US Debt Rates Itself
Does US government debt even have a credit rating? I mean, it does. It has three, or probably more, but three big ones. Since 2011, the US government has had an AA+ rating at Standard & Poor's; since August 2023, it has had an AA+ rating at Fitch. Until last week, it had an Aaa rating at Moody's Ratings, but on Friday that too was cut to Aa1. AAA (or Aaa) is the best rating; AA+ (or Aa1) is the second-best rating.
But what is a credit rating? In some sense, there are companies — 'ratings agencies' or ' nationally recognized statistical ratings organizations ' — that employ people who think about the creditworthiness of companies and governments and asset-backed securities, and who come up with ratings that tell investors how creditworthy their bonds are. If you are an investor, you might trust the ratings agencies to tell you what bonds to buy. If you want to buy risky bonds, you can buy bonds with 'junk' ratings (or more politely 'high yield,' BB+/Ba1 or lower). If you want to buy safe bonds, you can buy bonds with 'investment grade' ratings (BBB-/Baa3 or higher). If you want to buy only the very safest bonds, you can stick to bonds with AAA/Aaa ratings.
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41 minutes ago
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PINEWOOD.AI ANNOUNCES AGREEMENT TO ACQUIRE LITHIA'S MAJORITY STAKE IN NORTH AMERICAN JOINT VENTURE
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The acquisition will also simplify structure and financial reporting, enabling full revenue consolidation and greater transparency. Alongside the proposed transaction, the two companies have signed a five-year contract committing to the rollout of the Pinewood Automotive Intelligence™ platform across all Lithia's current and future dealerships in the US and Canada projected by the end of 2028. The contract also includes an agreement on pricing for Lithia's use of expects to generate approximately $40 million in annual recurring revenue once the current rollout is complete. With additional North America-specific features planned for release by the end of 2028, projected annual revenue from Lithia is expected to reach approximately $60 million. The valuation attributed to the joint venture has been independently supported by Kroll LLC and is based on the deployment of DMS platform and layered applications across Lithia's North American footprint. "We are delighted to have reached an agreement with Lithia to acquire the majority stake of the North America joint venture. The US and Canada are central to our growth strategy, and through the joint venture, we have made significant progress towards commercializing the Pinewood Automotive Intelligence™ platform for the North American market. Assuming full control of the joint venture will strengthen our ability to fully capitalize on the opportunities available in a key strategic growth market," commented Bill Berman, Chief Executive Officer of Pinewood Technologies Group plc. "Today, we are also announcing that we have agreed the terms of a five-year contract with Lithia to implement the Pinewood Automotive Intelligence™ Platform across all its current and future sites by the end of 2028. This is a significant milestone on our journey to entering the North American market and we remain on track to pilot the platform in Lithia's US stores in the second half of 2025, with the full system rollout commencing in 2026. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Lithia for their partnership in the joint venture and we look forward to working with them as a key customer long into the future." "This agreement represents the next step in our strategic partnership with and supports our vision to modernize customer experiences across our ecosystem. 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About Pinewood Technologies Group PLC First established in 1981, Pinewood Technologies Group PLC (Pinewood) is a leading cloud based full-service technology provider to automotive retailers and OEMs. Pinewood's system is a market-leading automotive intelligence platform, which has been developed collaboratively with dealers and OEMs to provide secure cloud-based software across sales, aftersales, accounting and CRM. Headquartered in the UK, Pinewood has a team of over 200 people serving over 35,000 global users across 21 countries and long-standing partnerships with over 50 OEM brands. Previously part of Pendragon PLC, in 2024 Pinewood became an independent entity following the sale of Pendragon's UK Motor and Leasing divisions to Lithia Motors, Inc., one of the largest automotive retailers in North America. Pinewood simultaneously signed a strategic partnership with Lithia to roll out its software across Lithia's UK locations and form a joint venture to co-develop capabilities and accelerate Pinewood's entry into the North American market. LSE: PINE OTCQX: PINWF About Lithia & DrivewayLithia & Driveway (NYSE: LAD) is the largest global automotive retailer providing a wide array of products and services throughout the vehicle ownership lifecycle. Simple, convenient, and transparent experiences are offered through our comprehensive network of physical locations, e-commerce platforms, captive finance solutions, fleet management offerings, and other synergistic adjacencies. We deliver consistent, profitable growth in a massive and unconsolidated industry. Our highly diversified and competitively differentiated design provides us the flexibility and scale to pursue our vision to modernize personal transportation solutions wherever, whenever and however consumers desire. View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE Lithia Motors, Inc. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
News24
an hour ago
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Harvard scores a temporary victory in battle against Trump administration ‘vendetta'
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CNN
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A West Virginia prosecutor is warning women that a miscarriage could lead to criminal charges
Amid a constantly changing reproductive landscape, one West Virginia prosecutor is warning people who have miscarriages in his state that they could get in trouble with the law. Raleigh County Prosecuting Attorney Tom Truman says that although he personally wouldn't prosecute someone for a miscarriage, he made the suggestion out of an abundance of caution after hearing from other prosecutors. Truman even suggests people might want to let local law enforcement know if they've have a miscarriage. Several reproductive law experts say people around the country have, indeed, faced charges related to miscarriages — but they still wouldn't recommend reaching out to law enforcement. Truman says the idea first came up during a chat with other West Virginia prosecutors at a conference several years ago, and it's been been an ongoing conversation since. The initial conversation was theoretical, since at the time, women in the US still had the constitutional right to an abortion under Roe v. Wade. But some of the prosecutors believed they could charge a person using state laws related to the disposal of human remains. 'I thought these guys were just chewing on a Dreamsicle,' Truman said. But, he added, West Virginia's legal statutes include definitions that are 'pretty broad-ranging.' The way some prosecutors may interpret the law means people who miscarry could face criminal charges, including felonies, he said. 'It's a different world now, and there's a lot of discretion that prosecutors have, and some of them have agendas where they would like to make you an example,' Truman told CNN. 'What's changed is, Roe isn't there anymore, and so that may embolden prosecutors in some cases,' he said. 'I'm just trying to say, 'be careful.' ' Early pregnancy loss is common, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, It happens in about 10 of 100 known pregnancies, often because the embryo isn't developing properly. And some reproductive law experts say it's probably not a good idea to call the police when it happens. 'It's always a mistake to invite law enforcement into your reproductive life,' said Kim Mutcherson, a professor of law at Rutgers Law School who specializes in reproductive justice. Calling police could prompt an unwanted investigation, she says. 'If they then decide, 'no, it actually wasn't a miscarriage, this was somebody who took pills,' or whatever sort of thing that they want to conjure up, then all of a sudden it goes from 'here's this poor woman who had a miscarriage' to 'here's a person who we're going to start to prosecute,' ' Mutcherson said. 'I understand the idea that caution is better than being caught up in something that you weren't anticipating, but it is difficult for me to imagine any circumstance in which I would think it was safe for someone who miscarried to call the police,' she added. Abortion is illegal in West Virginia, but there are exceptions in the case of a medical emergency or a nonviable pregnancy, or if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest. Kulsoom Ijaz, senior policy counsel with Pregnancy Justice, a nonprofit focused on the civil and human rights of pregnant people, said she doesn't believe there is anything in West Virginia law that criminalizes miscarriage. 'I think the law is pretty clear,' she said. 'There's nothing in the law that says someone can be charged with a crime in connection to their pregnancy loss or their conduct during pregnancy, or for how they respond to that pregnancy loss or miscarriage or stillbirth.' The fractured landscape of reproductive rights that came about in the wake of the Dobbs decision, the US Supreme Court ruling that revoked the federal right to an abortion, has increased the risk that a pregnant person can face criminal prosecution for a variety of reasons, not just a miscarriage, according to a report from Ijaz's organization. Between June 2022 – when Dobbs was handed down – and June 2023, there were more than 200 cases in the US in which a pregnant person faced criminal charges for conduct associated with pregnancy, pregnancy loss or birth, according to Pregnancy Justice. The number is most likely an undercount, Ijaz said. In West Virginia, there were at least three cases related to pregnancy prosecutions. In one, the state's Supreme Court found that the state could not levy criminal child abuse charges against someone for their prenatal conduct, which included substance use during pregnancy. Even with the strict abortion ban in place, Ijaz said, 'there are still protections for pregnant people.' In states like Alabama that have fetal personhood laws that give fertilized eggs, embryos and a fetus the 'same rights as you and I,' Ijaz said, it's a little different. 'We've seen people get prosecuted and face decades of incarceration for substance use during pregnancy, because that fetus that they're carrying is seen as a child,' she said. Last year in Ohio, a woman who had a miscarriage at home was charged with a felony on the advice of the Warren City Prosecutor's Office, but a grand jury dismissed the case. Ijaz said that she doesn't think there is an appetite for these kind of cases among the public but that no matter where someone lives, inviting the law into their life right after a miscarriage is ill-advised. The legal landscape for reproductive justice 'seems to almost be changing on a daily basis' – and generally not in favorable ways for pregnant people, said Brittany Fonteno, CEO of the National Abortion Federation, a professional association for abortion providers. 'The laws, the rhetoric, the culture in which we are living in within the US has become so incredibly hostile to people who experience pregnancy,' she said. 'I think that the intersection of health care and criminalization is an incredibly dangerous path,' Fonteno added. 'As a country, we should be supporting people and their ability to access the health care that they need, rather than conducting intrusive and traumatic investigations into their reproductive lives.' Fonteno recommends that people who experience pregnancy loss reach out to a qualified medical professional rather than law enforcement. 'While we are living in a very different country than we were pre-Dobbs, I believe still that this is an individual experience and a health care decision,' she said. 'Most providers believe that as well.' Mutcherson also says that the reproductive justice landscape in the US is 'scary' for people who are pregnant, who want to get pregnant or who have bad pregnancy outcomes. If there's any silver lining to the discussion about criminalizing miscarriage, she said, it's that it's good for people to know that such things can happen. 'Women have been criminalized for their pregnancies for decades, frankly, so to the extent that there is a wider and broader conversation about what it means to treat an embryo or a fetus as a person, and the ways in which that diminishes the personhood of somebody who was pregnant, that is in fact a valuable thing, right?' Mutcherson said. 'Maybe this is actually going to bring us to a better space.'
