Peter Richardson, Author at The Financial Wire

Building of FED Federal Reserve Bank in Washington Concept of economy finance interest rate money

The Fed’s April minutes drop today — and the four dissents reveal a committee too split to deliver the rate cut that would lower your 6.58% mortgage

Peter Richardson3 months ago3 months ago012 mins

Four Federal Reserve officials broke ranks at the April 29-30 meeting, dissenting from the committee’s decision to hold interest rates steady and exposing the deepest split on the Federal Open Market Committee in recent memory. The minutes released May 28, 2026, lay out the fault lines: some policymakers pushed to begin cutting rates immediately, arguing…

Powell Jerome FOMC 01302024 Vetted DSC9915 (53500908885)

The April FOMC minutes drop Wednesday — Warsh’s first major Fed document will reveal whether four members voted to cut rates anyway at Powell’s final meeting

Peter Richardson3 months ago3 months ago011 mins

The Federal Reserve’s April 28-29 meeting ended with a fractured vote and a leadership transition already underway. On Wednesday, May 20, the public gets to see what happened inside the room. The FOMC minutes, scheduled for 2 p.m. ET, will detail the internal debate at what was effectively Jerome Powell’s final meeting as full chair…

Sad dismissed worker is taking his office supplies with him from office.

AI was the #1 reason for U.S. layoffs for the third straight month — 21,490 workers lost their jobs to AI in April alone, the highest single-month total on record

Peter Richardson3 months ago3 months ago016 mins

When outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas released its May 2025 jobs report, one number jumped off the page: 21,490. That was the count of positions U.S. employers said they eliminated because of artificial intelligence in April alone, the highest single-month AI-linked total since the firm began tracking the category. It also marked the third…

Money, Finance, E-Commerce and cryptocurrency . Close up of silver and gold Bitcoin coin with stack.

Friday wiped out stocks, bonds, gold, silver, AND Bitcoin in a single session — the first “everything-down” day since 2022

Peter Richardson3 months ago3 months ago011 mins

On a single Friday in late May 2026, there was nowhere to hide. Stocks fell. Bonds fell. Gold fell. Silver collapsed. Bitcoin dropped. Every major asset class closed in the red on the same day, a synchronized wipeout that had not happened since the Federal Reserve’s punishing rate-hike campaign shook markets in 2022. Pinpointing the…

Happy mature older woman video calling on laptop working from home. Smiling 60s middle aged businesswoman talking by conference online virtual chat using computer at home office sitting on couch.

Long-term care insurance just got a penalty-free 401(k) loophole — anyone under 59½ can now withdraw $2,500 a year to pay LTC premiums

Peter Richardson3 months ago3 months ago015 mins

Say you are 55, paying $2,800 a year for long-term care insurance, and every dollar of that premium comes from after-tax income because touching your 401(k) before 59½ would trigger a 10 percent early-withdrawal penalty. That math just changed. Under Section 334 of the SECURE 2.0 Act, you can now pull up to $2,500 a…

cars on road surrounded by buildings during daytime

Memorial Day drivers will pay $1.35 more per gallon than last year — adding $54 to the cost of a 1,000-mile road trip in a 25 MPG car

Peter Richardson3 months ago3 months ago010 mins

That family road trip to the beach just got more expensive. A gallon of regular gasoline is running about $4.52 nationally heading into Memorial Day weekend 2026, according to GasBuddy and AAA daily tracking data as of late May. A year ago, the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s weekly retail series put the Memorial Day average…

Old senior european man wearing protective facial mask pushing shopping cart in the supermarket. Shopping during COVID-19 concept.

The 2027 Social Security COLA forecast climbed to 4.2% — analyst Mary Johnson cites “sharply rising gas, energy, and fresh produce prices” as the catalyst

Peter Richardson3 months ago3 months ago013 mins

Gasoline crossed $4 a gallon in much of the country this spring. Electric bills jumped. A bag of apples costs noticeably more than it did last year. For the roughly 70 million Americans who depend on Social Security, those price increases are not just kitchen-table frustrations. They are the raw inputs that will determine the…

LVIV UKRAINE September 8 2018 people buying dried fruit in grocery store

The 10-year Treasury yield hit 4.53% today — the highest in a year — and markets are now pricing in a 30% chance of a rate hike by December

Peter Richardson3 months ago3 months ago09 mins

On May 14, 2025, the benchmark 10-year Treasury note settled at 4.53 percent, its highest close in roughly a year, according to the Treasury Department’s daily par yield curve. Within hours, federal-funds futures repriced sharply: the CME FedWatch tool showed an estimated 30 percent probability that the Federal Reserve would raise its policy rate at…

Memorial Day is 10 days away and a cookout for 10 now costs $103 — steak hit an all-time record at $12.74 a pound

Peter Richardson3 months ago3 months ago012 mins

Memorial Day is 10 days out, and the centerpiece of millions of backyard cookouts just hit a price never seen before. The national average for uncooked beef steak reached $12.74 per pound in the most recent reading from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the highest figure in the agency’s decades-long tracking history. Pair that with…

Hand holding a credit card on his desk with paperwork blank notebook and coins

The average credit card APR is 21.5% — and if you’re carrying a $6,600 balance, you’re paying $1,462 a year in interest alone

Peter Richardson3 months ago3 months ago013 mins

If you’re carrying a $6,600 credit card balance at 21.5 percent interest, you’ll hand your card issuer roughly $1,462 over the next 12 months without knocking a single dollar off what you owe. That’s more than many households spend on groceries in a quarter, and every cent of it disappears into finance charges. The 21.5…