Browsed by
Category: Economics/Business

Powerful Americans are acting with no more courage than their Hungarian counterparts

Powerful Americans are acting with no more courage than their Hungarian counterparts

David Pressman writes: As the most recent U.S. ambassador to Viktor Orban’s Hungary, I’m often asked if the Trump administration’s tactics and policies feel familiar. The short answer is yes. But the more important — and unsettling — question is this: Does the way Americans are responding feel familiar, too? After years watching Hungary suffocate under the weight of its democratic collapse, I came to understand that the real danger of a strongman isn’t his tactics; it’s how others, especially…

Read More Read More

Silicon Valley AI startups embrace China’s grueling ‘996’ work schedule

Silicon Valley AI startups embrace China’s grueling ‘996’ work schedule

Wired reports: Would you like to work nearly double the standard 40-hour week? It’s a question that many startups in the US are asking prospective employees—and to get the job, the answer needs to be an unequivocal yes. These companies are embracing an intense schedule, first popularized in mainland China, known as “996,” or 9 am to 9 pm, six days a week. In other words, it’s a 72-hour work week. The 996 phenomenon in China gave rise to major…

Read More Read More

The ‘enshittification’ of American power

The ‘enshittification’ of American power

Wired reports: For decades, allies of the United States lived comfortably amid the sprawl of American hegemony. They constructed their financial institutions, communications systems, and national defense on top of infrastructure provided by the US. And right about now, they’re probably wishing they hadn’t. Back in 2022, Cory Doctorow coined the term “enshittification” to describe a cycle that has played out again and again in the online economy. Entrepreneurs start off making high-minded promises to get new users to try…

Read More Read More

America’s allies want to redraw the global trade map, minus the U.S., with Europe at the center

America’s allies want to redraw the global trade map, minus the U.S., with Europe at the center

The New York Times reports: Trade chaos is forcing America’s allies closer together, and further from the United States. And as that happens, the European Union is trying to position itself at the center of a new global trade map. The bloc learned this weekend that Washington would subject it to 30 percent tariffs starting Aug. 1. Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the E.U. executive branch, responded with a pledge to keep negotiating. She also made it clear…

Read More Read More

Scientists discover what’s driving record die-offs of America’s honeybees

Scientists discover what’s driving record die-offs of America’s honeybees

The Guardian reports: Bret Adee is one of the largest beekeepers in the US, with 2 billion bees across 55,000 hives. The business has been in his family since the 1930s, and sends truckloads of bees across the country from South Dakota, pollinating crops such as almonds, onions, watermelons and cucumbers. Last December, his bees were wintering in California when the weather turned cold. Bees grouped on top of hives trying to keep warm. “Every time I went out to…

Read More Read More

Trump has become an agent of chaos disrupting global trade

Trump has become an agent of chaos disrupting global trade

The New York Times reports: Six months into his new administration, President Trump’s assault on global trade has lost any semblance of organization or structure. He has changed deadlines suddenly. He has blown up negotiations at the 11th hour, often raising unexpected issues. He has tied his tariffs to complaints that have nothing to do with trade, like Brazil’s treatment of its former president, Jair Bolsonaro, or the flow of fentanyl from Canada. Talks with the United States were like…

Read More Read More

In Brazil, Trump challenges a country — and a leader — ready for a fight

In Brazil, Trump challenges a country — and a leader — ready for a fight

The Washington Post reports: Since returning to the White House, President Donald Trump has used trade as a cudgel to exert concessions from smaller nations. But Brazil, his newest tariff target, is a much more formidable adversary, analysts said, and is less likely to bend to pressure from Washington. Latin America’s largest nation has a relatively closed economy, more insulated than many of its peers from fluctuations in global trade. China, not the United States, is now Brazil’s leading trade…

Read More Read More

‘Essential isn’t a strong enough word’: Loss of foreign workers begins to bite U.S. economy

‘Essential isn’t a strong enough word’: Loss of foreign workers begins to bite U.S. economy

Politico reports: President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigration is starting to ripple across the U.S. economy. From small farms in California, to meat packing facilities in Nebraska to corporate giants like Disney, businesses are scrambling to replace workers after recent administration actions have taken immigrants, both legal and illegal, out of the labor force, including several hundred thousand people who had been given temporary work permits under President Joe Biden. That’s because foreign-born workers, or their relatives, have become critical…

Read More Read More

U.S. farm secretary says ‘no amnesty’ for farmworkers from deportation

U.S. farm secretary says ‘no amnesty’ for farmworkers from deportation

Reuters reports: U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said on Tuesday that there will be “no amnesty” for agricultural workers as President Donald Trump’s administration moves to deport all immigrants in the country illegally. Rollins said the administration wants a 100% American workforce and suggested some people receiving government aid could replace immigrant workers. “Ultimately, the answer on this is automation, also some reform within the current governing structure. And then also, when you think about, there are 34 million able-bodied…

Read More Read More

The rule of law is key to capitalism − eroding it is bad news for American business

The rule of law is key to capitalism − eroding it is bad news for American business

By Robert Bird, University of Connecticut Something dangerous is happening to the U.S. economy, and it’s not inflation or trade wars. Chaotic deregulation and the selective enforcement of laws have upended markets and investor confidence. At one point, the threat of tariffs and resulting chaos evaporated US$4 trillion in value in the U.S. stock market. This approach isn’t helping the economy, and there are troubling signs it will hurt both the U.S. and the global economy in the short and…

Read More Read More

ICE raids derail Los Angeles economy as workers go into hiding

ICE raids derail Los Angeles economy as workers go into hiding

Bloomberg reports: Los Angeles was already struggling to revive its fragile economy after the most destructive wildfires in its history erupted six months ago. Now, immigration raids are driving workers crucial to the rebuilding into the shadows. Framers and landscapers are abandoning job sites. Renovations of retail shops have stopped midway. Real estate developers say they are struggling to find crews to keep projects on track in a sector that relies heavily on immigrant labour. “We don’t have enough people…

Read More Read More

Immigration raids leave crops unharvested, California farms at risk — ‘70% of the workers are gone’

Immigration raids leave crops unharvested, California farms at risk — ‘70% of the workers are gone’

Reuters reports: Lisa Tate is a sixth-generation farmer in Ventura County, California, an area that produces billions of dollars worth of fruit and vegetables each year, much of it hand-picked by immigrants in the U.S. illegally. Tate knows the farms around her well. And she says she can see with her own eyes how raids carried out by agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the area’s fields earlier this month, part of President Donald Trump’s migration crackdown, have…

Read More Read More

Wall Street panics over the prospect of a socialist becoming the mayor of New York City

Wall Street panics over the prospect of a socialist becoming the mayor of New York City

The Wall Street Journal reports: On Wednesday morning, the world’s epicenter of capitalism woke up to find it might soon have a socialist mayor. Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani’s stunning win over former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the New York City Democratic primary for mayor shocked Wall Street. Some of the world’s most influential and powerful financiers were left grasping to understand what Mamdani’s victory would mean for their industry—and whether they would leave the city. “It’s officially hot commie summer,”…

Read More Read More

Roman gravestones hint that ancient economies still shape the present

Roman gravestones hint that ancient economies still shape the present

Science reports: There’s a lot more than just raw materials within the medicines in your bathroom cabinet or the watch on your wrist. These objects are also packed with knowledge, which is why they can only be produced by complex economies with the right mix of know-how, infrastructure, and technology. A new analysis of Roman gravestones, presented at the NetSci conference in Maastricht, Netherlands, on 4 June, suggests this kind of knowledge tends to stick in place—even over thousands of…

Read More Read More

Companies warn SEC that mass deportations pose major economic risk

Companies warn SEC that mass deportations pose major economic risk

Wired reports: As the Trump administration executes an aggressive deportation campaign across the United States, a growing number of US companies warn that the crackdown could threaten their operations. Since January, more than 40 companies have mentioned the impact of deportations in filings to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, with many saying it could hurt the labor force, increase the risk of a recession, or create more economic uncertainty, according to 74 filings reviewed by WIRED. The impacted industries…

Read More Read More

X drums up ad business with threats and intimidation

X drums up ad business with threats and intimidation

The Wall Street Journal reports: Late last year, Verizon Communications got an unusual message from a media company that wanted its business: Spend your ad dollars with us or we’ll see you in court. The threat came from X, the social-media platform that has been struggling to resuscitate its ad business after many corporate advertisers fled over concerns about loosened content-moderation standards following Elon Musk’s $44 billion purchase in late 2022. It worked. Verizon, which hadn’t advertised on X since…

Read More Read More