Money, Wealth & Power—A Daily Look at the Financial World
The latest national employment snapshot arrived late and underwhelming, and it cuts directly against President Donald Trump’s preferred story of an economy on the verge of liftoff. Instead of confirming an “economic boom,” the delayed numbers point to a labor market that is losing momentum, with weaker hiring, higher unemployment, and a year that is…
A California community hospital that borrowed heavily to expand has now landed in federal court, with a judge ordering the financially strained facility to be sold after it accumulated roughly $193 million in municipal bond debt. The bankruptcy of this 63-year-old nonprofit, which serves a wide swath of patients in the northern part of the…
US employers are pivoting from a long stretch of stability to a far more volatile playbook, with job cuts suddenly surging after years of cautious, “no hire, no fire” behavior. The spike in October layoffs, capped by a record 153,000 cuts and a 183% jump from the prior year, signals that executives are no longer…
McKinsey & Company is preparing one of the most sweeping staff reductions in its history, planning thousands of layoffs as the consulting boom that followed the pandemic gives way to a more cautious corporate spending cycle. The cuts will fall heavily on internal and support roles, even as the firm signals it still wants to…
Olive Garden is about to go dark on one of the busiest dining days of the year, pausing operations at roughly 900 locations on Christmas so tens of thousands of workers can stay home. The move leaves an estimated 80,000 staff members off the schedule for 24 hours, reshaping holiday plans for both employees and…
The quiet shutdown of a beloved Southern cafeteria chain after an 88-year run is more than a business story. It is a jarring reminder of how fragile regional institutions have become, and how quickly hundreds of workers can lose their livelihoods when a legacy brand pulls the plug. As K&W Cafeterias closes every dining room…
Apple CEO Tim Cook now earns so much money, so quickly, that the average American’s yearly paycheck is roughly a morning’s work for him, and a typical house costs him about a long weekend. His compensation has become a vivid shorthand for the widening gap between corporate leaders and the workers whose labor underpins their…
Amazon’s decision to walk away from a $400 million logistics hub in Arkansas has abruptly erased 4,100 promised and existing jobs, turning what was billed as a marquee investment into a cautionary tale about flawed design and fragile growth. The company is not just closing a warehouse, it is unwinding a regional strategy that had…
The sudden collapse of an 88-year-old Southern cafeteria chain has turned what should be a season of comfort into a scramble for paychecks and answers. Thousands of workers now face holiday layoffs, while longtime customers are processing the loss of a regional institution that fed generations at modest prices. The chain’s abrupt shutdown is more…
The latest private payroll figures show a sharp reversal in hiring, with companies cutting 32,000 jobs in November, the steepest pullback in the sector since 2023. The drop, driven heavily by small employers, signals that the long stretch of resilient job growth is giving way to a more fragile phase in the labor market. Instead…