The financial news that actually matters
The economist whose forecasts set the tone for much of the housing industry has sharply lowered his expectations for the year. Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the National Association of Realtors, now projects that existing-home sales will grow about 4% in 2026, a steep markdown from the roughly 14% jump he was calling for just…
Second-quarter earnings season opens with a bang on Tuesday, July 14, when five of the largest banks in the United States report results within a few hours of one another. JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, and Goldman Sachs are all scheduled to deliver figures before the market opens, giving investors an unusually…
Older travelers who booked flights or hotels through the Hopper app over the past few years may be owed money. Federal regulators have reached a $35 million settlement with the popular travel-booking company over the way it added certain fees and described certain services, and that money is set aside to be returned to the…
The scam that unraveled in Florida this year followed a script that has become disturbingly common: a phone call warning of a legal emergency, a caller claiming to be a federal agent, and a demand that the target hand over cash to make the problem disappear. What made this case notable was the physical courier…
The satellite dish bolted to millions of American rooftops now belongs to a company working its way through federal bankruptcy court. At the end of June 2026, the corporate family behind DISH TV placed its satellite-television and wireless arms into Chapter 11, seeking court approval for a debt overhaul that had already been negotiated with…
A criminal case that federal prosecutors once called one of the largest cryptocurrency frauds they had ever charged now appears to be unraveling before it ever reaches a jury. The government is preparing to abandon its prosecution of the man it identified as the architect of the scheme, an outcome that is exceedingly rare once…
A growing share of the households carrying credit-card balances are not financing vacations or big-ticket splurges. They are borrowing to keep the lights on and the pantry stocked. In new survey data, most cardholders with debt say the balances they carry now go toward everyday necessities rather than anything discretionary — a shift that says…
Online fraud drained a record amount from American wallets last year, and the single biggest culprit was not the stolen credit card or the phishing email but the fake investment. Federal figures show losses reaching levels that would have been hard to imagine a few years ago, driven by schemes that promise outsized returns and…
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan have charged a New York man with operating a Ponzi scheme and related investment fraud that took in more than $50 million from investors. The charges are allegations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty, but the case as described by the government follows the familiar arc…
A California man has pleaded guilty to orchestrating a Ponzi-style scheme that drained roughly $39 million from financial institutions, according to prosecutors. The case is a reminder that the Ponzi mechanic is not limited to fleecing individual investors. Here the money came from banks and lenders, extracted through a cycle of loans in which fresh…