policy — 4 leads

On October 6, 2026 the US Supreme Court hears Anderson v.

Intel, a lawsuit over hedge funds and private equity inside Intel's 401(k), with the Labor Department arguing on Intel's side — the opportunity is that litigation risk, not regulation, is what has kept private assets out of 401(k) plans, while the listed alternative-asset managers trade 20–48% below their highs.

The Small Business Administration proposed on August 20, 2026 to lift the revenue ceiling for federal IT-services contractors from $34 million to $531 million and to measure size by headcount rather than revenue almost everywhere.

By its own estimate, 37,002 firms already holding $71 billion of federal contracts would newly count as small — and the set-aside pool most government-services revenue flows through gets re-sorted.

The US Department of Agriculture published notices for eighteen state programs on September 15, 2026 that remove sweetened drinks — and in several states candy, energy drinks, zero-calorie soda and fountain drinks — from what food stamps may buy.

Most are already running, and the categories being cut are where the beverage industry's growth and its best margins live.

Since August 27, 2026 US recyclers must sell all their lithium-ion "black mass" to American buyers, but the country has roughly 7,000 tonnes a year of refining capacity against 65,000 tonnes of feedstock — a government-made glut for the few companies that own domestic refining, and a squeeze on the recyclers who used to export.