Alberta secession talk ‘unhelpful,' Atco chief executive says
Nancy Southern said Asian partners in a major hydrogen project have said they won't make final investment decisions unless there is certainty around the Alberta separatism question.
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Winnipeg Free Press
5 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Who wants to be a millionaire? 1 in 10 Americans already is but the status loses its luster
NEW YORK (AP) — As a child, Heidi Barley watched her family pay for groceries with food stamps. As a college student, she dropped out because she couldn't afford tuition. In her twenties, already scraping by, she was forced to take a pay cut that shrunk her salary to just $34,000 a year. But this summer, the 41-year-old hit a milestone that long felt out of reach: She became a millionaire. A surging number of everyday Americans now boast a seven-figure net worth once the domain of celebrities and CEOs. But as the ranks of millionaires grow fatter, the significance of the status is shifting alongside perceptions of what it takes to be truly rich. 'Millionaire used to sound like Rich Uncle Pennybags in a top hat,' says Michael Ashley Schulman, chief investment officer at Running Point Capital Advisors, a wealth management firm in El Segundo, California. 'It's no longer a backstage pass to palatial estates and caviar bumps. It's the new mass-affluent middleweight class, financially secure but two zeros short of private-jet territory.' Inflation, ballooning home values and a decades-long push into stock markets by average investors have lifted millions into millionairehood. A June report from Swiss bank UBS found about one-tenth of American adults are members of the seven-digit club, with 1,000 freshly minted millionaires added daily last year. Thirty years ago, the IRS counted 1.6 million Americans with a net worth of $1 million or more. UBS — using data from the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund and central banks of countries around the globe — put the number at 23.8 million in the U.S. last year, a nearly 15-fold increase. The expanding ranks of millionaires come as the gulf between rich and poor widens. The richest 10% of Americans hold two-thirds of household wealth, according to the Federal Reserve, averaging $8.1 million each. The bottom 50% hold 3% of wealth, with an average of just $60,000 to their names. Federal Reserve data also shows there are differences by race. Asian people outpace white people in the U.S. in median wealth, while Black and Hispanic people trail in their net worth. Barley was working as a journalist when her newspaper ended its pension program and she got a lump-sum payout of about $5,000. A colleague convinced her to invest it in a retirement account, and ever since, she's stashed away whatever she could. The investments dipped at first during the Great Recession but eventually started growing. In time, she came to find catharsis in amassing savings, going home and checking her account balances when she had a tough day at work. Last month, after one such day, she realized the moment had come. 'Did you know that we're millionaires?' she asked her husband. 'Good job, honey,' Barley says he replied, unfazed. It brought no immediate change. Like many millionaires, much of her wealth is in long-term investments and her home, not easy-to-access cash. She still lives in her modest Orlando, Florida, house, socks away half her paycheck, fills the napkin holder with takeout napkins and lines trash cans with grocery bags. Still, Barley says it feels powerful to cross a threshold she never imagined reaching as a child. 'But it's not as glamorous as the ideas in your head,' she says. All wealth is relative. To thousandaires, $1 million is the stuff of dreams. To billionaires, it's a rounding error. Either way, it takes twice as much cash today to match the buying power of 30 years ago. A net worth of $1 million in 1995 is equivalent to about $2.1 million today, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. A seven-figure net worth is, to some, as outdated a yardstick as a six-figure salary. Nonetheless, 'millionaire' is peppered in everything from politics to popular music as shorthand for rich. 'It's a nice round number but it's a point in a longer journey,' says Dan Uden, a 41-year-old from Providence, Rhode Island, who works in information technology and who hit the million-dollar mark last month. 'It definitely gives you some room to breathe.' No other country comes close to the U.S. in the sheer number of millionaires, though relative to population, UBS found Switzerland and Luxembourg had higher rates. Kenneth Carow, a finance professor at Indiana University's Kelley School of Business, says commonalities emerge among today's millionaires. The vast majority own stocks and a home. Most live below their means. They value education and teach financial responsibility to their children. 'The dream of becoming a millionaire,' Carow says, 'has become more obtainable.' Jim Wang, 45, a software engineer-turned finance blogger from Fulton, Maryland, says even if hitting $1 million was essentially 'a non-event' for him and his wife, it still held weight for him as the son of immigrants who saved money by turning the heat off on winter nights. The private jets he envisioned as a kid may not have materialized at the million-dollar threshold, but he still sees it as a marker that brings a certain level of security. 'It's possible, even with a regular job,' he says. 'You just have to be diligent and consistent.' The resilience of financial markets and the ease of investing in broad-based, low-fee index funds has fueled the balances of many millionaires who don't earn massive salaries or inherit family fortunes. Among them is a burgeoning community of younger millionaires born out of the movement known as FIRE, for Financial Independence Retire Early. Jason Breck, 48, of Fishers, Indiana, embraced FIRE and reached the million-dollar mark nine years ago. He promptly quit his job in automotive marketing, where he generally earned around $60,000 a year but managed to stow away around 70% of his pay. Now, Breck and his wife spend several months a year traveling. Despite being retired, they continue to grow their balance by sticking to a tight budget and keeping expenses to $1,500 a month when they're in the U.S and a few hundred dollars more when they travel. Hitting their goal hasn't translated to luxury. There is no lawn crew to cut the grass, no Netflix or Amazon Prime, no Uber Eats. They fly economy. They drive a 2005 Toyota. 'It's not a golden ticket like it was in the past,' Breck says. 'For us, a million dollars buys us freedom and peace of mind. We're not yacht rich, but for us, we're time rich.' ___ Matt Sedensky can be reached at msedensky@ and
Canada News.Net
6 hours ago
- Canada News.Net
LG Electronics dives into semiconductor equipment, developing HBM chip for AI applications
Seoul [South Korea], July 29 (ANI): LG Electronics is making a strategic push into the semiconductor equipment sector, focusing on building key machinery for producing high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips essential for AI applications, as reported by the Korea South Korean tech firm recently confirmed that its in-house research team, the Production Engineering Research Institute, has begun developing a hybrid bonder, an advanced chip packaging device. The machine is intended for use in manufacturing HBM chips, which are central to powering AI to the Korea Herald, a media report suggested that LG is targeting commercialisation by 2028, the company clarified that although hybrid bonder development is underway, no concrete timeline for mass production has been are a sensitive subject for LG. The company lost its chipmaking arm, LG Semicon, during the 1997 Asian financial crisis when the government ordered its merger with Hyundai Electronics, now known as SK hynix. Despite this setback, LG continued to invest in semiconductor-related R&D, designing custom chips for its products and recently teaming up with Canadian AI chip design firm Production Engineering Research Institute has also worked on HBM-related technologies and currently provides packaging and testing equipment. The company's renewed focus aligns with LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo's broader AI strategy, as it aims to tap into the rapidly growing demand for AI believe LG has a shot at success. 'LG is entering the market because there's clear business potential,' said Lee Jong-hwan, a professor of system semiconductor engineering at Sangmyung University. 'HBM is expected to see continued growth because it is a critical component in AI chips, which are becoming dominant in the market.'Lee noted that the Production Engineering Research Institute has long handled equipment and systems related to mass production.'So they have strengths in developing related tools. That's why they are confident in commercialising this technology,' Lee said. (ANI)
Winnipeg Free Press
12 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Asian shares mostly slip as focus shifts to US talks with China
TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares mostly declined Tuesday as some of the euphoria fizzled out over a tariff deal with Japan as proposed by President Donald Trump, which was followed by a similar deal with the European Union. Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 slipped nearly 0.7% to 40,725.23. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.3% to 8,670.50. South Korea's Kospi was little changed after reversing earlier losses, edging less than 0.1% higher to 3,212.59. Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 1.1% to 25,276.36, while the Shanghai Composite shed 0.3% to 3,586.93. Analysts said markets were watching for the latest from Trump, which are now focused on the talks with China. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng were meeting in Sweden. Bessent has said the negotiations will likely lead to an extension of current tariff levels. There was no significant new information after the first day of talks. 'Aside from addressing economic imbalances, tariffs are also now well entrenched in the geo-political arena,' Tan Boon Heng of the Asia & Oceania Treasury Department at Mizuho Bank said in a commentary. Last week, Trump announced a trade framework, placing a 15% tax on goods imported from Japan, a level far lower than the earlier 25% rate that the president had indicated. Trump also said Japan would invest $550 billion into the U.S. and open up to U.S. autos and rice. Details are still unclear, but the accord set off some momentary relief. U.S. stock indexes drifted through a quiet Monday after the United States agreed to tax cars and other products coming from the European Union at a 15% rate, lower than Trump had threatened. Many details of the trade deal are still to be worked out, and Wall Street is heading into a week full of potential flashpoints that could shake markets, including an interest rate decision Wednesday by the Federal Reserve. The widespread expectation on Wall Street is that Fed officials will wait until September to resume cutting interest rates, though a couple of Trump's appointees could dissent in the vote. The Fed has been on hold with interest rates this year since cutting them several times at the end of 2024. On Wall Street, the S&P 500 was nearly flat, edging up by less than 0.1% to 6,389.77 and setting an all-time high for a sixth straight day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 0.1% to 44,837.56, while the Nasdaq composite added 0.3% to its own record, closing at 21,178.58. Tesla rose 3% after its CEO, Elon Musk, said it had signed a deal with Samsung Electronics that could be worth more than $16.5 billion to provide computer chips for the electric-vehicle company. Samsung's stock in South Korea jumped 6.8%. Other companies in the chip and artificial-intelligence industries were strong, continuing their run from last week after Alphabet said it was increasing its spending on AI chips and other investments to $85 billion this year. Chip company Advanced Micro Devices rose 4.3%, and server-maker Super Micro Computer climbed 10.2%. But an 8.3% drop for Revvity helped to keep the market in check. The company in the life sciences and diagnostics businesses reported a stronger profit for the latest quarter than Wall Street expected, but its forecast for full year profit disappointed analysts. Companies are broadly under pressure to deliver solid growth in profits following big jumps in their stock prices the last few months. Much of the gain was due to hopes that Trump would walk back some of his stiff proposed tariffs, and critics say the U.S. stock market looks expensive unless companies will produce bigger profits. Monday Mornings The latest local business news and a lookahead to the coming week. Hundreds of U.S. companies are lined up to report how much profit they made during the spring, with nearly a third of the businesses in the S&P 500 index scheduled to deliver updates. In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude inched up 1 cent to $66.72 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, added 6 cents to $70.10 a barrel. In currency trading, the U.S. dollar rose to 148.56 Japanse yen from 148.54 yen. The euro cost $1.1600, up from $1.1593. ___ AP Business Writer Stan Choe contributed.
