Evelyn Reynolds

General Motors intends to spend several billion dollars to set up production of batteries and electric pickup trucks at two locations in Michigan, giving the company’s home state an economic boost, a person with knowledge of the plans said Friday.The automaker has started sketching out proposals to convert an electric car plant in Orion Township to produce electric pickups and to build a new battery plant with a partner, LG Electronics, near the existing Lansing Delta Township plant, this person said.The company, which has laid out ambitious goals for a shift to electric vehicles, was more circumspect about its plans in a statement issued Friday. “G.M. is developing business cases for potential future investments in Michigan,” it said. “As part of developing a competitive business case, we are having discussions with the appropriate local officials on available incentives.”G.M.’s prospective development of the Michigan sites was reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal.The total investment is likely to be more than $4 billion. G.M. previously spent $2 billion to convert a Detroit plant to electric vehicle production. Incentive applications filed to the City of Lansing on Friday showed that G.M. and LG envision investing $2.5 billion in the battery plant and creating 1,700 jobs there.Production of a high-volume pickup truck could significantly increase employment at the Orion Township plant, which has been used to make the Chevrolet Bolt, an electric compact car. Bolt output has been limited and is currently suspended because of a recall of the battery packs used in the car. When in operation, the factory has 1,100 workers on a single shift, and E.V. production would probably increase production to two or even three shifts.The investment would be a victory for Michigan as automakers race to begin making battery packs and electric vehicles in high volumes. Several factories are planned for Southern states. Toyota said this week that it would build a battery plant in North Carolina that is supposed to employ 1,750 people.Ford Motor is spending $11.4 billion to build two battery plants in Kentucky and a third battery plant and a new electric truck plant in Tennessee. G.M. has battery plants under construction in Ohio and Tennessee, and it plans to add others in Ontario and Mexico.The spate of investments and job commitments has caused concern among some economic development officials in Michigan that the state was not winning a significant portion of the jobs being created by the auto industry’s conversion to electric vehicles.G.M., Ford, Toyota and other traditional automakers are trying to catch up to Tesla, which leads in global sales of electric vehicles by a wide margin and has captured the imagination of investors. Tesla has a market value of about $1 trillion — more than G.M., Ford, Toyota and several other automakers combined.G.M. plans to introduce 20 electric vehicles in the United States by 2025. The first few include the GMC Hummer electric pickup and sport-utility models, and the Cadillac Lyriq, a luxury S.U.V. Those will be built at a plant in Detroit that G.M. now calls “Factory Zero.” A variety of other E.V.s are supposed to follow, including an electric version of the Chevrolet Silverado pickup that is supposed to go into production in early 2023.These models will use modular battery packs — produced in a joint venture with LG — that G.M. is counting on to help reduce the cost of electric vehicles.Ford is slightly ahead of G.M. in electric vehicles. It began selling the electric Mustang Mach-E S.U.V. nearly a year ago, and it plans to start making an electric pickup, the F-150 Lightning, in early 2022.Ford’s chief executive, Jim Farley, told CNBC on Thursday that his company had 200,000 reservations from customers for the truck and that it was scrambling to increase production capacity to meet demand. More

A partnership with Australia, Denmark, Norway, Canada, France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom aims to stem the flow of key technologies to authoritarian governments.WASHINGTON — The Biden administration announced a partnership on Friday with Australia, Denmark, Norway, Canada, France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom to try to stem the flow of sensitive technologies to authoritarian governments.The partnership, named the Export Controls and Human Rights Initiative, calls for the countries to align their policies on exports of key technologies and develop a voluntary written code of conduct to apply human rights criteria to export licenses, according to a White House statement.The effort is aimed at combating the rise of “digital authoritarianism” in countries like China and Russia, where software and advanced surveillance technologies have been used to track dissidents and journalists, shape public opinion and censor information deemed dangerous by the government.The announcement was part of the last day of the Summit for Democracy, the White House’s virtual gathering of officials from over 100 countries aimed at bolstering democracies.By working to synchronize export controls across countries, American officials hope to cast a wider net to prevent authoritarian nations from accessing important technologies, as well as help companies with U.S. operations operate on a more even playing field.While a decade ago the internet was seen as a force for democracy and openness, authoritarian governments today have learned that big data, internet controls, artificial intelligence and social media “could make them even more powerful,” Samantha Power, the administrator for the U.S. Agency for International Development, said at the virtual summit on Friday.Ms. Power said the United States would undertake a suite of new measures over the next year to help set global norms around technology and human rights. Those steps include investing up to $20 million annually to drastically expand the digital democracy work of the Agency for International Development, working with like-minded countries to establish principles for open source technology products, and introducing an initiative with Canada and Denmark to lay out how governments should use surveillance technology in a manner consistent with human rights and the rule of law. The United States will also provide up to $3.75 million to fund new “democracy affirming” technologies, like privacy-preserving artificial intelligence, and establish a separate fund for anti-censorship technology, Ms. Power said. The government’s use of export controls, especially against China, greatly ramped up during the Trump administration, which imposed restrictions on ZTE, Huawei and other Chinese technology firms to prevent Beijing from gaining access to sensitive technologies like quantum computing, advanced semiconductor chips and artificial intelligence that could give its military an advantage or build up the Chinese surveillance state.But critics say those measures, by focusing only on American exports, fell short of their goals. While companies that manufacture products in the United States no longer ship certain goods to China, competitors in Japan, Europe and elsewhere have continued to make sales. That has encouraged some high-tech companies to devote more spending on research and development outside the United States, to maintain access to the lucrative Chinese market.American-developed technology has also been used by authoritarian governments for more nefarious purposes, like monitoring and censoring their citizens.In a joint statement issued Friday, Australia, Denmark, Norway and the United States said that “authoritarian governments increasingly are using surveillance tools and other related technologies in connection with serious human rights abuses, both within their countries and across international borders, including in acts of transnational repression to censor political opposition and track dissidents.”They added, “Such use risks defeating the benefits that advanced technologies may bring to the world’s nations and peoples.”The work at this week’s summit included exploring how best to strengthen domestic legal frameworks, share information on threats and risks, and share and develop best practices for controlling technology exports, a White House statement said.In the coming year, the countries are expected to consult with academics and industries on their efforts. Any decisions on controls of specific technologies will be voluntary and left up to individual countries to carry out.The Biden administration has continued a trend, begun in the Trump administration, of leveling export controls at companies engaged in human rights violations, including those that have supported China’s repression of Muslim minorities.This week, the Biden administration announced new restrictions on Cambodia to address human rights abuses, corruption and the growing influence of China’s military in the country. In November, the administration blacklisted the NSO Group, an Israeli technology firm, saying the company knowingly supplied spyware used to target the phones of dissidents, human rights activists and journalists.The administration has also accelerated discussions of export controls with Europe, through a partnership set up this year called the Trade and Technology Council. But given that there is no legal basis for imposing import bans across the European Union, decisions on those restrictions fall to its member states.The United States is already part of a multilateral arrangement on export controls called the Wassenaar Arrangement, which was established in 1996. But critics say the grouping, which has more than 40 members, including Russia, has moved too slowly to match the pace of technological development. More

Inflation rose 6.8% from a year ago in November, slightly higher than estimates according to the consumer price index released Friday.
Excluding food and energy, the CPI increased 4.9%, in line with expectations.
Surging prices for food, energy and shelter accounted for much of the gains.

Inflation accelerated at its fastest pace since 1982 in November, the Labor Department said Friday, putting pressure on the economic recovery and raising the stakes for the Federal Reserve.
The consumer price index, which measures the cost of a wide-ranging basket of goods and services, rose 0.8% for the month, good for a 6.8% pace on a year over year basis and the fastest rate since June 1982.

Excluding food and energy prices, so-called core CPI was up 0.5% for the month and 4.9% from a year ago, which itself was the sharpest pickup since mid-1991.
The Dow Jones estimate was for a 6.7% annual gain for headline CPI and 4.9% for core.

Price increases came from familiar culprits.
Energy prices have risen 33.3% since November 2020, including a 3.5% surge in November. Gasoline alone is up 58.1%.
Food prices have jumped 6.1% over the year, while used car and truck prices, a major contributor to the inflation burst, are up 31.4%, following a 2.5% increase last month.

The Labor Department said the increases for the food and energy components were the fastest 12-month gains in at least 13 years.
Shelter costs, which comprise about one-third of the CPI, increased 3.8% on the year, the highest since 2007 as the housing crisis accelerated.
Markets reacted positively to the report, with stock indexes on Wall Street rising, while government bond yields moved lower. Some economists thought Friday’s report could indicate even sharper inflation of greater than 7% for the headline number.
Fed officials have attributed the inflation jump to factors associated with the pandemic. Strong consumer demand for goods and supply chain bottlenecks have been major factors, though the price increases have been stronger and more persistent than policymakers had anticipated.
“There’s no question no matter how you look at it, even if you take out the extremes caused by the pandemic, it’s still very high inflation,” said Randy Frederick, managing director of trading and derivatives at Charles Schwab. “This is still supply chain disruption, semiconductor-related inflation.”
Central bank officials have indicated that will begin slowing the help they’re providing in an effort to tamp down inflation. Investors widely expect the Fed to double the tapering of its asset purchases to $30 billion a month, likely starting in January. That would enable the Fed to start raising interest rates as soon as next spring.
Inflationary pressures have been hitting workers hard.
Though gross pay has increased 4.8% over the past year, real average hourly earnings accounting for inflation declined another 0.4% for November and are down 1.9% for the 12-month period, the Labor Department said in a separate release.
While much of the pandemic-era inflation has come from soaring demand for products such as vehicles and other long-lasting goods, services inflation also has been on the rise. Excluding energy, services costs rose 0.4% in November and are up 3.4% for the 12 months, the quickest annual pace April 2007.
Apparel costs also were notably higher for the month, rising 1.3% for the month and 5% for the year, ahead of the holiday shopping season.
Some economists, however, think inflation is near its peak, particularly with energy prices declining in recent weeks. While West Texas Intermediate oil is up more than 52% in 2021, the price has come down about 14% from its most recent peak in November.
With unemployment claims running at their lowest pace since 1969 and gross domestic product expected to show strong gains to end 2021 after a lackluster third quarter, inflation remains the biggest problem for the recovery.
President Joe Biden has been paying a political price for surging prices: A recent CNBC survey showed his approval rating stuck at just 41%, due in large part to 56% of respondents who disapprove of his economic record, compared to just 37% who approve.

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Better.com’s mercurial chief executive, Vishal Garg, faced swift backlash for his decision to fire more than 900 employees on a Zoom call last week. The mortgage lender’s board announced in a memo sent to staff on Friday that Mr. Garg was “taking time off” after the “very regrettable events.”“I come to you with not great news,” Mr. Garg had said to about 9 percent of his staff, in a recording since shared widely online. “If you’re on this call you are part of the unlucky group that is being laid off. Your employment here is terminated effective immediately.”Better.com, which is backed by SoftBank, has brought on a third-party firm to assess its leadership and culture, according to a copy of the board’s memo obtained by The New York Times. Several top employees resigned following the firings, two in communications and one in marketing. Better.com did not respond to a request for comment on Friday.Christian Chapman, 41, a former underwriting trainer at Better.com, said he was used to preparing for company meetings by making sure his children weren’t around, because Mr. Garg tended to use foul language. But last Wednesday, when he received an unexpected invitation to the company call with Mr. Garg, he got a sense of foreboding because the chief executive looked so solemn.As Mr. Garg impassively delivered the news, Mr. Chapman said his “gut dropped to the floor,” and he tried to message teammates to ask what was happening but his computer access was shut off almost immediately.“I’ve been through layoffs and usually there’s closure because you talk to H.R., you go to your desk and grab your personal belongings and say goodbyes,” Mr. Chapman said. “There’s no closure here. You’re staring at an empty screen in your house.”It took about three hours for him to receive a follow-up email, reviewed by The Times, that explained the terms of the termination, Mr. Chapman added. On Thursday, the company increased his termination package from one to two months of pay. He also received a Christmas package containing a trophy, certificate and company T-shirt (which his wife offered to burn).Mr. Chapman said that the chief executive’s messaging about fired employees “stealing” from the company by working only two hours a day — which the former employee said was contradicted by his team’s recent promotions and raises — had made it challenging for them to apply for new jobs.Mr. Garg has apologized for his behavior on the Zoom call. In a memo dated Tuesday that was posted on the company’s site, Mr. Garg said he owned the choice to make layoffs but had “blundered” the approach. More

An oil project off the coast of Scotland that had become a test of Britain’s environmental credentials was shelved by its main owner on Friday.The decision to halt Cambo, as the oil field is known, is a huge win for environmental groups like Greenpeace, and a blow to the North Sea oil industry. It comes just over a week after Shell, which owns 30 percent of the project, pulled out of the investment.“We are pausing the development while we evaluate next steps,” said Siccar Point Energy, a London-based company that is backed by private equity firms, including Blackstone, the financial management giant.Siccar Point said it had planned to invest $2.6 billion in Cambo, and had already spent $190 million on the field since acquiring it in 2017. The firm said that developing Cambo, a potentially valuable source of oil and natural gas, would have created 1,000 jobs.Environmental groups, on the other hand, said that starting new drilling projects was not compatible with Britain’s goals on tackling climate change and reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The British government has been considering whether to let Cambo go ahead.Located northwest of Scotland’s Shetland Islands, Cambo became a target of protests, including at the recent United Nations climate summit in Glasgow. Scotland’s top politician, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, has said she did not think it should be given a green light.On Dec. 2, Shell said it would not go ahead with investment because the economic case was not strong enough.Shell’s decision, which was also prompted by the potential for delays from protests and lawsuits, led Siccar Point to decide it could not “progress on the originally planned time scale,” the firm said. More

Daimler’s car and truck divisions concluded an amicable divorce on Friday when shares in Daimler Truck began trading separately on the Frankfurt stock exchange.The separation of Mercedes-Benz, the luxury carmaker, from Daimler Truck, which owns Freightliner in the United States, signaled the end of an era not only for Daimler but also the German economy.The spinoff, announced in February, was the final chapter in a transition that began in the 1990s, when Daimler was a sprawling conglomerate that also made trains and passenger aircraft. Along with other industrial empires like Siemens, Daimler has been forced to jettison excess baggage to remain competitive.For car and truck makers, the need to ditch unwieldy corporate structures has become even more urgent as they try to survive the shift to emission-free propulsion. One justification for the spinoff is that it will allow Daimler Truck’s managers to make decisions more quickly.Daimler Truck is betting on hydrogen fuel cells for long-haul trucks, in contrast to competitors like Scania that favor batteries. It is not yet clear which technology will prevail.A few decades ago, many German companies operated on the principle that bigger was better. That might have made sense when capital was harder to come by, said Martin Daum, the chief executive of Daimler Truck, because the more profitable parts of a conglomerate could generate cash for struggling units.“We had globally very inefficient capital markets,” Mr. Daum said in an interview. “That supported the buildup of conglomerates.”“Today, every business that has a compelling idea can raise money,” he said.Whether Daimler Truck has compelling ideas will now be put to the test. The shares opened Friday at 28 euros (about $31.60) and rose as much as 8.5 percent, valuing the company at about $27 billion.The new company is the largest truck maker in the United States by way of its Freightliner brand. Globally, Daimler Truck is also the largest maker of buses. Its other brands include Mercedes-Benz trucks and buses sold primarily in Europe and Fuso trucks sold in Asia.Daimler Truck and Mercedes-Benz luxury cars will remain closely connected. Daimler, the parent company of Mercedes, will retain a 35 percent stake in Daimler Truck. The remaining shares will be distributed to Daimler shareholders.BNP Paribas, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs are serving as listing agents for the spinoff. More

Millennials have spent much of their lives enduring economic calamity. Many were children when the dot-com bubble burst; graduated from high school in the late 2000s, when the real estate market crumbled; and had to compete with a huge generation of baby boomers in an anemic postcrisis job market before the coronavirus brought the global economy to its knees last year.But there was one powerful phenomenon that millennials, the largest generation in the United States, had never felt, at least as adults: rapid inflation.Some of the most extreme price gains have come in categories where millennials and their younger counterparts are more likely to spend money than older generations. READ THE ARTICLE → More

“None of it’s going to be good,” an economist warns as people are likely to retreat from some aspects of social life as Covid measures tighten.LONDON — On Thursday morning, a group of 50 called to cancel their holiday party booked for that evening at Luc’s Brasserie, a French restaurant in the financial district of Britain’s capital. That same morning, a group of 21 canceled their party too, also for Thursday night.The previous night, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that stricter Covid measures were coming, and the impact was immediate for Darrin Jacobs, the owner of Luc’s. There had been a “multitude of cancellations,” he said.But thanks to a waiting list of reservations, he said, the restaurant was still fully booked until Christmas. And many of the canceled bookings had optimistically rescheduled their celebrations for early next year.“We won’t lose the business, we’ll just move the business on,” Mr. Jacobs said. But “it’s not easy because we’ve already bought food and moved staff around,” he said.For months, businesses across Britain have been desperately trying to maneuver around supply chain disruptions, labor shortages and rising costs as they emerged from various stages of lockdown.Offices reopened, which filled up commuter buses and trains; restaurants and pubs advertised to host holiday parties; and lines grew longer at city center coffee shops.Now, the emergence of the fast-spreading Omicron variant has unexpectedly dealt those efforts a blow. The government has revived coronavirus restrictions that are likely to weigh on hospitality and travel businesses during the critical holiday season and put a dent in the economy.Some 70 percent of British workers said they had traveled to work at least some days each week in early December, according to the Office for National Statistics.Daniel Leal/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images“I don’t know where this is going to go next week,” Mr. Jacobs said. “I think this is a tip of the iceberg-type scenario and it may get a lot worse next week and, if that’s the case, we’ll really have to scale it back.”For now, he’s still cautiously optimistic. But his business relies on people who work in nearby offices and walk to his restaurant in Leadenhall Market, especially several insurance companies. On Thursday, Mr. Jacobs heard that two large companies were closing their offices again.In England beginning Friday, face masks will be required in most indoor public places including cinemas and theaters. Starting Monday, people who can work from home should. And starting in the middle of next week, passes showing vaccination or a recent negative Covid test will be required for large events and nightclubs, Mr. Johnson announced this week. The rules will be voted on in Parliament next week. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have set their own measures, which are slightly stricter.“Unless you go to a full or partial lockdown, the effect of the measures themselves will be rather small,” said Paul Mortimer-Lee, the deputy director of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research in London. “What will be hurting the economy is individuals’ responses.” People are likely to take more precautions to protect themselves from the virus, especially by socializing less.While the rules are relatively light, for some businesses this will be an unwelcome retreat.Before the Omicron variant was discovered, the British economy was losing some momentum while prices were rising rapidly, putting inflation at its highest level in nearly a decade. Gross domestic product grew 1.3 percent in the third quarter, down from 5.5 percent in the previous three months. And that growth was driven by spending on services, especially in hotels, restaurants and entertainment as the last of the major pandemic restrictions were lifted in the summer. In October, economic expansion slowed sharply, to just 0.1 percent from the previous month.Now, there are early indications that restaurant reservations are declining and Christmas parties are being canceled.Restaurants, cafes and shops primarily serving office workers were contending with the lost trade from hybrid working but had at least seen a notable return of workers. Some 70 percent of British workers said they had traveled to work at least some days each week in early December, according to the Office for National Statistics, up from about 50 percent earlier in the year, when the country was under a strict lockdown.Restaurants, bars and hotels helped propel growth as lockdowns were lifted earlier in the year. New measures have added to concerns for the coming months.Facundo Arrizabalaga/EPA, via ShutterstockSales at Pret A Manger, the coffee and sandwich chain whose shops tend to be clustered around office hubs and transport locations, only returned to prepandemic levels about two weeks ago. Now those sales are starting to slip again.“Christmas has been canceled for many City shops, restaurants, pubs and other businesses that rely on footfall from workers in nearby offices,” Catherine McGuinness, the policy chairwoman of the City of London Corporation, which governs the capital’s financial district, said in a statement.Her organization will encourage workers and businesses to follow the new rules but said the government needed to lay out a road map for lifting the restrictions again in the new year, Ms. McGuinness said.The new measures will also complicate the next steps for the Bank of England. Policymakers at the central bank had been preparing to raise interest rates in response to inflation, provided unemployment remained low. Some analysts believed an increase could come as soon as next week. But the potential for Omicron to further slow the economy makes it harder to justify tightening monetary policy.The extra uncertainty could dampen productivity and employment growth, according to Mr. Mortimer-Lee. It’s likely to make companies more cautious about hiring and investment, especially businesses that rely on face-to-face interactions, like restaurants. Also, high case numbers will keep children out of schools and parents away from their jobs.The City of London financial district. Starting next week, people who can work from home should. Henry Nicholls/Reuters“It’s those millions of individual decisions, rather than Boris Johnson’s decision, that’s going to affect the economy,” said Mr. Mortimer-Lee. “And none of it’s going to be good.”Even before the latest measures, hotels were seeing about a fifth of their corporate bookings canceled, according to UKHospitality, an industry lobby group, after the government required travelers into Britain to take a Covid test within two days of arriving, and isolate until receiving the results. Christmas bookings weren’t as strong as they traditionally are for hospitality businesses in a quarter that usually brings in about 40 percent of the industry’s annual revenue.And so, the industry is asking for relief from business rates (a type of tax on commercial properties), more grants, rent protection and an extension of the reductions on VAT, a sales tax. “Anything less would prove catastrophic,” Kate Nicholls, the chief executive of UKHospitality, said in a statement.The latest measures have been particularly disappointing for nightclubs, one of the last businesses allowed to reopen earlier this year. The Night Time Industries Association said Covid passes have been damaging to their industry in the parts of Britain where they were already in place.Michael Kill, the chief executive of the lobbying group, said businesses were experiencing a “honeymoon period” since reopening in the summer and were trying to rebuild cash reserves before the quieter months at the start of the year.“We’re now seeing some concern around cancellations and ticket purchases hesitancy,” Mr. Kill said. “These sorts of things that are leaving people in a vulnerable position, because many of them stocked up and purchased and staffed for a busy Christmas period.”The group accused the government of enacting the changes to draw attention away from public fury over accusations that the prime minister’s staff broke lockdown rules by holding an office party last Christmas.“It feels that nightclubs and bars have been thrown under the bus by the prime minister for him to save his own skin,” Mr. Kill said in a statement on Wednesday. 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