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The U.S. and China, the world’s two greatest greenhouse gas emitters, have each caused global economic losses of more than $1.8 trillion from 1990 to 2014, according to a new Dartmouth College study.
Researchers said the findings, which were published in the journal Climatic Change on Tuesday, could provide opportunities for climate liability claims between individual countries.
“This research provides an answer to the question of whether there is a scientific basis for climate liability claims — the answer is yes,” said Christopher Callahan, a Ph.D. candidate at Dartmouth and a study author.

An aerial view of Phillips 66 oil refinery is seen in Linden, New Jersey, United States on March 8, 2022.
Tayfun Coskun | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

The U.S. and China, the world’s two greatest greenhouse gas emitters, have each caused global economic losses of more than $1.8 trillion from 1990 to 2014, according to a new Dartmouth College study that connects emissions from individual countries to the economic damage of climate change in others.
The report, published in the journal Climatic Change on Tuesday, found that a few top emitter countries are responsible for causing major economic losses for poorer countries that are more vulnerable to global warming.

Researchers said that climate change has saddled countries with economic losses by damaging agricultural yields, reducing labor productivity and curbing industrial output.
Just five of the world’s top emitters of greenhouse gases caused $6 trillion in global economic losses through warming from 1990 to 2014, according to the report. Russia, India and Brazil individually caused economic losses surpassing $500 billion each during the same period.
“This research provides an answer to the question of whether there is a scientific basis for climate liability claims — the answer is yes,” said Christopher Callahan, a Ph.D. candidate at Dartmouth and a study author, in a statement. “We have quantified each nation’s culpability for historical temperature-driven income changes in every other country.”
Climate-related lawsuits have historically targeted the actions of oil and gas companies rather than the liability of an individual country. However, more countries in the past few years have called on wealthier nations to pay for the “loss and damage” from climate-changing emissions. The U.S. has pushed back against the possibility that countries with high levels of emissions should compensate more vulnerable countries for such damage.

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The report calculated the damage done by a single country’s emissions to another individual country’s economy among a sample of 143 countries for which data is available.

Countries that experience economic losses from U.S. emissions have warmer temperatures and are poorer than the global average, according to the study. They are generally located in the global South or the tropics.
For instance, the U.S. from 1990 to 2014 cost Mexico a total of $79.5 billion of economic losses with respect to emissions generated from U.S. territory, according to the study. The U.S. also cost the Philippines $34 billion in economic losses.
Conversely, emissions produced by the U.S. had a positive economic impact on countries like Canada and Russia, contributing to gains of $247 billion and 341 billion, respectively, according to the analysis.
The study said countries that have benefited from U.S. emissions have cooler temperatures and are wealthier than the global average. These countries are typically located in the North or middle latitudes. Warmer temperatures, in some cases, can help increase output by boosting crop yields.
The distribution of the impact on climate change is also unequal, as the top 10 emitting countries have caused more than two-thirds of global losses.
“This research provides legally valuable estimates of the financial damages individual nations have suffered due to other countries’ climate-changing activities,” said Justin Mankin, an assistant professor of geography and senior researcher on the study, in a statement.
“The responsibility for the warming rests primarily with a handful of major emitters, and this warming has resulted in the enrichment of a few wealthy countries at the expense of the poorest people in the world,” Mankin said.

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After staggering growth during the pandemic, the U.S. housing market is starting to cool fastest in cities along the West Coast, according to a Redfin analysis.
“The velocity of price increases will certainly diminish significantly,” said Melissa Cohn, regional vice president at William Raveis Mortgage.

David Ryder | Getty Images

After staggering growth during the pandemic, the U.S. housing market is starting to cool — and it’s happening fastest along the West Coast.
The quickest-cooling real estate market is San Jose, California, according to a new Redfin analysis, which ranked U.S. metropolitan markets based on median sales prices, year-over-year inventory changes and other factors between February and May 2022.  

Six of the top 10 markets are in California, including three in the Bay Area, with four other Western cities rounding out the list. 
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By comparison, Albany, New York, was the slowest-cooling housing market, followed by El Paso, Texas, and Bridgeport, Connecticut, Redfin’s analysis found.
One of the top reasons for cooling throughout the country is rising interest rates, which have triggered “the affordability factor,” said Melissa Cohn, regional vice president at William Raveis Mortgage.
Indeed, costlier areas, such as Northern California, where homes may easily sell for $1 million to $1.5 million or higher, have been harder hit by 30-year fixed mortgage rates approaching 6%, the report found.

For example, if you’re buying a million-dollar home with a 20% down payment, your monthly mortgage payment may be roughly $5,750 with a 6% interest rate, depending on taxes and homeowner’s insurance, which is $1,400 higher than with a 3% interest rate, according to the report.

10 fastest-cooling U.S. housing markets

Here are the U.S. markets that have cooled the most over the past year, according to Redfin, and their median sale price as of May 2022.

San Jose, California — $1,560,000
Sacramento, California — $610,000
Oakland, California — $1,070,000
Seattle, Washington — $850,000
Stockton, California — $576,000
Boise, Idaho — $550,000
Denver, Colorado — $612,000
San Diego, California — $875,000
Tacoma, Washington — $575,000
San Francisco, California — $1,620,000

10 slowest-cooling U.S. housing markets

Here are the U.S. markets that have been slowest to cool over the past year, according to Redfin, and their median sale price as of May 2022.

Albany, New York — $289,000
El Paso, Texas — $238,000
Bridgeport, Connecticut — $570,000
Lake County, Illinois — $324,400
Rochester, New York — $212,100
New Brunswick, New Jersey — $465,000
Cincinnati, Ohio — $265,000
Akron, Ohio — $200,000
New Haven, Connecticut — $310,000
Virginia Beach, Virginia — $325,000

‘Cooling’ doesn’t mean buyers will see price drops

While growth may be slowing in some markets, experts still aren’t expecting significant price drops in most markets.
“One of the reasons why we’ve had this frothy, overheated market is just lack of inventory,” Cohn said.
To that point, in Redfin’s analysis, some of the faster-cooling markets have seen more inventory come on the market. In Seattle, for example, inventory is up 40.9% from the prior year.
Home prices are still rising, albeit more slowly. The expectations for one-year median home price growth dropped to 4.4% from 5.8% in June, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Survey of Consumer Expectations. 
“The velocity of price increases will certainly diminish significantly,” Cohn said, predicting a “healthy normalization” of the real estate market.

One of the reasons why we’ve had this frothy, overheated market is just lack of inventory.

Melissa Cohn
regional vice president at William Raveis Mortgage

With many buyers paying cash over the past couple of years, some purchasers have waived appraisals, inspections or even seeing the home in person.
However, the market shift may offer buyers more time to see properties, make an offer and purchase the right home, Cohn said.

What cooling markets mean for homeowners

If you recently purchased a home, you may have concerns about the home’s future value, especially in a cooling market. 
“The good news is that these buyers most likely got locked into a lower interest rate, so the payments should be more manageable than someone buying now,” said Matthew Chancey, a certified financial planner with CoastalOne in Tampa, Florida.
If you overbid on the property, you may be “underwater” in the short term, meaning you owe more on the mortgage than the home is worth, he said.
That’s not a situation you necessarily need to rush to remedy. Kyle Newell, an Orlando, Florida-based CFP and owner of Newell Wealth Management, said homeowners who are underwater should funnel extra cash into savings for emergencies, such as a possible job loss, rather than racing to pay down the mortgage.
Experts generally recommend setting aside three to six months of living expenses. But some advisors suggest more for added flexibility.

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HBO’s lacerating drama “Succession” on Tuesday earned 25 nominations for the 74th annual Emmy Awards.
It’s squaring off against Netflix’s “Squid Game” and “Stranger Things,” among others.
The winners will be announced on Monday, Sept. 12, at 8 p.m. ET on NBC and streamed live on Peacock.

Logan Roy, played by Brian Cox, at his daughter’s wedding reception on season 1 of HBO’s Succession.
Colin Hutton | HBO

Can the Roy family win yet another high-stakes competition with brutal rivals?
HBO’s lacerating drama “Succession” on Tuesday earned 25 nominations for the 74th annual Emmy Awards, the most of any series. It’s squaring off against Netflix’s “Squid Game” and “Stranger Things,” among others, in the Best Drama Series category.

AppleTV+’s “Ted Lasso” and HBO’s “The White Lotus” each garnered 20 nominations. Following close behind were HBO Max’s “Hacks” and Hulu’s “Only Murders in the Building” — each with 17 nominations — and HBO’s “Euphoria,” which nabbed 16.
The winners will be announced Monday, Sept. 12, at 8 p.m. ET on NBC and streamed live on Peacock, the network’s streaming service. The ceremony typically airs on Sunday, but NBC also has broadcast rights to National Football League games on Sunday nights.
“Television continues to keep the world entertained, informed, and connected,” said Frank Scherma, chairman and CEO of the Television Academy in a statement. “With production at a historic high, the Academy has received a record number of Emmy submissions this season.”
There are 50 first-time performer nominees on this year’s ballot including the late Chadwick Boseman (“What If…?”), Jennifer Coolidge (“White Lotus”), Elle Fanning (“The Great”), Andrew Garfield (“Under the Banner of Heaven”) and Jung Ho-yeon (“Squid Game”).
The Television Academy did not break out awards by network this year. Last year, there was some mild controversy about how nominations were tallied, as many networks also have streaming services. While it seemed suitable to lump network shows and streaming shows from the same company together, some in the industry felt they should be considered separate distributors.

 Here is the full list of the major Emmy nominees for the prime-time ceremony:
Drama Series”Better Call Saul” (AMC)   “Euphoria” (HBO)   “Ozark” (Netflix)   “Severance” (Apple TV+)   “Squid Game” (Netflix)   “Stranger Things” (Netflix)   “Succession” (HBO)   “Yellowjackets” (Showtime)  
Comedy Series”Abbott Elementary” (ABC)   “Barry” (HBO)”Curb Your Enthusiasm” (HBO)   “Hacks” (HBO)   “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” (Amazon Prime Video)”Only Murders in the Building” (Hulu)”Ted Lasso” (Apple TV+)”What We Do in the Shadows” (FX)   

Brendan Hunt, Jason Sudeikis and Brett Goldstein star in AppleTV+’s “Ted Lasso.”

Limited Series”Dopesick” (Hulu)   “The Dropout” (Hulu)   “Inventing Anna” (Netflix)   “Pam and Tommy” (Hulu)   “The White Lotus” (HBO)   
Lead Actor in a Drama SeriesJason Bateman (“Ozark”)  Brian Cox (“Succession”)  Lee Jung-jae (“Squid Game”)   Bob Odenkirk (“Better Call Saul”)  Adam Scott (“Severance”)  Jeremy Strong (“Succession”) 
Lead Actress in a Drama SeriesJodie Comer (“Killing Eve”)   Laura Linney (“Ozark”)  Melanie Lynskey (“Yellowjackets”)  Sandra Oh (“Killing Eve”)  Reese Witherspoon (“The Morning Show”)   Zendaya (“Euphoria”)  
Lead Actor in a Comedy SeriesDonald Glover (“Atlanta”)   Bill Hader (“Barry”)  Nicholas Hoult (“The Great”)Steve Martin (“Only Murders in the Building”)   Martin Short (“Only Murders in the Building”)  Jason Sudeikis (“Ted Lasso”)  

Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez star in Hulu’s “Only Murders in the Building.”
Disney | Hulu

Lead Actress in a Comedy SeriesRachel Brosnahan (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”)  Quinta Brunson (“Abbott Elementary”)  Kaley Cuoco (“The Flight Attendant”)  Elle Fanning (“The Great”)  Issa Rae (“Insecure”)  Jean Smart (“Hacks”)  
Lead Actor in a Limited Series or MovieColin Firth (“The Staircase”)  Andrew Garfield (“Under the Banner of Heaven”)  Oscar Isaac (“Scenes From a Marriage”)  Michael Keaton (“Dopesick”)  Himesh Patel (“Station Eleven”)  Sebastian Stan (“Pam and Tommy”)   
Lead Actress in a Limited Series or MovieToni Collette (“The Staircase”)  Julia Garner (“Inventing Anna”)  Lily James (“Pam and Tommy”)  Sarah Paulson (“Impeachment: American Crime Story”)Margaret Qualley (“Maid”)  Amanda Seyfried (“The Dropout”)  
Variety Talk Series”The Daily Show With Trevor Noah” (Comedy Central)  “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” (ABC)  “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver” (HBO)  “Late Night With Seth Meyers” (NBC)  “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” (CBS)  
Competition Program”The Amazing Race” (CBS)  “Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrls” (Amazon Prime Video)  “Nailed It!” (Netflix)  “RuPaul’s Drag Race” (VH1)  “Top Chef” (Bravo)  “The Voice” (NBC)  
Television Movie”Chip ‘n’ Dale: Rescue Rangers” (Disney+)”Ray Donovan: The Movie” (Showtime)”Reno 911!: The Hunt For QAnon” (Paramount+)”The Survivor” (HBO/HBO Max)”Zoey’s Extraordinary Christmas” (The Roku Channel)
Supporting Actress in a Drama SeriesPatricia Arquette (“Severance”)Julia Garner (“Ozark”)Jung Ho-yeon (“Squid Game”)Christina Ricci (“Yellowjackets”)Rhea Seehorn (“Better Call Saul”)J. Smith-Cameron (“Succession”)Sarah Snook (“Succession”)Sydney Sweeney (“Euphoria”)
Supporting Actor in a Drama SeriesNicholas Braun (“Succession”)Billy Crudup (“The Morning Show”)Kieran Culkin (“Succession”)Park Hae-soo (“Squid Game”)Matthew Macfadyen (“Succession”)John Turturro (“Severance”)Christopher Walken (“Severance”)Oh Yeong-su (“Squid Game”)

Still from AppleTV+’s “Severance.”

Supporting Actress in a Comedy SeriesAlex Borstein (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”)Hannah Einbinder (“Hacks”)Janelle James (“Abbott Elementary”)Kate McKinnon (“Saturday Night Live”)Sarah Niles (“Ted Lasso”)Sheryl Lee Ralph (“Abbott Elementary”)Juno Temple (“Ted Lasso”)Hannah Waddingham (“Ted Lasso”)
Supporting Actor in a Comedy SeriesAnthony Carrigan (“Barry”)Brett Goldstein (“Ted Lasso”)Toheeb Jimoh (“Ted Lasso”)Nick Mohammed (“Ted Lasso”)Tony Shalhoub (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”)Tyler James Williams (“Abbott Elementary”)Henry Winkler (“Barry”)Bowen Yang (“Saturday Night Live”)
Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or MovieConnie Britton (“The White Lotus”)Jennifer Coolidge (“The White Lotus”)Alexandra Daddario (“The White Lotus”)Kaitlyn Dever (“Dopesick”)Natasha Rothwell (“The White Lotus”)Sydney Sweeney (“The White Lotus”)Mare Winningham (“Dopesick)
Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or MovieMurray Bartlett (“The White Lotus”)Jake Lacy (“The White Lotus”)Will Poulter (“Dopesick”)Seth Rogen (“Pam & Tommy”)Peter Sarsgaard (“Dopesick”)Michael Stuhlbarg (“Dopesick”)Steve Zahn (“The White Lotus”)
Variety Sketch Series”A Black Lady Sketch Show” (HBO/HBO Max)”Saturday Night Live” (NBC)
Competition Program”The Amazing Race” (CBS)”Lizzo’s Watch Out For The Big Grrrls” (Prime Video)”Nailed It!” (Netflix)”RuPaul’s Drag Race” (VH1)”Top Chef” (Bravo)”The Voice” (NBC)
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC.

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“Despite hype as digital gold, cryptocurrencies have failed to demonstrate either ‘safe haven’ or inflation-fighting properties when faced with actual market volatility or the first real bout of serious inflation in developed markets.”
“Cryptocurrencies remain deeply problematic from an environmental, social and governance perspective.”
“A digital dollar, euro or sterling would provide all the functionality of stablecoins — but with almost no liquidity or credit risk.”

More than a third of millennials and half of Generation Z would be happy to receive 50% of their salary in cryptocurrencies, revealed a study.
Srdjanpav | E+ | Getty Images

With more than $1 trillion in cryptocurrency value wiped out since the 2021 high-water mark, many investors may be tempted to enter the cryptocurrency orbit at a potentially attractive, lower price point.
After all, previous dramatic drawdowns in cryptocurrency valuations have been followed by explosive growth — and all this volatility could be justified as the expectedly bumpy price discovery process of an important brand-new asset class.

However, the most profound risks to cryptocurrency investing may lie ahead, rather than in the rear-view mirror. Investors contemplating a long-term allocation to cryptocurrencies should remain wary for five primary reasons.

1. Bitcoin’s risk-adjusted return has been ‘unremarkable’

After a dazzling first decade, bitcoin has become a somewhat troubled teenager. In its heady early days, bitcoin had near-zero correlation with broad equities and commodities, providing the potential for true portfolio diversification.
However, as cryptocurrency investing has become more mainstream, and especially since 2020, bitcoin’s correlation with U.S. equities and bonds has spiked sharply and remained consistently positive.

That might be fine if bitcoin offered spectacular risk-adjusted returns as compensation. Unfortunately, recent empirical evidence shows otherwise: Since 2018, bitcoin’s risk-adjusted return has been quite unremarkable compared to equities and bonds.

2. Crypto ‘safe haven’ properties remain unproven

Despite all the hype as digital gold, cryptocurrencies have failed to demonstrate either “safe haven” or inflation-fighting properties when faced with actual market volatility or the first real bout of serious inflation in developed markets.

Between 2010 and 2022, bitcoin recorded 27 episodes of drawdowns of 25% or more. By comparison, equities and commodities recorded just one each. Even in the pandemic-related market selloff of March 2020, bitcoin suffered significantly deeper drawdowns than conventional asset classes like equities or bonds.
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Similarly, while the fixed supply of bitcoin — hardcoded into its blockchain — might imply a resistance to monetary debasement, in the recent episodes of elevated global inflation, bitcoin has provided limited inflation protection with prices tumbling even as inflation spikes in the U.S., U.K. and Europe.

3. Cryptocurrencies conflict with ESG goals

Cryptocurrencies remain deeply problematic from an environmental, social and governance, or ESG, perspective. That’s true even if the transition from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake that blockchain-based software platform ethereum is spearheading reduces the massive energy consumption underpinning crypto mining and validation.
Environmentally, bitcoin — which represents more than 40% of current cryptocurrency market cap — will continue to use a validation process where a single transaction requires enough energy to power the average American home for two months.
Socially, cryptocurrencies’ promise of financial inclusiveness also appears overblown, with crypto wealth as unequally distributed as conventional wealth, and with simple phone-based payment services such as M-Pesa in Kenya or Grameen Bank’s international remittance pilots in Bangladesh already providing a digital platform for underbanked households — without the need for a new currency or payment infrastructure.

Most troublingly for investors with ESG goals, however, are the governance issues with cryptocurrencies whose decentralized frameworks and anonymity make them especially attractive for illicit activity, money laundering and sanction evasion.
The increased trading between ruble and cryptocurrencies following sanctions on Russia after the Ukraine war suggest that the evasion of financial sanctions is not just a theoretical concern. Market manipulation is another area of governance concern, especially with celebrity crypto influencers who can send market prices soaring or tumbling with impunity.

4. Stablecoins ‘could well be made redundant’

Even putting aside the recent implosion of the Terra stablecoin, the surviving universe of stablecoins face a potentially existential risk: They could well be made redundant once central bank digital currencies, also called CBDCs, become commonplace. This is because a digital dollar, euro or sterling would provide all the functionality of stablecoins — but with almost no liquidity or credit risk.
In other words, even if stablecoins transformed from their current status as unregulated money market funds (with limited transparency into or auditing of reserves) into regulated digital tokens, they would afford no benefit over CBDCs. Importantly, these central bank digital currencies may not a distant prospect. China has already launched an electronic currency known as the digital yuan, or e-CNY.

The Fed released a long-awaited study on a digital dollar at the start of 2022, and the ECB will share its findings on the viability of a digital euro in 2023.

5. Patchwork regulation creates uncertainty

Finally, a lack of clear and uniform cryptocurrency regulation — both within and across countries — creates tremendous uncertainty for long-term investors. It is still unclear in the U.S., for example, when a cryptocurrency falls under the regulatory framework of a security subject to Securities and Exchange Commission regulations and when it is deemed to be an asset or commodity like bitcoin and ether have claimed.
Indeed, in some countries, cryptocurrencies are facing outright prohibition. China’s abrupt banning of all cryptocurrency trading and mining in 2021 is a prominent example, but by no means the only one. Regulators have also been concerned with the notable and repeated breakdowns in the infrastructure supporting cryptocurrency mining and trading — another area where there remains significant regulatory uncertainty.
Of course, momentum, retail speculation, and the “fear of missing out” may continue to drive up the short-term price of bitcoin, ether and other cryptocurrencies. But there are enough dark clouds on the cryptocurrency horizon that long-term investors may want to observe carefully from the sidelines to better understand fact vs. fiction and true value versus social media hype before deciding how, where and if to invest in the crypto ecosystem.
— By Taimur Hyat, chief operating officer of PGIM.

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The omicron BA.5 subvariant is more transmissible than previous versions of Covid, resulting in a wave of infections and increased hospitalizations.
But the number of hospitalizations and deaths are still much lower than the winter wave.
BA.5 is better at evading the protection from vaccines, which means more people are getting mild illness, but the shots are still protecting against severe disease.
BA.5 does not appear to be more severe than past omicron subvariants, U.S. health officials said.
People who caught past omicron variants are likely still susceptible to infection from BA.5.

Medical staff treat coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patient Frank Clark in his room on an isolated medical unit floor at Western Reserve Hospital in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, January 5, 2022.
Shannon Stapleton | Reuters

People hospitalized with Covid-19 have doubled since early May as the even more transmissible omicron BA.5 subvariant has caused another wave of infection across the country, U.S. health officials said Tuesday.
But deaths from Covid still remain relatively low given the number of infections right now, the officials said. Dr. Ashish Jha, who coordinates the Biden administration’s Covid response, said deaths from the virus are not increasing at the same rate they once did due to the availability of vaccines and the antiviral treatment Paxlovid.

“Even in the face of BA.5, the tools we have continue to work. We are at a point in the pandemic where most Covid-19 deaths are preventable,” Jha told reporters during a pandemic update Tuesday. But he said the number of deaths still remains unacceptably high given the fact that the U.S. has vaccines and treatments to prevent the worst outcomes.
More than 16,600 total patients were hospitalized with Covid across the U.S. as of Saturday, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Currently, an average of more than 5,000 people have been admitted to the hospital with Covid every day compared with an average of more than 2,000 daily admissions for the week ended May 1, according to the CDC.

The U.S. is currently reporting an average of nearly 104,000 Covid infections per day as of Sunday which is almost double the number of reported cases at the start of May, according to the data. White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said the reported infections are clearly an undercount because many people are using at-home tests that aren’t reflected in the data. Fauci said the real number of cases might be anywhere between 300,000 and 500,000 new infections a day.
Deaths from the virus have remained relatively low at about 280 fatalities a day on average as of Sunday, according to CDC data. At the height of the winter omicron wave, an average of nearly 2,700 people were dying from Covid a day.
“The ratio of hospitalization, ICU and death to cases is much lower now than it was many months ago,” Fauci said.

The omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants now make up 80% of Covid infections across the U.S., with BA.5 emerging as the dominant version of the virus. Fauci said BA.5 is more transmissible than past variants and it substantially evades the protective antibodies triggered by vaccines, but the shots are still generally protecting against severe disease. In other words, people who are fully vaccinated might get infected and have mild to moderate symptoms, but they are unlikely to be hospitalized and even more unlikely to die from Covid.
Fauci said BA.5 doesn’t appear to carry a great risk of severe disease compared with other omicron subvariants. But as cases increase due to its greater transmissibility, some people will end up in the hospital or ICU, he said.
People who caught the previous omicron variants, BA.1 and BA.2, are likely still at risk of infection from BA.4 and BA.5, according Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC. Walensky said the current omicron wave will likely play out differently around the country depending on how much immunity communities have from vaccination, boosting and prior infection.
Jha encouraged all Americans to stay up to date on their shots and said people ages 50 and older should get their fourth dose. He also said people who test positive should consult with their health-care provider about receiving Paxlovid, Pfizer’s oral antiviral treatment. People should also consider getting tested for Covid before attending any large indoor events or visiting with individuals who are at high risk like people with weak immune systems.
The Biden administration is also discussing whether the broader population should be eligible for a second booster shot, though that decision ultimately rests with the Food and Drug Administration and the CDC, Jha said. The FDA told the vaccine makers last month to change the formula in their shots to target the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants, as well as the original virus strain that first emerged in Wuhan, China, ahead of a possible fall booster campaign.
U.S. health officials are worried the country faces another major surge in infection this fall as immunity from the vaccines wanes and people spend more time indoors to escape the colder weather. Jha said the U.S. has placed one order with Pfizer for 105 million doses of the updated vaccine. The U.S. is also in discussions with other companies for additional shots, he said.
“Obviously, that will not be enough for all Americans,” said Jha, who has repeatedly warned that the U.S. might have to ration vaccines to those who face the highest risk from the virus this fall if Congress does not approve more funding for the pandemic response.
Negotiations over a Covid funding package have been stalled for months over Republican opposition to the White House’s original $22.5 billion price tag. The Senate struck a bipartisan deal for $10 billion to buy vaccines and treatments, but that package has stalled as GOP lawmakers and some Democrats demand the Biden administration reimplement a pandemic-era public health law that deported asylum seekers and other migrants attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border.

CNBC Health & Science

Read CNBC’s latest global health coverage:

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The World Health Organization will hold an emergency meeting next week to decide whether to declare monkeypox a global health emergency.
The U.N. agency reported on Tuesday that there are now 9,200 cases of monkeypox across 63 countries.
Most people during this most recent outbreak are recovering from monkeypox in two to four weeks, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Health officer uses a thermal head to detect a monkeypox virus on arriving passengers at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang near Jakarta, Indonesia on May 15, 2019.
Jepayona Delita | Future Publishing | Getty Images

The World Health Organization said Tuesday that it will convene a second emergency meeting next week to decide if monkeypox poses a global health threat as cases rise to 9,200.
The U.N. agency declined last month to declare a global emergency in response to monkeypox. But as infections have risen substantially over the last several weeks, the organization is expected to consider whether to issue its highest alert when the emergency committee reconvenes next week.

“The emergency committee for monkeypox will reconvene next week and look at trends, how effective the countermeasures are, and make recommendations” to countries and communities confronting the outbreak, the WHO’s director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said in a virtual press conference.
The WHO did not say which day or days the committee will be meeting in emergency session.
About 9,200 cases of monkeypox have been reported across 63 countries so far this year, up from just over 6,000 as of July 4, the agency said. Three deaths from the virus have been reported this year.

Most people during this most recent outbreak are recovering from monkeypox in two to four weeks, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But the virus causes a painful rash that can spread all over the body. People who have caught the virus said the rash, which looks like pimples or blisters, can be very painful.
The WHO last issued a global health emergency in January 2020 in response to the Covid-19 outbreak and the following March declared it a pandemic. There’s no official process for the WHO to declare a pandemic under its emergency regulations, which means the term is loosely defined. In 2020, the agency declared Covid a pandemic in an effort to warn complacent governments about the “alarming levels of spread and severity” of the virus.

In contrast to Covid, monkeypox is not a new virus. Scientists first discovered monkeypox in 1958 in captive monkeys used for research and confirmed the first case of a human infected with the virus in 1970 in the nation of Zaire, now called the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Monkeypox is in the same virus family as smallpox, though it causes milder disease. The WHO and national health agencies have decades of experience fighting smallpox, which was declared eradicated in 1980. The successful fight against smallpox could provide health officials with important knowledge to combat monkeypox.
The current monkeypox outbreak is highly unusual because it is spreading widely in North American and European nations where the virus is not usually found. Europe is the global epicenter of the outbreak, reporting more than 80% of confirmed infections worldwide in 2022. The U.S. has reported more than 760 cases across 37 states, Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico.
Historically, monkeypox has spread at low levels in remote parts of West and Central Africa where rodents and other animals carried the virus. Transmission between people was relatively rare in the past, with the virus normally jumping from animals to humans. The WHO has said the international community did not invest enough resources in fighting monkeypox in Africa before the current outbreak.

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The strong U.S. dollar is a drag against technology brands in an environment already battered by fierce macro headwinds, ServiceNow CEO Bill McDermott told CNBC’s Jim Cramer.
“No one’s going to outrun the currency right now,” he said in an interview that aired on “Mad Money” after the closing bell on Monday.
Shares of ServiceNow fell 12% on Tuesday after McDermott’s comments.

The strong U.S. dollar is a drag against technology brands in an environment already battered by fierce macro headwinds, ServiceNow CEO Bill McDermott told CNBC’s Jim Cramer.
“You’re at 41-year high inflation. The dollar right now is the highest it’s been in over two decades. We have interest rates rising. People worried about security. You’ve got a war in Europe. So, the mood is not great,” McDermott said in an interview that aired on “Mad Money” after the closing bell on Monday.

“You’re going to see the headwind of the dollar right now against well-known technology brands,” the CEO added. “No one’s going to outrun the currency right now.”
Shares of ServiceNow, which helps companies and organizations digitize their workflows, fell 13% on Tuesday after McDermott’s comments, which were meant as an overall industry observation, not ServiceNow-specific news due to the company being in a quiet period ahead of reporting its latest quarterly earnings on July 27.

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Tech stocks have been roiled in a stock market that’s contended with geopolitical turmoil, high inflation, the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes and Covid-driven shutdowns in China. Several tech giants are expected to report their quarterly earnings in the next month or so, setting the tone for the rest of the industry. 
However, McDermott remained adamant that tech companies are the key to helping the U.S. economy weather and push through this turbulent environment.
“When you think about energy, and the dislocation caused by the war in Europe, and this reprioritization I’m talking about, you’re going to see longer cycles [to close deals] in Europe. We saw that,” McDermott said. “But this doesn’t fundamentally change the narrative that tech is the only way to cut through the crosswinds.”

The reprioritization he’s referring to is the increase in demand for a fast return-on-investment — another symptom of cautiousness in the current environment.
“There’s a new level or prioritization in the enterprise. And I have seen this, actually since we last met, Jim, hitting a new gear. Where companies are first saying ‘which platforms do we want to bet on,'” and then try to sort their priorities, McDermott said.
“There’s one filter on all of this now. And that is fast return on investment. And if you can’t put an architecture in there that gives the customer a fast ROI, chances are, you’re going to get postponed,” he added.
Stifel said in a note on Tuesday that it believes the company is “likely” to lower their expectations when it reports earnings, citing McDermott’s comments on reprioritization. The investment bank also expects other companies across the industry to follow suit in the coming weeks.

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When I created my money and lifestyle blog Making Sense of Cents in 2011, I had no idea what I was doing.
I was a 22-year-old financial analyst making $40,000 a year and struggling to pay off my student loans. But my debt was actually a large part of why I started blogging — I wanted to track and share the progress of my financial goals.

Eleven years later, Making Sense has grown beyond my wildest dreams. Over the last five years, I’ve grossed an average of $760,000 per year in passive income by providing advice on how to start investing, which financial products to use, and how to tackle other money decisions.
My husband and I have reached financial independence, and we’ve saved enough to retire whenever we want. This has allowed me to live my ideal lifestyle: I work just 10 hours a week and travel full-time on our sailboat. I am regularly out snorkeling, exploring and hiking.
Best of all, we have plenty of time to spend with our six-month-old daughter.

Michelle’s passive income allows her and her family to live and travel full-time on their sailboat, where they have limited access to internet.
Photo: Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

How I started my financial blog

Making Sense began as a hobby, but about six months into writing, my friend connected me with a company that wanted me to write a sponsored post for them. They paid me $100 to reach my 50,000 monthly site visitors.
After that, I started studying other bloggers who made money off their blogs. I posted more frequently and set up display advertisements on my website. I also continued writing sponsored posts by reaching out to brands that I saw other bloggers working with.

In just two years, I was earning around $5,000 to $10,000 per month — more than what I was making at my day job. Once I fully paid off my student loans in 2013, I decided to quit my job and blog full-time.
For the first few years, I focused on the blogging element of my business and published new posts almost every day. I posted guest articles on my friends’ blogs, too.
Then I doubled down on my social media presence. Now I have 110,000 followers on Facebook, where I post multiple times a day, and 161,000 followers on Pinterest, where I post about twice a week. I also have over 130,000 email subscribers.
Over the years, I’ve leveraged my audience to create several passive income streams. And in 2016, I launched my first blogging course. Today, I write and publish blogs just once or twice a week, and I have earned over $4,000,000 gross revenue in the last five years.

Working only 10 hours per week has allowed Michelle to spend more time in nature with her family.
Photo: Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

How I make $760,000 a year in passive income

Making passive income from a blog doesn’t mean that you never have to work. You are always going to have to manage the accounting side of your business, maintain your website, and create fresh content. But you can do a lot of work upfront and earn money for years with little maintenance.
I have three main passive income drivers: affiliate marketing, course sales and display advertising.
Affiliate marketing commissions make up about 50% of my revenue. I’m paid when I direct traffic or sales to partner brands through links on my blog — including on posts that were created months or years ago and are still discoverable via Google, my social media channels, and my blog.
About 20% of my revenue comes from course sales. I have two blogging courses that I sell to my blog audience and email subscribers: Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing and Making Sense of Sponsored Posts.
I created my first course on Teachable and did all of the planning, writing and recording work. I commissioned the graphic design elements to freelancers.
I sell Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing for $197 and Making Sense of Sponsored Posts for $159, both cost much less than what my competitors charge. Nonetheless, I have earned over $1,000,000 over the years from these two courses.
I also make passive income through display advertising commissions through Adthrive. I’m paid when readers see or click an auto-generated ad on my blog.

My top tips for earning passive income

I’m always trying to increase my passive income. On top of blogging, my husband and I invest in both individual stocks and investment accounts to add our retirement fund.
Since I live and travel on a sailboat, there’s not always reliable internet. So without passive income drivers, my family and I wouldn’t be able to enjoy this wonderful nomadic lifestyle.

Michelle and her husband travel full-time on their sailboat with their daughter.
Photo: Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

Here are my top tips for creating content that can help you earn passive income:
1. Write like you talk.
On Making Sense, I discuss financial topics using language that’s easy to read and understand. People walk away feeling like they’ve learned something instead of feeling patronized or confused. This makes them more likely to return or to share my blog with their friends.
Make sure your social media language is engaging and personable, too. A good trick is to write as if you’re casually talking to a friend over coffee.
2. Diversify your income streams.
Affiliate marketing, display advertising and digital product sales are some of your best bets for making passive income.
Diversifying your income streams allows you to not be reliant on just one way of making money or just one of your traffic sources. Instead, you will have balanced income streams to mitigate risk.
3. Post consistently.
While your old blogs can earn you income for years down the line, it’s still a good idea to keep generating fresh content. This helps you attract new readers or followers while also maintaining your loyal ones (who don’t want to see the same stuff over and over).
4. Be as helpful as possible.
The goal is to make people want to come back to your blog. You want them to trust you enough to buy a course or affiliated product that you recommended.
Ask readers what they want to read more of or what questions they have. Conduct your own research on what’s trending for fresh ideas. Include actionable tips that they can use right away. And lastly, only promote and sell products that you personally believe in.
Michelle Schroeder-Gardner is the founder of Making Sense of Cents, where she helps readers make smart decisions about how to earn, save, spend and invest. She paid off nearly $40,000 in student loan debt in just seven months and now travels full-time with her family on sailboat. Follow her on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest.
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