The financial news that actually matters
Retirees across the country are taking their former employers to court, alleging that billions of dollars in pension obligations were transferred to Athene Holding Ltd., a private-equity-backed insurer they say poses unacceptable risks to their retirement security. The lawsuits, which began as a wave of class actions in 2024, have drawn the attention of federal…
Block Inc., the parent company of Cash App, will pay $45 million to settle a multistate investigation into practices that left fraud victims stranded without working customer support or meaningful identity verification. Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown said the company “made it nearly impossible for victims to recover what they lost.” The settlement, joined by…
Canteen, one of the largest vending machine operators in the United States, has agreed to pay $6.94 million to resolve a class action lawsuit alleging it charged card-paying customers more than the price displayed on its machines. The settlement covers purchases made with credit, debit, or prepaid cards, and individual payouts range from $30 to…
Harry Dent, the financial forecaster who gained attention for warning about the dot-com peak before the 2000 crash, has projected that a stock-market bubble built over 17 years of government and central-bank stimulus will collapse and erase roughly 90 percent of equity values. The forecast rests on a specific reading of Federal Reserve balance-sheet expansion,…
Americans reported losing $3.5 billion to imposter scams in 2025, a nearly 20 percent jump from the prior year, with bank impersonators responsible for the costliest losses among all business-impersonation schemes. The Federal Trade Commission received more than 1 million imposter scam reports last year, making it the single largest fraud category, accounting for nearly…
Thousands of car owners who paid for extended warranties that never delivered real coverage are getting a second chance at partial recovery. The Federal Trade Commission is mailing 9,074 refund checks totaling more than $186,000 to consumers deceived by American Vehicle Protection Corporation, a Florida-based operation that sold sham auto warranties through aggressive telemarketing. Combined…
Gasoline prices dipped from May to June 2026, giving drivers a small break at the pump, but the cost of a gallon of unleaded regular still sits 27.3 percent above where it was a year earlier. That gap between short-term relief and persistent annual inflation hits hardest for households on Social Security, pensions, or other…
Millions of homeowners in high-tax states can now deduct up to $40,000 in state and local taxes on their federal returns, four times the $10,000 ceiling that had been in place since 2017. The change took effect for tax year 2025 under Public Law 119-21, the reconciliation law known as the One Big Beautiful Bill…
Savers who keep their money at credit unions hold the same federal protection as bank depositors: $250,000 per owner, per institution, per ownership category. The National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund, administered by the National Credit Union Administration, carries the full faith and credit of the United States, matching the guarantee that the Federal Deposit…
Wyoming’s State Treasurer returned $24 million in unclaimed property to residents and former residents, with a single check totaling nearly $977,000. The payout adds to a pattern of large disbursements from the state’s Unclaimed Property program, which has previously issued individual payments as high as $6.7 million and set a record of $7.4 million in…