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☆ Live Updates: Biden Budget Underscores Divide With Republicans and Trump
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-11 | by ( Jim Tankersley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +6 min

Last week, House Republicans passed a budget proposal outlining their priorities, which are far afield from what Democrats have called for. Mr. Biden has sought to reclaim strength on economic issues with voters who have given him low marks amid rapid inflation. But Mr. Biden has been unwavering in his core economic-policy strategy, and the budget is not expected to deviate from that plan. White House officials, previewing the budget release, said Mr. Biden would propose about $3 trillion in new measures to reduce the budget deficit over the next decade. House Republicans released a budget last week that seeks to reduce deficits much faster — balancing the budget by the end of the decade.

Persons: Biden, Donald J, Trump, ”, “, ” Mr, ” Shalanda Young, Trump’s, Mr, Biden’s, . Young, Jared Bernstein Organizations: Republicans, Democrats, Republican, Tax, White, Budget, Mr, White House Council, Economic Advisers Locations: Israel, Ukraine

☆ Which President Can Claim These Economic Wins?
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-06 | by ( Jim Tankersley | Lazaro Gamio | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

You got 0 out of 0 right. Share your resultQuestion Your choice NYT readers Data based on reader responses through 7 a.m. Eastern on March 8, 2024. As they hurtle toward a rematch in November, Biden and Trump both have compelling stories to tell about the economy’s performance on their watch. But like so much in politics, those stories can be strengthened or undermined by which data points the candidates emphasize — and which ones they omit entirely.

Persons: Biden Organizations: Trump

☆ Trump’s Tax Cut Fueled Investment but Did Not Pay for Itself, Study Finds
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-04 | by ( Jim Tankersley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The corporate tax cuts that President Donald J. Trump signed into law in 2017 have boosted investment in the U.S. economy and delivered a modest pay bump for workers, according to the most rigorous and detailed study yet of the law’s effects. Those benefits are less than Republicans promised, though, and they have come at a high cost to the federal budget. The corporate tax cuts came nowhere close to paying for themselves, as conservatives insisted they would. The study is the first to use vast data from corporate tax filings to draw conclusions about the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which passed with only Republican support. Its findings could help shape debate on renewing parts of the law that are set to expire or have begun to phase out.

Persons: Donald J, Trump Organizations: Republicans, Princeton University, University of Chicago, Harvard University, Treasury Department, Trump Locations: U.S

☆ High Mortgage Rates Leave Biden Searching for Housing Relief
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-01 | by ( Jim Tankersley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

President Biden and his economic team, concerned that elevated mortgage rates and housing costs are hurting Americans and hindering his re-election bid, are searching for new ways to make housing more available and affordable. Mr. Biden’s forthcoming budget request will call on Congress to pass a raft of initiatives to build more affordable housing and help certain Americans afford to purchase a home. The president is also expected to address housing affordability for both homeowners and renters in his State of the Union address next week, according to people familiar with the speech planning. On Thursday, administration officials announced a handful of relatively modest executive actions, including steps to increase the supply of manufactured homes. White House officials said this week that they would announce “additional actions we are taking to lower housing costs.”The increased focus on housing affordability comes as congressional Republicans assail Mr. Biden over high mortgage rates and housing costs, and as allies of the president warn that those costs are hurting working-class voters he needs to win in November.

Persons: Biden, assail Mr Organizations: Union

☆ Biden Calls Chinese Electric Vehicles a Security Threat
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-29 | by ( Jim Tankersley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

President Biden took steps on Thursday toward blocking Chinese electric vehicles from entry to the American auto market, saying internet-connected cars and trucks from China posed risks to national security because their operating systems could send sensitive information to Beijing. The immediate action was the opening of a Commerce Department investigation into security threats, which could lead to new regulations or restrictions on Chinese vehicles. But administration officials made clear it was the first step in what could be a wide range of policy responses meant to stop low-cost Chinese electric vehicles — either manufactured in China or assembled by Chinese companies in countries like Mexico — from flooding the U.S. market and potentially driving domestic automakers out of business. China has rapidly scaled up its production of electric vehicles in recent years, setting it on a collision course with Mr. Biden’s industrial policy efforts that seek to help American automakers dominate that market at home and abroad. Some of its smaller cars sell for less than $11,000 each — significantly less than a comparable American-made electric vehicle.

Persons: Biden Organizations: Commerce Department Locations: China, Beijing, Mexico

☆ Biden’s Energy Balancing Act
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-29 | by ( Jim Tankersley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

A junior White House economist made a chart last year — the sort of chart that previous presidents might have put in a campaign ad. It shows that U.S. energy production, from wind and solar to oil and gas, has boomed under President Biden. The nation is closer than ever to a goal that presidents have pursued for decades: true energy independence. The Times has recreated the chart, using the same data:

Persons: Biden Organizations: White House, Times

☆ An Emboldened F.T.C. Bolsters Biden’s Efforts to Address Inflation
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-27 | by ( Jim Tankersley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit on Monday, joined by several state attorneys general, to challenge a merger between the supermarket giants Kroger and Albertsons. The agency’s rationale in many ways echoed Mr. Biden’s renewed attempts to blame corporate greed for rising prices and shrinking portions in grocery aisles. Because grocery prices have risen significantly in recent years, they added, “the stakes for Americans are exceptionally high.”That is true for consumers, and it is true for the president. More Americans disapprove of his handling of the economy than approve of it. Consumer confidence, while improved in recent months, remains relatively weak for an economy with low unemployment and solid growth like the one Mr. Biden is presiding over.

Persons: Biden’s, Biden Organizations: White, Federal Trade Commission, Kroger, Albertsons

☆ Biden Targets a New Economic Villain: Shrinkflation
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-26 | by ( Jim Tankersley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“I’ve had enough of what they call shrinkflation,” Mr. Biden declared. The video lit up social media and delighted a consumer advocate named Edgar Dworsky, who has studied “shrinkflation” trends for more than a decade. He has twice briefed Mr. Biden’s economic aides, first in early 2023 and again a few days before the video aired. The second clearly informed Mr. Biden’s new favorite economic argument — that companies have used a rapid run-up in prices to pad their pockets by keeping those prices high while giving consumers less. The products arrayed in the president’s video, like Oreos and Wheat Thins, were all examples of the shrinkflation that Mr. Dworsky had documented on his Consumer World website.

Persons: Biden, “ I’ve, Mr, Edgar Dworsky, Biden’s, Dworsky Organizations: Super, Sunday

☆ The Quiet Diplomat Who Shaped Biden’s Global Economic Policy
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-20 | by ( Jim Tankersley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In the fall of 2022, two top Biden administration officials met in New York with a key European diplomat. Over dinner outdoors, they strategized about how best to throttle Russia’s oil revenues in retaliation for its invasion of Ukraine. Europe, Mr. Seibert said, had big problems with President Biden’s sweeping new climate law. They were worried the president was trying to ensure the future of U.S. manufacturing at the expense of some of America’s closest allies. The exchange set off months of behind-the-scenes talks, a major regulatory concession from the Treasury Department and high-level negotiations between Mr. Biden and fellow world leaders, all meant to soothe those concerns.

Persons: Bjoern Seibert, Mike Pyle, Wally Adeyemo, Seibert, Biden’s, Mr, Biden Organizations: Biden, National Security Council, European Commission, European Union, Treasury Department, Mr Locations: New York, European, Ukraine, United States, America

☆ Biden Faces More Pressure From Environmentalists to Block Steel Merger
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-15 | by ( Jim Tankersley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

President Biden is facing new pressure to block Nippon Steel’s acquisition of the iconic manufacturer U.S. Steel, this time from environmental groups that say the tie-up would set back America’s efforts to curb climate change. In interviews, environmental activists working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions say the merger would bring together two steel giants that are laggards on transitioning away from fossil fuels. Researchers at Industrious Labs, a nonprofit pushing to decarbonize steel and other heavy industries, drew on both companies’ public disclosures to calculate that Nippon and U.S. Steel are relatively high emitters of heat-trapping gases from steel production. Three U.S. Steel facilities — in Pennsylvania, Indiana and Illinois — combine to emit more greenhouse gases in a year than a comparable number of coal-fired power plants, the researchers estimate. Officials from Nippon and U.S. Steel say they are pursuing multiple strategies to decarbonize by 2050, including high-grade steel production in more efficient electric-powered furnaces and using hydrogen-injecting technology in blast furnaces, and that their merger will advance those efforts.

Persons: Biden Organizations: Nippon, U.S . Steel, U.S, Steel Locations: Pennsylvania , Indiana, Illinois

☆ Why the Cost of Biden’s Climate Law Keeps Going Up
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-08 | by ( Jim Tankersley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The estimated price tag for President Biden’s clean-energy and climate agenda has effectively doubled since the Inflation Reduction Act was signed into law a year and a half ago. That rising price tag may actually be good for reducing greenhouse gas emissions — and for the U.S. economy. The Inflation Reduction Act, which Democrats passed on a party-line vote in summer 2022, includes tax credits and other subsidies for low-emission energy technologies that are meant to help wean the nation from fossil fuels. The uncapped credits include incentives for manufacturers to build solar-panel or wind-turbine factories, and for consumers to buy electric vehicles. Budget scorekeepers have to estimate how popular those credits will be, in order to forecast how much they’ll cost.

Persons: Biden’s, Biden Locations: U.S

☆ U.S. Debt on Pace to Top $54 Trillion Over Next 10 Years
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-07 | by ( Alan Rappeport | Jim Tankersley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The United States is on a pace to add nearly $19 trillion to its national debt over the next decade as the mounting costs of an aging population and higher interest expenses continue to weigh on the nation’s fiscal outlook, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said on Wednesday. Annual deficits over the next decade are 7 percent smaller than the $20.3 trillion the budget office forecast last year. A deal that President Biden and congressional Republicans struck last year to limit discretionary spending for two years reduces deficits over the decade. So does a surge of 5.2 million new workers into the labor force, most of them immigrants. But those deficit declines are partly offset by an increase in the estimated budget costs from Mr. Biden’s clean-energy agenda, an aging U.S. population and higher interest rates on the national debt.

Persons: Biden, Biden’s Organizations: Republicans Locations: States, U.S

The world is starting 2024 on an optimistic economic note, as inflation fades globally and growth remains more resilient than many forecasters had expected. Yet one country stands out for its surprising strength: the United States. The question is why America has pulled out ahead of other developed economies in the pack. said this week that it expected the United States to grow 2.1 percent, a sharp upgrade from the previous estimate of 1.5 percent. The euro area is expected to notch out 0.9 percent growth, as is Japan, and the United Kingdom is forecast to expand by 0.6 percent.

Organizations: Federal Reserve, International Monetary Fund Locations: United States, Ukraine, U.S, United Kingdom, Germany, America, Japan

☆ Biden Takes Aim at Grocery Chains Over Food Prices
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-01 | by ( Jim Tankersley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

President Biden, whose approval rating has suffered amid high inflation, is beginning to pressure large grocery chains to slash food prices for American consumers, accusing the stores of reaping excess profits and ripping off shoppers. “There are still too many corporations in America ripping people off: price gouging, junk fees, greedflation, shrinkflation,” Mr. Biden said last week in South Carolina. Aides say those comments are a preview of more pressure to come against grocery chains and other companies that are maintaining higher-than-usual profit margins after a period of rapid price growth. Mr. Biden’s public offensive reflects the political reality that, while inflation is moderating, voters are angry about how much they are paying at the grocery store and that is weighing on Mr. Biden’s approval rating ahead of the 2024 election. Those prices jumped by more than 11 percent in 2022 and by 5 percent last year, amid a post-pandemic inflation surge that was the nation’s fastest burst of price increases in four decades.

Persons: Biden, Mr Locations: America, South Carolina

☆ Interest Rate Cuts Could Be a Boon to Biden
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-31 | by ( Jim Tankersley | More About Jim Tankersley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Federal Reserve officials do not set interest rates with presidential elections in mind. Investors do not widely expect rate cuts to be announced when Fed officials conclude a two-day meeting on Wednesday. Interest rate cuts could also help to improve housing affordability, an issue for young voters that has bedeviled the president. Falling interest rates could drive down mortgage rates. White House officials are careful not to comment on Fed rate decisions; Lael Brainard, a former Fed governor who heads Mr. Biden’s National Economic Council, laughed off a reporter’s question on the topic last week.

Persons: Jerome H, Powell, Biden, Lael Brainard Organizations: Federal, White, Fed, Investors, Economic Council Locations: Biden’s

☆ Top Economic Aide to Biden Pitches ‘Comeback’ in Hard-Hit America
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-22 | by ( Jim Tankersley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Those “place-based” policies are often directed at former industrial strongholds that were battered by automation and foreign competition. They are a cornerstone of Mr. Biden’s economic agenda across several major pieces of legislation he has signed and a big part of his re-election pitch. Whether voters perceive them as successful could affect Mr. Biden’s chances in November, particularly in industrial swing states like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Mr. Biden “came to office determined to invest in all of America, to leave no community behind. It is working,” Ms. Brainard plans to say, according to a copy of her prepared remarks.

Persons: Biden’s, Lael Brainard, Biden “, ” Ms, Brainard, ” Organizations: Economic Council, Brookings Institution Locations: Pennsylvania, Milwaukee, Wis, Biden’s, Washington, Wisconsin, America, “

☆ War Is on the Agenda in Davos, but the Focus Is Elsewhere
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-18 | by ( Jim Tankersley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Each day this week has brought a new and fleeting reminder to the executives and politicians at the annual World Economic Forum meeting of the two wars threatening global security and clouding the economy. Ukraine’s president spoke on Tuesday. Neither was able to hold the collective attention of a gathering that this year has focused overwhelmingly on artificial intelligence and populist politics. Gaza and Ukraine have made daily appearances on the public agenda in Davos, along with climate change and economic inequality. The Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel led by Hamas or the ensuing Israeli bombing of Gaza?

Persons: Israel’s Organizations: Hamas Locations: Gaza, Ukraine, Davos, United States, Israel

With fighting still raging in Ukraine, and a front line that has barely shifted in more than a year, the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, headed on Tuesday to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, amid a swirl of diplomatic discussions about possible peace talks. In his speech, he promoted a Ukrainian peace plan and called for stiffer sanctions on Russia. But in a contrast with his comments to the forum last year, Mr. Zelensky made no direct appeals for weaponry for new offensives on the battlefield. “We need you in Ukraine to build, to reconstruct, to restore our lives,” he told the audience of investors. “Each of you can be even more successful with Ukraine.”

Persons: Volodymyr Zelensky, Zelensky, ” Organizations: Economic Locations: Ukraine, Davos, Switzerland, Ukrainian, Russia

☆ Flush With Investment, New U.S. Factories Face a Familiar Challenge
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-15 | by ( Ana Swanson | Jim Tankersley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Biden administration has begun pumping more than $2 trillion into U.S. factories and infrastructure, investing huge sums to try to strengthen American industry and fight climate change. But the effort is facing a familiar threat: a surge of low-priced products from China. That is drawing the attention of President Biden and his aides, who are considering new protectionist measures to make sure American industry can compete against Beijing. As U.S. factories spin up to produce electric vehicles, semiconductors and solar panels, China is flooding the market with similar goods, often at significantly lower prices than American competitors. American executives and officials argue that China’s actions violate global trade rules.

Persons: Biden Organizations: Beijing Locations: China, U.S, America, Europe

☆ The Climate Summit Embraces A.I., With Reservations
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-03 | by ( Jim Tankersley | More About Jim Tankersley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Artificial intelligence has been a breakout star in the opening days of COP28, the United Nations climate summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Entrepreneurs and researchers have dazzled attendees with predictions that the fast-improving technology could accelerate the world’s efforts to combat climate change and adapt to rising temperatures. Exactly one year after the blockbuster debut of ChatGPT, the chatbot that introduced A.I. to hundreds of millions of people, the climate summit opened last week with a burst of events and announcements centered on A.I. Many were stocked with representatives from Microsoft, Google and other power players in the emerging A.I.

Organizations: United Arab Emirates . Entrepreneurs, ChatGPT, Microsoft, Google Locations: COP28, United Nations, Dubai, United Arab

The United States will, for the first time, require oil and gas producers to detect and fix leaks of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that wafts into the atmosphere from pipelines, drill sites and storage facilities and dangerously speeds the rate of global warming. Michael S. Regan, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, announced the regulation in Dubai, where diplomats from nearly 200 nations have gathered for a two-week United Nations climate summit. Methane is not as widely discussed as the carbon dioxide that results from burning fossil fuels, but it has become a rare area of progress this week at the global talks. Vice President Kamala Harris, the top-ranking American official to visit the summit, was expected on Saturday to highlight the new rule in a speech to delegates. She was also set to announce several other new climate policy initiatives from the administration.

Persons: Michael S, Regan, Kamala Harris Organizations: Environmental Protection Agency Locations: States, Dubai, Nations, Brazil, Kenya, India, United States

☆ So, an Oil Cartel Walks Into a Climate Summit …
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-01 | by ( Jim Tankersley | More About Jim Tankersley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In a far corner of the temporary village housing the United Nations climate summit, the world’s largest cartel of fossil fuel producers plied skeptical young activists with chocolate and free pens. A continent away, in Vienna, the cartel’s members were voting to give the summit what amounts to another very small climate treat: at least a temporary reduction in oil and gas drilling. That’s the opposite of what President Biden, who has made climate policy a top priority during his administration, is delivering from the United States. Those delegates are celebrating an accelerating global transition toward low-emission sources of energy like wind and solar power. But expanding renewables is not enough to save the planet, scientists warn, so many delegates are demanding that the world rapidly phase out its use of fossil fuels.

Persons: Biden Organizations: United Arab Emirates, Organization of, Petroleum Locations: United Nations, Vienna, United States, Dubai

President Biden signed the country’s first major climate law and is overseeing record federal investment in clean energy. In each of the past two years, he attended the annual United Nations climate summit, asserting American leadership in the fight against global warming. But this year, likely to be the hottest in recorded history, Mr. Biden is staying home. At the same time, climate activists, particularly the young voters who helped elect Mr. Biden, want the president to shut down drilling altogether. Internationally, developing countries are pushing Mr. Biden to deliver on promises for billions of dollars to help cope with climate change.

Persons: Biden, centrists, Mr Organizations: White House, Russia, Republican Locations: United Nations, Dubai, Israel, Ukraine, United States

President Biden will not attend a major United Nations climate summit that begins Thursday in Dubai, skipping an event expected to be attended by King Charles III, Pope Francis and leaders from nearly 200 countries, a White House official said Sunday. The official, who asked to remain anonymous to discuss the president’s schedule, did not give a reason Mr. Biden will not make an appearance at the two-week summit, known as COP28. But senior White House aides suggested that the war between Israel and Hamas had consumed the president in recent weeks and days, as he pressed for a pause in fighting and release of hostages held by Hamas. “They’ve got the war in the Middle East and a war in Ukraine, a bunch of things going on,” John Kerry, Mr. Biden’s special envoy for climate change, said last week. Mr. Kerry and his team will be in Dubai.

Persons: Biden, King Charles III, Pope Francis, “ They’ve, ” John Kerry, Biden’s, Kerry Organizations: White Locations: United Nations, Dubai, Israel, Ukraine

The 2022 climate law has accelerated investments in clean-energy projects across the United States. It has also delivered financial windfalls for big banks, lawyers, insurance companies and start-up financial firms by creating an expansive new market in green tax credits. The law, signed by President Biden, effectively created a financial trading marketplace that helps smaller companies gain access to funding, with Wall Street taking a cut. The law created a wide range of tax incentives to encourage companies to produce and install solar, wind and other low-emission energy technologies. But the Democrats who drafted it knew those incentives, including tax credits, wouldn’t help companies that were too small — or not profitable enough — to owe enough in taxes to benefit.

Persons: Biden Locations: United States

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