Money, Wealth & Power—A Daily Look at the Financial World
The warning lights on the United States economy are no longer confined to obscure data tables. A growing chorus of economists now argues that the expansion is losing altitude, with slower hiring, stubborn inflation and weakening confidence all pointing in the same uneasy direction. The message is blunt: the US may be drifting toward trouble,…
Financial markets are no longer just gaming out the next move from the Federal Reserve, they are gaming out the next move from Federal Reserve Governor Stephen Miran. As President Donald Trump’s newest pick settles into his role, his push for faster and deeper rate cuts is turning him into a potential swing voice on…
California’s budget is sliding back into the red, and the numbers are getting harder for Governor Gavin Newsom to explain away as a temporary rough patch. After years of ambitious spending and optimistic revenue forecasts, the state is now staring at a deepening deficit that reflects structural choices as much as economic headwinds. The question…
AI and big tech are again setting records, and the mood in markets feels eerily familiar to anyone who remembers the late‑1990s internet frenzy. The question now is not whether artificial intelligence is transformative, but whether the current surge in spending, valuations and hiring can keep defying gravity or is already sowing the seeds of…
Jeff Bezos has been sounding the alarm about the U.S. economy for years, warning that a period of strain was coming for households and businesses that assumed the good times would roll on. That caution now looks less like billionaire pessimism and more like a blunt description of daily life for Americans squeezed by high…
Bitcoin and United States Treasurys are usually cast as opposites, one a volatile digital asset and the other the benchmark for safety in global markets. Right now, though, both are being driven by the same macro forces, from shifting expectations about Federal Reserve policy to investors’ search for protection against political and fiscal risk. I…
Scott Bessent has spent months promising that he can tame stubborn prices without much pain, casting himself as the architect of a cleaner, faster path out of the inflation hangover. His latest prescription, unveiled just as holiday costs dominate kitchen-table conversations, has thrilled some Republicans and unnerved many economists who see more politics than math…
Warnings about a looming American downturn are no longer coming only from Wall Street strategists or central bank veterans. One of the most prominent voices from the original dotcom boom is now arguing that the United States is heading toward a far more severe reckoning, driven less by a single bubble and more by a…
The S&P 500’s record highs are being driven by a narrow group of mega-cap winners, while the rest of the index is flashing a far more subdued picture of corporate America. Strip out the largest technology and communications giants and the so‑called “S&P 493” looks more like an economy grinding forward than one in a…
When Fox News cut away from one of Donald Trump’s live appearances to correct his claims in real time, it marked a striking moment in the long, complicated relationship between the president and the television networks that helped define his political rise. The image of a control room deciding to pull the plug as Trump…