Money

Sean Hannity finds himself in familiar territory as of late: second place. For most of his career, the right-wing Fox propagandist has been in the shadows of someone else. When Bill O’Reilly was still at Fox News, Hannity could never quite catch him in the ratings race. But shortly after the 2016 election, Hannity’s close

Serial entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk is selling a new use case for NFT: “Smart event” tokens that have real value rather than digital art. Vaynerchuk’s VeeFriends NFT collection will give buyers three-year access to his VeeCon business and marketing convention. Customers can buy the tokens with etherium cryptocurrency. But he sees a broader future for NFTs

The US economy is roaring back to life after a long period of hibernation, sending companies scrambling to find workers that can help them meet a surge of demand. In many cases, they’re coming up short. What’s happening: A growing number of sectors are reporting problems with worker shortages. Uber and Lyft are offering incentives

IHOP is hoping to make amends with Adam Sandler next week after an unwitting hostess turned away the comedian at a Long Island location. The IHOP employee, not realizing she was talking to Adam Sandler, told the actor that the restaurant was busy, and it’d be a long wait to be seated. Sandler politely left

The US labor market collapsed a year ago when more than 20 million jobs vanished in a single month. Now the economy is healing, but millions of Americans remain out of work. And despite months of record jobs growth last summer, and with the pace of improvement picking up again this spring, the nation is

In a parallel universe, audiences around the world are heading to the cineplexes Friday to see Marvel’s “Black Widow” as it kicks off Hollywood’s lucrative summer movie season. Alas, not in this universe. Audiences will have to wait until July 9 to see Scarlett Johansson reprise her role as the avenging super-spy, and even then,

Beijing has ordered China’s cinemas to use the box office this year to spread propaganda celebrating the Communist Party. The country’s movie fans aren’t having it — and worry the new mandate is crowding out some of the Hollywood films they are clamoring for. Chinese moviegoers revolted last month after major ticketing sites around the

Gary Gensler, the newly installed chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, put Robinhood and Citadel Securities on notice Thursday about a potential crackdown in the Biden era. Gensler, whose nomination was endorsed by Senator Elizabeth Warren, repeatedly expressed concern about the “inherent” conflicts of interest that exist in the payment-for-order flow business model used

A major shareholder in Tesla has become bearish about the company. Scottish fund manager Baillie Gifford & Co. sold 11.1 million shares of Tesla during the first quarter, the firm disclosed in a filing Thursday. That sell off reduced the fund’s holdings by 40% since December 31. The shares sold constitute 1.2% of Telsa’s total

The semiconductor industry’s constant challenge is to make microchips that are smaller, faster, more powerful and more energy efficient — simultaneously. On Thursday, IBM announced it has created a 2-nanometer chip, the smallest, most powerful microchip yet developed. Most computer chips powering devices today use 10-nanometer or 7-nanometer process technology, with some manufacturers producing 5-nanometer

Several top business leaders have backed President Joe Biden’s plan to raise taxes on large corporations and the wealthy and spend more on infrastructure. But JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon wants to see more details. “I’m concerned about how the money’s going to be spent,” Dimon said in a recorded interview for the Investment Company

Three dollar store chains will make up almost half of all the new stores opening up in the United States this year, a reflection of the dollar store sector’s outsized growth in the retail industry as other chains close shops or stop building new ones. About 45% of the 3,597 store openings that large retail

News of the Bill and Melinda Gates’ divorce ricocheted around the world this week, raising a number of questions: What, why? What about the foundation? Is it too soon to ask Melinda to star in a reality TV series with Mackenzie Scott? And, of course, what happens to that ginormous house? (Answers: We don’t know;

A bubble could be brewing in steel stocks. The pandemic brought the American steel industry to its knees last spring, forcing manufacturers to shut down production as they struggled to survive the imploding economy. But as the recovery got underway, mills were slow to resume production, and that created a massive steel shortage. Now, the

David Swensen, the long-time chief investment officer at Yale University and a legend in the world of college endowments, died Wednesday at the age of 67. Yale president Peter Salovey wrote about Swensen’s death in a statement Thursday, saying that Swensen died following “a long and courageous battle with cancer.” Swensen graduated from Yale with