Money, Wealth & Power—A Daily Look at the Financial World
The federal government’s main small-business lender is abruptly cutting off a group it has long treated as core customers: entrepreneurs with green cards. In a sharp reversal, the Small Business Administration is moving to require that every owner behind an SBA-backed loan be a U.S. citizen or national, effectively shutting legal permanent residents out of…
The Trump administration is reshaping how Americans repay federal student loans, not with a single headline-grabbing law, but through a series of technical changes that will hit borrowers’ accounts starting in 2026. The shift narrows repayment choices, rewrites forgiveness rules, and quietly dismantles protections that had been built up over the past decade. For millions…
Millions of federal student loan borrowers who saw their payments frozen under President Biden’s new income-driven repayment program are now facing a very different reality. The temporary pause that shielded 7.6 m people in the Saving on a Valuable Education framework has ended, and the bills that disappeared into legal limbo are coming back with…
Gov. Kathy Hochul has finally disclosed how much she personally paid in New York City congestion tolls, a small but politically loaded detail in the broader deal that keeps the MTA’s controversial pricing system alive. The revelation lands as the program marks its first full year, with supporters touting cleaner air and stronger transit finances…
Student loan debt is supposed to be manageable, yet millions of borrowers are quietly qualifying for programs that can erase their balances and never using them. The most overlooked route is not a flashy one-time cancellation promise, but a set of rules that can turn years of ordinary payments, or even periods of hardship, into…
The Small Business Administration is preparing to shut legal permanent residents out of its flagship loan programs, a shift that will reshape who can access government-backed credit. Starting March 1, only companies owned entirely by U.S. citizens will qualify, cutting off green card holders who have long been treated as stable, low risk borrowers. The…
Cash used to feel like the one part of personal finance that was always within reach. Today, even money sitting in a checking or savings account can be surprisingly hard to access at the moment you need it most. New withdrawal limits, tighter monitoring, and account rules are quietly turning “cash on hand” into something…
Millions of Americans are facing higher power bills after a Trump-era push to keep aging fossil fuel plants alive shifted costs from utilities to households. Instead of paying to modernize the grid or invest in cheaper renewables, ratepayers are now effectively covering a multibillion-dollar tab tied to plants that struggle to stay online. The extra…
President Donald Trump’s overhaul of federal student-loan repayment is already reshaping the balance of power between Washington and Wall Street in higher education finance. As federal protections are pared back and borrowing limits tighten, the country’s largest private student-loan companies are positioning themselves as the winners in a new, more market-driven era. Their enthusiasm stands…
President Donald Trump is on the verge of locking in a sweeping redesign of federal student loan repayment that will start reshaping borrowers’ bills as soon as this summer and then harden into a new regime on July 1, 2026. The coming cutoff will split borrowers into two camps, with current students and graduates largely…