The financial news that actually matters
A parent who borrowed $40,000 in federal PLUS loans to help cover a child’s college tuition is about to face a permanent reduction in repayment options, unless they act within the next 31 days. After June 30, 2025, any new Direct Consolidation Loan that includes Parent PLUS debt will be locked out of every income-driven…
The bond market just slammed the door on cheaper borrowing costs before Labor Day. Federal funds futures tracked by the CME FedWatch Tool now assign a 99.9% probability that the Federal Reserve will leave its benchmark rate untouched when the Federal Open Market Committee wraps its two-day meeting on June 17, 2026. For the millions…
At the start of 2025, a dozen eggs cost an average of $4.95 at the supermarket, the highest price most Americans had ever paid. By mid-2026, that number has already fallen sharply, and the federal government expects the full-year decline to be historic. Meanwhile, beef keeps getting more expensive at a pace that shows no…
The purchase order for framing lumber on a new single-family home is getting harder to sign. Builders breaking ground on a typical 1,800-square-foot house in spring 2026 are paying an estimated $10,900 more in material costs than they were a year ago, according to cost modeling published by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)….
On May 24, American and Iranian negotiators reportedly reached a tentative 60-day memorandum of understanding that would extend the ceasefire between the two countries, reopen the Strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping, and restart nuclear talks, according to the Associated Press and the Washington Post, both citing senior administration officials. But as of late May…
The inflation number the Federal Reserve trusts most just delivered its worst reading in three years, and the implications landed hard across financial markets within hours. The Bureau of Economic Analysis reported in late May 2026 that the personal consumption expenditures price index rose 3.9 percent from a year earlier in April, the steepest annual…
A family of four in Columbus, Ohio, is still paying roughly $1,300 more per year on imported goods because of tariffs that the Supreme Court has since declared illegal. That figure comes from applying the pass-through rate established by economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to the dollar volume of duties collected…
Turn on the air conditioning this June and you will be paying more per kilowatt-hour than any American household ever has. The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ average retail electricity price series, one of the most closely watched gauges of what families actually pay for power, reached 17.4 cents per kilowatt-hour in its latest reading. That…
The Federal Reserve’s next interest rate decision lands June 16, and futures traders have already written the script: no cut. The CME FedWatch tool, which translates fed-funds futures into implied probabilities, shows a zero-percent chance the committee lowers its benchmark rate at the June meeting. That leaves the target range at 4.25 to 4.50 percent,…
The federal funds rate has not moved from its 4.25%-4.50% range since December 2024. Eighteen months later, the bond market has stopped waiting for it to come down. Futures contracts tied to every remaining Federal Reserve policy meeting in 2026 now imply zero probability of a rate cut, according to the CME FedWatch tool. More…