Bitcoin soars past $40,000 on optimism for US trading approval

Chart showing Bitcoin price changes since 2020. (Photo by Nicholas SHEARMAN / AFP) Bitcoin on Monday rose past $40,000 for the first time since May last year, boosted by hopes that the United States will soon allow broader trading of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency. The digital asset has skyrocketed this year, gaining nearly 150 percent, … Read more

Spotify says will cut staff by ‘approximately 17%’

Music streaming giant Spotify said Monday it will reduce the number of its employees by around 17% in a bid to cut costs amid “dramatically” slower economic growth. Spotify in October posted a rare quarterly operating profit of 32 million euros, compared to a loss of 228 million for the same period a year earlier, … Read more

Dimon: Working Class Should Support Neocons

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon believes Americans should be upset about their economic status, and does not understand why there is not more outrage. The billionaire in charge of the nation’s largest bank believes that electing Donald Trump in 2024 would be the worst financial decision for the working class. Why? Well, Trump has made … Read more

Russian army snaps up Chinese off-road buggies popular in US

Russia’s military has bought hundreds of Chinese all-terrain vehicles popular in the US, in a move that risks heightening tensions between the west and Beijing over President Xi Jinping’s tacit backing for Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Russia’s purchases open up the buggy manufacturer Shandong Odes Industry to retaliation from authorities in the US, where the … Read more

Corporate dilemmas at Dubai climate talks

DUBAI: They call the giant climate business expo running outside the COP28 United Nations talks in Dubai the “green zone.” With the enormous former Expo 2020 site given over to green — and not so green — companies to trumpet their climate credentials, the private sector has never been embraced so warmly at a climate … Read more

Digital IDs Ramping Up In Australia

Australian federal Finance Minister, Senator Katy Gallagher, has introduced legislation for a national digital ID. The new program aims to create a single platform that unites a person’s identification documents and connects it with government services such as myGov, Centrelink, and the Australian Tax Office. The government claims that the digital ID will have strong … Read more

EU budget row threatens €50bn Ukraine fund

Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the World myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. This article is an on-site version of our FirstFT newsletter. Sign up to our Asia, Europe/Africa or Americas edition to get it sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning EU leaders risk leaving Ukraine empty-handed … Read more

GOCC subsidies much lower at P9.2B in Oct

SUBSIDIES to government-owned and -controlled corporations (GOCCs) plunged in October from a month earlier, Treasury bureau data showed. Based on the agency’s latest cash operations report, the GOCC budgetary support of P9.19 billion for the month was 56.7 percent lower than September’s P21.26 billion. Year-on-year it was nearly 78 percent less than October 2022’s P39.9 … Read more

Beware The 8th Decade | Armstrong Economics

  QUESTION #1: Marty, I watched Kim Inverson on the 8th decade of Israel and the legion that it will fall. There is nobody more qualified than you to speak on this subject. What do you think? Rob QUESTION #2: Hello, Ever hear of the Curse of the 8th Decade? It deals with Israel and … Read more