Personal Finance
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Three years after George Floyd’s death, there’s been a lot of promises but ‘not much substance’ on racial equality, nonprofit CEO says
Three years after George Floyd was murdered by a Minneapolis police officer — a May 2020 killing captured in a shocking viral cellphone video that spurred racial-justice uprisings nationwide — there have been “a lot of pledges” for reform, but “not much substance,” said Gary Cunningham, the outgoing president and CEO of Prosperity Now, a…
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Bad news for homebuyers: Mortgage rates climb amid U.S. debt-ceiling concerns
The numbers: A strong U.S. economy and concerns about a potential U.S. default on its debt pushed mortgage rates higher this week. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.57% as of May 25, according to data released by Freddie Mac on Thursday. It’s up 18 basis points from the previous week — one basis point is…
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What you should do right now to prepare for a debt-ceiling breach
If the U.S. government cannot pay all its bills because of a debt-ceiling impasse, household borrowing costs could soar, the job market could shed millions of jobs and stock-market valuations could shrink, according to forecasts. The consequences of a prolonged default could be grim, according to Moody’s Analytics. The projected fallout from a brief default…
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A debt-ceiling deal will spark a new worry: Who will buy the deluge of Treasury bills?
When the U.S. debt-ceiling fight finally is resolved, the Treasury is expected to unleash a flood of bill issuance to help refill its coffers run low by the protracted standoff in Washington, D.C., over the government’s borrowing limit. Treasury bills are debt issued by the U.S. government that mature in four to 52 weeks. New…
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Breakthrough deal struck to keep drought-ravaged Colorado River flowing — key water source for California
Arizona, California and Nevada advanced a proposed plan to cut their use of drought-ravaged Colorado River water for drinking, washing and hydropower over the next three years. Negotiations around the plan announced Monday have been hard-fought, dividing the states because of big differences in their population size and water use, such as for California’s agricultural…
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4 strategies to recession-proof your retirement plan
Protecting your retirement in the face of a potential recession means taking a hard look at your financial plan and making sure you have enough of a safety net if the economy falters later this year or next year. As many as two-thirds (67%) of U.S. adults expect the economy will enter into recession later…
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Biden says in Hiroshima press conference that Republicans must ‘move from their extreme positions’ on debt limit
President Joe Biden on Sunday called for Republicans to agree to compromises in debt-ceiling negotiations, as he wrapped up a visit to Japan for a G-7 summit and prepared to fly back to Washington, D.C. “Now it’s time for the other side to move from their extreme positions, because much of what they’ve already proposed…
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These are the leading candidates to succeed James Gorman as Morgan Stanley CEO — and what happens next
Morgan Stanley Chief Executive James Gorman said Friday that he plans to step down as the bank’s chief executive officer within a year, observing that the investment bank has a strong bench of internal candidates to serve as its next leader. “ ‘There’s an old saying … that when you have to hire an outside…
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Small-cap stocks suck. Is it time to buy small caps?
If you own a small-cap fund in your retirement portfolio, you may be wondering if it’s time to throw in the towel. Small-cap stocks, which these days means stocks with a capitalization or market value of less than about $10 billion, are on track for yet another dismal year. The Russell 2000 index RUT, -0.62%,…
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Most stocks end up losing you money. So what’s a stock-market investor to do?
If you’re going to try to retire early and rich by picking the right stocks, there’s something you should know first: Most stocks end up losing you money. Over the long term, a majority of stocks on the U.S. stock market have actually ended up as worse investments than keeping your money in low-risk 1-month…