Rick Newman

View photosMore President Trump has never run a car company, but he’s pretty sure he’d do it better than the boneheads in charge of General Motors, Ford and all the other big automakers. Automotive CEOs generally understand climate change and…

Iran is on its heels. U.S. sanctions have sharply cut Iranian oil sales, with the Iranian economy shrinking by 3% to 6%. Inflation is at least 40%. President Trump tightened the screws further on Sept. 20, with new sanctions on Iran’s national…

President Trump has mounted a deregulatory crusade, vowing to slash rules and regulations that get in the way of doing business. Unless you disagree with him. Then he’ll use the full heft of the federal government to jam your operations. Trump…

Unions are having a moment. The strike by 46,000 General Motors workers has shut down the automaker, evoking epic labor battles of America’s industrial peak. This follows successful strikes by unionized workers in recent years at Marriott, Stop &…

Many Trump tweets will live in infamy. We may have gotten a Top 10er this week. On Sept. 11, President Trump declared that the Federal Reserve should cut interest rates “to ZERO, or less.” He also said the United States should take advantage of low…

Trade has turned out to be one of President Trump’s biggest vulnerabilities as he runs for reelection. He promised to bring millions of manufacturing jobs offshored to China back to the United States, and stop China from cheating in ways that harm…

There are serious problems with the “wealth tax” on millionaires and billionaires that Sen. Elizabeth Warren says would raise nearly $3 trillion. Since the tax would target wealth rather than income, the government would have to value the assets of…

President Trump wants to refinance the nation’s $17 trillion in federal debt, as if Uncle Sam’s liabilities are a mortgage or simple business loan. “The Federal Reserve should get our interest rates down to ZERO, or less,” Trump tweeted on Sept. 11.…

President Trump says he is “winning big time, against China.” But his trade war is causing measurable damage to the U.S. economy, with the pain likely to worsen. Forecasting firm Moody’s Analytics estimates that Trump’s trade war with China has…

I traveled to Europe earlier this year, and used Google maps to get around in a rented car. Google Translate helped me ask basic questions in the local language, while Google’s search engine helped me research restaurants. All of that was free. My…

President Trump had a gift for the auto industry after he took office in 2017: a sharp cutback in fuel-efficiency standards. Turns out, they didn’t want it. And now the president and the automakers he tried to help are engaged in a dysfunctional…

View photosMore There are two ways of looking at the middling jobs report for August. One is to focus on a distinct slowdown in the pace of job growth. Employers added 130,000 jobs in August, which is okay. But for the year, job growth is averaging…

View photosMore Financial markets freaked out on Aug. 14, when the interest rate on 2-year Treasury securities temporarily fell below the rate on 10-year notes. Long-term rates are normally higher than short-term ones, and when these rates “invert,”…

It’s a mantra of political orthodoxy: You can’t raise taxes on voters if you hope to get reelected. Yet President Trump is doing just that, through new tariffs on billions of dollars worth of consumer goods imported from China. Many of those goods…

I’ll see your trillion, and raise you a few trillion more. This is the arms race going on in the Democratic presidential campaign over climate policy, with candidates trying to outdo each other on the audacity—and cost—of their plans to combat global…

With far less fanfare than the tax cuts President Donald Trump signed into law in 2017, a series of tax hikes goes into effect today on thousands of everyday items imported from China. A new tariff of 15% will be added to the cost of more than 40% of…

The stock market got some relief this week — when China indicated it will not further retaliate in the trade war with President Trump. August was escalation month, with Trump announcing new tariffs, China responding with new tariffs of its own and…

If the U.S. economy enters a recession during the next 12 months, it could doom President Trump’s reelection odds. Some Democrats probably hope that happens. But nobody should hope for a recession. For starters, voters are wise to economic doomsayers…

Markets seem forever hopeful that President Trump’s trade war with China will get neatly resolved before long. Stocks fall when the trade war escalates, but then rise as Trump talks up the prospect of a breakthrough. Investors are too gullible.…

Back in 2016, many reputable forecasters predicted a recession would occur if Donald Trump won the presidency. Trump won. There’s been no recession. But those forecasters weren’t wrong. Research from Moody’s Analytics, Citigroup, Oxford Economics and…