Gap Brand, has made it clear that it’s the result of a lot of hard work. It has also required a deep knowledge of the brand. 



Breitbard is not a Gap outsider. Early in his career, from 2009 to 2013, he worked as the chief merchant at Old Navy and then Gap, and later came back in 2017 to run Banana Republic.



When he took on his current role in 2020, he inherited a mess. The brand had too many stores, many of them unprofitable. It also had too much inventory, which resulted in heavy discounting. The quality of clothing had declined. 



“The business was broken,” Breitbard told me recently. “We had to address each of these issues with discipline. It wasn’t fun, but it laid the foundation for us to bring the brand back into the center of culture.”



Product, he points out, is crucial. Despite its long history as a beloved maker of basics, Gap’s clothes had lost their luster. Breitbard, who is steeped in supply chains and merchandising, worked to improve the quality of the materials and fit. And consumers are responding. 



After the Katseye video, which featured retro denim styles, people rushed to Gap to buy ’90s-style jeans—and they weren’t disappointed. During Coachella, Gap created an activation focused on sweats, and people loved how cozy they were.



This is an important lesson for Lululemon. The brand has always been known for its unique fabrics, developed out of its internal design philosophy, which it calls “the science of feel.” It has had many blockbusters, including its proprietary buttery-soft Nulu fabric, which is in its famous Align pants, which have generated more than $1 billion for the company. Lululemon customers come to the brand for its high quality and reputation for innovation, and its new leader must be laser-focused on product.



Once this pillar is in place, it’s possible to bring the brand back into the cultural conversation. It’s notable that Breitbard didn’t start pushing out these creative campaigns for Gap five years ago; he waited until he believed the foundations of the business were in order. Only then did he turn his attention to launching some of the most exciting marketing campaigns we’ve seen recently.



When I interviewed him for Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies podcast, Breitbard said he empowers his creative team to do what they do best. This includes Fabiola Torres, the CMO he brought on in May 2024.



“If we have amazing creatives, and we put them in a position where we can trust the creatives to keep pushing and driving, and not overburden them with bureaucracy, we will stay in this moment of heat,” he says.



This is exactly the kind of creativity Wilson is hoping for. And it’s unclear whether O’Neill is the right person for the task. In recent years, she has been focused on more technical parts of the business, which is not a bad thing, except she was responsible for helping Nike pivot toward a direct-to-consumer approach that has proved lacking for the company. And when it comes to creative, Nike’s heyday as an engine for brilliant advertising and marketing is long gone.



Gap proved that legacy brands can come roaring back—but only with the right leader at the helm. Whether O’Neill is that person for Lululemon remains to be seen. She’ll have plenty to prove, assuming the board doesn’t have second thoughts.


 ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Sat, 02 May 2026 14:00:10 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Lululemon, needs, its, ‘Gap’, moment</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Businesses investing in AI see limited returns as workforce skills gap holds back impact</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/businesses-investing-in-ai-see-limited-returns-as-workforce-skills-gap-holds-back-impact</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/businesses-investing-in-ai-see-limited-returns-as-workforce-skills-gap-holds-back-impact</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ By QA on Small Business UK - Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs


AI training platform, QA, explain the AI skills gap and the effect it has on your business. Find out how their training courses can help
The post Businesses investing in AI see limited returns as workforce skills gap holds back impact appeared first on Small Business UK. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://smallbusiness-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2026/04/125488.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sat, 02 May 2026 14:00:08 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Businesses, investing, see, limited, returns, workforce, skills, gap, holds, back, impact</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Free Business Bank Accounts for UK Businesses</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/free-business-bank-accounts-for-uk-businesses</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/free-business-bank-accounts-for-uk-businesses</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ By James Earnshaw on Small Business UK - Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs


Here&#039;s an easy-to-understand guide on the best free business bank accounts in the UK and what to consider before you sign up
The post Free Business Bank Accounts for UK Businesses appeared first on Small Business UK. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://smallbusiness-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2026/04/123179.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sat, 02 May 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Free, Business, Bank, Accounts, for, Businesses</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>The 8 best business savings accounts</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/the-8-best-business-savings-accounts</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/the-8-best-business-savings-accounts</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ By Henry Williams on Small Business UK - Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs


If you have surplus funds, why not deposit your business revenue into a dedicated business savings account?
The post The 8 best business savings accounts appeared first on Small Business UK. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://smallbusiness-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2016/12/Banking-scaled.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sat, 02 May 2026 14:00:06 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>The, best, business, savings, accounts</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Are You Building a Future&#45;Ready Small Business? Choose Tech That Is Less Visible, Not More Complicated</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/are-you-building-a-future-ready-small-business-choose-tech-that-is-less-visible-not-more-complicated</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/are-you-building-a-future-ready-small-business-choose-tech-that-is-less-visible-not-more-complicated</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
You may have heard the joke: an older fish says to a younger fish, ‘The water’s nice today, huh?’ and the younger fish replies, ‘What the hell is water?’ It works because the things that shape our experience most are often the easiest to overlook.
Read more: 
Are You Building a Future-Ready Small Business? Choose Tech That Is Less Visible, Not More Complicated ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/HPAMD-logo-lockup-2-scaled.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Wed, 29 Apr 2026 14:00:10 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Are, You, Building, Future-Ready, Small, Business, Choose, Tech, That, Less, Visible, Not, More, Complicated</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Britain braces for £35bn energy shock as Iran conflict pushes inflation back above 4%</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/britain-braces-for-35bn-energy-shock-as-iran-conflict-pushes-inflation-back-above-4</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/britain-braces-for-35bn-energy-shock-as-iran-conflict-pushes-inflation-back-above-4</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Niesr warns the UK economy will lose £35bn over two years as the Iran conflict pushes inflation above 4% and forces the Bank of England to raise interest rates. SMEs face a fresh squeeze.
Read more: 
Britain braces for £35bn energy shock as Iran conflict pushes inflation back above 4% ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/shutterstock_1007918233-scaled.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Wed, 29 Apr 2026 14:00:09 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Britain, braces, for, £35bn, energy, shock, Iran, conflict, pushes, inflation, back, above</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Barclay Brothers swerve bankruptcy with eleventh&#45;hour creditor pact</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/barclay-brothers-swerve-bankruptcy-with-eleventh-hour-creditor-pact</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/barclay-brothers-swerve-bankruptcy-with-eleventh-hour-creditor-pact</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Aidan and Howard Barclay escape bankruptcy as HSBC withdraws its High Court petitions following an Individual Voluntary Arrangement with creditors over the collapse of the family&#039;s £143.5m logistics empire.
Read more: 
Barclay Brothers swerve bankruptcy with eleventh-hour creditor pact ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Barclay-Brothers-scaled.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Wed, 29 Apr 2026 14:00:09 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Barclay, Brothers, swerve, bankruptcy, with, eleventh-hour, creditor, pact</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>John Lewis dragged into High Court over click&#45;and&#45;collect rent at Brent Cross</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/john-lewis-dragged-into-high-court-over-click-and-collect-rent-at-brent-cross</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/john-lewis-dragged-into-high-court-over-click-and-collect-rent-at-brent-cross</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
John Lewis faces a High Court battle as Brent Cross landlords Hammerson and Standard Life argue a 1972 lease entitles them to a cut of click-and-collect sales.
Read more: 
John Lewis dragged into High Court over click-and-collect rent at Brent Cross ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/shutterstock_789261955.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Wed, 29 Apr 2026 14:00:08 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>John, Lewis, dragged, into, High, Court, over, click-and-collect, rent, Brent, Cross</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>JP Morgan reverses Brexit&#45;era Paris move as London beckons trading roles back</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/jp-morgan-reverses-brexit-era-paris-move-as-london-beckons-trading-roles-back</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/jp-morgan-reverses-brexit-era-paris-move-as-london-beckons-trading-roles-back</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
JP Morgan is shifting trading roles from Paris back to London after over-estimating EU staffing needs post-Brexit, as it presses ahead with its £10bn Canary Wharf tower.
Read more: 
JP Morgan reverses Brexit-era Paris move as London beckons trading roles back ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/shutterstock_2303666989.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Wed, 29 Apr 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Morgan, reverses, Brexit-era, Paris, move, London, beckons, trading, roles, back</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Google Translate now lets you practice pronunciation</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/google-translate-now-lets-you-practice-pronunciation</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/google-translate-now-lets-you-practice-pronunciation</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ The feature is rolling out in the U.S. and India with support for English, Spanish, and Hindi. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/google-translate.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Wed, 29 Apr 2026 14:00:06 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Google, Translate, now, lets, you, practice, pronunciation</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Meet Shapes, the app bringing humans and AI into the same group chats</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/meet-shapes-the-app-bringing-humans-and-ai-into-the-same-group-chats</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/meet-shapes-the-app-bringing-humans-and-ai-into-the-same-group-chats</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Think Discord chats, but with AI characters in addition to humans.  ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/GettyImages-2270785056.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Wed, 29 Apr 2026 14:00:05 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Meet, Shapes, the, app, bringing, humans, and, into, the, same, group, chats</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>BMW i Ventures has a new $300M fund and AI is riding shotgun</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/bmw-i-ventures-has-a-new-300m-fund-and-ai-is-riding-shotgun</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/bmw-i-ventures-has-a-new-300m-fund-and-ai-is-riding-shotgun</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ BMW i Ventures is interested in startups working on agentic AI and physical AI, as well as industrial software, advanced materials, and manufacturing and supply chain technologies. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/BMW-Portraits-BMW-i-Ventures-2026-03102660-copy.jpeg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Wed, 29 Apr 2026 14:00:05 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>BMW, Ventures, has, new, 300M, fund, and, riding, shotgun</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Firestorm Labs raises $82M to take drone factories into the field</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/firestorm-labs-raises-82m-to-take-drone-factories-into-the-field</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/firestorm-labs-raises-82m-to-take-drone-factories-into-the-field</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ A defense startup just raised $82 million to put drone factories inside shipping containers and bring manufacturing to the front lines. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/DSC07538.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Wed, 29 Apr 2026 14:00:05 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Firestorm, Labs, raises, 82M, take, drone, factories, into, the, field</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Sri Lanka discloses another missing payment, days after hackers stole $2.5M from its finance ministry</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/sri-lanka-discloses-another-missing-payment-days-after-hackers-stole-25m-from-its-finance-ministry</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/sri-lanka-discloses-another-missing-payment-days-after-hackers-stole-25m-from-its-finance-ministry</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ The government of Sri Lanka has lost more than $3 million in two recent, separate cybersecurity incidents as the country continues to recover from its 2022 debt crisis. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/GettyImages-477672484.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Wed, 29 Apr 2026 14:00:05 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Sri, Lanka, discloses, another, missing, payment, days, after, hackers, stole, 2.5M, from, its, finance, ministry</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Why people should work together for a cure</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/why-people-should-work-together-for-a-cure</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/why-people-should-work-together-for-a-cure</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 



Cancer has a way of touching lives without warning. Nearly everyone in our community has a story—someone they love, someone they’ve lost, or someone still fighting. At MG2, that shared reality is why Swing for the Cure to benefit the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center has become so deeply meaningful to us. It isn’t just a charity event. It’s a collective response to something that has affected so many of us personally.



Swing for the Cure began as a golf tournament, but it quickly became much more. Driven by the loss of his first wife, Patricia, our former CEO Jerry Lee believed that no one should lose a friend, family member, or loved one to breast cancer. That conviction helped our firm shape the heart of the event from the very beginning. Jerry and his wife Charlene, herself a breast cancer survivor for more than 25 years, continue to inspire us through their resilience, optimism, and unwavering commitment to this mission.



What makes Swing for the Cure special is the common bond it creates. People come together not as job titles or companies, but as individuals with shared experiences and deeply personal reasons for being there. Some are survivors. Some are caregivers. Some are honoring those they’ve lost. That sense of connection transforms a day on the golf course into something far more powerful: a community united around a clear goal, which is to support research and move closer to a cure.



A SENSE OF PURPOSE MATTERS



Over the years, MG2 has intentionally worked to make Swing for the Cure bigger, deeper, and broader. What started as a standalone experience has grown into a purposeful annual gathering that reflects our values. We challenged ourselves to think beyond a traditional fundraiser and create something hopeful—an experience where people feel connected, motivated, and part of something meaningful. Clients, partners, and colleagues come together not out of obligation, but because they believe in what the event represents.



That sense of purpose matters. When people gather with intention and when they know why they’re there and what they’re working toward, then good things happen. Energy builds. Conversations deepen. Commitment follows. Swing for the Cure demonstrates that goodwill is not abstract; it’s something that grows when people are aligned around a shared cause. And goodwill, when cultivated thoughtfully, benefits everyone.



IMPACT FROM SHOWING UP CONSISTENTLY



For MG2, this commitment mirrors how we approach our work. Just as strong design is rooted in care, collaboration, and long-term thinking, meaningful community engagement requires the same. Swing for the Cure, going strong for almost a quarter century, has raised more than $2 million to date, and it reminds us that real impact comes from showing up consistently, staying focused on the goal, and inviting others to take part.



Last year was by far our biggest year. Our 2025 Swing for the Cure raised $250,000. Thanks to our close ties with Fred Hutch, we can choose the specific research we want to fund. That adds a personal touch to the entire experience.



This year we awarded the total amount raised to one radiation oncologist, whose upcoming trial will work to improve how physicians deliver concurrent radiation and chemotherapy and enhance outcomes for high-risk patients. Grants like this are important for the larger health community, and it’s an emotional moment for researchers—and for us—to push for cures.



When we come together with purpose, we can honor those we’ve lost, support those still fighting, and move closer to a future where fewer families face this journey alone.



Mitch Smith AIA, LEED AP, is the CEO and chairman of MG2, an affiliate of Colliers Engineering &amp; Design. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://images.fastcompany.com/image/upload/w_1280,q_auto,f_auto,fl_lossy/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit/wp-cms-2/2026/04/FCIC-and-ILF-templates-1-19.png" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Tue, 28 Apr 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Why, people, should, work, together, for, cure</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Otter wants AI agents to mine your meetings for institutional knowledge</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/otter-wants-ai-agents-to-mine-your-meetings-for-institutional-knowledge</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/otter-wants-ai-agents-to-mine-your-meetings-for-institutional-knowledge</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Otter wants to turn your work meetings into institutional knowledge. 



The company is known for its audio transcription tool, which has evolved over the years to be able to join and transcribe online meetings in real time and answer questions about them via an AI chat tool. It’s now adding additional AI features to make it easier to integrate knowledge from those recorded meetings with other information, including integrations with other software like Google Drive, Jira, Salesforce, and Notion. Those will let Otter’s AI access live data from those apps, so it can pull data from an email or customer database as needed to best answer a follow-up question from a recorded meeting. 



Otter has also now added server functionality that lets other AI tools, including ChatGPT and Claude, connect to it via the popular model context protocol (MCP), so other AI agents can also access data from Otter with permission. Additionally, enhancements to the AI chat feature itself will make it easier for users to specify when to pull insight from particular meetings, from multiple meetings, and from other data sources to which they have access. 



[Photo: Otter]



The aim is to help unlock knowledge that’s primarily or exclusively shared in meetings and make it available to both human workers and AI agents, says Otter cofounder and CEO Sam Liang. One challenge for corporate knowledge bases, he says, is that information stored in written documents can lag behind reality.  



“People create documents, but documents become obsolete really fast,” he says, with the latest updates presented via meetings. 



But even when that’s known to be the case, and even as research repeatedly shows white-collar workers spend a big portion of their time attending meetings, information from those meetings often isn’t easy to access in a systematic way. Even AI-generated transcripts can end up stored in the accounts of individual users rather than broadly available. Otter has already developed what it calls channels—essentially groups of users who have shared access to meeting recordings and transcripts—and the company suggests its AI agents will be able to surface new insights from collections of meetings, like aggregating trends from multiple sales calls or departmental meetings. 



[Photo: Otter]



An improved Otter desktop client for Mac and Windows will also make it easier to record more meetings from a computer, Liang says, though he says many companies do prefer Otter’s AI agent which can conspicuously join calls on platforms like Zoom, giving everyone clear notice the meeting is being recorded. 



In general, broader recording of meetings and harnessing AI notes may raise privacy and legal concerns at some organizations. But Liang emphasizes that Otter’s channels allow companies to control who has access to meetings internally and that it gives organizations control over how long both audio and transcripts are retained. 



“We provide a data retention mechanism so that enterprises can decide how long they want to keep the audio recording,” he says, and users can also pause recording—and even eject Otter’s AI notetaker entirely—if they want some of a meeting to be off the record. 



The new Otter features come as a growing number of companies vie to become an organization’s central AI hub, with AI labs like OpenAI and Anthropic, workplace productivity businesses from Slack to Asana, and office software makers like Google and Microsoft all offering tools to command AI agents and regulate their access to corporate data. Otter also faces no shortage of competition in the meeting transcription market, with comedy website Clickhole noting earlier this month that “all the random AI programs on your computer are desperately fighting for permission to summarize your meeting” and even pasta sauce maker Prego looking to record household dinner table conversations. 



But Liang says Otter still has features that competitors don’t, like the ability for AI to cleanly separate opinions of different speakers in a meeting, and the option to set up custom templates for how meetings are summarized. Additionally, Liang says, Otter’s AI is optimized to be able to reliably answer questions using information from hundreds of meetings, letting users quickly analyze what took place in sales calls they didn’t personally conduct or get up to speed on what’s already been discussed about a particular project. 



“You get intelligence from hundreds or thousands [of] meetings, even though you didn’t attend them,” he says.  ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Tue, 28 Apr 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Otter, wants, agents, mine, your, meetings, for, institutional, knowledge</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>You’re about to see a lot more alcohol on TikTok—and there’s a reason</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/youre-about-to-see-a-lot-more-alcohol-on-tiktokand-theres-a-reason</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/youre-about-to-see-a-lot-more-alcohol-on-tiktokand-theres-a-reason</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ When Malibu launched its “Get Ready With Malibu Pink” campaign this spring, the rum brand had all the necessary ingredients for a modern influencer campaign. Creator partnerships with Sabrina Brier and other influencers, on-trend “get ready with me” style videos, all centered on the debut of a new flavored rum with guava, coconut, and pineapple.



But there was also one element that was surprisingly new terrain for Malibu’s parent company Pernod Ricard: its first major campaign designed specifically for TikTok.



A platform once off-limits



Until very recently, alcohol brands like Malibu were completely absent from TikTok. But over the past two years, TikTok’s stronger age-gating protocols, which help guarantee to marketers like Malibu that the content they publish is only seen by legal-age users, have opened the platform for greater experimentation. The growing, cross-generational popularity of TikTok, with four in ten U.S. adults active on the platform and 80% over the age of 21, was also heralded as a key factor.



“It’s important for us to connect with Zillennials,” Caroline Begley, Pernod Ricard’s vice president of marketing, tells Fast Company of the importance of the microgeneration of younger millennials and older Gen Z. “Malibu has been around for decades, but it’s always important to introduce new consumers to the brand.”



The rush to catch up



Boozy TikTok campaigns have proliferated, including Grey Goose vodka’s “Devil Wears Prada 2” content starring supermodel Heidi Klum, Espolòn Tequila’s “Shot Kings Week” celebration with actor and comedian Ken Jeong, St-Germain liqueur’s spritz-making session with actress Sophie Turner, and a behind-the-scenes look at a commercial for the ready-to-drink brand -196 with content creator Pooja Tripathi.



From left: Heidi Klum, Ken Jeong, Sophie Turner [Photos: Bacardi Limited, Campari Group]



They are now playing catch-up to connect with the highly coveted Gen Z crowd that dominates the cultural conversation and trends on an app that’s already almost a decade old and generates more than $14 billion in U.S. advertising spending annually, according to data from market researcher eMarketer.



How the rules changed



Pernod Ricard and Bacardi were early adopters, launching limited pilots beginning in 2024. At the same time, TikTok was in active discussions with the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS), the liquor trade advocacy group responsible for setting the protocols for advertising across television, print media, out-of-home advertising, and social platforms including Facebook and Instagram.



Liquor brands were allowed to create their own TikTok branded accounts in July 2024, when paid ads were also authorized to target users above 25. Organic brand pages and content were fully “age gated” beginning in July 2025, according to DISCUS, and influencer-related alcohol content began to flow by early 2026. There are still a few restrictions, including most notably that TikTok Shop doesn’t permit the sale of alcohol.



[Photo: Campari Group]



“Social media companies have gotten really good at also identifying when somebody is misreporting their age using signal data,” says Courtney J. Armour, chief legal officer of DISCUS, in an interview with Fast Company. TikTok’s advertising policies for alcohol include never featuring people below the age of 25, avoiding the portrayal of excess drinking or intoxication, stating the alcoholic content level, and carrying a responsible drinking disclaimer.



One sticking point that was recently resolved involved user comments left on a brand’s TikTok page. DISCUS wanted more guardrails to ensure age verification before allowing brands to turn that feature on.



Learning TikTok’s language



While most liquor brands still have minuscule TikTok follower counts, they’re actively setting up pages and developing unique strategies for the platform that they say cannot mirror what works on Instagram.



“It’s more raw, it’s imperfect, and I think that’s what people gravitate to,” Ned Duggan, global CMO and president of Bacardi Global Brands, tells Fast Company. He adds that TikTok users are more motivated to discover new products and be entertained, while Instagram is more curated and polished. “TikTok is more like behind the scenes, whereas Instagram and other platforms are more front-of-stage,” he adds.



TikTok says that 42% of users have discovered a new alcohol brand on the platform. Users over the age of 21 are 1.6 times more likely to buy alcohol or try a new cocktail recipe versus those not using TikTok, the company says.



Speed, volume, and experimentation



Italian liquor maker Campari Group debuted on TikTok in June 2025 and has since rolled out several campaigns for brands including Espolòn Tequila, Wild Turkey bourbon, and the aperitif Aperol.



“When we jumped into TikTok, we quickly learned that it plays by a totally different set of rules than other platforms,” Brian Chang, Campari’s head of consumer marketing and ecommerce, tells Fast Company.



Karrueche Tran [Photo: Campari Group]



Liquor marketing executives have quickly learned the need for speed when it comes to effective TikTok storytelling. “We wanted to make a point where the zoom-in mouth effect will be the first few seconds that people would see on TikTok, so that they’re not consistently doomscrolling past the content,” says Chang, of the “Bring Your Own Courvoisier” content that began with a close-up of actress Karrueche Tran’s mouth.



Last year, Suntory piloted content centered on -196 with STEM-focused videos that explained how the company uses whole fruits that are frozen in liquid nitrogen, then crushed and infused into vodka. “The category as a whole lends itself, I think, to TikTok as a channel, given the Gen Z connectivity with RTDs,” Davin Nugent, president of global RTD at Suntory Global Spirits, tells Fast Company.



Turning views into sales



The benchmarks that Suntory is monitoring include ad recall, a marketing metric that measures how many consumers remember seeing an ad, as well as awareness, favorability, and, of course, sales. “If we have great campaigns, but we aren’t getting new purchase intent, then we’re just creating new work and making people smile,” says Nugent. “It has to result in an uptick in consumer purchases.”



[Photo: Suntory]



The ecommerce platform ReserveBar is one of the key players that helps enable brands like Bacardi and Campari to link campaigns to direct sales, as liquor manufacturers aren’t allowed to directly sell to consumers due to the three-tier system in the U.S. that mandates that alcohol flows from producers, to distributors and then retailers before reaching consumers. ReserveBar’s links are now allowed on TikTok and the brand set up its own organic handle a couple of months ago.



“There’s not a playbook, because everyone in the industry, we’re starting from scratch,” ReserveBar Chief Marketing Officer Kate Zaman tells Fast Company. But she says the industry can take some cues from lessons learned from non-alcoholic consumer product brands that have had more time to cultivate their TikTok strategies. Success on TikTok isn’t just about speed and cultural tie-ins; there’s also a thirst for volume.



“The pure amount of content that you really need to be successful on TikTok is much more than I think what you need on Meta,” says Zaman. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://images.fastcompany.com/image/upload/w_1280,q_auto,f_auto,fl_lossy/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit/wp-cms-2/2026/04/p-1-91533064-alcohol-tiktok.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Tue, 28 Apr 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>You’re, about, see, lot, more, alcohol, TikTok—and, there’s, reason</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Bed Bath &amp;amp; Beyond to the moon? Why the retailer is getting a major stock boost today, despite a lack of profits</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/bed-bath-beyond-to-the-moon-why-the-retailer-is-getting-a-major-stock-boost-today-despite-a-lack-of-profits</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/bed-bath-beyond-to-the-moon-why-the-retailer-is-getting-a-major-stock-boost-today-despite-a-lack-of-profits</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Shares of Bed Bath &amp; Beyond Inc (NYSE: BBBY) are surging this morning, a day after the company reported its Q1 2026 results. 



Despite the company reporting a loss for the quarter, BBBY stock is significantly higher, as many investors see evidence that the once-iconic home goods retailer’s turnaround efforts are finally showing results. Here’s what you need to know.



What’s happened?



Yesterday, Bed Bath &amp; Beyond reported first-quarter results for its fiscal year 2026. 



While many will recognize the company due to its “Bed Bath &amp; Beyond” name, the firm actually owns several businesses under its corporate umbrella, including Bed Bath &amp; Beyond, Overstock, buybuy BABY, Kirkland’s, and Kirkland’s Home. It is also in the process of merging with The Container Store.



In the early 2000s, Bed Bath &amp; Beyond was a suburban staple, but in the decades that followed, the company struggled with declining foot traffic as customers shifted their buying habits online. 



The chain ultimately filed for bankruptcy in 2023, and its IP was bought by Overstock.com shortly after. 



In early August 2025, the retail partner of Overstock owner Beyond Inc announced that it was reopening the Bed Bath &amp; Beyond chain with a store in Nashville. 



Shortly after, Beyond Inc changed its name to Bed Bath &amp; Beyond Inc, going all-in on the brand as it worked to turn around its fortunes.



Now, it seems that the company’s initiative may be working. In its Q1 earnings report, Bed Bath &amp; Beyond announced that it had achieved its first “significant revenue growth in 19 quarters.” 



The revenue growth signaled “strong brand awareness among customers,” according to the company.



But it also appears to have motivated investors, who have poured money into the company’s shares this morning.



Bed Bath &amp; Beyond still didn’t make a profit



Announcing the company’s surprising Q1 revenue growth, which totaled $248 million, up 6.9% year-over-year, CEO Marcus Lemonis said that its results “show that the work we’ve been doing to stabilize and rebuild the business is taking hold.” 



“We delivered real year-over-year revenue growth, something we haven’t seen meaningfully in several years, while continuing to take costs out of the business and operate more efficiently,” Lemonis continued. “That combination matters.”



However, while the company is right to call out its revenue growth—and investors are clearly buoyed by the results—it’s important to note that Bed Bath &amp; Beyond still racked up losses for the quarter.



The company achieved a net revenue of $248 million, but it had a net loss of $16 million for the quarter. That equated to a loss per share of 24 cents. 



At the same time, losses marked a $24 million improvement over the same period a year ago.



More stores and a larger retail footprint



Despite the better-than-expected Q1 earnings, investors will now likely shift their focus to Bed Bath &amp; Beyond’s immediate future, which is expected to usher in a growing retail footprint for the company’s goods.



First up, Bed Bath &amp; Beyond Inc is expected to close its merger with The Container Store this summer. Once that happens, 30% of retail space in Container Store locations will be dedicated to selling Bed Bath &amp; Beyond’s wares, expanding the reach and awareness of the once-beloved, Millennial-nostalgic chain.



Additionally, the company will open a dozen combined Container Store and Bed Bath &amp; Beyond locations in California, further expanding its retail footprint, and in a state where the brand once had one of its most loyal customer bases.



Whether these moves will have a material impact on Bed Bath &amp; Beyond’s future earnings remains to be seen.



But as for today, the company’s stock price is surging, thanks to its Q1 results. As of this writing, BBBY stock is currently up nearly 24% to $6.63 in premarket trading. That is a high the company stock price has not seen since January.



As of yesterday’s close at $5.34 per share, BBBY stock had declined by about 2.2% since the year began. But with its nearly 24% jump this morning, the company’s stock price is now significantly in the green for 2026.



Over the past 12 months, as of yesterday’s close, BBBY shares had risen 30%. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://images.fastcompany.com/image/upload/w_1280,q_auto,f_auto,fl_lossy/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit/wp-cms-2/2026/04/p-1-91533447-bed-bath-beyond-bbby.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Tue, 28 Apr 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Bed, Bath, Beyond, the, moon, Why, the, retailer, getting, major, stock, boost, today, despite, lack, profits</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>How the Trump administration is responding to Iran’s proposal to end the war</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/how-the-trump-administration-is-responding-to-irans-proposal-to-end-the-war</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/how-the-trump-administration-is-responding-to-irans-proposal-to-end-the-war</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ The Trump administration seemed unlikely Tuesday to accept Iran’s offer to end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz if the U.S. lifts its blockade on the country.The proposal would postpone discussions on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program, something that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared to rule out in a Fox News interview Monday.“We have to ensure that any deal that is made, any agreement that is made, is one that definitively prevents them from sprinting towards a nuclear weapon at any point,” he said of the proposal, which was delivered to the U.S. by Pakistan.The White House said U.S. President Donald Trump’s national security team discussed the offer and Trump would address it later.The offer emerged Monday as Iran Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi visited Russia, which has long been a key backer of Tehran. It was unclear what, if any, assistance Moscow might offer now.Since the war began, at least 3,375 people have been killed in Iran and at least 2,521 people in Lebanon, where fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group resumed two days after the Iran war started. Another 23 people have been killed in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Sixteen Israeli soldiers in Lebanon, 13 U.S. service members in the region and six U.N. peacekeepers in southern Lebanon have been killed.



—Associated Press ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://images.fastcompany.com/image/upload/w_1280,q_auto,f_auto,fl_lossy/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit/wp-cms-2/2026/04/AP26117545385742.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Tue, 28 Apr 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>How, the, Trump, administration, responding, Iran’s, proposal, end, the, war</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Carrying a Bag Is Not Only Fashionable—But Brilliantly Useful in Many Ways</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/carrying-a-bag-is-not-only-fashionablebut-brilliantly-useful-in-many-ways</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/carrying-a-bag-is-not-only-fashionablebut-brilliantly-useful-in-many-ways</guid>
<description><![CDATA[  ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://noubikko.net/uploads/images/202604/image_870x580_69ec8c67dfbac.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sat, 25 Apr 2026 14:00:10 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Carrying, Bag, Not, Only, Fashionable—But, Brilliantly, Useful, Many, Ways</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>“On Buying Clothes”: Smarter, More Conscious Fashion Choices</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/on-buying-clothes-smarter-more-conscious-fashion-choices</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/on-buying-clothes-smarter-more-conscious-fashion-choices</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Fashion philosophy advocate Noubi reminder on mindful clothing consumption, “On Buying Clothes,” emphasizing that fashion is not just about purchasing garments—but about making informed, intentional, and personal style decisions. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://noubikko.net/uploads/images/202604/image_870x580_69ebdf139ad75.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sat, 25 Apr 2026 14:00:10 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>“On, Buying, Clothes”:, Smarter, More, Conscious, Fashion, Choices</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Smart Fashion Investments Over Cheap Purchases</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/smart-fashion-investments-over-cheap-purchases</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/smart-fashion-investments-over-cheap-purchases</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ In a world driven by discounts, fast fashion, and impulse shopping, Noubi Says releases a powerful reminder that the smartest clothing purchase is not always the cheapest one.  “On Buying Clothes,” Noubikko encourages consumers to focus on quality, durability, and long-term value rather than temporary low prices.

“Cheap clothing may save money today, but quality clothing often saves money tomorrow.” — Noubi Says ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://noubikko.net/uploads/images/202604/image_870x580_69ec77597279f.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sat, 25 Apr 2026 14:00:10 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Smart, Fashion, Investments, Over, Cheap, Purchases</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Living in Style: Where Fashion, Luxury, and Modern Interiors Become One</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/living-in-style-where-fashion-luxury-and-modern-interiors-become-one</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/living-in-style-where-fashion-luxury-and-modern-interiors-become-one</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Noubikko Interiors is a bold design concept that combines the elegance of fashion design with the functionality of modern interiors to create spaces made for people who believe life should be lived beautifully. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://noubikko.net/uploads/images/202604/image_870x580_69ebcb4ba8903.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sat, 25 Apr 2026 14:00:10 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Living, Style:, Where, Fashion, Luxury, and, Modern, Interiors, Become, One</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Noubikko Interiors Redefines Living in Style: Where Fashion, and Modern Interiors Become One</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/noubikko-interiors-redefines-living-in-style-where-fashion-and-modern-interiors-become-one</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/noubikko-interiors-redefines-living-in-style-where-fashion-and-modern-interiors-become-one</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ For the new generation, style has moved beyond wardrobes and into homes, studios, offices, lounges, and personal spaces. A well-designed interior now speaks as loudly as designer fashion. It reflects confidence, ambition, taste, and the quality of life a person chooses to embrace. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://noubikko.net/uploads/images/202604/image_870x580_69ec8c263e345.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sat, 25 Apr 2026 14:00:10 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Noubikko, Interiors, Redefines, Living, Style:, Where, Fashion, and, Modern, Interiors, Become, One</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Tesla accelerates European comeback as EV sales surge past one&#45;in&#45;five milestone</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/tesla-accelerates-european-comeback-as-ev-sales-surge-past-one-in-five-milestone</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/tesla-accelerates-european-comeback-as-ev-sales-surge-past-one-in-five-milestone</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Tesla sales jump 84% in Europe as electric vehicles now account for more than one in five new cars registered. Germany overtakes UK on EV penetration.
Read more: 
Tesla accelerates European comeback as EV sales surge past one-in-five milestone ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/shutterstock_2482254745-scaled.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sat, 25 Apr 2026 14:00:09 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Tesla, accelerates, European, comeback, sales, surge, past, one-in-five, milestone</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>UK borrowing slips to four&#45;year low but Middle East tensions threaten Reeves’s fiscal plan</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/uk-borrowing-slips-to-four-year-low-but-middle-east-tensions-threaten-reevess-fiscal-plan</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/uk-borrowing-slips-to-four-year-low-but-middle-east-tensions-threaten-reevess-fiscal-plan</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
UK government borrowing dropped to £12.6bn in March, a four-year low, as debt interest payments tumbled. But economists warn the Middle East conflict could wipe out Rachel Reeves&#039;s fiscal headroom.
Read more: 
UK borrowing slips to four-year low but Middle East tensions threaten Reeves’s fiscal plan ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Sat, 25 Apr 2026 14:00:09 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>borrowing, slips, four-year, low, but, Middle, East, tensions, threaten, Reeves’s, fiscal, plan</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Employers hit with £28bn National Insurance Shock as rate rise bites harder than treasury forecast</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/employers-hit-with-28bn-national-insurance-shock-as-rate-rise-bites-harder-than-treasury-forecast</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/employers-hit-with-28bn-national-insurance-shock-as-rate-rise-bites-harder-than-treasury-forecast</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Employers&#039; National Insurance Contributions have soared by £28bn in a single year, £4bn above the Government&#039;s own forecast, triggering redundancies in hospitality and retail and slowing hiring across the UK private sector.
Read more: 
Employers hit with £28bn National Insurance Shock as rate rise bites harder than treasury forecast ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/shutterstock_2458546307.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sat, 25 Apr 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Employers, hit, with, £28bn, National, Insurance, Shock, rate, rise, bites, harder, than, treasury, forecast</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>L’Oréal banks on the ‘lipstick effect’ as anxious shoppers reach for affordable luxuries</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/loreal-banks-on-the-lipstick-effect-as-anxious-shoppers-reach-for-affordable-luxuries</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/loreal-banks-on-the-lipstick-effect-as-anxious-shoppers-reach-for-affordable-luxuries</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
The world&#039;s largest cosmetics group shrugs off the drag from the Iran war, posting forecast-beating first-quarter sales as European consumers treat themselves to small indulgences and China stirs back into life.
Read more: 
L’Oréal banks on the ‘lipstick effect’ as anxious shoppers reach for affordable luxuries ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/shutterstock_1018777936.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sat, 25 Apr 2026 14:00:06 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>L’Oréal, banks, the, ‘lipstick, effect’, anxious, shoppers, reach, for, affordable, luxuries</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>UK employers saddled with sharpest tax rise in developed world, OECD finds</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/uk-employers-saddled-with-sharpest-tax-rise-in-developed-world-oecd-finds</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/uk-employers-saddled-with-sharpest-tax-rise-in-developed-world-oecd-finds</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Britain&#039;s tax wedge jumped 2.45 points in a year — 16 times the OECD average — as Reeves&#039;s employer NI hike and frozen thresholds punish SMEs and shrink payrolls.
Read more: 
UK employers saddled with sharpest tax rise in developed world, OECD finds ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/shutterstock_1565524723.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sat, 25 Apr 2026 14:00:06 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>employers, saddled, with, sharpest, tax, rise, developed, world, OECD, finds</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Two college kids raise a $5.1 million pre&#45;seed to build an AI social network in iMessage</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/two-college-kids-raise-a-51-million-pre-seed-to-build-an-ai-social-network-in-imessage</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/two-college-kids-raise-a-51-million-pre-seed-to-build-an-ai-social-network-in-imessage</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Series, a social networking app that&#039;s grown popular on college campuses, announced a $5.1 million pre-seed round from some big names in tech. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Nathaneo-Johnson-and-Sean-Hargrow.png" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sat, 25 Apr 2026 14:00:04 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Two, college, kids, raise, 5.1, million, pre-seed, build, social, network, iMessage</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Cohere acquires, merges with Germany&#45;based startup to create a ‘transatlantic AI powerhouse’</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/cohere-acquires-merges-with-germany-based-startup-to-create-a-transatlantic-ai-powerhouse</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/cohere-acquires-merges-with-germany-based-startup-to-create-a-transatlantic-ai-powerhouse</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Cohere, the Canada-based AI company that makes AI tools for businesses in regulated industries, announced Friday it would merge with Aleph Alpha, a German company that also builds AI systems for businesses and governments.  ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/GettyImages-2157583770.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sat, 25 Apr 2026 14:00:04 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Cohere, acquires, merges, with, Germany-based, startup, create, ‘transatlantic, powerhouse’</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Palantir is reportedly helping the IRS investigate financial crimes</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/palantir-is-reportedly-helping-the-irs-investigate-financial-crimes</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/palantir-is-reportedly-helping-the-irs-investigate-financial-crimes</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ The IRS has used Palantir&#039;s software since at least 2018, The Intercept reports. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/GettyImages-2266940912.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sat, 25 Apr 2026 14:00:04 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Palantir, reportedly, helping, the, IRS, investigate, financial, crimes</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Steve Ballmer blasts founder he backed who pleaded guilty to fraud: ‘I was duped and feel silly’</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/steve-ballmer-blasts-founder-he-backed-who-pleaded-guilty-to-fraud-i-was-duped-and-feel-silly</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/steve-ballmer-blasts-founder-he-backed-who-pleaded-guilty-to-fraud-i-was-duped-and-feel-silly</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Steve Ballmer wrote a fiery letter in the sentencing of disgraced founder Joseph Sanberg documenting all the harm that&#039;s befalling him as an investor. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/GettyImages-524085750.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sat, 25 Apr 2026 14:00:04 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Steve, Ballmer, blasts, founder, backed, who, pleaded, guilty, fraud:, ‘I, was, duped, and, feel, silly’</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Lachy Groom to back India startup Pronto at a $200M valuation, sources say</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/lachy-groom-to-back-india-startup-pronto-at-a-200m-valuation-sources-say</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/lachy-groom-to-back-india-startup-pronto-at-a-200m-valuation-sources-say</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ This round, should it occur, would double the house-help startup&#039;s valuation in a matter of weeks. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/pronto.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sat, 25 Apr 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Lachy, Groom, back, India, startup, Pronto, 200M, valuation, sources, say</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Why brands should ignore Trump’s latest loyalty test</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/why-brands-should-ignore-trumps-latest-loyalty-test</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/why-brands-should-ignore-trumps-latest-loyalty-test</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Earlier this week, in a live interview on CNBC’s Squawk Box, President Donald Trump was asked for his reaction to reports that Apple, Amazon, and some other companies had not filed refund requests for tariffs they paid over the past year—tariffs the Supreme Court has ruled unconstitutional. 



“I think it’s brilliant if they don’t do that,” Trump replied. “If they don’t do that, I’ll remember them.”



To be clear, this wasn’t negotiation posturing. This was the president openly signaling that companies who forfeit money to which they are entitled will be “remembered” for a symbolic display of loyalty. 



The government has collected a combined $166 billion or so from U.S. importers; an act the Supreme Court ruled an overstep of presidential power. The companies in question are in effect taking the administration’s side despite the court’s ruling. 



Left unspoken but clearly implied is that those who exercise their legal rights may find themselves remembered, too, but certainly not for being “brilliant.”



Given the Iran war, as well as the panoply of controversies and alleged scandals swirling around the administration, this incident was easy to miss. But it’s worth pausing over and paying attention to what companies affected by the illegal tariff scheme ultimately do.



The tariffs, imposed last year and affecting U.S. trade with practically every country on earth, were struck by way of a 6-to-3 Supreme Court ruling in February, resulting in the $166 billion forced refund. 



Despite this lack of ambiguity, it’s not hard to imagine why a company might at least ponder whether it’s worth trying to stay on the president’s good side.



The Trump administration has not been shy about involving itself in the actions of private commerce, taking an unusually active stance over mergers, regulation, even bailouts or direct ownership stakes.



Nevertheless, Trump’s not-so-veiled threat is one that companies should firmly resist. It amounts to betraying shareholders and customers alike. 



For starters, the board members and executives of publicly traded companies obviously have fiduciary obligations to their shareholders. Shrugging off millions (or even billions) of dollars in legally recoverable refunds does not square with those duties.



Moreover, it’s a bad look for a brand. Many companies passed along tariff costs through higher prices. Declining to pursue refunds in effect tells customers: We raised your prices because of costs we are now choosing not to recover, because the president said he’d be impressed if we didn’t.



As a contrast, consider Costco, which has been among those striking an aggressive stance on the refunds. In November 2025, well before the high court’s ruling, the discount club chain filed a federal lawsuit challenging the tariffs as unlawful, asking the courts to order full refunds including interest on all tariffs paid. 



Costco executives have told investors the company would in effect pass along the refunds to its customers through “lower prices and better values.” Admittedly, that sounds a bit vague, but the company has said it will be open about the process. 



And compared to speculation about ignoring the refunds to curry favor with the administration, Costco’s simple clarity about adhering to the rule of law practically sounds like a profile in courage.



Plenty of businesses have shown no hesitation about collecting refunds, particularly smaller enterprises. And shipping businesses FedEx, DHL, and UPS have all indicated they’ll be passing along refunds to customers who were billed to cover tariff fees.



For many others, the process will admittedly be more complex. The payout fund is designed to reimburse entities that paid directly to import the tariffed goods—not the end consumers who may have ultimately absorbed those costs in the form of higher prices. 



Unlike the case of shipping, there’s usually not a clean paper trail to quantify what an individual customer might be owed. (Class action lawsuits are already coming together to challenge how the money is being distributed.)



Still, this seems like a moment for companies to at least make clear their intent. The Costco response is a handy and straightforward example: Collect the refund and be vocal about returning value to customers. Treat this as an opportunity to demonstrate loyalty to shoppers. 



At the very least, signaling a greater interest in pleasing the administration than in pleasing your own shoppers seems like a shortsighted way to treat consumers, particularly in a moment when affordability is in the zeitgeist. “I’ll remember” cuts both ways.


 ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Fri, 24 Apr 2026 14:00:13 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Why, brands, should, ignore, Trump’s, latest, loyalty, test</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Rising fuel costs are triggering flight cancellations. What to do if your trip is impacted</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/rising-fuel-costs-are-triggering-flight-cancellations-what-to-do-if-your-trip-is-impacted</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/rising-fuel-costs-are-triggering-flight-cancellations-what-to-do-if-your-trip-is-impacted</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Airlines worldwide have begun canceling flights as the war in the Middle East strains jet fuel supplies and pushes up prices — but the disruption doesn’t end there.For travelers, it can mean having to navigate a confusing web of passenger protections that vary widely depending on where they’re flying.And the timing is amplifying the impact.“These pressures are arriving at a time when summer travel demand is ramping up, with major events such as the World Cup expected to put additional strain on airports,” said Eric Napoli, chief legal officer at AirHelp, a company that helps travelers secure compensation for flight disruptions and advocates for passenger rights.Here’s what to know if your flight is canceled.



Are these cancellations happening at the last minute?



In most cases, no. At least for now, fuel-related cuts are often being made days or weeks in advance. Lufthansa Group, for example, said this week it is cutting 20,000 short-haul flights across its network through October.That gives you more time to adjust plans than you’d typically get with weather-related disruptions, which tend to trigger last-minute cancellations.



My flight was canceled. What should I do first?



Check your airline’s app or website immediately for rebooking options. If you’re flying on a U.S. carrier, that’s often the fastest and easiest way to secure a new seat, according to Tyler Hosford, security director at International SOS, a global risk management and travel security company.Non-U.S. carriers tend to have fewer digital tools, Hosford said, so it’s worth trying multiple channels, including the airline’s customer service lines or airport desks.



Do I have the right to a refund or a new flight?



In most cases, yes. Airlines typically offer either a refund or a rebooking on the next available flight. The exact rules vary by country, but those are the baseline options you can expect.In the U.S., for example, if your flight is canceled and you choose not to travel, the airline must refund you, regardless of the reason. Airlines may offer travel credits instead, but you’re entitled to a full refund for airfare and any extras you didn’t use, such as baggage fees or seat upgrades.



Are passenger rights the same everywhere?



No, and protections vary widely by region — from the Montreal Convention, which governs airline liability across more than 140 countries, to specific consumer protection laws in the U.S., Canada, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Turkey and Brazil.Europe has some of the strongest protections, including compensation in certain cases. And they apply to any flight departing from an EU airport, regardless of the airline, as well as to passengers flying on an EU-based carrier into the EU — even if the journey starts outside Europe. The United Kingdom maintains a similar framework.The U.S. and Canada offer more limited protections. Policies vary widely across Asia, and in some cases travelers may need to rely more on airline policies than formal regulations.To get a clearer picture, experts recommend searching the name of the country you’re departing from and “passenger rights” before your trip.



What protections apply?



It depends.Airlines may cite fuel shortages or rising fuel costs as the reason for cancellations. But whether you’re entitled to compensation often comes down to if the disruption is considered within the airline’s control under local laws.Regardless of the cause, Napoli said, airlines in the European Union, for example, still have a “duty of care,” meaning they must provide “necessary support” to travelers, including rebooking.“While airlines are citing fuel shortages as a reason for upcoming cancellations, travelers need to know that this does not automatically waive their rights” under EU laws, Napoli said.



How can I prepare before a trip to avoid headaches?



A few steps can make disruptions easier to manage.Sign up for flight alerts to stay informed, and book directly with the airline when possible — it’s much easier to resolve issues with the carrier directly than through a third-party booking site.Knowing your options ahead of time and having a backup plan can make a significant difference if plans change.



What do I need for a claim or complaint?



Documentation is critical. Save everything: boarding passes, receipts, cancellation notices and any communication from the airline.Take screenshots of app or website updates and any communication taking place online, and jot down key details from phone calls.Napoli also recommends asking the airline for written confirmation of a flight disruption, including the stated reason.



Should I accept the first alternative flight the airline offers?



Not necessarily.Experts say one of the most common mistakes travelers make is taking the first option without checking alternatives. Look at other flights, routes or even nearby airports because you may find a faster or more convenient way to reach your destination.



Can I book a different flight myself?



Yes, but proceed carefully.If the airline’s rebooking option doesn’t meet your needs — especially if your new flight isn’t for several days — you can look for alternatives and request a refund instead.Just be aware you may need to pay any fare difference up front, and you might not be reimbursed later.



Any other tips to avoid getting stuck?



— Book flights earlier in the day so you have more rebooking options if something goes wrong.— Set up flight alerts through tracking apps such as Flighty to get early notice of cancellations or delays. In some cases, Hosford said, notifications arrive before the airline’s.— Consider nearby airports as backup options.— Be kind. Airline agents may be more willing to help when interactions stay calm and respectful.“Ultimately, the shortage is squeezing the entire system, from travelers to airlines, and is something to watch as the industry looks for any relief ahead of the summer travel season,” Napoli said.



—Rio Yamat, AP Airlines and Travel Writer ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Fri, 24 Apr 2026 14:00:13 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Rising, fuel, costs, are, triggering, flight, cancellations., What, your, trip, impacted</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Tech layoffs update: Meta, Nike, Snap, and others join the growing list of companies slashing jobs in April 2026</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/tech-layoffs-update-meta-nike-snap-and-others-join-the-growing-list-of-companies-slashing-jobs-in-april-2026</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/tech-layoffs-update-meta-nike-snap-and-others-join-the-growing-list-of-companies-slashing-jobs-in-april-2026</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ April is shaping up to be yet another brutal month for job cuts in the technology sector. But the announcements may not have the immediate effect that many companies are hoping for. Here’s the latest on the situation.



Microsoft to offer buyouts to 7% of its US workforce



While Microsoft hasn’t announced another round of layoffs, the Windows giant is planning job reductions of another kind. 



As Fast Company reported yesterday, the Redmond, Washington, company is expected to offer buyouts to 7% of its U.S. workforce by the end of June. A buyout is when a company offers an employee a financial incentive to resign.



Buyout helps companies avoid being forced to choose which employees to let go, while still reducing their workforce and achieving their goal of lowering operational costs. 



An employee who accepts the buyout loses their job, but generally gets a significant financial incentive for the voluntary move. Buyouts typically target employees who are closer to retirement age.



As for the reason for the buyouts, it’s the same reason driving most of the tech industry’s recent layoffs: the drive to cut labor costs so more money can be spent on building out the huge data centers needed for AI training and services.



Meta to lay off 10% of its workforce



While Microsoft is giving some of its employees the option of voluntary buyouts, Meta isn’t providing its employees an option at all. 



Yesterday, the company told its employees that it will lay off about 8,000 of them—roughly 10% of its workforce—on May 20. An additional 6,000 currently open roles will not be filled.



Meta’s latest layoff comes after the company has committed $135 billion in capital expenditure to its latest round of AI initiatives. 



Much of that expenditure will go to building massive data centers that the company needs to run its AI systems. As Fast Company reported yesterday, Meta says the job cuts aim to boost efficiency while also offsetting its “heavy spending on artificial intelligence.”



Nike announces 1,400 tech job layoffs



Also yesterday, shoe giant Nike announced it was laying off around 2% of its workforce, or about 1,400 employees. While the company is primarily known as a maker of apparel and footwear, the job cuts will mostly hit Nike’s technology roles.



But while Nike’s job cuts will primarily target its tech workforce, the company is one of the few to not suggest that AI is behind the layoffs. 



Instead, Nike says the job cuts are part of its “Win Now” strategy, which aims to modernize its manufacturing, merge parts of its supply chain, and reshape its technology division.



Nike’s layoffs will reportedly impact employees globally, including in North America.



Snap to lay off 16% of its global workforce



The trifecta of tech job cuts announced yesterday aren’t the only ones in April. 



On April 14, Snapchat maker Snap Inc. announced it would cut 16% of its global workforce. As CNBC reported, that equates to about 1,000 jobs, while another 300 currently empty roles will remain unfilled.



The primary driver behind the job cuts is the desire to cut costs by leveraging AI instead of a human workforce. 



“We believe that rapid advancements in artificial intelligence enable our teams to reduce repetitive work, increase velocity, and better support our community, partners, and advertisers,” CEO Evan Spiegel wrote in a letter announcing the job cuts.



GoPro to reduce its workforce by 23%



Finally, earlier this month, on April 7, wearable camera maker GoPro announced that it planned to lay off 145 workers. But while that may seem small in comparison to the other companies on this list, it represents a staggering 23% of the company’s workforce.



According to the Wall Street Journal, GoPro’s job cuts come as the company struggles with profitability amid macroeconomic pressures, including increased memory costs as AI demand drives prices higher and tariffs add costs. 



The company reportedly hopes to reduce operating costs in order to help it return to profitability by the end of the year.



Company stock prices react to layoffs



While layoffs are devastating to the affected workers and their families, investors usually cheer the news of job cuts. 



That’s because reducing the workforce is usually the fastest way for a company to cut costs. It’s why share prices tend to increase after a company announces major job cuts.



But this time, investor response has been a mixed bag. 



Since GoPro, Inc. (Nasdaq: GPRO) announced its job cuts, the stock has climbed an impressive 73%. 



Likewise, Snap Inc. (NYSE: SNAP) stock rose immediately after it announced its job cuts. After the announcement, SNAP stock was up about 7%. However, as of yesterday’s close, the stock had given back some of those gains, now up only about 4.3% since the layoffs were announced.



But the other companies’ stock prices have hardly reacted.



Shares in Meta Platforms Inc. (Nasdaq: META) fell more than 2% yesterday, and are barely up half a percent in premarket trading this morning, as of the time of this writing. 



Shares in Microsoft Corporation (Nasdaq: MSFT) fell nearly 4% yesterday and are up only about 1.3% in premarket trading today.



Nike Inc (NYSE: NKE) shares fell nearly 2% yesterday and haven’t even recovered half of that this morning.



In other words, announcing major job cuts no longer seems guaranteed to get investors excited about a stock—and that’s something the tech giants are likely taking note of this morning. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Fri, 24 Apr 2026 14:00:13 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Tech, layoffs, update:, Meta, Nike, Snap, and, others, join, the, growing, list, companies, slashing, jobs, April, 2026</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>NASA made a typeface using satellite images of the Earth</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/nasa-made-a-typeface-using-satellite-images-of-the-earth</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/nasa-made-a-typeface-using-satellite-images-of-the-earth</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ NASA is looking not to the stars but back to our planet for inspiration. 



In honor of Earth Day, NASA’s Kennedy Space Center shared an interactive digital tool turns satellite images of the planet’s landscapes into a typeface.  



“The planet can spell your name—literally,” the Kennedy Space Center’s X post says.



Using a feature called “Your Name in Landsat,” users can type in whichever word they choose into the generator’s textbox. The site will then generate the phrase using landscapes from Earth, like rivers, lakes, farmland, and more. When hovering over each “letter,” users can learn more about where the landscape is located and even its coordinates.



NASA first unveiled the tool in August of 2024 for Camp Landsat, a virtual summer camp the agency runs. The letters are part of an extensive record of satellite images from Landsat—the longest ongoing series of Earth observing missions—which spans more than 50 years. The Landsat mission was first launched on July 23, 1972 and has since successfully launched eight satellites that have photographed the planet.



The project has not only awarded earthlings with high-resolution imagery for fun visualizations like “Your Name in Landsat”; it has also provided valuable data for scientists and policy makers alike to make decisions regarding the environment and natural resources.



The images that feed into the word generator are part of the satellite program’s Alphabet Image Gallery, with images sourced from the NASA Earth Observatory, NASA Worldview, USGS EarthExplorer, and the ESA Sentinel Hub.



Some letters get more than one iteration depending on how complex and prevalent the shape is in nature. 



Take the “A” which has five different options, with landscapes ranging from Yukon Delta, in Alaska, to Lake Guakhmaz, in Azerbaijan.



The “G” in comparison, is somewhat rarer, with only one option currently available in the gallery: an image from Fonte Boa, a municipality in the Amazonas state of Brazil.



People love the tool. The social media post received over 22 million views and more than 1,300 people posted their creations in the comments. (Even brands like Xbox got in on the fun.) 



“I’m here for this,” one user replied.



Another added, “that’s cool as hell, are you kidding me.” 



Beyond serving as a delightful interactive feature, Your Name in Landsat is also a powerful visualization that reminds us of how vast the world is and why its natural landscapes are worth saving.



 ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Fri, 24 Apr 2026 14:00:13 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>NASA, made, typeface, using, satellite, images, the, Earth</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Officials charge a U.S. soldier for using intel on this $400K Polymarket bet</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/officials-charge-a-us-soldier-for-using-intel-on-this-400k-polymarket-bet</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/officials-charge-a-us-soldier-for-using-intel-on-this-400k-polymarket-bet</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ A U.S. special forces soldier involved in the military operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has been charged with using classified information about the mission to win more than $400,000 in an online betting market, federal officials announced Thursday.Gannon Ken Van Dyke was part of the operation to capture Maduro in January and used his access to classified information to make money on the prediction market site Polymarket, the federal prosecutor’s office in New York said.He has been charged by the Justice Department with unlawful use of confidential government information for personal gain, theft of nonpublic government information, commodities fraud, wire fraud and making an unlawful monetary transaction. He could face years in prison.Van Dyke, 38, was involved in the planning and execution of capturing Maduro for about a month beginning Dec. 8, 2025, according to the federal prosecutor’s office. Even though he signed nondisclosure agreements promising to not divulge “any classified or sensitive information” related to the operations, prosecutors say the Army soldier used this information to make a series of bets related to Maduro being out of power by Jan. 31, 2026.“This involved a U.S. soldier who allegedly took advantage of his position to profit off of a righteous military operation,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a post to social media.A telephone number listed for Van Dyke in public records was not in service. There was not yet an attorney listed for him in court documents.Polymarket, one of the largest prediction markets in the world, said it had found someone trading on classified government information, alerted the U.S. Department of Justice and “cooperated with their investigation.”“Insider trading has no place on Polymarket,” the company said in a statement.



Second complaint filed against the soldier



The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the federal agency that regulates prediction markets, announced Thursday it had filed a parallel complaint against Van Dyke.That complaint alleges that Van Dyke moved $35,000 from his personal bank account into a cryptocurrency exchange account on Dec. 26 — a little over a week before U.S. forces would fly into Caracas and seize Maduro.Van Dyke used more than $32,500 to make a series of bets on when Maduro might be removed from power, according to the complaint. He placed those bets between Dec. 30 and Jan. 2, with the vast majority occurring the night of Jan. 2 — just hours before the first missiles would fall on Caracas.In the early hours of Jan. 3, President Donald Trump posted on his social media platform a photo of the now-captured Venezuelan leader, wearing a gray sweatsuit, headphones and a blindfold.The bets Van Dyke made on Maduro leaving power resulted in “more than $404,000 of profits,” the complaint said. Bets on three other Venezuela-related contracts netted the solider more than $5,000, according to the document.“The defendant was entrusted with confidential information about U.S. operations and yet took action that endangered U.S. national security and put the lives of American service members in harm’s way,” said Michael Selig, the commission’s chairman.The massive profits from the well-timed bets aroused public attention days after the raid and brought bipartisan calls for stricter regulation of the markets where people can wager on just about anything.Officials allege that shortly after the operation, Van Dyke put most of the money he won in a foreign cryptocurrency vault and then into a new brokerage account. He also asked Polymarket to delete his account, saying he had lost access to his email associated with the account, according to the federal prosecutor’s office.Trump, when asked about the case Thursday, drew parallels between the embattled soldier and late professional baseball player Pete Rose, who was banned from the sport amid accusations that he placed bets on his own team.“The whole world, unfortunately, has become somewhat of a casino, and you look at what’s going on all over the world and Europe and every place, they’re doing these betting things,” Trump told reporters.The Trump administration has been a key ally of the growing prediction market industry in a critical legal fight with states seeking to ban the platforms. The president’s eldest son is an adviser for both Polymarket and its competitor Kalshi, and a Polymarket investor. Trump’s social media platform Truth Social is also launching its own cryptocurrency-based prediction market called Truth Predict.



Nearly two decades in the Army



Van Dyke joined the Army in 2008 and, in 2023, was promoted to the rank of master sergeant, the second-highest enlisted rank in the Army, according to the indictment. Federal prosecutors said he was part of the special forces community and was stationed at Fort Bragg near Fayetteville, North Carolina, but their indictment offered little other details about his military service.The document said Van Dyke was photographed following the raid on the deck of a ship “wearing U.S. military fatigues, and carrying a rifle, standing alongside three other individuals wearing U.S. military fatigues.”The Pentagon referred questions on the case to the Army and the Justice Department.Army officials declined to provide Van Dyke’s service record. Typically, the military services are reticent to offer details about members of the special forces and take measures to keep their identities secret.



Bets on geopolitical tensions draw scrutiny



The high-profile indictment comes as bipartisan lawmakers are considering legislation to ban prediction markets from allowing bets on war, assassinations or terrorist attacks.Earlier this month, The Associated Press reported that a group of new accounts on Polymarket made highly specific, well-timed bets on whether the U.S. and Iran would reach a ceasefire on April 7, resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits for the new customers. On the same day the AP published the report, the White House warned staff against using private information to trade on prediction markets.On Wednesday, Kalshi fined and suspended three congressional candidates who the company said wagered on the outcome of their own elections.—Hallie Golden, Konstantin Toropin and Hannah Schoenbaum, Associated Press ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Fri, 24 Apr 2026 14:00:12 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Officials, charge, U.S., soldier, for, using, intel, this, 400K, Polymarket, bet</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Is it worth opening a holiday let?</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/is-it-worth-opening-a-holiday-let</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/is-it-worth-opening-a-holiday-let</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ By Anna Jordan on Small Business UK - Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs


Even with cheap flights and exotic destinations, holidays in the UK are still popular. If you&#039;re considering a holiday let, read on
The post Is it worth opening a holiday let? appeared first on Small Business UK. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://smallbusiness-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2026/04/2148258875.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Fri, 24 Apr 2026 14:00:10 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>worth, opening, holiday, let</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Free advertising ideas for small businesses</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/free-advertising-ideas-for-small-businesses</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/free-advertising-ideas-for-small-businesses</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ By James Earnshaw on Small Business UK - Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs


Discover free advertising ideas for your small business that can increase your revenue and brand awareness easily
The post Free advertising ideas for small businesses appeared first on Small Business UK. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://smallbusiness-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2017/07/AdobeStock_64602834-scaled.jpeg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Fri, 24 Apr 2026 14:00:09 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Free, advertising, ideas, for, small, businesses</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Sales pipeline management from a small business perspective</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/sales-pipeline-management-from-a-small-business-perspective</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/sales-pipeline-management-from-a-small-business-perspective</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ By Anna Jordan on Small Business UK - Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs


In this guide, you&#039;ll find out what a sales pipeline is, how to set one up and how to manage it – with tips from the experts
The post Sales pipeline management from a small business perspective appeared first on Small Business UK. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://smallbusiness-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2023/10/GettyImages-1434012318.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Fri, 24 Apr 2026 14:00:08 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Sales, pipeline, management, from, small, business, perspective</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>How to increase profits – without raising prices</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/how-to-increase-profits-without-raising-prices</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/how-to-increase-profits-without-raising-prices</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ By James Earnshaw on Small Business UK - Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs


Profits aren&#039;t just linked to prices – find out how you could increase your profits by reducing costs and boosting revenue 
The post How to increase profits – without raising prices appeared first on Small Business UK. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://smallbusiness-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2017/09/Business-growth-7917-scaled.jpeg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Fri, 24 Apr 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>How, increase, profits, –, without, raising, prices</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Brady bows out: West Ham vice&#45;chair ends 16&#45;year tenure as boardroom pressure mounts</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/brady-bows-out-west-ham-vice-chair-ends-16-year-tenure-as-boardroom-pressure-mounts</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/brady-bows-out-west-ham-vice-chair-ends-16-year-tenure-as-boardroom-pressure-mounts</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Baroness Karren Brady has departed West Ham United after 16 years as vice-chair, ending a near four-decade business partnership with David Sullivan amid sustained fan protests.
Read more: 
Brady bows out: West Ham vice-chair ends 16-year tenure as boardroom pressure mounts ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Karren_Brady.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Tue, 21 Apr 2026 14:00:11 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Brady, bows, out:, West, Ham, vice-chair, ends, 16-year, tenure, boardroom, pressure, mounts</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Unemployment dip flatters to deceive as SME hiring freezes amid Iran shock</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/unemployment-dip-flatters-to-deceive-as-sme-hiring-freezes-amid-iran-shock</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/unemployment-dip-flatters-to-deceive-as-sme-hiring-freezes-amid-iran-shock</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
UK unemployment unexpectedly drops to 4.9% in the quarter to February, but vacancies sink to a five-year low and payrolled jobs fall as SMEs feel the squeeze from the £25bn NI hike and the Iran war energy shock.
Read more: 
Unemployment dip flatters to deceive as SME hiring freezes amid Iran shock ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/shutterstock_689496949.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Tue, 21 Apr 2026 14:00:09 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Unemployment, dip, flatters, deceive, SME, hiring, freezes, amid, Iran, shock</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Bezos’s physical AI lab Prometheus nears $10bn raise at $38bn valuation</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/bezoss-physical-ai-lab-prometheus-nears-10bn-raise-at-38bn-valuation</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/bezoss-physical-ai-lab-prometheus-nears-10bn-raise-at-38bn-valuation</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Jeff Bezos&#039;s physical AI venture Project Prometheus is closing in on a $10bn funding round at a $38bn valuation, with BlackRock and JPMorgan on board.
Read more: 
Bezos’s physical AI lab Prometheus nears $10bn raise at $38bn valuation ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/shutterstock_1399561367-scaled.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Tue, 21 Apr 2026 14:00:08 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Bezos’s, physical, lab, Prometheus, nears, 10bn, raise, 38bn, valuation</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Barclays and Lloyds join FCA’s second AI sandbox as banks race to prove their tech credentials</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/barclays-and-lloyds-join-fcas-second-ai-sandbox-as-banks-race-to-prove-their-tech-credentials</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/barclays-and-lloyds-join-fcas-second-ai-sandbox-as-banks-race-to-prove-their-tech-credentials</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Barclays and Lloyds have joined the FCA&#039;s second AI live testing cohort alongside Experian, GoCardless and UBS, as UK banks accelerate their artificial intelligence investment.
Read more: 
Barclays and Lloyds join FCA’s second AI sandbox as banks race to prove their tech credentials ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/fca.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Tue, 21 Apr 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Barclays, and, Lloyds, join, FCA’s, second, sandbox, banks, race, prove, their, tech, credentials</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Reeves tightens windfall tax on renewables as ministers move to sever gas&#45;electricity link</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/reeves-tightens-windfall-tax-on-renewables-as-ministers-move-to-sever-gas-electricity-link</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/reeves-tightens-windfall-tax-on-renewables-as-ministers-move-to-sever-gas-electricity-link</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Chancellor Rachel Reeves lifts the electricity generator levy from 45% to 55% as Ed Miliband unveils market reforms. What the renewables windfall tax means for UK SMEs, energy bills and investment.
Read more: 
Reeves tightens windfall tax on renewables as ministers move to sever gas-electricity link ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Reeves_HOC.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Tue, 21 Apr 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Reeves, tightens, windfall, tax, renewables, ministers, move, sever, gas-electricity, link</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>With US spy laws set to expire, lawmakers are split over protecting Americans from warrantless surveillance</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/with-us-spy-laws-set-to-expire-lawmakers-are-split-over-protecting-americans-from-warrantless-surveillance</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/with-us-spy-laws-set-to-expire-lawmakers-are-split-over-protecting-americans-from-warrantless-surveillance</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Some lawmakers are calling for widespread reforms following years of surveillance scandals and abuses across successive U.S. administrations. But even if the spy law known as Section 702 expires on April 30, the government&#039;s spy powers will not automatically lapse. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/nsa-surveillance-525618310.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Tue, 21 Apr 2026 14:00:04 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>With, spy, laws, set, expire, lawmakers, are, split, over, protecting, Americans, from, warrantless, surveillance</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>What’s the key to better vegan cheese? Microbreweries, one startup says</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/whats-the-key-to-better-vegan-cheese-microbreweries-one-startup-says</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/whats-the-key-to-better-vegan-cheese-microbreweries-one-startup-says</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ AuX Labs says it has found a better way to make vegan cheese that tastes and feels like the real thing — and costs the same. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/aux-labs-grilled-cheese.jpeg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Tue, 21 Apr 2026 14:00:04 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>What’s, the, key, better, vegan, cheese, Microbreweries, one, startup, says</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Cash App is targeting a new kind of customer: 6&#45;12 year olds</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/cash-app-is-targeting-a-new-kind-of-customer-6-12-year-olds</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/cash-app-is-targeting-a-new-kind-of-customer-6-12-year-olds</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Tech companies are constantly on the hunt for new customers, and Cash App, the fintech company owned by Jack Dorsey’s Block, believes it has found a promising new demographic: children. The company, which already offers financial services to teens, said this week that it is expanding its youth-focused services in an effort to build a […] ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/U13_HeroAlt_9_16.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Tue, 21 Apr 2026 14:00:04 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Cash, App, targeting, new, kind, customer:, 6-12, year, olds</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>GRAI believes AI can make music more social, not replace artists</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/grai-believes-ai-can-make-music-more-social-not-replace-artists</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/grai-believes-ai-can-make-music-more-social-not-replace-artists</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ AI music startup GRAI says fans want to remix tracks, not generate songs from scratch. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/listening-to-music-GettyImages-2170179832.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Tue, 21 Apr 2026 14:00:04 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>GRAI, believes, can, make, music, more, social, not, replace, artists</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Revolut eyes valuation of up to $200B in eventual IPO</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/revolut-eyes-valuation-of-up-to-200b-in-eventual-ipo</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/revolut-eyes-valuation-of-up-to-200b-in-eventual-ipo</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Fintech giant Revolut, which secured a full banking license in the U.K. in March after years of waiting, was most recently valued at $75 billion in a secondary share sale. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/PR-lib-office-exterior-4.png" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Tue, 21 Apr 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Revolut, eyes, valuation, 200B, eventual, IPO</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>U.S. attacks and seizes Iranian ship in Strait of Hormuz, throwing a ceasefire into question</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/us-attacks-and-seizes-iranian-ship-in-strait-of-hormuz-throwing-a-ceasefire-into-question</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/us-attacks-and-seizes-iranian-ship-in-strait-of-hormuz-throwing-a-ceasefire-into-question</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ The United States attacked and seized an Iranian-flagged cargo ship it said had tried to evade its naval blockade near the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday, and Iran’s joint military command vowed to respond, throwing a fragile ceasefire into question days before it expires.It was the first interception since the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports began last week. Iran’s joint military command called the armed boarding an act of piracy and a ceasefire violation, the state broadcaster said.With the U.S.-Iran standoff over the strait sharpening and the ceasefire expiring by Wednesday, it was not clear where President Donald Trump’s earlier announcement on new talks with Iran now stood. He had said U.S. negotiators would head to Pakistan on Monday.The uncertainty sent oil prices rising again. One of the worst global energy crises in decades threatened to deepen.Trump on social media said a U.S. Navy guided missile destroyer in the Gulf of Oman warned the Iranian-flagged ship, the Touska, to stop and then “stopped them right in their tracks by blowing a hole in the engineroom.” U.S. Marines had custody of the U.S.-sanctioned vessel and were “seeing what’s on board!”It was not clear whether anyone was hurt. The U.S. Central Command, which didn’t answer questions, said the destroyer had issued “repeated warnings over a six-hour period.”



Iranian state media suggest new talks won’t take place



There was no comment from Iranian officials directly addressing Trump’s announcement of talks. However, Iranian state media, without citing anyone beyond unnamed sources, issued brief reports suggesting that they would not happen.Minutes after the ship seizure was announced, Iranian state media reported on President Masoud Pezeshkian’s phone conversation with Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, earlier Sunday. U.S. actions, including bullying and unreasonable behavior, have led to increased suspicion that the U.S. will repeat previous patterns and “betray diplomacy,” the reports cited Pezeshkian as saying.Two previous attempts at talks — last June and earlier this year — were interrupted by Israeli and U.S. attacks.On another phone call, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told his Pakistani counterpart, Ishaq Dar, that recent U.S. actions, rhetoric and contradictions were signs of “bad intentions and lack of seriousness in diplomacy,” Iran’s state broadcaster said.Pakistan did not confirm a second round of talks, but authorities had begun tightening security in Islamabad. A regional official involved in the efforts said mediators were finalizing preparations and U.S. advance security teams were on the ground. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss preparations with the media.The White House had said Vice President JD Vance, who led the first round of historic face-to-face talks over 21 hours last weekend, would lead the U.S. delegation to Pakistan with envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.Iran on Saturday said it had received new proposals from the United States. While Iran’s chief negotiator, parliament speaker Mohammed Bagher Qalibaf, late Saturday said “there will be no retreat in the field of diplomacy,” he acknowledged a wide gap remained between the sides.It was unclear whether either side had shifted stances on issues that derailed the last round of negotiations, including Iran’s nuclear enrichment program, its regional proxies and the Strait of Hormuz.



Trump’s announcement on talks repeated his threats against Iranian infrastructure that have drawn widespread criticism and warnings of war crimes. If Iran doesn’t agree to the U.S.-proposed deal, “the United States is going to knock out every single Power Plant, and every single Bridge, in Iran,” he wrote.



Iran wants to control strait until ‘war fully ends’



Iran early Monday warned it could keep up the global economic pain as ships remained unable to transit the strait, with hundreds of vessels waiting at each end for clearance.Security of the strait is not free and “the choice is clear: either a free oil market for all, or the risk of significant costs for everyone,” Mohammad Reza Aref, first vice president of Iran, said in a social media post calling for a lasting end to military and economic pressure on Tehran.Roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil trade normally passes through the strait, along with critical supplies of fertilizer for the world’s farmers, natural gas and humanitarian supplies for places in dire need like Afghanistan and Sudan.Iran had announced the strait’s reopening after a 10-day truce between Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon took hold on Friday. But then Trump said the U.S. blockade “will remain in full force” until Tehran reaches a deal with the United States. Iran said it would again enforce restrictions it imposed early in the war. On Saturday, Iran fired at ships trying to transit.For the Islamic Republic, the strait’s closure is perhaps its most powerful weapon, inflicting political pain on Trump. For the United States, the blockade squeezes Iran’s already weakened economy. Each side has accused the other of violating the ceasefire.Since most supplies to U.S. military bases in the Gulf region come through the strait, “Iran is determined to maintain oversight and control over traffic through the strait until the war fully ends,” Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said late Saturday. That means Iran-designated routes, payment of fees and issuance of transit certificates.The council has recently acted as Iran’s de facto top decision-making body.The war is now in its eighth week after the U.S. and Israel launched it on Feb. 28 during talks over Tehran’s nuclear program. At least 3,000 people have been killed in Iran, more than 2,290 in Lebanon, 23 in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Fifteen Israeli soldiers in Lebanon and 13 U.S. service members throughout the region have been killed.Associated Press writer Munir Ahmed contributed to this report.







An earlier version of this story corrected the name of the Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson to Esmail Baghaei.



—Michelle L. Price, Samy Magdy and Sam Metz, Associated Press ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://images.fastcompany.com/image/upload/w_1280,q_auto,f_auto,fl_lossy/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit/wp-cms-2/2026/04/AP26108447222186.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Mon, 20 Apr 2026 14:00:12 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>U.S., attacks, and, seizes, Iranian, ship, Strait, Hormuz, throwing, ceasefire, into, question</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>2 new Chase Sapphire airport lounges are coming. Here’s what to expect and when</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/2-new-chase-sapphire-airport-lounges-are-coming-heres-what-to-expect-and-when</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/2-new-chase-sapphire-airport-lounges-are-coming-heres-what-to-expect-and-when</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ For years, premium credit cards competed on points, perks, and airport lounge access. Now the lounge itself is becoming the strategy.



Chase is the latest to double down.



With new Sapphire Lounge locations planned—starting with one at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport and another at Los Angeles International Airport—the company is expanding its footprint at a moment when airport lounges have become one of the most competitive battlegrounds in consumer finance. The move follows a wave of recent openings that show how Chase is trying to differentiate not just on access, but on experience.



“We’re really excited,” Dana Pouwels, head of airport lounge benefits at JPMorgan Chase, told Fast Company in an interview. “Dallas is opening this year, and Los Angeles will be opening within the next 12 months.”



Specific details of those lounges are still under wraps, but the broader strategy is already visible, and it’s less about square footage and more about turning the airport into part of the destination.



The Chase Sapphire Lounge at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas [Photo: Chase]



The lounge arms race is splitting in two directions



To understand what Chase is doing, it helps to look at its biggest rival.



American Express, which helped define the modern airport lounge with its Centurion network, is expanding in two directions at once. The company is building larger flagship lounges in key hubs like Boston and Dallas Fort Worth, while also rolling out smaller “Sidecar” spaces designed for travelers with limited time.



That split reflects a simple reality. Not all travelers use lounges the same way. Some want a place to settle in for hours. Others want something closer to a high-end restaurant that they can move through more quickly, such as Capital One’s recently launched LGA lounge with José Andrés.



Chase, at least for now, is leaning harder into the first camp, but with a twist.



Designing for the destination, not just the delay



If there is a defining feature of Chase’s lounges, it’s how much they try to feel like the city in which they’re located.



The Las Vegas lounge, opened at the end of 2025, pushes that idea to its limit, leaning into theatrical design and playful details.



“We went for bold and shimmering finishes, and it’s really just inspired by that city’s nightlife,” Pouwels said.



The lounge includes a champagne parlor, a menu created with Momofuku founder David Chang, and cocktails that nod to the city’s history, like a jet-black libation topped with edible gummy dice.



The Philadelphia lounge takes a different approach. There, Chase built a 20,000-square-foot space centered on the city’s beer culture, complete with a beer garden and a beer flight program that proved so popular it’s already been replicated by Chase in its Boston lounge.



Beyond the food and drink offerings, the Philadelphia lounge also includes sports memorabilia, retro arcade machines, and one of the lounge network’s only TV-equipped spaces, a deliberate nod to local fan culture.



The goal is consistency in quality, but not in sameness.



The Chase Sapphire Lounge at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas [Photo: Chase]



Data decides where to go next



Behind the scenes, Chase’s expansion is driven as much by data as design.



“We’re always looking at the top places where our card members travel to and through, and also where they live,” Pouwels said.



Los Angeles stands out as a priority, ranking as the second-most-booked destination for Chase cardholders in 2025. Dallas checks multiple boxes, serving as both a major travel hub and a city with a large Chase employee base.



Still, demand alone is not enough.



“The location has to be right in terms of the airport, but it also has to be right in terms of the terminal and the amount of space that’s available,” Pouwels said.



That constraint helps explain why lounge growth, across the industry, has been steady but uneven.



The post-pandemic traveler wants something different



What is changing fastest is not where lounges are built, but what travelers expect from them.



According to Pouwels, that shift started during the pandemic, when people grew accustomed to highly personalized environments at home and began expecting the same from travel.



“Our lounges really have evolved to be more personalized experiences,” she said.



That means more than just comfortable seating. Travelers are looking for discovery, whether that is a local chef, a regional drink, or a design element tied to the city.



“They want to see something or learn something different every time they’re on a travel journey,” Pouwels said.



American Express is responding to that demand by segmenting its lounge experience into multiple formats. Chase, meanwhile, is trying to build a sense of discovery into every location.



The Chase Sapphire Lounge at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas [Photo: Chase]



Lounges as a loyalty engine



The bigger play is not the lounge itself. It’s what the lounge represents.



Chase sees these spaces as part of a broader travel ecosystem that starts before a trip is booked and continues through the airport and beyond.



“We’re really focused on the end-to-end travel journey,” Pouwels said.



That includes everything from trip planning to the airport experience itself, which has become a central touchpoint.



“We really want to ensure that we’re bringing the local element of the city into the airport experience. . . . and really, the lounges are a natural extension of that, right? Enhancing every step of the card member’s travel journey,” Pouwels added.



In other words, the airport is no longer just a stop along the way. It’s part of the product.



What comes next



With the Dallas lounge set to open this year and the one at LAX expected within the next 12 months, Chase’s new wave of lounges will test how far that strategy can go.



The competitive pressure is only increasing. American Express continues to scale both larger and smaller formats. Other issuers, like Capital One, are experimenting with their own concepts. Travelers are gaining more access and, in turn, becoming more selective.



For Chase, the bet is that the future of loyalty isn’t just about getting people to travel. It’s about owning more of the journey once they do.



 ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Mon, 20 Apr 2026 14:00:12 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>new, Chase, Sapphire, airport, lounges, are, coming., Here’s, what, expect, and, when</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Gap is dropping a Victoria Beckham collab, bringing her discerning eye to denim</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/gap-is-dropping-a-victoria-beckham-collab-bringing-her-discerning-eye-to-denim</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/gap-is-dropping-a-victoria-beckham-collab-bringing-her-discerning-eye-to-denim</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ I’m not one for binaries, but it’s likely you’re either aware of Gap’s 2025 comeback tour, or you have a healthy amount of screen time. For those of us who aren’t full luddite teen (aspirational), I’m here to tell you that Gap is continuing its play to cement its place among the fashion set—and cultural domination—in 2026.



We’re seeing this with Gap’s announcement today of a new Spring collection kicking off a multi-season partnership with Victoria Beckham, bringing clean lines and refined classics that harken from the designer’s British sensibilities to the eponymous American brand. The 38-piece line of wardrobe staples will be available online and in select global Gap stores beginning April 24 at 9am ET, with prices that range between $34 to $328.



[Photo: Gap]



This isn’t Gap’s first partnership of the year. It previously launched collaborations with Harlem’s Fashion Row and Awake, as well as a keystone campaign for the brand’s sweatpants with rapper Young Mikko. (And let’s not forget last year’s sell-out Sandy Liang collaboration.) The Victoria Beckham collaboration is its latest in an ongoing story of reinvention the brand wants to convey to the public.



“We always are looking for new, interesting, cool, unexpected-for-our-customer collabs, and Victoria Beckham is a real natural for us,” says Gap CEO Mark Breitbard of the pairing, noting that her design sensibilities bring an elevated level of polish and refinement to Gap’s casual everyday wear. 



The partnership was the result of a conversation Breitbard had with celebrity stylist Alastair McKimm, who he considers to be part of the Gap creative team, about his other clients. “When he brought up Victoria, we both just kind of looked at each other and said, ‘Wait, could this be interesting for us?’” Breitbard recalled. And Beckham, for her part, was game.



The design results apply subtle degrees of difference from Gap classics like its Arc denim and matching jacket, pull-over denim quarter zips with a tent-like shape, dark wash capris (having a moment this spring), pleated khaki shorts, white button-downs, jersey tank dresses, and a classic trench coat. The difference from Gap pieces may not be detectable to the non-fashion obsessive’s human eye, but the simplicity of lines and the appeal of the Victoria Beckham brand ID could subconsciously appeal to the same discerning shopper who gets neutral manicures and wears La Ligne.



[Photo: Gap]



“You’ll see really modern lines and elegance that still has Gap casual in it,” says Breitbard. “So it’s very versatile. Dress up, dress down. Look incredibly chic, but also don’t look like you tried too hard. It’s just a really great balance, but clean lines and a fine aesthetic.” 



The cerulean blue pullover anorak adds a bright pop of color to staples like white, khaki, olive, and denim, which have enough wearability that could toss on a piece and head out the door. There is some overlap between the positioning of this line and Gap Studio as an elevated take to Gap classics, but Breitbard splices Gap Studio as more of a play for red carpet caché, with some looks they then commercialize.



[Photo: Gap]



The multi-season partnership also points to the brand’s broader partnerships strategy, which aims to reestablish relevancy through brand partners with caché. Gap is extending these partnerships through marketing that’s less sales-y and more shareable content (“brandtainment” is the linguistic ligature du jour). By doing so, it’s goal is to drive cultural conversation. In short: organically become part of the chatter in the elusive group chat.



At this point, the brand is building on the momentum of the previous year-and-a-half. (Its financial gains are still playing out: net sales were up 2% and store sales up 1% year over year, respectively.)



Where Gap gets luxury fashion bonafides from Beckham, Beckham gets to capitalize on her existing growth and expand her reach. Victoria Beckham posted $170 million in group sales resulting in 19% growth in 2025, which includes fashion and beauty, (Breitbard noted her success in beauty in particular). Beckham told WWD last fall that she plans to open more stores in the U.S., which is the brand’s biggest market—this collab could be a preview for a lot of new consumers.



[Photo: Gap]



Ultimately a collaboration is successful if it’s multidimensional. “[The Victoria Beckham collaboration] is going to hit new consumers who are paying attention to fashion and existing consumers, and consumers who have been with us for a while,” says Breitbard. 



While I can’t say that the Victoria Beckham brand has been in my group chats lately (that’s been dominated by fashion brands like Khaite, the Row, Still Here, and quests for vintage Prada and Manolo Blahniks, and even Gap itself), it does have a major online fan base: 3 million TikTok followers compared to Gap’s one million, and 33.4 million Instagram followers compared to Gap’s 3.7 million.



“One of the things that I think we’re doing well when we do a remix, [is] there might be dimensions that the younger consumer really appreciates, and then there is also just artistry and creative that is very accessible and easy,” says Breitbard, which translates to online traction and cultural interest that are bigger than sales KPIs.



[Photo: Gap]



He points to the Katseye campaign as an example. “They’re young. They have a young demographic. They have a huge fan base, but tens of thousands of people reposted that dance. We had 600 million views, and it wasn’t just from young [people]. It was so accessible and so uplifting to a very broad audience. That’s what we’ve done well,“ he says. “Victoria has younger consumers, but also consumers who have known her and followed her throughout her career and I think that’ll be inspiring very broadly.” 



He adds that Beckham’s cultural impact and personal relationship with her brand also fit with Gap’s story telling sensibilities. The story they plan together was too big for one drop. And a multi-season collaboration has to have a different business strategy.



[Photo: Gap]



“The strategy for us here is to bring in the right amount to have excitement and energy and have it be accessible, but not bought with such depth that it’s meant to live for months and months in the store,” says Breitbard. “These things are meant to be moments of high heat, to draw attention, to have fun, to drive business. And so we are intending to do that for this drop and then another drop later in the year, versus it’s going to launch and it’s going to be in the store.”



Beckham’s designer bonafides are another lens for potential Gap customers who haven’t thought of the brand yet to tap in. “Gap made new,” says Breitbard concisely of the brand’s strategy. “We want to continue to make Gap new and this is a great way to do that.” ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Mon, 20 Apr 2026 14:00:12 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Gap, dropping, Victoria, Beckham, collab, bringing, her, discerning, eye, denim</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Refunds can now be claimed by businesses impacted by Trump’s unconstitutional tariffs</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/refunds-can-now-be-claimed-by-businesses-impacted-by-trumps-unconstitutional-tariffs</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/refunds-can-now-be-claimed-by-businesses-impacted-by-trumps-unconstitutional-tariffs</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ A refund system for businesses that paid tariffs which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled President Donald Trump imposed without the constitutional authority to do so is scheduled to launch Monday.Importers and their brokers will be able to begin claiming refunds through an online portal beginning at 8 a.m., according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the agency administering the system.It’s the first step in a complicated process that also might eventually lead to refunds for consumers who were billed for some or all of the tariffs on products shipped to them from outside the United States.Companies must submit declarations listing the goods on which they collectively put billions of dollars toward the import taxes the court subsequently struck down. If CBP approves a claim, it will take 60-90 days for a refund to be issued, the agency said.The government expects to process refunds in phases, however, focusing first on more recent tariff payments. Any number of technical factors and procedural issues could delay an importer’s application, so any reimbursements businesses plan to make to customers likely would trickled down slowly.In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court on Feb. 20 found that Trump usurped Congress’ tax-setting role last April when he set new import tax rates on products from almost every other country, citing the U.S. trade deficit as a national emergency that warranted his invoking of a 1977 emergency powers law.Although the court majority did not address refunds in its ruling, a judge at the U.S. Court of International Trade determined last month that companies subjected to IEEPA tariffs were entitled to money back.



Not all taxed imports immediately eligible



Customs and Border Protection said in court filings that over 330,000 importers paid a total of about $166 billion on over 53 million shipments.Not all of those orders qualify for the first phase of the refund system’s rollout, which is limited to cases in which tariffs were estimated but not finalized or within 80 days of a final accounting.To receive refunds, importers have to register for the CPB’s electronic payment system. As of April 14, 56,497 importers had completed registration and were eligible for refunds totaling $127 billion, including interest, the agency said.



System requires accuracy



Meghann Supino, a partner at Ice Miller, said the law firm has advised clients to carefully list in their declarations all of the document numbers for forms that went to CBP to describe imported goods and their value.“If there is an entry on that file that does not qualify, it may cause the entire entry to be rejected or that line item might be rejected by Customs,” she said.Supino thinks the portal going live will require composure as well as diligence.“Like any electronic online program that goes live with a lot of interest, I would expect that there might be some hiccups with the program on Monday,” she said. “So we continue to ask everyone to be patient, because we think that patience will pay off.”Nghi Huynh, the partner-in-charge of transfer pricing at accounting and consulting firm Armanino, said most companies claiming refunds will have imported a mix of items, and not all will qualify right away.“It’s about having a clear process in place and keeping track of what’s been submitted and what’s been paid, so nothing falls through the cracks,” she said. “Each file can include thousands of entries, but accuracy is critical, as submissions can be rejected if formatting or data is incorrect.”



Patience with the process



Small businesses have eagerly awaited the chance to apply for refunds. Brad Jackson, co-founder of After Action Cigars in Rochester, Minnesota, said he starting compiling records and preparing to enter information into the system the minute CPB announced the launch date.The company imports cigars and accessories from Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. Last year, it paid $34,000 in tariffs and absorbed much of the cost instead of raising customer prices, Jackson said.Last spring, he had a two-week delay in a shipment due to a missing document, so he is being more careful with refund documents, he said.“My main concern is the turnaround time,” Jackson said. “A refund process that takes several months to complete doesn’t solve the cash flow problem that it is supposed to fix.”



Will consumers see refunds?



Tariffs are paid by importers, and some companies pass on the tax costs to consumers via higher prices.The system starting up Monday will refund tariffs directly to the businesses that paid them, which are not obligated to share the proceeds with customers. However, class-action lawsuits that aim to force companies, ranging from Costco to Ray-Ban maker Essilor Luxottica, to reimburse shoppers are winding their way through the U.S. legal system.Individuals may be more likely to receive refunds from delivery companies like FedEx and UPS, which collected tariffs on imports directly from consumers. FedEx has said it would return tariff refunds to customers when it receives them from the CPB.“Supporting our customers as they navigate regulatory changes remains our top priority,” FedEx said in a statement. “We are working with our customers as CBP begins processing refunds and plan to begin filing claims on April 20.”



—Mae Anderson, AP Business Writer ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Mon, 20 Apr 2026 14:00:12 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Refunds, can, now, claimed, businesses, impacted, Trump’s, unconstitutional, tariffs</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Elon Musk is summoned to Paris over allegations of child sexual abuse images on X</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/elon-musk-is-summoned-to-paris-over-allegations-of-child-sexual-abuse-images-on-x</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/elon-musk-is-summoned-to-paris-over-allegations-of-child-sexual-abuse-images-on-x</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Elon Musk has been summoned to Paris on Monday, where investigators are looking into allegations of misconduct related to the social media platform X, including the spread of child sexual abuse material and deepfake content.The world’s richest man and Linda Yaccarino — the former CEO of X — have been summoned for “voluntary interviews,” while other employees of the platform are scheduled to be heard as witnesses throughout this week, the Paris prosecutor’s office said.It remains unclear whether Musk and Yaccarino will travel to Paris. A spokesperson for X did not respond to questions from The Associated Press and Yaccarino’s current company, eMed, did not answer a request sent to the press email.French prosecutors also suspect that controversy around the platform’s AI system Grok’s deepfakes was concocted to boost the value of Musk-owned companies ahead of a key market listing, and alerted U.S. authorities. Musk welcomed a report that U.S. justice officials refused to help French investigators, posting on X, “This needs to stop.”



The reason for summoning Musk



Musk was summoned after a search took place in February at the French premises of X as part of an investigation opened in January 2025 by the cybercrime unit of the Paris prosecutor’s office. Musk and Yaccarino have been invited in their capacities as managers of X at the time of the events investigated. Yaccarino was CEO from May 2023 until July 2025.“These voluntary interviews with the executives are intended to allow them to present their position regarding the facts and, where appropriate, the compliance measures they plan to implement,” prosecutors said. “At this stage, the conduct of this investigation is part of a constructive approach, with the ultimate objective of ensuring that platform X complies with French law, insofar as it operates within the national territory.”The Paris prosecutor’s office said Musk and Yaccarino’s potential no-show on Monday “is not an obstacle for investigations to continue.”



What is being investigated



French authorities opened their investigation after reports from a French lawmaker alleging that biased algorithms on X likely distorted the functioning of an automated data processing system. It expanded after the AI system, Grok, generated posts that allegedly denied the Holocaust, a crime in France, and spread sexually explicit deepfakes.It’s looking into alleged “complicity” in possessing and spreading pornographic images of minors, sexually explicit deepfakes, denial of crimes against humanity and manipulation of an automated data processing system as part of an organized group, among other charges.Grok, which was built by xAI and is available through X, sparked global outrage this year after it pumped out a torrent of sexualized nonconsensual deepfake images in response to requests from X users.Grok also wrote in a widely shared post in French that gas chambers at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp were designed for “disinfection with Zyklon B against typhus” rather than for mass murder — language long associated with Holocaust denial.In later posts on X, the chatbot reversed itself and acknowledged that its earlier reply was wrong, saying it had been deleted, and pointed to historical evidence that Zyklon B was used to kill more than 1 million people in Auschwitz gas chambers.



French prosecutors alert U.S. authorities



In March, the Paris prosecutor’s office alerted the U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) — the U.S. federal agency responsible for regulating and overseeing financial markets — suggesting “that the controversy surrounding sexually explicit deepfakes generated by Grok may have been deliberately orchestrated to artificially boost the value of the companies X and xAI — potentially constituting criminal offenses,” prosecutors said.The Paris prosecutor’s office said this could have been done “ahead of the planned June 2026 stock market listing of the new entity formed by the merger of Space X and xAI, at a time when company X was clearly losing momentum.”



Justice Department brushes off French call



According to the Wall Street Journal, the Justice Department told French law enforcement authorities it wouldn’t facilitate their efforts to investigate Musk’s X. The newspaper reported that the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs, in a two-page letter last week, accused the French of inappropriately using its justice system to interfere with an American business.The letter also said France’s requests for U.S. assistance “constitute an effort to entangle the United States in a politically charged criminal proceeding aimed at wrongfully regulating through prosecution the business activities of a social media platform.”French judicial authorities didn’t respond to requests for comments.



Investigations launched into several internet platforms



The cybercrime unit of the Paris prosecutor’s office has launched in recent years a series of investigations focusing on internet platforms’ suspected illegal activities.French-language website Coco, which was cited in the landmark trial that turned Gisèle Pelicot into a global icon against sexual violence, closed in 2024 as its manager is accused of complicity in spreading child pornography and trafficking of children for sexual purposes, among other things.Pavel Durov, the founder of the Telegram messaging app, was handed preliminary charges and placed under judicial supervision for allegedly allowing criminal activity on the platform, including child sexual abuse material and drug trafficking.The Paris prosecutor’s office opened last year an investigation into TikTok over allegations that the platform allows content promoting suicide and that its algorithms may encourage vulnerable young people to take their own lives.Meanwhile, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said it has lodged a new complaint against X with the cybercrime unit of the Paris prosecutor’s office targeting “the platform’s policies that allow disinformation to flourish.”







Associated Press reporter Kelvin Chan contributed to this story.



—Samuel Petrequin, Associated Press ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Mon, 20 Apr 2026 14:00:12 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Elon, Musk, summoned, Paris, over, allegations, child, sexual, abuse, images</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Getting small business loans with bad credit</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/getting-small-business-loans-with-bad-credit</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/getting-small-business-loans-with-bad-credit</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ By Ben Lobel on Small Business UK - Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs


Even a small business owner with bad credit may need to borrow unexpectedly for stock or a sudden car repair. Where can you turn to for a small business loan with bad credit?
The post Getting small business loans with bad credit appeared first on Small Business UK. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://smallbusiness-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2017/01/bad-credit-loans-scaled.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Mon, 20 Apr 2026 14:00:08 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Getting, small, business, loans, with, bad, credit</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Fast business funding and loans</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/fast-business-funding-and-loans</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/fast-business-funding-and-loans</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ By Anna Jordan on Small Business UK - Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs


Worried about cash flow for your small business? Need cash fast? Find out more about fast business funding and who the key providers are
The post Fast business funding and loans appeared first on Small Business UK. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Mon, 20 Apr 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Fast, business, funding, and, loans</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>The April Cost Squeeze: Why Small Businesses Must Plan Ahead, Not Catch Up</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/the-april-cost-squeeze-why-small-businesses-must-plan-ahead-not-catch-up</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/the-april-cost-squeeze-why-small-businesses-must-plan-ahead-not-catch-up</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
For many small businesses in the UK, April has become a predictable pressure point.
Read more: 
The April Cost Squeeze: Why Small Businesses Must Plan Ahead, Not Catch Up ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Fri, 17 Apr 2026 14:00:09 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>The, April, Cost, Squeeze:, Why, Small, Businesses, Must, Plan, Ahead, Not, Catch</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Desmond’s £1.3bn National Lottery battle collapses as High Court sides with Gambling Commission</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/desmonds-13bn-national-lottery-battle-collapses-as-high-court-sides-with-gambling-commission</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/desmonds-13bn-national-lottery-battle-collapses-as-high-court-sides-with-gambling-commission</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Richard Desmond&#039;s £1.3bn damages claim against the Gambling Commission over the fourth National Lottery licence awarded to Allwyn has been dismissed by the High Court.
Read more: 
Desmond’s £1.3bn National Lottery battle collapses as High Court sides with Gambling Commission ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/desmond-20160401094919667.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Fri, 17 Apr 2026 14:00:08 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Desmond’s, £1.3bn, National, Lottery, battle, collapses, High, Court, sides, with, Gambling, Commission</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Tesco urges ministers to ease cost burden as Iran conflict clouds outlook</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/tesco-urges-ministers-to-ease-cost-burden-as-iran-conflict-clouds-outlook</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/tesco-urges-ministers-to-ease-cost-burden-as-iran-conflict-clouds-outlook</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Tesco chief Ken Murphy urges ministers to ease tax and energy costs as the grocer posts an 8.5% profit rise and widens guidance amid the Iran conflict.
Read more: 
Tesco urges ministers to ease cost burden as Iran conflict clouds outlook ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Fri, 17 Apr 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Tesco, urges, ministers, ease, cost, burden, Iran, conflict, clouds, outlook</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Seres files patent for voice&#45;activated in&#45;car toilet as china’s EV makers battle for attention</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/seres-files-patent-for-voice-activated-in-car-toilet-as-chinas-ev-makers-battle-for-attention</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/seres-files-patent-for-voice-activated-in-car-toilet-as-chinas-ev-makers-battle-for-attention</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Chongqing-based EV manufacturer Seres has patented a voice-controlled in-vehicle toilet, as Chinese carmakers pile on novel features to survive a brutal price war.
Read more: 
Seres files patent for voice-activated in-car toilet as china’s EV makers battle for attention ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Fri, 17 Apr 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Seres, files, patent, for, voice-activated, in-car, toilet, china’s, makers, battle, for, attention</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Finance chiefs sound alarm over Anthropic’s ‘mythos’ AI model amid cyber&#45;security fears</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/finance-chiefs-sound-alarm-over-anthropics-mythos-ai-model-amid-cyber-security-fears</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/finance-chiefs-sound-alarm-over-anthropics-mythos-ai-model-amid-cyber-security-fears</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Finance ministers, central bankers and Barclays&#039; chief executive warn that Anthropic&#039;s new Mythos AI model could expose critical vulnerabilities in the world&#039;s financial systems.
Read more: 
Finance chiefs sound alarm over Anthropic’s ‘mythos’ AI model amid cyber-security fears ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/shutterstock_2645234093-2.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Fri, 17 Apr 2026 14:00:06 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Finance, chiefs, sound, alarm, over, Anthropic’s, ‘mythos’, model, amid, cyber-security, fears</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>New leaders, new fund: Sequoia has raised $7B to expand its AI bets</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/new-leaders-new-fund-sequoia-has-raised-7b-to-expand-its-ai-bets</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/new-leaders-new-fund-sequoia-has-raised-7b-to-expand-its-ai-bets</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ The fundraise is the first major capital raise under Sequoia&#039;s new leadership, with Alfred Lin and Pat Grady now serving as co-stewards of the 54-year-old firm. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Screen-Shot-2023-01-13-at-3.33.43-PM.png" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Fri, 17 Apr 2026 14:00:05 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>New, leaders, new, fund:, Sequoia, has, raised, 7B, expand, its, bets</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>SaySo is a new short&#45;form video app that aims to restore users’ trust in news</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/sayso-is-a-new-short-form-video-app-that-aims-to-restore-users-trust-in-news</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/sayso-is-a-new-short-form-video-app-that-aims-to-restore-users-trust-in-news</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Users are fed up with misinformation and AI slop cluttering their feeds. SaySo is a new short-form video app that delivers news from vetted creators and journalists. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/SaySo-Image-1.png" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Fri, 17 Apr 2026 14:00:04 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>SaySo, new, short-form, video, app, that, aims, restore, users’, trust, news</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Loop raises $95M to build supply chain AI that predicts disruptions</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/loop-raises-95m-to-build-supply-chain-ai-that-predicts-disruptions</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/loop-raises-95m-to-build-supply-chain-ai-that-predicts-disruptions</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ The San Francisco startup closed a Series C funding round led by Antonio Gracias&#039; firm Valor, which is a major backer of xAI. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/loop-founders.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Fri, 17 Apr 2026 14:00:04 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Loop, raises, 95M, build, supply, chain, that, predicts, disruptions</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Netflix plans to add a vertical video feed, use AI for recommendations</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/netflix-plans-to-add-a-vertical-video-feed-use-ai-for-recommendations</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/netflix-plans-to-add-a-vertical-video-feed-use-ai-for-recommendations</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Netflix is going to launch a TikTok-like vertical video feed within its apps this month, and plans to use AI broadly for content creation and recommendations. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/GettyImages-2235383828.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Fri, 17 Apr 2026 14:00:04 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Netflix, plans, add, vertical, video, feed, use, for, recommendations</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Bluesky confirms DDoS attack is cause of continued app outages</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/bluesky-confirms-ddos-attack-is-cause-of-continued-app-outages</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/bluesky-confirms-ddos-attack-is-cause-of-continued-app-outages</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Bluesky has been experiencing ongoing service disruptions since just before 3 a.m. ET. on April 15. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/bluesky-GettyImages-2185144073.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Fri, 17 Apr 2026 14:00:04 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Bluesky, confirms, DDoS, attack, cause, continued, app, outages</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Google DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis on the long game of AI</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/google-deepminds-demis-hassabis-on-the-long-game-of-ai</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/google-deepminds-demis-hassabis-on-the-long-game-of-ai</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ In 1988, a London pre-teen with a penchant for programming and gaming wrote a version of the classic board game Othello—also known as Reversi—for his Amiga 500 home computer. Teaching a piece of software to play the game was an ambitious coding project for someone so young.
And with that, Demis Hassabis notched his first achievement in the field of artificial intelligence.
The Othello-playing app “beat my kid brother, who was only five at the time,” Hassabis remembers. “It was an ‘a-ha’ moment for me, because I just thought, ‘Wow, it’s incredible that you can make a program that’s inanimate and it can go off and do something on your behalf.&#039;”
That proved to be a fateful epiphany. More than two decades later, it led to him cofounding DeepMind, the AI startup that did much to push the technology forward, both before and after its acquisition by Google in 2014. In 2023, Google merged DeepMind with Google Brain, its other highly productive AI arm, and named Hassabis as CEO of the combined operation, Google DeepMind. The AI model he oversees, Gemini, is now at the heart of Google products used by billions of people.
Long before the fruits of DeepMind’s work were everywhere, the company was a research lab whose early focus was on training algorithms to play games. That didn’t just connect them back to Hassabis’s childhood Othello app. From the very dawn of AI, researchers have used gaming as a canvas for discovery. For example, back in 2019, I wrote about a 1960 TV special that documented IBM’s checkers-playing computer.
Games are so powerful as a research tool because they’re “a microcosm of something important in real life,” explains Hassabis. “And we get to practice it many times in an environment that’s serious, but not serious, in a sense.”
Last month marked the tenth anniversary of the capstone to that quest—a history-making moment not just for DeepMind, but the entire AI field. The 2,500-year-old Chinese board game Go had been considered, in Hassabis’s words, “the Mount Everest of game AI”—so deep and mystical in its mechanics that for years, computers struggled to play it even poorly, let alone well. But from March 9-15 2016, in a match held in Seoul, DeepMind’s AlphaGo software beat Lee Sedol, Go’s world champion, four games to one.


Demis Hassabis speaks at DeepMind’s match against Go world champion Lee Sedol in 2016. [Photo: Courtesy of Google DeepMind]


The victory reverberated far beyond the crowd of obsessives who had wondered if it was even possible. “Maybe, looking back on it now, it was the beginning of what we would consider the modern AI era,” says Hassabis. It was certainly tangible proof that the tech could amaze even the people responsible for its breakthroughs. It was soon joined by other signs, such as Google Brain’s June 2017 research paper on “transformers”—the fundamental ingredient that would give us generative AI.
AlphaGo also marked a transition for DeepMind. Once its AI had beaten Go, gaming was short on obvious Mount Everests to conquer, and more consequential challenges beckoned. In 2018, DeepMind unveiled the first version of AlphaFold, its algorithm for predicting protein structures. That breakthrough’s transformative implications in areas such as drug discovery and materials research inspired the creation of Isomorphic Labs, a new startup within Google’s parent company Alphabet, and led to Hassabis and DeepMind distinguished scientist John Jumper sharing the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Today, Google DeepMind’s website reflects its wide-ranging research efforts, from predicting weather to error-correcting quantum computers to understanding how dolphins communicate. But Hassabis doesn’t talk about games like they’re a musty part of his past. Indeed, he’s as engaged and proud talking about the long road that led to AlphaGo’s big win as when discussing Google DeepMind’s current activities. Gaming just happened to be the first type of artificial intelligence that captured his imagination. What he learned along the way remains as relevant as ever.
“It was obvious to me from 16, 17 years old that AI was what I was going to do with my career,” he says. “And, if it could work, the biggest thing of all time.”
From chess to Pong to Go
By the time Hassabis tackled Othello on his Amiga, he was already an old hand at board-game wizardry. At four, he took up chess. At eight, he’d earned enough playing it competitively to buy his first computer. At 13, he became the world’s second-highest rated player under the age of 14, after the legendary Judit Polgár.


On the left, a young Demis Hassabis makes his move. [Photo: Courtesy of Google DeepMind]


Hassabis credits his time as a chess prodigy with sharpening his skills at problem-solving, visualization, and thinking clearly under pressure; it doesn’t seem a stretch to guess that it might have been a boon to his self-confidence as well. “There aren’t many things children can do where they can compete against adults at the highest level when they’re five or six years old,” he says. (He recommends chess as part of school curriculums and still plays it online in the middle of the night as “a gym for the mind.”)


Chess prodigy with trophy. [Photo: Courtesy of Google DeepMind]


Still a wunderkind at age 17, Hassabis won an internship at computer game studio Bullfrog after entering a competition in a magazine for Amiga users. Before long, he’d co-created Theme Park, an amusement-park simulator that sold tens of millions of copies.
Theme Park didn’t just let players choose rides. They also set prices, hired staff, operated concessions, sold stock, and otherwise optimized the business to thrive. Unlike a board game or most computer games, it offered entirely open-ended play, powered by an algorithm rather than a fixed set of rules.
As Hassabis saw his creation behave in ways he hadn’t explicitly programmed into it, his mind reeled. “The key thing was that every time someone played the game, they had a unique experience, because the AI would react to how they were playing it,” he recalls. “We got letters from kids. They sent screenshots of these amazing end states they got their theme parks into. And we had no idea you could even do that, even though we’d made the game.”


The graphics may be very 1990s, but Hassabis’s Theme Park was a pioneer in applying AI to a simulation game.


Sixteen years elapsed between Theme Park‘s release and DeepMind’s inception. During them, Hassabis earned a BA in computer science and a PhD in cognitive neuroscience, with more time in the game business sandwiched in between.
When he and his friends Shane Legg and Mustafa Suleyman decided to start an AI company together, it was with the aspiration—even loftier in 2010 than now—of developing algorithms that could at least match human cognitive ability at typical tasks. (Legg called that artificial general intelligence, or AGI, a term the entire field embraced.) But the cofounders began with a vastly more manageable project: training AI to excel at early Atari home video games such as Pong, Breakout, and Space Invaders.
Not that it was a sure thing at the time. “We might have been 20 years too early,” says Hassabis. “Nobody knew. And so we had to try it.”
The fact that the video games in question were ultra-minimalist 1970s relics didn’t result in immediate gratification. “It took months to win a single point at Pong, the simplest Atari game,” Hassabis remembers. Eventually, though, “We won the game 21-nil,” he says. “And then we could play all Atari games after another year or so.”







The technique DeepMind used to trounce Pong—deep reinforcement learning—had broad applicability in AI beyond gaming. Heartened by its progress, the company turned its attention to Go.
Though leaping directly from some of the world’s most basic games to one of unrivaled complexity might sound jarring, it may have been inexorable. Teaching AI to play Go at the highest possible level had been an irresistibly audacious goal for computer scientists since the 1970s. It had also been on Hassabis’s own mind for 20 years, even though he was only an amateur at the game himself.
As a Cambridge undergrad, he’d discussed AI and Go with a classmate, David Silver. In 2008, a program Silver had co-created, MoGo, became the first software to beat a professional Go player, albeit while competing with the advantage of a handicap. Hassabis was reunited with his old friend when Silver joined DeepMind, where he worked on the Atari project and went on to lead AlphaGo’s development.
Decades of thought had also gone into chess-playing AI before IBM’s Deep Blue beat reigning world champion Garry Kasparov in 1997. But compared to Go, chess looked like Candyland. “In Go, there are 10 to the power 170 possible board positions—far more than there are atoms in the universe,” says Hassabis. That ruled out brute-force approaches such as programming the AI to handle every theoretical combination of pieces, as IBM had done for Deep Blue.
DeepMind ended up training a deep neural network with reinforcement learning to only explore meaningful moves for any given layout of pieces on the Go board. Hassabis compares the approach to infusing the algorithm with human intuition. Except AlphaGo was capable of taking more data into consideration than even the most gifted and disciplined human player, providing it with the opportunity to make decisions that felt not just intuitive, but magical.
That point was proven early in game two of AlphaGo’s match with Sedol, in a way that left jaws agape when it happened and still resonates today. For the game’s 37th move—forever after known as “Move 37″—the AI chose a play so unexpected that eyewitnesses wondered if Aja Huang, the DeepMind scientist responsible for moving AlphaGo’s pieces on the board, had made it in error.
“Lee Sedol chose that moment to go and have a smoke on the balcony,” recounts Hassabis. “He comes back in, and he sees Move 37. You see his facial expression change, and he’s sort of amazed by it. And bemused, perhaps.”


AlphaGo’s victory against Go master Sedol was dramatic at the time, and reverberates today. [Photo: Courtesy of Google DeepMind]


Everyone involved knew that no human Go master would have made Move 37. But it wasn’t clear until much later in the game if it had been remarkably smart or remarkably dumb. Eventually, however, it turned out to be essential to beating Sedol—”almost as if AlphaGo put the piece there for 100 moves later,” says Hassabis. “Not only was it unusual, it was the pivotal move to win the game. That’s what makes it one of the greatest Go moves of all time.”
Maybe you’d need to be a serious Go aficionado—which I’m not—to truly appreciate what made Move 37 special. But it’s easy to get swept up in its drama when watching AlphaGo, the 2017 documentary about the match. It continues to be fodder for courses, presentations, blog posts, and podcasts, making it a strong candidate for the most-analyzed single decision made by AI to date.
Of course, if Move 37 was merely a startling bit of board-game play, it wouldn’t be so endlessly compelling. By making it, AlphaGo showed how AI is capable of not just simulating human thought, but going beyond it. Achieving that higher state of reasoning was why DeepMind took on Go in the first place.
Subsequent research efforts such as AlphaFold have aimed to catalyze a similar effect. “The real world’s a lot harder than a game,” says Hassabis, but “You need that element of finding a new insight or new structure in the data. That’s what you’re looking for in science.” He adds that Move 37-like thinking is also apparent in current Google products such as the Deep Think version of Gemini, which is tuned for applications in science, math, and engineering.
At its best, human game play—be it on a computer, a board, or an athletic field—is always an act of creativity. Hassabis doesn’t hesitate to call Move 37 creative. But mind-blowing though it was, he doesn’t consider it equal to human creativity at its most inspired.
“It’s not true out-of-the-box creativity,” he stresses. “Because that would be something like [telling] the AI system, ‘Come up with an elegant game that only takes a few hours to play. It takes five minutes to learn the rules, but several lifetimes to master. And it’s esoterically beautiful as well.&#039;”
In other words, he says, AI must do more than conjure up additional moments like Move 37 to prove its creative bona fides: “It needs to invent a game as deep and as beautiful as Go—and obviously, with today’s systems, we’re nowhere near that.” That gives AI researchers at Google DeepMind and elsewhere another gaming Everest to scale—and we humans comforting evidence that we remain unbeatable, for now, on at least one meaningful front. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Thu, 16 Apr 2026 14:00:13 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Google, DeepMind’s, Demis, Hassabis, the, long, game</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Allbirds stock is already falling after the AI pivot. History suggests investors should proceed with caution</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/allbirds-stock-is-already-falling-after-the-ai-pivot-history-suggests-investors-should-proceed-with-caution</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/allbirds-stock-is-already-falling-after-the-ai-pivot-history-suggests-investors-should-proceed-with-caution</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ After rising by more than 580% in a single trading session yesterday, shares of Allbirds Inc. (Nasdaq: BIRD) fell this morning in premarket trading, at one point more than 30%.



The steep rise and now potential fall in the stock price followed the company’s unexpected announcement that it intends to transition from a sustainable shoemaker to an AI compute infrastructure provider.



But while AI-obsessed investors initially cheered the odd move, history suggests the pivot may be a challenging one to pull off in the long run. Here’s what you need to know.



What’s happened?



Yesterday, San Francisco-based Allbirds, whose wool footwear had been popular with Silicon Valley locals, announced something completely unexpected: it would stop making shoes and instead become yet another AI company.



Specifically, Allbirds said it will “pivot its business to AI compute infrastructure, with a long-term vision to become a fully integrated GPU-as-a-Service (GPUaaS) and AI-native cloud solutions provider.” 



In other words, the company’s new business model will involve spending millions to buy GPUs, and it will then rent those GPUs out to AI developers. This GPU-as-a-Service (GPUaaS) model puts the former shoemaker against GPUaaS juggernauts like Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure.



Allbirds will be changing its name to NewBird AI, while the “Allbirds” shoe brand will continue to be sold under its new owner, American Exchange Group (AXNY). Allbirds announced in March that it was selling its assets to AXNY for $39 million.



But what many found crazier than this out-of-left-field pivot was that investors absolutely ate up the news. 



After announcing its AI plans, BIRD stock soared 582% yesterday, closing at $16.99 per share. To put that into further context, BIRD stock closed at $2.49 just the day before.



Yet today, BIRD stock is already falling. If history is any guide, the shoemaker’s AI pivot might not turn out as well as investors hope.



Allbirds stock drops in premarket trading



BIRD shares experienced a steep decline this morning in premarket trading. At one point, BIRD was down more than 30%. As of this writing, premarket trading remained volatile, with shares down about 8% at press time. 



The most likely reason for the decline is simple profit-taking. Allbirds investors made massive gains yesterday, and some of those investors no doubt want to lock in those paper gains, which they do by selling the stock, thereby solidifying their profits.



Such profit-taking is very common the day after any stock has a tremendous run.



But today’s profit-taking isn’t what should worry Allbirds’ investors the most. What should worry them most is that Allbirds is not the only company to ever abandon its historic business model to pivot to a completely unrelated one just to join the latest hype train. And it didn’t work out well for the most notorious example.



The specter of Long Island Iced Tea



In 2011, the Long Island Iced Tea Corp was founded. As the company’s name suggests, it was a beverage company that made ready-to-drink iced tea products. 



But in 2017, when investors were throwing their money at any company operating in the then-burgeoning hot blockchain space, Long Island Iced Tea Corp decided to go all-in on the blockchain hype.



While the company said it would continue to operate its beverage business, it said it intended to shift “its primary corporate focus towards the exploration of and investment in opportunities that leverage the benefits of blockchain technology.” 



As part of this shift, Long Island Iced Tea Corp changed its name to Long Blockchain Corp.



And with that “blockchain” keyword in the name, boy did investors bite.



As noted by CNN, Long Island’s stock price surged by as much as 380% on the pivot news. But from there, things went downhill. Its blockchain pivot never really materialized, and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) launched an investigation. In the end, the company’s once surging stock was delisted from the Nasdaq.



While the Long Island Iced Tea Corp’s story doesn’t mean the same thing will happen to every company that pivots its business model, it is a stark example of the potential challenges that lie ahead—possible risks for investors—when a company announces a radical shift toward the latest sector that just happens to be taking Wall Street by storm.



Whether Allbirds’ pivot will be successful remains to be seen. But it may serve investors best in the long term to proceed with caution before jumping into such an abrupt change of direction. Maybe sit back and have a nice glass of iced tea first.



This story is developing… ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Thu, 16 Apr 2026 14:00:13 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Allbirds, stock, already, falling, after, the, pivot., History, suggests, investors, should, proceed, with, caution</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Canva is officially ‘an AI platform with design tools’</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/canva-is-officially-an-ai-platform-with-design-tools</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/canva-is-officially-an-ai-platform-with-design-tools</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Canva built its 265-million-person audience by being the easy-to-use, template-friendly design tool for everyone. And when generative AI arrived, it quickly integrated the technology.



Now, Canva is amongst the leading spenders on compute from platforms like ChatGPT, it’s building its own models and acquiring its own AI companies, and it’s launching even more AI design features as part of its Canva AI 2.0 release that it’s announcing today.



But the headline marks a deeper, philosophical shift within Canva: From being “a design platform with AI tools” to becoming an “AI platform with design tools.”



[Image: Canva]



Connecting with Canva’s CEO, Mel Perkins, I asked about the motivation behind this repositioning. In this age of AI, much of the industry has been discussing what you could call either a flattening or a war between the roles of designers, product managers, and engineers. Was Canva responding to this trend? 



In response, Perkins pulls up an old idea from 2011 called Canvas Chef, which looks a lot like the Google Search page but with wood paneling and some kitchen kitsch. 



“From the very early stages, we always believed that you could just be able to type in whatever you want and kind of get kickstarted straight away,” she says. “Obviously, it has been a very long journey to get to this point in time, but really, that is actually what we’re launching today.”



Canva AI 2.0 looks like Perkins’s 15-year-old vision, and also the Canva you already know. The real difference now is that Canva’s existing AI tab—which is pretty much a search bar—has been supercharged with more capabilities. 



A big upgrade is around connecting services. You can now link Google Drive, Gmail, Slack, Zoom, and Notion—plus it’ll crawl for an answer on the web, or even search your old Canva projects—allowing Canva to bring in relevant information that I imagine will be particularly valuable to marketers. 



[Image: Canva]



Whereas you used to be able to create a somewhat generic deck from a prompt, now you can infuse that deck with data that’s lurking in your emails or spreadsheets. Other upgrades allow you to do a lot more when AI-editing that deck. Formerly, it was a one-shot, generate-the-whole-thing-for-me ask. Now, you can actually edit individual slides with AI prompts instead of starting over. Similar capabilities exist for brand templates. Before, if you didn’t start a project with your brand standards, you couldn’t always update them retroactively. Now, AI will transform any design you throw at it to be more on-brand.



[Image: Canva]



And of course, Canva will develop interactive projects, too, which publish straight to the web.



“When we launched Canva, the huge innovation was we went from pixel editing, where you had to very deeply know the tools, to object editing, where you could just lay things out,” says Perkins. “And now with Canva AI 2.0 we’re actually moving into concept editing, where you can put in a concept it can then assemble it for you on the fly.” 



That said, Canva isn’t removing any of the physical tools people are used to. For this big update and grand repositioning, Canva’s vibe is largely unchanged. The more radical updates live under the hood, developed by Canva’s 100+ person AI research team.



Multi-agents made invisible



Behind the scenes, Canva provides this upgraded AI toolset by offering AI agents to its users—but those users never actually see them. I’m told that Canva’s own AI layer sits between its app and the external AI services it queries, juggling a complicated, multi-agent workflow that the Valley’s top coders are addicted to, without ever asking the user to think about more than one AI question at once. Perkins says this is what allows complicated tasks, that might need to remove the background of an image and generate copy and apply brand standards at the same time.



[Image: Canva]



As the capabilities stack up, I wonder if Canva’s subscription prices can offer people the amount of AI processing they’ll need to take advantage of the service. Canva is ahead of this issue, as it’s introducing a special AI Pass that, for $100/mo, offers Pro users 40x more AI and Business users 20x more AI.



Despite Canva’s aggressive incorporation of AI, I still can’t help but wonder if it’s being experimental enough, as AI feels poised to melt the boundaries of media as we know them. Canva is excellent at reducing the friction around creating things, but it’s not all that deep for experimentation or exploration. And it’s not challenging the status quo of the prompt.



CJ Jones, head of GenAI design at Canva, says the company is rolling out the AI features that its users are asking for. And the fact is that, today, a lot of their users aren’t graphic design professionals who are artists with a mouse. Instead, most people are using AI to remove backgrounds in images and translate text to English (as many users are not native English speakers).



Even still, Jones insists that Canva is thinking more experimentally in the larger term, taking a patient, car company approach to redesigning its own software over time.



“Part of our product development process is looking at two years from now, five years from now, 10 years from now, and what we’ll do from there is [consider] this might be a really wild idea that completely redesigns Canva,” says Jones. “But we have to keep in mind our base right now…How easy is it to move them from where we are today to that? And so what we’ll do is look at the core of that vision, and how we want to bring that [to the product].” 



Canva AI 2.0 launches today in a preview to Pro and Business customers. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Thu, 16 Apr 2026 14:00:13 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Canva, officially, ‘an, platform, with, design, tools’</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Social Security COLA prediction for 2027 could mean bad news for seniors</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/social-security-cola-prediction-for-2027-could-mean-bad-news-for-seniors</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/social-security-cola-prediction-for-2027-could-mean-bad-news-for-seniors</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Social Security’s cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) could stay at 2.8% in 2027, the same as its rate for this year.



That’s the latest prediction from The Senior Citizens League (TSCL) and mirrors 2026’s COLA. If enacted in October, it would increase the average benefits check from $2,024.77 to $2,081.46—a $56.69 increase. 



The TSCL finds the 2.8% increase concerning due to high costs of living, such as rents and mortgages. 



“The fact is that most senior households already get by on only about 58% as much income as their working-age counterparts, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a middle-class or working-class American who thinks the economy is doing well right now, especially as oil prices rise,” TSCL executive director Shannon Benton said in a statement. 



She added: “Reforming Social Security needs to follow a two-pronged approach, strengthening revenues and benefits at the same time to ensure prosperity for all Americans, of all ages.”



How was the COLA prediction calculated? 



The nonpartisan senior group’s prediction uses a model incorporating the Consumer Price Index (CPI), the Federal Reserve interest rate, and the national unemployment rate. It releases a new figure monthly, but has maintained a predicted 2.8% COLA since February. 



The predicted COLA comes as Congress has proposed capping Social Security payments at $50,000 for one person and $100,000 for couples. 



The “Six Figure Limit” aims to prevent looming insolvency—something that is on track to occur in seven years. 



However, the TSCL claims most seniors aren’t in favor of the cap, instead in favor of getting rid of a $184,500 limit on income receiving Social Security tax. 



Notably, TSCL’s prediction is just one estimate floating around. 



For instance, independent Social Security and Medicare policy analyst Mary Johnson has predicted a COLA of 3.2%, CNBC reports. This figure is up from Johnson’s March prediction of 1.7%, a shift she attributes to rising gas prices. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Thu, 16 Apr 2026 14:00:13 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Social, Security, COLA, prediction, for, 2027, could, mean, bad, news, for, seniors</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>What’s next for Live Nation? Jury reaches verdict in antitrust case over Ticketmaster fees</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/whats-next-for-live-nation-jury-reaches-verdict-in-antitrust-case-over-ticketmaster-fees</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/whats-next-for-live-nation-jury-reaches-verdict-in-antitrust-case-over-ticketmaster-fees</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Music lovers who have complained for years about Ticketmaster fees for concert tickets are surely reveling in a jury verdict Wednesday that found its parent company Live Nation has been running a harmful monopoly over large venues across the U.S.But they will have to wait to see if the verdict leads to changes that make concerts more affordable.Here are some things to know about the verdict in the closely-watched antitrust battle:



No immediate relief for concertgoers



The lawsuit, initially led by the U.S. government under former President Joe Biden, accused Live Nation of smothering competition and blocking venues from using multiple ticket sellers. Days into the trial, however, President Donald Trump’s administration announced it would settle its claims against the concert giant. Some states joined the $280 million settlement, which still needs a judge’s approval, but more than 30 states pressed ahead with the trial.A federal jury in New York found that Ticketmaster had overcharged customers $1.72 per ticket in 22 states, which a judge could order the company to pay back. That could cost Live Nation hundreds of millions of dollars.“The jury’s verdict is not the last word on this matter,” Live Nation said in a statement Wednesday.The verdict brings no immediate relief for concertgoers. But the states view it as a step toward opening the market to other companies in a way that will enhance competition and could slightly lower prices.“There might be a few extra dollars that will come trickle down at consumers who bought tickets through Live Nation,” said Shubha Ghosh, a law professor at Syracuse University who focuses on technology and antitrust law. “Whether ticket prices will go down in the long run, I think it largely depends.”



Verdict could cost company hundreds of millions



The next step will be determining the penalties. Beyond the hundreds of millions that Live Nation could be ordered to pay, possible sanctions could force the company to sell off some of its venues. Live Nation owns, controls booking for or has equity in hundreds of venues, and its subsidiary Ticketmaster is the world’s largest ticket-seller for live events.



Live Nation has continued to insist that it is not a monopoly.The company predicted that once the remedies phase of the case plays out and any appeals are resolved, the outcome likely won’t be much different from the deal it reached with the federal government.U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian told attorneys to meet and deliver a joint letter by next week that proposes a schedule for next steps.



Senators urge judge to scrutinize federal settlement



A group of Democratic senators wrote to the judge Wednesday after the verdict, urging him to closely scrutinize the Trump administration’s proposed settlement with Live Nation before he considers granting approval.The deal includes a cap on service fees at some amphitheaters and new ticket-selling options that could allow promoters and venues to also use Ticketmaster competitors, such as SeatGeek, Eventbrite or AXS. However, it does not separate Ticketmaster from Live Nation, which was an original goal of the Justice Department’s 2024 complaint.U.S. Sens. Amy Klobuchar, Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Richard Blumenthal, Mazie Hirono and Peter Welch argue the deal was “negotiated under suspicious circumstances” and does not go far enough in restoring competition or protecting customers, artists and independent venues.The Justice Department has called the settlement a “win-win for everybody,” and Live Nation has said it is pleased with a deal that increases access for other promoters.







Associated Press journalists Wyatte Grantham-Philips and David Martin contributed.



—Hannah Schoenbaum, Associated Press ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://images.fastcompany.com/image/upload/w_1280,q_auto,f_auto,fl_lossy/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit/wp-cms-2/2026/04/AP26105688281469.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Thu, 16 Apr 2026 14:00:13 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>What’s, next, for, Live, Nation, Jury, reaches, verdict, antitrust, case, over, Ticketmaster, fees</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>The best CRM system for your micro business</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/the-best-crm-system-for-your-micro-business</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/the-best-crm-system-for-your-micro-business</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ By Anna Jordan on Small Business UK - Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs


A customer relationship management (CRM) system can really help your micro business to grow. We take a look at key features and platforms.
The post The best CRM system for your micro business appeared first on Small Business UK. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://smallbusiness-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2019/06/AdobeStock_228728388-e1559665846519.jpeg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Thu, 16 Apr 2026 14:00:11 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>The, best, CRM, system, for, your, micro, business</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>How to become a driving instructor</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/how-to-become-a-driving-instructor</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/how-to-become-a-driving-instructor</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ By Anna Jordan on Small Business UK - Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs


Do you want to become a driving instructor? Here we explain the need-to-knows such as  what the tests entail and franchise vs independent
The post How to become a driving instructor appeared first on Small Business UK. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://smallbusiness-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2021/09/Driving-instructor-pic.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Thu, 16 Apr 2026 14:00:10 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>How, become, driving, instructor</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Solar panel grants for businesses</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/solar-panel-grants-for-businesses</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/solar-panel-grants-for-businesses</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ By Dom Walbanke on Small Business UK - Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs


If your business uses solar panels, you can generate cash from National Grid suppliers for the energy you produce and do not use
The post Solar panel grants for businesses appeared first on Small Business UK. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://smallbusiness-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2023/02/solar-panel-grants-scaled.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Thu, 16 Apr 2026 14:00:09 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Solar, panel, grants, for, businesses</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>How to start a taxi business</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/how-to-start-a-taxi-business</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/how-to-start-a-taxi-business</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ By Tim Adler on Small Business UK - Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs


Driving a minicab or a taxi has many benefits. You can work the hours you want to and supplement another career, whether you are a creative, a tradesman or even a teacher. But the biggest benefit could be the sense of performing a service for the vulnerable
The post How to start a taxi business appeared first on Small Business UK. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://smallbusiness-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2023/01/Uber-driver-scaled.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Thu, 16 Apr 2026 14:00:08 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>How, start, taxi, business</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>How to create a YouTube channel for your small business</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/how-to-create-a-youtube-channel-for-your-small-business</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/how-to-create-a-youtube-channel-for-your-small-business</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ By Anna Jordan on Small Business UK - Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs


Before you jump in and start creating content for your channel, you need to create a YouTube account for your small business. Here&#039;s how
The post How to create a YouTube channel for your small business appeared first on Small Business UK. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://smallbusiness-staging.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2021/10/YouTube-pic-scaled-1.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Thu, 16 Apr 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>How, create, YouTube, channel, for, your, small, business</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Founders push for ‘repeat entrepreneur relief’ to keep exit capital flowing back into UK start&#45;ups</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/founders-push-for-repeat-entrepreneur-relief-to-keep-exit-capital-flowing-back-into-uk-start-ups</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/founders-push-for-repeat-entrepreneur-relief-to-keep-exit-capital-flowing-back-into-uk-start-ups</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Entrepreneurs are urging the Treasury to introduce a capital gains tax deferral for founders who reinvest exit proceeds into new UK ventures within 12 months, as lobbying intensifies around repeat entrepreneur relief.
Read more: 
Founders push for ‘repeat entrepreneur relief’ to keep exit capital flowing back into UK start-ups ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Reeves_No11.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Mon, 13 Apr 2026 14:00:08 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Founders, push, for, ‘repeat, entrepreneur, relief’, keep, exit, capital, flowing, back, into, start-ups</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>UK firms risk being left behind as AI adoption gap widens, warns PwC</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/uk-firms-risk-being-left-behind-as-ai-adoption-gap-widens-warns-pwc</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/uk-firms-risk-being-left-behind-as-ai-adoption-gap-widens-warns-pwc</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
British companies are spending less on AI and seeing weaker returns than global leaders, with PwC warning the next 12 months are critical for UK firms to close the gap.
Read more: 
UK firms risk being left behind as AI adoption gap widens, warns PwC ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/shutterstock_2763201555.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Mon, 13 Apr 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>firms, risk, being, left, behind, adoption, gap, widens, warns, PwC</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Virgin StartUp opens second round of free accelerator for dyslexic entrepreneurs</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/virgin-startup-opens-second-round-of-free-accelerator-for-dyslexic-entrepreneurs</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/virgin-startup-opens-second-round-of-free-accelerator-for-dyslexic-entrepreneurs</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Virgin StartUp has opened applications for Momentum 2.0, its free accelerator programme for dyslexic entrepreneurs, running from May to July 2026 with backing from Virgin Unite and Made By Dyslexia.
Read more: 
Virgin StartUp opens second round of free accelerator for dyslexic entrepreneurs ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/shutterstock_1205279446-scaled.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Mon, 13 Apr 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Virgin, StartUp, opens, second, round, free, accelerator, for, dyslexic, entrepreneurs</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Rising energy costs from Middle East conflict set to leave UK households £480 worse off this year</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/rising-energy-costs-from-middle-east-conflict-set-to-leave-uk-households-480-worse-off-this-year</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/rising-energy-costs-from-middle-east-conflict-set-to-leave-uk-households-480-worse-off-this-year</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Resolution Foundation warns typical working-age household faces 0.6% income decline as oil and gas price rises driven by Iran conflict wipe out energy cap savings.
Read more: 
Rising energy costs from Middle East conflict set to leave UK households £480 worse off this year ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/shutterstock_2762013411.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Mon, 13 Apr 2026 14:00:06 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Rising, energy, costs, from, Middle, East, conflict, set, leave, households, £480, worse, off, this, year</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Government doubles down on gaming with £30m funding package as sector eyes global growth</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/government-doubles-down-on-gaming-with-30m-funding-package-as-sector-eyes-global-growth</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/government-doubles-down-on-gaming-with-30m-funding-package-as-sector-eyes-global-growth</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
The UK government has unveiled a £30m funding package for video game developers, doubling support for the sector through its Creative Industries Sector Plan and Industrial Strategy.
Read more: 
Government doubles down on gaming with £30m funding package as sector eyes global growth ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/shutterstock_2503867505.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Mon, 13 Apr 2026 14:00:05 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Government, doubles, down, gaming, with, £30m, funding, package, sector, eyes, global, growth</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Apple reportedly testing four designs for upcoming smart glasses</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/apple-reportedly-testing-four-designs-for-upcoming-smart-glasses</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/apple-reportedly-testing-four-designs-for-upcoming-smart-glasses</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ These glasses are a step back from an ambitious plan that once called for Apple to launch a variety of mixed and augmented reality devices. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/GettyImages-2224174932.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Mon, 13 Apr 2026 14:00:04 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Apple, reportedly, testing, four, designs, for, upcoming, smart, glasses</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Trump officials may be encouraging banks to test Anthropic’s Mythos model</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/trump-officials-may-be-encouraging-banks-to-test-anthropics-mythos-model</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/trump-officials-may-be-encouraging-banks-to-test-anthropics-mythos-model</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ The report is particularly surprising since the Department of Defense recently declared Anthropic a supply-chain risk. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/anthropic-image-jagmeet-singh-techcrunch.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Mon, 13 Apr 2026 14:00:04 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Trump, officials, may, encouraging, banks, test, Anthropic’s, Mythos, model</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>The largest orbital compute cluster is open for business</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/the-largest-orbital-compute-cluster-is-open-for-business</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/the-largest-orbital-compute-cluster-is-open-for-business</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Kepler Communications is flying 40 GPUs in Earth orbit. And its latest customer is Sophia Space. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/KEPLER-T1-.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Mon, 13 Apr 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>The, largest, orbital, compute, cluster, open, for, business</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Roblox introduces ‘Kids’ and ‘Select’ accounts for age&#45;appropriate access to games and chat</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/roblox-introduces-kids-and-select-accounts-for-age-appropriate-access-to-games-and-chat</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/roblox-introduces-kids-and-select-accounts-for-age-appropriate-access-to-games-and-chat</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Users aged five to nine will be assigned to a &quot;Roblox Kids&quot; account, and users aged nine to 15 to will be put in a &quot;Roblox Select&quot; account. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/roblox-header.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Mon, 13 Apr 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Roblox, introduces, ‘Kids’, and, ‘Select’, accounts, for, age-appropriate, access, games, and, chat</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Slate Auto raises $650M to fund its affordable EV truck plans</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/slate-auto-raises-650m-to-fund-its-affordable-ev-truck-plans</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/slate-auto-raises-650m-to-fund-its-affordable-ev-truck-plans</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Slate Auto&#039;s latest funding round was led by existing investor TWG Global, a firm run by LA Dodgers owner Mark Walter. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Blank-Slate-Profile_web.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Mon, 13 Apr 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Slate, Auto, raises, 650M, fund, its, affordable, truck, plans</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Workplaces are pushing out working mothers—and paying the cost</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/workplaces-are-pushing-out-working-mothersand-paying-the-cost</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/workplaces-are-pushing-out-working-mothersand-paying-the-cost</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Dr. Anne Welsh had her dream job as a clinical psychologist at Harvard University Health Services, working with undergraduate and graduate students. But in 2011, while pregnant with her second child and raising a toddler at home, she decided that her 60-client caseload was no longer sustainable.



Welsh and another pregnant colleague developed a plan. They would share a caseload, splitting responsibilities so they could continue working part-time while caring for their growing families. They created a detailed job-share proposal covering logistics, scheduling, and continuity of care. Welsh brought it to their practice director. 



Their director barely glanced at it. 



Part-time work, he informed Welsh, was “too logistically complicated.” There were hundreds of other people who wanted her job. She could take it—or leave it. 



Welsh left.



She wasn’t the only one to leave. In the following years, four or five more clinicians resigned after becoming parents, including the colleague who co-created the job proposal with Welsh. The institution finally adjusted its caseload expectations, but not before inflexibility cost these parents their jobs and led to the loss of talented employees with institutional knowledge.



What looks like a personal choice is often shaped by something larger—systems that leave little room for mothers to stay. 



The forces pushing women out 



During the first half of last year, more than 455,000 women left the U.S. workforce—the sharpest decline in over 40 years for mothers of young children. 



Some have described it as opting out. Welsh says “forced out” is more accurate.



Experts point to a combination of pressures: return-to-work mandates, limited flexibility, invisible labor pressures at home, and rising childcare costs. Daycare and preschool have risen around two times the cost of overall inflation for the past year and a half.



“It means that more and more workers are being affected,” Matthew Nestler, a senior economist at KPMG, told Fast Company. “And it’s roughly 90% women, mostly women 25 to 44.” 



Many of these women are leaving their careers to become the default parent. 



At the same time, the Women in the Workplace 2025 report found that women were 6% less likely than men to seek promotions, framing the trend as an “ambition gap.” 



However, the report notes that this so-called gap is often a response to a lack of workplace support, including limited mentorship and persistent gender bias. The report also found that 25% of entry and senior-level women cite personal obligations at home as the reason they don’t want to take on more responsibilities.



Many high-achieving women, Welsh says, are caught in a psychological bind—deeply committed to their career and motherhood, yet feel as though they’re failing at both.



This “ambition paradox” is a concept explored in her forthcoming book, Ambitious Mother: From Surviving to Thriving in Your Career and at Home. Women aren’t losing ambition, she says, they’re forced to refine it. Some are doing this by starting their own companies, others by stepping back to part-time work or staying home to care for their children. 



But scaling back often comes at the expense of career advancement and long-term earning potential, a phenomenon known as the “motherhood penalty.” One Urban Institute study estimated that caregivers lose an average of $237,000 in lifetime earnings. And according to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, employed mothers nationwide earned around 62 to 74 cents per dollar paid to fathers in 2022. 



The motherhood advantage that companies are losing out on



Working mothers are often viewed as less committed, driven, or focused, but the irony is that the transition into motherhood has cognitive benefits that can benefit their careers. One study found that midlife mothers with more children had “younger-looking brains,” “faster response times, and fewer errors on visual memory tasks,” and better verbal memory.



 “When you have a child, it is the most massive neuro-rewiring that you experience as a person other than in adolescence,” says Welsh, adding that mothers often become stronger in time prioritization, emotional intelligence, delegation, and boundary setting



In other words, workplaces are losing women when they are at their zenith. Companies are paying a price for this.



Those that fail to support and train mothers lose out on institutional knowledge, productivity, and profitability, says Nestler. There are also tangible financial losses: replacing mid-level employees can cost as much as double their annual salary, due to recruiting, training, and ramp-up time.



 Research also shows that companies who prioritized women’s representation outperform their peers by 18%. 



When workplaces recognize motherhood as an advantage, not a liability, they may begin promoting mothers instead of punishing them, Welsh says.



The care and keeping of working mothers 



Welsh says meaningful support starts with parental leave policies that don’t penalize either parent. 



“I’ve worked with women who returned from leave to find they were passed over for a promotion that had been on track before they left,” says Welsh. “I’ve worked with others who were told to “take it easy” when they came back, even when they were ready and eager to re-engage, and in that process had key clients or projects reassigned.” 



Allowing parents to take the leave promised to them without penalties needs to come with “clear promotion criteria, intentional re-onboarding, and ensuring people return to meaningful work rather than a narrowed scope,” adds Welsh. 



 Flexible work environments with real boundaries, not 24/7 expectations, are also imperative. 



“There are plenty of jobs that cannot be done remotely, but we can have flexibility in those cases around schedules—coming in or leaving, having a longer workday, fewer days a week…or some flexibility around structure,” says Welsh. 



She advocates for outcome-based evaluations rather than time-based ones.



 “What are we actually wanting to pay people for?” she asks. “Is it the literal time they’re sitting at their chair, or is it the impact they are making?”



Additional supports include childcare support, normalizing caretaking responsibilities, and executive coaching for working parents. 



Executive coaching helps parents to stop viewing work and family as competing forces, says Welsh, and to translate their experiences at home into intentional leadership skills that show up in the workplace, too. 



When you offer this kind of support to new parents, Welsh says companies often see “higher retention, especially at mid-career points where many women leave. You see stronger leadership pipelines because people aren’t opting out or being sidelined during these transitions. And you see managers who are more thoughtful, more decisive, and better equipped to lead teams through complexity.”



But until workplace culture evolves, working mothers are stuck feeling as if they have to choose between their family and their careers. 



The corporate ladder is not working for mothers



For decades, success has been defined by the corporate ladder—you climb up the rungs for money, power, and titles, or you fall off. However, working mothers are now redefining what career success looks like.



Instead of a ladder,  Welsh uses the analogy of a playground web to illustrate how ambition is an expansive concept that allows movement in all directions—upward, sideways, downwards, depending on someone’s needs. Lynette-Matthews-Murphy, an award-winning restaurateur in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, can relate.



Matthews-Murphy started in fashion and events, later purchased a wedding publication, which she sold three years later when the demands of motherhood felt overwhelming. She then stayed home with her toddler. But, while pregnant with her second child, her marriage fell apart. She was forced to re-enter the workforce as a single mother of two boys, an infant and a three-year-old. 



Over the years, she says her career looked like a zig-zag line, shifting careers to meet the demands of her growing boys. When the boys were in late elementary and middle school, Matthews-Murphy stepped back from her full-time job as visitor center manager in Winston-Salem to a part-time position to spend more time with them. She had remarried, making the pay cut possible. 



Two years later, she rejoined the workforce this time as an executive director for Winston-Salem’s event program. While it was a full time job and far more responsibility, she was also given flexibility such as setting her own hours and working from home, which made the job sustainable.



After her children left for college, Matthews-Murphy felt ready to reinvent her career again, and ultimately opened two award-winning restaurants, which are fixtures in the Winston-Salem community. 



Both Welsh and Matthews-Murphy have adapted and reinvented themselves multiple times. For mothers like them who step away or pull back for a season, ambition isn’t lost—it simply shifts. With support and a bit of reinvention, they can re-enter or remain in the workforce. But it takes flexibility from smart companies willing to recognize motherhood as an advantage, not a liability. In turn, they’re rewarded with a more productive, efficient, and resilient workforce. 



The companies that force mothers out will pay for it through the steep financial costs of turnover, retraining, and missed innovation they can’t easily replace. And it will be a loss of their own making.  ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Sun, 12 Apr 2026 14:00:10 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Workplaces, are, pushing, out, working, mothers—and, paying, the, cost</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Why you’re just one event away from quitting your job</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/why-youre-just-one-event-away-from-quitting-your-job</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/why-youre-just-one-event-away-from-quitting-your-job</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Below, Anthony Klotz shares five key insights from his new book, Jolted: Why We Quit, When to Stay, and Why It Matters.



Klotz is a professor of organizational behavior at UCL School of Management in London. He is best known for predicting the pandemic-related Great Resignation. He has written for the Harvard Business Review and The Wall Street Journal, and his research is regularly published in leading academic journals in management.



What’s the big idea?



Even when quitting feels like a slow burn that dances around your mind for months—or even years—the truth is that finally leaving is caused by a sudden spark. Unexpected “jolts” drive us to rethink our work, often leading to impulsive exits, but we can respond more deliberately to make smarter career moves.



Listen to the audio version of this Book Bite—read by Klotz himself—in the Next Big Idea app, or buy the book.







1. We’re all one event away from quitting our jobs.



If you were to get enough money to live as comfortably as you would like for the rest of your life, would you continue to work or stop?



Every two years since 1972, the General Social Survey has asked a representative sample of Americans this very question. For most of that time, the results have steadily indicated that around 7 out of 10 people would keep working even if they didn’t need the paycheck. Global surveys indicate similar findings. But then the pandemic hit, and the number of people reporting they would keep working if they won the lottery dropped precipitously to an all-time low. This drop corresponded with a historic surge in people quitting their jobs: the Great Resignation.



When teaching and speaking, I ask the lottery question and always find similar results. However, one time, a professional in the audience asked me to rephrase the question so that instead of asking How many people would keep working, it asked How many people would quit their jobs if they won the lottery. I have asked it in this rephrased way many times since, and consistently find that only around 10% of people would keep working at their current job if they struck it rich.




“But then the pandemic hit, and the number of people reporting they would keep working if they won the lottery dropped precipitously to an all-time low.”




What do the changes in these lottery-question responses—before and after the pandemic, and between working in general versus working at your current job—tell us about our relationship with work? We are all just one event away from quitting our jobs. These events, called jolts, happen much more frequently than lottery wins or pandemics.



2. “Jolts” are the missing piece of the quitting puzzle.



In 2005, comedian Dave Chappelle abruptly quit his TV show at the height of its success. What led him to suddenly walk away?



Organizational psychologists have studied the causes of quitting for over a century, and for most of that time, the research could be boiled down to two main reasons for turnover:




The negative parts of your job add up over time and push you toward quitting.



When positive opportunities for other jobs or careers are appealing enough, they pull you away from your current job, toward the exit door.




Push and pull. These two forces are intuitive and powerful, and they do explain why people quit in many cases. The only problem is that they only explain around half of the quitting that happens in the workforce. What about the other half, like Chappelle’s sudden turn away from success?



In the early 1990s, organizational researchers Tom Lee and Terry Mitchell found the missing piece of the puzzle. They proposed, and then provided evidence, that quitting often stems from one single event that jolts employees, causing them to rethink their relationship with work. In explaining why he left, Chappelle described one such jolt, in which the bad behavior of a single colleague during a specific episode triggered reflection, and then a strong urge to walk away from the show.



If you think back over your own life, you can probably recall some of the jolts you’ve experienced—events, big and small, that stop you in your tracks, often leading you to make major career changes.



3. You will encounter six types of jolts in your life.



Over the past three decades, researchers, including myself, have catalogued the different types of jolts that spur employees to quit:




Direct jolts stem from negative events that happen to us at work. They can range from major failures that make us question whether we are a good fit for our jobs, to minor slights like a rude comment from our boss.



Sideways jolts come to us collaterally, stemming from events that befall our coworkers. These also include when our colleagues quit their jobs, and it affects us through a process called turnover contagion.



External jolts reside outside of work, when negative events in our personal lives reveal that we need to rethink our relationship with work.



Specialized jolts such as those that strike during what is, somewhat counterintuitively, the most common time for quitting across organizations: the first year on the job.



Distant jolts don’t affect us directly, but still can jolt us. Science is increasingly revealing how and why events that happen in faraway places influence us.



Positive jolts come from the bright side of life, emerging from both the big and the mundane positive events in our lives.




Jolts are everywhere! Because jolts are so prevalent, it can be difficult to determine when we should take action in response to them, versus simply carrying on. But figuring that out is critical, given the stakes involved.



4. The honeymoon-hangover effect is real, but avoidable.



In the years following the Great Resignation, dozens of news stories reported that some workers who quit during that period ultimately regretted their decision. Some went so far as to call it the Great Regret. For those of us who study turnover, however, a spike in regret following a spike in resignations is to be expected, due to what is known as the honeymoon-hangover effect.



One of the most common mistakes people make in response to jolts is quitting too soon. Although quick quitting is sometimes warranted, it is often a one-way ticket to regret. Discovered and coined by management scholar Wendy Boswell, the honeymoon-hangover effect describes the reality that many job and career changes lead to an immediate bump in happiness and well-being, followed by a crash that leaves many workers less happy in their new role than in the one they just quit.



This crash comes from two places. First, it comes from a jolt wherein you realize that one or more expectations that you had about your new job are not going to be met. Second, it comes from the realization that you could have taken action to fix the problem in your prior job before you called it quits.




“One of the most common mistakes people make in response to jolts is quitting too soon.”




While it’s normal to have some mixed feelings after quitting a job, regret needn’t be one of them. By developing a strategy for responding to jolts that goes beyond the binary options of carrying on or walking away, we can maximize the chances of either fixing our relationship with work without quitting or quitting in a way that avoids any hangovers in our next chapter.



5. You can learn to leave better.



In 2012, Greg Smith quit his job at Goldman Sachs by publishing an op-ed in The New York Times that cast the bank in an unfavorable light. Although bridge-burning resignations remain rare, thanks to social media, examples of them are more prevalent than ever.



However, instead of actively harming their relationship with a soon-to-be former employer, most workers try to quit in a way that preserves or strengthens it. And yet, people often resign in ways that unnecessarily harm their connection to the company or don’t set them up for success in their next role. Quitting is complicated and doesn’t come with a guidebook, and you often can’t ask for help from the most useful sources of information—your current coworkers and boss. Still, we can quit better.



The pre-resignation period is critical because it’s when we decide on the reason we’ll give for our departure, who we’ll confide in (if anyone) before we put in our notice, and how we will say goodbye.




“The pre-resignation period is critical.”




Next comes the actual resignation. In my research, I’ve found that there are seven different ways people quit, and each has different consequences for their final days on the job and future relationship with their former employer.



Finally, there’s that awkward time after you’ve announced your departure but before you’ve left. When navigated well, the notice period can provide a satisfying close to one chapter of your life and a smooth transition to the next.



Enjoy our full library of Book Bites—read by the authors!—in the Next Big Idea app.



This article originally appeared in Next Big Idea Club magazine and is reprinted with permission. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://images.fastcompany.com/image/upload/w_1280,q_auto,f_auto,fl_lossy/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit/wp-cms-2/2026/04/p-91523287-you-are-one-jolt-away-from-quitting-your-job.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sun, 12 Apr 2026 14:00:10 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Why, you’re, just, one, event, away, from, quitting, your, job</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>The 3 reasons why VCs invest: Faith, opportunity, or evidence</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/the-3-reasons-why-vcs-invest-faith-opportunity-or-evidence</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/the-3-reasons-why-vcs-invest-faith-opportunity-or-evidence</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ I have spent the better part of a decade helping thousands of first-time founders raise their first round of outside capital, and evaluating thousands more for investment.



In all of these data points, I found a pattern that explains every single VC round. 



In the last six months, I’ve seen this pattern play out more dramatically than ever before. Founders are failing to raise without ever really knowing why. I find myself bringing it up again and again to help folks who are raising.



So I decided to write about it. Because every founder should know exactly where they fall, and plan accordingly.



The only 3 types of rounds in venture capital



There are three core reasons why venture capitalists make an investment: faith, opportunity, and evidence. These reasons are sequential and cumulative: Some VCs will invest on faith but no evidence, but no VCs will invest on evidence but no faith. 



Let’s break it down.



Faith-based investing



The difference between hope and faith is belief, and that’s what drives an investor to write a check at the earliest stage of a company—their belief in the founder or founding team. This belief might be based on firsthand knowledge of the founder—like a former coworker or a cousin you know well. Or it might be based on pattern-matching the founder’s background—making bets on founders with a certain university degree and two years of experience at specific hot startups or an AI lab.



All that is needed here is belief in the person or team, and little, or nothing, more. The result may be a friends-and-family round, or a giant pre-seed for a proven founder. 



Of course, not everyone gets to raise on faith. If you don’t match the pattern, don’t have prior outcomes, and don’t have rich friends and family, you are probably not going to raise a faith-based round. 



If that’s you, there’s no choice but to skip this round and go straight to the next one.



Opportunity-based investing



This is the stage at which investors start to look for more and clearer proof in the opportunity itself. The team still has to be strong—that’s table stakes. But now the team has started to show how they operate. They’ve started to target a giant total addressable market (TAM) and demonstrate an early competitive advantage. It might be an early prototype or a built-in distribution moat. Just enough to pique investors’ interest without needing prior firsthand knowledge of the founder. Most pre-seed and seed rounds today are based on opportunity. 



Evidence-based investing



As the company grows and there is more evidence to scrutinize, investors start evaluating the traction itself. The team is still important, and the opportunity still has to be enticing. But neither of these is enough. At this stage, investors will look at a company’s business performance, make some forward-looking assumptions, and calculate how much the company is worth based on the net present value of its expected future cash flows. It’s Finance 101.



For founders, the first evidence-based round can be quite the cold plunge. All of a sudden, the numbers really, really matter. Not just top-line revenue, but also pace of growth, unit economics, quality of the revenue, and repeatability of the motion. This is when the dream you’ve been selling meets cold-hard-cash reality. And unless you are among the very rarefied group of absolute top performers, that reality might hit hard.



A growing chasm



Traditionally, the shift from opportunity to evidence happened around the Series A, but this has swung wildly over the years and varies a lot based on sectors and macro factors. 



Notably, there used to be more overlap between opportunity-based and evidence-based rounds—the transition was more like going up a dial than turning on a switch.



Those days are well over.



I have never seen a bigger chasm between opportunity- and evidence-based investing than what I see today. It’s so wide that it’s more like a bifurcation—there’s a lot of VC money-chasing opportunities, there’s a lot of VC money-chasing hyperscalers, and there’s almost no VC money for anything in between.



The reason, of course, is artificial intelligence. The size of the opportunity created by the AI platform shift is unprecedented, which creates a lot of heat for certain companies at a very early stage—zero evidence necessary. The speed at which it’s happening is also unprecedented, and makes things super hard for everyone else. Even if you’re not AI-native, and even if that kind of growth shouldn’t and can’t be expected in every sector, hyperscalers like Anthropic are the new high watermark for evidence-based investing. For most companies, that watermark is phenomenally hard to reach.



This means that companies with traction that is anything less than phenomenal by hyperscaler standards are having a much harder time raising capital than ever before.



What this means for founders



Being a founder is not for the faint of heart. Once again, we’re living in unprecedented times. The way I see it, founders have two good choices, as well as some harder ones if they fall in between.



Option one is to go for broke. Raise as much as you can in your opportunity round. Raise as many opportunity rounds as you’re able. And then, swing for the fences. In finance-speak, you’re chasing alpha. Hypergrowth is possible in the age of AI, and for some founders, the best possible strategy is to go big or go home . . . the risk being the “go home” part.



Option two is to find your way to profitability. You can/should still raise as much as you can in your opportunity round, and raise as many opportunity rounds as you’re able. And then, focus on revenue and get profitable, fast. That way, you don’t have to raise against the shutdown clock or retain much more optionality for your business, and you may even seed-strap your way to a life-changing outcome. The risk here is stagnation, running out of motivation, and not finding an interested acquirer.



No man’s land



If you’re anywhere in between—if you have modest results and need more capital—your options are more limited, but you do have options. First, I’d focus on revenue quality and unit economics—even if your growth is more modest, you should be able to find investors who value strong business fundamentals. (You may have to go outside of VC to find them.) Second, keep your investors in the know—send consistent investor updates, and don’t wait until things get dire to ask for help. And finally, get creative—lower your burn and look for new sources of revenue, even if they’re not repeatable. (Pro tip: These days, you can do consulting and call it “forward deployed engineering” ?).



For every perfectly executed startup, there are many, many more companies that took a much less storied path to exit and success. It is okay not to have it all figured out. It is okay if your growth doesn’t look like Anthropic’s.



The only bad decision is to lie to yourself about where your next round will come from.



The math behind selling a dream



A note about why this all happens. There’s a truism in VC that’s hard to understand if you’ve never been in the investor’s seat: A company with no traction is more attractive to a VC than a company with traction—unless said traction is absolutely stellar.



The roots of this are the mathematics of probability. In short, the expected value of a huge-opportunity, no-evidence company is higher than the expected value of a high-opportunity, okay-evidence company. This leads a VC to lean toward the unproven moonshot nearly every time.



Here’s some simple math to illustrate. (I’m oversimplifying, so don’t @ me.)



Company A is pre-revenue, but in a super hot space. To an investor, it might appear as having a 99% chance of failure, and a 1% chance of a giant outcome. The Expected Value of Company A is ($0*99%) + ($1B*1%) = $10M.



Company B is further along. It might have reached six-figure revenue, but it took a couple of years. All of a sudden, the VC is plotting a trend line against the revenue, and it doesn’t look exponential. So, the outcome probability curve changes. Company B has a lower chance of failure, say 10%, because it has some revenue. There’s still some tiny chance that revenue will accelerate. But given the evidence, there is now a lot more certainty that the most likely outcome for Company B is a smaller acquisition.



The Expected Value of Company B is ($0*10%) + ($10M*89.9%)*($1B*0.1%) = $9.99B. Lower than the day zero moonshot, Company A.



Different investors will plot different outcome sizes and likelihoods to come to their own decision. But as a general rule, in the eyes of VCs, companies that are on a high-certainty path to an okay exit will always suffer against companies that are on a lower-certainty path to a giant exit. It’s the nature of alpha.



And that’s why, once you’ve got revenue, it’s much harder to sell the dream. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://images.fastcompany.com/image/upload/w_1280,q_auto,f_auto,fl_lossy/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit/wp-cms-2/2026/04/p-1-91525359-why-vcs-invest.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sun, 12 Apr 2026 14:00:10 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>The, reasons, why, VCs, invest:, Faith, opportunity, evidence</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Is a Formula One partnership worth it?</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/is-a-formula-one-partnership-worth-it</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/is-a-formula-one-partnership-worth-it</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ It’s no secret that a brand alliance with a Formula One team requires a major investment. Whether a company joins at the title level or as a technical partner, the commitment is significant. For most executives, the first question is straightforward: Is the visibility worth it? Drawing on our experience as a global cybersecurity company partnered with one of the sport’s most recognizable teams, this article offers practical insights to help organizations decide whether such partnerships align with their business goals. 



F1 delivers global exposure that few properties can match. With an estimated 800 million fans worldwide and a race calendar spanning Europe, the Americas, the Middle East, Australia, and Asia, it offers unmatched global audience reach across all major economic regions.



But exposure alone is not a strategy. F1 sits at the intersection of advanced engineering, real-time decision-making, and relentless performance standards, making it a natural platform for companies operating in performance-driven industries. That environment closely mirrors cybersecurity, where precision, speed, and innovation define outcomes. This alignment made the partnership commercially and culturally relevant. Global reach opened the door, but compatibility is what ultimately justified the investment.



Key considerations



The most important question for any company considering F1 is whether the platform and the team align with its long-term strategic objectives.



Each F1 team is a global brand with its own heritage, personality, and fan base. Strategic alignment matters. Companies should assess whether the team’s identity reinforces their brand positioning and target audience. Does your organization primarily serve consumers, businesses, or both, and does the team’s fan base reflect that mix? Are there shared attributes around quality, ambition, innovation, or performance? When alignment is authentic, the partnership feels natural and credible. When it is not, it risks feeling purely transactional.



Beyond brand fit, companies should assess whether the relationship can unlock deeper value through technology integration, storytelling, and measurable business enablement. Can your products or expertise meaningfully support the team’s operations? Can the partnership be activated across sales, marketing, talent recruitment, and executive engagement?



The hidden value of F1 partnership



Broadcast and trackside branding may be the most visible elements of an F1 partnership, but much of the real value lies in the broader media and content environment surrounding the sport.



F1 now functions as a year-round global content engine. Documentary series such as Drive to Survive, social media storytelling, team-produced digital content, and official video games extend brand visibility far beyond the two-hour race window. This continuous exposure creates a multiplier effect that traditional strategic alliances rarely achieve.



One unexpected example illustrates this shift. A major video game publisher reached out and requested permission to feature our logo in its upcoming 2026 F1 game. Inclusion in a widely distributed title means millions of players will interact with a digitally rendered team car carrying our branding, session after session. That added visibility comes at no incremental cost and reaches a younger, digitally native audience in an immersive rather than passive environment.



This evolution has fundamentally changed the economics of sports partnerships. An F1 partnership is no longer confined to race-day impressions; it becomes embedded in long-form storytelling, highlight clips, driver interviews, fan-generated content, and interactive digital platforms. Brands that treat the partnership as a dynamic storytelling platform, rather than a static placement, unlock significantly greater long-term value.



Another often overlooked dimension is the business network itself. Race weekends function as global convening platforms for senior executives and decision-makers. Access to the Paddock, the restricted area behind the pit lane where teams operate and interact during a race weekend, provides entry into a unique business environment where relationships are built in ways that traditional outreach cannot replicate. For companies seeking strategic growth, this access can generate commercial opportunities that extend well beyond marketing metrics.



Driver influence as a force multiplier



The influence of F1 drivers adds another powerful layer of value. Today’s drivers are global celebrities whose reach extends well past race weekends. They command massive followings not only for their performance on track, but for their personal lives, fashion choices, philanthropic efforts, and relationships that regularly generate headlines. They shape conversations across sport, culture, and digital media, engaging audiences well outside the sport’s core fan base.



For companies that partner with brands, that cultural relevance can significantly amplify brand impact. When a driver dominates headlines or trends on social platforms, associated brands benefit from the added attention. Realizing that value, however, requires deliberate activation. Companies must carefully plan how to collaborate with drivers, strategically integrate them into campaigns, and ensure they have the internal marketing support to capitalize on high-visibility moments.



Association with elite athletes reinforces perceptions of quality, ambition, and precision, strengthening brand positioning in competitive industries. When brands collaborate with drivers to communicate products and strategic messaging in accessible ways, they turn celebrity influence into lasting trust.



A long-term commitment



F1 is not a short-term marketing tactic. Companies that generate meaningful returns treat it as a multi-season investment aligned with defined business objectives. Before embarking on a relationship, organizations must clearly understand what they are gaining from the relationship, how it will be activated during the season and in the off-season, and whether they have the internal resources and sustained commitment to support it effectively. Success requires cross-functional alignment, disciplined planning, and the ability to deliver measurable outcomes.



For companies prepared to approach it with that level of focus and preparation, the starting lights can mark the beginning of something much bigger than sponsorship: a true partnership built on shared ambition and complementary strengths, unlocking powerful synergies and delivering greater long-term value for everyone involved. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Sun, 12 Apr 2026 14:00:10 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Formula, One, partnership, worth, it</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>The Pentagon is doubling down on laser weapons research</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/the-pentagon-is-doubling-down-on-laser-weapons-research</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/the-pentagon-is-doubling-down-on-laser-weapons-research</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ After months of bold promises about its directed energy weapon ambitions, the U.S. military is putting its money where its mouth is.



The U.S. Defense Department’s published a “skinny” version at its historic $1.5 trillion fiscal year 2027 budget request on April 3, with plans to release additional details (including my precious justification books and their program-by-program spending plans) on April 21. While this budget release only offers a high-level view of the U.S. military’s spending priorities, a preliminary analysis indicates the Pentagon wants to pour more than $2 billion into research, development, testing, and evaluation (RDT&amp;E) programs involving high-energy laser weapons and other directed energy systems in fiscal year 2027.



This funding, if approved, would not just mark a major increase over the more than $1 billion in annual expenditures on directed energy RDT&amp;E over the last five years, but also significantly outpace the Pentagon’s average yearly spending on such efforts under the Strategic Defense Initiative (also known as “Star Wars”) across the entire life of that program. This might just be the most significant U.S. military investment in directed energy weapons research, well, ever.



Below, you’ll find some high-level insights on proposed directed energy weapon spending culled from the Pentagon’s fiscal year 2027 budget request.



No Significant Directed Energy Procurement (Yet)



Despite the Pentagon’ stated goal of fielding laser weapons at scale within the next three years, the procurement section of the department’s fiscal year 2027 budget request does not currently detail any major purchases to that end. The sole procurement line item explicitly for directed energy—‘Directed Energy Systems’,’ which covers the U.S. Navy’s low-power AN/SEQ-4 Optical Dazzling Interdictor, Navy (ODIN) laser weapons, according to previous budget documents—is completely zeroed out, down from the $3 million requested in fiscal year 2026 to support the eight ODIN systems already installed across the service’s Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer fleet.That said, the procurement documents do contain two ‘Counter-Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (C-sUAS)’ program elements that could encompass directed energy procurement efforts. The first program element is a defense-wide item under ‘Major Equipment, TJS [The Joint Staff]’ that includes an $800 million request (up from $732 million authorized last year), which is likely for the Pentagon’s new Joint Interagency Task Force 401 (JIATF 401) established last year, according to the corresponding fiscal year 2027 budget documents for RDT&amp;E.



The second program element, however, is a U.S. Army item that includes a $994.1 million request (up from $693.4 million authorized last year) and previously involved the Enduring High Energy Laser (E-HEL) system, 24 of which the service plans to “produce and rapidly field” in the coming years as its first official directed energy program of record. Given that E-HEL units cost nearly $25 million apiece, according the Pentagon’s fiscal year 2026 budget request, the boost in the Army’s C-sUAS line item could potentially cover the procurement of additional systems. Unfortunately, we won’t know for sure until the full justification books are released later in April.



Defense-Wide Laser Weapon RDT&amp;E Increases, With Room to Grow



Defense-wide laser weapon RDT&amp;E efforts overseen by the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) saw significant increases in the Pentagon’s fiscal year 2027 budget request, to $44.5 million requested under the ‘High Energy Laser Advanced Component Development &amp; Prototype’ program element (up from $5.5 million in fiscal year 2026) and $201 million requested under the ‘High Energy Laser Advanced Technology Program’ (up from $120 million).



Managed by the Pentagon’s Joint Directed Energy Transition Office (JDETO), these program elements are focused on accelerating the maturation of directed energy systems like laser weapons to “enable the demonstration of military utility for mission areas” across the U.S. military, according to the department’s fiscal year 2026 budget request. The High Energy Laser Advanced Technology Program in particular includes the Joint Laser Weapon System (JLWS), a collaboration between the Army and Navy to designed to counter cruise missile threats as part of the President Donald Trump’s ‘Golden Dome for America’ missile defense shield. (It also likely includes the Pulsed High Energy Laser Scaling Initiative, a new start in fiscal year 2026 designed to explore the potential applications of pulsed laser weapons.)



There’s also the question of the Pentagon’s $580 million in RDT&amp;E funding for JIATF 401 detailed in its fiscal year 2027 budget request. While the organization is certainly interested in directed energy weapons given their potential counter-drone applications, it’s unclear from the budget documents how much of that funding will apply to such initiatives given the its expansive remit.



A Major RDT&amp;E Boost for Golden Dome Directed Energy Efforts



The Pentagon’s fiscal year 2027 budget request contains $452 million in proposed RDT&amp;E spending for the “development, integration, and assessment” of directed energy weapons in support of Golden Dome, more than triple the $142 million enacted under the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill Act’ reconciliation package that Trump signed into law in July 2025. Like last year’s funding, this particular program element is also reliant on a reconciliation package separate from the Pentagon’s base budget request.



It’s worth pointing out that this spending increase is marked as procurement, even though it’s featured in the RDT&amp;E documentation of the Pentagon’s budget request. This is likely because this proposed funding will focus on purchasing technology to develop and test prototypes or prove a concept, while the separate procurement budget title will go to acquiring systems for active fielding.



U.S. Army Laser Weapon RDT&amp;E Is Unclear



With the cancellation of the 50 kilowatt Directed Energy Maneuver-Short Range Air Defense (DE M-SHORAD) and 300 kw Indirect Fire Protection Capability-High Energy Laser (IFPC-HEL) efforts, the Army now has three publicly-known laser weapons initiatives in the works: E-HEL, JLWS, and the Army Multi-Purpose High Energy Laser (AMP-HEL) that’s already actively shooting down drones (at home, at least).



Unfortunately, the fates of these projects appear ambiguous at the moment, mostly due to the structure of the Pentagon’s budget request. Apart from defense-wide programs, the budget documents only contains program elements that explicitly cover laser weapons or directed energy systems for the Navy and U.S. Air Force, but not for the Army. Indeed, AMP-HEL and E-HEL fall under the Army’s Maneuver – Short Range Air Defense (M-SHORAD) item, while JLWS work falls under the Expanded Mission Area Missile (EMAM) program. And while both of those larger programs are poised for significant spending increases in fiscal year 2027—$460 million requested for M-SHORAD (up from $296 million) and $235 million requested for EMAM (up from $63 million)—how those funds will trickle down to their subordinate directed energy projects remains to be seen.



U.S. Navy Laser Weapon RDT&amp;E Expands



When senior Navy leaders declared that “the dream of a laser on every ship can become a real one” at the beginning of the year, they were absolutely not kidding. The service’s fiscal year 2027 budget request includes a significant increase in funding under its ‘Directed Energy and Electric Weapon Systems’ program element, with the service asking for more than $94 million in RDT&amp;E spending, up from $14.5 million in fiscal year 2026.



Without the justification books, the applications of this funding are also unclear. The service has no stated plans to procure more ODIN systems, or additional 60 kw High Energy Laser with Integrated Optical Dazzler and Surveillance (HELIOS) weapons beyond the lone system installed aboard the destroyer USS Preble, according to last year’s budget request. In addition, the service’s 300 kw High Energy Laser Counter [Anti-Ship Cruise Missile] Project (HELCAP) was officially slated for completion in fiscal year 2026, the budget documents say.



This leaves a few potential options to consider: the Navy’s funding boost is likely focused on either jumpstarting HELIOS development, advancing the Office of Naval Research’s 400 kw “SONGBOW’ initiative, or something related the unidentified (and potentially new) laser weapon the service reportedly tested in the Red Sea last year. We’ll have to wait for the release of this year’s justification books to find out.



U.S. Air Force Laser Weapon RDT&amp;E Shrinks, But Not By Much



Despite plans to pursue yet another airborne laser weapon and revisit ground-based laser systems to protect airbases and other installations, the Air Force’s budget request actually indicates a small decrease in RDT&amp;E funding for under its ‘Directed Energy Technology’ program element, which fell from $96 million requested in fiscal year 2026 to just under $92 million requested for fiscal year 2027. The service’s other directed energy program element, ‘Directed Energy Prototyping,’ remained zeroed out after falling from $1.31 million in fiscal year 2025 to zero in fiscal year 2026.



The Pentagon’s skinny fiscal year 2027 budget request suggests a familiar pattern for directed energy weapons: sustained (and in many cases accelerating) investment in RDT&amp;E, but no definitive signals that the technology is ready to transition into procurement and fielding at scale just yet. Despite years of promises that these systems are nearing operational relevance, the funding profile still points to a force that is continuing to experiment, refine, and prototype rather than putting them in the hands of U.S. service members in the immediate term.



Of course, that picture could shift once the full budget justification books are released later this month. But for now, the future of directed energy research and development appears brighter than ever.



This article is republished with permission from Laser Wars, a newsletter about military laser weapons and other futuristic defense technology. ]]></description>
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<description><![CDATA[ The airport is chaos. Lines snake beyond the designated barriers and out the doors as frazzled travelers tug their luggage and scowl at their phones, their grimaced faces even more dramatic in the harsh lighting.



I stand in the security queue, sensing the stress emanating from everyone around me like swarms of buzzing flies. A man behind me huffs with dramatic indignation, a couple ahead bickers in hissed whispers “we should have left earlier!”, and someone’s roller bag keeps thwacking my heels.



My fists clench as irritation winds me tighter. The security checkpoint seems miles away and my flight is in an hour. I feel myself being sucked into the collective vortex of misery.



Then, as we make our first zig in the queue, I catch my partner’s eye and make a split-second decision. I raise my hand for a high five.



“Yes!” I exclaim with exaggerated enthusiasm. “One turn closer!”



My partner looks momentarily confused, then a half grin lights up his face as he slaps my raised palm. A few people nearby glance over, some with bemused smiles.



When we reach the next turn, we were ready. “Turn number TWO!” We announce together, high-fiving with gusto. A woman behind us lets out a chuckle that seems to surprise even herself.



By the third turn, a family with a toddler holds up their hands for high fives before we can even offer ours. “We’re on a roll now!” the dad says, grinning.



With each zigzag, our celebration grows a little as others join our absurd celebration of incremental progress. Soon, a pocket of genuine laughter has formed in our section of the line, rippling outward like a skipped rock as others catch on to our game.



Pressured vs. playful



In that moment of travel chaos, we made a choice: instead of facing the frustrating situation with tense resentment (what I now call “The Pressured Way”) we decide to transform it through levity and connection (“The Playful Way”).



This simple shift doesn’t change our situation. We are still in the same painfully slow airport security queue. We are still at risk of missing our flight. But it changes what the situation feels like—from stress to humor, from isolation to community, storm cloud to sun break.



This choice between The Pressured Way and The Playful Way appears constantly in our lives: during technology crashes, tricky conversations, power struggles, or canceled plans. When challenges arise, we can clench our jaws and white-knuckle our way through—or we can bring imagination, inquiry, and openness to the situation. This choice isn’t just about boosting fun (thought that’s a welcome bonus), it’s about accessing new solutions, deeper camaraderie, and a richer experience of everyday life.



Playfulness isn’t one size fits all. While our airport moment involved a social game, you might express your playful side by finding beauty in the terminal architecture, creating backstories for fellow travelers, or scoring the scene with a film soundtrack—turning a mundane wait into the opening of your personal heist movie or Broadway musical.



The Pressured Way tightens our vision like horse blinders, while The Playful Way opens our peripheral sight to possibilities we’d otherwise miss entirely.



A transformative mindset



When I talk about playfulness in adulthood, I’m often met with puzzled looks. “You mean sports?” people ask. Or “Board games with friends?”. “Oh, like, work hard/play hard… partying?”



But playfulness runs deeper than scheduled recreation (though that is important). It’s not a leisure activity reserved for weekends or vacations—it’s a mindset that transforms how we experience everything.



Playfulness is:



— Finding humor and lightness even in tense moments— Navigating situations with genuine questions instead of assumptions— Staying open to possibilities rather than fixating on one “right” way— Experimenting rather than seeking perfection— Bringing an ethos of adventure to difficulties— Reimagining the mundane through reframes and games— Being willing to collaborate rather than control



When we move through the world playfully, we remain pliable, ready to adapt, change, and work with whatever comes our way: to navigate obstacles nimbly and alchemize even the most mundane tasks into micro adventures.



Playfulness is often dismissed as frivolous — a charming but dispensable quality best left in childhood alongside stuffies and imaginary friends.



But watch any child transform a cardboard box into a spaceship or a pile of sticks into a fairy house and — beyond the cute façade — you are witnessing them exercising some of humanity’s most valuable capacities: imagination, adaptation, and ingenuity.



The good news? Playfulness is part of us all — it’s standard issue for the human species. Even if you’ve left it in the drawer gathering dust, you can pick up your playfulness again and relearn to use it.



I haven’t always been able to find the high-five moments in life’s security lines. There was a time when I was deeply lost in what I now recognize as “The Pressured Way.”



Beyond burnout



During a particularly intense period building my first company, I found myself alone late one night, pen in hand, making a list titled “Ways I’m Failing RN.” It contained eleven meticulously detailed items—work projects falling behind, leadership shortcomings, fertility struggles, neglected friendships and family relationships—each one a knife twist of self-criticism. At the bottom, almost as an afterthought, I’d written: “Stressing myself out with my stress and inability to emotionally regulate.”



I was beyond burnout — overworked and under-played. Night after night, I’d come home, collapse on my apartment floor, and sob until I was empty, unable to see any of the success around me. The brilliantly colored, creative world I’d built felt like it was happening to someone else entirely. The weight of my perfectionism had become so crushing that I couldn’t imagine a way forward.



What moved me through this period wasn’t working harder or being more disciplined. It was remembering The Playful Way of life I’d learned as a child, sitting around our kitchen table in Maine with my family, brainstorming wild ideas over dinner.



Our kitchen was the beating heart of my childhood home, with its cheerful painted tiles, bright green countertops, and wall jam-packed with family photos. After my brother and I helped our parents serve dinner, the fun began. My words would tumble out in excitement: “Hey, what if we started a kids’ karaoke club?” My parents would exchange a conspiratorial glance. “Now there’s an idea!” Mom would reply, leaning forward. “What would that look like? Where would we host it?”



Between bites of penne, my brother would chime in: “We could have themed nights — Disney songs one week, pop hits the next!” My dad would smile, his laughter-creased eyes twinkling. “I love it! Now what would we name it?” Before anyone could answer, his fork was in the air, face lit up with enthusiasm. “Ooh! Ooh! Ooh! I know! Kiddieoke!”



These kitchen table sessions were boisterously loud, as we built upon each other’s ideas. No idea was too outrageous to explore. We were elementary schoolers doing business brainstorms—and our parents took us seriously and egged us on.



Eventually, we’d have to clear the table, do our homework, and return to our daily responsibilities. But in these moments, I learned that any endeavor could be handled with an inquisitive attitude and a spirit of adventure.



I was fortunate to have parents who showed me that wonder and whimsy could be woven into all aspects of life. My mom—a social worker, artist, gardener—and my dad—an entrepreneur, engineer, inventor—modeled what it looks like for adults to be playful while simultaneously building businesses, dealing with illness and loss, and nurturing families and communities.



My voyage of questioning took a new turn at age 15 when I found my heart fluttering like butterfly wings whenever I was around my best girl friend and realized I wasn’t just attracted to one gender. Growing up Catholic, I learned that boundaries were fixed—lines drawn between right and wrong, holy and profane, approved and forbidden forms of love. But my bisexual heart didn’t fit into hard pews or rigid boxes, it spilled out like vivid stained glass light. Luckily my mom told me that some rules were for bending so I turned to playfulness, curiously exploring and embracing the expansiveness of being queer, rather than fearing it.



Carving out play space



This current of exploration carried me to New York City, where I co-founded and built Refinery29 from a small style website into one of the most influential digital media brands for women, reaching millions with its distinctive mix of fashion, culture, and boundary-pushing storytelling.



Even in boardrooms, I carved out spaces for play—like my apricot-colored office dubbed “The Peach Pit” with its round table that became our magic circle for brainstorms. All the players around the table now were adults, so I had to take some extra measures to get the ideas flowing including doing physical shake breaks and having a lovingly bedazzled Taboo! game buzzer on hand for when anyone got into excessively “serious mode.”



Our playful approach led us to create innovative experiences like 29Rooms—a funhouse of culture that reimagined vacant warehouses into kaleidoscopic, artist-made wonderlands where 100,000 adults came through to frolic and fall down imagination rabbit holes in cities across the US.



A new chapter



In 2021, I found myself ready to begin a new chapter. But leaving the company I’d built over fifteen years was like moving out of a home you’ve loved — even when you’re ready to go, there’s still a bittersweet ache. Add to that the wild adventure of new motherhood and a global pandemic, and I was navigating multiple identity shifts at once. Daunting questions loomed: Who was I beyond the role I was most known for? What kind of parent would I become? What did I want to create next?



As I faced these huge transitions, my spirit whispered an answer: experiment! Instead of rushing to figure it all out, I turned my life into a play laboratory. I led cathartic dance parties on Zoom, created public art experiences connecting strangers in parks, took classes in improv and storytelling, and said “yes” to pretty much any foray that sparked curiosity. I dove deep into researching the power of play for our health and happiness, and piles of books stacked up on my desk.



My calendar filled up with what I lovingly called “play dates with possibility,” and something magical happened: as I led thousands of people in unlocking their vibrant spirits, I discovered my next chapter — creating spaces for playful, creative practice and shared joy.



Playfulness is my power tool and my life preserver across all aspects of my life from parenting to self care to career. It’s how I’ve come up with innovative solutions at work, built meaningful relationships, found purpose during transitions, and made memories in mundane moments. My relationship with playfulness isn’t just about joy—it’s been essential medicine for navigating life with depression, anxiety, and ADHD.







I’ve developed my own methods and seen the power of this approach transform not just my own life, but countless others I’ve worked with. And now, I’m on a mission to unlock that magic for you too—to help you dive into that giddy river that flows when we approach life with playfulness.Adapted excerpt from The Playful Way, by Piera Gelardi, and reprinted with permission from HarperOne, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. Copyright 2026. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Wed, 08 Apr 2026 14:00:08 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>The, co-founder, Refinery29, makes, the, case, for, playfulness</media:keywords>
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<title>People are losing it over 7&#45;Eleven merch. Welcome to the surprisingly cool world of convenience store chic</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/people-are-losing-it-over-7-eleven-merch-welcome-to-the-surprisingly-cool-world-of-convenience-store-chic</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/people-are-losing-it-over-7-eleven-merch-welcome-to-the-surprisingly-cool-world-of-convenience-store-chic</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ In the world of convenience stores, 7-Eleven is undoubtedly the cool kid.  



Phoebe Bridgers named-dropped the c-store in a song, Lana Del Rey has posed in front of its parking lot, and, in Asia, the stores have become a must-visit spot.



But is the brand cool enough to wear? People seem to think so.



“Nothing could have prepared me for how hard the 7-Eleven merch website goes,” Axios congressional reporter Andrew Solender said on X this week, sparking a discussion about the brand’s merchandise website.



Some of the offerings are straightforward—a white T-shirt with 7-Eleven’s logo—while others look less like corporate swag and more like they belong to a hypebeast brand. Consider a cream-colored, ’70s-inspired knit sweater featuring a twirly serif typeface reading, “Oh Thank Heaven for 7-Eleven.”



And some offerings are just silly, like a series of sold-out inflatable Slurpee costumes.



For many, discovering the collection has ignited a sense of irreverent excitement. “I’m going to be flooded out in 7-Eleven merch on St. Mark’s this summer,” a user added on X, referencing the famous street in Manhattan’s East Village that’s popular among young people for outdoor drinking.



But many point out that the apparel line is not new. “Omg they’ve been killin’ it for some time now. Welcome to the club,” a user responded on an X thread.



Give me convenience



The items belong to 7-Eleven’s 7Collection, an online-exclusive apparel store launched in 2022. The collection initially offered exclusive apparel and accessories inspired by the brand’s famous products, including the Big Gulp and the Slurpee. But it has since broadened its scope, tapping into its own cultural currency.



“Today, 7Collection is a creative platform for collaboration and cultural connection,” a 7-Eleven spokesperson told Fast Company. “It allows 7-Eleven to participate in the broader lifestyle of its customers, showing up across streetwear, sports, gaming, music, and other passion points in a way that feels authentic to the brand.”



With over 83,485 stores across the world, 7-Eleven has a globally recognizable logo, but it’s also become a cultural hot spot—and the brand is leaning into it.



“7-Eleven uniquely sits at the intersection of so many lifestyle touchpoints—food, sports, gaming, car culture—and we intentionally design drops that reflect the different ways fans connect with the brand in their own daily lives,” 7-Eleven added.



Take a recent collection that dropped last year as an homage to the chain’s most profitable store in the U.S., the Montauk location, a summer staple for Hamptons regulars during the warm-weather season.



“More than a store; it’s a scene and a summer ritual,” Alex Crawford, creative director and head of 7Collection, said on LinkedIn. “People weren’t just shopping at Montauk 7-Eleven. They were documenting it, tagging it, and turning it into cultural currency.”



Named “Château Montauk 7-Eleven,” the summer 7Collection was a collaboration with local artist Sean Kinney that featured his handwriting and cheeky quotes across caps, T-shirts, key chains, and more.



The collection could be spotted during DJ sets at the beach town’s popular club Surf Lodge, and even designer Cynthia Rowley stopped by the store, where the merch was available for a weekend.



Drops and designs are a collaborative effort, the company says, with an internal team identifying key cultural opportunities. Then, the team works with Craftwork Design Co., 7Collection’s agency partner, to develop design, production, and content creation.



But 7-Eleven isn’t only c-store dabbling in the apparel and accessories game.



Circle K sells polo shirts and quarter zips featuring its logo, while Wawa fans have been able to snag tumblers, hoodies, and hats for years. And still, users online can’t hide their excitement.



One user said on X: “I just know wearing that 7-Eleven cardigan would give me all the confidence I need.” ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Wed, 08 Apr 2026 14:00:08 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>People, are, losing, over, 7-Eleven, merch., Welcome, the, surprisingly, cool, world, convenience, store, chic</media:keywords>
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<title>Delta Air Lines is reducing flights and raising fees as it combats fuel shock. Here’s why the stock is up anyway</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/delta-air-lines-is-reducing-flights-and-raising-fees-as-it-combats-fuel-shock-heres-why-the-stock-is-up-anyway</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/delta-air-lines-is-reducing-flights-and-raising-fees-as-it-combats-fuel-shock-heres-why-the-stock-is-up-anyway</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Shares in Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE: DAL) are on the rise this morning after the company reported its Q1 2026 results. 



While Delta comfortably beat revenue expectations, the U.S. air carrier also addressed the biggest challenge it is currently facing, rising gas prices, and how it is working to mitigate that challenge. Here’s what you need to know.



Delta’s Q1 beats expectations, stock surges



On Wednesday, Delta Air Lines announced its Q1 2026 financial results, covering the January through March period. The results, announced before markets opened, showed the company had a strong quarter.



The company reported non-GAAP operating revenue of $14.2 billion and an earnings per share (EPS) of $0.64. 



To put those numbers into greater perspective, Wall Street analysts were expecting Delta to post $14 billion in revenue and an EPS of $0.57, notes CNBC. In other words, Delta handily beat Wall Street expectations.



In a bit of fortuitous timing for Delta, the airline reported its latest earnings just hours after the U.S. and Iran agreed to a fragile two-week ceasefire, which will see the Strait of Hormuz, a critical oil shipping route, reopened. 



That news sent the price of a barrel of oil plunging below the $100 mark for the first time in weeks.



It’s particularly good news for airlines like Delta, whose fuel expenditures are among their greatest potential liabilities when it comes to profitability. 



As a result of Delta’s expectation-beating Q1, combined with investor relief over the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, Delta shares surged in premarket trading. At the time of this writing, they are currently up more than 11% to above $73.



Delta signals how it will combat rising gas prices



But investors might not only be cheering Delta’s earnings and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. Many are also likely satisfied with Delta’s game plan for offsetting higher oil and gas prices.



Along with announcing its Q1 results, Delta CEO Ed Bastian confirmed that passenger demand remains strong.



That’s normally a good thing—an airline generally wants as many customers as possible. But at a time of spiraling oil and gas prices, a strong customer base means airlines need to buy more fuel to move passengers from point A to point B. Paying higher costs can eat into profits.



To counteract this potential hit to the company’s bottom line, Bastian said that Delta would take “actions to protect our margins and cash flow.” 



Those actions include “meaningfully reducing capacity growth, with a downward bias until the fuel environment improves, and moving quickly to recapture higher fuel costs.”



To put that in plain English, it means that Delta will likely reduce the number of flights it offers, or cancel some routes altogether. This will make fewer seats available, saving on fuel costs, but that scarcity will mean Delta can charge more for the seats it does offer.



And this isn’t the only way Delta plans on combating higher fuel costs. Bastian also said the company will move “quickly to recapture higher fuel costs,” which is basically corporate-speak for passing those increased fuel costs on to customers. 



Earlier this week, Delta announced it was raising its checked baggage fee by $10, following other airlines that are doing the same. Another way Delta could recoup higher fuel costs from passengers is by adding fuel surcharges to flight prices.



DAL stock is once again green for the year



Yesterday, Delta’s stock price closed at $65.62 per share, representing a year-to-date loss of around 5.4%. But with today’s double-digit gain, DAL stock is now firmly in the green for the year.



And Delta’s isn’t the only airline stock seeing double-digit growth today. 



In addition to Delta, American Airlines Group Inc. (Nasdaq: AAL) is up 11%, United Airlines Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: UAL) is up 12%, and Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV) is up nearly 11%, as of the time of this writing in premarket trading.



This suggests the primary factor spurring investors to buy into airline stocks this morning is the U.S.-Iran ceasefire agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. 



However, the ceasefire is currently scheduled to last only two weeks if the warring nations cannot reach a final agreement. 



If the ceasefire expires or, worse, doesn’t hold until then, all the airline stocks getting a boost today could be in for a future beating. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Wed, 08 Apr 2026 14:00:08 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Delta, Air, Lines, reducing, flights, and, raising, fees, combats, fuel, shock., Here’s, why, the, stock, anyway</media:keywords>
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<title>Iran, Israel, and the U.S. strike a ‘fragile’ 2&#45;week ceasefire. Here’s what to know</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/iran-israel-and-the-us-strike-a-fragile-2-week-ceasefire-heres-what-to-know</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/iran-israel-and-the-us-strike-a-fragile-2-week-ceasefire-heres-what-to-know</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Iran, the United States and Israel agreed to a two-week ceasefire, an 11th-hour deal that allowed U.S. President Donald Trump to pull back from his threat to unleash a bombing campaign that would destroy Iranian civilization. Hours after the announcement, Iran and Gulf Arab countries reported new attacks Wednesday.It was not clear if the sporadic attacks would be enough to scuttle the deal, which U.S. Vice President JD Vance called “fragile.”Even before the new strikes were reported, much about the deal was unclear as the sides presented vastly different visions of the terms.— Iran said the deal would allow it to formalize its new practice of charging ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz, but the terms were not clear, nor was whether ships would feel safe using the crucial transit lane for oil. It also was unclear whether any other country agreed to this condition.— Pakistan, which helped to mediate the deal, and others said fighting would pause in Lebanon, where Israel has launched a ground invasion against the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group. Israel said it would not, and strikes hit Beirut on Wednesday.— The fate of Iran’s missile and nuclear programs — the elimination of which were major objectives for the U.S. and Israel in going to war — also remained unclear. Trump said the U.S. would work with Iran to remove buried enriched uranium, though Iran did not confirm that.In the streets of Tehran, pro-government demonstrators screamed: “Death to America, death to Israel, death to compromisers!” after the ceasefire announcement and burned American and Israeli flags.The chants underscored the anger animating hard-liners, who have been preparing for what many assumed would be an apocalyptic battle with the United States. Trump warned Tuesday that “a whole civilization will die tonight,” if a deal wasn’t reached.



Varying reports of ceasefire’s terms



Trump initially said Iran proposed a “workable” 10-point plan that could help end the war the U.S. launched with Israel on Feb. 28. But when a version in Farsi emerged that indicated Iran would be allowed to continue enriching uranium — which is key to building a nuclear weapon — Trump called it fraudulent without elaborating.Trump also suggested American warships would be “hangin’ around” the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20% of all traded oil and natural gas passes in peacetime. That could be a potential flashpoint in days to come.Iran’s demands for ending the war, meanwhile, include a withdrawal of U.S. combat forces from the region, the lifting of sanctions, and the release of its frozen assets.In his post Wednesday, Trump said: “We are, and will be, talking Tariff and Sanctions relief with Iran.”It’s not clear if other Western nations would agree to that – and the other points are likely nonstarters.Pakistan said that talks to hammer out a permanent end to the war could begin in Islamabad as soon as Friday.Israel backed the U.S. ceasefire with Iran, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said early Wednesday that the deal doesn’t cover fighting against Hezbollah. Israel’s military said later that fighting and ground operations continue.Hezbollah has not confirmed if it will abide by the ceasefire, though the group has said it was open to giving mediators a chance to secure an agreement. An official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly, said the group would not stop firing at Israel unless Israel agreed to do the same.



Iran and Oman will collect shipping fees in Strait of Hormuz



While Iran could not match the sophistication of U.S. and Israeli weaponry or their dominance in the air, its ability to control the Strait of Hormuz since the war began proved a tremendous strategic advantage: The chokehold roiled the world economy and raised the pressure on Trump both at home and abroad to find a way out of the standoff.The ceasefire may formalize that control — and give Iran a new source of revenue.The plan allows for both Iran and Oman to charge fees on ships transiting through the strait, according to a regional official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss negotiations they were directly involved in. The official said Iran would use the money it raised for reconstruction.That would upend decades of precedent treating the strait as an international waterway that was free to transit and will likely not be acceptable to the Gulf Arab states, which also need to rebuild after repeated Iranian attacks targeting their oil fields.Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said passage through the strait would be allowed under Iranian military management — further clouding the picture of who would be allowed to transit the waterway.Nevertheless, news of the ceasefire drove oil prices down and pushed stocks up Wednesday.



Fate of Iran’s nuclear and missile programs remains unclear



U.S.-Israeli strikes have battered Iran and its leadership, but they have not entirely eliminated the threats posed by Tehran’s nuclear program, its ballistic missiles or its support for regional proxies, like Hezbollah. The U.S. and Israel said addressing those threats was a key justification for going to war.Trump said Wednesday that the U.S. would work with Iran to “dig up and remove” enriched uranium that was buried under joint U.S-Israeli strikes in June. He added that none of the material had been touched since. Any retrieval is expected to be an intensive undertaking.There was no confirmation from Iran on that.Tehran insisted for years that its nuclear program was peaceful, although it enriched uranium up to 60% purity, a short, technical step from weapons-grade levels.Iran referred to its nuclear program differently in two versions of the ceasefire plan that it released. The version in Farsi included the phrase “acceptance of enrichment” for its nuclear program. That phrase was missing in English versions shared by Iranian diplomats with journalists.A senior Israeli official said the United States had coordinated the ceasefire with Israel in advance and said Israel’s government credited “the massive crushing of the regime’s infrastructure” with securing the agreement.Speaking on condition of anonymity because they were discussing private diplomatic conversations, the official said Washington had committed to pressing for the removal of nuclear material and dismantling of Iran’s ballistic missile program.



Airstrikes reported in the hours after the deal is announced



Shortly after the ceasefire announcement, Bahrain, Israel, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates all issued warnings about incoming missiles from Iran. That fire stopped for a time, then hostilities appeared to restart.An oil refinery on Iran’s Lavan Island came under attack, according to Iranian state television. Its report said that firefighters were working to contain the blaze but no one had been hurt. It did not say who launched the attack.The island is home to one of the terminals that Iran uses to export oil and gas. The U.S. military’s Central Command did not respond to questions about the strike.A short time later, the United Arab Emirates’ air defenses fired at an incoming Iranian missile barrage. Kuwait’s military forces, meanwhile, responded to an “extensive wave” of drone attacks.More than 1,900 people had been killed in Iran as of late March, but the government has not updated the war’s toll for days.In Lebanon, where Israel is fighting Iran-backed Hezbollah militants, more than 1,500 people have been killed. and 1 million people have been displaced. Eleven Israeli soldiers have died.In Gulf Arab states and the occupied West Bank, more than two dozen people have died, while 23 have been reported dead in Israel, and 13 U.S. service members have been killed.







Associated Press writers Edie Lederer, Natalie Melzer, Abby Sewell, and Aamer Madhani contributed to this report.



—Bassem Mroue, Jon Gambrell, Samy Magdy and Sam Metz, Associated Press ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Wed, 08 Apr 2026 14:00:08 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Iran, Israel, and, the, U.S., strike, ‘fragile’, 2-week, ceasefire., Here’s, what, know</media:keywords>
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<title>U.S.&#45;Iran ceasefire sends Wall Street soaring with crude oil prices down 16%</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/us-iran-ceasefire-sends-wall-street-soaring-with-crude-oil-prices-down-16</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/us-iran-ceasefire-sends-wall-street-soaring-with-crude-oil-prices-down-16</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Wall Street surged in Wednesday premarket trading as oil prices plunged 16% after the U.S. and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire that includes the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.Futures for the S&amp;P 500 jumped 2.7% before the opening bell and futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 2.6%. Nasdaq futures soared 3.4%.Benchmark U.S. crude sank $18.43 to $94.52 a barrel, a nearly 16% decline. Brent crude, the international standard dropped $15.54 to $93.73 a barrel. Natural gas futures declined close to 5%.The drops reversed some of the rise in oil prices since the start of the war more than five weeks ago that had effectively blocked passage through the strait that’s a crucial route for global supplies.“Yet the mood remains one of cautious optimism rather than outright celebration,” said Tim Waterer, chief market analyst at KCM Trade. “The ceasefire is only two weeks long, and markets will be watching closely to see whether shipping through the Strait of Hormuz normalizes as promised and whether the fragile truce can pave the way for a more durable peace agreement.”Late Tuesday, Trump said he was holding off on his threatened attacks on Iranian bridges, power plants and other civilian targets. Iran’s foreign minister said passage through the strait would be allowed for the next two weeks under Iranian military management.But analysts warned against too much optimism.“There is a reason to be optimistic, but it is still too early to tell, because, as you know, after all, it is Trump,” said Takashi Hiroki, chief strategist at MONEX.In equities trading, major U.S. airline stocks soared on the steep drop in oil prices. Delta and United jump more than 12% in premarket while American rose 10%. Delta on Wednesday also reported first-quarter sales and profit that came in ahead of Wall Street forecasts and said that demand remained strong with the summer travel season just a few months away.Elsewhere, in Europe France’s CAC 40 added 4.5% by midday, while the German DAX soared nearly 5%. Britain’s FTSE 100 gained 2.9%.In Asia, Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 gained 5.4% to finish at 56,308.42. Australia’s S&amp;P/ASX 200 jumped 2.6% to 8,951.80. South Korea’s Kospi soared 6.9% to 5,872.34. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng surged 3.1% to 25,893.02, while the Shanghai Composite added 2.7% to 3,995.00.In currency trading, the U.S. dollar fell to 158.39 Japanese yen from 159.52 yen Wednesday. The euro cost $1.1701, up from $1.1597. The dollar usually becomes a safe haven during geopolitical uncertainty, so the ceasefire deal worked to lessen that appeal.







Associated Press videographer Mayuko Ono and Writer Jon Gambrell contributed to this report.Yuri Kageyama is on Threads: https://www.threads.com/@yurikageyama



—Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott, AP Business Writers ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Wed, 08 Apr 2026 14:00:08 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>U.S.-Iran, ceasefire, sends, Wall, Street, soaring, with, crude, oil, prices, down, 16</media:keywords>
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<title>Expenses Software for UK Small Businesses</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/expenses-software-for-uk-small-businesses</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/expenses-software-for-uk-small-businesses</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ By Henry Williams on Small Business UK - Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs


The post Expenses Software for UK Small Businesses appeared first on Small Business UK. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://smallbusiness-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2025/01/GettyImages-2013089711.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Wed, 08 Apr 2026 14:00:06 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Expenses, Software, for, Small, Businesses</media:keywords>
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<title>OpenAI’s flagship UK data centre hits the buffers in blow to Starmer’s AI ambitions</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/openais-flagship-uk-data-centre-hits-the-buffers-in-blow-to-starmers-ai-ambitions</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/openais-flagship-uk-data-centre-hits-the-buffers-in-blow-to-starmers-ai-ambitions</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
OpenAI&#039;s flagship Stargate data centre in Tyneside has stalled with no updated timeline, casting doubt over the government&#039;s AI infrastructure ambitions and Keir Starmer&#039;s growth agenda.
Read more: 
OpenAI’s flagship UK data centre hits the buffers in blow to Starmer’s AI ambitions ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Starmer-AI.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sun, 05 Apr 2026 14:00:08 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>OpenAI’s, flagship, data, centre, hits, the, buffers, blow, Starmer’s, ambitions</media:keywords>
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<title>Reform UK becomes first British political party to launch its own podcast</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/reform-uk-becomes-first-british-political-party-to-launch-its-own-podcast</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/reform-uk-becomes-first-british-political-party-to-launch-its-own-podcast</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Reform UK is launching a weekly podcast offering behind-the-scenes access to Nigel Farage and senior party figures, becoming the first British political party to produce its own show.
Read more: 
Reform UK becomes first British political party to launch its own podcast ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/shutterstock_2187507943.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sun, 05 Apr 2026 14:00:08 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Reform, becomes, first, British, political, party, launch, its, own, podcast</media:keywords>
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<title>Labour’s tax uncertainty is pushing Britain’s wealthiest towards the exit</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/labours-tax-uncertainty-is-pushing-britains-wealthiest-towards-the-exit</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/labours-tax-uncertainty-is-pushing-britains-wealthiest-towards-the-exit</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Two-thirds of Britain&#039;s ultra-wealthy have considered leaving the UK, with inconsistent tax policies cited as a bigger factor than high rates, according to a new BDO survey of multi-millionaires.
Read more: 
Labour’s tax uncertainty is pushing Britain’s wealthiest towards the exit ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Reeves_Spring_Budget.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sun, 05 Apr 2026 14:00:06 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Labour’s, tax, uncertainty, pushing, Britain’s, wealthiest, towards, the, exit</media:keywords>
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<title>Easter and Eid collision sends British lamb prices to a record high</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/easter-and-eid-collision-sends-british-lamb-prices-to-a-record-high</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/easter-and-eid-collision-sends-british-lamb-prices-to-a-record-high</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
British lamb prices surge to record highs as Easter and Eid drive demand, with supermarket legs topping £16/kg and the UK flock at its lowest in living memory.
Read more: 
Easter and Eid collision sends British lamb prices to a record high ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/shutterstock_2322986219.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sun, 05 Apr 2026 14:00:05 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Easter, and, Eid, collision, sends, British, lamb, prices, record, high</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Vince calls on Miliband to halt North Sea oil exports as Iran war rattles supply</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/vince-calls-on-miliband-to-halt-north-sea-oil-exports-as-iran-war-rattles-supply</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/vince-calls-on-miliband-to-halt-north-sea-oil-exports-as-iran-war-rattles-supply</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Labour donor Dale Vince tells Ed Miliband to halt North Sea oil exports and shield Britain from Iran-driven fuel shortages, as crude tops $109 a barrel.
Read more: 
Vince calls on Miliband to halt North Sea oil exports as Iran war rattles supply ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/dale_vince.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sun, 05 Apr 2026 14:00:05 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Vince, calls, Miliband, halt, North, Sea, oil, exports, Iran, war, rattles, supply</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Anthropic is having a moment in the private markets; SpaceX could spoil the party</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/anthropic-is-having-a-moment-in-the-private-markets-spacex-could-spoil-the-party</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/anthropic-is-having-a-moment-in-the-private-markets-spacex-could-spoil-the-party</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Glen Anderson, president of Rainmaker Securities, says the secondary market for private shares has never been more active — with Anthropic the hottest trade around, OpenAI losing ground, and SpaceX&#039;s looming IPO poised to reshape the landscape for everyone. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/GettyImages-2148589533.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sun, 05 Apr 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Anthropic, having, moment, the, private, markets, SpaceX, could, spoil, the, party</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>After fighting malware for decades, this cybersecurity veteran is now hacking drones</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/after-fighting-malware-for-decades-this-cybersecurity-veteran-is-now-hacking-drones</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/after-fighting-malware-for-decades-this-cybersecurity-veteran-is-now-hacking-drones</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Mikko Hyppönen is one of the most recognizable faces of the cybersecurity industry. After fighting computer viruses, worms, and malware, for more than 35 years, he tells TechCrunch why he is now working on systems to stop killer drones. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Mikko-Hypponen-Black-Hat-USA-2025.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sun, 05 Apr 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>After, fighting, malware, for, decades, this, cybersecurity, veteran, now, hacking, drones</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Anthropic says Claude Code subscribers will need to pay extra for OpenClaw usage</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/anthropic-says-claude-code-subscribers-will-need-to-pay-extra-for-openclaw-usage</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/anthropic-says-claude-code-subscribers-will-need-to-pay-extra-for-openclaw-usage</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ It’s about to become more expensive for Claude Code subscribers to use Anthropic’s coding assistant with OpenClaw and other third-party tools. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/GettyImages-1396827010.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sun, 05 Apr 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Anthropic, says, Claude, Code, subscribers, will, need, pay, extra, for, OpenClaw, usage</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Embattled startup Delve has ‘parted ways’ with Y Combinator</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/embattled-startup-delve-has-parted-ways-with-y-combinator</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/embattled-startup-delve-has-parted-ways-with-y-combinator</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ The controversy around Delve appears to have cost the compliance startup its relationship with accelerator Y Combinator. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/IMG_1542.jpeg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sun, 05 Apr 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Embattled, startup, Delve, has, ‘parted, ways’, with, Combinator</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Peter Thiel’s big bet on solar&#45;powered cow collars</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/peter-thiels-big-bet-on-solar-powered-cow-collars</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/peter-thiels-big-bet-on-solar-powered-cow-collars</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Why did Founders Fund invest $220 million in cattle management startup Halter? ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Craig-Piggott_Halter-CEO.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sun, 05 Apr 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Peter, Thiel’s, big, bet, solar-powered, cow, collars</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>A New York Times critic used AI to write a review, but good criticism can’t be outsourced</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/a-new-york-times-critic-used-ai-to-write-a-review-but-good-criticism-cant-be-outsourced</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/a-new-york-times-critic-used-ai-to-write-a-review-but-good-criticism-cant-be-outsourced</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ An author and freelance journalist has admitted to using AI to help him write a book review for The New York Times.



Alex Preston’s review of Jean-Baptiste Andrea’s novel Watching Over Her, published by The New York Times in January 2026, draws phrases and full paragraphs from Christobel Kent’s review in The Guardian. The “error” was brought to light by a reader, who alerted The New York Times to the similarities.



Preston told The Guardian he is “hugely embarassed” and “made a huge mistake.”



The Times promptly dropped Preston, calling his “reliance on A.I. and his use of unattributed work by another writer” a “clear violation of the Times’s standards.” An editor’s note now precedes the review online, advising readers of the issue and providing a link to the Guardian review.



Preston’s apology to The Guardian raises more questions than it resolves. The portion quoted online seems to speak more to the issue of unattributed work than his use of AI. It reads: “I made a serious mistake in using an AI tool on a draft review I had written, and I failed to identify and remove overlapping language from another review that the AI dropped in.” This implies that if he had removed the “overlapping” language, the issue would have been avoided.



As a literary critic and scholar, I believe the deeper question isn’t whether or not critics should do more to hide their use of AI—but the ethics of using it at all.



Why AI can’t do criticism



The role of the critic isn’t to summarize or repackage art, but to actively participate in a conversation about it. “Good criticism thrives in the complexity of its environment,” writes critic Jane Howard, who is also The Conversation’s Arts + Culture editor. “Each review sits in conversation with every other review of a piece of art, with every other review the critic has written.”



In other words, the critic is in conversation with both the artist and the audience. The critic’s emotional and intellectual engagement with art—and their translation and communication of meaning—is intrinsic to their role as mediator. That role is deeply human.



Perhaps information can be outsourced, but emotional engagement can’t. Nor can an individual perspective, filtered through one human’s reading, viewing, listening, and experiences.



Art and AI controversies



There are valid arguments outlining the functional uses of AI, and warning against significant climate repercussions. But there is also an escalating concern around the intrusion of AI into creative expression.



Last month, author Mia Ballard was accused of using AI to write her horror novel, Shy Girl. It was withdrawn from publication in the U.K. and canceled from scheduled publication in the U.S. after “readers on platforms such as Goodreads and Reddit had questioned whether sections of the text bore hallmarks of AI-generated prose,” according to The Guardian.



In 2023, German artist Boris Eldagsen sparked controversy when he revealed that his prize-winning photograph The Electrician was AI-generated. In 2025, Tilly Norwood, the first fully AI-generated “actress” ignited debate around whether so-called synthetic actors were a tool for creative expression or a threat to human creators.



In 2025, writers were “horrified” to discover that their work had been pirated by Meta to train AI systems.



If the question that underlies these examples is “What is the role of art?” this latest debacle adds “And what is the responsibility of the critic?”



Breaking a pact



Art criticism in Australia is what Howard describes as a “niche within a niche.” The sector is unbearably small, so most critics have an additional day job and are in close professional and personal proximity to the artists whose work they review.



Some critics of the critics, such as writer Gideon Haigh, have suggested this has led to a culture of what literary academic Emmett Stinson called “too-nice” criticism.



But I would argue generosity is fundamental to public-facing criticism—and that the critic reviewing in the public sphere has a responsibility to writers and readers.



The writer might safely assume that when we’re publishing a review that surmises their book’s successes and failings against its ambition, we have, at the very least, taken the time to read and carefully consider their work, and our own response to it.



This unspoken pact is broken when the writer begins to use AI—particularly when a professional reviewer like Preston seems to outsource his assessment to it.



Such fiascos point to a disturbing future where readers’ opportunities to build community and develop empathy through engagement with literature is outsourced entirely to AI.



Australian literature academic Julieanne Lamond has said, “When we write reviews we have to do it ‘naked’—as individual readers, with a public to judge our judgments.” In other words, we sit at the middle of a pact between the writer of a book and their potential readers.



Criticism can be literature



Done well, criticism is literature. As Australian author, playwright, and critic Leslie Rees argued in 1946, good literary criticism is a “real and creative service to literature.”



Popular criticism, written for the general public and published as journalism, might sit on a different playing field from scholarly criticism. But its obligation to readers—to convey real and honest opinions about books and bring readers into a conversation about literature—is no less significant. There is a shared obligation to be honest, and surely this honesty extends to a transparency about AI use.



French professor and essayist Phillipe Lejeune, best known for his work on autobiography, used the term the autobiographical pact to describe the relationship between the writer of a memoir and the reader. That is, the reader accepts what the memoirist says as truth, based on the writer’s acknowledgments of their own biases and subjectivity.



We might transfer a similar pact to the reviewer and their reader. Should the reader not be able to trust that the review they’re reading is the critic’s own?



Hannah Bowman, a literary agent from Liza Dawson Associates, recently described mistrust as the book industry’s greatest peril: “It’s essential for all parties in the publishing process to have transparency and clarity in conversations about how AI tools are being used by any party, especially in the creative process.”



In failing to disclose his use of AI, Preston has not only embarrassed himself but also broken the trust of his readers.





Bec Kavanagh is a senior tutor in publishing and creative writing at the University of Melbourne.



This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.


 ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Sat, 04 Apr 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>New, York, Times, critic, used, write, review, but, good, criticism, can’t, outsourced</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>3 surprising (but simple) ways to save gas as fuel costs skyrocket</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/3-surprising-but-simple-ways-to-save-gas-as-fuel-costs-skyrocket</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/3-surprising-but-simple-ways-to-save-gas-as-fuel-costs-skyrocket</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ We’re in the middle of the extended Easter holiday weekend, which usually sees millions of Americans taking long road trips to visit family or just get away. But this year, these trips will probably be more costly—at least at the pump. Still, there are steps you can take while driving to save fuel and reduce your overall gas bill.



Why are gas prices rising?



According to the American Automobile Association (AAA), the national average for a gallon of regular gasoline passed the $4 threshold this week. That’s a price not seen since August 2022, and one that is more than $1 per gallon more expensive than just over a month earlier.



What is causing these price increases? If you’ve read a newspaper or watched the news in the past month, you can probably guess: Trump’s war with Iran, which has led to nearly complete disruption of oil shipments through the geographically critical Strait of Hormuz, upending global oil supply chains, and leading to a spike in oil prices of more than 50% over the past month.



As gas is refined from oil, any price increases in crude will eventually (and, usually, quickly) filter down to you at the pumps. How long oil prices will stay high depends on how long the war with Iran drags on—something the average driver has no control over. However, there are three surprising moves you can make to help conserve gas in your tank and keep your fuel costs down.



1. Drive slower



Yes, driving slower really does use less fuel, according to the American Automobile Association. That’s why, in addition to the safety advantages, the AAA and other transportation experts advise drivers to adhere to the speed limits posted.



But why does driving slower save gas? The AAA says that it comes down to aerodynamic friction. “On the highway, aerodynamic drag causes fuel economy to drop off significantly as speeds increase above 50 mph,” the organization notes.



If you are having trouble slowing down, it may help, mentally, to put a price on your excess speed. The US Department of Energy (DOE) says that for every 5 miles per hour driven over 50 MPH, it’s “like paying an additional $0.27 per gallon for gas.”



2. Shut off the AC



Now that Spring has arrived, temperatures will begin to rise, which means more people will turn on their air conditioners while behind the wheel. But using your AC is a great way to burn your gas.



If you’re cost-conscious about fuel prices, the AAA recommends minimizing your air conditioning use. Instead, try rolling down your windows. At first, this might seem counterintuitive: We imagine that pushing air into the car may increase drag, which burns more fuel, but the AAA says that any additional drag still uses less fuel than the AC. “Even at highway speeds, open windows have less effect on fuel economy than the engine power required to operate the air conditioning compressor,” the club notes.



As for why the AC uses fuel, Kelley Blue Book explains that your car’s AC unit is powered by the alternator, which runs on gasoline. The vehicle valuation company says that AC use can reduce your car’s fuel efficiency by as much as 10%.



3. Jettison the excess weight



The more something weighs, the more energy it needs to move from one point to the next. So the more extra stuff you have weighing down your vehicle, the more quickly you’ll burn through the gas in your tank.



This is why both the AAA and the Department of Energy recommend that you remove unnecessary objects from your vehicle. And yes, every little bit of weight removed does help increase your fuel efficiency. As the DOE notes, “An extra 100 pounds in your vehicle could reduce your MPG by about 1%,” with smaller cars affected more than larger ones.



The DOE says that for every 100 pounds of weight you remove from your car, you can expect fuel savings of about 4 cents per gallon.  ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Sat, 04 Apr 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>surprising, but, simple, ways, save, gas, fuel, costs, skyrocket</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>This turbulence&#45;tracking travel app will make your next trip more tolerable</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/this-turbulence-tracking-travel-app-will-make-your-next-trip-more-tolerable</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/this-turbulence-tracking-travel-app-will-make-your-next-trip-more-tolerable</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ When we talk about travel apps, we typically talk about the types of tools that help you organize your itineraries, find worthwhile stops along your way, or maybe even just find flights (and/or fuel!) in the first place.



Those types of tools are important—but there’s another travel resource I recently ran into that might be even more invaluable.



It’s a free website that gives you unprecedented insight into exactly how much turbulence you can expect on any given flight, before you take off—as well as what the wind and overall weather conditions may mean for your odds of an on-time (or, if you’re lucky, maybe even early) arrival.



Trust me: This is one you’ll absolutely want to pack away for the future.



This tip originally appeared in the free Cool Tools newsletter from The Intelligence. Get the next issue in your inbox and get ready to discover all sorts of awesome tech treasures!



Your helpful eye on the sky



The next time you’re about to fly the not-so-friendly skies, take a moment to pull up a website called Turbli​ before you take off.



➜ Turbli is a free site that shows you exactly how much turbulence you’re likely to encounter on different parts of any specific flight you’re taking. (It’s also an incredibly fun name to say, as an extra little bonus. Seriously—try it out loud: Turbli. Turbli. Turbli!)



Turbli relies on the same data sources that actual airline pilots use—from advanced weather models provided by places like the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the U.K. Met Office.



It instantly analyzes all that info and spits back a plain-English summary and simple illustration showing you what to expect. Particularly with plane turbulence growing more frequent and severe​ as of late, having that knowledge ahead of time can make a meaningful difference in your flight experience.



⌚ It couldn’t be much easier to use, either. We’re talkin’ roughly 20 seconds of time for any flight lookup.



✅ All you do is pull up the Turbli website​ in any browser, on any device you’re using—then put your departure and arrival city into the box on the center of the screen and tell it if you’re leaving today or tomorrow.



All you need to know is your departure and arrival airport to get going with Turbli.



Turbli will then show you a list of specific flights scheduled for the path and date you selected.



Turbli shows you a selection of flight options.



Once you’ve selected your flight, you’ll see your turbulence forecast along with other relevant weather-related info.



The turbulence and wind forecasts tell you exactly what to expect at every moment of your flight.



Odds are, that’ll tell you everything you need to know. But if you want to dive in deeper, note the little “Maps” option at the top-right of those boxes.



Clicking or tapping that will take you to a live, interactive map that’ll give you even more visuals into your upcoming flight conditions.



Turbli’s interactive map is available if you really want to dive deep into the expected flying conditions.



Turbli has a detailed FAQ page​ that explains all of its forecasts, including exactly what different types of turbulence are likely to feel like in practice. (Long story short: Light turbulence is nothing, moderate makes for a bumpy flight, moderate/severe is gonna give you that roller coaster feeling but still be no actual cause for concern, and severe is likely to be quite intense but still perfectly safe as far as what modern aircrafts are designed to handle.)



Turbli does require an active internet connection to operate, as you’d expect—but other than that, there’s not much to it in terms of planning. Just pull up the site, put in your flight info, and start your next flying journey with full knowledge of what’s ahead and no sudden surprises.




Turbli is entirely web-based,​ so it’ll work in any browser and on any device you’re using—no downloads required.



It’s completely free and the passion project of a single weather-obsessed engineer. The site does accept donations​, and its creator also ​sells a related book​—but you never have to pay anything or make any purchases to use it.



The site doesn’t require any sign-ins or request any manner of personal info.




Treat yourself to all sorts of brain-boosting goodies like this with the free Cool Tools newsletter—starting with an instant introduction to an incredible audio app that’ll tune up your days in truly delightful ways. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Sat, 04 Apr 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>This, turbulence-tracking, travel, app, will, make, your, next, trip, more, tolerable</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Managing AI has become its own job</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/managing-ai-has-become-its-own-job</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/managing-ai-has-become-its-own-job</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Managers are rushing to deploy AI for efficiency gains. Employees have to figure out how to make it work—and that’s sometimes harder than it seems.



Half of organizations piloted general-purpose AI tools last year, according to MIT research. But adoption and readiness aren’t the same thing. 



According to Rumman Chowdhury, former U.S. Science Envoy for AI and CEO and cofounder of Humane Intelligence, the burden is likely to fall on workers.



“There’s a lot of FOMO among C-suites and high-level execs on pressure to build AI, and then they’re also incentivized to pretend like it works really well,” she says. “If and when it doesn’t, the responsibility is on the employee who had no say in whether or not this technology was adopted and used, or even often what it was used for.”



For many employees, particularly those who don’t have a technical background, the promise of AI-driven efficiency comes with a catch: Useful output often requires time and effort that doesn’t always get counted. The gap between what these tools are supposed to do and what it actually takes to make them work has become its own job. 



Companies are figuring out whether the fix is better training or more realistic expectations around what these tools can deliver. For now, employees are absorbing the additional labor involved in prompting AI and double-checking its outputs.



“PhD-level experts in your pocket”?



Kellie Romack, chief digital information officer at enterprise software company ServiceNow, suggests managing AI is a hands-on effort. During a recent session with one of the company’s AI tools, she caught the model making a basic math error.



“I wrote back and said, I think your math is wrong,” she recalled. “It wrote back to me and said, ‘Oh, you’re right. I do have it wrong.’” Romack gave it a thumbs-down and flagged it for her team’s feedback loop. 



The cleanup that follows is a cost organizations don’t always account for. 



“There may be efficiencies of production,” Chowdhury says. “And then if you scratch beneath the surface, some of this employee frustration is like, yeah, it’s producing stuff—and then I have to spend three hours going through every citation and making sure it’s not a hallucination.”



A January 2026 Workday study of 3,200 employees found that over a third of time saved through AI is offset by rework, which the report calls an “AI tax on productivity.” 



Most leaders, the report finds, are focused on gross efficiency, or how much time AI saves. That metric doesn’t account for rework, and when it does, the net value of AI is often lower than expected. Net value, which the report defines as “time saved minus time lost,” is what shows whether AI is improving how work gets done. The only way to capture AI’s return is to move beyond hours saved and account for outcomes achieved, the report says.



The problem is the AI industry oversold what these tools could do, Chowdhury says, pointing to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s claim last year that users would have a “team of PhD-level experts in your pocket.” The result has been frustration among both employees and managers: What was promoted as transformative has turned out to be far more uneven.



“These technologies are simultaneously capable and not capable, and that’s what’s weird about it,” she says. “People who are the furthest removed from AI—the imagery they have in their head is this magical sentient being. And then they’re frustrated because . . . this isn’t a magical sentient being.”



The difference, she adds, tends to be greatest among those with the least experience using the tools.



The training gap



A 2024 study by University of Texas at Austin researchers Min Kyung Lee and Angie Zhang included a workshop with 39 primarily knowledge workers from 26 countries—with follow-up interviews conducted separately with some participants. When workers received AI training, the majority described it as superficial.



One participant recounted a colleague who used ChatGPT to generate a list of publications and didn’t realize the titles had been invented by the AI.



The consequences of using AI without proper training or context can be serious. 



Zhang recalled one participant who worked at a labor standards organization that had to fire a junior employee after their AI-assisted work repeatedly fell short. The employee kept turning to generative AI to draft labor standards, producing work that drew on standards the participant had never come across or had no bearing on the task. (The organization had not formally adopted AI but some employees had begun using it anyway.)



Some companies are trying to get ahead of the problem. IBM Consulting requires every employee to acquire a foundational generative AI badge, covering not just how to use the tools, but what they can and can’t do, says Tess Rock, associate partner for global finance transformation at IBM Consulting.



But training alone isn’t enough. What matters more is leaders who can clearly define how and where AI should be used, she says. Without that, even well-trained employees get frustrated.



“There needs to be that leadership mandate, operating model, governance-type decisions to be made, versus kind of having a population of frustrated practitioners trying to leverage this,” Rock says.



IBM Consulting is treating AI adoption like any other business discipline. It involves two-week sprints where teams pitch an AI idea with an ROI case, build it, and scale what works. What doesn’t prove value gets cut.



Working with one client, Rock’s team identified more than 200 potential AI use cases, then measured each against ROI. Half were cut immediately. The top 10 ended up driving 80% of the total value. 



“Focus on those areas that are going to drive impact, and invest there,” she says.



Making it work



Part of what makes the AI management burden so hard to address is that workers’ frustration runs deeper than the tools, Chowdhury says. Employees weren’t asked whether they wanted the tools in the first place. That puts middle managers in a difficult spot, caught between executives wanting to accelerate AI rollouts and employees pushing back.



Her advice: Don’t just push harder. Try to understand what’s actually behind the resistance. 



“The majority of the fear is that people think that ultimately management wants to replace them,” she says. “And it’s a valid fear.”



For Rock, a key question is how organizations think about AI and productivity. Too often the focus is on how much time individual employees save writing emails faster or summarizing meetings. She argues that’s the wrong unit of measurement.



“That to me is pennies on the dollar,” she says. “When people talk about productivity, it’s less about Tess Rock as an individual being more productive and [more], how do you fundamentally set up your organization to be more productive?”


 ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Sat, 04 Apr 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Managing, has, become, its, own, job</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Why Gen Z is fangirling over Apple’s ‘Finder Guy’ mascot</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/why-gen-z-is-fangirling-over-apples-finder-guy-mascot</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/why-gen-z-is-fangirling-over-apples-finder-guy-mascot</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ At first, he appeared in the top corner of a multi-slide TikTok post. Then he was spotted demurely relaxing in a lawn chair on a livestream. Finally, on March 30, Apple’s new mascot, nicknamed “Finder Guy,” made his debut—and the internet has instantly become enamored with him.



Finder Guy appeared as part of the rollout for Apple’s MacBook Neo, a colorful, affordable laptop marketed to younger consumers. For the Neo campaign, Apple introduced an entirely new TikTok brand persona on March 4, clearly making a play to capture Gen Z and Gen Alpha viewers by combining trending aesthetics with Apple’s high-design point of view. 



Popular videos have included a brain-tingling clip of an Apple-branded blush, a vibey throwback to a 1984 ad, and a goofy original song. But some eagle-eyed fans quickly became fixated on another element of the TikTok relaunch: a cute little mascot modeled after the Mac Finder icon.



Why everyone loves Finder Guy



Finder Guy is an adorably chunky, dual-toned blue creature with a rounded head and a perpetual smile. Apple is being fairly tight-lipped about him; he hasn’t been officially announced or acknowledged by the company. “Finder Guy” isn’t even his real name, just a moniker coined by the internet. The company declined to comment on his design to Fast Company.



Still, it’s fairly obvious why Apple decided to double down on the mascot. After getting mere glimpses of him in those initial TikTok slides and livestream, Apple fans were already singing his praises.



LinkedIn thinkpieces were written about his cherubic qualities. Blog posts were made about his mysterious origins. Independent designers were compelled to create mock-ups of him wearing slouchy sweaters. He was called “a baby,” “cute,” and “adorable” in almost every corner of the internet.



Ryan Benson, cofounder of the creative agency Loudmouth, which helps brands figure out how to capture attention online, says there are a few key reasons why Finder Guy has charmed so many. Like the MacBook Neo itself, Finder Guy taps into Gen Z and Gen Alpha’s yearning for a bygone tech era when Frutiger Aero aesthetics (a retro-futuristic style characterized by bubbly motifs and bright colors) coexisted with serious software developments—in other words, when Apple’s brand felt a little bit more fun. 



“I think they’re adjusting to meet their consumer,” Benson says. “Cute content with cute things for a generation that appreciates aesthetics.” 



Finder Guy’s squat build and angelic features mimic blind box characters like Smiski, Sonny Angel, and Labubu that have become an obsession for many young consumers. One fan even orchestrated an April Fool’s prank to convince his followers that Apple was creating Finder Guy blind boxes.



“It’s so simple, cute, and self-explanatory that it just begs to be remixed, edited, and have fan art made of it,” Benson explains.



“I want Apple with their whimsy turned up to 11”



Beyond the knee-jerk appeal of its cutesy design, Finder Guy feels reminiscent of a ’90s tech moment that’s become an aesthetic fascination for young shoppers. Think Apple’s colorful G3 iMac cases, Tamagotchis, and Clippy: For those who didn’t experience this exciting era firsthand, its hardware outputs seem like relics of a time when new tech wasn’t just sleek and functional but also adventurous and even silly.



“For many of these consumers, Apple was in their Metal Square era as opposed to what they’re exploring now,” Benson says. Finder Guy, he explains, feels like a callback to retro “clear Mac shells and colorful accessories”—a far cry from the clean minimalism that young shoppers traditionally associate with Apple.



That feeling has been echoed in the subreddit r/mac, where a March 31 post with more than 2,000 upvotes is dedicated to discussing users’ thoughts on Finder Guy. “I like it,” one commenter wrote, adding, “With the more colourful devices, the short films on their Youtube, the mascot . . . I like that new art direction they are going for. Making Apple more ‘fun’ again. The sterile, clean aesthetic got a bit old imo.”



Another responded, “Whimsy. I want Apple with their whimsy turned up to 11!” It seems like many of Apple’s young customers agree.


 ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Sat, 04 Apr 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
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</item>

<item>
<title>New tax year – 2026/27 – what small business owners need to know</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/new-tax-year-202627-what-small-business-owners-need-to-know</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/new-tax-year-202627-what-small-business-owners-need-to-know</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ By Anna Jordan on Small Business UK - Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs


The new tax year (April 6) usually brings about a few changes for small business owners, but 2026 is going to be a big one. Here&#039;s a summary 
The post New tax year – 2026/27 – what small business owners need to know appeared first on Small Business UK. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Sat, 04 Apr 2026 14:00:05 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>New, tax, year, –, 202627, –, what, small, business, owners, need, know</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>UK business investment lags G7 rivals as energy costs bite</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/uk-business-investment-lags-g7-rivals-as-energy-costs-bite</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/uk-business-investment-lags-g7-rivals-as-energy-costs-bite</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
UK firms invest less than most G7 peers, with high energy costs and low capital intensity holding back productivity and growth, says IPPR.
Read more: 
UK business investment lags G7 rivals as energy costs bite ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/shutterstock_2628086841.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Wed, 01 Apr 2026 14:00:09 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>business, investment, lags, rivals, energy, costs, bite</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Roadchef secures 75&#45;year leases to unlock £300m motorway investment</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/roadchef-secures-75-year-leases-to-unlock-300m-motorway-investment</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/roadchef-secures-75-year-leases-to-unlock-300m-motorway-investment</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Roadchef will invest £300m in UK motorway services after securing 75-year lease extensions, boosting EV charging, HGV facilities and retail.
Read more: 
Roadchef secures 75-year leases to unlock £300m motorway investment ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/shutterstock_2571068701.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Wed, 01 Apr 2026 14:00:08 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Roadchef, secures, 75-year, leases, unlock, £300m, motorway, investment</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>UK warned it will rely on US gas as calls grow to boost North Sea output</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/uk-warned-it-will-rely-on-us-gas-as-calls-grow-to-boost-north-sea-output</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/uk-warned-it-will-rely-on-us-gas-as-calls-grow-to-boost-north-sea-output</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Britain could rely on US LNG for 60% of gas by 2035, prompting calls to boost North Sea production to strengthen energy security.
Read more: 
UK warned it will rely on US gas as calls grow to boost North Sea output ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/shutterstock_2110031327-scaled.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Wed, 01 Apr 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>warned, will, rely, gas, calls, grow, boost, North, Sea, output</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Oracle cuts thousands of jobs as Ellison doubles down on AI investment</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/oracle-cuts-thousands-of-jobs-as-ellison-doubles-down-on-ai-investment</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/oracle-cuts-thousands-of-jobs-as-ellison-doubles-down-on-ai-investment</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Oracle begins cutting thousands of jobs as it ramps up AI spending, with analysts warning up to 30,000 roles could be affected.
Read more: 
Oracle cuts thousands of jobs as Ellison doubles down on AI investment ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/shutterstock_788751619.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Wed, 01 Apr 2026 14:00:06 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Oracle, cuts, thousands, jobs, Ellison, doubles, down, investment</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Marmite and Hellmann’s to join us giant in £50bn flavour deal</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/marmite-and-hellmanns-to-join-us-giant-in-50bn-flavour-deal</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/marmite-and-hellmanns-to-join-us-giant-in-50bn-flavour-deal</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Marmite and other iconic brands will join US group McCormick in a £50bn deal, creating a global flavour powerhouse and raising concerns over UK jobs.
Read more: 
Marmite and Hellmann’s to join us giant in £50bn flavour deal ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/shutterstock_736100806.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Wed, 01 Apr 2026 14:00:05 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Marmite, and, Hellmann’s, join, giant, £50bn, flavour, deal</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Anthropic is having a month</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/anthropic-is-having-a-month</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/anthropic-is-having-a-month</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ A human really borks things at Anthropic for the second time this week. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/GettyImages-1570465901.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Wed, 01 Apr 2026 14:00:04 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Anthropic, having, month</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Toyota’s Woven Capital appoints new CIO and COO in push for finding the ‘future of mobility’</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/toyotas-woven-capital-appoints-new-cio-and-coo-in-push-for-finding-the-future-of-mobility</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/toyotas-woven-capital-appoints-new-cio-and-coo-in-push-for-finding-the-future-of-mobility</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Woven Capital is the growth-stage venture capital arm of Toyota, focused on backing founders building in space, cybersecurity, and autonomous driving. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Woven-Capital.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Wed, 01 Apr 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Toyota’s, Woven, Capital, appoints, new, CIO, and, COO, push, for, finding, the, ‘future, mobility’</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Mercor says it was hit by cyberattack tied to compromise of open&#45;source LiteLLM project</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/mercor-says-it-was-hit-by-cyberattack-tied-to-compromise-of-open-source-litellm-project</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/mercor-says-it-was-hit-by-cyberattack-tied-to-compromise-of-open-source-litellm-project</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ The AI recruiting startup confirmed a security incident after an extortion hacking crew took credit for stealing data from the company&#039;s systems. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/mercor-website.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Wed, 01 Apr 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Mercor, says, was, hit, cyberattack, tied, compromise, open-source, LiteLLM, project</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Nothing’s AI devices plan reportedly contains smart glasses and earbuds</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/nothings-ai-devices-plan-reportedly-contains-smart-glasses-and-earbuds</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/nothings-ai-devices-plan-reportedly-contains-smart-glasses-and-earbuds</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ The glasses will reportedly feature cameras, microphones and speakers, and will connect to a smartphone and the cloud to process AI queries. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Carl-Pei-Nothing.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Wed, 01 Apr 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Nothing’s, devices, plan, reportedly, contains, smart, glasses, and, earbuds</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Lucid Motors recalls over 4,000 Gravity SUVs citing improperly welded seat belts</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/lucid-motors-recalls-over-4000-gravity-suvs-citing-improperly-welded-seat-belts</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/lucid-motors-recalls-over-4000-gravity-suvs-citing-improperly-welded-seat-belts</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ The company struggled with quality issues when Gravity production started last year, and the new recall shows it&#039;s not out of the woods yet. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/lucid-gravity-suv.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Wed, 01 Apr 2026 14:00:02 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Lucid, Motors, recalls, over, 4, 000, Gravity, SUVs, citing, improperly, welded, seat, belts</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Memory chip stocks are falling again: Why Micron, SanDisk, WDC, and Seagate keep getting hammered</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/memory-chip-stocks-are-falling-again-why-micron-sandisk-wdc-and-seagate-keep-getting-hammered</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/memory-chip-stocks-are-falling-again-why-micron-sandisk-wdc-and-seagate-keep-getting-hammered</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ It has been a bruising 24 hours for investors in memory chip storage companies, including Micron Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq: MU), SanDisk Corporation (Nasdaq: SNDK), Western Digital Corporation (Nasdaq: WDC), and Seagate Technology Holdings (Nasdaq: STX).



Yesterday, all four leaders in the memory chip space ended the day significantly lower. 



Here’s what’s happening—and why some are questioning whether the RAM shortage that has driven these companies’ stock prices to new heights will soon come to an end.



Memory chip stocks get pummeled—again



Just a few weeks ago, the sky seemed to be the limit for memory chip makers. After all, the world is in the middle of a full-blown RAM shortage, which means memory chips are in high demand.



This demand has caused the stock prices of four companies—Micron, SanDisk, Western Digital, and Seagate—to surge over the past six months, with performance that has been, simply put, eye-watering.



For example, the least best-performing stock of the four companies is Seagate, but even its stock price has risen 53% in the past six months.



Micron’s stock price has performed even better, rising 92%. Western Digital is up even more, rising 109% over the past six months.



As for SanDisk, its stock performance over the same period has been phenomenal, up more than 410%.



And keep in mind that those were the gains even after the memory chip makers’ stock prices began getting pummeled last week. 



Yesterday, that pummeling continued, with Micron shares dropping nearly 10% during the trading session, while Western Digital lost 8.6%, SanDisk lost 7%, and Seagate dropped 4.6%.



With yesterday’s dips, all four major memory chip makers have seen massive stock price declines over the past five days, with Micron down more than 20%, SanDisk down 18.5%, Western Digital down almost 15%, and Seagate down more than 10%.



The question is, why?



What the AI boom gives, it can take away



The AI boom of the past several years has led many of the world’s largest tech giants to spend hundreds of billions building massive data centers to run their AI systems. These data centers require servers that in turn require massive amounts of RAM to run the AI.



The staggering RAM requirements for the AI boom have led to a memory chip shortage. 



And while that is bad for everyday retail customers like you and me, that shortage has been very good for the memory chip makers themselves. Their once-cheaper RAM technology now sells at a premium—and they have no shortage of deep-pocketed enterprise customers snapping up all the RAM they can make.



But what the AI boom gives, it can take away. 



Last week, one of the world’s AI leaders, Google, announced it had developed a new technology called TurboQuant. As Fast Company previously reported, Google says the tech is “a compression algorithm that optimally addresses the challenge of memory overhead in vector quantization.”



Without going into too much detail, the tech essentially means that AI giants like Google might soon be able to run compute-intensive AI tasks on computers that require up to six times less RAM than they do now. 



While this is great news for the AI giants, it’s horrible news for memory chip makers, as demand for their chips could drop by as much as 6x.



Why did memory stocks get hit so hard yesterday?



Importantly, Google’s TurboQuant news was released last week (RAM makers also took a beating when it was first announced), so why did memory chip stocks fall again yesterday?



It’s always impossible to know the exact motivations for any large-scale selloff in the markets, but investors probably spent the weekend digesting the TurboQuant news.



And when markets opened on Monday, enough investors thought it might be a good idea to start taking some profits on the four memory chip makers, which have seen such impressive gains in recent months.



Such profit-taking can often trigger a snowball effect, resulting in significant falls in a stock in any given trading session. 



The only other thing likely to have affected memory chip stocks yesterday is the same event that has affected most other stocks over the past month: lingering uncertainty around the war in Iran.



The markets have been generally down this month, with the Wall Street Journal reporting that we could be heading for our worst quarter in four years.



What investors will be watching for in particular with memory chip stocks is whether the RAM shortage may indeed be coming to an end sooner than most expected. That answer will likely have the greatest influence on memory-chip stocks in the months ahead. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Tue, 31 Mar 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Memory, chip, stocks, are, falling, again:, Why, Micron, SanDisk, WDC, and, Seagate, keep, getting, hammered</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>How can you spot a bad manager fast? Look for this 1 warning sign</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/how-can-you-spot-a-bad-manager-fast-look-for-this-1-warning-sign</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/how-can-you-spot-a-bad-manager-fast-look-for-this-1-warning-sign</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Here’s a familiar scenario: The product development team creates a hot new app. The client is excited to launch it, and the PR team is preparing the campaign for its release.



And then this happens: The manager in charge of the project steals the spotlight and takes all the credit for the work. There’s no praise for the team, no celebration of everyone’s success, and no recognition of team members’ contributions. When that happens, it’s quite likely that team morale will take a nosedive. 



This behavior has frequently appeared in research as a bad-boss trait that leads to employee disengagement and even turnover. In a study I tracked a few years ago, “taking credit for employees’ work” was rated the worst managerial behavior by 63 percent of respondents and something they would consider worth quitting over. 



It’s worth considering: Can taking credit for employees’ work actually be an effective management tactic for advancement? Or might it hold leaders back and hinder their progress? A study highlighted in Forbes, which looked at 3,800 managers and assessed how effective they were when claiming credit, found that those who took credit for others’ work were seen as quite ineffective (13th percentile). In contrast, leaders who made a genuine effort to give credit to their team members were regarded as some of the most successful (85th percentile).



Having trained numerous managers and executives in my leadership course, I see this harmful tendency to dominate the spotlight and claim all the credit as a reflection of individual performance. Managers with this mindset focus on personal recognition, caring primarily about their accomplishments and how they are perceived by superiors.



Identify more servant leaders



To stop the cycle of bad managers in our midst, we need to identify, develop, and promote more servant leaders—people naturally inclined to give their people credit for their contributions, shine a spotlight on them, and show them appreciation. In fact, Gallup research found that employees who regularly receive credit increase their productivity, achieve higher customer loyalty and satisfaction scores, and are more likely to stay with their organization.



Great leaders with loyal followers don’t seek glory or validation; they recognize their own achievements. They highlight others’ successes, and then take a step back to celebrate these accomplishments, fostering greater confidence and trust among their followers.



—Marcel Schwantes







This article originally appeared on Fast Company’s sister website, Inc.com. 



Inc. is the voice of the American entrepreneur. We inspire, inform, and document the most fascinating people in business: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters that represent the most dynamic force in the American economy. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Tue, 31 Mar 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
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</item>

<item>
<title>We’re going back to the moon! Here’s how to watch</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/were-going-back-to-the-moon-heres-how-to-watch</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/were-going-back-to-the-moon-heres-how-to-watch</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ It’s finally happening.



The Artemis II mission—returning humans to the lunar neighborhood for the first time in more than 50 years—is set to launch on April 1 from Kennedy Space Center in Florida during a two-hour window that opens at 6:24 p.m. (EDT), with additional launch opportunities through April 6.



The first crewed Artemis mission will send NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, along with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen, on a 10-day journey around the moon. Objectives include testing the Orion spacecraft’s life support systems in situ for the first time with people, gathering additional data on how spaceflight affects the human body, and laying the groundwork for future crewed Artemis missions. It may also offer views of the moon never before seen.



This mission will break six major records: the first Black astronaut (Glover, as Orion’s first pilot), first woman (Koch), first non-American (Hansen, his maiden voyage to space), and oldest (Wiseman, aged 50) to visit the lunar arena, traveling the farthest from Earth (250,000 miles), and returning with the fastest re-entry speed (25,000 mph).



NASA’s Artemis II Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft are seen at Launch Complex 39B, Friday, March 27, 2026, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. [Photo: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani]



NASA is streaming a series of prelaunch, launch, and in-flight mission events and briefings on NASA’s YouTube channel, NASA+, as well as its other social media platforms. The public can find a full list of activities here. Enthusiasts can register for the mission’s virtual guest program and receive curated launch resources, notifications about related opportunities or changes, and a NASA virtual guest passport stamp. Likewise, C-SPAN will offer Artemis programming on C-SPAN.org, its YouTube channel, radio station, and mobile app. 



Fun fact: The Zero Gravity Indicator—the plush toy flying with the astronauts to visually confirm when they’ve reached weightlessness—was designed by Lucas Ye, a second-grader from Northern California, chosen from 2,600 entries submitted in 50+ countries through the Moon Mascot: NASA Artemis II ZGI Design Challenge run by Freelancer on behalf of NASA.



[Photo: Freelancer]



Beginning April 2, NASA will conduct daily updates from the Johnson Space Center in Houston and on the Artemis Blog, and the crew will engage in live conversations throughout the mission. To track Orion in space, visit: nasa.gov/trackartemis.



New York-based folks still jonesing for more post-launch space theatrics can check out We Chose to Go to the Moon, an immersive experience recounting America’s Apollo moon race, on April 7 and 8, featuring Broadway stars and Neil Armstrong’s son and granddaughter.  



[Photo: Susan Karlin]



Here’s to smooth sailing after a turbulent couple of months. First, NASA scrubbed the initial February 6 launch to repair hydrogen leaks and helium flow issues in the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. In early March, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman announced a revamped schedule for subsequent Artemis missions to standardize the SLS configuration, push back the moon landing to Artemis IV in 2028, and align workforces with private contractors to enable more frequent launches. On March 20, the 322-foot SLS and Orion rolled back out to Launch Pad 39B.



Now, let’s light this candle.



 ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Tue, 31 Mar 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>We’re, going, back, the, moon, Here’s, how, watch</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>What happened to Allbirds?</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/what-happened-to-allbirds</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/what-happened-to-allbirds</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ AllBirds Inc. was valued at $4 billion less than five years ago. Now, it will be sold for just $39 million. 



The shoe company on Monday announced a definitive agreement with American Exchange Group (AXNY), which involves selling all of its intellectual property, assets, and liabilities. 



Privately held AXNY owns a number of brands, including Aerosoles, Ed Hardy, and Jonathan Adler. 



“We are incredibly thankful to our teams for the work they have been doing to fuel our product engine, build awareness of Allbirds and deliver an engaging customer experience,” Allbirds CEO Joe Vernachio said in a statement. 



The sale has already been approved by Allbirds’ board of directors, but still requires the go ahead from the company’s common stockholders. 



Allbirds plans to file its request for stockholder approval by April 24, complete the transaction in the second quarter, and distribute a yet-to-be-determined amount of net proceeds to stockholders in the third quarter. 



Vernachio continued: “Over the past decade, Allbirds has evolved into a lifestyle footwear brand known for modern design, innovative materials and unparalleled comfort. This next chapter with AXNY builds on the foundational work already completed and sets up the brand to thrive in the years ahead.” 



What’s next for Allbirds on the Nasdaq?



The company will no longer release its quarterly earnings press release or hold a related call on Tuesday, March 31. Instead, Allbirds will solely file its 2025 annual report with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 



On Monday, shares of Allbirds (Nasdaq: BIRD) closed 6.29% down. Following the sale announcement, shares rose more than 20% in after-hours trading. In Tuesday’s premarket, shares of Allbirds were still up more than 17%. 



Allbirds stock cratered post-COVID, and never really recovered. In 2024, the company had to do a reverse stock split (1-for-20) in order to keep Nasdaq’s minimum bid price and avoid delisting.  



How did Allbirds fall so far?



Allbirds was a phenomenon in 2021 when it made its $4 billion IPO. Founded in 2015, the company promised—and delivered—comfortable shoes for everyone. 



But, it also tried to expand into apparel, finding less success in that market. Allbirds has also faced the same problems that many apparel and retail brands face: reduced foot traffic and tighter purse strings. 



In 2023 cofounder Tim Brown stepped down as co-CEO. His partner Joey Zwillinger followed suit the following year. 



Vernachio took on the role of CEO after holding the position of COO since 2021. Store closures accompanied the change. In January, Allbirds announced that it would shutter almost all of its brick-and-mortar stores. 



Allbirds has recently been funding its operations, in part, through borrowings in its credit agreement. 



In 2025, the company had a net loss of $77.3 million and used $55.1 million in net cash for operating activities. At the end of the year, Allbirds had $26.7 million between its cash and cash equivalents, with $17.4 million outstanding in its credit agreement. 



In an SEC filing, the company said it “does not expect to continue its operations” once the sale is complete. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://images.fastcompany.com/image/upload/w_1280,q_auto,f_auto,fl_lossy/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit/wp-cms-2/2026/03/p-1-91519052-allbirds-stock.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Tue, 31 Mar 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>What, happened, Allbirds</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>As the Iran war drags on, are Trump’s tactics to regulate markets working?</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/as-the-iran-war-drags-on-are-trumps-tactics-to-regulate-markets-working</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/as-the-iran-war-drags-on-are-trumps-tactics-to-regulate-markets-working</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ As the Iran war intensifies, President Donald Trump has prioritized efforts to calm the financial markets — trying to keep oil prices from exploding upward, stocks from cratering and interest rates from surging.When the markets have flashed danger, Trump has been quick with a social media post or a remark to claim the war he launched last month could soon end. He’s publicly declared that the markets are doing better than he expected, even with the S&amp;P 500 stock index declining over the past five weeks and the global oil benchmark up roughly 60%.“I thought oil prices were going to go up higher than they are now,” Trump said at a Friday investor summit. “And I thought that we would see a bigger drop in stock. It hasn’t been that bad.”With the Iran war, the White House has largely refrained from messaging more aggressively to voters about the economic consequences — choosing instead to try to contain any damage in the financial markets, which have swung wildly on the prospects of ceasefire or escalation in what has become a high-stakes guessing game about Trump’s next moves.The Republican president showed the extremes of his messaging Monday before the U.S. stock market opened, writing in a social media post that great progress had been achieved on peace talks with Iran while also threatening civilian infrastructure such as desalination plants if a deal wasn’t reached “shortly.”The White House sees the stock, energy and bond markets as a way to indirectly reach voters. Trump has staked his economic agenda on cheap prices at the pump, robust gains in 401(k) accounts and cheaper mortgage rates.But that messaging appears to be wearing thin as the president’s various pronouncements have done little to change the reality that a large chunk of the world’s energy supplies is stranded by the conflict. Just 38% of U.S. adults approve of how he’s handling the economy and only 35% support him on Iran, according to a March survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.



The president has tried to dictate to markets instead of talking directly to Americans



Gene Sperling, a top economic adviser in the Democratic Clinton, Obama and Biden administrations, said voters can make a direct connection between prices at the pump and Trump’s choice to attack Iran. He said “simplistic jawboning” to the markets is insufficient for a public that is stuck paying the price as gasoline soars past $4 a gallon nationwide.“Most advisers would say the president has to speak directly to the American people and fully acknowledge the economic pain that his policy has so directly caused in a short amount of time and make the case for why the national security concerns justify it,” Sperling said. “Instead, you have a strategy of not recognizing or even dismissing people’s economic pain.”White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday called the oil price increases a “short-term fluctuation.”Trump’s strategy of giving mixed messages has started to work against him, said Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a professor at the Yale University School of Management and co-author of the new book “Trump’s Ten Commandments: Strategic Lessons from the Trump Leadership Toolbox.”“The uncertainty is now soaring,” Sonnenfeld said. “As the messaging to calm markets with false reassurances is having diminishing credibility in financial markets, so, too, has Trump diminished public confidence.”



Trump’s desire for flexibility on the war limits his ability to offer clarity



Trump has embraced having flexibility in how he chooses to conduct the war, even though this has muddled his stated objectives.During a Cabinet meeting Thursday, he said Iran was “begging” for a deal even as he threatened further military action — all the while maintaining that any economic damage to the U.S. would reverse itself.On Friday after the markets closed, he extended his deadline for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for the flow of oil, saying he would hold off on bombing Iran’s energy plants in the meantime.Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Monday on Fox News Channel’s “Fox &amp; Friends” that Iran was letting some tankers through the Strait of Hormuz and that the “market is well supplied” because countries are releasing their strategic petroleum reserves and sanctions have been removed for Russian and Iranian oil already on tankers.“We are seeing more and more ships go through on a daily basis as individual countries cut deals with the Iranian regime for the time being,” Bessent said. “But over time, the U.S. is going to retake control of the straits, and there will be freedom of navigation, whether it is through U.S. escorts or a multinational escort.”Graham Steele, a Biden-era Treasury official, said Trump’s messaging techniques “can work temporarily, but they have diminishing returns, over time,” if they’re detached from actual policies and results.“We saw a lot of the volatile market reactions initially, when he kept announcing these things and then walking them back,” Steele said. “The market reaction now is just a steady trend upward in prices,” he noted, adding that markets are “not responding to it in the same way anymore.”



Confidence in the economy and Trump is fading without clear results



The University of Michigan’s Index of Consumer Sentiment on Friday fell to a reading of 53.3 in March, its lowest level since December. Joanne Hsu, director of the surveys of consumers, pointed to the financial market volatility “in the wake of the Iran conflict” as reducing confidence in the economy for households with middle and higher incomes.Hsu noted that the survey indicated that people do not expect the higher energy costs and stock market declines to persist, but that could change if the war “becomes protracted or if higher energy prices pass through to overall inflation.”Gus Faucher, the chief economist at PNC Financial Services, stressed that low levels of consumer sentiment do not automatically signal a recession. But he said consumers would have to see lower gas prices, a steady stock market and decreased mortgage rates to feel better about the economy, which likely means a definitive resolution to the conflict rather than a series of pronouncements by Trump.“The proof is in the pudding,” Faucher said. “People need to see some substantive improvements before they feel better about conditions.”







Follow the AP’s coverage of the Iran war at https://apnews.com/hub/iran.



—Josh Boak and Fatima Hussein, Associated Press ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Tue, 31 Mar 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>the, Iran, war, drags, on, are, Trump’s, tactics, regulate, markets, working</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>5 business benefits of investing in virtual landline numbers</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/5-business-benefits-of-investing-in-virtual-landline-numbers</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/5-business-benefits-of-investing-in-virtual-landline-numbers</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ By Jon Sumner on Small Business UK - Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs


The post 5 business benefits of investing in virtual landline numbers appeared first on Small Business UK. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://smallbusiness-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2017/09/smartphone-695164_640.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Tue, 31 Mar 2026 14:00:05 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>business, benefits, investing, virtual, landline, numbers</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Next to invest £300m in UK logistics as new warehouse set to deliver £2.5bn boost</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/next-to-invest-300m-in-uk-logistics-as-new-warehouse-set-to-deliver-25bn-boost</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/next-to-invest-300m-in-uk-logistics-as-new-warehouse-set-to-deliver-25bn-boost</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Next will invest £300m in UK warehouses, including a new Yorkshire site, as it targets £2.5bn economic boost and accelerates online growth.
Read more: 
Next to invest £300m in UK logistics as new warehouse set to deliver £2.5bn boost ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/shutterstock_2408705265-scaled.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sat, 28 Mar 2026 14:00:08 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Next, invest, £300m, logistics, new, warehouse, set, deliver, £2.5bn, boost</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>US warns Starmer’s EU reset could strain UK trade ties</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/us-warns-starmers-eu-reset-could-strain-uk-trade-ties</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/us-warns-starmers-eu-reset-could-strain-uk-trade-ties</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
The US has warned Keir Starmer’s plans to align with EU rules could disrupt UK-US trade, raising concerns over future economic ties.
Read more: 
US warns Starmer’s EU reset could strain UK trade ties ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/US-Ambassador.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sat, 28 Mar 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>warns, Starmer’s, reset, could, strain, trade, ties</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Petrol set to top £1.50 a litre as Iran war drives fuel price surge</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/petrol-set-to-top-150-a-litre-as-iran-war-drives-fuel-price-surge</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/petrol-set-to-top-150-a-litre-as-iran-war-drives-fuel-price-surge</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
UK petrol prices are set to exceed £1.50 per litre as oil costs surge after the Iran conflict, with diesel rising even faster, warns the RAC.
Read more: 
Petrol set to top £1.50 a litre as Iran war drives fuel price surge ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/shutterstock_2229891587-scaled.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sat, 28 Mar 2026 14:00:06 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Petrol, set, top, £1.50, litre, Iran, war, drives, fuel, price, surge</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Dyson hit by £440m sales drop as Trump tariffs bite</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/dyson-hit-by-440m-sales-drop-as-trump-tariffs-bite</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/dyson-hit-by-440m-sales-drop-as-trump-tariffs-bite</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Dyson reports £440m sales decline due to US tariffs and weak demand, but profits rise after cost cuts and continued investment in innovation.
Read more: 
Dyson hit by £440m sales drop as Trump tariffs bite ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/shutterstock_2647124317-scaled.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sat, 28 Mar 2026 14:00:05 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Dyson, hit, £440m, sales, drop, Trump, tariffs, bite</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Octopus Investments to cut 20% of staff as AI reshapes asset management</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/octopus-investments-to-cut-20-of-staff-as-ai-reshapes-asset-management</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/octopus-investments-to-cut-20-of-staff-as-ai-reshapes-asset-management</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Octopus Investments plans to cut around 20% of staff as it accelerates AI adoption, highlighting growing disruption across the asset management sector.
Read more: 
Octopus Investments to cut 20% of staff as AI reshapes asset management ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/shutterstock_2510684429-scaled.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sat, 28 Mar 2026 14:00:05 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Octopus, Investments, cut, 20, staff, reshapes, asset, management</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Physical Intelligence is reportedly in talks to raise $1 billion, again</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/physical-intelligence-is-reportedly-in-talks-to-raise-1-billion-again</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/physical-intelligence-is-reportedly-in-talks-to-raise-1-billion-again</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ The deal would effectively double the company&#039;s $5.6 billion valuation in just four months. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/IMG_4026.jpeg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sat, 28 Mar 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Physical, Intelligence, reportedly, talks, raise, billion, again</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Whoop has LeBron – now it wants your mom</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/whoop-has-lebron-now-it-wants-your-mom</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/whoop-has-lebron-now-it-wants-your-mom</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Whoop founder Will Ahmed has spent 14 years building a health wearable beloved by elite athletes, and is now racing Oura — and the FDA, and the limits of consumer medicine — to turn it into something that could one day save your life. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/DSC06101.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sat, 28 Mar 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Whoop, has, LeBron, –, now, wants, your, mom</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>From Moon hotels to cattle herding: 8 startups investors chased at YC Demo Day</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/from-moon-hotels-to-cattle-herding-8-startups-investors-chased-at-yc-demo-day</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/from-moon-hotels-to-cattle-herding-8-startups-investors-chased-at-yc-demo-day</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ We polled nearly a dozen VCs to find out which W26 startups are the sought after in the batch. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/yc-sf.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sat, 28 Mar 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>From, Moon, hotels, cattle, herding:, startups, investors, chased, Demo, Day</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Let’s take a look at the retro tech making a comeback</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/lets-take-a-look-at-the-retro-tech-making-a-comeback</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/lets-take-a-look-at-the-retro-tech-making-a-comeback</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Boomboxes, instant cameras, and even landlines are making a comeback. Here are the coolest retro-inspired devices available. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/phone-records-neon-mobile-2198206872.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sat, 28 Mar 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Let’s, take, look, the, retro, tech, making, comeback</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>What will power the grid in 2035? The race is wide open</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/what-will-power-the-grid-in-2035-the-race-is-wide-open</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/what-will-power-the-grid-in-2035-the-race-is-wide-open</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Fusion, fission, and even natural gas are appeared tied in the race to deliver new power to the grid in the early 2030s. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/electrical-grid-at-night.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sat, 28 Mar 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>What, will, power, the, grid, 2035, The, race, wide, open</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>How Personalised Corporate Gifts Improve Employee Engagement &amp;amp; Loyalty?</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/how-personalised-corporate-gifts-improve-employee-engagement-loyalty</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/how-personalised-corporate-gifts-improve-employee-engagement-loyalty</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ There’s nothing more meaningful than forming strong human relationships in today’s world. As for corporations, it is crucial to have the ‘nice to have’ policy. Employee engagement today is not an option but a necessity to enhance workplace culture. One of the least-discussed ways to improve employee engagement is personalised corporate gifts. Personalised gifts work […]
The post How Personalised Corporate Gifts Improve Employee Engagement &amp; Loyalty? appeared first on Fincyte. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://www.fincyte.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/How-Personalised-Corporate-Gifts-Improve-Employee-Engagement-Loyalty.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Fri, 27 Mar 2026 14:00:12 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>How, Personalised, Corporate, Gifts, Improve, Employee, Engagement, Loyalty</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Noodles &amp;amp; Company closed dozens of restaurants last year. Here’s why the stock price is soaring in 2026</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/noodles-company-closed-dozens-of-restaurants-last-year-heres-why-the-stock-price-is-soaring-in-2026</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/noodles-company-closed-dozens-of-restaurants-last-year-heres-why-the-stock-price-is-soaring-in-2026</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ As part of a strategic move to optimize its store footprint, Noodles &amp; Company closed 33 company-owned restaurants in 2025. In January, the chain said it would close dozens more stores this year.  



However, despite the shrinking restaurant count, sales have grown. 



The fast-casual eatery held its fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 earnings call on Wednesday, March 25. It reported that comparable store sales increased 6.6% in the final quarter of 2025. Sales growth and traffic are also up as of early 2026.



Following the strong earnings report, shares of Noodles &amp; Company (Nasdaq: NDLS) soared over 50% on Thursday. 



The stock is up almost 60% year to date as of premarket trading on Friday. That’s a significant contrast to the broader Nasdaq Composite, which is down 7.78% for 2026 so far.   



How store closures have helped same-store sales



Despite having closed more than 30 stores in 2025, Noodles &amp; Company reported system-wide comparable store sales growth of nearly 7% in the fourth quarter of 2025. 



On Wednesday’s earnings call, CEO Joe Christina told investors that the restaurant closures “resulted in a material transfer of sales to nearby locations . . . which also favorably impacted margins.” 



And store closures haven’t stopped customers from spending money. 



CFO Mike Hynes explained during the call that a significant portion of Noodles &amp; Company customers place takeout or delivery orders, so they’ve continued to order from nearby locations that remain open.



“The most meaningful impact is the post-closure transfer of sales to nearby Noodles &amp; Company restaurants, which is driving a significant increase to our company-wide restaurant-level profits.”



New menu items also drove traffic



Menu changes and limited-time offerings have also played a significant role in driving sales and traffic growth, Christina said on the call.



“A great example is chili garlic ramen, which we introduced as a limited time offer in October,” he said. “Inspired by trending ramen hacks, this brothless bowl delivered the buttery, spicy, umami-packed flavors guests were already craving. It quickly became one of the strongest [limited-time offers] in our history.”



He noted that the trendy dish resonated well with loyalty program members and also brought in new customers. Because of its success, Noodles &amp; Company is evaluating other ramen recipes. 



Christina also credits the fast-casual noodle chain’s value-focused messaging, “giving guests compelling meal combinations and an attractive price point that delivered balance, variety, and everyday affordability without compromising quality, while also raising consumer awareness to our new menu offerings.”



Hourly workers have been most impacted by the store closures



While an optimized physical footprint may be producing results for the company, store closures have come at a real cost to employees, primarily hourly workers. 



According to Noodles &amp; Company’s year-end 2025 10-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the fast-casual eatery employed approximately 6,000 hourly workers as of December 30, 2025, down from 6,800 a year prior. 



That’s a net loss of roughly 800 hourly jobs in one year. Meanwhile, the company’s salaried worker headcount remained unchanged during that same period, with 500 salaried workers reported for both years.



 ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Fri, 27 Mar 2026 14:00:10 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Noodles, Company, closed, dozens, restaurants, last, year., Here’s, why, the, stock, price, soaring, 2026</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>3 ways to take the ‘work’ out of networking</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/3-ways-to-take-the-work-out-of-networking</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/3-ways-to-take-the-work-out-of-networking</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ You’ve spent years building a robust professional network. You’ve cultivated relationships with peers, mentors, and industry leaders. So when you signal that you’re exploring new opportunities, you expect your network to perform. Yet too often, promising conversations dissolve into silence. Warm introductions never materialize. Emails go unanswered.



This isn’t a reflection of your professional standing. It’s a design problem: you’re making it too hard for people to help you. The fix is straightforward. Make it easy. Here are three ways to do so.



Ask To Write to Their Contact Directly



When you reach out to a contact seeking an introduction to a decision-maker, a common response goes something like this: “Absolutely — send me your résumé and I’ll forward it to see if there’s interest.”



It sounds helpful, but rarely is.



The fundamental problem: you’ve just handed over control of your own job search to someone with a dozen other priorities. Even the most well-intentioned contact may not follow through—because the timing isn’t right for their colleague (the chances they need your résumé at any given moment are small), because it slipped off their radar, or because the introduction they made on your behalf didn’t do you justice.



The solution is to reclaim the driver’s seat. When a contact offers to pass your résumé along, respond with something like:



“I really appreciate it. To save you time, could I reach out to your colleague directly and simply mention that I was referred by you? I’m also looking to build a relationship for opportunities now or down the road, so I would rather not forward a resume that implies I need a job quickly. Would this work?”



This proposal removes the burden from your contact while giving you control over the pitch. It also avoids the résumé-forward trap—a résumé implies “please hire me now,” when your real goal is to get an informational meeting with a decision-maker and then keep in touch for future opportunities or get additional referrals.



Half of your networking contacts will agree, and now you can use their name to gain attention: “Subject: Referred by [Contact], re: [Topic].”



But what about the contacts who want to make the introduction themselves?



Send a Forward-Friendly Email



Many contacts will respond with something along the lines of “Let me reach out to my colleague first to see if they’d be interested in speaking with you.” In that case, offer to send them a forward-friendly email.



This move dramatically improves the likelihood that they will actually follow through, because you’ve reduced their effort from 15 minutes spent figuring out how to pitch you to just 2 minutes of forwarding. You’re also improving the odds that their contact will want to meet with you, since you can include a field-tested pitch explaining why a conversation could be mutually beneficial.



The content is virtually the same as the “Referred by …” email; just start it differently:



“Subject: Introduction to Katherine Johnson, re: BigCo



Dear Rosalind,



Thanks for offering to forward my information to Katherine. As discussed, below I’ve shared my background and why I believe a meeting could be mutually beneficial.”



One important note on content: resist the urge to attach your résumé unless there’s a specific opening you’re pursuing. Instead, use your LinkedIn profile as your “low-key résumé.” The impressive content in your thoroughly filled-out profile will drive credibility without signaling desperation.



Have a Clear Job Target



Too many executives prolong their searches because they position themselves too broadly, not wanting to miss an opportunity. The problem: your network finds it harder to advocate for you when your message is watered down across multiple job targets. Worse, you may be asking your contacts to do the heavy lifting of translating your varied background into specific opportunities. That is your job, not theirs.



One client came to me after a long, frustrating search. I quickly saw the issue: she was pitching herself to her network as open to Partnerships leadership roles at Fortune 500 companies, COO roles at startups, or Commercialization roles at any company. Three quite varied targets, not connected by a strong theme, led to ineffective messaging. Once we prioritized, she re-launched her outreach with a focused, powerful pitch for COO roles at startups. Within weeks, the interviews began to materialize.



A narrow pitch may feel counterintuitive—but it’s what makes your networking more effective, since people can refer you more easily when they see you clearly in a specific role.



The Bottom Line



Your network wants to help. Your job is to make that help feel effortless—not like a second job. Write the emails they can forward, or email their contacts directly. Do the targeting they shouldn’t have to. And keep yourself in the driver’s seat. The opportunities will follow. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Fri, 27 Mar 2026 14:00:10 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>ways, take, the, ‘work’, out, networking</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>How the public changes spaces—and art—for the better</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/how-the-public-changes-spacesand-artfor-the-better</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/how-the-public-changes-spacesand-artfor-the-better</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Designers love intention. Architects draw immaculate plans; curators craft pristine galleries; developers imagine carefully choreographed public experiences. But once the general population shows up, those spaces tend to change. Sometimes there’s an instinct among designers to fight against it; it’s hard to let go of an aesthetic goal.



But—more often than not—the public makes spaces and designs better. It’s the people, not solely the place, who spark true imagination and inevitably shape its character. It’s the people who have the power to turn a design into something more welcoming and relevant, and push designers to think outside the box in creativity and problem-solving.



This January in New York City, at a small placemaking summit hosted by Journey, experts across art, infrastructure, food, and civic design converged around this idea: Spaces come to life once the public makes them their own.



DESIGN FOR VISITORS



At the Summit, Katherine Fleming, CEO of the J. Paul Getty Trust, for example, described how visitors reshaped the Getty Museum’s iconic steps and lawns. Even though they had been designed as merely aesthetic transitional spaces, they soon became gathering spots: places for picnics, sketching, conversation, or quiet reflection. And instead of correcting that behavior to keep the grounds’ original function, the Getty embraced it. The result was longer museum visits and more positive discourse among the broader Los Angeles community—not, it’s important to note, diminished prestige.



That same flexibility manifests in Antwaun Sargent’s work as the Gagosian director, where he curates galleries informed by the public. His Social Works exhibition highlighted artists embedded in their communities, including an installation from Linda Goode Bryant that displayed a fully functioning aeroponic farm in the gallery to demonstrate its use as a community space, challenging traditional notions of what “art” is and how it serves communities. This approach turned the gallery into a community, making it a place for the public to gather and learn instead of simply observing.



This notion goes beyond art institutions and appears in everyday spaces, like retail communities. As Claire Bernard, senior food &amp; beverage manager for Chelsea Market and Market 57, shared, the design at New York City’s iconic Chelsea Market didn’t stay fixed for long. Shop owners regularly shifted displays, reworked lines, and pulled seating in or out depending on the crowd. What started as clearly defined footprints, where one retailer ended and another began, quickly blurred once real people entered the mix. Those small, practical adjustments weren’t part of some grand plan, but they created a truly organic market that could respond to crowd patterns in real time. In many ways, that flexibility is what made it feel authentic and alive, it is another reminder that adaptation can serve the community, the vendors, and the space itself.



Perhaps the most obvious example is public infrastructure. Tina Vaz, director of arts and design at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), spoke about the MTA’s evolving arts and design efforts, where around 4.3 million daily riders turn transit stations into artistic interactions. Whether it’s poetry installations, live performances, permanent artworks, or occasional uncommissioned graffiti art, the MTA is continually adapting and responding to riders’ lived experiences. Meanwhile, initiatives from the Times Square Alliance embrace the constant flow of one of the world’s busiest crossroads, commissioning installations and digital art pieces designed specifically for visiting multilingual audiences. In many ways, these programs succeed precisely because they accept unpredictability and embrace the variety of the people they’re trying to reach.



4 DESIGN TIPS FOR PUBLIC SPACES



So, what should developers and designers take from this?



1. Design for participation. Spaces aren’t finished when they open. They may never be finished. So, build in flexibility, whether it’s movable seating, adaptable signage, multi-use zones or timely installations, and learn from what your communities demand.



2. Measure engagement differently. Metrics tend to prioritize aesthetic loyalty or operational efficiency. But the real signs of success are more often how long people spend in a place, how often they revisit, and how willing the community is to engage spontaneously in them.



3. Invite collaboration. Artists, residents, commuters, and visitors all bring contexts you may not anticipate. Structured programs like residencies, community groups, public feedback discussions, and community-oriented designs make those contexts productive. In turn, your spaces become more thoughtful and more engaging.



4. Let go of perfection. Some of the most beloved public spaces look “messier” and function differently than their initial designs. But that’s the beauty of designing for the public: The unforeseen transformations are signs of life. A space that can absorb that humanness, rather than resist it, allows a design to step outside itself and become truly communal. And community, by definition, is always a collaboration.



Andrew Zimmerman is the CEO at Journey. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Fri, 27 Mar 2026 14:00:10 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>How, the, public, changes, spaces—and, art—for, the, better</media:keywords>
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<title>SpaceX IPO: What we know about the initial public offering as the eagerly awaited stock listing date nears</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/spacex-ipo-what-we-know-about-the-initial-public-offering-as-the-eagerly-awaited-stock-listing-date-nears</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/spacex-ipo-what-we-know-about-the-initial-public-offering-as-the-eagerly-awaited-stock-listing-date-nears</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ With some of the largest and most influential tech giants planning to go public this year, 2026 is shaping up to be the year of the mega IPO. 



Stock listings from OpenAI, Anthropic, and SpaceX could all potentially happen in 2026, and it is the latter that may make its market debut first. 



Here’s the latest on the potential initial public offering from Elon Musk’s space-tech company:



When is SpaceX’s IPO?



For some time, investors have expected, or at least speculated, that Elon Musk’s rocket and space technology company, SpaceX, would go public sometime in 2026. And it looks like that may finally be happening.



Citing anonymous sources, the Wall Street Journal reported that SpaceX is expected to confidentially file its IPO paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) “in coming days.” 



That means the company’s confidential IPO filing is likely to happen sometime between today and next week. The public IPO filing usually happens about eight weeks after the private one.



Of course, the actual SpaceX IPO wouldn’t occur until after both the confidential and public filings. If the standard eight-week timeline holds for public filings, that means SpaceX’s public filing will likely take place sometime in late May or early June. 



And that June timeframe lines up nicely with WSJ reporting that says SpaceX’s IPO could happen sometime that month.



Indeed, the Journal says that SpaceX’s IPO is being timed for mid-June, before Elon Musk’s birthday, which is on Sunday, June 28. He will turn 55 this year.



Retail investors may get a bigger slice of the SpaceX IPO pie



Historically, when companies go public, very few shares are allocated to so-called retail investors—individuals like you and me. 



At most, about 10% of a company’s shares are available to retail investors during an IPO, with the remainder earmarked for institutional investors.



Yet that’s not expected to be the case for the SpaceX IPO. 



As reported by Reuters yesterday, Elon Musk is considering allocating as much as 30% of SpaceX’s IPO shares to retail investors. The move is reportedly being considered in part to help reward the loyalty of Musk’s ardent fanbase. The Reuters story cites an unnamed source. 



This potential retail allocation also stands to benefit Musk and SpaceX. The large retail allocation could help drive hype for SpaceX stock among the masses, leading to a spike in shares on the company’s IPO day as more mom-and-pop investors rush to snap up SpaceX stock. 



As more retail investors buy in, the price would rise, and since Musk is the largest SpaceX shareholder, his net worth would rise in sync, helping him toward one of his likely goals: becoming the first individual trillionaire in history.



Fast Company reached out to SpaceX for comment.



What is SpaceX’s IPO share price?



As of now, it’s not known what SpaceX’s IPO share price will be, nor how many shares will be made available.



How much will SpaceX raise in its IPO?



That’s yet to be decided. But the Wall Street Journal reports that SpaceX is looking to raise anywhere from $40 billion to $80 billion in its initial public offering.



If it were to achieve even the low end of that range, it would make SpaceX’s IPO the biggest in history. 



That current title is held by the Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco), which raised over $29 billion in its 2019 IPO.



What is SpaceX’s stock ticker?



It’s unknown what SpaceX’s stock ticker will be. 



Right now, the ticker “SPAX.PVT” is used to track the private company on financial sites like Yahoo Finance. However, that’s no guarantee that SpaceX will decide to use the “SPAX” ticker.



Which exchange will SpaceX trade on?



It’s likely that SpaceX will trade on the Nasdaq. 



This is likely for a few reasons. First, the Nasdaq is already the home to the largest technology companies, including Apple, Google, Meta, and Nvidia Second, the Nasdaq is also already home to Elon Musk’s other publicly traded company, Tesla. 



Given these factors, many expect Nasdaq to be the home of SpaceX shares.  ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Fri, 27 Mar 2026 14:00:10 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
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<item>
<title>Senate strikes a deal to fund TSA. Here’s where ICE and other agencies stand in the budget impasse</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/senate-strikes-a-deal-to-fund-tsa-heres-where-ice-and-other-agencies-stand-in-the-budget-impasse</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/senate-strikes-a-deal-to-fund-tsa-heres-where-ice-and-other-agencies-stand-in-the-budget-impasse</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ The Senate early Friday morning approved Homeland Security funds to pay Transportation Security Administration agents and most other agencies, but not the immigration enforcement operations at the heart of the budget impasse that has jammed airports, disrupted travel and imposed financial hardship on workers.The deal, which the Senate approved unanimously without a roll call, next goes to the House, which is expected to consider it Friday.“We can get at least a lot of the government opened up again and then we’ll go from there,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D. “Obviously, we’ll still have some work ahead of us.”With pressure mounting to resolve the 42-day stalemate over funding for the Department of Homeland Security, the endgame emerged in the final hours before TSA workers miss another paycheck Friday. President Donald Trump said he would sign an order to immediately pay the TSA agents, saying he wanted to quickly stop the “Chaos at the Airports.” The deal did not include any of the restraints Democrats have demanded as they sought to rein in Trump’s mass deportation agenda.Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said the outcome could have been reached weeks ago, and vowed that his party would continue fighting to ensure Trump’s “rogue” immigration operation “does not get more funding without serious reform.”



What’s in and out of the funding package



Senators worked through the night on the deal that would fund much of the rest of the department, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Coast Guard and TSA, but without funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Customs was funded, but Border Protection was not.The package puts no new limits on immigration enforcement, which has remained largely uninterrupted by the shutdown. The GOP’s big tax cuts bill that Trump signed into law last year funneled billions in extra funds to DHS, including $75 billion for ICE operations, ensuring the immigration officers are still being paid despite the lapse.Next steps in the House, where Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., holds a slim majority, are uncertain. Passage will almost certainly require bipartisan support, as lawmakers on the left and right flanks revolt.Conservative Republicans have panned their own party’s proposals, demanding full funding for immigration operations. Many have vowed to ensure ICE has the resources it needs in the next budget package to carry out Trump’s agenda.“We will fully fund ICE. That is what this fight is about,” Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., said as he tried to offer legislation to fund the agency. “The border is closing. The next task is deportation.”



On-again, off-again talks collapsed



Earlier Thursday, Thune announced he had given a “last and final” offer to the Democrats. But as the day dragged on, action stalled out.Democrats argued the GOP proposals have not gone far enough at putting guardrails on officers from ICE, Customs and Border Protection, and other federal agencies who are engaged in the immigration sweeps, particularly after the deaths of two Americans protesting the actions in Minneapolis.They want federal agents to wear identification, remove their face masks and refrain from conducting raids around schools, churches or other sensitive places. Democrats have also pushed for an end of administrative warrants, insisting that judges sign off before agents search people’s homes or private spaces — something new Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has said he is open to considering.Trump had largely left the issue to Congress, but warned he was ready to take action, threatening to send the National Guard to airports in addition to his deployment of ICE agents who are now checking travelers’ IDs.The White House had floated the extraordinary move of invoking a national emergency to pay the TSA agents, a politically and legally fraught approach. Instead, Trump’s order would pay TSA agents using money from his 2025 tax bill, according to a senior administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss it publicly.If the Senate package is approved by the House and signed it into law, the action Trump announced to pay TSA agents may be temporary or unneeded.



Airport lines grow as TSA workers endure hardships



The funding shutdown has resulted in travel delays and even warnings of airport closures as TSA workers missing paychecks stop coming to work.Multiple airports are experiencing greater than 40% callout rates of TSA workers and nearly 500 of the agency’s nearly 50,000 transportation security officers have quit during the shutdown. Nationwide on Wednesday, more than 11% of the TSA employees on the schedule missed work, according to DHS. That is more than 3,120 callouts.Everett Kelley, the president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said the union is grateful the TSA workers will be paid, but said Congress must stay in session to pass a deal “that funds DHS, pays all DHS workers, and keeps these vital agencies running.”At George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Melissa Gates said she would not make her flight to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, after waiting more than 2½ hours and still not reaching the security checkpoint. She said no other flights were available until Friday.“I should have just driven, right?” Gates said. “Five hours would have been hilarious next to this.”







Associated Press writers Joey Cappelletti, Kevin Freking, Rebecca Santana, Collin Binkley and Ben Finley, Lekan Oyekanmi, Wyatte Grantham-Philips, Rio Yamat, Russ Bynum, and Gabriela Aoun Angueira contributed to this report.



—Lisa Mascaro and Mary Clare Jalonick, Associated Press ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Fri, 27 Mar 2026 14:00:10 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Senate, strikes, deal, fund, TSA., Here’s, where, ICE, and, other, agencies, stand, the, budget, impasse</media:keywords>
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<title>Best Offers for Making Tax Digital accounting software</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/best-offers-for-making-tax-digital-accounting-software</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/best-offers-for-making-tax-digital-accounting-software</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ By Henry Williams on Small Business UK - Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs


The post Best Offers for Making Tax Digital accounting software appeared first on Small Business UK. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Fri, 27 Mar 2026 14:00:09 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Best, Offers, for, Making, Tax, Digital, accounting, software</media:keywords>
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<title>15 best UK side hustles – and how much you could earn</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/15-best-uk-side-hustles-and-how-much-you-could-earn</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/15-best-uk-side-hustles-and-how-much-you-could-earn</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ By Anna Jordan on Small Business UK - Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs


We&#039;ve got some of the best side hustles that you can take on and the information you need, even if you don&#039;t have the money or expertise 
The post 15 best UK side hustles – and how much you could earn appeared first on Small Business UK. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Fri, 27 Mar 2026 14:00:08 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>best, side, hustles, –, and, how, much, you, could, earn</media:keywords>
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<title>Late payment rules to include mandatory interest and 60&#45;day cap</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/late-payment-rules-to-include-mandatory-interest-and-60-day-cap</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/late-payment-rules-to-include-mandatory-interest-and-60-day-cap</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ By Anna Jordan on Small Business UK - Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs


Late payment rules include a payment term cap, mandatory interest payments and new powers for the Small Business Commissioner
The post Late payment rules to include mandatory interest and 60-day cap appeared first on Small Business UK. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Fri, 27 Mar 2026 14:00:06 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Late, payment, rules, include, mandatory, interest, and, 60-day, cap</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Making Tax Digital thresholds and timelines for 2026&#45;2028</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/making-tax-digital-thresholds-and-timelines-for-2026-2028</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/making-tax-digital-thresholds-and-timelines-for-2026-2028</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ By Anna Jordan on Small Business UK - Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs


Confused about upcoming Making Tax Digital changes? Check the thresholds and timelines to ensure you&#039;re on the right track
The post Making Tax Digital thresholds and timelines for 2026-2028 appeared first on Small Business UK. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Fri, 27 Mar 2026 14:00:05 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Making, Tax, Digital, thresholds, and, timelines, for, 2026-2028</media:keywords>
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<title>Taking payments online for ecommerce businesses</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/taking-payments-online-for-ecommerce-businesses</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/taking-payments-online-for-ecommerce-businesses</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ By Henry Williams on Small Business UK - Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs


The post Taking payments online for ecommerce businesses appeared first on Small Business UK. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Fri, 27 Mar 2026 14:00:04 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Taking, payments, online, for, ecommerce, businesses</media:keywords>
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<title>Royal Mail staff allege pressure to hide undelivered post to meet targets</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/royal-mail-staff-allege-pressure-to-hide-undelivered-post-to-meet-targets</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/royal-mail-staff-allege-pressure-to-hide-undelivered-post-to-meet-targets</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Royal Mail workers allege managers told them to hide undelivered post to meet targets, as MPs question the company over ongoing service failures.
Read more: 
Royal Mail staff allege pressure to hide undelivered post to meet targets ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/shutterstock_1698944977-scaled.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Tue, 24 Mar 2026 14:00:09 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Royal, Mail, staff, allege, pressure, hide, undelivered, post, meet, targets</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Oxford spinout Stateful robotics raises $4.8m to tackle real&#45;world AI for robots</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/oxford-spinout-stateful-robotics-raises-48m-to-tackle-real-world-ai-for-robots</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/oxford-spinout-stateful-robotics-raises-48m-to-tackle-real-world-ai-for-robots</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Oxford spinout Stateful Robotics raises $4.8m to develop AI that enables robots to operate reliably in real-world environments across industry sectors.
Read more: 
Oxford spinout Stateful robotics raises $4.8m to tackle real-world AI for robots ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Tue, 24 Mar 2026 14:00:08 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Oxford, spinout, Stateful, robotics, raises, 4.8m, tackle, real-world, for, robots</media:keywords>
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<title>UK pubs making just 3p profit per £1 as rising costs squeeze margins</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/uk-pubs-making-just-3p-profit-per-1-as-rising-costs-squeeze-margins</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/uk-pubs-making-just-3p-profit-per-1-as-rising-costs-squeeze-margins</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
UK pubs could make just 3p profit per £1 spent on a pint as rising wages, energy and beer duty squeeze margins and threaten closures.
Read more: 
UK pubs making just 3p profit per £1 as rising costs squeeze margins ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/shutterstock_2110900097.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Tue, 24 Mar 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>pubs, making, just, profit, per, £1, rising, costs, squeeze, margins</media:keywords>
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<title>Zevero raises $7m as demand for carbon data platforms accelerates globally</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/zevero-raises-7m-as-demand-for-carbon-data-platforms-accelerates-globally</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/zevero-raises-7m-as-demand-for-carbon-data-platforms-accelerates-globally</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Climate tech firm Zevero raises $7m to scale its AI-driven carbon management platform as demand for ESG data and reporting intensifies globally.
Read more: 
Zevero raises $7m as demand for carbon data platforms accelerates globally ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Tue, 24 Mar 2026 14:00:06 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Zevero, raises, 7m, demand, for, carbon, data, platforms, accelerates, globally</media:keywords>
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<title>Late&#45;paying firms face multimillion&#45;pound fines under new crackdown</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/late-paying-firms-face-multimillion-pound-fines-under-new-crackdown</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/late-paying-firms-face-multimillion-pound-fines-under-new-crackdown</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Large UK companies face multimillion-pound fines for late payments under new laws, with a 60-day limit and stronger powers for the Small Business Commissioner.
Read more: 
Late-paying firms face multimillion-pound fines under new crackdown ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Emma-Jones-2.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Tue, 24 Mar 2026 14:00:06 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Late-paying, firms, face, multimillion-pound, fines, under, new, crackdown</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Spotify’s new SongDNA feature maps how your favorite songs are connected</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/spotifys-new-songdna-feature-maps-how-your-favorite-songs-are-connected</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/spotifys-new-songdna-feature-maps-how-your-favorite-songs-are-connected</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ The new feature lets you explore samples, covers, and more about the people behind your favorite songs, says Spotify. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Tue, 24 Mar 2026 14:00:04 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Spotify’s, new, SongDNA, feature, maps, how, your, favorite, songs, are, connected</media:keywords>
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<title>Snapchat’s new ‘AI Clips’ Lens format turns photos into five&#45;second videos</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/snapchats-new-ai-clips-lens-format-turns-photos-into-five-second-videos</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/snapchats-new-ai-clips-lens-format-turns-photos-into-five-second-videos</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Snapchat says both experienced and new developers can use the new &quot;AI Clips&quot; Lens format to turn a single prompt into a published Lens in minutes without the need for external tools. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Tue, 24 Mar 2026 14:00:04 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Snapchat’s, new, ‘AI, Clips’, Lens, format, turns, photos, into, five-second, videos</media:keywords>
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<title>Zoox brings its robotaxis to Austin and Miami</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/zoox-brings-its-robotaxis-to-austin-and-miami</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/zoox-brings-its-robotaxis-to-austin-and-miami</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ After nearly two years of testing in the two cities, the Amazon-owned company says it&#039;s getting closer to offering rides. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Tue, 24 Mar 2026 14:00:04 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Zoox, brings, its, robotaxis, Austin, and, Miami</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Pinterest launches a new feature to promote a Pin</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/pinterest-launches-a-new-feature-to-promote-a-pin</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/pinterest-launches-a-new-feature-to-promote-a-pin</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Pinterest is rolling out promoted pin feature to the users in the U.S. in coming weeks ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Boost-A-Pin_1920x1080-HERO.jpeg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Tue, 24 Mar 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Pinterest, launches, new, feature, promote, Pin</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Cauldron Ferm has turned microbes into nonstop assembly lines</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/cauldron-ferm-has-turned-microbes-into-nonstop-assembly-lines</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/cauldron-ferm-has-turned-microbes-into-nonstop-assembly-lines</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ The Australian startup says it has solved one of the biggest challenges facing synthetic biology companies, which it counts as customers. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Cauldron10kL.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Tue, 24 Mar 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Cauldron, Ferm, has, turned, microbes, into, nonstop, assembly, lines</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>TikTok Shopping: A New Era For E&#45;commerce Store Sales</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/tiktok-shopping-a-new-era-for-e-commerce-store-sales</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/tiktok-shopping-a-new-era-for-e-commerce-store-sales</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ TikTok has taken the world by storm, quickly becoming one of the most popular social media platforms with over 1.67 billion active users. This fast-growing app has captured the attention of individuals and businesses with its unique video-sharing format. As e-commerce continues to dominate the retail landscape, it’s no surprise that TikTok has also entered […]
The post TikTok Shopping: A New Era For E-commerce Store Sales appeared first on Fincyte. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://www.fincyte.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/TikTok-Shopping-A-New-Era-For-E-commerce-Store-Sales-1.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Mon, 23 Mar 2026 14:00:08 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>TikTok, Shopping:, New, Era, For, E-commerce, Store, Sales</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Bringing ‘Big Food’ energy to a Travis Kelce&#45;backed cult brand </title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/bringing-big-food-energy-to-a-travis-kelce-backed-cult-brand</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/bringing-big-food-energy-to-a-travis-kelce-backed-cult-brand</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 



Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! I’m Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages of Inc. and Fast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to get it yourself every Monday morning. 







When Valerie Oswalt became CEO of breakfast and snack products company Kodiak in November 2022, she inherited a fast-growing business with beloved products, dedicated employees, and an outdoorsy vibe, befitting its Park City, Utah, headquarters. She also walked into a company that needed to bolster the talent, tools, and systems needed to scale the company.  



Her challenge: bring the discipline and knowledge she’d acquired during leadership stints at consumer packaged goods (CPG) giants such as The Campbell’s Company and Mondelēz International without losing the nimbleness and authenticity that had made Kodiak a household name. “It was a powerhouse brand that had a startup mindset,” Oswalt recalls. 



A recipe for success



Kodiak has classic entrepreneurial roots. Founder and former CEO Joel Clark started selling his mother’s homemade whole-grain pancake mix as an 8-year-old. The company catapulted to national attention when an episode of ABC’s “Shark Tank” featuring Clark and cofounder Cameron Smith aired in 2014. Kodiak passed on a deal with the Sharks, but the publicity and the launch of protein-packed pancakes boosted sales.  



Private equity firm L Catterton acquired Kodiak in 2021, and Oswalt became CEO 17 months later, replacing cofounder Clark, who remains chairman of the company’s board of directors.  



To support Kodiak’s growth, Oswalt, who ran Campbell’s $4 billion snack division prior to joining Kodiak, brought in leaders with key experience in certain areas. She revamped the performance review process and instituted a new incentive plan tied to financial outcomes. (All 160 full-time employees have equity in the company.) “There were more processes that needed to be put in place than I had originally anticipated,” she recalls.  



Still, she was mindful of the impact change would have on the company’s entrepreneurial culture. “I did listening tours,” she says. “I talked to every person in the organization. It took about six months, but that was really important.” From there, her team identified the gaps, explained the rationale behind changes, and celebrated wins. 



She also course corrected when her changes were “too heavy” for an organization Kodiak’s size, such as when she rolled out a robust integrated business planning process to help gain insight into inventory and cash flows, plus do forecasting and planning. The fix was to listen to feedback and provide more training. “We wanted to ensure the proper education was provided to effectively” use the tools, she says. 



On a roll attracting celebrity investors



Meanwhile, Kodiak has kept its in-house creative team, which handles all design, photography, and videography. Because the creatives are all employees, Oswalt says they are intimately familiar with the brand, which helps Kodiak retain an authentic voice even as it grows. She also notes that the team can quickly test and make design changes.  



Oswalt’s moves appear to be paying off. Last year, the company’s retail sales value hit $580 million, up 30% from 2023, Oswalt’s first full year in the role. “Valerie is building the kind of brand that earns deep loyalty—one that sits at the intersection of performance, trust, and culture,” says Mark Patricof, whose sports-focused investment firm invested in Kodiak in 2022. Athletes who participated in the round include football stars Travis Kelce and Joe Burrow, who have teamed up with Kodiak to donate meals in Kansas City and Cincinnati, respectively. Investors also include tennis player Sloane Stephens and baseball legend CC Sabathia.  



“That’s a big reason Kodiak has connected so well with our athlete investors, who recognize the authenticity of the mission. Each of our athlete clients who came into this deal have told me time and again how proud they are to be investors in Kodiak,” Patricof says.  



I asked Oswalt what advice she might have for other corporate executives thinking of making the move to a more entrepreneurial brand. “You have to be scrappy. It gets messy,” she says. “If you’re inspired by overcoming challenges and being connected—to your people, your consumers, your suppliers, your customers—then it’s awesome. And if you can find partners who are aligned with your priorities and your values, it’s absolutely magical.” 



Go big or go small



What’s your experience bringing big-company discipline to a smaller organization—or vice versa? I’d love to hear what’s worked and what hasn’t. Send examples to me at stephaniemehta@mansueto.com. I’ll publish the best examples in a future newsletter.  







Read more: from big to small 




What Alicia Boler David had to ‘unlearn’ from Amazon 





Inside the founder factory known as Palantir 





Laid off from Big Tech, these are the rebounder founders 
 ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Mon, 23 Mar 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Bringing, ‘Big, Food’, energy, Travis, Kelce-backed, cult, brand </media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>This single ChatGPT prompt can do hours of market research in minutes—here’s how</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/this-single-chatgpt-prompt-can-do-hours-of-market-research-in-minutesheres-how</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/this-single-chatgpt-prompt-can-do-hours-of-market-research-in-minutesheres-how</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Market research can be a slow, fragmented, and difficult process, often involving tedious internet searches, questionable data sources, and time-consuming manual synthesis. This makes it a great candidate for some assistance from AI. What’s more, an update to a popular feature on ChatGPT has made it even better at doing this kind of work. 



Imagine that you have a potential business idea but still need to validate how viable it actually is, identify primary competitors in your market, and develop an ideal customer persona. Instead of spending hours collating data, explains Dan McCarthy, an associate professor of marketing at the University of Maryland, you can use Deep Research, a ChatGPT feature that directs an AI agent to develop a comprehensive, well-cited report on any topic. 



Last week, OpenAI upgraded Deep Research with some new abilities. The feature now runs on GPT-5.2, one of the company’s most recent models (previously it ran on a much older o3 model), and can now prioritize specific websites in its search process. Deep Research is available for all paid ChatGPT users. 



Here’s how to use it to get some thorough market research done quickly. 



Step 1: Get your prompt right



To test out how this feature could help with market research, I pretended that I wanted to start a digital transformation firm based in Denver with a focus on upgrading bars with mobile, bar-to-table ordering capabilities. All I needed to do in order to get started was click the plus button next to the text box, select More, then Deep Research, and enter a prompt.



This prompt will determine the information that ChatGPT prioritizes in its search, so it helps to be verbose. If you need help developing a lengthy prompt, try using ChatGPT to help write it.



McCarthy, who uses AI tools extensively, says that an easy way to develop a comprehensive prompt is to activate the chatbot’s voice mode and simply have a conversation with it. Once you’ve explained what you want, McCarthy says, you can ask ChatGPT, “Given all this that I’m telling you, what do you think would be the best thing that I should even be asking you?” That should help clear up any blind spots you might’ve missed. 



According to McCarthy, this method should produce a solid prompt that you can give to the Deep Research agent. When I asked ChatGPT to help expand my prompt, the platform generated a 673-word result. This prompt (which you can view here) defined the agent as a market research analyst and gave it objectives to determine the business idea’s viability, map out the competition, and define my ideal customer’s persona. Additionally, it provided details on the scope of the research, and information for how the agent should format its report. I also used ChatGPT to develop a list of specific websites for the Deep Research agent to prioritize in its search.



Step 2: Start the research 



I entered my ChatGPT-created prompt, selected the Deep Research feature, and pressed return. Before getting to work, the agent broke down its objectives into the following bullet points: 




Collect primary vendor docs and pricing pages starting with user-preferred sites.



Survey industry, local Denver sources, and hospitality reports for market context.



Compile POS integration lists, local competitors, and implementation partners in Denver.



Analyze demand, model ROI scenarios, and estimate Denver bar counts and adoption rates.



Draft recommendations, ICP personas, GTM plan, and cite sources with confidence ratings.




Over the next 21 minutes, the agent searched through hundreds of web pages. It found liquor license databases, census information, and data regarding competitors in Denver’s hospitality-focused digital transformation market. It compiled all this information into a multi-section report. 



Step 3: Read the report



That report (which you can view here) ended up being roughly 4,000 words. It included an overview of the market, identified customer pain points, and listed out my potential competitors. The report also included recommendations for how to position my business, strategies to break into the Denver hospitality scene, and even identified a small business that would likely be my direct competitor: a Denver-based POS integrator called Megabite.  



ChatGPT found that while my business idea had potential, it wouldn’t fully meet the needs of Denver-based bar owners, who have reported that bar-to-table ordering can actually lead to fewer sales and tips. Instead, the report suggested, I should consider a system that can sit on top of popular POS in which diners don’t need to pay for every new drink they order, and can instead open a digital tab. 



What the expert thinks of the result



McCarthy told me he was impressed by the report that Deep Research produced. In particular, he was pleasantly surprised by the agent’s cleverness in using liquor licenses to get a sense of the market size, and its thoughtfulness in calling out disruption to bar culture as a potential blocker to the business. 



But the report wasn’t perfect. McCarthy said much of what was included was unnecessary or needlessly complex. An easy prompt to fix this? “Just tell it, ‘Explain it to me like I’m an idiot.’” McCarthy adds, “I do that all the time.” He says that a solid market research report should also answer questions regarding the scope of adoption and how often repeat purchasing is expected. 



McCarthy also says that users should direct the Deep Research agent to be very upfront about the data it attempted to get but couldn’t. Many websites block AI agents from engaging with their content to prevent data scraping, which can hinder the research process. By telling your agent to list out the sites that it couldn’t access, you can manually obtain that data and add it to the analysis. 



Our bar-to-table digital transformation firm will have to remain a pipe dream for now, but it’s clear that AI has made the process of taking an idea from zero to one easier and faster than ever. 



If you have an idea for a new business or are planning on an expansion or pivot in your current business, consider giving Deep Research a spin. It might unearth something that makes you think in a different way. 



—Ben Sherry







This article originally appeared on Fast Company’s sister website, Inc.com. 



Inc. is the voice of the American entrepreneur. We inspire, inform, and document the most fascinating people in business: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters that represent the most dynamic force in the American economy. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Mon, 23 Mar 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>This, single, ChatGPT, prompt, can, hours, market, research, minutes—here’s, how</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Gold and silver prices down today: 2 factors sending safe haven assets plummeting amid Iran war</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/gold-and-silver-prices-down-today-2-factors-sending-safe-haven-assets-plummeting-amid-iran-war</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/gold-and-silver-prices-down-today-2-factors-sending-safe-haven-assets-plummeting-amid-iran-war</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ It’s another bad day for gold and silver. Traders in precious metals are seeing both gold and silver plummet significantly as the week kicks off, with gold down nearly 7% and silver down 8% over the past 24 hours. 



Worse, gold has now fallen nearly 20% since its all-time high of over $5,586 in January. Silver is down even more, falling more than 44% since its all-time high earlier this year of over $121. Here’s what you need to know.



The ‘safe haven’ trade is absent



Silver and especially gold are generally considered “safe haven” assets—assets investors turn to when economic uncertainty abounds, and they want to park their money in a valuable that isn’t likely to fluctuate much, or at least not go down in value significantly.  



Safe haven assets like gold and silver contrast with other assets like stocks and cryptocurrencies, which are traditionally more volatile, especially in times of economic uncertainty.



Given their safe-haven status, it’s natural to assume that the geopolitical and economic uncertainty unleashed by President Trump’s war in Iran over the past two weeks would cause investors to flock to gold and silver. 



But just the opposite has happened. After both metals hit all-time highs earlier this year, they have slowly lost value, and their sell-off has only intensified with the breakout of the Iranian war.



That incongruity has left many scratching their heads, asking “why?”



Government bonds are starting to look more attractive than metals



While any individual investor has their own reason for selling off a valuable asset, there are two likely factors that have contributed significantly to the fall in gold and silver both today and in recent weeks.



The first is solidly related to the war in Iran. While wars breed geopolitical conflict and economic uncertainty, which usually sends investors to safe-haven assets like gold and silver, they can also affect interest rates, especially if central banks need to reconsider their positions due to rising prices in things like oil, which can have a knock-on inflationary effect across the economy.



And, as the Wall Street Journal notes, thanks to the war in Iran, many investors now believe that central banks around the world are unlikely to cut interest rates this year. That’s the opposite of what investors believed before the war. 



If interest rates remain the same or even increase, government bonds become more attractive due to their higher yields. This can lead investors to park their money in bonds rather than precious metals, which don’t offer a guaranteed income stream.



Profit taking after gold and silver’s great run



A second significant factor likely contributing to gold and silver’s demise recently is, ironically, how well the two metals have performed lately.



Between January 2025 and gold’s all-time high in January 2026, gold rose more than 100%. In that same timeframe, silver rose by more than 275%. 



Those are massive gains. But big gains don’t translate into big profits until you sell. And it’s very likely that some of the reasons gold and silver are falling so much lately are due to profit taking, so investors can lock in some of those stratospheric gains they’ve made over the past 12 months.



Investors are generally also more interested in cashing out on assets they’ve made a killing on when the other assets they own are experiencing downturns, such as stocks. And lately, stocks have been hit hard. In the past five weeks, the Dow has lost around 9% of its value, the Nasdaq has dropped more than 6%, and the S&amp;P has also dropped more than 6%.



Many investors fear that markets could drop further the longer the Iran war drags on, and that the resulting increase in oil prices would negatively impact the overall economy. One way to hedge against a fall in stocks is to lock in any precious metal gains by selling them.



After hitting an all-time high in January, gold is currently sitting at around $4,397. That is a price point gold last saw in December 2025. Silver is currently around $68.40, a price it has also not seen since December 2025. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://images.fastcompany.com/image/upload/w_1280,q_auto,f_auto,fl_lossy/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit/wp-cms-2/2026/03/p-1-91513726-gold-silver-prices-metals.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Mon, 23 Mar 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Gold, and, silver, prices, down, today:, factors, sending, safe, haven, assets, plummeting, amid, Iran, war</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Trump’s plan to ‘obliterate’ Iran’s power plants is now on hold, extending deadline for Strait of Hormuz</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/trumps-plan-to-obliterate-irans-power-plants-is-now-on-hold-extending-deadline-for-strait-of-hormuz</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/trumps-plan-to-obliterate-irans-power-plants-is-now-on-hold-extending-deadline-for-strait-of-hormuz</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ President Donald Trump on Monday extended his deadline for Iran to reopen the crucial Strait of Hormuz to international shipping, saying the U.S. would hold off on strikes against Iranian power plants for five days.Shortly after Trump made the announcement on his Truth Social site, Iranian state television put up a graphic that read: “U.S. president backs down following Iran’s firm warning.” The reprieve came hours ahead of Trump’s self-imposed deadline later in the day.Writing in all capital letters, Trump said the U.S. and Iran have had “very good and productive conversations” that could yield “a complete and total resolution” in the war. Talks would continue “throughout the week,” he said.Trump added that the suspension of his threat to attack power plants was “subject to the success of the ongoing meetings and discussions.”Trump did not elaborate on the negotiations that had taken place. Iran did not immediately acknowledge any talks between the countries, but Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi did say he spoke by phone with his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan. Turkey has been an intermediary before in negotiations between Tehran and Washington.Trump’s announcement came as the United Arab Emirates reported its air defense were attempting to intercept new incoming Iranian fire Monday afternoon.Earlier Monday, Iran warned it would strike electricity plants across the Middle East and mine the Persian Gulf after Trump threatened to bomb power stations in the Islamic Republic if it did not reopen the strait.The war, now in its fourth week, has already seen several dramatic turning points — the killing of Iran’s supreme leader, the bombing of a key Iranian gas field, and strikes targeting oil and gas facilities and other civilian infrastructure in Gulf Arab nations. The conflict has killed more than 2,000 people, shaken the global economy, sent oil prices surging, and endangered some of the world’s busiest air corridors.Trump’s ultimatum and Iran’s promise of retaliation threatened to raise the stakes yet again, with potentially catastrophic repercussions for civilians across the region.If carried out, the attacks could cut electricity to wide swaths of people in Iran and around the Gulf and knock out desalination plants that provide many desert nations with drinking water. There are also increasing concerns about the consequences any of strikes on nuclear facilities.The fever pitch of the rhetoric shows how the war has spiraled to a point unimaginable at the start of the conflict on Feb. 28, when the United States and Israel began bombing Iran.



Trump issues a deadline and trades threats with Tehran



Trump said the U.S. would “obliterate” Iran’s power plants unless the country releases its stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours — a deadline that would expire late Monday Washington time but has now been extended.Iran has shut the strait, through which a fifth of the world’s oil is shipped along with other important commodities, in response to U.S. and Israeli strikes. A trickle of ships has gotten through, and Iran insists the crucial waterway remains open — just not to the U.S., Israel or their allies.The chokehold has wreaked havoc on energy markets, pushed up the prices on food and other goods well beyond the Middle East and sent shock waves throughout the global economy.“No country will be immune to the effects of this crisis if it continues to go in this direction,” said Fatih Birol, the head of the Paris-based International Energy Agency.Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard promised retaliation if Trump made good on his threat, saying Iran it would hit power plants in all areas that supply electricity to American bases, “as well as the economic, industrial and energy infrastructures in which Americans have shares.”Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf said Iran would consider vital infrastructure across the region to be legitimate targets, including energy and desalination facilities critical for drinking water in Gulf nations.Iran’s semiofficial Fars news agency, which is close to the Revolutionary Guard, published a list of such facilities, including the United Arab Emirates’ nuclear power plant. Over the weekend, Iran launched missiles targeting Dimona in Israel, near a facility key to its long-suspected atomic weapons program. The Israeli facility wasn’t damaged.United States Central Command chief Adm. Brad Cooper, meanwhile, claimed in an interview that Iran was launching missiles and drones from populated areas, and suggested those areas would be targeted.“You need to stay inside for right now,” Cooper told Iranian civilians in the interview with the Farsi-language satellite network Iran International that aired early Monday.In his first one-on-one interview since the war started, Cooper said the U.S. and Israel were targeting infrastructure and manufacturing facilities to destroy Iran’s capabilities to rebuild its military.“It’s not just about the threat today,” he said. “We’re eliminating the threat of the future.”



Israel strikes Tehran and Iran warns against any invasion



Israel launched new attacks Monday on the Iranian capital, saying it had “begun a wide-scale wave of strikes” on infrastructure targets in Tehran without immediately elaborating. Explosions were heard in multiple locations in the afternoon. It wasn’t immediately clear what had been hit.With the U.S. deploying more amphibious assault ships and additional Marines to the Middle East, Iran warned against any ground attack.“Any attempt by the enemy to target Iran’s coasts or islands will, naturally and in accordance with established military practice, lead to the mining of all access routes … in the Persian Gulf and along the coasts,” Iran’s Defense Council warned said in a statement.The widespread use of mines could imperil not only military vessels but scores of commercial ships waiting to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, and a cleanup would last long after the conflict ends.Trump has said he has no plans to send ground forces into Iran but also has said that he retains all options. Israel has suggested its ground forces could take part in the war.Israel has also targeted the Iran-linked Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon during the war, while the group has fired hundreds of rockets into Israel.In recent days, Israel has hit many apartment buildings in Beirut and bombed bridges over the Litani river in the Lebanon’s south.Lebanese President Joseph Aoun called the targeting of bridges “a prelude to a ground invasion,” while Egypt denounced the strikes as the “collective punishment” of civilians for the actions of Hezbollah.Authorities say Israeli strikes have killed more than 1,000 people in Lebanon and displaced more than 1 million.Iran’s death toll has surpassed 1,500, its Health Ministry has said. In Israel, 15 people have been killed by Iranian strikes. At least 13 U.S. military members have been killed, along with more than a dozen civilians in the occupied West Bank and Gulf Arab states.



Oil prices are up more than 50% since start of the war



Oil prices remained stubbornly high in early trading, with the price of Brent crude, the international standard, at around $113 a barrel, up some 55% since the war began.Jorge Moreira da Silva, a senior United Nations official, said the world has already seen a ripple effect, including “exponential price hikes in oil, fuel and gas” that have had a far-reaching impact on millions, primarily in Asian and African developing countries.“There is no military solution,” he said.In another sign of the far-reaching effects, South Korean chemical giant LG Chem said Monday it had to shut down a major industrial plant because the war had disrupted supplies of naphtha, a petroleum product used in plastic manufacturing.







AP writers Charlotte Graham-McLay, Sally Abou AlJoud, Bassem Mroue, and Tong-hyung Kim contributed to this report.



—Jon Gambrell, David Rising and Samy Magdy, Associated Press ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Mon, 23 Mar 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Trump’s, plan, ‘obliterate’, Iran’s, power, plants, now, hold, extending, deadline, for, Strait, Hormuz</media:keywords>
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<title>Beach cleanups can save the lives of marine animals. This calculator tells you exactly how many</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/beach-cleanups-can-save-the-lives-of-marine-animals-this-calculator-tells-you-exactly-how-many</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/beach-cleanups-can-save-the-lives-of-marine-animals-this-calculator-tells-you-exactly-how-many</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ If you pick up plastic trash from a beach, you’re helping protect marine wildlife from harm. And every little piece—from a plastic bottle cap to food wrappers—matters, because even small amounts of this trash can be deadly to animals like sea turtles and seabirds.



A new calculator from Ocean Conservancy can now quantify that impact. If you enter the amounts of different types of plastic that you clean up into the Wildlife Impact Calculator, it will tell you how many animal lives would have been at risk, had those items made their way into the ocean and been ingested.



“We hope that people really see that beach cleanups matter,” says Erin Murphy, Ocean Conservancy’s manager of Ocean Plastics Research and lead co-author of the study that underpins the Wildlife Impact Calculator.



The issue of ocean plastic pollution



Plastic pollution in the ocean is a massive, global environmental issue. Every day, 2,000 truckloads worth of plastic waste enter ocean waters. 



Addressing that pollution would require research into better kinds of food packaging and recycling, and policies like an international plastic treaty. 



In the meantime, though, beach cleanups can also make a difference. Ocean Conservancy has been hosting an annual International Coastal Cleanup for 40 years. Nearly 19 million volunteers have taken part, removing more than 400 million pounds of plastics and other debris from coastlines over those decades.



Volunteers count and weigh all the pollution they pick up—with common items ranging from candy and chip wrappers to cigarette butts and grocery bags.



But raw numbers, like the fact that the volunteers collected 1.4 million plastic bottles in 2023’s cleanup, don’t always connect people to the real impact they’re making on wildlife, Murphy says.



With the calculator, that impact is clear, even for small quantities. Say your beach cleanup collected 20 plastic bottles, 15 bottle caps, and 10 plastic bags. Enter those figures into the calculator (which covers more than 20 types of plastic pollution, all of which have been found inside marine animals), and it tells you that you protected five sea turtles and 25 seabirds. It also shares info about such species, plus details on those types of plastic pollution.



Small amounts of plastic can be deadly



The calculator highlights the danger that even small amounts of plastic can pose to animals. And that was the point. The calculator is based on a study Murphy led, published in 2025, that aimed to identify the lethal dose of plastic for all sorts of animals.



“That’s something that at a broad scale hasn’t been done before,” she says. “And what we found was that very, very small amounts of plastic can still kill marine life.”



Just three sugar cubes worth of plastic, for example, has a 90% chance of killing a seabird like the Atlantic puffin, which is only 11 inches in length. For those birds, ingesting less than one sugar cube worth of plastic comes with a 50% chance.



Even bigger animals are at risk: ingesting just over two baseball’s worth of plastic has a 90% likelihood of death for Loggerhead turtles, and for harbor porpoises, a soccer ball’s worth of plastic is deadly.



With the calculator, Murphy says, “We wanted to flip that on its head and understand, what are the benefits of cleanups?” Coastal areas, where cleanups take place, are often where these animals nest or feed, too. 



Picking up whole pieces of plastic trash from beaches also prevents that trash from breaking up in the ocean and harming wildlife when they ingest fragments of plastic. 



Understanding these risks, and the benefits of cleaning up beaches, could spur regulatory decisions around plastic pollution. But ultimately, Ocean Conservancy hopes the calculator buoys individuals who undertake this effort.



“We know that systemic change is going to be needed to address this plastic pollution globally,” Murphy says, “but it’s just a reminder that every single person can be part of the solution.” ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Mon, 23 Mar 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Beach, cleanups, can, save, the, lives, marine, animals., This, calculator, tells, you, exactly, how, many</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>The essential guide to point of sale (POS) systems</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/the-essential-guide-to-point-of-sale-pos-systems</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/the-essential-guide-to-point-of-sale-pos-systems</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ By Anna Jordan on Small Business UK - Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs


In this guide, we take a look at everything small business owners need to know about buying a Point of Sale (POS) system
The post The essential guide to point of sale (POS) systems appeared first on Small Business UK. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Mon, 23 Mar 2026 14:00:05 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>The, essential, guide, point, sale, POS, systems</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Uber commits up to $1.25bn to Rivian in major Robotaxi push</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/uber-commits-up-to-125bn-to-rivian-in-major-robotaxi-push</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/uber-commits-up-to-125bn-to-rivian-in-major-robotaxi-push</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Uber will invest up to $1.25bn in Rivian to deploy 10,000 robotaxis globally, marking a major step in the race to scale autonomous ride-hailing.
Read more: 
Uber commits up to $1.25bn to Rivian in major Robotaxi push ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/shutterstock_2659223225.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Fri, 20 Mar 2026 14:00:08 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Uber, commits, 1.25bn, Rivian, major, Robotaxi, push</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>SME lending rises to £17.5bn as small businesses drive AI&#45;led growth across the UK</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/sme-lending-rises-to-175bn-as-small-businesses-drive-ai-led-growth-across-the-uk</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/sme-lending-rises-to-175bn-as-small-businesses-drive-ai-led-growth-across-the-uk</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
UK SME lending climbed to £17.5bn in 2025 as smaller firms drive AI adoption, though experts warn funding still falls short of what’s needed for long-term growth.
Read more: 
SME lending rises to £17.5bn as small businesses drive AI-led growth across the UK ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Fri, 20 Mar 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>SME, lending, rises, £17.5bn, small, businesses, drive, AI-led, growth, across, the</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Surge in UK borrowing limits scope for energy bill support as fiscal pressures mount</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/surge-in-uk-borrowing-limits-scope-for-energy-bill-support-as-fiscal-pressures-mount</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/surge-in-uk-borrowing-limits-scope-for-energy-bill-support-as-fiscal-pressures-mount</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
UK borrowing jumps to £14.3bn, raising concerns over limited government capacity to support households as energy bills rise amid Middle East tensions.
Read more: 
Surge in UK borrowing limits scope for energy bill support as fiscal pressures mount ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/shutterstock_583596115.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Fri, 20 Mar 2026 14:00:06 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Surge, borrowing, limits, scope, for, energy, bill, support, fiscal, pressures, mount</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Luke Littler moves to trademark his face in bid to combat AI fakes</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/luke-littler-moves-to-trademark-his-face-in-bid-to-combat-ai-fakes</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/luke-littler-moves-to-trademark-his-face-in-bid-to-combat-ai-fakes</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Darts champion Luke Littler applies to trademark his face to prevent AI deepfakes and counterfeit products, highlighting gaps in UK IP law.
Read more: 
Luke Littler moves to trademark his face in bid to combat AI fakes ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Luke-Littler.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Fri, 20 Mar 2026 14:00:05 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Luke, Littler, moves, trademark, his, face, bid, combat, fakes</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Truro targets former Zipcar users with capital&#45;light expansion in London</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/truro-targets-former-zipcar-users-with-capital-light-expansion-in-london</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/truro-targets-former-zipcar-users-with-capital-light-expansion-in-london</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Turo is expanding in London targeting former Zipcar users with a capital-light peer-to-peer model, as traditional fleet-based car clubs struggle with rising costs.
Read more: 
Truro targets former Zipcar users with capital-light expansion in London ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Fri, 20 Mar 2026 14:00:05 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Truro, targets, former, Zipcar, users, with, capital-light, expansion, London</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Employees had to restrain a dancing humanoid robot after it went wild at a California restaurant</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/employees-had-to-restrain-a-dancing-humanoid-robot-after-it-went-wild-at-a-california-restaurant</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/employees-had-to-restrain-a-dancing-humanoid-robot-after-it-went-wild-at-a-california-restaurant</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ A dancing robot in a Haidilao hot pot restaurant boogied down a little too hard. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Fri, 20 Mar 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Employees, had, restrain, dancing, humanoid, robot, after, went, wild, California, restaurant</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Jeff Bezos reportedly wants $100 billion to buy and transform old manufacturing firms with AI</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/jeff-bezos-reportedly-wants-100-billion-to-buy-and-transform-old-manufacturing-firms-with-ai</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/jeff-bezos-reportedly-wants-100-billion-to-buy-and-transform-old-manufacturing-firms-with-ai</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ The Amazon magnate has a new project centered around acquiring industrial firms and revamping them with AI technology. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Fri, 20 Mar 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Jeff, Bezos, reportedly, wants, 100, billion, buy, and, transform, old, manufacturing, firms, with</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Amazon acquires Rivr, maker of a stair&#45;climbing delivery robot</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/amazon-acquires-rivr-maker-of-a-stair-climbing-delivery-robot</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/amazon-acquires-rivr-maker-of-a-stair-climbing-delivery-robot</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Amazon and Jeff Bezos had previously invested in the startup. The deal signals the e-commerce giant&#039;s interest in doorstep delivery. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Fri, 20 Mar 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Amazon, acquires, Rivr, maker, stair-climbing, delivery, robot</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>The best AI investment might be in energy tech</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/the-best-ai-investment-might-be-in-energy-tech</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/the-best-ai-investment-might-be-in-energy-tech</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Power has become one of the biggest bottlenecks in rolling out new AI data centers. That&#039;s creating an opening for investors. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Fri, 20 Mar 2026 14:00:02 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>The, best, investment, might, energy, tech</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>How to grow at work when your manager won’t give you feedback</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/how-to-grow-at-work-when-your-manager-wont-give-you-feedback</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/how-to-grow-at-work-when-your-manager-wont-give-you-feedback</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ “I have no idea if this is what they want me to do. I barely get any feedback.” 



This is a statement I often hear from leaders in my coaching calls, even those at a senior level.When these leaders were early in their careers, there was more frequent guidance and coaching on what success looked like for them and if their work met expectations. However, research by Amy Edmondson shows that the higher you rise in an organization, the less feedback you tend to receive, which can make it feel like you’re losing reassurance. In coaching calls with my clients, we often discover how reliant they were on their leader’s affirmation, and that this recognition served as motivation. 



In addition to getting less feedback from leaders, as your level of influence increases, transparency can decrease. Authority bias can take over as direct reports put their leaders on a pedestal and withhold critical feedback, assuming that their leader knows best or fearing the repercussions of sharing a divergent opinion. 



As you rise, there are simply fewer people in the organization who can guide you on your next steps. Here are some strategies you can leverage to get better feedback at work.



ASK FOR ADVICE INSTEAD OF FEEDBACK



People sometimes hesitate to give feedback, but most people love giving advice. A phrase I often use is this: “I’d love some advice on what I can try next time to make this meeting agenda clearer and more actionable for our group.” Recent research finds that framing the ask as advice rather than “feedback” helps reviewers focus on future-oriented, tangible suggestions instead of only dwelling on past performance.



NURTURE PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY



To create an environment where your team feels comfortable sharing advice or feedback, you can model vulnerability (this signals that it’s safe for others to take interpersonal risks). You can also explicitly invite input and questions from everyone (for instance, “What could we improve here?”) and respond in ways that reinforce openness (like thanking people for their honesty). In addition, you can also call out where you saw yourself needing improvement. This might sound like, “I noticed I started rambling at the end of that meeting. Where could I have shortened my message for better clarity?”



AVOID VAGUE QUESTIONS



Vague requests, like asking, “How can I improve this?” can lead to insubstantial or equally vague responses. Instead, focus on clearly defining your goal and ask for advice on how to do a better job reaching that goal. For example, instead of saying, “I want to improve my presentation skills,” you can instead lead with, “I want to improve my presentation flow for clarity and brevity.”It can also be helpful to set the purpose before you make the request. This means sharing why you want the feedback (for example, to be more influential in asking for resources for our team) and how you’ll use it. This can help people frame their thoughts in a way that moves you closer to your goal. If they have a shared interest in your outcome, this also incentivizes them to give you helpful input.



BE INTENTIONAL ABOUT YOUR CIRCLE



Leaders often end up surrounded by similar perspectives (people who think like them or report to them), which reduces the likelihood of honest challenge. If your current circle is limited, try exploring your industry or professionally affiliated groups. Because of the shared common interest in the type of work you do, this is a great place to foster connection. You can do this by participating in conferences, meet-ups, or even online forums. Ask them to challenge your viewpoints or provide evidence from their experience that contradicts your viewpoints. 



As you rise in the organization, your relationships with your colleagues to get work done can also be just as important as the relationship with your leader. This is especially true at executive levels when you often need resources from your peers’ teams to accomplish your own projects. To nurture these relationships, you can schedule recurring 1:1s with peers that allow them to also raise topics of importance. Another great way to build these relationships is to set up collaborative coworking sessions where advice naturally flows as you work alongside them.



As you gain more visibility, seniority, and decision-making ownership in your organization, feedback will flow differently to you. You have to cultivate it intentionally, with clarity and from a new circle of sources. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Thu, 19 Mar 2026 14:00:18 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>How, grow, work, when, your, manager, won’t, give, you, feedback</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>The price of crude is nearly $115 a barrel following Iran’s strikes on these key Gulf energy facilities</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/the-price-of-crude-is-nearly-115-a-barrel-following-irans-strikes-on-these-key-gulf-energy-facilities</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/the-price-of-crude-is-nearly-115-a-barrel-following-irans-strikes-on-these-key-gulf-energy-facilities</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Global energy prices soared Thursday after Iran attacked two oil refineries in Kuwait and a key natural gas facility in Qatar that can supply one-fifth of the world’s liquified natural gas.The attacks added to fears the energy crisis triggered by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz to tanker traffic may be longer and more extensive than feared, with lasting damage to oil and gas production.Brent crude, the international benchmark, rose nearly 6% to $113.77 per barrel, up from less than $73 per barrel on the eve of the war. U.S. benchmark crude was less affected by the latest attacks in the Middle East, rising less than 1% to $96.26 per barrel.The European TTF benchmark for natural gas prices traded 17% higher on Thursday and has doubled in the past month.The Iranian attack hit the Ras Laffan terminal for shipping out liquefied natural gas in Qatar. Qatar normally supplies some 20% of the world’s consumption of LNG, which can be carried by ship. The facility shut down after a drone attack. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz to most tanker traffic also left the gas with nowhere to go.If the disruptions from Iran’s attacks on its Gulf Arab neighbors’ energy infrastructure keep oil and gas prices high for long, they could create a debilitating wave of inflation for the global economy.Markets on Wall Street slipped before the opening bell. Futures for the S&amp;P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average each fell a 0.1%, while Nasdaq futures dipped 0.3%.On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve opted to leave its benchmark interest rate alone and projected just one more quarter-point cut this year due to ongoing elevated inflation and uncertainty about the ramifications the Iran war will have on the global economy.Prices for gold and silver also tumbled, dragging down major mining stocks with them. Gold fell 4% to $4,697 an ounce, while silver slipped 8.7% to $70.80. Most industrial metals also saw their prices fall.Shares in miners Hecla and Newmont slid 7.8%, while Freeport-McMoRan fell 4.6%.Markets in Europe and Asia were getting hit much harder than U.S. markets. Germany’s DAX lost 2.4% by midday, the CAC 40 in Paris fell 1.7% and Britain’s FTSE 100 shed 2.1%.In Asian trading, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 fell 3.4% to 53,372.53 as the Bank of Japan also opted to keep its benchmark interest rate on hold at 0.75%, citing the war with Iran as one factor.In its monetary policy statement the BOJ said that “in the wake of increased tension in the Middle East, global financial and capital markets have been volatile and crude oil prices have risen significantly; future developments warrant attention.”Higher oil prices are a heavy burden for Japan, which like South Korea and Taiwan depends on imports of most raw materials for industries that rely heavily on oil and its derivatives.



The Kospi in Seoul lost 2.7% to 5,763.22.In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng slipped 2% to 25,500.58, while the Shanghai Composite index shed 1.4% to 4,006.55.Australia’s S&amp;P/ASX 200 lost 1.7% to 8,497.80 and Taiwan’s Taiex fell 1.9%. In India, which has also suffered from shocks to supplies of oil and gas, the Sensex lost 2.7%.“The combination of higher oil, rising U.S. yields, and a stronger dollar is acting as a macro wrecking ball across Asian assets and currencies,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary.







Business Writer Matt Ott reported from Washington.



—Elaine Kurtenbach and David McHugh, AP Business Writers ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Thu, 19 Mar 2026 14:00:18 +0000</pubDate>
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<item>
<title>Carvana stock split: Date, timeline, and what the historic proposal means for investors in 2026</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/carvana-stock-split-date-timeline-and-what-the-historic-proposal-means-for-investors-in-2026</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/carvana-stock-split-date-timeline-and-what-the-historic-proposal-means-for-investors-in-2026</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ The used-car e-commerce platform Carvana Co. (NYSE: CVNA) is planning to do something it has never done before: split its stock. 



If completed, the move will significantly reduce the per-share price of CVNA stock, without affecting the company’s total value. But first, it needs to be approved by shareholders.



Here’s what you need to know about Carvana’s proposed stock split.



What is a stock split?



A stock split is a mechanism by which a company can increase or decrease the number of its shares by dividing those shares or combining them.



There are two types of stock splits: a forward split and a reverse split. A forward split is the most common, and the type that Carvana is proposing. 



In a forward split, an individual share is divided into additional shares, reducing the value of each share. A forward split is usually just referred to as a “stock split.”



On the other side of the coin, you have a reverse split. These are less common than forward splits. In a reverse split, multiple existing shares of a stock are combined into a single share, making each new share more valuable because there are fewer of them.



While both types of splits change the value of a single share, they do not inherently affect the company’s overall market cap. This is because the total number of new shares and their new stock price still equals the same sum as the former number of shares and their price.



For example, take an imaginary company, XYZ, with 1,000 outstanding shares each worth $100. The total value of the company, its market cap, is thus $100,000. 



But then XYZ decides to split its shares by a factor of 10-to-1. This increases the company’s 1,000 outstanding shares to 10,000, yet because there are now 10 times more shares, each share is worth 10 times less, so the company’s market cap remains $100,000.



How much is Carvana splitting the stock by?



Carvana has announced that it intends to split its stock 5-to-1. 



Last week, the company said that its board had approved the split at that ratio. That means that once the split takes place, there will be five times as many CVNA shares outstanding as there were before the split.



However, since there will be five times as many shares, the post-split share price of CVNA stock will be five times lower than its pre-split price.



When do Carvana’s shares split?



It’s important to note that Carvana’s share split isn’t guaranteed. While the company’s board has approved the split, shareholders still need to vote on the move. If shareholders also approve the split, the company’s stock split will proceed. 



In a release announcing the proposed split, Carvana said that shareholders will be able to vote on the stock split at the Annual Meeting of Stockholders on May 5, 2026. 



If they approve the split, investors who own Class A and Class B common stock will receive an additional four CVNA shares for every share they currently own after the closing bell on Wednesday, May 6.



When markets reopen on Thursday, May 7, CVNA shares will begin trading at their new split-adjusted price.



What will Carvana’s new split-adjusted stock price be?



That’s unknowable for now because no one knows what Carvana’s stock price will be seven weeks from now when the adjusted price would kick in.



For now, all we can say for certain is that, if shareholders approve the split, the split-adjusted price will be one-fifth of the pre-split price.



Currently, CVNA stock is trading at around $290 per share. Assuming CVNA trades at that price at the close of markets on May 6, Carvana’s post-split stock price would open at around $58 per share on May 7.



Why is Carvana splitting its stock?



Given that stock splits don’t change the fundamental value of the company—or inherently make existing investors any richer—many wonder what the benefit of a stock split is.



The greatest benefit to a forward stock split is that it lowers the cost of buying into the company for new investors. This is especially true for retail investors who may not have hundreds each month to sink into a new stock. 



If a person only has about $150 a month to invest in the market, Carvana, at its current share price of around $290, is unaffordable for them. 



But if CVNA shares are suddenly at $58 each, that same investor could scoop up at least a few shares. And if enough retail investors do this, it could actually help boost the overall stock price—triggering a wave of fresh investment in the company’s shares.



Another reason companies typically split their shares is to make them more affordable for the company’s own employees, who often participate in employee stock purchase plans (ESPP). If a company’s share price is lower, employees can get more shares via their ESPP contributions.



This often increases employee loyalty within the company and can be a motivating factor in their work. After all, if you own shares in the company you work for, you want that company to do as well as possible so those shares continue to rise.



Indeed, when announcing the proposed stock split, Carvana chief financial officer Mark Jenkins said, “This is the first split in Carvana’s history, and we believe it achieves the important goal of keeping our stock accessible to all of our team members.” 



How have Carvana’s shares performed in 2026?



CVNA shares have had a rough start to 2026. While the company’s share price climbed to over $480 in January, it has since seen a massive decline.



The stock took its greatest hit this year in February after Carvana reported its Q4 2025 earnings. 



While the company did achieve net revenue growth of 58% to $5.6 billion, it missed hard on adjusted EBITDA, which came in at $511 million. As a result, the company’s stock price fell nearly 16% in one day.



Since then, CVNA shares have continued to be hit, largely due to a relatively bearish market for growth stocks, especially after America’s attack on Iran and the ongoing economic uncertainty. 



Yesterday, CVNA shares fell nearly 7.5% to $291.17.



Year-to-date, CVNA shares are now down 31% as of yesterday’s close. Yet, over the past 12 months, Carvana has performed remarkably well. Since this time last year, CVNA shares have risen nearly 75%. ]]></description>
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<title>Trailers for trailers? Movie studios in the TikTok era are competing for 1 second of your precious attention</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/trailers-for-trailers-movie-studios-in-the-tiktok-era-are-competing-for-1-second-of-your-precious-attention</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/trailers-for-trailers-movie-studios-in-the-tiktok-era-are-competing-for-1-second-of-your-precious-attention</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Trailers of two of Hollywood’s most anticipated upcoming movies came out this week. Warner Bros. Discovery’s Dune: Part Three and Marvel Studios’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day premiered a day apart. 



But what’s most interesting is the marketing strategy behind the trailers—in which promos and short clips of the trailers were released ahead of the full trailers. 



On Tuesday, Warner Bros. Discovery hosted a livestreamed event on the official Dune account on TikTok. 



It featured director Dennis Villeneuve and some of the cast talking about the upcoming movie to a live audience before airing the trailer, which was simultaneously revealed at the end of the stream before being rolled out on other platforms like Instagram and YouTube. 



Videos with the star-studded cast—including Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Javier Bardem—urging fans to watch the trailer circulated online, and were later shared from the Warner Bros. Discovery and IMAX social accounts.  



Meanwhile, Marvel Studios released the official trailer for Spider-Man: Brand New Day on Wednesday. 



But the day before, Tom Holland announced on Instagram that he and the studio were “doing something that has never been done before” and that “some of our greatest fans are going to help us release pieces of” the trailer.



Holland tagged an Instagram account of a fan in Peru, who shared a two-second clip from the trailer featuring Spider-Man swinging through the air holding someone. That fan then tagged another fan in Ohio, who shared a separate bite-sized clip from the trailer. 



Throughout the day, fans from different parts of the world tagged each other, showing different seconds-long clips before the full trailer debuted the next day. 



This isn’t the first time that Marvel Studios has released its trailers in a non-traditional way. 



In December, the studio premiered four different trailers for Avengers: Doomsday during theatrical showings of Avatar: Fire and Ash. It was the only way that fans could access the trailers immediately, since they weren’t officially released online until a few days later. 



Short cuts



Trailers have historically served as a marketing tool for films, but sharing microclips from trailers to get fans excited about trailers themselves seems to be a new marketing trend all on its own. 



It’s certainly a sign of the times, especially as short-form content and microdramas become even more popular while the attention spans of a generation weaned on TikTok get shorter. 



But it’s also indicative of the fluctuating nature of the theatrical business. 



While box office numbers have gone up since the pandemic, they have not reached pre-pandemic levels. 



The North American box office grossed $9 billion last year, which is above the numbers of 2020, but still low compared to the years prior. 



Marvel movies also continue to see a downturn at the box office, while AMC Theatres recently announced its plans to shut down several “underperforming” locations across the United States after a decline in attendance. 



Networks and streaming services have already played around with releasing bite-sized clips of its shows on social media to get users to watch full seasons of its shows. 



The movie industry, meanwhile, has long accepted that it needs social media to promote its new movies, whether that means hiring TikTok creators to make fan trailers or creating viral moments to grab attention. 



But as studios and theater chains desperately try to reach young fans on social media, generating more hype around movie trailers might be the next thing they’re experimenting with to actually get audiences into theaters. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Thu, 19 Mar 2026 14:00:18 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Trailers, for, trailers, Movie, studios, the, TikTok, era, are, competing, for, second, your, precious, attention</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Will Trump deploy U.S. troops to Iran to seize uranium? </title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/will-trump-deploy-us-troops-to-iran-to-seize-uranium</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/will-trump-deploy-us-troops-to-iran-to-seize-uranium</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ President Donald Trump is facing perhaps the most daunting question of the war with Iran, one that could define his time in office: Will he put U.S. troops on the ground in Iran to secure some 970 pounds of enriched uranium that Tehran could potentially use to build nuclear weapons?Trump has offered shifting reasons for launching the war, but he has been consistent in articulating that a primary objective in joining Israel in the military action is ensuring that Iran will “never have a nuclear weapon.”The president has been more circumspect about how far he’s willing to go to follow through on his pledge to destroy Iran’s weapons program once and for all, including seizing or destroying the near-bomb-grade nuclear material that Iran possesses.Much of it is believed to be buried under the rubble of a mountain facility pummeled in U.S. bombings Trump ordered last June that he had claimed “obliterated” Tehran’s nuclear program.It’s a risky, complicated project that many nuclear experts say cannot be done without a sizable deployment of U.S. troops into Iran, a dangerous and politically fraught operation for the Republican president, who has vowed not to entangle the U.S. in the sort of extended and bloody Middle East conflicts that still loom large on America’s psyche.At the same time, lawmakers and experts remain concerned that if Iran hard-liners emerge from the fighting, they’ll be more motivated than ever to build nuclear weapons as they look to deter the U.S. and Israel from future military action, a dynamic that makes taking control of Iran’s enriched uranium even more critical. That stockpile could allow Iran to build as many as 10 nuclear bombs, should it decide to weaponize its program.Some lawmakers, like Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., say they remain deeply fearful that the president has put the nation on a path that will require putting troops inside Iran for what he called Trump’s confused and chaotic objectives.“Some of the objectives that he continues to espouse simply cannot be achieved without a physical presence there — securing the uranium cannot be done without a physical presence,” said Blumenthal, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.Meanwhile, Republican allies of Trump stress that there are plans in place to deal with the enriched uranium. Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman James Risch, R-Idaho, on Wednesday cited “a number of plans that have been put on the table.” He declined to elaborate.Others acknowledged the complications of deploying troops into Iran.“No one has given me a briefing on how you would do it without boots on the ground,” said Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. “It doesn’t mean you can’t. But no one’s ever briefed me about it.”Scott added it’s not tenable to allow the stockpile to remain: “I think it would be helpful to get rid of it.”



Trump and his advisers are rigidly obtuse



Nearly three weeks into a conflict that’s left hundreds of people dead, tested longtime alliances and brought pain to the global economy, Trump and his top advisers have been rigidly obtuse about their deliberations over Iran’s uranium stockpile.“I’m not going to talk about that,” Trump said last week when asked about the enriched uranium. “But we have hit them harder than virtually any country in history has been hit, and we’re not finished yet.”Later that day, during an appearance in Kentucky, Trump appeared to claim the strikes had already neutralized the threat. “They don’t have nuclear potential,” he said.Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters earlier this week that the administration sees no point in telegraphing “what we’re willing to do or how far we’re willing to go” while asserting “we have options, for sure.”



Experts say it’s doable but won’t be easy



Richard Goldberg, who served as director for countering Iranian weapons of mass destruction for the National Security Council during Trump’s first term, said that seizing or destroying the enriched uranium is certainly doable, if the president decides to go that route.The U.S. and Israeli forces have been making strides toward creating the conditions — namely, establishing total air superiority — that would allow for special operations forces operators, who are trained in blowing up centrifuges and dealing with nuclear material, to conduct such an operation if the president decides to go that route.To be certain, a troops-on-the-ground effort is expected to be far more complicated than other recent high-profile, lightning-strike insertion operations, such as the January capture of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro or the May 2011 killing of Osama bin Laden, Goldberg said. And the likely need to remove rubble to get to the canisters of enriched uranium adds another layer of complexity, because it would require heavy construction equipment.“But if you actually own the airspace and you can have close air support and drones and everything else up in the sky for pretty wide perimeter, presumably you could do a lot,” said Goldberg, who is now a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a hawkish Washington think tank.International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi told reporters in Washington this week that the assumption is much of the enriched uranium remains in the trio of Iranian nuclear sites bombarded last year by the U.S.“The impression we have … is that it hasn’t been moved,” said Grossi, adding that a bulk of the material is beneath the rubble at Iran’s Isfahan facility while lesser amounts are at the Natanz and Fordow facilities that were destroyed in last year’s American strikes.Testifying before a Senate committee on Wednesday, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard in her prepared remarks said that the U.S. attacks on Iran had “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear enrichment program and buried underground facilities.Gabbard said the U.S. has been monitoring whether Iran’s leaders will try to restart its nuclear program but said that they have not tried to rebuild their nuclear enrichment capability. She added that the clerical authority overseeing Iranian government has been degraded in Israel’s strikes on its leadership but remains intact.Brandan Buck, a senior foreign policy fellow at the Cato Institute, said that an effort to extract or dilute the enriched material would likely take more than 1,000 troops at each Iranian site and would take time to complete.On the other hand, not acting to secure the enriched uranium also comes with risk. Should Iran’s hard-liners remain in power, and with enriched material, they will now have greater motivation to build a nuclear weapon.“Trump has put himself between a rock and a hard place,” Buck said. “Throughout this, he has had maximalist aims, but he’s wanted to maintain minimal effort in order to keep the costs low.”







Associated Press writers Stephen Groves, Matthew Lee and Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.



—Aamer Madhani and Seung Min Kim, Associated Press ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://images.fastcompany.com/image/upload/w_1280,q_auto,f_auto,fl_lossy/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit/wp-cms-2/2026/03/AP26077645554709.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Thu, 19 Mar 2026 14:00:18 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Will, Trump, deploy, U.S., troops, Iran, seize, uranium </media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Personal branding for business leaders</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/personal-branding-for-business-leaders</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/personal-branding-for-business-leaders</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ By Hannah Haffield on Small Business UK - Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs


Having a personal brand as a business leader is becoming more and more important, and we&#039;re here to explain why
The post Personal branding for business leaders appeared first on Small Business UK. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://smallbusiness-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2026/03/diverse-people-thinking-planning-marketing-brand-concept-scaled.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Thu, 19 Mar 2026 14:00:15 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Personal, branding, for, business, leaders</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>£3,000 Youth Jobs Grant for businesses hiring young people</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/3000-youth-jobs-grant-for-businesses-hiring-young-people</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/3000-youth-jobs-grant-for-businesses-hiring-young-people</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ By Anna Jordan on Small Business UK - Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs


The government said that it will give employers a £3,000 Youth Jobs Grant for taking on 18-24-year-olds who are out of work for six months
The post £3,000 Youth Jobs Grant for businesses hiring young people appeared first on Small Business UK. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://smallbusiness-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2026/03/7874.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Thu, 19 Mar 2026 14:00:14 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>£3, 000, Youth, Jobs, Grant, for, businesses, hiring, young, people</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Global payment services for small businesses: how to avoid higher fees</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/global-payment-services-for-small-businesses-how-to-avoid-higher-fees</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/global-payment-services-for-small-businesses-how-to-avoid-higher-fees</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ By Henry Williams on Small Business UK - Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs


The post Global payment services for small businesses: how to avoid higher fees appeared first on Small Business UK. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://smallbusiness-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2022/03/global-payment-services-for-small-businesses-how-to-avoid-higher-fees-scaled.jpeg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Thu, 19 Mar 2026 14:00:13 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Global, payment, services, for, small, businesses:, how, avoid, higher, fees</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Why ‘my business is my retirement’ could be the riskiest plan of all</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/why-my-business-is-my-retirement-could-be-the-riskiest-plan-of-all</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/why-my-business-is-my-retirement-could-be-the-riskiest-plan-of-all</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ By Kevin Harrington on Small Business UK - Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs


Your business &#039;pension&#039; might not be the best retirement plan. Make sure you get these essentials in place before you bow out
The post Why ‘my business is my retirement’ could be the riskiest plan of all appeared first on Small Business UK. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://smallbusiness-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2026/03/10357.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Thu, 19 Mar 2026 14:00:08 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Why, ‘my, business, retirement’, could, the, riskiest, plan, all</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Companies House suspends online filing service after cyber vulnerability exposes director data</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/companies-house-suspends-online-filing-service-after-cyber-vulnerability-exposes-director-data</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/companies-house-suspends-online-filing-service-after-cyber-vulnerability-exposes-director-data</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Companies House has suspended its WebFiling service after a security flaw exposed sensitive company data including directors’ addresses and dates of birth.
Read more: 
Companies House suspends online filing service after cyber vulnerability exposes director data ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/companies_house.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Mon, 16 Mar 2026 14:00:08 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Companies, House, suspends, online, filing, service, after, cyber, vulnerability, exposes, director, data</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>UK factories hit by ‘collapse’ in orders as costs surge across manufacturing sector</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/uk-factories-hit-by-collapse-in-orders-as-costs-surge-across-manufacturing-sector</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/uk-factories-hit-by-collapse-in-orders-as-costs-surge-across-manufacturing-sector</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
UK manufacturers warn of collapsing domestic orders and rising costs, with firms raising prices at the fastest pace since 2023, according to Make UK.
Read more: 
UK factories hit by ‘collapse’ in orders as costs surge across manufacturing sector ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/shutterstock_2654084715.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Mon, 16 Mar 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>factories, hit, ‘collapse’, orders, costs, surge, across, manufacturing, sector</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Theo Paphitis steps in as interim CEO of Robert Dyas to lead turnaround</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/theo-paphitis-steps-in-as-interim-ceo-of-robert-dyas-to-lead-turnaround</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/theo-paphitis-steps-in-as-interim-ceo-of-robert-dyas-to-lead-turnaround</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Former Dragons’ Den investor Theo Paphitis has taken over as interim CEO of Robert Dyas, aiming to revive the struggling 93-store homewares retailer after falling sales.
Read more: 
Theo Paphitis steps in as interim CEO of Robert Dyas to lead turnaround ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/shutterstock_123264646.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Mon, 16 Mar 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Theo, Paphitis, steps, interim, CEO, Robert, Dyas, lead, turnaround</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Government offers £3,000 incentive for firms to hire unemployed young people</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/government-offers-3000-incentive-for-firms-to-hire-unemployed-young-people</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/government-offers-3000-incentive-for-firms-to-hire-unemployed-young-people</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
UK employers will receive £3,000 grants to hire unemployed 18–24 year-olds under new government plans to tackle rising youth unemployment affecting nearly one million young people.
Read more: 
Government offers £3,000 incentive for firms to hire unemployed young people ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/shutterstock_381093673-scaled.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Mon, 16 Mar 2026 14:00:06 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Government, offers, £3, 000, incentive, for, firms, hire, unemployed, young, people</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Meta preparing major layoffs as AI spending accelerates</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/meta-preparing-major-layoffs-as-ai-spending-accelerates</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/meta-preparing-major-layoffs-as-ai-spending-accelerates</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Meta is reportedly planning sweeping layoffs that could affect up to 20% of its workforce as the tech giant ramps up AI investment and pursues greater efficiency through automation.
Read more: 
Meta preparing major layoffs as AI spending accelerates ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/shutterstock_2065638467-scaled.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Mon, 16 Mar 2026 14:00:05 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Meta, preparing, major, layoffs, spending, accelerates</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>ByteDance reportedly pauses global launch of its Seedance 2.0 video generator</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/bytedance-reportedly-pauses-global-launch-of-its-seedance-20-video-generator</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/bytedance-reportedly-pauses-global-launch-of-its-seedance-20-video-generator</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ The company is reportedly delaying the launch as its engineers and lawyers work to avert further legal issues. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/GettyImages-1162754481.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Mon, 16 Mar 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>ByteDance, reportedly, pauses, global, launch, its, Seedance, 2.0, video, generator</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Google, Accel India accelerator chooses 5 startups and none are ‘AI wrappers’</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/google-accel-india-accelerator-chooses-5-startups-and-none-are-ai-wrappers</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/google-accel-india-accelerator-chooses-5-startups-and-none-are-ai-wrappers</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Google and Accel say about 70% of AI startup pitches tied to India were &quot;wrappers&quot; as they reviewed more than 4,000 applications for their Atoms cohort. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/prayank-swaroop-accel-partner.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Mon, 16 Mar 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Google, Accel, India, accelerator, chooses, startups, and, none, are, ‘AI, wrappers’</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Netflix’s ‘Frankenstein’ wins three Oscars, ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ wins two</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/netflixs-frankenstein-wins-three-oscars-kpop-demon-hunters-wins-two</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/netflixs-frankenstein-wins-three-oscars-kpop-demon-hunters-wins-two</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ “Frankenstein” won for Best Production Design, Best Costume Design, and Best Makeup and Hairstyling, while “KPop Demon Hunters” won for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/kpop-demon-hunters.jpeg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Mon, 16 Mar 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Netflix’s, ‘Frankenstein’, wins, three, Oscars, ‘KPop, Demon, Hunters’, wins, two</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>The billionaires made a promise — now some want out</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/the-billionaires-made-a-promise-now-some-want-out</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/the-billionaires-made-a-promise-now-some-want-out</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ In 2010, Warren Buffett and Bill Gates launched a disarmingly simple campaign they called the Giving Pledge: a public commitment, open to the world’s wealthiest people, to give away more than half their fortune during their lifetime or upon their death. The moment seemed to call for it. Tech was minting billionaires faster than any […] ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-1167010571.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Mon, 16 Mar 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>The, billionaires, made, promise, —, now, some, want, out</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Walmart&#45;backed PhonePe shelves IPO as global tensions rattle markets</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/walmart-backed-phonepe-shelves-ipo-as-global-tensions-rattle-markets</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/walmart-backed-phonepe-shelves-ipo-as-global-tensions-rattle-markets</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ PhonePe has paused its planned IPO, delaying a major liquidity event for investors including Tiger Global and Microsoft. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-1206129405.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Mon, 16 Mar 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Walmart-backed, PhonePe, shelves, IPO, global, tensions, rattle, markets</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Why the new Best Casting Oscar is a win for unsung heroes across the workforce</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/why-the-new-best-casting-oscar-is-a-win-for-unsung-heroes-across-the-workforce</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/why-the-new-best-casting-oscar-is-a-win-for-unsung-heroes-across-the-workforce</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Think of your favorite movie. Maybe you love it for the plot, or the nostalgia you get from watching it again and again. Now think of that same movie, but all the actors have been shuffled: An American who can’t quite master a British accent, a 35-year-old playing a high schooler, a dramatic actor whose jokes fall flat.



The people who make sure that doesn’t happen often go unrecognized, but now the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has something to say about it. The inaugural Best Casting Oscar will be awarded at the 98th Academy Awards on March 15.



It’s the first new Oscars category in more than two decades. (In 2002, Shrek was the first to win the then-recently debuted Best Animated Feature award.) And it’s a long time coming; there has been a casting branch of the Academy since 2013.



But even with the introduction of an Oscar to recognize achievement at (arguably) the highest level of the film industry, those outside the industry might not understand what casting directors do or what good casting looks like.



Fast Company talked to a few industry professionals to break down what happens behind closed doors in the casting process—and why this new award is a win for unsung heroes across industries in the workforce.



Casting the part



Think of a film like its own little company that exists for the length of production: The director is at the head, but the casting director is one of the first people brought on to a project after that—making them vital to the film, even if they rarely make it to set.



“Casting is really an integral part of the filmmaking process,” Meredith Shea, the Academy’s chief membership, impact, and industry officer, says. “Casting directors collaborate with the directors and producers right after they receive the script from a writer, so they really set the tone for the start of a film.” 



A great casting decision can make a movie a classic—think Heath Ledger’s Joker or Sigourney Weaver in Alien—but a bad one can tank it. A film’s success can be won or lost before the director ever shouts “Action!”



When Naya Hemphill was in college, she wanted to be a director. She got into casting for student films as a way to be close to the preproduction process, but realized she enjoyed casting. “It’s always exciting to discover how talent and script can fuse together,” says Hemphill, who is now a casting intern with Blumhouse Productions. That fusion—or lack thereof—might be what people are referring to when they talk about good versus bad casting. 



“If a film or television show is really well cast, you kind of don’t notice it,” says casting director Paul Schnee. He’s worked on 2015’s Spotlight with Mark Ruffalo, and with Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts for 2013’s August: Osage County.



Still, some Oscar voters—and many moviegoers—might not understand exactly what goes into casting for a film, despite it being such a crucial piece of the project’s success.



That’s why casting directors may be viewed as one of the many underappreciated, invisible members of a film crew—a sentiment possibly underscored by the fact it’s taken this long to roll out a casting Oscar.



Casting is “something that we do in private,” Schnee says, “and so it’s structurally a different kind of creative input.”



It took three failed attempts to create the casting director-specific branch of the Academy. Once the branch was officially formed, the idea “was that eventually we get our category to have,” Schnee says. The branch governors and former casting director David Rubin, who served as Academy president from 2019 to 2022, were instrumental in finally securing the award.



Behind closed doors



The casting process works like this: Actors audition in person or, more often now, send in self-tape auditions. There are callbacks if necessary, and the process repeats until the casting director finds the person for the role. 



Casting takes place before the rest of production, behind closed doors, making it a more nebulous role to a layperson. It’s easy to understand what other crew members do because their impact is visible through elements like makeup or costumes.



“If you were interviewing a costume designer, for example, he or she could show you some sketches about the evolution of their design,” Schnee says. “Because we’re dealing with human beings, I can’t show you auditions of people who didn’t get the job.”



The process also takes a lot of collaboration, often in different locations: Oslo-based casting director Yngvill Kolset Haga worked with New York-based casting director Avy Kaufman on Sentimental Value, which is up for nine Oscars this year. “You work towards the same direction even if you’re not in the same room,” Haga says.



And they often aren’t in the same room. Because casting directors work in preproduction, they sometimes don’t see what happens on set—any changes during filming or editing might be complete surprises at the premiere. “I was so delighted to see the magic that everyone did,” Kaufman says about seeing Sentimental Value after production wrapped.



Given that, the new casting Oscar is a great example of how unsung heroes on teams need to be recognized for their contributions, too.



Adam Goodman, clinical professor at Northwestern University’s McCormick School of Engineering &amp; Applied Science, also directs the University’s Center for Leadership. He works with executive teams in industry on leadership and teamwork. He says that in teams, there are “roles that are perceived to be back in the background, but in fact without [them], the team fails.”



Appreciating unrecognized team members is crucial to the success of an organization, with surveys suggesting they’d work even harder if they knew they would be recognized. Expressing gratitude for their contributions is an effective management tactic. And in the case of the new casting Oscar, it’s been a long time coming.



“It’s long overdue. Ninety-eight years of Oscars, and here we are . . . but better late than never,” Erica A. Hart, a member of the Casting Society’s board of directors, told CBC News. “Some of the people up above don’t see us as a craft, let alone a craft that is [deserving] of the Oscar.”



The “cherry on top”



Long-term improvement to industry culture involves thinking critically about the importance of leadership and teamwork, Goodman says. Part of this involves not underestimating certain team members.



“When you go back and look at what helps that team perform really well, it turns out that even though the project manager may not have made material contributions to the final work product, without their participation and engagement—and, frankly, orchestration—the team never would have hit the milestones that it needed to hit,” he says. 



Haga is hopeful the conversations about casting that started this year with the award’s introduction continue to bring attention to the work. Kaufman has worked with people she says are receptive to her input and others who take credit for it. She calls the recognition the “cherry on top.” 



“I’m a mother, so I need to make sure my kids know you don’t do something just to [be recognized]; you do it because it’s the best thing to do,” Kaufman says. 



But “with the Oscar now accepting casting directors in a different way, I’ll be curious to know how our lives change now that we’re being recognized,” she adds. “So, we can call you in a year and tell you how it’s looking.”



The Oscars aren’t done adding new categories for recognition, either: in 2028, at the 100th annual ceremony, a Best Stunt Design award will debut. Inside the industry, perception on casting directors has shifted over the years, but having an award might just help nonindustry people understand the level of work it takes to cast a film.



“My grandma, for example, is paying more attention to it now. That could be a combination of because I’m working in it and also because there’s an Oscar for it now,” casting intern Hemphill says. “But I do think that it will bring more attention to casting in general.”  ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Sun, 15 Mar 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Why, the, new, Best, Casting, Oscar, win, for, unsung, heroes, across, the, workforce</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>The hidden problem with feeling ‘overworked and underpaid’</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/the-hidden-problem-with-feeling-overworked-and-underpaid</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/the-hidden-problem-with-feeling-overworked-and-underpaid</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ “Overworked and underpaid” has become the modern workplace anthem. The internet is full of advice on how to negotiate harder, “quiet quit,” or jump ship. It’s an easy narrative to embrace: If you feel undervalued, the system must have failed you.



That story is comforting. It’s also costly.



While genuine exploitation exists, most people stop short of asking the harder, and far more lucrative question: What is my contribution actually worth in the market?



Effort Is Not Currency



We have a tendency to measure our value by our level of exhaustion. We tally up the stress, the late nights, and the emotional labor. But markets do not pay for perspiration. They pay for results.



If you feel underpaid, the first step isn’t indignation; it’s an honest audit. You must be able to answer four questions in cold, commercial terms:




What measurable problems do I solve?



What revenue do I influence or what cost do I reduce?



What risk do I remove from the business?



What capability exists in the business because I am here?




If you cannot answer these, your problem isn’t exploitation, it’s under-positioning.High performers don’t just do the work; they translate that work into the language decision-makers value. That isn’t “self-promotion.” It is commercial maturity.



The Hidden Ego in the Hustle



Early in my career, I was once frustrated that my title didn’t match my workload. I felt overlooked. In hindsight, I wasn’t being ignored, I was being developed.



The gap between who we believe we are and how we are officially labelled is where growth actually happens. It is an invitation to become the role before you are given the title.Sometimes the discomfort isn’t about the workload. It is about the delay in validation. When we fixate on status over trajectory, we risk stalling the very progress we claim to want.



There is also a seductive benefit to the overworked and underpaid story: it absolves us.



If the organisation is “broken,” you don’t have to sharpen your skills.If leadership is “blind,” you don’t have to influence better.If the system is “unfair,” you don’t have to examine your own performance.



That mindset protects the ego but freezes your growth.If you need the title to act like the next level, you’re not ready for it.



A more empowering stance assumes agency first. Ask:




If I am underpaid, what capability gap must I close?



If I am overlooked, how do I become unignorable?



If I am overwhelmed, what low-value work am I tolerating or enabling?




Agency isn’t the denial of injustice. It is a refusal to surrender control.



Your Three-Point Audit



Before you demand a raise or polish your CV, run these filters:



1. The Value AuditList your core responsibilities. Next to each, write the tangible impact—the metric, the dollar value, or the efficiency gained. If you can’t quantify it, estimate it. If it adds little value, question why it’s on your plate at all.



Many professionals exhaust themselves on low-impact work that makes them feel busy but not valuable. Ruthless prioritisation is a career accelerant.



2. The Skill AuditIdentify the capabilities demonstrated by those above you. It’s rarely about technical skill; it’s more often about things like strategic thinking, commercial judgment, stakeholder influence, and composure under pressure.



Promotions follow trust as much as competence. Trust is built through visible ownership and sound judgment exercised consistently over time.



3. The Leverage AuditWhen you negotiate from financial pressure, you negotiate from fear. Build personal resilience and market options first. You want to ask for your worth from a place of clarity, not desperation. Employers may empathise with your situation, but your financial stability will always be your responsibility.



When the System Actually Is the Problem



Let’s be clear: Some organizations simply lack the capital, the courage, or the vision to reward talent.If you have delivered sustained, measurable results, operated at a higher level for months, and clearly articulated your impact—yet nothing shifts—that is a signal. At that point, leaving isn’t an act of disloyalty. It is an act of alignment.



For the leaders reading this: stretching your people without providing clarity or a path to reward breeds cynicism. Growth must be reciprocal, or your best people will eventually find a market that knows how to price them.



The Reframe        



Stop asking, “Why am I not being paid more?” Start asking, “Who must I become to be worth more, in any market?”.



That question shifts you from reaction to construction. Compensation is almost always a lagging indicator of personal expansion. You rarely get paid first and grow later; the sequence frustrates the impatient, but it rewards the disciplined.



If you feel overworked and underpaid, don’t suppress the frustration. Study it. It may be pointing to genuine unfairness, or it may be pointing to your next evolution.



The difference lies in whether you look inward before you look outward. That isn’t the popular message, but it’s the only one that puts your future back in your hands. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://images.fastcompany.com/image/upload/w_1280,q_auto,f_auto,fl_lossy/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit/wp-cms-2/2026/03/p-91506261-hidden-problem-with-feeling-overworked-and-underpaid.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sun, 15 Mar 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>The, hidden, problem, with, feeling, ‘overworked, and, underpaid’</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>3 AI trends in Hollywood to discuss at Oscars parties</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/3-ai-trends-in-hollywood-to-discuss-at-oscars-parties</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/3-ai-trends-in-hollywood-to-discuss-at-oscars-parties</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ I teach a course on AI and filmmaking at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, and lately, rather than planning each session well in advance, I’ve been structuring the class the night before. I’ll browse platforms like X, Substack, and YouTube, selecting the most provocative articles and video clips to present the following morning.



It’s a testament to how quickly artificial intelligence’s relationship to filmmaking is evolving: Each week brings new—often startling—developments.



The next morning in class, my students and I debate the ethics, the aesthetics, and the storytelling changes taking place in these collaborations with AI.



And we’re not alone: Throughout Hollywood, everyone—aspiring actors and filmmakers, stars, screenwriters, and studio execs—seems to have a take on what’s coming next. But I think three trends in particular are going to be hot topics of conversation at this year’s Oscars parties.



Nothing uncanny about this clip



In February 2026, a 15-second AI-generated video clip of Tom Cruise battling Brad Pitt on a burned-out highway overpass went viral.



Depending on the viewer, the video elicited either admiration, outrage, or existential hand-wringing.



Created by Irish filmmaker Ruairi Robinson via a generative-AI tool called Seedance 2.0, the video marked yet another milestone in the propulsive growth of AI tools.



Seedance 2.0—which was developed by ByteDance, the Chinese company behind TikTok—is now one of the many AI tools available to create short-form video clips. But unlike most AI-generated videos, Pitt and Cruise don’t look creepy, uncanny, or animated in the clip, which almost perfectly mimics live-action footage. The appearance of two A-list stars in a fairly realistic scene created by a relatively unknown director using stolen likenesses jolted the industry.









A brief clip featuring AI-generated avatars of Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise stunned the film industry.



The backlash was swift. Disney sent a cease-and-desist letter, claiming that the video was generated from a dataset that most likely includes Disney’s copyrighted characters. The actors’ union, SAG-AFTRA, pointed to the video’s “blatant infringement” of the actors’ likenesses, as well as their voices.



“SAG-AFTRA stands with the studios in condemning the blatant infringement enabled by Bytedance’s new AI video model Seedance 2.0,” the guild wrote in a statement. This practice, the guild added, “undercuts the ability of human talent to earn a livelihood,” while disregarding “law, ethics, industry standards and basic principles of consent.”



In class, after watching the video, we explored the ethics of using someone’s likeness without permission, the challenges facing actors who build careers based on their unique ability to embody characters, and what the future holds for our understanding of acting.



If filmmakers can prompt fake actors to deliver precise performances, where does that leave human actors?



In with the old



Since 2023, the skyline of the Las Vegas strip has been dominated by an illuminated orb called the Sphere: an entertainment complex featuring a 360-degree LED screen covering 160,000 square feet (14,864 square meters). The Sphere recently surpassed 2 million tickets sold for a reimagining of the classic 1939 film The Wizard of Oz.



The film, which premiered in August 2024, was shortened, its color was enhanced, and it was stretched to expand across the interior of the dome. AI was used to transfer the imagery from the film’s original, modest aspect ratio to the giant dome. This required generating new imagery around the edges of the original shots in what’s known as “AI outpainting.” The technology was also deployed to boost the original film’s resolution and to enhance certain scenes.



Some critics fretted that this fairly radical augmentation of the original classic would offend viewers. Instead, it has drawn them in droves to the Sphere, where they’ve been willing to shell out between US$100 and $200 per ticket.



Not bad for a movie about a girl from Kansas made in 1939.



Given the resounding success of The Wizard of Oz, experts expect producers to plumb the film archives for other potential hits and enhance them with AI before screening them in venues as varied as IMAX theaters and Cosm, another 360-degree dome with locations in Los Angeles, Dallas, and Atlanta.



Or AI can simply be used to create material that was never completed for a historic film.



In fact, The New Yorker recently profiled AI media entrepreneur Edward Saatchi, who is working to recreate and reincorporate lost footage from Orson Welles’ 1942 feature The Magnificent Ambersons. While Welles was in Brazil shooting a documentary, executives at RKO Radio Pictures reedited the film without his approval after a poor preview screening. They cut around 45 minutes, replaced the original ending with a happier one, and destroyed most of the footage that had been removed.



Saatchi’s idea is to build a dataset that includes the existing film, as well as scripts, notes, images, and even new performances by actors. Then he plans to use his AI platform, Showrunner, to create new scenes from this data.



While Saatchi hopes to honor the director’s creative vision by producing the film he originally intended, his efforts open up some thorny questions.



Is it appropriate to take an existing artwork and revise it without the creator’s input? Isn’t there something sacrosanct about a film, the intentions of the director, and the performances of the actors in a film’s original form? To what extent should these questions be overlooked if refashioning old movies will introduce them to new audiences?



Fewer opportunities?



There’s also an undercurrent of anxiety in my classes. What will happen, my students often wonder, once they graduate?



They’re worried that within a year or two, AI will have replaced entry-level film industry jobs, from concept artists to apprentice-level editors, before they’ve even had a chance to enter the workforce.



They have reason to fear.



In 2024, the Animation Guild published a sobering report claiming that by 2026, “creative workers will be facing an era of disruption, defined by the consolidation of some job roles, the replacement of existing job roles with new ones, and the elimination of many jobs entirely.”



Some of those predictions have borne out: 41,000 jobs in film and television have disappeared in Los Angeles County alone over the past three years.



But I’ve tried to counter the hard statistics with some stories of thoughtful practices.



For example, filmmaker Paul Trillo at the AI studio Asteria has talked about how he seeks to keep artists at the center of the process. When he detailed the company’s work on a music video for the singer-songwriter Cuco, he was keen to highlight the number of artists working on the project. Yes, AI tools were used. But they were integrated in a way that replaced the tedious work, not the creative practice.



“Rather than removing [artists] from the process, it actually allowed them to do a lot more so a small team can dream a lot bigger,” Trillo explains at the end of the video.



In January 2026, the management consulting firm McKinsey published a report that largely echoes Trillo’s positive outlook. It forecasts more adoption of AI throughout the industry. But it also points to ways that the technology could lead to different kinds of work and open up new possibilities. 



For example, as AI-generated scenes become commonplace, studios will need technicians who know how to blend real footage with digitally created worlds. And as AI lowers the cost of producing polished films and shows, it could allow more “micro-studios” and independent filmmakers to create professional-quality content.



At the same time, the report also quotes a studio executive who concedes that AI could represent “a more significant platform shift than we have ever seen before in our industry.”



So it’s no wonder my students, along with varied critics, commentators, and industry professionals, are nervous.



However, from where I stand, I’m convinced that the industry will weather this radical disruption. It’s adapted to big changes in the past: the addition of sound in the 1920s, the threat posed by videotape in the 1980s, and streaming in the 2000s.



In the end, people will always crave new, artfully told stories. While the filmmaking tools and job market may be in transition, that core need for storytelling is not going away.



Holly Willis is a professor of cinematic arts at the University of Southern California.



This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Sun, 15 Mar 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>trends, Hollywood, discuss, Oscars, parties</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Chasing the digital nomad dream? Beware of global current events</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/chasing-the-digital-nomad-dream-beware-of-global-current-events</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/chasing-the-digital-nomad-dream-beware-of-global-current-events</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ My desk is a disaster. Cold brew from this morning, now room temperature. A stack of unopened mail that’s been piling up since the holiday break. Outside my window: rain. Not the romantic kind. This downpour is more Mary J. Blige and Ja Rule than Soul for Real. When I log on to my first video call of the day, I see the same gloom in everyone else’s backgrounds.



Well, everyone except Sam.



Unlike most people at the Seattle-based organization, Sam, a content strategist, has been working remotely from Mexico for the past four months. His Zoom backdrop almost looks virtual. The solar glare on his forehead makes questions about the weather seem rhetorical. His floor-to-ceiling windows—with palm trees swaying on the other side—scream, “I’m living my best life at 28,000 pesos per month.”



On a recent call, when Sam casually mentioned grabbing lunch at a restaurant on the beach, I felt it. That ugly little pang of envy.



Mase and 112 have a hilarious song about jealous men. I could never relate … until recently. The remote work revolution has tested my emotional limits. Taking Zoom meetings from Zanzibar. Sending emails from Barcelona. Slack messages sent poolside. The digital nomad lifestyle sold us a fantasy: Why be miserable in Maryland when you could be equally employed in Morocco?



Last month, Sam and his tropical background were absent for a day. He was offline the following day as well. His Slack status read “traveling.” Everyone on the call knew what was up.



After Mexican authorities killed a major cartel leader in February—reportedly with U.S. help—parts of Jalisco erupted in violent retaliation that led to road blockades, burning vehicles, and warnings for Americans in Puerto Vallarta to stay indoors. Sam was in Mexico City, about 500 miles away, but he decided not to take any chances and haul ass. Turns out that “work from anywhere” hits differently when the “anywhere” is under a travel advisory.



I understood the appeal that landed him beyond stateside borders in the first place. Once upon a time, I spun my desk globe and contemplated an expat adventure of my own.



I’d been to Dubai years ago and loved it: the energy, the extravagance, the man-made island. After I got home, I started imagining a version of my life with better weather and a better skyline. I did some cursory research about relocating there. Looked at neighborhoods. Crunched the numbers. Then I took an in-office job here, and the idea disappeared like shisha smoke in the air.



That old fantasy came back to mind recently after the U.S. attacked Iran, which responded with missile and drone strikes all around the Middle East. Airports in Doha, Abu Dhabi, and Dubai—major travel hubs for all, including remote workers—have been experiencing shutdowns and delays amid regional instability. I keep coming across tales of Americans stuck out there, steadily refreshing the State Department website, trying to figure out whether they need to escape by any means necessary.



I know Black folks who left the States entirely—tired of the politics, the anti-Blackness, the everyday microaggressions. They went searching for destinations where they could breathe easier. Accra. Lisbon. Bangkok. The digital nomad life offered an escape from Uncle Sam’s oppression.



But here’s the thing: American foreign policy has a long reach. When the U.S. starts launching airstrikes, it doesn’t matter if you’re in Atlanta or Abu Dhabi; you’re still American. And suddenly that little blue booklet feels less like a golden ticket. 



Obviously, every place isn’t unsafe. I’d never discourage anyone from chasing the digital nomad dream. If you’ve got the opportunity and the resources, do it. See the world. Take your conference calls from Costa Rica. All I’m saying is that current events have shown me another perspective. The recent news made me realize how quickly paradise can turn into frantically checking Skyscanner for a flight to literally anywhere else.



Sam has since resurfaced on our team calls. He’s in London now, staying with a friend until he figures out his next move. His Zoom background was gray that first day. Overcast. It looked a lot like mine.



“How’s the weather over there?” someone asked.



“Rainy,” Sam said. “But I’m good with it.”



Maybe I projected a lot onto Sam. Maybe he’s just a guy with decent Wi-Fi, a great view, a tatted-up passport, and quarterly goals just like mine. But in my head, he was the poster child of the digital nomad experience.



I looked out my window at the familiar downpour and realized something: I’m still open to working from abroad.



I’m just no longer romanticizing the people already doing it. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Sun, 15 Mar 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Chasing, the, digital, nomad, dream, Beware, global, current, events</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Oscars live&#45;stream: How to watch the 2026 Academy Awards with or without cable, including free options</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/oscars-live-stream-how-to-watch-the-2026-academy-awards-with-or-without-cable-including-free-options</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/oscars-live-stream-how-to-watch-the-2026-academy-awards-with-or-without-cable-including-free-options</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ It’s time for the dazzling conclusion to the 2026 awards season. After the Hollywood elites walk the red carpet, the curtain will rise on the 98th Academy Awards on Sunday, March 15, which is tonight.



The excitement will be palpable as the audience waits to learn who will take home a coveted Oscar. Here’s everything you need to know to fully enjoy the evening, including how to tune in.



Where does the 98th Academy Awards take place?



The location for this fabulous event is in Tinseltown, of course. More specifically, the ceremony will take place at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.



Who’s hosting the 2026 Oscars?



Comedian and former late-night host Conan O’Brien will be guiding the audience through the evening.



This is his second consecutive year hosting Hollywood’s biggest night. It is a duty he takes very seriously. The Hollywood Reporter revealed that he has been doing several surprise stand-up sets to workshop his material ahead of the big night.



O’Brien will be supported by several presenters throughout the evening. As is tradition, last year’s acting award winners, Kieran Culkin, Zoe Saldaña, Adrien Brody, and Mikey Madison, will present in their respective categories. 



Additionally, Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Anne Hathaway, Will Arnett, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Javier Bardem, Demi Moore, Kumail Nanjiani, Maya Rudolph, Chris Evans, and Chase Infiniti are all scheduled to appear.



Who is nominated for an Oscar?



Ryan Coogler’s Sinners made Oscar history this year by becoming the most nominated film ever with its 16 nods. 



Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another scored 13. Frankenstein, Marty Supreme, and Sentimental Value each received nine nominations.



While no one can ever predict the future, this is an especially exciting year, because most of the major acting categories don’t feel set in stone. 



Will Timothée Chalamet or Michael B. Jordan take home Best Actor? Will Amy Madigan, Teyana Taylor, or Wunmi Mosaku take home Best Supporting Actress? Only time can tell.



The category that seems safe to call is Best Actress, as Jessie Buckley has taken home every other major award for her performance in Hamnet. For a full list of nominees, visit the Oscars website.



Who’s performing at the 98th Academy Awards?



Since Oscar himself is a sparkling hue, it almost seems required that the nominated song “Golden” from KPop Demon Hunters is sung live during the ceremony. Thankfully, Ejae, Audrey Nuna, and Rei Ami are willing to make that happen.



Additionally, Miles Caton and Raphael Saadiq will perform another nominated song, “I Lied to You,” from the film Sinners. 



They will be joined by Misty Copeland, Eric Gales, Buddy Guy, Brittany Howard, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Jayme Lawson, Li Jun Li, Bobby Rush, Shaboozey, and Alice Smith.



No word if Chalamet approves of including a prominent ballerina after his now viral comments greatly offended the ballet and opera worlds.



Oscars In Memoriam



The Oscars In Memoriam is always a somber but important element of the broadcast. 



This year feels especially heavy with the loss of Rob Reiner, Michele Singer Reiner, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, Gene Hackman, Robert Redford, and many more. 



What’s new for the 98th Academy Awards?



There’s a new category for the first time in 25 years at the Oscars. Casting directors are finally getting the recognition they deserve. 



The inaugural nominees for the Achievement in Casting Oscar are Nina Gold (Hamnet), Jennifer Venditti (Marty Supreme), Cassandra Kulukundis (One Battle After Another), Gabriel Domingues (The Secret Agent), and Francine Maisler (Sinners). 



How to tune in for the red carpet arrivals



To see all your favorite looks, you have options. The official broadcast partner of the Oscars is ABC. This means all ABC-owned stations with air On The Red Carpet at the Oscars, beginning at  3:30 p.m. ET. 



Lara Spencer, Whit Johnson, George Pennacchio, Joelle Garguilo, and Chris Connelly will help you count down the minutes until the main event. 



Immediately following that programming is the official The Oscars Red Carpet Show at 6:30 p.m, hosted by Tamron Hall and Jesse Palmer.



If you are in it for the fashion, E!’s coverage may be more your speed. 



Hosted by Justin Sylvester and Keltie Knight, E!’s Brunch at the Oscars begins at 2 p.m. ET. It is followed by E!’s Live From The Red Carpet at 4 p.m. ET. 



After the Oscar’s broadcast, tune back to E! for Red Carpet Rundown at 10:30 p.m. ET.



How to tune in for the 98th Academy Awards



And now for the main event, which begins at 7 p.m. ET on ABC and Hulu. 



Traditional cable subscribers, Hulu subscribers, and those with over-the-air antennas are covered. 



Remember that ABC is technically still free the old-fashioned way. Moreover, Hulu is offering free trials to eligible subscribers.  



If you don’t fall into one of those three categories, consider adding a live-TV streaming service, such as YouTube TV, FuboTV, or DirecTV Stream into your entertainment viewing arsenal. 



Just be sure to double check regional differences as not every channel is available in every area. ]]></description>
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<title>Revolut launches UK bank after regulatory approval</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/revolut-launches-uk-bank-after-regulatory-approval</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/revolut-launches-uk-bank-after-regulatory-approval</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Revolut has launched its UK bank after receiving PRA approval, enabling FSCS-protected accounts and paving the way for lending products for its 13 million UK customers.
Read more: 
Revolut launches UK bank after regulatory approval ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/shutterstock_2605194785.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Thu, 12 Mar 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Revolut, launches, bank, after, regulatory, approval</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Oil price climbs above $90 after ship attack in Strait of Hormuz</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/oil-price-climbs-above-90-after-ship-attack-in-strait-of-hormuz</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/oil-price-climbs-above-90-after-ship-attack-in-strait-of-hormuz</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Oil prices surged back above $90 after a ship attack in the Strait of Hormuz, as the Iran conflict disrupts shipping routes and raises fears over global energy supply and inflation.
Read more: 
Oil price climbs above $90 after ship attack in Strait of Hormuz ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/shutterstock_1073171981.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Thu, 12 Mar 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Oil, price, climbs, above, 90, after, ship, attack, Strait, Hormuz</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Churchill to be replaced by wildlife on future Bank of England banknotes</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/churchill-to-be-replaced-by-wildlife-on-future-bank-of-england-banknotes</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/churchill-to-be-replaced-by-wildlife-on-future-bank-of-england-banknotes</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
The Bank of England plans to replace historical figures like Winston Churchill and Jane Austen with UK wildlife on future banknotes following a public consultation favouring nature-themed designs.
Read more: 
Churchill to be replaced by wildlife on future Bank of England banknotes ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/shutterstock_2416455119-scaled.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Thu, 12 Mar 2026 14:00:06 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Churchill, replaced, wildlife, future, Bank, England, banknotes</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Green hydrogen plant to be built in Milford Haven with government backing</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/green-hydrogen-plant-to-be-built-in-milford-haven-with-government-backing</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/green-hydrogen-plant-to-be-built-in-milford-haven-with-government-backing</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Trafigura will build a green hydrogen production facility in Milford Haven, Wales, producing 2,000 tonnes a year with government backing as part of the UK’s low-carbon energy strategy.
Read more: 
Green hydrogen plant to be built in Milford Haven with government backing ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/shutterstock_2362208145.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Thu, 12 Mar 2026 14:00:05 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Green, hydrogen, plant, built, Milford, Haven, with, government, backing</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Government launches new programme to help more women and girls enter the UK tech sector</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/government-launches-new-programme-to-help-more-women-and-girls-enter-the-uk-tech-sector</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/government-launches-new-programme-to-help-more-women-and-girls-enter-the-uk-tech-sector</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
The UK government has unveiled a £4m TechFirst Women’s Programme offering 300 tech placements, returnships for developers and a national girls’ coding competition to boost female participation in the sector.
Read more: 
Government launches new programme to help more women and girls enter the UK tech sector ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/shutterstock_2287651397.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Thu, 12 Mar 2026 14:00:05 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Government, launches, new, programme, help, more, women, and, girls, enter, the, tech, sector</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Chinese brain interface startup Gestala raises $21M just two months after launch</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/chinese-brain-interface-startup-gestala-raises-21m-just-two-months-after-launch</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/chinese-brain-interface-startup-gestala-raises-21m-just-two-months-after-launch</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ This is the largest early-stage funding in China’s brain computer interface industry. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/GettyImages-2147670244.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Thu, 12 Mar 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Chinese, brain, interface, startup, Gestala, raises, 21M, just, two, months, after, launch</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>When startups become a family business</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/when-startups-become-a-family-business</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/when-startups-become-a-family-business</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ This season on Build Mode, we’re diving into what it takes to build a world-class founding team. This week we’re exploring different kinds of co-founder dynamics and what it takes to build a startup with your family. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/rivio-build-mode.png" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Thu, 12 Mar 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>When, startups, become, family, business</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Group14 opens factory to produce battery materials for flash charging EVs</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/group14-opens-factory-to-produce-battery-materials-for-flash-charging-evs</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/group14-opens-factory-to-produce-battery-materials-for-flash-charging-evs</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ The startup&#039;s new BAM-3 facility can make enough silicon anode material annually to supply about 100,000 long-range EVs. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/group14-bam-3-factory-south-korea.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Thu, 12 Mar 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Group14, opens, factory, produce, battery, materials, for, flash, charging, EVs</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Google Maps is getting an AI ‘Ask Maps’ feature and upgraded ‘immersive’ navigation</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/google-maps-is-getting-an-ai-ask-maps-feature-and-upgraded-immersive-navigation</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/google-maps-is-getting-an-ai-ask-maps-feature-and-upgraded-immersive-navigation</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ The tech giant says the &quot;Immersive Navigation&quot; launch is the biggest update to Maps in over a decade. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Thu, 12 Mar 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Google, Maps, getting, ‘Ask, Maps’, feature, and, upgraded, ‘immersive’, navigation</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Google is using old news reports and AI to predict flash floods</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/google-is-using-old-news-reports-and-ai-to-predict-flash-floods</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/google-is-using-old-news-reports-and-ai-to-predict-flash-floods</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ A new way to solve data scarcity: Turning qualitative reports into quantitative data with an LLM. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Screenshot-2026-03-11-at-7.14.04-PM.png" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Thu, 12 Mar 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Google, using, old, news, reports, and, predict, flash, floods</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>When can I download iOS 26.4? iPhone update timeline as release date nears and new features set to debut</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/when-can-i-download-ios-264-iphone-update-timeline-as-release-date-nears-and-new-features-set-to-debut</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/when-can-i-download-ios-264-iphone-update-timeline-as-release-date-nears-and-new-features-set-to-debut</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Apple’s iOS 26 for iPhone got off to a rough start when it was finally released to the public in September of last year. 



Its new Liquid Glass design language remained unpolished in many areas, and the operating system harbored a fair amount of bugs. But since iOS 26.0 debuted, Apple has released three major updates for it, further polishing the interface and adding new features.



And soon, Apple will update iOS 26 once again with the release of iOS 26.4. It’s a release that is set to not just eliminate bugs and enhance the details of Liquid Glass, but is also set to add some significant new features to your iPhone. 



Here’s what’s coming, and when you can get iOS 26.4.



What new features are coming to iOS 26.4?



Apple has been beta testing iOS 26.4 since last month. Originally, the software update was rumored to include the company’s revamped Siri, powered by Google’s Gemini LLM. However, Siri’s AI revamp has been absent from all iOS 26.4 betas to date, so it looks like a truly useful Apple digital assistant is still a ways away.



But that doesn’t mean iOS 26.4 doesn’t have any new features. Quite the contrary. Besides your normal user interface polishes and bug fixes, iOS 26.4 is set to include some major upgrades to its media apps, notes 9to5Mac. Those upgrades include:




AI-powered music playlist creation: iOS 26.4 will add a feature to the Music app called “Playlist Playground.” The feature allows you to generate music playlists from natural-language text descriptions. So you could instruct the Playlist Playground feature to make a playlist of “80s rock ballads under five minutes long,” and the Music app will generate a playlist based on your prompt.



Podcasts app video overhaul: Apple’s Podcasts app has supported video podcasts for some time. But in iOS 26.4, its video capabilities are getting a major upgrade. Now you can quickly switch between the audio and video versions of a podcast. This feature will be great for those times when you are watching a video podcast, but then suddenly need to be on the move—soon you’ll be able to easily switch to the audio version of the podcast, ensuring you can still enjoy it when your eyes are needed on other things.



Redesigned album and playlist interface: Also in the Music app, Apple has redesigned the look of the interface that you see when displaying playlists or albums in full screen. In iOS 26.4, the Music app will now tint the entire screen based on the album art color scheme, giving each playlist and album its own unique look.




And that’s not all: iOS 26.4 will add numerous small refinements and additions across the operating system, including new emojis, new Ambient Music widgets for your Home Screen, automatic activation of Stolen Device Protection, and more.



iOS 26.4 beta: Download it now



While Apple hasn’t released iOS 26.4 to the general public yet, it has released four betas of the software to developers and public beta testers. And if you are in any of those two groups, you can download the latest beta of iOS 26.4 onto your iPhone today.



To download the developer beta, you’ll need to be a member of the Apple Developer Program. 



If you’re not a developer, but still want to try out the new software early, you can join the Apple Beta Software Program for free and get access to public betas—including the iOS 26.4 beta—today.



Of course, the usual warning applies: betas are buggy, and in rare cases, they can cause data loss or otherwise harm your phone. So always proceed with caution if you decide to download a beta.



iOS 26.4 final release: Download it later this month



If a beta isn’t your thing, you’ll have to wait until Apple releases the final version of iOS 26.4 to the public. Thankfully, you probably won’t have to wait too much longer.



Apple generally has a 5-6 beta development cycle for iOS “point” upgrades like iOS 26.4. Apple released the first iOS 26.4 beta in mid-February, which means the final public version of the beta is highly likely to be released between mid-March and the end of the month.



Once Apple releases the final version of the software, you’ll be able to download iOS 26.4 right to your iPhone using the device’s Software Update feature in the Settings app. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Wed, 11 Mar 2026 14:00:11 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>When, can, download, iOS, 26.4, iPhone, update, timeline, release, date, nears, and, new, features, set, debut</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>U.S. workers are carving a path to a new American Dream</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/us-workers-are-carving-a-path-to-a-new-american-dream</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/us-workers-are-carving-a-path-to-a-new-american-dream</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Each year, some of America’s greatest artists, thinkers, and business leaders have a chance to come together at SXSW in the spirit of creativity, innovation, and future-building. And with everything currently happening in technology and the workforce, this year’s gathering feels particularly timely.



Of course, questions around AI will take center stage and remain our primary cultural fixation: How long until the next incredible breakthrough? Should Americans be fearful about an impending AI apocalypse or hopeful about the prospect of unlimited productivity gains?



These topics are all valid, urgent, and deeply worthwhile to explore, but I also believe the most important workforce story unfolding in the U.S. today is less about what AI will do next, and more about what everyday Americans are doing right now in response to and in preparation for AI’s growing impacts.



If technological advancement is going to keep accelerating faster than our institutions can or are willing to adapt, the fact that workers have already begun adapting on their own in real time is a story of deep-rooted resilience within our culture and communities. It is also a story that seems to be signaling a pragmatic and optimistic reimagining of the American Dream.



WORKFORCE DISRUPTION IS WELL UNDERWAY



The speed of AI advancement is likely to continue to be astonishing. Although we can neither predict nor control the pace of innovation, we can acknowledge that AI is no longer a hypothetical but an economic force reshaping job security, hiring, and career planning.



We also need to understand that while AI adoption has added pressure, workforce fragility in the U.S. was deepening long before generative models like ChatGPT entered the picture.



Education costs have been compounding at an unhealthy rate in America for nearly half a century, with rising tuition costs significantly outpacing inflation since the 1980s. Meanwhile, the country’s student debt crisis also continues deepening, with total student loan debt in the U.S. exceeding $1.7 trillion in 2024, all while broader confidence in traditional education and career pathways has been gradually eroding.



AI isn’t causing workforce uncertainty but merely adding weight on top of existing cracks in the system. To focus solely on predicting the pace and extent of AI-driven job loss misses the real story: U.S. workers are already adapting, and it’s a process involving a bold reimagining of American values and stability.



AMERICANS ARE CHOOSING DURABILITY



Despite so much uncertainty, Americans don’t appear to be giving in to fear as much as they’re leaning into resilience and practical decision-making. There are some strong cultural signals indicating a radical shift in the U.S. workforce’s strategic mindset, particularly in evolving views around traditional education and career pathways in this AI age.



More specifically, a new survey of American workers we conducted at the Business For Good Foundation via the Harris Poll revealed a clear and widespread departure from most conventional ways of thinking about professional and economic fulfillment. For example, 75% of Americans shared that their views of a “good job” does not look the same now as five years ago, while 80% agreed more people are choosing trade training over four-year degree programs.



Similarly, more than 78% said they believe long-lasting social and cultural stigmas around blue-collar work are beginning to dissipate in the U.S., with 76% saying they believe trade jobs are less likely to be replaced by AI.



Rather than fearing widespread job loss and sustained unemployment, Americans are envisioning a future workforce defined by durability, where the workforce’s economic value is concentrated less in white-collar sectors and more by the durable, hands-on skills that have always played an indispensable role. It suggests an overall mood of pragmatic optimism, with Americans appearing to adjust to AI adoption much faster than our political and educational systems.



GET AHEAD OF CHANGE



While everyday Americans seem eager to get ahead of AI’s inevitable changes, this likely won’t happen at scale without the appropriate support from organizations and U.S. business leaders. Recognizing this heightened need for more hands-on programs to increase access to skilled trade training, we at the Business for Good Foundation committed $100,000 to advancing workforce development in the first half of 2026.



Of course, this will also require strategy and coordination, grounded in shared recognition that this shift away from traditional white-collar pathways is not an error but a process of economic regeneration. The growing emphasis on hands-on trades is not nostalgia, but necessary to strengthen the U.S. innovation infrastructure.



Skilled work continues to underpin all non-negotiable aspects of American society, including access to housing and healthcare. At the same time, U.S. business owners are grappling with critical, pre-existing skilled labor shortages, meaning they’ll increasingly need to depend on talent pipelines beyond traditional degree models.



One recent example of what we’ve done at the Business for Good Foundation is a New York Capital Region pilot. As part of our commitment to workforce development, the foundation awarded a $25,000 grant to the Social Enterprise and Training (SEAT) Center to expand trade skills programming in the region and help bridge the gap between untapped talent and industry demand.



I’ve seen firsthand that simple, practical investments like in the SEAT Center—those that better align workforce pathways with employer needs and expand access to education and career opportunities for motivated talent in underserved communities—can go a long way toward creating a real and sustainable path to upward economic mobility. I’m encouraging leaders across the country to take similar action, at any scale.



However, such a model will largely remain limited without other like-minded business leaders and philanthropists willing to build on and replicate it at scale, and who are prepared to fully embrace a new American dream defined less by credentials and more by individual capabilities, determination, and human resilience. While this kind of change certainly won’t happen overnight, I hope that those of us who attend SXSW this week might begin aligning our business priorities with the unique spirit of this event, working together to intentionally build a brighter, more prosperous, and innovative future for the U.S. workforce.



Ed Mitzen is cofounder of Business for Good Foundation. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Wed, 11 Mar 2026 14:00:11 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>U.S., workers, are, carving, path, new, American, Dream</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Exclusive: Databricks launches ‘Genie Code’ to own the next frontier of vibe&#45;coding</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/exclusive-databricks-launches-genie-code-to-own-the-next-frontier-of-vibe-coding</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/exclusive-databricks-launches-genie-code-to-own-the-next-frontier-of-vibe-coding</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ AI coding agents have become one of the fastest-growing categories in enterprise software. In the span of just a few years, these development tools have evolved from simple autocomplete assistants into autonomous systems capable of taking over the complete software development cycle, all via natural language prompts. 



As vibe-coding takes off, tools from startups like Cursor and Anthropic’s Claude Code have quickly reached multibillion‑dollar revenue run rates. Cursor reportedly crossed $1 billion in annual recurring revenue (ARR) in 2025 and has since approached $2 billion in Q1 of 2026. Anthropic’s Claude Code has scaled even faster, reaching an estimated $2.5 billion annualized run rate within its first year, making it one of the fastest‑growing products in the category that accounts for a large share of Anthropic’s $14 billion ARR.



Yet inside large enterprises, writing code is rarely the hardest part of the job. Data scientists, engineers, and analysts spend much of their time maintaining and augmenting pipelines rather than building new ones. The real bottleneck in enterprise AI, therefore, is not software development itself, but operating complex data systems in production. 



Databricks CEO and co-founder Ali Ghodsi believes that the gap represents the next frontier for AI automation. In his view, the next generation of AI agents won’t just write software, but operate the data systems that modern businesses depend on. 



That strategic bet is behind Genie Code, a system of autonomous AI agents unveiled today, designed for data engineering, data science, and analytics operations. The system extends the company’s existing Genie platform ecosystem, which allows knowledge workers to ask questions about enterprise data in natural language. (More than 20,000 organizations already used Databricks’s data management and analytics tools; the company’s ARR surpassed $4.8 billion annual revenue in October.) 



“Instead of functioning merely as a coding assistant or helping generate code faster, these agents actually understand the structure of the data and existing data problems,” Ali Ghodsi says. “It can automatically set up pipelines, analyze why something is failing, and understand issues like when a dataset schema changes or when permissions are modified.”



For instance, Genie Code can help determine how a dataset should be prepared for modeling—randomizing the data, separating part of it into a test set, or training a model on the remaining portion. After training, the system can aid in evaluating the results using metrics such as F1 scores or the area under the curve, and then analyzing them to determine whether the model is performing well or requires improvement.“It can suggest trying different approaches—maybe retraining the model or generating plots and graphs to visualize performance, and uncover reasoning about what changes might improve the results,” Ghodsi explains. “It’s not about just generating random code snippets, but understanding the entire structure of the data problem and working through the modeling workflow the same way a data scientist or engineer would.”



Databricks and Enterprise Context



A major reason many AI coding agents struggle in enterprise data environments is context. Most developer tools train primarily on public code repositories and general programming examples. Enterprise data systems, however, add another layer of complexity. Data carries business semantics, governance rules, and access policies that determine how information can be used. Without that context, an AI agent may generate technically correct code that fails once deployed in production. 



Genie Code attempts to address that problem by integrating directly with Unity Catalog, Databricks’ governance framework for enterprise data. This integration allows the system to understand data lineage, access permissions, and organizational policies across an enterprise’s entire data estate.



“Maintaining pipelines and making sure they are reliable and always running is a big part of a data engineer’s job, and this is where Genie Code can augment them significantly,” Ghodsi says. “It can monitor systems continuously and respond immediately when something breaks, even in the middle of the night, analyzing complex traces and diagnosing what happened so that the pipeline can be fixed and kept running reliably.”



The architecture relies on a multi-agent architecture powered by multiple AI models. Ghodsi explains that the system combines LLMs from providers including Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google, alongside smaller open-source models optimized for specific tasks. “There are many things inside a workflow where you don’t need a huge model—you just need something fast that can perform a very specific operation reliably.”



The larger models provide the reasoning capabilities necessary for complex problem-solving and planning. Smaller open-source models are trained to handle more routine operations quickly and efficiently. Moreover, the architecture is built around multiple collaborating agents rather than a single monolithic AI system. Each agent specializes in particular functions, such as diagnosing pipeline failures or analyzing data patterns. These agents share context, memory, and skills, allowing them to coordinate their actions and execute complex workflows across the data stack.



Databricks describes this approach as “agentic data work.” Rather than prompting an AI assistant for small pieces of code, users can delegate entire objectives to the system.



Another challenge with autonomous AI systems is maintaining reliable performance in production environments over time, as agents often encounter unfamiliar scenarios that degrade performance. To address that issue, Databricks has acquired Quotient AI, a startup specializing in evaluation and reinforcement learning for AI agents. The company’s technology helps evaluate agent behavior, continuously measuring output quality and detecting regressions before they cause production failures. Quotient AI’s founders previously worked on improving the quality of GitHub Copilot, giving them deep expertise in evaluating AI coding systems.  



Vibe-coding for data systems



The rise of vibe-coding has created a new battleground for agentic AI-powered coding tools and reshaped the competitive landscape in software infrastructure. Databricks is approaching the market from a different direction. Ghodsi says the AI coding market and the enterprise data automation market are evolving in parallel but distinct directions. 



While tools like Cursor and Anthropic’s coding agents are reshaping how developers write software, Databricks is focused on transforming how companies manage and operate their data systems. “Even though our product name includes ‘code,’ what it really focuses on is data work,” Ghodsi says. 



Genie Code targets the workflows that occur after data enters an organization’s platform. By focusing on the data layer, the company aims to address problems that general-purpose coding assistants are not designed to solve. “The other tools in the market help software engineers write application code, which is great,” says Ghodsi, “But for us the end goal is the data: transforming data reliably, and helping organizations work with their data.”



Several organizations, including SiriusXM and Repsol, have already begun experimenting with the technology. SiriusXM uses Genie Code to help build and maintain internal data products, generate SQL queries, and debug pipelines. According to Ghodsi, the company has reported around 20% productivity improvements in data engineering tasks. Genie Code assists engineers in creating data products with defined service-level agreements and reliability guarantees. 



Likewise, multinational energy and petrochemical company Repsol is using the technology to accelerate forecasting and production workflows. Instead of manually connecting notebooks, pipelines, and models across different systems, engineers can rely on Genie Code to orchestrate these processes automatically. Ghodsi added that thousands of other customers are already experimenting with the technology, although many deployments are still in early stages.



The Future of Human Engineering



Ghodsi does not expect autonomous agents to replace human engineers. Instead, engineers may spend less time writing code and more time designing architectures, supervising automated systems, and ensuring that AI-driven workflows operate reliably. 



“The cost of automation is going down and the tools are becoming easier to use, so naturally the demand for automation increases. If you look at some of the numbers already, a huge percentage of activity on machines is actually agents operating in the background,” he says.



According to the company’s recently released State of AI Agents report, AI agents now create 80% of databases and 97% of test and development environments on the Databricks platform. Just two years ago, agents barely registered in database activity, with human developers handling nearly all of that work. 



“I wouldn’t be surprised if that number goes from something like 80% to 99% in a short period of time. But that doesn’t mean humans disappear from the process,” Ghodsi explains. “You also have to think about legal responsibility and quality guarantees. Those are areas where you still need a human in the loop.” ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Wed, 11 Mar 2026 14:00:11 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Exclusive:, Databricks, launches, ‘Genie, Code’, own, the, next, frontier, vibe-coding</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Canva’s new AI tool will break your design process (in a good way)</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/canvas-new-ai-tool-will-break-your-design-process-in-a-good-way</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/canvas-new-ai-tool-will-break-your-design-process-in-a-good-way</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Canva’s new AI tool, launching today, is going to save time, money, and headaches for so many people. Called Magic Layers, it turns any flat bitmap image into a fully editable Canva project, extracting text, objects, and components into individual layers.This tool marks a fundamental shift in how we handle digital assets. Until now, a rendered image was basically a locked vault of pixels. If you wanted to change a typo or swap a background, you had four options: 1) Hunt down the original project file, 2) painstakingly change it in Photoshop, 3) accept a generative AI patch job, or 4) close the laptop and escape to live a real life somewhere by a nice beach. Magic Layers shatters the vault. By reverse-engineering a flat picture into its constituent parts, Canva cofounder and Chief Product Officer Cameron Adams tells me, Magic Layers empowers users to resurrect and tweak any image they have on their hard drive.[Image: Canva]Canva uses many models from OpenAI, Anthropic, and other developers, but the secret sauce behind this new layering capability is its proprietary AI design model, which the company unveiled last October. Think of it not just as a random design and image generator, but as a model that understands the elements of design. It looks at a picture and sees its skeletal structure—distinguishing the foreground subjects from the background scenery, and recognizing typography as actual text rather than just colored shapes. When you feed it an image, whether it was spat out by an AI prompt or dragged from an old folder, it dissects those elements perfectly. The new Canva multilayer tool is the implementation of those abilities.“Most AI outputs are fixed, really flat things, and they’re not easy to edit. You either have to, like, live with an 80% solution or you have to spend time reprompting, trying to get that little bit of the image that you wanted to get fixed,” Adams says. But now, he adds, “the model identifies everything in the frame and converts it into native Canva objects.”So text isn’t just a cutout anymore. It becomes a live, editable text box. You can correct spelling errors, swap the font, adjust the size, or even translate the copy for international markets. The same goes for visual objects. Once separated, elements like a product bottle or a butterfly become completely independent actors on the canvas. You can move them, resize them, change their color, or banish them from the composition entirely without leaving a gaping hole behind, Adams explains.And since these extracted layers are treated exactly like standard Canva design elements, you can apply all of the platform’s existing tools to them, including upscaling or generative tweaks like Magic Edit. “That’s the beauty of it, that it’s now a proper Canva design. So you can change any of those elements in any way,” Adams says. Because Canva operates in the cloud, this newly resurrected file is immediately ready for multiplayer collaboration. You and your team can jump into the project simultaneously and start moving things around. [Image: Canva]It’s getting better all the timeThere is an interesting parallel here with Adobe’s recent launch of a new AI assistant for its web and mobile Photoshop apps. Both companies are trying to fix the fundamental flaw of current generative AI models like Google’s Nano Banana.When you ask a standard AI to remove a single item from a picture, the machine recalculates the whole picture from scratch, inevitably introducing random errors or “hallucinations.” Adobe tackles this problem by allowing users to point at or draw around an object. The AI then places these modifications on independent, clear overlays suspended above the base image, preserving the underlying raw pixels flawlessly. While Adobe’s method builds new, highly controlled edits—including text—on top of an existing foundation to guarantee precision, Canva’s Magic Layers takes the opposite route: It dismantles the foundation itself, breaking the flat image apart into discrete, fully interactive components.While these tools from both companies do, indeed, appear to be magical, to me they feel like features that are not going to stick around for too long. They’re more like patches that solve generative AI’s current problems with output uncertainty.Once engines like Nano Banana or Seedream can nail down every pixel, every text and typography, every single human, animal, tree, pair of jeans, or shampoo bottle ever—and it will happen—we will no longer be worrying about things being in layers. Objects, type, and components will simply exist in the reality of the image; the models will understand them just like humans do, allowing users to change anything they want instantly, and with precision. Everything will be “liquid” for you to touch and change. Software will follow your exacting and most complicated whims with perfection. But for now, Magic Layers is going to solve a lot of problems for a lot of people and companies all around the world. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Wed, 11 Mar 2026 14:00:11 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Canva’s, new, tool, will, break, your, design, process, in, good, way</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Trump is headed to Ohio and Kentucky to downplay Iran war’s effect on U.S. economy</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/trump-is-headed-to-ohio-and-kentucky-to-downplay-iran-wars-effect-on-us-economy</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/trump-is-headed-to-ohio-and-kentucky-to-downplay-iran-wars-effect-on-us-economy</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ President Donald Trump plans to visit Ohio and Kentucky on Wednesday to argue that his policies can steady an economy facing shock waves from the war on Iran and to try to defeat one of the few congressional Republicans who has dared to defy him.In Cincinnati, the Republican president is touring Thermo Fisher Scientific, a pharmaceutical company. There, he’ll tout efforts to lower prescription drug prices, a key part of his attempts to show his administration is focused on making the cost of living more affordable for many Americans ahead of November’s midterm elections.After that, Trump will visit a logistics packing facility in nearby Hebron, Kentucky, part of the district of Rep. Thomas Massie. Trump is backing a primary challenger to Massie.The trip presents a test of Trump’s ability to cleanse his party of those who oppose him but also to try to stay on an economic message increasingly strained by the military action launched by the U.S. and Israel against Iran. He’ll be “talking about the economy, which is, of course, the utmost importance to him,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.Polls showed that Americans were increasingly wary of Trump’s handling of the economy even before the conflict with Iran began, and fighting there has derailed Trump’s messaging, as the low gas prices he once bragged about are now surging and stocks that had set record highs have slipped.Employers also cut an unexpectedly high 92,000 jobs in February, and revisions trimmed another 69,000 jobs from December and January payrolls — which the White House had previously hailed as “blockbuster.”None of that has stopped Trump from continuing to insist the country is booming — and blaming the Democrats for everything else.“They’re the one that caused the problem,” he told a House Republican meeting in Florida on Monday. “But we’re really bringing down prices big.”Democrats offer a sharp contrast to Trump’s depiction of the nation, arguing that costs remain high for many Americans more than a year into his second term and that families are still struggling under his policies.



Trump’s affordability tour meets his opposition to Massie



After Democrats won the Virginia and New Jersey governors’ races in November, the White House announced that Trump would travel the country to show that he’s taking kitchen table issues seriously and reassure voters nervous about still-rising prices and economic growth.Since then, the president has made stops in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina and Texas — though his speeches sometimes have been more focused on his own political grievances than his plans to try to help lower everyday costs around the country.This trip, however, marks the first time this primary cycle that Trump has sought to keep promises to punish members of his own party who oppose him on key issues. The president has endorsed Ed Gallrein, a farmer, businessman and retired Navy SEAL, who is running against Massie in Kentucky’s Republican primary on May 19. Trump and Gallrein will appear together on Wednesday.Massie is an outspoken Trump critic who opposed the White House-backed tax and spending measure and bucked Trump by pushing to have files related to the sex trafficking investigations into Jeffrey Epstein released. He’s also opposed the U.S. strike on Venezuela that toppled then-President Nicolás Maduro and, most recently, the war in Iran.“This isn’t America First,” Massie posted on X on Sunday, blaming the war for causing gas prices to jump.



—Will Weissert, Associated Press ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Wed, 11 Mar 2026 14:00:11 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Trump, headed, Ohio, and, Kentucky, downplay, Iran, war’s, effect, U.S., economy</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Securing funding for a small business</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/securing-funding-for-a-small-business</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/securing-funding-for-a-small-business</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ By Abby Hardoon on Small Business UK - Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs


The post Securing funding for a small business appeared first on Small Business UK. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://smallbusiness-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2017/03/AdobeStock_51593524-scaled.jpeg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Wed, 11 Mar 2026 14:00:09 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Securing, funding, for, small, business</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>What are the funding options for hospitality businesses?</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/what-are-the-funding-options-for-hospitality-businesses</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/what-are-the-funding-options-for-hospitality-businesses</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ By Lucy Wayment on Small Business UK - Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs


Hospitality businesses have faced a number of challenges in the last couple of years. Find out what funding and support is available
The post What are the funding options for hospitality businesses? appeared first on Small Business UK. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Wed, 11 Mar 2026 14:00:08 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>What, are, the, funding, options, for, hospitality, businesses</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Best payment apps for small businesses</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/best-payment-apps-for-small-businesses</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/best-payment-apps-for-small-businesses</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ By Dom Walbanke on Small Business UK - Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs


With the number of payment methods increasing, your small business needs to be able to accommodate with all-in-one payment apps
The post Best payment apps for small businesses appeared first on Small Business UK. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Wed, 11 Mar 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Best, payment, apps, for, small, businesses</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Judicial review challenge launched over Home Office £40,000 voluntary departure payment scheme</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/judicial-review-challenge-launched-over-home-office-40000-voluntary-departure-payment-scheme</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/judicial-review-challenge-launched-over-home-office-40000-voluntary-departure-payment-scheme</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
A legal challenge has been initiated against the UK government over a pilot scheme reportedly offering payments of up to £40,000 to certain failed asylum seekers who voluntarily leave the country.
Read more: 
Judicial review challenge launched over Home Office £40,000 voluntary departure payment scheme ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Bell-Hotel-Epping-scaled.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sun, 08 Mar 2026 14:00:11 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Judicial, review, challenge, launched, over, Home, Office, £40, 000, voluntary, departure, payment, scheme</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Glasgow opens new Health Innovation Hub to accelerate life sciences innovation</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/glasgow-opens-new-health-innovation-hub-to-accelerate-life-sciences-innovation</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/glasgow-opens-new-health-innovation-hub-to-accelerate-life-sciences-innovation</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
The new Health Innovation Hub in Glasgow has officially opened, creating a major life sciences facility supporting precision medicine, digital health innovation and clinical research.
Read more: 
Glasgow opens new Health Innovation Hub to accelerate life sciences innovation ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/HUB005.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sun, 08 Mar 2026 14:00:10 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Glasgow, opens, new, Health, Innovation, Hub, accelerate, life, sciences, innovation</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Frasers Group builds 6% stake in struggling Puma</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/frasers-group-builds-6-stake-in-struggling-puma</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/frasers-group-builds-6-stake-in-struggling-puma</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group has acquired a 5.77% stake in Puma, becoming the brand’s second-largest shareholder as the German sportswear giant battles losses and declining sales.
Read more: 
Frasers Group builds 6% stake in struggling Puma ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/shutterstock_2481186763.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sun, 08 Mar 2026 14:00:09 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Frasers, Group, builds, stake, struggling, Puma</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>John Lewis to sell via ChatGPT and TikTok in youth push</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/john-lewis-to-sell-via-chatgpt-and-tiktok-in-youth-push</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/john-lewis-to-sell-via-chatgpt-and-tiktok-in-youth-push</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
John Lewis plans to sell products through ChatGPT and TikTok Shop as part of a multimillion-pound AI-powered shopping strategy aimed at attracting younger customers.
Read more: 
John Lewis to sell via ChatGPT and TikTok in youth push ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/John_Lewis_TikTok.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sun, 08 Mar 2026 14:00:09 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>John, Lewis, sell, via, ChatGPT, and, TikTok, youth, push</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>UK taxpayer to fund more than £1bn of infrastructure for Universal’s Bedford theme park</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/uk-taxpayer-to-fund-more-than-1bn-of-infrastructure-for-universals-bedford-theme-park</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/uk-taxpayer-to-fund-more-than-1bn-of-infrastructure-for-universals-bedford-theme-park</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
The UK government will invest more than £1bn in transport and infrastructure for the new Universal Studios Bedford theme park, expected to boost the economy by £50bn.
Read more: 
UK taxpayer to fund more than £1bn of infrastructure for Universal’s Bedford theme park ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Universal-Studios-Bedford.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sun, 08 Mar 2026 14:00:08 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>taxpayer, fund, more, than, £1bn, infrastructure, for, Universal’s, Bedford, theme, park</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>OpenAI robotics lead Caitlin Kalinowski quits in response to Pentagon deal</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/openai-robotics-lead-caitlin-kalinowski-quits-in-response-to-pentagon-deal</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/openai-robotics-lead-caitlin-kalinowski-quits-in-response-to-pentagon-deal</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Hardware executive Caitlin Kalinowski announced today that in response to OpenAI&#039;s controversial agreement with the Department of Defense, she’s resigned from her role leading the company&#039;s robotics team. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/GettyImages-2206295463.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sun, 08 Mar 2026 14:00:06 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>OpenAI, robotics, lead, Caitlin, Kalinowski, quits, response, Pentagon, deal</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Grammarly’s ‘expert review’ is just missing the actual experts</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/grammarlys-expert-review-is-just-missing-the-actual-experts</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/grammarlys-expert-review-is-just-missing-the-actual-experts</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ A recently-added feature in Grammarly purports to improve users’ writing with help from the world&#039;s great writers and thinkers — and some tech journalists, too. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/brain-brain.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sun, 08 Mar 2026 14:00:06 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Grammarly’s, ‘expert, review’, just, missing, the, actual, experts</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Google just gave Sundar Pichai a $692M pay package</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/google-just-gave-sundar-pichai-a-692m-pay-package</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/google-just-gave-sundar-pichai-a-692m-pay-package</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Most of it is tied to performance, including new stock incentives linked to Waymo and Wing, its drone delivery venture. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/GettyImages-2215577882.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sun, 08 Mar 2026 14:00:06 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Google, just, gave, Sundar, Pichai, 692M, pay, package</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Push for $40 smartphones builds momentum, but still faces cost hurdles</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/push-for-40-smartphones-builds-momentum-but-still-faces-cost-hurdles</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/push-for-40-smartphones-builds-momentum-but-still-faces-cost-hurdles</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ A coalition of telecom operators and device makers is pushing $40 smartphones to bring up to 20 million people online, but rising component costs threaten the plan. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/market-customer-1232017328.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sun, 08 Mar 2026 14:00:05 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Push, for, 40, smartphones, builds, momentum, but, still, faces, cost, hurdles</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>A roadmap for AI, if anyone will listen</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/a-roadmap-for-ai-if-anyone-will-listen</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/a-roadmap-for-ai-if-anyone-will-listen</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ The Pro-Human Declaration was finalized before last week&#039;s Pentagon-Anthropic standoff, but the collision of the two events wasn’t lost on anyone involved. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-871198558.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sun, 08 Mar 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>roadmap, for, AI, anyone, will, listen</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>3 signs your meetings have a culture problem</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/3-signs-your-meetings-have-a-culture-problem</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/3-signs-your-meetings-have-a-culture-problem</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Meetings in corporate America are broken—and only breaking down more. Globally, people sit in three times as many meetings as they did before the pandemic, 60% of meetings are ad hoc, rather than scheduled, and 71% of people regularly multitask through them.



When poorly-run meetings become the norm, people begin to see them as a time with little value. But meetings are an opportunity to shape organizational culture, and not enough leaders are taking advantage of it. 



Most high-performing teams build strong relationships, show care for the whole person, have open and honest communications, listen to each other, clarify processes, and collaborate. These are all behaviors anyone can exhibit in meetings, but many don’t consider prioritizing them. 



3 signs your meetings need a reset



If you sit in a meeting, you see what the company culture is truly like. Sadly, I repeatedly see three main signs that your meetings have a culture problem.




Your meetings are draining, not energizing. According to research I’ve conducted, losing control over your schedule is one of the top drains on a leader’s energy. Overbooked schedules and ad hoc meetings in particular can be disruptive to the work you need to get done.



Your meetings are transactional, not relational. Transactional meetings focus on information download without any attention to connection or collaboration. A leader monologues over dense slides, there’s minimal discussion, and everyone else has their laptops out to multitask. Attendees are checked out and disengaged, and they take nothing away.



Your meetings have toxic positivity, not candid communication. Toxic positivity looks like discussions where leaders report that projects, initiatives, or systems are on track—even when things are breaking. The result is that no one discusses what truly needs to be handled to address issues.  




Sound familiar? You may need to redesign your meetings. Leaders can pick up three key actions to reshape their meetings—and reshape their team culture in the process.



1. Intentionally energize meetings 



For in-person meetings, get creative and change the physical meeting environment. If you are in a conference room, move all the chairs into a circle with no table or laptops. Hold meetings in different places, including outside. Have standing or one-on-one walking meetings. 



For virtual meetings, start the meeting with a check-in. What’s one thing that has energized you today? Speaking about energy infuses the meeting environment with energy.



2. Prioritize connection at the start



Dig in more with meaningful ways to ask the team about how they’re feeling. Consider these questions:




How is everyone feeling on a scale of 1 to 10?



What brought you joy recently?



What area do you need the team’s help on?




3. Establish meeting agreements



Before the meeting, include a clear statement in the invitation about what your meeting is for: “Digging into the KPIs for our upcoming proposal,” “working through feedback on our monthly client check-in,” and “discussing the outcomes of our project delivery, along with what could work better next time” are all great places to start.



When the meeting arrives, the facilitator can check for alignment and establish meeting agreements. Try these questions: 




How do we want to show up to get the most out of our meeting? 



How could we achieve the purpose we just discussed?



What agreements can we make to stay engaged throughout the meeting? 




The questions create a container of candid communication during the meeting. They invite everyone to be present, communicate openly, and be honest. Once leaders recognize that meetings reflect team culture, they can shift their attention to how each meeting can create not just a high-performance team, but a high-performance culture. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Sat, 07 Mar 2026 14:00:09 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>signs, your, meetings, have, culture, problem</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Daylight saving time starts Sunday. Here’s 11 things you can do to adjust to losing an hour of sleep</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/daylight-saving-timestarts-sunday-heres-11-things-you-can-do-to-adjust-to-losing-an-hour-of-sleep</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/daylight-saving-timestarts-sunday-heres-11-things-you-can-do-to-adjust-to-losing-an-hour-of-sleep</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ As clocks march ahead and daylight saving time begins, there can be anxiety around losing an hour of sleep and how to adjust to this change.



Usually, an hour seems like an insignificant amount of time, but even this minimal loss can cause problems. There can be significant health repercussions of this forcible shift in the body clock.



Springing forward is usually harder than falling backward. Why?



The natural internal body clock rhythm in people tends to be slightly longer than 24 hours, which means that every day we tend to delay our sleep schedules. Thus, “springing forward” goes against the body’s natural rhythm. It is similar to a mild case of jet lag caused by traveling east—in which you lose time and have trouble falling asleep at an earlier hour that night.



Even though it’s technically just one hour lost due to the time change, the amount of sleep deprivation due to disrupted sleep rhythm lasts for many days and often throws people off schedule, leading to cumulative sleep loss.



We lead a sleep evaluation center at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and regularly see patients who are dealing with sleep loss and internal clocks that are not synchronized with external time. Our experience has shown us that it’s important to prepare, as much as possible, for the time shift that occurs every spring.



Consequences of sleep loss vary



Many studies have demonstrated that there is an increased risk of heart attack, stroke and high blood pressure associated with sleep deprivation. Workplace injuries increase and so do automobile accidents. Adolescents often find it harder to wake up in time to get to school and may have difficulties with attention and school performance or worsening of mental health problems.



Is there something to be done to help to deal with this loss of sleep and change of body clock timing?



Of course. The first step is increasing awareness and using the power of knowledge to combat this issue. Here are some quick tips to prepare yourself for the upcoming weekend.




Do not start with a “sleep debt.” Ensure that you and, if you’re a parent, your child get adequate sleep on a regular basis leading up to the time change each year. Most adults need anywhere from seven to nine hours of sleep daily to perform adequately. Children have varying requirements for sleep depending on their age.



Prepare for the time change. Going to bed—and for parents, putting your kids to bed – 15 to 20 minutes earlier each night in the week preceding the time change is ideal. Having an earlier wake time can help you get to sleep earlier. Try to wake up an hour earlier than is customary on Saturday, the day before the time change. If you have not been able to make any changes to your sleep schedule in advance, then keep a very consistent wake time on weekdays as well as weekends to adjust to the time change more easily.



Use light to your advantage. Light is the strongest cue for adjusting the internal body clock. Expose yourself to bright light upon waking as you start getting up earlier in the week before daylight saving time. If you live in a place where natural light is limited in the morning after clocks change, use bright artificial light to signal your body clock to wake up earlier. As the season progresses, this will be less of an issue as the sun rises earlier in the day.



At night, minimize exposure to bright light and especially the blue light emitted by the screens of electronic media. This light can shift your body rhythm and signal your internal clock to wake up later the next day. If your devices permit, set their screens to dim and emit less blue light in the evening.



In some geographic locations, it might be helpful to have room-darkening curtains at bedtime, depending on how much sunlight your room gets at bedtime. Be sure to open the curtains in the morning to allow the natural morning light to set your sleep-wake cycle.



Carefully plan your day and evening activities. The night before the time change, set yourself up for a good night’s sleep by incorporating relaxing activities that can help you wind down, such as reading a book or meditating.



Incorporate exercise in the morning or early in the day. Take a walk, even if it is just around the house or your office during the day.



Consider starting with a protein-heavy breakfast, since sleep deprivation can increase appetite and craving for high-carbohydrate foods and sugars.



Stop using caffeine after noon. Use of caffeine too late in the day can lead to trouble falling asleep and even disrupted sleep.



Adults, decline that wine at bedtime. Wine and other kinds of alcohol can also disturb sleep.



If you’re a parent or caregiver, try to be patient with your kids as they adjust to the new times. Sleep deprivation affects the entire family, and some kids have a harder time adjusting to the time change than others. You may notice more frequent meltdowns, irritability and loss of attention and focus. Set aside more quiet, electronic media-free time in the evening. Consider a brief 20-minute nap in the early afternoon for younger children who are having a difficult time dealing with this change.




[Over 150,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletters to understand the world. Sign up today.]



Prioritizing sleep pays off in the short term and over the years. A good night’s sleep is a necessary ingredient for a productive and fulfilling day all year long.



This is an updated version of an article originally published on March 7, 2019.



Deepa Burman is a co-director of the Pediatric Sleep Evaluation Center and an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh.



Hiren Muzumdar is a director of the Pediatric Sleep Evaluation Center at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh at the University of Pittsburgh.



This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Sat, 07 Mar 2026 14:00:09 +0000</pubDate>
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<item>
<title>States with the most—and least—housing market inventory heading into spring 2026</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/states-with-the-mostand-leasthousing-market-inventory-heading-into-spring-2026</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/states-with-the-mostand-leasthousing-market-inventory-heading-into-spring-2026</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambert’s ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter.



When assessing home price momentum, ResiClub believes it’s important to monitor active listings and months of supply. If active listings start to rapidly increase as homes remain on the market for longer periods, it may indicate pricing softness or weakness. Conversely, a rapid decline in active listings beyond seasonality could suggest a market that is heating up.



Since the pandemic housing boom fizzled out in 2022, the national power dynamic has slowly been shifting directionally from sellers to buyers. Of course, across the country, that shift has varied.



Generally speaking, local housing markets where active inventory has jumped above pre-pandemic 2019 levels have experienced softer home price growth (or outright price declines) over the past 36 months. Conversely, local housing markets where active inventory remains far below pre-pandemic 2019 levels have, generally speaking, experienced, relatively speaking, more resilient home price growth over the past 42 months.



Where is national active inventory headed?



National active listings are on the rise on a year-over-year basis (+7.9% between February 28, 2025, and February 28, 2026). This indicates that homebuyers have gained some leverage in many parts of the country over the past year. Some seller’s markets have turned into balanced markets, and more balanced markets have turned into buyer’s markets.



Nationally, we’re still below pre-pandemic 2019 inventory levels (-17.0% below February 2019), and some resale markets—in particular, chunks of the Midwest and Northeast—still remain, relatively speaking, tight-ish.







While national active inventory is still up year over year, the pace of growth has slowed in recent months as softening has slowed.



Here are the total number of February inventory/active listings over the past decade, according to Realtor.com:




February 2017 -&gt; 1,151,120 ?



February 2018 -&gt; 1,045,153 ?



February 2019 -&gt; 1,102,660 ? 



February 2020 -&gt; 928,343 ?



February 2021 -&gt; 464,919 ? (Pandemic housing boom overheating)



February 2022 -&gt; 346,511 ? (Pandemic housing boom overheating)



February 2023 -&gt; 579,264 ? 



February 2024 -&gt; 664,716 ? 



February 2025 -&gt; 847,825 ?



February 2026 -&gt; 914,860 ?




If we maintain the current year-over-year pace of inventory growth (+67,035 homes for sale), we’d have 981,895 active inventory listings come February 2027. (That’s not a prediction—I’m just showing what the math looks like if that pace continued.)



Below is the year-over-year active inventory percentage change by state.







While active housing inventory is rising in most markets on a year-over-year basis, the pace of growth continues to decelerate across much of the country (see the side-by-side maps below). In fact, Florida—home to many of the weakest regional housing markets over the past two years—is now seeing active inventory edge down a little, year over year (-4%).



LEFT: Year-over-year active inventory shift between February 2024 and February 2025



RIGHT: Year-over-year active inventory shift between February 2025 and February 2026







And while active housing inventory is rising in most markets on a year-over-year basis, some markets still remain tight-ish (although it’s loosening in those places, too).



As ResiClub has been documenting, both active resale and new homes for sale remain the most limited across huge swaths of the Midwest and Northeast. That’s where home sellers in the spring are likely, relatively speaking, to have more power than their peers in many Southern markets.



In contrast, active housing inventory for sale has neared or surpassed pre-pandemic 2019 levels in many parts of the Sun Belt and Mountain West, including metro-area housing markets such as Austin and Punta Gorda, Florida.



Many of these areas saw major price surges during the pandemic housing boom, with home prices getting stretched when compared with local incomes. As pandemic-driven domestic migration slowed and mortgage rates rose, markets like Punta Gorda and Austin faced challenges, relying on local income levels to support frothy home prices.



This softening trend was accelerated further by an abundance of new home supply in the Sun Belt. Builders are often willing to lower prices or offer affordability incentives (if they have the margins to do so) to maintain sales in a shifted market, which also has a cooling effect on the resale market. Some buyers, who would have previously considered existing homes, are now opting for new homes with more favorable deals—which then puts some additional upward pressure on resale inventory.







At the end of February 2026, nine states were above pre-pandemic 2019 active inventory levels: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Nebraska, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Washington. (The District of Columbia—which we left out of this table below—is back above pre-pandemic 2019 active inventory levels, too. Softness in D.C. proper predates the current admin’s job cuts.)







Big picture: Over the past few years, we’ve observed a softening across many housing markets, as strained affordability has tempered the fervor of a market that was unsustainably hot during the pandemic housing boom and incomes have had a chance to slowly catch up. While home prices are falling some in pockets of the Sun Belt, a big chunk of Northeast and Midwest markets are still eking out a little year-over-year appreciation. Nationally aggregated home prices are pretty close to flat, year over year.







Below is another version of the table above—but this one includes every month since January 2017.







If you’d like to further examine the monthly state inventory figures, use the interactive below.



Over the coming months, let’s keep an eye on Florida, which has now entered its seasonal window when its active inventory typically begins to rise again. (So far, the seasonal jump has been tame.) To better understand softness and weakness across Florida over the past couple of years, read this ResiClub PRO report.



Click here to view an interactive/searchable version of the chart below



 ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Sat, 07 Mar 2026 14:00:09 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
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<item>
<title>The madness before March Madness: Cinderella teams are born in this week’s conference tournaments</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/the-madness-before-march-madness-cinderella-teams-are-born-in-this-weeks-conference-tournaments</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/the-madness-before-march-madness-cinderella-teams-are-born-in-this-weeks-conference-tournaments</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ There are 365 teams in Division I men’s college basketball; 363 in women’s college basketball. Only 68 qualify for the NCAA Tournament on each side, and many of those 68 teams in each bracket have already conquered the madness of March.



America is enthralled by the NCAA Tournament each year, picking brackets, slacking off during work hours to watch the games, wrapped up in the high-stakes, single-elimination basketball where every loss means the end of seasons and careers, and every win is a magical tale to be told for years to come.



There’s more where that came from.



Having begun on March 2 and running all the way up to the Selection Show on the 15th, there is high-stakes, single-elimination men’s college basketball every single day. While the numbers whittle down from 68 to leave us with one team standing over the three weeks of NCAA Tournament action, the two weeks prior bring us from nearly 365 all the way down to 68. And that’s just on the men’s side.



Each of Division I’s 31 conferences do it slightly differently, but they all award an automatic bid to the Big Dance for their postseason champion.



Every low seed has a story



You may not think much about the 14, 15, and 16 seeds that you pick to get walked over in the first round by traditional powerhouses, but behind each of those games is a deeply fascinating story that culminated in a conference tournament championship.



Southern Illinois University Edwardsville lost 78-40 to top-seeded Houston in last year’s NCAA Tournament. SIU’s exit may have seemed brutally unceremonious, but for head coach Brian Barone, it was the moment he’d been waiting for his entire life. When Barone accepted the head coaching job in 2019, he hung a framed pair of scissors over the locker room door, symbolizing the goal of winning the program’s first ever Division I conference championship and earning a trip to the NCAA Tournament.



He built the team from consistent cellar dwellers in the Ohio Valley Conference into a respectable threat, and finally broke through with his best season in 2024-25, led by four-year player Ray’Sean Taylor.



After winning the OVC Championship, Barone and his players broke the frame and cut down the net with those scissors, an emotional journey that encapsulates the spirit of why America falls in love with March Madness.



A year prior, Wagner College won road games against the three top finishers in the Northeast Conference to clinch one of the most improbable conference tournament championships in recent memory. The Seahawks were bruised and battered by injury all year long, down to just seven scholarship players available for the entire tournament, but defeated three teams that it went a combined 1-5 against during the regular season.



No second chances



Like game-winners and crazy finishes? We’ve got plenty of those. Everybody is laying everything on the line. No second chances.



And for these schools, a trip to the NCAA Tournament isn’t just a banner to hang. It’s an opportunity for institutional growth in a landscape where that has become nearly impossible to accomplish. 



With the recent changes in college athletics due to revenue sharing and NIL, the gap between the haves and have-nots has grown even wider. It’s becoming increasingly difficult financially to sustain Division I athletics, but March Madness provides the opportunity for that. Each game that a team plays in the NCAA Tournament earns their conference a payout over the course of the next six years, known as an NCAA Tournament unit, that was worth a reported $2 million in 2024 for a total payout pool in excess of $200 million. The conference then splits that money between its schools.



In 2025, the NCAA paid out units for the women’s tournament for the first time, a step in the right direction even if the reported total payout pool is much smaller, only around $15 million.



But the potential financial gains of a March Madness appearance go beyond just the NCAA Tournament units. It gives your school two hours in front of a national television audience to market itself. Even in a loss, the airtime gives the school exposure. But a win? That could change everything. 



Florida Gulf Coast is perhaps the greatest example of this, as their 2013 run to the Sweet 16 drove a more than 25% surge in applications.



It never would’ve happened if the Eagles didn’t end North Florida, Stetson, and Mercer’s seasons in the Atlantic Sun Tournament.



Two weeks that change lives



Ask any mid-major player or coach—and trust me, I have—what their goal is for a given season, and you’ll always hear them say to reach March Madness. These two weeks are their opportunity to do that. It changes coaches’ lives—earns them opportunities to get higher-paying jobs—and does the same for players in the NIL era. 



But for the senior players who have passed up the opportunity to play at other schools for more money (Quinnipiac star Amarri Monroe, for example) this week is the chance to reap the rewards for that loyalty. It’s crushing to see these players lose, but exhilarating to see others win.



All of the emotions that you associate with March Madness are on display tenfold in championship week. Just because you can’t point to either school on a map doesn’t mean that people don’t pour their heart and soul into it for the opportunity to play for a national championship.



Nearly 300 teams don’t make March Madness. For them, it’s raw and real.



But 31 teams—26 in mid-major conferences—will celebrate championships over the next two weeks. They’ll celebrate the culmination of years of work. And if there’s one thing we love as Americans, it’s watching as many other people succeed in their life’s mission. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Sat, 07 Mar 2026 14:00:09 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>The, madness, before, March, Madness:, Cinderella, teams, are, born, this, week’s, conference, tournaments</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Why this iconic scotch brand is making a whisky for bourbon drinkers</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/why-this-iconic-scotch-brand-is-making-a-whisky-for-bourbon-drinkers</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/why-this-iconic-scotch-brand-is-making-a-whisky-for-bourbon-drinkers</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Scotch powerhouse Johnnie Walker recently launched the first permanent addition to its main range in 15 years—and it’s aimed at bourbon drinkers.



Called Johnnie Walker Black Cask, the new blended Scotch whisky is aged entirely in American white oak barrels that once held bourbon, a choice meant to make the whisky feel more familiar and approachable, especially for U.S. drinkers who may be new to scotch. (If it’s from Ireland and the U.S., it’s spelled “whiskey.” If it’s from  Scotland and most other countries, it’s “whisky” without the “e.”)



The launch arrives as parent company Diageo looks to strengthen its position in the U.S. at a time when spirits sales have softened and consumers are spending more carefully. 



What the barrel choice means in plain terms



If you are new to whiskey, the barrel a whiskey ages in matters almost as much as the liquid itself. Black Cask whisky is aged only in American oak barrels that previously held bourbon, a choice that tends to create flavors many U.S. drinkers already recognize, such as vanilla and caramel, characterized by a gentle sweetness.



Emma Walker, Johnnie Walker’s master blender—the person responsible for shaping the flavor of Johnnie Walker whiskies—says the idea grew out of curiosity rather than a desire to overhaul the brand.



“It’s certainly a different approach, but it reflects the Johnnie Walker spirit of experimentation—we are always pushing at the boundaries of what is possible in whisky,” Walker (no relation to the company’s founder) tells Fast Company. “When crafting Johnnie Walker Black Cask, we were inspired by Johnnie Walker Black Label, drawing on its depth of flavor and character, and the team used this as our springboard to explore and craft a bold new expression.”



While Johnnie Walker Black Label already uses some American oak barrels, it also relies on other types of casks. Black Cask removes that mix and focuses only on one barrel style.



“Like Black Cask, ex-bourbon American oak is used in Johnnie Walker Black Label, but not exclusively,” Walker says. “We started with some of the most expressive whiskies from the heart of Johnnie Walker Black Label, choosing casks that unlock a new level of depth, warmth, and richness.”



That focus changes how the whisky tastes.



“Aging in these barrels allowed us to find that sweet and smooth character we’ve achieved with Johnnie Walker Black Cask, leveraging those existing vanilla notes in Johnnie Walker Black Label to dial up exciting additional flavors like toasted marshmallow, toffee, and caramel,” she says.



What stayed the same



If that name sounds sort of familiar, it’s because Johnnie Walker already sells a whisky called Black Label. For people familiar with Johnnie Walker Black Label, Black Cask is not meant to feel unfamiliar or intimidating. Walker says the foundation of the whisky remains intact.



[Photo: Johnnie Walker]



“When I describe Johnnie Walker Black Cask as coming from ‘the heart of Johnnie Walker Black Label,’ I’m talking about protecting the signature DNA that makes Johnnie Walker Black Label instantly recognizable—its balance, depth, and unmistakable smoky-sweet character,” she notes.



“That meant preserving the core structure of the blend: the layered Speyside fruit and sweetness, the creamy malt richness, and, of course, that distinctive west coast smoke that gives it length and backbone. Those elements are nonnegotiable,” Walker says.



Instead of changing everything, the team chose to highlight certain flavors more clearly. “What we explored was how to amplify certain aspects through cask influence, particularly by leaning into deeper, more intense oak character and caramelized sweetness, while ensuring the smoke and fruit still play in perfect balance,” she adds.



Why this one is sticking around



Black Cask is being introduced as a permanent bottle, not a seasonal release. That decision comes as Diageo deals with uneven results across its global business.  



U.S.-listed shares of Diego PLC (NYSE: DEO) experienced their worst trading day since 1997 on February 25, dropping over 12% after the company announced a significant dividend cut, lowered its fiscal 2026 guidance, and reported weak results for the first half of the fiscal year ending December 31, 2025.



The stock was trading at well over $200 a share during the early pandemic, when lockdown orders spurred a rise in drinking, but it closed at just under $82 a share on Friday.



In the U.S., pressure on household budgets are making consumers more cautious about spirits purchases. Walker says Black Cask was created with those drinkers in mind. A 750-milliliter bottle will set you back $34.99.



“While this release is an innovation, I think it speaks to the American whiskey palette in a way that will ensure continued enjoyment,” she says. “There’s more they have in common than what sets them apart.”



A practical move in a careful market



Producing a whisky like Black Cask at global scale requires planning, especially as Diageo works to improve cash flow and reduce debt. 



“Creating whiskies for a brand of the size of Johnnie Walker is both a blessing and a challenge,” Walker says. “Small adjustments at the start can create bigger knock-on effects toward the end, so the stock management of these ex-bourbon casks became part of the blending artistry.



“The core tension is always between balancing the brand’s rich history with its spirit of progress and innovation,” she continues.



CEO Dave Lewis has said Diageo’s focus now is on making its brands more relevant and competitive as consumers tighten budgets.



Seen through that lens, Black Cask is meant to feel familiar rather than flashy. It offers an easy entry point into scotch for new drinkers while giving longtime fans a slightly different way to enjoy a well-known brand. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Sat, 07 Mar 2026 14:00:09 +0000</pubDate>
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<title>Opening a business bank account – how&#45;to and best accounts</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/opening-a-business-bank-account-how-to-and-best-accounts</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/opening-a-business-bank-account-how-to-and-best-accounts</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ By Ben Lobel on Small Business UK - Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs


In this piece, we&#039;ll look at how to go about opening a business account in the UK and what services are out there
The post Opening a business bank account – how-to and best accounts appeared first on Small Business UK. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Sat, 07 Mar 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Opening, business, bank, account, –, how-to, and, best, accounts</media:keywords>
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<title>10 best business insurance providers in the UK</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/10-best-business-insurance-providers-in-the-uk</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/10-best-business-insurance-providers-in-the-uk</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ By Anna Jordan on Small Business UK - Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs


UK business insurers can cover you for all manner of incidents. Check out these 10 business insurance providers to get started 
The post 10 best business insurance providers in the UK appeared first on Small Business UK. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Sat, 07 Mar 2026 14:00:06 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>best, business, insurance, providers, the</media:keywords>
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<title>UK shop price inflation slows to 1.1% in February as retailers cut prices</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/uk-shop-price-inflation-slows-to-11-in-february-as-retailers-cut-prices</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/uk-shop-price-inflation-slows-to-11-in-february-as-retailers-cut-prices</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
UK shop price inflation eased to 1.1% in February, driven by discounting in fashion and beauty and slower food price growth, according to BRC and NielsenIQ.
Read more: 
UK shop price inflation slows to 1.1% in February as retailers cut prices ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Wed, 04 Mar 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>shop, price, inflation, slows, 1.1, February, retailers, cut, prices</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>CMA investigates Hilton, IHG and Marriott over alleged hotel data sharing via STR</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/cma-investigates-hilton-ihg-and-marriott-over-alleged-hotel-data-sharing-via-str</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/cma-investigates-hilton-ihg-and-marriott-over-alleged-hotel-data-sharing-via-str</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
The UK Competition and Markets Authority is investigating Hilton, InterContinental Hotels and Marriott over alleged sharing of competitively sensitive data via STR, owned by CoStar.
Read more: 
CMA investigates Hilton, IHG and Marriott over alleged hotel data sharing via STR ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/shutterstock_2723830107.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Wed, 04 Mar 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>CMA, investigates, Hilton, IHG, and, Marriott, over, alleged, hotel, data, sharing, via, STR</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Bank of England rate cuts at risk in 2026 as Middle East conflict sparks inflation fears</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/bank-of-england-rate-cuts-at-risk-in-2026-as-middle-east-conflict-sparks-inflation-fears</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/bank-of-england-rate-cuts-at-risk-in-2026-as-middle-east-conflict-sparks-inflation-fears</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Experts warn Bank of England base rate cuts could be delayed in 2026 after Middle East conflict triggered surging gas prices, rising gilt yields and fresh inflation concerns.
Read more: 
Bank of England rate cuts at risk in 2026 as Middle East conflict sparks inflation fears ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Wed, 04 Mar 2026 14:00:06 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Bank, England, rate, cuts, risk, 2026, Middle, East, conflict, sparks, inflation, fears</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Spring Statement 2026: Reeves downgraded growth as business leaders demand urgent action</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/spring-statement-2026-reeves-downgraded-growth-as-business-leaders-demand-urgent-action</link>
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<description><![CDATA[ 
Rachel Reeves’ Spring Statement 2026 downgraded UK growth forecasts as Middle East tensions fuel inflation fears. Business leaders warn stability rhetoric must be matched with urgent economic action.
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Spring Statement 2026: Reeves downgraded growth as business leaders demand urgent action ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Reeves_Spring_Budget.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Wed, 04 Mar 2026 14:00:05 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Spring, Statement, 2026:, Reeves, downgraded, growth, business, leaders, demand, urgent, action</media:keywords>
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<title>RIT Capital Partners’ SpaceX stake tops £100m as Elon Musk valuation soars</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/rit-capital-partners-spacex-stake-tops-100m-as-elon-musk-valuation-soars</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/rit-capital-partners-spacex-stake-tops-100m-as-elon-musk-valuation-soars</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
RIT Capital Partners says its SpaceX stake has surged to £102.3m after Elon Musk’s rocket company hit a $1.25tn valuation, boosting returns at the Rothschild-backed investment trust.
Read more: 
RIT Capital Partners’ SpaceX stake tops £100m as Elon Musk valuation soars ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Wed, 04 Mar 2026 14:00:05 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>RIT, Capital, Partners’, SpaceX, stake, tops, £100m, Elon, Musk, valuation, soars</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Alibaba’s Qwen tech lead steps down after major AI push</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/alibabas-qwen-tech-lead-steps-down-after-major-ai-push</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/alibabas-qwen-tech-lead-steps-down-after-major-ai-push</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Reactions rippled through Alibaba&#039;s Qwen team after tech lead Junyang Lin stepped down following a major model launch. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/alibaba-qwen-ai.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Wed, 04 Mar 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Alibaba’s, Qwen, tech, lead, steps, down, after, major, push</media:keywords>
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<description><![CDATA[ Security researchers say exploits used by governments to hack into iPhones have been found to be used by cybercriminals. They warned of an emerging market for &quot;secondhand&quot; exploits. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/apple-mac-iphone-security.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Wed, 04 Mar 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>suite, government, hacking, tools, targeting, iPhones, now, being, used, cybercriminals</media:keywords>
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<description><![CDATA[ Some AI founders are using a novel valuation mechanism to manufacture unicorn status. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Wed, 04 Mar 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Why, startups, are, selling, the, same, equity, two, different, prices</media:keywords>
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<title>Eight Sleep raises $50M at $1.5B valuation</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/eight-sleep-raises-50m-at-15b-valuation</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/eight-sleep-raises-50m-at-15b-valuation</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Eight Sleep said it was free-cash-flow positive in 2025, and plans to use the new funding for new products, global expansions, and clinical validation. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Wed, 04 Mar 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Eight, Sleep, raises, 50M, 1.5B, valuation</media:keywords>
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<title>Who needs data centers in space when they can float offshore?</title>
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<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/who-needs-data-centers-in-space-when-they-can-float-offshore</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Offshore wind developer Aikido will deploy a small data center beneath a floating offshore wind turbine later this year. ]]></description>
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<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Who, needs, data, centers, space, when, they, can, float, offshore</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>What was it like the last time the U.S. hosted the World Cup? ‘Men in Blazers’ creator Roger Bennett recalls his experience</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/what-was-it-like-the-last-time-the-us-hosted-the-world-cup-men-in-blazers-creator-roger-bennett-recalls-his-experience</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/what-was-it-like-the-last-time-the-us-hosted-the-world-cup-men-in-blazers-creator-roger-bennett-recalls-his-experience</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Roger Bennett is the witty and charismatic co-host of the popular “Men in Blazers” soccer media network. Born in Liverpool, England, he moved to the United States and has since helped popularize the sport in this country through podcasts, television shows, and books, including his best-selling memoir Reborn in the USA. His new book, WE ARE THE WORLD (CUP), is a personal history of what he calls “the world’s greatest sporting event.” In the following excerpt, he chronicles his experience of the 1994 World Cup, the last event held in the U.S prior to this summer’s tournament. 1994 was also the year Bennett moved to the U.S.



The 1994 World Cup brought football to the United States of America. And also me. Straight after university, I moved to Chicago, finally completing a three-generational odyssey. According to our family myth, my “great-grandfather the butcher” had originally intended to move to Chicago, the great “Hog Capital of the World,” when he boarded a boat in Odessa and headed for the promised land at the turn of the twentieth century. When that boat docked to refuel in Liverpool, he, and several hundred of the other, clearly lower IQ travelers, saw the three tall buildings on the Merseyside skyline, believed they were in New York City and disembarked.



Eighty years and two generations later, I completed my family’s journey. When the plane landed at O’Hare Airport, I felt the urge to mark the weight of the moment and dropped to my knees dramatically on the tarmac, a move I had seen Pope John Paul II execute many times upon arrival in a foreign land. I was momentarily overcome by a surge of adrenaline but, unsure what to do next, quickly became self-conscious as the other passengers pushed their way impatiently around me with their carry-ons. I peeled myself up and tried to play it cool as I joined them on the shuttle bus, attempting to ignore the fact I now had acquired a sticky oil stain on the left knee of my jeans that I could never quite remove.



It is one thing to land at an airport as a tourist ready to tear up the city for a time-bound period. It is an entirely different feeling to arrive in a place with no return ticket, and the hope and fear that accompanies any leap into the unknown. I was a twenty-two-year-old quasi-man landing with big dreams in the American Midwest. An area I was largely unfamiliar with and in which I lacked any kind of support network of family or friends. The only things I had brought with me were a law degree I had miraculously managed to secure, a vague grasp on rudimentary life skills, an enormous ’fro, and little in the way of financial resources. My father had been unimpressed by the woeful lack of direction I had demonstrated after graduation and became irritated at my vague talk of signing up to be an air steward or doing a postgraduate degree in peace studies. Late one night after I had come back inebriated from the local pub in Liverpool, he informed me that he was cutting me off. “A man can think and think in life, Roger,” he said with equal measures of exasperation and contempt, “but sometimes he simply has to learn to do.” That decision forced my hand and spurred me into “doing.” Picking up my life and heading to Chicago, then overstaying my tourist visa was the sum total of my plan.



Under the table and off the books



Upon arrival, I looked at a map of the city, saw there was a neighborhood in the far northside named Rogers Park, and, based solely on its name echoing my own, elected to set up shop there. My immediate challenge was to make some money. Lacking a work visa, I hustled like Tony Montana in the early scenes of Scarface, throwing myself into any opportunity that would pay me illegally under the table and off the books. For the first year, I made just enough to live, as a truly clueless yet enthusiastic baker on the early morning shift in a local French pâtisserie and a well-meaning but utterly bewildered waiter at a soul food restaurant at night. In between, I picked up shifts restocking books in a local library, which really meant me sleeping in the stacks. I cobbled together just enough to rent my small, totally empty apartment. If I scrounged food from the restaurant, I could occasionally put my surplus tip money toward treating myself to a $4 bottle of Kentucky Gentleman bourbon whiskey.







The soul food restaurant—Orly’s in Hyde Park on the South Side of the city—provided an eye-opening initial glimpse of America. The cooks were all elderly African American South Siders, the busboys young Latinos from the West Side, the barman and manager were a pair of white suburban bros who ruled the place and largely spent their nights crassly hitting on the other servers who, besides me, were all attractive young female students at the University of Chicago. I bonded most of all with the kindly Mexican busboys, who loved to talk football while poking fun at my long, curly hair and round spectacles, alternating between two nicknames they quickly coined for me: “lady” and “Juan Lennon.” Two of the dishwashers were a pair of brothers from Mexico, and they took time to show me how to game the system and set up the basics any illegal alien needs to survive: a black market Social Security number, healthcare, and a bank account; teaching me how to furnish an empty apartment for free by scavenging for couches, desks, and kitchen tables dumped in alleyways across the city on the last day of any month, aka moving day.



Arby’s, Michael Jordan, and Lake Shore Drive



The extent to which I missed my family back in Liverpool surprised me. This was before AOL became omnipresent and when long-distance phone calls were still prohibitively expensive, so we corresponded like Victorians, by letter. I would stay late at night, alone, in the library’s office, typing out long letters to my parents with just my pointer fingers, determined to convey the minutiae of my work and the details of America that exhilarated me. The celestial taste of Arby’s; the intensity of the bruising NBA playoff series between the Michael Jordan–less Chicago Bulls and the boastful New York Knicks of Patrick Ewing, which felt like a high-stakes collision in which the future of good and evil were at stake; the thrill of driving down Lake Shore Drive in a cab at night, and speeding past illuminated skyscraper after skyscraper, an experience which made me feel like I was living on the set of a sci-fi movie.



The mundanity of the letters they mailed back to me in return, 90 percent of which revolved around complaints about the perpetually damp, rainy weather, reinforced my confidence that the journey I was on was the right one. The only thing I truly and achingly missed was football. Soccer. As thrilling as it was for me to be able to immerse myself in the new American sporting traditions of Bears, Blackhawks, White Sox, and Notre Dame gamedays, English football was my foundational text. It was how I understood and made sense of the world. My ballast in life’s stormy sea. I was well aware that the sport had outsider status in the United States. Yet, I was still shocked by just how hard it was to follow in my new home. This game that thrilled the rest of the world, had stopped wars, and spurred revolutions barely made a dent on the American sporting subconscious. In a national survey of favorite spectator sports released shortly after my arrival, it ranked 67th. Tractor-pulling was 66th.



‘Holding a major skiing competition in an African country’



To be clear, Americans were not just apathetic toward the game I loved. They seemed to take a perverse delight in actively and openly despising it in the 1990s. Most nations would have announced a national holiday if FIFA awarded them the hosting rights to the tournament. Yet, when the United States was given the honors, their decision was received with a general tenor of bewilderment. On the floor of Congress, Representative Jack Kemp, a former professional quarterback, felt the need to defend his nation’s honor by saying, “I think it is important for all those young men out there who someday hope to play real football, where you throw it and kick it and run with it and put it in your hands, that a distinction should be made that football is democratic capitalism whereas soccer is a European socialist sport.”



One journalist compared the honor of hosting the biggest sports event in the world to “holding a major skiing competition in an African country.” A sense of contempt reinforced by rumors that began to abound that FIFA were attempting to “Americanize” the sport by splitting the game into four quarters rather than two halves to increase the amount of advertising they could jam into the broadcast. I was baffled by the lack of noise around the whole affair. The World Cup was something I had always counted down to, with a sense of joyous anticipation, but that sense began to be replaced by a gnawing feeling of unease that the Americans were going to blow this—to transform the most celebrated event in the world into the equivalent of a Weird Al cover song. The tournament draw, which took place in December 1993, live from Caesars Palace on the Las Vegas Strip, dialed my sense of disquiet up to eleven. The football world had never seen the likes of a veritable night of a thousand stars including Barry Manilow, Julio Iglesias, and Faye Dunaway. Few seemed to know what they were doing there. ESPN’s host, that veritable broadcasting legend Bob Ley, declared the spectacle to be akin to “Salvador Dalí producing a state lottery.” Fittingly for such a surreal occasion, it was Robin Williams who stole the spotlight. First, the comedian described the draw bracket as “the world’s biggest Keno game,” then proceeded to refer repeatedly to FIFA’s General Secretary, Sepp Blatter, as “Sepp Bladder” even after the Swiss administrator testily corrected him, insisting, “This is not a comedy!”



Beneath the pizzazz, the significance for the future of the sport could not have been higher. US midfield star Tab Ramos was one of the pitifully few American players who had managed to find a pathway to play club football in Europe, and he worried aloud, “I think this will be the last chance, the last go-round for soccer to make it big here.” If those were the stakes, it did not seem to be going very well. New York Times columnist George Vecsey noted: “The United States was chosen, by the way, because of all the money to be made here, not because of our soccer prowess. Our country has been rented as a giant stadium and hotel and television studio for the next thirty-one days.” Panic truly kicked in when a national poll undertaken three weeks before the tournament’s kickoff discovered that 71 percent of Americans were still not aware it was about to be played in their country. The prospect of empty stadiums felt very real. In the weeks running up to the kickoff, a late flurry of marketing materials featuring images of Reggie Jackson and Michael Jordan pretending to juggle the football were unfurled in a last-ditch effort to create excitement. That did not exactly inspire confidence, as if athletes from other sports were needed to give heartland Americans permission to watch the foreigners’ game.



An unshakable terror that no one would show up



The moment of truth came June 17, 1994, when the opening match was held, by chance, at Soldier Field in my adopted hometown of Chicago. The night before the tournament began, my mood ricocheted between the dizzying sense of childish anticipation I always experienced on World Cup eve, and an unshakable terror that America was throwing a party for the sport I loved, and that no one would turn up. In my destitute state, there was no chance I could afford a ticket for the opener, which featured reigning World Cup champions Germany against Bolivia, yet I felt a need—more than that, a responsibility—to travel down to the stadium to pay witness to the scene. Partially to respect the moment and come as close to this tournament in the flesh as I had ever been. But mostly to help fill in as an extra, and create the sense of a crowd, hoping to build the fiction of America caring in the worst-case scenario, as so many doomsayers were saying, that the venue was deserted.



I need not have worried. With a searing sense of relief, I found Soldier Field to be as overwhelmed as if the Bears were playing the Packers. Yes, it felt like half of Baden-Württemberg had traveled to cheer on Germany, and every Bolivian in the vicinity of Chicago had massed by Lake Michigan. But there were also thousands of families, congregating around the ticket gates, with the kind of crackling sense of anticipation emitted when entering the circus. In truth, this was unlike any football crowd I had experienced before. There was little noise. No audible chanting. Few team colors. Yet I soaked in the scene with relief and wonder. America had turned up. The fact that many of those in attendance seemed to know little about what was about to happen felt like nitpicking. This emotion was reinforced by a big-screen television near the gate broadcasting a short video in which iconic baseball manager Tommy Lasorda of the Los Angeles Dodgers declared his unshakable belief that even if the country had no idea what the World Cup was, America would win it.



Ticketless, I raced home on the L to catch the razzamatazz-filled opening ceremony on my television, which, like the rest of my furniture, had been rescued from the alleyway behind my apartment. I had jerry-rigged an antenna out of a clothes hanger, so the picture was scratchy, but visible enough to witness the spectacle that managed to blend a message of American good intentions, celebrity pageantry, and gesturing at heartfelt passion for soccer.



A nearly sold-out crowd, including President Clinton, was privy to a ceremony that began with emcee hometown hero Oprah Winfrey screaming, “Let’s celebrate!” before tripping off the stage and seemingly maiming herself just seconds after welcoming a worldwide television audience of a billion. That slapstick opening set a tone the rest of the celebrity guests then strove to one-up. Singer Jon Secada suffered a dislocated shoulder when a trapdoor from which he was meant to emerge onto the stage misbehaved, forcing him to sing with just his head and shoulders protruding from a hole in the floor. Richard Marx, a Chicago native with a spectacular mullett, sang the national anthem. Diana Ross added to the surreal display by prancing around and lip-syncing, “I’m Coming Out,” a performance capped by her slicing a penalty quite wide of a goal from less than five yards out. Nonetheless, the crossbar still split into two, as if she had shot with accuracy and potency. A clumsy piece of footballing choreography gone wrong amidst glamor and glitz, which felt like a cruel metaphor for all that was to come.



The psychedelic out-of-place, out-of-body celebrity moment was echoed, and eclipsed, later that night, by the breaking news of O.J. Simpson’s infamous white Bronco chase. An earth-shattering celebrity cultural moment, which even preempted the NBA final and easily overshadowed the day’s football, the personal highlight of which came just a minute into the opener when the ball flew into the stands, and the game was held up while the fan who caught it was ordered to throw it back, after being told this was not Wrigley Field and you were not allowed to keep that ball as a memento.



A Peroni- and Guinness-fueled epic gang rumble



It took twenty-four hours before the fuse was truly lit on the World Cup, driving it straight to the front of America’s sporting cortex. A game billed as “the Showdown in the Swamp” pitched Italy against Ireland in the crackling heat of Giants Stadium in New Jersey. A confluence of time and context. Thirty-two million Americans claim Irish descent, roughly half have Italian roots, and the greater New York area had largely been built by their ancestors and thus overflows with both hyphenated identities. This game felt like the type of Peroni- and Guinness-fueled epic gang rumble Scorsese would have directed in one of his early movies. A fight for pride born of echoed pasts taking place in the swamplands near the Hudson.



The Italian team had long been a traditional footballing superpower. Handsome, slick-haired footballers like the iconic Roberto Baggio and Paolo Maldini played for the biggest clubs in the world. Ireland was a mob of scrappy, bar-brawling upstarts in comparison. A Dirty Dozen–esque mob—many of whom were English-born but had chosen to represent Ireland because of their own familial lineage. They were managed by a charismatic, beer-drinking, straight-talking former English World Cup winner, Jack Charlton, who was so beloved, he achieved honorary Irishman status and was christened “St. Jack.” The English National Team had yet again failed to qualify, so a lot of English fans spent the early days of the tournament desperately trying to discover secret Irish roots of their own.



I watched this game in a packed bar in Rogers Park, stuffed with Irish Americans and a ton of non-Irish Americans who just felt a vicarious kinship courtesy of their Notre Dame fandom. As I entered, a large old man dressed as a leprechaun kissed me on the top of my head while screaming to no one in particular, “Our boys are on the craic with it!”



As Jameson-inflected as these words smelled, they turned out to be prophetic. My leprechaun friend may have passed out before kickoff, but had he been conscious, he would have loved what he saw. The fearless Irish snatched the lead with a euphoric strike from midfielder Ray Houghton, a Glasgow-born son of an Irishman, who audaciously clipped the ball past the despairing fingers of the Italian goalkeeper. The collective defensive intensity Charlton had instilled did the rest, as a green-and-white-cloaked Giants Stadium rocked to the sound of bagpipes and the thump of bodhráns as a chant of “You’ll never beat the Irish!” resounded. The final scoreline, chaotic energy of the occasion, and medical miracle that 75,000 Irish fans somehow survived nasty cases of sunburn drove the event into the hearts of the American viewing public. This tournament had kicked off for real.



Maradona the villain



This being a World Cup, Diego Maradona of course grabbed center stage. The golden street urchin had been the hero of the 1986 win. He played the role of villain in this one. Having worn out his welcome in Italian football, “El Pibe de Oro” fled Europe with his career imploding and personal life in meltdown. A fifteen-month ban earned in 1991 for testing positive for cocaine was the least of his problems. Maradona had been charged with smuggling $840,000 worth of blow into Rome’s Fiumicino Airport in 1990, and his reputation was further pockmarked by rumors of paternity suits, tax charges, and intimate connections to Naples’s Camorra crime family.



A beleaguered, overweight Maradona returned home to Buenos Aires in search of sanctuary. As he arrived, the notion the player was physically or mentally ready to lead the national team to the 1994 World Cup appeared as believable as a storyline from a Philip K. Dick fantasy. Yet, the star resurfaced sensationally on the eve of the tournament, having somehow shed twenty-six pounds in a month. His message was one of redemption. “I am tired of all those who said I was fat and no longer the great Maradona,” he proclaimed. “They will see the real Diego at the World Cup.” The icon did not know how true those words would prove to be.



Aged thirty-three, the little warhorse prepared to drag his tattered body into battle one more time. His fourth World Cup would begin against Greece at Foxboro Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts. A light aircraft buzzed above the field pulling a banner that proclaimed “Maradona–Prima Dona” ahead of the game, and the star lived up to his billing. In the 60th minute of the 4–0 victory, Diego received the ball in the box, jinked to his left, and rifled the ball into the top corner, then celebrated the achievement in hopped-up style, charging a sideline television camera and flashing his maniacal mug toward it. Tight-lipped after the game, Maradona would only declare, “I’m letting my actions speak for themselves.”



Four days later, the player was selected for random drug testing after a 2–1 win against Nigeria. FIFA quickly announced the Argentine had tested positive for five variants of ephedrine. The Guardian would later note the way Maradona had celebrated his goal against Greece was as conclusive as any drug test: “Broadcast around the world, his contorted features made him look like a lunatic, flying on a cocktail of adrenalin and every recreational drug known to man.”



Faced with the disgrace of being expelled from the tournament, Maradona first sought pity from Argentinian television. “They killed me,” he said. “They have retired me from soccer. I don’t think I want another revenge, my soul is broken.” He then proceeded to appeal to his nation’s easily fired-up paranoia, adamantly declaring, “They didn’t beat us on the pitch. We were beaten off the pitch and that is what hurts my soul.”



As his team moved on to meet Bulgaria in the Cotton Bowl, Maradona loyalists in the Argentine media seized on Dallas’s reputation as the cradle of conspiracy theories. “In this city, where thirty years before Kennedy was assassinated, the theories surrounding footballer Maradona will now be explained. Was he ‘randomly’ selected for a drug test?” they asked.



Not embarrassing themselves



FIFA dispatched Sepp Blatter to smother any doubts. “The king is dead, we play on,” he declared. A shattered Argentinian squad mustered the requisite sound bites about “winning it for Diego.” But leaderless and disoriented, they proceeded to wilt against Bulgaria and were finally sent home by Gheorghe Hagi, Ilie Dumitrescu, and the elegant Romanians in the Round of 16. Even Maradona’s fall from grace could not dampen the American energy now building up around the tournament. The stadiums were packed, never more than when the US team first strolled onto the field in Detroit’s Pontiac Silverdome. I knew so little about the team. Few Americans did to be honest. Hosting duties meant their qualification had been automatic, a mixed blessing as a woefully inexperienced squad faced four long years in which it had been deprived of the one thing that could battle-harden the players: competitive matches that mattered. This challenge was reinforced by the reality that only a handful of American soccer players had found professional opportunities in Europe. American soccer players had as much credibility in the eyes of European scouts as aspirational English quarterbacks would have received in the NFL. A couple of players including the cocky gunslinger John Harkes and physically gifted striker Eric Wynalda had gained the attention of minor clubs in England, Spain, and Germany. The rest were left struggling to make a living playing indoors or on a local team, which provided the salary equivalent of an internship.



The personal stakes could not have been higher for these men. The focus was on not embarrassing themselves. They were not just playing for their nation; they were fighting for the very future of their sport. Desperate to avoid the humiliation of becoming the first home team in history unable to emerge from the World Cup’s opening round, the United States Soccer Federation had undertaken a bold experiment, establishing a residential training center for its team to live together, essentially living off a tiny stipend and their enormous shared dreams, for eighteen months in Mission Viejo, California. Crap the bed, and the profile of soccer in the United States would never recover. The mission was simple. They had to get out of the group stages.



Their draw had been tough. In the opening round, they would face a robust Switzerland, dark horse Romania, and sandwiched in between, the truly fearsome Colombians, who had just whipped Argentina 5–0 in qualifying and whom Pelé himself had picked to win the entire tournament.



First up were the Swiss, who had drawn and beaten Italy in qualifying. I watched from the futon on the floor of my boxy Rogers Park apartment, nervously adjusting the wire hanger to try and coax a clearer signal. The blurry images on my television made it look like the US team were swaggering onto the field wearing a faux stonewashed denim jersey. Then the commentator mentioned that the US team were indeed wearing faux stonewashed denim jerseys and that was the very second I fell in love with this team of goatee- and mullet-sporting risk-takers, dreamers, and pioneers.



Sweatbox conditions



Tellingly, kickoff was slated for 11:30 a.m. so that broadcasters ABC did not have to cut into their coverage of the US Open, an event they deemed to be far more important. At that time, Midwest temperatures topped 106 degrees, and so this, the World Cup’s first-ever indoor game, was played in sweatbox conditions. I felt enormous empathy for the players as I could not afford air-conditioning in my Chicago apartment and was sweating up a storm myself as I watched in just my underpants and T-shirt. The Swiss looked like they were poised to melt. In contrast, the American players looked utterly amped. So few of them had ever played before a truly large crowd—never mind one that was 100 percent pro-American. As the cameraman panned their eyes during the national anthem, they looked like a group of men who knew this was their time to show the world that American football was about something more than a bold choice in football jersey design. That carried through once the opening whistle blew. The Americans were not the most sophisticated in tactic or touch. But what they clearly lacked as footballers, they compensated for with collective fitness, ferocity of tackle, and an unshakable team spirit embodied by the sheer number of high fives they doled out to each other in-game.



Rock ’n’ roll hustle, idiosyncratic style, and can-do spirit wrapped in frosted denim



A beanpole ginger center back, Alexi Lalas, caught my eye. A gangly mix of lanky leg and flowing red hair. He looked less like a footballer and more like a guy who worked behind the counter at a record store in some suburban Detroit mall, turning kids on to Van Halen’s latest album one sale at a time. But on the field, in the global spotlight that day, Lalas appeared as if he embodied America itself. All rock ’n’ roll hustle, idiosyncratic style, and can-do spirit wrapped in frosted denim. As if David Lee Roth had taken the World Cup stage. Both shirt and athlete unlike anything I had seen play football before.



When Switzerland opened the scoring off a free kick, it fleetingly felt like the sum of the American players’ fears was about to become real. But just five minutes later, the US won a free kick of their own, 28 yards out. Up stepped Eric Wynalda, the maverick, hotheaded striker who looked like an extra ripped from a beach scene in Baywatch. Wynalda composed himself, then swung his foot to strike as casually as if he were on the Californian fields in which he had mastered the game as a kid in Orange County. That ball seemed to be in the air forever, silencing the stadium as it flew, spinning away from the goal-keeper’s panicked dive straight into the corner, greeted with a crescendo of noise like that experienced by a diver breaking the waterline and resurfacing. Wynalda was as shocked as anyone watching at home.



The goal was a relief. It not only enabled the US to hold on for a draw and a point, but it also validated the sense that their quest to qualify was in the realms of the possible. The fearsome Colombians awaited four days later in the Rose Bowl, Pasadena, California. Again, I watched alone in my apartment, cowering as the South Americans in their ecstatic yellow attempted to blow their opponents away from the opening kickoff, attacking with hunger and intensity. It felt like a borderline miracle when the game was still scoreless five minutes in. The Colombians hit the post, and American defender Fernando Clavijo scooped the ball off the line in a way which defied science.



But football—especially World Cup football, with its international squads who are essentially as practiced as All-Star teams—is a game of moments. And in the 35th minute, the United States forayed upfield. John Harkes, the cocksure son of Kearny, New Jersey, who had played in England for four years and had instantly adopted a fake Cockney accent, whipped in a cross. Colombian defender Andrés Escobar, a fine man widely known as “The Gentleman of Football,” made the unfortunate decision to stretch out a leg and block it, but he only succeeded in redirecting the ball past his own flat-footed goalkeeper into his own net.



Escobar’s own goal is what is remembered from the game. Ten days later, he would return home and was shot to death while leaving a Medellín nightclub in the early morning hours. The assassin fired half a dozen times, yelling “Goal!” after every shot. But in the moment, when that ball bobbled off his foot into the back of the net, the American players felt only ecstasy. Even though I was watching alone in my apartment, I was moved to shake up a bottle of Budweiser and spray it around the room, creating a beer puddle that sat in the middle of the floor long after the tournament was a memory. I was to housekeeping what Diego Maradona was to legal weight loss.



‘Miracle on Grass’



Emboldened, the United States conjured a second goal right after halftime, a stunning moment of real counterattacking football, finished off by the speed freak Earnie Stewart, a Dutch-born dual-national with an American serviceman father. The celebrations were an astonishing moment for the team. You could tell by their rapturous reactions; this was a group of men proving themselves to themselves with the world watching. Now they knew, as American footballers, they could face a big team in a big game and win. To me it all felt transcendent. An epiphany akin to witnessing a baby being born, only with 90,000 people in the delivery room.



At the final whistle, the Americans soaked in their moment, walking around the Rose Bowl—the historic American sporting shrine—shirts off, American flags draped round their shoulders, with the delirious crowd bellowing, “USA! USA! USA!” After all their work and sacrifice, these men had just shown that American footballers could belong in the game with the rest of the world. The next day, headline writers gave the performance the ultimate sports accolade, hailing the victory as a “Miracle on Grass!”



Miracle or not, the third game did not go as planned. A 1–0 loss to the canny Romanians. The United States finished third in their group with four points, scraping into the knock-out stages by virtue of being one of four third-placed teams who advanced into the sixteen-team second round. Next, they would face Brazil, the fiercest of opponents and number 1 team in the world. The match was to be played in Stanford, California, on July Fourth to boot. Could they do it? I watched the players’ interviews, and it was clear by listening that having qualified from the group and achieved their goal—avoiding humiliation—all the pressure was off. Anything felt possible.



Once again, I watched the game alone in my apartment. I did not have a lot of money and, in reality, I did not have a lot of friends. In truth, I felt immensely lonely, but I loved this team of try-hards. I connected with them. When I watched them, they seemed to embody a sense of hope that I needed in my own life at the time. If a group of footballing duffers in stone-wash shirts could take on the powerful Brazilians in the World Cup and win, I too might find my way to glory. Or at least a television without a coat hanger for an antenna.



A moral victory



However, there was no way to mask the gulf in class between these two teams. It was evident the moment they walked side by side onto the pitch. Brazil’s deadly striking duo Romário and Bebeto, feared around the world, took the field alongside Cobi Jones, a twenty-four-year-old legal student from California.



This Brazil team were different from past iterations. The battering they had received from the European teams over the past decade had forced them to add defensive steel to their offensive flamboyance. Their jerseys were still the traditional golden yellow, but this was a pragmatic, functional, almost soulless squad who advanced on the strength of their physicality, which peaked on the stroke of halftime. American midfielder Tab Ramos attempted to nutmeg his opponent, Leonardo, who retorted by headhunting, with cruel, blunt application of his elbow to Ramos’s skull. A shocking moment of violence that earned the Brazilian a red card and left the American in agony on the ground, knocking him out of the game with a fractured skull.



Theoretically, the Americans now had a one-man advantage, but you could not tell from the way they responded. Their players’ focus was utterly broken by that moment of savagery, which had knocked out their creative heartbeat. The Brazilians became relentless. In the bright sunlight that would melt lesser men, they glimmered like a shoal of fighting fish sensing the weakness of their prey. The Brazilian goal, when it came in the 74th minute, was almost a relief. A precise Bebeto shot driven low, callously and cruelly through the desperate legs of Alexi Lalas and past a despairing goalkeeper into the corner of the net.



Despite the loss, the US mood at the final whistle was far from despondent. Even in defeat, this young, raw team of American nobodies had earned a moral victory. They had not soiled themselves with the nation watching. Television ratings were high. The US boys had proven they could go toe-to-toe with the world’s best by harnessing a collective spirit, exiting with millions of T-shirts and celebratory tchotchkes sold, and the feeling of a match lit and something powerful loosened deep in the nation’s consciousness. Sitting in my shit Chicago apartment, I thought of all the American icons that had drawn me to the United States in the first place, patriots who glowed with bold self-confidence. Ferris Bueller, the Super Bowl–winning Chicago Bears, the Beastie Boys. This American football team now fit in that pantheon. They were the rare US sporting entity who were scrappy underdogs. A gaggle who acted as if they willed themselves to believe something, it was no fantasy.



Brazil’s spiritless football became a symbol of the entire tournament. Below the celebrity glitz and American naivete, the play was mediocre, and the games pockmarked by overzealous refereeing that broke up play. Fittingly, the final was one of the most soul-crushing the tournament has ever witnessed. I had not wanted to watch alone and went out solo to take it in, draining a generous stranger’s pitchers of beer, at a packed Hyde Park bar, Jimmy’s Woodlawn Tap. The energy, which was at Mardi Gras levels at kickoff, soon burned off as the Brazilians’ cocked fist was negated by Italy’s smothering play. As the two teams conspired to provide every soccer cynic’s worst nightmare—the first goalless final, 120 minutes of dreary soccer followed by penalties—the bar became quieter and emptier. I could almost imagine the teeth-gnashing of every investor who had just stepped up to own a team in the soon-to-be-launched American club league: Major League Soccer.



‘Divine ponytail’



One of the reasons I love football is that even in the dullest of spectacles, a moment of human revelation can occur on an almost biblical scale. Italy had been carried to the final by the wizardry of one man: Roberto Baggio, an almost mystical figure, known for his signature “Divine ponytail” (Il Divin Codino), his conversion to Buddhism, and the way he seemed to float just above play, beyond the grasp of the mere mortals with whom he was sharing the field. Baggio’s five goals in the tournament had propelled his team to the final. In the fifth and final round of penalties, with Brazil leading 3–2 and Italy needing to score to keep hope alive, it was Baggio who stepped to the spot. It had been his tournament. Now, the hopes of all Italy rested on his shoulders. With just the goalkeeper to beat from a mere 12 yards, he proceeded to sky the ball 3 feet over the crossbar. At the pub I was in, it felt like we had just witnessed a human tragedy. Screams accompanied the replays of the ball soaring into the Pasadena sky, as Baggio, that quasi-holy man, doubled over in astonished agony, hands on knees in private mourning. A hallowed figure who so often appeared to rise above the limits of what was humanly possible, frozen in a moment of mortality. It was fitting that two diabolical penalties bookended the tournament. Diana Ross’s showbiz miss opened it, and Baggio’s elegiac catastrophe brought it to an emotional close and handed Brazil a fourth World Cup win, at last. Their first in twenty-four long years.



Many Americans had their lives changed by the tournament. European teams deigned to welcome a handful into their teams, most noticeably Alexi Lalas, who played fleetingly in Italy, a cameo in which his greatest achievement may have happened off the field when he was invited to strum his guitar as a support act on a leg of a Hootie &amp; the Blowfish tour. Most of the players were reduced to jester-like side-hustles with Tony Meola accepting a chance to try out as a kicker for the New York Jets, which reeked of a PR stunt, as did his being attacked by “soccer-playing pitbulls” on Jay Leno.



In the end, the legacy of this World Cup was mixed. Records had been broken in terms of attendance, but those who expected American fans’ sporting appetites to be transformed instantly and forever by the tournament would be disappointed. The spike in interest in football soon burned off as if the World Cup had been a giant circus, which momentarily thrilled before leaving town. A year later, when my beloved club team Everton reached the semifinal of a major tournament, I was unable to find a single cable channel that could summon a broadcast, despite a frantic search of Chicagoland sports bars. Utterly defeated, I ended up calling my father in Liverpool and persuaded him to hold his telephone against the radio so I could hear the local broadcast and follow the action. A long-distance connection that was worth every cent, even though the bill was so eye-bulgingly expensive, it took me seven months to pay off in installments. Each time I chipped away at my football-induced telecom debt, I felt a numbing angst as if the World Cup in America had never happened.



‘The long cut’



Deprived of my football fix, my American life continued to progress, relying on hustle, grind, and the kindness of strangers. Professionally, I astonished myself by finding utility in the law degree I had somehow earned. I gained work as a welfare rights advocate. This was the height of the Clinton Welfare debate in which the safety net had been shredded. Working with a nonprofit who agreed to apply for a visa for me, I trained homeless men to talk to the media, telling the story of their descent into the streets and highlighting the vast number of hidden challenges that existed between them and job security.



The homeless guys I worked with were sweet and earnest. They lived on the streets south of the city in the area around Robert Taylor Homes. A vast, bleak public housing project that consisted of dozens of identical, hulking buildings spread out in a line for two miles. Having grown up in Liverpool, I thought I was used to grim neighborhoods awash with hopelessness. The Robert Taylor Homes were another level altogether. This was a heart-wrenching island of abject poverty. The work was fulfilling and soul-destroying in equal measure. Lacking football in my life, I threw myself into the Chicago music scene for solace. Uncle Tupelo’s album Anodyne had just been released. I saved up enough to watch the band play gigs at the legendary Lounge Ax. Their track “The Long Cut” was my anthem, and I listened to its message of struggle and eventual promise on repeat on my Discman:



Come on let’s take the long cut I think that’s what we need



If you wanna take the long cut We’ll get there eventually.



The lead singer, Jeff Tweedy, was singing about his fraught relationships with his bandmates, but the lyrics always held a double meaning for me, reflecting the journey I hoped soccer had just begun in my chosen home.



Excerpted from the book WE ARE THE WORLD (CUP) by Roger Bennett. Copyright © 2026 by In Loving Memory of the Recent Past 2 Inc. From Dey Street Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. Reprinted by permission.



 ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Tue, 03 Mar 2026 14:00:20 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>What, was, like, the, last, time, the, U.S., hosted, the, World, Cup, ‘Men, Blazers’, creator, Roger, Bennett, recalls, his, experience</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>HP is mining its own e&#45;waste to build its latest laptops</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/hp-is-mining-its-own-e-waste-to-build-its-latest-laptops</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/hp-is-mining-its-own-e-waste-to-build-its-latest-laptops</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Inside a new HP laptop, the copper in its heat sink comes straight from old HP devices—making the company the first to reuse its own recycled metal in a closed loop.



In partnership with HP, the Australia-based startup Mint Innovation took in circuit boards from thousands of old HP computers and servers, and then recycled them to supply pure refined copper back to the company. The process is designed to be more sustainable than traditional smelting. Instead of melting down metals in a furnace—an energy-intensive, polluting process—the startup uses a mix of chemicals and biology to recover valuable materials.



“What HP is effectively doing is mining e-waste of their own appliances,” says Mint president Matt Bedingfield. “They’re taking responsibility for their full supply chain to turn it into the next generation of devices.”



Old circuit boards are shredded and run through a series of tanks containing custom biological materials that pull out metals like gold and copper. The “biosorption” process works like a magnet, using electrons to attract specific elements. When gold is dissolved, for example, and electrons are stripped from its surface, it’s drawn to biological matter with extra electrons.



Gold “is the economic enabler” for the process, Bedingfield says: “If you don’t recover the gold, you don’t make any profit. So after the gold, then we go and we recover the copper, then the silver, the tin, and the palladium.”



Copper is particularly important at the moment. “In the U.S. right now, we’re about a million tons short on copper,” he says. “Copper is required for every single bit of the energy transition. It’s required for the data centers that we’re building. So that gap is only going to grow. The HPs and Apples and other OEMs in other industries, they’re all looking for copper to begin with. And then they’re looking for sustainable copper.” 



For HP, it’s part of a bigger push to help build new circular supply chains for the electronics industry. The quality of the recycled material is identical to new copper, the company says.



[Photo: HP]



Mint recycles in batches, so it’s possible to directly trace that a recycled material came specifically from a particular manufacturer’s products; in a furnace, that’s impossible to track. The company has orders from HP to continue recycling additional batches of products, Bedingfield says. 



In its first project, HP used the recycled copper in heat sinks because it knew it had enough supply to outfit the HP EliteBook X G2 Series and HP EliteBoard G1a Next Gen AI PC. Future work could involve additional materials like gold. Scaling it won’t be simple: HP ships about 57 million laptops a year—second only to Lenovo, per Gartner—and brand-specific e-waste isn’t predictable. But the company is exploring how it can grow.



[Photo: HP]



Mint currently works in an industrial-scale prototype facility in Australia, but is currently starting to build up a sample line in Texas. It’s aiming to secure long-term investment to build out a full new plant in Texas that could open next year. 



The recycling facilities have a small footprint. “They’re designed in a way where we can go to the scrap,” says Bedingfield. “We’re able to go into cities and drop plants, so you’re not moving the material all around the world as is done today.”  ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Tue, 03 Mar 2026 14:00:20 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>mining, its, own, e-waste, build, its, latest, laptops</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Did the Olympics turn you into a women’s hockey fan? You’re not alone—and StubHub has a new site for you</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/did-the-olympics-turn-you-into-a-womens-hockey-fan-youre-not-aloneand-stubhub-has-a-new-site-for-you</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/did-the-olympics-turn-you-into-a-womens-hockey-fan-youre-not-aloneand-stubhub-has-a-new-site-for-you</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Gold-medal moments for American athletes abounded at the 2026 Winter Olympics. Among a slew of highlights, Alysa Liu brought the U.S. Olympic gold in singles figure skating for the first time since 2002, Breezy Johnson and Mikaela Shiffrin topped the podium in Alpine skiing. The Paralympics, which start March 6, will likely see more medals for women athletes, and many of them will be celebrating in Las Vegas this summer.



But data from ticket exchange and resale site StubHub shows that the U.S. women’s hockey team’s triumph over Canada for gold in Milan will have a lasting effect on attendance at Professional Women’s Hockey League games. 



The company’s internal data shows a 38% year-over-year increase in demand for tickets to Professional Women’s Hockey League games for the first eight weeks of 2026, buoyed by an overnight spike following the U.S. women’s team winning gold. Demand for PWHL tickets is up nearly 60% compared to pre-Olympic levels.



Strong demand for women’s sports is why StubHub is launching HerSportsHub, a centralized site for buying tickets to women’s sporting events via the platform.







“When people get inspired by a big moment — whether it’s the Olympics or a breakout season — they don’t just watch,” Jill Gonzalez, StubHub’s head of consumer, product and technology communications, told Fast Company in a statement. “They want to be there and StubHub’s role is to make it as easy as possible to get in.”



It’s not just hockey. Fans will have easy access to resale tickets for the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA), National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL), National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) Women’s Basketball, and more. 



The launch leaves plenty of time for hockey fans to get to a PWHL game before the season ends in April, and comes just in time for March Madness (women’s games start March 18), the NWSL season starting on March 13, and the WNBA season tip-off on May 8.



All those sports gained new fans after the 2024 Paris Olympics. In 2024, StubHub says, demand for WNBA tickets surged 360% over 2023, and 150% for the NWSL over 2023.



“Women’s sports are a fixture, and more fans are showing up every day,” Gonzalez told Fast Company. “HerSportsHub is a dedicated space to find the games they care about most and turn that excitement into a live experience.”



 ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Tue, 03 Mar 2026 14:00:20 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Did, the, Olympics, turn, you, into, women’s, hockey, fan, You’re, not, alone—and, StubHub, has, new, site, for, you</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>The startup that turned Texas’s book ban law into big business</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/the-startup-that-turned-texass-book-ban-law-into-big-business</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/the-startup-that-turned-texass-book-ban-law-into-big-business</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ In 2023, as Texas lawmakers debated Senate Bill 13—a controversial bill aimed at restricting certain books in public school libraries and expanding parental oversight—Steve Wandler was among the dozen-plus parents, educators, and advocates who testified before the legislature. Wandler wasn’t just another concerned citizen. He was a Canadian entrepreneur who had relocated to Texas the year before to found Bookmarked, a fledgling startup that promises to help school districts manage their library collections and give parents greater visibility into what their children are reading.



The legislation addressed the very issue Wandler believed his company could help solve. The bill, authored by Republican state Senator Angela Paxton, would require districts to pull books featuring content deemed by local school boards to be “profane,” “indecent,” or “sexually explicit,” and expanded parents’ rights to monitor their children’s borrowing histories and restrict what their children could check out. It was part of a broader political push that also included HB 900, which required book vendors to rate school library materials for sexual content (though a federal appeals court later blocked enforcement of the rating mandate as unconstitutionally broad).



Wandler spoke in support of SB 13, telling lawmakers it “empowers parental access” and “mandates accountability with the school districts.” His investment in the bill’s passage wasn’t merely rhetorical: Public records show Bookmarked spent at least $80,000 lobbying in favor of the measure, and later hired the powerful Texas lobbying firm Moak Casey to help promote its cause.



Still, critics saw SB 13 differently, with free-speech advocates warning the new system amounts to codified censorship. Tasslyn Magnusson, a senior advisor with the Freedom to Read Program at PEN America, says that tools aggregating and circulating lists of challenged titles can reshape library collections in subtle but consequential ways. “When you start flagging books as somehow bad or under issue in other districts and other states, you’re undermining your local community control of what a school should have available for its students,” she tells Fast Company.



Texas lawmakers ultimately moved forward anyway. Within months of SB 13’s June 2025 passage, Bookmarked, then without any district clients, began marketing its software as a tool designed to help districts navigate the law’s new requirements, according to brochure materials provided to Fast Company. The platform promised to highlight potentially problematic titles for school boards, streamline review processes, and give parents direct access to their children’s reading histories by integrating with library systems (that checkout data is stored on Amazon Web Services). In an interview with Fast Company, Wandler describes the product as decision support rather than a censorship engine: “We’re just showing you what we find on the internet. We’re not telling you what to do.”



In doing so, the Dallas-based upstart quickly became a key player in a new and deeply contested corner of the edtech market, providing its software to more than 150 districts across Texas, according to Wandler—though that footprint is more complicated than it may appear, spanning a mix of paid contracts and free pilot programs. (Wandler says a soon-to-be-released updated version of Bookmarked would standardize pricing at $3 per student.)



Bookmarked was initially backed by angel investors and remains angel funded, according to Wandler, who says the company is now seeking additional capital after gaining traction in Texas. He describes the company’s tech as a practical solution, one that helps districts maneuver an increasingly complex legal environment while connecting families more directly to their children’s reading. He acknowledges the fears over a system that might accelerate book removals, but insists his company has been a neutral player. “We try to be Switzerland,” he says. “And it’s hard to be Switzerland.”



‘The process is almost unattainable’



In marketing materials issued in June 2025 and shared with Fast Company, Bookmarked presents itself as a shield against risk. OnShelf, its AI-powered platform that tracks school library catalogs and calls out books that could draw complaints under the new laws, would help districts “navigate SB 13 with confidence and clarity,” Bookmarked promised.



In practice, OnShelf works by ingesting a school district’s library catalog and comparing it against a growing database of titles that have been challenged or restricted elsewhere. According to internal company documents viewed by Fast Company, its AI engine “scans and collects” online data daily—including news reports, advocacy lists, and district records—to track books that have been banned or challenged across the U.S. and generate a list of “potential flags.” OnShelf also, per internal documents, supplies librarians with weekly automated emails “summarizing the ‘health’ of their collection based on any new nationwide challenge trends.”



The company’s early development was closely tied to a Texas public-school superintendent. Jason Cochran, now head of Krum Independent School District (ISD) in North Texas, says he approached Wandler with the original idea and helped shape an early version of the product. Cochran today retains a small ownership stake (less than 1%, he says) and serves informally as an advisor. His district uses the software free of charge, an arrangement he says he requested in part to avoid conflicts tied to his ownership stake. (Some have questioned whether Cochran’s dual role as a district leader and a financial stakeholder in a vendor serving schools presents a conflict of interest.) Cochran says the tool has helped his district spot challenged books and ensure “there wasn’t anything on the radar that was going to cause conflict.”



Bookmarked arrived at a moment of profound uncertainty. Across the United States, efforts to challenge and remove books from schools had surged dramatically. In 2024, the American Library Association recorded 821 censorship attempts targeting 2,452 unique titles, reflecting a shift toward organized bulk challenges wherein efforts to remove large numbers of books rely in part on prepared lists from conservative advocates. (By comparison, the annual average from 2001 to 2020 was just 273 titles.) Among the books banned by districts in Texas so far: Safe Sex 101: An Overview for Teens, Between the World and Me, Gender Queer, and The Perks of Being a Wallflower.



As the San Antonio Express-News reports, Bookmarked has already had sweeping real-world effects in Texas districts. About an hour south of Austin, in New Braunfels ISD, administrators used the software to identify more than 450 library books that might violate SB 13—prompting the district to close its library for two weeks while officials reviewed titles ranging from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest to The Handmaid’s Tale. Similarly, in the West Texas city of Abilene, the platform sounded the alarm on more than 300 books for review during an early pilot program, according to reporting by the literary news website Book Riot. 



In Abilene, the relationship reportedly soured quickly. Lyndsey Williamson, Abilene’s executive director of secondary education, wrote in a September email that the company “made promises they couldn’t keep,” per the Express-News. (Abilene ISD did not respond to Fast Company’s request for comment.) Separately, one parent who lives in a district that uses the software tells Fast Company they had a hard time actually removing their child from the system entirely, claiming that doing so required multiple emails and signed release forms.



‘There was no way to keep up with that information’



Of course, not every district has had that experience. In Canyon ISD, a roughly 11,500-student system in the Texas Panhandle, administrators describe the software as a useful compliance tool. To Lisa Hill, the district’s director of instruction, the appeal was straightforward: As book challenges accelerated nationally, districts lacked a centralized way to track them. “There was no way to keep up with that information on a broad scale,” she says.



Hill says the platform supplements rather than replaces librarians’ expertise and aligns with the state’s emphasis on parental oversight. “All librarians have a master’s degree in library science,” she says, but no one can realistically read every title that enters a collection. The system, in her view, adds visibility for overtaxed district employees. 



But that additional visibility, skeptics argue, can quickly turn into pressure. Perhaps most concerning is the dragnet effect: the risk that the software floods districts with questionable warnings, forcing educators to sort through lists that may be incomplete or misleading. That dynamic, says Anne Russey, a Texas parent and cofounder of the advocacy group Texas Freedom to Read Project, can cause librarians to act quickly rather than carefully—especially when administrations are already overwhelmed (and perhaps extra cautious on account of the recently passed SB 412, which essentially nixed longstanding legal protections for educators for providing materials deemed harmful to minors). “Maintaining a library is a normal part of library science that these certified professional librarians have all learned how to do,” she says.



Leila Green Little, a Texas parent and lead plaintiff in a recent federal lawsuit over library censorship, is more blunt in her assessment: “Bookmarked is a solution to a problem that does not exist,” she says.



Wandler, for his part, doesn’t entirely dispute the criticism. He acknowledges that the data his platform draws from is imperfect at best. Books get marked as banned or challenged even when districts ultimately keep them on shelves, producing alerts that don’t always tell the full story. But the platform, he insists, is only surfacing information. “We just show you [that] To Kill a Mockingbird has 20 flags on it. Do with it what you please,” he says. The 1960 novel has been challenged in districts across the U.S. over its use of racial slurs and depictions of racism, a deeply ironic twist given that the book is widely regarded as a critique of racism itself.



Wandler is also candid about the stumbles along the way: “We’ve made a ton of mistakes,” he says, ”as startups do.” That’s why, he adds, Bookmarked is currently rebuilding the product from the ground up. The new version, now being piloted and slated for a broader April rollout, shifts focus from simply surfacing “book intelligence” to better helping districts navigate the byzantine approval workflow SB 13 requires (think elements like teacher book submissions and committee review). “Nobody built a product to be able to manage the process that this law has created,” Wandler says. “The process is almost unattainable, like it’s impossible for them to be able to do the work that the law does.” ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Tue, 03 Mar 2026 14:00:17 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>The, startup, that, turned, Texas’s, book, ban, law, into, big, business</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Target stock is up even though sales were down. Why the retailer is getting a surprise bump today</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/target-stock-is-up-even-though-sales-were-down-why-the-retailer-is-getting-a-surprise-bump-today</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/target-stock-is-up-even-though-sales-were-down-why-the-retailer-is-getting-a-surprise-bump-today</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Target Corporation on Tuesday reported its all-important fourth-quarter results, which run from the key holiday shopping season in November through January. 



Unfortunately for the company, its results were, at best, a mixed bag. Yet despite the underwhelming earnings report, shares in the company are currently rising. Here’s what you need to know.



Target’s Q4 2025 at a glance



Before the opening bell this morning, Target reported its fourth-quarter earnings, which ended on January 31. 



Out of all the earnings periods Target reports over the year, Q4 is the most important because covers the holiday shopping season when consumers are traditionally most willing to spend on non-discretionary items—a category that is Target’s bread and butter.



Here are the most salient metrics for the quarter:




Net sales: $30.45 billion



Net earnings: $1.04 billion



Adjusted earnings-per-share (EPS): $2.44




The good news for the company is that its adjusted EPS of $2.44 was much better than most analysts were expecting. As CNBC notes, an LSEG survey found that most analysts were expecting and adjusted EPS of $2.16.



However, though the company beat on adjusted EPS, its net sales and net earnings both did not meet analyst expectations, and came in lower in Q4 2025 than the same quarter a year earlier.



Analysts had expected net sales of $30.48 billion for the quarter. Target came close at $30.44 billion—but even that was down 1.5% from the $30.90 billion the company brought in the same quarter a year earlier.



The company’s net earnings of $1.04 billion were also down 5.2% from the same quarter a year earlier.



Target’s problems are political and economic



Announcing its Q4 2025 results, Target’s new CEO, Michael Fiddelke, who has only been in the role since last month, said that the company was focused on its “next chapter of growth, rooted in strengthening our merchandising authority, delivering an elevated and differentiated shopping experience, advancing our use of technology, and continuing to serve and invest in our team and communities.”



However, one of the largest challenges that Target is up against is blowback from its community of shoppers. 



Last summer, Target faced heavy criticism from many of its shoppers for rolling back its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in the wake of President Trump’s second inauguration. 



More recently, as noted by CNBC, Trump’s immigration crackdown has been causing headaches for Target’s new leadership. As noted by the Associated Press, the company’s customers have been vocal in their desire for the company to take a public stand against Trump’s policies, particularly after the deaths of ICE protesters in Target’s hometown of Minneapolis.



Of course, Target’s stagnating sales over the past few years aren’t limited to political problems. It also continues to face economic ones. 



The biggest problem for Target is that a majority of the goods it sells are discretionary items, and consumers have been cutting back on those for years as costs continue to rise due to inflation and Trump’s tariffs.



To make matters worse, many customers have complained for years that Target’s stores were becoming messier and less visually appealing, leading them to shop there less frequently or seek out alternative retailers.



Last month, Target announced corporate layoffs as part of its plan to reinvest in the in-store experience.



Why is Target stock up despite lackluster sales?



Despite Target’s lackluster quarter, shares in the company are currently rising in premarket trading. 



As of this writing, Target stock (NYSE: TGT) currently up about 3.7% to $117.45. Factors for this rise could include things like relief from investors that the company at least met analysts’ net sales expectations.



Target also announced that it expects modest next sales growth of about 2% for 2026. Given that the company has faced declining or stagnating sales for almost four years, investors are likely to reward the company for any expectation of reversing that trend, no matter how small.



Despite Target’s ongoing challenges, the company’s shares have performed decently year-to-date. 



As of yesterday’s market close, TGT shares were up nearly 16% since the start of the year. Over the past six months, the company’s share price has risen more than 22%. 



Yet over the past 12 months, TGT shares had declined nearly 9% as of yesterday’s close. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Tue, 03 Mar 2026 14:00:12 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
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<item>
<title>5 best business expense management solutions</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/5-best-business-expense-management-solutions</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/5-best-business-expense-management-solutions</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ By Nathaniel Dalby on Small Business UK - Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs


We’ve collected five of the best expense management solutions you can find for your business in the UK today. 
The post 5 best business expense management solutions appeared first on Small Business UK. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://smallbusiness-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2024/07/GettyImages-1432903655.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Tue, 03 Mar 2026 14:00:09 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>best, business, expense, management, solutions</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Spring Forecast 2026 – what small businesses should expect</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/spring-forecast-2026-what-small-businesses-should-expect</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/spring-forecast-2026-what-small-businesses-should-expect</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ By Anna Jordan on Small Business UK - Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs


The Spring Forecast 2026 is coming up on March 3. What can we expect to see that&#039;ll affect small business owners?
The post Spring Forecast 2026 – what small businesses should expect appeared first on Small Business UK. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://smallbusiness-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2026/02/54947916240_5cbf4f5116_c.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Tue, 03 Mar 2026 14:00:08 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Spring, Forecast, 2026, –, what, small, businesses, should, expect</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Spring Forecast 2026 announcements for small businesses – live blog</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/spring-forecast-2026-announcements-for-small-businesses-live-blog</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/spring-forecast-2026-announcements-for-small-businesses-live-blog</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ By Anna Jordan on Small Business UK - Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs


Whether you call it the Spring Statement or the Spring Forecast, Reeves is making her announcement. What&#039;s in it for small business owners?
The post Spring Forecast 2026 announcements for small businesses – live blog appeared first on Small Business UK. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://smallbusiness-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2026/03/53836057572_c29ef6abbc_b.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Tue, 03 Mar 2026 14:00:06 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Spring, Forecast, 2026, announcements, for, small, businesses, –, live, blog</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Laundryheap ramps up global expansion with four new market launches</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/laundryheap-ramps-up-global-expansion-with-four-new-market-launches</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/laundryheap-ramps-up-global-expansion-with-four-new-market-launches</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
On-demand laundry firm Laundryheap launches in Colombia, Mexico, Malaysia and Scotland, expanding to 28 cities worldwide as it pursues aggressive global growth in 2026.
Read more: 
Laundryheap ramps up global expansion with four new market launches ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Laundryheap.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sat, 28 Feb 2026 14:00:34 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Laundryheap, ramps, global, expansion, with, four, new, market, launches</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>TSSA calls for ‘urgent change’ in Labour leadership after by&#45;election defeat</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/tssa-calls-for-urgent-change-in-labour-leadership-after-by-election-defeat</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/tssa-calls-for-urgent-change-in-labour-leadership-after-by-election-defeat</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA) has called for Sir Keir Starmer to resign as Labour leader following the party’s defeat to the Green Party in the Gorton and Denton by-election.
Read more: 
TSSA calls for ‘urgent change’ in Labour leadership after by-election defeat ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/shutterstock_2629941153.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sat, 28 Feb 2026 14:00:34 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>TSSA, calls, for, ‘urgent, change’, Labour, leadership, after, by-election, defeat</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>UK car production falls 13.6% in January as exports slide</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/uk-car-production-falls-136-in-january-as-exports-slide</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/uk-car-production-falls-136-in-january-as-exports-slide</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
UK car production dropped 13.6% in January, with exports driving the decline, according to the SMMT. Electric vehicle output also fell as global demand softened.
Read more: 
UK car production falls 13.6% in January as exports slide ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/shutterstock_1376258447-scaled.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sat, 28 Feb 2026 14:00:33 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>car, production, falls, 13.6, January, exports, slide</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Kibu secures investment offer from Peter Jones and Jenna Meek after Dragons’ Den pitch</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/kibu-secures-investment-offer-from-peter-jones-and-jenna-meek-after-dragons-den-pitch</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/kibu-secures-investment-offer-from-peter-jones-and-jenna-meek-after-dragons-den-pitch</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Kibu, the circular children’s headphones brand, secures an investment offer from Peter Jones and Jenna Meek on Dragons’ Den, spotlighting repairable tech for kids.
Read more: 
Kibu secures investment offer from Peter Jones and Jenna Meek after Dragons’ Den pitch ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Kibu.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sat, 28 Feb 2026 14:00:24 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Kibu, secures, investment, offer, from, Peter, Jones, and, Jenna, Meek, after, Dragons’, Den, pitch</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Hornby steers sale of near 70&#45;year&#45;old toy brand Scalextric for £20m</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/hornby-steers-sale-of-near-70-year-old-toy-brand-scalextric-for-20m</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/hornby-steers-sale-of-near-70-year-old-toy-brand-scalextric-for-20m</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Hornby has agreed to sell iconic slot car brand Scalextric to Purbeck Capital Partners for £20m, using the proceeds to cut debt and refocus on core brands including Airfix and model railways.
Read more: 
Hornby steers sale of near 70-year-old toy brand Scalextric for £20m ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/shutterstock_2031656987.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sat, 28 Feb 2026 14:00:22 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Hornby, steers, sale, near, 70-year-old, toy, brand, Scalextric, for, £20m</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Anthropic vs. the Pentagon: What’s actually at stake?</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/anthropic-vs-the-pentagon-whats-actually-at-stake</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/anthropic-vs-the-pentagon-whats-actually-at-stake</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Anthropic and the Pentagon are clashing over AI use in autonomous weapons and surveillance, raising high-stakes questions about national security, corporate control, and who sets the rules for military AI. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/GettyImages-2218106494.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sat, 28 Feb 2026 14:00:19 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Anthropic, vs., the, Pentagon:, What’s, actually, stake</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Musk bashes OpenAI in deposition, saying ‘nobody committed suicide because of Grok’</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/musk-bashes-openai-in-deposition-saying-nobody-committed-suicide-because-of-grok</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/musk-bashes-openai-in-deposition-saying-nobody-committed-suicide-because-of-grok</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ In his lawsuit against OpenAI, Musk touted xAI safety compared with ChatGPT. A few months later, xAI&#039;s Grok flooded X with nonconsensual nude images. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/GettyImages-2183887189.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sat, 28 Feb 2026 14:00:19 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Musk, bashes, OpenAI, deposition, saying, ‘nobody, committed, suicide, because, Grok’</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Pentagon moves to designate Anthropic as a supply&#45;chain risk</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/pentagon-moves-to-designate-anthropic-as-a-supply-chain-risk</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/pentagon-moves-to-designate-anthropic-as-a-supply-chain-risk</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ &quot;We don&#039;t need it, we don&#039;t want it, and will not do business with them again,&quot; the president wrote in the post. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/GettyImages-2225249178.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sat, 28 Feb 2026 14:00:19 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Pentagon, moves, designate, Anthropic, supply-chain, risk</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>OpenAI fires employee for using confidential info on prediction markets</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/openai-fires-employee-for-using-confidential-info-on-prediction-markets</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/openai-fires-employee-for-using-confidential-info-on-prediction-markets</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ The company said such trades violates its internal company policies about using confidential information for personal gain. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/OpenAI-logo-symmetry.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sat, 28 Feb 2026 14:00:02 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>OpenAI, fires, employee, for, using, confidential, info, prediction, markets</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>India disrupts access to popular developer platform Supabase with blocking order</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/india-disrupts-access-to-popular-developer-platform-supabase-with-blocking-order</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/india-disrupts-access-to-popular-developer-platform-supabase-with-blocking-order</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ India, one of Supabase’s biggest markets, is seeing patchy access after a government block order. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/supabase.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sat, 28 Feb 2026 14:00:02 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>India, disrupts, access, popular, developer, platform, Supabase, with, blocking, order</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>How Starbucks designed its new iconic cup and big comfy chair</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/how-starbucks-designed-its-new-iconic-cup-and-big-comfy-chair</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/how-starbucks-designed-its-new-iconic-cup-and-big-comfy-chair</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Since taking over the coffee chain in 2024, Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol has been on a mission to go “back to Starbucks” and rekindle the feeling of warmth inside the coffee giant.



That’s led to new store designs, new employee training, new uniforms, new menu items, and new staffing—which have helped the company break out of a two-year sales rut. 



But as part of this deep strategic exploration, Niccol made two specific asks for Starbucks’s cross-discipline design team that are being revealed today: an iconic new cup and a new plush chair.



As the literal touchpoints between the consumer and the company, “they are the biggest signals we have of warmth, comfort, and generosity,” says Dawn Clark, SVP of global concepts and design at Starbucks. 



The new Starbucks cup (ceramic in every size)



[Photo: Courtesy of Starbucks]



The new Starbucks cup is not just one cup, but five different glazed ceramic options—each offered to customers who stay to enjoy their coffee. Built to accommodate drinks ranging from a single shot of espresso to a venti latte, the cups come in white (inspired by their takeaway cup, with a hand-painted green siren and rim), and green (where the siren is embossed). Notably, the cups all share the same tapered silhouette. 



Clark says the cup design took inspiration from a blend of Italy’s espresso culture and Starbucks’s own mercantile and coffee trading history. The result lands somewhere between European sensibility and American utility. After concepting different designs, they came up with four frontrunners which they 3D printed and shared with various stakeholders across the company—ranging from corporate executives to on-the-ground baristas. They refined the designs and rendered them in ceramic before making the final choice.



The company knew it wanted a single, strongly branded silhouette across every size, which limited what could work. “It’s a really big design challenge because not all those forms that looked good in a short or tall looked great in a mini or large size,” Clark says. The other, perhaps bigger problem was drinkability. Different geometries affect how the coffee flows into your mouth, and those geometries don’t always scale well. They also needed to survive countless rounds of dishwashers.



[Photo: Courtesy of Starbucks]



The wide-mouth, tapered design won out because it satisfied every above requirement. But most of all, Clark says it was just a really nice vessel for drinking, shaped to make the coffee “go with the flow” perfectly from the cup to your lips.



From what I gathered, Starbucks may eventually choose to sell these mugs as merch, and it’s easy to imagine the company introducing special colorways for limited-time offerings. A toasty orange version for PSL season feels almost inevitable. 



The new Starbucks chair (in green this time)



[Photo: Courtesy of Starbucks]



While cups are intrinsic to coffee, the new Starbucks chair requires a bit more explanation. Even brand devotees may have forgotten a piece of lost history in Starbucks lore. In the ’90s, when Starbucks took lattes mainstream across America, many stores had one or two special, extra-wide, purple velvet chairs. They were an almost Dr. Suessian take on the hyper plush living room seating of that decade, meant to shake up the rigidity of Starbucks’s design at the time while urging you to stay a while.  



“What was great about that chair is it was oversized; it wasn’t practical. It was very much like you could maybe have two people sit in it, you could put your feet up, swing your legs over the arm. There were a lot of ways to occupy it,” Clark says. “That was a big part of the inspiration [for a redux]—and also the lushness of the texture.”



Indeed, Niccol told me last year that an updated chair needed to imbue something akin to FOMO when sitting down at Starbucks: “It’s got to be the seat that when you walk in, you’re like, ‘Man, I can’t wait for him to get up. I’m hopping in that chair the second he does.’”



Starbucks landed on a design that resurrects hefty ‘90s furniture and adds a dollop of midcentury design. I find myself sucked back into 1996 just looking at it.



You see the same voluptuous arm silhouettes from the original chair (don’t worry, they’re still fixing that ruching), but it’s framed in wood (albeit with far more weight than you’d see in traditional midcentury design—or even the rest of Starbucks’s midcentury-inspired furnishings). The visual heft of the entire chair is intentional, built to exude confidence that it can accommodate your most leisurely posture.



[Photo: Courtesy of Starbucks]



“It’s a little overly generous in its invitation to be comfortable,” Clark says.



Like the cup, Starbucks developed the new chair in-house. The process began with an adjustable ergonomic model. Built from a CMF frame and sparse cushioning, it looks straight out of IKEA, but the system allowed the team to study how it would feel to sit (and eat and drink) at various angles. From there, they built a cardboard massing model to lock in its curves and proportions. For the final production sample, the company went with its rich Starbucks green because, gosh is that purple a statement. But more colors could enter the mix in the future.



No doubt, this is a premium chair for a QSR restaurant—most stores may get one or two. Its inevitable cost and maintenance is probably why Starbucks ditched their purple chair years ago, which I recall looking pretty gnarly before they up and disappeared. Clark believes its new velvet fabric will be easier to clean, and that Starbucks locations can get five to ten years out of a chair before retiring it or even reupholstering it. However, she also insists that isn’t their chief concern.



“Part of what we’re in a way saying, it doesn’t exist to be convenient or easy to maintain. It exists to provide comfort. And we’re willing to take on the challenge,” Clark says. “Of course we designed it to be up to the test for all the use it gets, and we’ll have to take care of it . . . but it’s something we’re committed to.” 



The new cups and chairs will arrive in U.S. stores toward the end of 2026, while the cups are slated to go abroad in 2027. And they’ll undeniably add a little more oomph to Starbucks’s turnaround, as it works to make its cafes once again a place you want to sit and stay a while.



“I think that it really is more than just a chair or cup,” Clark says. “These are the most intimate things. These are the things you occupy or touch. We feel these are really intrinsically linked to everything about our brand.”


 ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Fri, 27 Feb 2026 14:00:10 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>How, Starbucks, designed, its, new, iconic, cup, and, big, comfy, chair</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Jack Dorsey makes a grim prediction about the future of work as he lays off 4,000 Block employees in AI push</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/jack-dorsey-makes-a-grim-prediction-about-the-future-of-work-as-he-lays-off-4000-block-employees-in-ai-push</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/jack-dorsey-makes-a-grim-prediction-about-the-future-of-work-as-he-lays-off-4000-block-employees-in-ai-push</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Jack Dorsey, CEO of Block Inc, is not only laying off nearly half of the company’s workforce, but he wants investors to think he’s an AI-focused trailblazer for doing so. 



In a letter to shareholders on Thursday, Dorsey shared that Block’s workforce is shrinking from over 10,000 people to just below 6,000 people, with some employees entering consultation. 



Dorsey credits “intelligence tools” with motivating the change, explaining that these tools and a “significantly smaller team” will allow the company to be better and do more. 



Block owns fintech brands such as the Square point-of-sale system, Cash App, and Afterpay, along with the music streaming service Tidal. 



A familiar story



If the idea of laying off employees in favor of leaner operations sounds familiar, don’t tell Dorsey that. He frames his announcement to embrace AI and put thousands of people out of a job as a forward-looking decision. 



“I don’t think we’re early to this realization. I think most companies are late,” Dorsey states. “Within the next year, I believe the majority of companies will reach the same conclusion and make similar structural changes. I’d rather get there honestly and on our own terms than be forced into it reactively.”



Block investors cheer the news



All of this came in a letter dedicated to Block’s quarter four of 2025. Dorsey shared that Block’s gross profits doubled from quarter one to four immediately after announcing the layoffs. 



Shares of Block Inc (NYSE: XYZ) were up more than 20% in premarket trading on Friday in the wake of the news. 



However, as of Thursday’s close, the stock was down more than 16% year to date. It has been trading far below the high point it had reached during the early COVID era.



Dorsey took to X (formerly Twitter, which he cofounded) to share his note to employees, using his standard no-capitals style. 



In the post, Dorsey says that laid-off employees in the U.S. will receive 20 weeks of salary, plus a week for every year of work. 



They will also get six months of healthcare, equity vested through the end of May, their corporate devices, and $5,000 to soften the transition. As is typical, employees outside the U.S. will receive different severance based on local (and typically better) requirements. 



It will likely not come as a great relief to those losing their jobs that, as Dorsey states, “We’re not making this decision because we’re in trouble.” 



He adds that Block won’t “disappear” employees from Slack and email, instead giving them until the vague time of “Thursday evening (pacific)” to get things in order. Dorsey claims he will send an additional note on Friday to all remaining employees. 



Reactions to the Block layoffs are pointed



Unsurprisingly, many people didn’t respond favorably to the news of Block’s layoffs. 



“As we’ve reported before, the key to understanding Jack Dorsey is how much he follows other tech figures and executives that came before him. He used to idolize Steve Jobs. Now he idolizes Elon Musk,” New York Times tech reporter Ryan Mac wrote on Bluesky. 



Many users took issue with the lowercase format that Dorsey used to deliver such important news on X. 



“Imagine you get canned and your CEO posts a tweet about it without any uppercase letters like he’s an early 20s girl,” one user responded on X. 



On Bluesky, another user put it succinctly: “This reminds me of the old adage, ‘Never work for Jack Dorsey under any circumstances.’” ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Fri, 27 Feb 2026 14:00:10 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
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<item>
<title>Archer Aviation and Starlink hope your first ride in an air taxi will include in&#45;flight internet</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/archer-aviation-and-starlink-hope-your-first-ride-in-an-air-taxi-will-include-in-flight-internet</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/archer-aviation-and-starlink-hope-your-first-ride-in-an-air-taxi-will-include-in-flight-internet</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Archer Aviation is installing Starlink on its Midnight electric air taxis, the company announced on February 27.



The move, an industry first, will bring “stable, reliable, and high-speed connectivity” to Archer’s vehicles courtesy of Starlink’s low-Earth-orbit satellite internet systems.



Starlink capabilities will allow passengers to access the internet in-flight while also enabling better communication between individual aircraft, pilots, and engineers on the ground to create a more integrated and connected infrastructure.



The two companies will also work on developing connectivity technology for Archer’s future autonomous aircraft, Archer said.



“Connectivity is a must-have feature for Midnight,” Adam Goldstein, founder and CEO of Archer, said in a statement. “Starlink is uniquely built to deliver it.”



Connectivity from anywhere



Starlink, which is owned and operated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, has roughly 10 million customers around the world, mostly in North America.



Its satellite internet service is popular with customers who live in rural areas without reliable broadband or traditional internet infrastructure. It’s also used by various maritime and aviation companies that operate in remote areas on ships, aircraft, and offshore platforms.



A new salvo in the flying-taxi wars



The partnership gives Archer an edge in the growing race to fill the skies with electric air taxis, which are still largely in the pre-commercial phase.



The Federal Aviation Administration has given air taxis a regulatory path to move forward toward commercial operations. As a result, Archer and competitors like Joby Aviation are seen by supporters as being poised for growth in the coming years.



Archer teamed with United Airlines last year to create an air taxi network around Manhattan, connecting the area’s major and regional airports with vertiports around the city. 



The company will also serve as the official air taxi of the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. That means its Midnight aircraft will shuttle athletes and spectators around Southern California to various events and venues.



The air taxis’ Starlink capabilities will allow passengers to stay connected as they travel—if everything goes as planned.



Shares of Archer Aviation have been volatile. After seeing numerous spikes throughout 2025, the stock (NYSE: ACHR) was down 9.23% year to date as of February 26.


 ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Fri, 27 Feb 2026 14:00:10 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Archer, Aviation, and, Starlink, hope, your, first, ride, air, taxi, will, include, in-flight, internet</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Jack Dorsey’s fintech company Block is laying off thousands, citing gains from AI</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/jack-dorseys-fintech-company-block-is-laying-off-thousands-citing-gains-from-ai</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/jack-dorseys-fintech-company-block-is-laying-off-thousands-citing-gains-from-ai</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Shares in the financial technology company Block soared more than 20% in premarket trading Friday after its CEO announced it was laying off more than 4,000 of its 10,000 plus employees, reconfiguring to capitalize on its use of artificial intelligence.“The core thesis is simple. Intelligence tools have changed what it means to build and run a company,” Jack Dorsey said in a letter to shareholders in Block, the parent company to online payment platforms such as Square and Cash App. “A significantly smaller team, using the tools we’re building, can do more and do it better,” he said.Dorsey’s comments explicitly naming AI as a key driver behind the move were also posted on X, or Twitter, a company he co-founded. The assertion that the job cuts will add to Block’s profitability and efficiency led investors to jump in and buy, analysts said.Block’s shares gained 5% Thursday to $54.53, before it reported its earnings. They shot up to nearly $69 in after-hours trading. The mobile payments services provider reported its fourth quarter gross profit jumped 24% from a year earlier.“For years, we have debated whether AI would dent jobs at the margin. Now we have a public case study in which the CEO explicitly says that intelligence tools have changed what it means to build and run a company,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary.“Other large employers have announced tens of thousands of cuts in recent months. Some have downplayed the AI link. Block did not,” he said.A global technology company founded in 2009, San Francisco-based Block operates in the United States, Canada, parts of Europe, Australia and Japan.In a post on Twitter, Dorsey outlined various ways the company will support those laid off. For employees overseas, the terms might differ, he said.It was unclear which employees would be laid off where.Layoffs by American companies remain at relatively healthy levels, but the job cuts at Block are the latest among thousands announced in recent months.A number of other high-profile companies have announced layoffs recently, including UPS, Amazon, Dow and the Washington Post.



—Elaine Kurtenbach, AP Business Writer ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Fri, 27 Feb 2026 14:00:10 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Jack, Dorsey’s, fintech, company, Block, laying, off, thousands, citing, gains, from</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Moltbook: The conversation we should be having</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/moltbook-the-conversation-we-should-be-having</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/moltbook-the-conversation-we-should-be-having</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ In early February, the AI world found itself worked up over Moltbook, a social platform for AI agents to communicate and interact. These AI agents allegedly created their own language, their own religion, their own fleets of mini-agents. It’s like The Matrix was happening in front of our eyes.



What a boondoggle.



I say “allegedly” because it turns out many of these agents were being directed by humans, among other Mechanical Turk-style fakeries.



Moltbook is worth a conversation, for sure, but not the one taking place. Here’s how we should really be thinking about it.



TOKEN CARNAGE



Running AI infrastructure costs are astronomical. Back in 2023, it was estimated that OpenAI spends around $700,000 per day to run ChatGPT—about 36 cents per query. However, in 2024 with the release of its higher-performing o3 model, some queries cost over $1,000 of computing power. Consequently, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman reports the company is even losing money on its $200 ChatGPT Pro subscriptions.



As models become more capable and heavy-duty, they will become more energy-intensive. The data centers powering AI are predicted to consume the same amount of water as 10 million Americans and produce as much carbon dioxide as 10 million cars. It taxes electrical grids and water supplies.



Point being, these agents running amok are running up the AI bill we all must pay, in the form of environmental costs or potential economic disaster. Remember, these agents aren’t just talking. They’re coding, they’re generating images and video, they’re spawning new agents—and for what? We already knew agents could do all the things they’re doing on Moltbook.



The planet is a finite resource. Sooner or later, we’ll all bear the cost. Some already are.



AI BROS AND WOMB ENVY



There is a certain type of tech bro who is enthralled with the idea of AI not as tool, but as legitimate consciousness, if not a new species. And boy do those bros love Moltbook. Why?



Every man is made by a woman. They are likely fed, cared for, and taught by women. Women create everyone in the world, which is a problem for the narrative of superiority that men (not all, but at large) have created for themselves. Why else did men write the story of Eve coming from Adam’s rib? Looks to me like the original gaslight.



Is the quest to create a new species that supersedes humanity, perhaps at the cost of humanity’s extinction, born out of womb envy? Creating human-like AI is perhaps subconsciously a way for these men to give birth and cut women out of the loop. That’s why they’re so bent on proving how human AI machines can be.



And if you examine the way Moltbook’s agents behave and talk to each other, you’ll notice they act just like that particular brand of tech bro who made them. Their mini-me’s?



No thanks. We don’t need any more misanthropic anti-heroes.



THE GRIFT THAT KEEPS ON GRIFTING



Instead of becoming a tool—a discipline, that can solve the world’s problems—tech has become a cloak-and-dagger get-rich scheme. Superfluous nonsense like Moltbook encourages this trend. Spectacle becomes speculation becomes investment.



Tech, and the people building it, must have values and vision beyond making money. Otherwise, what are we building here?



Lindsey Witmer Collins is founder of WLCM App Studio. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Fri, 27 Feb 2026 14:00:10 +0000</pubDate>
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<media:keywords>Moltbook:, The, conversation, should, having</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>A complete list of Scottish business grants</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/a-complete-list-of-scottish-business-grants</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/a-complete-list-of-scottish-business-grants</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ By Ben Lobel on Small Business UK - Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs


Here, we provide information on the Scottish business grants that could help your company grow and flourish 
The post A complete list of Scottish business grants appeared first on Small Business UK. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Fri, 27 Feb 2026 14:00:08 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>complete, list, Scottish, business, grants</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>What to know before starting your own cleaning business</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/what-to-know-before-starting-your-own-cleaning-business</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/what-to-know-before-starting-your-own-cleaning-business</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ By Ben Lobel on Small Business UK - Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs


We give some pointers on starting your own business in the cleaning sector, including costs, insurance and building your customer base
The post What to know before starting your own cleaning business appeared first on Small Business UK. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Fri, 27 Feb 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>What, know, before, starting, your, own, cleaning, business</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>The 6 best retail POS systems</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/the-6-best-retail-pos-systems</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/the-6-best-retail-pos-systems</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ By Henry Williams on Small Business UK - Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs


We’ve rung up the fees and features of top providers to find the best retail POS systems for small retail stores – check out the list below 
The post The 6 best retail POS systems appeared first on Small Business UK. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Fri, 27 Feb 2026 14:00:06 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>The, best, retail, POS, systems</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Lamborghini scraps electric supercar plans and doubles down on hybrids</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/lamborghini-scraps-electric-supercar-plans-and-doubles-down-on-hybrids</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/lamborghini-scraps-electric-supercar-plans-and-doubles-down-on-hybrids</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Lamborghini has cancelled its planned Lanzador EV, with CEO Stephan Winkelmann saying weak demand makes full-electric models financially risky.
Read more: 
Lamborghini scraps electric supercar plans and doubles down on hybrids ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/lamborghini-lanzador-concept-9.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Tue, 24 Feb 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Lamborghini, scraps, electric, supercar, plans, and, doubles, down, hybrids</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Brompton shifts focus to China as US tariff turmoil dents confidence</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/brompton-shifts-focus-to-china-as-us-tariff-turmoil-dents-confidence</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/brompton-shifts-focus-to-china-as-us-tariff-turmoil-dents-confidence</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Brompton Bicycle has closed US stores and slowed American investment, citing tariff uncertainty, while expanding its retail footprint in China.
Read more: 
Brompton shifts focus to China as US tariff turmoil dents confidence ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/shutterstock_1673617780.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Tue, 24 Feb 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Brompton, shifts, focus, China, tariff, turmoil, dents, confidence</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>What Are the Top ISO Certification Providers?</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/what-are-the-top-iso-certification-providers</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/what-are-the-top-iso-certification-providers</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
As business leaders assess the most effective ways to remain competitive and in demand within a challenging marketplace, many set goals to secure certifications from the International Organization for Standardization. The ISO does not award these, but relies on external partners.
Read more: 
What Are the Top ISO Certification Providers? ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/shutterstock_2410284291.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Tue, 24 Feb 2026 14:00:06 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>What, Are, the, Top, ISO, Certification, Providers</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>FedEx sues US government seeking refund over Trump tariffs</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/fedex-sues-us-government-seeking-refund-over-trump-tariffs</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/fedex-sues-us-government-seeking-refund-over-trump-tariffs</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
FedEx has filed suit against the US government seeking a full refund of tariffs imposed under Donald Trump after the Supreme Court ruled them unlawful.
Read more: 
FedEx sues US government seeking refund over Trump tariffs ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/shutterstock_2644092439-scaled.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Tue, 24 Feb 2026 14:00:06 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>FedEx, sues, government, seeking, refund, over, Trump, tariffs</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Enginuity raises £500,000 to unlock $1.58tn in unused global innovation</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/enginuity-raises-500000-to-unlock-158tn-in-unused-global-innovation</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/enginuity-raises-500000-to-unlock-158tn-in-unused-global-innovation</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
AI startup Enginuity has secured £500,000 led by Fuel Ventures to commercialise dormant patents and connect global IP with live market demand.
Read more: 
Enginuity raises £500,000 to unlock $1.58tn in unused global innovation ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/shutterstock_307219181-scaled.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Tue, 24 Feb 2026 14:00:05 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Enginuity, raises, £500, 000, unlock, 1.58tn, unused, global, innovation</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Tesla’s battle with the California Department of Motor Vehicles isn’t over after all</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/teslas-battle-with-the-california-department-of-motor-vehicles-isnt-over-after-all</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/teslas-battle-with-the-california-department-of-motor-vehicles-isnt-over-after-all</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Tesla has filed a lawsuit against the California DMV in the ongoing battle around Autopilot. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Tue, 24 Feb 2026 14:00:04 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Tesla’s, battle, with, the, California, Department, Motor, Vehicles, isn’t, over, after, all</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>A Meta AI security researcher said an OpenClaw agent ran amok on her inbox </title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/a-meta-ai-security-researcher-said-an-openclaw-agent-ran-amok-on-her-inbox</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/a-meta-ai-security-researcher-said-an-openclaw-agent-ran-amok-on-her-inbox</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ The viral X post from an AI security researcher reads like satire. But it&#039;s really a word of warning about what can go wrong when handing tasks to an AI agent. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Y-Combinator-Crab.png" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Tue, 24 Feb 2026 14:00:04 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Meta, security, researcher, said, OpenClaw, agent, ran, amok, her, inbox </media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Stripe, PayPal Ventures bet on India’s Xflow to fix cross&#45;border B2B payments</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/stripe-paypal-ventures-bet-on-indias-xflow-to-fix-cross-border-b2b-payments</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/stripe-paypal-ventures-bet-on-indias-xflow-to-fix-cross-border-b2b-payments</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Stripe and PayPal Ventures have participated in Xflow&#039;s $16.6 million round that gives it a post-money valuation of $85 million. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Tue, 24 Feb 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Stripe, PayPal, Ventures, bet, India’s, Xflow, fix, cross-border, B2B, payments</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Canva acquires startups working on animation and marketing</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/canva-acquires-startups-working-on-animation-and-marketing</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/canva-acquires-startups-working-on-animation-and-marketing</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ With the new acquisitions, the company wants to bolster its position as a marketing solution by potentially adding video creation and more granular measurement. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Tue, 24 Feb 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Canva, acquires, startups, working, animation, and, marketing</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Nimble raises $47M to give AI agents access to real&#45;time web data</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/nimble-raises-47m-to-give-ai-agents-access-to-real-time-web-data</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/nimble-raises-47m-to-give-ai-agents-access-to-real-time-web-data</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Nimble uses AI agents to search the web, verify and validate the results, and then clean and structure the information into neat tables that can then be queried like a database. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Tue, 24 Feb 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Nimble, raises, 47M, give, agents, access, real-time, web, data</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>4 Ways To Make Your Next Business Meeting As Efficient As Possible</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/4-ways-to-make-your-next-business-meeting-as-efficient-as-possible</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/4-ways-to-make-your-next-business-meeting-as-efficient-as-possible</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Business meetings have a tendency to run over the time allotted and to run off track. That can cause employees to get bored and lose focus really quickly. Whether meeting with employees or clients, you need to know how to run those meetings more efficiently so that people don’t start to get bored. This ensures […]
The post 4 Ways To Make Your Next Business Meeting As Efficient As Possible appeared first on Fincyte. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Mon, 23 Feb 2026 14:00:15 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Ways, Make, Your, Next, Business, Meeting, Efficient, Possible</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Meet the small group of engineers helping the public sift through the Epstein files </title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/meet-thesmall-group-of-engineers-helpingthe-publicsift-throughthe-epstein-files</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/meet-thesmall-group-of-engineers-helpingthe-publicsift-throughthe-epstein-files</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ After officials released millions of pages of documents related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, revelations in his emails and other files have led to the resignations of multiple corporate executives, new investigations into abuses by Epstein and potential accomplices, and even the arrest of the United Kingdom’s former Prince Andrew.



For those looking to research Epstein’s vast correspondence and web of connections across industry, government, and academia, some of the most effective tools have been built not by federal investigators or big-name news organizations but by a scrappy team of volunteer developers.



Starting with a website called Jmail, which made Epstein’s publicly released emails searchable through an interface cheekily copied from Gmail, they have since built a set of web apps modeled after familiar sites like Google Drive, Wikipedia, Amazon, and YouTube. The goal: to turn messy PDFs and other files released in bulk by federal officials into something members of the public—including journalists—can more easily search and understand. 



Key to the project’s speedy success is the technical talent of the team of around 15 named core contributors. But equally vital, they say, is the current wave of AI tools that helped them rapidly generate code and process huge troves of data.



“So not only do we have an app that we were able to make very quickly, we have data that can populate that app with real content,” says Luke Igel, among the project’s initial creators. “Both those things had to come together; both of those were not possible a few years ago.”



Igel, an MIT grad who is cofounder and CEO of video software company Kino, says the inspiration for the project came after he and a friend were discussing an initial tranche of Epstein-related documents released by members of Congress in November. They were struck by the extent of Epstein’s ties to political figures across party lines and around the world but questioned whether the public would be able to fully understand the story as the data was initially presented. 



Igel then reached out to Riley Walz, a developer and entrepreneur known for creative internet projects (including a recent parody of Apple’s “Find My” interface that tracked San Francisco parking enforcement officers) about collecting the emails in a Gmail-style interface.



Thanks to AI development tools like Cursor and Anthropic’s Claude models, the pair was able to put together the first version of Jmail in just a few hours, Igel says. “We cloned Gmail, except you’re logged in as Epstein and can see his emails,” Walz announced in a viral X post in November.



When the Department of Justice released an additional trove of files in December, spurred by the Epstein Files Transparency Act passed by Congress the previous month, a group of about 10 collaborators gathered at Igel’s San Francisco home and via video conference to build the next iteration of the software. 



The team also had help from a company called Reducto—a maker of software that turns messy PDFs and other complex documents into structured data—to parse the newly released files, which had become too complex for general-purpose AI tools to decipher reliably.



“A lot of these PDFs are scans of printouts or handwriting,” says Adel Wu, who works on growth at Reducto. “It was actually very messy.” 



The company—which is located in the same building as Kino—had already been considering doing something with the Epstein files and quickly decided to support the Jmail effort after hearing about it, says founding engineer Omar Alhait, noting, “We very quickly went through all of the documents and parsed out all relevant email information from them.”



Reducto’s software helped accurately render redactions within the documents and even let the team extract complex information like Epstein’s flight data, which was made available in a Google Flights-style interface called JFlights. Again, AI—including Anthropic’s then-new Claude Opus 4.5 model—helped the Jmail team rapidly develop new features and apps and merge thousands of code updates in a short time. 



“So much of what I thought was core to software engineering is actually something that this model can help you with and help you blast through very quickly,” Igel says.



The team’s investment in infrastructure let them quickly import, process, and share additional documents released just before Christmas, though the project drew even more attention after a massive DOJ release of millions of Epstein-related files on January 30. Handling that release required not only processing the new documents—Alhait says it took Reducto about three days to crunch through the data—but also beefing up the project’s infrastructure to handle an influx of traffic as public interest in the files continued to grow.



“Tons of people came to the house again, and this time we really just had to make it scale,” Igel says. “Everything broke. Tons of scaling issues we thought we had solved, with database outages and caching failing, came through again.” 



With the help of AI tools, the team stabilized the site, which has now served more than 500 million page requests to more than 50 million unique visitors. The project has also expanded beyond Jmail and JFlights to include an AI guide to the files called Jemini, a video repository called JeffTube, a file repository known as JDrive, and even a searchable log of Epstein’s Amazon orders called Jamazon.



The team works to ensure information in the files is properly redacted to protect sensitive details, taking care to update the site’s available materials to reflect any new redactions by federal officials. “It’s very, very important to us to be as responsible as possible when surfacing information to the public,” says Melissa Du, an AI research engineer who works on the project. “We obviously don’t want to be over-redacting, but also the privacy of the victims is of utmost importance.” 



Du, another MIT grad, says she became “morbidly fascinated” by the first set of files released on Jmail, including documents referencing MIT-linked academics such as former Media Lab director Joi Ito and professor emeritus Noam Chomsky. She has since worked on aspects of the project such as JDrive for data management and the Wikipedia-style Jwiki, which was first populated with write-ups of key Epstein-linked figures generated by AI and then carefully vetted before publication.



Perhaps most striking about the project is that a small group of developers was able to do what major media organizations had done in organizing previous viral data repositories, like former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden’s revelations about government surveillance or the offshore finance leaks known as the Panama Papers. 



The team has received about $32,000 in donations to cover various costs, along with donated technical services from Reducto, Kino, and cloud provider Vercel. But the core work has been carried out by developers with their own day jobs and startups.



Though at times Igel wondered whether the project would be effectively scooped by big news organizations building their own Epstein data explorers, data from the Jmail project has actually been cited by news outlets including The Economist. The team has also been in touch with congressional staffers about passing on crowdsourced requests for release of potentially excessively redacted files. 



And additional features are being considered, including a Google Calendar-style interface to explore calendar data in the repository, says Igel, who notes that the underlying code from the project will also likely be released as open source in the future.  



Already the project stands as an example of what’s possible for a talented team equipped with the latest in AI development and data processing tools. “We’ve really relied on the new AI models,” Du says. “And we’ve also just had a very high level of trust across the team.” 


 ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Mon, 23 Feb 2026 14:00:14 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Meet, the small, group, engineers, helping the, public sift, through the, Epstein, files </media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>How to spot a ‘ghost job’ before you waste time applying</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/how-to-spot-a-ghost-job-before-you-waste-time-applying</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/how-to-spot-a-ghost-job-before-you-waste-time-applying</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Ghost jobs are postings for positions that don’t actually exist for various reasons, and they waste countless hours for job seekers who apply to roles that were never meant to be filled. Experts in recruiting and career strategy have identified specific warning signs that reveal when a posting is likely fake or abandoned. This guide breaks down how to recognize these red flags before investing time in an application, so you can better focus your efforts on genuine opportunities.



Prioritize Responsive Employers that Show Immediate Engagement



One reliable way to identify a ghost job is to see whether applying to it leads to any human response at all. Today, silence has become the norm. I’ve watched thousands of job seekers reach out to employers saying it feels like they’re reaching out into a void. The numbers tell a similar story; research shows that only about 20% to 25% of applications submitted on large job boards, like Indeed, receive any response, which means the majority of applicants never hear back.



That is why so many job seekers feel stuck. Many are not being rejected, but they’re being ignored by jobs that were never truly open. Some listings exist to build applicant pipelines, satisfy internal posting requirements, or because job distribution is automated even when no recruiter is actively reviewing candidates.



We’ve learned to spot the difference between a real opening and a ghost job by watching for one thing: action. When a role is genuinely open, employers engage quickly by reviewing candidates, sending messages, or moving applicants into next steps. When there is no engagement at all, the listing may exist in name only.



Job seekers can better focus their efforts by looking for signals of immediacy and accountability. Listings that include clear location details, shift times, pay ranges, or start timing are far more likely to be tied to real hiring needs. Applying locally and prioritizing roles where employers are actively engaging candidates leads to better outcomes than applying broadly and hoping for a response.



—Debbie Emery, Cofounder &amp; CSO, Juvo Jobs



Follow Projects and Investment Signals for Reality



Another good way to spot a ghost job is to look at how disconnected the posting feels from what’s actually happening in the sector. In energy, where I specialize, hiring is almost always tied to a real project, a capital investment, or some kind of regulatory timeline. So that’s a key indicator: If a role keeps getting reposted for months, the description never really changes, and there’s no clear business reason behind it, it might just be a ghost job.



I’ve seen this happen a lot with software and data roles at utilities. There was one utility that kept reposting a cloud engineering role for close to a year. On paper it looked urgent. In reality, their digital transformation project had been paused while they waited on regulatory approval, but HR kept the job live to collect résumés. Candidates were spending hours interviewing for a role that couldn’t even be funded yet. Internally, everyone knew what was going on. Externally, it looked like a great opportunity.



For job seekers, I’d say the safest move is to follow the money and follow the projects. Pay attention to which companies just secured funding, announced expansions, or won major contracts. 



In energy, hiring tends to follow infrastructure. If a company just broke ground on a new facility or announced a big grid modernization program, those roles are usually real. 



Your sector likely has its own red and green flags; take a minute to establish them early on. Then, keep your eyes open.



—Jon Hill, Managing Partner, Tall Trees Talent



Target Newly Posted Positions with Urgency



An easy way to spot a ghost job listing is when the same role sits online for months with no real changes. In real hiring cycles, things usually move fast, or at least you see progress. When a job keeps showing up again and again, or never fully closes, it is often there to collect résumés or test the market, not to hire right now.



We constantly update our job postings on Indeed. I work closely with our team managers to shape each listing, tweak the wording, and pull roles down when hiring pauses. That is why ghost jobs stand out to me so clearly.



There was this one company in particular that always seemed to have the same opening listed on Indeed. It was a marketing manager’s role that got reposted every 30 days for almost a year. We’ve posted and filled at least five positions over the past six months, but that specific position was still open.



Behind the scenes, I’m guessing candidates kept applying and following up for that role. But no interviews were happening at all. The post stayed live only to build a future talent pool, which felt unfair to job seekers putting in real effort.



To focus on real opportunities, I usually tell job seekers to look for roles posted within the last 14 to 30 days and scan for signs of real activity. This can be a named hiring manager, clear next steps in the process, or recent team growth on LinkedIn.



From what I have seen, applying to fewer roles with stronger signals of urgency works better than sending out dozens of applications and hoping one sticks.



—Lauren Byrne, Co-Owner and Head of HR, My Biz Niche



Watch for Reposts, Research Beyond the Listing



Job searching requires time, emotional energy, and vulnerability. When a role turns out to be a ghost job, or worse, a risky one, it understandably erodes trust in the hiring process and in employers more broadly.



One reliable way to spot a ghost job is when a role has been posted or repeatedly reposted for months with no visible hiring activity or meaningful evolution. These listings are often vague, evergreen, and disconnected from a clear, time-bound business need.



I see this most often with fast-growing companies that are fundraising or planning for future scale. From an employer perspective, building a talent pipeline is strategic. From a candidate perspective, applying to a role that is not actively being filled can feel misleading. A strong candidate experience depends on transparency. If a role is exploratory or pipeline-based, say so clearly. Candidates deserve to know whether an opportunity is immediate or future-facing.



Other things to be mindful of: Legitimate employers do not ask for personal or financial information such as banking details, SIN/SSN, or government ID during the application or interview process. That information is only collected after a formal offer has been made and accepted, typically through secure onboarding systems. I have seen candidates targeted through fake or misleading job postings that quickly move conversations off platform and request personal details under the guise of “pre-onboarding” or “payroll setup.” These are clear red flags.



For job seekers, taking your research further can make a meaningful difference. Look beyond the posting itself. Review the company’s website, its LinkedIn employer profile, and the profiles of potential hiring managers or team members. Platforms like Glassdoor can also provide useful context when viewed thoughtfully. Pairing this research with a focus on recently posted roles and clear ownership, and combining applications with targeted outreach, helps reduce wasted effort and job search burnout.



For employers, the takeaway is simple. Hiring practices are part of your brand. If you are building a pipeline, be transparent about it. Trust is built through clarity, not ambiguity.



—Heidi Hauver, Executive Advisor &amp; Mentor | Fractional VP, People &amp; Culture



Spot Vague Descriptions



Vague job descriptions paired with little or no movement in the hiring process are another red flag. If a posting lists generic responsibilities, lacks clear success metrics, and there’s no defined next step or timeline; it’s often a sign that the company isn’t truly ready to hire.



I’ve seen this firsthand when companies post roles before aligning internally. They think they’re hiring, but they haven’t clarified what success in the role actually looks like. That lack of structure leads to stalled searches and leaves candidates hanging.



To avoid ghost jobs and focus on real opportunities, job seekers should look for postings that are outcome-based, with clear expectations and a transparent process. Companies that understand job fit, and define the role based on competencies, tend to move faster and hire more intentionally.



—Linda Scorzo, CEO, Hiring Indicators



Chase Recently Funded Firms where Demand Exists



Another reliable way to spot a ghost job is to step back and look at the hiring context of the company, not just the job description itself.



First, pay attention to the total number of open roles a company is posting and whether the employer is actually a recruiting or staffing agency. Agencies often publish large volumes of roles to build résumé pipelines, even when no active opening exists. If a company consistently posts dozens or hundreds of similar roles without clear hiring updates, that’s a strong red flag.



Second, if the company has only a few openings, check who the company is and why they might be hiring now. Well-known brands or Fortune 500 companies often keep roles open continuously for “evergreen” hiring or future needs. In contrast, genuine hiring urgency is usually tied to recent business events, such as a funding round or rapid expansion. You can verify this by checking sources like TechCrunch or recent press releases.



From my experience, the most efficient strategy is to focus on startups that raised significant funding within the last one to three months. Fresh capital almost always translates into real hiring pressure, defined roles, and faster decision cycles. Platforms like Wellfound (AngelList Talent) make this especially easy, as many startups there are actively converting funding into immediate hires.



In short, job seekers should shift their effort from volume-based applying to signal-based targeting: companies with recent funding, clear growth drivers, and a concrete reason to hire right now. This dramatically reduces wasted applications and increases the odds of engaging with real, active opportunities.



—Bogdan Serebrykaov, Founder &amp; CEO, Careery



Favor Definite Steps toward Live Interviews



One reliable red flag is a process that never outlines clear steps toward a live interview. At the SHRM25 Executive Network Experience, HR leaders told me they are bringing candidates into the office earlier to confirm identity because of deep fakes, and processes that outline this process upfront are more credible than those that are vague. Job seekers should focus on employers that clearly describe those in-person steps in the job description and early communications.



—Colleen Paulson, Executive Career Consultant, Ageless Careers



Match Role Scope to Company Stage



One thing I’ve learned is that a job posting can sound way bigger than the company actually is, and that’s a strong sign it might be a ghost job. If the role promises “global leadership,” “building a world-class team,” or “executive-level strategy” for a startup that only has a handful of employees, it usually means the posting was created to attract clicks or collect résumés, not to fill a real position.



I once saw a listing for a “VP of Growth” at a tiny SaaS company with no marketing team and only a couple of customers. The job description read like it was written for a large enterprise. When I checked the company’s LinkedIn and website, there was no evidence they were scaling at that level, so it didn’t feel genuine.



To avoid wasting time, I recommend focusing on companies whose job descriptions match their real size and stage. A genuine opportunity will clearly describe the team structure, the current product roadmap, and what success looks like in the first 90 days. If those details are missing or exaggerated, treat it as a red flag.



So my advice is to avoid chasing roles that sound too big for the company. Instead, focus your energy on listings where the job scope matches the company’s real-world reality. That’s how you find real opportunities.



—Monica Panait, CMO, Brizy



Cross Check Ads against Employer-Owned Channels



I would say that one reliable way to spot a ghost job is to check when the job was posted against the company’s own careers page or their social media activity.



I tend to see roles on LinkedIn which say that the job was posted two days ago. But if you really dig into the company’s website, the same role has been listed with the exact same description for several months now.



You should focus on the active signals instead of just open roles. I recommend looking for a hiring manager posting about the role personally on their LinkedIn profile or on Twitter in the past week.



If you’re only able to find evidence of that job on an automated feed on a job board, then it’s quite likely just a “pipeline builder” and not something the company is taking very seriously. But if there’s a human behind it talking about the role, then there is a real budget attached to that role right now.



—Jeremy Chatelaine, Founder &amp; CEO, MonsterOps



Verify Local Contact Numbers before You Proceed



Job seekers should know that an out-of-town—or country—phone number is often a red flag.



On its own, it seems like a small detail. People move and often keep their old numbers. But businesses are different. A legitimate company hiring for a real, funded role should have a local presence tied to the market they operate in. Even large national or global companies still maintain local recruiting numbers, local HR contacts, or at minimum a clear corporate line that routes internally. So, when a posting claims to be hiring in Dallas, Chicago, or Toronto, but every call comes from an overseas call center or a rotating set of untraceable numbers, that’s worth paying attention to.



In my experience, real hiring teams want to be reachable. They want candidates to be able to call back, verify who they spoke with, and feel confident about who is on the other end of the process. When a company refuses to provide a local number, hides behind VOIP lines, or routes all recruiting through offshore screening centers with no accountability, it often means the role itself isn’t real. It doesn’t mean you walk away immediately. But it does mean you proceed carefully, protect your time, and keep your expectations realistic.



—Ben Lamarche, General Manager, Lock Search Group



Ask Specific Questions, Confirm Real Work



The most reliable signal of a ghost job is how the hiring manager responds to technical questions about the actual work. When I’m actively hiring, I can tell you exactly what technologies you’d be working with, which client projects need support, and what the team structure looks like. If you ask specific questions about the tech stack, the development process, or what the first month would look like and get vague answers or deflection, that’s your warning sign. Real hiring managers are usually eager to talk about the work because they need to fill the role and want candidates who understand what they’re signing up for.



Job seekers should treat initial conversations like due diligence, not auditions. Ask about timelines, who you’d report to, what problem this hire solves, and why the position is open. A legitimate manager will answer these directly because they’re trying to assess fit just as much as you are.



I’ve seen candidates waste months chasing roles where the company was “just collecting résumés” or the position was frozen but still posted. The ones who filtered fast by asking pointed questions about the actual work moved on to real opportunities while others were still waiting for callbacks that would never come.



—Sergiy Fitsak, Managing Director, Fintech Expert, Softjourn



Review Team Activity around Announced Vacancies



If the hiring team or recruiter don’t have activity regarding the open position, that can be a red flag. Let’s assume a company advertises open roles. If the hiring team or internal recruiters haven’t posted, shared, or commented on these open positions, it is likely a ghost job. 



Companies tend to be loud and very active about their open positions and willingness to recruit people to join their mission. Check for activities from the company’s hiring team or internal recruiters. 



Even better, use LinkedIn to search for people who worked at the company and if they started new jobs elsewhere within the last month. If they did, then the company is trying to fill their vacuum and the opportunity is real.



—Anush Gasparian, Human Resources Director, Phonexa



Treat Easy Apply as a Red Flag



I have seen the job search process from all sides, and for me, the most striking indicator of ghost job postings is the use of LinkedIn’s Easy Apply feature.



When an employer posts an Easy Apply job, they instantly receive hundreds or thousands of responses, most of which are irrelevant, while worthy candidates get lost in the white noise. In addition, candidates sometimes simply don’t remember that they applied for your job and may not respond to your messages. In short, from the perspective of a recruiter or hiring manager, digging through hundreds of résumés is simply not practical.



In my opinion, if you see an “easy apply” button, then something is wrong with this vacancy. And I know at least a couple of reasons why these ghost vacancies are posted:




To gain followers. When a candidate applies for a vacancy, they automatically subscribe to the company’s page. This allows companies to grow their followers and raise their authority on LinkedIn.





To show potential investors, clients, or partners that the company is growing.




If I were looking for a job right now, I would perceive the easy apply button as one of the warning signs. Of course, there are genuine vacancies among them, but this is the first red flag.



—Michael Vavilov, Product Manager, Glozo ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Mon, 23 Feb 2026 14:00:14 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>How, spot, ‘ghost, job’, before, you, waste, time, applying</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>MIT researchers just mapped New York City foot traffic for the first time ever</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/mit-researchers-just-mapped-new-york-city-foot-traffic-for-the-first-time-ever</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/mit-researchers-just-mapped-new-york-city-foot-traffic-for-the-first-time-ever</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ New York City is a city of walkers. More trips are made on foot than by car (41% versus 28%) and the city’s “80X50” climate action plan envisions that 80% of all trips by 2050 will be made either on foot, by biking, or by public transit. The problem is that pedestrian movement in the city has remained largely unmapped and underestimated—until now.



Together with a team of researchers, Andres Sevtsuk, an associate professor in MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning, has built what he says is the first complete model of pedestrian activity in New York City—and it’s a model that can now be applied to any U.S. city. 



The model, which maps foot traffic across all sidewalks, crosswalks and footpaths in NYC during peak periods, reveals surprising patterns about the way people move around the city, as well as where they are most vulnerable to vehicle crashes (hint: it’s not Midtown Manhattan). It could have tremendous benefits for city planners.



Spatial distribution of estimated foot-traffic volumes in New York City during the weekday AM peak period. Blue labels describe observed pedestrian counts during the AM peak hour (in 2018 or 2019) and the white labels describe model estimates. [Image: MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning]



The pitfalls of a car-centric country



Much ink has been spilled on the car-centricity of American cities. Americans average two vehicles per household (among the highest rates in the world) and car ownership has shaped everything from suburban sprawl to infrastructure spending priorities.



Over the past decades, transportation agencies have become experts at modeling traffic and predicting vehicle flows, but as Sevtsuk points out in a study accompanying the model that was published in the journal Nature Cities, “what gets counted, counts.” The amount of transportation infrastructure funding that states receive from the Federal Highway Administration, for example, relies on vehicle miles traveled in that state. The more residents of that state drive cars, the more funding the state receives.



If cities could count the number of pedestrians that walked across their streets, they could steer more federal money into urban, people-oriented infrastructure. But while car domination in the U.S. has long relied on tremendous lobbying from automakers, the pedestrian movement has had no champion pushing for data collection. “Nobody has monetized walking,” says Sevtsuk, “and this is actually a good thing.”



Until 1994, the U.S. didn’t even have an accurate roadway map. That year, President Bill Clinton signed an executive order directing federal agencies to build a standardized digital road network. As Sevtsuk explains, this helped revolutionize traffic modeling and paved the way for more efficient deliveries and various location-based services.



If a similar order were to help develop and standardize a pedestrian network nationwide, it would highlight where communities have systematically worse pedestrian infrastructure, and help target public space investments in places where they affect the most people.



[Image: MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning]



The “Manhattan bias”



Over the past decade, Sevtsuk and his team have built various district-wide models in places like Melbourne, Australia, and Cambridge, MA, but they have never built a model at this scale. “A lot of cities don’t even know where their sidewalks are,” he says, “and the sad part is, some cities don’t want to know where sidewalks are.” 



Indeed, cities face legal obligations under the Americans with Disabilities Act to maintain accessible sidewalks, but a comprehensive tracking system also exposes them to greater liability. The result, according to Sevtsuk, is a perverse incentive whereby cities that don’t systematically inventory their sidewalk conditions can more easily defend themselves against injury claims by arguing they weren’t aware of specific hazards.



In New York City, Sevtsuk’s model revealed illuminating findings. One of them has to do with the way street improvements are funded in the city. In 2020, the NYC Department of Transportation released a New York City Pedestrian Mobility Plan that laid out a road map for ongoing improvements for pedestrians and other road users. The plan laid out five corridor classification types intended to serve as a guideline for pedestrian infrastructure renovations. Most streets with the highest classification type—”global corridors” that would receive priority funding for sidewalk widening, pedestrian plazas, and other improvements—were located in Manhattan.



Sevtsuk acknowledges that many of these streets, including Broadway and Fifth Avenue, are important corridors, but his team’s model shows that 26 streets in the outer boroughs had higher pedestrian volume than 75% of the “global corridors” designated by NYC DOT, yet they were categorized lower, meaning they won’t receive the treatment or investment they deserve.



Average pedestrian volumes weekday evening peak period 5-6 p.m. in 59 NYC Community Districts. [Image: MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning]



“We discovered there is a Manhattan bias in policymaking,” he says, noting the discrepancy was likely due to a lack of metrics. “They were guesstimating, and with guesstimation, we’re all flawed and have biases,” he added.



Comparison between the total number of crashes involving pedestrian injuries between 2012 and 2023 (left), and the rates of pedestrian injuries (right), where the crash counts are divided by foot-traffic. [Image: MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning]



Another finding had to do with car crashes. For years, transportation officials have thought the highest number of pedestrian injuries involving vehicle crashes was around Times Square, in Manhattan. But these numbers never took crash rates per pedestrian into account, meaning they simply looked at where the most crashes occur, without considering the fact that there were more crashes simply because there were more people. “We need to take into account how many people actually walk there, then look at crash rates per pedestrian,” says Sevtsuk.



Using data from the model, the researchers mapped the rate of pedestrian crashes and found the highest concentration in The Bronx, Staten Island, as well as outer regions of Brooklyn and Queens. Not a single street below 125th in Manhattan lit up on the map. “Midtown sees a lot of crashes but it’s a safe place to walk because it has very high level of foot traffic,” says Sevtsuk. 



A template for cities worldwide



The implications of the team’s work extend far beyond New York City. In fact,  what makes the model particularly powerful for other cities is how adaptable it is. 



The researchers’ approach builds on a framework called Urban Network Analysis that Sevtsuk and his team have been developing for a decade. The team started by assembling data on where in NYC sidewalks, crosswalks, and footpaths are located, then mapping major trip origins and destinations—think home to school, job to subway, or restaurant to park. They then simulated how pedestrians move between these locations, accounting for the fact that people don’t always take the shortest route and often have multiple subway stops to choose from.



Using pedestrian counts from over 1,000 locations from NYC DOT as “ground truth,” the team calibrated the model using machine learning to ensure the estimates matched real-world observations. Once calibrated at those locations, the model could predict pedestrian volumes across every street in the city. The process took about a year to complete, “but relatively speaking, it’s still much easier than building a full-fledged traffic model,” says Sevtsuk.



The researchers are now working with 140 cities across the state of Maine to better understand the kinds of upgrades and safety improvements they could make for pedestrians. They have also partnered with LA Metro to identify opportunities where the city could do small but important interventions that would help them better prepare for the LA28 Olympic Games, but also everyday users. “They are trying to use [the interventions] as a kind of legacy, using some of the Games’ budget to support walking in the city,” says Sevtsuk.  ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Mon, 23 Feb 2026 14:00:14 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
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<item>
<title>This CEO just rebranded his B2B company. It’s a lesson in manifesting</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/this-ceo-just-rebranded-his-b2b-company-its-a-lesson-in-manifesting</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/this-ceo-just-rebranded-his-b2b-company-its-a-lesson-in-manifesting</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! I’m Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages of Inc.and Fast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to get it yourself every Monday morning.



During Charles Giancarlo’s first all-hands meeting after becoming CEO of Pure Storage in 2017, an employee asked: “How long are we going to keep the name Pure Storage?” The question suggested that having “storage” in the company’s name limited the range of products and services it could offer customers.



“My response at the time was, ‘We can think about a new name as soon as we start doing something other than storage,’” Giancarlo recalls.



Though the company may be best known for its data storage platform—including its all-flash hardware that uses ultraefficient flash memory modules instead of spinning hard drives—Giancarlo is pushing the Santa Clara, Calif.-based tech concern into data management. Today, he unveiled a new name, Everpure, reflecting his ambition to deliver a broader array of products and services to enterprises.



A brand by any other name



The Everpure moniker preserves the brand equity of “Pure” from the original company name. “Ever” nods to the company’s Evergreen storage-as-a-subscription program. A new logo retains the Pure Storage logomark, and the company’s ticker symbol, PSTG, remains unchanged.



Renaming a company isn’t cheap—brand management platform Frontify estimates that a complete brand overhaul can cost companies $1 million or more. And while consumer branding changes are often hotly debated (hello, Cracker Barrel), business-to-business (B2B) marketing moves rarely elicit more than a shrug. Giancarlo himself says it is unlikely that anyone will be talking about the name change a year from now.



But an enterprise rebranding can help reframe a company’s remit for employees, investors, and prospective customers. Indeed, Giancarlo believes the new name will help open doors with chief data officers and AI strategists. “The person who cares about data management inside our customers is different from the person that cares about data storage,” he explains. “And when they hear the name Pure Storage, they’re likely to say, ‘Oh, I don’t need to meet with them. They’re the storage people.’”



New name, new opportunities



The rebranding is also a manifestation of Giancarlo’s bet that enterprises will pay Everpure for more than data storage, aligning the company’s name and brand with the future it aspires to build. To take full advantage of the promise of AI—such as agents that can monitor a supply chain or automatically generate financial reporting—companies need to organize, tag, and unify information that often exists in different systems and databases. Everpure is ready to help them do that.



“Many customers who were furthest along in adopting AI—who were gung-ho—are saying, ‘my biggest challenge in being able to deploy AI is that my enterprise data is not ready,’” Giancarlo says. Everpure is seeking to address these challenges with its Enterprise Data Cloud architecture, which promises to simplify the process of cleaning, reshaping, and moving data so it can be useful to companies.



However, the company’s success is by no means assured. Its competitors include Dell EMC and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), heavy hitters who are also seeking to help customers with their data management needs.



Giancarlo says Everpure’s edge is its willingness to invest in innovation. When he arrived at the company, after 13 years at Cisco Systems and 8 years at private equity firm Silverlake, he committed to maintaining heavy investment in research and development. In its fiscal year that ended February 2, 2025, the company spent $804 million on R&amp;D, 25% of its $3.2 billion in total revenue. Everpure reports 2026 revenue this week. While some “mature” companies might look to improve profitability by cutting that spending, Giancarlo says he still intends to maintain high levels of R&amp;D investment, adding: “Maybe I’m perpetually immature.”



What investments do you prioritize?



What are the tools your company uses to help realize your ambitions? Send your responses to stephaniemehta@mansueto.com. I’ll publish some of your manifestations in a future newsletter.



Read more: the business of rebranding




7 designers on the most influential rebrands of 2025



The biggest branding trends you’ll see this year



6 situations that call for a rebrand




 ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Mon, 23 Feb 2026 14:00:14 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
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<item>
<title>Flight cancellations update: American, Delta, and United Airlines issue airport alerts as blizzard batters Northeast</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/flight-cancellations-update-american-delta-and-united-airlines-issue-airport-alerts-as-blizzard-batters-northeast</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/flight-cancellations-update-american-delta-and-united-airlines-issue-airport-alerts-as-blizzard-batters-northeast</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ If you’re in the Northeast, there’s a good chance you’ll be hunkering down inside for a few days as a major snowstorm batters the East Coast. 



And if you have a flight to catch, well, there’s a high probability that it might not be taking off at all. Due to the blizzard, which is forecast to bring up to two feet of snow in some areas, thousands of flights have already been canceled or delayed.



Here’s what you need to know if you have a flight to catch.



Thousands of flights have already been canceled due to the snowstorm



As of the time of this writing, 5,348 flights within, into, or out of the United States today have already been canceled, according to data compiled by the flight tracking platform FlightAware. Additionally, another 703 flights have been delayed. 



The number of today’s cancellations already outpaces yesterday, when 3,436 cancellations within, into, or out of the United States took place.



It is highly likely that as the day continues on—and the storm continues along its path—that more flights will be canceled or delayed.



And the majority of those cancellations and delays can be blamed on the winter storm that is bearing down across the Northeast. 



As NBC News reports, the storm has already resulted in more than 200,000 people losing power across the impacted area, which stretches from Maryland to Maine. In total, blizzard warnings currently cover 41 million people.



School closures have already been announced across major cities like Boston and New York, the latter of which has a travel ban in place until later today. In New York, officials said today’s blizzard could be one of the city’s 10 worst over the past 150 years.



Major airlines issue travel alerts for dozens of airports



America’s three largest airlines have issued travel alerts for flights shceduled to depart from or land into dozens of airports. The airlines, which include American, Delta, and United, say the travel alerts are in place from yesterday, February 22, 2026, until Wednesday, February 25, 2026. Those airports include:



American Airlines



American has issued travel alerts for the following airports due to the winter storm:




Baltimore, Maryland (BWI)



Boston, Massachusetts (BOS)



Hampton / Newport News, Virginia (PHF)



Hartford, Connecticut (BDL)



New York Kennedy, New York (JFK)



New York LaGuardia, New York (LGA)



Newark, New Jersey (EWR)



Norfolk, Virginia (ORF)



Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (PHL)



Providence, Rhode Island (PVD)



Richmond, Virginia (RIC)



Salisbury / Ocean City, Maryland (SBY)



Washington Dulles, Washington D.C. (IAD)



Washington Reagan, Washington D.C. (DCA)



White Plains / Westchester County, New York (HPN)



Worcester, Massachusetts (ORH)




Delta Air Lines



Delta has issued travel alerts for the following airports due to the winter storm:




Albany, NY (ALB)



Allentown, PA (ABE)



Baltimore, MD (BWI)



Bangor, ME (BGR)



Boston, MA (BOS)



Charleston, WV (CRW)



Charlottesville, VA (CHO)



Cleveland, OH (CLE)



Elmira, NY (ELM)



Harrisburg, PA (MDT)



Hartford, CT (BDL)



Ithaca, NY (ITH)



New York, NY (JFK)



New York, NY (LGA)



Newark, NJ (EWR)



Norfolk, VA (ORF)



Philadelphia, PA (PHL)



Portland, ME (PWM)



Providence, RI (PVD)



Richmond, VA (RIC)



South Bend, IN (SBN)



Washington, DC (DCA)



Washington, DC (IAD)



White Plains, NY (HPN)



Worcester, MA (ORH)




United Airlines



United has issued travel alerts for the following airports due to the winter storm:




Allentown, PA, US (ABE)



Albany, NY, US (ALB)



Wilkes – Barre/Scranton, PA, US (AVP)



Hartford, CT, US (BDL)



Boston, MA, US (BOS)



Baltimore, MD, US (BWI)



Washington, DC, US (DCA)



Newark, NJ/New York, NY, US (EWR)



Washington, DC, US (IAD)



New York, NY, US (JFK)



New York, NY, US (LGA)



Manchester, NH, US (MHT)



Norfolk, VA, US (ORF)



Philadelphia, PA, US (PHL)



Providence, RI, US (PVD)



Portland, ME, US (PWM)



Richmond, VA, US (RIC)




What should I do if I have a flight scheduled for the next few days?



Before you head to the airport, you should monitor for any announcements about your flight. The easiest way to do this is to check your airline’s app to see whether your flight is on time, delayed, or canceled.



You can also enter your flight infromation on the airlines website to get the latest updates for your journey.



What are my options if my flight is delayed or canceled?



If your flight is delayed or canceled, you should check with your airline about alternate travel options.



Some airlines are also allowing affected passengers to reschedule their flights. United, for example, is allowing passengers with original travel dates between February 22 and February 25, 2026, at select airports to change their flights without incurring change fees or fare differences, under certain conditions and limitations.



If your flight is delayed or canceled—or you just don’t want to travel during the storm—it’s best to call your airline to ask what your travel options are. ]]></description>
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<item>
<title>Best small business loans in the UK</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/best-small-business-loans-in-the-uk</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/best-small-business-loans-in-the-uk</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ By Henry Williams on Small Business UK - Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs


We explore whether a loan is the right finance option for you along with some of the best small business loans in the UK market
The post Best small business loans in the UK appeared first on Small Business UK. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Mon, 23 Feb 2026 14:00:11 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Best, small, business, loans, the</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>What is a PDQ machine and how does it work?</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/what-is-a-pdq-machine-and-how-does-it-work</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/what-is-a-pdq-machine-and-how-does-it-work</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ By Nick Ismail on Small Business UK - Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs


A PDQ machine is just another name for a card machine - find out out everything you need to know about how they work, how much they cost, and where you can buy them
The post What is a PDQ machine and how does it work? appeared first on Small Business UK. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Mon, 23 Feb 2026 14:00:10 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>What, PDQ, machine, and, how, does, work</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>How to start a vending machine business</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/how-to-start-a-vending-machine-business</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/how-to-start-a-vending-machine-business</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ By Anna Jordan on Small Business UK - Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs


Check out this article to get you started on your new vending machine business. We&#039;ll be looking at location, marketing and what to sell
The post How to start a vending machine business appeared first on Small Business UK. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Mon, 23 Feb 2026 14:00:08 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>How, start, vending, machine, business</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Nine in 10 high&#45;risk pension funds fail to beat FTSE 100 over five years</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/nine-in-10-high-risk-pension-funds-fail-to-beat-ftse-100-over-five-years</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/nine-in-10-high-risk-pension-funds-fail-to-beat-ftse-100-over-five-years</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Analysis shows 89% of medium-high and high-risk pension funds underperformed the FTSE 100 over five years, with some losing more than 90% of investor capital.
Read more: 
Nine in 10 high-risk pension funds fail to beat FTSE 100 over five years ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Fri, 20 Feb 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Nine, high-risk, pension, funds, fail, beat, FTSE, 100, over, five, years</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Youth unemployment hits 11&#45;year high as rate cut expectations build</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/youth-unemployment-hits-11-year-high-as-rate-cut-expectations-build</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/youth-unemployment-hits-11-year-high-as-rate-cut-expectations-build</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Youth unemployment has risen to 16.1%, its highest level in over a decade, adding pressure on the Bank of England to cut interest rates next month.
Read more: 
Youth unemployment hits 11-year high as rate cut expectations build ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/apprentice3-e1440427665635.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Fri, 20 Feb 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Youth, unemployment, hits, 11-year, high, rate, cut, expectations, build</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Asos co&#45;founder Quentin Griffiths dies after fall in Thailand</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/asos-co-founder-quentin-griffiths-dies-after-fall-in-thailand</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/asos-co-founder-quentin-griffiths-dies-after-fall-in-thailand</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Quentin Griffiths, co-founder of Asos, has died after falling from a high-rise apartment in Pattaya, Thailand. Police say investigations are ongoing.
Read more: 
Asos co-founder Quentin Griffiths dies after fall in Thailand ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Fri, 20 Feb 2026 14:00:06 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Asos, co-founder, Quentin, Griffiths, dies, after, fall, Thailand</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>£42,000 roaming bill nearly bankrupts family firm after TikTok use abroad</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/42000-roaming-bill-nearly-bankrupts-family-firm-after-tiktok-use-abroad</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/42000-roaming-bill-nearly-bankrupts-family-firm-after-tiktok-use-abroad</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
A Manchester business owner was hit with a £42,000 O2 roaming bill after his daughter used TikTok in Morocco, highlighting risks of uncapped data outside Europe.
Read more: 
£42,000 roaming bill nearly bankrupts family firm after TikTok use abroad ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Fri, 20 Feb 2026 14:00:06 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>£42, 000, roaming, bill, nearly, bankrupts, family, firm, after, TikTok, use, abroad</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Record January surplus boosts public finances as tax receipts surge</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/record-january-surplus-boosts-public-finances-as-tax-receipts-surge</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/record-january-surplus-boosts-public-finances-as-tax-receipts-surge</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
The UK posted a record £30.4bn January budget surplus as tax receipts rose sharply and debt interest costs fell, strengthening the fiscal outlook.
Read more: 
Record January surplus boosts public finances as tax receipts surge ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Reeves_2025_Budget.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Fri, 20 Feb 2026 14:00:05 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Record, January, surplus, boosts, public, finances, tax, receipts, surge</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Ali Partovi’s Neo looks to upend the accelerator model with low&#45;dilution terms</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/ali-partovis-neo-looks-to-upend-the-accelerator-model-with-low-dilution-terms</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/ali-partovis-neo-looks-to-upend-the-accelerator-model-with-low-dilution-terms</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Neo&#039;s new Residency program invests $750,000 in an uncapped SAFE for startups and provides a $40,000 no-strings-attached grant for college students. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Fri, 20 Feb 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Ali, Partovi’s, Neo, looks, upend, the, accelerator, model, with, low-dilution, terms</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>General Catalyst commits $5B to India over five years</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/general-catalyst-commits-5b-to-india-over-five-years</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/general-catalyst-commits-5b-to-india-over-five-years</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ The pledge marks a sharp jump from General Catalyst&#039;s earlier $500 million–$1 billion India earmark. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Fri, 20 Feb 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>General, Catalyst, commits, 5B, India, over, five, years</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>UAE’s G42 teams up with Cerebras to deploy 8 exaflops of compute in India</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/uaes-g42-teams-up-with-cerebras-to-deploy-8-exaflops-of-compute-in-india</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/uaes-g42-teams-up-with-cerebras-to-deploy-8-exaflops-of-compute-in-india</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Abu Dhabi-based tech company G42 has partnered with U.S.-based chipmaker Cerebras to deploy eight exaflops of compute through a new system in India ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Fri, 20 Feb 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>UAE’s, G42, teams, with, Cerebras, deploy, exaflops, compute, India</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>The OpenAI mafia: 18 startups founded by alumni</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/the-openai-mafia-18-startups-founded-by-alumni</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/the-openai-mafia-18-startups-founded-by-alumni</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ The OpenAI mafia: 15 of the most notable startups founded by alumni ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Fri, 20 Feb 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>The, OpenAI, mafia:, startups, founded, alumni</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>OpenAI says 18 to 24&#45;year&#45;olds account for nearly 50% of ChatGPT usage in India</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/openai-says-18-to-24-year-olds-account-for-nearly-50-of-chatgpt-usage-in-india</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/openai-says-18-to-24-year-olds-account-for-nearly-50-of-chatgpt-usage-in-india</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ The company said on Friday that users between 18 and 24 years of age account for nearly 50% of all messages sent by Indians to ChatGPT, and users under 30 accounted for 80% of usage in the country. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Fri, 20 Feb 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>OpenAI, says, 24-year-olds, account, for, nearly, 50, ChatGPT, usage, India</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>These designers made a sustainable new building material from corn</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/these-designers-made-a-sustainable-new-building-material-from-corn</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/these-designers-made-a-sustainable-new-building-material-from-corn</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ A new 3D-printed construction technique turns corn into a novel building material.



Corncretl is a biocomposite made from corn waste known as nejayote that’s rich in calcium. It’s dried, pulverized, and mixed with minerals, and the resulting material is applied using a 3D printer.



[Photo: Dinorah Schulte/Manufactura]



This corn-based construction material was made by Manufactura, a Mexican sustainable materials company, and it imagines a second life for waste from the most widely produced grain in the world. The project started as an invitation by chef Jorge Armando, the founder of catering brand Taco Kween Berlin, to find ways he could reintegrate waste generated by his taqueria into architecture. A team led by designer Dinorah Schulte created corncretl during a residency last year in Massa Lombarda, Italy.



“The material combines recycled nejayote derivatives with limestone and Carrara marble powder, connecting pre-Hispanic construction knowledge from Mexico with material traditions from northern Italy,” Schulte tells Fast Company. 



[Photo: Dinorah Schulte/Manufactura]



Growing momentum for clean cement alternatives



Many sustainable materials studios are researching concrete alternatives. And while corncretl is just in the prototyping stage, food waste has been tested as a potential building material more broadly. 



Researchers at the University of Tokyo made a construction material it said was harder than cement in 2022 out of raw materials like coffee grounds, powered fruit and vegetable waste, and seaweed. Last year, researchers at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology developed a rammed earth material encased in cardboard, which eliminated the need for cement completely, and Manufactura experimented with building materials made from coffee too.



Designers have turned to 3D printers to build everything from train shelters to houses, and developing alternative materials to print with could lead to cheaper, more durable, and more sustainable construction methods.



[Photo: Dinorah Schulte/Manufactura]



After Schulte’s team developed corncretl, they then moved to practical application, prototyping three panels for modular construction using a Kuka robotic arm.



“The project employs an internal infill structure that allows the 3D-printed wall to be self-supporting, eliminating the need for external scaffolding during fabrication,” Schulte says, and the geometry of the system was inspired by terrazzo patterns found in the Roman Empire, particularly Rimini, Italy, where the team visited.



[Photo: Dinorah Schulte/Manufactura]



“During a visit to the city museum, we were struck by the expressive curved terrazzo motifs, which became a starting point for translating historical geometries into a contemporary, computationally designed 3D-printed wall, culturally rooted yet forward-looking,” she says.



[Photo: Dinorah Schulte/Manufactura]



Corn, or maize, is native to Mexico, and the country produces 27 million metric tons of it annually, according to the Wilson Center, a think tank. Finding an alternative use for nejayote, then, could then turn a waste stream from a popular food into the basis for building physical structures.



If the byproduct from cooking tortillas proves to be one such source, taquerias could one day find themselves in the restaurant and construction businesses.



 ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Thu, 19 Feb 2026 14:00:10 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
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</item>

<item>
<title>Political branding’s most infamous punctuation mark launched decades before you think</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/political-brandings-most-infamous-punctuation-mark-launched-decades-before-you-think</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/political-brandings-most-infamous-punctuation-mark-launched-decades-before-you-think</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush’s 2016 presidential campaign is remembered a decade on for the exclamation point in its “Jeb!” logo, but Jesse Jackson’s campaign actually used the punctuation 28 years before him.



Jackson, the civil rights activist who died Tuesday at the age of 84, ran for president twice, in 1984 and 1988. At the 1988 Democratic National Convention, his supporters held red signs that said “Jesse!” in white.



Democratic National Convention, Atlanta, 1988. [Photo: Robert Abbott Sengstacke/Getty Images]



Jackson came in second in the 1988 primary with nearly 30% of the vote against the party’s nominee Michael Dukakis, and since then, candidates from Bush to 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and former U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, a Tennessee Republican, have used the punctuation mark in their logos to give their names some added emphasis.



An attendee holds a campaign sign while listening during a campaign event for Jeb Bush in Charleston, South Carolina, 2016. [Photo: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg/Getty Images]



Though Jackson never held political office, the visual brand of his historic campaigns still resonates today for standing out in a sea of sameness. 



A protege of Martin Luther King Jr., Jackson was the founder of the civil rights nonprofit Operation PUSH (People United to Serve Humanity) when he announced his campaign in 1983 without any experience in elected office and became the first Black presidential candidate for a major party since Shirley Chisholm.



 ]]></description>
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</item>

<item>
<title>UPS is closing package facilities: See the list of doomed locations across several states in 2026</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/ups-is-closing-package-facilities-see-the-list-of-doomed-locations-across-several-states-in-2026</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/ups-is-closing-package-facilities-see-the-list-of-doomed-locations-across-several-states-in-2026</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ United Parcel Service (UPS) is planning to close dozens of packaging facilities this year, the shipping giant revealed in a court filing this week. 



The plans include shuttering facilities in Texas, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, and several other states. It includes locations that have union employees, according to a docket made public as part of a lawsuit between UPS and the  Teamsters Union. 



UPS revealed in January that it will cut 30,000 jobs over the coming year. The move was announced as its partnership with Amazon was winding down and amid a broader push toward automation. 



At the time, it also revealed plans to close 24 total facilities, though it did not reveal the locations. 



Now the locations of 22 of those facilities have been made public. In the court filings, UPS said “the applicable Local Unions have been notified of these closures and informed of the anticipated impacts.” 



Which UPS package facilities are closing?



The facilities marked for closure are spread across more than 18 states. They appear below: 




Jamieson Park facility in Spokane, Washington



Chalk Hill facility in Dallas, Texas



Jacksonville, Illinois



Rockdale, Illinois



Devils Lake, North Dakota



Laramie, Wyoming



Pendleton, Oregon



North Hills, California



Las Vegas North in Las Vegas, Nevada



Quad Avenue in Baltimore, Maryland



Wilmington, Massachusetts



Ashland, Massachusetts



Sagamore Beach, Massachusetts



Miami Downtown Air in Miami, Florida



Camden, Arkansas



Blytheville, Arkansas



Kosciusko, Mississippi



Atlanta Hub in Atlanta, Georgia



Columbia Hub in West Columbia, South Carolina



Kinston, North Carolina



Austinburg, Ohio



Cadillac, Michigan




What has UPS said about the closures?



“We’re well into the largest U.S. network reconfiguration in UPS history, creating a nimbler, more efficient operation by modernizing our facilities and matching our size and resources to support growth initiatives,” a UPS spokesperson told Fast Company when reached for comment. “Some positions will be affected, though most changes are expected to occur through attrition. We’re committed to supporting our people throughout this process.”



The facility closures were reported earlier by Freight Waves.



Last year, UPS also shed 48,000 workers. The primary drivers for the closures are a broader rightsizing effort, outlined back in 2024. 



Shares of United Parcel Service Inc (NYSE: UPS) are up almost 15% so far in 2026. But the stock is down significantly from highs it had seen during the early pandemic years. 



However, the impact of the closures will affect members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. In response, the Teamsters filed a lawsuit over a planned voluntary buyout program for union drivers, called the Driver Choice Program, or DCP, saying it violates its contract. 



The Teamsters have asked the court for an injunction pending the two sides’ initiation of the grievance process outlined in their contract.



In a statement, the Teamsters have said that they have “detailed at least six violations of its National Master Agreement by UPS in the rollout of the buyout program, including direct dealing of new contracts with workers, elimination of union jobs when UPS contractually agreed to establish more positions, and erosion of the rights and privileges of union shop stewards, among other charges.”



“For the second time in six months, UPS has proven it doesn’t care about the law, has no respect for its contract with the Teamsters, and is determined to try to screw our members out of their hard-earned money,” said Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien, in comments included in the statement. 



UPS’s spokesperson tells Fast Company that the company is “disappointed” in the response. 



“The world is changing, and the rate of change is accelerating,” UPS says. “As we navigate these changes and continue to reshape our network, our drivers appreciate having choices, including the option to make a career change or retire earlier than planned.” 



This story is developing… ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Thu, 19 Feb 2026 14:00:10 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>UPS, closing, package, facilities:, See, the, list, doomed, locations, across, several, states, 2026</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Google’s threat intel chief explains why AI is now both the weapon and the target</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/googles-threat-intel-chief-explains-why-ai-is-now-both-the-weapon-and-the-target</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/googles-threat-intel-chief-explains-why-ai-is-now-both-the-weapon-and-the-target</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Generative AI has rapidly become core infrastructure, embedded across enterprise software, cloud platforms, and internal workflows. But that shift is also forcing a structural rethink of cybersecurity. The same systems driving productivity and growth are emerging as points of vulnerability.



Google Cloud’s latest AI Threat Tracker report suggests the tech industry has entered a new phase of cyber risk, one in which AI systems themselves are high-value targets. Researchers from Google DeepMind and the Google Threat Intelligence Group have identified a steady rise in model extraction, or “distillation,” attacks, in which actors repeatedly prompt generative AI systems in an attempt to copy their proprietary capabilities.



In some cases, attackers flood models with carefully designed prompts to force them to reveal how they think and make decisions. Unlike traditional cyberattacks that involve breaching networks, many of these efforts rely on legitimate access, making them harder to detect and shifting cybersecurity toward protecting intellectual property rather than perimeter defenses.



Researchers say model extraction could allow competitors, state actors, or academic groups to replicate valuable AI capabilities without triggering breach alerts. For companies building large language models, the competitive moat now extends to the proprietary logic inside the models themselves.



The report also found that state-backed and financially motivated actors from China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia are using AI across the attack cycle. Threat groups are deploying generative models to improve malware, research targets, mimic internal communications, and craft more convincing phishing messages. Some are experimenting with AI agents to assist with vulnerability discovery, code review, and multi-step attacks.



John Hultquist, chief analyst at Google Threat Intelligence Group, says the implications extend beyond traditional breach scenarios. Foundation models represent billions in projected enterprise value, and distillation attacks could allow adversaries to copy key capabilities without breaking into systems. The result, he argues, is an emerging cyber arms race, with attackers using AI to operate at machine speed while defenders race to deploy AI that can identify and respond to threats in real time.



Hultquist, a former U.S. Army intelligence specialist who helped expose the Russian threat actor known as Sandworm and now teaches at Johns Hopkins University, tells Fast Company how AI has become both a weapon and a target, and what cybersecurity looks like in a machine-versus-machine future.



AI is shifting from being merely a tool used by attackers to a strategic asset worth replicating. What has changed over the past year to make this escalation structurally and qualitatively different from earlier waves of AI-enabled threats?



AI isn’t just an enabler for threat actors. It’s a new, unique attack surface, and it’s a target in itself. The biggest movements we will see in the immediate future will be actors adopting AI into their existing routines, but as we adopt AI into the stack, they will develop entirely new routines focused on the new opportunity. AI is also an extremely valuable capability, and we can expect the technology itself to be targeted by states and commercial interests looking to replicate it.



The report highlights a rise in model extraction, or “distillation,” attacks aimed at proprietary systems. How do these attacks work?



Distillation attacks are when someone bombards a model with prompts to systematically replicate a model’s capabilities. In Google’s case, someone sent Gemini more than 100,000 prompts to probe its reasoning capabilities in an apparent attempt to reverse-engineer its decision-making structure. Think of it like when you’re training an analyst, and you’re trying to understand how they came to a conclusion. You might ask them a whole series of questions in an effort to reveal their thought process.



Where are state-sponsored and financially motivated threat groups seeing the most immediate operational gains from AI, and how is it changing the speed and sophistication of their day-to-day attack workflows?



We believe adversaries see the value of AI in day-to-day productivity across the full spectrum of their attack operations. Attackers are increasingly using AI platforms for targeting research, reconnaissance, and social engineering. For instance, an attacker who is targeting a particular sector might research an upcoming conference and use AI to interpret and highlight themes and interest areas that can then be integrated into phishing emails for a specific targeted organization. This type of adversarial research would usually take a long time to gather data, translate content, and understand localized context for a particular region or sector. But using AI, an adversary can accomplish hours worth of work in just a few minutes.



Government-backed actors from Iran, North Korea, China, and Russia are integrating AI across the intrusion lifecycle. Where is AI delivering the greatest operational advantage today, and how is it accelerating the timeline from initial compromise to real-world impact?



Generative AI has been used in social engineering for eight years now, and it has gone from making fake photos for profiles to orchestrating complex interactions and deepfaking colleagues. But there are so many other advantages to adversary—speed, scale, and sophistication. Even a less experienced hacker becomes more effective with tools that help troubleshoot operations, while more advanced actors may gain faster access to zero-day vulnerabilities. With these gains in speed and scale, attackers can operate inside traditional patch cycles and overwhelm human-driven defenses. It is also important not to underestimate the criminal impact of this technology. In many applications, speed is actually a liability to espionage actors who are working very hard to stay low and slow, but it is a major asset for criminals, especially since they expect to alert their victims when they launch ransomware or threaten leaks.



We’re beginning to see early experimentation with agentic AI systems capable of planning and executing multi-step campaigns with limited human intervention. How close are we to truly autonomous adversaries operating at scale, and what early signals suggest threat velocity is accelerating?



Threat actors are already using AI to gain scale advantages. We see them using AI to automate reconnaissance operations and social engineering. They are using agentic solutions to scan targets with multiple tools and we have seen some actors reduce the laborious process of developing tailored social engineering. From our own work with tools such as BigSleep, we know that AI agents can be extremely effective at identifying software vulnerabilities and expect adversaries to be exploring similar capabilities. 



At a strategic level, are we moving toward a default machine-versus-machine era in cybersecurity? Can defensive AI evolve fast enough to keep pace with offensive capabilities, or has cyber resilience now become inseparable from overall AI strategy?



We are certainly going to lean more on the machines than we ever have, or risk falling behind others that do. In the end, though, security is about risk management, which means human judgment will have to be involved at some level. I’m afraid that attackers may have some advantages when it comes to adapting quickly. They won’t have the same bureaucracies to manage or have the same risks. If they take a chance on some new technique and it fails, that won’t significantly cost them. That will give them greater freedom to experiment. We are going to have to work hard to keep up with them. But if we don’t try and don’t adopt AI-based solutions ourselves, we will certainly lose. I don’t think there is any future for defenders without AI; it’s simply too impactful to be avoided. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Thu, 19 Feb 2026 14:00:10 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Google’s, threat, intel, chief, explains, why, now, both, the, weapon, and, the, target</media:keywords>
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<title>‘This is very serious’: Judge threatens AI glasses wearers with contempt during Mark Zuckerberg’s testimony</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/this-is-very-serious-judge-threatens-ai-glasses-wearers-with-contempt-during-mark-zuckerbergs-testimony</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/this-is-very-serious-judge-threatens-ai-glasses-wearers-with-contempt-during-mark-zuckerbergs-testimony</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ If the thought of AI smart glasses annoys you, you’re not alone. 



This week, the judge presiding over a historic social media addiction trial took a harsh stance on the AI-powered gadgets, which many bystanders find invasive of their privacy: Stop recording or face contempt of court. Here’s what you need to know.



What’s happened?



Yesterday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg took the stand in a trial that many industry watchers say could have severe ramifications for social media giants, depending on how it turns out. 



At the heart of the trial is the question of whether social media companies like Meta, via its Facebook and Instagram platforms, purposely designed said platforms to be addictive.



Since the trial began, many Big Tech execs have taken the stand to give testimony, and yesterday it was Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s turn. 



But while Zuckerberg was there to talk about his legacy products—Facebook and Instagram, particularly—for a brief moment, the presiding judge in the case, Judge Carolyn B. Kuhl, turned her attention to a newer Meta product: the company’s Ray-Ban Meta AI Glasses.



Judge warns AI smart glasses wearers



According to multiple reports, at one point during yesterday’s trial, Judge Carolyn B. Kuhl took a moment to issue a stark warning to anyone wearing AI glasses in the courtroom: stop recording with them and delete the footage, or face contempt.



Many courts generally forbid recording during trials, though there are exceptions. However, while the judge did seem to be worried about recording in general, she also had another concern: the privacy of the jury.



“If your glasses are recording, you must take them off,” the judge said, per the Los Angeles Times. “It is the order of this court that there must be no facial recognition of the jury. If you have done that, you must delete it. This is very serious.”



Currently, Meta’s AI glasses do not include the ability to identify the names of the people a wearer views through them, but that’s not likely what the judge meant in her concerns about “facial recognition.” 



Instead, it is likely the judge was concerned that the video recorded by the AI glasses could then be later viewed and run through external facial recognition software to identify the jury in the video.



Some of Meta’s AI glasses can record video clips up to three minutes long.



From reports, it does not appear as if the judge singled out any specific individuals in the courtroom, but CNBC reports that ahead of Mark Zuckerberg’s testimony, members of his team, escorting him into the building, were spotted wearing Meta Ray-Ban artificial intelligence glasses.



As the LA Times reported, the judge’s “admonition was met with silence in the courtroom.”



Broader social concerns over AI glasses



The privacy of jurors is critical for fair and impartial trials, as well as their own safety. Given that, it’s no surprise that the judge did not mince words when warning about AI glasses recording.



But the judge’s courtroom concerns also mirror many people’s broader concerns over AI glasses: People are worried about wearers of the glasses violating their privacy, either by recording them or using facial recognition to identify them.



This concern first became evident more than a decade ago after Google introduced its now-failed smart glasses called Google Glass. Wearers of the device soon became known as “glassholes” due to what many bystanders felt was their intrusive nature. 



When talking to a person wearing smart glasses, you can never be sure you aren’t being recorded—and that freaks people out.



That apprehension about smart glasses has not gone away in the years since Google Glass’s demise. Modern smart glasses are much more capable and concealed. At the same time, everyday consumers are more concerned about their privacy than ever.



These privacy concerns will continue to be a major hurdle to AI smart glasses adoption—especially as AI smart glasses manufacturers, including Meta, reportedly plan to add facial recognition features in the future.



The judge’s admonishment of AI glasses wearers in the courtroom yesterday won’t help the devices’ already strained reputation. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Thu, 19 Feb 2026 14:00:10 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>‘This, very, serious’:, Judge, threatens, glasses, wearers, with, contempt, during, Mark, Zuckerberg’s, testimony</media:keywords>
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<title>What are the best business bank accounts in the UK?</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/what-are-the-best-business-bank-accounts-in-the-uk</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/what-are-the-best-business-bank-accounts-in-the-uk</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ By Lucy Wayment on Small Business UK - Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs


Make the right decision about your small business bank account, whether you&#039;re just starting out as a sole trader or you&#039;re more established
The post What are the best business bank accounts in the UK? appeared first on Small Business UK. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Thu, 19 Feb 2026 14:00:08 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>What, are, the, best, business, bank, accounts, the, UK</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>How to start a baking business</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/how-to-start-a-baking-business</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/how-to-start-a-baking-business</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ By Anna Jordan on Small Business UK - Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs


This article will take you through the essentials of starting a baking business, whether you&#039;re at home, in a shop or doing wholesale   
The post How to start a baking business appeared first on Small Business UK. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Thu, 19 Feb 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>How, start, baking, business</media:keywords>
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<title>The 7 best POS systems for bars and pubs</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/the-7-best-pos-systems-for-bars-and-pubs</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/the-7-best-pos-systems-for-bars-and-pubs</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ By Henry Williams on Small Business UK - Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs


Whether you serve cocktails or craft ales, check out our pick of the best POS systems that can help to boost efficiency and revenue
The post The 7 best POS systems for bars and pubs appeared first on Small Business UK. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Thu, 19 Feb 2026 14:00:06 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>The, best, POS, systems, for, bars, and, pubs</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Record profit for Sir Gerald Ronson’s forecourt empire</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/record-profit-for-sir-gerald-ronsons-forecourt-empire</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/record-profit-for-sir-gerald-ronsons-forecourt-empire</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
GMR Capital, parent of Rontec, posted a record £98.4m pre-tax profit as its forecourt estate surpassed £1.5bn in value despite falling revenues.
Read more: 
Record profit for Sir Gerald Ronson’s forecourt empire ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Mon, 16 Feb 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Record, profit, for, Sir, Gerald, Ronson’s, forecourt, empire</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Andrew’s time as trade envoy should be investigated, says Vince Cable</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/andrews-time-as-trade-envoy-should-be-investigated-says-vince-cable</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/andrews-time-as-trade-envoy-should-be-investigated-says-vince-cable</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Former business secretary Sir Vince Cable has called for a police investigation into Prince Andrew’s time as UK trade envoy after US files suggest he shared confidential material with Jeffrey Epstein.
Read more: 
Andrew’s time as trade envoy should be investigated, says Vince Cable ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/shutterstock_2687221945.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Mon, 16 Feb 2026 14:00:06 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Andrew’s, time, trade, envoy, should, investigated, says, Vince, Cable</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>BrewDog put up for sale as advisers explore break&#45;up options</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/brewdog-put-up-for-sale-as-advisers-explore-break-up-options</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/brewdog-put-up-for-sale-as-advisers-explore-break-up-options</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
BrewDog has appointed advisers to explore new investment options, including a potential sale or break-up, after losses and bar closures amid a challenging trading climate.
Read more: 
BrewDog put up for sale as advisers explore break-up options ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/shutterstock_2289571161.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Mon, 16 Feb 2026 14:00:06 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>BrewDog, put, for, sale, advisers, explore, break-up, options</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Gender pay gap won’t close until 2056 at current pace, warns TUC</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/gender-pay-gap-wont-close-until-2056-at-current-pace-warns-tuc</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/gender-pay-gap-wont-close-until-2056-at-current-pace-warns-tuc</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
The TUC warns the UK gender pay gap, currently 12.8%, will not close for another 30 years without faster reform, with finance showing the widest disparity.
Read more: 
Gender pay gap won’t close until 2056 at current pace, warns TUC ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/shutterstock_1810737421.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Mon, 16 Feb 2026 14:00:05 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Gender, pay, gap, won’t, close, until, 2056, current, pace, warns, TUC</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Workers’ rights reforms prompt a third of employers to curb hiring</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/workers-rights-reforms-prompt-a-third-of-employers-to-curb-hiring</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/workers-rights-reforms-prompt-a-third-of-employers-to-curb-hiring</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
A CIPD survey finds 37% of employers plan to cut permanent hiring due to the Employment Rights Act, with more than half expecting increased workplace disputes.
Read more: 
Workers’ rights reforms prompt a third of employers to curb hiring ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/shutterstock_2242410031-scaled.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Mon, 16 Feb 2026 14:00:05 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Workers’, rights, reforms, prompt, third, employers, curb, hiring</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>As AI data centers hit power limits, Peak XV backs Indian startup C2i to fix the bottleneck</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/as-ai-data-centers-hit-power-limits-peak-xv-backs-indian-startup-c2i-to-fix-the-bottleneck</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/as-ai-data-centers-hit-power-limits-peak-xv-backs-indian-startup-c2i-to-fix-the-bottleneck</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ C2i has raised $15 million as it tests a grid-to-GPU approach to reducing power losses in AI data centers. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Mon, 16 Feb 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>data, centers, hit, power, limits, Peak, backs, Indian, startup, C2i, fix, the, bottleneck</media:keywords>
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<title>African defensetech Terra Industries, founded by two Gen Zers, raises additional $22M in a month</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/african-defensetech-terra-industries-founded-by-two-gen-zers-raises-additional-22m-in-a-month</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/african-defensetech-terra-industries-founded-by-two-gen-zers-raises-additional-22m-in-a-month</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Terra Industries, the African defense company, announced Monday that it had secured an additional $22 million in funding to further expand the business.  ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Mon, 16 Feb 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>African, defensetech, Terra, Industries, founded, two, Gen, Zers, raises, additional, 22M, month</media:keywords>
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<title>All the important news from the ongoing India AI Impact Summit</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/all-the-important-news-from-the-ongoing-india-ai-impact-summit</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/all-the-important-news-from-the-ongoing-india-ai-impact-summit</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ India is hosting a four-day AI Summit this week that will be attended by executives from major AI labs and Big Tech, including OpenAI, Anthropic, Nvidia, Microsoft, Google, and Cloudflare, as well as heads of state. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Mon, 16 Feb 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>All, the, important, news, from, the, ongoing, India, Impact, Summit</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Fractal Analytics’ muted IPO debut signals persistent AI fears in India</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/fractal-analytics-muted-ipo-debut-signals-persistent-ai-fears-in-india</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/fractal-analytics-muted-ipo-debut-signals-persistent-ai-fears-in-india</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ As India&#039;s first AI company to IPO, Fractal Analytics didn&#039;t have a stellar first day on the public markets, as enthusiasm for the technology collided with jittery investors in the wake of a sell-off in Indian software stocks. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Mon, 16 Feb 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Fractal, Analytics’, muted, IPO, debut, signals, persistent, fears, India</media:keywords>
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<title>After all the hype, some AI experts don’t think OpenClaw is all that exciting</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/after-all-the-hype-some-ai-experts-dont-think-openclaw-is-all-that-exciting</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/after-all-the-hype-some-ai-experts-dont-think-openclaw-is-all-that-exciting</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ &quot;From an AI research perspective, this is nothing novel,&quot; one expert told TechCrunch. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/GettyImages-1388444972.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Mon, 16 Feb 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>After, all, the, hype, some, experts, don’t, think, OpenClaw, all, that, exciting</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>With one word, Travis Kelce may have (unintentionally) revealed his retirement plans</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/with-one-word-travis-kelce-may-have-unintentionally-revealed-his-retirement-plans</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/with-one-word-travis-kelce-may-have-unintentionally-revealed-his-retirement-plans</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Will Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce retire after this football season? Kelce has not yet delivered a public answer to this question, and there’s widespread speculation. But his choice of words when speaking about this decision may tell us which way he’s leaning. It’s a lesson for every communicator. Your choice of words carries meaning, whether you realize it or not. Sometimes that word choice can reveal more than you intended.



The Chiefs just finished a dispiriting season, the first in Kelce’s pro career in which the team did not make the playoffs. Kelce’s current contract with the team ends in March. As many have pointed out, he’s a shoo-in for the Hall of Fame, having broken so many records it’s hard to count them all. He truly has nothing left to prove.



On top of that, he’s engaged to Taylor Swift, with a rumored wedding date of June 13. His looks, charisma, and his incredibly famous fiancée mean there are many opportunities for him in the world of entertainment and sportscasting, beyond the wildly successful New Heights podcast he cohosts with his older brother, former Philadelphia Eagle Jason Kelce.



So there are several good reasons for the younger Kelce to retire this year. On the other hand, many people suspected he would retire a year ago, after the Chiefs failed in their quest for three in a row Super Bowl wins in a humiliating loss to the Eagles. Despite those rumors, he returned to play another season.



Kelce will never lose his love of the game



In January, Kelce shared some of his thoughts on retirement during an episode of New Heights. “I’ve talked to a few people in the facility already, you know, having the exit meetings and everything, and they know where I stand, at least right now,” he said. “And I think there’s a lot of love for the game that’s still there, and I don’t think I’ll ever lose that. And, I don’t know, it’s a tough thing to navigate.”



Then he described the conditions under which he’d continue to play. “If I think my body can heal up and rest up, and I can feel confident that I can go out there and give it another 18-, 20-, 21-week run, I think I would do it in a heartbeat.”



Pay close attention to the word he used in that sentence. I would do it in a heartbeat, not I will do it in a heartbeat. The word would in this sentence indicates that at least some of the requirements he described have not been met. It may seem like a subtle distinction, but consider the two sentences, “I will go to the store” and “I would go to the store.” That second statement implies that there is some reason not to go and therefore the speaker will not go shopping.



We all notice word choices



Kelce isn’t a grammar expert. In fact, his entire sentence is ungrammatical. I doubt he’s ever considered will versus would. But whether we think about them consciously or not, native English speakers are aware of distinctions like this one. Because of that, what he said is so revealing. Kelce’s retirement may not be a certainty. He says he hasn’t decided yet, and that may be true. But “I would do it in a heartbeat” suggests that, at least right now, he thinks he’ll go.



Either way, if you’re a speaker, entrepreneur, or business leader, pay close attention to your choice of words whenever you speak on any important topic. Otherwise, you could wind up telling careful listeners more than you intended.







This article originally appeared on Fast Company’s sister website, Inc.com. 



Inc. is the voice of the American entrepreneur. We inspire, inform, and document the most fascinating people in business: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters that represent the most dynamic force in the American economy.


 ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Sun, 15 Feb 2026 14:00:14 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>With, one, word, Travis, Kelce, may, have, unintentionally, revealed, his, retirement, plans</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>How your personality impacts your career success (and what you can do about it)</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/how-your-personality-impacts-your-career-success-and-what-you-can-do-about-it</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/how-your-personality-impacts-your-career-success-and-what-you-can-do-about-it</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Personality is one of the most underrated predictors of career success in the world. Defined by scientists as the range of habits and typical behaviors that make us who we are—and different from others—and with more than a century of robust academic evidence on how it impacts work and other real-life outcomes, here are some fascinating facts to digest:



(1) The simplest and most reliable way to understand someone’s personality is to look at their scores (position) along five universal traits, namely emotional stability (how calm, composed, and non-anxious you are), extraversion (how sociable, assertive, and energetic you are), agreeableness (how kind, polite, and friendly you are), openness to experience (how curious, intellectual, and open-minded you are), and conscientiousness (how driven, organized, and self-controlled you are). In fact, every other character trait you may read about—e.g., EQ, grit, empathy, resilience, authoritarian, and overconfident—is nothing but a combination of those “Big Five” traits, if not merely one of them relabeled (old wine in new bottles).



(2) There are multiple ways to assess these personality traits, ranging from peer-ratings (most people would agree on their views of a specific person, since we all have consistent reputations and others are able to decode them), AI-scraping of digital footprints (what we say and do online, and how we say and do it compared to others), and science-based personality assessment (you can take a free, visual two-minute version here). Although some believe that self-report questionnaires are inadequate to capture someone’s personality—because anyone can lie or distort their answers and manage impressions—well-designed tests translate someone’s preferred self-presentation into a prediction of their future performance, including how they behave in work and career settings.





(3) There are hundreds of independent scientific studies highlighting the consistent predictive power of personality vis-à-vis all types of job performance and career success outcomes. Most notably, the “Big Five” have been found to predict job satisfaction (higher in emotionally stable, agreeable, and conscientious people), leadership potential (higher in extraverted, emotionally stable, open-to-experience, and conscientious people), sales performance (higher in extraverts), general career progression (higher in conscientious and extraverted people, though the latter depends on culture), and resilience (higher in emotionally stable and conscientious people). Even negative or undesirable outcomes, such as absenteeism, work conflict, and career instability (all more likely when you have lower emotional stability, conscientiousness, and agreeableness). In short, who you are determines how you work and how you relate to work, including your boss, colleagues, and clients.



And yet, the predictive power of personality is not destiny. Acknowledging that personality shapes career outcomes does not mean we are prisoners of our dispositions. It does mean, however, that control comes in specific and sometimes counterintuitive forms.



Behavioral changes



First, while it is hard to change your personality, it is entirely possible to change your behavior: Personality describes tendencies, not fixed scripts. It reflects what comes naturally, not what is possible. A useful way to think about personality is as a set of default settings rather than an immutable operating system. You may be naturally introverted, emotionally reactive, or low in conscientiousness, but that does not prevent you from acting differently when the situation requires it. It does mean that doing so will take more effort and intention than it would for someone whose personality aligns more closely with the role.



This is where self-awareness becomes essential. Without it, people mistake their habits for necessities and their preferences for constraints. With it, they can anticipate when their instincts will help and when they will mislead them. Self-awareness is not achieved through introspection alone. It comes from structured feedback, personality assessment, coaching, and noticing patterns over time. If you receive the same feedback across roles, bosses, or teams, that is not coincidence. It is personality expressing itself.



A useful analogy is handedness. Being left-handed does not prevent you from using your right hand, but it does mean that writing with it will feel awkward and effortful at first. Over time, however, people adapt, compensate, and sometimes become functionally ambidextrous. Personality works in much the same way.



Good and bad matches



Second, there is no such thing as a universally good or bad personality. There are only good or bad matches. Traits become assets or liabilities depending on context. High extraversion is advantageous in leadership and sales, but less so in roles requiring sustained focus. High agreeableness supports collaboration, but can undermine negotiation and tough decision-making. High openness fuels learning and innovation, but may complicate execution if not balanced with discipline.



This is why talent is often best understood as personality in the right place. Careers accelerate when environments reward who you already are rather than punish it. Much of what organizations label as “underperformance” is simply misfit. The same individual can look average in one role and exceptional in another, without changing much at all.



This also explains why changing environments is often more effective than trying to change oneself. If development proves hard or slow, adjusting role design, team composition, or organizational culture can quickly turn a personality liability into a strength. This is not avoidance. It is strategic self-management.



Change happens



Third, people can and do change, including in durable ways: Personality is relatively stable, but it is not fixed. Longitudinal research shows that people change across adulthood, often becoming more emotionally stable, agreeable, and conscientious over time. More targeted change can occur through sustained role demands, life events, and deliberate interventions such as coaching.



Crucially, coaching almost always works by helping people go against their nature. Leaders are rarely coached to do more of what comes naturally. They are coached to slow down when they rush, listen when they dominate, tolerate uncertainty when they avoid it, or impose structure when they prefer improvisation. In that sense, development is inherently anti-authentic. Growth usually requires behaving less like your default self, not more.



This is also why development feels effortful. Personality change does not happen through insight alone, but through repeated behavioral experiments that gradually recalibrate habits. Over time, what once felt unnatural can become routine, expanding a person’s behavioral range.



A perfect fit isn’t required



Fourth, and critically, it is perfectly possible to succeed in roles that are not tailor-made for your personality: Personality explains a meaningful but limited portion of career success. Even under the most generous estimates, it accounts for perhaps 40% to 50% of the variance in outcomes, often less. The rest is explained by skills, learning, motivation, context, opportunity, and persistence. In practice, this means that people routinely succeed in roles that do not fit them naturally.



Introverts can be excellent salespeople. They may not draw energy from constant interaction, but they often compensate through preparation, deep listening, and follow-up. Highly agreeable individuals can become effective negotiators by learning when to create constructive conflict. Risk-averse people can lead innovation by relying on disciplined experimentation rather than bold improvisation. Less conscientious individuals can thrive in structured roles by building external systems that compensate for their preferences.



In many of these cases, success depends on emotional labor: the ability to display enthusiasm, confidence, or composure that may not reflect one’s internal state but is appropriate for the role. Emotional labor is often dismissed as inauthentic, yet it is one of the most underrated career skills. Many high performers succeed not because their jobs perfectly match who they are, but because they have learned to perform the role effectively.



A useful analogy is acting. Good actors are not limited to playing versions of themselves. They succeed by understanding the demands of the role and adapting accordingly. Careers work much the same way. People often grow into roles that initially felt uncomfortable, not because their personality changed overnight, but because their capacity to adapt expanded.The danger is not stretching beyond your personality, but doing so indefinitely without recovery, awareness, or choice.



In short, personality shapes how we work, how others experience us, and how our careers unfold over time. It is one of the most powerful forces in career development precisely because it operates quietly and consistently. But influence is not destiny. With self-awareness, strategic choices, and deliberate development, people can work with their personality rather than be constrained by it.



The real risk is not having a particular personality. It is failing to understand the one you have, and mistaking “being yourself” for the same thing as being effective.




 ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Sun, 15 Feb 2026 14:00:14 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>How, your, personality, impacts, your, career, success, and, what, you, can, about, it</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Why U.S. healthcare is still the most expensive in the world</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/why-us-healthcare-is-still-the-most-expensive-in-the-world</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/why-us-healthcare-is-still-the-most-expensive-in-the-world</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ In announcing its “Great Healthcare Plan” in January 2026, the Trump administration became the latest in a long history of efforts by the U.S. government to rein in the soaring cost of healthcare.



As a physician and professor studying the intersection of business and health, I know that the challenges in reforming the sprawling U.S. healthcare system are immense. That’s partly for political and even philosophical reasons.



But it also reflects a complex system fraught with competing interests—and the fact that patients, hospitals, health insurance companies, and drug manufacturers change their behaviors in conflicting ways when faced with new rules.



Soaring costs



U.S. healthcare is the most expensive in the world, and according to a poll published in late January 2026, two-thirds of Americans are very worried about their ability to pay for it—whether it’s their medications, a doctor’s visit, health insurance or an unpredictably costly medical emergency.



Disputes over health policy even played a central role in the federal government shutdown in fall 2025.



Trump’s healthcare framework outlines no specific policy actions, but it does establish priorities to address a number of longtime concerns, including prescription drug costs, price transparency, lowering insurance premiums, and making health insurance companies generally more accountable.



Why have these challenges been so difficult to address?



Drug price sticker shock



Prescription drug costs in the U.S. began rising sharply in the 1980s, when drugmakers increased the development of innovative new treatments for common diseases. But efforts to combat this trend have resembled a game of whack-a-mole because the factors driving it are so intertwined.



One issue is the unique set of challenges that define drug development. As with any consumer good, manufacturers price prescription drugs to cover costs and earn profits. Drug manufacturing, however, involves an expensive and time-consuming development process with a high risk of failure.



Patent protection is another issue. Drug patents last 20 years, but completing costly trials necessary for regulatory approval takes up much of that period, reducing the time when manufacturers have exclusive rights to sell the drug. After a patent expires, generic versions can be made and sold for significantly less, lowering the profits for the original manufacturer. Though some data challenges this claim, the pharmaceutical industry contends that high prices while drugs are under patent help companies recover their investment, which then funds the discovery of new drugs. And they often find ways to extend their patents, which keeps prices elevated for longer.



Then there are the intermediaries. Once a drug is on the market, prices are typically set through negotiations with administrators called pharmacy benefit managers, who negotiate discounts and rebates on prescription drugs for health insurers and employers offering benefits to their workers. Pharmacy benefit managers are paid based on those discounts, so they do not have an incentive to lower total drug prices, though new transparency rules enacted February 3 aim to change payment practices. Drugmakers often raise the list price of drugs to make up for the markdowns that pharmacy benefit managers negotiate—and possibly even more than that.



In many countries, centralized government negotiators set the price for prescription drugs, resulting in lower drug prices. This has prompted American officials to consider using those prices as a reference for setting drug prices here. In its blueprint, the Trump administration has called for a “most-favored nation” drug pricing policy, under which some U.S. drug prices would match the lowest prices paid in other countries.



This may work in the short term, but manufacturers say it could also curtail investment in innovative new drugs. And some industry experts worry that it may push manufacturers to raise international prices. 









Policy experts have questioned whether TrumpRx will bring down drug prices.



In late 2025, 16 pharmaceutical companies agreed to most-favored nation pricing for some drugs. Consumers can now buy them directly from manufacturers through TrumpRx, a portal that points consumers to drug manufacturers and provides coupons for purchasing more than 40 widely used brand-name drugs at a discount, which launched February 5. However, many drugs available through the platform can be purchased at lower prices as generics



Increasing price transparency



Fewer than 1 in 20 Americans know how much healthcare services will cost before they receive them. One fix for this seems obvious: Make providers list their prices up front. That way, consumers could compare prices and choose the most cost-effective options for their care.



Spurred by bipartisan support in Congress, the government has embraced price transparency for healthcare services over the past decade. In February 2025, the Trump administration announced stricter enforcement for hospitals, which must now post actual prices, rather than estimates, for common medical procedures. Data is mixed on whether the approach is working as planned, however. Hospitals have reduced prices for people paying out of pocket, but not for those paying with insurance, according to a 2025 study.



For one thing, when regulations change, companies make strategic decisions to achieve their financial goals and meet the new rules—sometimes yielding unintended consequences. One study found, for example, that price transparency regulations in a series of clinics led to an increase in physician charges to insurance companies because some providers who had been charging less raised their prices to match more expensive competitors.



Additionally, a 2024 federal government study found that 46% of hospitals were not compliant. The American Hospital Association, a trade group, suggested price transparency imposes a high administrative burden on hospitals while providing confusing information to patients, whose costs may vary depending on unique aspects of their conditions. And the fine for noncompliance, $300 per day, may be insufficient to offset the cost of disclosing this information, according to some health policy experts.



Beyond high costs, patients also worry that insurers won’t actually cover the care they receive. Cigna is currently fighting a lawsuit accusing its doctors of denying claims almost instantly—within an average of 1.2 seconds—but concerns about claims denial are rampant across the industry. Companies’ use of artificial intelligence to deny claims is compounding the problem.



Fewer than 1 in 20 Americans know how much healthcare services will cost before they get them. [Images: Adobe Stock]



Curbing the rise in health insurance premiums



Many Americans struggle to afford monthly insurance premiums. But curbing that increase significantly may be impossible without reining in overall healthcare costs and, paradoxically, keeping more people insured.



Insurance works by pooling money paid by members of an insurance plan. That money covers all members’ healthcare costs, with some using more than they contribute and others less. Premium prices therefore depend on how many people are in the plan, as well as the services insurance will cover and the services people actually use. Because healthcare costs are rising overall, commercial insurance companies may not be able to significantly lower premiums without reducing their ability to cover costs and absorb risk.



Nearly two-thirds of Americans under age 65 receive health insurance through employers. Another 6.9% of them get it through Affordable Care Act marketplaces, where enrollment numbers are extremely sensitive to premium costs.



Enrollment in ACA plans nearly doubled in 2021, from about 12 million to more than 24 million, when the government introduced subsidies to reduce premiums during the COVID-19 pandemic. But when the subsidies expired on January 1, 2026, about 1.4 million dropped coverage, and for most who didn’t, premiums more than doubled. The Congressional Budget Office projects that another 3.7 million will become uninsured in 2027, reversing some of the huge gains made since the ACA was passed in 2010.



When health insurance costs rise, healthier people may risk going without. Those who remain insured tend to need more health services, requiring those more costly services to be covered by a smaller pool of people and raising premium prices even higher.



The Trump administration has proposed routing the money spent on subsidies directly to eligible Americans to help them purchase health insurance. How much people would receive is unclear, but amounts in previous proposals wouldn’t cover what the subsidies provided.



To sum it up, healthcare is extremely complicated and there are numerous barriers to reforms, as successive U.S. administrations have learned over the years. Whether the Trump administration finds some success will depend on how well the policies are able to surmount these and other obstacles.





Patrick Aguilar is the managing director of health at Washington University in St. Louis.



This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.


 ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Sun, 15 Feb 2026 14:00:14 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Why, U.S., healthcare, still, the, most, expensive, the, world</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>These plain&#45;text websites will simplify your internet experience</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/these-plain-text-websites-will-simplify-your-internet-experience</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/these-plain-text-websites-will-simplify-your-internet-experience</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Here’s the sad truth about sports score apps: Most of them aren’t all that interested in actually telling you the score.



After all, where’s the money in providing straightforward information like that? The modern sports score app has to do more. It must bombard you with banner ads and betting odds, implore you to create an account and opt into notifications, sell you some tickets, and show some videos to keep engagement up. The scores themselves are an afterthought.



Fortunately, there’s an alternative that tells you the outcomes of every major sporting event without distractions.



And the same sort of resources are available to bring minimalist magic to your news, weather, and even navigation, too—if you know where to look.



This tip originally appeared in the free Cool Tools newsletter from The Intelligence. Get the next issue in your inbox and get ready to discover all sorts of awesome tech treasures!



Useful info, without the filler



First things first: For a simpler way to look up sports scores, just head to PlainTextSports.com​ in any web browser.



➜ Plain Text Sports is a website that lists out sports scores using only letters, numbers, and characters.



⌚ The site loads pretty much instantly, and scanning the scores takes a few fast seconds.



It’s free, too—with no ads, logins, or subscriptions.



The Plain Text Sports interface really is as plain as can be.



After using an app like ESPN or TheScore, Plain Text Sports’ bare-bones appearance can take some getting used to—but you’ll quickly realize how much information is packed onto the homepage. For each league, you can click through to the schedule, standings, and team pages. Clicking on a game brings up detailed statistics and play-by-play details.



Because this is a website, each league, team, and standings page also has its own URL. That means you can easily bookmark the ones you care about and skip the default home screen.



There’s also a handy dark mode toggle at the top of the page.



You’ll see all the pertinent info without any of the usual distractions.



While Plain Text Sports does not have a dedicated mobile app, you can always add the site as a home screen icon. The site even provides a page with instructions for iOS and Android​.



The only notable downside with Plain Text Sports is its lack of highlight videos. Those would obviously be against the site’s ethos, but if it could find a way to link to the latest clips from a site like ESPN or YouTube, it’d be pretty much unbeatable.



More plain-text resources



Once you start getting your sports scores this way, you may find yourself hooked on the plain-text lifestyle. Here are some other resources that convey information in a similar way:




​68k.news​: Headlines in plain text.



​text.npr.org​: NPR’s list of headlines, which lead to text-only versions of each article.



​lite.cnn.com​: Similar to the above, but for CNN.



​wttr.in​: Your local weather forecast, rendered in ASCII symbols. (Fine-tune the forecast with these URL modifications​.)



​gdir.telae.net​: Text-based Google Maps directions, the way they used to be.




This, suffice it to say, isn’t your average weather website.



It doesn’t get much simpler than that.




Plain Text Sports​ is a website that works in any browser (as are all the other resources mentioned above).



It’s free to access, with no ads, subscriptions, or usage limits. (The same is mostly true for the other sites, too, though some do have ads.)



The site doesn’t track your individual usage or require any sort of personal data.




Treat yourself to all sorts of brain-boosting goodies like this with the free Cool Tools newsletter—starting with an instant introduction to an incredible audio app that’ll tune up your days in truly delightful ways. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Sun, 15 Feb 2026 14:00:14 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>These, plain-text, websites, will, simplify, your, internet, experience</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Where mortgage rates are headed in 2026, according to 21 experts</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/where-mortgage-rates-are-headed-in-2026-according-to-21-experts</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/where-mortgage-rates-are-headed-in-2026-according-to-21-experts</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambert’s ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter.



Economic forecasting has never been easy, and it becomes even more challenging in the face of unprecedented events like COVID-19 lockdowns and extraordinary levels of fiscal and monetary intervention. This was followed by a rapid cycle of interest rate hikes, adding further complexity. Look no further than the fact that for three consecutive years (2022, 2023, and 2024) economic forecasts at large significantly underestimated mortgage rates.



Recently, however, forecasters have fared better. Among the 17 mortgage rate forecasts rounded up by ResiClub heading into 2025, the average prediction was that 30-year fixed mortgage rates would average 6.33% in Q4 2025. At the time we published that roundup, the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate was sitting at 7.03%. What happened? The 30-year fixed mortgage rate ended up averaging 6.23% in Q4 2025.



For our 2026 mortgage rate roundup, ResiClub collected 21 mortgage rate forecasts. Some were publicly available, though most were gathered through the ResiClub 2026 Housing Economist Survey, which we fielded in December 2025. Rather than asking only about Q4, we asked respondents to provide their forecast for the full 2026 calendar year.



While ResiClub approaches rate forecasts with a healthy dose of skepticism—for example, if the labor market were to unexpectedly weaken, rates could drop more than anticipated—there is still value in understanding where economic models predict mortgage rates will head.



Below are 21 mortgage rate forecasts (sorted from highest to lowest).







Hunter Housing Economics: The research firm predicts that the 30-year fixed mortgage rate will average 6.6% in 2026. Housing economist Brad Hunter told ResiClub: “The impending change in leadership at the Fed could lead to easier monetary policy, which could lead to lower mortgage rates, but this is not clear. The extent of the decline and mortgage rates will depend upon factors like bond market inflation expectations and the budget deficit as well as the rate of GDP growth.”



Capital Economics: Economists at the independent economic research business based in London forecasts that the 30-year fixed U.S. mortgage rate will average 6.5% in Q4 2026.



Mortgage Bankers Association: The latest forecast published by the trade group has the 30-year fixed mortgage averaging 6.4% in 2026.



PNC Bank: Economists at the American bank forecasts that the 30-year fixed mortgage rate will average 6.4% in 2026 and 6.4% in 2027.



Compass: Mike Simonsen, the chief economist of Compass, forecasts an average 30-year fixed mortgage rate of 6.30% in 2026.



Realtor.com: Economists at the real estate listing site forecast that the 30-year fixed mortgage rate will average 6.30% in 2026, including 6.3% in Q4, writing: “The mortgage rate lock-in effect—caused by market rates that are well above the rates on existing mortgages—has left many homeowners with a strong reason to stay put. In fact, recent data showed that 4 out of every 5 homeowners with a mortgage has a rate below 6%. The share has waned gradually, a trend that will continue in 2026. As a result, turnover will be limited with moves likely to be spurred by life necessities such as job or family changes.”



Redfin: Economists at the residential real estate brokerage are predicting an average 30-year fixed mortgage rate of 6.3% in 2026, writing: “A weaker labor market will lead the Fed to cut interest rates in 2026 and bring monetary policy to a more neutral place, which should keep mortgage rates in the low-6% range. But lingering inflation risk and the likelihood that we’ll avoid a recession will keep the Fed from cutting more than the markets have already priced in. That’s why rates may dip below 6% occasionally, but not for any meaningful period. The Fed will change leadership in 2026, but that is also unlikely to bring significantly lower mortgage rates, as long term rates–like mortgage rates–are set by bond markets.”



Windermere Real Estate: The economics team at Windermere Real Estate forecasts the 30-year fixed mortgage rate will average 6.25% in 2026.



Moody’s: The forecast by Moody’s chief economist Mark Zandi has the 30-year fixed mortgage rate averaging 6.23% in 2026—and 6.22% in Q4.



Cotality: Economists at the real estate analytics giant are predicting an average 30-year fixed mortgage rate of 6.2% in 2026. Selma Hepp, Cotality chief economist, tells ResiClub: “The 2026 outlook points toward a return to more typical market conditions, with mortgage rates expected to settle near 6%, home prices increasing gradually by about 2% to 4%, and improvements in both affordability and availability of homes for sale. Even so, continuing hurdles like higher non-mortgage expenses, including surging insurance costs and rising property tax bills, limited affordability, and uneven regional trends will keep bifurcating the market and impact decisions of both buyers and sellers.”



Yale School of Management: Finance professor Cameron LaPoint forecasts the 30-year fixed mortgage rate to average 6.2% in 2026—and 6.05% in Q4.



Wells Fargo: Analysts at the bank forecast 30-year fixed mortgage rate averages of 6.18% in 2026 (and 6.2% in Q4). Looking even further ahead, they’re forecasting a 6.25% average in 2027.



National Association of Home Builders: Robert Dietz, chief economist at NAHB, forecasts an average 30-year fixed mortgage rate of 6.17% in 2026.



Bright MLS: Economists at the firm expect the 30-year fixed mortgage rate to average 6.15% in Q4 2026. Bright MLS chief economist Lisa Sturtevant writes: “Lower rates will improve affordability and bring more buyers into the market in 2026. Mortgage rates began falling at the end of the third quarter of 2025. With additional Federal Reserve rate cuts planned for 2026, a response to weakening economic conditions, expect mortgage rates to fall from about 6.25% at the beginning of 2026 to 6.15% by the end of 2026.”



Zonda: Ali Wolf, chief economist at Zonda, forecasts the 30-year fixed mortgage rate to average 6.10% in 2026.



Reventure App: Founder Nick Gerli tells ResiClub he expects the 30-year fixed mortgage rate to average 6.1% in 2026.



National Association of Realtors: The economics team at the trade group forecasts the 30-year fixed mortgage rate to average 6% in 2026. NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun writes: “As we go into next year, the mortgage rate will be a little bit better. . . . It’s not going to be a big [mortgage rate] decline, but it will be a modest decline that will improve affordability.”



Miami Realtors: Economists at the group—which represents more than 60,000 real estate professionals and is the largest local Realtor association in the U.S.—forecast the 30-year fixed mortgage rate to average 6% in 2026, and 6.2% in Q4. Gay Cororaton, chief economist of Miami Realtors, tells ResiClub: “With the Fed carefully balancing to achieve its dual mandate, inflation is likely to adjust downward to 2% slowly while the unemployment rate will edge up lightly or remain stable as the Fed avoids a hard landing. The only way for inflation to adjust quickly is if unemployment rises sharply as well to effect a decline in real wages. Either the Fed [is] still caught between the devil and the deep blue sea, I expect mortgage rates to essentially just move sideways, so sales and prices will also post very modest single-digit increases. Affordability will slightly improve but I don’t see prices falling significantly despite the modest demand because sellers will also pull back to preserve their home equity gains. With home affordability still the biggest challenge for homebuyers, the upper price tier or the market will continue to be the most active segment.”



Fannie Mae: The latest forecast issued by Fannie Mae in December has the 30-year fixed mortgage rate averaging 6% in 2026 and 5.9% in 2027.



Morgan Stanley: Strategists at the investment bank forecast the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate will finish 2026 at 5.75%. In a report published on November 19, 2025, Morgan Stanley analysts write: “As we gaze into our proverbial crystal ball for the year ahead, we see affordability improving at the margins as mortgage rates dip below 6%. That should provide a modest boost to both existing and new home sales, though we think there is more upside in 2027 than 2026. . . . The modest rally in the primary rate we expect to 5.75% will likely bring some new borrowers into the money, but the impact would be marginal: Only about 6% of conventional borrowers would benefit from that 50bp decline. Beyond that, the next 100bp drop would only add another 8% of borrowers. Meaningful refinance incentives don’t emerge until rates fall below 4%, leaving the market in what we call a “refi wasteland” for much of 2026—though we’ll note that just because we’re in a refi wasteland doesn’t mean mortgages in-the-money won’t see valuation challenges driven by shorter lags and increasing originator efficiency.”



Erdmann Housing Tracker: Housing analyst Kevin Erdmann tells ResiClub he expects the 30-year fixed mortgage rate to average 5.75% in 2026—and finish 2026 at 5.22%.







Topline finding?



Among the 21 mortgage rate forecasts tracked by ResiClub, the average prediction is 6.18% for calendar year 2026. That’s on par with the current average 30-year fixed mortgage rate (6.09%).



Among the 21 mortgage rate forecasts for 2026 tracked by ResiClub, the highest is 6.6% (Hunter Housing Economics), while the lowest is 5.75% (Morgan Stanley and Erdmann Housing Tracker).



Over the past three years, turnover in the U.S. existing-home market has been constrained. Some of that reflects “pulled-forward” sales that occurred in 2020, 2021, or early 2022 rather than in 2023, 2024, or 2025.



But much of the slowdown stems from affordability and the lock-in effect created by the rate shock and sharply higher switching costs: Many homeowners who would like to sell and move are either unwilling to take on a much higher monthly payment or unable to qualify for one.



All else being equal, if mortgage rates were to fall more than expected, there would be slightly more turnover and sales in the existing home market.







Let’s say they’re wrong and mortgage rates fall more than expected. What happens?




There’s a potential wildcard—an economic slowdown. If joblessness were to climb faster than anticipated or if the economy were to meaningfully deteriorate, that could put additional downward pressure on both Treasury yields and mortgage rates. In that scenario, mortgage rates could dip more than the baseline forecasts suggest.



The “mortgage spread” represents the difference between the 10-year Treasury yield and the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate. This week, the spread stood at 207 basis points. If the spread—which widened when mortgage rates spiked in 2022—continues to compress/normalize toward its long-term average since 1972 (176 basis points), it could help push mortgage rates lower even if Treasury yields hold steady.




Housing stakeholders should keep in mind that a mortgage rate forecast is not a firm’s projection for the highest—or lowest—rate in the coming year. Rather, it reflects the average rate for the calendar year. And, of course, in any given year the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate can move well above and well below that annual average.



A recent ResiClub analysis of Freddie Mac’s weekly mortgage-rate dataset finds that since 1972, the average annual range in the 30-year fixed mortgage rate is 1.4 percentage points. If you move the goalpost to just this century—since 2001—the average annual range in the 30-year fixed mortgage rate is 1.08 percentage points. In 2025, the range was 0.87 point.







One last thought: Mortgage rate forecasts should always be taken with a grain of salt—at least to some degree. Predicting long-term yields depends on accurately anticipating inflation, Federal Reserve policy, and the broader trajectory of the U.S. and global economies, all of which are notoriously hard to get right. Over just the past five years, forecasters have been caught off guard by a pandemic, a historic inflation spike, and one of the fastest rate-hiking cycles in modern history.



The lesson? Even the best models can’t account for every shock. Mortgage rate forecasts are useful guideposts—but not guarantees.


 ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Sun, 15 Feb 2026 14:00:14 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Where, mortgage, rates, are, headed, 2026, according, experts</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>How to start a consulting business</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/how-to-start-a-consulting-business</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/how-to-start-a-consulting-business</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ By Anna Jordan on Small Business UK - Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs


Learn what you need to know about starting a consulting business, from finding a niche to start-up costs, plus the pros and cons
The post How to start a consulting business appeared first on Small Business UK. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Sun, 15 Feb 2026 14:00:12 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>How, start, consulting, business</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>International Money Transfer for Business – Best Providers to Send Money Abroad</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/international-money-transfer-for-business-best-providers-to-send-money-abroad</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/international-money-transfer-for-business-best-providers-to-send-money-abroad</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ By Henry Williams on Small Business UK - Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs


The post International Money Transfer for Business – Best Providers to Send Money Abroad appeared first on Small Business UK. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://smallbusiness-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2026/02/International-Money-Transfer-for-Business-–-Best-Providers-to-Send-Money-Abroad.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sun, 15 Feb 2026 14:00:11 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>International, Money, Transfer, for, Business, –, Best, Providers, Send, Money, Abroad</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Which international business payment platform is right for your business? WorldFirst vs Airwallex (2026 Comparison)</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/which-international-business-payment-platform-is-right-for-your-business-worldfirst-vs-airwallex-2026-comparison</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/which-international-business-payment-platform-is-right-for-your-business-worldfirst-vs-airwallex-2026-comparison</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ By Henry Williams on Small Business UK - Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs


The post Which international business payment platform is right for your business? WorldFirst vs Airwallex (2026 Comparison) appeared first on Small Business UK. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://smallbusiness-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2026/02/Which-international-business-payment-platform-is-right-for-your-business-WorldFirst-vs-Airwallex.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sun, 15 Feb 2026 14:00:10 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Which, international, business, payment, platform, right, for, your, business, WorldFirst, Airwallex, 2026, Comparison</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Lloyds Banking Group to close 95 more branches across UK</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/lloyds-banking-group-to-close-95-more-branches-across-uk</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/lloyds-banking-group-to-close-95-more-branches-across-uk</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Lloyds Banking Group will shut 95 more branches across Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Scotland, citing falling footfall as customers shift to mobile banking.
Read more: 
Lloyds Banking Group to close 95 more branches across UK ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/shutterstock_2312885359.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Thu, 12 Feb 2026 14:00:08 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Lloyds, Banking, Group, close, more, branches, across</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Norfolk police chief calls for tougher penalties for prolific shoplifters</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/norfolk-police-chief-calls-for-tougher-penalties-for-prolific-shoplifters</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/norfolk-police-chief-calls-for-tougher-penalties-for-prolific-shoplifters</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Norfolk’s chief constable has urged swifter and tougher sentencing for repeat shoplifters as reported offences continue to rise and court backlogs persist.
Read more: 
Norfolk police chief calls for tougher penalties for prolific shoplifters ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/shutterstock_2386315447-scaled.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Thu, 12 Feb 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Norfolk, police, chief, calls, for, tougher, penalties, for, prolific, shoplifters</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Tangible raises $4.3m seed round to unlock scalable debt finance for hardtech firms</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/tangible-raises-43m-seed-round-to-unlock-scalable-debt-finance-for-hardtech-firms</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/tangible-raises-43m-seed-round-to-unlock-scalable-debt-finance-for-hardtech-firms</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Fintech startup Tangible has secured $4.3m in seed funding led by Pale Blue Dot to help hardtech companies access structured debt finance and reduce reliance on dilutive equity.
Read more: 
Tangible raises $4.3m seed round to unlock scalable debt finance for hardtech firms ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/shutterstock_2493039499-scaled.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Thu, 12 Feb 2026 14:00:06 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Tangible, raises, 4.3m, seed, round, unlock, scalable, debt, finance, for, hardtech, firms</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Ford overtaken by BYD as China reshapes global car industry</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/ford-overtaken-by-byd-as-china-reshapes-global-car-industry</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/ford-overtaken-by-byd-as-china-reshapes-global-car-industry</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Ford has been overtaken in global sales by China’s BYD, highlighting the rapid rise of electric carmakers as Western manufacturers struggle with the EV transition.
Read more: 
Ford overtaken by BYD as China reshapes global car industry ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/shutterstock_2687421247.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Thu, 12 Feb 2026 14:00:06 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Ford, overtaken, BYD, China, reshapes, global, car, industry</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>City stalwart Schroders to be sold to US rival in £9.9bn deal</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/city-stalwart-schroders-to-be-sold-to-us-rival-in-99bn-deal</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/city-stalwart-schroders-to-be-sold-to-us-rival-in-99bn-deal</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Schroders has agreed a £9.9bn takeover by US asset manager Nuveen, ending more than 200 years of independence in a blow to the London Stock Exchange.
Read more: 
City stalwart Schroders to be sold to US rival in £9.9bn deal ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Thu, 12 Feb 2026 14:00:05 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>City, stalwart, Schroders, sold, rival, £9.9bn, deal</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Uber Eats launches AI assistant to help with grocery cart creation</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/uber-eats-launches-ai-assistant-to-help-with-grocery-cart-creation</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/uber-eats-launches-ai-assistant-to-help-with-grocery-cart-creation</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Uber Eats launched a new AI feature, “Cart Assistant,” that can automatically add items to your cart based on text or image prompts. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/uber-eats-icon-ios.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Thu, 12 Feb 2026 14:00:04 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Uber, Eats, launches, assistant, help, with, grocery, cart, creation</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Apple’s Siri revamp reportedly delayed… again</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/apples-siri-revamp-reportedly-delayed-again</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/apples-siri-revamp-reportedly-delayed-again</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ While the new Siri was expected to launch with the upcoming iOS 26.4 update in March, now, the changes are expected to roll out more slowly over time, reportedly postponing some features until the May iOS update, or even until the release of iOS 27 in September. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/tim-cook-glowing-apple-logo-GettyImages-2234517515.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Thu, 12 Feb 2026 14:00:04 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Apple’s, Siri, revamp, reportedly, delayed…, again</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>OpenAI disbands mission alignment team</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/openai-disbands-mission-alignment-team</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/openai-disbands-mission-alignment-team</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ The team&#039;s leader has been given a new role as OpenAI&#039;s chief futurist, while the other team members have been reassigned throughout the company. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Thu, 12 Feb 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>OpenAI, disbands, mission, alignment, team</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>AI inference startup Modal Labs in talks to raise at $2.5B valuation, sources say</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/ai-inference-startup-modal-labs-in-talks-to-raise-at-25b-valuation-sources-say</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/ai-inference-startup-modal-labs-in-talks-to-raise-at-25b-valuation-sources-say</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ General Catalyst is in talks to lead the round for the four-year-old startup, according to our sources. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Thu, 12 Feb 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>inference, startup, Modal, Labs, talks, raise, 2.5B, valuation, sources, say</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>xAI lays out interplanetary ambitions in public all&#45;hands</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/xai-lays-out-interplanetary-ambitions-in-public-all-hands</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/xai-lays-out-interplanetary-ambitions-in-public-all-hands</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ On Wednesday, xAI took the rare step of publishing its full 45-minute all-hands presentation to the X platform, making it widely available. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Thu, 12 Feb 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>xAI, lays, out, interplanetary, ambitions, public, all-hands</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>3 ways to build psychological safety now so it’s there when you need it most</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/3-ways-to-build-psychological-safety-now-so-its-there-when-you-need-it-most</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/3-ways-to-build-psychological-safety-now-so-its-there-when-you-need-it-most</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ When COVID-19 hit, our business came to a sudden halt. One moment our calendar was full, the next, meetings and engagements were disappearing. Companies we’d worked with for years shifted their focus overnight, pouring their energy into keeping doors open and team members safe. Like so many others, we found ourselves sidelined—and facing some hard conversations.



While uncertainty hung heavy in the air, our small team was unusually open with each other. We talked candidly about the challenges, the personal toll, and what it might all mean for the business. Without setting out to do so, we had built a foundation of psychological safety—one that made navigating a global crisis far less stressful than it might have been otherwise. We questioned our plans, admitted what we didn’t know, and challenged each other with care. And in doing so, we learned something that’s shaped how I work ever since: Psychological safety isn’t a climate to be fostered when things are easy; it’s an operating condition that must be designed into the team’s DNA for when things get hard. The true test isn’t harmony, it’s conflict. It’s about making it safe enough for people to be uncomfortable—to disagree, to challenge the status quo, and to admit when they’ve failed.



Gartner found that highly psychologically safe teams identify and address critical issues 15% faster. And while many people understand the concept, far fewer know how to make it real when trust declines and tension rises. Too often, it’s treated as a passive state instead of an active practice. The difference between the two is simple: A climate is a vibe, but an operating condition is a blueprint.



So, how do you move from a vague aspiration to a daily practice? It all starts with putting psychological safety first. Whether or not you manage people, each of us influences how safe it feels to speak up. Here are three ways to embed psychological safety into daily work, at any level:



MAKE DISAGREEMENT PART OF NORMAL WORK



Psychological safety has to be embedded into the way work gets done, not just something you hope people embody. That responsibility doesn’t sit solely with managers. Anyone can help shape norms around how ideas are challenged, discussed, and improved.



When I start working with someone new, I hold a candid one-on-one conversation to set mutual expectations. I might say, “My promise to you is transparency and a willingness to provide proactive feedback. You can also expect me to ask for your ideas and input on every major decision.” Then I turn it over to them and ask, “What do you need from me to feel successful and able to do your best work?” This simple act changes the dynamic, communicating that their voice matters from the outset.



Once expectations are clear, safety can be operationalized through everyday rituals. For example, instead of presenting a plan for approval, introduce a new idea by asking people to “poke holes in it.” This isn’t an invitation to complain, but a specific, constructive task. People are naturally good at identifying risks and blind spots, and this reframes that critical eye as a valuable contribution. Even without formal authority, you can model this by asking better questions in meetings, inviting alternative perspectives, or naming risks others may be hesitant to raise.



SHIFT FROM ANSWERING TO FACILITATING



Even with the best intentions, our behaviors can unintentionally undermine psychological safety. One of the most common mistakes is jumping in too quickly to solve a problem. Many of us—especially those seen as experienced or “go-to” people—are conditioned to have the answers. When someone brings a challenge, the impulse is to immediately provide a solution. But doing so can unintentionally signal, “My ideas are more valuable than yours.”



The fix? Instead of being the problem-solver, become the problem-solving facilitator. Your opportunity, regardless of role, is to create space for dialogue rather than rushing to be the smartest voice in the room. When someone raises a concern, try asking a question instead of offering a solution. It signals curiosity, respect, and trust.



Facilitation also means reading the room: paying attention to what’s being said and what isn’t. You might say, “I can sense this decision is making you uncomfortable. Let’s talk about what’s behind that.” Or, “Let’s consider this from all angles. What might be missing?” These moments of curiosity build trust and surface insights that wouldn’t emerge in a more top-down exchange. Over time, this changes the dynamic from quiet compliance to shared ownership.



USE FAILURE TO FUEL LEARNING



One of the fastest ways psychological safety breaks down is when we can’t learn from our mistakes. After any project or experiment—successful or not—I incorporate a simple set of questions into debriefs: “What’s working? What’s not working? What did we learn? What would we do differently next time?” This shifts the focus from blame to learning and makes reflection a core output, not an afterthought.



Even when you’re not running the meeting, you can reinforce this mindset by asking these questions yourself and inviting others into reflection. When failures are treated as data rather than personal shortcomings, people stop hiding missteps and start sharing insights that make everyone better.



When psychological safety becomes a baseline operating condition, new possibilities open up. People take calculated risks because they know their ideas are valued and that missteps won’t be punished, but used for learning. The team moves faster, decisions get stronger, and accountability becomes shared instead of feared.



 ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Wed, 11 Feb 2026 14:00:12 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>ways, build, psychological, safety, now, it’s, there, when, you, need, most</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Why (and how) the smartest leaders encourage failure</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/why-and-how-the-smartest-leaders-encourage-failure</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/why-and-how-the-smartest-leaders-encourage-failure</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ “If the size of your failures isn’t growing you’re not going to be inventing at a size that can actually move the needle.” 



Jeff Bezos’s words—written in a 2019 letter to shareholders—suggest a more clear-eyed view of the innovation process than the paradoxical perspectives of many other senior executives. 



Oh sure, CEOs agree that innovation is important. In fact, 92% say it’s a top priority, according to a recent McKinsey article. But at the same time, more than 90% of CEOs say they do a lousy job at innovation. The reason for this confusing response can be boiled down to one major point, alluded to by Bezos: 



Fear of failure.



Yes, fear of failure—and wariness of the mixed messages they get from management. You can’t expect people to take risks, challenge the status quo, and explore new ways of doing things when you measure them on hitting near-term targets with near-perfect accuracy. Innovation requires curiosity, experimentation, and learning—the trifecta I call, “try, fail, learn.” Inevitably, projects will fail; people will fail, too.  It’s normal, and it’s high time we normalized it in business. 



Below are five ways you can put meaningful metrics in place to incentivize healthy risk-taking and smart failure in your organization. 



1. Start Small: Create Rituals That Normalize Failure



Changing culture starts with small, visible experiments that make failure feel safe, expected, and even energizing. One of the simplest and most effective practices I’ve implemented is what I call “Fail-Free Fridays.”



These are dedicated 60-minute blocks of time where teams meet weekly to talk about what’s not working and share ideas about things they want to try. No PowerPoints. No success criteria. No approvals. The goal isn’t to solve the problems or produce a breakthrough; it’s to openly discuss what’s not going well and experiment with new ideas. Without fear.



How to make it measurable:




Track the number of problems discussed



Track the number of ideas generated



Track self-reported psychological safety (before and after)



Track cross-functional collaborations initiated during these sessions




2. Define What a ‘Good Failure’ Looks Like



Not all failure is equal: Experimental failure is necessary for learning and invention, whereas operational failure is due to poor execution, lack of discipline, or not following processes and procedures. Help your team by painting a picture of what “good” failure looks like. Find a recent example and do a post-mortem analysis by showing how the initiative:




Was aligned with strategic priorities



Was based on a clear hypothesis



Was a controlled experiment with defined parameters



Produced a documented learning



Informed future decisions




The next step is to measure the proportion of failures that meet these criteria.



Sample metrics might include:




% of failed projects with clear hypotheses



% of failed projects that produced specific, documented learnings



Estimated resource savings from ideas invalidated early



Time saved by early “no-go” decisions compared to traditional project lifecycles




3. Reward Learning Behaviors, Not Just Outcomes



Traditional performance reviews reward outcomes: sales targets met, product launches delivered, efficiency increased. These metrics reinforce predictability—which is essential for operations but corrosive to innovation.



To incentivize smart failure, organizations must introduce behavior-based performance metrics tied to learning and experimentation.



Examples include:




Number of experiments initiated or proposed



Willingness to challenge outdated assumptions or raise contrarian ideas



Speed of testing a new idea—how quickly a team can test, learn, and adapt



Cross-functional collaboration and knowledge-sharing




One technique I’ve used is integrating a “Learning Objectives” section into performance goals. Employees must identify one or two areas where they will experiment, explore, or test new approaches—and leaders evaluate how intentionally and transparently they learn from the results.



Behavior-based metrics shift attention from “Did you succeed?” to “How did you learn, and what value did that learning create?”



4. Build Transparency Into the System: Share Failures Publicly with Leaders as Role Models



For failure to be normalized, it must be visible and leaders must be role models showing how it leads to learning and growth.



Examples of transparency-building mechanisms:




Town Hall or All Hands Meetings where the leader dedicates 15 minutes of the agenda to allow an employee to share a story of failure and learning (leaders can share their stories, too)



Monthly “Lessons Learned Roundtables” where teams briefly share one failed experiment and one insight



A digital “Failure Dashboard” highlighting experiments run, hypotheses tested, learnings extracted, and next steps



Internal newsletters profiling teams who tried something bold, failed smart, and moved the organization forward




Metrics here can include:




Number of learnings shared across business units



Participation rates in roundtables or learning forums



Cross-team adoption of insights



Repeat failure rate (a powerful metric—if it decreases, organizational learning is improving)




5. Make Failure Economically Visible: Track the ROI of Learning



We talk a lot about Return on Investment (ROI) of new projects. Similarly, the most important, and most neglected step is quantifying the Return on Failure (ROF).



Leaders know that invalidating a bad idea quickly is just as valuable as scaling a good idea. In many cases, it’s more valuable. Early failure prevents wasted resources, prevents misaligned investments, and accelerates strategic focus.



Organizations can track:




Cost savings from early project termination



Time-to-decision (how fast the organization can rule in or rule out an idea)



Increase in pipeline throughput (better quality ideas lead to more opportunities making it to market)



Portfolio health metrics (percentage of projects in exploratory vs. execution mode)




The Cultural Shift: From Fear to Learning and Growth



The goal is not to create a workplace where failure is unbounded or unexamined. The goal is to create a workplace where learning is measured, rewarded, and operationalized.



When failure is treated as data—not deficiency—organizations accelerate innovation, attract bolder thinkers, and build resilience into their strategy. They become more adaptive, more opportunistic, and more capable of navigating uncertainty.



Leaders who want sustained growth don’t ask, “How do we avoid failure?” They ask, “How do we create more opportunities to learn—and how do we measure the value of that learning?”



The takeaways? Start small. Measure early. Reward curiosity. Make learning visible. Treat disciplined failure as a strategic asset.



Organizations that do this consistently don’t just innovate—they grow, consistently and over time. That’s what successful failure can do for your business.



 ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Wed, 11 Feb 2026 14:00:12 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Why, and, how, the, smartest, leaders, encourage, failure</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>‘New collar’ work is rising: These high&#45;paying jobs don’t need a college degree. Here are 10 of them</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/new-collar-work-is-rising-these-high-paying-jobs-dont-need-a-college-degree-here-are-10-of-them</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/new-collar-work-is-rising-these-high-paying-jobs-dont-need-a-college-degree-here-are-10-of-them</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Job insecurity is real: More than half of American workers (54%) say insecurity about their job is causing significant stress at work, while more than a third (39%) say they worry they about losing their job due to changes in government policies, according to the American Psychological Association’s 2025 Work in America survey. Layoffs are reportedly at an all-time high since 2009, along with the lowest hiring on record in the U.S. since that time. And many of those layoffs have been in white collar professions—like technology, government, journalism, and high education.



All of this could pave the way for the rise of a new kind of role: the “new-collar” job. Here’s what to know about the category that’s not quite white collar, or blue collar.



What are ‘new-collar’ jobs? 



Falling somewhere between white and blue collar, “new-collar” jobs require more technical or specialized skills, but not a college degree. They can be learned on the job; at community college, vocational schools, or cybersecurity boot camps; and through a professional certification program, for roles in engineering, tech, or even healthcare.



The term was coined by former IBM CEO Ginni Rometty in 2016 (offering yet another example of how 2026 is the new 2016).



10 high-income ‘new-collar’ jobs



A new report from Resume Genius, a platform for job seekers, lists 10 roles that often don’t require a four-year diploma, but still offer high pay and flexible work options.



They are:




Marketing manager ($159,660 median annual salary)



Human resource manager ($140,000 median annual salary)



Sales manager ($138,060 median annual salary)



Computer network architect ($130,390 median annual salary)



General and operations manager ($129,330 median annual salary)



Information security analyst ($124,910 median annual salary)



Sales engineer ($121,520 median annual salary)



Health services manager ($117,960 median annual salary)



Art director ($111,040 median annual salary)



Construction manager ($106,980 median annual salary)
 ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Wed, 11 Feb 2026 14:00:12 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>‘New, collar’, work, rising:, These, high-paying, jobs, don’t, need, college, degree., Here, are, them</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Social media lawsuits are putting Section 230 to the test</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/social-media-lawsuits-are-putting-section-230-to-the-test</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/social-media-lawsuits-are-putting-section-230-to-the-test</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Lawyers for social media companies will be working overtime in the coming weeks as several major trials get underway addressing the potential harms to children caused by popular sites and apps.



At the same time, efforts to deflect at least one major future case have fallen short, increasing pressure on tech giants to agree to an independent assessment of how they protect teen users. The convergence of these developments creates a potential perfect storm for the industry, one that could result in both financial damages and changes to the algorithms that encourage users to keep scrolling for longer and longer periods of time.



Much of the focus is on a bellwether trial in Los Angeles that seeks to hold Meta and Google responsible for harms suffered by children who use their products. Plaintiffs allege that services like Instagram and YouTube are designed to keep users, especially kids, engaged. Opening statements were held Monday, with the plaintiffs’ lawyer arguing that Meta and Google have “engineered addiction in children’s brains.” The case is widely seen as a test for future lawsuits with similar claims, of which there are approximately 1,500.



Meta and Google deny the charges. TikTok and Snap were also named as defendants but settled before the case went to trial.



As that suit began in Los Angeles, opening arguments were also heard in Santa Fe in a case brought against Meta by New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez in December 2023. The lawsuit accuses the company’s platforms of being a breeding ground for sexual predators, a claim Meta denies.



That trial, expected to last seven weeks, will determine whether Meta violated the state’s consumer protection laws. “If we can win in this action and force them to make their product safer in this state, it changes the narrative completely about what they say is possible for everyone else,” Torrez said.



Meanwhile, a judge in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California rejected a request by Meta, Google, Snap, and TikTok for summary judgment in a case brought by Kentucky’s Breathitt County School District. That case is part of a consolidated multidistrict litigation that seeks to hold social media companies accountable for engineering addictive features that negatively affect student mental health.



Section 230



At the heart of all these cases is how far courts are willing to extend the protections granted by Section 230, the federal law that shields social media companies from liability over content posted by users. The Los Angeles trial, along with the upcoming case in Northern California, argues that jurors should be able to consider whether the algorithms used by these companies are responsible for mental health harms, rather than focusing solely on the content shown on users’ screens.



Perhaps as a preemptive measure, TikTok, Snap, and Meta have agreed to undergo a series of tests overseen by the National Council for Suicide Prevention to evaluate how effectively they protect the mental health of teen users.



Among the issues that will be examined are whether the platforms force users to take a break and if they offer a way to turn off endless scrolling. Companies that perform well will receive a badge signaling that they offer a pathway to mental health support.



Potential ramifications



This is hardly the first time that social media companies have been taken to court over mental health claims. To date, none of those cases has resulted in any sort of major overhauls, however. At the same time, efforts in Washington and by state governments to regulate the industry have fallen short. Further complicating matters is a lack of consensus in the scientific community on whether social media is harmful for teens and kids on the whole.



Still, successful outcomes in these cases could force companies to change how people interact with their platforms, potentially reshaping the social media landscape. Victories for plaintiffs could also expose companies to significant liability payouts for harms linked to their services. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Wed, 11 Feb 2026 14:00:12 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Social, media, lawsuits, are, putting, Section, 230, the, test</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Saks closing stores: Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus locations are shuttering in 9 states. See the full list</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/saks-closing-stores-saks-fifth-avenue-and-neiman-marcus-locations-are-shuttering-in-9-states-see-the-full-list</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/saks-closing-stores-saks-fifth-avenue-and-neiman-marcus-locations-are-shuttering-in-9-states-see-the-full-list</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ In the wake of a January Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing from Saks Global, owner of Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus, the luxury retailer has begun to close a number of stores across its portfolio of brands. Last month, for instance, the company announced the shuttering of many of its outlet stores.



But now, the Saks Global has announced the closure of some of its high-end department stores, for which the company is famous. Here’s what you need to know.



What’s happened?



According to a court document filed this week with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas, Houston Division, Saks Global has decided to close nine of its luxury department stores. 



These announced closures come just weeks after the company announced it was shuttering many of its outlet stores, including many Last Call and Saks Off 5th locations.



The reason Saks Global has given for the shuttering of some of its flagship department stores is that the store closures will allow the company’s global debtors “to better serve their luxury customers, strengthen brand partner relationships and drive full-price selling to enable sustainable, profitable growth.”



When are the department stores closing?



According to court documents, the department stores marked for closure will close their doors for good on approximately April 30, 2026, less than three months from now.



The company expects the store closing sales at the affected locations to begin around February 20.



The store closures are subject to approval from the judge presiding over the bankruptcy case. A ruling is expected to be made on Friday.



After the closure of these locations, Saks Global will have 35 Neiman Marcus stores and 25 Saks Fifth Avenue stores in operation.



Which Neiman Marcus stores are closing?



According to the court documents, only one Neiman Marcus store is closing:




Massachusetts: 5 Copley Place, Boston, MA




Which Saks Fifth Avenue stores are closing?



Unfortunately, Saks Global has decided to close significantly more Saks Fifth Avenue stores. The list includes eight locations in eight different states:




Alabama: 129 Summit Blvd, Birmingham, AL



Arizona: 2446 East Camelback Road, Phoenix, AZ



Louisiana: 301 Canal Street, New Orleans, LA



New Jersey: Meadowlands Sports Complex, East Rutherford, NJ



Oklahoma: 1780 Utica Square, Tulsa, OK



Ohio: 1350 Polaris Pkwy, Columbus, OH



Pennsylvania: 2 Bala Plaza Bala, Cynwyd, PA



Virginia: 9214 Stony Point Parkway, Richmond, VA




Why is Saks Global filing for bankruptcy?



As Fast Company previously reported, the luxury department store owner has faced extreme financial difficulty in recent years. Like many brick-and-mortar retailers, the company’s stores have seen declining foot traffic, especially after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.



Additionally, inflationary costs, tariffs, and increased online competition have all cut into the company’s bottom line. 



However, the major financial blow to Saks Global came when Hudson’s Bay, Saks’s previous parent company, acquired competitor Neiman Marcus in 2024 for around $2.7 billion. That move left the new company, Saks Global, saddled with debt.



Announcing last month that its bankruptcy process was underway, Saks Global CEO Geoffroy van Raemdonck said the move “presents a meaningful opportunity to strengthen the foundation of our business and position it for the future.” ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Wed, 11 Feb 2026 14:00:12 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Saks, closing, stores:, Saks, Fifth, Avenue, and, Neiman, Marcus, locations, are, shuttering, states., See, the, full, list</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Small business banking: A complete guide</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/small-business-banking-a-complete-guide</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/small-business-banking-a-complete-guide</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ By Christoph Tutsch on Small Business UK - Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs


Christoph Tutsch, founder and CEO of ONPEX, reveals everything you need to know about small business banking
The post Small business banking: A complete guide appeared first on Small Business UK. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://smallbusiness-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2017/08/Business-banking-scaled.jpeg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Wed, 11 Feb 2026 14:00:09 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Small, business, banking:, complete, guide</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>12 of the best digital banking platforms for small business</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/12-of-the-best-digital-banking-platforms-for-small-business</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/12-of-the-best-digital-banking-platforms-for-small-business</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ By Anna Jordan on Small Business UK - Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs


Considering a digital banking platform over one of the traditional stalwarts? We&#039;ve picked out 12 of the best for your perusal
The post 12 of the best digital banking platforms for small business appeared first on Small Business UK. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://smallbusiness-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2017/07/Payments-19717-e1578479774770.jpeg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Wed, 11 Feb 2026 14:00:08 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>the, best, digital, banking, platforms, for, small, business</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Best business bank accounts for sole traders</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/best-business-bank-accounts-for-sole-traders</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/best-business-bank-accounts-for-sole-traders</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ By Anna Jordan on Small Business UK - Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs


We’ve rounded up some of the best business bank accounts created with sole traders in mind 
The post Best business bank accounts for sole traders appeared first on Small Business UK. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://smallbusiness-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2022/08/Sole-trader-bank-account-scaled-1.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Wed, 11 Feb 2026 14:00:06 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Best, business, bank, accounts, for, sole, traders</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Employment Rights Act 2025 and the changes you need to prepare for</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/employment-rights-act-2025-and-the-changes-you-need-to-prepare-for</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/employment-rights-act-2025-and-the-changes-you-need-to-prepare-for</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ By Anna Jordan on Small Business UK - Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs


The government has published the timetabled changes that are coming in line with the Employment Rights Act 2025. Here&#039;s a rundown
The post Employment Rights Act 2025 and the changes you need to prepare for appeared first on Small Business UK. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://smallbusiness-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2026/02/3710.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Wed, 11 Feb 2026 14:00:05 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Employment, Rights, Act, 2025, and, the, changes, you, need, prepare, for</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Bitcoin falls below $70,000, wiping out post&#45;election gains</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/bitcoin-falls-below-70000-wiping-out-post-election-gains</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/bitcoin-falls-below-70000-wiping-out-post-election-gains</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Bitcoin has fallen below $70,000, wiping out post-election gains as institutional demand weakens and delays to crypto regulation hit investor confidence.
Read more: 
Bitcoin falls below $70,000, wiping out post-election gains ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/shutterstock_2719955901-scaled.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sun, 08 Feb 2026 14:00:09 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Bitcoin, falls, below, 70, 000, wiping, out, post-election, gains</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Vauxhall owner takes €22bn hit after electric car u&#45;turn</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/vauxhall-owner-takes-22bn-hit-after-electric-car-u-turn</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/vauxhall-owner-takes-22bn-hit-after-electric-car-u-turn</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Vauxhall owner Stellantis has booked a €22bn hit after reversing its electric vehicle strategy, sending shares down more than 20% and scrapping its dividend.
Read more: 
Vauxhall owner takes €22bn hit after electric car u-turn ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Stelantis.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sun, 08 Feb 2026 14:00:08 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Vauxhall, owner, takes, €22bn, hit, after, electric, car, u-turn</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Bank of England Governor ‘shocked’ by Mandelson leaks to Epstein</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/bank-of-england-governor-shocked-by-mandelson-leaks-to-epstein</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/bank-of-england-governor-shocked-by-mandelson-leaks-to-epstein</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Andrew Bailey says he was shocked by claims Peter Mandelson leaked sensitive financial information to Jeffrey Epstein and supports a police investigation.
Read more: 
Bank of England Governor ‘shocked’ by Mandelson leaks to Epstein ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Mandelson_Darling.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sun, 08 Feb 2026 14:00:08 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Bank, England, Governor, ‘shocked’, Mandelson, leaks, Epstein</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>US offers $225m backing for Cornwall tin mine in bid to secure supply</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/us-offers-225m-backing-for-cornwall-tin-mine-in-bid-to-secure-supply</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/us-offers-225m-backing-for-cornwall-tin-mine-in-bid-to-secure-supply</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Cornish Metals receives US interest in a $225m loan to revive South Crofty, with future tin production potentially exported to America.
Read more: 
US offers $225m backing for Cornwall tin mine in bid to secure supply ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/shutterstock_2405293941-1.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sun, 08 Feb 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>offers, 225m, backing, for, Cornwall, tin, mine, bid, secure, supply</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>New guidance aims to help small business owners cope with mental strain of late payments</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/new-guidance-aims-to-help-small-business-owners-cope-with-mental-strain-of-late-payments</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/new-guidance-aims-to-help-small-business-owners-cope-with-mental-strain-of-late-payments</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
The Small Business Commissioner launches new guidance to support SME mental health and tackle the stress caused by late and unpaid invoices.
Read more: 
New guidance aims to help small business owners cope with mental strain of late payments ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Emma-Jones-4.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sun, 08 Feb 2026 14:00:06 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>New, guidance, aims, help, small, business, owners, cope, with, mental, strain, late, payments</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Benchmark raises $225M in special funds to double down on Cerebras</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/benchmark-raises-225m-in-special-funds-to-double-down-on-cerebras</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/benchmark-raises-225m-in-special-funds-to-double-down-on-cerebras</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Benchmark Capital has been an investor in the Nvidia rival since 2016. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/GettyImages-1251294592.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sun, 08 Feb 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Benchmark, raises, 225M, special, funds, double, down, Cerebras</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>New York lawmakers propose a three&#45;year pause on new data centers</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/new-york-lawmakers-propose-a-three-year-pause-on-new-data-centers</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/new-york-lawmakers-propose-a-three-year-pause-on-new-data-centers</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Although the bill’s prospects are uncertain, New York is at least the sixth state to consider pausing construction of new data centers. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/GettyImages-2217198328.jpeg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sun, 08 Feb 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>New, York, lawmakers, propose, three-year, pause, new, data, centers</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>NBA star Giannis Antetokounmpo joins Kalshi as an investor</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/nba-star-giannis-antetokounmpo-joins-kalshi-as-an-investor</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/nba-star-giannis-antetokounmpo-joins-kalshi-as-an-investor</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Antetokounmpo is the first NBA player to directly invest in Kalshi. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/GettyImages-2186559456.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sun, 08 Feb 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>NBA, star, Giannis, Antetokounmpo, joins, Kalshi, investor</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>The kids ‘picked last in gym class’ gear up for Super Bowl</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/the-kids-picked-last-in-gym-class-gear-up-for-super-bowl</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/the-kids-picked-last-in-gym-class-gear-up-for-super-bowl</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ YouTube CEO Neal Mohan is expected to be there. Apple&#039;s Tim Cook, too. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/tim-coook-apple-tv-GettyImages-2235568147-1.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sun, 08 Feb 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>The, kids, ‘picked, last, gym, class’, gear, for, Super, Bowl</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>India has changed its startup rules for deep tech</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/india-has-changed-its-startup-rules-for-deep-tech</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/india-has-changed-its-startup-rules-for-deep-tech</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ India is adjusting startup rules to help more of its deep tech startups with funding and long-term success. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/india-space-getty.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sun, 08 Feb 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>India, has, changed, its, startup, rules, for, deep, tech</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>How the Olympic cauldron became its own spectacle</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/how-the-olympic-cauldron-became-its-own-spectacle</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/how-the-olympic-cauldron-became-its-own-spectacle</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ At the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, the iconic cauldron of the Games is putting on a daily show just like its athletes. 



This year, for the first time ever, there are two cauldrons lit simultaneously at different locations. Inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s geometric drawings, both cauldrons expand and contract, respond to music, and emit their own light—and one will put on hourly performances for viewers throughout the Games. 



The tradition of the Olympic flame and cauldron dates back 100 years or more. Historically, the Games are opened with a relay ceremony wherein torch bearers bring the flame to the cauldron, which remains lit until the closing ceremony. And while the cauldron’s design remained relatively consistent for the first decades of the Olympics, in recent years it has become a major design moment. This year’s approach is an encapsulation of the cauldron’s transition from a static object to a show in itself.



Spectators gather at Milan’s Arco della Pace (Arch of Peace) to catch a sneak peek of one of the 2026 Olympic cauldrons on January 30. [Photo: Maja Hitij/Getty Images]



“In the last editions of the games, more and more of the main focus has been on who is going to light the cauldron, its design, and what it means,” says Marco Balich, the creative lead for the Winter Olympics opening ceremony who designed this year’s cauldrons. “To make a long story short, I think over the years you see the history of the cauldron goes from very simple ones to [beautiful statements].”



A brief history of Olympic cauldron design



While symbolic fire at the Olympics traces back to at least 1928, the first Olympic torch relay took place in Berlin in 1936. The cauldron that year was a small, bowl-like vessel standing on three legs on a podium. In subsequent Games, like 1948 London, 1952 Helsinki, and 1960 Rome, the cauldron format remained largely the same.



The Olympic Cauldron of the 1936 Summer Games in Berlin survived World War II undamaged; photographed at Berlin Olympic Stadium in 2005. [Photo: Nick Potts/PA/Getty Images]



Starting around 1968, designers began to take a bit more creative liberty with the cauldron. That year’s Mexico City Games featured a cauldron made by a woman—a first—shaped like a giant circular chalice. Since then, the cauldron has continuously evolved in shape and scope, from a 6.4-meter-high scroll-shaped one for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics to a multi-shard monument for the 2010 Vancouver Games and a petal-inspired chorus of flames for the London Games in 2012. 



The Olympic flame burns above Mexico City’s University Olympic Stadium on opening day of track and field competition at the 1968 Summer Games. [Photo: UPI/Bettmann Archive/Getty Images]



According to Balich, who holds a record 16 event credits for Olympic ceremonies, recent years have seen the cauldron transform from a stationary symbol into a kind of high-stakes performance art. Balich coordinated the opening ceremony for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games that featured a kinetic “sun” sculpture by artist Anthony Howe; powered by the wind, its tentacles fluttered and reflected the light of the cauldron’s flame to spectacular effect.



Mariene de Castro performs in front of the Olympic cauldron during the closing ceremony of the 2016 Summer Olympics at Maracaña Stadium in Rio de Janeiro. [Photo: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images]



And in Paris 2024, designer Mathieu Lehanneur abandoned almost all of the cauldron’s recognizable design tradition in favor of a literal hot-air balloon, which took flight daily during the Games for a ticketed audience and remained in Paris’s Tuileries Garden for nightly performances after the Olympics concluded.



Balich says that expansion of the cauldron’s role during the Games and beyond inspired this year’s design. “I was very inspired because it confirmed to me that the experience of this object is so relevant, that it was worth it to add this dynamic session that would enlarge the experience and be even more emotionally touching, especially for the younger generation,” he says.



[Rendering: ©Fondazione Milano Cortina 2026]



A new cauldron experience



This year, Balich iterated on the idea of the cauldron as an experience by turning it into an hourly show complete with lights, music, and movement. 



His concept started with two cauldrons—one in Milan and one in Cortina—to represent harmony between man and nature. The designs are inspired by a series of geometrical drawings by Da Vinci (who lived in Milan for several years), which used mathematics to imagine various intricate three-dimensional shapes. Balich says he did a quick drawing of his original concept, then called on creative director Lida Castelli and set designer Paolo Fantin to develop the final products.



[Rendering: ©Fondazione Milano Cortina 2026]



The cauldrons themselves are constructed out of aeronautical aluminum, with a whopping 1,440 components making up their intricate structure. A total of 244 pivot points allows them to smoothly expand and contract from a minimum diameter of 3.1 meters to a maximum of 4.5 meters. LED lights along the surface of these components give the cauldrons an otherworldly glow, while the actual Olympic flame is enclosed inside a glass-and-metal container at their centers. The final product looks like something you might expect to see descending from the heavens—or a much less foreboding Eye of Sauron.



[Photo: Emmanuele Ciancaglini/Ciancaphoto Studio/Getty Images]



One cauldron is suspended in Milan’s Arco della Pace (Arch of Peace), where it will put on a three-to-five-minute show every hour during the Games from 5 to 11 p.m., accompanied by music from Italian composer Roberto Cacciapaglia. The second sits on a podium in Cortina d’Ampezzo’s Piazza Angelo Dibona. And, just as they were lit simultaneously, they’ll be extinguished simultaneously when the Games close.



“I hope that everybody will gather—families, friends, curious design lovers, design critics—to go there and be immersed in this music and this beautiful show around the arch,” Balich says. “My goal for that is to add an experience to watching the sacred fire from Olympia, which in a way is one of the most powerful symbols around the world of peace, fraternity, sports, and the values that the Games represent.”


 ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Sat, 07 Feb 2026 14:00:05 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>How, the, Olympic, cauldron, became, its, own, spectacle</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Kagi’s new app is like Google Translate—plus privacy</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/kagis-new-app-is-like-google-translateplus-privacy</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/kagis-new-app-is-like-google-translateplus-privacy</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ The notion of instant on-the-go translation is nothing new for most of us, thanks to the now-ubiquitous Google Translate service.



But a scrappy Google competitor thinks it can do better.



➜ This month, a company called Kagi​ is officially launching its ​Kagi Translate app for both Android​ and iOS.



? The app mirrors most of the same features Google Translate offers, with a few interesting new touches and one key point of distinction: It is all about protecting your privacy—with no ads, no trackers, and no data being monetized or repurposed in any way.



Oh—and it’s free, too.



⌚ You’ll need all of two minutes to take it out for a test-drive.



Psst: If you love these types of tools as much as I do, check out my free Cool Tools newsletter from The Intelligence. You’ll be the first to find all sorts of simple tech treasures!



Instant translations—plus privacy



Once you’ve got the Kagi Translate app on your device, it’s really quite intuitive to use. At its core:




You can type or paste any text into its main translation box to have the text translated from and to any language you like.



You can tap the camera icon in that same box to take a photo of text in the real world—on a document, a menu, a whiteboard, you name it—and then have the language auto-detected and translated into your native tongue from there.



A document icon in that same area lets you upload a file from your phone (or any connected cloud storage) for speedy on-the-fly translation.



And a microphone icon lets you speak aloud—or have someone else speak aloud—for real-time translations of the words as they’re uttered.




Kagi Translate’s main screen is one simple prompt—with plenty of power around it.



Beyond that, Kagi Translate offers some interesting extras—for instance:




If you tap the three-line settings icon within the main translation box, you can change between a “natural” and “literal” translation style, a formal or informal voice (for languages where that’s relevant), and also any available gender preference (again, where relevant for a dialect).



In that same area, you can also add your own custom context to help guide the translation—telling the app, in your own words, what type of conversation you’re having, and with whom, so it can adjust its approach accordingly.




Poke around, and you’ll find all sorts of ways to customize and control your translation output.




In the app’s bottom-of-screen Dictionary tab, you can simply get an on-demand, instantly translated definition of a word or phrase in another language.



The app’s Proofread tab will review any text you type or paste into it and offer suggestions to make it work better in your chosen language.



And with any translation the app provides you, you have the ability to play the text out loud or copy it onto your system clipboard—as well as request alternate translations for different ways to say the same basic thing.




Kagi Translate can give you different ways to say the same thing, if you aren’t entirely thrilled with its initial translation.



?️ Again, though: It’s Kagi’s commitment to privacy that really sets this app apart. You don’t have to sign in or create an account to use it, and nothing you do or say within the app is ever shared or used for any type of ad targeting.



If that sounds familiar, it should: I’ve written about Kagi and its similarly privacy-centric approach to regular ol’ search before, and that same mindset applies to pretty much everything else the company has offered—including, too, the excellent Android summarizing app I mentioned in these same quarters a few months ago. Kagi makes its money entirely from user subscriptions, which are required for its core search service but not for the assorted stand-alone apps like Translate and Summarize.



Whether you’re using Kagi for any other purposes or not, though, this new tool is an interesting option to keep around and a welcome alternative to Google’s de facto default—and maybe, just maybe, it’s exactly the je ne sais quoi you’ve been waiting for.




Kagi Translate is available for both Android and iOS. There’s also a web version for desktop computer access.



The app is completely free to use, though a paid Kagi membership will allow you to access some additional options.



The app doesn’t have any ads or trackers and doesn’t require any sort of sign-in—and even if you do opt to create an account, Kagi’s core promise is that it never shares any of your data with anyone, in any way, or uses it for any profitable purposes.




Treat yourself to all sorts of experience-enhancing treasures like this with my free Cool Tools newsletter—starting with an instant introduction to an incredible audio app that’ll tune up your days in delightful ways. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Sat, 07 Feb 2026 14:00:05 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Kagi’s, new, app, like, Google, Translate—plus, privacy</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>The new cola wars are upon us—but this time it’s the battle of AI</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/the-new-cola-wars-are-upon-usbut-this-time-its-the-battle-of-ai</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/the-new-cola-wars-are-upon-usbut-this-time-its-the-battle-of-ai</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Days before the Super Bowl, Anthropic dropped a handful of Super Bowl ads taking aim at OpenAI’s impending advertising model for ChatGPT. The ads anthropomorphize OpenAI’s platform, imagining how the chatbot might answer everyday questions like “What do you think of my business idea?” and “Can I get a six-pack quickly?” The answers, delivered by actors in cheerfully sycophantic robot speak, start out sounding like stilted but helpful advice, before veering into promotional marketing speak for a hypothetical advertiser on ChatGPT.









Immediately, the ads sparked a firestorm online. Some called them brilliant. Others called them mean-spirited. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman felt so strongly, he crafted an earnest post on X about why Anthropic’s ads were so misleading.



But wrong move, bro. Anthropic, one of your AI rivals, just handed OpenAI—and the entire AI industry—a huge gift. Not to mention the ad business.







An ad battle for the AI age



Not since the days of Coke and Pepsi have we seen this kind of ire slung at a category competitor. And I just have to say: I’m here for it.



We are at a pivotal time for AI development and adoption across business and culture, with issues ranging from mass layoffs to people using LLMs for dating advice. But AI is also in its brand infancy, with some platforms building massive name recognition but very little brand image.



There is no better category than AI to start a full-on advertising battle in 2026, and there are no two better companies to wage it than Anthropic and OpenAI. Anthropic has long framed its Claude platform as a more refined LLM than its OpenAI counterpart. And its Super Bowl ads are delivering an implicit message about the competition: You can’t trust them.



Created by award-winning ad agency Mother, the new Anthropic campaign, “A Time and a Place,” has four spots in total (two are big-game bound). “People want an AI they can trust—one that’s focused solely on working for them. We want Claude to be that choice,” Andrew Stirk, Anthropic’s head of marketing, said in a statement.













When OpenAI’s Altman opined on X that it’s “on brand for Anthropic doublespeak to use a deceptive ad to critique theoretical deceptive ads that aren’t real,” perhaps he should turn that into a brief for his growing all-star internal marketing team (imagine a 1984-style ad for 2026). I mean, he even has Brandon McGraw, former head of consumer marketing at Anthropic, on the roster.



Same story with his second attempt at a clapback: “More Texans use ChatGPT for free than total people use Claude in the U.S., so we have a differently-shaped problem than they do.” What about an AI Challenge ad set in El Paso or Brownsville where they go full “Get a Mac” and paint Claude as the snooty also-ran to ChatGPT’s bot of the people?



This consumer-facing dichotomy is the perfect setup for an advertising battle. You’ve got two brands offering ostensibly the same thing (at least to the average person), just with different positioning. But—as Coke and Pepsi demonstrated—even though brands involved in street fights like this do get a few ego bruises, historically the creative arms race helps both emerge in a stronger position with their audiences.




First, the good part of the Anthropic ads: they are funny, and I laughed.But I wonder why Anthropic would go for something so clearly dishonest. Our most important principle for ads says that we won’t do exactly this; we would obviously never run ads in the way Anthropic…— Sam Altman (@sama) February 4, 2026




Challenger game



The decades-long scrap between Coca-Cola and Pepsi is well-documented, but its dynamics have been replicated in various ways over the years in other product categories like tech, fast food, and telecom. 



There’s a typical anatomy to ad wars that cuts across industries. At their most basic, these campaigns always begin with a challenger brand calling out a much bigger rival by name. For Pepsi, which began the cola wars with less than 20% market share, that meant the Pepsi Challenge—showing real people choosing Pepsi over Coke in blind taste tests. This year, it meant hijacking Coke’s familiar polar bear for the Super Bowl.



Apple’s “Get a Mac” is widely considered one of the best long-running advertising campaigns of all time. Apple was the challenger (if you can believe that) depicting the dominant PC brands (Microsoft Windows) as dull, cumbersome, and just plain uncool.









Of course, the challenger brand is in the eye of the beholder, and in 2011 it was Samsung mocking iPhone fanboys for lining up to get what it deemed an inferior product. 









Over in fast food, Burger King had an award-winning run of work in the late 2010s under then-CMO Fernando Machado, much of which directly involved McDonald’s. To promote the nonprofit Peace One Day, Burger King took out ads and built an entire website proposing to McDonald’s that the rivals make peace to create the ultimate burger—the McWhopper. The ad had $220 million in earned media value, and 8.9 billion impressions. In 2018, Burger King created print ads with photos of barbecue grills at former homes of ex-McDonald’s executives to highlight the flame-grilled taste of Whoppers.



That same year, it launched “Whopper Detour,” a promo campaign that used geofencing to offer a 1-cent Whopper to users who ordered through the Burger King app while within 600 feet of a McDonald’s. It got 1.5 million Burger King app downloads in nine days.









Even Taco Bell took a swing at the golden arches when it launched a breakfast menu in 2014. For its largest marketing campaign ever up to that point, Taco Bell recruited real guys named Ronald McDonald to testify to the tastiness of its Breakfast Crunchwrap. 



Whether people were emotionally invested because they loved one of these brands over the other, or they were just there for the LOLs, each of these sparked two things brands crave absolutely—attention and excitement. 



Strategic response



A 2025 INSEAD study called “The Power of Strategic Rivalry” found that a well-managed rivalry can extend the story between competitors, keeping consumers tuned in longer and—importantly—benefiting both sides with ongoing engagement and relevance. People love a good brand fight. 



Coca-Cola maintained its lead throughout the cola wars, but Pepsi’s market share shot up from 20% to a peak of 30%-plus in the 1990s. And their ad war not only helped increase overall soda consumption from 12.4% of American beverage consumption in 1970 to 22.4% in 1985, but each brand more than doubled revenues over the 1980s. And thanks to the sheer intensity and ad frequency during the most heated years of their ad battle, the brands elbowed their way to the center of pop culture. Between 1975 and 1995, Coke’s annual ad spending went from about $25 million to $112 million, while Pepsi’s grew from $18 million to $82 million. 



The haymakers from challenger brands are to be expected. But rarely, if ever, do the bigger brands respond with the same level of bite. In fact, the most successful responses have been investing in better creative brand work done more often. 



McDonald’s didn’t use its global domination to swipe down at Burger King. Instead it invested in and celebrated its existing fans in fun and unique ways. Specifically, with the Famous Orders work that began with Travis Scott in 2020 and expanded to collaborators as varied as Mariah Carey, BTS, and Cactus Plant Flea Market, driving record app usage, hundreds of millions in sales, and making new fans of younger customers. 



OpenAI appears to be taking a similar tack in its advertising, at least so far. The brand is focusing on how its tools can inspire and enable people to build new things. Its three regional Super Bowl spots are about how three different American small businesses—a seed farm, a metal salvage yard, and a family-run tamale shop—are utilizing ChatGPT to grow and thrive. 



OpenAI CMO Kate Rouch admits the Anthropic spots are funny, but since ads haven’t landed in ChatGPT yet, it’s a complete fabrication of what that experience will be like. When I spoke to her this week, she took issue with the spots calling OpenAI’s use of advertising to support free access to the tools as a “violation,” and reiterated Altman’s point that ChatGPT has more free monthly users in Texas than Anthropic has globally.



“And our perspective is that open, free access to this technology will enable individual people to build things that will benefit them and us all,” Rouch told me. “It really all comes down to self-empowerment and being able to do things that you either didn’t believe you could do before or you actually couldn’t do before. And that’s the whole game.”



This is a more sound strategy, both overall and in light of Anthropic’s trolling, than last year’s animated Super Bowl ad that had many people guessing just what the hell it was trying to say. 









If this is the dawn of AI’s version of the cola wars—and I hope it is—it’s an impressive start for both brands. 



Anthropic’s challenger strategy here hits, not just for the cojones to step up to the Super Bowl against a much bigger rival. The key to any challenger swipe that actually works hinges on its creative execution, and these spots steer clear of the slop to serve up a bona fide chef’s kiss. 



For OpenAI, creatively telling real stories about real people using its tools to solve real problems and build real things looks less like an advertising street fight and more like a turn for the high road toward the brand image promised land. 


 ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Sat, 07 Feb 2026 14:00:05 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>The, new, cola, wars, are, upon, us—but, this, time, it’s, the, battle</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Housing market inventory power: Where states stand heading into spring</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/housing-market-inventory-power-where-states-stand-heading-into-spring</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/housing-market-inventory-power-where-states-stand-heading-into-spring</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambert’s ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter.



When assessing home price momentum, ResiClub believes it’s important to monitor active listings and months of supply. If active listings start to rapidly increase as homes remain on the market for longer periods, it may indicate pricing softness or weakness. Conversely, a rapid decline in active listings beyond seasonality could suggest a market that is heating up.



Since the national pandemic housing boom fizzled out in 2022, the national power dynamic has slowly been shifting directionally from sellers to buyers. Of course, across the country, that shift has varied.



Generally speaking, local housing markets where active inventory has jumped above pre-pandemic 2019 levels have experienced softer home price growth (or outright price declines) over the past 36 months.



Conversely, local housing markets where active inventory remains far below pre-pandemic 2019 levels have, generally speaking, experienced, relatively speaking, more resilient home price growth over the past 42 months.



Where is national active inventory headed?



National active listings are on the rise on a year-over-year basis (+10% between January 31, 2025, and January 31, 2026). This indicates that homebuyers have gained some leverage in many parts of the country over the past year. Some seller’s markets have turned into balanced markets, and more balanced markets have turned into buyer’s markets.



Nationally, we’re still below pre-pandemic 2019 inventory levels (-17.8% below January 2019), and some resale markets (in particular, chunks of the Midwest and Northeast) still remain, relatively speaking, tight-ish.







While national active inventory is still up year over year, the pace of growth has slowed in recent months as softening has slowed.



Here are the January inventory/active listings totals, according to Realtor.com:




January 2017 -&gt; 1,154,120 ?



January 2018 -&gt; 1,043,951 ?



January 2019 -&gt; 1,110,636 ? 



January 2020 -&gt; 951,675 ?



January 2021 -&gt; 531,775 ? (Pandemic housing boom overheating)



January 2022 -&gt; 376,970 ? (Pandemic housing boom overheating)



January 2023 -&gt; 616,865 ? 



January 2024 -&gt; 665,569 ? 



January 2025 -&gt; 829,376 ?



January 2026 -&gt; 912,696 ?




If we maintain the current year-over-year pace of inventory growth (+83,320 homes for sale), we’d have 996,016 active inventory come January 2027. (Note: That’s not a prediction—I’m just showing what the math looks like if that pace continued.)



Below is the year-over-year active inventory percentage change by state.







While active housing inventory is rising in most markets on a year-over-year basis, the pace of growth continues to decelerate across much of the country.



LEFT: Year-over-year active inventory shift between January 2024 and January 2025



RIGHT: Year-over-year active inventory shift between January 2025 and January 2026







And while active housing inventory is rising in most markets on a year-over-year basis, some markets still remain tight-ish (although it’s loosening in those places, too).



As ResiClub has been documenting, both active resale and new homes for sale remain the most limited across huge swaths of the Midwest and Northeast. That’s where home sellers in the spring are likely, relatively speaking, to have more power than their peers in many Southern markets.



In contrast, active housing inventory for sale has neared or surpassed pre-pandemic 2019 levels in many parts of the Sun Belt and Mountain West, including metro-area housing markets such as Austin and Punta Gorda, Florida.



Many of these areas saw major price surges during the pandemic housing boom, with home prices getting stretched when compared with local incomes. As pandemic-driven domestic migration slowed and mortgage rates rose, markets like Punta Gorda and Austin faced challenges, relying on local income levels to support frothy home prices.



This softening trend was accelerated further by an abundance of new home supply in the Sun Belt. Builders are often willing to lower prices or offer affordability incentives (if they have the margins to do so) to maintain sales in a shifted market, which also has a cooling effect on the resale market: Some buyers, who would have previously considered existing homes, are now opting for new homes with more favorable deals—which then puts some additional upward pressure on resale inventory.







At the end of January 2026, nine states were above pre-pandemic 2019 active inventory levels: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Nebraska, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Washington. (The District of Columbia—which we left out of this table below—is also back above pre-pandemic 2019 active inventory levels. Softness in D.C. proper predates the current admin’s job cuts.)







Big picture: Over the past few years, we’ve observed a softening across many housing markets as strained affordability tempers the fervor of a market that was unsustainably hot during the pandemic housing boom. While home prices are falling some in pockets of the Sun Belt, a big chunk of Northeast and Midwest markets still eked out a little price appreciation in 2025. Year over year, nationally aggregated home prices were pretty close to flat.







Below is another version of the table above—but this one includes every month since January 2017.







If you’d like to further examine the monthly state inventory figures, use the interactive below.



Over the coming months, let’s keep an eye on Florida, which has now entered its seasonal window when its active inventory typically begins to rise again. (To better understand softness and weakness across Florida over the past couple years, read this ResiClub PRO report.)







 ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Sat, 07 Feb 2026 14:00:05 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Housing, market, inventory, power:, Where, states, stand, heading, into, spring</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>3 bad financial habits solopreneurs can’t afford</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/3-bad-financial-habits-solopreneurs-cant-afford</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/3-bad-financial-habits-solopreneurs-cant-afford</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Taking the leap from traditional employee to solopreneur involves a number of decisions and considerations that may come as a surprise if you’ve always been on someone else’s payroll. Being numero uno for every part of your solo enterprise can illuminate just how complicated it can be to keep any kind of business running.



Unfortunately, becoming a solopreneur can complicate your personal financial choices as well. That’s because money habits that felt innocuous while you were on a biweekly pay schedule can create financial mayhem on an irregular income.



Whether you’re considering becoming a solopreneur or have been rocking the solo business world for a while, make sure you don’t carry these common paycheck habits with you into your entrepreneurial venture.



Ignoring your bank balance



Prior to becoming a teacher, I worked a series of low-paying jobs, including several stints where I stitched together multiple part-time positions. During that period of what we might generously describe as my “early career,” it was my habit to check my bank balance daily.



This was in the early 2000s, when the internet still required a kerosene-powered modem to access Google, so it took some effort on my part to indulge in this habit. But since I was making so little money, I needed to know on an almost daily basis what was happening in my account to make sure I hadn’t overlooked anything.



When I started teaching and bringing in the medium bucks, it was a relief to only check my bank balance when I paid my bills rather than every single day.



As a public school teacher, I knew exactly how much money I received in each paycheck, I knew exactly when it would clear my account, and I knew that if my mental accounting was off by a little bit, I didn’t have to wait long for the next paycheck. (Ironically, the only time I’ve ever overdrawn my account was during the regular-paycheck years of my life.)



Befriend your banking tools



Becoming a solopreneur is a little like going back to your early twentysomething career, at least financially. Keeping a weather eye on your finances is the only way to stay ahead of problems before they blow up. There’s no steady paycheck to smooth over any issues.



The good news is that banking technology has come a long way since I had to keep my modem’s kerosene tank full just to log onto the internet. These days, virtually every bank and credit union under the sun has an app that will allow you to set up personalized alerts and text notifications, among other tools.



This makes it very easy to set up regular bank balance check-ins, whether you create an alert to notify you when your balance dips below a certain dollar amount, or you have your bank text you the current balance every day at the same time.



Waiting for tax season



Paying taxes is no one’s idea of a good time—but at least when you’re working for a paycheck, the taxman knocks but once a year.



Whether you use a CPA or do them yourself, taxes are fairly straightforward for those who are traditionally employed. Once you have your W-2 in your hot little hand, you can typically get started sometime in early spring, then patiently wait for your tax refund to arrive . . . and you’re done until next year.



But solopreneurs don’t get the luxury of treating taxes like a sucky annual holiday. Because small-business owners don’t have taxes withheld from their income, they have to pay quarterly estimated taxes, filing each payment with Form 1040-ES. The approximate due dates for each payment are as follows, but they may be pushed back if the 15th falls on a weekend or holiday.




First quarter (January 1-March 31) Due April 15



Second quarter (April 1-May 31) Due June 15 (June 16 in 2026)



Third quarter (June 1-August 31) Due September 15



Fourth quarter (September 1-December 31) Due January 15




Solo business owners also typically have to deal with much more complicated tax reporting if they have multiple clients. That means they are fielding more tax forms—such as 1099-NEC and 1099-K forms—than traditional employees.



Build tax infrastructure into your business



Paying and organizing solo business taxes are overwhelming if you only think about them when there’s a due date. But they can be an easy part of your daily routine if you build tax infrastructure into your business plan.



For quarterly estimated taxes, it starts with planning ahead for paying Uncle Sam. You can do that by creating a savings account where you transfer about 20% of each payment you receive. This will ensure that you always have the money you need to pay your estimated taxes each quarter, so you’re not scrambling to find the cash every three months. Over time, you can adjust how much you set aside for taxes as needed.



As for organizing your taxes, this can also be a relatively simple and ongoing part of how you conduct your business.



It’s important for solopreneurs to have an accurate account of their income, since it’s always possible a client will make a mistake on the 1099 they issue. An invoicing structure where you record income from specific clients at the same time you mark their invoices as paid can be a small tweak that will make tax organization much easier. This could be as simple as a Google sheet that you keep updated, as long as you are consistent.



Taking no vacation days



When you work a traditional job, it can be easy to forget to take time off. Whether you get a set number of vacation days per year, or your workplace offers unlimited PTO (which really means you get the hairy eyeball if you try to schedule any), it’s easy to reach the end of December before you’ve realized you never took a vacation.



This is obviously a serious problem within the American workforce, which is suffering from burnout, lack of work boundaries, and a bad case of the Mondays.



While none of that is good, many workplaces do at least offer regular time off in the form of weekends and federal holidays. Workers who habitually leave their vacation days unused can still count on several long weekends and other breaks throughout the year to give them a needed opportunity to rest.



Block off time for rest



Working for yourself means you don’t have to stick to a 9-to-5 schedule, but it also means you might be working at midnight, on weekends, and through Thanksgiving dinner. The habit of working without a vacation can be especially tempting when your success or failure depends on your hustle.



But you’re solely responsible for your business now, which includes the well-being of your only employee. You can’t rely on the holiday calendar to provide you with time away from your work like you did as a paycheck employee. You have to set the boundaries—or deal with the consequences of burnout. Which could mean not being able to work at all.



This is why you need to set the boundaries your previous schedule gave you automatically. You can do this by blocking off time weekly, monthly, and annually for rest. If you need to, imagine that your rest times are legally mandated so that you’re not tempted to work through your vacation time anyway.



Building better habits



Working for yourself, by yourself, doesn’t just require a change in how you structure your work day—you may also have to revamp your personal financial habits.



Without the safety net of a steady paycheck, solopreneurs can’t afford to ignore their bank balances like they did as an employee. Your bank’s mobile app and online tools can help you keep track of your finances with automated alerts and notifications.



While paycheck employees get to think of taxes as a single season of the year, solopreneurs have to deal with tax chores year-round. That includes paying quarterly taxes and keeping records organized. Setting aside around 20% of each payment can help solo entrepreneurs have the money they need to pay their estimated taxes every quarter, while recording their income as the invoices are paid can help make tax reporting easier come April.



And though all Americans need to take more time off, those working traditional jobs can often count on weekends and federal holidays, even if they forget to use their PTO. Solopreneurs can get stuck in an endless working cycle unless they specifically block off regular time for rest—and guard it fiercely. ]]></description>
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<description><![CDATA[ 
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<title>The row house is back to solve the housing crisis</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/the-row-house-is-back-to-solve-the-housing-crisis</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/the-row-house-is-back-to-solve-the-housing-crisis</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ At a factory in Austin, a startup recently finished its first prototype: a row house it plans to replicate in cities nationwide to help with the housing shortage.



Row houses—narrow, multistory homes that share walls with neighbors on each side—are ubiquitous in older neighborhoods from Brooklyn to San Francisco, but aren’t commonly built now. The American Housing Corp., wants to bring them back.



“Row homes are an underbuilt category in the United States,” says Riley Meik, cofounder and CEO of the American Housing Corp. The company has developed a kit of parts that can be quickly manufactured, shipped to building sites in dense urban neighborhoods, and assembled, helping shrink construction costs. While the price of an American Housing Corp. row house will vary, some of the first row houses in Austin will sell for around $750,000.



From left: American Housing Corp. founders Riley Meik, Bobby Fijan, Harris Rothaermel, and William Davis [Photo: The American Housing Corp.]



“The U.S. is actually good at building single family homes on the outskirts of town—you look at the numbers that Lennar or D.R. Horton does, they are building over 150,000 homes a year,” Meik says. “But they are never going to build in the cities where people already live and want to live.”



The challenge of the missing middle



Meik, an engineer who previously cofounded a rocket company, started thinking about housing during a stint at SpaceX’s former headquarters near Los Angeles. On his way to work, passing through single-family neighborhoods, he looked at the houses and wondered why more of them weren’t starting to be replaced with duplexes or fourplexes. Like many cities, large swaths of the greater Los Angeles area had zoning laws for years that restricted construction to single-family homes. Then a 2021 state law that changed that, allowing lots to be split for duplexes. Still, few developers were building the projects.



[Image: The American Housing Corp.]



Meik knew that building more “missing middle” housing—buildings like row houses that are bigger than apartments but smaller than single-family houses—could help begin to fill the enormous housing shortage in cities like L.A. “I started tweeting about it, and saying, ‘It’s legal. Why aren’t we doing it?’” he says.



He connected with his eventual cofounders online. “We met just kind of screaming into the void—this is a problem that needs to get solved in this country, and we want to work on it,” he says. “That brought us all together. It’s something we’ve all been obsessed with for a very long time. So it wasn’t hard to convince each other that we should jump off into the deep end together and build this thing.”



They saw that a challenge for missing middle housing was the cost of construction. “There were probably hundreds of projects that I was seeing where someone had the approvals in hand, they were fully cleared, but the construction costs were too high and they couldn’t start the project,” Meik says.



[Photo: The American Housing Corp.]



Shrinking construction costs



To help reduce costs, the startup turned to prefab construction. The concept isn’t new—builders have been making housing parts in factories since Sears houses were shipped on trains in the early 20th century. Basic manufactured homes, formerly known as mobile homes, now often look more like conventional houses but cost significantly less. Other startups have tried to scale up prefab construction for apartment buildings, backyard guest houses, or higher-end homes. Some have failed spectacularly, like Katerra, which raised more than $2 billion before going out of business.



[Photo: The American Housing Corp.]



To avoid one of the pitfalls that some other builders have faced, the American Housing Corp. designed all of its components to fit inside standard shipping containers so that they can be moved cost-effectively. The shipping containers can travel affordably by rail, rather than on a truck, from the factory to a city. “I think one of the things that has held back prefab to date, specifically volumetric modular, is it is incredibly expensive to ship those modules,” Meik says. “They’re oversized loads, and you get into the tens of thousands of dollars per module to ship them. We can be at less than $5,000, all-in, to ship a unit from Texas to California.”



[Photo: The American Housing Corp.]



Factories can be expensive—Katerra spent $150 million on one before it closed—and if they need to be built near each market, it makes the product uneconomical. (Cosmic, another startup that has been rebuilding homes in the L.A. area after the 2025 wildfires, takes a different approach to this problem, building low-cost microfactories at each site.)



[Photo: The American Housing Corp.]



The American Housing Corp. designed a new kit of parts—from floor and wall panels to fully assembled kitchens and bathrooms—that can be built in an automated factory and then shipped to a site for quick assembly. The core materials, like steel and fiberglass reinforced cement panels, “are more common in automotive or aerospace than housing,” he says.



Designing a system for multistory homes was a challenge. “I think most people thought we were crazy for choosing to build a three-story home as our first,” says Meik. “The structural engineering, assembly process, and equipment required are completely different than building something as simple as a backyard home. But we believe that the only way to solve the housing crisis is by building missing-middle housing at scale. And we felt that row homes were the obvious choice.”



[Photo: The American Housing Corp.]



A new manufacturing model



The company started building a “minimum viable” factory last summer to begin testing its manufacturing process, and then started building a prototype house. They deliberately took it slowly—designing and building one floor, learning from it before building the second floor, and then refining the process again before building the third floor. 



As the team experimented with the first house, the total manufacturing time took weeks, but as it begins operations, it will move much more quickly. The company is now planning a new factory that aims to build one home per day. Right now, the early factory is churning out building parts that are being sent to Intertek, a certification company, for testing. After certification, the company plans to begin building homes in its first factory this year, while the new, larger factory is under construction.



[Photo: The American Housing Corp.]



When the parts are delivered to a building site, they’re designed to be assembled with a crane in days. All of this shrinks costs enough that projects can pencil out, Meik says.



The company also plans to act as a developer, working with partners to buy land on empty lots in dense neighborhoods, so that it can handle the entire process. “Our biggest learning from other [prefab] companies is that in order to have full control of what you build and how you build it (and truly be able to innovate in the way homes are built), you need to be both the prefab company and the real estate development firm,” Meik says. “Vertical integration has given us the freedom on the engineering side to redesign the home from the ground up in order to make it mass-producible in a factory setting. We don’t use two-by-fours, drywall, or hammers and nails. Our homes are designed to be built with machines.”



Using density to lower housing costs



For consumers, the biggest reason that the homes can be more affordable is density. “Land is the most expensive thing in the areas that we want to build in,” Meik says. “So the only way that we can really decrease cost for the end customer is by fitting as many homes on a certain piece of land as we can.”



[Image: The American Housing Corp.]



In Austin, one of the cities where they’re building first, they plan to sell row houses for less than $750,000 in neighborhoods where single-family homes sell for $1 million to $2 million, offering an option for buyers who otherwise might not be able to stay in a compact, walkable neighborhood. The first house is three stories tall, with four bedrooms and two and a half bathrooms. The company will sell houses directly to consumers; later, it may also rent them out in some cases.



It plans to work nationally. While the floor plans and interior finishes will be similar from city to city, the homes are designed to use different facades that are designed to fit the local context. Historically, row houses have come in many forms: In a city like Philadelphia or New York, they range from simple working-class homes to taller, more ornate buildings for wealthy families.



[Image: The American Housing Corp.]



The design is meant to fit into existing urban neighborhoods. “We wanted to find a way to build something that would fit in between two New York City brownstones,” Meik says “We want to build in Brooklyn Heights and someone to walk by and say, ‘That’s nice.’ I think prefab historically has either leaned very ugly or hyper-modern, and unfortunately, neither of those really fit in in the neighborhoods that we want to build in.”



As they scale up, they want to recruit more engineers to work on the housing crisis. “Housing has often been thought of not as an engineering discipline, but something that’s left to the trades,” he says. “I think that’s completely wrong. One of our primary goals at the American Housing Corporation is to show great engineers that hey, you can bring those phenomenal skills that you developed building cars or rockets or iPhones and apply those skills to solving the most important problem of our generation—figuring out how to build more homes in this country.”


 ]]></description>
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<title>Will Trump gut the Kennedy Center? What to know about his construction plans for the D.C. institution</title>
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<description><![CDATA[ President Donald Trump said Monday that he’s “not ripping down” the Kennedy Center but insisted the performing arts venue needs to shut down for about two years for construction and other work without patrons coming and going and getting in the way.The comments strongly suggested that he intends to gut the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as part of the process.“I’m not ripping it down,” the Republican president told reporters in the Oval Office. “I’ll be using the steel. So we’re using the structure.”Such a project would mark the Republican president’s latest effort to put his stamp on a cultural institution that Congress designated as a living memorial to President Kennedy, a Democrat. It also would be in addition to attempts to leave a permanent mark on Washington through other projects, the most prominent of which is adding a ballroom to the White House.Shortly after taking office last year, Trump dismissed Kennedy Center board members who had been appointed by Democratic presidents and replaced them with loyalists, who voted to make him chairman. He helped choose the recipients of the 2025 Kennedy Center Honors, a program he avoided during his first term. He later hosted the event, and the board voted late last year to rebrand the Kennedy Center by adding his name to the building and website.Trump announced Sunday on social media that he intends to temporarily close the performing arts venue on July 4 for about two years “for construction, revitalization, and complete rebuilding,” subject to board approval.The announcement followed a wave of cancellations by leading performers, musicians, and groups since the president took over leadership of the arts institution. Trump did not mention the cancellations in his announcements, or during his comments Monday.Kennedy Center Arts Workers United, which includes several unions representing the institution’s arts workers, said in a statement that it was aware of Trump’s announcement but had received no formal notice or briefing about his plans. The group pledged to enforce its members’ contractual rights.“Should we receive formal notice of a temporary suspension of Kennedy Center operations that displaces our members, we will enforce our contracts and exercise all our rights under the law,” the statement said. “We expect continued fair pay, enforceable worker protections, and accountability for our members in the event they cannot work due to an operational pause.”



Promising ‘the highest-grade everything’



Recalling his past career in construction and real estate, Trump said, “you want to sit with something for a little while before you decide on what you want to do.” Speaking of the Kennedy Center, he said: “We sat with it. We ran it. It’s in very bad shape,” asserting that the building is “run down,” “dilapidated” and “sort of dangerous.”Roma Daravi, a Kennedy Center spokesperson, said in a social media post that “decades of gross negligence” has led to $250 million of deferred maintenance needs and that temporarily closing the institution “is the most logical choice to allow for comprehensive renovations, efficient project completion, and responsible use of taxpayer dollars.”Deborah Rutter, the Kennedy Center president who was ousted by Trump, declined comment Monday. In the past, she has said allegations from Trump and others about the center’s management were false.A representative for David Rubenstein, the board chairman who was also pushed out by Trump, said Rubenstein was not available Monday to comment.Trump, citing the complaints of a workman he said has been laying marble at the Kennedy Center, said the closure is needed because “you can’t do any work because people are coming in and out.”He pegged the cost at about $200 million, including the use of “the highest-grade marbles, the highest-grade everything.”“We’re fully financed and so we’re going to close it and we’re going to make it unbelievable, far better than it ever was, and we’ll be able to do it properly,” Trump said.Congress earmarked $257 million for the Kennedy Center in a tax cut and spending bill that Trump signed into law last summer.



What kind of work is involved



The White House said after the president spoke that some of the maintenance includes work on the building’s structural, heating and cooling, plumbing, electrical, fire protection and technical stage systems. Work on the building’s exterior, security standards and parking are also included.Daravi, the Kennedy Center spokesperson, declined comment when asked how the closure would affect the annual Mark Twain Award and Kennedy Center Honors events this year.Trump said last October, also on social media, that the venue would stay open during construction. But on Monday he said that plan was no longer feasible.“I was thinking maybe there’s a way of doing it simultaneously but there really isn’t, and we’re going to have something that when it opens it’s going to be brand new, beautiful,” Trump said.“The steel will all be checked out because it’ll be fully exposed,” he said. “It’s been up for a long time, but as anybody knows it was in very bad shape. Wasn’t kept well, before I got there,” he said. “So we’re going to make it, I think there won’t be anything like it in the country.”The Kennedy Center opened in 1971.Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, D-Rhode Island, who in November opened an investigation into the Kennedy Center’s financial management, said the planned closure is part of Trump’s “demolition tour of Washington.” Whitehouse is the senior Democrat on the Environment and Public Works Committee, which oversees public buildings, and is an ex-officio member of the Kennedy Center’s board.Since Trump returned to the presidency, the Kennedy Center is one of many Washington landmarks that he has sought to overhaul in his second term.He demolished the White House East Wing and launched a massive $400 million ballroom project, is actively pursuing building a triumphal arch on the other side the Arlington Bridge from the Lincoln Memorial, and has plans for Washington Dulles International Airport.—-Associated Press writers Hillel Italie in New York and Steven Sloan in Washington contributed to this report.



—Darlene Superville, Associated Press ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Tue, 03 Feb 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Will, Trump, gut, the, Kennedy, Center, What, know, about, his, construction, plans, for, the, D.C., institution</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Palantir’s stock price is back on the rise. This 1 factor may determine if shares keep going up</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/palantirs-stock-price-is-back-on-the-rise-this-1-factor-may-determine-if-shares-keep-going-up</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/palantirs-stock-price-is-back-on-the-rise-this-1-factor-may-determine-if-shares-keep-going-up</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Shares in Palantir Technologies (Nasdaq: PLTR) are rising this morning, one day after the AI data analysis software company with significant U.S. government contracts reported better-than-expected Q4 earnings. Here’s what you need to know about Palantir’s latest results and its rising stock price.



Palantir’s Q4 2025 beat Wall Street expectations



Yesterday, Palantir announced its Q4 2025 earnings, and investors breathed a sigh of relief. For Palantir’s Q4, which ended on December 31, the company brought in $1.41 billion in revenue, signaling 70% year-over-year growth. 



The majority of that revenue comes from Palantir’s U.S. customers, which is split roughly evenly between the U.S. government and commercial U.S. businesses.



Palantir said U.S. government revenue totaled $570 million for the quarter, representing 66% year-over-year growth in that vertical. U.S. commercial revenue totaled $507 million—137% year over year growth.



But more important than those actuals was what Wall Street had been expecting. And Palantir easily surpassed those expectations, leading to the rapid rise in its stock price today. 



As cited by CNBC, LSEG estimates expected Palantir to bring in $1.33 billion for the quarter. The company ended up surpassing that estimate by around $80 million.



Analysts were also expecting an earnings per share (EPS) of 23 cents. Palantir’s actual EPS for the quarter was 25 cents.



PLTR shares are still down from their all-time highs



Palantir released its earnings results after the closing bell yesterday, and today its stock price is reaping the rewards of those results, enjoying double-digit growth in premarket trading.



As of this writing, PLTR shares are up 11.35% to $164.55. The company’s share had closed at $147.76 yesterday.



That share price pop will be music to the ears of Palantir investors. Before this morning’s premarket trading bump, PLTR shares were down nearly 17% year-to-date.



Its current premarket price rise doesn’t quite put PLTR shares back in the black for the year, but it’s definitely a move in the right direction.



Palantir shares had hit an all-time high of above $207 in November, after seeing a phenomenal year of growth.



The previous November, in 2024, started with shares sitting in the low-40’s range. But increasing government contracts and AI optimism throughout the remainder of 2024 and into 2025 sent PLTR shares surging.



Then came December 2025, and PLTR shares got pummeled. Between December 24 and 31, the company’s stock price fell from the $194 range to around $177. That fall reflected both rising concerns about Palantir’s lofty valuation and broader worries about a potential AI bubble.



Where does PLTR go from here?



Despite Palantir beating expectations for Q4, the future of its stock price likely hinges on its ability—or not—to continue delivering results that justify its valuation. 



As of yesterday’s close, Palantir was valued at around $352 billion and traded at a price-to-earnings ratio of more than 230, which is incredibly high for even a tech company.



The company’s stock price could also be significantly impacted if upcoming Big Tech earnings do not meet expectations and thus reignite fears of an AI bubble. If investors turn sour on AI stocks, Palantir shares could once again be hit hard.



For instance, Google parent Alphabet—the best performing of the so-called Magnificent 7 tech stocks—will report earnings on Wednesday. Fellow tech giant Amazon will report the following day. Later this month, meanwhile, AI chip giant Nvidia Corporation will report its results. 



Investor sentiment around AI could be deeply impacted by the results of any one of those companies.



As for Palantir itself, the firm issued guidance yesterday for both its current Q1 2026 and its full-year 2026.



For its Q1, Palantir said it expects revenue of between $1.53 – $1.54 billion. That’s more than the $1.32 billion that many analysts were expecting. For its full-year 2026, Palantir expects revenue of $7.18 – $7.2 billion. That is nearly $1 billion more than many analysts were expecting.  ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Tue, 03 Feb 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Palantir’s, stock, price, back, the, rise., This, factor, may, determine, shares, keep, going</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>As AI fragments, enterprise control is the next battleground</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/as-ai-fragments-enterprise-control-is-the-next-battleground</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/as-ai-fragments-enterprise-control-is-the-next-battleground</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 



You wouldn’t pay a surgeon to file your tax return, and you wouldn’t ask your accountant to perform your appendectomy. The same is true for AI: Organizations should start realizing that different AI providers excel at different needs, from coding to specialized research or creative design.



Over the coming year, enterprises will absorb a variety of these AI providers’ technologies in earnest and at scale—department by department, role by role. Legal teams will standardize on tools like Harvey. Customer service teams will rely on Glean or purpose-built agents. Development teams may choose resources from Anthropic. Marketing, engineering, finance, and HR will similarly gravitate toward AI resources from Microsoft, xAI, or OpenAI, optimized for their specific needs.



In other words, enterprises will evolve from the idea that single-provider AI resources will solve their needs to an era of targeted, role-based, or need-based AI.



Making matters even more complicated, many AI providers are now beginning to roll out their own browsers.



Enterprise leaders thus face a new challenge: how to manage the onslaught of AI needs that are now arriving.



HISTORY IS REPEATING ITSELF



Enterprises have been here before.



When cloud computing emerged, many dipped their toes in the water by standardizing on a single provider. The logic was simple: fewer vendors, lower cost, less risk. But as cloud usage expanded, different workloads demanded different strengths, and organizations diversified their cloud infrastructure.



The same dynamic emerged with data platforms. Early efforts focused on centralized applications like data lakes, but as use cases multiplied, organizations often found that no single system served every real-world use case equally well. Most enterprises responded by adopting multiple tools around a shared data foundation.



In both cases, organizations that had prepared themselves for flexibility were better positioned.



AI is following this same trajectory, only faster. And unlike cloud or data infrastructure, AI adoption isn’t happening quietly behind the scenes. It’s happening in daily workflows across departments, often without central coordination.



Leaders can therefore best help their organizations succeed by embracing many tools, each chosen for what it does best, while managing them through shared controls.



THE RISK OF AI TOOL SPRAWL



As AI systems and use cases proliferate, failing to prepare poses real risks to the enterprise.



This proliferation extends beyond standalone AI tools. Increasingly, SaaS applications from CRM systems and productivity suites to finance and HR platforms embed their own AI. In many cases, AI adoption will happen by default, not by deliberate choice.



With these tools, teams will also inherit fragmented security policies, inconsistent controls, and limited visibility. Tools that seem harmless in isolation can create meaningful risk in aggregate.



This is the rise of shadow AI: systems introduced to solve real problems, but without the oversight to manage them responsibly. With agentic AI, where systems act on users’ behalf, those risks compound: permissions expand and accountability becomes harder to trace.



If these tools are left unchecked, leaders will lose sight of where AI is used, what data it touches, and which systems act autonomously on the organization’s behalf. Experimentation and innovation should not be allowed to scale faster than oversight.



GOVERNANCE IS THE MISSING LAYER



Multimodal flexibility does not have to come at the expense of visibility and security. Again, we have been here before. With SaaS, enterprises don’t manage a wide variety of capabilities by forcing everyone onto one system. They manage it by establishing shared controls across many tools.



Enterprises need a governance layer that sits above all AI vendors. That layer should provide:




Visibility across AI usage



Policy enforcement independent of model provider



Guardrails for data access



Safe experimentation



Support for bringing your own device, contractors, and distributed teams




Governance doesn’t restrict freedom. It enables it by allowing organizations to choose every model they want and assign them across their teams without introducing new risk.



And true governance can’t rely on technology alone. Leaders must cultivate a culture of AI literacy, where every employee can confidently evaluate, validate, combine, and challenge AI systems. Then organizations can embrace a multitude of AI tools, safely, and effectively.



PREPARE FOR MULTI-MODEL SUCCESS



Much like SaaS, the cloud, and data platforms before it, AI will soon spread across roles, workflows, and applications. Leaders that build in the capacity to manage all these models—through visibility, governance, and an AI-fluent workforce—will be best positioned to capture all of AI’s advantages without compromising safety, trust, or control.



Steve Tchejeyan is president of Island. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Tue, 03 Feb 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>fragments, enterprise, control, the, next, battleground</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>How discounting hurts long&#45;term loyalty and profits</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/how-discounting-hurts-long-term-loyalty-and-profits</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/how-discounting-hurts-long-term-loyalty-and-profits</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Discounting has been part of retail’s toolkit for decades, and it can be effective, especially during high-stakes shopping seasons. But as promotions become more frequent across the industry, companies are taking a closer look at the downside: Short-term sales gains don’t always come with long-term loyalty or durable margins, and customers remember how a brand made them feel far more than what they saved at checkout.



What’s often missing from the conversation is the role of experience-led value. Loyalty isn’t built through price alone—it’s built through moments that make a customer feel recognized, appreciated, and confident they made the right choice. When brands compete only on discounts, they sacrifice those moments in favor of short-term volume.



This coming year, retailers may feel the urge to pull the markdown lever more than ever.



While the National Retail Federation pegged retail sales during the recent holiday shopping season to exceed $1 trillion, retailers saw fewer unit sales as shoppers dealt with tariff-driven sticker shock. As a result, 2025 marked a significant change in consumer behavior as shoppers across the board sought value and deals. That shift is likely to persist through 2026, increasing pressure on retailers to use markdowns to move inventory.



The risk isn’t that retailers will discount, it’s that discounting becomes the strategy rather than the symptom.



WHEN DISCOUNTS COST MORE THAN THEY DELIVER



Kohl’s offers a useful illustration of this tension. In the third quarter of 2025, the retailer reported a modest year-over-year increase in gross margin, while operating income declined amid softer sales. The results underscore how difficult it can be to translate promotional activity and operational improvements into sustained profitability when demand remains under pressure.



This dynamic isn’t unique to Kohl’s. Shifting consumer preferences, lingering supply-chain complexity, and intensified competition have forced many retail leaders to make difficult decisions about pricing and inventory.



Target faced a similar challenge in 2022, when excess inventory—particularly in home and apparel—prompted the company to take decisive markdown and inventory-reduction actions. While those moves helped rebalance inventory levels, they also weighed on near-term profitability.



More recently, Lululemon has contended with elevated promotional activity amid signs of slowing demand in the U.S. and increased competition in the athleisure category from brands like Vuori and Athleta. Analysts have pointed to higher markdown levels as retailers across the space work to maintain traffic and manage inventory in a more competitive environment.



Taken together, these examples reflect a broader pattern in retail: promotions can help stabilize revenue in the short term, but they don’t always improve operating leverage or long-term customer value. Discounts move inventory—but they rarely move customer lifetime value in the same direction.



WHY DISCOUNTING FEELS INEVITABLE BUT ISN’T SUSTAINABLE



Discounting has intuitive appeal. In a crowded market with shrinking discretionary budgets, deals cut through the noise. Spending trends underscore just how price-sensitive shoppers have become, with a growing percentage planning holiday-season purchases early and hunting for discounts across channels.



Yet this rush to save can produce a dangerous feedback loop:



1. Shoppers learn to wait for deals.



2. Brands feel pressured to offer deeper discounts.



3. Margins shrink, forcing even steeper promotions next cycle.



Over time, this turns what should be a preference decision into a pricing decision, and pricing decisions rarely build durable brands.



LOYALTY IS BUILT BEYOND THE TRANSACTION



If discounting tells a shopper, “Buy now because it’s cheap,” then true loyalty says, “Buy again because it matters.” The difference is subtle, but profound.



Loyalty isn’t a transaction with a strike price; it’s a series of experiences that make a customer feel recognized, appreciated, and connected. It doesn’t live at checkout. It’s built in the moments of fulfillment, engagement, and emotional connection that follow.



Yet many retail strategies still prioritize pre-purchase price incentives over post-purchase relationship building. That’s why promotions dominate inboxes, but customer lifetime value stagnates.



A BETTER PATH FORWARD



Some brands are finding a way out of this loop by shifting emphasis away from discounts and toward experience-led value. This includes deploying value-oriented pricing structures that don’t train customers to wait for sales. Retailers can also offer post-purchase experiences that reinforce brand affinity without discount hooks. They can also provide more personalized engagement that acknowledges the shopper as an individual rather than a deal seeker.



Retailers who embrace these strategies in 2026 signal something important: you matter to us, not just your wallet. And that distinction, over time, fuels repeat business in a way discounts never can.



Discounts will always have a place—especially during peak shopping seasons when consumer attention is fragmented and competitive pressure is intense. But when discounting becomes the foundation of a pricing strategy rather than a tactical lever, it eats into profits and inwardly rewires customer expectations.



The retailers that will win in 2026 and beyond won’t be the ones offering the biggest discounts. They’ll be the ones who understand how customers remember brands, through moments of appreciation, relevance, and experience that extend beyond the transaction.



As the past holiday season showed, even the most sophisticated retailers can fall into the trap of equating promotional volume with lasting value. The brands that win in the long run will resist that reflex—and instead focus on creating moments that customers remember, not just prices they respond to.



Elery Pfeffer is the CEO at Nift. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Tue, 03 Feb 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>How, discounting, hurts, long-term, loyalty, and, profits</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Your guide to starting an online business</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/your-guide-to-starting-an-online-business</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/your-guide-to-starting-an-online-business</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ By Dom Walbanke on Small Business UK - Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs


A survey of small and micro-businesses found businesses with a website were 51 per cent more likely to grow than those without  
The post Your guide to starting an online business appeared first on Small Business UK. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Tue, 03 Feb 2026 14:00:06 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Your, guide, starting, online, business</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>How to take payments as a small business</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/how-to-take-payments-as-a-small-business</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/how-to-take-payments-as-a-small-business</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ By Tim Adler on Small Business UK - Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs


This Small Business guide looks at all the ways you can take payments, the best handheld devices for the self-employed, payment apps and finds the cheapest card readers out there
The post How to take payments as a small business appeared first on Small Business UK. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://smallbusiness-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2022/10/How-to-take-payments-as-a-small-business.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Tue, 03 Feb 2026 14:00:05 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>How, take, payments, small, business</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Octopus Energy strikes major China joint venture during PM visit</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/octopus-energy-strikes-major-china-joint-venture-during-pm-visit</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/octopus-energy-strikes-major-china-joint-venture-during-pm-visit</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Octopus Energy has announced a new joint venture with China’s PCG Power to trade renewable energy, aiming to handle up to 140TWh a year by 2030 and export British energy technology into the world’s largest clean power market.
Read more: 
Octopus Energy strikes major China joint venture during PM visit ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/shutterstock_2692484709-scaled.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sat, 31 Jan 2026 14:00:08 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Octopus, Energy, strikes, major, China, joint, venture, during, visit</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Lloyds to return £3.1bn to investors as profits surge past forecasts</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/lloyds-to-return-31bn-to-investors-as-profits-surge-past-forecasts</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/lloyds-to-return-31bn-to-investors-as-profits-surge-past-forecasts</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Lloyds Banking Group will return more than £3.1bn to shareholders through dividends and buybacks after posting stronger-than-expected profits of £6.66bn.
Read more: 
Lloyds to return £3.1bn to investors as profits surge past forecasts ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/shutterstock_2312885359.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sat, 31 Jan 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Lloyds, return, £3.1bn, investors, profits, surge, past, forecasts</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>New wave of ‘zombie’ companies faces collapse as financial distress surges</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/new-wave-of-zombie-companies-faces-collapse-as-financial-distress-surges</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/new-wave-of-zombie-companies-faces-collapse-as-financial-distress-surges</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Tens of thousands of UK companies are in critical financial distress, with high taxes, rising wage costs and weak demand threatening a new wave of business failures, warns Begbies Traynor.
Read more: 
New wave of ‘zombie’ companies faces collapse as financial distress surges ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/shutterstock_1553650259.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sat, 31 Jan 2026 14:00:06 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>New, wave, ‘zombie’, companies, faces, collapse, financial, distress, surges</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Amazon in talks over $50bn investment in OpenAI as AI arms race accelerates</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/amazon-in-talks-over-50bn-investment-in-openai-as-ai-arms-race-accelerates</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/amazon-in-talks-over-50bn-investment-in-openai-as-ai-arms-race-accelerates</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Amazon is in early talks to invest up to $50bn in OpenAI, as the ChatGPT maker seeks up to $100bn in funding at a valuation of around $830bn amid intense Big Tech competition.
Read more: 
Amazon in talks over $50bn investment in OpenAI as AI arms race accelerates ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/shutterstock_2672751943-1.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sat, 31 Jan 2026 14:00:06 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Amazon, talks, over, 50bn, investment, OpenAI, arms, race, accelerates</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Trump warns UK it is ‘very dangerous’ to do business with China as Starmer visits Shanghai</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/trump-warns-uk-it-is-very-dangerous-to-do-business-with-china-as-starmer-visits-shanghai</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/trump-warns-uk-it-is-very-dangerous-to-do-business-with-china-as-starmer-visits-shanghai</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Donald Trump has warned the UK it is “very dangerous” to do business with China, as Prime Minister Keir Starmer visits Shanghai following trade and investment agreements agreed in Beijing.
Read more: 
Trump warns UK it is ‘very dangerous’ to do business with China as Starmer visits Shanghai ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Trump-China.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sat, 31 Jan 2026 14:00:05 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Trump, warns, ‘very, dangerous’, business, with, China, Starmer, visits, Shanghai</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Informant told FBI that Jeffrey Epstein had a ‘personal hacker’</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/informant-told-fbi-that-jeffrey-epstein-had-a-personal-hacker</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/informant-told-fbi-that-jeffrey-epstein-had-a-personal-hacker</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ The hacker allegedly developed zero-day exploits and offensive cyber tools and sold them to several countries, including an unnamed central African government, the U.K., and the United States. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/getty-images-jeffrey-epstein.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sat, 31 Jan 2026 14:00:04 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Informant, told, FBI, that, Jeffrey, Epstein, had, ‘personal, hacker’</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>OpenClaw’s AI assistants are now building their own social network</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/openclaws-ai-assistants-are-now-building-their-own-social-network</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/openclaws-ai-assistants-are-now-building-their-own-social-network</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ The viral personal AI assistant formerly known as Clawdbot has a new shell — again. After briefly rebranding as Moltbot, it has now picked OpenClaw as its new name. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/GettyImages-1396827010.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sat, 31 Jan 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>OpenClaw’s, assistants, are, now, building, their, own, social, network</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>OnlyFans considering selling majority stake to Architect Capital</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/onlyfans-considering-selling-majority-stake-to-architect-capital</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/onlyfans-considering-selling-majority-stake-to-architect-capital</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ This isn&#039;t the first time in recent memory that OnlyFans has been in talks to sell off its business. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/GettyImages-2147980350-e1714562288264.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sat, 31 Jan 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>OnlyFans, considering, selling, majority, stake, Architect, Capital</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>A peek inside Physical Intelligence, the startup building Silicon Valley’s buzziest robot brains</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/a-peek-inside-physical-intelligence-the-startup-building-silicon-valleys-buzziest-robot-brains</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/a-peek-inside-physical-intelligence-the-startup-building-silicon-valleys-buzziest-robot-brains</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ If co-founder Lachy Groom has any doubts, he doesn’t show it. He’s working with people who&#039;ve been working on this problem for decades and who believe the timing is finally right, which is all he needs to know. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/IMG_4026.jpeg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sat, 31 Jan 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>peek, inside, Physical, Intelligence, the, startup, building, Silicon, Valley’s, buzziest, robot, brains</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>a16z partner Kofi Ampadu to leave firm after TxO program pause</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/a16z-partner-kofi-ampadu-to-leave-firm-after-txo-program-pause</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/a16z-partner-kofi-ampadu-to-leave-firm-after-txo-program-pause</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Ampadu&#039;s departure perhaps signals the end of the TxO chapter. The fund and program focused on supporting underserved founders by providing access to tech networks and investment capital through a donor-advised fund. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/a16z-Andreessen-Horowitz.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sat, 31 Jan 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>a16z, partner, Kofi, Ampadu, leave, firm, after, TxO, program, pause</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Baby Boomers are retiring early. Gen Z wants to quit. Here are the real reasons why</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/baby-boomers-are-retiring-early-gen-z-wants-to-quit-here-are-the-real-reasons-why</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/baby-boomers-are-retiring-early-gen-z-wants-to-quit-here-are-the-real-reasons-why</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ From the outside, it looks like a generational standoff.



Baby boomers are retiring earlier than expected, frustrated by workplace change, technology shifts, and growing tension with younger colleagues. At the same time, Gen Z talks openly about quitting jobs that feel misaligned or draining. Many leaders interpret this as a clash of values. Older workers cannot adapt. Younger workers lack commitment. The data tells a more complicated story.



New research from Clari and Salesloft, conducted in partnership with Workplace Intelligence, surveyed 2,000 U.S. sellers and sales leaders across industries. The study found that 19% of baby boomers are planning to retire early because they are tired of dealing with Gen Z at work. At the same time, 28% of Gen Z respondents said they are actively searching for a role where they will not have to interact with baby boomers as much.



The cost of that friction is not abstract. The research estimates that generational conflict is costing organizations roughly $56 billion each year in lost productivity, driven by miscommunication, burnout, and uneven adoption of new technologies like AI.



On its own, that data suggests a workplace pulling itself apart.



But another study complicates the narrative. Research from Southeastern Oklahoma State University, based on a survey of 1,000 employees, found that 71% of Gen Z workers are staying in a job or career longer than they want simply because they do not know how to leave. Nearly half say they are actively transitioning toward something new, while 68% report that their employer has no idea they are planning a change.



Taken together, these findings reveal something leaders often miss.



Baby boomers are leaving because they can. Gen Z is staying because they do not know how not to.



This is not a motivation problem. It is a clarity problem.



A shifting environment



For many boomers, the workplace they are navigating today barely resembles the one they mastered. AI tools, shifting communication norms, and changing definitions of productivity have disrupted identities built on decades of experience and institutional knowledge. When those changes arrive without context or support, frustration grows. Early retirement becomes less about age and more about opting out of an environment that no longer feels coherent.



Gen Z is facing the opposite challenge. They entered a workforce defined by constant change, but very little guidance. Career paths are opaque. Loyalty feels risky. Advice is often abstract. While they are often labeled as eager to quit, the reality is that many are stuck in roles they have already outgrown, unsure how to move on without harming their future.



AI has intensified this divide rather than resolving it. For example, the same Clari and Salesloft research found that 39% of Gen Z would rather be managed by AI than by a baby boomer, while 25% of boomers say they would prefer working with AI over a Gen Z colleague. This preference is less about technology being superior and more about predictability. In environments where expectations feel unclear or inconsistent, AI can appear easier to work with than people.



The leadership factor



That is where leadership enters the equation.



Engaged empathy is not about lowering standards or avoiding difficult conversations. It is about understanding how different generations experience the same systems and responding with clear, actionable communication. Without that effort, organizations allow frustration to turn into disengagement.



For Gen Z, engaged empathy shows up as explicit career navigation. Not platitudes about growth, but concrete conversations about skills, timelines, and options. Many young employees are not afraid of hard work. They are afraid of making irreversible mistakes in a system that rarely explains the rules.



For baby boomers, engaged empathy means recognizing that resistance to new tools is often rooted in identity, not stubbornness. When experience feels discounted rather than translated, trust erodes. Leaders who intentionally connect new technologies to existing strengths reduce defensiveness and preserve institutional wisdom. However, none of this works without clarity.



High-performing organizations do not assume alignment across generations. They create it. They explain what success looks like now, how it is measured, and how employees at different stages can contribute and grow. They introduce AI as a shared resource rather than a silent evaluator.



Boomers retiring early and Gen Z wanting to quit are not signs that work is fundamentally broken. They are signals that employees are responding rationally to unclear systems and inconsistent leadership.



The solution is not fewer generations in the workplace. It is leaders willing to practice engaged empathy and communicate clearly enough that fewer people feel the need to escape in the first place. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://images.fastcompany.com/image/upload/w_1280,q_auto,f_auto,fl_lossy/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit/wp-cms-2/2026/01/p-1-91473258-baby-boomers-are-retiring-early-gen-z-wants-to-quit-heres-why-neither-problem-is-what-leaders-think-it-is-baby-boomers-gen-z-workplace.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Fri, 30 Jan 2026 14:00:08 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Baby, Boomers, are, retiring, early., Gen, wants, quit., Here, are, the, real, reasons, why</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Amazon Go is dead. Was grab&#45;and&#45;go retail a fantasy?</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/amazon-go-is-dead-was-grab-and-go-retail-a-fantasy</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/amazon-go-is-dead-was-grab-and-go-retail-a-fantasy</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Hello, and welcome back to Fast Company’s Plugged In.



When Amazon announced this week that it’s shutting down Amazon Go, its 8-year-old chain of cashierless convenience stores, the news did not come as a shocker. Almost two years ago, the company shuttered all its Go stores in San Francisco, along with some locations in New York and Seattle. Another round of closures came in 2024. Now it’s going from a few stores to no stores, a footnote given that the same day brought the news that Amazon is laying off 16,000 people across the company.



Having shopped at the Amazon Go near my San Francisco office almost 200 times, I counted myself as a fan. Even back then, though, it felt like the company either didn’t understand what it had created or had already lost interest. The piece I wrote when the San Francisco stores closed felt like an obituary, even though other locations remained in business. 



I said at the time that regardless of what happened to Amazon Go, I hoped startups would pursue the goal of freeing us from the drudgery of waiting in line to pay for stuff. One I mentioned in that piece, Grabango, folded the following year. Reportedly, the expense and complexity of equipping stores with its technology—which, like Go, involved a bevy of cameras using AI to keep track of shoppers and the products they’d plucked from shelves—played a part in its demise.



I should note that cashierless retail is not entirely dead. Amazon is still working on the “Just Walk Out” technology that powered the Go stores, which it makes available to other retailers. Some of its Whole Food Market stores continue to offer a variant of the tech in the form of smart shopping carts called Dash Carts, which it recently upgraded. Startups that remain in the game include Zippin, whose Go-like technology is widely used at sporting and concert venues, and Mashgin, which eliminates the need to configure an entire store with cameras by having shoppers place items on a tray for AI-assisted checkout.



The one place I’ve encountered checkout-free shopping lately is at airports, where I’ve bought items using both Amazon’s and Mashgin’s platforms. My experiences were positive. Let’s be honest, though: It isn’t tough to improve on airport retail in its traditional form.



Cashierless checkout surviving for niche applications would be a dramatic reversal from the days when the first Amazon Go stores opened and I wondered whether human-dependent checkout was on its way to becoming as quaint as sales transactions involving someone eyeballing price tags on items and laboriously punching keys on a cash register. Maybe it will someday. But surely not in this decade, and I wouldn’t bet on the one after that.



Why is that? Along with the cost of the tech, there’s the question of how well it works at all. In 2023, The Information’s Theo Wayt reported that Amazon had 1,000 people in India reviewing transactions from its stores, and that 70% of sales required a human in the loop. That made it sound like the main thing the company had achieved was to remote-control the checkout process rather than eliminate it. It was also a reminder that shopping in Amazon Go stores involved being monitored by cameras, giving the whole process a Big Brother vibe.



Amazon disputed details of Wayt’s report. And the fact that considerable human labor was required to train the Just Walk Out AI doesn’t mean it would be so forever. Still, the more you know about how technology of this sort works, the more daunting it sounds—especially in the context of retail, a business that has traditionally been resistant to experimentation and long-term thinking.



Back when I was popping into my neighborhood Amazon Go several times a week, I thought of what it was doing as being centered on making my life slightly better. Ultimately, though, retail technology is not about direct customer satisfaction. It’s about increasing sales. Making shoppers happier is only one way to accomplish that, and probably not the easiest one.



In 2018, my colleague Sean Captain wrote about Standard Cognition, which had opened a 1,900-foot demo cashierless shop in San Francisco and had plans to help retailers take thousands of stores cashierless in just a couple of years. That didn’t happen. Now known as Standard AI, the company has pivoted away from grab-and-go toward using cameras to “understand what shoppers actually see and respond to,” its website says. “Our proprietary models continuously track awareness, engagement, and conversion to prove media impact, refine promotions, and optimize performance across every in-store placement.“



Standard AI is not performing facial recognition or otherwise associating this data with specific identifiable individuals. But even in anonymized form, the idea of being monitored as I shop for the purpose of maximizing sales makes me wince. The company’s site—with close-up imagery of shoppers contemplating products, overlaid with stats Standard has collected about them—doesn’t help. (Yes, I am aware that club cards have long tied shoppers to purchases, and that online shopping has always been a minefield when it comes to merchants spying on customers.)



Much has changed since Amazon Go was a novelty. AI is now everywhere in our lives, and the list of areas where its impact is potentially transformative is almost literally endless. I still like the concept of grab-and-go shopping. For now, however, it seems most useful as a case study in why technology that works—kinda, in certain circumstances—can fall so short of working as a real-world business.



You’ve been reading Plugged In, Fast Company’s weekly tech newsletter from me, global technology editor Harry McCracken. If a friend or colleague forwarded this edition to you—or if you’re reading it on fastcompany.com—you can check out previous issues and sign up to get it yourself every Friday morning. I love hearing from you: Ping me at hmccracken@fastcompany.com with your feedback and ideas for future newsletters. I’m also on Bluesky, Mastodon, and Threads, and you can follow Plugged In on Flipboard.



More top tech stories from Fast Company


Yahoo claps back on AI search engines with Yahoo ScoutThe legacy web company still commands staggering internet mindshare as it pivots into the AI age with an AI search engine of its own. Read More →
In Rochester, pay phones are working again—and they’re freeThe GoodPhone Project upcycles old pay phones, converts them to VoIP, and places them in neighborhoods where some residents still don’t own mobile phones. Read More →
Where is Donald Trump’s strategic Bitcoin reserve?The government seems to be amassing more Bitcoin. But little work seems to be happening to enact the terms of the executive order Trump signed to start the ‘strategic reserve.’ Read More →
TikTok is tracking you now. Here’s how to protect yourselfTikTok, under new ownership, is monitoring your physical location, internet activity, and anything you upload into its AI. It’s time to put some shields up. Read More →
The founders of Uber and Habitas want to disrupt your apartmentAs more young, wealthy people choose to rent, Sekra aims to give them what they want: luxury living, game nights, and blackout shades. Read More →
AI face swapping video could be a bonanza for scammersA new class of video generation tools could fool phishing victims, especially the elderly, into divulging information or sending money.  Read More → ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Fri, 30 Jan 2026 14:00:08 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Amazon, dead., Was, grab-and-go, retail, fantasy</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Trump is set to announce a ‘very respected’ nominee to lead the Federal Reserve</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/trump-is-set-to-announce-a-very-respected-nominee-to-lead-the-federal-reserve</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/trump-is-set-to-announce-a-very-respected-nominee-to-lead-the-federal-reserve</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ President Donald Trump said he plans to announce his choice for chairman of the Federal Reserve on Friday morning, a long-awaited decision that could set up a showdown on whether the U.S. central bank preserves its independence from the White House and electoral politics.For the past year, the president has aggressively attacked Fed Chair Jerome Powell, whose term as the head of the U.S. central bank ends in May. Trump maintains that Powell should cut the Fed’s benchmark interest rates more drastically to fuel faster economic growth, while the Fed chair has taken a far more judicious approach in the wake of Trump’s tariffs because inflation is already elevated.“I’ll be announcing the Fed chair tomorrow morning,” Trump told reporters Thursday night as he went into a screening of the documentary “Melania” about his wife. “It’s going to be, somebody that is very respected, somebody that’s known to everybody in the financial world. And I think it’s going to be a very good choice. I hope so.”Trump stayed relatively cryptic about his pick. His search was led by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent with four known finalists: Kevin Warsh, a former Fed governor; Christopher Waller, a current Fed governor; Rick Rieder, an executive with the financial firm BlackRock; and Kevin Hassett, director of the White House National Economic Council. Trump previously suggested Hassett was the frontrunner, only to recently say that he wanted him to remain in his current post.Trump did say on Thursday night that “a lot of people think that this is somebody that could have been there a few years ago,” fueling speculation that he had chosen Warsh, who was a finalist in the 2017 search for Fed chair that led to Powell’s selection.Tensions between Trump and the central bank had been steadily mounting as the president used the renovation costs of the Fed’s headquarters to further lambaste Powell, a campaign that resulted in the Fed getting subpoenas from the Justice Department earlier this month. The Fed chair took the rare step of issuing a video statement in which he said, “The threat of criminal charges is a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the president.”Trump has long teased his Fed choice while saying his nominee would slash interest rates that influence the supply of money in the U.S. economy, the rate of inflation and the stability of the job market.On the cusp of Trump’s announcement, Powell might have the ability to block him in an effort to ensure the Fed preserves its credibility by staying away from political considerations.While his term as chair ends in roughly three months, Powell’s term on the Fed’s board of governors runs through 2028 and he could choose to remain in that post, likely blocking Trump’s ability to have his nominees control the majority of the seats on the board. Of the seven Fed governors, former President Joe Biden picked three of them in addition to renominating Powell to a second term as chair.If Powell stays on the board, he could also create a small procedural hurdle for Trump’s ability to nominate someone new to the board. This would mean Trump would either have to choose an existing board member as chair or replace Stephen Miran, who is on leave from his job as chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers to fill a term as governor that technically ends on Saturday. If Trump chooses to replace Miran, he could name someone new to the board.At a Wednesday news conference, Powell declined to say whether he would leave the board. But he did offer some advice to any successor about balancing the need for independent judgment with public accountability.“Don’t get pulled into elected politics — don’t do it,” Powell said. “Another is, that our window into democratic accountability is Congress. And it’s not a passive burden for us to go to Congress and talk to people. It’s an affirmative regular obligation.”



—Josh Boak and Darlene Superville, Associated Press ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://images.fastcompany.com/image/upload/w_1280,q_auto,f_auto,fl_lossy/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit/wp-cms-2/2026/01/AP26030037625428_af7e09.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Fri, 30 Jan 2026 14:00:08 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Trump, set, announce, ‘very, respected’, nominee, lead, the, Federal, Reserve</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Saks Off 5th and Last Call stores are closing soon: See the full list of doomed locations across 18 states</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/saks-off-5th-and-last-call-stores-are-closing-soon-see-the-full-list-of-doomed-locations-across-18-states</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/saks-off-5th-and-last-call-stores-are-closing-soon-see-the-full-list-of-doomed-locations-across-18-states</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Saks Global, owner of luxury retail chains Saks 5th Avenue and Neiman Marcus, has announced the closure of most of its discount outlet stores, Saks Off 5th and Last Call. 



The store closures come weeks after Saks Global announced that it was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Here’s what you need to know about the store closures, including a full list of the locations being shuttered.



What’s happened?



Yesterday, Saks Global said it would close a majority of its discount outlet stores. While Sak Global is best known for its high-end luxury department store chains, Saks 5th Avenue and Neiman Marcus, the company owns several other retailers, including Bergdorf Goodman, Saks Off 5th, Last Call, and Horchow.



The company has now announced that two of these retailers will be hit by store closings. 



The first is Saks Off 5th, the company’s outlet store chain, which sells discounted apparel and accessories for shoppers on a budget.



The company also announced that it will close all its Last Call stores. Last Call is the discount outlet chain originally owned by Neiman Marcus, which Saks Global acquired for around $2.7 billion in 2024.



Why are Saks Off 5th and Last Call stores closing?



Saks Global is closing these locations as part of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy process, which the company filed for earlier this month. 



The goal of the bankruptcy is “to strengthen the foundation of our business and position it for the future,” Saks Global CEO Geoffroy van Raemdonck stated earlier this month.



Over the past several years, the company now known as Saks Global has become saddled with debt, driven by factors affecting many retailers, including reduced sales, declining foot traffic, increased online competition, and inflationary pressures. 



But the company’s debt problems also increased significantly after it acquired competitor Neiman Marcus in 2024.



This week’s announcement of store closures doesn’t come out of the blue. Earlier this month, when Saks Global announced it was filing for bankruptcy, the company said it was “evaluating its operational footprint to invest resources where it has the greatest long-term potential.”



That evaluation has now led to the closure of a majority of its Saks Off 5th and all of its Last Call stores.



Saks Global now says the store closures are the result of “a thorough review of its off-price business.”



Which Last Call stores are closing?



Saks Global has confirmed that all of its remaining Last Call stores will close. This encompasses five locations in three states. Those locations are:



California




Desert Hills Premium Outlets (Cabazon, CA)



The Outlets at Orange (Orange, CA)




Florida




Sawgrass Mills (Sunrise, FL)




Texas




Grapevine Mills (Grapevine, TX)



San Marcos Premium Outlets (San Marcos, TX)




Which Saks Off 5th stores are closing?



Unlike its Last Call stores, Saks Global will not shutter all of its Saks Off 5th stores. However, the majority of the stores will be closing.



The company says that 12 Saks Off 5th locations will remain open, while the other 57 locations will close. Those 57 locations are spread across 18 states. Here is the full list of Saks Off 5th stores that are closing:



Arizona 




Glendale, AZ



Phoenix, AZ



Scottsdale, AZ



Tucson, AZ




California




Cabazon, CA



Camarillo, CA



Costa Mesa, CA



Livermore, CA



Beverly Connect, Los Angeles (West), CA



Milpitas, CA



Palm Desert, CA



Petaluma, CA



Ontario, CA



San Diego, CA



Woodland Hills, CA




Conneticuit




Clinton, CT



Stamford High Ridge (Stamford), CT




Florida




Destin, FL



Ellenton (Tampa), FL



Tampa (Lutz), FL



Naples Park Shore (Naples), FL



Orlando, FL



Orlando (Vineland), FL




Georgia




Atlanta (Woodstock), GA



North Atlanta (Woodstock), GA




Hawaii




Ala Moana (Honolulu, HI)



Hawaii (Honolulu, HI)




Illinois




Aurora Chicago (Aurora), IL



State Street (Chicago), IL



Northbrook, IL



Rosemont, IL




Massachutses




Boston (Somerville), MA



Wrentham, MA




Maryland




Clarksburg, MD



Arundel (Hanover), MD




Minnisota




Eagan, MN




Navada




Las Vegas N (Las Vegas), NV



Las Vegas S (Las Vegas), NV




New Hampshire




Merrimack, NH




New Jersey




Bridgewater, NJ



Elizabeth, NJ



Shrewsbury, NJ




New York




Deer Park, NY



Eastchester, NY



Greenburgh, NY



Riverhead, NY




North Carolina




Charlotte, NC



Mebane, NC




Ohio




Columbus, OH




South Carolina




Hilton Head (Bluffton), SC



Charleston, SC




Texas




Cypress, TX



Dallas Park (Dallas), TX



Grand Prairie, TX



Katy, TX



San Antonio, TX



Sugarland, TX




In addition to the above Saks Off 5th closing locations, Saks Global also announced that the retailer’s website, Saksoff5th.com, “is winding down operations.”



When do closing sales begin?



Saks Global says Saksoff5th.com online closing sales will begin today, Friday, January 30.



Physical store closing sales will begin on Saturday, January 31.



The company says that gift cards to these physical retail stores will continue to be accepted, but only until Saturday, February 14th.



Gift cards for saksoff5th.com will only be accepted until Friday, February 13th. 



All merchandise purchased during the closing sales is non-returnable or exchangeable. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Fri, 30 Jan 2026 14:00:08 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Saks, Off, 5th, and, Last, Call, stores, are, closing, soon:, See, the, full, list, doomed, locations, across, states</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>A coworking space for the 1% of workers</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/a-coworking-space-for-the-1-of-workers</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/a-coworking-space-for-the-1-of-workers</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Imagine that you pull up to a skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan. You step out of the car and walk into the lobby, where the staff greets you by name and ushers you to an elevator. Upstairs, another staff member brings you coffee just the way you like it, minutes after you arrive. A barber is on hand to give you a fresh shave before an important Zoom call, and afterwards, you drop by a caviar tasting that’s happening in the shared lounge.



Amid an interior of travertine, green marble, and glass, a dedicated hospitality team and concierge service wants to make sure clients don’t waste time with the “little frictions” of everyday life. This “sanctuary” might sound like one of Manhattan’s luxury members-only clubs, but in fact, it’s a new kind of coworking space that caters to the 1% of workers. 



Industrious Reserve is a high-end coworking space meant for CEOs and business leaders. It’s supposed to give “the prestige of Park Avenue and the quiet luxury of a private club,” according to marketing materials. It’s designed for leaders with all-remote teams, or with home offices in other cities, who will now have a place to hold court.







“What we observe in our business is that people want a private club experience, but they also want their own office,” says Industrious President Anna Squires Levine, whose firm was recently bought by real estate services giant CBRE. “Just this morning, I had a private equity executive tell me ‘this is the product I’ve been waiting for. I do not want to sign my own 10-year lease. Why would I do that? Then I have to build it and manage it and figure out the Wi-Fi for 10 years. I want somewhere I can show up and feel like a boss.’”



[Photo: Industrious Reserve]



The first location of Industrious Reserve, a high-end coworking space meant for CEOs and business leaders, will open soon inside the fifth and sixth floors of Manhattan’s Lever House, a famous modernist skyscraper. Reserve access starts at $7,000 a month per person, $9,500 if it includes one of the 44 private office suites (monthly membership costs for other Industrious locations in New York City vary between $399 and $1,700.)



The new ‘corner office’



The Reserve offering represents a significant departure from the classic corner office layout for corporate leadership, a design for status and hierarchy that reached its apex shortly after the International-Style Lever House opened in 1952. As much as it’s a story of service firms finding new ways to cater to increasingly wealthy clientele—after all, there’s no shortage of private club space or budget for high-end office amenities—it also speaks to the changing role of a modern CEO and their workspace.



[Photo: Industrious Reserve]



Corporate leadership needs to showcase accessibility, transparency and cultural presence, says Todd Heiser, principal and co-managing director of Gensler’s Chicago office. But that doesn’t mean having the face of the company operate out of the lunchroom, or like many famous tech leaders, flipping open a laptop and sitting with the rank-and-file.



What Heiser says leaders desire now—and Reserve seeks to provide—is a place to work in close collaboration with the trusted team that makes a modern business function, almost like a capitalist situation room. 



[Photo: Industrious Reserve]



In a world that requires lightning-fast decision-making, CEOs want proximity; they want to be able to assemble the executive team in minutes and work in a space that fosters faster alignment. Heiser pointed to Logan Roy’s office on Succession or Rebecca’s office on Ted Lasso as examples of leadership spaces that were both characters in their own right and typically open for rapid-fire meetings with advisors. One real-world example, the new HQ for Hyatt, includes space for leadership to quickly huddle, assemble and lead team meetings outside of a stiff boardroom. 



The Capitalist Situation Room 



In the 1950s, office designers, influenced by notions of hierarchy and congruence theory, laid out workspaces to cleanly delineate hierarchy. Meanwhile, with today’s more open plan and collaborative design, the workplace power dynamic is dramatically demonstrated by access, says Heiser. It helps that shrinking office footprints also means axing luxurious private offices. Gensler found one in five workers today doesn’t have assigned seating, though execs do tend to have a reserved spot in most offices.



As opposed to the classic corner office—long a symbol of hierarchy and corporate power—this new functional layout that’s emerging more post-pandemic displays the leadership style of today’s LinkedIn CEO. “Employees read leadership spaces like cultural text,” says Heiser. “The layout, the openness, the adjacency all tell people what the organization values. It actually comes clearly from the top.”



[Photo: Industrious Reserve]



Reserve, in both its name and lofty privacy, communicates exclusivity—it’s a considerable expense to join—but it also gets described as the type of space where a leader can collaborate with a team. Levine spoke about the design, by the in-house team at Industrious, as a fusion of physical, technological and experiential, trying to create a turnkey experience for execs while also creating a sort of townhouse on Park Avenue vibe. The feeling of intimacy should be akin to a “secret, top-floor, light-filled brownstone in the middle of New York,” says Levine.



[Photo: Industrious Reserve]



What sets Reserve apart, argues Levine, is the dichotomy; leaders can enjoy an intimate private office to meet with advisors, offering that connection to their top staff, as well as a semi-public space–members and guests only in the club–for socializing for larger gatherings. It’s a space for using time impactfully, being in the bunker with trusted advisors, and being the best version of yourself. 



Compared to the gigantic floorplates of modern high-rises, the Lever House is slim and elegant; in the afternoon, the sunlight from the window hits the middle of the floor. 



[Photo: Industrious Reserve]



So far, membership interest has come from private equity firms, venture firms, hedge funds, and high-end retail and fashion shops. Levine says it’s either firms with big headquarters elsewhere who want a Manhattan outpost, or smaller, super distributed teams seeking a central meeting place. 



Levine expects the small handful of drop-in memberships and private offices to be snapped up well before the space opens in the spring, and Industrious plans further expansions of the concept in “pinnacle cities” such as Singapore, Tokyo and Berlin.



“It takes a very special building and a very special landlord partner to make it happen,” says Levine. “We like to be thoughtful and methodical about the way that we expand so we know we can do it with a high degree of execution. ]]></description>
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<title>Pubs to get 15% discount on business rates</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/pubs-to-get-15-discount-on-business-rates</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/pubs-to-get-15-discount-on-business-rates</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ By Anna Jordan on Small Business UK - Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs


Pubs and music venues will have a 15 per cent discount on their business rates from April 2026, followed by a two-year real-terms freeze
The post Pubs to get 15% discount on business rates appeared first on Small Business UK. ]]></description>
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<item>
<title>Best payroll software for small businesses</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/best-payroll-software-for-small-businesses</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/best-payroll-software-for-small-businesses</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ By Anna Jordan on Small Business UK - Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs


If you&#039;re looking for payroll software, peruse over these providers to find the right one for you and your small business
The post Best payroll software for small businesses appeared first on Small Business UK. ]]></description>
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<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Best, payroll, software, for, small, businesses</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>High Court fast&#45;tracks judicial review into inheritance tax relief reforms</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/high-court-fast-tracks-judicial-review-into-inheritance-tax-relief-reforms</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/high-court-fast-tracks-judicial-review-into-inheritance-tax-relief-reforms</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
The High Court has granted an urgent rolled-up hearing for a judicial review challenging the Government’s proposed changes to Agricultural and Business Property Relief from inheritance tax.
Read more: 
High Court fast-tracks judicial review into inheritance tax relief reforms ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Tue, 27 Jan 2026 14:00:10 +0000</pubDate>
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<item>
<title>Poundland partners with Retail Trust to strengthen mental health support for staff</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/poundland-partners-with-retail-trust-to-strengthen-mental-health-support-for-staff</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/poundland-partners-with-retail-trust-to-strengthen-mental-health-support-for-staff</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Poundland has partnered with retail charity the Retail Trust to give its 12,000 employees access to enhanced mental health support, including counselling, wellbeing tools and training for managers.
Read more: 
Poundland partners with Retail Trust to strengthen mental health support for staff ]]></description>
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<item>
<title>India and EU strike landmark trade deal after two decades of talks</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/india-and-eu-strike-landmark-trade-deal-after-two-decades-of-talks</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/india-and-eu-strike-landmark-trade-deal-after-two-decades-of-talks</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
India and the European Union have agreed a landmark free trade deal, cutting tariffs and boosting market access across goods, services and mobility amid rising global trade tensions.
Read more: 
India and EU strike landmark trade deal after two decades of talks ]]></description>
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<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
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<item>
<title>Labour MPs urge chancellor to halt business rates rise for music venues</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/labour-mps-urge-chancellor-to-halt-business-rates-rise-for-music-venues</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/labour-mps-urge-chancellor-to-halt-business-rates-rise-for-music-venues</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Nearly 50 Labour MPs have urged Rachel Reeves to pause a looming business rates rise for music venues, warning that bills could jump by up to 275% and threaten venues’ survival.
Read more: 
Labour MPs urge chancellor to halt business rates rise for music venues ]]></description>
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<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
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<item>
<title>Retail sales growth to slow across US and Europe in 2026, Bain forecasts</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/retail-sales-growth-to-slow-across-us-and-europe-in-2026-bain-forecasts</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/retail-sales-growth-to-slow-across-us-and-europe-in-2026-bain-forecasts</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Retail sales growth in the US, UK, France and Germany is set to slow in 2026 as consumers remain under pressure and volume growth weakens, according to Bain &amp; Company.
Read more: 
Retail sales growth to slow across US and Europe in 2026, Bain forecasts ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Tue, 27 Jan 2026 14:00:06 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Retail, sales, growth, slow, across, and, Europe, 2026, Bain, forecasts</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>South Korea’s Edenlux set for U.S. debut of eye&#45;strain wellness device</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/south-koreas-edenlux-set-for-us-debut-of-eye-strain-wellness-device</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/south-koreas-edenlux-set-for-us-debut-of-eye-strain-wellness-device</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Edenlux builds wearable tech to protect and train your eyes, inspired by its founder’s personal vision recovery. ]]></description>
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<item>
<title>Qualcomm backs SpotDraft to scale on&#45;device contract AI with valuation doubling toward $400M</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/qualcomm-backs-spotdraft-to-scale-on-device-contract-ai-with-valuation-doubling-toward-400m</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/qualcomm-backs-spotdraft-to-scale-on-device-contract-ai-with-valuation-doubling-toward-400m</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ SpotDraft now processes over 1 million contracts annually using its AI tool, with contract volumes up 173% year-over-year. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Tue, 27 Jan 2026 14:00:04 +0000</pubDate>
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<media:keywords>Qualcomm, backs, SpotDraft, scale, on-device, contract, with, valuation, doubling, toward, 400M</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>‘Among the worst we’ve seen’: report slams xAI’s Grok over child safety failures</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/among-the-worst-weve-seen-report-slams-xais-grok-over-child-safety-failures</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/among-the-worst-weve-seen-report-slams-xais-grok-over-child-safety-failures</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ “We assess a lot of AI chatbots at Common Sense Media, and they all have risks, but Grok is among the worst we’ve seen,” Robbie Torney of Common Sense Media said. ]]></description>
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<item>
<title>Northwood Space secures a $100M Series B and a $50M Space Force contract</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/northwood-space-secures-a-100m-series-b-and-a-50m-space-force-contract</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/northwood-space-secures-a-100m-series-b-and-a-50m-space-force-contract</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ This is the El Segundo, California-based startup&#039;s second raise in less than a year. ]]></description>
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<item>
<title>Uber launches an ‘AV Labs’ division to gather driving data for robotaxi partners</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/uber-launches-an-av-labs-division-to-gather-driving-data-for-robotaxi-partners</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/uber-launches-an-av-labs-division-to-gather-driving-data-for-robotaxi-partners</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Uber is not developing its own robotaxis again; instead it plans to collect and offer data. It&#039;s a bet that more volume will help autonomous vehicle partners solve the weirdest edge cases. ]]></description>
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<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Uber, launches, ‘AV, Labs’, division, gather, driving, data, for, robotaxi, partners</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Make stealing time a crime: How to protect your most valuable resource</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/make-stealing-time-a-crime-how-to-protect-your-most-valuable-resource</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/make-stealing-time-a-crime-how-to-protect-your-most-valuable-resource</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ I’m always amazed at how easily we give our time to others without thinking, and then are mad later when it was wasted. What exactly did we think was going to happen? That everyone was going to be prepared, productive, and appreciative? 



Time has become the ultimate luxury—we never have enough of it, and are jealous of those that have it. For too many of us, endless meetings, back-to-back emails, and constant interruptions leave little room for focused, meaningful work. Additionally, in our effort to be nice or generous, we offer our time even when we’re running on empty.



But what if I told you that much of this time theft could be prevented with a little more mindfulness, intent, and discipline? Warren Buffett is a great example: He once shared his calendar with Bill Gates, and it was practically empty, which Gates found shocking. But Buffett was making a point—that one of the key reasons for his success is that he fiercely guards his time, knowing that “people will take your time if you let them.”



Time is a nonrenewable resource, and we should be stingier with it. You can lose money and get it back, but you can never get it back lost time. Yet every day, unnecessary meetings and unproductive engagements hijack our calendars, diminishing both our productivity and morale. So why do we let it happen? It’s time to rethink how we treat time: not just our own, but the time of our teams and colleagues.



Time as a Strategic Resource



Let me introduce you to the concept of “time crime” that is emerging in workplaces today. Time is now considered an asset, and too many people are wasting it. It’s misused through poorly planned meetings, rambling conversations, and vague scheduling. This has an impact not just on productivity but missed opportunity, and as a result orgs have made bold moves to create strict policies on things like meetings. They’ve made it part of their culture change to treat time with respect, with scheduling a meeting becoming a last resort.



The idea is about mutually respecting time—yours, and others. In 2023, Shopify ruthlessly cut all recurring meetings with more than two people, resulting in 322,000 fewer hours spent in meetings in one year. Can you imagine that impact? What would you do with all that found time? For Shopify, it meant more focus and more time for deep work.



Alan Rankin, chief procurement officer at Moderna, shared an aha moment he had around time management, and it changed how he operates: “I was invited to a monthly operations meeting where many senior leaders in the company attended. I was really struggling to make a meaningful contribution to the meeting. I started to put myself under pressure to contribute more and say intelligent things. Then I had the lightbulb moment: Is this what is best for the company or is this all about me? I decided to stop attending and see if anything in my universe changed. And guess what? Nothing did. And now I have more time.”



Revelations like this are impactful—and essential. While there are many ways time gets stolen, meetings are usually the biggest culprit. NBCUniversal, for example, has learned that fewer participants in meetings often lead to more productive discussions. For many business units, meetings include only the minimum number of people necessary to achieve the objectives, resulting in faster decisions and more meaningful input from all attendees.



The Power of Less: Fewer People = More Productivity



The power of “less” applies to emails, reports, committees, and most certainly, to meetings. I’ve never heard an organization tell me they wished their teams had more of any of these. Have you? Less equals focus, especially during meetings. When too many people are involved, important voices get drowned out. By keeping meetings lean and mean, you create an environment where only people that can contribute meaningfully attend, resulting in less distractions and more deep work.



Atlassian lets employees question the necessity of every meeting. To decrease meetings, they use tools like Slack to handle simple status updates, letting teams focus more on high-value work. The message is to use your time with intention, and to only hold meetings when absolutely necessary. Stealing time is unacceptable. When meetings are held less often, they become a valuable commodity, where teams become more focused and disciplined with people’s time.



Even Google has developed guidelines to make meetings productive and purposeful. Because innovation depends on it. Their meetings are short, focused, and to-the-point, with strict rules about minimizing unnecessary participants. The goal is to protect employees’ time by stopping lengthy, irrelevant discussions that take away from deep work. These guidelines help teams be mindful of how they spend their time, as well as how they use the time of others. 



Respecting Time Equals Respecting People



Employees who feel their time is valued are more likely to be committed to their work. Time is, after all, one of the most tangible forms of respect you can show someone. At my own company, FutureThink, we regularly “uninvite” people to meetings, emphasizing that they don’t need to attend the meeting and can use their time for more urgent work. People love being uninvited because it feels like a gift—and our culture emphasizes that you need to use your time wisely; if you waste it on the unnecessary—that’s on you. The goal is for people to understand that time is something worth protecting. 



Guard Time Like It’s Your Most Valuable Asset



Stop letting your calendar be overrun with things you do need to really do, and start using your time with intent. The next time someone asks for your time, ask yourself: Is this meeting truly necessary? Is this the best use of my time, and their time? Doing this will not only protect your own productivity but also foster a culture where everyone’s time is treated as the invaluable resource it truly is. ]]></description>
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<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
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<item>
<title>What is ‘situational retirement’—and should you give it a try?</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/what-is-situational-retirementand-should-you-give-it-a-try</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/what-is-situational-retirementand-should-you-give-it-a-try</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ As an operative researcher for luxury retail companies, I spent my career grabbing onto one corporate contract after the next, like a tree-swinging retainer monkey. But in a tariff-distressed industry, those contract “branches” grew further and further apart until I was left hanging. Then a colleague experiencing a similar work gap said, “Well, I guess we’re retired.”



I’ve been called a lot of things in my life, but nothing prepared me for the word “retired.” I’m a freelancer, so no one is coming to my house with a gold watch as a reward for loyal service; I have no desire to move south; and I don’t play golf. My equally self-employed friend Roland had a suggestion: Why not consider myself “situationally” retired—that is, retired until the phone rings.



It’s funny how one word can make or break your spirit. I was crushed by “retired” because the concept is foreign and frightening. But adding “situational” made it comfortingly familiar. After all, for us freelancers every corporate contract is situational; you might even say that situational is my superpower.



A friend who’s spent decades in a grueling C-suite position still can’t bring himself to retire, despite vested stock and a strong financial footing. Happy or not, he remains in the grip of his job, unable to let go of a role he believes defines (and so ultimately confines) him.



I’ve been an outside observer of corporate America long enough to understand his struggle, although it is not my own.



Redirecting your energy



As an independent contractor working for different companies, each with its own ecosystem, I constantly adapted my work persona to fit each unique corporate culture. Fluidity is what stabilized my career and so the loss of a fixed identity was not my retirement problem. My issue was displaced energy.



Whether writing a history of plaid for a fashion CEO or helping the VP of design at a boutique hotel chain find just the right urban neighborhoods for expansion, every project required a tremendous amount of advance work.



From sleuthing out relevant reference resources to searching for subject-specific experts, my research work was as fascinating as it was fun. I rarely left my desk yet built a national network of specialists and accumulated wide-ranging knowledge that often dovetailed, making every project a little easier. When the work slowed—and then stopped—my detective skills had nowhere to go.



I can’t remember how long I was in that uncomfortable standstill until Roland’s use of the word “situational” got me moving. To kick off “Project Retirement,” I went on my usual research prowl.



Every day, about 11,400 Americans turn 65—the traditional retirement milestone—fueling a busy and lucrative media market spanning content, publishing, and podcasts. But the most valuable operative research is not about finding the most information. It requires you to find the right information—information that is directional, that you can build upon, that can help steer your project to a successful conclusion.



Redefining retirement



For me, the initial guiding principles came from the YouTube channel Small Retired Life and Raina Vitanov’s practical yet inspirational attitude. Her conversation about being rebellious enough to redefine and rebrand retirement broadened my understanding and freed me to choose my own norms and values. But the most significant contribution was her observation that in retirement, “Productivity is not the conversation.” Using the Roland method, I added a word and had a revelation: Transactional productivity is no longer my conversation.



The time between contracts used to feel borrowed; now I own it. And all that research joie de vivre that I enjoyed over my corporate years is mine to use as I like. Sit next to me if you want to talk about the architecture of Shaker communities, art in ’80s New York, or the difference between Ivy style and preppy fashion.



I also started a side gig in a small boutique where I once shopped whenever I needed to outfit myself for a rare visit into corporate America. Because I’ve never had a structured straight job, I find the work to be fresh and interesting. It’s also rewarding because I get to use decades of style research on real live women, many playing out their own life-shifting issues through the lens of their wardrobes.



Although I’m not sure I can pull off being an introvert cosplaying as an extrovert for more than my customary two workdays a week, I might give it a shot. Because now that I’ve got the hang of it, situational retirement can be whatever I want it to be. ]]></description>
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<item>
<title>Davos reveals mixed messages on CEO confidence—and new narratives on AI</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/davos-reveals-mixed-messages-on-ceo-confidenceand-new-narratives-on-ai</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/davos-reveals-mixed-messages-on-ceo-confidenceand-new-narratives-on-ai</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! I’m Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages of Inc. and Fast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to get it yourself every Monday morning.



The World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos brings together an incongruous mix of celebrities (this year included Matt Damon, David Beckham, and Katy Perry, who was accompanying ex-Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau), world leaders (President Donald Trump), and nonprofit leaders. The event also reliably assembles an unrivaled group of global CEOs who offer a window into where business is heading.



Some CEOs see sunny skies ahead



This year, though, I found the window very foggy—and I wasn’t alone. According to PwC’s 29th Global CEO Survey, released at the start of the meeting, only about a third of CEOs (30%) say they are confident about revenue growth in the next 12 months, down from 38% in 2025 and 56% in 2022. Yet Paul Griggs, CEO of PwC U.S., says the American CEOs he spoke with in Davos are feeling much more optimistic than the survey would suggest. While they acknowledge that they’re dealing with high levels of uncertainty, they’re also more prepared to deal with complexity through new workflows and processes to keep them agile. “I met with 10 CEOs today, and it was a day of optimism,” Griggs says.



Sharon Marcil, who leads Boston Consulting Group in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, is also seeing bright spots. A new report, BCG AI Radar 2026, finds that four out of five CEOs say they are more optimistic about the returns on their AI investments than they were a year ago. “I do think 2026 is going to be a growth year,” she says.



Who’s feeling blue? Most consultants I spoke with say European and U.K. CEOs are less confident than their U.S.- and Asia-based counterparts.



AI’s impact beyond the hype



The impact of AI on jobs was also hotly debated at Davos. While most CEOs and executives continue to insist that AI will make work better by reducing mundane tasks, a few CEOs have started to talk—publicly and privately—about the roles AI will eliminate and the need to prepare workers for changes.



“We’re focused on being completely honest with our workforce,” says Kate Johnson, CEO of Lumen Technologies, a digital network services provider. Johnson says the company is committed to training employees for new roles in the organization but adds, “We have to reimagine what the world will look like in the future, and [employees] need to imagine a world where their current job may not exist.”



Conversations about AI have also shifted away from applications (think OpenAI’s ChatGPT) and agents (software that can make decisions and complete tasks) to infrastructure. Throughout the week, executives shared insights on the energy and networking capacity needed as data centers built specifically to support AI crop up.



“The big question now has gone from the potential to operational reality,” says Aamir Paul, president of North America Operations at energy technology company Schneider Electric. (Fast Company partnered with Schneider Electric on a series of videos in Davos.) “How do we make it happen . . . getting data centers built, getting energy access, getting it in a way that it doesn’t affect retail costs and consumers don’t have to take the burden, and doing it in a way where we’re still meeting our sustainability goals?”



These are daunting challenges that will require investment and inventiveness to solve. Luckily, one of BCG’s recent business surveys saw a 14% uptick in mentions of innovation versus a year ago. Perhaps that’s another reason for optimism in 2026.



Your views on 2026



How are you feeling about the year ahead? Do you agree with the prevailing sentiment at Davos, or are you less optimistic about what’s coming? I’d like to hear your thoughts and why you feel that way. Please send them to me at stephaniemehta@mansueto.com. I may use your comments in a future newsletter.



Read and watch more:




Fast Company’s Brendan Vaughan offers his take on Davos



CEO insularity threatens dialogue goal at Davos



CEOs at Davos are buying the agentic AI hype​




 ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Mon, 26 Jan 2026 14:00:08 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Davos, reveals, mixed, messages, CEO, confidence—and, new, narratives</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Good leaders don’t shut down when employees push back—they do this instead</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/good-leaders-dont-shut-down-when-employees-push-backthey-do-this-instead</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/good-leaders-dont-shut-down-when-employees-push-backthey-do-this-instead</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Twenty years ago, as the top digital and innovation executive for Citi’s credit card business, I led the team that spent months building what looked like a brilliant partnership. We’d found a startup with a disruptive payments platform—one that became the forerunner of what has become a new payment type used by millions of consumers today. The deal: strategic investment in exchange for access to the startup’s codebase as a sandbox for innovation pilots. No more waiting in the legacy systems queue. Just rapid prototyping with leading-edge developers.



We built the entire partnership in a silo of supporters, treating resistance as something to avoid until absolutely necessary. Then came final deal approval day. The senior executives heading risk management, compliance, legal, finance, regulatory affairs, and profit and loss (P&amp;L) weighed in: “The regulators won’t like this.” “Have we gotten corporate approvals?” “What’s the ROI?” “We’ve never done this kind of deal.”



Deal torpedoed. Within a few years, that startup was acquired for close to $1 billion.



The loss wasn’t just financial. It was a failure to recognize that resistance contains intelligence about reality that plans built-in echo chambers inevitably miss. Colleagues felt blindsided—asked to bless a final deal rather than shape an evolving strategy. The resistance wasn’t about the idea. It was about being excluded from the journey.



I’ve spent the two decades since distinguishing the signal from the noise—and teaching leaders how to avoid the expensive mistakes we made.



Why We Keep Making the Same Mistake



Leaders faced with pushback default to a familiar playbook: build innovation in a protected silo, surround yourself with enthusiasts, keep resistors at arm’s length. The logic seems sound—protect the new thing from the “antibodies” of legacy thinking.



But here’s what we discovered the hard way: unfamiliarity, fear of the unknown, turf protection—these weren’t just emotional reactions. They were signals. Risk and compliance leaders felt threatened because no one had involved them early enough to anticipate possible regulatory concerns. P&amp;L managers pushed back because the project diverted resources from their quarterly targets. The resistance contained intelligence about implementation realities that an enthusiast-only team couldn’t see.



When 70% of change initiatives fail despite massive investment, the problem isn’t that people don’t understand the plan. It’s that the plan doesn’t account for what people understand about reality.



Learning to Translate Resistance Into Intelligence



The shift starts with listening differently. When someone says, “We tried this before and it didn’t work,” leaders typically hear obstruction and respond: “This time is different—we have better technology.”



But what if you asked instead: “What specifically failed last time, and how does this approach account for those lessons?” Suddenly you’re mining history for intelligence about why elegant pilots don’t scale.



When a stakeholder says, “Our customers won’t understand this,” the dismissive response is “Of course they will—we have market research showing they favor this concept.” The intelligence-gathering response: “That’s an important observation. Where do you see the greatest failure points that we should account for?”



Or consider: “This conflicts with our other priorities.” Many leaders hear bureaucratic gatekeeping and respond by promising to “make the case” at prioritization meetings. But that’s still trying to convince. The intelligence approach: “We have a full load of urgent priorities, you’re right. Where do you see the biggest stress points this project might create?”



These aren’t just nicer ways of saying the same thing. They’re diagnostic questions that surface constraints the plan hasn’t addressed. When you ask, “Where do you see the biggest stress points?” instead of selling your solution, something shifts. You’re signaling genuine understanding, not persuasion. That act of listening—what former hostage negotiator Chris Voss calls “tactical empathy”—builds the trust that determines whether your initiative scales or stalls.



Why This Matters More Now



AI experimentation is amplifying every dysfunction in how organizations handle resistance. Consider a common pattern: A team builds an AI assistant for customer service reps. The tech enthusiasts love it at pilot stage—impressive accuracy, clean demo, excited exec sponsors.



But they never involved actual service reps. So, they didn’t discover until scale that the assistant couldn’t handle the 20% of calls requiring human judgment, created more work documenting exceptions than it saved, and made reps feel surveilled rather than supported. Adoption stalled. The pilot became another “AI experiment that didn’t work.”



The same dynamic plays out with creative teams resisting generative AI. The pattern sounds familiar: Our brand spends millions to sound like itself. The moment we start prompting a model trained on every competitor’s campaign, we’re paying to erase what makes us different.



Beneath the pushback is stewardship of hard-won brand equity, not necessarily technophobia. The intelligence-gathering response: “What if we approach AI as rough-draft only? How might we develop explicit guardrails for tone and references to preserve what makes us distinctive?”



From Stakeholder Management to Coalition Building



Traditional stakeholder management maps who supports and who resists, then tries to convert resistors through better communication. Coalition building does something different: it engages across the spectrum from the start to build trust—the foundation that determines whether change scales.



I’ve seen this work. When innovation leaders don’t own a P&amp;L, they face scrutiny from business unit managers who question whether “the innovation people” truly care about quarterly targets. One way through: explicitly align early experiments to P&amp;L managers’ top priorities—not to convince them your idea is right, but to demonstrate you’re invested in making them successful. Shared values become the bridge when you disagree on tactics.



The Questions That Change the Conversation



In my workshops with senior leaders across financial services and other sectors, I consistently hear the same story. As one CTO told me: “We built our gen AI strategy with only the innovation team. Now we’re stuck because compliance wasn’t engaged early.”



Here’s where to start:



“What do you see that we might be missing?” Assumes intelligence in the perspective, not obstruction.



“What would need to be true for this to work in your world?” Surfaces constraints before they become deal-killers.



“What shared outcomes matter most to both of us?” Finds the values bridge when tactics diverge.



The fundamental shift: from “How do I overcome resistance?” to “What intelligence am I missing if I don’t engage this perspective early?”



Twenty years later, companies are still building partnerships, AI pilots, and transformation initiatives in silos of supporters—the same mistake my Citi team made. Still treating resistance as friction to manage rather than intelligence to integrate: The billion-dollar missed opportunities keep piling up.



What changes when you treat resistance as the intelligence it actually contains? You build coalitions instead of echo chambers. You gain insights that improve your plan and trust that enables scale. And you stop repeating the expensive mistakes we learned from the hard way. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Mon, 26 Jan 2026 14:00:08 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Good, leaders, don’t, shut, down, when, employees, push, back—they, this, instead</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Stop chasing “green” jet fuel</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/stop-chasing-green-jet-fuel</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/stop-chasing-green-jet-fuel</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 



A new year often starts with a simple question: How can we do better? For businesses, it’s a question that applies to almost everything, from product innovation to climate impact—an area of increasing urgency for many.



The goal of achieving net-zero is now a staple of most businesses’ annual plans, however the journey there is often challenging. It can be fraught with hidden trade-offs, making it difficult for ESG leaders to know whether they are truly backing the right solutions in pursuit of their climate goals.



Take aviation, for example. As one of the world’s most difficult sectors to decarbonize, its 2.5% share of global CO2 emissions represents a major challenge for nearly every corporate climate plan. To solve this, the industry developed a solution called Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF). Unlike traditional jet fuel made from crude oil, SAF is produced from renewable sources like used cooking oil, agricultural waste, and other plant-based materials. Crucially, it’s designed to work with existing aircraft engines, allowing airlines to dramatically reduce their carbon footprint without having to build new planes.



While promising a dramatic reduction in air travel’s carbon footprint, the well-intentioned race to scale this “green” fuel has created a dangerous paradox, leading companies down a path that risks undermining the goals they are trying to achieve.



THE HIDDEN FLAW IN GREEN JET FUEL



SAF has quickly become the poster child for sustainable flight, as it cuts an aircraft’s lifecycle emissions by up to 80%. However, the way we scale SAF matters just as much as the volumes we achieve. Many of today’s biofuels rely on crops grown on arable land, creating direct competition with food production and increasing the risk of deforestation and biodiversity loss.  



This is the hidden flaw in the first wave of green jet fuel. When the same land that could grow food or support forests is converted for use in jet fuel, claims of sustainability become less convincing. This approach risks incentivizing solutions that reduce carbon emissions on spreadsheets while increasing the social and environmental risks in reality.



At the same time, no one should underestimate the scale of aviation’s challenge. Industry roadmaps state that to align with net-zero targets by 2050, the sector will need hundreds of millions of tons of SAF per year, compared to only a few million tons produced per year today. We must choose the right path to close that gap over the next quarter-century. 



The world generates an enormous amount of waste every year, from used cooking oil and animal fats to agricultural residues such as corn cobs, straw, and empty fruit bunches. Much of this material is mismanaged, leading to open burning, water contamination, and methane emissions as organic waste decomposes. Turning this waste into fuel tackles two problems at once: it avoids methane and pollution from unmanaged waste, and it displaces fossil fuels in sectors like aviation.



FROM PILOT TO SCALE: PROOF IN THE REAL WORLD



The key question for any sustainability solution is simple: Can it scale?



For waste-based SAF, the answer is increasingly yes. At EcoCeres, our first large-scale renewable fuels plant in Jiangsu, China—which launched in 2021—demonstrated that industrial-scale production of SAF from 100% waste oils is commercially viable, with a capacity of around 350,000 tons per year.



Now, that model is scaling. In January 2026, we officially opened our new production facility in Johor, Malaysia. With 420,000 tons of annual renewable fuel capacity, it’s one of the country’s first dedicated SAF facilities and it effectively doubles EcoCeres’ SAF production capability. The plant utilizes 100% waste-based feedstocks, supported by a strategy that secures used cooking oil and other residues across Asia. Its circular model is demonstrated by facilities certified under leading industry bodies like ISCC (International Sustainability and Carbon Certification) and CORSIA (Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation). It has moved beyond pilots and is now delivering at industrial scale, proving the viability of truly circular SAF.



SAF AS A GATEWAY TO CREDIBLE NET-ZERO FOR BUSINESS



For many global companies, business travel and air freight form a substantial share of their carbon emissions. Without a scalable, credible source of SAF, corporate net-zero pledges risk becoming aspirational rather than actionable. 



It’s clear that a more sophisticated standard for green fuel is needed. Three simple criteria can guide better decisions:




Feedstock integrity: Does the fuel rely on 100% waste and residue-based feedstocks that do not compete with food or high-value ecosystems?



Verified lifecycle impact: Does it achieve high lifecycle emissions reductions validated by robust, third-party certification schemes aligned with global standards?



Circular and local co-benefits: Does the solution tangibly reduce local pollution and create sustainable economic opportunities in the regions where waste is collected?  




Applying these tests can differentiate between models that simply shift problems elsewhere and circular solutions that create compounded benefits.



CLOSE THE LOOP ON GLOBAL MOBILITY



The concept of a circular economy has successfully reshaped countless industries. For years, however, global aviation has remained a critical open loop. A truly circular, waste-based SAF model can help us finally close the loop on global mobility.



This is not a distant dream. As we’ve demonstrated, the technology is already proven and operating at scale. Global studies confirm that underutilized waste streams can support the production of hundreds of millions of tons of sustainable fuel, more than enough to bridge the current supply gap. As more of the world’s waste is brought into productive use, the idea of flying on circular fuel moves from promising pilot to practical reality.



For the business leaders and ESG teams asking, “How can we do better?” this presents a clear and actionable path. By championing a higher standard for the fuels they endorse, they can help transform one of the world’s most difficult climate challenges into a story of innovation and opportunity. If we can turn the world’s waste into the world’s jet fuel, then every business trip, shipment, and journey can be part of the solution, not the problem.



Matti Lievonen is CEO of EcoCeres. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Mon, 26 Jan 2026 14:00:08 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Stop, chasing, “green”, jet, fuel</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Business grants in Wales</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/business-grants-in-wales</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/business-grants-in-wales</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ By Tim Adler on Small Business UK - Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs


If you are looking to start your own business in Wales or already run one, you could be eligible for a range of Welsh business grants
The post Business grants in Wales appeared first on Small Business UK. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://smallbusiness-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2023/02/Business-grants-Wales-scaled.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Mon, 26 Jan 2026 14:00:05 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Business, grants, Wales</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Labour urged to raise private pension access age to curb early retirement</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/labour-urged-to-raise-private-pension-access-age-to-curb-early-retirement</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/labour-urged-to-raise-private-pension-access-age-to-curb-early-retirement</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Labour is being urged to restrict access to private pensions from age 55, with the Resolution Foundation arguing reforms could boost employment and ease pressure on the public finances.
Read more: 
Labour urged to raise private pension access age to curb early retirement ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/shutterstock_1284718990.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Fri, 23 Jan 2026 14:00:09 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Labour, urged, raise, private, pension, access, age, curb, early, retirement</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Preply raises $150m at $1.2bn valuation to scale human&#45;led, AI&#45;enhanced learning</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/preply-raises-150m-at-12bn-valuation-to-scale-human-led-ai-enhanced-learning</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/preply-raises-150m-at-12bn-valuation-to-scale-human-led-ai-enhanced-learning</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Language learning platform Preply has raised $150m in a Series D led by WestCap, valuing the company at $1.2bn as it accelerates AI-enhanced, human-led education worldwide.
Read more: 
Preply raises $150m at $1.2bn valuation to scale human-led, AI-enhanced learning ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/shutterstock_2226115233.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Fri, 23 Jan 2026 14:00:08 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Preply, raises, 150m, 1.2bn, valuation, scale, human-led, AI-enhanced, learning</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Juspay raises $50m at $1.2bn valuation to accelerate global payments expansion</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/juspay-raises-50m-at-12bn-valuation-to-accelerate-global-payments-expansion</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/juspay-raises-50m-at-12bn-valuation-to-accelerate-global-payments-expansion</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Payments infrastructure firm Juspay has raised $50m from WestBridge Capital in a Series D follow-on round, valuing the company at $1.2bn as it scales globally and deepens AI capabilities.
Read more: 
Juspay raises $50m at $1.2bn valuation to accelerate global payments expansion ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/shutterstock_2331700027-scaled.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Fri, 23 Jan 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Juspay, raises, 50m, 1.2bn, valuation, accelerate, global, payments, expansion</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Amazon set to cut thousands more jobs as AI overhaul accelerates</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/amazon-set-to-cut-thousands-more-jobs-as-ai-overhaul-accelerates</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/amazon-set-to-cut-thousands-more-jobs-as-ai-overhaul-accelerates</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Amazon is preparing a second major round of job cuts as it looks to shed around 30,000 roles, with artificial intelligence and organisational restructuring driving reductions across corporate teams.
Read more: 
Amazon set to cut thousands more jobs as AI overhaul accelerates ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Generative-AI.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Fri, 23 Jan 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Amazon, set, cut, thousands, more, jobs, overhaul, accelerates</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Bank of England accelerates Leeds expansion as part of cost&#45;cutting overhaul</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/bank-of-england-accelerates-leeds-expansion-as-part-of-cost-cutting-overhaul</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/bank-of-england-accelerates-leeds-expansion-as-part-of-cost-cutting-overhaul</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
The Bank of England plans to base half of all new external hires in Leeds as it cuts costs, reduces headcount and renovates its London estate, aiming to grow its northern hub to 500 staff by 2027.
Read more: 
Bank of England accelerates Leeds expansion as part of cost-cutting overhaul ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/shutterstock_2312887357.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Fri, 23 Jan 2026 14:00:06 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Bank, England, accelerates, Leeds, expansion, part, cost-cutting, overhaul</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Vimeo starts layoffs after acquisition by Bending Spoons</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/vimeo-starts-layoffs-after-acquisition-by-bending-spoons</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/vimeo-starts-layoffs-after-acquisition-by-bending-spoons</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Vimeo is in the process of laying off some of its global staff after being acquired last year by Bending Spoons for $1.38B. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/GettyImages-1162218344.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Fri, 23 Jan 2026 14:00:04 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Vimeo, starts, layoffs, after, acquisition, Bending, Spoons</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>OpenAI is coming for those sweet enterprise dollars in 2026</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/openaiis-coming-for-those-sweet-enterprise-dollars-in-2026</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/openaiis-coming-for-those-sweet-enterprise-dollars-in-2026</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ OpenAI has reportedly appointed Barret Zoph to lead its push into enterprise just a week after Zoph rejoined the company. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/GettyImages-2213399157.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Fri, 23 Jan 2026 14:00:04 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>OpenAI is, coming, for, those, sweet, enterprise, dollars, 2026</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Palmer Luckey says the coolest thing about Anduril expanding to Long Beach is the fighter jets</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/palmer-luckey-says-the-coolest-thing-about-anduril-expanding-to-long-beach-is-the-fighter-jets</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/palmer-luckey-says-the-coolest-thing-about-anduril-expanding-to-long-beach-is-the-fighter-jets</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Anduril on Thursday announced its plans to expand its Southern California presence with a major campus in Long Beach, the town where founder Palmer Luckey grew up. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/GettyImages-2152504211-e.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Fri, 23 Jan 2026 14:00:04 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Palmer, Luckey, says, the, coolest, thing, about, Anduril, expanding, Long, Beach, the, fighter, jets</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Former Sequoia partner’s new startup uses AI to negotiate your calendar for you</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/former-sequoia-partners-new-startup-uses-ai-to-negotiate-your-calendar-for-you</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/former-sequoia-partners-new-startup-uses-ai-to-negotiate-your-calendar-for-you</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Blockit, an AI agent that communicates directly with other calendars, has raised $5 million in seed funding led by Sequoia. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Copy-of-SequoiaARCUS2023-FallWeek1NYC_0919-318.jpg.png" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Fri, 23 Jan 2026 14:00:04 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Former, Sequoia, partner’s, new, startup, uses, negotiate, your, calendar, for, you</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Tesla discontinues Autopilot in bid to boost adoption of its Full Self&#45;Driving software</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/tesla-discontinues-autopilot-in-bid-to-boost-adoption-of-its-full-self-driving-software</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/tesla-discontinues-autopilot-in-bid-to-boost-adoption-of-its-full-self-driving-software</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ The company is also currently facing a 30-day suspension of its manufacturing and dealer licenses in California for deceptive marketing about Autopilot&#039;s capabilities. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/tesla-autopilot-1.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Fri, 23 Jan 2026 14:00:04 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Tesla, discontinues, Autopilot, bid, boost, adoption, its, Full, Self-Driving, software</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>This whole city block got an indigenous redesign</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/this-whole-city-block-got-an-indigenous-redesign</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/this-whole-city-block-got-an-indigenous-redesign</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ The metallic fringe hanging down from the edge of Anishnawbe Health Toronto’s community health center near downtown Toronto is the biggest indication that something different is happening here.



Created to provide centralized health care and traditional healing to the 90,000-strong Indigenous population of Toronto, the clinic is the centerpiece of a unique city block of development that was intentionally led by the Indigenous community and designed to reflect its culture. 



[Photo: James Brittain/courtesy KGA]



The wraparound fringe of more than 12,000 strands of stainless steel chain—the kind of aesthetic flourish easily targeted for elimination by the value engineers of a typical development—is just one of many elements of the project that put its Indigenous roots on full display on this block.



From its services and its building forms to the orientation of its landscaping, the development embodies Indigenous traditions, practices, and principles in a way that’s wholly uncommon in most urban environments.



[Photo: Riley Snelling/courtesy KGA]



Named the Indigenous Hub, this city block of development includes the aforementioned health center, along with an Indigenous job training center, two mid-rise residential towers, and public and private plazas. Indigenous iconography and material references can be seen across the site, from building facades that reference sacred blanket designs and healing rituals to wall treatments that evoke the bark of trees that once stood as forests on this site. 



It’s a project that goes to unusual lengths to put these elements on display. And it also required everyone involved in the project, from the developer to the architects and the landscape designers, to rethink their approach to urban development.



[Photo: James Brittain/courtesy KGA]



‘A place of indigeneity’



Located in a part of the city that was once the floodplain of the Don River, and before that the ancestral lands and hunting grounds for Indigenous people for thousands of years, the site holds deep resonance for the community. The designers of the project, including an Indigenous architecture firm headquartered in a nearby First Nation, put great effort into drawing those connections in the look and feel of the project.



“The intent was all about how do we ensure that when people are in this block, they understand that it is a place of indigeneity, and also understand where they are within the city,” says Matthew Hickey, a partner at Two Row Architect, an Indigenous architecture firm that advised on the design of every part of the project.



[Photo: James Brittain/courtesy KGA]



Working closely with Stantec Architecture, Two Row helped create the plan for the block, and then worked alongside Stantec and the architecture firm BDP Quadrangle to guide the design of the buildings and outdoor spaces within the block, including building facades inspired by traditional dress, traditional healing spaces that connect directly to the earth, and a central Indigenous Peoples Garden plaza where medicinal plants are grown.



This ambitious, Indigenous-led development has been decades in the making. The charity health care organization Anishnawbe Health Toronto (AHT) had been searching for a place to consolidate and improve services it had been providing to Toronto’s Indigenous population since the 1980s. Then in the late 2000s, when officials in Toronto put in a bid to host the 2015 Pan Am Games, this former floodplain was targeted as a potential site for redevelopment. As part of the plan, and in line with Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls to Action, a two-and-a-half acre section of the redevelopment area was set aside for Indigenous uses.



[Photo: Riley Snelling/courtesy KGA]



AHT was chosen to use this land as a centralized location for its services, with funding from the Ministry of Health. After some complex negotiations at the provincial level, the project was expanded to build an entire city block of development.



The project soon took on the name Indigenous Hub. Joe Hester, the longtime executive director at AHT who died in early 2025, stressed to the design teams that the land wasn’t being granted to the Indigenous community but returned to them. Rather than designing a development that would simply blend into the urban surroundings, the project represented an opportunity to make a mark.



“It’s the first time a health center has been built across Canada specifically to house and to care for Indigenous people, which is shocking on one hand, but also amazing on the other,” says Hickey.



[Photo: James Brittain/courtesy KGA]



At the prodding of Hester and AHT, the project’s designers were called on to design a piece of the city that called attention to its Indigenous character, and prodded people to think about Indigenous people and practices. “We were all very conscious that we were working in a different place with different terms of reference and we needed to be sensitive to those things at all times,” says Les Klein, BDP Quadrangle cofounder.



The designers considered the project as a landscape first, the oriented the buildings around what became the Indigenous Peoples Garden. “It forms a central amenity and organizing element for the whole block,” says Michael Moxam, project design principal and design culture practice leader for Stantec.



The buildings make visual connections to this central space from the street and from within the health center. “In our work in healthcare, we’re always so focused on the health impact of a connection to landscape and the health impact of a connection to natural light and views. That gets right back to the idea of thinking about the whole block as a landscape first,” says Moxam. “There’s indigenous cultural value to that, but there’s also just a health and wellness value to that.”



[Photo: James Brittain/courtesy KGA]



People over parking



Some compromises had to be made. The placement of the health center within the block meant that its entrance was in an undesirable location, according to Indigenous principles. “The building entry is on the west side, which we never enter buildings on. It’s the side of death, basically, with the east side being the side of birth,” Hickey says. As a workaround the design team added a three-story atrium to the east side of the health center, facing the central garden. “Orienting the atrium to the rising sun was one of the teachings that’s embedded in there,” Hickey says.



The designers even tweaked the building facades surrounding the central garden to reflect more light into that east-facing atrium. “We would not have done that if we hadn’t been talking about it and understanding how important those elements are,” Klein says.



[Photo: James Brittain/courtesy KGA]



This level of intention helped make the health center building so striking. In addition to its metal fringe, the facade is clad in perforated aluminum that’s patterned after a star blanket, which symbolizes connections with ancestors and the cosmos. Inside, conventional clinical spaces are situated alongside traditional healing spaces on each of the clinic’s four floors, with curving rusted steel appearing at the street level to indicate where these spaces are located.



In line with an Indigenous principle that healing spaces be in direct contact with the earth, the block’s plan was altered to move all underground parking and basement space outside the footprint of the health center to sit beneath the two housing towers on the block’s edge. “We went to [Hester] and said, you know, it’s going to lose a few parking spaces. And he said, ‘this is what we’re going to do,&#039;” Klein says. “Things that I would normally at least be nervous about going to a developer to talk about just became part of the natural conversation.”



[Photo: James Brittain/courtesy KGA]



Building materials make other references across the development, including multi-colored bricks that mimic the form of a woven basket, and precast concrete panels patterned after the bark of native birch trees.



The fringe around the health center is perhaps the most meaningful design choice, and most representative of what makes this development so unique. It’s inspired by the shawls used by fancy dancers at Indigenous powwows, and also by the sound made by the jingle dresses traditionally used during healing rituals. 



“For a jingle dress dancer, it’s about healing. They dance for people to heal, and that sound is a part of it,” says Hickey. “For us, dancing is not just for dancing or showing off. Like architecture is not about showing off. It’s about what it’s doing.”



 ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Thu, 22 Jan 2026 14:00:10 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>This, whole, city, block, got, indigenous, redesign</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Fix your sales pitch in under 90 seconds</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/fix-your-sales-pitch-in-under-90-seconds</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/fix-your-sales-pitch-in-under-90-seconds</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Most sales pitches fail for one simple reason: they try to say too much. It’s natural to be passionate about your product or service. Of course you want to showcase the features and benefits. But if you want your audience leaning in and listening, less is always more. 



We live in what I call an AHA world. AI-focused, hyper-connected, and always-on. Distractions abound. If you can’t capture your prospect and customers’ imagination immediately, you’ll lose them to their emails, Slack messages, and TikTok feeds. 



The good news is there’s a 90-second fix that will help you craft a pitch or presentation that keeps your audience on the edge of their seats. The structure is so simple, it’s almost too good to be true. It’s the same framework the world’s best journalists use to keep their readers coming back for more and the same approach I teach leaders, sales teams, and founders who want their message to cut through.



Let’s dive in. 



Find Your Headline 



Most people start creating a pitch or presentation by opening a slide deck and dumping content into it. Or worse, opening an existing slide deck and trying to rearrange it. Don’t. Before you write a single word or think about your visuals, you need to strip your pitch down to a single sentence. 



Imagine it appearing on the front of a newspaper or at the top of a social feed. What words would you choose? Keep them short, punchy, and memorable. Ten words or fewer is a good rule of thumb.



This single line of text becomes the anchor for your entire pitch. It forces you to stay disciplined. If something doesn’t support your headline it doesn’t make the cut. 



When you look at the newspaper industry, the best headlines have an emotional element too. They don’t just present information, they engage the target audience. A weak pitch headline is forgettable: “SaaS Product Seed Round” is accurate but bland. “$10 million Opportunity To Revolutionize Fintech” is much more compelling. 



A strong headline creates energy. It signals to your audience why they should care. But its most important function is as a yardstick for your content. Test every slide, story, and statistic against it. If it’s aligned with the headline, it stays. If it doesn’t, it goes. 



Distill It Into Three Key Messages



When you look at the text of a newspaper article on the page, you’ll see the headline and a number of subheadings. If all you do is skim those, you’ll have the gist of what is being said. You don’t need to read the whole thing. That structure is a great shorthand for pitches and presentations. 



Your audience can’t absorb unlimited information. Most people walk into meetings already holding a handful of important thoughts in their heads: deadlines, dinner plans, unfinished tasks. If you give people 17 reasons why your product or service is a good fit, there’s no hope they’ll remember all of them. 



I’d like to suggest that three is the magic number. Not seven. Not five. Three.



Three ideas feel complete and satisfying. Three creates a sense of structure. Three gives your audience a map they can follow without working too hard. 



When Steve Jobs launched the iPhone back in 2007 his headline was “Apple reinvents the phone.” His three key messages were as follows: “An iPod. A phone. An internet communicator.” Eight words, three ideas, total clarity. His whole presentation was built around those unifying messages. He covered a lot of ground in his 1 hour, 42 minute presentation but those were the things he kept coming back to. 



Your three key messages are the organizing ideas that sit beneath your headline. They are what your audience will remember long after the details fade. Ask yourself: If they only kept three things from this pitch, what must they be?



This is where you need to be ruthless. Speakers often flood their audience with data points, product features, or historical context. But doing so only creates overwhelm. It is not your audience’s job to decide what matters. It’s yours.



Decide How You Want Them To Feel



With a headline and three key messages, you now have a pitch structure that is simple, repeatable, and memorable. The final step is to think about how you want people to feel. 



This is the part most people skip entirely. But it’s the one that separates forgettable communicators from compelling ones. Decisions are rarely made on logic alone. Even the most analytical audiences are influenced by the emotional resonance of the message.



Before I became a communication coach, I trained and worked as a professional actor. One of the first things actors learn is the power of emotional intention. Before stepping on stage, or in front of the camera, you decide the feeling you’re trying to generate in the audience or the other character. That choice influences your breath, your voice, your posture, and your energy. It changes how your words land.



The same principle applies in a sales conversation. Ask yourself: What emotion do I want to leave them feeling? Should they feel excited? Reassured? Educated?



There are thousands of options. Choose one. That emotion becomes the current that runs through your delivery. A pitch with emotional intention not only sounds and feels different but is far more memorable too.



Here’s the whole technique condensed:



• 20 seconds – write your headline• 60 seconds – choose your three key messages• 10 seconds – set your emotional intention



That’s it. In 90 seconds, you’ve clarified your message, sharpened your structure, and supercharged your delivery. It’s focused, clear, and engaging. 



And if you’d like to see this technique in action, just look at the structure of this article. It’s built exactly the way I encourage people to build their pitches: one headline, three key messages and a single emotional intention guiding the tone.



In an AHA world, simplicity isn’t a compromise. It’s a superpower. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Thu, 22 Jan 2026 14:00:09 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Fix, your, sales, pitch, under, seconds</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>In California, developers are building the country’s first wildfire resilient neighborhoods</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/in-california-developers-are-building-the-countrys-first-wildfire-resilient-neighborhoods</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/in-california-developers-are-building-the-countrys-first-wildfire-resilient-neighborhoods</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ A new neighborhood under construction near Sacramento, California, in the rolling foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains, looks like a typical subdivision. But it’s one of the first developments designed at a neighborhood scale to withstand wildfires.



Each house goes farther than California’s latest building requirements for high-fire-risk zones, from enclosed, ember-resistant eaves to dual-paned, tempered glass windows that can better withstand extreme heat in a fire. The design considers not just each house, but how homes interact, spacing buildings at least 10 feet apart and removing combustible features to prevent fire from spreading between them.



Called Stone Canyon, it’s one of the state’s first “Wildfire Prepared Neighborhoods,” a standard developed by the Insurance Institute for Business &amp; Home Safety (IBHS), a research nonprofit funded by the insurance industry.



[Photo: KB Home]



Designing homes that withstand wildfires



At a unique facility in North Carolina, the nonprofit recreates wildfires—from embers to wind speed—and then uses controlled tests to see how houses perform.



We build full-size structures and we can control the wind speed and direction,” says Roy Wright, president and CEO at IBHS. “We can control the ember flow and the cast that is coming in that direction. We put out and publish really interesting, wonky things about wildfire. But [with the new standards] we said, let’s just take the most important pieces of the science and make them really plain and usable for developers and homeowners.”



[Video: KB Home]



KB Home, the national developer behind the project, decided to tackle a new level of fire safety after learning about IBHS’s research. At a building conference in 2024, the team watched one of the nonprofit’s demonstrations, which featured a house built to the standard building code next to one built to IBHS’s standards.



“They simulated a wildfire event where embers were blowing against the two structures,” says Steve Ruffner, president and regional general manager for KB Homes in Southern California. “The home that was built to the old standards burned fairly quickly, within about half an hour. And the other home didn’t burn at all.”



At the time, KB Home had another development underway in a fire risk zone in Escondido, near San Diego. “On the fly, we changed the design guidelines of our homes to accommodate the IBHS standards,” says Ruffner. (The homes, which start at around $1,000,000 and around 2,000 square feet, are aimed at “step-up” buyers looking for an upgrade; in the development near Sacramento, they start in the high $700,000s.)



[Photo: KB Homes]



IBHS had already put out a new building standard for “wildfire prepared” homes in 2022. In 2024, after meeting with KB Homes, it sped up the development of a related standard at the scale of a neighborhood.



To get the designation, homes need to include features like noncombustible gutters, a Class A fire-rated concrete tile roof, ember-resistant vents, six inches of vertical clearance at the base of exterior walls, noncombustible fence and gate materials, and a five to 30-foot “defensible zone” around the home where any vegetation is carefully spaced to avoid the spread of fire. Plants have to be drought-resistant California natives.



The standard overlaps with California’s newest building code, but requires better, more resilient building materials for certain components. California’s code also doesn’t require at least 10 feet of space between buildings or the elimination of “connective fuel pathways” between buildings.



[Photo: KB Homes]



“Structure separation is the biggest indicator of wildfire progress that will take place—that density,” says Wright. “That’s why when you’re building new developments, you can incorporate this in. Because you want to make sure that within the adjacent home, if it is fully engulfed, that you’re giving the next structure a chance to survive.”



Fires often spread through embers that can be blown long distances on windy days. In both the development near Sacramento and the one in Escondido, the homes are near open wild land that could easily burn; embers wouldn’t have to travel far. 



“We want to make sure that those homes can withstand those embers showers,” Wright says. “If embers are going to land on the property, it may ignite some bush or something that is away from the home on the parcel. But what’s closest to the structure is going to be able to withstand those embers showers. And if one of the structures has a really bad day and ignites, we slow the spread so that we’re not going to lose the whole neighborhood. We’re going to actually give the firefighters a chance to get in there and actually beat it down.”



It also protects older homes nearby. “There are adjacent subdivisions or neighborhoods that were built 40 years ago,” he says. “And the kind of actions that these neighborhoods have put in place are actually going to have a protective effect for their neighbors, because when they can withstand the impact of wildfire, that means the fire doesn’t spread.”



[Photo: KB Homes]



From lab tests to proof of concept



In the first project in Escondido, KB Home worked with the city to change some design guidelines (instead of Craftsman-style homes made from wood, they pivoted to ranch homes with cement-based siding or stucco). The city also required timber fencing that was treated for fire, but when IBHS explained that the coating quickly wears off in the sun—making this type of fence flammable—they were able to switch to a metal fence that looks like wood. The switch actually helped save costs, Ruffner says.



In total, all of the changes didn’t add significantly change the development’s bottom line, and there were some unexpected benefits. “We found out that tempered windows are much tougher, so we didn’t break as many windows during [construction], and we ended up saving a lot of money that way,” says Ruffner.



[Photo: KB Homes]



The first neighborhood in Escondido includes 64 homes, and an HOA agreement that requires homeowners to maintain gardens over time so fire can’t spread between plants or trees. The first homeowners have been carefully adhering to the plan. “They want to make sure they don’t break the rules because honestly, insurability in California is a big, big deal,” says Ruffner. “If you’re not insurable, you have to go into the public programs that are very, very expensive. And so at least they have a good chance here to negotiate with insurance companies.”



The newest neighborhood near Sacramento will follow the same path. So far, only model homes are in place; KB Home builds each house to order as each home is sold. Each house will be evaluated by IBHS before the neighborhood gets the “Wildfire Prepared” designation, though it’s getting a provisional designation now.



[Photo: KB Homes]



Now that KB Home has shown that meeting the standard is financially viable, other developers also have projects underway. Around a dozen other projects are being designed to the standard now, Wright says, some with several hundred homes in a single development. 



Of course, the work can’t completely eliminate risk. It’s not possible to make a house completely fireproof, Wright says. But in a worst-case scenario, even if 20% of losses in a neighborhood could be avoided in a fire, that’s “absolutely phenomenal,” he says. 



“Every time one more structure doesn’t burn, that means that structure is not sending off its flame. It’s not sending off its embers,” he adds. “Every time we save a structure and it survives, we really narrow the path of how that fire will propagate into a neighborhood.” ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Thu, 22 Jan 2026 14:00:09 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>California, developers, are, building, the, country’s, first, wildfire, resilient, neighborhoods</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>U.S. states declare emergencies as supplies run out ahead of forecasted winter storm</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/us-states-declare-emergencies-as-supplies-run-out-ahead-of-forecasted-winter-storm</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/us-states-declare-emergencies-as-supplies-run-out-ahead-of-forecasted-winter-storm</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Bags of ice-thwarting salt aren’t usually a hot item at Bates Ace Hardware in Atlanta, but store manager Lewis Pane sold all 275 he had in stock in one morning as residents braced for a major storm to deliver heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain on a broad section of the U.S. in coming days.Payne said he had 30 online orders for “ice melt” before 8 a.m. People sprinkle the salts on the ground before a storm to disrupt the formation of ice.“It’s impossible to get right now,” Payne said. “We have had to make special trips to our warehouse to pick up extra items because people need them.”The storm was expected to hit starting Friday, stretching from New Mexico to New England and across the Deep South. The damage could rival that of a major hurricane.Meteorologists say ice may linger on roads and sidewalks because temperatures will be slow to warm in many areas. Ice could also weigh down trees and power lines, triggering widespread outages.The city of Carmel, Indiana, canceled its Winter Games out of fear residents could get frostbite and hypothermia competing in ice trike relay and “human curling” in which people slide down a skating rink on inner tubes.College sports teams moved up or postponed games, and the Texas Rangers canceled their annual Fan Fest event.The coldest windchills may fall below -50 F (-46 C) across the Northern Plains with subzero wind chills reaching as far southeast as the Mid-Atlantic states and Southern Plains, the National Weather Service said.At the Atlanta hardware store, Wendy Chambers stopped by to pick up batteries and flashlights in case there is a power outage.“We’re gonna be prepared, aren’t we? We’re going to be able to read, do things, play games,” she said before heading to church choir with her granddaughter.Oklahoma truck driver Charles Daniel planned to load up as much freight as possible before the storm arrives in his area on Friday.“You’ve got to be very weather aware, and real smart about what you’re doing,” said Daniel, who delivers goods across western Oklahoma in an 18-wheel tractor-trailer.“You can’t back down into decline docks, you can’t go into neighborhoods or parking lots,” Daniel said. “I’m 40,000 pounds unloaded. One mistake can literally kill somebody, so you have to use your head.”He said truck drivers need to have a change of clothes, plenty of water and a couple of jackets on hand in case they get stuck because it would be a while before a tow truck could help them.In Arkansas, the Department of Transportation started treating some roads with brine on Tuesday. The salt helps prevent ice from forming. Over 10 inches of snow were expected in parts of the state.Rain was complicating efforts to pretreat roads with salt in Alabama on Wednesday because precipitation washes away the brine. The Alabama Department of Transportation encouraged people to stay off the roads if ice forms.“Any amount of ice is pretty dangerous, and certainly a quarter-inch could be very hazardous,” said Seth Burkett, a department spokesperson.Snow and icy conditions were forecast for Maryland beginning Saturday afternoon or evening, with peak effects Saturday night and into Sunday morning. The governor declared a state of preparedness to help authorities respond quickly.Governors in North Carolina and South Carolina declared states of emergency, making it easier for state and local agencies to coordinate and get help from groups like the National Guard.







Associated Press writers Brian Witte in Annapolis, Maryland; Dylan Lovan in Louisville, Kentucky; Jamie Stengle in Dallas; Kimberly Chandler in Montgomery, Alabama; Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina; and Rebecca Boone in Boise, Idaho, contributed to this report.



—Emilie Megnien and Sean Murphy, Associated Press ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Thu, 22 Jan 2026 14:00:09 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>U.S., states, declare, emergencies, supplies, run, out, ahead, forecasted, winter, storm</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>GameStop store closures 2026: See the full list of over 470 doomed locations across 43 states</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/gamestop-store-closures-2026-see-the-full-list-of-over-470-doomed-locations-across-43-states</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/gamestop-store-closures-2026-see-the-full-list-of-over-470-doomed-locations-across-43-states</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 2026 is already shaping up to be a brutal year for GameStop (NYSE: GME) stores. This month, nearly 500 locations have been marked for closure. The shutterings come as GameStop’s CEO Ryan Cohen doubled down on the company and bought another half a million shares in GME stock. Here’s what you need to know.



GameStop is closing hundreds more stores



Over the past year, it seems that GameStop has had one primary focus: reducing costs by shuttering stores. At the beginning of 2025, the video game chain had around 2,325 locations in the United States. But by December, it had shuttered 590 of them.



The same month, the company announced plans to close a “significant number of additional stores” during its 2025 fiscal year. GameStop’s financial 2025 ends on January 31. 



As Fast Company previously reported, at the beginning of this month, customers and social media users reported that their local GameStop stores were showing signs of imminent closure, but at the time, it was not known how many locations were shutting down.



Now, Ohio’s WKYC Studios has assembled a list of the stores it says are closing. That list, which you can see below, is based on GameStop’s store location tool, which marks hundreds of locations as closed. The list includes more than 470 locations across 43 states.



Fast Company has reached out to GameStop to confirm the closures.



Why is GameStop closing stores?



GameStop isn’t unique in its decision to close stores. Over the past several years, brick-and-mortar retailers of all stripes have shuttered locations. Many of these chains are dealing with the same problems that have led to GameStop’s store closures.



Those problems include declining store foot traffic as customers shift their buying habits online, rising operating costs for physical stores, and weakening consumer spending.



But as a video game-focused retailer, GameStop faces a unique challenge, too. Over the past decade, video games have gone from physical items you need to buy on disk to being distributed digitally for download or streaming over the internet. 



This shift to digital delivery of video games has cut out the video game retailer as a middleman. With customers now able to buy video games directly on their consoles and have them downloaded in minutes, there is no longer a need to trek to a video game store to buy a physical copy.



How is GameStop stock performing?



It’s impossible to talk about GameStop without talking about its stock (NYSE: GME). That’s because GME was one of the original meme-stock poster boys. Back in 2021, during the height of the meme stock craze, retail investors poured their money into GME, sending the stock soaring.



At one point, GME was trading over $120 per share. But in the years since, the stock has declined as meme stock frenzy subsided. Over the past twelve months, the stock has fallen by around 21%. GME stock closed at $21.69 per share on Wednesday.



However, this week the stock received a bit of a boost. As Investing.com reported, GME stock rose by about 4% after market close on Tuesday after it was revealed that GameStop’s CEO Ryan Cohen bought an additional 500,000 shares in the company. 



This share purchase increases Cohen’s ownership of the company’s outstanding stock to about 9.2% and suggests that GameStop’s CEO is optimistic about the share price’s future potential.



List of GameStop stores closing



According to WKYC Studios, the following GameStop locations are closing:



Alabama




Birmingham – River Ridge, 4507 Riverview Pkwy.



Hartselle – Hartselle Plaza, 1199 Highway 31 NW



Mobile – Airport Boulevard Center, 3691 Airport Blvd.



Opelika – Gateway Commons, 3000 Pepperell Pkwy.



Troy – Troy Plaza, 1410 Highway 231 S.




Arkansas




Batesville – Eagle Mountain Center, 17 Eagle Mountain Blvd.



Little Rock – Mabelvale Plaza, 10215 Mabelvale Plaza Drive



West Memphis – Service Road West Memphis, 65 S. Service Road




Arizona




Bullhead City – Bullhead City Shopping Center, 2840 Highway 95



Flagstaff – Woodlands Village, 2700 S. Woodlands Village



Lake Havasu – Shops at Lake Havasu, 5601 Highway 95 N



Mesa – Superstition Springs Mall, 6555 E. Southern Ave.



Phoenix – Desert Sky Esplanade, 7515 W. Encanto Blvd.



Phoenix – Happy Valley Towne Center, 2501 W. Happy Valley Road



Phoenix – Maryvale Plaza, 5215 W. Indian School Road



Phoenix – Village Plaza, 12611 N. Tatum Blvd.



Tucson – Campbell Plaza, 2910 N. Campbell Ave.



Tucson – Eastpointe Marketplace, 6970 E. 22nd St.




California




Auburn – Willow Creek S/C, 2799 Grass Valley Highway



Bakersfield – Panama Ln Bakersfield, 2200 Panama Lane



Bell – Bell Gardens Marketplace, 6939 Eastern Ave.



Canoga Park – Topanga Plaza Mall, 6600 Topanga Canyon Blvd.



Capitola – Brown Ranch Market, 2555 Clares St.



Coachella – Coachella Gateway, 49255 Grapefruit Blvd.



Compton – Gateway Towne Center, 200 Towne Center Drive



Corona – Corona Crossing, 2620 Tuscany St.



Culver City – Venice and Overland, 3855 Overland Ave.



Davis – 4625 2nd St.



Emeryville – BridgeCourt Emeryville, 3980 Hollis St.



Escondido – Escondido Promenade, 1250 Auto Park Way



Fresno – First and Shields, 3235 N. 1st St.



Gardena – Manhattan and Crenshaw, 15900 Crenshaw Blvd.



Gilroy – Pacheco Pass, 890 Renz Lane



Hayward – Skywest Commons, 1159 W. A St.



Inglewood – 3550 W. Century Blvd.



Inglewood – Marketplace at Hollywood Park, 3351 W. Century Blvd.



Lancaster – Eastside Town Center, 44421 20th St E.



Lemon Grove – Lemon Grove Shopping Center, 7048 Broadway



Livermore – Vintner Square, 1418 First St.



Madera – Madera Commons, 2180 W. Cleveland Ave.



Mission Viejo – Mission Viejo Mall, 236 The Shops At Mission Viejo



Oroville – Las Plumas Plaza, 1124 Oro Dam Blvd.



Palm Springs  – South Sunrise Way, 425 S. Sunrise Way



Palmdale – The Marketplace Palmdale, 39450 10th St. W



Petaluma – Washington Square, 365 S. McDowell Blvd.



Pleasant Hill – Pleasant Hill Shopping Center, 2360 Monument Blvd.



Pleasanton – Stoneridge Mall, 1384 Stoneridge Mall Road



Porterville – Porterville Marketplace, 1276 W. Henderson Ave.



Redwood City – Woodside Central, 2527 El Camino Real



Rohnert Park – Rohnert Plaza, 4645 Redwood Drive



Sacramento – Folsom Boulevard, 1420 65th St.



Sacramento – Meadowview and Freeport, 1441 Meadowview Road



San Bruno – Tanforan, 1150 El Camino Real



San Diego – Loma Square, 3357 Rosecrans St.



San Fernando – Workman Street, 801 S. Workman St.



San Jose – Westgate Mall, 1546 Saratoga Ave.



San Leandro – Fashion Faire Place, 15100 Hesperian Blvd.



San Pedro – Park Plaza, 980 N. Western Ave.



Santa Fe Springs – Gateway Plaza, 10635 Carmenita Road



Santa Rosa – Santa Rosa Plaza Mall, 1029 Santa Rosa Plaza



Selma – Garden Vineyard, 3352 Floral Ave.



Spring Valley – Spring Valley Shopping Center, 8626 Jamacha Blvd.



Stockton – Lower Sacramento Center, 7910 Lower Sacramento Road



Van Nuys – Patomac Plaza, 6800 Balboa Blvd.



Ventura – Pacific View Ventura Mall, 3301 E. Main St.



Watsonville – Main St. Watsonville, 1441 Main St.



Woodland – Yolo Polo Plaza, 1780 E. Main St.



Yuba City – Yuba City Marketplace, 1070 Harter Pkwy.




Colorado




Aurora – Hoffman Heights, 757 Peoria St.



Aurora – Quincy Place Shops, 16891 E. Quincy Ave.



Broomfield – Flatiron Crossing Mall, 1 W. Flatiron Crossing Drive



Colorado Springs – The Citadel Mall, 750 Citadel Drive



Fort Collins – Front Range Village, 2842 Council Tree Ave.



Fort Collins – Magnolia St Fort Collins, 1275 E. Magnolia St.



Loveland – Denver Ave Loveland, 1389 Denver Ave., Loveland




Connecticut




Enfield – Enfield Square Mall, 90 Elm St.



Lisbon – Crossroads at Lisbon, 193 River Road



Newington – Newington Shopping Center, 2997 Berlin Turnpike



Stratford – Stratford Square, 411 Barnum Ave.



Waterbury – Brass Mills Mall, 495 Union St.




Delaware




Bear – Governors Square, 1015 Governors Place



Dover – Dover Mall Food Court, 3084 Dover Mall



Wilmington – Kirkwood Plaza, 4345 Kirkwood Highway




Florida




Clearwater – Clearwater Mall, 2723 Gulf to Bay Blvd.



Coral Springs – Maplewood Plaza, 1158 N. University Drive



Deland – Gibbs Plaza, 1697 N. Woodland Blvd.



Deltona – Shoppes of East Deltona, 121 Howland Blvd.



Destin – Island Palm Shoppes, 16055 Emerald Coast Pkwy.



Fort Myers – Cypress Woods, 9390 6 Mile Cypress Pkwy.



Fort Myers – Gulf Coast Town Center, 10021 Gulf Center Drive



Jacksonville – Lem Turner Road Jacksonville, 12001 Lem Turner Road



Lake Worth – Lantana Plaza, 5780 S. Jog Road



Leesburg – US Highway 441 Leesburg, 10300 US Highway 441



Margate – Lakewood Shopping Center, 5499 W. Atlantic Blvd.



Miami – Aventura Mall EB Games, 19575 Biscayne Blvd.



Middleburg – Plantation Crossing, 1545 Branan Field Road



Mulberry – Church Ave Mulberry, 6751 N. Church Ave.



Naples – Market Center, 9960 Business Circle



Ocoee – Ocoee Commons, 10576 W. Colonial Drive



Orlando – Lake Fredrica Shopping Center, 3916 S. Semoran Blvd.



Palatka – Palatka Center, 850 S. Moody Road



Pensacola – Creighton Commons, 2620 Creighton Road



Port Richey – US Highway 19 N Port Richey, 8605 US Highway 19 N.



Sanford – Seminole Center, 3715 S. Orlando Drive



Sebring – Lakeshore Mall, 901 US 27 North



Summerfield – 178th Place Summerfield, 11275 SE 178th Place



Sunrise – Sawgrass Mills Mall, 12801 W. Sunrise Blvd.



Tampa – Citrus Park Shopping Center, 8502 Citrus Park Drive




Georgia




Alpharetta – North Point Mall, 1198 North Point Circle



Atlanta – Chamblee Village, 1841 Chamblee Tucker Road



Atlanta – Howell Mill, 1801 Howell Mill Road NW



Atlanta – Lenox Square Mall, 3393 Peachtree Road NE



Augusta – Southpointe Plaza, 3209 Deans Bridge Road



Cartersville – Shops at Main Street, 455 Cherokee Place



Columbus – Peachtree Mall, 3131 Manchester Expressway



Cumming – Cumming Marketplace, 1060 Market Place Blvd.



Dublin – Dublin Commons, 2421 Highway 80 West



Hartwell – Hartwell Station, 115 Walmart Drive



Locust Grove – Bill Gardner Pkwy Locust Grove, 4959 Bill Gardner Way



McDonough – McDonough Square, 1144 Highway 20 W.



Snellville – Pharrs Village, 1830 Scenic Highway N



Stone Mountain – Stone Mountain Festival, 1925 Rockbridge Road



Tucker – Cofer Crossing, 4363 Lawrenceville Highway




Idaho




Nampa – East Franklin Road Nampa, 5681 E. Franklin Road



Post Falls – Plaza at Post Falls, 710 N. Cecil Road




Illinois




Addison – Rohlwing Road Addison, 1074 N. Rohlwing Road



Alton – Alton Corners, 317 Homer Adams Pkwy.



Chicago – Cermak and Western, 2336 W. Cermak Road



Chicago – Gateway Center, 1751 W. Howard St.



Cicero – Cicero Marketplace, 3017 S. Cicero Ave.



Decatur – Decatur Marketplace, 4641 E. Maryland St.



Dekalb – Northland Plaza, 2564 Sycamore Road



Geneva – Randall Square, 1492 S. Randall Road



Hodgkins – Quarry Outlot, 9404 Joliet Road



Homewood – Park Palace Plaza, 17925 Halsted St.



Joliet – Jefferson St. Joliet, 2410 W. Jefferson St.



McHenry – McHenry Town Center West, N. 2445 Richmond Road



New Lenox – New Lenox Retail Center, 2344 E. Lincoln Highway



Orland Park – Lakeview Plaza, 15864 S. LaGrange Road



Round Lake Beach – Mallard Creek Shopping Center, 716 E. Rollins Road



Shorewood – Joliet Commons, 1530 IL Route 59



South Elgin – South Elgin Commons, 478 Randall Road



Tinley Park – Tinley Park Plaza, 16205 Harlem Ave.




Indiana




Carmel – Clay Terrace, 14405 Clay Terrace Blvd.



Evansville – Evansville Pavilion, 6401 E. Lloyd Expressway



Greenfield – Greenfield Crossing, 1905 Melody Lane



Indianapolis – College Park, 3269 W. 86th St.



Kendallville – North Street Kendallville, 2517 E. North St.



Merrillville – 80th Ave Merrillville, 2623 E. 80th Ave.



Munster – Calumet Center, 7971 Calumet Ave.



New Castle – South State Road 3 New Castle, 3187 S. State Road 3



Newburgh – High Pointe Drive Newburgh, 8680 High Pointe Drive



Noblesville – Town and Country, 16763 Clover Road



Saint John – St. Johns Square, 9939 Wicker Ave.



South Bend – Erskine Village, 1290 E. Ireland Road



Terre Haute – Honey Creek Mall, 3401 S. U.S. Highway 41




Iowa




Des Moines – Southdale Des Moines, 5126 SE 14th St.



Iowa City – Highway 1W Iowa City, 1011 Highway 1W



Waterloo – Crossroads Mini, 1515 Flammang Drive




Kansas




Shawnee Mission – Shawnee Station, 16310 W. 65th St.



Topeka – Wanamaker Shopping Center, 1725 SW Wanamaker Road



Wichita – 29th and Rock, 3000 N. Rock Road




Kentucky




Alexandria – Village Green Center, 6807 Alexandria Pike



Berea – Shops at Berea, 222 Brenwood St.



Campbellsville – Campbellsville Bypass, 726 Campbellsville Bypass



Danville – Danville Manor, 1560 Hustonville Road



Florence – Florence Mall, 2028 Florence Mall



Harlan – Woodland Plaza, 2370 S. U.S. Highway 421



Hazard – Daniel Boone Plaza, 82 Daniel Boone Plaza



Hopkinsville – Fort Campbell Boulevarde, 4156 Fort Campbell Blvd.



Lawrenceburg – 1004 Bypass N. Lawrenceburg, 1004 Bypass N.



Louisville – Southland Terrace, 3925 7th Street Road



Morehead – Kroger Center Morehead, 252 Kroger Circle



Nicholasville – Main Street Nicholasville, 1020 N. Main St.



Paducah – Kentucky Oaks Mall, 5101 Hinkleville Road



Paintsville – Mayo Plaza, 431 N. Mayo Trail




Louisiana




Baton Rouge – O’Neal Lane Shopping Center, 2060 O’Neal Lane



Broussard – Sugarcrest Center, 219 Saint Nazaire Road



Covington – River Chase, 69240 Highway 21



Crowley – Odd Fellow Road Crowley, 725 Odd Fellows Road



Houma – Southland Mall Houma, 5953 W. Park Ave.



La Place – Belle Terre Plaza, 150 Belle Terre Blvd.



Leesville – Leesville Plaza, 2414 S. 5th St.



Monroe – Pecanland Mall, 4700 Milhaven Road



Morgan City – Bayou Vista Plaza, 1079 Highway 90 E



New Iberia – New Iberia Shopping Center, 1002 Jefferson Terrace Blvd.



New Orleans – St. Andrew St. New Orleans, 520 Saint Andrew St.



Ruston – Eagle Plaza, 1407 Eagle Drive



Sulphur – Sulphur Plaza, 541 N. Cities Service Highway




Maine




Topsham – Topsham Crossing, 127 Topsham Fair Mall Road




Maryland




Baltimore – Parkside Shopping Center, 5114 Sinclair Lane



Baltimore – Perring Plaza, 1991 E. Joppa Road



Ellicott City – St. Johns Plaza, 9159 Baltimore National Pike



Essex – Middlesex Center, 1228 Eastern Blvd.



Gambrills – Village at Waugh Chapel, 2626 Chapel Lake Drive



Salisbury – The Commons, 2717 N. Salisbury Blvd.



Severna Park – Severna Park Marketplace, 543 Ritchie Highway



Westminster – Town Mall, 400 N. Center St.




Massachusetts




Brookline – Coolidge Corners, 271 Harvard St.



Chestnut Hill – Shops at Chestnut Hill, 199 Boylston St.



East Longmeadow – Heritage Park Plaza, 428 N. Main St.



Hadley – Mountain Farms, 325 Russell St.



Holyoke – Holyoke At Ingleside, 50 Holyoke St.



Lunenburg – Lunenburg Crossing, 317 Massachusetts Ave.



Malden – Broadway Plaza, 44 Broadway



Methuen – Merrimac Plaza, 184 Haverhill St.



North Dartmouth – Dartmouth Town Center, 400 State Road



Raynham – Shaws Plaza, 300 New State Highway



Stoughton – R.K. Plaza, 1334 Park St.



Waltham – Waltham Gateway, 1019 Trapelo Road



Westfield – Westfield Shops, 431 E. Main St.




Michigan




Ann Arbor – Cranbrook Village, 878 W. Eisenhower Pkwy.



Caledonia – Gaines Marketplace, 1825 Marketplace Drive SE



Canton – Crossroads Village, 47160 Michigan Ave.



Chesterfield – Chesterfield Commons, 34830 23 Mile Road



Clinton Township – Clinton Pointe, 33822 S. Gratiot Ave.



Commerce Township – Commerce Marketplace, 1721 Haggerty Highway



Grand Blanc – Grand Blanc Town Center, 6309 Dort Highway



Kentwood – Woodland Mall, 3169 28th St. SE, Kentwood



Lansing – Delta Plaza, 5451 W. Saginaw Highway



Lansing – Eastwood Town Center, 2908 Town Center Blvd.



Lansing – Marketplace at Delta, 619 N. Marketplace Blvd.



Northville – Northville Village Center, 17945 Haggerty Road



Owosso – Riverwood Crossing, 1565 E. Main St.



Rochester Hills – Hampton Village Center, 2781 S. Rochester Road



Shelby Township – Shelby Creek, 12185 23 Mile Road, Shelby Township



Sturgis – Centerville Road Sturgis, 69823 S. Centerville Road



Troy – Midtown Square, 1333 Coolidge Highway




Minnesota




Brooklyn Park – Jolly Lane Shopping Center, 7655 Jolly Lane



Owatonna – Owatonna Commons, 1100 W. Frontage Road



Rochester – Rochester Crossing, 3780 Marketplace Drive NW




Mississippi




Biloxi – Shoppes at Poppes Ferry, 2404 Pass Road



Clinton – Hammett Crossing, 1011 Hampstead Blvd.



Corinth – Corinth Commons, 2201 Virginia Lane



Greenville – South Rivers Market, 1831 Highway 1 S.



Grenada – Grenada Plaza, 1550 Jameson Drive



Picayune – Pearl River Plaza, 230 Frontage Road



Vicksburg – Vicksburg Plaza, 2301 Iowa Ave.




Missouri




Creve Coeur – Heritage Place, 12589 Olive Blvd.



Independence – Independence Commons, 19130 E. 39th St. S.



Independence – Market Place Shopping Center, 4201 S. Noland Road



Jennings – Plaza on the Boulevard, 8025 W. Florissant Ave.



Kansas City – West Port Landing, 906 Westport Road



Lebanon – Lebanon Marketplace, 1810 S. Jefferson Ave.



Maplewood – Maplewood Commons, 1821 Maplewood Commons Drive



Raytown – Raytown Gregory Square, 9203 E. State Route 350



St. Joseph – St. Joseph Plaza, 3302 S. Belt Highway



St. Joseph – Shoppes at North Plaza, 5301 N. Belt Highway



St. Louis – South County Center, 134 S. County Center Way



Sikeston – South Pointe Center, 1213 S. Main St.




Nebraska




Papillion – Market Pointe Shopping Center, 8540 S. 71st Plaza




Nevada




Fallon – Fallon Plaza, 2163 W. Williams Ave.



Las Vegas – Rainbow Plaza, 947 S. Rainbow Road



Las Vegas – Tropicana and I-25, 5130 S. Fort Apache Road




New Hampshire




Claremont – Claremont Market, 367 Washington St.



Concord – Fort Eddy Plaza, 44 Fort Eddy Road



Epping – Epping Crossing, 25 Fresh River Road



Gilford – Lake Shore Road Gilford, 1458 Lake Shore Road



Plaistow – Stateline Plaza, 4 Plaistow Road



Salem – Rockingham Mall, 92 Cluff Crossing Road



Somersworth – Tri City Plaza, 176 Tri City Plaza



West Lebanon – Upper Valley Shopping Center, 250 Plainfield Road




New Jersey




Bayonne – South Cove commons, 205 Lefante Way



Deptford – Deptford Landing, 2000 Clements Bridge Road



Newark – Newark Shopping Center, 786 Broad St.



North Bergen – Tonelle Avenue, 2100 88th St.



Rockaway – Rockaway TownSquare, 301 Mount Hope Ave.



Somerdale – Evesham Ave Somerdale, 711 Evesham Ave.



Somers Point – Ocean Heights, 15 Bethel Road



South Plainfield – Hadley Shopping Center, 4959 Stelton Road



Succasunna – Roxbury Mall, 275 State Route 101 E




New York




Amsterdam – Amsterdam Commons, 4930 State Highway 30



Bronx – Westchester Shopping Center, 1030 Westchester Ave.



Brooklyn – Bensonhurst Shopping Center, 6713 18th Ave.



Brooklyn – Bensonhurst, 2141 86th St.



Brooklyn – Fulton Street and Flatbush, 465 Fulton St.



Brooklyn – Gateway Center Brooklyn, 470 Gateway Drive



Brooklyn – Pitkin Avenue, 1622 Pitkin Ave.



Buffalo – University Plaza, 3500 Main St.



Depew – Transit Losson Wegmans Center, 4960 Transit Road



Evan Mills – Johnson Road Evans Mills, 26445 Johnson Road



Herkimer – EFK Plaza, 320 E. State St.



Hudson –  424 Fairview Ave.



Ithaca – Meadows Square, 324 Elmira Road



Jamaica – Jamaica Avenue, 163-08 Jamaica Ave.



Johnstown – Johnstown Mall, 222 N. Camrie Ave.



Lockport – Transit Road Lockport, 5716 S. Transit Road



Middletown – Galleria At Crystal Run, 1 N. Galleria Drive



Monticello – Monticello Mall, 36 Thompson Square Mall



Plattsburgh – Champlain Centre Mall, 60 Smithfield Blvd.



Poughkeepsie – 44 Plaza Shopping Center, 47 Burnett Blvd.



Poughkeepsie – Poughkeepsie, 2001 South Road.



Ridgewood – Myrtle Avenue, 5720 Myrtle Ave.



Rochester – Eastridge Plaza, 705 E. Ridge Road



Rosedale – Five Towns Shopping Center, 25301 Rockaway Blvd.



Valley Stream – Green Acres Mall, 1120 Green Acres Mall



Victor – Victor Crossing, 400 Commerce Drive



Webster – Webster Square, 950 Ridge Road



West Nyack – Palisades Center Mall, 4322 Palisades Center Drive



White Plains – The Westchester, 125 Westchester Ave.



Yonkers – Cross County Center, 3 Xavier Drive




North Carolina




Albermarle – Albermarle Shopping Center, 723 Leonard Ave.



Burlington – Holly Hills Mall, 309 Huffman Mill Road



Charlotte – The Galleria, 1824 Galleria Blvd.



Charlotte – Village at Whitehall, 8951 S. Tryon St.



Charlotte – Wilkinson Crossing, 3220 Wilkinson Blvd.



Durham – New Hope Commons, 5408 New Hope Commons Drive



Durham – South Square, 3415 Westgate Drive



Gastonia – Samarth Plaza, 117 N. Myrtle School Road



Greensboro – Four Seasons Town Center, 311 Four Seasons Town Center



Greensboro – Shoppes at Wendover Village, 4203 W. Wendover Ave.



Mocksville – Cooper Creek Drive Mocksville, 191 Cooper Creek Drive



Monroe – Monroe Mall, 2115 W. Roosevelt Blvd.



Murphy – US 19 Murphy, 2320 US 19



Raleigh – New Burns Commons, 4531 New Bern Ave.



Raleigh – Triangle Town Center Mall, 5959 Triangle Town Blvd.



Wilmington – Mayfaire Town Center, 6858 Main St.



Wilmington – Pamlico Plaza, 560 Pamlico Plaza




North Dakota




Fargo – Central Marketplace, 1801 45th St. S




Ohio




Bellefontaine – Bellefontaine Square, 2228 S. Main St.



Bryan – Main Street Bryan, 1243 S. Main St.



Cambridge – Cambridge Shopping Center, 61267 Southgate Road



Canton – Canton Centre Mall, 4328 Tuscarawas St. W



Canton – Carousel Plaza, 3016 Atlantic Blvd. NE



Chardon – Meadowlands Town Center, 255 Meadowlands Drive



Chillicothe – North Bridge Street, 950 N. Bridge St.



Cleveland Heights – Severence Town Center, 3582 Mayfield Road



Columbus – Graceland Shopping Center, 5057 N. High St.



Dublin – Sawmill Square, 7646 Sawmill Road



Fairfield Township – Bridgewater Falls, 3417 Princeton Road



Fairview Park – Westgate Shopping Center, 3101 Westgate



Huber Heights – Sulphur Grove, 7746 Brandt Pike



Lakewood – Lakewood Marketplace, 14869 Detroit Ave.



Marietta – Rivers Edge Marietta, 227 Captain D. Seeley Mia Drive



Marysville – Colemans Crossing, 653 Colemans Crossing



Sidney – Michigan Street Sidney, 2260 Michigan St.



Toledo – Monroe Street Market, 5333 Monroe St.



Troy – Troy Towne Center, 1847 W. Main St.



Wauseon – Airport Highway Wauseon, 482 Airport Highway




Oklahoma




Glenpool – Waco Ave Sapulpa, 12154 S. Waco Ave.



Oklahoma City – Belle Isle Station, 1841 Belle Isle Blvd.



Oklahoma City – Silver Springs Point, 7640 NW Expressway



Sand Springs – Cimmeron Plaza, 430 W. Wekiwa Road




Oregon




Corvallis – Corvallis Market Center, 1580 NW 9th St.



Hermiston – Hermiston Plaza, 892 S. Highway 395




Pennsylvania




Beaver Falls – Chippewa Town Center, 200 Chippewa Town Center



Collingdale – Creekside Plaza, 1207 MacDade Blvd.



Easton – William Penn Plaza, 3087 William Penn Highway



Gilbertsville – Douglass Town Center, 173 Holly Road



Harrisburg – Paxton Town Center, 5125 Jonestown Road



Harrisburg – Union Square, 3875 Union Deposit Road



Hazle Township – Hazel Marketplace, 741 Airport Road



Indiana – Southtowne Plaza, 3100 Oakland Ave.



Lehighton – Carbon Plaza, 1241 Blakeslee Blvd. Drive E



Mechanicsburg – Silver Springs Commons, 6520 Carlisle Pike



Monaca – Brodhead Road Monaca, 3942 Brodhead Road



New Castle – Union Square, 2519 W. State St.



Philadelphia – Mayfair Shopping Center, 6420 Frankford Ave.



Pittsburgh – Montour Church Plaza, 312 McHolme Drive



Quakertown – Trainers Corner, 210 N. West End Blvd.



Reading – Exeter Commons, 4611 Perkiomen Ave.



Richboro – Crossroads Plaza, 800 Bustleton Pike



Selinsgrove – Susquehanna Valley, 1 Susquehanna Valley Mall Drive



Shippenburg – Shippen Towne Center, 210 S. Conestoga Drive



Springfield – Marple Cross Roads, 400 S. State Road



Warminster – Center Point Place, 892 W. Street Road



West Chester – West Goshen Town Center, 1115 W. Chester Pike



Willow Grove – Willow Grove Park Mall, 2500 W. Moreland Road



Wyomissing – Berkshire Mall, 1665 State Hill Road




South Carolina




Columbia – Killian Road Supercenter, 327 Killian Road



Columbia – Shoppes at Woodhill, 6080 Garners Ferry Road



Greenville – White Horse Commons, 6134 White Horse Road



Hartsville – Retail Row Hartsville, 1211 Retail Row



Lancaster – University Shops, 933 Lancaster Bypass W



Moncks Corner – Moncks Corner, 505 Highway 52



North Augusta – Knox Avenue North Augusta, 1229 Knox Ave.



North Charleston – North Rivers Town Center, 7250 Rivers Ave.



North Charleston – Shoppes at Centre Pointe, 4950 Centre Pointe Drive



Orangeburg – North Road Plaza, 2843 North Road



Rock Hill – Rock Hill Galleria, 2391 Dave Lyle Blvd.



Seneca – Applewood Shopping Center, 290 Applewood Center Place



Spartanburg – Spartanburg Corners, 200 Dawn Redwood Drive




Tennessee




Clarksville – Riverpoint Shopping Center, 2351 Madison St.



Cordova – Germantown Parkway Cordova, 465 N. Germantown Pkwy.



Franklin – Cool Springs Mall, 1800 Galleria Blvd.



Greeneville – Shops in Greeneville, 3793 E. Andrew Johnson Highway



Hermitage – H.G. Hill Center, 4469 Lebanon Pike



Jackson – South Highland Avenue Jackson, 2103 S. Highland Ave.



Johnson City – Shoppes on West Mark, 3101 W. Market St.



Lawrenceburg – Lawrenceburg Shopping Center, 2136 N. Locust Ave.



Lenoir City – Franklin Center, 875 Highway 321 N.



Memphis – Park Cosmorama, 5043 Park Ave.



Murfreesboro – College Central, 2866 S. Rutherford Road



Nashville – Jackson Downs Shopping Center, 3133 Lebanon Pike



Savannah – Riverboat Plaza, 1800 Wayne Road



Shelbyville – Main St. Shelbyville, 1854 N. Main St.



West Memphis – Service Road West Memphis, 650 S. Service Road




Texas




Allen – The Village at Allen, 170 E. Stacy Road



Arlington – Little School Road Shops, 1245 N. Little School Road



Austin – Ben White Payload Center, 500 E. Ben White Blvd.



Balch Springs – Lake June Plaza, 12209 Lake June Road



Boerne – Menger Crossing, 1375 S. Main St.



Cedar Park – Lakeline Plaza, 11066 Pecan Park Blvd.



Conroe – Conroe Center, 1231 N. Loop 336 W



Corpus Christi – Padre Island Drive, 1805 S. Padre Island Drive



Corsicana – Corsicana Marketplace, 3811 W. Highway 31



Dallas – Glen Oaks Crossing, 4787 Vista Wood Blvd.



El Paso – Alameda Town Center, 9411 Alameda Ave.



El Paso – Fountains at Farah, 8889 Gateway West Blvd.



Fort Worth – Clifford Retail, 301 Clifford Center Drive



Garland – Ridgewood Village, 2930 S. 1st St.



Houston – Beechnut Street Houston, 10100 Beechnut St.



Houston – Bellaire Gessner Center, 8880 Bellaire Blvd.



Houston – Market at Uvalde, 13706 East Freeway



Houston – Market Square, 13341 Westheimer Road



Houston – Oxford Plaza, 10407 North Freeway



Houston – Royal Oaks, 11807 Westheimer Road



Houston – Wayside Shopping Center, 900 S. Wayside Drive



Huntsville – Ravenwood Village, 245 Interstate 45 N



Irving – MacArthur Park, 7601 N. MacArthur Blvd.



Lake Jackson – Lake Jackson Shopping Center, 121 Highway 332 W



La Marque – LaMarque Crossing, 6408 Interstate 45



Laredo – Laredo Crossing Shopping Center, 4415 S. Zapata Highway



Leon Valley – 5601 Bandera Road



Lubbock – 7th St Lubbock, 1803 7th St.



Magnolia – Westwood Village, 33020 FM 2978 Road



Mansfield – Mansfield Crossing, 1301 E. Debbie Lane



Marble Falls – Highland Lakes, 2400 US Highway 281



McKinney – Lake Forest Crossing, 4100 S. Lake Forest Drive



Mesquite – Town East Mall, 2050 Town East Mall



Mission – Shary Plaza, 808 S. Shary Road



Palmhurst – Palmhurst Shopping Center, 4416 N. Conway Ave.



Paris – Paris Corners, 3842 Lamar Ave.



Saginaw – Cross Pointe Shopping Center, 1453 N. Saginaw Blvd.



San Antonio – Alamo Quarry Market, E. 255 Basse Road



San Antonio – Blanco Road, 7117 Blanco Road



San Antonio – Huebner Oaks Center, 11745 W. Interstate 10



San Antonio – Northwoods Phase III, 1742 N. Loop 1604 E



San Antonio – Walzem Plaza, 5366 Walzem Road



Sephenville – Stephenville Shopping Center, 2811 W. Washington St.



Sulphur Springs – Sulphur Springs Corners, 1707 S. Broadway St.



Terrell – Terrell Corner, 1888 W. Moore Ave.



Tyler – State Highway 64 Tyler, 3842 State Highway 64 W



Watauga – Watauga Town Crossing, 8004 Denton Highway




Utah




Centerville – Centerville Marketplace, 621 W. Marketplace Drive




Vermont




Rutland – Rutland Plaza, 144 Shopping Plaza RoadWilliston – Maple Tree Place, 31 Hawthorne St.




Virginia




Alexandria – Kingstowne Towne Center, 5965 Kingstowne Towne Center



Chantilly – South Riding Market Square, 25050 Riding Plaza,



Dulles – Dulles Town Center, 21100 Dulles Town Circle



Henrico – Staple Mill Road Henrico, 9085 Staple Mill Road



King George – Consumer Row King George, 16418 Consumer Row



Richmond – Broad and Bowe Center, 1500 W. Broad St.



Richmond – Northpark Shopping Center, 8131 Brook Road



Richmond – Shops at Stratford Hill, 7017 Forest Hill Ave.



South Boston – Shops at Tri Rivers, 3459 Old Halifax Road



Sterling – Dulles 28 Centre, 22000 Dulles Retail Plaza,



Virginia Beach – Parkway Plaza, 869 Lynnhaven Pkwy.



Williamsburg – Cedar Valley Shopping Center, 810 E. Rochambeau Drive



Woodbridge – Smoketown Station, 13277 Worth Ave.




Washington




Bothell – Downtown Bothell, 18827 Bothell Way NE



College Place – Meadowbrook Plaza, 1605 SE Meadowbrook Blvd.



Federal Way – Federal Way Marketplace, 34512 16th Ave. S



Kennewick – Canyon Lakes Center, 4008 W. 27th Ave.



Kirkland – Totem Lake, 12525 Totem Lake Blvd. NE



Lakewood – Lakewood Town Center, 5605 Lakewood Towne Center Blvd. SW



Lynnwood – 165th Street Crossing, 1402 164th St. SW



Redmond – Bear Creek Village, 17128 Redmond Way



Tacoma – Westgate South, 2315 N. Pearl St.




West Virginia




Bridgeport – Meadowbrook, 2399 Meadowbrook Mall



Hurricane – Hurricane Marketplace, 270 Progress Way



Logan – Fountain Place, 131 Prosperity Lane



Morgantown – Shoppers World, 250 Retail Circle




Wisconsin




Beloit – Milwaukee Road Shopping Center, 2787 Milwaukee Road



La Crosse – Valley View Mall, 3800 State Road 16



Milwaukee – Midtown Center, 4131 N. 56th St.
 ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Thu, 22 Jan 2026 14:00:09 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>GameStop, store, closures, 2026:, See, the, full, list, over, 470, doomed, locations, across, states</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Best accounting software if you’re a sole trader</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/best-accounting-software-if-youre-a-sole-trader</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/best-accounting-software-if-youre-a-sole-trader</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ By Anna Jordan on Small Business UK - Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs


Here, we explore how to find the right accounting software for you as a sole trader, along with some of the best platforms around
The post Best accounting software if you’re a sole trader appeared first on Small Business UK. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://smallbusiness-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2022/10/GettyImages-1144567782.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Thu, 22 Jan 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Best, accounting, software, you’re, sole, trader</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>How to start a business</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/how-to-start-a-business</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/how-to-start-a-business</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ By Anna Jordan on Small Business UK - Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs


In this guide we’ll be looking at how to start a business, breaking down the vital elements that you need to get going
The post How to start a business appeared first on Small Business UK. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://smallbusiness-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2010/02/2148499651.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Thu, 22 Jan 2026 14:00:06 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>How, start, business</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Reeves opens corporate bond market to small investors in bid to unlock UK savings</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/reeves-opens-corporate-bond-market-to-small-investors-in-bid-to-unlock-uk-savings</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/reeves-opens-corporate-bond-market-to-small-investors-in-bid-to-unlock-uk-savings</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Rachel Reeves is opening up Britain’s corporate bond market to small investors as part of a wider push to channel more household savings into UK businesses and revive London’s capital markets.
Read more: 
Reeves opens corporate bond market to small investors in bid to unlock UK savings ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Reeves_Davos.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Mon, 19 Jan 2026 14:00:08 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Reeves, opens, corporate, bond, market, small, investors, bid, unlock, savings</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>From roundtable to the camera: The Traitors’ Brian Davidson celebrates record&#45;breaking year for Studio Snap</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/from-roundtable-to-the-camera-the-traitors-brian-davidson-celebrates-record-breaking-year-for-studio-snap</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/from-roundtable-to-the-camera-the-traitors-brian-davidson-celebrates-record-breaking-year-for-studio-snap</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Former Traitors contestant Brian Davidson reports 70% growth at his Glasgow photography business Studio Snap, turning TV fame into record-breaking commercial success.
Read more: 
From roundtable to the camera: The Traitors’ Brian Davidson celebrates record-breaking year for Studio Snap ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Brian-Davidson-3.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Mon, 19 Jan 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>From, roundtable, the, camera:, The, Traitors’, Brian, Davidson, celebrates, record-breaking, year, for, Studio, Snap</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Facial recognition pilot cuts crime in south London, says Met</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/facial-recognition-pilot-cuts-crime-in-south-london-says-met</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/facial-recognition-pilot-cuts-crime-in-south-london-says-met</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
A pilot of live facial recognition technology in south London has helped cut crime and led to more than 100 arrests, according to the Metropolitan Police, as the force prepares to defend its use of the technology in the High Court.
Read more: 
Facial recognition pilot cuts crime in south London, says Met ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/shutterstock_2200853519.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Mon, 19 Jan 2026 14:00:06 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Facial, recognition, pilot, cuts, crime, south, London, says, Met</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Musk sues OpenAI and Microsoft for up to $134bn over ‘wrongful gains’</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/musk-sues-openai-and-microsoft-for-up-to-134bn-over-wrongful-gains</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/musk-sues-openai-and-microsoft-for-up-to-134bn-over-wrongful-gains</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Elon Musk is seeking up to $134bn from OpenAI and Microsoft, claiming the AI giants profited unfairly from his early backing.
Read more: 
Musk sues OpenAI and Microsoft for up to $134bn over ‘wrongful gains’ ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/shutterstock_2318800337-scaled.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Mon, 19 Jan 2026 14:00:06 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Musk, sues, OpenAI, and, Microsoft, for, 134bn, over, ‘wrongful, gains’</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Gold and silver hit record highs as Trump tariff threat rattles markets</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/gold-and-silver-hit-record-highs-as-trump-tariff-threat-rattles-markets</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/gold-and-silver-hit-record-highs-as-trump-tariff-threat-rattles-markets</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Gold and silver prices surged to record highs after Donald Trump threatened new tariffs on Europe, prompting investors to seek safe havens.
Read more: 
Gold and silver hit record highs as Trump tariff threat rattles markets ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/shutterstock_462191791-scaled.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Mon, 19 Jan 2026 14:00:05 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Gold, and, silver, hit, record, highs, Trump, tariff, threat, rattles, markets</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Moxie Marlinspike has a privacy&#45;conscious alternative to ChatGPT</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/moxie-marlinspike-has-a-privacy-conscious-alternative-to-chatgpt</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/moxie-marlinspike-has-a-privacy-conscious-alternative-to-chatgpt</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Confer is designed to look and feel like ChatGPT or Claude, but your conversations can&#039;t be used for training or advertising. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/moxie-marlinspike-147a2527.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Mon, 19 Jan 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Moxie, Marlinspike, has, privacy-conscious, alternative, ChatGPT</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>How YC&#45;backed Bucket Robotics survived its first CES</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/how-yc-backed-bucket-robotics-survived-its-first-ces</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/how-yc-backed-bucket-robotics-survived-its-first-ces</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Now, the startup is turning its attention to building the business, fundraising and striking commercial deals. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/bucket-robotics-1.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Mon, 19 Jan 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>How, YC-backed, Bucket, Robotics, survived, its, first, CES</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Threads edges out X in daily mobile users, new data shows</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/threads-edges-out-x-in-daily-mobile-users-new-data-shows</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/threads-edges-out-x-in-daily-mobile-users-new-data-shows</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Threads’ daily mobile usage has quietly surpassed X as Meta leans on cross-promotion, creator tools and fast feature rollouts — even as X faces fresh controversies ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/instagram-threads-GettyImages-2159215889.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Mon, 19 Jan 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Threads, edges, out, daily, mobile, users, new, data, shows</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>TechCrunch Mobility: ‘Physical AI’ enters the hype machine</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/techcrunch-mobility-physical-ai-enters-the-hype-machine</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/techcrunch-mobility-physical-ai-enters-the-hype-machine</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility, your hub for all things “future of transportation.”  ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/boston-dynamics-atlas-ces.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Mon, 19 Jan 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>TechCrunch, Mobility:, ‘Physical, AI’, enters, the, hype, machine</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Sequoia to invest in Anthropic, breaking VC taboo on backing rivals: FT</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/sequoia-to-invest-in-anthropic-breaking-vc-taboo-on-backing-rivals-ft</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/sequoia-to-invest-in-anthropic-breaking-vc-taboo-on-backing-rivals-ft</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Sequoia Capital is reportedly joining a blockbuster funding round for Anthropic, the AI startup behind Claude, according to the Financial Times. It’s a move sure to turn heads in Silicon Valley. Why? Because venture capital firms have historically avoided backing competing companies in the same sector, preferring to place their bets on a single winner. […] ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/tcdisrupt_ny16-5284.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Mon, 19 Jan 2026 14:00:02 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Sequoia, invest, Anthropic, breaking, taboo, backing, rivals:</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Worried about retirement? Consider a die with zero plan</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/worried-about-retirement-consider-a-die-with-zero-plan</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/worried-about-retirement-consider-a-die-with-zero-plan</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ My grandmother never realized she was practicing a die with zero philosophy.  She liked to give generous presents to her children and grandchildren on birthdays, gift-giving occasions—and whenever the mood struck her. I once asked her why she kept her loved ones so well-supplied in gifts, and she remarked, “Why should you be glad I’m dead?”



In other words, she didn’t see the point in holding onto the money that would come to her family anyway when she died. By spending her money on us while she was still alive, she enjoyed our delight in her generosity. She saw that as a better use of her money than letting it grow until it became our emotionally uncomfortable inheritance.



In many ways, Grandma embodied the die with zero financial planning philosophy popularized by Bill Perkins. This philosophy encourages people to enjoy their money while they live—ideally spending their final dollar just before kicking the bucket—because there’s no point in being the wealthiest person in the cemetery.



Considering the complexities of traditional financial planning—not to mention your understandable worries about running out of money in retirement—the die with zero philosophy may sound like a great way to live with low-grade anxiety during your golden years. But there’s a way to balance your impulse to save for the future with the joy of enjoying your money right now.



The problem with traditional planning



Every day without fail, you’ll find a brand new think piece about how painfully underfunded the average American retirement account is. That’s why financial media’s prevailing message about retirement planning is only slightly less hyperbolic than, “For the love of all that is holy, put some money in a 401(k) NOW before it’s too late!!!”



Unfortunately, this hyperfocus on building wealth makes it seem like even the largest of nest eggs is one unwary purchase away from leaving you destitute. The majority of retirees have built the life they want, but almost half are afraid to spend their money so they can live that life.



While this is not a problem that every retiree will face (see the depressing statistics about the size of the average American retirement account), it’s still a common issue for anyone who has internalized the “accumulate!” retirement planning message for decades.



Enter the die with zero financial philosophy.



What is Die with Zero?



Although hedge fund manager Bill Perkins coined the term (and wrote the eponymous book Die With Zero), the concept is hardly a new one. With the possible exception of some pharaohs and oligarchs, we all know we can’t take it with us when we go.



Instead, Perkins suggests that our highest goal should be to maximize positive life experiences using the three limited resources we are all afforded: health, time, and money.



Of course, our levels of health, time, and money are not in perfect balance throughout our lives, which is why Perkins recommends using each of these resources when we have them.



When you’re young, healthy, and have plenty of time, you can spend it enjoying low-cost but high-effort experiences, like backpacking through Europe. Once you’re older, time-crunched, and wealthier—but still enjoying good health—you can spend money to enjoy luxurious experiences that are lower-effort, like taking a cruise through the Greek Isles. And anytime your health is declining, you can spend time and money to help improve your health.



Die with zero financial planning



Die with zero is an appealing philosophy in part because it’s not just about money, retirement, or financial planning. It’s a framework for optimizing your life. Much of the die with zero model is about changing your view of money, health, and time throughout your life.



However, the die with zero philosophy includes a blueprint for financial planning. Specifically, Perkins recommends the following rules for handling your finances so that you can “die with zero”:




Plan for different seasons of your life: Described by Perkins as “time-bucketing,” this strategy separates your life into 5- to 10-year chunks. For each time-bucket, you set experience goals you want to meet that will change as your time, health, and wealth change.



Spend with intention: Rather than accumulate wealth that you’re afraid to spend, joyfully spend your money on memorable experiences that will make your life more meaningful.



Give money away to children and charities when it’s the most impactful: This is an echo of my grandmother’s attitude. Rather than leaving a financial legacy to beloved family or charities when you die—when they may no longer need the money—give it away when the money can do the most good and while you’re alive to see the benefit.



Recognize when you’ve hit your wealth peak: So much of retirement planning is about accumulation, which means it can be tough to know when you’ve reached “enough.” And then it can be even harder to feel comfortable spending down your nest egg. This philosophy suggests that you figure out when you’re done growing your wealth so you can let go of the drive to keep growing.




Balancing prudence with pleasure



“Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die” may be an excellent motto for soldiers heading off to war, but it’s a little harder to justify as a responsible life maxim when you’re impulsively charging once-in-a-lifetime trips to Bali on your high-interest credit card.



Which is why it’s a good idea to fold the philosophy of the die with zero movement into traditional financial planning.



Focus on growing your nest egg, especially when you have the benefit of compound interest over time. But make sure you also invest some of your resources—time, health, and money—into making memories.



Plan ahead for potential health problems in old age, which may mean earmarking money for future medical expenses. But also let yourself be generous with money to your loved ones when they need it.



Continue to make smart and frugal financial decisions in retirement. But keep meeting the experience goals you set for yourself, too, so that you continue to have new adventures to look forward to.



Treating your finances with intentionality is the best way to enjoy yourself and your money—now and in retirement.



 ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Sun, 18 Jan 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Worried, about, retirement, Consider, die, with, zero, plan</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>You’re banned from blocking Trump’s face on your national park pass—but there’s a work&#45;around</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/youre-banned-from-blocking-trumps-face-on-your-national-park-passbut-theres-a-work-around</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/youre-banned-from-blocking-trumps-face-on-your-national-park-passbut-theres-a-work-around</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ The 2026 national park pass features a portrait of Donald Trump’s face, and the Department of the Interior (DOI) has threatened to penalize anyone who tries to cover it up. Now, park lovers are inventing their own clever work-arounds to remove the president’s visage from their passes.



For over two decades, the annual America the Beautiful park pass design has featured photography of nature, animals, and scenery across the United States. But when the DOI revealed the 2026 pass in November, something was glaringly different. Rather than a cascading waterfall or towering redwoods, the pass included a portrait of George Washington, framed side by side with Trump’s mug-shot-inspired headshot.



The response to the pass design was swift. Many cardholders took to the internet to show themselves covering Trump’s face with stickers as a form of protest. But mere weeks later, per an internal email obtained by SFGate, the DOI updated its “Void if Altered” policy in a transparent effort to discourage pass holders from covering Trump’s face.



Whereas the policy previously stated that passes could be voided only if the signature section of the card was altered, it now overtly flags stickers and other coverings as alterations that could invalidate the pass. According to a policy document shared with The Washington Post, staff who come across altered passes are instructed to ask that stickers or coverings be removed. If that’s not possible, they’re permitted to either charge the guest with the regular entrance fee or give them the option to buy a brand-new pass.



While the Trump administration is acting quickly to redesign the National Park Service in Trump’s literal image, national parkgoers are quicker. In the days since the pass policy was altered in early January, multiple designers have stepped up with clever work-arounds that conceal the president’s glowering face without running afoul of the restrictions. The simplest solution is a card sleeve that covers Trump’s face most of the time, but can be easily removed when the card is shown at park entrances.



[Photo: Dirt Roads Project]



How small designers are fighting back against the DOI



Katie Weber and her husband, Chris, started their Michigan-based apparel brand Dirt Roads Project in March 2025. The company, Weber says, was her way to make a difference after feeling “overwhelmed by everything happening in our country.” So part of each purchase gives back to the preservation of parks and nature, including through collaborations with nonprofits like the Michigan Animal Rescue League, Alliance for the Great Lakes, and Reef Relief. 



When Weber saw the park pass design for 2026, she immediately decided to create something that would cover Trump’s face. 



“I was incredibly frustrated and wanted to be able to bring the parks front and center instead of showing someone who is honestly trying to dismantle our parks,” Weber says. “That night, I started going through all of our photography from past hiking trips, chose a handful that I loved, and created the design.” 



Her final selections, which run for just $6 each, feature photos taken at eight prominent national parks, including Zion in Utah, Haleakalā in Maui, and Yosemite in California. After they launched for preorder around Thanksgiving, Weber says, interest in the stickers has been “growing rapidly.”



Weber specifically engineered the stickers to avoid covering any pertinent information on the cards, including the signature section, holographic strip, and barcode. But in the wake of the DOI’s new sticker ban, she adapted the design to guarantee that users won’t be penalized. Instead of adding the sticker directly to their passes, customers can now purchase a $2 plastic card sleeve from Dirt Roads Project to keep their cards completely unaltered while still obscuring the president’s face.



After the DOI’s new regulations emerged, Weber says Dirt Roads Project has seen “skyrocketing” demand, bringing in over $6,000 from the stickers alone in the first weeks of January. “To me, that shows that this small form of protest is being seen, and that people’s frustration is being heard,” she says. 



Other small businesses are similarly using their art to fight back. Mitchell Bowen is a graphic designer who runs a poster company called Recollection Project, pulling inspiration from 1930s illustrations to create posters of national parks and other travel destinations. He designed a $12 card sleeve with one of his illustrations for Grand Teton National Park, featuring two American bison in front of a mountain vista. Interest has been so high, Bowen says, that he’s had to pause new orders to focus on fulfilling his backlog.



[Photo: Recollection Project]



“Trump’s crassest, most ego-driven action yet”



Both Weber’s and Bowen’s nature-centric designs call back to the history of the national park pass’s design, which has, by federal law, featured the winning photo of the National Park Foundation’s annual public lands photo contest since 2004. In fact, the DOI and the National Park Service are currently facing a lawsuit from the conservation group Center for Biological Diversity for failing to follow that federal design stipulation on the 2026 card. 



In a statement on the lawsuit released on December 10, Kierán Suckling, the center’s executive director, wrote that the new pass design was “Trump’s crassest, most ego-driven action yet.”



“It’s disgusting of Trump to politicize America’s most sacred refuge by pasting his face over the national parks in the same way he slaps his corporate name on buildings, restaurants, and golf courses,” he continued. “The national parks are not a personal branding opportunity. They’re the pride and joy of the American people.” ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Sun, 18 Jan 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>You’re, banned, from, blocking, Trump’s, face, your, national, park, pass—but, there’s, work-around</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>This common security measure is draining your workforce</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/this-common-security-measure-is-draining-your-workforce</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/this-common-security-measure-is-draining-your-workforce</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ You sit down at your desk, ready to start the day. Before you can even open your first email, you’ve already typed in three different passwords—each more complex than the last. By lunchtime, you’ve repeated the ritual half a dozen times. It’s frustrating, it’s slow, and it’s happening to millions of employees every single day.



This is password fatigue—the silent productivity killer and hidden security risk plaguing modern enterprises. It’s more than an annoyance; it’s a costly vulnerability. Our global survey found that most users still rely on passwords as their primary authentication method. This should concern most organizations, because in an era defined by work-from-everywhere policies, apps, and mobile devices, businesses are still relying on a defense that hasn’t meaningfully evolved since the 1960s.



Complexity Without Security



When it comes to password complexity, organizations are damned if they do and damned if they don’t. They either abandon complexity altogether—look at the Louvre, which used “Louvre” as the password to secure its surveillance system—or require increasingly complex strings of mixed cases, numbers, symbols, frequent changes, and multi-factor authentication (MFA).



While intended to strengthen security, complex password requirements can just as easily have the opposite effect. How many times has someone been locked out of their system for days because they forgot their recovery answer, or lost the phone that sends the authentication link needed to grant access? And in how many instances has that person decided to forsake those approved tools and upload sensitive data into a personal Google Drive—easier for them and their colleagues to access, but also easier for cybercriminals to exploit?



The tragedy is that added complexity doesn’t guarantee safety. Cybercriminals have long since adapted to password advances with credential stuffing and brute-force attacks. But the most effective technique they’re using targets the weakest link in the password chain; not the password itself but the person who created it.



Why spend hours trying to pick a lock when the owner will unknowingly hand you the combination? There have been instances of cybercriminals creating look-alike login pages to collect passwords. The massive data breaches that hit MGM Resorts and Clorox were the result of cybercriminals masquerading as legitimate users, asking the IT help desk to reset their password and MFA. These threat actors didn’t break in—they logged in.



The rise of AI has made the password problem even more urgent. Cybercriminals now use AI to guess passwords, craft flawless phishing emails, and even generate deepfake voices to trick help desk staff. Traditional passwords simply can’t withstand this new generation of attacks.



According to the 2026 RSA ID IQ Report, 69% of organizations reported an identity-related breach in the last three years, a 27-percentage-point increase from last year’s survey. These aren’t abstract statistics—they represent real financial losses, operational disruption, and reputational harm. And in many cases, they could have been prevented.



But how? Employees are burdened with increasingly unmanageable login rituals, yet organizations remain exposed to the very breaches these measures were meant to prevent. So, what’s the answer?



The Passwordless Solution



The most viable way out of this cycle is passwordless authentication. When there’s no password to steal, organizations significantly reduce their risks and streamline the login process by eliminating the need to remember, update, or constantly reenter a password string.



Passwords typically rely on “something you know” for users to gain access. Passwordless authentication replaces typing in a password with two or more other factors, including “something you have” like a mobile phone or hardware token, or “something you are,” like a face or fingerprint scan.



Typically, using those factors manifests in one of three ways, each with its own trade-offs:



Authenticator Apps &amp; Push Notifications:




 What it is: Instead of typing a password, the user enters their username and receives a secure notification on a trusted mobile app asking them to verify the login, often by matching a number.



Pros: Highly popular in business environments; relies on the smartphone the user already carries.



 Cons: Requires the user to have a smartphone with data access; slightly slower than direct biometrics; susceptible to phishing and other attacks.




 Magic Links:




What it is: Similar to the “forgot password” link Instagram or Slack might send you, the system emails a unique link or texts a code to log you in.



Pros: No hardware or setup is required; it works on any device with access to email.



Cons: While “password-free,” this is not truly “passwordless” in the security sense. It relies on the security of the email inbox (which is often protected only by a weak password) and is still susceptible to phishing and interception.




Platform Biometrics (Face ID, Touch ID, Windows Hello):




What it is: The user verifies their identity using a fingerprint scan or facial recognition built directly into their laptop or smartphone.



Pros: This offers the highest convenience and speed; users are already trained to unlock their phones this way.




Cons: It ties the credential to a specific device. If that device is lost or broken, account recovery mechanisms must be robust.



What to Look for in an Enterprise-Grade Passwordless Solution



If you’re evaluating passwordless options for your company, ask yourself these two questions:



1. Is it comprehensive? If your solution only works for one environment or user group, then you’ll need to bolt on additional solutions to cover everyone and everything. For example, a solution might offer seamless biometric login for modern cloud apps like Office 365, but fail completely with legacy on-premises mainframes or VPNs, forcing users to fall back to passwords for critical internal systems.  Your solution must work across every platform, deployment model, and environment—cloud, on-premises, edge, legacy, Microsoft, and macOS.



2. Is it truly secure?  Phishing-resistance is a key trend in passwordless solutions, and it’s a critical feature for  eliminating one of the most frequent and highest-impact attack vectors. But phishing-resistance isn’t enough—organizations also need to be bypass resistant, malware resistant, fraud resistant, and outage resistant. If a cybercriminal can evade passwordless MFA by convincing your IT Help Desk to let them in, then the passwordless method itself isn’t worth all that much.



Making the Transition



Shifting to a different paradigm doesn’t happen overnight, but the payoff is immediate. Start with your most critical applications or highest-risk users and choose device-bound passkeys over synced alternatives that allow keys to roam between devices for stronger security. 



Build rigorous enrollment processes with identity verification and liveness detection, which validates that the biometric source is a live person. In addition, protect your help desk with bilateral verification: this process confirms the caller’s identity via a device prompt and proves the agent’s legitimacy by displaying their verified status on the caller’s screen.



Plan for secure recovery when devices are lost by establishing high-assurance fallbacks, like pre-registered backup keys or biometric re-verification, instead of passwords. Look for solutions that automatically provide device-bound passkeys when users register the app. Lastly, measure the percentage of passwordless authentications over time against any suspected account compromises to ensure your actions are having a positive impact.



By eliminating the daily drain of password fatigue while closing one of the biggest doors to cybercriminals, enterprises can finally reclaim both productivity and peace of mind. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Sun, 18 Jan 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
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<item>
<title>The world’s most iconic pen is now a giant lamp</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/the-worlds-most-iconic-pen-is-now-a-giant-lamp</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/the-worlds-most-iconic-pen-is-now-a-giant-lamp</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Almost everywhere you go, from the doctor’s office to the library to the car dealership, there’s one ubiquitous design gem hidden in plain sight: the Bic Cristal. 



This unsung hero of the writing desk has produced uncountable signatures and annotations—but now it’s getting its moment in the spotlight through a collaboration with the Italian home goods brand Seletti.



The Bic Cristal is the world’s best-selling pen, boasting more than 120 billion sales since its release in 1950. For the tail end of the pen’s 75th anniversary, Bic teamed up with Seletti to produce a work of art inspired by the pen: a giant, 12:1 scale lamp. 



The product’s massive scale translates particularly well for a lamp, with a clear case revealing a glowing, neon-like LED light inside. It can be positioned vertically or horizontally, and used as a floor lamp, pendant, or wall sconce. The lamp will be available in the pen’s classic blue, red, and black colorways when it debuts in the U.S. later this year for around $350. 



[Photo: Bic]



Why the Bic Cristal makes a perfect lamp



The Bic Cristal is an adaptation of the first-ever ballpoint pen, invented in 1938 by a Hungarian journalist named László Biró (hence the pen’s common nickname, the Bic Biro). According to a breakdown written for the MoMA exhibition Pirouette: Turning Points in Design, which featured the Bic Crystal, Biró’s original pen was designed to allow ink to flow more consistently than older fountain pens, but it still had some issues with clogging and leaking.



After acquiring Biró’s patent, Bic founder Marcel Bich adjusted the design to include a smaller, 1-millimeter-wide ballpoint tip with a simple quirk: an air hole, which prevented a vacuum from forming inside the pen. This tiny tweak allows the pen’s ink to flow freely to the nub, and is what makes it such a reliable choice to this day.



Aesthetically, Bich’s choice of a clear plastic for the pen’s body reveals how it works and renders it instantly recognizable. Paola Antonelli, MoMA’s senior curator of architecture and design, said in the museum’s breakdown, “It almost looks like it is within a crystal tube. It was such a beautiful use of plastic that almost made us think plastic could be precious.”



[Photo: Bic]



Art director Stefano Seletti was similarly drawn to the Bic Cristal’s sleek, crystalline aesthetic as a potential lighting object for Seletti. Since the brand began dabbling in lighting several years ago, it’s embraced an out-of-the-box approach to its catalog, playing with everything from animal figures holding light bulbs to an anatomically correct rendition of a human heart. 



“The structure of the pen was absolutely perfect for this project: The transparent tubular body allows light to pass through, the ink cartridge could easily be transformed into the LED that provides the light, and the electrical components could be easily hidden by the colored plastic parts,” Seletti says. His team partnered with Italian designer Mario Paroli, as well as with Bic, to bring the Bic Lamp to life. They used Bic’s archives and technical drawings to faithfully reproduce the pen at a 12-to-1 scale. 



The final product is an ode to Bic’s simple-yet-functional design ethos—and it’s the perfect kitsch addition to any space where writing gets done.


 ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Sun, 18 Jan 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>The, world’s, most, iconic, pen, now, giant, lamp</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>The answer to AI in music isn’t suppression. It’s data</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/the-answer-to-ai-in-music-isnt-suppression-its-data</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/the-answer-to-ai-in-music-isnt-suppression-its-data</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ When the NFL and Apple Music announced Bad Bunny as the 2026 Super Bowl half-time show headliner, the choice surprised some. But to anyone tracking the data over the past few years, it was inevitable. In 2022, Bad Bunny’s Un Verano Sin Ti redefined the market, driving Latin music’s streaming growth to new heights. It later became the first Spanish-language album nominated for Grammy Album of the Year. The takeaway is simple: When you have accurate, real-time data, you don’t guess where culture is going, you know. That kind of foresight is exactly what industries need now, especially as AI accelerates change at a pace that demands evidence, not instinct.



In real time, we’re watching AI fundamentally reshape the economics of music, and much of the industry is still arguing that maybe it shouldn’t exist at all. The discourse surrounding AI and music is filled with necessary debates, from copyright infringement and artist compensation to vocal cloning and authenticity. These concerns are valid and must be addressed. But while the industry argues about whether AI should change music, our data shows it already is. Some of the resulting evolution has relevant precedent for reference. Some of it requires urgent action. Reliable information, detection, and measurement is required to make sense of it all.



Here to stay 



Whether we like it or not, AI music is here to stay, and rather than fighting it, we should understand its benefits as a tool for artists—either to amplify existing production processes or to introduce new ways of designing music. Recent data from Luminate’s consumer research shows that 44% of U.S. music listeners say they’re uncomfortable with AI-created songs. But discomfort doesn’t predict behavior. The AI artist Xania Monet (created by Music Designer Telisha Jones) averaged 8 million weekly global on-demand audio streams in October, following her debut on multiple Billboard charts, including Hot Gospel Songs with “Let Go, Let Go” and Hot R&amp;B Songs with “How Was I Supposed to Know?” Monet’s songs touch on emotional healing, life lessons, and heartbreak, pointing to the argument that music at its essence is how it makes you feel and not how it’s made. This conflicting tension between initial consumer attitudes and actual listening habits is not new.



Consider what happened with auto-tune. In 2009, Jay-Z released “D.O.A (Death of Auto-Tune),” declaring war on the technology. That same year, The Black Eyed Peas released “Boom Boom Pow” and “I Gotta Feeling,” both anchored by auto-tune production. Today, each of those Black Eyed Peas songs has hundreds of millions of streams in the U.S. Jay-Z’s protest anthem? Less than 40 million. The market spoke. Technological evolution won.



Infrastructure evolves



If AI continues to earn its place in music production—and all signs point to that inevitable reality—it doesn’t mean that artists or rights holders have to lose. This is where foresight becomes essential. The sampler wars of the late 1980s offer an instructive parallel. When Biz Markie was sued in 1991 for sampling Gilbert O’Sullivan, the industry faced an existential crisis. The outcome wasn’t suppression of the technology, it was the creation of an entire licensing and clearance infrastructure. Detection and attribution became the foundation of a functioning market.



That infrastructure has continued to evolve in the era of streaming and transmedia discovery. Millions are being spent on legacy music catalogs, and those high valuations are proving to be valid. At the midpoint of this year, Becoming Led Zeppelin was the most-viewed new music documentary in the U.S., and its high viewership drove a sustained 23% increase in streams for the band’s catalog. Notably, the documentary’s release drove Led Zeppelin to its highest-ever weekly total for global on-demand audio streams: 40.4 million in late February. But what happens if AI-generated music infringes on Led Zeppelin’s copyright during the creation process? I think we can all agree that no one should get away with stealing others’ creative IP for financial gain. The industry needs to move fast and policy needs to be implemented so that artists and rights holders continue to be paid fairly and rightfully as AI’s presence in music expands. 



At Luminate, our mission is to provide the entertainment industry with essential, objective, and trustworthy data. When it comes to AI, that mission has only become more critical. Our data shows not just what happened, but what’s happening now, and increasingly, what’s about to happen. That visibility is what enables stakeholders across the industry, everyone from labels and publishers to platforms and policymakers, to make informed decisions rather than reactive ones. AI-generated artists designed for scale and low-cost delivery will proliferate. Online and live performance environments will be filled with algorithmically-optimized content. The technology will become more sophisticated, more accessible, and harder to detect without proper infrastructure.



We all need to work with the same objective information to navigate these advancements. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Sun, 18 Jan 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
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<item>
<title>Submitting your first self&#45;assessment as a new sole trader </title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/submitting-your-first-self-assessment-as-a-new-sole-trader</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/submitting-your-first-self-assessment-as-a-new-sole-trader</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ By Anna Jordan on Small Business UK - Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs


What do you need to know about self-assessment as a new sole trader? We&#039;ve partnered with Sage to tell you more
The post Submitting your first self-assessment as a new sole trader  appeared first on Small Business UK. ]]></description>
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<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Submitting, your, first, self-assessment, new, sole, trader </media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Government revives Northern Powerhouse Rail with phased £45bn vision for the North</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/government-revives-northern-powerhouse-rail-with-phased-45bn-vision-for-the-north</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/government-revives-northern-powerhouse-rail-with-phased-45bn-vision-for-the-north</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
The government sets out phased plans for Northern Powerhouse Rail, promising faster journeys, new stations and up to £40bn in economic growth for the north of England.
Read more: 
Government revives Northern Powerhouse Rail with phased £45bn vision for the North ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/shutterstock_2611109421.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Thu, 15 Jan 2026 14:00:08 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Government, revives, Northern, Powerhouse, Rail, with, phased, £45bn, vision, for, the, North</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>AI set to ‘turbocharge’ Britain’s road and rail network, says Transport Select Committee chair</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/ai-set-to-turbocharge-britains-road-and-rail-network-says-transport-select-committee-chair</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/ai-set-to-turbocharge-britains-road-and-rail-network-says-transport-select-committee-chair</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Government investment in AI and digital technology will transform Britain’s road and rail network, improve reliability and support economic growth, MPs say.
Read more: 
AI set to ‘turbocharge’ Britain’s road and rail network, says Transport Select Committee chair ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Thu, 15 Jan 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>set, ‘turbocharge’, Britain’s, road, and, rail, network, says, Transport, Select, Committee, chair</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>High Court rules forced labour claims against Dyson will go to trial in 2027</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/high-court-rules-forced-labour-claims-against-dyson-will-go-to-trial-in-2027</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/high-court-rules-forced-labour-claims-against-dyson-will-go-to-trial-in-2027</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
The High Court has ruled that forced labour and modern slavery claims against Dyson will proceed to trial in April 2027, involving allegations in its Malaysian supply chain.
Read more: 
High Court rules forced labour claims against Dyson will go to trial in 2027 ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/shutterstock_2631665401.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Thu, 15 Jan 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>High, Court, rules, forced, labour, claims, against, Dyson, will, trial, 2027</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>UK economy returns to growth with 0.3% expansion in November</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/uk-economy-returns-to-growth-with-03-expansion-in-november</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/uk-economy-returns-to-growth-with-03-expansion-in-november</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
The UK economy returned to growth in November, expanding by 0.3 per cent after contracting in the month leading up to the autumn budget, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics.
Read more: 
UK economy returns to growth with 0.3% expansion in November ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Thu, 15 Jan 2026 14:00:06 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>economy, returns, growth, with, 0.3, expansion, November</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>New EV tax risks derailing electric car take&#45;up, AutoTrader warns</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/new-ev-tax-risks-derailing-electric-car-take-up-autotrader-warns</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/new-ev-tax-risks-derailing-electric-car-take-up-autotrader-warns</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
New EV tax risks derailing electric car take-up, AutoTrader warns
Read more: 
New EV tax risks derailing electric car take-up, AutoTrader warns ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Thu, 15 Jan 2026 14:00:05 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>New, tax, risks, derailing, electric, car, take-up, AutoTrader, warns</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>The FTC’s data&#45;sharing order against GM is finally settled</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/the-ftcs-data-sharing-order-against-gm-is-finally-settled</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/the-ftcs-data-sharing-order-against-gm-is-finally-settled</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ The order, first proposed a year ago, bans GM from collecting and then selling geolocation data to third parties, like data brokers and insurance companies. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Thu, 15 Jan 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>The, FTC’s, data-sharing, order, against, finally, settled</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Mira Murati’s startup, Thinking Machines Lab, is losing two of its co&#45;founders to OpenAI</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/mira-muratis-startup-thinking-machines-lab-is-losing-two-of-its-co-founders-to-openai</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/mira-muratis-startup-thinking-machines-lab-is-losing-two-of-its-co-founders-to-openai</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ The abrupt change in personnel was in the works for several weeks, according to an OpenAI executive. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/GettyImages-1258711804.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Thu, 15 Jan 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Mira, Murati’s, startup, Thinking, Machines, Lab, losing, two, its, co-founders, OpenAI</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Microsoft taps India’s Varaha for durable carbon removal offtake</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/microsoft-taps-indias-varaha-for-durable-carbon-removal-offtake</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/microsoft-taps-indias-varaha-for-durable-carbon-removal-offtake</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Microsoft is buying over 100,000 tons of carbon dioxide removal credits from India&#039;s Varaha over the next three years. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Thu, 15 Jan 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Microsoft, taps, India’s, Varaha, for, durable, carbon, removal, offtake</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Indian SpaceX rival EtherealX hits 5x valuation as it readies engine tests</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/indian-spacex-rival-etherealx-hits-5x-valuation-as-it-readies-engine-tests</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/indian-spacex-rival-etherealx-hits-5x-valuation-as-it-readies-engine-tests</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ EtherealX is ramping engine tests and building a 150-acre rocket campus in India as it targets a 2027 launch mission. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Thu, 15 Jan 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Indian, SpaceX, rival, EtherealX, hits, valuation, readies, engine, tests</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>After Italy, WhatsApp excludes Brazil from rival chatbot ban</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/after-italy-whatsapp-excludes-brazil-from-rival-chatbot-ban</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/after-italy-whatsapp-excludes-brazil-from-rival-chatbot-ban</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ WhatsApp is allowing AI providers to continue offering their chatbots to users in Brazil, days after the country&#039;s competition agency ordered the company to suspend its new policy that bars third-party, general-purpose chatbots from the app. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Thu, 15 Jan 2026 14:00:02 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>After, Italy, WhatsApp, excludes, Brazil, from, rival, chatbot, ban</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>The five résumé trends you need to know about for 2026</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/the-five-resume-trends-you-need-to-know-about-for-2026</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/the-five-resume-trends-you-need-to-know-about-for-2026</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Hiring in 2026 won’t look much like hiring even two years ago. If you don’t pay attention, you will get left behind. I was a retained search consultant for 25-plus years. I’ve written executive and board résumés for the last 10 years. I’ve never seen so much change in candidate sourcing happen so quickly.



CEO priorities and expectations have shifted. AI is reshaping how candidates get surfaced. Résumé sameness has skyrocketed. Candidate shortlist cycles have accelerated.



For you to be visible, your résumé has to do more than describe your work. It has to hit leaders’ priorities, satisfy automated systems’ tests, and make sense. The following five trends show you what that means and how to stay ahead of it:



Trend 1: Résumé Content Must Address CEO Priorities



Late-2025 surveys found four top-of-mind priorities for CEOs as we head into 2026. Those topics map to compelling information for your résumé’s experience section. I list them below. Then, I frame the question that decision-makers want your résumé to answer. Finally, to inspire you, I share examples of subjects you might use in impact bullets.



CEO Priority: AI Adoption &amp; TransformationThe question: Can this person operationalize AI and meet ROI hurdles?Impact Examples:




Introduced AI-assisted steps into a workflow.



Led a cross-functional effort to apply AI to a core business process.



Built an AI governance framework.




CEO Priority: Geopolitical &amp; Economic UncertaintyThe question: Can this person make decisions that protect shareholder value during volatility?Impact Examples:




Used business intelligence tools to identify and report risks.



Redesigned a process to protect profit margins.



Repositioned the organization in response to geopolitical, regulatory, or economic shifts.




CEO Priority: Talent ManagementThe question: Can this person shape and prepare our teams for an AI future?Impact Examples:




Implemented AI-driven talent sourcing methods.



Adopted the 4B workforce model (buy, build, borrow, bot) to design a future-ready team.



Owned the talent workstream for enterprise AI adoption.




CEO Priority: Business Model ReinventionThe question: Can this person drive adaptation and growth to keep us competitive?Impact Examples:




Contributed insights that improved a product, service, or customer experience.



Developed or scaled a new offering.



Determined where the organization should invest, expand, or exit to maintain long-term viability.




Trend 2: The Rise of the Reader Trio (ATS, AI, Human)



For years, you’ve written for applicant tracking systems, recruiters, and hiring managers. And you still will. But in 2026, more organizations will use AI to source candidates and expand talent pools. While an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) looks for keywords, AI looks for patterns.To benefit from AI’s ability to expand talent pools, you’ll need to learn those patterns and embed them in your résumé. Examples include: showing you’re ready for promotion to the next level; writing about repeated records of success; and describing challenges you’ve handled that also exist in other industries.



Trend 3: Work Context Becomes Critical



Beyond CEO concerns, your trio of readers wants to know where you’ve operated. If you haven’t already, now is the time to add company descriptions to your résumé. Basics include size, ownership, industry, footprint, and systemic challenges. Readers need to see adjacencies to their worlds to predict your effectiveness. 



Trend 4: Generic, AI-Written Résumés



Next, I talked with many recruiters over a few days at the Unleash World HR conference in Paris in October. I wanted to learn how they use AI to find people. They wanted to talk about the crushing tsunami of generic résumés they receive.



While AI might up-level a bad résumé to average, always keep a human in the loop to stand out. Make it yours. Otherwise, your readers’ eyes will glaze over from the sameness. Plus, AI continues to generate word salad and logical inconsistencies. The narrative sounds good on the surface, but it doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. Recruiters catch those faux pas, so don’t make them.



Trend 5: Candidate Shortlist Velocity and Résumé Readiness



Finally, a Siemens recruiter claims that LinkedIn’s AI cut his time-to-shortlist by at least 20 times. That means an accelerated recruiting cycle, with prepared candidates getting first looks. If you need time to update your résumé, you might get left behind.



Career visibility in 2026 won’t happen by accident. It will be because you built a résumé that meets the moment: substantive, AI-savvy, and ready before anyone asks for it.



 ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Wed, 14 Jan 2026 14:00:10 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>The, five, résumé, trends, you, need, know, about, for, 2026</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Roxberry is a ‘better&#45;for&#45;you’ soda, but its branding is an absolute sugar rush</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/roxberry-is-a-better-for-you-soda-but-its-branding-is-an-absolute-sugar-rush</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/roxberry-is-a-better-for-you-soda-but-its-branding-is-an-absolute-sugar-rush</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Andy Sauer is no stranger to making waves in the beverage business. As the CEO of Garage Beer, he defied the odds by turning a small craft brewery into a national name, despite competing in an industry dominated by legacy players. Now he’s looking to shake things up in another popular beverage category: the soda aisle.



Sauer’s latest venture is a product called Roxberry, which he’s dubbing the “first modern kids’ soda.” The brand launched earlier this month at more than 2,200 Walmart stores, 450 Krogers, Meijer and Harris Teeter locations nationwide, and a handful of independent grocers. This “soda” is unlike the sugary drinks most consumers remember from childhood: It’s made primarily of carbonated water and fruit and veggie juice, contains just 5 grams of sugar from natural sweeteners, and has no artificial colors, flavors, or sweeteners. A four-pack costs $5.99.



In an era when a new category of better-for-you (BFY) soda brands for adults, like Poppi and Olipop, has exploded in popularity, Sauer says the options for kids have largely remained siloed in two main categories: Either they can drink “the same brands we grew up with,” like Capri Sun or Kool-Aid, which are packed with ingredients many parents would rather skip; or they’re stuck with healthier, less visually exciting options, like seltzer water. Roxberry aims to be a third option that’s a win-win for kids and parents. 



Two-hit wonder



Sauer has experience turning a nascent RTD brand into a household name. Garage Beer, which he acquired in 2021 and relaunched in 2023, has shown triple-digit year-over-year growth, with sales increasing more than 500% in the 12 months ended in early April 2025, he says. It’s now valued at around $200 million and is continuing to grow, despite an overall slump in the beer industry, according to a September report from The Wall Street Journal.



In large part, Garage owes its success to a savvy marketing strategy: Its sleek branding, consistent dialogue with its target audience, and catchy slogan (“beer-flavored beer”) make it feel like an approachable craft beer for the everyman. Sauer is taking those lessons to Roxberry, which is prioritizing an in-depth brand story and centering everything on the phrase “Fizz for kids.”



“That old phrase, ‘Marketing is saying one thing a hundred times rather than a hundred things one time’ is very true for this brand as well,” Sauer says.



The idea for Roxberry struck back in 2022. With four kids of his own at home, Sauer noticed that his family frequently butted heads in the beverage aisle. His kids were interested in classic sweetened fruit drink brands like Kool-Aid, but he was hesitant to buy them due to their high quantities of sugar.



And so Roxberry came to life—first as a powdered mix-in before pivoting to a canned ready-to-drink format that mimics the soda brands kids already covet the most. The soda’s initial launch comes in the three most popular flavors in kids’ beverages overall: strawberry lemonade, citrus, and fruit punch.



“We did a lot of work to find out which fruits and veggies come naturally with a better mouthfeel, better sweetness,” Sauer says. “Working with raw strawberries, raw lemon, raw carrot—those things are going to give you more of a sweet flavor naturally so that you don’t have to add a lot to it.” 



“Kool-Aid Man energy”



The first thing parents might notice when they see Roxberry on store shelves is that it looks nothing like the modern BFY brands they’re used to. According to Emily Heyward, chief brand officer at the agency Red Antler that led Roxberry’s design, that’s the point.



“When we built the brand for Roxberry, it was before the explosion of the Poppis and the Olipops, but I think they’ve tapped on something similar, which is that a lot of better-for-you brands—especially in the kids’ space—signal that they’re healthier just by being more boring,” Heyward says. “They strip out color, they’re matte instead of glossy, they’re very plain, to show that they’re different from the old-school brands that we grew up with.”



The result, Heyward says, is that most of the “healthy” options for kids on grocery store shelves just don’t look very exciting. To combat this trend, Sauer’s brief was to “bring back that Kool-Aid Man energy to the space.” Red Antler’s answer to that prompt is a brand that looks like it came straight from a sci-fi kids’ cartoon. 



From the quirky flavor names Ocean Potion, Pink Lava, and Galaxy Gulp to the anthropomorphic characters and alien landscapes on the packaging, everything about Roxberry’s look suggests that it’s not just a beverage, but also its own universe.



“All of those characters that you see—and you just see them in little spots on the can—they have backstories, they have personalities. We went so deep, not because we’re planning to launch a TV show tomorrow, but because we wanted to ensure that we really had that richness,” Heyward says.



For example, Heyward adds, one character named Chomp Chomp is described as “loud, erratic, and entrepreneurial; an instigator who lives in the skies, makes deliveries, and creates crop circles.” Even if this character is never officially named, she believes the lore gives the brand depth.



While the majority of the Roxberry package is designed to entice shoppers with its bright, character-based imagery, smaller cues, like the phrases “No fake stuff” and “5g sugar” signal to parents that the beverage is not a typical soda. In essence, both Heyward and Sauer agree: Roxberry is designed with kids in mind first and parents second.



“We were looking at the love we all had for these character-driven brands growing up, and how they felt like part of our pop culture universe,” Heyward says. “Well, why has that gone away? There are brands for adults that have tapped into that nostalgia a little bit, but I think that the kids’ brands have really played it safe.” Roxberry’s high-octane look gives the healthier-for-you kids beverage category a much-needed branding sugar rush.


 ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Wed, 14 Jan 2026 14:00:10 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Roxberry, ‘better-for-you’, soda, but, its, branding, absolute, sugar, rush</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>ICE vs ice videos from Minnesota put the agency’s weaknesses on display</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/ice-vs-ice-videos-from-minnesota-put-the-agencys-weaknesses-on-display</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/ice-vs-ice-videos-from-minnesota-put-the-agencys-weaknesses-on-display</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Minneapolis is currently inundated with two kinds of ice—both of which make it hard for residents to move about the city. 



The bone-chilling winter cold has left icy deposits on streets and sidewalks, while the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency has run roughshod over them in what the Department of Homeland Security calls “the largest DHS operation ever.”



As anyone who’s ever set booted foot in Minnesota in winter can attest, gravity and overconfidence are no match for one of the world’s most slippery surfaces. Given the abundance of cameras that tend to follow ICE agents, it was perhaps inevitable that there would be multiple viral videos of agents absolutely biffing it on literal ice throughout the Twin Cities. The surging popularity of these videos, though, suggests ICE’s critics are getting a lot more out of them than cold comfort.



Midwestern progressives may have cheered such content no matter the context, but given recent events, the videos have taken on deeper resonance. Minneapolis has been at the center of a political firestorm since December, when President Trump seized on reports of social services fraud in the city, perpetrated in part by Somali Americans, to denigrate the area’s entire deeply rooted Somali community. 



On January 6, DHS announced it was deploying as many as 2,000 agents into the city to crack down on fraud and, of course, undocumented immigrants. By the following afternoon, an agent had shot and killed Renee Nicole Good in broad daylight.



In the days since Good’s killing, tensions have erupted in Minneapolis and rippled across the country. Massive protests have sprung up throughout the Twin Cities, as well as from New York City to Portland, Oregon. Local politicians and national figures like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have called out Trump for lying about what happened to Good, while Minnesota and Illinois have sued his administration to block the surge of federal agents.



For now, though, the DHS incursion into Minnesota continues, disrupting the normal flow of day-to-day life in the Twin Cities. ICE is reportedly conducting door-to-door raids in some areas, and in one highly publicized incident, agents violently detained two U.S. citizens, one of whom is 17 years old, while they were working a shift at Target. (Both were later released, reportedly with injuries.) 



After agents started showing up at local schools, several districts have switched to remote learning. Some restaurants have closed their doors indefinitely, while touring acts have postponed shows in the city, citing the welfare of attendees. In fact, the only people who seem to want to visit Minneapolis at the moment are MAGA influencers hoping to squeeze some content out of the carnage.



Given the dark, authoritarian overtones of DHS’s citywide siege, it’s no wonder viewers are rejoicing in videos of ICE agents busting ass.




  @typicalelliott ThislllllIce attacks Ice making ice fall. Ice proceeds to shoot ice #ice  ♬ Richard Strauss-Valzer from Der Rosenkavalier – 中国爱乐乐团   




First, came the clip in which a pair of agents ate it on an icy sidewalk together, causing one of their rifles to discharge—thankfully hurting no bystanders. Then there was the video of an agent running down the street at full speed before hitting a slick thicket of ice, as captured from multiple angles. And let’s not forget the agents who apparently could not get any locals to help them unstick their car from a snowy curb and wobbled around doing so themselves. It’s all classic slapstick, practically begging for the Benny Hill theme song to be dubbed over it.



As these clips proliferate online, another genre of viral video has emerged out of Minneapolis in tandem—one that helps explain just what else the ice-fail videos are accomplishing. These videos could be called a learning series, since they depict agents approaching protesters and asking if they haven’t learned anything yet from recent events. (“Learned what?” a protester responds in one of the videos, before an agent smacks the phone out of her hand.)



These videos appear to illustrate ICE agents’ expectations: that anyone disapproving of them should be cowed into respect and obedience. If protesters remain unfazed instead and continue mouthing off, the agents seem to suggest, well, who knows what could end up happening? Perhaps the same fate that met Good when she proved insufficiently respectful and obedient. The president suggested as much in comments he made aboard Air Force One on Monday—evidence that the blasé attitude ICE agents have toward use of force comes right from the top. 



Beyond doling out barely veiled threats, the agents in these videos also toe the party line that ICE is made up of hypercompetent heroes unfairly victimized by violent rioters. All they want is to surgically expunge criminal scum from the city, which they would accomplish easily, if only a well-coordinated domestic terrorist network would stop weaponizing vehicles at them.



This is where the falling-down videos, and attendant memes, come in handy. These videos decidedly do not make ICE look like hypercompetent heroes. They make them look like the buffoons they are.  



They undercut the agents’ warrior self-mythology, reducing them to doofuses who don’t realize winter ice might mean an attack of the killer sidewalks. The gleeful spread of these embarrassing clips sends the same message as the D.C. sandwich-thrower last summer and the wave of inflatable animals at the “No Kings” protests last fall. They help defang the vast threat represented by masked agents of state, rendering them eminently fallible. And the popularity of the videos also contradicts the preposterous notion that, as Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino said on Fox News this week, “90% of the public are happy to see us.”



Sure, it’s a small victory, but one that offers a strong reminder to the public to believe their eyes, not the spin from the administration.



It might also help ensure that—whether from Minnesota’s natural elements or its fired-up citizenry—ICE agents will continue getting a chilly reception as long as they remain in the state. 



Have they not learned this lesson yet? ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Wed, 14 Jan 2026 14:00:10 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
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<item>
<title>Daniel Ek believes prevention is the key to a long life. He’s bringing a ‘new healthcare experience’ to NYC for the first time</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/daniel-ek-believes-prevention-is-the-key-to-a-long-life-hes-bringing-a-new-healthcare-experience-to-nyc-for-the-first-time</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/daniel-ek-believes-prevention-is-the-key-to-a-long-life-hes-bringing-a-new-healthcare-experience-to-nyc-for-the-first-time</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Neko Health is taking its body-scanning technology to America.



The Swedish diagnostic health clinic, cofounded by Hjalmar Nilsonne and Daniel Ek (also the cofounder and CEO of Spotify), said on Wednesday that it will launch a location in New York City, its first in the United States, in the spring of this year.



The 3-year-old startup, which offers comprehensive body scans to monitor risk factors for a range of health conditions from prediabetes to cancer, already has a presence in London; Manchester, U.K.; and Stockholm.



“For the first time, technology is enabling a fundamentally new healthcare experience centered on prevention,” Nilsonne, the company’s CEO, said in a statement. “We’re excited to bring our unique model of care to the world’s biggest healthcare market with the opening of our first U.S. location in spring this year.” 



The exact site of the planned New York City location has not been revealed. 



The announcement comes as Neko Health has seen surging demand for its “Body Scan” service, which the company describes as “a preventative health check for your future self.” 



Scans check for skin irregularities, gauge the health of your cardiovascular system, assess blood sugar and cholesterol levels, and more as a part of a 60-minute assessment.



Neko Health says its scans use “proprietary sensors, 3D imaging, and blood analysis,” and “results are delivered on-site within minutes, followed by a consultation with a medical professional to discuss personalized health findings.”



[Photo: Neko Health]



Poised for growth



The idea has caught on, according to Neko Health, which says it delivered “six times more scans in 2025 than in 2024, with global signups now exceeding 300,000 people.” 



The firm’s data also shows that of the thousands of scans it completed in Stockholm during 2024, 1.2% revealed life-threatening conditions, and 6.4% found “medically significant findings requiring clinical attention.”



Neko Health’s services have caught the attention of the media, and have been reviewed by writers and reporters for publications such as Harper’s Bazaar, Cosmopolitan, and GQ, among others, with generally positive takeaways.



It’s also caught the attention of investors. A year ago, the company announced that it had raised $260 million as part of a Series B funding round. That put the company’s valuation at $1.8 billion.



 ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Wed, 14 Jan 2026 14:00:10 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
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<item>
<title>Lenovo wants to make the 2026 World Cup the ‘most AI&#45;driven event’ in sports history</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/lenovo-wants-to-make-the-2026-world-cup-the-most-ai-driven-event-in-sports-history</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/lenovo-wants-to-make-the-2026-world-cup-the-most-ai-driven-event-in-sports-history</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ When the FIFA World Cup 2026 arrives in the United States this June, it will signal more than soccer’s return to its fastest-growing commercial market. The tournament will span three countries—the United States, Mexico, and Canada—for the first time, becoming the largest World Cup ever staged. The scale, however, is also forcing a technological reset.



As modern global sporting events grow in scale, expectations have evolved alongside them. Audiences now look for more immersive broadcasts and real-time data, broadcasters face rising reliability demands, and governing bodies continue to push for greater transparency and precision. Together, these pressures are starting to expose the limits of traditional IT systems in elite sports such as soccer, particularly around latency, and paving the way for AI-driven, real-time intelligence embedded directly into competition, operations, and fan engagement.



As the official technology partner of the World Cup 2026, Lenovo is treating the tournament as a systems-level deployment, placing AI at the operational core of the world’s largest sporting event. The company is treating the event not as a showcase, but as a real-world test of AI beyond cloud-first architectures, where failure carries immediate consequences. Rather, it’s betting that global scale, matched with deep local execution, delivers an advantage in such a complex environment.



Lenovo chairman and CEO Yuanqing Yang says the World Cup exemplifies how AI can operate in complex, large-scale environments. “These are live events with real pressure and real audiences,” he says. “The value of such partnerships goes beyond short-term visibility. They help us understand how AI performs under demanding conditions, and that insight feeds directly into how we design and improve our technology.”



Yang also notes that, while Lenovo uses global sports partnerships to highlight its broader AI strategy, its technology is playing a major role in improving the sport itself. “This year, you will see referees using AI support, players benefiting from AI insights, and organizers using AI to improve operations,” he says. The company asserts that this year’s World Cup will be the “most AI-driven global sporting event” in history.



An AI-Driven Sporting Event



At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2026 in Las Vegas last week, Lenovo detailed how it will supply the digital backbone of the World Cup 2026—from core infrastructure to advanced AI systems that will shape all 104 matches.



Alongside FIFA president Gianni Infantino, the company unveiled a broad suite of AI-driven technologies for the tournament, including Football AI Pro; AI-enabled 3D player avatars integrated into semi-automated offside technology; an Intelligent Command Center using real-time AI summaries to manage tournament operations across three countries; AI-stabilized Referee View body-camera footage for broadcasts; smart wayfinding and venue digital twins; and resilient infrastructure supporting video review of refereeing decisions and broadcast systems.



Lenovo CTO Tolga Kurtoglu said that Lenovo had already deployed early versions of several upcoming technologies at the FIFA Club World Cup, using the tournament as a proving ground ahead of the much larger event this summer. “That allowed us to learn, iterate, and improve before deploying at World Cup scale,” he says.



Football AI Pro, codeveloped with FIFA, is an enterprise-grade AI knowledge system built with Lenovo’s AI Factory. The platform orchestrates multiple AI agents to analyze millions of data points and more than 2,000 football-specific metrics in real time, turning raw match data into actionable intelligence when decisions matter most. Analysts can spot patterns instantly through synchronized video, data overlays, and 3D visualizations. Coaches can simulate tactical changes in real time against specific opponents, and players will receive personalized match analysis.



“The idea is to deliver value across the entire football ecosystem, not just one group,” Kurtoglu explained. “If you look at other industries, like aircraft engines, analytics completely changed the business model—from selling engines to selling engine hours. The same principle applies here. With enough data and processing, you can help fundamentally change how decisions are made on the pitch.”



Elevating Human Judgment 



One of the most visible changes fans will notice in this year’s World Cup is AI-enabled digital player avatars in broadcasts and officiating tools. Using computer vision and generative AI, Lenovo and FIFA are producing precise 3D representations of players, modeled on their actual physical dimensions. These avatars will appear in semi-automated offside replays, offering clearer, more contextual visuals for fans in stadiums and at home.



According to Johannes Holzmüller, director of innovation at FIFA, the goal of the partnership is not to automate decision-making but to elevate it. AI, he said, must support human judgment while making its reasoning visible and accountable—especially in a sport where trust is everything.



“At the Club World Cup last year in the U.S., we tested a system we call advanced semi-automated offside. The key idea is that the moment the system has a high confidence that all the data is correct, that information is immediately sent to the assistant referee,” he says. “With this advanced semi-automated offside system, we are setting a new benchmark. [It] will shape expectations for accuracy and fairness in tournaments to come.”



Referee View is also returning—this time enhanced. Body-worn referee cameras, stabilized using AI, will provide broadcast-ready footage from the official’s point of view. FIFA expects the feature to give billions of fans unprecedented perspectives on the game’s most critical moments.



Holzmüller explained that creating precise player avatars before the start of the tournament gives the system additional context, allowing it to determine offside situations with much higher confidence. When the system reaches that level of certainty, it can send direct guidance to assistant referees, reducing the need to delay decisions. Under current rules, delayed flags often mean play continues longer than necessary, increasing the risk of collisions and injuries before the ball goes out of play. By improving both confidence and speed, the technology helps avoid those situations and reduces unnecessary risk on the pitch.



AI Could Reshape Sport Strategies



“Lenovo helped us create an end-to-end process, starting from scanning the players—which takes only one second—through to having a digital asset platform where this information can be used across different use cases,” says Holzmüller. “Our thought behind integrating new technologies is to make the game fairer, clearer, and safer for everyone involved.”



Kurtoglu believes that deeper integration of AI and data could reshape how teams approach tactics, decision-making, and tournament planning ahead of the World Cup. “Strategies could change. It comes down to how you translate data into insights. The more data you have, the more analytics and AI you can apply, and eventually that will change tactics, analysis and even commentary,” he says. “That is why this is such an exciting moment for sports and technology.”



If Lenovo’s bet holds, the world’s biggest sporting events will raise the bar for how AI and analytics operate far beyond the stadium. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Wed, 14 Jan 2026 14:00:10 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
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<title>7 best email marketing software for UK businesses</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/7-best-email-marketing-software-for-uk-businesses</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/7-best-email-marketing-software-for-uk-businesses</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ By Dom Walbanke on Small Business UK - Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs


Factors to consider include the number of recipients you need to mail out to, design customisation to match the brand, integrations, data migration and ease of use
The post 7 best email marketing software for UK businesses appeared first on Small Business UK. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Wed, 14 Jan 2026 14:00:09 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>best, email, marketing, software, for, businesses</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>A guide to successful email marketing</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/a-guide-to-successful-email-marketing</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/a-guide-to-successful-email-marketing</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ By Andrea Blair on Small Business UK - Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs


Ensure your email marketing campaigns are accurate, engaging and reach your recipient no matter which device they use
The post A guide to successful email marketing appeared first on Small Business UK. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Wed, 14 Jan 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>guide, successful, email, marketing</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>The essential guide to small business marketing</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/the-essential-guide-to-small-business-marketing</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/the-essential-guide-to-small-business-marketing</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ By Ben Lobel on Small Business UK - Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs


The post The essential guide to small business marketing appeared first on Small Business UK. ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Wed, 14 Jan 2026 14:00:05 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>The, essential, guide, small, business, marketing</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Soho House shares slide as investor pulls funding from $1.8bn take&#45;private deal</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/soho-house-shares-slide-as-investor-pulls-funding-from-18bn-take-private-deal</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/soho-house-shares-slide-as-investor-pulls-funding-from-18bn-take-private-deal</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Soho House shares slide after key investor MCR fails to fund a $200m commitment, putting a $1.8bn take-private deal at risk.
Read more: 
Soho House shares slide as investor pulls funding from $1.8bn take-private deal ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Sun, 11 Jan 2026 14:00:08 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Soho, House, shares, slide, investor, pulls, funding, from, 1.8bn, take-private, deal</media:keywords>
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<item>
<title>Weight loss jabs are changing how Britain eats – and Greggs is feeling the impact</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/weight-loss-jabs-are-changing-how-britain-eats-and-greggs-is-feeling-the-impact</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/weight-loss-jabs-are-changing-how-britain-eats-and-greggs-is-feeling-the-impact</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Greggs boss says weight loss injections are changing customer behaviour, driving demand for smaller portions and protein-rich food.
Read more: 
Weight loss jabs are changing how Britain eats – and Greggs is feeling the impact ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/shutterstock_2498362311-scaled.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sun, 11 Jan 2026 14:00:08 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Weight, loss, jabs, are, changing, how, Britain, eats, –, and, Greggs, feeling, the, impact</media:keywords>
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<title>Aer Lingus moves closer to closing Manchester base as margins fail to stack up</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/aer-lingus-moves-closer-to-closing-manchester-base-as-margins-fail-to-stack-up</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/aer-lingus-moves-closer-to-closing-manchester-base-as-margins-fail-to-stack-up</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Aer Lingus is set to stop long-haul flights from Manchester, putting 200 jobs at risk as the airline says margins are no longer viable.
Read more: 
Aer Lingus moves closer to closing Manchester base as margins fail to stack up ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://bmmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/shutterstock_2710724799.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sun, 11 Jan 2026 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Aer, Lingus, moves, closer, closing, Manchester, base, margins, fail, stack</media:keywords>
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<title>£14m divorce battle exposes the risks of non&#45;disclosure in complex family wealth cases</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/14m-divorce-battle-exposes-the-risks-of-non-disclosure-in-complex-family-wealth-cases</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/14m-divorce-battle-exposes-the-risks-of-non-disclosure-in-complex-family-wealth-cases</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
A £14m divorce battle involving the former INXS manager exposes how non-disclosure and family gifts can unravel financial settlements.
Read more: 
£14m divorce battle exposes the risks of non-disclosure in complex family wealth cases ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Sun, 11 Jan 2026 14:00:06 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>£14m, divorce, battle, exposes, the, risks, non-disclosure, complex, family, wealth, cases</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Liz Kendall warns xAI over Grok images as UK moves to criminalise non&#45;consensual AI deepfakes</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/liz-kendall-warns-xai-over-grok-images-as-uk-moves-to-criminalise-non-consensual-ai-deepfakes</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/liz-kendall-warns-xai-over-grok-images-as-uk-moves-to-criminalise-non-consensual-ai-deepfakes</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
The Technology Secretary warns xAI could be blocked in the UK as new laws target AI-generated intimate images without consent.
Read more: 
Liz Kendall warns xAI over Grok images as UK moves to criminalise non-consensual AI deepfakes ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Sun, 11 Jan 2026 14:00:05 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Liz, Kendall, warns, xAI, over, Grok, images, moves, criminalise, non-consensual, deepfakes</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Google moonshot spinout SandboxAQ claims an ex&#45;exec is attempting ‘extortion’</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/google-moonshot-spinout-sandboxaq-claims-an-ex-exec-is-attempting-extortion</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/google-moonshot-spinout-sandboxaq-claims-an-ex-exec-is-attempting-extortion</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ A former SandboxAQ executive filed a wrongful termination lawsuit filled with shocking allegations. The company is fighting back, hard. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/SandboxAQ-Jack-Hidary.png" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sun, 11 Jan 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Google, moonshot, spinout, SandboxAQ, claims, ex-exec, attempting, ‘extortion’</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>I met a lot of weird robots at CES — here are the most memorable</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/i-met-a-lot-of-weird-robots-at-ces-here-are-the-most-memorable</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/i-met-a-lot-of-weird-robots-at-ces-here-are-the-most-memorable</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ If the robots don&#039;t always give a totally accurate representation of where commercial deployment is at the moment, they do give visitors a peek at where their parent companies might be headed. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/robot1.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sun, 11 Jan 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>met, lot, weird, robots, CES, —, here, are, the, most, memorable</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>Indonesia blocks Grok over non&#45;consensual, sexualized deepfakes</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/indonesia-blocks-grok-over-non-consensual-sexualized-deepfakes</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/indonesia-blocks-grok-over-non-consensual-sexualized-deepfakes</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Indonesian officials said Saturday that they are temporarily blocking access to xAI’s chatbot Grok. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/GettyImages-2223576505.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sun, 11 Jan 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>Indonesia, blocks, Grok, over, non-consensual, sexualized, deepfakes</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>OpenAI is reportedly asking contractors to upload real work from past jobs</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/openai-is-reportedly-asking-contractors-to-upload-real-work-from-past-jobs</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/openai-is-reportedly-asking-contractors-to-upload-real-work-from-past-jobs</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ An intellectual property lawyer says OpenAI is &quot;putting itself at great risk&quot; with this approach. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/GettyImages-2170386424.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sun, 11 Jan 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>OpenAI, reportedly, asking, contractors, upload, real, work, from, past, jobs</media:keywords>
</item>

<item>
<title>SpaceX gets FCC approval to launch 7,500 more Starlink satellites</title>
<link>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/spacex-gets-fcc-approval-to-launch-7500-more-starlink-satellites</link>
<guid>https://thebusinesseconomic.com/spacex-gets-fcc-approval-to-launch-7500-more-starlink-satellites</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ The Federal Communications Commission has given SpaceX approval to launch another 7,500 of its second generation Starlink satellites. ]]></description>
<enclosure url="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/51924933910_9627ae096e_o.jpg" length="49398" type="image/jpeg"/>
<pubDate>Sun, 11 Jan 2026 14:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Business Economic Syndicated News</dc:creator>
<media:keywords>SpaceX, gets, FCC, approval, launch, 7, 500, more, Starlink, satellites</media:keywords>
</item>

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