Author: Money Mechanics

A recent survey of insurance-linked securities (ILS) investors conducted by reinsurance broker Gallagher Re and Gallagher Securities reveals a notable rise in market appetite for 2026. The findings indicate that a clear majority of both specialist and generalist allocators intend to expand their exposure to insurance-related assets over the next two years.Furthermore, as ILS investors adopt more sophisticated strategies, data from the survey also shows that almost none currently plan to reduce their positions in the sector. In a recent article authored by Jason Bolding, global head of ILS at Gallagher Re, and Ben Lyon, CEO of Gallagher Securities UK…

Vertigo3d/E+/Getty Images Plus via Getty ImagesFollow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google.ZDNET’s key takeawaysAdoption of agentic AI in government is now a leadership mandate. 82% of government organizations have already adopted AI agents.71% of government agencies plan to increase use of agentic AI in 2026-2027According to IDC research focused on public-sector readiness, agentic AI is no longer in the experimental phase for government; it is a leadership mandate.IDC finds that while many government agencies are implementing agent-driven workflows, few have moved beyond pilots. The rate of agentic AI adoption in government is due to several factors:Budgetary pressuresSovereignty and compliance,…

Real estate, housing, investment concept with house in nest made of US DollarsgettyA mortgage is a government-subsidized forced savings plan — not the wealth machine Wall Street and policymakers want you to believe it is (and what they themselves might mistakenly believe it is). According to the Fed, the median value of a home minus the mortgage was about $130,000 for a household reaching retirement age — 55 to 64 in — 1989. A little over thirty years later, the same group had more home equity, about $200,000, if they had a house — and 28% didn’t. But even though…

Following two consecutive years of steady growth, New York City saw its overall population shrink in 2025, fueled by an exodus of local residents across all income brackets. A new study from the Citizens Budget Commission, a nonprofit civic think tank, shows that the Big Apple’s net population, accounting for all gains (through births and in-migration) and losses (through deaths and out-migration), dropped by 12,000 last year.    This decline comes on the heels of strong post-pandemic gains, which saw the city’s overall population swell by 70,000 in 2023 and 163,000 in 2024, mostly driven by an influx of migrants and asylum…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The British driving services group RAC is targeting an initial public offering towards the end of the year, prolonging London’s listing drought as volatile markets dash hopes for a wave of IPOs before the summer.The RAC, which is backed by private equity groups and is targeting a roughly £5bn valuation, had been preparing for an IPO as soon as the first half of this year. However, the group is now working towards a post-summer timeline, with a flotation most likely in the…

Almost as soon as OpenAI announced that its major investor and cloud partner, Microsoft, no longer has exclusive rights to any of its products, Amazon started gloating. After the revised OpenAI/Microsoft agreement was announced on Monday, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy noted in a tweet that it was a “very interesting announcement.” That agreement solved OpenAI’s problem of allowing AWS to offer its products, an issue that crystalized after it signed an up-to-$50-billion deal with Amazon. Amazon announced on Tuesday that AWS’s Bedrock service now has OpenAI’s latest models, its code-writing service Codex, and a new product for creating OpenAI-powered AI agents. Bedrock…

Real estate, housing, investment concept with house in nest made of US DollarsgettyA mortgage is a government-subsidized forced savings plan — not the wealth machine Wall Street and policy makers want you to believe it is (and what they, themselves, might mistakenly believe the house is). According to the FED, median value of a home minus the mortgage was about $130K for a household reaching the age of retirement – 55- 64 in 1989. A bit over thirty years later, the same group had more home equity $200K, if they had a house and 28% didn’t. But, though home equity…

(Image credit: Getty Images)Not even blue-chip strength could lift the oldest of the three main U.S. equity indexes into the green on Tuesday, and technology dragged on the relative newcomers amid questions about the durability of the market’s major trend. A big earnings season is unfolding, the April Fed meeting is underway, and the bottleneck at the Strait of Hormuz is unresolved.At the closing bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.06% at 49,136, the broad-based S&P 500 had lost 0.5% to 7,138 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite had shed 0.9% to 24,663.That’s despite good fundamentals. “We have a…

Tech scion Elon Musk is using his social media megaphone to call for universal high income (UHI)—a radical evolution of universal basic income (UBI) meant to counter the much-feared white-collar job reckoning brought on by AI.“Universal HIGH INCOME via checks issued by the Federal government is the best way to deal with unemployment caused by AI,” Musk wrote in a post on X earlier this month.His proposal arrives during the largest wave of tech layoffs since 2023. In April alone, Meta announced a 10% cut to its workforce to prioritize AI investments, while Snap cut roughly 1,000 jobs to reduce…

Homeowners insurance generally doesn’t cover mold issues unless they result from a covered peril on your policy, such as water damage from a burst pipe or overflowing toilet. However, exact coverage depends on the terms and conditions of your plan. Auto When does homeowners insurance cover mold? It depends on your policy, but a standard homeowners insurance plan will usually only cover mold issues if they’re related to covered perils. In many cases, these are sudden, unexpected, or accidental events, such as: Burst pipes Burst water heaters Overflowing toilets Home fires that are put out with water Malfunctions of air…