The Fed's Targeted Inflation Rate Eased in April
The Fed's preferred gauge of consumer prices ticked up just slightly in April, a modest increase that lowered the 12-month inflation rate.
Consumer prices increased by 0.1% last month according to the personal-consumption-expenditures price index, the Commerce Department said Friday. That brought the index's 12-month increase to 2.1% through April, down from 2.3% through March and even closer to the Fed's 2% target.
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Motor 1
16 minutes ago
- Motor 1
You Can Get a Stupid Cheap Maserati From Hertz
Want a great deal on a vehicle that's lived most of its life as a rental car? Hertz is the place to go. With one of America's largest rental fleets, the agency regularly puts its former rental cars up for sale for cheap. Not even luxury brands like Maserati are immune to price drops. As Carscoops uncovered , Hertz currently has a fleet of Maseratis for sale in the US—and many of them cost less than a new Honda CR-V. The Maseratis in question are all Grecale SUVs, and they range in price from as little as $36,543 at the time of writing to a still-pretty-reasonable $48,022 for the most expensive. Photo by: Hertz And even for rental cars, the mileage on most of these Grecales isn't that bad. The cheapest one of the bunch only has 28,371 miles, while a handful of other examples have fewer than 15,000 miles. There's even one Grecale with less than 10,000 miles that costs a cool $38,999. Not bad at all. Those prices are pretty shocking considering that a brand-new Maserati Grecale will set you back at least $77,900, with the most-expensive trim—the electric Folgore—starting at a whopping $119,900 for 2025. Of course, Maserati isn't known for its reliability, and that's likely keeping consumers from snapping up these lightly used luxury SUVs. As Carscoops notes, this is already the second price drop for Hertz's Grecale fleet in recent months. That said, there haven't been many known issues surrounding the Grecale from a reliability standpoint. Maserati's SUV rides on the same platform as the Alfa Romeo Stelvio, which has been hit or miss historically in terms of reliability. We say roll the dice, what could go wrong? More From Maserati Maserati Is Not for Sale Maserati Sales Aren't Doing Great Get the best news, reviews, columns, and more delivered straight to your inbox, daily. back Sign up For more information, read our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use . Source: Hertz via Carscoops Share this Story Facebook X LinkedIn Flipboard Reddit WhatsApp E-Mail Got a tip for us? Email: tips@ Join the conversation ( )


Forbes
38 minutes ago
- Forbes
Affirm Stock Down As Klarna's Buy Now, Pay Later Credit Loss Rises 17%
Despite recent growth, some investors see a darker future for the industry Affirm Holdings stock is down 17% in 2025 after predicting lower-than-expected growth for the current quarter While the default rate on Buy Now, Pay Later loans rises, industry executives say they're not worried A weak first quarter gross domestic product report bodes ill for the industry Shares of Affirm Holdings — a provider of Buy Now, Pay Later loans — have lost 17% of their value in 2025, according to Google Finance. In the last three years, Affirm stock has risen considerably — rising 126% to $52 a share — and the industry has expanded faster than 50% annually. After reporting solid revenue and profit growth in the company's third quarter — while issuing a weak forecast — is the stock a bargain? Earlier this month, the stock fell 13% on Affirm's weak forecast and its bet on 0% loans, according to CNBC. The bearish case is bolstered by rising BNPL default rates at Klarna and a weaker economy which could add to the bad loans. Bulls admire the company's industry leadership and long-term approach to running the company — a view Affirm reinforces. 'It took consumers and merchants and sort of the universe about a decade to figure out what we are and just how different and important what we have found to work really is,' Affirm founder and CEO Max Levchin told CNBC. Wall Street sees the stock as significantly undervalued. Affirm shares trade 29% below $67.18 — the average price target of of 21 Wall Street analysts, TipRanks wrote. In Affirm's fiscal third quarter, revenue met expectations, profit exceeded them and its revenue forecast for the fourth quarter fell short. Here are the key numbers: Affirm's online loans rise or fall depending on the level of consumer spending on electronics, apparel and travel. The company has been aiming to add new customers — reaching 22 million in the third quarter, a 10% growth rate, noted CNBC. Through partnerships with Apple , Amazon and Shopify, GMV for The Affirm Card rose 115% from the year before while the number of active cardholders more than doubled. business is closely tied to consumer spending, as its online loan offering has become popular with sellers of electronics, apparel and travel. The company is also offering 0% interest loans in which merchants — and sometimes manufacturers — boost sales by subsidizing borrowing costs to drive sales. Such loans increased 44% — serving as an alternative to a traditional merchant discount. 'It may be an expensive net discount rate, but it's better than 10% off,' Affirm Chief Financial Officer Rob O'Hare told CNBC. Affirm says these loans extend the lifetime value of its customers. 'Every time we sign someone new through a 0% promo, some number of months or quarters from now, that's a prime candidate for the Affirm Card, and that's a lifetime value booster,' Levchin said on the company's Q3 earnings call. The growth in BNPL loans has been significant in recent years. This growth has drawn new investment into the industry and loan default rates are rising for some large participants. Since 2021, the BNPL business has accelerated at a 55% average annual rate from $97 billion, according to my June 2022 Forbes post, to $560 billion in 2025, according to Research and Markets. To finance that growth, Affirm has been securitizing — bundling and selling — some 30% of its loans. More recently, the rise of private credit has enabled Affirm to sell loans directly to institutions. These include insurers such as Liberty Mutual and Prudential. Moreover, this year private credit firm Sixth Street initiated a three year deal to buy $4 billion of Affirm's loans, according to the Wall Street Journal. Recent data suggest BNPL credit problems could rise. How so? Nearly two-thirds of BNPL loans went to borrowers with risky credit scores, according to a January report from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 'Americans were using 'buy now, pay later' as a Band-Aid on top of their credit card debt,' Julie Margetta Morgan, a former CFPB official who is now president of the Century Foundation, told the Times. 'We look at it as a kind of bellwether of risks to the overall economy,' she added. BNPL providers downplay these risks. For example, Klarna — the privately held Stockholm-based BNPL provider which recently paused its IPO — suffered a 17% rise in credit losses in May. Klarna said the losses were trivial. 'There's nothing troubling or worrisome from this data,' company spokeswoman Clare Nordstrom told the New York Times. Affirm was similarly upbeat. 'We really aren't seeing anything we would label as signs of stress with our borrowers,' O'Hare said, according to the Times. BNPL customers would be especially vulnerable if the economy worsened — which is why during the Biden era, the CFPB 'called for measures to safeguard them,' the Times wrote. Unfortunately, the economy contracted in the first quarter of 2025 — with gross domestic product falling at a 0.2% rate, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. As U.S. household finances get worse, BNPL consumers and providers could suffer. 'Consumers are going to be squeezed and more reliant on these products,' Morgan explained to the Times, 'and the companies are being offered a free pass to construct those products in ways that are the most profitable to them.' Given the 29% upside implicit in Affirm's price target, the bulls may prevail over the bears. Affirm bears argue the company's profitability fell short of expectations because the lower growth in GMV due to a surge in 0% APR loans was not sufficient to offset their revenue less transaction costs. This is why Affirm fell short of investor expectations. The rise in 0% loans 'led to a lower take rate and RLTC margin than most forecasts,' Citizens wrote, according to CNBC. Two other analysts remain bullish on Affirm. Goldman called the company a 'strong category leader in BNPL and a share gainer vs. legacy credit providers,' noted CNBC. Barclays is bullish on recent partnerships such as the one between Affirm and Costco. Affirm sees consumers continuing to spend despite uncertainty. 'People are stressed out about the economy, yet they're shopping, they're buying, and they're paying their bills — at least they're paying their bills back to us on time,' Levchin told CNBC.


Forbes
an hour ago
- Forbes
Bitcoin Is Quietly Entering The Healthcare Sector
Bitcoin has made inroads into finance, energy, and even politics. Now, a growing number of healthcare companies are embracing it. Not only as a hedge or a balance sheet asset, but also as a guiding philosophy and potential infrastructure layer. The move may seem unlikely, given healthcare's deeply regulated and bureaucratic nature. But that's precisely the point. For companies like CrowdHealth and Semler Scientific, Bitcoin's appeal isn't speculative. It's structural. In a sector inundated with reverse incentives, opaque pricing, and costly middlemen, Bitcoin offers transparency. The U.S. healthcare system is worth roughly $5 trillion, averaging over $17,000 per person. Even with the high costs associated with health insurance, claims are often denied. Andy Schoonover, founder and CEO of CrowdHealth, experienced this firsthand. His insurer refused to pay an $8,000 bill for his daughter's ear tube surgery, despite doctors deeming it medically necessary. Soon after, he dropped his insurance and began building a cash-pay model that eventually became CrowdHealth. A peer-to-peer platform where members fund one another's healthcare needs. In this process, he found a natural audience among bitcoiners. Schoonover, who told Forbes in an interview he holds roughly 80% of his liquid assets in Bitcoin, says the overlap wasn't accidental. 'Bitcoiners understand incentives,' he said. Schoonover believes that as patients dig deeper into the healthcare system, it becomes clear that hospitals, health networks, and government policies often work against patients' best interests. A pattern quickly recognized by bitcoiners. CrowdHealth allows members to pay a monthly fee, directly contributing to each other's care. In return, they avoid premiums and networks. Schoonover said their model has grown to over 10,000 members. CrowdHealth is leaning further into Bitcoin by letting users invest unused healthcare funds into bitcoin. The long-term vision, according to Schoonover, is Bitcoin circularity in healthcare. 'If we can build bitcoin circularity within healthcare we believe that will go a long way in normalizing bitcoin as a medium of exchange,' Schoonover said. Unlike insurance, CrowdHealth doesn't guarantee payment. However, Schoonover claims that the community fully funds over 99% of eligible bills. While CrowdHealth integrates Bitcoin at the user level, Semler Scientific takes a top-down approach. The publicly traded medtech company adopted Bitcoin as its primary treasury reserve asset in 2024, becoming one of the first healthcare companies to do so. For Semler chairman Eric Semler, Bitcoin represents resilience, scarcity, and alignment, traits sorely lacking in the healthcare system. 'Bitcoin is monetary freedom,' Semler told Forbes. 'We're freeing people medically through early detection, and Bitcoin helps us stay strong financially.' The company's core product, QuantaFlo, is an FDA-cleared diagnostic tool for vascular disease. It enables early detection of cardiovascular issues, allowing for timely and potentially life-saving interventions. Semler emphasized the importance of early detection and noted that healthcare could benefit from adopting principles found in Bitcoin's design, such as decentralization, transparency, and reducing reliance on middlemen. In an interview with Forbes, Eric Semler of Semler Scientific explained that their Bitcoin strategy isn't just about protecting cash in an inflationary environment. It's about owning the digital future. The company is exploring ways to mine Bitcoin creatively and integrate value into its shareholder model. 'We're in acceleration mode,' Semler said. 'We're not just buying Bitcoin, we're adding value to our value.' In 2023, Semler became active in the company his father had founded. He joined the board to improve capital allocation and saw Bitcoin as the obvious next step, following Michael Saylor's Strategy concept. 'It was a last resort in the best way.' Bitcoin offered a neutral reserve asset with no counterparty exposure or political entanglements, making it a good fit. Despite its early-mover status, Semler Scientific remains a rarity. Semler said that few medtech or biotech peers have followed suit. One exception is KindlyMD, a company that shares philosophical alignment but little market overlap. Still, he believes healthcare is well-positioned to lead a treasury shift. Healthcare companies generate steady cash flow, operate under strict regulations, and require long-term resilience, which according to Semler, makes Bitcoin a natural fit. That shift may be slow, but for now, Semler is content leading the charge. The future of Bitcoin in healthcare, according to companies like CrowdHealth and Semler Scientific, is not about layering crypto onto a broken system. It is about rebuilding that system from the ground up using first principles. They see Bitcoin with the potential to help make healthcare more affordable, build trust by putting patients in control, protect savings from inflation, and support better systems for sharing medical information. Schoonover envisions a future where bitcoiners fund one another's procedures and doctors accept bitcoin directly, cutting out insurers entirely. Semler imagines a more robust, future-proof treasury model that gives healthcare companies stronger balance sheets and global leverage. Bitcoin won't eliminate the need for regulation, nor will it immediately replace legacy players. But it does offer some interesting options. The examples of CrowdHealth and Semler Scientific suggest that some healthcare companies are exploring Bitcoin not for its popularity, but as a response to challenges in the current system.