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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...

-snip- Short of bringing up politics, it seems there's no surer way to start a fight than to take a stance on real estate as an investment. There are diehard believers on either side of the argument. Many people fervently believe that real estate is not just a good investment, but the best investment an average person can make. Meanwhile, many others point out that real estate is an illiquid asset that typically requires taking on a massive debt load to acquire — and between inflation and housing markets that can boom or bust at any time, earning a return...

About one-third of all municipal bonds issued in 2024 and outstanding through 2024 are from sanctuary jurisdictions, concentrated in large cities and states, such as California, New York, and Massachusetts...The absence of truly objective bond ratings or comprehensive risk assessments for sanctuary jurisdictions may place investors, particularly individual investors, who own a significant share of this market, at a disadvantage.

GENEVA (AP) — Swiss pharmaceuticals powerhouse Roche announced Tuesday it plans to invest $50 billion in the United States over the next five years, creating 12,000 jobs. The Basel-based company, whose array of products includes cancer medicines and multiple sclerosis treatment Ocrevus, said the investment would go toward high-tech research and development sites and new manufacturing facilities in places including California, Indiana, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. Some of the $50 billion in investments were already underway or planned for the next several years, Roche spokesperson Rebekka Schnell said in an e-mail, adding that the company was not specifying how much was...

IBM, one of the nation’s largest technology employers, announced Monday that it plans to invest $150 billion in the United States over the next five years, adding that the company is “focused on American jobs and manufacturing.” IBM revealed in a Monday press release that it “plans to invest $150 billion in America over the next five years to fuel the economy and to accelerate its role as the global leader in computing.” “This includes an investment of more than $30 billion in research and development to advance and continue IBM’s American manufacturing of mainframe and quantum computers,” the company...

The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note rose Monday as investors weighed concerns over tariffs and comments by President Donald Trump criticizing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield was 8 basis points higher at 4.401%. The 2-year Treasury yield was 1 basis point lower to 3.788%. One basis point is equal to 0.01%. Yields and prices move in opposite directions. The moves come after Trump on Friday levied another salvo at Powell for not lowering interest rates. The president vocalized his discontent with the Fed chair’s economic policy leadership during a question-and-answer session with reporters....

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - U.S. Treasuries extended heavy losses on Wednesday in a sign investors are selling even their safest assets as a global market rout unleashed by U.S. tariffs takes an unnerving turn towards distress and a dash for the safety of cash. "This is beyond fundamentals right now. This is about liquidity," said Jack Chambers, senior rates strategist at ANZ in Sydney. The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield, the globe's benchmark safe-haven anchor, was up 20 basis points and rising in Asia - a remarkable move in a time zone where it's usually fairly steady. At 4.46% the yield is...

Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz is seeking to raise about $20 billion in what will be the largest fund in its history, to capitalize on global investors' interest in backing U.S. artificial intelligence companies, sources told Reuters. The tech investment firm, known informally as a16z, has told limited partners that the fund will be dedicated to growth-stage investments in AI companies and draw upon global investors keen on investing in American companies, the sources said. The record fundraising and the goal of capitalizing on foreign investment interest in the U.S. tech industry come against the backdrop of a sweeping tariff...

TAIPEI, April 6 (Reuters) - Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te on Sunday offered zero tariffs as the basis for talks with the U.S., pledging to remove trade barriers rather than imposing reciprocal measures and saying Taiwanese companies will raise their U.S. investments. President Donald Trump announced across-the-board import tariffs on Wednesday, with much higher duties for dozens of trading partners, including Taiwan, which runs a large trade surplus with the U.S. and faces a 32% duty on its products. The U.S. tariffs, however, do not apply to semiconductors, a major Taiwanese export.