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☆ 36% of Americans took on holiday debt this year — averaging $1,181 — survey finds. These tips can help
▼ + stars: | 2024-12-26 | by ( Lorie Konish | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

Many Americans are capping off the holidays with new debt balances. This season, 36% of American consumers took on holiday debt, according to a new survey from LendingTree. Those who racked up balances this season took on an average of $1,181 in debt, up from $1,028 in 2023. Higher prices caused by inflation remain an issue for many individuals and families this holiday season, he said. Consumers who went into debt over the holidays run the risk of still carrying those balances when next year’s holiday season comes around.

Persons: LendingTree, Matt Schulz, ” Schulz, WalletHub, Schulz, Laura Mattia, ” Mattia, “ There’s, Mattia, Jesse Sell, “ It’s, ” Sell, Sell, “ Organizations: LendingTree, Consumers, Wealth Locations: LendingTree, Sarasota , Florida, —, Stillwater , Minnesota

☆ Former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is interested in buying TikTok
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-14 | by ( Elisabeth Buchwald | Matt Egan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

New York CNN —Former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Thursday he’s assembling a team of investors to make a bid to buy TikTok. “It’s a great business and I’m going to put together a group to buy TikTok,” Mnuchin told CNBC Thursday morning. Even though TikTok is likely unprofitable, “it’s worth a lot of money,” he added. Mnuchin, though, said he’s looking to find a solution where the Chinese government will allow TikTok to be sold without a technology transfer. Even if that happens, any kind of TikTok ban would likely be fought in courts.

Persons: Steven Mnuchin, “ It’s, ” Mnuchin, TikTok, Mnuchin, “, ”, TikTok didn’t, Dan Ives, ” Ives, Donald Trump’s, Trump, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Nancy Mace, didn’t, Thursday’s, Joe Biden, Ives Organizations: New, New York CNN, Former, CNBC, Wedbush Securities, CNN, Liberty Strategic Capital, Facebook, Meta, Community Bank, Senate, Microsoft, Oracle Locations: New York, China, Montana

☆ Private-asset binge exposes insurance to new risks
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-30 | by ( John Foley | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

The concept is not new: Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (BRKa.N) has used its insurance premiums to help fund everything from railways to cowboy-boot makers. The prospect of insurance companies buying risky loans or private equity investments has raised eyebrows. Many private credit assets, for example, rely on so-called private letter ratings based on confidential data. Given the private nature of private credit, it’s hard to see from the outside how big these risks are, or where they lurk. Besides, even if the share of life insurance assets that are mis-rated or undercapitalized is tiny, smaller insurers could carry more concentrated risk.

Persons: Blackstone, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, Fitch, Kroll, Egan, Jones, DBRS Morningstar, Banks, SVB, Jonathan Guilford, Neil Unmack, Peter Thal Larsen, Oliver Taslic Organizations: Reuters, Apollo Global Management, KKR, Global Atlantic, Investments, National Association of Insurance, England’s Everton FC, Rivals, Reuters Graphics Reuters, Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, Athene, P Global, Insurance, SVB, Thomson Locations: Global, Delaware , New York, Iowa, New York, London

☆ Picasso portrait of mistress Marie-Thérèse Walter could sell for over $120 million at auction
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-13 | by ( Lianne Kolirin | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —A Picasso masterpiece entitled “Femme à la montre” is expected to fetch more than $120 million when it goes up for auction this fall. Sotheby'sThe piece, which measures 51¼ x 38 inches (130 x 96.5 centimeters), depicts Picasso’s lover and “golden muse” Marie-Thérèse Walter, who featured in many of his portraits. In a statement announcing the sale, Julian Dawes, Sotheby’s head of Impressionist & Modern Art for the Americas, said: “Picasso’s ‘Femme à la Montre’ is a masterpiece by every measure. The artist painted “Femme à la montre” in August 1932, soon after the retrospective at the Galerie Georges Petit in Paris ended. Andy Warhol's 1986 self portrait will also be auctioned as part of Fisher Landau's collection.

Persons: Emily Fisher Landau, Fernand Léger's, ” Marie, Thérèse Walter, Picasso, London’s, Julian Dawes, Sotheby’s, ” Picasso, Walter, Olga Khokhlova, ”, Galerie Georges Petit, Fisher Landau, Andy Warhol's, Fisher, Mark Rothko, Andy Warhol, Willem de Kooning, Fisher Landau’s, fenêtre, Thérèse, Picasso’s Organizations: CNN, London’s Tate, Art, Galerie, Lloyds Locations: New York, Manhattan, Paris, Americas, Russian, Ukrainian, Georgia, London, Marie

☆ Picasso masterpiece depicting his young mistress sells for $139 million at Sotheby’s auction
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-13 | by ( Lianne Kolirin | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —A Picasso masterpiece entitled “Femme à la montre” fetched more than $139 million on Wednesday, becoming the second most valuable work by the artist ever sold at auction. The 1932 oil painting took center-stage at a two-day event at Sotheby’s in New York, at the sale of late philanthropist Emily Fisher Landau’s private collection. She is pictured here in front of Fernand Léger's "Étude pour Les Constructeurs" in her home in Manhattan in 2002. In a statement announcing the sale in September, Julian Dawes, Sotheby’s head of Impressionist & Modern Art for the Americas, said: “Picasso’s ‘Femme à la Montre’ is a masterpiece by every measure. Andy Warhol's 1986 self portrait will also be auctioned as part of Fisher Landau's collection.

Persons: CNN —, ”, Emily Fisher, Emily Fisher Landau, Fernand Léger's, ” Marie, Thérèse Walter, Picasso, London’s, Julian Dawes, Sotheby’s, ” Picasso, Walter, Olga Khokhlova, Galerie Georges Petit, Fisher Landau, Andy Warhol's, Fisher, Mark Rothko, Andy Warhol, Willem de Kooning, Jasper Johns, Ed, fenêtre, Thérèse, Picasso’s Organizations: CNN, London’s Tate, Art, Galerie, Lloyds Locations: New York, Manhattan, Paris, Americas, Russian, Ukrainian, Georgia, London, Marie

☆ This 93-year-old Hilton Head woman is in a legal battle for land her family has owned since the Civil War
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-15 | by ( Nicquel Terry Ellis | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

Now, Wright’s beloved land is at the center of a legal battle with a property developer looking to build a residential development next door. According to The Post and Courier, Georgia-based Bailey Point Investment, LLC is planning to construct 147 homes. Graves said Bailey Point had previously showed up at her grandmother’s house and offered $30,000 for Wright’s land, which she declined. “My porch is not on their property,” Wright told CNN. Attorneys for Bailey Point have not returned CNN’s request for comment.

Persons: Josephine Wright, Samuel Wright Sr, Wright, Tracey Love Graves, Graves, Bailey, ” Wright, Wright's, WJCL Wright’s counterclaim, “, ” Bailey, Bakari Sellers, ” Sellers, Irving, Tyler Perry, ” Organizations: CNN, Hilton, The, Investment Locations: New York, Island , South Carolina, Courier , Georgia, Wright’s, Hilton

☆ Fact Check-No deal between DuckDuckGo and Microsoft to track users online
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-12 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

Independent experts say that DuckDuckGo blocks known tracking scripts from loading to prevent vulnerable personal identifiers from being exposed, including Microsoft-owned scripts. A separate partnership with Microsoft for advertising on DuckDuckGo’s search results page is limited to ad placements, not tracking users or building profiles, a DuckDuckGo spokesperson said. Users sharing the headline, “Google Lite: DuckDuckGo Signs Secret Deal with Bill Gates to Track Users Online” in April 2023 can be seen (here) and (here). We’re glad this is no longer the case,” the company said in a statement (here)DuckDuckGo’s privacy policy on tracking users can be seen (here). Whether browser privacy protections ever permit user tracking is beyond the scope of this fact check.

☆ Buyout barons reach deep into their bags of tricks
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Jonathan Guilford | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

NEW YORK, Feb 15 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Debt necessity is proving to be the mother of private equity invention. With the cheap borrowing that fueled record-breaking years of leveraged buyouts gone, firms are digging deeper into their bags of tricks. Private equity firm Silver Lake, which bought a stake alongside the IPO, said it might take control. Besides putting private equity firms into weaker negotiating positions, the competing incentives also threaten conflicts of interest with limited partners. ...THERE’S A WAYIf the U.S. Federal Reserve avoids engineering a recession, private equity should be able to revert to its tried-and-true formula soon enough.

☆ The Day the Sun Rose Twice: A Tour of Atomic New Mexico
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-04 | by ( Nina Burleigh | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

About an hour southeast of the Trinity Site, I reached Three Rivers Petroglyph site, the largest rock art site in the Southwest. Around 600 years ago, the Jornada Mogollon people etched 21,000 images of flora and fauna, people and crypto-beasts into the basaltic rubble along the foothills of the Sacramento. Alamogordo is 15 minutes east of the White Sands National Park, 275 square miles of gypsum dunes that form one of the world’s most breathtaking natural wonders. The park is open to camping and hiking for a $25 fee. After a breakfast of Hatch green chile eggs (a word to the wise: pack the Pepcid), I drove an hour west on U.S. 70 to the White Sands Missile Range Museum, just inside the gate to White Sands Missile Range.

Organizations: White, cumulus, Trinity, White Sands, Missile, Museum Locations: Alamogordo, New Mexico, Sacramento, Rivers, Mexico, U.S

☆ Facebook’s rules ban promoting weapons. Some gun sellers are running ads anyway.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( David Ingram | David Ingram Covers Tech For Nbc News. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

Gun retailers are running ads promoting firearms for sale on Facebook and Instagram, a tech industry watchdog said Wednesday in a report that shows apparent holes in how the apps enforce their own rules against ads that promote the use or sale of weapons. The company declined to comment on specific ads until it had seen the full report, which the Tech Transparency Project provided to NBC News ahead of releasing it. Tech Transparency ProjectMeta relies largely on automated systems to review ads, and it has some human reviewers. Tech Transparency ProjectGun ads have tripped up Facebook and Instagram for years, according to outside investigations. Facebook lets buyers and sellers violate its rules 10 times before they’re kicked off, The Washington Post reported in June.

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