Mission Everywhere

Hollis Johnson Fast food chains dealt with a labor shortage and supply chain constraints in 2021. Workers were pushed to the limit with understaffing and angry customers. Drive-thrus and mobile orders were up, and they gave workers new problems to handle. 2021 was another difficult year for fast food. Demand came rushing back after the unusual trends of 2020, but managing supply issues and staffing were bigger challenges this year.  Here are a few of the debacles that made up the year in fast food. Chipotle's Boorito promotion Chipotle orders left at the end of the night. Anonymous Several Chipotle workers told Insider that they were worried ahead of Chipotle's annual Halloween Boorito promotion, fearing that their understaffed stores wouldn't be able to handle the influx of digital orders. These concerns all played out, workers told Insider.  "It was as bad as I thought it was going to be," a worker in Ohio said. Some Chipotle workers in New Yo...

People walk past the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on Wall Street on July 15, 2021 in New York City. Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Images The S&P 500's 27% surge through 2021 thrashed nearly every Wall Street forecast from last December. The market ripped higher as vaccine rollouts, reopening, and new stimulus boosted optimism. Wall Street is split on whether stocks will keep soaring or stumble over the next 12 months. Even the most bullish analysts didn't expect the stock market to soar as high as it did throughout 2021. The S&P 500 ended the year with a mammoth 27.2% gain after closing at 4,766.18 Friday afternoon. The rally marks a third straight year of double-digit growth for the benchmark and trounces its 16.3% jump from 2020. The index also enjoyed 70 record closes as investors cheered on the economic recovery. That overwhelming optimism surpassed all of Wall Street's full-year projections from 12 months ago. JPMorgan held the most bullish outlook going...

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). Drew Angerer/Getty Images Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez responded to comments on one of her vacation photos in Florida on Friday. A former Trump adviser called her boyfriend's feet "gross" and "pale" and criticized mask mandates. Ocasio-Cortez said the tweet was evidence of "sexual frustration" among her Republican critics. New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez responded to a political commentator who remarked on one of her vacation photos on Friday by suggesting that some of her Republican critics harbored "sexual frustration." Steve Cortes, previously a commentator for conservative TV network Newsmax and adviser to former President Donald Trump, posted a photo on Twitter of Ocasio-Cortez and her boyfriend on vacation in Florida. The two were pictured at a table with drinks, and neither of them wore masks. "If Leftists like AOC actually thought mandates and masking worked, they wou...

A passenger who arrived from Italy administers a self-collected nasal swab at Los Angeles International Airport on December 3, 2021. Mario Tama/Getty Images The Omicron variant won't slam the global economy like past waves have, JPMorgan said Thursday. The variant's rapid spread and reduced severity should fuel a faster and less dire wave of infections. Omicron is also "unlikely" to disrupt the supply-chain recovery in 2022, the bank's economists said. The Omicron variant roiled holiday get-togethers, travel plans, and gift deliveries. But it won't be enough to derail the world's economic rebound, JPMorgan economists said Thursday. The Omicron variant grew from a fledgling story to the world's predominant health crisis in a matter of weeks, raising new concerns that the pandemic — and its economic fallout — will linger well into the new year. With Americans already lamenting high inflation and supply-chain problems, the variant's rapid sp...

bitcoin cryptocurrency - stock illustration Getty Bitcoin finishes the year off in a slump but investors could take advantage of the down price. The wash sale rule that applies to most securities doesn't apply to cryptocurrencies. Crypto traders can sell at a loss to offset capital gains taxes and buy back in at the same price. Bitcoin is closing the year off with a 32% slump from its November all-time high of about $68,000. On Friday, the crypto was trading at around $46,000.  Many investors had been bracing for a year-end parabolic bull run that would see bitcoin reach peaks as high as $100,000. But that expectation has now been pushed off to 2022. But investors can take advantage of a tax loophole while they wait for the cryptocurrency's comeback. Popular consensus from technical analysts like Scott Melker , host of the "Wolf Of All Streets" podcast, and Carl Runefelt, a crypto investor and influencer, suggests bitcoin's price is likely to consolida...