On today's podcast:
1) President Trump said he might stop trade in cooking oil with China, injecting fresh tensions into the relationship between the world’s two largest economies. Trump on Tuesday cast the potential move as retaliation against Beijing for its refusal to buy American soybeans, which he said “is an Economically Hostile Act” that is purposefully “causing difficulty for our Soybean Farmers.” China remains well supplied with the oilseed, largely thanks to South American purchases.
2) President Trump pledged to release a list of federal programs slated for cuts later this week, the White House’s latest threat to slash the federal bureaucracy and put pressure on Democrats to end the impasse over the shutdown. The threat is the latest effort from the White House to make the shutdown — now in its 14th day — as painful as possible for Democrats. It also marks another end-run by the administration around Congress, which determines how federal funds are spent. The White House has already terminated more than 4,000 federal workers and suspended funding for clean energy and transportation programs in Democratic-run states, escalating the standoff with Democrats.
3) Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled the central bank may stop shrinking its balance sheet in the coming months, an important shift necessary to preserve liquidity in overnight funding markets. The Fed chair also indicated labor-market prospects continue to worsen, a message that supports investors’ expectations for another interest-rate cut this month. Fed officials have been winding down the central bank’s balance sheet since 2022 — a process known as quantitative tightening — reversing trillions of dollars of asset purchases designed to stimulate the economy after the pandemic struck. Earlier this year, the Fed slowed the pace by reducing the amount of bond holdings it lets roll off every month.
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