Evelyn Reynolds

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    Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games Planners See Economic Upside

    The 2028 Games will be the third for Los Angeles as host, but it will be a challenge to repeat the success of 1984.What Paris Olympics? Los Angeles is already looking ahead.As the city prepares to host the 2028 Games, construction crews have fanned out, racing to bolster the area’s infrastructure to accommodate hundreds of thousands of visitors.Three main projects — expanding the rail system, revamping the airport and renovating the downtown convention center, which will be the competition venue for five sports — will have lasting effects on the region. The projects are funded through a mix of federal and city dollars as well as airport fees. And there will also be the tourist dollars spent while the Games take place.The city sees the Olympics as a revenue producer, not an expense. Now it must disprove the skeptics who say it could be a boondoggle.In 2019, two years after Los Angeles was awarded the Games, Eric Garcetti, then the mayor, said he expected the city to turn a $1 billion profit.For the current mayor, Karen Bass, hosting the Olympics is more than an opportunity to showcase familiar attractions like Hollywood or Venice Beach. It’s also about connecting visitors with small businesses citywide.“What determines success is for everybody to benefit,” Ms. Bass said in an interview. “They need to know about Little Bangladesh and Little Ethiopia and Little Armenia.”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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    How Economic Grievances Were Exploited in Britain’s Violent Unrest

    Nationalist hatred has been linked to forces like stagnant wages and declining services, even though research shows immigration helps many economies.Like many cities around Britain shaken by anti-immigrant riots over the past week, Hartlepool, a seaside town on the northeast coast, has partly recovered from the devastating waves of industrial decline that began washing over the country in the 1980s.Still, the scars linger. Disposable income is below the national average, and more people are out of the work force, according to the Office for National Statistics. There are fewer active businesses, healthy life expectancy is lower and the crime rate is 89 percent higher.In Britain, as well as throughout Europe and in the United States, economic problems — like stagnant wages, roaring inequality and declining public services — have been linked to the rise of anti-immigrant attitudes.Even though research shows that immigration is an overall plus for most economies, far-right politicians have been able to exploit those frustrations to energize supporters and gain political power.In Britain, Nigel Farage, the leader of the populist, anti-immigration party Reform, has regularly made false claims that refugees and migrants drained public budgets. He has complained, for instance, about Britain having to “build a house every two minutes” to accommodate legal migrants and warned of “those arriving on the back of lorries” trying to get benefits.Mr. Farage, who was elected to Parliament in July, added to the web of disinformation that helped kindle the riots by inaccurately suggesting the man who fatally stabbed three young children at a dance class in Southport was an undocumented immigrant. He later came out against the violence.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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    Stellantis to Lay Off Up to 2,450 at Ram Truck Plant in Warren, Michigan

    The move is the latest sign of trouble for the trans-Atlantic automaker, which has had sluggish North American sales and has said it needs to cut costs.Stellantis announced plans on Friday to lay off as many as 2,450 workers later this year at a pickup truck plant near Detroit, the latest sign of trouble for the trans-Atlantic automaker.The layoffs are expected to begin as early as Oct. 8 at the Ram truck plant in Warren, Mich., where production will be reduced to one shift from two, the company said on Friday.Stellantis’s chief executive, Carlos Tavares, has said the company needs to cut costs, and he has noted that at least one North American factory was operating at an unsatisfactory level.The company has been hit by sluggish sales in North America, where it generates most of its profits, as well as bloated costs and manufacturing inefficiencies. It reported last month that profits in the first six months of 2024 fell by nearly half to 5.6 billion euros (about $6 billion).“It is an understatement to say that the first-half 2024 results were disappointing and humbling,” Mr. Tavares said on a call with analysts after the earnings report. “This is a bump on the road that we are now fixing and that we are going to fight against to make sure that we can rebound from here, and that we fix the operational issues that we face.”The layoffs are related to a planned transition to a new version of the Ram pickup that is just going into production at a plant in Sterling Heights, Mich. The Warren plant will continue making an older version of the truck on one shift, the company said on Friday, adding that the actual number of workers affected will probably be lower than the 2,450 noted in a report to the state of Michigan.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. Vies With Allies and Industry to Tighten China Tech Controls

    The Biden administration must navigate the interests of U.S. companies and allied governments as it tries to close off China’s access to advanced chipsThe Biden administration is fighting to overcome opposition from allied nations and the tech industry as it prepares to expand restrictions aimed at slowing China’s ability to make the most advanced semiconductors, which could be used to bolster Beijing’s military capacity.The administration has drafted new rules that would limit shipments to China of the machinery and software used to make chips from a number of countries if they are made with American parts or technology, as well as some types of semiconductors, according to people who have seen or were briefed on a draft version of the rules.The rules are aimed at blocking off some of the newer routes that Chinese chipmakers have found to acquire technology, despite international restrictions.The United States has been pushing allies like Japan and the Netherlands to toughen their restrictions on technology shipments to China, during visits to those countries as well as a Japanese state visit to Washington in April. Those nations are home to companies that produce chip-making machinery, like ASML Holding N.V. and Tokyo Electron Limited. But industry in the United States and other countries has argued the rules could hurt them, and it remains unclear when or if foreign governments will issue limitations.In the meantime, some of the rules that the United States plans to impose would have significant carve-outs, the people said. The rules blocking shipments of equipment to certain semiconductor factories in China would not apply to more than 30 allied countries, including the Netherlands, South Korea and Japan.That has sparked pushback from U.S. firms, who argue that the playing field will be further tilted against them if the U.S. government stops their sales but not those of their competitors.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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    From Tips to TikTok, Trump Swaps Policies With Aim to Please Voters

    The former president’s economic agenda has made some notable reversals from the policies he pushed while in the White House.At his convention speech last month, former President Donald J. Trump declared that his new economic agenda would be built around a plan to eliminate taxes on tips, claiming that the idea would uplift the middle class and provide relief to hospitality workers around the country.“Everybody loves it,” Mr. Trump said to cheers. “Waitresses and caddies and drivers.”While the cost and feasibility of the idea has been questioned by economists and tax analysts, labor experts have noted another irony: As president, Mr. Trump tried to take tips away from workers and give the money to their employers.The reversal is one of many that Mr. Trump has made in his bid to return to the presidency and underscores his malleability in election-year policymaking. From TikTok to cryptocurrencies, the former president has been reinventing his platform on the fly as he aims to attract different swaths of voters. At times, Mr. Trump appears to be staking out new positions to differentiate himself from Vice President Kamala Harris or, perhaps, just to please crowds.To close observers of the machinations of Mr. Trump’s first term, the shift on tips, a policy that has become a regular part of his stump speech, has been particularly striking.“Trump is posing as a champion of tipped restaurant workers with his no-tax-on-tips proposal, but his actual record has been to slash protections for tipped workers at a time when they were struggling with a high cost of living,” said Paul Sonn, the director of National Employment Law Project Action, which promotes workers’ rights.In 2017, Mr. Trump’s Labor Department proposed changing federal regulations to allow employers to collect tips that their workers receive and use them for essentially any purpose as long as the workers were paid at least the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. In theory, the flexibility would make it possible for restaurant owners to ensure that cooks and dishwashers received part of a pool of tip money, but in practice employers could pocket the tips and spend them at their discretion.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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    Fed Rate Cuts Are Expected Soon, as Inflation Cools. But Will They Be Early Enough to Avoid a Recession?

    The Federal Reserve was about to cut interest rates, turning the corner after a long fight with inflation. But now, its soft landing is in question.The Federal Reserve’s fight against inflation was going almost unbelievably well. Price increases were coming down. Growth was holding up. Consumers continued to spend. The labor market was chugging along.Policymakers appeared poised to lower interest rates — just a little — at their meeting on Sept. 18. Officials did not need to keep hitting the brakes on growth so much, as the economy settled into a comfortable balance. It seemed like central bankers were about to pull off a rare economic soft landing, cooling inflation without tanking the economy.But just as that sunny outcome came into view, clouds gathered on the horizon.The unemployment rate has moved up meaningfully over the past year, and a weak employment report released last week has stoked concern that the job market may be on the brink of a serious cool-down. That’s concerning, because a weakening labor market is usually the first sign that the economy is careening toward a recession.The Fed could still get the soft landing it has been hoping for — weekly jobless claims fell more than expected in fresh data released on Thursday, a minor but positive development. Stocks rallied in the wake of that report, with the S&P 500 rising 2.3 percent by the end of the day.Given the possibility that everything will turn out fine, central bank officials are not yet ready to panic. During an event on Monday, Mary C. Daly, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, suggested that officials were closely watching the job market to try to figure out whether it was cooling too much or simply returning to normal after a few roller-coaster years.“We’re at the point of — is the labor market slowing a lot, or slowing a little?” Ms. Daly said, as she pointed to one-off factors that could have muddled the latest report, like Hurricane Beryl and a recent inflow of new immigrant workers that left more people searching for jobs.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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    Trump Suggests that President Should Have a ‘Say’ in Interest Rates

    Donald J. Trump suggested presidents should have input on interest rates, a comment likely to stoke fears that he could try to limit the Federal Reserve’s political independence.Donald J. Trump suggested on Thursday that the president should have a say in setting interest rates — a comment that could rekindle fears that the Republican nominee might try to influence the politically independent Federal Reserve if he is re-elected to the White House.“I feel that the president should have at least say in there, yeah, I feel that strongly,” Mr. Trump said at a news conference Thursday at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, referring to the rate-setting process. “I think I have a better instinct than, in many cases, people that would be on the Federal Reserve, or the chairman.”Mr. Trump made a habit of loudly criticizing Fed policy while he was in office, often personally attacking Jerome H. Powell, the Fed chair.Mr. Trump elevated Mr. Powell to his leadership position, to which President Biden has since reappointed him. But Mr. Powell angered Mr. Trump by keeping interest rates higher than he would have preferred. Mr. Trump responded by calling the Fed chair and his colleagues “boneheads” and at another point asking in a social media post who was a bigger “enemy,” Mr. Powell or Xi Jinping, China’s president.Mr. Trump acknowledged that history of animosity on Thursday, saying that he “used to have it out with him.”While Mr. Trump flirted with the idea of firing Mr. Powell during his time in the Oval Office, it is not clear whether it would be legal to dismiss or demote a sitting Fed chair. In the end, Mr. Trump never tried it. Still, there have been big questions about what might await the Fed if Mr. Trump were to win re-election. Mr. Powell’s term as chair runs to mid-2026.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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    Jeremy Siegel backs off on calls for the Fed to do an emergency interest rate cut

    Wharton’s Jeremey Siegel no longer thinks it’s vital for an emergency interest rate reduction, but still wants policymakers to cut quickly and aggressively.
    “Would it be bad? No. But would it be necessary? No, not at this time,” he said.

    Jeremy Siegel
    Scott Mlyn | CNBC

    Wharton School Professor Jeremy Siegel no longer thinks it’s vital for the Federal Reserve to implement an emergency interest rate reduction, but still wants policymakers to cut quickly and aggressively.
    Siegel caused a stir Monday when he told CNBC that Fed Chair Jerome Powell and his colleagues should institute an emergency 0.75 percentage point decrease now and follow it up with another one in September.

    Those comments came with markets cratering amid fears over a recession and concern that the Fed is being too slow-footed in easing policy now that the inflation rate has decelerated. However, positive data since then and a ferocious market rally Thursday apparently have eased the urgency.
    “I no longer certainly think it’s necessary. But I want [Powell] to move down to 4% as fast as possible,” Siegel said during a phone interview. “Would it be bad? No. But would it be necessary? No, not at this time.”
    The Fed on July 31 voted to hold its key interest rate between 5.25%-5.5%, a decision that quickly came under criticism when a report the next day on weekly jobless claims showed a spike and a manufacturing gauge put the sector further into contraction.
    However, data Thursday showed claims moved lower from the previous week, and a service sector reading earlier in the week also was better than expected.
    “Obviously, I wanted to shake things up,” Siegel said of his call for an intermeeting move. “There’s no way he’s going to do that without things falling apart. I don’t think things are falling apart. But by all criteria and all monetary rules … they should be under 4%.”

    Markets pricing indicates the Fed will cut by at least a quarter percentage point in September and likely by a full point by the end of 2024. However, those expectations have been volatile as investors watch how quickly the Fed thinks it should ease policy.
    An emergency cut under these circumstances is “just not the way Jay Powell does things,” Siegel said. “But Jay Powell has done things way too slow, certainly on the way up, and I just want to make sure he doesn’t make the same mistakes on the way down.” More