Author: Editor

There were two little letters on everyone’s lips: AI.Each year, the National Retail Federation, a leading industry trade group, hosts one of the industry’s largest conferences, known as Retail’s Big Show. I attended the convention, held in New York City from January 11 to 13, for the first time to hear from industry insiders about the retail trends to watch in 2026.This year’s event drew speakers such as Walmart’s incoming CEO John Furner and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who announced a new AI deal this week, as well as Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin. It was clear that artificial intelligence was…

More Americans might find themselves turning to personal and private loans this year.Proposed changes to the lending market could impact banks and consumers starting this year, particularly in two of the largest areas of consumer debt: credit cards and student loans. Private and personal lending firms could end up big winners if those changes stick.On the student debt side, President Donald Trump’s “big beautiful” spending legislation called for new borrowing caps on graduate and professional loans in an attempt to curb excessive borrowing. It also eliminated the Grad and Parent PLUS programs, which allowed parents and graduate students to borrow…

The great middle manager flattening is in full swing, and those who remain are seeing their dominions balloon.It’s the era of the megamanager, driven by cost cutting, leaner bureaucracy, and slow hiring. A new Gallup survey reveals how teams are evolving and the factors that contribute to manager burnout.Managers’ average number of reports — their “span of control” — has grown over the past year, rising from 10.9 in 2024 to 12.1 in 2025. It’s also a marked increase from pre-pandemic levels; in 2013, managers had an average of 8.2 people reporting to them, and by 2019, this number had…

William Edwards/Business Insider 2026-01-14T10:45:02.465Z Share Copy link Email Facebook WhatsApp X LinkedIn Bluesky Threads lighning bolt icon An icon in the shape of a lightning bolt. Impact Link Save Saved Read in app This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? Log in. Wide-leg, high-waist pants are the top trend for women in finance this season. I went to stores across Manhattan to see which ones are selling the best. The most popular brands include Aritzia, Lululemon, Abercrombie, Arcteryx, and Club Monaco. The hottest fashion item for women in…

A photograph shows a sign at the Congress Centre on the opening day of the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, Jan. 16, 2023.Fabrice Coffrini | AFP | Getty ImagesGlobal power rivalries and strategic standoffs top the list of most severe near-term risks heading into 2026, according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report released Wednesday. Half of the business executives and other leaders surveyed said they expect turbulent times over the next two years, and only 1% said they expect calm, according to the report. The resulting picture is one of the world “sitting on a…

Shoppers walk outside the Saks Fifth Avenue flagship store in Manhattan in New York City, U.S., Jan. 6, 2026. Angelina Katsanis | ReutersSaks Global, the parent company behind the 159-year-old department store that’s become both a destination and a symbol for luxury fashion, filed for bankruptcy protection after running out of cash and failing to find investors willing to finance its business. Crucially, the retailer filed for Chapter 11, which will give it the chance to reorganize its business, clear through its debts and potentially find a buyer willing to take it on as a going concern. The company announced Wednesday that…

Saks Global has declared bankruptcy.The owner of Saks Fifth Avenue and other iconic luxury department stores filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Tuesday in the Southern District of Texas. Each of Saks Global’s marquee brands — it also owns Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman — is a luxury retailing giant founded more than a century ago.The bankruptcy filing showed that Saks Global owes millions to the biggest names in luxury, including over $136 million to Chanel, $59 million to Gucci’s parent company, Kering, and $33 million to Michael Kors’ parent company, Capri Holdings.The fall of the high-end department store parent has…

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Dylan Rothenberg, 32, the founder of Wu Mountain Tea. His words have been edited for length and clarity.I realized in high school that my academic strength was learning foreign languages.My dad did business in China, and his best friend was Chinese, so I’ve always had a connection to the country.When I was 15, I went to China to stay with a host family for six months as part of a US government-sponsored full-immersion program. It was in 2009, the golden era of US-China relations.At 19, I decided to major in Chinese…

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell sent a letter dated July 14, 2025, to key senators on the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, following his testimony before Congress about renovations to the central bank buildings.In it, the Fed chair gave lawmakers a detailed and expansive response to inquiries about the renovations.Powell’s letter to the Senate Banking Committee, obtained by Business Insider, was sent 10 days before giving President Donald Trump and other White House officials a tour of the renovation site on July 24, 2025.Powell announced via video message on January 11 that the Department of Justice served grand jury…

Creators are raking in the ad dollars — but the wealth is being shared less and less equally.New data from the influencer-marketing platform CreatorIQ shows that the income gap in the creator economy is widening. The top 10% of creators on CreatorIQ’s platform received 62% of ad payments in 2025, up from 53% in 2023.Similarly, the top 1% received 21% of the total ad payment volume, up from 15% in 2023.CreatorIQ, which included the 2025 data in a new report released on Wednesday, examined 65,000 payments over a three-year period from brands and agencies to creators who received flat payments…