For Ask an Economist this week I have a question from Hal who asks, “What is the difference between a ‘non-profit’ and a ‘not for profit’?”
In order to address this question, I think it’s important to discuss what separates a for-profit business from these two forms of organization.
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The Federal Reserve hiked its target federal-funds interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point Wednesday, the ninth in a series of hikes that started in March 2022.
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Insurers are being forced to write off many electric vehicles with only minor damage to battery packs, sending the batteries to scrap yards and hindering the climate benefits of going electric, Reuters reported.
Battery packs typically represent roughly half the cost of an electric vehicle, sometimes costing tens of thousands of dollars, often making it more economical for insurers to consider a car as totalled than replace a battery pack, according to Reuters. While many carmakers, including Ford and GM, told Reuters that their battery packs were repairable, many are unwilling to share key data with third-party insurers to help assess damage.
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U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) on Thursday grilled Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on whether she still believes inflation is a positive for Americans and the economy.
During the Senate Finance Committee hearing on President Joe Biden’s $6.9 trillion budget proposal, Grassley also asked Yellen whether her boss has it in him to rise about politics and lead on shoring up a troubled Social Security system headed down the road to insolvency.
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The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in the now-released President’s Budget is projecting just 0.6 percent in inflation-adjusted real growth of the U.S. economy in 2023 as the unemployment rate is expected to rise to 4.3 percent in 2023 and peak at 4.6 percent in 2024 after the economy is finished overheating from the continued, elevated inflation, consumers max out on credit and spending falls off a cliff.
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The pay packages for the chief executives of British oil giants BP and Shell skyrocketed in 2022 after the oil titans posted record profits off the back of high gas prices last year, Reuters reported Friday.
The salary of BP CEO Bernard Looney climbed to roughly £1.3 million, while performance-related bonuses and stock awards climbed to £10.03 million, to a total of £11.33 million in compensation, more than two and a half times the £4.46 million he earned in 2021, the company announced Friday. BP —which lagged behind its American competitors in 2022 despite a record profit of roughly $28 billion — has drawn criticism from activists for cutting its green investments and reinvesting in gas and oil, Reuters reported.
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Awareness of the nation’s massive labor shortage problem is increasing.
The problem is encapsulated by the latest news out of Kentucky, where one carpenter’s skills are in high demand.
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Tens of thousands of federal employees have “repeatedly” failed to file their federal tax returns, according to a new federal watchdog report.
The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration flags 42,000 so-called “federal employee non-filers” and states the government is limited in its authority to punish them, according to the Washington Times.
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Three of the five top shareholders in Norfolk Southern — the freight rail carrier under the spotlight for its saftey and environmental record following last month’s toxic train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio — have been aligned with the eco-conscious, socially aware ESG (environmental, social, governance) investing framework embraced by many leading financial firms in recent years. Asset management firms BlackRock Fund Advisors, JPMorgan Investment Management, and The Vanguard Group were all part of the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative, a coalition of ESG-minded money mangers committed to channeling investment capital to firms working toward the goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, as outlined in the Paris Climate Accord.
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A majority of Americans polled said they couldn’t afford to pay emergency expenses or cover their living expenses for just one month if they lost their primary source of income, according to Bankrate’s latest Annual Emergency Savings Report. The main reason cited is record-high inflation.
The majority surveyed, 68%, said they’re “worried they wouldn’t be able to cover their living expenses for just one month if they lost their primary source of income.”
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