Author: News Room

new video loaded: Fed Chair Says Trump Tariffs Could Worsen InflationtranscriptBacktranscriptFed Chair Says Trump Tariffs Could Worsen InflationJerome H. Powell, the chair of the Federal Reserve, stressed that the tariffs announced so far go well beyond what the Fed had expected even in its worst-case scenario.The level of tariff increases announced so far is significantly larger than anticipated, and the same is likely to be true of the economic effects, which will include higher inflation and slower growth. We may find ourselves in the challenging scenario in which our dual mandate goals are in tension. If that were to occur,…

Persuading people to spend money in a time of unpredictable tariffs is proving to be a complicated calculation for the $380 billion American advertising industry.Should a retailer commit to holiday television commercials for toys manufactured by newly vulnerable trading partners? How do social media companies account for the potential disappearance of Chinese companies that have spent billions of dollars promoting their wares? How does an automaker pitch vehicles that may cost consumers thousands of dollars more than they did a year ago?“You’re going to introduce uncertainty about how they make stuff, let alone what’s going to happen to consumers in…

When Donald J. Trump championed the idea of a 10 percent blanket tariff during the campaign, many people, whether for or against, were taken aback by how radical the idea was.Alarms sounded about higher inflation, lost jobs, slower growth or recession. The prospect seemed so outlandish that most economists and Wall Street analysts who gamed out the possibilities tended to treat a 10 percent tariff simply as a bargaining tool.Now, after a rapid-fire series of announcements from the White House that promised, imposed, reversed, delayed, decreased and increased tariffs, the 10 percent solution is looking like the most temperate choice…

Times Insider explains who we are and what we do and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together.At first, I had nothing more than a rant in mind. It was January, and I had been to two restaurants in the span of a single week that had served me steak fries, first alongside some lamb chops, the second time next to a burger. On both occasions I had felt the instant pang of disappointment, followed by an unhappy sort of wonderment.Doesn’t everyone hate these things?Thick, often undercooked and typically without crunch, they hardly seem to qualify as a…

Share prices of big technology companies declined in Asia on Wednesday, dragging broader markets lower, after Nvidia, the American chip giant, revealed that the U.S. government would restrict sales of some of its chips to China.They are the first major limits that President Trump’s administration has put on semiconductor sales abroad. Nvidia dominates the market for chips used in building artificial intelligence systems and will now require a license sell A.I. chips to China. It raises the possibility that the company’s sales to China will evaporate in the coming months, bringing an end to a business that has contracted as…

Even as the United States and China push their economies further apart with escalating tariffs, they share an inescapable challenge. Both depend on Taiwan for semiconductors.And navigating that reliance could prove to be one of the trickiest policy problems both countries face in their trade war.China and the United States both view Taiwan’s dominance of the global tech supply chain as a national security risk. In response, they have tried to boost their own capacity to make the chips they need.But as they come to grips with how difficult it is to replicate the industry at the heart of the…

This month in the White House’s Rose Garden, as he held up a placard showing the global wave of tariffs he wanted to impose, President Trump paused to fondly recall a fallen friend.“The prime minister of Japan, Shinzo, was — Shinzo Abe — he was a fantastic man,” Mr. Trump said during the tariff announcement on April 2. “He was, unfortunately, taken from us, assassination.”The words of praise for Mr. Abe, who was gunned down three years ago during a campaign speech, did not stop Mr. Trump from slapping a 24 percent tariff on products imported from Japan. But they…

President Trump’s tariffs have been good for China’s economic growth. At least they were over the first three months of the year, as the country’s factories raced to ship exports ahead of the trade restrictions.China’s National Bureau of Statistics reported on Wednesday that the country’s gross domestic product grew 1.2 percent from the last three months of 2024. If that pace continues, the Chinese economy will expand at an annual rate of 4.9 percent.But whether China can maintain that growth is shrouded in uncertainty.Pinned down by tariffs that threaten to freeze trade with its biggest customer, China’s economy is facing…

Wading into the trade war, Hong Kong said on Wednesday that its postal service will no longer send packages to the United States.It is the city’s first move in a spiraling tit-for-tat trade war between China and the United States that is reordering global shipping routes.President Trump this month ordered the closure of a loophole that allowed retailers to send clothes and goods from China and Hong Kong, a special administrative region, to the United States without having to pay tariffs. After that change takes effect on May 2, United States Customs and Border agents will begin to collect previously…

President Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday outlining a series of actions intended to lower drug prices, including helping states import drugs from Canada.The policies were more modest than proposals to reduce drug prices that Mr. Trump offered in his first term.And one of his new directives could increase drug prices. It calls for the Trump administration to work with Congress to change a 2022 law in a way that could defang a negotiation program meant to reduce Medicare’s spending on commonly used or costly drugs.Such a change has the potential to increase costs for the government, because it…