The financial news that actually matters
Covers broad economic trends including inflation, interest rates, GDP, employment data, and central bank decisions. It explains how macroeconomic factors influence markets and everyday finances.
A Boca Raton man who was already a convicted felon has been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for running a real estate investment scheme that raised more than $50 million, much of it from people looking for a steady, secured place to put their savings. His wife and co-defendant received a separate sentence…
Walmart’s latest earnings report shows the retailer pocketed close to $2.9 billion in tariff refunds during its most recent quarter and used part of that windfall to fund more than 11,000 price rollbacks, a sharp jump from the prior quarter. For the millions of older Americans who shop at Walmart on a fixed income, the…
The share of everything the American economy produces that actually flows to workers’ paychecks has slipped to its lowest point on record, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The agency’s nonfarm business labor share came in at 52.9 percent for the second quarter of 2026, the weakest reading since the government began tracking the…
The Villages Health System, a large medical provider group serving the retirement community of The Villages, Florida, has agreed to pay $541.5 million to resolve federal allegations that it submitted false diagnosis codes to inflate Medicare Advantage payments. The Justice Department stresses the claims are allegations only, with no finding of liability, but the size…
The Federal Trade Commission and attorneys general from 22 states sued Amazon on August 31, alleging the company secretly rigged its advertising auctions for more than seven years, overcharging roughly 1.2 million sellers and brands by more than $20 billion. Millions of the retirees and near-retirees who read this site shop on Amazon almost daily,…
The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged two former executives of a Bay Area private lending firm with running a Ponzi-style scheme that pulled in more than $80 million from roughly 190 investors, many of them retired. The case is a reminder that a fund promising steady returns from real estate loans can still be…
Grocery bills are climbing again this year, though not at the pace of 2022’s runaway inflation. The Agriculture Department’s latest forecast puts food-at-home prices up roughly 2.5 to 3 percent for all of 2026, a manageable increase on its own, except for one category standing well outside that pattern: beef, which is running nearly 10…
Every single day of August 2026, the national average price of a gallon of regular gasoline held above $4, something AAA says has never happened before in an August. For drivers living on Social Security or a fixed pension, a month with no relief at the pump lands on top of already-rising grocery, insurance, and…
A caller claims to be from the Social Security Administration, the IRS, or Medicare and says money is owed, or worse, that benefits are about to be suspended or an arrest is coming, unless payment arrives immediately. The one detail that gives the scam away every time is how the caller wants to be paid….
A caller says a grandchild is in trouble, hurt, arrested, or stranded, and needs money sent right away. The voice on the line sounds exactly right, right down to the pauses and the way that grandchild laughs. It may not be a coincidence. The Federal Trade Commission has warned that scammers can now clone a…
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