Business, Financial & Legal - Page 64

Millions of Americans are currently struggling financially because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and while there have previously been stimulus payments rolled out, a fourth one may not be entirely out of the question.

The Biden administration is currently piecing together a new stimulus package that may include another round of relief payments directed at Americans that the COVID-19 pandemic has hit the hardest. Back on March 31st, nearly two dozen Democratic lawmakers wrote a letter to President Biden requesting implementing recurring payments in the next stimulus package.

Democratic lawmakers are requesting recurring direct payments to Americans because evidence shows that direct payments played a pivotal role in keeping millions of Americans out of poverty. A new report from CNET has speculated the different ways a fourth stimulus check could be rolled out to Americans. The four possibilities are as follows; recurring stimulus payments, minimum wage hike, make the child tax credit raise permanent, or renew federal unemployment payments beyond September.

Authorities have announced that a Long Island resident has been scamming investors for a year and a half through a fraudulent startup business.

Matthew Gallagher, age 37, of Rocky Point, has been arrested on Wednesday, April 28, at the Seventh Precinct in Shirley and has been charged with the following; two counts of first-degree scheming to defraud, six counts of second-degree grand larceny, eight counts of third-degree grand larceny, four counts of first-degree identity theft, six counts of issuing a bad check, and one count of third-degree attempted grand larceny.

Gallagher is accused of scamming investors through fraudulent startup business ventures and insurance-related frauds. The number of victims of the scams totals 16, and the scams occurred between November 2019 and April 2021. A report has stated that Gallagher will remain at the Seventh Precinct until he appears in front of a court on April 29. For more information on this story, check out this link here.

Tesla has announced a record quarterly profit for Q1 2021 even in the middle of the on-going pandemic, with $10.39 billion in revenue and $438 million in profit for the three-month period.

The electric car giant has been hit with supply issues, safety investigations after a fatal crash in Texas, the COVID-19 pandemic, Elon Musk and his manic tweets and soon -- and appearance on Saturday Night Live where Musk seems to be ready to see "just how live Saturday Night Live really is".

Technoking of Tesla, Elon Musk, said during the investors call on Monday: "We've seen a real shift in customer perception of electric vehicles, and our demand is the best we've ever seen". Musk added that Tesla has sold 184,800 Model 3 and Model Y electric vehicles, both beating expectations and setting new records for the company. Tesla didn't make any higher-end Model S or Model X vehicles for Q1 2021 -- instead, delivering 2020 Model S and Model X cars from its existing inventory.

The expansion of the federal tax credit that was ushered in with the passing of the $1.9 stimulus bill that Biden signed into law could give select Americans an $8,000 tax credit for 2021.

The Child and Dependent Care Credit expansion has been explained by the finance website Nerdwallet; "The Child and Dependent Care Credit can get you up to 50% of up to $8,000 of child care and similar costs for a child under 13, a spouse or parent who cannot care for themselves, or another dependent so that you can work (and up to $16,000 of expenses for two or more dependents)."

Essentially, the credit will be given to individuals that have two or more dependents, and are already eligible for stimulus by meeting the income requirements. It should be noted that the specifics of this credit are somewhat complicated, but what can be simply understood is that the tax credit will only be available to qualifying people; $75,000 for single filers, $150,000 for married filing jointly and $112,500 for head of household filers. For more information on this story, check out this link here.

The Biden administration is in some hot water, with claims of Intel receiving "staggeringly large" subsidies to build semiconductor fabs in the USA -- but it seems that the Biden administration isn't sending over that money just yet.

According to new FOIA requests submitted by Sam Reynolds on behalf of our friends over at Wccftech, there are "no records or documents suggesting that Intel is getting any government money. TSMC, on the other hand, is receiving support from Arizona - although this is unrelated to the CHIPS Act".

Intel is keen to get semiconductor foundries built on US soil, a move that would drastically boost domestic supply of chips -- with Intel reportedly set to receive 10-digit ($1 billion to $9 billion... a "staggering large" number indeed) in subsidies from the US government. This money isn't coming over, and through the new FOIA requests we still have no idea when it will start flowing into Intel.

A new report has revealed that India's super-rich elite families are fleeing the country on private jets as new travel bans begin to lock down the country.

According to a report from BusinessInsider, India's most wealthiest families are fleeing the country via private jets due to the astronomical number of new COVID-19 cases. The report states that India's ultra-rich are paying tens and thousands of dollars to escape the country as travel bans start to come into fruition.

A private jet company, Enthral Aviation, said that over the last few days, it has received an overwhelming number of requests for private jets. An Enthral Aviation spokesperson said to The Economic Times, "We have requested more aircraft from abroad to meet the demand ... It costs $38,000 to hire a 13-seater jet from Mumbai to Dubai and $31,000 to hire a six-seater aircraft. People are making groups and arranging to share our jets just to get a seat... We've had some queries for Thailand but mostly the demand is for Dubai."

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. is building a new water treatment plant, so that it can be reused for its chipmaking facilities as the country goes through a water shortage.

TSMC has announced it will be building a world-first advanced industrial wastewater treatment plant, which once it's up and running would provide around half of the water that TSMC needs to make chips for some of the worlds biggest companies and products.

Taiwan is going through its worst drought in over 50 years, and while Taiwan is literally surrounded by water -- TSMC is pumping through water like there's no tomorrow. TSMC is currently constructing the plant as we speak in the southern Taiwanese city of Tainan, and will be up and running by the end of 2021.

A new report from the Economic Security Project has shown that previous stimulus checks have saved millions of Americans from poverty.

According to the report, the $1,400 stimulus check that was a part of the American Rescue Plan saved more than 11 million Americans from entering poverty. The report also states that if a fourth or fifth stimulus check were issued, it would save a further 12 million more Americans from poverty. "Cash has been a lifeline for Americans during this crisis and will continue to be as long as the crisis continues," the report explains

Additionally, the report goes on to state that policymakers need to prioritize policies that target the people who have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic the most - "low-income households and households of color who the data show are still struggling to get back to baseline". The three payments that have been issued over the one year of the pandemic have shown that stimulus payments being given to people who need it most shortened the recession and stimulated the economy.

The American Rescue Plan signed in by President Biden will soon give American families $3,600 in stimulus checks.

Qualifying American families are set to receive $3,600 in stimulus checks that will begin rolling out in July 2020. Married couples that earn $150,000 a year or less and have children, or individuals that earn $75,000 a year and have children qualify to claim a monthly federal tax credit. Parents that have children between the ages of 6 and 17 will receive $250 every month for six months.

Parents who have a child under the age of 6 will receive $300 a month for six months. Additionally, those same parents will receive a tax credit next year of $1,500 for every child between the ages of 6 and 17, or $1,800 for every child under the age of 6. Due to how unusually busy the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is with having to train new staff, create a new online portal for people to claim these payments, and deal with an influx of tax returns, these payments won't begin rolling out until July.

Data from The Bureau of Labour Statistics has been used to create a new map that reveals the highest paying job in every state, excluding doctors.

A new report from Business Insider has revealed that there are several other high-paying jobs in many states across the US that aren't doctors. The data has been gathered by the Bureau of Labour Statistics' Occupational Employment Statistics program and found that chief executives or CEO's are the highest paying occupation in 22 States as well as DC.

Other than doctors, it was also found that airline pilots, co-pilots, and flight engineers are the top-paying jobs in six states. in the entirety of this article, you are fine to the 14 different high-paying jobs across the United States, excluding doctors. This list is composed in alphabetical order and also the mean salary for each state and DC. If you were interested in reading more of the story, check out this link here.

President Biden unveiled a huge $2 trillion infrastructure package back in March, inside of which were plans to build domestic (US-based) chip manufacturing plants with $50 billion of investment into the sector.

The White House has asked for new funding to get through the continued semiconductor shortage, with the Biden administration requesting $150 million in funding for two new manufacturing programs. On Monday, the White House and cabinet officials will be hosting a virtual CEO summit on on semiconductor supply chain resilience.

President Biden and his team will talk with companies including Alphabet, AT&T, Ford, General Motors, Intel, and Samsung.

A week ago, there was quite a lot of controversy surrounding Lil Nas X's new "Satan Shoes", and now that the shoes have been recalled, people that own the shoes are listing them on eBay for ridiculous prices.

Nike has managed to get a judge to order a recall of the "Satan Shoes", and the court has ruled a temporary order to halt MSCHF, the company behind the shoes, production. Since production has been ordered, people who have already managed to get a hold of the shoes now have a pair of shoe worth considerably more than what they purchased them for.

Prices on eBay from early buyers that are looking to now sell the shoes for profit are ranging between $2,000 to $9,000. One listing, in particular, was quite shocking as an eBay user is attempting to size 10.5 Air Max 37 for $9,000 plus a $10 shipping fee. You'd think if you were buying $9,000 shoes that the owner of the shoes would pay for your shipping. Apparently, that isn't the case. For more information on this story, check out this link here.

If you thought it was just graphics cards and next-gen gaming consoles that were in massive global shortages, other electronic components are about to join that -- right into the second half of 2022.

Apple supplier Foxconn has joined other technology giants that are adding to the dark times of global chip shortages, with Foxconn being the world's largest contract electronics manufacturer. When they warn of shortages, the world needs to listen. Foxconn isn't just Apple's main supplier, but the company makes components for thousands of companies and some of the biggest brands in the world.

Foxconn CEO Young Liu explained to investors during the company's latest earnings call: "The [supply in the] first two months of this quarter was still ok, as our clients are all very big, but we started to see changes happening this month". Liu said that Foxconn would not be able to fulfil less than 10% of its orders due to the component shortage.

TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.) has just announced it will be spending a mind-boggling $100 billion on expanding its chip fabrication capacity, as we are in dire straits with chip production right now with silicon shortages worldwide.

The company has already got $28 billion invested into its expansions this year to keep up with the next-gen waves of 5nm and 3nm nodes, but this new $100 billion will be used to expand chip production capacity.

TSMC explains: "TSMC expects to invest USD$100b over the next three years to increase capacity to support the manufacturing and R&D of advanced semiconductor technologies. TSMC is working closely with our customers to address their needs in a sustainable manner".

Computex 2021 was meant to be an in-person event even with the on-going COVID-19 pandemic, TAITRA (Taiwan External Trade Development Council) has cancelled the in-person portion of Computex 2021 completely.

The organization tried to keep its promise of an in-person Computex 2021 event in Taipei, Taiwan as it did every year leading up to the pandemic but TAITRA has now officially pulled the plug. Computex 2021 will still forge along on May 31 but it will be an all-virtual event like Computex 2020, with the in-person side of things nixed.

TAITRA explains: "With another wave of coronavirus pandemic across the world, it doesn't look like we are close to the end. The majority of the show's stakeholders, including international exhibitors, visitors, and media, cannot join the show due to border control. Therefore, the organizers of COMPUTEX have decided to cancel the onsite exhibition this year".

A New York man has been sentenced to 33 months in prison for participating in a multi-million dollar credit card and gift card scheme.

The James Olla, 29, of Brooklyn, New York, has been sentenced to 33 months in prison for being involved in a scheme to buy and sell more than $2 million dollars in stolen property. According to the documents, Olla and others participating in the scheme procured stolen information of credit cards that belonged to many individuals between January 2014 through June 2015.

With this stolen credit card information, Olla and others proceeded to purchase gift cards from retailers and then sell them on the streets of Brooklyn, often in large amounts of money. According to wrnj, Olla's sold $2,041,977 in stolen property, and has now been sentenced by Judge Vazquez to three years of supervised release, and a restitution payment of $689,124, according to acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig.

We could be paying even more for our CPUs, GPUs, and every other chip made by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) if rumors of water price increases are correct.

TSMC is rumored to jack prices of wafers up by 25% year-over-year, an increase of $400 for its 12-inch wafer would drive it to new all-time high prices. TSMC is pumping away with its 7nm process node, scaling up production for the new 5nm node and continuing its work on the 3nm process so that mass production can start in the second half 2022.

Research firm IC Insights reports that TSMC pulled in $1634 of revenue per wafer in 2020, so a 25% bump in that across 2021 and beyond will be a nice windfall for TSMC which is jam-packed with orders right now. TSMC is pretty much the number one manufacturing company in the world when it comes to not only its fabs, but also that it is the only company capable of supplying the biggest companies in the world with the most advanced chips ever made -- these companies include AMD, Apple Intel, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, and others.

GameStop is about to step up and into the world of the PC hardware business, with the company announcing it would be expanding its reach and will begin selling graphics cards, gaming monitors and gaming TVs as well as the usual CPUs, motherboards, RAM, SSDs and everything else you need for a gaming PC.

The news comes directly from GameStop CEO George Sherman who said during their Tuesday earnings call that the company would be expanding its product offerings in a big way through PC hardware, saying: "This includes growing our product offerings across PC gaming, computers, monitors, game tables, mobile gaming, and gaming TVs to name only a few".

GameStop will be selling PC hardware and desktop PCs on its own dedicated page, but at the time of writing most of the products aren't available but I'm sure this will change as GameStop gets this all up and running. I don't think they'll have much graphics cards, well, I guess at all -- ever -- but we'll see how that goes over the next 6-12 months.

A Silicon Valley startup company has told CNN that Prince Harry has landed a new job at the company and will serve as part of its leadership team.

The Duke of Sussex has secured a brand new role at the Silicon Valley startup company called Betterup, which is a company that provides coaching and mental health services to clients. Prince Harry will serve as the company's chief impact officer and be apart of the company's leadership team. According to the company's website, Harry is described as a "humanitarian, military veteran, mental wellness advocate, and environmentalist."

According to CNN, Harry's role at the company will entail giving input towards product strategy decisions and charitable contributions. Additionally, Harry will also advocate publicly on topics that are related to mental health. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) was the first to report the news, and according to the WSJ, the tech startup declined to comment on how much Harry was going to be paid.

A 12-year-old has announced that she has been accepted into college and is now on route to work as an engineer for NASA in the next four years.

The 12-year-old is named Alena Wicker, and has been accepted into Arizona State University, and has since been labeled as a child genius. Alena's mother, Daphne McQuarter, said, "She just had a gift for numbers and Legos and science. So I started nurturing that gift." What is more surprising is that Alena's mother said that she didn't even know that Alena applied for college and completed the required paperwork all by herself.

After Alena was accepted, she then revealed to her mother what she had done. Alena purposely chose Arizona State University because of its connections to NASA. Alena plans to double major in astronomical and planetary science with additional chemistry courses. By the time Alena graduates at 16-years-old, she plans to be an engineer at NASA and assist in the development of planetary rovers such as the one that recently touched down on Mars.