46. Rhode Island
Population: 1,112,308
GDP growth (Q1 2025): 0.2%
Unemployment rate (May 2025): 4.9%
Top corporate tax rate: 7%
Top individual income tax rate: 5.99%
Gasoline tax: 56.52 cents/gallon
Bond rating (Moody's/S&P): Aa2, Stable/AA, Stable
Economic profile sources: U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Federation of Tax Administrators, Energy Information Administration (including 18.40 cent/gallon federal tax), Moody's Investor Service, S&P Global Market Intelligence
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The Intercept
a minute ago
- The Intercept
Trump's Use of Troops for Policing Hasn't Been Seen Since America Was Ruled by a King
The United States crept closer to becoming a full-blown police state yesterday when President Donald Trump made good on a promise to further militarize the nation's capital. Trump threatened to employ similar tactics in cities across the country as the Pentagon evaluates plans for a 'Domestic Civil Disturbance Quick Reaction Force' composed of hundreds of National Guard troops poised to surge into American cities. The power grab in the District of Columbia, which bypassed the city's elected leaders, follows deployments of federal troops from coast to coast, surges of masked federal agents around the United States, and consistent tyrannical use of executive authority in ways with little precedent in modern U.S. history. 'Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals,' Trump said at a White House news conference on Monday, painting the city as a hellscape filled with 'drugged out maniacs' and 'caravans of mass youth' who 'rampage through city streets' day and night. 'I'm deploying the National Guard to help reestablish law, order and public safety in Washington, D.C.,' he declared. As of Monday afternoon, Guard members had yet to be deployed. 'They've got to muster in. They've got to do a little brief training and processing, and then they're going to move out. But we do expect this to happen pretty rapidly,' an Army spokesperson told The Intercept. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Monday that the Guard would be 'flowing into the streets of Washington in the coming week.' The timeline for the troop deployment is hazy. According to a memorandum Trump issued on Monday, National Guard troops will remain deployed until the president determines 'that conditions of law and order have been restored.' Justice Department figures show violent crime in the nation's capital is at a 30-year low. 'If we look at both practically the way the Trump administration is using the military around the country and also formally, in what they are asserting about their authority — the ability to use the military anywhere, anytime, for any purpose — it's absolutely unprecedented,' said Joseph Nunn, an attorney with the Brennan Center for Justice's liberty and national security program who focuses on the domestic role of the U.S. military. 'The last person to assert that sort of boundless authority to deploy the military domestically and use it for law enforcement in this country was King George,' he told The Intercept, referencing King George III who lost the American Revolution. 'President Trump's ever-expanding use of the military for domestic matters is beyond alarming,' Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, said in a statement criticizing the deployment. 'Our military is trained to defend the nation from external threats and assist communities during disasters or emergencies, not to conduct day-to-day domestic policing. This deployment is a serious misuse of the National Guard's time and talent.' Approximately 800 National Guard soldiers were activated as part of the 'D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force,' with about 100 to 200 of them supporting law enforcement at any given time, according to a statement provided to The Intercept by the Army. 'Hey, that's a real thing, man. I double-checked,' the Army spokesperson told The Intercept when asked about the name of the task force. 'I was like, 'That can't be real.' But yeah. It's real.' The Army said that the National Guard forces operating in the capital would perform 'an array of tasks from administrative, logistics and physical presence in support of law enforcement.' D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said she did not believe it was legal 'to use the American military against American citizens on American soil' at a press conference on Monday evening. The White House did not respond to a request for comment regarding Bowser's remarks. The National Guard deployment is one facet of Trump's efforts to put the District of Columbia under federal authority; he also declared that he is temporarily taking control of the city's police department. Hundreds of officers and agents from more than a dozen federal agencies — including the FBI; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; Drug Enforcement Administration; Immigration and Customs Enforcement; and the U.S. Marshals Service — have also fanned out across Washington in recent days. The federal crackdown on Washington was precipitated by the attempted carjacking of Edward Coristine, a 19-year-old software engineer and former Department of Government Efficiency staffer better known by his online sobriquet 'Big Balls.' Police officers arrested two 15-year-old suspects, a boy and a girl. Trump invoked a section of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act that grants him the power to temporarily seize control of the city's police department. He said Attorney General Pam Bondi would oversee the federal takeover of the capital's Metropolitan Police Department and, with Hegseth at his side, added that he was prepared to send the military into Washington 'if needed.' In a Monday memorandum, Trump directed Hegseth to coordinate with governors of states and 'authorize the orders of any additional members of the National Guard to active service, as he deems necessary and appropriate, to augment this mission.' Hegseth said that beyond the D.C. National Guard, the Pentagon was prepared to surge other military units into the capital. 'There are other units we are prepared to bring in, other National Guard units, other specialized units,' Hegseth said. 'They will be strong, they will be tough, and they will stand with their law enforcement partners.' He added, 'We will work alongside all D.C. police and federal law enforcement to ensure this city is safe. This city is beautiful.' The Pentagon failed to respond to questions from The Intercept about which units might be deployed, what would precipitate that, and when. This is the second time this summer that Trump has deployed troops to a Democratically governed city. A federal trial began on Monday in San Francisco to decide whether Trump violated the law by deploying National Guard troops to Los Angeles in June without the approval of California Gov.r Gavin Newsom. 'President Trump is exploiting his power and testing it in ways that could lead to more U.S. troops deployed on American soil. As we saw in Los Angeles, President Trump is willing to deploy U.S. military forces on American streets for inflammatory and political reasons,' said Reed, the Rhode Island senator. 'Normalizing the use of U.S. military forces for everyday policing risks eroding the very freedoms our servicemembers swear to protect.' In his first seven months in office, Trump has overseen the deployment of around 20,000 federal troops on American soil, including personnel from the National Guard, the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, and the Marines, according to the Pentagon. But the true number of troops deployed may be markedly higher. U.S. Northern Command has no running tally of how many troops have been deployed around the country. These federal forces have been operating under Title 10 authority, or federal control, in at least five states — Arizona, California, Florida, New Mexico, and Texas — in service of the Trump administration's anti-immigrant agenda. More than 10,000 troops are deploying or have deployed to the southern border, according to Northern Command. Under the direction of NORTHCOM, military personnel have deployed under the moniker Joint Task Force-Southern Border, or JTF-SB, since March, bolstering approximately 2,500 service members who were already supporting U.S. Customs and Border Protection's border security mission. 'Members of the National Guard should be under no illusions about what they're being sent to do in Washington.' One-third of the U.S. border is now completely militarized due to the creation of four new national defense areas, or NDAs: sprawling extensions of U.S. military bases patrolled by troops who can detain immigrants until they can be handed over to Border Patrol agents. Around 5,500 troops — Marines and California National Guard members — have also been deployed to Los Angeles since early June. The forces were sent to LA over the objections of local officials and Newsom. Experts say that the increasing use of military forces in the interior of the United States represents an extraordinary violation of Posse Comitatus, a bedrock 19th-century law seen as fundamental to the democratic tradition in America. 'Though the rhetoric is sometimes different, from Los Angeles streets to ICE detention centers to our nation's capital, President Trump is repeatedly acting to turn the National Guard into the first-choice implementers of his authoritarian agenda,' Sara Haghdoosti, the executive director of Win Without War, told The Intercept. 'Whether it is assaulting immigrant communities or seizing control of law enforcement in DC, his goal for these deployments is the same: using state violence to strip power, safety, and dignity from people. Members of the National Guard should be under no illusions about what they're being sent to do in Washington.' Many more troops, like the National Guard forces deploying to the capital, are operating under so-called Title 32 status, meaning they are under state, rather than federal, control, unlike deployments in Los Angeles and across the southern border. With no governor to report to, the D.C. National Guard's chain of command runs from its commanding general to the secretary of the Army to Hegseth to the president. The plan for the Domestic Civil Disturbance Quick Reaction Force, which was first reported by the Washington Post on Tuesday, calls for two groups of 300 troops to be on standby for rapid deployment across the country, from military bases in Alabama and Arizona. The proposed force would also reportedly operate under Title 32. The Pentagon refused to offer further details about the initiative. 'The Department of Defense is a planning organization and routinely reviews how the department would respond to a variety of contingencies across the globe,' a defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told The Intercept on Tuesday. 'We will not discuss these plans through leaked documents, pre-decisional or otherwise.' 'What worries me specifically is when you create a tool for a specific purpose you're going to want to use it — in this case, inserting the military in routine law enforcement,' Nunn, the Brennan Center a attorney, said of the rapid response force. 'Having a button you can push easily, so to speak, to deploy the military domestically will make domestic deployment of the military more frequent and more likely.' Late last month, the Trump administration authorized the deployment of National Guard troops to immigration facilities in 20 states, further entwining the military in civil and law enforcement functions. The National Guard will be deployed in Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Nebraska, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, and Virginia, among other states, according to a defense official who was not authorized to disclose the information. On Monday, Trump took aim at numerous cities led by Democratic mayors in states with Democratic governors, threating authoritarian power grabs similar to his effort in Washington. 'If we need to, we're going to do the same thing in Chicago, which is a disaster,' Trump said. 'You look at Los Angeles, how bad it is. We have other cities that are very bad. New York has a problem. And then you have, of course, Baltimore and Oakland. We don't even mention that anymore. They're so far gone,' said Trump. 'We're not going to let it happen. We're not going to lose our cities over this. And this will go further.' The June deployment of troops to Los Angeles did very little and has largely wound down. Newsom warned then that Trump would target other states. 'Who else saw that coming?' he wrote on X on Monday. Last month, Trump also threatened a federal takeover of New York City if Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani is elected. 'We have tremendous power at the White House to run places when we have to,' Trump said in July. 'Maybe we're going to have to straighten it out from Washington.' Nunn pointed to the risks of inserting the military in routine domestic law enforcement. 'The deeper and more fundamental danger is that you don't want the people with guns, tanks, and bombers to be looking inward, at their own country, and thinking of themselves as a domestic political actor,' he told The Intercept. 'The military is and should be a fundamentally outward-looking entity. You don't have to look very far around the world to see what happens when the military sees itself as a domestic political actor.'
Fast Company
a minute ago
- Fast Company
Stock market rises after inflation report drives hopes for lower interest rates
The U.S. stock market is rallying toward records on Tuesday after data suggested inflation across the country was a touch better last month than economists expected. The S&P 500 rose 0.9% and was on track to top its all-time high set two weeks ago. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 467 points, or 1.1%, as of 12:30 p.m. Eastern time, while the Nasdaq composite was 1.1% higher and also heading toward a record. Stocks got a lift from hopes that the better-than-expected inflation report will give the Federal Reserve leeway to cut interest rates at its next meeting in September. Lower rates would give a boost to investment prices and to the economy by making it cheaper for U.S. households and businesses to borrow to buy houses, cars or equipment. President Donald Trump has angrily been calling for cuts to help the economy, often insulting the Fed's chair personally while doing so. But the Fed has been hesitant because of the possibility that Trump's tariffs could make inflation much worse. Lowering rates would give inflation more fuel, potentially adding oxygen to a growing fire. That's why Fed officials have said they wanted to see more data come in about inflation before moving. Tuesday's report said U.S. consumers paid prices for groceries, gasoline and other costs of living that were 2.7% higher in July than a year earlier. That's the same inflation rate as June's, and it was below the 2.8% that economists expected. The report pushed traders on Wall Street to increase bets that the Fed will cut interest rates for the first time this year in September. They're betting on a 94% chance of that, up from nearly 86% a day earlier, according to data from CME Group. The Fed will receive one more report on inflation, as well as one more on the U.S. job market, before its next meeting, which ends Sept. 17. The most recent jobs report was a stunner, coming in much weaker than economists expected. Some economists warn that more twists and turns in upcoming data could make the Fed's upcoming decisions not so easy. Its twin goals are to get inflation to 2% while keeping the job market healthy, and helping one with interest rates often means hurting the other. Even Tuesday's better-than-expected inflation report had some discouraging undertones. An underlying measure of inflation, which economists say does a better job of predicting where inflation may be heading, hit its highest point since early this year, noted Gary Schlossberg, market strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute. That helped cause some up-and-down swings for Treasury yields in the bond market. 'Eventually, tariffs can show up in varying degrees in consumer prices, but these one-off price increases don't happen all at once,' said Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management. 'That will confound the Fed and economic commentators for months to come.' Other central banks around the world have been lowering interest rates, and Australia's on Tuesday cut for the third time this year. On Wall Street, Intel's stock rose 3.2% after Trump said its CEO has an 'amazing story,' less than a week after he had demanded Lip-Bu Tan's resignation. Circle Internet Group, the company behind the popular USDC cryptocurrency that tracks the U.S. dollar, climbed 2.4% despite reporting a larger loss for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It said its total revenue and reserve income grew 53% in its first quarter as a publicly traded company, and it topped forecasts. On the losing side of Wall Street was Celanese, which sank 10.3% even though the chemical company delivered a better profit than expected. It said that customers in most of its markets continue to be challenged, and CEO Scott Richardson said that 'the demand environment does not seem to be improving.' Cardinal Health dropped 7.3% despite likewise reporting a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Its revenue fell short of forecasts, and analysts said the market's expectations were particularly high for the company after its stock had already soared 33.3% for the year coming into the day. Critics say the broad U.S. stock market is looking expensive after its surge from a bottom in April. That's putting pressure on companies to deliver continued growth in profit. In stock markets abroad, indexes edged up in China after Trump signed an executive order late Monday that delayed hefty tariffs on the world's second-largest economy by 90 days. The move was widely expected, and the hope is that it will clear the way for a possible deal to avert a dangerous trade war between the United States and China. Japan's Nikkei 225 jumped 2.1%, and South Korea's Kospi fell 0.5% for two of the world's bigger moves. In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.30% from 4.27% late Monday. The yield on the two-year Treasury, which more closely tracks expectations for the Fed, fell to 3.73% from 3.76%.
CNBC
2 minutes ago
- CNBC
What one investor is doing now that stock valuations are at their historical highs
High stock valuations demand a more nimble approach for investors, according to Matrix Asset Advisors president and chief investment officer David Katz. Asked how he steers between sticking with an expensive market on the one hand, or switching to a value-oriented approach with the other, Katz told CNBC Pro on Monday, "You have to do both." "We think that the overall stock market can continue to do OK, but we do think that if you have not been in the market, we would not be jumping in with both feet here," said Katz, who founded Matrix in 1986. Katz is having to navigate the market as stock valuations stand above their average over the past 20 years. The S & P 500 currently trades at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of about 22 times, versus a 20-year historic average of roughly 16 times, according to FactSet data. Megacap technology stocks, fueled by the artificial intelligence trade, have helped the broad market index register gains for the year even against a backdrop of sluggish economic growth and persistent inflation. .SPX YTD mountain The S & P 500 has climbed more than 8% so far in 2025, excluding dividends. Nevertheless, "we do think there are pockets of undervaluation [in the S & P 500] and we think that is the better place to be putting new monies," he said. "We do expect a rotation [into] some of these undervalued areas." Corners of the market that have landed on the Matrix radar as being undervalued and potentially poised to gain include healthcare, consumer staples and even small caps, said Katz, noting that all three have underperformed the broad market in 2025. Elsewhere, the New York University MBA is also partial toward financial stocks, including banks, which as a group trailed the S & P 500 by some 1.3 percentage points as of Monday's close. He said financials could have more room to run. Katz owns big positions in Microsoft , Texas Instruments and JPMorgan Chase , the three largest holdings in the Matrix Advisors Dividend Fund (MADFX) , combined accounting for almost a fifth of its assets. The fund is ahead 10.4% year-to-date, landing it in the 9th percentile of more than 1,100 similarly benchmarked, open end mutual funds, according to Morningstar. MADFX YTD mountain Matrix Advisors Dividend Fund (MADFX) in 2025. Microsoft, Texas Instruments and Qualcomm , the fund's fourth-largest stock holding, notwithstanding, Katz is more cautious on tech stocks generally. San Diego-based Qualcomm, in particular, has been unduly punished this year, Katz argued, falling nearly 4%. He urges a surgical approach when it comes to investing in artificial intelligence, encouraging investors to be selective and deliberate. "We would not get caught up in believing that because of AI and technology doing so well that valuations are less material or that the S & P 500 should be at a higher valuation - those types of things always come back and bite people," Katz said.
