Author: insighter

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and owner of social media site X, formerly known as Twitter, attends the Viva Technology conference dedicated to innovation and startups at the Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris, France, on June 16, 2023. Gonzalo Fuentes | Reuters BEIJING — Local Chinese authorities have removed restrictions on Tesla cars after the company’s China-made vehicles passed the country’s data security requirements, the automaker said Sunday. The breakthrough came as Tesla CEO Elon Musk arrived in Beijing for an unexpected meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang, amid the first major auto show in the city in…

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Property taxes are typically your largest homeownership expense after paying your mortgage. Any way to save on your property taxes can be a big win for your budget! Home ownership can be a true joy. The thought of holding your very own keys in your hands and being able to point and say “That’s my house”. That’s until it’s time to pay property taxes. The average property tax in California is $4,694 per year whereas in places like New Jersey and Connecticut, it ranges from $6,400-$9,300 per year. This is undoubtedly not one of the joys of home ownership. Now…

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  Biodiversity is declining at rates unprecedented in human history. This suggests the ways we currently use to manage our natural environment are failing. One emerging concept focuses on giving legal rights to nature. Many Indigenous peoples have long emphasised the intrinsic value of nature. In 1972, the late University of Southern California law professor Christopher Stone proposed what then seemed like a whimsical idea: to vest legal rights in natural objects to allow a shift from an anthropocentric to an intrinsic worldview. Ecuador was the first country to enshrine rights of nature in its 2008 constitution. Since then, a…

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How does an executive reward themselves for a job well done? When you don’t take a salary, the only option is to sell off bits of the company you made successful. So is the case of Spotify CEO Daniel Ek, who has treated himself to a significant payday this year in the form of share sales.  And the Spotify co-founder isn’t the only one at the company who has been reaping the rewards from the group’s share price explosion this year. Spotify execs cashing in According to SEC filings analyzed by Fortune, executives at the company are starting to cash…

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Jensen Huang has a simple message for young people who want to achieve “greatness”: No pain, no gain. That was essentially the Nvidia CEO’s message for students at his alma mater, Stanford University, where he spoke last week at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. “Greatness is not intelligence. Greatness comes from character. And character isn’t formed out of smart people, it’s formed out of people who suffered,” Huang said at the event, in response to a question about how students can maximize their shot at being successful. When it comes to achieving success, Huang knows more than most.…

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  The Japanese yen has weakened significantly against the dollar in 2022. Stanislav Kogiku | SOPA Images | LightRocket | Getty Images The Japanese yen weakened to 160 against the U.S. dollar in Monday morning trading in Asia. The yen briefly touched 160.03 against the dollar, the weakest level since April 1990 when it touched 160.15, according to FactSet data. The currency strengthened by midday to trade around 156.5 against the dollar. The currency has languished alongside continued strength in the greenback as Federal Reserve rate cut expectations get pushed back. The Fed’s preferred inflation gauge came in slightly hotter…

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Robust global economic growth may offer equities enough support to resume a record-breaking rally, even if bets on Federal Reserve interest rate cuts this year are completely abandoned. After the best week for the S&P 500 Index since November pushed the US stock gauge back toward its record levels of March, investors are faced with a call on whether the weakness seen earlier this month was only a blip or if delayed policy easing will pull the market back down again. The answer, some investors say, lies in the market playbook of the 1990s, when equities more than tripled in…

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Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell speaks during a House Financial Services Committee hearing on the “Federal Reserve’s Semi-Annual Monetary Policy Report” on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., March 6, 2024.  Bonnie Cash | Reuters If there was any doubt before, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has pretty much cemented the likelihood that there won’t be interest rate reductions anytime soon. Now, Wall Street is wondering if the central bank will cut at all this year. That’s because Powell on Tuesday said there’s been “a lack of further progress” on lowering inflation back to the Fed’s 2% target, meaning “it’s likely…

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Circumstantial evidence points to climate change as worsening the deadly deluge that just flooded Dubai and other parts of the Persian Gulf, but scientists didn’t discover the definitive fingerprints of greenhouse gas-triggered warming they have seen in other extreme weather events, a new report found. Between 10% and 40% more rain fell in just one day last week — killing at least two dozen people in the United Arab Emirates, Oman and parts of Saudi Arabia — than it would have in a world without the 1.2 degrees Celsius (2.2 degrees Fahrenheit) warming that has come from the burning of…

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Demonstrators try to break through the blockade created by police officers to enter the city at Piazzale Roma, opposing the charge for tourists to enter the city on April 25, 2024 in Venice, Italy. Today Venice authorities launched a pilot program charging visitors a 5-euro entry fee in the hope that it will discourage at peak time, making the city more livable for its residents. Stefano Mazzola | Getty Images News | Getty Images Venice isn’t only sinking, it’s shrinking. In the 1970s, there were about 175,000 residents in Centro Storico, the main island and historic center of Venice. As…

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Whether you’re a longtime crypto investor or recently purchased digital assets, here are some key things to know from crypto tax experts.  How to answer Form 1040 ‘digital assets’ question Cryptocurrency has become a priority area for the IRS, and the agency shared guidance in January about reporting digital currency this tax season. Since tax year 2019, the IRS has collected crypto data on tax returns with different versions of a yes-or-no question. For 2023, there’s a “digital assets” question on the front page of Form 1040, along with returns for estates and trusts, partnerships, corporations and S corporations. More…

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