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Fulton Schools Face $5 Million Shortfall

Fulton city school officials are facing a $5 million budget shortfall. This deficit could lead to the layoff of 54 employees. Rising health care costs are a primary factor in the budget crisis. Increased gas and electricity costs also contribute to the financial strain. A budget hearing is scheduled for May 7, with the final budget vote on May 19.

Fulton, New York

https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/central-ny/education/2026/04/10/fulton-schools-budget-shortfall


New Jersey Districts Announce Staff Reductions

New Jersey school districts face significant financial challenges. Many districts propose layoffs, tax increases, and program cuts. Ocean Gate School District will close its only school. These issues stem from revised state funding and rising operational costs. Health care and special education expenses contribute to budget shortfalls.

, New Jersey

https://www.nj.com/education/2026/04/these-11-nj-school-districts-are-facing-layoffs-tax-hikes-and-closures-to-stay-afloat.html


TIAA's limited periodic withdrawal

Does anyone have experience with this option? Is there a maximum age you can execute this? The reason I am asking is that I am hesitant to commit to a fix life time annuity now with the DOW down 5,000 points since the start of the war. I understand you can withdraw up to 7 percent with this option for non-tiaa traditional. Just wanted to get a perspective before i speak with a TIAA WMA. I appreciate the insight.


Nebraska Wesleyan Reduces Staff Due to Financial Pressures

Nebraska Wesleyan announced the elimination of 14 positions. These job cuts are part of necessary budget reductions. The university faces difficulties from declining enrollment and rising operational costs. Affected employees were offered severance packages and continued health insurance. A faculty advisory work group has been formed to review academic programs and positions.

Lincoln, Nebraska

https://www.1011now.com/2025/10/10/nebraska-wesleyan-announces-layoffs-due-budgetary-issues/


All kidding aside.

Seriously. How is it possible to get out of the hole we are in? Can't lower prices, Customers don't want to come back to us, Can't gain trust to get new customers, Verizon is coming in. I wish Dennis or management would comment on how this company will start making money again! I have been here for a long time and I can't see a way to get out of this hole Altice put us in.


Severance Math

Ok, let's say they need to fire ~10,000 people to stay afloat in some form or fashion:

With severance, UI insurance, COBRA, and other sundry items, lets say it costs $10K on average. Not just the package, but the actual total cost of firing someone. 10000 X 10000 is $100 million.

This sounds about right, but let's say it is half of that, or 5000/head, or $50Mil.

Do you think these creeps are going to spend $50 million to do the right thing? They will not, because:

  1. They are crooks and creeps.
  2. They have a fiduciary duty to shareholders AND debtholders.

My gut says they will file CH11 as soon as they can get away with doing so.


Jefferies initiates Truist Financial stock with underperform rating on execution risk

Total opposite of other analysts and certainly no belief in management. Mayo hasn’t been this tough and we know how he feels about BillyBob and his management.

Jefferies initiated coverage on Truist Financial Corp. (NYSE:TFC) with an underperform rating and set a price target of $35.00, representing a significant 23% downside from the current stock price of $45.39. This bearish stance contrasts sharply with the broader analyst consensus of Hold, with price targets ranging from $48.50 to $69.
The firm cited execution risk related to the bank achieving its return on tangible common equity target of 15% in fiscal year 2026, up from 13% in fiscal year 2025. The challenge appears substantial given that Truist’s return on common equity currently stands at just 8% as of the last twelve months. According to InvestingPro analysis, 8 analysts have revised their earnings downwards for the upcoming period, though the stock trades at a P/E ratio of 11.86 and offers a dividend yield of 4.59%.
Jefferies said intensifying competition in the Southeast may hinder loan and deposit growth and add friction to the company’s hiring plans.
The firm noted that even if Truist Financial meets its ROTCE target, it would trail peers at 17% in fiscal year 2027.
Jefferies said the expected performance gap warrants a discounted valuation for the stock.


LAUSD Cuts Staff Amid Significant Budget Shortfall

The Los Angeles Unified School District announced staff layoffs. This action comes amidst a significant budget shortfall. The district faces an $877 million deficit. These layoffs are a direct result of the financial challenges. The district is addressing its budget imbalance.

Los Angeles, California

https://www.nbclosangeles.com/video/news/local/lausd-issues-staff-layoffs-amid-877m-budget-shortfall/3861863/


INCREASED PENSION RISK!!!

Apollo (APO) & their insurance subsidiary Athene are big private credit players that are under liquidity pressure due to a market perception of increased credit risk resulting in a sharp decline in APO share price. This is important because AT&T off loaded some of their pension liabilities to Athene.

You could be at risk-PAY ATTENTION!!

Under the group annuity contracts, Athene made an irrevocable commitment and became solely responsible for paying the pension benefits of each transferred participant beginning with their August 2023 pension payments. The transaction did not change the amount of pension benefits payable.

The transaction covered approximately 96,000 AT&T participants and beneficiaries, and was funded directly by assets of the pension trust — requiring no cash or asset contributions by AT&T.


Wells Fargo filed "WFUSD" Trademark this week

This seems interesting as the classed the trademark was filed is 009, 036, 042.
IC 009: Downloadable software in the nature of a mobile application
IC 036: Financial exchange; Financial information; Financial processing
IC 042 Software as a service (SAAS) services featuring softwar for tokenization of assets.

You can go to uspto.gov and search for yourself and get more details.....


Upcoming Cuts

From Bloomberg:

  • Capital One will lay off 1,139 employees after acquiring Discover Financial Services in 2024.
  • About half of the layoffs affect Illinois workers, mainly at Discover’s Riverwoods headquarters.
  • Additional employees work remotely but report to teams based in Riverwoods.
  • None of the layoffs involve front-line customer-facing positions.
  • Capital One has cut 1,748 jobs total since late 2025.
  • Layoffs are part of integrating Discover into Capital One after the $35 billion merger.
  • Most workers leave by May 4, with final departures scheduled by Oct. 2, and will receive severance and career support.

Visa MasterCard Europe Issue

Why is this not being discussed? Europe is breaking up with Visa and MasterCard to use their own system. What's going to happen to overseas card acceptance? How does this affect Fiserv and other acquirers?

https://europeanbusinessmagazine.com/business/europes-24-trillion-breakup-with-visa-and-mastercard-has-begun/?amp=1


Article about the the future

Despite the online gushing about a Verizon turnaround since CEO Dan Schulman took over, the completion of its break up by delayering, which started more than 10 years ago, seems a far more likely outcome for what was once the top wireless provider in the US.

Verizon has been delayering for a decade
Delayering is when a telco splits itself into separate ServCo, NetCo, and InfraCo layers and sells off its assets to address its debts. (For a deeper understanding, check out this TM Forum research report on it). Verizon has been at this awhile.

Sold its towers

Verizon began delayering in about 2015 when it sold most of its cell towers to American Tower and the rest to Vertical Bridge just last year. Now largely a ServCo-Netco, Verizon leases towers from American Tower, Vertical Bridge, Crown Castle, and SBA Communications. The company still owns its base stations and other network gear, which move toward obsolescence every day.

Sold its data centers

Verizon left the data center business in 2017 through a deal with Equinix and now partners with hyperscalers like AWS and Microsoft for data center capacity. So, Verizon does not own much of the physical plant where it runs its IT and network systems.

Verizon’s IT landscape remains on its books, but much or most of that is outsourced and licensed, some is obsolete, and all of it is aging fast. As the pace of change increases across IT markets worldwide, especially with the AI invasion, its legacy BSS and OSS systems become costlier and less relevant to future value.

Spinning off its stores

Most recently, Verizon announced it would convert its company-owned stores to franchised Authorized Retailers. Most likely these physical assets will go to big partners like Victra and Wireless Zone, which already operate thousands of Verizon stores. This also relates to the company’s announced layoffs of thousand of customer-facing employees to shed expense.

Fiber miles next?

Verizon still owns significant installed fiber optic assets. Just as AT&T and T‑Mobile US lease most of their fiber, we should probably expect to see Verizon sell off this physical plant to raise more cash.

Becoming customer-focused? Not really
Schulman’s turnaround spiel insists the company “must shift to a customer-first focus.” This is a tacit admission that Verizon isn’t customer-focused now.

Lip service ripped from T‑Mobile

Spinning out thousands of stores to partners who charge added service fees doesn’t sound like a customer-centric move. The messaging sounds disingenuous and is cut-and-pasted from T‑Mobile’s playbook. T‑Mobile’s “customer obsession” has helped it take the lead in US wireless and it took a few years to kick in.

Cut rate holiday offers

Verizon launched a “bring your bill” holiday campaign to undercut AT&T and T‑Mobile pricing. This isn’t customer-centric, it’s prospect-centric. And it’s a race to the bottom price gimmick Sprint failed with before being acquired by T‑Mobile US.

This desperation rate cut coupled with the 13,000 non-union layoffs looks more like a short-term ploy to bump Verizon’s stock by doing two things Wall Street likes: cutting costs and adding subscribers.

These moves might benefit Schulman’s cadre of executives and remaining shareholding employees. Keep an eye on insider sales the minute the stock price moves north, if it does.

Cannibalizing its own MVNOs
Part of Schulman’s justification for price cutting is to fend off its aggressive competitors and turn the tide on customer churn. Wireless offerings from cable MSOs are major drivers of the churn he wants to stop. Two of the biggest players in cable MVNOs are Comcast and Charter, which use Verizon’s network. Verizon might win some customers away from AT&T and T‑Mobile with its holiday sale, but they will also undercut these wholesale customers.

Back in May, Verizon Consumer CEO Sowmyanarayan Sampath was telling the street that cable MSOs are “a very important strategic partner of ours” adding that because they only focus on certain segments and play in markets where Verizon “may not have a presence… it’s actually a gain for us.”

Here’s your mixed metaphor of the day: Verizon is a snake eating its tail while rearranging deck chairs on a sinking ship. This is BS on top of BS from Verizon leadership.

A mountain of debt to conquer
One thing Verizon does own is a $147 billion mountain of debt. This stands against less than $8 billion in cash on hand. Some of this debt is a leftover from the company’s debt financed, $130 billion purchase of Vodafone’s stake in Verizon Wireless back in 2014. Selling off assets to American Tower for $5 billion hardly made a dent. Some debt also ties back to its C‑band spectrum auction “win” in 2021, which cost the company more than $45 billion. Spectrum remains Verizon’s prized asset, but it’s not enough to overcome its debts.

This makes Verizon dependent on its rich cash flows. The company reported about $135 billion in operating revenue for 2024, with about $37 billion in cash flow and $19.8 billion in free cash flow. Verizon’s annual interest expense alone is around $7 billion. This doesn’t set a great stage for a turnaround and is a big part of the reason for the company’s mass layoffs just before the US Thanksgiving holiday. Classy move.

There’s not much left for Verizon to sell out of its cupboard and only so many heads it can cut to deal with its ugly debt problem.

If you’re a Verizon IT vendor, get ready to feel the squeeze. You can bet a round of contract cancellations are on the way. It would not be the first-time new management in a US telco booted out as many IT players as it could to cut costs.

Private bankers happy, public shareholders not
What’s left of Verizon will be a low-cost wireless brand that offers less value to consumers than its own MVNOs.

This reduced company isn’t suddenly going to care better for its customers. It won’t cater to businesses better as it trims back the IT and employees it needs to do so. And it doesn’t offer a better network than its rivals.

Schulman may have a great track record making investors happy, but which investors is he trying to make happy now? I don’t think it’s the public market.

Private banking interests will benefit most from the finalization of Verizon’s break up. Public shareholders will be left with the brand, debts, spectrum — if that isn’t also sold off — IT expense, and probably a reduced dividend in the not-too-distant future.

Verizon turn-around? It seems doubtful that’s even the plan. The completion of its de-layering and devouring by private money interests looks like a far more likely outcome. Then it’s a question of who buys whatever is left.


Does it increase shareholder value to make your employees hate the company they work for?

Just wondering what the goal is of McKinsey and co to destroy employee good will as much as they can.

Every person who takes pride in their work learns to not only stop giving a sh-t, but extract as much as they can from the company out of pure spite. Every department has people deliberately making mistakes and slowing procedures down out of PURE SPITE because they hate this company.

When you first start, you wonder at the incompetence of literally every team around you, but then you are adopted into the culture. The culture is: Smile while doing everything possible to make the company worse and the people around you’s jobs harder. This a joint effort, and eventually you fall in line.

Senior leadership is involved in this joint effort, they pass down initiatives that they know will fail with a smile and a song, and everyone nods enthusiastically, with the same smile, and the grunt employees smile a painful grimace as they purposefully make the process even worse than it would have been initially out of pure spite. But they are still smiling, that’s the important part. Their middle managers get their bonus, the senior leaders get their bonus, everyone smiles and money flows, wasted on infinite vanity projects and processes that don’t work.

Had you asked employees who do these processed day in day out if they might work, they could have told you from the beginning. But these employees likely did express concern at one point, years ago, and learned that that is NOT the Schwab way. The Schwab way is to keep your mouth shut and smile. Everybody knows they don’t work, but that is not important. What is important is that you smile some that whichever C-Suite gets applauded for fudged numbers from their vanity project.

I don’t know how clients think our customer service is wonderful. Everyone I talk to hates their job and is confidently incorrect. It takes me, on average, 10 hours of extra work a week to fix simply mistakes made by other department. I can call five different departments and receive 5 different answers. I don’t blame them, Schwab provides no training (too expensive) and no motivation. Hurting the customer and internal business partners seems to be the only way to lash out at the company that clearly hates you.


Anyone retiring thinking between lump or annuity I would take lump see link

So remember you think you are guaranteed but honestly once the pensions were sold off they are no longer federally guaranteed it’s state regulatory guaranteed.Which is dependent on state .So NJ would be up to 250,000 .So if you have more your gambling.I believe.But here is one article https://www.americanretiree.com/post/verizon-retirees-object-to-5-9-billion-pension-spinoff


Project Crane Continues

As project Crane continues to sla-ghter headcount and increase exec compensation the job market becomes even more unfavorable leaving employees unable to pay their WF mortgages, car payments, personal loans and more. Severance pay is only for people with tenure. So many people we new to wells fargo just a couple of years ago which means at best they might see 2 weeks or so of severance. Pay your bills on that, good luck because its not possible. Unemployment in many states is around $200 a week. What can someone really do with that, NOTHING!!!!


We are unstoppable! (Our path to sub 35)

Finally, SLF seems to have found something she's really good at: sending the stock CONSISTENTLY down at the speed of a failed SpaceX rocket. Time for some put options, because when the FT news is public, and James has to guide the investors, you can make some serious money when the stock sinks below 35! (This is NOT financial advice, though!!!). Say hi to Bob T!


Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Slashes Jobs as Financial Woes Deepen

  • The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston has made layoffs for the second time in six years.
  • The museum is suffering from a $13 million projected deficit.
  • Affected employees reportedly include three endowed curatorial posts.

https://news.artnet.com/art-world/museum-of-fine-arts-boston-slashes-jobs-as-financial-woes-deepen-2741616


What do you think are the main reasons?

There seem to be layoffs spreading across the financial services.... especially asset management and custody space (State Street, Fidelity, BlackRock, Vanguard, Schwab, Citi, Morgan Stanley). I’m curious whether this is mostly cyclical or tied to longer-term structural shifts. What do you think are the main reasons?


Shell Gulf of America 2028: impress or divest?

Lots of rumblings from both consulting firms and at higher levels in Houston that a significant amount of Shell’s GoA assets in 2028 reach an opex/profitability threshold that will require the ELT to decide whether to divest or commit to cradle to grave with P&A and decommissioning that may far exceed 10 Billion dollars.

Wisdom of crowds and insiders.
What assets get divested?
Can Shell do marginal production management?
Will Shell ride the Idol Iron Clock?

Other interpretations and ideas welcome


NYC: Metro Opera Layoffs

Metropolitan Opera Reduces Staff, Programs Amid Budget Woes

The Metropolitan Opera announced layoffs and pay cuts. These measures address fiscal pressures from the COVID-19 pandemic. Twenty-two administrative staff were laid off, and executives face salary reductions. Next season's productions will decrease, and one opera is postponed. The company seeks new revenue and expects full pay restoration by August 2027.

https://theviolinchannel.com/metropolitan-opera-announces-layoffs-amid-financial-strain/


Staff Cuts Loom

The Hackensack school system's budget deficit has increased to $17 million. This figure is $2 million higher than previously reported. District officials warned that up to 90 staff positions may be eliminated. An audit revealed years of financial mismanagement and improper practices. The Board of Education has sued former officials over their alleged role in the crisis.

https://www.njspotlightnews.org/video/hackensack-school-district-threatens-layoffs-amid-17m-budget-deficit/

Hackensack, New Jersey


Work toward the go F’ yourself goal.

No matter where you work, you should work toward accumulating a financial base to where you can tell anyone that they can go “F’ yourself”. This takes time, a lifetime in some cases but it can be done.

Don’t spend your raises or bonus’s and funnel your extra money into investments. On raises and bonus’s, put about 10% of that aside to reward yourself but be as frugal as you can be. Now Citi does not make this easy as they are extremely lacking in rewards for a job well done but still this is an achievable goal. Work toward a 1 month pay in liquid cash, then 3 months. Put this amount in a CD at a fixed interest rate. Then work toward 6 months, put this into a CD. Then 9 months, same thing, then a full year same thing. Again this takes time. Once done though, as they mature, you’ll be faced with a decision to cash them in or roll them over. Stagger each CD purchase to where they don’t all mature at once. I get it, I really do. This is not a quick fix, its not a fast turn around and you have to spend money to live. It’s a choice though that’s worth the sacrifice. Max out your 401K always.

Resist the urge to have the latest and greatest Iphone, entertainment center, PC, car….etc. … Work hard toward wealth, not money. Build enough wealth to where you don’t care what Citi does. Enough cash reserves to where if you get let go, its of no significance to your life.

If this is so great and fail safe why am I still working at Citi, you may be thinking. I have a good gig. I’m happy and I get paid. Should Citi ever deem my employment no longer needed, that’s ok too. Should Citi ever do or mandate something that I don’t care for, no issue there, I’ll just walk. Simple as that.

I admit, its not always been that way but like I said, this takes a tremendous amount of time and its exponentially harder to do if you have kids but this is what Citi hinges on. They rely on your desperation, your continued need to have to have this job. The more desperate you are, the more you can be abused and strong armed to work crazy hours with the implied “or else” that’s aways preached. They are masters at telling you several things to enforce this. Key phrases such as “its a bad job market out there” , “better the devil you know”, “other banks operate just like this” and on and on. At times all of this is true, at times only some of it and at times none of it is true.

There are other job sectors to look into you know. Citi would have you believe that this is the only place you can ever work and this is the only place that would ever employ you. It’ll do you no good to ever look anywhere else for a job, this is as good as its ever going to get in your life. This is just not true so don’t buy into it.

Work hard, invest what you can, invest in yourself as well (skillset), be patient, network outside of Citi, take care of your heath and work toward the goal of having enough money to where you walk away anytime you want to.


q4'25 severance expenses for 2026 layoffs

Out of curiosity I did some AI based research to see how and when a company must account for severence expenses under GAAP, taking into consideration 60 day notice periods, and basically they can incur the expense when they notify you so long as their is little chance of a reversal. additionally. if they have already made their lists for the first part of 2026 (q1/2) and are certain those positions are going away they can take the expense earlier such as in the $612MM hit we took this past quarter. So while severance expenses are expected to be lower by $700MM in 2026, part of the reason they can say that is that layoffs happening in the next few months are already paid for.