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How often do you see juice, sports bra, and sofa makers implement the same corporate strategy? Welcome to the cryptocurrency craze, which claimed Long Island Iced Tea Corp. as the latest enterprise to change its name—and its mission—to capitalize on the bitcoin zeitgeist. —David E. Rovella

 

How to pay for it

Done with tax cuts, House Speaker Paul Ryan now wants Republicans to zero in on America’s social safety net for the poor and disabled. Changes to food stamps and Medicaid are among the two top potential legislative initiatives for President Donald Trump, along with a major infrastructure program he promised during the campaign. The administration has yet to reach a decision on which to put first, though Senate Republicans are suggesting the latter.

 
Here are today's top stories...
 

The auto loan storm builds, and no one has an umbrella. Private-equity firms plunged into subprime auto lending after the financial crisis. But waning new car demand, intense competition and lax underwriting standards are taking a toll on profits. Meanwhile, delinquencies on loans made by non-bank lenders are soaring, fresh investment has dried up and big banks are pulling back. Oh, and state regulators are circling. A hard rain, it seems, is going to fall.

 

Wall Street is a college’s best friend. At least that’s the case in the bull market, which has made a record number of $1 billion university endowments. There may be a problem with optics, though, as students struggle with rising tuition and debt while schools pad bank accounts and pay administrators seven-figures. College officials say they are using endowments for financial aid, but critics say more should be done.

 

The market is getting drunk on Long Island Iced Tea. No, not that kind. Shares of the struggling seller of non-alcoholic drinks, Long Island Iced Tea Corp., shot up 289 percent after the Hicksville, New York-based company rebranded itself Long Blockchain Corp. It’s the latest in a near-daily phenomenon sweeping the stock market, where obscure microcap companies reinvent themselves to focus on some aspect of the mania sparked by bitcoin’s almost 1,500 percent rally this year.

 

The world versus Trump. The United Nations General Assembly voted 128-9 (with 35 nations abstaining) to back a non-binding resolution critical of the president’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley threatened that the UN and member states who approved the measure could see their American funding cut. Traditional U.S. allies were in the majority, including the U.K., France, Italy, Japan and Germany. U.S. supporters included Guatemala, Nauru and Micronesia.

 

Don’t ever let anyone tell you the GTC4Lusso isn’t a “real” Ferrari. The four-seat hatchback combines sophisticated all-wheel-drive systems with spacious seating and 680-horsepower performance on a par with anything from Lamborghini and McLaren. It also has a spacious trunk big enough to handle a Christmas tree. So we tried it. Seriously.

 
 
 

It’s raining Masterpieces

Before his Salvator Mundi sold for a record-shattering $450.3 million, it was marketed around the world as “the last Da Vinci” in private hands. It turns out there’s a few more out there. And at least one dealer thinks the paintings could be worth as much as $200 million each. Both are smaller-scale, devotional depictions of the Virgin Mary with the Christ child in her lap. The baby is holding a cross-shaped stick used to wind yarn, which has inspired the shared name, The Madonna of the Yarnwinder.

 

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