The financial news that actually matters
When tariffs on imported goods pushed the price of a midsize sedan up by thousands of dollars, American car buyers absorbed the hit. When the cost of imported clothing, electronics, and groceries climbed, shoppers paid the difference at checkout. Now that the Supreme Court has struck down those emergency tariffs as unconstitutional, the federal government…
Seven years is a long time to pay for a car. It is long enough to watch a child go from kindergarten through sixth grade, or to cycle through two presidential elections. Yet in the first quarter of 2025, nearly one in four new-car buyers who financed their purchase chose exactly that timeline, signing 84-month…
A buyer closing on a $400,000 home this weekend will pay about $150 more each month than someone who locked in a rate late last year. That is not a typo, and it is not a rounding error. It is the cost of borrowing money in a bond market that just crossed a line Wall…
For three years, a firearms retailer in Fort Worth kept getting the same letter from different banks: account closed, no further explanation. He was not behind on payments. He was not under investigation. He sold a legal product, but compliance departments at three separate institutions decided his business posed a risk they did not want…
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…