Money, Wealth & Power—A Daily Look at the Financial World
Grocery shopping is quietly entering a new phase in which the numbers on the shelf are no longer fixed until the next weekly reset. As electronic price tags spread from pilot programs to mainstream chains, the total on your receipt can, in theory, shift in real time as retailers tweak prices across entire aisles with…
The implosion of Evergrande was sold to the world as a contained drama, a single bad actor finally brought to heel. In reality, the group’s collapse has exposed structural fractures that still run through China’s growth model, its financial system and the daily lives of ordinary homebuyers. The most visible crisis is over, but the…
Gen X workers are spending far longer out of work after layoffs than their younger colleagues, and the gap is widening just as many of them hit peak financial pressure. New research shows that a sizable share of people in their late 40s and 50s who lost jobs over the past decade are still searching,…
Warnings about a rough 2026 for workers are piling up, from Wall Street strategists to labor economists, and they are all circling the same themes: slower hiring, weaker pay growth, and a more fragile sense of job security. The picture is not an outright catastrophe, but it is a clear shift from the tight labor…
For the first time in decades, the promise that a bachelor’s degree is a near-guarantee of better job prospects is colliding with a harsher reality. Gen Z graduates are discovering that the unemployment gap between them and high school diploma holders has narrowed to the point where a degree can feel less like a golden…
Bankruptcy filings are piling up across the U.S. spirits business as drinkers pull back and household budgets tighten. Once fast-growing whiskey and vodka labels are now restructuring in court, selling off barrels and trademarks to stay alive. The shakeout is exposing how quickly a boom built on premiumization and export growth can unravel when Americans…
The US is heading into 2026 with an economy that looks healthy on paper but feels brittle on the ground. Growth is picking up, inflation is easing and corporate profits are strong, yet workers are confronting a labor market that is stingier with stable, well paid roles than headline numbers suggest. That disconnect is why…
Texas is absorbing one of its most dramatic manufacturing shake-ups in years, as factory shutdowns and consolidations erase roughly 1,300 paychecks in a matter of weeks. The cuts are concentrated in industrial hubs that long defined the state’s blue-collar middle class, turning a familiar story of growth and resilience into a test of how quickly…
Home Depot’s latest forecast is not just a corporate update, it is a warning flare for the broader U.S. economy. The retailer is signaling that homeowners are pulling back, big-ticket projects are being delayed, and the housing market is losing momentum, all at a time when Wall Street has been betting on a smooth landing….
Across the United States, households are bracing for electricity bills that climb faster than paychecks, driven by new demand from data centers, electrified vehicles, and extreme weather. Yet buried inside that challenge is a largely untapped resource: millions of homes and businesses that could quietly act like a flexible power plant. If policymakers and utilities…