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North America
Fortune

Meet a 38-year-old father rejecting a Trump account for his daughter: ‘I’ll put $1,000 of my own money in an account before I do that’

“I’m not setting up one for my daughter,” the 38-year-old Nashville father told Fortune. “I’ll put $1,000 of my own money in an account before I do that.” Nearly 70 million Trump accounts have been created through automatic enrollment, White House spokesman Matthew Middleton told Fortune, and more than $8 billion has already been deposited nationwide, according to a Treasury official. But parents still need to claim those accounts to manage them and request the $1,000 federal contribution for an eligible child. As of July, Treasury data showed more than 6.5 million families had signed up, including more than 1.5 million children eligible for the $1,000. Employers have money riding on that step, too. By August, more than 50 companies had committed to contributing to Trump accounts for employees’ children, according to the Treasury Department, with employers including Bank of America, BlackRock, and Charles Schwab pledging to match the $1,000. For some parents, though, the money comes with a name they don’t want attached to their kid. “I don’t want to put my daughter’s name on something attached to Trump for the rest of her life,” he said. The program is meant to give children a cushion long before they have a paycheck of their own. Created under Trump’s 2025 tax-and-spending law, Trump accounts are a type of individual retirement account for children. A one-time $1,000 federal contribution is available to eligible U.S. citizens born between 2025 and 2028 who have valid Social Security numbers. Parents, relatives, and employers can add money, generally subject to a combined annual limit of $5,000 during childhood. The funds go into qualifying low-cost stock index funds, giving the savings time to grow, although returns aren’t guaranteed. Withdrawals are generally restricted until the calendar year the child turns 18, when traditional IRA rules begin to apply, including potential taxes and early-withdrawal penalties. The financial appeal hasn’t eased Anthem’s distrust, though. “I understand the logistics of it. I understand the math of it, but what I do not understand is Trump’s willingness to do something so supposedly generous.” The White House has emphasized the program’s potential to help children build wealth. “With Trump Accounts, President Trump has secured a signature economic achievement designed to help every American child build savings and support a stronger financial future,” Middleton said. The idea of giving children government-funded savings was around before Trump put his name on the accounts. In 2018, Democratic Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey proposed giving every American newborn a $1,000 account, followed by annual government deposits of up to $2,000 depending on family income. His American Opportunity Accounts proposal, often called “baby bonds,” were aimed at narrowing wealth inequality. Booker has since backed Trump accounts, joining Republican Sen. Ted Cruz in a letter urging Fortune 1000 CEOs to contribute. In it, the senators wrote that the accounts “ensure that every American child is an immediate shareholder in America’s largest companies.” For parents like Anthem, though, the issue isn’t what the accounts invest in. It’s whose name is on them. It’s a reaction that fits a broader pattern in how people think about money, according to Scott Rick, a University of Michigan marketing professor who studies financial decisions and their role in relationships. Research on mental accounting suggests that labels and earmarks shape how people feel about money and how they use it, he said.

Meet a 38-year-old father rejecting a Trump account for his daughter: ‘I’ll put $1,000 of my own money in an account before I do that’
North America
Fortune

China sees the yuan vs. dollar rivalry like Pepsi vs. Coke, expert says — ‘never the market leader, but serviceable in a pinch’

Heavy is the head that wears the crown, and contrary to popular belief, Beijing doesn’t want the yuan to dethrone the dollar as the world’s dominant currency, according to a top China scholar. While China has been trying to internationalize the yuan, also known as the renminbi, it doesn’t want the obligations that come with being the global reserve currency, Zongyuan Zoe Liu, senior fellow for China studies at the Council on Foreign Relation, wrote in Foreign Affairs this month. To truly take the dollar’s place would require open capital markets, which would threaten the Communist Party’s control over who gets capital and how, she explained. That’s as many elites rely on offshore dollar holdings as a type of insurance against domestic political persecution. Since China actually prefers to keep the dollar on top, the real reason for promoting the yuan abroad is to prevent the U.S. from weaponizing the financial system against it, Liu added, similar to how Russia was shut out after it invaded Ukraine in 2022. A yuan network that’s international enough, even without being dominant, could bypass any dollar-based sanctions the U.S. might impose in the future. “Placing a respectable second, or even a consequential third, would suffice to break the dollar’s effective monopoly and constrain the United States’ ability to impose financial sanctions unilaterally, while saving China the effort and cost of sustaining currency supremacy,” she said. “From Beijing’s perspective, the mission is to establish the renminbi as the Pepsi to the dollar’s Coca-Cola: never the market leader, but serviceable in a pinch and more than capable of keeping the dominant incumbent honest.” (For what it’s worth, Pepsi has actually fallen further behind Coke in the cola wars and was dealt a major symbolic defeat recently when KFC said it would replace PepsiCo soft drinks with Coca-Cola’s products at its 3,700 U.S. restaurants.) So far, China facilitates renminbi use among firms in more than a hundred countries and across a growing array of commodity markets. As of June, its Cross-Border Interbank Payment System had 1,829 participants who could send payments to more than 5,200 banks in 191 countries. But that’s just a small fraction of what the U.S.-dominated system processes, Liu said, adding that a global currency also entails pricing, financing, risk transfer, and reinvestment. Chinese exporters still invoice in dollars and convert them to yuan just before brining them into China. But Beijing is promoting “China prices,” or yuan benchmarks on domestic commodity exchanges and has succeeded with lithium, she noted. The financing stage is gaining momentum too as Chinese banks have more than doubled their yuan lending to overseas borrowers between 2023 and mid-2026. The People’s Bank of China has also reached currency swap agreements with 32 foreign central banks and monetary authorities.

China sees the yuan vs. dollar rivalry like Pepsi vs. Coke, expert says — ‘never the market leader, but serviceable in a pinch’
North America
Yahoo Finance

Trade Futures or S&P 500 Index Options? The IRS Treats 60% of Your Gains as Long-Term, Even on a Day Trade

A single tax code section can legally shift most of a day trader's short-term gains into a lower tax bracket, and the IRS baked it in decades ago for futures and certain index options. The catch is knowing exactly which… A day trader buys options on the S&P 500 index at the opening bell and sells them before lunch at a profit. If those were shares of stock, the whole gain would be short-term and taxed like ordinary income. Because they’re broad-based index options, 60% of that gain is treated as long-term. The rule comes from Section 1256 of the Internal Revenue Code. It gives traders in futures and broad-based index options a blended tax treatment, even on a day trade (a position opened and closed in the same session). The other 40% is short-term. Here’s how the rule works, which contracts qualify, and where it trips people up. Normally you must hold an asset for more than a year for a gain to qualify as long-term. Gains on assets held a year or less get taxed at ordinary income rates. Those held longer qualify for lower preferential rates. Section 1256 ignores the holding period entirely. Under 26 U.S.C. § 1256(a)(3), gain or loss on a section 1256 contract is split, with 40% treated as short-term and 60% as long-term. IRS Publication 550, Investment Income and Expenses (the TY2025 edition), calls this the “60/40 rule” in its “Section 1256 Contracts Marked to Market” discussion. It says the split is “true regardless of how long you actually held the property.” The same-day trade is covered because § 1256(c)(1) applies the rule to positions closed during the year by offsetting, exercise, lapse or any other means. Publication 550 lists five kinds of section 1256 contracts: regulated futures contracts, foreign currency contracts, nonequity options, dealer equity options and dealer securities futures contracts. For most individual traders, the first and third are the ones that matter. Contracts that look alike can still be classified differently. Publication 550 notes that cash-settled index options count as nonequity options only if the SEC determines the index is broad based. The exchange matters too. In Rev. Rul. 2026-16, the IRS ruled that ICE Endex qualifies as an exchange for this purpose for contracts entered into on or after September 1, 2026. Check how your specific contract is classified before you count on the split. Under § 1256(a)(1), any section 1256 contract you still hold at year-end is “marked to market,” meaning it’s taxed as if you sold it on the last business day of the year at its then-current price. You can owe tax on a gain you never cashed in. Publication 550 gives an example. A futures contract bought for $50,000 is worth $57,000 at year-end, so the owner reports a $7,000 gain, split 60/40. If the owner sells it the next year for $56,000, that year’s return shows a $1,000 loss, also split 60/40. Losses split the same way. A loss that’s mostly long-term may help less if the rest of your gains for the year are short-term. One rule works in traders’ favor. Normally, a loss is blocked when you buy back substantially identical securities around the time you sell, but that wash sale rule doesn’t apply here. Under § 1256(f)(5), it doesn’t apply to losses created by year-end marking. Mixed straddles (offsetting positions where some, but not all, are section 1256 contracts) have their own rules. Section 1256(d) lets you opt out of the mark-to-market rule for them, but each position has to be identified by the close of the day you buy the first section 1256 contract. Once made, the election can’t be revoked without IRS consent. Section 1256 gains and losses go on Part I of Form 6781, per Publication 550.

Trade Futures or S&P 500 Index Options? The IRS Treats 60% of Your Gains as Long-Term, Even on a Day Trade
North America
Fortune

If California undid its ‘original sin’ and matched Texas on taxing property, it would raise more revenue than the billionaire tax, economists say

California voters will decide on Proposition 40 soon, but looming over the controversial billionaire wealth tax proposal is another state ballot measure from nearly 50 years ago. In 1978, voters approved Proposition 13, which capped property taxes at just 1% of assessed value, limited annual hikes to 2%, and allowed reassessments to market value only after sales or substantial renovations. It came amid a wider tax revolt leading up to Ronald Reagan’s election as president and an era of conservative governance in America. After Prop 13’s passage, the state had to find other ways to raise more revenue and relied more on taxing incomes, including capital gains. California now has the most progressive income-tax structure in the country with a top marginal rate of 13.3%. When combined with federal income tax rates, that can send the total to more than 50%. The top 1% of earners account for up to half of state revenue, though it also means state coffers are volatile and swing on stock market returns. At the same time, the ultra-wealthy often don’t receive much income and instead leverage assets to finance their lifestyles, avoiding some taxes. Now enter the billionaire tax, which calls for residents worth more than $1 billion to pay a one-time tax equivalent to 5% of their assets. The union pushing Prop 40 has said the wealth tax could raise $100 billion in revenue and help offset federal cuts to health spending. Supporters point to the AI boom and say California’s ultra-rich would still be among the world’s wealthiest. Opponents have warned about the impact the tax could have on economic growth and startups. They have also said it would force founders to sell big pieces of their companies and eventually cause the wealthy to flee to another state, resulting in a net loss of revenue over time. If California is looking for a large source of undertaxed wealth, “a much better, bigger target lies right beneath their feet,” according to Princeton economist Owen Zidar and University of Chicago Booth School of Business economist Eric Zwick, authors of the book The Everywhere Millionaire. “The original sin underlying California’s tax structure is Prop 13, the 1978 law that rewrote the rules of property ownership,” they wrote in a recent New York Times op-ed. “Getting rid of it would be a more efficient and durable way to make the rich pay their fair share.” Prop 13 also contributed to rapidly increasing home values, which have risen faster than property taxes. As a result, California homeowners pay an average of just 0.8% tax on their property, Zidar and Zwick estimated, generating $100 billion in revenue in fiscal 2025. By contrast, Texas homeowners pay 2% on average. If California matched Texas, overall residential property tax revenue would more than double, while also easing home prices by around 13%, they added. To be sure, property taxes in Texas have stirred their own voter revolt during the midterm election season. While the state doesn’t levy income taxes, Texans complain that the overall tax burden remains onerous due to property taxes, which are levied by local governments as well.

If California undid its ‘original sin’ and matched Texas on taxing property, it would raise more revenue than the billionaire tax, economists say
North America
Fortune

While Americans turn against data centers, Brazil offers tax breaks and cheap power, representing a potential ‘release valve’ for U.S. constraints

With communities across the U.S. rebuffing data centers, there’s growing political pressure to curtail their construction. But thousands of miles away, South America’s biggest country is already a top AI market and making the buildout easier. Brazilians send 215 million messages to ChatGPT messages per day, according to OpenAI, making the country the chatbot maker’s third biggest market for weekly users after the U.S. and India. Google said it plans to double its cloud infrastructure there by 2030 in response to growing demand, and even signed a sponsorship deal with the Brazilian Football Confederation in March to integrate Gemini across the country’s men’s, women’s, and youth national teams. Other tech giants are investing too. Amazon Web Services has spent more than $3.8 billion on data center infrastructure there since 2011 and pledged another $1.8 billion through 2034, while Microsoft committed $2.7 billion to cloud and AI infrastructure over three years. Local demand, rather than American companies moving operations abroad, has driven much of Latin America’s data center growth. But Carlos Barrera, CEO of Atlas Renewable Energy, thinks that could change. “We do see the region as actually an attractive release valve for some of the U.S. capacity constraints that you see now,” he said. With a population of almost 214 million people spread out across an area larger than the contiguous 48 U.S. states, Brazil makes sense as a country for hyperscalers to court. Its electricity supply is also a major draw and costs less than half what it does in the U.S. According to a report from its Ministry of Mines and Energy, the country generates nearly 87% of it from renewable sources, and its rapid growth of wind and solar power has also led to a surplus. “U.S. backlash isn’t pushing hyperscalers out of the country so much as pushing them toward wherever power shows up first,” James Mercer, a principal at data center advisory firm Metro Colo Advisory, told Fortune. But Brazil’s cheap electricity could also become more expensive. Barrera said Brazil will need more transmission lines to connect large data centers to the grid, and government officials are split on whether electric bills will go up or not. Another obstacle to Brazil’s AI growth is the tax code. High federal import taxes made building big data centers more expensive compared to other countries in the region. To fix that, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed a law on Sept. 15 cutting taxes on qualifying data center equipment. This contrasts with some U.S. lawmakers proposing taxing data centers’ electricity use and output.

While Americans turn against data centers, Brazil offers tax breaks and cheap power, representing a potential ‘release valve’ for U.S. constraints
North America
Fortune

Why Wendy’s is losing the burger wars—and is now a takeover target for Nelson Peltz

In the burger wars currently raging in the United States, there is one clear loser among the major chains: Wendy’s. Its fortunes have declined so much that it’s now the target of Nelson Peltz’s Trian Fund Management, which is offering to take the restaurant private for $1.4 billion, a sum that’s not even 1% of McDonald’s market value. The restaurant chain, once beloved for its “fresh, never frozen” beef and reputation for being a higher-quality fast-food option, has been struggling for 18 months. Its promotions have fallen flat, intense competition has stolen customers, and a revolving door in the corner office has deprived it of the focus needed to get out of its rut. Long the second-largest U.S. burger chain behind McDonald’s, Wendy’s has slipped to third place behind a resurgent Burger King. In May, Wendy’s overhauled its management, hiring Potbelly’s turnaround veteran Bob Wright as its fourth CEO in three years, as well as Potbelly’s finance chief Steve Cirulis as CFO, in an effort to reassure Wall Street that Wendy’s was in steady hands. For a time, it worked: “Wendy’s turnaround prospects have improved under [Wright and Cirulis] whose successful Potbelly revamp supports a strategy focused on the menu, marketing, operations, and digital capabilities,” Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Michael Halen wrote in a research note. Despite the confidence in Wendy’s new C-suite, shares remain under pressure and are 65% below where they were three years ago, when sales began to stagnate. (Shares briefly hit a 20-year low in June.) So it’s hardly surprising that Wendy’s is now the target of Peltz’s Trian, which would rather turn the restaurant chain around far from the glare of the public markets. Wendy’s was founded in 1969 when Dave Thomas, a former Kentucky Fried Chicken franchisee, opened a restaurant and named it for his daughter. It quickly found a niche with its distinctive square hamburger patties, chili, and Frosty desserts that differentiated the chain from McDonald’s. It even had some pop culture moments, most notably in 1984 with its famous “Where’s the Beef?” campaign. The chain has had many ups and downs over the years, but it started to show cracks in earnest last year, when quarterly sales declined. In its most recent quarter, U.S. sales at its established restaurants fell 7%, the sixth decline in a row. More worryingly, visits to U.S. stores slumped 12.5%, suggesting many Wendy’s patrons are falling out of the habit of eating there. Wendy’s will report its third-quarter results on Thursday, and they will be heavily scrutinized for any signs of a reprieve. Analysts expect Wendy’s to report a U.S. same-store sales decline of about 6%. In his first conference call with analysts in August, Wright, a Wendy’s alum who once worked with the chain’s legendary founder Thomas, showed he was clear-eyed about Wendy’s many problems. The list includes a lack of compelling value menu items for budget-conscious diners and inconsistent execution at its restaurants. Wright has told franchisees and investors that Wendy’s had lowered the quality of its ingredients in a quest to save costs and had allowed service to become uneven due to insufficient staffing. New promotions—like its Minions & Monsters kids’ meals—and new menu items—like a new chicken sandwich—have fallen flat. Wendy’s has also tried and failed to find a winning formula for breakfast, long a weak spot for the chain, but angered franchisees in the process by adding operational complexity and costs with little payoff. High beef costs are pinching profits: net income fell 40% in the first half of 2026. And Wendy’s carries an enormous debt load of $2.4 billion that’s roughly equivalent to its annual revenue. (Wendy’s systemwide sales in the U.S. were $12 billion last year, but because it operates mostly as a franchise model, its revenues are simply its cut of those sales, plus rent and fees from its franchisees.) “Our quality differentiation has eroded, our value proposition has weakened, and we have not consistently delivered the experience customers expect from Wendy’s,” said Wright, who was Wendy’s operations chief from 2013 to 2019 before going to Potbelly. Burger King’s same-restaurant sales rose 8.5% last quarter as it executed its “Reclaim the Flame” turnaround plan that remodeled half its restaurant fleet and revamped its flagship Whopper hamburger, leading to a 20% jump in sales of the sandwich.

Why Wendy’s is losing the burger wars—and is now a takeover target for Nelson Peltz
Europe
BBC Business

Crypto firm Binance covers 90% of losses after $6.3bn hack

Image source, Bloomberg via Getty ImagesByImogen JamesPublished31 October 2026Updated 2 hours agoBinance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, says it has covered 90% of the $6.3bn (£4.7bn) assets stolen in a hack on Thursday. The remaining 10% may take longer to source in the required amounts, the company added. Binance has consistently pledged to cover 100% of the losses from what is suspected to be crypto's biggest hack on record and said it has set aside more than $6.34bn in company funds to do so. "Binance will absorb the financial impact of these stolen funds, not our users," the company said in a statement on Saturday. In an update on Sunday, Binance said withdrawals had been restored on several of its networks, after they were suspended following the hack. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said on Saturday that North Korea was responsible for the attack. The FBI said it had observed hackers converting stolen assets into a type of cryptocurrency called Ethereum and that it is expected that the assets will then be converted again using decentralised finance and instant swap services. Two analytics firms previously told the BBC they had robust intelligence pointing to North Korean state-backed hacking unit the Lazarus Group, also known as TraderTraitor - which was specifically named by the FBI - as the likely culprits. Binance said it had replenished the stolen assets using various funds and its own corporate treasury. All holdings of the cryptocurrencies bitcoin, Ethereum and Tether are covered, along with seven other widely-traded crypto assets, the company said. The hack is believed to be the largest in history, eclipsing the record of a $1.5bn heist on the Bybit exchange in 2025 - for which the FBI also said North Korea was responsible. Binance's initial investigation suggested an engineer's laptop was compromised, which allowed access to unauthorised withdrawals, but a later update said they had uncovered "additional points of breach".

Crypto firm Binance covers 90% of losses after $6.3bn hack
Japan
Nikkei Asia

Indonesia GDP, US midterm elections, Hong Kong financial summit

Indonesia, including the capital Jakarta, has been wrestling with the health and economic impacts of fires and haze. © Getty Images Indonesia reports its latest gross domestic product figure as it wrestles with the health and economic impacts of fires and haze, as well as market pressures from a potential MSCI downgrade. The country has also experienced fuel shortages amid the fallout from the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran. The U.S. holds midterm elections that are set to have implications for Asia, as voters across the political spectrum have signaled their opposition to the massive data center projects that have boosted Asian tech suppliers' bottom lines. The outcome might also influence U.S.-China relations: While Republicans and Democrats both support Taipei, if the Democrats take over one or both houses of Congress, they could be more eager to pressure U.S. President Donald Trump into moving ahead with a $14 billion arms package for Taiwan. Get the best of our coverage of Asia and much more by following us on X, where our handle is @NikkeiAsia. We are also on Bluesky with the handle @asia.nikkei.com. Prominent players in the financial industry and entrepreneurs descend on Hong Kong for a busy week of speeches and networking. Top executives from many of the world's biggest banks and funds are due to attend the Global Financial Leaders' Investment Summit, which runs roughly in parallel with the city's Fintech Week. Both events come as artificial intelligence poses new risks and opportunities for the sector. Another event in Hong Kong brings together lawyers, business leaders and policymakers to discuss legal practices and cross-border collaboration. This year's Legal Week will also mark the opening of the first overseas liaison office of the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT), a Rome-based intergovernmental organization that studies ways to modernize, harmonize and coordinate private law between states. Americans go to the polls for the 2026 midterm elections to decide whether Democrats or Trump's Republicans will control Congress. If the Democrats win either or both houses of Congress, they are expected to focus on alleged conflicts of interest in critical mineral deals struck by the Trump administration under the banner of building alternative supply chains to China, as well as on trade deals negotiated in the aftermath of the president's "liberation day" tariffs. Singapore's largest local banks DBS, UOB and OCBC are set to report third quarter earnings results -- starting with UOB on Wednesday and followed by DBS and OCBC on Thursday and Friday, respectively -- as uncertainty mounts over the direction of interest rates. Wealth management has been a driver for the lenders' profitability, although questions abound over whether the trend can be sustained. Indonesia reports GDP data for the July-September quarter, when there was a sharp increase in natural disasters such as large-scale forest fires and volcanic eruptions, leading to reports of numerous flight delays including to and from Jakarta, raising concerns about economic losses. Capital outflows driven by market uncertainty and the financial environment also remain a cause for concern. Shanghai hosts an annual import exhibition, where global companies will showcase new products they aim to sell in the Chinese market. Looming in the background will be concerns about sluggish Chinese consumption and widening trade imbalances, with the world's No. 2 economy on track for another surplus exceeding $1 trillion. Bank Negara Malaysia announces its final interest rate decision of the year, with economists divided over whether it will hold at 2.75% or raise borrowing costs. In July 2025, the central bank cut the rate by 0.25 percentage point from 3% and has kept it at the same rate since. Strong growth supports a possible quarter-point increase, although subdued inflation gives policymakers room to wait until 2027. New Zealand holds its general election, with neither the ruling National Party nor the leading opposition Labour Party likely to win a simple majority based on current polling. That could mean the Opportunity Party, a centrist group that has rapidly gained support in the run-up to the vote, could play a decisive role in shaping the next government.

Indonesia GDP, US midterm elections, Hong Kong financial summit
Europe
BBC Business

No more washing up: How Airbnb's new house rules have divided hosts and guests

When Lisa Clewes returned to her Welsh holiday let after a group of guests checked out, she was horrified by the mess. Just days earlier, she had met the group in person and helped with their luggage. But after a dinner party, the house was left "in a complete mess" with broken glasses, drinks cans on the floor, pans full of food on the table and fish guts left in the garden. "It was really unbelievable. Had I had another booking the same day, I would have had to cancel or delay check-in," says Clewes. She charges a cleaning fee that covers around 75% of the cost of a cleaner and asks guests to empty the fridge, put rubbish in the bins and load the dishwasher. But Airbnb's new rules mean hosts can no longer ask guests to do jobs normally carried out by cleaners, including washing and putting away dishes, stripping beds and taking rubbish off site. The updated guidelines, which apply to bookings made globally from 20 November, state that hosts can now set seven standard house rules and add other "reasonable" requests. Clewes says it typically takes cleaners four hours to turn around her three-bedroom property. She fears guests leaving more mess could mean hiring extra cleaners and increasing costs – expenses that may ultimately be passed on to her guests. The changes have come as a relief to guests like Jessica Newhook, who says she has been faced with lengthy checkout lists, often on top of hefty cleaning fees. She booked an Airbnb in Florida for a family reunion of 11 guests and says they had to "leave the property move-in ready for the cleaners", despite paying a $250 (£187) cleaning fee. Newhook says the host told them to wash and fold towels, clean the bedding and kitchen, and sweep and mop the floors. She was also warned by the host that their behaviour needed to improve or they could be told to leave, because they had left chairs blocking bins. While Newhook likes the home comforts of staying in an Airbnb, she says the combination of relentless rules and rising cleaning fees has taken away much of its appeal.

No more washing up: How Airbnb's new house rules have divided hosts and guests