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- and 20th-century Peruvian coins from local dealers, and graduate students…
U.S. Steel Acquisition Proposal Tests Biden’s Industrial Policy
U.S. Steel is an iconic example of the lost manufacturing muscle that President Biden says his economic policies will bring back to the United States. But last month, the storied-but-diminished company announced plans to be acquired by a Japanese competitor….
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 and up” — reaching as high as $900 a month….
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 chance to dial back a two-year-long effort to cool the…
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 about the creation and abuse of a revolving door between…
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 the pandemic and crippling wars in Ukraine and the Middle…
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 growth rather than fall into a recession. Employers added 216,000…
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 future rate increases, minutes from their December meeting showed. The…
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 agreement is the second award announced under a new program…
Auto Sales Are Expected to Slow After a Strong 2023
After enjoying a strong rebound in sales in 2023, the auto industry appears headed for slower growth this year as consumers struggle with elevated interest rates and high prices for new cars and light trucks. Edmunds, a market researcher, expects…
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 economy would soon weaken and consumer spending would fall. Retail…
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 injecting a new dose of instability into a world economy…
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 rose 140 percent. An Uber driver paid 60 percent more…
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 and a positive for the White House as voters see…
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 retirement benefits. The union’s board unanimously approved the deal, which…
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 about using the funds to aid Ukraine’s war effort at…
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 costs and attract more customers for the families and small…
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, which allow consumers to pay for purchases in installments, often…
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 trends like that one tell us about the American economy….
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 populations emerge from poverty, the World Bank warned on Wednesday….
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 concerned about whether the restaurant can survive. The reason, Mr….
Wall Street’s Bond ‘Vigilantes’ Are Back
Typically, the esoteric inner workings of finance and the very public stakes of government spending are viewed as separate spheres. And bond trading is ordinarily a tidy arena driven by mechanical bets about where the economy and interest rates will…
It Took 10 Years to Grow This Christmas Tree. The Price? $105
Amid wild cost fluctuations and extreme weather conditions, a small army of workers toiled for years at Wyckoff’s Christmas Tree Farm in Belvidere, N.J. The goal? Producing this year’s crop, including this seven-foot Norway Spruce, which is sold for $105.
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 without plunging the economy into a recession. Plenty could still…
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 cheaper this Christmas than last, government data shows. Sports equipment…
The Debt Problem Is Enormous. Experts Say 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 class suffered ruin, as the International Monetary Fund insisted that…
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 and her husband are saving diligently, but she knows that…
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 behind the register, he has met thousands of wellness-minded tourists…
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 in written statements after its latest policymaking meeting, the Fed…
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 and Balenciaga. Walmart, Mastercard and Signet Jewelers are also testing…
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 regional office of the National Labor Relations Board argued that…
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 be eligible to unionize under the framework, which was disclosed…
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 the Federal Reserve on track to leave interest rates unchanged…
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 joined the World Trade Organization more than two decades ago….
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 a global semiconductor center. The plan is expected to create…
Biden Administration Chooses Military Supplier for First Chips Act Grant
The Biden administration announced on Monday that BAE Systems, a defense contractor, will receive the first federal grant from a new program aimed at shoring up American manufacturing of critical semiconductors. The company is expected to receive a $35 million…
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 more willing to experiment with what they charge their customers….
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 a harder line toward labor organizing, disciplining workers and even…
U.S. Job Growth Holds Up as Economy Gradually Cools
The U.S. economy continued to pump out jobs in November, suggesting there is still juice left in a labor market that has been slowing almost imperceptibly since last year’s pandemic rebound. Employers added 199,000 jobs last month, the Labor Department…
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 its workers. The company is proposing that bargaining continue with…
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. A group of DHL workers at the hub who load…
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 that helped amplify claims that the United States was experiencing…
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, a home construction start-up, amassed $647 million. In the last…
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 electric vehicles. That spending is aimed at jump-starting the domestic…
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. “This removes the threat of tariffs on export of E.U….
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 meeting earlier this month laid out the contours of that…
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. A cooling labor market tends to fuel predictions that the…
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 in the United States. A company spokesman said that Ford…
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 the pump have helped ease the inflation rate most of…
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. But it hasn’t worked out quite the way forecasters expected….
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 his career as a partner in a small business —…
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 as expected, saying that central bankers could raise interest rates…
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 power was critical for cutting carbon emissions to near zero…
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, clocked more than a million views. A protest that disrupted…
U.S. to Limit 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 to build up a strategic industry now dominated by China….
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 for fear that inflation would prove stubborn. Several Fed officials…
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 action in order to fully stamp out rapid price increases….
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 companies — a goal that has long eluded it. The…
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 Texas company, whose plans to help make an all-American electric…
Even Most Biden Voters Don’t See a Thriving Economy
Presidents seeking a second term have often found the public’s perception of the economy a pivotal issue. It was a boon to Ronald Reagan; it helped usher Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush out of the White House. Now, as…
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. Now a prominent trucking executive has assembled a last-minute plan to…
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 by creating an expansive new market in green tax credits….
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 and sticks with it. But her spending this year will…