Friendshoring Set to Benefit European Battery Maker says CEO

Friendshoring Set to Benefit European Battery Maker says CEO "Geopolitical tension is playing to our strength," says Lars Christian Bacher, CEO of Norway-based battery manufacturer Morrow. Despite facing competition on price from Asia, customers "are willing to pay more" for diversification, he adds. Bacher speaks with Anna Edwards and Lizzy Burden on 'Bloomberg: The Opening Trade'.

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Business Insider

an hour ago

• Business Insider

Women are getting wealthier — and they don't invest the same way as men

Women are becoming richer, and they're changing the face of wealth. According to a report by McKinsey published last month, women control about a third of all retail financial assets in the US and the European Union. By 2030, that proportion is expected to rise to between 40% to 45%, wrote Cristina Catania, global co-convener and European lead for the risk and resilience practice, and Jill Zucker, senior partner and co-leader of McKinsey's global growth transformation service line. The report is based on a survey of about 13,000 American and European investors, nearly half of whom were female financial decision makers. It found that between 2018 and 2023, global wealth rose by 43%, but jumped by 51% for women. Women's expanding control of assets is being driven by a combination of factors, including a continuing decline in marriage rates, the ongoing boost in women's average earnings, demographic trends like longer life expectancies, and a broad shift in attitudes about women managing their own finances. Risk doesn't equal reward As women become wealthier through investing, it's becoming clearer that they don't approach it the same way as men. "Women are much more risk-aware," Anna-Sophie Hartvigsen, cofounder of financial education and investment platform Female Invest, told Business Insider. "I would like to call it much more realistic in their own ability to invest." She said women are less likely than men to invest emotionally. "On average, men trade a lot more often than women because they believe they can beat the market or they read something in the news, and they get pumped up or afraid, and then they invest based on that," Hartvigsen said. Female investors, in her view, tend to be more calm, more realistic, and better at assessing risk. However, Katie Geery, an advisor at Rise Private Wealth Management, says being more cautious can also hold women back by leading them to miss out on opportunities to build wealth. "It is important to work with a trusted financial advisor who understands your risk tolerance and can walk you through making well-educated investment decisions based on your long-term goals," she told BI. Returns aren't everything The aims of investing also sometimes differ between men and women. "Women prefer to invest toward achieving specific goals rather than chasing the highest returns," said Avanti Shetye, financial planner at Wealthwyzr. Geery said female investors tend to be more focused on philanthropy and gifting. They often consider their values when buying stock and want their purchases to help make a better impact on the world. "Women often seek financial advisors who are empathetic and take the time to get to know them on a more personal level to gain a deeper understanding of their goals and values," she said. On Female Invest, Hartvigsen said the principles its members care about the most include climate, especially a firm's carbon footprint, and diversity in leadership, in terms of a board having a good gender balance. Start investing early For Shetye, it's important to start investing early. "Women tend to be primary caregivers for children or aging parents and often take unpaid time off," she said. "Not only that, women statistically live longer than men, which implies that women would need to invest as much as they can as early as possible so that their portfolios last them through retirement." Hartvigsen said long-term financial planning is vital: "When you do that, it doesn't matter what happens today." Both agree that this plan should be grounded in expert advice. "Working with a financial planner whose planning process is rooted in financial education can help provide comfort and security to stay consistent even in the roughest of markets," Shetye said. But she also believes that practice is more important than perfection. "You are never going to know everything there is to know about investing," Shetye said. "The key is consistency, and time will do the heavy lifting." Hartvigsen advises her clients to invest monthly on the same day and to diversify their investments. "If you do that, historically, it has been near impossible not to make money in the long run."

The Hill

an hour ago

• The Hill

Food and Drug Administration staff cuts may hinder US biomedical innovation

President Trump has rightly emphasized restoring America's economic and strategic independence — from reshoring pharmaceutical production to cutting regulatory red tape. But not all reforms are created equal. Recent restructuring efforts at the Food and Drug Administration may have been well-intentioned, but they risk undermining the very innovation and domestic capacity the president seeks to promote. In March, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced a sweeping reorganization of the agency, which in part included the elimination of 3,500 full-time employees at the Food and Drug Administration — many of them senior scientific staff and experienced regulators who served as institutional pillars across drug review divisions. While we all support government efficiency and the secretary's efforts to create a gold-standard regulatory agency, the loss of this institutional memory risks hobbling the expedited pathways that small biotech firms rely on to deliver therapies for rare and life-threatening diseases. Unfortunately, the impact of these cuts is not theoretical. The Wall Street Journal has reported that some biotech firms have had to delay or cancel clinical trials due to lack of timely Food and Drug Administration guidance. One California biotech firm facing unpredictable delays has even turned to European regulators to move forward with a clinical trial — effectively offshoring American capital, investment and jobs. Others have reported receiving conflicting and confusing feedback from inexperienced FDA staff or no response at all on time-sensitive requests. But such issues don't just affect companies; they hurt patients, too. Innovation in gene therapies, cancer immunotherapies, and treatments for rare diseases depend on regulatory clarity and speed. Without senior staff to help clarify agency positions, decisions are either delayed or driven by less-experienced personnel unfamiliar with long-standing scientific standards. It's no surprise then that over 200 biotech CEOs, patient advocates and investors — many of them strong supporters of FDA modernization — have expressed their concerns in a letter to Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy (R-La.). As a former member of Congress who sat on the Appropriations subcommittee overseeing the FDA, I have long supported targeted reforms to make the agency more nimble and responsive. But there is a fine line between streamlining operations and cutting the institutional capacity necessary to do the job. Removing experienced drug reviewers before an adequate backup plan can be put into place not only jeopardizes U.S. safety standards but also undermines our competitive edge. This matter is not merely a domestic problem; it's a global race. Since 2014, the number of biomedical drugs under development in China has grown twelvefold. Meanwhile, innovation in the U.S. has remained relatively flat. If trends continue, China could match or surpass the U.S. in biomedical innovation within the decade. We have seen this movie before — in semiconductors, in telecommunications, in clean energy. We cannot afford to let biotech go the same way. The Trump administration's tariff policy was designed to bring pharmaceutical manufacturing back to U.S. shores. But how can we expect capital to stay in the U.S. if our regulatory infrastructure cannot deliver? Delays and unpredictability at the FDA don't just slow down science — they push investors to look elsewhere. Even the user fee system — critical to funding timely drug reviews and a source of government revenue — has been impacted by the reduction in force. Staff who oversaw the reauthorization of the Prescription Drug User Fee Act have been laid off, raising questions about whether the agency will even be able to continue to collect user fees and whether these government cuts will actually end up costing taxpayers in the long run. Of course, Kennedy has long been a vocal advocate for health reform. His Make America Healthy Again agenda's focus on combatting chronic diseases and enhancing nutritional standards deserves attention. His focus for such reform is where his background and passion can lead to meaningful improvements. But when it comes to regulating complex biologics and therapeutics, we must be careful about taking actions that could inadvertently stymie scientific progress. President Trump's vision for American self-reliance will only succeed if it's built on a foundation of regulatory competence and stability. Swift actions should therefore be taken to restore the FDA's core functions, rehire critical staff and unfreeze the hiring of roles essential to America's leadership in biomedical science. The stakes — for patients, for innovation and for national security — are simply too high to ignore. John T. Doolittle is a former member of Congress who served on the Agriculture, Rural Development, FDA, and Related Agencies subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations.

Travel Weekly

3 hours ago

• Travel Weekly

Cruise industry navigates a new wave of port taxes

Cruise destinations are increasingly turning to taxes on ships or passengers to raise revenue to address the impacts of overtourism. Hawaii, Norway, Mexico and Skagway, Alaska, have all finalized new taxes on ships calling at their ports in recent months. The taxes are sometimes overtly earmarked to help the destinations recover costs associated with the post-pandemic flood of tourists, including their impacts on the local natural environment. In Hawaii, the tax revenue from cruise ships is being earmarked for environmental causes, be it park management or climate-resilient infrastructure. And in Norway, municipalities that want to implement the nation's new 3% tourism tax, which includes a cruise tax, will only qualify if they can show that tourists have caused strain on their municipal resources such as roads or park facilities, according to Forbes. While the Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association helped negotiate a lower tax rate for Mexico's new cruise tax, CLIA is fighting back by filing a lawsuit challenging Skagway's levy and is threatening to sue Hawaii. "If the cruise industry failed to challenge this surcharge, other states and municipalities could feel unconstrained in adopting similar unlawful surcharges, leading to exorbitant and ultimately untenable cruise fares," a CLIA spokeswoman said. Economics meet quality of life When introducing these taxes, destinations play a balancing act: They want to remain welcoming to tourists to reap the economic benefits, but they also want to keep the local residents content, said Jungho Suh, who teaches management at George Washington University. "The power to attract tourists or visitors to a local travel destination stems from the local community's welcoming hospitality, their friendliness, their kindness to visitors, which are deeply rooted in the local community's overall well-being," Suh said. "Their well-being has been negatively affected by the overtourism issues, especially since the beginning of the post-pandemic era. That's where the policymakers and lawmakers come along, to find that optimal point by understanding the sentiment and consensus of the local community, tourists and commercial cruise lines." In general, tourists entering a city by cruise spend less on land than other types of travelers, said Robert Rosen, a law professor at the University of Miami who teaches a course on the legal environment of the cruise industry. Taxes could be a way to make up for that lack of tourist revenue coming in despite thousands of people coming off of a ship, said Daniel Guttentag, director of the Office of Tourism Analysis at the College of Charleston. Since those paying the taxes are not residents and don't vote locally, lawmakers may sense fewer political repercussions than taxing their constituents, he said. Politicians "want to make sure they are able to be voted in again," said president Anthony Hamawy. "So, hey, let's go for the tourists. It's a softer hit." Cruise line consequences Since cruise lines have other options for visitation, they may begin to avoid taxed destinations. "There's a great deal of competition to get cruise ships to dock," Rosen said. "In Latin America, Mexico will compete with Guatemala. In the Caribbean, all the islands are competing with each other. So to impose a tax creates a disincentive to visit your country." CLIA was blunt about "unintended consequences for the local communities," including "lower spending by cruise guests when their cruise fare costs more and reduced visitation by cruise ships." Taxes may also incentivize cruise lines to dedicate more days to their private destinations or as sea days, said New York University's Richie Karaburun, a clinical associate professor at the Jonathan M. Tisch Center of Hospitality. When they can't avoid taxes, they'll either absorb the fees or pass them along to customers. The latter is more likely, he said. "If it's only one destination that adds in $5, $6, they might eat it up," he said. "If all of a sudden four ports added $6, that's $24, and if you look at it, that's $24 times 5,000 people each week. I don't think any cruise line could actually eat this up, and in the end, they're just going to have to put that back into their pricing."