Latest news with #Feigenbaum
Time of India
07-08-2025
- Business
- Time of India
'A slow-motion catastrophe': Trump is setting fire to decades of US-India diplomacy
Live Events The US-India relationship wasn't an accident Trump's recent steps are transactional, threatening, and deeply political The deeper shift We've seen this before, just look at China What's at risk Washington would take political risks to strengthen the relationship. Not anymore. 'Trump has not and clearly will not.' Sensitivity on Pakistan was a quiet but essential aspect of diplomacy. Trump's embrace of Islamabad, especially post-terror attacks, has 'raised obvious concerns in New Delhi that this too has gone by the wayside.' Third-party relations were tolerated, even when mistrusted. Now, the US is moving to 'sanction and tariff India over its oil trade with Russia.' Moderation in tone helped both sides avoid escalation. Trump, Feigenbaum writes, has 'done no such thing, slamming India and even calling it a 'dead economy.'' Bipartisan support was a bedrock principle. Today, 'the Congress Party… now spearheads bashing US-India relations in New Delhi, while Bush's Republican Party successor bashes India in near-daily social media barrages.' And when trust is gone? Final warning (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel Let's rewind to the early 2000s. After years of Cold War estrangement, the US and India had started laying bricks for a more equal, strategic partnership.A landmark nuclear deal, military cooperation, booming two-way investment, and a growing ecosystem of shared interests in technology, education, and regional security made the once-distant democracies closer than that foundation is now under serious strain, according to Evan A. Feigenbaum, a former US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia under George W. Bush and now a vice president at the Carnegie Endowment for International in Emissary, Carnegie's publication on global affairs, Feigenbaum says Donald Trump's recent moves could unravel twenty-five years of US-India relationship, once touted as a cornerstone of global democratic cooperation, is beginning to look fragile. And it's not because of a war or a failed summit. It's because of tariffs, tweets, and what one expert calls a toxic blend of 'blunt coercion,' 'gross interference,' and 'a cynical effort to 'blame India'.'Feigenbaum has warned that Donald Trump is 'in the process of dismantling' the very relationship that US diplomats, Indian leaders, and multiple administrations painstakingly built since the early argues that Trump is not just breaking diplomatic norms, he's politicising the relationship in ways that risk turning India from a strategic partner into a domestic punching getting to the rupture, it's worth remembering the work that went into the the 2005 civil nuclear deal to joint military exercises, technology partnerships, and growing people-to-people ties, the relationship grew because both sides saw long-term value in each other, even when short-term frictions Feigenbaum noted, 'After more than two decades of bipartisan effort to transform the relationship between New Delhi and Washington, including during his own first term, US President Donald Trump is now in the process of dismantling this painstakingly built relationship.'The transformation, he says, wasn't easy. It required political risks. And above all, it required trust. That trust, he warns, is eroding lays out a string of actions by Trump that have hit India where it's most sensitive:Trump froze trade negotiations with India and slapped on a 25% baseline tariff, while extending leniency to China. The contrast wasn't lost on New Delhi, which read it as being punished despite being a 'friend.' Then, in a late-night executive order, Trump doubled down, imposing another 25% ad valorem duty on a wide range of Indian goods. The move pushes tariffs on many Indian exports up to 50%, putting India on par with Brazil in Trump's tariff August 4, Trump announced the additional 25% tariff over India's oil imports from Russia. Feigenbaum calls it 'blunt coercion, gross interference in Indian foreign policy... and a cynical effort to 'blame India' for the West's (and Trump's own) collective failure to get Moscow to stop its war on Ukraine.'Trump has threatened more tariffs because of India's participation in the BRICS grouping with Brazil, China, Russia, South Africa, and others, which Feigenbaum says New Delhi views as 'not surprisingly… gross interference and coercive.'Trump has criticised US companies manufacturing in India and encouraged them to invest at home or face penalties. That, Feigenbaum writes, 'has sharpened the intuitive and inherent contradiction between Trump's 'America First' and Modi's 'Make in India' visions.'Trump hosted Pakistan's army chief at the White House and offered Islamabad a better tariff rate (19%) and cooperation on oil -- 'within weeks of a terrorist attack on India' that killed 26 civilians. This has amplified concerns in New Delhi that the old fault lines on Pakistan are resurfacing in US bigger danger, Feigenbaum argues, is not just the tariffs or sanctions. It's the domestic politicisation of the relationship, on both sides. 'Trump's actions, statements, and coercive tone have made relations with the United States a combustible domestic political issue in India,' he India, opposition parties and the media are now openly criticising the government for not standing up to Washington. In the US, India is increasingly caught in debates over H-1B visas, offshoring, immigration, and tech this, Feigenbaum says, is new and dangerous. 'Can it be long before relations with India also become a football in American domestic politics?'He warns that 'issues that directly touch India are among the most partisan and explosive in Washington', and if those issues start defining the bilateral relationship, the shared strategic interests that held the partnership together may not anyone thinks this is an overreaction, Feigenbaum points to China as a cautionary tale.'American commercial, technology, and societal ties with China became far deeper than they are with India. Yet after four decades of exponential growth and deep connections, those ties have rapidly unravelled in a few short years amid shifting strategic calculations and changed domestic politics.'That's the warning: deep ties are not immune to rupture. Especially when politics turns them into lists five foundational assumptions that kept the US-India relationship intact. All five, he says, are now under strain:Feigenbaum warns: 'Trust is hard to build, harder to sustain, and hardest of all to rebuild once it evaporates in a morass of politicisation.''I can personally attest that it took a hell of a lot of work by a hell of a lot of people in both countries to overcome the overhang of partisanship, politicisation, and history.'Feigenbaum hasn't forgotten the drama that nearly derailed the US-India civil nuclear agreement in 2008. What seemed like a historic breakthrough, three years in the making, almost fell apart not because of foreign resistance, but due to political infighting in India.'I remember how close it came to collapsing,' he said, referring to the landmark 2005 agreement that was meant to cement strategic ties between Washington and New Delhi. 'We were on the verge of losing it all because of domestic politics.'In July 2008, then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government faced a no-confidence vote after the Left Front, a key outside supporter, pulled back in protest of the nuclear the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) suddenly in the minority, Indian politics turned inward and chaotic. Ironically, some parties that had long backed stronger US-India ties voted against the government, not necessarily over policy, but political deal narrowly survived, but only after the Samajwadi Party, a regional player with a base in Uttar Pradesh, threw its weight behind Singh. 'It took last-minute support from parties outside the ruling coalition,' he recalled, underscoring how the survival of a game-changing diplomatic agreement came down to raw political then, diplomacy was the casualty of domestic politics. Today, Feigenbaum believes the two are fused. 'Politics almost killed diplomacy once,' he said. 'Now it's starting to define it.'What he's pointing to isn't just history, it's a foreign policy today operates in a more overtly political arena, shaped by domestic pressures, polarised narratives, and electoral calls the current moment a 'slow-motion catastrophe.' Not because the relationship has broken down yet, but because all the signals point to a dangerous future.'Too few of those who rah-rah about the US-India strategic partnership seem to remember how close the nuclear deal came to being lost.'His message is clear: once politicised, trust evaporates fast, and rebuilding it is harder than starting from isn't about tariffs. It's about the US and India had wasn't perfect, but it was built with intention, through diplomacy, bipartisan consensus, and a willingness to navigate disagreements quietly. That architecture is now under Trump's vision dominates, where every relationship is transactional and every partner must choose sides, then the US-India bond may not survive the if that happens, it won't just be a policy failure. It'll be a geopolitical rupture.'To those who think America and India have much to gain and even more to lose in a rupture, the repoliticisation of US-India relations is a slow-motion catastrophe.'
Indianapolis Star
08-06-2025
- Business
- Indianapolis Star
What does the end of the penny mean? Here's what experts are saying
Penny for your thoughts? Or maybe they are worth a nickel now that the Treasury Department is following President Donald Trump's suggestion to stop making pennies. Last month, the Treasury Department placed its last order of blanks – flat metal discs to make pennies – in a move set into motion by President Donald Trump in February. He argues that the coin costs more than 3 cents to produce (actually 3.69 cents, according to the U.S. Mint). Now that we know it's curtains for the coin, many questions arise. What does the demise of the penny mean for consumers and collectors? Could the last pennies be valuable? Here's what we know. MIA Money: $1.7 trillion sits in lost and forgotten 401(k) accounts. Is one of them yours? Doubtful. The U.S. Mint made about 3.2 billion pennies in 2024, according to its annual report, so there will be billions of 2025 pennies available. "There's nothing, statistically, that says they should become valuable," John Feigenbaum, publisher of rare coin price guide Greysheet and executive director of the Professional Numismatists Guild (PNG), a nonprofit organization composed of many of the nation's rare coin experts, told USA TODAY. The coin's legacy could be akin to the 1976 bicentennial quarter, Feigenbaum said. "Everybody, at the time, was hoarding them (and) you couldn't find bicentennial quarters in change. Now people have plastic bags full of them and they're still worth 25 cents," he added. However, the 2025 pennies could have an alternative value as an entry point to collectors. "This would surely spike demand … in other Lincoln pennies, like the ones that go all the way back to 1909," Feigenbaum said, adding that the Lincoln penny, which first featured the 16th president in that year, has had "quite a run." Parents could get a Lincoln penny coin collecting book – options include those from Whitman Publishing, which also publishes Greysheet – and talk to their children about "American history, and who this Lincoln guy is and what would the different designs be all about," Feigenbaum said. Not if you are hoping for them to be valuable. Just as there has been misleading hype about the value of some Lincoln wheat pennies, there may be misinformation about the increased value of 2025 pennies. That's nonsense, Feigenbaum said. They are "not going to be" more valuable, according to Feigenbaum, who said he favored getting rid of the penny. Maybe it's a good time to take all those coins gathering dust in a cup or piggy bank to the bank or a Coinstar machine. The average home has $60-$90 in coins at home, according to the Federal Reserve. Are your old pennies worth millions?: Experts say you shouldn't bank on it Maybe. Not making pennies will nix out the more than $179 million it costs taxpayers to make them, based on figures from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the department formerly connected to Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. The U.S. Mint estimates that not making pennies will save $56 million in material costs, with additional savings from better and more efficient production, CNBC reported. 'For every penny that the United States government prints, we're actually losing money. So, it's a net cost to the federal government,' said Raymond Robertson, director of the Mosbacher Institute for Trade, Economics and Public Policy at the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University, in a news release. But the lack of pennies likely means more reliance on nickels, which cost even more to produce – 13.78 cents, the U.S. Mint says. If the U.S. Mint makes more nickels, "It actually is going to increase costs for the government,' Robertson said. 'So, it's really not clear how much cost savings the government will realize by eliminating the penny," he added. One of the bills (H.R. 1270) introduced in the House of Representatives (technically, Congress holds the power to eliminate a currency) also proposes getting rid of the nickel, too. There is no time frame for prices to be set in five-cent increments – a move to change all those prices ending in 49 or 99 cents to the nearest five cents due to lack of pennies – but they will likely eventually, said Bill Maurer, dean of the School of Social Sciences at the University of California, Irvine, and director of UCI's Institute for Money, Technology and Financial Inclusion. When there are not enough pennies for stores and other retailers to make change, businesses will need to round up or down, the Treasury Department said, according to The Wall Street Journal. For the time being, merchants can keep prices as they are, but the 18% to 20% of Americans who rely on cash could eventually pay a rounded-up price, based on 5-cent increments. "If someone comes to you with cash, you round up, right? So if you're kind of doubly screwed if you're poorer," Maurer told USA TODAY. Other countries that have eliminated low-denomination coins – Australia, Canada and New Zealand, among them – have resulted in differing outcomes, with some prices rounding up and some down, according to As the move to eliminate coin and paper currency continues, a publicly-accessible digital payment system will be needed so that consumers of all income levels can participate, Maurer said. But the loss of physical currency removes a redundancy in the monetary system that's invaluable during disasters and emergencies, according to Maurer. "The more dependent on cashless methods of payment we become, the more risk we place ourselves when there are emergencies or disasters, because you need a well-functioning cash system," he continued. Contributing: Fernando Cervantes, Daniel de Visé and Melina Khan. Mike Snider is a reporter on USA TODAY's Trending team. You can follow him on Threads, Bluesky, X and email him at mikegsnider & @ & @mikesnider & msnider@
USA Today
08-06-2025
- Business
- USA Today
What does the end of the penny mean? Here's what experts are saying
What does the end of the penny mean? Here's what experts are saying Show Caption Hide Caption Penny production in US to end, Treasury Department says After 233 years, the U.S. this month will officially end penny production, according to statements from the Treasury Department. Penny for your thoughts? Or maybe they are worth a nickel now that the Treasury Department is following President Donald Trump's suggestion to stop making pennies. Last month, the Treasury Department placed its last order of blanks – flat metal discs to make pennies – in a move set into motion by President Donald Trump in February. He argues that the coin costs more than 3 cents to produce (actually 3.69 cents, according to the U.S. Mint). Now that we know it's curtains for the coin, many questions arise. What does the demise of the penny mean for consumers and collectors? Could the last pennies be valuable? Here's what we know. MIA Money: $1.7 trillion sits in lost and forgotten 401(k) accounts. Is one of them yours? Will pennies be more valuable if the US stops making them? Doubtful. The U.S. Mint made about 3.2 billion pennies in 2024, according to its annual report, so there will be billions of 2025 pennies available. "There's nothing, statistically, that says they should become valuable," John Feigenbaum, publisher of rare coin price guide Greysheet and executive director of the Professional Numismatists Guild (PNG), a nonprofit organization composed of many of the nation's rare coin experts, told USA TODAY. The coin's legacy could be akin to the 1976 bicentennial quarter, Feigenbaum said. "Everybody, at the time, was hoarding them (and) you couldn't find bicentennial quarters in change. Now people have plastic bags full of them and they're still worth 25 cents," he added. However, the 2025 pennies could have an alternative value as an entry point to collectors. "This would surely spike demand … in other Lincoln pennies, like the ones that go all the way back to 1909," Feigenbaum said, adding that the Lincoln penny, which first featured the 16th president in that year, has had "quite a run." Parents could get a Lincoln penny coin collecting book – options include those from Whitman Publishing, which also publishes Greysheet – and talk to their children about "American history, and who this Lincoln guy is and what would the different designs be all about," Feigenbaum said. Should I horde 2025 pennies? Not if you are hoping for them to be valuable. Just as there has been misleading hype about the value of some Lincoln wheat pennies, there may be misinformation about the increased value of 2025 pennies. That's nonsense, Feigenbaum said. They are "not going to be" more valuable, according to Feigenbaum, who said he favored getting rid of the penny. Maybe it's a good time to take all those coins gathering dust in a cup or piggy bank to the bank or a Coinstar machine. The average home has $60-$90 in coins at home, according to the Federal Reserve. Are your old pennies worth millions?: Experts say you shouldn't bank on it Getting rid of pennies. Will it save the US money? Maybe. Not making pennies will nix out the more than $179 million it costs taxpayers to make them, based on figures from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the department formerly connected to Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. The U.S. Mint estimates that not making pennies will save $56 million in material costs, with additional savings from better and more efficient production, CNBC reported. 'For every penny that the United States government prints, we're actually losing money. So, it's a net cost to the federal government,' said Raymond Robertson, director of the Mosbacher Institute for Trade, Economics and Public Policy at the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University, in a news release. But the lack of pennies likely means more reliance on nickels, which cost even more to produce – 13.78 cents, the U.S. Mint says. If the U.S. Mint makes more nickels, "It actually is going to increase costs for the government,' Robertson said. 'So, it's really not clear how much cost savings the government will realize by eliminating the penny," he added. One of the bills (H.R. 1270) introduced in the House of Representatives (technically, Congress holds the power to eliminate a currency) also proposes getting rid of the nickel, too. What will the demise of the penny mean to prices? There is no time frame for prices to be set in five-cent increments – a move to change all those prices ending in 49 or 99 cents to the nearest five cents due to lack of pennies – but they will likely eventually, said Bill Maurer, dean of the School of Social Sciences at the University of California, Irvine, and director of UCI's Institute for Money, Technology and Financial Inclusion. When there are not enough pennies for stores and other retailers to make change, businesses will need to round up or down, the Treasury Department said, according to The Wall Street Journal. For the time being, merchants can keep prices as they are, but the 18% to 20% of Americans who rely on cash could eventually pay a rounded-up price, based on 5-cent increments. "If someone comes to you with cash, you round up, right? So if you're kind of doubly screwed if you're poorer," Maurer told USA TODAY. Other countries that have eliminated low-denomination coins – Australia, Canada and New Zealand, among them – have resulted in differing outcomes, with some prices rounding up and some down, according to As the move to eliminate coin and paper currency continues, a publicly-accessible digital payment system will be needed so that consumers of all income levels can participate, Maurer said. But the loss of physical currency removes a redundancy in the monetary system that's invaluable during disasters and emergencies, according to Maurer. "The more dependent on cashless methods of payment we become, the more risk we place ourselves when there are emergencies or disasters, because you need a well-functioning cash system," he continued. Contributing: Fernando Cervantes, Daniel de Visé and Melina Khan. Mike Snider is a reporter on USA TODAY's Trending team. You can follow him on Threads, Bluesky, X and email him at mikegsnider & @ & @mikesnider & msnider@ What's everyone talking about? 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Indianapolis Star
11-05-2025
- Business
- Indianapolis Star
Are your old pennies worth millions? Experts say you shouldn't bank on it
Do you own an old penny worth as much as a million dollars? Experts say it's highly unlikely. You may have seen one of many headlines blasted online lately about valuable pennies in circulation, "Lincoln Wheat Penny Worth $124M You Could Have at Home" reads one, but the reality is most pennies are worth one cent or possibly a bit more. Reality does not meet the hype, according to one expert. "There are million-dollar pennies, but there are no $100 million pennies," said Donn Pearlman, spokesman for the Professional Numismatists Guild (PNG), a nonprofit organization composed of many of the nation's rare coin experts. "Only a few Lincoln cents dated 1909 to 1959 with the wheat stalks design on the back ("wheat pennies") have sold for $1 million or more." The most valuable U.S. coin ever, a $20 gold piece, a 1933 "Double Eagle" coin, sold for $18.9 million at auction in 2021. The most valuable pennies, which are rare but possibly still in circulation, are 1943 copper Lincoln wheat pennies, a few of which were produced accidentally as the U.S. mints were supposed to use zinc to save copper for the World War II effort, said John Feigenbaum, publisher of rare coin price guide Greysheet. In rare cases, some 1943 pennies have sold for $1 million, while one went for more than $200,000 at an auction in 2019. Big Lots: Retailer set to open more than 70 stores: Is your store on the list? Depending on their condition, those 1943 Lincoln wheat pennies would be worth at most between $100,000 and $250,000, Feigenbaum told USA TODAY. But the likelihood of having a near-priceless penny is similar to "saying your lottery ticket might be worth $100,000. Of course, anything is possible, right? But not likely," said Feigenbaum, who is also the PNG's executive director. So-called "wheat pennies" get their name from the back of the coin having stalks of wheat encircling the "One Cent" text. They were produced from 1909 to 1958. In 1959, the wheat stalks were shorn and pennies began displaying an engraving of the Lincoln Memorial. Most Lincoln wheat pennies are not super-valuable and are worth just a few cents more than one cent. However, some may escalate into the hundreds of dollars, depending on the condition and when minted. Certain vintages, especially with minting errors, may be worth thousands. You can see the NGC price guide here. But headlines about super-valuable "Lincoln wheat pennies" stretch the imagination. Most likely, the headlines are created by artificial intelligence to drive traffic to a website, Feigenbaum said. "These coins are improbably in people's change," he said. Still, all the online-stirred interest has resulted in "coin shops being inundated with these folks who believe they have something rare, but they don't," according to Feigenbaum. Increased interest in coins has led to overvalued coins being sold on eBay and Etsy, plus there are counterfeit Lincoln wheat pennies made in China being hawked. "If I've seen these coins ... somebody is every now and again being taken advantage of," Feigenbaum said. Even though the most valuable coins are usually in collections and have very publicly been "sold and resold," Feigenbaum said, sometimes people may inherit a cache of well-preserved coins or purchase some at an estate sale. Mike Snider is a reporter on USA TODAY's Trending team. You can follow him on Threads, Bluesky, X and email him at mikegsnider & @ & @mikesnider & msnider@
Indianapolis Star
11-05-2025
- Business
- Indianapolis Star
Are your old pennies worth millions? Experts say you shouldn't bank on it
Do you own an old penny worth as much as a million dollars? Experts say it's highly unlikely. You may have seen one of many headlines blasted online lately about valuable pennies in circulation, "Lincoln Wheat Penny Worth $124M You Could Have at Home" reads one, but the reality is most pennies are worth one cent or possibly a bit more. Reality does not meet the hype, according to one expert. "There are million-dollar pennies, but there are no $100 million pennies," said Donn Pearlman, spokesman for the Professional Numismatists Guild (PNG), a nonprofit organization composed of many of the nation's rare coin experts. "Only a few Lincoln cents dated 1909 to 1959 with the wheat stalks design on the back ("wheat pennies") have sold for $1 million or more." The most valuable U.S. coin ever, a $20 gold piece, a 1933 "Double Eagle" coin, sold for $18.9 million at auction in 2021. The most valuable pennies, which are rare but possibly still in circulation, are 1943 copper Lincoln wheat pennies, a few of which were produced accidentally as the U.S. mints were supposed to use zinc to save copper for the World War II effort, said John Feigenbaum, publisher of rare coin price guide Greysheet. In rare cases, some 1943 pennies have sold for $1 million, while one went for more than $200,000 at an auction in 2019. Big Lots: Retailer set to open more than 70 stores: Is your store on the list? Depending on their condition, those 1943 Lincoln wheat pennies would be worth at most between $100,000 and $250,000, Feigenbaum told USA TODAY. But the likelihood of having a near-priceless penny is similar to "saying your lottery ticket might be worth $100,000. Of course, anything is possible, right? But not likely," said Feigenbaum, who is also the PNG's executive director. So-called "wheat pennies" get their name from the back of the coin having stalks of wheat encircling the "One Cent" text. They were produced from 1909 to 1958. In 1959, the wheat stalks were shorn and pennies began displaying an engraving of the Lincoln Memorial. Most Lincoln wheat pennies are not super-valuable and are worth just a few cents more than one cent. However, some may escalate into the hundreds of dollars, depending on the condition and when minted. Certain vintages, especially with minting errors, may be worth thousands. You can see the NGC price guide here. But headlines about super-valuable "Lincoln wheat pennies" stretch the imagination. Most likely, the headlines are created by artificial intelligence to drive traffic to a website, Feigenbaum said. "These coins are improbably in people's change," he said. Still, all the online-stirred interest has resulted in "coin shops being inundated with these folks who believe they have something rare, but they don't," according to Feigenbaum. Increased interest in coins has led to overvalued coins being sold on eBay and Etsy, plus there are counterfeit Lincoln wheat pennies made in China being hawked. "If I've seen these coins ... somebody is every now and again being taken advantage of," Feigenbaum said. Even though the most valuable coins are usually in collections and have very publicly been "sold and resold," Feigenbaum said, sometimes people may inherit a cache of well-preserved coins or purchase some at an estate sale. Mike Snider is a reporter on USA TODAY's Trending team. You can follow him on Threads, Bluesky, X and email him at mikegsnider & @ & @mikesnider & msnider@
