SPARTA, MI— ChoiceOne Financial Services, Inc., the parent company of ChoiceOne Bank, on Feb. 12 announced the receipt of regulatory approval from the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System to complete the merger of Fentura Financial, Inc., the parent company of The State Bank, with and into ChoiceOne, with ChoiceOne continuing as the surviving…
Economic News
The Federal Reserve is holding the federal funds rate steady while looking for signs that inflation is moving closer to 2%, but the bond market is betting President Trump will undercut its efforts. Mr. Trump says he will contain inflation“ by unleashing American energy, slashing regulation, rebalancing international trade and reigniting American…
Democratic politicians keep trying to blame inflation on manufacturers, landlords, insurance companies, and nearly everyone else in business. Most fervent in his scapegoating is Connecticut Attorney General William Tong. Last week Tong, a Democrat, proposed legislation requiring food producers and supermarkets to put special labels on products whose…
The notes are being issued by The Bank of Nova Scotia. The initial estimated value of the notes as of the pricing date is expected to be between $9.05 and $9.35 per unit, which is less than the public offering price listed below. None of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, any state securities commission, or any other regulatory body has approved or…
The arrival of Donald Trump to the White House with threats of a tariff war, the disparate monetary policy between Europe and the United States and the start of peace negotiations in Ukraine promise a highly volatile 2025. Julius Baer is betting on a continuation of the expansive cycle already experienced by the markets in 2023 and 2024, but with an extra…
Under the House Ways and Means proposal, those on the health plan will see their health insurance rates go up by $36.76 a month, or roughly $441 a year. The House budget proposal includes a roughly $200 million tax cut by reducing the highest income tax rate from 6.2% to 6%, reducing how much money lawmakers would have to spend. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, D- Orangeburg, a…
Scott Bessent, the nation's new Treasury secretary, is a product of the investment world. His private sector background brings to the government a different set of tools and ideas that may lessen the burden on the Federal Reserve Bank in its fight against inflation. The fly in the ointment over the last several decades has been that while the central bank has been…
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready… In 1980, newly elected President Ronald Reagan faced a serious problem. Busy solving Reagan's inflation was the chair of the Federal Reserve, a tall, athletic, cigar-smoking man named Paul Volcker.
—Australia’ s central bank on Tuesday reduced its benchmark interest rate for the first time since October 2020 as the nation’ s inflation cools. The Reserve Bank of Australia reduced the cash rate by a quarter percentage point from 4.35% to 4.1% at its first board meeting for the year. Bank Governor Michele Bullock later advised against believing economic…
Elon Musk is considering to have Ron Paul head up an audit of The Federal Reserve.
Some Republicans are looking to the next fiscal year to try to codify President Trump's orders to cut federal spending as a divided Congress barrels toward a shutdown deadline. Trump voiced optimism this week that cuts pursued by his Department of Government Efficiency, headed up by tech billionaire Elon Musk, would "get a very easy vote" in the GOP-led Congress,…
Inflation concerns may very well have delivered Donald Trump to the presidency. During the campaign, he routinely harped on the elevated cost of eggs and bacon and argued that his predecessor Joe Biden— together with Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell— had enabled an“ inflation nightmare.”. The latest University of Michigan survey showed that consumers expect…
—After three cuts to its key interest rate last year, Federal Reserve officials, led by Chair Jerome Powell, have signaled that they are in a new phase of watching and waiting. They'd like to see inflation fall further and gauge what impact that new policies from President Donald Trump, particularly tariffs, will have on the economy before they reduce borrowing…
Congressional Republicans are targeting Medicaid, the government health insurance program for low-income Americans, for hundreds of billions of dollars in savings to help pay for sweeping tax cuts, but the extent of reform is creating intraparty divisions. House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, insists his conference does not plan to cut…
–The EUR/USD went into this weekend near the 1.04870 level.– Earlier on Friday the EUR/USD traded around the 1.05115 ratio as rapid buying continued after the 1.03150 vicinity was briefly challenged.– Economic data from the U.S showed that inflation remains problematic regarding its stubborn nature and this means the Federal Reserve will be hard pressed to…
That has dashed any hope that the U.S. central bank would loosen monetary policy further in the months ahead. The most recent University of Michigan survey of consumers indicated that inflation expectations for the next year increased to 4.3 percent in February. While a stunned Wall Street pointed to seasonal factors as the culprit, we all know that is a load of…
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SHARON– When Russell Mills reported at the Shenango Valley Chamber of Commerce’ s Economic Breakfast Wednesday that Mercer County’ s housing prices surged 17% over the past year it startled many– including Mills. As the regional executive of the Pittsburgh branch for the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, Mills pulled together local and national economic…
The Commerce Department on Wednesday reports on how many new apartments and single-family homes builders broke ground on in January. Also Wednesday, the Federal Reserve releases minutes from its most recent policy meeting. At that meeting in late January, the U.S. central bank left its benchmark interest rate alone for the first time since summer.
