Money, Wealth & Power—A Daily Look at the Financial World
Scott Bessent’s promise of a “gigantic” wave of tax refunds landed like a lightning bolt in the middle of an already heated economic debate. Now he is spelling out what that headline number really means for households, and how a one-time windfall could ripple through spending, savings and politics as filing season approaches. Instead of…
Business owners and real estate investors have quietly regained access to one of the most aggressive tax breaks in the code: a full, first‑year write off on qualifying assets that can easily top six figures. Under President Donald Trump’s domestic policy bill, 100 percent bonus depreciation has been restored for a wide range of purchases,…
President Donald Trump’s latest tax adjustment has quietly removed one of the biggest headaches facing casual sellers and side hustlers: a flood of payment platform tax forms triggered by relatively small amounts of income. Instead of treating anyone who sells a few items or picks up a handful of gigs like a full-fledged business, the…
Federal tax rules for 2025 returns are unusually generous, yet millions of Americans are on track to leave money on the table. Credits that cut your bill dollar for dollar, new deductions and a wave of policy changes mean the gap between what people owe and what they actually pay could run into the billions…
When I asked an AI to walk through what would actually happen if President Donald Trump somehow made federal income tax disappear, the response was not a libertarian fantasy. It was a spreadsheet horror story. Instead of a clean break from the IRS, the model described a vast funding crater, a scramble for new taxes,…
President Donald Trump has staked his economic agenda on sweeping import taxes that touch nearly every major trading partner, turning tariffs into his defining policy tool on trade and foreign affairs. The Supreme Court is now weighing whether his use of emergency powers to levy those duties went too far, but the structure of U.S….
For older taxpayers, the new senior tax break is one of the most generous federal perks in years, effectively letting many retirees erase thousands of dollars of income from the IRS’s reach. Structured as an extra write-off layered on top of existing deductions, it can turn a modest refund into a meaningful cash boost if…
The Supreme Court is about to decide whether President Donald Trump can reach directly into the heart of U.S. monetary policy, testing how far a president’s power over the economy can extend. At stake in Trump v. Cook is not only one central banker’s job but the legal scaffolding that has long insulated interest rate…
The fight over a $2.5 million no-bid contract has turned a routine state audit into a political stress test for Nebraska’s governor. State Auditor Mike Foley is accusing the administration of tilting the process toward a favored vendor, raising questions about whether emergency contracting rules were stretched beyond recognition. At stake is not only one…
New York City is staring at a projected $12 billion budget gap that evokes the worst days of the 2008 financial crisis, and the political response is already hardening into a fight over who pays to close it. Rather than treat the shortfall as a reason to retrench, Mayor Zohran Mamdani is using the crisis…