Le FMI félicite l'économie de la RDC et débloque la dernière tranche d’un plan de 1,5 milliard

Slovak prime minister still in serious condition as suspect appears in court

A government minister says Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico’s condition is stable but serious as the man accused of trying to assassinate him faces his first court appearance

21 m

abcnews.go.com

Preakness Stakes 2024: Mystik Dan eyes Triple Crown, Bob Baffert returns seeking record-extending win

The Preakness Stakes returns Saturday to Pimlico Race Course as Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan looks to become the Triple Crown winner since 2018.

27 m

foxnews.com

The Forever Trial

How the sister of one victim of the Sept. 11 attacks is navigating the trial of the men accused of orchestrating it.

29 m

nytimes.com

China makes some of the hottest new EVs. Most aren’t sold in the U.S.

Chinese-made electric vehicles aren’t widely available yet in the United States — and may never be after the Biden administration moved to quadruple import tariffs on them, to100 percent. Here are some Chinese EVs that are being shipped out of China.

30 m

washingtonpost.com

American and Chinese car makers bet on different strategies in global fight

As Chinese manufacturers try to sell as many cars as possible, their U.S. competitors are betting on making each vehicle sale more valuable.

30 m

washingtonpost.com

Why are Americans spending so much?

Shoppers carry Uniqlo bags in the SoHo neighborhood of New York on March 8, 2024. | John Taggart/Bloomberg via Getty Images They say the economy is bad, but they’re spending like it’s booming. Americans have been pessimistic about the economy for years. Weirdly, that’s seemed to have little impact on their willingness to open their wallets. Retai

31 m

vox.com

Shoppers carry Uniqlo bags in the SoHo neighborhood of New York on March 8, 2024. | John Taggart/Bloomberg via Getty Images They say the economy is bad, but they’re spending like it’s booming. Americans have been pessimistic about the economy for years. Weirdly, that’s seemed to have little impact on their willingness to open their wallets. Retail sales surged during the pandemic as home-bound workers clicked “complete purchase” on everything from Pelotons to sourdough starter. In 2020, e-commerce sales rose by 43 percent. Stimulus checks gave Americans newfound savings and excess money to burn. Supply chains couldn’t keep up with the demand. That was all supposed to come crashing down at some point. For more than a year, economists warned about the “death of the consumer” and a resulting recession — neither of which have materialized. Consumers were expected to retreat as inflation skyrocketed, hitting a 9.1 percent peak in June 2022 and remaining stubbornly above the Federal Reserve’s target rate of 2 percent. Instead, Americans just kept buying more, even accounting for price increases and beyond growth in their disposable income. Their spending helped drive US economic growth in 2023 and remained high in the first months of this year. In March, consumer spending increased by 0.8 percent, exceeding expectations from financial analysts. There is a sign that Americans’ shopping spree might be finally coming to an end: Retail spending stayed the same in April as compared to the previous month, falling short of analyst projections for growth. However, those numbers don’t capture spending on services — for example, health care, transportation, and insurance — which has increased markedly this year. And both Preston Caldwell, a senior US economist at Morningstar, and Scott Hoyt, a Moody’s Analytics economist, said those numbers could easily bounce back next month, even if they’re expecting spending to cool by the end of the year. “I am anticipating that we do see eventually a consumer slowdown over the course of this year,” Caldwell said. “It’s premature to say that that’s already playing out right now.” Indeed, spending is bound to come down at some point under the pressure of high interest rates, which the Fed isn’t expected to cut until later this year — or potentially at all in 2024. So why, despite all the doom and gloom among consumers, has spending been so resilient? Who is driving high spending? Two things are simultaneously true: People feel really negatively about the economy, and that’s not stopping them from spending. In May, the University of Michigan recorded its lowest consumer sentiment reading in six months — an index of 67.4 out of 100 — as part of its long-running survey. That’s up from this time last year, but still well below pre-pandemic consumer sentiment readings, which hovered in the upper 80s and 90s. The trend in sentiment was widespread across demographic lines: Consumers “expressed worries that inflation, unemployment and interest rates may all be moving in an unfavorable direction in the year ahead,” the University of Michigan report reads. It’s hard to reconcile that with high spending figures. But in short, the rich currently feel rich and account for a large share of overall spending. The middle class feels a little better off too, and likely still has some savings built up they can burn through. They might not yet have felt the pressure of high interest rates and inflation to the same degree as people who rent and have fewer investments. (But that’s due to change.) High-income consumers — households in the top 20 percent of income earning at least $244,025 before taxes as of 2022 — have been largely cushioned from economic headwinds and are flush with cash to spend. The pandemic saw Americans’ average percentage of income saved increase to an all-time high of 32 percent in April 2020 after many households received stimulus checks. That has helped fuel spending, but unlike in other high-income countries where consumers have proved more thrifty, Americans are close to depleting those savings. “The excess savings [are] still kind of sloshing their way through the system. Depending on how you estimate excess savings, they will be depleted sometime in the middle of 2024 or maybe by as late as mid-2025,” Caldwell said. Many high-income consumers also locked in low interest rates on their mortgages before the Federal Reserve started raising rates in March 2022, and they’re seeing their home values continue to go up nonetheless. The average US home price increased from $287,000 in 2019 to $450,000 in 2024. This is in part due to persistent low inventory: High interest rates have kept would-be sellers on the sidelines because their mortgage payments would be higher if they bought a new place. High-income consumers have also seen their investment portfolios balloon in the last year. The stock market repeatedly tested new highs in recent months, with the latest record set on Thursday in the wake of new data showing that inflation is slowing. And wealthy older Americans who allocate more of their portfolios to government bonds are benefiting from higher interest rates. “That sort of gives consumers an incentive to spend out of their newfound wealth,” Hoyt said. “And since this set of consumers still has excess savings left over from the pandemic, that gives them the easy, relatively liquid monies to do so.” The question is how long the stock market can sustain this run. Some analysts think stocks are currently overpriced and due for a correction — which might cause some people to finally close their wallets. “Equity prices are starting to move more into arguably overvalued territory,” Caldwell said. “So that’s probably not going to be a tailwind [for spending] over the next year.” At the same time, the factors currently fueling spending at the highest income levels aren’t universal. Not all consumers can afford to spend more. Even though inflation has come down significantly from its 2022 peak, low-income Americans are struggling with higher prices. Consumers in general say they are budgeting more on everyday essentials like fresh produce and baby supplies. Among people living paycheck to paycheck, pandemic savings (if they ever really had any) might be long gone. Low and moderate-income consumers are also increasingly weighed down by credit card debt and struggling to pay it down due to high interest rates, which research suggests could be a major contributor to overall economic pessimism. Though credit card debt levels dipped during the pandemic, they are now returning to pre-pandemic levels, with the average balance per consumer increasing by 8.5 percent in the last year to $6,218. More than half of people earning less than $25,000 carry a balance on their credit cards. Their only consolation is that the job market remains strong, meaning they might be able to count on another paycheck — but even that might not last. Analysts including Caldwell expect the unemployment rate to rise from 3.8 percent to 3.9 percent and wage growth to slow in 2024. Ultimately, however, low-income consumers “just don’t account for that big of a share of total spending,” Hoyt said. “It’s the high end of the income distribution that accounts for a disproportionate share of the spending.”

Russia shows resilience. There is more to do for Ukraine.

Russia has proved more resilient than expected while Ukraine has been weakened.

31 m

washingtonpost.com

The planet needs lab-grown meat, no matter what Ron DeSantis says

There isn't enough lab-grown meat in the U.S. to supply a dozen restaurants, yet two Republican governors are scared enough to ban it.

31 m

latimes.com

What time does the 2024 Preakness Stakes start? What TV channel is it on?

What time does the 2024 Preakness Stakes start? Here's a breakdown of when the race starts and the TV and streaming options available.

31 m

latimes.com

Invading Rafah Doesn’t Help Israel

Biden is supporting Israel by trying to restrain it.

31 m

nytimes.com

The Truth Hurts — Especially When Bill Maher Dishes It Out

“Why can’t everybody live in my world, in the middle,” he says, “where we’re not nuts?”

31 m

nytimes.com

Letters to Sports: Lamenting the LeBron James and Lakers situations

Readers of the Los Angeles Times sports section weigh in on LeBron James' future, as well as that of his son, the Lakers coaching search and the Dodgers.

31 m

latimes.com

It Is Inexcusable How Judge Cannon Is Delaying the Trump Documents Case

She is utterly failing to keep the case moving along in a fair but timely manner.

31 m

nytimes.com

Vincent Trocheck’s infuriating do-it-all game the missing link for Rangers

In his second season with the Rangers, Vincent Trocheck has embodied that hard-to-play-against trait the organization had been chasing for years.

31 m

nypost.com

3 Spanish tourists killed, multiple injured during attack in Afghanistan

Eight were wounded and according to preliminary information were from Norway, Australia, Lithuania and Spain.

48 m

cbsnews.com

Chiefs' Harrison Butker 'said nothing wrong' during faith-based commencement speech, religious group says

NFL player Harrison Butker has received a considerable amount of attention in the days since he delivered the commencement speech at Kansas College.

52 m

foxnews.com

Climate activists breach German airport, glue themselves to runway during busy travel weekend

An airport spokesperson said the airport had been fully closed to takeoffs and landings for nearly two hours.

53 m

nypost.com

‘Never Trump?’ ‘Never Biden’ voters might loom larger.

Biden’s ceiling of support is actually lower than Trump’s right now. It’s a stark reversal from 2020 — with major implications.

1 h

washingtonpost.com

Queen of the Book Club

Sitting down for lunch with Reese Witherspoon, whose book picks have become a force in the publishing industry.

1 h

nytimes.com

Trump trusted more than Biden on inflation, a top issue for voters, poll shows

Eighty-five percent of people surveyed said inflation is an important issue, and most trust Trump more than Biden to deal with it.

1 h

abcnews.go.com

Biden called out for past desegregation remarks after praising 1954 landmark Supreme Court ruling

Critics reminded President Biden about his past support for school segregation after he praised the Brown v. Board of Education ruling Friday.