Typical of Trump, he is boasting about the performance of the U.S. economy in the most hyperbolic terms. He even declared that his economy is 'the greatest ever in history' in a recent interview on Fox Business Network. He points to the stock market and allegedly low inflation to back his claim.
Back in Massachusetts, I heard from all sorts of companies, from board game makers to baby stroller manufacturers, that tariffs made it more expensive to run their businesses and raise their prices. The truth is, you paid for Trump's disastrous economic policies.
Hospitality employs 2.6 million people in the UK, 7.1% of the entire workforce. It generates £69.5 billion in gross value added. It contributes £54 billion in gross tax receipts annually. It is, by any reasonable measure, not a peripheral cottage industry but a cornerstone of the British economy.
I think we know what the agenda items are. Accomplishing those is going to be hard with a small majority. The upshot is that Trump's prime-time address is unlikely to make more than a ripple in the congressional agenda over the coming months. It's the reality, Republicans acknowledged Wednesday, of life in Washington right now: Despite its trifecta, the party's legislative ambitions are being hemmed in by its barely-there majorities.
U.S. trade deficits are large and need to be brought down. Reducing U.S. fiscal deficits is important. At the same time, there is no doubt in the US ability to pay the world and therefore no crisis. The U.S. has run a trade deficit for most of the past 50 years, but has never had a fiscal crisis related to this imbalance because international investors have kept buying up U.S. assets throughout that period.
We did not hear the truth from our president. So let's speak plainly and honestly. Is the president working for you? Democratic party leaders have repeatedly sought to return policy discussion to kitchen-table economic issues of affordability. More than half of Americans wanted Trump to focus on the economy in his address, according to a CNN poll released Tuesday.
When I spoke in this chamber 12 months ago, I had just inherited a nation in crisis, with a stagnant economy, inflation at record levels, a wide-open border, horrendous recruitment for military and police, rampant crime at home and wars and chaos all over the world. But tonight, after just one year, I can say with dignity and pride that we have achieved a transformation like no one has ever seen before and a turnaround for the ages.
I would say, Rachel, that my takeaway from today is that the president or Trump 2.0 is definitely living in a gilded bubble. I would say, even if you compare it to his first term, the president is now surrounded by an administration that says yes, yes, please, thank you, and yes again. He truly is living like a king in this White House.
High-level diplomatic talks are underway after Donald Trump announced a global tariff increase to 15%, raising fresh uncertainty for British exporters. The UK Government says it is aiming to secure the "strongest possible trading position" for British firms amid what ministers describe as an evolving situation. Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said businesses may face short-term uncertainty but insisted Britain expects preferential trade treatment to continue.
The economy continued to grow slowly in the last three months of the year, with the growth rate unchanged from the previous quarter. The often-dominant services sector showed no growth, with the main driver instead coming from manufacturing. Construction, meanwhile, registered its worst performance in more than four years. The rate of growth across 2025 as a whole was up slightly on the previous year, with growth seen in all main sectors.
Egypt's House of Representatives approved a cabinet reshuffle put forward by President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, reshaping key economic posts as the country grapples with a floundering economy. The shake-up announced on Tuesday brings 13 new ministers to the government, including those overseeing housing, higher education, planning, investment, and foreign trade. It also creates the position of deputy prime minister in charge of economic affairs, according to Egyptian media.
On Wednesday evening in Dhaka, Shafiqur Rahman, the emir [chief] of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, unveiled an ambitious election manifesto. A key promise: If his party wins the country's February 12 election, it would lay the ground for Bangladesh to quadruple its gross domestic product (GDP) to $2 trillion by 2040. Addressing politicians and diplomats, the 67-year-old Rahman pledged investment in technology-driven agriculture, manufacturing, information technology, education and healthcare, alongside higher foreign investment and increased public spending.
Policy-makers are being urged to focus on investments in artificial intelligence (AI) in a way that makes sense for the economy. The Rethinking AI sovereignty paper, published to coincide with the World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos, recommends that policy-makers reframe AI sovereignty as strategic interdependence, where localised investments are combined with trusted partnerships and alliances. The paper, co-authored by the World Economic Forum and Bain & Co, presents data that illustrates the gap between AI infrastructure investment in the US and China compared with other countries.
One of the great mysteries about the rise of populism, in both the United States and Europe, is why it has benefited the political right so much more than the left. For years, American progressives have been trying to get people worked up over rising rates of economic inequality, with the expectation that this anger could fuel greater support for the Democratic Party.
If you haven't heard by now, the U.S. government has another economic stimulus package up its sleeve. President Trump in all his strategizing has unveiled a plan to return the revenue generated by his controversial tariff program to every American, with the exception of high-income earners. This has middle-class America already budgeting those checks into their holiday spending plans perhaps a bit prematurely as though it's already money in the bank. It's been four years since the last round of stimulus payments, and the new
"The Larry Summers era is over," Politico proclaimed, after the House Oversight Committee released correspondence from Jeffrey Epstein's estate attributed to the veteran Harvard economist Lawrence Summers. That framing seemed a bit over the top. It is true, though, that, in the thirty-plus years that I've been writing about the economy and economic policy, Summers has been pretty much a constant presence.
By delivering a big, bold long-term plan, not a set of quick fixes, we will renew Britain. We must become again a serious people, with a serious government, capable together of doing difficult things to regain control of our future. By having a clear mission to renew our economy, our communities and our state we will deliver the change we promised and then be judged on it at the next election.
And it left little doubt that the most important gains Trump made between his 2020 defeat and his 2024 win were not among young voters or Black voters or white working-class voters, but among Latino voters: In 2020, Joe Biden won Hispanic voters by 25 percentage points, and Hispanic voters supported Hillary Clinton by an even wider margin in 2016. But Trump drew nearly even with Kamala Harris among Hispanic voters, losing among them by only 3 points.
There was a time - not so long ago, though it already feels sepia-tinted - when London was the sort of place that tourists arrived in with stars in their eyes and left with shopping bags cutting off circulation at the fingers. Harrods bags, Selfridges bags, Mulberry bags, the bright yellow of Fortnum's peeking out of a suitcase being sat on in a hotel lobby. Europe's favourite grown-up playground; Manhattan's chic transatlantic sibling; Tokyo's idea of European swagger with better tailoring and more chaotic restaurants.
And so right now, I think our Council of Economic Advisers' estimate of how much harm there is to GDP is it's probably going to cost us one to one and a half percentage points of the fourth quarter. But that doesn't mean we're going to get a negative quarter. I think if we had two or three more weeks, especially if it ran into Thanksgiving, we probably would have had a negative quarter.
While President Trump's unorthodox deal making style has intentionally resembled a "bull in a china shop," it was more like a placid cow in a field last week in China. The world collectively took a deep breath following the U.S.-China Summit, as neither Trump nor Chinese President Xi Jinping escalated the ongoing trade war between the two nations. However, among global leaders, business chief executives, and everyday consumers, many questions remain.
