Daily Archives: December 27, 2021

There's bold.

Then there's this daring reporter at Bill Belichick's postgame news conference.

The Buffalo Bills beat the New England Patriots, 33-21 on Sunday to tie their AFC East rivals at 9-6 and take control of the race for the division crown courtesy of a better record against division opponents. After the game, Belichick spoke with reporters, as he does following every game.

This is generally a time to ask questions about the playoff race or what went wrong in a high-stakes loss. With the calendar set to turn to 2022, our hero from said news conference had another topic on her mind.

"Hi, football aside, sorry," the as-yet identified reporter introduced herself to the perpetually grumpy Patriots coach. "But I'm doing a story about New Year's resolutions, and I was wondering if you had any you wanted to share with your fans and our readers."

Belichick, to nobody's surprise, did not. Not today, at least.

"Yeah, no. Not right now," Belichick responded.

And that was pretty much that.

The reporter thanked Belichick, and the news conference moved on without incident from Belichick, who's been known to berate reporters for questions he doesn't deem appropriate. In fact, an extended video cut shows that Belichick might even be amenable to chatting resolutions. Just not today.

"Maybe next week," Belichick added.

Our hero was brave enough to broach the subject with Belichick immediately after a Patriots home loss. New England faces the Jacksonville Jaguars next weekend. Will she return to the scene of her question to broach the topic again?

There's a decent chance the reporter runs into a Belichick in a better mood. There's also a decent chance the Jan. 2 game date won't meet the deadline for that New Year's resolutions story. Even if that's the case, it might be worthwhile for the follow-up.

Stay tuned.

Will Bill Belichick want to talk resolutions next week? (David Butler II/Reuters)

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Bill Belichick's not interested in talking New Year's resolutions after loss to Bills - Yahoo Sports

Get ready for more of the same, New York Giants fans. Despite the team's struggles, quarterback Daniel Jones and head coach Joe Judge are reportedly expected to be back in 2022, according to ESPN's Adam Schefter.

The team reportedly believes both men deserve a chance to prove themselves next season. Through 30 games, Judge has a 10-20 record. Jones, the No. 6 overall pick in the 2019 NFL draft, has 45 touchdowns against 29 interceptions in 38 games. He also has 36 fumbles.

The Giants could make some changes. General manager Dave Gettleman might be on his way out. Gettleman, whose Giants are 19-43 since he took over, was already on the hot seat coming into the season. It's also possible Gettleman will step down at the end of the year, according to Schefter.

If Gettleman leaves, the team's next general manager could be stuck with a head coach and quarterback they did not choose, potentially making the Giants a less desirable job.

After an underwhelming sophomore season, Jones failed to impress in 11 games in 2021, and his season ended prematurely due to a neck injury. Jones finished with 10 touchdowns and seven interceptions. The Giants are expected to have two high picks in the 2022 NFL draft. Given Jones' struggles, the Giants selecting a quarterback with one of those picks is possible.

Judge also needs to show improvement next season. The Giants' offense ranked near the bottom of the league since Judge took over. After performing well in 2020, the team's defense took a step back in 2021. Prior to joining the Giants, Judge served as a special teams coordinator with the New England Patriots.

Daniel Jones and Joe Judge are reportedly expected to be back with the Giants in 2022. (Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images)

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Daniel Jones, Joe Judge reportedly expected to be back with Giants in 2022 - Yahoo Sports

The UFC had not only the best year business-wise in its close to 30-year history, but the fights it put on might have been the best ever, as well.

Week after week, there were cards filled with jaw-dropping bouts, amazing comebacks, feats of strength and skill and finishes like never before.

Many fighters had very good years even great years, you might say. One, though, stands far above the pack.

Kamaru Usman is the clear, simple and easy choice as the 2021 Yahoo Sports MMA Fighter of the Year, despite the fact that there are so many legitimate candidates.

Usman went 3-0 in 2021 and did it by beating the best of the best of the best. At UFC 258 on Feb. 13, Usman knocked out Gilbert Burns in the second round of what was expected to be a pitched battle. Instead, it was a one-sided mauling as Usman exerted his dominance early.

He returned at UFC 261 on April 24 and put Jorge Masvidal to sleep just 62 seconds into the second rounds with a frightening combination. Going into the fight, the conventional wisdom that it would be Masvidals striking against Usmans wrestling, but Usman out-struck Masvidal and knocked him out cold.

Then, he capped the year by defeating arch-rival Colby Covington for a second time at UFC 268 on Nov. 6. Usman won a decision and overcame a bit of adversity when Covington hurt him with strikes.

Given the quality of opposition, the resounding way he won the fights and his activity level, Usman is an easy choice as Fighter of the Year.

UFC weltwerweight champion Kamaru Usman extended his winning streak to 19 in a row with three dominant victories in 2021. (Photo by Alex Menendez/Getty Images)

Lightweight champion Charles Oliveira would have been the winner in most other years. He won the belt on May 15 at UFC 262 with a second-round TKO of Michael Chandler in one of the years most compelling bouts.

He was an underdog in his first defense, when he met Dustin Poirier at UFC 269 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Dec. 11. Poirier was coming off back-to-back one-sided victories over Conor McGregor and was ranked No. 2 in the Yahoo Sports pound-for-pound rankings at the time.

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Oliveira survived a rocky first round, dominated Poirier in the second and submitted him early in the third.

It was a breathtaking performance that was his 10th consecutive win dating back to UFC 225, when he submitted Clay Guida on June 9, 2018. But despite that, it wasnt enough for him to surpass Usman.

Rose Namajunas The UFCs womens strawweight champion was 2-0 with a pair of victories over Zhang Weili. She won the title in a massive upset with a head kick KO at UFC 261, then defended it with a decision at UFC 268.

Ciryl Gane Gane went 3-0, winning decisions over Jairzinho Rozenstruik and Alexander Volkov and then capturing the interim heavyweight title by knocking out Derrick Lewis in a one-sided bout at UFC 265.

Kayla Harrison Harrison went 4-0 with two submissions and two KOs and won her second PFL lightweight tournament.

A.J. McKee McKee won the Bellator featherweight championship by submitting Patricio Pitbull Freire. It was his only bout of the year, but it was spectacular against a high-level opponent.

Alexander Volkanovski Retained the UFC featherweight title with an impressive unanimous decision win over Brian Ortega at UFC 266, recording his 20th consecutive win in the process.

Valentina Shevchenko The UFC flyweight champion was 2-0, running her winning streak to eight with TKOs of Jessica Andrade and Lauren Murphy.

Julianna Pea Pea won the UFCs womens bantamweight title with a spectacular upset of Amanda Nunes, submitting her with a rear naked choke in the second round.

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2021 MMA Fighter of the Year: Kamaru Usman an easy choice - Yahoo Sports

The emergence of Web3, a vision of the internet built on blockchain-based, decentralized systems, has many investors licking their chops because of its financial upside. Meanwhile, others are betting on Web3s downfall. The rise of NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, in popularity and demand may be the clearest indication of Web3s promise.

NFTs will be ubiquitous, Brandon Buchanan, founder and managing partner of Meta4 Capital, a crypto-focused investment management firm, told Yahoo Finance this week. Everything we're doing now, and we're starting with art and collectives, will shift to gaming and everything from ticketing to events.

NFTs, which are one-of-a-kind digital assets, surpassed $22 billion in the global market this year, according to data from DappRadar, a firm that tracks sales, easily eclipsing the $100 million market in 2020. Highly sought after collections like Bored Ape Yacht Club turned images into lucrative investment assets. Buchanan bought a Bored Ape NFT with gold fur for a record $3.4 million at auction. The sale came several months after the artist known as Beeple sold an NFT for $69 million.

In many ways, Black Americans, like Buchanan, are leading the crypto revolution. Twenty-three percent of African-Americans own cryptocurrency, compared to 11% of white Americans and 17% of Hispanics, according to two recent surveys conducted by Harris Poll and provided to USA Today. Minority communities, who have historically been left out of growing industries like alcohol, marijuana and more, are now eager to be a part of this latest shift.

For some, owning a piece of this alternate reality is a unique opportunity; others see it as an advantageous play on the vulnerable, or as European tech critic Evgeny Morozov described it, hustlers looking for suckers. For his part, Twitter co-founder and current Square CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted Monday that VCs are the real owners of Web3.

But Buchanan disagrees with this assessment. As evidenced by large buy-in from Black culture, he sees Web3 as the future, led by those who have historically been on the outside looking in.

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Black people in particular are very connected to culture, Buchanan said. If you think about the internet and you think about memes, all you have to do is check the vernacular. Check what's happening in culture and music and certainly Black folks are on the front foot of that.

I think where you have this sort of gap is the financial resources to participate in some of these new economies that are starting, he added. I think some of the folks that are early in the technological world and have been buying crypto for a long time have an advantage and when you're looking at new products and new participants in the space you have to think about African Americans and minorities broadly who are interested in getting involved in the space.

As the narrative on NFTs shifts, Buchanan says, so too will the broader buy-in on its opportunity. Buchanan plans to build Meta4 Capital into the pre-eminent Web3/metaverse focused fund by acquiring the rarest NFT pieces that will pay dividends. The company has already invested tens of millions into highly sought after NFTs from rare digital avatars like Cyberkongz and CrypToadz, to several plots of digital land in varying metaverses.

I think the infrastructure that's being built and this movement from Web2 to Web3, where things are decentralized, will be to the benefit of the broader community, Buchanan said. So I don't think there's any danger in that. If anything, it's important for us to educate people on it now because I think new industries and new jobs and new roles will sprout out of this.

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Why Black Americans are leading the NFT, crypto revolution - Yahoo Finance

One of the problems in boxing recently is that champions tend to be risk averse and dont dare to be great. Thus, they dont seek out the fights that would prove their greatness.

The most obvious example of this is unified welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr., one of the most gifted fighters in the world, who seems to be doing everything in his power to avoid a bout with WBO champion Terence Crawford.

Thankfully, thats not how Canelo Alvarez rolls, and its why Alvarez is the 2021 Yahoo Sports boxing Fighter of the Year.

Alvarez went 3-0 in 2021, knocking out Avni Yildirim in a ridiculous mandatory he took to keep the WBC belt and keep his dream alive of becoming the first fighter ever to become the undisputed super middleweight champion.

He followed that up by stopping previously unbeaten Billy Joe Saunders after eight rounds, adding Saunders WBO belt to the WBA-WBC belts he already held. Then in November, Alvarez stopped another unbeaten world champion, finishing Caleb Plant in the 11th round to become the IBF champion and became the first undisputed super middleweight champion in the divisions history.

In the process, he became the first boxer of Mexican descent in any weight class to be an undisputed champion.

Alvarez fought three opponents who were a combined 72-2 at the time he met them and won all of them by knockout.

Canelo Alvarez beat three world champions in 2021 to become the first boxer of Mexican descent in any weight class to be an undisputed champion. (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)

There werent many close runners-up. Nonito Donaire comes in second on my card after going 2-0 with KO victories over Nordine Oubaali and Reymart Gaballo, both of which came in the fourth round.

He won the WBC bantamweight title from Oubaali, making him at 38 the oldest fighter to hold a bantamweight title. He then successfully defended it in December against Gaballo.

Crawford only fought once, but he point on a clinic in retaining his WBO welterweight title by stopping Shawn Porter. He showed hes the only legitimate challenge to Alvarezs spot as the sports top pound-for-pound champion.

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Oleksandr Usyk was the undisputed cruiserweight champion in 2018 and then moved to heavyweight. In his only fight of 2021, he showed he belonged by dominating Anthony Joshua and becoming the unified champion, winning the IBF-WBA-WBO belts.

Shakur Stevenson was 2-0 and defeated Jamel Herring in October to become the WBO super featherweight champion. He opened the year with a wide, if uninspiring victory over Jeremiah Nakathila. He heard the critics and rebounded with a vengeance, stopping Herring in the 10th of a one-sided bout.

Tyson Fury signed to fight Joshua for the undisputed title, but a day later, an arbiter ruled he must fight Deontay Wilder. He survived two fourth-round knockdowns to stop Wilder in a wildly entertaining slugfest.

George Kambosos Jr. won a split decision over Teofimo Lopez to become the undisputed lightweight champion. It was a dominant performance by Kambosos, who was lightly regarded going in but never wavered in his belief that hed beat Lopez.

Josh Taylor defeated Jose Ramirez to become the undisputed super lightweight champion, winning by scores of 114-112 on all cards. Taylor put Ramirez, who held the WBC-WBO belts entering the bout, down in Rounds 6 and 7 and cruised to the impressive win.

Gervonta Davis went 2-0, stopping Mario Barrios to win a secondary super lightweight title, then defeated Isaac Cruz by decision in December.

Vasiliy Lomachenko rebounded from his 2020 loss to Lopez with a ninth-round stoppage of Masayoshi Nakatani and a wide decision win over Richard Commey.

Amanda Serrano established herself as arguably the best female fighter in the world in going 3-0 with a knockout of Daniela Bermudez and decisions over Yamileth Mercado and Miriam Gutirrez.

Mikaela Mayer successfully defended her WBO super featherweight title twice, and added the IBF belt in the second of those.

Katie Taylor went 3-0, defending her undisputed lightweight title each time with a decision, by defeating Natasha Jonas, Jennnifer Han and Firuza Sharipova.

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2021 Boxing Fighter of the Year: Canelo Alvarez continues being the king - Yahoo Sports

A new data protection law is changing the calculus for doing business in China, with foreign and domestic firms scrambling to comply, and some companies including LinkedIn and Yahoochoosing to leave.

Chinas personal information protection law, implemented this month, is the latest factor adding to a challenging political environment for businesses operating in the country and altering the cost-benefit analysis. While the untapped business potential of 1.4 billion consumers was once an irresistible draw, this is increasingly changing.

James Zimmerman, a Beijing-based American lawyer, said that the China market had become less and less palatable for Western companies because of reputational risks of operating in an environment with extreme content censorship, and tighter regulatory conditions.

The trade war brought politics into U.S.-China business to a much greater degree, with Beijing and Washington wieldingtariffsandconsumer product boycottsin their power struggle. Domestically, Beijing has launched apopulist campaignagainst big business, effectively making the market less profitable for many companies under stricter new regulations.

Microsoft will shut down LinkedIn service in China after facing criticism for censoring postsAnd for some Western business executives, the human-rights controversies of President Xi Jinpings era have become a bridge too far, includinga crackdownon ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang region that Washington classified as genocide;silencing of Hong Kong protestersthrough use of force and imprisonment; and, most recently, the disappearance oftennis star Peng Shuaiafter she accused a former top official of sexual assault.

Womens Tennis Association Chairman Steve Simonsaid last weekthe organization is willing to cease its China operations, potentially losing hundreds of millions of dollars, if Chinese authorities dont properly investigate Pengs allegations.

On Nov. 2, the same day the allegations appeared on Pengs verified social media account, Yahooannouncedit was pulling out of the China market due to the increasingly challenging business and legal environment. Days earlier, LinkedIn had also cited a significantly more challenging operating environment in its decision toclose the Chinese versionof its networking site, though it said it would keep a simple China job listing site without a social feed or the capability to share articles.

Yahoo had been downsizing its China operations for years, faced with diminishing business in the country because of censorship and competition from local players. In 2007, the company came under intense criticism in the United States for turning over emails of two Chinese political dissidents to Beijing authorities, which were used as evidence in their prosecution; they were later imprisoned. Yahoo shut down its email service in China in 2013 and closed its Beijing office in 2015.

Still, the company hung on in the China market until now. While Yahoo didnt go into details about its reasons for leaving China, its announcement occurred as the new data protection law came into effect Nov. 1, which industry executives said would require multinational companies to make significant and costly changes to their processing and storage of data.

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Chinas rising cost of business is prompting some companies to leave - East Bay Times

As the final presents are bought and wrapped, and the sherry begins to flow, one question is hot on the tongue of families world-wide this festive season: When will you put down your phone and stop checking crypto?

Little do they understand the woes of a turbulent month of bearish Bitcoin divergence, nor do they understand the endless possibilities of what could happen next only one thing is certain its Christmas and its time to enjoy it.

In the festive spirit, Coin Rivet has compiled a barometer reading of experts crypto market sentiments for 2022 so you dont have to this holiday season.

For many of the experts, Web 3.0 has been veritably left out this year, although the significance of the sub-sector will continue to grow into 2022. Web 3.0 is focused on extending user utility in a decentralised capacity, and naturally this will place users as the central focus within the emergent technology.

Julian Sawyer, CEO of Bitstamp the worlds longest-standing crypto exchange, was keen to assert the viewpoint that customer interaction is a vitally human component of high tech systems.

In crypto especially, we use tech to drive our products and our business, however, our customer service is a space where we can be human, he explained.

The technical jargon in our industry is what causes customers to get confused or frustrated and we strive to be a place where people can enter the market with confidence.

In 2022, the focus should be on innovating products that provide a better customer experience, not to use the technology to separate potential customers out. As more people talk about metaverses, cyborgs and alternative realities, Im betting that people are going to want to talk to real people.

And Matt Zhang, the Founder of Hivemind Capital (a $1.5bn crypto fund built on the back of Algorand), concurs with this opinion adding the decentralised autonomous organisations (DAOs) will revolutionise user engagement in the future of industry, and the tech sector will be first.

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In 2022, we will see more companies explore alternative governance models using DAO and blockchain technology, highlighted Zhang.

This trend will be particularly obvious in the consumer tech sector, where consumers feedback on products shapes the longevity of the companies that provide those services in the first place.

Many have been quick to label 2021 as the year of institutional crypto adoption, however, the experts seem to suggest this moment is far from over amid economic concerns and the current state of adoption.

Diogo Monica, President of Anchorage Digital the first federally chartered crypto bank, explained how institutional adoption of crypto represented a generational wealth transfer that is evidenced by a maturing multi-asset class industry.

Its no longer just speculative investing in Bitcoin or Ethereum; were talking about NFTs, DeFi, remittances, capital preservation, and many other verticals, explained Diogo.

Well also see Bitcoin continue to act as a hedge against inflation, which continues to be important as rates rise.

Finally, banks and fintechs will continue to add support for crypto services across the board, as 2021 has shown us that the massive transfer of wealth to the millennial generation is well under way, and their needs are much different than their predecessors.

And Matthew Gould, CEO of Unstoppable Domains, a leading NFT domain name platform, highlighted how the standout performance of stablecoins in 2021 demonstrated the genuine utility of crypto to individuals and banks alike.

Stablecoins had a breakout year in 2021, reaching a market cap of over $152 billion. I predict that by 2024, the total market cap of stablecoins will reach $1 trillion, said Gould.

The biggest thing thats going to win over crypto skeptics is utility, and stablecoins are the best example of this stablecoins represent everything good about crypto without the speculation or the FOMO aspect, especially when you look at regulated stablecoins like USDC.

Kosala Hemachandra, the CEO of MyEtherWallet, believes that 2022 will deliver a new wave of NFT hype as the real use-cases finally emerge and come to fruition.

In 2022, Im looking forward to physical items such as car titles and house deeds becoming NFTs, said Hemachandra.

This will introduce a whole new game to crypto. NFTs are easy to understand, similar to collectibles in the real world.

Every wave of NFTs brings something new to the table, which means we havent even seen the full glory of NFTs yet.

Speaking to the metaverse, Colin Pape (Founder of Presearch), argued 2022 would be a battleground year that would see centralised entities and decentralised networks duke out ownership of online interactions.

Our collective shift towards the metaverse will continue to accelerate. This raises major concerns about privacy, explained Pape.

Its not just your Facebook account, its a shift to everything being online. Centralised companies like Facebook, Google, and Amazon will vie for control over our digital lives, so we need to focus on building a future that is a net positive.

The best way to do this is by offering alternatives to big tech platforms. As we shift towards a future in the metaverse, we should prioritise decentralised, open-source platforms, and educate people on alternatives to the centralised big tech platforms they use every day.

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Crypto experts break-down their 2022 industry predictions - Yahoo Finance

The pandemic remained a major force influencing growth in the U.S. economy in 2021.

But as vaccinations picked up and stay-in-place orders began getting lifted, the economy made notable strides in recovering throughout the year, albeit while remaining below pre-pandemic levels on many major metrics. But on other metrics and notably on inflation the economy has handily exceeded its pre-virus trends.

Were not going back to the same economy we had in February of 2020, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said during his post-FOMC meeting press conference on Dec. 15. And I think early on the sense was that thats where we were headed. The post-pandemic labor market and the economy, in general, will be different.

And indeed, many aspects of economic activity have shifted since the rapid spread of the coronavirus in the U.S. in early 2020. Extraordinary monetary and fiscal policies during the crisis provided stimulus for more than a year, helping buoy economic activity and bolster consumption. And as demand for goods, services and venturing out roared back, all of these factors have coalesced to drive up prices at multi-decade high rates.

Still, concerns about the coronavirus have lingered. The discovery of the Omicron variant in late November spurred a renewed wave of restrictions globally in recent weeks. And it has raised the specter that Americans may also begin to stay home more frequently and curb spending on services.

But so far, economic growth as a whole has increased at a solid clip in 2021. U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) grew at a real annualized rate of 6.4% in the first quarter, then 6.7% in the second and 2.1% in the third, based on the latest estimate for the quarter. The size of the economy as measured by GDP surpassed pre-pandemic levels in the second quarter this year, following 2020s brief but rapid plunge into recession.

Heading into the new year, heres a look back at how the U.S. economy evolved throughout 2021.

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The labor market has been one of the areas of the economy most profoundly impacted by the pandemic.

Jobs have come back at a steady pace throughout this year, after more than 22 million jobs were lost between March 2020 and April 2020 alone at the height of stay-in-place orders.

U.S. employers have added back payrolls in every single month so far in 2021, according to the Labor Departments monthly jobs reports. As many as nearly 1.1 million jobs were added back in July alone, while as few as 210,000 jobs were added back as of the latest jobs report for November.

The unemployment rate has also come down. It last improved to a reading of 4.2% in November, but still held above the 50-year low of 3.5% seen before the pandemic in February 2020. The jobless rate began the year at 6.3% in January.

In one sentence, what surprised me is how quickly we have recovered, Betsey Stevenson, former Labor Department chief economist and current professor of public policy and economics at the University of Michigan, told Yahoo Finance.

If you talked to people when this pandemic first started, they were worried that employers would be looking to automate and to replace workers with technology because technology doesn't get COVID, she added. And in fact, what we've seen is just record job openings. If we filled every single job opening that's out there right now, we'd have employment that was not just well above where we were pre-pandemic, but well above what anyone predicted pre-pandemic.

Even with the continued job growth throughout the year, employment remains below levels from February 2020, and job openings remain near record levels. This has especially shown up in the size of the civilian labor force, which is still much smaller than it was before the virus. As of November, the civilian labor force was down by 2.4 million workers, compared to February 2020. And the labor force participation rate was last at 61.8% short of February 2020s 63.3%.

And while more Americans are on the sidelines of the labor force than before the pandemic, job vacancies have soared, especially in the second half of this year.

As vaccinations began ramping up in the U.S. in the spring and summer, demand for goods and services and going back out again began to surge and hiring employers struggled to keep pace with that demand. That has especially been true for the service economy, which had already been hit hard during the pandemic with stay-in-place orders and layoffs, and was struggling to bring back enough workers to keep up with the pick-up in dining out, traveling on airplanes and shopping in stores.

In July, job openings hit a record high of nearly 11.1 million in the U.S. And as of the latest data for October, those vacancies were again above the 11 million mark. The quits rate has also remained elevated, suggesting workers have been feeling confident about their ability to leave their current jobs and find new ones. This rate came in at 2.9% in October, or just a tick below September's all-time high of 3.0%.

The fact that labor supply has been the biggest concern than demand has also shown up in the Labor Departments weekly jobless claims report. These hit the lowest level since 1969 in early December at 188,000.

Conflicting signals about slack that have plagued the labor market should become more harmonious by late 2022. Early on, pandemic-induced constraints on labor supply should linger, keeping wage growth firm and helping the unemployment rate to match pre-pandemic lows next year, wrote Deutsche Bank economists led by Matthew Luzzetti in a note last week. The firm expects the unemployment rate to reach 3.5% by the end of 2022, and then drop to as low as about 3.25% in 2023.

Beyond, a more convincing return of labor supply should help to ease wage pressures and moderate the decline in measures of slack, they added. Even so, our forecast for strong growth momentum pushes the unemployment rate to the lowest level in almost seven decades by 2023.

Inflation became a central focus for Wall Street and Main Street alike in 2021.

Outsized demand and persistent supply-side snarls throughout the second half of the year especially contributed to rising price pressures across the broad economy.

Most recently, consumer prices surged at their fastest pace since 1982 in November, with the Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index (CPI) jumping by 6.8% over the same month last year. Year-over-year increases in CPI had averaged just 1.8% throughout 2019 before the pandemic.

Producer prices have also risen sharply. Wholesale prices posted their fastest jump on record last month, surging 9.6% over November 2020. This Producer Price Index (PPI) began 2021 by posting just 1.6% 12-month price growth.

Core personal consumption expenditures (PCE), or the Federal Reserves preferred inflation gauge stripping out volatile food and energy prices, last posted a 4.5% year-on-year increase in November, coming in well above the central banks 2% target and reaching the fastest pace since 1991. Prior to the pandemic, core inflation had consistently undershot the Feds benchmark, and averaged just a 1.7% year-on-year increase throughout 2019.

While supply-side constraints including labor shortages, port congestion and supply shortages have been major drivers of the increases in inflation, many economists pointed out that the more than year-long regime of ultra-accommodative monetary policy also prevented there from being a lid on price increases this year.

Inflation jumped in 2021 on the back of supply and demand mismatches. We see inflation settling at levels higher than pre-COVID whenever these supply bottlenecks ease, BlackRock Investment Institute strategists led by Philipp Hildebrand and Jean Boivin wrote in the firms 2022 Global Outlook published on Dec. 13. One driver of this: Major central banks are living with more inflation than they would have in the past, showing a much more muted policy reaction.

Earlier during the year, the Fed had maintained inflation would prove transitory, and ultimately dissipate as supply-side constraints began to attenuate and as the economic data lapped last years pandemic-depressed levels. This term to describe the lingering price increases was retired in late November, however, as Fed Chair Powell acknowledged the prospects of more persistent inflation.

Strength in U.S. consumer spending was one of the driving features of the recovery this year.

Personal consumption, which comprises about two-thirds of U.S. economy activity, soared by 11.4% in the third quarter before accelerating to a 12.0% jump in the second quarter, and then pulling back to a just 1.7% annualized rise in the third quarter, according to data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Stimulus from the U.S. government was one critical component of the surge in consumption at the beginning of this year, as multiple rounds of direct checks to most Americans authorized under Congresss coronavirus relief bills helped bolster spending.

The surge and then moderation in spending has also been evident in the Commerce Departments monthly retail sales figures. At their peak rate this year, retail sales grew 11.3% month-on-month in March alone. However, these month-over-month increases have decelerated markedly, and retail sales last grew just 0.3% in November. On a year-over-year basis, however, retail sales remained higher by 18.2%.

People wear facemasks as they walk through Herald Square on January 8, 2021 in New York City. (Photo by Angela Weiss / AFP) (Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)

According to some economists, the slowdown in retail sales is likely to continue into next year after an initial surge in consumer demand gets further unwound.

Evidence of accelerated holiday spending, which lifted fourth quarter consumer spending, will likely yield to a post-holiday sales vacuum as supply constraints limit the incentive to offer the deep discounting typically associated with sales activity post-holiday, wrote Steven Ricchiuto, U.S. chief economist for Mizuho Securities, in a note.The slowing in November retail sales, after a robust September and October, is very consistent with our overall economic assessment as supply chain concerns pulled sales forward and with little, if any, pent-up demand left in the economy.

And while consumer spending has held up for now, prospects that persistent inflation and concerns over new coronavirus variants could curb spending going forward have also been looming. The University of Michigans closely watched Surveys of Consumers showed an only modest uptick in consumer sentiment in December after reaching a decade low in November. And one-year inflation expectations among consumers were unchanged at 4.9% from November to December, holding at the highest level since 2008.

The Conference Boards Consumer Confidence Index also last posted a decrease in November to reverse course from October. The index came in at 109.5 for last month, dipping well below the 2021 high of 128.9 in June, but still rising compared to the reading of 87.1 posted in January this year. Lynn Franco, senior director of economic indicators at The Conference Board, cited concerns about rising prices and, to a lesser degree, the Delta variant as cause for the most recent drop in confidence.

Ultimately, the trajectory for both the virus and inflation will be key in determining the path forward for consumer confidence and spending, some economists said.

Even though people are making more [as] their wages have risen, they're not rising as fast as prices are, Megan Greene, global chief economist at Kroll Institute, told Yahoo Finance Live. And so I think this will start to bite into demand.

I think we could continue to have supply chain disruptions through next year, she added. That means we'll have higher prices for sure that will drag on consumer demand. I think we'll still grow above potential in the U.S.

Emily McCormick is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter

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This TikToker told her brother hes about to become an uncle by giving him a onesie, but he thought it was a gift for his cat.

Misunderstandings can be hilarious. No one knows this better than TikToker Hannah (@hanns117) who recently posted a hysterical and heartwarming video where she announces her pregnancy to her brother by giving him a onesie, which he thinks is for his cat.

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The clip, which has 14 million views and counting, begins with a shot of Hannahs brother, Zack, wearing a Cleveland Browns shirt, eagerly unwrapping a present.

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Oh my god, lets go! Zack yells as he holds up a Cleveland Browns onesie. He then jumps up from his chair and runs to his cat.

Upon realizing that her brother genuinely thinks the onesie is a gift for his cat, Hannah and her partner immediately break into fits of laughter.

This is siiiick! Zack says, holding up the onesie again. Yo, come here girl, he calls, running after his cat while Hannah and her partner laugh uncontrollably.

Zack carries his cat over to the kitchen counter and begins to dress the pet in the onesie. Zack, its not for the cat, Hannahs partner says from behind the camera.

Whats it for? asks Zack, who then finally realizes the onesie is for a baby. He then looks directly at the camera with an expression of shock and excitement before running over to hug his sister.

Lets goooo! Woooo! Zack shouts, picking his sister up and spinning her around before the clip ends with the caption, Hes going to be the best uncle ever.

Viewers all over TikTok definitely agreed that Zack will make a super fun uncle.

Hes already earned the funcle title, commented one user.

The fact that his automatic reaction was outfit for my cat, yes, thats a good cat dad and a fantastic uncle right there. Congratulations, said another viewer.

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If the video is any indication, Hannahs baby will be born into a family with lots of laughter and love.

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The post Cat dad gets promoted to uncle with hilarious onesie misunderstanding: The funniest and sweetest reaction ever appeared first on In The Know.

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Cat dad gets promoted to uncle with hilarious onesie misunderstanding: The funniest and sweetest reaction ever - Yahoo Sports

A replacement for Texas A&M in the Gator Bowl has been identified.

With Texas A&M unable to field a team due to COVID-19 cases on its roster, Rutgers will fill in for the Aggies and take on Wake Forest in Jacksonville.

Typically, a team needs to reach six wins in order to go to a bowl game. If there are no available 6-6 teams for an empty bowl slot, the 5-7 teams with the highest Academic Performance Rate (APR) are next in line.

Of the teams with a 5-7 record this season, Rutgers had the highest APR and was the first to receive the invitation to take Texas A&Ms spot. The Scarlet Knights accepted and will now play in a bowl game for the first time since 2014.

The Gator Bowl will take place on Dec. 31 at 11 a.m. ET as originally scheduled.

The NCAA Division I Football Oversight Committee said Thursday that any bowl game could be moved to as late as Jan. 10 without a waiver in order accommodate schools that might need additional time to prepare for competition. Though Rutgers has not been practicing since its regular season ended with a loss to Maryland on Nov. 27, the game will remain in its original time slot.

Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano leads his team onto the field for an NCAA college football game against Penn State in State College, Pa., Saturday, Nov. 20, 2021. (AP Photo/Barry Reeger)

Rutgers is in its second stint with Greg Schiano as head coach. He first spent 11 seasons as the head coach from 2001 to 2011 and brought the program to unprecedented success. That included leading the Scarlet Knights to six winning seasons and five bowl victories over his final seven years. Schiano left after the 2011 season to become the head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Schiano spent two seasons in the NFL and then had a three-season run as Ohio States defensive coordinator before returning to Rutgers ahead of the 2020 season. In the five seasons prior to Schianos return, Rutgers had a combined 13-47 record with a 4-40 mark in Big Ten play. Over the past two seasons under Schiano, Rutgers is 8-13 overall and 5-13 in conference.

After going 3-6 in 2020, the Scarlet Knights opened the 2021 season by winning all three of their non-conference games. They struggled in Big Ten play, however, and were only able to beat Illinois and Indiana. Bowl eligibility was on the line for both teams when Rutgers hosted Maryland in the regular season finale, but the Terps came away with a 40-16 victory.

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"This is an exciting time for Rutgers," Schiano said. "I'm so happy for our players to be able to experience a great bowl game atmosphere. Anytime you can go out and test yourself against the country's top talent, it creates a tremendous opportunity for our players to grow and develop.

Wake Forest, meanwhile, went 10-2 in the regular season and won the ACC Atlantic division. The Demon Deacons then fell to Pittsburgh in the ACC title game but were hoping to cap off a historic season in the Gator Bowl against an SEC opponent.

When A&M dropped out, Wake coach Dave Clawson said his team still wanted to play and was open to a replacement opponent.

This is just the second time in program history that Wake Forest has reached 10 wins in a season. With a bowl win, the Demon Deacons will tie a program record set in 2006. That season included the program's only other division title and ACC championship game appearance.

"Our outstanding group of seniors deserves this proper send off as we compete for a championship next week," Clawson said. "Coach Greg Schiano does a great job and I have tremendous respect for him and his staff. We expect a very tough game against a talented and well-coached team."

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Rutgers will replace Texas A&M, play Wake Forest in Gator Bowl - Yahoo Sports