Investing in consumer staples with dependable demand can be a smart way to boost dividend income. Many of the iconic brands you see in the grocery store have been paying shareholders a growing stream of dividends for decades. If you want more income, Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) , Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE: CL) , and PepsiCo (NASDAQ: PEP) have the brand recognition and global scale to keep paying you for ye...
Investing in consumer staples with dependable demand can be a smart way to boost dividend income. Many of the iconic brands you see in the grocery store have been paying shareholders a growing stream of dividends for decades. If you want more income, Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) , Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE: CL) , and PepsiCo (NASDAQ: PEP) have the brand recognition and global scale to keep paying you for years to come. Image source: Getty Images. Continue reading
The South China Morning Post has won 74 awards at the 47th Best of News Design Creative Competition, including three silver and 11 bronze medals. An infographic on Hong Kong’s fencing boom was a stand-out winner in results announced by the Society for News Design (SND) on Friday, earning three silver and one bronze medal. “It’s a great honour to receive these awards that are often called the Oscar...
The South China Morning Post has won 74 awards at the 47th Best of News Design Creative Competition, including three silver and 11 bronze medals. An infographic on Hong Kong’s fencing boom was a stand-out winner in results announced by the Society for News Design (SND) on Friday, earning three silver and one bronze medal. “It’s a great honour to receive these awards that are often called the Oscars of visual journalism. This global recognition reflects the hard work and innovation happening in...
She coined the term ‘intersectionality’ and helped to develop critical race theory, now her life’s work is under attack by Washington’s war on ‘woke’. As her memoir is published, the legal scholar explains why she’ll never stop speaking truth to power When Donald Trump returned to office in January last year, one of his first acts was to sign an executive order intended to cut federal funding for ...
She coined the term ‘intersectionality’ and helped to develop critical race theory, now her life’s work is under attack by Washington’s war on ‘woke’. As her memoir is published, the legal scholar explains why she’ll never stop speaking truth to power When Donald Trump returned to office in January last year, one of his first acts was to sign an executive order intended to cut federal funding for any school teaching what the administration defined as “critical race theory”. A raft of other orders mandated the termination of DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) personnel, offices and training across the federal government. Federal agencies began flagging hundreds of words to avoid or eliminate, including “intersectional” and “intersectionality”. All of which has amounted to 40 years of Kimberlé Crenshaw’s work being literally and deliberately erased. For decades, the 66-year-old legal scholar has been naming things that powerful people would prefer remain unnamed. In 1989, she coined the term intersectionality to describe the way race and gender overlap to shape lived experience, often in ways the law fails to recognise. Around the same time, she was one of a group of African American scholars who created the framework that came to be known as “critical race theory”, which sought to examine how racism is embedded in legal systems rather than simply enacted through individual prejudice. Now, Crenshaw’s ideas are being contested like never before. Continue reading...
Boozy, tomato pasta dish is enjoying a resurgence – with Gigi Hadid posting her own take on it Despite most traditional Italians considering it sacrilegious, penne alla vodka is quickly becoming one of the most in-demand Italian dishes. Previously popular in suburban Italo-American restaurants during the 80s, the dish is now enjoying a widespread resurgence that is being driven by several factors ...
Boozy, tomato pasta dish is enjoying a resurgence – with Gigi Hadid posting her own take on it Despite most traditional Italians considering it sacrilegious, penne alla vodka is quickly becoming one of the most in-demand Italian dishes. Previously popular in suburban Italo-American restaurants during the 80s, the dish is now enjoying a widespread resurgence that is being driven by several factors including nostalgia and social media. Continue reading...
Haris Doukas warns that with 700,000 residents and 8 million tourists, people are being pushed out of their neighbourhoods In the heart of ancient Athens, on narrow streets and around archaeological sites, visitor groups appear to be everywhere, snaking their way behind tour guides. Previously, officials would have welcomed such scenes. But for Haris Doukas, the socialist mayor who is determined t...
Haris Doukas warns that with 700,000 residents and 8 million tourists, people are being pushed out of their neighbourhoods In the heart of ancient Athens, on narrow streets and around archaeological sites, visitor groups appear to be everywhere, snaking their way behind tour guides. Previously, officials would have welcomed such scenes. But for Haris Doukas, the socialist mayor who is determined to reclaim the capital’s congested city centre for its citizens, the start of tourist season leaves the city at risk of “over-saturation.” Entire neighbourhoods, he believes, are in danger of losing their authenticity because of uncontrolled tourist development. Continue reading...
Jeremy Edwards/iStock Unreleased via Getty Images Prospects for timely resolution of Strait of Hormuz issues appear bleak. WTI crude surged $10.55, or 12.6%, this week to $94.40. The Bloomberg Commodities Index's 3.5% rally boosted 2026 gains to 24%. Ten-year Treasury yields rose five bps to 4.30%, outperforming other vulnerable bond markets. UK Gilt yields jumped 15 bps to 4.91%, with Italian yie...
Jeremy Edwards/iStock Unreleased via Getty Images Prospects for timely resolution of Strait of Hormuz issues appear bleak. WTI crude surged $10.55, or 12.6%, this week to $94.40. The Bloomberg Commodities Index's 3.5% rally boosted 2026 gains to 24%. Ten-year Treasury yields rose five bps to 4.30%, outperforming other vulnerable bond markets. UK Gilt yields jumped 15 bps to 4.91%, with Italian yields up 10 bps to 3.78%. Major equities indices were down 4.3% in Spain, 3.2% in France, 2.3% in Germany, and 2.5% in Italy. Not a worry in the world, major U.S. indices closed the week at record highs. Senator Katie Britt: "I think we would all say you are absolutely the right man for the job at the right time in our country's history, and I am excited about your leadership at the Fed." Senator Dave McCormick: "He is the right man for this pivotal moment." I am reminded of 2018 when Jay Powell took the reins of the Federal Reserve - in what was a pivotal period for monetary policy. Fed assets had inflated $1.6 TN (56%) over the previous five (non-crisis) years to surpass $4.4 TN. The new Chair's plan was to significantly shrink the Fed's balance sheet. I strongly supported what I believed was Powell's intention to reduce the Federal Reserve's footprint while beginning the process of forcing distorted markets to stand on their own. Well, QT was abruptly abandoned the following year. In a major policy error, the Powell Fed inflated holdings by $400 billion in the months leading to the pandemic. Fed assets surpassed $7 TN by June 2020 - on their way to the $8.924 TN March 2022 peak. As much as I respect Jay Powell as a dedicated public servant and man of integrity, his chairmanship was a failure. Much was out of his control - the pandemic, speculative markets, and historic Bubble dynamics. He will now hand the controls to Kevin Warsh, with highly levered markets more speculative and Bubble inflation only more precarious. Listening to Kevin Warsh's Tuesday Senate confirmation h...
Listen to Odd Lots on Apple Podcasts Listen to Odd Lots on Spotify Watch Odd Lots on YouTube Subscribe to the newsletter We live in an era of charts that are going up and to the right. This image obviously describes the stock market, particularly any company whose business is adjacent to artificial intelligence. But beyond stocks, another sort of chart we keep seeing is of AI capabilities also goi...
Listen to Odd Lots on Apple Podcasts Listen to Odd Lots on Spotify Watch Odd Lots on YouTube Subscribe to the newsletter We live in an era of charts that are going up and to the right. This image obviously describes the stock market, particularly any company whose business is adjacent to artificial intelligence. But beyond stocks, another sort of chart we keep seeing is of AI capabilities also going up and to the right. The most famous and viral of these comes from an organization called METR, which stands for Model Evaluation and Threat Research. The organization is focused on understanding the degree to which AI models can engage in autonomous, complex tasks. METR see this is as a particularly important benchmark, given the risk that AI could one day be engaged in recursive self improvement, taking humans out of the loop. But how do you really gauge a model's ability to do complex problems. And what is being measured for exactly? On this episode, we speak with METR's President Chris Painter as well as Joel Becker, a member of the technical staff who works on evaluation methods for the organization. We discuss both the mechanics and the philosophy of METR's work, and what it means when we see a a chart showing that Clause Opus 4.6 can do a task that would take a human nearly 12 hours.