PepsiCo reached a deal with activist investor Elliott Investment Management that will trim its U.S. product lineup by 20%, prioritize affordability for working-poor consumers, and move forward with a workforce restructuring as part of a broader cost-cutting push. Billionaire Paul Singer’s Elliott built a $4 billion stake in Pepsi earlier this year, aiming to overhaul […]

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in an interview that “Trump Accounts” established by the administration can be used for any purpose. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent speaks with reporters outside the West Wing of the White House in Washington on Oct. 22, 2025. Jim Watson/AFP via […]

A bifurcated consumer landscape is one of the top themes (besides everything AI) of the third-quarter earnings season. Even though most consumer companies beat expectations and raised FY25 guidance, notably Dollar General, Five Below, and Ulta, management teams highlighted an unsettling financial squeeze on working-class and lower-income consumers.  Readers have seen in prior notes how the “K-shaped” economy has […]

Negotiations after the shutdown sputtered out quickly. Republicans demanded that any extension create tougher abortion restrictions on Obamacare health plans, an expansion of the so-called Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal taxpayer funding of abortion. The ACA does not allow federal dollars to be used to pay for abortions directly, but neither does it prohibit plans […]

Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared on SCOTUSblog, a Dispatch Media company. The Supreme Court on Monday morning signaled that it was likely to strike down a federal law that restricts the president’s ability to fire members of the Federal Trade Commission. During two and a half hours of argument in the case of Trump v. Slaughter, a […]