A vessel that’s set to be the world’s biggest cruise ship has completed construction at a shipyard in Finland and has made its first foray into open water for sea trials ahead of likely delivery in October this year. Royal Caribbean International’s Icon of the Seas is a mammoth 365 meters long (nearly 1,200 feet) […]
Category: Business
China now owns 300,000 acres of US soil
In 2021, a Chinese company bought land near an Air Force base in Grand Fork, N.D., sending lawmakers into a frenzy. Lawmakers feared that China, which many policymakers view as a strategic adversary even though it’s the country’s top trading partner outside North America, could gain control over the U.S. food and energy supply, as […]
What the heck is ‘Bidenomics’?
The White House is pressing congressional Democrats to embrace the concept of “Bidenomics” as President Joe Biden tries to reclaim messaging around the economy. In a memo sent to Hill Democrats earlier this week, White House officials detailed talking points to control the economic narrative as being under the control of Bidenomics, a catchall term […]
Gen-Z workers are exhausted and stressed
Researchers say younger generations deal with an ongoing wealth inequality. They see senior executives get bonuses and higher wages, while average worker wages remain stagnant. In a 2023 Deloitte survey, nearly half of Gen Zs and four in 10 millennials said they feel stressed all or most of the time. Only half of Gen Z […]
Amsterdam embraces ‘Circular Economy’
A traditional industrial economy uses raw materials to make products which are discarded when they are no longer wanted, sometimes before the end of their useful lives. The circular economy aims to break the link between economic activity and using up the earth’s resources. This may involve reusing, repairing, and sharing materials and products. While […]
How much money does it take to be ‘Rich’ in US?
Americans have a specific number in mind about how much it takes to be perceived as wealthy, and it’s a sizable chunk of change: an average of $2.2 million in assets. That may seem like a pie-in-the-sky number, especially given that the median net worth of the typical family stood at about $122,000 in 2019, […]
Older Americans are struggling to pay bills
More Americans are struggling to pay their household bills compared with a year ago, but the rise in hardship isn’t hitting all groups equally. Older workers and people over 65, who are largely retired, have experienced the sharpest rise in financial hardship among all age groups compared with a year earlier, according to an analysis […]
Only 25% of US Homes are affordable for typical buyer
Owning a home has long been seen as a pillar of the American dream. But a new report highlights just how far many Americans remain from achieving it. Middle-income households, or those with annual earnings of up to $75,000, can afford only 23% of the homes listed for sale in the U.S., according to recent […]
Why millions of usable hard drives are destroyed
Millions of storage devices are being shredded each year, even though they could be reused. “You don’t need an engineering degree to understand that’s a bad thing,” says Jonmichael Hands. He is the secretary and treasurer of the Circular Drive Initiative (CDI), a partnership of technology companies promoting the secure reuse of storage hardware. He […]
America’s oldest drive-in theater still alive
Nine miles northwest of Allentown, Pennsylvania, sits America’s oldest drive-in movie theater, first opened in 1934. While it was originally the second drive-in theater to open in America, Shankweiler’s Drive-In Theatre is now the only one left from the early 1930s. The theater was opened by Wilson Shankweiler, who originally called it Shankweiler’s Park-In Theatre. […]
Gas price time bomb set to go off soon
Saudi Arabia announced earlier this week that it will further reduce its oil production in a unilateral attempt to rise the price of crude, which two previous cuts agreed by major producing countries in the OPEC+ alliance couldn’t prop up. The cuts, equal to 1 million barrels per day starting in July, are likely to […]
Biden puts gas furnaces on chopping block
The Biden administration is expected to soon finalize regulations restricting which home gas-powered furnaces consumers are able to purchase in the future. According to experts, the regulations — proposed in June 2022 by the Department of Energy (DOE) — would restrict consumer choice, drive prices higher and likely have a low impact on greenhouse gas […]