Some consumers are running out of cash as they battle rising prices and higher interest rates.
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People are spending almost every dollar they have to keep up with rising prices and interest costs.
They're cutting back wherever they can, paving the way for an economic slump, Stephanie Pomboy said.
She warned of dire implications for pension funds, banks, real estate groups, and other businesses.
Steep rises in prices and monthly interest payments have left people on the brink of financial disaster, setting the stage for the economy to crater, says Stephanie Pomboy.
"The consumer is spent up and lent up," the Macro Mavens founder said on the latest episode of the "Thoughtful Money" podcast.
"They're spending every dollar they have, and then some, just to keep up with the basic necessities."
"This is not consumers running out and taking vacations and buying second homes and a new car or anything like that, quite the contrary," she said.
The economist underscored that households are drawing down their savings and running up their credit cards just to cover everyday expenses, and cutting back on non-essential purchases.
Inflation spiked to a 40-year high of more than 9% in 2022, and has been tracking close to 4% in recent months — well above the Federal Reserve's 2% target.
The US central bank has responded by hiking interest rates from nearly zero to north of 5%, which has raised the monthly amount that people owe on their mortgages, credit cards, car loans, and other debts.
The one-two punch of surging prices and soaring borrowing costs has put the squeeze on households, forcing them to raid their piggy banks, rack up additional debt, save less each month, and slash their outgoings.
Pomboy pointed to the National Restaurant Association's monthly performance index, which had a "shockingly weak" reading in January as consumers dined out less, and remained depressed in March.
She also emphasized that retail sales have barely budged in two years once adjusted for inflation. Moreover, she highlighted recent cautions from Starbucks and McDonald's about waning consumer demand.
Pomboy worked for more than a decade at ISI — a trading group acquired by Evercore in 2014 — before launching her own investment-research firm in 2002.
She underscored that consumer spending is the engine of the economy, and company profits tend to suffer when it falters.
As a result, Pomboy predicted a "real slowdown in economic activity" with "problems around servicing debt among consumers and corporations."
She flagged disappointing data for consumer confidence, wage growth, and employment gains in recent months as warning signs.
Pomboy also underlined the risks to underfunded pensions of a broader downturn, and mounting pressure on banks as deposits are yanked and loan delinquencies rise among consumers and commercial real estate businesses.
"We've got a lot of painful time ahead of us," she said. "God forbid there's a reversion to the mean in the stock market or credit — that's gonna be ugly."
Pomboy is personally betting on hard assets with gold as her biggest holding, followed by real estate and some cash. She "wouldn't touch corporate credit with a 10-foot pole," and advised being "very defensive" on stocks as higher interest rates and cooling economic growth threaten to weigh on them.
The expert researcher has been sounding the alarm on consumers running out of cash for over a year, echoing other gurus including Michael Burry of "The Big Short" fame.
Yet the economy has skirted recession, the stock market has surged to record highs instead of crashing, unemployment remains historically low, and corporate profits have mostly held up, meaning Pomboy's warnings have been off the mark so far.
GPT-4o, the company's newest multimodal model, can input and output a combination of text, audio, and images. The technology represents a major advancement of the artificial intelligence of the recent past.
OpenAI announced the model in a series of demo videos on Monday, showcasing the technology's improved vision and voice abilities. The videos elicited both wonder and mockery, with people quickly making comparisons to the 2013 sci-fi movie "Her" and Elon Musk saying the reveal made him "cringe."
While it's too early to predict how exactly the model will disrupt the workforce, GPT-4o and other multimodal models will inevitably change the way we work, said Maribel Lopez, an AI analyst and founder of research and strategy consulting firm Lopez Research.
"The concept of multimodal models will impact a lot of different industries because it handles text, video, and audio," Lopez told Business Insider.
But not all of those impacts will necessarily be negative, Lopez said. For example, electricians, plumbers, and other tactile workers could use multimodal AI to make their jobs easier, she said.
"For workers who fix specialized equipment, AI might be very helpful in troubleshooting or fixing problems," Lopez said. "But it won't replace them because they have to be there to do it."
While some companies are working on AI robots that can do physical work, those models are typically better suited for repeated menial tasks like welding bolts than complex blue-collar labor.
However, other industries could have more of a challenge adapting to the implementation of multimodal AI in the workplace.
"AI will impact any job that has data," Lopez said, pointing to industries like supply chain and finance.
The general consensus is that anywhere from 20% to 30% of tasks completed by "computer workers" will eventually be offset by AI, Lopez said. But that doesn't mean computer workers will find themselves unemployed.
Using paralegals as an example, Lopez said their jobs could shift from tracking down documents and writing up summaries — two tasks that can take a person hours but which AI can complete in minutes — to tasks yet unknown.
"The AI challenge is that it forces all of us to enhance our skillsets," Lopez said. "It will be a change for all of us."
And it appears that OpenAI doesn't want GPT-4o to feel like doomsday for computer workers, either.
The company included a demo video showing the technology acting as a personal assistant, suggesting changes to code in real time, and offering a one-sentence summary of text.
Yaroslav Zubko moved to the US to work for a startup in New York.
Natalia Azarkina
Yaroslav Zubko moved to New York in 2017 after building up his tech career in Ukraine.
He's noticed key differences in the US and Ukraine tech work culture.
Zubko said people in the US overwork more and place more emphasis on idea generation.
This as-told-to essay is based on a transcribed conversation with 34-year-old Yaroslav Zubko, who lives in New York, about his experience moving to the US for a tech job. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
In 2015, I traveled to New York for a two-week business trip. It was the first time I'd ever left Ukraine, where I grew up. I looked at all the huge buildings in the city and couldn't believe my eyes. New York was even more impressive than it seemed in the movies.
I made a promise to myself that I was going to move to New York.
In 2016, I was offered a role as a director of product design at a New York tech startup called UpTop. I hadn't been actively applying for US jobs at the time. They supported me in getting a visa, and I moved to NYC in June 2017.
Moving to America has been the biggest adventure of my life. But the tech culture is very different in the US than in Ukraine. I've had to navigate these differences and assimilate into the work culture.
How I got a job at a New York tech startup
I studied business law at college in Ukraine but decided I wanted to follow my passion and become a designer. I started studying graphic design online and taught myself how to use design tools. I landed my first job as a web designer in 2012, working for a sporting goods website.
I worked at three other companies in Ukraine before moving to the US, doing UX and product design. I felt that every role I had added to my arsenal of skills. My last role before moving was as a product designer for SoftServe, a tech giant in the country.
When UpTop gave me an offer, we discussed visa options for my move to the US. Because I didn't have a formal education in the tech field, I wasn't eligible for a H1-B visa. The company decided to apply for an O-1 visa for "extraordinary" professionals on my behalf.
They hired an immigration attorney who talked me through the documents I'd need for the process. I gathered proof of my professional competency, including awards, media interviews, and letters from previous managers. I launched my own design project, Interaction Library, in 2016, which had already gotten attention online. I think this also helped me secure the visa.
I worked at UpTop for around a year and then moved to Tinder in 2018 as a lead product designer. I left in September 2019 and started focusing on my own design agency, Zubko Studio.
People are more attached to their work in the US
The US is a great place to work with many opportunities. I love that it's progressive and more culturally diverse than Ukraine. When I arrived, I wanted to immerse myself in the community and get a feel for living here.
In Ukraine, the tech sector is more consultancy-based. Money comes from overseas, from companies who outsource their IT needs to us. In the US, I feel that big companies are developing original ideas and patents, while in Ukraine, the biggest tech companies provide consultancy services.
I feel that people are much more attached to their work in the US because they are working on their ideas. In Ukraine, I worked with overseas clients, executing tasks for other companies and people.
At SoftServe, I was placed on a project for Deloitte. They had established brand guidelines, which presented limitations for me as a designer. I couldn't create many new user interface elements from scratch and had to use the ones from the guide. I felt less ownership over the work.
Meanwhile, I've worked on projects and products I've felt more ownership of in the US. As a product design director at UpTop, I could choose which features to research and test and decide how a certain feature would be implemented.
I loved the responsibility, but it's been much more challenging not to take my work home. There were nights when I couldn't fall asleep because I was thinking about ideas for the product.
In the US, ideas and pitching are prioritized over execution
In Ukraine, my work was about execution. Because my work was in consulting, ideas came from our clients, and I focused on implementing them.
In the US, ideation is more important than execution in the startup world, particularly because the tech scene is more saturated. Big ideas sell. They're how you sell to investors and raise funds. I think this is a positive difference — a great product should start with an idea, which you test over and over to make sure it's worth investing in.
At Tinder, most of my time was spent on idea generation and testing. I animated and presented over 20 versions of Tinder's app, and used A/B testing methods to understand what ideas were worth implementing. I worked on several products that made the user experience more seamless, including Tinder U, Tinder Gold Home, and Super Boost.
People skills are highly valued in US companies. Having spoken in Russian and Ukrainian at my previous jobs in Ukraine, I struggled with self-expression and making jokes in English when I moved to New York.
I initially found it challenging to think about structuring my thoughts when selling my ideas. It would take me a while to think of the right combination of words and I felt people around me didn't have the time to think through my convoluted explanations.
People overwork in the US
In general, I think efficiency is put on a pedestal in American culture. People value working as much as possible and making as much money as possible.
When I first joined Tinder, I would stay late in the office to finish some of my work. I witnessed people staying until 9 or 10 p.m. to finish their commitments. In Ukraine, there were times when the office would be empty at 4 or 5 p.m. Sticking to my hours and going home whenever I wanted felt easier. But the projects were more fun in the US, so I was more motivated to work longer hours.
I plan to live between the US and Ukraine when the war is over
Ukraine will always be my home, but I'm staying in the US for the foreseeable future. I wasn't in Ukraine when Russia's invasion happened in 2022. Growing up, I had nightmares about war, but I was still taken aback when it happened.
After the war, I see myself returning to Ukraine and living between the US and Ukraine. I'd like to use my skills to help rebuild the country, like a phoenix coming from the ashes.
In 2021, Boeing reached a deal with prosecutors after 346 people died in two 737 Max crashes.
The Justice Department said Tuesday that Boeing violated that deal and is now subject to prosecution.
It worsens the crisis at the planemaker which began with January's Alaska Airlines blowout.
Boeing could face criminal charges after the Justice Department determined the planemaker violated a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA).
The DPA, reached in 2021, meant Boeing didn't face charges related to the deaths of 346 people in two 737 Max 8 crashes in 2018 and 2019. As part of the settlement, Boeing paid $2.5 billion and promised to strengthen its compliance program.
The DPA expired just two days after January's Alaska Airlines blowout, which has renewed scrutiny of Boeing's quality-control processes. Safety investigators said the 737 Max involved had left Boeing's factory missing key bolts.
In a Tuesday court filing seen by Business Insider, the Justice Department said Boeing violated the DPA, "by failing to design, implement, and enforce a compliance and ethics program to prevent and detect violations of the US fraud laws throughout its operations."
It added: "For failing to fulfill completely the terms of and obligations under the DPA, Boeing is subject to prosecution by the United States."
Boeing has until June 13 to respond to the DoJ. In a statement shared with BI, the planemaker said: "We believe that we have honored the terms of that agreement, and look forward to the opportunity to respond to the Department on this issue."
"As we do so, we will engage with the Department with the utmost transparency, as we have throughout the entire term of the agreement, including in response to their questions following the Alaska Airlines 1282 accident," it added.
The Justice Department is continuing to meet with the families of victims of the 2018 and 2019 crashes, as it determines whether to bring charges against Boeing.
Robert Clifford, an attorney for the families of victims of the 2019 Ethiopian Airlines crash, said in an email: "This is a way for Boeing to be held criminally responsible in court. It's what the families have wanted. They want answers as to what really happened in the crashes and for the safety of the public to be protected."
The Justice Department told the court it will decide whether to prosecute Boeing by July 7.
Historically, female drivers in the US have lower insurance premiums because they're less likely to engage in risky driving behaviors.
Kathrin Ziegler/Getty Images
A French road safety group is telling people to "drive like a woman" to cut fatalities.
The campaign aims to debunk the "misogynistic" stereotype that men are better drivers than women.
The campaign notes that, in France, 84% of fatal road accidents are caused by men.
A French road safety association is urging people to "drive like a woman" to reduce the number of traffic deaths.
Victimes & Citoyens, a group dedicated to supporting the victims of road accidents, has launched a campaign to try to debunk the "misogynistic" stereotype that men are better drivers than women.
In 2022, according to a French government report, 3,550 people were killed on the roads in mainland France and its overseas territories.
"When we look at the figures, they are clear: to stay alive behind the wheel, the best thing for men to do is adopt the same behavior as women," the campaign's website says.
Victimes & Citoyens also cited data showing that 88% of young drivers are killed by men, 93% of drunk drivers involved in accidents are men, and women are eight times less likely than their male counterparts to have a fatal accident on the road.
"Statistically, driving like a woman means only one thing — staying alive," the group said on its website.
The awareness campaign will run across print, digital, and metro platforms, and will also use a chatbot to respond to posts on X about women driving. according to the campaign's website.
In the US, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, the number of male crash deaths was more than twice the number of female crash deaths for almost every year between 1975 to 2021.
The institute said this could be attributed to men typically driving more miles than women but also being more likely to engage in risky driving practices, such as speeding, not wearing seatbelts, and driving under the influence of alcohol.
Historically, men have faced higher insurance premiums, as insurance companies see them as a greater risk, according to Yahoo! Finance.
I think about the Pelotoninstructors an unusual amount. I not only see them during my workouts but also follow a bunch of them on Instagram, where I try to suss out which ones secretly hate each other based on who is or isn't invited to whose wedding. A friend and I have a text chain that's often just Peloton instructor-isms, which include, "You are the CEO of your body," "I already have my stank face on," and "You are a nasty bitch," which was somehow said in reference to push-ups. The Peloton teachers can be cheesy and weird, but I love them. Given this level of attachment, I've also started to wonder what will become of them if and when Peloton goes kaput.
The connected-fitness company is struggling. Its CEO, who joined the company in February 2022, is already stepping down. It recently announced plans to lay off 400 people, which is about 15% of its workforce. Private-equity sharks are reportedly circling. The stock is near record lows. Peloton isn't going under imminently, but let's be real here: No fitness fad lasts forever. At least culturally, the Peloton graveyard is probably on the horizon, right next to the Tae Bo cemetery and ThighMaster crematorium.
Peloton was a bit of a pandemic Cinderella story. The company launched in 2012 and started shipping bikes in 2014, but for much of its history, it operated as the creator of a product designed for a certain type of well-off fitness nut. Its initial equipment wasn't great, and it had a hard time finding investors. Eventually, it took off. It went public in September 2019 — the same year it did that viral holiday ad with that pained-looking woman who gets a Peloton from who we can assume is her not-so-great husband.
When COVID-19 hit in 2020 and gyms shut down, demand for its products skyrocketed. Customers complained of monthslong wait times to get their bikes and treadmills, and Peloton scrambled to get its supply chain in order. Despite the pain points, times were pretty decent: Peloton booked its first $1 billion in quarterly sales in the last three months of 2020, and its market cap peaked at about $50 billion.
The narrative and hype overshadowed its actual market opportunity.
But what goes up often comes down, and in Peloton's case, the comedown was hard. While there was a lot that went wrong, the long and short of it is that Peloton failed to read the room on its pandemic popularity.
"The narrative and hype overshadowed its actual market opportunity," said Rina Raphael, the author of the book "The Gospel of Wellness" and of the newsletter "Well To Do," about the wellness industry. "It's not that Peloton isn't a good business model; it's that it simply isn't a mass product but more of a niche, luxe one," she said.
The pandemic pulled forward a lot of demand, meaning people who would have considered buying Peloton equipment down the road decided to go ahead and pull the trigger in 2020. Much like other pandemic business darlings, Peloton thought the level of demand was a long-term shift, rather than a one-off event, so it invested accordingly. The problem is, by the time the company got its manufacturing and supply chain up to speed, it wasn't necessary.
"Peloton saw their strength in COVID and ran it forward in perpetuity, and that simply is not reality," Simeon Siegel, an analyst at BMO Capital Markets who covers Peloton, said.
Peloton didn't respond to a request for comment for this story.
Beyond cratering demand, the company has faced various headaches in recent years. It has issued multiplerecalls of its devices and has been the subject of public-relations debacles. It's slashed staff and outsourced logistics in an attempt to get on steadier financial footing. It now says it's trying to cut $200 million from its annual expenses by mid-2025, but it's unclear whether that will be enough. Investors have soured on the company, and Peloton's once $50 billion market cap has fallen to under $2 billion.
This is a business that convinces people to pay over $40 a month to get on a piece of equipment in their home. That's an incredibly profitable story, and yet the company loses money.
Its troubles don't necessarily mean all is lost. Siegel thinks Peloton is just too focused on growing instead of looking at its user base and squeezing cash out of that.
"The primary focus should be on bear-hugging their brand loyalists, as opposed to trying to find new, money-losing customers," he said. "This is a business that convinces people to pay over $40 a month to get on a piece of equipment in their home. That's an incredibly profitable story, and yet the company loses money."
Peloton's subscriber business on its own isn't the problem — it's everything else. The company has thin margins on hardware, as in selling bikes and treadmills and rowers and whatever else, but it has more robust margins on subscriptions, Paul Golding, an analyst at Macquarie Capital, said. Instead of spending on getting more bikes into people's homes, it could just keep its attention on discouraging people from unsubscribing. But it's not doing that, so other costs are eating into its subscription margins.
"There are other expenses that the business incurs, including marketing expenses, general administrative expenses, and research and development, given that they are a tech platform as well," Golding said. "Over the last few quarters, there's been stagnating expectations of connected-fitness subscribers as well as declines in the more entry-level app. Those economies of scale have not been working in favor of outpacing the cost structure that the company has been left with."
The path ahead is rocky. Peloton has a decent subscriber base, with more than 3 million paid connected subscribers (meaning people who have the device and a subscription) and 675,000 paid app users (they didn't buy equipment and have the app only) at the end of its most recent quarter. But there is churn. It expects its subscriptions to fall in the current quarter, and its paid app use has been on the downslope. When I went to look up Peloton on Google Trends for this story over the past month, "how to cancel peloton subscription" was the second search listed.
Peloton has plenty of direct competitors in the connected-fitness-hardware space, including Echelon and Tonal. It also has to contend with the gym, which has all sorts of classes and fitness equipment that let people mix things up, including, in many cases, Pelotons or other connected-fitness devices.
"If you can get competing content and do it on demand at your gym and just pay the monthly membership fee of the gym and also be able to use a bunch of other things when you're not feeling a spin ride today, then does that change the value proposition for you when you're thinking about whether it makes sense to buy a $2,000-plus piece of equipment?" Golding said.
There are options if you're shy about working out in public and worried about spending cash on expensive gear or any sort of membership.
"Want to work out from home?" Raphael, the wellness author, said. "Then just log on to YouTube for free."
Beyond the issues specific to Peloton, the company faces an age-old reality of fitness: Trends come and go quickly, whether it be Jazzercise, Zumba, CrossFit, Pilates, Cardio Barre, or, well, you get the point. Fitness is a lot like fashion.
America is a capitalist, consumerist nation, and as such, we experience fitness as a capitalist, consumer product. Yes, the science changes somewhat — we didn't really think cardio was for everyone until the '60s and '70s, or really push strength training until the '90s — but the different packages in which it's presented to us change much faster. As Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, a fitness historian, a professor at the New School, and the author of "Fit Nation," put it to me in a 2022 interview, "There is this constant cycle of exercise trends mostly because there's the need to keep creating new products and flashy experiences for people to spend money on."
Fitness companies are good at capitalizing on basic human nature when it comes to exercise. People get bored with their routines and are often eager to switch it up. Fitness requires variety for most people. Hope springs eternal that this workout will finally be the one that gets us in shape and doesn't burn us out. The best fitness advice is to find something you like and stick with it, even if it's just going for a walk. The trouble is, there's no money in that. And regardless, trends just evolve. The spin craze has been on the downswing for a while. High-intensity training isn't entirely out of vogue — some people are getting into whatever Hyrox is — but there's also more emphasis on and interest in gentler, feel-good workouts at the moment.
"It's not uncommon to hear more consumers, especially women, say they're working out for the psychological benefits rather than, say, killer abs or a bikini body," Raphael said. "So you see a share of the market moving towards modalities like yoga or venturing outside."
I personally like my Peloton, and while I don't think I've ever hit a cultlike level of fanaticism, I do some sort of Peloton class most days of the week. But I follow enough people on the app to notice just how many of them have fallen off, and I come across used bikes on Facebook Marketplace regularly. I recognize that, someday, I will move on. Once the bike breaks, I can't imagine I'll get a new one, or maybe the company will cease to exist, and then I will have a bike-sized brick on my hands.
As for the instructors I now care a smidge too much about, I've noticed a lot of them are undertaking other business ventures, whether it be landing sportscasting deals or appearing on "Dancing With the Stars" or just doing more run-of-the-mill influencer stuff. I imagine they see the eventual writing on the wall, too, or at least I hope they do.
Emily Stewart is a senior correspondent at Business Insider, writing about business and the economy.
On Monday, OpenAI unveiled GPT-4o for ChatGPT, a new version of the bot that can hold conversations with users in a very human tone. The new version of the chatbot will also have vision abilities.
The futuristic reveal quickly prompted jokes about parallels to the movie "Her," with some calling the chatbot's new voice "cringe."
The move is a big step for the future of AI-powered virtual assistants, which tech companies have been racing to develop.
Since its release in 2022, hundreds of millions of people have experimented with the tool, which is already changing how the internet looks and feels to users.
While the personal tone of conversations with an AI bot like ChatGPT can evoke the experience of chatting with a human, the technology, which runs on "large language model tools," doesn't speak with sentience and doesn't "think" the way people do.
"There's a saying that an infinite number of monkeys will eventually give you Shakespeare," said Matthew Sag, a law professor at Emory University who studies copyright implications for training and using large language models like ChatGPT.
"There's a large number of monkeys here, giving you things that are impressive — but there is intrinsically a difference between the way that humans produce language, and the way that large language models do it," he said.
Chatbots like ChatGPT are powered by large amounts of data and computing techniques to make predictions to string words together in a meaningful way. They not only tap into a vast amount of vocabulary and information, but also understand words in context. This helps them mimic speech patterns while dispatching an encyclopedic knowledge.
Other tech companies like Google and Meta have developed their own large language model tools, which use programs that take in human prompts and devise sophisticated responses.
Some recent efforts to use chatbots for real-world services have proved troubling. In 2023, the mental health company Koko came under fire after its founder wrote about how the company used GPT-3 in an experiment to reply to users.
Koko cofounder Rob Morris hastened to clarify on Twitter that users weren't speaking directly to a chatbot, but that AI was used to "help craft" responses.
Read Insider's coverage on ChatGPT and some of the strange new ways that both people and companies are using chat bots:
A new analysis from SmartAsset shows that in 2022, using the most recent Census Bureau American Community Survey data, the city of Mesa, Arizona had the most Americans of retirement age move in and the highest net movement of retirees. Out of 182 cities SmartAsset analyzed, every city in the top 10 for net movement of Americans aged 60 and older was in the South.
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Many retirees are moving to warmer cities with lower living costs — some citing fears that they won't have enough saved for a comfortable retirement — and strong access to health and entertainment resources. Some retirees previously told Business Insider they've downsized to quieter communities, some of which more closely align with their political beliefs.
Florida gained a net 77,290 retirees in 2022, losing 94,053 but adding 171,343. This was followed by Arizona at 23,515 and South Carolina at 20,895.
Mesa, a city of over 500,000 just east of Phoenix, saw nearly 7,000 people move in, compared to about 2,500 moving out. Mesa had 50% more net influx of retirees than any other city — and the second-fastest rate of retirees moving in when adjusting for relative size. Last year, Mesa topped SmartAsset's study of where seniors are the most financially secure.
Data reveals Mesa had the highest percentage of homeownership among retirement-aged citizens. It also had the second-lowest percentage of senior poverty and the lowest percentage of older adults on food stamps.
San Antonio ranked second for net movement at 2,936 — 4,102 moved in, while just 1,166 moved out. Texas cities Houston and Fort Worth, which had net influxes of 1,139 and 1,130, respectively, were ranked 7th and 8th.
Perhaps expectedly, Florida had three cities in the top 11: St. Petersburg in fourth, Clearwater in 10th, and Cape Coral in 11th. However, Miami lost 1,134 retirees net, while Tallahassee lost 527. Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Tampa, and Gainesville were also in the negatives.
Other cities in the top 10 for net movement include Henderson, Nevada, Atlanta, and the Tennessee cities of Murfreesboro and Chattanooga.
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Conversely, 28,969 retirees moved out of New York City, while only 6,194 moved in. Los Angeles had a net loss of 5,549, while Chicago's retiree population fell by 3,251. Still, retirees have comparable or higher retirement incomes in some of these cities experiencing net losses compared to those with high net gains.
It was a difficult session for Patriot Battery Metals Inc. CDI (ASX: PMT) shares on Wednesday.
The lithium developer’s shares sank as much as 9.5% to 76.5 cents before recovering in late trade.
The ASX lithium stock ended the day 5.5% lower at 80 cents.
Why did this ASX lithium stock crash into the red?
Investors were heading to the exits today after the company released an update on its agreement with lithium giant Albemarle Corp (NYSE: ALB).
According to the release, the two parties’ memorandum of understanding’s (MOU) nine-month term has concluded and will not be extended.
The MOU was assessing partnership opportunities to study the viability of a downstream lithium hydroxide plant integrated with the Corvette Lithium Project and located in Canada or the United States.
At the time, the ASX lithium stock cautioned that there was no assurance that the MOU will result in the completion of a study or the formation of a partnership or joint venture with Albemarle. Which is exactly what has happened, much to the dismay of shareholders.
What now?
Patriot advised that it now expects to fully engage with other downstream companies in the lithium supply chain. The good news is that management appears confident that it will be able to replace Albemarle.
It notes that as the scale and quality of the Corvette Project has become increasingly evident, it has received significant interest from participants in the lithium industry. Especially given the potential for Corvette to be a large and high-quality raw material supplier for the future of lithium-ion battery supply chains outside China. It believes that being able to fully engage with other downstream companies is in the best interests of shareholders.
The ASX lithium stock’s President and CEO, Ken Brinsden, commented:
Our collaboration with Albemarle has been extremely valuable. We are proud of the progress we’ve made and are excited by the intense market interest in the Corvette project. As we move forward, Patriot is eager to expand its operations and explore new partnerships that support the growing demand for lithium raw materials and chemicals in North America and Europe. We also look forward to continuing our productive relationship with Albemarle in a flexible, non-exclusive format.
As things stand, Albemarle remains the company’s largest shareholder with a 6.4% stake.
Though, with the mining giant paying C$15.29 per share for its stake, it is down heavily on its investment. The company’s shares are currently fetching C$8.03 on the Canadian stock exchange.
Should you invest $1,000 in Patriot Battery Metals right now?
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Dell workers have previously been told that those who work remotely will no longer be eligible for promotions.
Brandon Bell/Getty
Dell has initiated the next phase of its return-to-office mandate.
Employees' on-site attendance is now being monitored, according to a memo seen by Business Insider.
The system will then give employees different colored flags depending on their attendance level.
Dell is pushing ahead with its return-to-office mandate.
The tech giant has told US employees who opted to classify themselves as hybrid workers that it has started monitoring their in-office attendance by tracking badge swipes, according to an internal memo seen by Business Insider.
Dell started monitoring attendance on May 6 and will make the data visible on each hybrid employee's profile on HR platform Workday this week.
The data will then be used to categorize employees with a blue, green, yellow, or red flag every quarter.
Business Insider spoke to 10 current Dell workers, all of whom asked to remain anonymous as they are not permitted to speak to the media.
Most opposed the policy, and many complained it felt unnecessarily strict, with one staffer telling BI that some employees feel they are being "tracked like kindergarteners and scared that their names might end up on some list."
Dell's memo states: "As the next step in implementing our Hybrid Work Policy, we will track onsite presence using badge swipes for hybrid-designated team members."
"Beginning Monday, May 13, you will be able to see your weekly site visit data. At the end of the quarter, site visits will be cumulated and reflected using category ranges."
Michael Dell, Chairman and CEO of Dell Technologies.
NurPhoto/Getty
Blue flags, reflecting Dell's corporate colors, are the highest rank and are given out for "consistent on-site presence," meaning 39 days or more in the office per quarter, while green flags are allocated for "regular onsite presence."
Yellow flags reflect "some onsite presence," and red flags will be handed out for "limited onsite presence."
The color by their name will be considered for performance evaluations, rewards, and compensation, Dell told employees.
Staff who opted to remain remote during the company's overhaul of its hybrid work policy, which was first announced in February, will not be monitored. However, by choosing to stay remote, they are no longer eligible for promotion or able to change roles.
Dell employees who were classified as remote and hybrid told Business Insider they were disappointed with how the company was implementing this new policy.
"Dell is not the place it used to be where employees were respected and valued. There are so many people that are demoralized and will be hurt by this policy," said one Dell worker, who requested to remain anonymous.
"Dell is in a state of dictatorship," another declared.
'Lack of flexibility'
Other staffers who spoke to BI raised concerns about the "lack of flexibility" in the new monitoring system. One said that for a company dedicated to tech innovation, Dell's internal "technologies and approaches are totally outdated."
According to an internal FAQ about the policy seen by BI, the attendance monitoring solution is solely based on data from badge swipes.
That means that if an employee forgets their badge, goes on a work trip, or takes an approved annual leave, the system marks them as absent.
The FAQ confirms that regularly turning up without a badge means you will show up as "red" on the system.
According to Dell, workers will not be penalized for that.
Dell's HQ in Round Rock Texas, where staff attendance will be monitored.
Brandon Bell / Getty
"We do not have a way to systematically account for onsite attendance where no badge reader is available, so we will use the honor system and trust that you are adhering to the policy."
Dell told staff that by reporting attendance in ranges, the system can account for the odd "days that a team member has Dell-approved time off, business travel, corporate holidays, etc."
It is not clear what happens if an employee regularly falls out of a positive attendance bracket for legitimate reasons. This lack of clarity has caused "a lot of frustration," according to a senior manager at Dell.
"No one really knows what it means if you're designated hybrid but fail to meet 3 days a week."
When contacted by BI, Dell did not respond to specific questions about the system's flexibility but confirmed that staff in hybrid roles were expected to be on-site at least 39 days per quarter — on average, 3 days a week.
"In today's global technology revolution, we believe in-person connections paired with a flexible approach are critical to drive innovation and value differentiation," the company told BI.
Dell is among a growing list of major corporations mandating more in-office work after years of working from home spurred by the COVID pandemic.
After initially embracing working from home, tech giants like Google, Meta, and Salesforce have all moved away from remote work and now mandate employees spend a certain proportion of their time in the office.
Dell is placing responsibility for tracking workers with individual managers, and any future action based on low attendance "will be at the leader's discretion, not driven centrally or by HR," according to the FAQ document.
"It isn't as iron-fisted as it sounded when the announcement was first made, we can work with our management for abnormal exceptions," said one employee, who viewed the manager-by-manager approach positively.
However, others see the new system as more work for already-stretched leaders.
"Its an additional time sink in an environment where more keeps being pushed onto a smaller set of people," said one manager at Dell.
The leniency of managers will also differ across teams, BI's sources said.
One staffer who works under senior management said their boss told staff that he will be satisfied as long as "he sees a 3 in the count towards 39 days."
"He personally believes the new policy is ridiculous," the source said. "He has better things to do than count people's days in the office."
But a friend on a different team was told by their manager that they expected everyone to be blue each week, the source said.
"The effectiveness is definitely going to depend on the manager. There will surely be managers who aren't tracking time off as well as they should and chastising employees for not being in the office despite vacation days," agreed another source at Dell.
These changes are "really making people turn on Dell as an employer," the source added.
Are you a worker at Dell or another company pushing staff back to the office? Contact this reporter at pthompson@businessinsider.com
