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Economists are dialing back recession risks, The Wall Street Journal reported. Easing inflation, a still-strong labor market and economic resilience led business and academic economists polled by The Wall Street Journal to lower the probability of a recession in the next 12 months to 54% from 61% in the prior two surveys. While that probability is still high by historical comparison, it represents the largest month-over-month percentage-point drop since August 2020, as the economy was recovering from a short but sharp recession induced by the COVID-19 pandemic. It reflects the fact that the economy has kept growing even as the Federal Reserve has raised interest rates and inflation declined. In the latest survey, economists expected gross domestic product to have grown at a 1.5% annual rate in the second quarter, a sharp uptick from 0.2% in the previous survey. They still expect GDP to eventually contract, but later, and by less, than previously. They expect the economy to grow 0.6% in the third quarter, in contrast to the 0.3% contraction expected in the prior survey, followed by a 0.1% contraction in the fourth. Forecasters said GDP would increase 1% in 2023, measured from the fourth quarter of a year earlier, double the previous forecast of 0.5%. Nearly 60% of economists said their main reason for optimism about the economic outlook is their expectation that inflation will continue to slow. The Labor Department’s consumer-price index climbed 3% in June from a year earlier, sharply lower than the peak of 9.1% in June 2022 and the slowest in more than two years. The Fed’s preferred inflation measure has fallen from 5.4% in March 2022 to 4.6% in May. Economists expect it to reach 3.7% by the fourth quarter of this year, though that is still well above the Fed’s 2% target.

50 Cent could be nearly $7 million richer now that former Sire Spirits employee Mitchell Green, who had embezzled money from the company, defaulted on his bankruptcy filing, AllHipHop reported. Sire Spirits LLC filed a complaint against Green on June 2, arguing that bankruptcy protection shouldn’t cover money obtained through illegal means. Despite being served with the summons and complaint, Green failed to respond within 30 days, leading to a default being entered against him. Green, who had been a part of the brand management team at 50 Cent’s company, Sire Spirits, had been ordered to pay more than $6 million after he was discovered to have embezzled funds. Green acted as the principal liaison with the company’s French suppliers. However, he betrayed the company’s trust by colluding with these suppliers, artificially inflating the amount that Sire Spirits paid and funneling the excess fees to himself and his co-conspirators. According to 50 Cent’s lawyer, James Berman, Green was paid a six-figure salary and benefits as an employee, but his own greed led him to steal millions of dollars in “agency fees” he negotiated under the table. After years of fraudulent activity, Green confessed to his misdeeds when he claimed he was being extorted by a co-conspirator. Sire Spirits took legal action and an arbitration proceeding found Green liable for breach of fiduciary duty, fraud and unjust enrichment, leading to a judgment of $6,194,293. Despite Green’s attempts to file for bankruptcy to avoid paying the judgment, 50 Cent fought against it, arguing that bankruptcy protection doesn’t cover money obtained by “fraud or defalcation while acting in a fiduciary capacity, embezzlement, or larceny.” Green never bothered to reply, clearing the way for 50 Cent’s latest legal victory in the battle to recover millions from Green.