BUSINESS

The bill proposes a 10% tax on gains from regulated crypto platforms, withheld quarterly, with the president having the power to adjust the rate between 0% and 20%.

The latest purchase, funded through common and preferred stock sales, lifted total holdings to 720,737 coins valued at more than $47 billion.

Claude had been gaining more respect with users following ChatGPT backlash and the introduction of new coding tools, though an outage might erode some of that goodwill.

Procter & Gamble has been paying dividends for more than a century. In 2026, it made one of its biggest shareholder commitments ever.The Dow Jones Dividend King is the consumer goods giant behind Tide, Pampers, Gillette, and dozens of other household brands. It recently disclosed plans to pay out roughly $10 billion in dividends in fiscal year 2026 alone. Moreover, P&G (PG) expects to buy back about $5 billion in company stock, bringing total cash returned to shareholders to $15 billion for the year.That’s a significant number. And it’s coming at a time when P&G’s growth has slowed, and the company is working hard to get back on track.

Procter & Gamble has a diversified product portfolio.TheStreet/Shutterstock

Procter & Gamble is a rare dividend royaltyFounded in 1837 — yes, 189 years ago — Procter & Gamble is one of the oldest publicly traded companies in America. But age isn’t what makes it stand out to dividend investors. Consistency is.P&G has raised its dividend for 69 consecutive years. More Dividend Stocks:The Dow’s best dividend stocks: A shortlist for income investorsSteve Cohen’s Point72 scoops up $336M in blue-chip dividend stock134-year-old beverage giant hikes dividend again in 2026That puts it firmly in the elite “Dividend King” category, which requires at least 50 straight years of increases. Very few companies ever reach that milestone.The dividend currently sits at $4.23 per share annually, paid out quarterly at $1.06 per share.Key dividend numbers investors should know:Annual dividend: $4.23 per shareDividend yield: Approx. 2.6% (as of late February 2026)Consecutive years of dividend increases: 69Dividend payment frequency: QuarterlyPayout ratio: About 65% (FCF-based)20-year dividend growth rate: Approx. 6.3% annuallyPlanned fiscal 2026 total dividend payout: About $10 billionA payout ratio around 65% is considered healthy. It means P&G is returning solid income to investors without stretching itself too thin.A sluggish fiscal Q2P&G’s recent results tell a mixed story. The company had a rough start to fiscal year 2026, though management says the worst is behind it.Core earnings per share came in at $1.88 in the most recent quarter, which was flat year over year.Related: PepsiCo raises dividend again to extend legendary streakOrganic sales growth slowed in the U.S. market, dragged down by a tough comparison period. (The prior year saw unusual consumer stockpiling tied to port strikes and hurricanes.)Chief Financial Officer Andre Schulten offered further detail.Outside the U.S., things look better. Markets across Latin America are growing at a high single-digit clip. Almost all regions outside the U.S. grew or accelerated in the first half of fiscal 2026.P&G focuses on product innovationP&G isn’t sitting still. The Dividend King is making several targeted moves it hopes will reignite growth.One big focus is stronger product innovation. Tide recently launched its biggest upgrade in over two decades to its original liquid detergent at the same price but with a better formula. Since launch, the product has gone from declining sales to double-digit growth; a turnaround on a product that large is rare.P&G is also rolling out Tide evo, a brand-new laundry format that concentrates cleaning ingredients into individual fiber tiles. Protected by more than 50 patents, management calls it the biggest laundry innovation in decades.In Brazil, Pantene shifted to a heavier emphasis on influencer content and user-generated videos.  Sales jumped 30% year over year in the October-through-December period.In Mexico, Downy Intense tapped into deep consumer research about scent preferences and is now seeing double-digit growth.The bottom line for Procter & GambleP&G is also leaning hard into artificial intelligence across its supply chain, marketing, and product development. The company says its AI-powered molecular discovery tools have cut the time to identify new compounds from six to eight years down to as little as six months.”AI without data is just A, artificial,” said Seth Cohen, P&G’s chief information officer. He pointed to the company’s massive internal data lake, built over more than a decade, as a key competitive edge.The path back to P&G’s long-term growth target of mid- to high-single-digit organic sales isn’t guaranteed. But the dividend? That looks as safe as it has in decades. Sixty-nine years of consecutive increases have a way of building that kind of confidence.Related: DJIA Master List: What companies make up the Dow Jones Industrial Index in 2026?

Broadcast Retirement Network’s Jeffrey Snyder discusses how doctors can use the data gathered in wearables with CU-Anschutz’s Michael Rosenberg, MD.Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement NetworkI’m joining me now with Dr. Michael Rosenberg. He is a cardiologist with CU-Anschutz. Dr. Rosenberg, it’s so great to see you this morning.Michael Rosenberg, MD, University of Colorado AnschutzGreat to see you, thanks for having me.Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement NetworkAnd we just passed, we were kind of jokingly saying, I was jokingly saying at least, that we just passed Heart Health Month. But really, doctor, it’s March. Every month of the calendar is Heart Health Month.Michael Rosenberg, MD, University of Colorado AnschutzYeah, at least in my world, we tend to spend a lot of time thinking about that.Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement NetworkYeah, heart disease, cardiovascular disease, high cholesterol, that is still the silent killer. It is still the number one disease when you look at the Center for Disease Control, right, doctor?Michael Rosenberg, MD, University of Colorado AnschutzYes, and it’s also, a lot of it is preventable, which is, I think, where most of the motivation comes to try to find ways to improve health and reduce the risk of cardiac disease, for sure.Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement NetworkAre there certain populations that, at least in your practice and CU-Hermann Schultz, that you’ve seen maybe that are unexpected in terms of having cardiovascular disease, having challenges with the heart?Michael Rosenberg, MD, University of Colorado AnschutzNot so much in my world. I’m a subspecialty of cardiology, so I manage rhythm disorders. So like atrial fibrillation is probably the most common one and relevant to what we’ll talk about is probably the number one reason people come in with wearables or information from outside.So the majority of them, it’s not surprising because most of them are older and age is the biggest risk factor, but we do see it in younger people and often actually have a diagnostic challenge of whether we believe that what a device told them they had is actually what they have, so.Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement NetworkYeah, and we’re talking this morning about, I guess, not I guess, we’re talking about how some of those devices can be analogous and help you as a practitioner. I’m not wearing a device this morning, but I do have one. I wear it on my wrist fairly regularly.It tracks my sleep, it tracks my pulse, some of my, I guess, my heart rhythms. How helpful is that to someone like yourself when you’re trying to diagnose atrial fibrillation or some type of heart ailment?Michael Rosenberg, MD, University of Colorado AnschutzSure, I think there’s two parts to it. I think that what I tell a lot of patients, the monitor telling you that you have a rhythm, which is based on kind of a pulse measure, it’s called a PPG monitor, it’s not very accurate. And the companies don’t claim it to be diagnostic in nature.It could be suggestive, but I tell a lot of people, if your watch is telling you something, you should be skeptical, especially if you feel normal. Where we use them very effectively, I think, is the flip side where someone’s having symptoms and it’s tough to capture. Certainly in the electrical world, we need to get an EKG or some kind of electrical signal of what’s happening with the heart electrically to see if what they’re feeling is actually an arrhythmia.And that’s where watches that can actually produce the signal. And in fact, there’s wearables and there’s also just at-home kind of EKG devices. And those can be extremely useful, and in particular for people that don’t have symptoms that often.And so, there’s patches and there’s even implanted devices you can use to detect these, but it’s been kind of a game changer in terms of being able to make these diagnoses without a huge invasive burden. And there, I have been surprised. In fact, we’ve had people where we thought they had some condition and then they finally got a signal from their watch and it’s something totally different.But there, it’s not the watch telling us, it’s them getting the signal from that and then we can look at it in the clinic and make a diagnosis.Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement NetworkDo they bring like a trunk load of data or do you access to it? I’m just curious. I mean, how do you, that’s a lot to parse through, even if you have some type of artificial intelligence tool.Obviously, you’re trained as a physician to look at these things, but I would imagine that some patients can be kind of overboard and be like, I have 50 spreadsheets filled with data over the last 365 days.Michael Rosenberg, MD, University of Colorado AnschutzThere are those patients, yes, who want to share. Those patients didn’t need wearables for that. They often would come in before with their home blood pressure measurements and everything and want you to look at their charts and things.But yeah, most of the new devices now are pretty user-friendly in that sense. They can get a report that’s a PDF that they, there’s a lot of, even people I wouldn’t have necessarily thought of as incredibly tech savvy can come in with something on their phone that showed what their heart was doing when they had the symptoms. We actually have a system in our healthcare system where we can actually, they can transmit through the electronic health record to us and then we can view them.So if they’re home, they send us a message with a picture of what the heart was doing as recorded by the device and then we can see. So yeah, it can be extremely helpful, but yeah, that’s not the reams of information or, and certainly a lot of the, I would call it entertainment-based commercial sort of stress monitors and all the, a lot of that type of data is not super useful, even though people do sometimes bring it in.Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement NetworkBut I think what it’s done is it creates a lot of awareness. And so maybe someone who is younger, I always think about, yes, older people like myself probably start to get a breakdown in some of their cardiovascular system over time, but the younger folks that are wearing the watches, the wearables, they’re in tune with it. And it actually could help with future cases or preventing future cases of cardiovascular disease, I would imagine.Michael Rosenberg, MD, University of Colorado AnschutzYeah, I think so. I think it’s the way I would kind of equate for a lot of those patients, it’s sort of like if you have a diet log where you have to start writing down what you eat and once someone’s doing that, they’re just more likely to eat more healthy because they have to write down and see what they’re eating. And so in the same way, if you have a activity monitor that’s showing you how active you were during the week, you’re more likely to wanna have higher steps.And so I do think it can be motivational, not for everyone. I mean, in some people it can add stress in particular if it’s telling them things that we don’t think they actually have. But certainly, yeah, as a way to just raise general health awareness, I do think it could be very valuable in that regard.Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement NetworkAnd these devices, I guess, are about, the Apple Watch in particular is probably about 10 years old-ish. We’ve made great technology progress. I would imagine, you know, you’ve probably talked to a lot of technology folks.I mean, there’s an infusion between technology and medicine. We’re gonna see even better smart wearables over time. I mean, we’re probably just at the very cusp of where this will eventually go.Michael Rosenberg, MD, University of Colorado AnschutzI think so. There’s some interesting dynamics there that I think are challenging. The main one being what’s considered medical grade versus sort of just commercial, you know, entertainment we think of.So the Apple Watch, you know, in a way it’s not medical grade. You can’t prescribe an Apple Watch to make a diagnosis the way there are monitors where you actually can do that. That space is being narrowed.I do think, I mean, I’ve done 10 plus years of research on wearables, and I will say that the motivation for me has always been, you know, if you think about how do we find out that blood pressure was important for heart disease, it’s because people could come into the clinic and you could measure their blood pressure. But I always said that you’re getting a sample of like one day out of a year of this measure, whereas if you had a way to collect information about what they’re doing, you know, on day-to-day basis, you probably could find a lot more factors that can predict heart disease, and that can be modifiable as well.Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement NetworkYeah, well, certainly I think it’s great. Obviously it’s not physician grade or medical grade, but, you know, I think hopefully we’ll get there. Maybe there’ll be at some point implants where, you know, you just stick it into your body or the doctor sticks it into your body and, you know, you’re reading data 24 hours a day, seven days a week.I guess we’ll have to, that’s maybe a little, maybe some privacy issues there.Michael Rosenberg, MD, University of Colorado AnschutzBut then- We have those already. It’s just, it turns out, and again, I actually thought that people might want that because, you know, there’s a monitor you can plant under your skin that records your heart continuously. In my mind, it would have been nice because then you don’t have to charge it the way you do your watch every night and stuff like that.It turns out people are super excited about implanting things in their body if they don’t need to. So, but potentially for sure, yeah.Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement NetworkYeah, well, it’s certainly exciting and it helps people like you make the best clinical medical decisions on behalf of patients. Doctor, we really appreciate you joining us. Thanks for all the great research you’re doing.Thanks for joining us. And we look forward to having you back on the program again very soon, sir.Michael Rosenberg, MD, University of Colorado AnschutzYeah, absolutely. Thanks for talking.

Alan Greenspan, the 13th Chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve, is one of the most powerful and influential economists in history. First appointed by President Ronald Reagan, Greenspan was reappointed four more times by three other Presidents due to his ability to keep inflation low, foster long-term economic expansion, and manage crises.During his tenure, which spanned an amazing 18 years, from August 11, 1987, until January 31,  2006, Greenspan’s decisions had far-reaching effects; in fact, many believe his influence is still felt in the economy today.As the “Maestro” of economic policy approaches his 100th birthday, we take a look at Greenspan’s life and legacy, along with the substantial net worth he has amassed through the years, which makes him one of the richest Fed Chairs, second only to Jerome Powell.What is Alan Greenspan’s net worth in 2026?According to most sources, Alan Greenspan has a net worth of $20 million in 2026. His wealth stems from consulting fees, public speaking engagements, and book deals—he received $8.5 million from Penguin Press for his 2007 memoir, The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World, which was one of the largest nonfiction book advances in publishing history.Ben Bernanke, in comparison, earned around $1 million for his 2015 memoir, The Courage to Act.In fact, compared with the other recent Fed Chairs, Greenspan sits near the top of the monetary heap:Fed ChairFed Chair Tenure2026 Net WorthSource of wealthJerome PowellFebruary 2018–present$20–$55 millionExecutive roles in private equity, investment banking, and his consulting firm, Severn Capital PartnersAlan GreenspanAugust 1987–January 2006$20 millionConsulting fees, speaking engagements, book salesJanet YellenFebruary 2014–February 2018$16 millionSpeaking engagements, academic career, investments, real estateBen BernankeFebruary 2006–January 2014$5 millionConsulting fees, academic career, speaking engagements, textbook salesPaul VolckerAugust 1979–August 1987$15 million (posthumous)Consulting, Board rolesSource: Celebrity Net WorthWhy is Alan Greenspan important? How did he differ from other Fed chairs?You could say that under Greenspan, the Federal Reserve transformed from a mostly reactive institution into one that actively supported asset markets during times of crisis. The “Black Monday” stock market crash of 1987 is one example.On October 19, 1987, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 22.6% of its value, wiping out $500 billion in one trading session. The crash was triggered by a breakdown in the computerized trading systems of the era.Astonishingly, bank runs and a greater financial meltdown were largely averted, thanks to Greenspan’s swift actions. The Fed cut interest rates by 50 basis points the next day and also began a round of what would later become known as quantitative easing. Greenspan also released a statement that restored confidence to rattled investors:These actions helped usher in a new era for the Fed, one marked by increased transparency and communication, with language and testimony serving as policy tools.And by doing so, the Fed chair became an economic rock star.Alan Greenspan’s early life and careerAlan Greenspan was born on March 6, 1926, in Washington Heights, New York City. His parents, Herbert Greenspan and Rose Goldsmith, divorced when he was a child. The New York Times reported that Rose was just 17 years old when they married, and that the Stock Market Crash of 1929 “sealed their fate.”After their divorce, Greenspan and his mother moved with his mother’s parents into a cramped one-bedroom apartment. Rose made ends meet during the Great Depression by working at a department store. Greenspan hardly ever saw his father, who was a stockbroker, but when he did, he was “ecstatic.”On one of their infrequent visits together, Herbert gave Greenspan a book he had written, Recovery Ahead!, which detailed President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. He inscribed it to his son, writing:But despite his father’s best intentions, life happened, and Greenspan’s interests changed. In fact, as a student at George Washington High School, Greenspan took up the clarinet and saxophone and even played alongside famed musician Stan Getz.After being declared medically unfit for World War II military service due to an issue with his lungs, Greenspan briefly attended the Juilliard School but dropped out to play in Henry Jerome’s traveling dance band.Greenspan recalled that he was a “good amateur” but an “average professional,” compared to musicians like Getz. Between sets, Greenspan would often read books on economics and mathematics; he also handled the band’s accounting, which sparked his interest in economics.In 1945, Greenspan left the band to study at New York University’s Stern School of Business, earning a master’s degree in economics. After briefly studying at Columbia University, Greenspan eventually earned his PhD in economics from NYU in 1977. In the meantime, Greenspan joined the consulting firm, Townsend-Greenspan & Co., with bond trader William Townsend, who recognized his talents.After Townsend’s death in 1957, Greenspan led the firm for several decades, advising corporations like Alcoa, General Motors, and U.S. Steel. In addition, he served as an economic adviser for President Richard Nixon and as Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Gerald Ford. He was also on President Ronald Reagan’s Economic Policy Advisory Board before his appointment to Chair the Federal Reserve Board of Governors in 1987.  Alan Greenspan’s Federal Reserve tenureWith Greenspan at the Fed’s helm, the U.S. economy enjoyed one of its longest uninterrupted expansions in history, with the S&P 500 rising roughly 550% between August 1987 and January 2006 (excluding reinvested dividends).Greenspan finished the task of moderating inflation to 2%—something his predecessor, Paul Volcker, had drastically reduced, from its nearly impossibly steep peak of 15% in 1980 down to 4% in 1983.But instead of sudden, sharp rate hikes, like Volcker had employed, Greenspan utilized a more gradual approach, a “measured pace,” in his words, that signaled the Fed’s next steps through its FOMC statements and testimony.Greenspan wasn’t afraid to ignore political pressure from the White House, either, which marked another shift in Fed leadership philosophy. For instance, facing re-election amidst a sluggish economy, President George H.W. Bush pressured Greenspan to cut rates in 1992, but Greenspan did not concede.Greenspan actually raised rates in 1994, despite pressure from the Clinton Administration, from 3% to 6% over 13 months to combat rising inflation. His actions cooled the economy without triggering a recession, a feat known as a “soft landing.”By doing so, Greenspan also helped to establish a new benchmark for the central bank’s independence.Why is Alan Greenspan’s legacy complicated?But hindsight is always 20/20, and despite Greenspan’s achievements, his actions have received much criticism in recent years for fueling long-term asset bubbles, particularly in technology and housing, while ignoring the rise of risky derivatives.In fact, as early as December 1996, Greenspan admitted the markets may have been overvalued, stating, “How do we know when irrational exuberance has unduly escalated asset values, which then become subject to unexpected and prolonged contractions as they have in Japan over the past decade?”These asset bubbles would pop—to spectacular effect—resulting in the dot-com crash, the 2008 Financial Crisis, and the Great Recession.(In The Age of Turbulence, Greenspan revealed the term “irrational exuberance” came to him while he was in the bathtub, writing a speech.)

Does Alan Greenspan follow Ayn Rand?Likewise, Greenspan’s “laissez-faire” approach to financial regulation has received much censure in recent years, as has his association with the philosopher Ayn Rand. In the 1950s and 60s, Greenspan was a member of “The Collective,” Ayn Rand’s inner circle, and even contributed essays to her book Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal (1966).Greenspan often advocated for the market’s “rational self-interest”  and employed a “hands-off” regulatory approach, principles that align with Objectivism, a movement Rand founded.More on economic crises:What Was the Financial Crisis of 2007–2008? Causes, Outcomes & Lessons LearnedWhat Was the Dot-Com Bubble & Why Did It Burst?What Was the Stock Market Crash of 1929? Definition, Causes & OutcomesCritics have also derided “The Greenspan Put,” as it came to be known, the practice through which the central bank employed interest rate cuts whenever the markets were in distress, since it effectively incentivized risky market behavior.In the midst of the Financial Crisis, on October 23, 2008, Greenspan was called before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, where he admitted that he had “made a mistake in presuming that the self-interest of organizations, specifically banks and others, were such is that they were best capable of protecting their own shareholders and their equity in the firms.”In other words, he conceded that his belief in the self-correcting nature of free markets was flawed.

Alan Greenspan and his wife, reporter Andrea Mitchell, at the 34th Kennedy Center Honors on December 4, 2011, in Washington, DC.Michael Tran/Getty Images

Alan Greenspan’s personal lifeKnown as “a glamorous figure in academic circles,” Greenspan dated TV anchor Barbara Walters in the 1970s while he was working on his PhD dissertation.His first marriage, to artist Joan Mitchell, was annulled in 1952.Greenspan began dating NBC News reporter Andrea Mitchell in 1984; despite their 20-year age difference (he was 58 and she was 38), their relationship stood the test of time. They were married on April 6, 1997, in a ceremony officiated by Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. They remain married today and have been photographed together at numerous high-profile events.Greenspan and Mitchell split their time between New York City and Washington, DC.What is Alan Greenspan doing now?Although he has largely withdrawn from the public eye in recent years, Greenspan actively maintains his consulting firm, Greenspan Associates, LLC. His last high-profile appearances surrounded his 2018 book, Capitalism in America: A History.  That year, he also survived a Twitter hoax announcing his death.His wife, Andrea, took to the platform, stating, “By now you know the rumors are a hoax. Alan’s doing great. In fact, he has a book out next week!”

Agentic finance firm becomes 19th largest public Bitcoin holder as BRR rises 2%.

“Is there a formula or method for figuring out when replacement becomes more cost-effective than ongoing repairs?”

Megacap tech stocks are becoming more realistically valued and still offer solid growth.