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I should go to the dentist more often. I really ought to join a gym. I wish I had partied less in college and bought more Apple stock. Had I ditched the pint of Guinness and invested in Apple in the early 2000s, each pint worth of stock would now be valued at $3,500. Over those college years, I would have accumulated enough stock to buy a brownstone on New Yorks pricey Upper West Side. All cash. Looking back, I probably still would have enjoyed that cold brew with my friends. A pint of Guinness felt just right in the moment. 2025 was far off. As the world gathered for the United Nations General Assembly to discuss climate change, among other global challenges, heres a contrarian take on whats just right for this moment. The climate movement, by and large, embraced the mantra of reduce, reuse, recycle and banked on enough usvoters, policy makers, businesses, consumerscaring deeply about the future to change our daily habits to curb global warming. Its not happening. Carbon emissions hit a fresh record last year, according to EU data. WE WANT IT NOW Lets pivot. Reducing doesn’t deliver a dopamine hit, nor does thinking about tomorrow’s perils. Who genuinely wants less when they can have more? Who truly saves that rich chocolate cake for another day when it looks perfectly tasty right now? Lets get more of what we want today with the cash and the resources we have. When I purchase a refurbished iPhone 13 for my daughter at a fraction of the cost of that new iPhone 17 that just launched, I am not reducing my consumption, I get more. She has the phone she (kinda) wants and I keep a few hundred dollars in my pocket. I can use that to buy her Robux, or invest it in her college fund. I can even afford a second iPhone for her brother, who will inevitably complain that her iPhone 13 camera is so much better than his iPhone 12. American consumers are drowning in record debt, reports from the Fed show. Levels exceed $18 trillion, with average interest rates on credit cards soaring to 21%, and typical cash advances running even higher. Eleven cents for every dollar in after-tax income now pays off debt and interest. For low- and moderate-income households, its even more. A quarter of buy now, pay later users reported a late payment last year. Transunion data shows delinquencies on car loans now surpass 2009 levels, while a PYMNTS Intelligence study found that two-thirds of American households live paycheck to paycheck. A perfect storm of rising prices, high interest rates, growing consumer debt, and tariff uncertainty creates ripe conditions to re-imagine our daily spending choices. EMISSIONS AND BUDGETS GO TOGETHER To date, one of the biggest winners of this financial squeeze are debt providers stepping in as consumers scramble to afford essentials. Klarna reported 24% gross merchandise value growth year-over-year for June and BNPL is now available virtually everywhere for virtually anything, from groceries to fast food. Affirm raked in $1.2 billion from interest payments in the year ending June, up 76%. Facing the near-total reversal of hard-won policies designed to curb emissions, especially in the U.S, many in the climate movement have yet to capitalize on this opportunity hiding in plain sight: rewiring today’s spending to benefit consumers wallets and the planet. When every dollar counts, the choices that stretch our paychecks further often align perfectly with the ones that reduce our environmental footprint. We don’t need to care about 2050 to make smarter decisions today. I dont need to worry about my emissions profile to enjoy driving my ID.4 electric vehicle. Its got more horsepower than a Mustang or a Camaro. Its far cheaper to run. I avoid the queues at the gas station and charge for free at work. It parks itself. My kids no longer complain that the car is too cold in the winter and too hot in the summer. Theres no difference in the quality of electricity that comes out of my sockets, except that it is generated by community solar, and I pay less for it. Taking the Metro from the airport to our offices in DC is frequently faster, more relaxing, and often less than a tenth of the rideshare price. OFFER MORE I am not alone. PBS reports that thrifting has exploded in the U.S. amidst high prices for fashion and tech. Reuters analysis showed that a popular basket of apparel at fast fashion leader Shein increased 123% between April and July this year. Too Good To Go, which connects users with businesses that have surplus food, is now one of the top apps in the food delivery category, up there with Uber Eats, DoorDash and Grubhub. Its surprise baskets, filled with unsold items like baked goods, takeout meals, or groceries, offer consumers great value at half price or less from Whole Foods, Cava, and other popular chains. The climate movement spent decades asking people to sacrifice today for tomorrow. Lets flip the switch. Give people more todaymore money in their pockets, more value from their purchases, more control over their finances. Lets seize this moment to innovate and drive efficiencies that make daily essentials more affordable, without relying on costly loans. Lets shutter the failing business of offering people less and double down on optimizing what we have. Weve gotten good at it. This is our time. For my family, the smartest financial movesbuying refurbished, driving electric, rescuing surplus foodhappen to be sustainable ones. We’re not saving the planet because we suddenly started caring more about the future. We’re doing it because we figured out how to make the most of what we have to live better today. The greenest choice is often the one that keeps you out of the red. Jean-Louis Warnholz is the cofounder and CEO of Future.
Category:
E-Commerce
Berkshire Hathaway is buying Occidental Petroleum’s chemical division for $9.7 billion in what may be the last big acquisition involving the consummate dealmaker, Warren Buffett. Buffett wasnt mentioned anywhere in materials released by Berkshire Hathaway discussing the deal Thursday, potentially signaling a passing of the torch to Vice Chair Greg Abel, to whom Buffet will hand the CEO title in January. Buffett will remain chairman at Berkshire and will still be involved in deciding how to spend the conglomerates colossal pile of more than $344 billion in cash. Berkshires cash reserves have been growing for years because Buffett has been unable to find any major acquisitions at attractive prices since completing the $11.6 billion acquisition of Alleghany Insurance in 2022. Prices for big acquisitions have been driven higher in recent years by the entry of more hedge funds in the market. OxyChem makes things like chlorine for water treatment, vinyl chloride for plastics, and calcium chloride thats used to treat icy roads, along with an assortment of other chemicals. It will fit nicely within Berkshire alongside Lubrizol, a chemical company Buffett bought in 2011 for $9 billion. Berkshire is acquiring a robust portfolio of operating assets, supported by an accomplished team, Abel said in a prepared statement. We look forward to welcoming OxyChem as an operating subsidiary within Berkshire.” OxyChem generated $213 million in pretax earnings for Occidental in the second quarter, though that is down from last year, when it generated nearly $300 million for the company. This year, Occidental has been selling off some of its assets in the Permian Basin to generate $950 million to pay down debt. Since it completed the CrownRock acquisition in December 2023, Occidental has sold off roughly $4 billion worth of assets to help it pay down $7.5 billion in debt. This OxyChem deal will accelerate that. Occidental expects to use $6.5 billion of proceeds from the Berkshire deal to lower debt and achieve the target of principal debt below $15 billion set following the announcement of its CrownRock acquisition. Berkshire held more than 28% of Occidentals stock and had warrants to buy another 83,911,942.38 shares in the major oil and gas producer for $59.58 per share before this deal. And Berkshire held about $8.5 billion worth of preferred Occidental shares that it picked up in 2019, when it helped finance the oil producers purchase of Anadarko that Occidental has been paying 8% dividends on every year. Buffett had previously told Berkshire investors that he wouldnt sell off the Occidental stake and he has been periodically buying more shares, but he also told shareholders in 2023 that he had no plans to buy all of Occidental. Berkshire owns an eclectic assortment of dozens of companies, including Geico and several other insurers, BNSF Railway, a portfolio of major utilities, and some well-known brands like Dairy Queen and Sees Candy. Buffett has built up the conglomerate over the past 60 years. In addition to owning companies outright, Berkshire holds stocks worth more than $250 billion, including large stakes in Apple, Coca-Cola, Bank of America, and American Express. The OxyChem deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year. By Josh Funk, AP business writer AP Business Writer Michelle Chapman contributed to this report.
Category:
E-Commerce
Investors are celebrating a major shake up in how FICO scores will be shared with mortgage lenders, as shares of parent company Fair Isaac have rallied more than 20% on Thursday. That stock rally follows FICOs announcement on Wednesday of a new pricing model that will allow mortgage lenders to calculate and distribute credit scores directly to borrowers, thereby eliminating the need to rely on the three nationwide credit bureaus for this information. In addition to its legacy pricing model, lenders can now opt for a direct license option that will save them up to 50% on per-score FICO fees. The FICO score is one of a few different credit scoring models that help lenders assess how likely a borrower is to pay back a loan. According to FICO, the score is used by 90% of top U.S. lenders. The new program puts pricing model choice in the hands of those who use FICO Scores to drive mortgage decisions, Will Lansing, CEO of Bozeman, Montana-based FICO said in a statement. A direct licensing program was always a possibility, Lansing said in an interview with CNBC on Thursday, but this move was primarily motivated by a call for increased competition and lower prices by Bill Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. FICO UNDER FIRE Beginning in May, Fair Isaac came under fire by Pulte, who said he was extremely disappointed about FICOs announcement of price hike for credit scores, then announced in July that mortgage lenders could use a rival credit score, the VantageScore, to evaluate potential borrowers, and even called FICO a monopoly. I think we have responded to the call, and so I think there will be a lot of happiness around the idea that the score prices are flat-to-down for next year and we have competing channels of distribution, Lansing said on CNBC. Containing costs throughout the mortgage lending system will ultimately trickle down to consumers, he added. The surge in Fair Isaacs stock price on Thursday follows a three-month selloff of nearly 41% amid Pultes criticism of FICO scores. In a post on the X platform on Thursday, Pulte said he genuinely appreciates that FICO responded to constructive criticism with creative solutions that ultimately benefit American consumers. While their decision is a first step, it is appreciated. I encourage the Credit Bureaus [sic] to also take similar creative and constructive actions to make our markets safer, stronger, and more competitive. CREDIT BUREAUS SLUMP But whats good seen as news for FICO, at least according to shareholders, isnt so good for the three credit bureaus. Shares of Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax fell between 4.3% and nearly 10% on Thursday. Direct licensing could eliminate the margin that credit bureaus currently earn on the FICO credit score, according to Citigroup analysts. “Our initial reaction is this is negative for Experian and Equifax,” they wrote in a note.
Category:
E-Commerce
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