Finance
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The World Bank has elevated Vietnam and the Philippines to upper-middle-income status—but now they face ‘a far more demanding phase of development’
Vietnam and the Philippines are now “upper-middle-income” countries, at least according to the World Bank, putting them on the same level as Southeast Asian peers like Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia. The upgrade is “a highly encouraging milestone,” says Khuong Minh Vu, a professor at Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. “It represents strong…
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Michael Burry just shorted Caterpillar’s 172% AI rally. One analyst says his bet won’t even matter
Investor Michael Burry of “The Big Short” fame has a new short target in his sights: Caterpillar, the heavy-machinery giant that has surged thanks to the AI infrastructure boom. Burry, the former hedge fund manager who famously predicted the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis and earned hundreds of millions of dollars for his investors in the…
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The sports economy is unaffordable at the bar, let alone the stadium
Sports fans aren’t just being priced out of the arena anymore — they’re being priced out of the bar. A new Intuit Credit Karma survey of 1,747 fans, conducted by The Harris Poll, found that one in five say rising costs have pushed them out of watch parties and sports bars entirely. Not the $67,000…
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AI’s $2.2 trillion deficit fix is already half fake, economists say
AI could shave $2.2 trillion off the U.S. deficit by 2036. But according to a new working paper from economists at Brookings and the Federal Reserve, more than half of that savings could vanish — canceled out by the very disruption AI itself would cause. In May, the U.S. national debt crossed the eye-popping $39…
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Securitize is latest crypto company to go public as BlackRock-backed firm sees stock jump 3% on debut
Another crypto company has hit the public markets. Securitize, the BlackRock-backed firm that specializes in tokenization, or putting financial assets like stocks in blockchain wrappers, debuted Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange. Shares fell below their IPO price in pre-market trading but are up nearly 3% since markets opened. The tokenization specialist raised $400…
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Economists have found an answer to slowing cognitive decline: Avoid retiring early, study finds
While economists sound alarms about Gen Z unemployment, 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 the…
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‘More fizzle than sparkle’: June jobs report fails to launch a July 4 firework
June’s jobs report did not just miss expectations; it also complicated the story economists had been telling about a labor market that might be reaccelerating into summer. Payrolls rose by only 57,000, and both April and May were revised down by a combined 74,000 jobs, which means the recent pace of hiring looks weaker in…
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Trump stopped talking about these media stocks, but his portfolio didn’t stop trading them
Of the seven Fortune 500 companies in President Trump’s disclosed investment portfolio that also turn up somewhere in his public statements this year, five drew a clear 2026 comment from him: Apple, Nvidia, Boeing, Meta, and Disney — the last of which extends a fight that began in 2025. But two others followed the opposite…
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Current price of oil as of July 2, 2026
By 9:40 a.m. Eastern Time today, oil had reached $71.53 per barrel, measured using the Brent benchmark. That’s $1.15 less than it cost yesterday morning and about $1.29 above its price a year earlier. Oil price per barrel % Change Price of oil yesterday $72.68 -1.58% Price of oil 1 month ago $98.48 -27.36% Price…
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Economy disappoints with half as many jobs created in June, and May and April gains revised downward
U.S. employers pulled back on hiring last month and added only 57,000 jobs, less than half the previous month’s total and a sign companies still have a cautious economic outlook. The Labor Department said Thursday that the unemployment rate declined to a low 4.2% from 4.3% in May, though the decline mostly occurred because many…