The heads of the nation’s largest banks faced pointed criticism on Thursday from Republicans complaining the firms are inappropriately taking liberal stances on social and cultural issues. Senator Pat Toomey, the senior Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, urged banks to stop “embracing a liberal ESG agenda that harms America,” as chief executives appeared before Congress for an oversight hearing. … Read more
American Airlines downplayed a hack attack that used a phishing scam to gain personal data for a “very small number” of passengers, the airline said. The unidentified hackers broke into email accounts of airline employees that contained sensitive customers’ data that included driver’s license numbers and medical information, according to a letter issued by American … Read more
Ancora Holdings, one of the hedge funds that spearheaded a board shake-up last year at Kohl’s, is now pushing for the removal of the retailer’s chief executive and board chairman, according to a letter sent to the company on Thursday. The move marks the beginning of a new round of shareholder unrest for Kohl’s after the company explored … Read more
Average long-term mortgage rates jumped by more than a quarter-point this week to their highest level since 2007 as the Federal Reserve intensified its effort to tamp down decades-high inflation and cool the economy. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac reported Thursday that the 30-year rate climbed to 6.29%, from 6.02% last week. That’s the highest it’s … Read more
The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits increased moderately last week, indicating the labor market remains tight despite the Federal Reserve’s attempt to cool demand with aggressive interest rate increases. The weekly unemployment claims report from the Labor Department on Thursday, the most timely data on the economy’s health, suggested that job growth remained solid this … Read more
US home prices are now “clearly falling” and could plummet by as much as 20% by mid-2023 as the Fed continues its aggressive push to hike interest rates, according to a prominent economist. Ian Shepherdson, the chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said his firm’s estimates suggest home prices have already declined by about 5% from … Read more
Whistleblower Peiter “Mudge” Zatko’s dramatic Congressional testimony last week about “egregious” security problems at Twitter left some Capitol Hill aides on edge. Zatko, Twitter’s ex-security chief, described a litany of alleged privacy and national security risks, including the site hiring a Chinese spy and giving thousands of employees the ability to access users’ accounts. “[It’s] … Read more
Facebook’s corporate parent Meta — scrambling to slash costs as its stock price tanks — has imposed a “30 day list” that requires some employees to either find a new job within the company or leave, according to a report. The scary ultimatum for some staffers was enacted as CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other executives … Read more
Target said Thursday it will hire up to 100,000 seasonal employees this holiday season, about the same number as last year — even as other big-box chains are scaling back hiring plans as consumer spending sputters. Walmart said this week it will hire just 40,000 seasonal workers compared with 150,000 in 2021. Michaels Stores is … Read more
Jamie Dimon doubled down on his longstanding antagonism toward cryptocurrencies on Wednesday as the JPMorgan Chase CEO told lawmakers that he viewed bitcoin and other digital coins as “dangerous” — likening them to a “decentralized Ponzi scheme.” “I’m a major skeptic of crypto tokens, which you call currency, like bitcoin,” Dimon said during an appearance … Read more