Here's your Forbes daily briefing for Wednesday, August 27th.

Today on Forbes, why judges cannot agree on how much Trump's fraud should cost him.

Judges in two courts have now found that the President of the United States took part in a

year's long fraud that deceived financial institutions about his net worth. They differed,

however, on how much Trump should pay as a penalty. Judge Arthur and Goran concluded in February

last year that Trump owed about a half billion dollars. Appellate Justice Peter Moulton,

in an opinion issued last week, throughout that penalty,

dropping the figure to zero. Neither did much math to arrive at those numbers. The trial judge

and Goran attempted to gauge how much Trump's lies saved the now president in interest on his

loans. But he relied on a sloppy calculation. Michel

McCarthy, an investment banker that the state of New York called to testify, noted that Trump

secured lower interest rates after offering personal guarantees on loans. McCarty then compared

those rates to higher ones lenders told Trump he would pay if he did not personally guarantee his loans.

He used the difference to estimate the amount of interest Trump saved across four loans spanning 10 years, getting $168 million.

That calculation, however, rested on a faulty premise.

Trump did not have to lie about his net worth to give banks a personal guarantee,

and therefore secure cheap rates.

He lied, not just of necessity, but also out of habit.

Lying is what he does, especially when talking about the size of his fortune.

To more accurately calculate how much Trump's dishonesty saved him,

someone would have had to calculate how much Trump's interest rate

would have changed if he offered a personal guarantee,

...