S&P Global Ratings upgraded Illinois by one notch Thursday for ongoing progress in chipping away at its debts and rebuilding its rainy day fund. The action — lifting $26.5 billion of general obligation bonds to A-minus from BBB-plus — puts the state back into the single-A category for the first time in seven years and
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Joe Biden has nominated former Mastercard chief executive Ajay Banga as World Bank president, picking a Wall Street veteran raised in India to oversee the institution’s biggest mission change in a generation. Banga’s nomination, a week after sitting president David Malpass abruptly resigned, comes as the US and other shareholder nations seek to expand the
The cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has announced the deployment of Base, an Ethereum layer two (L2) scaling network, after developers launched the Base testnet on Thursday. The company said it is incubating Base within Coinbase and that the L2 chain will progressively decentralize over time. Coinbase L2 Scaling Platform Aims to Help Scale the Crypto Economy
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said Thursday that containing inflation remains a work in progress for the Federal Reserve, while noting the U.S. economy continues to show signs of strength. “I have all the respect for [Fed Chair Jerome] Powell, but the fact is we lost a little bit of control of inflation,” Dimon said
The original manuscript of Neil Stephenson’s Snow Crash, the book that coined the term “metaverse,” will be auctioned by Sotheby’s, according to a page on its official website. The auction is part of a Feb. 23 series called “Infocalypse” that includes six physical and six digital items related to the famous book. The original manuscript is
For the month of December, 3% of all mortgages in the U.S. were in some stage of delinquency —which is 30 days or more past due, including those in foreclosure— representing a 0.4 percentage point decrease compared with 3.4% recorded in December 2021 and less than a 0.1 percentage point increase compared with November 2022,
SDI Productions Despite the cooling market, many homeowners made money selling their property in 2022 — and part of that windfall may be taxable. Home sellers made a $112,000 profit on the typical sale in 2022, a 21% increase from 2021, and a 78% jump from two years ago, according to ATTOM, a nationwide property
A municipal fintech platform for asset management firms, banks, insurance companies, and municipal advisors is being developed by Assured Guaranty’s new subsidiary, AG Analytics. The platform intends to deliver best-in-class technology and turnkey solutions to replace fragmented data resources used by municipal asset managers, analysts and other market participants. “Many asset managers are using too
Rejecting nearly all of the challenges to its disclosure statement and plan of adjustment in the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority bankruptcy, the Puerto Rico Oversight Board attempted to explain why National Public Finance Guarantee could get preferential treatment. National’s treatment is permissible since it is supported by a “legitimate basis,” the board said, citing
The UK’s crisis-hit public services will not recover before the next election and may require significant injections of cash to prevent further decline, according to a sobering annual review by the Institute for Government, a non-partisan think-tank. After almost 13 years of austerity and grave damage to the public sector’s capacity as a result of
Grant Yun has always been an artist at heart with an early aspiration to have his work featured at a major auction house. A curious and motivated individual, Yun is studying medicine while juggling his work as an artist and performing as a breakdancer who has competed all over the United States. Since discovering NFTs
The crypto market is down today, as market volatility increased and investors digest the Federal Reserve’s minutes which indicate that interest rate hikes could extend for longer than most investors expect. The downturn comes after the Feb. 14 consumer price index (CPI) print showed higher-than-expected inflation, along with increased regulatory enforcement from the United States
Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, February 17, 2023. Brendan McDermid | Reuters Is the growth of passive investing a threat to the stability of the stock market? A new study says you shouldn’t worry. There have been several very successful investing trends in the
In this article COIN PANW DKS AMZN TOL LZB BIDU Follow your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNT Coinbase shares are down more than 83% this year Chesnot | Getty Images Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading. Coinbase — Shares of the cryptocurrency exchange fell 1.4% even after Coinbase reported a smaller-than-expected loss for
The United States equities markets saw their worst performance of 2023 as concerned investors dumped stocks on Feb. 21, fearing continued rate hikes by the U.S. Federal Reserve. Although the cryptocurrency markets also gave back some of the gains, the fall was comparatively muted. UTXO Management senior analyst Dylan LeClair said that Bitcoin’s (BTC) correlation
Topline The Biden Administration on Wednesday unveiled a plan to help low-income and first-time homebuyers save an average of $800 per year on mortgage insurance costs starting next month—an attempt to help ease affordability concerns in the housing market as higher mortgage rates and elevated prices sideline many potential homebuyers. Key Facts Under the plan
A TV camera points to the U.S. Supreme Court as justices inside heard arguments in Gonzalez v. Google at the court in Washington, February 21, 2023 Kevin Lamarque | Reuters The Supreme Court in a unanimous decision Wednesday ruled that a woman could not use protection under the U.S. bankruptcy code to avoid paying a
For Janice Hofferber, new head of U.S. public finance at Moody’s Investors Service, a focus on fundamentals is key to all the agency does. “Our goal and our mission is really this — to provide investors with the insightful research that will help them make better investment decisions,” she told The Bond Buyer. Hofferber, who
A bill introduced in California’s legislature would prohibit banks or lenders with business customers that manufacture firearms from working on the state’s public finances. Senate Bill 637, introduced Thursday by California Sen. Dave Min, D-Costa Mesa, applies to every aspect of the state’s public finances including municipal bonds, capital projects and the state’s debt portfolio,
UK prime minister Rishi Sunak is exploring a 5 per cent pay rise for public-sector workers to end an escalating wave of strikes after the Treasury was given an unexpected £30bn windfall. In a sign of a change of mood after months of strife, the Royal College of Nursing on Tuesday called off a 48-hour