Finance
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Sam Bankman-Fried’s pardon faces bipartisan pushback in Congress: ‘Keep him locked up’
Two senators don’t want Sam Bankman-Fried out of prison. On Wednesday, Sens. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) and Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz), introduced a resolution urging the executive branch to ignore the FTX cofounder’s formal bid for a pardon. The resolution, which is not explicitly addressed to President Donald Trump, asserts that Bankman-Fried’s 25-year-sentence “serves the interests of…
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One of the most powerful El Niños on record cost the world economy $5.7 trillion. The 2026 cycle might be even stronger
Just as the global economy cautiously emerges from one crisis, another is beckoning at the doorstep, one that is completely out of politicians’ control. Markets and businesses breathed a sigh of relief last weekend when President Donald Trump announced a pending deal with Iran to cease hostilities in the Middle East and reopen the Strait…
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The Iran war exposed Southeast Asia’s energy vulnerability. Now its import bill could triple to $245 billion
The Iran war has exposed major risks for Southeast Asia that could cost the region billions of dollars, if it doesn’t diversify sources of energy more quickly, according to an International Energy Agency report released Tuesday. An overreliance on oil and gas transported through the Strait of Hormuz left the region particularly vulnerable to shocks…
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Current price of oil as of June 17, 2026
At 9 a.m. Eastern Time today, the price of oil sits at $80.78 per barrel, using Brent as the benchmark (we’ll explain what that means shortly). That’s a decrease of 77 cents since yesterday morning and roughly $3.35 more than at this time last year. oil price per barrel % Change Price of oil yesterday…
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Michael Burry is ‘tempted’ to short Elon Musk’s SpaceX, but says it’s not enticing enough for ‘fundamentally a small space company’
Famed investor Michael Burry—of “The Big Short” fame—considered antagonizing the richest man on the planet over the IPO of his latest company. Burry said he had been tempted to bet against SpaceX, the rocket company owned by Tesla CEO Elon Musk. SpaceX went public last week and its stock has already gained more than 25%.…
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Your raise used to go offshore. Then it went to a buyback. Now it’s going to a data center
For four decades, the formula was simple: keep labor costs low, borrow cheap, return cash to shareholders. It worked spectacularly as corporate profit margins reached record highs, the S&P 500 compounded at historic rates, and the investor class got very rich. But that formula is now broken. According to Goldman Sachs’ global strategy team, what’s…
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No country for rich men: 6 out of 10 wealthy Americans want to pull a Clooney and pack their bags
George Clooney sent a holiday season warning to the U.S. economy in December 2025: your wealthy citizens aren’t so impressed by all that American Dream stuff anymore. In France, where he and his family had just gotten citizenship, “they kind of don’t give a s— about fame,” he told Esquire. He added that he wanted…
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The new problem for millennial parents in the Northeast: the million-dollar starter home
They waited out the pandemic boom. They saved longer, rented longer, delayed longer, and watched the typical first-time homebuyer age climb to a record 40. Now, the buyers who did everything right are running into a new problem: The Northeast just became the fastest-growing region for million-dollar starter homes in the country. It’s especially imperfectly…
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‘Social Security is on a collision course toward insolvency,’ watchdog says. It hasn’t been this bad since 1983
Social Security is hurtling toward a fiscal cliff that, if left unaddressed, will force an automatic 22% benefit cut for tens of millions of retirees, survivors, and their dependents in just six years. That’s the stark warning from the release last week of the 2026 Social Security Trustees’ Report. A nonpartisan fiscal watchdog, the Committee…
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Tariffs are generating only 25% of the revenue needed to pay interest on national debt—despite pitch that it would be a silver bullet
When President Trump announced his plans for a new tariff regime, he said the action was “primarily to pay down debt, which will happen in very large quantity.” But fast-forward a little under a year, and the revenues generated by customs duties aren’t enough to make a dent in interest payments on national debt—let alone…