Author: News Room

A version of this story first appeared in CNN Business’ Before the Bell newsletter. Not a subscriber? You can sign up right here. You can listen to an audio version of the newsletter by clicking the same link. YOLO economy, meet the “yo, no” economy. Not so long ago many of us were willing, if not eager, to shell out on fancy new TVs, upgraded bathrooms and kitchens, Peloton bikes and bottles of the good stuff. Things have changed. This summer, our bathrooms are outdated and our champagne bottles corked. Americans emerged from pandemic lockdowns with better jobs, extra spending money…

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) Governor Michele Bullock said on Wednesday that she expects Q1 GDP growth to be quite low, adding that the central bank’s plan A is to remain data-driven.  Key quotes Expects Q1 growth to be quite lowHousehold spending is very weakBoard judges economy still on trackUnderlying Inflation Decreasing GraduallyDemand still exceeds economy’s capacity to supplyPlan A is to remain data-driven Demand Exceeds Economy’s Capacity to SupplyEconomy Readiness to Ease if Significantly Weaker  Market reaction At the press time, the AUD/USD pair was down 0.02% on the day to trade at 0.6648.  Australian Dollar FAQs One of the most…

An upcoming House Appropriation budget could prevent the US SEC from implementing its controversial Staff Accounting Bulletin 121 (SAB 121). FOX Business reporter Eleanor Terrett, who reported the news on June 4, said the bill will prohibit the SEC from using appropriated funds to implement the rule. Appropriations allow agencies to incur obligations and make payments from the US Treasury for set purposes. One policy rider in the budget states: “Prohibits the SEC from implementing or enforcing Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 121, which implements harmful digital asset requirements.” It is unclear whether the budget will succeed in its current form.…

House Speaker Mike Johnson showed up at court in Manhattan to support Donald Trump during the case that led to the former president’s conviction — a decision that he said he alone made one night at 10:15 p.m. during a fundraising trip to New York — but he stopped short of committing to some of Trump’s most vocal priorities during an appearance at the CNBC CEO Council Summit in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday: trade tariffs and mass deportations at the southern border.When asked by CNBC’s Eamon Javers at the event if he would support Trump’s call for 10% across-the-board tariffs,…

Steaks, cigars, booze, diplomats and pals – they were all on the menu at Sen. Bob Menendez’s frequent dinners at Morton’s The Steakhouse in Washington DC, according to two FBI investigators who testified Tuesday in the New Jersey Democrat’s federal corruption trial. FBI investigative specialist Terry Williams Thompson, who eavesdropped on one of the meals on May 21, 2019, told the court she heard a woman ask another unidentified diner, “What else can the love of my life do for you?” While it wasn’t clear to whom the question was directed, the implication was clear: Nadine Menendez, the senator’s wife,…

RM is slated to return to the charts in America in just a few hours. The BTS superstar’s new solo album Right Place, Wrong Person has been announced by Billboard as a sizable commercial win from the jump, and when the company refreshes its weekly tallies, the singer and dancer will appear on a number of them with the title. According to Billboard, Right Place, Wrong Person marks a new best showing in several ways for RM. Fans of the singer and BTS were quick to support the project, and all their purchases and streams have helped the title become…

Donald Trump’s legal team has asked for the judge who presided over his criminal hush-money trial to lift his gag order, which would give him a free hand to criticize witnesses and jurors in the trial.The former president has spent much of the six weeks of his criminal trial — which concluded Thursday with a thundering guilty verdict on all 34 counts — complaining about the gag.The order from New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan forbade Trump from saying anything about possible witnesses, staff members at the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, court staff, or any of their family members,…

Podcaster Lex Fridman said in a recent episode that most AI engineers he speaks with estimate between a one and 20% chance that artificial general intelligence will eventually kill off humans.The prediction varies depending on how you ask. For example, a recent study conducted with 2,700 AI researchers indicated there’s only a 5% chance that AI will lead to human extinction.But Fridman said it’s important to talk to people who estimate a much higher likelihood AI could wipe us out — like AI researcher Roman Yampolskiy, who told the podcaster in an interview released Sunday that he pegs it as…

By David Lawder WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Tuesday rejected suggestions by Republican senators that the Treasury is deliberately increasing issuance of short-term Treasury bills at higher interest rates to try to stimulate the economy ahead of the November presidential election. Yellen told a U.S. Senate subcommittee hearing that Treasury’s mix of debt issuance, despite a higher share of short-term bills since the COVID-19 pandemic, is in line with historical norms and with the advice of market participants in the Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee. “First of all, let me say that we never time the market.…

By Elizabeth Howcroft and Hannah Lang AMSTERDAM/NEW YORK (Reuters) – The president of U.S. crypto firm is “optimistic” that a lobbying push by the crypto industry will yield results in this year’s U.S. elections, after her company helped the industry lead a record fundraising haul to back political candidates who are crypto-friendly. San Francisco-based Ripple is the second-largest donor to Fairshake, a so-called super PAC, which has raised $92.9 million in a bid to influence the congressional elections in November in favor of the crypto industry, according to OpenSecrets, a research group that tracks influence in politics. Super PACs backed…