Economy
-
Trump has created a ‘trickle up’ tariff economy that means U.S. companies aren’t done hiking consumer prices over import taxes
President Donald Trump isn’t done implementing this tariff policy, and U.S. companies aren’t done raising prices in response. Businesses are still adjusting prices to account for levies and the ongoing uncertainty surrounding them, the Federal Reserve of New York said in a post published on Wednesday. Citing recent regional business surveys, the New York Fed…
-
Labor force participation falls to 61.5%, the lowest in 50 years outside COVID, and economists say it’s not just people giving up
Economists have spent the past week arguing about why 720,000 people walked away from the labor force in a single month. Laura Ullrich, director of economics at Indeed Hiring Lab and a former Richmond Fed economist, says that rather than treating June’s slide to a 61.5% labor force participation rate—the lowest reading outside the pandemic…
-
IMF expects modest 3% growth as the Iran war is dragging down the economy while AI is boosting it
The International Monetary Fund on Wednesday modestly downgraded its outlook for the world economy this year, citing the energy shock caused by the Iran war. But the fallout from the conflict is being partially offset by booming investment in artificial intelligence and other technologies. The IMF now expects the global economy to expand by a…
-
The yen is quietly crashing as Japan’s debt crisis bleeds into currency markets, and efforts to halt the slide are ‘doomed to fail,’ economist says
Japan’s yen is resembling a slow-motion train wreck as it remains stuck near 40-year lows, and there could be even more downside ahead. On Monday, the yen was down 0.58% at 162.30 per dollar. It’s fallen 3.6% so far in 2026 and nearly 11% from a year ago. Some of the more recent triggers include…
-
Gen Z was ‘jaded about employment before we ever entered the workforce’—now psychologists say the stare has hardened into something worse
America foreclosed on Gen Z once. The risk now is that Gen Z finishes the job. I wrote a piece last year that went semi-viral about the “Gen Z stare,” that labeling of young-adult awkwardness that goes far beyond the “millennial pause” in stereotyping a generation. But this interaction made me think it’s something else;…
-
As higher airfares and gas prices make vacations ‘crazy expensive,’ small business owners say Americans are staying closer to home this summer
Small business owners in U.S. tourist destinations say they’re seeing more Americans sticking closer to home this summer, trading overseas travel for road trips, choosing daylong sojourns over extended beach stays, and cooking instead of eating out while on vacation to save money. The reported boost to domestic tourism, though anecdotal, comes as higher airfares…
-
America’s entrepreneurial boom begins long before venture capital
The United States has spent years worrying about slowing business creation. But one group of entrepreneurs has quietly prevented that decline. According to a new report out of Stanford, between 2017 and 2023, Latino-owned businesses added 180,000 new firms while white-owned businesses lost roughly 140,000. Put differently, without Latino entrepreneurs, America would have ended the…
-
U.S. debt is a looming crisis today but was once its own revolutionary masterstroke that helped launch a global financial superpower
Believe it or not, U.S. debt was once a source of national strength, before it became a sword of Damocles hanging over the federal government and the bond market. While the nation celebrates the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the origin of U.S. financial might can be traced back to a controversial decision…
-
On Wall Street, analysts increasingly don’t believe the U.S. government’s ‘misleading’ job numbers
Jamie Cox, a managing partner at Harris Financial Group in Richmond, Virginia (with $1.3 billion in assets under management), had a visceral reaction to the June jobs number from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: “These data are misleading and should be disregarded,” he said in an email to Fortune. “There is zero chance leisure…
-
Trump is already causing a headache for his new Fed chairman, saying the central bank’s board is ‘hostile’ and ‘doing the wrong thing’
There are a few things that could make life easier for Kevin Warsh in his first few months at the central bank, and President Trump keeping to his lane is likely top of the list. The Federal Reserve has weathered unprecedented attacks from the White House since President Trump returned to office last year. Trump…