Author: Elizabeth Blessing
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Workers’ share of what they produce fell to 52.9 percent, the lowest since 1947
The Bureau of Labor Statistics keeps a single number that answers a question most paychecks can’t: out of everything the economy actually produces, how much of it ends up in workers’ pockets rather than somewhere else. That number just hit its lowest point in a series that stretches back to 1947, and the agency that…
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The Education Department will use Social Security disability records to find loans it can erase
The Department of Education published a notice on August 25 re-establishing a data-sharing arrangement with the Social Security Administration that flags federal student loan borrowers the SSA has already determined are disabled. Borrowers won’t have to track down a doctor’s certification or mail in a paper application to start the process — the match is…
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The FDIC counts $326.7 billion in unrealized losses still sitting on bank balance sheets
Banks had one of their most profitable quarters in years this spring, and they still finished it holding $326.7 billion in paper losses on securities they haven’t sold. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s Quarterly Banking Profile for the second quarter of 2026, released August 25, shows that the exposure driving those losses hasn’t disappeared since…
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The first 100,000 tons of duty-free imported beef opened September 1 and closes at month’s end
A new 30-day window for cheaper imported beef opened this week, timed to a cattle shortage that has pushed ground beef prices to some of the highest levels on record. Starting September 1, the first of three monthly allotments of duty-reduced lean beef trimmings became available to importers, and it closes again at the end…
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One in three households under $50,000 spends at least 5 percent of income on electricity
Electric bills have become a bigger line item for lower-income households than they were even a few years ago, and a new federal research update puts a specific number on how big. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, working with the consulting firm Brattle Group, released a July 2026 update to its long-running study of retail electricity…
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Diesel reached $5.60 a gallon, nearly 50 percent higher than a year ago
Freight haulers paid $5.599 for a gallon of diesel last week, the fuel that moves nearly every trucked item on a grocery store shelf from the farm or port to the checkout line. That’s down slightly from the week before, but it’s nearly 50 percent above what the same tank cost a year ago —…
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Renters can claim from a $359.9 million settlement over software that helped set their rent
Millions of renters signed a lease without ever hearing the name RealPage, yet the software the company sold to their landlord may have played a direct role in setting the number on that lease. A sprawling antitrust case accused RealPage and a long list of major property managers of using shared, software-driven pricing recommendations to…
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Hyundai and Kia owners can claim up to $350 from a $62 million airbag settlement
An airbag that doesn’t deploy in a crash isn’t a minor defect, and that’s the allegation behind a nationwide settlement covering millions of Hyundai and Kia vehicles built over more than a decade. Lawsuits consolidated into multidistrict litigation in California alleged that certain airbag control units, made by ZF-TRW and installed across a range of…
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The FTC warns veterans about postcards promising money from a savings program that does not exist
Veterans across the country are opening their mailboxes to find postcards promising extra money every month through something called the “Veterans Savings Program.” The Federal Trade Commission wants people to know that program doesn’t exist. It’s a mail-based phishing scheme built to sound official enough that a veteran calls the number printed on the card,…
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The IRS says a permanent paid-leave credit now reaches part-timers working 20 hours a week
A tax credit that has quietly encouraged employers to offer paid family and medical leave for the past several years just became permanent, and its reach just got noticeably wider. The Treasury Department and the IRS issued Notice 2026-28 on August 5, spelling out how the employer credit for paid family and medical leave now…
