The financial news that actually matters
On May 14, 2026, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Guo Jiakun stood before reporters in Beijing and delivered a message aimed squarely at Washington: China’s opposition to any toll on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz is “consistent and clear.” In Chinese diplomatic language, that phrasing signals a position that is not open for negotiation….
A parent borrowing $30,000 through the federal PLUS loan program this fall will pay roughly $17,200 in interest over a standard 10-year repayment term. Four years ago, when the same loan carried a rate of 5.30%, that interest bill would have been about $8,700. The difference, more than $8,500, buys nothing: no extra credits, no…
The Social Security check that hit bank accounts today is bigger than last month’s by 2.8%, the cost-of-living adjustment the Social Security Administration locked in last October and the only raise most of the program’s nearly 71 million beneficiaries will see all year. For the average retired worker, that works out to roughly $56 more…
The cost of producing goods and services in the United States jumped at its fastest pace in more than three years during April, extending a streak that is making it harder for the Federal Reserve to justify cutting interest rates and raising the odds that consumers will feel the squeeze in the months ahead. The…
Ford Motor Company spent years and billions of dollars trying to become a major EV battery manufacturer. That chapter is over. The Dearborn automaker has launched Ford Energy, a wholly owned subsidiary that will build shipping-container-sized battery storage systems in the United States, targeting data centers, electric utilities, and large industrial operations. The goal: 20…
Illinois merchants were one day away from paying less every time a customer swiped a credit card. Then a federal regulator killed the discount before it started. On June 30, 2026, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency published an interim bulletin declaring that national banks and federal savings associations do not have to…
When Kevin Warsh calls the June 16-17 Federal Open Market Committee meeting to order, he will become the first new face at the head of that table in more than a decade. And the most probable outcome of his debut is also the quietest one: no rate cut, no rate hike, and no change to…
The national median sales price for an existing home reached $417,700 in April, the highest figure ever recorded for the month in data going back to 1999. On its face, that sounds like a booming market. It is not. Year-over-year appreciation slowed to just 0.9%, the weakest positive gain since 2011, when prices were still…
Millions of American homeowners are doing the same math and reaching the same conclusion: don’t move. A borrower who locked in a 3% mortgage during the pandemic and finances $334,000 today at 6.46% would see their monthly principal-and-interest payment leap from about $1,409 to roughly $2,108, a difference of nearly $700. Stretch the loan amount…
In just 11 weeks, the U.S. military campaign against Iran has burned through $29 billion in taxpayer money, and the Pentagon cannot fully explain where all of it went. That updated figure emerged during a House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee hearing on May 12, 2026, as reported by the Associated Press, representing a $4 billion jump…