General World News

Grilling could soon get more expensive. Tyson Foods, the world’s second-largest meat processor, has already hiked prices as much as 40% — and says there’s more on the way.

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Summary List Placement The world’s second-largest meat processor says it will keep raising its prices. In its third quarter, which runs to July 3, Tyson Foods hiked up its average price for pork by 39%, beef by 12%, and chicken by 16%, it said Monday. CEO Donnie King said during an earnings call that the […]

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CEOs got paid 351 times what typical workers made in 2020

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Summary List Placement Over the past five decades, CEO pay has skyrocketed — but the average wage for workers hasn’t.  A new report from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, authored by Lawrence Mishel and Jori Kandra, finds that CEO compensation has grown by 1,322% between 1978 and 2020. In contrast, the report finds that the […]

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Elizabeth Warren wants to jack up taxes on Amazon, Microsoft and other companies making over $100 million in profits

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Summary List Placement A tax on the profits of the nation’s wealthiest corporations was a key element of Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s presidential campaign. She wants it to become reality in the Democrats’ $3.5 trillion reconciliation package. On Monday, Warren and Sen. Angus King, an independent from Maine who caucuses with the Democrats, announced in […]

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Forbearance numbers fall, delinquency rates rise

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Once again, servicers’ forbearance portfolio volume fell — this time dipping seven basis points to 3.40% for the week ending Aug. 1, according to a survey from the Mortgage Bankers Association.  Per MBA’s estimate, 1.7 million homeowners are still in forbearance plans. The share of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans in forbearance also decreased, falling five basis points to 1.74%, and Ginnie […]

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Soaring home prices are spooking buyers

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Home purchase sentiment dropped 3.9 points to 75.8 in July as concerns about high home prices continued to scare off prospective homebuyers. Fannie Mae‘s Home Purchase Sentiment Index (HPSI) found that 66% of respondents said that due to high housing prices, it’s a bad time to buy a home, up from 64% last month. Only […]

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Sales of lifted pickups are surging. It’s the latest sign of just how crazy the used-car market is right now.

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Summary List Placement The pandemic has kicked the car market into overdrive. And it’s not just run-of-the-mill crossovers and SUVs that are selling like hotcakes.  Amid shortages on dealer lots and a voracious appetite for cars, vehicles once considered niche are entering the mainstream.  At Lifted Trucks, which modifies used pickups and SUVs with taller […]

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Overcrowded colleges are giving students $5,000 to live off campus as Delta surges

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Summary List Placement Elite colleges are throwing money and incentives at a very large problem: overcrowded dorms. Packed with students returning from studying remotely and incoming students who took a gap year during the pandemic, universities are running out of housing for the Fall 2021 semester, Bloomberg’s Maria Heeter reported. It’s a particular problem, she […]

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Senate Democrats just laid out their $3.5 trillion plan to hike taxes on the wealthy and begin fighting climate change — without any Republican votes

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Summary List Placement Senate Democrats introduced a $3.5 trillion budget blueprint on Monday that would raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans and large corporations in order to fund a massive expansion of the social safety net, fulfilling a key part of President Joe Biden’s economic agenda. The $3.5 trillion spending plan would expand Medicare so […]

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Janet Yellen warns of ‘irreparable harm’ and a potential federal government shutdown if Congress doesn’t raise the debt limit

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Summary List Placement Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Monday warned congressional leaders that a failure to raise the federal debt ceiling will cause “irreparable harm” as Congress barrels towards the deadline to fund the government.  “In recent years Congress has addressed the debt limit through regular order, with broad bipartisan support,” Yellen said in an […]

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Refinances make a comeback in July

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Refinances are flowing once again, according to July mortgage origination figures in a report from Black Knight, and early data from August suggests more are on the way. For the first time since February, refinance activity accounted for half of all origination activity, according to a report by Black Knight. Rate and term refinances rose […]

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Elizabeth Warren and Chuck Schumer aren’t satisfied after Biden extended the student-debt freeze, urging cancelation

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Summary List Placement For months, many Democrats and advocates have been pushing President Joe Biden to extend the pause on student-loan payments beyond its expiration in October, given that borrowers are still reeling financially from the pandemic. Biden answered their calls on Friday by giving borrowers an additional four months of relief, but the Democrats […]

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Gold and silver claw back losses after Friday’s stellar jobs report ignited concerns over tighter Fed policy and unleashed a ‘flash crash’

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Summary List Placement Gold and silver prices on Monday recovered slightly from a sharp slide at the start of Asian trading, but were weighed down by rising expectations that the US Federal Reserve will cut back on its bond buying sooner than expected. Spot gold prices declined 4% to $1,707 per ounce late Sunday, while […]

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AOC, progressive lawmakers call out moderate House Democrats over ‘concerns’ about $3.5 trillion reconciliation package

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Summary List Placement Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and progressive House Democrats on Sunday pushed back against “concerns” raised by their moderate colleagues over the proposed $3.5 trillion reconciliation package that President Joe Biden and Democratic leaders want to pass in conjunction with a bipartisan $1 trillion infrastructure bill. In a letter addressed to House Speaker Nancy […]

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Elon Musk, Jack Dorsey, and Ted Cruz are among those criticizing planned crypto tax rules, which could help fund the infrastructure package

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Summary List Placement As a bipartisan Senate moved toward a vote on President Joe Biden’s infrastructure package, a chorus of leaders from Silicon Valley and Washington raised concerns about a provision that would add new taxes on crypto. “The infrastructure deal contains DANGEROUS provisions that would devastate crypto and blockchain innovation,” Sen. Ted Cruz said […]

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An Arizona restaurant boss scrapped a ‘pain in the a–‘ lamb taco to keep his chefs happy and stop them quitting during the labor shortage

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Summary List Placement An Arizona restaurant boss scrapped a taco item from his menu because it was a “pain in the a–” to prepare for his kitchen staff — and he wanted to stop them from leaving during a severe labor shortage.   Skyler Reeves, owner of Vivili Hospitality Group, which runs five dining spots in […]

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Jobs growth has been driven by vaccination rates, not expiring unemployment benefits, says the White House

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Summary List Placement The White House on Friday said expiring state unemployment benefits haven’t been a driving force in job growth.  “We don’t see any evidence in the available data that some states ending unemployment benefits early had any impact on today’s incredibly strong numbers,” Press Secretary Jen Psaki said during a press briefing.   Payroll […]

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After this CEO raised his company’s minimum wage to $70,000, he said the number of babies born to staff each year grew 10-fold and revenue soared

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Summary List Placement Six years ago, Dan Price, the founder and CEO of credit-card processing company Gravity Payments made waves when he announced that he was raising the firm’s minimum salary to $70,000 for his 120 employees.  To accommodate the change, Price slashed his own $1 million salary. In the following years, revenue soared, and staff […]

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Sen. Joe Manchin signals he won’t back renewal of federal jobless aid for gig workers and long-term unemployed past Labor Day

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Summary List Placement Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia indicated on Saturday he would not back including an extension of federal aid for gig workers and long-term unemployed Americans past Labor Day in a Democrat-only package. “I’m done with extensions,” he told Insider. “The economy is coming back.” Manchin went on: “Look guys, read your […]

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Senate advances $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, bringing it closer to final passage with McConnell’s support

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Summary List Placement The Senate advanced a bipartisan infrastructure bill on Saturday, bringing it another step closer to final passage sometime over the weekend. It cleared the upper chamber in a 67-27 vote on Saturday afternoon. 18 Republicans joined 49 Senate Democrats to break the filibuster. Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia was absent. Those […]

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Trump blasts $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package as ‘a disgrace’ before key vote, criticizes McConnell’s leadership

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Summary List Placement Former President Donald Trump on Saturday blasted the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package that Senate negotiators have spent months delicately putting together. Hours ahead of an expected vote to advance the bill, Trump called the legislation a “disgrace” and asked GOP Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky to push for a better […]

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The July jobs report ends the myth of a ‘damaging’ labor shortage, former Obama economist says

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Summary List Placement The July jobs report should finally put to rest the idea that there’s a labor shortage, a former Obama administration economist told Insider. Heidi Shierholz, who is currently the director of policy at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, said the employment and wages figures unveiled in Friday’s data show that reports of […]

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The Biden administration is extending the student-loan payment freeze through January 2022

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Summary List Placement Nearly two months before the pause on student-loan payments was set to lift, the Biden administration extended the student loan freeze through January 2022. On Friday, the administration renewed the pause on payments, along with waived interest, to give borrowers more time to financially prepare to restart their payments. This decision answers […]

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The July jobs report was a smashing success, but don’t cut short all stimulus efforts while Delta is raging, former top Obama economist says

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Summary List Placement The economy added 943,000 jobs in July, smashing past forecasters’ estimates and underscoring the strength of the recovery from the pandemic. Experts noted key gauges of economic health moved in the right direction: The unemployment rate fell, particularly among Black and Hispanic workers. Wages rose while the long-term unemployment rate dropped. “This […]

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July’s big jobs gain probably has no connection to GOP governors cutting unemployment aid, Biden’s Labor Secretary says

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Summary List Placement July’s jobs report beat expectations handily, showing 943,000 job gains, accelerating wage growth, and a bigger drop in unemployment than expected. It’s another sign of a more robust recovery, marking seven months of the US adding jobs.  Labor Secretary Marty Walsh talked to Insider about the strong report and why it was […]

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July jobs report beats estimates as businesses add 943,000 payrolls amid steady recovery

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Summary List Placement Job growth in the US exceeded economists’ expectations in July, signaling the labor market’s recovery was mostly unscathed as COVID cases rebounded. The country added 943,000 nonfarm payrolls last month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday. The gain beat the median forecast of 870,000 new jobs from economists surveyed by Bloomberg. […]

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Pork prices could spike 50% thanks to a new animal-welfare law that says pigs must have more space, one of the US’ biggest producers says

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Summary List Placement The CEO of one of the biggest pork producers in the US says a new pig-farming law in California could lead to pork prices rising by up to 50%. The animal-welfare law, set to come into effect next year, requires farmers to give more space to egg-laying chickens, veal calves, and breeding […]

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Rocket to require testing for unvaccinated workers

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Rocket Companies, the parent company of America’s top mortgage lender and one of the industry’s biggest employers, will require all of its unvaccinated employees to have weekly COVID-19 tests. The company will also require all unvaccinated employees to wear masks in the office. The Detroit-headquartered firm said that the new policy would take effect on […]

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Inside Senate Republicans’ dismissal of Trump as he tries to torpedo Biden’s infrastructure bill from the sidelines

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Summary List Placement President Joe Biden is on the verge of scoring a major win where his predecessor Donald Trump repeatedly failed. Over the past week, the Senate has taken up Biden’s $1 trillion infrastructure bill. It’s cleared two major test votes already with some Republican support. Lawmakers have approved seven amendments so far and […]

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Landlords sue Biden after he said they couldn’t evict in areas where Delta infections are surging

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Summary List Placement Landlords and real estate groups are scrambling to derail the Biden administration’s latest moratorium on evictions in high-infection areas only a day after it was handed down. The Washington Post reported that the Alabama Association of Realtors and its peer chapter in Georgia filed a lawsuit on Wednesday challenging the moratorium’s legality, […]

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Delta variant fears send 30-year mortgage rates to 2.77%

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The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage slipped back down to 2.77% for the week ending August 5, according to mortgage rates data released Thursday by Freddie Mac‘s PMMS. The week prior, mortgage rates had rebounded slightly to 2.80%. According to Sam Khater, chief economist at Freddie Mac, concerns over the COVID-19 Delta variant, along with lower […]

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New US jobless claims slide to 385,000 while continuing claims hit pandemic low

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Summary List Placement The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits dropped less than expected last week, capping off a volatile month that signaled a slowing of the labor market’s rebound. Jobless claims dipped to an unadjusted 385,000 last week, the Labor Department announced Thursday. That compares to a median estimate of 383,000 claims from economists surveyed […]

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The US doesn’t have enough homes for the number of people who want to buy them — and experts say relief might not come for a decade

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Summary List Placement Rob Ettaro and Kaliana Veros have been house hunting outside Salt Lake City for months. In the winter, the couple fell in love with a $479,000 home in Midvale, Utah. They prepared their first offer carefully, offering $6,000 above the asking price. The house ultimately sold to someone else — for $60,000 […]

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Vaccination is helping small businesses recover

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Summary List Placement The states that are seeing robust employment growth for small businesses are also ones where many residents are vaccinated, according to a new report from Gusto.     The report from Gusto, a small business payroll and benefits platform, shows that small businesses in the service sector tended to have larger employment growth in […]

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More households paid their rent and mortgage in Q2 2021

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Fewer than five million households failed to make their rent or mortgage payments in the second quarter of 2021, despite the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic still being felt across the country. According to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Research Institute for Housing America (RIHA), 8.6% of renters (2.86 million households) missed, delayed, or made a […]

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eXp CEO loves Glenn Stearns’ star power

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Glenn Stearns, CEO at eXp Residential real estate brokerage eXp continues to be profitable, and company CEO Glenn Sanford became a fan of Glenn Stearns through reality television. Those were two takeaways from the company’s second quarter earnings call on Wednesday, in which Sanford and other company executives wrestled with how to diversify a company […]

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A civil war within the Democratic Party over canceling student debt is hurting millions of borrowers

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Summary List Placement Many student-loan debt borrowers are currently stuck in limbo, thanks to a growing civil war within the Democratic Party. Come the end of September, they’ll have to resume paying their federal student loans after enjoying an 18-month reprieve from payments and zero interest accrual. The pause has helped millions of borrowers stay […]