Day: October 27, 2025

• Russia’s war on inflation could be blinding policymakers to a far bigger problem — stalled growth.
• Economic growth depends on labor productivity and employment, but both are under strain.
• A top Russian banker said the country needs to attract skilled professionals from abroad to stay competitive.

Russia’s policymakers are so fixated on inflation that they are missing the bigger picture, one of the country’s most powerful bankers said last week.

“We’ve been so focused on fighting inflation lately that we’ve somewhat forgotten about economic growth. Without economic growth, there will be nothing. We won’t be able to solve social problems or anything else,” German Gref, the CEO of Sberbank, told Russia’s State Council on Demographic and Family Policy on Thursday.

“All economic growth depends on two factors: labor productivity and the number of people employed,” said Gref, who was Russia’s economy minister from 2000 to 2007.

But both of those pillars are under pressure.

“In principle, it is achievable if we begin actively using artificial intelligence, robotics, and all other new technologies, but this requires significant investment and a major commitment to education, science, and so on,” Gref said.

However, “this will be difficult to achieve given the capital shortage and the high interest rates we have today,” he added.

Gref’s comments came before Russia’s central bank cut its key interest rate by 50 basis points to 16.5% on Friday.

Business leaders have been pushing back against the central bank’s tight monetary policy, arguing that sky-high borrowing costs are choking lending and investment. The bank has defended its stance, saying high rates are necessary to curb inflation, which stood around 6.4% in the third quarter.

Gref projected that Russia’s GDP growth rate over the next two years would hover between 1% and 1.5%, and that this year’s growth could slump to just 0.8% — sharply lower than Russia’s 4.3% GDP expansion recorded last year.

Earlier this month, a top Russian business leader warned that the country’s economy has slowed to a pace that could jeopardize its ability to cover surging defense, security, and social costs.

A shrinking workforce

Russia is facing a deepening demographic crisis, with a looming labor shortage that could reach nearly 11 million workers by 2030, Anton Kotyakov, Russia’s labor minister, said in July.

The war in Ukraine has only worsened the problem, as battlefield casualties and a mass exodus of young professionals deplete the country’s working-age population.

Russia has leaned on foreign workers, mainly from Central Asia, to fill labor gaps, but Gref said the country is “engaging in negative selection.”

“We mostly attract very low-skilled labor, while we ourselves are losing highly qualified specialists,” he said, urging Moscow to actively attract skilled professionals from abroad and offer incentives for foreign graduates to stay in Russia.

“It is a matter of national security and the survival of the country,” he said.

Russia’s demographic squeeze is already distorting its economy, keeping unemployment low at around 2.1% and fueling inflationary pressure through rapid wage growth.

Businesses are already struggling to cope. Employers are increasingly hiring retirees and teenagers to plug staffing gaps in an economy distorted by wartime spending.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has made population growth a national priority, calling it a matter of “ethnic survival” and urging women to have as many as eight children.

In 2024, births in Russia fell to 1.22 million — the lowest since 1999 — while deaths rose to 1.82 million, according to government data.

• Scott Bessent said Ontario’s anti-tariff ad, featuring quotes from Ronald Reagan, was “propaganda.”
• “What was the purpose of that other than to sway public opinion?” Bessent said in an interview.
• Trump said he had paused trade talks with Canada and would impose a 10% tariff on its goods because of the ad.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Canada’s anti-tariff ad, featuring former US President Ronald Reagan, was “propaganda” and part of “psy-ops.”

On Sunday’s “Meet the Press” on CNBC, Bessent answered a question about why President Donald Trump was setting trade policy based on a television ad he didn’t like. The ad, released on October 16, contained a voiceover of Reagan’s 1987 address in defence of free and fair trade.

“This is a kind of propaganda against US citizens,” Bessent said to CNBC. “It’s psy-ops.”

“Why would the government of Ontario — I’m told that they have spent, or were planning to spend, up to $75 million on these ads to come across the US border,” he added. “So what was the purpose of that other than to sway public opinion?”

Bessent, who is in Asia with Trump inking trade deals, acknowledged that the ad had been taken down. But he said putting the ad up had been “terrible, terrible judgment” by Ontario’s premier, Doug Ford.

During a Sunday “Face the Nation” interview with CBS’s Margaret Brennan, Bessent made a similar statement, calling the ad an “interference in US sovereign matters.”

“It’s clearly damaged our relationship with the most populous province in Canada,” he told Brennan.

Representatives for the US Treasury and the Ontario Premier’s Office did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.

How the ad backlash unfolded

The Canadian province of Ontario’s minute-long ad included a voiceover of Reagan’s 1987 “Radio Address to the Nation on Free and Fair Trade.” The address said that while tariffs may seem “patriotic,” they eventually “hurt every American worker and consumer” and lead to retaliation and trade wars.

The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute said on Thursday that Ontario had misrepresented Reagan’s comments, and the province had not sought the foundation’s permission to use or edit the former president’s remarks.

Trump slammed Ontario’s ad in a Friday Truth Social post, saying he would end trade negotiations with Canada over the ad.

Ontario’s premier, Ford, said in a Friday X post that his intention with the ad was to “initiate a conversation about the kind of economy that Americans want to build and the impact of tariffs on workers and businesses.”

“We’ve achieved our goal, having reached US audiences at the highest levels,” he said. “I’ve directed my team to keep putting our message in front of Americans over the weekend so that we can air our commercial during the first two World Series games.”

However, Ford said he had spoken with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and decided to pause the ad from Monday so trade talks could continue.

The ad was aired during the World Series games over the weekend. Trump said in a Saturday Truth Social post that he would impose an additional 10% tariff on Canadian goods, above the current rate.

Tariffs on Canadian goods not covered by the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement were taxed at 35% before the proposed 10% hike. Trump has also imposed separate tariffs on products like automobile parts.

• Hailey Bieber says she wouldn’t have been able to manage working and being a mom without outside support.
• “I do have help. I have full-time help. And I’m super not ashamed to say that,” the Rhode founder said.
• Bieber and her husband, Justin Bieber, welcomed their son, Jack, in August 2024.

Hailey Bieber, 28, says there’s no shame in getting help as a working mom.

During an appearance on Friday’s episode of the “In Your Dreams With Owen Thiele” podcast, Bieber said she relies on a strong support system to balance motherhood and her career.

“I do have help. I have full-time help. And I’m super not ashamed to say that,” Bieber told podcast host Owen Thiele. “And I would never shy away from talking about that because I wouldn’t be able to have my career and do the things that I do without the help.”

The Rhode founder and her husband, Justin Bieber, welcomed their son, Jack Blues Bieber, in August 2024.

Even though she always wanted to be a mom and is “super super super hands-on” with her son, she said she is “grateful” to have other people in her circle to rely on.

“If he’s not with me, he’s with his dad,” Bieber said, adding that her son is “always with his family” or someone close to their family, like his godparents.

Bieber added that becoming a mother at a young age comes with its own learning curve.

“I think it did feel daunting, and then once he was here, it didn’t feel as daunting,” Bieber said, referring to her son.

“I think when your life is about to change in a way which you’ve never experienced before, and you don’t know what to expect, and you don’t know what’s coming,” Bieber said.

She recalled how she was often told that no amount of planning could truly prepare her for becoming a mom.

“And I think that’s very true because you just don’t know what it’s like until you’re in it,” she said.

Now, she’s figuring things out “day by day,” Bieber said.

“It’s like every single day, I’m learning something new about how to be a mom, and what’s best for my son, and what’s best for me as a mom,” she added.

Speaking to Vogue in May, Bieber said she experienced postpartum body dysmorphia after giving birth.

“Being postpartum is the most sensitive time I’ve ever gone through in my life, and learning a new version of myself is very difficult,” Bieber said.

A representative for Bieber did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent by Business Insider outside regular hours.

Bieber isn’t the only Hollywood star who has spoken about juggling work with the demands of parenthood, or about the help that makes it possible.

In 2023, Emma Roberts told People that she realized motherhood is “a full-time job” and said she’s thankful for the support of her family.

“I’m so lucky my mom helps me a lot,” Roberts said. “I would die without my mom.”

During a podcast appearance in May, Michelle Williams said that balancing her career and her duty as a mom is like figuring out “which master you’re going to serve.”

“Because the truth is, if work is going well, somebody else is taking care of the kids. And if you’re in a high point with your kids, the work is shoved to the side,” Williams said.

In September, “Grey’s Anatomy” actor Camilla Luddington said that she accepts there is “no balance” when it comes to juggling work and kids.

“Letting go of that need to be perfectly balanced all the time has been very freeing for me.”