Money, Wealth & Power—A Daily Look at the Financial World
President Donald Trump has ordered a sweeping halt to some of the harshest collection tools used against borrowers who have fallen into default on federal student loans. The administration is freezing wage garnishment, tax refund seizures, and other involuntary collections, giving millions of struggling borrowers a temporary reprieve as the government rethinks how it pursues…
For households squeezed by higher prices at the supermarket, the promise of tax relief that effectively pays for months of food is not an abstraction, it is a line item in the family budget. The latest round of Trump-backed tax changes is being sold on the idea that roughly $4,000 in savings could offset about…
California’s richest residents are staring at a ballot proposal that would do something the state has never tried before, a one time levy on their net worth that supporters say could reshape public finances and critics warn could upend the state’s economic model. The plan, aimed squarely at billionaires, has already prompted some of the…
Google co-founder Larry Page has quietly executed one of the priciest residential moves in American history, assembling a Miami waterfront compound for roughly $173 million and, in the process, positioning himself to save millions in future taxes. The deal drops one of Silicon Valley’s most influential fortunes into Florida at the exact moment California is…
Tax filing for 2026 is shaping up to be very different from the last few years, with a larger standard deduction and a fresh round of business-friendly write offs reshaping how much income actually gets taxed. The changes grow out of President Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which locks in several individual breaks while expanding…
The Supreme Court’s looming decision on President Donald Trump’s emergency tariffs has already reshaped the rules for importers, with a new, hard deadline for refund claims and a rapid shift to digital processing. Instead of waiting for the justices to rule, trade officials have locked in a timetable that could determine who recovers billions in…
California is testing a radical idea in tax policy: instead of waiting for billionaires to sell stock or cash out, the state would tax a slice of their fortunes directly. The proposal, branded as a one-time levy on extreme wealth, could reshape how some of the richest people on earth relate to the state that…
Millions of workers are starting the year with a quiet but meaningful shift in their favor: federal tax changes that can leave more money in each paycheck. The new rules, driven by President Donald Trump’s latest tax package and routine Internal Revenue Service adjustments, are beginning to filter into payroll systems and could reshape how…
The penny is vanishing from American cash drawers, but the real fight is happening at the checkout screen. As stores reprogram registers and lawmakers rush to catch up, the country is arguing over a deceptively simple question: when a total lands between nickels, should the final price tilt in favor of the shopper or the…
California’s latest attempt to tax extreme wealth has drawn fierce warnings from Wall Street and quiet planning from tax lawyers. Then one of the world’s richest tech bosses effectively shrugged, saying he is happy to pay. The contrast between a billionaire CEO laughing off a new levy and peers plotting exits captures the high‑stakes experiment…
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