Author: Admin

POWER POINTWhat I’m hearing from energy insidersGreetings from Colorado, where I had the opportunity to do a nearly hour-long chat with the Chair of the Federal Trade Commission. While most of the conversation with Andrew Ferguson was about A.I. and Big Tech, we did venture a little bit into energy vis-à-vis Europe and its energy woes.’Woes’ is the correct term. The continent has been in a constant state of nervousness since the Nord Stream pipeline was blown up in 2022.My take →  It’s incredible that we have satellites that can see into your car from thousands of miles high, but…

U.S. and Canadian officials were engaged in additional talks on Friday. Details about what’s in their new trade deal have trickled out.

The S&P 500 Index ($SPX) (SPY) is up by +0.37% today, the Dow Jones Industrial Average ($DOWI) (DIA) is up by +0.67%, and the Nasdaq 100 Index ($IUXX) (QQQ) is up by +0.10%.  E-mini S&P futures (ESU26) are up +0.30%, and September E-mini Nasdaq futures (NQU26) are up +0.13%.Stock indices are moving higher today as crude oil prices stabilize, temporarily easing inflation concerns.  Crude oil prices are consolidating below Thursday’s 1-month high today on comments from Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, who said it would be better to end the war with dignity.  Markets await Monday’s press conference, when US Treasury Secretary Bessent said the…

California Attorney General Rob Bonta told CNBC’s David Faber on Thursday that the group of states suing to block Paramount Skydance’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery would require “robust structural remedies” to reach a settlement in the antitrust case. “[Paramount] wanted to talk about everything except for what this case is about. They want to talk about the streaming market, which we don’t allege in our complaint. They want to talk about CNN, which is not a focus of our complaint. They want to talk about the foreign regulators. We want to talk about the three markets that we…

August 20, 2026 Federal Reserve Board issues enforcement action with SouthPoint Bancshares, Inc. and announces termination of enforcement action with Deutsche Bank AG, DB USA Corporation, and Deutsche Bank AG New York Branch For release at 11:00 a.m. EDT The Federal Reserve Board on Thursday announced the execution of the following enforcement action listed below: SouthPoint Bancshares, Inc., Birmingham, Alabama Written Agreement dated August 14, 2026 The Federal Reserve Board also announced the termination of the enforcement action listed below: Deutsche Bank AG, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, DB USA Corporation, New York, New York, and Deutsche Bank AG…

For centuries, lending has depended on one fundamental question: Can I trust the borrower to repay me?Traditional financial institutions answer that question through credit scores, collateral requirements, employment records, legal contracts, identity verification, and centralized intermediaries. These systems can work, but they are expensive, slow, geographically limited, and often exclude people who lack conventional financial histories.Decentralized finance (DeFi) introduces a different approach: trustless lending.Instead of relying primarily on a bank or lending company to determine who can borrow, trustless lending uses blockchain infrastructure, smart contracts, collateral, transparent rules, and automated liquidation mechanisms. The goal is not to eliminate trust, but…

“I’d love for our son to be able to attend college without needing to take out student loans.”

New Financial Conduct Authority rules governing Buy Now Pay Later came into force on 15 July 2026, requiring providers of Deferred Payment Credit agreements to conduct affordability checks and bringing UK BNPL into the mainstream consumer credit regime. The consumer-facing obligations have drawn most public attention, but payments industry veterans argue the deeper operational challenge sits one layer down the stack, inside the acquiring and processing infrastructure that moves every transaction. Robert Kraal, co-founder of Silverflow (1) Robert Kraal, co-founder of cloud-native processing platform Silverflow and a former chief operating officer at Adyen, says the structural problem is one of…

Bargain hunters are wise to pay careful attention to insider buying, because although there are many various reasons for an insider to sell a stock, presumably the only reason they would use their hard-earned dollars to make a purchase, is that they expect to make money. Today we look at two noteworthy recent insider buys. On Tuesday, Gaming & Leisure Properties’, Earl C. Shanks, made a $422,400 buy of GLPI, purchasing 10,000 shares at a cost of $42.24 each. Shanks was up about 3.8% on the purchase at the high point of today’s trading session, with GLPI trading as high…

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s plan to calm markets is being short-circuited.