Financial Mindset

A leading U.S. health official on Sunday urged people to get inoculated against the measles at a time of  outbreaks across several states  and as the United States is at risk of losing its  measles elimination status . “Take the vaccine, please,” said  Dr. Mehmet Oz , the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator whose boss has raised  suspicion about the safety and importance of vaccines . “We have a solution for our problem.” Oz, a heart surgeon, defended some recently  revised federal vaccine recommendations  as well as past comments from President Donald Trump and the nation’s health chief, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., about the efficacy of vaccines. From Oz, there was a clear message on the measles. “Not all illnesses are equally dangerous and not all people are equally susceptible to those illnesses,” he told CNN’s “State of the Union.” “But measles is one you should get your vaccine.” An outbreak  in South Carolina in the hundr...

The Kremlin’s financial situation is becoming increasingly dire and could come to a head in a matter of months as oil revenue shrinks while President Vladimir Putin shows no intention of ending his war on Ukraine. Russian officials have been warning Putin with growing alarm that a financial crisis could hit by the summer, sources told the Washington Post . They pointed to weak oil revenue, which crashed by 50% in January from a year earlier, and a budget deficit that continues to widen, even after Putin hiked taxes on consumers. A Moscow business executive also told the Post that the crisis could arrive in “three or four months” amid spiraling inflation, adding that restaurants have been closing and thousands of workers are getting laid off. The economic strains go back to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine four years ago. As sanctions took hold and Putin mobilized the economy for a prolonged war, a tight labor market and high inflation forced the central bank to keep interest rates high...

Just two days after launching a copycat version Wegovy’s new weight-loss pill, Hims & Hers Health Inc. said it will stop selling the drug.  The announcement comes a day after the US Food and Drug Administration said it was cracking down on copycat weight-loss treatments, like those sold by Hims.  After having “constructive conversations with stakeholders,” Hims decided to stop offering the treatment, the company said in a  post  on X Saturday.  Hims on Thursday announced plans to sell a cheaper version of Novo Nordisk A/S’s new Wegovy weight-loss pill. The drugmaker, which is  pinning  its comeback on the new pill, called the move illegal and threatened to take action.  Analysts had hailed the new Wegovy pill as one of the most successful drug launches in recent years — a badly needed win for the company.  The next day, the FDA announced its investigation. The Department of Health and Human Services also said it referred Hims to th...

Recent data on the U.S. job market has flashed some worrying signs lately, but the construction industry sees greater demand for workers. The Associated Builders and Contractors trade group estimated in a report last month the industry will need to bring in 456,000 new workers in 2027, up 30.7% from the 349,000 needed this year. “Failing to do so will worsen labor shortages, especially in certain occupations and regions, placing further upward pressure on labor costs,” ABC Chief Economist Anirban Basu warned in a statement. But despite the AI infrastructure boom, the majority of new-worker demand this year is due to retirements instead of increased need for construction services, he added. This year’s forecast also marks a decline from previous years. Still, ABC said overall construction spending is poised to break a slump and return to growth for the first time in years. And according to its model, every additional $1 billion spent on construction translates to demand for 3,450 f...

President Donald Trump’s racist social media post featuring former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, as primates in a jungle was deleted Friday after a backlash from both Republicans and Democrats who criticized the video as offensive. The Republican president’s Thursday night post was blamed on a staffer after widespread backlash, from civil rights leaders to veteran Republican senators, for its treatment of the nation’s first Black president and first lady. A rare admission of a misstep by the White House, the deletion came hours after press secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed “fake outrage” over the post. After calls for its removal — including by Republicans — the White House said a staffer had posted the video erroneously. The post was part of a flurry of overnight activity on Trump’s Truth Social account that amplified his false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him, despite  courts around the country  and Trump’s first-term attorney gen...

Crypto prices got absolutely rocked this week with Bitcoin falling nearly $15,000 in 24 hours—a bloodbath not seen since the collapse of crypto conman Sam Bankman-Fried’s empire back in 2022. On Friday, Bitcoin had clawed back most of those losses, and is now trading around $70,000, but the episode has left even longtime crypto insiders asking each other “What just happened?!” There are plenty of theories swirling around, but one is particularly compelling: The cause of the crash lies with Hong Kong traders who placed high-leverage Bitcoin bets that went horribly wrong. That theory was put forth on X by Parker White, a former equities trader who is now COO at a crypto firm called DeFi Development Corporation. In a long thread, White said there is evidence pointing to the sudden implosion of Hong Kong hedge funds that held call options in BlackRock’s IBIT, which is the world’s biggest Bitcoin ETF. White suggests that the hedge funds used the Yen carry trade (a form of interest arbi...

The U.S. stock market roared back on Friday, as technology stocks recovered much of their losses from earlier in the week and bitcoin halted its plunge, at least for now. The S&P 500 rallied 2% for its best day since May. The Dow Jones Industrial Average soared 1,206 points, or 2.5%, and topped the 50,000 level for the first time, while the Nasdaq composite leaped 2.2%. Chip companies helped drive the widespread rally, and Nvidia jumped 7.8% to trim its loss for the week, which came into the day at just over 10%. Broadcom climbed 7.1% and erased its drop for the week. They were the two strongest forces lifting the S&P 500, and they benefited from hopes for continued spending by customers diving into artificial-intelligence technology. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, for example, said late Thursday it expects to  spend about $200 billion on investments  this year to take advantage of “seminal opportunities like AI, chips, robotics, and low earth orbit satellites.” Such ...