Money, Wealth & Power—A Daily Look at the Financial World
Borrowers who receive student loan forgiveness after December 31, 2025, could owe the IRS thousands of dollars on discharged debt that was tax-free just days earlier. A temporary federal exclusion created by the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 shielded most loan discharges from counting as gross income, but that protection expires at the end…
Credit card balances in the United States hit a record $1.17 trillion in the third quarter of 2024, and delinquency rates have continued climbing since then. Against that backdrop, a growing number of borrowers are turning to personal loans as a way to consolidate revolving debt at a lower interest rate. The strategy can work,…
Student loan borrowers who dealt with Navient’s servicing failures are now finding unexpected checks in their mailboxes, drawn from a $100 million redress fund established by a federal enforcement settlement. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ordered the payments after a seven-year legal battle that ended with Navient banned from servicing federal student loans and required…
Commercial real estate lenders across the United States are abandoning the patient approach that defined the post-pandemic period and are now demanding that borrowers settle their debts or face consequences. The delinquency rate for office building owners hit a record high last month, and the era of quietly rolling over troubled loans has given way…
The Trump administration’s Education Department has identified thousands of additional borrowers who may qualify for student loan discharge, according to a recent court filing in ongoing federal litigation. The updated eligibility figures, submitted as part of a sequence of status reports in the case brought by the American Federation of Teachers, suggest that years of…
Parents who borrowed for their children’s education are staring at a brief, high‑stakes window to lock in cheaper student loan payments and long‑term forgiveness. Policy changes are closing off a popular workaround that let Parent PLUS borrowers reach income‑driven plans that were never designed for them. Those who move quickly can still reshape their debt…
Goldman Sachs has flagged a sharp rise in credit losses tied directly to its credit card portfolio, a signal that carries uncomfortable implications for millions of American borrowers already stretched thin by high interest rates and growing balances. The bank’s most recent quarterly filing with securities regulators reveals that provisions for credit losses were driven…
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…
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…
Federal student loan repayment is under strain, but the latest federal audit does not show a new wave of borrowers being pushed into default since payments resumed. Instead, the Government Accountability Office’s early look at repayment after the pandemic pause describes a vast federal portfolio, stressed borrowers, and uneven oversight. The picture that emerges is…