The financial news that actually matters
In 2014, a licensed firearms dealer in Wisconsin discovered his bank account had been shut down. No fraud. No bounced checks. No explanation beyond a form letter. When he applied at other banks, he was turned away. Years later, internal FDIC documents revealed that federal examiners had flagged gun sellers as reputational liabilities, quietly pressuring…
Companies spent the last three years firing workers and telling shareholders that artificial intelligence would pick up the slack. The pitch was clean: automate routine tasks, shrink payroll, and let the productivity numbers speak for themselves. But two large-scale studies now suggest the numbers have almost nothing to say. The jobs vanished. The efficiency gains…
At the current average credit card interest rate, a $6,600 balance racks up roughly $1,421 in interest over a year. That breaks down to about $118 a month, or nearly $4 a day, that does absolutely nothing to reduce what you owe. It simply sustains the debt. The number comes from the Federal Reserve’s G.19…
The S&P 500 closed at a record 7,398.93 on Friday, May 8, 2026, capping a six-week winning streak that sent champagne-emoji tweets flying across Wall Street. The fuel: a Bureau of Labor Statistics jobs report showing the economy added 177,000 nonfarm payroll jobs in April, comfortably above the roughly 140,000 economists had expected. But buried…
A pound of steak now costs more than it ever has in the 40 years the federal government has been tracking the price. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in its most recent monthly release that the average retail price for steak (cuts other than round or sirloin, a category covering ribeyes, T-bones, and porterhouses)…
The roof over Pew Research Center’s latest housing survey is, fittingly, one many Americans can barely afford to insure. In a nationally representative poll conducted in March 2026, 71% of U.S. homeowners said their home insurance costs had risen, and 57% reported making at least one financial sacrifice to keep their policies in force. The…
Consider a home health aide in Columbus, Ohio, who picked up a second weekend shift this spring to keep pace with a rent increase and a car-insurance bill that jumped 18% at renewal. Her hourly wage is higher than it was a year ago, yet her checking-account balance at the end of each month is…
If you have been waiting to book a cheap flight on a route Spirit Airlines used to serve, the clock runs out tonight. Frontier Airlines’ rescue fares, which cut base prices by as much as 50% on select travel days, expire at the end of May 15, 2026, according to Frontier’s active booking page. After…
Until January 2026, a traveler willing to forgo a carry-on bag and squeeze into a 28-inch seat pitch could fly round-trip from Fort Lauderdale to Detroit on Spirit Airlines for under $100. That fare no longer exists. Spirit canceled every remaining flight in early 2026 and began auctioning off its planes, gates, and landing slots…
Every time you tap your credit card at a coffee shop or swipe at a gas pump, the merchant pays a fee you never see on your receipt. On June 30, 2026, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency made sure it stays that way. The federal banking regulator finalized an interim rule that…