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A plan for alleviating poverty and climate change

The two challenges are interrelated, and a new report from the McKinsey Global Institute says they must be addressed in tandem.
It'll take investment equal to about 8% of global GDP annually to close both the economic empowerment gap and the net-zero transition gap, according to the McKinsey Global Institute,
China Photos/Getty Images

When it comes to measuring economic welfare, GDP doesn't cut it

Sep 1, 2023
Gross domestic product has been the standard measure for economic growth since 1944, but it doesn't measure the quality of life.
GDP has been a global standard for measuring economic growth since 1944, but it doesn't measure economic welfare.  
Stefani Reynolds/AFP via Getty I ages

The Fed keeps trying to take away the punch bowl — but the economy parties on

Jul 27, 2023
Economists expected a downturn in economic growth from the first quarter’s 2% annual rate. Instead, growth accelerated to 2.4%.
The newest GDP report showed greater investment in auto and airplane factories, among other things.
Juliette Michel/AFP via Getty Images

The debt limit is not a tool for "extortion," Biden adviser Lael Brainard says

The new head of the National Economic Council on inflation, supply chains, jobs and post-SVB bank regulation.
The investing in America agenda “is transformative," Lael Brainard says. "It has the power to reindustrialize the U.S. economy."
Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Why are women in China not having more babies?

Mar 17, 2023
In China, each woman went from having about three children in the late 1970s to now one. Decades later, the Chinese government wants women to have three children again but is meeting resistance.
A woman holding a baby girl lines up for a PCR COVID test in Shanghai in 2022. Birth rates continued to fall during China's strict zero-COVID policy during the pandemic.
Charles Zhang/Marketplace

A hot labor market is good, right? So why could it lead to a recession?

Jan 3, 2023
Economists say millions of unfilled jobs could limit economic growth.
"We just do not have enough people to fill all those job openings," said Iowa State professor Peter Orazem.
Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images

Is a growing middle class the real key to economic growth? 

Oct 14, 2022
Ideas are a key ingredient for economic growth. And to generate new ideas, you need … more people.
A reader wants to know if lower-income earners moving up the economic ladder can be an engine for growth.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

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Global economic growth will be almost cut in half this year — or will it?

Apr 19, 2022
The IMF forecasts a slowdown in growth from 6.1% in 2021 to 3.6% in 2022. But the pandemic and the war could change its outlook.
The uncertainties of the pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war make it especially difficult to predict future economic conditions. Above, inside the New York Stock Exchange.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Consumer sentiment offers another window into economic recovery

Jul 16, 2021
All eyes will be on feelings about inflation for the month of July.
The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment survey One question in the consumer sentiment survey asks people about the big purchases they make for their homes, like appliances and furniture.
Joe Raedle via Getty Images

China's economic slowdown hurts other nations too

Jul 15, 2021
China is the world's second-largest economy. Headwinds it encounters also blow globally.
The display shows the level of Hong Kong's Hang Seng stock index during a February trading session. China's economic growth fell in the second quarter but is still high by global standards.
Isaac Lawrence/AFP via Getty Images