Reportage or ‘sabotage’? Rosneft wants Reuters BANNED in Russia after story on Venezuela oil deal
In its exclusive piece on Thursday, which was solely based on undisclosed “documents and sources,” Reuters accused Rosneft of cashing in checks for the restricted Venezuela’s state oil firm, PDVSA. It said the Russian company was allegedly getting Venezuelan oil with a discount, paying for it immediately in bypass of the usual 30-to-90 day transaction timeframe and then getting the full amount from the final buyers.Rosneft blasted the report as “a blatant lie” and “a provocation” against the company in its response on Friday.“Reuters have ceased its operations as a news agency and a media outlet. This enterprise systematically engages in forging and spreading deliberate misinformation, legalization of rumors in the interests of its sponsors; invents news opportunities with the aim of … [READ MORE...]
After Social Media Bans, Militant Groups Found Ways to Remain
Hezbollah and Hamas, in particular, have honed their social media strategies to foster their online presences.Hezbollah, which now has no official accounts on the big social media platforms, largely shares through Al Manar, a broadcaster with strong pro-Hezbollah ties. Al Manar has a Twitter feed, which is followed by 481,000 people. Content from the channel is easy to find on YouTube, including many lengthy speeches by Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah.A recent search on YouTube for Al Manar in Arabic yielded more than 37,000 results. Many of those videos have tens of thousands of views and have been on the site for years.Hamas enjoys a similar widespread presence on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. The group has a Twitter feed, though not a Facebook page or a YouTube account. Many of … [READ MORE...]
This Legislation Could Force Stores to Take Your Cash
Ms. Pou, who represents the Paterson area, said that she had many constituents who lack bank accounts, including low-income families deterred by fees and minimum balance requirements. (A report by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. in 2017 estimated that 6.5 percent of American households were “unbanked.”) Older adults also may not have electronic payments set up, or be comfortable using them, she noted.The penalties in the proposed bills range from hundreds to thousands of dollars. In the New Jersey bill, they could go up to $5,000 for a second offense. A spokesman said the governor was considering whether to sign the legislation.Ms. Pou said that business groups and Amazon had expressed opposition to the bill, and she worked with businesses to include exceptions, including for airports, … [READ MORE...]
Latest News
Trump’s Nafta Revisions Offer Modest Economic Benefits, Report Finds
Kevin Hassett, the chairman of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers, said he believed that the report had underestimated some of the deal’s economic benefits, including provisions on intellectual property. But he said he was encouraged.“I think that should be reassuring to anyone who is on the fence on this bill,” he said.Since negotiations began in August 2017, the administration has secured some substantive changes to Nafta, including modernizing protections on digital trade, adding … [Read More...]
Treasury Issues Rules on Tax Breaks for Opportunity Zones
Even before the administration has finished issuing its rules, the zones have become a boon for real estate developers and drawn criticism from people who say they will mostly enrich well-heeled investors and speed up the displacement of low-income residents in gentrifying areas.Treasury officials have developed a series of tests, in the regulations they began releasing in October, for which investments should qualify for the tax breaks. One key test many local officials use to evaluate the … [Read More...]
Monica Crowley, a Fox News Fixture, Is Said to Get a Top Treasury Job
In the interview with Mr. Hannity, Ms. Crowley said members of the Washington establishment were trying to destroy Mr. Trump. “They want him in prison,” she said. “This is a war.”The choice of Ms. Crowley is a surprising one for Mr. Mnuchin, who has been seen as a voice of moderation in the Trump administration. In recent years, Ms. Crowley has emerged as a conservative firebrand, assailing Democrats and amplifying conspiracy theories about President Barack Obama’s heritage.In a collection of … [Read More...]
The 2008 Financial Crisis as Seen From the Top
So why didn’t people see it coming? Part of it was hubris: “Serious economists were arguing that financial innovations like derivatives … had made crises a thing of the past.” (How serious were these economists, actually?) And the reality was that financial innovation made things worse, not better: Most of “the leverage in U.S. finance” — debt that was vulnerable to panic — had moved to “shadow banks” that, unlike conventional banks, were largely unregulated and lacked a financial safety … [Read More...]
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Small Business
This Legislation Could Force Stores to Take Your Cash
Ms. Pou, who represents the Paterson area, said that she had many constituents who lack bank accounts, including low-income families deterred by fees and minimum balance requirements. (A report by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. in 2017 estimated that 6.5 percent of American households were “unbanked.”) Older adults also may not have electronic payments set up, or be comfortable using them, … [Read More...]
Fixtures: The Baumans, Sellers of Really, Really Rare Books
In a town of sparkle and flash, rare books are an anomaly, but for the Baumans, they are lucrative. One visitor spent $400,000 on “The Great Gatsby” and McKenney and Halls’ “History of the Indian Tribes of North America” in a single visit. Another, a quiet man in shorts, flip-flops and a T-shirt spent $15,000 on a first edition of “Huckleberry Finn” and then several weeks later returned to pick … [Read More...]
Your Money
Wealth Matters: 4 Tax Strategies That Could Make a Divorce Settlement Easier
Others complain that such trusts are another tax provision that favors the ultrawealthy.“If you don’t have a lot of property to split up, you’re going to have to pay alimony, and now you’re going to have to do it in after-tax dollars,” said Christina M. Baltz, partner at the law firm Withers. “To a certain extent, you can say this is another Trump tax change that’s hit the middle class and not the … [Read More...]
Strategies: ‘Medicare for All’ Is Hammering Health Care Stocks. For Now.
The difference, or spread, between the market’s aversion to health care stocks, the most-hated sector, and its attraction to financial services, the most-loved, was extraordinarily wide. The polarization was greater than it has been for 99.93 percent of all trading days in the American stock market since the start of 1990, Bespoke found. When such extremes in market sentiment have occurred in the … [Read More...]