Free Republic

SpaceX plans to go public at $1.5 trillion valuation in 2026, the largest IPO in history, Bloomberg reports

Vanguard is going to allow bitcoin and crypto-linked exchange-traded funds and mutual funds to trade on its platform. Vanguard Group will allow bitcoin and crypto-linked exchange-traded funds and mutual funds to trade on its platform, reversing a policy that for years barred retail clients from accessing digital-asset products through the firm. Starting Tuesday, Vanguard brokerage customers will be able to trade ETFs and mutual funds that primarily hold select cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and other crypto, according to Bloomberg reporting. The move marks a shift for the world’s second-largest asset manager, which has long argued that digital assets were too volatile...

In his second term, President Donald Trump certainly hasn’t been afraid to go bold — and now it could be the stock market’s turn. The slate of reforms under consideration could be the biggest positive development for our financial markets since the early days of the Reagan administration, if not since the creation of the federal securities laws themselves. It could also finally put the brakes on the rise of “woke capital.” For years, political activists have been using America’s biggest corporations as vehicles for their social agenda. They call it “ESG” — environmental, social and governance investing — but...

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman committed his country to increasing his planned investment into the U.S. economy to nearly $1 trillion over the next year on Tuesday. MBS made the announcement while meeting with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office, saying the investments will take place across the U.S. economy. Trump initially stated that the investment would amount to "at least" $600 billion, but the Saudi leader confirmed the higher amount during his remarks. “Today and tomorrow, we are going to announce that we are going to increase that, that $600 billion to almost $1 trillion of investment,...

China’s economy continues to drag as fresh October data shows weakening momentum across consumer spending, industrial output and fixed-asset investment. The latest numbers point to one of the steepest investment declines China has seen in decades, raising new concerns about the durability of Beijing’s recovery hopes and what the slowdown means for global markets. China’s October Data Shows Broad Softening Across the EconomyNew figures from the National Bureau of Statistics reveal that key engines of China’s economy decelerated again in October.Retail and Production Lose Momentum• Retail sales rose 2.9 percent year over year in October. This is down from the...

Kansas City Chiefs star (and Taylor Swift’s fiancé) Travis Kelce is getting into the activist investing business. The NFL athlete, podcast host and burgeoning actor joined the activist investment firm Jana Partners in a bid to seek an overhaul of Six Flags, the theme park company that owns Knott’s Berry Farm, Cedar Point and Six Flags amusement parks across the country. Jana disclosed that it now holds approximately 9 percent of Six Flags shares, alongside Kelce, former Gap CEO Glenn Murphy and tech executive and former J.D. Power CEO Dave Habiger. The firm says it plans “to engage with the...

People are turning to AI chatbots for anything from writing emails to planning holidays. But can they be trusted with our finances? A few months ago, a fellow journalist asked me: “Do you invest? Do you think you will be able to retire with a million dollars?” Thinking back on the mild heart-stopping fluctuations I'd seen in my portfolio amid tariff uncertainties, I replied that I wasn’t sure. He suggested I get some feedback from ChatGPT. Unfazed by the skeptical look I gave, he persisted. “Try feeding (it) your portfolio and see what it says.” I was intrigued, and later...

U.S. President Donald Trump has been on a multimillion-dollar bond-buying spree since taking office in January, investing in debt issued by local authorities, gas districts and major American corporations. Across 33 pages of filings with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, or OGE, dated Aug. 12, the president outlined 690 transactions that have taken place since he took office. The documents were made public on Tuesday. According to CNBC calculations, the purchases had a total value of at least $100 million, assuming the lower value end listed for each disclosed transaction. By law, the U.S. president, vice president and other...

The return of a pro-energy Republican to the White House has corresponded with the bursting of the “ESG” bubble. ESG stands for “environmental, social, and governance,” and ESG funds invest with those principles in mind, not merely to maximize shareholder returns. Through the first quarter of 2025, U.S. ESG funds have seen ten consecutive quarters of net capital outflows. That’s a promising start, but we need to stay vigilant—ESG activism reduces economic growth, shrinks our tax base, and weakens our national security. ESG funds do more than just invest in companies that meet environmental, social, and governance goals. They often...

"People shouldn’t come to Washington to get rich, they should come to serve the American people," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is calling for a single-stock trading ban in Congress.“I am going to start pushing for a single-stock trading ban, because it is the credibility of the House and the Senate, that you look at some of these eye-popping returns – whether it is Rep. Pelosi, Senator Wyden – every hedge fund would be jealous of them. And the American people deserve better than this,” Bessent told Bloomberg TV on Wednesday.Nancy Pelosi, of California, and...

U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday that aims to allow private equity, real estate, cryptocurrency, and other alternative assets in 401(k) retirement accounts. The order smoothes the way for private equity and other fund managers to tap into trillions of dollars of Americans' retirement savings. It could open up a vast new funding source to managers of alternative assets outside of stocks, bonds, and cash, though critics say it also could bring too much risk into retirement investments. "The Securities and Exchange Commission must consider ways to facilitate access to alternative asset investments by participants in...

GOP senators sparred with fellow Republican Josh Hawley on Wednesday over a Hawley-authored bill that would ban trading and ownership of stocks and certain other assets by lawmakers, the president and vice president and their spouses and dependent children. The Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee approved the bill on a slim 8-7 vote after earlier adopting a Hawley substitute amendment that extended the prohibitions beyond just members of Congress, reaching into the Oval Office. The compromise amendment would give officials elected before the date of enactment until after their current term to divest their assets. So President Donald Trump...

A Silicon Valley startup claims it can turn mercury into gold. San Francisco, California-based Marathon Fusion is proposing a process that uses nuclear fusion to turn mercury into gold — something that has been sought by people for thousands of years. "Unlike previous attempts, our method is massively scalable, pragmatically achievable, and economically irresistible," Marathon Fusion said on its website. "Using our approach, power plants can generate five thousand kilograms of gold per year, per gigawatt of electricity generation (~2.5 GWth), without any compromise to fuel self-sufficiency or power output." In a Cornell University scientific paper submitted July 17, Marathon...

2.10 Gold Certificate Account (110-025) The Secretary of the Treasury is authorized to issue gold certificates to the Reserve Banks to monetize gold held by the U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury). At any time, Treasury may reacquire the gold certificates by demonetizing the gold. Treasury maintains an account with the Board of Governors entitled "Gold certificate fund—Board of Governors of the FR System." When the Treasury monetizes gold, it credits this account in return for deposit credit at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (FRBNY). When demonetizing gold, Treasury decreases the account and authorizes the FRBNY to charge...

What Happened: According to an iShares MSCI World ETF (NYSE:URTH) chart, tracking the MSCI World Index shared by Barchart, global stocks have formed a “Golden Cross” for the first time since January 2023.

BlackRock, a U.S. investment firm, suspended work on a multibillion-dollar Ukraine recovery fund following U.S. President Donald Trump's election victory, prompting France to work on a replacement, Bloomberg reported on July 5.The plan nearly secured the initial support of institutions backed by the governments of Germany, Italy, and Poland, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.Kyiv has sought to secure investment in Ukraine's reconstruction as Russia's war continues to destroy infrastructure across the country.BlackRock halted its search for institutional investors in January, causing the planned funding that sought to secure $500 million from governments, development grants, and investment banks, and...

She might be the She-Wolf of Wall Street. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-California) raked in between $7.8 and $42.5 million in 2024 — meaning her estimated net worth with venture capitalist hubby Paul Pelosi could now top out at $413 million, new financial disclosures showed. *** The former House Speaker, who’s so infamous for trading Missouri Rep. Josh Hawley named a bill after her, and her husband dumped 5,000 shares of Microsoft stock worth an estimated $2.2 million in July — one of their largest sales in three years — a few short months before the FTC announced an antitrust investigation...

Whether they’re doing it on purpose or out of just plain ineptitude, Illinois’ political leaders have been slowly destroying this state. More recently, they’ve moved into overdrive.What we’re talking about is all the wealth the state is giving up by pushing out wealthier taxpayers and inviting less wealthy people in. Not to mention the flood of illegal immigrants that have been “welcomed” to Illinois, many fully dependent on the state.Not only is Illinois a net loser of people to other states, but the people leaving Illinois make far more than the people coming into Illinois, making things even worse.The taxpayers...

Texas is slated to capture a massive chunk of a $60 billion semiconductor investment by Texas Instruments, and plants in Sherman and Richardson are poised to get the lion's share of the spending. Dallas-based TI (Nasdaq: TXN) revealed June 18 it has committed more than $60 billion across three semiconductor complexes in Richardson and Sherman, Texas, and Levi, Utah. The funding appears to be the largest semiconductor investment in the U.S. and would support more than 60,000 jobs across the country. The company has dedicated about $40 billion of the investment to its Sherman campus, $6 billion to its Richardson...

President Donald Trump’s tariffs on imported cars have yielded yet another win for the American auto industry as Volkswagen plans a “massive” investment in the United States to avoid such duty costs. In April, Trump announced 25 percent tariffs on auto imports to protect the nation’s auto workers and industry from unfair competition. Volkswagen, as a result, has entered negotiations with the Trump administration, reportedly resulting in plans for a large investment in the U.S. auto industry, according to The Guardian: Volkswagen, Europe’s largest industrial group, has said it will make a “massive” investment in the US. The group, which...