McDonald’s shares fell more than 5% this week after the company unveiled a new multiyear growth plan alongside a blunt warning: high inflation and flat restaurant traffic are likely to persist. CEO Chris Kempczinski told CNBC directly that the company is “not expecting things to change,” a rare moment of candor from a company that […]
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said this week that hyperscaler spending on AI infrastructure could reach $1 trillion in 2027, a figure that, if it materializes, would represent a further escalation from the roughly $800 billion already projected for 2026, a number that itself climbed from an estimate of just $460 billion only six months earlier.
Jamie Dimon Says Hyperscaler AI Spending Could Hit $1 Trillion Next Year Read More »
The 30-year Treasury yield climbed to 5.43% this week, its highest level since 2004, while the 10-year yield sits at its highest point since 2007. BlackRock’s chief investment officer of global fixed income, Rick Rieder, described the move as “not a crisis but an eye-opener”, a notable choice of words from one of the largest
Treasury Yields Hit a 19-Year High: And It’s Already Hitting the Housing Market Read More »
Line of Credit Is the #1 Financing Request in America: So Why Do Half of Applicants Get Denied? A business line of credit is the single most requested type of financing among small businesses in the United States, according to data cited from the Federal Reserve’s Small Business Credit Survey, roughly 43% of financing applicants
Line of Credit Is the #1 Financing Request in America Read More »
Business Line of Credit Approval Rates by Industry in 2026: Where Does Your Business Stand? Not all industries are evaluated the same way when a bank underwrites a business line of credit application, and the gap between the easiest and hardest sectors to get approved in is large enough that it’s worth knowing where your
Business Line of Credit Approval Rates by Industry in 2026 Read More »
Line of Credit vs. Term Loan: What 2026 Data Says Business Owners Actually Choose (And When) Ask a bank what financing options are available and you’ll usually hear the same two names first: a line of credit or a term loan. They’re the two most familiar products in small business lending, and they work in
Line of Credit vs. Term Loan Read More »
Funding Business, Building Community: The Story Behind Smart Business Funding’s Mission Every brand mark is supposed to mean something, but ours was built around a specific idea: a mind at work, gears turning, energy radiating outward. That’s the logo, a head rendered in interlocking gears, lit from within, with the words underneath doing the real
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A confession of judgment, often abbreviated COJ, is a clause that some commercial financing agreements have historically included, under which a business owner agrees in advance to waive their right to defend themselves in court if the provider claims a default has occurred. In practice, this has allowed some funders to obtain a court judgment,
A question that comes up constantly, “is a merchant cash advance even legal?”, has a straightforward answer: yes, MCAs are a legal, widely used form of business financing, structured as a purchase of future receivables rather than a loan. What’s changed rapidly over the past several years isn’t the legality of the product itself, but
Is a Merchant Cash Advance Legal? What the New State Disclosure Laws Actually Require Read More »
The merchant cash advance market has passed $20 billion in annual U.S. volume in 2026, with most industry forecasts projecting continued growth toward the high-$20-billions or beyond by the early 2030s. That growth isn’t happening in a vacuum, it reflects a handful of specific, structural shifts in how small businesses access capital, and understanding those
