The financial news that actually matters
Federal authorities across multiple agencies are warning that a coordinated fraud operation is draining the retirement savings of older Americans by directing them to transfer money into a fictitious “Federal Reserve account.” The scheme, which the FBI calls the “Phantom Hacker” scam, has already produced federal prosecutions, prison sentences, and documented six-figure losses from individual…
Homeowners across the country are shelving kitchen overhauls, bathroom gut-jobs, and other large remodeling projects, according to the latest quarterly filings from the two biggest home-improvement retailers in the United States. Home Depot and Lowe’s both reported weaker demand for big-ticket, financed renovations during their most recent earnings periods, pointing to elevated interest rates and…
Depositors at two small banks lost direct access to their accounts this year after state regulators shut down one Chicago lender in January and one rural Georgia institution in May. Those closures, recorded on the FDIC’s official failure roster, represent the only two U.S. bank failures so far in 2026. The low count stands out…
Families saving for college through a 529 plan receive a federal tax benefit that directly reduces the cost of higher education: investment earnings inside the account are excluded from gross income when the money pays for qualified education expenses. That exclusion, written into Section 529 of the Internal Revenue Code, applies to tuition, fees, books,…
Americans lost $501 million to job and employment agency scams in 2024, a nearly sixfold increase from $90 million in 2020, according to new Federal Trade Commission data. The surge was driven largely by text-message pitches offering simple “task” work from home, and it arrived alongside a broader explosion in fraud losses that hit $12.5…
Families planning wealth transfers in 2026 can pass $19,000 to each recipient without reducing their lifetime gift-tax exemption or triggering a federal filing requirement. The per-recipient structure means a married couple with three children could move $114,000 out of their estate in a single year, all without paperwork. That math matters right now because the…
Roughly 70 million Americans who rely on Social Security checks face a quiet but consequential math problem: if inflation runs hotter than federal actuaries assumed, the cost-of-living adjustment for 2027 will be larger, and the trust fund that pays retirement benefits will run dry sooner. Both the Social Security Administration and the Congressional Budget Office…
Cardholders carrying a typical revolving balance are now paying roughly $1,462 a year in interest alone, a figure driven by average credit-card APRs near 22 percent. That cost reflects not just Federal Reserve rate policy but also widening profit margins that card issuers have built on top of the prime rate. With the Consumer Financial…
CorroHealth, a healthcare revenue-cycle company, is cutting 800 jobs as it shifts medical-billing work toward artificial intelligence. The company has been actively developing its AI-powered coding platform in collaboration with a major research university, and the workforce reduction signals how quickly automation is reshaping administrative healthcare roles. CorroHealth’s 800 Job Cuts and the AI Coding…
Drivers in California, Hawaii, and Washington are now paying at least $5 a gallon for regular gasoline as rising crude oil costs tied to the Iran conflict collide with state-level fees and tight West Coast fuel supplies. The California Energy Commission, acting as the state’s petroleum market watchdog, issued a market update in June 2026…