Your Pulse On America: Live And Unfiltered
President Trump’s promise to hit the United States’ trading partners with tit-for-tat tariffs — including penalties for taxes that he claims the European Union unfairly imposes on American imports — could hardly come at a worse time for the continent. Mr. Trump on Thursday signed a memo directing his teams to prepare by April “reciprocal”…
Less than six months ago, Federal Reserve officials were wringing their hands about the state of the labor market. No major cracks had emerged, but monthly jobs growth had slowed and the unemployment rate was steadily ticking higher. In a bid to preserve the economy’s strength, the Fed took the unusual step of lowering interest…
The Bank of England cut interest rates on Thursday for the third time in about six months, amid signs of weak economic growth in Britain and an unexpected slowdown in inflation. Policymakers cut the key rate a quarter point to 4.5 percent as the bank lowered its forecasts for economic growth this year. Two members…
President Trump’s decision on Saturday to impose new tariffs on imports from China poses a dilemma for Beijing’s leaders: Is it better to ignore the new tariffs or retaliate? Doing little runs the risk of looking weak in the eyes of the Chinese people. China’s extensive domestic propaganda apparatus has described China as a rising…
When Dennis Nixon started working at a regional bank in Laredo, Texas, in 1975, there was just a trickle of trade across the border with Mexico. Now, nearly a billion dollars of commerce and more than 15,000 trucks roll over the line every day just a quarter mile from his office, binding the economies of…
The European Central Bank cut interest rates on Thursday, for the fifth consecutive time, amid slowing growth in the region’s economy. Policymakers lowered the bank’s key rate a quarter point to 2.75 percent as inflation remained relatively close to their 2 percent target. The moves comes a day after the U.S. Federal Reserve held rates…
Rachel Reeves, Britain’s top finance official, on Wednesday laid out plans to revive the country’s flagging economy, including supporting the addition of a third runway at Heathrow Airport, after her first budget rocked business confidence. An additional runway is “badly needed” to increase trade and investment, Ms. Reeves said in a speech to business executives….
In a number of ways, Japan’s economy seems to have gone back in time. Inflation and wage growth are mostly back where they were in the early 1990s, just before the spiral of price deflation and economic stagnation that became known as “the lost decades.” That prompted the Bank of Japan on Friday to raise…
A year ago, India was bouncing back from a recession caused by Covid-19 with a spring in its step. The country had overtaken China as the most populous country, and its leaders were declaring India the world’s fastest-growing major economy. This was music to the ears of foreign investors, and to India’s prime minister, Narendra…
To get its citizens to have more children and stop its population from shrinking, China has tried it all, even declaring having babies an act of patriotism. And yet, for the third year in a row, its population got smaller. Not even a surprise uptick in the number of babies born, a first in seven…