power

Tom Jones5/22/25

America will officially stop making cents in 2026

The next time someone offers you a penny for your thoughts, it might be a limited-time offer.

According to exclusive reporting from The Wall Street Journal, the Treasury will stop pushing new pennies into circulation by early 2026 as the government makes a move to end the conversation around the cost efficiency of minting America’s lowest denomination.

While the debate has whirred for years, it was recently stoked by Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency, which centered its argument around a point that was as difficult to argue with as it was nonsensical-sounding: each one-cent coin costs more than three cents to make.

Coin costs update chart — Sherwood News

Clearly, the nickel might not be long for this world either if the decision’s made purely on the basis of costs.

President Trump said back in February that he’d already ordered the Treasury to stop minting new pennies. Since then, the department has presumably been ironing out what exactly getting rid of the coins would mean for the world of cash, with the Journal reporting that the Treasury said businesses will “need to start rounding up or down to the nearest 5 cents.”

Americans will still be able to pay with pennies after production halts next year.

Exclusive | Treasury Sounds Death Knell for Penny Production

Exclusive | Treasury Sounds Death Knell for Penny Production

While the debate has whirred for years, it was recently stoked by Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency, which centered its argument around a point that was as difficult to argue with as it was nonsensical-sounding: each one-cent coin costs more than three cents to make.

Coin costs update chart — Sherwood News

Clearly, the nickel might not be long for this world either if the decision’s made purely on the basis of costs.

President Trump said back in February that he’d already ordered the Treasury to stop minting new pennies. Since then, the department has presumably been ironing out what exactly getting rid of the coins would mean for the world of cash, with the Journal reporting that the Treasury said businesses will “need to start rounding up or down to the nearest 5 cents.”

Americans will still be able to pay with pennies after production halts next year.

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Traders are getting more and more pessimistic about the government shutdown ending any time soon

The market expects the shutdown to last well into November.

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OpenAI’s internal Slack messages could cost it billions in copyright suit

Authors and publishers suing OpenAI over copyright infringement were granted access to internal OpenAI communications about the deletion of a pirated books dataset, and now want to review attorney communications.

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US corporate spending on private flights for executives has ballooned in recent years

The median expense spent by America’s largest companies on air travel jumped 66% from 2020 to 2024.

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power

Claire Yubin Oh10/1/25

OK, so when was the longest shutdown in US history?

The US government officially shut down at 12:01 a.m. on Wednesday after senators failed to agree on a last-minute funding bill. Though initially shrugging off the threat of a shutdown during yesterday’s session, stocks were mildly in the red on Wednesday as investors reacted to what is now the 11th shutdown in the government’s history.

Until this latest shutdown, there had been 20 government funding gaps experienced since 1976 — though not all ended in a full shutdown, with full closure averted in half of those cases.

Indeed, prior to the 1980s, funding gaps didn’t typically have major effects on government operations, with agencies continuing to operate on the basis that the funding would come eventually. However, a more stringent interpretation of the rules led to a stricter appropriations process from the early 1980s onward, with many subsequent funding gaps resulting in a shutdown of affected agencies (unless the gaps were quickly fixed or occurred over a weekend).

Obviously, the duration of the latest shutdown is still unclear, but it will continue until Congress passes a funding bill — most likely via a “continuing resolution,” which has ended every shutdown since 1990. Data analyzed by USAFacts suggest that it might not be a one- or two-day affair, as funding gaps have lengthened in recent years.

Government shutdown patterns — Sherwood News

Indeed, the last shutdown, which began in December 2018, ended up becoming the longest in history, at a whopping 34 days. By the time the government reopened in January 2019, about $3 billion (in 2019 dollars) had been wiped from the GDP in Q4, per data from the Congressional Budget Office, with approximately $18 billion in “federal discretionary spending” delayed over the roughly five-week stretch.

power

Max Knoblauch9/24/25

GM climbs following upgrade, report that Trump administration seeks stake in its lithium mine partner

Shares of General Motors rose more than 2% in premarket trading Wednesday following an upgrade of the stock by UBS from “neutral” to “buy.” The firm also hiked its price target for GM by 45% to $81.

Also likely elevating GM was a Reuters report that the Trump administration is exploring taking a 10% stake in Lithium Americas, the automaker’s partner in a yet to open Thacker Pass lithium mine. Shares of Lithium Americas surged 68% in the premarket.

GM, which invested $625 million into the lithium mine last year, holds a 38% stake in the joint venture. The mine is expected to become the Western Hemisphere’s primary lithium source in 2028, when it’s slated to open, producing enough of the metal to make 800,000 electric vehicle batteries.

Prior to its plans for Lithium Americas, the Trump administration last month said it would take a 10% stake in Intel. In July, it announced a 15% stake in rare earths miner MP Materials.

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