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:
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...Special counsel also concludes no charges should be brought against the FBI
The Guardian’s Alexandra Villarreal has more on just how Joe Biden is trying to discourage migrants, and why advocacy groups say in this area, he’s not that different from Donald Trump:
Last week, the Biden administration toughened its stance against migration at the US-Mexico border through a new federal regulation that severely restricts access to asylum. This “Circumvention of Lawful Pathways” rule effectively replaces the Title 42 public health order, which Donald Trump introduced ostensibly to stem Covid-19 but has functioned increasingly as an immigration enforcement tool, allowing border officials to quickly expel migrants without the chance to request asylum in the US. Title 42 ended on 11 May.
Continue reading...Banks seek to calm markets as investors fear repeat of First Republic and SVB failures
[NEW]Trading in shares of the California-lender PacWest have been suspended after plummeting 42% amid wider fears about the health of the US’s regional bank sector.
PacWest had sought to calm markets on Wednesday and said it was in talks with several potential investors after its shares plummeted by as much as 60%. But the sell-off continued on Thursday and affected other regional banks.
Continue reading...Deadline of Sunday set for companies such as JPMorgan Chase to table offer for California bank whose shares have plummeted
US regulators are racing to secure the sale of California bank First Republic, which is on course to become the third American lender to fail this year, a sequence of collapses that has drawn uncomfortable parallels with the 2008 global financial crisis.
Half a dozen US banks are in the running to take over stricken First Republic, according to reports over the weekend, with leading bidders including JPMorgan Chase, Citizens Financial and PNC Financial Services.
Continue reading...Report identifies Fed failures before bank collapse but also blames bad management, weakened regulations and lax supervision
The Federal Reserve failed to “take forceful enough action” ahead of the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank last month, the Fed said on Friday in a hard-hitting report that blamed extremely poor bank management, weakened regulations and lax government supervision for the failure.
Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse triggered an ongoing banking crisis for mid-sized US banks. On Friday, trading in another mid-sized bank – First Republic – was briefly halted after its share price fell 48%. The bank revealed on Monday that it had lost $100bn in deposits during last month’s banking crisis.
Continue reading...The Democratic chair of the Senate judiciary committee has asked chief justice John Roberts to testify on 2 May about the court’s ethics, following revelations of undisclosed links between a Republican megadonor and conservative justice Clarence Thomas.
In a letter to Roberts, judiciary committee chair Richard Durbin did not mention those reports about Thomas specifically, but noted that since he last addressed the court’s ethics in 2011 “there has been a steady stream of revelations regarding Justices falling short of the ethical standards expected of other federal judges and, indeed, of public servants generally. These problems were already apparent back in 2011, and the Court’s decade-long failure to address them has contributed to a crisis of public confidence. The status quo is no longer tenable.”
Continue reading...Progressive Democrat launches offensive on politicians on the left and the right who supported Trump-era deregulation of US banks
Political fall-out in the US from the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank continued on Sunday when leftwing Senator Elizabeth Warren hit the morning talk shows and repeatedly called for an independent investigation into US bank failures and strongly criticised Federal Reserve finance officials.
The progressive Democrat from Massachusetts, who has positioned herself as a consumer protection advocate and trenchant critic of the US banking system, told CBS’s Face the Nation that she did not have faith in San Francisco Federal Reserve president Mary Daly or Fed chairman Jerome Powell.
Continue reading...Lifelines handed to Swiss bank and US regional bank First Republic fail to ease investor concerns
Credit Suisse shares came under renewed pressure on Friday, despite fresh attempts by central banks and politicians to calm fears about a crisis in the global banking industry sparked by the collapse of two US banks this week.
Shares in Credit Suisse, Switzerland’s second largest bank, fell 8% on Friday despite securing a £45bn emergency loan from the Swiss National Bank just days earlier to shore up its liquidity after a week of panic.
Continue reading...The central bank has lent about half as much as it provided during the 2008 crisis as banks rush to shore up their financials
Cash-short banks have borrowed about $300bn from the Federal Reserve in the past week, the central bank announced on Thursday.
Nearly half the money – $143bn – went to holding companies for two major banks that failed over the past week, Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, triggering widespread alarm in financial markets. The Fed did not identify the banks that received the other half of the funding or say how many of them did so.
Continue reading...Larry Fink tells investors more ‘shutdowns and seizures’ in US possible and predicts inflation and interest rates to rise
The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank could just be the start of “a “slow rolling crisis” in the US financial system with “more seizures and shutdowns coming”, the chief executive of the world’s largest asset manager has warned.
The CEO of BlackRock, Larry Fink, also predicted in a letter to investors and company bosses that inflation would persist and rates continue to rise, trends that both contributed to SVB’s collapse.
Continue reading...Failure of bank last weak sparked fears of financial crisis, as US government announces plans to stabilize situation
Have you been affected by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank?
The Guardian would like to hear from you. Share your experience with our community team at the link below:
Continue reading...US treasury secretary says Biden administration is working closely with regulators to help depositors as fears of banking crisis rise
The US treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, said on Sunday there would be no bailout for Silicon Valley Bank, which collapsed this week, raising fears of a crisis, but also said the Biden administration was working with regulators to help depositors hit by the fall of SVB.
Yellen said conditions did not match the 2008 financial crisis, when the collapse of large institutions threatened to bring down the global financial system. She also sought to calm fears the $23tn US banking system could be affected by the fall of a regional bank.
Continue reading...US regulators seize SVB’s assets after a run on the bank, as global institutions monitor situation closely
US regulators rushed to seize the assets of top tech lender Silicon Valley Bank on Friday after a run on the bank, marking the largest failure of such an institution since the height of the financial crisis more than a decade ago.
Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), the nation’s 16th largest bank, failed after depositors – mostly technology workers and venture capital-backed companies – hurried to withdraw their money this week as anxiety over the bank’s situation spread.
Continue reading...Consumer prices rose 0.6% from December to January, up sharply from a 0.2% increase from November to December
The Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge ticked higher in January, a sign that price pressures remain entrenched in the US economy and could lead the Fed to keep raising interest rates well into this year.
Friday’s report from the commerce department showed that consumer prices rose 0.6% from December to January, up sharply from a 0.2% increase from November to December. On a year-over-year basis, prices rose 5.4%, up from a 5.3% annual increase in December.
Continue reading...Historic federal debt default could occur before July, cautions non-partisan agency
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) on Wednesday said the US treasury department will exhaust its ability to pay all its bills sometime between July and September, unless the current $31.4tn cap on borrowing is raised or suspended.
In a report issued alongside its annual budget outlook, the non-partisan CBO cautioned that a historic federal debt default could occur before July if revenue flowing into the treasury in April – when most Americans typically submit annual income tax filings – lags expectations.
Continue reading...