After a year of regulatory review—and after a change in presidential administrations—the three-member U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has approved Skydance Media’s $8-billion acquisition of Paramount Global.
Category: TRENDS ON THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC FRONT – Jul 29 2025
Post
SPECIAL REPORT: TRUMP’S TARIFF WAR
The U.S. treasury has raked in an additional $55 billion so far in Donald Trump’s tariff war and most of it has come out of Corporate America’s pocket, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Post
BRAZIL’S PRESIDENT LOOKS PAST TRUMP WITH COMMITMENT TO BRICS
Brazil is reportedly “reinforcing” its commitment to BRICS countries in an act of defiance against the Trump administration that has threatened Brasília with steeper tariffs for its participation with the group that President Donald Trump has called an “anti-American” alliance.
Post
LUXURY BRANDS SLOW PRICE HIKES AS CUSTOMERS BALK
After years of raising prices far higher and faster than the rate of inflation, luxury brands are slowing their increases as a key customer group cuts purchases.
Post
RUSSIA’S CENTRAL BANK CUTS KEY INTEREST RATE BY TWO FULL POINTS
On 28 July, the Central Bank of the Russian Federation knocked two points off its policy interest rate, lowering it to 18 percent. The cut is the largest since May 2022 when the country was coping with the imposition of Western sanctions related to Russia’s attack on Ukraine.
Post
ECB HOLDS INTEREST RATES FIRM AS A BULWARK AGAINST TARIFF UNCERTAINTY
On 24 July, the European Central Bank (ECB) decided to hold its key policy rate at 2 percent after reducing it eight times in a row over the past 13 months.
Post
AUTO STOCKS RISE ON “BAD” U.S. TRADE DEAL WITH JAPAN
U.S. automakers criticized Donald Trump’s trade deal with Japan as bad for the American auto industry while car companies’ share prices rose on the world’s stock exchanges. (See “Japan and U.S. Agree on Outline of a Trade Agreement”in this issue.)
Post
CHINA’S INDUSTRIAL SECTOR SAGS AGAIN IN JUNE
In China, manufacturers’ profits declined again in June as the country’s deflation continued and consumer demand remained feeble, the U.S.-China trade agreement remained unsettled, and the global economy remained generally uncertain, the country’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reported.
Post
U.S. TRADE AND ECONOMIC POLICIES PUSHED EURO UP…AND DOWN
Last week it was reported that the dramatic shift in U.S. trade and economic policies, and their erratic implementation, have shaken investors’ confidence in the U.S. dollar as a safe store of wealth, The New York Times reported.
Post
WORLD ECONOMIES PROVE RESILIENT TO TARIFFS
Economies in Asia, Europe, and the U.S. have not faltered greatly as Donald Trump’s tariff war proceeds, although exporters are receiving fewer orders, The Wall Street Journal reported.