American households reached a new peak of credit-card debt, with 111 million people—about 40% of U.S. adults—now carrying a balance, up 17% since 2019, according to The Century Foundation and Protect Borrowers. With sky-high rates (averaging 23.7%) …
Over 75 business, religious and community groups, led by ABIC Action and others, launched a “Dignity Tour” beginning in Pennsylvania to press Congress to back the bipartisan Dignity Act. The bill, fronted by María Elvira Salazar and supported by 40 lawmakers, would grant millions of undocumented immigrants work permits and some paths to residency—provided background checks and fees pass muster. Immigration reform, it seems, never entirely retires.
The US Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program will require beneficiaries to recertify digitally by 2026—a supposedly streamlined process that, so far, mainly baffles older adults and the less tech-savvy. As stricter work requirements and tighter deadlines loom, millions risk losing food aid not for ineligibility but for digital slip-ups. We expect paperwork and hunger to remain robust American traditions, albeit with stronger Wi-Fi.
America’s housing market—having finally limbered up after months of torpor—has started limping again as the latest bout of US-Iran tension drives up oil, then Treasury yields, and, finally, 30-year mortgage rates, now reaching 6.43%. The resulting 10.5% drop in loan applications leaves Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac holding the fort, while would-be buyers watch global diplomacy drive home prices with a far less delicate hand.
Sherif Soliman, New York’s budget director, faced City Council queries as the city hunts for $1.7 billion in savings, offering up such austerities as axing the Taxi and Limousine Commission’s Slack subscription—proposals totalling just $245 million so far. With a $5.4 billion deficit looming and tempers simmering, officials dangled the usual hope for state help, but property taxes remain, as ever, the third rail.
Israel’s March air strike on Iran’s South Pars gas field—aimed at blunting Tehran’s grip on the Strait of Hormuz—shifted ambitions from “regime change” to a frantic attempt to prop up a teetering global economy. Iran’s answer, mining and droning the waterway that funnels a fifth of our oil, has turned Hormuz into a two-way chokepoint—and left Mr. Trump wishing geopolitics obeyed the laws of campaign slogans.
New York’s Rent Guidelines Board—now with six out of nine seats filled by Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s picks—gathers Thursday to consider his pre-election promise of a citywide rent freeze. Tenants hope for welcome relief, while landlords brace for a chill in profits; the outcome may say more about local politics than the laws of supply and demand, but we’re prepared for heated debate and tepid results.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani, once a fan of robust social spending, now plots $1.3 billion in cuts—pinning hopes on a delayed state mandate for smaller class sizes while trimming ambitions for expanded rental assistance. We note that Mamdani’s revised math may mollify budget hawks, but kids and renters may need to hone patience, if not their survival skills, in the meantime.
After a sobering report by Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli highlighted crumbling conditions and ballooning debts in New York’s aging Mitchell-Lama housing, state legislators have shelved a city plan to fund urgent repairs by raising capped sale prices on flats. The scheme—a kind of 401(k) for buildings—appears too avant-garde; residents must now settle for nostalgia that grows less affordable by the minute.
