Wanderlust

Category: ECONOMY

  • Linda McMahon: Tax cuts providing optimism to small businesses

    Small Business Administrator Linda McMahon said Monday that the tax cuts are providing optimism throughout the country.

    Small Business Administrator Linda McMahon said Monday that the tax cuts are providing optimism throughout the country.

    “What is continuing is this optimism, is businesses that are growing throughout the country, starting, getting access to capital. And that’s what SBA does,” Mrs. McMahon said on Fox News.

    She said the agency is launching a virtual series for National Small Business Week that will provide guidance for those looking to get their businesses started and how to continue growing.

    National Small Business Week is set to start next week.

  • Harley-Davidson interns get a free motorcycle

    Harley-Davidson is offering free motorcycles for those who join its summer internship program.

    MILWAUKEE (AP) — Harley-Davidson is offering free motorcycles for those who join its summer internship program.

    Eight college students or recent graduates will have the enviable task of being paid to ride a Harley and share their adventures on social media. And the best part? They’ll keep their bikes at the end of the 12-week internship.

    The Milwaukee-based motorcycle maker says it will teach the interns how to ride, compensate them for their work and travels, and let them keep their motorcycles. Harley-Davidson says it’s looking for those that have the ability to create content on the fly, are creative and have the talent to take great photos and fun videos.

    Applicants must be 18 years or older and looking to pursue a career in social media.

  • General Mills, Annie’s Mac & Cheese tap South Dakota farm

    General Mills announced a deal Tuesday to create South Dakota’s largest organic crop farm as the food giant works to secure enough organic ingredients to meet growing consumer demand worldwide.

    MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – General Mills announced a deal Tuesday to create South Dakota’s largest organic crop farm as the food giant works to secure enough organic ingredients to meet growing consumer demand worldwide.

    Gunsmoke Farms will convert 34,000 acres – more than 53 square miles – near Pierre to organic by 2020, giving it enough space for all the organic wheat needed to make General Mills‘ popular Annie’s Macaroni & Cheese line.

    General Mills, which is guaranteeing a market for the wheat, is working with Madison, Wisconsin-based Midwestern BioAg to develop the crop rotation and soil-building program needed for such a large farm to go organic.

    “We’re kind of obsessed with soil,” Carla Vernon, president of General Mills‘ Annie’s unit in Berkeley, California, told The Associated Press ahead of the announcement. “And that’s because we know the power of soil is big.”

    Golden Valley, Minnesota-based General Mills, like many other food companies, has ambitious environmental goals, and like other big industry players it has bought smaller brands and tweaked its own products to appeal to consumers who want more organic and natural products. It wants to double its organic acreage by 2020 and to cut greenhouse gas emissions 28 percent by 2025 throughout its supply chain all the way down to consumers, because it believes climate change will be bad for business. The company’s chief sustainability officer, Jerry Lynch, said it’s on pace to meet its organic acreage goal well ahead of schedule.

    Lynch said the project is one of several sites where General Mills is pilot-testing the same regenerative practices. The company will measure results in sequestering carbon in the soil, increasing biodiversity on the landscape and bringing socio-economic benefits to local communities.

    Gunsmoke Farms will also carve out around 3,000 acres of pollinator habitat in cooperation with the Portland, Oregon-based Xerces Society. General Mills and Xerces announced a partnership in 2016 to add more than 100,000 acres of bee and butterfly habitat on or near existing crop lands.

    General Mills bought Annie’s – a brand known for its rabbit logo and bunny-shaped snacks – in 2014 for $820 million. While Gunsmoke Farms will become a huge supplier, Vernon pointed out that Annie’s also works with small farms. It’s partnering now with two farmers in Montana who use regenerative practices, and it will roll out single-source, limited-edition organic macaroni and cheese and bunny graham crackers this month.

    South Dakota doesn’t have much organic agriculture now – just 86 certified farms with 115,780 total acres during the 2016 growing season, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture statistics. And a little more than half that is pasture or rangeland rather than crop acres.

    Gunsmoke Farms is owned by San Francisco-based TPG, a private global investment company with an interest in sustainability. TPG bought the farm recently from Fargo, North Dakota-based R.D. Offutt Co, best known as a potato company, which used it primarily to grow conventional wheat, corn, soybeans and sunflowers. Midwestern BioAg will work with local managers on the three-year process of converting the land to organic.

    Gary Zimmer, founder of Midwestern BioAg, said it’s his biggest project yet in 30 years of converting land to organic. He said the land at Gunsmoke Farms needs natural waterways re-established, as well as cover crops, no-till practices and the addition of lots of trace minerals.

    Since the area is fairly dry, he said, it needs deeply rooted plants to trap rainwater and to build up organic matter in the soil. The crop rotation will include legumes such as peas, clover and alfalfa, which add nitrogen to fertilize the soil.

    “I think everybody’s going to be watching it, so we have to make sure we do a lot of things right,” he said.

  • Donald Trump may reconsider tariff on aluminum and steel in exchange for new terms on NAFTA

    President Trump said Monday that he’ll reconsider tariffs on aluminum and steel if Canada and Mexico agree to new terms on NAFTA.

    President Trump said Monday that he’ll reconsider tariffs on aluminum and steel if Canada and Mexico agree to new terms on NAFTA.“We have large trade deficits with Mexico and Canada. NAFTA, which is under renegotiation right now, has been a bad deal for U.S.A. Massive relocation of companies & jobs. Tariffs on Steel and Aluminum will only come off if new & fair NAFTA agreement is signed. Also, Canada must..” Mr. Trumptweeted.

    “…treat our farmers much better. Highly restrictive. Mexico must do much more on stopping drugs from pouring into the U.S. They have not done what needs to be done. Millions of people addicted and dying,” he added.

    Trade has been an issue that Mr. Trump has focused on since the early days of his campaign, including a promise to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, known as NAFTA.

    SEE ALSO: Trump won’t back down on tariffs despite widespread fears of trade war

    The president first proposed the idea of higher tariffs on aluminum and steel last week. He said this will help those industries in the U.S. regain jobs and treat workers better.

    We have large trade deficits with Mexico and Canada. NAFTA, which is under renegotiation right now, has been a bad deal for U.S.A. Massive relocation of companies & jobs. Tariffs on Steel and Aluminum will only come off if new & fair NAFTA agreement is signed. Also, Canada must..

    — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 5, 2018

    …treat our farmers much better. Highly restrictive. Mexico must do much more on stopping drugs from pouring into the U.S. They have not done what needs to be done. Millions of people addicted and dying.

    — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 5, 2018

    To protect our Country we must protect American Steel! #AMERICA FIRST

    — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 5, 2018

  • Donald Trump’s steel, aluminum tariffs to proceed despite criticism

    Trump administration officials said on Sunday that the president will press forward with his plans to impose new tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, amid growing criticism from some quarters overse

    Trump administration officials said on Sunday that the president will press forward with his plans to impose new tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, amid growing criticism from some quarters overseas and on Capitol Hill that the move could plunge the U.S. headlong into an unwinnable trade war.

    British Prime Minister Theresa May and other European officials — along with Democratic and Republican lawmakers in Congress — said the tariffs will cause far-reaching damage and the last thing the global economy needs is a trade war.

    But the administration says Mr. Trump is merely following through on his tough campaign talk on trade and is predicting a negligible overall impact on U.S. consumers.

    “This is an action, basically, to protect our national security and economic security,” White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

    “We can’t have a country that can defend itself and prosper without an aluminum and steel industry,” he said.

    Mr. Trump said last week that he plans to roll out tariffs of 25 percent on steel imports and 10 percent on aluminum imports. Mr. Navarro predicted concrete action as soon as this week.

    He said some businesses could be exempted but no country would be excluded from the tariffs despite criticism from key U.S. allies such as Canada and Britain.

    “As soon as you exempt one country, then you have to exempt another country,” he said.

    Commerce Secretary Wilbur L. Ross Jr. said the announcement shouldn’t have been shocking given Mr. Trump’s rhetoric on trade during the 2016 campaign, when he repeatedly criticized multilateral pacts such as the North American Free Trade Agreement.

    “I think you have to take the president at his word. He made campaign promises. He’s pretty well-proven so far. He intends to keep his campaign promises,” Mr. Ross said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

    “I have no reason to believe he’s going to change his mind,” Mr. Ross said.

    Mr. Ross acknowledged that foreign officials have threatened to retaliate through tariffs of their own but said the $9 billion of tariffs in question is a fraction of 1 percent of the whole U.S. economy.

    “What the European Union has talked about is some $3 billion or so of potential retaliation. That’s an even smaller fraction of 1 percent of the economy,” he said.

    Jean-Claude Juncker, who heads the European Commission, warned that the EU might impose its own taxes on items such as Harley-Davidson motorcycles and bourbon — products that are near and dear to the economies of Wisconsin and Kentucky, the respective home states of House Speaker Paul D. Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

    “We will not sit idly while our industry is hit with unfair measures that put thousands of European jobs at risk,” he said.

    Mrs. May also raised concerns about the plans with Mr. Trump in a Sunday phone call, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the steel and aluminum tariffs would be “absolutely unacceptable.”

    The announcement also sparked divisions within Mr. Trump’s administration and prompted speculation that economic adviser Gary Cohn — who opposed the tariffs — could resign as a result.

    Mr. Ross said he didn’t know anything about rumors of Mr. Cohn’s resignation.

    “Gary was certainly part of the interagency process,” he said. “The president likes to have dissenting views, likes to hear every side of everything because that way he makes sure that his final decision is the best-informed.”

    The president’s announcement also prompted strong pushback from Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill.

    Sen. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina Republican, said Sunday that Mr. Trump is going about things the wrong way if his goal is to target Chinese flooding of the worldwide steel market.

    “You’re letting China off the hook. You’re punishing the American consumer and our allies. You’re making a huge mistake,” Mr. Graham said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “Go after China, not the rest of the world.”

    Sen. Christopher Murphy, Connecticut Democrat, said the president’s enthusiasm for opening a trade war with Europe is a gift to Russia, which would welcome conflict between the U.S. and its European allies.

    “So I just think the president needs to understand that there are times when these targeted sanctions are necessary, but you’ve got to do it at the right moment and you have to realize that none of it takes place in a vacuum,” Mr. Murphy said on ABC’s “This Week.”

    The move has won praise from some union groups and Democrats, though, who say the president is right to try to punish countries acting in bad faith when it comes to trade issues.

    “I like where the president is going on this. I really do,” Sen. Joe Manchin III, West Virginia Democrat, said on CBS.

    “We’re talking about fair trade,” Mr. Manchin said. “Free trade hasn’t worked well for West Virginia. It really hasn’t. We have lost thousands of jobs. And we’re [talking] about a fairness to the system.”

  • L.L. Bean raises age to 21 to buy rifles

    Outdoor retailer L.L. Bean will no longer sell rifles to anyone under 21.

    SEATTLE (AP) — Outdoor retailer L.L. Bean will no longer sell rifles to anyone under 21.

    The company joined retail heavyweights Walmart and Dick’s Sporting Goods in changing policies in the wake of the Florida school massacre.

    L.L. Bean said in a statement late Thursday that it will no longer sell guns or ammunition to anyone under the age of 21.

    Company spokeswoman Carolyn Beem says L.L. Bean only sells firearms at its flagship store in Maine and only guns specific to hunting and target shooting.

    She says L.L. Bean does not carry assault-style firearms, high-capacity firearms, bump stocks or handguns of any kind.

    The announcements come two weeks after a teenager killed 17 students and educators with an AR-15 rifle in Florida.

  • Washington becomes 1st state to approve net-neutrality rules

    Setting up a likely legal fight with the Trump administration, Washington has become the first state to enact its own net-neutrality requirements after U.S. regulators repealed Obama-era rules designe

    OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) – Setting up a likely legal fight with the Trump administration, Washington has become the first state to enact its own net-neutrality requirements after U.S. regulators repealed Obama-era rules designed to keep the internet an even playing field.

    “We know that when D.C. fails to act, Washington state has to do so,” Gov. Jay Inslee said Monday before signing the bipartisan measure that banned internet providers from blocking content or interfering with online traffic.

    The new law also requires internet providers to disclose information about their management practices, performance and commercial terms. Violations would be enforceable under the state’s Consumer Protection Act.

    The Federal Communications Commission voted in December to gut U.S. rules that meant to prevent broadband companies such as Comcast, AT&T; and Verizon from exercising more control over what people watch and see on the internet. The regulations also prohibited providers from favoring some sites and apps over others.

    Because the FCC prohibited state laws from contradicting its decision, opponents of the Washington law have said it would lead to lawsuits. Inslee said he was confident of its legality, saying “the states have a full right to protect their citizens.”

    As he has done frequently over the past year, Inslee took aim at President Donald Trump’s administration, saying the decision by the Federal Communications Commission was “a clear case of the Trump administration favoring powerful corporate interests over the interests of millions of Washingtonians and Americans.”

    While several states introduced similar measures this year seeking to protect net neutrality, so far only Oregon and Washington have passed legislation. But Oregon’s measure wouldn’t put any new requirements on internet providers.

    It would stop state agencies from buying internet service from any company that blocks or prioritizes specific content or apps, starting in 2019. It’s unclear when Oregon’s measure would be signed into law.

    Washington state was among more than 20 states and the District of Columbia that sued in January to try and block the FCC’s action. There are also efforts by Democrats to undo the move in Congress.

    Governors in five states – Hawaii, New Jersey, New York, Montana and Vermont – have signed executive orders related to net-neutrality issues, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

    Montana’s order, for instance, bars telecommunications companies from receiving state contracts if they interfere with internet traffic or favor higher-paying sites or apps.

    Big telecom companies have said net neutrality rules could undermine investment in broadband and introduce uncertainty about what are acceptable business practices. Net-neutrality advocates say the FCC decision harms innovation and make it harder for the government to crack down on internet providers who act against consumer interests.

    The FCC’s new rules are not expected to go into effect until later this spring. Washington’s law will take effect in June.

    Ron Main, executive director of the Broadband Communications Association of Washington, which opposed the bill, said the cable companies his group represents have already pledged not to block legal content or engage in paid prioritization.

    He said that because the internet is an interstate service, only Congress can pass legislation “that gives all consumers and internet services providers the clarity and consistency needed for a free and open internet.”

    “There should not be a state-by-state patchwork of differing laws and regulations,” he said in a written statement.

  • Afrin worried about US

    Turkey has walked in the Afrin and the terror’ve finished with the motto Olive Branch Operations As has become a source of pride for our country, but also one that is causing concern for the governments of the world.

    the number one partner of the US in the region ypg’n PYD / PKK elements of Turkey Foreign Minister to hit Rex Tillerson is sending. The developments before this visit also show how dirty the US / PYD-PKK alliance is.

    AFRICAN LETTER TO TİLLERSON

    US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson ahead of the visit to Turkey yesterday, a letter bearing the signature of authority reached eight members of the House of Representatives. In the letter, which Turkey has applied in Afrin “violence” while referring to the policy, he noted the damage to the operations carried out in the face of civilian deaths and Dease.

    up here at all no problem for Turkey. Since the beginning of the Olive Branch, the Turkish media and the competent authorities are presenting proofs of PYD / PKK and its prosecutors to expose their black propaganda and to reveal their mistakes. But the real issue here is that three of the eight representatives …

    FETH’C REPRESENTATIVES WORK

    The international press and NGOs, which are also internationally, have been pumping uninterrupted lies since the very first day of operations. In addition to these, yesterday, he officially took his hand in FETO. Jared Police, who signed the Mektuba sign, appeared to be linked to BDS Sherman and Adam B. Schiff.

    In July Turkey’s request to extradite the 15 post-feto negative reference against which Jared Polis, Vice Chairman John Kerry, Obama’s term Feto leader had made a recommendation for Gulen’s extradition. However, it turned out that Brad Sherman gave briefings to the US government while there were calls for the PTO schools not to be closed. Another FBI officer, B. Schiff, turned out to be an initiative in the opposite direction of Gülen’s proposal.

    PROPAGANDA IN AFRINA

    Since the Olive Dalı Operation began, it has been systematically and safely progressed. Within the scope of this Operation, TSK and OSO troops, who acted with high sensitivity to the damage to the civilians, aimed to fight completely with the elements of PYD / PKK. Despite all this sensitivity, in the international media for the operation which is being tried to be distorted, photographs from old and different geographies are being tried to be shown as new and Afrin’miş.

    One of the latest examples of this was done yesterday in Brussels. The members of the European press, who welcomed the PYD leader Salih Muslim, made it possible for Muslim to make propaganda for terrorism, and it was understood that the photographs shown there also had been withdrawn at Afrin.

  • Ford, Mazda add pickups to do-not-drive list

    Ford and Mazda are adding more than 35,000 pickup trucks in North America to a list of vehicles that should not be driven because they have Takata air bag inflators with a high risk of exploding.

    The warning includes 33,428 Ranger and 1,955 Mazda B-Series small pickups from 2006 model year, according to both companies. Ford, which made the B-Series for Mazda, found test results showing that the trucks had inflators that ruptured or recorded high internal pressure readings, spokeswoman Elizabeth Weigandt said Monday.

    The companies and the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said dealers will tow the pickups to replace the faulty inflators and provide loaner vehicles. Parts for the repairs are already available.

    Rangers added to the do-not-drive list. 5 and Dec. 15, 2005.

    NHTSA, the government’s highway safety agency, said in a statement that pickups are not covered by the do-not-drive warnings being scrutinized to see if they get the same treatment. The agency has asked Ford to focus its testing on inflators to the 2005 production range, “the statement said.

    The agency urged owners of all the recalled Rangers and B-Series trucks to call a dealer and get repairs made now.

    Takata uses ammonium nitrate to create a small explosion to inflate air bags. But the chemical can deteriorate and burn too fast, blowing apart metal canisters and hurling shrapnel into drivers and passengers. At least 22 people have died and more than 180 have been hurt because of the problem.

    The inflators also caused the largest series of automotive recalls in U.S. history. About 69 million inflators are being recalled in the U.S. and over 100 million worldwide are being recalled.

    Last month Ford told 2,900 owners of the 2006 Ranger not to drive that after finding a West Virginia man was killed by an exploding inflator.

    Washington, D.C., according to a Pittsburgh-based law firm representing the family.

    Ford said it was not the accident in December. After some investigation, the company determined that the truck’s inflator was made on the same day as exploded and killed a South Carolina man driving a Ranger in 2015.

    Ford’s Weigandt said the small pickups were already under recalls for driver and passenger inflators. In most cases the owners are still driving recalled vehicles, but Ford issued the do-not-drive warning because of the elevated risk.

    In January of 2016, Ford recalled about 361,000 Rangers in the U.S. and Canada from the 2004 to 2006 model year to replace the driver’s inflators. The recall came after the government announced the December 2015 death of Joel Knight, 52, of Kershaw, South Carolina, that caused by a Takata air bag inflating in his 2006 Ranger. A similar number has been recalled for passenger inflators.

    Weigandt said that Ford did not find a higher risk of inflator rupture in the rest of the recalled Rangers. “We respond to the data,” she said.

  • Is inflation rising as investors fear? 5 ways to keep track

    After nearly a decade of being all invisible, inflation – or the fear of it – is back.

    Tentative signs have emerged that prices could accelerate in coming months. Pay raises may be picking up a bit. Commodities such as oil and aluminum have grown more expensive. Cellphone plans are likely to appear costlier.

    The specter of high inflation has spooked many investors, who worry it would be up to the interest rates, making it costly for consumers and businesses to borrow and weighing down corporate profits and ultimately the economy. Historically, fear of high inflation has led to the Federal Reserve to step up its short-term interest rate increases.

    It’s a big reason investors have dumped stocks and bonds in the past two weeks.

    Yet for all the market turmoil, inflation for now remains quite low: Prices, excluding volatile food and energy categories, have risen just 1.7 percent in the past year. That’s below the Fed’s target of 2 percent annual inflation.

    Most economists expect inflation to edge up and end the year a few tenths of a point above the Fed’s target. But most foresee only minimal effect on the economy.

    “I do not think that’s a huge tragedy,” said Mark Vitner, an economist at Wells Fargo Securities.

    Inflation, though, is hard to forecast. One widely followed gauge is the government’s monthly report on consumer price inflation. The January CPI report will come out Wednesday.

    Here are some ways to track the direction of inflation in the coming months:

    —

    HOW MUCH DOES YOUR CELL PHONE PLAN COST?

    Roughly a year ago, major wireless carriers like Verizon and AT & T began offering unlimited wireless data plans. This video is available for download at http://www.w3.org. It also lowered inflation.

    That’s why the government statisticians do not simply review price changes when they calculate inflation. They also try to measure what consumers actually receive. Because unlimited data plans are a better deal, they do not affect the overall cost of wireless phone services. Many economists cited this as a reason for inflation slowed down last year even as the unemployment rate fell.

    Still, the cellphone plans were a one-time change. In March, their impact will pass the government’s year-over-year inflation calculations. Most analysts expect this change to boost that month’s inflation estimate.

    —

    HOW MUCH WILL PAYCHECKS RISE?

    There are tantalizing early signs that many employers, grappling with low unemployment and a shortage of workers, are finally raising. Average hourly pay rose 2.9 percent in January, a sharp year-over-year increase in eight years. A separate quarterly measure from the Labor Department showed that wages and salaries in the final three months of the last year grew at the fastest pace in almost three years.

    In theory, higher pay can lead to inflation.

    But it does not always work that way. Pay climbed at a 4 percent annual clip in the late 1990s, for example, and core inflation barely rose. It edged up to about 2.6 percent from 2.3 percent.

    Companies can choose from the lower cost and lower profits. They could also use the last year’s tax cut to pay higher wages.

    —

    HOW PLENTIFUL ARE WORKERS?

    Another factor that may keep wages low and limit inflation is that the workers are still available overseas. Companies could shift work abroad if it gets too high.

    And there may be more people in the United States. The proportion of Americans who have jobs still has not returned to its pre-recession peak.

    —

    WHAT DO CONSUMERS EXPECT?

    Whether consumers expect inflation to accelerate or stay the same can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Once consumers’ inflation expectations pick up, they typically demand higher pay, which can lead companies to cover the costs.

    That makes expectations of inflation an important gauge to watch. And yet such expectations have changed little this year, which could keep inflation in check.

    According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, consumers will inflation about 2.7 percent a year from now. Last April, consumers expected inflation to be 2.8 percent in a year.

    —

    HOW MUCH ARE YOU PAYING IN RENT?

    As millennials flooded cities and postponed home purchases, rents soared from Seattle to New York. Yet builders of new high-rises. And there are signs that rents are leveling off. More young people are also starting to buy homes, which lowers demand for rental apartments.

    This could help lower inflation over time. In December, rents rose 3.7 percent from a year earlier. While that’s faster than paychecks are rising – squeezing many renters – it’s still below the recent peak of 4