Economics

After Donald Trump ordered the firing of a federal government official in charge of labor statistics, experts and opposition politicians have expressed alarm that the “credibility” of US economic data was at risk.

The US president claimed without evidence that Erika McEntarfer, the commissioner of labor statistics, had “rigged” job numbers “in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad”, after data showed jobs growth stalled this summer, prompting accusations that the president was “firing the messenger”.

Bill Beach, a former Heritage Foundation economist who was picked by Trump in 2018 to oversee labor statistics, denounced what he called the “totally groundless firing”.

US president claimed without evidence that Erika McEntarfer had ‘faked’ employment figures in the run-up to last year’s election

Donald Trump has ordered the firing of the federal government official in charge of labor statistics, hours after data revealed that jobs growth had stalled this summer.

The US president claimed that Erika McEntarfer, commissioner of labor statistics, had “faked” employment figures in the run-up to last year’s election, in a bid to boost Kamala Harris’s chances of victory.

He produced no evidence for this claim, and insisted that the US economy was, in fact, “booming” on his watch.

• America’s economy is still robust but weakening.
• Consumers are still willing to spend their money, but they’re growing more cautious.
• Tariffs came in lower than President Donald Trump’s most aggressive threats, but they’re slowly adding to inflation as some prices creep higher again.
• Trump’s trade agreements may open up some foreign markets to US goods, but Americans are now paying higher taxes on imported goods today than they were yesterday.
• The reliable job market is become less of a sure bet, and employers may be more resistant to hiring than we previously believed.
• And you might not have to linger too long for that long-awaited interest-rate cut.

Procter & Gamble (PG) says the Trump administration's tariff policy is causing it to push through price hikes on shoppers to protect its profit margins.

"It [tariffs] is inherently inflationary — it increases the cost of importation and that's part of the policy design," P&G chairman and CEO Jon Moeller told me on Yahoo Finance. "In some places, that makes a lot of sense. But it inherently increases costs. Then manufacturers need to work through how much of that they can absorb and deal with and how much they need to pass on."

The company said Tuesday it will see a $1 billion hit to profits in its new fiscal year as a result of tariffs.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell said the economy is solid — and that it's also too early to tell how tariffs will affect it.

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday left its key interest rate unchanged, a widely expected move that comes despite enormous pressure from the Trump administration to lower it.

The Fed, in a statement announcing the decision, said that economic growth had moderated in the first half of the year but that inflation remained “somewhat elevated.”

Two Federal Reserve board officials, both appointed by President Donald Trump, dissented from the decision, which has not occurred in more than three decades — a sign of both the economic uncertainty and the political pressure on the central bank.

Tariff revenue has increased in recent months, though the levies make it nearly certain that American households will pay higher prices for imported everyday goods.

Home prices hit an all-time high in June, even as the housing market continued its post-pandemic slump.

The median price for an existing home sold last month was $435,300, besting the previous record, set in June 2024, according to data from the National Association of Realtors. But overall, sales numbers were at a nine-month low, seasonally adjusted. Sales in June decreased 2.7% from a month earlier.

How can prices be so high when the market is so slow?

"Today's housing market is really haves and have-nots," says Jessica Lautz, deputy chief economist at the National Association of Realtors.

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The United States and Europe “seem to have avoided a self-destructive trade war for now in the biggest and deepest commercial and investment relationship the global economy knows,” said Jörn Fleck, senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Europe Center.

Nevertheless, the details remain murky. Europe will increase its investment in the United States by $600 billion and commit to buying $750 billion worth of US energy products. It eliminates tariffs on a variety of items, including aircraft and plane parts, semiconductors, generic drugs and some chemicals and agricultural products.

Maury Obstfeld, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, note many of those investments were already in place. And the agreement appears to do little to eliminate the EU’s non-tariff barriers, such as value-added and digital taxes that the Trump administration had railed against.

Independent Can Company has raised prices twice this year already after Trump imposed 25% duties on steel in March, and then doubled them in June.

Wage growth for a large swath of Americans is being outpaced by the rate of inflation, according to data from Indeed, which reported people with low- and middle-paying jobs are likely feeling the most pressure.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, more than half the used cars for sale in the nation were 3-year-old vehicles priced for $20,000 or less. Today, those same type of vehicles comprise only 11% of used cars.

In fact, most shoppers who are in the market for a used vehicle would be hard-pressed to find a 3-year-old model below even $30,000, forget finding one for $20,000.

According to a new study from research website iSeeCars.com called: "The sub-$20,000 used car is almost gone," the average list price for a used 3-year-old vehicle is now $32,635, that’s $9,476 more than it was six years ago.

FCC approval of deal comes after Paramount paid $16m to settle Trump lawsuit over 60 Minutes interview

The Federal Communications Commission approved the merger between Paramount Global and Skydance Media on Thursday, clearing the way for an $8.4bn sale of some of the most prominent names in entertainment, including the CBS broadcast television network, Paramount Pictures, and the Nickelodeon cable channel.

The FCC agreed to transfer broadcast licenses for 28 owned-and-operated CBS television stations to the new owners after Paramount paid $16m to settle a lawsuit filed by Donald Trump over a 60 Minutes interview with former vice-president Kamala Harris that aired in October.

China's exports of rare earth magnets to the United States in June soared to more than seven times their May level, marking a sharp recovery in the flow of critical minerals used in electric vehicles and wind turbines after a Sino-U.S. trade deal.

Outbound shipments to the United States from the world's largest producer of rare earth magnets surged to 353 metric tons in June, up 660% from May, data from the General Administration of Customs showed on Sunday.

That came after pacts reached in June to resolve issues around shipments of rare earth minerals and magnets to the United States. Chipmaker Nvidia plans to resume sales of its H20 AI chips to China as part of the agreement.