US Median Rent Hits 4-Year Low, 30th Straight Month of Decline

Bessent Leads Trade Talks With China In Paris Ahead Of Trump-Xi Summit Ahead of the upcoming Trump-Xi summit, China and US have begun a fresh round of trade talks to set the stage for the main event.  Trade negotiators led by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and China’s Vice Premier He Lifeng held talks in Paris on Sunday to map out plans for a leaders’ summit later this month. The first day of the talks concluded around 6 pm local time, and the delegations will meet again on Monday, Bloomberg reported. The trade...

Vegetable-Oil Inflation Sends World Food Prices Higher The benchmark for global food commodity prices rose for a third consecutive month in April, hitting its highest level since early 2023, as Middle East supply disruptions, elevated energy costs, and tightening supplies of certain agricultural products appear to be driving the next leg higher in global food prices. This is a major risk we have warned about throughout the U.S.-Iran war, as energy and supply chain disruptions spread quickly through fertilizer, diesel, freight, biofuels, grains, and vegetable oils. We even treated readers to...

Britain Once Led The World. What Happened? Authored by Damian Pudner via the Foundation for Economic Education, An unsettling look at the economic settlement that the UK now seems willing to accept can be found in the latest fiscal forecast, published on March 3. By the end of the forecast period, borrowing will have decreased from 5.2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2024–2025 to about 1.6 percent. Public debt stabilizes at roughly 95 percent of national income. At those levels, even small shifts in interest rates matter: The Office for Budget...