LOS ANGELES (AP) — The estate of George Carlin has agreed to a settlement with the media company it sued over a fake hourlong comedy special that purportedly used artificial intelligence to recreate the late standup comic’s style and material.

In the settlement agreement filed with a federal court Monday, and a proposed order from both sides that awaits approval from a judge, the podcast outlet Dudesy agrees to permanently take down the special and to refrain from using Carlin’s image voice or likeness in the future without the express written approval of the estate.

The settlement meets the central demands laid out by the Carlin estate in the lawsuit filed on Jan. 25.

“I am grateful that the defendants acted responsibly by swiftly removing the video they made,” Carlin’s daughter Kelly Carlin said in a statement. “While it is a shame that this happened at all, I hope this case serves as a warning about the dangers posed by AI technologies and the need for appropriate safeguards not just for artists and creatives, but every human on earth.”

George Carlin, among the most influential standup comedians of the 20th century, died in 2008.

In the audio special, titled “George Carlin: I’m Glad I’m Dead,” a synthesis of the comic delivers commentary on current events. A companion Dudesy podcast episode with hosts Will Sasso and Chad Kultgen —- the company and the two men are the defendants in the lawsuit — was released with the men playing clips and commenting on them.

Messages seeking comment from Kultgen and Sasso were not immediately returned.

At the beginning of the special posted on YouTube on Jan. 9, a voiceover identifying itself as the AI engine used by Dudesy says it listened to the comic’s 50 years of material and “did my best to imitate his voice, cadence and attitude as well as the subject matter I think would have interested him today.”

The plaintiffs say if that was in fact how it was created — and some listeners have doubted its stated origins — it meant Carlin’s copyright was violated.

The lawsuit was among the first in what is likely to be an increasing number of major legal moves made to fight the regenerated use of celebrity images and likenesses.

Carlin estate lawyer Joshua Schiller of the firm Boies Schiller Flexner LLP in a statement calls the settlement “a blueprint for resolving similar disputes going forward where an artist or public figure has their rights infringed by AI technology. Our goal was to resolve this case expeditiously and have the offending videos removed from the internet so that we could preserve Mr. Carlin’s legacy and shine a light on the reputational and intellectual property threat caused by this emerging technology.”

The AI issue was a major sticking point in the resolution of last year’s Hollywood writers and actors strikes.

Leading vacation rental company Airbnb is updating its Extenuating Circumstances Policy, including renaming it the Major Disruptive Events Policy “to better reflect its purpose.” This will provide greater flexibility for travelers who may need to cancel their reservations when unforeseen circumstances, such as natural disasters, extreme weather events and government-imposed travel restrictions, affect their ability to complete their stay.

Under this updated cancellation policy, guests can cancel reservations and receive refunds in cases of “foreseeable weather events,” such as hurricanes, that would result in another covered event occurring, such as large-scale utility outages. According to Travel + Leisure, the policy already applies to other “unexpected major events,” such as declared public health emergencies, including epidemics, but excluding COVID-19. This revised policy, which will go into effect on June 6, overrides individual hosts’ own cancellation policies.

This updated policy also applies to mid-trip cancellations, making it so that travelers can receive refunds for the unused portion of their stays in the event of a covered cancellation.

However, it’s important to note that Airbnb’s policy does not cover all unforeseen incidents, such as injuries, illnesses or government-imposed requirements, like jury duty or court appearances.

“The changes to this policy, including its new name, were made to create clarity for our guests and Hosts, and ensure it’s meeting the diverse needs of our global community,” Juniper Downs, Airbnb’s Head of Community Policy, said in a statement. “Our aim was to clearly explain when the policy applies to a reservation, and to deliver fair and consistent outcomes for our users. These updates also bring the policy in line with industry standards.”

The introduction of this revised policy aligns with Airbnb’s recent efforts to bolster travelers’ confidence in booking home-share stays. For example, earlier this month, it banned indoor security cameras in its rental homes worldwide due to privacy concerns, and, in 2022, instituted a permanent ban on parties, a move which was initially instituted temporarily during the COVID-19 crisis.

Last year, to crack down on fraudulent listings, the company introduced a “verified” status and badge for its rentals in an effort to reassure customers that the specified property does actually exists at the address indicated and that the host is reliable.

In 2022, Airbnb also updated its policies and platform to provide greater pricing transparency, displaying total costs, including fees, in user searches and altering its algorithm to rank listings with the best total prices higher in the results. At the same time, Airbnb provided “guidance” to hosts, encouraging them to set only “reasonable” checkout requests and requiring them to be displayed in the listing.

“Guests should not have to do unreasonable checkout tasks such as stripping the beds, doing the laundry, or vacuuming when leaving their Airbnb,” the company wrote in a statement at the time. “But we think it’s reasonable to ask guests to turn off the lights, throw food in the trash, and lock the doors — just like they would when leaving their own home.”

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©2024 Northstar Travel Media, LLC. Visit at travelpulse.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Legal Sea Foods opened its sixth restaurant at Logan Airport Tuesday as it attempts to corner the market on chowder lovers just landing in Boston. The spot accommodates nearly 200, has a 24-seat bar, and a flight board monitor inside the restaurant.

US job openings rise modestly to 8.8 million in February

U.S. job openings barely changed in February, staying at historically high levels in a sign that the American job market remains strong.

The Labor Department reported Tuesday that employers posted 8.76 million job vacancies in February, up modestly from 8.75 million in January and about what economists had forecast.

But the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS, showed that layoffs ticked up to 1.7 million in February from 1.6 million in January, highest since March 2023.

Tesla sales tumble nearly 9%, most in 4 years

Tesla sales fell sharply last quarter as competition increased worldwide, electric vehicle sales growth slowed, and price cuts failed to lure more buyers.

The Austin, Texas, company said Tuesday that it delivered 386,810 vehicles worldwide from January through March, almost 9% below the 423,000 it sold in the same quarter of last year. It was the first year-over-year quarterly sales decline in nearly four years.

Despite the sales decline, Tesla was able to retake its global EV sales crown from China’s BYD.

An estimated $1.09 billion prize is now on the line for Wednesday’s drawing, which can be paid out in an annuity over 30 years or as a $527.3 million cash payment. Both are subject to state and federal taxes.

“As this jackpot climbs toward a record level, we remind people to keep the experience of playing the Lottery enjoyable by playing responsibly and within their means,” said Mark William Bracken, Executive Director of the Massachusetts State Lottery.

Wednesday will mark the 40th drawing since a Michigan ticketholder last hit the Powerball jackpot on New Year’s, winning $842.4 million.

If won, the $1.09 billion prize would be the fourth largest in the game’s history and the ninth largest in U.S. lottery history. The last record topping jackpot was a $1.765 billion prize won in California on Oct. 11, 2023.

The odds of winning the Powerball’s grand prize are 1 in 292.2 million. The odds of winning any Powerball prize, starting at $4, are about 1 in 38.

In the Powerball drawing on Monday, players won $50,000 Quick Pick prizes from a 7-Eleven in North Reading and a Stop & Shop in Saugus.

Just one week ago, a player in New Jersey won a $1.13 billion Mega Millions jackpot, the 8th largest in U.S. lottery history.

Powerball drawings are held every Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday at 10:59 p.m. Tickets can be purchased for $2 at Massachusetts lotter retailers until 9:50 p.m. ahead of the drawing on Wednesday.

Your insurance company may know more about you than you realize.

The technology that saturates today’s world — smart-home devices, drone images, fitness trackers, social media posts and telematics programs that monitor your driving habits — can help insurers piece together a detailed picture of your behavior.

Your permission isn’t always required. Many facts about your house, car and neighborhood are public records. Data brokers also gather and sell details about your activity, like which stores you visit, what you click online and the whereabouts of your mobile phone.

For a human, all that data is too much to process. But the ability of artificial intelligence to interpret data could upend the process of buying an insurance policy and filing a claim. As insurers face questions about fairness and privacy, some people may find it’s harder to get coverage. Others will benefit from cheaper rates, quicker applications and easier claims.

Faster insurance applications

Customers could see a shortened application process as insurance companies embrace AI.

Insurers may drastically cut the number of questions they ask in a home insurance application, says Peter Flynn, head of personal lines for the Americas at insurance consulting firm Xceedance.

“In the future, they might only ask five questions,” Flynn says. “But they might gather 5,000 additional data points, and they might interpret those 5,000 things in addition to the five answers they get from the applicant.”

A similar shift is happening in life insurance underwriting, which traditionally requires a medical exam plus a health and lifestyle questionnaire. As AI models improve, more carriers offer accelerated underwriting — quickly issuing policies to low-risk customers based on digital medical records and other data, while flagging higher-risk applicants for conventional underwriting.

“You can put a little bit of information and they can return a rate that’s not based on somebody coming to your house and taking blood,” says David Embry, CEO of online insurance broker Mylo.

To get the most accurate rate, make sure your records are correct and up to date before starting a life insurance application. You might also want to have supporting documents — like a summary from your doctor about any medical conditions — ready to go.

More personalized insurance rates

Low-risk customers stand to save money as insurers use data to create increasingly personalized profiles of their users.

The auto insurance industry is leading the charge with telematics programs that monitor things like your speed, braking patterns and mileage, enabling insurers to base pricing on driver behavior.

“In an AI-enabled or machine-learning-enabled environment, they can take that to an infinite degree and gather and collect as much data as available and interpret it in real time,” making predictions based on an individual’s habits, Flynn says.

While low-risk buyers reap the benefits of a constantly fine-tuned prediction model, a 2020 report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development warns of the potential downside of this approach. Slicing and dicing customers into smaller risk pools could effectively price some applicants out of insurance, the OECD report says.

For drivers, the smart approach is to compare car insurance quotes from several companies. Insurers don’t all use the same sources of data, and they weigh each factor differently.

Simpler claims, and maybe fewer of them

Filing an insurance claim can be a stressful experience. Insurers’ use of AI could make the process smoother for customers and get them a decision — and their payout — much more quickly.

AI can help insurers identify the most urgent claims, reconstruct accident scenes, analyze medical records and flag cases for signs of fraud, according to a 2023 report by research firm Everest Group and professional services company Ernst & Young. Making claims more efficient is a priority for more than half of the property and casualty insurers surveyed, the report says.

New York-based insurer Lemonade says AI-based insurance fraud detection allows about 40% of its claims to be resolved within moments.

AI could even help prevent losses before the need for a claim arises — known as a “predict and prevent” model instead of the current “detect and repair” approach. For example, data relayed by smart-home devices could automatically trigger intervention if, say, a sensor catches early warning signs of a leak or a frozen pipe.

AI can also deliver feedback to drivers, helping them adjust their behavior. Programs like Allstate’s Drivewise reward those who avoid risky habits like speeding, hard braking or using a phone while driving.

But as the insurance industry integrates AI, there are concerns about cybersecurity, privacy and the potential for AI models to discriminate based on characteristics like race or gender.

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners issued guidelines in December 2023, encouraging insurers to correct errors in AI models and avoid bias. But each state creates its own rules, and regulation remains in its infancy stages.

Oversight will evolve, Flynn says. “But I’ll bet you the technology evolves faster than the regulation.”

The article 3 Ways AI Could Transform Your Insurance Policy originally appeared on NerdWallet.

NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon is removing Just Walk Out technology from its Amazon Fresh stores as part of an effort to revamp the grocery chain.

The company’s well-known technology lets customers pay for items without standing in line and sends them receipts afterwards. Amazon says it will now be replaced by smart carts that allow customers to skip the checkout line but also see their spending in real time.

While redesigning Fresh stores in the past year, Amazon spokesperson Carly Golden said the company heard from customers who enjoy skipping the checkout line but also wanted to view their receipts and savings as they shopped. Golden said the smart carts will give customers these benefits as well as the convenience of skipping the checkout line.

Amazon’s decision was first reported by The Information.

Seattle-based Amazon operates dozens of Fresh grocery stores across the country, most of which are in California, Illinois, Virginia and Washington state. The company also operates cashier-free convenience stores under the Amazon Go brand and owns Whole Foods, which it purchased in 2017 for $13.7 billion.

Despite predictions Amazon’s entry into the grocery sector would disrupt the market, the company has struggled to find what works.

In 2023, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy wrote in his annual letter to shareholders that Amazon was working to find the right formula that will allow it to have a larger impact on physical grocery. The company has shut down some Amazon Fresh and Go stores that weren’t living up to their promise and said early last year that it was pausing expansion on Fresh stores.

In November, the company reopened three Fresh stores in Los Angeles, California. Golden, the Amazon spokesperson, said the company is now focused on “selectively” opening new Fresh stores and remodeling the majority of its existing stores.

Just Walk Out technology will continue to be offered in Amazon Go stores and some smaller Amazon Fresh stores in the U.K., the company said. It will also continue offering the technology to third-party retailers.

The Congressional Budget Office warned in its latest projections that U.S. federal government debt is on a path from 97% of GDP last year to 116% by 2034 — higher even than in World War II. The actual outlook is likely worse.

From tax revenue to defense spending and interest rates, the CBO forecasts released earlier this year are underpinned by rosy assumptions. Plug in the market’s current view on interest rates, and the debt-to-GDP ratio rises to 123% in 2034. Then assume — as most in Washington do — that ex-President Donald Trump’s tax cuts mainly stay in place, and the burden gets even higher.

With uncertainty about so many of the variables, Bloomberg Economics has run a million simulations to assess the fragility of the debt outlook. In 88% of the simulations, the results show the debt-to-GDP ratio is on an unsustainable path — defined as an increase over the next decade.

The Biden administration says its budget, featuring a slew of tax hikes on corporations and wealthy Americans, will ensure fiscal sustainability and manageable debt-servicing costs.

“I do believe we need to reduce deficits and to stay on a fiscally sustainable path,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told lawmakers in February. Biden administration proposals offer “substantial deficit reduction that would continue to hold the level of interest expense at comfortable levels. But we would need to work together to try to achieve those savings,” she said.

Trouble is, delivering on such a plan will require action from a Congress that’s bitterly divided on partisan lines.Republicans, who control the House, want deep spending cuts to bring down the ballooning deficit, without specifying exactly what they’d slash. Democrats, who oversee the Senate, argue that spending is less of a contributor to any deterioration in debt sustainability, with interest rates and tax revenues the key factors. Neither party favors squeezing the benefits provided by major entitlement programs.

In the end, it may take a crisis — perhaps a disorderly rout in the Treasuries market triggered by sovereign U.S. credit-rating downgrades, or a panic over the depletion of the Medicare or Social Security trust funds — to force action. That’s playing with fire.

Last summer provided a foretaste, in miniature, of how a crisis might begin. Over two days in August, a Fitch Ratings downgrade of the U.S. credit rating and an increase of long-term Treasury debt issuance focused investor attention on the risks. Benchmark 10-year yields climbed by a percentage point, hitting 5% in October — the highest level in more than one and a half decades.

As for how things might end, Britain’s experience in fall 2022 provides a glimpse into the abyss. Then-Prime Minister Liz Truss’s plan for unfunded tax cuts sent the gilt market into a tailspin. Yields soared so quickly that the central bank had to step in to snuff out the risk of an outright financial crisis. The bond vigilantes’ actions forced the government to call off the plan and Truss out of office.

For the U.S., the dollar’s central role in international finance and status as the dominant reserve currency lowers the odds of a similar meltdown. It would take a lot to shake investor confidence in U.S. Treasury debt as the ultimate safe asset. If it did evaporate, though, the erosion of the dollar’s standing would be a watershed moment, with the U.S. losing not just access to cheap financing but also global power and prestige.

Variable variables

How does the CBO, Washington’s official budget watchdog, arrive at its debt forecast? The CBO’s assumptions for crucial variables — GDP growth around 2%, inflation returning to 2%, interest rates drifting down from the current levels — are squarely in the ballpark of plausibility. They’re also not far from numbers in the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia’s Survey of Professional Forecasters. Indeed, the CBO’s view on rates is a little higher than the most recent consensus.

Examine them closely, though, and key assumptions underpinning the CBO forecast appear optimistic:

• By law, the CBO is compelled to rely on existing legislation. That means it assumes the 2017 Trump tax cuts will expire as scheduled in 2025. But even President Joe Biden wants some of them extended. According to the Penn Wharton Budget Model, permanently extending the legislation’s revenue provisions would cost about 1.2% of GDP each year starting in the late 2020s.
• The CBO also must assume that discretionary spending, which is set by Congress each year, will increase with inflation, not keep pace with GDP. As a result, defense spending falls from around 3% of GDP now to about 2.5% in the mid-2030s — a tall order given the wars currently raging and the geopolitical threats that loom. Former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers says a more realistic forecast would add at least 1% of GDP to the CBO’s outlook.
• Market participants aren’t buying the benign rates outlook, with forward markets pointing to borrowing costs markedly higher than the CBO assumes.

Bloomberg Economics has built a forecast model using market pricing for future interest rates and data on the maturity profile of bonds. Keeping all the CBO’s other assumptions in place, that shows debt equaling 123% of GDP for 2034. Debt at that level would mean servicing costs reach close to 5.4% of GDP — more than 1.5 times as much as what the federal government spent on national defense in 2023, and comparable to the entire Social Security budget.

Heavyweights from across the political spectrum agree the long-term outlook is unsettling. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said earlier this year it was “probably time — or past time” for politicians to get going in addressing the “unsustainable” path for borrowing. Former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin said in January the nation is in a “terrible place” with regard to deficits. From the realm of finance, Citadel founder Ken Griffin told investors in a letter to the hedge fund’s investors Monday that U.S. national debt is a “growing concern that cannot be overlooked.” Days earlier, BlackRock Inc. Chief Executive Officer Larry Fink said the U.S. public debt situation “is more urgent than I can ever remember.” Ex-IMF chief economist Kenneth Rogoff says while an exact “upper limit” for debt is unknowable, there will be challenges as the level keeps going up.

Rogoff’s broader point is well taken: forecasts are uncertain. To put some parameters around the uncertainty, Bloomberg Economics has run a million simulations on the CBO’s baseline view — an approach economists call stochastic debt sustainability analysis. Each simulation forecasts the debt-to-GDP ratio with a different combination of GDP growth, inflation, budget deficits, and interest rates, with variations based on patterns seen in the historical data.

In the worst 5% of outcomes, the debt-to-GDP ratio ends 2034 above 139%, which means that the U.S. would have a higher debt ratio in 2034 than crisis-prone Italy did last year.

Yellen has another way of thinking about debt sustainability: inflation-adjusted interest expense, which she’s indicated she’d prefer to see below 2% of GDP. On that basis, the results are more hopeful — finding that the metric averaged over the next 10 years violates the threshold in less than a third — 30% — of simulations. The Treasury chief herself acknowledged in a Feb. 8 hearing that “in an extreme case” there could be a possibility of borrowing reaching levels that buyers wouldn’t be willing to purchase everything the government sought to sell. She added that she saw no signs of that now.

Partisan politics

Getting to a sustainable path will require action from Congress. Precedent isn’t promising. Disagreements over government spending came to a head last summer, when a standoff over the debt ceiling brought the U.S. to the brink of a default. The deal to halt the havoc suspended the debt ceiling until Jan. 1, 2025, postponing yet another clash over borrowing until after the presidential election.

It’s hard to imagine a U.S. debt crisis. The dollar remains the global reserve currency. The annual and unseemly spectacle of government-shutdown brinksmanship typically leaves barely a ripple on the Treasury market.

Still, the world is changing. China and other emerging markets are eroding the dollar’s role in trade invoicing, cross-border financing and foreign exchange reserves. Foreign buyers make up a steadily shrinking share of the U.S. Treasuries market, testing domestic buyers’ appetite for ever-increasing volumes of federal debt. And while demand for those securities has lately been supported by expectations for the Fed to lower interest rates, that dynamic won’t always be in play.

Herbert Stein — head of the Council of Economic Advisers in the 1970s — observed that “if something cannot go on forever, it will stop.” If the U.S. doesn’t get its fiscal house in order, a future U.S. president will have the truth of that maxim confirmed. And if confidence in the world’s safe asset evaporates, everyone will suffer the consequences.

Methodology

As a starting point for the analysis, Bloomberg Economics uses the baseline fiscal and economic outlook — including the effective interest rate, primary budget balance as a percent of GDP, inflation as measured by the GDP deflator, and real GDP growth rate — from the latest long-term CBO projections.

For the calculation of the debt-to-GDP ratio using market forecasts for rates, we substitute in forward rates as of March 25, 2024, and project future effective rates on federal debt based on a detailed bond-by-bond analysis.

To forecast the distribution of probabilities around the CBO’s baseline debt-to-GDP view, we conduct a stochastic debt-sustainability analysis:

• We estimate a VAR model of short- and long-term interest rates, primary balance-to-GDP ratio, real GDP growth rate, and GDP deflator growth using annual data from 1990 to 2023. The covariance matrix of the estimated residuals is then used to draw one million sequences of shocks.
• We use data on the maturities of individual bonds to map short- and long-term interest-rate shocks to the effective rate of interest paid on U.S. federal debt.
• Using this model, Bloomberg Economics considers two definitions of sustainability. First, we check if the debt-to-GDP ratio increases from 2024 to 2034. Second, we examine if the average inflation-adjusted interest expense, scaled by nominal GDP, over the 10 years from 2025-2034 is less than 2%.

With assistance from Jamie Rush, Phil Kuntz and Viktoria Dendrinou.

©2024 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Steward Health Care, which owns nine hospitals in Massachusetts, announced that their plans to close New England Sinai to the state in December. Steward’s ongoing financial distress continue to threaten other Massachusetts hospitals, and with a strong push from the state, the company is looking to sell their remaining facilities in the state.

The closure will remove 39 rehabilitation service beds, 119 chronic care service beds, and all ambulatory care services at the hospital, Steward wrote in a 90-day notice to the Department of Public Health in January.

The notice noted New England Sinai’s financial performance has decreased by more than 1,600% over five years, citing the “chronic under-reimbursement rates through public programs like Medicaid,” increased labor and material costs and lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The hospital was operating at about 40% capacity in 2024, the notice said, the hospital “does not anticipate a significant impact on patient access following the closure,” listing other rehabilitation and specialty care facilities in Stoughton, New Bedford, Braintree and Boston. All the patients were discharged ahead of the closure on Tuesday, Steward said previously.

Stoughton residents noted the impact of the closure Monday, noting family members, friends and neighbors treated.

“This is definitely a loss for the community,” said Leslie Baker, a long-term resident of the Stoughton area. “I haven’t been myself, but I know people who’ve been treated. And I knew a nurse who worked there. It was definitely an important place for many people.”

The Stoughton-based hospital traces its roots to 1927, when it opened as the nonprofit hospital Jewish Tuberculosis Sanatorium in Rutland, Massachusetts, according to the hospital site.

“Good Samaritan (Hospital in Brockton) is pretty close,” said Josh Miller. “But you can tell we can use more health care around here. For sure.”

The future of the facility is not yet certain, town officials said.

“Sinai Hospital has been a long term Corporate partner and a valuable contributor to our tax base,” Stoughton Town Manager Thomas Calter said Monday. “While they have kept us informed of their plan to close, they have provided no additional insight into their plans for the building. It is our hope that the real estate will remain a facility where Stoughton residents can benefit from their services and whereby it will continue to be a valuable asset benefiting the town of Stoughton.”

Six months later, most of those autos remain on the road — unrepaired — putting owners, their families and potentially others in danger of fires that could spread to garages, houses or other vehicles.

Hyundai and Kia have acknowledged in documents that there’s little hope of repairing most of the vehicles until June or later, roughly nine months after they announced the recalls. (Hyundai owns part of Kia, though the two companies operate independently.)

The companies attributed the delays, in part, to the huge number of vehicles involved. The fires, they say, have occurred when brake fluid leaked onto circuit boards of antilock braking systems, triggering an electrical short and igniting the fluid. They say they’ve been unable to obtain enough parts — fuses that reduce the boards’ electrical currents — to fix most of the affected vehicles. Among them are some of their top-selling models for the 2010 through 2017 years, including Hyundai’s Santa Fe and Kia’s Sportage.

The companies say owners should contact dealers if they see dashboard warning lights or smell something burning. In the meantime, both say that despite ongoing risks, the cars remain safe to drive.

When they announced the recalls in September, the automakers reported that the defect had caused 56 vehicle fires and “thermal incidents,” which include burning, melting and smoking. No injuries were reported.

Safety advocates complain that repairs are taking longer than recall fixes normally do. Typically, repairs begin in 10 weeks or less, though some can take longer if automakers cannot quickly determine a cause. Advocates note that if too much brake fluid leaks, it could impair stopping ability.

The delayed repairs mark the latest in a series of recalls involving engine fires on Hyundai and Kia vehicles that have bedeviled the automakers. All told, 13 million vehicles have been recalled for engine problems since 2010.

Hyundai said the repairs require an intricate fuse assembly, with new covers and labels. Just one fuse will be added per vehicle, but both automakers said many types of new fuses are needed to cover all models.

“We are working closely with multiple suppliers, emphasizing the high priority of the recall, and ensuring quality for the replacement fuses,” Hyundai’s statement said. Kia also said it’s working to speed up fuse production.

A schedule that Hyundai filed with the government shows that owners won’t start receiving letters advising them to take their cars in for repairs until April 22. Most won’t get the letters until May or June — eight or nine months after the recalls were announced. Some Kia owners won’t get those letters until late June, documents say.

Since September, more than 500 owners filed complaints with NHTSA accusing the automakers of taking too long to make repairs. The fires have continued while owners await repairs; at least five complainants reported engine compartment fires.

The Herald reached out to Massachusetts Port Authority on Monday about whether Massport is seeing more, less, or delayed cargo due to the catastrophic bridge crash.

The largest port in Massachusetts has space right now, but a Massport spokesperson reported that ports closer to Baltimore would probably receive more ships and cargo due to the bridge collapse.

“Boston could certainly take more ships and cargo, but it is more likely that other major ports like Norfolk, VA and NY/ NJ will take the majority of the ships and cargo diverted away from Baltimore,” the Massport spokesperson said in a statement.

Baltimore is one of the largest ports along the East Coast and can handle much larger ships than Boston’s port.

“Shipping companies will try to do what’s most efficient and cost effective,” the Massport spokesperson added. “We won’t know for a while how long before ships will be able to access the Port of Baltimore.”

The Associated Press reported on Monday that the U.S. Coast Guard has opened a temporary, alternate channel for vessels involved in the clearing of debris at the site of the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge. It’s part of a phased approach to opening the main channel leading to the port.

Authorities believe that eight workers fell off the bridge during the collapse. Two workers survived, two bodies were found in a submerged pickup, and four more men are presumed dead. Weather conditions and the tangled debris underwater have made it too dangerous for divers to search for their bodies.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said at a Monday news conference that his top priority is recovering the four bodies, followed by reopening shipping channels to the port. He said he understands the urgency but that the risks are significant. He said crews have described the mangled steel of the fallen bridge as “chaotic wreckage.”

President Joe Biden will visit the collapse site Friday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre announced Monday. He will meet with state and local officials and get an “on-the-ground look” at federal response efforts, Jean-Pierre said.

Moore said he expects the president will leave with a better understanding of the task at hand.

“He’s going to see the fact that we have a ship that is almost the size of the Eiffel Tower, that weighs about as much as the Washington Monument, that’s in the middle of the Patapsco River,” Moore said. “He’s going to see a bridge that has been in existence since I was alive — I don’t know what that skyline looks like without the Key bridge — and he is going to come and he’s going to see it sitting on top of a ship.”

The Small Business Administration has opened two centers in the area to help companies get loans to assist them with losses caused by the disruption of the bridge collapse.

Yvette Jeffery, a spokesperson for the agency’s disaster recovery office, said affected businesses can receive loans for as much as $2 million. She said the effects could range from supply-chain challenges to decreased foot traffic in communities that depended heavily on the bridge.

The bridge fell as the crew of the cargo ship Dali lost power and control March 26. They called in a mayday, which allowed just enough time for police to stop vehicles from driving onto the bridge, but not enough time to get a crew of eight workers off the structure.

Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.

Losses in 2023 for Trump Media & Technology Group — whose flagship product is Truth Social — mark a stark decline compared with the profit of $50.5 million that the former president’s company reported for 2022, according to a company filing with securities regulators.

Revenue for Trump Media came in at $4.1 million in 2023, the SEC filing shows, although that’s up from $1.5 million in 2022.

United Airlines is asking pilots to take time off in May because of a shortage of new Boeing planes

United Airlines is asking its pilots to take time off in May because of delays in receiving new planes that the airline ordered from Boeing, which is struggling with production due to manufacturing problems.

A United spokesperson said Monday that the offer is voluntary.

“Due to the recent delays in Boeing deliveries, our forecasted (flight hours) have been reduced and we are offering our pilots voluntary programs for the month of May to reduce excess staffing,” spokesperson Leslie Scott said.

In a note to pilots obtained by The Associated Press, United said it expects to make similar requests during the summer and possibly into the fall.

A captain flying on a commercial airline’s largest aircraft can bring home an average of $348,252 a year, based on recent pilot contracts that passed over the last year.

That’s just the best of the best when it comes to being a commercial airline pilot — a career that comes with years of high-earning salaries and benefits. But to get there, pilots need to invest into training and flying hours, which can often come with mounds of debt. ATP Flight School estimates it costs $108,995 to become a pilot when starting with no previous experience or $86,995 when starting with a private pilot certificate.

So what are the top commercial airlines for pilots to earn the big bucks? Here’s a list of a few.

American Airlines

At American, first-year pilots are at a flat rate, Tajer said. A first-year, first officer at American would be paid $116 an hour in 2024 under the new contract. Depending on how often that new commercial airline pilot would fly, that could mean an average $114,180 annual salary starting out, Darby said.

On average a major airline first officer in their first year flying the smallest aircraft may bring home $98,616, according to Darby.

Pay scales are based on a variety of factors, including each year of service, the type of aircraft the pilot flies and the rank of the pilot.

“It’s a good job,” Tajer said. “Each year you’ll get a pay raise because of the length of service and that goes out to 12 years. If you stay as a first officer, you’ll get an annual increase for your longevity up to 12 years and then you’ll cap out your pay per flight hour.”

Southwest Airlines

At Southwest, it is the only airline that pays per trip and a formula is used to calculate how much the pilot makes.

Southwest also only flies Boeing 737 airplanes — a difference in how other airlines get paid. First officers or captains at other major airlines, like American, can see pay bumps if they upgrade to larger airplanes.

A first-year, first officer would make approximately $133.76 an hour at Southwest, under the union’s calculations. Darby estimates that to be about $11,370 a month on average.

Top-of-scale captains at Southwest make $364.52 an hour, but Southwest believes this to be closer to $368.01. That would mean about $371,808 on average per year, Darby said.

Pilots are not paid during boarding or getting to their flight. Pilots sometimes work 10 to 12 hours a day but are only paid for when they are flying.

“What it boils down to is everybody’s competing for the best pilots, the most experienced pilots and that experience translates to safety,” Southwest Airlines Pilot Association president Casey Murray said. “When customers purchase tickets, that’s what they’re buying.”

Delta Air Lines

At Delta Air Lines, the Atlanta-based airline which nailed down its contract before all other airlines early last year, a first officer flying its smallest aircraft can make an average of $109,212 annually, according to Darby.

Pilots at Delta are represented by the Air Line Pilots Association. The deal raised their pay by more than 30% over four years. The union of about 15,000 pilots voted in the contract in March.

Flying their largest aircraft, a captain can make $420,876 a year on average.

United Airlines

United’s pilots who are first officers in their first year on the smallest aircraft can bring home a similar salary — $114,696, according to Darby’s estimate.

In July, United Airlines pilots reached an agreement for a new four-year contract, providing a cumulative increase in total compensation of as much as 40.2% over the life of the agreement.

On the other side of the scale, senior-most captains flying United’s largest aircraft can make a salary of $424,920.

Other commercial airlines

At JetBlue Airways, a first-year pilot can make $99,000. Top of the line, a captain at JetBlue flying its largest planes will make $303,840 on average.

At Allegiant Air, a first-year pilot might make around $55,356. A senior captain on average makes $222,696 flying its largest airplanes.

Spirit Airlines’ first officers starting out on the smallest aircraft make $92,868 a year. For captains flying the largest aircraft, that’s an average of $297,876 a year on average at Spirit.

Alaska Airlines pilots flying the smallest aircraft in their first year make $107,844 in the first year. As a senior captain, they can bring home $326,640 on average flying the largest airplanes at Alaska.

©2024 The Dallas Morning News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

In a real estate transaction, there’s always some level of negotiation. If you’re the seller, you face haggling not only with prospective buyers, but also with the person you’re working with to seal the deal: your real estate agent.

Thanks to a federal lawsuit that was recently settled, the way real estate commissions work will change in July 2024 (pending court approval). If you’re looking to save some money, here’s what you need to know about how commissions work, and how to agree on a rate that both you and your agent can feel good about.

How real estate commission works, and who pays for it

A generation ago, real estate commission rates were typically around 6% of a home’s sale price. But the average real estate commission rate has gone down in recent years to just under 5% of a home’s sale price, according to Real Trends, a real estate research and consulting firm, and to Anywhere Real Estate, the parent of Century 21, Coldwell Banker and other brokerage brands.

Under the current system, the fee is typically paid by the seller at closing, and it’s customarily split down the middle between the seller’s agent and the buyer’s agent. (So, for a 5% commission, each agent would earn 2.5%.) On a $400,000 transaction, which is around the median sale price nationwide, the 5% fee amounts to $20,000.

Agents and brokerages can offer a variety of commission structures, though, with some marketing flat fees or other incentives. So there may be opportunity to negotiate the rate if you’re looking to save on the cost of selling your home.

“There are agents and brokerages that reduce, discount or coupon their services,” says Kevin Van Eck, an executive with @properties, a brokerage in Chicago. “Each agent, along with their brokerage, can determine where they set commissions based on the value and success created.”

Can you negotiate Realtor fees?

Often, yes, there is room for bargaining. And as of July, there may be even more room. As a result of a lawsuit involving the National Association of Realtors (NAR) and several major brokerages, new commission rules will take effect that month that will mean sellers no longer have to cover the cost of the buyer’s agent’s fee, which may lead to more aggressive price competition among buyer’s-side agents. In addition, listing agents will no longer be permitted to state the buyer’s agent commission in the MLS (multiple listing service), as has been common practice.

Your success at negotiating often depends on an individual agent’s circumstances, says Dave Liniger, chairman and co-founder of RE/MAX Real Estate. “Some agents are dead-set,” he says. “Other agents need the business so bad they’ll readily negotiate.”

As you prepare to list your home for sale, you may want to meet with a few listing agents to find the right one for the job. Ask each agent about their commission rate and what exactly you’ll be getting for that price. Consider not only how the agent plans to market your home, but also their skill in pricing it, experience, resources and track record.

“It’s OK for a seller to ask about the commission, but the best time is after talking with the agent and understanding their experience, how they will create exposure for the home and the value they bring to the table,” says Van Eck.

Liniger suggests that sellers invite three to five listing agents to their homes to make their pitches. The competing proposals will let you see how much agents charge, and give you leverage to bargain for a better deal. “You don’t get if you don’t ask,” he says.

You might also consider weighing what you learn from full-service agents against the services of a discount broker. Just keep in mind that the discounter’s offerings may be limited compared to those of a traditional agent.

How to negotiate real estate commissions

Once you understand exactly what you’re paying for, you will be in a better position to ask for a discount. Here are some tips:

• If you’re able to offer the agent more than one listing opportunity, that might be a compelling argument for a reduced commission. “If [you’re] a real estate investor who is looking to offload several properties, I would definitely talk about the commission,” says Dana Bull, an agent with Compass in the Boston area. Most agents welcome repeat business, she says.
• If you don’t have another listing opportunity of your own to offer, try leveraging your ability recommend the agent to others in your neighborhood or network. This might be especially impactful if you know they are looking to build their business. “I can’t just slash my commission, but I might be willing to give a slight discount if the client offered some sort of other strategy to get more business after the sale,” Bull says.
• If you have a home in a sought-after area, or a buyer already interested, or an unusually high sale price, your agent may not need to do as much to earn their fee. If neither party can foresee the need for additional services — “if an agent is coming in to basically just do some hand-holding, keeping the transaction on schedule and assisting with paperwork,” Bull says — that might be another good reason to propose a slightly lower rate.
• If you plan to buy a new home while selling your current one, use that in your favor. Liniger says an agent who can represent you on both the sale and the subsequent purchase will likely be willing to cut their fee.

You may be considering skipping the commission conversation entirely and selling your home yourself. If so, be aware: While an experienced house flipper might be skilled enough to list a home without an agent, for most homeowners, the for-sale-by-owner route can be more challenging, more costly and more time-consuming in the long run.

Bottom line

In any negotiation, both parties must be willing to give and take. Negotiating your agent’s commission can work in your favor, but an agent can walk away if they don’t necessarily need your business. Keep in mind, too, that it can make sense for sellers to pay more for additional services instead of negotiating the commission down, Bull says. These might include higher-end marketing, home staging or additional mailers, for instance. And if you’re not in a rush, consider waiting until after the July rule change to see how things shake out. Ultimately, it’s important to find an agent you can speak with openly about cost, and who you trust to do the best job to sell your home.

(Visit Bankrate online at bankrate.com.)

©2024 Bankrate.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Financial stress is so common that certified financial planner Katie Lindquist says almost every client she has tells her they are feeling it.

“They don’t know what they should be doing with their money, and they feel like they should know. They feel shame around their money habits, which is a huge driving force of stress,” Lindquist says.

To alleviate that tension, Lindquist helps them get organized and take inventory of their financial accounts and goals. “People who have financial plans are a lot less stressed because they know where they are and where they want to go,” says Lindquist, who is based in Madison, Wisconsin.

To combat overwhelming feelings of money stress, financial experts suggest taking these steps:

Normalize the feeling

Knowing how common financial stress is can help people realize there isn’t something wrong with them when they feel it, says Bari Tessler, author of “The Art of Money” and a financial therapist in Boulder, Colorado.

“Increased financial anxiety has everything to do with interest rates, inflation, job challenges, life curveballs and world events,” Tessler says. Those stressors impact almost everybody. It can lead people to freeze and ignore their finances or to check them too obsessively, she says, neither of which is helpful.

Check in with your body

Sometimes, your body can alert you to financial stress first. Sonya Lutter, director of financial health and wellness in the School of Financial Planning at Texas Tech University, says when people experience financial stress, their fingers often get cold because they are experiencing a fight-or-flight response that affects blood flow.

“You can easily train yourself to notice when you are physiologically stressed,” Lutter says. Then, you can avoid making big financial decisions until you are in a calmer state. Otherwise, she says, fight-or-flight “leaves us to make very myopic decisions. You just want to get through right now, and definitely don’t care about 10 years from now, which is horrible for financial decision-making.”

If you’re making money choices with a partner, Lutter adds, you can gauge if you’re both in the right mindset by first holding hands to check in on temperatures and stress levels. You might decide to tackle the topic later when you’re both more relaxed.

Learn your triggers

Sometimes, negative experiences around money from childhood can lead to a high-stress response whenever the topic comes up as an adult, says Jannese Torres, author of the forthcoming book “Financially Lit!” and host of the podcast “Yo Quiero Dinero.”

The idea of negotiating for a salary or bartering at the car dealership could send you into an emotional tailspin, Torres explains. She says exploring those early life experiences can help people learn to navigate financial conversations rather than avoid them.

“The more you know what triggers you, the easier it is to look objectively at your finances and realize you can handle it,” she adds.

Look for ways to reset

Tessler suggests slowing your mind down before a big decision, which could be done through activities like hiking, meditation, taking a shower or listening to music. Sometimes, getting a snack, going outside or lowering your shoulders can go a long way toward resetting, she says.

“I would literally take a deep breath. Nobody even has to know. Walk away and analyze the situation,” Lutter says.

“It’s OK to pause and come back” to the decision later, she adds.

Take the first step to regain control

Because stress can cause us to freeze in the face of financial decisions, Stacy Dervin, founder of Tailored Financial Planning in Eugene, Oregon, suggests tackling one thing at a time. “Trying to solve everything at once can be really overwhelming. Just focus on the next right thing to help build your confidence,” she says.

Sara Zuckerman, a CFP in Scottsdale, Arizona, and founder of Reset Financial Planning, says focusing on organizing your finances can bring you back to your own goals instead of comparing yourself to others, which can exacerbate stress.

“To really understand what you have and where it’s going is the biggest step toward putting that initial feeling of control in place,” Zuckerman says.

This article was written by NerdWallet and was originally published by The Associated Press.

The article 5 Ways to Calm Financial Stress originally appeared on NerdWallet.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it was the second year in a row that fatalities decreased. The agency also released final numbers for 2022 on Monday, saying that 42,514 people died in crashes.

NHTSA Deputy Administrator Sophie Shulman said that traffic deaths declined in the fourth quarter of last year, marking the seventh straight quarterly drop that started with the second quarter of 2022.

The declines come even though people are driving more. Federal Highway Administration estimates show that Americans drove 67.5 billion more miles last year than the previous year, a 2.1% increase. The death rate per 100 million miles driven fell to 1.26 last year, down from 1.33 in 2022, NHTSA said.

Authorities have said that even with a decline, the number of deaths is still too high. Shulman blamed the problem in part on distracted driving. In 2022, an estimated 3,308 people were killed in crashes that involved distracted drivers, while 289,310 were injured.

Almost 20% of people killed in distracted driving crashes were people outside of vehicles including pedestrians, bicyclists and others, she said.

“Distracted driving is extremely dangerous,” she said while kicking off a rebranded campaign against it called “Put the Phone Away or Pay.” The agency will start an advertising campaign this month, and law enforcement officers will crack down on the behavior in a campaign from April 4 to 8.

Traffic deaths spiked in 2021 with a 10.5% increase over 2020 as people started driving more as the COVID-19 pandemic started to ease. That was the highest number since 2005 and the largest percentage increase since 1975.

At the time, authorities blamed the increase on speeding and more reckless behavior, as well as distracted driving.

Part of the increase in crash deaths then was due to people driving more as the coronavirus pandemic waned. NHTSA reported that the fatality rate per 100 million vehicle miles traveled increased 2.2% to 1.37 in 2021.

The IMF defines population aging as the most formidable challenge. Widely referred to as the “silver tsunami,” a term credited to the AARP, the increase in the number of individuals age 65 and older could lead to some unique changes in countries across the globe.

Increased recreation spending

Sixty-five has traditionally been viewed as retirement age, and that remains an unofficial bar for individuals living in countries like the United States that have increased their official retirement age. Though an uptick in the aging population is often framed in terms of the challenges countries will face, that increase also could present some opportunities.

For example, a recent AARP Longevity Economy Outlook report noted that people 50 and older account for the most spending on recreation and culture of any demographic. That could prove beneficial to businesses and regions that cater to consumers interested in recreation.

Employment opportunities

The AARP also noted the role the 50 and older population plays in supporting jobs. In 2020, the demographic of people 50 and older supported roughly one-third of the world’s jobs and generated $23 trillion in labor income with its spending on goods and services.

Estimates from the AARP indicate that individuals age 50 and older will support 1.5 billion jobs across the globe by 2050. The labor income impact by then will more than double to $53 billion.

Employment challenges

Though the silver tsunami could help to maintain existing jobs and create plenty of new ones, employers might find it difficult to fill those positions. As more of the global population reaches retirement age, it bears noting that more workers will retire. Deloitte and the Manufacturing Institute note that the manufacturing sector will need to fill 2.5 million job openings related to retirements between 2020 and 2030. That could prove a sizable challenge, as the aging population is increasing at a time when the young population is decreasing.

The aging population is increasing, which could lead to a number of opportunities and challenges in the decades to come.

No one has won the Powerball jackpot since New Year’s Day, when a Michigan ticket holder collected a $842.4 million prize. If won, the nearly $1 billion jackpot could be collected in an annuity paid out over 30 years or as a $471.7 million cash option, with both subject to state and federal taxes.

After Saturday, there have been 38 drawings with no winner, nearing the all-time record for winnerless Powerball drawings streaks. The current record was set in 2021 and 2022 at 41 consecutive drawings without a winner.

The Powerball jackpot has broken $1 billion only four times in the game’s history. The largest Powerball prize — and largest lottery prize ever won — was a $2.04 billion jackpot on Nov. 7, 2022, sold to a resident in California.

The Powerball jackpot would be the 10th largest lottery prize in U.S. history if a ticket holder gets lucky on Monday’s drawing.

The whopping Powerball prize continues to grow just days after a ticket sold in New Jersey won a $1.13 billion Mega Millions jackpot, the eighth largest prize in the country’s history.

The odds for Saturday’s Powerball drawing were were 1 in 292.2 million.

Powerball is played in 45 states plus Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Drawings are held on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays at 10:59 p.m., and tickets can be purchased for $2 Massachusetts lottery retailers up to two hours before each drawing.

A team of 17 health officials from the central and prefectural governments raided a plant operated by the Kobayashi Pharmaceutical Co.’s subsidiary in Kinokawa, in the western Japanese prefecture of Wakayama, under the food sanitation act. NHK public television showed the officials walk into the factory.

The Wakayama plant took over the production of the supplements after Kobayashi Pharmaceutical closed another plant in nearby Osaka, which authorities searched on Saturday, NHK said.

Kobayashi Pharmaceutical spokesperson Yuko Tomiyama told reporters that the company is fully cooperating in the investigation.

The company says little is known about the exact cause of the sicknesses, which include kidney failure.

The supplements being investigated all used “benikoji,” a kind of red mold, including Kobayashi Pharmaceuticals’ pink pills called Benikoji Choleste Help, which were billed as helping lower cholesterol levels.

The Osaka-based Kobayashi Pharmaceutical said about a million packages were sold over the past three fiscal years. It also sold benikoji to other manufacturers, and some products have been exported. The supplements could be bought at drug stores without a prescription from a doctor.

Reports of health problems surfaced in 2023, although benikoji has been used in various products for years.

The recall came March 22, two months after the company had received official medical reports about the problem. Company president Akihiro Kobayashi has apologized for not having acted sooner.

On Friday, the company said five people had died and 114 people were being treated in hospitals after taking the products.

Japan’s health ministry says the supplements could be responsible for the deaths and illnesses, and warned that the number of those affected could grow. The government has ordered a review of the approval system in response to the supplement-related illnesses.

Some analysts blame the recent deregulation initiatives, which simplified and sped up approval for health products to spur economic growth. Deaths from a mass-produced item is rare in Japan, as government checks over consumer products are relatively stringent.

One year, Google posted a job opening for a Copernicus research center on the moon. Another year, the company said it planned to roll out a “scratch and sniff” feature on its search engine.

The jokes were so consistently over-the-top that people learned to laugh them off as another example of Google mischief. And that’s why Page and Brin decided to unveil something no one would believe was possible 20 years ago on April Fool’s Day.

It was Gmail, a free service boasting 1 gigabyte of storage per account, an amount that sounds almost pedestrian in an age of one-terabyte iPhones. But it sounded like a preposterous amount of email capacity back then, enough to store about 13,500 emails before running out of space compared to just 30 to 60 emails in the then-leading webmail services run by Yahoo and Microsoft. That translated into 250 to 500 times more email storage space.

Besides the quantum leap in storage, Gmail also came equipped with Google’s search technology so users could quickly retrieve a tidbit from an old email, photo or other personal information stored on the service. It also automatically threaded together a string of communications about the same topic so everything flowed together as if it was a single conversation.

“The original pitch we put together was all about the three ‘S’s” — storage, search and speed,” said former Google executive Marissa Mayer, who helped design Gmail and other company products before later becoming Yahoo’s CEO.

It was such a mind-bending concept that shortly after The Associated Press published a story about Gmail late on the afternoon of April Fool’s 2004, readers began calling and emailing to inform the news agency it had been duped by Google’s pranksters.

“That was part of the charm, making a product that people won’t believe is real. It kind of changed people’s perceptions about the kinds of applications that were possible within a web browser,” former Google engineer Paul Buchheit recalled during a recent AP interview about his efforts to build Gmail.

The AP knew Google wasn’t joking about Gmail because an AP reporter had been abruptly asked to come down from San Francisco to the company’s Mountain View, California, headquarters to see something that would make the trip worthwhile.

After arriving at a still-developing corporate campus that would soon blossom into what became known as the “Googleplex,” the reporter was ushered into a small office where Page was wearing an impish grin while sitting in front of his laptop computer.

Page, then just 31 years old, proceeded to show off Gmail’s sleekly designed inbox and demonstrated how quickly it operated within Microsoft’s now-retired Explorer web browser. And he pointed out there was no delete button featured in the main control window because it wouldn’t be necessary, given Gmail had so much storage and could be so easily searched. “I think people are really going to like this,” Page predicted.

As with so many other things, Page was right. Gmail now has an estimated 1.8 billion active accounts — each one now offering 15 gigabytes of free storage bundled with Google Photos and Google Drive. Even though that’s 15 times more storage than Gmail initially offered, it’s still not enough for many users who rarely see the need to purge their accounts, just as Google hoped.

According to documents published by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the intermediate shaft and right front driveshaft of certain 2020-2024 Tellurides may not be fully engaged. Over time, this can lead to “unintended vehicle movement” while the cars are in park — increasing potential crash risks.

Kia America decided to recall all 2020-2023 model year and select 2024 model year Tellurides earlier this month, NHTSA documents show. At the time, no injuries or crashes were reported.

To remedy this issue, recall documents say, dealers will update the affected cars’ electronic parking brake software and replace any damaged intermediate shafts for free.

Texas AG probes Boeing supplier

The Texas attorney general has opened an investigation into a key Boeing supplier that is already facing scrutiny from federal regulators over the quality of parts that it provides to the aircraft maker.

The office of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said it began looking into Spirit AeroSystems because of “apparent manufacturing defects” in parts that “have led to numerous concerning or dangerous incidents.”

In a statement late last week, a Spirit spokesman said, “While we do not comment on investigations, Spirit is wholly focused on providing the highest quality products to all our customers, to include the Boeing Company.”

Paxton asked the Wichita, Kansas-based supplier to turn over documents produced since the start of 2022 about communication with investors and Boeing about flaws in parts and corrective steps the company took.

The monster merger from Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures starring Rebecca Hall and Brian Tyree Henry brought the second-highest opening in what has been a robust year, falling just short of the the $81.5 million debut of “Dune: Part 2.”

Projections had put the opening weekend of “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire,” which sees the monsters teaming up instead of squaring up, at closer to $50 million.

“It’s a cinematic event, and we’re seeing these iconic characters doing things we’ve never seen them do before,” said Mary Parent, chairman of worldwide production for Legendary. “There’s big swaths of the film that don’t have any dialogue, where we put you with the characters, it’s a very mythic experience.”

Last week’s No. 1 at the box office, ” Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire,” was second with $15.7 million for a two-week total of $73.4 million.

“Dune: Part Two” stayed strong in its fifth week, falling in the third spot with an $11.1 million take and a domestic total of $252.4 million.

The last matchup of the two monsters from Warner Bros. and Legendary, 2021’s ” Godzilla vs. Kong,” had a much smaller opening weekend of $48.5 million, but for a film slowed by the coronavirus pandemic and released simultaneously on HBO Max, it was a serious success that signaled what was to come for the pairing.

“It was a really big number all things considered,” Parent said.

The newer film had the second biggest opening of the studios’ broader MonsterVerse franchise. “Godzilla” brought in $93.2 million in 2014. It was the biggest earner in the nearly 70-year cinematic history of the creature that originated and spent most of its screen life in Japan. It earned more than $200 million in North America and more than $500 million globally.

“Godzilla x Kong” comes just four months after the most recent Japanese rendition, the critical favorite and Oscar winner “Godzilla Minus One.”

But there was clearly no Godzilla glut for audiences, many of whom were willing to pay extra for IMAX and other special formats.

“These are literally two of the biggest movie stars in the world, and you have to see them on the biggest screen possible with the biggest sound possible,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for data firm Comscore.

The combination of “Godzilla x Kong,” “Dune Part Two” and “Ghostbusters” has put the year to date 6% behind 2023, while it was 20% behind on the eve of the March 1 release of “Dune.”

“The industry was feeling pretty glum right before ‘Dune Part 2’ opened, but they’ve made up a lot of ground,” said Dergarabedian.

The summer is full of titles that are not guaranteed megahits but could break big, including Ryan Gosling’s “The Fall Guy” and the next installments of “Planet of the Apes,” “Mad Max,” “Inside Out” and “Deadpool.”

A. I want to highlight an important aspect — you’re researching the company and its people, which is to be commended. Remember, just as they’re researching and interviewing you, job seekers should be doing the same.

As for whether or not you should accept the offer, here’s a friendly reminder: You have to get the offer first. Let’s not get ahead of the process. But it’s a good question since you won’t be interacting with the CEO on your job, as far as you know, but that can change especially since it’s a startup and you’ll probably simultaneously wear several hats. And do the CEO’s values impact the company? Absolutely.

Another option is to politely withdraw your candidacy right now since you’re already getting weird vibes. Another piece that should be considered is financials — if you’re unemployed and in dire need of an income or if you have income currently coming in. Ultimately, the decision is yours, but since you’re already given pause, that’s a sure sign this may not be the right path to pursue.

Q. One of my direct reports produces awesome work. He is on top of it, but he’s a slacker when it comes to punctuality. He gets a lot done in a short time, but is late to meetings and more. It’s a bad look, yet he’s a top performer. How do I address the faults while not impacting his productivity?

A. Let’s look at the positive because this is better than the reverse: being punctual but a poor performer. Yet, there’s room for improvement and it’s important not to overlook aspects such as punctuality.

Talk to him in person, preferably, and start with a compliment just like you did with this question. He does awesome work! Highlight that. Be genuine and authentic with your approach. Then mention the faults and how to improve them — these fixes are reachable and doable.

Focus on punctuality and why it’s important. Perhaps there’s an underlying reason like maybe he’s not challenged by the work anymore and has plateaued into boredom and is ready for more responsibilities. While you don’t want to pry into his personal life, leave the conversation open and ask if he needs more challenging work, a direct report, or something to keep him more engaged and motivated to be on time. I’ve seen strong performers talked to by HR because punctuality is important and they didn’t think it mattered…until HR got involved.

Aim for a dialogue, not a monologue and then to wrap the conversation, end on a good note and remind him that he’s a valuable member of the team. In your own notes, jot down when you talked to him and a recap of the conversation in case he doesn’t improve, so you have a timeline, but hopefully he will be set on the right track.

Vicki Salemi is a career expert, former corporate recruiter, author, consultant, speaker, and career coach. /Tribune News Service

Maybe they’re not rising as fast as they had been, but average prices are still painfully above where they were three years ago. And they’re mostly heading higher still.

Consider a 2-liter bottle of soda: In February 2021, before inflation began heating up, it cost an average of $1.67 in supermarkets across America. Three years later? That bottle is going for $2.25 — a 35% increase.

Or egg prices. They soared in 2022, then fell back down. Yet they’re still 43% higher than they were three years ago.

Likewise, the average used-car price: It rocketed from roughly $23,000 in February 2021 to $31,000 in April 2022. By last month, the average was down to $26,752. But that’s still up 16% from February 2021.

Wouldn’t it be great if prices actually fell — what economists call deflation? Who wouldn’t want to fire up a time machine and return to the days before the economy rocketed out of the pandemic recession and sent prices soaring?

At least prices are now rising more slowly — what’s called disinflation. On Friday, for example, the government said a key price gauge rose 0.3% in February, down from a 0.4% gain in January. And compared with a year earlier, prices were up 2.5%, way down from a peak of 7.1% in mid-2022.

But those incremental improvements are hardly enough to please the public, whose discontent over prices poses a risk to President Joe Biden’s re-election bid.

“Most Americans are not just looking for disinflation,’’ Lisa Cook, a member of the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors, said last year. “They’re looking for deflation. They want these prices to be back where they were before the pandemic.’’

Many economists caution, though, that consumers should be careful what they wish for. Falling prices across the economy would actually be an unhealthy sign.

“There are,’’ the Bank of England warns, “more consequences from falling prices than meets the eye.’’

What could be so bad about lower prices?

What is deflation?

Deflation is a widespread and sustained drop in prices across the economy. Occasional month-to-month drops in consumer prices don’t count. The United States hasn’t seen genuine deflation since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Japan has experienced a much more recent bout of deflation. It is only now emerging from decades of falling prices that began with the collapse of its property and financial markets in the early 1990s.

What’s wrong with deflation?

“Although lower prices may seem like a good thing,’’ Banco de España, the Spanish central bank, says on its website, “deflation can in fact be highly damaging to the economy.’’

How so? Mainly because falling prices tend to discourage consumers from spending. Why buy now, after all, if you can purchase what you want — cars, furniture, appliances, vacations — at a lower price later?

The reality is that the economy’s health depends on steady consumer purchases. In the United States, household spending accounts for around 70% of the entire economy. If consumers were to pull back, en masse, to await lower prices, businesses would face intense pressure to cut prices even more to try to jump-start sales.

In the meantime, employers might have to lay off waves of employees or cut pay — or both. Unemployed people, of course, are even less likely to spend, so prices would likely keep falling. All of which risks triggering a “deflationary spiral’’ of price cuts, layoffs, more price cuts, more layoffs. And on and on. Another recession could follow.

It was to prevent that very kind of economic nastiness that explains why the Bank of Japan resorted to negative interest rates in 2016 and why the Fed kept U.S. rates near zero for seven straight years during and after the Great Recession of 2007-2009.

Deflation exerts another painful effect, too: It hurts borrowers by making their inflation-adjusted loans more expensive.

Are there any benefits of deflation?

It’s certainly true that Americans can make their paychecks go further when prices are falling. If food or gasoline prices were to tumble, households would surely find it less painful to afford groceries or their commutes to work — as long as they remained employed.

Some economists even question the notion that deflation poses a serious economic threat. In 2015, researchers at the Bank for International Settlements, a forum for the world’s central banks, reviewed 140 years of deflationary episodes in 38 economies and reached this conclusion: The correlation between falling prices and economic growth “is weak and derives mostly from the Great Depression.’’

But the exception was a doozy: From 1929-1933, U.S. economic output plummeted by a third, prices sank by a quarter and the unemployment rate shot up from 3% to a crushing 25%.

The bank’s researchers said the biggest economic risk came not from falling prices for goods and services but rather from a freefall in the price of assets — stocks, bonds and real estate. Those collapsing assets, in turn, can topple banks that hold crumbling investments or that made loans to struggling real estate developers and homebuyers.

The damaged banks may then cut off credit — the lifeblood of the broader economy.

The likely result? A painful recession.

The telecommunications giant said Saturday that a dataset found on the “dark web” contains information such as Social Security numbers for about 7.6 million current AT&T account holders and 65.4 million former account holders.

The company said it has already reset the passcodes of current users and will be communicating with account holders whose sensitive personal information was compromised.

It is not known if the data “originated from AT&T or one of its vendors,” the company said in a statement. The compromised data is from 2019 or earlier and does not appear to include financial information or call history, it said. In addition to passcodes and Social Security numbers, it may include email and mailing addresses, phone numbers and birth dates.

While the data surfaced on a hacking forum nearly two weeks ago, it closely resembles a similar data breach that surfaced in 2021 but which AT&T never acknowledged, said cybersecurity researcher Troy Hunt.

“If they assess this and they made the wrong call on it, and we’ve had a course of years pass without them being able to notify impacted customers,” then it’s likely the company will soon face class action lawsuits, said Hunt, founder of an Australia-based website for warning people when their personal information has been exposed.

An AT&T spokesperson didn’t immediately return a request for comment Saturday.

It is not the first crisis this year for the Dallas-based company. An outage in February temporarily knocked out cellphone service for thousands of U.S. users. AT&T at the time blamed the incident on a technical coding error, not a malicious attack.

“I just wanted the house to feel vibrant,” says LeFevere, founder of branding agency Obedient. She wanted “a representation of our lives and the places we’ve explored and the memories we’ve made.”

The philosophy behind maximalism decor is “more is more,” according to Jean Whitehead, a senior lecturer on interior design at Falmouth University in county Cornwall, England. Bold colors, textures and unique pieces define this style, elements of which Vogue magazine says are “in” as design trends for 2024.

Going maximalist in your home can seem daunting and expensive — but it doesn’t have to be, say those who favor a bold aesthetic. Here’s how to achieve a maximalist look on a budget.

Shop at thrift and vintage stores

“One of the more economical ways to explore maximalism is through vintage and antique things that are available at thrift stores and estate sales,” says Daniel Mathis, who runs the Instagram account Not A Minimalist with over 70,000 followers.

Mathis’s home in Oklahoma City showcases his maximalist style, including many pieces purchased second-hand. To get a good bargain, Mathis suggests waiting until the last day of an estate sale when prices are typically reduced.

Alex Ammar, a certified financial planner and owner of Paradox Financial based outside Orlando, Florida, recommends setting a budget and decorating in stages.

“You might have different budgets for different tiers of interior decorating,” Ammar says. Second-hand and discount stores are great for decor and accent pieces, while you may spend more on distinct furniture, like a sofa.

Make it yourself

Maximalism can mean applying your own creativity to a space. Be bold with reinventing old furniture or items you have around the house. When Mathis fell in love with the Southwest design of a rug, he used the fabric to upholster an armchair in his sitting room.

For a simpler project, you can individually frame travel photos or children’s artwork and hang them together to create a gallery wall above a couch or along a hallway.

Finding ways to reimagine pieces already in your home adds a layer of individuality to the decor while saving you money. Look through your home for items that could use a boost, and browse art and home supply stores for ideas and tools you may need to revive them.

Consider meaningful pieces

Including noteworthy pieces in your decor is a way to create a one-of-a-kind space —- and it doesn’t have to be pricey. Keep an eye out for items that stand out to you, and be flexible, which can mean building up a collection over time or making minor alterations to a piece.

Mathis started collecting rare Ozark Roadside Tourist pottery about seven years ago. He currently has 150 pieces of the multi-colored, marbleized pottery.

“That’s maximalism for me,” says Mathis. “It’s about lots of color, lots of patterns … but I tried to do it in a very intentional and curated way.”

He purchased his first vase for $50; now, similar Ozark Roadside Tourist vases can sell for nearly $1,000.

LeFevere says her favorite piece in her home is an antique pie cabinet with mesh screens that she painted pastel green to match her kitchen.

“I’m not cooking any pie in my life,” LeFevere says, but the piece is “just really cool.”

Find your own style

LeFevere and Mathis both highlight the importance of knowing what you like while staying open to designs that surprise you. LeFevere visits sites like Pinterest to find styles or decor she likes and saves the images to a Google doc.

Similarly, Mathis built his personal style by clipping photos from decor magazines. He says the fun in maximalist design is the process of discovery.

By knowing what you like, you’ll be able to assemble pieces to fill your space, whether you find them in a thrift store, create them yourself or invest in a special piece.

]]> 4630221 2024-03-30T00:30:10+00:00 2024-03-29T20:18:25+00:00 https://www.bostonherald.com/2024/03/29/honey-we-kept-the-kids-a-challenging-housing-market-keeps-gen-z-adults-at-home-longer/ Sat, 30 Mar 2024 00:50:37 +0000 https://www.bostonherald.com/?p=4646126&preview=true&preview_id=4646126 A recent study from the Pew Research Center reveals less than half (45%) of adults aged 18 to 34 considered themselves financially independent from their parents. A quick scan of the current economy helps explain why.

Nearly a third of young adults in the 18 to 34-year-old demographic currently live with at least one parent. The percentage is even higher for 18 to 24-year-olds — 57% still live at home. The “sink or swim at 18” mentality of earlier generations has largely been replaced by a new economic reality.

“Young adults are reaching some key milestones such as marriage and parenthood later in life, even as they exceed their parents’ generation in educational attainment, employment, and wages,” Pew researchers wrote in their analysis.

While a social stigma remains concerning adult children who “fail to launch” into independence, parents and their Gen Z children are finding ways to adapt to a new family dynamic. In many ways, the shared living arrangement has proven mutually beneficial.

Adult Children Earn Their Keep

It’s a common misconception. Adult children who still live at home actively take advantage of rent-free housing, free utilities, and minimal household responsibilities.

In reality, Pew researchers discovered that 72% of young adults contribute financially to the household in at least one way. 65% report helping with grocery or utility bills, while 46% assist with rent or mortgage expenses. 64% of stay-at-home adult children say the arrangement significantly benefited their personal financial health.

Parents Discover Benefits of Delayed Empty-Nesting

While parents from previous generations often looked forward to the day their last child left one family home to start a new one, late Gen X and millennial parents are more relaxed about emptying the nest. Many have a frame of reference regarding the economic challenges of young adulthood and the struggle to find a job in today’s market. These parents are often more empathetic to their adult children who face difficult times.

45% of parents describe the living arrangements with their adult children as a positive step in the relationship, while an additional 29% said it was at least “somewhat positive.” Both parents and adult children need to make sacrifices to accommodate each other, but the overall family dynamic was still solid and functional.

The Parental Checkbook Is Still Out

Even if an adult child no longer lives under the family roof, many parents still feel the need to provide financial support whenever possible. 59% of parents in the Pew survey say they helped out an adult child in the previous year, while 44% of adult children acknowledge receiving such help.

68% of those beneficiaries were 18 to 24 years old, which is unsurprising. However, 30% of adult children between 30 and 34 also received financial assistance from at least one parent.

The survey broke down these parental financial contributions even further. 28% of the money went to household expenses, while 25% helped pay for cellphone bills and streaming service subscriptions. 17% of this financial assistance was applied to rent, 15% was earmarked for medical expenses, and 11% went towards educational costs.

While only 15% of parents consider these financial contributions as negative, 27% view them as positive, and 55% felt the impact was nominal. Parents with lower or fixed incomes were likelier to report some negative effect on their finances, with 36% admitting the loans affected their financial health “at least some.”

Some Adult Children Change the Financial Polarity

Although the financial relationship between aging parents and their stay-at-home adult children is often portrayed as flowing in one direction, the new cohabitation model is slightly different. 33% of adult children surveyed claim they helped their parents financially in the previous year, while 14% of parents acknowledge receiving such assistance. 38% of parents say their children contributed towards a special circumstance, while 31% say they received payment towards recurring expenses or both.

“Young adults with lower incomes (43%) are more likely than those with middle (28%) or upper incomes (19%) to say they helped their parents financially. Similarly, parents with lower incomes are the most likely to say they received financial help from their young adult children (29%), compared with 9% of those with middle incomes and 2% of parents with upper incomes,” according to the Pew report.

The positive news for aging parents and their young adult children is that the appeal of independent living is still a powerful motivation for younger generations. The nest may not empty out as planned, but the additional family time should still be mutually beneficial.

This article was produced by Media Decision and syndicated by Wealth of Geeks.

Until this week, people who carried a pet into the cabin — which involves paying a $150 fee — could only have one other small item that fit under the seat.

Anything bigger, like a carry-on bag with wheels, needed to be checked — for a $35 fee. Or they could put the pet in the cargo hold.

Now American is letting passengers bring a pet in the cabin and also bring a regular carry-on bag or a personal item — just not both bags.

The old policy struck some pet owners as unfair, since they were already paying a pet fee.

Powell says Fed wants to see ‘more good inflation readings’ before it can cut rates

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Friday reiterated a message he has sounded in recent weeks: While the Fed expects to cut interest rates this year, it won’t be ready to do so until it sees “more good inflation readings’’ and is more confident that annual price increases are falling toward its 2% target.

Speaking at a conference at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, Powell said he still expected “inflation to come down on a sometimes bumpy path to 2%.” But the central bank’s policymakers, he said, need to see further evidence before they would cut rates for the first time since inflation shot to a four-decade peak two years ago.

Next time you’re planning a vacation, a travel credit card could defray some or all of the costs if it packs the right incentives. Typically, cards with higher annual fees provide the most value with perks like ongoing rewards, free checked bags, airport lounge access or other benefits. But even cards with low or no annual fees make it possible to earn some value toward travel, if you can qualify.

These cards generally require good credit (scores of 690 or higher), and even if you’re eligible, it’s not worth pursuing one if you can’t pay off the credit card bill in full every month to avoid steep interest charges. And if you’re working toward paying down existing debt, it might not be worth chasing points and miles until you’ve made progress on that front.

But as long as travel credit cards align with your financial goals, their potential savings merit consideration — even if you travel just once or twice per year. Explore the flexibility of a general-purpose travel credit card to book travel anywhere, or a branded credit card to book travel with a favorite hotel or airline. Either option may offer money-saving benefits toward your next trip.

Valuable features can lower costs

Offers will vary among general-purpose travel credit cards and airline- or hotel-branded credit cards, but some savings opportunities may include:

Perks

If a credit card offers a lengthy list of perks, the value can quickly add up. Here are some features to look out for:

• A sign-up offer: Travel credit cards generally come with lucrative sign-up offers that let new cardholders earn a pile of points or miles by meeting a minimum spending requirement. It’s easier to snag if you can strategically time a credit card application around planned purchases during a heavy-spend month or season.
• Free checked bags: Some airline credit cards offer free checked bags, which can add up to real savings when applied per person on a round trip. This is one way that Doug Figueroa, a content creator at the YouTube channel Zorito y Doug, makes up the cost of the $150 annual fee on an airline credit card. “The savings are $70 round trip per passenger listed in the same reservation,” he says.
• TSA or Global Entry credit: Some travel cards issue a credit (up to $100) when you use them to pay for a TSA or Global Entry application fee. These expedited airport security screening programs can save time while traveling.
• Travel credits: Depending on the card’s terms, travel credits may be used to save money on a variety of travel expenses like rideshare services, airfare or accommodations.
• Airport lounge access: You can skip the pricey airport food with some travel credit cards that offer complimentary airport lounge access. Austin Maxwell, a South Carolina-based content creator at the blog The Maxwells Travel, uses a travel credit card to avoid those costs. “I’m saving $20 to $30 every time I go to the airport because I don’t have to buy food or drinks during a layover or preflight,” he says.
• A companion ticket: Some airline credit cards cover the cost of a ticket for a friend or family member. Depending on the card’s terms, you may have to pay taxes and fees on the fare, the companion ticket may have an expiration date and/or a spending requirement may apply.
• Automatic elite status: You may earn elite status without much effort on some hotel-branded credit cards. Elite status can add up to valuable savings if the program offers free food, bonus points or suite upgrades.
• Free nights: If your favorite hotel has a branded credit card that offers annual free night awards, it can stretch your vacation budget.

Protections and other benefits

A travel credit card that offers trip delay or cancellation insurance, lost baggage insurance, rental car coverage or other protections may also be of value to you. To qualify for these benefits you typically need to pay for the trip or covered purchase with the eligible credit card. Read the terms carefully to understand the extent of your coverage.

Figueroa says he saved $90 over three days with his card’s primary rental car coverage on a trip to Miami.

“Once you make the online reservation, you must decline all insurance offered by the rental company and pay for everything with your [card],” he says.

High-value reward redemptions

Points or miles on some travel credit cards might lose value if they are used for non-travel redemptions like cash back, gift cards or other options. Travel redemptions typically offer the best value, and you might squeeze out even more value with a general-purpose travel card that allows points to transfer to airline or hotel partners. It’s a strategy that Maxwell uses often to his advantage.

“It’s even better if there’s a transfer bonus associated with that,” he says. “Credit card companies offer transfer bonuses — 15%, 20%, 30% bonus — if you are to transfer points to a specific airline.”

He says he has also transferred points to hotel partners to book hotel rooms with them. “It would be the equivalent of getting a hotel room at $120 that’s actually valued at $500,” he adds.

To determine whether to redeem rewards for travel or transfer them to a partner, compare costs by checking the credit card’s booking platform and the partner’s website. Also factor in whether rewards transfer on at least a 1:1 ratio, meaning that you’ll get the equivalent value in points or miles transferred.

The article How a Travel Credit Card Can Be Your Ticket to Big Savings originally appeared on NerdWallet.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A measure of inflation that is closely tracked by the Federal Reserve slipped last month in a sign that price pressures continue to ease.

The government reported Friday that prices rose 0.3% from January to February, decelerating from a 0.4% increase the previous month in a potentially encouraging trend for President Joe Biden’s re-election bid. Compared with 12 months earlier, though, prices rose 2.5% in February, up slightly from a 2.4% year-over-year gain in January.

Excluding volatile food and energy costs, last month’s “core” prices suggested lower inflation pressures. These prices rose 0.3% from January to February, down from 0.5% the previous month. And core prices rose just 2.8% from 12 months earlier — the lowest such figure in nearly three years — down from 2.9% in January. Economists consider core prices to be a better gauge of the likely path of future inflation.

Friday’s report showed that a sizable jump in energy prices — up 2.3% — boosted the overall prices of goods by 0.5% in February. By contrast, inflation in services — a vast range of items ranging from hotel rooms and restaurant meals to healthcare and concert tickets — slowed to a 0.3% increase, from a 0.6% rise in January.

The figures also revealed that consumers, whose purchases drive most of the nation’s economic growth, surged 0.8% last month, up from a 0.2% gain in January. Some of that increase, though, reflected higher gasoline prices.

Annual inflation, as measured by the Fed’s preferred gauge, tumbled in 2023 after having peaked at 7.1% in mid-2022. Supply chain bottlenecks eased, reducing the costs of materials, and an influx of job seekers made it easier for employers to keep a lid on wage growth, one of the drivers of inflation.

Still, inflation remains stubbornly above the Fed’s 2% annual target, and opinion surveys have revealed public discontent that high prices are squeezing America’s households despite a sharp pickup in average wages.

The acceleration of inflation began in the spring of 2021 as the economy roared back from the pandemic recession, overwhelming factories, ports and freight yards with orders. In March 2022, the Fed began raising its benchmark interest rate to try to slow borrowing and spending and cool inflation, eventually boosting its rate 11 times to a 23-year high. Those sharply higher rates worked as expected in helping tame inflation.

The jump in borrowing costs for companies and households was also expected, though, to cause widespread layoffs and tip the economy into a recession. That didn’t happen. The economy has grown at a healthy annual rate of 2% or more for six straight quarters. Job growth has been solid. And the unemployment rate has remained below 4% for 25 straight months, the longest such streak since the 1960s.

The combination of easing inflation and sturdy growth and hiring has raised expectations that the Fed will achieve a difficult “soft landing″ — taming inflation without causing a recession. If inflation continues to ease, the Fed will likely begin cutting its key rate in the coming months. Rate cuts would, over time, lead to lower costs for home and auto loans, credit card borrowing and business loans. They might also aid Biden’s re-election prospects.

Michael Pearce, economist at Oxford Economics, said that even a 0.3% January-to-February uptick in consumer prices was probably still too hot for the Fed’s inflation fighters. The central bank has signaled that it expects to cut rates three times this year, and Wall Street investors have been eagerly awaiting the move. Pearce wrote that a June rate cut now looks more likely than the May cut that he and his Oxford colleagues had previously expected.

The Fed tends to favor the inflation gauge that the government issued Friday — the personal consumption expenditures price index — over the better-known consumer price index. The PCE index tries to account for changes in how people shop when inflation jumps. It can capture, for example, when consumers switch from pricier national brands to cheaper store brands.

In general, the PCE index tends to show a lower inflation level than CPI. In part, that’s because rents, which have been high, carry double the weight in the CPI that they do in the PCE.

Friday’s government report showed that Americans’ incomes rose 0.3% in February, down sharply from a 1% gain in January, which had been boosted by once-a-year cost-of-living increases in Social Security and other government benefits.

When it comes to properly preparing a property for sale, many experts argue that successful home staging is the key to the most lucrative sale. Staging is often seen as a key marketing tool as it relates to selling a property for the most amount of money in the shortest amount of time.

Stumped as to where to begin to get your home sale ready? Here are 7 expert home staging selling tips to help get you started:

Purge! The first aspect relating to preparing a property for sale relates to the removal of all excess. From extra furniture to clothing, now is the time to make your home feel as spacious as possible.

Create a basic marketing plan. A seller may need their real estate agent’s help with this one. The goal of this step is to simply decide who your target buyer is, as in some cases this may influence the staging process.

De-personalize. When a potential buyer walks into a property, it is important for them to feel that it could be their home. Everything from personal photos to religious references should be removed.

Neutralize. Even something as simple as repainting or replacing carpeting can be a deterrent for potential buyers. Taupes and grays are ideal colors to create a neutral, soothing color palette.

Hire a professional stager. When it comes to what is for most Americans their single biggest asset, you may want to trust the staging of your home to a professional. One can begin by researching local staging companies; some may specialize in a specific style or geographic area. Additionally, The Real Estate Stagers Association is a great place to start when looking to hire a professional stager or staging company. Concerned about cost? Most professional stagers are able to work within various budgets.

Return a room to its intended use. For example, a bedroom currently used as a home office must be staged and styled as a bedroom.

Create a timeline. When you place your property on the market can be critical in capturing the most amount of potential buyers. Earlier in the selling season is best.

Cathy Hobbs, based in New York City, is an Emmy Award-winning television host and a nationally known interior design home staging expert and short-term rental/vacation home designer with offices in New York City and The Hudson Valley. /Tribune News Service