Economy
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Americans have never been this gloomy about the economy. Wall Street has never cashed in harder
The same week Americans recorded a 74-year low in economic pessimism, Wall Street’s biggest banks closed their most lucrative trading quarter since at least 2014. The S&P 500 punched through 7,000 to a fresh all-time high. Goldman Sachs posted its second-highest quarterly revenue on record. Morgan Stanley’s equities desk set a record of its own.…
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Reed Hastings’ exit from $455 billion Netflix ‘had nothing to do with’ the failed Warner Bros. deal, says Ted Sarandos
The next episode for Netflix? The start of a post-Reed Hastings era. The 65-year-old co-founder and former CEO of the world’s largest streaming service announced on Thursday that he won’t stand for reelection to the board at the company’s annual shareholder meeting in June, ending a 29-year run at the company he created in 1997.…
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A world going broke: IMF says America’s $39 trillion national debt is actually a global problem—and AI may be the only rescue
America’s $39 trillion national debt has become a familiar political football—batted around in budget negotiations, invoked at congressional hearings, and largely ignored between elections. But what the International Monetary Fund laid out Wednesday is something more unsettling: The U.S. isn’t an outlier. It’s just the most visible symptom of a global disease. At the spring…
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China’s economy grows 5% in first quarter, surprising economists to the upside
China’s economy accelerated in the first quarter of this year, expanding 5% from a year earlier as it largely shrugged off impacts from the Iran war so far, according to data released Thursday. The January-March data released by the government, covering a period during which the Iran war began, was better than what economists expected and was up…
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Everyone was wondering what Trump wanted more: Warsh smoothly seated at the Fed, or for Powell to pay. We now have an answer.
Ever since Trump announced that former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh was his nominee to lead the central bank, there was a question: Would Trump now end his feud with current chairman Jerome Powell (whom he also nominated in 2017) to clear the path for a shiny, new face behind the podium? It seems not. The…
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The Iran war’s fertilizer shock is hammering American farmers and 70% can’t afford what they need for this year’s growing season
With the planting season ending in six weeks, skyrocketing fertilizer prices are forcing farmers into an impossible choice: cut back and lose crop yield or stay the course and lose money. A survey published Tuesday of 5,700 farmers conducted by the Farm Bureau shows that around 70% of farmers are unable to afford all the…
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Trumpflation hits the World Cup: Fans face $80–$100 transit fares on top of $4,000-plus tickets
In an economy squeezed by tariffs, elevated fuel costs, and stubborn inflation, the FIFA World Cup was supposed to be America’s summer triumph. For millions of fans, it’s shaping up to be something else: a financial gauntlet. Before they cheer a single goal, many will face $80 to more than $100 transit fares, $4,000-plus tickets,…
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Economists warned California not to raise the minimum wage to $20. They were wrong in almost every way so far, another economist says
Following California implementing a law raising its minimum wage to $20 for more than 500,000 fast-food workers in the state in 2024, Christopher Thornberg, founding partner of research firm Beacon Economics, offered a warning about the state raising its minimum wage. “California’s well-intended push to reduce income inequality via wage floors is beginning to have…
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Markets haven’t rallied this fast since COVID—Iran volatility is just another ‘notch on the belt’ of investors, says J.P. Morgan strategist
Markets are trading strongly this week on hopes that the Iran war might soon be coming to an end. A fragile ceasefire has held despite peace talks collapsing, but President Trump overnight suggested conversations could resume this week. Investors are ready to hear some good news—in fact, some economists are worried that they’re so keen…
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Xi Jinping says the world order is ‘crumbling into disarray.’ Larry Fink and the IMF are worried about a global recession
Chinese President Xi Jinping issued some of his starkest language yet about the state of the global economy on Tuesday, telling Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez in Beijing “the international order is crumbling into disarray” in remarks reported by Bloomberg, which clarified the Chinese phrase connotes not merely chaos, but also moral decay. The two…