Kevin Bacon says it ‘sucked’ to lose money in Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme
Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick lost money in Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. Actor Kevin Bacon says he isn’t jaded after losing money in former financier Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, but it still stings all these years later. Bacon discussed the incident during a recent interview with Esquire, nearly two decades after Madoff’s criminal operation crumbled.…
Spend more to avoid dying rich if you don’t have kids, says this financial guru
Financial advice is not always tailored to people without kids. Many childfree people should be spending more and saving less, one financial guru says. One reason they may be too frugal is conventional financial plans often assume people have kids or want them, meaning those without children get a lot of “bad advice,” Jay Zigmont,…
Larry Fink says we are ‘probably’ in a recession, but don’t sell your stocks just yet
BlackRock CEO Larry Fink was interviewed Monday at an Economic Club of New York event. The CEO of the world’s largest asset manager was asked whether he thinks a recession is coming. Larry Fink’s response: We’re in it. Most CEOs the BlackRock chief has been talking to “would say we are probably in a recession…
I saved $20,000 last year using travel credit cards. Here’s how I get the most points without opening new ones.
Learning how to get the most out of points and miles with credit cards has transformed how I travel on a budget. Now that I’ve figured out how to use points and miles to pay for airline tickets and hotels, I travel more than I ever did before. Over the past year alone, I saved…
TikTok is laying off staff as it restructures part of its e-commerce business
TikTok is letting go of some US e-commerce staff today as part of a restructuring of its governance and experience team, five employees at the company told B-17. E-commerce governance and experience, called GNE for short, is a global team that handles marketplace safety for users, sellers, and creators within TikTok Shop. The group manages…
They assemble their products in America. They’re also rattled by Trump’s tariffs.
Trump’s roller-coaster trade policy has some American small businesses on edge. Going 100% “Made in the USA” isn’t practical for many American businesses — just ask them. Although one of President Donald Trump’s stated goals is to get companies to produce more products in the US, several American businesses told B-17 that the trade war…
TikTok is shaking up its e-commerce team as it prepares to launch in a key market
TikTok is shaking up its e-commerce operations in a move that gives more power to leaders from China and Singapore. The changes impact its global governance and experience team and will shape the development of new markets like Latin America, according to a memo sent to staff on Friday, which B-17 viewed. Global leaders, not…
OpenAI’s latest move makes it harder for rivals like DeepSeek to copy its homework
Sam Altman’s OpenAI is tightening up developer access to its models. In a bid to protect its crown jewels, OpenAI is now requiring government ID verification for developers who want access to its most advanced AI models. While the move is officially about curbing misuse, a deeper concern is emerging: that OpenAI’s own outputs are…
OpenAI’s chair is ‘optimistic’ about how AI will change work, and pointed to Excel to explain why
Bret Taylor says the future belongs to workers who can rethink their value. OpenAI chair Bret Taylor has used Microsoft Excel to explain why he’s “optimistic” that people will learn to work with AI, amid a wave of anxiety among knowledge workers who fear the tech will replace them. Taylor, who also leads the AI…
