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☆ '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.

☆ Chinese spy balloon rhetoric is getting 'overheated,' says Brookings' Michael O'Hanlon
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | 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 EmailChinese spy balloon rhetoric is getting 'overheated,' says Brookings' Michael O'HanlonMichael O'Hanlon of Brookings Institution and Dennis Unkovic of Meyer, Unkovic and Scott discuss new details in the flyover of a Chinese balloon, which collected data at sensitive U.S. sites.

“I have argued for years that the biggest banks in the world are still too big to fail. In practice, however, the economic damage would be considerable.”Keller-Sutter was at the center of a government-orchestrated rescue of Credit Suisse by its larger rival UBS (UBS) earlier this month. They were designed to make it possible to wind down a big bank without destabilizing the financial system or exposing taxpayers to the risk of losses. Although some investors in Credit Suisse bonds lost everything, Swiss taxpayers are still on the hook for up to 9 billion Swiss francs ($9.8 billion) of potential losses arising from certain Credit Suisse assets. The rest is lent out at higher interest rates or invested, because that’s how big banks make most of their profit.

“I have argued for years that the biggest banks in the world are still too big to fail. In practice, however, the economic damage would be considerable.”Keller-Sutter was at the center of a government-orchestrated rescue of Credit Suisse by its larger rival UBS (UBS) earlier this month. Global standards for dealing with teetering “too big to fail” banks were key a part of the package of rules introduced after the global financial crisis. They were designed to make it possible to wind down a big bank without destabilizing the financial system or exposing taxpayers to the risk of losses. The rest is lent out at higher interest rates or invested, because that’s how big banks make most of their profit.

WASHINGTON, March 30 (Reuters) - The secretive world of Federal Reserve bank supervision has been laid bare by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and critics say it needs an overhaul to make it more nimble, transparent and decisive. Typically, bank supervisors do most of their work behind closed doors. Bank supervision is typically conducted behind closed-doors because of concerns that publicizing bank missteps could spur bank runs and undermine confidence in the overall system. SVB's rapid growth also was a factor for Fed supervisors. Barr said part of his review would look at whether Fed supervision was appropriate for the bank's "rapid growth and vulnerabilities."

WASHINGTON, March 29 (Reuters) - Almost all of the remaining shortfall in U.S. labor force participation is the result of demographic and other trends that predate the COVID-19 pandemic, according to new research that suggests little chance that growth in the number of workers will help ease a tight American job market. After accounting for factors such as population aging and changes in education that influence people's willingness to work, the study showed that U.S. labor force participation was only about 0.3 percentage points short of where it would have been without the pandemic - equivalent to around 700,000 "missing" workers. Still, the figures suggest a winnowing down of COVID-related impacts on the labor force, a significant conclusion for U.S. policymakers hoping labor force participation rates could rebound to pre-pandemic levels. As of February, about 62.5% of U.S. adults were either working or looking for work, 0.8 percentage points below where it was in February of 2020, according to government figures. It has been in a steady decline for nearly a quarter century after peaking at 67.3% in April 2000.

Diverse hiring helps life insurance companies connect with underserved communities. Life insurance companies are focusing on community and product development. Many of the largest insurance companies have historically denied Black applicants, given them lower-value life insurance than white applicants who paid the same amount, and engaged in other discriminatory activity. Research from William G. Gale, a Brookings Institution economics expert and co-author of "Racial Discrimination in Life Insurance," found that while Black families were 3% more likely than their white counterparts to have a life insurance policy, the differences in inheritances (often including life insurance payouts) accounted for 10-20% of the wealth gap. Aside from eliminating blatantly discriminatory underwriting, Guardian Life has opened the door to life insurance for people with HIV.

☆ Foxconn founder Gou, possible Taiwan presidential candidate, to visit US
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

TAIPEI, March 27 (Reuters) - Terry Gou, the billionaire founder of major Apple Inc (AAPL.O) supplier Foxconn (2317.TW), will visit the United States this week, his office said on Monday, as he considers another run for Taiwan's presidency. Gou will leave for the United States on Monday evening for a 12-day visit his office called a "journey of scientific and technological economic development" and will also speak at the Washington think-tank, the Brookings Institution. "Not only the United States, but also other major democratic allies have been gradually paying attention to security issues in the Asia-Pacific region," his office said in a statement. Taiwanese presidential candidates traditionally go to the United States before elections given Washington's oversized role in ensuring Taiwan's security in the face of China's military threats to the island Beijing views as Chinese territory. While Gou has said he is considering another run for the January 2024 presidential election, the KMT has yet to choose its presidential candidate.

☆ I don't think a shutdown or ban of TikTok is needed, analyst says
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | 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 EmailI don't think a shutdown or ban of TikTok is needed, analyst saysCameron Kerry of Brookings Institution discusses TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew's U.S. Congress hearing and the question of "[separating] the legal control that ByteDance has from the benefit of its ownership."

China and U.S. flags are seen near a TikTok logo in this illustration picture taken July 16, 2020. Florence Lo | ReutersBEIJING — China says it would "strongly oppose" a forced sale of TikTok, making clear the government's involvement with the social media giant that's trying hard to distance itself from Beijing authorities. ByteDance did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Chinese Commerce Ministry's remarks. But the commerce ministry's claim of control over a TikTok sale or spinoff indicates Beijing wants to be involved. When asked about the commerce ministry's remarks Thursday, TikTok's CEO said the app isn't available in mainland China and is based in Los Angeles.

Some 65% of respondents - including 46% of Republicans and 68% of independents - said they were less likely to vote for a presidential candidate in 2024 who supports laws banning or severely restricting abortion access. DeSantis last year signed a Florida law banning abortions after 15 weeks, saying the measure would protect "the rights of unborn children." The online Reuters/Ipsos poll had a credibility interval of between around two and four percentage points. The Reuters/Ipsos poll found 61% of respondents nationwide, including 66% of independents, prefer a candidate who opposes allowing medical treatment for minors related to gender identity. Reuters GraphicsThe Reuters/Ipsos poll found that nationwide, women were more likely than men to oppose severe abortion restrictions and permitless concealed guns.

☆ Meet Laxman Narasimhan, a coffee industry outsider who just took over as CEO of Starbucks
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( Avery Hartmans | Nancy Luna | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Laxman Narasimhan officially took over as Starbucks CEO, replacing Howard Schultz. Narasimhan is new to the coffee industry, having started his career in the consulting world before joining PepsiCo, and, later, British consumer goods company Reckitt Benckiser. Narasimhan built his career in the beverage and consumer-goods industriesLaxman Narasimhan at Starbucks Investor Day in September 2022. Starbucks said at the time that Narasimhan would begin as CEO on April 1, taking over for interim CEO Schultz. Of the 365 Starbucks stores that have held votes to unionize, 292 have voted to form a union.

New York CNN —Global banks just suffered their worst week since 2008. Credit Suisse and First Republic: Two more banks wobbled but remained upright through the week. Meanwhile, First Republic bank received a $30 billion lifeline on Thursday from some of the largest banks in the United States. US-traded shares of Credit Suisse were down nearly 7% and First Republic shares plunged by about 33% on Friday. That doesn’t mean that banks taking money from the FHLB and participating in the Federal Reserve’s emergency Bank Term Lending Program, which lent out $12 billion to banks this week, are in big trouble.

☆ Why It Matters Whether a Robot Is Given a Gender
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-18 | by ( Chris Kornelis | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

People are more likely to rate gendered technology highly or to purchase it, research finds. Is it a bad idea to assign a gender to digital assistants and other robots? Organizations such as the Brookings Institution have expressed concern about giving traditionally male or female names, voices and appearances to technology, saying that doing so might reinforce unfair gender stereotypes. When digital assistants such as Alexa and Siri were given female-sounding names and voices, for example, critics complained that the products stereotyped women as being humble or subservient.

☆ Trump supporters in China are up in arms and raging about a possible indictment: 'Trump, America needs you'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-18 | by ( Cheryl Teh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

There was a deluge of support for Trump on Weibo after he said he may be arrested on Tuesday. On Saturday, news of a possible Trump indictment skyrocketed to the top of the charts on the Twitter-like Weibo platform at 11.30 p.m., Beijing time. This was moments after Trump wrote Saturday on Truth Social that he will be arrested in New York next week. CNN reported in 2020 that some Chinese social media users viewed Trump as a better candidate than President Joe Biden — surmising that he would help build China up by ruining America. Meanwhile, a possible indictment in New York now looms over Trump.

☆ Analysis: Chinese suppliers race to Vietnam as COVID let-up opens escape route from Sino-U.S. trade war
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( Francesco Guarascio | Thomson Reuters | Francesco Leads A Team Of Reporters In Vietnam That Covers Top Financial | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

Adding impetus to the move is the increasing cost of labour in China, expanding U.S. restrictions on high-tech-related trade with China, and tit-for-tat tariffs from a Sino-U.S. trade war that triggered a past wave of Chinese investment in Vietnam. "Enquiries from Chinese firms about manufacturing investment in Vietnam grew exponentially in the last quarter of last year," said Michael Chan, senior director of leasing at industrial real estate specialist BW Industrial Development. "Chinese investment has also increased remarkably," he said. Chinese firms also experience longer times to obtain staff visas and work permits, said Filippo Bortoletti, who heads the Vietnamese unit of investment consultancy Dezan Shira. "Chinese companies move here mostly to serve their clients who moved earlier," said BW Industrial Development's Chan.

☆ Atlanta DA Fani Willis loves using a law designed for going after the mob. She may use it to charge Trump.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( Jacob Shamsian | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

The law — designed for going after the mob — makes sense for her investigation into Donald Trump, experts say. In her time in the district attorney's office, Willis has aggressively used Georgia's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization statute. One sprawling 56-count RICO case, against the rapper Young Thug's alleged gang, is in its second month of jury selection ahead of what's expected to be a nine-month trial. But if she were to bring a case, experts believe RICO charges are likely. Rahmani cautioned that a RICO case may make Willis look too aggressive.

☆ Premarket Stocks: Who do we blame for the fall of SVB?
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Blame the Fed: SVB’s downfall was largely caused by a record $42 billion bank run that left the bank in desperate need of cash. But the Fed’s rate hikes had undermined the value of bonds, a critical source of capital for SVB. “The Federal Reserve failed as a bank supervisor,” he wrote. On Capitol Hill, frequent Fed critic Sen. Elizabeth Warren has been quick to blame Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell for a lack of oversight. Blame SVB: Others say the blame should be placed on the banks themselves.

☆ Elizabeth Warren scoffs at the idea that banks like SVB can be trusted to do their own stress testing: 'I taught school for many, many years. And I did not let my students do their own testing'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Jason Lalljee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

She's criticized Trump-era rollbacks on banking oversight for making the SVB failure possible. "Those are much smaller than the bigger banks," CNBC host Sara Eisen said to Warren, referring to banks like SVB. "We've had a number of those CEOs on the shows in the last few days" such as Charles Schwab, she said, who "do their own stress testing." The whole point of stress testing is for someone on the outside of the bank to say, 'what could go wrong here?' What happened to SVB, Warren wrote, is "the direct result of leaders in Washington weakening the financial rules."

White House spokesperson John Kirby said on Friday that while Washington was not directly involved, Saudi Arabia kept U.S. officials informed of the talks with Iran. NUCLEAR TALKSThe agreement comes as Iran accelerates its nuclear program after two years of failed U.S. attempts to revive a 2015 deal that aimed to stop Tehran producing a nuclear bomb. "Saudi Arabia is deeply concerned about Iran's nuclear program," he said. "If this new opening between Iran and Saudi Arabia is going to be meaningful and impactful, it will have to address the concerns about Iran's nuclear program - otherwise the opening is just optics." Friday's agreement also offers hope for more durable peace in Yemen, where a conflict sparked in 2014 has widely been seen as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

How 31 Presidential Budgets Compared With RealityYear of budget 1994 Deficits Budgets Reality Spending Taxes and other revenueYou have probably heard of the main reason for this: The president’s budget has no force of law. But the president’s budget is often not predictive for another reason: Unexpected, cataclysmic events end up changing the trajectory of federal spending far more than shifts in any line item in a budget table. Bill ClintonDeficits Budgets Reality Spending Taxes and other revenueMr. Clinton’s budgets matched actual spending and revenue far more than those of the presidents who followed him. Another was the Budget Control Act, a bipartisan bill that reduced federal spending across the government that Mr. Obama had not proposed. And as we’re often reminded during budget season, budgets are also important because they tell you about a president’s goals and values.

☆ The Justice Department investigated Jeffrey Epstein's death. Then it went silent.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Jacob Shamsian | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +25 min

Jeffrey Epstein's death in a federal jail was seen as a shocking Justice Department failure. But more than three years later, the office still hasn't released its report into the circumstances of Epstein's death. "We all took it by surprise," Mark Epstein told Insider. Barr tasked the Justice Department's inspector general, Michael Horowitz, and the FBI with investigating "the circumstances of Mr. Epstein's death." Mark Epstein told Insider that he spoke to his brother about once a month in the years before his death.

☆ Why Everyone Is Moving to Florida: Jobs, Economy, Cost of Living, Taxes
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Emil Skandul | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

For other states to compete, they will need to pay attention to what Florida is doing right. Floridians pay no income tax and fewer taxes overall than people in states like New York, California, or Massachusetts. But a low tax rate isn't the only thing people care about. Despite having a budget half the size of New York's and a larger population, Florida, by many metrics, is able to do significantly more with the taxes it collects. Florida is also outshining New York and other major population centers in tackling the soaring cost of housing.

☆ Spirit-JetBlue merger: Here's why DOJ is concerned about this deal
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | 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 EmailSpirit-JetBlue merger: Here's why DOJ is concerned about this dealBill Baer, visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution, joins 'Squawk Box' to discuss the merger between JetBlue and Spirit Airlines, JetBlue's stance in this battle, and more.

Trumzz | Istock | Getty ImagesOver the past two years, millions of low-income U.S. households have received broadband internet at a discount through two consecutive government programs. "Millions could be left in the dark without broadband service for the very same reasons they didn't have it in the first place." The Emergency Broadband Benefit, or EBB, which was approved by then-President Donald Trump in late 2020 and launched in February 2021, provided a $50 subsidy. That's considered an accomplishment, said Ken Garnett, chief strategy officer at Cal.net, a small internet service provider that serves rural inland areas of California. As of January, about $6.1 billion of the funds had been claimed by broadband service providers as reimbursement for discounting their services and products.

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