Americas

Will this White House have any friends left by the time President Trump is finished? Not content with picking a fight with his closest neighbours over the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (Nafta), the US President moved onto introducing tariffs on imported steel and aluminium and then, on Thursday night, announced further tariffs on Chinese imports worth $60bn. The Chinese response has, by comparison, been fairly measured. It has imposed tariffs of its own on US imports worth $3billion but this is a drop in the ocean given US imports to China totalled $115.6bn in 2016. The warning from Mr Trump that this was “the first of many” trade actions should worry everyone. But it should worry US consumers and investors more than anyone else. Shutting itself off from the global economy is more likely to end up as an act of self-harm than anything else. Slapping tariffs on Chinese imports will make them more expensive but that won’t necessarily hurt Chinese companies, whereas … [Read more...] about US tariffs on China show decline of America power

By March 29, 2018, 12:01 AM EDT Warren Buffett didn’t have much luck in the blockbuster-deals department last year, but his real estate brokerage business is on a tear.HomeServices of America Inc., an operation that Buffett said he “barely noticed” when Berkshire Hathaway Inc. bought it in 2000 as part of an electric company, has grown steadily through acquisitions to become the second-largest residential brokerage owner in the U.S. Now, after the purchase last year of one of its biggest rivals, Long & Foster Cos., an even loftier perch is within range.The deal helped catapult HomeServices’ volume by more than 80,000 “sides” in 2017, a 34 percent jump from the prior year, according to a new ranking from Real Trends, a data provider for the industry. (There are two sides to each home sale -- a buyer and a seller -- and one brokerage may represent both sides.) That puts the company within striking distance of the top residential brokerage … [Read more...] about Warren Buffett Is Now America’s No. 2 Real Estate Broker

America’s most prolific oil field is now its worst market for natural gas.A pipeline shortage that’s leaving gas trapped in West Texas’ Permian Basin means prices for the fuel there are the lowest of any major U.S. hub, wresting that distinction from Appalachia’s Marcellus Shale reservoir. Prices for Permian gas, produced alongside oil in the play, have tumbled 30 percent from a year ago, while output rose to a record.All that production is creating a dilemma for drillers, who may be forced to curtail oil output if they can’t get their gas to market. Producers can burn off some of the gas -- a process known as flaring -- but state regulators typically won’t allow that to happen indefinitely. And as mild spring weather limits demand for the heating fuel, explorers may literally be giving their gas away, according to broker Ion Energy Group LLC.In the next three to four weeks, “natural gas prices in the Permian can go to zero because it’s … [Read more...] about Texas-Sized Gas Conundrum Emerges in America’s Busiest Oil Field