Economics

A generation ago, Poland rationed sugar and flour while its citizens were paid one-tenth what West Germans earned. Today its economy has edged past Switzerland to become the world’s 20th largest with over $1 trillion in annual output.

It’s a historic leap from the post-Communist ruins of 1989-90 to today’s European growth champion that economists say has lessons on how to bring prosperity to ordinary people — and that the Trump administration says should be recognized by Poland’s presence at a summit of the Group of 20 leading economies later this year.

Trump DoJ’s investigation was purportedly about the management of the central bank’s renovation

A federal judge on Friday blocked the justice department from serving subpoenas to Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell in an inquiry purported to be about the management of the central bank’s renovation.

Powell disclosed the surprise investigation on 11 January, and described the move as a threat to Fed independence and part of the Trump administration’s attempts to pressure the Fed to cut rates.

The judge agreed, saying a “mountain of evidence” suggests the investigation was to pressure the Fed chair to lower rates or resign.

“The government has produced essentially zero evidence to suspect Chair Powell of a crime; indeed, its justifications are so thin and unsubstantiated that the Court can only conclude that they are pretextual,” chief judge James Boasberg of the DC district court wrote on Friday.

The U.S. economy, hobbled by last fall’s 43-day government shutdown, advanced at an unexpectedly sluggish 0.7% annual rate from October through December, the Commerce Department reported Friday in a big downgrade of its initial estimate.

Growth in gross domestic product — the nation’s output of goods and services — was down sharply from 4.4% in last year’s third quarter and 3.8% in the second. And the fourth-quarter number was half the government’s first estimate of 1.4%; economists had expected the revision to go the other way — and show stronger growth.

World shares retreated on Friday while oil prices again popped above $100 per barrel as anxiety remained over the Iran war and its impact on supplies of crude oil and gas.

With the conflict now in its 12th day, Iran's Revolutionary Guard vowed to target 'economic centers and banks' that it deems linked to US and Israeli interests.

Iran said on Wednesday, March 11, it was ready for a long war of attrition that would "destroy" the world economy, after firing on two commercial ships and threatening any vessels from the United States or its allies.

As Tehran tightened its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, a vital sea passage for the global oil trade, Donald Trump said the war would end "soon" as there was little left for US forces to target in Iran. Oil prices have surged since February 28, when the United States and Israel attacked Iran, killed its supreme leader and plunged the Middle East into war.

The Strait of Hormuz accounts for a fifth of the world's oil supplies, and a mix of Iranian missile strikes and drone barrages has brought shipping through the passage almost to a halt. In an attempt to manage price jumps, the International Energy Agency said its member countries would unlock 400 million barrels of oil from their reserves – the biggest such release ever.

The estimate builds on numbers from the FBI, which are widely believed to capture only a small fraction of the money lost to scams.

Americans are losing at least $119 billion every year to scams, according to a new estimate from the nonprofit Consumer Federation of America, a consumer advocacy group.

There is no formal U.S. government estimate of how widespread scams are; some indicators show they have steadily risen for years. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center solicits victims to report their losses but admits its figures are a gross undercount, given that many people don’t want to or know to share that information with the agency.

For 2024, the most recent year for which data is available, the FBI found $16.6 billion in reported losses, beating the previous record, $12.5 billion, in 2023.

Saudi Arabian state oil firm calls crisis by far the biggest the region has seen but firm can reroute 70% of exports and tap crude held in storage

Saudi Arabia’s state oil company has warned of “catastrophic consequences” for the world’s oil markets if the US-Israeli war with Iran continues to block shipping in the strait of Hormuz.

The world’s biggest oil company expects to be able to export about 70% of its usual crude output despite the stranglehold on the vital trade artery, but its chief executive warned that there would still be “drastic” consequences for the world economy if the disruption continues.

Oil shipments from the Middle East have been blocked from passing through the narrow waterway since the US strikes on Iran 11 days ago, erasing about 20m barrels of oil from the global market every day.

chicken at KFC? ._.

With oil prices soaring and stock markets falling, economists warn that a prolonged conflict in the Middle East risks knocking growth worldwide and boosting prices

Oil prices continued to surge on Monday, triggering a stark sell-off across some of the world’s leading stock markets amid growing concern that the US-Israel war on Iran could set the stage for a global economic shock.

The Middle East conflict has sparked an energy supply crisis that could risk driving up inflation and interest rates, according to economists, who believe growth is set to weaken while prices rise. Fears of stagflation – where economic activity stagnates, but inflation increases – loom large.

Oil shot to its highest price since 2023 after surging again Friday because of the Iran war, and a weak update on the U.S. job market knocked stocks lower to cap Wall Street's worst week since October.

The S&P 500 dropped 1.3% after a report showed U.S. employers cut more jobs last month than they created and after oil prices spiked above $90 per barrel. The combination of a weak economy and high inflation is a worst-case scenario for investors because the Federal Reserve has no good tool to fix both problems at the same time.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged as many as 945 points before finishing with a loss of 453, or 0.9%, and the Nasdaq composite sank 1.6%.