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The office-leasing startup WeWork plans to raise more funding through a $500 million bond sale, according to the Financial Times. It's the first time the company is raising money from debt investors after it raised billions in venture capital from backers such as SoftBank.

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The framing of homes, or putting up roofs and walls, accounts for 15 percent of the cost of construction. A composite measure of the cost of lumber for framing rose 16 percent from December to March ... and it's not just lumber. A Labor Department gauge of prices paid at the producer level for construction inputs -- everything from particleboard and plumbing to concrete and insulation -- was up 5.1 percent in March from a year earlier, the biggest annual advance in nearly eight years.

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So far, neither higher home prices or a four-year high in mortgage costs have been enough to dissuade buyers. Results of the Conference Board's consumer confidence index on Tuesday showed 1.7 percent of the group's respondents in April planned to purchase a new home in the next six months, matching the highest share in this expansion.

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At some point, affordability will become a bigger issue for those wanting to own a home. So far though, consumers are taking higher home prices in stride and builders remain relatively upbeat about the market's prospects.

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In the meantime, Nasdaq is supporting existing crypto exchanges, and announced a technology deal with Gemini Wednesday... On Wednesday, the company announced a collaboration with cryptocurrency exchange Gemini, founded by early bitcoin investors Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss. The deal gives Gemini access to Nasdaq's surveillance technology to help make sure the platform provides a fair and "rules-based marketplace," for their own participants, Gemini CEO Tyler Winklevoss said in a statement.

Wouldn't it be funny if the Winklevosses end up being more successful than Zuckerberg?

Mulvaney's remark, delivered to the American Bankers Association, got lots of chuckles and then huge applause when he added that, in particular, he doesn't see anything in the Dodd-Frank law that created the CFPB that requires "the Bureau," as he prefers to call the agency, to make a database of complaints against the banks available to the public.

Advocates consider the database an invaluable resource in determining the difficulties consumers face when dealing with banks and other financial service providers. Industry critics say the database is a tabulation of unverified and possibly untrue complaints.

That was just one of several crowd-pleasing remarks by Mulvaney, who does double duty as director of the Office of Management and Budget, a cabinet-level position [possibly illegally.]

The Dow has lost ground for five straight days. A 425-point rout on Tuesday sent the index back into negative territory for the year.... Rising bond yields are putting pressure on an already vulnerable stock market that has been attempting to claw its way back from correction territory -- 10% off the record high in late January.

The yield on the 10-year US Treasury note breached 3% for the first time in more than four years Tuesday morning. Long-term bond yields have been climbing in part because of inflation fears. Inflation eats away at the value of fixed bond payments, leading investors to demand a higher yield in return.

Car loans and mortgage prices are linked to the benchmark 10-year note, and rising yields will raise borrowing costs for companies and consumers. Higher yields in the bond market could also become more attractive than volatile stocks for many investors.

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On Tuesday, Caterpillar (CAT), an industrial bellwether, warned on its earnings call that margins wouldn't get any higher and the last three months were its "high-water mark" for the year. Caterpillar lost 6% on Tuesday and sent a chill across the market.

Now, 23.9% of the shrunken mortgage-interest deduction is projected to go to households making more than $500,000 with 28.9% of the benefit going to households between $100,000 and $200,000.

Other changes in policy also curb the mortgage-interest deduction, including the cut in marginal tax rates, which reduces the value of every deduction. Homeowners can now deduct interest on up to $750,000 in loans, down from $1m...

The WEF says the deficit is growing by $28 billion every 24 hours -- and if nothing is done to slow the growth rate, the deficit will reach $400 trillion by 2050, or about five times the size of the global economy today.

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This problem is amplified by the size of generations and fertility rates. The population of retirees globally is expected to grow from 1.5 billion to 2.1 billion between 2017-2050, while the number of workers for each retiree is expected to halve from eight to four over the same timeframe.

The hefty penalty will be announced as early as Friday by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, according to a person familiar with the enforcement action.

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Such a large fine would be a noteworthy move for the CFPB under Mick Mulvaney, the acting director appointed by President Trump.

[Shkreli's lawyer] Brafman previously said that Judge Kiyo Matsumoto's ruling last September that Shkreli was a public danger would prevent him from being sent to a minimum-security camp because of BOP guidelines.

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Matsumoto had said Shkreli was a danger as she revoked his bail for, among other things, his bizarre offer toFacebook followers of $5,000 for each strand of hair they managed to pull off the head of Hillary Clinton, who at the time was in the midst of a book tour.''

So basically he got himself sent to federal prison instead of camping by being a dick (totally superfluously -- Hillary Clinton didn't even have anything to do with his case, as unsavory as she might be).

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The global debt burden clouded the IMF's otherwise upbeat outlook of the world economy, which is in its strongest upswing since 2011. The fund on Tuesday forecast expansion of 3.9 per cent in 2018 and 2019, while saying in subsequent years the global economy could be impacted by tighter monetary policy and the fading effects of U.S. fiscal stimulus.

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The IMF figures bare the scale of the debt hangover from which the world is still recovering from a decade after the financial crisis pushed the global banking system to the brink, and tipped the world economy into recession. Governments increased spending to boost growth, while central banks resorted to unconventional methods to ease financing conditions, such as buying bonds.