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Bloomberg
14-07-2025
- Politics
- Bloomberg
Statistics and Politics Are a Dangerous Mix
How much longer can we trust government statistics? After staffing shortages at the Bureau of Labor Statistics reportedly affected the agency's ability to collect data for the Consumer Price Index last month, a handful of Democratic senators wrote to the Department of Labor demanding to know how it affected the agency's statistics. Earlier this year, the government made the radical move to dissolve several external expert advisory committees that served the BLS and the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Meanwhile, across industries as diverse as medicine, insurance and education, professionals are dealing with the outright disappearance of data from government websites.
Local France
13-07-2025
- Business
- Local France
Impact of US tariffs varies across European Union
Ireland, with a major pharmaceutical industry, is in the front line along with Germany, for whom the United States is a major outlet for its cars, steel and machine tools. France is less exposed, even if it does have aeronautics, food, wine and luxury goods companies that risk losing markets. The EU as a whole has an annual trade surplus with the United States of $235.6 billion, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), which reports to the U.S. Department of Commerce. Only China has a higher amount. Germany, the industrial powerhouse Germany, the EU's largest economy, is under particular pressure due to its dependence on exports: it has a surplus of $84.8 billion with the United States, thanks to its large automobile, chemical, steel and machine industries. The United States accounts for 23 percent of the revenue of Mercedes Benz. While some of that is accounted for by SUVs manufactured in the United States and exported, they risk being hit by any tariff reprisals from the EU. The Federation of German Industries (BDI) reacted promptly to Donald Trump's announcements on Saturday, calling on the EU and the United States to "quickly find solutions and to avoid an escalation". READ ALSO: German chancellor 'cautiously optimistic' on EU-US tariff deal Advertisement Italy, France in the second line Italy and France, with surpluses of $44 billion and $16.4 billion respectively, according to US statistics (French data says the surplus is much smaller), would appear to be less affected. But some sectors are heavily exposed. The food and wine industries would be particularly affected in both countries, as is also the case for Spain. A 30-percent tariff would be a "catastrophe" for the French wine and spirits sector, Jerome Despey, head of the viticulture branch of the FNSEA union, said Saturday. Coldiretti, Italy's main agricultural organisation, said Saturday that tariffs of 30 percent would cost US consumers and Italian food producers some $2.3 billion. Like Germany, Italy is also concerned about its automotive sector. Franco-Italian manufacturer Stellantis (particularly Fiat and Peugeot) has suspended its forecasts for the year due to these uncertainties. Exposed French sectors also include aeronautics and luxury goods. LVMH, the world's largest luxury conglomerate, makes a quarter of its sales in the United States. About a fifth of France's exports to the United States come from the aerospace industry, much of it from Airbus. Austria and Sweden also have surpluses with the United States, $13.1 billion and $9.8 billion respectively. Advertisement Ireland, Europe's lab Ireland has the largest surplus among EU members, at $86.7 billion. That is largely due to the presence of major American pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer, Eli Lilly, and Johnson & Johnson. They all set up in Ireland to benefit from a 15 percent corporate tax, compared to 21 percent in the United States. These companies can thus host their patents in Ireland and sell on the American market, where drug prices are traditionally higher than in the rest of the world. Ireland also hosts most of the European headquarters of American tech giants, such as Apple, Google and Meta, also attracted by the attractive Irish tax system. Overall, pharmaceuticals account for 22.5 percent of EU exports to the United States, according to Eurostat, with many major players having announced major investments in the United States.
Local Germany
13-07-2025
- Business
- Local Germany
Impact of US tariffs varies across European Union
Ireland, with a major pharmaceutical industry, is in the front line along with Germany, for whom the United States is a major outlet for its cars, steel and machine tools. France is less exposed, even if it does have aeronautics, food, wine and luxury goods companies that risk losing markets. The EU as a whole has an annual trade surplus with the United States of $235.6 billion, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), which reports to the U.S. Department of Commerce. Only China has a higher amount. Germany, the industrial powerhouse Germany, the EU's largest economy, is under particular pressure due to its dependence on exports: it has a surplus of $84.8 billion with the United States, thanks to its large automobile, chemical, steel and machine industries. The United States accounts for 23 percent of the revenue of Mercedes Benz. While some of that is accounted for by SUVs manufactured in the United States and exported, they risk being hit by any tariff reprisals from the EU. The Federation of German Industries (BDI) reacted promptly to Donald Trump's announcements on Saturday, calling on the EU and the United States to "quickly find solutions and to avoid an escalation". READ ALSO: German chancellor 'cautiously optimistic' on EU-US tariff deal Advertisement Italy, France in the second line Italy and France, with surpluses of $44 billion and $16.4 billion respectively, according to US statistics (French data says the surplus is much smaller), would appear to be less affected. But some sectors are heavily exposed. The food and wine industries would be particularly affected in both countries, as is also the case for Spain. A 30-percent tariff would be a "catastrophe" for the French wine and spirits sector, Jerome Despey, head of the viticulture branch of the FNSEA union, said Saturday. Coldiretti, Italy's main agricultural organisation, said Saturday that tariffs of 30 percent would cost US consumers and Italian food producers some $2.3 billion. Like Germany, Italy is also concerned about its automotive sector. Franco-Italian manufacturer Stellantis (particularly Fiat and Peugeot) has suspended its forecasts for the year due to these uncertainties. Exposed French sectors also include aeronautics and luxury goods. LVMH, the world's largest luxury conglomerate, makes a quarter of its sales in the United States. About a fifth of France's exports to the United States come from the aerospace industry, much of it from Airbus. Austria and Sweden also have surpluses with the United States, $13.1 billion and $9.8 billion respectively. Advertisement Ireland, Europe's lab Ireland has the largest surplus among EU members, at $86.7 billion. That is largely due to the presence of major American pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer, Eli Lilly, and Johnson & Johnson. They all set up in Ireland to benefit from a 15 percent corporate tax, compared to 21 percent in the United States. These companies can thus host their patents in Ireland and sell on the American market, where drug prices are traditionally higher than in the rest of the world. Ireland also hosts most of the European headquarters of American tech giants, such as Apple, Google and Meta, also attracted by the attractive Irish tax system. Overall, pharmaceuticals account for 22.5 percent of EU exports to the United States, according to Eurostat, with many major players having announced major investments in the United States.
Nikkei Asia
11-07-2025
- Business
- Nikkei Asia
South Korea leads Asian foreign investment decline into US
Hyundai Motor's vehicle assembly plant in the U.S. state of Alabama. © Reuters PAK YIU NEW YORK -- New foreign direct investment from Asian countries into the U.S. declined 40% last year to $23.2 billion, with South Korea recording the biggest drop in new spending. By region, Asia was the second-largest source of new investments in 2024 following Europe, which contributed $96.7 billion, new data released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis shows. Total new foreign direct investment -- which includes acquisitions, establishing new U.S. businesses and expanding existing offices -- totaled $151 billion.
Business Insider
04-07-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
The US needs to reinvent manufacturing for the AI age, or risk losing out to China, Marc Andreessen warns
Marc Andreesen believes America is at a profound turning point — and it can either lead the next industrial revolution powered by AI, or fall behind in a world dominated by "Chinese robots." In a conversation at the Reagan Library's Economic Forum on Thursday, the billionaire venture capitalist and Andreesen Horowitz cofounder argued that the path to future growth lies not in nostalgia for old factory jobs but in reindustrializing America around next-generation manufacturing, especially in robotics. "I think there's a plausible argument — which Elon also believes — that robotics is going to be the biggest industry in the history of the planet," Andreesen said, referring to CEO Elon Musk. "It's just going to be gigantic." "There's going to be billions, tens of billions, hundreds of billions of robots of all shapes, sizes, descriptions running around doing all kinds of things, and those robots need to be designed and built." But if the US doesn't take the lead, he warned, it risks "living in a world of Chinese robots everywhere." Manufacturing's long fall Andreesen's case comes amid a . In 1947, manufacturing made up over 25% of the US GDP. By 2017, it had plunged to under 12%, according to data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis shared by the American Enterprise Institute. Employment figures are even more stark. Manufacturing accounted for nearly 33% of all US jobs in 1947, but had dropped to about 8% by the end of 2024, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Tariffs have been the Trump administration's preferred solution to this decline, but industry experts and Wall Street have said that won't be enough. A May report from Wells Fargo estimated that the US needs $2.9 trillion in capital investment to regain 1979 manufacturing job levels, calling it an "uphill battle." Goldman Sachs analysts echoed that sentiment in June, warning that tariffs can't overcome China's advantages of cheaper labor and government subsidies. Only a surge in technological innovation, they wrote, can reverse the "long-run stagnation" in productivity. Meanwhile, US manufacturers are struggling to fill the roles already available. In an April 2024 report, the Manufacturing Institute and Deloitte found the US could need 3.8 million new manufacturing workers by 2033, but half of those jobs could remain unfilled due to skill shortages. Build what's next — or be left behind Andreesen proposes a different vision: use AI to transform what manufacturing means. Rather than bringing back low-cost labor, he called for massive investment in "alien dreadnought" factories — hyper-automated factories producing robotics, drones, EVs, and AI-enabled machines that he believes could revitalize rural America and make the US the leader in embodied AI. "We shouldn't be building manufacturing lines that have people sitting on a rubber mat for 10 hours screwing screws in by hand," he said. "We should be building what Elon calls alien dreadnought factories," he said. Elon Musk has repeatedly used the term, including in 2016 and in 2020, to describe his vision for highly automated, roboticized Tesla factories, particularly for Model 3 production. Andreesen argued that this reinvention would not only reverse decades of deindustrialization but also help solve broader problems, from national security to wage stagnation to the urban-rural divide. "We have to do we have to do this because it's necessary from a national security standpoint. We have to do it because we need the economic growth. We have to do it because we need an answer for the entire population of the country, not just the cities," he said. "And we have to do it because if we don't do it, China's going to do it — and we don't want to live in that world."
