Money, Wealth & Power—A Daily Look at the Financial World
Drivers across the United States are starting 2026 with a rare kind of sticker shock at the pump, the pleasant kind. The national average for regular gasoline has slipped to levels not seen since before the pandemic-era price spikes, giving households a small but tangible boost just as holiday bills arrive. Gas is now hovering…
Hiring in the United States is losing momentum just as the jobless rate edges toward its highest level in roughly four years, a combination that signals a cooler but still contested labor market. The latest federal report shows only modest payroll gains alongside an unemployment rate that, while slightly lower than a month earlier, remains…
President Donald Trump is trying to rewrite the basic bargain between Washington and the weapons industry, pairing the promise of a much larger Pentagon budget with an ultimatum that contractors will only see that money if they build faster and focus less on shareholders. Instead of quietly tweaking procurement rules, he is using public threats,…
Artificial intelligence is no longer nibbling at the edges of office work, it is starting to carve out entire categories of white-collar labor. Analysts now warn that as many as 5 million white-collar jobs could effectively vanish as companies automate routine decision making, reporting, and customer interaction. The same technologies that generate marketing copy, summarize…
Warren Buffett has finally handed day-to-day control of Berkshire Hathaway to his chosen successor, Greg Abel, a leader who has spent decades avoiding the spotlight even as he rose through the company’s ranks. The transition from Warren Buffett to Greg Abel as CEO marks a generational shift at one of the world’s most closely watched…
After two years of sticker shock in the supermarket aisle, President Donald Trump’s decision to roll back some food tariffs has raised hopes that grocery bills will finally ease. The political promise is simple: cut trade taxes, and shoppers should see cheaper milk, meat, coffee and produce. The reality, according to economists and industry data,…
Investors heading into the heart of 2026 are trying to read whether a second Trump term will end with another year of gains or a painful break in the bull market. History does not offer certainty, but it does provide a set of signals that have repeatedly lined up with big drawdowns. I see three…
The White House is racing to contain the fallout after President Donald Trump appeared to reveal sensitive jobs data on social media before its official release, reviving long‑running concerns about how he handles market‑moving information. The episode has forced aides to confront a basic question of modern governance: how do you square a president’s instinct…
The United States is suddenly sitting on what looks like a once‑in‑a‑generation mineral windfall: a volcanic trove of lithium, the “white gold” that underpins electric vehicles, smartphones, and grid batteries. Geologists and energy analysts now estimate that a single supervolcano complex could hold a lithium resource valued at roughly $1.5 trillion, enough to reshape global…
International travel to the United States is slipping just as global tourism is rebounding, and the numbers are no longer easy to dismiss as a blip. A projected 6.3 percent fall in inbound visitors next year points to a structural problem, not a seasonal lull, with higher costs and tougher politics combining to push travelers…