The financial news that actually matters
Taxpayers who paid late-filing penalties on federal returns due between 2020 and 2023 face a narrow window to recover those charges. The IRS already granted automatic relief for many penalties tied to 2020 and 2021 returns, but filers who missed that round or who believe disaster-related postponement rules cover later tax years must act before…
Debit-card holders who never asked for overdraft coverage can revoke that protection and have transactions simply declined at the register, avoiding fees that average close to $27 per incident. Federal rules have required banks to obtain a customer’s affirmative consent before charging overdraft fees on one-time debit purchases and ATM withdrawals since 2010, yet many…
JPMorgan has raised its estimated probability of a U.S. recession in 2026 to 35 percent, a figure that puts Wall Street’s most influential bank at odds with equity markets still pricing in steady profit growth. The bank’s core concern is blunt: analyst earnings targets have climbed so far above the profit trajectory visible in government…
Taxpayers who owe the IRS $50,000 or less in combined tax, penalties, and interest can set up a payment plan online that blocks the agency from seizing wages or bank accounts while the agreement is active. Federal law explicitly bars the IRS from levying during a pending or approved installment agreement, giving people who act…
Investors who set up automatic, fixed-dollar contributions into index funds face a straightforward tradeoff: they give up the chance to time a perfect entry point in exchange for a mechanical discipline that keeps them buying through both rallies and selloffs. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission defines dollar-cost averaging as investing equal portions at regular…
Seventeen of 18 Federal Reserve officials now see inflation risks tilted to the upside, a near-unanimous shift that emerged from the June 16-17, 2026 FOMC meeting and its accompanying Summary of Economic Projections. The Committee held rates steady and stated that inflation “remains elevated” relative to its 2 percent goal, pointing in part to supply…
Goldman Sachs raised its year-end S&P 500 target to 8,000, citing a strong earnings outlook, but one of the firm’s own strategists is flagging a sharp disconnect between the index’s headline performance and the health of the typical stock. The gap between the S&P 500 trading near an all-time high and the median stock sitting…
Intel eliminated 427 jobs at its Folsom, California facility in a single week this past July, according to a WARN Act notice filed with state and federal labor agencies. The cuts landed while the broader semiconductor industry was channeling record capital into artificial intelligence chip production, sharpening the contrast between where investment dollars flow and…
Thousands of workers at On the Border Mexican Grill and Cantina lost their jobs this month after OTB Hospitality, the company behind the Tex-Mex chain, shut every company-owned restaurant and filed for Chapter 7 liquidation on June 19, 2026. The filing caps a yearslong contraction that had already eliminated roughly 80 locations, about two-thirds of…
Millions of Americans treat a spring tax refund as a windfall, but each oversized check confirms the same thing: the filer handed the federal government an interest-free loan for up to twelve months. With the 2026 filing season already underway and IRS processing data accumulating week by week, the gap between what workers owe and…