Deputy Treasury Sec. Michael Faulkender: We're close to the finish line on a couple of trade deals
Deputy Treasury Secretary Michael Faulkender joins 'Squawk Box' to discuss the U.S.-China trade tensions, whether China violated the trade agreement with the U.S., state of U.S. trade negotiations with other countries, and more.
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Yahoo
27 minutes ago
- Yahoo
These 10 Historical Figures Are on U.S. Money. Here's When Harriet Tubman Will Join Them
Here's what you'll learn when you read this story: American currency as we know it today has been in circulation since 1792. Founding Fathers, past presidents, and a selection of other notable historical figures appear on the country's paper bills and coins. There are ongoing efforts to add women like Harriet Tubman and Eleanor Roosevelt to U.S. money. The history of U.S. currency and the many distinguished individuals featured on American paper bills and coins is a long, winding road. Upon its founding in 1776, the United States had what was known as Continental currency in circulation for many years. Nearly two decades later, in April 1792, the U.S. dollar was created as the official American currency. The fictional Lady Liberty was the main symbol on U.S. coins at the time, but in 1909, Abraham Lincoln became the first U.S. president to appear on American money. Founding Fathers and other deceased presidents, including Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, have since joined him. In recent years, the general public has taken an interest diversifying the people depicted on their money. New designs are being considered for cash and coins to represent a wider breadth of historical symbols and figures who have helped define America. While Harriet Tubman's portrait is set to be the new face of the $20 bill (a rollout that's still several years away), images of Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'I Have a Dream' speech, Marian Anderson's 1939 opera concert at the Lincoln Memorial, and a portrait of Eleanor Roosevelt are planned for the reverse side of the new $5 bill. The Treasury has also announced suffragists Lucretia Mott, Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Alice Paul are expected to be featured on the reverse side of the $10 bill. Of all the redesigns, the $10 bill is expected to be the first, but it won't be ready until 2026 and will take until 2028 to be in circulation. Beyond these major redesigns, the U.S. Mint regularly releases special edition coins that often promote notable Americans. For example, the January 2025 release of the American Innovation $1 Coin, a series honoring innovation and inventors in each state, features naval engineer Raye Montague. Another series, American Women Quarters, celebrates the achievements of women, including journalist and suffragist Ida B. Wells, Girl Scouts founder Juliette Gordon Low, and tennis player Althea Gibson. To help you keep track of which famous faces regularly appear on U.S. money, we've assembled a rundown of the people and unique features on standard currency, from the penny (it's not going anywhere just yet) to the $100 bill, as of this year. To mark the centennial of President Abraham Lincoln's birth, the Lincoln penny was produced and issued in 1909. Designed by Victor David Brenner, it was the first U.S. coin that featured a portrait and the first to include the motto 'In God We Trust.' Two wheat stalks flanked the denomination's reverse side for decades (leading to this version's nickname, the wheat penny), along with the words 'United States of America' and the Latin phrase E Pluribus Unum, which translates as 'Out of many, one.' Since 2010, the tails side has featured the Union shield. This marks the most recent of the Lincoln penny's three major redesigns, with earlier overhauls in 1959 and 2009. This May, the U.S. Mint announced plans to stop producing new pennies, though the 1-cent coin will still be in circulation. In 1938, artist Felix Schlag won a U.S. Mint competition to redesign the five-cent coin. His entry for the Jefferson Nickel replaced the Buffalo Nickel that same year. From its initial production to today, the nickel continues to be one of the most popular coins in circulation among collectors. The obverse side, or heads side, shows President Thomas Jefferson's portrait with the inscriptions 'In God We Trust' and 'Liberty.' The reverse is a portrait of his Monticello plantation, along with the inscriptions E Pluribus Unum and 'United States of America.' In honor of Franklin D. Roosevelt's death in 1945, the Roosevelt dime was quickly secured and minted the following year. It replaced the Mercury dime, the version of the 10-cent coin that had been in circulation since 1916. Despite the fact that President Roosevelt led the nation through the Great Depression and most of World War II, the Roosevelt dime was actually issued in honor of his personal and philanthropic fight against polio, which led to the founding of the March of Dimes. Designed by Chief Engraver John R. Sinnock, the Roosevelt dime features the president's portrait with the word 'Liberty' on the left and 'In God We Trust' sitting below. The reverse side features a freedom torch surrounded by olive and oak branches, the symbols for peace and victory. As with other U.S. coins, the phrases 'United States of America' and E Pluribus Unum appear. The Washington quarter was first minted in 1932 in celebration of President George Washington's 200th birthday. The bicentennial committee originally wanted a temporary Washington half-dollar issued to honor the first president, but when Congress got involved, half-dollar plans were scrapped. Instead, the Washington quarter permanently replaced the Standing Liberty quarter. Although the committee vied for sculptor Laura Gardin Fraser's design of Washington's portrait, then–Treasury Secretary Andrew W. Mellon ultimately got his wish and chose the design of sculptor John Flanagan. Starting in 2022, Fraser's portrait made it on the quarter at last. The design notably features Washington facing to the right instead of the left as in Flanagan's version. For decades, an eagle and an olive branch graced the quarter's back side, but since 1999, there have been a slew of reverse side designs. This has included images to honor all 50 states as well as various national parks, historic sites, and American territories. Prominent women in history—such as actor Anna May Wong, aviator Bessie Coleman, and singer Celia Cruz—have also appeared. For one year only, in 2021, the quarter's reverse side depicted a scene of Washington crossing the Delaware. John F. Kennedy became the face of the half dollar in 1964, a year after his assassination. The obverse side of the 50-cent coin features a portrait of Kennedy designed for his presidential medal, while the reverse shows the Presidential Seal. Before JFK, the coin previously portrayed Benjamin Franklin and, from 1916 to 1947, 'Walking Liberty.' Although the Kennedy half dollar was mainly produced for annual coin sets starting in the early 21st century, the U.S. Mint began ordering them for circulation again in 2021. Designed by Glenna Goodacre, the Sacagawea Golden Dollar shows the Lemhi Shoshone woman carrying her infant son, Jean Baptiste. Thomas D. Rogers Sr. designed the reverse side of the coin, which features a soaring American bald eagle. Although the coin, issued from 2000 to 2008, was minted as a 'Golden Dollar,' it doesn't actually contain any of the precious metal. Other historical figures have appeared on additional versions of the dollar coin. This includes Susan B. Anthony as well as the first 41 presidents, with the exception Jimmy Carter, as part of the Presidential $1 Coin Program. Dollar coins are no longer in production, but you might still spot them (and use them!) in circulation. It wasn't until the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 that currency became standardized for the country's economic stability. By then, much of the design components of the $1 bill were already set in place—its color, borders, and phraseology—as they had long been in use. As one of the oldest U.S. currency designs still in use today, the $1 bill features an image of George Washington (based on Gilbert Stuart's Athenaeum Portrait) on the obverse, while the reverse shows the Great Seal of the United States. The design dates back to 1963, though Washington first graced the dollar in 1869. Before Abraham Lincoln's portrait first debuted on the $5 bill in 1914, seven other men secured a transitory spot on the denomination, including Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, Oncpapa Chief Running Antelope, and President James Garfield. The bill's current image of Lincoln is based on Anthony Berger's 1864 portrait of the president. In 1928, the reverse side was redesigned to feature the Lincoln Memorial after previously depicting a vignette of Christopher Columbus sighting land. In 2008, the $5 bill debuted a high-tech redesign to deter counterfeits. Its front includes the color purple, an imprint of The Great Seal of the United States to the right of Lincoln's face, and a band of stars. On the back, the bold purple '5' watermark at the bottom right stands most conspicuously, along with a sprinkle of yellow 5s to the top right, among its security features. Prior to Alexander Hamilton, a variety of notable figures appeared on the $10 bill, including politician Daniel Webster, explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, and President Andrew Jackson. But starting in 1929, Hamilton became the statesman of choice, and the imprinted portrait you see of him today is based on a 1805 painting by John Trumbull. As the nation's first Treasury secretary, Hamilton is one of two non-presidents to be featured on U.S. paper currency (the other is Benjamin Franklin). While Hamilton's portrait is seen on the front, the reverse shows the U.S. Treasury Building. Although a great deal of new technology, such as watermarks and color-shifting ink, has been added to the $10 bill, the biggest change for this denomination is still to come. In 2015, the Treasury announced a woman would replace Hamilton as the new face of the denomination in 2020. However, due to security concerns, the redesign has been delayed until 2026. As a man who wanted to abolish paper money, President Andrew Jackson would've found it quite ironic that his face sits on the $20 bill. While he is seen on the denomination's front side, adorned with watermarks and green and peach hues, the White House is imprinted on the backside. In 2016, it was announced that abolitionist Harriet Tubman would replace Jackson as the new face of the $20 bill starting in 2020, but two years later, then–Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin announced the decision would be halted until 2028 for security reasons. President Joe Biden's administration said it was 'exploring ways to speed up' the release of the Tubman $20 in January 2021, but the change isn't scheduled to take effect until 2030. Since 1913, Civil War hero and the 18th U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant has been the face of the $50. While many people wonder why Grant was chosen to be on this particular bill, no one really knows the answer. The reverse side of Grant's portrait features the U.S. Capitol, though the earliest iterations included images of Panama, a merchant, and a battleship. Blue and red colors were added on both sides of the bill beginning in 2004, and micro-printed words such as 'Fifty' and 'USA' surround Grant's face, along with a watermark of the American flag to his right. Benjamin Franklin had many titles—Founding Father, inventor, diplomat—but U.S. president wasn't one of them. Still, Franklin began gracing one of the most desirable of denominations, the $100 bill, starting in 1914. A massive redesign in 2013 features Franklin slightly to the left of a quill pen, inkwell, and the Declaration of Independence, along with holographic watermarks and black light technology. The reverse side presents an image of Independence Hall in Philadelphia, the first building outside of Washington D.C. to be seen on any American money. You Might Also Like Nicole Richie's Surprising Adoption Story The Story of Gypsy Rose Blanchard and Her Mother Queen Camilla's Life in Photos
The Hill
an hour ago
- The Hill
Warren asks if X violating sanctions with ‘blue checks'
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) raised concerns Wednesday about whether Elon Musk's X is violating sanctions by reportedly allowing members of terrorist organizations to obtain 'blue checks.' In a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and national security adviser Marco Rubio, Warren pointed to a recent report finding that sanctioned individuals from al-Qaeda, Hezbollah and the Houthis had been allowed to obtain the checkmarks and the benefits that come with them. 'Although X's official policies state that its premium services are off limits for those subject to U.S. sanctions, in practice, X nevertheless appears to have facilitated payments for terrorists and other sanctioned individuals,' Warren wrote. The Massachusetts Democrats underscored that X Premium users receive other advantages beyond the blue check, including revenue-generating features that allow users to 'transfer cash or cryptocurrency to sanctioned individuals.' 'In essence, X allowed its platform to be transformed into a sanctions-evasion service for individuals that threaten the safety of Americans on a daily basis,' Warren said in Wednesday's letter. 'These revelations raise serious questions about whether X is breaking the law and endangering the safety of Americans – and about whether the Treasury Department is prepared for the deluge of illicit, sanctions-evading transactions that will occur if platforms like X are able to create their own stablecoins, as proposed by the GENIUS Act,' she added. Warren has been a fierce opponent of the GENIUS Act, a bill that would create a regulatory framework for payment stablecoins. She has argued that the legislation doesn't go far enough to prevent Big Tech firms, like X, from launching their own stablecoins and lacks restrictions blocking President Trump and his family from profiting off the industry. The bill cleared a key early hurdle on the Senate floor last month, garnering support from more than a dozen Democrats. However, many have indicated they want to see changes to the GENIUS Act before voting for final passage. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) has vowed a return to so-called 'regular order,' allowing for an open amendment process on the floor that would permit more tweaks to the legislation but threatens to slow its progress. A key point of contention has become the Credit Card Competition Act, which Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) has offered up as an amendment to the GENIUS Act. The bill, which is co-sponsored by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), would require large financial institutions to provide an option other than Visa or Mastercard to process credit card transactions. The legislation has been aggressively opposed by the credit card industry, which argues it would enrich major retailers and force credit card companies to do away with popular rewards programs.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
The big mistake Labour think Nigel Farage has made - and how the chancellor hopes to capitalise
Next week, the chancellor will unveil the first spending review since 2021. It will set Whitehall budgets for the remainder of this parliament and it will be a big moment for a government struggling to tell a story about what it is trying to achieve to voters. Rachel Reeves, flanked by transport workers in a bus depot in Rochdale, knows it. She came to the North West armed with £15bn of funding for trains, trams and buses across the Midlands and the North. Much more will be announced next week when the chancellor sets out her capital spending plans for the remainder of the parliament, having loosened her fiscal rules in the budget for capital investment. More is coming. Next week, the chancellor is expected to announce plans to spend billions more on a new railway line between Manchester and Liverpool, as well as other transport schemes for northern towns and cities. This will be the backbone of the "Northern Arc" that Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham has been arguing for as a northern version to the much-vaunted Oxford-Cambridge growth corridor. Labour will pour £113bn into capital investment over the course of this parliament and there is an economic and political imperative for a chancellor to talk up capital spending in rail and roads, houses, power stations. On the economic side, she is in search for growth and hopes investment in infrastructure will create jobs and fire up the economy. On the politics, Labour need to show voters in their red wall seats that it is the Starmer government and not Nigel Farage that will improve the lives of working people. Ms Reeves spent a lot of time in her speech talking about the need to invest right across the country. She is overhauling the Treasury's "Green Book" that assesses value for money for public projects to make sure that funding decisions don't just get concentrated in the South East but are weighted to the Midlands and the North. She also, in reiterating her commitment to her fiscal rule to not borrow to fund day-to-day government spending (the annual budgets for our schools, councils, courts, police, hospitals), sought to draw out the "choice" between Labour and Reform, as Labour seeks to capitalise on Mr Farage's decision last week to promise up to £80bn worth of new spending - including scrapping the two-child benefit cap and increasing winter fuel payments - while not explaining exactly how they could be paid for. Expect to hear lots more from Labour in the coming weeks about how Mr Farage is an iteration of Liz Truss, ready to pursue "fantasy economics" and trash the economy. Labour are gleeful that Mr Farage has opened up this line of attack and think it was an uncharacteristic political misstep from the Reform leader. Read more:We asked AI to do Rachel Reeves' job "Farage was a politician for vibes, now he's turned himself into a politician of policy and he didn't need to do that yet," observed one senior Labour figure. But if that is the sell, here is the sting. While the Chancellor has loosened her fiscal rules for capital spending, she is resolute she will not do the same when it comes to day-to-day departmental spending, and next week harsh cuts are on the way for some departments, with Yvette Cooper at the Home Office, Angela Rayner at local government, and Ed Miliband at energy still wrangling over their settlements. Ms Reeves was at pains in Rochdale to talk about the extra £190bn the government has put into day-to-day spending in this parliament in order to see off the charges of austerity as those spending cuts kick in. Her allies point to the £300bn in total Ms Reeves has poured into capital projects and public services over this parliament. "You just can't say we aren't a tax-and-spend government," said one ally. But this isn't just a chancellor fighting Mr Farage, she is also battling with those in her own party, under extreme pressure to loosen her fiscal rules, or tax more, as MPs - and her prime minister - demand she spends more on welfare and on getting the UK warfare-ready. You can see it all playing out. After a local election drubbing, the chancellor U-turned on her seemingly iron-clad decision to take the winter fuel allowance away from all pensioners. Now, I'm hearing that the prime minister is pressing to lift the two-child benefit cap (no matter his chief of staff is opposed to the idea, with the cap popular with voters) and MPs are demanding a reverse to some disability cuts (one government insider said the backbench revolt is real and could even force a defeat despite Sir Keir's whopping 165-strong working majority). Meanwhile, the prime minister is under pressure from US President Donald Trump for NATO to lift defence spending to 3.5% of GDP. Spending demands and rising borrowing costs, there is no wonder that attention is already moving towards possible tax rises in the Autumn budget. Ms Rayner, the deputy prime minister, wrote to the chancellor, arguing for targeted wealth taxes. Andy Burnham, the Greater Manchester mayor, told me this week on Electoral Dysfunction that he wanted more taxes on assets and a revaluation of council tax bands so those with large, valuable homes pay more. "We have not taxed assets and wealth properly and I'd come up with something that can be controversial but council tax has not been revalued since the early 90s so there are homes in London worth tens of millions of pounds that pay less council tax than many average properties here in Greater Manchester so I would look at reforms in that space," Mr Burnham told me this week. "I would look further at land taxation and land taxation reform. If you put in new infrastructure, what I learned through Crossrail, Elizabeth Line - you lift the values of that land. "So why don't we capture some of that uplift from that? I personally would go for a land value tax across the country. So there are things that you can do that I think can be seen to be fair, because we haven't taxed those things fairly. "I've said, and I'll say it again, we've overtaxed people's work and we've undertaxed people's assets and wealth and that balance should be put more right." I asked the chancellor on Wednesday if Ms Rayner and Mr Burnham had a point, and would she level with people that taxes might have to go up again as she struggles with spending demands and self-imposed borrowing constraints - she, of course, swerved the question and said the priority for her is to growth the economy. These questions will, I suspect, only get louder and more frequent in the run-up to the budget should borrowing costs continue to go up alongside demands for spending. The chancellor, at least, has a story to tell about rewiring the economy as a means to national renewal. But with the spoils of infrastructure investment perhaps decades off, Ms Reeves will find it hard to frame this spending review as a reboot for working people rather than a kicking for already stretched public services.
