Author: Press Room
The electric-vehicle leader in China is launching more EVs, and Elon Musk isn’t involved. BYD (ticker: 1211.Hong Kong) is a larger seller of EVs in China than Tesla (TSLA), which is the biggest EV maker world wide. And BYD had more EVs for Chinese car buyers to review at the Shanghai Auto Show. Auto shows are always a good time for car companies to reveal products and cool technology. The Shanghai Show started Tuesday and led, of course, to a flurry of announcements about new vehicles, vehicle electrification, and self-driving car technology. BYD introduced the Yangwang U8, an SUV that…
Dial C for criminal. A Florida businessman has been sentenced to a year-and-a-day in prison after spending 12 years evading having to pay nearly $11 million in fines he owed as the result of running a shady 1-800 telecom scheme. Patrick Brian Hines, 71, of Ponte Vedra Beach, which is near Jacksonville, pleaded guilty in November to hiding his assets in the name of his wife and others while declaring bankruptcy to avoid satisfying the enormous fines he had been ordered to pay. Federal prosecutors say while Hines claimed to be destitute, he continued to live high on the hog,…
The numbers: Construction of new homes fell 0.8% in March to a rate of 1.42 million due to slower work on apartment buildings, leaving prospective buyers with limited options. Economists polled by the Wall Street Journal had forecast a 1.4 million rate of new housing starts. That’s the number of homes that would be built over an entire year if construction took place at the same rate in every month as it did in March. Offsetting the decline in apartment projects, construction of single-family homes rose 2.7%. The small rebound in new construction this year is supported by strong demand…
By Barani Krishnan Investing.com — The is giving back some of its recovery from one-year lows, enabling gold longs the chance to reclaim some of the upside momentum they lost at the peak of last week’s run to above $2,050 an ounce. To be sure, the yellow metal doesn’t appear to have the sentiment it did a week ago when it seemed to be on the cusp of a new record high. If anything, the daily ebbs and flows in gold futures and physical bullion indicate that a wide trading band of recent highs and lows is likely to occur…
(Reuters) – A so-called “wholesale” central bank digital currency could hold promise for the future settlement of certain financial market transactions and processing international payments, Federal Reserve Governor Michelle Bowman said on Tuesday. While a digital dollar could make sense for interbank transactions, there could be unintended consequences like disruptions to the banking system if the Fed were to design a central bank digital currency that would be directly available to the public, Bowman said in prepared remarks for an event at Georgetown University’s Psaros Center for Financial Markets and Policy. The U.S. central bank has not yet said if…
By Farouq Suleiman and Tommy Wilkes LONDON (Reuters) – British businesses are struggling to meet their sustainability goals due to rising energy prices, costs associated with international trade barriers and the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, a survey showed on Thursday. Almost three quarters of the more than 500 business leaders questioned said their firms had been forced to compromise on their sustainability efforts, the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (CIPS) said. Higher energy prices and other rising business costs were the main reason, cited by 61% of respondents as causing a drag on their sustainability efforts,…
Key News Asian equities were largely lower overnight on little news and low volumes as Thailand was closed for Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the month-long dawn-to-sunset fasting of Ramadan, according to Google. Fed officials delivered some tough talk on fighting inflation, which weighed on sentiment as the US dollar strengthened, which sent the Asia Dollar Index lower by -0.3%. China’s economic data release failed to give support to the market as both Mainland and Hong Kong markets were lower overnight on dollar strength and concerns about global growth. Nonetheless, the release was overwhelmingly positive, and internet and…
For many companies the phrase; “We have always done it this way” are famous last words. Some companies are so large and well-established, it seems like they could never go out of business. However, innovation can quickly leave a business behind if it cannot adjust to new ways of operating, or to changing customer demand for new products and services. In my lifetime, 88% of the Fortune 500 firms that existed in 1955 are gone. FDIC closed 465 failed banks from 2008 to 2012. USA Today claims 190 banks are in danger of failing today. Here are examples of well-known…
Digital financial advice that’s based on a mathematical formula has become increasingly popular over the last decade. Fans of automated investing see it as an efficient and inexpensive way to build and maintain an investment portfolio. But while an algorithm can allocate assets and select investments based on a person’s input, it is incapable of understanding and addressing what I believe are the most critical components of successful investing — human emotion and behavior. Feelings and behaviors are typically the biggest impediments to sticking to a long-term plan and achieving financial goals. A human advisor whose clients ultimately cross the…
As usual, the politicians are missing the point: Success or failure of the IRS’s ambitious plan to spend $80 billion in new money won’t be measured by how many new staff it hires. Rather it will depend largely on the agency’s ability to hire the right people, upgrade and modernize its technology, and change its hidebound culture, management, and business practices. At TPC ‘s annual Donald C. Lubick Symposium this week, a broad range of experts, including Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo, former IRS Commissioner Charles Rossotti, former IRS Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson, former senior Treasury official Natasha Sarin, and…
