All posts tagged: Breaking News: Economy

Kevin Warsh Fed hearing live updates: Confirmation hearing Tuesday AM

Kevin Warsh Fed hearing live updates: Confirmation hearing Tuesday AM

Published by Sam Flores

What you need to know  Federal Reserve chair nominee Kevin Warsh will face the Senate Banking committee at 10 a.m. on Tuesday for a confirmation hearing. Warsh would be the wealthiest Fed chair if confirmed, he disclosed to the committee. The pick of President Donald Trump, Warsh would replace Jerome Powell as Fed chair. Kevin Warsh, the 56-year-old former Federal Reserve governor, is taking the hot seat at 10 a.m. for his Senate Banking Committee confirmation hearing. Warsh will field questions on a wide range of issues, ranging from his views on monetary policy to his sprawling and complex personal finances. He would become the wealthiest Fed chair if confirmed. Some of the most important exchanges for his candidacy may center on how he views the boundaries between the Fed’s decision-making and politics. Questions about the Fed’s long-cherished independence have dominated the discourse surrounding the central bank during Trump’s second term. President Donald Trump, who originally nominated Jerome Powell for Fed chair during his first term in 2017, has waged a long-term campaign to try to browbeat the …

How Silicon Valley shaped Fed nominee Kevin Warsh

How Silicon Valley shaped Fed nominee Kevin Warsh

Published by Sam Flores

With his penchant for suits, ties and sweater vests, Federal Reserve chair nominee Kevin Warsh doesn’t share the rumpled look of many of the Silicon Valley entrepreneurs he calls friends. But they still count him as one of their own. “You wouldn’t be hanging out with us if you were as normal as you claim to be,” Palantir CEO Alex Karp told Warsh on a podcast in 2022. If confirmed by the Senate, Warsh wouldn’t just be the wealthiest Fed chair in history, he would also be the most tech savvy and the closest to the tech bro community to ever sit in the office. Warsh’s connection to Karp and other titans of Silicon Valley such as reclusive PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, Yahoo founder Jerry Yang and prominent venture capitalist Marc Andreessen go back decades — to college at Stanford and to investments made alongside some of them beginning soon after Warsh resigned as a Fed governor in 2011. Those connections and his focus on tech investments have shaped Warsh’s almost evangelical view of how …

Trump says Iran wants a deal

Trump says Iran wants a deal

Published by Sam Flores

The Iran war is “very close to over” with authorities in Tehran eager to agree a peace deal, U.S. President Donald Trump said in an interview broadcast Wednesday. “We’ve beaten them militarily, totally,” Trump told Fox Business Network’s “Mornings with Maria” in a prerecorded interview. “I think it’s close to over, I view it as very close to over. … If I pulled up stakes right now it would take them 20 years to rebuild that country, and we’re not finished.” “We’ll see what happens, I think they want to make a deal very badly,” he added. The president’s latest comments come amid growing market optimism that a diplomatic solution to the U.S.-Iran war can be found, despite the failure of peace talks last weekend. The Associated Press, citing regional officials, reported Wednesday morning that the U.S. and Iran have an “in principle agreement” to extend their fragile two-week ceasefire in order to allow for more diplomacy. But a senior U.S. official told CNBC that the U.S. “has not formally agreed to an extension of …

Russia offers China energy lifeline as Iran war strangles supply

Russia offers China energy lifeline as Iran war strangles supply

Published by Sam Flores

Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a reception, held on Victory Day marking the 80th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two, at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, May 9, 2025. Mikhail Metzel | Via Reuters Russia has offered to help China with any potential energy shortfall, as the war in the Middle East heightens geopolitical divisions and threatens global commodity supplies. “Russia can certainly fill the resource gap that has arisen in China and other countries interested in working with us on an equal and mutually beneficial basis,” Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday, according to comments reported by Russian news agency Interfax. Russia’s top diplomat also commented on China and Russia’s ability to withstand the economic impact of “aggressive” U.S military operations against Iran, which have sent global oil and gas prices soaring. “Thank God, we and China have all the capabilities, both those already in use and those in reserve, and those planned, to avoid being dependent on this kind of …

Trump’s Hormuz blockade tests U.S. ties with China and India

Trump’s Hormuz blockade tests U.S. ties with China and India

Published by Sam Flores

The U.S. blockade of the Strait of Hormuz is adding strain to Washington’s relations with China and India, as Beijing hardens its rhetoric and New Delhi faces rising energy risks. Getty The U.S. blockade of the Strait of Hormuz is not only squeezing Iran but also ratcheting up pressure on two of its most consequential relationships in Asia — India and China. With roughly 98% of Iranian oil exports bound for China, and a summit between President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping weeks away, Washington’s maximum pressure campaign on Iran risks destabilizing the fragile detente that the administration has carefully cultivated with Beijing. India, with its complicated ties with the U.S., is increasingly finding U.S. policy at odds with its economic interests — most acutely in the energy shock now rippling through its economy. Trump is scheduled to visit China in mid-May, and the administration signaled repeatedly in recent weeks that it wants the bilateral relationship stable enough to keep the high-stakes meeting on track. “The Iran conflict, particularly the blockade, may upend …

Fed nominee Warsh filings detail vast wealth

Fed nominee Warsh filings detail vast wealth

Published by Sam Flores

Kevin Warsh’s wealth eclipses that of all recent Federal Reserve chairs, newly released financial disclosure forms show. Warsh is President Donald Trump’s nominee to succeed Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. His financial filings show that Warsh and his wife Jane Lauder have holdings of approximately $192 million, and potentially far more. Holdings in Warsh’s name, separate from his spouse, total approximately $135 million to $226 million. Nominees disclose their holdings to the Senate in broad ranges. Warsh’s filings list holdings in two funds that are valued at over $50 million, without specifying an upper limit. Lauder holds several funds listed at over $1 million, with no upper limit. Warsh married Lauder in 2002. She sits on the board of Estee Lauder, the cosmetics firm founded by her grandmother. Forbes estimates her wealth at $1.9 billion. Read more CNBC politics coverage The filings show Warsh is significantly richer than Powell, who, at the time of his 2018 confirmation, was thought to be the wealthiest Fed chair in history. Powell’s most recent filing, for 2025, shows wealth …

Trump targets Greenland again as Iran war deepens NATO rift

Trump targets Greenland again as Iran war deepens NATO rift

Published by Sam Flores

WASHINGTON DC, UNITED STATES – APRIL 6: The United States President Donald Trump holds a Press Conference in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on April 6, 2026, in Washington DC, United States. Celal Gunes | Anadolu | Getty Images U.S. President Donald Trump appears to have set his eyes on Greenland again while venting frustration at NATO, as the diplomatic fallout from Iran war exposes rifts in Washington’s ties with the security alliance. In a Truth Social post Wednesday evening stateside, Trump said that “NATO WASN’T THERE WHEN WE NEEDED THEM, AND THEY WON’T BE THERE IF WE NEED THEM AGAIN. REMEMBER GREENLAND, THAT BIG, POORLY RUN, PIECE OF ICE!!!” The latest broadside comes after Trump announced a 2-week ceasefire after more than a month of fighting with Iran. Trump has repeatedly criticized NATO members for not joining the war effort in Iran, saying his call for action was “a great test,” while threatening to pull out of the alliance. Trump has taken aim at NATO and Greenland in …

Warsh Fed nomination hearing set for mid-April

Warsh Fed nomination hearing set for mid-April

Published by Sam Flores

Kevin Warsh, former governor of the US Federal Reserve, during the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank Spring meetings at the IMF headquarters in Washington, DC, US, on Friday, April 25, 2025. Tierney L. Cross | Bloomberg | Getty Images The Senate Banking Committee will hold a nomination hearing on April 16 for Kevin Warsh to be the next chair of the Federal Reserve, a person familiar with the matter told CNBC. Warsh’s nomination is moving ahead even as a separate criminal probe into the Fed continues, setting up a potential clash between the two parallel processes set in motion by the Trump administration. Banking Committee member Sen. Thom Tillis, R.-N.C. has said he won’t vote to confirm Warsh until the probe is resolved. Yet President Donald Trump is eager to get Warsh confirmed. Tillis’s opposition means Trump can’t do both. But by moving ahead with the hearing, he is trying to anyway. The committee hasn’t yet put the hearing on its public schedule. Warsh and a spokesman for the Senate Banking Committee declined to …

Trump budget calls for higher defense spending, domestic cuts

Trump budget calls for higher defense spending, domestic cuts

Published by Sam Flores

President Donald Trump is asking Congress to boost defense spending to $1.5 trillion, the largest such request in decades and the latest signal of the president’s emphasis on U.S. military investments over domestic programs. The 2027 plans for the Pentagon were confirmed in a White House outline of Trump’s 2027 budget proposal released Friday. The White House summary says Trump’s proposal would reduce nondefense spending by 10% by shifting some responsibilities to state and local governments. Even before the U.S.-led war against Iran, the Republican president had indicated he wanted to bolster defense spending to modernize the military for 21st-century threats. Separately, the Pentagon last month proposed $200 billion for the war effort and to backfill munitions and supplies. Trump, speaking ahead of an address to the nation this week about the Iran war, signaled the military is his priority, setting up a clash ahead in Congress. “We’re fighting wars. We can’t take care of day care,” Trump said at a private White House event Wednesday. “It’s not possible for us to take care of day …

Grocery shock on the horizon for U.S. elections as Iran war drags on

Grocery shock on the horizon for U.S. elections as Iran war drags on

Published by Sam Flores

A customer shops in a grocery store on March 11, 2026 in Miami, Florida. Joe Raedle | Getty Images Rising grocery prices in the U.S. as the result of the Iran war could be among the most politically damaging outcomes of the conflict just months before a critical U.S. election.  Two years earlier, President Donald Trump won reelection after hammering the high costs of eggs, bacon and other grocery store staples. Now he and the Republican Party may be faced with even higher food prices as they try to retain control of Congress in this year’s midterm elections. Democrats are looking to capitalize on the spike by pinning it on Trump’s decision to go to war, while Republicans are choosing their words to downplay economic forecasts of higher prices for the fuel and fertilizer needed to produce and ship the food voters eat. “Our messaging is affordability and accountability,” Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., the ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee, said in an interview. “It’s a pretty tailored message, pretty narrowly focused, and …