Money, Wealth & Power—A Daily Look at the Financial World
When a country changes its currency, the impact shows up first in people’s wallets and in the way companies set their prices. Bulgaria’s move into the euro area at the start of 2026 is no exception, reshaping everything from café bills to cross-border contracts. I want to unpack how this shift is likely to filter…
For more than a century, a textile plant in rural Virginia spun yarn and jobs out of American cotton. Now that 109-year run is ending, with the company pointing a finger not at foreign rivals or automation, but at what it calls an “unsustainable energy model.” The shutdown crystallizes a broader question hanging over U.S….
Ilhan Omar’s rapid ascent from a relatively modest public servant to a figure reportedly worth about $30 million has become a political flashpoint in Minnesota and beyond. The scale of that increase, framed by critics as a roughly 3,500 percent jump in personal wealth, is now colliding with a widening fraud probe that is reshaping…
A Bay Area fundraising startup that once promised to modernize charitable giving has instead landed in bankruptcy court, leaving nonprofits across the country short a combined $29 million in donor cash. The collapse has frozen money that organizations expected to use for education, health care, legal defense and other core services, turning a back-office tech…
The warehouse chain that built its brand on egalitarian bulk bargains is now leaning into a more stratified future. Costco is pouring billions into a premium tier that promises richer perks for those who can pay more, even as the country’s broad middle struggles to keep up. I see that tension, between a $4 billion…
The United States is enjoying solid headline growth, yet the foundation of that strength is increasingly narrow. A small slice of affluent households is carrying a disproportionate share of the shopping that keeps stores busy, markets buoyant and jobs intact. I want to examine how far that reliance on the top tier has gone, what…
The United States has quietly restored a crucial lifeline for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, giving the world’s most important contract chipmaker fresh permission to keep feeding its factories in China with American tools. The new approval stabilizes operations at a time when export controls have become a central weapon in the technology rivalry between Washington and…
The closure of four Gulf Coast chemical plants, tied to a $415 million financial hit, has abruptly erased 295 jobs and rattled manufacturing supply chains across the Southern United States. The decision by a Houston-based producer to pull back from key sites in two southern states is more than a local layoff story, it is…
Tariffs that take effect in 2026 are poised to hit everyday budgets in a very specific place: the home. Wells Fargo is warning that a wave of price increases is coming for core household goods, from sofas and dining tables to cookware and bedding, as retailers pass along higher import costs. For consumers already stretched…
Financial markets are bracing for a pivotal shift in U.S. monetary policy as investors debate when the Federal Reserve will finally pivot from holding rates steady to cutting them. Into that uncertainty steps Mark Zandi, who argues that the central bank could move faster and more forcefully than traders expect, with three rate cuts before…
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