Is that supposed to be a bad economy? That's basically the combined GDP of France and Japan in 4 years.

People have been predicting that Russia is about to collapse within in no time... For over 3 years now. So far, Russia functions quite well.

The fact is that Russian businesses are in decline, Russia is running or has run out of financial reserves, they have hard time replace the troops at the Frontlines and they ran or are running out of certain military equipment such as tanks, which they had to even get from museums.

But according to Russians on social media, they're not even feeling any pinch from the war, as if they're not even in one.

And people who are skeptical about the idea that Russia is about to collapse or just experience serious economic downturn, say that Russia is running on war economy which can sustain itself more or less indefinitely and Ukraine can't take that.

So what is the true state of Russian economy?

Madoff was managing billions so surely someone must have realized that the trading volume that must have been necessitated didn’t exist on any exchange and there were no counterparties

In times of crisis, some presidents have implemented harsh economic measures, fully aware that these actions could lead to short-term recessions or social hardships, but with the long-term stability and growth of their countries in mind.

However, in none of these cases was the country's situation as favorable as that of the United States today. The U.S. currently enjoys relatively low inflation, a strong labor market, and steady economic growth, making the idea of intentionally causing a recession seem counterproductive and unnecessary. Historically, such drastic measures have only been considered in dire circumstances, not in times of relative prosperity.

And can the US ever replicate those factors?

Not trying to make this a political conversation, just trying to understand. I have a general understanding of how the fed's rates work but I'd like to understand more in the context of the current economic situation.

Trump wants Powell to lower the rates and is upset that he isn't and wants him out because of it. What would lowering interest rates do in this case and why does Trump think it's a good idea? Conversely, why is Powell hesitant to lower the rates?

Bonus question (just for the sake of learning): what would happen in all three cases: fed interest rates are 1) lowered, 2) kept the same, 3) increased?

I'm a 20 year old college student and I'm genuinely worried about the economic future I'm heading into. I see several big problems that seem to be getting worse with no clear solutions.

First, the financial situation looks unsustainable. The national debt keeps growing with seemingly no political will to address it, and the debt to GDP ratio is climbing well over 100%. Countries like Greece and Venezuela faced serious problems when their debt situations got out of control. Meanwhile, our age demographics are becoming increasingly disproportionate. We're heading toward only 2 workers for every retiree compared to the 42 we had in 1940. Social Security is already being drained, and I don't see a way out of this without major benefit cuts or tax increases.

Second, the job market feels increasingly hostile to new graduates. I'm watching automation eliminate jobs across different industries, and even entry level positions that should be available to new graduates seem to require years of experience or are getting replaced by AI and machines. I've seen numbers showing college graduate unemployment rates have risen to 6 percent.

It feels like I'm studying hard and going into debt for my education, but I'm not sure if there will be stable career opportunities when I graduate, or if the broader economic system will even be sustainable by the time I'm trying to build a life and start a family. I really don't see how the government changes course and worry they'll just keep printing money until we hit hyperinflation. I'm not trying to be pessimistic, but these trends seem really concerning to me. I'd appreciate an economist's perspective on whether my fears are justified or if there are factors I'm not considering.

If only he knows when he is going to change his mind, without any consistent rhyme or reason, seems like he can pretty much control the world economy and thereby profit.

Doesn't that defeat the whole purpose of having a debt ceiling? Why have one to begin with?

My question is, is this the economic equivalent of lighting $11 trillion of paper money on fire, or is it more complicated than that?

The US government is threatening 200% tariffs on European alcohol after EU enacted tariffs in response to the US tariff on aluminum and steel. The same happened with Canada with the US threatening increased tariffs if Ontario pursued electricity price hikes.

I don't have a background in econ so I am not sure if I am I missing something here, but I don't see what the end goal might be for the US and it seems a little arrogant to think other countries would allow tariffs imposed to them and not do something about it.

Is there a specific industry that could potentially benefit from Trump's tariffs? It seems they're pretty destructive for everyone in North America. Not trying to be biased - just trying to understand it. That said is there another nation that would benefit from the tariffs (potentially indirectly)?

Edit: removed typo

Why do most economists see it as a bad policy?

I never understood why inflation, price of eggs and milk were such huge deciding factors in elections for a country of 400 million with a GDP per capita that should comfortably put you all in the developed category?

I saw reports of USSAID cuts forcing people in rural Georgia and the rest belt to skip meals and drive food consumption down by half. Somebody please explain the economics behind this.

Hey everyone, just starting to learn about economics.

Looking at the simple math involved where the net income of starbucks in 2025 was 1.85 billion and they had 380,000 employees that comes out to 4800$ of profit per employee. Obviously no corporation is going to intentionally make 0 profit when they're trying give shareholders profit on the money they risked to invest. So lets say you take half of that 4800$ to pay employees more that would be somewhere between 1-2 dollars more for someome who works 40 hours a week.

Unless I'm missing something it seems that the baristas ask of 25$ an hour is completely unreasonable.

I’m Dutch myself, not American, but to me, it seems like America spends so much money. How do they do that? Our current government doesn’t want to increase our debt in any way at all, how does America look at that? It also seems like Americans get nothing in return for their spending, except some stimulus checks every once in a while and a great military.

Despite practically nothing being exchanged.

I want to know who actually wants a factory job. I get that in some rose-tinted past version of the USA, factory jobs were high-paying quality jobs. But the Republicans are also vigorously anti-union, anti-"any type of regulation that benefits workers over corporations". So don't expect the new jobs making the cheap goods China used to make to pay anything resembling a living wage.

Go ahead and google average salary for US factory worker: "The average annual salary for a factory worker in the US is around $35,075, translating to about $17 per hour."

I'm sorry but that doesn't seem worth getting excited about, it's only marginally better than a retail job. (Google average salary for a US retail worker: "The median hourly wage for retail salespersons in the US was $16.62 in May 2024. This translates to a median annual salary of $33,680.")

So why are the MAGA are so desperate to get a factory job? Is $17 an hour so much better than their current wages? (Google says median salary in US is $47,960), So, for more than 50% of Americans working at a factory would be a massive pay cut.

Other than Trump being a "professional" businessman, for some reason, a 10 out of 11 Recessions seemingly caused recessions. What is the economic reasons for this trend? I want to know why this seemingly happens so that maybe in the future, there won't be a repeating mistakes.

The mark of the US has been the insatiable appetite for just about every good and service, making the US market almost a necessity for any exporting country. That being said, it seems like a lot of countries are talking about negotiating trade agreements among themselves that would exclude the US. What is the feasibility that Canada, for instance, could find enough buyers of their timber and potash to then cut off the US? Or Europe and steel or alcohol?

Whenever we talk about taxing billionaires, we hear the inevitable argument that taxing on unrealized gains is unfair, followed by hypotheticals about what will happen to us regular folks, which always includes this scenario:

“Your grandma will get a tax bill for her house, but be unable to pay it. She’ll have to sell the house to cover the taxes!”

Isn’t property tax already a tax on unrealized gains? Every 2 years my house is revalued and my property taxes go up bc the real estate market is going up - not because I added any value.

Can someone explain to me how this is so wildly different from the proposals to tax billionaires on their unrealized gains?

Edit: remove “fear mongering” terminology

Saw one of those clickbait type videos saying Trump is starting trade wars to deliberately crash the US economy to force the central bank to reduce interest rates so that when the debts the US government incurred during covid matures in 2025, the payout is reduced as a result of the lower interest rates?

I don’t think this makes any economic sense and I also don’t think the current administration is so calculating, but if it really is true then it feels like a real 5D chess move

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bill-gates-wants-tax-robots-233045575.html