Author: openjargon

• An Nvidia engineer spoke to BI about salaries at the chipmaker.
• The West Coast-based worker has a $250,000 base and gets half that amount again in stock annually. 
• He said the reality was "not as rosy" as it seems, given high taxes and the cost of living. 

An Nvidia engineer who makes $250,000 a year said the amount employees make at the chip giant was "not as rosy" as some might think.

He told Business Insider that while some Nvidians may be lucky enough to be millionaires, "a million doesn't go too far."

The software engineer didn't want to be identified as he's not authorized to speak to the media. BI has verified his employment and earnings.

The West Coast-based engineer, who joined the company several years ago, gets nearly half of his base salary amount worth of restricted stock units (RSUs) a year.

"If you're looking from a far distance and you say Nvidians are millionaires, yes absolutely, but that million doesn't go too far," he said.

"But because the stock has gone sky-high, there's an expectation that everybody has made a lot of money," he said. "In reality, the RSUs you get is where the bulk of your exponential growth in wealth will be and not everybody will get a lot."

Even if some employees get a lot of RSUs given to them, he said that they might not all have held onto them.

"You will end up cashing your stocks to meet your annual obligations in terms of personal taxes, property taxes, and any other expenses you will have," he said.

Nvidia, which has about 26,000 employees, has greatly benefited from the generative AI boom as its GPUs are key components for applications like ChatGPT.

Its stock has soared in the past 12 months, making it the most valuable company after Microsoft and Apple. However, Nvidia shares fell 10% on Friday and are now almost $200 below their March peak, leaving the company worth $1.9 trillion.

Misconception

Nvidia engineers are called "individual contributors" (IC) and are ranked from tier 1 to tier 8.

The engineer BI spoke to is an IC level four.

He said that he's often asked in social settings how much he's making. However, the worker argues it's a misconception that all Nvidia staff are cash-rich, as much of their wealth is tied up in stock, with taxes also taking a big chunk out of their earnings.

"It would be incorrect to consider a job at Nvidia as a way to turn a quick million," he said.

His base salary places him in one of the second-highest federal income tax brackets, with a rate of 35%.

On top of that, he pays property taxes, Social Security, and Medicare levies.

'Life happens'

He argued that a million was "not a big number" in California, where Nvidia has four offices, as house prices and the cost of living are typically high.

He added that "life happens," meaning there are always unexpected bills or costs.

The biggest purchase he has made since cashing out some of his Nvidia stock was a $250,000 down payment on his three-bedroom house, which cost almost $1.4 million in 2018.

There's also a cap on how many stock units workers can get. Even the most exemplary employees are capped at receiving 50% of their base salary in stock a year.

That means that a Nvidia employee earning $1 million a year may not be considered rich in a place like San Francisco. According to the 2023 Charles Schwab Modern Wealth Survey, you need a net worth of $4.7 million to be "wealthy."

There's also big pay disparities between Nvidians in the US and other countries. A software engineer in India, who is an IC level 3, earns a base salary of about $19,000.

"I'm still happy with where I am and I'm glad I've made it, but it's not as rosy as it looks from the outside," the engineer said. "I'm really happy with the price Nvidia stock is trading at."

The stock surge helped make CEO Jensen Huang one of the richest people in the world. He's in 21th spot on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, worth about $67 billion.

Nvidia didn't respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

from All Content from Business Insider https://ift.tt/cSaCItn
via IFTTT

• A US Army officer said military trainers had warned soldiers of the dangers of cellphone use.
• "The cellphone is the new cigarette in the foxhole," he told Foreign Policy.
• Ukraine has used Russian soldiers' cellular data to locate and target their positions.

Cellphones have revolutionized the ways war is documented, providing snapshots of life on the front lines, glimpses of the latest military equipment, and harrowing images of death and destruction.

But they are also potentially lethal for the soldiers carrying them, a US Army officer has said.

Maj. Gen. Curtis Taylor told Jack Detsch, a reporter at Foreign Policy, that Army trainers had been warning soldiers about the dangers of taking cellphones on operations.

"We've shown soldiers, 'Hey, your cellphone can get you killed,'" Taylor, the commanding general of the National Training Center and Fort Irwin, said.

He pointed to one training incident when he said he and his team were able to locate an otherwise undetectable Apache stealth helicopter as it made its way through their air defenses because the pilot's phone was moving at 120 miles per hour.

Taylor compared the dangers posed by cellphones to that of cigarette smoking during World War II, when the spark of a match or the glow of a cigarette could help snipers pick out enemy targets.

"The cellphone is the new cigarette in the foxhole," Taylor said.

Ukraine has targeted Russian cellular data

The Russia-Ukraine war has been marked by the use of cellular data to target enemy positions.

A January report by the cybersecurity company Enea highlighted the Ukrainian strike on a Russian barracks in the city of Makiivka in eastern Ukraine on New Year's Eve 2022.

The Russian Ministry of Defense said the strike occurred after Russian reservists turned on their cellphones, allowing Ukrainian intelligence operatives to identify their location.

The area was then targeted by an M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS). Russian sources claim 89 soldiers were killed in the strikes, while Ukraine put the number at around 400.

In a statement following the incident, the Russian Ministry of Defense said: "It is already obvious that the main reason for what happened was the switching on and massive use — contrary to the prohibition — by personnel of mobile phones in a reach zone of enemy weapons."

"This factor allowed the enemy to locate and determine the coordinates of the location of the servicemen to launch a missile strike," it added.

Russia is likely using similar tactics to its advantage, however.

It is known to be using the Leer-3 electronic warfare system, which is capable of identifying 2,000 phones within a 3.7-mile range, potentially exposing Ukrainian locations, Sky News previously reported.

Electronic warfare uses the electromagnetic spectrum, including signals like radio, infrared, or radar, to disrupt and degrade an enemy's ability to use those signals, according to defense manufacturer Lockheed Martin.

It has played a crucial role in the conflict so far due to its potential for identifying targets and combating drone attacks.

While the dangers of using a cellphone on the battlefield appear plentiful, the Enea report said: "A mobile device — despite its risks — has utility as a backup communication system; a means to document enemy movements, create after-action reports or other intelligence; and as a propaganda/content generation system."

from All Content from Business Insider https://ift.tt/JiBvpW0
via IFTTT

• Almost half of China's major cities are sinking, a new study has found.
• Around 45% of China's urban land is sinking faster than 3 mm per year.
• Water extraction is likely the main reason behind it, Robert Nicholls, a climate adaptation professor, said.

Almost half of China's major cities are sinking, putting millions of locals at risk of flooding, according to a new study published in the journal Science this week.

The study found that 45% of China's urban land was sinking faster than 3 mm a year, while 16% was sinking at a rate of more than 10 mm a year.

The study authors looked at 82 Chinese cities with populations of more than 2 million and used radar pulses from satellites to identify any changes in the distance between the satellite and the ground.

They then measured how the cities' elevations had changed between 2015 and 2022.

They found that China's largest city, Shanghai, was continuing to subside despite already sinking around 3 m over the past 100 years.

Cities such as Beijing and Tianjin were also particularly affected.

Causes

There are a number of factors leading to the subsidence, but Robert Nicholls, a professor of climate adaptation at the University of East Anglia, who was not involved in the research, told the BBC that he believed that water extraction was "probably the dominant reason."

"In China there are lots of people living in areas that have been fairly recently sedimented, geologically speaking. So when you take out groundwater or you drain the soils, they tend to subside," he said.

The paper also suggested that the resolution to the issue "could lie in the long-term, sustained control of groundwater extraction."

In a comment article also published in Science, Nicholls warned that "subsidence jeopardises the structural integrity of buildings and critical infrastructure and exacerbates the impacts of climate change in terms of flooding, particularly in coastal cities where it reinforces sea-level rise."

Subsidence already costs China over 7.5 billion yuan, which is around $1.05 billion, a year, Reuters reported.

The problem is not confined to China, however.

Another paper published in February said that around 6.3 million square km, or around 2.4 million square miles, of land around the world was at risk of subsidence, with Indonesia one of the worst affected countries.

Parts of the US have also suffered from the problem, with more than 17,000 square miles of land across 45 states directly affected, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).

According to the USGS, more than 80% of the identified cases of subsidence in the US occurred due to the exploitation of underground water.

"The increasing development of land and water resources threatens to exacerbate existing land-subsidence problems and initiate new ones," it adds.

from All Content from Business Insider https://ift.tt/tJgSc8p
via IFTTT

• Joel Lambdin, 49, received $250,000 in student-loan forgiveness in January.
• It's a result of the Education Department's one-time account adjustments. 
• Lambdin said the relief will allow him to save for retirement while considering longer term dreams.

Joel Lambdin finished graduate school in 1998 — but as a professional musician, he was hardly making enough money to pay off his student loans and his other bills.

So Lambdin, now 49, said his only option to make ends meet was to put his student loans on forbearance — in which he was not making payments, but interest was still accumulating.

"It was just so that I could subsist, so that I could survive," Lambdin told Business Insider. "With the hope that at some point, I would be making enough money that I would be able to take them out of forbearance and start paying them down."

But he grew to realize that the only way he could make a significant dent in his student loans was by switching careers. Since he didn't want to do that because he loved working in music, he decided to keep his larger student loan in forbearance and begin paying off his smaller loan with a lower monthly payment.

He continued making those payments until the pandemic student-loan payment pause, at which point he and his wife started making a plan of action to tackle the larger debt once the pause ended. That led them to discover the Education Department's one-time account adjustment initiative, which allowed the department to evaluate borrowers' accounts and update payment progress toward forgiveness on income-driven repayment plans and Public Service Loan Forgiveness, including any payments made during a forbearance period.

That account adjustment led to a letter Lambdin received, reviewed by BI, from his student-loan servicer Aidvantage on January 31 stating: "Congratulations! The Biden-Harris Administration has forgiven your federal student loan(s) listed below with Aidvantage in full."

For Lambdin, that letter meant his $249,255 outstanding student-loan balance was effectively wiped out.

"It had started to feel like my fate was being decided for me by the cold hand of finance," Lambdin said, "and that was a weight that I didn't realize was there until it wasn't there."

"The feeling was much more like putting down a backpack that was really full of books that you got used to. And then you put it down, and you're like, 'Oh, man, that feels so much better.' It's more like that, rather than sort of a jump-for-joy kind of situation," he said.

While Lambdin is still working to determine what exactly the relief will mean for him and his wife, he said that discussing retirement is "a much more present conversation now" because contributing to savings is viable after the relief. He can also begin to look into buying a home.

The Education Department continues to cancel student-debt through its one-time account adjustments, a process it plans to complete this summer. Most recently, the department wiped out $7.4 billion in student debt for 277,000 borrowers, some of whom benefited from the adjustments.

Beyond financial goals, Lambdin said the relief is also allowing him the freedom to pursue some of his long-term dreams, including taking a sabbatical to study with his meditation teacher in India.

"It's something that I wouldn't have been able to even consider doing if we had to pay off student loans, but without them, it's something that I can really seriously consider doing," he said. "And so those are the kinds of things that I think get really lost in the monetary side of the conversation about debt relief."

'I've been really lucky'

While Lambdin said he feels as though he earned the relief given his decades of payments, he also recognized that it's not that easy for many other borrowers.

For example, as BI has previously reported, some borrowers who might qualify for relief through different repayment programs may not have gotten it yet due to paperwork backlogs and administrative errors. On top of that, funding for federal student-loan servicers is strained — meaning many borrowers face hourslong hold times and cannot get clear answers regarding their payment progress from customer service.

"There are some real horror stories out there, and I've been really lucky in that I haven't experienced the kinds of shenanigans that other people have experienced," Lambdin said. "So I actually feel very lucky that things have transpired the way they have."

Some of those horror stories include inaccurate payment projections and delayed billing statements. When it comes to student-loan forgiveness, some borrowers told BI that their servicer made a mistake with the forgiveness, reinstating their payments months later.

The Education Department has said it's aware of the challenges borrowers face and has established an accountability framework to punish servicers when they fail to fulfill their contractual obligations.

The department is also in the process of crafting its new student-loan forgiveness plan — it recently released the draft text of the rules, which included relief for borrowers with unpaid interest and those who have been in repayment for at least 20 years.

As for Lambdin, he's still figuring out how to approach life without student debt hanging over his head. But now he can consider a range of options, and he can thank the loan forgiveness for that freedom.

"There's a certain amount of waiting for the other shoe to drop because it's not that I don't trust that it's happening, but just that the debt has been with me for so long, and then it's not there," Lambdin said. "And it's something that I think really takes some getting used to."

from All Content from Business Insider https://ift.tt/3s86CTH
via IFTTT

• David Smith dropped his career as a delivery driver and factory worker to become a Henry VIII impersonator.
• He earns a living by giving talks and performances as Henry VIII at schools and heritage sites.
• After leaving behind a more traditional job, he wouldn't consider ever going back.

This is an as-told-to essay based on a conversation with 24-year-old UK resident David Smith about his career as a Henry VIII impersonator. It has been edited for length and clarity. Business Insider has confirmed his previous and current employment. Smith declined to share his earnings.

I was eight years old when I saw a portrait of Henry VIII in all his regalia. I was mesmerized by it.

My passion grew from there: I spent my childhood reading my mom's encyclopedias, buying Tudor books, and watching documentaries about Henry VIII and his six wives.

I studied the Tudors at elementary school and wanted to become a history teacher but my local high school didn't teach Tudor history.

I ended up dropping out of school when I turned 17, and went to work in a factory and then as a delivery driver. During that time, my love of history still lingered in the back of my mind.

Everything changed when I found a Henry VIII outfit on Facebook Marketplace for £20 ($25) in 2021. I'd always wanted to own one, whether I'd wear it or not.

I decided to post a photo of myself wearing it on Facebook. Immediately messages flooded in telling me I bore a resemblance to the young King. A historical costumier saw the post and directed me to a reenactment group looking for a young Henry.

I debuted my impersonation with the group on a voluntary basis. During the week, I'd be in the factory, and then on the weekend, I'd self-finance my trips around the country to different palaces. The other reenactors and I would travel to heritage sites like Penshurst Place (a site once used as Henry VIII's hunting lodge), where we would perform and walk around the grounds in character, educating people on the Tudors.

After a year, the high travel costs and exhaustion got to me, but I didn't want to give up on being Henry. I decided to start doing it as paid work: I set up a business email address and a Facebook page and started getting in touch with palaces and historic workshops myself.

'You have to believe that you are the king'

My current job is a long way from my career as a delivery driver, which I ended just last year.

I now work five days a week visiting schools, palaces, and other heritage sites. I adapt to what the venue wants: I do historical talks, live reenactments of historical events, and even Tudor dancing.

My job could be described as being half teacher, half method actor. Nearly every time I go into a school, a kid asks me, "If you're Henry VIII, how are you still alive?" I usually reply, "Well, God wills it to be so," and in some ways, I have to believe it myself.

To do the job well, you have to believe that you are the most important person — that you are the king. You have to believe that you were chosen by God. All that definitely gives you confidence that stays with you.

Recently, I took part in a three-course banquet at the Old Palace in Hatfield House, an estate previously owned by Henry VIII and now owned by the Marquess of Salisbury. Visitors could dine with me and Anne Boleyn for around £80 ($100) per person.

The whole experience was as historically accurate as possible. My hands were washed for me, my food was cut for me, my goblet was refilled whenever I needed it, and everyone had to bow and curtsey to me.

Out of all the events I've attended, that was the one that made me feel most like Henry VIII. I felt how he must've felt being there and being served.

Becoming Henry

Some people wrongly see Henry as just an obese, tyrannical despot of a King. While that's reflective of the last years of his life, when he ordered the execution of thousands of people, that wasn't always how he was. He was also a scholar and a well-mannered leader.

It's incredible to see the excitement you see on kids' faces when you go into schools, and they get to see this historic character brought to life.

While I'm not a traditional teacher, I still think of myself as one. I get all the good bits — meeting new pupils and sharing my passion for history — without the stress that teachers deal with.

After my visit, one school sent me letters to my home address: 30 letters from children expressing how much they loved my visit and shared all the facts they remembered. That was a particularly touching moment.

Life outside Henry

Unlike my old job, I have to take my role home with me.

My beard is cut in the same way Henry had his and although I'm naturally blond, I dye my hair and beard ginger to improve the resemblance.

It's definitely taxing on my time. Every two weeks, I travel around 70 miles to practice traditional Tudor dancing with a group. And even when I come home from a long day at work, all I want to do is get straight back to learning more about the Tudors.

A lot of my earnings go back into the business. Each of my outfits is custom-made by historical costumiers to my exact measurements. Prices start at £2,000 ($2,500) — and that's without all the extras that go with it: the rings, the chain of office, the medallions. I currently own two of these outfits.

Getting the money together takes me a while, but I pride myself on accuracy. I live and breathe it.

Most of my small circle of friends work in reenactment too, and they understand that this lifestyle is a defining part of who I am. My name is saved as Henry in most of their phones.

While my career may seem a long way off from other people's jobs, I still have the same concerns and ambitions.

Trying to "make it" in any industry requires a level of sacrifice, be that on your time or your relationships. Perhaps the hardest thing is the fear of running out of bookings, like with any freelance job.

But all that matters to me is that I have enough to live on and keep investing in this passion. I don't really care for buying a fancy house or fancy cars, I just want to earn enough to buy Tudor books and add to my collection of Tudor portraits.

I could never go back to a 'normal' job, I'll keep doing this, even if one day it means having to take a pay cut.

from All Content from Business Insider https://ift.tt/npYxkmX
via IFTTT

The offers and details on this page may have updated or changed since the time of publication. See our article on Business Insider for current information.

• Inflation is prompting families to rethink their household budgets.
• We developed an allowance plan that teaches our two teenagers about budgeting and family finances. 
• For instance, allowance is given weekly but not tied to chores. 

Inflation over the last couple of years has a lot of people rethinking how they manage their household budgets. This is no different in our family of four, which includes two teenagers.

As our daughters, aged 13 and 14, grew older and neared high school, my spouse and I knew that their financial demands would grow as well. For instance, we could see their fashion needs were getting more expensive, and their entertainment requirements had outgrown Chuck E. Cheese. This presents a particular challenge when we are also trying to tighten the budget to deal with rising prices.

To fit the needs and wants of two teenagers into our family budget, we first came up with a new plan for their allowance in 2022 that encouraged good habits. The next step was to get them involved in the family finances to teach them about budgeting and the importance of being smart about money.

Since we adjusted the family finances, we have seen patience grow in terms of saving money and waiting to see if a purchase is truly necessary. We have also seen them become more interested in budgeting and smarter with money.

Here are several ways that we budget around two teenagers and teach them about money at the same time.

Allowance is given weekly and not tied to chores

When my spouse and I came up with a financial plan for our daughters as they got older and a bit more independent, we first understood that they would need regular spending money. However, we did not want the allowance to be performance-based. That is, we decided not to require the completion of chores or other tasks, like homework, for them to receive their allowance.

Every week, they each receive $25, which we think of as a guaranteed basic income program. It also creates a fixed monthly expense in our family budget.

The allowance is a guaranteed amount they can count on each month, and the money does not come with any strings attached.

There is an old saying that once you pay somebody to do something, they will never do it for free again. Our goal is to have our daughters be responsible, not paid workers. We also try our best to reward good behavior and effort instead of punishing them for not helping around the house.

We also budget monthly bonuses for our daughters

Instead of giving the girls $35 every week and taking some away when they don't meet a list of demands, we started at a minimum of $25 each week and give them occasional bonuses.

Bonuses are tied to good patterns of completing chores, being kind, being helpful, trying hard in school, and getting exercise. For example, we might give one daughter a $5 or $10 bonus one week for helping their grandmother without being asked and something similar to the other for working hard on a school assignment.

We then tell them why they received the bonus to reinforce the positive behavior.

There is no set pattern of how often or how much the bonuses are because we don't want them to become an expectation. These are a little more challenging to budget for, but after a while, we settled into a pattern where the bonuses are fairly consistent each month.

We profit-share with our daughters to discourage excessive spending

We have another bonus system for the girls based on how well the family sticks to the monthly budget.

In our family, the budget is not a secret. We encourage our children to be involved in the family finances to expose them to budgeting early on.

At the end of each month, we all review how the month went, where we did well, and what we could have done better. And if we came in under our budget, we give the girls a profit-sharing bonus.

There is no set amount or rate for the budget bonus. We discuss it as a family and assign the bonuses to each daughter. We will also designate a third "bonus" to our vacation fund, which might ultimately mean an extra day at Disney or a little extra spending cash for the girls in New York City.

We use an allowance app to encourage good money habits

There are many ways to budget with teenagers in mind, including good, old-fashioned pen and paper. However, we prefer apps that speed up and automate many steps.

The first is YNAB, which stands for "you need a budget," where the entire family's budget is kept. We also use Greenlight, which is specifically designed for children.

In addition to giving the girls debit cards, Greenlight automates allowance payments and even has games to teach them about money.

The other key feature is that the girls cannot see each other's finances. In a previous app, everything was out in the open for the entire family, often leading to conflicts when one daughter wanted to know why the other had more money or got a little extra one week.

Our girls are very different, and they have different needs. So the money they earn is just between them and us. We don't tell one sister what the other gets, but we try to be balanced and fair.

We distinguish between needs and wants

The girls have a basic monthly income, but we don't want them spending that on basic needs. Therefore, every potential purchase in our budget is defined as "household needs" or "household wants."

In general, if something is a "need," such as hair conditioner or clothes for school, the money comes from the family budget. If it is just something they "want," like tickets to see Olivia Rodrigo in concert, they have to use their own money.

Of course, everything can feel like a need to a teenager, and distinguishing between needs and wants can be tricky.

One daughter might need new shoes, but she doesn't "need" a new pair of Nike Dunk Low Pandas for $115. In these cases, we might give an amount that we think fits the budget, and if they still want that specific item, they can pay the difference.

Of course, we don't always win those battles. Teenagers can be quite convincing and relentless at times. Besides, it is nice to give them a few "wins" occasionally if they put in the effort, and it seems that important.

We also encourage delayed gratification

If you have ever known a teenager, one of the toughest things to instill in them is a sense that some things can wait.

Amazon is a great convenience, but delaying gratification can be a challenge when it is so easy to place an order and have it delivered as early as that day.

We deal with this by having an Amazon list called "do we really want this?" If something is not an immediate need, such as a new Lego set, it goes on this list. Every Saturday, we meet as a family, review the list, and see what we still want.

We often find that the desire for the item has waned, or we have thought of something we would rather have instead. It also can be quite jarring to see all the items simultaneously, and everybody realizes how much it would cost to order everything. The wait encourages everybody to be selective about what is most important.

When we started doing this, our "household wants" line in the budget was almost instantly slashed in half by several hundred dollars. Even for teens, when they sleep on something for a few days, a potential purchase can stop feeling like life or death.

The lessons our daughters have learned about money are worth the extra effort

We have used this plan with our family for about 18 months, and both daughters have become excellent savers.

When they want something special like a limited edition signed vinyl from Conan Gray or a new hoodie from Lululemon, instead of asking us and then my wife and I going through the push and pull of "can we" or "should we," they save up their money.

The excitement on their faces when they reach the magic numbers is priceless.

The next step is to find out how to encourage long-term savings. We are working on that. They are still teenagers, after all.

Have you adjusted your family finances or come up with any tips or tricks for budgeting with children? Reach out to this reporter at cgaines@businessinsider.com.

from All Content from Business Insider https://ift.tt/AyinZQH
via IFTTT

• Opening statements in Donald Trump's first criminal are set to begin Monday. 
• The former president's family has not attended this past week's jury selection.
• But their presence, especially Melania's, could have a powerful impact, legal experts say. 

Donald Trump enters his first criminal trial every day flanked by lawyers, court officers, Secret Service members, and political advisors.

But not his wife and children.

Melania Trump and the former president's children have not attended this past week as seven men and five women were chosen as jurors for his historic Manhattan hush-money trial.

And while it's not uncommon for family members of defendants to sit out the slogging jury-selection process, legal experts say their presence — especially that of Melania Trump — could have a strong positive impact on jurors once opening statements begin Monday.

'No question that Melania is the most important'

"There's no question that Melania is the most important family member to be there," Mark Bederow, a criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor for the Manhattan district attorney's office, told Business Insider.

Bederow explained that Melania Trump's courtroom support could be "potentially very powerful" given the salacious nature of the hush-money case against Trump.

Making Trump at least look like a wholesome, beloved husband and father might help him.

"Certainly, if Melania were there supporting him, that potentially sends a message that 'I support him, I'm OK, I believe, perhaps, this didn't happen,'" Bederow said. "I think that can only have a positive impact on the jury."

This is especially important in a trial where the words "porn actress" and "extra-marital affair" will be lobbed at Trump by prosecutors.

Prosecutors from the Manhattan district attorney's office say Trump falsified 34 business records to disguise a $130,000 hush-money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels.

The payment to buy Daniels' silence over an alleged 2006 sexual encounter with a married Trump was part of an illegal scheme to influence the 2016 election, according to prosecutors.

Jill Huntley Taylor, a jury consultant, told BI that the presence of Trump's family will likely magnify the jurors' other impressions of the case.

If the jurors are inclined to side with Trump, thinking the case is lousy, then they'd understand why his family didn't show up, she said. If they side against Trump, they might wonder why none of his family members are supporting him.

"Trump doesn't want to be there," Huntley Taylor said. "I could see jurors, if they're favoring him thinking, 'Well, he's not going to make his family be there.' And I can see jurors who are not favoring him thinking, 'Well, wouldn't your family want to support you in this while you're on trial?'"

His family — or lack thereof

Courtrooms are, by design, "sensory deprivation tanks," joked Julia Vitullo-Martin, a criminal justice consultant and former director for the Citizens Jury Project, an initiative of the Vera Institute of Justice.

So when there's downtime in the courtroom, jurors, who don't have their electronics, have little else to do but study the defendant and whoever is with them.

"So you look around, and you assess the defendant's demeanor, his clothes, his family — or his lack thereof," Vitullo-Martin said.

Jurors have sworn they will judge Trump's case solely on the evidence. But their observations of the defendant — and any family present — will influence their eventual verdict, she said.

"They're human beings," she said of jurors.

"And defense attorneys have always known this, which is why they are so conscious of how their client is coming across to the jury."

'Kind of the elephant in the room'

Whether family shows up for Trump should not matter to the jury, but Bederow said it's only natural for jurors to wonder why Melania Trump or any other family member might not show their solidarity in the courtroom for the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

"It's not evidence of anything, and it's not the kind of thing they're supposed to consider, but I think it's kind of the elephant in the room," Bederow said.

Even in criminal trials with more dire stakes — and where defendants have been accused of far worse — it's common for family members to attend and show support.

Fallen cryptocurrency mogul Sam Bankman-Fried had watched his parents in the front row of the gallery for every day of his monthlong trial. Even Ghislaine Maxwell, who trafficked girls to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein for sex and sexually abused them herself, had two sisters and a brother attending her trial nearly every day.

Melania Trump did not show up for her husband's past Manhattan trials

But Melania Trump has been a no-show in Trump's other three Manhattan trials, all of which he lost, and at a cost of more than $600 million in judgments against him.

The former First Lady also did not attend either Trump's first or his second E. Jean Carroll federal defamation trials, in April, 2023 and in January of this year.

She was also a no-show at last year's civil fraud trial.

 Trump himself stayed away entirely from the first Carroll trial, at which a jury found him liable for sexual assault.

These absences likely do not make jurors' hearts grow fonder, according to legal experts.

"A defendant's demeanor and appearance in front of a jury is critically important, from the very start of jury selection through the return of a verdict," defense attorney and former federal prosecutor Justin Danilewitz told BI.

Danilewitz added, "And although a defendant cannot, of course, communicate directly with a jury, perceptive jurors will note the courtroom surroundings and the support of family a defendant may have."

Former Brooklyn prosecutor Arthur Aidala echoed those remarks.

"Typically, you want family members there to show the jury that the defendant has a lot of support," he said.

Aidala, a criminal defense attorney who has represented Rudy Giuliani and Harvey Weinstein, agreed Melania Trump's presence at the trial would be "key" but noted that he did not believe the attendance of family would have much of an impact in this case.

"It's not the kind of case where sympathy matters. Usually family matters when you want the sympathy of the jury for the defendant. That's not the case here," Aidala said. "People know Trump. Family will not change their opinion."

Danilewitz said Trump's defense team may have a different strategy in mind when it comes to Melania Trump.

"Ordinarily, in a case like this, the appearance of a spouse may well send an important signal of support," said Danielwitz. "But the defense strategy here is likely to signal that this trial is not worth the time of the defendant, and even less the time of his close family."

"Attending could suggest a level of importance the defense does not want to give the case," he said.

Instead of family, Trump has been surrounded in court by lawyers and support staff.

They include his four main criminal defense lawyers in the case — Todd Blanche, Susan Necheles, Emil Bove, and Gedalia Stern — and a rotating cast of political aides working for his 2024 presidential campaign, including Steven Cheung, Jason Miller, Margo Martin, and Natalie Harp.

On Friday, they were joined by Clifford Robert, one of Trump's family's lawyers in the New York attorney general's civil fraud trial against the Trump Organization last year.

Melania Trump is portrayed as the 'mistreated wife' in the hush-money case

They spend a lot of time together, but they're not the wife and kids.

Melania Trump "is the mistreated wife in this narrative that the DA is saying," Bederow said, explaining, "If she's not there, jurors may take note of that. Certainly the media will."

Given that the prosecution's narrative includes Trump having an affair, Trump's lawyers may have deemed it wiser to keep Melania Trump away, according to Huntley Taylor, the jury consultant.

"It seems like you would have to really think twice about whether you want to put her through that," she said.

The presence of Trump's daughter, Ivanka Trump, at her father's criminal trial could also be impactful, but the appearance of his sons, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. likely wouldn't matter, according to Bederow.

"Let's be honest, if Donald Jr. and Eric Trump showed up, is that going to make it any better? No. Probably, if anything, it potentially makes it worse," said Bederow. "But it's a different story with Melania and Ivanka."

"People who are inclined not to like Donald Trump probably view the sons in the same way just because they're very vocal defenders of their father, which is natural and expected," Bederow continued. "But they're also very involved in the political game and the media game that surrounds everything involving Trump."

Melania Trump has privately called the charges against her husband "a disgrace," even though she was initially furious at him when news of the alleged affair broke in 2018, according to the New York Times.

If Trump's family does decide to show up Monday, they might want to wear sweaters. The temperature in the courtroom is very cold.

from All Content from Business Insider https://ift.tt/k3vVsSq
via IFTTT

• Can the Russian military can be reformed to better achieve Putin's revanchist aims?
• Yes, but the drastic changes will not be easy, an expert on Russia's military says.
• "The appearance of success may be more important than truly making progress," she argues.

Whatever the outcome of the Ukraine war, one thing seems certain: the Russian military needs drastic changes.

A country recently thought to be a top military power, with the jets, tanks and warships to match, has been forced to slog it out in conventional battle with a country a fifth its size and has suffered an estimated 500,000 casualties without victory in sight after two years. What few innovations the Kremlin has made, such as using convicts as suicide infantry, are dubious and ad hoc at best.

The question is whether the Russian military can actually change in the near-future, which would impact the current war in Ukraine and the wider grasp for conquest under Russian President Vladimir Putin. Armies tend to be conservative institutions that resist change, particularly in Russia's armed forces that date back to Tsarist and Soviet times and are rife with corruption and abuse. Yet Russia's enemies can't complacently assume that Moscow's military will always be stuck in a rut, warns a US expert.

"The Russian military is capable of reform, especially of a structural nature," wrote researcher Katherine Kjellström Elgin in a report for the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments think tank in Washington, D.C. "That does not mean, however, that reform will be easy. Indeed, Russia's tendency to seek top-down structural reforms matched with enduring characteristics of the Russian military suggest that a transformation of the Russian military will be difficult."

"The Russian military is unlikely to substantially reform in the short- to medium-term," predicted Elgin, who believes "it is unlikely that its future force will be drastically different in character from the Russian military that exists today."

It's not that Russia can't adapt to failure. Reforms occurred after the Crimean War of 1853-1856, yet the Soviet military was able to adapt quickly enough to transform the disaster of 1941 — when Nazi German troops reached the outskirts of Moscow — into the triumph of 1945. Today, Russia has displayed skill in waging drone and electronic warfare in Ukraine.

But these are small innovations compared to the agile, NATO-style army that some Western experts claimed Russia had created before the Ukraine war Putin ordered in 2022. "Instead, the early stages of the Russian invasion exposed low morale, brittle logistics, overly centralized command and control, deficiencies in equipment, rampant corruption, and an overreliance on esoteric doctrine, revealing that the reform efforts that began in 2008 had failed to fully deliver on many of their core objectives," Elgin pointed out.

Historically, when the Russian military does change, it tends to be top-down reforms such as reorganizing military districts or modernizing equipment, rather than low-level tactics, Elgin wrote. Even when leaders order reforms, change is blocked by "military culture that does not encourage authority, a lack of talented and empowered middle management, inaccurate information, and a lack of flexibility to adjust course."

The system also encourages pleasing superiors and "conveying the appearance of success may be more important than truly making progress." To be fair, such complaints about style over substance are not unheard of in the US or other militaries. But this problem is especially acute in Russia's highest echelons, where apparatchiks stifle the feedback and criticism needed to identify what's hampering its systems and operations, including the Ukraine war.

This doesn't rule out the unlikely possibility that Russia can change the overall culture of its military. However, according to Elgin, this can only happen if two conditions are met: high-level and sustained political support and adequate resources are made available.

Given that observers so misjudged Russian military capabilities prior to the Ukraine war, how can the West accurately determine whether reforms are occurring? One sign is whether top Russian leaders only make an occasional speech about military improvement, or whether they continually address the issue.

Another is the grievances and recommendations voiced by younger officers fresh from the battlefields of Ukraine and which officers are being promoted or ignored. And despite Russia's authoritarian crackdown on dissent, voices outside the military are a good indicator. "These voices could emerge from military blogs, the intelligence services, or private military companies," Elgin wrote.

However, it is also important to study not just Russian officers, but also how ordinary soldiers are trained, Elgin told Business Insider. "What are they teaching in military schools? How are troops being trained on a daily basis? In other words, how are reforms being rolled out not just at the top levels, but how are they affecting the experience of every service member?"

Reform doesn't necessarily translate into battlefield performance. Despite reforms instituted after the Crimean War, the Russian army still suffered from command control and other flaws in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878. "It is possible to successfully achieve the goals you set out in a reform program, but to reform in ways that do not result in success on the battlefield," Elgin said.

Any reforms today might only create a military with a new look but old problems. "It may have new equipment, new formations, and potentially new doctrine," said Elgin. "but its enduring weaknesses, vulnerabilities, and tendencies are likely to remain the same. And this is something that NATO, Ukraine, and others can prepare for and take advantage of."

Michael Peck is a defense writer whose work has appeared in Forbes, Defense News, Foreign Policy magazine, and other publications. He holds an MA in political science from Rutgers Univ. Follow him on Twitter and LinkedIn.

from All Content from Business Insider https://ift.tt/DRKAvbd
via IFTTT

We've all been there: staring down the price of a plane ticket, a new shirt, or a bag of chips and thinking angrily to ourselves, "Jesus Christ, this did not use to cost this much." And then … we buy it anyway.

Inflation has made a lot of things infuriatingly expensive, and consumer confidence isn't great. The economy is good on paper, but in the real world, a lot of people feel like they're trapped in place. Yet many of those same people continue to spend their way through it. Retail sales came in higher than expected in March, up 0.7% month over month to $709.6 billion. February's numbers were revised up, too. Consumers have proved themselves as the motor of the economy.

In short, America has become a nation of hate spenders.

"There is how consumers feel and what they're doing," Lydia Boussour, a senior economist at EY, said. "Consumers are not feeling great about inflation, but what the data is telling you is that even if they're not feeling great, they're still able to continue to spend."

That leaves the question: Why are we willing to spend through the pain? According to experts I talked to, the surge in hate spending can be attributed to various factors. For one thing, a lot of people still have the financial stability necessary to open their wallets. On a psychological level, many consumers are just throwing up their hands at the state of financial affairs. They're aware prices aren't going back to 2019 levels, and given everything everyone's just been through, they may as well live it up.

Take Jordan Hart, a writer in Illinois and self-described "cheap bitch." She told me that she often finds herself outraged by prices — and then ultimately succumbs to the forces of capitalism. Hart, 26, has developed a taste for Lululemon, despite previously scoffing at paying $100 for a pair of leggings. Most recently, she decided to spend $50 on a Stanley cup. She initially got a knockoff on Amazon, but it broke, so she's biting the bullet and going with the OG. It's cool and trendy, plus part of her New Year's resolution was to drink more water. She's channeling a familiar sentiment. Many consumers are still buying like crazy; they're just mad about it.

"I feel like, obviously, with inflation, everything is just getting obnoxiously more expensive," she told me. "But at the heart of it, our desire as a consumer and as people to have nice things has not gone away."

Some of what's happening here is simple macroeconomics: People's finances are in a good spot, so they can absorb the increased costs. The labor market is strong, and wage growth has been outpacing inflation for months. From 2019 to 2022, median household wealth, adjusting for inflation, grew by 37%. Some cracks have begun to emerge. People's savings have fallen after being boosted by stimulus checks and the lack of spending options during the pandemic, and credit-card and auto-loan delinquencies are on the rise. Lower-income households, in particular, are likelier to be struggling. Still, on the whole, Americans are doing well.

"We're looking at a consumer sector that's still in overall good financial shape," Boussour said. She thinks that moderation in spending will soon be on the horizon, though it's worth noting economists have been saying that for months now — eventually, something has to break, they've argued, but it's just not clear what or when that will be.

People have largely just accepted that the prices that are in the market right now are status quo. We've acclimated to these inflated prices.

Beyond the raw dollars and cents, there are a lot of mental and emotional factors going into people's willingness to suck it up in the face of higher prices. In American culture, consumerism is one hell of a drug. It's wrapped up in our identities, how we relate to the world and to each other. Many of us have a tendency to look at a problem or frustration and think, "What can I buy about this?"

Claire Tassin, a retail and e-commerce analyst at Morning Consult, told me surveys indicated that the sticker shock of inflation had worn off, meaning some of the hate spending comes down to resignation. Per Morning Consult, the share of people who say they're paying more for products now than they were a year ago is back to 2021 levels, even as prices continue to climb.

"People have largely just accepted that the prices that are in the market right now are status quo," Tassin said. "We've acclimated to these inflated prices."

There's also a level of YOLO splurging going on among a lot of consumers. They're buying tickets to see Taylor Swift and booking summer trips to Europe, deciding they deserve a treat (or several) after living through a pandemic. People figure, "Hey, if I can't buy a new home right now or upgrade my job or car, taking a vacation seems like a decent alternative, even if I am paying more than I'd like." The consumer COVID hangover is lasting longer than many observers expected, in a way that opens up the question of whether this you-only-live-once attitude will last forever. If consumers hadn't gone along for the ride on price hikes, companies couldn't have undertaken them in the way they did. Financial products such as buy now, pay later have also made it easier to buy something you can't entirely afford at this very minute.

"I don't know what would force us to hit the breaking point for this degree of consumer spending," Tassin said.

At the same time, conspicuous consumption — as in buying goods and services to show off a level of status — is back on the rise among demographics that are once again jonesing to try new brands and becoming less sensitive to prices. While lower-income consumers are trading down from expensive name-brand products to cheaper alternatives in an effort to save money, some younger and higher-income consumers are trading up and shrugging off the higher costs that come with that, even if it irks them.

"They want to achieve a higher social status. They want to live a life that impresses others, and being part of the popular crowd is important," Tassin said. "Part of it is just like, 'This is what it costs now. And yes, it's a lot more expensive than it used to be, but it's still important to me to keep spending.'"

The misalignment between people's stated attitude toward prices and their actual behavior isn't that outlandish — our intentions and emotions often don't match our actions. People say they want to eat healthy all the time and then find themselves in the ice cream aisle. It's easy to say you want to cut back on spending, given high prices, but when a friend asks whether you want to go shopping, it's hard to say no.

Ravi Dhar, a professor of management and marketing and the director of the Center for Customer Insights at Yale School of Management, told me there's a sort of decoupling going on between people's current situations and how they feel about the future. They see a headline about people getting laid off, or they know there's a global conflict going on, so they feel more pessimistic about the economy and worried about costs. But when it comes down to actually paying, they still have a job and maybe even got a raise, so they pony up.

"They have uneasy feelings about the future and how it might change, whereas expenditures and spending now is determined by the current state of affairs," Dhar said. "Their predictions have become more pessimistic, but not their behavior."

There is, of course, a needs vs. wants question here. Some items are necessities — a home to live in, food on the table, gas in the car, childcare, healthcare. Consumers are understandably frustrated at the costs of these things. But in some instances, people conflate what is a need, what's a reasonable expectation, and what sorts of trade-offs they perhaps should make to achieve their financial goals. None of us have to subscribe to six streaming services or escape to a lavish weekend getaway, even if we tell ourselves that's what we deserve for stomaching the workday and staring down a grocery bill that's much higher than it used to be.

"To the outside, that might look like a luxury but to them it says, 'Hey, this, I need all this for my sanity,'" Dhar said.

People are averse to loss, and having to change their lifestyle to fit newfound financial constraints feels like losing. There's an element of stubbornness here — of course, that dress in the closet is just fine to wear to that party, but getting the new one is more fun and exciting, even if the accompanying price tag is annoying. It'll be something interesting to complain about at said party later.

To the outside, that might look like a luxury but to them it says, 'Hey, this, I need all this for my sanity.'

Reporting for this story, I heard from all sorts of people about their hate-spending habits. One woman told me she despised spending over $1,000 on an iPhone, even as she insisted on replacing hers at least every two years (she figured she should have one that works "awesome"). And, like many people, she won't switch to another brand. One man said he'd really gotten into couponing and racking up points at his local grocery store, but sometimes, he's just got to have that bag of Doritos, even if it costs the price of two bags three years ago. People cited angrily buying dog toys, fancy chocolates, deodorant, and $9 Chex Mix at the airport. Some mentioned doing more inevitable — and even more rage-inducing — spending on big-ticket items like rent. Upon reflection, I've realized I have two categories of expenses I love to hate: martinis at half-decent New York restaurants and my internet bill.

Most people were aware that many purchases were things they could go without. The Doritos guy knows he could go without the premium channels in his cable package, but he doesn't think his bill would come down far enough to warrant the sacrifice. By the end of my conversation with the iPhone lady, she said she'd started to wonder whether it might be better to wait to make the purchase — the crack in her screen would be easy and cheap enough to fix. But she doesn't have a lot of other big expenses at the moment. It's not like her car's broken down, so she'll probably go ahead and buy a new phone. She feels like it's an investment in herself. Hart, the Illinois writer with a brand-new Stanley cup, sees some of her spending as a way to reclaim power.

"You don't have a choice in the economy and inflation and how that's affecting you, but you kind of have a choice in how much you let it alter your lifestyle," she said. "It feels like you're admitting defeat if you're just like, 'Well, now it's just expensive, so I won't do it.'"

In a hyperconsumerist society like the one we live in, it's a notion that tracks. Maybe we're all angry spending soldiers, refusing to be deterred.

Emily Stewart is a senior correspondent at Business Insider, writing about business and the economy.

from All Content from Business Insider https://ift.tt/dFRlEOA
via IFTTT

• Rose Almond is a fully self-employed freelance engineer after resigning from her office job in 2015.
• Almond shared the positive aspects, and challenges, of this career move.
• There can be quiet work periods, but she likes the flexibility of picking projects and when to work.

Rose Almond was over her 9-to-5 job as a mechanical engineer.

"It was not a good place to be for a young female engineer," she told Business Insider. "It didn't really suit me being in the office environment."

Plus, Almond said working a nights-and-weekends side hustle of freelance gigs was exhausting. So she quit her day job in 2015.

Now, she gets to choose her own schedule and which projects she works on.

"I knew something had to give," she said.

Almond lives in Canada and is fully self-employed as a freelance product design engineer. She said a lot of her work still falls under mechanical engineering. Almond didn't decide to become a self-employed freelancer lightly. To help prepare, Almond said she ensured she "had enough cash in my business to survive paying my bills" for a couple of months.

"Then I approached my employer to ask to switch to part-time hours so that I could ease softly into the freelance side," she added. "Honestly, I wasn't being utilized to the best of my ability, and I could have kept the same pace of work in half the time anyway, but they refused to even consider it. They got my resignation the same day."

For others hoping to identify when to make this lifestyle move, Almond said a main part of it comes down to recognizing both your strengths and weaknesses.

"Freelancing gives flexibility in scheduling your time, but comes with a responsibility for time management and a need to be able to self-motivate — even on the days it's hard to get going," she said. "Everyone has their own level of acceptable risk, which should be considered carefully in terms of financials, healthcare, and any other benefits that might be traded in."

Earning money through the freelance platform Fiverr

Since joining Fiverr in the summer of 2014, Almond has made around $288,000 through this freelance platform. This includes around a year of side work while still employed at her previous job. She has also done freelance work through Upwork.

In 2021, she made around $65,400 through Fiverr. Almond credits that partly to people looking to freelancers more amid the pandemic. Last year, her Fiverr earnings were nearly $36,000, based on documentation shared with Business Insider. Her total revenue from her self-employed work in 2023 was around 65,400 Canadian dollars, or over $47,500.

Almond offers product designs and creates concept sketches for clients. She said she helps clients "create the products that they're going to be able to sell." Based on her Fiverr profile, basic hand sketches for a product concept cost $750. Prices increase to $1,000 for digital sketches with color and $1,250 for 3D mockups. Those prices differ though if the delivery time is shortened. She also has prices listed for designing a client's product for 3D printing and prototyping.

"It's really fun to see the products actually getting launched and hitting the market," she said.

The pros and cons of working as a freelancer

Almond said choosing her own hours is a major upside; she likes working at night.

Location flexibility is another positive. Almond said she has completed projects while traveling. She also has done some work, such as answering people's questions, while waiting for school pickup.

"I love that the focus is firmly on the quality of what you deliver, not something arbitrary like your location," she said.

Almond has found flexibility in deciding the projects to work on another pro to being a freelancer.

"That wasn't so much there at the beginning because at the beginning it was, kind of, you take what you can get," she said. "And now that I'm more established, I'm able to choose what I want to spend my time on a little bit more."

There are also pros specifically with being a freelancer as a parent, Almond has found. She has two young children. She said this type of work gives her flexibility with their schedules as needed and to take care of them if they are sick.

She said that flexibility would be tough if she were still working as a mechanical engineer for an employer.

"Honestly, a lot of the office culture, it isn't fair to women in the workforce," Almond said.

There can be some negatives that come with being a self-employed freelancer. Almond has found that "the lack of face-to-face interaction" that comes with freelance work can sometimes get lonely.

Another con is the workflow "isn't always smooth," she said.

"Some weeks or even months, it might be really quiet. There's not much going on," Almond said. "And then, suddenly, on one day, you get five different orders from different people that you've quoted for the last six months, and they all want everything done tomorrow."

She said managing client expectations, communications, and personalities can also be hard, "especially in a field where outcomes are not always linear and perfectly predictable," and "there's no buffer via management."

"I've definitely gotten better at setting clear guidelines and boundaries over the years," she added and noted this has helped with customer relations.

Almond is ready to explore working on her own products amid freelance gigs

Almond's advice for other parents hoping to take a chance on freelance work is to keep trying at this kind of work.

"Definitely don't expect it to be all at once," she said. "It does take a little bit of time to kind of ramp up, especially on platforms like Fiverr that have really grown, and they've got more people offering services now. But just keep working at it, and it will happen eventually."

Something she wished she had known before entering the freelance world is to "make sure you know your own value."

"It's very easy in a competitive environment like freelancing to offer your services too low," she said. "And sometimes it's better to hold out for the people who really will value you because they're going to come in with a better attitude, and that makes for a better working relationship."

Freelance work has now given Almond a chance to explore another work goal.

"The flexibility of the hours working with clients is letting me explore some of my own personal projects on the side, so I'm really excited to try and get some of my own products launched within the next few months and year."

Have you resigned from a job to freelance? Reach out to this reporter to share at mhoff@businessinsider.com.

from All Content from Business Insider https://ift.tt/19e7Qnc
via IFTTT