Benn Steil

Trump on ballroom: The kitchen is going t be top of the line. There has never been anything built like this and it is for the country. When I was in China, we went to the great hall of China, and it is incredible. This is actually larger.

As Republicans are grappling with the aftermath of major midterm losses and voter anger, President Trump is talking about how the ballroom will be "the most beautiful in the world."

Don Jr in Ohio: "They want to pack the Supreme Court. They want to make Ohio a state."

Hello @elonmusk and @tylercowen , You have just decided to publicly attack our research, six days before the vote on the California billionaire wealth tax. Your attempt to discredit our work and that of our numerous academic colleagues is pathetic. Let’s take a look. 🧵

Q: There's been essentially no progress toward the 2% inflation target. Why not raise rates today? KEVIN WARSH: It's a good question (Note how he never answers it!)

The U.S. has told several Gulf Arab countries to be prepared for a short, intense military campaign after the U.S. midterm elections, people briefed on the conversations said wsj.com/world/middle-east/u-… via @WSJ

I have spoken out against anti-Muslim hate in the Michigan Senate race. I will speak out just as loudly when the target is Jewish people. Let me state a little-known fact: ISRAEL GETS LESS THAN 0.1 PERCENT OF THE FEDERAL BUDGET. That’s less than one tenth of a percent! But there is an ad running that tells voters they can’t afford groceries because the United States gives so much money to Israel. In reality, the United States spends money in and on countries all around the world – but this ad singles out the Jewish state. The ad is as dangerous as it is dishonest. You can disagree with how the United States spends money abroad. But telling hungry families that the Jewish state is the reason they are suffering is wrong and shameful. Blaming Jews for people’s problems is an old story. Anybody who has read the last century of history knows where it leads. It is a dark pathway. This ad is anti-Jewish hate and should come down immediately. Abdul El-Sayed should denounce it today.

Inflation is exceeding market expectations | Episode 81 for the whole story. Link in bio 🎧 #TheRealEismanPlaybook #FinancePodcast #InvestingInsights

It’s an obvious logical mistake. Either the tax is annual – and in that case it generates revenue annually, but some billionaires will leave. Or the tax is one-time – in that case it generates revenue in just one year, but there is no incentive to leave.

Powerful paragraph from U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent’s statement for the World Bank Development Committee and IMF International Monetary and Financial Committee: “One area where this refocus must go further is in the IMF’s work on global imbalances.  This especially includes strengthening its analysis and engagement on the role non-market policies and practices and exchange rates play in driving external imbalances.  Policymakers around the world are having difficult discussions about how to sustain market-based systems amid distortionary policies from some economies that skew competition and hurt employment.  The IMF was founded to prevent these kinds of distortive policies and negative spillovers, and must exercise its voice on this critical issue or risk being sidelined.”

October rate hike expectations jumped back above 50% after the hot CPI release, currently just below again. * Warsh in Sept "removed a dose of accommodation" -- expressing no urgency for further hikes. * Warsh wants to let the data speak - and we got a hot CPI - yet, like any central banker, suggests no single data point drives decisions. --> the market righfully increases odds of hike, but far from certain.

BREAKING: The White House's top economist, Kevin Hassett, just called today's inflation report disappointing. Prices rose 3.7% over the past year in September, above the 3.6% forecast. Core inflation, which leaves out food and energy, came in at 2.6% against 2.5% expected, and Hassett called that a blip caused by rents. Gasoline jumped 9.1% in a month and made up about half the headline gain, so the oil spike from earlier this week is landing right in the numbers. Rent is the hardest price to call temporary. Shelter rose 0.4%, it is about a third of the whole index, and it moves slowly. When the White House calls rising rent a blip, I hear transitory all over again. This was the last report before the Fed meets on October 28, and I expect it keeps the Fed raising rates into December, which means pricier mortgages, car loans and credit cards for everyone.

The United States is having an extraordinary record year for exports. Exports of nonmonetary gold.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is likely to reduce the auction sizes for long-dated government bonds — and could even cancel sales of 20-year debt altogether, according to Citigroup bloomberg.com/news/articles/…