Month: May 2019

U.S. employers added a robust 263,000 jobs in April, suggesting that businesses have shrugged off earlier concerns that the economy might slow this year and anticipate strong customer demand. The unemployment rate fell to a five-decade low of 3.6% from 3.8%, though that drop partly reflected an increase in the number of Americans who stopped looking for work. Average hourly pay rose 3.2% from 12 months earlier, a healthy increase though unchanged from the previous month. Friday’s jobs report from the Labor Department showed that solid economic growth is still encouraging strong hiring nearly a decade into the economy’s recovery from the Great Recession. The economic expansion is set to become the longest in history in July. Many businesses say they are struggling to find workers. Some have taken a range of steps to fill jobs, including training more entry-level workers, loosening educational requirements and raising pay. The brightening picture represents a sharp improvement from the start of the year. At the time, the government was enduring a partial shutdown, the stock market had plunged, trade tensions between the United States and China were flaring and the Federal Reserve had just raised short-term interest rates in December for a fourth time in 2018. Analysts worried that the economy might barely expand in the first three months of the year. Yet the outlook soon brightened. Chair Jerome Powell signaled that the Fed would put rate hikes on hold. Trade negotiations between the U.S. and China made some progress. The economic outlook …

A White House meeting between the current U.S. president and a prominent businessman who is seeking to become president of Taiwan is causing concern.  The White House on Thursday sought to downplay any diplomatic or political sensitivities, saying President Donald Trump and Foxconn founder Terry Gou did not discuss support for the billionaire’s presidential campaign in Taiwan.  “He is just a great friend” of Trump, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement.  The Taiwanese businessman, however, in a Facebook posting after Wednesday’s meeting and in a discussion with reporters, said he told the president of his candidacy and Trump responded that being president “was a tough job.”  He also displayed a pen and autographed coin he said that Trump gave him. “If I am elected president of the Republic of China, I will be a peacemaker and won’t become a troublemaker,” Gou told reporters. “I will strengthen Taiwan and the U.S. economically.” He also boasted that of all the presidential contenders, he is the only one to have secured an Oval Office meeting.  Wednesday’s discussion is the first known circumstance of a sitting American president meeting with a Taiwanese presidential candidate since Washington broke diplomatic ties with Taipei in 1979 as part of its recognition of the communist government in Beijing.  Gou is to seek the nomination of the opposition Kuomintang party in Taiwan’s 2020 presidential election. The party is regarded as having a friendlier stance toward Beijing than the ruling Democrat Progressive Party of President Tsai Ing-wen.  …

The Nasdaq is adding fake meat to its diet. Beyond Meat, the purveyor of plant-based burgers and sausages, made its debut on the stock exchange Thursday. It’s the first pure-play maker of vegan “meat” to go public, according to Renaissance Capital, which researches and tracks IPOs. Beyond Meat raised about $240 million selling 9.6 million shares at $25 each. That values the company at about $1.5 billion. The 10-year-old company has attracted celebrity investors like Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and actor Leonardo DiCaprio and buzz for placing its products in burger joints like Carl’s Jr. It sells to 30,000 grocery stores, restaurants and schools in the U.S., Canada, Italy, the United Kingdom and Israel. Beyond Meat CEO Ethan Brown said the IPO timing is right because the company wants to expand overseas. He also wants consumers to be able to buy shares since they have fueled the company’s growth. “It really is a wonderful feeling to be able to welcome people in who have helped this brand,” Brown told The Associated Press. Still, Beyond Meat has never made an annual profit; it lost $30 million last year. It’s also facing serious competition from other “new meat” companies like Impossible Foods and traditional players like Tyson Foods Inc. Tyson recently sold a stake in Beyond Meat because it plans to develop its own alternative meat. The IPO comes amid growing consumer interest in plant-based foods for their presumed health and environmental benefits. U.S. sales of plant-based meats jumped 42% between March …

President Donald Trump is increasingly reliant upon economic sanctions to achieve his foreign policy goals, despite a repeated emphasis that the use of military force remains a viable option.  However, these coercive measures, analysts say, have not produced their intended results, and at times have put the United States at odds with allies.   Venezuela In the case of Venezuela, the Trump sanctions that include the seizure of Venezuela’s oil assets in the United States, along with joining more than 50 other countries in recognizing Juan Guaido, the head of the National Assembly, as the interim president, have energized the opposition.  Despite the economic pain caused by the sanctions, the massive protests in the country, and reports of growing mid-level military support for the opposition, socialist leader Nicolas Maduro has continued to hold on to power through increasing political repression. Short of using military force that could entangle the United States in a protracted civil war, there are few other measures the Trump administration can take to force democratic change in Venezuela. “Because the costs are limited to us.  It also means the benefits will likely be limited.  We could accept more costs and achieve more benefits if we were for example, to invade these countries, change their governments, force them to adopt policies we want,” said Richard Weitz, a political-military analysis at Hudson Institute in Washington, DC. Iran Trump has more aggressively imposed unilateral sanctions than past presidents against countries like Venezuela, Iran, Cuba and North Korea, and in …

President Donald Trump is increasingly reliant upon economic sanctions to achieve his foreign policy goals, even as he also asserts that the use of military force is a viable option. However, as VOA’s Brian Padden reports, in three key countries subjected to sanctions Trump’s approach so far hasn’t produced the intended results and at times has put the U.S. at odds with allies. …

The United States and China are nearing a trade deal that would roll back a portion of the $250 billion in U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods, Politico reported on Wednesday after U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the two countries completed “productive” talks in Beijing. Mnuchin, along with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, held a day of discussions with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, aimed at ending a trade war. The talks are to resume next week in Washington, where some observers say a deal announcement is possible. “Ambassador Lighthizer and I just concluded productive meetings with China’s Vice Premier Liu He. We will continue our talks in Washington, D.C. next week,” Mnuchin wrote on his Twitter account. He gave no details. The three appeared before cameras at the end of talks at a state guest house in Beijing, chatting amiably among themselves without speaking to reporters. “The discussions remain focused toward making substantial progress on important structural issues and rebalancing the U.S.-China trade relationship,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told pool reporters, adding only scheduling details. Unilateral action  Politico quoted two people close to the talks as saying the sides have reached an understanding on how to enforce the agreement, but details need to be worked out. It would track closely to a framework described by Lighthizer to members of Congress: a series of meetings to address complaints about China’s compliance with the accord, ending in unilateral U.S. tariff actions if the dispute cannot be resolved. A USTR …

Higher salaries, better working conditions, maternity leave, minimum wage and an end to discrimination against temporary or foreign workers: These were among the concerns as hundreds of thousands of union members and labor activists rallied around the world to mark May Day. The tradition of May Day marches for workers’ rights began in the United States in the 1880s. It quickly spread to other countries at a time when industrialization pitted poorly paid employees who had few protections and little power against increasingly dominant factory employers and landowners.  Over the decades, the May Day protests have also become an opportunity to air general economic grievances or political demands. Here’s a look at Wednesday’s protests: Puerto Rico Thousands of Puerto Ricans marched to traditional music while protesting austerity measures, with many participants at a May Day event demanding the ouster of a federal control board overseeing the U.S. territory’s finances. Many in the crowd in San Juan waved Puerto Rican flags made in black and white rather than red, white and blue to symbolize mourning for the island’s plight, especially since September 2017’s Hurricane Maria. A protester dressed as comic book superhero Superman was arrested after jumping over a street barrier and hugging a police officer. Italy Two protesters and a police officer were injured in the Italian city of Turin when police blocked a demonstration against the construction of a high-speed rail line between France and Italy, according to ANSA, an Italian news agency. Among the protesters were members of …

Far from being a Netflix killer, Apple envisions its forthcoming Apple TV+ streaming service as one that could sit alongside other services that viewers buy, Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook said on Tuesday. Apple in March said it will launch a streaming service with original content from big names including Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg. It plans to spend $2 billion on programming but has not said how much the service will cost. Investors are keeping a close eye on Apple’s television efforts because subscription services are an increasingly important part of its financial results as iPhone sales decline. Apple is entering a crowded field, including Walt Disney Co.’s $6.99 per month service launching this fall. At the other end of the price spectrum, Alphabet’s YouTube this month said that it was raising the price of its YouTube TV online service, a cable-like bundle of more than 70 channels, to $49.99 per month. On a conference call with investors on Tuesday, Cook indicated that Apple will not try to give viewers everything they want. “There’s a huge move from the cable bundle to over-the-top,” Cook told investors during a call on Tuesday, referring to streaming television services delivered over the internet rather than a traditional cable service. “We think that most users are going to get multiple over-the-top products, and we’re going to do our best to convince them that the Apple TV+ product should be one of them.” …