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Fed Chair Dismisses Recession Worries, Urges Congress To Trim Deficit

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The facade of the Federal Reserve Bank.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is asking Congress to tackle the growing budget deficit. Powell’s remarks before the House Budget Committee Thursday came a day after he told Congress’ Joint Economic Committee that the Fed was likely to keep rates unchanged in the coming months, unless there was a “material” shift in the economy’s outlook.

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State insurance regulators moved briskly through four topics as they try to thread the needle between suitability and fiduciary in crafting an annuity sales model law.

Nearly 700 health insurance and benefits advisors from across the nation will travel to Washington to meet with members of Congress. In addition, NAHU members will hear from industry experts, members of Congress and members of the Trump administration as they look at the future for health care reform.

Congress has a lot of its plate, but financial services would like to see a retirement income security bill get passed before the end of the year.

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Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell announced on Wednesday that he expects the U.S. economy to continue its growth trajectory, despite risks from overseas and concerns about trade tensions between the U.S. and its prime trading partners, including China and the European Union. Powell has noted that by cutting interest rates which reduced borrowing costs…

—President Donald Trump has been fulminating for weeks over the impeachment inquiry, which he sees as a persecution cooked up by Democrats and “Never Trumpers.” On Wednesday, with the opening of historic public hearings, Republicans in the House are primed to defend him while Democrats lean in to make their points before a presumably big TV audience.
Pressure is on the Federal Reserve to act on interest rates.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is due to testify Wednesday in Congress about the outlook for the U.S. economy, giving his perspective two weeks after the Fed cut interest rates for a third time this year. The three cuts, which lowered the interest rate the Fed controls to a range of 1.5% to 1.75%, were intended to offset drags from slower global growth.

President Donald Trump touted U.S. economic strength, and criticized Democrats and the Federal Reserve on Tuesday in remarks to the Economic Club of New York. The non-profit is non-partisan, but Trump didn’t shy away from criticizing Democrats, including his predecessor, President Barack Obama, while pushing his own economic record. U.S. job growth has slowed…
Who will occupy the White House in 2021? The upcoming election is sure to hinge on the economy, pundits agree.

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban became the latest tycoon to criticize Sen. Warren. In a series of tweets criticizing Warren’s socialized-medicine plan and accusing her of Trumpesque snake-oil peddling, Cuban noted that Warren is “filthy rich” and thus a hypocrite in her constant rhetorical bashing of the wealthy.

—Two political supporters of U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry secured a potentially lucrative oil and gas exploration deal from the Ukrainian government soon after Perry proposed one of the men as an adviser to the country’s new president. Perry’s efforts to influence Ukraine’s energy policy came earlier this year, just as President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s…

What we’re watching heading into a new week on the 2020 campaign:. Days to Iowa caucuses: 84. Whether he does or doesn’t run, New York billionaire Michael Bloomberg has escalated doubts about front-runners Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren and pushed Democratic anxiety to new heights.

Top Trump administration officials mulled a mass resignation last year to warn the public about President Trump’s conduct, says a yet-to-be-released book obtained by the Washington Post. It says Trump has continued his well-known misogyny in the White House. But “Anonymous” repudiates that part of the op-ed in his or her book, the Washington Post said.

Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg unveiled a $1 trillion strategy Friday that aims to enhance middle-class America with investments for housing, child care and tuition-free higher education. The plan earmarks hundreds of billions for federal funding to help pay for child care, make available public colleges for students whose families…

—Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire former mayor of New York City, is opening the door to a 2020 Democratic presidential campaign, warning that the current field of candidates is ill equipped to defeat President Donald Trump. The 77- year-old has spent the past few weeks talking with prominent Democrats about the state of the 2020 field, expressing concerns…

President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to China this week suggests that the United States risks being sidelined on the global stage under President Donald Trump. Just as the Trump administration formally launched the process of pulling out of the 2015 Paris climate agreement, France and China issued a ” Beijing call” on Wednesday for increased global cooperation…

Deb Tekippe spent much of this year convinced she would support Joe Biden in his 2020 bid for president, but the more she has seen of him on the stump in Iowa and in debates on television, the less confident she has become. Tekippe’ s experience reflects the new reality in Iowa: Buttigieg has emerged as the major alternative to Biden among moderate voters the former…

Democrats took full control of the Virginia legislature for the first time in more than two decades while the race for governor in deeply Republican Kentucky was too close to call despite a last-minute boost from President Donald Trump. And in Virginia, Democrats flipped control of the state Senate and House, gaining outright control of state government in a…

According to Richmond Fed Reserve Bank President Thomas Barkin, conflicting signals have made it difficult to get a handle on the true health of the U.S. economy. The U.S. central bank recently cut interest rates for the third time in 2019. Fed Chair Jerome Powell has described the cuts as insurance against ongoing risks from slowing global growth and the impact…

Industry executives are stepping up lobbying efforts to persuade Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to take action on the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act.

Republicans currently have a slim majority in both the state House and Senate. Democrats are looking to cement control of the state by taking control of both the Executive Mansion and the General Assembly for the first time in more than two decades. Virginia Republicans, who have generally tried to keep Trump at an arm’s distance, are hoping the specter of…

—Gaining momentum in the final three months before the Iowa caucuses, Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg offered sharply different messages this weekend as they inched closer to a confrontation over the direction of the Democratic Party. During a frenetic three-day stretch of campaigning in Iowa, two other top contenders sought to prove their staying…

—Democrats swept a rules package for their impeachment probe of President Donald Trump through a divided House, as the chamber’s first vote on the investigation highlighted the partisan breach the issue has only deepened. Yet the roll call also accentuated how Democrats have rallied behind the impeachment inquiry after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi spent…
The U.S. and China remain locked in a trade war.

The stock market is more concerned with the U.S.- China trade war, the strength of the global and U.S. economy, interest rates and corporate profits than the impeachment inquiry. For instance, on Thursday, analysts pinned the market’s drop largely on a weak report on business activity in the Midwest and worries about the trade war with China.
Pressure is on the Federal Reserve to act on interest rates.

The Federal Reserve cut short-term interest rates Wednesday for a third time this year to try to support the economy. But it signaled that it plans no further cuts unless it sees clear evidence that the economic outlook has worsened. For now, Chairman Jerome Powell sounded a bullish note about the economy in a news conference afterwards.

Its move strikes a sharp contrast with Facebook, which continues to defend running paid political ads, even false ones, as a free speech priority. Facebook has taken fire since it reiterated in September that it will not fact-check ads by politicians or their campaigns, which could allow them to lie freely. During Facebook’ s conference call for earnings, which…
The U.S. and China remain locked in a trade war.

The U.S. economy grew by nearly 2 percent between July and October– slower than the first two quarters of 2019, but better than expected, the Commerce Department said in its quarterly report Wednesday. It projects U.S. growth of 3 percent for the rest of the year. Wednesday’s report was released hours ahead of an interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve.
The facade of the Federal Reserve Bank.

Federal Reserve cuts rates for 3rd time this year but signals it will pause its rate reductions.The Federal Open Market Committee lowered its benchmark funds rate by 25 basis points to a range of 1.5% to 1.75% as expected.

Stock markets are mostly down as investors look ahead to an expected interest rate cut by the U.S. Federal Reserve. Britain’s FTSE 100 is down 0.2% to 7,291, while Germany’s DAX shed 0.2% to 12,910. Asian markets mostly closed lower, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 losing 0.6% to 22,843.12. The Federal Reserve is set to cut its benchmark interest rate Wednesday for a…

When President Barack Obama was reelected in 2012, a Saudi tycoon and his business associate sent hundreds of thousands of dollars to the U.S. to help pay for the inaugural celebration and get a picture with the president, according to court documents and an analysis of campaign finance records by The Associated Press. U.S. election law prohibits foreign…

An appeals court ruling in a major, Texas-led legal challenge to the Affordable Care Act is expected any day, meaning it could come on the eve of open enrollment that runs through Dec. 15, or during the middle of it.
The U.S. Capitol.

The gap is widely expected to top $1 trillion in the current budget year and likely remain there for the next decade. Forecasts by the Trump administration and the Congressional Budget Office project that the deficit will top $1 trillion in the 2020 budget year, which began Oct. 1.

“I got into this race in April to really give voice to the forgotten people of our country: the workers who have been left behind, the businesses who have been left behind, the people who need health care or aren’t getting a quality education, or are saddled by tremendous debt,” Mr. Ryan said in a statement. A U.S. House member from the Youngstown area, Mr. Ryan was little…
Pressure is on the Federal Reserve to act on interest rates.

The Federal Reserve finds itself in an unusually delicate spot as it considers how much more to try to stimulate an economy that’s still growing and adding jobs but also appears vulnerable. Will a U.S. manufacturing sector that is essentially in recession weaken the rest of the economy? Will a shaky truce in the U.S.- China trade war hold?

But that fundraising might isn’t spilling over to the most vulnerable Republicans fighting to hold onto their seats in a narrowly divided Senate. And in Colorado, Cory Gardner, who led Senate Republicans’ campaign arm in 2018, barely outraised former Gov. The trouble for Republicans extends to states where they’re supposed to be on firmer ground.

Elizabeth Warren got her way and the Senate filibuster were eliminated, it’s likely Congress already would have gutted Obamacare, allocated billions more dollars to President Trump’s border wall, and even erased the Massachusetts Democrat’s own brainchild idea, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which grew out of the Wall Street collapse a decade…

“This election could come down to Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Florida, and of the states that are pivotal, we have the second-largest number of electoral votes,” said Terry Madonna, political scientist and poll director at Franklin& Marshall College. “Trump can’t win the presidential election without the blue-collar, working-class base that’s heavily,…
A gun-rights group is accused of illegally selling shooting insurance in Washington state.

A Wisconsin- based company has been fined $100,000 and barred from selling insurance policies in Washington after it sold policies to gun owners promising to pay legal costs if they were involved in a shooting, according to the Washington state insurance commissioner. The problem: It is illegal in Washington state to insure criminal activity.
A roofer works on a house foundation framing in Irving, Texas.

For those of us that try to keep up with current economic activity, it seems like it is getting more difficult trying to figure out where this economy is going. There are both positive and negative factors as we get current readings on the overall health of the economy.

—U.S. home building fell last month after reaching a 12- year high in August, driven by a sharp decline in the construction of new apartments. Yet single-family home construction ticked higher for a fourth month. The Commerce Department said Thursday that overall housing starts dropped 9.4% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.26 million.

Retail sales in the U.S. in September dipped for the first time in seven months and could prompt an interest rate cut in a few weeks. The dip may be attributed to the ongoing U.S. and China trade war, according to a Reuters report. “Weaker retail numbers provide further evidence that weakness in the manufacturing sector is spilling over into other areas of the economy,”…

—Joe Biden is punching left and right coming out of the Democrats’ latest presidential debate, casting his top primary rival, Elizabeth Warren, as potentially disastrous on foreign policy while mocking President Donald Trump as more corrupt than Richard Nixon. Biden pounced on Warren’s suggestion in Tuesday night’s debate that the U.S. should not have troops…
The economy should remain in the positive for at least 2019, economists say.

Retail sales fell 0.3% last month following a 0.6% gain in August, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday. Consumer spending was strong in the spring and economists had been counting on continued strength to protect the U.S. economy as it is buffeted by the fallout from President Donald Trump’s trade war with China.

Who will occupy the White House in 2021? The upcoming election is sure to hinge on the economy, pundits agree.

Bernie Sanders has released a major proposal to “end corporate greed and corruption” by requiring large companies to give ownership stakes to their workers. The senator has been recuperating at his Vermont home for nearly two weeks since having a heart attack while campaigning in Las Vegas but will travel to Ohio for Tuesday night’s Democratic presidential debate.

Up to 200,000 banking industry workers in the U.S. could find their jobs eliminated because of artificial intelligence by 2030, according to a recent report by a Wells Fargo& Co. industry analyst. Mike Mayo, a senior Senior banking analyst at Wells Fargo, said in a synopsis of his 200- page equity research report of Oct. 1 that “this will be the biggest reduction in…

—Two Florida businessmen tied to President Donald Trump’s lawyer and the Ukraine impeachment investigation were charged with federal campaign finance violations. Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, associates of Rudy Giuliani, were arrested Wednesday trying to board an international flight with one-way tickets at Dulles International Airport in Virginia,…

—China announced a timetable Friday for carrying out a promise to allow full foreign ownership of some finance businesses, starting with futures traders on Jan. 1, as Beijing tries to make its slowing economy more competitive and efficient. Ownership limits will be ended for mutual fund companies on April 1 and for securities firm on Dec. 1, the China Securities…
The Federal Reserve system symbol on hundred dollar bill.

The Federal Reserve is easing restrictions imposed on banks following the 2008 financial crisis, giving a victory to the banking industry and President Donald Trump. The Fed on Thursday approved a set of rule changes that implement legislation passed by Congress last year to loosen restrictions, particularly for smaller community banks.

Oct. 10– Pollsters on both sides of the aisle agree that it’s Democrats who have the advantage on one of the 2020 election’s top issues: health care. The analysis from Democratic pollsters Celinda Lake and Paul Maslin, GOP pollster B.J. Martino and Republican strategist Brian Reisinger came during a WisPolitics.com polling summit in Madison Wednesday…

—China’s richest businesspeople got richer in 2019 despite a tariff war with Washington and an economic slowdown, a survey showed Thursday. The average net worth of China’s richest 1,800 people rose 10% over 2018 to $1.4 billion, according to the Hurun Report, which tracks the country’s wealthy. The results reflect the importance of China’s consumer market at a…
Pressure is on the Federal Reserve to act on interest rates.

Federal Reserve officials were sharply divided last month when they decided to cut their key policy rate for a second time this year, a split that indicates the path forward for future rate cuts remains cloudy. The Fed’s benchmark rate currently stands in a range of 1.75% to 2% with the next meeting coming on Oct. 29-30.

—Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will appear before Congress this month as the tech giant is under pressure from lawmakers and regulators over its massive market power and record of privacy breaches. Lawmakers from both parties and top regulators, including Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, have criticized…

The rally came as investors turned hopeful that the U.S. and China may make some progress in their latest round of trade negotiations after Beijing reportedly signaled that it is open to a partial deal. Both sides had held off from further escalating the conflict up until this week, when the U.S. blacklisted a group of Chinese technology companies over alleged…

U.S. equities tumbled on concern tensions with China are escalating just days before high-level talks between officials from the world’ s biggest economies. That came after China said it strongly opposed a U.S. move to blacklist some of its technology firms and Bloomberg reported the White House is moving ahead with discussions about restricting capital…

—The government ran a budget deficit of just under $1 trillion in the just-closed fiscal year, the Congressional Budget Office said Monday. Democrats have noted the spike in deficits since President Donald Trump’s tax cut plan was passed in 2017, while Trump has promised not to touch popular retirement benefits like Social Security and Medicare.
New home sales are continuing to fluctuate, perhaps signaling the difficulty young people are having financially.

An organization of business experts said in a new survey Monday the U.S. economy will grow by less than 2 percent in 2020– the slowest pace in three years. The National Association for Business Economics said in its October outlook it expects U.S. gross domestic product to grow by just 1.8 percent next year– a decline from the 2.1 percent projection it made in June.

—The justices are returning to the Supreme Court bench for the start of an election year term that includes high-profile cases about abortions, protections for young immigrants and LGBT rights. The court is beginning its second term with both of President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court appointees, Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, on board.

—The nation’s business economists think President Donald Trump’s trade war with China will contribute to a sharp slowdown in economic growth this year and next, raising concerns about a possible recession starting late next year. The latest survey by a panel of 51 forecasters with the National Association for Business Economics shows they expect growth, as…

WASHINGTON– With a potentially devastating round of new tariffs set to take effect Oct. 15, Minnesota multinationals that do business in China have adopted two distinct strategies depending on whether they buy from or sell into the Chinese market. These companies, plus 3 M, are Minnesota members of the U.S.-China Trade Council, a group representing more than 200…
The U.S. and China remain locked in a trade war.

On Thursday morning, the Institute for Supply Management announced that the nonmanufacturing index hit a three-year low. Economists and traders alike already knew that manufacturing was in a recession as a result of the global slowdown brought on by the U.S. trade war.