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New York CNN  —  When the first Olive Garden opened in 1982 in Orlando, Florida, it was a disaster. Long lines formed to get inside. The cooks couldn’t make enough sauce to keep up with demand. Bells constantly rang, alerting the kitchen staff that a table was waiting more than 10 minutes for their meal. The second day wasn’t any better. It was immediately clear to Blaine Sweatt, an Olive Garden cofounder and general manager, that he needed a quick and cost-efficient way to satisfy hordes of hungry customers as they waited for their entrées. Enter an endless supply of…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Brussels says it will build up emergency stockpiles of critical minerals and cable repair kits as concerns mount over the EU’s vulnerability to attack.“The EU faces an increasingly complex and deteriorating risk landscape marked by rising geopolitical tensions, including conflict, the mounting impacts of climate change, environmental degradation, and hybrid and cyber threats,’’ the European Commission said in a draft document setting out a stockpiling strategy, seen by the Financial Times. Member states should co-ordinate backup supplies of food, medicines and even…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Capital markets myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.Everyone knows bureaucracies don’t shrink themselves. Why on earth would they? Rather, their sole aim is to grow bigger, concluded economist William Niskanen in his budget-maximising theory of 1968.No one in Britain should have expected a smaller state under Labour. In the US, Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” is forecast to raise federal debt by a fifth relative to output by 2035. Even the pfennig pinching Germans wish to be more Latin America circa the 1980s these days.Politicians are much to blame for…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The writer is co-head of private equity at KKRThe private equity naysayers are out in force in 2025. Underlying the latest predictions of the industry’s demise is a notable mis-step many firms made by over-deploying capital during 2021 and the first half of 2022, a period characterised by high valuations.Many of those investments will probably be underperformers. Consequently, private equity funds overexposed to these vintages may struggle to raise more capital. But is it the beginning of the industry’s downfall as some claim?While…

Investors wondering what to do with their pensions, investments and savings face an uncertain environment on various fronts as the unpredictability of Donald Trump, the US president, shakes up the markets. Equities have been volatile and the dollar has had its worst start to the year since the 1970s due to uncertainty around Trump’s tariffs and geopolitical events. Fixed income is not playing its usual “stabilising” role in a portfolio to counter inflation concerns, with some wealth managers saying they no longer believe in the traditional 60-40 model of equities versus bonds. Gold is still seen as a haven but…

CNN  —  Eighteen months ago, at around 7 p.m. practically every night, Chloe Lawson would start a four-mile walk to Subway, where she’d work the overnight shift, earning a buck above the $7.25 federal minimum wage. Eight hours later, the then 19-year-old would clock out and head back to find somewhere to hopefully get some sleep. She had no family, no friends she could stay with in Splendora, Texas, a small town outside Houston. She often found herself at “some shady hotel” or other unsafe places. “I honestly didn’t have a future,” she said. That’s changed in the year and…

Din Tai Fung thinks robots aren’t good enough to make their iconic pork soup dumplings.The Taiwanese chain’s North America CEO, Aaron Yang, said Din Tai Fung’s xiao long baos, which are known for being pleated at the top with exactly 18 folds, are “very, very delicate.” Yang, 33, leads the company alongside his brother, Albert Yang, 32.And they make a lot of them — Din Tai Fung sells an average of 10,000 handmade xiao long baos every day at each of its North American outlets, the chain told BI. It has over 173 outlets in 13 countries, including the US,…

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Lance Koster, a 61-year-old Pilot instructor, and his wife, Michelle, who moved to Justin, Texas, in 2024.Justin is a small town about 40 minutes north of Fort Worth. According to recent Census data, its population is 6,197.The essay has been edited for length and clarity.Lance: In my career as a pilot, my family and I moved around the country a lot. In 2010, we ended up in Salt Lake City and lived there for 14 years.We loved Salt Lake City. Its landscape was amazing, especially the mountains. We were always skiing,…

For me, grocery shopping is more of a game of strategy than a chore.With a family of four, plus one more when my oldest daughter comes home on weekends, I stick to a weekly food budget of $200. There’s a little wiggle room, but definitely nothing over $250. If something doesn’t fit into this week’s budget, it simply gets bumped to next week’s list.That kind of discipline helps me stay in control and avoid unnecessary stress. These days, prices are high, so I’ve had to get smarter about how and where I spend my money.I always monitor weekly sales, clip…

Forget fireworks and cookouts: Elon Musk and Sam Altman are spending their Fourth of July sharing their frustrations about US politics.The rival tech billionaires each celebrated Independence Day with social-media posts in which they vented about the state of the 50 states.Musk rekindled his idea of starting a new political party called the “America Party” in an X post. This comes after a falling out between the Tesla CEO and his former ally, President Donald Trump.”Independence Day is the perfect time to ask if you want independence from the two-party (some would say uniparty) system!” Musk wrote on X.Musk’s musings…