The financial news that actually matters
Investors who borrow from their brokers to buy stocks face a straightforward but punishing math problem: when prices fall, losses grow faster than they would in a cash account, and the broker can sell holdings without waiting for permission. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission warns that losses in a margin account can exceed the…
Every American with a credit file can now check their reports from all three nationwide bureaus every single week, at no cost, through the only federally authorized website. The three major credit reporting agencies, Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion, permanently extended free weekly access through AnnualCreditReport.com after a pandemic-era pilot program proved the demand was real….
American diners are pulling back from restaurant spending, and the fallout is hitting some of the country’s most recognizable chains. Red Lobster filed voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy petitions in the Middle District of Florida, joining a growing list of casual-dining brands struggling to hold customers as menu prices climb. The filing exposed how deeply the…
General Motors is signaling to Wall Street that its cost-cutting campaign will reach deep into the technology side of the business, raising hard questions for thousands of software engineers and IT workers who joined the automaker during its aggressive push into electric vehicles and digital services. The company has told investors it plans to strip…
OTB Hospitality closed every company-owned On the Border Mexican Grill and Cantina location and then filed for Chapter 7 liquidation on June 19, 2026, choosing a full shutdown over any attempt to reorganize. The voluntary petition sets up an orderly wind-down under a court-appointed trustee, ending decades of casual-dining operations and leaving workers, landlords, and…
American retailers closed 8,270 stores in 2024, the highest annual total in three years, as chains accelerated efforts to shed unprofitable locations. The shutdowns hit discount outlets, department stores, and specialty shops, with some of the biggest names in retail filing for bankruptcy protection to restructure their real-estate footprints. Workers and communities that depend on…
Elchonon “Elie” Schwartz, a New York-based commercial real estate developer, collected more than $60 million from at least 700 investors through an online crowdfunding platform between May 2022 and March 2023. Prosecutors say he then spent large portions of their money on a penthouse, luxury watches, and shoring up failing deals instead of the properties…
Taxpayers who owe pandemic-era penalties tied to the Kwong decision face a hard deadline: paper Form 843 claims must be mailed on or before July 10, 2026, and the IRS does not accept the form electronically. With fewer than six weeks left, the requirement to print, sign, and physically mail a document creates a bottleneck…
American homeowners are sitting on roughly $11 trillion in tappable home equity, a record-level reserve of household wealth that remains almost entirely unborrowed. Federal Reserve data show that revolving home equity loan balances at commercial banks have grown only modestly in recent quarters, even as residential property values climbed. The gap between what owners could…
The Federal Reserve, FDIC, and OCC on March 19, 2026, formally replaced the stricter bank-capital rules they had proposed in July 2023 with a scaled-back package of three coordinated proposals. The original plan would have imposed tougher capital requirements on banks with more than $100 billion in assets, covering credit risk, operational risk, market risk,…