Category: News and Views

Inside Shein’s Sudden Rise: Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control | WIRED

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LAST FALL, IN the stagnation of pandemic life, I became fascinated with videos of influencers standing in their bedrooms and trying on clothes from a company called Shein.

In the TikToks, hashtagged #sheinhaul, a young woman would hold up a big plastic bag and rip into it, releasing a cascade of smaller plastic bags, each containing a neatly folded item of clothing. The shot would then cut to the woman wearing one piece at a time, rapid-fire, interspersed with screenshots from Shein’s app showing the prices: an $8 dress, a $12 swimsuit.

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‘They Don’t Know What Work Actually Means’: Manager Fired After Posting Rant Against Gen Z on Front Door | Entrepreneur

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It’s long been joked about that boomers blame millennials and Gen Z for everything, including critiques on the younger generations’ work ethic and alleged inability to save and spend money responsibly.

But one Dollar Tree manager took the generational assumptions a little too far after posting a hiring notice that banned Gen Z hopefuls from applying, subsequently getting herself fired in the process.

The Dollar Tree in Bremen, Indiana has become the source of internet infamy after a photo made its rounds of a sign that was plastered to the front of the store.

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These retirement bills let older workers put even more into their 401(k)s | CNN

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If a popular piece of retirement legislation makes it to President Biden’s desk this year, it would give older 401(k) participants the opportunity to contribute more to their nest egg and possibly bolster their tax-free savings.

Currently, anyone 50 or older may contribute an additional $6,500 on top of the annual $20,500 federal 401(k) contribution limit, for a total of $27,000 a year.

But under the Secure Act 2.0, which the House passed in March, the cap on catch-up contributions would increase to $10,000 for people ages 62, 63 and 64. So they’d be allowed to save a total of $30,500 in their 401(k)s.

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Amazon’s Kindle will finally support epub files | Mashable

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You know how every other ebook reader under the sun supports EPUB files, but Amazon’s Kindle stubbornly refuses to do so? Well, that’s changing.

Amazon quietly updated its help documentation (via Goodreader) to state that Kindle devices will start supporting EPUB files.

There’s a catch, though. “Beginning in late 2022, Send to Kindle applications will support EPUB (.EPUB) format,” says the document. This means you’ll be able to send EPUB files to your Kindle via Amazon’s handy Send to Kindle system, which essentially lets you upload documents to your Kindle by emailing them to your Kindle email address. It’s unclear, however, whether Kindles will natively support EPUB files, allowing you to purchase ebooks from Amazon’s library in the EPUB format directly.

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Buckle up: The Fed is about to get tough on inflation | CNN

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Last month, the Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the first time since December 2018. Now there are growing expectations that the central bank is about to dramatically step up the size and pace of its rate hikes in order to put a brake on surging consumer prices.

St. Louis Federal Reserve president James Bullard, one of the more hawkish members among the Fed’s regional bank chiefs, reiterated at an event Monday that the Fed needs to “expeditiously” raise rates in order to tamp down inflation. (Inflation hawks typically push for higher rates while so-called doves favor lower rates to stimulate growth.) Bullard suggested the Fed could raise rates by as much as 75 basis points.

Fed chair Jerome Powell has started to sound a lot more hawkish in recent weeks, but he may not want to move as aggressively as Bullard would like. But it’s clear that rates are likely to start climbing a lot higher soon.

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What You Need to Know About Bitcoin for Your Small Business | Small Business Trends

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As a small business owner, I have been avoiding thinking about cryptocurrency and Bitcoin for many years. But on this week’s The Small Business Radio Show, we discuss what you need to know about Bitcoin for your small business, your customers, and vendors.

Chris Brady is a New York Times best-selling author and speaker with a new book called “The Bitcoin Bride”. He was listed Richtopia’s Top 200 list of most influential authors in the world.

According to Chris, Bitcoin is not that complicated. He says that “it’s just money. Bitcoin was created to fix the money system since it’s broken. Governments and banks can expand its supply anytime they want…. backed by nothing. This is bad news for consumers since it results in inflation, erodes business profits and personal savings.  Bitcoin is a hedge against inflation.”

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What’s Going on With Netflix? Everything You Need to Know About the Company’s Massive Fall | Entrepreneur

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Netflix was down over 26% premarket on Wednesday following the release of the company’s latest earnings report, which brought the total market capitalization of the company down nearly $50 billion.

The company reported a 10% increase in revenue during Q1 of 2022, including an 8% increase in average streaming paid memberships. Here’s everything you need to know about what’s going on with the streaming service.

Netflix is bleeding subscribers

The company announced that it had lost a record net 200,000 subscribers during Q1 of 2022, its biggest drop off in over a decade.

“In the near term though, we’re not growing revenue as fast as we’d like,” the company warned in a letter to shareholders. “COVID clouded the picture by significantly increasing our growth in 2020, leading us to believe that most of our slowing growth in 2021 was due to the COVID pull forward. Now, we believe there are four main inter-related factors at work.”

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Florida lawmakers have stripped Disney of special tax status | BBC News

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Florida lawmakers have voted to strip Walt Disney of its special self-governing status amid a political clash between the company and the governor.

The status gave Disney powers to levy tax, build roads and control utilities on the lands of its theme park.

The entertainment conglomerate did not respond to a request for comment.

The move is widely seen as retribution for Disney’s opposition to a bill that bars many primary-school classrooms from discussing sexual orientation.

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This Week in Apps: Google bans call-recording apps, Snap’s Q1 and BeReal hype | TechCrunch

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Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy.

The app industry continues to grow, with a record number of downloads and consumer spending across both the iOS and Google Play stores combined in 2021, according to the latest year-end reports. Global spending across iOS, Google Play and third-party Android app stores in China grew 19% in 2021 to reach $170 billion. Downloads of apps also grew by 5%, reaching 230 billion in 2021, and mobile ad spend grew 23% year over year to reach $295 billion.

Today’s consumers now spend more time in apps than ever before — even topping the time they spend watching TV, in some cases. The average American watches 3.1 hours of TV per day, for example, but in 2021, they spent 4.1 hours on their mobile device. And they’re not even the world’s heaviest mobile users. In markets like Brazil, Indonesia and South Korea, users surpassed five hours per day in mobile apps in 2021.

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