Money, Wealth & Power—A Daily Look at the Financial World
The United States has entered 2026 with a debt load that would have been unthinkable a decade ago and a bond market facing a powerful new competitor. With federal obligations now above $38 trillion and a surge of corporate borrowing tied to artificial intelligence and data centers, the race for investor cash is intensifying just…
The trade war that once felt like an abstraction on balance sheets has finally hit the bar top. A $9 billion bourbon powerhouse built in Kentucky is now cutting production, closing facilities, and shedding jobs as tariffs collide with a global demand slump and a domestic shift away from heavy drinking. What looked like a…
Hiring in the United States has shifted from a sprint to a shuffle, and the drag is no longer confined to a few struggling sectors. After a year in which job creation slowed to a crawl, the latest data show a labor market that is still adding positions, but at a pace that feels more…
The United States is again paying for the fallout of its own trade brinkmanship. After years of tariff crossfire with China, soybean prices have sagged, export volumes have struggled to recover, and the federal government is now rolling out a fresh $12 billion bailout to keep farm balance sheets from collapsing. The rescue package is…
Gold’s latest rally has emboldened some of the market’s most aggressive forecasters, with one strategist arguing that the metal could surge to levels that would have seemed unthinkable a decade ago. The boldest call now on the table is that bullion could climb past $8,000 per ounce by 2028, a move that would radically reshape…
The United States has not seen a trade gap this small since the aftermath of the global financial crisis, and the shift is arriving for unusual reasons. A surge in gold shipments, a pullback in pharmaceutical imports, and softer demand for foreign goods have combined to push the monthly deficit in goods and services to…
President Donald Trump is asking Congress to sign off on one of the largest peacetime military spending plans in American history, arguing that the United States must rearm quickly in what he calls “very troubled and dangerous times.” The proposal would lift the Pentagon’s annual budget to $1.5 trillion and reset the political debate over…
Beijing is trying to turn a tropical island the size of Belgium into the world’s newest duty-free playground at the very moment its trade surplus in goods has blown past the $1 trillion mark. The juxtaposition captures how China is leaning on both external demand and tightly managed internal experiments to keep growth on track….
Gold’s blistering rise has turned a traditionally sleepy hedge into the most closely watched asset in global markets, and Ray Dalio is treating that move as a warning siren rather than a victory lap. The billionaire investor argues that the surge reflects deepening stress in currencies, bonds, and stocks, and that ignoring what gold is…
The White House has moved from offhand musings to formal planning as President Donald Trump again presses to bring Greenland under United States control, this time explicitly keeping military force on the table. Officials now describe acquiring the vast Arctic island as a national security priority and say the administration is weighing diplomatic, economic, and…