Money, Wealth & Power—A Daily Look at the Financial World
American shoppers are heading into peak holiday season with a hidden surcharge baked into nearly every cart: a multibillion dollar tariff tab that functions like a tax on gifts, gadgets and décor. Instead of fading into the background, the trade policies of recent years are converging with inflation fatigue and tight household budgets to make…
President Trump’s promise of “no tax on tips” and “no tax on overtime” is finally moving from campaign slogan to practical reality, as the Internal Revenue Service begins spelling out how workers and employers should handle the new deductions. The latest guidance clarifies who can claim the breaks, how much income can be shielded, and…
Millions of Americans are poised to see bigger spring tax refunds, and the gains will not be limited to a narrow slice of filers. I will walk through six key groups highlighted in recent reporting, showing how each stands to benefit from richer credits, inflation adjustments, or shifting withholding patterns so you can see where…
Tariffs on Chinese imports have quietly swelled into a more than $200 billion drag on trade, even as a major Supreme Court case threatens to redraw the legal boundaries around presidential power over commerce. The result is a rare moment when courtroom doctrine, campaign politics, and supply chain strategy are colliding in real time, with…
Donald Trump is now confronting a new kind of fiscal scrutiny, as a prominent watchdog warns that his favored payouts and tax breaks could ultimately carry a multitrillion dollar price tag for the federal government. The warning frames Trump’s second term agenda not just as a political fight, but as a potential $6 trillion test…
Millions of taxpayers walk away from tax season every year without realizing the government may still be holding their cash. Unclaimed refunds, undelivered checks, and missed credits can quietly pile up when returns are filed late, addresses change, or people assume a small refund is not worth the hassle. I want to walk through how…
Several once-routine federal tax breaks are now gone for good, reshaping how many households and investors plan for 2026 and beyond. I will walk through six specific breaks that have disappeared, explain what changed, and highlight how the new landscape affects filers who had come to rely on these benefits. 1) First Popular Tax Break…
Whether an extra round of federal relief hits bank accounts before the holidays will depend less on wishful thinking and more on how quickly Washington can move from talking points to signed legislation. The political debate over new direct payments is already colliding with the hard limits of how fast the government can legally approve,…
The Internal Revenue Service is preparing to lean on artificial intelligence to keep taxpayer services running even as its human workforce shrinks. The agency plans to roll out Salesforce-built AI agents to handle routine questions and case updates, positioning the technology as a way to maintain service levels after staff cuts and a wave of…
Food prices have become the most visible pressure point in the cost-of-living squeeze, and low income families feel it first and hardest. As president Donald Trump moves to roll back tariffs on a wide range of imported foods, the central question is whether cheaper trade at the border can meaningfully ease grocery inflation that has…