Money, Wealth & Power—A Daily Look at the Financial World
Wendy’s closed out 2025 with its steepest quarterly sales decline in recent memory, reporting a double-digit drop in U.S. same-restaurant sales during the fourth quarter. As the fast-food chain scrambles to reverse the slide with internal turnaround plans, PETA has jumped in with an unsolicited prescription: add vegan chicken to the menu. The collision of…
American parents are emerging as one of the most politically charged demographic groups ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, driven by deep partisan splits over what children should learn in school, who controls vaccine policy, and whether the country is doing enough to support families. Federal survey data and multiple institutional polls show that parents…
The Bureau of Labor Statistics released its Consumer Price Index report for January 2026, and the numbers at the grocery store are hard to ignore. The food index posted its sharpest monthly increase in three years, accelerating well beyond the pace recorded in December 2025 and catching many shoppers off guard just as broader inflation…
Wall Street suffered its sharpest single-day decline in a month on Monday after the White House announced a sweeping 10% temporary import surcharge on most goods entering the United States. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 821.91 points, or 1.7%, to close at 48,804.06, while the S&P 500 dropped 1% to 6,837.75 and the Nasdaq…
Amazon has begun warning shoppers that rising import costs will soon show up in the prices they pay at checkout, as two overlapping U.S. trade policies close off the main channels retailers and overseas sellers once used to keep goods cheap. A 10% global tariff taking effect on February 24, 2026, combined with the already-enforced…
A growing wave of mass layoffs across the Seattle metro area is stoking anxiety about the health of the region’s economy, with state labor records showing a steady accumulation of job cuts stretching into early 2026. The losses are concentrated in technology and professional services, two sectors that have long powered King County’s tax base…
Amazon cut hundreds of jobs across New York City as part of a sweeping global restructuring that eliminated 16,000 corporate positions on January 28, 2026. The layoffs, which hit offices in Manhattan and other boroughs, have intensified worker frustration at a company already facing open federal labor complaints and growing union pressure in the city….
The U.S. Small Business Administration on February 6, 2026, suspended 111,620 California borrowers suspected of committing over $8.6 billion in pandemic-era fraud, cutting them off from future federal lending programs. The action covers 118,489 Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loan accounts and represents the latest phase of a state-by-state enforcement campaign targeting COVID-19…
The Federal Bureau of Investigation issued a bulletin on February 19, 2026, warning of a sharp increase in malware-enabled ATM jackpotting incidents across the United States, with the bulletin citing more than 700 incidents nationwide. Federal prosecutors have charged scores of suspects tied to an international conspiracy that has hit ATMs in multiple states, with…
Weak home sales across the United States are draining demand for appliances, cabinets, and flooring, sending a slow-moving shock through domestic manufacturers that depend on housing turnover for a large share of their revenue. With existing-home transactions still running well below pre-rate-surge levels and mortgage-rate lock-in keeping many homeowners in place, manufacturers that supply the…