Tag: Federal Reserve

IPO, meanwhile…

HOLD STEADY FED: The Federal Reserve will cut its interest rate, but not yet. Chairman Jerome Powell indicated there will be three cuts later this year. “Inflation is still too high,” Powell said Wednesday. “Ongoing progress on bringing it down is not assured, and the path forward is still uncertain.” For now, the Federal Open Market Committee “will keep the interest rate unchanged and continue to reduce our security holdings,” Powell said.

Terrorist Attack on Moscow -- Two to five gunmen attacked a concert hall outside Russia's capitol late Friday, with at least 40 dead and more than 100 injured, NPR reports. Fire has broken out in the hall with some attending a concert by the group Piknik trapped in the building. Kyiv is denying claims by some Russian officials of any complicity. "Ukraine certainly had nothing to do with the shooting in Crocus City Hall," an aide to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a statement. "It make no sense whatsoever." Kyiv Post has photos and video here.

•••

Sacrificial Speaker? -- After the House passed the 1,012-page, $1.2-trillion omnibus spending bill, 286-134 Friday afternoon, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) filed a motion to vacate Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA). At least he got as far as funding the federal government through September 30, though there is still no future aid for Ukraine's defense against Russia.

"This will be the fall of Mike Johnson for allowing this bill to happen and not fighting for and defending our southern border," MTG said Friday on Steve Bannon's War Room show (per CQ Roll Call).

In passage of the omnibus, 101 Republicans and all but 22 House Democrats voted for the bill, Roll Call reports, leaving the Senate scrambling to hold its vote before that part of the budget expires at midnight.

Majority minus one more: Meanwhile, Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) announced he will resign from Congress on April 19, says Roll Call, leaving the GOP with just 217 House members, a one-seat margin over Democrats. The four-term congressman, who as chair of the Select Committee on China co-sponsored the bipartisan bill calling on ByteDance to sell or close down TikTok in the U.S., made his announcement on Rep. Ken Block's (R-CO) last day. While California and Ohio will hold special elections to replace their early House retirements later this year, and New York next month will hold a special election to replace ousted Republican Rep. George Santos (the GOP is expected to lose the seat), Wisconsin law leaves Gallagher's seat unfilled until the November 5 election.

•••

UPDATE -- Shareholders of a shell corporation have agreed to buy Donald J. Trump's Truth Social, The Guardian reports. Now it's up to Trump to work a deal to free $454 million to pay his fine in the New York civil fraud case, by Monday.

Trump Payday Friday? – Shareholders of Digital World Acquisition Corp. will vote Friday on whether the shell company should acquire Donald J. Trump’s Truth Social and launch an initial public offering as early as next week and raise sufficient cash for the former president to pay his $454 million fine for his New York civil fraud case, NPR’s Morning Edition reports. Though apparently inspired by Reddit’s IPO this week, the “backdoor listing,” a much different sort of public offering. It would bring in an estimated $3 billion for Trump, who would be required to hold on to his share of more than 50% for at least six months. The stock listing would be “DJT.” Trump could potentially make a “side deal” to loosen enough cash to pay his fine by Monday, and we’ll go out on a limb here and say that you can count on that.

Truth Social earned just $3 million in the first nine months of 2023, according to the report, and lost nearly $50 million. 

•••

Cease-fire Efforts – The U.S. is expected to introduce a resolution before the United Nations late Friday calling for “an immediate and sustained cease-fire” in the Israeli-Hamas war, The New York Times reports, after Secretary of State Antony Blinken travelled to Tel Aviv to urge Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to refrain from invading Rafah. Meanwhile, CIA Director William J. Burns met with mediators in Qatar in an endeavor to broker that elusive ceasefire.

•••

‘Round Midnight – Here’s what must happen to a $1.24 trillion spending package before midnight Friday if a partial government shutdown is to be avoided, according to The Washington Post: Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) must try to suspend House rules requiring two-thirds vote to pass the omnibus package there and avoid blockage from the MAGA Freedom Caucus. If Johnson can pull that off early Friday, he’ll need “substantial” support from House Democrats. Then, the Senate must “hastily engineer” a full vote before midnight and schlep the bill to the White House, where President Biden will surely sign it. 

If Congress can’t meet the midnight deadline but can manage to pull themselves together before Monday, effects of a partial shutdown could be “minimal,” according to WaPo.

--TL

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THURSDAY 3/21/24

Plugging In – The Environmental Protection Agency called for 30% to 56% of new cars and light trucks to be battery-electric vehicles by model years 2030-32, in its final ruling on new emissions standards issued Wednesday. While this is by far the strictest clampdown on greenhouse gas emissions ever by the federal government, subject to a quick reversal if Donald J. Trump wins the November election, it is an easing of the Biden EPA’s initial proposal issued last April. 

That standard would have mandated about two-thirds of new vehicles sold in the U.S. be BEVs by 2032. This adjusted standard, which becomes law when it is published in the Federal Register allows automakers to tackle the “zero-emissions” mandate with a combination of BEVs, which they have coming in bigger numbers by the end of the decade anyway, and plug-in hybrid vehicles, which have become more popular as EV demand has leveled a bit. The ramp-up between model years 2027 and 2030 also is not as steep. Easing of the standard without giving in to Big Oil has the support of automakers and of the United Auto Workers, whose president, Shawn Fain, endorsed President Biden in January.

--TL

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WEDNESDAY 3/20/24

Restrict Aid to Israel? – As Israeli troops prepare to invade Rafah in an effort to root out four Hamas battalions, some House Democrats is considering restricting military aid to Israel if it fails to protect Palestinian civilians in the offensive.

“We have existing restrictions and laws that say those to whom we give financial support must use them in accordance with international law,” Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE), a close ally of President Biden, told NPR’s Steve Inskeep Wednesday on Morning Edition. 

Israeli military officials were on their way to the Pentagon Wednesday to meet with U.S. officials. Coons said that Israel has the right and responsibility to protect and defend its citizens against Hamas, which still has four battalions in Rafah, but “we have to balance that need with the obligation to protect civilians and facilitate humanitarian aid going into Gaza.”

•••

DeLuxe Tuesday – Trump-endorsed businessman Bernie Moreno won Ohio’s Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate Tuesday, beating Frank LaRose and moderate Matt Dolan, who was endorsed by Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, after “some Democrat meddling” by Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), per Semafor. Brown is himself a moderate who would rather run for re-election against the Maga-iest of GOP challengers. This is considered the biggest race for November 5 aside from Trump v. Biden.

President Biden won Tuesday’s five primary states with at least 83% of the vote and Donald J. Trump had at least 75% of the vote, according to The New York Times.

Arizona: Though out of the race, Nikki Haley grabbed 18.7%, her best showing Tuesday. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis got 1.6% in the GOP presidential race, leaving Trump with 77.9%. 

Ohio: Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN), who has dropped out of the Democratic race for president and has since endorsed Biden, got 13% of the vote here (NYT).

Kansas: More than 10% of Democratic primary voters chose “none of the names.”

Meanwhile, in California: No candidate reached the 50% threshold for an overall win to take former Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s seat Tuesday, though Republican state Assemblyman Vince Fong notches the primary win. The race for second was too close to call Wednesday morning. Fong will face either Republican Tulane County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux or teacher and Democrat Marisa Wood (NYT) November 5.

•••

Texas Law Blocked Again – Some five hours after the U.S. Supreme Court allowed temporary application of Texas SB 4 while it makes its way through the judicial system, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth District blocked it, The Washington Post reports. SB 4 would give Texas officials the authority to deport immigrants caught crossing the border. The Mexican government has said it would not accept anyone sent back by Texas. Critics of SB 4 say it would encourage separation of families and spur racial profiling.

•••

I’ve Got an Omnibus Bill and I Want Funding Now – Lawmakers want the six-bill omnibus agreed upon by House and Senate leaders in both parties to come to the floor by Wednesday, but it is not likely to happen until Thursday, Punchbowl News. That means a partial government shutdown as Congress puts in some hours this weekend.

--TL

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TUESDAY 3/19/24

We Have a FY24 Budget – Almost. White House officials and the four congressional leaders reached a deal on Homeland Security funding Monday to finish off the budget for the current fiscal year. An omnibus bill to make its way through Congress and on to President Biden’s desk includes the remaining spending bills, for Defense, Labor-HHS, the Legislative Branch, Financial Services-General Government, and State Department-Foreign Operations, according to Punchbowl News. 

So the federal government will be funded right on up to September 30, when kick-the-can begins all over again. Except … CQ Roll Call notes that the voting process on these spending bills could go into the weekend, after their Friday deadline, and create a short shutdown before Biden can apply his John Hancock. 

•••

What’s That Golden Escalator Worth? – A court filling Monday by Donald J. Trump’s attorneys says the former president was unable to secure an appeal bond to cover his $454 million judgment in a civil fraud case, after “diligent efforts” to approach about 30 bond companies, The New York Times reports. As of Tuesday, Trump has six days to raise the cash before the New York attorney general could seize his New York properties and freeze his bank accounts. 

Trump will still have Mar-a-Lago. He assured the court during the civil trial he has the liquidity to pay the fine, but that statement now appears to be as questionable as the valuation of his New York properties over the years, which is what got him into this pickle in the first place. Perhaps a second production run of golden tennis shoes?

Trump did manage to post $91.6 million for E. Jean Carroll’s defamation case this month at “the eleventh hour,” with the money coming from a large insurance company, the NYT says.

‘Out of his control’… “He is really angry right now,” former Trump personal attorney/fixer Michael Cohen told CNN’s Kaitlyn Collins on The Source. “That’s what happens when Donald gets frustrated; he gets angry. When there’s a situation that is completely out of his control. And we do know that it is out of his control.”

While Trump appears to have the upper hand delaying his criminal cases, including Mar-a-Lagogate, the federal January 6thinsurrection case and the Fulton County election interference case, this civil case -- which could break up the former president’s real estate holdings -- arguably is his greatest fear.

Speaking of, uh, banks…Donald J. Trump is considering hiring his 2016 campaign manager, Paul Manafort, for a role in this year’s campaign – possibly in charge of fundraising, The Washington Post reports. During his administration, Trump pardoned Manafort for bank and tax fraud convictions, so at least he has some experience in this area. Manafort was also accused of hiding millions of dollars he made consulting for pro-Russian Ukrainian politicians.

•••

Censuring Socials? – A majority of Supreme Court justices appeared to back the Biden administration’s argument that the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals went too far in blocking the White House, FBI, CDC and other federal agencies from asking social media outlets from removing certain content -- including “erroneous information” about COVID-19, foreign interference into elections or such election information as where to find a polling place -- for violating the First Amendment, NPR’s Nina Totenberg reported on All Things Considered. 

“I’ve experienced government press people throughout the federal government who regularly call up the media and berate them,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a Trump appointee, said. 

“Like Justice Kavanaugh, I’ve had some experience encouraging press to suppress their own speech,” said Justice Elena Kagan, an Obama appointee. “’You just wrote a story that’s filled with factual errors. Here are the 10 reasons you shouldn’t do that again.’ This happens literally thousands of times per day in the federal government.”

A government official contacting social media companies even to encourage suppression amounts to unconstitutional pressure, Louisiana Solicitor Gen. Benjamin Aguinaga countered. 

“Just plain vanilla encouragement, or does it have to be significant encouragement?” Justice Amy Coney Barrett said in response to Aguinaga. “Because encouragement would sweep in an awful lot.”

Aguinaga had no clear response for this, Totenberg reported.

--TL

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MONDAY 3/18/24

Putin 'Wins' Again -- Vladimir Putin grabbed another six-year term for president of Russia with 87.3% of the vote, Politico reports, though not without protests urged by the late dissident leader Alexei Navalny. 

Long lines of Russians formed Sunday, the third and final day of voting, in such cities as Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk, Tomsk and Novosibirsk, to vote against the dictator, in support of Navalny’s call for “Noon Against Putin” demonstrations, The Washington Post reports. 

Navalny died in prison last month. His widow, Yulia Navalnaya, wrote in her late husband’s name on her ballot at the Russian embassy in Berlin, where she voted, according to the BBC. 

Putin’s campaign included promises of new homes and cars for Russians who voted for him (per NPR’s All Things Considered Weekend). As of late Sunday, 50% of the vote had been counted. Putin had three challengers, none of whom criticized him (which means they probably are still alive and not in jail).

•••

Trump’s Latest Rally – It was in Vandalia, Ohio, where Donald J. Trump, who on Super Tuesday clinched the GOP presidential nomination for a third time, repeated demonstrably scary language about what will happen if he does not “win” the November election.

“Now, if I don’t get elected, it’s gonna be a bloodbath. That’s going to be the least of it. It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country,” Trump (who again claimed he defeated Barrack Obama in 2016) said, per The Guardian,

Many news outlets note that Trump was referring to the domestic auto industry, which has several factories in Ohio and which the former president said he would protect with a 100% tariff on import vehicles, according to NPR. Domestic auto factories and their workers would suffer the “bloodbath,” according to this excuse. Both Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) on NBC’s Meet the Press and ex-Vice President Mike Pence on CBS’ Face the Nation gave Trump that “gimme” Sunday.

Trump also said this, according to The Guardian’s report: “I don’t think you’re going to have another election in this country, if we don’t win this election … Certainly not an election that’s meaningful.”

Biden spokesman James Singer said, “He wants another January 6th, but the American people are going to give him another election defeat this November because they continue to reject his extremism, his affection for violence, and his thirst for revenge.”

In Ohio, Trump repeated his claim that foreign countries are “emptying” prisons and mental institutions into the U.S. and called some immigrants “animals.”

“I don’t know if you call them ‘people.’ They’re not ‘people’, in my opinion. But I’m not allowed to say that because the radical left say that’s a terrible thing to say.”

Clearly, at his own rallies at least, Trump has been given permission to say such things.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

…meanwhile…

CPI Falls to 4.0% -- The Consumer Price Index fell to an annual rate of 4.0% in May, down from 4.9% in April, the Labor Department reported Tuesday. Prices were up 0.1% on a monthly basis, with highest increase for shelter, followed by used cars and trucks, according to the department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Food prices were up 6.7% on an annual level, offset in part by an 11.7% drop in energy prices. The CPI for all items less food and energy was +5.3% in May.

Most economists believe the Federal Reserve, which holds its latest regular meeting Tuesday through Thursday will forego an interest rate increase for the first time in about two years. 

•••

Truce for McCarthy and Freedom Caucus – Last week’s disagreement between Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and “conservatives” dominated by the Freedom Caucus, which clogged up legislation in the House is over for now, Roll Call reports. “Members of the rebel bloc made it clear” Monday “it may not be the end of trouble” for McCarthy. 

There were even whispers last week of the possibility of a motion to vacate, in which one representative can call for a vote that would recall the speaker. The brouhaha stemmed from Freedom Caucus members who objected to what they saw as a debt ceiling deal favoring President Biden. Last week, the hard-right bloc blocked votes on bills otherwise favorable to them, including one that would prevent regulation or banning of gas stoves. 

Trouble ahead: The MAGA/Freedom Caucus bloc reopened the House floor to action this week in exchange for renegotiating the “power-sharing” agreement they worked out with McCarthy to give him the speaker’s gavel, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) told reporters Monday. Short of unspecified “progress” Gaetz said, “perhaps we’ll be back here next week.”

Why the quote marks?: We put “conservatives” in quotes, above, because we presume most, if not all, 222 House Republicans consider themselves leaning right. The Freedom Caucus currently counts 46 members, a bit more than one-tenth the size of the House membership.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

…meanwhile…

Another ‘Too Good’ Jobs Report – Employers added 253,000 new jobs to the U.S. economy in April, the Labor Department reported Friday, lowering the unemployment rate to 3.4%. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had estimated the new-jobs number would be 180,000, below an average of 345,000 jobs added per month on average from January through March, and low enough to raise the unemployment rate versus March by 0.1 point, to 3.6%. 

Fed response?: Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell indicated that this week’s quarter-point increase in the interest rate could be the last amid signs the economy is cooling enough to lower inflation toward its 2% target. Now are we in for more interest rate increases?

•••

Ain’t Too Proud for Prison – A jury found four members of the Proud Boys extremist group, including leader Enrique Tarrio, guilty of seditious conspiracy Thursday for their roles in supporting ex-President Trump’s “Big Lie” in the January 6th attack on the United States Capitol. The verdicts in Washington, D.C. federal court are the last of the Justice Department’s conspiracy cases related to January 6, according to The Guardian (though DOJ’s probe of Trump’s involvement continues). A fifth Proud Boy, Dominic Pelzola, who smashed in a Capitol window, was found not guilty of seditious conspiracy, but was convicted of obstructing an official proceeding. Members of another far-right group participating in the Capitol Attack, the Oath Keepers, were convicted of seditious conspiracy last January.

Attorney Gen. Merrick Garland: “Evidence presented at trial details the extent of the violence at the Capitol on January 6 and the central role these defendants played setting into motion events of that day.”

And stand by: Presidential candidate Donald J. Trump, has promised to pardon supporters charged with criminal offenses in connection with their participation in the January 6 Capitol attack if he wins the 2024 election.

•••

Is Feinstein Saving Clarence Thomas? – Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA) says she will return to the Senate after she fully recovers from her case of the shingles. The Senate Judiciary Committee has been short of her vote necessary for a Democratic majority for much of the year and has been unable to approve many of President Biden’s judicial nominees. 

More urgently, Democrats are unable to proceed with a new ethics reform bill aimed at the Supreme Court, according to the committee’s chairman, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), Axios reports. 

Some prominent Democrats on the Hill, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have called for Feinstein, who already has ruled out running for re-election next year, to retire now. 

This comes as allegations of questionable ethics pile up on Justice Clarence Thomas. Earlier in the week, ProPublica reported that GOP megadoner Harlan Crow paid private school tuition potentially worth about $150,000, for Thomas’ grandnephew. On Friday, The Washington Post reported in an exclusive report citing documents it has received, that conservative judicial activist Leonard Leo, head of the Judicial Education Project, arranged for Thomas’ wife, Ginni, to be paid tens of thousands of dollars for consulting work more than a decade ago, “specifying that her name be left off billing paperwork.”

Leo reportedly instructed GOP pollster Kellyanne Conway to “give” Ginni Thomas “another $25,000” and emphasized that the paperwork must have “no mention of Ginni, of course.”

Conservative backlash: Conservatives are warning these ethics attacks on Thomas are “meant to drive him off” SCOTUS, according to a Wednesday headline in The Washington Times, before WaPo’s latest story.

The Feinstein Effect: But Feinstein’s refusal to retire early has detracted from the allegations against Thomas, shifting some attention to Democrats’ infighting. If Feinstein were to retire and allow Durbin to name a replacement on Senate Judiciary in order to regain the majority necessary to review SCOTUS ethics, California Gov. Gavin Newsom would name Feinstein’s replacement. With the state’s primary for the 2024 elections about a year away, three Democratic representatives, Katie Holmes, Adam Schiff and Barbara Lee have announced their candidacies. 

Newsom promised in 2021 to name a Black woman to replace Feinstein if she retired mid-term, according to the Los Angeles Times. If the governor were to hold to this commitment, he would make Rep. Lee the incumbent and give her an advantage over Holmes and Schiff next year.

--TL

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THURSDAY 5/4/23

Fed Says ‘Not Quite Yet’ – The Federal Reserve raised interest rates by a quarter-point to the 5% to 5.25% range Wednesday for its 10th straight – and potentially last -- increase. 

Ominously, the last time interest rates were this high was summer of 2007, per The New York Times.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell (above) said “a decision on a pause was not made today” adding that “we’ll approach that question in the June meeting.”

The Federal Open Market Committee issued a statement that in addition to persistent high interest rates, it will “take into account the cumulative tightening of monetary policy, the lags with which monetary policy affects economic activity and inflation, and economic and financial development.”

•••

Who’s Putin Who? – During a surprise visit to Helsinki, Finland President Volodymyr Zelinskyy denied Ukraine had anything to do with an alleged drone attack on Moscow’s Red Square, which the Kremlin called a terrorist attack and assassination attempt on Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

“We don’t attack Putin or Moscow,” Zelinskyy said Wednesday. “We are defending our villages and cities.”

Kremlin sez: It will “retaliate” when and where considered necessary.

BBC sez: Three Kremlin-provided videos show electronic radar assets shooting down one of the drones, per the BBC. Red Square below is getting set for Russia’s Victory Day celebration over the Nazis in World War II, which is held every May 9.

Was the attack staged as a pretext for a major Russian offensive in Ukraine for next Tuesday?

--TL

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WEDNESDAY 5/3/23

Senate Judiciary Holds Hearing on SCOTUS Ethics – But Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts “declined” an invitation to appear before the panel (per The Hill).

What Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-IL) said: Scolded Roberts for “oblivious” response to “obvious” ethical conflicts by justices. 

“The highest court in the land shouldn’t have the lowest ethical standards. That reality is driving a crisis in public confidence in the Supreme Court. The status quo must change.”

What ranking member Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said: That the hearing is part of a “concentrated effort to delegitimize this court and cherry-pick examples to make a point.”

“I think, here’s what you’re trying to do on the Democratic side. Remember when Sen. Schumer (D-NY) went to the court and started yelling at everybody in the court? Not everybody, just pretty much our folks.”

‘Cherry-picked’: After ProPublica reported that Justice Clarence Thomas received free private jet travel, yacht trips and lavish vacations from GOP megadonor Harlan Crow, Politico reported Justice Neil Gorsuch did not disclose the identity of the person who purchased his $1.8-million Colorado property – the head of a law firm with multiple cases before SCOTUS, and Business Insider reported that Chief Justice Roberts’ wife, Jane, has made more than $10 million over seven years as a headhunter recruiting and placing attorneys in law firms. 

So far, no such reports on SCOTUS justices nominated by Democratic presidents.

--TL

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TUESDAY 5/2/23

May 9 for June 1 – President Biden will meet with Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and other top lawmakers May 9 to discuss the debt-ceiling limit, NPR reports. The White House meeting follows Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s warning Monday that the federal government could reach its limit earlier than previously calculated – possibly on June 1.

McCarthy passed a bill that would raise the ceiling in exchange for severe cuts to Biden’s budget agenda, including his hard-won Inflation Reduction Act. But the White House repeatedly has refused to negotiate over its spending programs in exchange for unrelated debt-ceiling relief. 

McCarthy’s bill passed with no votes to spare, and now he must negotiate a bill “that can win support from House Republicans and President Biden,” The Hill says. And, oh yeah, it must pass the Democratic-controlled Senate as well. 

We’re listening to her, now: The Hill quotes “McCarthy critic-turned-ally” Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene (R-GA) who said of the speaker’s task; “I’m sure it’s going to be tougher.”

Meanwhile: The underlying attitude from libertarian-leaning Republicans on the Hill seems to be that if Congress fails to raise the debt ceiling in time, the crashing economy will be blamed on the Biden White House. But it cannot be repeated too often that a federal default will crash the global economy, and no one will come out politically alive.

--TL

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This Week, Meanwhile

MAY DAY 2023

UPDATE: First Republic No More – JP Morgan Chase Bank purchased First Republic Bank over the weekend after California regulators shut it down, NPR reports. First Republic has been wobbling since the failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank in March. Chase gets Republic’s approximately $92 billion in deposits, $173 billion of loans and approximately $30 billion in securities, according to Morning Edition. 

First Republic's failure is the second-largest in U.S. banking history.

Chase paid about $10 billion to purchase Republic, and will receive about $50 billion in FDIC funding over five years to aid the purchase.

First Republic’s 84 branches in eight states were to open as usual Monday under new branding, according to NPR. CEO Jamie Dimon says Chase’s takeover will “minimize costs” to the FDIC’s deposit insurance fund to about $13 billion.

Fundamentally sound?: “The banking system remains sound and resilient, and Americans should feel confident in the safety of their deposits and the ability of the banking system to fulfill its essential function of providing credit to businesses and families,” a Treasury Department spokesperson said.

Fed, Regulate Thyself – If the spate of recent freight train derailments was not enough to raise the question of whether federal regulations and enforcement have grown too lax in recent decades, there is last Friday’s admission by the Federal Reserve that it had caught its regulators napping before the March 10 collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.

Banking regulation supervisors did not fully appreciate SVB’s vulnerabilities, and when they did, failed to act sufficiently, Michael Barr, the Fed’s vice chair for supervision, said in his report. The self-criticism signals a “broad push” to toughen rules on the banking industry, according to The Wall Street Journal.

A separate report by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, also issued Friday, says it was slow to ramp up addressing issues it identified for Signature, a bank that failed two days after SVB, on March 12. A third report from the Government Accountability Office – also issued Friday – said regulators found problems at both SVB and Signature in recent years but did not ramp up supervisory actions in time. 

On Friday, the Fed’s Barr called for restoring rules that apply to banks with more than $100 billion in assets and said regulators must re-evaluate how they treat deposits above the $250,000 limit insured by the FDIC. SVB and Signature both had a large amount of such deposits, the WSJ says.

Upshot: Republican presidents and congressional leaders have successfully been pushing back against what conservatives consider excessive federal regulation since the Reagan administration. As part of his return-to-the-New Deal agenda, President Biden has raised the issue of fixing lax federal regulation, especially after the high-profile freight train derailment in eastern Ohio. But the Fed’s report is likely to get more pushback than attention, particularly from Republicans, at least until the debt ceiling crisis is handled – we hope -- by early this summer.

What do you think?: Time for some regulatory crackdowns, or do you prefer a laissez-faire attitude toward the Fed’s report?

•••

Marcos Visits White House – President Biden hosts Philippines President Ferdinand “Bong Bong” Marcos, Jr. Monday over growing concerns about the Chinese Navy’s harassment of Philippines vessels in the South China Sea, according to The Hill. The U.S. and Philippines conducted their largest war drills just last week, and air forces of the two countries were to hold Monday their first joint fighter jet training since 1990.

Before he left Manila Sunday, Marcos said he is “determined to forge an even stronger relationship with the United States in a wide range of areas that not only address the concerns of our times but also those that are critical to advancing our core interests.”

•••

Up on the Hill – The full Senate is in session Monday through Thursday of this week. The House of Representatives is out.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

…meanwhile…

TRUMP’S PERP WALK – Does Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg have a case against Donald J. Trump? Read our center-column analysis of Bragg’s 34-count indictment charging the ex-prez with “Falsifying business records…” scroll down this center column, then read right- and left-column opinions.

Congress remains on Easter/Passover/Ramadan break. Both chambers return Monday, April 17, with the House in session through Thursday, April 20, and the Senate in session through Friday, April 21. The Hustings returns that week.

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FRIDAY 4/7/23

Economy Adds a Cool 236k Jobs – The Labor Department counted 236,000 new jobs added in March, compared with 326,000 jobs in February, indicating a cooling economy, finally; a sign the Federal Reserve’s efforts to bring down inflation with nine consecutive interest rate increases is taking hold. Despite the new jobs number released by the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics Friday, the unemployment rate fell slightly from 3.6% in February to 3.5% in March, and average hourly earnings were up 4.2% last month, “also easing from recent months” according to The Wall Street Journal.

Job growth continues in leisure and hospitality, government, professional and business services, and health care, the BLS reports.

Lingering question: Will the Fed’s interest rate increases lead the economy to a “soft landing,” or are we headed for a recession?

--TL

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Does Bragg Have a Case?

By Todd Lassa

New York County Indictment #71543-23 had Democratic pundits, anti-Trump-leaning independents and never-Trump Republicans feeling anxious about the solidity of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg Jr.’s 34-count case against the former president. 

Was it the wrong case to come first – or at all -- considering Fulton County, Georgia’s recording of Donald J. Trump calling on the secretary of state for 11,780 more votes in his favor after the 2020 election, last year’s investigation by the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, and a stash of classified documents stored at Mar-a-Lago after Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th president? 

Bragg’s indictment accuses Trump of “Falsifying Business Records in the First Degree in violation of Penal Law 175.10.”

“The defendant, in the County of New York and elsewhere, on or about February 14, 2017, with intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime and aid and conceal the commission thereof, made and caused a false entry in the business records of an enterprise, to wit, an invoice from Michael Cohen dated February 14, 2017, marked as a record of the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust, and kept and maintained by the Trump Organization.”

Repeat – no rinse – 34 times.

Former attorney and Trump “fixer” Michael Cohen already has served time for perjury in relation to his falsifying records. Cohen paid adult film star Stormy Daniels $130,000 in “hush money” prior to the 2016 presidential election to silence her story of having sexual relations with Trump, who then allegedly reimbursed Cohen after winning the election, for “attorney’s fees.” Bragg’s case also draws in $150,000 paid to former Playboy model Karen McDougal via the National Enquirer by former publisher of the tabloid and Trump ally David Pecker in a “catch and kill” scheme to suppress salacious stories.

In a statement on the indictment, DA Bragg said he is charging the former president “for falsifying New York business records in order to conceal information and unlawful activity from American voters by and after the 2016 election. During the election, Trump and others employed a “catch and kill” scheme to identify, purchase and bury negative information about him and boost his electoral prospects. Trump then went to great lengths to hide his conduct, causing dozens of false entries in business records to conceal criminal activity, including attempts to violate state and federal election laws.”

But is a business records fraud case based on suppression of a political sex scandal enough?

Justice Juan Merchan has given Trump more than seven months to hone and repeat his 2024 presidential campaign, setting December 4 for his next court date, just two months before the Iowa GOP caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, according to The Hill. Trump added Merchan to his long list of grievances in his Tuesday night echo-chamber speech at Mar-a-Lago, attended by such acolytes as Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and MyPillow guy Mike Lindell. 

On CNN, former Obama advisor David Axelrod likened Trump’s airing of grievances at Mar-a-Lago to “a guy on a barstool telling you about his bad divorce.”

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

…meanwhile…

FRIDAY 3/24/23

(The Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the ninth consecutive time since the beginning of last year. Chairman Jerome Powell, pictured, called the U.S. banking system “sound and resilient,” while signaling this could be the final increase in its efforts to reduce the inflation rate back to 2%, according to NPR.)

Border Deal to the North – President Biden announced a new rule that will allow Canada to turn back migrants who cross from the U.S. at unofficial, but popular, border crossings – and who cross them from Canada into the U.S. – NPR reports. Biden announced the rule, which takes effect Saturday and will be published in the Federal Register, to Canada’s parliament on Friday, the second day of his visit with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. 

•••

Defense Was Down During Attack in Syria – The main air defense system was “not fully operational” at a coalition military base in northeast Syria attacked by a suspected Iranian drone Thursday, two U.S. officials told The New York Times Friday. An American contractor was killed and six other Americans were injured in the attack.

According to the report, it is unclear why the defense system failed, and whether the attackers had detected the vulnerability. U.S. forces have been on high alert since January 2021. There have been 78 such attacks by Iranian-backed militias since then, according to the NYT.

--TL

_______________________________________________

THURSDAY 3/23/23

Oh, Canada – President Biden travels to Ottawa Thursday to discuss the war in Ukraine and the crisis in Haiti, with Canadian Premier Justin Trudeau (NPR).

•••

TikTok Testimony – Chew Shou Zi, CEO of the popular Chinese-owned social media site, testifies before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce beginning 10 a.m. Eastern Thursday. Ahead of his appearance, Chew promised to wall off U.S. users’ data and make further safety and security improvements, Semafor reports.

•••

Trump Lawyers Must Turn Over Documents – A three-judge panel for the D.C. Court of Appeals rejected attempts by Donald J. Trump’s legal team challenging a court ruling last Friday that orders the former president’s own lawyers to turn over documents related to the Mar-a-Lago classified documents probe, according to The Hill. Last Friday’s ruling removes attorney-client privilege between Trump and Evan Corcoran as the former president is believed to have lied to his legal team over whether he returned all the documents from Mar-a-Lago.

Meanwhile: As we await potential Manhattan grand jury charges in another of the former president’s cases, the one involving a $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election, Trump has raised $1.5 million, MSNBC reports, for his 2024 presidential campaign after he said on his own social media site last Sunday that he would be arrested Tuesday.

As Trump’s GOP Lead Grows: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis appears to be facing a backlash against his veiled criticism of the former president. In Morning Consult’s latest poll on the 2024 GOP race, 54% of Republicans polled said they preferred Trump for president, versus 26% for DeSantis. Ex-Veep Mike Pence came in third at 7%, with Nikki Haley edging out former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), 4% to 3%. 

A raft of other undeclared candidates all polled at 1% or less, including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and Woke, Inc.author Vivek Ramaswamy. 

--TL

_______________________________________________

WEDNESDAY 3/22/23

UPDATE: Fed Raises Interest Rate 0.25% -- Citing “modest growth in spending and production,” increasing job gains in recent months and inflation remaining elevated, the Federal Reserve raised its interest rate by 25 basis points Wednesday to a range of 4.75% to 5%. 

Prior to the 2 p.m. (Eastern) announcement some economists had expected the Fed to stop raising interest rates for the first time since the beginning of 2022 after failures this month of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank. But the Fed said in its statement following the increase “The U.S. banking system is sound and resilient.

“Recent developments are likely to result in lighter credit conditions for households and businesses and to weigh on economic activity, hiring and inflation. The extent of these effects is uncertain. The (Fed) Committee remains highly attentive to inflation risks.”

•••

Will They or Won’t They? – There’s nervous anticipation and angst among economists waiting to find out whether the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates Wednesday afternoon by a quarter-point, half of what was expected to fight inflation before banks began collapsing or whether it will wave off any increase for now. It began with the failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank nearly two weeks ago and continued when America’s banking giants had to bail out First Republic Bank with more than $30 billion in emergency funds.

Cuffs for Trump? – Donald J. Trump has told his advisors he “wants to be handcuffed” for an expected court appearance before a Manhattan grand jury, according to The Guardian. The former president is willing to play political martyr for his small, vociferous group of hardcore MAGAtarians who remain sufficiently significant to maintain Trump’s status as the frontrunner for the 2024 GOP nomination for president.

Trump reasons that if he needs to surrender himself to a Manhattan courthouse for fingerprints and mug shots anyway, he might as well turn everything into a “spectacle.”

Uh, yeah, it could become a spectacle.

No Attorney-Client Privilege?: A district court judge has written that “compelling preliminary evidence” uncovered by Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office – you know, the one investigating Mar-a-Lagogate – proves Donald J. Trump “knowingly and deliberately misled” his own lawyers about whether he returned all classified material uncovered at his Florida compound, thus removing attorney-client privilege, ABC News reports. U.S. Judge Beryl Howell wrote last Friday, March 17, before stepping down as D.C. district court judge that prosecutors in the special counsel’s office have made a “prima facie showing that the former president had committed criminal violations,” and orders attorney Evan Corcoran to comply with a grand jury subpoena to testify on six separate lines of inquiry for which he had previously asserted attorney-client privilege. 

The report cites “sources who described” the judge’s order to ABC News.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

…meanwhile…

WORLD POETRY DAY TUESDAY, 3/21/23

(It's also the first full day of springtime for Trump, the day the former president had expected to be arrested by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's (pictured) over his investigation of possible financial crimes in connection with 45's payment of hush money to two women, including porn star Stormy Daniels. Though an indictment didn't look likely Tuesday, the New York Police Department Monday erected barricades around Manhattan's Criminal Court in anticipation of MAGA protesters.)

House Republicans … are attempting to counter Bragg’s next move with their demand the “George Soros-funded” DA turn over documents in the case and come in for a grilling/hearing. 

•••

Kishida Counters Xi – Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida made a surprise visit to Kyiv Tuesday for a “show of unity” with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the second day of Chinese leader Xi Jingping’s three-day Kremlin sleepover with Russian dictator Vladmir Putin (AP). 

Xi, who is said to be on a “peace mission” to Moscow, has invited Putin (charged with war crimes by the International Criminal Court last week) to Beijing later this year. 

Kishida, who also will meet with Polish President Andrzej Duda before returning to Tokyo Thursday, is chairman of the Group of Seven summit this May in Hiroshima. Can a country in the Pacific become a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization?

--TL

_______________________________________________

...meanwhile...

MONDAY 3/20/23

Weekend of Trump’s Discontent – This is what Donald J. Trump posted on his Truth Social media outlet Saturday: “The far and away leading Republican candidate and former President of the United States of America will be arrested on Tuesday of next week!” (Per The Guardian.) 

Trump continues; “Protest, take our nation back!”

Which of His Myriad Cases?: Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (pictured above) is expected to charge Trump under his investigation of $130,000 in "hush money" paid to porn star Stormy Daniels prior to the 2016 presidential election by then-Trump fixer Michael Cohen and whether the payments violated campaign finance laws. 

Signals, Maybe, But Not Words: Bragg did not confirm speculation he will issue the charges. “As with all our investigations, we will continue to apply the law evenly and firmly and speak publicly only when appropriate,” he said in a private email to his office employees, according to Politico.

Meanwhile: A Trump spokesman “walked back” Trump’s Truth Social rant, saying there is no notification from the Manhattan DA that he has “decided to take his witch-hunt to the next level. President Trump is rightfully highlighting his innocence and the weaponization of our injustice system.” (Per ABC News.)

In the private email according to Politico, Bragg warned “we do not tolerate attempts to intimidate our office or threaten the rule of law in New York.” His office has been coordinating protection with the New York Police Department and the Office of Court Administration. 

Above the Law?: Former Vice President Mike Pence -- who a week earlier finally called out his ex-boss for being “wrong” about his ability to overturn the Electoral College count on January 6, 2021 -- told ABC News’ Jonathan Karl Saturday on This Week it would be a “politically charged” mistake for Bragg to have Trump arrested. 

“I’m taken aback at the idea of indicting a former president of the United States, at a time when there’s a crime wave in New York City that – the fact that the Manhattan DA thinks that indicting President Trump is his top priority. I think is, just tells you everything you need to know about the radical left in this country.”

But Wait, There’s More: Cohen told MSNBC Sunday he has been re-called as a “rebuttal” witness to testify Monday in the hush-money case. Cohen’s former legal advisor, Robert Costello, also is expected to testify, and has signaled to a Trump attorney that he has information that counters Cohen’s previous testimony pinning the hush-money payment on Trump, and thus exonerates him, a person familiar with the matter told the Associated Press.

Mixed Signals?: House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) called for calm in the face of potential arrest of the ex-president. “I don’t think people should protest this stuff,” he said at a House GOP issues retreat, The Hill reports. So as to not upset Trump too much, the speaker – who condemned Trump’s complicity in the January 6th Capitol insurrection before visiting him at Mar-a-Lago in February 2021 – suggested that the ex-president was calling on others to “educate people about what’s going on.”

•••

Also This Week – The Federal Reserve meets Tuesday and Wednesday to set interest rate increases. There is speculation on Wall Street the Fed will hold off on another increase, otherwise expected to be 0.5% to fight inflation, because of the recent failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.

Update: The Fed will hike interest rates by 0.25% this week, CNBC says.

Senate: The full Senate is in session Tuesday through Friday.

House: The full House of Representatives is in session Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

•••

USB Merges with Credit Suisse – USB is calling it a merger, though it looks more like a takeover of troubled fellow Swiss bank Credit Suisse. According to USB, the two entered into a merger agreement Sunday after intervention of the Swiss Federal Department of Finance, Swiss National Bank and Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Committee. Shareholders of the failing bank will receive one USB share for every 22.48 shares of Credit Suisse. USB will write off 16-billion Swiss francs (US $17.28-billion) of Credit Suisse debt and will appoint “key personnel” to Credit Suisse. USB hopes to complete the merger by the end of this year. 

The "merger" will cost USB $3 billion to take over Credit Suisse, The Wall Street Journal reports.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

…meanwhile…

(Defense Secretaries Lloyd Austin (U.S.) and Carlito Galvez (The Philippines) sign agreement in Manila Thursday.)

THURSDAY 2/2/23

New U.S. Military Bases in The Philippines – The United States has reached agreement with The Philippines to add four new military bases there, where American troops will be allowed to build facilities and “preposition defense assets” nearly nine years after the two nations signed the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA), Rappler reports. 

This is “a really big deal,” U.S. Defense Sec. Lloyd Austin said from Manila, where the agreement was signed Thursday (per NPR). The agreement gives the U.S. access to a total of nine bases in The Philippines. 

Definition: “Preposition defense assets” are military arms and equipment that “reduce deployment time,” according to Tactical Defense media. 

Context: The deal is meant to check Chinese military presence in the region, especially in support of Taiwan. The EDCA was signed in 2014 between the Obama administration and the Aquino administration, but Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte pivoted the country toward Beijing when he took over in 2016. 

Thursday’s agreement was signed under the administration of Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. – son of the late dictator Ferdinand Sr. and famous shoe-collector Imelda – who was elected president of The Philippines last year. 

•••

Record Profits for Oil’s Big Three – The oil industry’s “three big majors” posted $134 billion in record profits for 2022 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and emergence from the COVID-19 pandemic’s global hibernation caused skyrocketing prices at the pump in the U.S. and elsewhere. Shell was the latest to post its record profit Wednesday, of $41.6 billion, up from its previous record of $31.4 billion in 2021, The Wall Street Journal reports. The other two of the “big three” are …

•ExxonMobil: $55.7 billion.

•Chevron: $36.5 billion.

For Comparison Purposes: General Motors and Tesla both have posted record net income for 2022; $14.5 billion for GM and $13.7 billion for Tesla, Autoweek reports.

•••

Powell on the Rate Hike – Chairman Jerome Powell said this about the Federal Reserve’s eighth consecutive interest rate hike Wednesday: “We can now say I think for the first time that the disinflationary process has started.” (Per Fortune.)

What This Means: The Fed is satisfied with improvements in the Consumer Price Index and after raising its interest rate from near-zero to more than 4% over the last year, passed an 0.25% increase Wednesday (to the 4.5% to 4.75% range). Though Powell warned of further increases this year, Wall Street took his comments as indication the hikes are over, with the tech-heavy NASDAQ up 2.2% and the New York Stock Exchange composite up 0.53% Wednesday.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

…meanwhile…

(Funeral for Tyre Nichols is Wednesday, with eulogy by National Action Network founder Rev. Al Sharpton and a call to action by Ben Crump, national civil rights attorney representing the Nichols family. (AP) About 2,500 are expected to attend.)

WEDNESDAY 2/1/23

UPDATE ON REHOBOTH – No classified documents were found in the FBI’s search of the president’s vacation home in Rehoboth, Delaware, Biden’s attorney said (AP). Federal agents did take some handwritten notes and other materials related to Biden’s time as vice president, however. 

•••

UPDATE ON THE FED – The Federal Reserve boosted its interest rate by 0.25% Wednesday afternoon, as expected, but warned that ongoing increases are warranted (per The New York Times).

•••

FBI Searches Biden’s Beach Home – The FBI began a search of President Biden’s beach home in Rehoboth, Delaware, for possible classified documents Wednesday morning, weeks after discovering classified documents in Biden’s former Washington, D.C. office and his primary home in Wilmington, Delaware, The Hill reports. Unlike his longtime home in Wilmington, Biden purchased the Rehoboth home after he left office as vice president in 2017.

•••

Debt Ceiling Confab – President Biden is scheduled to meet with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) over raising the debt ceiling and avoid U.S. government default this June. House Republicans want to make cuts in the federal budget already passed, though McCarthy has said Medicare and Social Security cuts some House Republicans have favored are “off the table,” The Hillsays.

•••

The Fed’s Next Move – The Federal Reserve is expected to announce its eighth consecutive interest rate hike Wednesday. Last year’s increases were at a steep 0.75% as the Consumer Price Index peaked at 9.1% in June, except for December’s hike of 0.5%, when the CPI eased to 6.5%. An 0.25% hike is expected for Wednesday, The Washington Post says, which would put the prime rate at 4.5%-4.75%. Fed Chair Jerome Powell holds a news conference at 2:30 p.m.

--TL

_______________

...meanwhile...

TUESDAY 1/31/23

(Two more Memphis police officers were disciplined and three emergency responders were fired, officials said late Monday, over the death of Tyre Nichols –AP. See “Will Nichols’ Death Force Policing Change?” below.)

“Distracting” Santos Steps Down from Committees – Rep. George Santos (R-NY) told House Republicans he will step down temporarily from his assignments on the Small Business, and Science, Space & Technology committees “because he’s a distraction,” an unnamed Republican colleague tells The Washington Post. Santos, who faces “multiple investigations” into his 2022 campaign finances and has lied about key aspects of his education, employment and religious history, met privately with Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) on Monday.

•••

Criminal Charges for Trump? – Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Briggs (D) is showing a grand jury evidence that about $130,000 in hush money paid by Donald J. Trump to adult film star Stormy Daniels just prior to the 2016 presidential election, a “clear sign” the D.A. is nearing a decision on whether to bring criminal charges against the former president. According to The New York Times, the charges could hinge on whether prosecutors can show that Trump and his company falsified records to hide the hush money payment from voters. 

--TL

_____

Will Nichols' Death Force Policing Change?

MONDAY 1/30/23

After a weekend of peaceful protests in Memphis, Washington, D.C. and other cities following the late-Friday release of video depicting the brutal beating and pepper-spraying by police of Tyre Nichols (above), debate on the danger young Black men face from local police departments seems to be shifting to the need for systemic change. 

Nichols is the 29-year-old Black man who died three days after Memphis police pulled him over for erratic driving and dragged him out of his car and according to body camera and remote footage, chased him down and beat him as he called out for his mother. Five officers involved in the beating first were fired, then were charged last week with murder, and their special unit, Scorpion – Street Crimes Operation to Restore Peace in Our Neighborhoods – was disbanded, all within three weeks of Nichols’ traffic stop. Charges against other officers may be forthcoming.

All Scorpion officers who attacked Nichols according to the four videos released last week are Black. As The New York Timesnoted over the weekend, “It took 13 months and an order from a judge for the authorities in Chicago to relase videos showing a police officer firing 16 bullets into Laquan McDonald, a Black teenager on a busy roadway in 2014.” Until the swift actions taken by Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn Davis, a Black woman in the job since 2021, it was typical for local police departments to delay for months or even refuse to take action against white officers involved in such cases. 

But Ben Crump, attorney for the Daniels family in the Memphis case says these cases are about intstutionalized racism in police departments, no matter the racial makeup of police officers involved.

“We have to talk about this institutionalized police culture that has the unwritten law, you can engage in the excessive use of force against Black and brown people,” Crump told ABC News’ This Week.

•••

This Week On the Hill – The Senate and the House are in session Monday through Thursday. The Senate only is in session Friday.

President Biden is scheduled to meet with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) at the White House Wednesday to discuss the debt ceiling, MSNBC’s Morning Joe reports.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

263,000 Jobs Added in November

(FRI 12/2/22)

The U.S. economy added 263,000 jobs in November and maintained a 3.7% unemployment rate, the Labor Department reports, with biggest gains in the usual places; leisure and hospitality, health care and government. The gain is seen as evidence of economic “resilience” to massive tech-sector layoffs, Marketplace reports, citing a Dow Jones survey of economists who had expected the number to be about 200,000. The sunny numbers are tamping down worries that the U.S. economy is entering a recession. 

Meanwhile: Chairman Jerome Powell signaled the Federal Reserve would begin to slow interest rate hikes beginning in December as a sign the Fed has seen some progress in slowing inflation.

•••

Iowa Caucuses to Lose Poll Position for 2024? – President Biden proposes to make South Carolina the first Democratic primary in 2024, (The Washington Post) followed by New Hampshire and Nevada, then Georgia and Michigan, thus finally knocking the Iowa caucuses out of poll – er, pole – position. Iowa’s caucus has been under fire for years for the state’s lack of racial/ethnic diversity, and a New Hampshire state law requires its primary to be first in the nation. Biden lost the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire and Nevada primaries in 2020 before an endorsement by Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC) helped him win that South Carolina’s primary. 

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

261K Jobs Added Last Month

The U.S. economy added 261,000 jobs in October, signaling a “softening” of the economy as the Federal Reserve continues to hike interest rates in order to ease inflation. The number is a bit higher than the low-200s number some economists had predicted. 

The jobs number was low enough to tick up the unemployment rate, to 3.7% from a 3.5% rate in August and September. But any unemployment number under 4% is still almost unnaturally low. The combo of a better-than-expected jobs increase and two-tenths uptick in the unemployment rate also is seen as a sign the Fed’s aggressive interest rate increases could result in a “soft landing” instead of a 2023 recession.

The Labor Department reported job gains in health care, professional and technical services, and manufacturing. 

•••

Trump Marks Calendar for November 14 – Donald J. Trump’s “inner circle” are targeting November 14 as the date the former president will announce his run for the 2024 GOP presidential election, Jonathan Swan scoops in Axios Friday. The potential date comes after the midterms and before Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis would announce his own candidacy and challenge Trump. Swan tells MSNBC’s Morning Joe that Trump’s team will use the date to schedule a series of rallies and appearances and take credit for the election victories by the ex-president’s endorsees. 

The date remains tentative, Swan emphasizes, as it is very likely control of the Senate will have not been determined six days after the midterms. If neither incumbent Democrat Raphael Warnock nor Trump-endorsed Republican challenger Herschel Walker reach at least 50% of the vote in Georgia’s Senate race, for example, they will face each other again in a runoff scheduled for December 6.

•••

Confirming the Obvious – United Nations inspectors have found no evidence of “dirty bombs” being developed by Ukraine, NPR reports. The UN inspection was made under dubious circumstances, as it was a claim made by Russia to divert attention from its own atrocities over its invasion of the country. With the UN report, only Vladimir Putin and his allies will continue to push the false dirty bomb story.

Meanwhile: Ukrainian officials have signaled an assault to take back its Kherson region “could be imminent,” The Washington Post reports, which could become the “best test” of whether Russia will hold any significant piece of territory after its February invasion.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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'Democracy on the Ballot' (THU 11/3/22)

President Biden called on voters to consider the future of our republic when casting ballots in the midterm elections, in an address Wednesday evening from Washington’s Union Station. His speech began with a detailed description of the attack the prior Friday on Paul Pelosi, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband. Biden blamed former President Trump for ongoing threat to American democracy in a speech that will be seen as political, especially by Fox News and media outlets to its right.

“Democracy is on the ballot” in the November 8 midterms, Biden said. “So today I appeal to all Americans regardless of party to meet this moment of national and generational importance. We must vote knowing what’s at stake and not just the policy of the moment.”

Recent polls have shown that while the future of American democracy is an underlying issue in the midterms it is not as important to most voters as inflation and the economy. The fear here is that the current 8.5% inflation rate will help propel election deniers into office and potentially give them power over the way future elections are conducted.

•••

Fed Rates Up Another ¾ Point – As every professional- and armchair economist had predicted, the Federal Reserve raised its “key policy rate” by 75 basis points for the fourth meeting in a row, indicating it is not done with its attempt to tighten the economy and lower inflation, the investment site Seeking Alpha reports. That brings it to the current rate of 3.75%, says Marketplace, which notes that Chairman Jerome Powell said the Fed may slow increases “very soon,” as early as its next meeting, or the meeting after that. 

Which does not amount to the much-expected “Fed pivot,” says Marketplace’s Kai Risdahl. The next Fed board meeting is December 13-14, Risdahl says, and there will be a “whole lot” of economic data out between now and then.

Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

The Fascination with Free College

By Charles Dervarics

For people of a certain age (read: young), the allure of free college is almost irresistible. At a time when some private universities charge more than $70,000 annually and top public institutions cost $30,000 a year, the entire process may seem daunting to students and their families.

And that’s before even reading about how the “sticker price” may differ from your final cost (like a car negotiation!) or the merits of online and “hybrid” learning during a pandemic.

One thing we do know: Americans already have a lot of college debt. According to the Federal Reserve, 20% of the U.S. population owes a combined $1.5 trillion in education loans. Not surprisingly, low-income students stand the most to lose. As the U.S. Department of Education notes, a low-income student is four times less likely than a wealthier student to earn a bachelor’s degree.

While free college is not in the massive $1.9 trillion stimulus bill, the issue looms as an upcoming flashpoint for Congress and President Biden. The president has proposed tuition-free public college for families earning up to $125,000 a year. In a recent CBS interview, Biden said he could provide that benefit for $1.5 billion, though his staff quickly backtracked and pegged the cost at approximately twice that level.

Part of the challenge is that, similar to K-12 schools, colleges rely not on the federal government but on state and local funds for much of their budgets. College costs also differ greatly by state. As reported by CollegeCalc, the average public college or university in Pennsylvania charged $23,167 last year. In New Mexico, the average was just $6,807. Does higher cost bring higher quality? And knowing the federal government would soon foot the bill for many students, would states cut their own contributions as a result?

Some lawmakers also want to help recent grads who wouldn’t reap benefits from this Biden plan. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-MA, is proposing to forgive up to $50,000 of a student’s loans, while the White House says it’s open to forgiveness of up to $10,000. Help for graduates now navigating the job market is politically popular, with several polls showing strong public support. 

Still another alternative is free community college, so more low-income students might earn a technical credential or associate degree at lower-cost, two-year schools. Biden has talked about this, too, as has First Lady Jill Biden, a community college professor. But here recent data show the devastating impact from a year of COVID-19. Despite low tuitions, community colleges suffered a 10% enrollment decline in Fall 2020, far more than other areas of higher education. Most alarmingly, based on data from the National Student Clearinghouse, freshman enrollment at two-year colleges dropped by a whopping 21%.

When times are bad, community colleges usually do well as the unemployed return to school. But that’s not happening now, perhaps because prospective students lack child care and technology or just don’t like virtual learning.

What’s interesting here is that some states already offer free community college to many students. Tennessee, an early leader, saw an 11% enrollment drop in fall 2020 with African Americans showing notable declines. Leaders cited factors such as economic uncertainty and lack of connectivity and child care. All of which may indicate that, when it comes to education and so many other issues, free isn’t always free.

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Email comments to editors@thehustings.news