Hurricane Ian will be remembered as one of the most consequential in recent U.S. history, leaving scores of homes and businesses obliterated in addition to a still-rising number of deaths.
After pummeling Cuba, the storm came ashore on the western coast of Florida with an unforgiving storm surge that gutted the first floors of buildings and winds that knocked out about a quarter of Florida’s power. The Category 4 storm dropped more than 20 inches of rain on central parts of the state.
New York(CNN Business) – Pandemic price hikes didn’t let up in the last month of 2021: A key inflation gauge hit a fresh a 39-year high.
The US consumer price inflation index rose 7% over thepast year before seasonal adjustments, the steepestclimb in prices since June 1982,
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2022/01/12/economy/inflation-consumer-price-index-december/index.html
Ally Bank is one such online-only financial institution. It’s actually been around for over a century, but you probably didn’t hear about it until the last decade.
Ally has been in the news in 2021 because it eliminated all overdraft fees for its accounts. Ally had put the fees on pause through the pandemic but then decided in June to eliminate them permanently.
The bank started out in 1919 as GMAC, General Motors’ finance division. But in 2009, the company rebranded as Ally Financial, Inc., a leading digital financial services organization that offers everything from checking and savings accounts to home and auto loans to investment accounts.
Ally Financial’s portfolio includes:
Our in-depth Ally Bank review paints a full picture of the institution, but specifically focuses on its checking and savings accounts. This review also includes information about Ally’s money market accounts, CDs, loans and investment options, as well as a review of Ally’s mobile app, level of convenience and customer service.
Ally Bank is an FDIC-insured online-only banking institution offering an array of personal finance services, beginning with its Online Savings and Interest Checking accounts. You can open a money market account or invest in CDs with High Yield CD, Raise Your Rate CD and No Penalty CD options. Ally Bank also offers competitive home and auto loans (with a history in the automotive business), multiple IRAs and various investment options.
Ally Bank boasts a wide shelf of trophies, including best bank and best online bank awards from organizations such as MONEY Magazine and Kiplinger’s. Additional info here:
After enduring multiple days of freezing temperatures and people dripping faucets to prevent frozen pipes from bursting, cities across the state warned residents Wednesday that water levels are dangerously low and may be unsafe to drink.
Many Texas cities are issuing boil notices — asking residents to boil tap water for drinking, cooking, brushing their teeth and making ice — as residents have been struggling to maintain power and heat while an unprecedented winter storm whips across the state.
Approximately 590 public water systems in 141 Texas counties have reported disruptions in service, affecting 11.8 million people as of late Wednesday afternoon, according to a Texas Commission on Environmental Quality spokesperson.
Activities such as showering and doing laundry are safe, but cities under water boil notices are asking people to conserve water if possible.
At a Wednesday press conference, TCEQ Executive Director Toby Baker said water quality issues were related to the lack of electricity, frozen and broken water lines, and people dripping faucets so much that it was causing lower water pressure. Baker also said it will take testing to demonstrate that the water is safe before boil notices can be lifted. There are only 135 labs in the state that do that sampling, he said, which means the boil notices could linger.
The total economic impact from the winter storms ravaging Texas and other states from coast to coast could be as high as $50 billion, according to the founder and CEO of AccuWeather.
The unemployment rate is very high and millions report that their households did not get enough to eat or are not caught up on rent payments. We are able to track the extent of this hardship thanks to nearly real-time data from several sources on the unfolding economic crisis.
The Walt Disney Co. on Tuesday announced that 28,000 employees from the Parks, Experiences and Products segment “at all levels” will be laid off. What’s more, the company placed the blame for the decision on California not allowing Disneyland to reopen at this time.
The COVID-19 outbreak and the economic downturn it engendered swelled the ranks of unemployed Americans by more than 14 million, from 6.2 million in February to 20.5 million in May 2020. As a result, the U.S. unemployment rate shot up from 3.8% in February – among the lowest on record in the post-World War II era – to 13.0% in May. That rate was the era’s second highest, trailing only the level reached in April (14.4%).
The rise in the number of unemployed workers due to COVID-19 is substantially greater than the increase due to the Great Recession, when the number unemployed increased by 8.8 million from the end of 2007 to the beginning of 2010. The Great Recession, which officially lasted from December 2007 to June 2009, pushed the unemployment rate to a peak of 10.6% in January 2010, considerably less than the rate currently, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of government data. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/06/11/unemployment-rose-higher-in-three-months-of-covid-19-than-it-did-in-two-years-of-the-great-recession/
Nearly 50% of companies say they are at least somewhat likely to conduct layoffs over the next three months due to coronavirus COVID-19, while more than one-third of firms (37%) say they already have instituted a hiring freeze. This comes on the heels of a Federal Reserve estimate that stated that the coronavirus economic freeze could cost 47 million jobs and send the unemployment rate past 32%.
Washington (AFP) – Iconic American department store chain Macy’s on Monday announced it would furlough most of its employees after the coronavirus outbreak forced it to close outlets.
“While the digital business remains open, we have lost the majority of our sales due to the store closures,” the company said in a statement.
“We will be moving to the absolute minimum workforce needed to maintain basic operations. This means the majority of our colleagues will go on furlough beginning this week.”
Shallower cuts will be made in the retailer’s online operations, the statement said, and the company will keep paying for furloughed employees’ healthcare “at least through May,” with the intention of hiring them back.
https://news.yahoo.com/us-retailer-macys-furlough-most-staff-164324314.html
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