Americans’ Economic Confidence Is Returning. Will Biden Benefit?
Low approval ratings and rock-bottom consumer confidence figures have dogged President Biden for months now, a worrying sign for the White House as the country...
War Has Already Hurt the Economies of Israel’s Nearest Neighbors
In the Red Sea, attacks by Iranian-backed Houthi militants on commercial ships continue to disrupt a crucial trade route and raise shipping costs. The threat...
The U.S. Seems to Be Dodging a Recession. What Could Go Wrong?
With inflation falling, unemployment low and the Federal Reserve signaling it could soon begin cutting interest rates, forecasters are becoming increasingly optimistic that the U.S....
A Fed Governor Reiterates That Rate Cuts Are Coming
A prominent Federal Reserve official on Tuesday laid out a case for lowering interest rates methodically at some point this year as the economy comes...
Flush With Investment, New U.S. Factories Face a Familiar Challenge
The Biden administration has begun pumping more than $2 trillion into U.S. factories and infrastructure, investing huge sums to try to strengthen American industry and...
The Mystery of the Coin That Shouldn’t Exist
A decade ago, a funny money mystery fell into the hands of scientists and students at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru in Lima. The...
Microsoft Tops Apple to Become Most Valuable Public Company
For more than a decade, Apple was the stock market’s undisputed king. It first overtook Exxon Mobil as the world’s most valuable public company in...
Trump’s Dominance and Snowy Weather Put Iowa’s Caucus Economy on Ice
Republican candidates have spent heavily in Iowa, but the state is seeing fewer visitors, and winter storms have upended events and travel plans....
U.S. Steel Acquisition Proposal Tests Biden’s Industrial Policy
The president is under pressure from Democrats and Republicans to block the sale to Japan’s Nippon Steel, which could upset a key foreign ally....
As Utility Bills Rise, Low-Income Americans Struggle for Access to Clean Energy
Cindy Camp is one of many Americans facing rising utility costs. Ms. Camp, who lives in Baltimore with three family members, said her gas and...
Mortgage Rates and Inflation Could Draw Attention to the Fed This Election
This year is set to be a big one for Federal Reserve officials: They are expecting to cut interest rates several times as inflation comes...
Democrats Question Semiconductor Program Ties to Wall Street
Two progressive lawmakers warned the Biden administration against creating a revolving door between industry and government as it prepares to hand out $39 billion in...
World Bank Warns of Energy Price Surge if Mideast War Spreads
A new economic report predicted a year of weak growth and said the world faced a decade of “wasted opportunity.”...
U.S. Added 216,000 Jobs in December, Outpacing Forecasts
The U.S. labor market ended 2023 with a bang, gaining more jobs than experts had expected and buoying hopes that the economy can settle into...
Fed Minutes Showed Officials Feeling Better About Inflation
Federal Reserve officials wanted to use their final policy statement of 2023 to signal that interest rates might be at their peak even as they...
Auto Sales Are Expected to Slow After a Strong 2023
After enjoying a strong rebound in sales in 2023, the auto industry appears headed for slower growth this year as consumers struggle with elevated interest...
Will America’s Good News on Inflation Last?
Prices climbed rapidly in 2021 and 2022, straining American household budgets and chipping away at President Biden’s approval rating. But inflation cooled in late 2023,...
Holiday Spending Increased, Defying Fears of a Decline
Despite lingering inflation, Americans increased their spending this holiday season, early data shows. That comes as a big relief for retailers that had spent much...
Red Sea Shipping Halt Is Latest Risk to Global Economy
The attacks on crucial shipping traffic in the Red Sea straits by a determined band of militants in Yemen — a spillover from the Israeli-Hamas...
What Social Trends Taught Us About the 2023 Economy
This year, the world learned that some men just can’t stop thinking about the Roman Empire. Over here at The New York Times, we can’t...
Under Argentina’s New President, Fuel Is Up 60%, and Diaper Prices Have Doubled
Over the past two weeks, the owner of a hip wine bar in Buenos Aires saw the price of beef soar 73 percent, while the...
Price Increases Cooled in November as Inflation Falls Toward Fed Target
A closely watched measure of inflation cooled notably in November, good news for the Federal Reserve as officials move toward the next phase in their...
Southwest Airlines Reaches Deal With Pilots Union
Southwest Airlines and its pilots union have reached a tentative deal on a new, five-year labor contract that would raise wages 50 percent over the...
U.S. and Europe Eye Russian Assets to Aid Ukraine as Funding Dries Up
The Biden administration is quietly signaling new support for seizing more than $300 billion in Russian central bank assets stashed in Western nations, and has...
Choice Hotel Franchise Owners Push Back on Merger With Wyndham
When Patrick Pacious, the chief executive of a large portfolio of hotel brands, promoted a blockbuster attempt to acquire a competitor in October, he said...
Companies Like Afterpay and Affirm May Put Americans At Risk For ‘Phantom Debt’
“Buy now, pay later” loans are helping to fuel a record-setting holiday shopping season. Economists worry they could also be masking and exacerbating cracks in...
What’s Next for Interest Rates? An Era of ‘Peak Uncertainty.’
When Jerome H. Powell, the Federal Reserve chair, takes the stage at his postmeeting news conference on Wednesday, investors and many Americans will be keenly...
New York Plans to Invest $1 Billion to Expand Chip Research
Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York announced on Monday a plan to invest $1 billion to expand chip research activities in Albany, N.Y., as the...
World Bank Warns Record Debt Burdens Haunt Developing Economies
Surging interest rates are saddling the world’s poorest countries with record levels of debt and complicating investments in public health, education and infrastructure initiatives that...
Wall Street’s Bond ‘Vigilantes’ Are Back
Typically, the esoteric inner workings of finance and the very public stakes of government spending are viewed as separate spheres. And bond trading is ordinarily...
It Took 10 Years to Grow This Christmas Tree. The Price? $105
Amid wild cost fluctuations and extreme weather conditions, a small army of workers toiled for years at Wyckoff’s Christmas Tree Farm in Belvidere, N.J. The...
Microsoft Agrees to Remain Neutral in Union Campaigns
Punctuating a year of major gains for organized labor, Microsoft has announced that it will stay neutral if any group of U.S.-based workers seeks to...
Is Jerome Powell’s Fed Pulling Off a Soft Landing?
The Federal Reserve appears to be creeping closer to an outcome that its own staff economists viewed as unlikely just six months ago: lowering inflation...
The Debt Problem Is Enormous. Experts Say the System for Fixing It Is Broken
Martin Guzman was a college freshman at La Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Argentina, in 2001 when a debt crisis prompted default, riots and a...
Prices for Some Goods Are Actually Falling This Holiday Season
American shoppers, burned by more than two years of rapid inflation, are getting some welcome relief this holiday season: Prices on many products are falling....
High Housing Prices May Pose a Problem for Biden
Cameron Ambrosy spent the first weekend of December going to 10 open houses — purely for research purposes. The 25-year-old in St. Paul, Minn., has...
My Not-So-Perfect Holiday Shopping Excursion With A.I. Chatbots
In addition to Shopify, chatbots have come out over the past 12 months from Instacart, the delivery company; Mercari, a resale platform; Carrefour, a retailer;...
The Stock and Bond Markets Are Getting Ahead of the Fed.
It’s too early to start celebrating. That’s the Federal Reserve’s sober message — though given half a chance, the markets won’t heed it. In a...
Federal Regulators Seek to Force Starbucks to Reopen 23 Stores
Federal labor regulators accused Starbucks on Wednesday of illegally closing 23 stores to suppress organizing activity and sought to force the company to reopen them....
What to Watch at the Fed’s Final Meeting of 2023
Federal Reserve officials will wrap up a year of aggressive inflation fighting on Wednesday afternoon, when they are expected to use their final policy decision...
Lawmakers Call for Raising Tariffs and Severing Economic Ties With China
Bipartisan lawmakers on Tuesday called for severing more of America’s economic and financial ties with China, including revoking the low tariff rates that the United...
Biden Administration Chooses Military Supplier for First Chips Act Grant
The Biden administration announced on Monday that BAE Systems, a defense contractor, will receive the first federal grant from a new program aimed at shoring...