Money, Wealth & Power—A Daily Look at the Financial World
Tesla stripped the terms “Autopilot” and “Full Self-Driving Capability” from its California marketing materials after the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles found those labels violated state law. The compliance fix averted a potential 30-day sales suspension, but it also cleared the runway for Tesla to keep charging vehicle owners $99 a month for the same…
Middle-class Americans are increasingly turning to personal loans to consolidate and refinance high-interest debt, driving a sharp rise in originations across online lending platforms. Federal Reserve data tracking consumer credit shows nonrevolving balances, the category that includes personal loans, continuing to expand even as borrowing costs remain elevated. The trend reflects a calculated bet by…
New-vehicle prices crossed a historic threshold last fall, with the average transaction price surpassing $50,000 for the first time and pushing a record share of buyers into monthly payments above $1,000. The result is a growing class of car owners locked into longer, riskier loans that carry higher default rates and a greater chance of…
British banks are warning that Labour’s regulatory framework is restricting their ability to lend to defence companies, compounding a growing funding crisis at a time when the UK faces a shortfall in military spending estimated at tens of billions of pounds. The complaint puts Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government in a difficult position: it needs…
Student loan borrowers who were harmed by Navient’s servicing practices are set to receive checks from a $120 million settlement that capped a years-long federal enforcement case. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) brought the action against Navient, the nation’s largest student loan company, over what regulators described as failures at every stage of repayment….
The Federal Communications Commission revised a long-standing rule that previously required Verizon Communications to unlock phones with relative ease, a change that directly raises the bar for customers trying to leave the carrier. The revision, which came after fraud schemes cost the wireless industry hundreds of millions of dollars, adds new verification steps that could…
Key takeaways: SAVE ended after litigation and a settlement, and a new statutory plan—RAP—replaces it for many borrowers. RAP bases payments on total adjusted gross income (AGI), not discretionary income, which can raise payments for some households. The shift is one of the largest federal student loan repayment changes in decades and may increase costs…
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,…
Several U.S. states are now charging electric vehicle owners per-mile fees to offset the gas tax revenue that EVs do not generate, and the trend is accelerating. Hawaii launched its road usage charge on July 1, 2025, Utah has a rate increase scheduled for January 2026, and states from Oregon to Virginia already collect similar…