Business News

Top Democrat calls for Biden to replace FDIC chairman to fix agency’s ‘toxic culture’

NEW YORK (AP) — The most powerful Democrat in Congress on banking and financial issues called for President Joe Biden to replace the chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on Monday, saying the agency is broken and there must be “fundamental changes at the FDIC.” This follows a damning report about the agency’s toxic workplace culture was released earlier this month and the inability of FDIC Chair Martin Gruenberg to convince Congress in testimony last week that he is able to turn the agency around despite the report saying Greunberg himself was often the source of the problems.

Red Lobster seeks bankruptcy protection days after closing dozens of restaurants

Casual dining chain Red Lobster has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The 56-year-old chain made the filing late Sunday, days after shuttering dozens of restaurants. Red Lobster brought seafood to the masses with inventions like popcorn shrimp and “endless” seafood deals. But it struggled in recent years with rising costs, increased competition and changing customer tastes. One industry analyst said Monday that the once-thriving chain has been a “slow-moving train wreck” for two decades. Last fall, fall, Red Lobster lost millions of dollars on its “Ultimate Endless Shrimp” promotion, which charged $20 for all-you-can-eat shrimp deal. Red Lobster says its 600 restaurants will continue to operate through the bankruptcy proceedings.

Sour Patch Kids Oreos? Peeps Pepsi? What’s behind the weird flavors popping up on store shelves

Surprising flavor combinations – think gravy-flavored Jones Soda or Sour Patch Kids Oreos — are showing up more frequently in grocery stores and restaurants. Earlier this year, IHOP and Lay’s introduced Rooty Tooty Fresh ’N Fruity potato chips, which were designed to taste like strawberry-topped pancakes with a hint of bacon. Last summer, there were mustard-flavored Skittles. While it’s tempting to pass off these limited-time flavors as social media stunts, experts say there’s more to the story. Food companies are responding to the changing and expanding tastes of consumers while also trying to keep brands relevant and distinct to win space on crowded store shelves.

Target to lower prices on thousands of basic items as inflation sends customers scrounging for deals

Target is cutting prices on thousands of consumer basics this summer, goods ranging from diapers to milk, with more Americans paying closer attention to their spending as inflation cuts into household budgets. The price cuts on as many as 5,000 food, beverage and household essential items is a bid to follow customers, many of whom are deploying a mix of strategies to find relief at the register. Last week McDonald’s said that it was planning to introduce a $5 meal deal in the U.S. next month to counter slowing sales and customer frustration with high prices. Walmart posted strong quarterly sales last week, driven by a influx of customers looking for bargains.

Is that ‘Her’? OpenAI pauses a ChatGPT voice after some say it sounds like Scarlett Johansson

NEW YORK (AP) — OpenAI says it plans to halt the use of one of its ChatGPT voices after some users said it sounded like “Her” actor Scarlett Johansson. OpenAI said Monday it is “working to pause” Sky — the name of one of five lifelike voices that ChatGPT users can speak with — while addressing questions about how the company chooses its audio options. OpenAI was also quick to shut down the internet’s theories about Johansson, noting that Sky’s voice belonged to a different professional. The company first rolled out voice capabilities for ChatGPT, which included the five output voices, in September. And last week, OpenAI said that its latest model can mimic human cadences in its verbal responses and can even try to detect people’s moods.

Ivan Boesky, stock trader convicted in insider trading scandal, dead at 87

Ivan F. Boesky, the flamboyant stock trader whose cooperation with the government cracked open one of the largest insider trading scandals on Wall Street, has died at the age of 87. A representative at the Marianne Boesky Gallery, owned by his daughter, confirmed his death. The son of a Detroit delicatessen owner, Boesky was once considered one of the richest and most influential risk-takers on Wall Street. He had parlayed $700,000 from his late mother-in-law’s estate into a fortune estimated at more than $200 million. Once implicated in insider trading, Boesky cooperated with a brash young U.S. attorney named Rudolph Giuliani, uncovering a scandal that blemished some of the most respected U.S. investment brokerages.

Stock market today: Wall Street drifts around its records in quiet, mixed trading

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stock indexes are hanging around their record heights and drifting in mixed trading following their latest winning week. The S&P 500 was up 0.1% Monday and on track to edge past its record set last week. The Nasdaq composite was 0.6% higher and likewise on pace for a record. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 180 points points after closing above the 40,000 level for the first time on Friday. Norwegian Cruise Line was helping to lead the market after giving some financial forecasts for the year that topped analysts’ expectations. Treasury yields were relatively steady.

Many remember solid economy under Trump, but his record also full of tax cut hype, debt and disease

WASHINGTON (AP) — Numbers show that the economy during Donald Trump’s presidency has never lived up to his own hype. But polling shows Americans are more confident about his economic leadership than that of President Joe Biden. The question of who can best steer the U.S. economy could be a deciding factor in who wins November’s presidential election. Trump boasts about the economy under his watch, but going through the numbers shows the complicated reality of his economic leadership. His tax cuts never delivered the promised growth. His budget deficits surged and then stayed relatively high under Biden. And there was the recession-causing pandemic, an event that caused historic job losses as well as low inflation.

‘The Apprentice,’ about a young Donald Trump, premieres in Cannes

CANNES, France (AP) — While Donald Trump’s hush money trial entered its sixth week in New York, an origin story for the Republican presidential candidate premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, unveiling a scathing portrait of Trump in the 1980s. “The Apprentice” screened Monday. It’s directed by the Iranian Danish filmmaker Ali Abbasi and stars Sebastian Stan as Trump and Jeremy Strong as Roy Cohn. The central relationship of the movie is between Trump and Cohn, the defense attorney who was chief counsel to Joseph McCarthy’s 1950s Senate investigations. Cohn is depicted as a longtime mentor to Trump, coaching him in the ruthlessness of New York City politics and business.

Top U.S. drug agency a notable holdout in Biden’s push to loosen federal marijuana restrictions

The Biden administration’s push to reclassify marijuana as a less-dangerous drug is going forward without the support of the nation’s premier narcotics agency. Newly released government records show the Drug Enforcement Administration requested more information on supporting science to reclassify marijuana but the Justice Department decided to move ahead without the drug agency’s signoff. Longtime observers of the DEA say politics may be at play, contending the Justice Department is moving forward because President Joe Biden wants to use the pot issue to woo voters in his re-election campaign. The White House has said Biden pledged in 2020 to ease restrictions on marijuana.