Author: Press Room
More than 100,000 residents in Southern California were ordered to evacuate and five were confirmed dead as wildfires raged out of control across the Los Angeles region on Wednesday.The Pacific Palisades fire, which broke out Tuesday morning, has become the most destructive blaze in LA’s history, according to a fire safety council in the region. At least 1,000 buildings have been destroyed. Strong winds have fuelled flames at four separate locations across more than 25,000 acres, sending plumes of smoke across the sky and creating an apocalyptic hue. Wind gusts ranged from 50 to 80mph throughout the region, said the…
In early November I was invited to tour the Sacramento, California PACE operation. PACE is an acronym that stands for Program of All-inclusive Care for the Elderly. I had heard of PACE and had even toured a PACE operation in San Diego during an aging services conference back in 2017. Its comprehensiveness had impressed me at that time so I was eager to see a different PACE center in a location not far from my home in northern California. What triggered my interest this time around was an offer to connect with InnovAge, a company whose entire mission is to…
Credit card swipe fees, which are among the highest operating costs for retailers, are taking a bite out of household budgets, according to industry experts. When a credit or debit card is used, banks and credit card networks will charge retailers a fee to process the transaction. It’s known in the industry as an interchange fee, though some experts have also coined it a “swipe fee.” Swipe fees average just more than 2% of the transaction for credit cards, but they can be as much as 4% for some premium rewards cards, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF), the nation’s…
This article was written byFollowDaniel is an avid and active professional investor. He runs Crude Value Insights, a value-oriented newsletter aimed at analyzing the cash flows and assessing the value of companies in the oil and gas space. His primary focus is on finding businesses that are trading at a significant discount to their intrinsic value by employing a combination of Benjamin Graham’s investment philosophy and a contrarian approach to the market and the securities therein. Learn more.Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have no stock, option or similar derivative position in any of the companies mentioned, and no plans to initiate any…
Raging wildfires fanned by strong winds tore across the wealthy Los Angeles neighbourhood of Pacific Palisades on Tuesday, burning homes and prompting the city to issue evacuation orders to 30,000 people.Nearly 1,200 acres were burning in the hills around the Palisades, an affluent coastal community with some of the most expensive property in the US, the Los Angeles Fire Department said on Tuesday. There were no reports of how the blaze began. Smoke blackened the sky over the area as winds reached up to 60 miles an hour. Gusts were expected to accelerate into Wednesday and could reach as high…
Later this year, Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY) will reintroduce his public catastrophic long-term care insurance bill, called the WISH Act. Suozzi is doing all the right things: Looking for Republican support and trying to engage the private insurance industry, long-term care providers, and employers, as well as advocates for older adults and people with disabilities. But he has a big problem: While the idea of public insurance may be gaining traction, raising taxes to pay for it is a much tougher sell. Suozzi’s original 2021 bill explicitly proposed raising payroll taxes to fund the insurance program, an idea consistent with…
This article was written byFollowLong Player believes oil and gas is a boom-bust, cyclical industry. It takes patience, and it certainly helps to have experience. He has been focusing on this industry for years. He is a retired CPA, and holds an MBA and MA. He leads the investing group Oil & Gas Value Research. He looks for under-followed oil companies and out-of-favor midstream companies that offer compelling opportunities. The group includes an active chat room in which Oil & Gas investors discuss recent information and share ideas. Learn more.Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have no stock, option or similar derivative position…
Indonesia has been accepted as a full member of the Brics group of emerging economies, according to a statement from Brazil, the bloc’s presiding nation. The statement said Indonesia “shares with other . . . members the support for the reform of the global governance institutions and contributes significantly to the deepening of Global South cooperation”.Brics leaders endorsed Indonesia’s candidacy in August 2023, but Jakarta formally notified its interest in joining the group only after President Prabowo Subianto came to power in October. The bloc was initially made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, but has expanded in recent years. Read…
Year-end is a time for holiday cheer, introspection, and Wall Street strategist predictions for the market. As I try to emphasize to my clients, these analyst projections are nothing more than guesses, wishful thinking, and marketing. They should not be viewed as investment advice. A more practical outlook for 2025 is to focus on events that have a high probability of coming to fruition. Preparing mentally and positioning your portfolio accordingly will help set folks up for financial success in the year-ahead. Below are predictions that will likely occur. 1) There WILL be unpleasant news: When bad things happen, the…
Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Chinese politics & policy myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.China is signing growing numbers of Taiwanese people up for local resident or even identity cards, in a drive to incorporate them into its society that is setting off alarm bells in Taipei.Taiwan government officials said that Beijing had become “focused” on getting visiting Taiwanese to apply for Chinese resident cards, bank accounts and local mobile phone numbers — known as the “three documents” — with many then being given the local identity cards which are reserved for citizens.“We are…
