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The stories that matter on money and politics in the race for the White House

Donald Trump’s chances of winning the southern battleground state of North Carolina in November’s presidential election have been threatened by explosive allegations of racist comments on a pornography website by Republican governor candidate Mark Robinson.

The furore around Robinson erupted on Thursday after CNN reported that in posts from 2008 to 2012 on pornography forum Nude Africa he called himself a “black NAZI!” and expressed support for “reinstating slavery”.

Robinson has vowed to stay in the race and in a short video posted on X he denied making the comments, blaming his Democratic opponent Josh Stein for “a story leaked by him” to the press.

The allegations about Robinson come as Trump is already under fire for being too close to the radical fringes of the Republican party.

The former president has faced calls to distance his campaign from Laura Loomer, a far-right social media influencer who has flown on his plane and accompanied him to events, and to disavow baseless claims that Haitian immigrants are abducting and eating pets in Springfield, Ohio. 

North Carolina is emerging as a must-win state for Trump. While it has voted for the Republican White House candidate in every race since 2008, Democrats are increasingly confident that the state is winnable.

Since Kamala Harris became the party’s candidate, the Democrats have been gaining ground in North Carolina, especially in more affluent college-educated suburbs. Trump is leading Harris in the state by 1.3 percentage points, according to the FT’s poll tracker. 

Robinson has been one of Trump’s closest allies and protégés in recent years. At a campaign rally in Greensboro, North Carolina in March, the former president endorsed Robinson and called him “Martin Luther King on steroids”, referring to the late civil rights activist and preacher.

“I think you’re better than Martin Luther King,” Trump said, then joked that Robinson might not consider it a compliment. 

During a campaign event in Wilmington, North Carolina in 2022, Trump said Robinson was “one of the hottest politicians in the United States of America”, and had “become a friend of mine”. Robinson was also given a speaking slot at the Republican National Convention in Wisconsin in July. 

Trump was scheduled to campaign in the state on Saturday.

Democrats have seized on the revelations. In a post on X, North Carolina governor Roy Cooper wrote that “Donald Trump and NC GOP leaders embraced Mark Robinson for years knowing who he was and what he stood for including disrespect for women and inciting violence. They reap what they sow”.

The CNN allegations included Robinson posting that “slavery is not bad. Some people need to be slaves. I wish they would bring it (slavery) back. I would certainly buy a few”, and that he liked “watching tyranny on girl porn”. 

The North Carolina Republican party said in a statement on Thursday that Robinson “has categorically denied the allegations made by CNN but that won’t stop the Left from trying to demonise him via personal attacks”.

Even prior to the CNN report, Democrats criticised Robinson as an extreme and toxic politician. 

“Mark Robinson is a very dangerous candidate for governor” Drew Kromer, chair of the Mecklenburg County Democratic party, said this week. “He will take away the status of North Carolina as one of the final places in the south where women can go to get reproductive healthcare . . . I don’t think people can fully appreciate the downstream consequences that would have on folks all over this country.”

Steve Cohen used to charter a yacht in the Mediterranean with friend and art dealer Larry Gagosian. But he never really switched off.

“We’d be in the middle of a wonderful dinner in Italy and he’d have to race back to the boat to trade,” said Gagosian, recalling how the hedge fund billionaire would have screens installed below deck to create a de facto trading floor.

“I said, Steve, I love you, and I love taking trips with you, but it’s not the most relaxing.”

However, after an investment career spanning almost half a century, Cohen, 68, announced this week he was stepping back from trading at Point72, the hedge fund he set up a decade ago, to focus on running the firm.

Point72 rose from the ashes of an insider trading scandal at its predecessor SAC Capital that cost $1.8bn to settle, with Cohen subsequently barred for two years from managing external investors’ money.

As the firm has grown rapidly over the past few years, the relative size of Cohen’s trading book has shrunk — a letter to investors this week said it was less than 1 per cent of the firm’s overall portfolio.

“He believes his strategic guidance and intervention will have a greater impact” than his individual trading on the firm’s investment performance, the letter said.

Cohen has many other interests, ranging from ownership of his beloved New York Mets and philanthropy supporting veterans and children’s health to an art collection worth more than $1bn that includes works by Pablo Picasso, Jeff Koons and Alberto Giacometti.

This week’s move underlines how Cohen is preparing Point72 to outlast him. The firm said he would be “taking a break from trading his own book”.

Born in 1956 and raised in Great Neck, New York, the third of seven siblings, Cohen credits playing poker at high school with teaching him “how to take risks”.

He began his investment career in 1978 trading options at brokerage Gruntal & Co before setting up SAC Capital in 1992, named after his initials.

The hedge fund industry was in its infancy and the early SAC was known for its cut and thrust atmosphere, juicy payouts for those who did well — and a disposable approach to talent.

Cohen was even known to fire people on the spot if they disappointed him, according to one person who used to work with him at SAC.

“Steve treated the business like a baseball team — if your shortstop is not performing then you trade him for someone else,” the person said. “There’s no personal relationship, it’s just business.”

Cohen surrounded himself with the top moneymakers but sitting close to him could be intimidating. He expected his employees to share his ferocious work ethic, quizzing them during Sunday meetings to prepare for market opening the following day.

“He is not an easy gentleman, he is not a wallflower,” said a second colleague from the SAC years. “He’s a very complicated individual but very smart, a very good trader and knows how to reinvent himself.”

Supporters of Cohen say his edge came from a seemingly instinctive ability to spot market patterns and, as the years rolled on, his experience.

“Whatever’s going on, he’s seen it all before . . . he has seen it and every iteration of it,” said the first person who worked with him.

From 1992 to 2013, SAC boasted annual returns of about 30 per cent, making it one of the world’s top performing hedge funds.

Investors clamoured for access, coughing up an annual management fee of roughly 3 per cent and up to an enormous 50 per cent performance fee, far higher than the industry standard “two and 20”.

Growing to manage more than $15bn at its peak, SAC’s returns seemed almost too good to be true. They were.

In 2013 a team of New York prosecutors led by US attorney Preet Bharara brought several charges against Cohen’s SAC Capital and affiliated firms. It alleged that insider trading at SAC was “substantial, pervasive and on a scale without known precedent in the hedge fund industry”.

They said numerous portfolio managers and research analysts obtained “material, non-public information” from “dozens” of listed companies and then traded on that inside information.

SAC incentivised portfolio managers or analysts that brought “high conviction” trading ideas to Cohen where they had an “edge” over the competition, the indictment said, with portfolio managers and analysts encouraged to pursue “industry contact networks” — but without effective controls to make sure they were not receiving inside information.

SAC Capital pleaded guilty in a $1.8bn settlement, the largest ever for insider trading. But prosecutors ultimately stopped short of charging Cohen — who did not admit personal fault — with criminal or civil insider trading charges, believing they did not have enough evidence.

For a time he appeared to retrench, managing his own money in Point72, which was set up as a family office.

By 2018 he had opened it up to external investors and after a difficult first year when the fund was flat, Point72 began, in Cohen’s customary baseball lingo, “hitting doubles” — gaining more than 10 per cent in every year except 2021.

Those who know him say that as the hedge fund industry has become more institutional and straight laced, Cohen has also mellowed with age.

But he still has his quirks. Ahead of one visit to the London office, the fridge was stocked with Dr Pepper, Skittles and Post-it notes warning “do not touch”, according to a person familiar with the situation, while the local team made sure the air conditioning was suitably cool for the boss.

Point72 employs 2,800 people, runs more than double the assets of SAC at its peak and marks one of the hedge fund industry’s greatest redemption stories.

In an unforgiving industry, Cohen is notable for his longevity, and regarded as a pioneer of the so-called multi-manager hedge fund approach, alongside Citadel’s Ken Griffin and Millennium Management’s Izzy Englander.

Like Pete Rose, the baseball player whose legacy was later soured by sports gambling, Cohen’s brush with the law means even the “best hitter ever” has a “little asterisk” next to his name, said one rival hedge fund manager who knows him.

But they added: “Stevie can still have another chapter.”

Cohen and Point72 declined to comment.

For Gagosian, his friend’s shift from player to coach may mean their holidays can resume.

“We stopped chartering boats together,” he said. “Maybe now we’ll do it again.”

The investment sector has welcomed the news that that cost disclosure requirements for investment trusts will be temporarily banned.

The announcement, by the Treasury and the Financial Conduct Authority yesterday (20 September), comes following years of investment companies calling for change.

These rules were inherited by the European Union (EU) and made it appear that investment trusts were more costly to put money into than they were.

This is because the disclosure rule requires trusts to publish the costs of financing, operating and maintaining real assets.

However, many of these costs are already published in regular company updates and reflected in the value of the share price for all investment companies.

This created a “double counting of costs”, which investment trusts have long been saying has put investors off.

Although £15bn of new money went into investment trusts in 2021 alone, it is estimated the double counting rule was seeing £7bn a year in income being lost.

The Treasury said it will lay out legislation to provide the FCA with the appropriate powers to deliver reform – the new Consumer Composite Investments (CCI) regime.

It said the new CCI regime will deliver more tailored and flexible rules to “address concerns across industry with current disclosure requirements, including for costs.”

The UK’s new retail disclosure regime is expected to be in place in the first half of 2025, subject to Parliamentary approval and following a consultation from the FCA.

The FCA intends to consult on proposed rules for the CCI regime this Autumn.

The Association of Investment Companies (AIC) chief executive Richard Stone described it as “great news”.

He said the AIC has lobbied tirelessly on the issue and praised the Labour government for “acting so swiftly”.

Stone added: “Investment companies are a great UK success story and have a vital role in bridging the gap between private assets and public markets.

“Ending misleading cost disclosures will enable us to continue delivering for investors and make a critical contribution to the economy as the government drives forward its ambitions for growth, investment and wealth creation.”

Abrdn head of closed-end funds Christian Pittard said: “We welcome this move by government and the FCA to address unfair and distortive rules that have crippled investment trusts.

“With the FCA confirming that it will not take supervisory or enforcement action if a fund chooses not to follow the cost disclosure requirements, all eyes will now be on data publishers at a time when what the industry and investors really need is consistency.”

Pittard also labelled the UK investment trust sector “one of the jewels in the crown of the financial services industry.

This announcement came following research from Abrdn that revealed London listed closed-end infrastructure investment companies are on track for their first ever three-year gap with no primary capital raised.

Abrdn blamed this on a higher interest rate environment and the cost disclosure rules, with 2023 and 2022 both being fallow years for primary fundraising.

AJ Bell interim investments managing director Ryan Hughes agreed that this news will be “warmly welcomed by both the investment trust industry and broader market participants”.

Hughes added: “Investment trusts play a hugely important role both in the financial services sector and the wider economy as a provider of capital and the unintended consequences of the current legislation created an unequal playing field that put investment trusts at a disadvantage and threatened, in some cases, their very existence.

“The removal of this unnecessary barrier will help the investment trusts sector regain its footing and allow them to compete equally against other investment structures, which will put them back on the radar for investors who have been reluctant to use them given the cost disclosure requirements.”

In the week before the Treasury and the FCA made this announcement,

What is Fintech?

Fintech is short for Financial Technology, a term which describes the technology used to simplify and improve financial services. This includes mobile banking, investing apps, cryptocurrency and more. Fintech was created to bring convenience to your everyday financial processes for businesses and consumers. Without knowing it, you have and are using fintech in your everyday finance management.

What does Fintech do?

Fintech is useful for businesses and consumers alike.

From payment solutions to investment platforms, fintech also makes financial services more inclusive by lowering barriers to access. For instance, many fintech applications offer no-fee bank accounts, fractional share investing, and peer-to-peer lending platforms, giving consumers more opportunities to grow their wealth.

For businesses

fintech tools can improve operational efficiency by automating payroll, invoicing, tax filing, and even financial forecasting. It enables companies to streamline their financial workflows, reduce administrative costs, and free up time for more strategic tasks.

For Consumers

Consumers benefit from fintech by having more control over their financial lives. With the rise of personal finance apps, users can track spending, set savings goals, and monitor investments in real-time. The tools provide a complete view of personal finances, helping individuals make informed decisions based on data-driven insights.

What is Fintech used for?

Fintech operates through apps on computers and phones, bringing financial services to us. This is used in various ways including…

Robo-Advisors – Helping people create investment portfolios based on their personal goals and risk tolerance. This offers affordable and simple wealth management solutions for consumers

Payment apps – Such as, PayPal, Venmo and Apple pay make it possible and easy for every to send, receive and manage money from our phones. There are various advantages of using PayPal. They eliminate the need for cash and checks for any payments including international.

Peer-to-peer lending – Platforms such as, LendingClub allow consumers to lend money to others without using banks as intermediaries. This can often provide both parties more favourable rates.

Investment apps – These platforms make is accessible for more people to start investing. They offer resources and advice for novice investors so that more people can grow their wealth. Find trading platforms you can use to start.

Cryptocurrency Apps – Blockchain, the primary technology for most cryptocurrencies, is a significant aspect of fintech, representing a reorganised way to conduct financial transactions outside traditional banking systems.

Examples of Fintech in Everyday life

Fintech has become a part of daily life for many consumers, even if they’re not aware of it. Here are a few common ways consumers interact with fintech:

• Mobile Banking – This convenience has transformed the way people interact with their banks, minimising the need for physical branches. These apps allow us to send, receive and manage our money instantly from our phones.
• Budgeting –. Budgeting apps have become a popular way to track your money and set saving goals you can stick to setting your priorities in place. These apps sync with your bank accounts and credit cards, offering a broad view of your financial health in one place. You can find free budgeting apps to help.
• Credit monitoring – Tools like Experian allow users to monitor their credit scores and reports so that they can keep on top of their records and know where they need to improve. With this you can find out the average score and where you fall within it.

Impact of Fintech on personal finances

Whether you’re using a simple payment app or diving into cryptocurrency trading, fintech brings the tools for managing your finances right to your device. Consumers now have access to tools that explain investment options, track spending habits, and create budgeting plans.