“Most mornings I learn more from New Items than I do from all of the traditional papers I read combined.” — Michael Blair, former presiding partner, Debevoise & Plimpton.
1. In the first half of this year, the Trump Organization’s income soared 17-fold to $864 million from $51 million a year earlier, according to Reuters calculations based on the president’s official disclosures, property records, financial records released in court cases, crypto trade information and other sources. Of the first-half total, $802 million – more than 90% – came from Trump crypto ventures, including sales of World Liberty tokens. That $864 million payday represents actual income – cash flowing, free and clear, into Trump family coffers. Reuters’ calculations were reviewed by half a dozen crypto and real estate experts and a certified accountant who has studied the U.S. Internal Revenue Service’s approach to crypto. The Trumps’ first-half crypto income dwarfed what the family earned from its traditional businesses – $33 million from the president’s golf clubs and resorts and $23 million for licensing his name to overseas real estate developers, according to the Reuters estimates. More than half the Trumps’ income – $463 million – came from sales of World Liberty tokens alone, including up to $75 million from Aqua1’s token purchase. On its website, World Liberty says a Trump Organization entity receives 75% of the revenue from the token sales through its association with World Liberty. (Source: reuters.com)
2. One of the oldest payments networks is stepping into the digital age. Western Union, which built the first transcontinental telegraph line in 1861, plans to launch a dollar-backed stablecoin to let its 100 million customers send money internationally detached from local currency fluctuations and risks. Dubbed the U.S. Dollar Payment Token, or USDPT, the stablecoin will be built on the Solana blockchain and issued by Anchorage Digital Bank. The digital token is expected to launch in the first half of 2026, and customers will be able to access it through Western Union’s partner exchanges. (Source: wsj.com)
3. John Authers:
The best-known long-term measure of stock market value is the cyclically adjusted price-earnings multiple (CAPE), popularized by Yale University’s Robert Shiller. Substituting Tuesday’s close into Shiller’s spreadsheet, which is public, delivers a CAPE above 40 for the first time since the dot-com bubble burst in 2000. It never got close to that level over the preceding century, even on the eve of the 1929 Great Crash:
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