News of the Day

President Donald Trump announced Sunday that the U.S. reached a trade deal with the European Union, following pivotal discussions with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen days before the August 1 tariff deadline.

Trump said that the deal imposes a 15% tariff on most European goods to the U.S., including cars.

Some products, including aircrafts and their components, some chemicals and pharmaceuticals, will not be subject to tariffs, von der Leyen said in a briefing after the agreement was announced. She also said that the new 15% tariff rate would not be added to any tariffs already in effect.

The 15% tariff rate is lower than the 30% rate Trump had previously threatened against the United States’ largest trading partner, but higher than the 10% baseline tariffs the EU was hoping for.

Trump said that the 27-member bloc also agreed to purchase $750 billion worth of U.S. energy and invest an additional $600 billion worth of investments into the U.S. above current levels.

He said that the bloc would also be “purchasing hundreds of billions of dollars worth of military equipment,” but did not provide a specific dollar amount.

“It’s a very powerful deal, it’s a very big deal, it’s the biggest of all the deals,” Trump said Sunday alongside von der Leyen.

“It’s a good deal, it’s a huge deal, with tough negotiations,” von der Leyen said after the meeting.

Governor Tony Evers announced yesterday he won’t seek reelection next year, passing on the opportunity to become only the second governor in Wisconsin history to win at least three four-year terms.

Evers, 73, a former state schools superintendent, announced his decision via a post on social media.

At least a half-dozen Democrats are considered potential successors, including: Milwaukee County Exec David Crowley, Secretary of State Sarah Godlewski, Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson, Attorney General Josh Kaul (44), Lieutenant Gov. Sara Rodriguez and state Sen. Kelda Roys).

Meanwhile, New Berlin businessman Bill Berrien, and fellow Republican Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann have formally announced their bids for Governor. U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, a 67-year-old who lives in Minocqua, is among those considering a run for the GOP nomination.

Wisconsin existing home sales rose by significant margins in June as median prices increased at a modest pace. June home sales rose 8.1% compared to closed sales in June 2024, which is the first increase in June sales in four years. Compared to June 2024, the median price increased 4.6% to $340,000.

Evaluating the first half of 2025, home sales were essentially unchanged, rising just 0.1%, relative to the first six months of 2024; and the median price increased 6.7% to $320,000.

All indicators of inventory showed improvement in June compared to 12 months earlier.  New statewide listings rose 5%, total listings rose 4.7% and months of available supply increased 8.1%. Still, this remains a seller’s market with just 4 months of supply. We would need total statewide listings to increase by 53% for the market to reach the six-month supply indicator of a balanced market.

“The Fed’s target for inflation should benefit from moderating home prices. Indeed, the single largest share of expenses in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) is owner-occupied shelter, which represents just over 26% of all expenses in the bundle of goods that the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks when computing the CPI. Lower housing price appreciation will help move inflation closer to the Fed’s 2% target rate for core inflation, which will increase the likelihood of a rate cut later this year.”

Dave Clark, Professor Emeritus of Economics and WRA Consultant

Two years ago, Gov. Tony Evers made national headlines when, with the stroke of his veto pen, he transformed two years of school funding in the state budget into 400 years.

That use of a Wisconsin governor’s unique partial veto power triggered outrage among legislative Republicans, and it spawned a lawsuit that resolved this April when the state Supreme Court’s liberal majority ruled that it was a legal use of the governor’s authority.

Now, Republican lawmakers are circulating a bill that would repeal the results of that veto, arguing it amounts to an unfair property tax increase in perpetuity.

As written, the new GOP proposal would repeal that annual increase after the 2026-27 school year.

“One man locked in a tax-raising mechanism that no one voted for and no one approved. Evers’ move bypassed both the elected Legislature and the hard-working people who pay the bills,” reads the cosponsorship memo.

If the bill passes the Legislature, it will face one significant hurdle to becoming law: Evers’ veto pen.

President Donald Trump will likely renegotiate the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA) next year to protect American jobs, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Sunday.

“I think the president is absolutely going to renegotiate USMCA, but that’s a year from today,” Lutnick said, pointing to the scheduled July 2026 review. The review, part of the agreement’s sunset clause, allows the deal to be assessed every six years and sets it to expire after 16 years unless all parties agree to an extension.

“He wants to protect American jobs,” Lutnick said of Trump. “He doesn’t want cars built in Canada or Mexico when they can be built in Michigan and Ohio. It’s just better for American workers.”

The USMCA requires 75 percent of automobile components to be manufactured in the United States, Canada or Mexico in order to avoid tariffs. It also opened new markets for American wheat, poultry and eggs, among other things.

The United States Department of Labor has updated its guidance on penalty and debt collection procedures in the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Field Operations Manual in an effort to minimize the burden on small businesses and increase prompt hazard abatement.

“All employers should be offered the opportunity to comply with regulations that help maintain a safe working environment,” said Deputy Secretary of Labor Keith Sonderling. “Small employers who are working in good faith to comply with complex federal laws should not face the same penalties as large employers with abundant resources. By lowering penalties on small employers, we are supporting the entrepreneurs that drive our economy and giving them the tools they need to keep our workers safe and healthy on the job while keeping them accountable.”

The new policy, outlined in the Penalties and Debt Collection section of OSHA’s Field Operations Manual, increases penalty reductions for small employers, making it easier for small businesses to invest resources in compliance and hazard abatement. For example, a penalty reduction level of 70%, which was previously only applicable for businesses with 10 or fewer employees, will now be expanded to include businesses who employ up to 25 employees. The revisions also include new guidelines for a 15% penalty reduction for employers who immediately take steps to address or correct a hazard.

Additionally, the updated policy expands the penalty reduction for employers without a history of serious, willful, repeat, or failure-to-abate OSHA violations. Under OSHA’s revised policy, employers who have never been inspected by federal OSHA or an OSHA State Plan, as well as employers who have been inspected in the previous five years and had no serious, willful, or failure-to-abate violations, are eligible for a 20% penalty reduction.

The new policies are effective immediately. Penalties issued before July 14, 2025, will remain under the previous penalty structure. Open investigations in which penalties have not yet been issued are covered by the new guidance.

OSHA retains the right to withhold penalty reductions where penalty adjustments do not advance the goals of the Occupational Safety and Health Act.

Retail sales rose a better-than-expected 0.6% in June, the Commerce Department said Thursday, after two consecutive months of spending declines, a 0.1% pullback in April and a 0.9% slowdown in May.

Retail sales in June included a 1.2% gain in sales of autos and auto parts. Spending expanded across most major categories including clothing and personal care. Excluding autos and automotive parts, sales rose 0.5%, according to the Commerce Department

Clothing and accessories sales rose 0.9%, while health and personal care sales saw a 0.5% bump. Online retailers recorded a 0.4% gain.

Electronics and appliance retailers, furniture stores and department stores all saw sales declines. The products sold in these sectors are heavily imported.

In 2024, the United States imported about 17% of its domestic energy supply, half of the record share set in 2006 and the lowest share since 1985, according to our Monthly Energy Review. The decline in imports’ share of supply in the previous two decades is attributable to both an increase in domestic energy production and a decrease in energy imports since 2006.

U.S. energy supply comes from three sources: domestic energy production, energy imports from other countries, and any energy brought out of storage.

In 2024, for the third consecutive year, the United States remained a net exporter of energy, producing a record amount that continues to exceed consumption. Individually, U.S. natural gas, crude oil, natural gas plant liquids (NGPLs), biofuels, solar, and wind each set domestic production records in 2024.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics on Tuesday said that the consumer price index (CPI) – a broad measure of how much everyday goods like gasoline, groceries and rent cost – rose 0.3% in June compared with last month, while it was up 2.7% on an annual basis. Both marked accelerations from last month, when the monthly increase was 0.1% and the annual figure was 2.4%.

So-called core prices, which exclude more volatile measurements of gasoline and food to better assess price growth trends, were up 0.2% from the prior month and 2.9% from a year ago.  As with the headline number, the core numbers ticked higher compared with May, when inflation rose 0.1% on a monthly basis and 2.8% on an annual basis.

Food prices rose 0.3% in June from the prior month and were 3% higher on an annual basis. The food at home index rose 0.3% in June from a month ago and is up 2.4% on an annual basis, while the food away from home index increased 0.4% on a monthly basis and is 3.8% higher than a year ago.

Housing prices rose by 0.2% in June and was the primary factor in driving the overall CPI increase. Over the last year, the shelter index increased 3.8%.

Transportation costs rose 0.2% on a monthly basis and are 3.4% higher than a year ago. Airline fares declined 0.1% for the month and are down 3.5% compared with a year ago, while motor vehicle insurance rose 0.1% on a monthly basis and is 6.1% higher than last year.

The new budget signed by Gov. Tony Evers includes a workers’ compensation fee schedule for hospital charges — a compromise on an issue that for years has pitted the state’s business lobby against the health care industry.

Scott Manley, executive vice president of government affairs for Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, says the fee schedule doesn’t go as far as the group would have liked. But he called it a good first step to “rein in” costs for employers related to workplace injuries, as it would set new maximum fees for hospital care provided to injured workers under the workers’ compensation program.

In an interview this week, Manley noted Wisconsin has some of the highest costs in the country for common procedures in the workers’ compensation space, such as major surgeries and pain management. He argued that’s because the state is currently one of just five that don’t have a fee schedule for workers’ compensation medical costs.

“Although we recognize that the fee schedule that was passed in the budget is not as, you know, comprehensive as we’d like it to be, we think that it’s a very important and necessary first step, in terms of being able to get Wisconsin out of the position of being the most expensive state in the country for work comp medical procedures,” Manley said.

Ultimately, he expects “the rate that businesses pay for their workers’ compensation insurance will go down” to the extent that the fee schedule lowers medical costs in the program in the years to come. A recent study from the Workers Compensation Research Institute focused on the recent inflationary period found fee schedules “ensure similar or lower price growth rates” compared to the overall health care system.