Money, Wealth & Power—A Daily Look at the Financial World
U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum have added hundreds, and by some estimates well over a thousand dollars, to the sticker price of a new car since 2018. Yet the Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index for new vehicles shows that prices have actually declined on a year-over-year basis in recent readings. That creates…
Kroger Co. has started winding down operations at roughly 60 underperforming U.S. stores over an 18‑month timeline, a direct consequence of the failed merger with Albertsons Companies that two separate courts blocked late last year. The closures, disclosed in the grocer’s most recent earnings report and tied to a broader profitability push, represent Kroger’s sharpest…
Costco is testing a new limited-time food court item that has shoppers drawing direct comparisons to one of McDonald’s most iconic seasonal offerings, the Shamrock Shake. The timing is no accident: the warehouse giant’s latest play arrives just as McDonald’s brings back its own green-tinted shake for 2026, complete with a charitable tie-in. With both…
Target Corporation eliminated 500 corporate and field positions on February 9, 2026, just eight days after a CEO transition that capped months of boycott pressure and sliding sales. The cuts, split between district management and supply chain operations, arrived as new chief executive Michael Fiddelke began reshaping the retailer’s leadership structure. Together, the layoffs, the…
Federal Express Corp. and FedEx Logistics, Inc. have filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Court of International Trade demanding a full refund of every dollar paid in tariff duties imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act during the Trump administration, plus interest. The suit, which names the United States, U.S. Customs and Border Protection,…
California’s proposed 2026 Billionaire Tax Act, a one-time wealth levy targeting the state’s ultra-rich, may already be pushing billionaires and their assets out of the state before a single dollar has been collected. A nonpartisan fiscal analysis warns that while the tax could produce a short-term revenue windfall, it risks triggering a lasting decline in…
Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont traveled to Los Angeles to campaign for a ballot initiative that would impose a one-time 5% wealth tax on California billionaires, putting him in direct conflict with Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has warned the measure would drive the ultra-rich out of the state. The clash between two of the Democratic…
America’s post-pandemic economic recovery continues to split along income lines, lifting asset-rich households while leaving millions of low-wage workers stuck near or below the poverty threshold. The pattern, widely described as a K-shaped recovery, has persisted well beyond the initial pandemic shock, and new federal data on wages, wealth, and poverty suggest the gap is…
Gold futures were quoted near $5,200 per ounce in early trading as investors fled equities following President Trump’s announcement of a sweeping global import tariff, a move that collided with a Supreme Court ruling limiting the White House’s claimed legal authority for trade barriers. The collision of a constitutional rebuke and an aggressive new levy…
ExxonMobil is pressing the U.S. Supreme Court to force Cuban state entities to pay more than $1 billion in compensation for oil and gas assets seized during the Cuban Revolution, a claim rooted in a 1960 confiscation that has gone unresolved for over six decades. The case, which reached oral argument on February 23, 2026,…