Money, Wealth & Power—A Daily Look at the Financial World
California’s latest tax fight centers on a one-time levy aimed squarely at the state’s richest residents, with a union-backed proposal designed to pull in $100 billion from a few hundred billionaires. Supporters frame it as a last-ditch way to stabilize health care and schools without squeezing middle-class taxpayers, while critics warn it could rattle markets…
The White House is treating the Supreme Court tariff case less as a cliffhanger than as a logistical problem to solve. Even if the justices strike down President Donald Trump’s current duties, his team is quietly assembling fallback tools to keep pressure on trading partners and preserve the political narrative that tariffs are here to…
Mike Johnson built his reputation in Congress arguing that lawmakers, not the White House, should control the nation’s trade weapons. His past push to claw back tariff authority from the executive branch now sits awkwardly beside his role as House speaker, where he is under pressure to protect President Donald Trump’s expansive use of those…
President Donald Trump has put a headline number on his latest economic promise: a $2,000 “tariff dividend” that he says will be mailed out to American households starting in 2026. The idea has already been framed as a kind of stimulus check sequel, but the reality of who would qualify, when payments might arrive, and…
Older Americans are heading into tax season with a rare piece of good news: a fresh $6,000 deduction designed to shrink how much of their Social Security ends up taxed. The new break, created as part of a broader federal tax overhaul, applies only for a limited window through 2028, but it has the potential…
Congress is turning its attention to the quiet figure who kept Jeffrey Epstein’s books, probing how his work intersected with a major Wall Street bank’s red flags. Lawmakers now see Epstein’s longtime accountant as a potential key to understanding how large cash movements and internal warnings at JPMorgan Chase failed to stop a client already…
The $600 reporting threshold has become a flashpoint for anyone who earns money through side gigs, payment apps, or freelance work. I want to unpack how that old limit is being reshaped, what the new rules look like in practice, and why the changes matter whether you drive for Uber, sell on Etsy, or pay…
Real estate can quietly generate one of the largest tax bills most people ever face, because the IRS treats profit on property as a capital gain. With the right planning, however, I can often reduce, defer, or even eliminate that tax hit by using a mix of exemptions, timing strategies, and specialized transactions that are…
Ron DeSantis has turned a wonky gripe about local levies into a sharp populist line, arguing that property taxes function less like civic contributions and more like rent payments to the state. By casting homeowners as perpetual tenants of government, he is trying to reframe a familiar bill as a fundamental threat to ownership, and…
Alt5 Sigma, a partner in President Donald Trump’s World Liberty Financial (WLFI) crypto venture, may have violated SEC rules by failing to properly disclose a CEO suspension in its filings. The issue centers on the suspension of Alt5 Sigma’s CEO, which was not reflected in required SEC documents, raising questions about transparency in the Trump-linked…