The financial news that actually matters
Millions of taxpayers who paid failure-to-pay penalties on their 2020 through 2023 federal returns have 28 days left to file a claim that could recover some of that money. July 10, 2026, is the act-by date that tax practitioners and the Taxpayer Advocate Service have flagged as a deadline to preserve potential refund rights under…
American households woke up to a sharper bite from rising prices on June 10, 2026, as the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers climbed 4.2% over the past 12 months, the fastest annual pace in three years. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the index jumped 0.5% in May alone, with a 3.9%…
More than a million Jeep Wrangler and Gladiator owners now face an unusual and urgent directive: park outside and away from any building. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has issued a recall covering 1,076,999 vehicles from model years 2021 through 2025 after confirming that an electrical defect can trigger fires even when the ignition…
Federal student loan borrowers still enrolled in the SAVE plan face an abrupt shift starting July 1, 2026, when servicers will begin issuing notices directing them to choose a new repayment option within 90 days. Those who fail to act will be automatically placed into either the Standard Repayment Plan or the new Tiered Standard…
The U.S. men’s national team kicks off its 2026 FIFA World Cup campaign against Paraguay today at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, with resale ticket prices starting near $710. The Group D fixture arrives just hours after stadium workers finalized a tentative labor deal that averted a strike at the venue. For fans weighing whether…
Borrowers hoping for cheaper credit got a clear answer on June 12, 2024: the Federal Reserve held the federal funds target range at 5.25% to 5.50%, citing only “modest further progress” on inflation. Stubborn price growth in shelter and medical care through the first four months of the year left policymakers with no room to…
Credit cardholders who carry a balance from month to month are paying an average rate of about 21.52 percent, while the broader average across all credit card accounts sits at 23.79 percent, according to the Federal Reserve’s latest quarterly data released on June 5, 2026. The gap between those two figures, roughly 2.3 percentage points,…
Merchants in Illinois and potentially several other states are about to lose the fee relief their legislatures promised them. Two federal regulators have issued interim final rules asserting that national banks and federal credit unions answer only to federal authority when setting interchange fees, effectively stripping states of the power to cap swipe fees on…
Homebuyers shopping for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage this week face higher borrowing costs after the benchmark rate climbed to 6.52%, up from 6.48% the prior week. The four-basis-point increase, recorded on June 11, 2026, reverses a brief dip and brings rates back to levels last seen on May 28. For a buyer financing $400,000, that…
American homebuyers closed on existing homes at the fastest pace in five months during May, with sales climbing 3.2 percent from April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.17 million units. The gain, reported by the National Association of Realtors on June 9, beat economist expectations compiled by FactSet and marked the strongest single-month…