The financial news that actually matters
More than one million people who used the Brigit cash-advance app are set to receive a second round of refund checks from the Federal Trade Commission. The agency is distributing more than $6.8 million in payments to 1,052,038 consumers, according to the FTC, following an initial round sent in November 2024 that totaled more than…
Millions of Americans who gained affordable health insurance through enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies now face sharply higher premiums or the loss of coverage entirely. The enhanced premium tax credits created under the American Rescue Plan Act and extended through 2025 have lapsed, and modeling from the Urban Institute projects that 7.3 million fewer people…
More than 209,000 Illinois homeowners insured by Allstate face an 8.8 percent premium increase, a rate hike filed with state regulators at a time when Illinois officials are pressing major carriers for far more detailed pricing data. The filing lands in the middle of a broader fight over transparency in homeowners insurance, with Attorney General…
Wendy’s expects to close 5% to 6% of its U.S. restaurants this year, a cut that translates to hundreds of locations shutting their doors as the chain fights declining same-store sales. The closures follow a formal portfolio review led by interim CEO Ken Cook, who described the plan as affecting a “mid-single-digit percentage” of domestic…
Roughly 118,727 U.S. properties received a foreclosure filing during the first quarter of 2026, a 26 percent jump from the same period a year earlier. Indiana now sits at the top of the national list, with one in every 739 homes caught in some stage of the foreclosure process. The numbers signal a sharp acceleration…
American drivers are staring down rising fuel costs just as summer road trips hit full swing. President Trump declared the Iran ceasefire finished on July 8, calling further diplomacy with Tehran “a waste of time.” The announcement came after U.S. military strikes responding to attacks in or near the Strait of Hormuz, and it has…
U.S. semiconductor stocks dropped 4.5% on July 7, 2026, after reports surfaced that Chinese artificial intelligence lab DeepSeek is developing its own AI chip. The sell-off hit companies that have built their revenue models around selling advanced processors to global AI developers, and the news injected fresh uncertainty into a sector already navigating tightening export…
Wartime veterans who need daily assistance and the surviving spouses they leave behind can receive monthly VA pension payments reaching $2,873 when they qualify for the Aid and Attendance add-on. That figure reflects the highest Maximum Annual Pension Rate tier for the current cycle, effective December 1, 2025, after a 2.8% cost-of-living adjustment. Many eligible…
The U.S. Department of Justice charged 455 defendants in connection with more than $6.5 billion in false health care claims, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services responded by suspending 1,079 providers and revoking billing privileges for 1,403 others. The 2026 National Health Care Fraud Takedown represents one of the largest coordinated enforcement actions…
Roughly 72 million Americans who depend on Social Security checks face a widening gap between competing forecasts for their 2027 cost-of-living adjustment. Estimates now range from 3.8 percent to 4.7 percent, a spread of nearly a full percentage point that translates into hundreds of dollars a year for a typical retiree. The disagreement traces back…