Author: Money Mechanics

(Oil & Gas 360) By Greg Barnett, MBA – Texas has LNG export terminals. Louisiana has many. The United States is now the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas. Mississippi, despite its Gulf Coast location and long history with energy infrastructure, has none. At first glance, that absence appears anomalous. Mississippi sits between two LNG powerhouses, has access to major interstate natural gas pipelines, maintains an industrial coastline, and operates in a regulatory environment that has traditionally welcomed large‑scale energy development. Yet no LNG export plant operates within its borders today. The reason is not regulatory rejection, political opposition, or…

Homeowner associations are more common than ever, but when developers are unwilling or unable to hand over control to residents, troubling issues can arise. The share of homes for sale in the U.S. that were subject to HOA fees reached 43.6% in 2025, up from 34.3% in 2019, according to recent data from Realtor.com®. The median HOA fee was $135, up from $108 in 2019. But with more HOAs come more potential nightmares—like the one homeowners in North Charleston, SC, are currently grappling with. Residents of Magnolia Pointe, a 54-home subdivision, told The Post and Courier that they have been…

There’s a phrase that doesn’t come up often in defense contractor earnings calls: “golden opportunity.” It’s the kind of language that gets people’s attention. Lockheed Martin (LMT) CEO Jim Taiclet used it anyway. Speaking to investors on the company’s first-quarter 2026 earnings call Thursday, April 23, Taiclet did not attempt to be subtle about what the current political environment means for the world’s largest defense contractor. With the Iran war driving Pentagon spending, a Trump administration that has requested a record $1.5 trillion defense budget, and a Defense Department leadership openly willing to restructure how it does business with contractors,…

The Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) first catastrophe bond offerings have now been successfully priced in the market, with the result being a $160 million capital market-backed source of parametric earthquake and extreme precipitation disaster risk financing, evenly split between the Kyrgyz Republic and Tajikistan.It’s an important first step in the catastrophe bond market for the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and its member countries, as the multilateral development bank has now proven the concept of issuing what it has termed Disaster Relief Bonds (DRB) to benefit two of its members, securing efficient disaster risk financing from institutional and insurance-linked securities (ILS)…

Jada Jones/ZDNETFollow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google.Sony’s headphones are among the best on the market, delivering exceptional sound, noise cancellation, and software features before entering the high-end headphone segment. What I appreciate most about Sony is that its products offer considerable customization, allowing you ample opportunities to tweak the headphones to your liking down to a granular level.Also: Sony WH-1000XM6 vs. Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2: How I’d justify spending $300 more for headphonesHowever, if you don’t know what you’re looking for, Sony’s feature list can feel like a foreign language. Here are the tips and tricks I’ve…

An oceanfront Florida Keys estate that boasts nearly every over-the-top amenity imaginable has recently hit the market for the sky-high price of $24.99 million—complete with a veritable playground of features that were designed to awe, delight, and entertain.Built in 2023, the seven-bedroom Islamorada, FL, megamansion was designed to accommodate up to 14 guests—offering a spread of bedrooms, as well as an abundance of unique living spaces, including a private Baccarat ballroom. Occupying nearly nearly 2 acres of land between Miami and Key West, the property, which is listed with Pamela Dimartino of Coldwell Banker Realty, also has its own private…

Scott Bessent’s ability to provide dollar swap lines for allies in Asia and the Gulf could be constrained by the limited firepower of the Treasury facility at his command, analysts have warned. While the Federal Reserve has no formal ceiling on the amount of dollars it can provide to foreign central banks, the US Treasury’s own capacity to do so is far more limited. The Treasury secretary said on Wednesday that several countries in Asia and the Gulf, including the United Arab Emirates, had asked him for swap lines as a backstop to help support renewed demand for the US currency —…

In a recent experiment, Anthropic created a classified marketplace where AI agents represented both buyers and sellers, striking real deals for real goods and real money. The company admitted this test — which it called Project Deal — was only “a pilot experiment with a self-selected participant pool” of 69 Anthropic employees who were given a budget of $100 (paid out via gift cards) to buy stuff from their coworkers. Nonetheless, Anthropic said it was “struck by how well Project Deal worked,” with 186 deals made, totaling more than $4,000 in value. The company said it actually ran four separate…

(Oil Price)  – Giant oilfield services company, Baker Hughes (NYSE:BKR), has reported robust first quarter results, with Q1 2026 revenue of $6.59B (+2.5% Y/Y) beating by $260 million; Q1 non-GAAP EPS of $0.58 beat by $0.09 while adjusted net income of $573 million was good for 12% Y/Y increase. The growth was mainly driven by the Industrial & Energy Technology (IET) segment, where orders surged on demand for LNG and gas equipment offset weakness in Oilfield Services caused by Middle East disruptions.While earnings beat expectations, drilling activity was impacted by Middle East tensions, similar to challenges flagged by peers SLB (NYSE:SLB) and Halliburton (NYSE:HAL). The IET segment posted revenue…

Open safety deposit box with ostrich egg inside(Image credit: Getty Images)This year has given investors plenty of reasons to feel uneasy: The war in Iran, tariffs disrupting global trade and growing unease about the impact of artificial intelligence. In moments like these, it can feel as if investors need to do something, anything, to protect their nest egg. But that reaction can make a tough situation worse.”The biggest mistake investors make is assuming they need to react to every headline,” says Julian Morris, a financial planner in Boston. “A well-built plan is designed to handle uncertainty, not follow the news…