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☆ Lael Brainard slams food companies for ‘shrinkflation' as White House attacks price gouging
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-13 | by ( Rebecca Picciotto | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Director of the National Economic Council Lael Brainard speaks during the daily press briefing at the White House January 11, 2024 in Washington, DC. National Economic Council Director Lael Brainard on Tuesday blamed higher consumer prices on "shrinkflation," doubling down on the latest battlefront of President Joe Biden's corporate pressure campaign. Shrinkflation, the practice of reducing product sizes while keeping prices the same, is Biden's latest line of attack against corporations, which he debuted on Super Bowl Sunday. Both the White House and Biden's 2024 reelection campaign have touted inflation recovery as a key accomplishment of his economic agenda, dubbed Bidenomics. "The president is going to continue emphasizing that input costs have come down, supply chains have healed," Brainard said.

Persons: Lael Brainard, Brainard, Joe, Biden Organizations: National Economic, Economic, Cola, PepsiCo, Procter, Gamble, Super, Sunday, White Locations: Washington , DC

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell swore in three members of the central bank's governing board Wednesday, including Philip Jefferson as vice chair and Adriana Kugler to fill a vacant seat as the central bank's first Latina governor. As Fed governors, they will vote at the Fed's eight yearly meetings on interest rate policies as well as on changes to financial regulations. Political Cartoons View All 1157 ImagesJefferson, who first joined the board last year, was sworn in as vice chair and will therefore work closely with Powell on interest rate policy. His term as vice chair will end Sept. 7, 2027, though he can remain on the board as a governor until 2036. She was a Marshall scholar at Oxford University and holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of California, Berkeley.

Persons: Jerome Powell, Philip Jefferson, Adriana Kugler, Joe Biden, aren't, Kugler, Lael Brainard, Obama, Jefferson, Powell, Biden, Lisa Cook, Cook Organizations: WASHINGTON, —, Latina, Georgetown University, Fed, United States ’, World Bank, Labor, Davidson College, University of Virginia, Michigan State University, Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, Oxford University, University of California Locations: Georgetown, United States, North Carolina, Marshall, Berkeley

☆ Roundabouts are safer than traffic lights. So why are there so few in the U.S.?
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-16 | by ( Robert Ferris | In | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Consider the simple roundabout — a traffic circle well known in Europe but less familiar across most of America. Proponents say roundabouts can dramatically reduce crashes, injuries and deaths, can improve traffic and even save a city a fair bit of money. "'Can you get rid of this traffic light near my house or near my business?' The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, which is funded by the insurance industry and issues widely watched crash test ratings for vehicles, says roundabouts are considerably safer for drivers and pedestrians and cause much less congestion than traffic lights. We have been rated over and over by various organizations [as] one of the best places to live in the United States; one of the best places to retire; one of the best places to raise families; one of the best places for single people.

Persons: Mayor Jim Brainard, Brainard, Brainard's Organizations: Mayor, Insurance Institute for Highway Locations: Europe, America, U.S, Carmel , Indiana, Carmel, United States

☆ A 'cocktail' of sticky inflation and a tight labor market boosts Bank of England rate hike bets
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Elliot Smith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Andrew Bailey, Governor of the Bank of England, attends the Bank of England Monetary Policy Report Press Conference, at the Bank of England, London, Britain, February 2, 2023. Pool | ReutersLONDON — A tight labor market and comparatively slow return to earth for inflation means the Bank of England is likely to press ahead with a further interest rate hike in March, economists suggest. "However food prices remain a major driver of U.K. inflation, continuing their upwards march in January with an eye-watering 16.8% increase. Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey last week urged workers and employers to consider the expected downward inflation trajectory when negotiating pay settlements. "The cocktail of a tight labour market and inflation failing to cool off quickly will remain a cause of concern for Bank of England policymakers, which may mean the Bank's aggressive strategy stays in place," Carter added.

☆ Biden takes aim at Republican spending cuts plan
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Andrea Shalal | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

At issue is Republicans' refusal to raise the statutory $31.4 trillion U.S. debt limit unless Biden agrees to spending cuts. The White House has said such measures will only be discussed after the debt ceiling is lifted. In a speech at a union hall in suburban Maryland, Biden accused Republicans, who now control the House of Representatives, of pushing him to agree to spending cuts, while their own plans would add $3 trillion to the debt. Republicans argue that federal spending is too high and will fuel inflation while raising the U.S. debt level. They also plan a separate news conference on Wednesday aimed at highlighting House Republicans' planned budget cuts.

The decision, announced after financial markets closed, gives Biden a pair of trusted Washington insiders to steer economic policy as the risk of recession fades but inflation lingers. Big fights also loom with the Republican-controlled House of Representatives over raising the debt ceiling. The shakeup comes as the White House tries to tackle what officials view as a frustrating disconnect between relatively strong economic data and weak public sentiment. The White House has refused to discuss spending cuts without a debt ceiling vote first. Bernstein last week conceded that the White House's early description of inflation as "transitory" had missed the mark.

☆ Brainard's move to the White House leaves a big gap for Biden to fill at the Fed
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Jeff Cox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

In her more than eight years as a Federal Reserve official, Lael Brainard was an influential voice, particularly for the side that favored keeping monetary policy loose and interest rates low. "Brainard's departure from the Fed leaves a dove-sized hole in its monetary policy," Beacon Policy Advisors wrote in its daily newsletter Wednesday. Indeed, Brainard's influence only accelerated the longer she served as a Fed governor. Her subsequent appointment in 2022 as vice chair solidified her influence, installing her as part of the "troika" of policy-directing power that includes current Chairman Jerome Powell and New York Fed President John Williams. Some candidates outside the Fed ranks, according to Guha, include Karen Dynan, Jason Furman, Janice Eberly and Christina Romer, all of whom served under former President Barack Obama (and his vice president, Biden).

☆ What Lael Brainard's departure means for the Fed
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | 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 EmailWhat Lael Brainard's departure means for the FedAlan Blinder, former Federal Reserve vice chairman and Princeton University professor, joins 'Squawk on the Street' to discuss the move to transition Lael Brainard from the Fed to the National Economic Council, the gesture to push out dovish sentiment from the Fed, and more.

☆ NEC Director Brian Deese is confident in Lael Brainard's capacity to take over
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | 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 EmailNEC Director Brian Deese is confident in Lael Brainard's capacity to take overBrian Deese, National Economic Council Director, joins 'Squawk Box' to discuss Lael Brainard stepping in as his successor, bipartisan opportunities in the legislative agenda, and more.

☆ Biden to blast Republican agenda as 'massive giveaway' to big companies
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Andrea Shalal | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

At issue is Republicans' refusal to raise the statutory $31.4 trillion U.S. debt limit unless Biden agrees to spending cuts, while the White House has said such measures will only be discussed after the debt ceiling is lifted. With his own approval ratings now at 36%, despite 53-year low unemployment and rising consumer sentiment, Biden will seek to flip the script and point the finger at a Republican agenda that he says will amount to "a massive giveaway to the super-rich, big corporations and Big Pharma," the White House said. By contrast, Biden says his administration's plans will cut U.S. debt by another $2 trillion on top of $1.7 trillion in reductions already made. Republicans argue that U.S. federal spending is too high and will fuel inflation while raising the U.S. debt level. Republican have discussed repealing the stock buyback tax entirely, which the White House says would add $74 billion to the federal debt.

2 role vacant just as the central bank approaches a decision about when to stop raising interest rates. Brainard's arguments may not have been relevant to the decisions the Fed faces in the next few weeks. Heidi Shierholz, president of the labor-affiliated Economic Policy Institute, said it was "unbelievably important" that Biden find someone to fill Brainard's role. Administration officials gave no immediate sense of how soon Biden may name a new Fed vice chair, though outside analysts and commentators were already putting names in circulation from what's considered a deep bench of economists affiliated with Biden's Democratic party. The vice chair plays a particularly important role, typically reserved for somebody with a PhD in economics who can speak with technical authority about Fed policy and decisions.

Feb 14 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden is expected to name Federal Reserve Vice Chair Lael Brainard as his top economic policy adviser as early as Tuesday, a source familiar with the matter said, as the 2024 elections approach. Brainard, an experienced fiscal and monetary affairs official, would replace White House National Economic Council (NEC) Director Brian Deese, who has announced his resignation. In addition, Biden confidant Jared Bernstein is expected to replace Cecilia Rouse as chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, the source said. The White House declined to comment. Biden's overhaul of his top economic team comes as the Fed is still trying to glide inflation down without causing a recession.

☆ Factbox: Some potential successors to Brainard at the Fed
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

Meanwhile, analysts and Fed observers are already swapping notes on potential replacements for Brainard at the Fed from a bench of economists aligned with Biden's Democrats, who control the U.S. Senate. MARY DALYDaly is president of the San Francisco Fed, ascending to that position in 2018 after 22 years at the regional Fed bank, including a stint as its director of research. Furman has been a prominent, Twitter-savvy commentator on macroeconomic and Fed policy. He has a PhD from the University of Virginia and served as a Fed economist for a little over a year in the mid-1990s. With a PhD from Stanford University, he's held staff positions at the Fed board and the San Francisco Fed, where he also served as president before moving to the New York Fed role in 2018.

☆ Fed's Lael Brainard among leading contenders for top White House economic post
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Jeff Cox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Lael Brainard, vice chair of the US Federal Reserve, listens to a question during an interview in Washington, DC, US, on Monday, Nov. 14, 2022. Federal Reserve Vice Chair Lael Brainard is a top candidate to take the most important economic position in the White House. Biden named Brainard vice chair at the Fed in 2022; she also was considered as a possible successor to Fed Chair Jerome Powell, whom Biden reappointed last year. Brainard is one of multiple candidates being considered and interviews for the position are continuing, according to a White House spokesman familiar with the matter. For her part, Brainard could garner support from progressives who are in favor of strong bank regulation and easier monetary policy.

The Fed raised its benchmark overnight interest rate rapidly last year, from near-zero in March to the current 4.25%-4.50% range, to restrain inflation that climbed to 40-year highs. In December, Fed policymakers as a group signaled the policy rate will need to rise to at least 5.1%; financial markets, meanwhile, are pricing for the Fed to stop just short of 5%. But she did appear to ratify market expectations for the Fed's upcoming rate hike to be a quarter-of-a-percentage-point, a downshift from December's half-point rate hike and from the four 75-basis-point rate hikes that preceded. "Recent data suggests slightly better prospects that we could see continued disinflation in the context of moderate growth," Brainard said. Even as the Fed parses the progress it has made on inflation, she said it would "stay the course."

☆ Weak economic data is starting to threaten the market's hopes for a soft landing
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Bob Pisani | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Weak economic data is threatening the soft landing thesis. Is the soft landing narrative really changing, or was Wednesday's retail sales and industrial production reports — both well below expectations — an outlier event? Bears are seizing on this to assert that the Federal Reserve has already done so much that they have made a soft landing less likely. The problem: organic sales growth of 5% was entirely achieved by a 10% boost in prices during the quarter. Procter & Gamble (ex-currency) Organic sales: up 5% Price: up 10% Volume: down 6% The recipe for margin pressure is the consumer pushing back against price increases.

REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz/File PhotoNov 14 (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve will likely soon slow its interest rates hikes, Fed Vice Chair Lael Brainard signaled on Monday, as the U.S. central bank tries to figure out how high borrowing costs need to go and how long they should stay there to bring down inflation. Fed Chair Jerome Powell has signaled that the central bank's next move may be smaller to give time to judge how the rapid rate hikes so far this year are affecting the economy. But he also signaled the policy rate may next year peak at a rate higher than the 4.6% level that most policymakers had expected in September. Currently the U.S. unemployment rate is at 3.7%, below the 4% level that most policymakers believe reflects a long-run sustainable rate. Recent labor market data suggests "cooling," Brainard said, and lessening wage pressures.

The nature and nuance of that debate was highlighted in the past 48 hours by Fed heavyweights Governor Christopher Waller and Vice Chair Lael Brainard. Wall Street closed in the red on Monday - not surprising given the extent of the rally Thursday and Friday - but investors are likely to gravitate towards Brainard. This was effectively a warning to investors not to get too carried away, as they had done on Thursday and Friday. chartWaller's caution helped push Wall Street lower at the open on Monday. Japan's output is expected to slow sharply from the April-June period, while on balance China's numbers are expected to weaken from September.

☆ Jim Cramer says there’s enough pain in the market for the Fed to slow rate hikes
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( Krystal Hur | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

CNBC's Jim Cramer on Monday said that there's enough pain in the market for the Federal Reserve to consider easing its pace of interest rate hikes. "There's enough turmoil that the Fed needs to slow down its rate hikes, if only to prevent the headwinds from turning into some sort of weird [Category] 5 hurricane," he said. Amazon reportedly plans to lay off around 10,000 workers starting this week, which would be its largest headcount cut in history. Cramer pointed to the reported layoffs at Amazon and turmoil in other sectors like crypto and software stocks as examples of the Fed's damage. He added that consumers are also starting to feel the weight of the Fed's interest rate hikes, especially as the number of companies laying off their workers increases.

☆ Where stocks are finding some support ahead of Thursday’s inflation report
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-11 | by ( Michael Santoli | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

This is the daily notebook of Mike Santoli, CNBC's senior markets commentator, with ideas about trends, stocks and market statistics. This could simply be a matter of short-term oversold conditions, a pause in the bond-yield surge and general hesitation ahead of a crucial-seeming CPI report Thursday. There's some focus on the S & P 500's 200-week (1,000-day) moving average offering an excuse for some support here, as it did at the end of 2018. Forecasts have come in a lot (S & P 500 consensus down 7 percentage points ex-energy since July), but it's unclear if that's enough. VIX is sticky in the low-30s, a pretty agitated state, and likely will stay inflated into/through Thursday's CPI report.

☆ Oil falls by nearly 2% as recession fears outweigh tight supply prospects
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-10 | by ( Laila Kearney | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Both benchmarks had risen over the previous week largely on expectations of tightening global supply. Oil prices fell amid comments from U.S. Federal Reserve officials about rising interest rates and their effect on the economy. Oil prices also struggled under a strengthening U.S. dollar , which rose for a fourth session. The prospect of tightening OPEC+ oil supplies limited declines in prices. read moreThe complicated new sanctions package could end up shutting in considerable supplies of Russia crude, analysts have warned.

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