Forty-Nine Billion in Bonuses While Your Mortgage Rate Climbs
Wall Street collected $49.2 billion in bonuses and New York wanted more — while the war pushes mortgage rates to their highest level since October 2023.
Theo Kaplan
Bureau: San Francisco
Mortgage Rates Jumped Again and the War Is Why
The 30-year fixed rate hit 7.41 percent — up 87 basis points in five weeks — and the through-line from Hormuz to your housing payment is one nobody in Washington will draw.
Meta Laid Off Seven Hundred and Rewarded the Executives
Meta cut 700 jobs the same week two juries found it liable for harming children — and disclosed executive bonuses that make the layoffs look like the cost of doing business.
The Fed Cannot Cut Rates While the War Burns Oil
Chair Powell acknowledged that 'developments in global energy markets' constrain rate-cutting — the war premium on oil is now a war premium on monetary policy.
Bitcoin Is Holding Near Seventy Thousand
Bitcoin held at $69,800 on Friday — neither collapsing nor surging, functioning as a war-anxiety indicator stuck in neutral.
Consumer Spending May Be Starting to Crack
Retail sales fell 0.4 percent in the latest weekly data — the first decline in six weeks, suggesting the gas price surge is starting to squeeze discretionary spending.
Tesla Cannot Stop Losing Customers
Tesla's U.S. registrations fell 14 percent in the first quarter — the fourth consecutive quarterly decline as brand damage accelerates.
Paramount-Warner Debt Climbs to $78 Billion
The merged Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery entity carries $78.8 billion in debt — the largest media merger in history is also the most leveraged.
Startup Funding Is Still Falling
March venture capital funding is tracking at $13 billion — down from $174 billion in February's AI megaround-inflated total — and the correction is structural, not cyclical.