When the South Korean cryptocurrencies Luna and TerraUSD collapsed in May, their failures contributed to a $300 billion loss across the crypto economy; public outcries for Do Kwon, the cryptocurrencies’ creator, to go to jail; and multiple investigations. But that, and a broader “crypto winter” dragging down prices across the industry, do not appear to have curbed South Korea’s appetite for all things web3.

Korea Blockchain Week opened this weekend with more than 7,000 people registered to attend and over 120 speakers on the lineup. According to the event’s chief executive officer, Jeon Seon-ik, this year’s event was one of the largest of its kind in Asia, if not the world.

One of the keynote speakers, Seo Sang-min, who runs the Klaytn Foundation, a prominent South Korean blockchain company, attributed the event’s popularity to a South Korean penchant for tech.

At any given time, millions of workers are overdue on at least one bill. But it is the rare employer that is late in cutting its paychecks or that bounces them altogether.

Therein lies an opportunity for lending companies like Kashable and OneBlinc and for retailers that do business at sites like payrolljewelry.com and purchasingpower.com: Put yourself at the front of the repayment line by drawing directly from those reliable paychecks. Let other billers wait around to see if customers bounce a payment from their bank account or don’t bother to make one at all.

This clever maneuver is possible thanks to payroll mechanisms that go by terms like “allotment” and “split deposits.” As long as your employer allows it — and some notable big ones, like the federal government, do — employees can set it up themselves.

Axios, the digital media company that quickly gained traction since its founding five years ago with its distinctive bulletin-style scoops on the realms of politics, business and technology, said on Monday that it had agreed to sell itself to Cox Enterprises.

The deal, which is set to close this month, values Axios at $525 million, according to two people with knowledge of the deal.

The deal is structured so that the company’s three founders — Jim VandeHei, the chief executive; Roy Schwartz, the president; and Mike Allen, a journalist — have financial incentives to stay at the company. Each will be a minority shareholder and will continue to make day-to-day newsroom and business decisions. Alex Taylor, the chief executive and chairman of Cox Enterprises, will join the Axios board.

The Japanese conglomerate SoftBank reported on Monday its largest-ever quarterly loss, $23.4 billion, driven by poor performance of its flagship tech investments and a weak yen.

It was the second straight quarter of enormous losses for the company, which has been staggered by broad weakness in global stocks, causing paper losses in the company’s portfolio of publicly traded tech giants as well as markdowns on its holdings in hundreds of unlisted companies.

The losses are the biggest in decades for the company’s eccentric founder, Masayoshi Son, who staked its future on huge, often undisciplined investments in tech companies that he believed would transform entire industries — from grocery shopping to construction — as the world transitioned into a digital age.

For Theresa Clarke, a retiree in New Canaan, Conn., the rising cost of living means not buying Goldfish crackers for her disabled daughter because a carton costs $11.99 at her local Stop & Shop. It means showering at the YMCA to save on her hot water bill. And it means watching her bank account dwindle to $50 because, as someone on a fixed income who never made much money to start with, there aren’t many other places she can trim her spending as prices rise.

“There is nothing to cut back on,” she said.

Jordan Trevino, 28, who recently took a better paying job in advertising in Los Angeles with a $100,000 salary, is economizing in little ways — ordering a cheaper entree when out to dinner, for example. But he is still planning a wedding next year and a honeymoon in Italy.

And David Schoenfeld, who made about $250,000 in retirement income and consulting fees last year and has about $5 million in savings, hasn’t pared back his spending. He has just returned...

Policymakers in Washington are promoting electric vehicles as a solution to climate change. But an uncomfortable truth remains: Battery-powered cars are much too expensive for a vast majority of Americans.

Congress has begun trying to address that problem. The climate and energy package passed on Sunday by the Senate, the Inflation Reduction Act, would give buyers of used electric cars a tax credit.

But automakers have complained that the credit would apply to only a narrow slice of vehicles, at least initially, largely because of domestic sourcing requirements. And experts say broader steps are needed to make electric cars more affordable and to get enough of them on the road to put a serious dent in greenhouse gas emissions.

At any given time, millions of workers are overdue on at least one bill. But it is the rare employer that is late in cutting its paychecks or that bounces them altogether.

Therein lies an opportunity for lending companies like Kashable and OneBlinc and for retailers that do business at sites like payrolljewelry.com and purchasingpower.com: Put yourself at the front of the repayment line by drawing directly from those reliable paychecks. Let other billers wait around to see if customers bounce a payment from their bank account or don’t bother to make one at all.

This clever maneuver is possible thanks to payroll mechanisms that go by terms like “allotment” and “split deposits.” As long as your employer allows it — and some notable big ones, like the federal government, do — employees can set it up themselves.

The Japanese conglomerate SoftBank reported on Monday its largest-ever quarterly loss, $23.4 billion, driven by poor performance of its flagship tech investments and a weak yen.

It was the second straight quarter of enormous losses for the company, which has been staggered by broad weakness in global stocks, causing paper losses in the company’s portfolio of publicly traded tech giants as well as markdowns on its holdings in hundreds of unlisted companies.

The losses are the biggest in decades for the company’s eccentric founder, Masayoshi Son, who staked its future on huge, often undisciplined investments in tech companies that he believed would transform entire industries — from grocery shopping to construction — as the world transitioned into a digital age.

For Theresa Clarke, a retiree in New Canaan, Conn., the rising cost of living means not buying Goldfish crackers for her disabled daughter because a carton costs $11.99 at her local Stop & Shop. It means showering at the YMCA to save on her hot water bill. And it means watching her bank account dwindle to $50 because, as someone on a fixed income who never made much money to start with, there aren’t many other places she can trim her spending as prices rise.

“There is nothing to cut back on,” she said.

Jordan Trevino, 28, who recently took a better paying job in advertising in Los Angeles with a $100,000 salary, is economizing in little ways — ordering a cheaper entree when out to dinner, for example. But he is still planning a wedding next year and a honeymoon in Italy.

And David Schoenfeld, who made about $250,000 in retirement income and consulting fees last year and has about $5 million in savings, hasn’t pared back his spending. He has just returned...

When the South Korean cryptocurrencies Luna and TerraUSD collapsed in May, their failures contributed to a $300 billion loss across the crypto economy; public outcries for Do Kwon, the cryptocurrencies’ creator, to go to jail; and multiple investigations. But that, and a broader “crypto winter” dragging down prices across the industry, do not appear to have curbed South Korea’s appetite for all things web3.

Korea Blockchain Week opened this weekend with more than 7,000 people registered to attend and over 120 speakers on the lineup. According to the event’s chief executive officer, Jeon Seon-ik, this year’s event was one of the largest of its kind in Asia, if not the world.

One of the keynote speakers, Seo Sang-min, who runs the Klaytn Foundation, a prominent South Korean blockchain company, attributed the event’s popularity to a South Korean penchant for tech.

Daniel B. Maffei is at once a crucial player in the campaign to subdue inflation, and a figure virtually unknown outside the confines of his wonky Washington domain.

He’s the chairman of the Federal Maritime Commission, a small, traditionally obscure institution that has been thrust into a central role in the Biden administration’s designs on taming soaring prices — a menace that could determine which party next controls Congress.

The commission regulates the international shipping industry at American ports, an element of modern life that is typically ignored but has emerged as a reason major retailers are short of popular goods, and why people renovating homes are waiting months for doorknobs.

Axios, the digital media company that quickly gained traction since its founding five years ago with its distinctive bulletin-style scoops on the realms of politics, business and technology, said on Monday that it had agreed to sell itself to Cox Enterprises.

The deal, which is set to close this month, values Axios at $525 million, according to two people with knowledge of the deal.

The deal is structured so that the company’s three founders — Jim VandeHei, the chief executive; Roy Schwartz, the president; and Mike Allen, a journalist — have financial incentives to stay at the company. Each will be a minority shareholder and will continue to make day-to-day newsroom and business decisions. Alex Taylor, the chief executive and chairman of Cox Enterprises, will join the Axios board.

Policymakers in Washington are promoting electric vehicles as a solution to climate change. But an uncomfortable truth remains: Battery-powered cars are much too expensive for a vast majority of Americans.

Congress has begun trying to address that problem. The climate and energy package passed on Sunday by the Senate, the Inflation Reduction Act, would give buyers of used electric cars a tax credit.

But automakers have complained that the credit would apply to only a narrow slice of vehicles, at least initially, largely because of domestic sourcing requirements. And experts say broader steps are needed to make electric cars more affordable and to get enough of them on the road to put a serious dent in greenhouse gas emissions.

Daniel B. Maffei is at once a crucial player in the campaign to subdue inflation, and a figure virtually unknown outside the confines of his wonky Washington domain.

He’s the chairman of the Federal Maritime Commission, a small, traditionally obscure institution that has been thrust into a central role in the Biden administration’s designs on taming soaring prices — a menace that could determine which party next controls Congress.

The commission regulates the international shipping industry at American ports, an element of modern life that is typically ignored but has emerged as a reason major retailers are short of popular goods, and why people renovating homes are waiting months for doorknobs.

Bert Fields, the colorful and canny dean of Hollywood lawyers whose services were called on by superstars and studios alike knowing they would get a no-holds-barred defense and all but assured of some measure of victory, died on Sunday at his home in Malibu, Calif. He was 93.

The cause was complications of long Covid-19, his wife, Barbara Guggenheim, said.

Over the decades, stars and studio heads who turned to Mr. Fields included Madonna, Tom Cruise, Warren Beatty, the Beatles, Michael Jackson, Dustin Hoffman, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Michael Ovitz, and Jeffrey Katzenberg.

Urbane, trim and Saville Row-tailored, Mr. Fields became something of a celebrity himself, garnering magazine profiles and regular gossip-column mentions.

Policymakers in Washington are promoting electric vehicles as a solution to climate change. But an uncomfortable truth remains: Battery-powered cars are much too expensive for a vast majority of Americans.

Congress has begun trying to address that problem. The climate and energy package passed on Sunday by the Senate, the Inflation Reduction Act, would give buyers of used electric cars a tax credit.

But automakers have complained that the credit would apply to only a narrow slice of vehicles, at least initially, largely because of domestic sourcing requirements. And experts say broader steps are needed to make electric cars more affordable and to get enough of them on the road to put a serious dent in greenhouse gas emissions.

BUENOS AIRES — Eduardo Rabuffetti es un argentino que visitó Estados Unidos una sola vez, en 1999, durante su luna de miel en Miami. Sin embargo, es posible que conozca los billetes de 100 dólares mejor que la mayoría de estadounidenses.

Daniel B. Maffei is at once a crucial player in the campaign to subdue inflation, and a figure virtually unknown outside the confines of his wonky Washington domain.

He’s the chairman of the Federal Maritime Commission, a small, traditionally obscure institution that has been thrust into a central role in the Biden administration’s designs on taming soaring prices — a menace that could determine which party next controls Congress.

The commission regulates the international shipping industry at American ports, an element of modern life that is typically ignored but has emerged as a reason major retailers are short of popular goods, and why people renovating homes are waiting months for doorknobs.