Money, Wealth & Power—A Daily Look at the Financial World
Nomura is telling clients to brace for a rare combination in 2026: solid global growth paired with stubborn inflation pressures. The firm’s investment and macro teams see a powerful mix of artificial intelligence spending, fiscal expansion and a recovering trade cycle lifting output, even as central banks struggle to push price gains back to pre‑pandemic…
Nomura’s Gareth Nicholson is putting a precise number on how much risk investors should shift away from traditional markets, arguing that roughly a quarter of a portfolio belongs in alternatives. His case rests on a simple idea: in a world of choppy equity indices and unpredictable central banks, investors need more than just stocks and…
Lucasfilm’s decision to halt development on a fourth season of The Mandalorian and instead channel roughly 100 million dollars into a feature film marks a sharp turn in how the studio approaches streaming. Rather than treating Disney+ as the automatic home for every Star Wars chapter, the company is effectively rebalancing its bets between theatrical…
Netflix quietly spent blockbuster money on a science fiction epic and then watched it sink with barely a ripple in the wider culture. The Electric State cost roughly $320 million to make, drew brutal reviews, and yet slipped past most viewers as just another tile in an endless carousel. I want to unpack how a…
Corporate America is lining up behind Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller as President Donald Trump weighs whom to install as the next chair of the central bank. More than four out of five leading chief executives now say the White House would be making a serious mistake if Trump passed over Waller, a rare show…
The alleged diversion of roughly $250 million from a federal kids-meal program in Minnesota is more than a spectacular white-collar crime story. It is a case study in how emergency COVID money, weak oversight, and opportunistic middlemen can collide to leave real children hungry while adults cash in. As the “Feeding Our Future” scandal moves…
The idea that a family earning six figures could still feel poor sounds absurd until you start tallying rent, child care, health insurance, and the quiet cost of losing government help. A Wall Street investor has pushed that tension to an extreme, arguing that the real poverty line for a family of four is $136,500…
The classic promise of higher education was simple: earn a degree, land a stable white-collar job, and watch your income climb over time. That social contract is under strain as college graduates increasingly find themselves in the same unemployment lines they were told a diploma would help them avoid. With degree holders now accounting for…
The latest reading on United States growth is not just another strong quarter, it is a direct challenge to the idea that the country is stuck in a “vibecession,” where sentiment is sour even as the fundamentals quietly improve. With real output accelerating at its fastest pace in two years and key engines like consumer…
Steakhouse chains that once defined American casual dining are shrinking at a pace that would have been unthinkable a generation ago. More than 600 locations have vanished from a single brand, and hundreds more have gone dark across competitors, leaving only scattered survivors of what used to be sprawling national empires. What looks like one…
Retirement Shield
The money news that hits your wallet
The free Retirement Shield newsletter covers the benefits, tax, and cost-of-living changes that affect what you keep, a couple of times a week.