Latest news with #SyracuseUniversity
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Zohran Mamdani: 5 lessons for Democrats
New York Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani has stoked a debate in the wider Democratic Party with his surprise primary victory. Do Democrats need to follow more of his lessons to get back on track with their brand? Or does the democratic socialist's brand of politics fit a left-leaning New York primary, but not the rest of the county? The answer is probably somewhere in between, but a number of Democrats interviewed by The Hill said there are clear lessons the party can learn from the upstart's victory. Affordability Mamdani mounted his campaign on a message of affordability, coining soundbites such as 'freeze the rent,' 'city-run grocery stores' and 'make buses fast and free' as cornerstones of his campaign. Political observers say the unequivocal cost of living promises resonated with an electorate seeking change. 'He answers the questions very directly and very specifically. … He's like, 'I want to freeze rents, I want to create free buses, I want to raise the minimum wage to $30 an hour,'' said Grant Reeher, the director of Syracuse University's Campbell Public Affairs Institute. Democrats say the national party's messaging on economic issues in 2024 was weak, as Americans blamed then-President Biden for inflation. Mamdani's victory shows the importance for candidates to be seen as being the side working to make things more affordable for average voters. Authenticity One of Mamdani's biggest assets, some Democrats say, is his authenticity. The political neophyte went from relative obscurity to becoming a boldface name by keeping it real throughout his campaign. Not only did the 33-year-old speak about issues important to New Yorkers, but he did it in a way that was true to himself, instead of out of a Democratic playbook. In a 30-second video posted to his Instagram and TikTok accounts four days before election day, for example, Mamdani could be seen walking with his sleeves rolled up surrounded by a crowd of his supporters delivering his message of affordability directly to voters. 'It's the authenticity, stupid!,' one top Democratic strategist said. 'Mamdani is showing that at least part of the path forward for Democrats is to stop running away from your perceived weaknesses; instead run directly at them.' Eddie Vale, another Democratic strategist, agreed: 'The lessons that everyone can learn from and do is just be normal. Talk like a human being. Do events and tons of digital and podcasts, where normal people are. New blood Mamdani's youthfulness and grassroots campaign funding strategy appealed to voters who are looking for a new generation of political leadership — one that sheds the trappings of big-money interests and fights for regular people, Democrats said. For example, Mamdani's campaign relied overwhelmingly on crowdfunding and matching funds from the city's Campaign Finance Board. Mamdani is definitely an outsider, but 39 percent of voters in a poll by the Democratic super PAC Unite the Country said they think the Democratic Party is corrupt. So being seen as an outsider helped Mamdani. Some Democrats think leaders of the party in Washington need to reach out more to Mamdani. 'It is baffling to me that Hakeem Jeffries hasn't embraced Mamdani wholeheartedly as a rising star,' Democratic strategist Christy Setzer said. 'Mamdani has done what few Democrats, including and especially Jeffries, can: Excite, rather than infuriate, the base. Fight with a smile. Disarm. Lead with love and big ideas. Don't just be against Trump For several cycles, Democrats have sought to rally their base around an anti-President Trump message. It worked during the 2018 and 2020 elections, but it fell flat in 2024. 'This party has to be for something for a change,' a second Democratic strategist said, adding that the party 'can't just be against Trump.' Mamdani successfully walked the line between putting forward a vision of his own for New York and being an anti-Trump candidate. In doing so, some say he set an example for Democrats nationally. 'It's important to give voters something to vote for and not just something to vote against, and that's something that Mamdani did well,' said Basil Smikle, a former executive director of the New York State Democratic Party. 'He wasn't just the anti-Trump candidate, he wasn't just the antiestablishment candidate, but he talked about big picture ideas, things that voters really care very much about.' Social media and retail politics Democrats dropped the ball on social media in 2024 and had a hard time connecting with voters overall. But Mamdani set an example for what effective social media campaigning looks like and leveraged the power of retail politics to connect with voters even more. 'Have a campaign that beats the moment,' Smikle said. 'It is 2025. It's driven a lot by social media, a lot by influencers, but also by really, really strong retail politics.' Mamdani coordinated a citywide volunteer effort that elevated his ground game and allowed his campaign to reach every corner of the city. More than 30,000 people knocked on nearly 1.6 million doors across the city. 'His intense ground game — you can't underestimate the power of that,' Reeher said. 'Even from political science research, we know that the most effective way to get people to turn out is face-to-face contact. He's doing a lot of that. … He's got tons of volunteers.' 'You can't short-shrift the ground game, the retail politics,' he added. Mamdani also used social media to generate energy around his campaign, becoming a trend of sorts on platforms such as Instagram and TikTok. He amassed his own following of more than 4.5 million across the two platforms and collaborated with various social media influencers in New York City throughout his campaign. 'He's generating enthusiasm from younger voters, and he's running a race on his own terms — not defensively, on someone else's terms,' Setzer said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
a day ago
- Business
- The Hill
Zohran Mamdani: 5 lessons for Democrats
New York Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani has stoked a debate in the wider Democratic Party with his surprise primary victory. Do Democrats need to follow more of his lessons to get back on track with their brand? Or does the democratic socialist's brand of politics fit a left-leaning New York primary, but not the rest of the county? The answer is probably somewhere in between, but a number of Democrats interviewed by The Hill said there are clear lessons the party can learn from the upstart's victory. Affordability Mamdani mounted his campaign on a message of affordability, coining soundbites such as 'freeze the rent,' 'city-run grocery stores' and 'make buses fast and free' as cornerstones of his campaign. Political observers say the unequivocal cost of living promises resonated with an electorate seeking change. 'He answers the questions very directly and very specifically. … He's like, 'I want to freeze rents, I want to create free buses, I want to raise the minimum wage to $30 an hour,'' said Grant Reeher, the director of Syracuse University's Campbell Public Affairs Institute. Democrats say the national party's messaging on economic issues in 2024 was weak, as Americans blamed then-President Biden for inflation. Mamdani's victory shows the importance for candidates to be seen as being the side working to make things more affordable for average voters. Authenticity One of Mamdani's biggest assets, some Democrats say, is his authenticity. The political neophyte went from relative obscurity to becoming a boldface name by keeping it real throughout his campaign. Not only did the 33-year-old speak about issues important to New Yorkers, but he did it in a way that was true to himself, instead of out of a Democratic playbook. In a 30-second video posted to his Instagram and TikTok accounts four days before election day, for example, Mamdani could be seen walking with his sleeves rolled up surrounded by a crowd of his supporters delivering his message of affordability directly to voters. 'It's the authenticity, stupid!,' one top Democratic strategist said. 'Mamdani is showing that at least part of the path forward for Democrats is to stop running away from your perceived weaknesses; instead run directly at them.' Eddie Vale, another Democratic strategist, agreed: 'The lessons that everyone can learn from and do is just be normal. Talk like a human being. Do events and tons of digital and podcasts, where normal people are. New blood Mamdani's youthfulness and grassroots campaign funding strategy appealed to voters who are looking for a new generation of political leadership — one that sheds the trappings of big-money interests and fights for regular people, Democrats said. For example, Mamdani's campaign relied overwhelmingly on crowdfunding and matching funds from the city's Campaign Finance Board. Mamdani is definitely an outsider, but 39 percent of voters in a poll by the Democratic super PAC Unite the Country said they think the Democratic Party is corrupt. So being seen as an outsider helped Mamdani. Some Democrats think leaders of the party in Washington need to reach out more to Mamdani. 'It is baffling to me that Hakeem Jeffries hasn't embraced Mamdani wholeheartedly as a rising star,' Democratic strategist Christy Setzer said. 'Mamdani has done what few Democrats, including and especially Jeffries, can: Excite, rather than infuriate, the base. Fight with a smile. Disarm. Lead with love and big ideas. Don't just be against Trump For several cycles, Democrats have sought to rally their base around an anti-President Trump message. It worked during the 2018 and 2020 elections, but it fell flat in 2024. 'This party has to be for something for a change,' a second Democratic strategist said, adding that the party 'can't just be against Trump.' Mamdani successfully walked the line between putting forward a vision of his own for New York and being an anti-Trump candidate. In doing so, some say he set an example for Democrats nationally. 'It's important to give voters something to vote for and not just something to vote against, and that's something that Mamdani did well,' said Basil Smikle, a former executive director of the New York State Democratic Party. 'He wasn't just the anti-Trump candidate, he wasn't just the antiestablishment candidate, but he talked about big picture ideas, things that voters really care very much about.' Social media and retail politics Democrats dropped the ball on social media in 2024 and had a hard time connecting with voters overall. But Mamdani set an example for what effective social media campaigning looks like and leveraged the power of retail politics to connect with voters even more. 'Have a campaign that beats the moment,' Smikle said. 'It is 2025. It's driven a lot by social media, a lot by influencers, but also by really, really strong retail politics.' Mamdani coordinated a citywide volunteer effort that elevated his ground game and allowed his campaign to reach every corner of the city. More than 30,000 people knocked on nearly 1.6 million doors across the city. 'His intense ground game — you can't underestimate the power of that,' Reeher said. 'Even from political science research, we know that the most effective way to get people to turn out is face-to-face contact. He's doing a lot of that. … He's got tons of volunteers.' 'You can't short-shrift the ground game, the retail politics,' he added. Mamdani also used social media to generate energy around his campaign, becoming a trend of sorts on platforms such as Instagram and TikTok. He amassed his own following of more than 4.5 million across the two platforms and collaborated with various social media influencers in New York City throughout his campaign. 'He's generating enthusiasm from younger voters, and he's running a race on his own terms — not defensively, on someone else's terms,' Setzer said.
Miami Herald
07-07-2025
- Business
- Miami Herald
The Dollar Is Sinking: Here's Why
The U.S. dollar is tumbling as President Donald Trump's economic agenda-at the executive and legislative level-takes full shape. Economists told Newsweek this could advance Trump's goal of promoting American goods in foreign markets and strengthening exports, but warn that a weakened dollar comes with significant downsides, including the jeopardization of its status as the world's reserve currency. The U.S. Dollar Index-which tracks its value relative to a basket of major foreign currencies-has declined by more than 10 percent over the past six months. This marks the steepest first-half slump, and the worst beginning for a presidential term, since its creation in 1973. Achieving this milestone comes amid a period of flux for the U.S. economy. On Friday, Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which had been narrowly passed by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives the day before. The sweeping budget reconciliation package contains new spending measures and an extension of Trump's 2017 tax cuts, which, together, budget watchdogs believe could inflate the nation's already-sizable national deficit. This week will also see the expiry of the 90-day pause placed on Trump's reciprocal tariffs in April. While a handful of countries have secured trade deals, the president has suggested that nations who were unable to do so during the three-month window could be subject to even higher rates than those announced on "Liberation Day." Experts who spoke to Newsweek emphasized a confluence of these economic factors, and their combined impact on America's fiscal outlook, in the dollar's recent decline. "The dollar is depreciating because global investors are less confident in the United States providing stable policies geared toward macroeconomic growth and a strong financial system," said Ryan Monarch, a professor of economics at Syracuse University. "Recent policies such as extremely high tariffs, increased government debt, and worries about inflation have all contributed to the falling dollar." Monarch, a former principal economist at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors' International Finance Division, added that the prospect of the central bank lowering interest rates to stimulate economic growth prospects, "has led to weaker demand for dollar-denominated assets, and thus further dollar depreciation." Ryan Sweet, chief U.S. economist at Oxford Economics, similarly noted that investors were "reassessing the outlook for the US economy" as a result of the tariffs. "Tariffs will slow the U.S. economy and reduce the expected return on investment for investors, pushing some away from the dollar," he told Newsweek. Last month, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) cut its growth outlook for the U.S. economy to 1.6 percent from 2.2 percent in March; it said this reflected the "substantial increase" in import taxes, as well as "high economic policy uncertainty," declines in net immigration and reductions to the federal workforce. "The strength of any currency depends on people's willingness to hold it, and the world now is skeptical of the future of the U.S., especially with the passage of the budget bill," said Peter Simon, a professor at Northeastern University's Department of Economics. "So people around the world are selling their dollars for other currencies: euro, pound sterling, yen, and yuan for more stability." A sharp decline in a currency's relative value carries with it a host of economic effects. These impacts are especially pronounced for the dollar, given its status as the world's primary reserve currency and the trillions held in dollar-denominated assets abroad. For Americans at home, a weakened dollar can increase the cost of imports, resulting in price inflation and the erosion of consumers' purchasing power. A declining dollar also makes it more expensive for Americans to travel abroad, where their dollars will translate into smaller sums of the local currency. "A depreciation in the U.S. dollar is inflationary as it will, over time, increase nonfuel import prices," Sweet said. "The depreciation in the dollar increases the risks that tariffs boost consumer prices more than anticipated this summer and into the fall." A falling dollar would also damage the national balance sheet of those countries who hoard stockpile it in reserves, while hurting foreign investors holding dollar-denominated assets such as Treasury bonds. However, it could make America a more affordable, and attractive, location for international tourists. Sweet added that a declining dollar can also prove a "tail wind" for exporters, by making their goods more affordable in the global market. This dual impact on imports and exports-reducing one while boosting the other-appears to align with one of Trump's stated tariff purposes: the reduction of trade deficits. His tariff announcements and their impact on the currency even led to speculation that deliberately "crashing" the dollar was a purposeful choice by the administration. Many in Trump's cabinet have previously expressed concern over the implications of an overly strong dollar, and skepticism regarding its status as the world's reserve currency. Vice President JD Vance, while still serving as an Ohio senator in 2023, said that the dollar's strength and centrality arguably represented "a massive subsidy to American consumers but a massive tax on American producers," given this resulted in floods of "mostly useless imports." Stephen Miran-now chair of Trump's Council of Economic Advisers-wrote in November that trade imbalances and the handicaps faced by domestic industry were rooted in "persistent dollar overvaluation." In April, Miran said that a strong dollar had placed "undue burdens on our firms and workers, making their products and labor uncompetitive on the global stage." However, others within his administration, notably Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, have voiced their support for a strong dollar policy and safeguarding its dominant global position. Trump has consistently expressed similar support. In nominating the Treasury secretary in November, the president-elect said Bessent would help him "fortify our position as the World's leading economy, center of innovation and entrepreneurialism, destination for capital, while always, and without question, maintaining the U.S. Dollar as the reserve currency of the world." Amid talk of the BRICS economic alliance considering introducing an alternative reserve currency, the president also threatened each of the members with "100-percent tariffs" should they moved forward with this plan. However, Monarch said that the dollar's 2025 decline could make such a change more likely. "In the long run, the weakening dollar and less desire to hold U.S.-backed assets may strengthen efforts to design an international reserve system that is not just tied to the U.S. currency, but to other currencies around the world, including the Chinese renminbi," he added. Simon added that, while no single national currency has the power and geopolitical backing to lead to full de-dollarization, "a reserve currency basket" made up of several could rival its dominance in the future. The French Institute for International and Strategic Affairs (IRIS) found that the dollar still accounts for roughly 60 percent of global foreign exchange reserves, compared with around 20 percent for the euro, 5 percent for the Japanese yen, 4 percent for the pound, and only 2 to 3 percent for the yuan. Regardless of its longer-term fate, experts said that the dollar will continue to feel downward pressure in 2025 and beyond. Sweet said he expects the dollar to "stabilize in the second half of this year but resume its depreciation next year," given America's weakened growth outlook and persistent "fiscal sustainability concerns." Monarch added that none of the factors that has contributed to its decline shows signs of reversing in the near future. He said: "Trade deals to potentially lower tariffs have been delayed or underwhelming, recent fiscal policy moves appear likely to add significantly to U.S. government debt, and the effects of already-imposed tariffs on inflation are still uncertain." Related Articles America Has A New Type Of MillionaireSenior Cat with $1.25 Adoption Fee Gets Second Chance at LifeGold Prices Rise as America's Reputation Sinks | OpinionAmericans Are Now 20 Percent Poorer, Republican Donor Says 2025 NEWSWEEK DIGITAL LLC.
USA Today
07-07-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Cole Swider, Bronny James drive summer Lakers to win over Heat
BRONNY JAMES WITH THE HUGE THROWDOWN 😮💨MIA-LAL | California Classic on NBA TV Forward Cole Swider may have had trouble sticking around at the NBA level ever since going undrafted out of Syracuse University three years ago. But he sure can light it up from the outside. On Saturday, he was hot in the Los Angeles Lakers' first game of the California Classic with 24 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the field and 6-of-8 from 3-point range. The Lakers lost that game to the Golden State Warriors, 89-84, and they took the court again on Sunday versus the Miami Heat. On Sunday, Swider again shot 7-of-10 overall from the field, giving him 20 points. But this time, L.A. prevailed, 103-83. Unfortunately, Dalton Knecht had another poor game by making just two of his seven shot attempts and scoring only four points. On Saturday, he was 3-of-13 from the field and 0-of-6 from downtown. Bronny James didn't play versus Golden State, but he was in uniform on Sunday. He went 3-of-7 overall and 2-of-5 from beyond the arc, and he finished with 10 points, two rebounds, one steal and no turnovers in 11 minutes. He provided the highlight of the day by throwing down a thunderous dunk roughly 30 seconds into the game. The Lakers' next game will be on Tuesday versus the San Antonio Spurs. After that, they will make their way to Las Vegas for the NBA's main summer league, which starts on Thursday.
New York Post
06-07-2025
- New York Post
Travelers confess to ‘being a different person' when they take off work and go away
Let that alter-ego shine. According to a survey conducted by Faye Travel Insurance, most people become a different version of themselves when they are on vacation — and rightfully so. The insurance company surveyed 3,000 US travelers and nearly half of them said they learn different parts of themselves when they have a change of scenery. Advertisement The survey revealed that 45% of Americans let their adventurous, fun side come out on vacay. Some of these unexpected behaviors include, spending time more freely (52%), trying unfamliar foods (40%) and being open to more risk taking (45%) — perhaps like telling white lies about their identity when away from home, since nearly half of participants admitted to doing that. A little change of scenery can cause a traveler to learn a lot about themselves. Valerii Honcharuk – Advertisement One of the least surprising revelations from the survey is that 42% of people are more friendly — and why wouldn't they be when they're lounging poolside with a piña colada in hand without a care in the world. The Faye team also pointed out that 40% feel like a different person entirely and 60% of those surveyed believe that the travel alter-ego that comes out when they're away is their truest self. Some of these travel personas include: the explorer (19%), the quiet observer (12%), the solo wanderer (8%), the luxury lover (8%) and the foodie (8%). In addition to this, it turns out there are many health benefits to jetsetting. Advertisement The survey revealed that people participate in unexpected behaviors while away. Drazen – One study found that people who traveled once a year for nine consecutive years increased their longevity by approximately 20%. Those same people also reduce their risk of dying from heart-related conditions by 30%. Yearly trips also reduce high blood pressure, lower blood sugar levels and help a person maintain cholesterol and triglycerides levels — all things that can lead to serious heart conditions if ignored. If a week-long yearly trip isn't your style, travelers can also benefit from shorter trips. Advertisement According to research, those who get out of town for a long weekend don't feel as stressed, tired or depressed compared to those who barely use their PTO. 'Vacations provide a buffer against chronic stress and inflammation — both of which wreak havoc on the body,' Brooks B. Gump, a professor of public health at Syracuse University told the Washington Post in an interview. Take this as a sign to put in your PTO and book your next vacation — it does a person good.
