Retail spending rose in May. Here's what folks are buying.

Jun 14, 2019
Sales rose, and many of the gains were in discretionary categories.
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How tariff uncertainty trickles down to companies and consumers

Jun 13, 2019
The economy feels it when we don't know what's going to happen with tariffs and trade negotiations.
Tariffs are showing up in higher prices and some consumers are having to be strategic about their purchases. Above, a woman shops at a Walmart store in Rosemead, California in May.
Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images

As China raises tariffs on the U.S., it's lowering them for everyone else

Jun 12, 2019
With one hand, China is closing the door to U.S. products. With the other, it’s opening the door to U.S. competitors in the rest of the world. Chinese tariffs on U.S. products have increased to an average of 42%; everyone else pays an average of 19%. Lowering tariffs on everyone but the United States allows […]
A cargo ship prepares to dock at a port Qingdao, China, in May.
STR/AFP/Getty Images

Vietnam cracks down on fake "Made in Vietnam" labels

Jun 11, 2019
The Vietnamese government has promised a crackdown on fake labels and certificates of origin.
This photograph taken on May 24, 2019 shows a Ted Baker brand men's shirt labeled "Made in Vietnam" in a factory in Hanoi.
MANAN VATSYAYANA/AFP/Getty Images

USDA report to show the impact of wet weather and trade tensions on farmers

Jun 11, 2019
An Ag report to be released on Tuesday is expected to show the effects of weather and trade tensions on farm supply and demand.
Floodwater from the Mississippi River covers a farmer's field on May 30, 2019 in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri.
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Can Mexico succeed in stopping Central American migration? What if it can't?

Jun 10, 2019
Mexico pledged to disrupt human smuggling networks and patrol its own borders more closely.
People climb a section of border fence to look toward supporters in the U.S. as members of a caravan of Central American asylum seekers arrive to a rally on April 29, 2018 in Tijuana, Baja California Norte, Mexico.
David McNew/Getty Images

For public good, not for profit.

Short-notice tariffs: a wrench in the border machine

Jun 6, 2019
The prospect of pop-up tariffs hitting everything coming across the border has the people who work in the export-import trade worried.
Cargo trucks line up to cross into the U.S. at the Otay Mesa crossing port in Tijuana, Mexico, in April.
Guillermo Arias/AFP/Getty Images

Will India be Trump's next trade war target?

Jun 4, 2019
Following tariffs on China and Mexico, India's change in trading status change makes it look like a multi-front trade war.
Roberto Schmidt/AFP/Getty Images

Mexico tariffs could hike car prices by $1,500

May 31, 2019
The Trump administration has threatened to levy a 5% tax on Mexican imports next month, which could go as high as 25%.
“We have the highest prices in the world right now for aluminum and steel,” said Kristin Dziczek, a vice president at the Center for Automotive Research. Above, Ford Mustangs are assembled at a plant in Flat Rock, Michigan, in 2004.
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