Forced Labor Tariffs Hit 60 Economies — Korea Faces 12.5%
USTR proposed up to 12.5% tariffs on 60 economies, including Korea, over weak forced-labor import bans. Final rates follow a July 7 hearing. Read more »
Inflation
Kevin Warsh’s First Fed Test: Trump Wanted Cuts, CPI Says No
Trump installed Kevin Warsh to cut rates, but 3.8% inflation and a twelve-vote FOMC complicate his first meeting on June 17. Here is what drives the decision. Read more »
CEO Confidence Tumbles to 47 in Q2 2026
CEO Confidence dropped to 47 in Q2 2026, breaking the pessimism threshold. 47% of CEOs cited a worsening economy while the S&P 500 hit fresh record highs. Read more »
$127B Tariff Refund: 56,497 Importers Hit CAPE Glitches
The U.S. tariff refund portal is America’s hottest website — and its most frustrating. The CAPE module that CBP switched on inside the ACE Secure Data Portal at 8:00 AM EST on April 20, 2026 was supposed to be a clearing house for $127 billion in IEEPA-era refunds. Instead, day-one traffic produced “Duplicate tax ID” errors, four-hour hold times, and a wave of small-business owners publicly describing a system that “seems to have gone blinky.” Read more »
Iran Ceasefire Extended: S&P 500 Dips as Brent Rallies 55%
Day 54. Eight weeks into the US-Iran war, on April 21, 2026, President Trump took to Truth Social to declare an open-ended extension of the Iran ceasefire. Wall Street did not throw a relief party. Read more »
Gold Price Hit $5,000, Then Central Banks Sold 131 Tonnes
Five thousand and eighty-eight dollars. That was the price of gold on January 26, 2026, when the metal breached $5,000 per ounce for the first time in history. Three years of relentless central bank buying had pushed the gold price to this milestone. Read more »
China GDP Beats 5%, Auto Sales -11.8% Expose Demand Crisis
Five percent. That was the China GDP print for Q1 2026, comfortably above the 4.8% that Wall Street had penciled in. On the surface, it looks like the world’s second-largest economy is firing on all cylinders. Read more »
Fertilizer Prices Spike 46%, Putting 45 Million at Food Risk
Six hundred and fifty dollars. That is the current price of one metric ton of urea — and it explains why fertilizer prices have become the most dangerous variable in global food production. Read more »
IMF World Economic Outlook: 3.3% Growth Masks AI Bubble Risk
Three point three percent. After a Middle East oil shock and a US-China tariff truce, the IMF World Economic Outlook just pinned its 2026 global growth number to that single digit. It is a 0.2 percentage point upgrade from the October 2025 baseline, released this morning in Washington. Read more »
28 Cities in Decline: The Great US Housing Reversal
Negative 9.6 percent. That is how much Cape Coral homeowners lost in a single year. The Sun Belt, once the undisputed engine of American real estate wealth, is cracking under the weight of its own pandemic-era excess. Read more »