A Walgreens executive said Thursday the company may have been too concerned about the surge in thefts and rise in shoplifting attempts last year, CNN reports.
Why it matters: Shoplifting has become a major crisis nationwide, leading to stores closing their doors and locking up mundane items, Axios' Jennifer A. Kingson writes.
Last month the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to take up an appeal by Slack to a lawsuit over its 2019 direct listing, which alleges the company made false statements in its prospectus.
Why it matters: Slack was bought out by Salesforce in a deal worth nearly $28 billion, completed in 2021, but the decision may have ripple effects on other public listings and how unregistered (and registered) shares get marketed and sold.
Elon Musk is doing just fine. His stakes in SpaceX, Tesla, and other concerns have made him the second-richest man in the world. He owns a global social network of awesome power. He's procreating zealously.
Why it matters: Musk attained his current mesospheric heights in large part by leaning into a Great Man narrative that credited him not only with all of his past successes but also numerous wildly optimistic future ones.
If you're the kind of personwho maxes out your 401(k), you're saving an extra $2,000 a year of pre-tax money this year, compared to 2022. That's the largest increase ever, not only in dollar terms but even in percentage terms.
Why it matters: The kind of people who max out their 401(k) are not the people who most need a government incentive to save for retirement — they'd most likely be doing that anyway.
Imagine an electric vehicle. You're probably thinking of something that's fun to drive. That kind of EV is also dangerous, and, especially when it's an SUV, not particularly environmentally friendly.
Why it matters: There's a much better alternative staring us in the face: Electric bikes. But they're too expensive, and that itself is dangerous. Subsidizing them will make them safer.
High egg prices are starting to retreat from December's record highs, but it might take time before you see a difference at the store, experts tell Axios.
Why it matters: While grocery items have broadly gotten more expensive, no food item has been impacted by inflation as much as eggs and their prices often give a clue about the current economic environment.
New York City is gearing up for a potential strike on Monday as roughly 10,000 nurses push for higher salaries and better working conditions, AP reports.
Work in the field of computer-generated (CG) merchandise art has been fueled recently by supply chain complications and growing consumer demand for striking visuals.
Axios spoke with Haruko Hayakawa, a CG artist and creative director in New York, who said she receives four or more requests a week for her 3D modeling work, compared to maybe one a week pre-pandemic.
The U.S. labor market is extraordinarily strong, despite gloom-and-doom economic forecasts and high-profile layoffs — that is the takeaway from the December jobs report, out Friday, that was outstanding in subtle and not-so-subtle ways.
Why it matters: If America's economy is going to come in for a soft-landing — inflation dissipating without mass unemployment — you would expect to see numbers that look a lot like last month's.
Microsoft is firmly in the friend zone with OpenAI, the ChatGPT creator that's taken the tech world by storm. But, deep down, it must want to take things to the next level.
Driving the news: OpenAI soon could be valued at around $29 billion via a secondary stock sale co-led by venture capital firms Founders Fund and Thrive Capital, as first reported by the WSJ and confirmed by Axios.
Driving the news: Car makers sold just shy of 14 million new vehicles in 2022, according to new data out Wednesday. That's well below the nearly 18 million annual sales rate in the years before the pandemic.
Employers finished the year with a burst of hiring: The economy added 223,000 jobs in December, while the unemployment rate fell back to a half-century low of 3.5%, the Labor Department reported on Friday.
Why it matters: The labor market is still chugging along with healthy demand for workers, the latest sign that the economy is holding up despite recession fears.
One of the broadest and most pro-worker initiatives to come out of the Biden administration dropped from a somewhat surprising place Thursday: The Federal Trade Commission proposed a broad ban on noncompete agreements, which companies use to prevent workers from taking jobs with competitors.
Why it matters: It's a big swing for the administration and the FTC, which has taken a more aggressive stand on anti-competitive practices under Biden-appointee Lina Khan. Some experts say the rule might get knocked down in court.
The wave of layoffs in tech that continued to mount this week has felt like a shocking and sharp turnabout for an industry that stood on top of the world just a year ago.
Be smart: Tech was never immune from forces in the broader economy, and Silicon Valley has always followed a boom-bust rhythm. But the most recent boom ran so long, many forgot it would have to end someday.
A combination of regulatory threats and competitive pressure in the wake of Southwest Airlines' disastrous holiday meltdown could make it easier for travelers to assert their rights when travel plans go wrong.
Why it matters: Nearly 1 in 4 U.S. flights was canceled or delayed between January and September 2022, according to the Department of Transportation.
This article originally appeared in Axios Finish Line, our nightly newsletter on life, leadership and wellness.Sign up here.
Every business, nonprofit and organization in the world needs to rethink — quickly and dramatically — how it communicates to its employees, donors, customers and shareholders.
Why it matters: Communications is now arguably the most important skill for any leader and function inside any organization, big or small. And most suck at it.
