After yesterday’s “trick,” investors received a “treat” at the end of the trading week, as the stock market regained its footing and bounced back a bit. Even though the October nonfarm payrolls were much weaker than expected—up by 12,000 when the Dow Jones estimate was for an increase of 100,000 jobs—the market shook it off. The decline is attributed to ...

The UK’s motor finance industry could be heading for a financial storm reminiscent of the Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) scandal. A recent Court of Appeal ruling found car dealerships and lenders liable for failing to disclose commissions to customers, a precedent that could unleash billions in compensation claims. For decades, PPI haunted UK banks, ultimately costing them around £50 billion ...

Shoplifting in the UK has reached unprecedented levels, with over 1.2 million cases recorded by police forces since April 2019, according to data obtained by Personal Injury Claims UK. The surge is particularly pronounced in 2023, with 344,709 offences logged—a 30% rise over the previous year—marking a new 20-year high in England and Wales. The cost-of-living crisis is cited as ...

Thomas A. Berry In September I became the fourth director of Cato’s Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies. This is the biggest honor of my professional life, and it is also a tremendous responsibility. The Levy Center (or CCS, as we call it here) has been shaped by the three directors who came before me. And those three directors ...

Colleen Hroncich In the early months of COVID-19, the private school sector took quite a hit. According to the Cato Institute’s Private Schooling Status Tracker, a whopping 130 private school closures were announced from March to August 2020. Around 85 percent of those were Catholic schools, which tend to be older, have lower tuitions, and serve a lower income population ...

We noticed on Thursday evening how poor the internals were for the SPY based on Price Momentum Oscillator (PMO) internals. These internals are the percent of stocks with rising PMOs and the percent of stocks with PMO Crossover BUY Signals. The accompanying short-term Swenlin Trading Oscillators (STOs) and IT Breadth Momentum (ITBM) and IT Volume Momentum (ITVM) are also in ...

Private schools in the UK, represented by the Independent Schools Council (ISC), have voted to take legal action against Labour’s decision to impose VAT on school fees. The ISC, which represents 1,400 independent schools, argues that the new tax is discriminatory, particularly affecting students with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), as well as faith-based and arts-specialist schools. The ISC ...

In a major shift affecting family-owned businesses, the Chancellor has announced that Business Property Relief (BPR) will be reduced to 50% from April 2026, exposing thousands of family firms to inheritance tax for the first time in decades. While previously exempt, business assets will now incur an effective 20% tax when passed to the next generation, jeopardising the financial stability ...

Two House Republican lawmakers are in political trouble with Election Day just four days away, according to a new analysis. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report issued a ratings update late Friday morning projecting races for Reps. Don Bacon, R-Neb., and Anthony D’Esposito, R-N.Y., to ‘lean Democrat.’ They were both previously classified as ‘toss-up’ races, meaning it was anyone’s game ahead ...

Over the next few days, minutes will seem like hours, hours like days, as Americans await the outcome of the presidential election that millions believe is all but existential for our nation. But most of those people already voted, or cannot be swayed by Tuesday. To fill the monotony, we will be treated, (or tricked) to countless graphs and charts, ...