(SAN FRANCISCO) — A Chinese national was arrested Wednesday in California and charged with allegedly stealing confidential trade secrets from Google’s Artificial Intelligence program while secretly working for two AI startup companies based in China, according to a newly unsealed indictment.
Linwei Ding, a 38-year-old resident of Newark, joined Google as a software engineer in 2019 and was tasked with developing the software used by the tech giant in their supercomputing data centers, according to court records.
But prosecutors say three years into the job, he allegedly began secretly stealing confidential trade secrets — including “the building blocks” of the company’s data centers that were used for training AI models to understand language and generate responses to queries, court records show.
Over a roughly year-long span, Ding is alleged to have uploaded more than 500 files with confidential information, all while prosecutors allege he was secretly starting to work for two China-based AI tech startups — including one he founded himself.
Ding allegedly traveled to China on two separate instances — October 2022 and November 2023 — to participate in business meetings and even attend a conference where he pitched his company to prospective investors, according to court records.
According to one document obtained by prosecutors, Ding advertised his company’s services by specifically citing his experience with Google’s supercomputer platform.
“We just need to replicate and upgrade it — and then further develop a computational power platform suited to China’s national conditions,” the document said, court records show.
Ding is also alleged to have taken specific steps to avoid being caught by Google, including copying secret files into his Google Cloud by first copying them into his Apple Notes application and then converting them to PDFs, according to court documents.
In December 2023, Google was alerted to him uploading some files and he was confronted by an internal investigator, court documents show. Ding allegedly told the investigator he uploaded it as evidence of the work he was doing but that he had no intention of leaving the company.
That same week, Ding allegedly had a fellow employee scan his Google access badge at the building three separate times to make it appear as if he was there, prosecutors claim, and soon after booked a one-way ticket to Beijing. He then emailed his resignation to his manager, according to court records, and the company soon after learned of his presentation at the investor conference. The FBI was alerted and secured warrants to search Ding’s house and Google Cloud account.
Ding was taken into custody Wednesday morning and faces four federal counts of theft of trade secrets. If convicted, he could face up to 10 years in prison for each count. He did not have an attorney listed on his court docket as of Wednesday afternoon.
(NEW YORK) — Target has announced a paid membership program set to begin next month, launching a subscription service similar to those on offer at competitors Amazon and Walmart.
The membership program, called Target Circle 360, will cost $99 per year, unless new customers sign up at a discounted rate of $49 available until May 18, the company said in a statement Tuesday.
Subscribers will receive free same-day delivery in as little as one hour for goods available through its in-house delivery service, as well as discounted prices and 30 extra days to return products.
For hundreds of thousands of items unavailable through the in-house delivery service, subscribers will enjoy free two-day shipping.
“We’ve prioritized building strong relationships with guests since Target’s inception, and our reimagining of Target Circle continues that commitment,” Cara Sylvester, Target’s executive vice president and chief guest experience officer, said in the company’s statement.
Target’s branded credit and debit cards will afford subscribers an additional 5% discount on any shopping trip for those enrolled in the membership program.
Since 2019, Target has offered a free subscription service called Target Circle, which has served more than 100 million customers, the company said. The new membership program will preserve a free option while adding the paid service.
The fresh offering from Target debuts at a lower price than an Amazon Prime membership, which costs customers $139 per year but includes additional benefits such as access to the e-commerce giant’s streaming service, Prime Video.
The membership program at Walmart costs customers $98 per year, affording them special discounts, same-day delivery, gas price discounts at partner locations and other perks.
Sylvester told analysts Tuesday about the importance of the subscription program for the company’s bottom line.
Last year, members of the company’s free membership program visited Target five times more often and spent five times more than guests who weren’t members, Sylvester said.
The new paid subscription service places additional emphasis on the company’s shift toward e-commerce, which was accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“For those who want the magic of Target delivered to their door in as little as one hour, there’s Target Circle 360,” Sylvester said.
Target invested $100 million last year in a plan to improve its e-commerce business with an expanded delivery network. By 2026, the company will add at least 15 additional warehouses known as sortation centers, Target said in February 2023.
Speaking during an earnings call Tuesday, Target CEO Brian Cornell touted measures taken by the company to enhance its e-commerce service, especially same-day delivery.
“Continued innovation and better integration with our target ecosystem means we’re ready to expand same-day delivery for our guests while also building on our next-day capabilities,” Cornell said.
Target sales declined 4.4% over the three months ending in January compared to the same period last year, an earnings report on Tuesday showed. The slide in sales was less severe than analysts expected.
Digital sales dropped 0.7% in the three-month period compared to the same quarter last year, which marked an improvement from the 6% decline in the previous quarter.
Shares of Target climbed 2.5% in early trading on Wednesday.
The paid membership program makes up a key part of the company’s plan to reverse the decline and return to growth, Cornell said Tuesday.
“This road map will help us meet consumers where they are,” Cornell said.
(LAS VEGAS) — Las Vegas is testing the future of airport screening with self-security checks and ABC News’ Good Morning America got a firsthand look at how it works.
ABC News transportation correspondent Gio Benitez went to Harry Reid International Airport to try what could be the future of air travel with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).
Passengers enter the self-service screening lane, which has multiple sensors, and are met with a virtual call with an agent.
“Is there anything I need to know about my shoes or the bag?” Benitez asked the TSA agent.
“Yeah. So since you are pre-check, you may keep shoes on, but make sure you grab one of the trays that are located next to you,” the agent instructed.
As travelers put the bags through a scanner, they will walk through an all glass scanner, which is slightly different than the standard ones seen in most airports.
“The scanner has all this glass here. So we’re going to get in here. Oh and it shows you that you have to stand differently,” Benitez said while getting into the scanner. “Once the machine clears me, I get my bag and I’m on my way.”
Benitez said, “It’s really very minimal contact with just about anybody.”
One additional convenience for any forgetful travelers, if an item like a wallet or phone are left behind in a security bin, the system stops the tray and alerts the passenger so they can grab their belongings.
While it may take some getting used to and could slow folks down at first, Christina Peach, the branch manager for the TSA innovation task force, is ready to see what works and what doesn’t.
“I’m hoping for a lot of feedback — even the negative feedback because you’re always going to get a little bit of both,” she told ABC News.
While some may wonder if this is a way to cut down on TSA officers, Peach reassured, “we will always have officers.” She added that TSA agents “are the most important part of any of our systems, but we will be reallocating them to busier aspects of the screening process.”
TSA officer Ken Nixt told ABC News that while the new screening is more hands off, he’s still there and ready to help in person, explaining, “we’re just making sure that we’re following through all the security measures that are needed to ensure a safe travels.”
This is currently just a test in Las Vegas and is not yet launching at other airports.
Those traveling through Harry Reid International Airport can use the new lane and help as TSA develops the possible future of airport security.
(NEW YORK) — Tax season, for many, conjures kitchen-table drudgery spent revisiting pay stubs and financial choices. For some, though, a reward awaits: a tax refund.
The possibility and scale of a refund can hinge on the approach taken by a tax filer, financial advisors told ABC News.
Tax credits, retirement account contributions and deductibles are among the avenues that determine whether taxpayers receive money back from the U.S. government, they said.
Here’s what to know about how to get a bigger tax refund, according to experts:
Choose the deduction that’s right for you
Tax season presents filers with a choice about how to pursue deductions.
Every taxpayer enjoys the opportunity to avail themselves of the standard deduction, which reduces a filer’s taxable income by a set amount. This year, the standard deduction for a single filer amounts to $14,600; while married filers can deduct $29,200.
On the other hand, filers can opt to itemize their deductions if the combined amount exceeds that available to them under the standard deduction. Charitable donations, gambling losses and mortgage interest are among the expenses available for itemized deductions, the Internal Revenue Service website says.
The standard deduction expanded under the tax overhaul enacted by Trump in 2017, making that option the preferable one for most filers, Dan White, an author and founder of the financial advisory firm Daniel A. White & Associates, told ABC News.
“We see very few people itemize anymore,” White said.
However, White added, taxpayers who opt for itemized deductions should plan to take on all eligible expenses in the same calendar year, thereby maximizing the total deduction.
“If you want to go that route, look at bunching all of your deductions in a single year,” White said.
Take advantage of tax credits
A laser-eyed focus on tax deductions risks overlooking another source of savings: tax credits.
“Everyone typically thinks of itemizing their deductions to increase the return, but many people forget to check tax credits, which can make a big difference,” Gregory King, a certified public accountant and tax specialist with financial advisory firm Empower, told ABC News.
For instance, filers can again take advantage of an electric vehicle tax credit put into effect by the Inflation Reduction Act.
Individuals can obtain an EV tax credit of up to $7,500 if they purchase an eligible vehicle and earn less than $150,000. Since the credit is nonrefundable, a filer cannot gain more from the credit than they owe in taxes.
Another tax credit enacted by the IRA, which allows homeowners to upgrade their residence’s energy efficiency, has expanded this year. Earners who take advantage of the tax credit can receive a refund equivalent to 30% of the cost of renovations.
The child tax credit, meanwhile, affords up to $2,000 per child for filers with dependents under 17.
Some taxpayers may also benefit from a potential expansion of the child tax credit. Earlier this month, the House passed a bill that would increase the child tax credit to as much as $3,600 for some filers, raising it significantly from its current level of $2,000.
At least for now, the measure hovers in legislative limbo, awaiting a vote in the Senate. If the credit ultimately goes into effect, IRS officials will automatically apply it to qualifying earners.
“The child tax credit is a big one,” James Cox, a financial advisor and managing partner of Virginia-based Harris Financial Group, told ABC News. “That can create thousands of dollars for a family.”
Contribute to a retirement account
Another surefire way to achieve tax savings is a contribution to a retirement account — and it’s not too late to start.
Contributions are tax deductible for a range of accounts such as 401(k)’s and traditional IRA’s.
Through the end of the tax filing period, on April 15, such contributions will count toward deductions from the prior year’s taxes.
“You can make a contribution, keep all money in your own IRA account and reduce your taxes,” Cox said. “It’s kind of a double benefit.”
Make a donation
Tax-deductible donations offer a common and accessible route for shaving your tax bill, if you have excess income to share, experts said.
It’s too late, however, to make donations that would alter a tax refund this time around.
“You can’t make donations now and count them toward a prior year’s taxes,” Cox said. “That won’t work.”
(MENLO PARK, Ca.) — A Meta spokesperson acknowledged reports of outages on Tuesday for Facebook, Instagram and Threads, preventing some U.S. users from logging on to the sites, Meta told ABC News in a statement.
“We’re aware people are having trouble accessing our services. We are working on this now,” Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said in a statement.
More than 300,000 reports of an outage at Facebook were received on Tuesday morning by DownDetector, a site that tracks problem reports from users. DownDetector also tallied nearly 50,000 reports of an outage at Instagram.
An array of commerce tools on the platforms are experiencing major disruptions, including Ads Manager and Meta Business Suite, according to Meta’s website.
“We are aware of an issue users are having logging into our platforms,” the site says. “Our engineering teams are aware and are actively looking to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — Ten days after the Super Bowl, Wall Street held its own version — at least that’s the way some traders on social media described it.
Nvidia, which had soared to prominence selling the majority of chips behind the artificial intelligence boom, was set to release buzzy quarterly earnings that could move markets.
The company didn’t disappoint, shattering expectations with a 265% surge in revenue compared to a year earlier.
The following day, the S&P 500 jumped 2.5%; while the tech-heavy Nasdaq rose nearly 3%.
“That was strictly because of Nvidia’s good earnings. It demonstrated the power of AI,” Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at trading firm Interactive Brokers, told ABC News.
“But I was wondering: What if we flipped it on its head and Nvidia failed to deliver?” Sosnick added. “If you live by a narrow group of stocks and that group is really dragging the market higher, it increases the level of risk.”
The stock market has climbed since the outset of last year, driven in large part by a group of major tech companies propelled by enthusiasm over AI. Bulls said the trend exemplifies typical concentration at the beginning of a technological revolution, as a few firms with outsized resources develop and popularize AI.
Critics, however, warn that profit-making uses of AI remain a far-off vision, risking a market downturn if the technology falls short of the watershed that boosters have promised. Many people with 401(k)s and college funds dependent on the S&P 500 could end up burned, some analysts told ABC News.
“AI has gone into hyperdrive,” Sosnick said. “Everyday people buy into the S&P 500 because they think it’s a diverse set of stocks. With the concentration right now, that’s an underappreciated risk.”
Major stock indexes drew a bump in recent months from investors optimistic about benefits of the newly prominent technology.
However, those gains were concentrated primarily in a handful of tech giants, known as the so-called “Magnificent 7”: Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Tesla and Nvidia.
Since the S&P 500 is weighted based on company value, larger firms make up a bigger share of the index.
“The AI revolution has been the fuel in the engine for the tech bull market and the broader markets,” Dan Ives, a managing director of equity research at investment firm Wedbush, told ABC News.
Microsoft, the most valuable company in the world, saw its shares soar nearly 75% since the beginning of last year.
That stretch began with an announcement, in January 2023, that Microsoft was investing $10 billion in OpenAI, the artificial intelligence firm that developed ChatGPT. Months later, Microsoft’s Bing became the default search engine for ChatGPT.
Apple, the world’s second largest company, is working on plans to incorporate generative AI into all of its devices, Bloomberg reported in October. Earlier this month, Nvidia became the third-largest company on the planet.
Analysts bullish on the market acknowledge the concentration at the top but expect the AI-driven gains to broaden as the technology pervades the economy and smaller companies gain notoriety.
“Chatbots are just the tip of the iceberg,” Mike Loukas, CEO of TrueMark Investments, which specializes in exchange-traded funds, or ETFs. “The AI revolution is real and it’s here to stay.”
TrueMark Investments offers an ETF that allows investors to buy shares pegged to a basket of roughly two-dozen AI-related firms, spanning from Nvidia to a host of lesser-known names. The ETF has surged 52% over the past year.
“To me, the early stages are always reflective of people buying what they can see and touch and understand,” Loukas added. “Right now, that’s the big companies in the news that are blowing the doors off of earnings. It will broaden out.”
The flood of investment in AI has elicited corporate spending on the technology, which will thrust the technology into the wider market and boost further gains, said Ives.
“We’re going to see the ripple effect from this massive spending wave,” Ives said.
Skeptics abound, however. They point to what they consider a lack of evidence that AI will be of use to firms beyond a narrow set of tech juggernauts. Without wider adoption, they say, the market explosion could fizzle.
A study released last month by a group of researchers at major universities and federal agencies found fewer than 6% of firms used AI-related technologies, though a majority of very large firms reported at least some AI use.
Kristina McElheran, a business professor at the University Toronto and a co-author of the study, said observers face difficulty accurately assessing private sector use of AI, since there is not a single agreed-upon definition of the technology and some companies keep their efforts secret.
However, market euphoria about AI risks outpacing what appears to be modest adoption so far, McElheran added.
“What I am worried about is that the rate and level of excitement and investment is exceeding the rate and level of actual absorption and adoption inside firms,” McElheran said. “That disconnect is troublesome.”
Sosnick, of Interactive Brokers, said an AI boom would require adoption from companies big and small that lack an immediate connection to the technology.
“If you’re just a regular company, it’s not clear how AI is benefiting you yet,” Sosnick said. “Is this helping Pepsi do their work more efficiently? Hard to say.”
Nvidia, Sosnick added, is “essentially selling the picks and shovels to the gold miners.”
“Ultimately though the real success or failure of AI will be whether it flows down to the bottom line of other companies,” he said. “So far it’s not clear that that’s the case.”
(WASHINGTON) — The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau finalized a rule Tuesday that will cut the typical credit card late fee to $8 from $32.
The financial regulator estimates the move will save American families $10 billion every year — an average savings of $220 annually for more than 45 million people who are charged late fees when they don’t pay their statements by the due date.
“Today’s rule ends the era of big credit card companies hiding behind the excuse of inflation when they hike fees on borrowers and boost their own bottom lines,” CFPB Director Rohit Chopra said in a statement.
The agency said its new rule closes a loophole in a federal law called the CARD Act that allowed major credit card issuers to charge customers growing fees when they were late on their payments. Over time, those late charges ballooned to as much as $41. The new rule would cap them at $8.
It would also prevent card issuers from automatically increasing fees based on inflation.
Industry groups representing big banks and credit card issuers have opposed the rule, arguing it could force them to raise interest rates they charge consumers.
“The rule’s policy goals are, at best, consumer redistribution, not consumer protection,” the Consumer Bankers Association, which represents banks and credit card issuers, said in a statement.
The CFPB’s rule is expected to take effect in mid-May. It applies to issuers with more than one million open accounts.
Biden administration officials said “a handful of large banks” account for $14 billion in credit card late fees charged to American households every year.
President Joe Biden is expected to highlight the rule being finalized when he meets with his Competition Council on Tuesday, along with a handful of other actions he’s taking to try to lower costs and to sell his economic policies as benefitting Americans ahead of November’s election.
Biden is expected to highlight a new report from the Council of Economic Advisers that the administration’s actions on “junk fees” alone will save Americans more than $20 billion every year.
He’s also announcing the launch of a new Strike Force to crack down on unfair and illegal practices that keep prices high.
The Strike Force will target behavior that hikes prices on Americans through “anti-competitive, unfair, deceptive, or fraudulent business practices,” and focus on areas such as “prescription drugs and health care, food and grocery, housing and financial services.”
The Competition Council will also announce efforts to go after poultry and meat processors by announcing a finalized new rule to protect farmers and ranchers and promote competitive agricultural markets.
One other area they’re tackling is “bulk billing” by internet providers, specifically highlighting a proposed Federal Communications Commission rule that would ban the practice where landlords charge everyone living or working in a building for a particular internet, cable or satellite service, even if they don’t want it or haven’t opted in.
This decision to highlight these efforts to save Americans money comes two days before Biden delivers his State of the Union Address, in which he’s expected to lay out the work his administration has done to lower everyday costs for Americans.
(NEW YORK) — Do fewer working hours boost a company’s overall productivity? A recent study out of the United Kingdom suggests the four-day workweek model benefits businesses and employees alike.
One year after 61 U.K. companies opted to participate in a four-day week pilot study, 89% of the companies continued to keep the structure in place.
More efficiency, happier employees and lower turnover rates are among the positive results found by the study, announced this week.
The 2022 study, conducted by the think tank Autonomy alongside the 4-Day Week Campaign and 4-Day Week Global, began as a six-month trial that has extended to the one-year mark and, in some cases, made permanent.
Forgoing the standard five-day workweek model, the participating organizations agreed to complete 100% of the usual workload in 80% of the time worked — with no reduction of pay.
After one year, 51% of the companies have decided to implement the four-day workweek permanently and 89% have decided to continue the structure through the year.
In a follow-up survey with the participating companies’ managers and CEOs, 100% reported that the four-day week had a “positive” or “very positive” impact on their organization, according to the study.
When researchers asked what the four-day structure had changed, 82% of surveyed companies reported positive impacts on staff well-being. 50% saw positive effects on reducing staff turnover and 32% said the policy had noticeably improved their recruitment, the study reports.
In a separate follow-up survey with the staff members of the participating companies, the benefits of the four-day workweek were felt both in and out of the office.
“Improvements in physical and mental health, work-life balance and general life satisfaction, as well as reductions in burnout, found at the end of the original pilot have all been maintained one year on,” researchers said.
Looking to the future, a recent poll commissioned by the U.K. 4-Day Week Campaign found that 58% of the public expects the four-day workweek to be the standard way of working by 2030, according to the study.
Internationally, the study notes that the four-day workweek has become a key demand in some trade union negotiations in countries such as the United States, Germany and Italy.
Spain, Iceland and South Africa are among the nations that have implemented a trial of the four-day workweek for select companies and workers.
In November 2023, Belgium imposed a law that requires employers to offer full-time workers the right to request a four-day workweek.
At the state level in the U.S., lawmakers in Massachusetts introduced a bill in April 2023 that would provide employers with a tax credit if they shift at least 15 workers to four days a week without cutting their pay.
In California, a lawmaker re-introduced his 32-hour Workweek Act to Congress in March 2023, which would set the standard workweek at 32 hours.
At the time, Rep. Mark Takano said the act would be “a significant change which will increase the happiness of humankind. That’s a very big statement. But it was a big deal 100 years ago when we gave people the weekend by passing the Fair Labor Standards Act.”
Takano initially introduced the legislation to Congress in 2021.
An ‘Apartments for Rent’ sign hangs in front of a building on Dec. 06, 2022 in Miami Beach, Fla. — Joe Raedle/Getty Images, FILE
(NEW YORK) — Half of Americans are burdened by the cost of housing, according to a recent Harvard study, officially capturing the grim reality facing renters nationwide.
Marianne Smith, a 65-year-old Oklahoma resident, is one of them — paying about 35% of her income toward rent, she said in an interview with ABC News.
“I eat or I pay my bills,” Smith told ABC News. “Had I not had family and friends that could afford to just put money in my bank account, I’d be on the streets.”
In 2023, Smith says a medical emergency left her in an ongoing state of economic vulnerability. Smith is widowed and says she can’t work due to a genetic blood disorder and other health conditions.
Her only income is the $1,844 Social Security Disability Insurance she gets monthly, which she’s been using to pay her outstanding medical bills and rent. She says her rental cost alone is $660 a month.
However, she says her rent has been increasing every year, with each signing of the apartment’s yearlong lease, putting more and more pressure on her wallet. The median gross rent in the state of Oklahoma stands at $934, according to the U.S. Census.
When asked how a reduction in her Lawton, Oklahoma, renting costs could impact her life, Smith said: “Oh my God. I’d eat three meals a day instead of two or one. Let’s start there.”
Sarah Saadian, the Senior Vice President of Public Policy and Field Organizing at the National Low-Income Housing Coalition, said rental costs are putting households nationwide on the brink.
“When you’re devoting so much of your very limited income toward housing, it means that any sort of financial hiccup – your car breaks down, your kid is sick and you miss a day of work – that very easily can spiral out of control,” said Saadian.
She continued, “More and more households that are struggling to pay rent are living just one sort of financial shock away from facing evictions and, in worst cases, homelessness.”
Rent puts pressure on daily choices for many Americans
Rent reached historic highs in 2021 and 2022, the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University report found. And currently, more Americans are burdened by rent than ever before. Harvard defines “cost-burdened households” as those that spend more than 30% of income on rent and utilities.
Median rents were 21% higher in 2022 than they were in 2001, with adjustments for inflation. However, renters’ incomes have risen just 2% during the same period.
And though rental costs are cooling, they remain well above pre-pandemic costs.
Of the 22.4 million renters who are rent-burdened, the study found that roughly half of them are spending more than 50% of their income toward rent.
This has impacted Americans across a broad range of income levels.
Since 2019, Harvard found that the cost burden intensified the most for middle-income renter households earning $30,000 to $74,999 annually. About 40% of households earning $45,000 to $74,999 were rent-burdened, and almost 70% of households between $30,000 and $44,999 were burdened.
In 2022, 83% of low-income households were cost-burdened, with 65% experiencing severe burdens.
This all comes as the U.S. economy continues to perform well on other measures of economic health: Inflation is falling, job growth is surging and gross domestic product is proving much more resilient than expected in the aftermath of near-historic interest rate hikes.
Affordable housing access isn’t keeping up
Not only is it that rentals are getting more expensive, but states across the country are actually losing the number of apartments that qualify as low-rent and have been since 2011, according to the Joint Center for Housing Studies.
“We have this widening gap between what people earn and how much their housing costs and, at the same time, we have a severe shortage of homes, especially those that are affordable to people with the very lowest incomes,” said Saadian.
For those searching for a place to stay, the outlook on affordable housing is bleak. A growing share of U.S. households can’t find housing they can afford, Harvard researchers found.
Xzandria Armstrong, a 38-year-old Georgia resident, has been on the hunt for affordable housing for several years.
She said she has experienced housing instability with her two children throughout those years – her lack of a credit history, she said, has made applying for housing difficult.
She said she’d been denied repeatedly, as compounding application fees only worsened her financial situation. She said she and her family were forced to move between homeless shelters, short-term rentals and sleeping in her car while waiting to be accepted.
“These children are growing up in hotel lobbies and this is their childhood. It makes me sad. And I think that we can do better,” said Armstrong.
After receiving housing vouchers, she said she was only left with options in neighborhoods or housing that she felt was unsafe for her children.
She says that lawmakers should look at the housing they’re supplying for low-income families: “He or she would probably be flabbergasted and be like, ‘I’d like to live in none of these.’ But that’s what you chose for us, who voted for you.”
Donna Wilson, a 65-year-old Texas resident, works part-time on top of receiving governmental assistance for her disability and senior housing.
She said it’s barely enough to get by, to cover her medication, rent, and other essentials.
“I cannot afford to get a full-time job, because I would lose my benefits,” she said, adding that even if she had a full-time job and lost her benefits, she likely wouldn’t make enough to afford those necessities anyway.
Wilson was a single parent for much of her life and said she leaned on homeless shelters in emergencies for housing.
Homelessness has been on the rise across the country since 2016, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, prompting Wilson to become an anti-poverty activist with the Poor People’s Campaign to use her experiences to advocate for change.
“You see so many unhoused people because they can’t afford the rent for whatever reason — these are educated people, these are veterans. This is no accident,” she said.
A recent report from the Department of Housing and Urban Development found more than 650,000 people were experiencing homelessness on a single night in January 2023, a 12% increase from 2022.
Harvard researchers found that the “most fundamental driver of the nation’s growing homelessness” is the ongoing housing affordability crisis.
“When you look at a person on the street, don’t look down on ’em, because you don’t know what their situation is,” Wilson said. “You don’t know what made them become unhoused.”
The largest cryptocurrency has soared more than 20% over the last four days, approaching an all-time high. By contrast, the S&P 500 has dropped slightly over that period.
On Wednesday, the price of bitcoin surpassed $64,000 for the first time since November 2021.
The upsurge stems primarily from an explosion of investment in bitcoin ETFs, a novel investment vehicle approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission last month, analysts told ABC News. That initial burst of gains, they added, triggered a stampede of investors fearful of missing out on the returns.
“It’s been a wild ride,” Katie Stockton, the founder of market research firm Fairlead Strategies, told ABC News.
A bitcoin ETF (exchange-traded fund) allows investors to buy into an asset that tracks the price movement of bitcoin, while avoiding the inconvenience and risk of purchasing the cryptocurrency coin itself.
For instance, an ETF for gold allows individuals and institutions to put money on the price movement of the precious metal, rather than having to buy, transport and store the physical item.
A bitcoin ETF, in turn, gives investors access to the cryptocurrency market without facing the technical impediments and fees associated with navigating a crypto exchange.
Soon after the SEC approved the new investing option, a slew of bitcoin ETFs became available, including offerings from legacy firms such as Fidelity and Franklin Templeton.
The new crypto alternatives unleashed billions of dollars in investment within weeks, Bryan Armour, the director of passive strategies research at financial firm Morningstar, told ABC News. The nine leading bitcoin ETFs have received a combined $10 billion since last month, Armour said.
“There has been a very successful launch for pretty much all of these ETFs,” Armour said. “It’s just crazy for seven weeks on the market.”
When investors place their money in a bitcoin ETF, the funds in turn purchase bitcoin, increasing demand for the cryptocurrency and potentially causing a jump in price, Armour added.
Since bitcoin ETFs gained approval on Jan. 10, the price of bitcoin has skyrocketed 30%.
“There has been significant trading volume,” Armour said.
The rally in recent weeks gave rise to an additional wave of investment when traders witnessed the initial price spike and sought to jump on board, said Stockton, of Fairlead Strategies.
Over roughly a week in the middle of February, the price of bitcoin hovered in a “tight range” at about $51,000, Stockton said, adding that when it broke past that threshold on Monday, the new heights stoked optimism and an onrush of investment.
“The run-up that we’ve seen over the past four days has been really explosive,” Stockton said.
Despite the breakneck pace of gains in recent weeks, some analysts cautioned about the past volatility of bitcoin and the possibility of an imminent price plateau, or even downswing.
In the immediate aftermath of the bitcoin ETF approval, for instance, the price of bitcoin dropped 15% before rebounding, Armour said. Over the past five years, he added, bitcoin has plummeted more than 40% on four separate occasions.
“Investors could expect it to either go up substantially or drop in half,” Armour said. “Anything can happen.”
James Butterfill, head of research at digital asset management firm CoinShares, acknowledged concern about bitcoin’s rapid price ascent, but also pointed to reasons for optimism.
“When you see the price move so dramatically higher, it always worries you a little bit,” Butterfill told ABC News. “Is it sustainable?”
However, Butterfill notes that the price surge has coincided with a period of stubbornly high interest rates, suggesting that the jump in demand owes little to excess cash in search of a place to land.
“It’s not some crazy speculation,” Butterfill said. “There’s genuine demand for this.”
