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Restaurant industry faces bankruptcy wave as costs soar and consumers tighten belts
The U.S. restaurant industry is grappling with an alarming surge in bankruptcies in 2024, with the sector on track for the highest number of filings in decades, excluding the pandemic peak in 2020. This wave of financial distress comes as restaurants struggle to balance rising labor costs, inflation, and shifts in consumer spending habits. The…
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Italy’s Bitcoin tax hike hits 42%
Italy is set to increase its capital gains tax on Bitcoin investments from 26% to 42%, as announced by Deputy Finance Minister Maurizio Leo during a budget plan conference call in Rome. He stated that the move is necessary as the “phenomenon is spreading,” indicating a growing interest in cryptocurrency investments. This tax adjustment is…
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Databricks strike five-year AI chip deal with Amazon
Amazon and tech startup Databricks have agreed to a five-year deal that aims to cut costs for businesses seeking to build their own artificial-intelligence (AI) capabilities. Databricks, which acquired AI startup MosaicML last year for around $1.3bn, will utilize Amazon’s Trainium AI chips to power a service that helps companies customize an AI model or…
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Dirt Cheap files for bankruptcy
Dirt Cheap, a Mississippi-based discount retailer, has filed for bankruptcy and will close all 68 of its stores across eight states, including Alabama. The parent company, Channel Control Merchants, submitted the bankruptcy filing in Delaware. Liquidation sales are currently taking place at all locations. Dirt Cheap, known for its extreme value offerings, specializes in customer…
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IMF warns rise in government debt could be sharper than first thought
Global public debt is set to reach $100tn, or 93% of global gross domestic product (GDP), by the end of this year, driven by the U.S. and China, according to the IMF’s latest Fiscal Monitor report. Debt is tipped to increase in the U.S., Brazil, France, Italy, South Africa and U.K., according to the IMF…
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Trio of economists win Nobel Prize for work on wealth of nations
The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences was awarded on Monday to Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson, both of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and to James Robinson of the University of Chicago. Acemoglu and Robinson were co-authors of “Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity and Poverty,” which was first published in 2012….
