Bitcoin (BTC) may be a “scam” for former U.S. president Donald Trump, but his treasury secretary appears to have made a U-turn on the world’s first and best-known cryptocurrency. Speaking to CNBC on July 14, Steven Mnuchin confirmed that his perspective on Bitcoin had “evolved.” Mnuchin: Bitcoin stance has “evolved a little” The Trump administration
China’s crackdown on Bitcoin (BTC) mining due to energy consumption concerns is widely regarded as the trigger for the miners’ exodus from Asia to Western countries. But new research by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance suggests that the shift in mining power started before China’s renewed scrutiny. Reuters reported that China’s total computing power connected
Between 2016 and 2020, green, social and sustainability bond issuance grew by an average of 72% a year in the United States, according to a report issued Tuesday by the Climate Bonds Initiative. Green municipal bonds issued by local government authorities and state-backed government entities made up 23% of total volume of annual issuance in
What is Volatility? -The magnitude of the change -It is independent of direction, it refers to the change of ups and downs Why is it Important? -The more volatile the market is, the crazier it gets -Trends are harder to spot when they are more volatile -Swing trading becomes riskier -It is better to stick
The high level of incarceration in the U.S., especially among Americans of color and indigenous people, constrains the labor market and the economy’s ability to reach its full potential, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic said. “Incarceration is a drag on our ability achieve our maximum-employment goal,” Bostic said Tuesday at the start
Municipals were little changed Tuesday, ignoring another rise in U.S. Treasuries and a weaker stock market, with the focus on the primary which saw deals bumped in repricings. Another day of UST weakness after less-than-stellar auctions and municipals stayed in their own lane. Some participants said without the UST rise in yields, municipal benchmarks likely
New Jersey received its second upward outlook revision in three months from Moody’s Investors Service, which on Tuesday lifted its outlook on the state’s general obligation debt to positive from stable. The move affects $40 billion of rated debt. “The state has responded to a brightening revenue and liquidity picture with several actions reflecting a
The California Public Employees’ Retirement System reported a 21% net return on investments in the fiscal year ended June 30. The double-digit return will trigger a reduction in the discount rate used to calculate employee and member contributions to 6.8% from 7%. This was the first time CalPERS Funding Risk Mitigation Policy has been triggered,
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board will announce its fiscal year 2022 chair, vice chair and four new members of the board following its meeting next week. That announcement will follow the MSRB’s search for new members, which it announced in November 2020. The MSRB said at that time it was searching especially for issuers and
New York City has added Kroll as a fourth bond rating agency. The organization posted its AA-plus rating and stable outlook for the city’s general obligation bonds on its website Monday. “We are pleased that the city followed through on our office’s suggestion that we obtain a credit rating for our general obligation bonds from
Lagging attendance at the home of the King of Rock and Roll continues to batter the tourist-tax municipal bonds that were issued to gussy it up. The bonds were sold in 2017 for a development project at Graceland, the former residence and now resting place of Elvis Presley, which has become a worldwide tourist attraction
The Puerto Rico Oversight Board reached a verbal agreement with bond insurers on a debt repayment plan on Wednesday, two days after they reached an agreement with unsecured creditors representing the largest debt holders in the negotiations. Lawyers at Proskauer Rose LLP representing the Oversight Board, and federal Judge Laura Taylor Swain, agreed to delay
Chicago Public Schools laid out a proposed $9.3 billion fiscal 2022 budget that directs $707 million towards capital and spends down about $1 billion of the district’s $2.6 billion of federal relief to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. The proposed budget for the fiscal year that began July 1 raises spending by about $900 million
Pressure is building on the US Securities and Exchange Commission to finalise regulations to de-list Chinese companies that fail to comply with American auditing rules, after lawmakers discovered the agency might not begin enforcement until 2025 at the earliest. Legislation signed by Donald Trump in December gave US-listed Chinese groups three years to comply with
Norway’s capital was quieter than usual on July 22 2011, a wet Friday during the summer holidays. At 3.25pm a bomb hidden inside a van exploded outside the prime minister’s office, shattering the nation’s peace and setting in motion an afternoon of scarcely believable terror. By the end of the day, 77 people had been
A surge in the pace of price growth on both sides of the Atlantic has revived economists’ concerns about the risk of overheating, piling pressure on policymakers to consider a faster withdrawal of their unprecedented pandemic-era stimulus policies. Data published earlier this week showed that US consumer prices rose by 5.4 per cent in June
When Soho House announced its New York listing in June, chief executive Nick Jones received an email from the club’s fifth member. Greg Hunt, a screenwriting agent, wrote that he used to sit in the bar of the first Soho House in central London “wondering if the place will get more busy”. Twenty-six years and
As South Africa’s worst public violence in decades swept Johannesburg and its biggest township this week, Nhlanhla Lux was ready to defend the shopping centre he called Soweto’s “last elephant” with his life. Clad in camouflage and armed with a pistol, the 33-year-old community leader guarded the closed gates of Soweto’s Maponya mall with a
Jay Powell, the chair of the Federal Reserve, said the US central bank was ready to intervene if inflation spiralled out of control, but stressed that he expected price increases to ease later in the year. “Inflation has increased notably and will likely remain elevated in coming months before moderating,” Powell said in prepared remarks
Europe’s most polluting businesses have accused the EU of jeopardising investment and innovation after Brussels unveiled ambitious plans to halve the bloc’s emissions by 2030 in an effort to curb global warming. Carmakers, airlines and heavy industry all hit out at the proposals, which include a de facto ban on new diesel and petrol cars