Economy and Politics

The Federal Reserve’s monetary policy has been thrown off course by President Donald Trump’s tweets and relentless push for easier monetary policy.

The Securities and Exchange Commission held a two-part public panel discussion on Thursday to ask again if reporting earnings quarterly promotes “short-termism” — an unhealthy focus on short-term results to the detriment of long-term performance.

A community bank in Queens, New York, is redefining lending to people who don’t fit the traditional models of creditworthiness.

George Houraney, a Florida-based businessman, organized an exclusive “calendar girl” party at Mar-a-Lago. He was bringing 28 girls. He was surprised to find out that only Jeff Epstein and Trump would be there.

The government’s official report card on the economy, known as gross domestic product, is likely to show growth turned wobbly in the spring. Except that it almost certainly didn’t.

Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren said Friday the current economic environment doesn’t justify an interest-rate cut.

If you’re “so over” paper straws, you have company in the Trump campaign — and can shell out $15 to show it. The president’s re-election campaign store is selling what it has branded “Trump Straws,” which it’s billing as an alternative to the paper version.

President Donald Trump took a fresh swing at the Federal Reserve over interest rates on Friday, as he defended supporters who chanted that a Minnesota Democrat should be sent back to her native country.

The employees known as “field organizers” say they work a minimum of 60 hours a week.

This ESPN host called foul on his own network, which has pivoted away from political coverage over the past year to stick to sports.

President Donald Trump on Friday highlighted a Fed communication slip-up, and pushed the central bank to again cut interest rates.

Following the 2008 global financial crisis, central banks bet that greater activism on the part of other policy makers would be their salvation, writes Mohamed El-Erian.

A measure of consumer confidence rose slightly in July and clung near a 15-year peak even in the face of rising economic headwinds that are likely to spur the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates in a few weeks. The consumer sentiment survey index edged up to 98.4.

President Donald Trump on Friday tweeted that he liked a speech by New York Federal Reserve President John Williams better than a statement that followed. Speaking Thursday, Williams said the most effective strategy for the Fed is to cut rates at the first sign of trouble. Investors saw Williams' comments as endorsing a half-point rate cut at the next policy meeting on July 30-31. But a New York Fed spokesman later said the talk was theoretical. Trump has routinely called for the Fed to cut rates.

House Democrats on Thursday pass a bill to double the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, highlighting a big breach between the two parties ahead of what’s shaping up to be one of the most bitterly contested presidential elections in U.S. history.

The U.S. capitalist system needs a major revamp in order to tackle the climate crisis and unacceptably high levels of inequality.

There is a longstanding history of employing the fear of “the others,” turning humans into illogical ruthless weapons, in service to an ideology. Fear is a very strong tool that can blur humans’ logic and change their behavior, a neuroscientist explains.

This isn’t this century’s version of Standard Oil.

NASA didn’t get us to the moon on its own.

Fifty years after the Apollo landing on the Moon, Paul Brandus asks if Americans can come together to conquer space again.