You may have heard of Acorns. Acorns is an investing app lets people automatically invest their spare change by rounding up the purchases they make with a linked credit or debit card. Acorns, currently valued at $860 million, has been lauded by investors and journalists alike for finally getting millennials interested in investing. (The demographic – notoriously skittish when it comes to the market — makes up the majority of Acorns’ over 5 million users.) But is the micro-investing app worth its fees? Check out our full Acorns app review.

How does Acorns work?

The Acorns investing app encourages you to invest your spare change using a system it calls "round-ups." Acorns monitors your bank account and automatically invests the change from your daily purchases. For example, if you buy a coffee for $2.75, Acorns will round up to $3.00 and automatically invest $.25.

The “save your spare change” feature is Acorns’ key selling point, along with ease of use. Unlike financial tech startups Betterment and Wealthfront, which offer more robust investment services, Acorns was built to be mobile-first. It was originally available only as an iOS or Android app, though the company ultimately launched a web version.

Acorns review

Part of being an app means making the investing process as simple as possible. While Betterment and Wealthfront give you a wide variety of options to customize your portfolio, Acorns forces you to choose between their five default “smart portfolios” built with the help of Harry Markowitz, father of the Modern Portfolio Theory. The app will suggest one of these portfolios — conservative, moderately conservative, moderate, moderately aggressive, or aggressive — based on your savings goals and risk tolerance. You can alternately choose one yourself. Acorns will automatically rebalance your portfolio as the market changes.

There are no minimums to set up an Acorns account, but you need $5 to start investing.

How much does Acorns cost?

You won't see many Acorns reviews telling you that there's a danger to investing too little, but it’s important to understand how the return on an Acorns account stacks up against full-service investment apps. Acorns fees are $1 per month for all accounts with a balance under $1 million. The monthly fee rises $100 per month for every million you invest afterwards. Compared to traditional management, mutual funds, and DIY ETFs, this fee is incredibly low. Other portfolio advisory services, like Amerivest, charge as much as 1.25% and require a minimum investment of $25,000.

But, while Acorns’ fees seem low on the surface, Acorns’ traditional competitors aren’t encouraging would-be investors to build a portfolio around their spare change. When you’re dealing with just a few dollars every month, that $1 fee starts to make less sense.

For instance, if you make 50 transactions each month with an average of $.25 rounded up per transaction, you’re only investing $12.50 every month. At that rate, Acorns’ monthly fee is taking away 8% of your contribution to your investment portfolio in your first month. Keep in mind that Acorns doesn't take its subscription fee out of your account, but rather a linked funding source so that the monthly fee doesnt' directly impact your losses and gains.

The more transactions you have (the more you’re spending, perhaps multiple small purchases like coffee or fast food) this percentage will go down. At 100 transactions per month with an average of $.25 per transaction, you’ll invest $25 the first month and give 4% to Acorns. At 150 transactions, you’re investing $37.50 and giving almost 2.7% to Acorns.



Image link:  https://i.ibb.co/Z2sHTqT/one.jpg

Note that none of this takes into account the money you already have in your account, slowly (or quickly) growing (or shrinking) because of market changes. If your portfolio grows a few bucks and Acorns reinvests it, that effectively adds to your monthly contribution. However, until your portfolio grows to be thousands of dollars, your portfolio growth is unlikely to make a noticeable difference to your bottom line month over month.

Acorns vs Betterment vs Wealthfront vs Wealthsimple

Betterment only charges .25% in fees per year for its baseline price tier, amounting to mere cents per month while you are building up your portfolio.

And what about Wealthfront, another robo-advisor? They require a minimum balance of $500. They do, however, manage the first $10,000 of every account for free. Canadian robo-advisor Wealthsimple has relatively higher fees of up to .50%, but also offer a human touch.



Image link:  https://i.ibb.co/dPY5DGc/two.jpg

Acorns features & services

To boost your Acorns balance, you can set up recurring deposits of larger amounts, get referral bonuses and earn extra cash to invest by shopping through Found Money, the core Acorns app’s rewards program, though these features aren’t as heavily advertised as the opportunity to invest your change. The services are popular, however, says Acorns CEO Noah Kerner, with a typical customer investing over $60 per month.

“The majority of our customers take advantage of Acorns’ full suite of tools and services, making the small $1 per month subscription quite reasonable,” Kerner told Policygenius in a written statement.

Acorns' other services include:

• Acorns Later: Acorns Later is an individual retirement account available to Acorns investing app users. People who open an IRA through Acorns Later pay $2 a month for both accounts.
• Acorns Spend: Acorns also has an FDIC-insured checking account plus debit card, called Acorns Spend, that its Core users can pre-order. You pay $3 a month if you have Acorns, Acorns Later and Acorns Spend.
• Found Money: Acorns has a cashback program that's a bit similar to one you might see with a rewards credit card. If you make a purchase through an Acorns Found Money partner, that company will automatically invest in your Acorns portfolio.

Is Acorns worth it?

Acorns investing is positioned as the best choice for many millennials looking to dip their toes into the waters of investing, but, as this Acorns review shows, it doesn't mean it’s the best choice for you. As the chart illustrates, the Acorns investing app is relatively expensive. If you keep a small balance, you'll wind up paying a high percentage of those assets in Acorns management fees.

If you can't afford to fork over $500 right now and start your journey toward full-fledged investing, you might consider putting some money into a savings account instead. A high-yield savings account is usually free and will allow you to grow small amounts of money over time. Once you’ve reached a self-imposed threshold —either Weathfront’s $500 minimum or some other savings goal — you can revisit the idea of putting that money in an investment portfolio instead.

Acorns does waive the $1 account management fee on its core micro-investing app for college students, so, if you’re still in school, it’s an easy — and free — way to start saving. You’ll need a valid .edu email address to take advantage of that offer. Acorns is also worthwhile if you're brand new to investing and looking for an quick, easy way to get started.

The best investment apps

These days, prospective investors have more choices than ever before. Spare change apps like Acorns can help you get more comfortable with investing, but you can also consider doing business with a robo-advisor like Betterment or Wealthfront, which mix automation (no trading or stock picking) with access to financial planners. There are also online brokers like Robinhood and Stash that let you trade and manage stocks yourself.

Want to learn more about new ways to invest? Check out our roundup of the best investing apps.


https://www.policygenius.com/investing/news/beware-of-spare-change-investments/

California sued Amazon on Wednesday, accusing the company of pushing sellers and suppliers into anticompetitive deals that lead to higher prices, including at rival online stores.

The lawsuit, filed by state Attorney General Rob Bonta, focuses on the way Amazon — the largest online retailer — deals with third-party merchants, who account for most of the sales on the platform.

California alleges that Amazon penalizes sellers and suppliers that offer cheaper prices elsewhere on the internet, including Walmart and Target, for example by displaying their items lower or less prominently or outright blocking their new postings.

"Amazon makes consumers think they are getting the lowest prices possible," the lawsuit alleges, "when in fact, they cannot get the low prices that would prevail in a freely competitive market because Amazon has coerced and induced its third-party sellers and wholesale suppliers to enter into anticompetitive agreements on price."

California's antitrust lawsuit is among the biggest legal challenges to Amazon in recent years, as lawmakers and regulators in the U.S. and abroad have investigated the retail giant for potential anticompetitive practices.

An Amazon spokesperson denied any antitrust violations, pointed out that a similar case in the District of Columbia was dismissed, and said the California Attorney General has it backwards.

"Sellers set their own prices for the products they offer in our store," the company said in a statement. "Like any store we reserve the right not to highlight offers to customers that are not priced competitively."

California also accuses Amazon of creating a "vicious anticompetitive cycle": Sellers view Amazon as a must; Amazon charges them higher fees to be able to sell on its platform; Sellers, in turn, raise their Amazon prices. And, even though it costs them less to sell on other websites, Amazon's policies push sellers to raise prices on those sites, too.

"Through its illegal actions, the, quote, "everything store" has effectively set a price floor, costing Californians more for just about everything," Bonta said at a press conference on Wednesday.

Earlier this year, a judge dismissed a similar lawsuit that was filed in Washington, D.C., though the city's attorney general has appealed.

In that case, Amazon argued its deals with merchants were meant to prevent shoppers from being overcharged, and punishing Amazon would hurt consumers.

Amazon has separately proposed a settlement with European antitrust regulators, who charged the company with violating competition laws. Their key allegations accused the company of using data it collected from third-party sellers to its own benefit.

https://www.npr.org/2022/09/14/1122995430/california-sues-amazon

• Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard, his spouse and two adult children are giving away their ownership in the apparel maker he started some 50 years ago.
• The company’s non-voting stock, worth close to $3 billion, will be owned by a collective that will use all profits that aren’t reinvested into the business to fight climate change.
• The company expects to contribute about $100 million a year, depending on the health of the business.

Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard, his spouse and two adult children are giving away their ownership in the apparel maker he started some 50 years ago, dedicating all profits from the company to projects and organizations that will protect wild land and biodiversity and fight the climate crisis.

The company is worth about $3 billion, according to the New York Times.

In a letter about the decision, published on the Patagonia website on Wednesday, Choiunard wrote of “reimagining capitalism,” and said:


The privately held company’s stock will now be owned by a climate-focused trust and group of nonprofit organizations, called the Patagonia Purpose Trust and the Holdfast Collective respectively, the company said in a statement, noting “every dollar that is not reinvested back into Patagonia will be distributed as dividends to protect the planet.”

The trust will get all the voting stock, which is 2% of the total, and will use it to create a “more permanent legal structure to enshrine Patagonia’s purpose and values.” It will be overseen by members of the family and close advisors.

The Holdfast Collective owns all the non-voting stock of Patagonia, which amounts to 98%.

Patagonia expects to generate and donate about $100 million annually depending on the health of the business. The company now sells new and used outdoor apparel, gear for outdoor activities like camping, fishing and climbing, and food and beverages made from sustainable sources.

As a certified B-Corp and California Benefit Corporation, Patagonia was already donating one percent of its sales each year to grassroots activists, and it intends to keep doing so. Fewer than 6,000 companies around the world are certified as B-Corp businesses. They have to meet strict environmental, social and governance standards and benchmarks set by B Labs to gain certification.

Ryan Gellert will continue to serve as Patagonia’s CEO, and the Chouinard family will remain on Patagonia’s board following the apparel maker’s expanded philanthropic strategy. After informing its employees on Wednesday about this move, the company updated its website to state that “Earth is now our only shareholder.”


https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/14/patagonia-founder-donates-entire-company-to-fight-climate-change.html

Billionaire Chuck Feeney has finally given away his entire $8 billion fortune after making secret donations for decades

After 38 years, Irish-American billionaire Chuck Feeney reached his lifetime goal of wanting to give away his entire $8 billion fortune.

Feeney, who made his fortune after cofounding the retail giant Duty Free Shoppers, has been making secret donations to charities, universities, and institutions worldwide under his foundation, Atlantic Philanthropies, for decades.

This week, the foundation — which was first set up in 1982 — officially ran out of money.

Feeney, who is 89 years old and in poor health, signed the documents marking the end of Atlantic Philanthropies in a Zoom ceremony attended by his wife and the foundation's board members on Monday.

Speaking from San Francisco, the former billionaire said he was very happy with "completing this on my watch."

"We learned a lot. We would do some things differently, but I am very satisfied," Feeney, told Forbes. "My thanks to all who joined us on this journey. And to those wondering about Giving While Living: Try it, you'll like it."

Feeney also received letters of thanks from Microsoft founder Bill Gates and former California Gov. Jerry Brown, who praised him for his work. 

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also thanked the former billionaire on behalf of the US Congress.

The 89-year-old told Forbes in 2012 that he had set aside around $2 million for his retirement plans but that he was hoping that he would lose the rest of his fortune before the end of his life.

https://www.insider.com/billionaire-chuck-feeney-gives-away-entire-8-billion-fortune-2020-9

The company invested more in satellite communications than it let on

After Apple’s announcement that the iPhone 14 and 14 Pro can send messages via satellite in emergency situations, it’s becoming clear that the company hasn’t just introduced a new feature. In typical fashion, it’s also practically overnight become a key player in a new industry by getting heavily involved with satellite communications by adding Emergency SOS via satellite.

Apple has partnered with Globalstar for its satellite operations, and it plans on using the company’s 24-satellite constellation to run its service, confirming the long-running rumors about its plans for the Band 53 / n53 communications. In practice, this means that Apple has joined the litany of companies attempting to “eliminate dead zones,” as T-Mobile put it when it announced a partnership with SpaceX last month to create its own emergency communications service. Like that service, Apple’s Emergency SOS via satellite will initially only be available in the US and Canada. (Even there, there are a few caveats — it might be less reliable in northern parts of Alaska, and not all international travelers will be able to use the feature when visiting.)

Given how big a physical, financial, and regulatory endeavor launching satellites into space is, there’s a surprising number of players in the field. One company called Lynk Global is attempting to build a worldwide emergency communications network that works with unmodified phones, and it claims that it became the first to send a text from space during a 2020 test of its satellite. Meanwhile, a company called AST SpaceMobile hopes to use satellite-to-phone communications for 4G and even 5G internet and is planning on deploying a test satellite by the end of this week. Amazon’s even involved with its Project Kuiper, but so far the agreements we’ve heard about for that system involved beaming internet to cell towers rather than directly to phones.

During the “Far Out” iPhone 14 launch event on Wednesday, Apple made it clear that it’s going to be involved with the satellite emergency response system. “We’ve set up relay centers staffed with highly-trained emergency specialists ready to get your texts and call an emergency service provider on your behalf,” said Ashley Williams, the company’s manager of satellite modeling and simulation. And while the company hinted it was involved in “infrastructure innovation” for the feature over the past few years, that doesn’t quite capture the scale of its investment.

According to a report from Reuters, Apple is putting $450 million toward satellite infrastructure, with most of that investment going to Globalstar. Apple also agreed to pay for 95 percent of the costs for new satellites associated with the feature, according to an SEC filing.

Based on Globalstar’s revenue estimates in the filing, Tim Farrar, an analyst at satellite and telecom-focused consulting and research firm Telecom, Media and Finance Associates, said that he expects those satellites to cost Apple up to $50 million by 2026. Farrar also noted that Apple seems to be paying a “relatively low price” for the service. “Globalstar had revenues of $124 million last year. This is scheduled to go up to $185-$230 million in 2023,” he said, saying that indicated Apple would be paying around $110 million to Globalstar next year. Apple has announced the service will be free to users for the first two years but hasn’t said how much it’ll cost after that.

That price could put pressure on other satellite operators. “T-Mobile might not be willing to pay more than $100 million per year,” Farrar said, referring to the carrier’s recent announcement that it was partnering with SpaceX to provide emergency text services in the US and planned to start testing the service next year. Lynk and AST already have some agreements in place with carriers around the world and have said they’re working on others — it’s hard to imagine that Apple’s official announcement won’t impact those conversations in some way.

That’s especially true given that Globalstar doesn’t seem interested in working solely with Apple. As analyst Harold Feld points out, the company’s filing includes a list of other partners that could potentially be interested in using its terrestrial spectrum. That list includes “cable companies, legacy or upstart wireless carriers, system integrators, utilities and other infrastructure operators.” (It also seems like other satellite operators are interested in that spectrum but not through a partnership with Globalstar. On September 6th, SpaceX filed an application with the Federal Communications Commission asking the regulator to allow it to share the Band 53 and n53 spectrum that Apple’s partner uses.)

Feld thinks that the inclusion of major carriers and their competitors indicates that “Globalstar hopes this will become a popular feature.” He does point out, though, that Apple’s agreement with the satellite provider gives it the right to “veto decisions that would negatively impact Globalstar’s ability to fulfill its obligations to Apple.” In other words, if Apple thinks an agreement with another carrier would put too much strain on the network, it could shut the proposal down.

That power creates an interesting regulatory situation. According to Feld, once a company has a high enough level of investment or control over a company that’s licensed to use spectrum, the FCC considers it as having “an attributable interest,” basically saying that it's a part owner. So far, Feld says, Apple hasn’t reached this level — but if Apple wants to increase its investment in or control of Globalstar much more, it may have to get approval from regulators.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41EdCXjotmo

Apple introducing a satellite communications feature to the iPhone was always going to have a big impact on the market as a whole — and even more so for any company it works with to make that happen. We’ve seen it in fitness, fashion, entertainment, and other areas, and now, space is joining the list. The details show just how involved Apple now is with Globalstar and its satellites. Like with so many other things, it clearly isn’t content to just have a partner that does its own thing while providing a service.

Correction September 8th, 5:18PM ET: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Emergency SOS via satellite will only be available in the US. It’ll also be available in Canada. We regret the error.

https://www.theverge.com/2022/9/8/23342908/apple-satellite-sos-globalstar-business-ast-lynk-spacex

I don't think that there are more crypto-funded projects in the renewable sector but it's definitely increasing.

Steve Wozniak Co-Founds Blockchain-Based Energy Saving Firm in Malta

Steve Wozniak has co-founded a company in Malta, which will reportedly use blockchain technology to save energy.

Steve Wozniak, co-founder of American tech giant Apple, has invested in a new blockchain-based company headquartered in Malta. Wozniak is now the co-founder of energy efficiency company Efforce, according to a report by Maltese news daily The Malta Independent on July 18.

Wozniak co-founded the company alongside Jacopo Visetti, who — according to his LinkedIn profile — works in the renewable energy and environment sector. According to this page, Visetti co-founded Efforce in January, 2018 — approximately one year and seven months ago.

According Efforce's LinkedIn page, the company provides the first blockchain-based platform focused on investing in energy efficiency, with its stated goal “to be recognized as the first and main platform in the world for tokenized energy savings.”

As per the report, Wozniak recently spoke about Efforce at the pre-launch for the Delta Summit, which is a blockchain conference held in Malta.

Wozniak reportedly spoke about how he thinks blockchain will be a great boon to decreasing the public’s environmental impact without requiring people to change their habits. Wozniak also spoke on the local government’s pro-blockchain attitude as key to Efforce’s decision to launch in Malta.

As previously reported by Cointelegraph, Wozniak also co-founded a blockchain investment project in October 2018. He founded the venture capital fund EQUI Global to support investments in blockchain solutions.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/steve-wozniak-co-founds-blockchain-based-energy-saving-firm-in-malta

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Some U.S. railroads will start halting crop shipments on Thursday, a day ahead of a potential work stoppage, an agricultural association and sources at two grain cooperatives said on Tuesday, threatening exports and feed deliveries for livestock.

With farmers starting to harvest autumn crops that are shipped to meat and biofuels producers, the shipping disruptions could add to already high inflation. Farmers also plan to add fertilizer to fields after the harvest, and shipments of fertilizer are being delayed.

Max Fisher, chief economist at the National Grain and Feed Association, which represents most U.S. grain handlers, said rail customers reported at least one railway would stop taking grain shipments on Thursday morning.

Most major U.S. railways have already stopped accepting new shipments of ammonia fertilizer and other potentially hazardous materials, said Justin Louchheim, senior government affairs director at The Fertilizer Institute, an industry group.

Louchheim said fertilizer producers are now evaluating how much storage they have for ammonia that cannot move by rail, and whether some can move by truck.

The potential rail shutdown looms just six weeks before most Midwest farmers would begin applying fertilizer, said Josh Linville, fertilizer director at StoneX Group. About 40% of the U.S. fertilizer supply is on a rail car at some point before arriving on a farm, he said.

Railroads have until a minute after midnight on Friday to reach tentative deals with holdout unions representing about 60,000 workers.

Worries about service interruptions boosted prices for corn-based ethanol at several hubs and kept sellers out of the market, said Josh Pedrick, a managing editor for S&P Global Commodity Insights.

The Association of American Railways (AAR), which represents railroad companies, did not immediately respond to request for comment on grain transportation.

The work stoppage would be keenly felt in states like North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota and Nebraska, from which grain is hauled via rail to ports in the Pacific Northwest for export, said Thomas Lahey, domestic freight manager at grain merchandiser Columbia Grain International. Grain elevators in the upper Midwest move soybeans to the PNW mostly via BNSF Railway, Canadian Pacific Railway and Union Pacific, he said.

U.S. Class 1 railroads transported nearly 1.5 million carloads of grain in 2020, including 691,000 carloads of corn, 340,000 carloads of soybeans and 248,000 carloads of processed soybeans like soymeal and soyoil, AAR said.

ENOUGH ANIMAL FEED?

U.S. chicken producers rely on about 27 million bushels of corn and 11 million bushels of soymeal every week to feed their birds, the National Chicken Council said. Much is moved by rail.

"Any disruption of service could negatively impact the welfare of the birds, and ultimately impact production at a time when Americans are already dealing with record food inflation," council spokesman Tom Super said.

In North Carolina, a pork and poultry producer, local grain growers do not produce enough corn to feed all the farm animals, said Bob Ford, executive director of the North Carolina Poultry Federation.

"We'd be in trouble if they went on strike for very long," Ford said. "We'd run out of corn."

Wayne-Sanderson Farms, a Georgia-based chicken company owned by Cargill Inc and Continental Grain, is working with local corn producers to augment feed supplies if needed during rail disruptions, spokesman Frank Singleton said.

The beginning of corn harvesting in the southern United States, a main poultry region, "will relieve some of the pressure" on feed supplies, he said.

Some rail customers that feed livestock do not have enough soymeal, said Fisher, of the National Grain and Feed Association. In a worst case scenario, that could force some producers to cull animals.

Railroads also ship hexane, a chemical solvent that crushers use to extract oil from soybeans, said Mike Steenhoek, executive director of Soy Transportation Coalition.

"Any slowdown or stoppage of rail service – especially on the eve of harvest – would significantly impact farmers' ability to meet customer demand – both domestically and internationally," Steenhoek said.

(Reporting By P.J. Huffstutter and Tom Polansek in Chicago; Additional reporting by Karl Plume in Chicago, Rod Nickel in Winnipeg, Canada, and Stephanie Kelly in New York; Editing by David Gregorio)



https://news.yahoo.com/u-railways-halt-grain-shipments-212922735.html

Nearly 40 million people worldwide work in jobs related to clean energy, according to a Sept. 8 report from the International Energy Agency. That number represents 56% of total energy sector employment, meaning that, for the first time ever, clean energy jobs outnumber those involved in producing, transporting, and burning fossil fuels.

The clean energy jobs includes those upstream, like building solar panels and producing crops for biofuels, as well as downstream, like operating wind farms, installing energy efficiency upgrades in buildings, and selling electric vehicles.

The majority shifted during the pandemic, the report says; in 2019, clean energy was just shy of half of jobs.

Since the pandemic, clean energy has accounted for “virtually all of the growth in energy employment,” the report says. That’s largely due to the opening of large new manufacturing facilities for solar and electric vehicles, especially in China.

In spite of headwinds from rising raw material prices and trade disruptions, the report projects clean energy job growth to steam ahead, adding at least 13 million new jobs by 2030, and more than offsetting the continuing loss of jobs in fossil fuels.

https://www.yahoo.com/video/more-people-now-clean-energy-151000220.html

• Rising food costs helped push inflation higher again last month, according to the latest government data.
• Prices for staples like eggs, milk, cereal, bread and butter notched some of the largest increases, further straining household budgets.
• Savings experts share their top tips to cut costs at the grocery store.

Going to the grocery store isn’t getting any cheaper.

Rising food costs helped push inflation higher again last month, despite a drop in gas prices. The food index alone rose 11.4% over the past year, according to the latest consumer price index figures — marking the biggest 12-month jump since May 1979.

The food-at-home index, a measure of price changes at the grocery store, increased 13.5% — also a 43-year high.

In the face of higher prices, consumers have been cutting back, according to Mark Hamrick, a senior economic analyst at Bankrate.com. However, “food, at its basic level, is not discretionary,” he said. “That’s the challenging aspect of the circumstances we are in.”

Prices for staples like eggs, milk, cereal, bread and butter notched some of the largest increases, further straining household budgets.

Inflation has also led many food and beverage companies, including Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, to raise the prices on drinks and packaged goods. Some are also making their packages smaller — also known as “shrinkflation” — or swap in less expensive ingredients, a tactic now termed “skimpflation.”

“Grocery product manufacturers know that while most shoppers will immediately notice a price increase, they are less likely to catch a reduction in a product’s net weight or a switch to using cheaper ingredients,” said Edgar Dworsky, the founder of Consumer World, who has been tracking the downsizing of popular products, such as Charmin, Quaker Instant Oatmeal and Honey Bunches of Oats.

The Federal Reserve has already taken aggressive steps to fight surging inflation, and a survey released earlier this week by the New York Fed showed consumers are growing less fearful about rising prices — although they still expect the inflation rate to be 5.7% a year from now.

“Consumers are prepared for high prices to persist in the foreseeable future, but there’s also a tendency for people to think that things might return to normal,” Hamrick said.

In the meantime, “it’s prudent for individuals to continue to be cautious with their household budgets,” he added.

To that end, savings experts share their top tips to spend less on groceries as food inflation shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon.

“It’s belt-tightening time and has been for a while,” Hamrick said.

5 tips for saving on groceries

1. Scrutinize sales. Generic brands can be 10% to 30% cheaper than their “premium” counterparts and just as good, but that’s not always the case. Name brands may be offering bigger-than-usual discounts right now to maintain loyalty, so it pays to pay attention to price changes.

2. Plan your meals. When you plan your meals in advance, you’re more likely to just buy the things you need, said Lisa Thompson, a savings expert at Coupons.com. If planning’s not your thing, at least go shopping with a rough idea of what you’ll be cooking in the week ahead to help stay on track and avoid impulse purchases, she added.

3. Buy in bulk. When it comes to the rest of the items on your list, you can save more by buying in bulk. Joining a wholesale club such as Costco, Sam’s Club or BJ’s will often get you the best price per unit on condiments and nonperishable goods.

4. Use a cash-back app. Ibotta and Checkout 51 are two of the most popular apps for earning cash back at the store, according to Julie Ramhold, a consumer analyst at DealNews.com. The average Ibotta user earns between $10 and $20 a month, but more active users can make as much as $100 to $300 a month, a spokesperson told CNBC.

5. Pay with the right card. While a generic cash-back card such as the Citi Double Cash Card can earn you 2%, there are specific grocery rewards cards that can earn you up to 6% back at supermarkets nationwide, such as the Blue Cash Preferred Card from American Express. CNBC’s Select has a full roundup of the best cards for food shopping along with the APRs and annual fees.



https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/15/how-to-save-money-as-food-inflation-jumps.html

The food-at-home index, a measure of price changes at the grocery store, increased 13.5% — also a 43-year high.

The supply chain issues have no end in sight, so manufacturers are being forced to improvise.

AS THE GLOBAL chip shortage stretches toward the two-year mark, manufacturers are pulling some unusual tricks to keep production lines moving. Carmakers are using semiconductors taken from washing machines, rewriting code to use less silicon, and even shipping their products without some chips while promising to add them in later. With the shortage of semiconductors now a new normal, everyone is being forced to adapt.

“There's desperation in the market,” says Bill Wiseman, a senior partner at the consulting firm McKinsey. “If you’re building a $350,000 mass spectrometer, and you can't ship it because you don't have a 50-cent chip, you’re pretty much willing to pay anything.”

McKinsey has tapped into the sense of urgency by creating a team dedicated to sourcing chips for the companies it consults for. Wiseman says the team will look beyond regular supply chains and has found much-needed chips in countries including Morocco, the Netherlands, and Japan. They have also been able to identify chips that may be slightly different from the ones originally called for. Manufacturers and brokers are, of course, able to charge a premium, and companies have little choice but to pay. “The chips actually are out there,” Wiseman says. “It's just a question of finding and getting them.”

In some cases, this means taking desperate measures. Last month, Peter Wennink, CEO of the Dutch company ASML, which makes the complex machines needed to mint cutting-edge computer chips, revealed another eye-opening example. Wennink says one large industrial conglomerate had resorted to buying washing machines just to scavenge the chips inside them for its products.

The chip shortage was caused by several factors, including a rush to buy electronics needed to work from home in the pandemic, a hoarding of chips sparked by trade tensions between the US and China, and disruption to flow of components through a complex semiconductor supply chain distributed around the globe.

The crisis has highlighted how crucial semiconductors are to the economy and has shown how brittle many supply chains are. Industries that have been badly affected include consumer electronics, LED and other lighting, energy, and automotive. At the beginning of the pandemic, car makers halted production and canceled orders for chips, before being blindsided by an uptick in demand. Having fallen to the back of the queue for chip orders, auto firms have been struggling to catch up ever since.

Carmakers have taken to stripping features from vehicles rather than shut down production lines. Last September, Cadillac said it would remove the hands-free driving feature from some vehicles. In November, Tesla started selling cars without USB ports. And this May, Ford said it would ship some models without chips for noncritical features like heating controls and would have dealers add them at a later date.

Mike Juran, CEO of Altia, a company that makes software for building interfaces for cars and appliances, says many companies are rewriting their code so that it works with different chips or so that a single chip does double the work. In some cases, Juran says, companies are using chips that are as much as 10 years old. “They’re swapping out chips with what's available,” he says. “We get them to go back to old chips that were, like, sitting in warehouses, that weren't cutting edge, but we can get the same GUI on there.”

The chip crunch is dragging on partly because new issues, including Covid outbreaks in China and the war in Ukraine, are contributing to the supply chain chaos.

The crisis is also creating new opportunities for some companies. Smith & Associates, an electronic components broker, has hired 300 staff since the pandemic began, on top of a staff of 500, says Matt Hartzell, the company’s chief administrative officer. “Salaries have pumped up to all-time highs,” he says. Hartzell adds that while a few companies have canceled products, many are doing whatever they can to keep production lines running. Chiplitics, a startup that has licensed technology from Sandia National Laboratories, has developed a more efficient way to quickly spot counterfeit chips by sending a signal through them. Spotting fakes is a critical issue for chip brokers and manufacturers looking to source chips quickly.

Dan Hutcheson, an analyst at TechInsights, who follows the chip industry, says companies have taken desperate measures to deal with previous shortages, including harvesting chips from other products. He also warns that the shortage could quickly turn into a glut, as the economy cools and demand for new products slows. But he also wonders if the current shortage might have another explanation. “There has to be hoarding out there,” Hutcheson says. “I think chips are the new toilet paper.”


https://www.wired.com/story/chip-shortage-hacks/

For decades, the EU has had some of the tightest restrictions on genetically altered agriculture. That could be about to change.

EUROPE’S SUMMER OF drought has been impossible to ignore. Rivers dried up, exposing the skeletons of warships and ancient buildings. Images captured by satellite show swathes of the continent’s normally verdant fields turned to parched dust bowls.

The hot, dry conditions have also wreaked havoc on Europe’s agriculture. Most of the continent’s water-starved fields will produce lower than expected yields this summer. For some crops the difference is stark: Soybean yields are 15 percent below their five-year average while sunflower yields are 12 percent down. With agricultural supply chains already stretched because of the war in Ukraine, the vulnerabilities in Europe’s food system are looking extremely exposed.

In response, some European politicians are starting to rethink the European Union’s long-standing opposition to genetically modified (GMO) and gene-edited crops. In July, an Italian member of the European Parliament called for a loosening of the rules that restrict crop varieties created using new gene-editing techniques like CRISPR from being grown and sold within the EU. “New agricultural biotechnology can provide experimentation for more drought- and pest-resistant plants,” member Antonio Tajani said in a meeting at the European Parliament. Other Italian politicians have joined him in calling for similar changes to gene-editing regulations. In northern Italy, the drought is so severe that rice fields are drying up and farmers are facing much lower harvests than normal.

If European droughts are here to stay, farmers might need new crop varieties that can withstand long, dry summers. Until recently, scientists who wanted to create more drought-resistant crops would have two main options: conventional breeding, or genetic modification. Genetically modified crops are made by inserting genetic material from another organism into the DNA of a plant—usually a gene that makes the crop resistant to insects or herbicides. The EU’s strict rules on GMOs mean that only two such crops have ever been approved there, and only one—a bug-resistant corn—is grown within EU borders. In the United States, by contrast, nearly 90 percent of soybean and corn fields are GMO. Gene editing is a separate and more recent technique, and involves directly editing the genome of an organism rather than inserting genes from a different species. It was expected to avoid GMO regulations, but in 2018 the European Court of Justice ruled that gene-edited crops should be subject to the same regulations as GMOs.

Now there are signs that the EU’s position might be about to change. The European Commission is responsible for creating new legislation in the EU, and in April 2021 published a study outlining its desire to loosen regulations on gene-edited crops. “The commission realized that the European Court of Justice decision was not science-based. It was legally based but it wasn’t science-based,” says Cathie Martin, a professor of plant science at the John Innes Centre in the UK. The European Commission’s study concluded that the EU’s existing GMO rules aren’t suitable for regulating crops made using gene editing. It also said that gene-edited crops could help the EU meet its goals for sustainability and food security.

A change in policy could also have an impact on the EU’s agricultural emissions. Agriculture is responsible for around 10 percent of the EU’s emissions, but one study from the US-based think tank the Breakthrough Institute found that the EU’s adoption of GMO crops such as those grown in the US could lead to a reduction in emissions equivalent to 7.5 percent of the total agricultural emissions of Europe. This mainly comes from the fact that GMO crops tend to have higher yields than conventional varieties. Most of those emissions reductions would come from land outside the EU that didn’t need to be converted to agriculture, explains Emma Kovak, lead author of the study. “Because crop yields in the EU are higher than the global average, further increasing crop yields in the EU allows production expansion elsewhere in the world to slow,” she explains.

There are some big caveats, however. Firstly, even if the European Commission does get its way, new regulations will apply only to gene-edited crops and not the kind of GMOs widely grown in the US. Secondly, two of the most widely grown crops in the EU are wheat and barley, and there aren’t gene-edited versions of those crops that are ready to be put straight in the ground.

In other words, any emissions reductions from a change in gene-editing regulations wouldn’t come quickly. But more drought-tolerant crops might not be too far away. Kovak points out that drought-tolerant wheat has already been approved in Argentina, although that too is a GMO crop. If the EU and its 450 million inhabitants do become a new market for gene-edited crops, however, that might be an incentive for agricultural firms to produce new drought-resistant varieties of European staples.

If gene-edited crops do become deregulated in the EU, then it’s likely that the first to come to market will be fruits and vegetables rather than big commodity crops, as many of these already have GMO versions and manufacturers might be unwilling to create new gene-edited varieties for just the European market. Big agricultural companies have tended to avoid modifying lower-value foods such as fruit and vegetables because of the large costs associated with developing new GMO varieties—but gene editing is much cheaper. In the US, a CRISPR-edited mushroom was the first gene-edited food to be approved for sale. In the UK, Martin is doing her first field trials on tomatoes that have been gene edited to contain a precursor to vitamin D. These trials were possible only because the country recently eased regulations around field trials of gene-edited crops, as part of a post-Brexit breakaway from EU-era regulations.

Legislation to deregulate gene-edited crops in the EU may have a much tougher path ahead. The European Commission’s study has been staunchly opposed by groups such as Greenpeace and Slow Food, an organization that promotes local and traditional cooking within the EU. If a change in regulation is to pass, the commission will have to convince the European Council, and then legislation will be put to a vote in the European Parliament. In a bloc with such strong food traditions, it’s likely there will be a lot of resistance to new rules for gene-edited crops.

But Petra Jorasch, a spokesperson for Euroseeds, a group representing European seed companies, says that gene-editing technology could actually help preserve local varieties. Gene editing might mean that the Riesling grape could be made to be resistant to a certain fungi, for example, while still retaining all the other qualities of a Riesling. “If you could use those technologies to improve the fungi resistance in a wine, you would have the same crop with this added resistance and less fungicide use,” she says.

Kovak says that the best way to convince voters and legislators might be to emphasize that increasing crop yields in the EU would make it easier for the region to become more food secure and thus less vulnerable to fluctuations in food prices. And because gene editing is cheaper, consumers might also have more direct experience with edited crops in the form of nutritionally enhanced fruits and vegetables, like Martin’s tomatoes. “It opens the door to more improvements of produce,” Kovak says.


https://www.wired.com/story/europe-drought-gene-editing/

The Irish government is now paying 2,000 artists, musicians, writers, and performers a ‘basic income’ of €325 ($329) each week.

The plan for the Basic Income for Artists was originally announced back in January 2022. The Minister for Culture and Arts is spending around €25m ($23.3M) on the initiative. Over 9,000 people applied to join the program, with 2,000 accepted. Those who were accepted into the program were selected anonymously and at random. According to the BBC, musicians, and artists make up the bulk of recipients, who will receive the stipend for three years.

The basic income initiative was set up for those working in the arts by a task force appointed by the Irish Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sports and Media, Catherine Martin.

The task force was created to suggest ways the arts could recover from the damage caused by the pandemic. One of the stipulations of joining the program is taking part in a research project to determine the impact of the payment.

Dublin has the highest number of recipients of the Irish Basic Income for musicians grant, at 764. Cork has 212, and Galway has 148 recipients. The breakdown for recipients is 700 visual artists, 584 musicians, 204 film creatives, and 184 writers. Around 170 actors and others working on theater projects were also selected. That includes 32 dancers and choreographers, 13 circus artists, and 10 architects. 50 of the recipients work in the Irish language.

The high demand for the basic income stipend was acknowledged by the government. Irish Minister for Tourism Catherine Martin says, “there will be a lot of disappointed people today who applied and didn’t get selected. I am very grateful to everyone who took the time to apply and I understand their disappointment.”

“Ireland could lead the way on a new model to support people active in the sector, recognizing its importance to all people,” she adds.


https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2022/09/12/irish-government-basic-income-artists-musicians/

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• Goldman’s loss rate on credit card loans is the worst among big U.S. card issuers and “well above subprime lenders” at 2.93%, according to a Sept. 6 note from JPMorgan.
• More than a quarter of Goldman’s card loans have gone to customers with FICO scores below 660, according to company filings. That could expose the bank to higher losses if the economy experiences a downturn, as is expected by many forecasters.
• CEO David Solomon will likely face questions from directors about the consumer business at a board meeting later this week, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

The weakest American borrowers are starting to miss payments and default on their loans, and that is showing up at a surprising place: Goldman Sachs.

While competitors like Bank of America enjoy repayment rates at or near record levels, Goldman’s loss rate on credit card loans hit 2.93% in the second quarter. That’s the worst among big U.S. card issuers and “well above subprime lenders,” according to a Sept. 6 note from JPMorgan.

The profile of Goldman’s card customers actually resembles that of issuers known for their subprime offerings. More than a quarter of Goldman’s card loans have gone to customers with FICO scores below 660, according to filings. That could expose the bank to higher losses if the economy experiences a downturn, as is expected by many forecasters.

“People are losing their jobs and you had inflation at 40-year highs; that will impact the subprime cohort more because they are living paycheck to paycheck,” Michael Taiano, a senior director at Fitch Ratings, said in an interview. “With Goldman the question will be, were they growing too fast into a late-cycle period?”

The dynamic comes at a sensitive time for CEO David Solomon. Under pressure to improve the bank’s stock price, Goldman’s money-losing consumer operations have drawn headlines and the ire of some investors and insiders. The investment bank began its foray into consumer finance in 2016 to diversify from its traditional strengths of Wall Street trading and advisory activities.

But the journey has been a bumpy one, marked by leadership turnover and staff departures, missed product deadlines, confusion over branding, a regulatory probe and mounting losses.

Solomon will likely face questions from directors about the consumer business at a board meeting later this week, according to people with knowledge of the matter. There is internal dissent about who Solomon has picked to lead key businesses, and insiders hope he puts stronger managers in place, the people said. Some feel as though Solomon, who moonlights as a DJ on the international festival circuit, has been too extroverted, putting his own personal brand ahead of the bank’s, the people said.

Goldman declined to comment for this article, and Apple didn’t immediately return a request for comment.

A viral hit

Goldman’s credit card business, anchored by the Apple Card since 2019, has arguably been the company’s biggest success yet in terms of gaining retail lending scale. It’s the largest contributor to the division’s 14 million customers and $16 billion in loan balances, a figure that Goldman said would nearly double to $30 billion by 2024.

But rising losses threaten to mar that picture. Lenders deem bad loans “charge-offs” after a customer misses payments for six months; Goldman’s 2.93% net charge-off rate is double the 1.47% rate at JPMorgan’s card business and higher than Bank of America’s 1.60%, despite being a fraction of those issuers’ size.

Goldman’s losses are also higher than that of Capital One, the largest subprime player among big banks, which had a 2.26% charge-off rate.

“If there’s one thing Goldman is supposed to be good at, its risk management,” said Jason Mikula, a former Goldman employee who now consults for the industry.  “So how do they have charge-off rates comparable to a subprime portfolio?”

Apple Card

The biggest reason is because Goldman’s customers have been with the bank for less than two years on average, according to people with knowledge of the business who weren’t authorized to speak to the press.

Charge-off rates tend to be highest during the first few years a user has a card; as Goldman’s pool of customers ages and struggling users drop out, those losses should calm down, the people said. The bank leans on third-party data providers to compare metrics with similar cards of the same vintage and is comfortable with its performance, the people said.

Other banks also tend to be more aggressive in seeking to recover debt, which improves competitors’ net charge-off figures, the people said.

But another factor is that Goldman’s biggest credit product, the Apple Card, is aimed at a broad swath of the country, including those with lower credit scores. Early in its rollout, some users were stunned to learn they had been approved for the card despite checkered credit histories.

“Goldman has to play in a broader credit spectrum than other banks, that’s part of the issue,” said a person who once worked at the New York-based bank, who asked for anonymity to speak candidly about his former employer. “They have no direct-to-consumer offering yet, and when you have the Apple Card and the GM card, you are looking at Americana.”

Spitting distance

After the 2008 financial crisis caused by undisciplined lending, most banks shifted to serving the well-off, and competitors including JPMorgan and Bank of America tend to focus on higher-end borrowers. The exception among big banks was Capital One, which focuses more on subprime offerings after buying HSBC’s U.S. card business in 2011.

Capital One says 30% of its loans were to customers with FICO scores below 660, a band that contains near-prime and subprime users. That’s within spitting distance of Goldman’s proportion of sub-660 customers, which was 28% as of June.

Meanwhile, JPMorgan said 12% of its loans were to users with below-660 scores, and Bank of America said that 3.7% of loans were tied to FICO scores under 620.

After a period in which borrowers fortified by Covid pandemic stimulus checks repaid their debts like never before, it is the industry’s “newer entrants” that are “showing much faster weakening” in credit metrics, JPMorgan analyst Vivek Juneja wrote last week.

“Goldman’s credit card net change-off ratio has risen sharply in the past 3 quarters,” he wrote. That is happening “despite unemployment remaining very low at 3.7% in August, similar to 2019 levels.”

Mounting losses

That has forced the bank to set aside more reserves for potential future credit losses. The consumer business is on track to lose $1.2 billion this year according to internal projections, Bloomberg reported in June. The “vast majority” of the consumer investments this year are tied to building loan reserves, thanks in part to new regulations that force banks to front-load their loss reserves, Solomon told analysts in July.

That figure could get worse if a recession forces them to set aside more money for soured loans, executives have acknowledged.

The difficulties seem to confirm some of the skepticism Goldman faced when it beat out established card players to win the Apple Card account in 2019. Rivals said the bank could struggle to reach profitability on the no-fee card.

“Credit cards are a hard business to break into,” said Taiano, the Fitch Ratings director. “Goldman already faces higher losses because their book of business is young. But when you layer on worse unemployment, you are exacerbating that trend.”


https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/12/goldmans-gs-apple-card-business-has-a-surprising-subprime-problem.html

The FED says otherwise:
https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/z1/dataviz/z1/balance_sheet/chart/

2022 Q2 144T
2020 Q1 110T

The net wealth is still far above 2020.

But I don't quite see what this has to do with it, as households that had part of their net worth in crypto have also suffered losses.