Author: News Room

Justice Elena Kagan on Thursday defended the code of conduct the Supreme Court created last year, but conceded there needs to be a way to enforce the rules for it to be more effective. “I think that the rules that we put out are good ones,” Kagan said at a judicial conference in Sacramento. “I think that the thing that can be criticized is, you know, rules usually have enforcement mechanisms attached to them. And this one, this set of rules does not.” After the Supreme Court came under intense scrutiny in 2023 following a series of blockbuster investigative pieces that turned a spotlight…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Rupert Murdoch has moved to hand control of his family trust to his eldest son, Lachlan, sparking a bitter legal war between his children that could determine the direction of two of the world’s most powerful media businesses.The 93-year-old media baron has sought to overhaul an irrevocable family trust to give Lachlan full control of its voting powers and decision-making after the patriarch’s death, according to three people familiar with the situation. Lachlan had already assumed the leadership of Fox and News…

This article was written byFollowSeeking Alpha’s transcripts team is responsible for the development of all of our transcript-related projects. We currently publish thousands of quarterly earnings calls per quarter on our site and are continuing to grow and expand our coverage. The purpose of this profile is to allow us to share with our readers new transcript-related developments. Thanks, SA Transcripts Team Read the full article here

OpenAI on Thursday announced its most direct threat yet to its stalwart Big Tech rivals: a search engine that uses artificial intelligence baked in from the beginning. The company is testing SearchGPT, which will combine its AI technology with real-time information from the web to allow people to search for information in the same way they talk to ChatGPT. While the search engine is currently in an early test for a limited number of users, OpenAI said it plans to integrate the tools into ChatGPT in the future. With the new feature, OpenAI will be directly competing with Google, which…

After weeks of hitting new highs, the S&P 500 index on Wednesday suffered its worst trading session since 2022.The market broadly began to recover Thursday amid a sell-off in technology stocks. Experts say those stock moves and shuffling sectors are common during a bull market.But Bank of America is calling today’s conditions something else — a buffalo market — which is still in the bull family. But unlike the bull market, it may get tired after a strong runup.”It might roam, it might wander in the summer months,” said Marci McGregor, head of portfolio strategy at Merrill and Bank of…

De facto Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris said Thursday she is “ready to debate” her Republican rival, former President Donald Trump.”I think that voters deserve to see the split screen that exists in this race on a debate stage, and so I’m ready,” Harris told reporters on an airport tarmac outside Washington. “Let’s go.”Harris, the vice president, said that she has agreed to face off with Trump on Sept. 10. ABC News had been scheduled to hold a debate on that date with Trump and President Joe Biden, who withdrew from the race on Sunday.”Now it appears he’s backpedaling,” Harris…

A growing number of Americans are falling behind on their monthly credit card payments as they continue to battle high inflation and interest rates. New data published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia shows that credit card delinquency rates in the first quarter of 2024 rose to the highest level since 2012, when the Fed began tracking the data. All stages of credit card delinquency — 30, 60 and 90 days past due — rose during the first three months of the year.The proportion of card balances that were more than 60 days past due at the end of…

National debts have increased by a substantial amount in the last 20 years, but none by as much as student loans. Since 2003, student loan debt has increased by 430%, according to a study by the Kaplan Group. Although student loan debts have stabilized in the last few years, levels remain staggeringly high. Debt in general grew by 81.5% during the same time period. Student loans led the pack, followed by auto loans, which grew by 91% in 20 years. Mortgages followed close behind, rising by 80% since 2003. Credit card debt also grew, but not by nearly as much…

Mortgage rates remained relatively unchanged from last week, with a slight movement higher.  Freddie Mac’s latest Primary Mortgage Market Survey, released Thursday, showed that the average rate on the benchmark 30-year fixed mortgage increased to 6.78% this week from 6.77% last week. The average rate on a 30-year loan was 6.81% a year ago.”Mortgage rates essentially remained flat from last week but have decreased nearly half a percent from their peak earlier this year,” said Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. “Despite these lower rates, buyers continue to pause, as reflected in tumbling new and existing home sales data.” The average…

Fe deral Agency Regulations on Ambiguous Laws No Longer Get Deference A recent Supreme Court case will change the dynamic of key aspects of tax planning, including estate tax planning: Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, 603 U.S. ___ (2024). There was also a companion case, Relentless v. Department of Commerce. As Ed Sullivan would say, this is “a really big show.” While this may all seem a bit nuanced and technical, it could be valuable to understand how the tax ground rules have just changed. Courts no longer must defer to the interpretation of ambiguous laws by governmental agencies. If…