..is really an interesting idea. I like how management is doing everything to make it better. I hope they no more dilute shares.

I am a 50 year old woman with daughters off to universities. Over the years I feel like I am living two lives and I am tired of pretending. I am not arrogant to say that I know everything .I am aware that knowledge is limited and I retire at that. I enjoy philosophy of upanishads and carnatic music ,keertanas. I understand rituals to some extent are helpful in setting discipline and habits.

But, man, we are getting increasingly stupid and it just feels very suffocating. The pseudo science that we embraced is like none other. Why do we have compulsion that we have to explain everything with science. It is okay to believe whatever, but stop this energy and aura thing.

Esp, women are incredible. Really, how does it matter what you mix in rice (haldi ,kukum, coins...whatever for some religious ceremony).It is okay to miss some things ,but ,,OMG, some people make a big deal about nothing. I think this makes us look like idiots.

However, I am realizing I have to pretend to "love" these ceremonies and my husband is just fine.The burden to carry tradition falls on us , I guess. When my daughters get married off, I am going to checkout of these compulsions for good.

Btw, I have been in USA for 26 years and younger generation seem to be more into this than mine.

2 months post op of total hysterectomy and I am noticing joint aches for last one week. It is much worse soon after I wake up , hard to walk , and then it gets better. Is this normal? Can anyone share their experinces. I am taking calcium as of now.

Say someone has $13M NW(wife and husband together) of portfolio with around 350k/yr DRIP amount, what kind of advisors are provided? If they don't want to manage their all stock portfolio anymore , what are the options that fidelity can provide? What guarantees are provided to protect their portfolio and not make significant losses? Can they be fully trusted?(about their responsibility towards it). Thanks.

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US Telecom: Verizon Shells Out $3 Billion for Spectrum as SpaceX Treads Lightly

Michael Hodel

Jun 29, 2026

Verizon was the big bidder in Auction 113, spending $3.2 billion on 82 spectrum licenses. T-Mobile picked up more than 100 licenses, nearly all in small markets, for only $277 million. AT&T added 13 licenses for $133 million. SpaceX did not bid aggressively, landing two licenses for $8 million.

Why it matters: Our suspicion that EchoStar drove up prices despite shuttering its wireless network was confirmed, which limits the insight these auction results provide. The licenses in this auction were previously sold to EchoStar but withheld in a dispute with the Federal Communications Commission.

• EchoStar had $1.7 billion in bids outstanding when the total auction proceeds crossed $3 billion, ensuring it wouldn't have to pay a fee to the FCC. It ended up winning only two licenses for $1 million.
• The price of the New York City license, which sold for $924 million, increased threefold in bidding solely between EchoStar and Verizon, after AT&T and T-Mobile dropped out.

The bottom line: We are surprised that Verizon bid so aggressively, especially in New York, where it isn't particularly spectrum-constrained. Perhaps the firm believes it can now negotiate aggressively for the remainder of EchoStar's AWS-3 licenses.

• Our fair value estimate and moat ratings are unchanged for the major wireless carriers. This was a small auction that doesn't affect the relative position of these firms
• SpaceX bid on the three available J block licenses, which makes sense because they are adjacent to the licenses it is buying from EchoStar. But it didn't win any of these, bowing out at a third of the ultimate winning bids.

Between the lines: We expect a lack of spectrum, among other upfront costs, to prevent SpaceX from entering the traditional terrestrial wireless market. The firm acquired a license covering the US Gulf, where satellite service makes perfect sense.

The price of gold dropped to a six-month low on Thursday as tensions in the Middle East, growing expectations of US interest rate rises and the looming SpaceX initial public offering piled pressure on bullion. Gold fell more than 1 per cent to touch $4,022 per troy ounce on Thursday morning, its lowest level since late November and leaving it on course for its worst quarter of performance in almost a decade. It was later trading up slightly on the day at $4,091. The yellow metal has fallen more than 20 per cent since the beginning of the war in the Middle East, which has forced some central banks to sell gold to help defend their currencies. It has also triggered an exodus of the speculative investors who had driven a bullion-buying frenzy late last year and early this year. “When things kicked off in Iran, people de-risked their portfolios,” said Peter Kinsella, head of investment services at UBP. “People are selling gold to fund other non-performing assets on a margin basis. Any de-risking move is going to result in sales of gold.” Several central banks have been forced to sell gold in recent months, including Turkey, which sold and swapped $20bn in gold to defend its currency. Russia has also sold gold to prop up its fiscal coffers.

A major drag on gold during the war has been a shift higher in US interest rate expectations, increasing the relative allure of Treasuries and other government bonds. A burst of inflation driven by surging oil prices has prompted traders to swing from expecting two or three quarter-point interest rate cuts by the end of the year to now anticipating one quarter-point increase. That has driven up the opportunity cost of holding gold, an incomeless asset. SpaceX’s giant IPO on Friday could pull down gold prices even further, said Tom Price, analyst at Panmure Liberum. AI companies Anthropic and OpenAI are also planning listings. “It is a potential drag on gold, because investors are looking somewhere else to keep the party alive,” he said. “Gold is struggling at the moment, and they are looking at the next big thing. And SpaceX is the next big thing.” Mohit Kumar, analyst at Jefferies, sees the upcoming mega IPOs “as a liquidity drain event in the near term”, which has weighed on prices for gold and crypto assets. The surge of retail interest in gold and silver helped to drive a historic bull run, which at its peak saw gold prices double in two years. However, retail investors have since reversed course, with outflows from the gold-backed exchange-traded flows contributing to the sell-off. Gold ETFs saw net outflows of 55 tonnes during March through May, reversing the trend after nine consecutive months of inflows, according to data from the World Gold Council. Globally, central banks remain net buyers of gold, which overtook US Treasuries to become the largest reserve asset by value at the end of last year, according to a recent report from the European Central Bank.

All these complaints about how hard it is to get into parent's accounts or move money into a seemingly shady accounts make me happy and secured that I have been with fidelity for 20+ years.

Moved my children's custodian accounts into their own with no problem at all.

I have been living in USA for quite a while(Iam 50 now) --when Indians were not a thing in Austin, Texas. I have seen racism in Texas, but not very explicit. Esp, asked questions about us worshipping monkeys and rats kind of questions..that which they apparently saw in National Geographic Channel back then. Or sometimes it was just curious inquiry about animals/cows roaming on roads.

Anyhow, yesterday I met a Telugu guy in his early 30's who was explaining his dad about where blacks live. His dad asked genuinely where they live as our area is mostly concentrated with Asians. I told him specific areas.

Then this gentleman's son blurted out , " mana daggara ..... vaadalu(neighborhoods), ----vaadalu vunnatle ekkada nallavaalla vaadalu vuntaayi. "

in 25+ years of my living in USA, I have never heard of as racist/casteist comment as this guy. I was shell shocked, mostly because it has come from an educated ,seemingly decent 35 year old guy. He did his MS here.

Though anecdotal, yes, I noticed plenty of ignorance in younger generation. Probably because social media has brought together similar communities and they are all living in their own echo chambers.

In the movie, "Anthu leni Katha " by Bapu, a character has a dialogue that stuck with me forever , " Ala pravarthiste mana Telugu valla gurunchi Bengali vallu yemi anukuntaaru" ani.

I think now days, the concept of nationalism has only become to radicalize religious zealots . The concept of self respect and that we should not take our terrible culture to others has gone.

Just want to share.

Edit: I have to share because there is another incident that I saw a week before. Mom was complaining to me about how her son was not listening. Here is the conversation:

" My son had big fight with me because I said no to him about him cutting his friend's hair. They were having fun time and he wanted to give stylish hair cut to his friend. I told him , " Manam alaanti panulu cheyyamu. You have to do it only for yourself and not others. I understand that your country(USA) has dignity of labor and I respect that...but it is my house and you have to respect my rules. !!

It took me awhile to even understand what's the big deal with that. It disappointed me more than I imagined.

"After more than 12 years in office, Prime Minister Narendra Modi faces a painful reality check: His promise to modernize India’s economy hasn’t panned out. Instead, the country faces a rapidly weakening rupee, dwindling net foreign investment, and worries that artificial intelligence will take a wrecking ball to the information technology industry.

Mr. Modi ought to take this opportunity to move India in a more market-friendly direction, but that would require a level of clarity and commitment to economic reform that the prime minister so far has lacked.

Recent weeks have brought a spate of bad news. The rupee, already among Asia’s worst-performing currencies in 2025, has lost 11% of its value against the dollar over the past 12 months. It may breach 100 to the dollar for the first time.

Just last year, Indian officials trumpeted an International Monetary Fund forecast that India was on the cusp of overtaking Japan as the world’s fourth-largest economy at market exchange rates. Instead, India has fallen to sixth place, behind the U.K.. Meanwhile, the IMF projects that India’s per capita income at market exchange rates ($2,812) will fall behind Bangladesh’s ($2,911) this year.

The slippage extends to the financial markets. In the past two weeks, powered by technology stocks, the South Korean and Taiwanese stock markets have overtaken India in market capitalization, pushing India to seventh place in global rankings. Foreign investors have pulled more than $23 billion from Indian equities since the start of the year. Net foreign direct investment in the fiscal year that ended March 31 was a paltry $7.7 billion, down from $28 billion three years earlier. This reflects both repatriations by foreign investors and outbound investments by Indian companies.

The corporate landscape also reflects investor hesitation. Tesla last month said it was abandoning plans to build a factory in India. The Modi government had publicly wooed the U.S. company, hoping to replicate some of the limited success it has had with giving Apple incentives to locate a chunk of iPhone production in India.

These setbacks have triggered criticism of the Modi government. The economist Surjit Bhalla, a former member of the prime minister’s Economic Advisory Council, recently wrote for the Indian Express that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s “handling of the economy has hit a low with no guarantee that it cannot go lower.” Arvind Subramanian, a former chief economic adviser to the Indian government, called for a revamping of the prime minister’s economic team, warning that “sameness of personnel and staleness of ideas are fatal for all political systems.”

The government appears defensive. At a public meeting in Hyderabad last month, Mr. Modi appealed to Indians to cut down on gold imports and foreign travel to conserve foreign exchange. Mr. Modi also rebutted on X.com a CNBC-TV18 report that said the government was considering taxing foreign travel, a policy that could have accelerated investor flight from India.

The proximate cause for India’s economic woes is the war in Iran, which has driven up fuel and fertilizer prices and raised fears of dwindling remittances from the nearly 10 million Indian workers in the six member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council. India, the world’s third-largest oil consumer, imports 85% to 90% of its crude. Traditionally, more than half of India’s oil and gas imports have passed through the Strait of Hormuz.

While the Iran war has undoubtedly hurt India, its problems predate the conflict. When I speak to business leaders privately—many are hesitant to be quoted for fear of government retaliation—they complain about bureaucratic heavy-handedness, rapacious tax inspectors and forests of red tape. Mr. Modi was supposed to solve these problems. By some accounts he has exacerbated them.

Much of this stems from hubris about India’s prospects, which led to policies unfriendly to investors. Mr. Bhalla points to a 2015 amendment to India’s model Bilateral Investment Treaty, which forced foreign investors to exhaust remedies in India’s notoriously slow courts for five years before seeking international arbitration. When India reintroduced a capital-gains tax on listed equities in 2018—and raised rates in 2024—it made matters worse. Between 2017 and 2024, the government passed about 700 “quality control orders,” burdensome licensing requirements that stifle import competition.

In theory, it’s not too late for Mr. Modi to turn the economy around, but this would require a shift in mindset. Instead of assuming that the world wants to beat a path to India, the government should emulate countries like Vietnam that ruthlessly focus on being more business friendly. A little less hubris could go a long way. "

Have you ever looked toy shops in towns? They are all cheap plastic that when you press hard ,would dent them. All made in China. We have become China's dump yard. We have as much human resources and we still import cheap goods from China. Corruption is the main reason why we don't have our own manufacturing for nuts,bolts,needles and barbie dolls; and cheap plastic bottles and bats. We would have exported enormously too and made ourselves an international market for it. I remember there was once a youth who were interested in opening factories , but, you had to pay lot many people even before you could register your company. And after you open factory, politcal parties will eat you alive for demand of donations. And the youth back then got discouraged and stopped pursuing such interests. Consequence is current huge trade deficit.

I was watching an old movie and the rupee value was 17 in it. Looking into history, people back then protested when it raised above 25.00(devalued purposefully by govt). What do we protest now about? All about ridiculous things. I think we have become desensitized.

All the govt units have become weaker over the years. Esp, education system. Civil service examinations and so much fuss about them is a joke. What did they achieve, except making plenty of money for themselves?

Unemployment in towns and villages is about 20%+ , always. Not going aggressive in exports, we have basically not used our human resources well. That means, we missed plenty of taxes, revenues from foreign countries which we would have invested back into our economy. Our politcians are always busy making satires on each other in their meetings ,yelling on each other. There is no concept of working together as a unit.

With AI, there will be more economic disruption. 50+ year olds (I am 50 now) will die in coming 30-40 years. With decline in population, our land values (which anyway is not real growth) will decrease too. Will there be more ghost houses like in Japan? Who knows what kind of disruption will it bring. I hope and pray that would be affordable housing, may be?

Anyhow, this situation is a wakeup call and India should do huge overhaul of its economy. It seems almost an impossible thing, mostly because we are extremely greedy people.

The system is extremely rotten as of now. But, India wanted to, it can crawl back up steady and slowly. Many countries have done and I hope we will too.

Can anyone here recommend hardwood floor installer for 1200sq.ft condo. Need to remove carpet and layout hardwood. I will most likely purchase flooring material from Lowes. Thanks.