Money, Wealth & Power—A Daily Look at the Financial World
Donald Trump is back in the White House with a clear preference for cheap money, aggressive fiscal stimulus and a Federal Reserve that cuts rates “by a lot.” If that mix leads to another round of heavy money creation, it could be rocket fuel for Bitcoin, which is built to be scarce in a world…
Donald Trump has made it clear that his next choice for Federal Reserve Chair will be expected to slash interest rates aggressively if markets and growth stay strong, a demand that could reshape both monetary policy and the politics around it. His promise that the successor to Jerome Powell will cut rates “by a lot”…
Households are heading into 2026 with a rare mix of relief and uncertainty: growth is expected to hold up, but inflation, rates and markets are all shifting at once. I see four big economic turns on the horizon that will shape how safe, flexible and productive your cash really is. The smartest moves now involve…
Disney is dismantling one of its most popular streaming tie-ins, shutting down the option to bolt Disney+ onto a Hulu subscription at a discount and pushing customers toward new bundles or separate plans. The change arrives just as Hulu itself is being folded into Disney+, raising the stakes for tens of millions of viewers who…
Government investigators created bogus Affordable Care Act customers and watched the money roll in, collecting $2,350 a month in subsidies on fake Obamacare accounts that were never supposed to exist. The findings land in the middle of a long‑running fight over “waste, fraud and abuse” in health programs, and they confirm what many policy hands…
Wall Street is starting to sketch out a 2026 in which stocks climb sharply even as President Trump’s tariff regime reshapes global trade. The core of the bullish case is simple: a surprisingly resilient U.S. economy, strong profit growth and sector winners that can offset the damage from higher import costs. The tension between those…
Nomura is telling clients to brace for a rare combination in 2026: solid global growth paired with stubborn inflation pressures. The firm’s investment and macro teams see a powerful mix of artificial intelligence spending, fiscal expansion and a recovering trade cycle lifting output, even as central banks struggle to push price gains back to pre‑pandemic…
Nomura’s Gareth Nicholson is putting a precise number on how much risk investors should shift away from traditional markets, arguing that roughly a quarter of a portfolio belongs in alternatives. His case rests on a simple idea: in a world of choppy equity indices and unpredictable central banks, investors need more than just stocks and…
Lucasfilm’s decision to halt development on a fourth season of The Mandalorian and instead channel roughly 100 million dollars into a feature film marks a sharp turn in how the studio approaches streaming. Rather than treating Disney+ as the automatic home for every Star Wars chapter, the company is effectively rebalancing its bets between theatrical…
Netflix quietly spent blockbuster money on a science fiction epic and then watched it sink with barely a ripple in the wider culture. The Electric State cost roughly $320 million to make, drew brutal reviews, and yet slipped past most viewers as just another tile in an endless carousel. I want to unpack how a…