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Category: Economics/Business

War set to cost Israel $3 billion a week if current limits on economy persist, ministry warns

War set to cost Israel $3 billion a week if current limits on economy persist, ministry warns

The Times of Israel reports: The cost to Israel’s economy from the war with Iran is estimated to reach NIS 9.4 billion ($3 billion) a week, if nationwide restrictions on economic activity remain in place, the Finance Ministry warned on Wednesday. In a letter sent to Home Front Command chief Maj. Gen. Shai Klapper on Wednesday, Finance Ministry Director General Ilan Rom asked to ease restrictions to allow for a gradual, partial reopening of businesses and workplaces as early as…

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Oil prices soar amid worries of sustained war in Iran

Oil prices soar amid worries of sustained war in Iran

The Washington Post reports: The widening conflict in Iran is shaking financial and energy markets worldwide as tankers in a key shipping corridor are targeted and oil prices begin to soar, threatening to escalate the affordability crunch facing U.S. voters. Major stock indexes recovered midday after a heavy morning of losses. Around 1:30 p.m. Eastern time, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was slightly in the red and effectively flat. The S&P 500 index also was flat. The Nasdaq tipped into…

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The money behind the war against Iran

The money behind the war against Iran

Judd Legum writes: In private calls over the last several weeks, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) reportedly urged President Trump to attack Iran. Iran is a top regional rival of Saudi Arabia, and MBS had become concerned about Iran’s growing military capabilities. The lobbying campaign achieved success on Saturday, when Trump announced he had begun “major combat operations in Iran.” Trump launched a war even though U.S. intelligence assessed that Iran posed no imminent threat to the United…

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Strait of Hormuz: If the Iran conflict shuts world’s most important oil chokepoint, global economic chaos could follow

Strait of Hormuz: If the Iran conflict shuts world’s most important oil chokepoint, global economic chaos could follow

By Sarah Schiffling, Hanken School of Economics The reported sinking of several Iranian warships by US missiles in the Gulf of Oman serves as a reminder of the maritime aspect of the conflict which began February 28 with a barrage of Israeli and American missiles targeting Iran. Two other vessels, believed to be tankers, have also been reported as having been hit by missiles, of an as yet undetermined source, in the vicinity of the Strait of Hormuz, underlining the…

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‘Dubai’s nightmare’: Iranian missile and drone strikes shatter calm of Arabian Gulf business hub

‘Dubai’s nightmare’: Iranian missile and drone strikes shatter calm of Arabian Gulf business hub

Middle East Eye reports: Iran unleashed a furious missile and drone assault across the Arabian Gulf on Saturday in response to a surprise US-Israeli attack, but one city in particular appeared to bear the brunt of it: Dubai. The Gulf emirate, one of seven in the UAE, is the region’s good-time capital, where lucrative business deals can be sealed and celebrated. On Saturday, it was engulfed in billowing smoke and flames as missiles and drones rained down on it. The…

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The State of the Union for small business is dismal

The State of the Union for small business is dismal

Matthew A. Winkler writes: Donald Trump’s State of the Union is unlike any of the President’s preceding him because America isn’t working the way it used to. Small businesses, which have fewer than 500 employees and account for almost half of private sector payrolls, are suffering record bankruptcies and “still waiting for noticeable economic growth” as US gross domestic product continues to climb, the Republican-leaning National Federation of Independent Business reported last month. The agricultural economy is sliding, with barely…

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Massive investment in AI has contributed nothing to economic growth last year, Goldman Sachs has calculated

Massive investment in AI has contributed nothing to economic growth last year, Goldman Sachs has calculated

The Washington Post reports: A new economic indicator has captivated Silicon Valley, Wall Street and Washington. Technology companies’ massive spending on artificial intelligence accounted for half or more of U.S. growth last year, some economists calculated, effectively propping up an otherwise anemic economy. To President Donald Trump and his advisers, the figures showed that AI is helping spark an economic renaissance that must not be impeded by regulation. To some critics, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York), the data revealed…

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How AI agents could destroy the economy

How AI agents could destroy the economy

Bloomberg reports: Delivery, payments, and software stocks slid sharply Monday after Citrini Research published a report laying out the potential risks that artificial intelligence could pose to various segments of the global economy. DoorDash Inc., American Express Co., KKR & Co Inc. and Blackstone Inc all slumped more than 8%. Shares of other companies name-checked in the article, including Uber Technologies Inc., Mastercard Inc., Visa Inc., Capital One Financial Corp. and Apollo Global Management Inc. were all lower by at…

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As corporate America stayed silent, a small wine importer risked his business to challenge Trump’s tariffs

As corporate America stayed silent, a small wine importer risked his business to challenge Trump’s tariffs

CNN reports: When President Donald Trump announced plans to raise the nation’s effective tariff rate to levels not seen since 1930 last year, most CEOs were silent. They’d seen how opposing the president’s ambitions – let alone his signature economic policy – could prove even more costly than the policies he enacted. With billions in annual revenue at stake, the leaders of multinational corporations generally stood still. But Victor Schwartz, the owner of small New York-based wine importer VOS Selections,…

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From ‘buy America’ to ‘bye-bye America’, Wall Street investor exodus gathers pace

From ‘buy America’ to ‘bye-bye America’, Wall Street investor exodus gathers pace

Reuters reports: U.S. investors are pulling money out of their own stock market at the fastest pace in at least 16 years as Big Tech returns fade and better-performing overseas markets look more attractive. In the last six months, U.S.-domiciled investors have pulled some $75 billion from U.S. equity products, with $52 billion flowing out since the start of 2026 alone, the most in the first eight weeks of the year since at least 2010, according to LSEG/Lipper data. The…

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The Supreme Court’s ruling on tariffs marks a turning point

The Supreme Court’s ruling on tariffs marks a turning point

Noah Feldman writes: It took almost a decade, but Chief Justice John Roberts and the Supreme Court finally found a way to stand up to President Donald Trump’s executive power overreach, striking down the tariffs that are the signature initiative of his presidency. Not since the Supreme Court struck down the first New Deal in 1935 has the court reversed a policy of comparable importance to a sitting president. The 6-3 decision gives Trump two options. He can accept the…

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Even after losing at the Supreme Court, Trump has plenty of ways to reconstruct his trade regime

Even after losing at the Supreme Court, Trump has plenty of ways to reconstruct his trade regime

Rogé Karma writes: The Trump tariffs are dead. Long live the Trump tariffs? This morning, in a 6–3 opinion, the Supreme Court struck down the bulk of the president’s sweeping global tariffs. The majority ruled that the law Donald Trump had used to carry out most of his trade policies does not, in fact, allow the president to impose tariffs at all. This is a major setback for Trump’s trade agenda, but it is far from a fatal one. The…

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WSJ: The embarrassing truth about tariffs

WSJ: The embarrassing truth about tariffs

In an editorial, the Wall Street Journal says: The White House this week opened a new front in its war on the Federal Reserve: a fight about Fed research on the consequences of President Trump’s tariffs. If the tariffs are such an unambiguous economic and political winner, why is the Administration so defensive about them? The flap concerns the analysis we told you about last week by four economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. They found that…

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Billionaires’ low taxes are becoming a problem for the economy

Billionaires’ low taxes are becoming a problem for the economy

In the Wall Street Journal, Carol Ryan writes: [D]ebate about how much tax billionaires pay is likely to grow as America’s fiscal situation deteriorates and its wealth gap widens. Data from the Federal Reserve shows that only the richest 1% of households have grown their share of overall U.S. wealth since 1990. Their share hit a record 32% in the third quarter of 2025, equivalent to $54.8 trillion. Gains made by the billionaire class, the very top 0.1% of households…

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Hassett says Fed staff should be ‘disciplined’ for revealing how much Trump’s tariffs cost Americans

Hassett says Fed staff should be ‘disciplined’ for revealing how much Trump’s tariffs cost Americans

Politico reports: White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett on Wednesday said staffers at the New York Federal Reserve should be punished for producing research that found most of President Donald Trump’s tariffs are being paid by U.S. firms and consumers. Hassett on CNBC called the paper, co-authored by four people including the New York Fed’s head of labor and product markets, “an embarrassment” and “the worst paper I’ve ever seen in the history of the Federal Reserve System.” “The people…

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As Trump retreats from climate goals, China is becoming a green superpower

As Trump retreats from climate goals, China is becoming a green superpower

BBC News reports: China has created a desert that no longer just reflects the Sun. It captures it. Aluminium soaks up the rays on the golden dunes of Inner Mongolia, transforming one of the harshest landscapes into one of the world’s largest solar farms. Xin Guiyi, who has lived here all his life, seems to welcome the change. “It used to be so dry and the desert was getting bigger,” he explains, as he mixes feed for his small flock…

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