| | | | |  | | By Sam Sutton | Presented by CareCredit, a Synchrony Solution | Editor’s note: Morning Money is a free version of POLITICO Pro Financial Services morning newsletter, which is delivered to our subscribers each morning at 5:15 a.m. The POLITICO Pro platform combines the news you need with tools you can use to take action on the day’s biggest stories. Act on the news with POLITICO Pro.
| | President-elect Donald Trump’s fascination with tariffs didn’t take a break for the Thanksgiving holiday. On Saturday, Trump took to Truth Social to threaten developing economies with 100 percent tariffs unless they commit to using the U.S. dollar as their reserve currency. If members of the BRICS bloc — which consists of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, as well as Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates — fail to do so, they “should expect to say goodbye to selling into the wonderful U.S. Economy,” Trump posted. “They can go find another ‘sucker!’” Suckers aside, Trump’s post highlights his sensitivity to the possibility that the U.S. dollar’s dominant role in the global financial system could fade in the coming years. It also provides an unusual snapshot into why tariffs are likely to supersede sanctions as a primary economic and foreign policy weapon during his second term. While the president-elect applied sanctions aggressively during his first administration — particularly in the case of China, Iran and Venezuela — he has signaled his intent to use them more sparingly moving forward because he’s worried about how they could diminish the global standing of the greenback. “Ultimately, it kills your dollar and it kills everything the dollar represents,” he said in response to a question from Sullivan & Cromwell senior chair H. Rodgin Cohen following his speech at the Economic Club of New York earlier this year. “You’re losing Iran. You’re losing Russia. China is out there trying to get their currency to be the dominant currency,” he added. “I want to use sanctions as little as possible.” To be clear, tales of the almighty dollar’s imminent demise usually overstate the case. The dollar still accounts for 58 percent of the overall value of foreign reserve holdings, according to the Atlantic Council, and it is still the primary currency for conducting global trade. But the punishing sanctions imposed on Russia’s economy following its invasion of Ukraine, including being cut off from the SWIFT international payments system, accelerated Vladimir Putin’s efforts to develop alternatives that do not rely on Western financial institutions or the greenback. It’s a big reason why members of the BRICS bloc have discussed ways to use local currencies more frequently for cross-border transactions and development loans. The WSJ’s Georgi Kantchev and Lingling Wei reported this weekend that China — Russia’s primary trading partner — has been studying how Russian institutions circumvented sanctions in anticipation that it could face similar restrictions in the event of a conflict with Taiwan. In other words, even though the dollar remains king, world leaders are considering how they can keep their economies afloat if their payment rails are ever broken by an increasingly aggressive U.S. sanctions regime. The risks are particularly acute given how political and technical challenges can preclude U.S. presidents from lifting economic restrictions once they’re applied. “Sanctions are designed to be temporal in nature, but because they're designed to force a change in behavior — and sometimes against adversaries or targets that are so wildly opposed to the US policy view — they just last in perpetuity,” said Daniel Tannebaum, a partner on Oliver Wyman’s risk and public policy team who leads the consulting firm’s global anti-financial crime practice. Which brings us back to Trump’s favorite topic: Tariffs. After weighing in on the deleterious effects of sanctions, Trump offered some commentary that — at least in part — explains the strategy behind his latest tariff threat. “Sanctions have to be used very judiciously,” he said at the Economic Club event. “And we have things much more powerful actually than sanctions. We have trade.” IT’S MONDAY — Hope you had a great holiday! Welcome back! As always, you can reach Sam at ssutton@politico.com and @samjsutton.
| | | | A message from CareCredit: Health and wellness care can be expensive even with insurance. But healthcare expenses don’t need to be budget busting. Financial options, such as CareCredit, help people pay for health and wellness care over time. They also provide flexibility, with utility across a range of products and treatments including hearing aids, cosmetic procedures, Lasik eye surgery and even veterinary care for pets. To learn more, visit CareCredit’s WellU website: https://www.carecredit.com/well-u/ | | | | | Monday … The ISM Manufacturing Index will be released at 10 a.m. … New York Federal Reserve Bank President John Williams will speak at a Queens Chamber of Commerce event at 4:30 p.m. … Tuesday … The October Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) will be released at 10 a.m. … The Brookings Institution and American Enterprise Institute will co-host a conference on fiscal responsibility that starts at 2:30 p.m. Council of Economic Advisers Chair Jared Bernstein and former CEA Chair Cecilia Rouse are scheduled to speak … SEC Chair Gary Gensler will participate in a fireside chat at the 2024 Healthy Markets Association Conference at 3:30 p.m. … Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee will speak at the Midwest Agriculture Conference at 3:45 p.m. … Wednesday … St. Louis Fed President Alberto Musalem will speak at the Bloomberg/Global Interdependence Center College of Central Bankers Symposium at 8:45 a.m. … House Financial Services will hold a hearing on financial technology and innovation at 10 a.m. … The Federal Reserve’s Beige Book will be released at 2 p.m. .. Thursday … Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser and the National League of Cities will host a conference on housing at 8:30 a.m. … Weekly jobless claims will be released at 8:30 a.m. … Gensler will speak at the American Bar Association’s Federal Regulation of Securities Winter Meeting at 10 a.m. … Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin will speak at the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance 2024 Economic Outlook event at 11:30 a.m. … The Urban Institute will hold a forum covering how rental payments affect credit scores at 1:30 p.m. Friday … The November jobs report will be released at 8:30 a.m. … The Consumer Sentiment survey will be released at 10 a.m. … Goolsbee will participate in a fireside chat at the Chicago Fed’s 38th Annual Economic Outlook Symposium … Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack will speak at the City Club of Cleveland’s Friday Forum at noon … San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly will speak at a Hoover Institution event at 1 p.m. …
| | | | Want to know what's really happening with Congress's make-or-break spending fights? Get daily insider analysis of Hill negotiations, funding deadlines, and breaking developments—free in your inbox with Inside Congress. Subscribe now. | | | | | Shadows of Lighthizer — If Trump’s recent tariff threats failed to convince you that he’s serious about taking an aggressive approach to trade policy, his selection of Robert Lighthizer protege Jamieson Greer to be his U.S. Trade Representative should be your wake-up call. Greer is expected to champion the policies his former boss embraced during Trump’s first administration, and “protectionists say the announcement is a sign of Lighthizer's lingering influence over Trump’s agenda,” Doug Palmer and Ari Hawkins report. “Some people have sort of hoped that President Trump might be convinced to moderate his views. But I think the appointment of Jamieson is a sign that, no, the campaign rhetoric that Trump used on the [trail] is serious and needs to be taken seriously,” said Aaron Cummings, who attended law school with Greer at the University of Virginia and is now co-chair of the Government Affairs Group at the law firm Crowell & Moring. Damage Control — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau dined with Trump last week to address the president-elect’s threat to impose 25 percent tariffs on Canadian imports, Sue Allan and Mickey Djuric report. — Canada’s Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc said the government would respond to Trump’s tariff threat by stepping up border enforcement in a “visible and muscular way,” per Bloomberg’s Randy Thanthong-Knight. Good graces — Corporate leaders are taking unusual steps in a bid to influence Trump’s second administration, The WSJ’s Maggie Severns, Preetika Rana and Brian Schwartz report. CEOs “are discussing whether to try to secure an appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast. They are buying the Trump family’s cryptocurrency token and emailing tips about spending cuts to Vivek Ramaswamy. Some lobbyists are instructing companies to scrub their websites and corporate policies of language that favors Democrats and instead tout GOP-friendly issues such as job creation.” — Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg went to Mar-a-Lago to meet with the president-elect and members of his soon-to-be second administration, Natalie Allison reports. Trump’s deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller said on Fox that Zuckerberg “has made it very clear about his desire to be a supporter of and a participant in this change that we’re seeing all around America, all around the world, this reform movement that Donald Trump is leading.” — Meanwhile, prominent crypto investor Justin Sun said he was investing $30 million in tokens for Trump’s crypto project, World Liberty Financial. The investment should push the project over a financial threshold that will pay out Trump family members who now stand to collect at least $15 million, per Bloomberg’s Zeke Faux and Muyao Shen.
| | | | Policy Change is Coming: Be prepared, be proactive, be a Pro. POLITICO Pro’s platform has 200,000+ energy regulatory documents from California, New York, and FERC. Leverage our Legislative and Regulatory trackers for comprehensive policy tracking across all industries. Learn more. | | | | | | | | | Money to burn — Data from Adobe Analytics and MasterCard SpendingPulse indicated that consumer spending climbed on Thanksgiving and Black Friday, according to The NYT’s Santul Nerkar. Many were drawn to shop by discount offers. Jobs report — Economists are expecting a “snapback” November jobs report on Friday, Bloomberg’s Molly Smith, Vince Golle and Craig Stirling report. The October report, which Trump labeled a “catastrophe,” came in weak and may have been negatively affected by two major hurricanes and a strike at Boeing. Swipe fees — As a possible fight over the Sens. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) and Roger Marshall’ s (R-Kansas) Credit Card Competition Act looms, business owners are cheering on efforts to reduce the fees charged on credit card transactions, according to The NYT’s Danielle Kaye. Merchants paid $172 billion in processing fees in 2023, a 48 percent increase from what they paid the year before the pandemic, according to Nilson Report data cited by Kaye. Get out — The FT’s Joe Miller: “US government lawyers seek corporate jobs as Trump threatens layoffs”
| | | | A message from CareCredit:   | | | | | Delete the CFPB? — Trump adviser, DOGE co-lead and world’s wealthiest man Elon Musk called for the abolishment of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Michael Stratford reports. Musk’s call to eliminate the consumer watchdog was in response to a video clip of venture capitalist Marc Andreessen telling podcaster Joe Rogan that he believes that the CFPB was “terrorizing” tech firms and start-ups that want to compete with big banks. Andreessen also claimed that dozens of tech executives had been “debanked” during the Biden administration. — Andreessen’s firm had been an investor in LendUp Loans, which the CFPB shut down in 2021 after it found the nonbank lender had engaged in illegal and deceptive marketing in violation of a 2016 order. Jason Mikula of Fintech Business Weekly reported that a16z had also backed Synapse, the infamous fintech whose collapse has left thousands of customers without access to their funds. — Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.), a House Financial Services member, said Andreessen has raised “a real issue that transcends partisanship.” 23-Hour Party People — Declan Harty reports that the SEC has signed off on a new stock exchange that’s proposing to offer trading 23 hours a day Monday through Friday. The company, called 24 Exchange, plans to debut its venue in the second half of 2025, with trading happening between 4 a.m. and 7 p.m. Washington time, the company said.
| | | | A message from CareCredit: Health and wellness care can be expensive even with insurance, which is why as many as one in four adults skipped or postponed care in the last 12 months. But healthcare expenses not covered by insurance don’t need to be budget busting.
Financial options, such as CareCredit, offer consumers convenient and transparent financing to help make healthcare costs work with a cardholders’ monthly budget. They also provide much-needed flexibility, with utility across a wide range of elective care that includes products and services like hearing aids, cosmetic procedures, Lasik eye surgery and even veterinary care for pets.
Visit CareCredit’s WellU website, which offers financial health articles and information about options to save and pay for out-of-pocket healthcare costs https://www.carecredit.com/well-u/ | | | | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
No comments:
Post a Comment