Is Social Security really on the brink of collapse?

Good morning. An AI-powered refrigerator has won a “worst in show” award at CES after repeatedly ignoring voice commands to open a door. (Did we mention it has no handle?) While Samsung blamed noise interference, we’ve seen too many sci-fi movies to put our food supply at the mercy of HAL 9000.

The U.S. has lived with a massive trade deficit for decades. But under President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs, that gap is suddenly narrowing — and much faster than many expected.

That became clear on CNBC when anchor Rick Santelli reacted in real time to the latest numbers.

“On the trade balance, which we know is going to be a deficit, we’re expecting a number around $58 billion,” Santelli said on Thursday morning. As he read through the Commerce Department’s update, his tone shifted.

“Buckle up, this is unreal! The movement in this number: $29.4 billion — we cut it basically in half! We cut it in half!”

As it turns out, it’s the smallest trade deficit since June 2009.

To be sure, Trump’s sweeping tariffs have drawn criticism, including fears of retaliation from major trading partners. But with the latest figures, some economists are sounding more upbeat. Here’s what to know.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New Orleans has an unusual approach to recycling damaged or counterfeit bills. The shredded money is turned into:

A Insulation for office buildings

B Healthy soil for urban farms

C Novelty fire starters for camping

D Official Federal Reserve holiday cards

Scroll for the answer

For some service members, the action they’re seeing isn’t on the battlefield — it’s in the markets. While some are making big money through high-risk stock trading and other short-term, risky investments, others worry that this approach might not end well.

The Wall Street Journal reports that military bases and barracks “are fertile ground for investing frenzies,” since they’re “full of young people — many already natural risk-takers — with time to kill, disposable income and few taboos.”

Pay levels for U.S. military members are part of the public record, so there’s also a culture of openness about finances in the sector. Plus, with high job security and guaranteed pensions, some may feel they can afford to take investment risks.

Add to that the camaraderie among troops, which is conducive to sharing investment ideas and trading victories, and we’re seeing a new wave of “Top Gun traders” piling into high-risk bets such as tech stocks, cryptocurrency and meme stocks.

Take Coast Guard Petty Officer Third Class Bryson Saunders. He made money on Tesla stocks — but also once lost more than $10,000 in a single day trading crypto-related assets.

The first lesson many of us learn about money is that spare change adds up. But what if you rarely use cash anymore?

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Millions of people have already used Acorns to turn their spare change into money-making investments. Don’t wait — start saving today.

Social Security’s retirement trust fund is projected to run out of money by 2033, with the disability trust fund running out a year later.

But the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act — which reduces revenue collected from taxing Social Security benefits — will accelerate the program’s insolvency to 2032.

Whatever may be the case, time is running out to make changes.

“That compressed timescale means there’s no easy fix,” according to an op-ed by Bloomberg’s editorial board. “Tweaks that phased in gently while protecting current beneficiaries could’ve balanced the books by now if they’d been done many years ago. Starting from here, they won’t suffice to avoid the programs’ imminent insolvency.”

While the word “insolvency” sounds catastrophic, Social Security won’t disappear. But without urgent action such as raising the retirement age, Americans could see their benefits shrink in less than a decade.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New Orleans has an unusual approach to recycling damaged or counterfeit bills. The shredded money is turned into:

E) Healthy soil for urban farms

A simple composting process turns the pulp into soil for farmers in the greater New Orleans area. Meanwhile, the Salt Lake City branch of the San Francisco Fed burns damaged bills to cure cement, while the Boston Fed burns it to make electricity.