Daily Archives: August 20, 2021

A new Morgan Stanley (MS) report projected that environmental, social, and corporate government (ESG) concerns will become more central to the collateralized loan obligation (CLO) market by 2026.

The report concludes that ESGs have been a defining theme of 2021. The number of ESG-focused fixed income funds globally has nearly doubled over the past five years from ~630 at end-2016 to ~1,200 currently, the authors said in the report.

The MS report is the latest research to support the growing sentiment which holds that an ESG revolution is coming to the CLO market. Citigroup (C) projected earlier this year that 20%-40% of U.S. CLO managers will incorporate ESG themes into new issue CLOs in the next two years.

Wall Street has taken a more aggressive interest in ESG investments as of late. Earlier this month JPMorgan (JPM) announced that a greater focus would be placed on investment products with environmental, social and governance themes, and a new ESG was added for derivatives in an effort to promote sustainability.

ESG adoption is still in its infancy within the CLO market, the report notes, as there is a considerable dearth of clarity surrounding ESG guidelines for most companies.

[A] lack of ESG-related disclosures from private companies and significant manager discretion make it difficult for ESG CLO investors to hold other parties accountable, the report explained. No CLOs have yet been issued with thematic exposure or impact investing guidelines.

Europe has dominated ESG investments for the past decade, accounting for more than 70% of the total number of ESG-focused fixed income funds worldwide for 2021 year-to-date. The United States and Asia Pacific, the next two largest regions by number of ESG-focused fixed income funds, each accounted for less than a fourth of Europes share.

At this point, it is clear that CLOs globally are still in the early days of ESG adoption, with the European market more advanced than the U.S. market, the report noted.

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Bullish projections for the future of ESG-focused CLOs are supported by the recent stimulation of ESG interest among consumers and a rise in related inbound calls, the Morgan Stanley report said. The frequency and tone of conversations around this topic have shifted substantially since the end of last year: inbound calls have gotten both more frequent and more rigorous as market participants across the ecosystem have begun digging in and looking for ways to align investments with ESG objectives.

ESG conceptual image depicting the connection among its strategies

The report breaks ESG products into four categories: negative screening, positive screening, thematic exposure, and impact investing. Negative screening describes the act of managing undesired ESG exposure by phasing out the use of controversial products or sectors, like tobacco, fossil fuels, or opioids. Positive screening allows for investing in all sectors of the market, but only choosing the most sustainable products within each asset class.

Thematic exposure describes a deliberate focus on products which give exposure to specific sustainability themes. The report gives low carbon and affordable housing as examples.

The last category, impact investing, is intended to maximize an investments impact. This involves investments with the intent to deliver a measurable positive social or environmental impact.

With these terms, researchers have attempted to give a lens through which ESG involvement can be assessed. Most ESG investments are examples of negative screening, the report found. While many deals (especially those issued on the European side of the market) include negative screening, only a handful (exclusively on the European side) include positive screening No CLOs have yet been issued with thematic exposure or impact investing guidelines.

The report notes that the authors' optimistic, yet realistic view, is that within five years, a majority of the CLO universe will eventually utilize a mix of negative and positive screening.

Ihsaan Fanusie is a writer at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter @IFanusie.

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A new study argues that skyrocketing college costs are a result of university leadership not prioritizing college affordability over profit.

The report by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA), which looked at data from more than 1,500 four-year public and private, nonprofit colleges and universities, found that even though institutional spending has risen over the years alongside tuition, four-year graduation rates have not kept up.

"The spending habits of higher education have gotten us very poor results," ACTA President Michael B. Poliakoff told Yahoo Finance Live (video above). "We are taking a system of higher education that has been called 'the envy of the world' into a situation in which it seems to be engineering its own meltdown."

Poliakoff added that colleges were not financially strapped due to diminishing state and federal funding, but rather due to the "investment in bloated administration and student services programs that keep ratcheting up the price of tuition while not increasing that most important outcome, which is completion of the degree."

Tuition inflation in the 21st century has led to heavy borrowing and a student debt crisis that some lawmakers are urging the White House to address through broad cancellation of some federally-backed debt. Some schools are even leveraging federal funding from coronavirus relief packages to cancel debt owed by their students.

A female college student wearing a square academic hat made of one-dollar banknotes, US, 1981. (Photo by Alfred Gescheidt/Getty Images)

Poliakoff highlighted a couple of examples of schools that he believed got the balance right.

"Purdue has kept its tuition frozen for ten years," Poliakoff noted. "It has lowered administrative costs under the leadership of President Mitch Daniels." He also highlighted Arizona State University and Florida State University as schools that lowered administrative expenditure.

However, overall, "our colleges and universities are not doing it right," he added. "They need to look towards those positive examples, and their trustees have to be absolutely meticulous and ask those hard questions. It's wonderful to spend money on programs and to have new offices, but they have to ask what will be the impact of this."

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The cost of college tuition over time. (Source: College Board, NCES, IPEDS)

Aarthi is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. She can be reached at aarthi@yahoofinance.com. Follow her on Twitter @aarthiswami.

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College in America is 'engineering its own meltdown' with tuition inflation - Yahoo Finance

Bitcoin (BTC-USD) may be holding above $46,000 Monday, but one prominent Wall Street strategist is still somewhat skeptical of the cryptocurrency.

At a recent Yahoo Finance Plus webinar, Liz Ann Sonders, chief investment strategist at Charles Schwab, explained her principle misgiving about bitcoin, being careful to emphasize she doesn't completely dismiss the cryptocurrency altogether.

"I am an admitted skeptic to some degree. I'm not on either end of the spectrum meaning I'm a skeptic, but I'm not [saying] this is complete nonsense ... I have yet to get a very compelling answer to the question I ask all the time of whether it's crypto experts or crypto fanboys, so to speak which is what problem is this solving for? And I get myriad answers, but none that at least resonate with me to a significant degree," she said.

Sonders lists the common responses by bitcoin enthusiasts, beginning with a mistrust of the global fiat currency regime. Sonders explains that she trusts the keepers of the extant financial system more than she trusts cryptocurrency miners.

"I still put some faith in the entire U.S. financial system, the banking system, all of its protections as well as the power of the central bank, the Federal Reserve to sort of control the fiat currency that is also the global monetary standard and the world's reserve currency versus, say, bitcoin miners," she said.

To people who like bitcoin as an inflation hedge, Sonders points out that there haven't been any major bouts of price inflation in the history of bitcoin until very recently. "Bitcoin has been around since 2009, and the only burst of inflation that we've gotten since that period of time was during a three-month period where bitcoin was cut in half. So you sort of lose that argument."

Sonders also revealed a deeper concern about bitcoin positioning namely, concentration an issue that has recently roiled financial markets. At least twice this year, putatively-savvy institutional investors have amassed undisclosed whale-sized positions that suddenly took a turn for the worse taking out entire hedge funds and bruising brokers to the tune of billions of dollars. Sonders details these incidents and relates them to bitcoin.

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"The implosion of Melvin Capital with GameStop was a short concentration issue. The implosion of Archegos and stocks like CBS Viacom was a concentration issue in that case on the long side. The latest data that I've seen is the top 2% of bitcoin holders own somewhere between 90% and 95% of bitcoin. And then there's leverage associated with a lot of this," she said.

Sonders explains this is a largely unappreciated risk with respect to bitcoin investing.

"I think that thread of leverage and concentration arguably can weave its way through a lot of these areas where you've seen tremendous amount of speculation," Sonders said. "And I'm not suggesting it's some moment-in-time house of cards, but I just don't think that there is yet enough connecting those concentration and leverage dots, and [that] could be a risk factor that is underestimated right now."

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Jared Blikre is an anchor and reporter focused on the markets on Yahoo Finance Live. Follow him @SPYJared

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Facebook (FB) is plowing ahead with plans to shake up the cryptocurrency-based payment system, even as the company contends with new accusations by the federal government that it is abusing its market power.

On Wednesday, David Marcus, the Facebook guru spearheading its crypto efforts, unveiled new details about Novi, the digital wallet side of the initiative he called a challenger in the payment industry.

In a lengthy post on Medium, Marcus revealed that Novi has secured licenses or approvals in nearly every state. It will offer free peer-to-peer payments domestically and internationally and earn profits from merchant services similar to other crypto wallets.

Marcus' post came a day before the Federal Trade Commission refiled a claim that accused Facebook of running an illegal "buy or bury" scheme. Amid widespread concerns surrounding the company's business practices, it's unclear whether the FTC's action could impact Facebook's ambitions in the blockchain sector.

Formerly known as Libra, Diem is the cryptocurrency and blockchain-based payment system Facebook first announced in June 2019. After facing major backlash from global regulators and industry players, the tech giant dramatically scaled back its plans and rebranded the project as "Diem."

Yet unlike Bitcoin (BTC-USD)and other cryptocurrencies like Ethereum (ETH-USD) and Dogecoin (DOGE-USD), Diem will run on a permissioned-blockchain. Instead of using governance models such as Bitcoins proof-of-work or Ethereums Proof-of-Stake mechanism, which rely on mining cryptocurrency, Diem proposes to use the Switzerland-based Diem Association to process transactions.

The cadre of private companies encountered trouble after losing many of the associations starting members such as PayPal (PYPL), Mastercard (MA), Ebay (EBAY) and Visa (V), just months after the projects initial 2019 announcement. Regulatory concern over consumer privacy and potential antitrust risks have further slowed the project's launch.

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In May, Diem announced a partnership with Silvergate Capital Corporation (SI), a bank holding company whose subsidiary, Silvergate Bank, provides banking for companies in the crypto space. The partnership stated Silvergate would become the exclusive issuer of the Diem stablecoin, which will have its value pegged to the U.S. dollar. However, some analysts think Facebook's creation will face more regulatory roadblocks.

David Marcus, CEO of Facebooks Calibra, testifies to the House Financial Services Committee hearing on "Examining Facebook's Proposed Cryptocurrency and Its Impact on Consumers, Investors, and the American Financial System" on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., July 17, 2019. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

According to Marcus, the current payment infrastructure in the U.S. has remained "broken," and in need of fixing. To service the 62 million Americans and 1.7 billion people worldwide who are still without a bank account, America needs to step up, he declared.

And the executive stated that stablecoins like Diem should at least be given a fair shot in providing the answer.

Basically cryptocurrencies backed by governments, other fiat currencies or even exchange-traded commodities, stablecoins have little to no price volatility when compared to unpegged cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum.

And thanks to lower volatility, stablecoins arguably provide a better medium of exchange than other cryptocurrencies. Chinas digital yuan, a government-backed cryptocurrency developed by the countrys central bank, has already been deployed in real-world trials since early 2021.

Contrary to many points of view, stablecoins with strong control at the network and wallet levels unlock enormous opportunities to innovate in this area, wrote Marcus. Along with 1 to 1 reserves, a well-designed stablecoin offers better consumer protections than a fiat balance held in any wallet available in the US right now.

The topic of stablecoins has gotten hotter in finance, and with good reason. With a market capitalization of $64 billion, Tether (USDT-USD), the largest stablecoin, has been criticized for not providing audits of its reserves.

Marcus also argued that well-designed stablecoins and their ecosystem of wallets have the potential to improve traditional controls for anti-money laundering, counter-terrorist financing sanctions and tax compliance. In short, they can make the financial system more transparent, increase consumer protection and curb dark money floating around the system.

The argument for Diem has gotten a slight boost from El Salvador, which in June announced plans to make Bitcoin legal tender in the country. While Bitcoin is not a stablecoin, its proposed use in El Salvador overlaps with some of the possible benefits and risks associated with stablecoins such as financial inclusion, transparency and legality.

One main goal with the Salvadoran law is to lower the cost of cross-border remittances, which make up 20 percent of the countrys gross domestic product (GDP). Currently, it proposes to do this by using Bitcoins lightning network, a payment protocol on top of Bitcoin that makes transactions faster, cheaper and more private.

Gabor Gurbacs, Director of Digital Assets Strategy at the global investment manager, VanEck, thinks that given the right approach, the Facebook initiative will work.

Facebook has roughly 2.9 billion users. Their efforts and trajectory in digitization may become one of the most important social media developments for the western hemisphere. I hope regulators allow technology companies to innovate, Gurbacs said.

One model for how this could work might be found in the digital company, Square, which owns the mobile payment service Cash App.

David Hollerith is a Blockchain and cryptocurrency reporter for Yahoo Finance.

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In the largest community of Afghan refugees in America, anger and frustration is boiling over about the U.S. withdrawal and a return to Taliban rule.

"There was not a strategy. There was no plan. There was nothing, Rona Popal, executive director of the Fremont, California-based non-profit Afghan Coalition, told Yahoo News.

Since 1996, Afghan Coalition has provided a range of services to refugees from Afghanistan, helping settle thousands in the Bay Area town that is considered a part of Silicon Valley. But when reports began coming in over the weekend that Taliban fighters were quickly taking over as U.S.-trained security forces melted away in some cases without a fight the non-profit's phones began ringing non-stop.

Theyre calling in 24 hours: Whats going on? What they should do? And especially mostly they are calling [for] how they can bring their family members to the United States, Popal said.

Like many Afghan-Americans, Popal said she is struggling to understand the sudden reversal of U.S. policy in her former homeland.

The United States already said they cant do anything, they just want to bring those people. But how you going to bring them and how many of them are you going to bring?" she said. "There are the whole people who lived in Kabul, working with different agencies, NGOs, embassies. How many of them you can bring? It doesnt make sense and its not right.

Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., whose district includes part of Fremont, has acknowledged the anger and dismay being expressed by my Bay Area residents of Afghan descent.

Popal confirmed that the communication between U.S. officials and the Afghan community had been almost non-existent in recent days.

We just got one message from the United States from their embassy that they gave them one link to go ahead and fill out a form for the ones who want to bring family members or if they are SIV [Special Immigrant Visa]," Popal said. "The people dont usually understand how to get them here and they need help.

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More than 60,000 Afghans have relocated to the Bay Area over recent decades, with most settling in East Bay communities like Fremont, Hayward, Union City and San Jose. Popal and her husband fled Afghanistan ahead of the Soviet invasion in December of 1979 and eventually founding Afghan Coalition in Fremont.

They love Fremont," Popal said of the recent arrivals. "They feel at home because there is a lot of restaurants, grocery stores, banquet halls so that they can do their weddings.

The immigrants from Afghanistan have come in four waves, Popal said: following Russia's invasion, during the civil war of the 1990s, when the Taliban captured Kabul in 1996, and this year's expansion of the SIV program.

Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., also represents a district that includes part of Fremont, and tweeted Sunday that his office was ready to help those seeking to help family members escape Afghanistan.

Yet Swalwell has also been sharply critical of the Trump administration for brokering a deal with the Taliban for the exit of U.S. troops from Afghanistan.

With the Taliban poised to re-impose strict Islamic law in Afghanistan, the urgency of helping loved ones get out has become palpable. On Tuesday, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid vowed that the religious group now running the country would honor womens rights in as much as they were covered under Islamic law. For Popal, that assurance rang hollow.

We dont believe it right now, because weve seen what they have done to woman before, she said.

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid holds a press conference in Kabul, Afghanistan on August 17, 2021. (Photo by Sayed Khodaiberdi Sadat/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

For Bay Area resident Naid Fattahi, the Taliban's return to power is proving especially traumatic.

She fled Afghanistan in 1994, when the Taliban assumed power. She was 14, and entered into a marriage with a foreigner so as to be able to get out of the country.

"My life changed as a result of them, their policies and their agendas," she told NPR of the Taliban in a recent interview. "And what I'm fearful for is that the lives of many teenage girls and woman will change for the worse as well."

The first Afghan immigrant elected to public office in the U.S., Hayward City Council member Aisha Wahab echoed those misgivings.

"I think women and children are going to be the biggest casualties," she told NBC News Bay Area. "They have made the strides and made in education and the workforce will be lost if the Taliban does not phase pressure from the international world."

While Popal also laments that the progress women have made will evaporate, she also blames what she sees as a fundamental disconnect in how foreign countries view Afghanistan.

"The United States really does not understand our culture, our people, whats going on in Afghanistan. In the beginning when they came and said we want to bring democracy. We want to bring womens rights. And whats the womans rights? To take off the burka. Thats not OK in a country that is 99 percent Muslim, in a country that is very conservative, how can you go and do that?" Popal said. "And now they say, we want to go and negotiate with Taliban about your peace. Excuse me? You told us for the past 20 years that Taliban is a terrorist group and now you want to go negotiate with them? I think the whole world betrayed the Afghan people and its really sad.

Taliban members patrol the streets of Kabul, Afghanistan on August 17, 2021. (Photo by Haroon Sabawoon/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

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The National Highway Traffic Safety Administrations probe into 11 crashes of Teslas (TSLA) using the companys Autopilot mode could prove to be more than a black eye for the electric automaker. According to experts, it could slow the deployment of advanced driver-assistance technologies, and erode the trust people have in them, something thats incredibly important for such new, high-tech systems.

Announced Monday, the investigation into the crashes, which occurred from 2018 to 2021 and involved Teslas using Autopilot, or the companys Traffic Aware Cruise Control, that came into contact with emergency vehicles, sent Teslas stock tumbling more than 9% from $717.28 to $649.48 by midday Tuesday. The companys shares recovered slightly Wednesday afternoon, rising about 4% to $690

A Tesla sedan is shown after it struck a parked Laguna Beach Police Department vehicle in Laguna Beach, California, U.S. in this May 29, 2018 handout photo. (Image: Reuters)

And while the impact of the probe could range from Tesla having to implement greater limitations of the use of its vehicles driver-assistance capabilities, or even the outright disabling of the features, the harm it may have done to consumers confidence in the still relatively new technologies could take years to rebuild.

Trust is built over time and eroded quickly, Bryan Reimer, a research scientist at the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics, told Yahoo Finance. We need to fully build this trust, and overselling things doesn't help us over the long run.

According to multiple polls, Americans are still wary of self-driving cars. A 2020 Partners for Automated Vehicle Education poll of 1,200 American adults found that nearly three quarters of people dont think self-driving cars are ready for primetime. Another 48% said they would never get into an autonomous cab, though the survey found that educating users improved their overall faith in the technology.

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Still, according to Reimer, the NHTSAs probe could directly impact the trust of some of Teslas most important users: the early adopters who have flocked to its technology.

I think it hurts the trust in the system as a whole, but not to as large a degree as many might fear because...this isn't a focus point for the average consumer at this point. It's a focus point for the elite adopter or the tech savvy consumer, he said.

Reuters journalist Paul Ingrassia sits in the drivers seat of a Tesla S-Type in Autopilot mode in San Francisco, California, U.S., April 7, 2016.

If drivers lose faith in the autonomous systems that are supposed to be the key to a future of self-driving cars that eliminate traffic deaths, it could result in lower interest in the technologies, which could slow its adoption in the long run.

The probe is, an industry issue and there will be a trend of higher scrutiny on advanced driver-assistance systems and autonomy across the sector, Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas told Bloomberg Wednesday.

Outside of driver trust, Loop Ventures Gene Munster said the governments involvement could stymie the deployment of future self-driving systems.

Unfortunately, it's going to slow things down, Munster said. "Whenever the government meddles it adds extra layers. It's probably more of an industry slowdown, than Tesla specific.

Of course, the probe itself could still spell serious trouble for the automaker.

Its a cause for concern and clearly shows there will be speed bumps before reaching the holy grail of full self-driving, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives told Yahoo Finance.

According to Reimer, the NHTSA investigation could result in Tesla having to recall its driver-assistance technology entirely.

I think they are highly vulnerable. And I think that it's anything from a black eye to an absolutely detrimental impact to the organization, he said. NHTSA does have the ability to order a recall on the whole system of which you would then have consumer outrage.

Teslas Autopilot and Full Self Driving modes arent exactly what their names imply. According to Reimer, who also serves as associate director of the New England University Transportation Center, the automakers systems are far from the point of allowing drivers to sit back and let the car take control.

Photo by: STRF/STAR MAX/IPx 2021 8/16/21 Tesla's Autopilot under federal investigation following crashes. Here, a Tesla Dealership is seen in White Plains, New York.

On the Society of Automotive Engineers Levels of Driving Automation scale, which ranges from Level 0, or totally driver dependent, to Level 5, or full autonomy, Teslas capabilities are only Level 2. That means while Teslas equipped with Autopilot or Full Self Driving mode have advanced sensors and capabilities that can help keep your car in its lane, slow down when other cars are in its way, and make certain turns, you still need to be in control.

In fact, Tesla says as much on its customer support page for both Autopilot and Full Self Driving. But that doesnt come across very clearly when the name of the technology is, well, Autopilot or Full Self Driving.

We do not need overhype, we need to actually move consumers, over time, to trust highly automated technologies as part of their daily lives, Reimer said.

It doesnt help that Autopilot is nothing like General Motors' (GM) Super Cruise system. That system has head-tracking technology that can determine if youre not paying attention to the road and eventually slows the car to a stop and calls OnStar services to determine if youre experiencing any issues. Teslas system requires a certain amount of pressure on the steering wheel, which can be defeated with something as simple as weight attached to the wheel.

I think that one of the things that's really important here is that it's not only the system's impact on a driver that's the concern, it's the fact that the decisions here impact other road users, Reimer said.

For now, Tesla will have to await the outcome of the NHTSA investigation to determine its next steps. As for drivers, if the automakers driver-assistance systems are found to be a problem, theyll have to begin rebuilding consumers' confidence from scratch.

Daniel Howley is tech editor at Yahoo Finance.

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For Samsung, the future is flexible. And to prove it, the company has launched its newest foldable-screen phone, the aptly named Galaxy Z Fold3.

Available for pre-order now, and on sale Aug. 29, the Z Fold3 is the companys latest smartphone that folds in half like a book. And while the original Z Fold and Z Fold2 had issues like fragile screen covers and a lack of water resistance, Samsung has addressed them with the latest release. It also added on some extras, like the ability to use the companys S Pen stylus.

But there are still some shortcomings for the Z Fold3. Namely, its hefty price tag it starts at $1,799 and the fact that it still isnt dust resistant. That said, I cant help but love watching shows on its giant 7.6-inch display.

The Z Fold3, like its predecessors, functions almost as two different phones. Theres the way you use it with the main screen folded, scrolling and tapping away at its 6.2-inch cover screen, and the way you use it when the main screen is wide open in all of its bendable glory.

The front screen, which gets a faster refresh rate for smoother scrolling, is where youll likely spend your time checking messages, the time, and notifications, or quickly Googling random tidbits like when daylight saving time ends. Its Nov. 7, by the way.

The cover screen is a must-have since the main screen is folded up most of the time. And it works well for quick tasks, but its narrow design makes text look more squeezed together than it would on a wider display.

The keyboard, as before, is also cramped when typing with the cover screen, which can be bothersome when youre trying to tap out lengthy text messages or emails. And thats where the main display comes in.

The screen, which also has a 120Hz refresh rate, provides plenty of real estate for watching movies, TV shows, TikTok videos on home repairs, anything really. It also easily picks up where you left off with the cover screen. So, if youre reading a long document, or setting up your fantasy football team on the front display and want a bit more room to stretch out, you can pop open the main screen and the same content will be there.

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Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold3 is Samsung's latest take on a foldable phone, and gets a stronger display, and water-resistant design. (Image: Samsung)

Samsung offers multitasking capabilities with the Z Fold3. You can drag individual apps from the recently opened app menu to the center of the main screen to open them as resizable pop-up windows. Or using the task bar, you can open two apps at once.

The Fold3s Labs option, found in the phones advanced settings menu, adds even more to the offerings, letting you resize apps that havent yet been optimized for the Z Fold3s larger main screen, and open all apps, in pop-up or split-screen modes.

Oh, and you can finally use Samsungs S Pen Stylus with the Z Fold3. So if youre partial to writing notes, rather than typing them, youre in luck.

Of course, the Z Fold3s large main screen means that youll probably need to use both hands to hold it when its unfolded. And when folded the phone is chunkier than, say, a Galaxy S21, which has a flat-screen design. So if youre looking for a petite smartphone, this might not be what youre looking for.

Around back the Z Fold3 has a trio of cameras. Theres a wide-angle lens, an ultra-wide angle, and a telephoto option. True to form, the photos taken with Samsungs phone look crisp, but can look blown out, especially where bright colors meet. A close-up shot of a yellow bush, for instance, looked better on the iPhone 12 Pro than the Z Fold3 thanks to the fact that the colors look more distinct on the iPhone.

The Galaxy Z Fold3 now has S Pen support. (Image: Samsung)

Low-light shots of my cat, currently in a cast after he tried to perform some advanced gymnastics while jumping from my kitchen counter to the island, looked bright, but details were softer than those in photos taken with the iPhone.

One of the Z Fold3s more interesting features, though, is its under-display selfie camera. See, rather than a notch at the top of the Z Fold3s main screen that holds the camera, Samsung has made it so that the portion of the display over the lens can show pixels to match whatever youre viewing on screen, making it appear as though the camera isnt there at all.

Its a slick setup, but the photos arent exactly great. Zoom in, and youll notice that shots are blurrier than those taken with an iPhones FaceTime camera.

One of my biggest gripes with the original Z Fold and Z Fold2 was that they werent water resistant. Thankfully, Samsung has made the Z Fold3 capable of surviving taking a quick dip into 5 feet of water without turning into an $1,800 paperweight. But Samsung says the Z Fold3 still isnt dust resistant, since it has its moving hinge, which can allow debris and make it susceptible to damage.

Inside, the Z Fold3 gets a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor and 12GB of RAM. The base version also gets 256GB of storage with the option to upgrade to 512GB.

Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold3 lets you control apps using its split panel mode. (Image: Samsung)

In terms of battery life, you can expect to get about a days worth of power out of the Z Fold3. Its not going to win the award for longest-lasting phone, but it will get the job done from morning until you plug it in at night.

The Galaxy Z Fold3 is Samsungs best take on the book-style foldable phone design. Its improved durability and water resistant, not to mention its S Pen integration makes it an especially appealing option for consumers who want a smartphone with a giant screen.

That said, the lack of dust resistance, its chunky design, and sky-high price, mean that most consumers will likely keep their distance. Samsung has done a wonderful job of building on the original Z Fold and Z Fold2, now it needs to do the same with the Z Fold3 to ensure the next generation is a truly mainstream smartphone for all consumers.

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Samsungs Galaxy Z Fold3 is a foldable phone with a lot of promise, and a sky-high price - Yahoo Finance

Current markets continue to be underscored by inflation fears as well as labor market recoveries across most states as people return to work. However, according to Jay Hatfield, founder, CEO, and portfolio manager at InfraCap, the risk of stagflation in 2022 is the most pressing issue facing markets right now.

I think [the Taliban takeover of the Afghan government] maybe caused a little bit of weakening, about maybe 10 handles in the S&P, Hatfield told Yahoo Finance Live. But the dominant risk right now we see is really stagflation in '22 and that the Fed has lost control of inflation.

Hatfield noted that it is likely the Fed will need to raise interest rates at least twice in 2022 because of where the brunt of inflation is coming from, which is the housing and consumer durable sectors. Ultimately, it is Fed Chair Jerome Powell who holds the smoking gun on inflation, he said.

So not only did you see the images from Afghanistan, you also had reporting that not just [James] Bullard and [Robert] Kaplan, which tend to be the thought leaders on the Fed, but other members are realizing that inflation is out of control and are likely to accelerate the taper, Hatfield added.

Hatfield joined Yahoo Finance Live to discuss the current outlook on inflation in the U.S. as well as monetary policy expectations from the Fed. InfraCap is an SEC-registered, New York City-based investment adviser that manages ETFs and a series of hedge funds.

As for whether the current levels of inflation will be sustained over a longer term, as the Fed continues to hammer home its transitory theme, Hatfield believes that inflation is indeed accelerating.

If you mark CPI to market so in other words, specifically look at housing and instead of using the BLS methodology of asking homeowners every six months whether they think rents have gone up, you just look at the market. [And] if you just look on the internet, which maybe the BLS should learn how to use, then the CPI would be really running 8% year over year, he said.

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Hatfield also cited hyperinflation in steel markets as being another reason why inflation could potentially rise to double digits if an aggressive tapering strategy is not pursued by the Fed. He believes that the only way to effectively get inflation under control is to begin raising interest rates prior to the conclusion of the planned tapering efforts mentioned by Kaplan in an interview with CNBC last week.

The only thing that's going to slow the housing market down is higher rates, Hatfield said. Just not buying as much securities is not going to slow [it] down because there is a momentum to these situations as well, as we know from the boom during the 2000s. Once housing prices start going higher, people buy on a speculative basis.

In regard to Hatfields predictions of stagflation and interest rate hikes by the Fed in the coming year, however, Invesco (IVZ) Global Market Strategist Brian Levitt does not hold the same opinion. Levitt pointed to current bond market conditions as being the strongest indicator that inflation levels are expected to eventually quell.

You've got a one-year breakeven of over 3%, which may sound scary, but I would say [is] supportive for corporate earnings, Levitt told Yahoo Finance Live. And you've got two-, three-, five-year inflation breakevens moving back into the 2.5% range which is largely consistent with the Fed's comfort zone and suggests that the bond market, which tends to get it right more often than anything else, expects inflation to moderate over time.

Thomas Hum is a writer at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter: @thomashumTV

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Stagflation in 2022 is the current 'dominant risk:' Infracap CEO - Yahoo Finance

Bitcoin's (BTC-US) bulls and bears have been more active than ever this year as the cryptocurrency hovers around $46,000. Notable heavy hitters have publicly talked up or down the coin as it soared to new highs earlier this year.

Tesla (TSLA) and SpaceX founder Elon Musk is arguably the most notable crypto bull, and his tweets can move the coin's price. Bitcoin spiked earlier this year when Tesla initially announced it had bought bitcoin and would soon be accepting it as payment.

"Elon's comments and actions do have an impact on crypto, specifically Bitcoin, specifically Dogecoin (DOGE-USD)," YouTube host Matt Kohrs tells Yahoo Finance.

"Him as a person, I would say it has direct impacts. Other individuals though, I don't really think the effect is as large or really if any," he noted.

Other bitcoin bulls include the founder of Ark Invest, Cathie Wood. Her team is creating a bitcoin-focused ETF. Wood's analysts have a $500,000 price target on the coin.

MicroStrategy's (MSTR) founder and CEO Michael Saylor boldly added the cryptocurrency time and again on his company's balance sheet.

Twitter's (TWTR) CEO Jack Dorsey, a crypto advocate for years, recently said bitcoin will be a big part of the company's future. Twitter is one of big names which have announced strategies involving crypto.

"When you have these big swingers coming out, such as Apple (AAPL) or MasterCard (MA), I mean, that's a big deal. Cause like it gives it credence that it is a legitimate store of value. Something that could be traded as a currency. So I think that's very, very important," said Kohrs, noting the coin is taking on a new "social acceptance."

But the cryptocurrency also has notable bears, including legendary investors Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger.Buffett oncecalled bitcoin "probably rat poison-squared."

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At Berkshire Hathaway's (BRK-A) (BRK-B) annual shareholder meeting in May, Munger said, "Of course, I hate the bitcoin success, and I dont welcome a currency thats useful to kidnappers and extortionists, and so forth ... So, I think I should say modestly that I think the whole damn development is disgusting and contrary to the interests of civilization. And I'll leave the criticism to others." At their 2018 shareholder meeting, Munger called the coin a "turd."

Economist and Stern School of Business professor Nouriel Roubini is another bear. He has told Yahoo Finance, "It's not scaleable, it's not secure, it's not decentralized, it's not a currency."

Even investor Michael Burry has had some bearish remarks warning against a crypto crash.

I dont hate BTC, Burry wrote on Twitter earlier this year. But the long term future is tenuous for decentralized crypto in a world of legally violent, heartless centralized governments with lifeblood interests in monopolies on currencies.

Kohrs, who has a long position on bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, says the retail community is often "emboldened" by the bears.

"Anecdotally, from the retail community, especially supporters of crypto, the commentary I see is that they just don't get it," says Kohrs.

Either way, he believes bitcoin is here to stay.

"Bitcoin, culturally and socially, has pinned itself where I just don't see how it loses. Either more and more companies accept it and thats good. Or if people start speaking out against it, it does embolden a certain portion of the audience ... reaching more into that psychological realm of fighting against the man," said Kohrs.

One of the two sides will be right someday. "Decades down the road. I'll either be very right or very wrong," says Kohrs. And so will crypto's bulls and bears.

Ines is a markets reporter covering stocks from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Follow her on Twitter at @ines_ferre

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Bitcoin bulls vs bears: A look at the big names backing and shunning crypto - Yahoo Finance

Blockchain is a type of database composed of a growing list of records, individually known as blocks, that are chained together through computer cryptography. The goal of blockchain is to allow for the recording and distribution of digital information that is unable to be tampered with.

Unlike a typical database where data is electronically stored in a table format, data within a blockchain is stored within its connected blocks, with each block containing information about the block that came before it. It is this characteristic that creates a resistance to modification of a blockchains data, because a change to one blocks information would require the alteration of all subsequent blocks created. And although blockchains are not entirely unalterable, as a collectively agreed-upon update to the network may be known as a fork, blockchains are designed to be foundationally secure.

Blockchains are typically managed through a peer-to-peer network of computers working together to serve as a publicly distributed ledger of data (or transactions). Every node in the network follows a specific protocol which the entire blockchain adheres to in order to validate new blocks and communicate with each other.

Although blockchain comes up in nearly every conversation involving cryptocurrencies, the two terms cannot be used interchangeably. Rather, blockchain is the network and platform through which cryptocurrency is transacted and generated. For example, the ether (ETH-USD) cryptocurrency operates through the ethereum blockchain.

Blockchain technology had been discussed in scientific literature for nearly two decades before the advent of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin (BTC-USD) and ether the two largest by market cap with cryptocurrencies becoming one of the first and most widely known applications of blockchain. In 2009, an individual or group of individuals using the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto invented the first cryptocurrency through the bitcoin blockchain to serve as a public ledger for transactions of bitcoin.

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One of the most significant solutions that a digital currency through blockchain technology provides is an answer to the double-spending problem. In addition, it provides this solution along with all of its functionality without the need for a trusted central authority or server. As mentioned previously, because a blockchain network consists of computer nodes which can be located anywhere in the world, blockchains, and therefore cryptocurrencies, operate as completely decentralized platforms.

Decentralization, along with the pseudo-anonymity offered by cryptocurrency as a means of saving and payment as cryptocurrency wallets do not require verification such as state identification to use is one of the themes that has made blockchain technology and cryptocurrency so popular and controversial. Other potential benefits offered by blockchain as a currency platform include 24/7, 365-day operation, transaction fees determined by a market, speed, security, and ease of access.

Digital generated image of glowing semi transparent purple cubes connecting with other cubes and forming big net cubic shape on light purple background.

Although cryptocurrency is undoubtedly the most famous application of blockchain, blockchain technology can be used for many other practical applications as well. For example, the banking and finance industry could benefit greatly from blockchains speed, security, and lack of set hours of operation. Other areas of society and business that could stand to benefit from usage of this technology include federal currencies, the healthcare industry, supply chains, and even democratic elections. Each of these could leverage one or all of the previously mentioned benefits that blockchain has to offer.

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Blockchain: What is it and what does it have to do with crypto? - Yahoo Finance