Author: Money Mechanics

CHATTANOOGA, TENNESSEE – APRIL 19: People celebrate at a United Auto Workers vote watch party on April 19, 2024 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. With over 51% of workers voting yes the UAW won the right to form a union at the plant. (Photo by Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images)Getty Images The President fired the nation’s top labor statistician because the jobs numbers embarrassed him. On August 1, after BLS reported weak job creation and sizable downward revisions, the president dismissed Commissioner Erika McEntarfer, accusing her – without evidence – of faking data. Statisticians across the political spectrum condemned the move as an attack…

(World Oil)– Alberta is projecting a wider deficit for the current fiscal year as oil prices fall, denting a key source of revenue for Canada’s top energy-producing province. The deficit will widen to US$4.7 billion (C$6.5 billion) in the fiscal year ending in March, C$1.3 billion bigger than previously forecast, the provincial government said Thursday. Driving the wider shortfall is a C$1.4 billion drop in non-renewable resource revenue compared with original projections. Alberta’s oil sands account for most of the crude output in Canada, the world’s fourth-largest producer. Non-renewable resource revenues, including oil and gas royalties, are second only to…

Coca-Cola has paid nearly $100 billion in dividends over the past 15 years. ExxonMobil returned $36 billion in cash to shareholders last year, the fifth-most among S&P 500 members. Johnson & Johnson generated $20 billion in free cash flow last year, easily covering its dividend outlay. 10 stocks we like better than Coca-Cola › Some companies excel at generating cash. They operate mature businesses that produce significantly more profit than they need to support their continued expansion. That gives them lots of money to pay dividends. Here are four top money-printing dividend stocks. Image source: Getty Images. Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO)…

The tragedy that hit our state last week ranks as one of the deadliest and costliest flash floods in US history. From 1980 through last year, flooding has killed hundreds of people nationwide and inflicted at least $203 billion in losses, according to data from the National Centers for Environmental Information. This tragedy has hit Texas and our nation hard. We have heard from many clients this week, and we are grateful for the outpouring of well wishes and prayers. Luckily, no family members within the DRL Group were impacted; however, we all know people who are good friends who…

The Duane Arnold nuclear plant, located northwest of Cedar Rapids in Iowa, is moving forward with efforts to reopen by the late 2020s after it closed in 2020 due to financial challenges. Nuclear ComebackThe plant is the third—and probably the last—U.S. nuclear reactor that is still in good enough condition for a restart, according to CNBC. The facility is following in the footsteps of two other reactors, Palisades in Michigan and Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania, which are also on track to resume operation in the next few years, provided they get approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.Read Next: CoreWeave…

U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin before a joint news conference following their meeting at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, U.S., August 15, 2025. Gavriil Grigorov | Via ReutersU.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly said he will punish Russia and President Vladimir Putin if Moscow doesn’t come to the table and agree to peace talks or a ceasefire with Ukraine.Russia has shown no signs of intending to do either, instead continuing and increasing its attacks on Ukraine as it looks to consolidate gains on the battlefield.And still, Trump is holding off on releasing a…

Kerry Wan/ZDNETNo, your eyes are not deceiving you. For a limited time, Amazon has the iPhone 16 Pro, unlocked and all, listing at a $255 discount. That brings the flagship iPhone down to around $745, from its retail price of $1,000.Is there a catch? When you’re buying outside of the Apple store, there almost always is. Fortunately, this one’s a little easier to shoulder: the discounted model is in “renewed” condition, a refurbish standard placed by Amazon that indicates that while the phone isn’t new and sealed, it has been “professionally inspected, tested, and cleaned by qualified suppliers.”According to Amazon’s…

Travel and Tourism Satellite Account: Third Quarter 2017 Real spending (output) on travel and tourism accelerated in the third quarter of 2017, growing at an annual rate of 6.6 percent after increasing 6.0 percent (revised) in the second quarter, according to new statistics released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Real gross domestic product (GDP) for the nation also accelerated, increasing 3.3 percent in the third quarter (second estimate) after increasing 3.1 percent in the second quarter of 2017. The leading contributors to the acceleration in real spending were traveler accommodations and food and beverage services. Traveler accommodations accelerated, growing…

Although the advance estimate of U.S. real GDP shrank by 0.3% in the first quarter (link), I am unsure whether that contraction will stand up to revisions (as discussed below). I still feel that the U.S. economy is in the unenviable state of being an experiment in expectations: current economic activity is actually revved up courtesy of everyone trying to front-run tariffs, but activity is gone over the cliff Wile E. Coyote-style. Meanwhile expectations are caught in a bind — if the tariff policy were credible, everyone would expect gravity to kick in. However, the random nature of Trump’s policymaking…

In a recent survey, economists have cautioned that the financial markets are not fully considering the potential risks of President Donald Trump’s ongoing assaults on the Federal Reserve.Economists Fear Fed’s Independence At Risk Post-PowellThe economists, who were part of a survey conducted by the Financial Times, expressed concerns about the possible consequences of Trump’s actions against the Fed. These include a rise in inflation and a loss of faith in U.S. government debt.The survey, which included 94 economists from the U.S. and Europe, highlighted fears that the Fed’s ability to regulate interest rates and manage inflation could be compromised. This could lead to a permanent shift in the…