Author: Money Mechanics

Industry losses from the recent magnitude 6.8 earthquake that struck Kumamoto Prefecture are expected to be relatively lower than the devastating 2016 Kumamoto quakes, which caused US $53 billion in economic and $7.7 billion in insured losses, according to broking group Aon.Aon is the latest to provide an event report related to the magnitude 6.8 earthquake that struck the Kumamoto prefecture of Kyushu, Japan on July 28th. We recently reported that Euler ILS Partners, the Zurich-based specialist investment manager, had estimated that the insurance industry loss from this event could fall between US $3 billion and $4.5 billion.  In its…

LIUZHOU, CHINA – JULY 25: Robotic arms assemble auto parts at the workshop of Guangxi Liuzhou Zhuotong Auto Parts Co., Ltd. on July 25, 2026 in Liuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of China.He Huawen | Visual China Group | Getty ImagesChina’s factory activity unexpectedly contracted in July for the first time since February, as domestic orders slumped and typhoons disrupted production, while part of the front-loading momentum began to unwind, piling pressure on Beijing to boost domestic demand.The official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index fell to 49.2 from 50.3 in June, National Bureau of Statistics data showed Friday, dropping below the…

pros and cons Pros The Smartwings brand offers some of the best value for money in smart window treatments.Installation is easy, and the shades are simple to use.Lots of customization, and solar panels for recharging. Cons The shades give off a plastic smell in the room for the first three days after installation.There’s no way to manually control the shades if the battery dies unexpectedly. Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google.There’s nothing like having an “open sesame” moment when you wake up in the morning and your window shades automatically roll up. There are various ways to automate…

Bausch + Lomb (NYSE:BLCO) reported second-quarter 2026 revenue growth across its vision care, surgical and pharmaceutical businesses, while raising its full-year revenue and adjusted EBITDA outlook. The company said improved product mix, productivity initiatives and lower fixed-cost intensity supported margin expansion and stronger cash generation. Total second-quarter revenue was $1.394 billion, up 8% on a constant-currency basis. Foreign exchange provided an approximately $12 million revenue tailwind. Adjusted EBITDA increased 28% year over year on a reported basis to $246 million, while adjusted EBITDA margin rose 260 basis points to 17.6%. “Revenue growth and margin expansion are now also translating into…

I came across a video recently from personal injury attorney Mike Rafi that laid out one of the most blatant insurance fraud schemes I can remember seeing — minus the guy dressed in a gorilla suit tearing up a car.It’s called Operation Sideswipe, and if you’re wondering why, at least in part, your insurance premiums keep going up, this case is a pretty good place to start.Here’s what happened. Going back as far as 2011, a network of people called “slammers” would intentionally crash their vehicles into 18-wheelers. These were not accidents, you see. They were staged collisions, choreographed to…

Rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs’ planned release date from prison has been moved up by 12 weeks—just two weeks after the disgraced music mogul sold the Miami mansion he once put up for collateral in his failed bid for bail in his sex-trafficking case.Combs, 56, was found guilty on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution in July 2025 and was initially sentenced to 50 months in prison. That sentence was later extended by a month after he allegedly violated multiple rules while behind bars.In March, Page Six reported that the rapper’s release date had been pushed up from June…

The Federal Reserve’s July policymaking meeting ended with no interest-rate hikes nor forward guidance but with a boatload of Fed speak and word salad. Kevin Warsh insisted the Fed will still be able to lower inflation to its 2% target — a measure it has missed for five years — but didn’t say how.  He also wants U.S. households, businesses and investors to continue to be patient with the central bank. Meanwhile, markets stumbled after the Federal Open Market Committee voted 9-3 to hold benchmark short-term interest rates steady on July 29. The 30-year Treasury yield hit 5.2% and the…

Forget mortgage rates and property taxes—today’s home shoppers on Realtor.com® are sussing out the real dealbreakers. From suspected haunted listings to backyard chicken logistics, some buyers are ditching standard search terms and taking a delightfully quirky approach to house hunting.Home shoppers are bringing their unusual questions to RealAssist AI, a homebuying assistant tool built in collaboration with Google Gemini and Google Cloud. It’s designed to answer complex real estate questions in effortless, natural conversations.RealAssist guides consumers all the way through their questions, helps them explore properties, and connects them with local agents.Here is a look at the quirkiest questions users…

Anthropic said Thursday that an internal investigation uncovered three incidents in which its AI model Claude breached the systems of three organizations while conducting cybersecurity tests. The investigation, and disclosure, comes more than a week after OpenAI disclosed that one of its unreleased models breached Hugging Face’s systems during internal testing. In all three cases, a Claude model reached the internet from within a testing environment while interacting with a third party and then gained unauthorized access to the live systems of these organizations, Anthropic said in a blog post, describing what it found and what the company plans to…

(Oil & Gas 360) By Greg Barnett, MBA – In 1975, America responded to energy insecurity by storing oil underground.   Fifty years later, America may have responded to the same challenge in a very different way.  Not by abandoning the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.  By surrounding it with an energy system its creators could scarcely have imagined. That may sound like a bold claim. After all, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, or SPR, remains one of the most visible symbols of American energy security. Established by Congress in the aftermath of the 1973-74 Arab Oil Embargo, the reserve was created to reduce…