Money, Wealth & Power—A Daily Look at the Financial World
Eighteen states have won federal approval to ban certain foods and drinks from SNAP purchases, and the new restrictions took effect January 1, 2026. The shift has left millions of benefit recipients sorting through inconsistent state-by-state rules while grocery stores, particularly small independent retailers, scramble to reprogram checkout systems with little centralized guidance. The result…
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…
After months of relative calm on the inflation front, businesses across the United States are pushing prices higher again, driven by a convergence of rising tariffs, labor expenses, and health-insurance premiums. The January 2026 Consumer Price Index confirms the trend with a 0.2% monthly increase and a 2.4% annual rate, while upstream producer costs had…
Several Democratic-controlled state legislatures have approved new or higher fees targeting electric and hybrid vehicle owners, even as the same governments continue to promote EV adoption through rebates and green-energy messaging. The contradiction is hard to miss: officials brag about how cheap it is to “go electric” while quietly adding annual charges that chip away…
Debit card fraud pulled from unsuspecting consumers at ATMs, gas pumps, and checkout terminals continues to grow, with reported losses from fraud reaching $12.5 billion in 2024. Criminals have refined their methods well beyond simple card theft, deploying physical skimming hardware and digital impersonation schemes that can drain a checking account in minutes. I have…
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…