Fed's Bostic says he's 'leaning' toward just one rate cut this year
Atlanta Fed Chair Raphael Bostic told CNBC on Monday that he currently prefers only one rate cut this year as the central bank tries to balance potential upward pressures on inflation with worries of a recession.
The U.S. central bank released projections in March that pointed toward two quarter-point rate cuts in 2025. However, Bostic said Monday that the tariffs have been larger than the Fed expected at the start of the year.
"For me right now, I'm expecting it's going to take a bit longer for that to sort out. ... I'm leaning much more into one cut this year, because I think it will take time, and then we'll sort of have to see," Bostic said on "Squawk Box."
The Federal Reserve has a dual mandate to support maximum employment and stable prices. Worries about inflation flared up again last week when a consumer sentiment survey showed Americans were worried about the potential of tariffs to push inflation higher. When asked about which side of the mandate he is more worried about, Bostick focused on a potential rise in prices.
"I worry a lot about the inflation side, and mainly because we're seeing expectations move in a troublesome way. ... That will make our job harder," he said.
Bostick is not currently a voting member of the Federal One Market Committee, which sets interest rate policy.
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USA Today
43 minutes ago
- USA Today
Trump's throwing himself a parade while red and blue states join LA in protest
Trump's throwing himself a parade while red and blue states join LA in protest | Opinion I don't know whether June 14 will mark an inflection point, but it will offer a staggering contrast between the power-drunk despotism of Trump and the 'Aw, hell no' attitude of many Americans. Show Caption Hide Caption Armored tanks arrive in DC for Trump's military birthday parade As Washington, D.C. prepares for the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army, armored tanks have begun to arrive ahead of Saturday's celebration. The false narrative, since President Donald Trump's administration provoked protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Los Angeles, has been that it's a blue-city problem in a blue state with a liberal governor who can't control his citizens. But when protests over Trump's draconian immigrant crackdown and his authoritarian presidency spread across the country, as they will likely do on June 14 with "No Kings" protests expected in more than 2,000 cities and towns, the California narrative will swiftly go 'Poof!' We've already seen anti-ICE protests bubble up in the deep-red state of Texas, with more to follow June 14. Will the No Kings protest in Abilene, Texas, prompt Trump to send in U.S. Marines, as he has done in Los Angeles? Trump won't send the Marines into red states to deal with protesters Neither will the protests planned for Tupelo, Mississippi, or Eureka Springs, Arkansas, or Sebring, Florida, or Worland, Wyoming. But what they will do is show the president, who will be plunked in Washington, DC, watching an entirely unnecessary $45 million military parade that just so happens to coincide with his 79th birthday, that Americans are angry, and not just the ones in those disreputable blue states. Opinion: After LA, Trump hard launches new First Amendment – only MAGA can protest I don't know whether June 14 will mark an inflection point, but it will certainly offer a staggering contrast between the power-drunk despotism of President Trump and the 'Aw, hell no' attitude of a growing swath of the U.S. population. Sen. Padilla in handcuffs was the latest sign of Trump's authoritarianism On June 12, Americans saw video of a U.S. senator, Alex Padilla, being grabbed and dragged out of an LA news conference featuring Kristi Noem, head of the Department of Homeland Security. Padilla was asking a pointed question before being hauled off and then, in the hallway outside, pushed face first to the ground and handcuffed. That's a good way to boost turnout at this weekend's protests. DHS head Kristi Noem says feds are there to 'liberate' LA Almost as chilling as the administration's manhandling of a sitting U.S. senator was what Noem said during the press conference about the U.S. military presence in Los Angeles: 'We are not going away. We are staying here to liberate the city from the socialists and the burdensome leadership that this governor and that this mayor have placed on this country and what they have tried to insert into the city.' Opinion: Trump's military show of force in LA and DC camouflage his failing presidency That kind of gives away the whole game: Trump administration officials think they can send federal troops into a city and indulge in some causal 'regime change' under the pretense of a bunch of made-up nonsense. That's wildly un-American. Yet U.S. soldiers on June 14 will be forced to take part in a sprawling parade that's at least partially in homage to a man who thinks that's how America is supposed to work? What are we even doing here, folks? 'No Kings' protests will give voice to nationwide disapproval of Trump What has transpired in LA has nothing to do with it being a blue city in a blue state with a Democratic governor. It has to do with the American people, most of whom don't like masked federal goons grabbing their neighbors off the streets and not giving them due process. It has to do with many voters who were promised that President Trump would only target 'dangerous' immigrants, not friends and neighbors, or people who've been part of a community for years. It has to do with Americans who see the handcuffing of a U.S. senator for no justifiable reason as anti-democratic and a dangerous escalation. The big and small protests that will soon envelop small towns and big cities in all 50 states will show Trump and his 'lie first, then lie some more' administration that many Americans reject government-sponsored cruelty. The No Kings events will show the president and his people they can't fool all the people all of the time ‒ not even close. The booing of Trump will only get louder Trump and first lady Melania Trump were booed, rightfully, at the Kennedy Center when they arrived for a musical on June 11. The president's approval rating stinks, and a new Quinnipiac poll found him underwater on every issue, from immigration to trade to the economy. A recent poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that 60% of Americans don't think Trump's military parade is a good use of taxpayer money. Opinion alerts: Get columns from your favorite columnists + expert analysis on top issues, delivered straight to your device through the USA TODAY app. Don't have the app? Download it for free from your app store. So here's what's going to happen Saturday. Trump's narrative that liberal strongholds like Los Angeles are bastions of radical protesters will be soundly derailed by the appearance of protesters in states red, blue and purple. The hypocrisy of his calling out California Gov. Gavin Newsom and claiming the state is out of control will be highlighted by the fact that Trump says the same thing about red-state governors dealing with widespread protests. Trump himself will be scowling, hopefully in the rain if the weather forecast holds, as the soldiers he forced to march in front of him go by, their tanks and other vehicles needlessly tearing up the streets of the nation's capital. That mandated, wildly expensive parade to satisfy one small man's ego will be drowned out by myriad protests that will collectively deliver to Trump a message from a growing number of Americans: 'You stink.' Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on Bluesky at @ and on Facebook at
USA Today
43 minutes ago
- USA Today
How will Trump's immigration crackdown in California impact the economy?
How will Trump's immigration crackdown in California impact the economy? Show Caption Hide Caption National Guard major general clarifies military's role in Los Angeles National Guard Major General Scott Sherman outlined the role of military personnel in Los Angeles and said troops will not conduct arrests. President Donald Trump's administration is stepping up deportation efforts in California with immigration raids at restaurants, traffic stops and routine legal check-ins. The immigration crackdown, while popular with voters in polls, has sparked protests in Los Angeles. Long term, economists warn that fewer immigrants could take a hit to the economy, prompting labor shortages and slowing economic growth. "Immigrants play a huge role in the California economy,' said Giovanni Peri, an economics professor at the University of California, Davis. Without immigrants, 'there will be less economic growth. Less opportunity, also, for local companies and American workers.' 'Wave of panic': Businesses are in crosshairs of Trump immigration crackdown Why the U.S. is 'immigrant dependent' The country's economy has become 'very immigrant dependent,' according to Christopher Thornberg, founding partner at Beacon Economics, a Los Angeles research and consulting firm. About 479,000 U.S.-born workers were added to the labor force over the last five years compared with 3.6 million foreign-born workers, according to an October report from the National Foundation for American Policy, a nonpartisan research organization. The report pointed to a spike in immigration and retirements, coupled with a slowdown in U.S.-born working-age population growth. In California, immigrants make up roughly one-third of workers and comprise an outsized share of the workforce in physically intensive sectors like construction and agriculture. Critics say these workers are lowering wages for American-born citizens or taking away jobs. But Peri said that doesn't pan out in the data. Immigrants may reduce wages for native-born Americans with competing skills, according to Harvard economics professor George Borjas, but it slightly increases the income of native-born citizens overall. A separate 2024 working paper co-authored by Peri found immigrants had no significant effect on wages for those born in the U.S. who are college educated and a positive effect on wages for their American-born peers who are less educated. Instead, Peri said immigrants are filling the holes in industries struggling to hire. Immigrants account for 28% of care workers in long-term care settings, according to the nonprofit health policy organization KFF. In California, immigrants make up 44% of manufacturing jobs and 40% of construction jobs, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank based in Washington D.C. Some of those jobs are held by undocumented workers. About 1.8 million people, or 17% of immigrants in California, were undocumented as of 2022, according to Pew. The vast majority – 1.4 million – had no legal protections through programs like Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals or active asylum claims. "It would be lovely to deal with this with an expansion of the legal immigration system,' Peri said. 'But lacking that, undocumented immigrants are doing a lot of these jobs. And losing some of them would make the situation worse.' Pushing away immigrants, Peri argues, prevents companies from growing and creating more jobs that would benefit U.S.-born workers. One 2024 analysis from Jamshid Damooei, executive director of the Center for Economics of Social Issues at California Lutheran University, found work from undocumented employees created an additional 1.25 million jobs in California. And because the vast majority of undocumented immigrants are not criminals, but people who have been part of their local communities for years if not decades, 'in the majority of cases, the effects of just indiscriminately deporting these people is going to have very little benefit for the American people,' Peri said. Revenue vs. cost It's true that immigrants add costs for the government; they benefit from public education, health services and other state-specific policies. But research generally finds immigration tends to raise the federal government's revenue more than its costs, with immigrants adding an estimated $1.2 trillion in federal revenues between 2024 and 2034, according to the Congressional Budget Office. State and local governments' costs tend to increase more than their revenues from a surge in immigration, but Peri said the rise in immigration is a net benefit overall. Even undocumented workers, Peri argued, boost the government's coffers because they pay a considerable amount of taxes. At the same time, they are ineligible for most federal benefits like Social Security and food stamps. Undocumented immigrants contributed $8.5 billion in state and local taxes in 2022, according to a 2024 study from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a nonpartisan think tank. Trump and Newsom: Trump's battle with Newsom, California expands beyond immigration What happens if the immigration crackdown continues? Thornberg doesn't expect Trump to deport every undocumented worker in the country, and views the crackdown in California as 'more of a blown-up spectacle' that 'may get tied up in the courts.' Already, Trump has said he would back off certain deportation efforts to avoid labor shortages in areas like agriculture and hospitality. 'Our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace,' Trump said in a June 12 post on Truth Social. 'Changes are coming!' While an immediate labor shortage is unlikely, Thornberg believes we're more likely to see people discouraged from coming to the U.S. in the years to come, resulting in a tighter labor market. That could mean higher wages for workers as companies step up recruitment efforts, but it would slow economic growth overall. Trump's efforts to constrain immigration during his first term played out in a similar fashion; by 2019, the unemployment rate had dropped to 3.5%, its lowest level since 1969, with earnings up 3.5% from 2018. Meanwhile, economic growth slowed to 2.3%, down from 2.9% the year prior, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Peri said a tight labor market could have ripple effects across the economy, such as driving up the cost to produce certain items. Companies may be more inclined to import cheaper goods at a time when the Trump administration is pushing for more U.S. manufacturing through tariffs. 'This could have a cascade of effects,' he said. 'There is no doubt at all that immigration and immigrants who do those simple, manual jobs are very important at making the economy go.'
Miami Herald
44 minutes ago
- Miami Herald
Miami airport is offering help for travelers with impaired vision. How it works
Miami International Airport is making it easier for vision-impaired travelers to navigate the terminals. The airport has added a free app to its accessibility lineup that works through a phone's camera. Travelers using the software, called ReBokeh, can change the color and then zoom in to what the camera is pointing to at the airport, enhance their vision. And an AI feature gives extra guidance through the airport. 'Miami is such an incredible gateway, not only into the U.S. but into the rest of the world,' said Rebecca Rosenberg, CEO of the software firm ReBokeh Vision Technologies, based in Baltimore. 'They see such an incredible mass of travelers, being one of the largest, busiest airports in the country,' she said. 'We just felt like it was an incredible opportunity to have a large amount of impact and connect with many low-vision travelers, not just those who are passing through Miami as Americans but individuals who are coming into the U.S.' What the app does and other help The ReBokeh app, now in use at MIA, is the second app for those with vision impairments at the airport, following Aria, which launched in 2019. Both apps provide a similar experience. ReBokeh lets travelers independently use the app to move around. The app can help read signs, focus in on arrival and departure monitors, find a restaurant for a shop, and translate into other languages, according to the airport. The Aria service uses a live agent to speak and help users with their vision. Both vision helpers are a part of the airport's MyMIAccess program, which helps travel with accessibility issues. The program also includes automated wheelchairs introduced last year. Cost benefit at the Miami airport Airport Director and CEO Ralph Cutié said the goal is to help everyone interact with MIA. 'We have a long and proud history of helping customers and being sensitive with disabilities,' he said, 'and this is just one more program that we're offering.' While the app is free for travelers and can be downloaded from the Apple store, it costs the airport $9,000 annually for the service subscription. 'The subscription is $9,000 but it allows us to provide the service for free for all of our passengers,' he said. 'Multiply that by how many people could come through here with that impairment, it's a bargain.'
