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Miami Herald
5 days ago
- Business
- Miami Herald
Consumers fear inflation as tariffs hit home: Federal Reserve report
It's time to spill the tea. Yorkshire Gold, to be frank. Don't miss the move: Subscribe to TheStreet's free daily newsletter Produced and packaged in the UK, it is the morning libation of choice to please my Anglophile taste buds. And because of the new U.S. tariffs shaking up the global world economy, I just ordered 320 tea bags on Amazon to delay paying a highly probable price increase. I'm not the only hot mess steeping with tariff inflation anxiety. Related: A divided Federal Reserve mulls interest rate cut after wild week The Federal Reserve Bank of New York's Center for Microeconomic Data released the July 2025 Survey of Consumer Expectationson Aug. 7. It shows that U.S. households' inflation expectations are creeping up. Tariffs are a levy or external tax on products and services. President Donald Trump's off-and-on tariffs hit more than 60 trading partners on Aug. 7, with more to be determined. The Yale Budget Lab estimates the average effective tariff rate is 18.3%, the highest since 1934. Some of the proposed tariffs are as high as 50% for countries such as Brazil, which supplies most of the coffee consumed in the United States. The Trump administration expects the new tariff levels to bring billions of dollars into the U.S. Treasury. Much of that revenue has been absorbed by exporters, importers, and businesses since the Liberation Day announcement on April 2. Many economists expect the tariff impacts will now start to trickle down the supply chain and into the prices paid by consumers. It remains to be determined if the tariff experiment will result in a one-time inflationary shock to the economy or will be felt for longer periods. Maximum employment and low inflation with price stability are the Federal Reserve's dual mandate from Congress. The Fed uses interest rates as the benchmark tool to comply with its mandate. Its goals create tension for the independent central bank's task of executing monetary policy. That's because: Higher interest rates lower inflation but increase job interest rates decrease unemployment but increase inflation. President Trump has been highly critical of Fed Chair Jerome Powell and the 12-member Federal Open Market Committee for keeping interest rates steady at 4.25 to 4.50% in part due to potential tariff inflation. The president has been demanding interest rate cuts be slashed by 3 percentage points to accelerate his administration's efforts to keep the U.S. economy out of stagflation or recession. Related: President Trump sends strong message on Federal Reserve Chair decision The CME Group's widely respected FedWatch Tool puts the likelihood of a .25% Fed rate cut at 91.4% in September, with some Fed watchers estimating there might be one or even two additional cuts by the end of the year. The last interest rate cut was in December 2024. The New York Fed'sSurvey of Consumer Expectations contains information about how consumers expect overall inflation and prices for food, gas, housing, and education to act. It also provides insight into Americans' views about job prospects and earnings growth and their expectations about future spending and access to credit. It is an internet-based survey of a rotating panel of approximately 1,200 household heads. More Federal Reserve: GOP plan to remove Fed Chair Powell escalatesTrump deflects reports on firing Fed Chair Powell 'soon'Former Federal Reserve official sends bold message on 'regime change' The main findings from the July 2025 survey are: Inflation expectations in July increased at the one-year horizon to 3.1% from 3.0% and at the five-year horizon to 2.9% from 2.6% month over month. They remained steady at the three-year horizon at 3.0%.Inflation expectations in July increased at the one-year horizon to 3.1% from 3.0% and at the five-year horizon to 2.9% from 2.6% month over month. They remained steady at the three-year horizon at 3.0%.Home price growth expectations remained unchanged at 3.0%. This has been moving in a narrow range between 3.0% and 3.3% since August year-ahead expected change in food prices was unchanged at 5.5%.One-year earnings growth expectations increased by 0.1 percentage point to 2.6% in July, remaining below the trailing 12-month average of 2.8%.Unemployment expectations, or the mean probability that the U.S. unemployment rate will be higher one year from now, dropped 2.3 points to 37.4%, its lowest reading since January expected growth in household income was unchanged at 2.9% in July. Related: Why the Federal Reserve matters so much The Arena Media Brands, LLC THESTREET is a registered trademark of TheStreet, Inc.
Middle East Eye
01-08-2025
- Politics
- Middle East Eye
Reform UK candidate descended from top Muslim scholar rues racist abuse in campaign
A Muslim candidate in Nigel Farage's Reform UK who came second in a recent local election has revealed to Middle East Eye that he faced a storm of Islamophobic and racist abuse during his campaign - and that he wished the party had addressed it publicly. Siddiq Mahmood Malik, widely known as "Sidney", stood in the 24 July byelection in Llanrumney, a predominantly working-class ward in Cardiff in Wales. Malik, a Cardiff resident and descendant of the renowned 19th-century Indian Muslim thinker Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, received 630 votes and lost to a Labour incumbent who received 755. This week, Malik told MEE he faced a barrage of online abuse over his 'Muslim identity' during the campaign. On 6 July, an anonymous X account with over 100,000 followers posted a photo of Malik with the caption: 'Why do Reform keep choosing Muslims for candidates?' New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters The post had received over 600,000 views and over 800 comments at the time of writing, many of which were racist and Islamophobic in nature. Malik is descended from the famous Aligarh founder Sir Syed Ahmed Khan Far-right activist Tommy Robinson's X account shared the post and commented 'I hope people can see it now' in a post that received over 500 comments. Numerous comments also directed anti-Muslim abuse at Reform's former chairman and current head of the its department of government efficiency, Zia Yusuf. 'During my candidacy, I encountered significant challenges, primarily related to my Muslim identity,' Malik told MEE. 'Reform UK was supportive throughout my campaign, and I'm grateful for that,' he added. 'However, I did hope there would be some public acknowledgement of the negative commentary directed at me online - particularly from figures like Tommy Robinson.' MEE asked Reform UK for comment but did not receive a response by the time of publication. Malik added that his ethnic background was 'clearly a point of contention, even among some within the online Reform UK community". "I'm still a member of Reform UK and may remain involved in the future," he said. But, he added: 'I found Reform UK still faces serious challenges with its relationship with Muslim communities and other minority communities. All communities play a role in British national cohesion, our great multiculturalism and contribute to how we're perceived globally.' Sir Syed Ahmed Khan's legacy During the campaign, a spokesperson for Reform UK Wales said that Malik 'is passionate about Reform. It runs in his family as he is a descendant of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, the 19th-century Muslim reformer and scholar'. Khan was an Indian modernist thinker and Anglophile who founded the Aligarh Mohamedan Anglo-Oriental College, modelled on Oxford and Cambridge, after the fall of the Mughal Empire. Khan was an Indian modernist thinker and Anglophile who founded the Aligarh Mohamedan Anglo-Oriental College (Wikimedia Commons) He was avowedly loyal to the British empire and was revered by later generations of Indian Muslim thinkers. Renowned 20th-century philosopher Sir Muhammad Iqbal said of Khan: "The real greatness of the man consists in the fact that he was the first Indian Muslim who felt the need of a fresh orientation of Islam and worked for it." Khan's university exists today in India as the Aligarh Muslim University and has produced many of the subcontinent's most famous politicians. In the early 20th century, it was considered the main recruiting ground for the All-India Muslim League, the party which would found Pakistan in 1947. 'I'm deeply proud of my heritage and of Sir Syed,' Malik told MEE, describing him as 'the first British Muslim knight, and a reformer of education, science, and integration during a time of deep division'. 'In many ways, he inspired me to stand,' he said. Reform's complex relationship with Muslims Opinion polls consistently indicate that Reform, which advocates for the mass deportation of illegal immigrants and has four MPs in parliament, is the most popular party in Britain. It has often been accused of stoking bigotry against Muslims and other minorities, which the party strenuously denies. On the other hand, far-right activists, including Tommy Robinson, have often accused the party of being too pro-Muslim. UK: Nigel Farage blames riots on Andrew Tate and online misinformation Read More » In June Zia Yusuf, who describes himself as a 'British Muslim patriot', resigned as the party's chairman in a shock move following a public row with Reform MP Sarah Pochin after she urged a ban on women wearing the burqa in a parliamentary debate. Party leader Nigel Farage suggested Yusuf quit because he received relentless abuse online from the 'very hard extreme right'. 'When Zia says anything you cannot believe the absolute tirade of personal racist abuse that he gets,' Farage said. 'And I just think he snapped.' But Yusuf rejoined the party just days later, saying his resignation had been a mistake. Malik, while disheartened at the abuse he faced during his own campaign, said he was 'proud to have come a very close second to Labour' in the recent byelection. He said the result signalled that 'many are ready, open-minded, and willing to support my candidacy and hope to one day lead meaningful change on the national stage'. He also said he is working on 'the first British VR [virtual reality] feature film', entitled Once Upon a Time In Britain. 'I aim to empower underrepresented voices and foster understanding through storytelling.'
The Herald Scotland
13-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
Too Much review: Hipster comedy fails to hit the mark
*** Lena Dunham's much-anticipated comedy rocks up with a suitably starry supporting cast. Stephen Fry, Richard E Grant, Naomi Watts, Andrew 'Hot Priest' Scott - everyone wants a piece of Too Much, just as they did Girls, the writer-actor-director's series about twentysomething New Yorkers. Dunham has worked since Girls ended eight years ago, but nothing has had the same impact. So no pressure then as she sends this ten-parter out into the world. Good news: it is a triumph. Bad news: but only in part. The brilliant section is bookended by material so unfunny and irritating I had to scream into a cushion for fear of alarming the dog. Megan Stalter stars as Jessica, a TV producer from Brooklyn who has hit brick walls in her career and love life. Offered a temporary transfer to the firm's London office, Anglophile Jessica cannot resist. She's expecting to find Austenesque estates and Notting Hill chic, but the reality is a rented flat on a council estate and chilly workmates who think the loud American is too much. Felix (Will Sharpe), a grungy but posh indie singer Jessica meets in a pub, likes her lust for life and prefers not to look beyond the bravado. Read more While Salter (Hacks) and Sharpe (The White Lotus) are good individually, they take a long time to convince as a couple. She tries too hard while he goes the opposite way. The rest of the cast turn the kookiness up to 11 and act like they are in a remake of Love Actually. Grim old London gets a cutesy makeover, complete with cheery ambulance staff, and there's even a comedy dog, gawd help us. The whole thing might have been bearable with a laugh or two, but four episodes went by at a glacial pace and nothing. Then a miracle happened. The action moved from London to Brooklyn eight years ago. The first scene was a family dinner, with Dunham as Jessica's sister, Rita Wilson as her mother and Rhea Perlman (Taxi, Cheers) as her grandmother. It was like a switch had flipped and what had been black and white was now a riot of colour. There was a story too, and what a tale it turned out to be - every scene beautifully written, brimming with insight, sad, funny and only too horribly believable. This was a five-star interlude in an otherwise three-star series. Far too soon we were back in London. It wasn't as bad as before, but it had no hope of matching what we had just seen. What went wrong? Was it the curse of streaming, trying to squeeze as many episodes as possible out of the material? Or Dunham straying too far from the world she knew, and captured so well, in Girls? It is no coincidence that everything perked up when she was on screen. That Lena Dunham, older, wiser, vulnerable, was far more interesting than the girls and boys back in London. That Lena Dunham is welcome any day. Just don't leave it so long between laughs next time.
Spectator
11-07-2025
- Politics
- Spectator
Why Northern Ireland hates Paddington
Soaring crime and a growing air of discontent means that few Brits are happy about the state of their nation. There is one man, however, who seems to enjoy this deteriorating country quite a lot: the Ambassador of Japan to the Court of St. James's, Hiroshi Suzuki. Paddington's values have very little to do with what Britishness means in Northern Ireland Suzuki's cheery social media posts, in which he extols the virtues of the United Kingdom as seen through the eyes of an ardent Anglophile, are wildly popular. From sharing photographs of himself drinking ale in the Turf Tavern in Oxford, to making an origami daffodil to promote St. David's Day, the Ambassador seems to be thoroughly happy with life in Britain. Suzuki has one quirk, however, which would make him an antagonist in World War Twee: everywhere he visits, he brings a little Paddington Bear toy with him. Much has been written in these pages and elsewhere on the cult of Paddington, about how this fictional bear has been co-opted by the great and the good as a symbol of Britain's values in our pro-globalisation post-historical society. Paddington is kind and unfailingly polite, has a dry, witty humour, respects traditional institutions, and enjoys marmalade sandwiches. He is also an illegal immigrant, arrived in Britain by way of boat, who was recently given a passport by the Home Office. All of this, naturally, makes him appeal greatly to the lanyard class of progressives. This week, Suzuki visited Northern Ireland, along with Paddington, to carry out his ambassadorial duties and do a little sightseeing. He shared a photograph of the ruins of Dunluce Castle on the northern coast and commented on its 'beautiful scenery'. Over a quarter of a million people saw his post. It was not long before the Paddington toy was whipped out for a photograph, and people gushed over the perceived Britishness of it all. However, Paddington's values – those of a left-wing media class distilled and dumbed down through various layers of appeal-to-children – have very little to do with what Britishness means in Northern Ireland. All of the aforementioned mannerisms and beliefs that are espoused through Paddington about what it means to be British in the twenty-first century have no cultural capital in Northern Ireland. Here, as the reader will no doubt be aware, British Nationalism is vocal, unapologetic, militant, and right-wing. It does not appease, nor does it keep quiet about the problems it faces. Those here who identify as British are proud of their history, culture, and traditions. In many areas of Northern Ireland, especially at this time of year, there are countless marching bands parading through bunting-clad streets. Historical reenactments of events in British history take place, commemorating acts which built the nation. Bonfires constructed in the national colours are topped with icons depicting people perceived to be enemies of Britain, typically Irish flags and images of Irish Nationalist politicians, but more recently controversial sculptures of small boat immigrants. For many in Northern Ireland, this is their British identity: as they see it, they are sticking up for the honour and integrity of the nation that defended them so vehemently against Irish nationalist terror during the Troubles. This is the kind of Britishness that would make Paddington choke on his marmalade sandwich. Yet, like it or not, it is what British nationalism looks like to people here. Indeed, Paddington is not at all representative of what it means to be British in the twenty-first century. He may accurately represent the views of the liberal democrat-voting, FBPE-in-Twitter-bio-having, middle-aged middle-managers who appear to be running this country behind the scenes. He does not, however, speak for the vast majority of Britons who believe that current levels of immigration are too high. In Northern Ireland, only a third of people who self-describe as British believe that immigrants are good for the economy and culture. Paddington doesn't speak for them. Suzuki's love of Britain is infectious. There's no doubt, too, that he is doing a better job than any tourist board in promoting the virtues of the UK. But please, for the sake of places that aren't London: he should leave Paddington at home.
The Herald Scotland
10-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
Lena Dunham is back with a new comedy. It's a shame it's so irritating
*** Lena Dunham's much-anticipated comedy rocks up with a suitably starry supporting cast. Stephen Fry, Richard E Grant, Naomi Watts, Andrew 'Hot Priest' Scott - everyone wants a piece of Too Much, just as they did Girls, the writer-actor-director's series about twentysomething New Yorkers. Dunham has worked since Girls ended eight years ago, but nothing has had the same impact. So no pressure then as she sends this ten-parter out into the world. Good news: it is a triumph. Bad news: but only in part. The brilliant section is bookended by material so unfunny and irritating I had to scream into a cushion for fear of alarming the dog. Megan Stalter stars as Jessica, a TV producer from Brooklyn who has hit brick walls in her career and love life. Offered a temporary transfer to the firm's London office, Anglophile Jessica cannot resist. She's expecting to find Austenesque estates and Notting Hill chic, but the reality is a rented flat on a council estate and chilly workmates who think the loud American is too much. Felix (Will Sharpe), a grungy but posh indie singer Jessica meets in a pub, likes her lust for life and prefers not to look beyond the bravado. Read more While Salter (Hacks) and Sharpe (The White Lotus) are good individually, they take a long time to convince as a couple. She tries too hard while he goes the opposite way. The rest of the cast turn the kookiness up to 11 and act like they are in a remake of Love Actually. Grim old London gets a cutesy makeover, complete with cheery ambulance staff, and there's even a comedy dog, gawd help us. The whole thing might have been bearable with a laugh or two, but four episodes went by at a glacial pace and nothing. Then a miracle happened. The action moved from London to Brooklyn eight years ago. The first scene was a family dinner, with Dunham as Jessica's sister, Rita Wilson as her mother and Rhea Perlman (Taxi, Cheers) as her grandmother. It was like a switch had flipped and what had been black and white was now a riot of colour. There was a story too, and what a tale it turned out to be - every scene beautifully written, brimming with insight, sad, funny and only too horribly believable. This was a five-star interlude in an otherwise three-star series. Far too soon we were back in London. It wasn't as bad as before, but it had no hope of matching what we had just seen. What went wrong? Was it the curse of streaming, trying to squeeze as many episodes as possible out of the material? Or Dunham straying too far from the world she knew, and captured so well, in Girls? It is no coincidence that everything perked up when she was on screen. That Lena Dunham, older, wiser, vulnerable, was far more interesting than the girls and boys back in London. That Lena Dunham is welcome any day. Just don't leave it so long between laughs next time.
