Latest news with #NationalDebt
The Independent
05-06-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Trump ‘confused' over Elon Musk's outbursts after leaving DOGE role
Elon Musk criticized President Trump 's "big, beautiful bill" as a "disgusting abomination" on X, leading to White House advisors being "caught off guard." Trump is reportedly "losing patience" and "confused" by Musk's stance, especially after Musk's recent tenure as a special government employee. Musk's opposition stems from the bill's cut to an electric vehicle tax credit, impacting Tesla customers, and Trump's decision to scrap Jared Isaacman's NASA nomination. House Speaker Mike Johnson expressed surprise at Musk's sudden reversal, while Kentucky Senator Rand Paul and other fiscal conservatives support Musk's concerns about the bill adding trillions to the national debt. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Musk's opinion didn't change the President's stance, while Trump aides have suggested that while Trump can be forgiving, he does not easily forget slights.
Forbes
25-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
If They're Telling You Why Treasury Yields Are Up, They Don't Know Why
PHILADELPHIA - FEBRUARY 11: Blank Social Security checks are run through a printer at the U.S. ... More Treasury printing facility February 11, 2005 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As U.S. President George W. Bush travels the country to stump for his plan to change the Social Security system, opposition continues from some members of Congress and senior citizen groups concerned that the proposal would erode guarantees to the federal retirement program. (Photo by William) Everyone's got an answer for why Treasury yields have jumped recently. Yet no one knows why. Crucially, they don't know why precisely because they think they have an answer for the movements of the most information-pregnant income streams in the world. Please read on. Let's start with the obvious: all known information is already built into market prices. So when markets move in a seemingly sudden way, that's a signal of an unknown rather than known having revealed itself. Which means it logically wasn't the Moody's downgrade. Not only have past downgrades predicted exactly nothing about the future direction of Treasury yields, it's most useful to point out that ratings agencies are merely reacting to what's already known. And what's known is already priced. That's why the level of the national debt, $36 trillion and counting, similarly wouldn't be a mover of Treasury yields in either direction. Think about it. Particularly with debt at $36 trillion, and much more than that according to the crisis-driven scolds who point out the future liabilities that aren't funded, why would $1 trillion more, less, or in between mean anything? Sorry, but something so routinely commented on by politicians, economists and pundits couldn't possibly be a sudden source of new information. More realistically, total federal debt is the most priced information in the world. The Trump tax cuts? Oh please. Try to be serious. The same tax cuts that have been commented on by those same politicians, economists and pundits day after day for months would hardly move Treasuries based on House passage. The tax cuts were a known. A major known. Everyone with a pulse knew there would be something, and the something was hardly unlike the something that had been in the news since Trump's re-election in November. Ok, but Treasury yields are still up relative to where they were a few weeks ago, so it must be one of the above pushing them up, right? Not necessarily. As of Friday, the yield on the 10-Year Treasury note was around 4.5090, and two weeks ago it was around 4.38. This has to be Moody's, the national debt (!), the Trump tax cuts, or the so-called 'bond market vigilantes' imposing discipline on the markets! Stop, please stop! Has there ever been a more ridiculous notion than 'bond market vigilante'? The latter implies that occasionally a few or many desperados enter the Treasury markets, selling everything in sight with an eye on bringing discipline or whatever to Washington. It's all so mindless. The vigilante narrative imagines markets populated by sellers only, except that a seller requires a buyer to transact on his, her or – gasp – some computer's pessimism about the quality of future government income streams. But that's a digression. What about the jump in yields from 4.38 in May 11 to 4.5090 on May 23rd? Well, what about it? On January 12, 2025 the yield on the 10-year was 4.7740. Yes, the 10-year was even cheaper in mid-January before Moody's, before passage of the Trump tax cuts, and before the national debt crossed into the $36 trillion territory. Despite all this, an endless string of pundits has seen fit to explain the recent jump in Treasury yields; Treasuries the most owned assets in the world and once again the most information-pregnant assets in the world. Oh, the conceit! Oh, the empty, information-bereft commentary. If they're telling you why Treasury yields are up, they most certainly don't know why.
The Guardian
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Jimmy Kimmel on Republicans' proposed mega-bill: ‘Takes from the poor and gives to the rich, brazenly'
Late-night hosts dig into Donald Trump's 'big, beautiful' mega-bill and US homeland security secretary Kristi Noem not knowing the meaning of habeas corpus. Republicans are 'hard at work in Washington right now', said Jimmy Kimmel on Wednesday evening, 'working late, struggling to pass Trump's big, beautiful budget bill.' 'He's even having a hard time getting the Republicans on board with this one,' Kimmel noted, as according to the congressional budget office, the bill would add trillions of dollars to the national debt. 'But Trump has a plan for that too,' said Kimmel. 'He's going to fire all the people who keep track of the national debt.' 'Democrats think the bill is terrible, and many Republicans don't think it's terrible enough.' But Mike Johnson, the speaker of the House, was confident. 'Nothing in Congress is ever easy,' he said, but House Republicans were 'going to land this plane'. 'Yes, and they're going to land it in Newark,' Kimmel quipped. The bill 'literally takes from the poor and gives to the rich, brazenly', he added. 'Republicans like the Robbin' part, just not the Hood.' 'And Trump, the Tariff of Nottingham, he probably doesn't even know what is in this bill,' which includes slashing cancer research by 31%. 'The guy who puts McNibbles in his body and shellacks his own skin while he's out playing 48 holes of golf every weekend, is the last person who should be cutting cancer research,' Kimmel joked. The host listed more of the bill's demerits: it would cut Medicaid, slash tax credits for climate-friendly energy sources, raise taxes on universities, eliminate a tax on gun silencers, open public lands to drilling and logging and make deep cuts to food stamps. 'And then these people go to church on Sunday and they say 'Amen'. It's really amazing,' Kimmel marveled. The good news – 'if there is any good news', Kimmel continued – is that Elon Musk appears to be 'crawling back into his hole'. Appearing at the economic forum in Qatar, the South African billionaire said he would be doing 'a lot less' political spending in the future. Asked why, he answered: 'I think I've done enough.' 'Some might even say you've done too much,' Kimmel retorted. 'That means a lot coming from a guy who doesn't think 14 kids is enough. I wonder if Qatar would take him as a gift?' 'You know the old saying 'mo money mo problems?' Well, if that's true, America is about to have a lot fewer problems,' said Stephen Colbert on Wednesday's Late Show, 'because Trump's economy is headed down the golden toilet to join all those nuggets'. According to a new study, over half of US companies will have to raise prices due to Trump's draconian tariffs. 'No, not companies! That's where I get things!' bemoaned Colbert. 'What am I supposed to do now – make things?' In other news, on Wednesday, the US formally accepted Qatar's gift of a luxury jet to use as Air Force One, despite widespread criticism. 'I know, I know, there's no stopping it now,' said Colbert to loud boos from the audience. 'Unless, it's landing at Newark.' Trump's love of free jets seems to have inspired his secretary of homeland security Kristi Noem, who has been crisscrossing the country for photo-ops at immigration raids. Last minute changes to the Coast Guard's proposed budget include a request for a new $50m luxury jet for Noem's personal use. 'What the hell is going on – first Trump, now Noem?' Colbert wondered. 'Come on guys, what's wrong with Greyhound? You know their motto: Greyhound – the bathroom door is meant to swing open like that.' That's not the only Noem news ruffling feathers – at a Senate hearing this week, Noem did not seem to know about habeas corpus, the foundational right dating back to English common law that says a person cannot be detained by the government without trial. 'Without habeas corpus, your government could just pop a bag over your head and drop you in a hole and nobody gets to say nothing,' Colbert explained. 'But evidently, Secretary Noem did not know that.' Asked directly what habeas corpus is, Noem answered: 'a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country'. 'No, that is extra-large wrong,' Colbert responded. 'Well, the first amendment means Donald Trump is always first in line,' he added, imitating Noem. 'The second amendment means he always gets seconds, and no one gets Miranda rights because he's more of a Charlotte.'
