Money, Wealth & Power—A Daily Look at the Financial World
On paper, the United States is in solid shape, with steady growth, low headline unemployment and resilient corporate profits. Yet for millions of households, the day-to-day experience feels closer to a slump than a boom, with higher prices, shakier job security and a persistent sense that the ground is shifting under their feet. A growing…
Sean “Diddy” Combs set out to punish NBC with a $100 million defamation lawsuit over a true‑crime documentary, arguing that the project smeared him as a violent predator and tainted his criminal case. Now, as NBC fights to shut the case down, the most damaging evidence may not be in the documentary at all, but…
Universal’s long-awaited Wicked adaptation has swept into cinemas with a global opening estimated at 226,000,000 dollars, instantly positioning the musical as one of the year’s defining box office stories. The film’s debut, powered by strong domestic turnout and robust international interest, signals that audiences are still willing to show up in force for big, theatrical-first…
Mackenzie Scott’s decision to give away tens of billions of dollars did not begin in a boardroom or a family office. It traces back to a moment when she was a struggling student, close to losing her place at an elite university, and a roommate quietly stepped in with a lifeline. That early act of…
A $102 million food stamp fraud case has jolted Washington into confronting how a program built as a lifeline for low-income families can be twisted into a criminal cash machine. I see the fallout already reshaping the debate over how to modernize the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program without choking off access for the people who…
Unemployment in the United States has climbed to its highest level in nearly four years, a jarring milestone that lands after a long stretch of robust hiring and solid wage gains. The latest data show joblessness rising even as employers continue to add positions, a split-screen economy that feels very different depending on whether you…
Plenty of careers still pay six figures, yet employers say they cannot convince people to take them. Long hours, physical strain, emotional burnout and shifting lifestyle expectations are pushing workers away from roles that once looked like golden tickets. I looked at current labor data and industry reports to identify 11 high paying jobs almost…
The Saudi crown prince has just put a number on his ambition for the United States, and it is big enough to reset expectations on both sides of the relationship. By pledging a vast new wave of capital into American industry and technology, he is turning what used to be a transactional oil-for-security bargain into…
Across housing, healthcare, child care, and basic goods, the cost of staying afloat is rising faster than paychecks, and the squeeze is no longer confined to any single city or income bracket. Policymakers now invoke an “affordability crisis” as routinely as they cite inflation, yet the underlying math shows that without deliberate intervention, the gap…
The combined fortunes of the richest people on earth have grown so large that they are now measured in fractions of global GDP, not just in billions of dollars. When I break that scale down to the level of a single person, the numbers look far less like a magic ticket and far more like…
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.