Economy

SAN DIEGO (Reuters) – Seven months into a crackdown by the city of San Diego on homeless encampments, many of the tents that once lined downtown sidewalks are gone.Now two California state senators – a Republican and a Democrat – have joined forces to propose a statewide version of San Diego’s ordinance, which allows police to roust many homeless people even when shelter is unavailable.But advocates for homeless people said the enforcement strategy has merely chased the homeless onto riverbanks and other unseen places, as the number of shelter beds still fails to meet demand.The debate reflects growing urgency, as polls show homelessness and affordable housing as two of the most important issues to California voters. The state has spent more than $20 billion on housing and homelessness programs since the 2018-19 fiscal year but still has more than 180,000 homeless people.The U.S. Supreme Court is set to weigh in. The justices are scheduled to hear arguments on April 22 in a case from Oregon that may determine the legality of enforcing anti-camping laws and other regulations affecting homeless people when there is nowhere for them to go.The justices will hear an appeal by the city of Grants Pass in southern Oregon of a lower court’s ruling that found that local ordinances that outlawed camping on sidewalks, streets, parks or other public places violate the U.S. Constitution’s Eighth Amendment prohibition against “cruel and unusual” punishment. A ruling is expected by the end of June.SHOPPING CARTS AND DUFFLE BAGSHomeless people still congregate in downtown San Diego, pushing their possessions in shopping carts or sitting on duffle bags, awaiting city services such as referrals for shelter, food or clothing, or mental health and substance abuse treatment. The city has about 6,500 homeless people, according to a census conducted a year ago. About half found some kind of roof, but that still left 3,285 in the street.Homeless advocate Michael McConnell said a game of Whac-A-Mole has emerged, with politicians who failed to provide affordable housing now resorting to police force.”It hasn’t solved homelessness, it’s just scattered homelessness,” said McConnell, a former vice chair of the board of the Regional Task Force on Homelessness, an organization that administers public funding for shelters and other services.McConnell sold his coin shop business in 2018 to dedicate his time to the issue.San Diego in June 2023 passed the Unsafe Camping Ordinance with a 5-4 vote on a city council made up entirely of Democrats, allowing police to enforce camping laws at transit hubs, parks or within two blocks of a school or shelter, regardless of whether beds are available.It is an example of bipartisan agreement to prioritize enforcement, despite a consensus among government officials and advocates that a better solution is more affordable housing.Democrats including California Governor Gavin Newsom had asked the conservative-majority Supreme Court to take up the Oregon case. In a brief, Newsom said rulings by the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals against measures in Grants Pass and Boise, Idaho, have “paralyzed” efforts to address unsafe and unsanitary encampments.’TWO LEFT SHOES’In the meantime, San Diego is enforcing its law. Other municipalities have faced civil lawsuits challenging camping bans by plaintiffs, citing the Grants Pass and Boise rulings.A San Diego homeless man who identified himself as Brother Shine said that as a result of the city’s enforcement efforts he is constantly being asked to move along, even if just around the corner.”That’s as wrong as two left shoes. It doesn’t make a lick of sense to Brother Shine,” he said shortly after an encounter with two uniformed police officers.A monthly survey by a business alliance shows the number of homeless people in downtown San Diego peaked at 2,104 in May 2023, before the law took effect on July 31. By December the number had fallen to 846, though it picked up to 1,019 in January, according to the survey.Advocate McConnell said many people are simply pushed outside the boundaries of where the survey is taken.San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria, a Democrat, acknowledged that some homeless people are just relocating, but said the city was putting more in contact with services.The city funds 1,856 shelter beds, nearly double the number when he took office in 2021, Gloria said. In addition, last year the city opened 533 tents for singles or couples at two safe sleeping sites, plus 233 safe parking places where people can sleep in their cars, according to the mayor’s office.”I’m an evangelist for housing,” Gloria told Reuters, saying his goal was to add another 1,000 shelter beds in 2024 and further streamline bureaucracy to expedite the construction of permanent housing.Republican state Senator Brian Jones introduced the homelessness bill, which was co-authored by Democrat Catherine Blakespear.Jones called the proposal one step toward a solution.”We want to get people off the streets and into permanent housing,” Jones said.Blakespear said dealing with homelessness should be treated as an emergency while long-term solutions are pursued.”I want to be able to walk on the sidewalk,” Blakespear said. “I live here in Sacramento, about seven blocks from the Capitol, and I don’t always feel comfortable walking home.” More

The former prime minister, who died this week, brought dramatic changes, good and bad, to the country’s economy with the pact.Brian Mulroney first led the Progressive Conservatives to power while I was early in my career as a journalist. But his political life was never something that I covered in any great detail. His decision to negotiate a free trade agreement with the United States transformed Canada’s economic history and did, however, consume much of my work life for several years.Brian Mulroney’s move toward closer economic ties with the United States was polarizing among Canadians.Justin Tang/The Canadian Press, via Associated PressMr. Mulroney died on Thursday at 84 at a hospital in Florida after falling at his home there. Alan Cowell has written a sweeping obituary of Mr. Mulroney that documents his many significant achievements but also the allegations of financial misdoing and influence peddling that followed his time in office. Those allegations tarnished his reputation, even among former supporters, and contributed to the eventual demise of the federal Progressive Conservative Party.[Read: Brian Mulroney, Prime Minister Who Led Canada Into NAFTA, Dies at 84]I reported on the free trade negotiations mainly from Washington. In contrast with Canada, where it often seemed as though every molecule of political and public debate was consumed by the talks, the negotiations barely registered there.Nothing in my professional experience polarized Canadians as much as Mr. Mulroney’s move toward closer economic integration with the United States. Whatever the economic advantages of free trade, Canadian industry at the time largely consisted of often inefficient branch plants producing a limited range of products to escape import tariffs that were as high as 33 percent on manufactured goods. Workers in those factories, and the communities that depended on them, were rightly worried that shipments from their parent companies’ larger and more efficient U.S. plants would sweep away their jobs under free trade.(The auto industry was the exception. In 1965, Canada and the United States entered into a deal that allowed American cars to enter Canada tariff-free in exchange for continued production in Canada, most of which was then shipped to the United States.)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

I have covered economics for 11 years now, and in that time, I have come to the realization that I am a statistic. Every time I make a major life choice, I promptly watch it become the thing that everyone is doing that year.I started college in 2009, in the era of all-time-high matriculation rates. When I moved to a big coastal city after graduation, so did a huge crowd of people: It was the age of millennial urbanization. When I lived in a walk-in closet so that I could pay off my student loans (“The yellow paint makes it cheerful!”, Craigslist promised), student debt had recently overtaken auto loans and credit cards as the biggest source of borrowing outside of housing in America.My partner and I bought a house in 2021, along with (seemingly and actually) a huge chunk of the rest of the country. We married in 2022, the year of many, many weddings. The list goes on.I am no simple crowd follower. What I am is 32, about to be 33 in a few weeks.And there are so many of us.If demographics are destiny, the demographic born in 1990 and 1991 was destined to compete for housing, jobs and other resources. Those two birth years, the people set to turn 33 and 34 in 2024, make up the peak of America’s population.As the biggest part of the biggest generation, this hyper-specific age group — call us what you will, but I like “peak millennials” — has moved through the economy like a person squeezing into a too-small sweater. At every life stage, it has stretched a system that was often too small to accommodate it, leaving it somewhat flabby and misshapen in its wake. My cohort has an outsized amount of economic power, but that has sometimes made life harder for us.Early 30-Somethings Are EverywhereIn 2022, America had 4.75 million 32-year-olds and 4.74 million 31-year-olds, the largest two ages by population.

Source: U.S. Census BureauBy 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

A looming union election at a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga could determine the trajectory of union organizing at more than a dozen auto factories.When Shawn Fain, the United Automobile Workers president, unveiled the deal that ended six weeks of strikes at Ford Motor in the fall, he framed it as part of a longer campaign. Next, he declared, would be the task of organizing nonunion plants across the country.“One of our biggest goals coming out of this historic contract victory is to organize like we’ve never organized before,” he said at the time. “When we return to the bargaining table in 2028, it won’t just be with the Big Three. It will be the Big Five or Big Six.”Four months later, the first test of that strategy has come into focus, and it features a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tenn.According to the union, more than half of over 4,000 eligible workers have signed cards indicating support for a union. Workers say they have done so because they want higher pay, more paid time off and more generous health benefits — and because the recent strikes at Ford, General Motors and Stellantis persuaded them that a union can help win these concessions.“The Big Three, they had their big campaign, and their big strike and vote, and new contracts — we paid attention to that very closely,” said Yolanda Peoples, who has worked at the Volkswagen plant for nearly 13 years.The Volkswagen plant announced an 11 percent pay increase shortly after the strikes at the Big Three. The raise brought the top hourly wage for production workers to $32.40, but the comparable wage for the Detroit automakers will exceed $40 by the end of the new contracts. (Volkswagen said the wage adjustment was part of a yearly review.)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

Los compradores de comestibles están notando algo raro. Bolsas de papas fritas llenas de aire. Latas de sopa que se han encogido. Paquetes de detergente más pequeños.Las empresas están reduciendo el tamaño de sus productos sin reducir los precios, y los comentarios de los consumidores, desde Reddit a TikTok, pasando por la sección de comentarios de The New York Times, rebosan indignación por esta tendencia, conocida como reduflación (shrinkflation en inglés).La práctica no es nueva. Los vendedores llevan siglos reduciendo discretamente los productos para evitar subir los precios, y los expertos creen que ha sido una obvia estrategia corporativa al menos desde 1988, cuando la marca Chock Full o’Nuts redujo su bote de café de 455 gramos a 368 gramos y sus competidores siguieron el ejemplo.Pero la indignación hoy es más pronunciada. El presidente Joe Biden se hizo eco del enojo en un video reciente. (“Lo que más rabia me da es que los envases de helado han disminuido de tamaño, pero no de precio”, lamentó). Las propias empresas explotan esta práctica con trucos publicitarios. Una cadena canadiense presentó una pizza growflation . (“En términos de pizza”, bromeaba el comunicado de prensa de la empresa, “una tajada más grande”).Pero, ¿cómo funciona la reduflación desde el punto de vista económico? ¿Sucede con más frecuencia en Estados Unidos y, si es así, significa que los datos oficiales no reflejan el verdadero alcance de la inflación? A continuación te explicamos la tendencia y lo que significa para tu bolsillo.La reduflación fue galopante en 2016Puede resultar difícil de creer, pero la reduflación parece estar ocurriendo con menos frecuencia hoy que hace unos años.Los mayores efectos de la reduflaciónCuando los productos encogen, aumentan la inflación. Estos bienes experimentaron el mayor aumento de precios por la reduflación.

.dw-chart-subhed {
line-height: 1;
margin-bottom: 6px;
font-family: nyt-franklin;
color: #121212;
font-size: 15px;
font-weight: 700;
}

Variación de precios de enero de 2019 a octubre de 2023
Fuente: Oficina de Estadísticas Laborales de EE. UU.Por 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

Milei, speaking to lawmakers in a state-of-the-union style address, laid out several of the proposals in the new package, which also seems to be wide-ranging. Milei said he would propose limiting terms of labor union heads – with whom the libertarian has clashed – and that he will cut benefits to politicians convicted of the crime of corruption for a second time.The political outsider took office in December looking to take a “chainsaw” to the country’s status quo as the nation faces economic crisis.Inflation over 250%, which predates Milei but rose after he devalued the peso currency sharply in December, has pushed up poverty levels seen nearing 60%, raising tensions among workers and unions, and prompting more strikes and protests.Milei on Friday also directly addressed lawmakers, telling them he would try to change policy with or without their support.The president, pausing frequently amid cheers from his bloc, told Congress that if they opposed him, they would face a “different type of animal.” More

NEW YORK (Reuters) -As fervor for artificial intelligence sweeps Wall Street, some investors are seeking bargains in more conventional areas of the stock market.Value stocks, typically defined as companies trading at a discount on metrics such as book value or price-to-earnings, have largely been left behind as AI put a charge into their growth-focused peers. However, gains in some value-heavy sectors such as industrials and materials have accelerated lately. Proponents believe that’s a sign that the rally in the benchmark S&P 500 index is broadening beyond a handful of tech and growth names.“There’s clearly an investment case for value stocks over the long term,” said Que Nguyen, chief investment officer of equities at Research Affiliates. “These companies are still very, very cheap and many of them have already gone through the difficult process of restructuring their businesses and balance sheets.”The S&P 500 is up 7.7% in 2024 and stands at a record high. The S&P 500 Value Index is up 3.3% year-to-date, lagging the 11.6% gain in the S&P 500 Growth Index. Yet some value-heavy sector have shown signs of life in recent weeks. The S&P 500 industrial sector rose 7.1% last month, driven by rallies in General Electric (NYSE:GE) and Howmet Aerospace. The broader index gained 5.8% in that period. The materials sector gained 6.7% in February, led by Vulcan Materials (NYSE:VMC) and Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) . Consumer discretionary, home of recent gainers such as Chiptole Mexican Grill and Ralph Lauren (NYSE:RL), rose nearly 9%. One major draw: value stocks are relatively cheap compared to the rest of the market. The health care sector trades at 18.9 times forward earnings with energy trading at a 12.2 multiple, much less than the 20.8 forward earnings for the S&P 500 after a rally lifted the benchmark 42% from its October 2022 lows. Michael Hunstad, Northern Trust (NASDAQ:NTRS) Asset Management’s deputy chief investment officer and head of global equities, believes multiples have grown too steep for the S&P 500 and the so-called Magnificent Seven group of growth and technology stocks that have led its rally. Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA)’s drop of nearly 20% this year illustrates how quickly such stocks can reverse, he said.”We expect to see more risk to the downside for multiples, particularly among the Mag 7,” said Hunstad, who has been increasing his positions in value-focused sectors such as healthcare and energy.Hunstad also believes value stocks could better weather a prolonged period of elevated interest rates than growth names, as their cash flows are shorter-term and less sensitive to borrowing costs. While investors still expect the Fed to cut rates this year, they have reduced expectations for how quickly and deeply the central bank will cut rates, as a stronger-than-expected economy could reignite inflation if monetary policy eases too soon. Next week’s congressional testimony from Fed Chairman Jerome Powell could shed light on policymakers’ views. Investors are also awaiting U.S. employment data next Friday.Betting against growth stocks has been dangerous over the last decade, when searing rallies in shares of companies such as Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Google-parent Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) led markets higher. The S&P 500 Value index is up about 110% over the last 10 years, compared with a nearly 235% gain in the S&P 500 Growth index. Broader sentiment toward value has waned, by some measures. A net 13% of fund managers polled by BofA Global Research expect growth stocks to outperform value names over the next year, the highest conviction level since May 2020. Still, some strategists argue the productivity gains promised by AI could lift all boats long-term, benefiting value stocks as well as growth shares.Robert Robotti, chief investment officer of Robotti & Company, believes value stocks are likely to see the largest efficiency gains from adopting AI, bolstering their margins and pushing up valuations. He has increased his stake in industrial and healthcare stocks as a result.”The application of AI is going to be across the entire company and that’s not limited to the guy selling the chip,” Robotti said. “It’s the guy buying the chip and increasing his efficiency who is going to benefit.” More

ABU DHABI (Reuters) – World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiators failed to break a deadlock on major reforms in the early hours of Saturday despite talks extending deep into overtime in Abu Dhabi, in what some delegates said was a triumph of national interest over collective responsibility.Here is a summary of what was achieved and what was not:E-COMMERCE- Countries agreed to extend a moratorium on placing tariffs on digital goods until the next ministerial conference in two years’ time. Then the deal is set to expire at the start of that meeting, requiring more extensive negotiations.- Several countries, including India and South Africa, were opposed to the extension of a moratorium on e-commerce backed by the vast majority of countries and seen as vital to businesses to avoid tariffs on digital goods like film downloads.- On the plus side, a draft programme has been agreed for future work beyond Abu Dhabi.DISPUTE SETTLEMENT- Countries agreed to commit to continue negotiations in 2024 to try to resolve a crisis in its dispute settlement system whose top court has been hobbled for four years due to U.S. opposition.- This means many trade disputes are unresolved since countries can appeal them into a legal void and the WTO’s rules cannot be enforced. – India’s minister Piyush Goyal has said it is “sad” countries are obstructing outcomes. He did not mention Washington directly but said he had raised a lack of progress on fixing the WTO’s dispute system with U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai in a meeting earlier this week.- Tai has said negotiations on this issue are positive and have shown progress. However, delegates say obstacles abound and are privately sceptical of them making much further headway in a U.S. presidential election year.- A group of countries sought to reach a friendly agreement, supported by the European Union, to refrain from appealing WTO disputes into the void but this did not win consensus among members in Abu Dhabi, trade sources said. AGRICULTURE- No agreement was reached in Abu Dhabi.- India, which is facing farmer protests at home and has elections due by May, had sought a permanent solution on public stockholding (PSH) – a term that refers to state policies on food procurement aimed at ensuring food security.- Two alternative solutions were envisaged in a draft agreement. One aimed to find a permanent solution to the issue at this meeting and the other one commits to intensify negotiations and extend to other developing countries the privileges only India currently enjoys under WTO rules.- India rejected the second proposal, intended to appease them, in talks between a few key countries including the United States, Brazil and China, a source in the room said. FISHERIES- No deal was reached in Abu Dhabi.- Countries had tried to agree to the second part of an international WTO agreement to curb government subsidies that critics say encourage industrial fishing fleets to empty the world’s oceans. A first part was agreed in 2022 and will take effect if and when enough countries ratify it. – Many participants, including USTR’s Tai, saw this as the most likely topic where a deal could be reached. Environmentalists say it is vital for the world’s oceans.- The chair of the talks issued a new draft agreement on Friday morning with a few sections still in yellow, indicating areas of non-agreement including rules for phase-in periods for developing countries. More