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For the first time in two years for many people, the American workplace is transforming into something that resembles pre-pandemic days, the Associated Press reported. Tysons Foods said yesterday that it was ending mask requirements for its vaccinated workers in some facilities. Walmart and Amazon — the nation’s No. 1 and 2 largest private employers respectively — will no longer require fully vaccinated workers to don masks in stores or warehouses unless required under local or state laws. Tech companies like Microsoft and Facebook that had allowed employees to work fully remote are now setting mandatory dates to return to the office after a series of fits and starts. “There has been a sharp decline in COVID-19 cases across the country over the past weeks,” Amazon told workers in a memo. “Along with increasing vaccination rates across the country, this is a positive sign we can return to the path to normal operations.” Microsoft, based in Redmond, Washington, on Monday announced plans to open its West Coast buildings on Feb. 28 with a hybrid mix of working in the office and home. Facebook parent Meta Platforms, which had planned to bring workers back to the office on Jan. 31, will now require them to return — with proof of a booster shot — on March 28.

American farmers are paying significantly higher prices for their weed-killing chemicals, crop seeds, fertilizer, equipment repairs and seasonal labor, eroding some of 2021’s windfall from rising crop prices. Higher farm costs could help push up grocery bills further in 2022, analysts say, following a year in which global food prices rose to decade highs, the Wall Street Journal reported. Supply-chain constraints and staffing problems are leading to higher prices for products and supplies across a variety of industries, especially food. U.S. inflation hit its fastest pace in nearly four decades last year. Food prices surged 7% in January, the sharpest rise since 1981, the Labor Department on Thursday said, as meat and egg prices continued to climb at double-digit rates. A rally in prices for agricultural commodities such as corn and soybeans, which kicked off in mid-2020, pushed up incomes for U.S. farmers and led them to spend more freely on farmland and machinery. In 2021, U.S. farms’ net income was estimated to be about $117 billion, up 23% from 2020, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Even as crop prices remain high, supply costs are expected to outpace the price of agricultural goods in 2022, according to a January report from the Federal Reserve Board. Net income for farmers in Kansas is estimated to fall 65% from a year ago, according to a January study from Kansas State University. Read more. (Subscription required.) 

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Although the $46.5 billion Emergency Rental Assistance Program has paid out tens of billions of dollars to help avert an eviction crisis, some tenants who received help are finding themselves threatened with eviction again — sometimes days after getting federal help, the Associated Press reported. Many are finding it nearly impossible to find another affordable place to live. The National Housing Law Project, in a survey last fall of nearly 120 legal aid attorneys and civil rights advocates, found that 86% of respondents reported cases in which landlords either refused to take assistance or accepted the money and still moved to evict tenants. The survey also found a significant increase in cases of landlords lying in court to evict tenants and illegally locking them out. “A number of issues could be described as issues related to landlord fraud ... and a set of problems I would describe as loopholes within the ... program that made it less effective to accomplish the goal,” said Natalie N. Maxwell, a senior attorney with the group. National Apartment Association President and CEO Bob Pinnegar said the survey was not based on facts, adding that its members are doing everything they can to keep tenants in their homes, including lobbying to get rental assistance out faster. Read more.

​​In related news, Seattle’s eviction moratorium implemented nearly two years ago due to the coronavirus pandemic will be extended through the end of February and then not renewed, the Associated Press reported. Mayor Bruce Harrell made the announcement Friday about the moratorium, which has prevented evictions of residential renters, small businesses and nonprofits. The Seattle Times reports it is at least the seventh time the moratorium, first enacted in March 2020, has been extended. “With COVID cases steadily declining, the time has come for the city to move on from the broad approach of the eviction moratoria and instead drive more deliberate and focused efforts to support those most in need,” Harrell said in a statement. Harrell directed the city’s Office of Housing to distribute $25 million to renters and small landlords, as a complement to the larger rental assistance being distributed by King County. About 124,000 households — more than 12% of all renters — in the Seattle metro area, which includes King, Pierce and Snohomish counties, are behind on rent, according to a Census survey from the first weeks of January. Read more.

Philippine Airlines (PAL) successfully restructured crippling debts and exited a U.S. chapter 11 bankruptcy process in just four months with a steady management team at the helm and the full financial backing of owner, billionaire Lucio Tan, the Philippine Daily Inquirer reported. The flag carrier was also aided by a small army of international legal and financial consultants, who earned fees of almost $3 million (P150 million) advising the carrier during the creditor protection plea, a recent court filing showed. The payments include $1.34 million to Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, which rendered legal services and advice on obtaining financing during the bankruptcy plea. Another $640,167 was paid to Seabury Securities LLC and Seabury International Corporate Finance LLC.

The U.S. Transportation Department said on Friday it was offering $69 million to 127 aviation manufacturing and repair businesses under a COVID-19 relief program created by Congress in 2021, Reuters reported. In total, the department has offered $673 million nationwide in three rounds of awards. Some previously offered awards were not ultimately paid. The $3 billion aviation manufacturing payroll subsidy program covers up to half of eligible companies' compensation costs for up to six months. Grantees may not conduct furloughs without employee consent or lay off workers covered by subsidies during that period. The application process is now closed. It is unclear what will happen to the undistributed funds. Among the 593 awards granted are $75.5 million to Spirit AeroSystems, $20.9 million for Connecticut-based Hexcel Corp, $17.5 million to BAE Systems Controls, $12.9 million to Airbus' U.S arm, $15 million to Learjet, a unit of Bombardier Inc, and $12.5 million to Dassault Falcon Jet Corp.

Foreclosures on homes in the U.S. surged in January after a pandemic moratorium ended, though they remained well below pre-Covid levels, according to new data from RealtyTrac, Bloomberg News reported. Foreclosure filings such as default notices, scheduled auctions or bank repossessions jumped 29% from a month earlier and more than doubled compared with January 2021, the report said. Lenders repossessed 4,784 properties in the month and started the process on another 11,854 homes. “It’s very important to keep these numbers in context,” said Rick Sharga, executive vice president of RealtyTrac, a unit of real estate research firm Attom Data Solutions. “Foreclosure completions are still far below normal levels -– less than half as many as in January of 2020 before the pandemic was declared. He said that after the end of the moratorium, “we’re likely to continue seeing large year-over-year percentage increases for the rest of this year.” Measured against the total number of homes, the state with the highest foreclosure rate is New Jersey, where one in every 2,336 housing units has a filing. Nationwide, the ratio is one in 5,922. Among large cities, the worst foreclosure rates in January were in Detroit, Cleveland and Chicago.

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. is offering about $2 billion of notes to refinance the expensive debt it took out in 2020 to weather the global lockdowns amid the pandemic, Bloomberg News reported. The company will tap the junk-bond market to sell $1 billion of secured notes due in 2027 and $600 million of unsecured notes due in 2029, according to a statement on Thursday. It is also offering $435 million of exchangeable notes due 2027 in a private offering. Price guidance on the deal tightened slightly with books expected to close at 2:30 p.m. in New York on Thursday. The secured portion of the deal is now discussed in the 6% area, while talk for the unsecured tranche is for a yield in the 7.75%-8% range. Earlier pricing discussions for the secured notes were in the 6.25%-6.5% area, while the unsecured notes were being discussed at a yield of 8%-8.25%. The secured debt is rated B1/B+, four steps into junk. JPMorgan Chase & Co. is leading the sale. Norwegian Cruise Line will use the proceeds to redeem all of its outstanding 12.25% notes and 10.25% notes, and to make principal payments on short-term debt that’s maturing, according to the statement. The secured notes and the related guarantees are backed by three of the company’s vessels.

U.S. consumers added to their debt loads at the fastest pace in 14 years in 2021 as they borrowed more to afford homes, cars and other goods that are becoming increasingly expensive, according to a report released yesterday by the New York Federal Reserve, Reuters reported. Total household debt grew by $1 trillion last year, marking the largest increase in overall debt since 2007, according to the New York Fed's quarterly report on household debt and credit. The total debt balance is now $1.4 trillion higher than it was at the end of 2019. "The aggregate balances of newly opened mortgage and auto loans sharply increased in 2021, corresponding to increases in home and car prices," Wilbert Van Der Klaauw, senior vice president at the New York Fed, said in a statement. Over $4.5 trillion in mortgages were originated in 2021, reaching a historic high for the database, which goes back to 1999. Mortgage balances increased by $258 billion in the fourth quarter to $10.93 trillion at the end of December. Auto loan originations returned to pre-pandemic trends but loan amounts increased in response to rising car prices, New York Fed researchers said. "As car prices have soared, buyers have borrowed more to finance the additional cost," researchers wrote in a blog post published on Tuesday.