The new chief executive officer of CSX, Hunter Harrison, has been at the helm of the railroad for four months. During this time, Harrison started off a restructuring mobilization. Even though this move meant sharp changes within the organization, he is confident that his restructuring agenda would shortly reveal the fruits of his labor.

CSX Restructuring Agenda Will Implement Additional Changes Well Into 2018

On Wednesday, Hunter Harrison admitted that he is content with his leadership so far at CSX Transportation. The CEO had previously had other three railroads in his hands where he ordered similar turnarounds. These were Canadian Pacific, Canadian National and the Illinois Central railroads.

This year only, the Florida-based company eliminated 900 locomotives and 60,000 cars and departed from 2,300 employees. Harrison claimed that the positive implications of these restructuring efforts are yet to come.

However, the revamping is not over yet. CSX intends to streamline its operations by letting go of the entire infrastructure that doesn’t have any use for them anymore. This means that the company might shut down almost all 12 rail yards that have become redundant over the years. Other strategies include focusing all current nine scattered dispatch points into one central position next year.

Wall Street Sanctioned CSX Shares as soon as Harrison Revealed Plans for the Future of the Company

Nonetheless, Wall Street is not so impressed with the proposed restructuring agenda. As a consequence, the shares plummeted 5.1% or $2.77. Therefore, the trading day on Wednesday closed at $51.87. On the other hand, Harrison seemed confident that the upcoming changes are going to boost earnings by 25%. At the same time, analysts expect a $2.29 increase per share by the end of this year.

On Tuesday, CSX announced an improved second quarter by 15% to $510 million or 55 cents per share. By comparison, a year ago the shares soared 47 cents, and the revenue showed $445 million. Over the last quarter, coal volume increased 7%.

However, over the last years this type of resource fell to great challenges as its rival natural gas presented better prices. On top of that, environmental concerns that grow incrementally dented the image of coal greatly.

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President Donald Trump turned to steel imports as a solution to his obsession for profits. Therefore, all nations across the planet might feel a direct impact if this idea becomes a decision. A 20% tariff is hefty enough to set back international economies.

Trump Might Put into Practice One of His Electoral Promises Regarding Free Trade

According to official documents, Trump scheduled a meeting on Thursday. The members who received an invitation are key advisers close to the president. Even though some of them were adamant in their views that such a strategy might have severe economic consequences, the conclusion of the meeting was heavily in favor for a drastic tariff on steel imports.

On the other hand, Donald Trump remains loyal to his electoral promises. One of his core resolutions was centered on free trade which rooted from his criticism against Japan, Mexico, and China. In the end, Trump’s fierceness for this international competition made him even allude to a trade war.

Trump’s upcoming decisions might reshape the global economy for good. Such a sudden increase in tariff might make America’s top trading partners to respond. Chinese officials will have no choice than to categorize this new policy as an aggressive trade move.

A Bigger Tariff for Steel Imports Can Be Replaced with a Massive Infrastructure Plan for Even Better Results

This type of decision might trigger dire consequences that would definitely affect even American companies. While the United States has a vast production of goods, large enterprises can’t oversee every aspect of their products. Therefore, they prefer to delegate certain tasks.

As a consequence, most heavy responsibilities such as parts production are shifted abroad. In the end, American companies will have to pay for themselves for the new 20% tariff. This chain of consequences will surely reach clients as well. Companies will jump prices to protect their profits.

However, experts point at another method to boost steel production with all these negative consequences left behind. Trump administration can order a major plan for infrastructure improvement for instance. The government can fund this project. As a consequence, steel demand will skyrocket while the government creates more jobs for Americans.

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Elon Musk has no time to linger over one of his favorite products. His empire of clean vehicles needs his attention for latest challenges. Therefore, with the Tesla Model 3 still in its preorder stage, the young tech guru has already started his next project. This time it is about Tesla Model Y that features a concept that is still a theory of a crossover electrical vehicle.

EV Enthusiasts Believed Model Y Would Be an Improved Version of Model 3

Tesla Model Y is going to resemble the concept of a crossover SUV which Honda CR-V and Ford Escape has already attempted to replicate. The initial rumors shaped the next challenge for Tesla as an improved version of the Model X which starts from a sedan counterpart. As a consequence, for the past few years, EV enthusiasts speculated on the numerous possibilities that this latest project would end up being eventually.

Therefore, most of the time they envisioned a reinforced Model 3 as the company made it a routine strategy to take a vehicle like the first SUV, Model X, and turn it into a better concept. This is exactly what happened to Model S.

Tesla Needs New Gigafactory to Accommodate a Generous Inventory for Upcoming Model

On the other hand, CEO Elon Musk assured his shareholders in a recent official meeting that the upcoming rage would be a completely original case. The only few details known about the upcoming Model Y are pointing towards a similar demographic market that Model 3 has. Therefore, the innovative crossover EV has to be easy enough to manufacture to ensure a rich inventory for EV enthusiasts.

At the moment, the United States is in dire need for more SUV products. This is actually the type of vehicle the market demands. Therefore, Tesla has to be careful how it shapes its concept so as to indulge numerous types of clientele. However, the company has to solve a logistics issue above all. Its most advanced automotive plant in Fremont can no longer support the production of a new model. Therefore, the company has to build another Gigafactory someplace else.

Elon Musk is confident that the new factory will be geared with latest features to ensure a faster building process with less capital expenditure. The projected launch year is 2019. The young CEO believes the demand would be higher than for Model 3.

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For years, authorities had in plan to make way for a massive change in Medicare. This fix would mend a concerning private security issue with Social Security numbers. Medicare cards are going to replace such private information with digits and letters. These codes will be chosen randomly to protect the card owners from identity fraud.

The Medicare ID Presents a Private Security Issue Mostly to Senior Citizens

On Tuesday, the government declared that it is going to respect a 2019 deadline regarding a Medicare private security issue. Changes should appear as soon as April 2018. This is when citizens are going to receive new cards through mail. This major move regards a total of 57 million senior and disabled beneficiaries who are more susceptible to identity theft traps than others.

The owners of the new Medicare cards will be able to use their new assets right away. Authorities will deliver instructions together with the new Social Security numbers. These guidelines are going to urge people to destroy their old cards.

The chief of Medicare, Seema Verma, delivered a public declaration according to which Trump administration had already created a 21-month plan. The main strategy is looking for an organized transition to the comfort of all citizens involved in this change. State governments, hospitals, insurance companies, doctors, pharmacies, family members as well as beneficiaries will all play their role in this project.

Medicare Beneficiary Identifier Will Replace the Social Security Number

Moreover, Congress wants all eligible citizens to receive their new cards by April 2019. Authorities have already created an official website for this Medicare mission. For the moment, the web page delivers only basic information. However, it may receive more details along the evolution of the operation.

The replacement for Social Security number will be called Medicare Beneficiary Identifier, and it will be a market with the MBI acronym. There is no official design yet. However, the code that will solve the private security issue will have an 11-digit combination that officials will generate at random. The code will have lower- and upper-case letters as well as numbers. There are already some private insurers who rolled out a similar operation where they stopped using Social Security numbers on cards anymore.

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Clean power is a national aim that grows in popularity as many states and countries are considering to instate. It is said that alternative sources of energy help save the environment and diminish national expenses considerably. The California grid is among the latest players who diversified its power sources with renewable energy. As of recently, the network paid its efforts off thanks to solar, wind, and hydroelectric plants.

ISO Released Report with Great Performance of Renewable Energy over the Weekend

Last weekend, power diversification at the California grid reached a new milestone. The California Independent System Operator, who supervises the electric power system of the state, reported a record renewable energy production of 67.2% of the overall state consumption. This rate left a 13.5% of power coming from massive hydropower facilities out.

On Saturday, most of the renewable energy that supplied citizens came mostly from solar and wind plants. On the other hand, the Operator did not count assets generated by rooftop solar units that are slowly turning into a trend in California. As such, on Saturday alone, renewable energy represented 42% of the total power generated by the California grid. Once again, these numbers neglected an additional batch of clean power coming from hydropower plants.

The director of policy at the Center for Sustainable Energy, Sachu Constantine, stated that this is good news for the renewable energy industry. The official was impressed by how much clean energy the grid relied on and greeted the big potential of this kind of power.

California Wants to Get 66% of Its Elecricity from Clean Sources by 2030

California is one of the parties involved in the Paris Agreement that shows willingness to keep its resolutions on Climate Change. In alignment with this environmental direction, the state adopted laws that require citizens to receive 33% of their energy power from clean sources by 2020. After this deadline, the stakes should be increased by 50% by the year of 2030. The state seems to be on the right track. Last year, the California grid collected 32.3% of its power from renewable sources already.

Moreover, this record batch of renewable energy can only go up from now on. In the following months, authorities expect a more productive period thanks to a sunny summer and hydroelectricity reserves accumulated over winter.

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