Author: Money Mechanics

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz addresses the Bundestag during a debate over the 2025 federal budget on September 17, 2025 in Berlin, Germany.Nadja Wohlleben | Getty Images News | Getty ImagesHuge investment pledges and major fiscal changes had bolstered hopes that Germany could give the euro zone economy a much-needed boost, but economists are starting to question if — and when — that will happen.Germany was a hub of excitement earlier this year, with many politicians, analysts and economists sharing big hopes of an economic rebound — domestically, and across Europe.It had moved to amend its long-standing debt brake rule, which…

This photo of the iPhone 17 Pro Max in Cosmic Orange was taken with the telephoto lens on an iPhone 17 Pro Max. Jason Hiner/ZDNETThe idea of “tyranny of choice” says that having a set of good choices is supposed to let everyone find exactly what makes them most happy, but the reality is that having so many good choices can often lead to anxiety, indecisiveness, and discontent. If we apply this concept to the iPhone 17 lineup, then Apple is quite the tyrant this year.After all, the base model iPhone 17 is more pro than ever and offers the…

(World Oil)–  Colombian oil producer Ecopetrol SA is pursuing oil and gas deals in Brazil that could include a cluster of onshore Petrobras fields in the northeastern state of Bahia. “We believe that Brazilian onshore has great potential, especially in natural gas,” Jorge Martínez, the head of Ecopetrol’s operations in Brazil, said in an interview from the company’s offices in Rio de Janeiro. Ecopetrol is looking to leverage its expertise at onshore fields in Colombia to expand in Brazil, Latin America’s biggest oil producer. Petrobras and other oil majors have focused on mega fields in deep waters, and there are…

Congress is placing greater reliance on Stealth Taxes to raise revenue, as I’ve warned taxpayers for years. That makes the tax code more confusing and causes taxpayers to fall into expensive traps.One onerous effect of a Stealth Tax is that, while the taxpayer stays in the same bracket in the in the tax rate tables, the taxpayer’s marginal tax rate increases.The marginal tax rate is the tax rate on the last dollar of income earned. In the tax rate tables, the highest marginal tax rate is 37%.But Stealth Taxes increase the tax bill by reducing tax breaks or adding other…

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is one of the AI Stocks Analysts Are Tracking Closely. On September 16, TD Cowen raised the price target on the stock to $270 from $240 while maintaining its Buy rating on the shares. The rating affirmation follows the firm’s GenAl Public Cloud Survey. The 2025 GenAI Public Cloud Survey has revealed that Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is the second-place choice for companies considering additional cloud providers. Survey results demonstrate that Google Cloud Platform, or GCP, had a solid showing. However, there is still a gap between GCP and market leaders Amazon’s (AMZN) Amazon Web Services, or AWS,…

Ty Cobb, a former attorney for the White House under President Donald Trump‘s administration, has drawn a comparison between the suspension of comedian Jimmy Kimmel and the tactics employed by the Nazis.Cobb sees a similarity between ABC’s suspension of Kimmel and the Nazis’ strategy of removing comedians from German airwaves back in 1939. The suspension was a result of threats made by Brendan Carr, the Federal Communications Commission’s chair, towards Kimmel and ABC, following remarks made by the comedian about Charlie Kirk’s alleged assassin.The indefinite suspension of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” by ABC was met with approval by Trump. Cobb voiced his…

In-brief analysis August 13, 2025 Even without accounting for electricity interruptions resulting from major events such as hurricanes, customers in Puerto Rico experienced on average 27 hours of power grid interruptions per year between 2021 and 2024. By comparison, electricity customers in the mainland United States generally experience about two hours of electricity interruptions per year without major events. Hurricanes and other major events add to the outage time customers experience. In August 2024, Hurricane Ernesto affected at least 1 million customers in Puerto Rico. On average in 2024, customers in Puerto Rico went without…

Pending home sales are up just 0.8% from a year ago, with many house hunters hoping rates will drop substantially more. But if that were to happen, sellers would regain the upper hand and home prices would likely rise more.  The median U.S. home-sale price rose 2.2% year over year during the four weeks ending September 14, the biggest increase in five months.  This week’s median monthly housing payment is $2,590, up slightly from last week’s nine-month low but still near the lowest level of 2025. Payments increased despite the weekly average mortgage rate dropping to 6.35%, the lowest level…

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt appeared on Fox News today and said that an agreement has been reached — but not signed — that would see TikTok’s U.S. operations spun out under majority American ownership. Leavitt said Americans will hold six of seven board seats in the restructured TikTok, and the short-form video app’s algorithm will be U.S.-controlled, according to Bloomberg. “So all of those details have already been agreed upon, now we just need this deal to be signed and that will be happening, I anticipate, in the coming days,” Leavitt said. Bloomberg also reports that a senior…

Key Takeaways If you have a mortgage on your home, your lender probably requires you to have homeowners insurance.Insurance companies sometimes cancel existing homeowners insurance policies for a variety of reasons.Reasons for cancellation can include failure to pay premiums, excessive claims, and issues relating to the condition of the property, among others.Homeowners should take immediate action if their policy is canceled and try to obtain new coverage to replace it.If the homeowner fails to obtain coverage, the lender may buy it and charge them for it. Having your homeowners insurance canceled isn’t exactly great news, but there is no need…