PAUL WISEMAN Economics Writer, Author at The Rapid City Post

FILE - Pedestrians walk past a help wanted sign posted on the door of a restaurant in San Francisco, Tuesday, April 18, 2023. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)

US job openings fall to 6.5 million, fewest since 2020, as labor market remains sluggish

February 5, 2026

U.S. job openings fell to the lowest level in more than five years, another sign that the American labor market remains sluggish. The Labor Department reported Thursday that vacancies fell to 6.5 million in December — from 6.9 million in November and the lowest since September 2020. Layoffs rose slightly. The number of people quitting their jobs — which shows confidence in their prospects — was basically unchanged at 3.2 million.

Labor Department delays January jobs report because of partial shutdown

February 2, 2026

The Labor Department, citing the partial federal government shutdown, said Monday that it will not release the January jobs report on Friday as scheduled. In a statement, the department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics said: “Once funding is restored, BLS will resume normal operations and notify the public of any changes to the news release schedule.’’ It is also postponing the December report on job openings, which was supposed to come out Tuesday. The jobs report and other key economic statistics were previously delayed by a record 43-day government shutdown last fall.

A ship is docked Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, at PortMiami in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

US producer prices rose 0.5% in December, more than expected, on uptick in services inflation

January 30, 2026

U.S. wholesale prices rose a hotter-than-expected 0.5% in December. The Labor Department reported Friday that its producer price index — which measures inflation before it hits consumers — rose from November to December at the fastest pace in three months and faster than the 0.3% economists had forecast. Compared to December 2024, producer prices were up 3% last month in line with what forecasters expected. Services prices were up 0.7% from November, biggest increase since July, partly reflecting fatter profit margins at wholesalers and retailers. But the price of goods — such as appliances and autos — were unchanged last month and up 2.5% from a year earlier.

US President Donald Trump talks to media during the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Top US trading partners pledged to invest $5 trillion in America. These researchers have doubts.

January 27, 2026

President Donald Trump strong-armed America’s biggest trading partners into pledging trillions of dollars of investment in the United States. But a study out Tuesday raises doubts about whether the money will actually materialize and questions how it would be spent if it did. “How realistic are these commitments?’’ write Gregory Auclair and Adnan Mazarei of the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “The short answer is that they are clouded with uncertainty.’’ They looked at more than $5 trillion in investment commitments made last year by the European Union, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and the Persian Gulf states of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.

FILE - A person carries a shopping bag in Philadelphia, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

Consumer spending pushes US economy up 4.4% in third quarter, fastest in two years

January 22, 2026

Powered by strong consumer spending, the U.S. economy grew at the fastest pace in two years from July through September, the government said Thursday in a slight upgrade rom its first estimate. The Commerce Department reported that America’s gross domestic product — the nation’s output of goods and services — rose at a 4,4% annual pace in the third quarter, up from 3.8% in the April-June quarter and from the 4.3% growth the department initially estimated. The economy hasn’t grown faster since third-quarter 2023. Consumer spending, which accounts for 70% of U.S. GDP, grew at a healthy 3.5% pace.

Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney, speaks to the media at Ritan Park in Beijing, China, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

Trump’s protectionist trade policies allow China to swoop in

January 17, 2026

America’s top trading partners are responding to President Donald Trump’s trade policies by trying to take their business elsewhere. Canada broke with the United States Friday, slashing its 100% import tax on Chinese electric vehicles in return for lower tariffs on Canadian farm products. Canada is not alone in looking for alternatives to America’s massive market. The European Union is expected to formally sign trade pact Saturday with the South American alliance known as Mercosur, which includes the region’s two biggest economies, Brazil and Argentina. China, pounded by U.S. tariffs since Trump’s first term, has diversified its exports away the world’s biggest economy to markets such as Europe and Southeast Asia.

Employees work on the assembly line at the Ford River Rogue complex, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in Dearborn, Mich. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Producer prices rise a mild 0.2% in November, government says in report delayed by federal shutdown

January 14, 2026

U.S. wholesale prices rose modestly in November, the government said in report delayed by federal shutdown. The Labor Department reported Wednesday that its producer price index — which measures inflation before it reaches consumers — rose 0.2% in November from October and 3% from a year earlier. The numbers are old. They were supposed to come out Dec. 11, but the report was delayed by last fall’s 43-day government shutdown. The Labor Department will put out December’s producer price index on Jan. 30; it was originally scheduled to come out Wednesday.

Shops are closed during protests in Tehran's centuries-old main bazaar, Iran, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Trump pressures Iran with tariffs that could raise prices in the US

January 13, 2026

President Donald Trump has once again drawn his go-to diplomatic weapon — tariffs — to coerce the Iranian government to end its bloody crackdown on nationwide protests. Trump said he is imposing a 25% tax on imports to the United States from countries that do business with Iran. The sanctions could hurt the Islamic Republic by reducing its access to foreign goods and driving up prices in a country already contending with inflation running above 40%. But the tariffs could create blowback for the United States, too, potentially raising the prices Americans pay for imports from Iranian trade partners such as Turkey and India and threatening an uneasy trade truce Trump reached last year with China.

FILE - The Federal Reserve Board Building is seen as it undergoes renovations, June 10, 2025, in Washington, DC. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)

Bringing charges against the Fed: What we do (and don’t) know

January 12, 2026

President Donald Trump has dramatically escalated his confrontation with the Federal Reserve. His Justice Department is investigating and threatening a criminal indictment of the independent central bank and serving it with subpoenas. The dispute is ostensibly about Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s testimony to Congress over the cost of a massive renovation of Fed buildings in June. But in a statement Sunday, Powell, abandoning his previous attempt to ignore Trump’s relentless criticism, called the administration’s threat of criminal charges “pretexts’’ in the president’s campaign to seize control of U.S. interest rate policy from the Fed’s technocrats. Here’s a look at the renovations and the controversy surrounding them.

FILE - In this May 7, 2020, file photo, the entrance to the Labor Department is seen near the Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

Employers likely added 40,000 jobs in November as government releases report delayed by shutdown

December 15, 2025

The U.S. job market is sluggish and confusing this fall. Federal Reserve policymakers are divided over whether the labor market needs more help from lower interest rates. Their deliberations are rendered more difficult because official reports on the economy’s health are coming in late and incomplete after a 43-day government shutdown. The Labor Department is expected to provide at least a little clarity when it releases November numbers on hiring and unemployment Tuesday, 11 days late. Forecasters surveyed by the data firm FactSet expect that employers added an unimpressive 40,000 jobs last month and that unemployment stayed at 4.4%, unchanged from the last rate published – for September.

A person shops for produce at a market in San Francisco on Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

Tariffs have cost U.S. households $1,200 each since Trump returned to the White House, Democrats say

December 11, 2025

Sweeping taxes on imports have cost the average American household nearly $1,200 since Donald Trump returned to the White House this year, according to calculations by Democrats on Congress’ Joint Economic Committee. Using Treasury Department numbers on revenue from tariffs and Goldman Sachs estimates of who ends up paying for them, the Democrats’ report Thursday found that American consumers’ share of the bill came to nearly $159 billion — or $1,198 per household — from February through November.

FILE - Applicants line up at a job fair at the Ocean Casino Resort in Atlantic City N.J., on April 11, 2022. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry, File)

U.S. job openings barely budged in October, coming in just below 7.7 million

December 9, 2025

U.S. job openings barely budged in October, coming in at 7.7 million amid uncertainty over the direction of the American economy. The Labor Department reported Tuesday that employers posted 7.67 million vacancies in October, close to September’s 7.66 million. The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) also showed that the layoffs rose and number of people quitting their jobs — a sign of confidence in the labor market — fell in October. Job openings have come down steadily since peaking at a record 12.1 million in March 2022, when the economy was roaring back from COVID-19 lockdowns.

FILE - A lone shopper pushes a cart toward the entrance of a Costco warehouse, March 13, 2025, in Sheridan, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)

Costco becomes biggest company yet to demand refund of Trump tariffs

December 2, 2025

Costco is joining other companies that aren’t waiting to see whether the Supreme Court strikes down President Donald Trump’s most sweeping import taxes. They’re already going to court to demand refunds on the tariffs they’ve paid. The Court of Trade and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington ruled earlier this year that Trump’s biggest and boldest import taxes are illegal. The case is now before the Supreme Court. In a Nov. 5 hearing, several of the high court’s justices expressed doubts that the president had sweeping power to declare national emergencies to impose tariffs on goods from almost every country on earth. The government might be forced to pay back the money it’s collected.

FILE - Ship containers are stacked at the Panama Canal Balboa port, operated by the Panama Ports Company, in Panama City, Sept. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix, File)

Despite US trade war, OECD expects global economy will grow 3.2% this year

December 2, 2025

The world economy has proven surprisingly durable in the face of President Donald Trump’s trade wars, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said Tuesday, upgrading its outlook for global and U.S. economic growth this year. The 38-country OECD now forecasts that the world economy will grow 3.2% this year, down a tick from 3.3% in 2024 but an improvement on the 2.9% it had predicted for 2025 back in June. The organization expects global growth to slow to 2.9% next year. The OECD also raised its forecast for U.S. growth this year – to 2%, up from the 1.6% it had forecast in June.

Late-arriving September jobs report likely shows that hiring was sluggish but layoffs few

November 20, 2025

During the 43-day U.S. government shutdown, investors, businesses, policymakers and the Federal Reserve groped in the dark for clues about the health of the American job market. Federal workers who collect data on hiring and unemployment had been furloughed and couldn’t do their jobs. Now that the shutdown is over, the Labor Department will finally let a little light in Thursday, releasing jobs numbers for September – nearly seven weeks after they were due. Economists predict that U.S. employers added 50,000 jobs in September, unimpressive but an improvement on the paltry 22,000 they added in August. Unemployment likely remained at a low 4.3%, according to a survey by FactSet.

FILE - A job seeker waits to talk to a recruiter at a job fair Aug. 28, 2025, in Sunrise, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier, File)

Labor Department won’t release full October jobs report, a casualty of the 43-day federal shutdown

November 19, 2025

The Labor Department said Wednesday that it will not be releasing a full jobs report for October because the 43-day federal government shutdown meant it couldn’t calculate the unemployment rate and some other key numbers. Instead, it will release some of the October jobs data — most importantly the number of jobs that employers created last month — along with the full November jobs report, now due a couple of weeks late on Dec. 16. The department’s “employment situation″ report usually comes out the first Friday of the month. But the government shutdown disrupted data collection and delayed the release of the reports. For example, the September jobs report, now coming out Thursday, was originally due Oct. 3.

Customers shop at the Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia, Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

U.S. trade deficit drops 24% in August as Trump’s tariffs reduce imports

November 19, 2025

The U.S. trade deficit fell by nearly 24% in August as President Donald Trump’s sweeping global tariffs pushed imports lower. In a report delayed for more than seven weeks by the federal government shutdown, the Commerce Department said Wednesday that the the gap between what the United States buys from other countries and what it sells them fell to $59.6 billion in August from $78.2 billion in July. Imports fell 5.1% to $340.4 billion in August from July when U.S. companies were stocking up on foreign products before Trump finalized taxes on products from almost every country on earth that went into effect Aug. 7.

President Donald Trump speaks to reporters after Vice President JD Vance swore in U.S. Ambassador to India Sergio Gor in the Oval Office of the White House, Monday, Nov. 10, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

What to know about Trump’s plan to give Americans a $2,000 tariff dividend

November 11, 2025

President Donald Trump boasts that his tariffs protect American industries, lure factories to the United States, raise money for the federal government and give him diplomatic leverage. Now, he’s claiming they can finance a windfall for American families, too: He’s promising a $2,000 tariff dividend. The president proposed the idea on his Truth Social media platform Sunday, five days after his Republican Party lost elections in Virginia, New Jersey and elsewhere largely because of voter discontent with his economic stewardship and the high cost of living. Budget experts scoffed at the idea, which conjured memories of the Trump administration’s short-lived plan for DOGE dividend checks paid for by billionaire Elon Musk’s federal budget cuts.

Trump says a Canadian ad misstated Ronald Reagan’s views on tariffs. Here are the facts and context

October 24, 2025

President Donald Trump pulled out of trade talks with Canada Thursday night, furious over what he called a “fake’’ television ad from Ontario’s provincial government that quoted former U.S. President Ronald Reagan from 38 years ago criticizing tariffs — Trump’s favorite economic tool. The ad features audio excerpts from an April 25, 1987 radio address in which Reagan said: “Over the long run such trade barriers hurt every American worker and consumer.’’ But Ontario’s ad is missing important context: Reagan made the address a week after he himself had imposed tariffs on Japanese semiconductors; he was attempting to explain the decision, which seemed at odds with his reputation as a free trader.

A hiring sign is displayed at a post office in Schaumburg, Ill., Thursday, Sept. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

US job openings barely budged in August at 7.2 million

September 30, 2025

U.S. jobs openings were essentially unchanged million last month amid economic uncertainty arising from President Donald Trump’s trade policies and an impending government shutdown. The Labor Department reported Tuesday that job openings blipped up to 7.23 million from 7.21 million in July. Economists had forecast a drop to 7.1 million. The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) showed that layoffs fell month. But so did the number of poeple quitting their jobs — which is a sign of confidence in their prospects of finding a better job. Job openings remain at healthy levels but have fallen steadily since peaking at a record 12.1 million in March 2022 as the U.S. economy roared back from COVID-19 lockdowns.

FILE - The likeness of George Washington is seen on a U.S. one dollar bill, March 13, 2023, in Marple Township, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum, File)

US economy expanded at a surprising 3.8% pace in significant upgrade of second quarter growth

September 25, 2025

The U.S. economy expanded at a surprising 3.8% from April through June in a dramatic upgrade of the government’s previous estimate of second-quarter growth. The Commerce Department said Thursday that U.S. gross domestic product — the nation’s output of goods and services — rebounded in the spring from a 0.6% first-quarter drop caused by fallout from President Donald Trump’s trade wars. The department had previously estimated second-quarter growth at 3.3%. The first-quarter GDP drop, the first retreat of the U.S. economy in three years, was mainly caused by a surge in imports as businesses hurried to bring in foreign goods before Trump could impose sweeping taxes on them.

After cuts to food stamps, Trump administration ends government’s annual report on hunger in America

September 20, 2025

The Trump administration is ending the federal government’s annual report on hunger in America, saying it had become “overly politicized″ and ”rife with inaccuracies.″ The decision comes two and a half months after President Donald Trump signed legislation sharply reducing food aid to the poor. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that what Trump calls the “Big Beautiful Bill″ means 3 million people would not qualify for food stamps, also known as SNAP benefits.

FILE - Washers stand on display near the entrance to a Costco warehouse Tuesday, July 8, 2025, in Sheridan, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)

US supply chain prices unexpectedly fell 0.1% in August

September 10, 2025

U.S. producer prices fell unexpectedly last month, dropping 0.1% from July. The Labor Department reported Wednesday that its producer price index — which captures inflation before it hits consumers — showed that wholesale inflation decelerated in August after advancing 0.7% in July. Wholesale services prices fell on smaller profit margins at retailers and wholesalers, which might be a sign that those companies are absorbing the cost of President Donald Trump’s sweeping taxes on imports. Compared to a year earlier, producer prices were up 2.6%. Excluding volatile food and energy prices, so-called core producer prices also fell 0.1% from July and were up 2.8% from a year earlier. The numbers were lower than economists had forecast.

FILE - A construction worker carries steel decking at the site of a construction of a housing project, Thursday, July 31, 2025, in Portland, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)

New data shows the US job market was much weaker than thought in 2024, and this year as well

September 9, 2025

The U.S. job market was much weaker in 2024 and early this year than originally reported, adding to concerns about the health of the U.S. economy. The Labor Department reported Tuesday that employers added 911,000 fewer jobs than originally reported in the year that ended in March 2025. The department issues the so-called benchmark revisions every year. They are intended to better account for new businesses and ones that had gone out of business. The numbers issued Tuesday are preliminary. Final revisions will come out in February.

FILE - President Donald Trump holds charts as he speaks about the economy in the Oval Office of the White House, Aug. 7, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, file)

US economy grows 3.3% in second quarter, government says, in second estimate of April-June growth

August 28, 2025

The U.S. economy rebounded this spring from a first-quarter downturn caused by fallout from President Donald Trump’s trade wars. In an upgrade from its first estimate, the Commerce Department said Thursday that U.S. gross domestic product — the nation’s output of goods and services — expanded at a 3.3% annual pace from April through June after shrinking 0.5% in the first three months of 2025. The department had initially estimated second-quarter growth at 3%.

A woman measures a new appliance at a store in Kennesaw, Ga., on Thursday, Aug. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

U.S. producer prices surge in July as Trump tariffs push costs higher

August 14, 2025

U.S. wholesale inflation surged unexpectedly last month as President Donald Trump’s sweeping taxes on imports are pushing costs higher. The Labor Department reported Thursday that its producer price index — which measures inflation before it hits consumers — was up 0.9% last month from June and 3.3% from a year earlier. The numbers were much higher than forecasters had expected.

A "Help Wanted" sign is displayed at Illinois Air Team Test Station Saturday, June 21, 2025, in Lincolnshire, Ill. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

US job openings fell to 7.4 million last month as job market continues to cool

July 29, 2025

Employers posted 7.4 million job vacancies last month, a sign that the American job market continues to cool. The Labor Department reported Tuesday that job openings in June were down from 7.7 million in May. Layoffs were little changed. But the number of people quitting their jobs — a sign of confidence in their prospects elsewhere — dropped last month. The U.S. job market has lost momentum this year, partly because of the lingering effects of 11 interest rate hikes by the inflation fighters at the Federal Reserve in 2022 and 2023 and partly because President Donald Trump’s trade wars have created uncertainty that is paralyzing managers making hiring decisions.

FILE- In this Jan. 28, 2019, file photo a container ship is unloaded at the Port of Oakland in Oakland, Calif. (AP Photo/Ben Margot, File)

US producer prices unchanged with wholesale inflation remaining under control

July 16, 2025

U.S. wholesale inflation cooled last month, despite worries that President Donald Trump’s tariffs would push prices higher. The Labor Department reported Wednesday that its producer price index — which tracks inflation before it hits consumers — was unchanged in June from May and up 2..3% from a year earlier. Both measures came in below economists’ forecasts. Excluding volatile food and energy prices, so called core producer prices were also unchanged from May and up 2.6% from June 2024.

FILE - President Donald Trump talks to workers as he tours U.S. Steel Corporation's Mon Valley Works-Irvin plant, Friday, May 30, 2025, in West Mifflin, Pa. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)

US manufacturers are stuck in a rut despite subsidies from Biden and protection from Trump

July 14, 2025

Democratic President Joe Biden handed out subsidies to chipmakers and electric vehicle manufacturers. Republican President Donald Trump is building a wall of import taxes – tariffs – around the U.S. economy to protect domestic industry from foreign competition. But American manufacturing has been stuck in a rut anyway. Biden’s subsidies haven’t had time to deliver many factory jobs, and some of them have already been overturned by the Republican Congress. Trump’s tariffs help some manufacturers but hurt others. And the erratic way he’s rolled them out has paralyzed factory managers who don’t know what to plan for.

Cranes and shipping containers are seen at a port in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, Tuesday, July 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Trump’s sudden shifts make his policies baffling to countries trying to negotiate lower tariffs

July 12, 2025

In the past week, President Donald Trump has managed to make his erratic trade policies even more baffling to countries desperate to negotiate an escape from his wrath. Doubling down on his trade wars, Trump is threatening to raise taxes on many goods from Canada, Mexico and the European Union, hike his universal tariff on imports from around the world and punish Brazil for prosecuting his friend, the country’s former president. Experts say the latest moves underscore the unpredictability of the president’s trade policies and, in the case of Brazil, show that Trump is trying to have influence over more than other countries’ economic affairs.

US, China announce a trade agreement — again. Here’s what it means

June 27, 2025

The U.S. and China have reached an agreement — again — to deescalate trade tensions. China is making it easier for U.S. companies crucial magnets and rare earths materials. But details are scarce, and the latest pact leaves major issues between the world’s two biggest economies unresolved. President Donald Trump said late Thursday that a deal with China had been signed “the other day.″ China’s Commerce Ministry confirmed Friday that some type of arrangement had been reached but offered little clarity about it. Sudden shifts and a lack of definition have been hallmarks of Trump’s trade policy since he returned to the White House determined to overturn a global trading system that he says is unfair to the United States and its workers.

Ukrainian servicemen carry a body repatriated from Russia, at the morgue in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Thursday, June 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

World Bank warns that 39 fragile states are falling further behind as conflicts grow, get deadlier

June 27, 2025

The world’s most desperate countries are falling further and further behind, their plight worsened by conflicts that are growing deadlier and more frequent. That is the sobering conclusion of the World Bank’s first comprehensive study of how 39 countries contending with “fragile and conflict-affected situations’’ have fared since the COVID-19 pandemic struck in 2020. Since 2020, the 39 countries, which range from the Marshall Islands in the Pacific to Mozambique in sub-Saharan Africa, have seen their economic output per person fall by an average 1.8% a year. In other developing countries, by contrast, it grew by an average 2.9% a year over the same period.

FILE - A shopper pushes a cart past a display of soups in a Costco warehouse Thursday, Jan. 23, 2025, in Sheridan, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)

US economy shrank 0.5% in the first quarter, worse than earlier estimates had revealed

June 26, 2025

The U.S. economy shrank at a 0.5% annual pace from January through March as President Donald Trump’s import taxes at least temporarily disrupted business, the Commerce Department reported Thursday in a a downgrade from its previous estimate. First-quarter growth sank under a surge of imports as companies in the United States rushed to bring in foreign goods before Trump could impose tariffs on them. The Commerce Department previously estimated that the economy fell 0.2% in the first quarter. The January-March drop in gross domestic product — the nation’s output of goods and services — reversed a 2.4% increase in the last three months of 2024 and marked the first time in three years that the economy contracted.

A farm worker checks the land as workers plow a strawberry field in Oxnard, Calif., on Wednesday, June 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

ICE raids and their uncertainty scare off workers and baffle businesses

June 19, 2025

Farmers, cattle ranchers and hotel and restaurant managers breathed a sigh of relief last week when President Donald Trump ordered a pause to immigration raids that were disrupting those industries and scaring foreign-born workers off the job. But the respite didn’t last long. On Wednesday, Assistant Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin declared that worksite enforcement “remains a cornerstone of our efforts to safeguard public safety, national security and economic stability” and that there will be “no safe spaces for industries who harbor violent criminals” or undermine enforcement efforts. The flipflop has baffled businesses trying to figure out the government’s actual policy.

FILE - A shopper passes by the display of cartons of eggs in a Walmart store Friday, Feb. 7, 2025, in Englewood, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)

US producer prices rise modest 2.6% in May with inflationary pressures still mild

June 12, 2025

U.S. wholesale prices rose modestly last month from a year earlier, another sign that inflationary pressures remain mild. The Labor Department said Thursday that its producer price index — which measures inflation before it its consumers — rose 2.6% in May 2024. Producer prices rose 0.1% from April to May after dropping 0.2% the month before. Excluding volatile food and energy prices, wholesale costs were up 0.1% from April and 3% from May 2024.The readings were slightly lower than economists had forecast.

Appeals court lets Trump administration keep collecting tariffs while challenges continue

June 10, 2025

A federal appeals court agreed Tuesday to let the government keep collecting President Donald Trump’s sweeping import taxes while challenges to his signature trade policy continue on appeal. The decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit extends a similar ruling it made after another federal court struck down the tariffs May 28, saying Trump had overstepped his authority. Noting that the challenges to Trump’s tariffs raise “issues of exceptional importance,″ the appeals court said it would expedite the case and hear arguments July 31.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., pauses in the door of his office to answer questions from reporters about his strategy to advance President Donald Trump's spending and tax bill, at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, June 2, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Trump’s tariffs could pay for his tax cuts — but it likely wouldn’t be much of a bargain

June 7, 2025

The tax cuts in President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill would likely gouge a $2.4 trillion hole in the federal budget. The president has a patch handy, though. His sweeping levies on imports – the tariffs that have disrupted world trade, shaken financial markets and created uncertainty for businesses – would probably plug the gap, raising enough money to pay for all or most of his income and business tax cuts. That’s the budget math anyway. Actually using import taxes – tariffs – to finance a big chunk of the federal government would be a painful and perilous undertaking, budget wonks say.

President Donald Trump speaks during a swearing in ceremony for interim U.S. Attorney General for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro, Wednesday, May 28, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

What happens to Trump’s tariffs now that a court has knocked them down?

May 28, 2025

A federal court in New York handed President Donald Trump a big setback Wednesday, blocking his audacious plan to impose massive taxes on imports from almost every country in the world. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of International Trade ruled that Trump overstepped his authority when he invoked the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act to declare a national emergency and justify the sweeping import taxes. Here’s what to know about the decision.

PAUL WISEMAN Economics Writer.