Money, Wealth & Power—A Daily Look at the Financial World
American Airlines closed 2025 with record revenue figures and a clear debt-reduction trajectory, yet its stock continues to trade at a discount to peers. The gap between the airline’s improving fundamentals and Wall Street’s cautious pricing suggests the market is still anchored to risks that may already be fading. A closer look at the company’s…
The Federal Trade Commission has put a name on something grocery shoppers have long suspected but could not prove: the possibility that the price on the screen is not the same price everyone else sees. The agency’s interim findings from a formal market study describe an emerging ecosystem of data intermediaries that use personal information…
American households now owe a record $18.8 trillion, and recent growth has been fueled in part by rising credit card balances. The fourth quarter of 2025 added $191 billion to the national debt pile, with credit card balances alone climbing $44 billion to roughly $1.28 trillion, according to the New York Fed. What makes this…
New legislation targeting the wealthiest Americans keeps surfacing in Congress, but the bills share more than a desire for revenue. They reflect a growing push among some lawmakers to argue that the existing tax code undertaxes accumulated wealth, and that traditional income-based approaches may not fully reach it. Two distinct legislative strategies, one taxing net…
Gold and silver have entered a period of sharp, unpredictable price swings that are forcing investors to rethink how precious metals fit into a balanced portfolio. The volatility is not random noise; it reflects structural forces in futures markets, shifting retail demand for physical metal, and Wall Street forecasts that remain surprisingly bullish even after…
Toyota has signaled a bigger push into battery-electric vehicles, after years of emphasizing hybrids and other alternatives. The shift comes as the automaker has said it plans to introduce 10 new battery EV models by 2026, expanding beyond its limited BEV lineup to date. Whether that rollout is enough to close the gap with earlier-moving…
A New Jersey luxury car dealership racked up 511 separate violations and now faces an $843,000 fine, with regulators citing problems as specific as font sizes in advertisements that rendered required disclosures nearly invisible to consumers. The case reflects a long pattern of enforcement by New Jersey consumer protection authorities against dealers who bury mandatory…
Retailers are closing stores and locking up merchandise as shoplifting and organized retail crime eat into profits. Costco is moving in a different direction, quietly tightening its membership checks and entry rules while keeping its warehouses busy and its aisles open. The result is a low-key anti-theft system that is thriving even as rivals like…
A New York Fed analysis has confirmed what independent economists warned about for years: American businesses and consumers, rather than foreign exporters, shoulder the vast majority of the costs created by tariffs on steel, aluminum, and Chinese goods. The finding directly contradicts repeated political assurances that trading partners would bear the financial burden. With the…
A Houston-area employer has filed a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) notice indicating more than 100 jobs may be cut at a Harris County worksite. The filing, logged through Texas’s official labor notification system, documents the planned reduction but leaves key questions unanswered about what drove the decision and what comes next for affected…