All posts tagged: economist

How do Trump and Harris’ economic plans compare? An economist weighs in : NPR

How do Trump and Harris’ economic plans compare? An economist weighs in : NPR

DAVE DAVIES, HOST: This is FRESH AIR. I’m Dave Davies. In this incredibly close presidential election, voters repeatedly cite the economy as a leading issue. And if ever there was a circumstance where we should have plenty of information about the candidates’ approaches, this is it. Republican Donald Trump was president for four years ending in 2020. After which Democrats Joe Biden and the party’s current candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris, took the reins, a juxtaposition that should offer some basis for comparing the performance of the two tickets. With that in mind, we’ve called on a respected economist to offer some perspectives on the economic records of the two administrations, and on the presidential candidates’ campaign proposals for the country’s economic future. Those proposals differ sharply on taxes, spending, tariffs, regulation, energy, and industrial policy, and more. Our guest is David Wessel, a senior fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institution, and director of their Hutchins Center for Fiscal and Monetary Policy. Wessel worked for 30 years at The Wall Street Journal. He …

Watch: Billionaire Real Estate Investor Expects ‘One Or Two’ Bank Failures A Week, UK Economist Says “Entering A New Dark Age”

Watch: Billionaire Real Estate Investor Expects ‘One Or Two’ Bank Failures A Week, UK Economist Says “Entering A New Dark Age”

Billionaire Barry Sternlicht, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Starwood Capital Group has issued an ominous warning about America’s regional banks, which he says will fail at a rate of ‘one or two’ per week. Speaking with CNBC on Tuesday, Sternlicht says he thinks that primary real estate lenders – community and regional banks – are about to get whacked. “You’re going to see a regional bank fail every day, or not — every week, maybe two a week,” he said, adding that Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s ongoing rate hikes will continue to have consequences for the real estate sector. “He’s got a hard task with a blunt tool, and the consequence is the real estate markets are taking it on the chin because rates rose so fast. We could have handled this, but we couldn’t handle it this fast,” he said. “The 1.9 trillion of real estate loans, that’s a fragile animal right now.” Watch: As Schiff Gold notes, the fed must cut to avoid a banking crisis. Most at-risk firms are smaller banks representing …

‘You Didn’t Do It!’ Minister Slapped Down By Major Economist After Taking Credit For Inflation Drop

‘You Didn’t Do It!’ Minister Slapped Down By Major Economist After Taking Credit For Inflation Drop

Joseph Stiglitz fact-checked Bim Afolami on BBC Question Time over inflation BBC Question Time A minister was fact-checked by a leading economist on BBC Question Time last night after he tried to take responsibility for the recent fall in inflation. The award-winning Joseph Stiglitz needed just four words to take apart Bim Afolami, the economic secretary to the Treasury: “You didn’t do it.” The key moment arose when the minister began blaming the UK’s financial woes on the combined effect of the Covid pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He said: “I think that made things very very challenging. Inflation went up globally. “Now, we’ve worked very hard, in partnership with the Bank of England – it’s not all down to the central banks, but they have a key role to play – interest rates did go up and have gone up.” “Affecting the cost of living,” Stiglitz interjected. “Of course,” Afolami continued: “We’ve brought inflation down from 11.1% to 3.4, 3.2%.” The economist cut in again: “You didn’t do it, the market did it.” The audience …

Economist Slams Elon Musk for Making Tesla a “Tech-Bubble” Meme Stock

Economist Slams Elon Musk for Making Tesla a “Tech-Bubble” Meme Stock

“Does anyone seriously think that the Musk of today is the right CEO to manage the Tesla we need?” Casino Royale Despite posting disastrous quarterly earnings, Tesla is still worth more than Toyota, Porsche, Mercedes, and Hyundai combined. But experts are becoming wary of the company’s sky-high valuation of well over half a trillion dollars in market capitalization — long a subject of debate — especially now that sales are in freefall and Tesla’s competition is flourishing. Meanwhile, its CEO Elon Musk — who has long made a habit of over-promising — is quickly turning into a “meme-stock carnival barker,” as economic historian and UC Berkeley economics professor J. Bradford DeLong argued in an excoriating new piece for Project Syndicate. In fact, Musk is currently chasing a $55 billion pay package even as he conducts mass layoffs. “From the standpoint of its suppliers, employees, and customers, [Tesla] is a source of income and production,” DeLong wrote. “And from the standpoint of Wall Street speculators, it is a bouncing ball in a roulette wheel: a tech-bubble casino play.” AI …

Fed Meets Today: Watch Out for Interest Rate Hikes Instead of Cuts This Year, One Economist Says

Fed Meets Today: Watch Out for Interest Rate Hikes Instead of Cuts This Year, One Economist Says

Key takeaways The Fed is expected to hold rates steady at its April-May meeting that starts today. One economist told CNET there’s a better chance of rate hikes than rate cuts this year. Inflation has continued to hover around 3%, above the Fed’s 2% target rate. If you figured the Federal Reserve would lower interest rates soon, you may want to prepare for the opposite to happen. Experts expect the Fed to hold rates steady at its meeting that starts today, and one economist says rate hikes are more likely than cuts this year, as the Fed tries to squash stubbornly high inflation. The Fed paused the federal funds rate at a target range of 5.25% to 5.5% in August last year after raising interest rates 11 times between March 2022 and July 2023. Inflation reacted quickly, dropping from its high of 9.1% in June 2022 to 3% one year later. But inflation has been hovering around 3% since then, above the Fed’s target rate of 2%.  “I don’t see any way the Fed can …

an economist explains what she got wrong (and what she’s actually right about)

an economist explains what she got wrong (and what she’s actually right about)

Liz Truss’s 49 days as UK prime minister will probably be best remembered for her 2022 “mini budget”. Her plan for £45 billion of unfunded tax cuts led to economic panic, caused chaos on the financial markets, and she was forced to quit her job. But she still appears to be fairly resolute about her economic philosophy. Busy promoting her new memoir, she has dismissed anyone who blames her for crashing the UK economy as “stupid or malevolent”. She has also been fiercely critical of two independent institutions she blames for standing in her way – the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) and the Bank of England. But Truss knew the institutional context she was working in, and everything that happened after the mini-budget was entirely predictable. She made a big mistake that affected millions of ordinary people, and has only herself to blame. She does have a point though, about independent institutions constraining the action of the government. For while these constraints are generally beneficial to the economy, they also make it almost impossible …

The Economist is attracting younger readers with cut-price Espresso digital edition

The Economist is attracting younger readers with cut-price Espresso digital edition

Nada Arnot, executive VP for marketing at The Economist With just over one million subscribers in print and online The Economist remains a powerhouse for quality paid-for journalism globally. Based in the UK, but with an international audience, the title provided a spark of light in some otherwise gloomy magazine ABC figures for the second half of 2023 with its daily mobile phone edition Espresso. Espresso, which launched in 2014 but has only published audited circulation numbers since 2022, grew 74% year on year to an average of 21,775 subscribers per day. For £7.90 per month Espresso offers readers five articles per day, four longer reads per week and a daily podcast (compared with £19.90 for the digital edition and £26.50 for digital plus print). Press Gazette’s Future of Media Explained podcast asked Economist executive vice president for marketing Nada Arnot how the publisher managed to give Espresso such a circulation boost and whether the overall circulation of The Economist can return to growth. Economist digital subscriptions fell 2% year on year to 966,947 in …

Podcast 67: Magazine ABCs winners and losers with Nada Arnot of The Economist

Podcast 67: Magazine ABCs winners and losers with Nada Arnot of The Economist

Press Gazette editor-in-chief Dominic Ponsford discusses the latest UK magazine industry circulation figures with reporter Bron Maher. They pick out the winners and losers from the latest crop of results and also hear from Economist executive vice president Nada Arnot about how the title’s cut-price daily edition Expresso achieved lift-off in 2023. She also explained why she is bullish about The Economist’s headline (print and digital) circulation figures returning to growth in this election year. 1. In your browser You can use the player above to listen in your browser right now. Future of Media Explained is published every week. You could bookmark the Future of Media Explained homepage on Acast. And if you sign up for our Future of Media newsletter you will receive an email link to the latest show every Thursday. Thanks for subscribing. Close 2. In a podcast app The Future of Media Explained is available on all major podcast apps including: Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Acast. Content from our partners Or search for Future of Media Explained wherever you get your podcasts. 3. On your …

Any tax cuts will need to be ‘undone’ after election, economist claims | Politics News

Any tax cuts will need to be ‘undone’ after election, economist claims | Politics News

Any tax cuts made during this budget will “one way or another be undone after the election”, according to one economist. Speaking to Sky News, Paul Johnson, the director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, explained that – if it were not an election year – it is unlikely that Chancellor Jeremy Hunt would be looking to trim the tax burden. Speaking to Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips, Mr Hunt said his budget would be “prudent and responsible” – but added that he wanted to “make some progress” on the “journey” started by the two pence cut to National Insurance announced in the autumn statement six months ago. The chancellor is facing pressure to cut taxes to try and shift the polls in favour of his own party, which is languishing well behind Labour. Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips Watch live each week on Sunday at 8:30am on Sky channel 501, Freeview 233, Virgin 602, the Sky News website and app or YouTube. Tap here for more Mr Johnson said: “I think this is going …

The Economist and Economist Intelligence get new presidents

The Economist and Economist Intelligence get new presidents

The Economist’s new president and managing director, Luke Bradley-Jones. Picture: The Economist Group The Economist and its business information arm Economist Intelligence will each get new presidents. Luke Bradley-Jones will begin as president and managing director of The Economist this summer with a remit of “identifying new ways to evolve The Economist into a digital-first product”. He joins the magazine from streaming platform Disney+, where he is currently general manager of EMEA. Before joining Disney Bradley-Jones served as chief marketing officer at Sky where, The Economist Group said, he “led the transformation of Sky’s on-demand services”. Prior to that he held leadership roles at BBC Worldwide. Joining alongside Bradley-Jones is Leon Saunders Calvert, who will also hold dual president and managing director titles. Saunders Calvert is currently a partner and chief product officer at fintech business ESG Book. He starts work at Economist Intelligence in April. Both Bradley-Jones and Saunders Calvert will report to Economist Group chief executive Lara Bono. Bono said: “Mr Bradley-Jones, an Economist aficionado and subscriber for 30 years, has the track …