Indonesia cuts a trade deal with the US
Trade officials the world over will now use the Indonesia deal as a measure of their own ability to do business with the US.
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News.com.au
3 hours ago
- News.com.au
Trump to tour Fed as war on central bank chief ramps up
Donald Trump is due to visit the US Federal Reserve Thursday as the president escalates his pressure on its chairman Jerome Powell over the central bank's management of the economy. Trump -- who wants to oust Powell for refusing to lower interest rates but likely lacks the legal authority -- has threatened instead to fire the Fed chief over cost overruns for a renovation of its Washington headquarters. The White House did not specify whether Trump would meet Powell, who has vowed to remain in place until the end of his term next May, but the president would likely welcome any encounter. The afternoon tour comes with Trump desperate to shift focus from the crisis engulfing his administration over its decision to close the file on multi-millionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who died in 2019 while awaiting trial on trafficking charges. Attorney General Pam Bondi informed the president in the spring that his name appeared in the Epstein files, according to the Wall Street Journal. Trump has picked all manner of targets, including his Democratic predecessors and former chiefs of the security and intelligence services, as he bids to move Epstein out of the headlines. He again berated Powell on Wednesday, moments after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had appeared on television to claim Powell's job was safe. "Housing in our Country is lagging because Jerome 'Too Late' Powell refuses to lower Interest Rates," Trump thundered on his social media platform, Truth Social. Presidential visits to the Federal Reserve are not unheard of -- Franklin D. Roosevelt, Gerald Ford and George W. Bush all made the trip -- but they are rare. They have been viewed in the past as an attempt to influence monetary policy. Trump has criticized Powell for months over his insistence on keeping short-term interest rate at 4.3 percent this year, after cutting it three times last year, when Joe Biden was in office. Powell says he is monitoring the response of the economy to Trump's dizzying array of import tariffs, which he has warned could lead to a hike in inflation. But Trump has angrily accused Powell of holding back the economy, calling the man he nominated in his first term "stupid" and a "loser." - Threats and abuse - Soaring costs for the Fed's renovation of its Washington headquarters and a neighboring building -- from an initial $1.9 billion to $2.5 billion -- have caught Trump's attention. Trump's budget director Russell Vought wrote to Powell earlier this month to tell him the president was "extremely troubled by your mismanagement of the Federal Reserve System." "Instead of attempting to right the Fed's fiscal ship, you have plowed ahead with an ostentatious overhaul of your Washington, D.C. headquarters," Vought wrote. The Federal Reserve, the world's most important central bank, makes independent monetary policy decisions and its board members typically serve under both Republican and Democratic presidents. Its 12-member Federal Open Market Committee votes on any decisions concerning interest rates and can in theory disagree with the views of the chairman. Experts question whether Trump has the authority to fire Powell, especially since a Supreme Court opinion in May that allowed the president to remove other independent agency members but suggested that this did not apply to the Fed. When asked last week if the costly rebuilding could be grounds to fire Powell, Trump said, "I think it is." Before the visit, Trump plans to sign executive orders at the White House on Thursday afternoon, as he continues to face pushback from his supporters over his handling of the Epstein case. Justice Department officials were to interview Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's imprisoned accomplice on Thursday in her cell in Tallahassee, Florida, US media reported. ft/bgs
Sydney Morning Herald
7 hours ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
A new book aims to fix housing affordability, but there's a better solution for Victoria
Melbourne's time in the property price doldrums could be over, ending a dream run for first home buyers in the Victorian capital. But it wasn't only the politics of Abundance, the economics book that's sitting on the nightstands of federal cabinet members, that got us there. The new book by US-based journalists Derek Thompson and Ezra Klein calls for deregulation to ease supply-side restrictions on housing and other vital industries to make houses (as well as healthcare and clean energy) more affordable, accessible and abundant. It doesn't deviate from conventional economic wisdom in this regard, and it's been widely read in Canberra. Its ideas are likely to be part of the discussion at next month's productivity summit. Australia's political system already has a neoliberal consensus; there is bipartisan support to grow the economy by making it easier for corporations to do business and for capital to flow. This same logic is already applied to the housing market, visible in our recent preference for supply-side solutions. One key area where Thompson and Klein hit the nail on the head, however, is the negative effect that restrictive zoning has on housing supply. Victoria has been building more new homes per person than NSW for years, but, like much of Australia, it still faces challenges from local councils to promote infill development and improve housing access in inner Melbourne. It's against this backdrop that the latest house price figures were released on Thursday. Victoria's affordability achievement was modest; house prices in Melbourne are 2.7 per cent below their December 2021 peak on Domain data, but remain unaffordable to most. Melbourne's median is $1,064,000, Sydney's is $1,722,000, and Brisbane's $1,060,000. However, lending data show first home buyers made use of the 3½-year window to purchase. Loading 'It was good, it has to be seen as good, prices did come down a bit,' AMP chief economist Dr Shane Oliver says. 'That would have provided some opportunities for first home buyers that they wouldn't have otherwise had. 'But affordability is still relatively poor in Victoria, it's just not as bad as some other places – Sydney, Brisbane and even Adelaide.'
SBS Australia
7 hours ago
- SBS Australia
Australia lifts biosecurity controls on US beef imports
Australia lifts biosecurity controls on US beef imports Published 24 July 2025, 9:20 am The White House has trumpeted Australia's decision to relax restrictions on US beef imports as an example of the US making 'Agriculture Great Again'. The Australian government is also under pressure to explain a lack of transparency over a major payment to the US for AUKUS amid the ongoing trade negotiations.
