Economy
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Two Americas, one drive-thru: Welcome to fast food’s contradictory, split-screen economy
The American consumer didn’t disappear in the first quarter of 2026. They just got pickier about where they spent their money — and the divergence is rippling through the fast food industry with unusual force. This week’s cascade of restaurant earnings produced a striking set of contradictions: Taco Bell delivered a blowout 8% same-store sales
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Iran War forces DoorDash to shell out $50 million to help struggling delivery drivers
DoorDash said Wednesday it expects to spend more than $50 million in the second quarter on gas price relief for its delivery drivers. The San Francisco-based company said in March that it would offer extra compensation to U.S. and Canadian drivers as part of a temporary program to offset a sharp increase in gas prices
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U.S. Treasury will have to borrow $2 trillion this year just to continue functioning—more than $166 billion every month
The U.S. Treasury will likely have borrowed more than $2 trillion by the end of the fiscal year, according to the latest estimates out of the Executive Office of the president—a figure described as “beyond scary” by budget hawks. Yesterday, the department headed by Scott Bessent released its latest Quarterly Refunding Documents, which communicate any
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Iran War is hitting low-income Americans the hardest at the gas pump, New York Fed says
Lower-income Americans sharply reduced their gas consumption in the month following the Iran war, yet spiking prices still forced them to spend more at the pump, worsening the economy’s economic disparities, new research released Wednesday showed. Higher-income households, meanwhile, ratcheted up their spending on gas while barely reducing their consumption, according to a report from the Federal Reserve
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AI could solve America’s $39 trillion debt crisis—but only if Washington abandons displaced workers, Yale report warns
The big bet on AI—the near-trillion dollars that hyperscalers are spending to build out the technology’s infrastructure—is predicated on the belief that productivity will skyrocket. If that bet pays off, a new report from policy research center Yale Budget Lab finds AI could help tackle one of the country’s most urgent crises: the $39 trillion
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‘Different from anything in the past 80 years of dollar dominance’: U.S. sanctions spur a ‘paradox’ pushing allies away from American currency
The world’s de-dollarization push continues, but this time, it’s America’s allies who are pulling back from greenbacks. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced last week a $25 billion sovereign wealth fund to bolster domestic infrastructure, part of an effort to make Canada’s economy less dependent on the U.S. The move follows France’s withdrawal of all
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A year after Liberation Day, Trump’s tariffs have done ‘significant damage’ to the U.S. economy, says Moody’s chief economist
Economists now have more than a years’ worth of data to pick over when it comes to the impact of Liberation Day tariffs. While some might argue the revenue tariffs have generated are a gamechanger for the economy, others point to cost for those paying them. Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, is concerned
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Dario Amodei spent last year warning of an AI white-collar bloodbath. Now he’s changing the narrative
For most of last year, Dario Amodei was one of Silicon Valley’s most prominent doomsayers on AI and employment. The Anthropic CEO said publicly and repeatedly that AI could eliminate half of entry-level, white-collar knowledge work within years — the kind of stark projection that made him the rare tech founder willing to say out
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One American loses their job for every 6 immigrants removed from the workforce as researchers see ‘no evidence’ that ICE is helping the economy
Donald Trump said he had been given a “mandate” by the electorate when he returned to office last year, with one of his charges being to enact mass deportations. Most of his voters seemed to agree, with immigration often topping Republican priorities heading into the 2024 election. Most Americans still support a heavy hand on
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Early retirement is shrinking Gen X’s brain, new research warns
While economists sound alarms about Gen Z unemployment, new research points to a quieter crisis: Gen X workers retiring years before 65—and paying a steep cognitive price for it. About 35% of workers who have been unemployed for more than 24 weeks are over the age of 55, according to an April 2025 analysis. Over