Money, Wealth & Power—A Daily Look at the Financial World
Ford Motor Co. is staking roughly $5 billion on a bet that it can build an electric pickup truck affordable enough to compete with gas-powered alternatives. The centerpiece of that wager is a $2 billion overhaul of the company’s Kentucky Truck Plant, where production lines will be retooled to accommodate a new electric vehicle platform…
Florida legislators are trying to stop data centers from driving up electricity bills for ordinary households, but the very bills designed to protect consumers carry a built-in contradiction that could undermine public accountability. Senate Bill 484, filed for the 2026 session, would ban certain nondisclosure agreements between state agencies and data center operators while directing…
Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin issued a sharp critique of crypto prediction markets on February 14, warning that platforms like Polymarket are drifting toward what he called “corposlop,” dominated by sports betting and short-term crypto price wagers rather than genuine forecasting tools. The rebuke arrives as prediction markets face an escalating legal and regulatory battle across…
True Value Company, the decades-old hardware cooperative that built its name supplying independent retailers competing against big-box chains like Home Depot and Lowe’s, is ceasing operations as a standalone business. The company announced a sale agreement with fellow cooperative Do It Best and simultaneously initiated Chapter 11 proceedings in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the…
BlackRock filed a registration statement on December 5, 2025, for a new iShares Staked Ethereum Trust ETF that would pass roughly 82% of Ethereum staking rewards to shareholders, keeping the remaining portion as a fee. The proposed fund, expected to trade under the ticker ETHB, represents a distinct product from BlackRock’s existing spot ether ETF…
Berkshire Hathaway reduced its positions in Amazon, Apple, and Bank of America during the fourth quarter of 2024, while adding at least one new holding to its portfolio, according to the company’s latest regulatory filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The filing has also prompted fresh questions among investors about whether the 94-year-old…
UPS announced on January 27, 2026, that it will cut up to 30,000 jobs this year, adding to the roughly 34,000 operational positions it already eliminated during the first nine months of 2025. FedEx, meanwhile, has been consolidating facilities across approximately 290 locations in the U.S. and Canada under its own restructuring plan. Together, the…
Small Russian oil drilling companies are increasingly facing bankruptcy pressures as Urals crude prices fall sharply, according to reporting cited below, while Western sanctions continue to strain the sector’s finances. The average Urals price dropped to $44.87 per barrel in November 2025, down from $53.68 in October, while separate reporting says some Russian oil has…
Republican Rep. Kevin Kiley of California introduced federal legislation on Feb. 18 that would bar states from imposing retroactive taxes on the assets of former residents, a direct strike at the core enforcement mechanism of a proposed California ballot measure that would levy a one-time tax on billionaires. The bill, called the Keep Jobs in…
Japanese companies are set to pour $36 billion into newly announced energy and industrial projects tied to a U.S.-Japan trade agreement, with major, itemized projects in Ohio and Texas and Georgia mentioned as part of the broader three-state push. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick confirmed the investment figure, which covers a natural gas mega-plant, a deepwater…
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