This isn’t exactly a vintage 1973-74 kind of “national energy emergency” but it does speak to the special place fossil fuels have in the new administration.

President Donald Trump used the first hours of his second term in office Monday to make the emergency declaration, signing an executive order designed to boost US oil and gas production.

The Electric Slide

The emergency declaration marks a U-turn from Biden-era green energy policies focused on climate change to a policy of, in Trump’s words Monday, “drill, baby, drill.” The president plans to greenlight more permits to surface the “liquid gold under our feet,” including by opening up drilling in Alaska, in a bid to lower energy costs for businesses and consumers.

Energy production was already trending in the direction the Trump administration desires:

• US oil production is near peak levels, accounting for 22% of the world’s oil, more than any other country. Production levels, coupled with an economic slowdown in China, meant that oil prices declined 3% in 2024, the second consecutive year.
• Energy Information Administration analysts expect an oversupply of oil this year, which could further tame prices, while US production is poised to continue growing. Nevertheless, energy prices fell on Trump’s inauguration, suggesting markets think the president’s policies could push output even higher: Brent crude futures, the international oil benchmark, closed down 0.8% at $80.15. US West Texas Intermediate crude futures fell 1.7% to $76.58.

None of this is to say the United States doesn’t have real energy concerns, but the biggest one might be electricity. Demand is surging for the first time since the 1990s, and will increase in some US regions by 15% over the next five years, according to an October report by Wood Mackenzie. Power-guzzling data centers and new manufacturing facilities mean, since Trump doesn’t plan to go the energy conservation route, he could expedite the building of new power plants.

What You Can Expect: According to a letter Trump’s team circulated to lawmakers, the brakes will likely be slammed on electric vehicle initiatives in the coming months, meaning you should buy your electric car now if you still want that federal subsidy. Other efforts to “empower consumer choice” will be taken for showerheads, toilets, washing machines, lightbulbs, and dishwashers, meaning you can expect agencies to roll back regulations on those items.

In the words of Max Bialystock, “Please, don’t help me.”

For the crypto industry, President Trump is something of an enigma. His inauguration precipitated bitcoin hitting its highest value ever as he’s expected to be a proponent of crypto-friendly regulation. However, in the 24 hours before he was sworn in, not only did Trump launch his own cryptocurrency but so did his wife, Melania Trump. The interlocking dynamics of the two tokens from familia de Trump didn’t paint the image of an industry ready for the sheen of legitimacy, which the crypto lobby so desperately craves.

All In

Trump has not always been pro-crypto. In 2021, Trump told Fox News that he thought bitcoin, by far the most established cryptocurrency, “just seems like a scam.” But he’s had a Damascus Conversion since then, and picked a promising handful of officials to join his administration, from the crypto industry’s point of view. 

Then came Friday, and Trump launched his own cryptocurrency called $TRUMP on the eve of his re-entry into the White House. The coin’s value initially skyrocketed from $10 to $70, but then on Sunday, on the eve of Trump’s inauguration, Melania Trump launched her own currency, $MELANIA, and as investors flocked to that coin, Trump’s own coin lost a chunk of its value. Still no word on whether we can expect $IVANKA, $DONJR, $ERIC, or $BARRON. 

For the crypto lobby, the launch of the Trump family coins was a bit, well, embarrassing:

• “This is a horrible look for the industry already trying to make the case that we’re not a bunch of hucksters, scammers and fraudsters,” one anonymous pro-crypto Washington lobbyist told Politico. “They’re plumbing new depths of idiocy with the memecoin launch,” Nic Carter, a founder at crypto investment firm Castle Island Ventures, told the outlet. 
• A memecoin is a cryptocurrency that’s just tied to a fad or a joke. At best, memecoins are the most unserious end of the cryptocurrency spectrum, and at worst, they’re associated with pump-and-dump schemes that leave late buyers with no value.

You Live By the Meme: “Trump needs to fire his crypto advisors, from top to bottom and replace them with people who know what they are doing,” Gabor Gurbacs, former director of digital asset strategy at VanEck, tweeted. “The memecoins cost the US, the presidency and his family a lot of credibility and the consequences haven’t even started,” he added. It’s not terribly helpful that the last big memecoin to be in the public-eye was $HAWK, launched by viral internet personality Haliey Welch —  or “Hawk Tuah” girl — which shot up 900% in value before crashing back to earth, prompting accusations that insiders started the sell-off.

“The first thing we do, let’s kill all the billable hours.” OK, Shakespeare said “lawyers” instead of “billable hours,” but the latter must have really been adding up at KPMG. And we are not even sure we should ever cite this line by the Bard in the Mangione era, but whatever. 

On Monday, The Wall Street Journal reported that the accounting giant is looking to open up its very first law firm — a slightly unorthodox move that requires taking advantage of a novel Arizona state law. So what’s KPMG up to?

Add It to the Menu

The KPMG sales pitch is pretty simple: It already offers tax and audit services, so why not offer legal work to clients, too? In a field dominated by just four major players — of which KPMG is the smallest by annual revenue — the firm hopes the all-in-one approach helps differentiate it from its peers. Via KPMG Law, the firm plans to offer a wide-range of legal work that goes hand-in-hand with its financial services, such as M&A law and contract reviews.

It’s a strategy it has already employed abroad, where the rules for establishing law firms are a little more lax. Which makes the US market a source of untapped potential:

• KPMG already offers legal services in 80 countries, and last year, Tax and Legal services was its fastest-growing division, growing 10% year-over-year to generate $8.7 billion of the firm’s total $38.4 billion in revenue.
• Breaking into the US — a.k.a., the largest legal market in the world — means taking advantage of an Arizona program in which, unlike in nearly every other state in the nation, non-lawyers are allowed to own a law firm. KPMG Law’s application has already cleared several procedural steps, WSJ reports, and now awaits final approval from the Arizona Supreme Court; KPMG says the Arizona-based team would be able to service clients across the country.

Rest assured, accounting industry experts told WSJ that Deloitte, Ernst & Young, and PricewaterhouseCoopers are likely to follow in KPMG’s tracks if the firm scores regulatory approval.

Legal Trouble: It’s not all cheery headlines for KPMG this week. On Monday, the UK’s Financial Reporting Council, the accounting industry’s watchdog, announced it had opened an investigation into KPMG’s audit work for Entain, the parent company of British gambling brands such as Ladbrokes and Coral. KPMG Law may just have its first case.