Author: Money Mechanics

In-brief analysis May 5, 2026 Data source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, EIA-861, Annual Electric Power Industry Report, October 2025, final data for 2019–24, and EIA-861M (formerly EIA-826), Monthly Electric Power Industry Report, February 2026, preliminary data for 2025 Commercial electricity sales in Virginia increased by nearly 30.0 million megawatthours (MWh) between 2019 and 2025, much faster growth than in any other state except Texas, a much larger state, according to our Annual Electric Power Industry Report. The growth in sales of electricity in Virginia is largely driven by a concentration of data centers,…

  Almost nobody in ancient Rome really cared about the mayhem that was happening in the “colonies”, much of it perpetrated by Rome itself… provided everything felt fine on the homefront. Later, Rome burned to the ground and citizens of the colonies snickered as it did. Is it the same situation in America today? It likely is. How long can the current narrative persist… the bizarre narrative that a massive global fertilizer and fuel supply shock means citizens need to get rid of their gold because America’s fiat Fed is supposedly “big and strong”? Savvy gold bugs around the world…

Home prices during the AI boom have surged far faster in the Bay Area’s luxury zip codes than its non luxury zip codes—a split not seen before the launch of GPT-3.5 or in other major U.S. metros. Luxury zip codes in the San Francisco Bay Area saw a 13.4% average jump in home prices in the two years following the launch of ChatGPT. That’s a significantly larger jump than any other price segment in the Bay Area and is more than double the 6.3% average increase in the segment immediately below luxury. The most affordable Bay Area zip codes saw…

Sabrina Ortiz/ZDNETFollow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET’s key takeaways Google appears to be ditching its Pixel thermometer feature.Leaks show a “Pixel Glow” feature taking its place.The Pixel was the only flagship phone with a thermometer.I’ve been a loyal Pixel user since the beginning, but I might be tempted to switch because Google is removing one of my single favorite features from the Pixel.Google introduced a temperature sensor and built-in thermometer app into the Pixel 8 Pro in 2023. It was a fairly unique feature, and the Pixel was the only flagship phone to have it.…

(Image credit: Alex Wong / Staff)Your short-haul flights with Delta Air Lines are about to change. The airline recently announced it would discontinue complimentary drinks and snacks on 450 short-haul flights, starting May 19.What constitutes a short-haul flight? According to Delta, it’s any route less than 349 miles. This affects some of the country’s busiest routes, such as New York to Boston, Charlotte to Atlanta and Los Angeles to San Francisco. The change applies to all Delta Main and Delta Comfort+ passengers. First-class passengers won’t be affected.This comes at a time when air travel is facing challenges due to rising…

Arizona, California, and Nevada have proposed a high-stakes plan to conserve 3.2 million acre-feet of Colorado River water through 2026. While the goal is to stabilize the West’s most vital waterway, the deal signals a permanent shift for the region’s real estate: The era of water-unlimited growth is officially over.”We’ve been used to a world in which there’s unlimited supply, and now we’re not in that world anymore,” says Laurie Schoeman, founder at Housing for a Changing Climate and a former senior housing adviser to the White House under the Biden administration.Her warning comes at a time when few are…

(Image credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)Stocks bounced back Tuesday as market participants brushed off geopolitical worries and cheered falling oil prices. A round of well-received earnings reports and a rally in tech stocks also lifted sentiment, with two of the three main equity indexes ending the day with new record highs.The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 1% to 25,326 and the broader S&P 500 gained 0.8% to 7,259 — their highest closes on record — while the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.7% to 49,298.Oil prices, on the other hand, retreated after the U.S. said the ceasefire with Iran remains in…

The author and her mother in Montserrat, Spain.(Image credit: Alexandra Svokos)Like many moms, my mother has always been our family’s CFO. I grew up watching her fill in Quicken workbooks, write and document checks and keep us all accountable for our own spending.As an adult, I recognize now how valuable it was for my sisters and me to watch our mother manage money. It’s only in more recent history that it’s become socially acceptable for women to manage finances, even within the family, and many women have become financially disadvantaged because a husband mismanaged funds and kept them in the…

The U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis announced today that the goods and services deficit was $60.3 billion in March, up $2.5 billion from $57.8 billion in February, revised.U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services DeficitDeficit:$60.3 Billion+4.4%°Exports:$320.9 Billion+2.0%°Imports:$381.2 Billion+2.3%°Next release: Tuesday, June 9, 2026(°) Statistical significance is not applicable or not measurable. Data adjusted for seasonality but not price changesSource: U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis; U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services, May 5, 2026Exports, Imports, and Balance (exhibit 1)March exports were $320.9 billion, $6.2 billion more than February exports. March imports were…

Bitcoin (BTC-USD) opened at $78,543.43 on Tuesday, even with Monday’s opening price. The value of bitcoin at 7:16 a.m. ET rose significantly to $80,921.09. Bitcoin has risen 5.2% over the last five days. Ethereum (ETH-USD) opened at $2,322.49 on Tuesday, even with Monday’s opening price. The value of ethereum moved up to $2,374.66 as of 7:16 a.m. ET. Over the last five days, ethereum is up 4.66%. While gold has trended lower over the last five days amid rising interest rate expectations, the value of the two most popular cryptocurrencies is gaining strength. Bitcoin is back over $80,000 this morning. In…