Category: Business

Read time : 4 mins

Level : Advanced

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — Inflation has changed the way many Americans shop. Now, those changes in consumer habits are helping bring down inflation.

Fed up with prices that remain about 19%, on average, above where they were before the pandemic, consumers are fighting back. In grocery stores, they’re shifting away from name brands to store-brand items, switching to discount stores or simply buying fewer items like snacks or gourmet foods.

More Americans are buying used cars, too, rather than new, forcing some dealers to provide discounts on new cars again. But the growing consumer pushback to what critics condemn as price-gouging has been most evident with food as well as with consumer goods like paper towels and napkins. Continue reading

Read time : 4 mins

Level : Intermediate

By Emese Maczko | Wealth of Geeks undefined

A new requirement for American travelers bound for Europe — an online travel authorization via the European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS) — has been delayed until 2025.

The requirement restricts travelers from non-EU countries like the United States to 30 European nations, including France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain. Applications would have brought in €7 apiece, adding up to considerable money.

As popular European cities continue to confront the challenges of overtourism in 2024, they choose to move beyond the financial solutions provided by tourist taxes.

These destinations are now deploying unprecedented innovative strategies aimed not only at managing crowds, but also at preserving their cultural heritage, protecting the environment, and maintaining the quality of life for their residents. Continue reading

Read time : 4 mins

Level : Advanced

By KEN SWEET AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — While the U.S. economy is broadly healthy, pockets of Americans have run through their savings and run up their credit card balances after battling inflation for more than two years.

Experts worry that members of these groups — mostly lower- and middle-income Americans, who tend to be renters — are falling behind on their debts and could face further deterioration of their financial health in the year ahead, particularly those who have recently resumed paying off student loans.

“The U.S. economy is currently performing better than most forecasters expected a year ago, thanks in large part to a resilient consumer,” wrote Shernette McLoud, an economist with TD Economics, in a report issued Wednesday. “However, more recently that spending is increasingly being financed by credit cards.” Continue reading

Read time : 3 mins

Level : Intermediate

By Ananyaa Bhowmik | Wealth of Geeks undefined

In a 2022 survey, 36% of CIOs believed that work will transition into a hybrid or work-from-home model permanently. And with good reason.

While people commonly believe that the work-from-home culture arrived with the Coronavirus pandemic of 2020, 15-16% of survey respondents said that their company had already worked remotely even before the pandemic. Around 2005, with the availability of high-speed internet connections, advanced laptops, and the rising digitization of jobs, work from home became a viable option.

Between 2005 and 2019, the corporate world saw steady growth in remote working, but this was mostly limited to certain sectors. It was the 2020 pandemic that changed it all. As the world went into lockdown, most jobs outside the essential sectors shifted to remote working almost overnight. Continue reading