What Is a Balance-of-Payments Deficit?
President Trump’s new tariffs were imposed under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, which allows temporary import restrictions when the United States faces “fundamental international payments problems.”

President Trump’s new tariffs were imposed under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, which allows temporary import restrictions when the United States faces “fundamental international payments problems.”

President Trump moved hours after the Supreme Court struck down his emergency tariffs to invoke a separate trade authority, imposing an import surcharge on most goods that takes effect February 24.

The Supreme Court invalidated President Trump’s sweeping tariff policy, ruling 6-3 that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act did not grant the president the authority to impose tariffs.

The Supreme Court ruled Friday that President Trump lacks the authority to impose emergency tariffs.

The U.S. economy expanded at a 1.4 percent annual rate in the fourth quarter of 2025, with the October-November government shutdown subtracting approximately one percentage point from growth.

America just experienced the largest quarterly trade deficit decline in recorded history outside of a recession.

The U.S. trade deficit has fallen by nearly half since President Trump’s Liberation Day tariff announcements in March.

Over the past 10 years, jobless claims have been higher 92% of the time.

The three-month average goods deficit fell to $80.5 billion in the fourth quarter, down 27 percent from $109.6 billion in the same period a year earlier. The combined goods and services deficit dropped even more sharply, falling nearly 40 percent to $50.7 billion from $83.6 billion in the fourth quarter of 2024.

Manufacturing is not in retreat. It’s booming. Industrial output hit an all-time high in November and then broke that record in December.

Business inflation expectations fell to 1.93 percent in February, matching the average level from 2015 to 2019 and marking the lowest reading since November 2020.

“The paper is an embarrassment,” Hassett said. “What they’ve done is they put out a conclusion which has created a lot of news that’s highly partisan, based on analysis that wouldn’t be accepted in a first-semester econ class.”

Industrial production in the U.S. rose by more than expected in January, indicating a strong start to the year for demand for goods from businesses and consumers.

Demand for capital goods used by businesses rose in December, the sixth consecutive month of rising orders, reaching a new all-time high.

“You’re Paying 90% of Trump’s Tariffs,” the Wall Street Journal editorial board declared last week. It’s a startling claim. But the study it’s based upon has a faulty methodology.

Companies across the United States say they expect inflation to remain subdued this year, according to surveys from Federal Reserve banks that show business price expectations falling to their lowest levels since before the 2022 inflation surge.

Manufacturing activity in New York State remained in expansion territory in February, and firms reported their strongest capital spending plans in years—an upbeat signal that executives see the recent pickup as durable. The New York Federal Reserve’s Empire State general

Homebuilder sentiment slipped for a second straight month in February as builders cited persistent affordability pressures, including high house price-to-income ratios, mortgage rates above six percent, and elevated land and construction costs.

Goldman Sachs is removing race, gender identity, sexual orientation, and other demographic factors from the criteria its board uses to select directors.

This is the Valentine’s Day-President’s Day-Friday the 13th edition of the Breitbart Business Digest weekly wrap-up. It’s mostly a love letter to the U.S. economy, with just a touch of horror movie action and a dash of presidential history combined with Valentine’s Day gifts.

“Starting on day one, we will end inflation and make America affordable again, to bring down the prices of all goods,” President Trump said at an August 2024.
And he did it.

Core inflation at its slowest annual pace since March 2021.

The Trump administration still has a path forward in rebalancing global trade even if the Supreme Court strikes down the president’s tariffs.

A viral statistic suggesting otherwise has drawn more than 600,000 views on X, creating a narrative of broad-based labor market collapse. But the data tells a different story.

The acceleration of America’s economic growth under President Trump is driving up hiring without the need for the arrival of hundreds of thousands of workers crossing our borders in defiance of our immigration laws.

The U.S. economy added 130,000 jobs in January, more than twice as many as expected, and the unemployment rate fell to 4.3 percent, the Labor Department said Wednesday.

A Silver Lining in a Soot-Soaked Retail Sales Report Analysts had visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads for December retail sales. Instead, they got a lump of coal. The Census Bureau said Tuesday that retail sales were flat

U.S. retail sales were virtually unchanged in December, missing economists’ forecasts and capping a fourth quarter marked by early holiday shopping that left traditional retailers struggling. The Census Bureau reported Tuesday that retail and food service sales were flat on

Xi Jinping is betting that China can build domestic alternatives to American semiconductors and reduce its dollar exposure before either becomes a crisis.

Americans’ expectations for inflation over the next year fell in January to the lowest level in 12 months, according to a survey released Monday by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The median expectation for inflation one year from

Chinese regulators have advised the country’s biggest banks to rein in their exposure to U.S. Treasuries, citing concentration risk and market volatility, Bloomberg News reported Monday.

Wells Fargo estimates the tab is up just 1.6 percent from last year.

This week, investors decided that maybe it was time to give AI a bit of time off for good behavior, the Cato Institute celebrated rising tax bills due to immigration, and Disney made it clear that its future isn’t in entertainment.

Consumer sentiment unexpectedly rose for the third consecutive month in early February, according to the University of Michigan’s preliminary assessment of the household sector.

In the Fed’s modern history, the FOMC has always chosen the sitting Board chairman to be its chairman as well. Politics, however, has a habit of stress-testing assumptions.

Critics point to years of explicitly political and identity-focused messaging that they say marked a sharp departure from the company’s traditional product-driven image. Executives and statements by the company for years deployed left-wing tropes about white mediocrity, “cisgender,” and “ableism.” The company went all in on the Black Lives Matter fad in 2020.

Challenger data shows surge in announced job cuts, but government statistics tell different story of stable employment.

Warsh’s most fundamental critique of the Federal Reserve targets the Fed’s devotion to economic models that consistently fail to predict reality.

Private sector employment increased by just 22,000 jobs in January, falling short of economist expectations but landing closer to a rapidly declining break-even threshold for job creation, according to ADP’s National Employment Report released Wednesday. The figure came in well

The most consequential feature of Kevin Warsh’s view of the Federal Reserve is his focus on balance sheet reduction.
