#272
Crazy, Rich Americans

MoneyLion to sponsor Talladega XFINITY race - Talladega Superspeedway has announced that MoneyLion, America's most powerful financial membership, has partnered with the iconic 2.66 mile venue and will serve as the entitlement sponsor of the MoneyLion 300 XFinity Series event on Saturday, April 27th. Read more

Super rich Americans are getting younger and multiplying - Bloomberg believes technology and VC has created far greater numbers of billionaires and multi-millionaires, with IPOs or rich funding rounds minting wealth overnight - whereas the super-wealthy of the past had to accumulate riches by building up empires over decades. Read more

Banks woo billionaire heirs with insider peek at Silicon Valley - With 93 of the 500 richest people in the world aged at least 80 years old, money managers are pulling out all the stops to hold their ultra-wealthy clients close. Bloomberg unpacks how young, soon-to-be billionaires, get an exclusive look at emerging tech and access to industry insiders. Read more

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's 70% tax plan: what all Americans need to know - Motley Fool reviews AOC's plan for the highest earners in the US. Read more

Square & Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey - the Rolling Stone interview - Q: By all accounts, Square runs more smoothly than Twitter? A: "It has to, though. Yeah, you’re dealing with people’s money. I mean, it’s extremely emotional. If you lose 140 characters, people are like, “Eh.” If you lose $140 or even $1.40, it’s important. Read more

New pan-Asia body to help regional fintech players grow - 60 financial institutions from 12 countries and regions have joined the Fintech Cooperation Committee, a new pan-Asia network bringing together Asian fintech start-ups, financial institutions and banks to trade knowledge and expertise. Read more

Fiserv to acquire First Data in $22b all-stock deal - Fiserv has struck a deal to buy First Data for $22 billion, combining two companies that, though largely unknown to consumers, provide much of the financial technology that connects Wall Street to Main Street. Read more

The latest trend in mobile gaming: stock-trading apps - Apps such as Robinhood and Webull are drawing in young and often inexperienced investors and ‘bringing the ability to make foolish decisions to an ever-broader swath of people.’ Read more

The ghost UK companies connected to suspected money laundering, corruption, and Paul Manafort - The network of more than 100 firms shows that despite promises by successive British prime ministers to crack down on financial crime and corruption, UK authorities are still failing to stop suspected money launderers from pumping millions of pounds through the Western financial system. Read more

Mastercard outbids Visa for tiny firm in $30tn sector - The 21-year-old firm isn’t a startup, and despite its name it isn’t playing in the private space travel game. Earthport is a cross-border payments network. It uses a cloud-based setup to help banks and financial firms transmit payments for their own customers as an alternative to Swift. Read more

Galaxy Digital raising $250m for credit fund - The crypto merchant bank launched by former hedge fund manager Michael Novogratz is raising the money to provide loans to struggling crypto firms, with the credit looking to be backed by crypto tokens or crypto mining devices and property. Read more

Goldman, Citi drop online lender IPOs amid China crackdown - The rare show of concern by major investment banks highlights the loss of confidence by investors and regulators in what used to be one of China's hottest sectors, growing to over $200b of annual originations from almost nothing in 2012. Read more

Cryptocurrency firm Robinhood wins New York trading license - The approval will allow the commission-free startup to trade in seven cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, ether, bitcoin cash and litecoin. Read more