July 30, 2025

Economics

Intellectulist -  In one of the most contentious policy votes in decades, Federal Reserve officials left interest rates unchanged for a fifth consecutive meeting, despite badgering from President Trump to cut rates.

Follow live updates

 

Newsweek -  Electricity costs are rising faster other budgetary essentials, and experts believe political and technological developments will only accelerate this trend in the future.

According to analysis of government figures by data tech company and energy savings platform Arbor, average household electricity costs have risen from around 9 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh) in 2004 to 19 cents as of June, a 111-percent increase that has outpaced both rent and groceries, as well as broader currency inflation over this period. 

NY Times -  Economic growth softened in the first half of the year, as tariffs and uncertainty upended business plans and scrambled consumers’ spending decisions.

Gross domestic product, adjusted for inflation, increased at a 3 percent annual rate in the second quarter, the Commerce Department said on Wednesday. That topped forecasters’ expectations and appeared to represent a strong rebound from the first three months of the year, when output contracted at a 0.5 percent rate.

But both those figures were skewed — in opposite directions — by big swings in trade and inventories caused by President Trump’s ever-shifting tariff policies. Taken as a whole, the data from the first six months of the year tell a more consistent story of anemic, though positive, economic growth.


No comments: