Money, Wealth & Power—A Daily Look at the Financial World
Rick Harrison of “Pawn Stars” fame recently warned Fox News viewers about what he calls a “brutal” silver shortage, describing a “structural supply deficit” where industrial demand from tech and energy sectors now outpaces mining supply. His stark assessment aligns with fresh data from the Silver Institute showing 2024 mine production reached 819.7 million ounces…
The SEC’s climate disclosure rule took effect in March 2024, even as earlier Trump-era regulators worked to roll back core federal climate findings. That clash between expanding securities rules and shrinking environmental rules has left companies navigating a patchwork of expectations while still being judged on quarterly earnings. Many CEOs now face three practical questions:…
Inflation cooled in January as consumer prices barely moved, with the Consumer Price Index rising just 0.2% from December and 2.4% from a year earlier, according to the latest government data released on February 13, 2026. That marks a clear step down from the stickier readings that worried households and policymakers through much of 2025,…
The government’s preferred inflation gauge just hit a five‑year high, and that could show up in your wallet through higher shelter costs even as gas prices wobble. The Personal Consumption Expenditures price index, or PCE, rose 2.8% year over year in November 2025, and December’s reading is scheduled for release on February 20, 2026 by…
New York City’s most prominent budget watchdog is publicly urging Mayor Zohran Mamdani to rein in spending and shelve talk of new taxes, escalating a fight over how to close a projected multibillion-dollar gap. The Citizens Budget Commission’s open letter landed just as Mamdani signed an executive order installing “Chief Savings Officers” in every agency,…
The labor market “is a lot more fragile than the headline numbers suggest,” Moody’s Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi has warned, arguing that the apparent strength in hiring masks growing pockets of weakness. The latest evidence is the January payroll report, which showed employers adding 130,000 jobs while the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.3…
Amazon has crossed a line that once looked out of reach for an online bookstore. In its latest annual filing, the company reported full-year 2025 net sales of $716.924 billion, a figure rounded in its earnings release to $716.9 billion, topping Walmart’s estimated $648 billion haul and making Amazon the world’s largest company by revenue….
On Detroit’s icy riverfront, the glass towers and sprawling plants that once symbolized the auto industry’s confident electric future are now the backdrop for a harsh financial reckoning. Ford, General Motors and Stellantis have together booked roughly $50 billion in impairments and related charges tied to electric vehicles, according to primary filings and company statements….
US inflation slowed to 2.4% in January, a milestone the Trump administration is touting as proof it is getting “everything [it] wants” on the economy. The latest Consumer Price Index report, released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, is being cast by the White House as validation that prices are cooling while paychecks pull ahead….
France’s public debt has climbed to about €3.3 trillion, and fresh official data for early 2025 suggest the pile is still growing rather than stabilising. The “time bomb” metaphor increasingly used in Paris is grounded in watchdog projections that interest costs alone could reach roughly €74 billion by 2026, even as the political system struggles…
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.