Thursday, November 5, 2026
Money
Washington's Initiative 645 would repeal the state's new 9.9 per cent tax on income above $1 million before it takes effect in 2028. The state's fiscal impact statement puts the lost revenue at $11.4 billion over five fiscal years. Colorado, California and North Carolina are also voting on how their top earners are taxed; no results are in.
Wages and salaries for U.S. civilian workers rose 3.1 per cent in the 12 months to September, down from 3.5 per cent a year earlier, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said on Friday 30 October. After inflation, they fell 0.6 per cent. Private employers' health benefit costs rose 6.4 per cent.
A political committee funded mainly by technology billionaires has spent more than $304 million against Proposition 40, California's proposed one-time 5 per cent tax on residents worth over $1 billion, according to a Capital & Main analysis of state records through 20 October. The union sponsoring the measure has put in nearly $32 million. Californians vote on 3 November.
PulteGroup said on 22 October that third-quarter net new orders fell 6 per cent to 6,208 homes and earnings fell to $2.53 a share from $2.96, as closings dropped 9 per cent. Chief executive Ryan Marshall said rising rates had pushed "even more consumers to the sidelines." The average 30-year mortgage rate was 7.32 per cent in the week to 22 October, against 6.19 per cent a year earlier, Freddie Mac said.
The Census Bureau said on Tuesday 20 October that September housing starts fell 5.2 per cent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,221,000, while building permits were little changed at 1,400,000. The same day the National Association of Realtors said pending home sales fell 7.3 per cent on the month and 11.3 per cent from a year earlier.
Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, estimates the war with Iran has cost the average U.S. household almost $2,000: $1,100 in energy, $540 in interest rates and $360 in military costs. AAA put regular gasoline at $4.30 and diesel at $6.32 a gallon on Sunday 18 October.
The Census Bureau said on Thursday 15 October that U.S. retail and food services sales were $745.0 billion in September, up 0.8 per cent from August and 6.3 per cent from a year earlier. Once autos and gasoline stations are removed, the gain was 0.2 per cent, a figure the bureau flags as statistically indistinguishable from zero. August was revised up to 1.3 per cent.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics said on Thursday 15 October that the Producer Price Index for final demand rose 1.3 per cent in September and 6.3 per cent from a year earlier. Energy rose 10.8 per cent and accounted for more than 80 per cent of the increase in goods prices. The measure that excludes food, energy and trade rose 0.5 per cent in the month and 5.0 per cent over the year.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics said on Wednesday 14 October that consumer prices rose 0.6 per cent in September on a seasonally adjusted basis and 3.7 per cent from a year earlier, up from 3.4 per cent in August. Core prices, which exclude food and energy, rose 0.3 per cent in the month and 2.6 per cent over the year. Gasoline accounted for more than half of the monthly increase.
Home heating oil averaged $6.08 a gallon in Massachusetts on 28 September, up 73 per cent from $3.52 a year earlier, and Governor Maura Healey declared a state of energy emergency on Monday. Energy-assistance directors expect households that heat with oil in the Northeast to pay about half as much again as last winter. The wholesale price has more than doubled, so the increase is already in the tank.
Florida's insurance regulator suspended Atlantic Coast Life's licence on 30 September, finding that once its investments are valued under state limits the insurer has been short of required surplus since at least September 2025, by $170 million at the end of June. South Carolina, where the company is based, has asked a court to take it over. Its petition says about $900 million of the insurer's annuities reach the end of their surrender-charge periods this year.
The Treasury paid $709.3 billion of interest on its securities in the fiscal year that ended on Wednesday, according to its daily cash statement, up 16 per cent from a year earlier and more than twice the level of 2022. Medicaid grants to the states came to $721.4 billion. Four years ago interest was about half of Medicaid. The average rate on the debt is still below 3.5 per cent, while new ten-year debt costs 5.3.
The average 30-year mortgage rate rose to 7.28 per cent this week, Freddie Mac said, the highest since November 2023 and the biggest weekly jump since October 2022. The rate is the same as three years ago. What produces it is not. In 2023 lenders charged almost three points over the ten-year Treasury. Now they charge about two, and the ten-year is doing the rest.
Apple Pay went live in India on Tuesday. Apple's own India page names Axis credit cards as the cards that can currently be used. RuPay, the domestic card network, is not supported. The competition is UPI, which processed 24.51 billion payments in August at an average of about Rs 1,217 each.
SoFi Bank held $46.8bn of deposits on 30 June, placing it 47th in the FDIC's annual Summary of Deposits. It is the first bank with fintech origins to enter the top 50. The deposits roughly doubled in two years, and the reason is not the rate paid to savers.
From taxable years beginning after 31 December 2026, a saver whose Social Security wages from the plan's own sponsor topped $145,000 the year before can no longer make a pre-tax catch-up contribution. It has to be Roth. The threshold is measured per employer, on last year's wages, which catches people who do not think of themselves as high earners.
The Federal Reserve decides on Wednesday whether to raise its benchmark rate from 3.50 to 3.75 percent. After Kevin Warsh's Jackson Hole speech, betting on a hike was roughly even. After August's core inflation came in above forecast and oil rose toward $108, futures priced it at about 85 percent on Monday. For households, the effects arrive at very different speeds.
Florida voters approved Amendment 3, which raises the homestead exemption for local non-school taxes to $250,000 by 2028, with about 62 per cent of the vote against a 60 per cent threshold. Property tax cuts failed in Wyoming and Oklahoma, and a repeal of Washington's tax on income above $1 million was losing. Colorado's graduated income tax was still too close to call.
A bilingual financial coach who works mainly with Latino families says a bigger paycheck did not get her out of debt. Federal Reserve and CFPB research shows why habits matter, and where they stop.
The founder of The Better Finance Solutions spent years helping clients dispute errors on their credit reports. Federal Reserve data on household savings explains why she now says the report is only the start.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics will publish September consumer prices on Wednesday 14 October at 8:30 a.m. Eastern. Forecasts put headline inflation at 3.6 to 3.7 per cent, up from 3.4 per cent in August, and core at 2.4 to 2.5 per cent. Nothing has been published yet; these are forecasts.