Currency
Ethereum developer Virgil Griffith has pleaded guilty to a federal charge that he conspired with North Korea to violate United States sanctions law.
On Monday, Griffith pleaded guilty in New York to conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which forbids U.S. citizens from exporting technology and intellectual property to communist countries. As part of the plea deal, Griffith could face up to six-and-a-half years in prison. Formal sentencing is expected to commence in January 2022.
Virgil, who served as senior researcher for the Ethereum Foundation, was arrested in November 2019 after attending a conference in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang earlier in the year. Prosecutors allege that the developer gave a presentation on how to launder money and evade sanctions using blockchain technology…read more.
Global fuel demand is expected to reach pre-pandemic levels by early next year as the economy shrugs off pandemic woes, but spare refining capacity is likely to weigh on outlook, oil producers and traders said on Monday.
While a persistent rise in COVID-19 infections in several markets has hurt recovery in demand for some refined products such as jet fuel, consumption trends of petrol and diesel indicate higher growth, the industry leaders said.
They were speaking at the Platts APPEC 2021 conference that is being held in a hybrid format this year, including both in-person and virtual participants.
“We saw refining margins rebound as demand rebounded… But overall for the world, there’s still a lot of unutilised capacity and a lot of capacity has been taken off stream,” said Eugene Leong, president of BP Singapore and CEO of BP’s trading & shipping arm of Asia Pacific and the Middle East…read more.
You may have heard that a deadline to suspend the debt ceiling is rapidly approaching, and if lawmakers don’t do anything it could lead to “economic catastrophe,” in the words of Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.
But what if we told you there was a solution to the debt ceiling fiasco so crazy…it just might work?
The solution: Yellen could have the Treasury mint a $1 trillion platinum coin, deposit it at the Fed to “retire” loads of US federal debt, and then enable the government to carry on with business as usual without having to worry about defaulting on its existing debt.
But can the Treasury really do that? Yes. According to Section 31 US Code § 5112…read more.
The British government is said to be considering whether to call in soldiers to deliver fuel to petrol stations as pumps ran dry after days of panic buying.
Emergency measures were triggered on Sunday evening, with Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng choosing to suspend competition laws for the fuel industry to allow suppliers to target filling stations running low.
Multiple reports suggested that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will today mull whether to follow that by taking the drastic step of sending in the Army to drive oil tankers as “frenzied buying” added to fuel supply issues caused by a lack of HGV drivers.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has refused to rule out requesting military assistance after queues for the pumps continued across the country on the weekend…read more.
Total U.S. household net worth — the value of all assets minus liabilities — jumped by $5.8 trillion to a record $141.7 trillion at the end of June, according to a report from the Federal Reserve released Thursday.
The value of corporate equities rose $3.5 trillion to $47 trillion in the second quarter and the value of real estate rose a record $1.2 trillion to $38.4 trillion, the Fed said in its quarterly report on the financial accounts of the United States.
Balances in currency, checking accounts, savings accounts and money-market funds rose by $200 billion in the second quarter to a record $17 trillion. Cash holdings of households have risen by $4.3 trillion since the beginning of 2020…read more.
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