Money, Wealth & Power—A Daily Look at the Financial World
War Secretary Pete Hegseth is trying to do something unusual in Washington: admit that the Pentagon itself has been a terrible customer for American industry, then use that confession as political cover to rip up the rules that made it so. His promise to revive dormant factories and rebuild the defense industrial base is wrapped…
Russia’s wartime economy is running into a wall as sanctions and price caps squeeze the oil revenues that have long bankrolled the Kremlin. The collapse in cash from crude exports is now feeding through to the state budget, the currency and the broader financial system, forcing President Vladimir Putin to lean harder on domestic banks…
President Donald Trump has spent months talking up the idea of fresh $2,000 stimulus checks, but his latest comments suggest the plan is more aspiration than locked‑in promise. In a televised NBC interview, he said he was “looking at it very seriously” and added that he “may make the commitment,” yet he also stressed that…
Foreign money is not supposed to shape American elections, yet a new wave of disclosures suggests it is increasingly shaping the politics that surround them. A detailed report from Americans for Public Trust (APT) alleges that six overseas entities tied to international billionaires have quietly routed more than $2.6 billion into U.S. advocacy work since…
The fight over how to tax extreme wealth has finally collided with the geography of American innovation. As voters weigh a one-time 5% levy on fortunes above $1 billion, some of the richest figures in Silicon Valley are not waiting to see how the ballot turns out. They are buying homes in Miami, scouting compounds…
Bernie Sanders is preparing to take his long-running war on concentrated wealth to California voters, backing a one-time levy on fortunes measured in billions rather than millions. At the same time, his own finances are under renewed scrutiny, with public estimates putting his net worth in the low single-digit millions, a fraction of the fortunes…
Bank of America is treating the American consumer as its most reliable profit engine, and for now that bet is holding. Chief executive Brian Moynihan has repeatedly argued that households across income brackets are still opening their wallets, even as they complain about higher prices and tighter budgets. That tension between anxiety and action is…
The International Monetary Fund has moved to steady global nerves just as anxiety over the U.S. currency hit a fever pitch. After the dollar slid to its lowest level in four years, stoking talk of a “Sell America” trade and raising alarms about U.S. debt and President Trump’s trade policies, Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva has…
President Donald Trump is trying to pull mortgage costs down with one hand while potentially pushing them up with the other. He has ordered Fanny May and Freddy Mack to buy $200 billion in mortgage bonds to ease borrowing costs for homebuyers, even as he nominates a Federal Reserve chair who has spent years arguing…
Warnings about artificial intelligence have shifted from abstract ethics to concrete economics. A former Google ethicist now argues that, without guardrails, AI could detonate the global labor market within the next two years, echoing forecasts that tens of millions of roles are already on the chopping block. The emerging picture is not a slow, manageable…