Business

You're not going to get rid of that nagging cough anytime soon

When was the last time you walked into a public space and didnt hear someone coughing? After three years of flinching at the sound, it can be disarming to hear so many people coughing and embarrassing if its you.

But take heart in knowing that youre not alone. A long-lasting cough following illness from an upper respiratory infection is surprisingly common. And unfortunately, with the rise in seasonal flu, COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus, or RVS cases in the fall of 2022 and winter of 2023, theres been a lot of coughing lately.

A cough is a common symptom of these sorts of respiratory infections, and coughing is a complaint that leads to an estimated 30 million office visits every year. Some 40% of those end up in a pulmonologists office like mine.

Given how ubiquitous persistent coughing is, you might presume that the medical profession has a long list of treatments that we know work. That, unfortunately, depends on why you are coughing. But a cough following an upper respiratory infection does usually go away, in time. https://www.youtube.com/embed/Z1P_61oFaew?wmode=transparent&start=0 Allergies, sinus problems, medications, asthma and bronchitis are among the things that can lead to chronic cough.

How a cough works

Doctors have long wondered why the duration of cough varies so much following an upper respiratory viral or bacterial infection. The answer likely lies in differences in people, such as the presence of a condition like asthma or chronic bronchitis. I see this same variability in my office: Some patients develop a long-term cough, while others seem to kick the cough much sooner, with no clear explanation.

Coughing occurs due to a complex process that begins with an electrical impulse between the nerves within the airways, including the nose and throat. There are two types of nerves that can trigger a cough in response to external stimuli: chemical receptors and mechanical ones called mechanoreceptors. Chemical receptors respond to smells and fumes; theyre the reason people sometimes cough after breathing in spicy peppers sizzling on a hot skillet. Mechanoreceptors respond to sensations from irritants such as dust.

When these nerves are activated, the throat closes and pressure in the chest increases. This buildup of pressure leads to a burst of air and mucous into the lungs at around 500 mph a speed nearly twice as fast as the worlds fastest cars.

Studies show that a viral infection alters how sensitive these same nerves are. When you have a viral infection, the resulting inflammatory process produces a molecule called bradykinin that drives the urge to cough. And its known that the virus itself can activate genetic changes that increase the sensitivity of these nerve pathways, which leads to more coughing.

But when the acute stage of infection is over and you start to feel better, the body repairs the damages caused by inflammation in your airways and lungs. Through this process, the cough reflex also abates. And the molecular processes that were making you cough and sneeze more frequently settle down and return to a normal state at least in most cases. Unfortunately, in some people, this process takes longer than in others. https://www.youtube.com/embed/FjM90MyxlJ4?wmode=transparent&start=0 She coughed and coughed and coughed. Then a doctor discovered what was wrong.

Knowing how long is too long to cough

Doctors find it useful to break respiratory symptoms like cough into specific categories.

There are three main types of coughs: acute, sub-acute and chronic. An acute cough is what most people experience when theyre sick with an active viral infection. A sub-acute cough lingers for three or more weeks following an upper respiratory illness. And a chronic cough is one that persists longer than 12 weeks. Chronic cough is most commonly caused by asthma, postnasal drip and, perhaps surprisingly to some, reflux.

Postinfectious cough is one variety of sub-acute cough and is the lingering cough that many people have after they get over their respiratory infection. It can last for weeks or months and can progress into chronic cough.

Because postinfectious cough is so common, doctors have long worked to determine how many people have a cough that persists after their other symptoms go away. Those estimates vary among studies. One small study in Japan found that of people who have a sub-acute and chronic cough, 12% resulted from a respiratory tract infection.

When it comes to COVID-19, the best evidence to date shows that only 2.5% of the people who have gotten it have also developed a chronic cough after infection. That number may seem small, but it translates to a lot of people coughing, given that the U.S. has more than 280,000 new cases of COVID-19 per week, as of early February 2023. The actual number, though, is unclear because the studies that look at postinfectious cough are often small and only account for the people who got COVID-19 and showed up in their doctors office or in a telehealth visit for evaluation.

No simple fix

The American College of Chest Physicians and the European Respiratory Society have published guidelines to help clinicians navigate these uncertainties and the dearth of data available on the diagnosis and treatment of coughing. Although the U.S. guidelines were published in 2006, they still represent the best evidence available for clinicians and their patients.

About half of patients recover from their cough without any treatment. For those who dont, the limited data available suggests that inhalers, steroids, narcotics and certain over-the-counter medications may provide relief for some people.

In adults, the evidence for the efficacy of various treatments is mixed and limited. In my practice, I often prescribe a non-narcotic cough suppressant called benzonatate, sold under the brand name Tessalon Perles. It works by numbing the nerves in the lungs and airways, calming the cough reflex. Data for treatments in children is equally lacking, and studies have shown that over-the-counter cough suppressants and antihistamines were no more effective than the placebo.

Home remedies can also play an important role for some patients. Many people swear by honey, and there is some limited supporting evidence behind its benefits. One trial showed that honey was more effective at soothing a cough than the placebo over a three-day period.

When in doubt, ask a doctor

Being worried about a persistent cough is understandable a quick Google search can present plenty of reasons to worry. Though not a very satisfying answer, most coughs really will eventually resolve on their own. However, if you lose weight rapidly, cough up blood, have night sweats or produce lots of sputum, you should talk to your primary care provider. In rare cases, sub-acute and chronic cough can be a sign of lung cancer or various forms of chronic pulmonary disease.

If you are simply nervous about it and want more information and advice, that is reason enough to check in with your doctor. After all, a cough is the reason behind millions of office visits every year.

Kyle B. Enfield is Associate Professor of Medicine, University of Virginia.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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What makes a CFO a good CEO candidate?

Its a good time to be a chief financial officer with designs on upward mobility.

During the first half of 2022, approximately 8.1% of 681 CFOs among both Fortune 500 and S&P 500 companies were promoted to the role of CEOan all-time high, according to executive search firm Crist Kolder Associates volatility report. A decade ago, that number was just 5.6%.

That increase, while impressive, may not come a shock. After all, companies promote from within to ensure their next leader is someone with an existing, deep knowledge of the organization who knows where the problem areas are and where the strengths lie. But knowing the finances inside and out is just the first step and hardly qualifies someone for the role of CEO.

What CFOs do on a regular basis is an aspect of what CEOs do, says Richard Berlin, associate professor in the practice of organization and management at Emory Universitys Goizueta Business School. They bring financial expertise, whether via budgeting or analysis, and they can also be strategic. But its a challenge, because there are so many soft skills that are necessary to be a CEO.

CFOs who lead a large department of people are more likely to have some of those soft skills. Theyve learned how to energize their workers and focus them as necessary. And if theyve also learned to delegate responsibilities, which could make them even more attractive to the board of directors.

A lot of it also depends on your industry. The Crist Kolder report found that CFOs in the financial sector are most likely to be promoted (with 25.5% making the jump), while those in the retail sector struggle to make the jump (with just 3.6% doing so). Industrial, services, and consumer sectors all see promotion rates of 16.4%.

Tenure time is a factor, but its not a determining one. While financial sector CFOs average approximately 5.4 years, those in retail tend to stay in the job fractionally longer. Whats more important, often times, is as odd as it might sound: self-awareness.

If youre a CFO who is considering taking things to a higher level, you have to do an honest self-reflection, says Berlin. Who am I? Am I able to pivot? What challenges am I likely to face?I do a lot of coaching with executives, and when people advance in their careers, its not because they are technically skilled. Its because they have some strong emotional quotientMore than 80% of CEOs are viewed as very optimistic. By contrast, when you think about a CFO, theyre more about being realistic and looking at the numbers. Its a much different outlook.

To put it another way, to paraphrase Marshall Goldsmith, just because you had the skills to succeed at the CFO level doesnt guarantee those are the skills for success in the CEO role.

In fact, a Spencer Stuart report, released last July, found that just 8% of CFOs-turned-CEOs took their companies to the top quartile of performance. By contrast, leapfrog CEOsthose promoted from two or more levels downand divisional CEOs had far higher odds of outperformance.

While promoted CFOs achieve higher levels of profitability during their early years in the job, too many fail to shift their focus beyond the bottom line and eventually lag behind people who came from other roles.

Where CFOs are most comfortable is in the cost end of the business, not driving the top line, one anonymous CFO-turned-CEO told consulting firm Spencer Stuart in its report. They may not be close enough to sales and marketing as they should be. A lot of times, people want to save their way to prosperity by focusing on costs and efficiency instead of driving the top line.

Any promotion requires some relearning, though. And there are several successful CEOs who formerly occupied the CFO office. Heres a look at some of the most notable:

Indra Nooyi

The former CEO of PepsiCo joined the company in 1994, working her way up the ladder until she became CFO in 2000. Before taking that office, she lead the acquisition of Tropicana in 1998, as well as the merger with Quaker Oats. A regular on Most Powerful Women in Business lists, she was named CEO in 2006 and held the position until 2018, Under her leadership, the companys sales grew 80%.

Christina Spade

In January 2021, Spade joined AMC Networks as executive vice president and CFO. Eleven months later, she was promoted to the dual role of CFO and chief operating officer. Then, last August, she was named CEO, succeeding Matt Blank, who held the role in an interim basis for a year. My curious approach to finance prepared me best for CEO, she said at the time. I like to look at the finances of a company to drive value for the long-termIf you simply cut costs to meet a number, it will be very tough to create value with that approach on a longer-term basis.

John Dasburg

Dasburg held the CFO role at a couple of notable companies before taking the reins as CEO. A one-time CFO at Marriott, he later transferred to the same job at Northwest Airlines, where he became CEO in 1990. He was largely credited with saving the carrier from bankruptcy and later went on to serve as CEO of Burger King and DHL Airways.

Donald Allan, Jr.

Last July, Allan swapped his CFO position at Stanley Black & Decker, which hed held since 1999, for that of CEO. Part of his ascension came from taking on the role of a strategic partner to his predecessor. When one individual goes through that process on their own, theres no way it can be as good, he told Fortune shortly before his promotion. What I try to [say] is, Lets work together to try and figure it out.

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Prepare for a 'significant uptick' in inflation this week, top economist Paul Krugman says

Analysts warn that the next monthly Consumer Price Index report, expected Tuesday, may show U.S. inflation rising for the first time after six months of consecutive declines. But one of the countrys top economists advises against reading too much into it.

Inflation in January likely rose 0.4% from December, while core inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy items, may also be up 0.4%, according to a Reuters survey of economists last week. Rising gasoline costs and sticky prices throughout the economy are partly responsible for inflations staying power in the U.S., and will likely reinforce the Federal Reserves view that the fight against rising prices is far from over.

A hot inflation report this week could leave markets jittery about whether the Fed will stay the course with smaller interest rate hikes or go for more aggressive action to cool the economy. But Tuesdays numbers may not be telling the whole story about inflation, according to Nobel Prizewinning economist Paul Krugman.

In a tweet Sunday, Krugman forecasted a significant uptick in inflation, but added that Tuesdays report likely will lack enough data to accurately predict inflations future path. While the report will likely show prices have risen, Krugman wrote, it will be for reasons that tell us little about how were actually doing on inflation.

Where inflation goes from here

Predicting inflations trajectory is a risky game that has tripped up many economists over the past few years. Krugman himself has admitted making mistakes in 2021, when he and other economists forecasted inflation to be a fleeting factor in the U.S. economy that would wane soon enough.

But while some economists warned that soaring inflation last year would require a severe recession and a sharp rise in unemployment to fix, Krugman remained optimistic about the Feds chances of engineering a soft landing and averting a deep recession, predictions that have so far been validated by the economys relative health this year.

The road to taming inflation is a long one, however, despite recent positive news, and bumps along it are almost inevitable. The disinflationary process, the process of getting inflation down, has begun, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said last week, but added: It has a long way to go. These are the very early stages.

Inflations expected rise this month will come down to prices for some items rising after months of declines, which may have been temporary. Krugman pointed to a recent reversal in used car prices, which rose 2.5% between December and January after falling 15% in 2022. Gasoline prices have also risen around 4% since last month, ending months of declines since prices peaked last year when the Ukraine War scrambled energy markets.

What all this points to is that temporary factors that kept inflation down for the past few months are fading, Krugman wrote, leading to an uptick in prices. But this doesnt necessarily mean inflation is set to soar to another 40-year high as it did last summer.

Shelter costs for one, which the Bureau of Labor Statistics uses to measure housing prices, may be deceivingly high on paper. U.S. housing costs have fallen significantly in the past few months after soaring in 2021 and early 2022, but the official shelter costs that factor into inflation calculations are expected to stay high for the next few months, as housing price measurements tend to lag behind actual market costs.

In anticipation of this weeks report, analysts have said that while inflation is set for an uptick it does not mean the fight against rising prices has been lost. While shelter prices and a tight labor market will continue applying upward pressure to inflation, underneath the surface, many of the cyclical subcomponents driving CPI appear to be headed in the right direction, Jason Pride, chief investment officer of private wealth at Glenmede, told Fortune.

A recent adjustment to how often the BLS weighs price changes in different years may also lead to a higher-than-expected inflation reading this week, but it doesnt mean the Feds plan to reduce inflation has been tainted.

Core inflation should move higher again in January as core goods deflation takes a pause and methodological changes boost the housing component, analysts at Morgan Stanley wrote in a note last week. Updated index weights could inject additional volatility, but we see the path to disinflation intact beyond January.

An uptick in prices last month would show that the path to bringing inflation to manageable levels is a long and uneven one, but by and large things are still going to plan, the Morgan Stanley analysts wrote.

My baseline view is that the economy is still probably running unsustainably hot, and that inflation is down substantially but probably running above target, Krugman wrote.

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A music professor reveals how Burt Bacharach cracked the code of easy listening

Easy on the ear, perhaps. But the label of easy listening often attached to the songs of Burt Bacharach belies the mastery of his talent in crafting perfect moments in music.

Yes, Bacharachs back catalog is filled with memorable, catchy melodies whether they were written with longtime partner and lyricist Hal David, former wife Carole Bayer Sager or in collaboration with more contemporary artists such as Elvis Costello, Adele and Dr. Dre.

But there is a harmonic and rhythmic complexity to his music that elevates it above the sweet, often saccharine arrangements that can typify easy listening. It is full of influences from jazz chord structures and progressions, as well as rhythms.

It is why Bacharach, who died on Feb. 8, 2023, at the age of 94, appealed to generations of listeners, as well as the diverse pool of singers who chose to work with him.

Cross-generational appeal

Bacharach began his long songwriting career in the 1950s, but it was the following decade that saw him come to prominence with a series of hit songs.

But with the 1960s as a backdrop a time of immense innovation in popular music Bacharach may not have been taken as seriously as many of his contemporaries. It was a time when rock n roll and the British Invasion were at the forefront, with rhythm and blues, protest music and folk rock finding their way on the musical landscape.

While Bacharachs musical counterparts were writing and performing music that responded to and reflected the political, social and cultural upheavals that defined the era, Bacharach and Davids songs focused on different themes: Theirs was music that dealt with relationships and matters of the heart.

They also stood apart from other notable songwriting partners of the age Lennon and McCartney, Jagger and Richards, for example in that the songs were written for others to perform. In that way, they were a throwback to an earlier age of popular music, when the likes of Rodgers and Hart provided hit after hit for a roster of singers.

Indeed, they were a late product of Tin Pan Alley the music industry centered around midtown Manhattan. Bacharach met David in 1957 in the storied Brill Building in New York City a place where a young songwriter could perhaps catch a break.

Not long after they began working together, Bacharach came across a young backup singer at a recording session who seemed to have promise. The first single he produced with her, Dont Make Me Over, was the first of 38 songs he and David produced with Dionne Warwick.

Her warm tones and fluid phrasing made Warwicks voice the perfect accompaniment to Bacharachs music.

But she was one of many collaborators. Some, like Warwick, were plucked from relative obscurity. Others, like Perry Como, were already established singers.

The list of artists who found success with Bacharach songs in that era is astonishing: Aretha Franklin, The Carpenters, Dusty Springfield, Tom Jones and The 5th Dimension, to name just a few.

Through collaborators, Bacharachs music was able to reach a fairly diverse audience. The songs were so well written that they could easily be reworked into different genres, and break the confines of easy listening a genre often maligned as unhip. In the hands of Isaac Hayes, the sweet refrains of Walk on By becomes a psychedelic funk classic. Years later, The White Stripes transformed I Just Dont Know What To Do With Myself into a stripped-down, guitar-heavy slice of rock.

Froms Oscars to revivals

The music of David and Bacharach also worked on a different level as the background to movie soundtracks. The 1966 Michael Caine film Alfie is perhaps equally known today for the title track, with versions by Cher, Warwick and British singer Cilla Black all becoming hits on the back of the film.

In 1969, Bacharach and Davids Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head, sung by B.J. Thomas in the western Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, won the Academy Award for best original song. Bacharach also won the Oscar for best original score.

Adding to success on the charts and on screen, Bacharach also won acclaim for his work on Broadway. The 1968 show Promises, Promises was groundbreaking in its use of amplification in the orchestra, which included a rock band. The show contained a number of songs that topped the charts, most notably Warwicks version of the show-stopping Ill Never Fall in Love Again.

In an NPR Fresh Air interview in 2010 when the musical was being revived on Broadway Bacharach discusses the number of rhythmic meter changes in the title song, Promises, Promises, and the difficulties these rhythmic changes presented for singers and musicians in the show.

The interview is also notable in that it reunited him with David the two had a much publicized split in 1973 after working on a failed movie. The breakdown of their successful musical partnership saw Bacharach lose interest in writing music for a spell, and affected his relationship with Warwick.

This was eventually resolved with her recording of one of Bacharachs most memorable songs, 1985s Thats What Friends are For, written with his then-wife, Carole Bayer Sager. Though the song had been first recorded by Rod Stewart for the film Night Shift, the Warwick & Friends version the friends being none other than Elton John, Gladys Knight and Stevie Wonder is the one that became a hit and helped revive Bacharachs career.

Though best known for the songs he wrote in the 1960s through the 1980s, Bacharach continued to write music into his old age, collaborating with Elvis Costello, Adele and Dr. Dre.

You may have noticed the sheer number and range of artists Bacharach worked with. It speaks to the quality and endurance of his output. Yes, he will be remembered by some as the writer of exemplary easy listening songs. But Burt Bacharachs legacy will prove that he was so much more.

Gena R. Greher is Professor of Music, UMass Lowell.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Twitter is about to start charging $100 for a critical research tool earthquake rescuers depend on in Turkey and Syria

In the aftermath of the devastating earthquake in Turkey and Syria, thousands of volunteer software developers have been using a crucial Twitter tool to comb the platform for calls for help including from people trapped in collapsed buildings and connect people with rescue organizations.

They could lose access as soon as Monday unless they pay Twitter a monthly fee of at least $100 prohibitive for many volunteers and nonprofits on shoestring budgets.

Thats not just for rescue efforts which unfortunately were coming to the end of, but for logistics planning too as people go to Twitter to broadcast their needs, said Sedat Kapanoglu, the founder of Eksi Sozluk, Turkeys most popular social platform, who has been advising some of the volunteers in their efforts.

Nonprofits, researchers and others need the tool, known as the API, or Application Developer Interface, to analyze Twitter data because the sheer amount of information makes it impossible for a human to go through by hand.

Kapanoglu says hundreds of good Samaritans have been giving out their own, premium paid API access keys (Twitter already offered a paid version with more features) for use in the rescue efforts. But he says this isnt sustainable or the right way to do this. It might even be against Twitters rules.

Monday is the deadline Twitter set for shutting off free access to its API, an added challenge for the thousands of developers in Turkey and beyond who are working around the clock to harness Twitters unique, open ecosystem for disaster relief.

For Turkish coders working with Twitter API for disaster monitoring purposes, this is particularly worrying and Id imagine it is similarly worrying for others around the world that are using Twitter data to monitor emergencies and politically contested events, said Akin Unver, a professor of international relations at Ozyegin University in Istanbul.

The new fees are just the latest complication for programmers, academics and others trying to use the AP and they say communicating with anyone at the company has become essentially impossible since Elon Musk took over.

The API paywall is Musks latest attempt to squeeze revenue out of Twitter, which is on the hook for about $1 billion in yearly interest payments from the billionaires acquisition, completed in October.

Its not just disaster relief groups that are concerned. Academic and non-governmental researchers for years have used Twitter to study the spread of misinformation and hate speech or research public health or how people behave online.

Rebekah Tromble, director of the Institute for Data, Democracy, and Politics at George Washington University, used the Twitter API to track conversations on Twitter to see what kinds of tweets elicited attacks from trolls and what got them to go away in one study.

With so little information from Twitter about the practicalities of this new policy, the specifics of it, we just dont know where to go. We have no way to do the planning. And for many of us who are in the field, running programs, running projects that have real world consequences, thats pretty scary, she said.

Twitter wasnt alone but was unique among social media companies in making its API open and free. TikTok, for instance, is working on it now but so far has not released its API. Facebooks is more limited because it is very protective of the data it collects.

Tromble said social platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and others are taking steps to increase researcher access and transparency largely due to new European regulations. Twitter, on the other hand, is moving in the opposite direction.

Theyve gone from in a first in class to absolute dead last, she said.

It costs money to maintain an API. As a private company, Twitter is free to charge for its tools. But researchers and developers say it wouldnt take much for Musk to carve out exceptions for academic research and nonprofits.

No other technology has changed society as quickly and as profoundly as social media. Having access to the thoughts and emotions of other people worldwide, thats a fundamental change to society, said Kristina Lerman, a computer science professor at the University of Southern California who studies misinformation. And you cant understand it without access to data, access to observe.

Takeshi Kawamoto, a Japanese software developer who runs a popular earthquake alert bot with more than 3 million followers, created the account back in 2007 as a hobby.

There are an incredible number of such bots on Twitter useful, friendly or quirky accounts set up by people or group with a specific interest. There are weather bots, tools that combine long Twitter threads into one easy-to-read file, bots that send quotes from famous books or people, bots that remind you to stand up and stretch at random intervals during the day, bots that insert a little bit of nonsense and weirdness into your Twitter scrolling.

The earthquake bot Kawamoto created didnt take off until the devastating 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster that hit Japan, when people turned to it for information about quakes and aftershocks.

Kawamoto was ready to shut down the bot when Twitter first announced it was going to charge for API access. Paying $1,200 a year for an account that is decidedly not making a profit was not going to be possible. Last week, Twitter announced that it would make a small exception to offer write-only API access for free to accounts that send less than 1,500 tweets a month.

This might help, but Kawamoto says the 1,500 limit will present a problem after a big earthquake with a lot of aftershocks. He would like to ask Musk to allow accounts to post more than 1,500 tweets on a pay-as-you-go basis.

So far, Twitter has offered no other exceptions, although its possible that Musk will see one of the many tweets from developers working on earthquake relief who have been pleading for a solution.

For Mark Sample and his small army of Twitter bots, such as one that would send carefully curated quotes from Herman Melvilles Moby Dick at random intervals, its too late. The Moby Dick bot, as well as one that sent out computer clip art from 1994 and one called weird satellite have all left Twitter. Some have moved to Mastodon, the social platform that some discouraged Twitter users have been migrating to.

Samples bots were part of weird Twitter, a quirky subculture of Twitter that peaked in the mid-2010s and included strange, fun, nonsensical bots sending bursts of randomness into peoples feeds.

Im kind of going through a mourning process, kind of grieving. The APITwitter was doing something that none of the other social media platforms did, which is kind of like having this open playground, said Sample, a professor of digital studies at Davidson College in North Carolina. I mean, there were ways that people could take advantage of it and and distort things and and use it and malevolent ways. But it was also this terrific playground for hobbyists and creative people. None of the other social media platforms had that. In some way in the API when the only thing Twitter had going for it, the only thing that really set it apart.

For Sample, the breaking point was not the API announcement. It came last fall when Musk began mass firing Twitter workers and going after journalists who questioned or criticized him, he said. Building apps for a platform when someone just shut it all down on a whim, he said, is not a good use of our time and creative energy.

I mean, it had a good run. Its like 15 years or whatever. So its a pretty good run. And maybe its time for something else.

A year of high-profile anti-Semitism takes a huge toll on U.S. Jews: 4 in 10 now feel less secure

More than four in ten Jews in the United States feel their status in America is less secure than it was a year earlier, according to a new survey by the American Jewish Committee.

The survey, conducted in the fall of 2022, was released Monday by the AJC, a prominent Jewish advocacy organization.

The survey was taken in a year of high-profile incidents of antisemitism, including a hostage-taking at a Texas synagogue and anti-Jewish statements shared by celebrities on social media. Former President Donald Trump dined with two openly antisemitic guests, drawing criticism from his own Jewish supporters.

According to the AJC survey, 41% of the respondents said the status of Jews in the U.S. is less secure than it was the year before, while 55% said it was the same. Only 4% thought it was more secure.

The results show anxieties increasing since a comparable survey in 2021, when 31% of respondents thought their status was less secure than a year earlier.

Four in five Jews said in the 2022 survey that antisemitism has grown in the past five years; nearly half said its taken less seriously than other forms of bigotry or hate.

A quarter of the respondents said they were directly targeted by antisemitic expressions, either in person or on social media, with 3% reporting a physical attack. Nearly four in 10 changed their behavior to lower risks to their safety.

Similarly, nearly four in ten reported avoiding visible expressions of Jewishness in public, such as wearing a skullcap. Smaller percentages reported taking similar steps on campus or at work.

Other findings:

Nearly 90% of U.S. Jews and the same percentage of the countrys total population believe antisemitism is a serious problem, up from 73% in 2016.

Of the Jews surveyed in 2022, 63% said that they see law enforcement as appropriately responsive when it comes to antisemitism, a substantial drop from 2019 when that number was 81%.

The survey collected data from a nationally representative sample of 1,507 adults of Jewish religion or background. It was conducted from Sept. 28 through Nov. 3.

News of antisemitic incidents surfaces almost daily in the U.S. Earlier this month, for example, numerous antisemitic flyers were distributed in suburban Atlanta, including at the home of Georgias only Jewish state legislator.

Rep. Esther Panitch, a freshman Democrat, denounced the flyers from the floor of the House of Representatives, with dozens of colleagues surrounding her to show solidarity.

This weekend, it was my turn to be targeted, Panitch said. Unfortunately, its not the first time to be afraid as a Jew in the United States.

On Thursday, Doug Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, took his campaign against antisemitism to the United Nations, urging diplomats from many nations to speak out against the rising global hatred of Jews and stressing: Silence is not an option.

Emhoff pointed to celebrity comedians too often using antisemitism to draw cheap laughs, high profile entertainers and politicians openly spouting tired antisemitic tropes (and) others making comments laced with not so subtle innuendo.

Among the most dramatic antisemitic incidents in 2022 was the January hostage standoff at Congregation Beth Israel synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, a suburb of Forth Worth.

A pistol-wielding British man took four people at the synagogue hostage and held them for 10 hours before they escaped, and the captor was killed by the FBI.

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Move over stablecoins, deposit tokens are the next big thing in crypto says JPMorgan

One of the most important developments over the past several years in the world of crypto is the stablecoin, a variety of blockchain-enabled tokens tied to the price of fiat currencies like the U.S. dollar.

But a new study by the JPMorgans blockchain unit Onyx says that a prospective institution-backed cryptocurrency called a deposit token has the potential to become more popular than stablecoins.

With the volatility of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ether, traders often use stablecoins to park their holdings in a stable asset and make cross-border payments. The deposit tokens would cover these uses but with a blockchain-based coin that is fully integrated into the traditional banking system.

Although the tokens are still just a concept, the study said they could be issued by banks and would represent commercial bank money but in a digital form, which would expand its uses.

The token form enables new functionality, such as programmability and instant, atomic settlement to speed up transactions and automate sophisticated payment operations, according to the study.

They would also improve upon some of the setbacks related to stablecoins, including challenges that could come with tackling the multitude of transactions that increased institutional adoption would bring.

Because the tokens would be equal to bank money, JPMorgan argues that they will have an edge over stablecoins because of regulations that are already in place to support commercial bank deposits.

We believe deposit tokens will become a widely used form of money within the digital asset ecosystem, just as commercial bank money in the form of bank deposits makes up over 90% of circulating money today, the bank wrote in the study.

Deposit tokens could serve as a regulator-approved alternative to stablecoins, which have come under increased scrutiny by regulators. On Monday, in response to an order from the New York Department of Financial Services, the New York-based crypto company Paxos said it would end its partnership with Binance and stop minting BUSD, the stablecoin it created in collaboration with the crypto exchange.

The stablecoin was once the third largest in the world by market cap.

The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that the Securities and Exchange Commission plans to sue Paxos because its BUSD stablecoin is allegedly an unregistered security. This enforcement could put at risk any U.S.-based stablecoins, like Circles USDC, which is second only in market cap to Tethers USDT.

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