The financial news that actually matters
Warren Buffett’s last Berkshire Hathaway portfolio filing as chief executive offered one more lesson in restraint. The conglomerate disclosed that it reduced positions in Apple, Amazon and Bank of America in the fourth quarter of 2025, while adding just one new stock. For investors used to mining Berkshire’s quarterly filings for sweeping signals, the message…
America’s economy is still producing growth, jobs, and consumer spending. But those headline numbers mask a split that feels very different depending on where a household sits on the income ladder. At the top, affluent Americans continue to spend with far less strain than everyone else. At the bottom, many lower-income households are still forced…
About three in four American workers now say they rely on some form of secondary income to help cover everyday costs. That’s according to a new survey that points to just how fragile a single paycheck has become for many households.That headline-grabbing figure stands in sharp contrast to the government’s official count of Americans with…
A new Federal Reserve Bank of New York analysis found that Americans bore almost the entire cost of the tariff surge that hit imported goods in 2025, undercutting the long-running political argument that foreign exporters would end up paying the bill. The finding is straightforward and hard to spin. Looking across U.S. import data through…
Apple users who filed valid claims in the Siri privacy class action are now starting to see money arrive, turning a long-running lawsuit into something tangible at last. For many recipients, the payout is not life-changing. In some cases it is little more than the cost of a streaming subscription or a takeout meal. But…
Minimum wages are rising in 19 states as 2026 begins, giving millions of hourly workers a pay increase at a time when household budgets remain under pressure from rent, food and transportation costs. Among states, Washington will lead the pack at $17.13 an hour, followed closely by Connecticut at $16.94 and California at $16.90. The…
American households are carrying more credit card debt than ever in aggregate, and the number is large enough to stop readers cold. Spread across the nation’s households, outstanding credit card balances work out to roughly $9,300 per household, based on third-quarter 2025 Federal Reserve Bank of New York data and the latest U.S. Census household…
U.S. banks are carrying about $42 billion in credit card balances that are at least 30 days past due, according to figures drawn from bank Call Reports and highlighted in recent coverage. On its own, that total is eye-catching. In context, it points to something broader: more households are falling behind on card payments after…
Used-car shoppers are finally seeing a market that feels more manageable than the one that defined the post-pandemic years. Dealer lots are fuller, more listings are available across price points, and the panic-buying atmosphere that once turned ordinary late-model vehicles into hard-to-find commodities has largely faded. That does not mean the market has snapped back…
High-yield savings account rates were still attractive by historical standards in mid-December, but the peak of the cycle was clearly fading. Banks had already started nudging yields lower after the Federal Reserve’s latest move, and the best offers on the market were no longer representative of what most savers could expect to earn across the…