The Farmers Had What the Billionaires Wanted
When Jan Sramek walked into the American Legion post in Rio Vista, Calif., for a town-hall meeting last month, everyone in the room knew that he was really just there…
A Fed Governor Reiterates That Rate Cuts Are Coming
A prominent Federal Reserve official on Tuesday laid out a case for lowering interest rates methodically at some point this year as the economy comes into balance and inflation cools…
New U.S. Solar and Electric Car Factories Face Familiar Challenge: China
The Biden administration has begun pumping more than $2 trillion into U.S. factories and infrastructure, investing huge sums to try to strengthen American industry and fight climate change. But the…
The Mystery of the Coin That Shouldn’t Exist
A decade ago, a funny money mystery fell into the hands of scientists and students at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru in Lima. The university had been acquiring 19th-…
Microsoft Tops Apple to Become Most Valuable Public Company
For more than a decade, Apple was the stock market’s undisputed king. It first overtook Exxon Mobil as the world’s most valuable public company in 2011 and held the title…
Supreme Court to Hear Starbucks Bid to Overturn Labor Ruling
The Supreme Court agreed on Friday to hear a case brought by Starbucks challenging a federal judge’s order to reinstate seven employees who were fired at a store in Memphis…
Trump’s Dominance and Snowy Weather Put Iowa’s Caucus Economy on Ice
Even before a snowstorm brought Des Moines to a near standstill on Friday, the city felt decidedly more subdued than it usually does around the Iowa caucuses: quiet restaurants, empty…
U.S. Steel Acquisition Proposal Tests Biden’s Industrial Policy
The president is under pressure from Democrats and Republicans to block the sale to Japan’s Nippon Steel, which could upset a key foreign ally.
As Utility Bills Rise, Low-Income Americans Struggle for Access to Clean Energy
Cindy Camp is one of many Americans facing rising utility costs. Ms. Camp, who lives in Baltimore with three family members, said her gas and electric bills kept “going up…
Mortgage Rates and Inflation Could Draw Attention to the Fed This Election
This year is set to be a big one for Federal Reserve officials: They are expecting to cut interest rates several times as inflation comes down steadily, giving them a…
Democrats Question Semiconductor Program Ties to Wall Street
Two Democratic lawmakers on Tuesday expressed concerns about ex-Wall Street financiers overseeing the Commerce Department’s distribution of $39 billion in grants to the semiconductor industry, saying the staffing raised questions…
World Bank Warns of Energy Price Surge if Mideast War Spreads
The global economy is at risk of a “wasted” decade and the weakest stretch of growth in 30 years, the World Bank warned on Tuesday, saying a sluggish recovery from…
U.S. Added 216,000 Jobs in December, Outpacing Forecasts
The U.S. labor market ended 2023 with a bang, gaining more jobs than experts had expected and buoying hopes that the economy can settle into a solid, sustainable level of…
Will America’s Good News on Inflation Last?
Prices climbed rapidly in 2021 and 2022, straining American household budgets and chipping away at President Biden’s approval rating. But inflation cooled in late 2023, a spurt of progress that…
U.S. Awards Chip Supplier $162 Million to Bolster Critical Industries
The Biden administration on Thursday announced plans to provide $162 million in federal grants to Microchip Technology, an Arizona-based semiconductor company that supplies the automotive, defense and other industries. The…
Fed Minutes Showed Officials Feeling Better About Inflation
Federal Reserve officials wanted to use their final policy statement of 2023 to signal that interest rates might be at their peak even as they left the door open to…
General Motors Reports a 14% Jump in U.S. Auto Sales in 2023
General Motors said on Wednesday that its sales of new vehicles in the United States jumped 14 percent last year, amid a broader rebound in the auto industry driven by…
Holiday Spending Increased, Defying Fears of a Decline
Despite lingering inflation, Americans increased their spending this holiday season, early data shows. That comes as a big relief for retailers that had spent much of the year fearing the…
Red Sea Shipping Halt Is Latest Risk to Global Economy
The attacks on crucial shipping traffic in the Red Sea straits by a determined band of militants in Yemen — a spillover from the Israeli-Hamas war in Gaza — is…
World Bank Warns Record Debt Burdens Haunt Developing Economies
Surging interest rates are saddling the world’s poorest countries with record levels of debt and complicating investments in public health, education and infrastructure initiatives that are key to helping their…
Under Argentina’s New President, Fuel Is Up 60%, and Diaper Prices Have Doubled
Over the past two weeks, the owner of a hip wine bar in Buenos Aires saw the price of beef soar 73 percent, while the zucchini he puts in salads…
Price Increases Cooled in November as Inflation Falls Toward Fed Target
A closely watched measure of inflation cooled notably in November, good news for the Federal Reserve as officials move toward the next phase in their fight against rapid price increases…
Southwest Airlines Reaches Deal With Pilots Union
Southwest Airlines and its pilots union have reached a tentative deal on a new, five-year labor contract that would raise wages 50 percent over the next several years and increase…
U.S. and Europe Eye Russian Assets to Aid Ukraine as Funding Dries Up
The Biden administration is quietly signaling new support for seizing more than $300 billion in Russian central bank assets stashed in Western nations, and has begun urgent discussions with allies…
Choice Hotel Franchise Owners Push Back on Merger With Wyndham
When Patrick Pacious, the chief executive of a large portfolio of hotel brands, promoted a blockbuster attempt to acquire a competitor in October, he said the proposed merger would lower…
Companies Like Afterpay and Affirm May Put Americans At Risk For ‘Phantom Debt’
“Buy now, pay later” loans are helping to fuel a record-setting holiday shopping season. Economists worry they could also be masking and exacerbating cracks in Americans’ financial well-being. The loans,…
What Social Trends Taught Us About the 2023 Economy
This year, the world learned that some men just can’t stop thinking about the Roman Empire. Over here at The New York Times, we can’t stop thinking about what social…
Fed Leaves Interest Rates Unchanged at Meeting and Signals 3 Cuts in 2024
Federal Reserve officials left interest rates unchanged in their final policy decision of 2023 and forecast that they will cut borrowing costs three times in the coming year, a sign…
West Hollywood Minimum Wage, Highest in U.S., Irks Merchants
Josiah Citrin, the owner and chef of a Santa Monica restaurant with two Michelin stars, opened a new steakhouse a few months ago off the Sunset Strip. He is already…
It Took 10 Years to Grow This Christmas Tree. The Price? $105
Every day since the trees were planted has been a roll of the dice. Unlike commodities like corn and soybeans, which Mr. Wyckoff grows on another 90 acres he owns,…
Wall Street’s Bond ‘Vigilantes’ Are Back
The financial world has been debating if market appetite for buying U.S. debt is near a limit. The ramifications for funding government priorities are immense.
Is Jerome Powell’s Fed Pulling Off a Soft Landing?
The Federal Reserve appears to be creeping closer to an outcome that its own staff economists viewed as unlikely just six months ago: lowering inflation back to a normal range…
The Stock and Bond Markets Are Getting Ahead of the Fed.
It’s too early to start celebrating. That’s the Federal Reserve’s sober message — though given half a chance, the markets won’t heed it. In a news conference on Wednesday, and…
Prices for Some Goods Are Actually Falling This Holiday Season
American shoppers, burned by more than two years of rapid inflation, are getting some welcome relief this holiday season: Prices on many products are falling. Toys are almost 3 percent…
The Debt Problem Is Enormous, and the System for Fixing It Is Broken
Martin Guzman was a college freshman at La Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Argentina, in 2001 when a debt crisis prompted default, riots and a devastating depression. A dazed middle…
High Housing Prices May Pose a Problem for Biden
Cameron Ambrosy spent the first weekend of December going to 10 open houses — purely for research purposes. The 25-year-old in St. Paul, Minn., has a well-paying job and she…
New Mexico’s Spaceport America is an Economic Dream Deferred
From his tiny gem store in southern New Mexico, Robert Hanseck spends his days untangling chakra beads and answering questions about the healing properties of amethyst crystals. After four decades…
My Not-So-Perfect Holiday Shopping Excursion With A.I. Chatbots
In addition to Shopify, chatbots have come out over the past 12 months from Instacart, the delivery company; Mercari, a resale platform; Carrefour, a retailer; and Kering, which owns Gucci…
Federal Regulators Seek to Force Starbucks to Reopen 23 Stores
Federal labor regulators accused Starbucks on Wednesday of illegally closing 23 stores to suppress organizing activity and sought to force the company to reopen them. A complaint issued by a…
Microsoft Agrees to Remain Neutral in Union Campaigns
Punctuating a year of major gains for organized labor, Microsoft has announced that it will stay neutral if any group of U.S.-based workers seeks to unionize. Roughly 100,000 workers would…
Inflation Holds Roughly Steady Ahead of Fed Meeting
Inflation data released on Tuesday showed that price increases remained moderate in November, the latest sign that inflation has cooled substantially from its June 2022 peak. That’s likely to keep…
Lawmakers Call for Raising Tariffs and Severing Economic Ties With China
Bipartisan lawmakers on Tuesday called for severing more of America’s economic and financial ties with China, including revoking the low tariff rates that the United States granted Beijing after it…
What’s Next for Interest Rates? An Era of ‘Peak Uncertainty.’
When Jerome H. Powell, the Federal Reserve chair, takes the stage at his postmeeting news conference on Wednesday, investors and many Americans will be keenly focused on one question: When…
New York Plans to Invest $1 Billion to Expand Chip Research
Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York announced on Monday a plan to invest $1 billion to expand chip research activities in Albany, N.Y., as the state aims to continue as…
Corporate America Is Testing the Limits of Its Pricing Power
Alexander MacKay coleads the Pricing Lab at Harvard Business School, a research center devoted to studying how companies set prices. Since the pandemic, he has watched how businesses have become…
How Has the Economy Affected You? We Want to Know.
The Times’s economics team is looking for reader input on what you’re going through financially and what you see in your community.
Amazon Is Cracking Down on Union Organizing, Workers Say
More than a year and a half after Amazon workers on Staten Island voted to form the company’s first union in the United States, the company appears to be taking…
Starbucks Tells Union It Wants to Resume Contract Talks
Starbucks said Friday that it wanted to get back to the bargaining table after a deadlock of more than six months with the union that represents more than 9,000 of…
DHL Workers at Kentucky Air Cargo Hub Go on Strike
More than 1,100 workers at DHL Express’s global air cargo hub at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport went on strike on Thursday after months of failed negotiations with the parcel carrier.…
Retail Group Retracts Startling Claim About ‘Organized’ Shoplifting
A national lobbying group has retracted its startling estimate that “organized retail crime” was responsible for nearly half the $94.5 billion in store merchandise that disappeared in 2021, a figure…
U.S. and Mexico Try to Promote Trade While Curbing Flow of Fentanyl
The United States and Mexico sought to project a united front on Thursday in their efforts to deepen economic ties and crack down on illicit drug smuggling as the Biden…
From Unicorns to Zombies: Tech Start-Ups Run Out of Time and Money
WeWork raised more than $11 billion in funding as a private company. Olive AI, a health care start-up, gathered $852 million. Convoy, a freight start-up, raised $900 million. And Veev,…
Europe and Asia React to U.S. Push for Tech and Clean Energy
The United States has embarked on the biggest industrial policy push in generations, dangling tax breaks, grants and other financial incentives to attract new factories making solar panels, semiconductors and…
E.U. Relaxes Trade Rules on Electric Cars From Britain
The News The European Union plans to postpone strict local-content rules that would have led to costly tariffs imposed on cars traded between the bloc and Britain beginning Jan. 1.…
U.S. Job Openings Dropped in October
Why It Matters: The state of the labor market affects interest rate policy. The labor market is closely watched by the Federal Reserve as it mulls its interest rate policy.…
Biden Faces Economic Challenges as Cost-of-Living Despair Floods TikTok
Look at economic data, and you’d think that young voters would be riding high right now. Unemployment remains low. Job opportunities are plentiful. Inequality is down, wage growth is finally…
Unions in Sweden Expand Blockade Against Tesla
Tesla in Sweden: No production but many sales. Tesla does not produce any vehicles in Sweden, but runs several facilities where the cars are serviced. So far this year, the…
Corporate America Has Dodged the Damage of High Rates. For Now.
The prediction was straightforward: A rapid rise in interest rates orchestrated by the Federal Reserve would confine consumer spending and corporate profits, sharply reducing hiring and cooling a red-hot economy.…
Why Doctors and Pharmacists Are in Revolt
Dr. John Wust does not come off as a labor agitator. A longtime obstetrician-gynecologist from Louisiana with a penchant for bow ties, Dr. Wust spent the first 15 years of…
Jerome Powell Says It’s Too Soon to Guess When Rates Will Drop
Jerome H. Powell, the chair of the Federal Reserve, suggested on Friday that the central bank may be done raising interest rates if inflation and the economy continue to cool…
At COP28, More Than 20 Nations Pledge to Triple Nuclear Capacity
The United States and 21 other countries pledged on Saturday at the United Nations climate summit in Dubai to triple nuclear energy capacity by 2050, saying the revival of nuclear…
Climate Protesters Get in Fed’s Face as Policy Clash Grows Louder
A video of security officers wrestling a protester to the floor in the lobby of the Jackson Lake Lodge in Wyoming, outside the Federal Reserve’s most closely watched annual conference,…
U.S. Limits China’s Ability to Benefit From Electric Vehicle Industry
The Biden administration proposed new rules on Friday aimed at shifting more production of electric vehicle batteries and the materials that power them to the United States, in an attempt…
Fed Officials Hint That Rate Increases Are Over, and Investors Celebrate
Federal Reserve officials appear to be dialing back the chances of future interest rate increases, after months in which they have carefully kept the possibility of further policy changes alive…
The Fed’s Preferred Inflation Measure Eased in October
A closely watched measure of inflation showed continued signs of fading in October, encouraging news for the Federal Reserve as officials try to gauge whether they need to take further…
U.A.W. Announces Drive to Organize Nonunion Plants
The United Automobile Workers union announced Wednesday that it was undertaking an ambitious drive to organize plants owned by more than a dozen nonunion automakers, including Tesla and several foreign…
U.S. Debates How Much to Sever Electric Car Industry’s Ties to China
The Biden administration has been trying to jump-start the domestic supply chain for electric vehicles so cleaner cars can be made in the United States. But the experience of one…
Cómo sale el dinero de China
Las personas chinas acaudaladas han sacado cientos de miles de millones de dólares del país este año, aprovechando el fin de las precauciones por covid que habían sellado casi por…
Even Most Biden Voters Don’t See a Thriving Economy
It’s difficult for presidents to directly control inflation in the short term. But the White House has addressed a few specific costs that matter for families, by releasing oil from…
Bidder Aims to Save Bankrupt Trucking Firm Yellow
When Yellow abruptly shuttered its operations in the summer and filed for bankruptcy protection, few thought that a buyer would emerge and try to revive the long-troubled trucking giant. But…
A 30-Year Trap: The Problem With America’s Weird Mortgages
Buying a home was hard before the pandemic. Somehow, it keeps getting harder. Prices, already sky-high, have gotten even higher, up nearly 40 percent over the past three years. Available…
Fed Officials Thought Rates Could Rise More if Inflation Stayed Stubborn
Federal Reserve officials are contemplating whether they will need to raise interest rates again to cool the economy and ensure that rapid inflation will fully fade, and minutes from their…
Ford Resumes Work on E.V. Battery Plant in Michigan, at Reduced Scale
Ford Motor said Tuesday that it was resuming work on an electric vehicle battery plant in Michigan but significantly scaling back its plans in part because of slow E.V. adoption…
U.S. Gas Prices Drop Ahead of Thanksgiving Travel
U.S. gasoline prices are plunging just in time for Thanksgiving, and with the OPEC Plus oil cartel in apparent disarray, they could be heading lower for Christmas. Lower prices at…
In Biden’s Climate Law, a Boon for Green Energy, and Wall Street
The 2022 climate law has accelerated investments in clean-energy projects across the United States. It has also delivered financial windfalls for big banks, lawyers, insurance companies and start-up financial firms…
As Holiday Shopping Season Begins, Retailers Worry
Christina Beck is approaching this holiday season cautiously. Ms. Beck, a 58-year-old administrative director at a school, makes lists of gifts she plans to buy for her family and friends…