Money, Wealth & Power—A Daily Look at the Financial World
A growing number of diners are discovering that the price listed on a restaurant menu is not the price they actually pay. Mandatory service charges of 20% or more, added automatically to the bill and separated from any voluntary tip, have become a flashpoint for consumer frustration across multiple states. The legal ground beneath these…
Starting March 1, 2026, the Small Business Administration will require all loan applicants to be U.S. citizens, effectively shutting out legal permanent residents who have long used SBA-backed financing to launch and grow businesses. The policy shift, rooted in an executive order focused on immigration enforcement rather than economic development, has drawn sharp bipartisan criticism…
Costco CEO Ron Vachris used the company’s Q1 fiscal year 2026 earnings call to announce the end of paper custom-order slips for cakes and deli trays, a low-tech convenience that members have relied on for decades. The shift to a fully digital ordering process is part of a broader push Vachris described in terms of…
Verizon now requires customers who have fully paid off their phones to wait 35 days before the device can be unlocked for use on a competing network. This waiting period sits uncomfortably against federal rules that were designed to keep Verizon’s spectrum obligations tied to open access, and it raises a pointed question: how did…
Americans are pushing back against a growing list of fees that have quietly embedded themselves into everyday transactions, from concert tickets to hotel stays to credit card bills. The frustration is not abstract: families lose billions of dollars each year to charges that often appear only at checkout or buried in fine print. Federal and…
Walking into a bank and asking for $10,000 in cash is perfectly legal, yet the experience can feel surprisingly complicated. The transaction triggers a federal reporting process that most customers never think about, and depending on where the funds came from, the bank may not hand over the money right away. This article explains what…
Amazon’s third-party marketplace sellers are growing increasingly anxious over reports that the company may freeze or delay their payouts, a move that could strangle cash flow for businesses already operating on thin margins. The fear is not abstract: Amazon has a documented history of withholding funds owed to people who depend on its platform, and…
New car buyers facing some of the highest borrowing costs in years just picked up an unusually generous tax break. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act created a new federal income tax deduction for interest on qualifying new car loans, and IRS guidance estimates that typical borrowers could save hundreds of dollars per year in…
CFTC Chair Michael S. Selig has started talking about a regulatory “golden age” for digital assets, and his latest move gives that rhetoric concrete shape. The agency has refreshed its Innovation Advisory Committee with high-profile crypto executives, a roster that includes leaders from Coinbase, Robinhood and Ripple, in a bid to put industry expertise inside…
Recent bank earnings reports have revealed mounting concerns about deposit pressures, with major institutions flagging outflows and competitive pricing challenges despite Federal Reserve data showing aggregate stability. While systemwide deposits remain near historical highs, individual banks face significant shifts in funding composition and customer behavior that expose vulnerabilities beneath the surface-level calm. I’ll examine the…