The Same Data Selling You Ads Can Help Target Soldiers Overseas

If you've been waiting for borrowing to get cheaper, the Federal Reserve just quietly told you not to hold your breath. A growing number of Fed policymakers are now signaling they'd consider raising interest rates again rather than cutting them, and that shift in tone matters long before any actual vote happens.

Canada is doing something it almost never does: hedging away from the United States. As trade talks over the USMCA pact stall and its own economy slides toward recession, Ottawa is deepening ties with China — a move that quietly reshapes the leverage dynamics of the entire continent you live on.

Stocks just hit record highs partly on the hope that the U.S. and Iran are about to settle their conflict — but Tehran is publicly saying no final deal exists. That gap between what markets are pricing in and what's actually been agreed is the real story, and it's the kind of mismatch that tends to snap back hard.

Markets aren't just rising on good news right now -- they're rising on a guess. Investors are pricing in a U.S.-Iran ceasefire that hasn't actually been signed, and that bet is what's pushing both oil down and stocks up. The risk worth understanding is what happens to your portfolio and gas prices if the guess turns out wrong.

If you've started leaning on your credit card to cover groceries, gas, or a utility bill rather than a vacation or a new TV, you are not alone — and that shift is exactly what economists find alarming. Credit-card delinquencies have hit their highest level since the 2008 financial crisis, and the reason matters more than the number: people aren't overspending on luxuries, they're borrowing to survive.