Trump is silent about Juneteenth on a day he previously honoured as president
Prime Minister Mark Carney and U.S. President Donald Trump arrive for a family photo during the Group of Seven (G7) Summit at the Kananaskis Country Golf Course in Kananaskis, Alberta, Canada on June 16, 2025. Geoff Robins/AFP via Getty Images flag wire: true flag sponsored: false article_type: pubinfo.section: cms.site.custom.site_domain : thestar.com sWebsitePrimaryPublication : publications/toronto_star bHasMigratedAvatar : false firstAuthor.avatar :
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CTV News
an hour ago
- CTV News
Trump says America has ‘too many' national holidays and they're hurting the economy. Is he right?
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to members of the media during the installation of a new flagpole on the South Lawn at the White House. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters via CNN Newsource) U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday called for fewer federal holidays, saying the days off cost America billions of dollars in losses. 'Too many non-working holidays in America. It is costing our Country $BILLIONS OF DOLLARS to keep all of these businesses closed,' Trump said in a Truth Social post on Juneteenth, a newly designated federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt acknowledged during a Thursday briefing with reporters that it was a federal holiday and thanked reporters for showing up, but declined to answer whether Trump was doing anything to mark it. 'The workers don't want it either!' Trump said of federal holidays in his post. 'Soon we'll end up having a holiday for every once working day of the year. It must change if we are going to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!' Is there any truth to his comments? Yes and no. Most research around the economic impact of federal holidays deals with how worker productivity is impacted. Worker productivity measures how much workers are able to achieve over a given period of time. A day off work, therefore, would put worker productivity at zero. But research suggests that it's not just, say, July 4 itself that causes productivity to slump. It's the days before and after, since workers tend to schedule time off around them, leaving employees who opted not to take those days off with heavier workloads, thus reducing their productivity. A 2022 study by two economists found that when a federal holiday falls on a weekend and isn't rescheduled for a weekday, the nation's total output, or gross domestic product, increases by 0.08 per cent to 0.2 per cent relative to when it is rescheduled. Among the sectors that can take the biggest hit from federal holidays is manufacturing, the study found. But that's just in the short term. Over the longer term, paid time off, including over federal holidays, increases worker morale and can make them more productive over time. That's because people who work more aren't necessarily more productive, since they are more likely to get burnt out. Case in point: Fresh research from Microsoft found workers are struggling to cope with a 'seemingly infinite workday,' involving an increasing load of meetings occurring outside traditional working hours. One outcome is that one-third of workers feel it has been 'impossible to keep up' with the pace of work over the past five years, according to a Microsoft-commissioned survey of 31,000 employees around the world, cited a Tuesday report. Meanwhile, an older internal survey Ernst & Young conducted found that for every 10 additional hours of vacation employees took, their performance reviews increased by 8 per cent. Furthermore, those who took time off more frequently were less likely to leave the firm. Consumers spend more money on federal holidays Contrary to Trump's comments, businesses across the economy don't shut down entirely on federal holidays: Plenty of workers, including emergency responders, retail and transportation workers, continue to work on such days. On the spending front, consumers tend to make more purchases on holidays, especially as businesses schedule sales around them. Specifically, the tourism, hospitality and retail sectors tend to benefit the most. But it's not just big businesses — small businesses can benefit, too. A 2018 study found that bank holidays in the U.K. give small shops an average of an additional £253 (about US$340) in profit. By Elisabeth Buchwald.
Global News
an hour ago
- Global News
U.S. Supreme Court denies request to quickly hear Trump tariff challenge
The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Friday to speed up its consideration of whether to take up a challenge to President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs even before lower courts have ruled in the dispute. The Supreme Court denied a request by a family-owned toy company, Learning Resources, that filed the legal challenge against Trump's tariffs to expedite the review of the dispute by the nation's top judicial body. Get daily National news Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy The company, which makes educational toys, won a court ruling on May 29 that Trump cannot unilaterally impose tariffs using the emergency legal authority he had cited for them. That ruling is currently on hold, leaving the tariffs in place for now. Learning Resources asked the Supreme Court to take the rare step of immediately hearing the case to decide the legality of the tariffs, effectively leapfrogging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in Washington, where the case is pending. Story continues below advertisement Two district courts have ruled that Trump's tariffs are not justified under the law he cited for them, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Both of those cases are on appeal. No court has yet backed the sweeping emergency tariff authority Trump has claimed.
Globe and Mail
an hour ago
- Globe and Mail
Investors could see stock market selloff if U.S. attacks Iran
Financial markets may be in for a 'knee-jerk' selloff if the U.S. military attacks Iran, with economists warning that a dramatic rise in oil prices could damage a global economy already strained by President Donald Trump's tariffs. Oil prices fell nearly 2% on Wednesday as investors weighed the chance of supply disruptions from the Israel-Iran conflict and potential direct U.S. involvement. The price of crude remains up almost 9% since Israel launched attacks against Iran last Friday in a bid to cripple its ability to produce nuclear weapons. With major U.S. stock indexes trading near record highs despite uncertainty about Trump's trade policy, some investors worry that equities may be particularly vulnerable to sources of additional global uncertainty. Chuck Carlson, chief executive officer at Horizon Investment Services, said U.S. stocks might initially sell off should Trump order the U.S. military to become more heavily involved in the Israel-Iran conflict, but that a faster escalation might also bring the situation to an end sooner. 'I could see the initial knee-jerk would be, 'this is bad',' Carlson said. 'I think it will bring things to a head quicker.' Wednesday's dip in crude, along with a modest 0.3% increase in the S&P 500, came after Trump declined to answer reporters' questions about whether the U.S. was planning to strike Iran but said Iran had proposed to come for talks at the White House. Adding to uncertainty, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei rejected Trump's demand for unconditional surrender. U.S. Treasury yields fell as concerns over the war in Iran boosted safe haven demand for the debt. The U.S. military is also bolstering its presence in the region, Reuters reported, further stirring speculation about U.S. intervention that investors fear could widen the conflict in an area with critical energy resources, supply chains and infrastructure. With investors viewing the dollar as a safe haven, it has gained around 1% against both the Japanese yen and Swiss franc since last Thursday. On Wednesday, the U.S. currency took a breather, edging fractionally lower against the yen and the franc. 'I don't think personally that we are going to join this war. I think Trump is going to do everything possible to avoid it. But if it can't be avoided, then initially that's going to be negative for the markets,' said Peter Cardillo, Chief Market Economist at Spartan Capital Securities in New York. 'Gold would shoot up. Yields would probably come down lower and the dollar would probably rally.' Barclays warned that crude prices could rise to $85 per barrel if Iranian exports are reduced by half, and that prices could rise about $100 in the 'worst case' scenario of a wider conflagration. Brent crude was last at about $76. Citigroup economists warned in a note on Wednesday that materially higher oil prices 'would be a negative supply shock for the global economy, lowering growth and boosting inflation—crea–ing further challenges for central banks that are already trying to navigate the risks from tariffs." Tr'mp taking a 'heavier hand' would not be a surprise to the market, mitigating any negative asset price reaction, Carlson said, while adding that he was still not convinced that the U.S. would take a heavier role. Trades on the Polymarket betting website point to a 63% expectation of 'U.S. military action against Iran before July,' down from as much as an 82% likelihood on Tuesday, but still above a 35% chance before the conflict began last Friday. The S&P 500 energy sector index has rallied over 2% in the past four sessions, lifted by a 3.8% gain in Exxon Mobil and 5% rally in Valero Energy. That compares to a 0.7% drop in the S&P 500 over the same period, reflecting investor concerns about the impact of higher oil prices on the economy, and about growing global uncertainty generated by the conflict. Turmoil in the Middle East comes as investors are already fretting about the effect of Trump's tariffs on the global economy. The World Bank last week slashed its global growth forecast for 2025 by four-tenths of a percentage point to 2.3%, saying that higher tariffs and heightened uncertainty posed a 'significant headwind' for nearly all economies. Defense stocks, already lifted by Russia's conflict with Ukraine, have made modest gains since Israel launched its attacks. The S&P 500 Aerospace and Defense index hit record highs early last week in the culmination of a rebound of over 30% from losses in the wake of Trump's April 2 'Liberation Day' tariff announcements. Even after the latest geopolitical uncertainty, the S&P 500 remains just 2% below its February record high close. 'Investors want to be able to look past this, and until we see reasons to believe that this is going to be a much larger regional conflict with the U.S. perhaps getting involved and a high chance of escalating, you're going to see the market want to shrug this off as much as it can,' Osman Ali, global co-head of Quantitative Investment Strategies, said at an investor conference on Wednesday.
