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Trump rounds out his cabinet with picks to lead USDA, CDC, FDA

November 25, 2024
President-elect Donald Trump continued to stock his cabinet in quick fashion over the weekend. And as travel cranks up before Thanksgiving, stormy weather might hamper some people’s plans. These stories and more highlight your Unbiased Updates for Monday, Nov. 25, 2024.

Trump rounds out his cabinet with picks to lead USDA, CDC, FDA

Over the weekend, President-elect Donald Trump rounded out his cabinet selections. He picked several names to fill key roles in his second administration.

Trump selected Brooke Rollins as the secretary of agriculture. Rollins served under Trump in his first term, first as the Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental and Technology Initiatives and then later as the acting director of the Domestic Policy Council.

Rollins, a Texas lawyer, is currently the president and CEO of the America First Policy Institute, a conservative think tank consisting of former Trump staff members. As agriculture secretary, Rollins would oversee the 10,000 employees of the USDA and be only the second woman to lead this department.

Trump also chose hedge fund manager Scott Bessent for treasury secretary. Bessent is the founder of investment firm Key Square Capital Management and has recently become one of Trump’s top economic advisers.

He is a former protégé of Democratic donor George Soros and was once the chief investment officer of Soros Fund Management. As treasury secretary, Bessent would oversee Trump’s tax policies and the nation’s sanctions programs.

The president-elect named former NFL player and Texas Congressman Scott Turner to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

During Trump’s first term, Turner served as the first executive director of the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council. Turner is currently the chair for the Center for Education Opportunity at America First Policy Institute.

President-elect Trump also announced his choices for three top health positions.

Marty Makary, a Johns Hopkins surgeon and a member of the National Academy of Medicine, has been tapped to lead the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. In this role, Makary would oversee the FDA’s $7 billion budget and report to Trump’s pick for health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Former Florida Congressman Dr. Dave Weldon is Trump’s pick to be director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Weldon is a physician and Army veteran who served in the House from 1995 to 2009.

Finally, Trump picked Dr. Janette Nesheiwat to be the next U.S. Surgeon General. The doctor is a Fox News contributor and the medical director of CityMD, a network of urgent centers in New York and New Jersey.

All of these positions will need Senate confirmation.

Israel and Hezbollah trade attacks as cease-fire deal is in the works

As reports indicate a cease-fire deal between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah could soon become a reality, the countries traded deadly and destructive strikes.

Monday morning, Nov. 25, reports said Hezbollah attacked Galilee from Lebanon, while Israel continued to focus on the Lebanese capital of Beirut.

⭕️ 12 Hezbollah command centers were struck by the IAF in Dahieh, Beirut, including sites used by Hezbollah's Intelligence Unit, coast-to-sea missile unit, and Unit 4400—responsible for smuggling weapons from Iran through Syria into Lebanon.

These command centers were used to… pic.twitter.com/NQ6xG6DRNN
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) November 24, 2024

The latest round of attacks started with an Israeli strike on Beirut Saturday night, Nov. 23, that left more than two dozen people dead, according to the Lebanese health ministry. Hezbollah responded to that strike by launching more than 200 rockets and drones at Israel, marking one of the heaviest bombardments of Israel since fighting intensified in September.

Israel said its goal is to return tens of thousands of people home, who evacuated from the northern part of the country due to rocket attacks by Hezbollah. Meanwhile, Israeli attacks on Beirut have led the Lebanese education ministry to postpone school there until January.

On Sunday, Nov. 24, the European Union’s foreign policy chief said a U.S. cease-fire proposal was awaiting final approval from Israel.

At least 1 killed after cargo plane crashes, skids into home in Lithuania

At least one person is dead after a DHL cargo plane crashed while approaching an airport in Lithuania’s capital Monday morning. Officials said the plane split into pieces, then skidded for a few hundred feet into a nearby home.

A cargo plane flying on behalf of German logistics company DHL crashed near Vilnius International Airport in Lithuania, killing at least one person.

Emergency services rushed to the scene of the disaster. https://t.co/1l1dAT59zY pic.twitter.com/5Ap7GKUtiW
— DW News (@dwnews) November 25, 2024

The flight had taken off from Germany and crashed around 5:30 a.m. local time while approaching its final destination in Vilnius, Lithuania.

Officials said the person who was killed was a member of the flight crew but was not a pilot. Three other people on board were injured. Nobody on the ground got hurt.

Officials said at least 12 people had to be evacuated from the home.

Investigators are looking into the cause of the crash and have not yet ruled out it being an act of terrorism.

Winter storms expected across the U.S. this Thanksgiving week

As Thanksgiving travel ramps up another round of wintry weather is expected to cause some issues.

In California, where two bodies were recovered from floodwaters on Saturday, authorities are bracing for more downpours while still dealing with flooding and landslides from last week’s “bomb cyclone.” On top of that, the National Weather Service has issued a winter storm warning for the Sierra Nevada through Tuesday, Nov. 26, with heavy snow expected at higher elevations and wind gusts potentially reaching 55 MPH. That area is expected to get up to four feet of snow by Wednesday. Nov. 27.

Periods of rain showers are expected for the Valley through Wednesday. 1 to 2 feet of additional snow up to 4 feet at the highest peaks is forecast to fall on the mountains. Make sure to travel safe and visit https://t.co/WjKBsJmSfA for updates! #CAwx pic.twitter.com/QyrmHZJFzR
— NWS Sacramento (@NWSSacramento) November 24, 2024

Forecasters said the Midwest and Great Lakes regions will see rain and snow Monday, while the east coast will feel the effects on Thanksgiving and Black Friday.

So far, this upcoming weekend is shaping up to have pretty clear conditions for travelers heading home.

Biden set to issue his final Thanksgiving turkey pardon

President Joe Biden will take part in a Thanksgiving tradition at the White House Monday: his final turkey pardon.

TALKING TURKEY: Just met with Peach and Blossom, the @natlturkeyfed 2024 presidentially-pardoned Turkeys. See highlights Monday on @cbsmornings 🌞 and @cbsnews 24/7. pic.twitter.com/TCeWqMDnFH
— Ed O'Keefe (@edokeefe) November 24, 2024

The two lucky birds getting spared this year are Peach and Blossom from Minnesota. They got to live in the lap of luxury at the famed Willard Intercontinental Washington hotel near the White House while waiting for their permanent clemency from becoming a Thanksgiving feast.

The annual pardon of the turkeys will take place at 11 a.m. ET. The birds will then return to Minnesota to live out their days on a farm.

‘Wicked’ has best opening weekend for Broadway to film adaption

It was a magical weekend at the box office as the movie “Wicked” proved to be quite popular with audiences.

The film, based on the Broadway hit about the land of Oz before, during and after Dorothy’s famous visit, was number one in North America. It raked in $114 million, making it the third-biggest domestic opening of the year.

The film, which stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, is now the number one Broadway-to-film adaptation and ranks fourth for the biggest debuts for a musical in history.
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Trump’s transition team tussles over choice for top economic post

November 18, 2024
It’s the most important pick for President-elect Donald Trump’s economic agenda. Now it appears Trump is having second thoughts about his treasury secretary options.

The Treasury secretary acts as the president’s closest economic advisor and is fifth in the presidential line of succession. The person who holds this cabinet post will play a key role in helping Trump carry out his agendas on tax cuts and tariffs.

The president-elect’s search for a Treasury secretary is expanding this week after reports of infighting in Trump’s camp over the selection.

Howard Lutnick and Scott Bessent have been floated as the final two candidates but they are now joined by two more names, Marc Rowan and Kevin Warsh.

Howard Lutnick

Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick is Trump’s transition co-chair and has had a big say in how Trump’s cabinet has shaped up so far. The two have known each other for decades and Lutnick fundraised for Trump during a critical part of the campaign. He’s also a big proponent of Trump’s tariff policies.

“Tariffs are an amazing tool by the president to use. They’re an amazing tool, but he understands, don’t tariff stuff we don’t make,” Lutnick said on CNBC. “If we don’t make it and you want to buy it, I don’t want to put the price up there. It’s pointless. But use tariffs to build in America. If we want to make it in America, tariff it, or if we’re competing with it, tariff it. But you gotta remember, we need to protect the American worker. Finally, someone’s going to protect the American worker.”

But will he get his desired post of Treasury secretary? The New York Times reports Lutnick has gotten on Trump’s nerves lately, with Trump privately expressing frustration that “Lutnick has been hanging around him too much and that he has been manipulating the transition process for his own ends.”

Would be interesting to hear more people weigh in on this for @realDonaldTrump to consider feedback.

My view fwiw is that Bessent is a business-as-usual choice, whereas @howardlutnick will actually enact change.

Business-as-usual is driving America bankrupt, so we need change… https://t.co/igGLZOJ8wz
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 16, 2024

Lutnick does have the public backing of Elon Musk as a changemaker. Musk said another frontrunner, Scott Bessent, would be “business-as-usual,” which is “driving America bankrupt.”

Scott Bessent

“I’ve been in the investment business 35 years, and Donald Trump is the most sophisticated leader on economics that I’ve met,” Bessent told Fox Business.

Bessent is the founder and CEO of the hedge fund Key Square Group, an ex-Soros executive and a key economic adviser to Trump during the 2024 campaign.

Trump has said he is “a nice-looking guy” who is “one of the most brilliant men on Wall Street.”

Bessent is seen as a safe bet for markets. Investment manager Dan Loeb appeared to back Bessent as the better choice in an X post, indicating Lutnick would shake markets.

But the jockeying for Treasury secretary between these two was described in the Times “as a knife fight, with Mr. Lutnick as the primary aggressor.” Now, two more choices have entered the fray.

Marc Rowan

“I think this administration has a remarkable chance to really pivot the country, to take advantage of all the inherent positives that we have,” Apollo Global Management CEO Marc Rowan told Yahoo Finance.

Rowan is a new face in the race but does he want the job? According to The Wall Street Journal, Trump aides have reached out to the Wall Street billionaire to gauge his interest. The Times said Trump wants someone “big” for the role and has made clear he’s impressed with Rowan.

“Our financial situation is fixable,” Rowan said. “It is fixable in a way that is positive for the base that [the] President-elect has said that he wants to help. But it is not fixable by small amounts of tinkering. It is about wholesale change, and we as humans, we are sometimes scared of wholesale change.”

If the offer of Treasury secretary doesn’t entice Rowan to step into the public sector, there’s another candidate with whom Trump has more history.

Kevin Warsh

Trump once considered former Federal Reserve Governor Kevin Warsh as a potential Fed chair before choosing Jerome Powell, a choice Trump has long lamented.

“When times were tough, what did the Federal Reserve say? They went to Congress and said, ‘Please spend more.’ So they acted asymmetrically,” Warsh said of the Fed’s pandemic-recovery moves. “That’s the big mistake you can make. Well if you’re going to get into the fiscal business when you’re running these kinds of deficits at a time of relative peace and relative prosperity, you have to open your mouth the other way too. You cannot have fiscally responsible economic policy and irresponsible monetary policy. When one policy is irresponsible, so is the other, and that’s the fix we’re in, and we need to get out of it.”

Warsh will likely be interviewed for the Treasury post but has also been raised as someone who could potentially replace Powell as chair of the Federal Reserve when Powell’s seat is up in 2026.

According to reports, Trump is expected to invite potential Treasury picks to interview at Mar-a-Lago this week. But given Trump’s uncertainty over the role, there could be more names floated before the week is done.
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The golden era of S&P 500 gains is over, Goldman Sachs says

October 22, 2024
The S&P 500 index has been an investment juggernaut. The weighted index tracks the 500 largest companies traded in the U.S. and in 2024, it’s up 24%. Over the past 10 years, it’s averaged 13% gains every year. And since its inception, it’s gained an average of about 10% per year. But Goldman Sachs says the golden era is over, at least for the next decade.

The investment group says the index is on track to return 3% a year over the next 10 years, a far cry from its double-digit average. They say it’s more likely than not U.S. Treasury securities will bring bigger gains, and said investors should be ready for lower equity returns.

Chief U.S. Equity Strategist David Kostin said a big reason for the gloomy outlook is the high level of concentration in the basket of stocks. Because the S&P 500 index is weighted by company size, the so-called Magnificent Seven stocks make up nearly a third of it. Those stocks are Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, Telsa, Meta and Nvidia.

“Our historical analyses show that it is extremely difficult for any firm to maintain high levels of sales growth and profit margins over sustained periods of time,” Kostin said.

Kostin also said they expect an equal-weighted alternative to the S&P 500 will perform better than the weighted one over that time, as assets outside of technology see bigger gains.

In 2007, Warren Buffett famously made a $1 million bet that he could outperform hedge fund managers over a decade by investing in an S&P 500 index fund. He handily won.

“Consistently buy an S&P 500 low-cost index fund,” Warren Buffett said years ago. “Keep buying it through thick and thin and especially through thin.”

If Goldman Sachs’ projections are any indication, the thin times are coming. While their projected returns are lower than other estimates, the company is not alone in thinking the high-flying S&P 500 is set for a slowdown.

“I think you’re going to see a more muted performance [in stocks] – still upward, but more muted,” Raymond James Chief Investment Officer Larry Adam told CNBC.
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Tren de Aragua’s rapid expansion in the US linked to 100 cases

September 13, 2024
The Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang notorious for its violent acts in Latin America, has escalated its criminal activities into the United States, now linked to approximately 100 criminal cases nationwide. This rapid expansion from its initial presence in Texas to various U.S. regions has alarmed U.S. Homeland Security officials and marked the gang as a significant transnational threat.

Originating in a Venezuelan prison known for its extravagant amenities such as a zoo and disco, Tren de Aragua has transformed over the past decade into a major international crime organization. It has engaged in extensive criminal activities including drug trafficking, robbery, and extortion, often exploiting vulnerable immigrant communities for profit.

The gang’s move into the U.S. has seen it maintain its violent operational tactics, which have included high-profile crimes such as shootings targeting law enforcement officers and other public disturbances.

The gang’s notorious acts have not only caught media attention but have also heightened public and governmental concerns regarding the gang’s potential to disrupt American society as it has in Latin America.

In response to this growing threat, U.S. authorities have taken significant measures. The Treasury Department sanctioned Tren de Aragua in July, aiming to cut off its financial networks. Additionally, the State Department has offered rewards totaling up to $12 million for information leading to the arrest of the gang’s leadership.
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Kamala Harris pushes for 10x boost in new small business tax break

September 4, 2024
Presidential candidate and Vice President Kamala Harris wants to 10x the tax incentives new small businesses get. In a campaign stop in New Hampshire Wednesday, Sept. 4, Harris highlighted her desire to spur 25 million new small business applications in a four-year term if elected.

So far, entrepreneurs have filed a record-breaking 19 million new small business applications during the Biden-Harris administration, according to Treasury analysis.

“They aren’t just building a business,” Harris said. “They’re pursuing a dream. They’re building a better future for their employees and for the people they love in their communities, and by extension, they’re building a stronger middle class and a stronger America for us all. And so all of this is why as president, one of my highest priorities will be to strengthen America’s small businesses, and here I am in New Hampshire to announce a few elements of my plan to do that.”

Harris made her pitch at Throwback Brewery, a female-founded brewery on the seacoast of New Hampshire.

“So here’s the thing,” she said. “On average, it costs about $40,000 to start a new business in America. That is a great financial barrier for a lot of folks and it can hold entrepreneurs back. And the current tax deduction for a startup is just $5,000… Not everyone has access to that kind of wealth and capital. So part of my plan is we will expand the tax deduction for startups to $50,000.”

The idea of expanding this deduction is not partisan. Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., repeatedly proposed expanding the $5,000 limit to $20,000. It is a proposal the Trump administration supported.

While the Harris campaign has not put out a sticker price for Harris’ proposal, Buchanan’s proposal in 2018 was a $2.8 billion tax cut over 10 years, according to reporting by the Wall Street Journal.

There is nothing small about the impact of America’s small businesses. According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, small businesses employ 46% of America’s private sector workforce and account for 43.5% of the country’s entire economic growth.

Harris also said her administration would provide low- and no-interest loans to small businesses while raising taxes on big corporations and the wealthy.

Harris and former President Donald Trump have been campaigning across the country, attempting to position themselves as the candidate who will grow the middle class.

In polls, Harris is chipping away at Trump’s once-substantial lead in whom voters trust to lead the economy. And as they pitch their ideas to the American people, what may stand out is how much the two candidates have in common.

“What’s interesting to me is maybe a lot of the similarities,” Marc Goldwein, senior vice president and senior policy director for the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, said. “There’s a tit-for-tat here where President Trump says no taxes on tips and so Vice President Harris says, ‘Well, I’m not going to do that either.’ The Democrats say a $3,000 child tax credit. So vice presidential candidate Vance, Sen. Vance, says, ‘Maybe it’s $6,000, $5,000.’”

While Harris is in New Hampshire, Trump will be holding a town hall in the battleground state of Pennsylvania on Wednesday evening.
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Typical US worker out-earns inflation by $1,400 per year: Treasury report

August 29, 2024
As rising prices continue to be an issue for many Americans, it looks like things might be getting a little better. In July, the Treasury Department released its report on purchasing power that found the typical American’s income has increased more than prices have since before the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics looked at Americans’ median weekly real earnings, which is how much money they made when adjusted for inflation. It found that compared to the same time last year, people’s real earnings went up 2.5%.

That means the median American’s purchasing power has improved. Purchasing power is what people are referring to when they say a dollar doesn’t go as far as it used to.

Here’s an example: Within the last 25 years, a person used to be able to go to the corner store and get two individual bottles of their favorite soda for just $1. Now, it’s almost $2 a bottle and the 2 for $3 deals are considered a score. That’s because in the past, a dollar had significantly more purchasing power than it does today.

The Treasury found that between June 2023 and June 2024, median American workers were able to buy the same amount of goods they could have in 2019 and still have some cash left over to spend or save — about $1,400 a year. That’s just about $54 every pay period if they get paid every two weeks.

So, while the Treasury’s report is good news for Americans overall, it might not feel like you’re reaping any benefits. A monthly survey of the Consumer Confidence Index found that while it rose to a six-month high in August, it remains below pre-pandemic levels.

A CNN poll released in July also found nearly 4 in 10 adults said they worry their family’s income won’t be enough to meet expenses.
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US government invests billions to boost domestic semiconductor production

August 16, 2024
The U.S. government is making significant investments to increase domestic semiconductor production, a critical component in nearly all modern electronics. This push comes as part of a broader effort to reduce reliance on foreign manufacturing and regain a competitive edge in this industry.

In 1990, the United States accounted for over a third of the world’s semiconductor manufacturing capacity. However, that share has declined sharply, with only 10% of global production taking place in the U.S. in 2024. Meanwhile, 83% of semiconductor manufacturing capacity is now concentrated in Asia.

In an effort to reverse this trend, the CHIPS and Science Act was passed in 2022, aimed at revitalizing the U.S. semiconductor industry. Funding from this legislation is now being used to construct three semiconductor plants, two in Texas and one in Utah.

Texas Instruments, one of the earliest pioneers in semiconductor technology, has been awarded $1.6 billion to build these facilities. The company began producing semiconductors in the 1950s. It expects to receive up to $8 billion in Treasury Department tax credits for its investment in production, along with an additional $10 million in federal funding for workforce development.

The CHIPS Act has so far allocated over $31 billion to support the expansion of semiconductor manufacturing in the U.S. This investment is expected to gradually increase the nation’s share of global semiconductor production, with predictions that U.S. capacity could rise to 14% by 2032.
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Lawmaker wants Secret Service focused on guarding leaders, not financial crimes

August 13, 2024
Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., wants to relieve the Secret Service of its duty to investigate financial crimes and focus the agency solely on protecting political leaders. Torres introduced separate proposals that would not only narrow the agency’s responsibilities, but also expand its requirements for ensuring the safety of those it’s protecting.

The Secret Service was created in 1865 to investigate financial crimes under the Department of the Treasury. It was not tasked with protecting presidents full time until 1902.

To this day, the Secret Service has two missions. First, to provide protection and investigative services to ensure the safety and security of protectees, key locations and events of national significance. Second, to protect the integrity of U.S. currency and investigate crimes against the U.S. financial system.

Torres’ bill would put an end to that and require all financial crimes assets to be transferred to a different agency or department.

The lawmaker also introduced a separate bill that would create new requirements for setting up safety perimeters.

The bill states the director of the Secret Service shall be responsible for ensuring a minimum secured perimeter of 500 yards, or the firing range of firearms likely to be used in an assassination attempt. It would also require the director to ensure all elevated positions are secured.

The bill specifically states its the director’s job to ensure these perimeters meet the standards. That’s significant because it was revealed during congressional testimony that former Director Kimberly Cheatle did not review those plans.

Here is what Cheatle said during an exchange with Rep. Michael Cloud, R-Texas, at a hearing in July.

Rep. Michael Cloud: Did you review the security plans for this event?

Former Director Kimberly Cheatle: I personally do not review security plans for events that take place across the country.

Rep. Michael Cloud: Any of them? Who’s the top level official who reviews the security plans?

Former Director Kimberly Cheatle: There’s a number of people that review security plans as they unfold.

Rep. Michael Cloud: Who is ultimately responsible for signing off on a security plan?

Former Director Kimberly Cheatle: It’s a conjunction of personnel. There are people on the ground, there are supervisors on the detail, there are people at headquarters.

Rep. Michael Cloud: So there’s not one person who says, “Okay, this is good, it’s copacetic. We’re going for it.”

Former Director Kimberly Cheatle: I think much in the way we build our security plans…

Rep. Michael Cloud: No doubt there’s teams working different aspects of it. But ultimately, isn’t there an individual who signs off on the the plan?

Former Director Kimberly Cheatle: Much like how we design our security plans, they’re multi layered.

Rep. Michael Cloud: So there’s no accountability.

Former Director Kimberly Cheatle: There is accountability.

If Torres’ bills pass, the changes would be implemented over the course of a couple months.
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What is the Sahm rule? The US officially triggered this recession indicator.

August 2, 2024
It only took moments for Friday’s disappointing U.S. jobs report to stoke fears that a recession could be in the offing. In the wake of the report, Treasury yields took a dive while the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq all faced a selloff, pushing them down more than 2% early in the afternoon.

Employers added only 114,000 jobs in July, according to data released Friday, Aug. 2, by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That number missed economists’ expectations of 175,000. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate in July ticked up to 4.3% from 4.1% in June. July marked the fourth straight month the unemployment rate rose and it is at its highest level since October 2021.

“I don’t think that this report tells us that we’re headed for recession,” former Acting and Deputy Labor Secretary Seth Harris told Straight Arrow News Friday. “The GDP [gross domestic product] numbers don’t give us any indication that we’re headed for recession. The second quarter GDP numbers were good, solid numbers; not booming, but very good for this deep into a growth cycle in the United States.”

Real GDP is estimated to have risen by 2.8% year over year, according to the “advance” estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. The official number will be released on Aug. 29.

The Sahm Rule

These latest recession fears come from what is known as the Sahm rule, developed by economist Claudia Sahm. The rule states a recession in the U.S. has started when the three-month average of the unemployment rate crosses 0.5% or more from the previous year’s low.

Since 1953, the Sahm rule has been triggered 11 times. In 10 of those 11 cases, the economy was already in a recession. It was triggered Friday with July’s jobs report.

“I agree with Claudia about Claudia’s rule, and that is that it can be a little bit too pessimistic, particularly when you are at, historically, very, very low unemployment rates,” Harris said, referencing Sahm’s own contention that the rule could be overstated in this instance due to labor market behavior from the COVID-19 pandemic and an increase in immigration.

“We’ve seen that we had a period of more than two years of unemployment rates below 4%,” Harris told SAN. “That’s the longest period we’ve had that low [of] unemployment since the 1960s. But it shows us that our economy can be immensely successful with an unemployment rate that gets to and remains below 4%. That is where full employment begins.”

Meanwhile, Harris said movement in the markets due to an imminent recession is an “overreaction.”

“We’ve seen a meaningful sell off in equity markets around the world, not just in the United States, but certainly here in the United States over the course of the last several days, and a part of that is recession concerns, which is, in my view, a gross overreaction to what we’re seeing right now,” he said. “We certainly are not seeing numbers that suggest that a recession is imminent, or the recession is even an intermediate-term concern. It can be a longer-term concern, but I don’t think we can see it as an intermediate-term concern.”

However, Sahm herself, who stands by her statement that the U.S. is not currently in a recession despite triggering her rule, told Yahoo! Finance Friday that she is “very concerned” about a recession in the next three to six months.
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Treasury warns ‘anti-woke’ laws endanger national security

July 19, 2024
The U.S. Treasury Department is warning certain “anti-woke” state laws are a national security risk. The Treasury Department said state laws restricting banks from considering environmental, social and governance factors could negatively impact efforts to stop money laundering and terrorism financing.

According to The Associated Press, in a letter sent to lawmakers Thursday, July 18, the Treasury specifically pointed to a new Florida law signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis in May. The law went into effect July 1, and it addresses climate change, dropping it down on Florida’s list of priorities.

The law also states it would be considered “unsafe and unsound practices” for businesses like banks to consider non-financial factors. In its letter, the Treasury Department said “such laws create uncertainty and may inhibit” national security efforts.

While Florida was singled out, it’s not the only state to make a move like this. Tennessee recently enacted a similar law and state legislatures in Georgia, Arizona, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana and South Dakota are currently considering measure along these same lines.

The Treasury’s letter was a response to a request earlier this month from Democratic Reps. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey and Brad Sherman of California, and Republican Missouri Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer.

After getting the letter, Rep. Gottheimer issued a statement saying, “To any states that are considering similar laws, I urge them to think twice before putting America’s national security at risk.”
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