What we’re reading (3/31)
“Regulators Really Have Given Up Trying To Teach Wells Fargo A Lesson” (Dealbreaker). “It has become clear over the past decade that it does not matter how much or how often you fine Wells Fargo, it will find new ways to break the rules while continuing to break the other rules it’s already been taken to task over, often multiple times. Everyone—most especially Sen. Sherrod Brown and probably CEO Charles Scharf, like those CEOs who preceded him and those who will succeed him—is powerless to stop it, except perhaps for Federal Reserve Chairman Jay Powell, and he’s rather disinclined to do much of anything about it. So when he and his predecessor, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, found out that once again Wells had screwed up—and not in a minor way, either, allowing the likes of Iran, Syria and Sudan to illegally funnel a half-billion dollars their bloody ways—they just sort of shrugged.”
“The Fed Is Doing Too Much, All At Once” (New York Times). “Beating inflation is crucial for the Federal Reserve. But so is promoting full employment. And don’t forget about preserving the stability of the financial system. Each of these goals is exemplary on its own. Put them all together in the current environment, however, and you get head-spinning problems.”
“The $2.3 Trillion Fed Program Banks Hate” (Axios). “The year was 2013. The great concern among the Federal Reserve's leaders was that, with the world awash in dollars they had created, they wouldn't be able to raise rates even when they felt they needed to…[t]heir solution was a tool that has now swelled to massive size — $2.3 trillion as of Wednesday — and is making banks angry, as they see it as a major factor in their loss of deposits.”
“Wild Quarter For Markets Might Foretell Further Turbulence” (Wall Street Journal). “In the face of significant uncertainty, markets proved to be more buoyant than many investors thought possible. The S&P 500 rose 7% in the first quarter, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.4%. The Nasdaq Composite soared. The technology-heavy index jumped 17%, outperforming the Dow industrials by the widest margin since 2001. Overall, it was Nasdaq’s best quarter since the second quarter of 2020.”
“Where Are The Missing Workers?” (Brookings Institution). “About 40% (nearly 1 million workers) of the persistent decline can be attributed to the continuation of pre-pandemic demographic trends, according to the authors. As the Baby Boomers reach retirement age, they are leaving the labor force. However, the population is becoming more educated, and at every age, more educated people are more likely to be working.”
