The financial news that actually matters
JPMorgan Chase reported $21.2 billion in net income for the second quarter of 2026, with managed revenue reaching $58.0 billion and every major business line setting a new record. Then CEO Jamie Dimon used the same earnings release to warn that conditions “feel like 2007” and appear “close to as good as it gets,” a…
Millions of U.S. investors pay far less tax on their dividend income than they realize, or far more than they need to. Federal law caps the rate on qualified dividends at 0%, 15%, or 20%, rates that can sit well below the ordinary income brackets reaching 37%. The gap between those two sets of rates…
Families with estates above $13,990,000 just gained a permanent shield from the federal estate tax. Congress enacted a $15,000,000 per-person exemption starting in 2026, replacing years of temporary thresholds that forced repeated last-minute planning. The change, signed into law as Public Law 119-21, removes the sunset clause that had kept advisers and wealthy households guessing…
The federal government paid out $49.2 billion in tariff refunds during June 2026 alone, draining customs revenue so fast that the month recorded a net customs shortfall even as roughly $80 billion in additional refunds remained unpaid. The Supreme Court struck down tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act on Feb. 20, 2026,…
Married couples filing jointly for 2026 can each contribute up to $7,500 to an IRA, even if one spouse earned nothing during the year. The higher limit, confirmed by the IRS for tax year 2026, means a single-income household can shelter as much as $15,000 across two accounts. The catch is simple: the working spouse’s…
Christopher Alexander Delgado, the CEO of a crypto operation called Goliath Ventures, pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering in a scheme that prosecutors say drained hundreds of millions of dollars from more than a thousand investors. Under the terms of a plea agreement filed June 23, 2026, Delgado agreed to forfeit luxury watches,…
Indiana residents have reclaimed $56 million in unclaimed property so far this year, yet the state still holds close to $1 billion in dormant assets waiting for their rightful owners. Attorney General Todd Rokita, who leads the Unclaimed Property Division, set a record in a prior cycle by returning more than $69 million to Hoosiers,…
Prospective homebuyers shopping for a first mortgage this summer face a monthly payment that has climbed to roughly $2,198 on a median-priced home, driven by the 30-year fixed rate averaging 6.55 percent, the highest level in nearly a year. The rate increase, reported by Freddie Mac in its weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey, lands at…
Seniors with Home Equity Conversion Mortgages who have fallen behind on property taxes now have access to up to $7,500 in HUD assistance designed to prevent foreclosure. The aid targets a specific vulnerability: HECM borrowers on fixed incomes who cannot cover rising property-tax bills risk losing the homes they tapped equity from in the first…
Jon Patrick Kubler, a 52-year-old Redondo Beach, California, resident who held no investment adviser license, has been charged with defrauding roughly 30 elderly and disabled investors of more than $4 million between December 2017 and April 2023. Federal prosecutors in the Western District of North Carolina allege Kubler promised safe investments but instead ran a…