Evelyn Reynolds

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    Port Strike Begins on East and Gulf Coasts

    Members of the International Longshoremen’s Association walked out for the first time since 1977 in a standoff over wages, benefits and job security.For the first time in nearly 50 years, longshoremen on the East and Gulf Coasts went on strike Tuesday, a move that will cut off most trade through some of the busiest U.S. ports and could send a chill through the economy.Members of the International Longshoremen’s Association union, which represents roughly 45,000 workers, started setting up pickets after 11th-hour talks failed to avert a work stoppage.“Nothing’s going to move without us — nothing,” said Harold J. Daggett, the president of the union, addressing picketers outside a port terminal in Elizabeth, N.J., in a video posted early Tuesday to a union Facebook account.The United States Maritime Alliance, which represents port employers, declined to comment early Tuesday. The two sides were not able to agree on wage increases, and the use of new technology in the ports was a sticking point for the union.“We think they’re lowballing intentionally,” Leonard Riley, a longshoreman at the Port of Charleston in South Carolina, said on Tuesday. “We are going to be out until we have something to chew on.”Businesses now face a period of uncertainty. Trade experts say that a short strike would cause little lasting damage but that a weekslong stoppage could lead to shortages, higher prices and even layoffs.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

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    A New Fine-Dining Restaurant in London, Staffed by Ex-Homeless People

    In London’s upmarket Primrose Hill, a Michelin-starred chef is employing people on the edge of homelessness as chefs, wait staff and cocktail makers.It’s been three weeks since the restaurant, Home Kitchen, opened its doors and Mimi Mohamed is pretty sure she knows the lemon tart recipe by heart. But just in case, a small notebook where she has carefully written out the ingredients is propped up at the back of the steel counter: 18 lemons; 420 grams of butter; 900 grams of sugar; 24 eggs.The recipe is from Adam Simmonds, a celebrated Michelin star-winning chef. Novices like Ms. Mohamed are not usually found in his kitchens, but this new, upscale dining venture is not usual. Almost every member of the 19-person team has been homeless.“The crew downstairs in the kitchen, they make so many mistakes, but that’s OK,” Mr. Simmonds said with a laugh. “We accept that and we learn from it.”He is sitting upstairs in the front dining room. A large window overlooks the main commercial street in Primrose Hill, a neighborhood in north London that oozes British charm.The idea was hatched four years ago by Alex Brown, director of Soup Kitchen London, where Mr. Simmonds took a turn cooking at the start of the pandemic. The most common question from those who lined up for food was “Do you know of any jobs?”Home Kitchen is aimed at breaking the cycle of homelessness and joblessness by training people for a career in the restaurant industry.Andrew Testa for The New York TimesWe 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

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    How the Port Strike Could Affect the Economy and Certain Products

    Transportation and warehousing sectors are poised to first feel the pinch, with a broader economic fallout expected if the strike drags on.As dockworkers at East and Gulf Coast ports walk off the job, economists are bracing for the strike to reverberate across the American economy.The strike, a result of a monthslong impasse between the union representing roughly 45,000 longshoremen and port operators, began at 12:01 a.m. on Tuesday. It will halt almost all activity at some of the busiest ports in the United States, from Maine to Texas. The International Longshoremen’s Association is pushing for wage increases that exceed those offered by the United States Maritime Alliance, the port operators group.The president of the International Longshoremen’s Association said the workers were “making history” by walking off the job for the first time in nearly 50 years.Bryan Anselm for The New York TimesPresident Biden said on Sunday that he was not planning to invoke the Taft-Hartley Act, a nearly 80-year-old law, to force dockworkers back to work if they strike.A strike could cost the economy $4.5 billion to $7.5 billion, or a 0.1 percent hit to U.S. annualized gross domestic product, every week as truckers and other workers dependent on the ports are furloughed and manufacturers experience delivery delays, according to analysts at Oxford Economics. While those losses would be reversed once the strike was over, it would take a month to clear the backlog for each week of the strike, the analysts estimated.Here’s what else to know about the potential economic fallout of the strike.A strike could cost the economy $4.5 billion to $7.5 billion for every week of the work stoppage.Erin Schaff/The New York TimesWe 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

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    Powell indicates further, smaller rate cuts, insists the Fed is ‘not on any preset course’

    Fed Chair Jerome Powell said Monday that the recent half percentage point interest rate cut shouldn’t be interpreted as a sign that future moves will be as aggressive.
    “We are not on any preset course,” he told the National Association for Business Economics.
    Powell expressed confidence in economic strength and sees inflation continuing to cool.

    Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Monday that the recent half percentage point interest rate cut shouldn’t be interpreted as a sign that future moves will be as aggressive, in fact indicating the next moves will be smaller.
    The central bank chief asserted during a speech in Nashville, Tennessee, that he and his colleagues will seek to balance bringing down inflation with supporting the labor market and let the data guide future moves.

    “Looking forward, if the economy evolves broadly as expected, policy will move over time toward a more neutral stance. But we are not on any preset course,” he told the National Association for Business Economics in prepared remarks. “The risks are two-sided, and we will continue to make our decisions meeting by meeting.”
    Powell did indicate that if the economic data remains consistent, there are likely two more rate cuts coming this year but in smaller, quarter percentage point, increments. That stands in contrast with market expectations for more aggressive easing.
    “This is not a committee that feels like it’s in a hurry to cut rates quickly,” he said during a Q&A period following his speech with Morgan Stanley economist Ellen Zentner. “If the economy performs as expected, that would mean two more rate cuts this year, a total of 50 [basis points] more.”
    Stocks fell as Powell spoke, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average off more than 150 points. Treasury yields moved higher, with the benchmark 10-year Treasury note most recently yielding close to 3.8%, up nearly 5 basis points on the session.
    The remarks come less than two weeks after the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee approved the half percentage point, or 50 basis points, reduction in the Fed’s key overnight borrowing rate. A basis point equals 0.01%.

    Though markets had been largely expecting the action, it was unusual in that the Fed historically has only moved in such large increments during events such as the Covid pandemic in 2020 and the global financial crisis in 2008.
    The likelihood of another 50 basis points in cuts would be consistent with estimates provided in the FOMC’s “dot plot” indicating individual officials’ assessments of where rates are headed.
    Addressing the decision at the Sept. 17-18 meeting, Powell said it reflected policymakers’ belief that it was time for a “recalibration” of policy that better reflected current conditions. Beginning in March 2022, the Fed began fighting surging inflation; policymakers of late have shifted their attention to a labor market that Powell characterized as “solid” though it has “clearly cooled over the last year.”
    “That decision reflects our growing confidence that, with an appropriate recalibration of our policy stance, strength in the labor market can be maintained in an environment of moderate economic growth and inflation moving sustainably down to our objective,” Powell said.
    “We do not believe that we need to see further cooling in labor market conditions to achieve 2 percent inflation,” Powell added.
    Futures market pricing is indicating that the Fed is more likely to move cautiously at its Nov. 6-7 meeting and approve a quarter-point reduction. However, traders see the December move as a more aggressive half-point cut.
    For his part, Powell expressed confidence in economic strength and sees inflation continuing to cool.
    Inflation during August was around 2.2% annually, according to the Fed’s preferred personal consumption expenditures price index released Friday. While that is close to the central bank’s 2% goal, core inflation, which excludes gas and groceries, was still running at a 2.7% pace. Policymakers usually consider core inflation as a better guide for longer-run trends being that food and energy prices are more volatile than many other items.
    Perhaps the most stubborn area of inflation has been housing-related costs, which rose another 0.5% in August. However, Powell said he believes the data eventually will catch up with easing prices for rent renewals.
    “Housing services inflation continues to decline, but sluggishly,” he said. “The growth rate in rents charged to new tenants remains low. As long as that remains the case, housing services inflation will continue to decline. Broader economic conditions also set the table for further disinflation.”

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    Powell Points to Two More Normal-Size Rate Cuts This Year

    Jerome H. Powell, chair of the Federal Reserve, said that central bankers will lower rates as much as needed, but have forecast two more quarter-point rate cuts this year.Jerome H. Powell, the chair of the Federal Reserve, underscored on Monday that officials are likely to lower interest rates in the coming months — but that policymakers do not expect to make those rate cuts in large increments if the economy shapes up as expected.Fed officials lowered interest rates by half a percentage point, or 50 basis points, at their meeting on Sept. 18, the first reduction in more than four years. Policymakers usually cut borrowing costs in quarter-point increments, so that was an unusually large decrease.The move came as the Fed made notable progress in its fight against rapid inflation. Price increases have slowed substantially since their 2022 peak, which meant that the high interest rates the Fed had maintained since mid-2023 were no longer seen as necessary.Now, the question is how quickly central bankers will ease off in the months ahead. Speaking to business economists at a conference in Nashville on Monday, Mr. Powell pointed to economic projections that Fed officials released following their recent meeting. Those showed that policymakers thought they would lower rates by another half percentage point by the end of 2024.“That would mean two more cuts, it wouldn’t mean more 50s,” Mr. Powell said, referring to 50-basis-point cuts. “Of course, that will depend on the data. But ultimately, that’s what the baseline is.”The Fed is facing two big risks as it approaches its upcoming policy decisions in November and December.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

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    Port Strike on the East and Gulf Coasts: What to Know

    Thousands of dockworkers who load and unload cargo ships could walk off the job on Tuesday, halting nearly all activity at ports from Maine to Texas.Thousands of unionized dockworkers on the East and Gulf Coasts could go on strike as early as Tuesday, stranding cargo and sending ripples through supply chains for consumer goods and manufacturing parts.A contract between the operators of port terminals and the International Longshoremen’s Association, covering workers who load and unload cargo ships at three dozen ports, is set to expire on Monday. Their facilities include massive container ports in New Jersey, Virginia, Georgia and Texas, as well as the Port of Baltimore, a major hub for the import and export of vehicles and heavy machinery.The port operators group, the United States Maritime Alliance, and the union remain at an impasse over wage increases. Federal officials have said President Biden is not planning to invoke a nearly 80-year-old law to force dockworkers back to work if they strike. It would be the first such walkout at all these ports since 1977.Which ports and goods would be affected?Workers at ports from Maine to Texas would walk off the job at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday. These ports handle about half of all goods shipped to the United States in containers. One of them, the Port of New York and New Jersey, is the third busiest in the country.Longshoremen play a crucial role in the movement of cargo. They are responsible for loading and unloading ships, and they secure vessels that arrive and depart from U.S. ports. For the most part, ocean transport to and from these ports can’t happen without them.Cargo that could be affected by the strike includes everyday consumer goods, like bananas, many of which come through a port in Delaware. Just over half of imported apparel, footwear and accessories also come through East Coast ports. Manufacturing parts and cars move through these ports, too.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

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    U.S. Ramps Up Hunt for Uranium to End Reliance on Russia

    More than 1,400 feet below an Arizona pine forest, miners are blasting tunnels in search of a radioactive element that can be used to make electricity.Two states north, in central Wyoming, drillers have been digging well after well in the desert, where that element — uranium — is buried in layers of sandstone.Uranium mines are ramping up across the West, spurred by rising demand for electricity and federal efforts to cut Russia out of the supply chain for U.S. nuclear fuel.Those twin pressures have helped lift uranium prices to their highest levels in more than 15 years, according to the consulting firm TradeTech, helping to resuscitate mining regions that entered a steep decline toward the end of the Cold War.Pinyon Plain miners working hundreds of feet beneath Kaibab National Forest.Uranium ore held by Matthew Germansen, an assistant mine superintendent at Pinyon Plain.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

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    Key Fed inflation gauge at 2.2% in August, lower than expected

    The PCE price index, a measure the Fed focuses on to measure the cost of goods and services in the U.S. economy, rose 0.1% for the month, putting the 12-month inflation rate at 2.2%.
    Excluding food and energy, core PCE rose 0.1% in August and was up 2.7% from a year ago.
    The all-items inflation gauge was below Wall Street estimates and the lowest since early 2021.

    Inflation moved closer to the Federal Reserve’s target in August, easing the way for future interest rate cuts, the Commerce Department reported Friday.
    The personal consumption expenditures price index, a gauge the Fed focuses on to measure the cost of goods and services in the U.S. economy, rose 0.1% for the month, putting the 12-month inflation rate at 2.2%, down from 2.5% in July and the lowest since February 2021. The Fed targets inflation at 2% annually.

    Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been expecting all-items PCE to rise 0.1% on the month and 2.3% from a year ago.

    Excluding food and energy, core PCE rose 0.1% in August and was up 2.7% from a year ago, the 12-month number 0.1 percentage point higher than July. Fed officials tend to focus more on core as a better measure of long-run trends. The respective forecasts were for 0.2% and 2.7% on core.
    “All quiet on the inflation front,” said Chris Larkin, managing director of trading and investing at E-Trade from Morgan Stanley. “Add today’s PCE Price Index to the list of economic data landing in a sweet spot. Inflation continues to keep its head down, and while economic growth may be slowing, there’s no indication it’s falling off a cliff.”
    Though the inflation numbers indicated continued progress, the personal spending and income numbers both came in light.
    Personal income increased 0.2% on the month while spending rose 0.2%. The respective estimates were for increases of 0.4% and 0.3%.

    Stock market futures were positive following the report while Treasury yields were negative.
    The readings come a little more than a week after the Fed took down its benchmark overnight borrowing rate by half a percentage point to a target range of 4.75%-5%.
    The progress in August came despite continued pressure from housing-related costs, which increased 0.5% on the month for the largest move since January. Services prices overall rose 0.2% while goods declined by 0.2%.
    It was the first time the central bank had eased since March 2020 in the early days of the Covid pandemic and was an unusually large action for a Fed that prefers to move rates in quarter-point increments.
    In recent days, Fed officials have switched their focus from inflation fighting to an emphasis on supporting a labor market that has shown some signs of softening. At their meeting last week, policymakers indicated a likelihood of another half percentage point in cuts this year then a full point in reductions for 2025, though markets expect a more aggressive path.

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