Karen Ho

The US Census bureau today reported a slew of economic improvements for Americans in 2019.

Rage, Bob Woodward’s newest book, was already at the top of Amazon’s bestseller list days before Americans learned about its explosive contents. The controversy it has generated since details from the book were first published this week will likely fuel more sales.

What does it take for a city to jump into the knowledge economy? A new study found one key factor: a population of at least 1.2 million.

Unlike its major toy industry rivals, it turns out Lego was well prepared to address the needs of the quarantined household.

Donald Trump had high praise for law enforcement officials and little time to sympathize with the family of Jacob Blake and the Black community during his recent visit to Kenosha. The president traveled to the Wisconsin city on Tuesday to survey damage from protests that erupted after Blake was shot several time by a policeman in the back.

Even before Hurricane Laura hit the shores of southern Louisiana early Thursday (Aug. 27,) communities across the state were suffering from some of the highest levels of poverty in the country. The pandemic only made that financial situation worse with job losses in industries like tourism, hospitality, and the oil industry.

Opponents of president Donald Trump worry cutbacks at the US Postal Service threaten Americans’ right to vote. Small business owners have more immediate concerns: sending out merchandise and getting paid on time.

Mimi Lee knows what it’s like to suddenly make the move from Hong Kong across the world and build a life in an entirely new place. In the winter of 1987, Lee and her family settled in Toronto. Later, after graduating from the University of Waterloo, she moved back to Hong Kong, then came back to Canada after getting married and having her son. “I came back twice,” she says with a laugh.

Unlike many fields, including law, medicine, technology, fashion, and media, Black Americans have had good opportunities at the United States Postal Service, including in senior management roles.

There is a significant gender gap in prestigious economics journals, according to new analysis of decades of data. Despite women making up 30% of first-year PhD students in more than 40 economics programs in the US, only 17% of the papers published in the top five academic journals have women authors, economist Caroline Krafft’s research shows.

This week the US got a glimpse of how severely the coronavirus pandemic has hurt its economy, with the latest gross domestic product numbers showing a 9.5% drop in the second quarter from the first.

The last thing the personal computer industry expected was to see a sales boost in 2020. Then the Covid-19 pandemic hit, closing down offices and schools around the world. Millions of people suddenly needed laptops to work from home and complete classes online.

President Donald Trump has been trying to encourage firms to hire more American workers by increasing restrictions on visas for skilled foreign workers, including by suspending the H-1B visa program in June.

A Trump economic advisor whose signature policy is seen as widely discredited by economists is likely headed to the US Federal Reserve board of governors.

Over the past couple of decades, American cities replaced their abandoned downtowns with gleaming new residential developments, fancy restaurants, and office buildings with high-paying jobs. 

Teleworking is widening income inequality all over the world, according to a new study from the International Monetary Fund.

American parents stand to lose even more productivity—and their minds—as more school districts like Los Angeles limit how many students will return to the classroom for the upcoming school year. This situation could weaken recovery efforts over the long term.

Update (July 14): A US district judge announced today that the government is rescinding the new visa policy that would have made international students take at least one in-person class.

US bars and restaurants put out their welcome mats in June as many states lifted coronavirus-related restrictions. The number of people working in food services and drinking places jumped by 19% to 9.2 million in June, according to data released by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics on Thursday.

A national mask mandate could help the US avoid another round of COVID-19-related lockdowns, as well as the steep economic losses they would generate, according to research by Goldman Sachs.

The US Federal Reserve has been trying to become more diverse. It’s not getting very far.

Black booksellers were worried about coronavirus shutdowns hurting their business. Now they’re being deluged with orders of anti-racist titles following protests against police brutality around the world.

Women and people of color continue to earn lower wages than white men. One big reason is because many employers require job applicants to reveal their previous salary in order to set their new one. This strips workers of bargaining power, and can lock in lower compensation. 

The global coronavirus pandemic has upended business for companies across the US, but it has dealt Black small businesses an especially hard blow, according to a paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER).