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But attendees said they made progress, including through an agreement to turn the multilateral debt limit negotiations into direct one-to-one talks between a close ally of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and two White House aides, on Biden's behalf. The White House said Biden "directed staff to continue to meet daily on outstanding issues. It was "a good and productive meeting," said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who noted that it was "more cordial" than a previous meeting last week. The White House also said Tuesday that it would cancel the second leg of the president's upcoming international trip, given the delicate state of the debt ceiling negotiations. His return will set up a critical stretch in the efforts to avoid a first-ever default on U.S. debt and prevent major economic damage.

☆ Biden optimistic about a debt limit deal, but McCarthy says White House isn't being serious
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Christina Wilkie | In | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden sounds optimistic about the odds of reaching a deal with Republicans to raise or suspend the debt limit in time to avoid economic fallout from even a potential U.S. debt default. Biden also characterized the talks underway between White House liaisons and congressional aides as "a negotiation," a notable choice of words after months of insisting that he would not "negotiate" over the debt limit. The White House said the three-day delay should be viewed as a sign of progress in the talks. "The meetings have been productive over the past few days and leaders wanted to continue before they regrouped," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Friday. Democrats have spent months blasting House Republicans' proposal, which demands sweeping cuts to federal spending in exchange for agreeing to pass a debt limit hike.

☆ Stock futures are little changed as traders await Tuesday debt ceiling negotiations: Live updates
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Brian Evans | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange during morning trading on April 10, 2023 in New York City. Futures tied to the S&P 500 slipped 0.05%, while Nasdaq 100 futures inched lower by 0.08%. Investors are anxiously awaiting progress on a deal to raise the debt ceiling before June 1, which is the earliest date the Treasury Department has said the U.S. could default on its debt obligations. Biden has so far maintained that raising the debt ceiling is non-negotiable. McCarthy, however, has pushed for talks to broker a deal to raise the debt ceiling be tied to spending cuts.

☆ Treasury Secretary Yellen reaffirms U.S. could run out of money to pay bills by early June
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Christina Wilkie | In | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Ukraine Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal speak to the press after holding a bilateral meeting at the U.S. Treasury Department Building in Washington, D.C., U.S. April 13, 2023. WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen reaffirmed to Congress on Monday that the United States could default on its debt as early as June 1. The Democratic majority Senate is expected to back whatever the White House negotiates with the GOP controlled House. "In fact, we have already seen Treasury's borrowing costs increase substantially for securities maturing in early June," said Yellen. "If the debt limit remains unchanged, there is significant risk that at some point in the first two weeks of June, the government will no longer be able to pay all of its obligations," said the CBO report.

☆ U.S. can avoid default in July if Treasury can make it through June cash crunch, Congressional Budget Office says
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-12 | by ( Christina Wilkie | In | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

The updated guidance otherwise reiterated the CBO's earlier uncertainty about the debt ceiling during the first few weeks of June. The CBO also issued an updated projection of the federal budget deficit for 2023, raising it to $1.5 trillion. The CBO is a nonpartisan federal agency that provides objective budget and economic data to Congress, typically to inform legislation. It was unclear Friday what impact, if any, the new report would have on talks currently underway at the staff level, between aides to the four congressional leaders and White House liaisons. "It seems like they want to default more than they want a deal," the California Republican told reporters in the Capitol.

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden will meet with congressional leaders Tuesday as Washington scrambles to lift the debt ceiling with less than a month before the federal government is set to run out of money. Lifting the debt ceiling is necessary for the government to cover spending commitments already approved by Congress and the president and prevent default. But House Republicans have said they will not lift the limit if Biden and lawmakers do not agree to future spending cuts. The White House has stressed that while it is open to discuss spending cuts, it will not negotiate with Republicans on the debt ceiling. If the meeting is indeed a negotiation, then the bill House Republicans passed last month effectively serves as the GOP's opening offer to the White House.

WASHINGTON — Failure to raise the U.S. debt ceiling would cause an "economic catastrophe," Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Monday. Yellen's comments came as a political stalemate over raising the debt limit was forcing the Treasury Department dangerously close to a worst-case scenario: a potential U.S. debt default. This would occur if Treasury were to exhaust the extraordinary measures it implemented earlier this year to meet its obligations after the U.S. reached its statutory debt limit of $31.4 trillion. In order to avoid a default on the nation's debt, Congress must vote to either raise or suspend the debt limit before Treasury runs out of emergency funding. "There's a very big gap between where the president is and where the Republicans are" on raising the debt ceiling, Yellen said.

☆ Here’s what the SEC will require under its strict new stock buyback disclosure rules
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Christina Wilkie | In | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

The new disclosure rules will begin to apply when U.S. corporations report earnings for the fourth quarter of 2023, and to foreign issuers on a slightly longer timeline. The new rules "will increase the transparency and integrity" of corporate stock repurchasing overall, and allow investors "to better assess issuer buyback programs," SEC Chairman Gary Gensler said in a statement about the updated disclosures. The changes approved Wednesday represent a softening of the SEC's initial proposed disclosure rules, which would have required public companies to report trades by corporate insiders on a daily basis. Public interest groups, many of which have become increasingly critical of widespread corporate buybacks, applauded the new rules. On Capitol Hill, bipartisan support for stricter buyback disclosure rules has been apparent since the start of the SEC's rulemaking process, more than a year ago.

☆ Former top execs of SVB and Signature Bank will testify at Senate hearing this month
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Christina Wilkie | In | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

People walk by a Manhattan branch of Signature Bank which was closed by bank regulators on Sunday on March 13, 2023 in New York City. WASHINGTON — Former top executives of the failed Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank will testify before the Senate on May 16, the chamber's Banking Committee announced late Wednesday. Scott Shay and Eric Howell were the chairman and president, respectively, of New York-based Signature Bank when it collapsed just days after SVB's failure. Former Signature Bank CEO Joseph DePaolo received a similar letter at the time. The former bank executives can expect a grilling from senators on both sides of the aisle.

☆ Democrats harden their message on the debt ceiling while quietly paving the way for a deal
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Christina Wilkie | In | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

"He is not going to negotiate on the debt ceiling, that is not going to change." Schumer's maneuversIn the Senate, where Democrats have the majority, Schumer ripped a bill House Republicans passed last week. The measure would raise the debt ceiling in exchange for massive cuts to discretionary federal spending. There are two ways for Congress to avoid a looming debt default: The first is by voting to raise the statutory debt limit, currently set at $31.4 trillion. When Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell spoke on the Senate floor immediately after Schumer, he did not mention the debt ceiling.

☆ The U.S. could hit the debt ceiling by June 1, much sooner than expected, Yellen warns
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Christina Wilkie | In | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Monday warned that the United States may run out of measures to pay its debt obligations by June 1, earlier than the government and Wall Street had been expecting. The combination of Yellen's letter and the new CBO estimate added a fresh sense of urgency to stalled negotiations between President Joe Biden and McCarthy's Republican majority in the House. "Republicans' failure to agree to cleanly raise the debt ceiling has brought the United States to the brink of economic catastrophe," said Democratic Senate Budget Committee chairman Sheldon Whitehouse, R.I., in response to Yellen's letter. The Goldman Sachs estimate noted that so far there have been few ripples in the markets from rising debt-related risk. But this could change, analysts wrote, "once the Treasury announces a specific deadline for Congress to raise the debt limit."

☆ Lawmakers praise First Republic sale, but efforts to pass new bank rules are fizzling
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Christina Wilkie | In | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

WASHINGTON — Lawmakers who sit atop key banking committees praised the federal takeover of First Republic Bank on Monday, and held up the sale of its assets to JP Morgan Chase as a successful public-private collaboration to protect the U.S. financial system. His statement contrasted from the reaction of the Senate banking committee's chairman, Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio. He did not directly respond to the federal intervention, choosing instead to direct his ire at the failed bank. "First Republic Bank's risky behavior, unique business model, and management failures led to significant problems, and it's clear we need stronger guardrails in place," Brown said in a statement. "We must make large banks more resilient against failure so that we protect financial stability and ensure competition in the long run."

☆ Powell duped by Russian pranksters who claimed to be Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Christina Wilkie | In | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

WASHINGTON — Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell spoke by phone with two Russian pranksters earlier this year who falsely claimed to be President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine. "Chair Powell participated in a conversation in January with someone who misrepresented himself as the Ukrainian president," a Fed spokesperson told CNBC on Thursday. The video appears to have been edited, the Fed spokesperson said, adding that they could not confirm the video's accuracy. Powell does not appear to have said anything controversial during his call with the Zelenskyy impersonators, according to Bloomberg, which first reported the prank. Yet the sheer fact that two well known allies of Russian President Vladimir Putin were able to evade detection and speak to Powell directly raises serious questions about security procedures at the central bank's Washington headquarters.

☆ House passes GOP debt limit bill, as McCarthy tries to draw Biden into negotiations
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Christina Wilkie | In | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON — A Republican bill to raise the debt limit and slash government funding passed the House on Wednesday, after 11th hour changes won over a group of holdouts within the GOP caucus. The vote was a victory for embattled House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., capping off a 24-hour sprint that saw party leaders work past 2 a.m. Instead of viewing the provisions in the 320-page bill as future laws, per se, House Republicans view the plan more as a symbolic opening bid in the negotiations McCarthy will hold with President Joe Biden later this year over the debt limit and federal funding. The White House sees things very differently, however. House Republicans must take default off the table and address the debt limit without demands and conditions," the White House said.

☆ GOP debt ceiling bill faces its first test as analysts warn U.S. faces default risk as early as June
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Christina Wilkie | In | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., walks out with House Republicans to speak about the passage of H.R. Goldman Sachs analysts wrote that their "base case remains for the debt limit deadline to fall in late July," as long as tax receipts only fall by 30%. This is the projected date the Treasury Department will exhaust the emergency measures it is taking to prevent a federal debt default. Instead, it is intended to serve as McCarthy's opening salvo in his looming negotiation with Biden over the debt limit and federal spending. Over the weekend, Emmer said that while the final bill might not be perfect, the alternative for a Republican House member would be worse.

☆ New draft of House stablecoin regulation focuses on state regulators, issuers
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Christina Wilkie | In | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

The new draft bill is half the length of a previous draft and is closely tailored to focus on rules governing the registration and approval process for individual prospective stablecoin issuers. The bill contains many of the features of a version that was negotiated last year, such as the requirement that payment stablecoin issuers be approved and regulated by either a "federal payment stablecoin regulator" or "a registered State qualified payment stablecoin issuer." For example, it softens prior language that required payment stablecoin issuers to honor all requests to redeem stablecoins for cash within "one day" after the request was made. The new language says issuers must "establish procedures for timely redemption of outstanding payment stablecoins." The bill further provides states with more time to investigate and resolve potential noncompliance issues that arise with those states' approved issuers.

WASHINGTON — A bipartisan bill to authorize the U.S. Mint to alter the metal content of coins in order to save taxpayers money will be reintroduced on Thursday, the two senators sponsoring the bill told CNBC exclusively. Officially titled the Coin Metal Modification Authorization and Cost Savings Act, the legislation was originally introduced in both the House and Senate in 2020. The bill passed the House that year with overwhelming bipartisan support. "I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support our bipartisan bill." "This commonsense, bipartisan effort will modify the composition of certain coins to reduce costs while allowing for a seamless transition into circulation," Ernst said.

U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts poses during a group portrait at the Supreme Court in Washington, U.S., October 7, 2022. The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday invited Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts to testify next month before the panel about ethics reform of the court. Last week, the same news outlet reported that Thomas failed to disclose that Crow had purchased property from Thomas and his relatives, which included a house where Thomas' mother still lives. In his letter Thursday to Roberts, Durbin wrote, "Your last significant discussion of how Supreme Court Justices address ethical issues was presented in your 2011 Year-End Report on the Federal Judiciary." A Supreme Court spokeswoman did not immediately respond to CNBC when asked if Roberts would accept Durbin's invitation to appear before the committee.

WASHINGTON — The top Democrat in the House slammed Republicans' plan to pass a bill later this month to suspend the debt ceiling for a year and impose broad federal spending cuts, rather than simply raise the $31.4 trillion limit and avoid any risk of potential U.S. debt default. "Even the flirtation with the default is going to hurt everyday Americans," House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Tuesday. "It risks raising car payments, it risks raising home mortgage payments, it risks raising student loan debt payments," he said. The New York Democrat said refusing to raise the debt ceiling for the first time in history would have "catastrophic" consequences. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler echoed Jeffries' concerns Tuesday, telling lawmakers that the debt ceiling fight has already affected the markets.

WASHINGTON — Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler faced a barrage of criticism from House Republicans on Tuesday over his agency's crackdown on cryptocurrency trading platforms. In more than four hours of testimony before the House Financial Services Committee, Gensler stood firm on his view that crypto trading platforms and exchanges should abide by strict U.S. securities laws. "All of these companies should come into compliance with the law, and until they do, we will continue to pursue them as the cop on the beat, and investigate and follow the facts and law," Gensler told the panel. Gensler, however, rejected the notion that crypto trading platforms don't know how to interpret U.S. securities laws. Facing the House committee on Tuesday, Gensler showed little sympathy for the challenges faced by crypto exchanges operating in the U.S."We have a clear regulatory framework built up over 90 years," he said.

U.S. Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) waves to reporters as he arrives at the U.S. Capitol on April 17, 2023 in Washington, DC. WASHINGTON — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Democratic Sen. John Fetterman both returned to the Capitol on Monday after significant medical absences, leaving only one senator, Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, still away with no firm return date. Fetterman, a 53-year-old from Pennsylvania, stepped away from the Senate in February to seek inpatient treatment for clinical depression at Water Reed Army Medical Center. "I want everyone to know that depression is treatable, and treatment works," Fetterman said in a statement after return home from the hospital. The return of both Fetterman and McConnell this week after the Senate's Easter recess has served to highlight the one senator who has not returned from their prolonged medical absence: the California lawmaker Feinstein, an 89-year-old who last voted in the Senate in early February.

US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy arrives on Wall Street to deliver a speech on the econony at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York on April 17, 2023. It's an unusual setting for a political speech, but McCarthy's visit Monday will echo former President Ronald Reagan's visit to the floor in 1985, his first of two as president. As Congress returns to from a two-week recess to a summery capital where the Treasury Department's mid-summer debt ceiling deadline feels tangibly closer, McCarthy finds himself in an increasingly difficult position. In a statement Monday morning in advance of McCarthy's speech, White House spokesman Andrew Bates accused the California Republican of "holding the full faith and credit of the United States hostage, threatening our economy and hardworking Americans' retirement." Meanwhile, McCarthy's own caucus of House Republicans isn't making his job any easier, since the GOP only has a slim majority.

☆ McCarthy meets with Taiwan leader as China threatens 'actions' in response
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Christina Wilkie | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

US Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) (R) speaks with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen while arriving for a bipartisan meeting at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, on April 5, 2023. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and a bipartisan congressional delegation are meeting Wednesday with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in Simi Valley, California, in a move that has increased simmering U.S. tensions with China. The Republican House speaker is the highest ranking U.S. official to meet with a leader of Taiwan on U.S. soil since 1979. Tsai's meeting with McCarthy follows private meetings she held last week with small groups of U.S. lawmakers. But in reality, Tsai's packed schedule of high-level meetings with U.S. lawmakers would rival that of any official visit by a world leader.

☆ Janet Yellen says OPEC+ production cut is an 'unconstructive act'
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( Christina Wilkie | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the surprise OPEC+ oil production cut announced Sunday was an "unconstructive act," which could hurt U.S. efforts to lower inflation. "I think it's a regrettable action that OPEC decided to take. "We don't think cuts are advisable at this moment, given market uncertainty — and we've made that clear," National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Monday. He added that the United States received advance notice of the OPEC announcement. The OPEC cut follows Russia's recent decision to trim oil production by 500,000 barrels per day until the end of 2023.

Updating liquidity stress tests to take into account high-speed digital withdrawals, and the ability of social media to spread information among depositors at a much faster pace than ever before. Increasing the frequency of stress tests for mid-sized banks. Several of the proposals the White House endorsed are already under consideration, according to bank regulators who testified this week before two congressional committees. Among these are stricter rules for measuring liquidity in mid-sized banks, those with over $100 billion in combined assets, but under $250 billion. On Wednesday, group of Democratic senators, led by financial regulatory hawk Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., sent a letter to bank regulators demanding stronger bank capital requirements.

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