Briefs for Saturday

NEW YORK – A rare first printing of the U.S. Constitution sold at Sotheby’s in New York for $43.2 million, a record price for a document or book sold at auction.

The buyer, hedge fund manager Kenneth Griffin, will loan the document to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, for public exhibition, Sotheby’s announced Friday.

Griffin, the founder and CEO of multinational hedge fund Citadel, outbid a group of 17,000 cryptocurrency enthusiasts from around the world who crowdfunded to buy it over the last week.

The museum opened in 2011 and was founded by Alice Walton, the daughter of Walmart founder Sam Walton.

Senators oppose Powell at Fed

WASHINGTON – Two Democratic senators said Friday that they oppose the nomination of Jerome Powell to a second term as chair of the Federal Reserve, saying Powell has been insufficiently committed to fighting climate change, an issue that the world’s central banks are increasingly confronting.

Their opposition comes as President Joe Biden is expected to announce within days whom he will choose for the nation’s most powerful economic position.

Many Fed watchers expect Powell to be offered a second term, though Lael Brainard, a member of the Fed’s Board of Governors, has emerged as the leading alternative.

Three Democratic senators have publicly said they will vote against Powell, a former private equity executive who was elevated to the Fed chairmanship by President Donald Trump and whose term expires in early February.

From wire reports