Money, Wealth & Power—A Daily Look at the Financial World
The Pentagon has finally put a number on how long President Donald Trump intends to keep soldiers on the streets of the nation’s capital, and on what it will cost to do it. The answer is January 2029 and roughly $1.4 billion, and it arrived not in a press conference but in a written answer…
A federal contract quietly reached its expiration date on Friday, and with it went the funding that pays for attorneys to represent children who crossed the border without a parent. The network it supported covers roughly 26,000 children, most of them facing removal proceedings, some of them young enough to need cartoons to understand what…
Estate sales are treasure troves of unique items often overlooked by casual shoppers. With a keen eye, you can discover valuable pieces that might just enhance your collection or even turn a profit. Here are seven such items you should keep an eye out for at your next estate sale adventure. 1) Vintage Jewelry Often…
UPS plans to cut up to 30,000 jobs this year as it reduces its dependence on Amazon shipping volume, a move announced on an investor conference call and reported by the Associated Press. The announcement lands at a moment when layoffs and discharges are rising and millions of American households lack even basic financial cushions,…
Federal data and behavioral research point to the same conclusion: middle-class households that automate a handful of money habits can accumulate significantly more wealth over time without cutting back on daily spending. The mechanism is not willpower or extreme frugality. It is inertia, the same force that keeps most workers stuck at default savings rates,…
Warren Buffett, now 94, shocked Berkshire Hathaway shareholders by announcing his intention to retire at the end of 2025, capping a career in which the vast majority of his fortune was built after he turned 50. When the Forbes list of wealthy Americans was published on October 13, 1987, Buffett was 57 years old and…
Three separate government-mandated fee increases all take effect on March 1, 2026, hitting consumers who rely on autopay for municipal electric bills, immigration processing services, and state park passes. The increases range from inflation-adjusted bumps of roughly 5.7% on federal immigration filings to new seasonal charges at Delaware State Parks, and each one will silently…
While speculative assets grab headlines, a quieter class of exchange-traded funds built around dividend-paying stocks continues to compound wealth with little fanfare. These funds screen for companies that have raised their payouts year after year, sometimes for decades, and they reward patient investors with a combination of income and capital appreciation. This article highlights nine…
Cook County, Illinois, and Harris County, Texas, are driving a disproportionate share of the national rise in bankruptcy filings, putting the Chicago and Houston metro areas under heightened financial strain. A 10.6% year-over-year increase in total personal and business bankruptcy filings across the country, recorded for the 12 months ending September 30, 2025, has hit…
The sub-$20,000 new car has effectively vanished from American dealerships, and the average transaction price for a new vehicle hit $49,191 in January 2026. For households already spending $13,318 a year on transportation out of an average annual budget of $78,535, the math is brutal. But buyers who rethink their approach to financing, model selection,…
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