San José, CA – On Friday, February 20, the Supreme Court of the United States, or SCOTUS, ruled by a 6-3 vote that most of Trump’s trumps tariffs were illegal.
The court singled out Trump’s use of the International Economic Emergency Powers Act, or IEEPA, to levy tariffs on almost all countries and particular tariffs on Canada, China and Mexico – allegedly for facilitating the importation of fentanyl into the United States. The legal basis for the ruling was that the IEEPA makes no mention of tariffs.
San José, CA – On Friday, February 20, the first estimate of Gross Domestic Product, or GDP, for the last three months of 2025 was released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. The 1.4% annualized rate of growth reported was much less than the forecast by economists of 2.5% and even less than the rate of GDP growth for the July to September period, which was 4.4%.
San José, CA – The December report on the U.S. trade deficit of goods and services, or how much more the U.S. imported as compared to exports, jumped to $70 billion. For 2025 as a whole, the U.S. trade deficit totaled a little more than $900 billion, almost the same as in 2024. This means that Trump’s on and off again tariffs failed to close the gap between imports and exports – which Trump claimed would bring more production home. This fact matched the deterioration in the number of manufacturing jobs, which shrank every month in 2025, for a total loss of more than 100,000 jobs last year.
San José, CA – The annual updating of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS, a division of the Department of Labor) of the job creation numbers cut the annual number by 403,000 new jobs. This meant that only 181,000 net new jobs were created for the year, or only about 15,000 new jobs per month. This is the lowest annual number outside of a recession year since 2003, when the U.S. economy was in what was then named a “jobless recovery” after the 2001 recession.
San José, CA – With the New Year, premiums for health insurance bought through the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) marketplace will more than double on average, from $888 in 2025 to $1904 in 2026.
Part of this is because private, for profit health insurance companies are raising the premiums on average of 18% this year. But most of the increase is because the Republican majority House of Representatives and Senate refused to extend government subsidies that lowered the cost of health insurance.
San José, CA – On Tuesday, December 16 the Department of Labor released the monthly jobs report for November, after skipping the October report because of the federal government partial shutdown. The official unemployment rate jumped to 4.6% in November, up from 4.4% in September, hitting a new four-year high. This year, the unemployment rate has gone up 4.0% in January to 4.8%, a 20% increase in the rate, under the Trump administration.
San José, CA – On Thursday, December 18, the Department of Labor released its report on inflation for November. The CPI-W report showed that the increase in prices for urban wage earners and clerical workers was 2.7%, less than the last report on September inflation of 2.9% (the October report was skipped because of the partial government shutdown). The broader CPI-U, which includes all urban consumers, including professionals, small businesspeople and retirees, also was 2.7%.
On October 15, a White House memo boasted a $13 billion investment in five Midwestern plants by automaker Stellantis. It also announced projects by Whirlpool, General Electric and others. Thanks to tariffs, Trump tells us, the prodigal sons of industry have returned.
But how does the scoreboard really add up for reindustrialization?
Not quite as advertised. These aren’t new factories; they’re old ones being retooled. Tariffs shoot manufacturers in the foot, since they drive up prices for supplies. Investing in new technologies takes skilled workers. This is a hard sell when ICE just deported over 300 Korean technicians from a Georgia car factory. Auto corporations, hearts full of liberal compassion, fear that “first they came for Hyundai.”
San José, CA – On Friday, October 10, President Trump announced that he would be ordering an increase in tariffs on imports from China by 100%. If applied to all imports, this would increase the average tariffs rate on goods from China to 150%. The tariffs would into effect on November 1. On fears that Trump was reigniting his tariff-driven trade war, the stock market sank on Friday, with the broad S&P 500 index dropping 2.7%, the largest drop since April.
San José, CA – On Wednesday, October 1, the federal government began a partial shutdown at 12:01 a.m. About 750,000 federal workers will be furloughed and sent home without pay. About 400,000 will continue to work without pay, while more than 800,000 will continue to work with pay, of which three-quarters do military-related work. Those who are furloughed and work without pay will be paid when the shutdown ends.
San José, CA – On Friday, September 5, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that there were only 22,000 net new jobs created in August. This was the weakest number in the past four years. Even worse, the new job numbers for June and July were revised downward by 21,000, so that the revised June number was a net loss of 13,000 jobs.
San José, CA – President Trump has long insisted that other countries are paying for U.S. tariffs on imports, despite the fact that it is the U.S. importer, not the foreign exporter, that pays the tariff bill. While the U.S. importer actually pays the U.S. government, foreign exporters could bear some or even most of the tax burden if they cut their prices.
San José, CA – The Producer Price Index, or PPI, soared 0.9% in the month of July, far more than what economist expected. This was biggest monthly increase since June of 2022, when supply chains snarled by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic pushed the consumer price inflation rate to 9%. The PPI measures prices for domestic products sold to other businesses.
San José, CA – On Friday, August 1, the Department of Labor released its jobs report for the month of July. The report caused strong reactions, including disappointment, shock and anger.
San José, CA – The latest report on Gross Domestic Product, or GDP, confirmed the slower growth of the economy under the Trump administration. In the first half of 2025, from January through June, the economy only grew at a 1.25% annual rate. This a bit more than half the rate of the first half of 2024, where the economy as measured by GDP grew at a 2.3% annual rate, showing that Trump’s trade war is a drag on U.S. economic growth.
San José, CA – On Tuesday, July 15, the Department of Labor reported that prices for consumer goods and services rose at a faster rate for a second month in a row. The Consumer Price Index, or CPI, rose at a 0.3% rate in June, or a 3.7% annual rate. The year-over-year increase, as compared to June 2024, was 2.7%, up from the 2.4% year over year rate in May.
San José, CA – On Friday, July 4, President Trump signed his “Big Beautiful Bill” of tax cuts for the wealthy, cuts to health insurance and food stamps for the poor, and more attacks on immigrants.
The tax cuts are so large that, despite historic cuts to Medicaid and SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as food stamps), the federal government will be borrowing more than $300 billion more each year for the next ten years.
The new law cuts taxes about $450 billion a year over the next ten years, mainly benefiting higher income households. Using adjusted gross income, we can see the richer a household, the more money Trump and the Republicans’ new law gives to them.
San José, CA – At first glance, the June jobs report released on Thursday, July 3 looks pretty good. The total net new jobs are reported at 147,000, on par with the average of 146,000 for the previous 12 months. Further, the previous two months’ estimates were revised up by a total of 16,000, not lower as has been the pattern. The unemployment rate ticked down by one-tenth of one percent from 4.2% in May to 4.1% in June.
The small drop in the unemployment rate could be accounted for by the drop in the “Labor Force Participation Rate” by the same one-tenth of one percent from 62.4% in May to 63.2% in June. What this means is many people without jobs gave up looking in June, which lowers both the unemployment rate as people have to be out of work and looking for work to be counted as unemployed.
San José, CA – On Friday, June 6, the Department of Labor released its monthly report on the jobs markets. While the headline numbers were solid, weaknesses are hidden in the report.
Wall Street, better known for a crowd mentality than deep analysis, responded positively, with major stock market price indices all up about 1%, while bond prices fell and interest rates rose as Federal Reserve interest rates cuts seemed less likely.
San José, CA – After a weekend of negotiations in Geneva, Switzerland, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and China’s Vice Premier He Lifeng announced on Monday, May 12 that the United States would roll back its tariffs on Chinese imports by 115%, from 145% to 30%.
The Chinese agreed to match this tariff reduction, reducing China’s tariffs on U.S. goods from 125% to 10%. China did not agree to any of the U.S. trade demands and many U.S. news reports had to admit that China did well, with one headline from Bloomberg News reading, “Xi Defiance Pays Off as Trump Meets Most China Trade Demands.”
