The financial news that actually matters
Every person in the United States can now pull a credit report from Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion once a week, every week, at no cost. The three major bureaus made this access permanent through AnnualCreditReport.com, expanding on a federal law that originally guaranteed only one free report per bureau per year. For anyone applying for…
Tens of thousands of workers at some of the largest U.S. technology companies have lost their jobs in recent months, with employers increasingly pointing to artificial intelligence as the reason. Oracle attributed workforce reductions to AI adoption and deployment in its fiscal year 2026 annual filing. Meta slashed 8,000 jobs, equal to 10% of its…
Bitcoin slid back toward $62,000 on Tuesday as a broad selloff in technology stocks rippled across global markets. The decline came less than a week after the Federal Reserve released updated economic projections following its June 16–17 meeting, showing a higher expected path for interest rates and firmer inflation forecasts. Regulated futures positioning added to…
Connecticut residents booking hotel rooms, buying event tickets, or signing up for services will now see a single advertised price that includes every mandatory fee a business plans to charge. The state enacted PA 25-44, a law that requires companies to fold all required add-on costs into the sticker price shown to consumers. Attorney General…
Millions of Americans who earn a paycheck face federal tax rates that can reach 37%, while the profits they collect from selling stocks or real estate held for more than a year are typically taxed at just 15%. The IRS confirmed this gap again when it published inflation-adjusted ordinary income brackets for tax year 2026,…
The FBI recorded more than one million online crime complaints last year, with total losses reaching $20.9 billion, a figure that dwarfs the prior year’s tally of more than $16 billion. The jump of roughly 149,000 additional complaints, from 859,532 to 1,008,597, raises a pointed question: are Americans actually being victimized at a faster rate,…
Homebuyers and refinance candidates caught a modest break this week as the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate slipped to 6.43%, its lowest reading in seven weeks. The decline, recorded in Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey, arrives while housing affordability remains stretched and prospective sellers sit on the sidelines guarding lower locked-in rates. Whether this…
Anyone who opened a new checking account to grab a $200 or $300 cash bonus this year should expect a tax form in the mail. The IRS treats those payments as taxable interest, and financial institutions are required to report amounts of $10 or more on Form 1099-INT, whether the customer thinks of the money…
Consumers who answer a call from someone claiming to be an “FTC agent” with a badge number are talking to a scammer. The Federal Trade Commission issued a direct warning that it does not employ agents, does not assign badge numbers, and will never call anyone to move money or connect them to a refund….
Bank customers who overdraw their checking accounts are once again facing fees that have crept back toward pre-reform levels, with many institutions charging close to $27 per incident. That upward drift follows President Trump’s signing of a congressional resolution that overturned the Biden-era overdraft fee cap, removing a key federal price constraint. Yet a separate,…