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Economics

Lauren Boebert’s primary is a window into everyday Trumpism

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A week BEFORE Colorado’s primary elections, which take place on June 25th, Richard Holtorf was busy feeding cattle and preparing his ground for planting wheat. But the 59-year-old had politics on his mind as he stepped down from a massive tractor at his ranch on the state’s eastern plains. After a brief oration on the deficiencies of battery-powered farming equipment, Mr Holtorf explained why he was running in the Republican primary and hoping subsequently to win a seat in the US House of Representatives.

Economics

How a judge’s arrest explains Donald Trump’s deportation drive

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SIX FEDERAL agents arrived at a Milwaukee courthouse on April 18th. They intended to arrest Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, a Mexican man who had illegally re-entered the country after being deported. He was due in court that day to face domestic-violence charges. When Hannah Dugan, the judge in his case, heard the agents were after him she called off Mr Flores-Ruiz’s hearing and allegedly led him away through a jury door. After a foot chase, Mr Flores-Ruiz was taken into custody. He wasn’t the only one. On April 25th the FBI arrested Ms Dugan on two criminal charges: obstructing a federal proceeding and concealing an individual to prevent arrest. She could face up to six years in prison.

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Economics

ADP jobs report April 2025:

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Private payroll growth slowed to 62,000 in April, well below expectations

Companies slowed hiring sharply in April as they braced against potential impacts from President Donald Trump’s tariffs against U.S. trading partners, ADP reported Wednesday.

Private sector payrolls rose by just 62,000 for the month, the smallest gain since July 2024, amid heightened uncertainty over the degree of the tariffs and the impact they would have on hiring plans and broader economic conditions.

The total marked a deceleration from the downwardly revised gain of 147,000 in March and missed the Dow Jones consensus estimate for an increase of 120,000.

“Unease is the word of the day. Employers are trying to reconcile policy and consumer uncertainty with a run of mostly positive economic data,” said ADP chief economist Nela Richardson. “It can be difficult to make hiring decisions in such an environment.”

Wage gains also took a step backwards, rising 4.5% from a year ago for those staying in their jobs, down 0.1 percentage point from March. However, job changers saw an increase to 6.9%, up 0.2 percentage point.

From a sector standpoint, leisure and hospitality posted the biggest gain, adding 27,000 jobs. Others that showed increases included trade, transportation and utilities (21,000), financial activities (20,000) and construction (16,000). Education and health services lost 23,000 positions while information services fell by 8,000.

The ADP estimate serves as a precursor to Friday’s nonfarm payrolls report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the two reports can differ substantially. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones are looking for job growth of 133,000 in the BLS report, which unlike ADP includes government hiring. The unemployment rate is expected to be unchanged at 4.2%.

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Economics

U.S. economy shrank 0.3% in the first quarter as Trump policy uncertainty weighed on businesses

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The U.S. economy contracted in the first three months of 2025, fueling recession fears at the start of President Donald Trump’s second term in office as he wages a potentially costly trade war.

Gross domestic product, a sum of all the goods and services produced from January through March, fell at a 0.3% annualized pace, according to a Commerce Department report Wednesday adjusted for seasonal factors and inflation.

Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for a gain of 0.4% after GDP rose by 2.4% in the fourth quarter of 2024. However, over the past day or so some Wall Street economists changed their outlook to negative growth, largely due to an unexpected rise in imports as companies and consumers sought to get ahead of the Trump tariffs implemented in early April.

Indeed, imports soared 41.3% for the quarter, driven by a 50.9% increase in goods. Imports subtract from GDP, so the contraction in growth may not be viewed as negatively given the potential for the trend to reverse in subsequent quarters. Imports took more than 5 percentage points off the headline reading.

Consumer spending slowed during the period but was still positive. Personal consumption expenditures increased 1.8% for the period, the slowest quarterly gain since Q2 of 2023 and down from a 4% gain in the prior quarter.

Moreover, private domestic investment soared during the period, rising 21.9%.

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