Author: News Room
The agriculture industry has plenty of complaints about trade.The National Pork Producers Council says the European Union puts the U.S. pork industry at a disadvantage. The council is none too happy with trade practices of Ecuador and Brazil, either.The USA Poultry and Egg Export Council, for its part, has a gripe with India. Citing that country’s 100 percent tariffs, it notes that India has imported only $255,000 worth of U.S. chicken parts since 2018.But neither organization is a fan of unilateral tariffs that, as the pork council said in a statement to the Office of the United States Trade Representative,…
The newly appointed head of one of the nation’s top housing regulators tightened his grip on the agency with a major board shake-up on Monday at two government-controlled mortgage finance firms.William Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, ousted 14 board members at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and named himself chairman of both companies’ boards.The last two F.H.F.A directors did not sit on the boards of Fannie and Freddie, the two firms that help drive the nation’s $12 trillion mortgage market. The F.H.F.A. is the primary regulator for Fannie and Freddie, which have been under federal government…
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nation’s top health official, has an unorthodox idea for tackling the bird flu bedeviling U.S. poultry farms. Let the virus rip.Instead of culling birds when the infection is discovered, farmers “should consider maybe the possibility of letting it run through the flock so that we can identify the birds, and preserve the birds, that are immune to it,” Mr. Kennedy said recently on Fox News.He has repeated the idea in other interviews on the channel.Mr. Kennedy does not have jurisdiction over farms. But Brooke Rollins, the agriculture secretary, also has voiced support for the notion.“There…
Emmett Burke has noticed something unusual in his Manhattan restaurants. Half-eaten pizzas dot tables and bar space, left behind by those who ordered them. At Emmett’s and Emmett’s on Grove, Mr. Burke’s two Chicago-style pizzerias, diners seem increasingly uninterested in asking for boxes to take home leftovers.“I will look at the plates coming back to the kitchen and all the food we are throwing out, and I will ask if something is wrong,” he said. “I would assume most people would love to have a quarter of a pizza in their fridge.”A number of restaurateurs in New York and other…
The wholesale price of eggs has dropped sharply since the beginning of March after soaring for months, but it may take a few weeks for grocery shoppers to see the decline.Wholesale egg prices, which is what retailers pay to procure eggs, have fallen to a national average of just over $4 for a dozen large white eggs, down from a peak of more than $8 at the end of February, according to data from the Agriculture Department released last week.But because eggs typically have a four-week shelf life, it may be the end of March before retail prices start to…
America’s once highflying stock markets are stumbling, and their counterparts in Europe are faring much better. Shares in European companies have comfortably outperformed the S&P 500 in recent months, as President Trump’s trade war has prompted investors to revisit their assumptions. Officials in Brussels say that the rally could be even bigger.The European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, is set to introduce a proposal on Wednesday to tap trillions of euros parked in Europeans’ savings accounts as part of a strategy to incentivize investors to back Europe Inc.The draft plan has a second objective: encourage consolidation among…
About 14 hours before the Eaton fire started on Jan. 7 on the hills above Altadena and Pasadena, Calif., power lines in the area appear to have come under strain from intensifying winds.New data from a company that maintains electrical sensors suggests that the transmission network of Southern California Edison was stressed long before the most severe winds bore down on the Los Angeles region, adding to growing criticism that the electric utility did not do enough to prevent the blaze. Edison is already under review as the possible cause of the Eaton fire, which fire killed 17 people and…
If you’ve longed to indulge in elegant rail travel, but thought the days of lavish cars and live music were over, you’re in luck. New trains as well as new routes, amenities and special events are rolling out, enticing travelers to sit back, Champagne in hand, and glide through some of the world’s most beautiful landscapes. Be it the Lake District in England or the mountainous island of Kyushu in Japan, these journeys offer suites that rival rooms in high-end hotels, and dishes from chefs whose restaurants have won Michelin stars. Here’s where to climb aboard.Paris to Tuscany and Paris…
In 2016, three New York commodities traders — Michael Intrator, Brian Venturo and Brannin McBee — fell in love with cryptocurrencies. They were using Bitcoin to bet on pool games and fantasy football and were captivated by its wild swings in price.They soon decided to create more digital currencies through a process called “mining,” which requires a lot of computing power. So they logged on to Amazon and ordered two Nvidia graphics processing units, or GPUs, powerful chips that can run calculations and analyze enormous amounts of data. They then stockpiled the components, filling up a garage and a warehouse.In…
Private equity likes the long ball The San Francisco Giants, one of Major League Baseball’s most successful franchises, have sold about 10 percent of the team to the private equity group Sixth Street, The Times’s Ken Belson and DealBook’s Lauren Hirsch are first to report.The team will use the cash to help pay for upgrades to the franchise’s 25-year-old stadium and other facilities, as well as the Mission Rock real estate development adjacent to the ballpark.Details of the purchase, which was approved by Major League Baseball Monday, were not disclosed. But the team was last valued at $3.8 billion by…