Category: Business

At 75, India seeks way forward in big but job-scarce economy

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Read time : 4 mins

Level : Advanced

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, center, unveils the logo of ‘Make in India’ initiative in New Delhi, India, Sept. 25, 2014. India’s phenomenal transformation from an impoverished nation in 1947 into an emerging global power whose $3 trillion economy is Asia’s third largest has made it a major exporter of things like software and vaccines. The country marks 75 years of independence from British rule on Aug. 15. (AP Photo/Saurabh Das, File)

By KRUTIKA PATHI and BHUMIKA SARASWATI Associated Press

NEW DELHI (AP) — As India’s economy grew, the hum of factories turned the sleepy, dusty village of Manesar into a booming industrial hub, cranking out everything from cars and sinks to smartphones and tablets. But jobs have run scarce over the years, prompting more and more workers to line up along the road for work, desperate to earn money.

Every day, Sugna, a young woman in her early 20s who goes by her first name, comes with her husband and two children to the city’s labor chowk — a bazaar at the junction of four roads where hundreds of workers gather daily at daybreak to plead for work. It’s been days since she or her husband got work and she has only five rupees (six cents) in hand.

Scenes like this are an everyday reality for millions of Indians, the most visible signs of economic distress in a country where raging unemployment is worsening insecurity and inequality between the rich and poor. It’s perhaps Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s biggest challenge as the country marks 75 years of independence from British rule on Monday. Continue reading

Business Leaders’ Optimism at Record Low

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Read time : 4 mins

Level : Intermediate

By Justin McDevitt

Is the American Dream dead?

A new study reveals that optimism in the business community has hit a record low, making many question the root causes, the current dilemmas, and the future of an ideal.

Pandemic fatigue? Inflation fatigue? American Dream fatigue? What’s causing the negative feelings?

In Arthur Miller’s seminal classic, Death of a Salesman, Biff Loman, son of the eponymous salesman, asks, “What am I doing in an office, making a contemptuous, begging fool of myself, when all I want is out there, waiting for me the minute I say I know who I am!” While the play went on to win the Pulitzer Prize and has been taught in school ever since, Miller’s classic may ask more questions than it provides answers.

Seventy-three years later, exhausted by a pandemic, the war in Ukraine, Monkeypox, and soaring inflation, Americans are asking the same questions. They deserve answers. Continue reading

Cold showers, no lights: Europe saves as Russian gas wanes

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Read time : 3 mins

Level : Advanced

Hadj Benhalima from the the collective “On the Spot” jumps to turn off lights during a night of action where they will extinguish the lights on dozens of storefronts in Paris, Friday, July 29, 2022. The collective had been acting against wasteful businesses in Paris long before Russia started cutting energy supplies to Europe in a battle of wills over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. As such, the campaigners were precursors of the energy economy drive becoming all the rage in France, Germany and elsewhere. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)

By JOHN LEICESTER and NICOLAS GARRIGA Associated Press

PARIS (AP) — Fanning out like urban guerrillas through Paris’ darkened streets well after midnight, the anti-waste activists shinny up walls and drain pipes, reaching for switches to turn off the lights.

Click. Click. Click.

One by one, the outdoor lights that stores had left on are extinguished. It’s one small but symbolic step in a giant leap of energy saving that Europe is trying to make as it rushes to wean itself off natural gas and oil from Russia so factories aren’t forced to close and homes stay heated and powered. Continue reading

US newspapers continuing to die at rate of 2 each week

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Read time : 2 mins

Level : Intermediate

Various local newspapers appear outside a convenience store in the Brooklyn borough of New York on June 30, 2022. The United States continues to see newspapers die at the rate of two per week, according to a report issued Wednesday on the state of local news. The country had 6,377 newspapers at the end of May, down from 8,891 in 2005, the report said. (AP Photo/Mark Kennedy)

By DAVID BAUDER AP Media Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Despite a growing recognition of the problem, the United States continues to see newspapers die at the rate of two per week, according to a report issued Wednesday on the state of local news.

Areas of the country that find themselves without a reliable source of local news tend to be poorer, older and less educated than those covered well, Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media and Integrated Marketing Communications said.

The country had 6,377 newspapers at the end of May, down from 8,891 in 2005, the report said. While the pandemic didn’t quite cause the reckoning that some in the industry feared, 360 newspapers have shut down since the end of 2019, all but 24 of them weeklies serving small communities. Continue reading

Is Airbnb Responsible For High Home Prices?

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Read time : 4 mins

Level : Advanced

By Justin McDevitt 

Short-term rental app Airbnb may have another banner year, but many question the ripple effect of vacation rental services on the housing market.

Communities have turned into ghost towns. The housing market has become insurmountable for new buyers. There are more listings for Airbnb than long-term rentals in major cities such as New York. A simple search of the hashtag #airbnbnightmare will yield more than just complaints about unreturned deposits and missing towels.

“Airbnb destroys communities,” tweets one user. @MeMeBoomer is no stranger to talking politics on Twitter, but her feelings for Airbnb couldn’t be more personal. She describes her community as a lonely and desolate place to live. Airbnb dominates her neighborhood, making it impossible for new tenants or potential homeowners to move in permanently.

“No long-term housing options for people who work in these towns, so businesses and services also suffer,” she tweeted on June 21. @MeMeBoomer’s is not the only story to be shared on the social media platform. Continue reading

Report: Europe’s banks need to raise game on climate risk

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Read time : 3 mins

Level : Intermediate

FILE – Residents evacuate their home in Nemours, 50 miles south of Paris, France, June 2, 2016. The European Central Bank has run a stress test on 104 banks, which concluded that Europe’s banks aren’t sufficiently considering risks from climate change and understanding the possible impact of floods, wildfires and losses on investments. (AP Photo/Francois Mori, file)

By DAVID McHUGH AP Business Writer

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Europe’s banks aren’t sufficiently considering risks from climate change and must “urgently step up efforts” to make sure they understand the possible impact of floods, wildfires and losses on investments.

That was a key conclusion from a climate stress test on 104 banks run by the European Central Bank and released Friday.

The ECB said that for now the climate stress test was a learning exercise that would not result in requiring banks to strengthen their financial buffers against possible losses from borrowers who can’t pay.

But the bank’s supervisory arm warned that as things stand now, 60% of the 104 surveyed banks have no framework for assessing the impact of climate risk on their financial solidity, and only 20% consider climate risk when granting loans. Continue reading

Super League clubs face UEFA in soccer’s big legal match

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Read time : 4 mins

Level : Advanced

FILE – A man walks by the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, Oct. 5, 2015. A group of top soccer clubs face Champions League organizer UEFA in court on Monday, July 11, 2022, for a legal match that risks the biggest upheaval in European soccer for more than 25 years. The Super League project failed at launch 15 months ago but the company formed by the 12 rebel clubs — now led by Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus — has brought a case to the Court of Justice of the European Union in Luxembourg. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert, File)

By GRAHAM DUNBAR AP Sports Writer

GENEVA (AP) — A group of top soccer clubs face Champions League organizer UEFA in court on Monday for a legal match that risks the biggest upheaval in European soccer for more than 25 years.

The Super League project failed at launch 15 months ago but the company formed by the 12 rebel clubs — now led by Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus — has brought a case to the Court of Justice of the European Union in Luxembourg.

Judges from 15 of the 27 EU member states will hear arguments over two days with a majority of those national governments supporting UEFA.

The clubs will accuse UEFA of alleged abuses of market dominance with control of soccer competitions that breach European law. Continue reading

Add rent to the rising costs bedeviling small businesses

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Read time : 2 mins

Level : Advanced

Martin Garcia, owner of gift and décor store Gramercy Gift Gallery, poses for a photo at his shop, Wednesday, June 29, 2022, in San Antonio. Landlords were forgiving about rent during the first two years of the pandemic, but now many are asking for back due rent. Meanwhile, most of the government aid programs that helped small businesses get through the pandemic have ended. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

By MAE ANDERSON AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — The rent has come due for America’s small businesses and at a very inopportune time.

Landlords were lenient about rent payments during the first two years of the pandemic. Now, many are asking for back rent, and some are raising the current rent as well. Meanwhile, most of the government aid programs that helped small businesses get through the pandemic have ended while inflation has sharply pushed up the cost of supplies, shipping, and labor.

Martin Garcia, owner of gift and décor store Gramercy Gift Gallery in San Antonio, Texas, survived the first part of the pandemic in part by paying his landlord whatever rent he could each month. Then in August 2021, after the federal moratorium on evictions ended, his landlord asked for the full amount of back rent that he owed.

“I needed $10,000 in 15 days,” Garcia said. He took whatever loans he could find – often at high interest rates – and barely met the deadline. Continue reading

Did corporate greed fuel inflation? It’s not biggest culprit

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Read time : 4 mins

Level : Advanced

FILE – Wallace Reid purchases fuel for the vehicle he drives to make a living using ride-share apps, Wednesday, June 22, 2022, in the Queens borough of New York. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)

By PAUL WISEMAN AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — Furious about surging prices at the gasoline station and the supermarket, many consumers feel they know just where to cast blame: On greedy companies that relentlessly jack up prices and pocket the profits.

Responding to that sentiment, the Democratic-led House of Representatives last month passed on a party-line vote — most Democrats for, all Republicans against — a bill designed to crack down on alleged price gouging by energy producers.

Likewise, Britain last month announced plans to impose a temporary 25% windfall tax on oil and gas company profits and to funnel the proceeds to financially struggling households.

Yet for all the public’s resentment, most economists say corporate price gouging is, at most, one of many causes of runaway inflation — and not the primary one. Continue reading

Japan eases foreign tourism ban, allows guided package tours

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Read time : 2 mins

Level : Intermediate

(AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press

TOKYO (AP) — Japan on Friday eased its borders for foreign tourists and began accepting visa applications, but only for those on guided package tours who are willing to follow mask-wearing and other antivirus measures as the country cautiously tries to balance business and infection worries.

Friday is the first day to start procedures needed for the entry and arrivals are not expected until late June at the earliest, even though airport immigration and quarantine offices stood by for any possible arrivals.

The Japan Tourism Agency says tours are being accepted from 98 countries and regions, including the United States, Britain, China, South Korea, Thailand and Singapore, which are deemed as having low infection risks. Continue reading