Financial related news.
Charitable giving in the United States reached a record $485 billion in 2021, though the increase did not keep pace with inflation, according to a report offering a comprehensive look at American philanthropy. The Giving USA report says donations in 2021 were 4 percent higher than the record-setting $466 billion contributed in 2020. But they [...]
NEW YORK — The wealth-generating hot streak for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies has turned brutally cold. As prices plunge, companies collapse and skepticism soars, fortunes and jobs are disappearing overnight, and investors' feverish speculation has been replaced by icy calculation, in what industry leaders are referring to as a "crypto winter." It's a dizzying turn [...]
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has pledged to do whatever it takes to curb inflation, now raging at a four-decade high and defying the Fed’s efforts so far to tame it. Increasingly, it seems, doing so might require the one painful thing the Fed has sought to avoid: A recession. A worse-than-expected [...]
NEW YORK (AP) — One of the more reliable warning signals for an economic recession is shining alarmingly brighter. The "yield curve" is watched for clues on how the bond market feels about the long-term outlook for the nation’s economy. This week, a closely followed part of the yield curve lit up again for the [...]
WASHINGTON (AP) — Wide-ranging bipartisan legislation unveiled Tuesday would regulate cryptocurrencies and other digital assets following a series of high-profile busts and failures. It’s unclear, though, whether the bill proposed by Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., can clear Congress, especially at a time of heightened partisanship ahead of midterm elections. The bill [...]
NEW YORK (AP) — Americans at the low end of the income rung are once again struggling to make ends meet. A confluence of factors — the expiration of federal stimulus checks and surging inflation on staples such as gas and food — are driving an even bigger wedge between the haves and have-nots. While [...]
WASHINGTON (AP) — Stagflation: It was the dreaded “S word” of the 1970s. For Americans of a certain age, it conjures memories of painfully long lines at gas stations, shuttered factories and President Gerald Ford’s much-ridiculed “Whip Inflation Now” buttons. Stagflation is the bitterest of economic pills: High inflation mixes with a weak job market [...]
WASHINGTON — Federal Reserve officials agreed when they met earlier this month that they may have to raise interest rates to levels that would weaken the economy as part of their drive to curb inflation, which is near a four-decade high. At the same time, many of the policymakers also agreed that after a rapid [...]
WASHINGTON — Americans' financial health reached its highest level in nearly a decade last year, the Federal Reserve said this week, spurred by a strong job market and government support payments. Almost eight in 10 adults said last fall that they were either "doing OK or living comfortably" when it came to their finances in [...]
Americans on the cusp of retiring are facing a tough choice as they watch their nest eggs shrink: Stay the course or keep working. A stock market slump this year has taken a big bite out of investors' portfolios, including retirement plans such as 401(k)s. The S&P 500, the benchmark for many index funds, is [...]