Latest from Stacey Vanek Smith

• Mar 21, 2025

  There’s a “mysterious and important” debate in Congress on how to measure tax cuts

  

  The fight is over how to frame the numbers, one tax law expert says, because that changes the rhetoric. A Senate adviser will decide.

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• Feb 28, 2025

  Lately, the scoop on the bond market is like ice cream roulette

  

  Buying a bond is usually like going for ice cream (to a regular ice cream place): You pick your flavor, you pay, you enjoy a nice, predictable payoff. Lately though, that’s not the deal.

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• Feb 5, 2025

  A look at the economic impact of the 2017 tax cuts

  

  The Trump administration said the tax cuts would pay for themselves, but according to a study “that’s just not true at all.”

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• Jan 13, 2025

  Musk’s DOGE aims to cut $2 trillion in spending. That will be tricky.

  

  The Department of Government Efficiency, aka DOGE, is a task force Trump has appointed, headed by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. It has some lofty resolutions for its stated goal of cutting wasteful government spending.

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• Dec 11, 2024

  Escalating child care costs force women out of the work force

  

  For a lot of families, the cost of child care is a huge reason why inflation is still so painful. For years, the rise in child care and preschool prices has outpaced inflation overall. The latest Consumer Price Index showed the cost of child care increased 0.6% last month alone.

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• Sep 12, 2024

  Why the inverted yield curve is typically a recession predictor

  

  But this time may be different. One theory is that weaker data allowed companies to prepare and soften the economic landing.

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• Sep 11, 2024

  How reliable is the Sahm rule as a recession indicator?

  

  Economist Claudia Sahm says even though the recession predictor is sounding the alarm, we shouldn’t immediately fret.

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• Aug 13, 2024

  U.S. debt just hit $35 trillion. Is it putting the global economy at risk?

  

  If you add up government debt around the world, it totals $91 trillion. More than a third of it comes from one country: The U.S.

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• Jul 25, 2024

  Many small businesses wobble under weight of high rates

  

  Small operations have endured pandemic rules, lockdowns and rising costs. Refinancing their loans could be as painful, or worse.

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• Jul 23, 2024

  Workplace jargon reflects changing power dynamics

  

  During the pandemic era, the lingo reflected workers’ leverage. Now the dynamic has shifted, and how we talk about work has too.

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