The financial news that actually matters
The week of September 8, 2022, Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey pegged the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate at 5.89 percent. It was the last time a typical American homebuyer could lock in a rate below 6 percent. Every weekly reading since has come in at 6 percent or higher. As of late May…
For nearly 20 years, Medicare Advantage moved in only one direction: up. More seniors enrolled every fall, more insurers expanded into new counties, and the program’s share of total Medicare enrollment climbed past 50 percent. In 2026, that streak ends. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services projects that Medicare Advantage enrollment will fall to…
The United States has lost or sustained damage to 39 military aircraft since its war with Iran began roughly 12 weeks ago, Pentagon leaders told the House Appropriations Committee’s Defense Subcommittee in late May 2026. At the same session, lawmakers learned that direct war spending has reached approximately $29 billion and is now climbing at…
Bitcoin fell below $77,000 during early trading on Monday, May 19, 2026, its lowest level in over a month, as a punishing wave of forced liquidations swept through crypto derivatives markets. Data from Coinglass showed roughly $657 million in leveraged positions wiped out across major exchanges within hours. The drop extended a slide that has…
Nvidia reports $78 billion in quarterly revenue Wednesday – almost twice the combined revenue of McDonald’s, Starbucks, and Coca-Cola for the same three months A single chipmaker is about to report more revenue for one quarter than McDonald’s, Starbucks, and Coca-Cola managed to generate in the same period combined. And it won’t be close. When…
The Conference Board’s Leading Economic Index, a composite of ten forward-looking indicators ranging from manufacturing hours to building permits to consumer expectations, has spent the better part of a year pointing in one direction: down. In its most recent public release, the organization reported that the LEI fell 1.2 percent over the six months ending…
The wholesale prices that food manufacturers charge jumped 6.0% over the 12 months ending in April 2026, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on May 13. On a seasonally adjusted basis, the Producer Price Index for final demand surged 1.4% in April alone, its sharpest single-month increase in more than a year. Two Purdue University…
Open your next pay stub and imagine 15% of your take-home pay gone, redirected to the federal government before you ever see it. No lawsuit. No judge. No courtroom. For roughly 5 million Americans who have defaulted on federal student loans, that scenario is no longer hypothetical. After a pandemic-era freeze on collections that lasted…
If you signed up for the SAVE repayment plan and have been waiting months for clarity on your federal student loans, your window to act is about to open and close fast. Starting July 1, 2026, loan servicers will begin sending notices to millions of affected borrowers telling them to choose a new repayment plan….
Iranian forces fired on commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz over the weekend, declared “strict management and control” over all traffic through the waterway, and triggered a near-halt in one of the most heavily trafficked shipping corridors on Earth. By late in the day on Sunday, only about 12 commercial vessels had made the…