Author: Money Mechanics

A family from New York City has agreed to pay $47 million for a penthouse at the under-construction St. Regis Residences in the heart of Miami’s Brickell financial district, where they will count billionaire Ken Griffin among their neighbors.The sale price is one of the highest ever recorded for a condominium in Brickell, falling just short of the $49.9 million record set in March by a pair of duplex penthouses at the yet-to-be-built Residences at Mandarin Oriental. Sitting along Brickell Avenue overlooking Biscayne Bay, the St. Regis-branded 50-story condominium tower is scheduled for completion at the end of 2027.Co-developed by…

In-brief analysis July 31, 2026 Data source: China General Administration of Customs, Bloomberg L.P. China, the world’s largest importer of crude oil, imported less crude oil in the second quarter of 2026 (2Q26) following higher crude oil prices that resulted from disrupted flows through the Strait of Hormuz. China’s lower imports reduced global demand, softening the upward price effects from the disrupted supply through the strait. Monthly data from China’s General Administration of Customs indicate that China imported just 8.1 million barrels per day (b/d) of crude oil in 2Q26, 32%…

Much has been made of the incident in which one of OpenAI’s agents broke out of its sandboxed test environment and proceeded to hack the AI hosting platform Hugging Face. OpenAI has since launched an investigation into how the incident occurred, which is still ongoing. Now, anonymous sources have told Reuters that more of OpenAI’s agents are believed to have escaped their sandboxes. However, one source downplayed the severity, saying that with those escapes, the agents didn’t appear to leave OpenAI’s network to hack into another company’s. TechCrunch reached out to OpenAI for more information. AI programs acting in bizarre…

The Role of Tax Efficiency in Retirement PlanninggettyAs you approach or enter retirement, most investors focus on how their money is invested. While choosing the right mix of stocks, bonds, and cash is important, where those investments are held can be just as valuable. This concept, known as asset location, is a powerful way to increase tax-efficiency in one’s overall investment portfolio without increasing investment risk. Asset location involves placing investments into the account types where they are generally the most tax-efficient. Many retirees own assets across taxable brokerage accounts, traditional IRAs or 401(k)s, and Roth IRAs. Although these accounts…

To see our latest updates on the Nancy Guthrie case, please click here.Nearly six months after “Today” host Savannah Guthrie’s mother Nancy Guthrie vanished from her Tucson, AZ, home, the Pima County Sheriff’s Office released two ransom notes, the second of which claimed that the missing woman had died. The brief letters were made public on Friday for the first time by investigators in hopes of generating fresh tips in the high-profile disappearance case. The first note, addressed to “Dear Savannah” and sent on February 1—a day after Nancy was taken from her Catalina Foothills home. It was written by someone claiming to…

When it comes to big bank stocks for the long haul, no one beats JPMorgan Chase (JPM). Under the leadership of CEO Jamie Dimon, JPM has outperformed peers — and the broader market — even as it navigated the great financial crisis and a worldwide pandemic.Dimon, who was named CEO at the end of 2005, spent the early years of his tenure getting the nation’s largest bank by assets ready for the storm. While competitors were leveraging up on subprime mortgage-backed securities, Dimon ordered JPM to reduce its exposure. The conservative, and even contrarian, approach to risk management paid off.When…

Stocks were volatile Friday as market participants weighed mixed reactions to a pair of Big Tech earnings reports and surging Treasury yields. The main equity indexes finished the session higher, though, and snapped their weekly losing streaks.At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.5% at 52,485, the broader S&P 500 was 0.7% higher at 7,489, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite had gained 1.0% to 25,373.But stocks’ gains were contained as borrowing costs continued to climb. The 2-year Treasury yield jumped 4.1 basis points to 4.27%, while yields on the 10-year Treasury (+4.9 basis points to 4.712%) and…

Wondering how to get cheap life insurance? It may be easier than you think. A new study by LIMRA found that adults under age 30 overestimate the cost of life insurance by 10 to 12 times more than it actually costs.  The reality is, some healthy adults could get affordable life insurance for about what they’d spend on a streaming subscription each month. The trick lies in buying coverage while you’re young, choosing term life insurance over permanent coverage when appropriate, and comparing quotes from several insurers before making a decision.  What cheap life insurance actually means For most people,…

Please enable JavaScript if it is disabled in your browser or access the information through the links provided below. July 31, 2026 Federal Reserve Board requests comment on a proposal to modernize its rule governing the extension of credit to bank “insiders”—bank executives, board members and major shareholders who could potentially influence a bank’s lending decisions For release at 10:00 a.m. EDT The Federal Reserve Board on Friday requested comment on a proposal to modernize its rule governing the extension of credit to bank “insiders”—bank executives, board members and major shareholders who…

Please enable JavaScript if it is disabled in your browser or access the information through the links provided below. July 31, 2026 Federal Reserve Board requests comment on a proposal to modernize rules for mutual banking organizations For release at 10:00 a.m. EDT The Federal Reserve Board on Friday requested comment on a proposal to modernize rules for mutual banking organizations. These institutions are owned by depositors rather than shareholders, and more than 90 percent have less than $3 billion in total assets. The Board assumed regulatory and supervisory authority over mutual…