Buy Now, Pay Later's Balancing Act

Plus, Gary Gensler Kremlinology.

Number of the Week: $10 billion (explanation below)

Taking Buy Now, Pay Later's Temperature

The Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) sector had a busy week, showing a few more signs of life than it has for most of this year. Affirm’s July 14 announcement of a ho-hum sounding corporate partnership—with the ticket platform SeatGeek—appeared to give Affirm stock the best two-day boost it’s had in many months. (Other public fintech companies, including Upstart, Robinhood, and SoFi also had some good sessions, so there may have been other factors at work.)

Affirm’s founder and CEO Max Levchin made a relatively rare live appearance on CNBC’s Closing Bell, saying: