On July 24, 2026, the United States imposed a fresh round of tariffs on goods from 60 trading partners, citing Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974. Imported goods are subject to a baseline duty of 10% or 12.5%, depending on the trading partner’s efforts to address alleged forced labor practices. A temporary 10% […]
Read MoreCategory: Economic Insights
Who Owns America’s $39 Trillion National Debt?
America has accomplished incredible things throughout its 250-year history, but debt is also part of its story. Today, the United States has the highest national government debt in the world. This graphic shows who holds U.S. debt, from domestic investors and foreign governments to the Federal Reserve and internal trust funds. Breaking down who holds […]
Read MoreSurprises May Be in Store for Online Shoppers in the Tariff Era
On April 2, 2025, President Trump issued an executive order eliminating the de minimis exemption for low-value imports from China, which previously allowed U.S. consumers to buy goods worth up to $800 directly from online marketplaces based outside of the United States without paying duties. Since the order took effect on May 2, some U.S. shoppers have […]
Read MoreMoody’s Downgraded U.S. Debt: Does It Matter?
On Friday, May 16, 2025, Moody’s Ratings downgraded its rating on U.S. government long-term debt from its highest rating of Aaa to the next highest rating of Aa1. The move was particularly significant because Moody’s was the last of the Big Three credit rating agencies to maintain the triple-A rating for U.S. debt. S&P Global […]
Read MoreInfographic: Ranking the World’s 20 Largest Economies
This graphic ranks countries by their forecasted gross domestic product (GDP) in 2025 and compares their inflation-adjusted growth since 2015. All figures are in 2025 dollars. Growth highlights over the past decade Ten years ago, economists predicted that China would overtake the U.S. as the world’s top economy. However, a pandemic slowdown and malaise in […]
Read MoreTariffs: How They Work and Potential Economic Effects
On February 1, 2025, President Trump authorized an additional 25% tariff on all goods entering the United States from Canada and Mexico (except for a lower 10% tariff on energy resources from Canada) and an additional 10% tariff on all goods from China. Nine days later, Trump authorized a 25% tariff on steel and aluminum, […]
Read MoreShould You Worry About Market Volatility?
On August 5, 2024, the S&P 500 Index dropped 3% from its previous close, the largest single-day loss in almost two years. This continued a three-week slide that saw the benchmark index — generally considered representative of the U.S. stock market — decline by 8.5%. The tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite Index dropped even further, losing 3.4% […]
Read MoreThe Economic Impact of an Aging World
During the week of June 10, 2024, French markets were rocked by a government bond sell-off after a strong showing by the far-right National Rally party in the European Union election. With polls suggesting the party might win a plurality of seats in the upcoming French parliamentary election, investors feared a promised social spending program, […]
Read MoreWhat Stubborn Inflation Could Mean for the U.S. Economy
On April 10, 2024, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for March, and the increase in CPI — the most commonly cited measure of inflation — was higher than expected. The rate for all items (headline inflation) was 3.5% over the previous year, while the “core CPI” rate, which […]
Read MoreCan Productivity Keep Driving the U.S. Economy?
Productivity of U.S. workers increased by 2.7% in 2023 — well above the average annual rate of 2.1% since the end of World War II, and a dramatic change from 2022, when productivity dropped by 2.0%. It’s also a big improvement over the 0.9% growth rate in 2021.1 According to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, […]
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