Author: starbpo

You have what in your wallet? a credit card with interest rates significantly greater than those of any other significant lending type. Why are credit card interest rates so high? After investigating the issue, the New York Federal Reserve identified two main causes. It should go without saying that card issuers impose large fees in order to offset the risk of consumers defaulting, or not making their transactions. Credit cards are responsible for more than half of all default losses that banks incur annually. However, the Fed discovered that credit card interest rates are set higher than what would be…

The Federal Reserve should be prudent in changing interest rates; Boston Fed President Susan Collins said Thursday, the U.S. economic situation is uncertain. Collins said in a moderated discussion sponsored by the Insurance Women’s Investment Network, 100 Women in Finance and Wellington Management, “I strongly believed at the meeting that we had last week that holding our rate steady was an appropriate policy stance and, looking forward, I would expect holding it steady for a longer time is likely to be appropriate.” Collins remarked that compared to last year, the economic picture is far more hazy in recent weeks. She…

Wednesday St. Louis Fed president Alberto Musalem said he is more worried that inflation will stall beyond the central bank’s 2% long-term annual target than he is certain inflation resulting from higher tariffs on imports to the U.S. would be fully temporary. Speaking to Paducah, Ky., business leaders, Musalem said tariffs have direct and indirect inflationary effects. For example, the St. Louis Fed staff projects that the announced tariffs might raise inflation by as much as 1.2 percentage points. One-time direct effect is calculated to be roughly half a percent point. The indirect impacts are calculated to be seven-tenths of…

Companies and consumers have shown so much anxiety over the future of their businesses and pocketbooks over the past two months that economists are lowering their projections for growth and starting to boost their likelihood of a recession. A significant slowing down in growth in the next several months looks imminent as President Donald Trump fuels economic uncertainty by imposing broad tariffs. Whether there is a recession—a time when the economy essentially collapses down a cliff—remains a topic of contention. “Soft” data—that is, surveys asking questions and analyzing responses—have not yet turned into “hard data,” cold facts like job growth,…

23andMe is bankrupt, which emphasizes the enormous risks involved in funding many of the companies that have gone public via mergers with special-purpose acquisition organizations. Companies that choose conventional initial public offerings set roadshows with potential investors that focus especially on their financial situation. Executives usually wait until they have more established companies before proceeding with an IPO since they expect such kind of grilling. Mergers with SPACs have proven a means for businesses to obtain public-market listings without running into the intense scrutiny of the IPO process, though. A private firm choosing to make acquisitions will choose to merge…

With an injunction preserving the operations and workforce of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a federal judge is directing the Trump administration to keep the lights on there at least for now. Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia stated in a Friday ruling announcing her preliminary injunction, “The Court cannot look away or the CFPB will be dissolved and dismantled completely in approximately 30 days.” According to court records and a consumer expert, the decision means the regulator has to make sure its database stays operational and that its hotline for consumer…

The Federal Communications Commission, whose chief said on Friday, the latest such regulatory probe into a major media company since President Donald Trump returned to the White House, intends to investigate the diversity, equity and inclusion practices at Walt Disney Co. and its ABC network. Following Disney’s (DIS) announcement last month that it had reduced some of its DEI initiatives, a letter from FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, dated Thursday and sent to Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger, warned that “significant concerns” persisted. . Carr expressed in an X post his “concern that their DEI practices may violate FCC prohibitions on…

Although you have most likely encountered this quotation from Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett before, it reminds investors that they should be ready for times of more stock market volatility. This is from Buffett’s 1986 letter to Berkshire’s owners, on “occasional outbreaks of those two super-contagious diseases, fear and greed.” He claimed that neither timing nor length of either were something he or his associates tried to forecast. Then he penned: “Our goal is more modest: we simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful.” We have all of Buffett’s…

Uncertainty about President Donald Trump’s tariffs has started to stir credit markets as investors are no longer waiting-and-seeing the changing policy terrain from the White House. Selling pressure in the last full week of March has targeted auto bonds issued by big American manufacturers, raising following Trump’s announcement of intentions to slap 25% tariffs shortly on vehicles not produced in the United States. The chart below indicates the recent increase in spread levels on a few Ford Motor Co. (F), General Motors Co. (GM), and Stellantis (STLA) bonds issued in 2021 following the combination of Fiat-Chrysler and the French manufacturer…

Elon Musk doubled back on his promise to decrease government expenditure by $1 trillion – a sum that would half the federal budget deficit and, if carried out, bring the U.S. far closer to stabilizing the rise of its debt load in relative proportion to the size of the economy. “Our goal is to reduce the deficit by a trillion dollars,” Musk told Fox News Thursday night – adding that he hoped to cut total federal expenditure by 15% just by “eliminating waste and fraud,” a target he said “seems really quite achievable.” He cited several instances of excessive expenditure,…