Update 840 — Week of Chaos, Confusion; GDP Growth Slows in 4th Quarter 2024 The country was plunged this week into a frenzy of chaos and confusion amid the Trump administration’s on-again, off-again freeze on federal grants and loans spending. The broad and vague memo released by the OMB Monday was rescinded on Wednesday but …
Update 837 — Key Nomination Hearings,CPI Report, CTC Bill Lead Week Roundup This week, Trump’s nominees for Treasury Secretary, HUD Secretary, and OMB Director faced pointed questioning by Democratic Senators ahead of coming confirmation votes by the committees of jurisdiction and the full Senate. The three nominees addressed a broad range of economic issues with …
Update 837: Nomination Hearings Lead Week’s Roundup Read More »
Update 831 — CPI’s Elusive Soft Landing;FTC Pick Named; FSOC, SEC’s Stalled Out This week’s CPI report for November showed the road back to the Fed’s two percent target inflation rate remains bumpy – but the new data is unlikely to push the Fed to readjust its downward interest rate trajectory – though Donald Trump …
Update 829 — Jobs Gains Up Again in November; Crypto Friendly SEC Pick among New Trump Noms. This morning’s jobs report, showing 227,00 jobs added to the economy and unemployment ticking up to 4.2 percent in November, indicates that the labor market remains strong after labor action and extreme weather led to low job gains in …
Update 827 — Trump Floats Major Tariff Plan;Bessent is Treasury Pick; DOGE Days Ahead President-elect Trump has now named all of his Cabinet-level nominees — including his pick for Treasury Secretary — as well as choices for other critical economic policy positions, which we cover below. Not among these are Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, …
Update 826 — First of Trump’s Econ. Policy Noms;End of Basel III/Endgame?; Other Developments President-elect Trump continued announcing Cabinet nominees this week as his administration begins to take shape. The early appointments signal the incoming Trump administration’s intention to elevate the priorities of wealthy interests who appear loyal to Trump and willing to undermine institutional …
Update 652 — House Democrats ElectNew Leadership for the 118th Congress The House Democratic leadership triumvirate of Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer, and Jim Clyburn has paved the way for succession by a new generation of Democratic Caucus leaders, approved by acclamation of the Caucus earlier today. The Caucus will now be led by Brooklynite Hakeem …
Update 560 — Naming Names…SlowlyStatus of Economic Policy Nominations To date, the administration has nominated candidates for about a third of the executive branch appointments that require Senate confirmation. Around a third of those have been confirmed. This applies to economic, fiscal, financial policy positions, to departments like Treasury, and agencies like the SEC. The nominations …
Update 518 — Route to Recovery:Any Bandwidth for Public Banking? Later this afternoon, President Biden will outline his multi-trillion dollar infrastructure investment plan, his framework for the Recovery Act. The centerpiece of the pie is infrastructure investment and modernization, including broadband access, a vital concern for the 24 percent of rural Americans and millions of …
Update 510 — In Tanden’s Wake:State of Noms for OMB, SEC, CFPB Late last night, President Biden withdrew the nomination of Neera Tanden to head the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), leaving an opening at an agency that will play a crucial role in defining the Biden economic agenda. Reports suggest that Shalanda Young, …
