Cyberspace crimes will cost the global economy $445 billion in 2016.
This estimate from the World Economic Forum’s 2016 Global Risks Report comes as hackers become more sophisticated every day.
And it’s not only giant corporations being targeted. Hackers are going after small- and medium-sized businesses that typically employ weaker cybersecurity protections and often have relationships with larger companies, CNBC reports. The security breach at Target occurred via a small HVAC contractor in Pittsburgh.
“The smaller companies just can’t buy the same capability, whether it’s in terms of the human capital or … really having the processes to deal with it,” John Haller, a cybersecurity researcher in the CERT division of the Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute, told CNBC. “Knowing who to trust and understand the capability of your business partners is a real problem.”
As regional economies weaken, is a nationwide recession on the horizon?
Economists are sizing up the chances of the first nationwide slump since 2009, Bloomberg reports, and four states already are facing hardships. Alaska, North Dakota, West Virginia and Wyoming are in a recession, according to indices of state economic performance tracked by Moody’s Analytics.
“The impetus for weakening regional economies is the huge fall in energy prices and other commodities prices,” Joseph LaVorgna, chief U.S. economist at Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. in New York, told Bloomberg.
While Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen told Congress that falling energy prices have caused job cuts, she said she doesn’t expect a nationwide recession.
Job cuts last year totaled 18,800 in North Dakota, 11,800 in West Virginia and 6,400 in Wyoming, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
Low energy prices haven’t been good for jobs, but they are good for automakers.
Low gas prices—combined with cars’ better fuel economy—have attributed to an increase in SUV sales; light-truck sales were up 13% in 2015 vs. 2014, Autodata reports.
Expecting this trend to continue, Ford announced plans to add four SUV nameplates globally over the next four years.
U.S. millennials are starting families, and company research shows interest in SUVs rises sharply for new families, said Mark LaNeve, Ford’s vice president of marketing, sales and service, during the Chicago Auto Show. Baby boomers say they too have a preference for SUVs, according to Ford.
“It all points to one thing—more SUVs for the foreseeable future,” LaNeve said.
Splurge or Save?
Of Americans expecting to get a tax refund this year, 49.2% plan to put it toward savings—the highest percentage since 2007, according to the National Retail Federation’s annual Tax Returns Survey.
- $330 billion —How much Americans will get back in tax refunds this year
- 34.9% —Consumers who will use their refund to pay down debt
- 11.4% —Refunds that will go toward vacations
- 9.1% —Refunds that will go toward cars and TVs
Sources: National Retail Federation, Bloomberg
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