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☆ Confused about the debt ceiling? Here's what you need to know
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Emma Kinery | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

What is the debt ceiling? Unlike a credit card, though, the expenses were already approved by Congress, so the debt ceiling does not pertain to new spending. The debt ceiling was last raised in December 2021 by $2.5 trillion, capping the limit at $31.381 trillion. If Congress does not agree to lift the debt ceiling, the government will not have money to pay its bills and will default on its debt. The White House has remained steadfast that it is Congress's responsibility to raise the debt ceiling without conditions, as was done three times under the Trump administration.

☆ US Declining Population, Worker Shortage Will Cause Economic Crisis Without a Fix
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Gadel Valle | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +15 min

That means that unless people start having a lot more kids, the US population could eventually start to shrink — just like China's population has. While the US population has managed to avoid an outright drop, population growth reached an unprecedented low of 0.12% in 2021. One way the US could encourage more immigration is by focusing on temporary visas for specific industries that need workers. And the treatment of workers in the country on temporary visas has been a problem for decades. After all, the US is running out of options, and soon its growing people shortage is going to spell economic disaster.

☆ ‘Progressives’ Want to Go Back to the 1950s
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Walter Russell Mead | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Journal Editorial Report: The week's best and worst from Kim Strassel, Kyle Peterson and Dan Henninger. Images: AFP/Getty Images/CNP/Zuma Press Composite: Mark KellyThe Biden administration plans a fundamental transformation of American economic policy at home and abroad. That’s the takeaway from national security adviser Jake Sullivan ’s speech at the Brookings Institution last week. This was a big speech about major policy changes, and those who want to understand the direction of American policy in a second Biden term would be unwise to overlook it. The break with post-Cold War Democratic trade and economic policy is radical.

☆ How Fed rates hikes impact consumers
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailHow Fed rates hikes impact consumersDavid Wessel, senior fellow in Economic Studies at Brookings Institutions, and Greg McBride, chief financial analyst at Bankrate.com, join 'The Exchange' to discuss rising interest rates' impact on consumer loans and the economy.

☆ White House details ‘severe damage’ to the economy if debt ceiling default occurs
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Kayla Tausche | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

US President Joe Biden speaks about the creation of new manufacturing jobs at the Washington Hilton in Washington, DC, April 25, 2023. WASHINGTON — The White House on Wednesday will publish new calculations warning about the potential damage to the U.S. economy and taxpayers should the government fail to raise the nation's debt limit. A protracted default, CEA says, would result in a Great Recession-like doomsday scenario wherein 8.3 million people lose their jobs, and the stock market falls by 45 percent. A brief default would spur 500,000 job losses, leading to a 0.3% rise in unemployment, the CEA argues. "In a breach-induced recession, there would be limited policy options to help buffer the impact on households and businesses," the White House writes in the post.

☆ JPMorgan could be the banking sector’s biggest hero — or biggest risk
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Krystal Hur | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

And as the bank swells in size, so does the potential risk it poses to the nation’s financial system. Some experts say they’re concerned that JPMorgan’s continued intervention during times of crisis has broader implications for the banking sector, the US financial system and its regulation. And with every failed bank that JPMorgan snaps up, the conundrum becomes clearer: JPMorgan is essentially the biggest risk to the financial system — and every time it expands to uphold the sector’s stability, so does its risk to the financial system. It has “that ability once again, to signal to the world that JPMorgan is a fortress, JPMorgan is the ultimate. But recent failures and the missteps that led to them indicate that deep flaws underline the financial system.

☆ The insurance limit on your savings has become a hot global debate
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Julia Horowitz | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

The US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation insures deposits up to $250,000 per person, per account, using a fund that banks pay into. “I don’t think that’s served us well.”Some argue the US deposit insurance limit should be 100 times higher. What is deposit insurance? Deposit insurance is aimed at calming fears, giving customers less reason to pull their cash out in a hurry. The debate over deposit insurance taps into bigger questions about the state’s role in private enterprise.

That is because algorithms that power generative AI tools like ChatGPT and its successor GPT-4 operate in a somewhat similar way as those that suggest videos to YouTube users, the experts added. While the case does not directly relate to generative AI, Justice Neil Gorsuch noted that AI tools that generate "poetry" and "polemics" likely would not enjoy such legal protections. Section 230 protections generally apply to third-party content from users of a technology platform and not to information a company helped to develop. 'CONSEQUENCES OF THEIR OWN ACTIONS'Democratic Senator Ron Wyden, who helped draft that law while in the House of Representatives, said the liability shield should not apply to generative AI tools because such tools "create content." They said tools like ChatGPT operate like search engines, directing users to existing content in response to a query.

☆ How Strong Is the Economy?
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( David Leonhardt | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

Conservatives sometimes respond to this data by trying to separate the economy from the rest of society. But I think it’s a mistake to imagine that the economy is somehow distinct from living standards. To over-generalize only somewhat, blue America believes in NIMBYism (“not in my backyard”), while red America is more comfortable with YIMBYism. That combination helps explain why our economy looks so good by some measures and so bad by others. Liberals have been hobbling government and the economy, Nicholas Bagley of the University of Michigan explained on Ezra Klein’s podcast.

☆ The federal government wastes at least $247 billion in taxpayer money each year. Here's how
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Juhohn Lee | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Improper payments, which refer to payments that are made incorrectly by the government, cost the U.S. $247 billion in 2022, according to the Government Accountability Office. "In the federal government, everything is 'Go spend more money' and if that doesn't work, it's 'Go spend more money.'" It's the job of the GAO to audit and report any wasteful spending by the federal government. Nevertheless, wasteful spending by the government can have painful consequences to the health of the economy, according to watchdog groups. Watch the video to find out more about why taxes feel so high in the U.S. and why so much taxpayer money gets wasted.

☆ China tensions: There's a 'philosophical debate' in Taiwan ahead of its elections, says think tank
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailChina tensions: There's a 'philosophical debate' in Taiwan ahead of its elections, says think tankRyan Hass of Brookings Institution says that to Taiwan's opposition party KMT, a more stable relationship with China will "lend greater stability and predictability" to the island's future, but the ruling party takes a different view.

☆ The glut of parking spaces in the US is driving up housing costs and hurting the environment
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Tim Paradis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Devoting this much land to parking makes housing more expensive and hurts the environment. Removing some of our parking could boost our quality of life, according to a former Google exec. All this parking is a burden on our environment, government budgets, affordable housing, and, ultimately, quality of life, Poskey said. He pointed to onerous parking requirements as a reason for the country's lack of affordable housing. Areas of Plano, Texas; Springfield, Massachusetts; and New Orleans with a mix of commercial buildings and stores accounted for 3% of those cities' land but 40% of their jobs, the Brookings Institution found.

[1/4] Chinese President Xi Jinping and France's President Emmanuel Macron meet at the Guandong province governor's residence, in Guangzhou, China, Friday, April 7, 2023. Macron's comments came in an interview on a trip to China that was meant to showcase European unity on China policy, with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also taking part, but highlighted differences within the European Union. A senior diplomat from Central and Eastern Europe, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: "President Macron is not speaking for Europe or the European Union. The French foreign ministry cancelled a planned debrief on the trip for foreign diplomats in Paris on Tuesday as officials scrambled to make sure they had a consistent message and to limit any fallout with Washington. But even some of those broadly supportive of Macron's agenda lamented the handling of the China trip, in which von der Leyen received a much more muted welcome than the French president.

☆ Yellen to push development bank evolution at spring meetings
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-10 | by ( David Lawder | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, April 10 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Wednesday will host a roundtable discussion on further steps to evolve the World Bank and other development lenders to tackle climate change and other global crises beyond a $5 billion annual World Bank lending expansion, the Treasury said. The discussion on the sidelines of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund Spring Meetings will bring together finance ministers from major shareholders and borrowing countries that will cover "ways to maintain momentum to evolve the multilateral development banks to better meet current challenges," the Treasury said in a statement. The World Bank has proposed balance sheet changes that would quickly allow it to lend an additional $50 billion over 10 years while maintaining its top-tier AAA credit rating, a step that bank shareholders are widely expected to adopt this week. Shambaugh said it was important to fix the banks' operational structure and incentives and ensure effective use of funds, noting that some of the development banks had "considerable room" on their balance sheets. The official said Yellen was hoping to lay out another roadmap to make more progress on the banks' operational models and financial capacity.

☆ US Treasury sees continued global growth despite strains in banking sector
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-10 | by ( Andrea Shalal | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

WASHINGTON, April 10 (Reuters) - The U.S. banking system remains strong and resilient, but American officials will continue working with foreign counterparts to bolster financial resilience after recent bank failures, U.S. Treasury Undersecretary Jay Shambaugh said on Monday. Shambaugh said recent bank failures and developments were very different from those of the 2008 global financial crisis, which centered on credit risk, but regulators were working hard to shore up confidence in liquidity both at home and abroad. "Recent events have in some sense highlighted some of the downside risks that exist, but they haven't really fundamentally altered the overall picture of our baseline," he said. Work will continue with international partners to increase financial resilience, he said, adding that recent events were a reminder to complete any unfinished regulatory business and "repair and fix any cracks in the regulatory perimeter." Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Chris Reese and Jonathan OatisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Job gains and inflation have to slow to avoid recession, says Brookings’ Wendy Edelberg
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-10 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailJob gains and inflation have to slow to avoid recession, says Brookings’ Wendy EdelbergWendy Edelberg, a Brookings Institutions economic studies senior fellow, and Kevin Hassett, former Council of Economic Advisers chairman under President Donald Trump, join 'Squawk Box' to discuss the latest jobs numbers, consumer spending, and whether a recession can be avoided.

☆ U.S. aims to rally allies to up pressure on Russia, shore up Ukraine support
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-10 | by ( Andrea Shalal | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, April 10 (Reuters) - The U.S. government will seek to rally allies this week to ratchet up economic pressure on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, and shore up support for Kyiv, a top U.S. Treasury official is slated to say on Monday. "The United States is redoubling our efforts to rally our global coalition of allies at the Spring Meetings on Treasury’s two lines of effort as part of the United States’ unwavering commitment to Ukraine," he said in the prepared remarks. That means "shoring up economic support for Ukraine’s government and people, and ... continuing to deny (Russian President Vladimir) Putin the revenue and military equipment he needs to further his illegal war." Shambaugh highlighted the four-year $15.6 billion IMF program approved for Ukraine on March 31 as another key form of support, and a way to underpin Ukraine’s efforts to strengthen good governance. "Looking ahead, Ukraine will need support from a broad set of donors as its recovers and rebuilds.

☆ Healthcare, college education, and childcare started getting worse decades ago. Now we're all finally feeling it.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-08 | by ( Juliana Kaplan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +16 min

Americans are accruing billions in debt to pay for things like education and healthcare. But that would require shifting the idea of childcare, education, and healthcare and thinking of them as public goods — not businesses. That ultimately meant millions in funding for public childcare. "If the US health system was a country, it would be about the fourth-largest country in the world," Cooper said. There's much less government involvement in the US healthcare system than in other countries, Cooper said.

Since 1977, the Federal Reserve has focused on creating maximum employment and maintaining stable prices, commonly known as the dual mandate. "[Maximum employment is] this more sort of amorphous thing," Rucha Vankudre, a senior economist at labor market analytics firm Lightcast, told CNBC. However, at the Federal Open Market Committee news conference in January 2022, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell announced that "labor market conditions are consistent with maximum employment." Maximum employment is also difficult to quantify because existing measures of employment, such as the unemployment rate or the labor force participation rate, often do not account for certain groups of people. Watch the video above to learn more about what maximum employment really means and how inflation impacts employment.

☆ High-earning, workaholic men are cutting their work hours the most right now
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( Jason Lalljee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Men who used to work the most cut their work weeks by three hours on average since 2020. At a conference last week, Yongseok Shin, a Washington University in St. Louis professor who worked on the study, said those groups are educated young men, high-earning men, and men who previously worked the most hours. It contrasts with another important trend for young men in the workforce: even though educated, highly paid men are working fewer hours, they're still working. Having access to remote and hybrid work opportunities likely convinced men making more money that they didn't need to work so hard, Shin said. Men who previously worked 55-hour weeks are paring backIn the NBER study, Shin said, men in the "top hours decile" reduced their hours from 55 hours per week in 2019 to 52 in 2022.

☆ The Fed could easily drive Black unemployment much higher than the overall jobless rate
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Krystal Hur | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

However, the jobless rate isn’t expected to be that low for long. While that’s a small improvement from the central bank’s previous 4.6% jobless rate estimate, economists say it’s possible the unemployment rate could rise above the Fed’s expectations. It can be difficult to slow an unemployment spiralEconomists say it’s hard to guess the trajectory of the unemployment rate this year, noting it could very well exceed the Fed’s estimate. As such, the Fed’s tightening efforts could easily drive the Black unemployment rate much higher than the overall jobless rate, said William Spriggs, an economics professor at Howard University and chief economist to the AFL-CIO. The Black unemployment rate will easily get to 9% in that scenario.”One other likely consequence of growing unemployment is slowing wage growth, Bivens said.

☆ Even left-leaning publications are saying the Manhattan DA's criminal case against Donald Trump is anything but a slam dunk
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Natalie Musumeci | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Many legal experts have said the indictment against Donald Trump is far from a slam dunk. Trump was charged by a Manhattan grand jury with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. In a Vox article, senior correspondent Ian Millhiser pointed out that there is "something painfully anticlimactic" about the indictment against Trump. The Nation's justice correspondent Elie Mystal said in his article that falsifying business records "is what prosecutors get you for when they don't have anything else." "We Finally Know the Case Against Trump, and It Is Strong," read its headline.

☆ ChatGPT is strengthening the case for a 4-day workweek
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( Jacob Zinkula | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Such a productivity boost could make a four-day workweek more possible. Calls for implementing a four-day workweek have picked up steam over the past year as pilot programs have described promising results. "Any technology that increases productivity, ChatGPT included, makes a shorter workweek more feasible," Carl Benedikt Frey, an Oxford economist, told Insider. 'The workweek length is up for grabs'Rep. Mark Takano, a Democrat from California, is among those advocating a four-day workweek. "Yes, ChatGPT might make a four-day workweek more feasible in principle," Frey said.

☆ America's Parking Addiction Hurts the Economy, Drives up Housing Costs
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( Jeral Poskey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

A society committed to housing and feeding its people will ensure plenty of land is dedicated to homes and farms. According to the builder WGI, the average parking stall in the US costs $27,900 to build, more than the cost of many new compact cars. The money and resources dedicated to parking could be used for other purposes, but breaking our country's reliance on parking has been difficult. Parking accounted for about 27% of per-unit costs, regardless of whether the resident owned a car or not. Better transportation, better land use, better citiesEfforts are underway to finally rid America of its unhealthy devotion to parking.

☆ 'SVB's failure could and should have been prevented': Experts argue for better regulation and supervision by the Fed
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( Juhohn Lee | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Like any other trusted institutions, banks are capable of failing. "Silicon Valley Bank's failure could and should have been prevented by better regulation and supervision by the Federal Reserve," said Aaron Klein, a senior fellow of economic studies at the Brookings Institution. "What happened in Dodd-Frank was they said that all banks over $50 billion would be subject to enhanced prudential standards," explained Klein. "The rollback said nobody's subject to that between $50 billion and $100 billion, and between $100 billion and $250 billion, it is optional." "SVB happened to fall in that category of between $50 billion and $250 billion so when they raised that, they weren't subject to this great scrutiny," said Chittenden.

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