The financial news that actually matters
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…
Sometime in July, roughly 7.5 million Americans will receive a letter or email from their federal student loan servicer that amounts to a countdown clock. The message: the administrative forbearance that has shielded borrowers enrolled in the SAVE repayment plan since mid-2024 is ending. Each borrower will have 90 days from the date of that…
The price gap between a used electric vehicle and a used gas car has shrunk to just $1,102. According to industry pricing data from Cox Automotive, the average used EV transaction price fell 6.1 percent to $34,653 in early 2026, while the average used gasoline vehicle held near $33,551. At the same time, the national…
A 74-year-old grandmother in Ohio wired $12,000 to a stranger after hearing what sounded exactly like her grandson sobbing on the phone, begging for bail money. A retired teacher in Florida drained her savings account because a caller who mimicked her daughter’s voice said she had been in a car accident. Neither emergency was real….
The interest charge arrives every month like clockwork. For the roughly 50 million American households carrying a revolving credit card balance, that charge now reflects an average annual percentage rate of about 21.5%, according to the Federal Reserve’s G.19 Consumer Credit release, the most authoritative public measure of what card borrowers actually pay. Applied to…
Cerebras Systems, the AI chipmaker behind the world’s largest computer chip, saw its stock drop roughly 10% on its second day of public trading, closing near $280 on May 15, 2026. The pullback followed a first-day surge that carried shares to an intraday high of approximately $385, according to market data, before they settled around…
A Florida homeowner renewing their policy in 2026 can expect to pay roughly $10,240 a year for coverage, according to industry estimates. That figure sits 189 percent above the national average and marks the fifth consecutive year of increases, a streak that has turned property insurance into one of the most destabilizing costs of owning…