Author: arthursheikin@gmail.com

[ad_1] Washington CNN  —  Americans are still opening their wallets, even as President Donald Trump’s tariffs start to take a bite. Retail sales rose 0.6% in June from the prior month, the Commerce Department said Thursday, rebounding from the steep 0.9% decline in May. June’s number was much stronger than the 0.2% gain economists projected in a FactSet poll. Spending climbed across categories last month, including at car dealerships, which saw one of the biggest monthly increases. Those sales were up a robust 1.2% in June. However, the figures aren’t adjusted for inflation, and some goods already began to get…

[ad_1] CNN  —  Public television stations will be “forced to make hard decisions in the weeks and months ahead,” PBS CEO Paula Kerger said Thursday, after the Senate voted in the middle of the night to approve a bill that cancels all the federal funding for the network. Once the House passes the bill, as expected, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s budget will be zeroed out for the first time since 1967, back when television stations still broadcast in black and white. It is a long-sought victory for President Trump, who has harshly accused PBS and NPR newscasts of being…

[ad_1] This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Justin Nedelman, the 48-year-old CEO of Pressed Juicery based in Los Angeles. It’s been edited for length and clarity.I began my career as a retail real-estate developer, building shopping centers and hotels.I then started a restaurant group out of the ashes of my real-estate company in the 2008 recession. I was the CEO of Eureka! Restaurant Group from 2009 to 2021.Pressed Juicery was doing a formal CEO search, and I knew a board member, so I decided to put my hat in the ring. My wellness background, experience, and consumer-oriented…

[ad_1] Let’s say you’re at your favorite coffee shop. You order a customized drink — the same one you’ve ordered hundreds of times. The 20-something barista says it’s not available today.Exasperated, you explain that you’ve ordered it many times in the past.You’re met with a blank stare.You repeat yourself, anxious to fill the dead silence, but the barista isn’t budging — and neither is her face.Let’s face it. You just got the “Gen Z stare.” But, consider this: Maybe you deserved it! And maybe the Gen Z barista is onto something.First things first: Is the “Gen Z stare” even real?…

[ad_1] 31-year-old venture capitalist Sam Awrabi has raised $10 million to exclusively invest in AI startups, calling the technology “the dominant force of our lifetime.”AI advancements will be “bigger than both mobile and web combined,” Awrabi said, in part because “the average person’s productivity will be increased 50% to 75% in the coming years.”Awrabi’s AI Fund I will operate within his VC firm, Banyan Ventures, named for the tree whose prop roots enable it to spread. The fund specializes in AI infrastructure and software startups that have had the technology at their core since inception.On the infrastructure front, Awrabi said…

[ad_1] A new type of deal has swept through Silicon Valley in the past year or so, driven by the AI boom and antitrust limitations.I call these transactions “acquihires on steroids,” and they have some of the unsavory flavor of steroid use in sports. If you’re a Big Tech company, you can’t do big acquisitions as easily anymore because of antitrust scrutiny. So, instead, you pay handsomely to hire the top talent and license the technology, leaving the remaining business and employees to soldier on alone.Crucially, Big Tech is not technically acquiring these startups, so the deals are not subject…

[ad_1] Netflix seems poised for a record-setting quarter, even as its crackdown on freeloaders cools off.Wall Street expects Netflix to report a best-ever $11.1 billion in revenue and $7.08 in earnings per share when it shares second-quarter results on Thursday, based on consensus estimates compiled by S&P Global. That would be up from first-quarter marks of $10.5 billion and $6.61, respectively.Analysts think Netflix’s primary growth drivers this quarter will be the price increases it implemented earlier this year and its budding advertising tier. That tier drove nearly half of Netflix’s subscriber growth in the US in the first five months…

[ad_1] America may be divided over millennials spending too much on avocado toast, Gen Zers staring into the void, and boomers hoarding their wealth, but there’s one thing that every generation can agree on: career prospects are feeling extra miserable lately.One Gen Xer told Business Insider of when she learned she was laid off, “The day that I got that news, it was like going to the worst surprise party I’ve ever been to.””My dream job might exist,” a frustrated Gen Z job seeker said. “But I’m one of 400 people applying for it.””I keep hearing employers talk about no…

[ad_1] When he’s not in JPMorgan’s boardroom, Jamie Dimon says he is out hiking and barbequing.In an episode of the “Acquired” podcast released on Wednesday, JPMorgan’s CEO said that he was taught to always have a purpose. His “hierarchy” of priorities is family — he has three adult daughters and several grandchildren — country, and working at the bank.Besides that, he has a list of dad-style hobbies.”One of my daughters said, ‘Dad, you need some hobbies.’ And I said, ‘I do. Hanging out with you, family travel, barbecuing, wine,'” Dimon said.He added that his family now likes whiskeys and that…

[ad_1] CNN  —  Joe Dalesandro didn’t expect to keep his mortgage rate at 6.99% for very long when he purchased a new home with his girlfriend last summer in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. He’d refinance soon, he reasoned. He was wrong. “We always thought they would go down, and fairly quickly,” Dalesandro said of interest rates. “It has caught us by surprise that it hasn’t come down.” Average mortgage rates in the US have hovered above 6% for nearly three years. Many Americans who bought homes in that time might have expected lower rates and a chance to refinance by…