Something for the weekend.
(Bloomberg) — Greetings from New York City, where a congestion tax of up to $23 for motor vehicles south of 60th Street in Manhattan is looking more likely and could be in place as early as April 2024. Budget-makers and bicyclists are thrilled. Not so New Jersey commuters. Here’s what you need to know about a major reshaping of the city’s traffic-scape, including that London did so 20 years ago.Â
Risky and safe assets alike have hung on every word and deed of Jerome Powell & Co. for more than a year. Now slowly but surely, the Federal Reserve’s stranglehold over financial markets is easing, as attention on Wall Street shifts to the prospect of an economic downturn. With the most prolonged corporate profits downturn in seven years, some on Wall Street fear a recession may have already arrived. The Treasury Department says it has just $88 billion of extraordinary measures to help keep the government’s bills paid as the fight over the debt ceiling comes down to the wire. You’d think stock-market investors would be anxious about all this uncertainty — but you’d be wrong.
Ten interest rate hikes aimed at cooling the economy — lowering inflation and curbing demand — but the US housing market has remained hot with prices barely budging. The Odd Lots podcast explores why, after a brief dip at the end of last year, this year’s selling season for homebuilders has already been stronger than expected. In short: Incentives from builders worked.
US authorities are seeing historic numbers of migrants arrive at the border with Mexico, but no fresh spike following the expiration of pandemic-era border restrictions. Still, border states are bracing, and northern cities including New York and Chicago expect a flood of migrants. NYC Mayor Eric Adams temporarily suspended some of the rules that require the city to shelter asylum seekers.
Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis’s increasingly bitter rivalry will play out in Iowa Saturday, setting up one of the most direct contrasts yet in their burgeoning battle for the Republican nomination for president. The Florida governor, at a series of private dinners in recent weeks, has sought to convince conservative donors that he’s the candidate who can accelerate the priorities Trump set as president but without all of the drama he stirred while in office.Â
Addiction specialists say treatment programs are over-enrolled in the wake of the pandemic, which created a dangerous triad for many remote workers: steady paychecks, proximity to drugs and alcohol out of view from co-workers and an incentive to maintain day-to-day functionality. With one study showing one in five working age Americans with a substance use disorder, the problem is coming more to light as workers return to the office.
Finally, scientists are looking for answers to longevity in the rockfish — if they don’t all get eaten first, Faye Flam writes in Bloomberg Opinion. One species can remain healthy and fertile well past 200. One of the genetic differences between long and short-lived species is in something known as the flavonoid pathway — referring to an interconnected network of genes that in animals is associated with hormone regulation. Harvard scientists have showed this and other pathways associated with longevity in rockfish have counterparts in humans. But they’re apparently also tasty in fish and chips, no matter what they look like. Live long and prosper. At least enjoy the weekend.Â
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