"To the press alone, chequered as it is with abuses, the world is indebted for all the triumphs which have been gained by reason and humanity over error and oppression." Happy 275th birthday, James Madison!

I wonder what Moo Deng is up to these days

Tillis ‘optimistic’ roadblock to Fed chair confirmation will be resolved

I think we are finally seeing the limits of this gambling as described in this @vtg2.bsky.social piece from earlier. www.politico.com/news/magazin...

President Trump’s disruptive policies have left some dents, including serious damage to his approval rating, but by the biggest readings of its health, the U.S. economy largely keeps absorbing what he throws at it. My latest column: www.politico.com/news/magazin...

The process and legal fights over paying back import taxes will help shove tariffs back into voters’ minds, as well as provide them an excruciatingly detailed civics lesson in who literally pays the levies. (Hint: it’s not foreign governments.) www.politico.com/newsletters/...

Hassett says Fed staff should be 'disciplined' for reporting the US pays tariff costs

This is an extremely honest answer, and nothing but respect to this person for telling it like it is. But…. 🙃

Is it way too early to speculate about AOC's foreign/trade policy as president? Yes! Is it fun to do it anyway? Absolutely! Based on her remarks in Europe, I took a shot at it. And even if you don't care what I had to say, you may still like the partial transcript I provided at the end.

Trump wants the Fed to cut rates. Kevin Warsh has bigger plans.

For more than a decade, Kevin Warsh has advocated reining in the Fed’s pivotal role in the nation’s financial markets. Now, he may finally get the chance to do it. And Wall Street is obsessed with finding out what comes next. w/ @samjsutton.bsky.social www.politico.com/news/2026/02...

Bitcoin slides below $70,000 as silver drops 10%: There is a palpable sense of forced deleveraging and margin calls rippling through the more speculative corners of the financial system. #bitcoin #gold #markets

The odds seem stacked against Kevin Warsh, but the carefully crafted career path he has traveled up to this point suggests he is perhaps uniquely situated to pull off being Trump’s Fed chair A portrait of him, by me & the very talented @ianwardreports.bsky.social www.politico.com/news/magazin...

Shorter Powell: the economy looks more boring and so we want to be boring too. Please, for the love of god, let us be boring.

Shutdown risk grows as Democrats revolt after Minneapolis shooting

Treasury Secretary Bessent is redefining the relationship between the administration and federal regulators, which have long enjoyed significant autonomy in supervising banks. Up next: overhauling the post-2008 crisis rulebook www.politico.com/news/2026/01...

NEW: The Supreme Court appeared skeptical about Trump's rush to remove Lisa Cook from the Fed Board, suggesting there might be limits to his power to fire her "for cause" without a review of the allegations against her w/ @joshgerstein.bsky.social @vtg2.bsky.social www.politico.com/news/2026/01...

President Trump is taking his feud with the Fed to the next level as his DOJ launches a criminal investigation into chairman Jerome Powell. @vtg2.bsky.social and Ankush Khardori weigh in on the latest developments.

Meet the man who is likely to be one of the most important forces within the central bank no matter who the next Fed chief is. My latest column: www.politico.com/news/magazin...

"A reading of the public record suggests the kind of things we’re talking about here is whether Powell lied when he said there were “no rooftop gardens” when there will in fact be “vegetated roof spaces,” according to documents the Fed submitted to the National Capital Planning Commission."

Four takeaways from the administration’s investigation of Jay Powell. My latest column: www.politico.com/news/magazin...

“History tells us that when the independence of the central bank is compromised, bad things happen. It’s very worrisome.” www.politico.com/news/2026/01...

JUST IN: Senate Finance Committee member Thom Tillis (R-SC) threatens to block Fed nominations over DOJ's Powell probe. DOJ says US Attorneys have been told to "prioritize investigating any abuse of taxpayer dollars." w/@vtg2 @meredithllee @samjsutton www.politico.com/news/2026/01...

Btw, whatever happens Jan. 20, the White House is being explicit about what President Trump is promising

🚨 FRIDAY NIGHT NEWS: President Donald Trump on Friday announced that he would put a temporary cap on credit card interest rates with a limit of 10 percent, in line with an idea he floated on the campaign trail. www.politico.com/news/2026/01...

> @matthewstoller.bsky.social www.bls.gov/news.release...

U.S. employers added 50,000 jobs in December and the unemployment rate fell to 4.4 percent. Data: www.bls.gov/news.release... Live coverage: www.nytimes.com/live/2026/01... #NumbersDay

President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he will move to ban institutional investors from acquiring more single-family homes and called on Congress to back the initiative, in a bid to bring down the cost of housing. www.politico.com/news/2026/01...

Former BLS commissioner Bill Beach says the agency has lost 25% of its staff since January. 40% of leadership positions are vacant. And DOL leadership “does not seem to support the Bureau.” #ASSA2026 #EconSky

Hassett’s detractors believe he has not been effective as head of the National Economic Council other than as a public messenger for the president’s agenda, playing little part in driving policies www.politico.com/news/2025/12...

NEWS: White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett is a frontrunner to be President Donald Trump’s choice to chair the Federal Reserve, but some in the administration are questioning whether he’s up to the job. www.politico.com/news/2025/12...

Q from @vtg2.bsky.social : Why are you cutting a third time this year with inflation at 3%? A: "it is really tariffs that is causing the -- most of the inflation overshoot. We do think of those as likely to, in the current situation, as likely to be a one-time -- you know, one-time price increase."

A divided Federal Reserve voted to lower interest rates again on Wednesday, but officials signaled that another cut won’t be immediate, a stance that will ratchet up tensions with President Donald Trump. www.politico.com/news/2025/12...

Trump wants his Fed chair to cut rates. The economy may have other ideas. www.politico.com/news/2025/12...

Asked if he was making support for slashing interest rates a litmus test for his Fed nominee, Trump answered with a quick “yes.”

How to boost your nominee's credibility with markets: *TRUMP SEES CUTTING RATES AS LITMUS TEST FOR FED CHAIR: POLITICO *POLITICO ASKS TRUMP IF LITMUS TEST IS RATE CUT 'IMMEDIATELY' *TRUMP RESPONSE TO POLITICO LITMUS TEST QUESTION: 'YES'

President Donald Trump’s future Federal Reserve chair was already facing a daunting task. But as he homes in on his ultimate pick, Trump is ratcheting up the tension further for whomever gets the job. My latest column: www.politico.com/news/magazin...

NEW: Top supervisors at the Fed's 12 reserve banks and senior staff in Washington received a memo on Oct 29 with directives fundamentally changing how the central bank oversees banks It is part of a sweeping overhaul led by Bowman 🎁🔗 www.nytimes.com/2025/11/17/b... @nytimes.com

NEWS: The Trump administration is calling on companies and organizations to sever ties with Larry Summers in the wake of new revelations about his relationship with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. www.politico.com/news/2025/11...

President Trump is eagerly awaiting the day he will have a new Fed chair, but in the race to replace Jay Powell, much of the conversation has focused on something that doesn’t feel particularly Trump-y. My latest column: www.politico.com/news/magazin...

The choice between “big states” and private companies is a false one - smart states know how to catalyse private sector investment. Read more in my conversation with @politico.com about how Biden and Trump differ in their approaches to U.S. industrial strategy ➡️ buff.ly/1fLtboY

“He’s actually weakening the economy by eliminating the very industrial strategy that led, in the past 50 to 100 years, companies like Intel to be born.” I interviewed @mazzucatom.bsky.social for Politico Magazine on Trump’s brand of capitalism www.politico.com/news/magazin...

Question from @vtg2.bsky.social : are you worried about a contraction in AI investment? A: These companies actually have earnings. Clearly data centers are a source of growth. But consumer spending is much bigger than that and continues to defy forecasts this year. [my argument all the time!!!]

The Fed isn’t getting lots of data during the government shutdown, and the data it does have are confusing. www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

Everything is terrible, but here is Proust on newspapers

Meanwhile @vtg2.bsky.social and I have a discussion in @politico.com today that places the Framework a little more firmly in intra-Democratic policy debates. (With a social preview image that strongly implies Ezra Klein was a White House aide.) /8 www.politico.com/news/magazin...

COLUMN: Dems vowed to take on the high cost of living. But they’ve yet to offer a cohesive solution — and there’s even disagreement about what’s causing the affordability crisis, writes @vtg2.bsky.social. One former White House aide wants to help Dems resolve that.👇

Abundance vs. Populism: A Former White House Aide Wants Democrats to Have It Both Ways My Q&A with @mtkonczal.bsky.social on the politics and policy around affordability: www.politico.com/news/magazin...

Democrats across the country are going all-in on attacking Trump’s global tariffs. “The time is right for Democrats to lead again on trade,” Colorado Gov. Jared Polis told me. My latest column: www.politico.com/news/magazin...

Q from @vtg2.bsky.social: As markets have questions about Trump's intentions w/ the Fed, what would you point to as signs that the FOMC is making decisions on the economic outlook not the political picture? A [paraphrasing]: Listen to communications, "you would be able to tell".