After Beijing tightened restrictions on exports of minerals and refining technologies crucial to U.S. high-tech industries, Donald Trump announced the U.S. will impose a 100-percent tariff on Chinese imports beginning 1 November and will place more stringent export controls on "any and all critical software".
The economic landscape has presented an array of challenges that have profoundly affected the business community this year.
The U.S. government shutdown has resulted in 4,000 federal workers losing their jobs. Many of the layoffs took place at the Treasury Department and the Department of Health and Human Services, where approximately 1,600 were laid off. The Department of Education laid off 460 employees including most of the staff at the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services.
Continued inflation and worries about their economic future have more consumers eating at home, a worrying trend for the larger economy but a nice boost for the grocery business.
Elon Musk and the computer bro’s in his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) came into the government last January with a promise to cut federal spending by $2 trillion—almost a third of the entire federal budget.
A decline of 0.3 of a percentage point brought the national average mortgage interest rate to 6.26 percent over the three weeks ending 17 September, the lowest rate since last November, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).
As wage increases lag inflation and unemployment ticks up, low-income households are having a harder time keeping up with their car payments.
Households’ negative view of the U.S. economy and its future remains grim, according to the initial October result of the University of Michigan’s monthly survey of consumer sentiment.
Denmark announced last week that it will spend billions of dollars more in defense for Greenland after recent pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump who inquired about taking over the landmass and criticized Copenhagen for failing to sufficiently defend the territory.
Poland has ramped up its military spending over what it sees as Russia’s uncontained aggression in the region and sees itself as the possible front in a wider war with Moscow.