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Category: Economics/Business

Is the U.S. secretly sneaking oil through the Strait of Hormuz, as Trump claims?

Is the U.S. secretly sneaking oil through the Strait of Hormuz, as Trump claims?

ABC News reports: Soon after President Donald Trump said in the Oval Office on Wednesday that the United States has been secretly ferrying “millions of barrels” of oil through the Strait of Hormuz, Trump announced on social media that “more than 100 MILLION Barrels of Oil” and “more than 200 Commercial Ships” have successfully traveled through the strait. “Last month, I directed our Great U.S. Military to execute a secret mission to support Oil Tankers and other Commercial Ships through…

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Three days of clashes show Iran war entering dangerous new phase. Trump says: ‘I love the inflation’

Three days of clashes show Iran war entering dangerous new phase. Trump says: ‘I love the inflation’

The Wall Street Journal reports: The U.S. and Iran are entering a risky new phase of conflict in which both sides are attempting to maintain pressure and respond to provocations without returning to all-out war, but with an ever-present danger of stumbling across each other’s red lines and triggering a dangerous escalation. Recent days of hostilities showed how close the two foes have come to the edge even while trying to keep their military actions measured. Iran struck directly at…

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The billionaires’ billions are increasing faster than ever

The billionaires’ billions are increasing faster than ever

The New York Times reports: Fifteen years ago, the world’s billionaires collectively had $4.5 trillion. By 2024, their wealth had more than tripled to $14.2 trillion. Now, their combined wealth totals $20.1 trillion — an amount that is equivalent to nearly a fifth of the entire world’s total yearly output. The stunning figures — calculated by the French economist Gabriel Zucman, director of the International Tax Observatory, a research organization funded by the European Union — reveal more than a…

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Solar now provides more power than coal in the U.S., despite Trump’s efforts to boost dirty energy

Solar now provides more power than coal in the U.S., despite Trump’s efforts to boost dirty energy

The Associated Press reports: Even as President Donald Trump boosts coal over clean energy, solar power is hitting new milestones in the U.S. and remains the leading source of new power. Data released Wednesday by global energy think tank Ember, along with a report by the Solar Energy Industries Association and analytics firm Wood Mackenzie, show the continued growth of solar and decline of coal in the United States despite federal policy. In May, for the first time, solar supplied…

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Trump family got about $500M from crypto venture. Investors saw steep losses

Trump family got about $500M from crypto venture. Investors saw steep losses

CNBC reports: Back in August, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. were all smiles. They showed up at the Nasdaq stock exchange in New York to celebrate a new business partnership with a little-known publicly traded company, then called Alt5 Sigma, to give investors easier access to a cryptocurrency backed by the Trump family. Less than 10 months later, the company has warned investors it may not be able to stay in business much longer. Its share price has fallen…

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Oil industry warns Trump administration of price spikes within weeks. White House in denial

Oil industry warns Trump administration of price spikes within weeks. White House in denial

Politico reports: The oil industry is warning the Trump administration that a Hormuz-sized hole in the world’s petroleum market is steadily draining inventories to levels that are likely to send global energy prices surging in the next several weeks, according to four executives. Industry executives have flagged the issue to senior White House officials and Cabinet members in recent weeks as part of the Trump administration’s ongoing dialogue with the U.S. energy industry, the people said. The warnings came as…

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Pulling customs from ‘sanctuary’ city airports would cause chaos nationally, business groups say

Pulling customs from ‘sanctuary’ city airports would cause chaos nationally, business groups say

The New York Times reports: Travel industry and business leaders are denouncing a proposal by Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin to remove customs officers from airports in liberal cities, saying it would create havoc for travelers and jeopardize the travel economy at some of the nation’s largest ports of entry. The idea, which Mr. Mullin has floated on cable television interviews, is designed to punish so-called sanctuary cities that limit their cooperation with federal immigration authorities. Customs officers monitor goods…

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Rock-bottom immigration rates may cause longterm harm to the U.S. economy

Rock-bottom immigration rates may cause longterm harm to the U.S. economy

Axios reports: President Trump’s immigration crackdown is causing one of the sharpest slowdowns in U.S. population growth in decades. Economists are beginning to tally the effects, with some warning that the damage will stick around. Why it matters: The policy-driven immigration reversal underway has few modern parallels. The immediate result is evident in monthly employment figures, with the economy cranking out fewer jobs. But over time, fewer immigrants could be a productivity drag lasting well into the second half of this…

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It’s not just high gas prices – inflation is now spreading through the economy

It’s not just high gas prices – inflation is now spreading through the economy

As the cost of gas stays high due to Middle East tensions, it’s spilling over into U.S. consumer spending more broadly and creating a conundrum for the Federal Reserve. AP Photo/David Zalubowski By D. Brian Blank, Mississippi State University and Brandy Hadley, Appalachian State University Americans don’t need a press release to know that inflation is rising. Gasoline is above $4 per gallon amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East and closure of the Strait of Hormuz, and the…

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Trump clears way for companies to dodge taxes in havens like Malta, Bermuda, and Cyprus

Trump clears way for companies to dodge taxes in havens like Malta, Bermuda, and Cyprus

The New York Times reports: A year ago, the Trump administration withdrew from a global effort to curb offshore tax-dodging by multinational companies. That decision has been a huge gift to corporate America, enabling companies to avoid at least $40 billion in income taxes since the beginning of 2025. A New York Times review of securities filings from nearly 500 companies showed that they avoided taxes by attributing hundreds of billions of dollars in earnings to low- or no-tax foreign…

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The high-seas black market that keeps Iran’s sanctioned oil flowing

The high-seas black market that keeps Iran’s sanctioned oil flowing

The Wall Street Journal reports: In this nautical no-man’s-land 45 miles off the coast of Malaysia, tankers laden with sanctioned Iranian oil sit low in the water, waiting to offload their cargo to vessels bound for Chinese refineries. They lower tarps and other objects over the names on their hulls and use black paint to conceal identity numbers. They’re here to carry out an elaborate deception: offshore trysts known as ship-to-ship transfers, in which one vessel offloads sanctioned oil onto…

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The AI boom is heading toward a massive financial crash

The AI boom is heading toward a massive financial crash

Joachim Klement writes: I calculate that over the past four quarters, 93 per cent of US GDP growth was explained by tech investments. Even at the peak of the technology, media and telecom bubble [which burst in 2000], it barely reached 60 per cent. The developers of large language models such as OpenAI and Anthropic are preparing for blockbuster initial public offerings later this year to benefit from investor optimism about their growth. Meanwhile, the hyperscalers Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta…

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AI costs are hitting corporate America

AI costs are hitting corporate America

Axios reports: Corporate leaders are starting to question whether soaring AI spending is delivering meaningful returns. Why it matters: Companies that rushed to embrace AI are now confronting ballooning IT costs, uncertain productivity gains and growing employee skepticism. Driving the news: Microsoft canceled most of its Claude Code licenses, in part over costs, according to The Verge, and Uber’s COO said AI costs are getting “harder to justify.” An AI consultant tells Axios one of their clients recently spent half a billion dollars in a single…

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Uber’s COO says it’s getting harder to justify the money spent on AI tokenmaxxing

Uber’s COO says it’s getting harder to justify the money spent on AI tokenmaxxing

Business Insider reports: A top Uber exec said AI is not giving the company bang for its buck. In a Rapid Response interview released on Saturday, Uber’s operations chief, Andrew Macdonald, said it was becoming harder to justify AI costs within the company. He said that Uber CTO Praveen Neppalli Naga went viral after telling The Information in an April interview that Uber had already blown through its Claude Code budget for 2026. The comment led to what he described…

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The world is heading toward a financial crisis. ‘The political fundamentals are really bad’

The world is heading toward a financial crisis. ‘The political fundamentals are really bad’

Eduardo Porter writes: A bona fide financial crisis has not broken out since the US housing meltdown of 2007. Even the Covid pandemic and subsequent upsurge in inflation didn’t lead to financial upheaval. The jitters produced by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in 2023 were soon forgotten. Given this stability, it might take some effort to convince financial markets that another big one is around the corner. But it is. Financial markets and their regulating governments may believe they…

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Lawyers, policy experts, and business leaders react to Trump’ green card crackdown

Lawyers, policy experts, and business leaders react to Trump’ green card crackdown

Business Insider reports: President Donald Trump’s latest immigration crackdown is triggering alarm, confusion, and fierce debate among lawyers, advocates, and many in the business world who rely on visa holders for skilled labor. On Friday, US Citizenship and Immigration Services announced it would grant “adjustment of status” — the process that allows some immigrants already in the US to apply for a green card without leaving the country — “only in extraordinary circumstances,” potentially forcing many applicants to return to…

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