Category Archives: US economy

Climate activists force Fed chair Jerome Powell off stage in New York

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On Thursday protesters chanted: ‘Off fossil finance!’ and held a banner reading: ‘Fed Is Burning: Money, Futures, Planet’

The Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell, was escorted out of an event Thursday afternoon after a group of climate protesters briefly took the stage before he was due to give a speech. He took the stage after a 15-minute delay.

At the Economic Club of New York, protesters stormed the stage holding a banner that read “Fed Is Burning: Money, Futures, Planet” and chanting “Off fossil finance!” Powell, who was on stage, briefly left the event before returning to deliver his speech as planned. Security officials cleared protesters from the room.

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Bond market sell-off sends UK long-term borrowing cost to 25-year high

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Rate tops level last seen after Liz Truss mini-budget as fears of global inflation and US political instability spook markets

Britain’s long-term cost of borrowing has hit its highest level since 1998, as political instability in the US and fears of sustained high levels of inflation triggered a sell-off in global bond markets.

The yield, or interest rate, on 30-year UK government bonds hit 5.115% early on Wednesday, according to the financial data provider Refinitiv.

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McCarthy says hard-right Republicans ‘want to burn whole place down’

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Conference fails to approve procedural motion to take up defense spending bill as government shutdown looms

The House Republican speaker, Kevin McCarthy, was dealt his second humiliating defeat of the week on Thursday, when his conference again failed to approve a procedural motion as members continued to clash over government spending levels with just days left to avert a federal shutdown.

With no clear path forward in Republicans’ negotiations, the House concluded its work on Thursday without any stated plan to reconvene on Friday.

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US inflation in August rose to 3.7% amid sharp increase in energy prices

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Growth in prices still remains far below the decades-high inflation rates that were seen last summer, when rate peaked at 9.1% in June

US inflation in August rose for the first time since June 2022, rising to 3.7% as a sharp increase in energy prices pushed prices up toward the end of the summer.

Growth in prices still remains far below the decades-high inflation rates that were seen last summer, when the rate peaked at 9.1% in June. Still, an increase in inflation means the US economy is further from the Federal Reserve’s target rate of 2% and will likely make officials consider pushing interest rates up later this year.

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Biden hails strength of economy as US adds 187,000 jobs in August

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Number of new jobs matches July’s total, reflecting resilience of labor market even with high interest rates

The US jobs market is holding steady as interest rates sit at a 22-year high, with US employers adding 187,000 jobs in August, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

The number of new jobs added in August is the same as the number of new jobs in July, showing that the labor market, down to levels seen before the pandemic, is resilient even with high interest rates.

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Fed chair warns US inflation battle not over and hints at further rate rises

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Jay Powell tells symposium in Wyoming that inflation is still too high but that US central bank will ‘keep at it until the job is done’

Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell used a closely watched speech on Friday to warn that the fight against inflation in the US is not over.

Speaking at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City’s annual gathering of central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Powell said inflation was still too high and that interest rates may have to rise further to tamp it down.

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Surprise US credit rating downgrade draws White House ire

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Fitch changed the country’s rating from AAA to AA+, citing fiscal deterioration and down-to-the wire debt ceiling negotiations

Rating agency Fitch downgraded the US government’s top credit rating on Tuesday, a move that drew an angry response from the White House and surprised investors.

Fitch downgraded the United States to AA+ from AAA, citing fiscal deterioration over the next three years and repeated down-the-wire debt ceiling negotiations that threaten the government’s ability to pay its bills. It is the second major rating agency after Standard & Poor’s to strip the US of its triple-A rating.

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US economic growth speeds up in second quarter and weekly jobless claims fall

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Economy is being anchored by labor market and businesses are boosting investment, potentially holding off a recession

The US economy grew faster than expected in the second quarter as labor market resilience underpinned consumer spending, while businesses boosted investment in equipment, potentially keeping a much-feared recession at bay.

Gross domestic product (GDP) – a broad measure of economic growth – increased at a 2.4% annualized rate last quarter, the commerce department announced in its advance estimate of second-quarter GDP on Thursday. The economy grew at a 2.0% pace in the January-March quarter. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast GDP rising at a 1.8% rate.

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UK interest rates need to stay higher for longer to beat inflation, says IMF

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US Fed will also have to raise rates more aggressively than forecast, says Washington-based body

Interest rates in the UK will need to stay higher for longer than previously forecast in order to tackle stubbornly high inflation, the International Monetary Fund has warned.

The IMF’s regular update on the state of the global economy singled out the US Federal Reserve and the Bank of England as two central banks that will need to raise official borrowing costs more aggressively than it assumed only three months ago.

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Biden signs debt ceiling bill after months-long standoff, avoiding default

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Kevin McCarthy, the House speaker, secured a number of cuts on federal spending, with the borrowing limit suspended until 2025

Joe Biden signed a bill on Saturday to suspend the US debt ceiling, ending a months-long standoff with the Republican House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, and averting a federal default that could have upended the world economy.

Economists warned that a default could have caused the US unemployment rate to double while significantly damaging gross domestic product.

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Biden praises passage of debt ceiling bill in Oval Office address ahead of signing it

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President described how ‘no one got everything they wanted, but the American people got what they needed’ during brief speech

Joe Biden celebrated Congress’s approval of a debt-ceiling suspension in a speech delivered from the Oval Office on Friday night, a day after the Senate passed the compromise bill brokered by the president and the Republican House speaker, Kevin McCarthy.

Biden described the bill’s enactment as “essential to the progress we’ve made over the last few years” in “keeping full faith and credit of the United States of America and passing a budget that continues to grow our economy and reflects our values as a nation”.

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Joe Biden gives first Oval Office address ahead of signing debt ceiling deal – as it happened

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‘We averted an economic crisis and economic collapse,’ says president in address to the nation about deal, but will not sign bill before Saturday

Here’s more on how the debt ceiling crisis will impact the US’s credit rating, from the Guardian’s Joan E Greve.

The US is not yet out of the woods on a potential credit downgrade, even though Joe Biden is scheduled to sign the debt ceiling bill tonight to avert a federal default.

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Joe Biden hails ‘big win’ as bipartisan debt ceiling bill reaches his desk

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Compromise package to suspend debt ceiling passed US Senate late on Thursday with 63 votes to 36

The bipartisan bill to solve the US debt ceiling crisis just days before a catastrophic and unprecedented default was on its way to Joe Biden’s desk on Friday as the US president prepared to address the nation and hailed “a big win for our economy and the American people”.

The compromise package negotiated between Biden and the House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, passed the US Senate late on Thursday.

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US House to hold final vote on raising debt ceiling ahead of default deadline

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Vote expected to be held at 8:30pm ET and if passed would move next to the Senate for quick approval to protect US from default

The House is set to hold its final vote on raising the debt ceiling Wednesday, as leaders of both parties expressed confidence they will soon clear a major legislative hurdle with just days left before the US is expected to default.

Arriving at the Capitol Wednesday morning, the House Republican speaker, Kevin McCarthy, told reporters that he felt “good” about the upcoming vote, expected to be held at 8:30pm that day. Asked for his message to House Republicans, McCarthy encouraged them to support the bill, describing it as “the first step to change the way we spend money”.

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House begins vote on debt ceiling bill amid resistance – live

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Moderate Republicans have touted the historic cuts while Democrats present the deal as a crucial compromise

Mike Pence is expected to launch his 2024 presidential bid within the next two weeks, The Messenger reports.

In a screenshot of an email sent by former Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake to delegates of the Georgia Republican Party, Lake wrote:

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Biden and McCarthy hold debt ceiling talks amid signs a deal is close

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Default deadline pushed to 5 June as work requirements for food aid recipients reportedly emerge as final sticking point

President Joe Biden and top congressional Republican Kevin McCarthy held a phone conversation on Saturday evening, according to a person familiar with their plans, amid signs that a deal in the ongoing debt ceiling negotiations was close to being struck.

McCarthy said earlier on Saturday that he was making “progress” in negotiations on raising the federal government’s debt ceiling, as the nation faced risk of default in little more than a week.

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Nvidia gains $185bn in value after predicting AI-driven boom in chip demand

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Shares in US tech firm jump by 25% in early trading as quarterly revenue forecast excites investors

The value of the US tech company Nvidia has soared by a quarter after it predicted a boom in demand for its computer chips to meet the needs of artificial intelligence products such as ChatGPT.

Nvidia’s share price rose by 25% in early trading on the back of the announcement, and gave it a market valuation of more than $940bn (£760bn) after stock markets opened on Wall Street on Thursday, up from $755bn on Wednesday evening.

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Ron DeSantis attacks Covid measures, media and praises Musk-led Twitter during campaign launch – follow live

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Florida governor announces candidacy for the Republican nomination

With the executive and legislative branches locked in a standoff over raising the debt ceiling, let’s check on the third branch of government: the judiciary. The Guardian’s Martin Pengelly reports that supreme court chief justice John Roberts gave a speech in which he vowed that the court would maintain the highest ethical standards, despite allegations of improper ties between some justices and parties with interests in their cases:

The chief justice of the US supreme court, John Roberts, said he and the other justices were working to hold themselves to the “highest standards” of ethical conduct.

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US lawmakers blame each other for debt ceiling standoff: ‘They are not negotiating’

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Democrats and Republicans continue to trade pointed remarks, underscoring that agreement is not in reach to avoid default

Lawmakers exchanged sharp criticism about who was to blame for the protracted standoff over the debt ceiling on Wednesday.

As the country nears its deadline to avoid a federal default, talks between Joe Biden and the House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, continued on Wednesday, as negotiators met again to hash out the details of a potential deal. But both parties simultaneously trade pointed remarks, underscoring that an agreement is not yet in reach.

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US debt ceiling talks ‘productive’ as Biden and McCarthy to meet 10 days from deadline

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A Sunday night phone call between the president and Republican House speaker was reported to have struck a more positive tone

US president Joe Biden and House Republican speaker Kevin McCarthy have held a “productive” phone call on the continued impasse over the debt ceiling and promised to meet on Monday after Biden returned to Washington.

McCarthy, speaking to reporters after the call, said there were positive discussions on solving the crisis and that staff-level talks were set to resume later on Sunday.

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