Author: Money Mechanics

(Oil Price) – Tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has collapsed by 90% to 95% compared to pre-war levels, analysts concur. Some oil cargoes continue to trickle through the critical chokepoint, but under increasingly opaque operating conditions, complicating the tracking of oil and gas flows and obscuring the visibility of how much energy supply actually reaches buyers these days. Traffic appears to have ramped up in recent weeks, according to an analysis of shipping data by Reuters energy columnist Ron Bousso. More vessels are leaving the region after passing the Strait of Hormuz in a dark mode with transponders switched off,…

The financial professionals who contribute to Kiplinger’s Adviser Intel are always here to make sure you have the information you need to make critical decisions about your retirement planning, estate planning and tax planning.Annuities are a regular topic. Because of their complexity, they’re often misunderstood.This quiz is designed to test what you’ve learned about annuities. Let’s see what you know! (And don’t worry if you miss an answer: You can follow the links below the quiz to brush up on your knowledge.) From just $107.88 $24.99 for Kiplinger Personal Finance Become a smarter, better informed investor. Subscribe from just $107.88…

Italian app studio Bending Spoons, which has acquired businesses like Eventbrite, Vimeo, and WeTransfer in recent years, has filed to go public in the U.S. The company joins other names like SpaceX and Anthropic that are preparing to IPO this summer. The company said it has over 500 million monthly active users across its apps, with 9 million paying customers. To date, it has made over 50 acquisitions, including AOL, Eventbrite, Vimeo, Komoot, WeTransfer, Evernote, and Brightcove. In its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Bending Spoons said it ended the year with $1.31 billion in revenue and has…

The Iran war delivered a curveball to investors in March. Energy prices surged, pushing inflation expectations and long-term interest rates higher. Forecasts for Federal Reserve interest rate cuts were lowered. Stock prices tumbled around the globe following a promising start to 2026.There is much riding on the length of the war and the extent and duration of the energy shock stemming from Iran’s near-closing of the Strait of Hormuz. Jeff Sherman, deputy chief investment officer of money management firm DoubleLine, notes that Treasury rates have marched higher even when some signs of a weakening economy at home would suggest a…

(Image credit: Getty Images)A client of mine, a woman in her 50s, lost her husband without warning. He had handled every financial detail for the family: The investments, the insurance, the bill payments.He managed it all through his work email on his work laptop. When he died, she lost access to their entire financial operating system overnight.She didn’t know which checking accounts were used to pay the bills or whether they were paid by auto-debit, bill pay or check. She didn’t know where the investments were or whether life insurance existed. She knew they were financially secure in a general…

(Image credit: Getty Images)Many closely held family-owned businesses don’t have well-architected succession plans.Children often choose to go in different directions, building lives outside the family business, and unaddressed succession issues can create uncertainty and family stress.Even when there are apparent successors — such as adult children who grew up in the business — there’s still a distinct need for open communication and careful planning. From just $107.88 $24.99 for Kiplinger Personal Finance Become a smarter, better informed investor. Subscribe from just $107.88 $24.99, plus get up to 4 Special Issues CLICK FOR FREE ISSUE Sign up for Kiplinger’s Free Newsletters…

To help you understand the trends surrounding business and technology and what we expect to happen in the future, our highly experienced Kiplinger Letter team will keep you abreast of the latest developments and forecasts. (Get a free issue of The Kiplinger Letter or subscribe.) You’ll get all the latest news first by subscribing, but we will publish many (but not all) of the forecasts a few days afterward online. Here’s the latest…When you think about Facebook, you don’t think about monthly subscription fees. Meta wants to change that with the upcoming launch of subscription plans.Diversifying revenue makes sense for…

(Image credit: Getty Images)”Running on Empty” is one of Jackson Browne’s most recognizable songs — a 1977 live recording that captured both the energy of the road and the toll it takes over time.A No. 11 hit on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 when it was released as a single, and it spent 17 weeks on the chart. Rolling Stone ranked it at No. 496 on its list of “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time” in 2010.The song draws on Browne’s real-life experiences. He lived close enough to the studio that he figured he could always make it without…

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Jeremy Grantham, 87, studied economics at the University of Sheffield and attained an MBA at Harvard Business School before entering the investment field in the 1960s. He cofounded GMO, a Boston-based global investment management firm with more than $78 billion under management, in 1977. Known as a contrarian investor with a deep value streak, Grantham is a member of GMO’s asset allocation team and serves as the firm’s long-term investment strategist. His book, The Making of a Permabear: The Perils of Long-term Investing in a Short-term World, was published in January. Here, Kiplinger speaks with Grantham about short-term patience, long-term…