Money, Wealth & Power—A Daily Look at the Financial World
Kroger is walking away from a $121 million automated warehouse in Florida at a moment when the grocer is already under pressure to prove its online strategy and defend a contested megamerger. The decision to close the high-tech facility, built to anchor a delivery-only push in the state, underscores how quickly digital bets can sour…
When a political strategist argues that the “real” poverty line now sits around $140,000 a year, it captures a growing sense that traditional measures of hardship no longer match the lived reality of middle class families. The claim sounds extreme, but it taps into a concrete mix of housing costs, child care bills, medical expenses,…
Employers across the country are scrambling to fill certain mid and high skill roles that routinely pay $60,000 or more, yet still sit vacant for months. I see the same pattern in sector after sector, from health care to the skilled trades, where demand is rising faster than training pipelines can keep up. Here are…
California’s most prominent electric tractor startup is suddenly staring at an existential threat after its main Chinese manufacturing partner walked away. The rupture exposes how even climate-focused hardware companies that brand themselves as all-American can be deeply dependent on overseas capital and supply chains, and how quickly that foundation can crack when geopolitical and financial…
The Federal Reserve has quietly pointed to a new source of strain in the economy, and it is not the usual debate over interest rates. Instead, policymakers are flagging a shift in credit conditions and business sentiment that suggests the expansion is more fragile than headline job and inflation numbers imply. I see this as…
Taubman Centers is closing its long-time Michigan headquarters and eliminating 105 jobs as part of the cleanup from its sale to Simon Property Group and the Taubman family. The move marks a symbolic end to the company’s era as an independent Bloomfield Hills-based mall owner and raises fresh questions about what remains of its local…
Elon Musk once framed a new federal cost-cutting office as a “chainsaw for bureaucracy,” a swaggering promise that the project known as DOGE would rip through red tape and shrink Washington. Less than a year later, that chainsaw has effectively disappeared, leaving behind a tangle of unanswered questions about what it actually cut and why…
The Office of Personnel Management’s declaration that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is officially dissolved marks a rare, sweeping reset of a federal entity that was created to symbolize modernization but ended up embodying bureaucratic drift. The move closes the book on an experiment in cross‑agency reform and forces a reckoning over what, if…
New graduates are stepping into a labor market that looks strong on paper yet feels unforgiving up close. Headline unemployment is low and job postings are plentiful, but entry-level candidates are discovering that the path from diploma to paycheck is far steeper and more confusing than it was even a decade ago. I want to…
Donald Trump has promised a new wave of factory jobs and energy projects, casting his second term as the start of a fresh industrial boom. Yet some of his own moves, especially on trade and immigration, are already colliding with the practical needs of manufacturers, energy developers, and the communities that host them. The result…
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.