By Alice Seeley The BMO Real Financial Progress Index, a quarterly survey of more than 3,400 adults, found that inflation and rising consumer costs are affecting Americans so severely that a quarter of Americans will need to delay their retirement to account for the reduced savings. Since President Joe Biden took office, prices of goods and [...]
By Alice Seeley On May 31, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a formal appeal and brief with the 11th Circuit Court to overturn last month's decision by a federal judge declaring the mandate requiring masks on airplanes and other public transportation unlawful. In the appeal, the Justice Department argued that "none of the district court's quarrels with the [Centers for [...]
By Alice Seeley Sentiment among American consumers declined in May to the lowest level in more than ten years. The final May reading of the index of consumer sentiment released on May 27 by the University of Michigan fell to 58.4, down 6.8 (10.4%) from the previous month’s reading. According to a Wall Street Journal survey, economists [...]
By Alice Seeley J.M. Smucker's recall of Jif peanut butter products has rapidly expanded in the past week to 69 other products from multiple companies. These products include fruit or veggie snack packs with individually wrapped Jif cups, Del Monte's PB&J sandwiches, and pastries made with Jif peanut butter, including fudge and pies. Last week, [...]
By Alice Seeley The U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) made public court documents charging Twitter with violating a 2011 agreement with regulators not to use information gathered for security purposes, such as users' phone numbers and email addresses, to help advertisers target people with ads. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Twitter began enforcing [...]
By Alice Seeley On May 25, the head of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Robert Califf, testified before a House subcommittee concerning the nationwide infant formula shortage, which has forced the U.S. to begin airlifting infant formula from Europe. Califf testified that the FDA's efforts to investigate problems at an Abbott Laboratories formula plant [...]
By Alice Seeley The U.S. Census Bureau announced on May 25 that orders placed with U.S. factories for durable goods, items meant to last at least three years, increased by 0.4% to $265.3 billion in April. This follows a 0.6 % increase a month earlier in March. However, the figures have not been adjusted for inflation yet. Goods, such [...]
By Alice Seeley Sales of new single-family homes in the U.S. declined dramatically to their lowest level in two years in April, the U.S. Commerce Department said on May 24. New home sales shrank by 16.6% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 591,000 units last month, the lowest level since April 2020, when the economy was brought to a near [...]
By Alice Seeley The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced on May 23 that it fined the investment management arm of Bank of New York Mellon Corp $1.5 million for misleading claims about Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) considerations in making investment decisions for certain mutual funds that it managed. BNY Mellon Investment Adviser has [...]
By Alice Seeley The CEO of Abbott Laboratories, Robert Ford, apologized for his company's role in the nationwide shortage of infant formula in an op-ed for The Washington Post, writing that the company's formula recall worsened the crisis. "The past few months have distressed us as they have you, and so I want to say: We're [...]
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