Author: Money Mechanics

Almost as soon as OpenAI announced that its major investor and cloud partner, Microsoft, no longer has exclusive rights to any of its products, Amazon started gloating. After the revised OpenAI/Microsoft agreement was announced on Monday, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy noted in a tweet that it was a “very interesting announcement.” That agreement solved OpenAI’s problem of allowing AWS to offer its products, an issue that crystalized after it signed an up-to-$50-billion deal with Amazon. Amazon announced on Tuesday that AWS’s Bedrock service now has OpenAI’s latest models, its code-writing service Codex, and a new product for creating OpenAI-powered AI agents. Bedrock…

Real estate, housing, investment concept with house in nest made of US DollarsgettyA mortgage is a government-subsidized forced savings plan — not the wealth machine Wall Street and policy makers want you to believe it is (and what they, themselves, might mistakenly believe the house is). According to the FED, median value of a home minus the mortgage was about $130K for a household reaching the age of retirement – 55- 64 in 1989. A bit over thirty years later, the same group had more home equity $200K, if they had a house and 28% didn’t. But, though home equity…

(Image credit: Getty Images)Not even blue-chip strength could lift the oldest of the three main U.S. equity indexes into the green on Tuesday, and technology dragged on the relative newcomers amid questions about the durability of the market’s major trend. A big earnings season is unfolding, the April Fed meeting is underway, and the bottleneck at the Strait of Hormuz is unresolved.At the closing bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.06% at 49,136, the broad-based S&P 500 had lost 0.5% to 7,138 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite had shed 0.9% to 24,663.That’s despite good fundamentals. “We have a…

Tech scion Elon Musk is using his social media megaphone to call for universal high income (UHI)—a radical evolution of universal basic income (UBI) meant to counter the much-feared white-collar job reckoning brought on by AI.“Universal HIGH INCOME via checks issued by the Federal government is the best way to deal with unemployment caused by AI,” Musk wrote in a post on X earlier this month.His proposal arrives during the largest wave of tech layoffs since 2023. In April alone, Meta announced a 10% cut to its workforce to prioritize AI investments, while Snap cut roughly 1,000 jobs to reduce…

Homeowners insurance generally doesn’t cover mold issues unless they result from a covered peril on your policy, such as water damage from a burst pipe or overflowing toilet. However, exact coverage depends on the terms and conditions of your plan. Auto When does homeowners insurance cover mold? It depends on your policy, but a standard homeowners insurance plan will usually only cover mold issues if they’re related to covered perils. In many cases, these are sudden, unexpected, or accidental events, such as: Burst pipes Burst water heaters Overflowing toilets Home fires that are put out with water Malfunctions of air…

Market attention turns to tech stocks this week Nvidia rally has continued as Mag 7 earnings set the tone this week. However, the best opportunities are likely to be found among lesser-known names; here are seven picks. stock hit a new record high on April 27, closing at $216.61 after rising 4% during the day. The company is now the most valuable in the world, with a market value above $5 trillion.The rally came after a strong week for tech stocks. jumped 26% on Friday after much better-than-expected results. At one point, the stock even moved close to its peak…

“Summer House” alum Danielle Olivera has reportedly resolved a lawsuit against her after failing to pay $16,650 worth of rent for her New York apartment. Olivera, 37, who appeared on “Summer House” from 2018-2024, was sued by landlords Csaba Kanyaro and Ana Kanyaro for over $16,000 in unpaid rent for her two-bedroom, two-bathroom, and 1,246-square-foot apartment in Brooklyn, NY. In the suit, which was first reported by TMZ, it was alleged that the reality TV alum had failed to pay her $5,550-a-month rent for November 2025, December 225, and January 2026. When they filed the lawsuit, the landlords called for Olivera to…

(Image credit: Getty Images)Just about every day now, I get emails and phone calls from readers asking the same question: “With what we are seeing, AI is leading to the wholesale firing of hundreds of thousands of employees across entire industries. Should I consider law as a career?”My answer: Let history be your guide. Consider these questions:What was the dominant means of transportation in the early 1900s in villages and cities across our country?Who, and in which profession, assured their dependability?How many of them were there in the late 19th century? How many now?What one factor explained their vanishing as…

(Image credit: Getty Images)When the One Big Beautiful Bill Act was signed into law last summer, it introduced tax changes poised to impact the charitable giving landscape. In response, many donors and their advisers acted fast to adjust their tax planning.Now, investors and donors should look ahead and determine the strategies needed to achieve tax management and charitable giving goals this year and beyond.For donors itemizing deductions, the biggest changes affecting charitable giving involve both ends of deduction limits. The law created a new floor on charitable deductions, wherein only gifts exceeding 0.5% of adjusted gross income can be deducted.…

With gas prices, grocery bills, and other everyday costs rising, many people are looking for ways to keep more of what they earn and, in some cases, what they invest.One area to find some relief? Nine states don’t tax capital gains (i.e., the money you make when you sell assets like stocks, a business, or even your home). And on the surface, that can mean keeping significantly more of your money after a big sale.But that tax advantage on its own doesn’t answer a bigger question: Even with no state tax on capital gains, are these states actually less expensive…