The phenomenon of the glass cliff is when a woman or someone from a marginalized group inherits a position of power during a crisis or period of downturn. While its a promotion in theory, the odds are already stacked against them and theyre not likely to thrive in said difficult situation. 

Its more likely for women to be given leadership opportunities when the situation is risky and imperiled than when the situation is stable, Jo-Ellen Pozner, assistant professor of management at Santa Clara Universitys Leavey School of Business, tells Fortune.

This is a classic glass cliff situation, in which a failing company hires a woman to clean up messes made by arrogant men, tweeted influential digital media advisor Heidi N. Moore. Then she becomes the scapegoat because its impossible to clean up.

What a year it was

After roughly a year of heading Twitter, Musk has had his fun: carrying a sink into the San Francisco headquarters, un-verifying Twitter celebs and news platforms (often before immediately re-verifying them), and sacking rounds of employeesfar more than half of Twitters former headcount. But since Musk bid $54.20 per share for Twitter just over a year ago, it has become clear why he needs a new CEO so badly. 

Artificial intelligence has taken the world by storm, especially OpenAI (which Musk cofounded) and its ChatGPT product, as Twitter has declined in value by so much that Musk is admitting he overpaid by more than $20 billion. Furthermore, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO has restive shareholders, with the market wiping out $13 billion from his fortune a few weeks ago, on the day after disappointing earnings from the carmaker and a literal explosion from the rocket maker.

Tweeting that he will continue to focus on product design & new technology, Musk claims that Yaccarinos work will be centered around mostly business operations. Noting how Musk is keeping himself on in a digital capacity, Moore predicts a Looney Tunes type of scenario where the two end up chasing each other around. Pozner said she thinks theres little any executive could do to reassure advertisers that Twitter is a safe space for their brands right now. I just dont see how his continued involvement in the organization in any meaningful way on a day-to-day basis is going to allow any new CEO the space to thrive, she notes. Media analyst Brian Wieser was more cutting, telling the FT that Yaccarino is in a very high beta situation.

A long way down

A play on the infamous glass ceiling that limits womens advancement in the workplace, the glass cliff represents a door of opportunity being left a crack open, but with a tightrope just beyond it and a long potential fall. Before Bed Bath & Beyond was shuttered, Sue Gove was appointed to lead the struggling company, and in 2019, Heyward Donigan took the helm at Rite Aid in a year when it had lost half its market cap. Fortunes LOreal Thompson Payton has described a particularly treacherous cliff for Black women who are often offered untenable leadership roles, from Refinery29 to Simon & Schuster.

In politics, women are more likely to be put forward as candidates in very dangerous, close races, while men usually run for safe seats, Pozner said. Or consider the longtime Google executive Marissa Mayer taking over at Yahoo when it was facing a steep uphill climb. Mayer lasted in the job for about five years until affecting a $4.8 billion merger with Verizon (at a fraction of its former value), and recently admitted that she should have acquired Netflix for $4 billion instead of Tumblr for $1.1 billion. Its easy then to blame women when things dont go well and to make attributions based on gender, Pozner says, even though the position that those women are put in, is riskier, independent of them, or anything that they do or say.

Pozner agreed that Twitter feels like a glass cliff situation. Musk has kind of created a very hectic, chaotic situation at Twitter, Pozner says, adding that hes putting the blame of Twitters failures on advertisers dropping out rather than acknowledging how his actions (eg, gutting content moderation, his own questionable retweets) have created this situation of uncertainty. 

Of course, not every woman that ascends to the top must trade off power for a glass cliff situation. For instance, Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser came to power with a little bit of a turnaround effort on her hands, but shes still ensconced at one of Wall Streets mightiest banks. And to be fair, its not a given that Yaccarino is doomed. But the fact that she has to play pick-up in the first place is indicative of how many women leaders have little room for error. 

Theres little research that explains why executives turn to mostly women to pick up the slack times of crisis, but Pozner hypothesizes that its in part because appointing a woman looks good to external stakeholders, and also theres an idea that women appear to be more sensitive, more level-headed.

But theres of course a darker side to it: The sense that if things go wrong, Oh well, the woman or the underrepresented minority is going to take the blame. And so the rest of us are safe. It doesnt impugn a whole group, or it doesnt impugn the group thats already in power if something goes south. Its also easier to scapegoat a person who is new and not part of the social network, she adds. Women might still take the job, given it might be the only opportunity for a leadership role that comes their way. After all, progress at the top level is still going at an ants pace, as this year women CEOs ran 10% of Fortune 500 companiesand that was a historic first, up from years of women leaders being stuck on 8%. 

In the end, it doesnt matter that this is a woman, nobody is going to be able to make this work, says Pozner, Its convenient for the patriarchy that its a woman. But its not going to fail to work because shes a woman, its going to fail to work and shes a woman. 

In New York, the number of seated diners on weekdays at noon climbed every month between January and April from the prior year, according to data from online reservations platform OpenTable. Only Fridays in March were almost unchanged from 2022. 

Chicago, Philadelphia, Seattle and Atlanta also registered gains during weekdays at noon in April. 

With the rise of hybrid work and widespread return to the office, the business lunch is making a comeback in major US cities, OpenTable Chief Executive Officer Debby Soo said.

Restaurants are also benefiting from increased in-person dining compared to this time last year, when the omicron wave of Covid-19 kept people at home.

In New York, the 1 p.m. slot was also more popular every weekday in January, February and April, according to OpenTable. And Google searches for business lunch have hit their highest level in the past decade in recent months, with the most interest in New York.

Overall dining demand in the US remains relatively stable, Soo added. In just one example, reservations for Mothers Day booked at least six days in advance were 15% higher than last year.

People are continuing to prioritize dining out despite all the economic headwinds that were all facing, Soo said.

Lately, however, the average savings account interest rate has been increasingby a lot. Heres a closer look at todays average savings account interest rates and why banks change their rates.

Average savings account interest rates 

So far for 2023, the average savings account rate across all financial institutions is 0.36%. However, rates have consistently been ticking upward this year. For the month of April, savings account rates average 0.39%. 

That means if you put $10,000 into a savings account, youd have an extra $39 after one year.

While this might not seem like much, its important to note that savings accounts are paying much more now than they were in years past. For example, the average savings account rate this time last year was just 0.06%.

Certain banks are offering well above the national average as well. Some of the best rates can be found on high-yield savings accounts, which currently offer around 4.5%5%.

How do banks set their savings account rates?

Banks set deposit ratesincluding savings accountsbased on a combination of market rates and competitor benchmarking, according to Ben Swinney, senior vice president and treasurer at Texas Security Bank. For example, he says, a key market rate that impacts the rates banks pay on deposits is the Federal funds rate. The Federal Funds Rate is the interest rate at which depository institutions, such as banks and credit unions, lend reserve balances to each other on an overnight basis, Swinney says. He adds that this rate is determined by the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), a branch of the U.S. Federal Reserve, which meets eight times per year.

Setting deposit account rates is a combination of art and science, says Gene Grant II, CEO and founder of LevelField Financial Services. He explains that in an increasing interest rate environment, a bank generally wont increase savings account rates in proportion with the increase in the Feds rate. This is because the bank knows that in general, deposits are sticky and only a marginal subset of customers will switch banks purely for deposit rates, Grant says. The bank performs a calculation to estimate the increase in deposit rate that will cost the bank the least for an acceptable amount of deposit outflow. 

In a decreasing interest rate environment, the rates tend to come down much quicker, Grant notes.

Individual banks may also choose to raise or lower their savings account rates based on the amount of deposits it needs to fund its loan portfolio. When banks need more deposits, they may increase interest rates to attract more customers. A bank that is growing and making more loans will tend to increase deposit rates so that they have the funds to lend, and banks reducing the balance sheet tend to pay lower rates, Grant says.

Banks also consider the spread between the interest they pay on deposits and the interest they earn on loans when setting savings account rates. To maintain profitability, they have to strike a balance between offering competitive rates to attract deposits and keeping their lending rates high enough to generate income. So at times, banks may adjust their savings account rates to improve profit margins.

Average savings account interest rates over time 

Over the past decade or so, savings account rates have remained relatively flat. Following the 20072008 financial crisis and Great Recession, the Fed slashed the federal funds rate to 0% in order to make borrowing more attractive and spur economic activity. 

Rates were at their lowest between 2013 and 2017, when the average savings account rate sat at 0.6%. Rates began ticking upward in 2018 as the economy continued to improve, only to be throttled once again by the COVID-19 pandemic and sharp (but short) recession that occurred as a result. By 2021, the average savings account rate dropped to 0.5%.

Things changed in March 2022, when the Fed began raising rates in response to skyrocketing inflationa side effect of . Over the past 15 months, the Fed has raised rates 10 times, and may do so again. As a result, savings account rates rose sharply. Today, the average savings account rate is 0.39%.

How to maximize the interest on your savings account

• Opt for a high-yield savings account. Not all savings accounts are alike. Despite the relatively low national average for interest rates, certain savings accounts pay much higher yields. With a high-yield savings account, you can earn 
• Consider a money market account. The accounts work like a checking-savings combo. They pay higher rates than the typical savings account, especially for higher balances. Plus, they often come with debit cards and check-writing capabilities. However, you may need to limit your withdrawals and/or maintain a minimum balance in order to avoid fees.
• Look out for bank bonuses. In addition to competitive interest rates, some banks also entice new customers by offering bonuses to those who sign up for an account. So if youre in the market for a new savings account, shop around and find out if any banks are currently offering bonuses. Keep in mind, you may need to have the account open for a certain period of time before youre eligible to receive the bonus.
• Be sure your money is protected. Chasing high interest rates isnt worth it if your money isnt safe in the event of a bank failure. Always work with banks that are protected by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) or credit unions backed by the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA). And always keep a maximum of $250,000 on deposit with any one financial institution so that your funds are fully protected.

The takeaway 

Its important to understand that a savings account is best used for your emergency fund and short-term savings goals. Earning higher interest can help your savings grow even faster, and opting for high-yield accounts at FDIC- or NCUA-protected institutions will ensure that your money is safe.
That said, your savings account should be one component of a well-rounded financial plan. In addition to other safe harbor investments such as CDs and Treasury bills, youll need to put your money in higher-risk (and higher-reward) market investments such as stocks, bonds, and mutual funds in order to grow your wealth and meet long-term savings goals such as retirement.