Money, Wealth & Power—A Daily Look at the Financial World
Netflix’s move to buy Warner Bros in a historic $82.7 billion deal signals a new phase in the streaming wars, one where a single app could control a huge slice of the shows and films people watch every night. For viewers, the price tag matters less than what it will do to their monthly bills,…
US employers abruptly shifted from a long stretch of restraint to a sharp wave of announced layoffs in October, signaling that the era of “no hire, no fire” stability may be ending. After months in which companies largely chose to freeze openings rather than cut staff, the spike in planned job reductions suggests executives are…
The Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge showed prices rising 2.8% in September compared with a year earlier, a level that keeps the central bank uncomfortably above its target even as the broader economy cools. The latest reading, delayed by the government shutdown, suggests inflation is easing only gradually from earlier peaks, leaving households still squeezed…
Wall Street is mounting an unusually public effort to keep President Donald Trump from installing longtime ally Kevin Hassett as the next chair of the Federal Reserve, turning a normally discreet vetting process into a full scale lobbying campaign. The fight is not just about personalities, it is about whether the central bank will prioritize…
The federal government’s official jobs scorekeeper expects some familiar careers to fade quickly over the next decade, even as the broader labor market keeps expanding. The fastest shrinking roles share a common thread: routine tasks that can be automated, digitized, or reorganized out of existence. For workers in those fields, the projections are a warning…
Target’s latest round of corporate layoffs is not just another cost-cutting headline, it is a clear signal that white-collar work in America is being rewired around relentless efficiency, volatile demand, and a shrinking sense of security. As one of the country’s most recognizable retailers pares back thousands of office roles even while stores stay busy,…
Minnesota is confronting a welfare fraud scandal that has already produced nearly $1 billion in alleged losses, yet the emerging investigations suggest the damage may extend far beyond a single program or community. What began as a story about pandemic food aid has widened into a broader reckoning over how the state monitors public money,…
Morgan Stanley’s shifting expectations around a December Federal Reserve move capture how fragile market conviction has become in the face of stubborn inflation and noisy labor data. After initially penciling in a year-end rate cut, the $1.3 trillion asset manager stepped back from that call when incoming numbers suggested the economy was not cooling as…
Stubbornly high prices and a cooling job market are pulling the Federal Reserve in opposite directions at the very moment its decisions carry maximum political and economic weight. Inflation is no longer raging, but it is proving sticky enough that cutting interest rates too quickly could reignite the problem, even as hiring momentum fades and…
The closure of a $102 million General Motors factory and the loss of 1,700 union jobs has hit one Midwest town like a controlled demolition, taking out not just a major employer but the economic scaffolding around it. What looks on paper like a corporate “footprint adjustment” feels on the ground like a generational rupture,…
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