Finance
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Exclusive: Paxos Labs raises $12 million after startup spins off from veteran stablecoin issuer
Paxos, the stablecoin and blockchain infrastructure firm, has long worked with major companies like PayPal and Nubank. More recently, Paxos created a spinoff operation known as Paxos Labs that focuses on the specialized world of DeFi (decentralized finance) and helps companies offer their retail customers access to stablecoins and crypto lending protocols. On Tuesday, Paxos
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Trump’s agricultural tariffs hit all 50 states—driving up food prices, crushing exports, and leaving farmers with nowhere to turn
When the Trump administration began its tariff campaign in 2025, some of the loudest critics focused on the consequences for Midwestern farmers or for border states. A year in, the impact of tariffs has become clearer, and some research suggests no state has emerged completely unscathed. Early last year, the Trump administration established one of
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Bitcoin, Ethereum approach two-month highs as markets grow optimistic over U.S.-Iran peace negotiations
Crypto markets are betting that the U.S. and Iran war may be progressing towards peace. Bitcoin rose 5% over the past 24 hours to around $75,000 early Tuesday afternoon, nearing its highest mark since early February, according to data from Binance. The world’s second largest cryptocurrency, Ethereum, notched an even bigger day-over-day jump, rising 7%
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Nava raises $8.3 million in seed funding to keep AI financial agents from going off the rails
The crypto world has been buzzing in recent months about the potential for applying blockchain technology to agentic commerce, a term that describes AI agents undertaking purchases or other economic activity on a user’s behalf. Early innovations include Coinbase’s x402, a standard for AI agents to transact across the web, and Stripe-backed Tempo’s “Machine Payments Protocol.”
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Current price of oil as of April 14, 2026
As of 8 a.m. Eastern Time today, oil is trading at $100.19 per barrel, based on the Brent benchmark we’ll explain in a bit. That’s $3.52 below yesterday morning’s level and about $35 higher than where it stood a year ago. Oil price per barrel % Change Price of oil yesterday $103.72 -3.40% Price of
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IMF slashes global growth forecast, blaming ‘war in the Middle East’ for halted momentum
The Iran war has stalled the world’s economic momentum this year, likely pushing growth lower compared to 2025, the International Monetary Fund warned Tuesday. The IMF downgraded its forecast for global growth to 3.1% in 2026 from the 3.3% it had forecast back in January. The expected growth would mark a deceleration from a 3.4%
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Americans rate Trump’s tax cuts a loser as most believe they’re still too high
Most Americans still think their taxes are too high, according to recent polls, even after last year’s tax law fulfilled several of President Donald Trump’s tax-related campaign promises. In fact, a new Fox News poll indicates people are more upset about taxes than they were last year. The findings from the survey, which was conducted
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‘We have to be able to walk and chew gum’ on government spending, says budget chairman on debt crisis and national security
The U.S. government has a lot to pay for at the moment: in addition to mandatory spending like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, it has also needs to fund its military endeavors. First came Venezuela, a relatively brief period of intervention; but the U.S. and Israel’s conflict with Iran has dragged on longer than expected.
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Most of Wall Street points to high oil prices as the driver of inflation. A maverick Johns Hopkins economist says they’re chasing the wrong culprit
Following the Commerce Department’s release on the morning of April 10 showing that March consumer prices rose at 3.3% year over year in March, this writer received well over a dozen emails from Wall Street analysts, market strategists and economists making the same main point: It’s the jump in oil prices triggered by Iran’s closure
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Wall Street is the biggest winner of the Iran war — and the S&P 500 just turned positive for the year
Markets opened down nearly 1% across the indices on Monday, but news-aggregating accounts online and on social media picked up on a report by New York Post pentagon reporter Caitlin Doornbos. At 7:46 a.m. Monday, Doornbos had posted on X that Iranian officials were still considering a U.S. proposal to end the war, “centering around