Attention to the Unseen

The New York Times reports: One day in October 2011, Jeffrey Epstein walked into the cavernous lobby of 270 Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. The skyscraper was home to JPMorgan Chase, arguably the world’s most prestigious bank. The sex offender — who barely a year earlier was under house arrest after serving 13 months in a Florida jail — was ushered onto an elevator and whisked to a top floor where Jamie Dimon, the bank’s chief executive, and the rest…

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Scott Lincicome writes: When the populist strongman Juan Perón ran Argentina’s economy from his presidential palace in the mid-20th century—personally deciding which companies received favors, which industries got nationalized or protected, and which businessmen profited from state largesse—economists warned that the experiment would end badly. They were right. Over decades of rule by Perón and his successors, a country that had once been among the world’s wealthiest nations devolved into a global laughingstock, with uncontrollable inflation, routine fiscal crises, rampant…

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Anna Gifty writes: On August 20, news broke that Governor Lisa Cook is being probed for “mortgage fraud” by Attorney General Bondi. Since then, the president has issued multiple statements about his unprecedented plans to fire Governor Cook, and a criminal investigation of her has been officially launched by the Department of Justice. It’s clear one of the primary reasons the president wants to oust Governor Lisa Cook is because of his fixation on interest rate cuts. He sees her…

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The Guardian reports: One of the world’s most prominent hedge fund billionaires has warned that rising inequality is turning the US into an autocratic state and condemned business leaders for failing to speak out against Donald Trump’s policies. Ray Dalio, the founder of Bridgewater Associates, said “gaps in wealth” and a collapse in trust were driving “more extreme” policies in the US. Speaking to the Financial Times, the veteran financier said many western countries were affected by growing inequality, leading…

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CNBC reports: From citrus farms in the Central Valley to construction sites where homes and businesses are being rebuilt after devastating wildfires in Pacific Palisades, California relies heavily on immigrant workers and entrepreneurs. As the Trump administration continues to ramp up immigration enforcement, industries key to the state’s $4 trillion economy like agriculture, construction and hospitality could be among those hardest hit by the loss of California’s immigrant workforce, according to new research. At stake are billions of dollars that…

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The New York Times reports: President Trump’s 50 percent tariffs landed like a declaration of economic war on India, undercutting enormous investments made by American companies to hedge their dependency on China. India’s hard work to present itself to the world as the best alternative to Chinese factories — what business executives and big money financiers have embraced as part of the China Plus One strategy — has been left in tatters. Now, less than a week since the tariffs…

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The Wall Street Journal reports: The Trump family notched as much as $5 billion in paper wealth on Monday after its flagship crypto venture opened trading of a new digital currency. The launch is akin to an initial public offering, in which the cryptocurrency, called WLFI, can now be bought and sold on the open market like a listed company’s shares. Beforehand, people who had privately bought WLFI from the Trump venture, World Liberty Financial, hadn’t been able to exchange…

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Victoria Guida writes: The Federal Reserve is not a place that panics. My experience of the central bank and its staff is that they try to think as many steps ahead as possible. Just as Fed policymakers weigh the balance of risks to the economy, and the many potential scenarios that may unfold, they similarly weigh the balance of political risks to their mandate and autonomy. It’s an institution made up of regular people, of course — people who feel…

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Politico reports: Europe’s central bankers were cautiously critical Tuesday of U.S. President Donald Trump’s efforts to oust a top Federal Reserve official. They expressed unease at the potential spillover effects from a growing political threat to the independence of the world’s most important central bank. Trump invoked sweeping executive powers to unseat Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook in an unprecedented challenge to the legally enshrined independence of the Fed on Monday, after housing chief William Pulte accused her of mortgage…

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Fortune reports: After saying that the U.S. is on the precipice of a recession earlier this month, Moody’s Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi continued to add more granularity to his warning. In social media posts on Sunday, he said his assessments of various datasets indicate that states accounting for nearly a third of U.S. GDP are already in a recession or at high risk of slipping into one. Another third is treading water, while the last third is still expanding….

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