New CPI figures showed U.S. inflation topping the already high expectations for June. Prices were up 9.1% from a year earlier, all but confirming another big rate hike from the Fed as it struggles to “wrestle under control”...more
The other shoe dropped for Elon on Tuesday, with Twitter suing the Tesla CEO in Chancery Court in Delaware to force him to “complete is $44 billion acquisition” of the social media company. That court will now “determine...more
Auditing giant Ernst & Young will pay $100 million to U.S. authorities as part of a deal to resolve claims that “some of its auditors had cheated on ethics exams—and that the firm had done nothing to stop the practice.” That...more
6/28/2022
/ CRISPR ,
Crypto Exchanges ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Electric Vehicles ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Markets ,
Germany ,
Oil & Gas ,
Russia ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Spirit Airlines ,
Volkswagen
All the hits—and let’s be honest . . . mostly inflation and its staying power—from Treasury Secretary Yellen’s trip to the Hill on Tuesday, including admissions that her and Chair Powell’s frequent use of the term...more
Glencore, a giant in the commodities and mining scenes, will pay $1.1 billion “to settle charges that two of its units bribed officials in several countries and manipulated oil prices,” a deal that follows “months of...more
5/26/2022
/ Bribery ,
Electric Vehicles ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Financial Markets ,
Joint Venture ,
Nasdaq ,
Oil & Gas ,
Price Manipulation ,
Russia ,
Ukraine ,
Wendy's
Jobs Report Friday. Let’s see if the numbers give us some reason for cheer after markets whipsawed into the red—hard—a day before. [But best to temper hopes for any market recovery, no matter what jobs are, as early signs...more
As forecast, consumer prices rose dramatically in March, hitting the 8.5% mark. Fuel prices led the way thanks to “a recent surge in gas costs tied to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” but less volatile core prices were also up...more
Jobs Report Friday! Here’s what we’re looking for in the March numbers after reports earlier this week suggested we remain in a period of both high openings and voluntary resignations...more
White House officials are mulling over a plan that would “release one million barrels of oil a day from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve for as long as 180 days,” a move intended to ease sticker shock at the pump for Americans...more
3/31/2022
/ Activision ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Facebook ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Markets ,
Oil & Gas ,
Oil Prices ,
Russia ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) ,
TikTok ,
Ukraine
Under growing antitrust scrutiny, Google announced on Wednesday that it would let some apps “offer their own billing system within the Google Play store as part of a pilot program.” That move, affecting Spotify, among others,...more
New CPI numbers out this week showed inflation in the U.S. rising unabated in the “month leading up to the war in Ukraine,” and the conflict is now upending hopes that 2022 would see an easing in rising prices. Certainly, the...more
A weekend of skyrocketing oil prices prompted by talk of the U.S. cutting off all Russian crude imports pushed markets to their worst performance in over a year to start the week. The Nasdaq is now down more than 20% from its...more
3/9/2022
/ Biden Administration ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Cybersecurity ,
Digital Assets ,
Financial Markets ,
Google ,
Imports ,
Oil & Gas ,
Oil Prices ,
Personal Information ,
Russia ,
Trade Relations ,
Ukraine ,
US Trade Policies
President Biden made fighting inflation one of the cornerstones of his State of the Union last night, highlighting the economic progress the country’s made in the past year while stressing efforts to stem rising prices. The...more
The geopolitical morass in Ukraine drove stocks down on Tuesday, with the S&P 500 hitting correction territory—down more than 10% from its January peak. Much of that action today was driven by newly unveiled sanctions against...more
The SEC has opened a probe into the relationship between “the U.S. arm of Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, and two trading firms with ties to Binance’s founder.” Those firms “act as market makers that...more
With gas prices on the rise across the United States, the White House is urging the Federal Trade Commission to investigate whether “illegal conduct” by “large oil and gas companies is pushing up . . . prices for American...more
11/18/2021
/ Amazon ,
Copyright Infringement ,
Disney ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Financial Markets ,
Initial Public Offering (IPO) ,
John Deere ,
Oil & Gas ,
Quentin Tarantino ,
Right to Repair ,
Trademark Infringement ,
Unions ,
Zillow
The bad news (in case you’ve missed it, a feat in itself given the amount of ink spilled on the topic): inflation’s not nearly as transitory as first promised. The good news: consumers are so far managing to spend their way...more
Apple has officially appealed the September verdict in its years-long battle with Epic Games that was set to “require the tech giant to tweak its strict App Store rules and force it to allow app developers of ways to pay for...more
10/11/2021
/ Apple ,
Banking Sector ,
Biden Administration ,
Climate Change ,
Competition ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Financial Markets ,
Hasbro ,
Oil & Gas ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Startups ,
Stock Markets ,
Tesla
In what appears to be a serious black eye for the organization, the World Bank has canceled its prominent “Doing Business” report (which rates the “business environment of the world’s countries”) after an “investigation...more
9/17/2021
/ Airplane Accidents ,
Boeing ,
British Petroleum (BP) ,
Chevron ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
E-Cigarettes ,
Energy & Climate Debates ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Exxon Mobil ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Fossil Fuel ,
Global Warming ,
Infectious Diseases ,
MassMutual ,
Oil & Gas ,
Opioid ,
Oversight Committee ,
Purdue Pharma ,
Retail Sales ,
Stock Trades ,
Unemployment ,
World Bank
Dispatch #1 from the Elizabeth Holmes Theranos criminal fraud trial, which opened yesterday with jury selection and saw the excusing of 9 of the initial batch of about 50 potential jurors for lack of vaccination...more
9/1/2021
/ Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Facebook ,
Financial Markets ,
Fraud ,
Google ,
Initial Public Offering (IPO) ,
Jury Selection ,
OCC ,
Oil & Gas ,
Private Equity ,
Surface Transportation Board ,
UK Brexit ,
Wells Fargo
After years of protests, lobbying, and legal battles, TC Energy—the Canadian pipeline company behind the embattled Keystone XL pipeline project that “would have carried petroleum from Canadian tar sands to Nebraska”—announced...more
6/10/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
Bitcoin ,
Carbon Emissions ,
Cryptocurrency ,
FBI ,
GameStop ,
Gig Economy ,
High Net-Worth ,
Internet Memes ,
Keystone XL Pipeline ,
Lyft ,
Meat Processing Plants ,
Mobile Apps ,
National Security ,
Oil & Gas ,
Pipelines ,
Ransomware ,
Royal Dutch Petroleum ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Stock Prices ,
The Hague ,
TikTok ,
Uber ,
Wealth Tax
In a rare cyber win for the good guys (at least one that’s publicly acknowledged), the DOJ revealed on Monday that it “had seized much of the ransom that a major U.S. pipeline operator had paid last month to a Russian hacking...more
6/8/2021
/ 10b5-1 Plans ,
Apple ,
Commodities ,
Credit Suisse ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Cyber Attacks ,
Data Collection ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Digital Wallets ,
Hackers ,
Insider Trading ,
Internet Memes ,
Jeff Bezos ,
Oil & Gas ,
Outer Space ,
Pipelines ,
Private Equity ,
Ransomware ,
Russia ,
Stock Prices ,
Tesla
Huge win yesterday for climate change activists who dealt ExxonMobil leadership a “stunning defeat” when shareholders “elected at least two board candidates nominated by activist investors who pledged to steer the company...more
After a series of denials, it has emerged that Colonial Pipeline reportedly paid 75 Bitcoin (roughly $5 million) to recover its stolen data from last weekend’s ransomware attack. The move likely put a quicker end to the...more
5/14/2021
/ Air Quality Standards ,
Amazon Marketplace ,
Bank of America ,
Big Tech ,
Critical Infrastructure Sectors ,
Cyber Attacks ,
Disney ,
Facebook ,
Financial Markets ,
Hackers ,
International Data Transfers ,
Ireland ,
McDonalds ,
Microchip Technology ,
Oil & Gas ,
Pipelines ,
Unemployment ,
Wage and Hour
More details on that massive ransomware hack that hit Colonial Pipeline over the weekend. The FBI has confirmed that hacking group DarkSide was responsible and that it’s “looking for any ties the group might have to...more
5/11/2021
/ 1MDB ,
American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 ,
Chipotle Grill ,
Citigroup ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Data Breach ,
Deutsche Bank ,
Driverless Cars ,
Embezzlement ,
Facebook ,
FBI ,
Federal Funding ,
Hackers ,
Infrastructure ,
Instagram ,
NTSB ,
Oil & Gas ,
Online Safety for Children ,
Pipelines ,
Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) ,
Tesla ,
Victoria Secret ,
Wage and Hour