Money, Wealth & Power—A Daily Look at the Financial World
Bitcoin’s latest rout has erased roughly half of its value in a matter of months, turning a once-euphoric rally into a test of conviction for traders and long-term believers alike. The flagship cryptocurrency has slumped toward $60,000, a drawdown that is now being compared with the brutal FTX-era collapse. Even as some analysts argue that…
Washington is moving from theory to reality on a new levy aimed squarely at its richest residents, and the details suggest it could bite harder than many casual observers realize. Lawmakers in Olympia are advancing a so‑called millionaire tax that would, for the first time, tie state revenue directly to high earners’ personal income and…
Barron Trump has stepped into the booming functional beverage market with a low-key but attention-grabbing move, quietly backing a new yerba mate drink brand that is already sparking viral curiosity. The 19-year-old son of President Trump is positioning himself not just as a political heir but as a lifestyle entrepreneur betting on a caffeine alternative…
President Donald Trump is tying his second-term foreign policy tightly to oil, and nowhere more dramatically than in his push to put Washington at the center of Venezuela’s vast reserves. He has repeatedly suggested that the United States can effectively direct how that crude is sold and who benefits, casting the strategy as a windfall…
Japanese pharmaceutical shares were hit by a sharp selloff after President Donald Trump unveiled a new U.S. discount drug website, TrumpRx.gov, rattling investors who see fresh pressure on global medicine prices. The slump in Tokyo trading reflects how a policy framed as a win for American patients can instantly reprice expectations for overseas drugmakers that…
Illinois is staring down a fiscal crunch that state officials describe as unlike anything they have seen in years, driven by a rapid pullback in federal support under President Donald Trump. The squeeze is not just a matter of accounting, it is reshaping choices on schools, health care, infrastructure and the broader economy as Washington…
The United Nations human rights office is warning that it is running on fumes just as global abuses are mounting, and officials say cuts driven by President Donald Trump have pushed the system into what they bluntly describe as “survival mode.” The United States was long the largest single funder of the United Nations, but…
Federal officials say a vast web of pandemic aid abuse has erupted into one of the largest fraud scandals in California’s history, with suspicious loans now pegged at $8.6 billion. The scale of the alleged scheme, centered on emergency programs created during COVID, is forcing a reckoning over how the state handled crisis-era money and…
President Donald Trump is selling his sweeping tariff regime as an “American economic miracle,” crediting higher import taxes with reviving growth, taming inflation, and rescuing U.S. industry. The data now available from government agencies and independent analysts points in a very different direction, showing higher costs for households, pressure on manufacturers, and only modest movement…
Tariffs were sold to voters as a way to punish foreign competitors, but the bill is increasingly landing in American shopping carts and factory budgets. The first wave of price increases has been painful enough, yet the structure of President Trump’s trade war means a second, more entrenched round of inflation is still building in…
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