The financial news that actually matters
Maria Gonzalez bought her three-bedroom house in Cape Coral, Florida, in 2019 with a fixed-rate mortgage she could comfortably afford. She never missed a payment. Then, in early 2025, her monthly bill jumped by $287. The principal and interest had not changed. Her property taxes were flat. What changed was her homeowners insurance, which her…
If you have been waiting for lower mortgage rates, cheaper car payments, or some breathing room on your credit card balance, Kevin Warsh has a message: keep waiting. The Senate is expected to confirm Warsh as the next chair of the Federal Reserve as early as the week of May 11, 2026, making him the…
The U.S. Treasury just gave savers their best reason to buy I bonds in nearly three years. Starting May 1, 2026, newly purchased Series I savings bonds pay a composite annual rate of 4.26%, the highest since November 2023. But the real story is buried one layer deeper: the fixed-rate component jumped to 0.90%, a…
A firearms dealer in Georgia loses his business checking account. A cryptocurrency startup in Wyoming gets dropped by three banks in six months. A faith-based foster care agency in Texas is told its views on marriage make it too risky to bank. None of them broke the law. All of them were swept up in…
On May 1, 2026, a round-trip flight from Las Vegas to Dallas on Spirit Airlines cost $39. By May 3, Spirit no longer existed, and the cheapest seat on that same route had jumped to $124. That 218% spike, captured through fare checks on Kayak and Google Flights, is the sharpest documented price swing on…
A year ago, Cape Coral, Florida, was still riding the tail end of a pandemic housing boom that had doubled some neighborhood valuations in under four years. That ride is over. Home prices in the Cape Coral-Fort Myers metro fell roughly 9% in the first quarter of 2026 compared with a year earlier, based on…
Iran delivered a 14-point counterproposal late Thursday night through Pakistani intermediaries, answering a U.S. peace framework with a plan of its own to end the military conflict between the two countries and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. President Trump said Friday he is reviewing the document but is “not satisfied” with what Tehran has put…
A weekly fill-up that cost about $52 in January now runs nearly $64, and in California it is closing in on $86. The national average price of regular unleaded gasoline has climbed to $4.56 a gallon, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration data for the week ending May 5, 2026. It is the first time…
Crude oil plunged below $99 a barrel during trading on June 4, 2026, after reports that Iran is actively reviewing U.S. proposals to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to commercial tanker traffic. For a few hours, energy traders allowed themselves to imagine one of the world’s most dangerous shipping chokepoints finally clearing. Then the moment…
Circle K stations across the country are knocking 40 cents off every gallon of gas during a three-hour window on Wednesday, May 7, 2026. The discount runs from 4 to 7 p.m. local time at participating locations and hits automatically at the pump. No app, no coupon, no loyalty card. With the national average recently…