The financial news that actually matters
The extra $56 that appeared in January’s Social Security deposit was supposed to help. For the roughly 68 million people who rely on benefits, the 2.8 percent cost-of-living adjustment was designed to keep pace with rising prices. Five months into 2026, it is already falling short. Consumer prices have been climbing faster than that raise….
The price of a new refrigerator has climbed roughly 8% since last spring. A standard residential construction bid in the Midwest now includes a steel surcharge that did not exist 18 months ago. And a bottle of imported European wine that once cleared U.S. Customs for a few cents in duty briefly carried a tariff…
For nearly two years, about 7.5 million Americans have not made a single student loan payment. Not because they refused, but because a federal court killed the repayment plan they were on, and the government put their accounts on ice while it figured out what to do next. That limbo is about to end. Starting…
If you owe $45,000 in federal student loans and were paying around $150 a month under the now-defunct SAVE repayment plan, your next bill could land closer to $500. That jump hits unless you actively choose a different repayment plan before your loan servicer’s deadline passes, and the clock is already running. Starting as early…
Wall Street did not wait for Kevin Warsh to take the oath. On May 15, 2026, the day Jerome Powell’s four-year term as Federal Reserve chairman formally expired, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 537 points, the S&P 500 dropped nearly 93 points, and the 10-year Treasury yield climbed to 4.5 percent. The dollar index…
Iran’s judiciary spokesperson Asghar Jahangir declared in late May 2026 that Tehran holds the “legal and judicial right” to seize oil tankers connected to the United States in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow passage between Iran and Oman that carries roughly one-fifth of the world’s traded oil each day, according to a 2019 U.S….
A family filling up a 15-gallon tank once a week for five straight months would save about $35 under President Trump’s proposed federal gas tax holiday. That comes to roughly $1.70 per trip to the pump, less than the price of a large coffee, and it assumes the savings actually reach consumers in full. Economists…
Picture a married couple, both former engineers, who each earned six figures for most of their careers and waited until 70 to start collecting Social Security. Under current rules, their combined annual benefit can top $100,000. A proposal gaining traction among fiscal policy researchers would put a hard stop right there, capping any household’s total…
The spring housing market was supposed to wake up. Instead, it barely stirred. Existing-home sales rose just 0.2% in April from March, the National Association of Realtors reported, a gain so slight that most economists would call it flat. The number of homes on the market swelled to 1.47 million, the highest April inventory reading…
OpenAI wants ChatGPT to know how you spend your money. A new personal finance dashboard, currently in preview for U.S. Pro subscribers, lets users connect bank accounts, credit cards, and investment portfolios through Plaid, the financial data network behind Venmo, Robinhood, and hundreds of other fintech apps. Once linked, users can ask plain-language questions about…