Category: Tech

• The banking fiasco will help the Federal Reserve curb inflation, the IMF’s managing director says.
• “The skirmishes in the banking sector are actually helpful,” Kristalina Georgieva said Thursday.
• The turmoil will cause a tightening of credit conditions that slows price growth, she added.

There is no banking crisis – and unease in the sector will help the Federal Reserve to cool inflation, the head of the International Monetary Fund says.

Kristalina Georgieva said Thursday that last month’s turmoil will aid the Fed in its war on soaring prices by leading to a tightening of credit conditions, as mid-sized banks try to shore up their balance sheets by raising their lending standards.

“The skirmishes in the banking sector are actually helpful because they do lead to medium-sized banks being more careful in their lending practices,” the IMF managing director told CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street.” 

“They provide 30% to 40% of financing, meaning they are helping the Fed by being more prudent for the Fed not to have to do that much,” she continued. “It has been a helping hand to the Fed.”

Inflation tends to cool when credit conditions tighten. Consumers and businesses find it harder to access cash, which leads to lower levels of spending and investment — key components of overall demand in the economy and drivers of price growth.

Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse in March sparked widespread panic across the US regional banking sector, and dragged down the stock prices of similarly sized institutions like First Republic and Western Alliance.

The California lender ran into trouble after it sold long-dated bonds at a loss and moved to raise fresh capital. The scramble for cash spooked its customers, resulting in a tidal wave of withdrawals that overwhelmed the bank and spurred the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to seize control and guarantee all of its deposits.

But Georgieva said she didn’t view last month’s fiasco as a crisis. Some turmoil was to be expected after the Fed hiked borrowing costs from near-zero to around 5% in the space of a year in a bid to tame soaring inflation, she said.

“I don’t think there is a banking crisis, there are vulnerabilities that we should have expected,” she told CNBC. 

“Let me say that we have lived through a long period of very low interest rates and ample liquidity and very quickly we moved into high interest rates and restrictive liquidity,” Georgieva added. “Of course there would be vulnerabilities to be exposed.”

The IMF isn’t the first high-profile institution to predict the banking turmoil will lead to lenders pulling back on financing. However, other market forecasters have underscored the impact a credit crunch would have on economic growth, rather than inflation.

Allianz said late last month that the US is now “headed towards a crash landing,” with SVB’s collapse heralding a credit crunch that could plunge the economy into a severe recession.

Read more: Brace for the US economy to crash-land as the banking turmoil creates a credit crunch, Allianz says

• Hanna Matyiku-Nuñez was laid off from her job as a marketing manager at a small tech firm in 2021.
• She developed resentment toward her tech colleagues who got laid off from bigger companies.
• Matyiku-Nuñez realized she needed to be open and vulnerable to get through her layoff.

In November 2021, I found myself arriving early to the tech-layoff boom. I was laid off from my marketing position at a small startup most people had never heard of. I was also eight weeks into a six-month maternity leave. 

No publication picked up the news. There wasn’t a dialogue on Twitter about it, and if I didn’t tell people, no one had to know. With the lack of brand cachet attached to my job loss, I developed a bitterness toward people laid off by better-known companies.

 If you lost your job at a major tech company, you could blame the narcissistic CEO. Plus, many of your “safe” former coworkers would share your name and résumé with their networks, describing you as the smartest, the best, a person anyone would be lucky to have. In my mind, this meant the enviable perks of working for a tech giant continued even after a layoff. 

People who were laid off from Big Tech companies had their stories shared broadly on LinkedIn, and they were added to special lists — and networking groups. I thought I coveted the brand notoriety, but in hindsight, it was the visibility I wanted.

To become more visible during my layoff, I needed to be more transparent. I now realize my resentment came from a deep desire to be real during the hardest moment of my career.

It’s a challenge to authentically exist in the corporate world

Since my company’s layoffs weren’t covered by the press, it was up to me how I presented myself to hiring managers, but I’ve always struggled to show vulnerability and authenticity in a business setting. 

In my early 20s, I changed the way I dressed. I also adopted a more direct writing style in emails, then later started adding emojis and exclamation marks so I didn’t come across as too harsh. I even subconsciously altered my voice to adopt a deeper tone so no one could accuse me of upspeak — think more Kourtney Kardashian than Elizabeth Holmes — and I didn’t realize my voice had changed until my mom pointed it out one Christmas. 

It’s taken years for me to dismantle these behaviors. I realized the people I admired and gravitated to brought their authentic selves to work. I wanted to be one of them, but to be real, I had to break down my work persona — and eventually, I did.

I started talking more like myself instead of relying on corporate jargon. In meetings, I forced myself to ask questions when I didn’t understand something. And, hardest of all, I allowed for moments of vulnerability when balancing life and work became too hard.

Now, years into my career and newly laid off, I wanted to rebuild my work persona so no one would see that I lost my job for reasons outside my control. I wished for everything to be in the open, but I hated the idea of making a formal announcement on Linkedin.   

Eventually, I used my network, much like the laid-off workers from larger companies 

I gave myself until March 2022, when my severance ended, to attempt to exist like I was on my planned maternity leave. Then, four months after getting laid off, I started looking for a job. I thought my network wouldn’t help me make any new connections, but I was wrong. I’d spent months processing my layoff and focusing on my newborn. So when it came time to start looking for jobs, I was ready to open up a little.

I applied to dozens of jobs via career portals. The only response I received was the automatic email reply after submission. I quickly turned to former managers, colleagues, and friends, asking them for referrals to all the major tech companies. The executive team that laid me off scheduled calls, made introductions, and supported me in my job search. 

My severance ended at the end of March and I was working in a new role by June. It was the very executive who delivered the news of my layoff who introduced me to a recruiter at the company I now work for.

The truth is, during layoffs, everyone is faced with their own new reality — and it’s terrifying

When I was laid off, my days were spent applying for jobs or thinking about how I should be applying for jobs. But, rather than joining the conversation and openly talking about my situation, I turned inward. Later, I dehumanized people in the same situation I was in because they were more open about their own layoffs.

I pictured their journeys as a straight shot from A to B because they came from bigger companies. I thought they weren’t struggling to start conversations with their network or struggling to be seen in a pool of applicants. In my mind, they went from sharing the news of their layoff to starting a new job with no mess in between. 

I now realize the shame of being laid off kept me from being open, and later drove me to layoff resentment. Zooming out, my situation was relatively comfortable. I had a generous severance, a partner with an income that could support our family, and no fear my joblessness would affect my immigration status. But what I didn’t have was the peace that can only come with being open.

It’s a hard time to be in tech. It seems everyone has experienced a layoff, has survived one, or lives in dread about what could be, but it was only through openness and vulnerability that I got through my own layoff.

• The Wagner Group will exhaust itself in Bakhmut within two months, a Ukrainian commander said.
• That’s if it doesn’t change its “human wave” tactics first, according to Col. Serhiy Cherevaty. 
• The mercenary group has reportedly been forced to draw from its elite troops in recent weeks.

The commander of Ukraine’s eastern forces said that time is running out on the Wagner Group’s ability to keep up its “human wave” assaults on Bakhmut.

Col. Serhiy Cherevaty told Ukrainian TV on Tuesday that “with the current intensity of them being annihilated, unless they change their tactics, I think we’re talking two months,” according to a translation by The New Voice of Ukraine. 

The outlet noted that this was Cherevaty’s personal opinion.

“Being a terrorist organization, they [Wagner] use coercion methods,” Cherevaty added, saying that its troops fight “under threat of execution.”

The intense, months-long battle in Bakhmut, which has been fought on the Russian side primarily by the private military group, has been described as a “meat grinder.”

In March, the Institute for the Study of War think tank said that Wagner had been forced to start drawing from its elite fighters due to what it described as “massive losses” among the ill-equipped, poorly trained convicts the group initially threw into the battle.

An unnamed NATO official told CNN in March that Russians were dying at five times the rate of the defending Ukrainian forces in the city.

But Russia has, in recent weeks, been able to make “very, very slow progress,” in Bakhmut, Western officials said at a briefing last Wednesday, per CNN.

On Friday, UK military intelligence said it is “highly likely” that Russian forces had advanced to the city center.

Even so, there are conflicting claims as to the extent of Russian control of the city.

Wagner’s founder Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Tuesday that his troops held more than 80% of the city, including factories and its administrative center, according to Ukraine’s Channel 24. 

Prigozhin also said on April 3 that his troops had “legally” captured the city, as they had managed to hoist a flag from an administrative building, NBC News reported.

Cherevaty pushed back on Prigozhin’s claim. “I can confidently state that the Ukrainian defense forces control a much larger percentage of the territory of Bakhmut,” the Ukrainian commander told CNN, without specifying a figure. 

The Institute for the Study of War estimated that, as of Tuesday, Russian forces controlled 76.5% of the territory.

• Mohamed El-Erian said the US economy can avoid a recession unless the Fed makes another policy error. 
• The top economist noted recent jobs data shows solid payrolls growth and higher labor-force participation.
• Some analysts fear the Fed could “overtighten” and end up undermining US economic growth.
•  

Mohamed El-Erian says there’s no reason for the US to tip into recession unless the Federal Reserve miscalculates what it needs to do again.

The top economist, a longtime critic of the Fed, sees hope for the US economy in data out last week. Official figures showed the labor market still moving at a brisk pace in March, even as it slowed down somewhat.

“I think we can avoid a recession. We are seeing weakening, but the most interesting sector is services. We’ve had conflicting data,” the chief economic adviser at Allianz told CNBC on Monday.

“There’s no reason why we should fall into a recession other than getting another Fed policy mistake,” he said.

El-Erian has previously slammed the US central bank for mistaking inflation as transitory. That meant the Fed then had to unleash an aggressive campaign of interest-rate hikes on the US economy to try to cool price pressures. 

Moody’s Mark Zandi and other economists fear the central bank could “overtighten” its policy — that is, it could raise rates too far and end up undermining growth.

But according to El-Erian, the latest payrolls report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics offers room to be hopeful about the US economy.

“Solid employment growth, higher labor force participation. That’s good for both the demand and supply side of this economy,” he said.

The US added 236,000 jobs in March, just short of the 239,000 expected, while the unemployment rate moved down from 3.6% to 3.5%. The labor force participation rate ticked up from 62.5% to 62.6%.

Just a few days before that release, the ISM manufacturing index update for March showed a drop in US factory activity to the lowest level since July 2020, with a corresponding fall in employment.

Beyond the economic indicators, investors are watching the fallout from the failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank 

El-Erian’s forecast is in stark contrast to what other top market commentators expect for the US economy, given turmoil in the banking sector following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. 

Fears are mounting that tighter credit conditions among US lenders alongside the Fed’s rapid interest rate hikes could spark an economic slump. While El-Erian notes that the SVB debacle raises the odds of a recession, it “doesn’t make it a done deal.” 

“It’s going to play out over several quarters, it’s not a sudden stop, it’s not 2008,” El-Erian said. 

REUTERS/Jason Reed

Mohamed El-Erian says there’s no reason for the US to tip into recession unless the Federal Reserve miscalculates what it needs to do again.

The top economist, a longtime critic of the Fed, sees hope for the US economy in data out last week. Official figures showed the labor market still moving at a brisk pace in March, even as it slowed down somewhat.

“I think we can avoid a recession. We are seeing weakening, but the most interesting sector is services. We’ve had conflicting data,” the chief economic adviser at Allianz told CNBC on Monday.

“There’s no reason why we should fall into a recession other than getting another Fed policy mistake,” he said.

El-Erian has previously slammed the US central bank for mistaking inflation as transitory. That meant the Fed then had to unleash an aggressive campaign of interest-rate hikes on the US economy to try to cool price pressures. 

Moody’s Mark Zandi and other economists fear the central bank could “overtighten” its policy — that is, it could raise rates too far and end up undermining growth.

But according to El-Erian, the latest payrolls report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics offers room to be hopeful about the US economy.

“Solid employment growth, higher labor force participation. That’s good for both the demand and supply side of this economy,” he said.

The US added 236,000 jobs in March, just short of the 239,000 expected, while the unemployment rate moved down from 3.6% to 3.5%. The labor force participation rate ticked up from 62.5% to 62.6%.

Just a few days before that release, the ISM manufacturing index update for March showed a drop in US factory activity to the lowest level since July 2020, with a corresponding fall in employment.

Beyond the economic indicators, investors are watching the fallout from the failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank for a potential hit to growth.

Concerns are rising that the turmoil in the banking sector will mean lenders toughen up their requirements for making loans. Those tighter credit conditions — a credit crunch — could end up dragging on economic growth alongside Fed rate hikes.

But El-Erian has said that while the SVB-sparked financial sector crisis raises the odds of a recession, it “doesn’t make it a done deal.” 

“It’s going to play out over several quarters. It’s not a sudden stop, it’s not 2008,” he said. 

• Fox News has settled a defamation lawsuit filed by Venezuelan businessman Majed Khalil.
• Khalil was accused on air of rigging the 2020 presidential election by then Fox host Lou Dobbs.
• The network faces a slew of lawsuits, with jury selection imminent in the $1.6 billion Dominion trial.

Fox News said on Sunday that it had settled a lawsuit filed by Venezuelan businessman Majed Khalil, who accused the news outlet of defamation after then-Fox News host Lou Dobbs claimed on air that Khalil helped rig the 2020 US presidential election.

Shortly after the election, Dobbs took to Twitter to call it a “cyber Pearl harbor” and said that Khalil was a “liaison with Hezbollah” who had executed an “electoral 9-11.”

The former Fox host also accused Khalil and other Venezuelans of being involved in a scheme to oust former president Donald Trump.

Khalil filed a $250 million lawsuit against Dobbs, Fox News, and former Trump lawyer Sidney Powell in December 2021. 

The case against Fox was settled on confidential terms, and is “amicably” resolved, a Fox News representative said, without giving further details. 

But the network still faces major legal battles related to its coverage of Trump’s election loss.

Dobbs’ show was canceled by Fox in February 2021 after he was named in election company Smartmatic’s $2.7 billion suit against Fox.

The London-based technology firm accused the network of broadcasting more than 100 false claims, including the assertion that Smartmatic shared its technology with rival company Dominion Voting Systems, the Guardian reported. 

Dominion’s mammoth $1.6 billion lawsuit against Fox Corp, which it filed after Fox accused the company of using its voting machines to aid Joe Biden’s victory, has garnered the most attention.

That lawsuit has already significantly damaged the network’s reputation, which has been marred by accusations of electoral misinformation, as well as its role in the January 6 Capitol insurrection.

The trial is set to begin on April 17, with some of Fox’s most controversial personalities — Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Maria Bartiromo — poised to make an appearance. 

The outcome could be disastrous for the network, especially after some individuals working at Fox admitted to “putting lies out in the air,” former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti said.

• French police have warned about an Irish gang defrauding property owners by posing as builders.
• The gang offers to pave areas with tar at a far lower price than normal but the work is substandard.
• They actually belong to the Rathkeale Rovers, a criminal clan named after a town in Ireland.

Police in France have sounded the alarm about an Irish gang posing as builders to defraud property owners after some 2,000 complaints were filed in the past five years, Le Parisien reported.

The Information, Intelligence and Strategic Analysis Service on Organized Crime (Sirasco) published a confidential note in February about “faux bitumeurs,” or fake tarmackers. 

This tarmacking scam is the main activity of the “Irish Travellers,” according to the report, who are actually members of the Rathkeale Rovers, a criminal clan named after a town in Ireland. 

Arthur, an asparagus grower in the Landes region, said he was approached by “builders” who claimed to have surplus tar. He saw it as an opportunity to pave an area of his farm and paid about 2,000 euros ($2,200). 

“They appeared to be professionals, and had younger builders who were presented as apprentices,” Arthur told Le Parisien. However, just a few days after the work was finished, he said parts of the bitumen started coming off before it all came apart. 

Another man from Maine-et-Loire wanted to redo the path to his home and paid 2,600 euros only to later discover the tarmac was mostly made of gravel.

The workers all had Irish accents, according to the newspaper.

“The tarmackers generally present themselves as road workers and offer tarring services on the pretext of a surplus of tar from another site,” Sirasco, the anti-mafia service said in the note, adding that they usually charged between 7 and 13 euros per square meter rather than the typical 40 euros.

The police believe their targets are often people who are “old and isolated,” the report said.

Some members of the Rathkeale Rovers were now living in France, authorities believe, acting as a “base” for the scammers, per Le Parisien. 

Authorities were also concerned that the clan was also involved in trafficking rhino horn and ivory. 

In 2021, a French court convicted eight men who were members of the clan in relation to smuggling ivory and rhino horns, The Guardian reported. 

The French interior minister didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider, made outside normal working hours. 

Our experts answer readers’ tax questions and write unbiased product reviews (here’s how we assess tax products). In some cases, we receive a commission from our partners; however, our opinions are our own.

• My taxes have gotten more complicated, and the best way to deal with that is to give them more time.
• It’s nice to have a buffer at the beginning of the year before I have to pay my accountant.
• I’ve never needed to so far, but I know that I can always file an extension if I really need more time.

I usually file taxes in late March or early April, and I know I’m not alone. In fact, last year, around a quarter of Americans filed their taxes in the last two weeks.

I used to feel behind when I’d hear my family and friends talk about filing their taxes in early February. Now I actually prefer to file later for several reasons.

We all get several months before taxes are due for a reason. Even so, I’ve spoken with accountants who encourage people to request an extension if they need to, which is also very reassuring. There may be some downsides to filing taxes later or close to the deadline. However, I prefer it for four main reasons.

See Insider’s picks for the best tax software »

1. My tax situation has gotten more complex

My tax situation has gotten way more complex over the years. When I was a young adult, I could file a 1040EZ or just have one or two W2 forms. Now, I’m married with a child, a freelance business, investments, and (until recently) a mortgage.

It takes my husband and me a lot longer to gather our documents and get organized. Sometimes we’re waiting on items to be mailed in or need to follow up on giving statements we need and so on.

Naturally, I’m not interested in rushing at the beginning of the year to do all these things. In January, we are usually recovering from the holidays and setting intentions for the year. I appreciate having the time to shift our focus to taxes later on.

2. I’m less likely to make a mistake

Rushing through the filing process to file earlier also puts my husband and me at risk of making more mistakes. I don’t like the idea of getting audited or having any tax issues.

So I’d much rather slow down and triple-check our situation before filing our tax return. A few years ago, I had to learn this the hard way when we filed taxes too soon and had to submit an amended return.

For some reason, both my husband and I forgot to submit his student loan interest form. By the time we realized we had forgotten to add the document, we had already submitted our tax forms to the IRS. I had to talk to my accountant about filing an amendment.

The amendment process was really easy and straightforward. It just took us a much longer time to receive our small tax refund that year.

Now, my husband and I both try to sit down and discuss specific things we’ll need and create a checklist before we file. We also look at last year’s returns to confirm we have all the necessary documents to file.

3. I get extra time to pay my accountant

Filing later in March or even early April also gives me extra time to gather the money to pay my accountant who files our taxes every year. We usually don’t get a tax refund, and if we do it’s small, so I never count on it.

Since our situation is more complex now, that means we expect to pay more to file our taxes. Early in the year, we like to start setting aside money for tax preparation fees, and again, I don’t feel rushed since we tend to file later.

4. There’s always the option to request an extension

I haven’t needed to yet, but I have peace of mind knowing that I can always request a filing extension if I have to. Regardless of your income, the IRS allows you to request a filing extension giving you an extra six months to file your return.

This option is readily available should I ever need it, and there’s nothing to feel bad about if I fall behind when preparing to file taxes.

If you’re thinking about requesting an extension, you should know that it’s not an extension to pay your taxes — you’re just getting extra time to file a return.

Filing taxes is something you can’t really rush. Knowing that there’s lots of time to file and even an extension if available if needed puts me at ease so I can pace myself during this time of year instead of getting overwhelmed.

• Trump has been prosecuted several times, both while in and out of the White House.
• Each time, Republicans have predicted it would galvanize their base in upcoming general elections.
• But time and time again, the prosecutions failed to energize his voters to turn out.

President Donald Trump has been prosecuted repeatedly in recent years, both while in the White House and outside of it. And each time, experts and those close to Trump have predicted the proceedings could energize his supporters and the Republican base.

Time and time again, however, prosecuting the former president has yet to lead to any notable positive electoral consequences.

On December 18, 2019, the House of Representatives voted to impeach Trump for, in part, trying to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to investigate Trump’s political rival, Joe Biden, and his son, Hunter.

Following the proceedings, former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale predicted the impeachment would lead to a high Republican turnout in the 2020 presidential election.

“Any time people try to lessen this legitimate president, in any way, his voters fight back,” Parscale said in December 2019. 

Trump, however, ultimately ended up losing the 2020 presidential election to Biden, and Democrats ultimately won control of the US Senate, giving them control of each branch of the federal government for the first time since 2011.

Several years after Trump left the White House, in August 2022, he found himself embroiled in more prosecutorial drama after the FBI raided his Mar-A-Lago in an investigation over the mishandling of classified documents.

Former adviser to President Bill Clinton, Doug Schoen, noted in an opinion piece for The Hill that the FBI’s search of Mar-A-Lago likely wouldn’t sway voters to switch parties but that it could “further galvanize an already-enthused Republican base to the detriment of the Democratic Party.”

Prior to the 2022 election, Republicans and pollsters repeatedly predicted the election would result in a “Red Wave,” or a GOP landslide victory.

And while Republicans took control of the House of Representatives, they did so in a much narrower manner than predicted. Democrats also, crucially, maintained control of the Senate. Ultimately, GOP voters in the 2022 midterm elections weren’t as energized by the Mar-A-Lago raid as Democratic voters were — the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade’s federal abortion protections in mid-2022 proved to motivate Democrats to turn out in larger droves than expected.

And on April 4, 2023, the Manhattan District Court indicted the former president for falsifying business records. That same day, two elections were scheduled to occur in Wisconsin and Chicago for a new state supreme court justice and mayor, respectively. 

Following the indictment, Amy Walter, the editor-in-chief of The Cook Political Report, predicted that with “all of the energy among his base, the sense that he’s being wronged, might make things a little more unstable when it comes to understanding turnout.”

That evening, progressive Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Janet Protasiewicz handily defeated her conservative opponent by more than ten percentage points and the more progressive, Democratic Chicago mayoral candidate, Brandon Johnson, narrowly won as well.

While prosecutorial efforts against Trump have yet to energize his base in general elections, they likely could help him out in the 2024 presidential primary election — the former president has campaigned and marketed extensively off of the recent indictment against him.

Additionally, fellow presidential candidates and prospective ones, such as former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, have yet to attack Trump for the indictment, instead rallying to his aid.

Despite repeated predictions and warnings that prosecuting the former president would invigorate his base in upcoming elections, investigations against Trump simply haven’t energized his base as expected. Voters, alternatively, appear to care much more about issues that affect them personally, like abortion, inflation, and crime.