Category: Finance

The fall of 2026 is a moment of energy centrality, when geopolitics unfolding far away shows up in Americans’ everyday lives. In Pennsylvania, the statewide diesel price averages US$6.50 per gallon. In Iowa, farmers are paying more than $6 a gallon for diesel. And in Alaska, unleaded gas runs more than $9 a gallon. As […]

The post-pandemic push to bring workers back to the office has left many nostalgic for more flexible arrangements, such as hybrid or remote work. But a wealth of data since the pandemic now suggests that workplace factors like feeling appreciated and having a good relationship with your manager are much more tied to job satisfaction […]

U.S. Sen. Ed Markey is 80 and has served in Congress for half a century. His Democratic primary challenger in Massachusetts, U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, is 47 and made generational change a centerpiece of his campaign. Markey won the Sept. 1, 2026, primary anyway by nearly 30 percentage points. He’s not the only octogenarian to […]

When union workers and their families gather this Labor Day, some may ponder Ronald Reagan’s memorable refrain, “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?” All workers – unionized or not – are dealing with higher prices for food and gasoline. For America’s unionized workforce, the overall state of the economy is […]

Recent college graduates are facing a job market that’s only getting tougher. Their unemployment rate hit 5.7%, compared to 4.1% for all workers, in June 2026. That may not sound like much, but it’s one of the worst rates in the past 20 years. Meanwhile, roughly 4 in 10 graduates are underemployed, which means they […]

The number of people enrolled in the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program is falling fast. The program formerly known as food stamps helped roughly 42 million Americans put food on the table in 2025. As of June 2026, the most recent data available, the number of people enrolled in the program in the whole country had […]

The U.S. government has pitched an obscure accounting rule change that has ignited a firestorm of opposition. If enacted, its effects might be felt from the capital markets to your retirement savings account. At issue is a proposal by the Securities and Exchange Commission that would scrap a long-standing requirement for registered companies to disclose […]

Neighborhood investments meant to improve housing and opportunity often spark fears of gentrification and displacement. That worry is playing out in Pittsburgh’s Hazelwood neighborhood, where a stalled Second Avenue housing project sits blocks from the 178-acre Hazelwood Green riverfront development. Hazelwood is a natural experiment that answers the question: Can development happen without displacement? Residents […]

Americans are crazy about sports. But whether that passion requires taxpayers to subsidize new facilities every time leagues and franchises ask for them needs rigorous scrutiny. A lot of money is at stake. For 2025, the NFL reported some US$14.5 billion in revenue, while the MLB collected an estimated $12.2 billion and the NBA earned […]

If you think your energy costs are high now, the situation may be about to get a whole lot worse. With traffic in the Strait of Hormuz – normally the primary route for oil leaving the Middle East – hovering below 15% of prewar levels, oil prices have increased from US$65 a barrel before the […]