Evelyn Reynolds

A staff report by the Senate labor committee, led by Bernie Sanders, uncovered evidence of internal concern about high injury rates at the e-commerce giant.For years, worker advocates and some government officials have argued that Amazon’s strict production quotas lead to high rates of injury for its warehouse employees. And for years, Amazon has rejected the criticism, arguing that it doesn’t use strict quotas, and that its injury rates are falling close to or below the industry average.On Sunday, the majority staff of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, which is chaired by Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, published an investigation that found that Amazon itself had documented the link between its quotas and elevated injury rates.Internal company documents collected by Mr. Sanders’s investigators show that Amazon health and safety personnel recommended relaxing enforcement of the production quotas to lower injury rates, but that senior executives rejected the recommendations apparently because they worried about the effect on the company’s performance.The report also affirmed the findings of investigations undertaken by a union-backed group showing that injury rates at Amazon were almost twice the average for the rest of the industry.“The shockingly dangerous working conditions at Amazon’s warehouses revealed in this 160-page report are beyond unacceptable,” Mr. Sanders said in a statement. “Amazon’s executives repeatedly chose to put profits ahead of the health and safety of its workers by ignoring recommendations that would substantially reduce injuries.”Kelly Nantel, an Amazon spokeswoman, said the internal studies and recommendations Mr. Sanders’s report cited were later found by the company to be invalid. “Sen. Sanders’ report is wrong on the facts and weaves together out-of-date documents and unverifiable anecdotes to create a preconceived narrative,” she said.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

Rates may not come down as much or as quickly as had been expected, just as Trump — a self-declared “low-rate guy” — returns to the White House.Inside the halls of the Federal Reserve’s headquarters overlooking Constitution Avenue in Washington D.C., casual mentions of the incoming Trump administration are cautious and infrequent. That’s by design.Donald J. Trump had a fraught relationship with the politically independent Fed during his first term. The president wanted central bankers to lower interest rates more aggressively and faster than they thought was economically appropriate. When officials refused to comply, he blasted them as “boneheads” and an “enemy.” He flirted with trying to fire Jerome H. Powell, the Fed chair. He tried (and failed) to appoint loyalists to central bank leadership roles.As the Fed enters a new Trump era with interest rates higher than they were at any point in his first term, tensions seem poised to escalate once again — and America’s central bank is on high alert.Fed analysts try to avoid casually discussing tariffs in email or Microsoft Teams meetings, wary that the information could become public and make the Fed look anti-Trump, according to one staff economist who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter. Hallway chatter has taken a negative tone but is often studiously generic and apolitical, according to people familiar with the mood inside the building who also requested anonymity. And while Fed officials and economists have had to begin to consider what Mr. Trump’s promised policies might do to growth and inflation, they have avoided publicly speculating.Central bankers are, in effect, keeping their heads down to stay out of the limelight. But try as they might, they appear destined for another crash course with Mr. Trump.The president-elect promised “interest rates cuts the likes of which you have never seen before” while campaigning. Fed officials have been cutting rates since September and are on course to lower them further as inflation cools, but they are unlikely to reduce them as much as Mr. Trump is hoping.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

Most drivers will begin paying new congestion tolls on Jan. 5 to reach the heart of Manhattan, if all goes as planned. The fees are meant to relieve some of the world’s worst gridlock and pollution while raising billions of dollars for important upgrades to New York City’s subways and buses. Officials also hope to […] More

More than half, or 53%, of Gen X parents fear that their kids will need financial support into adulthood, according to a U.S. Bank survey.
That’s compared with 37% of all parents, per the data.
Gen X is facing unique challenges that can heighten these concerns.

Financial planning. Budgeting. Expense tracking. Profit and loss analysis. Data analysis. Spreadsheet software. Productivity. Efficiency. Financial literacy. Personal finance. Business finance.
Natalia Gdovskaia | Moment | Getty Images

As Adinah Caro-Greene maps out her financial future, there’s a variable that may have held less weight for previous generations: her child.
The employee benefits broker said she’s seen how rising education, housing and health-care costs have created economic challenges for her Gen Z son and his peers. Part of the Bay Area resident’s long-term financial goals is to fully pay off a rental property that he can inherit and potentially live in.

“It’s uniquely hard for kids now,” said Caro-Greene, 45. “Seeing how hard it is for my son’s generation has motivated me to do what I can.”
Caro-Greene isn’t alone. A majority — or 53% — of Gen X parents who are worried their child may need financial support well into adulthood, according to a U.S. Bank survey of around 2,500 adults released earlier this year. That’s compared with just 37% of parents across all generations.

Gen X is a “sandwich” generation, facing the financial pressures of simultaneously supporting parents in retirement and kids as they come of age. Most Americans are grappling with the runaway inflation that followed the pandemic, but parents in this age group are uniquely focused on whether their kin will ever be able to make it without monetary aid.

A ‘worried’ generation

Gen Xers have grown up amid less-than-ideal economic conditions, which can bolster feelings of uncertainty, said Tom Thiegs, family wealth coach at U.S. Bank’s Ascent Private Capital Management. Notably, he pointed out that they’ve witnessed four of the five largest stock market crashes in history within their lifetimes.
They were among the first to mainly utilize 401K plans for retirement rather than pensions, he said. Now, this group is also questioning if Social Security and Medicare will stay around long enough for them to reap the benefits of systems they helped support throughout their adult lives, Thiegs said.

Clients Thiegs talks to are “worried,” but not to the extent that they’re “paralyzed,” he said, explaining that these clients have been through economic downturns before. Instead, he’s noticed a mindset among Gen X of being ready to roll with any unexpected punches.
“It’s not just all doom and gloom for Gen X,” he said. “There’s also this understanding that we’ll be able to figure it out.”
Gen X parents aren’t necessarily concerned that they’ll be in the hook for their kids’ poor financial choices. In fact, the U.S. Bank survey found 79% said their children are able to “successfully” manage their finances.
Instead, this economic stress stems from factors outside of parents’ or children’s control, Thiegs said. Beyond rising prices for everyday needs like groceries, he pointed to higher housing costs as a factor that’s left Gen Z in a more financially precarious position.

The bank of mom and dad

Caro-Greene said it’s common among parents she knows to give money to their young-adult children, especially given the high cost of living in the San Francisco area. It’s a particularly hard time, she said, because of what she charactized as a tough job market for those entering the white-collar workforce.
Expenses for even the youngest in corporate America can add up. A Savings.com survey published this year found parents that offer financial support to their kids were shelling out $1,384 a month on average. When looking just at Gen Z offspring, that figure shot up to $1,515.
That can lead to a question of how long, or to what extent, parents should be footing bills for their kids into adulthood, according to Marguerita Cheng, who is both a mother and certified financial planner. The answer is both simple and highly individual, she said.
“I would never tell you not to help your child,” said Cheng, CEO of Blue Ocean Global Wealth in Gaithersburg, Maryland. But, “it’s important to have boundaries or limitations to giving.”
Cheng said parents should avoid helping their child to the point that they, themselves, will deplete savings and struggle in retirement. She also said parents can try to remove the stigma around discussing money and shame around decisions like living at home after graduating college.
For those that do have the means to help out, she’s found clear guidelines can be a useful tool. For example, a parent might set a cap on how much money they will give a child who is moving, or distribute funds incrementally over a predetermined timeframe.
Given Gen X’s experiences, Thiegs has found the generation thinks differently about their dollars and how to use them. It’s an equation, he said, that increasingly includes children and other family members.
“They’ve broadened into a more holistic view of money,” Thiegs said. “It’s not just balancing your checkbook, but also understanding what, long term, do I want for my life.”

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President-elect Donald J. Trump is supporting the International Longshoremen’s Association, which could strike soon if it doesn’t reach a deal on automation with employers.Leaders of some labor unions tried to establish good relations with Donald J. Trump before the election — and for one of them, that effort may already be paying off.President-elect Trump lent his support on Thursday to the International Longshoremen’s Association, which represents dockworkers on the East and Gulf Coasts. Contract negotiations between the union and employers have broken down over the use of port machinery that can move cargo without human involvement. The I.L.A. opposes it, believing it reduces jobs, but the employers, mainly large shipping companies, have said that the equipment moves goods more cheaply and efficiently.Writing on Truth Social, Mr. Trump said on Thursday that he had met with I.L.A. leaders and that he sympathized with the union’s fears.“I’ve studied automation, and know just about everything there is to know about it,” he said. “The amount of money saved is nowhere near the distress, hurt, and harm it causes for American Workers, in this case, our Longshoremen.”The union suspended a short strike in October after securing a large wage increase, and agreed to keep negotiating with port operators until Jan. 15 on other parts of the contract, including provisions on how much automated machinery can be used.Mr. Trump won a second presidential term with the support of many union members, and he has vowed to protect American workers. And while it is unclear how much he will do to help the labor movement broadly, his backing of the I.L.A. suggests he could strengthen the hand of unions that have courted him.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

Britain’s economy contracted unexpectedly in October, according to data from the U.K.’s Office for National Statistics.
GDP fell by 0.1%, the latest print showed, marking the second consecutive monthly downturn.
The British pound was trading lower against the dollar Friday morning.

Bank of England in the City of London on 6th November 2024 in London, United Kingdom. The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the primary central business district CBD of London. The City of London is widely referred to simply as the City is also colloquially known as the Square Mile. (photo by Mike Kemp/In Pictures via Getty Images)
Mike Kemp | In Pictures | Getty Images

The U.K. economy contracted unexpectedly in October amid uncertainty from businesses and consumers ahead of the newly elected government’s budget announcement.  
Gross Domestic Product fell by an estimated 0.1% on a monthly basis, the ONS said Friday, with officials attributing the downturn to a decline in production output. Economists polled by news agency Reuters had projected a 0.1% rise in GDP in October.

It marked the country’s second consecutive economic downturn, following a 0.1% GDP decline in September.
Real GDP is estimated to have grown 0.1% in the three months to October, the ONS said, compared to the previous three months ending in July.
Sterling declined on the back of the disappointing print, trading 0.3% lower against the U.S. dollar at $1.2627 by 7:45 a.m. London time.
In a statement on Friday, U.K. Finance Minister Rachel Reeves conceded that the October figures were “disappointing,” but defended the government’s divisive economic strategies.
“We have put in place policies to deliver long term economic growth,” she said, citing changes such as a cap on corporation tax and the launch of a 10-year infrastructure strategy.

In late October, Reeves unveiled the government’s first budget since replacing the longstanding Conservative government in July.
The budget included plans from Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government to raise taxes by £40 billion ($50.5 billion). Reeves said at the time that this would be achieved through a raft of new policies, including a hike in employer National Insurance payments — a tax on earnings — as well as a rise in capital gains tax and the scrapping of winter fuel payments to pensioners.
Some of the policies have been met with widespread criticism. The national insurance payroll tax hike, for example, has prompted warnings from businesses that they will be less likely to take on new workers, with a report from recruitment site Indeed this week suggesting the policy had already had an effect on British job openings.

Interest rate impact

The October GDP print marked a fresh blow to the U.K. economy, which is still struggling to keep inflation in check and also saw weak consumer confidence data in a new reading published Friday.
However, market watchers are not convinced the latest data will alter the Bank of England’s commitment to a “gradual” lowering of interest rates.
The central bank cut rates by 25 basis points at its most recent meeting in November, and is expected to hold rates steady at 4.75% at its subsequent meeting next week, according to overnight index swap data.
Thomas Pugh, U.K. economist at RSM, said the fresh round of data — coupled with inflation in Britain creeping back up toward 3% — indicated a risk that the U.K. was “slipping back into stagflation territory.”
“We still expect the economy to reaccelerate into 2025 — that said, our forecast of 0.3% quarter-on-quarter growth in the fourth quarter now looks too ambitious,” he said.
“In any case, we doubt that today’s data is bad enough to push the Bank of England into surprising markets with an early Christmas present of a rate cut at its meeting on Dec. 19th.”
Meanwhile, Suren Thiru, economics director at the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, agreed a Christmas rate cut was “doubtful.”
“Despite these gloomy figures, the likelihood of a rate cut this month remains low with some policymakers likely to be concerned enough by the recent pick-up in inflation to defer relaxing policy again until February,” Thiru said in a note. More

An intense struggle has unfolded in Washington between companies and officials over where to draw the line on selling technology to China.At a meeting in Washington this spring, tech company representatives and government officials once again found themselves at odds over where to draw the line when it came to selling coveted technology to China.The Biden administration was considering cutting off the sales of equipment used to manufacture semiconductors to three Chinese companies that the government had linked to Huawei, a technology giant that is sanctioned by the United States and is central to China’s efforts to develop advanced chips.Applied Materials, KLA Corporation and Lam Research, which make semiconductor equipment, argued that the three Chinese companies were a major source of revenue. The U.S. firms said that they had already earned $6 billion by selling equipment to those Chinese companies, and that they planned to sell billions more, two government officials said.U.S. officials, who view the flow of U.S. technology to Huawei as a national security threat, were stunned by the argument. In regulations issued this month, they ultimately rejected the American companies’ plea.Over the past year, an intense struggle has played out in Washington between companies that sell machinery to make semiconductors and Biden officials who are bent on slowing China’s technological progress. Officials argue that China’s ability to make chips that create artificial intelligence, guide autonomous drones and launch cyberattacks is a national security threat, and they have clamped down on U.S. technology exports, including in new rules last week.But many in the semiconductor industry have fought to limit the rules and preserve a critical source of revenue, more than a dozen current and former U.S. officials said. Most requested anonymity to discuss sensitive internal government interactions or exchanges with the industry.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

The producer price index increased 0.4% for November, higher than the Dow Jones consensus estimate for 0.2%.
However, excluding food and energy, core PPI increased 0.2%, meeting the forecast.
First-time claims for unemployment insurance totaled a seasonally adjusted 242,000 for the week ending Dec. 7, versus the 220,000 forecast and up 17,000 from the prior period.

A measure of wholesale prices rose more than expected in November as questions percolated over whether progress in bringing down inflation has slowed, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Thursday.
The producer price index, or PPI, which measures what producers get for their products at the final-demand stage, increased 0.4% for the month, higher than the Dow Jones consensus estimate for 0.2%. On an annual basis, PPI rose 3%, the biggest advance since February 2023.

However, excluding food and energy, core PPI increased 0.2%, meeting the forecast. Also, subtracting trade services left the PPI increase at just 0.1%. The year-over-year increase of 3.5% also was the most since February 2023.
In other economic news Thursday, the Labor Department reported that first-time claims for unemployment insurance totaled a seasonally adjusted 242,000 for the week ending Dec. 7, considerably higher than the 220,000 forecast and up 17,000 from the prior period.
On the inflation front, the news was mixed.
Final-demand goods prices leaped 0.7% on the month, the biggest move since February of this year. Some 80% of the move came from a 3.1% surge in food prices, according to the BLS.
Within the food category, chicken eggs soared 54.6%, joining an across-the-board acceleration in items such as dry vegetables, fresh fruits and poultry. Egg prices at the retail level swelled 8.2% on the month and were up 37.5% from a year ago, the BLS said in a separate report Wednesday on consumer prices.

Services costs rose 0.2%, pushed higher by a 0.8% increase in trade.
The PPI release comes a day after the BLS reported that the consumer price index, or CPI, a more widely cited inflation gauge, also nudged higher in November to 2.7% on a 12-month basis and 0.3% month over month.
Despite the seemingly stubborn state of inflation, markets overwhelmingly expect the Federal Reserve to lower its key overnight borrowing rate next week. Futures markets traders are implying a near certainty to a quarter percentage point reduction when the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee concludes its meeting Wednesday.
Following the release, economists generally viewed the data this week as mostly benign, with underlying indicators still pointing towards enough disinflation to get the Fed back to its 2% target eventually.
The Fed uses the Commerce Department’s personal consumption expenditures price index, or PCE, as its primary inflation gauge and forecasting tool. However, data from the CPI and PPI feed into that measure.
An Atlanta Fed tracker is putting November PCE at 2.6%, up 0.3 percentage point from October, and core PCE at 3%, up 0.2 percentage point. The Fed generally considers core a better long-run indicator. A few economists said the details in the report point to a smaller monthly rise in PCE inflation than they had previously expected.
“It appears that only an exogenous shock such as dramatic tariff policy shifts would be capable of derailing supply-side contributions toward inflation’s return to the Federal Reserve’s 2.0% average goal in the near term,” PNC senior economist Kurt Rankin wrote.
Stock market futures were slightly in negative territory following the economic news. Treasury yields were mixed while the odds of a rate cut next week were still around 98%, according to the CME Group.
One reason markets expect the Fed to cut, even amid stubborn inflation, is that Fed officials are growing more concerned about the labor market. Nonfarm payrolls have posted gains every month since December 2020, but the increases have slowed lately, and Thursday brought news that layoffs could be increasing as unemployment lasts longer.
Jobless claims posted their highest level since early October, while continuing claims, which run a week behind, edged higher to 1.89 million. The four-week moving average of continuing claims, which smooths out weekly volatility, rose to its highest level in just over four years. More