The financial news that actually matters
Anyone who has deposited a paycheck and needed the money the next morning knows the frustration of a hold. Federal law has long required banks and credit unions to release at least $225 from most check deposits by the start of the next business day. That floor is now changing: the Federal Reserve announced inflation-adjusted…
Every federal agency that fields fraud complaints agrees on one point: a caller who demands payment by gift card, cryptocurrency, or wire transfer is not a government official. The Social Security Administration’s Office of the Inspector General stated on July 17, 2025, that “The United States government will never request you send money via gift…
American households face a stark test of the 50-30-20 budgeting rule right now. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau teaches the formula as a classroom exercise for young adults, and Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Warren Tyagi built the framework from bankruptcy research conducted at Harvard Law School. But the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its Consumer…
Homeowners, car buyers, and small-business borrowers hoping for cheaper credit in 2026 will have to keep waiting. The Federal Open Market Committee voted unanimously on June 17 to hold the federal funds rate at 3-1/2 to 3-3/4 percent, the fourth consecutive meeting without a change. With inflation still running above the Fed’s 2 percent target…
A federal law that took effect on September 21, 2018, eliminated fees for credit freezes across all three major consumer reporting agencies, giving every American a free tool to block identity thieves from opening new accounts. The Federal Trade Commission and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau both confirm that when a freeze is active, lenders…
Jeremy Grantham, co-founder of the asset management firm GMO, has described the current U.S. equity market as the most expensive in recorded history and warned that a future decline could reach as deep as 70 percent. His assessment rests on long-run valuation data stretching back more than a century, including the ratio of stock market…
Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion have permanently extended a program that lets any consumer pull a free credit report from each bureau once a week through AnnualCreditReport.com. The change, which began as a temporary pandemic-era measure, means households no longer need to wait 12 months between free checks or pay third-party services to keep tabs on…
Apple plans to close three U.S. retail locations this month, and one of them is the company’s only unionized store in the country. The Towson Town Center store in Towson, Maryland, where workers voted to form a union, is set to shut its doors alongside two other locations in malls that Apple says have seen…
Thousands of U.S. importers that paid tariffs later struck down by the Supreme Court are stuck in a slow-moving refund process, with roughly $144 billion in duties owed back to them. The case, Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump, settled the legal question of whether the president could impose sweeping tariffs under the International Emergency Economic…
Families enrolled in high-deductible health plans can move money into a health savings account and never owe federal income tax on those dollars when they pay for qualified medical costs. That protection applies at both ends of the transaction: contributions reduce taxable income, and withdrawals for eligible expenses are excluded from gross income. The rule…