PAUL WISEMAN Economics Writer, Author at The Rapid City Post

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.

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

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

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

ICE raids and their uncertainty scare off workers and baffle businesses

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

Appeals court lets Trump administration keep collecting tariffs while challenges continue

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

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

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