Money, Wealth & Power—A Daily Look at the Financial World
Elon Musk is fusing his rocket company and his artificial intelligence startup into a single corporate vehicle that early reports say is worth roughly $1.25 trillion. The combination of SpaceX and xAI instantly creates one of the most valuable private firms on the planet, and it tightens Musk’s grip on both orbital infrastructure and cutting…
Internal combustion engines once defined the modern car industry, but the center of gravity is shifting fast. Global automakers are carving out timelines to end new gasoline and diesel models, governments are locking in phaseout dates, and investors are rewarding companies that treat electric drivetrains as the default rather than the niche. The gas era…
US and European carmakers have collectively torched $114 billion chasing an electric future that stubbornly refuses to arrive on schedule. What was sold as a smooth, inevitable transition has instead become a costly lesson in how fast political fashion and boardroom hype can outrun consumer reality. The result is a historic capital misfire that is…
Workers across the United States are acting as if a downturn has already arrived, tightening their budgets, clinging to existing jobs and bracing for layoffs even as official data still points to growth. Their anxiety is not abstract, it is rooted in concrete signals from their employers, their paychecks and their communities that suggest the…
The most aggressive political spenders heading into the 2026 midterms are not parties or candidates, but a new constellation of AI, crypto and Trump-aligned super PACs quietly stockpiling unprecedented sums. Together, they have assembled war chests that run into the hundreds of millions of dollars, positioning themselves to dominate the airwaves and shape which candidates…
The balance of power in the global electric vehicle market has flipped, and nowhere is that more visible than in China. One Chinese champion is accelerating into the lead on the back of surging sales, while the American pioneer that once defined the segment is watching its momentum stall. The result is a sharp divergence…
President Donald Trump has turned tariffs into a personal brand, casting himself as the only leader clever enough to wield trade barriers as a political and economic weapon. In his latest outbursts, he has framed duties on foreign goods not as a last-resort tool of economic policy but as proof of his singular toughness and…
Officials have cleared the way for a $4.5 billion megaproject that is being sold as a once‑in‑a‑generation jobs engine, promising work for thousands of people across construction, operations, and supporting industries. The price tag alone puts it in the same league as some of the most ambitious infrastructure, energy, and industrial investments now reshaping labor…
The Federal Aviation Administration has once again been pulled into Washington’s budget crossfire, with a fresh funding lapse triggering a partial shutdown and reviving memories of last year’s record disruption. While planes are still flying, the renewed uncertainty is already rippling through airports, work schedules and political negotiations, raising new questions about how long the…
The global food system is being squeezed from three directions at once: escalating conflict, a destabilized climate, and a relentless cost-of-living crunch. Together, these forces are turning local emergencies into a structural crisis that is pushing global food security to the brink. Hundreds of millions of people are already caught in this squeeze, and the…