Category: Markets and Macro

Kent Smetters, who leads the Penn Wharton Budget Model at the University of Pennsylvania, has labeled President Trump’s broad tariff regime a “dirty tax” that will deepen America’s debt crisis rather than solve it. With total public debt outstanding now at $38.6 trillion, according to Fortune’s reporting on the interview, the warning carries weight. Tariff…

Governor Kathy Hochul’s Fiscal Year 2027 Executive Budget has grown beyond its original $260 billion all-funds projection after a $1.5 billion state aid package for New York City, announced jointly with Mayor Zohran Mamdani on February 16, 2026. The infusion, split between $1 billion for City Fiscal Year 2026 and $510 million for City Fiscal…

Initial jobless claims fell to their lowest level of 2026, according to the latest weekly data from the Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration. The drop suggests layoffs may be easing, reinforcing a picture of labor market stabilization that Federal Reserve officials have described in recent communications. For workers, employers, and investors watching for…

President Donald Trump doubled Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from 25% to 50%, effective June 4, 2025, in a move that lifted domestic producers but sent costs rippling through industries that depend on cheap metal. The policy, announced during a speech to steelworkers in Pennsylvania on May 30, 2025, was framed as…

Mark Cuban recently directed a blunt message at the biggest names in technology, arguing that their AI strategies are failing the vast majority of American businesses. His comments cut to a tension that has been building for months: while trillion-dollar companies race to build ever-larger AI models, the overwhelming share of U.S. firms operate without…

Foreign investors bought U.S. stocks at the fastest clip in at least a decade during 2025, even as President Donald Trump’s escalating tariff regime rattled global trade and prompted widespread predictions of capital flight from American markets. According to Bloomberg, net foreign purchases of U.S. equities jumped 134% year over year, with overseas buyers snapping…

President Donald Trump approved Japan’s first $36 billion batch of U.S. investments on February 17, 2026, directing capital into energy and materials projects across Ohio, Texas, and Georgia. The deals represent the opening tranche of a $550 billion pledge that Japan made in exchange for relief from American tariffs on its exports. For Japanese manufacturers…

SoftBank’s energy subsidiary plans to build a $33 billion natural gas power plant near Portsmouth, Ohio, a facility so large it would become the biggest of its kind in the United States. The Portsmouth Powered Land Project, with a planned capacity of 9.2 gigawatts, sits at the center of a sweeping U.S.-Japan investment deal and…

Economic strategist Jim Rickards has issued back-to-back warnings projecting a 50% market collapse tied to the 2024 U.S. election cycle, citing political instability, dollar erosion, and the threat of civil unrest as converging forces. The predictions, distributed through press releases in October 2024, arrive without backing from federal agencies or independent economic models, yet they…

The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) has issued an order that would reduce certain FirstEnergy electric charges in its Ohio service territories, a move described by state officials as cutting roughly $39.4 million in net annual revenue for the utility. In a statement about the decision, state Rep. Sean P. Brennan said updated tariffs…