Business Highlights
Roundup of top economy stories
ISMAILIA, Egypt — Dredgers, tugboats and even a backhoe have failed to free a giant cargo ship wedged in Egypt’s Suez Canal as the number of stacked-up vessels unable to pass through the vital waterway climbed to 150 and losses to global shipping mounted. Even with the help of high tides, authorities have been unable to push the Panama-flagged container vessel aside, and they are looking for new ideas to free it. The Japanese owner of the skyscraper-sized cargo ship has apologized for the incident. Canal service provider Leth Agencies says the backup affected ships needing to travel into the Mediterranean and the Red seas. WASHINGTON
— Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell compared the actions taken by the central bank early in the pandemic as the economy barreled toward a recession to British efforts in World War II to evacuate troops at Dunkirk. Asked Thursday in an NPR interview whether would have anything different back in March 2020 if given the chance, Powell said the most important thing was to use all tools available to the Fed, and do it quickly. The Fed slashed its key benchmark lending rate to a record low of 0% to 0.25%, created a number of emergency lending programs to shore up a financial system in crisis and began buying billions of dollars in bonds to keep longterm interest rates low.
More than three years ago, Trump-era regulators killed federal net neutrality regulations designed to prevent AT&T, Comcast, Verizon and other major internet providers from exploiting their dominance to favor certain services or apps over others. In response, seven states and Puerto Rico enacted their own net neutrality policies. The most expansive effort of this sort was in California, which started enforcing its law on Thursday — with potentially significant consequences for the rest of the U.S. The federal regulator that handles net neutrality, the FCC, is not yet fully staffed, and new proceedings can take months if not years.
DETROIT — General Motors has expanded its board of directors to 13, appointing former Hewlett-Packard chief Meg Whitman and NBA executive Mark Tatum. Seven of GM’s directors are now women, including board chair and Chief Executive Officer Mary Barra, who in 2014 became the first woman to lead a major U.S. automaker. The 64-yearold Whitman, who also previously led eBay and the short-lived video app Quibi, joins GM as the 112-year-old company pushes heavily into the electric car market in the midst of remaking its image as clean vehicle company. Tatum, 51, is NBA’s deputy commissioner. LONDON — The rainbow flag flew proudly above the Bank of England in the heart of London’s financial district to commemorate World War II codebreaker Alan Turing, the new face of Britain’s 50-pound note. The design of the bank note was unveiled Thursday before it is formally issued on June 23, Turing’s birthday. Turing played a pivotal role in breaking the Enigma code in World War II and was prosecuted for homosexuality after the war. He received a posthumous apology from the British government in 2009.