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Category: Economics/Business

As Trump raised tariffs, fines for money laundering fell by 61%

As Trump raised tariffs, fines for money laundering fell by 61%

PYMNTS reports: American regulators collected 61% less in money laundering/sanction breach fines in 2025. That’s according to a report Wednesday (Dec. 31) by the Financial Times (FT), which ties this decline to a more lenient approach to financial regulation under the Trump administration. Total fines levied against companies for what the FT calls “dirty money” offenses came to a little less than $1.7 billion as of Dec. 19, the report said, citing data from compliance software provider Fenergo. Last year,…

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The dollar is facing an end to its dominance as global alternatives are emerging

The dollar is facing an end to its dominance as global alternatives are emerging

Wired reports: 2026 will be the year when US dollar dilution—the quiet erosion of its global dominance as countries trade and pay in alternatives—starts to build momentum. The more Washington uses the dollar as a weapon, the more the world builds ways to circumvent it. America’s share of global trade has fallen from one-third in 2000 to just one-quarter today. As emerging economies trade more with each other, the dollar is less central to the flow of goods. Indian and…

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A wealth tax proposed in California has billionaires thinking of leaving

A wealth tax proposed in California has billionaires thinking of leaving

The New York Times reports: Billionaires including Peter Thiel, the tech venture capitalist, and Larry Page, a co-founder of Google, are considering cutting or reducing their ties to California by the end of the year because of a proposed ballot measure that could tax the state’s wealthiest residents, according to five people familiar with their thinking. Mr. Thiel, 58, who owns a home in the Hollywood Hills and operates a personal investment firm from Los Angeles, has explored opening an…

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Bankruptcies are exploding across the U.S. economy

Bankruptcies are exploding across the U.S. economy

Business Insider reports: Bankruptcies aren’t just rising — they’re suddenly everywhere. From billion-dollar giants to mom-and-pop shops to everyday individuals, bankruptcies are piling up across the US this year, with large corporate bankruptcies already hitting their highest level in 15 years. The surge in bankruptcies highlights the growing financial pressures facing consumers and companies as costs climb amid a tougher borrowing environment. “Rising costs, tighter credit conditions, and ongoing geopolitical volatility continue to exert pressure on households and businesses already…

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GDP ‘nowhere near’ 4.3%: economist dismisses Q3 report as ‘fugazi,’ pegs real growth at 0.8%

GDP ‘nowhere near’ 4.3%: economist dismisses Q3 report as ‘fugazi,’ pegs real growth at 0.8%

Benzinga reports: While the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reported a robust 4.3% annual increase in third-quarter real gross domestic product (GDP) on Tuesday, economist David Rosenberg is calling the headline number a “fugazi.” The president of Rosenberg Research argues that underlying economic weakness is being masked by government spending and depleted savings, calculating “true” growth at a meager 0.8%. The official BEA release shows widespread gains, with real GDP accelerating from 3.8% in the second quarter to 4.3%…

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America’s biggest oil field is turning into a pressure cooker creating a huge toxic mess

America’s biggest oil field is turning into a pressure cooker creating a huge toxic mess

The Wall Street Journal reports: Shale drillers have turned the biggest oil field in the U.S. into a pressure cooker that is literally bursting at the seams. Producers in the Permian Basin of West Texas and New Mexico extract roughly half of the U.S.’s crude. They also produce copious amounts of toxic, salty water, which they pump back into the ground. Now, some of the reservoirs that collect the fluids are overflowing—and the producers keep injecting more. It is creating…

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How Trump upended the rules-based global order

How Trump upended the rules-based global order

Patrick Wintour writes: ‘The old world is dying,” Antonio Gramsci once wrote. “And the new world struggles to be born.” In such interregnums, the Italian Marxist philosopher suggested, “every act, even the smallest, may acquire decisive weight”. In 2025, western leaders appeared convinced they – and we – were living through one such transitional period, as the world of international relations established after the second world war crashed to a halt. During such eras, Gramsci more famously wrote, “morbid phenomena…

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America’s trade dominance may soon begin to crack

America’s trade dominance may soon begin to crack

Cory Doctorow writes: In 2026, the leaders of America’s (former) trading partners are going to have to grapple with the political consequences of tit-for-tat tariffs. A tariff is a tax paid by consumers, and if there’s one thing the past four years have taught us, it’s that the public will not forgive a politician who presides over a period of rising prices, no matter what the cause. Luckily for the political fortunes of the world’s leaders, there is a better…

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U.S. oil blockade of Venezuela is pushing Cuba toward economic collapse

U.S. oil blockade of Venezuela is pushing Cuba toward economic collapse

The Wall Street Journal reports: Cubans are going hungry, suffering from spreading disease and sleeping outdoors with no electricity to power fans through the sweltering nights. A quarter of the population has fled during the island’s most prolonged economic crisis. And it’s about to get worse. The U.S. is ratcheting up pressure on Havana’s key benefactor, Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro’s regime, which has kept the Communist-ruled nation afloat with cheap oil. Now Venezuelan oil exports are at risk thanks to…

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Adventure capitalism on the precipice: Climate denying grifters go into fusion

Adventure capitalism on the precipice: Climate denying grifters go into fusion

Announcing the planned merger of Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) and fusion power company, TAE Technologies, Michael B. Schwab (son of Charles Schwab, who just launched “Trump Accounts”), who is expected to be the chairman of the new company said: With the infusion of TMTG’s significant capital, TAE is on the precipice of scaling its leading technology to usher in a new era of energy abundance. The world needs energy, and fusion is the clear answer. The New York…

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China is pouring vast resources into fusion research

China is pouring vast resources into fusion research

The New York Times reports: China’s government has made fusion a national priority, marshaling resources at daunting speed. Recently, a Shanghai start-up essentially matched an engineering breakthrough by America’s best-funded fusion company, Commonwealth Fusion Systems, in much less time. Over the summer, the Chinese government and private investors poured $2.1 billion into a new state-owned fusion company. That investment alone is two and a half times the U.S. Energy Department’s annual fusion budget. The two countries’ progress could soon be…

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Who would trust a 22-year-old AI billionaire with the global economy?

Who would trust a 22-year-old AI billionaire with the global economy?

Lila Shroff writes: Brendan Foody is 22 years old and runs a company worth billions. This August, I met the young CEO in a glass conference room overlooking the San Francisco Bay. While his peers are searching for their first jobs, Foody is pursuing a “master plan,” as he calls it, to upend the global labor market. His start-up, Mercor, offers an AI-powered hiring platform: Bots weed through résumés, and even conduct interviews. In the next five years, Foody told…

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Is Israel’s genocide economy on the brink?

Is Israel’s genocide economy on the brink?

+972 Magazine reports: Since October 2023, Israel has faced a convergence of economic shocks. Tens of thousands of residents have been displaced from border regions in the south and north as a result of hostilities with Hamas and Hezbollah, while hundreds of thousands of reservists were pulled out of the workforce for extended periods, leaving key sectors short-staffed and productivity depleted. Public services, education, and healthcare have deteriorated as state spending was diverted to the war, and almost 50,000 businesses…

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CoreWeave’s staggering fall in value highlights AI bubble fears

CoreWeave’s staggering fall in value highlights AI bubble fears

The Wall Street Journal reports: CoreWeave, the largest of a new breed of companies driving the artificial-intelligence boom, has watched $33 billion of value vaporize in six weeks. The share-price plunge of 46% comes as investors worry about a possible AI bubble, the fallout from a failed merger and public criticism from high-profile short seller Jim Chanos, known for predicting the collapse of Enron. But some of the high-tech company’s biggest problems began with a very low-tech nuisance: unexpectedly turbulent…

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Wall Street sees AI bubble coming and is betting on what pops it

Wall Street sees AI bubble coming and is betting on what pops it

Bloomberg reports: It’s been three years since OpenAI set off euphoria over artificial intelligence with the release of ChatGPT. And while the money is still pouring in, so are the doubts about whether the good times can last. From a recent selloff in the shares of Nvidia Corp., to Oracle Corp.’s plunge after reporting mounting spending on AI, to souring sentiment around a network of companies exposed to OpenAI, signs of skepticism are increasing. Looking to 2026, the debate among…

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Oracle’s plunging stock shows the AI boom is running into two hard limits: physics and debt markets

Oracle’s plunging stock shows the AI boom is running into two hard limits: physics and debt markets

Fortune reports: Oracle’s rapid descent from market darling to market warning sign is revealing something deeper about the AI boom, experts say: no matter how euphoric investors became over the last two years, the industry can’t outrun the laws of physics—or the realities of debt financing. Shares of Oracle have plunged 45% from their September high and lost 14% this week after a messy earnings report revealed it spent $12 billion in quarterly capital expenditures, higher than the $8.25 billion…

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