Economy and Politics

IMF’s ‘Groundhog Day’ thinking means it keeps making the same mistake with its economic forecasts, writes Ashoka Mody.

President Donald Trump predicted climate change would fix itself, said he knows more about NATO that Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and claimed the European Union was formed to take advantage of the U.S. in a wide-ranging interview aired Sunday on “60 Minutes.”

Ford Motor Co. Chairman Bill Ford and and JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Jamie Dimon are the latest big names to drop out of an investment conference in Saudi Arabia following the disappearance of a Saudi journalist, but U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin is said to be still planning on attending.

The New York Police Department wants to question three people who were involved in a clash between a right-wing group and leftist protesters on the streets of the Upper East Side on Friday night, officials said.

Negotiations over Britain’s departure from the European Union suffered a setback Sunday as the two sides failed to resolve differences, chiefly over how to avoid the re-emergence of a physical border in Ireland.

Hillary Clinton said Sunday that her husband’s presidential affair with Monica Lewinsky wasn’t an abuse of power — because the then-22-year-old White House intern “was an adult.”

Germany’s political fragmentation deepened after allies of Angela Merkel took a beating in a crucial regional election in Bavaria, raising questions about how long the chancellor can keep control of her brittle coalition government.

President Donald Trump said that Defense Secretary Jim Mattis could be considering whether to step down from his post and said that he sees the Pentagon chief as “sort of a Democrat,” a veiled critique of one of his most popular cabinet secretaries.

President Trump called the timing of Jamal Khashoggi’s disappearance and American pastor Andrew Brunson’s release from Turkey a coincidence.

The carnage on Wall Street last week surely rattled investors, but on Main Street the good times aren’t about to end. Why it’s not time to panic.

Saudi Arabia on Sunday vowed to retaliate against any threats from the United States after President Trump said Riyadh would suffer “severe consequences” if it turns out they were behind the disappearance of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi from the Saudi consulate in Turkey.

“If they feel there will be separation, they don’t come,” President Trump told reporters.

The veteran Washington lawyer would succeed Don McGahn.

Although Jared Kushner's net worth has quintupled to nearly $324 million in the last decade, he appears to have dodged federal income taxes for several years now, according to a New York Times investigation published Saturday. Kushner, a senior White House adviser and President Trump's son-in-law, managed to avoid hefty tax bills thanks to millions of dollars in losses he recorded. Those losses stemmed from depreciation on Kushner and his company's real-estate holdings. The New York Times [S: NYT] based its findings on confidential financial documents it obtained. Earlier this month, another New York Times investigation alleged that President Trump received at least $413 million from his father's real estate empire, contradicting the president's claims that he built his business on just a $1 million loan from his father.

President Donald Trump plans to meet Saturday afternoon with American pastor Andrew Brunson in the Oval Office. On Twitter [S: TWTR], Trump called Brunson "a great Christian who has been through such a tough experience." He also thanked Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for his role in freeing Brunson, but noted that no deal was made in conjunction with the pastor's release. Brunson had been in jail for nearly two years for allegedly participating in a coup attempt and collaborating with terrorist groups.

The number of Guatemalans stopped at the border has increased 71% from last year.

The Treasury Department on Friday granted another month-long extension to let the world’s second-largest aluminum producer continue to operate, suggesting a deal may soon be reached for Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska to relinquish control of the company.

President Donald Trump hailed Turkey’s freeing of an American pastor on Friday, as he said “great people” want the job of U.S. envoy to the United Nations and again said the post wouldn’t go to his daughter Ivanka.

A San Francisco-based startup called Divvy Homes has been backed with millions of dollars from Andreessen Horowitz in a belief that the rent-to-own model can succeed if done right.

Wells Fargo & Co. is set to become the second big bank to securitize mortgages it has originated, but the fact that such deals are so few and far between says a lot about the housing finance system now.