Why one ****** yst thinks the US economy will be feeling the Iran-fueled inflation shock for years to...

Chris Whalen thinks hot inflation will weigh on the US economy for years after the Iran war ends.
The veteran ****** yst says supply disruptions in the Middle East will take a long time to normalize.
He said he expected inflation to rise to the high single-digits, about double its current rate.
Investors see the Iran war as all but over, but a market vet warns the effects will be felt a lot longer than Wall Street might realize.
Chris Whalen, an investment banker, longtime ****** yst

SMBC Group selects Charlotte for bank operations expansion, Governor Stein announces

One of **** an's largest financial institutions is expanding its U.S. presence, with plans to open its second American headquarters in Charlotte and create 2,000 jobs over the next six years.
Gov. Josh Stein announced Tuesday that SMBC Group will invest $50.5 million in Mecklenburg County, establishing a major hub to support multiple business units and expand talent diversity. The average salary for new positions will be $165,316, nearly double Mecklenburg County's average wage of $90,706.
“We’re grateful

Fed’s Austan Goolsbee sees economic weakness, but not recession

Austan Goolsbee, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, sees some weakness in the U.S. economy now and he's personally uneasy about the possibility of inflation heating up as the Iran war continues.
But he remains "hopeful, slash optimistic" that the U.S. economy will keeping growing, thanks to continued consumer spending across the board.
"My concern at this immediate time is we've got to get our heads around the oil shock," Goolsbee told the Detroit Economic Club on Tuesday, April 7.
Goolsbee engaged in

What Jamie Dimon sees as threats to the economy in 2026

Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, put out his annual letter to shareholders this week. Now, a lot of companies provide shareholder updates, but when a letter comes from the leader of the largest bank in North America and contains insights about the economy, it tends to make headlines.
Dimon’s cautionary tone struck Ari Shwayder, who teaches economics at the University of Michigan.
“He's quite worried about inflation” — so much so that Dimon called it the “skunk at the party” — “not calming back down to the 2% level that the Fed wan

India's high-growth economy gets a Middle East oil shock

It wasn't too long ago that India's central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), described the country's high growth-low inflation environment as a "Goldilocks" moment.
But that optimism has proved ephemeral as the ongoing war in the Middle East and the accompanying disruption to oil markets gives its world-beating growth story an unexpected jolt.
The impact is most starkly visible on the Indian currency, which has hit record lows and is down nearly 10% against the US dollar in the last year.
There's been some relief in the rupee

Canada's economy is on a rollercoaster that the Bank of Canada will have to ride, economists say

Canada’s better-than-expected gross domestic product (GDP) growth has put the economy on track to get close to or meet the Bank of Canada‘s growth outlook for the first quarter, economists said.
Statistics Canada said GDP in January rose 0.1 per cent month over month, beating economist estimates of no growth, and the agency issued a flash estimate for an increase of 0.2 per cent in February.
Based on those numbers, economists are estimating first-quarter GDP growth of between 1.4 per cent and

A global settlement has been reached after years of litigation to compensate hundreds of victims of Iranian-sponsored terrorism, with about $318 million derived from the sale of a Manhattan office tower secretly tied to an Iranian government-owned bank.

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Airline ticket prices are suddenly soaring — here’s why flights are getting more expensive

If you’ve tried to book a flight lately and felt a jolt of sticker shock, you’re not imagining it.
I book flights constantly for my job as a travel writer, and over the past week, I’ve watched fares jump faster than usual. Flights I’d been tracking for spring travel suddenly cost significantly more than they did just days earlier.
The shift isn’t anecdotal. A recent ***** ysis by Deutsche Bank found that domestic airfare prices for late-March travel have climbed by 15% to 124%, depending on the rout

U.S. state retirement fund boosts MicroStrategy stake despite stock downgrade

It has been a tumultuous cycle for Michael Saylor-led Strategy (Nasdaq: MSTR), formerly MicroStrategy. The company's stock has lost 65% of its value since Oct. 1 last year.
Recently, the leading Bitcoin (BTC) treasury company posted financial results for the fourth quarter of 2025 when it reported a net loss of $12.4 billion.
Worse, a market bank has lowered the firm's price target by 20%. But it hasn't stopped a major state retirement fund from increasing its stake in Strategy.
Related: Charles Schwab quietly

NASA launches twin rocket missions from Alaska to study mysterious black auroras

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NASA launched two rockets from Alaska this week to learn more about the electrical "circuitry" within auroras, the colorful light shows that occur when solar wind collides with Earth's atmosphere.
The missions saw two suborbital sounding rockets launch from the Poker Flat Research Range near Fairbanks, Alaska loaded with scientific equipment that will fly into the atmosphere for a short period of time to gat

K-shaped economy looks more like 'jaws of a crocodile,' economist says: What's...

Signs of rising financial stress, particularly among middle-income Americans, are warning flags about the U.S. economy’s health in 2026, experts say.
Spending growth for higher-income Americans remained relatively stable between January 2025 and January 2026, according to internal transaction data from Bank of America Institute released this week. However, spending growth slowed for lower- and middle-income households during that period.
In the so-called K-shaped economy, lower-income households are struggli

FBI concluded Jeffrey Epstein wasn’t running a **** trafficking ring for powerful men, files show

NEW YORK (AP) — The FBI pored over Jeffrey Epstein’s bank records and emails. It searched his homes. It spent years interviewing his victims and examining his connections to some of the world’s most influential people.
But while investigators collected ample proof that Epstein **** ually abused underage girls, they found scant evidence the well-connected financier led a **** trafficking ring serving powerful men, an **** ociated Press review of internal Justice Department records shows.
Vid

For Robert Kiyosaki, gold and Bitcoin have long shared the same role in his playbook: protection.
The "Rich Dad Poor Dad" author has spent years warning that fiat currencies, especially the U.S. dollar, steadily lose purchasing power over time.
As a frequent critic of central banks, debt-driven growth, and what he sees as systemic currency debasement, he argues hard ***** ets are the escape hatch.
Related: ***** yst says Bitcoin will meet or beat gold's market cap
Kiyosaki began speaking publicly about Bitcoin around 2018, often placing it alongside gold and silver. His framing is consist

What Trump's appointment of Kevin Warsh could mean for interest rates this year

After President Trump on Friday nominated former Federal Reserve governor Kevin Warsh to lead the central bank, market participants quickly began speculating what his chairmanship would mean for the path of interest rates this year.
If confirmed by the Senate, Warsh will face a deeply divided Fed at a time when the 19-member committee has set up the potential for a long pause in cutting rates. Many members feel the central bank has done enough to shore up concerns about softening job growth with three rate cuts

The Bitcoin price had a relatively rough trading period over the past week, as it hovered around the psychological $90,000...
Reports say Swiss banking giant UBS is planning to let a small group of its private bank clients buy and...
Bitcoin is trading below the $90,000 level once again, as the market continues to drift through a phase defined by...

https://www.newsbtc.com/ne...

As 2025 came to a close, subtle changes in Federal Reserve activity started to catch the attention of traders watching both macro markets and crypto. Unusual moves in short-term funding and a series of quiet policy adjustments suggested that liquidity pressures might be easing. For some observers, that raised the possibility that Bitcoin could start moving higher before traditional markets show clearer signs of recovery in 2026.
On December 31, 2025, banks drew a record $74.6 billion from the Federal Reserve’s Standing Repo Facility. That spike pointed to stress in short-term funding markets

Jan. 2 (UPI) -- Mexico closed 2025 with weak economic growth and is heading into 2026 with limited expansion prospects, keeping the country among the least dynamic economies in Latin America, according to local projections and estimates from United Nations agencies.
Mexico's central bank, Banco de México, cut its gross domestic product growth forecast for the end of 2025 by half, to 0.3% from 0.6% estimated in August.
With that outcome, Mexico's economy will post two consecutive years of growth below the average for Latin America and the Caribbean, according to estimates from the Economic Co

After a turbulent end to 2025, that has left bitcoin (BTC-USD) swinging between optimism and caution, will the world’s largest cryptocurrency sink back toward $50,000 or push to new highs above $125,000 (£93,655) in 2026? With monetary policy, liquidity, regulation, and institutional demand all in flux, ******* ysts say the answer may depend on how these forces unfold quarter by quarter next year.
Fabian Dori, chief investment officer at Sygnum Bank, believes the opening months of 2026 could be broadly supportive for bitcoin (BTC-USD), driven by improving macro conditions and easing fear acro

These 6 stocks will lead the $1 trillion chip surge in 2026, BofA says

The artificial intelligence boom isn't cooling off — it's getting bigger, Bank of America ******* yst Vivek Arya contends.
While AI skeptics have pointed to eye-popping valuations as a reason to run, Arya said the industry is only at the "midpoint" of a decade-long transformation, and it's being led by Nvidia (NVDA) and Broadcom (AVGO).
In a report ******* led "2026 Year Ahead: choppy, still cheerful," Arya forecast a 30% year-over-year surge in global semiconductor sales that will finally push the sector past a histor

Investment products tied to cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) registered an outflow of $952 million last week.
CoinShares said the outflow after three consecutive weeks of inflows is indicative of the regulatory uncertainty due to the delay of the Clarity Act, the digital ******* et investment company said on Dec. 22.
Related: JPMorgan Chase reportedly eyes crypto trading amid debanking claims
The fear of whale selling during the market slide also led to the outflow, it added.
The U.S. led with an outflow of $990 million, though the inflows in Canada and Germany helped

Bitcoin is limping into Christmas week with no Santa rally in sight.
And Gabriel Selby, head of research at CF Benchmark, says it’s unlikely that the price will recover from its current downtrend until the US Federal Reserve gets a better grip on the economy.
With the record US government shutdown delaying inflation data, the central bank will tread lightly and that means buyers are unlikely to tap into the crypto and push up the price, Selby wrote in an investor note shared with DL News.
“Until we get several months of clean, uninterrupted inflation data, the Fed’s path remains murky,” Sel

Prominent American investor Ray Dalio is sharpening his long-held skepticism on Bitcoin’s role in the global system, arguing that despite its scarcity and appeal as money, it remains ill-suited to sit on central bank balance sheets.
In a recent interview with entrepreneur Nikhil Kamath, Dalio framed Bitcoin as money in spirit, then drew a clear line on who he expects to treat it as reserve grade.
“Bitcoin is limited in supply and its perception of money. It is a form of money,” he said, while describing a set of hurdles that he believes keep central banks at arm’s length.
Dalio said Bitcoin

Billionaire who sold two companies to Coca-Cola says he tries to convince people not to become entrepreneurs: ‘Every single day, you can go bankrupt’

Mike Repole, the billionaire entrepreneur who co-founded and sold beverage giants Glaceau and BodyArmor to Coca-Cola for a combined $9.7 billion, has an unexpected message for aspiring business owners: Don’t do it.
In an interview with The School of Hard Knocks, a popular social-media channel known for interviewing wealthy entrepreneurs, Repole shared his contrarian view on entrepreneurship, emphasizing the brutal realities that most success

Earlier this week, Norway’s Norges Bank Investment Management backed all five of Metaplanet’s bitcoin-focused capital restructuring proposals ahead of the December 22 Extraordinary General Meeting, including plans for share buybacks, dividends, and new preferred share issuance to raise US$150 million from institutional investors.
This support from one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds highlights growing institutional interest in Metaplanet’s bitcoin accumulation model and its unconventional balance sheet plans.
Next, we’ll examine how Norges Bank’s endorsement and Metaplanet’s pu

A star becoming a black hole happens in the same way as Ernest Hemingway described going bankrupt: “First it happens gradually, then all at once.” The gradual part of the process can take a lot longer than the time it takes to drain a bank account—billions of years in some cases. That’s why astronomers were puzzled when they found evidence that supermassive black holes existed less than a billion years after the Big Bang.
In order for the timeframe to make sense, the stars that collapsed to form these black holes would’ve had to have been gargantuan—1,000 to 10,000 more massive than our sun.

Trump launches flurry of attention-grabbing moves as polls show his approval slipping

(Bloomberg) -- Bonus checks. New holidays. A return to the moon.
In the span of less than 24 hours, President Donald Trump unveiled a series of initiatives with widespread appeal — with promises of more to come — as he also contends with falling popularity and economic uncertainty.
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Scammers drained $700,000 from NYC grandma's accounts. Now she's suing the banks.

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The fraud started in August 2023 as fear dressed up as urgency. Pop-up warnings began flashing across 86-year-old Nina Mortellito’s computer screen, claiming her bank accounts had been hacked. What followed was a months-long tale of manipulation that ultimately drained her of $700,000 — her entire life savings.
According to a lawsuit filed against Merrill Lynch in Manhattan Supreme Court, the Upper East Side re

Bitcoin may be holding slightly below $90,000, but data imply that the $100K year-end target is still alive as ****** ysts point out that three Bitcoin Price Prediction indicators are flashing a green signal.
The first and most critical driver is the shift in Federal Reserve monetary policy.
After months of reducing liquidity through quantitative tightening, where the central bank stopped reinvesting proceeds from maturing bonds and Treasury holdings, the Fed ended this program on December 1.
Markets are now positioning for an easing cycle.

https://cryptonews.com/new...

Bitcoin's greatest bull runs have, in the past, coincided with a low federal funds rate.
The Federal Reserve could soon cut that interest rate again.
This is just one of many factors affecting Bitcoin, but it's a big one.
10 stocks we like better than Bitcoin ›
In every market, price is one of the main signals, and for the U.S. dollar itself, that signal is the federal funds rate, which is the short-term interest rate the Federal Reserve targets for overnight lending between banks. As you've probably heard, the Fed's target influences a wide spectrum of borrowing costs, from corporate cred

JPMorgan **** ysts say the near-term direction of Bitcoin’s price now depends less on miner behavior and more on the financial resilience of Strategy, the world’s largest corporate holder of Bitcoin, even as mining pressure and market volatility persist.
In a report led by managing director Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, the bank identified two forces currently weighing on Bitcoin. The first is a recent decline in Bitcoin’s network hashrate and mining difficulty.
The second is the growing market focus on Strategy’s balance sheet and its ability to avoid selling its Bitcoin holdings during the ongo