Category: Business

Baltimore bridge collapse: Who will pay for the destroyed bridge, harmed businesses and lost lives?

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A crane is seen near the wreckage of the Francis Scott Key Bridge on Friday, March 29, 2024 in Baltimore. A cargo ship rammed into the major bridge in Baltimore early Tuesday, causing it to collapse in a matter of seconds. (AP Photo/Steve Ruark)

By REBECCA BOONE and MICHAEL KUNZELMAN Associated Press

The collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Maryland is a multi-layered tragedy: For the families and friends of those killed or presumed dead, it’s a profound and personal loss. For businesses that rely on the Port of Baltimore, it’s an economic nightmare.

And for the federal courts, it will soon become a balance of dollars and facts, with a network of insurance companies expected to foot at least some of the bill.

The disaster happened early Tuesday when a cargo ship lost power and rammed into Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge. Eight people were on the highway bridge when it collapsed. Two were rescued. The bodies of two more were recovered, and four remain missing and are presumed dead.

The wreckage closed the Port of Baltimore, a major shipping port, potentially costing the area’s economy hundreds millions of dollars in lost labor income alone over the next month, according to the economic analysis company Implan. Continue reading

Tired of AI doomsday tropes, Cohere CEO says his goal is technology that’s ‘additive to humanity’

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(AP Illustration/Peter Hamlin)

By MATT O’BRIEN AP Technology Writer

Aidan Gomez can take some credit for the ‘T’ at the end of ChatGPT. He was part of a group of Google engineers who first introduced a new artificial intelligence model called a transformer.

That helped set a foundation for today’s generative AI boom that ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and others built upon. Gomez, one of eight co-authors of Google’s 2017 paper, was a 20-year-old intern at the time.

He’s now the CEO and co-founder of Cohere, a Toronto-based startup competing with other leading AI companies in supplying large language models and the chatbots they power to big businesses and organizations.

Gomez spoke about the future of generative AI with The Associated Press. The interview has been edited for length and clarity. Continue reading

The average bonus on Wall Street last year was $176,500. That’s down slightly from 2022

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Level : Intermediate

FILE — People pass the front of the New York Stock Exchange, March 22, 2023. The average Wall Street bonus fell slightly last year to $176,500 as firms took a “more cautious approach” to compensation, New York state’s comptroller reported Tuesday, March 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan, File)

By MICHAEL HILL Associated Press

The average Wall Street bonus fell slightly last year to $176,500, as the industry added employees and took a “more cautious approach” to compensation, New York state’s comptroller reported Tuesday.

The average bonus for employees in New York City’s securities industry was down 2% from $180,000 in 2022. The slight dip came even as Wall Street profits were up 1.8% last year, according to the annual estimate from Thomas DiNapoli, the state’s comptroller. Continue reading

Bernie Sanders wants the US to adopt a 32-hour workweek. Could workers and companies benefit?

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FILE – Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., talks to the media as he walks to the House chamber before President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address at the U.S. Capitol, March 7, 2024, in Washington. Sanders, the far-left independent from Vermont, introduced a bill Thursday, March 14, that would shorten to 32 hours the amount of time many Americans can work each week before they’re owed overtime. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)

By RUSS BYNUM Associated Press

The 40-hour workweek has been standard in the U.S. for more than eight decades. Now some members of Congress want to give hourly workers an extra day off.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, the far-left independent from Vermont, this week introduced a bill that would shorten to 32 hours the amount of time many Americans can work each week before they’re owed overtime.

Given advances in automation, robotics and artificial intelligence, Sanders says U.S. companies can afford to give employees more time off without cutting their pay and benefits.

Critics say a mandated shorter week would force many companies to hire additional workers or lose productivity. Continue reading

Consumers are increasingly pushing back against price increases — and winning

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Stuart Dryden reaches for an item at a grocery store on Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2024, in Arlington, Va. Dryden is aware of big price disparities between branded products and their store-label competitors, which he now favors. (AP Photo/Chris Rugaber)

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

Beyond Tourist Taxes: How Popular European Cities Tackle Overtourism With New Strategies in 2024

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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

Some Americans have become saddled with credit card debt as rent and everyday prices remain high

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File – A card reader is used at a drive-thru restaurant in Mount Prospect, Ill., March 13, 2021. Noticeable pockets of Americans are quickly running up their credit card balances and increasing numbers are now falling behind on their debts. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)

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

Traffic-blocking farmers now closing in on EU capital in a protest seeking better market conditions

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Tractors face military vehicles on a blocked highway, Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2024 in Chilly-Mazarin, south of Paris. Farmers have captured France’s attention by showering government offices with manure and besieging Paris with traffic-snarling barricades of tractors and hay bales. Protesters say it’s becoming harder than ever to make a decent living from their fields, greenhouses and herds. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

By RAF CASERT Associated Press

HALLE, Belgium (AP) — Farmers blocked more traffic arteries across Belgium, France and Italy on Wednesday, as they sought to disrupt trade at major ports and other economic lifelines. They also moved in on Brussels on the eve of a major European Union summit, in a sustained push for better prices for their produce and less bureaucracy in their work.

While the days of mushrooming discontent have been largely peaceful, French police arrested 91 protesters who forced their way Wednesday into Europe’s biggest food market, the Paris police chief said. Armored vehicles block entrances to the sprawling site at Rungis, south of the French capital. Continue reading

Small biz owners scale back their office space or go remote altogether. Some move to the suburbs

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Hunter Garnett, of Garnett Patterson Injury Lawyers, poses outside his law office near the Madison County courthouse, Thursday, Jan. 25, 2024, in Huntsville, Ala. Garnett is seeking a smaller office space in the suburbs closer to his clients, rather than the large space he has now. (AP Photo/Vasha Hunt)

By MAE ANDERSON AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — After 46 years, Steve Replin has decided to give up his office space.

Replin, who has a law practice and acts as an alternative lender in Denver, is adapting to the changing preferences of clients, who would rather conduct business online, or in a less professional setting like a coffee shop.

“I am 76 and have grown up being in actual physical spaces as offices, but I really think that the ‘kids’ have it right,” by shunning offices, he said.

The pandemic has had a transformative effect on the office space landscape. Many businesses are shifting away from traditional spaces toward hybrid work and more flexible, collaborative spaces. About 23% of U.S. office space is available, compared with 16% before the pandemic, according to global real estate advisor Avison Young. Continue reading

The world could get its first trillionaire within 10 years, anti-poverty group Oxfam says

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FILE – Warren Buffett, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, smiles as he plays bridge following the annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting in Omaha, Neb., May 5, 2019. The world could have its first trillionaire within a decade, anti-poverty organization Oxfam International said Monday Jan. 15, 2024 in its annual assessment of global inequalities timed to the gathering of political and business elites at the Swiss ski resort of Davos. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik, File)

By PAN PYLAS and MASHA MACPHERSON Associated Press

DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — The world could have its first trillionaire within a decade, anti-poverty organization Oxfam International said Monday in its annual assessment of global inequalities timed to the gathering of political and business elites at the Swiss ski resort of Davos.

Oxfam, which for years has been trying to highlight the growing disparities between the super-rich and the bulk of the global population during the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting, reckons the gap has been “supercharged” since the coronavirus pandemic.

The group said the fortunes of the five richest men — Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Bernard Arnault and his family of luxury company LVMH, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Oracle founder Larry Ellison and investment guru Warren Buffett — have spiked by 114% in real terms since 2020, when the world was reeling from the pandemic. Continue reading