Author: Money Mechanics

Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for freeYour guide to what Trump’s second term means for Washington, business and the worldThis article is an on-site version of our Unhedged newsletter. Premium subscribers can sign up here to get the newsletter delivered every weekday. Standard subscribers can upgrade to Premium here, or explore all FT newslettersGood morning. Yesterday, Kevin Warsh got through the Senate Banking Committee hearing on his nomination as Federal Reserve chair without causing a Treasuries market meltdown. Well done to him. However, President Donald Trump’s pledge on CNBC not to drop a criminal probe into outgoing chair Jay…

This was originally published by Inman on April 14, 2026.  I bought a house with a 7.35% rate in 2024. Refinancing the rate down to 6.2% the next year made the mortgage math easier to stomach.  When I moved from Seattle to Santa Barbara, CA 18 months ago, I knew it was a bad financial decision. But it was a good life decision.  My husband and I wanted to raise our kids in Santa Barbara. I had attended UCSB and lived there for another stint in my mid-twenties; I describe living there as a permanent vacation that’s interrupted by work;…

Kerry Wan and Adam Breeden/ZDNETFollow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google.When it comes to high-end OLED TVs, LG is the undisputed heavyweight champion. The brand has long been the gold standard for the technology, and the debut of the G6 further solidifies its dominance in the market. But is the yearly update really worth the extra cost?Also: The best OLED TVs you can buyTo help explain where the real differences lie between the LG G6 and its predecessor, the G5, I’ve broken down what each model offers in terms of smart features, tech upgrades, and new software. And while…

(By Oil & Gas 360) – Eurasia holds some of the largest natural gas resources in the world. The challenge has never been geology; it’s been access. From Russia’s vast reserves to Central Asia’s underdeveloped basins and the emerging potential of the Caspian and Eastern Mediterranean, Eurasia is rich in gas. Yet much of that supply remains constrained by infrastructure, geopolitics, and the evolving structure of global energy markets. What’s changing now is not the resource base, but the urgency to unlock it. Russia remains a cornerstone of Eurasian gas supply, with production systems built over decades. Beyond Russia, countries like Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan,…

The trust funds for Social Security and Medicare Part A seem likely to run out of money faster than was projected last year.The Congressional Budget Office used updated data and estimates to develop the latest projections. The new forecast for the Social Security retirement benefits trust fund is that the trust will run out of money in 2032, instead of 2033 as projected last year.One major change in the estimates is that the CBO now assumes inflation will be higher than projected last year. Higher inflation means the annual cost of living increases in benefits will be higher than previous…

While the S&P 500 has climbed to historic heights above 7,000 this month, Bitcoin (BTC) has struggled to regain the record-breaking energy that pushed it past $122,000 in October 2025. A new survey of 3,400 global consumers by Deutsche Bank suggests that while more people are entering the market, very few believe a new price mania is on the horizon for 2026. Data from the report shows that cryptocurrency adoption in the United States is making a comeback. In March, U.S. participation rose to 12%, a significant jump from the February low of 7%. This return to double-digit participation matches levels…

Thank you, David and thank you to Brookings for having me speak today.1 Whenever anyone hears the words “Federal Reserve” they immediately think about monetary policy and the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) setting the federal funds rate. There is obviously tremendous media attention on those policy decisions, as there should be because they affect U.S. households and businesses and financial markets around the world. But the FOMC only meets 16 days a year to set monetary policy, so what are we doing at the Fed the rest of the time? The answer to that question is that we run…

Tower Hill Insurance Exchange has now successfully priced its latest catastrophe bond to secure the two-third upsized $375 million of fully-collateralized reinsurance protection against named storm losses in Florida from the Winston Re Ltd. (Series 2026-1) issuance, while each of the three tranches of notes priced well below their initial guidance ranges, Artemis can report.Tower Hill made its return to the catastrophe bond market at the end of March, initially seeking $225 million of fully-collateralized reinsurance protection against named storm losses in Florida. In our first update on this Winston Re Series 2026-1 cat bond issuance, we reported that the target size…

If you are trying to pay off $20,000 in credit card debt, I want to start with this: it is a serious amount of debt, but it is not automatically a financial death sentence. I have covered personal finance and debt-related topics for more than two decades, and one thing I have noticed is that people often make things worse by panicking, choosing the wrong strategy too fast, or pretending the problem will somehow solve itself. The smarter move is to get clear on your numbers, cut through the noise, and choose the option that actually fits your situation. Not…

Redwood Materials has laid off around 135 employees, or roughly 10% of its workforce, as it restructures to better accommodate its growing energy storage business, TechCrunch has learned. The cuts come just five months after Redwood cut 5% of its workforce, and three months after it closed a $425 million funding round that boosted the battery recycling company’s valuation to north of $6 billion, as TechCrunch previously reported. It’s been a difficult time in the battery industry lately. Earlier this month, battery recycler Ascend Elements filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, citing “insurmountable” financial challenges. Some battery-makers have also restructured…