Service departments may see boost, S&P Global Mobility says
The age of vehicles on the road is a record-high 12.5 years, which will likely result in more repair business for service departments.
West Coast utility CEO wants EVs to save California’s power grid
PG&E CEO Patti Poppe says that with bidirectional charging, EVs could be a “huge resource” for California’s power grid.
How climate change could make your home harder to insure
By Sarah Schlichter | NerdWallet
Just about every part of the U.S. has felt the impact of climate change this summer, with drifting smoke from Canadian wildfires, flash flooding in the Northeast and dangerously high temperatures across the South. Extreme weather not only poses health risks but can also make it harder and more expensive to insure your home.
Climate change and natural disasters
“Climate change acts as an amplifier of hazards,” says Aris Papadopoulos, a resilience expert at Florida International University’s Extreme Events Institute. Climate change is making natural disasters both more frequent and more intense, he says. And that means more risk to your home.
For example, a warmer atmosphere brings more evaporation, heavier rainfall and rising sea levels — all of which could increase your home’s chance of flooding.
Meanwhile, in the Western U.S., wildfires are happening more often and burning longer, says Kimiko Barrett, a wildfire research and policy analyst at Headwaters Economics, a nonprofit research group.
How Volvo overcomes U.S. tariffs on its vehicles made in China
The Duty Drawback scheme could elevate Volvo Cars’ 2.3-million-square-foot factory in Ridgeville, S.C., into a Southeast export hub rivaling Mercedes-Benz and BMW.
US inflation has steadily cooled. Getting it down to the Fed’s target rate will be the toughest mile
By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER (AP Economics Writer)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Over the past year, inflation in the United States has tumbled from 9% all the way to 3%, softening most of the price pressures that have gripped the nation for more than two years.
Now comes the hard part.
Squeezing out the last bit of excess inflation and reducing it to the Federal Reserve’s 2% target rate is expected to be a much harder and slower grind.
A measure called “core” inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, is even higher than overall inflation. It, too, seems likely to slow only gradually. The Fed pays particular attention to core prices as a signal of where inflation might be headed. In June, core prices were up 4.1% from a year earlier, according to the Fed’s preferred gauge.
“We see some challenges in getting that all the way back to 2% quickly,” said Michael Hanson, senior global economist at J.P. Morgan.
The stickiness of inflation could endanger the possibility that the Fed will achieve a rare “soft landing” — a scenario in which it manages to slow inflation down to its target level through higher interest rates without derailing the economy. If inflation were to remain elevated for too long, the Fed might feel compelled to further raise its key rate from its current 5.4%, a 22-year high. Most economists say they think the central bank is done hiking, but only if inflation continues to cool.