Money, Wealth & Power—A Daily Look at the Financial World
On November 17, 2025, the Federal Reserve’s vice chair used two public appearances to stress that tradeoffs in the current economy reinforce the need to “proceed slowly” on interest-rate cuts, signaling a more cautious stance on policy easing. Later that evening, the vice chair reiterated that economic trade-offs justify lowering rates slowly, underscoring how recent…
President Donald Trump is presiding over an economy that looks sturdy on the surface but is increasingly fragile underneath. Growth headlines and stock indexes obscure a mounting pile of structural risks that top economists say are the direct result of his policy choices. From tariffs to erratic messaging, the pattern points to a White House…
Talk of a federal shutdown tends to fade once Congress cuts a deal, yet the political and structural forces that nearly close the government rarely disappear. They accumulate, like pressure behind a dam, until the next deadline brings the same arguments roaring back. That is why the latest wave of shutdown chatter feels less like…
America’s red ink is often framed as a uniquely alarming problem, but the reality is that the United States is borrowing in a world where nearly every major economy is leaning heavily on debt. To understand how serious the situation is, I need to look not only at the sheer size of U.S. obligations, but…
Holiday shoppers heading into the aisles this year are getting a rare bit of relief: the typical Thanksgiving spread is expected to be slightly cheaper overall, even as some key ingredients keep climbing. After several seasons of sticker shock, the core promise for 2025 is a modestly lower grocery bill if you are willing to…
Grocery shoppers are still feeling the sting of higher prices, even as overall inflation cools. The latest research points to a handful of everyday staples that are doing outsized damage to family budgets, driven by supply constraints, corporate pricing power, and shifting consumer demand. I want to unpack five of the biggest culprits and explain…
Wall Street’s AI trade is entering a more complicated phase. After a year of relentless gains for chipmakers and cloud giants, some of the most influential market forecasters now argue that the easy money has already been made and that much of the artificial intelligence boom is already reflected in stock prices. The question for…
Electric vehicles are no longer a niche curiosity in South America but a fast-growing part of the mainstream car market, reshaping who sells cars, how people fuel them, and which countries set the pace. The most striking twist is that this surge is unfolding largely without Tesla at the center, as regional buyers gravitate toward…
The shutdown-ending deal that reopened the federal government did more than avert missed paychecks and shuttered offices. It quietly steered nearly $1 billion in fresh money toward the US Air Force’s next-generation bomber and intercontinental ballistic missile, locking in new momentum for two of the Pentagon’s most expensive nuclear programs. The move underscores how budget…
Grocery inflation has cooled from its peak, but many staples still feel absurdly pricey when I ring them up. Official data on the overall food category shows that costs remain elevated compared with pre-pandemic norms, and shoppers are feeling it most on specific items that have surged far faster than the average. Here are 15…