Bloomberg - Evening Briefing - Goldman under scrutiny

Goldman Sachs Group’s six-year foray into consumer banking—dubbed Marcus—is apparently getting some special attention from the US Federal Reserve. Central bank officials are said to have been looking into the Wall Street giant’s online-banking platform, which is aimed at retail customers. For at least several weeks, they’ve been peppering Goldman with questions and follow-ups. By zeroing in on money-losing Marcus, the Fed is scrutinizing a division that’s relatively new and growing—inside a company with little history of dealing with the general public. —David E. Rovella

Bloomberg is tracking the coronavirus pandemic and the progress of global vaccination efforts.

After watching key Republican figures launch an all-out political attack on ESG, senior officials from the $57 trillion global pension industry are speaking out. Matti Leppala, chief executive at PensionsEurope, said efforts to lambaste environmental, social and governance-based investment strategies are “ridiculous” and “meaningless.”

Wealthy US homebuyers are charging in with all-cash purchases even as the broader housing market is slowed by rising mortgage rates. Almost one-third of homes sold in July were paid for entirely with cash.

Germany seized the local unit of Russian oil major Rosneft as Berlin moves to take sweeping control of its energy industry, secure supplies and sever decades of deep dependence on Moscow for fuel. 

Even as Vladimir Putin admitted that Xi Jinping had concerns about the war in Ukraine, the Russian leader’s comments on Taiwan may ultimately matter more to his Chinese counterpart. Putin—increasingly seen as a junior partner to Xi—nevertheless threatened more attacks on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a former member of the New York City Police Department, has made crime a centerpiece of his first term. But the man behind his public safety plans is rarely heard in public—and that’s allegedly by design. Part of the reason Deputy Mayor Phil Banks—a former high-ranking NYPD official—has intentionally kept out of the public eye is to avoid questions of his past involvement with a wide-ranging federal public corruption investigation. Federal prosecutors labeled the former NYPD chief of department an unindicted co-conspirator.

Phil Banks, a former high-ranking official in the New York City Police Department, resigned amid a federal public corruption probe. Now he’s making key decisions under Mayor Eric Adams. Source: Bloomberg

American women are traveling en masse to Illinois to get abortions, with the state seeing a record influx of patients since the Republican-appointee controlled Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

If you work in film and TV, the bad news is arriving almost daily. Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. said this week it’s firing 100 TV ad salespeople, Paramount Global acknowledged it may stop offering Showtime as a standalone streaming service, and even Netflix announced yet-another round of terminations.

• FedEx had the biggest drop in over 40 years after pulling its forecast.
• Bloomberg Opinion: FedEx’s problems are about FedEx, not the world.
• Jeff Bezos is no longer the world’s second richest person. This man is.
• Bank of America contends stocks have yet to hit bottom over inflation.
• US equities are exacting a harsh toll on would-be market timers.
• Credit Suisse considers rebranding its investment bank as First Boston.
• The world has a $1 trillion La Nina problem.

Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard described his decision to give away the outdoor apparel-maker as his last-ditch effort to do all he could to protect the planet. But the deal is structured in ways that bring the billionaire other perks—like letting him and his family keep control of Patagonia while shielding them from tax bills that could have totaled hundreds of millions of dollars.

Yvon Chouinard Photographer: Ben Gabbe/Getty Images North America

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