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☆ Stocks hate this one weird trick from the calendar
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-29 | by ( Krystal Hur | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

New York CNN —Leap Day might seem like fun and games — until you consider Wall Street. To account for that gap, Julius Caesar in 45 BC decreed that an extra day be added every four years, leading to the Julian calendar. Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 AD created the Gregorian calendar, coined the term “leap year” and established February 29 as the official leap day. He adds that a leap day can also help marginally raise corporate earnings, since companies get an extra day in a fiscal quarter to operate. History shows that stocks tend to perform worse when an additional day is added to the calendar.

Persons: Julius Caesar, Pope Gregory XIII, Matt Weller, Weller, Dow, ”, “ Barbie ”, “ Oppenheimer, ’, Samantha Delouya, It’s, Read, Sam’s, Sam, Matt Egan, Banks Organizations: CNN Business, Bell, New York CNN, Dow Jones, Bulls, Research, AMC Entertainment, AMC, Treasury Department, CNN, Treasury Locations: New York, FOREX.com

☆ AI is Uncle Sam’s new secret weapon to fight fraud
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-28 | by ( Matt Egan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Starting around late 2022, the Treasury Department began using enhanced fraud-detection methods powered by AI to spot fraud, CNN has learned. Treasury’s AI-powered fraud detection recovered $375 million in fiscal 2023 alone, Treasury officials tell CNN, marking the first time Treasury is publicly acknowledging it is using AI to detect fraud. Instead, Treasury officials say the type of AI they are using falls more into the bucket of machine learning and Big Data. The goal is to move with such speed that anomalies are flagged and banks are alerted before fraudulent checks are ever cashed, Treasury officials said. Catching fraud in millisecondsAmiram Shachar, co-founder and CEO of cloud security startup Upwind, told CNN the federal government should “absolutely” use AI to detect fraud.

Persons: Sam, Sam’s, Fraudsters, Wally Adeyemo, ”, ” Shachar, Steph Curry Organizations: New, New York CNN, Treasury Department, CNN, Treasury, Data, Washington, Office, Business Administration, Social, Internal Revenue Service, IRS, Google, Facebook, Penny Jar, NBA, Mastercard Locations: New York, Banks, Washington, Hong Kong

☆ Rich countries are stumbling into a debt trap
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-03 | by ( Felix Martin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

Unlike many corporations and households, the U.S. government did not lock in the low interest rates of the last decade by issuing long-dated debt, preferring instead to skew funding towards bills and short-term bonds. The second route out of the debt trap is to target the primary fiscal surplus, choosing a combination of spending cuts and tax hikes that will stabilise the public debt. That leaves the third route to debt sustainability – keeping real interest rates low. But in the short run, it allows a government to tame the debt ratio without fiscal austerity, and even if growth is sluggish. Governments are indeed stuck in a classic debt trap.

Persons: Joe Biden, Fumio Kishida, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Kacper, Everett Dirksen, you’re, Dirksen’s, Stanley Druckenmiller, Joe Biden’s, Peter Thal Larsen, Thomas Shum Organizations: Japan's, NATO, REUTERS, Reuters, Congressional, Office, International Monetary Fund, U.S, Treasury, Reuters Graphics Reuters Graphics, Medicaid, Federal, Bank of Japan, Thomson Locations: Ukraine, Vilnius, Lithuania, Illinois, U.S, Britain

☆ Opinion | To Win the War, Defeat Hamas and Stop Settlements
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-19 | by ( Thomas L. Friedman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +11 min

After that rocket failed and fell on the Palestinian hospital in Gaza, killing scores of people, Hamas and the P.I.J. (Netanyahu’s coalition agreement actually vows to annex the whole of the West Bank.) I am well aware that Hamas has been committed to eliminating the Jewish state since its inception — not because Israel has expanded settlements in the West Bank. The Palestinian Authority, which is ready to coexist with the Jewish state, needs to be able to actually win a free and fair election against Hamas in the West Bank or Gaza. So no, we’re not telling Netanyahu what to do in Gaza — Israel is a sovereign country.

Persons: Biden, —, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel, Israel’s, Hassan Nasrallah, Nahum Barnea, beseeching Biden, beseech, it’s, “, Gazans, there’s, Bibi Netanyahu’s, Abraham, Netanyahu, Sam’s, we’re, Netanyahu’s, Dan Ben, David, ” Mr, Ben, Yuval Noah Harari, ” Organizations: West Bank . Settlers, Palestinian Authority, West Bank, U.S, U.S . Navy, Pentagon, Arab Hospital, United, Israel, Hamas, Peace Communications, Times, Abraham Accords, Ministry of Defense, Tel Aviv University, Technion, Israel’s Locations: Israel, Gaza, Iraq, Afghanistan, Jerusalem, —, Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, United States, U.S, Tehran, Persian, Gaza ”, America, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Gaza — Israel, We’re, Israeli

☆ Opinion | Can Samantha Power Win the Battle for Ukraine’s Future?
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-13 | by ( Bret Stephens | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Years ago, during the George W. Bush administration, I shadowed another U.S.A.I.D. Despite some notable gains, especially in areas such as girls’ education, it was clear the agency was struggling. In the end, approximately $145 billion in assistance — about $20 billion of which was administered by U.S.A.I.D. Would the story turn out similarly in Ukraine, a state that last year ranked alongside Angola in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index? That’s what I went to Ukraine to see for myself.

Persons: I’ve, George W, Bush, Henrietta Fore, ” —, Sam’s, — Organizations: American Embassy, U.S.A.I.D, Angola Locations: Afghanistan, Ukraine

☆ How Oliver Anthony’s ‘Rich Men North of Richmond’ became a chart-topping conservative anthem
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-17 | by ( Scottie Andrew | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

CNN —In a matter of days, Oliver Anthony’s working-class anthem, “Rich Men North of Richmond,” has gone from viral sensation to legitimate country hit. “Rich Men North of Richmond” touches upon Anthony’s time as a factory worker in Western North Carolina, he said in the video shared before the song was posted online. Conservative media personality Jason Howerton said he has offered to pay to produce Anthony’s record and that Rich had agreed to produce it. (A representative for Rich told CNN on Wednesday that there “isn’t much to report on” about Anthony and Rich working together. Anthony's song has been compared to Aldean's for their rural perspectives and embrace by conservatives.

Persons: Oliver Anthony’s, “ Rich, ”, dethroning Luke Combs, Jason Aldean, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Walsh, Anthony, he’s, “, …, ” Anthony, That’s what’s, Oliver Anthony, Richmond ”, Christopher Anthony Lunsford, Jeffrey Epstein, Epstein, RadioWV, it’s, Kari Lake, Lauren Boebert, ” It’s, Travis Tritt, John Rich of, Jason Howerton, Rich, Jason Aldean's, parlayed, “ Don’t, “ Oliver Anthony’s, Phil, Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn, Anthony’s, Uncle Sam’s, Merle Haggard’s “, Guy Drake’s “, Cadillac ”, ain’t Organizations: CNN, North, Apple, iTunes, US Rep, YouTube, Richmond, Virgin Islands, Arizona, John Rich of Big, Rich, Conservative, Records, Facebook Locations: Richmond, ”, Virginia, Appalachia, Western North Carolina, Washington , DC, Virgin, Currituck , North Carolina, America

☆ Debt ceiling debacle is ultimate winner’s curse
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-23 | by ( John Foley | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

The ongoing debt-ceiling standoff, which has the potential to tip markets into mayhem, is a kind of winner’s curse. Put differently, the U.S. government has racked up so much debt because everybody else needed it to. Reuters GraphicsBy getting into ever more debt, Americans have done the rest of the world a favor. Nobody knows when that point will come, though, and the debt ceiling doesn’t seem to reflect the market’s view of how much is too much. The U.S. share of the global economy is shrinking, the debt is growing, and so is the political theater it generates.

☆ Opinion: What Trump gets right on Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-13 | by ( Opinion Daniel R. Depetris | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

For many political pundits and politicians, his observations on the war in Ukraine were no exception. Asa Hutchinson, who is challenging Trump for the 2024 nomination, declared that “Trump reminded everyone tonight of his support of Russia and his willingness to sell out Ukraine. The major difference between the Biden administration and Trump on the Ukraine question seems to be not whether talks should happen, but when. Another point Trump gets right is the vast disparity between the US and its European allies on the issue of assistance to Ukraine, even if his grossly exaggerates the amount of US aid. Join us on Twitter and FacebookTo be clear, some of what Trump said at the town hall about Ukraine was incorrect.

☆ In praise of American finance’s regulatory mess
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( John Foley | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +8 min

NEW YORK, March 9 (Reuters Breakingviews) - There are many issues on which China and the United States are far apart. The People’s Republic this week proposed combining financial regulatory functions into a new super watchdog to govern its financial sector more effectively. China’s proposed new National Financial Regulatory Administration is roughly in this mold. Since 2008, officials in Beijing have criticized the United States’ financial excesses and its “warped conception” of financial discipline. The new National Financial Regulatory Administration would sit directly under the State Council, which serves as China’s cabinet.

☆ Charles A. Bowsher, Uncle Sam’s Auditor, Deplored Budget Tricks
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( James R. Hagerty | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

For a few months in 1986, Charles A. Bowsher appeared to be the one man in Washington who could give orders to the president. The Gramm-Rudman law, enacted in December 1985, called for a balanced federal budget within five years. It also gave the General Accounting Office, or GAO, then headed by Mr. Bowsher, authority to decide whether the government was on track to meet that target and, if not, order more spending cuts.

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