The financial news that actually matters
Picture a borrower in her mid-30s who has not made a student loan payment since 2020. She earns $3,200 a month after taxes. If the federal government garnishes 15% of her disposable pay, roughly $480 disappears from every paycheck before she can spend a dime on rent, groceries, or child care. No court order is…
The two-week ceasefire between the United States and Iran expires today, and as of this morning neither Washington nor Tehran has signaled any intention to extend it. American drivers are paying a national average of $4.51 a gallon for regular gasoline, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Crude oil has pushed above $109 a…
Roughly 8 million federal student loan borrowers were enrolled in the SAVE repayment plan when courts froze it in mid-2024. Most of them have been in limbo ever since, making no payments and receiving little guidance. That changes on July 1, 2026, when loan servicers will begin sending notices requiring those borrowers to choose a…
A family buying a new refrigerator this spring will pay about $75 more than they would have two years ago, mostly because of tariffs on imported steel and aluminum. Multiply that kind of increase across vehicles, laptops, home wiring, canned goods and medical devices, and the cumulative hit reaches roughly $1,500 a year for the…
Roughly 13 out of every 100 credit card accounts in the United States are now past due, and the man nominated to lead the Federal Reserve has made one thing clear: lower interest rates are not coming to the rescue. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit for…
The price of grilling steak just set a record, and the timing could not be worse for backyard hosts. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average retail price for uncooked beef steaks hit $12.74 per pound in its April 2026 reading, the highest level ever recorded in the agency’s price-tracking program, which stretches…
Britain is preparing to send a Type 45 destroyer, Typhoon fighter jets, and unmanned surface vessels to the Persian Gulf as part of a multinational military coalition assembled to force open the Strait of Hormuz, the 21-mile-wide chokepoint between Iran and Oman through which a large share of the world’s traded oil flows every day….
The $56 raise was supposed to help. When roughly 72.5 million Social Security beneficiaries saw their January 2026 checks, a 2.8 percent cost-of-living adjustment had been folded in, lifting the average retired worker’s monthly payment from about $2,015 to $2,071, according to the Social Security Administration. Five months later, that raise is functionally gone. Consumer…
College students borrowing federal loans for the first time this fall will pay more for the privilege than almost any freshman class in the past decade. Starting July 1, new Direct Subsidized and Unsubsidized undergraduate loans will carry a fixed interest rate of 6.52%, the steepest rate offered to incoming borrowers since the 2024-2025 award…
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Congress on May 12 that the United States has lost 39 aircraft in its war with Iran and that the conflict has cost $29 billion so far, with $24 billion of that dedicated to replacing expended munitions and repairing or replacing damaged equipment. The figures, disclosed during a House Appropriations…