Steve Rattner: Groceries went up faster under Trump than Biden
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Forbes
8 minutes ago
- Forbes
A Fed Nightmare Is Suddenly Coming True Just As Bitcoin Hits Another All-Time High Price
Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell is under fresh pressure from the White House and U.S. president Donald Trump whose continued attacks on Powell over interest rates have raised the possibility of "regime change" at the Fed. The Trump administration is now investigating the Fed's $2.5 billion renovation project as a possible route to forcing Powell to step down or as a reason for Trump to fire him, with Axios reporting Powell has asked the central bank's inspector general to review the project that's led to questions he may have misled Congress in his testimony regarding the renovation. Trump has raised the possibility he could remove Powell before his term is up next year, though no one is quite sure if he has the authority to do so. National Economic Council director Kevin Hasset told ABC News the president's possible power to fire Jerome Powell is 'being looked into ... but certainly if there's cause, he does.' "Frankly, it's about breaking some heads," former Fed governor Kevin Warsh, one of the front-runners to be named as Powell's replacement, told Fox News, adding the Fed "has lost its way" and said it was time for 'regime change.' The odds on Trump "removing" Powell on the crypto-powered PolyMarket prediction platform have climbed in recent weeks from lows of under 10% in June to over 20% this week. The new Fed chair, appointed by Trump either this year or once Powell's term ends in 2026, is widely expected to be supportive of lower interest rates. The bitcoin price has repeatedly hit fresh all-time highs through 2025, silencing those who claimed its historical 13-year run to 2022 was the result of the global zero interest rate policy (ZIRP) that followed the 2008 financial crisis. - Many of the most bullish bitcoin traders and investors have, however, predicted the bitcoin price will climb at a faster rate if or when the Fed does begin to lower interest rates, something that encourages cash to flow more quickly through the economy. The Fed kept interest rates on hold again last month after kicking off a reduction cycle in September that's been put on pause due to fears Trump's global trade tariffs could see a return of inflation—with critics pointing to the pre-election reduction and post-election pause as evidence of political bias. - For his part, Powell has said the expected increase in inflation as a result of Trump's so-called Liberation Day of global trade tariffs is a good reason to take a 'wait-and-see' approach to adjusting interest rates, with the market all but certain the Fed will hold rates steady again later this month. In June, Trump renewed his attack on Powell as U.S. debt topped $37 trillion. "I don't know why the board doesn't override (Powell)," Trump posted to his Truth Social account in a lengthy message in which he branded Powell a 'moron" and heavily criticized Fed policy that he claims is costing the U.S. $1 trillion per year in interest payments. "Maybe, just maybe, I'll have to change my mind about firing him? But regardless, his term ends shortly."
Yahoo
20 minutes ago
- Yahoo
3 Defense Stocks to Buy as NATO Pledges to Boost Spending
Defense stocks have been on a significant rally this year, especially those in Europe. This is because investors expect a massive increase in defense spending over the coming years. President Donald Trump aggressively courted NATO allies to boost their defense budgets to 2% of GDP in his first term. Now, he's doing the same, but this time wit the target of 5% of GDP. Palantir Just Launched Warp Speed for Warships. Does That Make PLTR Stock a Buy? This Analyst Just Doubled His Price Target on AMD Stock How High Can Nvidia Stock Go as Jensen Huang Heads to China? Markets move fast. Keep up by reading our FREE midday Barchart Brief newsletter for exclusive charts, analysis, and headlines. All NATO countries except Spain have agreed to raise their defense spending to 5% of GDP by 2035. BTIG believes that this could double the export opportunity for U.S. contractors. Two-thirds of European military equipment imports are already American. U.S. defense stocks could soon follow in the footsteps of European ones and surge. Lockheed Martin (LMT) was dealt a significant blow earlier this year when it lost the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) contract to Boeing (BA), but that doesn't mean it's out of the fight. Lockheed is a dominant name in defense contracting, supplying everything from fighter jets to supporting the Patriot missile system. It has a backlog of $173 billion. Fresh demand from European countries could send demand soaring even more. Lockheed Martin's F-35s should be one of the first products to benefit as NATO members look to upgrade their air forces. For instance, Denmark is apparently considering purchasing more F-35s than it initially planned. Revenue increased 4% in Q1, and earnings per share of $7.38 beat estimates of $6.35 by a nearly 15% margin. Based on the ratings of 23 analysts, the mean price target here is $524.41, implying around 10.5% upside potential. If European allies make good on their commitments, it is likely that LMT will see a significant bump in growth. Price target hikes should follow suit. Outside of the U.S., Europe accounts for more than half of Northrop Grumman's (NOC) international revenue, and that total could soar significantly as NATO countries pledge to ramp up defense spending. Overall, the company did report a nearly 7% decline in revenue in the first quarter. Earnings per share of $3.32 were down 47% from the year-ago period. Northrop Grumman attributed these results to the planned wind down of some of its space systems projects, and higher manufacturing costs associated with ramping production. Positives in Q1 included $1.4 billion in contracts to support Poland's air and missile defense systems, and the company has recently signed memorandums of understanding for work in Romania and Lithuania. Its backlog is currently at $92.8 billion, which it says is 'inclusive of strong international bookings.' Looking ahead, the mean analyst price target is at $540.90, implying 3.6% upside potential. Kratos Defense & Security Solutions (KTOS) is a leading company as it pertains to unmanned aerial systems (UAS). These drone systems are in high demand as military conflict increasingly relies on drones. Plus, last week, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced several initiatives to increase American production of drones and military training on these systems. KTOS stock is up 98% in the year to date, and new European contracts could push it much higher. In Q1, Kratos beat earnings estimates on both the top line and the bottom line. EPS came in at $0.12, up from $0.11 in the prior-year period and beating estimates of $0.09. Analysts' mean price target at $46.77 is lower than the current share price, but recent drone-related initiatives could soon see firms raising their price targets. On the date of publication, Omor Ibne Ehsan did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. This article was originally published on Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
The Hill
22 minutes ago
- The Hill
Employees at the nation's consumer financial watchdog say it's become toothless under Trump
NEW YORK (AP) — The lights are on at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau across the street from the White House, and employees still get paid. But, in practice, the bureau has been mostly inoperable for nearly six months. CFPB employees say they essentially spend the workday sitting on their hands, forbidden from doing any work by directive from the White House. The bureau is supposed to be helping oversee the nation's banks and financial services companies and taking enforcement action in case of wrongdoing. Instead, the situation is Kafkaesque: the main function seems to be undoing the rulemaking and law enforcement work that was done under previous administrations, including in President Donald Trump's first term. American consumers can no longer look to the bureau for help when it comes to their checking account, credit card, payday loan, auto loan or mortgage. Trump has neutered the watchdog, employees say, the culmination of a yearslong effort by Republicans who felt the agency often went overboard in its efforts. One current employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the directive forbids staffers from speaking publicly about their jobs, said outsiders would be amazed at how little work is being done. Employees are reluctant even to talk to one another, out of fear that a conversation between two employees would be considered a violation of the directive. Another employee described the drastic shift in mission, from trying to protect consumers to doing nothing, as 'quite demoralizing.' To gain an understanding of what is happening inside the CFPB, The Associated Press spoke with 10 current and former employees, as well as bankers and policymakers who used to interact with the bureau nearly every day but now say their emails and voicemails go into a black hole. The agency's press office doesn't respond to emails. Different approaches Bureau rank-and-file employees and former CFPB officials say they expected the bureau to keep doing its work under 'Trump 2.0,' although likely in a more restrained fashion. In Trump's first term, his then-director Kathy Kraninger took a lighter approach to supervision and enforcement, but still some of the biggest financial settlements in the bureau's history took place during that time. President Joe Biden's choice to run the bureau, Rohit Chopra, took an expansive view of its authority, targeting profitable practices by banks such as overdraft and credit card late fees, as well as investigating companies over credit reporting and medical debt. He even turned a spotlight on big tech companies that have increasingly made inroads into financial services. The CFPB ordered Apple to pay $89 million in fines and penalties for problems related to the Apple Card. Paypal's Venmo is used by millions to split a bill, and the bureau found that payment and funds transfer apps like PayPal and Venmo should fall under the federal consumer protection laws, just like banks. Banks and the financial services industry felt Chopra acted too aggressively, particularly with a proposal to cut overdraft fees to $5 from the industry average of $27 to $35. The bureau estimated the move would save consumers roughly $5 billion a year. The proposal was overturned by Congress with Trump's backing earlier this year. 'We are thankful that the Trump Administration recognized the harm to consumers, the market, and the overall economy posed by the CFPB's overreaches under its prior leadership,' said Lindsey Johnson, president of the Consumer Bankers Association. Under Trump 2.0, the bureau became a main target of the Department of Government Efficiency, then run by Elon Musk, who posted on X that the CFPB should 'RIP' shortly after DOGE employees became embedded at the agency. Through the bureau's acting chief, Russell Vought, the White House issued a directive that CFPB employees should ' not perform any work tasks. ' The administration then tried to lay off roughly 90% of the bureau's staff, or roughly 1,500 employees. Courts have blocked those layoffs, but there is a feeling inside the bureau that the court rulings are only a temporary reprieve. 'Reverse-engineering' Sensing blood in the water, companies that committed wrongdoing, or had open investigations, have lobbied the bureau and the White House for their punishments to be rescinded. Employees at the bureau say the only time their workdays get remotely busy these days is when the White House instructs them to begin rescinding one of these punishments. It often involves 'reverse-engineering' reasons why the bureau, which investigated and found that these companies did harm to consumers, now no longer believes that happened. In 2024, Navy Federal Credit Union agreed to settle claims that it illegally charged overdraft fees to its members. Among the customers at the $180 billion financial institution are Navy service men and women, and veterans. Vought canceled the settlement last month, and Navy Federal will no longer have to pay back $80 million in fees. A spokesman for Navy Federal declined to comment on whether the credit union planned to return those funds to its members, as it originally said it would. In 2023, the auto financing arm of Toyota was found to be illegally bundling products onto car buyers' auto loans, refusing to cancel those products and doing harm to customers' credit scores. Toyota was ordered to refund $48 million to harmed customers. That settlement was rescinded in mid-May. A spokesman for Toyota declined to say whether customers would be reimbursed. 'Companies are lining up to get out of repaying harmed customers,' said Eric Halperin, former enforcement director at the bureau, who resigned earlier this year. It's not just settlements from the Biden era. At the end of Trump's first term in 2020, the CFPB sued the Chicago-based mortgage company Townstone Financial after the company's executives made statements that were seen as discouraging Black homebuyers from applying for a loan with the company. Townstone and its executives fought vigorously with the bureau, saying that words spoken on a podcast or on social media cannot be construed as discrimination or redlining. Courts agreed with the bureau and eventually Townstone settled in November, agreeing to pay a $105,000 penalty. Under Vought, the bureau said it would move to vacate the settlement and would return Townstone's fine. Courts have blocked the dismissal of that settlement, with one judge saying the CFPB wanted to commit 'an act of legal hara-kiri that would make a samurai blush.' The Associated Press sent a list of questions to the White House regarding President Trump's vision for the CFPB. The White House did not respond. While the lack of new initiatives and the scuttling of old ones frustrate employees the most, they also note that even everyday tasks like collecting consumer complaints about financial service companies have largely fallen to the wayside. The CFPB has run a consumer complaint database for nearly a decade, basically an online portal where a consumer uploads a complaint and the bureau then forwards that complaint to the subject company. A report done by the office of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the senior Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, found that the bureau is uploading roughly 2,200 complaints a day compared to the roughly 10,500 complaints it was doing in the months before Trump took office again. Warren came up with the idea for the bureau when she was a law professor at Harvard University. The bureau did take an enforcement action on Friday. The pawn shop chain FirstCash Inc. agreed to pay $9 million in refunds and fines to settle claims that it charged excessive interest rates on loans to armed service members, in violation of the Military Lending Act. FirstCash operates more than 1,000 stores and had net income of $259 million in 2024. Budget Cut The bureau is going to be even further diminished in the coming months. The new budget law signed by Trump earlier this month cuts the CFPB's funding by roughly half, meaning the bureau will be forced into mass layoffs. Senate Democrats are looking for ways to restore that funding. 'The agency is still standing and its mission to protect consumers remains as important as ever,' Warren said in a statement. 'We will fight back using every tool at our disposal.' That said, one supervision employee grimly joked that a 50% budget cut to the bureau will mean little, based on how the bureau is currently operating. 'A 50% cut of nothing is still nothing,' they said. In the meantime, employees go about their mundane routine: They continue to check their email once or twice a day to see if any of their previous work has been slated for being undone. They don't talk to anyone, not even the banks they are supposed to supervise. They wait to be laid off. The only constants are the silence from bureau political appointees or the 'mini funerals' that happen every Friday, when another batch of employees who have decided to leave the bureau voluntarily have their last day. 'I don't think I'll ever work in public service again,' said one current employee, who has been looking for a new job for the past three months.
