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"This is all a bit of a mess," Krishna Guha, vice chair of ISI Evercore and a former New York Federal Reserve official, wrote ahead of a Federal Open Market Committee meeting that has veered from a dead-certain jump in interest rates two weeks ago to a speculative morass. The yield on the 2-year Treasury note - particularly sensitive to Fed policy expectations - rose steadily through the day, adding roughly a quarter of a point from the overnight low and approaching 4%. Analysts trying to parse what recent bank stress might mean said a coming credit contraction could be the equivalent of an additional quarter point Fed rate increase, or as much as a recession-inducing 1.5 percentage points, rendering further rate hikes obsolete. "The emergence of financial stress is likely to indicate to the committee that monetary policy is closer to being 'sufficiently restrictive' than some may have thought previously," BOA economists wrote. "At the very least, stress in financial markets suggests that the Fed should proceed with caution."

☆ Cramer to the Fed: You have an elegant fix for the Silicon Valley Bank crisis — please use it
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-12 | by ( Jim Cramer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +11 min

ET, where Jim and other experts will discuss the ramifications of Silicon Valley Bank's demise on the economy and the stock market. The who is Silicon Valley Bank. Silicon Valley Bank was not likely to support your company if it did not receive all of your deposits. ET, where Jim and other experts will discuss the ramifications of Silicon Valley Bank's demise on the economy and the stock market. A Brinks armored truck sits parked in front of the shuttered Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) headquarters on March 10, 2023 in Santa Clara, California.

☆ How the Supreme Court could re-shape the internet as you know it
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

Nearly 30 years of protectionsA view of the U.S. Supreme Court on February 21, 2023 in Washington, DC. The Supreme Court isn't the only one reviewing Section 230; Congress and the White House have also proposed changes to the law, though legislation to update Section 230 has consistently stalled. For skeptics of the tech industry, and critics of social media platforms, more lawsuits would imply more opportunities to hold tech companies accountable. Allowing the courts to scrutinize the tech industry more would bring it in line with other industries, some have argued. Even a 'like' could trigger a lawsuitLiability could also extend to individual internet users.

☆ Trade group argues U.S. SEC case unfairly labels crypto as securities
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Hannah Lang | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Feb 22 (Reuters) - Cryptocurrency trade association Chamber of Digital Commerce is urging a federal court to dismiss a case brought by the U.S. securities regulator against ex-Coinbase (COIN.O) employees accused of insider trading, arguing that the case unfairly labeled several crypto assets as securities. The Blockchain Association also filed an amicus brief in the case earlier this month. The crypto industry has previously criticized the SEC for bringing enforcement cases against digital asset companies, arguing that the regulator should instead engage in formal rulemaking specific to cryptocurrency. The SEC has maintained that pre-existing securities laws also apply to digital assets, and that many crypto tokens meet the definition of a security. The move would also likely hurt the value of those tokens, which could harm retail investors, the group said.

☆ Why a U.S. national electric grid would be great for the climate — and is nearly impossible
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Catherine Clifford | In Catclifford | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +15 min

But the energy grid in the U.S. has developed over decades as a patchwork of thousands of individual utilities serving their own local regions. The Department of Energy is in the process of conducting a National Transmission Planning Study,to look into all of this. "Many mid-U.S. states have excellent wind resources, and the southwest U.S. has excellent solar resources, but the population is insufficient to use them," McCalley told CNBC. Finally, improved energy sharing would also lead to a more reliable energy grid for consumers. At the kickoff for its next round of transmission planning, MISO had a three hour planning meeting with 377 people in the meeting.

☆ Arizona's terrible NHL team is begging voters for $200 million to build a permanent home, but stadiums are consistently huge money pits
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-04 | by ( Brent D. Griffiths | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Arizona's terrible NHL team is stuck using a college arena for its games as it awaits a public vote. This May, voters will decide the future of a $2.1 billion plan that includes the Coyotes' new arena. The NHL's Arizona Coyotes are for the moment stuck in an arena that is three times smaller than any other in the league. The professional team might need the facility for a few more years, but they can't even emblazon their own logo on center ice. The city also paid $50 million to the NHL to keep the team in the city while the franchise navigated bankruptcy.

☆ Layoffs at Google, Microsoft, Salesforce Teaching Tech Employees a Harsh Lesson
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-29 | by ( Avery Hartmans | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +14 min

Tech workers are using all sorts of emotional phrases to describe the layoff wave that has gripped the industry and become the talk of the business world. "I'm shocked and hurt and still processing," Katie Olaskiewicz, a former human-truths strategist at Google, wrote on LinkedIn last week shortly after 12,000 Google employees were let go. Over the past two weeks, a total of 40,000 employees have been laid off from Amazon, Microsoft, and Google, a nightmare come true for tech workers. The tech layoffs have been starkly different from Wall Street, which has in recent months instituted its own rounds of job cuts. Wall Street realitiesIn many ways, tech workers are waking up to a reality that their peers in other high-flying industries have always known.

☆ U.S. unemployment system still plagued by delays 3 years after pandemic-era downturn
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-28 | by ( Greg Iacurci | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

Patrick T. Fallon | Afp | Getty ImagesThese days the U.S. unemployment system is somewhat of an anomaly. At the pandemic-era nadir, just 52% got a "timely" first payment of unemployment insurance, for example. Unemployment claims spiked as businesses closed amid stay-at-home orders to contain the virus' spread. States get funding based on their administrative workload, like the volume of claims states are paying. That's especially true for one CARES Act program, Pandemic Unemployment Assistance.

☆ Joe Biden’s ‘No Regrets’ Presidency
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( The Editorial Board | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

One of President Biden’s political character traits is his manifest disdain for anyone who questions his behavior or judgment. This has been on full public display since the discovery of classified documents at his office and home, and it’s drawing him deeper into a political morass. “I think you’re going to find there’s nothing there,” Mr. Biden said Thursday when asked in California about the documents found at his Penn Biden Center office and in his garage next to his Corvette. “I have no regrets. I’m following what the lawyers have told me they want me to do.

☆ Here's why Wall Street is warning the Fed blew it on inflation and it won't save the stock market from crashing
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-24 | by ( Jennifer Sor | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

The Fed blew it on inflation stocks are going to have to suffer as a result. The central bank has no choice now but to keep hiking until inflation is down, experts have said. Here are five top voices in markets warning investors not to pin their hopes on a Fed put to save stocks. El-Erian has been a loud critic of the Fed's response to inflation this year, slamming central bankers for saying inflation was "transitory" in 2021. That's the cost of the Fed being late to the game, and the central bank can't back away from its monetary tightening now, El-Erian warned.

☆ U.S. welcomes EU draft decision on data privacy -Commerce Secretary
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo speaks about semiconductor chips subsidies during a press briefing at the White House in Washington, U.S., September 6, 2022. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File PhotoWASHINGTON, Dec 14 (Reuters) - The United States welcomed the European Union's draft decision on data privacy as a critical next step, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said on Wednesday, as the two parties try to seal a data transfer pact. The draft decision, Raimondo said, "represents a critical next step to fully address" the concerns of the Court of Justice of the European Union, which in 2020 struck down the previous EU-U.S. Privacy Shield framework as a valid data transfer mechanism under EU law. "We are closely reviewing the draft decision," Raimondo said in a statement. The European Commission's justice chief Didier Reynders said the draft adequacy decision shows that U.S. safeguards offer the same level of data protection to EU citizens as that under European law.

John J. Ray, chief executive officer of FTX Cryptocurrency Derivatives Exchange, arrives to a House Financial Services Committee hearing investigating the collapse of FTX in Washington, DC, on Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2022. Instead, like bankers and lawyers who are working on the bankruptcy proceedings, the new leadership team is professional independent contractors. That means, among other things, that they get paid immediately, before any FTX investors receive recompense for their losses. According to court filings, the new FTX CEO will collect $1,300 hourly plus "reasonable expenses" for his work untangling what U.S. Attorney Damian Williams called "one of the biggest frauds in American history" in a news conference Tuesday. In one bankruptcy case Ray worked on, he billed around 156 hours in a two-month period, netting him $120,582, so his billings for FTX may run higher or lower.

☆ Japan depart with big wins but quarter-final dream unfulfilled
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-05 | by ( Nick Mulvenney | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Moriyasu transformed the game with five substitutions and was rewarded with late goals from Ritsu Doan and Takuma Asano for what was probably Japan's greatest victory on a football pitch. His confidence in his players was rewarded as lightning struck twice in their final group match against 2010 champions Spain. As group winners, they went through to face a streetwise Croatian team in the last 16 with the golden uplands of the quarter-finals within their grasp. It was difficult to lose but Japanese soccer is without a doubt making progress." Reporting by Nick Mulvenney, editing by Pritha SarkarOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Debt woes and zero-Covid: China's cities are running out of cash to pay huge bills
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-02 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

They spent 11.8 trillion yuan ($1.65 trillion) more than they raised in revenue between January and October, borrowing heavily to do so, according to data from China’s Ministry of Finance. Andy Wong/AP‘Widest in history’For nearly three years, local governments have borne the brunt of enforcing pandemic controls. The weak fiscal position of local governments has been a drag on the country’s overall financial standing. Kevin Frayer/Getty ImagesLow income, high costsWhy are local governments in this parlous state? In May, Beijing told local governments that they had to bear the costs for regular Covid testing in their regions.

☆ Meet 30 rising stars of real estate who are transforming the way homes are sold and offices get built at firms like Blackstone, Redfin, and CBRE
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( Robert Davis | Dan Latu | Jordan Pandy | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Meet Insider's third-annual slate of emerging talent in commercial and residential real estate. We selected 30 young professionals 35 and under whose leadership spans a vast industry. Insider has tried to capture the brightest of the bunch in our third-annual Rising Stars of Real Estate list. But real estate isn't all about making money. Presented in alphabetical order by last name, here are the rising stars of real estate for 2022.

Lawyers for collapsed crypto exchange FTX said in the company's first bankruptcy hearing on Tuesday that regulators from the Bahamas, where FTX was headquartered, have agreed to consolidate proceedings in Delaware. "What we are dealing with is a different sort of animal," said FTX counsel James Bromley. FTX lawyers confirmed earlier reports that the Southern District of New York's Cyber Crimes unit has begun an investigation into the matter. FTX lawyers have also made reference to cyberattacks, suggesting there were multiple attacks beyond the $477 million hack that occurred shortly after the company entered bankruptcy on Nov. 11. FTX customers had a global presence, but many were based in tax havens.

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