David Lidsky's Blog, page 284

Is Christmas Eve a federal holiday? Here’s what Biden’s new executive order means for you

President Biden just issued a parting gift to his administration, but we’re sorry to say, it won’t affect most Americans.

With just days until Christmas and the start of the holidays, President Joe Biden is taking care of some last-minute business, giving most federal employees Christmas Eve off.

Butter prices are soaring. What’s behind the surge rattling chefs and consumers?

Butter is so important in Poland that the government keeps a stockpile of it in the country’s strategic reserves.

Pastry chef Arnaud Delmontel rolls out dough for croissants and pain au chocolat that later emerge golden and fragrant from the oven in his Paris patisserie.

The price for the butter so essential to the pastries has shot up in recent months, by 25% since September alone, Delmontel says. But he is refusing to follow some competitors who have started making their croissants with margarine.

“It’s a distortion of what a croissant is,” Delmontel said. “A croissant is made with butter.”

One of life’s little pleasures—butter spread onto warm bread or imbuing cakes and seared meats with its rich flavor—has gotten more expensive across Europe in the last year. After a stretch of post-pandemic inflation that the war in Ukraine worsened, the booming cost of butter is another blow for consumers with holiday treats to bake.

Across the 27-member European Union, the price of butter rose 19% on average from October 2023 to October 2024, including by 49% in Slovakia, and 40% in Germany and the Czech Republic, according to figures provided to The Associated Press by the EU’s executive arm. Reports from individual countries indicate the cost has continued to go up in the months since.

In Germany, a 250-gram (8.8-ounce) block of butter now generally costs between 2.40 and 4 euros ($2.49-$4.15), depending on the brand and quality.

The increase is the result of a global shortage of milk caused by declining production, including in the United States and New Zealand, one of the world’s largest butter exporters, according to economist Mariusz Dziwulski, a food and agricultural market analyst at PKO Bank Polski in Warsaw.

European butter typically has a higher fat content than the butter sold in the United States. It also is sold by weight in standard sizes, so food producers can’t hide price hikes by reducing package sizes, something known as “shrinkflation.”

A butter shortage in France in the 19th century led to the invention of margarine, but the French remain some of the continent’s heaviest consumers of butter, using the ingredient with abandon in baked goods and sauces.

Butter is so important in Poland that the government keeps a stockpile of it in the country’s strategic reserves, as it does national gas and COVID-19 vaccines. The government announced Tuesday that it was releasing some 1,000 tons of frozen butter to stabilize prices.

The price of butter rose 11.4% between early November and early December in Poland, and 49.2% over the past year to nearly 37 Polish zlotys, or $9 per kilo (2.2 pounds) for the week ending Dec. 8, according to the National Support Center for Agriculture, a government agency.

“Every month butter gets more expensive,” Danuta Osinska, a 77-year-old Polish woman, said while shopping recently at a discount grocery chain in Warsaw.

She and her husband love butter—on bread, in scrambled eggs, in creamy desserts. But they also struggle to pay for medications on their meager pensions. So the couple is eating less butter and more margarine, even though they find the taste of the substitute spread inferior.

“There is no comparison,” Osinska said. “Things are getting harder and harder.”

The cost of butter in Poland has become a political issue. With a presidential election scheduled next year, opponents of centrist Prime Minister Donald Tusk are trying to blame him and his Civic Platform party. Other Poles want to blame the national bank’s governor, who hails from an opposing political camp.

Some consumers decide where to shop based on the price of butter, which has led to price wars between grocery chains that in some cases kept prices artificially low in the past to the detriment of dairy farmers, according to Agnieszka Maliszewska, the director of the Polish Chamber of Milk.

Maliszewska thinks domestic, EU-specific and global issues explain butter inflation. She argues that the primary cause in Poland is a shortage of milk fat due to dairy farmers shutting down their enterprises because of slim profit markets and hard work.

She and others also cite higher energy costs from Russia’s war in Ukraine as impacting milk production. There is some debate about the potential effect of climate change. Maliszewska doesn’t see a link.

Economist Dziwulski, however, thinks droughts may be a factor in reducing production. Falling milk prices last year also discouraged investments and pushed dairy producers in the EU to make more cheese, which offered better profitability, he said.

An outbreak of bluetongue disease, an insect-borne viral disease that is harmless to humans but can be fatal for sheep, cows and goats, may also play a role, Dziwulski said.

The U.S. saw a butter price spike in 2022, when the average price jumped 33% to $4.88 per pound over the course of the year, according to government data. Dairy farmers struggled with feed costs and hot temperatures.

U.S. butter prices fell in 2023 before rising again this year, hitting a peak of $5 per pound in September. Higher grocery prices in general weighed on U.S. voters during the presidential election in November.

Southern European countries, which rely far more heavily on olive oil, are less affected by the butter inflation—or they just don’t consider it as important since they consume so much less.

Since last year the cost of butter shot up 44% on average in Italy, according to dairy market analysis firm CLAL. Italy is Europe’s seventh-largest butter producer, but olive oil is the preferred fat, even for some desserts. The price of butter therefore is not causing the same alarm there as it is in butter-addicted parts of Europe.

Delmontel, the Paris pastry chef, said the rising costs put business owners like him under pressure. Along with refusing to switch out butter for margarine, he has not reduced the size of his croissants. But some other French bakers are making smaller pastries to control costs, he said.

“Or else you squeeze it out of your profit margin,” Delmontel said.

Why Biden is scrapping pending regulations, including student debt cancellation

If the proposed regulations were left in their current state, the incoming Trump administration would be able to rewrite them and advance his agenda more quickly.

President Joe Biden is abandoning his effort to cancel student loans for more than 38 million Americans, the first step in an administration-wide plan to jettison pending regulations to prevent President-elect Donald Trump from retooling them to achieve his own aims.

The White House expects to pull back unfinished rules across several agencies if there isn’t enough time to finalize them before Trump takes office. If the proposed regulations were left in their current state, the next administration would be able to rewrite them and advance its agenda more quickly.

Even as the Biden administration moves to pull back the rules, it pushed ahead with cancellation through other avenues on Friday. The Education Department said it was clearing loans for another 55,000 borrowers who reached eligibility through a program known as Public Service Loan Forgiveness, which was created by Congress in 2007 and expanded by the Biden administration.

As the pending Biden regulations are withdrawn, nothing prevents Trump from pursuing his own regulations on the same issues when he returns to the White House, but he would have to start from scratch in a process that can take months or even years.

“This isn’t the way I wanted it to end,” said Melissa Byrne, an activist who has pushed for student debt cancellation. “Unfortunately, this is the most prudent action to take right now.”

She blamed Republicans for putting the Biden administration in this position. “It’s a bummer that we have a GOP that is committed to keeping working-class Americans in debt,” Byrne said.

In documents withdrawing the student loan proposals, the Education Department insisted it has the authority to cancel the debt but sought to focus on other priorities in the administration’s final weeks. It said the administration will focus on helping borrowers get back on track with payments following the coronavirus pandemic, when payments were paused.

“The department at this time intends to commit its limited operational resources to helping at-risk borrowers return to repayment successfully,” the agency wrote.
The withdrawals are beginning as Washington braces for a potential government shutdown that could further complicate efforts by the Biden administration to tie up loose ends.

Another proposed rule that could face withdrawal is a measure that would have prevented schools from issuing blanket bans against transgender athletes. Trump could recast the pending modification to Title IX to forbid transgender athletes from playing in girls’ sports, one of his campaign promises.

An administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said the administration still supports the goals of its regulatory proposals. However, the process can be lengthy because it requires legal reviews and collecting input from the public.

Federal agencies are now analyzing which rules to finish and which to pull back before the end of Biden’s term, the official said.

In recent years, presidents have tended to rely more on executive orders and federal regulations to sidestep gridlock in Congress. However, the rulemaking process can be less durable than legislation, leaving policies more vulnerable to shifts between administrations.

There are dozens of other pending regulations across the Education Department and other agencies, ranging from relatively trivial updates to sweeping policies that carry weighty implications for the nation’s schools and businesses.

If a rule has already gone through a public feedback process under Biden, Trump could simply replace it with his own proposal and move straight to enacting the policy, effectively bypassing the comment period.

The pair of student loan proposals expected to be withdrawn Friday represented Biden’s second attempt at widespread debt cancellation after the Supreme Court rejected his first plan.

One of them is a proposal from April would have provided targeted debt relief to 30 million Americans. It laid out several categories of borrowers eligible for relief. Borrowers who saw their balances balloon because of interest would have had their accrued interest wiped away. Those who had been repaying loans for 20 years or more would have gotten their loans erased.

That proposal was halted by a federal judge in September after Republican-led states sued, and it remains tangled in a legal battle.

The second rule being withdrawn is a proposal from October that would have allowed the Education Department to cancel loans for people facing various kinds of hardship, including those struggling with steep medical bills or child care costs.

Although Biden never achieved the sweeping loan cancellations that he initially promised, his administration has forgiven an unprecedented $180 billion in federal student loans through existing programs.

“Because of our actions, millions of people across the country now have the breathing room to start businesses, save for retirement, and pursue life plans they had to put on hold because of the burden of student loan debt,” Biden said in a statement.

On Friday, officials announced they were erasing debt for another 55,000 workers — including teachers, nurses and law enforcement officials—through Public Service Loan Forgiveness. The program promises to cancel loans for borrowers who spend 10 years in government or nonprofit jobs.

The $4.28 billion in relief is expected to be the final round of public service loan forgiveness before Biden leaves office in January.

Biden’s rule on transgender sports was proposed in 2023 but was delayed multiple times. It was supposed to be a follow-up to his broader rule that extended civil rights protections to LGBTQ+ students under Title IX.

The sports rule would have barred schools from banning transgender athletes outright while allowing limits for certain reasons—for example, if it was a matter of “fairness” in competition or to reduce injury risks.

It sat on the back burner through the presidential campaign as the issue became a subject of Republican outrage. Trump campaigned on a promise to ban transgender athletes, with a promise to “keep men out of women’s sports.”

The FDA has ordered a phaseout of knockoffs for these blockbuster weight-loss drugs

Businesses will have between 60 and 90 days to phase out their products.

Specialty pharmacies and online companies that have been selling off-brand copies of two blockbuster drugs for obesity and diabetes will need to phase out their versions next year under a federal decision issued Thursday.

The Food and Drug Administration said that a nationwide shortage of Eli Lilly’s Zepbound and Mounjaro has been resolved, eliminating the need for copycat versions of the drugs that have become wildly popular with Americans trying to lose weight.

The decision is a win for Lilly—which had been pressing the FDA to take the step for months—and is expected to impact how patients access the drugs, including how much they pay.

Zepbound is FDA-approved to treat obesity and Mounjaro is approved for diabetes. They use the same active ingredient, tirzepatide.

The FDA said Thursday that “Lilly’s supply is currently meeting or exceeding demand,” after two years of shortages.

Both drugs are part of the GLP-1 class that has shown unprecedented results for helping people shed weight by decreasing appetite and boosting feelings of fullness. Wegovy and Ozempic—competing drugs from Novo Nordisk—remain on the FDA’s shortage list.

With demand for GLP-1 drugs booming, compounding pharmacies and telehealth companies like Hims and Ro have jumped into the market, selling cheaper versions online. People can usually get a month’s supply for several hundred dollars.

Thursday’s decision gives businesses between 60 and 90 days, depending on their size, to phase out their products.

The FDA permits compounded versions of brand name drugs when they are in shortage, and the shift back to Lilly’s medications could improve safety for consumers. The FDA warned patients last year about problems with the ingredients and formulations of some GLP-1 drugs sold online. The agency has limited oversight of compounding pharmacies, which are primarily overseen by state authorities.

Compounding pharmacies use raw drug ingredients to produce customized versions of prescription medications—for instance, when patients have allergies to certain ingredients. The industry has grown into a multibillion-dollar business over the past decade amid increasing drug shortages.

Demand for off-brand GLP-1 drugs has been amplified by aggressive online promotions from telehealth companies, which aren’t subject to the same marketing rules as drugmakers.

The FDA previously declared an end to the shortage of Mounjaro and Zepbound in early October, but reversed its decision after public pushback and a lawsuit filed by compounding pharmacies.

What the Amazon strike could mean for your holiday gifts

There are strikes at Amazon warehouses in seven locations, including some major cities. Here’s how it could impact holiday orders.

When it comes to timing their strike to make an impact, the Teamsters couldn’t have picked a better one. The union has launched strikes against seven Amazon warehouses—and with Christmas less than a week away, that could have some last-minute shoppers wondering what will happen to their holiday orders.

Fast-food chains are winning back customers with meal deals. Will the good times last?

Limited-time discounts are getting people back in the door at quick-service restaurants, but such gains could be fleeting when the deals disappear.

Fast-food restaurant chains have been seeing an uptick in traffic over the past two months due to the success of limited-time deals and promotions, along with an early rollout of the holiday season, according to Revenue Management Solutions (RMS), a company that analyzes data and provides insights about the restaurant industry.

Sam Goody employee in Oregon denies reports that the last location is closing: ‘We’re not going anywhere’

The once-ubiquitous music retail chain has just two remaining stores: one in Ohio and one in Oregon. Reports that both are shuttering may have been premature.

Sam Goody, the once-ubiquitous music and entertainment retail chain founded in 1951, is set to close one of its last two remaining U.S. stores next year. However, recent media reports saying that both locations will soon shutter may have been premature, Fast Company has learned.

‘Combat their crazy opinion with an even crazier opinion’: This TikToker offers tips for handling tense family conversations over the holidays

Comedian Dan Donohue has an unusual strategy for dealing with prickly family members.

The holidays can be a hotbed for arguments, whether it’s a squabble in the kitchen or a heated game of monopoly. “Never discuss religion, sex, politics, or money” might be sage advice when it comes to the festive period, but it’s more often than not ignored after a few drinks.

We called 1-800-ChatGPT to see if OpenAI would ruin Christmas

OpenAI just launched a way to call ChatGPT over the phone. But how does it handle the whole Santa thing?

OpenAI just launched a way to call ChatGPT over the phone as a means of introducing people to the generative AI service. Users in the U.S. and Canada can call 1-800-CHATGPT (1-800-242-8478) to chat with the service or ask questions for up to 15 minutes for free per month. The release is part of OpenAI’s 12-day-release event that it’s playfully calling “shipmas.” (The most exciting announcement came on day three, when it rolled out its highly anticipated AI video-generation tool called Sora.)

How Trump’s second term could change U.S. trade with India

India seeks to leverage Trump’s policy by capitalizing on U.S. trade tension with China.

India is preparing for possible trade talks with the United States, aiming for increased investments from U.S. companies and higher exports once President-elect Donald Trump takes office.