Money, Wealth & Power—A Daily Look at the Financial World
Sam Bankman-Fried went to prison as the face of a multibillion-dollar crypto collapse and emerged with a strangely narrow fixation: teaching other inmates how to talk to judges and prosecutors. Instead of retreating into the background, he has turned his days into a nonstop clinic on motions, plea deals, and sentencing guidelines. His new identity…
American households are being told to brace for something unusual next filing season: a wave of much bigger tax refunds than they have seen in years. The shift is being driven by a new tax law, changing withholding patterns and a White House that has explicitly promised a historic payout moment for filers. At the…
The Trump administration is dangling a new round of direct payments, with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent promising that any fresh stimulus would focus on households earning less than $100,000. The proposal, framed as a dividend from higher tariffs, is pitched as a way to cushion Americans from rising prices while turning trade policy into a…
Washington’s latest push to tax its wealthiest residents is not an isolated skirmish, it is part of a broader shift in how states try to capture more revenue from high earners and large investment portfolios. From capital gains surcharges to experimental wealth levies, policymakers are testing how far they can go in targeting top-end fortunes…
A worker with a strong professional career can hit a point where a paycheck starts to feel like a penalty. Someone earning a $600,000 salary can see roughly half of every extra dollar siphoned away in combined federal, state and payroll taxes, while a fortune measured in the hundreds of billions can legally grow with…
Odell Beckham Jr. has turned a locker-room conversation into a national argument about what it really means to be rich. When he says a $100 million deal can feel tight once taxes, fees, and lifestyle hit, he is not asking for sympathy so much as describing a math problem that most people never see up…
The United States has quietly closed a tax case that officials describe as the largest ever brought against a single person, with the estate of billionaire tech executive Robert Brockman agreeing to pay $750 million to the federal government. The settlement ends a sprawling fraud saga that stretched across offshore havens, complex trusts and a…
Tax pros are bracing for a very different filing season in early 2027, when Americans settle up for tax year 2026. New rules tied to President Donald Trump’s signature tax package are expected to lift many households’ refunds by roughly $1,000, but the gains will be uneven and highly dependent on how and where you…
President Donald Trump’s new car loan tax break promises eye catching savings for drivers who finance a new vehicle, with some households potentially trimming thousands of dollars from their federal bill over the next few years. The benefit hinges on a temporary deduction for auto loan interest, but strict rules on income, vehicle type, and…
Millions of households are being told to brace for unusually big checks when they file their 2025 returns in early 2026, with officials openly talking about typical families coming out ahead by roughly $1,000 to $2,000 compared with recent years. The driver is a sweeping new tax package that reshapes how much is taken out…