Criminal investigations do not usually start with tweets. They very rarely start with tweets by government officials asserting someone’s guilt before a charge has even been laid. That, however, is how the case against Lisa Cook, a governor of the Federal Reserve, began on August 20th, when Bill Pulte, head of the Federal Housing Finance…
When President Donald Trump stood outside the White House on April 2nd and revealed his “Liberation Day” tariffs, all hell broke loose. The “reciprocal” levies threatened to break financial markets, as well as scrambling international commerce. Thankfully, Mr Trump quickly backed down, cutting tariffs to 10% for most countries on April 9th and doing the…
For all the power it wields over the global economy, the Federal Reserve projects remarkable cool. Whereas rate-setters at other central banks frequently disagree with each other over the direction of monetary policy, Fed policymakers tend to stick together. That serenity is now being ruptured, just as President Donald Trump ramps up his attacks on…
EVER SINCE President Donald Trump unveiled his Liberation Day tariffs in April, the world’s biggest trading relationship had been on the rocks. The European Union swung from trying to sweet-talk America into making a deal, to threatening retaliation. On July 27th dealmaking won out. At his golf course in Scotland the president and Ursula von…
An investor’s desire to minimise his dues is nothing new. “The avoidance of taxes”, said John Maynard Keynes, “is the only intellectual pursuit that still carries any reward”. What is new is the scale and speed at which the desire is transforming financial intermediaries, wealth management and even the notion of passive investing. Once the…
The Trump administration has been extraordinarily blasé about falling stocks. “I can tell you that corrections are healthy, they are normal,” said Scott Bessent, America’s treasury secretary on March 16th, in the government’s most recent shrug. The stumble in America’s long stockmarket rally—the S&P 500 index is down by 8% from its all-time high in…
THE SELL-OFF shows no sign of stopping. America’s S&P 500 index dropped by another 3% on March 10th, leaving the world’s most watched stockmarket down by almost 9% since its peak last month. The NASDAQ, dominated by tech firms, has fallen by 13%. It is not quite the bold new era of American growth that…
Jerome Powell’s press conferences—sometimes market-moving events—have attracted less notice of late. With Donald Trump in the White House, the chair of the Federal Reserve faces competition for attention. Yet a recent inflation reading has returned prices to the public eye. In January America’s “core” consumer price index, which strips out volatile food and energy costs,…