The yields on American long-dated government bonds stabilised after a choppy week. The yields on 30-year bonds recently reached their highest levels since 2007, before a surprise intervention from the Treasury, through which it doubled its bond repurchases. That had the immediate effect of pushing yields lower, though they climbed soon after as investors questioned the wisdom of the plan. Speculation increased that Scott Bessent, the treasury secretary, would increase the size of the bond buy-backs by tapping the Treasury’s General Account, held at the Federal Reserve. Mexico’s economy grew by 1.4% in the second quarter compared with the first quarter, when it contracted by 0.3%. Despite surging energy prices and trade turbulence, it was the country’s strongest GDP expansion since early 2022. Following years of delays, Shein launched its initial public offering; it is expected to start selling shares in Hong Kong on September 1st. The Chinese purveyor of ultra-cheap clothing had considered listing in London or New York, but ran into regulatory hurdles. American politicians also wanted assurances that the company does not use forced labour, an accusation that it denies. The IPO could value Shein at $27bn, far below the $100bn it was worth in private-market valuations in 2022. After rising by 460% on the first day of trading, Unitree’s share price plunged by 30% over subsequent days. The IPO of the Chinese maker of humanoid robots had been vastly oversubscribed, but questions are being asked about the ease with which institutional investors could “pump and dump” (buy up the shares in a frothy market then sell them quickly to make a profit). Nvidia reported another set of blockbuster earnings. Revenue in its latest quarter came in at $96.2bn, up by 106% year on year, and it made a net profit of $59.7bn, an increase of 126%. The company forecast a 70% rise in sales next year. Bolstered by record profits, Samsung announced a programme to return 90- 110trn won ($65-$79bn) to shareholders, the most ever for the company. Earlier, SK Hynix, another South Korean chipmaker benefiting from the
huge global demand for memory chips, said it would return 40trn won to stockholders. In what it described as the largest-ever expansion of its international schedule, United Airlines said it would start flying non-stop from America to ten new destinations, including Marseille, Okinawa and Valencia, and add more flights to Milan, Osaka and Paris. The airline already offers more international routes than its domestic rivals. Waymo, the robotaxi business owned by Alphabet, chose Munich as the first city in the EU to launch its service. It will start offering paid-passenger fully autonomous rides towards the end of 2027. Waymo operates in 11 American cities, providing 500,000 paid rides a week, and is expanding into 19 others. It is also testing vehicles in London and Tokyo. The Australian music industry banned songs that have been wholly or substantially created by AI from the music charts, after it emerged that a hit cover of Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” was generated by AI. The Australian Recording Industry Association said its aim is to “promote the human nature of artistry”. One recent study reckoned that 40% of new music worldwide contains at least some AI. But the kids think it’s all right. Bill Gates published a lengthy essay in which he warned that governments were not doing enough to prepare for the disruption from AI. Mr Gates called for jobs in some industries, such as health care, to be “human reserved”. He used the term to invoke nature reserves, which are walled off from development. This article was downloaded by zlibrary from https://www.economist.com/the-world-this-week/2026/08/27/business
Cartoon: America and Canada stand on the brink of a trade war A lighter take on the news Aug 27th 2026 Dig deeper into the subjects of this week’s cartoon: Mark Carney must beware an all-out trade war The costs of defying Donald Trump are mounting for Canada America’s new sanctions are unlikely to topple Iran’s regime You can see previous ones here. This article was downloaded by zlibrary from https://www.economist.com/the-world-this-week/2026/08/27/cartoon-america-and- canada-stand-on-the-brink-of-a-trade-war
The Unwelcoming States of America Mark Carney must beware an all-out trade war America will regret Scott Bessent’s bond-market misadventures America’s new sanctions are unlikely to topple Iran’s regime When obeying an American law means breaking a Chinese one
The Unwelcoming States of America By trying to change its demographic trajectory, Donald Trump will make his country weaker Aug 27th 2026 First, give Donald Trump some credit. He promised to restore order to the border, and he did. Granted, the slowdown in irregular border-crossings began under Joe Biden, who belatedly closed the loophole whereby nearly anyone could walk across, claim asylum and join the labour market. Mr Trump clamped down even harder. The southern frontier, which was visibly chaotic in the early Biden years, is now calm. That success could have been the foundation on which to build a rational immigration policy. Voters like to feel in control of who comes in, which is why Mr Trump’s border wall has reassured many. Once they think the
government has a grip, there is political space to discuss the rules of entry and exit. Two questions must be addressed. What should the government do about the people who are already on American soil illegally? And whom should America welcome in the future? Mr Trump has offered a brutal answer to the first question, and a self-harming one to the second. He has promised the “largest deportation operation in the history of our country”. One of his enforcers said he wanted to deport 100m people, roughly seven times the number of illicit migrants in America. The White House boasted it was rounding up “the worst of the worst”, though most of those detained have never been convicted of a crime. The mass deployment of shoddily trained, theatrically aggressive immigration agents to Minneapolis caused a political backlash, after they were filmed killing two American protesters. Since then, there have been fewer headline-grabbing clashes, as a showboating homeland-security chief has been replaced by a more competent one. But the deportation machine has not slowed; it has merely grown quieter. Rather than rappelling down buildings and seizing people in Walmart car parks, agents are co-operating with friendly cops and detaining people with expired visas at airports. And Mr Trump has created a new class of deportables by stripping temporary asylum-like status from hundreds of thousands of Haitians, Afghans and others. Overall, the deportation campaign is unpopular. Most Americans favour kicking out criminals, but not tearing apart the families of hard-working people who have been in the country for decades. Yet some in MAGA-world hanker for a less diverse America. Senior Trump aides such as Stephen Miller stop only a few inches short of overt racism, talking of “heritage Americans”, who are somehow more American than newer arrivals, and “remigration”, a buzzword on the nativist right for sending people from alien cultures home. Such attitudes seem to inform policies on whom to let in, too. The only sizeable group of refugees admitted under Mr Trump has been white South Africans, whose claims of persecution are far-fetched. The administration
blocked all new immigrant visas for citizens of 75 non-rich countries. Thus, if an American marries a Nigerian, they cannot live together in America, a curb on American liberty with echoes of a darker past. A court last week ruled the policy illegal; the administration is now stalling and perhaps looking for a workaround. Mr Trump is altering America’s demographic trajectory. Net migration in 2025 was zero. The short-term economic effects are ugly. The labour force has shrunk by 1m since January. Leave aside the $17,000-a-head cost of processing, shackling and deporting people; American builders and bars are floundering for lack of labour. The long-term effects could be even more damaging. Though Mr Trump has often said he favours legal migration, especially the skilled variety, his actions suggest otherwise. He is steadily obstructing the pipeline through which brainy foreigners come to study and work. By one estimate, 29% fewer student visas were issued in 2025 than in the previous year, and new rules are making studying in America even less attractive. Foreigners must complete their courses in less time than the average student takes, and then find a job within 30 days or go home. Meanwhile, American firms that want H1-B visas for highly skilled foreign staff will have to stump up more than $100,000 per worker to apply, and may still be rejected. Rather than boosting wages for native-born IT professionals, this will make it harder for their employers to expand. Some within MAGA feel that shutting out foreigners will protect American culture. On the contrary, the essence of that culture is dynamism and creativity, which has always been fed by a steady influx of industrious newcomers with fresh perspectives. Nearly half of Fortune 500 firms were founded by immigrants or their children. Many of America’s most brilliant entrepreneurs, including Elon Musk, entered via the college-to-Silicon Valley pipeline that is now narrowing. A fortress America would be unAmerican. There is little point in urging Mr Trump to recalibrate his immigration policies. The best hope may be that the courts can limit the number of ways in which he pursues them illegally. (He still claims the constitution doesn’t mean what it says about birthright citizenship, for example.) However,
Democrats should not assume, as they scramble to regain a slice of federal power, that the president was wrong about everything. He is right that the asylum system was being abused. A future Democratic president would be wise to insist that asylum-seekers apply from the first safe country they reach, rather than giving preference to those with the wherewithal to make it to Mexico and then step into Texas. This (far more than wall-building) is the way to avoid future mayhem on the border. And only by persuading voters that their frontiers remain secure—rather than grandstanding about abolishing ICE—can a future administration hope to pass the kind of enlightened immigration reform that America needs. Such a reform should make the country more open to the world’s most talented people, and less cavalier about breaking up families. That might truly make America great again. ■ This article was downloaded by zlibrary from https://www.economist.com/leaders/2026/08/27/the-unwelcoming-states-of-america