|
The Morning Risk Report: Farm Belt Bankruptcies Are Soaring |
|
|
| |
|
|
PHOTO: TERRY A. RATZLAFF FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
|
|
|
Hello. The U.S. Farm Belt is being hit with a double whammy as trade disputes under the Trump administration have added to already-low commodity prices.
Throughout much of the Midwest, U.S. farmers are filing for chapter 12 bankruptcy protection at levels not seen for at least a decade, The Wall Street Journal reported. The rise represents a reckoning for rural America, which has suffered a multiyear slump in prices for corn, soybeans and other farm commodities touched off by a world-wide glut.
The fallout from trade tensions has worsened the situation. Prices for soybeans and hogs plummeted after countries such as Mexico and China retaliated against U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs by imposing duties on U.S. products like oilseeds and pork.
|
|
|
|
Low milk prices, meanwhile, are driving dairy farmers out of business in a market that’s also struggling with retaliatory tariffs on U.S. cheese from Mexico and China. Tariffs on U.S. pork have contributed to a record buildup in U.S. meat supplies, leading to lower prices for beef and chicken.
A risky mix of low prices and rising farm debt has sparked fears of more farm closures to come. “I’ve been through several dips in 40 years,” Nebraska farmer Kirk Duensing told the Journal. “This one here is going to kick my butt.”
|
|
|
|
|
Carlos Ghosn arrives for a press conference at the Palace of Versailles in 2016. PHOTO: JEREMY LEMPIN/EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCY
|
|
|
-
Renault SA said for the first time it has found evidence that former Chairman and Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn may have personally benefited from a €50,000 ($57,000) payment the company made under a sponsorship agreement with the Palace of Versailles. The company said it had reported the payment to French authorities.
-
The Trump administration said Wednesday it will overhaul an Obama-era payday loan regulation, unveiling a proposal to remove a lending requirement that would have made it difficult for companies to offer high-cost consumer loans.
-
Inspectors of a Brazilian mining-waste dam whose collapse last month killed at least 150 people had warned its owner, Vale SA, that faulty water drainage and monitoring systems represented a potential risk of failure, according to a safety report seen by The Wall Street Journal.
|
|
|
|
A Facebook pop-up store in Cologne, Germany, pictured Nov. 16. PHOTO: SASCHA STEINBACH/EPA-EFE/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK
|
|
|
-
Germany’s top antitrust enforcer ordered Facebook to stop combining data it collects about Germans’ use of apps and websites across the internet without user consent, a novel application of competition law that strikes at a cornerstone of the social-media giant’s business.
|
|
|
|
USA Gymnastics is suing nearly a dozen insurers, accusing them of refusing to pay its legal costs in more than 100 lawsuits. PHOTO: WALLY NELL/ZUMA PRESS
|
|
|
-
USA Gymnastics is suing nearly a dozen insurers, accusing them of refusing to pay its legal costs in more than 100 lawsuits from gymnasts who say they have been sexually abused by Larry Nassar, the U.S. national team’s longtime doctor.
-
U.K. services-and-construction company Interserve PLC struck an agreement to reduce its debt, a move that would hand over control to its lenders and nearly wipe out existing shareholders, some of whom are now seeking to remove the company’s management.
|
|
|
|
Nvidia last month slashed its quarterly outlook because of weak data-center sales to cloud computing giants, while warning of lackluster demand for its graphics processors from makers of computers used by videogamers. PHOTO: TYRONE SIU/REUTERS
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Model 3 assembly line at the Tesla factory in Fremont, Calif. PHOTO: BRIAN MOLYNEAUX FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
|
|
|
-
Tesla Inc. plans to eliminate 7% of its full-time workforce, the auto maker’s second round of job cuts in a year as it tries to maintain profitability while lowering the price of its Model 3 sedan. Chief Executive Elon Musk, in a memo early Friday reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, told employees preliminary results show Tesla made a profit in the final three months, albeit a smaller one than in the third quarter.
|
|
-
PG&E Corp. may black out a larger swath of its California service area during wildfire conditions as it tries to limit the risk of its equipment starting deadly blazes. The state’s largest utility, which filed for bankruptcy last week amid escalating wildfire-liability costs it pegged at as much as $30 billion, disclosed the plans to potentially shut off power to more areas as part of a wildfire-mitigation plan it filed Wednesday with state regulators.
|
|
-
Honeywell International Inc. is introducing a new line of aircraft cockpit and flight-data recorders that offer more data-storage capacity and the ability, for the first time, to use satellites to retrieve accident information in real time. Honeywell officials and other proponents of the new technology said the devices, commonly called black boxes, promise major benefits for future plane crash investigations.
|
|
|
|
The Consortium for Graduate Study in Management career fair in June 2018. PHOTO: WILEY PRICE / THE CONSORTIUM
|
|
|
-
For people of color, getting a master of business administration degree brings big career benefits, but the degree still doesn’t ensure equal pay with white classmates, according to a new study.
-
Arconic Inc. named board Chairman John Plant its chief executive, cutting ties with CEO Chip Blankenship two weeks after the aluminum-sheet and parts maker walked away from a deal to be acquired by Apollo Global Management LLC.
|
|
|
|
Executives and business owners would be wise to know what potentially offensive photos, audio recordings and writing attributed to them in their younger days could come to light. PHOTO: ISTOCK
|
|
|
-
Executives and business owners would be wise to know what potentially offensive photos, audio recordings and writing attributed to them in their younger days exist and could come to light, career coaches and crisis management professionals say. As the scandal engulfing Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam shows, old yearbooks don’t simply gather dust on bookshelves. Photos taken before the era of Facebook and Twitter can be easily uploaded to the web and go viral.
-
Malaysia’s former leader, Najib Razak, faces the prospect of years in prison over one of the world’s largest corruption scandals. But with his trial about to start, he is focused on getting more likes on Facebook. The appeal to the masses requires quite the makeover for the highborn 65-year-old son of a prime minister, whom prosecutors accuse of being involved in the theft of billions of dollars from a state investment fund and of receiving more than $600 million of those funds into his personal accounts.
|
|
|
|
|