economy

China raised the specter of escalated tensions with the U.S. over the weekend amid friction over the coronavirus pandemic, warning that the U.S. is pushing the relationship between the world’s two largest economies “to the brink of a new Cold War.” “It has come to our attention that some political forces in the U.S. are …

One of the greatest takedowns of the minimum wage you’ll ever find comes from an unlikely place. The minimum wage is the Jason Vorhees of economics. It just won’t die. No matter how many jobs the minimum wage destroys, no matter how many times you debunk it, it always comes back to wreak more havoc. …

White House economists say they believe the third quarter of 2020 will be the best in US history — channeling new optimism as states reopen following coronavirus lockdowns. Kevin Hassett, a senior adviser to President Trump, told reporters on Friday that he expects US GDP to drop by about 40 percent in the second quarter …

President Trump said the US will not shut down again if a second wave of coronavirus infections emerges. “We’re not going close the country,” Trump told reporters Thursday while touring a Ford plant in Michigan. “We’re going to put out the fires. Whether it’s an ember or a flame we’re going put it out, but …

Uber Technologies on Thursday for the first time detailed how much it has spent to support its ride-hail drivers and food delivery workers during the coronavirus crisis, which has battered the company and forced it to lay off thousands of employees. The company said in a blog post here it had spent $19 million as …

Take the rule that restaurants can deliver food, but not wine to go with that food, or the rule that florists in Louisiana must be licensed and…wait for it… pass an exam to make bouquets. Go down the list, and you start to realize how much red tape has been tying up the economy long before COVID-19. …

A group of GOP senators has begun to push for a coronavirus relief bill with a focus on infrastructure progress, even as others in Senate Republican leadership remain wary of an additional massive spending package. “I want to do infrastructure,” Senator Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) told CNN on Wednesday. “I told Trump, this is the …

An additional 2.4 million Americans filed jobless claims during the past week, bringing the total number of unemployed Americans to 38.6 million, or about 23 percent of the workforce. “The hemorrhaging has continued,” Torsten Slok, chief economist for Deutsche Bank Securities, told the New York Times. Stanford University economist Nicholas Bloom has authored a study claiming …

Another 2.4 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week as the number of workers sidelined by the coronavirus crisis topped 38 million, new federal data show. That indicates almost a quarter of the US workforce has tried to join the nation’s unemployment rolls in the past nine weeks as the pandemic kneecapped the global …

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin on Tuesday warned that continued lockdowns meant to slow the spread of coronavirus could scar the U.S. economy. “There is the risk of permanent damage” if the economy stays shut, Mnuchin told lawmakers at a hearing of the Senate Banking Committee. “We’re conscious of the health issues and we want to …