Morning Consult Finance: What’s Ahead & Week in Review
 

Finance

Essential financial news & intel to start your day.
February 5, 2023
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Good morning, finance readers.

 

It’s February, which is Black History Month. In a Forbes article published last week, Ariel Investments co-CEO Mellody Hobson detailed the discussions she had with JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon during her tenure at the bank, which led to “Project Black,” an initiative to boost Black-owned businesses. “When people talk about Black businesses, they talk about access to capital, access to capital, access to capital,” Hobson said, describing how she had outlined for Dimon a plan to go beyond just providing loans to those businesses. “Access to customers may be more important.”

 

The strategy of Project Black to acquire and “minoritize” mid-size businesses and grow them into top-tier suppliers to behemoths like Walmart is an interesting read. 

 

You can also get your brain warmed up for the busy week ahead with this week’s MCIQ quiz. I achieved a personal worst this week with 0/5 correct; looks like I have some reading to catch up on today! 

 

What’s Ahead

President Joe Biden delivers his State of the Union Address on Tuesday evening. The Brookings Institution’s Governance Studies experts will host a preview discussion ahead of the speech on Monday

 

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will be interviewed by Carlyle Group co-Executive Chairman David Rubenstein at the The Economic Club of Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. 

 

Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr will give keynote remarks at the Banking on Financial Inclusion Hope Economic Mobility Forum on Tuesday. 

 

Jared Bernstein, a member of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers, will discuss the U.S. economy at a Brookings Institution and Hutchins Center on Fiscal & Monetary Policy event on Wednesday. 

 

Acting Comptroller of the Currency Michael Hsu will give opening remarks at the agency’s Bank Merger Symposium on Friday. 

 

New York Fed President John Williams and Binance.US CFO Jasmine Lee are among the speakers at the Wall Street Journal CFO Network Summit on Wednesday. 

 

More Fedspeak: 

Fed Governor Lisa Cook speaks at a Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies event on Wednesday. 

 

Fed Governor Christopher Waller and Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker will speak on digital assets Friday at an event on  “Digital Money, Decentralized Finance, and the Puzzle of Crypto.” 

 

Waller also speaks at the 2023 Arkansas State University Agribusiness Conference on Wednesday. 

 

Hearings of note:

The House Financial Services Committee will discuss “Revamping and Revitalizing Banking in the 21st Century” in a Wednesday hearing. The capital markets subcommittee will also hold hearings Wednesday on “Empowering Entrepreneurs: Removing Barriers to Capital Access for Small Businesses” and “Sophistication or Discrimination? How the Accredited Investor Definition Unfairly Limits Investment Access for the Non-wealthy and the Need for Reform.”

 

The House Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs will hold a hearing titled “The State of Housing 2023” on Thursday. 

 

The House Ways and Means Committee will hold an oversight hearing on unemployment fraud on  Wednesday.

 

Worth watching:

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. will hold a webinar on Tuesday to discuss findings from its 2021 National Survey of Unbanked and Underbanked Households, among other topics.

 

The Bipartisan Policy Center will host a discussion Tuesday on housing policy, titled “Homelessness as a Housing Supply Problem.”

 

Week in Review

Fed taps the brakes, lightly: The Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points, bringing rates to a target range of 4.5%-4.75%, their highest levels since October 2007. (CNBC)

 

SEC may back off climate reporting: The Securities and Exchange Commission is considering softening proposed rules that would require companies to disclose climate-related risks to investors following pushback on the new rules from lawmakers, companies and investors, according to people close to the agency. The SEC is expected to issue the final rule later this year, and while the agency is likely to still require some climate-risk disclosures from companies, the resulting guidance would be less demanding and could raise the threshold for which companies must report, the people said. (The Wall Street Journal)

 

CFPB clamps down on late fees: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is proposing a new rule that would cap late or missed payment fees for credit cards at $8, down from as much as $41, and if adopted, the rule could go into effect in 2024. (The Wall Street Journal)

 

No ceiling breakthroughs: After meeting with President Joe Biden to discuss raising the federal borrowing limit, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said there were “no agreements, no promises,” but that the conversation would continue. The White House said that during the meeting, Biden reiterated the administration’s position that they would not negotiate on raising the debt limit, but would welcome a separate discussion with congressional lawmakers about reducing the deficit and controlling spending. (The New York Times)

 

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in an interview that he thinks Democrats will win when it comes to pushing the GOP to raise the debt ceiling without “hostage-taking” over spending cuts, describing Republican lawmakers’ strategy as “flirting with disaster.” (Politico

 

A group of 24 Senate Republicans, led by Sens. Mike Lee (Utah) and Ted Budd (N.C.), sent a letter to Biden stating they will not vote to pass any legislation to raise the federal debt ceiling unless it is accompanied by either cuts or meaningful structural reform in spending. (The Hill)

 

Fed Chair Jerome Powell said during a press conference that it should not be assumed the central bank can protect the U.S. economy in the event of a debt default by the federal government, and that the only way forward for lawmakers is to raise the debt ceiling. (Yahoo Finance

 
Stat of the Week
 

517,000

The total jobs added to payrolls in January, according to the latest data from the Labor Department, a figure that puts the U.S. unemployment rate (3.4%) at the lowest level in 53 years.

 
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