Political thinkers were calling for more checks on the wealthy long before Bernie Sanders and AOC. Should we have listened?‘Traitors to their class’: meet the super rich who want to be taxed moreAdam Smith is remembered as the patron saint of unregulated commerce, as the world’s greatest prophet of profit. His idea of the “invisible hand” has been used by countless economists and politicians...
Expectation is Washington may scrap plans to increase tariffs on fresh range of Chinese goodsOpinion: can we believe Trump when he says deal is ‘very close’?Share prices on Wall Street have surged to record levels after Donald Trump boosted hopes of an imminent trade deal with China.The US president raised expectations that Washington was poised to abandon plans to increase tariffs on a fresh range...
The former Fed chairman used monetarist shock treatment to cure the US of its serious inflation habitSome would choose the Bundesbank’s Karl Otto Pöhl. The recently retired former European Central Bank president Mario Draghi would have his supporters. But the man they would have to beat for the title of the most influential central banker is Paul Volcker, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve,...
Sanders, Buttigieg, Booker, Klobuchar and Steyer also discussed the economy, wages and healthcare at a Teamsters forum in IowaKochland: how the Kochs bought America – and trashed itJoe Biden has proposed criminal prosecution of companies that deprive workers of their rights to organise unions as part of what he called the corporate war on labour.The former vice-president made a vigorous defence of...
US added 266,000 new jobs, boosted by the return to work of 48,000 auto workers following a 40-day strikeThe US added 266,000 new jobs in November boosted by the return to work of striking auto workers. Related: Despite rapid growth in wages, Trump should be concerned | Larry Elliott Continue reading...
If war’s purpose is to devastate territory and put people under duress, it can now be waged from offices around the worldIs this the new war? After hot war and cold war comes trade war, Trump-style. The latest battle seems to merely pit scotch against bourbon and camembert against Google, but the US’s argument with the outside world is escalating, and it is no joke.Donald Trump came to power with...
Day remains important for holiday shopping but its relevance is fading amid early promotions and a shorter seasonOpinion: Black Friday sales are fueling fashion’s dark sideThe frenzy associated with Black Friday shopping was missing this year as US retailers offered earlier discounts and more consumers shopped online, though spot checks around the country showed traffic picked up after a sluggish...
America’s economy grew faster than thought in July-September, despite the trade war with ChinaLatest: Another day, another Dow record highUS growth revised up to 2.1% (annualised)Earlier:John Deere profit warningEuropean stocks at four-year highChinese factory profits plunge 9.9%Worst monthly slide since 2011 (apart from Jan-Feb) 4.52pm GMT Finally, the UK stock market has ended the day higher.The...
No wonder the wealth tax turns the Gray Lady white as a sheet: it will help the needy and its author is a good bet for presidentOn Thursday, the New York Times reported on a study showing that Elizabeth Warren’s proposed wealth tax (and presumably Bernie Sanders’ even more ambitious version) would reduce economic growth by nearly 0.2% a year, over the course of a decade. Related: Elizabeth Warren...
In a reversal from a few decades ago, American consumers are facing oligopolies while Europeans benefit from competitionWhen I landed in Boston in 1999, the United States was the land of free markets. Many goods and services were cheaper here than in Europe. Twenty years later, American free markets are becoming a myth. Internet service, cellphone plans, and plane tickets are now cheaper in Europe...
Oyawele Dumas’s reduced earnings as a childcare provider marred her credit and forced her to hustle for other jobsIt has been almost a year since Donald Trump shut down part of the US government for 35 days – the longest period in US history – because it wouldn’t fund the border wall he once said Mexico would pay for. But to Oyawele “Oya” Dumas, it could have been yesterday. Related: Almost...
A growing number of Americans work hard but aren’t getting their basic needs met – but 2020 candidates seem poised to tackle economic inequalityJimmy Wilson, a 49-year-old cook who works at a Detroit bar, was sitting outside on his break and fuming. Continue reading...
Labor department figures beat analysts’ expectations but show steep drops in manufacturing sector and slower hiring this yearUS employers added a solid 128,000 jobs in October, a figure that was held down by a now-settled strike against General Motors that caused several thousand workers to be temporarily counted as unemployed. Related: Pelosi bangs the gavel: House votes to endorse Trump impeachment...
Beijing sees US president as impulsive and fears he could pull out of any deal, reports sayA trade deal between the US and China is imminent and only delayed by the need to find a venue for a signing ceremony, according to Donald Trump.After almost two years of wrangling over US import tariffs on Chinese goods, which sparked a tit-for-tat row between the world’s largest trading nations, the two sides...
Rolling coverage and reaction as America’s central bank sets borrowing costs at 1.5%-1.75%, the third cut of 2019Latest: S&P 500 hits new record highFed chair Jerome Powell holding press conferenceFed cuts interest rates for third time in 2019......but may be taking a pauseRead the Fed statement hereWhat the experts say 8.12pm GMT And finally, here’s our economics editor Larry Elliott on today’s...
But central bank’s reluctance to further reduce borrowing costs could rile Donald TrumpThe US central bank has cut interest rates for the third time this year in an attempt to keep the longest running period of growth in the country’s history continuing into the crucial election year of 2020.But the Federal Reserve put itself on a potential collision course with Donald Trump when it signalled to...
Be it donald Trump or Elizabeth Warren, America urgently needs to start talking about candidates’ sharply diverging economic policiesA year from now, the US will elect its next president. The stakes are high and the outcome will reverberate across the world in a number of spheres, not least the economy. Yet, thus far, most discussions of candidates’ economic policy proposals have been based more...
Descriptions of exchange-rate policies have become increasingly militaristicThe language of international monetary policy has turned militaristic. The phrase “currency war” has been popular for a decade and the US government’s more recent “weaponisation” of the dollar is generating controversy. But ironically, a martial approach could end up threatening the US currency’s global dominance.This...
Past crashes spawned new thinking and reform but nothing has changed since 2008 banking meltdown, says former Bank of England bossLarry Elliott: The global economy needs to change fastThe world is sleepwalking towards a fresh economic and financial crisis that will have devastating consequences for the democratic market system, according to the former Bank of England governor Mervyn King.Lord King,...
Matt Stoller’s look at ‘the 100-year war between monopoly and democracy’ is highly relevant to the primary raceWall Street is scared. Elizabeth Warren has surged to the front of the Democratic pack and some of the party’s biggest donors are threatening to close their wallets or worse: donate to Donald Trump. Related: Envy in Politics review: why keeping up with the Joneses is a political trump...
