ECONOMY STUDIOFollow the Money: The Economy & Your Wallet
Inflation, interest rates, mortgages, tariffs, the Fed and the week's biggest market story, explained from official data by following $100 through the system to show who pays and who collects. Educational only, never advice.
Nasdaq Lost $2 Trillion. Now Big Tech Is Selling You Shares.
Four of the biggest AI builders spent more on data centers last quarter than their businesses earned in cash, and the gap is now being raised from the market through share sales and bonds. That market includes the index fund in a retirement account. Here is the arithmetic, from the companies' own filings.
ExplainerMeta Fell 7%. Your Mortgage Rate Fell Too. Here's the Link.
Meta beat Wall Street's forecasts and still lost a big slice of its value in a day, because its AI building spree took more cash than its business made. The money that left AI stocks ran into Treasury bonds, and the mortgage rate, which follows them, posted its first weekly fall since August.
ExplainerA 7% Mortgage Costs Nearly Triple the Interest of a 3% One
The same house can cost hundreds of dollars more a month at today's rate than at the rate a neighbor locked in years ago. The reason is how a mortgage charges interest: the first years are almost all interest. Here are the official numbers, and how unusual 3% really was.
ExplainerAI Stocks Lost More Than $1 Trillion in a Week. Nvidia Funds Its Own Buyers.
Demand for AI is real. But Nvidia's own filings, a Bank for International Settlements study and OpenAI's reported numbers show how much of the money is going round in a circle, and why higher interest rates hit that loop first.
ExplainerAmerica Stopped Making the Penny. It Lost Money on Every One.
The Mint struck its last penny in November 2025 because each coin cost more than it was worth. Following the money from the Mint to the bank vault to the Federal Reserve shows what a dollar is really made of.
ExplainerHormuz Reopened. Why Is Gas Still Above $4?
Crude oil is moving through the Strait of Hormuz again, but gasoline and diesel prices have not followed. Using EIA, BLS and tanker-tracking data, we follow a gallon from the strait to the refinery to the pump.
ExplainerHow Social Security Works, and Why Your Raise Feels Smaller
Where Social Security's money comes from, what the 2032 and 2034 dates really mean, how your benefit and your yearly raise are set, and why part of the raise is gone before it reaches the bank. From the 2026 Trustees Report, SSA and Medicare.
ExplainerYou Paid the Tariffs. Companies Are Getting the Refunds.
The Supreme Court threw out most of the 2025 tariffs, and the money is flowing back. Using court filings, Treasury data and studies from the New York Fed, the Kiel Institute and Yale, we follow the tariff money from the border to the shelf and back.
ExplainerHow Inflation Actually Works (And Who Secretly Wins)
$100 today buys what about $51.41 bought in 2000. Where did the rest go? We follow the bill through the economy.
ExplainerWhy Borrowing Is Suddenly So Expensive
Mortgage rates just hit 7.40%, and the Fed raised rates even as hiring almost stalled. We follow $100,000 of borrowed money through the system.