Inflation is 'permanent' and you'll never regain your lost purchasing power, says a Wall Street guru - Business Insider   

Market watchers expecting the US Federal Reserve to cut interest rates soon may be disappointed.

Jim Grant — who's been editing "Grant's Interest Rate Observer" for the past four decades — expects Fed chair Jerome Powell to be cautious as inflation remains above the central bank's target level.

"I think that chairman Powell is still mortified at the Fed's failure to identify the upsurge in inflation that began in 2020 and 21, and the last thing he wants to do is declare a preliminary and premature victory," Grant told Fox Business Network on Tuesday.

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New Drugs Can Fix Teenage Obesity, but Young People Don’t Get Them -    

Pediatricians are hesitating to prescribe medicines like Wegovy, citing their newness and uncertainties around them.

Dr. Edward Lewis, a pediatrician in Rochester, N.Y., has seen hundreds of children with obesity over the years in his medical practice. He finally may have a treatment for their medical condition — the powerful weight loss drug Wegovy.

But that does not mean Dr. Lewis is prescribing it. Nor are most other pediatricians.

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Climate activist Al Gore blasts COP28 outcome as biggest failure in history—‘reads as if OPEC dictated it word for word’ - Fortune   

Al Gore warned the Paris agreement’s goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees centigrade could die now that world leaders failed to agree on phasing out fossil fuels.

The 28th U.N. climate change summit known as COP, held this year in Dubai, is set to conclude on Tuesday with a draft agreement that will have been written by and for the petrostates, according to the former U.S. vice president. 

“This obsequious draft reads as if OPEC dictated it word for word,” he wrote on Monday.

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The Billion Dollar Return Nightmare: Why Retailers Are Enabling ‘Keep It’ Policies - Forbes   

Returns services firm goTRG surveyed 500 executives at 21 major retailers, including AmazonAMZN and WalmartWMT , to find out that 59% of retailers offer “keep it” policies this year as they look to cut the return process altogether. This decision comes as the number of shoppers returning items bought online during Black Friday is expected to be even higher than last year, amounting to $173 billion in returns. This has led many retailers - most of which want to stay discreet - to adopt return-less policies and avoid having to absorb the overall cost of returns, which represents about $30 dollars per item on average.

Reuters shared that companies including Amazon, Chewy.com, eBay and Wayfair are amongst those telling shoppers to keep unwanted purchases, even for products valued as much as $300. By doing so, these retailers opt for a quick fix that alleviates the need to process returns and manage inventory that will likely end up discarded, but are aware this choice is not viable and in no way a long-term solution, as shoppers could start abusing the policy.

Rather than opting for a “keep it” return policy, retailers have many options to facilitate the returns process in a way that costs them much less. Many brands have opened the option for customers to return items in-store, encouraging product exchange and possible additional purchases, while increasing the likelihood that returned items be put back in stock immediately. This simplifies the return process for retailers and costs them much less as they not only do not have to incur the cost of return shipping but may also benefit from incremental in-store shopper purchases.

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