Tag: United States Economy

Gina Raimondo, a Rising Star in the Biden Administration, Faces a $100 Billion Test

Chin@Strategy

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Gina Raimondo, the commerce secretary, was meeting with students at Purdue University in September when she spotted a familiar face. Ms. Raimondo beamed as she greeted the chief executive of SkyWater Technology, a chip company that had announced plans to build a $1.8 billion manufacturing facility next to the Purdue campus. “We’re super excited about the Indiana announcement,” she said. “Call me if you need anything.” These days, Ms. Raimondo, a former Rhode Island governor, is the most important phone call in Washington that many chief…

Oil Prices Slide as Investors Worry Energy Demand Is Slowing

Chin@Strategy

HOUSTON — Saudi Arabia is slashing oil exports. U.S. crude oil in storage is dropping. Members of the European Union will soon sharply reduce how much fuel they buy from Russia. Those developments would normally send oil prices sharply higher. Yet oil prices have been sliding. The U.S. benchmark, West Texas Intermediate, fell to about $80 a barrel on Friday from more than $90 at the start of the month. The global supply of oil appears to be falling, but many oil traders think that demand is heading down even…

U.S. to Begin Formal Trade Talks With Taiwan

Chin@Strategy

The Biden administration said on Wednesday that it would begin formal trade negotiations with Taiwan this fall, after several weeks of rising tensions over the island democracy that China claims as its own. The announcement marks a step toward a pact that would deepen economic and technological ties between the United States and Taiwan, after initial talks were announced in June. But relations between the United States and China have markedly deteriorated since then, on the heels of visits by two delegations of U.S. lawmakers to Taiwan this month, including…

Oil Prices Fall After Signs of Chinese Economic Slowdown

Chin@Strategy

Oil prices fell to their lowest level in months on Monday, after signs emerged that China’s economy is faltering. The price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil, the U.S. benchmark, dipped below $90 per barrel in afternoon trading, down more than 3 percent, its lowest level since February. The price of Brent crude, the international benchmark, fell by a similar amount, to below $95 a barrel, the lowest since March. China’s economy, which has shown signs of a slowdown for months, sputtered even more in July according to data from…

Biden Signs Industrial Policy Bill Aimed at Bolstering Competition With China

Chin@Strategy

WASHINGTON — President Biden on Tuesday signed into law a sprawling $280 billion bill aimed at bolstering American chip manufacturing to address global supply chain issues and counter the rising influence of China, part of a renewed effort by the White House to galvanize its base around a recent slate of legislative victories. Standing before business leaders and lawmakers in the Rose Garden, Mr. Biden said the bill was proof that bipartisanship in Washington could produce legislation that would build up a technology sector, lure semiconductor manufacturing back to the…

What Dominated the World Economic Forum

Chin@Strategy

Davos’s talking points The annual World Economic Forum, delayed from its normal winter date by Covid, has wrapped up. The high-profile conference, which draws leaders from government, business and nonprofits, has returned for the first time since coronavirus shut down the world — but in the midst of a war in Europe. DealBook was on hand, and here are our big takeaways: Executives are worried about a slowdown. Nearly every conversation with chief executives was dominated by how to handle rising interest rates, inflation and supply chain shocks, with the…

Your Thursday Briefing: A Ban on Russian Oil?

Chin@Strategy

Good morning. We’re covering the E.U.’s plan to ban Russian oil, growing U.S. frustration with the politicized Supreme Court and a separatist movement in Pakistan. The E.U. may ban Russian oil With no end to the Ukraine conflict in sight, the European Union took a major step on Wednesday toward weakening Moscow’s ability to finance the war, proposing a total embargo on Russian oil. If approved this week as expected, it would be the bloc’s biggest and costliest step yet toward supporting Ukraine and ending its own dependence on Russian…

Your Friday Briefing: China’s Stimulus Plan

Chin@Strategy

Good morning. We’re covering China’s economic stimulus plan, President Biden’s push for war funds and extreme heat in India and Pakistan. China’s Covid stimulus plan As China’s lockdowns continue and new infections continue to spread in Beijing, the central government has laid out a wide-ranging economic stimulus plan to staunch expected losses. The government will subsidize businesses, pausing unemployment insurance payments if companies avoid mass layoffs, as well as electricity and internet charges. Young people graduating from college will be subsidized if they start their own businesses, since few jobs…

How the Supply Chain Crunch is Hurting California Farmers.

Chin@Strategy

During a normal spring, the sight of orchards bursting with clusters of almonds is a boon throughout California’s Central Valley. Here is money growing on trees. Not this year. As Scott Phippen looks out on his orchard on a recent afternoon, he feels a sense of foreboding tinged with rage. His warehouse is stuffed with the leftovers of last year’s harvest — 30 million pounds of almonds stored in wooden and plastic bins stacked to the rafters, and overflowing into his yard. Orders assembled for customers sit in giant white…

Globalization Is Over. The Global Culture Wars Have Begun.

Chin@Strategy

Next, I’m describing a world in which divergence turns into conflict, especially as great powers compete for resources and dominance. China and Russia clearly want to establish regional zones that they dominate. Some of this is the kind of conflict that historically exists between opposing political systems, similar to what we saw during the Cold War. This is the global struggle between the forces of authoritarianism and the forces of democratization. Illiberal regimes are building closer alliances with one another. They are investing more in one another’s economies. At the…