America's economic data are becoming murkier
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Economist
an hour ago
- Economist
What becomes of Republicans who cross King Donald?
United States | He loves me, he loves me not Photograph: Getty Images D ONALD TRUMP'S One Big Beautiful Bill act ( BBB ) is a Frankenstein's monster of hand-outs, carve-outs, tax cuts and ideological splurges and purges. Independent analysis suggests it will increase America's deficit, stunt the economy and hit the poorest hardest. A recent poll by YouGov and The Economist found that just over one in three Americans support the bill. Elon Musk, a big Republican donor and a former 'first buddy' of Mr Trump, is so unhappy that he is proposing to create a new political party. Even so, only five Republican members of Congress voted against it—fewer than any budget of Mr Trump's first term. Donald Trump says they missed an existential threat from Iran. Why should anyone trust their findings now? The Trump administration has taken aim at the University of Virginia The president is using emergency cases to expand his power Coercion and corporate expedience meet in a $16m settlement New York's mayoral front-runner thinks so Choked for funds, the Bureau of Labour Statistics is cutting corners
Spectator
4 hours ago
- Spectator
History does not favour Musk's new America party
The world's richest man, Elon Musk, has announced that he intends to create a new third party in the US called the America party. After his own poll on X showed that two out of three favoured the venture, the outspoken billionaire has now put his money where his mouth is and taken the plunge to found and finance his new party. Although the 54-year-old owner of X, Tesla, SpaceX and other hi-tech enterprises has been a US citizen since 2002, because he was born in South Africa he cannot run for president himself. But he says he will fund the new party after spectacularly falling out with President Trump in May following Musk's short stint as Trump's Doge tsar with a brief to cut government waste, largely by sacking federal employees. Musk hates Trump's recently passed 'big, beautiful bill' to cut taxes and spending, saying it will ruin business. And so the billionaire, with an ego almost as big as his wallet, now believes that Americans frustrated with both the Democrats and Trump's Republicans are ready to support an entirely new party. History, however, does not favour his plan. There have been many third party launches since the Democrat versus Republican duopoly emerged in the 1850s just before the American civil war, but all have failed. The Republicans themselves were born then, originally as a progressive anti-slavery movement. They challenged the Democrats, then an agricultural party strong in the south, and after the north won the civil war, the Republican 'Grand Old Party' ( GOP) dominated both the presidency and wider US politics until the 20th century. A feud between conservative and liberal Republicans saw former Republican President Teddy Roosevelt launch his Progressive or 'Bull Moose' party in 1912, which split the Republican vote and handed the presidency to Democrat Woodrow Wilson. On the other side of the aisle, increasing industrialisation and class conflict between the world wars led to socialist Norman Thomas running for the White House six times – and failing every time. Instead, left-wing urban voters and ethnic minorities backed the statist high spending New Deal policies of Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt – and sent him to the White House an unprecedented four times. By then, the Republicans had evolved into a right-wing party backing big business and free enterprise. An attempt by radicals to launch a left-wing Progressive party after the second world war failed, as did right-wing efforts to form an Independent party led by the racist southern Governor George Wallace in the 1960s. Like Norman Thomas, left-wing ecologist Ralph Nader repeatedly ran for the presidency on a 'Green' ticket – and just as often failed. In the 1990s businessman Ross Perot tried to break the two-party system with a right-wing Libertarian party, but failed yet again. Trump did break the mould in 2016 when he captured the GOP with his own unique brand of patriotic nationalist rhetoric, but he was still working from within the two-party system. Partly in reaction to Trumpism, the Democrats have now moved sharply to the left. The party is predominantly woke and identifies with sexual and racial minorities (who don't always return the favour). It also is mainly internationalist and anti-Israeli. Musk is hoping that with his own brand of radical right-wing politics, he will achieve the same kind of breakthrough that Trump managed, aided by his own command of social media, his large public profile and his almost limitless wealth. There is, though, precious little evidence that the attention-seeking tycoon commands the same levels of uncritical personal popularity and mass support that Trump can count on with his MAGA base, and history offers him little encouragement either.
Daily Mail
9 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Employee benefit linked to financial stress takes aim at traditional 401(K)s as US debt skyrockets
Americans are increasingly turning to services that are setting off alarm bells. Instead of waiting for a traditional payday, workers are increasingly using apps like DailyPay, FlexWage, and Tapcheck to get paid the same day they work — sometimes just hours after clocking out. It's called on-demand pay, and it's growing fast as millions of households face financial stress. The service lets users withdraw wages they've already earned before their scheduled payday. 'It helps a lot of employees, especially ones in school who need to pay a bill while check isn't scheduled for another week,' one Reddit user said about DailyPay. 'But don't make it a habit — when you get paid in full, your check is little.' These apps are marketed as an alternative to payday loans. There's no interest, but workers typically pay a flat fee of $2 to $5 for instant access. Next-day deposits are often free. The rise of on-demand pay comes as Americans face mounting financial pressure from nearly every direction. Total household debt surged by $167 billion in the first quarter of 2025, reaching a record $18.2 trillion, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Around $5 trillion of that debt is non-housing, consumer debt. While credit card balances dipped slightly — falling $29 billion from the previous quarter — student loan debt jumped by $16 billion. Delinquencies spiked after the end of a multi-year pause on repayment reporting. Overall, 4.3 percent of household debt is now delinquent in some way. That situation is especially dire for Americans living paycheck to paycheck. Roughly one in three consumers struggle to manage their debt, and 35 percent say they can't pay all their bills on time, according to new survey data from digital finance firm Achieve. America's labor market has shown surprising resilience - analysts were recently surprised with how many US employees got jobs last month 'When people are overwhelmed and about to miss bill payments, they often don't know what steps to take,' Brad Stroh, the firm's CEO said about the survey's findings. The agency suggested consumers should avoid quick fixes to their debt problems like cash advances, saying they 'can deepen long-term financial challenges.' 'One significant concern with on-demand pay is the potential for high associated costs,' Austin Kilgore, an analyst at the Achieve Center for Consumer Insights, told 'The real danger emerges when individuals fall into a cycle of repeatedly accessing their wages early rather than managing their existing funds. 'This can lead to a situation where a significant portion of their income is consumed by fees, essentially preventing them from having full access to their earned money.' But the problem doesn't seem to stem from American employment opportunities. Early Thursday, the Labor Department released it's June jobs report that showed shocking resilience in the jobs market. Last month, America added 147,000 jobs, up from 139,000 added in May. Hidden in today's numbers was good news for debt-burdened Americans: the average wage is still increasing. Last month, employers typically paid $36.30 an hour for work, an $0.08 hourly increase from the month before. The positive numbers were shocking to many analysts, especially given the news on Wednesday.
