Wall Street Journal (February 19)
Last week, several economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York “found that American households and businesses are bearing nearly 90% of the cost of the Trump tariffs, contrary to Mr. Trump’s claim that foreigners will pay.” This week, a defensive White House tried to fight back and sully the research. “If the tariffs are such an unambiguous economic and political winner, why is the Administration so defensive about them…. Clearly the White House is worried that voters might conclude this research aligns with their own experience.”
Tags: Businesses, Cost, Defensive, Economists, Foreigners, Households, New York Fed, Research, Trump tariffs, U.S., Voters, White House, Worried
MarketWatch (February 17)
“A trillion-euro market” is arising as Europe wakes up to the end of “the post-Cold War international order with its security bargain.” The result could be “a bond market powerhouse that threatens U.S. Treasurys.” Europe now looks to be moving toward “a Eurobond market exceeding €1 trillion. This includes approximately €650 billion from the coronavirus era, €95 billion for Ukraine and several hundred billion euros from new defense facilities and national borrowing enabled by fiscal exemptions.”
Tags: €1 trillion, Cold war, Coronavirus, Defense facilities, Eurobond market, Europe, Exemptions, International order, Powerhouse, Security, Treasurys, U.S., Ukraine
OilPrice.com (February 16)
“For decades, oil prices could swing wildly on even the distant prospect of war in the Middle East. As U.S. shale now accounts for a significant share of the global market, analysts and investors appear to have grown complacent. It is widely assumed, that “anything short of an oil blockade in the Strait of Hormuz will leave oil cold—and such a blockade is highly unlikely. This, however, is a false sense of security. Geopolitics can still flip the script on oil bears.”
Tags: Analysts, Bears, Blockade, Complacent, False, Geopolitics, Global market, Investors, Middle East, Oil prices, Security, Strait of Hormuz, Swing, U.S., War, Wildly
Washington Post (February 14)
Continuing a trend from 2025, “nearly all of the jobs added to the U.S. economy in recent months have come from one industry: health care.” Since the pandemic, the health care sector has benefitted from changing demographics and “buoyed an otherwise slow labor market.” Over one in six “Americans is now 65 or older, an age group that spends an outsize amount on medical care” and estimates suggest that the number of Americans over 80 will double by 2045.
Tags: 2025, 65%, 80, Demographics, Double, Economy, Health care, Jobs, Labor market, Medical care, Pandemic, Trend, U.S.
New York Times (February 12)
“European leaders have stepped up their push to reduce reliance on big American tech firms like Amazon, Google and Microsoft for cloud computing, and on financial services titans like Mastercard and Visa for payment systems. The move to secure what are being labeled monetary sovereignty and digital sovereignty is part of a broader effort to reduce Europe’s dependence on American weapons, trade, technology and more.”
Tags: Amazon, Big tech, Cloud computing, Dependence, Digital sovereignty, Europe, Financial services, Google, Mastercard, Microsoft, Monetary sovereignty, Payment systems, Reliance, Technology, Trade, U.S., Visa, Weapons
Barron’s (February 11)
“The U.S. Treasury market has been awfully steady lately. It’s a blessing for the economy and stocks. The 10-year Treasury note —a key debt issued by the U.S. government—has traded in a 0.39 percentage point range over the past six months, its narrowest since October 2018, according to Dow Jones Market data team.”
Tags: 0.39, 2018, Blessing, Debt, Economy, Government, Market, Narrowest, Range, Steady, Stocks, Treasury, U.S.
The Week (February 9)
“Climate change has led to a marked decrease in salaries across the country, including in places that haven’t experienced significant temperature changes. The problem is likely not limited to the U.S. and is expected to worsen without intervention.” With risks “expected to increase. The global economy could also be significantly altered and likely already has.”
Tags: Climate change, Decrease, Global economy, Intervention, Risks, Salaries, Temperature changes, U.S., Worsen
Washington Post (February 8)
China’s President Xi Jinping would like the renminbi to become a globally recognized reserve currency. He “seeks to capitalize on the dollar’s value slipping to a four-year low and gold recently hitting an all-time high amid uncertainty caused by President Donald Trump’s tariffs, threats to Federal Reserve independence and myriad geopolitical crises.” However, China appears to be “in no position to achieve his vision absent self-sabotage by the United States and free market reforms he is hesitant to undertake.”
Tags: Capitalize, China, Dollar, Fed, Geopolitical crises, Gold, Independence, Renminbi, Reserve currency, Self-sabotage, Tariffs, Threats, Trump, U.S., Uncertainty, Vision, Xi
USA Today (February 5)
U.S. “employers announced 108,435 job cuts in January, the highest tally for the first month of the year since 2009, according to a report out Feb. 5, and a sign employers may be taking defensive steps against economic uncertainty.”
Tags: 2009, Defensive steps, Economic uncertainty, Employers, January, Job cuts, Sign, Tally, U.S.
New York Times (February 5)
“Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada announced on Thursday a sweeping plan to offer billions of dollars in incentives and tax breaks for auto industry investment designed to help turn Canada into a global leader in electric vehicles.” Through the new policies, the Prime Minister intends “to transform Canada’s economy and make it less reliant on a single trade partner after President Trump’s economic assaults and threats on Canada’s sovereignty have frayed relations between the two nations.”
Tags: Auto industry, Canada, Carney, Economy, EVs, Global leader, Incentives, Investment, Prime minister, Reliant, Tax breaks, Threats, Trade partner, Trump, U.S.
